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chap. in.
sive conquests of the countries in which theywere found. Carthage, Spain, Germany, Greece ,Asia, and Egypt , within little more than onehundred and forty years after the Romans hadpassed the Hellespont , became subject to theirpower. The mineral wealth of the world wasthus in a great degree, by the time Augustus had attained the imperial dignity, concentratedin his dominions; and his capital, which hadbecome the metropolis of the civilized world,was the focal point to which the gold and silverwere attracted, and from whence they were dis-tributed again to the several extremities of theempire, in that due proportion with which theirpowers of production enabled them to supply thenecessities or the luxuries of imperial Rome .