274 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



endeavoured to ftir them up againft Alexander his fon. It was then, 

 that Phocion very properly, I think, applied to him this line of 

 Homer, 



Some of the later Conftantinopolitan Emperors, and particularly 

 Juftinian, have been much blamed, both by cotemporary and later 

 hiftorians, for purchafing the friendfhip of the Barbariaris with mo- 

 ney. But, in my opinion, he did well j for he put the evil day far 

 off, and procured what Hezekiah wiflied for, peace in his own time : 

 For Italy, and the Roman provinces, were then fo much depopu- 

 lated, and the Romans fo much inferior to the Barbarians, not in 

 numbers only, but in bodily ftre«gth and fiercenefs, that it was evi- 

 dent they mud foon become a prey to them, as happened at laft. 



There is another confideration, which deferves the moft ferious 

 attention of our rulers and legiilators. Corruption of manners and 

 degeneracy begin in every nation among the better fort, and from 

 them defcend to the people. While the nobility of Rome conti- 

 nued ftill to have virtue and abilities, the Romans were more than 

 a match for the barbarous nations: But, after the families of the 

 Scipios, the Caefars, the Fabii, the Curii, and the Fabricii, were 

 either extinguifhed, or fo degenerated as not to be able to furtain 

 their dignity and fill their ftation in the ftate, the Roman empire 

 declined very faft, though there was ftili ftrength and fpirit in the 

 people to refill the Barbarians when they were well commanded, 



not- 



* Oc!) IT. ix. V. 494. It is Plutarch that tells this ftory, in the life of Phocion, 

 p. 191. A'ol. iv. in quarto. Ihe Athenians, in the days of Philip, King of Mace- 

 don, the fucccffor of Alexander, were ftill niore degenerate, when, as Livy tells us, 

 verbis ac Uteris ^ quibus folis valent, bellutn contra Philippuni gcr chant, Lib. 31. 

 Cap. 44. ; — words which I never could read without much feeling for a people once 

 fo renowned in arts and arms. 



