of the ruined peasants whom misery had driven to the city; besides
these, there were the freedmen and their children. They came from all
the corners of the world--Greeks, Syrians, Egyptians, Asiatics,
Africans, Spaniards, Gauls--torn from their homes, and sold as slaves;
later freed by their masters and made citizens, they massed themselves
in the city. It was an entirely new people that bore the name Roman.
One day Scipio, the conqueror of Carthage and of Numantia, haranguing
the people in the forum, was interrupted by the cries of the mob.
"Silence! false sons of Italy," he cried; "do as you like; those whom
I brought to Rome in chains will never frighten me even if they are no
longer slaves." The populace preserved quiet, but these "false sons of
Italy," the sons of the vanquished, had already taken the place of the
old Romans.

This new plebeian order could not make a livelihood for itself, and so
the state had to provide food for it. A beginning was made in 123 with
furnishing corn at half price to all citizens, and this grain was
imported from Sicily and Africa. Since the year 63[140] corn was
distributed gratuitously and oil was also provided. There were
registers and an administration expressly for these distributions, a
special service for furnishing provisions (the Annona). In 46 Caesar
found 320,000 citizens enrolled for these distributions.

=Electoral Corruption.=--This miserable and lazy populace filled the
forum on election days and made the laws and the magistrates. The
candidates sought to win its favors by giving shows and public feasts,
and by dispensing provisions. They even bought votes. This sale took
place on a large scale and in broad day; money was given to
distributers who divided it among the voters. Once the Senate
endeavored to stop this trade; but when Piso, the consul, proposed a
law to prohibit the sale of suffrages, the distributers excited a riot
and drove the consul from the forum. In the time of Cicero no
magistrate could be elected without enormous expenditures.

=Corruption of the Senate.=--Poverty corrupted the populace who formed
the assemblies; luxury tainted the men of the old families who
composed the Senate. The nobles regarded the state as their property
and so divided among themselves the functions of the state and
intrigued to exclude the rest of the citizens from them. When Cicero
was elected magistrate, he was for thirty years the first "new man" to
enter the successi