Page:The City-State of the Greeks and Romans.djvu/293

IX like the "mean whites" of the Southern States of America before the emancipation of the negroes; and they came at last to have all the vices of an idle proletariat in a great city. Thus the middle class of the Roman State disappeared, and with its disappearance came in due time the inevitable stasis. Efforts were made from time to time to stay the growing evil, but it could not be effectually stayed except by interfering with the property of the ruling class, or by doing away with their system of slave-labour. It was to the oligarchy that the disease was due, and it could not be cured so long as the oligarchy was in power.

And lastly, how far were the Romans conscious of Aristotle's other safeguard? Did they bring up their children on any system suited to maintain the character of their State, or capable of growing with it as it grew?

In the youth of Rome there had been an education of unquestionable value, through which all citizens passed; not an education of the mind, but an education of the will and of the body, well suited, like that of Sparta, to preserve the of the State, and adequate to carry it through all its early perils. This was the education of the patria potestas, supplemented by the discipline of military training and service. Every Roman son, whatever his age might be, was under the strictest control of his father; his very life was always in the hands of him to whom he originally owed it. When called to arms, he was equally under discipline; for the dread imperium of the consul was