rupt.

The smallness of the territory, which the Romans at first possessed,
laid them under the necessity of extending it, and drawing resources
from their neighbours; who, being brave and hardy, could not be
easily either robbed or subdued. [end of page #27]

The Romans began with robbing, and finished with subduing them all,
but the modes they practised deserve attention.

It is in vain to think that superior bravery or skill would alone have
done the business; those are often triumphant, but occasionally
defeated. The Romans owed their gradual aggrandizement to a line of
conduct that, whether in good or ill fortune, tended to make them the
sovereigns of the world. A line of conduct in which, if it had been in
human nature to persevere, they would have preserved the situation to
which they had elevated themselves.

Along with this decided conduct, which seems to have arisen from
something innate in themselves, or to have been occasioned by some
circumstance that is not known, the Romans possessed a number of
methods, in addition to personal bravery, by which they advanced the
end they had in view.

When the kings were abolished, Rome was only a small, rude,
irregular place, and a receptacle for plunder; inhabited, however, by
men who had great strength of mind, and who possessed a great
command over themselves.

Their moral code was suitable to their situation. To rob, plunder, and
destroy an enemy was a merit; to betray a trust, or to defraud a fellow
citizen, was a crime of the greatest magnitude. With the Romans,
oaths were inviolable; and attachment to the public was the greatest
virtue.

As they had neither arts nor commerce, and but very little territory,
plunder was their means of subsistence; it was to them a regular
source of wealth, and it was distributed with perfect impartiality; they
were in fact an association; the wealth of the public, and of the
individual, were, to a certain degree, the same; they were as an
incorporated company, in which private interest conspired with the
love of their country to forward the general interest.

Plundering and pillage, as well as the modes of dividing the spoil,
were reduced to system and method; and the religious observation of
oaths was conducive to the success of both. Every soldier was sworn to
be faithful to his country, both in fighting its battles, and in giving
a rigid account of whatever might be the fruits of the contest. [end of
page #28]

The