Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/82

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58
THE DECLINE AND FALL
CHAP. II.
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equal, and perhaps advantageous comparison with their present state. With regard to Spain, that country flourished as a province, and has decHned as a kingdom. Exhausted by the abuse of her strength by America, and by superstition, her pride might possibly be confounded, if we required such a list of three hundred and sixty cities, as Pliny has exhibited Africa.under the reign of Vespasian[1]. Third, three hundred African cities had once acknowledged the authority of Carthage[2], nor is it likely that their numbers diminished under the administration of the emperors : Carthage itself rose with new splendour from its ashes; and that capital, as well as Capua and Corinth, soon recovered all the advantages which can Asia.be separated from independent sovereignty. Fourth, the provinces of the east present the contrast of Roman magnificence with Turkish barbarism. The ruins of antiquity scattered over uncultivated fields, and ascribed by ignorance to the power of magic, scarcely afford a shelter to the oppressed peasant or wandering Arab. Under the reign of the Caesars, the proper Asia alone contained five hundred populous cities[3], enriched with all the gifts of nature, and adorned with all the refinements of art. Eleven cities of Asia had once disputed the honour of dedicating a temple to Tiberius, and their respective merits were examined by the senate [4]. Four of them were immediately rejected as unequal to the burden; and among these was Laodicea, whose splendour is still displayed in
  1. Plin. Hist. Natur. iii. 3, 4. iv. 35. The list seems authentic and accurate : the division of the provinces, and the different condition of the cities, are minutely distinguished.
  2. Strabon. Geograph. 1. xvii. p. 1189.
  3. Joseph, de Bell. Jud. ii. 16 j Philostrat. in Vit. Sophist. 1. ii. p. 548. edit. Olear.
  4. Tacit. Annal. iv. 55. I have taken some pains in consulting and comparing modern travellers with regard to the fate of those eleven cities of Asia : seven or eight are totally destroyed ; Hypaepe, Tralles, Laodicea, Ilium, Halicarnassus, Miletus, Ephesus, and we may add Sardes. Of the remaining three, Pergamus is a straggling village of two or three thousand inhabitants. Magnesia, under the name of Guzel-hissar, a town of some consequence ; and Smyrna, a great city, peopled by an hundred thousand souls. But even at Smyrna, while the Franks have maintained commerce, the Turks have ruined the arts.