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diff --git a/old/10706.txt b/old/10706.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..099093d --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10706.txt @@ -0,0 +1,90574 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The History of Rome (Volumes 1-5), by Theodor +Mommsen, Translated by William Purdie Dickson + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The History of Rome (Volumes 1-5) + +Author: Theodor Mommsen + +Release Date: March 16, 2005 [eBook #10706] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY OF ROME (VOLUMES +1-5)*** + + +E-text prepared by David Ceponis + + + +Note: This e-book is a compilation of the five volumes of this work. + Each volume is also available individually in the Project + Gutenberg library. + Book I: The Period Anterior to the Abolition of the Monarchy + See https://www.gutenberg.org/etext/10701 + Book II: From the Abolition of the Monarchy in Rome to the + Union of Italy + See https://www.gutenberg.org/etext/10702 + Book III: From the Union of Italy to the Subjugation of Carthage + and the Greek States + See https://www.gutenberg.org/etext/10703 + Book IV: The Revolution + See https://www.gutenberg.org/etext/10704 + Book V: The Establishment of the Military Monarchy + See https://www.gutenberg.org/etext/10705 + + The original German version of this work, Roemische Geschichte, + is also available in the Project Gutenberg library. + Erstes Buch: bis zur Abschaffung des roemischen Koenigtums + See https://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3060 + Zweites Buch: von der Abschaffung des roemischen Keonigtums bis + zur Einigung Italiens + See https://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3061 + Drittes Buch: von der Einigung Italiens bis auf die Unterwerfung + Karthagos und der griechischen Staaten + See https://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3062 + Viertes Buch: Die Revolution + See https://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3063 + Fuenftes Buch: Die Begruendung der Militaermonarchie + See https://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3064 + + + + + +THE HISTORY OF ROME + +by + +THEODOR MOMMSEN + +Translated with the Sanction of the Author + +by + +William Purdie Dickson, D.D., LL.D. +Professor of Divinity in the University of Glasgow + +A New Edition Revised Throughout and Embodying Recent Additions + + + + + + +DEDICATIONS + + +The First Volume of the original bears the inscription:-- + +To My Friend + +MORIZ HAUPT of Berin + +The Second:-- + +To My Dear Associates + +FERDINAND HITZIG of Zurich + +and + +KARL LUDWIG of Vienna 1852, 1853, 1854 + +And the Third:-- + +Dedicated with Old and Loyal Affection to + +OTTO JAHN of Bonn + + + + +CONTENTS + +BOOK I: The Period Anterior to the Abolition of the Monarchy + + CHAPTER + + I. Introduction + + II. The Earliest Migrations into Italy + + III. The Settlements of the Latins + + IV. The Beginnings of Rome + + V. The Original Constitution of Rome + + VI. The Non-Burgesses and the Reformed Constitution + + VII. The Hegemony of Rome in Latium + + VIII. The Umbro-Sabellian Stocks--Beginnings of the Samnites + + IX. The Etruscans + + X. The Hellenes in Italy--Maritime Supremacy of the Tuscans + and Carthaginians + + XI. Law and Justice + + XII. Religion + + XIII. Agriculture, Trade, and Commerce + + XIV. Measuring and Writing + + XV. Art + + +BOOK II: From the Abolition of the Monarchy in Rome to the Union + of Italy + + CHAPTER + + I. Change of the Constitution--Limitation of the Power of the + Magistrate + + II. The Tribunate of the Plebs and the Decemvirate + + III. The Equalization of the Orders, and the New Aristocracy + + IV. Fall of the Etruscan Power--the Celts + + V. Subjugation of the Latins and Campanians by Rome + + VI. Struggle of the Italians against Rome + + VII. Struggle Between Pyrrhus and Rome, and Union of Italy + + VIII. Law--Religion--Military System--Economic Condition--Nationality + + IX. Art and Science + + +BOOK III: From the Union of Italy to the Subjugation of Carthage + and the Greek States + + CHAPTER + + I. Carthage + + II. The War between Rome and Carthage Concerning Sicily + + III. The Extension of Italy to Its Natural Boundaries + + IV. Hamilcar and Hannibal + + V. The War under Hannibal to the Battle of Cannae + + VI. The War under Hannibal from Cannae to Zama + + VII. The West from the Peace of Hannibal to the Close + of the Third Period + + VIII. The Eastern States and the Second Macedonian War + + IX. The War with Antiochus of Asia + + X. The Third Macedonian War + + XI. The Government and the Governed + + XII. The Management of Land and of Capital + + XIII. Faith and Manners + + XIV. Literature and Art + + +BOOK IV: The Revolution + + CHAPTER + + I. The Subject Countries Down to the Times of the Gracchi + + II. The Reform Movement and Tiberius Gracchus + + III. The Revolution and Gaius Gracchus + + IV. The Rule of the Restoration + + V. The Peoples of the North + + VI. The Attempt of Marius at Revolution and the Attempt + of Drusus at Reform + + VII. The Revolt of the Italian Subjects, and the Sulpician + Revolution + + VIII. The East and King Mithradates + + IX. Cinna and Sulla + + X. The Sullan Constitution + + XI. The Commonwealth and Its Economy + + XII. Nationality, Religion, and Education + + XIII. Literature and Art + + +BOOK V: The Establishment of the Military Monarchy + + CHAPTER + + I. Marcus Lepidus and Quintus Sertorius + + II. Rule of the Sullan Restoration + + III. The Fall of the Oligarchy and the Rule of Pompeius + + IV. Pompeius and the East + + V. The Struggle of Parties during the Absence of Pompeius + + VI. Retirement of Pompeius and Coalition of the Pretenders + + VII. The Subjugation of the West + + VIII. The Joint Rule of Pompeius and Caesar + + IX. Death of Crassus--Rupture between the Joint Rulers + + X. Brundisium, Ilerda, Pharsalus, and Thapsus + + XI. The Old Republic and the New Monarchy + + XII. Religion, Culture, Literature, and Art + + + + * * * * * + + + +THE HISTORY OF ROME: BOOK I + +The Period Anterior to the Abolition of the Monarchy + + + + +Preparer's Note + + +This work contains many literal citations of and references to foreign +words, sounds, and alphabetic symbols drawn from many languages, +including Gothic and Phoenician, but chiefly Latin and Greek. This +English Gutenberg edition, constrained to the characters of 7-bit +ASCII code, adopts the following orthographic conventions: + +1) Except for Greek, all literally cited non-English words that +do not refer to texts cited as academic references, words that in +the source manuscript appear italicized, are rendered with a single +preceding, and a single following dash; thus, -xxxx-. + +2) Greek words, first transliterated into Roman alphabetic equivalents, +are rendered with a preceding and a following double-dash; thus, +--xxxx--. Note that in some cases the root word itself is a compound +form such as xxx-xxxx, and is rendered as --xxx-xxx-- + +3) Simple unideographic references to vocalic sounds, single +letters, or alphabeic dipthongs; and prefixes, suffixes, and syllabic +references are represented by a single preceding dash; thus, -x, +or -xxx. + +4) (Especially for the complex discussion of alphabetic evolution +in Ch. XIV: Measuring and Writing). Ideographic references, +meaning pointers to the form of representation itself rather than +to its content, are represented as -"id:xxxx"-. "id:" stands for +"ideograph", and indicates that the reader should form a picture +based on the following "xxxx"; which may be a single symbol, a +word, or an attempt at a picture composed of ASCII characters. E. +g. --"id:GAMMA gamma"-- indicates an uppercase Greek gamma-form +followed by the form in lowercase. Some such exotic parsing as +this is necessary to explain alphabetic development because a single +symbol may have been used for a number of sounds in a number of +languages, or even for a number of sounds in the same language at +different times. Thus, -"id:GAMMA gamma" might very well refer to +a Phoenician construct that in appearance resembles the form that +eventually stabilized as an uppercase Greek "gamma" juxtaposed to +one of lowercase. Also, a construct such as --"id:E" indicates +a symbol that with ASCII resembles most closely a Roman uppercase +"E", but, in fact, is actually drawn more crudely. + +5) Dr. Mommsen has given his dates in terms of Roman usage, A.U.C.; +that is, from the founding of Rome, conventionally taken to be 753 +B. C. The preparer of this document has appended to the end of +this combined text (Books I-V) a table of conversion between the +two systems. + + + + +PREFACE BY THE TRANSLATOR + + +When the first portion of this translation appeared in 1861, it was +accompanied by a Preface, for which I was indebted to the kindness +of the late Dr. Schmitz, introducing to the English reader the +work of an author whose name and merits, though already known to +scholars, were far less widely familiar than they are now. After +thirty-three years such an introduction is no longer needed, but +none the less gratefully do I recall how much the book owed at the +outset to Dr. Schmitz's friendly offices. + +The following extracts from my own "Prefatory Note" dated "December +1861" state the circumstances under which I undertook the translation, +and give some explanations as to its method and aims:-- + +"In requesting English scholars to receive with indulgence this first +portion of a translation of Dr. Mommsen's 'Romische Geschichte,' +I am somewhat in the position of Albinus; who, when appealing to +his readers to pardon the imperfections of the Roman History which +he had written in indifferent Greek, was met by Cato with the +rejoinder that he was not compelled to write at all--that, if the +Amphictyonic Council had laid their commands on him, the case would +have been different--but that it was quite out of place to ask the +indulgence of his readers when his task had been self-imposed. I +may state, however, that I did not undertake this task, until +I had sought to ascertain whether it was likely to be taken up by +any one more qualified to do justice to it. When Dr. Mommsen's +work accidentally came into my hands some years after its first +appearance, and revived my interest in studies which I had long +laid aside for others more strictly professional, I had little doubt +that its merits would have already attracted sufficient attention +amidst the learned leisure of Oxford to induce some of her great +scholars to clothe it in an English dress. But it appeared on +inquiry that, while there was a great desire to see it translated, +and the purpose of translating it had been entertained in more +quarters than one, the projects had from various causes miscarried. +Mr. George Robertson published an excellent translation (to which, +so far as it goes, I desire to acknowledge my obligations) of the +introductory chapters on the early inhabitants of Italy; but other +studies and engagements did not permit him to proceed with it. I +accordingly requested and obtained Dr. Mommsen's permission to +translate his work. + +"The translation has been prepared from the third edition of the +original, published in the spring of the present year at Berlin. +The sheets have been transmitted to Dr. Mommsen, who has kindly +communicated to me such suggestions as occurred to him. I have +thus been enabled, more especially in the first volume, to correct +those passages where I had misapprehended or failed to express the +author's meaning, and to incorporate in the English work various +additions and corrections which do not appear in the original. + +"In executing the translation I have endeavoured to follow the original +as closely as is consistent with a due regard to the difference of +idiom. Many of our translations from the German are so literal as +to reproduce the very order of the German sentence, so that they +are, if not altogether unintelligible to the English reader, at +least far from readable, while others deviate so entirely from the +form of the original as to be no longer translations in the proper +sense of the term. I have sought to pursue a middle course between +a mere literal translation, which would be repulsive, and a loose +paraphrase, which would be in the case of such a work peculiarly +unsatisfactory. Those who are most conversant with the difficulties +of such a task will probably be the most willing to show forbearance +towards the shortcomings of my performance, and in particular towards +the too numerous traces of the German idiom, which, on glancing +over the sheets, I find it still to retain. + +"The reader may perhaps be startled by the occurrence now and then +of modes of expression more familiar and colloquial than is usually +the case in historical works. This, however, is a characteristic +feature of the original, to which in fact it owes not a little +of its charm. Dr. Mommsen often uses expressions that are not +to be found in the dictionary, and he freely takes advantage of +the unlimited facilities afforded by the German language for the +coinage or the combination of words. I have not unfrequently, in +deference to his wishes, used such combinations as 'Carthagino-Sicilian,' +'Romano-Hellenic,' although less congenial to our English idiom, +for the sake of avoiding longer periphrases. + +"In Dr. Mommsen's book, as in every other German work that has +occasion to touch on