nd political
changes in Rome at this period.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

ROMAN CIVILIZATION AT THE CLOSE OF THE THIRD PUNIC WAR, AND THE FALL OF
GREECE.

(M921) Rome was now the unrivaled mistress of the world. She had conquered
all the civilized States around the Mediterranean, or had established a
protectorate over them. She had no fears of foreign enemies. Her empire
was established.

Before we proceed to present subsequent conquests or domestic revolutions,
it would be well to glance at the political and social structure of the
State, as it was two hundred years before the Christian era, and also at
the progress which had been made in literature and art.

(M922) One of the most noticeable features of the Roman State at this
period was the rise of a new nobility. The patricians, when they lost the
exclusive control of the government, did not cease to be a powerful
aristocracy. But another class of nobles arose in the fifth century of the
city, and shared their power--those who had held curule offices and were
members of the Senate. Their descendants, plebeian as well as patrician,
had the privilege of placing the wax images of their ancestors in the
family hall, and to have them carried in funeral processions. They also
wore a stripe of purple on the tunic, and a gold ring on the finger. These
were trifling insignia of rank, still they were emblems and signs by which
the nobility were distinguished. The plebeian families, ennobled by their
curule ancestors, were united into one body with the patrician families,
and became a sort of hereditary nobility. This body of exclusive families
really possessed the political power of the State. The Senate was made up
from their members, and was the mainstay of Roman nobility. The equites,
or equestrian order, was also composed of the patricians and wealthy
plebeians. Noble youths gradually withdrew from serving in the infantry,
and the legionary cavalry became a closed aristocratic corps. Not only
were the nobles the possessors of senatorial privileges, and enrolled
among the equites, but they had separate seats from the people at the
games and at the theatres. The censorship also became a prop to the
stability of the aristocratic class.

(M923) We have some idea of the influence of the aristocracy from the
families which furnished the higher offices of the State. For three
centuries the consuls were chiefly chosen from powerful families. The