in the census, but neither entitled to vote or hold office; 4. nonLatin communities with varying rights depending on treaties or Roman decrees. The third of these classes disappeared about the time of Hannibal's wars, being either granted full citizenship or entirely deprived of it. In after time the Roman franchise was more and more sparingly conferred. With the extension of Roman power throughout Italy there was neither direct administration of local affairs by officers appointed at Rome, except prefects named by the praetor for Roman colonies, nor representation of the different cities and states in the central government at Rome. Neither did Rome exercise the power of direct taxation in the conquered districts, but the institutions of the various communities were moulded into accord with those of Rome, and local government was administered by local authority. Those persons and communities enjoying full citizenship might exercise it as members of the tribes and centuries at Rome, but not through any system of representation. The struggle between the different orders, through which the plebs gained the power to make laws, had no permanent effect tending to improve the situation of the poor and middle classes. The differentiation of rich from poor went on during the period of Rome's great successes with constantly increasing speed. The poison of slavery, fostered and perpetuated by successful wars through which the slave market was constantly supplied, lay at the foundation of the industrial and commercial system. The burdens of war fell mainly on the small farmers. The privileged classes extended their possessions and pastured their herds and flocks on the public lands wrested from newly subjugated people. The earnings, of slaves bought more slaves for the rich, while competition with slave labor and the extortions of usurers, who multiplied with great rapidity, placed the small farmer or tradesman between the upper and nether millstone. From the multitude of ruined farmers and traders and their descendants, recruited by freedmen, there was developed that vast mass of poor and dependent citizens, for whose benefit the senate deemed it wise to provide cheap bread and amusements. The gains of the common people in the

system of government were theoretical, while the aristocracy seized, exercised and retained an increased measure of power. With the extension of the field of operation of the armies changes in the military system were inevitable. Whereas, in the early days an army was made up of the citizens commanded by a consul, going forth to fight some near enemy during a brief campaign and then returning to the ordinary peaceful avocations, distant campaigns required longer terms of service and rendered it impracticable to recall and disband the army within the year of service of the consul. It therefore became the practice to extend the command of the consuls. engaged in distant wars beyond the year, and, in place of a citizen soldiery equipped at their individual expense, it became necessary to have paid legions. With the multiplication of distant provinces, requiring the presence of armies to protect the frontier and repress insurrections, proconsuls were appointed and continued in command for such periods as the senate determined. For the administration of the law districts were established, to each of which a prefect was sent, who was a judicial officer at the head of the civil administration of the law. Strictly local affairs were everywhere subject to municipal authority in the cities and Roman colonies, and local customs were not disturbed, except for strong reasons. Alliances were formed with native rulers, wherever the interests of Rome could be advanced thereby, and the settled foreign policy was expressed by the maxim, "divide and rule." To this end republican Rome did not hesitate to ally itself with kings and arbitrary rulers, wherever such alliances appeared useful in its struggle with an aristocracy like that of Carthage. With the extension of Roman power the possessions of the patricians and wealthy plebeians were extended, and their estates spread, not only over newly acquired districts in Italy, but into distant provinces. The money lenders also followed in the wake of the armies, wherever the authority of praetor and prefect could be depended on to enforce the payment of usury. With the administration of government in distant provinces inhabited by alien people, that high sense of public duty and strictness of integrity for which the

early Romans were distinguished disappeared, and officials returned to Rome with vast wealth extorted from them. These evils became so great, that in 149 B.C. a special court was established for the trial of cases of official extortion in the provinces, the jurisdiction of which was subsequently extended to cases of treason and bribery. The ancient system of serving the state in all public stations without pay, though still continued at home, thus had engrafted on it a most corrupt and corrupting system of public service in the provinces.

Under the constitution above described, with the theoretical power of lawmaking and election of officers in the hands of the common people, but the actual direction of affairs in the senate, the power of Rome was extended throughout Italy, the Punic wars were waged and Carthage destroyed in 146 B.C. As incident to the struggle with Carthage Sicily and Spain were reduced to Roman provinces, and on its final destruction its territory was also ruled directly from Rome. Toward the east Rome did not at first seek to establish a political dominion, but sought alliances and commercial relations. The encouragement given the Carthaginians under Hannibal by the king of Macedon led to war, first with Philip and afterward with his son Perseus, resulting in his total defeat and capture by Aemilius Paulus 168 B.C., but Macedon was not reduced to a Roman province till 146 B.C. The first appearance of the Romans in Greece was as friends and allies against Macedon, and on the first overthrow of the Macedonian power the Greeks were liberated to their great delight, but their internal dissensions soon led to the establishment of the usual provincial system.

