ly possess in whatever is the natural bent of their genius, and
their constant occupation. Every thing that continual attention,
experience, or example, could do to increase their success was
attended to; and their hardy manner of education and living, with
constant exercise, enabled them to practice =sic= what other men were
unable to perform.

They accustomed themselves to heavier armour than any other nation.
Their rate of marching was between four and five miles an hour, for
four or five hours together, loaded with a weight of above 60lb. Their
weapons for exercising were double the usual weight, and they were
inured to running and leaping when completely armed.

The success of the Romans in Europe was not sufficiently rapid, nor
were the nations they conquered sufficiently rich to bring on that
luxury and relaxation of discipline, which were the consequences in
those victories obtained in Egypt, Syria, and Greece; nor were the
soldiers the only persons inured to such exercises, for the Roman
citizens practised the same at home, in the Campus Martius.

No people educated with less hardiness of body, or a less firm
attachment to their country, could have undergone, or would have
submitted, to the terrible fatigues of a Roman soldier, which were
such, that, even at a very late period of the republic, they were known
to ask as a favour to be conducted to battle, as a relief from the
fatigues they were made to undergo in the camp. {28}

In addition to this unremitting and very severe discipline, and to the
inventions of many weapons, machines, and stratagems, unknown to
other nations, they had the great wisdom to examine very carefully, if
they found an enemy enjoy any advantage, in what that advantage
consisted. If it arose from any fault of their own, it was rectified

---
{28} This happened under Sylla, in the war against Mithridates, which
immediately preceded the fall of the republic.
-=-

[end of page #30]

without delay; and if it arose from any new mode of fighting, or
superior weapons, they adopted methods with such promptitude that
the advantage was only once in favour of the enemy. {29}

The Asiatic methods of fighting with elephants, though new, never
disconcerted them twice. If they knew of any superior art that they
could imitate, it was done; and when the advantage arose from natural
circumstances, and they could not themselves become masters of the
art, they took other methods. Expert slingers