est and most laborious
instruments of agriculture. To confirm the general observation, and to
display the multitude of slaves, we might allege a variety of particular
instances. It was discovered, on a very melancholy occasion, that four
hundred slaves were maintained in a single palace of Rome. The same
number of four hundred belonged to an estate which an African widow, of
a very private condition, resigned to her son, whilst she reserved for
herself a much larger share of her property. A freedman, under the name
of Augustus, though his fortune had suffered great losses in the civil
wars, left behind him three thousand six hundred yoke of oxen, two
hundred and fifty thousand head of smaller cattle, and what was almost
included in the description of cattle, four thousand one hundred and
sixteen slaves.

The number of subjects who acknowledged the laws of Rome, of citizens,
of provincials, and of slaves, cannot now be fixed with such a degree
of accuracy, as the importance of the object would deserve. We are
informed, that when the Emperor Claudius exercised the office of censor,
he took an account of six millions nine hundred and forty-five thousand
Roman citizens, who, with the proportion of women and children, must
have amounted to about twenty millions of souls. The multitude of
subjects of an inferior rank was uncertain and fluctuating. But, after
weighing with attention every circumstance which could influence the
balance, it seems probable that there existed, in the time of Claudius,
about twice as many provincials as there were citizens, of either sex,
and of every age; and that the slaves were at least equal in number
to the free inhabitants of the Roman world. * The total amount of
this imperfect calculation would rise to about one hundred and twenty
millions of persons; a degree of population which possibly exceeds that
of modern Europe, and forms the most numerous society that has ever been
united under the same system of government.

Chapter II: The Internal Prosperity In The Age Of The Antonines.--Part
III.

Domestic peace and union were the natural consequences of the moderate
and comprehensive policy embraced by the Romans. If we turn our eyes
towards the monarchies of Asia, we shall behold despotism in the centre,
and weakness in the extremities; the collection of the revenue, or the
administration of justice, enforced by the presence of an army; hostile
barbarians established in the heart of the