g stroke to that work. The several states of
modern Europe have all contributed, though in different degrees, to
political progress, and therefore no one of them has the unique
importance and glory that belongs to Rome. For the same reason, no
modern statesman stands on a level with Caesar. He remains, in
Shakespeare's phrase, "the foremost man of all this world." It was the
high fortune of Rome that, in the principal crisis of her history, she
possessed a citizen so splendidly endowed in intellect, character, and
heart. Free to an extraordinary degree from the prejudices belonging
to his age and country, with piercing and far-sweeping vision, he saw
as from some superior height, the political situation of his own time
in its relation to the past and the future of the ancient world. If
Rome had till then carried out the work of conquest with considerable
method, and upon the whole, with steadiness, she had very inadequately
satisfied the need for incorporation. Her oligarchical constitution,
admirably adapted for the first task, could not easily reconcile
itself to the second. In its best days, and while Carthage and Macedon
were still formidable, the Senate had from time to time, prudently
though grudgingly, extended the privilege of citizenship to some of
the subject Italian states. But the great mass of Italians had only
extorted it by rebellion during the boyhood of Caesar, and outside
Italy, the conquered nations were still on the footing of subject
allies, trampled upon and fleeced for the benefit of Rome, or rather
of the Roman nobles and capitalists. If the great dominion was to be
maintained in some tolerable degree of well-being for all its members,
or even maintained at all, it was absolutely necessary that the
so-called Republican constitution, always oppressive for the
provinces, and now shamefully corrupt, should be replaced by personal
government. For a complete incorporation of the subject peoples was
not to be expected from the suffrages of a dominant people, to even
the poorest of whom, it would mean the cessation of highly prized
privileges and immunities. The provinces would from the earliest
moment of their subjection have welcomed such a change. The time was
more than ripe for it when the Roman world lay at the feet of Sulla.
Sulla had all the ability, self-reliance, prestige, and opportunity
that were needed. But his moral nature was below the task. He had
neither the insight, nor the sympathy, nor