"It was not by accident or without knowing what they were doing that the

Romans boldly struck out for universal dominion and rule--and accompIished

their aim." The words were penned by the Greek historian Polybius writing at the

conclusion of more than a century of Roman expansion and conquest. By 134 B.c.

that lengthy but concentrated burst of activity had made Rome the unchallenged

mistress of the Mediterranean. To Polybius, who observed a dominion that was

secure and to all appearances complete, it was all logical and obvious. Fate had

willed it; Rome had executed it.

Hindsight is the most seductive of historical faculties--and the most misleading.

In 265, before Rome s first overseas venture, few Romans would have predicted or

anticipated the conversion of the Mediterranean into a Roman lake. The "mani-

fest destiny" might be acknowledged in retrospect; it was not postulated in ad-

vance. Imperium is a Latin word, but imperialism is a modern concept. The differ-

ence is significant and revealing. Rome created an empire, but she did not theorize

about it. Wars needed to be justified, for the gods could not condone aggressive

hostilities unless undertaken out of self-defense. But dominion following upon con-

quest was taken for granted. It received no elaborate explanations and elicited few

misgivings. Cicero might criticize Asia for groaning under the burden of Roman

taxes when Rome had brought peace and security to an area torn by endemic civil

strife. But that too was hindsight. Similarly, when Virgil wrote that Rome s mission

was "to spare the subjected and humble the haughty," he was looking upon an

empire already fully formed. But Rome had launched her expansion without

missionary zeal, without a self-conscious plan to civilize the world, without the

comforting illusion of a "white man s burden." Nineteenth-century Britain may

have been buoyed by a sense of superiority, a drive to bring superior culture to the

"underdeveloped." Rome embarked on expansion with no such ambitions or illu-

sions. The civilization of Carthage was at least as old as that of Rome. Greek

civilization was much older. The Roman sense of superiority was the product of,

not the motive for, war and conquest.