External superstition punished by the Romans.--_Id._ lib. xxxix. cap. 16.
They were very jealous of the established religion.--_Id._ lib. xl. cap. 29.
Robbers established in legal companies in Egypt; and such captains as Jonathan Wyld established.--_Diodorus Siculus._
Whoever consecrated the tenth of their goods to Hercules, was esteemed sure of happiness by the Romans.--_Id._
Jupiter, according to the Cretan tradition, was a pious worshipper of the gods; a clear proof that those people had a preceding religion.--_Id._ lib. v.
Gradenigo's change of the Venetian republic was made in 1280.--_St. Didier._
The clergy are chosen by a popular call.--_Id._
Vossius says he saw in Rome, that, digging forty foot underground, they found the tops of columns buried.
Horses were very rare among the ancients, (before the Romans,) and not employed in any thing but war. 1st, In the retreat of the ten thousand, 'twould have been easy to have mounted the whole army, if horses had been as common as at present. 2d, They had about fifty horses, which, instead of increasing, diminished during the road, though very useful. 3d, In the spoils of villages, Xenophon frequently mentions sheep and oxen; never horses. 4th, Cleombrotus' army, in lib. v. Hist. made use of asses for the carriages.
Demosthenes tells the Athenians, that a very honest man of Macedonia, who would not lie, told him such and such things of Philip's situation: a kind of style that marks but bad intelligence, and little communication among the different states.--_Olynth._ 2.
The 30 tyrants killed about 1500 citizens untried.--_Æschines._
Thrasybulus restoring the people, and Cæsar's conquest, the only instances in ancient history of revolutions without barbarous cruelty.
There seems to be a natural course of things which brings on the destruction of great empires. They push their conquests till they come to barbarous nations, which stop their progress by the difficulty of subsisting great armies. After that, the nobility and considerable men of the conquering nation and best provinces withdraw gradually from the frontier army, by reason of its distance from the capital, and barbarity of the country in which they quarter. They forget the use of war. Their barbarous soldiers become their masters. These have no law but their sword, both from their bad education, and from their distance from the sovereign to whom they bear no affection. Hence disorder, violence, anarchy, tyranny, and a dissolution of empire.