The basic fact was that outside the Roman senate and equestrian class there was precious little liberty going about. Writers on the early empire were wont to lament the ‘loss’ of Republican freedoms. Yet the senate and equestrians did not share that freedom with their fellow Romans, nor with the Italians and certainly not with the provincials. Almost without exception every part of Italy was better off under the rule of the Caesars than it was in the last century of the Republic.
