It was, however, not possible for the Stoics to condemn war. Some of the
more ardent and less practical humanitarians of the time did this, but
no alert Roman citizen could advocate the abolition of the legions. The
Empire was completely surrounded by barbarians who would rush in and
trample on its civilisation the moment the fence of spears was removed.
From the turreted walls in the north of England, where men watched the
Picts and Scots, to the deserts of Mesopotamia--from the banks of the
Danube and Rhine to the spurs of the Atlas--it was essential to maintain
those bronzed legions who guarded the civilised provinces from
marauders. With those outlying barbarians no treaty was possible or
sacred; no legal tribunal would have protected those frontiers from the
men who looked covetously on the fertile fields and comfortable cities
of the Roman provinces. From the first to the fourth century Rome
fought, not for its expansion, but for its preservation against these
increasing enemies; and it was the final intensification of the pressure
in the Danube region by the arrival of enormous hordes of barbarians
from Asia which precipitated the final catastrophe.
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