Roman social and political circumstances began to influence sculpture soon after the year 50 B.C. One hundred and fifty years earlier, the defeat of Hannibal and the fall of Carthage had left Rome with the undisputed headship in Western Europe. Spain was in her hands and her frontiers stretched to the Atlantic. In the East, however, Rome was faced with the Hellenistic kingdoms of Macedonia, Syria and Egypt. One by one these fell before her. Naturally, so tremendous a success was not attained without social and political changes of the first order. Even before the Punic Wars the inner ring of the Roman aristocracy had lost its long-established monopoly of the great offices of State. At the time of the fall of Carthage, the Senate was certainly the supreme authority in Roman affairs, the various magistrates being no more than its executive tools. But the aristocracy had been compelled to recognize a new class of capitalist merchants which had established a claim to Rome’s regard by its ready aid during the Punic wars. The body which directed Rome’s expansion beyond the borders of Italy was therefore composed of a blend of wealthy patricians and plebeians. These were the patrons of the Græco-Roman sculptors. They were the men who composed “the assembly of kings,” whose report the ambassadors of Pyrrhus carried to their master. For close upon a century a senate of this type guided the destinies of the Roman Republic. By about 100 B.C.—we express time in the roundest of round numbers—it had become apparent that the political foundations upon which Rome’s career of conquest was based were radically unsound. No body of men—even an “assembly of kings”—could deal with the multitudinous problems which arose from an attempt to absorb the whole of the civilized world. The first man to realize this, and to attempt a practical solution of the difficulty, was Marius. Soon after 107 B.C. he proved that he understood the essentials of the problem by reorganizing the Republican armies. He converted them into fit tools for the first “adventurer of genius” by ordaining that the soldiery should be paid by land grants and booty. The reforms of Marius were none too early. Between 89 B.C. and 64 B.C. the wars with Mithridates of Pontus showed Rome its weakness. Mithridates overran Asia Minor, Macedonia and Greece. Syria was only regained by a gigantic effort. Then came “the adventurer of genius”—Julius Cæsar—the founder of the Roman Imperial system. He was followed by his son Octavius (Augustus Cæsar), the “Organiser of Roman Imperialism.” These two men made Roman sculpture possible. On the day that Cæsar and his eleven legions crossed the Rubicon with the cry “the die is cast,” Roman sculpture was born.