pear.

Apart from the neurosis from which she suffered, were it possible to
find an excuse for her conduct, the excuse would be Claud. The purple
which made Caligula mad, made him an idiot; and when in course of time
he was served with a succulent poison, there must have been many
conjectures in Rome as to what the empire would next produce.

The empire was extremely fecund, enormously vast. About Rome extended
an immense circle of provinces and cities that were wholly hers.
Without that circle was another, the sovereignty exercised over vassals
and allies; beyond that, beyond the Rhine on one side, were the
silenced Teutons; beyond the Euphrates on the other, the hazardous
Parthians, while remotely to the north there extended the enigmas of
barbarism; to the south, those semi-fabulous regions where geography
ceased to be.

Little by little, through the patience of a people that felt itself
eternal, this immensity had been assimilated and fused. A few
fortresses and legions on the frontiers, a stretch of soldiery at any
spot an invasion might be feared; a little tact, a maternal solicitude,
and that was all. Rome governed unarmed, or perhaps it might be more
exact to say she did not govern at all; she was the mistress of a
federation of realms and republics that governed themselves, in whose
government she was content, and from whom she exacted little, tribute
merely, and obeisance to herself. Her strength was not in the sword;
the lioness roared rarely, often slept; it was the fear smaller beasts
had of her awakening that made them docile; once aroused those indolent
paws could do terrible work, and it was well not to excite them. When
the Jews threatened to revolt, Agrippa warned them: "Look at Rome; look
at her well; her arms are invisible, her troops are afar; she rules,
not by them, but by the certainty of her power. If you rebel, the
invisible sword will flash, and what can you do against Rome armed,
when Rome unarmed frightens the world?"

The argument was pertinent and suggestive, but the secret of Rome's
ascendency consisted in the fact that where she conquered she dwelt.
Wherever the eagles pounced, Rome multiplied herself in miniature. In
the army was the nation, in the legion the city. Where it camped,
presto! a judgment seat and an altar. On the morrow there was a forum;
in a week there were paved avenues; in a fortnight, temples, porticoes;
in a month you felt yourself at home. Rome built with a magic