abstract matters, there occur sentences couched +in a peculiar terminology and not very susceptible of translation. +There are one or two sentences of this sort, more especially in +the chapter on Religion in the 1st volume, and in the critique of +Euripides as to which I am not very confident that I have seized +or succeeded in expressing the meaning. In these cases I have +translated literally. + +"In the spelling of proper names I have generally adopted the Latin +orthography as more familiar to scholars in this country, except +in cases where the spelling adopted by Dr. Mommsen is marked by any +special peculiarity. At the same time entire uniformity in this +respect has not been aimed at. + +"I have ventured in various instances to break up the paragraphs of +the original and to furnish them with additional marginal headings, +and have carried out more fully the notation of the years B.C. on +the margin. + +"It is due to Dr. Schmitz, who has kindly encouraged me in +this undertaking, that I should state that I alone am responsible +for the execution of the translation. Whatever may be thought of +it in other respects, I venture to hope that it may convey to the +English reader a tolerably accurate impression of the contents and +general spirit of the book." + +In a new Library edition, which appeared in 1868, I incorporated all +the additions and alterations which were introduced in the fourth +edition of the German, some of which were of considerable importance; +and I took the opportunity of revising the translation, so as to +make the rendering more accurate and consistent. + +Since that time no change has been made, except the issue in 1870 +of an Index. But, as Dr. Mommsen was good enough some time ago +to send to me a copy in which he had taken the trouble to mark the +alterations introduced in the more recent editions of the original, +I thought it due to him and to the favour with which the translation +had been received that I should subject it to such a fresh revision +as should bring it into conformity with the last form (eighth +edition) of the German, on which, as I learn from him, he hardly +contemplates further change. As compared with the first English +edition, the more considerable alterations of addition, omission, +or substitution amount, I should think, to well-nigh a hundred pages. +I have corrected various errors in renderings, names, and dates +(though not without some misgiving that others may have escaped +notice or been incurred afresh); and I have still further broken +up the text into paragraphs and added marginal headings. + +The Index, which was not issued for the German book till nine years +after the English translation was published, has now been greatly +enlarged from its more recent German form, and has been, at the +expenditure of no small labour, adapted to the altered paging of +the English. I have also prepared, as an accompaniment to it, a +collation of pagings, which will materially facilitate the finding of +references made to the original or to the previous English editions. + +I have had much reason to be gratified by the favour with which +my translation has been received on the part alike of Dr. Mommsen +himself and of the numerous English scholars who have made it the +basis of their references to his work.(1) I trust that in the +altered form and new dress, for which the book is indebted to the +printers, it may still further meet the convenience of the reader. + +September 1894. + + + + +Notes for Preface + + + +1. It has, I believe, been largely in use at Oxford for the last +thirty years; but it has not apparently had the good fortune to +have come to the knowledge of the writer of an article on "Roman +History" published in the Encyclopedia Britannica in 1886, which at +least makes no mention of its existence, or yet of Mr. Baring-Gould, +who in his Tragedy of the Caesars (vol. 1. p. 104f.) has presented +Dr. Mommsen's well-known "character" of Caesar in an independent +version. His rendering is often more spirited than accurate. While +in several cases important words, clauses, or even sentences, are +omitted, in others the meaning is loosely or imperfectly conveyed--e.g. +in "Hellenistic" for "Hellenic"; "success" for "plenitude of power"; +"attempts" or "operations" for "achievements"; "prompt to recover" +for "ready to strike"; "swashbuckler" for "brilliant"; "many" for +"unyielding"; "accessible to all" for "complaisant towards every +one"; "smallest fibre" for "Inmost core"; "ideas" for "ideals"; +"unstained with blood" for "as bloodless as possible"; "described" +for "apprehended"; "purity" for "clearness"; "smug" for "plain" +(or homely); "avoid" for "avert"; "taking his dark course" for +"stealing towards his aim by paths of darkness"; "rose" for "transformed +himself"; "checked everything like a praetorian domination" for +"allowed no hierarchy of marshals or government of praetorians +to come into existence"; and in one case the meaning is exactly +reversed, when "never sought to soothe, where he could not cure, +intractable evils" stands for "never disdained at least to mitigate +by palliatives evils that were incurable." + + + + +INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY DR. MOMMSEN + + + +The Varronian computation by years of the City is retained in the +text; the figures on the margin indicate the corresponding year +before the birth of Christ. + +In calculating the corresponding years, the year 1 of the City has +been assumed as identical with the year 753 B.C., and with Olymp. +6, 4; although, if we take into account the circumstance that the +Roman solar year began with the 1st day of March, and the Greek +with the 1st day of July, the year 1 of the City would, according +to more exact calculation, correspond to the last ten months of 753 +and the first two months of 752 B.C., and to the last four months +of Ol. 6, 3 and the first eight of Ol. 6, 4. + +The Roman and Greek money has uniformly been commuted on the basis +of assuming the libral as and sestertius, and the denarius and +Attic drachma, respectively as equal, and taking for all sums above +100 denarii the present value in gold, and for all sums under 100 +denarii the present value in silver, of the corresponding weight. +The Roman pound (=327.45 grammes) of gold, equal to 4000 sesterces, +has thus, according to the ratio of gold to silver 1:15.5, been +reckoned at 304 1/2 Prussian thalers [about 43 pounds sterling], +and the denarius, according to the value of silver, at 7 Prussian +groschen [about 8d.].(1) + +Kiepert's map will give a clearer idea of the military consolidation +of Italy than can be conveyed by any description. + +1. I have deemed it, in general, sufficient to give the value of +the Roman money approximately in round numbers, assuming for that +purpose 100 sesterces as equivalent to 1 pound sterling.--TR. + + + + +CONTENTS + +BOOK I: The Period Anterior to the Abolition of the Monarchy + + CHAPTER + + I. Introduction + + II. The Earliest Migrations into Italy + + III. The Settlements of the Latins + + IV. The Beginnings of Rome + + V. The Original Constitution of Rome + + VI. The Non-Burgesses and the Reformed Constitution + + VII. The Hegemony of Rome in Latium + + VIII. The Umbro-Sabellian Stocks--Beginnings of the Samnites + + IX. The Etruscans + + X. The Hellenes in Italy--Maritime Supremacy of the Tuscans + and Carthaginians + + XI. Law and Justice + + XII. Religion + + XIII. Agriculture, Trade, and Commerce + + XIV. Measuring and Writing + + XV. Art + + + + +BOOK FIRST + +The Period Anterior to the Abolition of the Monarchy + + + + +--Ta palaiotera saphos men eurein dia chronou pleithos adunata +ein ek de tekmeirion on epi makrotaton skopounti moi pisteusai +xumbainei ou megala nomizo genesthai oute kata tous polemous oute +es ta alla.-- + +Thucydides. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +Introduction + + + +Ancient History + + +The Mediterranean Sea with its various branches, penetrating far +into the great Continent, forms the largest gulf of the ocean, +and, alternately narrowed by islands or projections of the land and +expanding to considerable breadth, at once separates and connects +the three divisions of the Old World. The shores of this inland +sea were in ancient times peopled by various nations belonging in +an ethnographical and philological point of view to different races, +but constituting in their historical aspect one whole. This historic +whole has been usually, but not very appropriately, entitled the +history of the ancient world. It is in reality the history of +civilization among the Mediterranean nations; and, as it passes +before us in its successive stages, it presents four great phases +of development--the history of the Coptic or Egyptian stock dwelling +on the southern shore, the history of the Aramaean or Syrian nation +which occupied the east coast and extended into the interior of +Asia as far as the Euphrates and Tigris, and the histories of the +twin-peoples, the Hellenes and Italians, who received as their heritage +the countries on the European shore. Each of these histories was +in its earlier stages connected with other regions and with other +cycles of historical evolution; but each soon entered on its own +distinctive career. The surrounding nations of alien or even of +kindred extraction--the Berbers and Negroes of Africa, the Arabs, +Persians, and Indians of Asia, the Celts and Germans of Europe--came +into manifold contact with the peoples inhabiting the borders of +the Mediterranean, but they neither imparted unto them nor received +from them any influences exercising decisive effect on their +respective destinies. So far, therefore, as cycles of culture admit +of demarcation at all, the cycle which has its culminating points +denoted by the names Thebes, Carthage, Athens, and Rome, may be +regarded as an unity. The four nations represented by these names, +after each of them had attained in a path of its own a peculiar +and noble civilization, mingled with one another in the most varied +relations of reciprocal intercourse, and skilfully elaborated and +richly developed all the elements of human nature. At length their +cycle was accomplished. New peoples who hitherto had only laved +the territories of the states of the Mediterranean, as waves lave +the beach, overflowed both its shores, severed the history of its +south coast from that of the north, and transferred the centre of +civilization from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean. The +distinction between ancient and modern history, therefore, is no +mere accident, nor yet a mere matter of chronological convenience. +What is called modern history is in reality the formation of a new +cycle of culture, connected in several stages of its development +with the perishing or perished civilization of the Mediterranean +states, as this was connected with the primitive civilization of +the Indo-Germanic stock, but destined, like the earlier cycle, to +traverse an orbit of its own. It too is destined to experience in +full measure the vicissitudes of national weal and woe, the periods +of growth, of maturity, and of age, the blessedness of creative +effort in religion, polity, and art, the comfort of enjoying the +material and intellectual acquisitions which it has won, perhaps +also, some day, the decay of productive power in the satiety of +contentment with the goal attained. And yet this goal will only +be temporary: the grandest system of civilization has its orbit, +and may complete its course but not so the human race, to which, +just when it seems to have reached its goal, the old task is ever +set anew with a wider range and with a deeper meaning. + + +Italy + + +Our aim is to exhibit the last act of this great historical drama, +to relate the ancient history of the central peninsula projecting +from the northern continent into the Mediterranean. It is formed +by the mountain-system of the Apennines branching off in a southern +direction from the western Alps. The Apennines take in the first +instance a south-eastern course between the broader gulf of the +Mediterranean on the west, and the narrow one on the east; and in the +close vicinity of the latter they attain their greatest elevation, +which, however, scarce reaches the line of perpetual snow, in +the Abruzzi. From the Abruzzi the chain continues in a southern +direction, at first undivided and of considerable height; after +a depression which formsa hill-country, it splits into a somewhat +flattened succession of heights towards the south-east and a more +rugged chain towards the south, and in both directions terminates +in the formation of narrow peninsulas. + +The flat country on the north, extending between the Alps and the +Apennines as far down as the Abruzzi, does not belong geographically, +nor until a very late period even historically, to the southern land +of mountain and hill, the Italy whose history is here to engage +our attention. It was not till the seventh century of the city +that the coast-district from Sinigaglia to Rimini, and not till the +eighth that the basin of the Po, became incorporated with Italy. +The ancient boundary of Italy on the north was not the Alps but +the Apennines. This mountain-system nowhere rises abruptly into +a precipitous chain, but, spreading broadly over the land and +enclosing many valleys and table-lands connected by easy passes, +presents conditions which well adapt it to become