Western Civilization.p

78Chapter 4

for their defense. Among other things, the senators
feared that the creation of new magistrates and pro-
consuls might dilute their own membership and
weaken their power as individuals.
Provincial charters varied widely. Different
provinces were taxed at different rates and certain
towns paid no taxes at all. In some places overtaxation
caused widespread poverty, but whatever the rates, col-
lection was almost always inefficient. Private contrac-
tors extracted cash, bullion, or agricultural commodities
from taxpayers and kept a portion of the yield for
themselves, a system that bred corruption and led to in-
terminable complaints. The governors were at first ad-
mired for their honesty, but Roman virtue soon
crumbled in the face of older, more cynical traditions.
Bribes and extortion could make a magistrate rich be-
yond imagining. No imperial bureaucracy provided ef-
fective oversight and, for many, the temptation proved
irresistible. Provincial government under the republic
was not, in other words, as efficient or capable as it

would eventually become. It could be brutal and even

extortionate, but for most of those who found them-

selves under Roman rule, it was probably no worse than

the governments to which they had long been accus-

tomed. The majority offered no resistance to the new

order and in time accepted it as preferable to any con-

ceivable alternative.

From humble beginnings, Rome had first con-

quered Italy and then an empire. In the mid-second

century B.C. the Mediterranean world was politically

united for the first time. Roman provinces stretched

from the Atlantic to Asia Minor (see map 4.2), and

those peoples who were not under Roman rule were

Roman allies or dependents.

The Romans had not set out, like Alexander, to

conquer new worlds, but neither had they acquired

their empire in a fit of absentmindedness. They under-

stood from the beginning that security depended upon

controlling the activities of their neighbors. Gradually,

“fear of the enemy,” as Polybius put it, gave way to

Black Sea

Red

Sea

SPAIN

ITALY

MACEDONIA

ASIA MINOR

SYRIA

EGYPT

GREECE

ILLYRIA

BalearicIsla

nds

Adriatic

Sea

Danu

be

R.

Al

ps

Mts.

TaurusMts.

Pyrenees Mts.

Corsica

New Carthage

Saguntum

Rome

Capua

Tarentum

Messina

Carthage

Pella

Corinth

Athens

Pergamum

Lake Trasimene

217 B.C.

Cannae

216 B.C.

168 PydnaB.C.

Zama

202 B.C.

Syracuse

Cynoscephalae

197 B.C. Magnesia 189 B.C.

Alexandria

Sardinia

Sicily

Rhodes

Crete Cyprus

TrebiaR.

0 300 600 Miles

0 300 600 900 Kilometers

Roman Empire

Roman allies

Battle site

Hannibal's invasion route

MAP 4.2

Roman Conquest in the Mediterranean