266 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book IV, 



fdcs^ ut Veios fu'ijfe credamus'^ ; for the Romans, as I have obferv- 

 ed, not only depopulated what they conquered of the antient worlds 

 but their own country more than any other. And they appear not 

 only to have deftroyed many cities, but to have extirpated nations ; 

 for Strabo mentions one, whom he calls Ofci^ which he fays, in his 

 time, no longer exifted f. And the fame mray be faid of the Volfc'iy 

 Eqtti^ and many other nations, with which the Romans, in the be- 

 ginning of their ftate, waged many and bloody wars. 



What compleated the defolation of Italy was the ravages of the 

 Goths in it, which Rome itfelf did not efcape. It was thrice fack- 

 t\ by thofe barbarous conquerors, of whom one of their Kings, Totila, 

 not only facked it, but had refolved to rafe it altogether, and to 

 make of it what the Romans had made of the city of Veii; and, ac- 

 cordingly, he had begun to demolifh the walls, but was (lopped from 

 proceeding farther by a letter which, it is laid, he received from Be- 

 lifarius. 



This wonderful depopulation, of the fineft country in Europe, 

 will appear ftill more extraordinary, if we confider how it was peo- 

 pled in antient times, and how it increafed in people. I have aU 

 ready obferved, that in Latium, a fmall province of it, there were 

 once 52 cities, of whi.:h hardly a veftige was to be feen in the days 

 of Pliny the elder. How much thofe cities, before they were def- 

 troyed, muft have increafed in the number of inhabitants, we may 

 judge from the example of Rome, which was not 500 years old be- 

 fore it had fent out 30 colonies, notwithllanding the continual wars 

 it was engaged in ; and its mother city, Alba Longa, fent out the 

 fame number, in a much fhorter time. 



The 



* Lib. 1. Cap. 12. — See alfo Dempfterj vol. 2. p. 46. and 47. 

 t Lib. 5. p. 151. 



