xiv. and xxxvi.
Florus, iii. 19, 20.]

[Footnote 471: The following is the example: we shall see whether the word
"severe" is here in its place. "At the time in which L. Domitius was
praetor in Sicily, a slave killed a wild boar of extraordinary size. The
praetor, struck by the dexterity and courage of the man, desired to see
him. The poor wretch, highly gratified with the distinction, came to
present himself before the praetor, in hopes, no doubt, of praise and
reward; but Domitius, on learning that he had only a javelin to attack
and kill the boar, ordered him to be instantly crucified, under the
barbarous pretext that the law prohibited the use of this weapon, as
of all others, to slaves." Perhaps the cruelty of Domitius is less
astonishing than the indifference with which the Roman orator relates
this circumstance, which affects him so little that he thus expresses
himself: "Durum hoc fortasse videatur, neque ego in ullam partem
disputo." "This may appear harsh, nor do I give any opinion on the
subject." And it is the same orator who exclaims in the same oration,
"Facinus est cruciare civem Romanum; scelus verberare; prope parricidium
necare: quid dicam in crucem tollere?" "It is a crime to imprison a
Roman citizen; wickedness to scourge; next to parricide to put to death,
what shall I call it to crucify?"

In general, this passage of Gibbon on slavery, is full, not only of
blamable indifference, but of an exaggeration of impartiality which
resembles dishonesty. He endeavors to extenuate all that is appalling
in the condition and treatment of the slaves; he would make us consider
those cruelties as possibly "justified by necessity." He then describes,
with minute accuracy, the slightest mitigations of their deplorable
condition; he attributes to the virtue or the policy of the emperors the
progressive amelioration in the lot of the slaves; and he passes over
in silence the most influential cause, that which, after rendering the
slaves less miserable, has contributed at length entirely to enfranchise
them from their sufferings and their chains,--Christianity. It would be
easy to accumulate the most frightful, the most agonizing details, of
the manner in which the Romans treated their slaves; whole works have
been devoted to the description. I content myself with referring to
them. Some reflections of Robertson, taken from the discourse already
quoted, will make us feel that Gibbon, in tracing the mitigation of the