hands of small farmers growing grain by their own labour and that of their families, came to be a
matter of huge estates belonging to the Roman aristocracy, where vines and olives were cultivated
by slave labour. The result was the virtual omnipotence of the Senate, which was used
shamelessly for the enrichment of individuals, without regard for the interests of the State or the
welfare of its subjects.
A democratic movement, inaugurated by the Gracchi in the latter half of the second century B.C.,
led to a series of civil wars, and finally --as so often in Greece--to the establishment of a
"tyranny." It is curious to see the repetition, on such a vast scale, of developments which, in
Greece, had been confined to minute areas. Augustus, the heir and adopted son of Julius Caesar,
who reigned from 30 B.C. to A.D. 14, put an end to civil strife, and (with few exceptions) to
external wars of conquest. For the first time since the beginnings of Greek civilization, the ancient
world enjoyed peace and security.
Two things had ruined the Greek political system: first, the claim of each city to absolute
sovereignty; second, the bitter and bloody strife between rich and poor within most cities. After
the conquest of Carthage and the Hellenistic kingdoms, the first of these causes no longer afflicted
the world, since no effective resistance to Rome was possible. But the second cause remained. In
the civil wars, one general would proclaim himself the champion of the Senate, the other of the
people. Victory went to the one who offered the highest rewards to the soldiers. The soldiers
wanted not only pay and plunder, but grants of land; therefore each civil war ended in the formally
legal expulsion of many existing landholders, who were nominally tenants of the State, to make
room for the legionaries of the victor. The expenses of the war, while in progress, were defrayed
by executing rich men and confiscating their property. This system, disastrous as it was, could not
easily be ended; at last, to every one's surprise, Augustus was so completely victorious that no
competitor remained to challenge his claim to power.
To the Roman world, the discovery that the period of civil war was ended came as a surprise,
which was a cause of rejoicing to all except a small senatorial party. To every one else, it was a
profound relief when Rome, under Augustus, at last achieved the stability and order which Greeks
and Macedonians had sought in vain, and which Rome, before Augustus, had also failed to
produce. In Greece, accord-