But the schemes of Eudoxus might have been renewed; the monopoly enjoyed by Egypt might have incited cities and not individuals to attempt opening the passage through the ocean to the East; and the discovery of Vasco de Gama might have been anticipated many centuries before by some citizen of Gades, if the course of political events had not put an end to all clashing of interests among the civilised states of the western world. The conquests of the Romans extended nearly over every country of which they had any knowledge:—from the Atlantic to the Persian Gulf, from Britain to Egypt, no sway was acknowledged but that of the imperial city. The jealousies engendered by separate interests were soon forgotten in the security of the empire; and the active cares of an enlightened government left the provinces little room to regret their turbulent independence. Egypt, the seat of the rich India trade, was made an imperial province; that is to say, it was administered under the immediate control of the emperor, without whose permission no Roman was allowed to enter that country, to hold property in land within it, or in any way to interfere with the rights of the natives. This cautious system saved that rich country from the spoliations to be apprehended from a succession of greedy governors, and from disturbances which might have diverted into other channels the trade with India.