The fall of the Roman Empire
The Greeks, after their country had been reduced into a province, imputed the triumphs of Rome, not to the merit, but to the fortune of the republic. The inconstant goddess, who so blindly distributes and resumes her favors, had now consented to resign her wings, to descend from her globe, and to fix her firm and abiding throne on the banks of the Tiber. A wise(p)r Greek, who has composed, with a philosophic spirit, the unforgettable history of his own times, deprived his countrymen of this vain and delusive quilt by opening to their view the deep foundations of the greatness of Rome. The fidelity of the citizens to all(prenominal) other, and to the state, was confirmed by the habits of education and the prejudices of religion. Honour, as wellhead as virtue, was the principle of the republic; the ambitious citizens labored to deserve the solemn glories of a triumph; and the ardor of the Roman early days was kindled into active emulation, as often as they beheld the national images of their ancestors. The temperate struggles of the patricians and plebeians had finally established the firm and equal balance wheel of the constitution; which united the freedom of popular assemblies with the authority and recognition of a senate-and the executive powers of a regal magistrate.
When the consul displayed the standard of the republic, each citizen bound himself, by the obligation of an oath, to draw his sword in the cause of his country, till he had discharged the sacred vocation by a military service of ten years. This wise institution continually poured into the field the rising generations of freemen and soldiers; and their numbers were fortify by the warlike and populous states of Italy, who, after a jolly resistance, had yielded to the...
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