132

CHAP.

III.

Extent oftheir em-pire leftthem noplace ofrefuge.

THE DECLINE AND FALL

by riches and honours . 1 The servile judges.professed to assert the majesty of the common-wealth, violated in the person of its first magi-strate/ whose clemency they most applaudedwhen they trembled the most at his inexorableand impending cruelty . 1 The tyrant beheldtheir baseness with just contempt, and encoun-tered their secret sentiments of detestation withsincere and avowed hatred for the whole bodyof the senate.

ii. The division of Europe into a number ofindependent states, connected, however, witheach other by the general resemblance of religi-on, language, and maimers, is productive of themost beneficial consequences to the liberty ofmankind. A modern tyrant, who should findno resistance either in his own breast, or in hispeople, would soon experience a gentle restraintfrom the example of his equals, the dread ofpresent censure, the advice of his allies, and the

‘ They alleged the example of Scipio and Cato (Tacit. Annal. iii,06). Marcellus Eprius and Crispus Vibius had acquired two millionsand a half under Nero . Their wealth, which aggravated their crimes,protected them under Vespasian . See Tacit. Hist, iv, 43. Dialog, deOrator c. 8. For one accusation, Regulus, the just object of Pliny ’ssatire, received from the senate the consular ornaments, and a presentof sixty thousand pounds.

k The crime of majesty was formerly a treasonable offence againstthe Roman people. As tribunes of the people, Augustus and Tibe-rius applied it to their own persons, and extended it to an infinitelatitude.

1 After the virtuous and unfortunate widow of Gennanicus hadbeen put to death, Tiberius received the thanks of the senate for hisclemency. She had not been publicly strangled ; nor was the bodydrawn with a hook to the Gemonioe, where those of common male-factors were exposed. See Tacit. Annal. vi, 25. Sueton in Tiberio,