23.19. 19. Of the Depopulation of the Globe.
All these little republics
were swallowed up in a large one, and the globe insensibly became
depopulated: in order to be convinced of this, we need only consider the
state of Italy and Greece before and after the victories of the Romans.
"You will ask me," says Livy,
[30]
"where the Volsci could find
soldiers to support the war, after having been so often defeated. There
must have been formerly an infinite number of people in those countries,
which at present would be little better than a desert, were it not for a
few soldiers and Roman slaves."
"The Oracles have ceased," says Plutarch, "because the places where
they spoke are destroyed. At present we can scarcely find in Greece
three thousand men fit to bear arms."
"I shall not describe," says Strabo,
[31]
"Epirus and the adjacent
places, because these countries are entirely deserted. This
depopulation, which began long ago, still continues; so that the Roman
soldiers encamp in the houses they have abandoned." We find the cause of
this in Polybius, who says that Paulus milius, after his victory,
destroyed seventy cities of Epirus, and carried away a hundred and fifty
thousand slaves.
Footnotes
