ch and
the life of the poor.

*Sumptuary legislation.* But the change did not come about without
vigorous opposition from the champions of the old Roman simplicity of life
who saw in the new refinement and luxury a danger to Roman vigor and
morality. The spokesman of the reactionaries was Cato the Elder, who in
his censorship in 184 B. C. assessed articles of luxury and expensive
slaves at ten times their market value and made them liable to taxation at
an exceptionally high rate, in case the property tax should be levied. But
such action was contrary to the spirit of the age; the next censors let
his regulations fall into abeyance. Attempts to check the growth of luxury
by legislation were equally futile. The Oppian Law, passed under stress of
the need for conservation in 215 B. C., restricting female extravagance in
dress and ornaments, was repealed in 195, and subsequent attempts at
sumptuary legislation in 181, 161, and 143, were equally in vain.

To resume: in 133 B. C. the Roman state was faced with a bitter contest
between the Senate and the equestrians for the control of the government,
the Comitia was dominated by an unstable urban proletariat, the
provisioning of Rome was a source of anxiety, dissatisfaction was rife
among the Latin and Italian allies, the military resources of the state
were weakening, while its military burdens were greater than ever, and the
ruling circles had begun to display unmistakable signs of a declining
public morality. With a constitution adapted to a city-state Rome was now
forced to grapple with all the problems of imperial government.

IV. CULTURAL PROGRESS

*Greek influences.* In addition to creating new administrative problems
and transforming the economic life of Italy, the expansion of Rome gave a
tremendous impulse to its cultural development. The chief stimulus thereto
was the close contact with Hellenic civilization. We have previously
mentioned that Rome had been subject to Greek influences both indirectly
through Etruria and directly from the Greek cities of South Italy, but
with the conquest of the latter, and the occupation of Sicily, Greece, and
part of Asia Minor, these influences became infinitely more immediate and
powerful. They were intensified by the number of Greeks who flocked to
Rome as ambassadors, teachers, physicians, merchants and artists, and by
the multitude of educated Greek slaves employed in Roman households. And
as