Page:The City-State of the Greeks and Romans.djvu/237



the year 300 B.C. the first great revolution in Roman history is completed. The men of the multitude have forced their way into the sacred ground which patrician exclusiveness regarded as the only true State; at point after point the defences have been broken down, and the crowd mingles freely and on equal terms with the aristocratic garrison, sharing with them all privileges and all duties which the State bestows or demands.

This great change, it should be noted, had been brought about chiefly by the sheer necessities of the government in the long series of wars in which Rome had for two centuries been engaged. It was no more possible for an army of patricians and their clients to survive defeat, or reap the fruits of conquest, than for the feudal army of our own earliest kings to maintain dominion in France and successfully attack Wales and Scotland. In each case the people came to be recognised as the essential material of