Page:The City-State of the Greeks and Romans.djvu/343

XI herself still in outward form a City-State, had also long ago passed beyond the limits within which it was possible to realise at its best the life of this ancient form of polity.

It will thus appear that there were two leading principles in the treatment of their conquests by the Roman oligarchy of the Republic: first, government by the Roman city magistrate, under supervision, of course, by the great oligarchical council; and secondly, local self-government within certain limits, as yet not clearly defined, by the magistrates and councils of the subject cities. For a time these two principles worked fairly well in combination; so long, that is, as the Roman oligarchy maintained its old vigour and integrity, and so long as any healthy life was left in the cities, such as might fit them for their new duties as the municipal towns of a great empire. During the greater part of the period of its growth the dominion of the Republic was so far a success that it astonished and overawed the world; it seemed as though the universal empire were at last about to be realised, spreading from the west instead of from the east. But time showed that in this case the Roman policy of adaptation was in all essential respects a failure. A City-State had been called on to undertake the government of an empire as great as Alexander's; and the machinery and the morality which it could bring to bear upon the work were alike found wanting. The machinery, — magistrates, senate, and people, — might possibly have been adequate to the task; but for the good government of