the settlement of +man. Still more suitable in this respect are the adjacent slopes +and the coast-districts on the east, south, and west. On the +east coast the plain of Apulia, shut in towards the north by the +mountain-block of the Abruzzi and only broken by the steep isolated +ridge of Garganus, stretches in a uniform level with but a scanty +development of coast and stream. On the south coast, between the +two peninsulas in which the Apennines terminate, extensive lowlands, +poorly provided with harbours but well watered and fertile, +adjoin the hill-country of the interior. The west coast presents +a far-stretching domain intersected by considerable streams, in +particular by the Tiber, and shaped by the action of the waves and +of the once numerous volcanoes into manifold variety of hill and +valley, harbour and island. Here the regions of Etruria, Latium, +and Campania form the very flower of the land of Italy. South of +Campania, the land in front of the mountains gradually diminishes, +and the Tyrrhenian Sea almost washes their base. Moreover, as +the Peloponnesus is attached to Greece, so the island of Sicily is +attached to Italy--the largest and fairest isle of the Mediterranean, +having a mountainous and partly desert interior, but girt, especially +on the east and south, by a broad belt of the finest coast-land, +mainly the result of volcanic action. Geographically the Sicilian +mountains are a continuation of the Apennines, hardly interrupted +by the narrow "rent" --Pegion--of the straits; and in its historical +relations Sicily was in earlier times quite as decidedly a part of +Italy as the Peloponnesus was of Greece, a field for the struggles +of the same races, and the seat of a similar superior civilization. + +The Italian peninsula resembles the Grecian in the temperate climate +and wholesome air that prevail on the hills of moderate height, and +on the whole, also, in the valleys and plains. In development of +coast it is inferior; it wants, in particular, the island-studded +sea which made the Hellenes a seafaring nation. Italy on the +other hand excels its neighbour in the rich alluvial plains and +the fertile and grassy mountain-slopes, which are requisite for +agriculture and the rearing of cattle. Like Greece, it is a noble +land which calls forth and rewards the energies of man, opening +up alike for restless adventure the way to distant lands and for +quiet exertion modes of peaceful gain at home. + +But, while the Grecian peninsula is turned towards the east, the +Italian is turned towards the west. As the coasts of Epirus and +Acarnania had but a subordinate importance in the case of Hellas, +so had the Apulian and Messapian coasts in that of Italy; and, while +the regions on which the historical development of Greece has been +mainly dependent--Attica and Macedonia--look to the east, Etruria, +Latium, and Campania look to the west. In this way the two peninsulas, +so close neighbours and almost sisters, stand as it were averted +from each other. Although the naked eye can discern from Otranto +the Acroceraunian mountains, the Italians and Hellenes came into +earlier and closer contact on every other pathway rather than on the +nearest across the Adriatic Sea, In their instance, as has happened +so often, the historical vocation of the nations was prefigured +in the relations of the ground which they occupied; the two great +stocks, on which the civilization of the ancient world grew, threw +their shadow as well as their seed, the one towards the east, the +other towards the west. + + +Italian History + + +We intend here to relate the history of Italy, not simply the history +of the city of Rome. Although, in the formal sense of political +law, it was the civic community of Rome which gained the sovereignty +first of Italy and then of the world, such a view cannot be held +to express the higher and real meaning of history. What has been +called the subjugation of Italy by the Romans appears rather, +when viewed in its true light, as the consolidation into an united +state of the whole Italian stock--a stock of which the Romans were +doubtless the most powerful branch, but still were only a branch. + +The history of Italy falls into two main sections: (1) its internal +history down to its union under the leadership of the Latin stock, +and (2) the history of its sovereignty over the world. Under the +first section, which will occupy the first two books, we shall have +to set forth the settlement of the Italian stock in the peninsula; +the imperilling of its national and political existence, and +its partial subjugation, by nations of other descent and older +civilization, Greeks and Etruscans; the revolt of the Italians +against the strangers, and the annihilation or subjection of the +latter; finally, the struggles between the two chief Italian stocks, +the Latins and the Samnites, for the hegemony of the peninsula, and +the victory of the Latins at the end of the fourth century before +the birth of Christ--or of the fifth century of the city. The second +section opens with the Punic wars; it embraces the rapid extension +of the dominion of Rome up to and beyond the natural boundaries of +Italy, the long status quo of the imperial period, and the collapse +of the mighty empire. These events will be narrated in the third +and following books. + + + + +Notes for Book I Chapter I + + +1. The dates as hereafter inserted in the text are years of the +City (A.U.C.); those in the margin give the corresponding years +B.C. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +The Earliest Migrations into Italy + + + +Primitive Races of Italy + + +We have no information, not even a tradition, concerning the first +migration of the human race into Italy. It was the universal +belief of antiquity that in Italy, as well as elsewhere, the first +population had sprung from the soil. We leave it to the province +of the naturalist to decide the question of the origin of different +races, and of the influence of climate in producing their diversities. +In a historical point of view it is neither possible, nor is it of +any importance, to determine whether the oldest recorded population +of a country were autochthones or immigrants. But it is incumbent +on the historical inquirer to bring to light the successive strata of +population in the country of which he treats, in order to trace, +from as remote an epoch as possible, the gradual progress of +civilization to more perfect forms, and the suppression of races +less capable of, or less advanced in, culture by nations of higher +standing. + +Italy is singularly poor in memorials of the primitive period, and +presents in this respect a remarkable contrast to other fields of +civilization. The results of German archaeological research lead +to the conclusion that in England, France, the North of Germany +and Scandinavia, before the settlement of the Indo-Germans in those +lands, there must have dwelt, or rather roamed, a people, perhaps +of Mongolian race, gaining their subsistence by hunting and fishing, +making their implements of stone, clay, or bones, adorning themselves +with the teeth of animals and with amber, but unacquainted with +agriculture and the use of the metals. In India, in like manner, the +Indo-Germanic settlers were preceded by a dark-coloured population +less susceptible of culture. But in Italy we neither meet with +fragments of a supplanted nation, such as the Finns and Lapps in the +Celto-Germanic domain and the black tribes in the Indian mountains; +nor have any remains of an extinct primitive people been hitherto +pointed out there, such as appear to be revealed in the peculiarly-formed +skeletons, the places of assembling, and the burial mounds of what +is called the stone-period of Germanic antiquity. Nothing has +hitherto been brought to light to warrant the supposition that +mankind existed in Italy at a period anterior to the knowledge of +agriculture and of the smelting of the metals; and if the human +race ever within the bounds of Italy really occupied the level of +that primitive stage of culture which we are accustomed to call +the savage state, every trace of such a fact has disappeared. + +Individual tribes, or in other words, races or stocks, are the +constituent elements of the earliest history. Among the stocks which +in later times we meet with in Italy, the immigration of some, of +the Hellenes for instance, and the denationalization of others, +such as the Bruttians and the inhabitants of the Sabine territory, +are historically attested. Setting aside both these classes, there +remain a number of stocks whose wanderings can no longer be traced +by means of historical testimony, but only by a priori inference, +and whose nationality cannot be shown to have undergone any radical +change from external causes. To establish the national individuality +of these is the first aim of our inquiry. In such an inquiry, +had we nothing to fall back upon but the chaotic mass of names of +tribes and the confusion of what professes to be historical tradition, +the task might well be abandoned as hopeless. The conventionally +received tradition, which assumes the name of history, is composed +of a few serviceable notices by civilized travellers, and a mass +of mostly worthless legends, which have usually been combined with +little discrimination of the true character either of legend or +of history. But there is another source of tradition to which we +may resort, and which yields information fragmentary but authentic; +we mean the indigenous languages of the stocks settled in Italy from +time immemorial. These languages, which have grown with the growth +of the peoples themselves, have had the stamp of their process +of growth impressed upon them too deeply to be wholly effaced +by subsequent civilization. One only of the Italian languages is +known to us completely; but the remains which have been preserved +of several of the others are sufficient to afford a basis for +historical inquiry regarding the existence, and the degrees, of +family relationship among the several languages and peoples. + +In this way philological research teaches us to distinguish three +primitive Italian stocks, the Iapygian, the Etruscan, and that +which we shall call the Italian. The last is divided into two main +branches,--the Latin branch, and that to which the dialects of the +Umbri, Marsi, Volsci, and Samnites belong. + + +Iapygians + + +As to the Iapygian stock, we have but little information. At the +south-eastern extremity of Italy, in the Messapian or Calabrian +peninsula, inscriptions in a peculiar extinct language(1) have been +found in considerable numbers; undoubtedly remains of the dialect +of the Iapygians, who are very distinctly pronounced by tradition +also to have been different from the Latin and Samnite stocks. +Statements deserving of credit and numerous indications lead to the +conclusion that the same language and the same stock were indigenous +also in Apulia. What we at present know of this people suffices +to show clearly that they were distinct from the other Italians, +but does not suffice to determine what position should be assigned +to them and to their language in the history of the human race. The +inscriptions have not yet been, and it is scarcely to be expected +that they ever will be, deciphered. The genitive forms, -aihi- and +-ihi-, corresponding to the Sanscrit -asya- and the Greek --oio--, +appear to indicate that the dialect belongs to the Indo-Germanic +family. Other indications, such as the use of the aspirated consonants +and the avoiding of the letters m and t as terminal sounds, show +that this Iapygian dialect was essentially different from the +Italian and corresponded in some respects to the Greek dialects. +The supposition of an especially close affinity between the Iapygian +nation and the Hellenes finds further support in the frequent +occurrence of the names of Greek divinities in the inscriptions, +and in the surprising facility with which that people became +Hellenized, presenting a striking contrast to the shyness in this +respect of the other Italian nations. Apulia, which in the time +of Timaeus (400) was still described as a barbarous land, had in +the sixth century of the city become a province thoroughly Greek, +although no direct colonization from Greece had taken place; +and even among the ruder stock of the Messapii there are various +indications of a similar tendency. With the recognition of such +a general family relationship or peculiar affinity between the +Iapygians and Hellenes (a recognition, however, which by no means +goes so far as to warrant our taking the Iapygian language to be a +rude dialect of Greek), investigation must rest content, at least +in the meantime, until some more precise and better assured result +be attainable.