authority incapable of managing the affairs of the state, and military law the only rational expedient to supply their place. Thus at once the mockery of consular dignity was put an end to, the senators sent home to take care of their families, and the tribunes to blend with the people, whom they before represented. This new and preferable system began its operations with nothing less important for the general welfare, than seizing the whole annual revenue of every estate productive of more than ten thousand crowns; two-thirds of every estate that produced more than five, but less than ten; and one-half of every inferior annual income.

This, in a few words, has been the progressive conduct of the Great Nation towards an injured and oppressed people, whose happiness and dearest interests were its first care, and to whom freedom and liberty had been restored, that they might know how to appreciate the virtue of their benefactors, and the inestimable blessings of independence.'

We cannot dismiss this work without bestowing praise on the author, for the manly and temperate spirit which he has displayed, on a subject on which the passions of human nature would not permit every man to write without acrimony and violence.

ART. XIV. An Illustration of the Roman Antiquities discovered at Bath. By the Rev. Richard Warner, Curate of St. James's Parish. Published by order of the Mayor and Corporation at Bath. 4to. pp. 120. and Plates. 7s. 6d. Boards. Dilly. 1797.

IT is probable that the city of Bath, if not originally built by the Romans, was at least reduced under their power and embellished by their arts as early as the middle of the first century; when, in the reign of Claudius, (according to Tacitus,) the western and south-western parts of this island were completely subdued by Flavius Vespasian. Attracted by the medicinal and warm springs which they here found, and which afforded easy means of indulging in that prime enjoyment of Roman luxury, the Bath, the Roman soldiers there fixed one of their principal stations. Aqua Solis, the name by which they designated this delightful residence, was soon established as a Colony; and in course became entitled to the privilege, which all the Roman colonies enjoyed, of minting its own money. It is to be conjectured, also, that a military forge, or college of armourers, was erected here for the purpose of fabricating legionary arms, under the authority of a Roman govern

ment.

*This work has accidentally been mislaid on our back-shelves, and overlooked.

Invested

Invested with such privileges, and possessing charms so well calculated to render it a favourite seat of the luxurious conquerors, Bath would naturally soon become a splendid and extensive settlement. Accordingly, our antiquaries, by tracing the remains of the Roman city, find it to have been' twelve hundred feet in length, and eleven hundred in breadth; surrounded by a wall mine feet thick, and twenty in height; and comprizing spacious and magnificent baths, a superb temple dedicated to Minerva, with a variety of other temples, votive altars, statues, &c. From the middle of the first to the middle of the fifth century, we have reason for believing that Bath continued to be occupied by the Romans. At this latter period, the incursions of the Goths compelled Theodosius the Second to withdraw his legions from the distant provinces, in order to defend the heart of the empire; and then it was that Bath, with the rest of Britain, was reluctantly resigned by its Roman masters, embellished and improved, to the native inhabitants of the island.

In a work professing to describe the Roman antiquities of a city which had so long been in possession of that people, and to whom it probably owed its origin, we are disappointed at finding so few monuments of its former existence as appear in this volume.-Fourteen articles only of this kind are here noticed; namely, four sepulchar stones, five votive altars, a fragment of a statue of Apollo, an altar supposed to be one of the diewo or double kind, dedicated to Jupiter and Hercules Bibax, a head in relief, the fragment of a pediment, and a piece of antique masonry, supposed by the author to have been the tympanum of a temple dedicated to Minerva: but which Governor Pownall, in his Tract on the Antiquities of Bath conceives to be a fragment of a temple of Sol.

Of these, the sepulchral stones and the votive altars seem to have called for but little ingenuity or antiquarian skill in the explication. They however furnish the author with an opportunity, or a pretext, which he does not let slip, of displaying his store of classical learning. His disquisitions on Romanmanners, customs, and mythology, are diffuse and frequent; and they bespeak a familiar acquaintance with the Greek and Latin writers. Perhaps, indeed, it is rather as a scholar than an antiquary, that Mr. Warner best entertains and informs his readers. The following account of one of the votive altars will give an idea of his manner;

See M. Rev. vol. xix. N. S. p. 58.

