Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/264

 246 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, be formed, of servants, of artificers, and of merchants, ' who derive their subsistence from their own labour, and from the wants or luxury of the superior ranks. In less than a century, Constantinople disputed with Rome itself the preeminence of riches and numbers. New piles of buildings, crowded together with too little re- gard to health or convenience, scarcely allowed the in- tervals of narrow streets for the perpetual throng of men, of horses, and of carriages. The allotted space of ground was insufficient to contain the increasing people; and the additional foundations, which, on either side, were advanced into the sea, might alone have com- posed a very considerable city *. 'iivileges. The frequent and regular distributions of wine and oil, of corn or bread, of money or provisions, had almost exempted the poorer citizens of Rome from the neces- sity of labour. The magnificence of the first Csesars was in some measure imitated by the founder of Con- stantinople": but his liberality, however it might ex- cite the applause of the people, has incurred the cen- sure of posterity. A nation of legislators and con- querors might assert their claim to the harvests of Africa, which had been purchased with their blood ; » and it was artfully contrived by Augustus, that, in the enjoyment of plenty, the Romans should lose the me- mory of freedom. But the prodigality of Constantine could not be excused by any consideration either of public or private interest; and the annual tribute of corn imposed upon Egypt for the benefit of his new capital, was applied to feed a lazy and insolent popu- lace, at the expense of the husbandmen of an indus- ' The passages of Zosimus, of Eunapius, of Sozomen, and of Agathias, which relate to the increase of buildings and inhabitants at Constantinople, are collected and connected by Gyllius de Byzant. 1. i. c. 3. Sidonius Apollinaris (in Panegyr. Anthem. 56. p. 290. edit. Sirmond) describes the moles that were pushed forwards into the sea: they consisted of the famous Puzzolan sand, which hardens in the water. ™ Sozomen, 1. ii. c. 3 ; Philostorg. 1. ii. c. 9 ; Codin. Antiquitat. Const, p. 8. It appears by Socrates, (1. ii. c. 13.) that the daily allowance of the city consisted of eight myriads of airov, which we may either translate with Valesius by the words mudii of corn, or consider as expressive of the num- ber of loaves of bread.