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Montesquieu's Considerations of the Causes of the Grandeur and Decadence of the Romans
Montesquieu's Considerations of the Causes of the Grandeur and Decadence of the Romans Author:Charles de Secondat Montesquieu Subtitle: A New Translation, Together With an Introduction, Critical and Illustrative Notes, and an Analytical Index: by Jehu Baker ... General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1889 Original Publisher: D. Appleton and company Subjects: Rome History / Ancient / Rome Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of th... more »e original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: NOTE BY THE TRANSLATOR. I. The burning of Rome by the Gauls is referred to the year 365 of the city. It seems however that it was not wholly burnt. The Gauls, at least in the beginning of their occupancy, which is represented as extending to " many months," appear to have proceeded tentatively in the application of the torch -- reserving a part of the town as a means of influencing the Capital and the Citadel to capitulate. These, together with " the temples of the gods " were at all events saved. Yet, the destruction was so great, that a powerful party, headed by the tribunes, is said to have favored the abandonment of Rome, and the transfer of its people to Veii, which had been acquired by the Romans a few years before -- a measure which seems to have been agitated to some extent even before the burning of the city, and which was now effectually opposed by the superior influence of Camillus.1 The cause which is assigned for this Gallic invasion, and the resulting disaster to the city of Bome, shows that the Gauls, at this early period -- 388 years 1 See Livy, Book V., cbs. 39-55, Spillau's trans., N. T., 1871. before Christ -- had no mean idea of some of the principles of International Law. Three Roman brothers, bearing the name of Fabius, had been sent to them in the character of embassadors, for the purpose of interceding in behalf of the Clusians, an Etrurian people whom the Se...« less