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Excerpt from The Growth of Rome This small volume does not pretend to be more than an attempt to suggest some of the chief characteristics that give its significance to the story of ancient Rome. It is obvious that in such a sketch much must be omitted and that it is impossible to enter in detail into controversial questions. It is assumed that the reader has already read or will read with it one of the continuous histories which are accessible to English readers; Mommsen, Heitland, Myres, How and Leigh, and J. Wells for the Republic, and Bury and Stuart Jones for the Empire. It is a bold venture to try to bring within the compass of some eighty pages the main features of Roman history. Such an attempt involves vast omissions, and must at the best give a very imperfect impression of what ancient Rome has meant and still means in the history of the world but it may perhaps serve to interest readers unfamiliar with the story and stimulate them to further study. If so, its purpose will have been achieved. All that can be done within these narrow limits is to give some slight sketch of the process by which Rome acquired the mastery first over Italy and then over the Mediterranean, and of the means by which the Romans gained and secured their Empire to trace in some measure the secret of these successes, and to indicate the causes which ultimately' led to the dissolu tion of the great fabric of the Empire. The first chapter deals with the early history of Rome down to 266 B. C. The second with the period of foreign conquest, with its reaction on the politics and constitution of Rome the third with the decline of Senatorial government and with the period of revolution, and the fourth with the foundation and history of the Principate, from Augustus to Marcus Aurelius. Permission to reproduce the beautiful drawings by E. Lear, Francis Towne, John Robert Cozens, and Guy Head, we owe to the courtesy of the. Trustees of the British Museum. About the Publisher