Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/104

 68 THE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE participate in city life. But neither could their children go to the city to learn a trade, since the imperial government forced them to till the soil as their fathers had done. Thus the cities went on declining, the barbarian settlers remained ignorant peasants and came little into contact with classical civilization, and no new middle class developed. Rome's early conquests had been largely due to the dense population of Italy at that time, which furnished her with Decline in plenty of soldiers; for men had to fight to exist, military and it was natural for them to overflow the spir crowded peninsula and conquer other territories. But then, as we have seen, came depopulation and a decline of military spirit in Italy. The provinces, however, for a time supplied soldiers enough. But in the later centuries of the Empire with the general falling-off in population came a decline in righting spirit on the part of the provincials, and finally the emperors had to recruit their armies mainly from among the Germans. With the ancient city doomed, with classical religion and art and literature dying out, with the old races disappearing Discouraged and barbarians taking their places both as peas- ers of the"*" ants anc * soldiers, there still remained the Roman later Empire imperial system and law to hold the weakened Empire together; and for a long time the imperial govern- ment struggled persistently on and succeeded in staving off the day of destruction. But the members of the governing class sometimes felt the almost hopeless nature of their task, and it is with a heartfelt sigh of relief that we find some of them laying their burdens down. Dio Cassius, who wrote his history of Rome in the third century, belonged to the senatorial class and held many administrative positions under the dynasty of the Severi. In the last book of his history he excuses himself for not giving a detailed account of the recent reign of Alexand( Severus, "for the reason that for a long time I did not so- journ at Rome. After going from Asia to Bithynia I fel sick, and from there I hurried to my duties as head of Africa. On returning to Italy I was almost immediately