y thing for which they contended, while they preserved
their purity of manners, now became unable either to govern others, to
protect themselves, or even to provide food. Sicily and Africa supplied
the Roman people with bread, long before the empire had become
feeble, and even at the very time when it is reckoned to have been in
its greatest splendour in the Augustan age. {35} The cause of its
decline was fixed beyond the power of human nature to counteract: it
began by unnerving the human character, and therefore its progress
was accelerated and became irresistible.

Of all the nations, into which luxury is introduced, none feels its
effects

---
{34} The detached facts related of the wealth of the governors of
provinces, compared with the poverty of the state, are, if not
incredible, at least, difficult to conceive. They are, however, too well
attested to admit of a doubt, though the details are not sufficiently
circumstantial to enable us to know exactly how they happened.

{35} In the time of Augustus, the people depended on the supplies
from Sicily and Egypt, in so complete a manner, that, if those failed,
there was no remedy; and, at one time, when there was only a
sufficient quantity of grain for twenty-four hours, that emperor was
determined to have put an end to his existence: but the supply arrived
in time. Such is the terrible situation into which a people is thrown,
when agriculture and industry are abandoned, and when the
population becomes too great for the production of the country!! This,
however, was a very recent change. Till some time after the conquest
of Egypt, Greece, and Sicily, it could not have happened.
-=-

[end of page #35]

so severely as one where it comes by conquest. A people of
conquerors, who are wealthy, must, at all events, be under military
authority, and that is never a desirable circumstance; depending also
on revenues which come without the aid of industry, they must
become doubly degraded.

With such a people, it would be fair to compare the Carthaginians
before their fall; for, to say nothing more than that the principle of
traffic and commerce is founded on morality and virtue, in
comparison to that trade of pillage which robbed and ruined all
nations; the physical situation of the Carthaginians was preferable to
that of the Romans in the days of their decline. This is evident, from
the noble struggle that the former made, and the contemptible manner
in which the mist