e Romans of the period after the
civil wars we must think of men intelligent, cultivated, educated,
polished by contact with a wide and various world of affairs, their
minds opened by foreign travel and the study of Greek language and
literature.

[Illustration: WRITING MATERIALS
Pens, Ink, Tablet, and Potsherd
Brit. Mus.]

War, however, remained the high road to popularity and fame. Since all
the provinces were held by military governors (pro-consuls or quaestors)
any one who aspired to high place in the State must have gone through
some sort of military training. The successful general was still the
favourite candidate. But military prowess alone was no longer enough.
The day was gone by when a boor like Marius could ride rough-shod over
the Republic. The hero of the new Rome was to be something more than a
soldier, though he must be a soldier too.

Within Italy the struggle between Romans and Italians was over. Italy
was one, as it had never been before. Having acquired the vote, though
not on terms of full equality with the Roman citizen, the Italian middle
class settled down to money-making and did not, as a rule, trouble much
about the stormy course of politics in the capital. More and more, it
was from Italy that the army came; the Roman populace liked the shows
given at the close of campaigns, but did not care much for the dangers
and hardship of service.

But although this struggle was over, another remained, sharper and more
bitter than before. The return of Sulla had meant the triumph of the
Senatorial Party, of the Conservatives, the men of old family and fixed
ideas. Sulla's proscriptions, the murder and banishment of innumerable
families and the seizure of their goods and estates, to be divided among
their enemies, left behind them a deep hatred between those who had
triumphed and those who had been defeated. After Sulla's death the sons
and grandsons of the proscribed began to come back, and what had once
been the Popular Party, led by Marius and Cinna, built itself up again.
At first it had no leaders. The men who were to be its leaders were
still too young. Gradually, however, in spite of the unpopularity that
had become attached to its very name, it gathered strength. The new rich
and the struggling lawyers joined its ranks, since there was more chance
there than in those of the Conservatives for fresh talent and new ideas.
A new kind of political organization was built up through the clubs