Book XI.
Chap. 19.their oppressive extortions, with which all history abounds.
"All Asia, says Mithridates[1], expects me as its deliverer; so great is the hatred which the rapaciousness of the proconsuls[2], the confiscations made by the officers of the revenue, and the quirks and cavils of judicial proceedings[3], have excited against the Romans."
Hence it was that the strength of the provinces made no addition to, but rather weakened the strength of the republic. Hence it was that the provinces looked upon the loss of the liberty of Rome as the epocha of their own freedom.
CHAP. XX.
End of this Book.
I Should be glad to inquire into the distribution of the three powers, in all the moderate governments we are acquainted with, and to calculate thereby the degrees of liberty which each may enjoy. But we must not always exhaust a subject so far, as to leave no work at all for the reader. My business is not to make people read, but to make them think.
