Even after winning Italy and Carthage
they waited a century before subjecting the Orient which really laid
itself at their feet. They conquered, it appears, without
predetermined plan, and because they all had interest in conquest. The
magistrates who were leaders of the armies saw in conquest a means of
securing the honors of the triumph and the surest instrument for
making themselves popular. The most powerful statesmen in Rome,
Papirius, Fabius, the two Scipios, Cato, Marius, Sulla, Pompey, Caesar,
and Crassus, were victorious generals. The nobles who composed the
Senate gained by the increase of Roman subjects, and with these they
allied themselves as governors to receive their homage and their
presents. For the knights--that is to say, the bankers, the merchants,
and the contractors--every new conquest was a new land to exploit. The
people itself profited by the booty taken from the enemy. After the
treasure of the king of Macedon was deposited in the public chest,
taxes were finally abolished. As for the soldiers, as soon as war was
carried into rich lands, they received immense sums from their
general, to say nothing of what they took from the vanquished.
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