be forgotten." How lavish the old world is, of such inscriptions upon stone, we learn sufficiently from examples here and there to be met with.

Such a monument is there consecrated to preserving the remembrance of almost every important or extraordinary affair. We meet with some passages in the Bible which cannot otherwise be understood.2 Other authors speak much of the written or inscribed mountain in the desert of Sinai, called, Djebel el Mokatab. From whomsoever these inscriptions may have originated, they ever remain as a proof of the antiquity of the custom of writing on stone. J. D. Michaelis has sufficiently shown that cannot be otherwise explained. David during his wanderings about, had occasion enough for engraving such poems on the rocks, or of procuring them to be thus engraved; and in a happy way we can thus find the date of all the Psalms before which 2 stands, in this period of David's life.

In general, I do not see why interpreters are so fond of discovering musical instruments in the superscriptions of the Psalms. But a few actually contain any thing of the kind; and but a very few, definite instruments. The names negiloth, machaloth etc., are, as I have already shown, general names; and the single names that occur, such as , and others, bring us in our conclusions to particular circumstances rather than to instruments. The same holds true of the word n which is the superscription of David's elegy on the deaths of Jonathan and Saul.5 Fully of this opinion, not merely in this case, but

1 In Hebrew it is a well known rule, that impersonals are expressed by the second person.

22 Kings 23: 17. Gen. 35: 10,

and

3 Harmer's Observations, Th. II. p. 132. [Vol. III. p. 59 seq. ed. Lond. 1808.] Niebuhr is the latest writer. See his Beschreib. von Arabien. [Also his Reisebeschr. Th. I. p. 231, 243, 249, etc.] Compare therewith Michaelis' notice, Oriental. Bibl. Th. VII. p. 27; what is farther said, Th. VIII. p. 1; also, Henr. Aug. Zeibich. Progr. quo Gebel el Mokatab animo contemplatur. Gera, 1778. An extract from the latter is to be found in the Beurtheilung und Anzeige kleiner acad. Schriften, B. II. p. 195.

4 Critisches Collegium ueber die drey wichtigsten Psalmen von Christo. See also Harmer, Part. II. p. 142. [Comp. Vol. III. p. 151, ed. Lond. 1808.]

5 2 Sam. I.

also in regard to other words, I concur with what Harmer1 says of the superscriptions of Arabic and Persian poems, and what Sir Wm. Jones, whose words I quote below, still farther con

firms.

Many of these superscriptions must evidently be received as of modern date, of which, however, I will not here speak; as it is a question upon which Sonntag and Irhov have very copiously treated. There is the most to be found in a small compass in the deceased Vogel's dissertation on this subject.3

ARTICLE IV.

ROMAN SLAVERY IN THE EARLY CENTURIES OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA.

By the Editor.

Various definitions are given by the Roman and other writers of the word servus. Scaliger derives it from servando, because the slave preserves or guards the property of his master. Slaves are denominated servi, says the code of Justinian, from the verb servare, to preserve; for it is the practice of our generals to sell their captives; being accustomed to preserve and not to

1 Loc. c. p. 170, Th. II. [Vol. III. p. 146, seq. Lond. 1808.]

2 "Inscribitur hoc poema n, sive arcus; more Asiaticorum, qui ea carmina, quibus praecipue delectantur, inscriptione brevi, et de versu quodam insigniori desumpta denotari solent. Sic percelebratum carmen poetae Cab ben Zoheir vocitatur modo Securitas, modo Bânat Soâd, propterea, quod hoc habeat initium: Abiit amica mea Soâd etc. Sic Alcorani capita inscribuntur.-Interdum etiam peruagata carmina, quae memoriter identidem recitari solent, nomine ad argumentum accommodato inscribunt. Velut illa in historia Antarae et Ablae, quibus mater occisum filium deflet, et cives suos Beni Badr ad propugnandum impellit, inscripta sunt ab Arabibus, Dolorum solatia. p. 269. ed. Eichh.

3 It shows: "Inscriptiones Psalmoram serius demum additas videri." Halle, 1767.

destroy them. Slaves are also called Mancipia, a manu capere, in that they are taken by the hand of the enemy. Just. Lib. I. Tit. 3. The origin of the word servus, says Augustin, de Civit. Lib. XIX. ch. 15, is understood to be derived from the fact that prisoners, who by the laws of war, might have been put to death, were preserved by the victors, and made slaves. Servus est nomen, says Seneca, Ep. 32. ex injuria natum. Servi, servitia, and mancipia, are frequently used as convertible terms. The term for a slave born and bred in the family was verna.

In respect to the comparative number of the slaves and the free citizens of Rome, we have not sufficient data on which to found a correct judgment. We may agree with Niebuhr in doubting the accuracy of the older censuses, which were taken at Rome. The Romans, in the early periods of their history, rarely or ever acted as menial servants in the city. Niebuhr thinks that mechanical occupations were not lawful for plebeians. Yet in the country, they willingly performed agricultural labor. Lipsius admits the probability of there being as many slaves as freemen, or rather more, within Rome, in its most populous times. After the influx of wealth, which followed the foreign conquests, the number of slaves must have been greatly enlarged. Polybius, Hist. ch. II. estimates the forces, which the Romans and their allies could bring into the field, between the first and second Punic wars, at 770,000 men. This enumeration, however, implying a total free class of 3,080,000, and an equal amount of slave population, is much larger than seems consistent with the state of Italy at that time. The number of citizens returned to Augustus at the 72nd lustrum, A. U. C. 745, as appears from the monument of Ancyra, was 4,163,000. At the 73d lustrum, the number was over 4,000,000. In the 74th lustrum, in the reign of Claudius, A. D. 48, the citizens amounted to 6,944,000, of whom, probably, but a small proportion consisted of persons out of Italy. If we allow two slaves to each Roman, an average below that of some Grecian cities, we should not in that case, take into the account, those slaves who were the property of the various orders of freedmen, or those who belonged to other slaves. Rich citizens were very extensive owners of slaves, kept both for luxury and profit, as domestics or artizans in town, and as laborers on the vast estates

