ervers, who possess a clear and
comprehensive view of the revolutions of society; and who are capable of
discovering the nice and secret springs of action, which impel, in the
same uniform direction, the blind and capricious passions of a multitude
of individuals. If it can be affirmed, with any degree of truth, that
the luxury of the Romans was more shameless and dissolute in the reign
of Theodosius than in the age of Constantine, perhaps, or of Augustus,
the alteration cannot be ascribed to any beneficial improvements, which
had gradually increased the stock of national riches. A long period of
calamity or decay must have checked the industry, and diminished the
wealth, of the people; and their profuse luxury must have been the
result of that indolent despair, which enjoys the present hour, and
declines the thoughts of futurity. The uncertain condition of their
property discouraged the subjects of Theodosius from engaging in those
useful and laborious undertakings which require an immediate expense,
and promise a slow and distant advantage. The frequent examples of ruin
and desolation tempted them not to spare the remains of a patrimony,
which might, every hour, become the prey of the rapacious Goth. And the
mad prodigality which prevails in the confusion of a shipwreck, or
a siege, may serve to explain the progress of luxury amidst the
misfortunes and terrors of a sinking nation.

The effeminate luxury, which infected the manners of courts and cities,
had instilled a secret and destructive poison into the camps of the
legions; and their degeneracy has been marked by the pen of a military
writer, who had accurately studied the genuine and ancient principles of
Roman discipline. It is the just and important observation of Vegetius,
that the infantry was invariably covered with defensive armor, from
the foundation of the city, to the reign of the emperor Gratian. The
relaxation of discipline, and the disuse of exercise, rendered the
soldiers less able, and less willing, to support the fatigues of the
service; they complained of the weight of the armor, which they seldom
wore; and they successively obtained the permission of laying aside both
their cuirasses and their helmets. The heavy weapons of their ancestors,
the short sword, and the formidable _pilum_, which had subdued the
world, insensibly dropped from their feeble hands. As the use of the
shield is incompatible with that of the bow, they reluctantly marched
into