War, managed in this way, and with
these results, became to Rome what commerce or rural industry is to other
countries, viz. the only hopeful and general way for making a fortune.
_Fourthly_, by means of colonies it was that Rome delivered herself from
her surplus population. Prosperous and well-governed, the Roman citizens
of each generation outnumbered those of the generation preceding. But the
colonies provided outlets for these continual accessions of people, and
absorbed them faster than they could arise. [Footnote: And in this way we
must explain the fact--that, in the many successive numerations of the
people continually noticed by Livy and others, we do not find that sort of
multiplication which we might have looked for in a state so ably governed.
The truth is, that the continual surpluses had been carried off by the
colonizing drain, before they could become noticeable or troublesome.] And
thus the great original sin of modern states, that heel of Achilles in
which they are all vulnerable, and which (generally speaking) becomes more
oppressive to the public prosperity as that prosperity happens to be
greater (for in poor states and under despotic governments, this evil does
not exist), that flagrant infirmity of our own country, for which no
statesman has devised any commensurate remedy, was to ancient Rome a
perpetual foundation and well-head of public strength and enlarged
resources.
Pages:
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248