THE DECLINE AND FALL

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chap, who had received the name, without adopting_the spirit of Romans. A mercenary army, le-vied among the subjects and barbarians of thefrontier, was the only order of men who pre-served and abused their independence. Bytheir tumultuary election, a Syrian , a Goth, oran Arab, was exalted to the throne of Rome ,and invested with despotic power over the con-quests and over the country of the Scipios.

The limits of the Roman empire still extendedfrom the Western ocean to the Tigris, and fromMount Atlas to the Rhine and the Danube .To the undiscerning eye of the vulgar, Philipappeared a monarch no less poAverful thanHadrian or Augustus had formerly been. Theform was still the same, but the animatinghealth and vigour were fled. The industry ofthe people was discouraged and exhausted by along series of oppression. The discipline of thelegions, which alone, after the extinction ofevery other virtue, had propped the greatnessof the state, was corrupted by the ambition, orrelaxed by the weakness, of the emperors. Thestrength of the frontiers, which had always con-sisted in arms rather than in fortifications, wasinsensibly undermined; and the fairest pro-vinces were left exposed to the rapaciousnessor ambition of the barbarians, who soon dis-covered the decline of the Roman empire.