Lucullus and Pompeius, by their eastern victories, made the Romans acquainted with Greek science and philosophy; the consequence of which was that many accomplished teachers streamed from those erudite regions to traffic their superior knowledge for Roman wealth. The latter really enjoyed nothing disconnected with the tumultuous excitement of war, even in the brief intervals of general peace. A master-passion for the sensations of battle morbidly existed in every breast, and yearned for gratification in the combats of gladiators, or the yet wilder brutality of the circus. The cruel and ostentatious spectacles which arose with the conquests of the republic, were continued with enhanced extravagance under the empire, fostered by the wealth, excitement, and corruption, which those conquests had introduced. There was no affinity of soul for refined and tranquil pleasure in the Romans; so that, if the legitimate drama was attempted, the admiring mob felt the keenest delight on viewing a mimic procession, or could interrupt the plot by vociferous exclamations for novelties of a yet more exciting and degrading kind. Civilization advanced perpetually, but from the period of culmination under Augustus, as before under Pericles, each step of progress was marked by its decline. As the palaces were enlarged, they were filled by impoverished dependents. Scipio, Metellus, and others, form courts around themselves, wherein the arts and sciences are taught by slaves, while the streets resound with the exulting shouts of those who conduct thousands of captives to bondage or death. The great become greater, and the little become less; until the exhausted empire succumbs to barbarians, and a superseded civilization disappears from earth. The elder Gracchus, that truly noble Roman, attempted first to enlarge the number of landed proprietors, and then to fortify them with the energy of self-respect, through the dignity of free toil. The extension of an enlightened yeomanry, happily employed in the avocations of scientific agriculture, was the ambition of his life, and the occasion of his martyr-death. The republican tribune fell under patrician clubs, and not in vain was his corpse dragged through the streets, and thrown into the Tiber. Says Bancroft, "The deluded nobles raised the full chorus of victory and joy. They believed that the Senate had routed the people; but it was the avenging spirit of slavery that had struck the first deadly wound into the bosom of Rome. When a funeral pyre was kindled to the manes of Tiberius Gracchus, the retributive Nemesis lighted the torch, which, though it burned secretly for a while, at last kindled the furies of social war, and involved the civilized world in the conflagration."