(2) The lack of information, however, is not much +felt; for this race, already on the decline at the period when +our history begins, comes before us only when it is giving way and +disappearing. The character of the Iapygian people, little capable +of resistance, easily merging into other nationalities, agrees +well with the hypothesis, to which their geographical position adds +probability, that they were the oldest immigrants or the historical +autochthones of Italy. There can be no doubt that all the primitive +migrations of nations took place by land; especially such as were +directed towards Italy, the coast of which was accessible by sea +only to skilful sailors and on that account was still in Homer's +time wholly unknown to the Hellenes. But if the earlier settlers +came over the Apennines, then, as the geologist infers the origin +of mountains from their stratification, the historical inquirer +may hazard the conjecture that the stocks pushed furthest towards +the south were the oldest inhabitants of Italy; and it is just +at its extreme south-eastern verge that we meet with the Iapygian +nation. + + +Italians + + +The middle of the peninsula was inhabited, as far back as trustworthy +tradition reaches, by two peoples or rather two branches of the +same people, whose position in the Indo-Germanic family admits of +being determined with greater precision than that of the Iapygian +nation. We may with propriety call this people the Italian, since +upon it rests the historical significance of the peninsula. It is +divided into the two branch-stocks of the Latins and the Umbrians; +the latter including their southern offshoots, the Marsians and +Samnites, and the colonies sent forth by the Samnites in historical +times. The philological analysis of the idioms of these stocks +has shown that they together constitute a link in the Indo-Germanic +chain of languages, and that the epoch in which they still formed +an unity is a comparatively late one. In their system of sounds +there appears the peculiar spirant -f, in the use of which they +agree with the Etruscans, but decidedly differ from all Hellenic +and Helleno-barbaric races as well as from the Sanscrit itself. +The aspirates, again, which are retained by the Greeks throughout, +and the harsher of them also by the Etruscans, were originally +foreign to the Italians, and are represented among them by one of +their elements--either by the media, or by the breathing alone -f +or -h. The finer spirants, -s, -w, -j, which the Greeks dispense +with as much as possible, have been retained in the Italian languages +almost unimpaired, and have been in some instances still further +developed. The throwing back of the accent and the consequent +destruction of terminations are common to the Italians with some +Greek stocks and with the Etruscans; but among the Italians this +was done to a greater extent than among the former, and to a lesser +extent than among the latter. The excessive disorder of the +terminations in the Umbrian certainly had no foundation in the +original spirit of the language, but was a corruption of later date, +which appeared in a similar although weaker tendency also at Rome. +Accordingly in the Italian languages short vowels are regularly +dropped in the final sound, long ones frequently: the concluding +consonants, on the other hand, have been tenaciously retained in +the Latin and still more so in the Samnite; while the Umbrian drops +even these. In connection with this we find that the middle voice +has left but slight traces in the Italian languages, and a peculiar +passive formed by the addition of -r takes its place; and further +that the majority of the tenses are formed by composition with the +roots -es and -fu, while the richer terminational system of the +Greeks along with the augment enables them in great part to dispense +with auxiliary verbs. While the Italian languages, like the Aeolic +dialect, gave up the dual, they retained universally the ablative +which the Greeks lost, and in great part also the locative. The +rigorous logic of the Italians appears to have taken offence at +the splitting of the idea of plurality into that of duality and +of multitude; while they have continued with much precision to +express the relations of words by inflections. A feature peculiarly +Italian, and unknown even to the Sanscrit, is the mode of imparting +a substantive character to the verb by gerunds and supines,--a +process carried out more completely here than in any other language. + + +Relation of the Italians to the Greeks + + +These examples selected from a great abundance of analogous phenomena +suffice to establish the individuality of the Italian stock as +distinguished from the other members of the Indo-Germanic family, +and at the same time show it to be linguistically the nearest +relative, as it is geographically the next neighbour, of the Greek. +The Greek and the Italian are brothers; the Celt, the German, and +the Slavonian are their cousins. The essential unity of all the +Italian as of all the Greek dialects and stocks must have dawned +early and clearly on the consciousness of the two great nations +themselves; for we find in the Roman language a very ancient word +of enigmatical origin, -Graius-or -Graicus-, which is applied to +every Greek, and in like manner amongst the Greeks the analogous +appellation --Opikos-- which is applied to all the Latin and +Samnite stocks known to the Greeks in earlier times, but never to +the Iapygians or Etruscans. + + +Relation of the Latins to the Umbro-Samnites + + +Among the languages of the Italian stock, again, the Latin stands +in marked contrast with the Umbro-Samnite dialects. It is true +that of these only two, the Umbrian and the Samnite or Oscan, are +in some degree known to us, and these even in a manner extremely +defective and uncertain. Of the rest some, such as the Marsian +and the Volscian, have reached us in fragments too scanty to enable +us to form any conception of their individual peculiarities or to +classify the varieties of dialect themselves with certainty and +precision, while others, like the Sabine, have, with the exception +of a few traces preserved as dialectic peculiarities in provincial +Latin, completely disappeared. A conjoint view, however, of the +facts of language and of history leaves no doubt that all these +dialects belonged to the Umbro-Samnite branch of the great Italian +stock, and that this branch, although much more closely related to +Latin than to Greek, was very decidedly distinct from the Latin. +In the pronoun and other cases frequently the Samnite and Umbrian +used -p where the Roman used -q, as -pis- for -quis-; just as languages +otherwise closely related are found to differ; for instance, -p +is peculiar to the Celtic in Brittany and Wales, -k to the Gaelic +and Erse. Among the vowel sounds the diphthongs in Latin, and +in the northern dialects generally, appear very much destroyed, +whereas in the southern Italian dialects they have suffered little; +and connected with this is the fact, that in composition the Roman +weakens the radical vowel otherwise so strictly preserved,--a +modification which does not take place in the kindred group of +languages. The genitive of words in -a is in this group as among +the Greeks -as, among the Romans in the matured language -ae; +that of words in -us is in the Samnite -eis, in the Umbrian -es, +among the Romans -ei; the locative disappeared more and more from +the language of the latter, while it continued in full use in the +other Italian dialects; the dative plural in -bus is extant only +in Latin. The Umbro-Samnite infinitive in -um is foreign to the +Romans; while the Osco-Umbrian future formed from the root -es after +the Greek fashion (-her-est- like --leg-so--) has almost, perhaps +altogether, disappeared in Latin, and its place is supplied by +the optative of the simple verb or by analogous formations from +-fuo-(-amabo-). In many of these instances, however--in the forms +of the cases, for example--the differences only exist in the two +languages when fully formed, while at the outset they coincide. It +thus appears that, while the Italian language holds an independent +position by the side of the Greek, the Latin dialect within it +bears a relation to the Umbro-Samnite somewhat similar to that of +the Ionic to the Doric; and the differences of the Oscan and Umbrian +and kindred dialects may be compared with the differences between +the Dorism of Sicily and the Dorism of Sparta. + +Each of these linguistic phenomena is the result and the attestation +of an historical event. With perfect certainty they guide us to +the conclusion, that from the common cradle of peoples and languages +there issued a stock which embraced in common the ancestors of the +Greeks and the Italians; that from this, at a subsequent period, +the Italians branched off; and that these again divided into the +western and eastern stocks, while at a still later date the eastern +became subdivided into Umbrians and Oscans. + +When and where these separations took place, language of course +cannot tell; and scarce may adventurous thought attempt to grope +its conjectural way along the course of those revolutions, the +earliest of which undoubtedly took place long before that migration +which brought the ancestors of the Italians across the Apennines. +On the other hand the comparison of languages, when conducted with +accuracy and caution, may give us an approximate idea of the degree +of culture which the people had reached when these separations took +place, and so furnish us with the beginnings of history, which is +nothing but the development of civilization. For language, especially +in the period of its formation, is the true image and organ of the +degree of civilization attained; its archives preserve evidence of +the great revolutions in arts and in manners, and from its records +the future will not fail to draw information as to those times +regarding which the voice of direct tradition is dumb. + + +Indo-Germanic Culture + + +During the period when the Indo-Germanic nations which are now +separated still formed one stock speaking the same language, they +attained a certain stage of culture, and they had a vocabulary +corresponding to it. This vocabulary the several nations carried +along with them, in its conventionally established use, as a common +dowry and a foundation for further structures of their own. In it +we find not merely the simplest terms denoting existence, actions, +perceptions, such as -sum-, -do-, -pater-, the original echo of the +impression which the external world made on the mind of man, but +also a number of words indicative of culture (not only as respects +their roots, but in a form stamped upon them by custom) which are +the common property of the Indo-Germanic family, and which cannot +be explained either on the principle of an uniform development +in the several languages, or on the supposition of their having +subsequently borrowed one from another. In this way we possess +evidence of the development of pastoral life at that remote epoch +in the unalterably fixed names of domestic animals; the Sanscrit +-gaus- is the Latin -bos-, the Greek --bous--; Sanscrit -avis- is +the Latin -ovis-, Greek --ois--; Sanscrit -asvas-, Latin -equus-, +Greek --ippos--; Sanscrit -hansas-, Latin -anser-, Greek --chein--; +Sanscrit -atis-, Latin -anas-, Greek --neissa--; in like manner +-pecus-, -sus-, -porcus-, -taurus-, -canis-, are Sanscrit words. +Even at this remote period accordingly the stock, on which from the +days of Homer down to our own time the intellectual development of +mankind has been dependent, had already advanced beyond the lowest +stage of civilization, the hunting and fishing epoch, and had +attained at least comparative fixity of abode. On the other hand, +we have as yet no certain proofs of the existence of agriculture +at this period. Language rather favours the negative view. Of the +Latin-Greek names of grain none occurs in Sanscrit with the single +exception of --zea--, which philologically represents the Sanscrit +-yavas-, but denotes in the Indian barley, in Greek spelt. It must +indeed be granted that this diversity in the names of cultivated +plants, which so strongly contrasts with the essential agreement in +the appellations of domestic animals, does not absolutely preclude +the supposition of a common original agriculture. In the circumstances +of primitive times transport and acclimatizing are more difficult +in the case of plants than of animals; and the cultivation of rice +among the Indians, that of wheat and spelt among the Greeks and +Romans, and that of rye and oats among the Germans and Celts, may +all be traceable to a common system of primitive tillage. On the +other hand the name of one cereal common to the Greeks and Indians +only proves, at the most, that before the separation of the stocks +they gathered and ate the grains of barley and spelt growing wild +in Mesopotamia,(3) not that they already cultivated grain. While, +however, we reach no decisive result in this way, a further light +is thrown on the subject by our observing that a number of the most +important words bearing on this province of culture occur certainly +in Sanscrit, but all of them in a more general signification. +-Agras-among the Indians denotes a level surface in general; -kurnu-, +anything pounded; -aritram-, oar and ship; -venas-, that which is +pleasant in general, particularly a pleasant drink. The words are +thus very ancient; but their more definite application to the field +(-ager-), to the grain to be ground (-granum-), to the implement +which furrows the soil as the ship furrows the surface of the sea +(-aratrum-), to the juice of the grape (-vinum-), had not yet taken +place when the earliest division of the stocks occurred, and it +is not to be wondered at that their subsequent applications came +to be in some instances very different, and that, for example, the +corn intended to be ground, as well as the mill for grinding it +(Gothic -quairinus-, Lithuanian -girnos-,(4)) received their names +from the Sanscrit -kurnu-. We may accordingly assume it as probable, +that the primeval Indo-Germanic people were not yet acquainted with +agriculture, and as certain, that, if they were so, it played but +a very subordinate part in their economy; for had it at that time +held the place which it afterwards held among the Greeks and Romans, +it would have left a deeper impression upon the language. + +On the other hand the building of houses and huts by the Indo-Germans +is attested by the Sanscrit -dam(as)-, Latin -domus-, Greek --domos--; +Sanscrit -vesas-, Latin -vicus-, Greek --oikos--; Sanscrit -dvaras-, +Latin -fores-, Greek --thura--; further, the building of oar-boats +by the names of the boat, Sanscrit -naus-, Latin -navis-, Greek +--naus--, and of the oar, Sanscrit -aritram-, Greek --eretmos--, +Latin -remus-, -tri-res-mis-; and the use of waggons and the breaking +in of animals for draught and transport by the Sanscrit -akshas- +(axle and cart), Latin -axis-, Greek --axon--, --am-axa--; Sanscrit +-iugam-, Latin -iugum-, Greek --zugon--. The words that denote +clothing- Sanscrit -vastra-, Latin -vestis-, Greek --esthes--; as +well as those that denote sewing and spinning-Sanscrit -siv-, Latin +-suo-; Sanscrit -nah-, Latin -neo-, Greek --netho--, are alike +in all Indo-Germanic languages. This cannot, however, be equally +affirmed of the higher art of weaving.