The Commonwealth and Its Economy External and Internal Bankruptcy of the Roman State We have traversed a period of ninety years--forty years of profound peace, fifty of an almost constant revolution.

It is the most inglorious epoch known in Roman history.

It is true that the Alps were crossed both in an easterly and westerly direction,( 1) and the Roman arms reached in the Spanish peninsula as far as the Atlantic Ocean( 2) and in the Macedono-Grecian peninsula as far as the Danube;( 3) but the laurels thus gained were as cheap as they were barren.

The circle of the "extraneous peoples under the will, sway, dominion, or friendship of the Roman burgesses,"(4) was not materially extended; men were content to realize the gains of a better age and to bring the communities, annexed to Rome in laxer forms of dependence, more and more into full subjection.

Behind the brilliant screen of provincial reunions was concealed a very sensible decline of Roman power.