The wretched provincials had
paid their taxes to Rome in exchange for promised defence, and no defence
was provided.[4] The revenue which ought to have been spent on the
protection of the Empire a few patricians were dividing among themselves.
The pirates had even marts in different islands, where their prisoners
were sold to the slave-dealers; and for fifteen years nothing was done or
even attempted to put an end to so preposterous an enormity. The ease with
which these buccaneers of the old world were eventually suppressed proved
conclusively that they existed by connivance. It was discovered at last
that large sums had been sent regularly from Crete to some of the most
distinguished members of the aristocracy. The Senate was again the same
body which it was found by Jugurtha, and the present generation were
happier than their fathers in that larger and richer fields were now open
to their operation.
While the pirates were at work on the extremities, the senators in the
provinces were working systematically, squeezing the people as one might
squeeze a sponge of all the wealth that could be drained out of them.
After the failure of Lepidus the elections in Rome were wholely in the
Senate's hands. Such independence as had not been crushed was corrupted.
The aristocracy divided the consulships, praetorships, and quaestorships
among themselves, and after the year of office the provincial prizes were
then distributed.
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