(5) The knowledge of the +use of fire in preparing food, and of salt for seasoning it, is a +primeval heritage of the Indo-Germanic nations; and the same may +be affirmed regarding the knowledge of the earliest metals employed +as implements or ornaments by man. At least the names of copper +(-aes-) and silver (-argentum-), perhaps also of gold, are met with +in Sanscrit, and these names can scarcely have originated before +man had learned to separate and to utilize the ores; the Sanscrit +-asis-, Latin -ensis-, points in fact to the primeval use of metallic +weapons. + +No less do we find extending back into those times the fundamental +ideas on which the development of all Indo-Germanic states ultimately +rests; the relative position of husband and wife, the arrangement +in clans, the priesthood of the father of the household and the +absence of a special sacerdotal class as well as of all distinctions +of caste in general, slavery as a legitimate institution, the days +of publicly dispensing justice at the new and full moon. On the +other hand the positive organization of the body politic, the decision +of the questions between regal sovereignty and the sovereignty of +the community, between the hereditary privilege of royal and noble +houses and the unconditional legal equality of the citizens, belong +altogether to a later age. + +Even the elements of science and religion show traces of a community +of origin. The numbers are the same up to one hundred (Sanscrit +-satam-, -ekasatam-, Latin -centum-, Greek --e-katon--, Gothic +-hund-); and the moon receives her name in all languages from the +fact that men measure time by her (-mensis-). The idea of Deity +itself (Sanscrit -devas-, Latin -deus-, Greek --theos--), and many +of the oldest conceptions of religion and of natural symbolism, +belong to the common inheritance of the nations. The conception, +for example, of heaven as the father and of earth as the mother of +being, the festal expeditions of the gods who proceed from place +to place in their own chariots along carefully levelled paths, +the shadowy continuation of the soul's existence after death, are +fundamental ideas of the Indian as well as of the Greek and Roman +mythologies. Several of the gods of the Ganges coincide even +in name with those worshipped on the Ilissus and the Tiber:--thus +the Uranus of the Greeks is the Varunas, their Zeus, Jovis pater, +Diespiter is the Djaus pita of the Vedas. An unexpected light has +been thrown on various enigmatical forms in the Hellenic mythology +by recent researches regarding the earlier divinities of India. The +hoary mysterious forms of the Erinnyes are no Hellenic invention; +they were immigrants along with the oldest settlers from the East. +The divine greyhound Sarama, who guards for the Lord of heaven the +golden herd of stars and sunbeams and collects for him the nourishing +rain-clouds as the cows of heaven to the milking, and who moreover +faithfully conducts the pious dead into the world of the blessed, +becomes in the hands of the Greeks the son of Sarama, Sarameyas, +or Hermeias; and the enigmatical Hellenic story of the stealing +of the cattle of Helios, which is beyond doubt connected with the +Roman legend about Cacus, is now seen to be a last echo (with the +meaning no longer understood) of that old fanciful and significant +conception of nature. + + +Graeco-Italian Culture + + +The task, however, of determining the degree of culture which +the Indo-Germans had attained before the separation of the stocks +properly belongs to the general history of the ancient world. It +is on the other hand the special task of Italian history to ascertain, +so far as it is possible, what was the state of the Graeco-Italian +nation when the Hellenes and the Italians parted. Nor is this +a superfluous labour; we reach by means of it the stage at which +Italian civilization commenced, the starting-point of the national +history. + + +Agriculture + + +While it is probable that the Indo-Germans led a pastoral life +and were acquainted with the cereals, if at all, only in their wild +state, all indications point to the conclusion that the Graeco-Italians +were a grain-cultivating, perhaps even a vine-cultivating, people. +The evidence of this is not simply the knowledge of agriculture +itself common to both, for this does not upon the whole warrant +the inference of community of origin in the peoples who may exhibit +it. An historical connection between the Indo-Germanic agriculture +and that of the Chinese, Aramaean, and Egyptian stocks can hardly be +disputed; and yet these stocks are either alien to the Indo-Germans, +or at any rate became separated from them at a time when agriculture +was certainly still unknown. The truth is, that the more advanced +races in ancient times were, as at the present day, constantly +exchanging the implements and the plants employed in cultivation; +and when the annals of China refer the origin of Chinese agriculture +to the introduction of five species of grain that took place under +a particular king in a particular year, the story undoubtedly depicts +correctly, at least in a general way, the relations subsisting in +the earliest epochs of civilization. A common knowledge of agriculture, +like a common knowledge of the alphabet, of war chariots, of purple, +and other implements and ornaments, far more frequently warrants the +inference of an ancient intercourse between nations than of their +original unity. But as regards the Greeks and Italians, whose +mutual relations are comparatively well known, the hypothesis that +agriculture as well as writing and coinage first came to Italy by +means of the Hellenes may be characterized as wholly inadmissible. +On the other hand, the existence of a most intimate connection +between the agriculture of the one country and that of the other is +attested by their possessing in common all the oldest expressions +relating to it; -ager-, --agros--; -aro aratrum-, --aroo arotron--; +-ligo-alongside of --lachaino--; -hortus-, --chortos--; -hordeum-, +--krithei--; -milium-, --melinei--; -rapa-, --raphanis-; -malva-, +--malachei--; -vinum-, --oinos--. It is likewise attested by +the agreement of Greek and Italian agriculture in the form of the +plough, which appears of the same shape on the old Attic and the old +Roman monuments; in the choice of the most ancient kinds of grain, +millet, barley, spelt; in the custom of cutting the ears with the +sickle and having them trodden out by cattle on the smooth-beaten +threshing-floor; lastly, in the mode of preparing the grain -puls- +--poltos--, -pinso- --ptisso--, -mola- --mulei--; for baking was +of more recent origin, and on that account dough or pap was always +used in the Roman ritual instead of bread. That the culture of the +vine too in Italy was anterior to the earliest Greek immigration, +is shown by the appellation "wine-land" (--Oinotria--), which +appears to reach back to the oldest visits of Greek voyagers. It +would thus appear that the transition from pastoral life to agriculture, +or, to speak more correctly, the combination of agriculture with the +earlier pastoral economy, must have taken place after the Indians +had departed from the common cradle of the nations, but before the +Hellenes and Italians dissolved their ancient communion. Moreover, +at the time when agriculture originated, the Hellenes and Italians +appear to have been united as one national whole not merely with +each other, but with other members of the great family; at least, +it is a fact, that the most important of those terms of cultivation, +while they are foreign to the Asiatic members of the Indo-Germanic +family, are used by the Romans and Greeks in common with the Celtic +as well as the Germanic, Slavonic, and Lithuanian stocks.(6) + +The distinction between the common inheritance of the nations and +their own subsequent acquisitions in manners and in language is +still far from having been wrought out in all the variety of its +details and gradations. The investigation of languages with this +view has scarcely begun, and history still in the main derives its +representation of primitive times, not from the rich mine of language, +but from what must be called for the most part the rubbish-heap of +tradition. For the present, therefore, it must suffice to indicate +the differences between the culture of the Indo-Germanic family in +its oldest undivided form, and the culture of that epoch when the +Graeco-Italians still lived together. The task of discriminating +the results of culture which are common to the European members of +this family, but foreign to its Asiatic members, from those which +the several European groups, such as the Graeco-Italian and the +Germano-Slavonic, have wrought out for themselves, can only be +accomplished, if at all, after greater progress has been made in +linguistic and historical inquiries. But there can be no doubt +that, with the Graeco-Italians as with all other nations, agriculture +became and in the mind of the people remained the germ and core of +their national and of their private life. The house and the fixed +hearth, which the husbandman constructs instead of the light hut +and shifting fireplace of the shepherd, are represented in the +spiritual domain and idealized in the goddess Vesta or --Estia-- +almost the only divinity not Indo-Germanic yet from the first +common to both nations. One of the oldest legends of the Italian +stock ascribes to king Italus, or, as the Italians must have +pronounced the word, Vitalus or Vitulus, the introduction of the +change from a pastoral to an agricultural life, and shrewdly connects +with it the original Italian legislation. We have simply another +version of the same belief in the legend of the Samnite stock which +makes the ox the leader of their primitive colonies, and in the +oldest Latin national names which designate the people as reapers +(-Siculi-, perhaps also -Sicani-), or as field-labourers (-Opsci-). +It is one of the characteristic incongruities which attach to the +so-called legend of the origin of Rome, that it represents a pastoral +and hunting people as founding a city. Legend and faith, laws and +manners, among the Italians as among the Hellenes are throughout +associated with agriculture.