Our recognition of these striking points of resemblance between the Romans and ourselves has come from a comparative study of the political life of the two peoples.  But the likeness to each other of the Romans and Anglo-Saxons, especially in the matter of associating themselves together for a common object, is still more apparent in their methods of dealing with private affairs.  A characteristic and amusing illustration of the working of this tendency among the Romans is furnished by the early history of monasticism in the Roman world.  When the Oriental Christian had convinced himself of the vanity of the world, he said:  “It is the weakness of the flesh and the enticements of the wicked which tempt me to sin.  Therefore I will withdraw from the world and mortify the flesh.”  This is the spirit which drove him into the desert or the mountains, to live in a cave with a lion or a wolf for his sole companion.  This is the spirit which took St. Anthony into a solitary place in Egypt.  It led St. Simeon Stylites to secure a more perfect sense of aloofness from the world, and a greater security from contact with it by spending the last thirty years of his life on the top of a pillar near Antioch.  In the Western world, which was thoroughly imbued with the Roman spirit, the Christian who held the same view as his Eastern brother of the evil results flowing from intercourse with his fellow men, also withdrew from the world, but he withdrew in the company of a group of men who shared his opinions on the efficacy of a life of solitude.  A delightful instance of the triumph of the principle of association over logic or theory!  We Americans can understand perfectly the compelling force of the principle, even in such a case as this, and we should justify the Roman’s action on the score of practical common sense.  We have organizations for almost every conceivable political, social, literary, and economic purpose.  In fact, it would be hard to mention an object for which it would not be possible to organize a club, a society, a league, a guild, or a union.  In a similar way the Romans had organizations of capitalists and laborers, religious associations, political and social clubs, and leagues of veterans.

So far as organizations of capitalists are concerned, their history is closely bound up with that of imperialism.  They come to our notice for the first time during the wars with Carthage, when Rome made her earliest acquisitions outside of Italy.  In his account of the campaigns in Spain against Hannibal’s lieutenants, Livy tells us[101] of the great straits to which the Roman army was reduced for its pay, food, and clothing.  The need was urgent, but the treasury was empty, and the people poverty-stricken.  In this emergency the praetor called a public meeting, laid before it the situation in Spain, and, appealing to the joint-stock companies to come to the relief of the state, appointed a day when proposals could be made to furnish what was required by the army.