Excerpt from Stories From the History of Italy, in a Connected Series, From the Invasion of Alaric to the Present Time<br><br>Yearly two consuls, who acted as their magistrates and generals. Under their republican government the Romans became the most warlike people on the earth: they not only conquered the whole of Italy, but great part of Europe, Asia, and Africa. At length, having made themselves sovereigns of the world, the death-blow to their liberty was given by Julius Caesar, who became actual monarch while he professed no aim but the support of the republic. Brutus, and a few bold friends of freedom, conspired to slay Caesar for the sake of ridding their country of an absolute master; but the Spirit of the Roman people had become too much debased to enable them to make a proper use of the advantages of liberty; and the death of Caesar only opened a way for a succession of emperors, equally absolute, and more tyrannical.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.