Page:Roman Constitutional History, 753-44 B.C..djvu/167

Rh began to reign supreme in the affairs of family, party, and nation.

Growth of the Equestrian Class. — Amidst such a struggle for riches and such a desire for pleasure, the equestrian class could not but become prominent. Its leaders were the great capitalists who lived in Rome, or made the city the centre of their financial operations, and secured the important government contracts. The class was organized into associations (societates), and was usually harmonious and disinclined to excessive competition. It had extensive business connections and branches throughout the Roman dominions, and it knew how to make the senate and the magistrates serve its purposes by means of threats, gifts, and the sharing of profits. The capitalists induced the nobles to become silent partners in commercial and financial enterprises, and in undertaking government contracts. In this way they could usually protect themselves against the comparatively few censors and provincial governors who opposed them on account of their insatiable greed. They were also able in time to bring about the repeal of unfavorable decrees of the senate, — for example, the one providing that the state should not lease the Macedonian mines.

Its Influence on the Financial Policy. — What was most important of all, the equestrian order prevented the reform of the financial system of the state. It was a great convenience for the government not to have to deal with all the details of the collection of taxes and tithes, and of the numerous other affairs and transactions now attended to by contract; it was, further, an advantage to have the support of Roman capital: but the system involved great losses to the state, unscrupulous and brutal treatment of the provincials, and, in the course of time, great corruption and consequent political disaster.