Rome now prohibited the slaves
from carrying arms thereafter, and it is reported that a shepherd was
once executed for having killed a boar with a spear.
=Admission to Citizenship.=--Rome treated its subjects and its slaves
brutally, but it did not drive them out, as the Greek cities did.
The alien could become a Roman citizen by the will of the Roman
people, and the people often accorded this favor, sometimes they even
bestowed it upon a whole people at once. They created the Latins
citizens at one stroke; in 89 it was the turn of the Italians; in 46
the people of Cisalpine Gaul entered the body of citizens. All the
inhabitants of Italy thus became the equals of the Romans.
The slave could be manumitted by his master and soon became a citizen.
This is the reason why the Roman people, gradually exhausting
themselves, were renewed by accessions from the subjects and the
slaves. The number of the citizens was increased at every census; it
rose from 250,000 to 700,000. The Roman city, far from emptying itself
as did Sparta, replenished itself little by little from all those whom
it had conquered.
Pages:
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360