like as Spain. The fuperiority of Cæfar's genius, and that of the forces of the republic, with which he invaded it, contributed, undoubtedly, not a little to the rapidity of his conquefts. But when one confiders, on the one hand, the extraordinary efforts of the Romans, under the conduct of their ableft generals, in order to make themfelves mafters of Spain, and, on the other, that this country was not entirely reduced when Cæfar made his first campaign in it, we are tempted to think, that there muft have been fome very particular reafons, which occafioned fo long a refiftance. Several Authors have imagined, that Spain was at that time much more populous than Gaul, and confequently beyond all comparifon more fo than it is at prefent. They have made the number of its inhabitants to amount to thirty million, and on this ground have accounted for the difficulty which the Romans found in fubduing it. The celebrated Mr. Hume has already fhewn the miftake of fome modern Authors, who have magnified the populoufnefs of thofe ancient times; and Strabo has contradicted Polybius in regard to the abfurd ftory, which he relates with great gravity, of Gracchus having deftroyed no less than three hundred cities in Celtiberia. The great armies, which fmall countries raifed, have led thefe Writers into their mistake. They did not confider, that when once fuch armies were defeated, they appeared no more, which fhews plainly that they were compofed of the whole nation. Were we, at prefent, to fend into the field from the fmalleft of our provinces, all the inhabitants of a certain age, and fit to bear arms, they would compofe a much more numerous army than any of those that are mentioned by the antients. This fingle circumstance, therefore, if duly attended to, muft leffen our wonder at thefe emigrations from the North, during the declension of the Roman empire, and fhews plainly that there is no foundation for the opinion that the numbers of mankind are leffened in modern times. There were in Spain feveral tribes fcattered up and down the country, which had their particular forms of government, their particular interefts, laws and cuftoms. Their frontiers were not contiguous; great mountains and barren heaths feparated them from each other. It was not fafe to live in the open country, on account of the bands of thieves and robbers which continually infefted it, and obliged the inhabitants to take refuge in fortified caftles or cities. Such is the idea which antient writers give us of Spain. Strabo, who of all the writers of antiquity, was beft acquainted with this country, affirms that all its opulence and fertility was confined to Boica and An dalufia, the most populous and beft known provinces of all an tient Iberia. In Gaul, on the contrary, the tribes were much more numerous, and lived more in fociety. Their active and enterprizing character led them to form alliances and confederacies, according to their respective inclinations and political views, fo that when Cæfar invaded this country he had numerous armies to combat, and great difficulties to furmount; for no fooner was one petty ftate reduced to fubjection, than another took up arms. Thefe difficulties, however, only raifed the ardour of Cæfar; he marched as it were from conqueft to conqueft, and recruited his army with levies from the neighbouring provinces of Gaul, making one conquered ftate furnish him with the means of conquering others. But the cafe was different in Spain; the most fignal victories in that country produced no other effect than the deftruction of the tribe that was defeated. The reft, feparated from it by mountains, and widely-extended heaths, remained in tranquillity, and unconcerned about the event. When motives of avarice determined the Romans to carry war into a remote province, they were obliged to think of the fubfiftence of their troops, the fcarcity of the country they left behind them, the roads, &c. In a word, the advantages arifing from the defeat of an enemy were feldom proportioned to the inconveniences and loffes attending it. These reasons having obliged the Romans to relinquish their project of reducing Spain by force of arms, they had recourfe to policy, availed themselves, with great dexterity, of the internal troubles which almoft continually agitated the inhabitants of that country, and made ufe of the affiftance of one petty ftate to enable them to ruin another. After all, they never thought themselves fo firmly established as to venture on depriving the inhabitants of their rights and liberties, and though they joined the mcft refined policy to the most extenfive power, by fomenting divifions among the different ftates, by fettling new colonies in the best cultivated parts of the country, and by endeavouring to introduce their language and their customs by infenfible degrees, almost two hundred years elapsed before they were able to reduce Spain to entire fubjection. It appears to me, therefore, concludes our Author, that the difficulties which the Romans met with in this conqueft, are rather to be attributed to local circumftances, and to the uncultivated ftate of the country than to the number of its inhabitants. The fame obftacles likewife retarded the progrefs and the victories of the Moors in the eighth century. There are fome other notes annexed to this ninth section of our Author's work, which we could with pleasure infert, particularly one concerning the knowledge which the Romans had of geography; but we must not enlarge. The third volume is introduced with the hiftory of Cæfar's legions, and contains many pertinent obfervations, which throw light on feveral parts of the Roman history, particularly on the war between Cæfar and Pompey. The hiftory of Cæfar's legions is followed by a chronological differtation, the defign of which is to afcertain the dates of feveral public tranfactions, and military events, during the four years immediately preceding the reformation of the Calendar. This differtation is followed by a journal of the principal events during the civil war between Cæfar and Pompey. The confufion that prevailed in the Roman year at this time is well known, and therefore those who are defirous of having an accurate view of the public tranfactions of this bufy period will think themselves under obligations to our Author for the great pains he has taken to throw light upon fuch a fubject, 'tho' little interefting indeed to the generality of readers. The third volume concludes with a tranflation of the Cefti of Julius Africanus, a work frequently mentioned both by ancient and modern writers, but never (that we can recollect) tranflated before into any language. Some fragments of it, from three manufcripts, two of which were found in the King's library, and one in Colbert's, were publifhed at Paris in 1693, by the learned Thevenot, in his collection of the works of the Greek mathematicians; but the text was fo corrupted, and mutilated, that the editor did not attempt a translation of it, and it is the only treatise in his collection that appears without a translation. Our Author purchased a Greek manufcript of the work in Holland, which he thinks belonged to the learned Meibomius, and from the marginal notes and corrections of which, together with those of M. Baivin, he acknowledges that he received confiderable affiftance in his translation. Julius Africanus was a native of Syria, and flourished in the third century, under the reign of the Emperor Alexander Severus, to whom Eufebius tells us he dedicated part of his works. He acquired a confiderable degree of reputation by five books of chronology, wherein he gave an account of the most memorable events from the creation of the world to the times in which he lived, in a regular feries. This work is loft, but it is well known that Eufebius, Syncellus, Theophanes, Cedrenus, and other chronologifts have frequently copied it. His Cefti confifts of nine books, wherein he treats of a great variety of fubjects-geography, hiftory, geometry, natural philofophy, medicine, war, agriculture, &c. fometimes giving his readers his own ideas, and that with very little accuracy or method, and frequently nothing but extracts from other writers. Our Author has only tranflated what relates to the art of war among the ancients, with a few extracts from the other parts of the work, The The fourth volume contains a defence of our Author's Mili E have been defired to communicate to our philofophical and W learned Readers the following Literary Intelligence, from Copenhagen; extracted from a paper tranfmitted to us, containing At that meeting, the prize for the best folution of the Mathema. The prize for the fecond Mathematical Queftion, relative to the In Mathematics :-To determine the true Path of a Cannon Ball er In Phyfics:-To explain the Genefis or Origin of the Nitrous Acid, In History: bether the Number of the Inhabitants in Denmark and The prize for the bell Memoir on each of thefe fubjects confists INDEX B. |