*  Perseus  larfired  his  captivity  four  yean.  He  was  confined  at  Alba  by  order
of  the  senate,  after  having  graced  the  triomph  of  his  conqueror,— the  moat  magnificent
spectacle,  according  to  the  historian,  that  Home  had  ever  seen  (Liv.  zlr.  39).  His
wife  and  children  accompanied  him  on  that  humiliating  occasion ;  and  of  the  latter,
two  sons  and  a  daughter,  one  only  is  farther  mentioned  in  history,  Alexander,  the
youngest  boy.  After  his  father's  death,  the  jealoos  caution  of  the  Romans  con-
demned him  to  the  humble  trade  of  a  carpenter ;  but,  his  penmanship  recommending
him  to  notice,  be  became  secretary,  or  clerk,  to  the  senate.  In  his  person  the  line  of
Antigonns,  and  collaterally  of  the  royal  house  of  Maoedoa— the  damus  ?$Uma^
0zpiredt


456


Greece  under  the  Romans.
[October,


we  shall  be  at  no  Ices  for  cauBes  to
account  for  that  decline  of  prosperity
which  our  author  would  seek  in  a
mj^stical  theory  of  benevolence,  con*
jomed  with  the  pressure  of  external
calamities.
The  short  section  on  the  "  Treat-
ment of  Greece  after  the  Ck>nque8t**
we  shall  give  at  length,  because  with
it  our  observations  on  this  portion  of
the  history  must  close : —

"  The  Romans  generally  commenced
by  treating  their  proTinces  with  mildDesi.
The  goTermneot  of  Sicily  Mr  as  arranged
on  a  basis  which  certainly  did  not  aug-
ment the  burdens  on  the  inhabitants.
