mmonwealth, the number
of citizens gradually decreased from about thirty [21] to twenty-one
thousand. [22] If, on the contrary, we study the growth of the Roman
republic, we may discover, that, notwithstanding the incessant demands
of wars and colonies, the citizens, who, in the first census of
Servius Tullius, amounted to no more than eighty-three thousand, were
multiplied, before the commencement of the social war, to the number
of four hundred and sixty-three thousand men, able to bear arms in the
service of their country. [23] When the allies of Rome claimed an equal
share of honors and privileges, the senate indeed preferred the chance
of arms to an ignominious concession. The Samnites and the Lucanians
paid the severe penalty of their rashness; but the rest of the Italian
states, as they successively returned to their duty, were admitted
into the bosom of the republic, [24] and soon contributed to the ruin of
public freedom. Under a democratical government, the citizens exercise
the powers of sovereignty; and those powers will be first abused, and
afterwards lost, if they are committed to an unwieldy multitude. But
when the popular assemblies had been suppressed by the administration
of the emperors, the conquerors were distinguished from the vanquished
nations, only as the first and most honorable order of subjects;
and their increase, however rapid, was no longer exposed to the same
dangers. Yet the wisest princes, who adopted the maxims of Augustus,
guarded with the strictest care the dignity of the Roman name, and
diffused the freedom of the city with a prudent liberality. [25]

[Footnote 20: Tacit. Annal. xi. 24. The Orbis Romanus of the learned
Spanheim is a complete history of the progressive admission of Latium,
Italy, and the provinces, to the freedom of Rome. * Note: Democratic
states, observes Denina, (delle Revoluz. d' Italia, l. ii. c. l.), are
most jealous of communication the privileges of citizenship; monarchies
or oligarchies willingly multiply the numbers of their free subjects.
The most remarkable accessions to the strength of Rome, by the
aggregation of conquered and foreign nations, took place under the regal
and patrician--we may add, the Imperial government.--M.]

[Footnote 21: Herodotus, v. 97. It should seem, however, that he
followed a large and popular estimation.]

[Footnote 22: Athenaeus, Deipnosophist. l. vi. p. 272. Edit. Casaubon.
Meursius de Fortuna Attica, c. 4. * Note: On the n