man
ideas. These Roman colonists, although they did not restore the lands and
buildings held by the expelled Samnites to their rightful owners, yet
lived on terms of amity with the Greek population, with whom they must
have freely intermarried. The original Hellenic inhabitants, relieved of
the bonds of servitude, were now placed on an equal footing with the new
colonists, partaking of political rights in the city thus freshly
re-created under the supremacy of Rome, and soon they grew to imitate the
speech and manners of their new masters, so that as an immediate result of
the expulsion of the barbaric Samnites and the entry of the progressive
Romans, Paestum began to recover a considerable portion of its ancient
splendour.

During the course of the second Punic War the name of Paestum is not
unfrequently mentioned in Roman annals, and owing its revived prosperity
to its annexation by Rome, it is not surprising to find the existence of a
strong feeling of gratitude amongst the inhabitants. At the date of fatal
Cannae this faithful Greek city sent assurances of unswerving allegiance to
the Senate, and also more substantial help in the form of all the golden
vessels from its temples. It was Paestum also that early in the third
century B.C. supplied part of the ill-fated fleet of Decius Quinctius,
that was raised to run the blockade of Tarentum. But even the loss of its
ships and men did not deter this loyal city from coming forward a second
time with expressions of fealty and promise of further aid to the great
suzerain city in this dark hour of its difficulties. From this point
onward till the close of the Republic, History is almost silent with
regard to Paestum; but its numerous coins go far to attest its continued
welfare, for it now shared, together with Venusia, Brundusium and Vibo
Valentia, a special right to strike money in its own name and with its own
devices. Under the Empire, Paestum managed to uphold its size and
importance, so that it became the capital of one of the eight Prefectures
into which the district of Lucania had been divided. At this period, there
can be no doubt, the surrounding plain was in the highest state of
cultivation, whilst its prolific rose-gardens--_biferi rosaria Paesti_--have
supplied the theme of every Roman poet from Vergil to Ausonius. Yet in
spite of its apparent prosperity, the seeds of coming decline had already
been sown. Strabo tells us that even in early Imperial days the city