ABSTRACT
This great and rapid transformation of social life and conditions entailed corresponding adjustments in the sphere of politics. It was inevitable from the first that Sulla's settlement should be merely temporary and provisional. As the old generation passed away from the scene, the classes and parties which had contended so violently but a few years before, laid aside their animosities and drew together almost unconsciously in a common mood of conciliation. The Italian middle class learnt to abate the revolutionary and anti-Roman enthusiasm which had involved their country in the miseries of the Social War and driven hundreds of their countrymen to join the army of Mithridates. The healing process of time and the general increase and diffusion of prosperity slowly appeased the agitation of a class which had long been devoted to Roman interests and was imbued with Italian patriotism and Italian good sense. As they planted their vines and olives, built farms and cottages, bought slaves out of their savings, or enlisted in the legions, the small landlords and labourers, the merchants and contractors all over Italy became the supporters, sometimes even the devoted partisans, of order and the established authority. They forgot the great services which the Revolution had rendered to their cause; they branded as traitors the many enthusiasts of the preceding generation whom distress and persecution had driven to the banners of Mithridates; they abandoned Sertorius, the last surviving champion of the Marian party and the revolutionary movement. A few trifling successes over Sertorius were enough to win Pompey a lasting popularity in all parts of the peninsula.
