legion, and a new lesson was learned in the art of war.

[Sidenote: Results of the Fall of Tarentum.]

[Sidenote: The Romans complete masters of Italy.]

The Romans, by the fall of Tarentum, were now the undisputed masters of
Italy, and had made the first great step towards the conquest of the
world. The city of Romulus was now four hundred and eighty years old,
and the national domain extended from the Ciminian wood in Etruria to
the middle of the Campania. It was called the Ager Romanus, in which was
a population of two hundred and ninety-three thousand men capable of
bearing arms; and the citizens of the various conquered cities, who had
served certain magistracies in them, were enrolled among Roman citizens,
with all the rights to which the citizens of the capital were entitled,--
absolute authority over wife, children, and slaves, security from
capital punishment except by a vote of the people, or under military
authority in the camp, access to all the honors and employments of the
state, the right of suffrage, and the possession of Quirinal property.
They felt themselves to be allies of Rome, and henceforward lent
efficient aid in war. To all practical intents, they were Romans as
completely as the inhabitants of Marseilles are French. Tarentum,
Neapolis, Tibur, Praeneste, and other large cities, enjoyed peculiar
privileges; but armed garrisons were maintained in them, under the form
of colonies. The administration of them was organized after the model of
Rome. Military roads were constructed between all places of importance.

[Sidenote: The virtues of eminent Patricians.]

The same sterling virtues which characterized the absolute rule of the