(7) + +Cultivation of the soil cannot be conceived without some measurement +of it, however rude. Accordingly, the measures of surface and the +mode of setting off boundaries rest, like agriculture itself, on +a like basis among both peoples. The Oscan and Umbrian -vorsus- +of one hundred square feet corresponds exactly with the Greek +--plethron--. The principle of marking off boundaries was also +the same. The land-measurer adjusted his position with reference +to one of the cardinal points, and proceeded to draw in the first +place two lines, one from north to south, and another from east to +west, his station being at their point of intersection (-templum-, +--temenos-- from --temno--); then he drew at certain fixed distances +lines parallel to these, and by this process produced a series of +rectangular pieces of ground, the corners of which were marked by +boundary posts (-termini-, in Sicilian inscriptions -termones-, +usually --oroi--). This mode of defining boundaries, which is +probably also Etruscan but is hardly of Etruscan origin, we find +among the Romans, Umbrians, Samnites, and also in very ancient +records of the Tarentine Heracleots, who are as little likely to have +borrowed it from the Italians as the Italians from the Tarentines: +it is an ancient possession common to all. A peculiar characteristic +of the Romans, on the other hand, was their rigid carrying out of +the principle of the square; even where the sea or a river formed +a natural boundary, they did not accept it, but wound up their +allocation of the land with the last complete square. + + +Other Features of Their Economy + + +It is not solely in agriculture, however, that the especially close +relationship of the Greeks and Italians appears; it is unmistakably +manifest also in the other provinces of man's earliest activity. +The Greek house, as described by Homer, differs little from the +model which was always adhered to in Italy. The essential portion, +which originally formed the whole interior accommodation of the +Latin house, was the -atrium-, that is, the "blackened" chamber, +with the household altar, the marriage bed, the table for meals, +and the hearth; and precisely similar is the Homeric --megaron--, +with its household altar and hearth and smoke-begrimed roof. We +cannot say the same of ship-building. The boat with oars was an +old common possession of the Indo-Germans; but the advance to the +use of sailing vessels can scarcely be considered to have taken +place during the Graeco-Italian period, for we find no nautical +terms originally common to the Greeks and Italians except such +as are also general among the Indo-Germanic family. On the other +hand the primitive Italian custom of the husbandmen having common +midday meals, the origin of which the myth connects with the +introduction of agriculture, is compared by Aristotle with the +Cretan Syssitia; and the earliest Romans further agreed with the +Cretans and Laconians in taking their meals not, as was afterwards +the custom among both peoples, in a reclining, but in a sitting +posture. The mode of kindling fire by the friction of two pieces +of wood of different kinds is common to all peoples; but it is +certainly no mere accident that the Greeks and Italians agree in the +appellations which they give to the two portions of the touch-wood, +"the rubber" (--trypanon--, -terebra-), and the "under-layer" +(--storeus--, --eschara--, -tabula-, probably from -tendere-, +--tetamai--). In like manner the dress of the two peoples +is essentially identical, for the -tunica- quite corresponds with +the --chiton--, and the -toga- is nothing but a fuller --himation--. +Even as regards weapons of war, liable as they are to frequent change, +the two peoples have this much at least in common, that their two +principal weapons of attack were the javelin and the bow,--a fact +which is clearly expressed, as far as Rome is concerned, in the +earliest names for warriors (-pilumni--arquites-),(8) and is in +keeping with the oldest mode of fighting which was not properly +adapted to a close struggle. Thus, in the language and manners of +Greeks and Italians, all that relates to the material foundations +of human existence may be traced back to the same primary elements; +the oldest problems which the world proposes to man had been +jointly solved by the two peoples at a time when they still formed +one nation. + + +Difference of the Italian and the Greek Character + + +It was otherwise in the mental domain. The great problem of man--how +to live in conscious harmony with himself, with his neighbour, and +with the whole to which he belongs--admits of as many solutions +as there are provinces in our Father's kingdom; and it is in this, +and not in the material sphere, that individuals and nations display +their divergences of character. The exciting causes which gave +rise to this intrinsic contrast must have been in the Graeco-Italian +period as yet wanting; it was not until the Hellenes and Italians +had separated that that deep-seated diversity of mental character +became manifest, the effects of which continue to the present day. +The family and the state, religion and art, received in Italy and +in Greece respectively a development so peculiar and so thoroughly +national, that the common basis, on which in these respects also +the two peoples rested, has been so overgrown as to be almost +concealed from our view. That Hellenic character, which sacrificed +the whole to its individual elements, the nation to the township, +and the township to the citizen; which sought its ideal of life in +the beautiful and the good, and, but too often, in the enjoyment of +idleness; which attained its political development by intensifying +the original individuality of the several cantons, and at length +produced the internal dissolution of even local authority; which in +its view of religion first invested the gods with human attributes, +and then denied their existence; which allowed full play to the +limbs in the sports of the naked youth, and gave free scope to +thought in all its grandeur and in all its awfulness;--and that +Roman character, which solemnly bound the son to reverence the +father, the citizen to reverence the ruler, and all to reverence the +gods; which required nothing and honoured nothing but the useful +act, and compelled every citizen to fill up every moment of his +brief life with unceasing work; which made it a duty even in the +boy modestly to cover the body; which deemed every one a bad citizen +who wished to be different from his fellows; which regarded the +state as all in all, and a desire for the state's extension as the +only aspiration not liable to censure,--who can in thought trace +back these sharply-marked contrasts to that original unity which +embraced them both, prepared the way for their development, and at +length produced them? It would be foolish presumption to desire +to lift this veil; we shall only endeavour to indicate in brief +outline the beginnings of Italian nationality and its connections +with an earlier period--to direct the guesses of the discerning +reader rather than to express them. + + +The Family and the State + + +All that may be called the patriarchal element in the state rested +in Greece and Italy on the same foundations. Under this head comes +especially the moral and decorous arrangement of social life,(9) +which enjoined monogamy on the husband and visited with heavy +penalties the infidelity of the wife, and which recognized the +equality of the sexes and the sanctity of marriage in the high +position which it assigned to the mother within the domestic circle. +On the other hand the rigorous development of the marital and still +more of the paternal authority, regardless of the natural rights of +persons as such, was a feature foreign to the Greeks and peculiarly +Italian; it was in Italy alone that moral subjection became +transformed into legal slavery. In the same way the principle of +the slave being completely destitute of legal rights--a principle +involved in the very nature of slavery--was maintained by the Romans +with merciless rigour and carried out to all its consequences; +whereas among the Greeks alleviations of its harshness were early +introduced both in practice and in legislation, the marriage of +slaves, for example, being recognized as a legal relation. + +On the household was based the clan, that is, the community of the +descendants of the same progenitor; and out of the clan among the +Greeks as well as the Italians arose the state. But while under +the weaker political development of Greece the clan-bond maintained +itself as a corporate power in contradistinction to that of +the state far even into historical times, the state in Italy made +its appearance at once complete, in so far as in presence of its +authority the clans were quite neutralized and it exhibited an +association not of clans, but of citizens. Conversely, again, the +individual attained, in presence of the clan, an inward independence +and freedom of personal development far earlier and more completely +in Greece than in Rome--a fact reflected with great clearness in +the Greek and Roman proper names, which, originally similar, came +to assume very different forms. In the more ancient Greek names +the name of the clan was very frequently added in an adjective form +to that of the individual; while, conversely, Roman scholars were +aware that their ancestors bore originally only one name, the later +-praenomen-. But while in Greece the adjectival clan-name early +disappeared, it became, among the Italians generally and not merely +among the Romans, the principal name; and the distinctive individual +name, the -praenomen-, became subordinate. It seems as if the small +and ever diminishing number and the meaningless character of the +Italian, and particularly of the Roman, individual names, compared +with the luxuriant and poetical fulness of those of the Greeks, +were intended to illustrate the truth that it was characteristic +of the one nation to reduce all to a level, of the other to promote +the free development of personality. The association in communities +of families under patriarchal chiefs, which we may conceive to +have prevailed in the Graeco-Italian period, may appear different +enough from the later forms of Italian and Hellenic polities; yet +it must have already contained the germs out of which the future +laws of both nations were moulded. The "laws of king Italus," +which were still applied in the time of Aristotle, may denote the +institutions essentially common to both. These laws must have +provided for the maintenance of peace and the execution of justice +within the community, for military organization and martial law +in reference to its external relations, for its government by a +patriarchal chief, for a council of elders, for assemblies of the +freemen capable of bearing arms, and for some sort of constitution. +Judicial procedure (-crimen-, --krinein--, expiation (-poena-, +--poinei--), retaliation (-talio-, --talao--, --tleinai--, are +Graeco-Italian ideas. The stern law of debt, by which the debtor +was directly responsible with his person for the repayment of what +he had received, is common to the Italians, for example, with +the Tarentine Heracleots. The fundamental ideas of the Roman +constitution--a king, a senate, and an assembly entitled simply to +ratify or to reject the proposals which the king and senate should +submit to it--are scarcely anywhere expressed so distinctly as +in Aristotle's account of the earlier constitution of Crete. The +germs of larger state-confederacies in the political fraternizing +or even amalgamation of several previously independent stocks +(symmachy, synoikismos) are in like manner common to both nations. +The more stress is to be laid on this fact of the common foundations +of Hellenic and Italian polity, that it is not found to extend to +the other Indo-Germanic stocks; the organization of the Germanic +community, for example, by no means starts, like that of the Greeks +and Romans, from an elective monarchy. But how different the +polities were that were constructed on this common basis in Italy +and Greece, and how completely the whole course of their political +development belongs to each as its distinctive property,(10) it +will be the business of the sequel to show. + + +Religion + + +It is the same in religion. In Italy, as in Hellas, there lies +at the foundation of the popular faith the same common treasure +of symbolic and allegorical views of nature: on this rests that +general analogy between the Roman and the Greek world of gods and +of spirits, which was to become of so much importance in later +stages of development. In many of their particular conceptions +also,--in the already mentioned forms of Zeus-Diovis and Hestia-Vesta, +in the idea of the holy space (--temenos--, -templum-), in various +offerings and ceremonies--the two modes of worship do not by mere +accident coincide. Yet in Hellas, as in Italy, they assumed a shape +so thoroughly national and peculiar, that but little even of the +ancient common inheritance was preserved in a recognizable form, and +that little was for the most part misunderstood or not understood +at all. It could not be otherwise; for, just as in the peoples +themselves the great contrasts, which during the Graeco-Italian +period had lain side by side undeveloped, were after their division +distinctly evolved, so in their religion also a separation took +place between the idea and the image, which had hitherto been but +one whole in the soul. Those old tillers of the ground, when the +clouds were driving along the sky, probably expressed to themselves +the phenomenon by saying that the hound of the gods was driving +together the startled cows of the herd. The Greek forgot that the +cows were really the clouds, and converted the son of the hound +of the gods--a form devised merely for the particular purposes of +that conception--into the adroit messenger of the gods ready for +every service. When the thunder rolled among the mountains, he +saw Zeus brandishing his bolts on Olympus; when the blue sky again +smiled upon him, he gazed into the bright eye of Athenaea, the +daughter of Zeus; and so powerful over him was the influence of the +forms which he had thus created, that he soon saw nothing in them +but human beings invested and illumined with the splendour of +nature's power, and freely formed and transformed them according to +the laws of beauty. It was in another fashion, but not less strongly, +that the deeply implanted religious feeling of the Italian race +manifested itself; it held firmly by the idea and did not suffer +the form to obscure it. As the Greek, when he sacrificed, raised +his eyes to heaven, so the Roman veiled his head; for the prayer +of the former was contemplation, that of the latter reflection. +Throughout the whole of nature he adored the spiritual and the +universal. To everything existing, to the man and to the tree, to +the state and to the store-room, was assigned a spirit which came +into being with it and perished along with it, the counterpart of +the natural phenomenon in the spiritual domain; to the man the male +Genius, to