APPENDIX III 439 



connected with the EngHsh land system, it would be seen 

 how striking was the Hkeness between the two. " From a 

 very early period the Roman economy was based on two 

 factors — always in quest of each other and always at variance 

 — the husbandry of the small farmers and the money of the 

 capitalist. The latter, in the closest alliance with landholding 

 on a great scale, had already for centuries waged against the 

 farmer-class, a war which seemed as though it could not but 

 terminate in the destruction first of the farmer and there- 

 after of the whole Commonwealth." The issue was delayed 

 by great wars and other events ; " but the ultimate result 

 was in both cases the same — the depreciation of the Italian 

 farmers, the supplanting of the petty husbandry, first in the 

 large provinces and then in Italy, by the farming of large 

 estates. . . . The capitalist continued to buy out the small 

 landholders, or, indeed, if they remained obstinate, to seize 

 their fields without title or purchase." " Desolation advanced 

 with gigantic steps over the flourishing land of Italy where 

 countless numbers of free men had lately rejoiced in moderate 

 and merited prosperity." ^ 



These records refer to a time when Rome was at the 

 height of her glory and renown. It took her between seven 

 and eight hundred years to attain that position. (It has 

 taken England about eight hundred years to gain a similar 

 eminence.) Wealth and luxury were abounding. Money- 

 dealing and commerce were progressing by " leaps and 

 bounds," and the accumulation of capital into few hands 

 was "daily increasing." As to the men reared under the 

 old state of things, "death called one after another away, 

 till at length the name of the last of them, the veteran 

 Cato, ceased to be heard in the senate-house or the Forum." 

 (Mommsen.) 



In the midst of the vast wealth and prosperity which 

 existed, it would at the time have been deemed madness to 

 foretell disaster. Nevertheless the seeds of decay had been 

 sown, and with the destruction of agriculture began the 



^ Mommsen's "History of Rome," see especially Vol. II, p. 393 onwards, 

 and Vol. Ill, p. 77 onwards. 



