Page:The Ancient City- A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome.djvu/506

 500 MUNICirL IlEGIME DISAPPEAES. BOOK V any very great efforts, obtnined the empire. The mu- nicipal spirit graclually disappeared. Tiie love of indopondonce became a very rare sentiment, and all hearts were entirely enlisted in the interests and pas- sions of parlies. Insensibly men forgot the city. Tiie barri(.'i'3 which had previously separated cities, and had made of them so many distinct little worlds, whose horizons bounded the wishes and thoughts of every one, fell one after auothor. In all Italy and in all Greece, only two groups of men were distinguished: on one hnnd was an aristocratic class, on the other a popular party. One party labored for the supremacy of" Rome, the other opposed it. The aristocracy were victorious, and Rome acquired the empire. 4. Home everywhere destroys the Municipal System. The institutions of the ancient city had been weak- ened, and almost exhausted, by a series of revolutions. One of the first results of the Roman dominion was to complete their destruction, and to efface what still re- mained of them. Tliis we can see by observing the condition into which the nations fell as they became subject to Rome. We must first banish from our minds all the customs of modern politics, and not picture to ourselves the nations entering the Roman state, one after another, as in our day provinces are annexed to a kingdom, which, on receiving these new members, extends its boundaries. The Roman state {civitas Momana) was not enlarged by conquests; it never included any fam- ilies except those that figured in the religious ceremony of the census. The Roman territory {ager Momanus) never increased. It remained enclosed within the