Book XI.
Chap. 18, & 19.forced to go and rob on the high ways, armed with lances an d clubs, covered with beasts skins, and followed by large mastiff dogs. Thus the whole province was laid waste, and the inhabitants could not call any thing their own, but what was secured within the walls of towns. There was neither proconsul nor prætor, that could or would oppose this disorder, or that presumed to punish these slaves, because they belonged to the knights, who at Rome were possessed of the judiciary power[1]. And yet this was one of the causes of the war of the slaves. But I shall add only one word more. A profession that neither has nor can have any other view than lucre, a profession that was always forming fresh demands without ever granting any, a deaf and inexorable profession that impoverished the rich and increased even the misery of the poor, such a profession, I say, should never have been entrusted with the judiciary power at Rome.
CHAP. XIX.
Of the Government of the Roman Provinces.
SUCH was the distribution of the three powers in Rome. But they were far from being thus distributed in the provinces: Liberty was at the center, and tyranny in the extreme parts.
While Rome extended her dominions no farther than Italy, the people were governed as confederates; and the laws of each republic were preserved. But as soon as the enlarged her conquests, and
- ↑ Penes quos Romæ turn judicia erant, atque ex equestri ordine solerent sortito judices eligi in causa Prætorum & Proconsulum quibus post administratam provinciam dies dicta erat.
