Maybe this chapter concludes ironically?
General Fronto, who had been a bit disturbed and momentarily uneasy at the prospect of many slaves becoming wage workers, reflects that the Emperor Marcus Aurelius is:
"...popular. With most of the upper classes...
"And with the masses, too, for what little that latter was worth." (p. 95)
This makes Fronto optimistic:
"Fronto smiled at the future, his own and the Empire's.
"Roma aeterna victrix! he thought. Imperium sine fine! Next...Parthia. After that...who knows?" (ibid.)
Who knows indeed? Sf readers think of interplanetary expansion and colonization. But another prospect is implicit. If masses of industrial workers wield their economic power in a struggle for social and political power, then the masses are worth more than a "little" and Fronto might frown at the future of Empire...
I can read this implication in the text but cannot be sure that it is the author's intention!
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