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wafted the Force of fo extenfive an Empire. It is a cheap Calculation to fay, 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. Thefe were their Lofles 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 neceflary to give more than Hints to one of your lordship's Erudition. You 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 me; that to form this Hero no less than twelve bundred thoufand 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 Mifery and Deftruction. 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 Deftruction. It is little to fay, that the Contentions between the Succeffors of Alexander depopulated

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

The Sruggle between the Macedonians and Greeks, and before that, the Difputes of the Greek Commonwealths among themselves, for an unprofitable Superiority, form one of the bloodieft Scenes in Hiftory. One is aftonished how fuch a small Spot could furnish Men fufficient to facrifice to the pitiful Ambition of poffeffing five or fix thousand more Acres, or two or three more Villages: Yet to fee 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 Difputes 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 Abforption into the Roman Empire, we cannot judge that their inteftine Divifions, and their foreign Wars confumed less than three Millions of their Inhabitants.

What an Aceldama, what a Field of Blood Sicily has been in antient times, whilft the Mode of its Government was controverted between the republi

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can and tyrannical Parties, and the Poffeffion ftruggled for by the Natives, the Greeks the Carthaginians, and the Romans, your Lordship will easily recollect. You will remember the total Destruction of fuch Bodies as an Army of 300,000 Men. You will find every Page of its Hiftory dyed in Blood, and blotted and confounded by Tumults, Rebellions, Maffacres, Affaffinations, Profcriptions, and a Series of Horror beyond the Hiftories perhaps of any otherNation in the World; though the Hiftories of all Nations are made up of fimilar Matter. I once more excuse myself in point of Exactnefs for want of Books. But I fhall eftimate the Slaughters in this Island but at two Millions; which your Lordship will find much short of the 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 Drama. This Empire, whilft 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 fides confumed more than two Millions of the wretched People. The Gauls rufhing into Italy about this Time, added the total Deftruction of their own Armies to thofe of the an

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 aftonifhes beyond Expreffion, when it is nakedly confidered, and thofe Matters which are apt to divert our Attention from it, the Characters, Actions, and Designs of the Perfons concerned, are not taken into the Account. Thefe 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 less bloody; that Prince cut off at one Stroke 150,000 Romans by a Maffacre, In that War Sylla deftroyed 300,000 Men at Cheronea. He defeated Mithridates's Army under Dorilaus, and flew 300,000. This great and unfortunate Prince loft another 300,000 before Cyzicum. In the courfe of the War he had innumerable other Loffes; and having many Intervals of Success, 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. All who had Connexions with him fhared the fame Fate. The mercilefs 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 Republick itfelf; and prefented a Scene of Cruelties and Treafons enough almoft to obliterate the Memory of all the external Devaftations. I intended, my Lord. to have proceeded in a fort of Method in eftimating the Numbers of Mankind cut off in thefe Wars which we have on Record. But I am obliged to alter my Defign. Such a tragical Uniformity of Havock and Murder would difguft your Lordfhip 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 Prospect. I fhall obferve little on the Servile, the Social, the Gallic, and Spanish Wars; nor upon thefe with Jugurtha, nor Antiochus, nor many others equally important, and carried on with equal Fury. The Butcheries of Julius Cafar alone, are calculated by fome body elfe; 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 ferve 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 Rise in that Country.

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

the

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