Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers

Plutarch and the Greece of His Age
Rome to enjoy the doles distributed to the populace
the eighty thousand Romans put to
at stated intervals; to feast their eyes on the bloody
spectacles, so frequently and so magnificently given;
and to die, only to leave room to be filled by the con
stantly inflowing stream. The empire existed for
the City, its capital. We have already spoken of the
strange fascination it exercised over all who had once
been under its spell. We may safely assume that of
death by Mithridates
in his dominions, a considerable portion had
gone abroad in the hope of enriching themselves in
order to spend their gains in the capital. Doubtless,
too, so far afield, trade was less despised than at the
seat of government. The empire built, and for a
time kept in repair, those magnificent highways that
are still the admiration of all who see them.
But they
When
served military purposes almost exclusively.
no longer needed they were suffered to fall into de
cay. They were not constructed to facilitate com
mercial intercourse, and contributed little to the eco
nomic welfare of the empire. When the lack of
local improvements was sufficiently felt and the peo
ple were not too much impoverished, which was sel
dom the case, to bear the necessary financial burdens
these were undertaken by the local authorities. But
there is reason to believe that some of the provinces,
notably the Grecian, became poorer and poorer from
year to year. The capital drained the province; the
people lost heart, and gave themselves up to the apa
thy of indifference or despair.
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