330 GIBBON. 



which he does not mean. " If we annihilate the interval 

 of time and space between Augustus and Charles IV. ;" 

 (ch. L.) but he only means, "if we pass over that interval." 

 "A casting vote was ascribed to the superior wisdom of 

 Papinian ;" (ch. XLI V.) but he only means, that it was 

 given to Papinian on account of his " wisdom," while he 

 says that Papinian's wisdom was understood to have 

 invented the casting vote. "The fragments of the Greek 

 kingdom in Europe and Asia I shall abandon to the 

 Turkish arms;" (ch. LXVIII.) but he only means, that 

 he gives up the history of the empire after those arms 

 had conquered it. A greater artist marks his course, and 

 connects himself with his subject after a very different 

 fashion : " Me quoque juvat," says Livy, on closing the 

 Punic wars, " velut ipse in parte laboris ac periculi fuerim, 

 ad finem belli Punici pervenisse. Nam , etsi profiteri 

 ausum perscripturum res omnes Romanas, in partibus sin- 

 gulis tanti operis fatigari minime conveniat, tamen quum 

 in mentem venit tres et sexaginta annos seque multa 

 volumina occupasse mihi quam occuparint quadringenti 

 octoginta octo anni a condita Urbe ad Ap. Claudium Oon- 

 sulem qui primus bellum Carthaginiensibus intulit; jam 

 provideo animo, velut qui proximis littori vadis inducti 

 mare pedibus ingrediuntur, quidquid progredior in vas- 

 tiorem me altitudinem ac velut profundum invehi et 

 crescere psene opus quod prima quseque perficiendo minui 

 videbatur." (Lib. xxxi,, cap. 1.) 



There are few instances in his statements of the same 

 carelessness which we have marked in his style; but 

 some there are, as when he makes the number of 

 Roman citizens at the beginning of the Social War, 

 463,000 fighting men, which answers to a population of 



