But in time of Cicero the people were still powerful legislation and elections, and the public finance was disorganised and in confusion; and the result was that the corn-supply was mixed up with politics,[62] and handled by reckless politicians in a way that was as ruinous to the treasury as it was to the moral welfare of the city.

The whole story, from Gracchus onwards, is a wholesome lesson on the mischief of granting "outdoor relief" in any form whatever, without instituting the means of inquiry into each individual case.

Gracchus' intentions were doubtless honest and good; but "ubi semel recto deerratum est, in praeceps pervenitur." The drink of the Roman was water, but he mixed it with wine whenever he had the chance.

Fortunately for him he had no other intoxicating drink; we hear neither of beer nor spirits in Roman literature.

Italy was well suited to the cultivation of the vine; and though down to the last century of the Republic the choice kinds of wine came chiefly from Greece, yet we have unquestionable proof that wine was made in the neighbourhood of Rome at the very outset of Roman history.