The Romans, by destroying
others, were themselves destroyed: incessantly in action, in the heat of
battle, and in the most violent attempts, they wore out like a weapon
kept constantly in use.
I shall not here speak of the attention with which they applied
themselves to procure citizens in the room of those they lost,
[32]
of the associations they entered into, the privileges they bestowed, and of
that immense nursery of citizens, their slaves. I shall mention what
they did to recruit the number, not of their citizens, but of their men;
and as these were the people in the world who knew best how to adapt
their laws to their projects, an examination of their conduct in this
respect cannot be a matter of indifference.