With the rapid extension of Roman power on the three continents came a correspondingly rapid development of social disorders. The Roman republic had been developed as a municipal system for the protection and well being of a comparatively small state. Its first extensions of influence were over other cities, similarly organized, to which substantial equality was accorded; but with the rapid extension of empire Rome as a central power dictated to the known world. It was no longer an association of freemen, differing somewhat

in rank, but closely allied in interest and sentiment, but a city containing a vast mixed population, drawn from many nations, most of whom were poor, ignorant and brutal, and a numerous aristocracy of great wealth, despising all labor and laborers. Avarice and greed of power became the ruling passions of the nobility. The proconsuls and prefects, who returned after the exercise of ill-defined and unrestrained powers in the provinces, despised the rabble of the city, and were impatient of the authority of the senate. Ill-gotten gains were lavished, when occasion required, to corrupt the multitude, and mercenary legions ceased to have the feelings or the interests of the ancient citizen soldiery, but followed their favorite leaders without regard to law or justice. Moral debasement of Roman society preceded the disorders which resulted in the overthrow of the republic. The efforts of the Gracchi to curb the power of the rich and afford relief to the multitude, were not productive of permanent results, and cost them their lives. Marius, though one of the common people and six times chosen consul by them, was a soldier, and at last he swept away the ancient system of organization of the legions and substituted voluntary enlistment for compulsory levy. The revolt of the Italians resulting in the social war, which occurred 90 B.C., was the beginning of those disorders which finally resulted in the empire. The legions under Sulla and the grant of the Roman franchise to citizens of allied communities domiciled in Italy overcame the resistance in the provinces, but Sulla returned to Rome at the head of his legions, and for the first time in the history of the city public measures were dictated and carried by military power. The substitution of violence for the ancient peaceful vote evidenced the decay of patriotism, and soon after Sulla's departure for Asia at the head of his legions the new citizens, who sought to exercise the franchises bestowed on them, were attacked in the forum by an armed force, acting under orders of the consul Octavius, and great numbers of them slain. In place of the government of law there had come the sway of military power.

From the ascendency of Sulla to that of Caesar the military

leaders ruled in fact, using constitutional forms only as a means of acquiring arbitrary powers. In the early period of the development of military rule the leaders sought independent commands in the great provinces, by which they became in fact dictators over vast territories, supported in the exercise of unlimited powers by Roman troops. Having become accustomed to the exercise of unrestrained power abroad, they did not brook constitutional restraints at home. Sulla gained the command in Asia by the aid at Rome of the legions he commanded in the Social war. After his departure Cinna and Marius returned with their armed followers to wreak vengeance on their enemies and overawe the senate. Sulla on his return from Asia crushed his adversaries and barbarously murdered great numbers. The outbreak in 73 B.C. under Spartacus and the conspiring of Catiline were but evidences of the decay of constitutional government. The senate, though led by so brilliant an orator as Cicero, had lost its moral ascendency, and adopted the low expedient of calling on one usurper to put down another. Pompey's power and ambition developed in the command of Spain, followed by a dictatorship over the Mediterranean Sea and its coasts for the extirpation of piracy. The alliance of Caesar, Crassus and Pompey resulted in the confirmation of Pompey's power in Asia and a five years' lease of power to Caesar in Gaul and Illyricum. In 55 B.C. Caesar's command was renewed for another five years. Pompey received Spain and Africa and Crassus, Syria. On his return in 49 and the flight of Pompey Caesar assumed the whole power. The government had been in a stage of transition for half a century, but it was not of the kind that had gone on during the prior history of the state. There was comparatively little agitation of theories of government, of rights of classes, or of official powers. Military leaders sought great commands, and having gained them perpetuated and extended their power by the use of the legions. under them. It was a mere exercise of usurped authority, backed by military force accustomed to obey the leaders' commands. There was no independent and vigorous force in the state, competent to formulate and maintain anything like a