202 WORLD-POWER AND EVOLUTION 



tratlon of wealth and land in a few hands, to emphasis upon class 

 distinctions because of the growing gulf between rich and poor, 

 and to migration from country to city. Thus would arise the ills 

 which result from congestion, overcrowding, and lack of family 

 life. Along still another line of thought we find that the change of 

 climate which apparently took place in Rome at the end of the 

 third century would diminish people's energy, increase the death- 

 rate, and render people much more liable to the many little ail- 

 ments to which mankind is heir. Such ill health would weaken a 

 people's judgment and will power. The Romans would tend to 

 acquire more of the qualities that we associate with tropical coun- 

 tries and to lose those that we associate with cool and variable 

 countries such as Scotland, Norway, and Canada. Finally, 

 another line of thought leads us to conclude that the climatic con- 

 ditions of the second century would make the anaemic, malarial 

 Romans less warlike, less honorable in their foreign relations, and 

 less able to conquer, protect, and wisely govern the peoples with 

 whom they came in contact. 



Rome's later history is no less consistent with our climatic the- 

 ory than is the earlier. Ferrero's picture of the mixture of the old 

 forces of decay and the new forces of revival about 100 B. C. is 

 most suggestive. The great proletarian uprising, or Social War, 

 was approaching, the disorder of the past century was gathering 

 itself together for a final attack on the established order, and "the 

 day of reckoning was felt at last to be at hand. Yet it would be a 

 mistake to imagine that decadence and ruin filled the whole pic- 

 ture. Even amid the chaos of society and politics there were 

 promising symptoms of intellectual advance." Reformers like the 

 Gracchi, strong, if misguided, spirits like Marius and Sulla, and 

 great men like Julius Caesar were beginning to arise. Roman law 

 was taking shape, handsome houses of imported marble were begin- 

 ning to be erected in the metropolis, sculptors and painters were 

 developing their art, and the literature of the Augustan Age had 

 its first forerunners. We have already seen signs of an agricul- 



