History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c33.s6.21

v3.c33.s6.21

The natural impulse to "assign fortune of Rome as the cause of the misfortune of Greece" had to be first overcome in the manner in which Polybius a great historian of the Greeks did it by showing the deep foundations of the greatness of Rome. "The unique constitution of Rome which united the freedom of popular assemblies with the wisdom of a senate and the executive powers of a regal magistrate, the oath of military service of ten years imposed on every citizen in the cause of the country which continually poured into the field young freemen and soldiers, the military system of Rome with its remarkable legion superior in active strength to the Macedonian phalanx, these institutions of peace and war explain according to Polybius the success of a people incapable of fear and impatient of repose. The ambitious design of conquering the world was attempted and achieved and the perpetual vjolation of justice was maintained by the political virtues of prudence and courage". But even this great world empire declined and fell. "It was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay. The causes of destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest. The victorious legions in distant wars acquired the vices of mercenaries and first oppressed the republic and then violated the purple. The emperors were reduced to the expedient of corrupting the discipline which rendered the legions formidable alike to the enemy and the sovereign, the vigour of the military government was relaxed and the Roman world was overwhelmed by a deluge of barbarians".