The course of some of the roads is uncertain, and the number would be increased or diminished according to the authority followed. The map gives, however, a fair picture of the Roman road system; it was, evidently, not so extensive as our modern railroad system.

The roads, however, seem to have served mainly Roman purposes, and the cities and culture depended mainly on Roman influence for their support. The mass of the people remained passive, and advanced slowly. Most of them lived by agriculture in the country districts, producing the things necessary for their own subsistence and a small surplus for the Roman tax-gatherer; they received for their surplus no wares which would have formed the basis of commerce. However much Rome did to efface the differences of race, language, and national tradition, such differences remained to hinder commerce; and peoples were still separated by great distances and by serious physical barriers. The commercial development of the West, though it may seem great in comparison with conditions in the following period of disorder, was very limited even at the height of Roman power.

29. Decline of Roman power and of commerce in the West.—The time came soon when the provincials could no longer look to Rome for protection and stimulus. In the third century, A.D., the Roman government began to go to pieces. It lacked the force to repress internal revolts in the provinces, and to repel the inroads of barbarians on the frontiers. The process of decline had already proceeded far before the “Fall of Rome” (476), when even the shadow of authority passed from the Roman Emperor of the West. The remnants of Roman rule centered henceforth about the eastern capital, Constantinople. In the West barbarian chieftains established government of a kind on the fragments of the Roman state, but endeavored in vain to follow the models which the Romans had set them. The motives to commerce grew weaker as Roman culture disappeared, and the obstacles to commerce increased rapidly with the decline in public order. Brigandage and piracy became more profitable than honest industry; roads and bridges deteriorated; the course of rivers was obstructed. Even a great ruler like Charlemagne, who had himself crowned Emperor in 800, could do little to stay the process of decline, and weaker successors could do still less. The last remnants of the Roman organization seemed to have passed away, and the European world passed into the “Dark Ages.”

QUESTIONS AND TOPICS

1. Endeavor to verify the statements in the text by studying the descriptions of Roman commerce in the current Roman histories. Ask the following questions of them. What wares, beside manuscript books and a few other items of no great importance, did the people of Rome produce for export? What wares beside food for the people and luxuries for the rich did they import?

2. Show how the taxes and tribute from conquered provinces can be regarded as war-insurance.

3. Write a report on the civilization and commerce of one of the provinces of the Roman Empire. [See Mommsen, Provinces, esp. vol. 1, chap. 7, Greek Europe; chap. 8, Asia Minor; vol. 2, chap. 12, Egypt; chap. 13, the African Provinces.]

4. Write a similar report on one of the provinces of the West. [Vol. 1, chap. 2, Spain; chap. 3, Gaul; chap. 4, Germany; chap. 5, Britain.]

5. Study the civilization of Roman Britain, distinguishing carefully the life of the upper (Roman) classes, and the life of the common people. What effect would this contrast of classes have on the extent and character of commerce in the Roman period? [Consult manuals of English history.]

6. Study the economic and political factors in the fall of Rome. [Cunningham, West. civ., vol. 1, p. 170 ff.; Adams, Civ., chap. 4.]