worthy to record the majestic series of Roman victories. The patriot
family of the Catos emerged from Tusculum; and the little town of
Arpinum claimed the double honor of producing Marius and Cicero, the
former of whom deserved, after Romulus and Camillus, to be styled the
Third Founder of Rome; and the latter, after saving his country from the
designs of Catiline, enabled her to contend with Athens for the palm of
eloquence. [27]

[Footnote 26: The senators were obliged to have one third of their own
landed property in Italy. See Plin. l. vi. ep. 19. The qualification was
reduced by Marcus to one fourth. Since the reign of Trajan, Italy had
sunk nearer to the level of the provinces.]

[Footnote 261: It may be doubted whether the municipal government of the
cities was not the old Italian constitution rather than a transcript
from that of Rome. The free government of the cities, observes Savigny,
was the leading characteristic of Italy. Geschichte des Romischen
Rechts, i. p. G.--M.]

[Footnote 27: The first part of the Verona Illustrata of the Marquis
Maffei gives the clearest and most comprehensive view of the state of
Italy under the Caesars. * Note: Compare Denina, Revol. d' Italia, l.
ii. c. 6, p. 100, 4 to edit.]

The provinces of the empire (as they have been described in the
preceding chapter) were destitute of any public force, or constitutional
freedom. In Etruria, in Greece, [28] and in Gaul, [29] it was the first
care of the senate to dissolve those dangerous confederacies, which
taught mankind that, as the Roman arms prevailed by division, they might
be resisted by union. Those princes, whom the ostentation of gratitude
or generosity permitted for a while to hold a precarious sceptre, were
dismissed from their thrones, as soon as they had per formed their
appointed task of fashioning to the yoke the vanquished nations.
The free states and cities which had embraced the cause of Rome
were rewarded with a nominal alliance, and insensibly sunk into real
servitude. The public authority was every where exercised by the
ministers of the senate and of the emperors, and that authority was
absolute, and without control. [291] But the same salutary maxims of
government, which had secured the peace and obedience of Italy were
extended to the most distant conquests. A nation of Romans was gradually
formed in the provinces, by the double expedient of introducing
colonies, and of admitting the most faithful and deserv