THE VICES AND VIRTUES OF ROME 93 



the Etruscans, to keep off until (in the third century) 

 she was strong enough to conquer it. So, in a word, 

 Rome went on from conquest to conquest, and became 

 the last great world-empire of the old era. The 

 history must be read elsewhere. 



Circumstances thus directed the Roman "genius" 

 — which is the common vigour of a fresh people 

 specialized for a particular purpose — into a distinct 

 channel. Internally the development was more like 

 that of Athens. The plebeians had to be drawn into 

 the army, and take a large part in the growing 

 industry. They resented the aristocracy of the 

 patricians, and demanded what we call the right to 

 vote. So there was inaugurated the long and furious 

 struggle which ended in complete democracy. To 

 anticipate a little, we may add that, as the burdens 

 were put more and more upon the other Italians, they 

 claimed and got citizenship. In the end, provincials 

 outside Italy got it. Centuries of warfare used up the 

 old Roman stock, and the military holocausts of a 

 later date and the better part of the " Romans " were 

 provincial blood. 



Another development proceeded alongside these. 

 The old Roman social and religious ideals began to 

 totter. When the Romans overran Greece, then 

 Syria and Persia, and brought back new ideas as 

 well as new luxuries and loads of spoil, the patriarchal 

 11 virtues " became old-fashioned. There was another 

 stern fight over these. Conservatives had shuddered, 

 no doubt, over the " tearing-up of the constitution," 

 the deposition of their " kings by the grace of Jupiter." 

 Now they found that the home, the foundation of the 

 State, was in danger ; and the old religion, which was 

 essential to the fabric of civilization, was in worse 



