all most probably of the Imperial
age.]

[Footnote 50: See the Augustan History, and a Dissertation of M.
de Burigny, in the xxxvth volume of the Academy of Inscriptions, upon
the Roman slaves.]

Hope, the best comfort of our imperfect condition, was not denied to the
Roman slave; and if he had any opportunity of rendering himself either
useful or agreeable, he might very naturally expect that the diligence
and fidelity of a few years would be rewarded with the inestimable gift
of freedom. The benevolence of the master was so frequently prompted
by the meaner suggestions of vanity and avarice, that the laws found
it more necessary to restrain than to encourage a profuse and
undistinguishing liberality, which might degenerate into a very
dangerous abuse. [51] It was a maxim of ancient jurisprudence, that a
slave had not any country of his own; he acquired with his liberty an
admission into the political society of which his patron was a member.
The consequences of this maxim would have prostituted the privileges
of the Roman city to a mean and promiscuous multitude. Some seasonable
exceptions were therefore provided; and the honorable distinction
was confined to such slaves only as, for just causes, and with the
approbation of the magistrate, should receive a solemn and legal
manumission. Even these chosen freedmen obtained no more than the
private rights of citizens, and were rigorously excluded from civil or
military honors. Whatever might be the merit or fortune of their sons,
they likewise were esteemed unworthy of a seat in the senate; nor were
the traces of a servile origin allowed to be completely obliterated till
the third or fourth generation. [52] Without destroying the distinction
of ranks, a distant prospect of freedom and honors was presented, even
to those whom pride and prejudice almost disdained to number among the
human species.

[Footnote 51: See another Dissertation of M. de Burigny,
in the xxxviith volume, on the Roman freedmen.]

[Footnote 52: Spanheim, Orbis Roman. l. i. c. 16, p. 124, &c.] It was
once proposed to discriminate the slaves by a peculiar habit; but it was
justly apprehended that there might be some danger in acquainting
them with their own numbers. [53] Without interpreting, in their utmost
strictness, the liberal appellations of legions and myriads, [54] we may
venture to pronounce, that the proportion of slaves, who were valued
as property, was more considerable than that of se