the woman the female Juno, to the boundary Terminus, +to the forest Silvanus, to the circling year Vertumnus, and so on +to every object after its kind. In occupations the very steps of +the process were spiritualized: thus, for example, in the prayer +for the husbandman there was invoked the spirit of fallowing, of +ploughing, of furrowing, sowing, covering-in, harrowing, and so +forth down to that of the in-bringing, up-storing, and opening of +the granaries. In like manner marriage, birth, and every other +natural event were endowed with a sacred life. The larger the +sphere embraced in the abstraction, the higher rose the god and the +reverence paid by man. Thus Jupiter and Juno are the abstractions +of manhood and womanhood; Dea Dia or Ceres, the creative power; +Minerva, the power of memory; Dea Bona, or among the Samnites +Dea Cupra, the good deity. While to the Greek everything assumed +a concrete and corporeal shape, the Roman could only make use of +abstract, completely transparent formulae; and while the Greek for +the most part threw aside the old legendary treasures of primitive +times, because they embodied the idea in too transparent a form, the +Roman could still less retain them, because the sacred conceptions +seemed to him dimmed even by the lightest veil of allegory. Not +a trace has been preserved among the Romans even of the oldest and +most generally diffused myths, such as that current among the Indians, +the Greeks, and even the Semites, regarding a great flood and its +survivor, the common ancestor of the present human race. Their +gods could not marry and beget children, like those of the Hellenes; +they did not walk about unseen among mortals; and they needed no +nectar. But that they, nevertheless, in their spirituality--which +only appears tame to dull apprehension--gained a powerful hold on +men's minds, a hold more powerful perhaps than that of the gods of +Hellas created after the image of man, would be attested, even if +history were silent on the subject, by the Roman designation of faith +(the word and the idea alike foreign to the Hellenes), -Religlo-, +that is to say, "that which binds." As India and Iran developed from +one and the same inherited store, the former, the richly varied +forms of its sacred epics, the latter, the abstractions of the +Zend-Avesta; so in the Greek mythology the person is predominant, +in the Roman the idea, in the former freedom, in the latter necessity. + + +Art + + +Lastly, what holds good of real life is true also of its counterfeit +in jest and play, which everywhere, and especially in the earliest +period of full and simple existence, do not exclude the serious, +but veil it. The simplest elements of art are in Latium and Hellas +quite the same; the decorous armed dance, the "leap" (-triumpus-, +--thriambos--, --di-thyrambos--); the masquerade of the "full people" +(--satyroi--, -satura-), who, wrapped in the skins of sheep and +goats, wound up the festival with their jokes; lastly, the pipe, +which with suitable strains accompanied and regulated the solemn +as well as the merry dance. Nowhere, perhaps, does the especially +close relationship of the Hellenes and Italians come to light so +clearly as here; and yet in no other direction did the two nations +manifest greater divergence as they became developed. The training +of youth remained in Latium strictly confined to the narrow limits +of domestic education; in Greece the yearning after a varied +yet harmonious training of mind and body created the sciences of +Gymnastics and Paideia, which were cherished by the nation and by +individuals as their highest good. Latium in the poverty of its +artistic development stands almost on a level with uncivilized +peoples; Hellas developed with incredible rapidity out of its +religious conceptions the myth and the worshipped idol, and out of +these that marvellous world of poetry and sculpture, the like of +which history has not again to show. In Latium no other influences +were powerful in public and private life but prudence, riches, and +strength; it was reserved for the Hellenes to feel the blissful +ascendency of beauty, to minister to the fair boy-friend with an +enthusiasm half sensuous, half ideal, and to reanimate their lost +courage with the war-songs of the divine singer. + +Thus the two nations in which the civilization of antiquity +culminated stand side by side, as different in development as they +were in origin identical. The points in which the Hellenes excel +the Italians are more universally intelligible and reflect a more +brilliant lustre; but the deep feeling in each individual that he +was only a part of the community, a rare devotedness and power of +self-sacrifice for the common weal, an earnest faith in its own +gods, form the rich treasure of the Italian nation. Both nations +underwent a one-sided, and therefore each a complete, development; +it is only a pitiful narrow-mindedness that will object to the +Athenian that he did not know how to mould his state like the Fabii +and the Valerii, or to the Roman that he did not learn to carve +like Pheidias and to write like Aristophanes. It was in fact the +most peculiar and the best feature in the character of the Greek +people, that rendered it impossible for them to advance from national +to political unity without at the same time exchanging their polity +for despotism. The ideal world of beauty was all in all to the +Greeks, and compensated them to some extent for what they wanted +in reality. Wherever in Hellas a tendency towards national union +appeared, it was based not on elements directly political, but +on games and art: the contests at Olympia, the poems of Homer, +the tragedies of Euripides, were the only bonds that held Hellas +together. Resolutely, on the other hand, the Italian surrendered +his own personal will for the sake of freedom, and learned to obey +his father that he might know how to obey the state. Amidst this +subjection individual development might be marred, and the germs +of fairest promise in man might be arrested in the bud; the Italian +gained in their stead a feeling of fatherland and of patriotism +such as the Greek never knew, and alone among all the civilized +nations of antiquity succeeded in working out national unity in +connection with a constitution based on self-government--a national +unity, which at last placed in his hands the mastery not only over +the divided Hellenic stock, but over the whole known world. + + + + +Notes for Book I Chapter II + + +1. Some of the epitaphs may give us an idea of its sound; +as -theotoras artahiaihi bennarrihino- and -dasiihonas platorrihi +bollihi-. + +2. The hypothesis has been put forward of an affinity between +the Iapygian language and the modern Albanian; based, however, on +points of linguistic comparison that are but little satisfactory +in any case, and least of all where a fact of such importance is +involved. Should this relationship be confirmed, and should the +Albanians on the other hand--a race also Indo-Germanic and on a par +with the Hellenic and Italian races--be really a remnant of that +Hellene-barbaric nationality traces of which occur throughout all +Greece and especially in the northern provinces, the nation that +preceded the Hellenes would be demonstrated as identical with +that which preceded the Italians. Still the inference would not +immediately follow that the Iapygian immigration to Italy had taken +place across the Adriatic Sea. + +3. Barley, wheat, and spelt were found growing together in a wild +state on the right bank of the Euphrates, north-west from Anah +(Alph. de Candolle, Geographie botanique raisonnee, ii. p. 934). +The growth of barley and wheat in a wild state in Mesopotamia had +already been mentioned by the Babylonian historian Berosus (ap. +Georg. Syncell. p. 50 Bonn.). + +4. Scotch -quern-. Mr. Robertson. + +5. If the Latin -vieo-, -vimen-, belong to the same root as our +weave (German -weben-) and kindred words, the word must still, when +the Greeks and Italians separated, have had the general meaning "to +plait," and it cannot have been until a later period, and probably +in different regions independently of each other, that it assumed +that of "weaving." The cultivation of flax, old as it is, does not +reach back to this period, for the Indians, though well acquainted +with the flax-plant, up to the present day use it only for the +preparation of linseed-oil. Hemp probably became known to the +Italians at a still later period than flax; at least -cannabis- +looks quite like a borrowed word of later date. + +6. Thus -aro-, -aratrum- reappear in the old German -aran- +(to plough, dialectically -eren-), -erida-, in Slavonian -orati-, +-oradlo-, in Lithuanian -arti-, -arimnas-, in Celtic -ar-, -aradar-. +Thus alongside of -ligo- stands our rake (German -rechen-), of +-hortus- our garden (German -garten-), of -mola- our mill (German +-muhle-, Slavonic -mlyn-, Lithuanian -malunas-, Celtic -malin-). + +With all these facts before us, we cannot allow that there ever was +a time when the Greeks in all Hellenic cantons subsisted by purely +pastoral husbandry. If it was the possession of cattle, and not of +land, which in Greece as in Italy formed the basis and the standard +of all private property, the reason of this was not that agriculture +was of later introduction, but that it was at first conducted on +the system of joint possession. Of course a purely agricultural +economy cannot have existed anywhere before the separation of +the stocks; on the contrary, pastoral husbandry was (more or less +according to locality) combined with it to an extent relatively +greater than was the case in later times. + +7. Nothing is more significant in this respect than the close connection +of agriculture with marriage and the foundation of cities during +the earliest epoch of culture. Thus the gods in Italy immediately +concerned with marriage are Ceres and (or?) Tellus (Plutarch, +Romul. 22; Servius on Aen. iv. 166; Rossbach, Rom. Ehe, 257, 301), +in Greece Demeter (Plutarch, Conjug. Praec. init.); in old Greek +formulas the procreation of children is called --arotos--(ii. +The Family and the State, note); indeed the oldest Roman formof +marriage, -confarreatio-, derives its name and its ceremony from +the cultivation of corn. The use of the plough in the founding of +cities is well known. + +8. Among the oldest names of weapons on both sides scarcely any +can be shown to be certainly related; -lancea-, although doubtless +connected with -logchei-, is, as a Roman word, recent, and perhaps +borrowed from the Germans or Spaniards. + +9. Even in details this agreement appears; e.g., in the designation of +lawful wedlock as "marriage concluded for the obtaining of lawful +children" (--gauos epi paidon gneision aroto--, -matrimonium +liberorum quaerendorum causa-). + +10. Only we must, of course, not forget that like pre-existing +conditions lead everywhere to like institutions. For instance, +nothing is more certain than that the Roman plebeians were a growth +originating within the Roman commonwealth, and yet they everywhere +find their counterpart where a body of -metoeci- has arisen alongside +of a body of burgesses. As a matter of course, chance also plays +in such cases its provoking game. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +The Settlements of the Latins + + + +Indo-Germanic Migrations + + +The home of the Indo-Germanic stock lay in the western portion of +central Asia; from this it spread partly in a south-eastern direction +over India, partly in a northwestern over Europe. It is difficult +to determine the primitive seat of the Indo-Germans more precisely: +it must, however, at any rate have been inland and remote from +the sea, as there is no name for the sea common to the Asiatic and +European branches. Many indications point more particularly to the +regions of the Euphrates; so that, singularly enough, the primitive +seats of the two most important civilized stocks, --the Indo-Germanic +and the Aramaean,--almost coincide as regards locality. This +circumstance gives support to the hypothesis that these races also +were originally connected, although, if there was such a connection, +it certainly must have been anterior to all traceable development +of culture and language. We cannot define more exactly their original +locality, nor are we able to accompany the individual stocks in the +course of their migrations. The European branch probably lingered +in Persia and Armenia for some considerable time after the departure +of the Indians; for, according to all appearance, that region has +been the cradle of agriculture and of the culture of the vine. +Barley, spelt, and wheat are indigenous in Mesopotamia, and the +vine tothe south of the Caucasus and of the Caspian Sea: there too +the plum, the walnut, and others of the more easily transplanted +fruit trees are native. It is worthy of notice that the name for +the sea is common to most of the European stocks--Latins, Celts, +Germans, and Slavonians; they must probably therefore before their +separation have reached the coast of the Black Sea or of the Caspian. +By what route from those regions the Italians reached the chain +of the Alps, and where in particular they were settled while still +united with the Hellenes alone, are questions that can only be +answered when the problem is solved by what route--whether from +Asia Minor or from the regions of the Danube--the Hellenes arrived +in Greece. It may at all events be regarded as certain that the +Italians, like the Indians, migrated into their peninsula from the +north.