Roman Imperialism: And Other Lectures and Essays (Classic Reprint) - Hardcover

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Excerpt from Roman Imperialism: And Other Lectures and Essays

That the revolution was a triumph, not of liber aliam, but of military organization, will become still clearer if we now proceed to examine the new insti tutions which it introduced. Had Cesar lived longer, he would no doubt have stamped a liberal character upon his work. Though he was no champion of the provinces, and though he owed his elevation imme diately to the army, and only remotely to the democ racy, yet his disposition was liberal, and his states manship bold, original, and magnanimous. He might therefore have developed at once and forced into ripeness those germs of good in the new system which, as it was, ripened but slowly. He might have taken away fi'om Italy that unjust precedence in the Empire which she retained for three more centuries, and raised the provinces to citizenship and participation in the honors of the state. This he might have done, but had he done it he would have accomplished another revolution. That the Empire at that time did not require such changes, even if it would have borne them, is plain from the fact that his successor Augustus was able to found a secure and durable im perial system, was able, in fact, to conduct the movement which his uncle had begun to. Its nat ural goal, without appealing to any liberal tendencies. Augustin was in all things aristocratically disposed; his institutions bear the stamp of a conservative, excluf sive, old-roman spirit. This did not prevent him.

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