never grudged even the Carthaginians a market. It threw
them into the occupation of the demagogue, making them spend their
lives, when not engaged in war, in the intrigues of political factions,
the turbulence of public elections, the excitement of lawsuits. They
were the first to discover that the privilege of interpreting laws is
nearly equal to that of making them; and to this has been rightly
attributed their turn for jurisprudence, and the prosperity of advocates
among them. The disappearance of the hireling class was the immediate
cause of the downfall of the republic and the institution of the empire,
for the aristocracy were left without any antagonist, and therefore
without any restraint. They broke up into factions, involving the
country in civil war by their struggles with each other for power.

[Sidenote: The war system.]

The political maxims of the republic, for the most part, rejected the
ancient system of devastating a vanquished state by an instant,
unsparing, and crushing plunder, which may answer very well where the
tenure is expected to be brief, but does not accord with the formula
subdue, retain, advance. Yet depopulation was the necessary incident.
Italy, Sicily, Asia Minor, Gaul, Germany, were full of people, but they
greatly diminished under Roman occupation. Her maxims were capable of
being realized with facility through her military organization,
particularly that of the legion. In some nations colonies are founded
for commercial purposes, in others for getting rid of an excess of
population: the Roman colony implies the idea of a garrison and an
active military intent. Each legion was, in fact, so constructed as to
be a small but complete army. In whatever country it might be encamped,
it was in quick communication with the head-quarters at Rome; and this
not metaphorically, but materially, as was shown by the building of the
necessary military roads. The idea of permanent occupation, which was
thus implied, did not admit the expediency of devastating a country,
but, on the contrary, led to the encouragement of provincial prosperity,
because the greater the riches the greater the capacity for taxation.
Such principles were in harmony with the conditions of solidity and
security of the Roman power, which proverbially had not risen in a
single day--was not the creation of a single fortunate soldier, but
represented the settled policy of many centuries. In the act of conquest
Rome was inhuman;