Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/161

 CHAPTER V.

THE PEOPLE AND THE ASSEMBLIES.

I. The Extension of Citizenship; the Decline in Population and its Causes.

Extension of Citizenship. — Since 241 the Roman republic had rapidly extended its dominion, until its former territory had sunk into comparative insignificance and the citizens formed but a small nucleus in a state consisting mainly of allies and subjects. It was high time to enlarge the home territory and to increase the number of citizens, on whom, after all, the safety and existence of the imperial state depended. The inhabitants of the Latin colonies were in the main the descendants of Roman citizens; they spoke the same language, had similar institutions, and had been singularly loyal to Rome. Their fate, past, present, and future, was inextricably bound up with that of the Roman state. What could be wiser or more natural than to confer citizenship on them? New Latin colonies might then be established in the provinces, as Carteia was in Spain in 171, and a beginning be made towards Latinizing the provincials. But such ideas were spurned by the selfish Roman people. Roman citizenship had become too profitable and too great a distinction to be shared with the Latins. Accordingly, those Latins alone who belonged to the older Latin towns, or who fulfilled certain conditions (pp. 94, 97), or who were allowed to join Roman colonies, now became citizens, — in brief, a very small minority.