The Works of Daniel Webster, Volume 1Webster, Daniel
History
The Works of Daniel Webster, Volume 1
Webster, Daniel
United States -- Politics and government -- 1815-1861
Roman colonization resembled, far less than that of the Greeks, the
original settlements of this country. Power and dominion were the
objects of Rome, even in her colonial establishments. Her whole exterior
aspect was for centuries hostile and terrific She grasped at dominion,
from India to Britain, and her measures of colonization partook of the
character of her general system. Her policy was military, because
her objects were power, ascendency, and subjugation. Detachments of
emigrants from Rome incorporated themselves with, and governed, the
original inhabitants of conquered countries. She sent citizens where
she had first sent soldiers; her law followed her sword. Her colonies
were a sort of military establishment; so many advanced posts in the
career of her dominion. A governor from Rome ruled the new colony with
absolute sway, and often with unbounded rapacity. In Sicily, in Gaul,
in Spain, and in Asia, the power of Rome prevailed, not nominally
only, but really and effectually. Those who immediately exercised it
were Roman; the tone and tendency of its administration, Roman. Rome
herself continued to be the heart and centre of the great system which
she had established. Extortion and rapacity, finding a wide and often
rich field of action in the provinces, looked nevertheless to the
banks of the Tiber, as the scene in which their ill-gotten treasures
should be displayed; or, if a spirit of more honest acquisition
prevailed, the object, nevertheless, was ultimate enjoyment in Rome
itself. If our own history and our own times did not sufficiently
expose the inherent and incurable evils of provincial government, we
might see them portrayed, to our amazement, in the desolated and
ruined provinces of the Roman empire. We might hear them, in a voice
that terrifies us, in those strains of complaint and accusation,
which the advocates of the provinces poured forth in the Roman
Forum:--"Quas res luxuries in flagitiis, crudelitas in suppliciis,
avaritia in rapinis, superbia in contumeliis, efficere potuisset, eas
omnes sese pertulisse."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account