Principles of western civilisation

vi THE ASCENDENCY OF THE PRESENT 177

freedman, the foreigner, or even the dependent ally, obtain citizenship by residence or even by birth in the land.”* At the beginning of the Peloponnesian war the slave population of Attica is put by Beloch,? in a moderate estimate, at 100,000, as against a free population of 135,000. The conditions were the same in Rome. The citizenship of the Roman City-State was a privilege long jealously guarded ; and the extensions of the franchise which were eventually made came, as we have seen, only with the ebbing vitality of the principles upon which the State had been founded. Probably at no time did the free populations of the entire Roman empire outnumber the slaves. Estimating from the Roman census of 684, Mommsen puts the free population of

1 History of Federal Government, (Greek Federations), by E. A. Freeman, vol. i. c. ii.

* Bevilkerung. Cf. Fowler’s City-State of the Greeks and Romans, c. vi. Beloch’s estimate is the most moderate of those recently made in which the subject has been carefully considered. Wallon, after an examination of the conditions of Attica about this period, gives the following detailed estimate :—

Nous trouvons donc en récapitulant :—

Esclaves domestiques 6 4 é 3 : 5 40,000 Esclaves agricoles . 5 z : ‘ 3 ; 35,000 Esclaves des mines . 5 ; 5 5 é 5 10,000

Esclaves employés dans Vindustrie, le commerce et la navigation ‘ : : a ¢ 3 0 90,000 Enfants au-dessous de 12 ans pour 40,000 femmes . 20,000 Vieillards au-dessus de 70 ans . . : , : 6,000 Total 5 a 4 3 d + 201,000

Non compris les esclaves publics, parmi lesquels 1200 archers scythes. A quoi il faut joindre la population libre :Athéniens 5 . 5 ‘ : A ; F 67,000 Méteques 0 : : 5 : 2 : ; 40,000 En tout, de 308,000 A 310,000 habitants (Azstozre de PEsclavage dans P Antiquaté, par H, Wallon, t. i. c. viii.)

* With the growth of luxury in Rome the employment of slaves greatly increased. ‘Ce qui résulte aussi, je pense, de l’impression des témoignages que nous avons réunis, c’est que Vemploi de ces esclaves était beaucoup plus répandu chez les Romains que chez les Grecs, dans la classe aisée (Histoire de V Esclavage dans I’ Antiquité, t. ii. c. iii.