me;

wafted the Force of fo extenfive an Empire. It is a cheap Calculation to say, that the Perfian Empire, in its Wars, against the Greeks and Scythians, threw away at least four Millions of its Subjects, to say nothing of its other Wars, and the Loffes fuftained in them. These were their Loffes abroad; but the War was brought home to them, firft by Agefilaus, and afterwards by Alexander. I have not, in this Retreat, the Books neceffary to make very exact Calculations; nor is it neceffary to give more than Hints to one of your Lordship's Erudition. Your will recollect his uninterrupted Series of Succefs. You will run over his Battles. You will call to mind the Carnage which was made. You will give a Glance of the Whole, and you will agree with that to form this Hero no less than twelve hundred thousand Lives must have been facrificed; but no fooner had he fallen himself a Sacrifice to his Vices, than a thousand Breaches were made for Ruin to enter, and give the laft hand to this Scene of Misery and Destruction. His Kingdom was rent and divided which ferved to employ the more diftinct Parts to tear each other to Pieces, and bury the whole in Blood and Slaughter. The Kings of Syria and of Egypt, the Kings of Pergamus and Macedon, without Intermiffion, worried each other for above two hundred Years, until at last a strong Power, arifing in the Weft, rushed in upon them and filenced their Tumults, by involving all the contending Parties in the fame Destruction. It is little to fay, that the Contentions between the Succeffor of Alexander depopulated

1

depopulated that Part of the World of at least two Millions.

The Struggle between the Macedonians and Greeks, and before that, the Disputes of the Greek Commonwealths among themselves, for an unprofitable Superiority, form one of the bloodieft Scenes in Hiftory. One is aftonished how fuch a fmall Spot could furnish Men sufficient to facrifice to the pitiful Ambition of poffeffing five or fix thousand more Acres, or two or three more Villages: Yet to see the Acrimony and Bitterness with which this was difputed between the Athenians and Lacedemonians; what Armies cut off; what Fleets funk, and burnt; what a Number of Cities facked, and their Inhabitants flaughtered and captivated; one would be induced to believe the Decifion of the Fate of Mankind, at leaft, depended upon it! But thefe Disputes ended, as all fuch ever have done, and ever will do, in a real Weakness of all Parties; a momentary Shadow, and Dream of Power in fome one; and the Subjection of all to the Yoke of a Stranger, who knows how to profit of their Divifions. This at least was the Cafe of the Greeks; and fure, from the earliest Accounts of them, to their Absorption in the Roman Empire, we cannot judge that their inteftine Divifions and their foreign Wars confumed lefs than three Millions of their Inhabitants.

What an Aceldama, what a Field of Blood, Sicily has been in ancient Times, whilft the Mode of its Government was controverted between the republiC 4

can

can and tyrannical Parties, and the Poffeffion struggled for by the Natives, the Greeks, the Carthaginians, and the Romans, your Lordship will eafily recollect. You will remember the total Destruction of fuch Bodies as an Army of 300,000 Men. You will find every Page of its History dyed in Blood, and blotted and confounded by Tumults, Rebellions, Maffacres, Affaffinations, Profcriptions, and a Series of Horror beyond the Hiftories perhaps of any other Nations in the World; though the Hiftories of all Nations are made up of fimilar Matter. I once more excufe myself in point of Exactness for want of Books. But I fhall eftimate the Slaughters in this Ifland but at two Millions; which your Lordfhip will find much fhort of Reality.

Let us pafs by the Wars and the Confequences of them, which wafted Gracia-Magna, before the Roman Power prevailed in that Part of Italy. They are perhaps exaggerated; therefore I fhall only rate them at one Million. Let us haften to open that great Scene which eftablishes the Roman Empire, and forms the grand Catastrophe of the antient Dra

ma.

This Empire, whilst in its Infancy, began by . an Effufion of human Blood scarcely credible. The neighbouring little States teemed for new Destruction: The Sabines, the Samnites, the Æqui, the Volfci, the Hetrurians, were broken by a Series of Slaughters which had no Interruption, for fome Hundreds of Years; Slaughters which upon all Sides confumed more than two Millions of the wretched People. The Gauls, rufhing into Italy about this Time, added the total Deftruction of their own Armics to thofe of the an

Thefe

tient Inhabitants. In fhort, it were hardly poffible to conceive a more horrid and bloody Picture, if that which the Punic Wars that enfued foon after did not present one, that far exceeds it. Here we find that Climax of Devaftation and Ruin, which feemed to fhake the whole Earth. The Extent of this War, which vexed fo many Nations, and both Elements, and the Havock of the human Species caused in both, really aftonishes beyond Expreflion, when it is nakedly confidered, and those Matters which are apt to divert our Attention from it, the Characters, Actions, and Defigns of the Perfons concerned, are not taken into the Account. Wars, I mean thofe called the Punic Wars, could not have stood the human Race in lefs than three Millions of the Species. And yet this forms but a Part only, and a very fmall Part, of the Havock caufed by the Roman Ambition. The War with Mithridates was very little lefs bloody? that Prince cut off at one Stroke 150,000 Romans by a Maflacre. In that War Sylla deftroyed 300,000 Men at Cheronea. He defeated Mithridates's Army under Dorilaus, and flew 300,000. This great and unfor tunate Prince loft another 300,000 before Cyzicum. In the Courfe of the War he had innumerable other Loffes; and having many Intervals of Succefs, he revenged them feverely. He was at laft totally overthrown; and he crushed to Pieces the King of Armenia, his Ally, by the Greatnefs of his Ruin. Ail who had Connections with him fhared the fame Fate. The merciless Genius of Sylla had its full Scope; and the Streets of Athens were not the only ones

which

which ran with Blood. At this Period, the Sword, glutted with foreign Slaughter, turned its Edge upon the Bowels of the Roman Republic itself; and prefented a Scene of Cruelties and Treafons enough almost to obliterate the Memory of all the external Devastations. I intended, my Lord, to have proceeded in a fort of Method in eftimating the Numbers of Mankind cut off in these Wars which we have on Record. But I am obliged to alter my Defign. Such a tragical Uniformity of Havock and Murder would disgust your Lordship as much as it would me; and I confefs I already feel my Eyes ake by keeping them fo long intent on fo bloody a Profpect. I fhall observe little on the Servile, the Social, the Gallic, and Spanish War; nor upon those with Jugurtha, nor Antiochus, nor many others equally important, and carried on with equal Fury. The Butcheries of Julius Cæfar alone, are calculated by fome body else; the Numbers he has been a means of deftroying have been reckoned at 1,200,000. But to give your Lordship an Idea that may serve as a Standard, by which to measure, in fome Degree, the others, you will turn your Eyes on Judea; a very inconfiderable Spot of the Earth in itself, though ennobled by the fingular Events which had their Rife in that Country.

This Spot happened, it matters not here by what means, to become at feveral times extremely popuJous, and to fupply Men for Slaughters fcarcely credible, if other well-known and well-attefted ones had not given them a Colour. The firft Settling of

the