182 DECLINE OF THE 



CHAP. VII. 



open the communication with, and to convey 

 recruits to, the legions quartered in the British 

 islands. 



This contraction of naval intercourse naturally 

 tended to diminish tlbe numbers of that class 

 of slaves which war and commerce had before 

 brought to Rome from Arabia, from Egypt, from 

 Carthage, and other parts of the African conti- 

 nent, as well as from the islands in the Mediter- 

 ranean sea. Slaves thus became scarce in Rome. 

 They naturally increased in value. They be- 

 came an object for luxurious gratification, and 

 much too costly to be employed in offices so de- 

 grading and so unprofitable as those of removing 

 vast masses of earth and rocks to discover a 

 few scattered particles of gold and silver. As 

 the importation of slaves was checked, it became 

 profitable to breed, rear, and educate them ; and 

 the speculation of training up an expeditious 

 and correct amanuensis, a bookkeeper skilled in 

 accounts, a cook capable of producing luxurious 

 delicacies, or a learned tutor for the rising ge- 

 neration, must have presented more powerful 

 inducements than could be offered by any im- 

 portation of rude and uncultivated savages, who, 

 though possessed of the form and the strength 

 of human beings, were but little better in adroit- 

 ness, in docility, or in disposition to labour, than 

 the domestic animals. 



The inducement to rear and educate slaves 



