CHAP. VII. FROM THE TIME OF AUGUSTUS.

169

Romani census populi, quem Punica bella,

Quem dederat Perses, quem victi praeda Philippi,

Quod tibi, Roma, fuga Pyrrhus trepidante reliquit;Quod te Fabricius regi non vendidit auro ;

Quidquid parcorum mores servastis avorum ;

Quod dites Asise populi misere tributum,

Victorique dedit Mino'ia Creta Metello;

Quod Cato longinqua vexit super equora Cypro.

Tunc Orientis opes, captorumque ultima regum,

Quae Pompejanis praelata est, gaza, triumphis,

Egeritur : tristi spoliantur templa rapina ;

Pauperiorque fuit tunc primum Caesare Roma.

The treasure which Caesar had thus rudely seizedwas speedily returned to the treasury, as hasbeen already noticed in this inquiry, and withvery large additions. The events which followedhis death, though at first partaking of the natureof civil war, do not appear to have diminishedthe store; and it was amply replenished by hissuccessor Augustus, in part by conquest, but ina great degree by the systematic regularitywhich he gradually introduced into every de-partment of his extended government, but moreespecially into the finances.

A succession of favourable events had broughtto Rome the accumulated fruits of the laboursof mankind during a course of thousands ofyears. There had been a constant production,and but little consumption, of gold and silver.Although those metals had flowed to Rome asto the centre of the world, yet the arts and in-dustry of the provinces had regularly received