he fays: * "In all the employments, with "which the Roman people have honoured me "to this day, I have ever thought my felf

obliged by the moft facred ties of religion, "to discharge worthily the duties of them. "When I was made queftor, I looked upon "that dignity not as a gratuity conferred up" on me for my particular use, but as a depofite confided to my vigilance and fidelity. "When I was afterwards fent to act in that "office, I thought all eyes were turned upon me, and that my perfon and administration "were in a manner exhibited as a fpectacle to "the view of all the world; and in this

thought I not only denied my self all pleafures of an extraordinary kind, but even "those which are authorized by nature and

66

neceffity. I am now intended for ædile. I "call the gods to witness, that how honoura"ble foever this dignity feems to me, I have "too just a sense of its weight, not to have more follicitude and difquiet, than joy and

* Odii immortales- Ita mihi meam voluntatem fpemque reliquæ vitæ veftra populique R. exiftimatio comprobet, ut ego quos adhuc mihi magiftratus populus. R. mandavit, fic eos accepi, ut me omnium officiorum obftingi religione arbitrarer. Ita quæfor fum factus, ut mihi honorem illum non tam datum quam creditum ac commiffum putarem. Sic obtinui quæfturam in provincia, ut omnium oculos in me unum conjectos arbitrarer: ut me quætturamque meam quafi in aliquo ois terræ theatro vertari exiftimarem ;

ut omnia femper, quæ jucunda videntur effe, non modo his extraordinariis cupiditatibus, fed etiam ipfi naturæ ac neceffitati denegarem. Nunc fum defignatus ædilis-Ita mihi deos omnes propitios effe velim, ut, tametfi mihi jucundiffimus eft honos populi, tamen nequaquam tantum capio voluptas, quantum follicitudinis & laboris, ut hæc ipfa ædilitas, non quia neceffe fuit alicui condidato data, fed quia fie oportuerit rectè collocata, & judicio populi digno in loco pofita effe videatur. Cic. Verr. 7. m. 35-37

"pleasure

66 pleasure from it; fo much I defire to make "it appear, that it was not bestowed upon "me by chance, or the neceffity of being filled "up; but confided defervedly by the choice and difcernment of my country."

All the Roman governours were far from being of this character; and Sicily, above all other provinces, experienced, as * Cicero fome lines after reproaches Verres, that they were almost all of them like fo many tyrants, who believed themselves only attended by the fafces and axes, and invested with the authority of the Roman empire, to exercife in their province an open robbery of the publick with impunity, and to break through all the barriers of juftice and fhame in fuch a manner, as no man's eftate, life, houfe, or even honour, were fafe against their violence.

Syracufe, from all we have feen of it, ought to appear like a theatre, on which many dif ferent and furprizing fcenes have been exhibited; or rather like a fea, fometimes calm and untroubled, but oftner violently agitated by winds and ftorms, always ready to overwhelm it entirely. We have feen in no other republick, fuch fudden, frequent, violent, and various revolutions: Sometimes enflaved by the most cruel tyrants, at others under the government of the wifeft kings; fometimes abandoned to the capricious will of a populace,

* Nunquam tibi venit in mentem, non tibi idcirco fafces & fecures, & tantam imperii vim, tantamque ornamentorum omnium dignitatem datam; ut earum rerum vi & auctoritate omnia repagula juris, pudoris, &

officii perfringeres ; ut omnium bona prædam tuam duceres; nullius res tuta, nullus domus claufa, nullius vita septa, nullius pudicitia munita, contra tuam cupiditatem & audaciam poffet effe. Ibid. n. 39.

without

without either yoke or bridle; fometimes perfectly, docile and fubmiffive to the authority of laws, and the empire of reafon, it paffed alternately from the most infupportable slavery to the most grateful liberty; from a kind of convulfions and frantick emotions, to a wife, peaceable, and regular conduct. The Reader will eally call to mind, on the one fide, Dionyfius, the father and fon, Agathocles, and Hieronymus, whofe cruelties made them the objects of the publick hatred and deteftation; on the other Gelon, Dion, Timoleon, the two Hieros, antient and modern, univerfally beloved and revered by the people.

To what are fuch oppofite extremes and viciffitudes fo contrary to be attributed? Undoubtedly, I think, the levity and inconftancy of the Syracufans, which was their distinguishing characteristick, had a great fhare in them: but what i am convinced conduced the most to them, was the very form of their government, compounded of the aristocratick and democratick, that is to fay, divided between the fenate or elders, and the people. As there was no counterpoife in Syracuse to support a right balance between thofe two bodies, when authority inclined either to the one side or the other, the government prefently changed either into a violent and cruel tyranny, or an unbridled liberty, without order or regulation. The fudden confufion at such times of all orders of the state, made the way to the fovereign power easy to the most ambitious of the citizens: That power, to attract the affection of their country, and foften the yoke to their fellow-citizens, fome exercised with lenity, wisdom, equity, and popular behaviour; and others, by nature lefs

virtuously inclined, carried it to the last excefs of the most abfolute and cruel defpotifm; under pretext of fupporting themfelves against the attempts of their citizens, who jealous of their liberty, thought every means for the recovery of it legitimate and laudable.

There were befides other reasons, that rendered the government of Syracufe difficult, and thereby made way for the frequent changes it underwent. That city did not forget the fignal victories it had obtained against the formidable power of Africa, and that it had carried its victorious arms and terror even to the walls of Carthage; and that not once only, as afterwards against the Athenians, but during several ages. The high idea its fleets and numerous troops fuggefted of its maritime power, at the time of the irruption of the Perfians into Greece, occafioned its pretending to equal Athens in that refpect, or at least to divide the empire of the fea with that state.

Befides which, riches, the natural effect of commerce, had rendered the Syracufans proud, haughty, and imperious, and at the fame time had plunged them into a floth and luxury, which infpired them with a disgust for all fatigue and application. They generally blindly abandoned themfelves to their orators, who had gained an abfolute afcendant over them. In order to make them obey, it was neceffary either to flatter or reproach them.

They had naturally a fund of equity, humanity, and good nature, and yet influenced by the feditious difcourfes of the orators, they would proceed to exceffive violence and cruelties, which immediately after they repented.

When

When they were left to themselves, their liberty, which at that time knew no bounds, foon degenerated into caprice, fury, violence, and I might fay even phrenzy. On the contrary, when they were fubjected to the yoke, they became base, timorous, fubmiffive, and creeping like flaves. But as this condition was violent, and directly contrary to the character and difpofition of the Greek nation, born and nurtured in liberty, the sense of which was not wholly extinguished in them, and only lulled afleep; they waked from time to time from their lethargy, broke their chains, and made use of them, if I may be admitted to use the expreffion, to beat down and deftroy the unjuft mafters who had imposed

them.

With a fmall attention to the whole feries of the history of the Syracufans, it may eafily be perceived, (as Galba afterwards faid of the Romans) that they were equally incapable of bearing either entire liberty or entire fervitude. So that the ability and policy of those who governed them, confifted in keeping the people to a wife medium between the two extremes; in feeming to leave them an entire freedom in their refolutions, and referving only to themselves the care of explaining the utility, and facilitating the execution, of good meafures. And in this the magiftrates and kings we have spoken of were wonderfully fuccefsful; under whofe government the Syracufans always enjoyed peace

* Imperaturus es homini- libertatem. Tacit. Hift. 1. 1. bus, qui nec totam fervituc. 16. tem pati poffunt, nec totam

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and