it is equally true that Rome anticipated all that is sometimes
called the anarchy of Paris. The expansion of the Roman Empire
was accompanied by a sort of permanent Roman Revolution, fully as
furious as the French Revolution. So long as the Roman system was
really strong, it was full of riots and mobs and democratic divisions;
and any number of Bastilles fell as the temple of the victories rose.
But though I had but a hurried glance at such things, there were
among them some that further aided the solution of the problem.
I saw the larger achievements of the later Romans; and the lesson
that was still lacking was plainly there. I saw the Coliseum,
a monument of that love of looking on at athletic sports,
which is noted as a sign of decadence in the Roman Empire and
of energy in the British Empire. I saw the Baths of Caracalla,
witnessing to a cult of cleanliness, adduced also to prove the luxury
of Ancient Romans and the simplicity of Anglo-Saxons. All it
really proves either way is a love of washing on a large scale;
which might merely indicate that Caracalla, like other Emperors,
was a lunatic. But indeed what such things do indicate,
if only indirectly, is something which is here much more important.
They indicate not only a sincerity in the public spirit,
but a certain smoothness in the public services. In a word,
while there were many revolutions, there were no strikes.
The citizens were often rebels; but there were men who were not rebels,
because they were not citizens. The ancient world forced a number
of people to do the work of the world first, before it allowed
more privileged people to fight about the government of the world.
The truth is trite enough, of course; it is in the single word Slavery,
which is not the name of a crime like Simony, but rather of a scheme
like Socialism. Sometimes very like Socialism.