Tiberius complained bitterly of this evil, which placed the lives of the Roman people at the mercy of the winds and waves: that was his anxiety.

One day later, and three hundred thousand starving men walked the streets of Rome: that was a revolution.
"This decline of Italy and the provinces did not stop.

After the reign of Nero, depopulation commenced in towns as noted as Antium and Tarentum.

Under the reign of Pertinax, there was so much desert land that the emperor abandoned it, even that which belonged to the treasury, to whoever would cultivate it, besides exempting the farmers from taxation for a period of ten years.

Senators were compelled to invest one-third of their fortunes in real estate in Italy; but this measure served only to increase the evil which they wished to cure.