resources. But Rome

development of its natural knocked at the gates, and changed all this. She persuaded the local oligarchy in each country to deride with her derision all dream-stuff, such as patriotism, racial ideals, ancestral loyalties. Revenue was the thing around which all her life revolved, and she brought these others to the same way of thinking. Rome showed to the privileged class in each country that in competing amongst themselves they were likely to meet with the fate of the two men in the fable who, disputing with each other for the exclusive ownership of the beast, looked up to see the ass running away from both of them. The civil wars in Rome herself had had this as their motive, the patricians and plebs endlessly squabbling as to who should enjoy the wealth that was being created by the slave class. "Let us cease to exploit one another, and together exploit the working class," now was Rome's proposal.

The idea came at the psychological moment. The slave class, estimated by Gibbon at sixty millions - an entire half of the world's population was straining at all the hatches of the slaver and threatening at any moment to break out from the hold and win a share of the sunshine and open space up on deck. Rome had felt the pressure on her own hatchway even more than the other masters of the vessel. Her restive slave class was becoming more restive. She had erected a statue to "Quiet," and had tried the experiment of making Contentment into a religious cult. In vain. The seething at the bottom of society was becoming ever more turbulent. Spartacus, a few years before, had shown

how a revolt could be conducted, and the object lesson was fresh in mind, a star of hope in the sky of every slave, a portent in the sky of every owner of slaves. Escaping with his companions from the slave stable at Capua, where they were being fattened for the amphitheatre, he had entrenched himself in the crater of an extinct volcano. From thence he issued a proclamation of universal freedom. Slaves from plantations round about flocked to his standard. He became the head of a revolution. Rome sent armies against him one after another, only to see them come back defeated. For two interminable years Spartacus maintained the war. At last he was destroyed, but not until he had struck chill into the spinal jelly of every owner of human flesh in the Roman state. Furthermore, there was constant fear lest there might arise more fools like the Gracchi, patrician traitors to their class, and incite the populace to demands of justice. A measure had been proposed in the Roman Senate to dress slaves in a uniform livery, so as to distinguish them from freemen. It was killed straightway by the argument that this would disclose to the slaves their numerical strength. We can credit Tacitus, therefore, when he says that the fear of slave insurrection was chronic. Nor was this confined to Rome. In every state of the ancient world there was a proletary restlessness cursings that were loud, the deep rumble and mutterings of a storm about to break.

Accordingly, Rome's proposal of a league of the capitalist class everywhere was greeted with instant favour. And the empire was formed. It was an Intimidation Trust, Rome, as promoter of the new cor

poration, being its master spirit and taking a promoter's profit. It was an oligarchy of oligarchies. Formerly each of them had maintained an army of its own. Now these were rolled into one, with an Imperator at its head. By means of uniform dress, weapons, tactics, and organization, the united armies were disciplined into a fighting unit of high efficiency. Great causeways were built, for celerity in mobilizing the legions. These roads were paved with flat stones, so as to make for swift marching. They were carried straight across the landscape, cutting through mountains, and carrying over valleys on great archways. No expense was spared in shortening distances the reach of the entire military force into the district of every member of the Corporation, was the heart of the system. Let a local prince or princeling in any part of the empire send in a call for help against his mutinous subjects, within forty-eight hours there would glitter on the horizon the spear flash of the gathering legions, bearing down upon that spot from every quarter of the world.

Cleveland's "the cohesion of wealth," is modern. But the thing itself is ancient. The tendency of the families of wealth in every country to form a class by themselves, is deep-set in the human makeup. Rome carried the tendency one step further she cemented the moneyed class in the various countries into an international combine. "Peace and order" were at last secure. An antitoxin against insomnia had been devised. Slave owners could now lay their heads on their pillows at night, without the fear of insurrection gnawing them through the night-watches. An uprising of the toiling

masses, no matter how formidable, could be handled. Upon a rebellious district could be mobilized in shortest time six and twenty legions. The machinery of intimidation was complete. Man was undermost, and property paramount. The "Golden Age" — - literally -set in. The Roman Empire, that apotheosis of property rights, fastened itself upon the world. Embracing all nations and tongues and climates, a motley crew, they had one cohering principle which swallowed up their diversities — the coherence of a common plunder.

CHAPTER II

WORKING-CLASS GALILEE

AS HAS been stated, the extension of the Roman "System" to include the Jews, a sturdy mountaineer folk in the hill country of Syria, met there a vehement opposition. And in Galilee, one of the districts of the Jews, the most vehemency of all. This Galilee, restive under every domination, was famed for the intense spirit of its inhabitants. Josephus as a general had carried on military operations there, and later as a historian was moved to bear testimony to the valour of her people. In this she differed from the other Palestine district, Judea, and its capital city, Jerusalem. Because Jerusalem was the home of the country's aristocracy, we read of the Bethlehem event: "When Herod, the king, had heard these things he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him." Like the local aristocracies in all the other countries of the world, these had lined up with the Romans-were federated with the invader. When Pompey, some years before this, had marched against Jerusalem, the high priests there, representing the local ruling caste, had opened the gates to him. Galilee, a working-class district, was left therefore as the sole leader of the popular cause. The fight is always hottest where the lines come closest together; and the controversy between horny-handed Galilee and the