194 WORLD-POWER AND EVOLUTION 



land, dotted with Celtic villages, watered by hurrying streams. 

 . . . No noble of great lineage, but the head of the popular party, 

 gave his name to the first great road, the via Flaminiay that joined 

 Rome to the Valley of the Po. . . . The old aristocratic, agri- 

 cultural and military society was nearing the limit of its greatness. 

 If it was to play a further part in history it must be through a 

 transformation of its character and institutions." 



The eagerness of the common people for a war against the Gauls 

 in the plain of the Po sounds as if poverty and distress might 

 have been prevalent. With a decline of rainfall such as is indi- 

 cated in Figure 24, how could it be otherwise? It is extremely 

 difficult, however, to distinguish between the effects of different 

 causes. In 218 B. C. the Second Punic War introduced seventeen 

 years of bitter fighting. How far this war was due to the economic 

 and political stress arising from the diminished rainfall in both 

 Italy and Carthage we cannot tell. It is equally difficult to deter- 

 mine whether it was the war or the climate which about 200 B. C. 

 "hastened the advent of the commercial era in a society which 

 had hitherto been military and agricultural." Certain it is that 

 Italy now needed food, and had to import it from abroad. The 

 year 196 saw the first public distribution of grain in Rome. Such 

 conditions were one great reason for the development of commerce. 

 It is also certain that in spite of this demand for food, farming 

 became less profitable. Especially in southern Italy, where the 

 effect of a climatic change would be greatest, land fell to a low 

 value. Speculation became rife, the peasants fell into debt, their 

 lands were bought by capitalists or large proprietors, and the 

 cultivation of wheat gave place in large measure to the raising of 

 sheep and goats. Many country people flocked to the cities, huge 

 wooden tenements were erected, and bakeshops were established 

 to furnish bread to the many unmarried tradesmen and laborers 

 who could not get it at home. So great was the influx of country 

 people to the cities that in 187 and 177 B. C. the Latin towns 

 lodged complaints with the Senate. At first an apparent era of 



