CHAP. XIII.: Of armed Slaves.

THE danger of arming slaves is not so great in monarchies as in republics. In the former, a warlike people and a body of nobility are a sufficient check upon these armed slaves; whereas, the pacific members of a republic would have a hard task to quell a set of men, who, having offensive weapons in their hands, would find themselves a match for the citizens.

The Goths, who conquered Spain, spread themselves over the country, and soon became very weak. They made three important regulations: they abolished an ancient custom which prohibited intermarriages with the Law of the Visigoths, lib. 3. tit. 1. §. 1. ^†537 Romans; they enacted that all the freedmen Ibid. lib. 5. tit. 17. §. 20. ^†538, belonging to the fiscus, should serve in war, under penalty of being reduced to slavery; and they ordained that each Goth should arm, and bring into the field, the tenth part Ibid. lib. 9. tit. 2. §. 9. ^†539 of his slaves. This was but a small proportion: besides, these slaves, thus carried to the field, did not form a separate body;