Reflections on the Rise and Fall of the Ancient Republicks Adapted to the Present State of Great Britain

Though there is a concurrence of several causes which bring on the ruin of a state, yet where luxury prevails, that parent of all our fantastick imaginary wants, ever craving an...

The republick of Athens, once the seat of learning and eloquence, the school of arts and sciences, and the centre of wit, gaiety, and politeness, exhibits a strong contrast to t...

All the free states of Greece were at first monarchical,[5] and seem to owe their liberty rather to the injudicious oppressions of their respective kings, than to any natural pr...

The origin of both these people seems alike to have been extremely low. Romulus, according to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, could form no more than three thousand foot and three h...

Of all the free states whose memory is preserved to us in history, Carthage bears the nearest resemblance to Britain, both in her commerce, opulence, sovereignty of the sea, and...

Dionysius of Halicarnassus observes,[303] that Romulus formed his new government in many respects after the model of that of Sparta, which accounts for that great resemblance, w...

insisted, that the troops sent to their assistance might no longer be composed of venal hirelings as before, but of native Athenians, animated with a zeal for the glory of their...

The accounts of the earlier ages of this ancient republick are so enveloped in fable, that we must rather apply for them to the poets than to the historians. Pausanias gives us...

Xenophon observes,[365] that if the Athenians, together with the sovereignty of the seas, had enjoyed the advantageous situation of an island, they might with great ease have gi...

Polybius remarks,[360] that the best form of government is that which is composed of a due admixture of monarchy, aristocracy and democracy. He affirms that his assertion may no...