Rome's dealings with the new dependencies across the sea
did not follow the methods that had proved so successful in Italy. The Italian
peoples had been treated with great liberality. Rome regarded them as allies,
exempted them from certain taxes, and in many instances gave them Roman
citizenship. It did not seem possible to extend this wise policy to remote and
often barbarous lands beyond the borders of Italy. Rome adopted, instead, much
the same system of imperial rule that had been previously followed by Persia
and by Athens. She treated the foreign peoples from Spain to Asia as
subjects and made her conquered territories into provinces. [13] Their
inhabitants were compelled to pay tribute and to accept the oversight of Roman
officials.
[13] In 133 B.C. there were eight provinces—Sicily,
Sardinia and Corsica, Hither Spain, Farther Spain, Illyricum, Africa, Macedonia,
and Asia.
EVILS OF THE PROVINCIAL SYSTEM
As the Romans came more and more to relish the
opportunities for plunder afforded by a wealthy province, its inhabitants were
often wretchedly misgoverned. Many governors of the conquered lands were
corrupt and grasping men. They tried to wring all the money they could from
their helpless subjects. To the extortions of the governors must be added those
of the tax collectors, whose very name of "publican" [14] became a
byword for all that was rapacious and greedy. In this first effort to manage
the world she had won, Rome had certainly made a failure. A city-state could
not rule, with justice and efficiency, an empire.
[14] In the New Testament "publicans and
sinners" are mentioned side by side. See Matthew, ix, 10.
