and after two centuries the throne became for a hundred years the prey of military adventurers (§§ 493-495).

Still, the student of history must acknowledge the truth of Mommsen's statement regarding the first two centuries: "Seldom has the government of so large a part of the world been conducted for so long a time in so orderly a sequence."

B. LOCAL ADMINISTRATION.1

500. Municipal Government.2-Throughout the empire great numbers of cities enjoyed self-government for local concerns. The magistrates (consuls, aediles, and quaestors) were elected in popular Assemblies that remained active long after the Assembly at Rome had passed away. Election placards posted in the houses of Pompeii (§ 484) show that the political contests were real, with strong popular excitement.

In each such town, the ex-magistrates formed a senate, or town council, which voted local taxes, expended them for town purposes, and in general looked after town matters. The ordinances of this council, sometimes at least, were submitted to the Assembly of citizens for approval. The forms of these municipal institutions, derived from the old Republic and now organized and extended to the provinces, were never to die out in Europe; and in the early Empire, the spirit of local patriotism and of self-government was strong.

501. The Tendency of the Emperors and their Governors to centralize the Local Government. -It is true, however, that the independence of the local governments was gradually sapped by the habit of referring all matters to the provincial governor. Moreover, it must be understood that the many

1 This is a convenient point for the student to get a clear idea of the difference between "government" and "administration." "Administration," in the sense in which we shall most often have occasion to use the word, refers to the machinery for carrying out the will of the government.

2 Read Capes, Early Empire, 193–198, or Arnold, Roman Provincial Administration, 223–238.

varieties and irregularities of the local institutions in the different cities of a province would cause vexatious delays to the central government. Therefore, strong rulers were sometimes disposed to sweep away the local institutions, in order to make the administration more uniform and to secure quicker results.

Oftentimes, the better intentioned the ruler, the stronger this evil tendency. Pliny (§ 529) was a worthy servant of a noble emperor; but we find Pliny writing to ask Trajan whether he shall allow the citizens of a town in his province of Bithynia to repair their public baths as they desire, or whether he shall require them to build new ones,' and whether he shall not interfere to compel a wiser use of public moneys lying idle in another town, and to simplify varieties of local politics in other cities.1

Trajan, wiser than his minister, gently rebukes this overzeal, and will have no wanton meddling with matters that pertain to established rights and customs. But other rulers were not so far-sighted, and local life did decline before the spirit of centralization.

502. The Provinces. Above the towns there was no local self-government. The administration of the provinces was regulated along the lines Julius Caesar had marked out, and the better emperors gave earnest study to provincial needs. But the imperial government, however paternal and kindly, was despotic and absolute. Provincial Assemblies, it is true, were called together sometimes, especially in Gaul, but only to give the emperor information or advice. These Assemblies were made up of delegates from the various towns in a province. At first sight, they have the look of representative parliaments, but they never acquired any real political power.2

1 Read the correspondence, or at least the excellent extracts in Bury, 440444, or in Fling's Studies, No. 9. Capes' Antonines, 23-25, gives a shorter extract. A brief extract is given also in Munro's Source Book, 232 (No. 201). 2 Read Arnold's Roman Provincial Administration, 202.

II. IMPERIAL DEFENSE.

A. THE ARMY.

503. Size of the Army. - The standing army counted thirty legions; the auxiliaries and naval forces raised the total of troops, at the highest, to some four hundred thousand. They were stationed almost wholly on the three exposed frontiers, the Rhine, the Danube, and the Euphrates. The

inner provinces, as a rule, needed only a handful of soldiers, for police purposes. Twelve hundred sufficed to garrison all Gaul.

It is a curious thought that the civilized Christian nations which now fill the old Roman territory, with no outside barbarians to dread, keep always under arms twelve times the forces of the Roman emperors. One chief cause of the Empire, it will be remembered, had been the need for better protection of the frontiers. This need the Empire met nobly and economically.

504. Sources. Roman citizens had long ceased to regard military service as a first duty. The army had become a standing body of disciplined mercenaries, with intense pride,

however, in their fighting powers, in their privileges, and in the Roman name. The recruits were drawn, even in the Early Empire, from the provinces rather than from Italy; and more and more the armies were renewed from the frontiers where they stood. In the third century barbarian mercenaries were admitted on a large scale, and in the following period they came to make the chief strength of the legions. From the hungry foes surging against its borders the Empire drew the guardians of its peace.

505. Industrial and Disciplinary Uses. The Roman legions were not withdrawn wholly from productive labor. In peace, besides the routine of camp life, they were employed upon public works. "They raised the marvelous Roman roads through hundreds of miles of swamp and forest; they spanned great rivers with magnificent bridges; they built dikes to bar out the sea, and aqueducts and baths to increase the well-being of frontier cities." The steady discipline of the legions afforded also a moral and physical training for which there were fewer substitutes then than now.

At the expiration of their twenty years with the eagles, the veterans became full Roman citizens (no matter whence they had been recruited). They were commonly settled in colonies, with grants of land, and became valuable members of the community.

The legions proved, too, a noble school for commanders. Merit was carefully promoted, and military incompetence disappeared. Great generals followed one another in endless series, and many of the greatest emperors were soldiers who had risen from the ranks.

B. THE FRONTIERS.

506. The Frontiers as Augustus found them. —- Julius Caesar left the empire bounded by natural barriers on three sides and on part of the fourth: the North Sea and the Rhine to the northwest, the Atlantic on the west, the African and Arabian deserts on the south, Arabia and the upper Euphrates on the east, and the Black Sea to the northeast.

The Euphrates limit was not altogether satisfactory: it surrendered to Oriental states half the empire of Alexander, and let the great Parthian kingdom border dangerously upon the

Roman world. Julius seems to have intended a sweeping change on this side, but none of his successors until Trajan seriously thought of one. The only other unsafe line was on the north, in Europe, between the Rhine and the Black Sea. 507. The Frontiers as Augustus corrected them. Augustus aimed to make this northern line secure. He easily annexed the lands south of the lower Danube (modern Servia and Bulgaria the Roman province of Moesia); and, after many years of stubborn warfare, he added the remaining territory between the Danube and the Alps (the provinces of Rhaetia, Noricum, and Pannonia). The colonizing and Romanizing of these new districts were pressed on actively, and the line of the Danube was firmly secured.

In Germany, Augustus wished, wisely, to move the frontier from the Rhine to the Elbe. The line of the Danube and Elbe is much shorter than that of the Danube and Rhine, though it guards more territory (see map). Moreover, it could have been more easily defended, because the critical opening between the upper courses of the rivers is filled by the great natural wall of the mountains of modern Bohemia and Moravia. But here the long success of Augustus was broken by his one failure. The territory between the Rhine and the Elbe was subdued, it is true, and it was held for some years. But in the year 9 A.D. the Germans rose again under the hero Hermann.1 Varus, the Roman commander, was entrapped in the Teutoberg Forest, and in a three-days' battle his three legions were utterly annihilated.

The Roman dominion was at once swept back to the Rhine. This was the first retreat Rome ever made from territory she had once occupied. Roman writers recognized the serious nature of the reverse. As one of them said: "From this disaster it came to pass that that empire which had not stayed its march at the shore of ocean did halt at the banks of the Rhine."

1 Special report: read Creasy's Decisive Battles, ch. v, for the struggle.