1

DEE SULINI PRO SALUTE ET INCOLUMITATE AUFIDII MAXIMI LEGIONIS VITA VICTRICIS MILITIS AUFIDIUS EJUS LEBERTUS

(pro libertus) VOTUM SOLVIT LIBENS MERITO.

• This votive altar exhibits another example of the gratitude and piety of the Romans. It was erected by a manumitted slave, in performance of a vow made to the Goddess Sulinis, for the restoration of his master, who had made him free.

Luxury, of every sort, was carried to a proverbial height by this august nation. But in no article were the Romans more extravagantly profuse, than in the use of slaves; and in the multitudes which every citizen of property affected to entertain. The numerous and various offices in their town residences, and country villas; in their gardens, farms, and fields, were filled by these unfortunate beings; over whom the lordly master domineered wich the most uncontrouled and discretionary sway*. To such a pitch, indeed, did this vain and cruel custom arrive, that instances are not wanting of a noble Roman possessing a body of ten, and even twenty thousand domestic slavést. Nor was it at home alone that they manifested this folly; whole troops of these wretched men followed them wherever they.. went; whether to the courts of justice, or the senate-house; the theatre, the temple, or the bath; ubi, comitantibus singulos quinquaginta ministris tholos introierent lalncarum ‡.-Familiarium agmina, tanquam predatorios globos, post terga trahentes; ne Sannione quidem, ut ait Comicus, domi relicto §; and Horace records Tigellinus as parading the streets of Rome with a retinue of two hundred servi at his heels .

With the more humane and reflecting Romans, however, it was not unusual to emancipate their slaves from this cruel state of bondage, in the cases of faithful service and meritorious conduct-This was done by various modes; any one of which converted the Servus into a Libertus, and though it did not confer on him all the rights and privileges of Roman citizenship, liberated him notwithstanding, forever, from the tyranny of a passionate, or the caprice of a whimsical

* The numbers of slaves employed by the Romans in their kitchens, and about their persons, must astonish even the most extravagant of our present beaus and epicures." Quam celebres culina "sunt? Quanta nepotum focos juventus premit. Transeo puerorum "infelicium gregès, quos, post transacta convivia, alii cubiculi con"tumelia expectant. Transeo agmina exoletorum, per nationes, "coloresque descripta ut eadem omnibus levitas sit, eadem prime *mensura lanuginis, eadem species capillorum, ne quis, cui rectior est coma, crispulis misceatur. Transeo pistorum turbam, transeo mini"stratorum per quos, signo dato, ad inferendam cænam discurritur. "Dii boni!" (subjoins the philosopher) "quantum hominum unius "Venter exercet." Seneca's Epist:

* Η Μυρίας, και δισμυρίας (οικετας) και επι πλείως δε πάμπολλοι κεκτῦνται. εκ επι προσόδοις δε, ώσπερ ὁ των Ελλήνων ζαπλέτες Νικίας, αλλ' αι πλεως των Ρωμαίων συνπροΐοντας έχουσι τις πλώτους. Athenaus Deip. lib. vi.

Ammianus, Lib. xxviii.

ld. Lib. xiv.

lord.

lord. The only compliment due on this occasion from the manumitted slave to his quondam master, was to adopt his name; a circumstance which, we perceive by our inscription, had not been omitted by the freed man of Aufidius Maximus.

The Sixth legion, mentioned on this altar, was transported into Britain, in the time of Hadrian; and probably accompanied that Emperor, when he took this kingdom in the tour of his dominions*. Its first station was somewhere in the North of England, in the neighbourhood of the Vallum, the West end of which it appears to have erected. Towards the middle of the reign of Antoninus Pius, it moved rather more to the South, and became stationary at York.Here it continued till the beginning of the fifth century; when it returned to Italy, to assist in supporting the sinking fabric of the empire t.

There is no room to suppose the Legion itself was ever at Bath; - but from two inscriptions having been found there, in which mention of it occurs, a reasonable conjecture arises, that one of its dispersed cohorts might have been, at least for a time, quartered in this city.

