The gradual depopulation of Italy has already been described. In spite of Sulla's colonies the ruin of the country must have been vastly accelerated by his civil wars and those which followed them. And, while the honest country class was dying out, the town class was ever plunging deeper into frivolity and voluptuousness. To defray the cost of the sumptuous life of the capital the fashionable spendthrift was forced to resort to extortion in the provinces, which, as we have seen, became so crying an evil that a permanent court existed for dealing with it before the time of Sulla. The greedy throve on usury, or involved the State in war, to fill their own purses. The fortunes amassed by an Aquillius, a Verres, a Lucullus, spoke as eloquently of Rome's rapacity abroad as did those of Crassus or Sulla in Italy. Such being the state of things under the government which Sulla strove to perpetuate, his character as a statesman deserves as strong reprobation as his conduct as a man. To lay down power from a sense of duty is one thing. Cynically to shrink from responsibility is another. The misery of the following half-century must be laid chiefly at Sulla's door. The inevitable goal to which everything was tending was as patent in his time as in the time of Augustus. Whatever may have been for the interest of the Roman aristocracy, monarchy was by this time for the interest of the Roman world. LIST OF PHRASES _It has been suggested that the following List of Phrases occurring in the History may be useful. But the definitions are only approximately precise._ _Aerarium_. The State treasury. _Capite Censi_. Roman citizens rated by the head only, as having no property. _Cives Romani_. Citizens of Rome, a Roman colony, or a Municipium. _Clientes_. Dependents of the Patres. Free, but not Cives Romani. _Comitia Centuriata_. The subdivisions (193 or 194 in number) of the six classes into which the Romans were divided, according to property, were called Centuries, and the assembly of them Comitia Centuriata. _Comitia Tributa_. The assembly in which the people voted according to the tribes or territorial divisions. _Dominium_. Ownership. _Equites_. Originally the men rich enough to maintain war-horses; afterwards the rich class corresponding to our city men. _Flamen_. A priest of some particular god. _Frumentaria_. Lex. A law for cheapening corn. _Imperator_. The title given on the battle-field to a successful general by his soldiers. _Imperium_. The power given by the State to an individual who was to command an army. _Interrex_. An official appointed to hold an election of consuls when the regular mode of election had not been followed. _Judicia_. Bodies of jurymen (judices) who tried criminal cases. _Jugerum_. A measure of surface 240 feet long, 120 broad. _Justitium_. A suspension of public business for some religious observance. _Latifundia_. Large estates cultivated by slave-labour. _Latini_. See p. 16.