Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/183

 The Western Mediterranean World 123 important of all, new laws increased the rights of the people to hold office. In the end ' Roman citizens elected their plebeian neighbors as censors and quaestors, as judges, and finally even as consuls and members of the Senate. 189. Importance of the Roman Senate. By far the larger part of the Roman citizens, however, lived too far away to come up to the city and vote. Feeling, too, their own ignorance of public affairs, the Roman citizens were not unwilling that impor- tant public questions should be settled by the -Senate. Thus the Roman Senate became a large committee of experienced states- men, guiding and controlling the Roman State. They formed the greatest council of rulers which ever grew up in the ancient world, or perhaps in any age. III. THE EXPANSION OF THE ROMAN REPUBLIC AND THE CONQUEST OF ITALY 190. Early Struggles of the Republic. It was a tiny nation which began its uncertain career after the expulsion of the Etrus- can kings about 500 B.C. The territory of the Roman Republic thus far comprised only the city with the neighboring fields for a very few miles around. On the other side of the Tiber lived the dreaded Etruscans, and on the Roman side of the river, all around the little republic, lived the Latin tribes, only loosely united with Rome by treaty. Fortunately for the Romans, within a generation after the foundation of the Republic the Greek fleet of Syracuse utterly destroyed the Etruscan fleet (474 B.C.). Later the Etruscans were attacked from the north by the Gauls, who were at this time pouring over the Alpine passes into the valley of the Po. This weakening of the Etruscans probably saved Rome from destruc- tion. By 400 B.C., or a little after, the Romans had conquered and taken possession of a fringe of new territory on all sides, which protected them from their enemies. In this new territory the Romans planted colonies of citizens mostly farmers cultivating the new lands or granted citizenship