But although for generations there was a settled abstinence from centralisation on the part of the imperial government, the many varieties of civic constitution in the provinces tended by an irresistible drift to a uniform type of organisation. Free and federate communities voluntarily sought the position of a colony or a municipium.(1161) Just as the provincial town must have its capitol, with the cult of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, or imported the street names Velabrum or Vicus Tuscus, so the little community called itself _respublica_, its commons the _populus_, its curia the senate or the _amplissimus et splendidissimus ordo_; its magistrates sometimes bore the majestic names of praetor, dictator, or censor, in a few cases even of consul.(1162) This almost ludicrous imitation of the great city is an example of the magical power which Rome always exercised on her most distant subjects, and even on the outer world of barbarism, down to the last days when her forces were ebbing away. The ease and rapidity of communication along the great routes, the frequent visits of proconsuls and procurators and generals, with the numerous train which attended them, the presence of the ubiquitous Roman merchant and traveller, kept even remote places in touch with the capital. The _acta diurna_, with official news and bits of scandal and gossip, regularly arrived in distant provincial towns and frontier camps.(1163) The last speech of Pliny, or the freshest epigrams of Martial, were within a short time selling on the bookstalls of Lyons or Vienne.(1164) Until the appearance of railways and steamboats, it may be doubted whether there was any age in history in which travelling was easier or more general.