This altar was found on the scite of the present Pump-room, about four years since.

I have added a representation of the Focos or Thuribulum on the top of the altar; a cavity intended to receive the libations and frankincense offered to the Deity to whom it was dedicated.'

Prefixed to the work is an Introduction, giving a concise account of the Roman history of Bath.-The fragments of antiquity described and explained in the volume are represented by wooden cuts.

Whether or not this production will be thought by the antiquary to possess much merit is perhaps the less important to the author, as it has already received the sanction of the learning and sagacity of a very worshipful body of men, whose names we seldom see connected with a work of this description. It is dedicated to, and published by order of, the MAYOR AND CorFORATION of Bath!

MONTHLY CATALOGUE, For JANUARY, 1800.

MILITARY.

Art. 15. Pocket Volunteer Cavalry Instructor in the Sword Exercise, in Five Parts: Part 1st, Explaining the offensive Six Cuts, defensive against Cavalry, the Application of the Point, with the

This we have reason to conclude, from the following inscription on an altar given by Gale.-" Imperatoris Divi Hadriani ab actis tri"buno militum legionis sextæ victricis cum qua ex Germaniâ in Bri"tanniam transiit." Galei Anton: Itin. p. 47.'

Horsley's Brit. Rom. 79, 80.'
REV. JAN. 1800.

Cuts and Guards against Infantry. Part 2d, Sword Exercise oft Foot. Part 3d, Drill on Horseback. Part 4th, Method of Instruction in Classes. Part 5th, Review Exercise, fully explaining the Six Divisions in Line and in Speed, with the Attack and Defence also in Line and in Speed. With Plates, explaining all the Cuts, Guards, and Manoeuvres, on Foot and on Horseback. 24. pp. 86. 3s. 6d. sewed. Low. 1799.

This is a very ingenious little work, and we can recommend it as a profitable pocket companion to every cavalry officer or volunteer. The contents are sufficiently set forth in the title-page.

NOVELS.

Art. 16. Monk-Wood Priory. By Francis Tracy Thomas, Cornet in the East and West Lothian Light Dragoons. 12mo. 2 Vols. 7s. Boards. Longman and Rees.

1799.

This work is derived from the common Stock of ingredients, compounded with flowery sentiment. The principal character is an imitation of Lovelace: but the happy fate provided for this gay libertine. has, we believe, the merit of novelty.

Art. 17. The Victim of Prejudice. By Mary Hays, Author of the Memoirs of Emma Courtney. 12mo. 2 Vols. 6s. Boards.

Johnson.

1799.

Mary, the heroine of this little tale, is, to the credit of the author's pencil, a spirited and affecting sketch, but somewhat out of nature; and the principle which it is designed to inculcate by no means follows from the premises. By the novels which issue from this school, love, which is a transient passion, is to be complimented, in all cases, at the expence of the regulations and institutions of society; and a respect for virtue and decorum is to be classed in the list of vulgar prejudices. Love, which is generally our happiness, may and will sometimes be our misery. The wisest and the best are often the slaves and victims of circumstances:-Mary is one of those victims,-though amiable, noble, and virtuous, the circumstances of her birth prevented her from being the most eligible match for a man of virtue having virtuous connections, and wishing to have a virtuous offspring. Descended from a mother who was both a prostitute and a murderer, and who expiated her crimes on the gallows, shall we term the objection of the Hon. Mr. Pelham's father to the marriage of his son with her a mere prejudice? Must not William Pelham himself, had he been permitted to marry the lovely and amiable Mary, have had cause to blush when the children who might have been the fruit of their union came to inquire into the history of their mother? According to the fixed laws of nature, we suffer from the vices of our parents; and this, with every wise man, will be a very trong motive to virtue; since the evil resulting from a deviation from ker paths will not terminate in ourselves. We must love and pity such a character as Mary Raymond: but her misery results rather from a general sentiment of detestation of atrocious crimes, than from any act which is entitled to the appellation of tyranny.

LAW.