also, you can't really have public debt without banking. Any right winger in here know what type of society is founded on the ability to borrow against expected future income? Hint, it involves the word capital and didn't crop up for another many centuries. No way Cicero said this. Sorry fools.

is this quote accurate? What foreign assistance did Rome bestow on her neighbors? Rome was largely a plunder economy surrounded by client states, buffer kingdoms paying tribute. Plunder being somewhat antagonistic to foreign aid, buffering somewhat opposite dependency.