Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/292

 274 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, provincial youth, might compensate the hardships and _^ '__ dangers of a mihtary Hfe. Yet, aUhough the stature was lowered ", although slaves, at least by a tacit con- nivance, were indiscriminately received into the ranks; the insurmountable difficulty of procuring a regular and adequate supply of volunteers, obliged the empe- rors to adopt more effectual and coercive methods. The lands bestowed on the veterans, as a free reward of their valour, were henceforwards granted under a condition, which contains the first rudiments of the feudal tenures ; that their sons, who succeeded to the inheritance, should devote themselves to the profession of arms, as soon as they attained the age of manhood; and their cowardly refusal was punished by the loss of honour, of fortune, or even of life". But as the annual growth of the sons of the veterans bore a very small proportion to the demands of the service, levies of men were frequently required from the provinces ; and every proprietor was obliged either to take up arms, or to procure a substitute, or to puxxhase his exemption by the payment of a heavy fine. The sum of forty-two pieces of gold, to which it was reduced, ascertains the exorbitant price of volunteers, and the reluctance with which the government admitted of this alternative^. Such was the horror for the profession of a soldier, which had affected the minds of the degenerate Ro- mans, that many of the youth of Italy and the pro- vinces chose to cut off the fingers of their right hand, to escape from being pressed into the service ; and this " Valentlnian (Cod. Thecdos. 1. vii. tit. xiii. leg. 3.) fixes the standard at five feet seven inches, about five feet four inches and a half English mea- sure. It had formerly been five feet ten inches, and in the best corps six Roman feet. Sed tunc erat araplior raultiludo, et plures sequebantur mi- litiam armatam. Vegetius de Re Militari, 1. i. c. 5. " See the two titles, De Veteranis and De Filiis Veteranorum, in the seventh book of the Theodosian Code. The age at which their military service was required, varied from twenty-five to sixteen. If the sons of the # veterans appeared with a horse, they had a right to serve in the cavalry ; H two horses gave them some valuable privileges. • y Cod. Theod. 1. vii. tit. xiii. leg. 7. According to the historian So- crates, (see Godefroy ad loc.) the same emperor Valens sometimes required i eighty pieces of gold for a recruit. In the following law it is faintly ex- ■ pressed, that slaves shall not be admitted inter optimas lectissimorum mili- ? turn turmas.