Note 001
The abbé Dubos, who, with less genius than his successor Montesquieu, has asserted and magnified the influence of climate, objects to himself the degeneracy of the Romans and Batavians. To the first of these examples he replies,

1. That the change is less real than apparent, and that the modern Romans prudently conceal in themselves the virtues of their ancestors.
2. That the air, the soil, and the climate of Rome have suffered a great and visible alteration, (Reflexions sur la Poesie et sur la Peinture, part ii. sect. 16.)

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Extra note by the Rev. H. H. Milman 1782 (Written), 1845 (Revised)
This question is discussed at considerable length in Dr. Arnold's History of Rome, ch. xxiii. See likewise Bunsen's Dissertation on the Aria Cattiva Roms Beschreibung, pp. 82, 108.

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The History Of The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire —Fall In The East —Chapter 69