w in conquest a means of
securing the honors of the triumph and the surest instrument for
making themselves popular. The most powerful statesmen in Rome,
Papirius, Fabius, the two Scipios, Cato, Marius, Sulla, Pompey, Caesar,
and Crassus, were victorious generals. The nobles who composed the
Senate gained by the increase of Roman subjects, and with these they
allied themselves as governors to receive their homage and their
presents. For the knights--that is to say, the bankers, the merchants,
and the contractors--every new conquest was a new land to exploit. The
people itself profited by the booty taken from the enemy. After the
treasure of the king of Macedon was deposited in the public chest,
taxes were finally abolished. As for the soldiers, as soon as war was
carried into rich lands, they received immense sums from their
general, to say nothing of what they took from the vanquished. The
Romans conquered the world less for glory than for the profits of
war.

EFFECTS OF ROMAN CONQUEST

=The Empire of the Roman People.=--Rome subjected all the lands around
the Mediterranean from Spain to Asia Minor. These countries were not
annexed, their inhabitants did not become citizens of Rome, nor their
territory Roman territory. They remained aliens entering simply into
the Roman empire, that is, under the domination of the Roman people.
In just the same way today the Hindoos are not citizens but subjects
of England; India is a part, not of England, but of the British
Empire.

=The Public Domain.=--When a conquered people asked peace, this is the
formula which its deputies were expected to pronounce: "We surrender
to you the people, the town, the fields, the waters, the gods of the
boundaries, and movable property; all things which belonged to the
gods and to men we deliver to the power of the Roman people." By this
act, the Roman people became the proprietor of everything that the
vanquished possessed, even of their persons. Sometimes it sold the
inhabitants into slavery: AEmilius Paullus sold 150,000 Epeirots who
surrendered to him. Ordinarily Rome left to the conquered their
liberty, but their territory was incorporated into the _domain of the
Roman people_. Of this land three equal parts were made:

1. A part of their lands was returned to the people, but on
condition that they pay a tribute in money or in grain, and Rome
reserved the right of recalling the land at will.

2. The fields and pastures were farm