Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/143

Rh of the classes. Fabius had been, like Fabricius of old, a leader of his fellow citizens. Scipio was, as it were, a commander of clients, who looked upon him as a lord. To him they owed their glory in war, and from him they expected their future reward. Scipio's case was typical. The nobility had been exalted and consolidated by the war. It entered the war as an aristocracy, it issued from it an oligarchy. It was now almost a close corporation, and rarely was a new man elected to the higher offices until the later revolutionary times.

The Equestrian Order. — The financial straits of the state and the system of letting government contracts had rendered the services of the capitalists, the equestrian order, not only more important, but, at least for a time, indispensable. When a prominent member of the order had defrauded the state in an outrageous way, the senate did not venture to prosecute him and thereby offend the class to which he belonged. Fortunately the people and its leaders were yet independent enough to punish him. But the order became so powerful as to be able to prevent reforms of the financial administration and greatly to influence the foreign policy.

The Middle and Lower Classes. — The middle classes seem to have suffered the most from the war, both in numbers and in wealth. They had to pay the heavy temporary taxes (tributa) on their property, and did not, like the nobility, occupy any public land and enjoy the benefits of ownership without its burdens. They decreased in number, through losses in war and through impoverishment As a result of the war and the subsequent policy of the state, they never regained their former prosperity and influence.

The lowest classes also suffered great losses, but they were recruited from the ranks of the impoverished population, and they gained a new position and influence on account