Now ever since the Roman dominion was extended beyond sea, i.e.ever since the first two Punic wars, the father of a family must often have been away from home for long periods; he might have to serve in foreign wars for years together, and in numberless cases never saw Italy again.

Even if he remained in Rome, the ever increasing business of the State would occupy him far more than was compatible with a constant personal care for his children.

The conscientious Roman father of the last two centuries B.C.must have felt even more keenly than English parents in India the sorrow of parting from their children at an age when they are most in need of parental care.

We have to remember that in Cicero's day letter-writing had only recently become possible on an extended scale through the increasing business of the publicani in the provinces (see above, p.
74); the Roman father in Spain or Asia seldom heard of what his wife and children were doing, and the inevitable result was that he began to cease to care.

In fact more and more came to depend on the mothers, as with our own hard-working professional classes; and we have seen reason to believe that in the last age of the Republic the average mother was not too often a conscientious or dutiful woman.