text:  What a subject for reflection is presented in this single paragraph! Rome without any knowledge of siege equipage thrown in the midst of the Italian states bristling with strongholds; and slowly learning during centuries of indecisive and often calamitous contests that military art by which she was afterwards to subdue the world! It was in like manner in the long bloody and nearly balanced contests of the Grecian republics with each other that the discipline was learned which gave Alexander and the Macedonian phalanx the empire of Asia; and in the protracted struggles of the Anglo-Saxons first with each other in the Heptarchy and then with the Danes and Normans in defence of their coasts that the foundation was laid of the energy and perseverance which have given the British race their present eminence and dominion among men