1 Aristotle's definition of a slave, was applicable to Italy, Polit. I. 6. κτῆμα καὶ ὄργανον τοῦ δεσπότου ἔμψυχον.

in the provinces. Some rich individuals are said to have possessed 10,000, and even 20,000, of their fellow creatures. Seneca says, De Tran. Animi. ch. VIII. that Demetrius, the freedman of Pompey, was richer than his master. "Numerus illi quotidie servorum, velut imperatori exercitus referebatur." The slaves of Crassus formed a large part of his fortune. His architects and masons alone exceeded 500. Scaurus possessed above 4000 domestic, and as many rural slaves. In the reign of Augustus, a freedman, who had sustained great losses; during the civil wars, left 4116 slaves, besides other property. On one occasion, the family of Pedanius Secundus, prefect of Rome under Nero, was found to consist of 400 slaves. Tac. Ann. 14. 43, 66 quem numerus servorum tuebitur, cum quadringenti, etc.' When the wife of Apuleius gave up the lesser part of her estate to her son, 400 slaves formed one of the items surrendered. Slaves always composed a great part of the moveable property of individuals, and formed a chief article of ladies' dowries. A law passed by Augustus against the excessive manumission of slaves by testament, forbidding any one to bequeath liberty to more than one fifth of all his slaves, contains the following words, "Plures autem quam centum ex majori numero servorum manumitti non licet." We may hence infer that 500 was not an extraordinry number of slaves to be held by one owner. It was fashionable to go abroad attended by a large number of slaves. Horace, L. I. Sat. 3. v. 11, says "habebat sæpe ducentos, sæpe decem servos." Augustus prohibited exiles from carrying with them more than 20 slaves.3 Besides the domestic and agricultural slaves, were the gladiators, who were chiefly slaves, and who were extremely numerous at diferent periods. We may have some idea of the frequency and ferociousness with which these were exhibited from a restriction imposed by Augustus, who forbade magistrates to give shows of gladiators above twice in one year, or of more than 60 pairs at one time. Julius Cæsar exhibited at once 320 pairs. Trajan exhibited them for 123 days, in the course of which 10,000

1 Pignorius has enumerated 48 classes of rustic slaves, 40 of rustic or urban, 60 of urban, 66 of personal attendants, 15 of upper servants, 13 of nursery slaves, 130 of slaves of luxury, and 5 of military slaves, in all three hundred and twenty-five classes.

2 Hugo, Jus Civile Antejustinianeum, Vol. I. p. 157.

3 See Plin. Nat. Hist. 33. 47, 52, also 34. 6, and 35. 58.
VOL. VI. No. 20.
53

gladiators fought. The State and corporate bodies possessed considerable numbers. For example 600 were employed in guarding against fires in Rome. Chrysostom says that under Theodosius the Great, and Arcadius, some persons had 2000 or 3000 slaves. Synesius complains that every family of tolerable means kept Scythian slaves of luxury; and Ammianus Marcellinus informs us that luxurious ladies and great men used to have 400 or 500 servile attendants. From the time of Augustus to Justinian, we may allow three slaves to one freeman; we shall thus have a free population in Italy of 6,944,000, and of slaves 20,832,000,-total 27,776,000. "After weighing every circumstance which could influence the balance," says Gibbon, "it seems probable that there existed in the time of Claudius, about twice as many provincials as there were citizens, of either sex, and of every age; and that the slaves were at least equal in number to the free inhabitants of the Roman world. The total amount of this imperfect calculation would rise to about 120,000,000 of persons."

The different methods in which men became slaves were by war, commerce, the operation of law in certain cases, and by their birth.

1. Slaves acquired by war. In general, prisoners of war were sold immediately or as soon as possible, after their capture. If a subsequent treaty provided for their release, it would appear that a special law was passed, ordering the buyers of such slaves to give them up, on receiving from the treasury repayment of the original purchase money. Livy 42. 8, says in relation to the Ligurians, 10,000 of whom had surrendered themselves as prisoners, "At ille [consul] arma omnibus ademit oppidum diruit, ipsos bonaque eorum vendidit." As the senate were at the time deliberating about the treatment of them, "res visa atrox," and a decree was issued, annulling the previous sales, and compelling the respective purchasers to set the Ligurians free; but with restitution by the public of the prices which had been paid. Prisoners belonging to a revolted nation were, without exception in favor of voluntary surrender, sold

1 Publicos servos, Livy 9. 29.

2 The present population of Italy is between 16 and 17,000,000. See the Essay of Hume on the Populousness of Ancient Nations, Gibbon, Hist. Dec. and Fall, ch. 2. Blair's Inquiry into the State of Roman Slavery ch. I.