THE ROMAN ROBBERS. 119 



Phoenician alphabet, and educating their children in 

 public schools. The Greek cities on the coast diffused 

 a certain amount of culture through the land. 



A rabble of outlaws and run-away slaves banded 

 together, built a town, fortified it strongly, and offered 

 it as an asylum to all fugitives. To Home fled tbe 

 over-beaten slave, the thief with his booty, the mur- 

 derer with blood-red hands. This city of refuge 

 became a War-town, to use an African phrase : its 

 citizens alternately fought and farmed ; it became the 

 dread and torment of the neighbourhood. However, 

 it contained no women, and it was hoped that, in 

 course of time, the generation of robbers would die 

 out. The Romans offered their hands and hearts 

 to the daughters of a neighbouring Sabine city. The 

 Sabines declined, and told them that they had better 

 make their city an asylum for run-away women. The 

 Romans took the Sabine girls by force ; a war ensued, 

 but the relationship had been established ; the women 

 reconciled their fathers to their husbands, and the 

 tribes were united in the same city. 



The hospitality which Rome had offered in its 

 early days, in order to sustain its life, became a 

 custom and a policy. The Romans possessed the art 

 of converting their conquered enemies into allies, and 

 this was done by means of concessions which cities of 

 respectable origin would have been too proud to make. 



Their military career was very different from that 

 of the Persians, who swept over a continent in a few 

 months. The Romans spent three centuries in estab- 

 lishing their rule within a circle of a hundred miles 

 round the city. Whatever they won by the sword 

 they secured by the plough. After every successful 

 war they demanded a tract of land, and on this they 



