The
Romans conquered the world less for glory than for the profits of
war.
EFFECTS OF ROMAN CONQUEST
=The Empire of the Roman People.=--Rome subjected all the lands around
the Mediterranean from Spain to Asia Minor. These countries were not
annexed, their inhabitants did not become citizens of Rome, nor their
territory Roman territory. They remained aliens entering simply into
the Roman empire, that is, under the domination of the Roman people.
In just the same way today the Hindoos are not citizens but subjects
of England; India is a part, not of England, but of the British
Empire.
=The Public Domain.=--When a conquered people asked peace, this is the
formula which its deputies were expected to pronounce: "We surrender
to you the people, the town, the fields, the waters, the gods of the
boundaries, and movable property; all things which belonged to the
gods and to men we deliver to the power of the Roman people." By this
act, the Roman people became the proprietor of everything that the
vanquished possessed, even of their persons. Sometimes it sold the
inhabitants into slavery: AEmilius Paullus sold 150,000 Epeirots who
surrendered to him.
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