Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/122

108 (for this reason he was later called praetor peregrinus). The other praetor (praetor urbanus) continued to exercise in person or through deputies (praefecti jure dicundo) jurisdiction in all cases between citizens with or without political rights.

Poor Leadership of the Romans. — It was bad enough that every politician who became consul was by virtue of his office commander-in-chief of the army and entitled to take the field, but it was worse that he was also an admiral, and had the right personally to command the fleet. The incompetence and recklessness of several Roman admirals offset the heroic efforts of the nation in creating four large fleets, and caused the worst disasters of the war.

If the senate had been equal to the difficulties of the conflict, it might have introduced unity and consistency into the conduct of the war by exerting its influence on the magistrates and on the people, but it had not as yet outgrown its peninsular ideas and policy.

Losses and Moral Effects of the War. — As a consequence of their defective and faulty administration, the Romans suffered terribly in the war. The number of citizens (capita civium) enrolled in the census as liable, or entitled, to perform military service (qui arma ferre possent) fell, within a few years (between 252 and 247), from two hundred and ninety-seven thousand to two hundred and forty-one thousand — that is to say, more than one-sixth of the whole number perished, without including the losses of the allies. The economic losses in ships and war material, and indirectly in the paralysis of trade and industry, must also have been enormous.

Though less apparent and less easily traced, the moral effects of the war were no doubt very important. The people as a whole remained morally sound, and displayed a