BY EDWARD W. MONTAGU, JUN.


PHILADELPHIA:
PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY C. P. WAYNE.
1806.


CONTENTS.

Page.
PREFACE,[i]
INTRODUCTION,[vii]
CHAP. I.OF THE REPUBLICKOF SPARTA[1]
CHAP. II. OF ATHENS[54]
CHAP. III. OF THEBES[127]
chap. iv. OF CARTHAGE[144]
chap. v. OF ROME[184]
chap. vi.OF THE REAL CAUSE OF THE RAPID
DECLENSION OF THE ROMAN
REPUBLICK
[249]
CHAP. VII.CARTHAGINIANS AND ROMANS
compared
[270]
CHAP. VIII.OF REVOLUTIONS IN MIXED
GOVERNMENTS
[311]
CHAP. IX.of the british constitution[322]

PREFACE

Plutarch takes notice of a very remarkable law of Solon’s,[1] “which declared every man infamous, who, in any sedition or civil dissension in the state, should continue neuter, and refuse to side with either party.” Aulus Gellius,[2] who gives a more circumstantial detail of this uncommon law, affirms the penalty to be “no less than confiscation of all the effects, and banishment of the delinquent.” Cicero mentions the same law to his friend Atticus,[3] and even makes the punishment capital, though he resolves at the same time not to conform to it under his present circumstances, unless his friend should advise him to the contrary.