For the popular assemblies of the Romans, an antiquarian essay by Chr. Ferd. Schulze, Gotha, 1815, chiefly according to Niebuhr, may be consulted. Among the numerous manuals of Roman antiquities, NIEUPORT, _explicatio rituum Romanorum, ed. Gesner_. Berol. 1743, promises at least as much as it performs. Of those which profess to treat of Roman antiquities in general, none have yet risen above mediocrity. Jurisprudence, however, has been much more successfully handled. We cite the two following excellent compendiums: BACHII, _Historia Jurisprudentiae Romanae_. Lips. 1754. 1796. # C. HUGO, _Elements of the Roman Law_; 7th edit. Berlin, 1820. SECOND PERIOD. _From the commencement of the war with Carthage to the rise of the civil broils under the Gracchi, B. C. 264-134. Year of Rome, 490-620._ SOURCES. The principal writer for this highly interesting period, in which was laid the foundation of the universal dominion of Rome, is Polybius as far as the year 146, not only in the complete books preserved to us, which come down to 216, but also in the fragments. He is frequently followed by Livy, lib. xxi-xlv. 218-166. Appian, who comes next, does not confine himself merely to the history of the war; Florus gives us only an abridgement. The lives of Plutarch which relate to this portion of history, are FABIUS MAXIMUS, P. AEMILIUS, MARCELLUS, M. CATO, and FLAMINIUS. Of modern writers we dare only mention one:--and who is worthy to be ranked beside him? MONTESQUIEU, _Considerations sur les causes de la grandeur et de la decadence des Romains_. 1. The political division of Italy laid the foundation for the dominion of Rome in that country; the want of union and political relations in the world paved the way to her universal empire. The first step cost her much, the succeeding followed easily and rapidly; and the history of the struggle between Rome and Carthage only shows on a larger scale what the history of Greece exhibits on a smaller. The whole of the following history confirms the fact, that two republics cannot exist near each other, without one being destroyed or subjected: but the vast extent of this struggle, the important consequences which followed, together with the wonderful exertions made, and the great men engaged on both sides, gave it an interest which cannot be found in that of any other nations. Though the power and resources of both states were nearly equal in appearance, they were widely different in quality and circumstances. Carthage, besides her dominion over the seas, had also a better furnished treasury, by which she was enabled to enlist into her service as many _mercenaries_ as she pleased: Rome, on the contrary, _strong in herself_, had all the advantages possessed by a nation of warriors over one partly commercial, partly military.