406 THE HISTORY ' fe«fcE
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C H A £. XII t IN the two military municipies and the feven military colo- nics which were planted by the Romans in the ifland, the lands affigned to the legionaries muft have regularly de&ended to their heirs. ' This the nature of fuch affignations neceffe- r ily requires. This the continuance of the fame legions in the fame municipies and colonies for three dr four centuries toge- ther, which was- the cafe particularly with the firth, very evidently dettlonftrates. Thus inherited, the fends were undoubte<Sy mi- litary feuds in themfelves, and were undbubtecHy enjoyed by military tenures from the emperor. And the male defcendarits from the original legionaries muft have been all legionaries by birth, at the military age muft have all engaged by turns in the regular duties of the garrifbn at home, and muft all by turns Tiave been draughted out for the occafional duties of the ifland abroad, . In the revolution of three or four centuries the males of die municipies and colonies muft have been considerably multiplied, and the number of legionaries in each of them have been con- siderably augmented. In the revolution of three or four centu- ries the original three or four thoufand perhaps of each garri- fon, merely by the natural effeft of a fucceflive propagation, and only by a (ingle duplication of the whole in each fucceflive generation, muft regularly have dilated themfelves into a very xonfiderabk number. Each of the nine cities muft at leaft have decupled the full amount of its original inhabitants in that long period
