THE DECLINE AND FALL

26

cHap. considerable part of the public revenue will be

__expended by the prince himself, by his ministers,

by the officers of justice, and by the domestics ofthe palace. The most wealthy of the provincialswill be attracted by the powerful motives of in-terest and duty, of amusement and curiosity. Athird and more numerous class of inhabitants willinsensibly be formed, of servants, of artificers,and of merchants, who derive their subsistencefrom their own labour, and from the wants orluxury of the superior ranks. In less than a cen-tury, Constantinople disputed with Rome itselfthe pre-eminence of riches and numbers. Newpiles of buildings, crowded together with toolittle regard to health or convenience, scarcely al-lowed the intervals of narrow streets for the perpetual throng of men, of horses, and of carriages.The allotted space of ground was insufficient tocontain the increasing people; and the additionalfoundations, which, on either side, were ad-vanced into the sea, might alone have composeda very considerable eity. k

Privileges. Thefrequent and regular distributions of wineand oil, of corn or bread, of money or provisions,had almost exempted the poorest citizens of Rome from the necessity of labour. The magnificenceof the first Caesars was in some measure imitated

k The passages of Zosimus, of Eunapms, of Sozomen, and of Agathius ,which relate to the increase of buildings and inhabitants at Constanti-nople , are collected and connected byGyllius de Byzant. 1. i, c. 3. Si-donins Apollinarius (in Panegyr. Anthem SG, p. 290, edit. Sirmond)describes the moles that were pushed forwards into the sea; they con-sisted of the famous Puzzolan sand, which hardens in th water.