19. This
interesting record is the copy of a treaty concluded with the
Carthaginians, in the year after the expulsion of the kings. It is not
mentioned by the Roman historians, because it decisively establishes a
fact which they studiously labour to conceal, that is, the weakness
and decline of the Roman power during the two centuries that followed
the abolition of royalty, when the power of the state was monopolized
by a vile aristocracy. In this treaty Rome negociates for the cities
of La'tium, as her dependencies, just as Carthage does for her subject
colonies. But in the course of the following century, Rome lost her
supremacy over the Latin cities, and being thus nearly excluded from
the coast, her navy was ruined.
20. At the commencement of the first Punic war, the Romans once more
began to prepare a fleet, and luckily obtained an excellent model in a
Carthaginian ship that had been driven ashore in a storm. 21. The
vessels used for war, were either long ships or banked galleys; the
former were not much used in the Punic wars, the latter being found
more convenient.
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