The Peril of the Republic of the United States of America - Percy T. Magan

Nice, the north of Italy, Illyria and Greece,
Sardinia, Sicily, and the Greek islands, the
southern and western shores of Asia Minor, were
Roman provinces, governed directly by Roman
magistrates. On the African side, Mauritania
(Morocco) was still free. Numidia (the modern
Algeria) retained its native dynasty, but was a
Roman dependency. The Carthaginian dominions,
Tunis and Tripoli, had been annexed to the empire.
The interior of Asia Minor up to the Euphrates,
with Syria and Egypt, were under sovereigns,
called allies, but like the native princes in India,
subject to a Roman protectorate. Over this
enormous territory, rich with the accumulated
treasures of centuries, and inhabited by thriving,
industrious races, the energetic Roman men of
business had spread and settled themselves,
gathering into their hands the trade, the financial
administration, the entire commercial control of the
Mediterranean basin. They had been trained in
thrift and economy, in abhorrence of debt, in
strictest habits of close and careful management.
Their frugal education, their early lessons in the
value of money, good and excellent as these
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