ves. Barbarians are urged by the love of war; the citizens
of a free republic may be prompted by a principle of duty; the subjects,
or at least the nobles, of a monarchy, are animated by a sentiment of
honor; but the timid and luxurious inhabitants of a declining empire
must be allured into the service by the hopes of profit, or compelled
by the dread of punishment. The resources of the Roman treasury were
exhausted by the increase of pay, by the repetition of donatives, and by
the invention of new emolument and indulgences, which, in the opinion
of the provincial youth might compensate the hardships and dangers of
a military life. Yet, although the stature was lowered, [135] although
slaves, least by a tacit connivance, were indiscriminately received
into the ranks, the insurmountable difficulty of procuring a regular
and adequate supply of volunteers, obliged the emperors to adopt more
effectual and coercive methods. The lands bestowed on the veterans,
as the free reward of their valor were henceforward granted under a
condition which contain the first rudiments of the feudal tenures; that
their sons, who succeeded to the inheritance, should devote themselves
to the profession of arms, as soon as they attained the age of manhood;
and their cowardly refusal was punished by the loss of honor, of
fortune, or even of life. [136] But as the annual growth of the sons of
the veterans bore a very small proportion to the demands of the service,
levies of men were frequently required from the provinces, and
every proprietor was obliged either to take up arms, or to procure a
substitute, or to purchase his exemption by the payment of a heavy fine.
The sum of forty-two pieces of gold, to which it was reduced ascertains
the exorbitant price of volunteers, and the reluctance with which the
government admitted of this alterative. [137] Such was the horror
for the profession of a soldier, which had affected the minds of the
degenerate Romans, that many of the youth of Italy and the provinces
chose to cut off the fingers of their right hand, to escape from being
pressed into the service; and this strange expedient was so commonly
practised, as to deserve the severe animadversion of the laws, [138] and
a peculiar name in the Latin language. [139]

[Footnote 135: Valentinian (Cod. Theodos. l. vii. tit. xiii. leg. 3)
fixes the standard at five feet seven inches, about five feet four
inches and a half, English measure. It had formerly been