Speech #740105884

The majority of the free population had probably either themselves been slaves. or were descended from slaves. and men with this tainted lineage penetrated to all the offices of the State. There was . as has been well said. a circulation of men from all the universe. Rome received from them slaves. and sent them back Romans. "It Is manifest how profound a change had taken place since the republican days when the highest dignities were long monopolized by a single class. when the censors repressed with a stringent severity every form or exhibition of luxury. when the rhetoricians were banished from the city lest the faintest tinge of foreign manners should impair the stern simplicity of the people. and when the proposal to transfer the capital to Veil. after a great disaster. was rejected on the ground that it would be impious to worship the Roman deities anywhere but on the capitol. or for the flamens and the vestals to emigrate beyond the walls. " The greater number of these tendencies to universal fusion or equality were blind forces resulting from the stress of circumstances and not from any human forethought. or were agencies that were put in motion for a different object. It must. however. be acknowledged that a definite theory of policy had a considerable part in accelerating the movement. The policy of the Republic may be broadly described as a policy of conquest. and that of the empire as a policy of preservation.