Page:The history of Rome. Translated with the author's sanction and additions.djvu/127

Rh This principle also determined the fate of the weaker cantons, which by force of arms or by voluntary submission became subject to the stronger. The stronghold of the canton was razed, its domain was added to the domain of the conquerors, and a new home was instituted for the inhabitants as well as for their gods in the capital of the victorious canton. This, indeed, must not be understood absolutely to imply a formal transportation of the conquered inhabitants to the new capital, such as was the rule at the founding of cities in the East. The towns of Latium at this time can have been little more than the strongholds and weekly markets of the husbandmen: it was quite sufficient that the market and the seat of justice should be transferred to the new capital. That even the temples often remained at the old spot is shown in the instances of Alba and of Cænina, towns which must still after their destruction have retained some semblance of existence in connection with religion. Even when the strength of the place that was razed rendered it really necessary to remove the inhabitants, they would be frequently settled, with a view to the cultivation of the soil, in the open hamlets of their old domain. That the conquered, however, were not unfrequently compelled, either as a body or in part, to settle in their new capital, is proved, more satisfactorily than all the several stories from the legendary period of Latium could prove it, by the maxim of Roman state-law, that only he who had extended the boundaries of its territory was entitled to advance the wall of the city (the pomerium). The conquered, whether transferred or not, were of course, as a rule, compelled to accept the legal position of clients; but particular individuals or gentes, also, probably had