ROME. 



the Mufic of the Ancients, and Mujual Injtrumenis of the 

 Greeks, (fee Music, and Instrument, in Mujic,) thole of 

 the Romans are generally included. They, indeed, imitated 

 and adopted many cultoms, religious rites and ceremonies 

 of the Etrurians; and Plutarch (Vita Romuli) men- 

 tions it as a prevailing opinion, that the Greek language, 

 which was fpoken by the Romans in the time ot Ro- 

 mulus, was not corrupted by Italian words. From thefe 

 accounts it appears that the Romans had not only vocal and 

 instrumental mufic as well as other arts and fciences from 

 Greece, but even their alphabet, language, religion, and all 

 the learning of which they were poffefled during the time of 

 their kings, and the firft ages of their republic, thefe having 

 been originally Greek, though the Romans had them through 

 Etnifcan drainers. 



The firft Roman triumph, according to Dionyfius (lib. ii.), 

 was that of Romulus over the Cseninenfes ; in which, clad 

 in a purple robe, he was drawn in a chariot by four horfes. 

 The reft of the army, both horfe and foot, followed, ranged 

 in three feveral divifions, hymning their gods in fongs of 

 their country, and celebrating their general with extem- 

 porary verfes : this account affords a very venerable origin 

 to the improvifatori of Italy ; as the event happened in 

 the fourth year of Rome, 749 years before Chrift, and 

 the fourth year of the feventh olympiad. 



Indeed the Romans were later in cultivating arts and 

 fciences than any other great and powerful people ; and none 

 of them feem to have been the natural growth of the foil, 

 except the military art ; all others were brought in by con- 

 quer! . 



During the reign of Auguftus, except Vitruvius, it does 

 not appear that the Romans had one architect, fculptor, 

 painter, or mufician ; thofe who have been celebrated in the 

 arts at Rome, having been Afiatics, or European Greeks, 

 who came to exercife fuch arts among the Latins, as the 

 Latins had not among themfelves ; this cultom was con- 

 tinued under the fucceflors of Auguitus, and thofe Romans 

 who were prevented by more important concerns from going 

 into Greece, contrived in a manner to bring Greece to Rome, 

 by receiving into their fervice the moll able profeffors of 

 Greece and Afia, in all the arts. We find too, not only 

 that each of the beft Roman writers was an imitator of 

 fome great Grecian model, but are certain that the rinelt re- 

 mains in painting, fculpture, and architecture, which ilill 

 fubfift in Italy, were either brought thither from Greece, 

 or were the works of Greek artiits, who had left their own 

 ruined and opprefled country, to bade in the warm fun-fhine 

 of power and affluence at Rome. 



Vitruvius, in his Treatife on Architecture, has inferted a 

 chapter on mufic, in which he has given the harmonical 

 fyftem of Ariftoxenus ; but he introduces it with a com- 

 plaint of the unavoidable obfeurity of mufical literature, on 

 account of the deficiency of terms in the Latin tongue, to 

 explain his ideas. " The fcience of mufic, in itfelf obfeure," 

 fays he, " is particularly fo to fuch as underllar.d not the 

 Greek language." This writer, therefore, who feems to 

 have been the firft that had treated of mufic in the Roman 

 language, confefTes the neceflity he was under of ufing 

 Greek appellatives, not only for the notes, but for other 

 parts of the art ; which (hews, if not the low ftate of mufic 

 at Rome when he wrote, which was in the Auguftan age, 

 at leaft whence their mufic came ; and borrowing implies in- 

 feriority. Indeed, the writings of Cicero fhew that philo- 

 fophy, and all the arts and fciences, were wholly furnifhed to 

 the Romans from Greece, even in the moll enlightened times. 

 Mufic was, however, in great favour at Rome during 

 the latter end of the republic, and the voluptuous times of 



the emperors ; the ftage then flouriihed ; the temples wei* 

 crowded ; feftivals frequent ; and banquets fplendid ; fo 

 that we may fuppofe it to have been very much ufed both 

 upon public and private occafions, in fo rich, populous, and 

 flourifhinga city as Rome, the miltrefsof the world. But 

 this mufic mull have differed as little From that of thi 

 Greeks, as the defcriptions of it in Horace and Virgil differ 

 from thole to be found in Homer, and the Greek lvric 

 poets. 



Notwithstanding the Romans had the Greeks, Etrurians, 

 and Sicilians to imitate in the polite arts, they never advanced 

 fo far in them as the modern Italians have done ; who, with- 

 out any foreign help, have greatly furpafled not only their 

 forefathers the ancient Romans, but even the Greeks themj 

 felves, in feveral of the arts, and in no one fo much as that 

 of mufic, in which every people of Europe have, at different 

 times, confented to become their (cholars. 



From the fuccefs which attended the arms of the Romans, 

 and that dominion which they acquired over the greatell 

 part of the known world, it is natural to conclude that they 

 mull have carried the military art to a higher degree of per- 

 fection than any other nation of that period. It is the 

 difcipline of an army that makes the multitude act as one 

 man ; it moreover increafes the courage of troops, becauie 

 each individual confides in the Heady co-operation of his 

 affociates. From the conftant practice of athletic exercifes, 

 the Romans were inured from infancy to hardinefs and 

 fatigue, and bred to that fpecies of life which a foldier leads 

 in the moil adlive campaign. 



Among the ancient nations there were ufually but two 

 different arrangements of the troops in order of battle. 

 The one the Phalanx, or clofe arrangement in parallelograms, 

 interfered only by great diviiions ; the other the Quincunx, 

 coniilling of lmall companies or platoons, difpofed in three 

 flraight lines, with alternate fpaces between them equal to 

 the (pace occupied by each company. The military taftics 

 of the Romans are fuppofed to have been at their higheil 

 pitch of excellence during the Punic wars. Hannibal was 

 a mafter in the fcience, and the Romans underflood how to 

 profit from the inltruttions of an enemy. The art of in- 

 trenchment was carried to great perfection by the Romans, 

 particularly by Julius Ciefar. Their intrenchments cor.fiRed 

 of a ditch from nine to fifteen feet in depth and width, fenced 

 on the inlide by the mound of excavated earth, and on the 

 outlide by ilrong (lakes with pointed branches. 



In befieging a town, feveral camps were formed around 

 the place, joined to each other by lines of circumvallation and 

 countervallation. A mound of earth was railed, gradually 

 rifing in elevation as it approached the city. The front, 

 where workmen were employed, was defended by a curtain 

 of hides. On this mound the engines of attack were ad- 

 vanced, till they played on the very fpot which the befiegers 

 wifhed to aflail. The fame machines were ufed by the 

 befieged for annoying the enemy. When the batteries 

 from the terrace had filenced thofe on the walls, the bat- 

 tering ram was brought up, and if it once reached the 

 walls, it was generally decifive of the fate of the town. 

 The great objeft, therefore, of the befieged, was to prevent 

 its approach by every power of annoyance. 



The naval military art was utterly unknown among the 

 Romans till the firll Punic war. A Carthaginian galley 

 was the firft model ; and in the fpace of two months they 

 equipped a fleet of 100 gallies of five banks of oars, and 

 20 with three banks. In the times of the empire, which 

 we are going, very briefly, to defcribe, the Romans main- 

 tained their different conqneils, not by their armies, but by 

 their fleets, which were moored in the large rivers and bays, 



and 