(1) + +The advance of the Umbro-Sabellian stock along the central +mountain-ridge of Italy, in a direction from north to south, can +still be clearly traced; indeed its last phases belong to purely +historical times. Less is known regarding the route which the Latin +migration followed. Probably it proceeded in a similar direction +along the west coast, long, in all likelihood, before the first +Sabellian stocks began to move. The stream only overflows the heights +when the lower grounds are already occupied; and only through the +supposition that there were Latin stocks already settled on the coast +are we able to explain why the Sabellians should have contented +themselves with the rougher mountain districts, from which they +afterwards issued and intruded, wherever it was possible, between +the Latin tribes. + + +Extension of the Latins in Italy + + +It is well known that a Latin stock inhabited the country from +the left bank of the Tiber to the Volscian mountains; but these +mountains themselves, which appear to have been neglected on occasion +of the first immigration when the plains of Latium and Campania +still lay open to the settlers, were, as the Volscian inscriptions +show, occupied by a stock more nearly related to the Sabellians +than to the Latins. On the other hand, Latins probably dwelt in +Campania before the Greek and Samnite immigrations; for the Italian +names Novla or Nola (newtown), Campani Capua, Volturnus (from +-volvere-, like -Iuturna- from -iuvare-), Opsci (labourers), are +demonstrably older than the Samnite invasion, and show that, at the +time when Cumae was founded by the Greeks, an Italian and probably +Latin stock, the Ausones, were in possession of Campania. The +primitive inhabitants of the districts which the Lucani and Bruttii +subsequently occupied, the Itali proper (inhabitants of the land of +oxen), are associated by the best observers not with the Iapygian, +but with the Italian stock; and there is nothing to hinder our regarding +them as belonging to its Latin branch, although the Hellenizing of +these districts which took place even before the commencement of +the political development of Italy, and their subsequent inundation +by Samnite hordes, have in this instance totally obliterated the +traces of the older nationality. Very ancient legends bring the +similarly extinct stock of the Siculi into relation with Rome. For +instance, the earliest historian of Italy Antiochus of Syracuse +tells us that a man named Sikelos came a fugitive from Rome to +Morges king of Italia (i. e. the Bruttian peninsula). Such stories +appear to be founded on the identity of race recognized by the +narrators as subsisting between the Siculi (of whom there were +some still in Italy in the time of Thucydides) and the Latins. The +striking affinity of certain dialectic peculiarities of Sicilian +Greek with the Latin is probably to be explained rather by the old +commercial connections subsisting between Rome and the Sicilian +Greeks, than by the ancient identity of the languages of the Siculi +and the Romans. According to all indications, however, not only +Latium, but probably also the Campanian and Lucanian districts, +the Italia proper between the gulfs of Tarentum and Laus, and the +eastern half of Sicily were in primitive times inhabited by different +branches of the Latin nation. + +Destinies very dissimilar awaited these different branches. Those +settled in Sicily, Magna Graecia, and Campania came into contact +with the Greeks at a period when they were unable to offer resistance +to their civilization, and were either completely Hellenized, as in +the case of Sicily, or at any rate so weakened that they succumbed +without marked resistance to the fresh energy of the Sabine tribes. +In this way the Siculi, the Itali and Morgetes, and the Ausonians +never came to play an active part in the history of the peninsula. +It was otherwise with Latium, where no Greek colonies were +founded, and the inhabitants after hard struggles were successful +in maintaining their ground against the Sabines as well as against +their northern neighbours. Let us cast a glance at this district, +which was destined more than any other to influence the fortunes +of the ancient world. + + +Latium + + +The plain of Latium must have been in primeval times the scene of +the grandest conflicts of nature, while the slowly formative agency +of water deposited, and the eruptions of mighty volcanoes upheaved, +the successive strata of that soil on which was to be decided the +question to what people the sovereignty of the world should belong. +Latium is bounded on the east by the mountains of the Sabines and +Aequi which form part of the Apennines; and on the south by the +Volscian range rising to the height of 4000 feet, which is separated +from the main chain of the Apennines by the ancient territory of +the Hernici, the tableland of the Sacco (Trerus, a tributary of the +Liris), and stretching in a westerly direction terminates in the +promontory of Terracina. On the west its boundary is the sea, which +on this part of the coast forms but few and indifferent harbours. +On the north it imperceptibly merges into the broad hill-land +of Etruria. The region thus enclosed forms a magnificent plain +traversed by the Tiber, the "mountain-stream" which issues from +the Umbrian, and by the Anio, which rises in the Sabine mountains. +Hills here and there emerge, like islands, from the plain; some +of them steep limestone cliffs, such as that of Soracte in the +north-east, and that of the Circeian promontory on the south-west, +as well as the similar though lower height of the Janiculum near +Rome; others volcanic elevations, whose extinct craters had become +converted into lakes which in some cases still exist; the most +important of these is the Alban range, which, free on every side, +stands forth from the plain between the Volscian chain and the +river Tiber. + +Here settled the stock which is known to history under the name +of the Latins, or, as they were subsequently called by way of +distinction from the Latin communities beyond the bounds of Latium, +the "Old Latins" (-prisci Latini-). But the territory occupied +by them, the district of Latium, was only a small portion of the +central plain of Italy. All the country north of the Tiber was to +the Latins a foreign and even hostile domain, with whose inhabitants +no lasting alliance, no public peace, was possible, and such armistices +as were concluded appear always to have been for a limited period. +The Tiber formed the northern boundary from early times; and neither +in history nor in the more reliable traditions has any reminiscence +been preserved as to the period or occasion of the establishment +of a frontier line so important in its results. We find, at the +time when our history begins, the flat and marshy tracts to the +south of the Alban range in the hands of Umbro-Sabellian stocks, the +Rutuli and Volsci; Ardea and Velitrae are no longer in the number +of originally Latin towns. Only the central portion of that region +between the Tiber, the spurs of the Apennines, the Alban Mount, and +the sea--a district of about 700 square miles, not much larger than +the present canton of Zurich--was Latium proper, the "plain,"(2) +as it appears to the eye of the observer from the heights of Monte +Cavo. Though the country is a plain, it is not monotonously flat. +With the exception of the sea-beach which is sandy and formed in +part by the accumulations of the Tiber, the level is everywhere +broken by hills of tufa moderate in height though often somewhat +steep, and by deep fissures of the ground. These alternating +elevations and depressions of the surface lead to the formation +of lakes in winter; and the exhalations proceeding in the heat of +summer from the putrescent organic substances which they contain +engender that noxious fever-laden atmosphere, which in ancient +times tainted the district as it taints it at the present day. It +is a mistake to suppose that these miasmata were first occasioned +by the neglect of cultivation, which was the result of the misgovernment +in the last century of the Republic and under the Papacy. Their +cause lies rather in the want of natural outlets for the water; +and it operates now as it operated thousands of years ago. It is +true, however, that the malaria may to a certain extent be banished +by thoroughness of tillage--a fact which has not yet received its +full explanation, but may be partly accounted for by the circumstance +that the working of the surface accelerates the drying up of the +stagnant waters. It must always remain a remarkable phenomenon, +that a dense agricultural population should have arisen in regions +where no healthy population can at present subsist, and where the +traveller is unwilling to tarry even for a single night, such as +the plain of Latium and the lowlands of Sybaris and Metapontum. +We must bear in mind that man in a low stage of civilization +has generally a quicker perception of what nature demands, and a +greater readiness in conforming to her requirements; perhaps, also, +a more elastic physical constitution, which accommodates itself +more readily to the conditions of the soil where he dwells. In +Sardinia agriculture is prosecuted under physical conditions +precisely similar even at the present day; the pestilential atmosphere +exists, but the peasant avoids its injurious effects by caution in +reference to clothing, food, and the choice of his hours of labour. +In fact, nothing is so certain a protection against the "aria cattiva" +as wearing the fleece of animals and keeping a blazing fire; which +explains why the Roman countryman went constantly clothed in heavy +woollen stuffs, and never allowed the fire on his hearth to be +extinguished. In other respects the district must have appeared +attractive to an immigrant agricultural people: the soil is easily +laboured with mattock and hoe and is productive even without +being manured, although, tried by an Italian standard, it does not +yield any extraordinary return: wheat yields on an average about +five-fold.(3) Good water is not abundant; the higher and more +sacred on that account was the esteem in which every fresh spring +was held by the inhabitants. + + +Latin Settlements + + +No accounts have been preserved of the mode in which the settlements +of the Latins took place in the district which has since borne +their name; and we are left to gather what we can almost exclusively +from a posteriori inference regarding them. Some knowledge may, +however, in this way be gained, or at any rate some conjectures +that wear an aspect of probability. + + +Clan-Villages + + +The Roman territory was divided in the earliest times into a number +of clan-districts, which were subsequently employed in the formation +of the earliest "rural wards" (-tribus rusticae-). Tradition +informs us as to the -tribus Claudia-, that it originated from +the settlement of the Claudian clansmen on the Anio; and that the +other districts of the earliest division originated in a similar +manner is indicated quite as certainly by their names. These +names are not, like those of the districts added at a later period, +derived from the localities, but are formed without exception from +the names of clans; and the clans who thus gave their names to +the wards of the original Roman territory are, so far as they have +not become entirely extinct (as is the case with the -Camilii-, +-Galerii-, -Lemonii-, -Pollii-, -Pupinii-, -Voltinii-), the very +oldest patrician families of Rome, the -Aemilii-, -Cornelii-, -Fabii-, +-Horatii-, -Menenii-, -Papirii-, -Romilii-, -Sergii-, -Voturii-. +It is worthy of remark, that not one of these clans can be shown to +have taken up its settlement in Rome only at a later epoch. Every +Italian, and doubtless also every Hellenic, canton must, like the +Roman, have been divided into a number of groups associated at once +by locality and by clanship; such a clan-settlement is the "house" +(--oikia--) of the Greeks, from which very frequently the --komai-- +and --demoi-- originated among them, like the tribus in Rome. The +corresponding Italian terms "house" -vicus-or "district" (-pagus-, +from -pangere-) indicate, in like manner, the joint settlement +of the members of a clan, and thence come by an easily understood +transition to signify in common use hamlet or village. As each +household had its own portion of land, so the clan-household or +village had a clan-land belonging to it, which, as will afterwards +be shown, was managed up to a comparatively late period after the +analogy of household--land, that is, on the system of joint-possession. +Whether it was in Latium itself that the clan-households became +developed into clan-villages, or whether the Latins were already +associated in clans when they immigrated into Latium, are questions +which we are just as little able to answer as we are to determine +what was the form assumed by the management on joint account, +which such an arrangement required,(4) or how far, in addition to +the original ground of common ancestry, the clan may have been based +on the incorporation or co-ordination from without of individuals +not related to it by blood. + + +Cantons + + +These clanships, however, were from the beginning regarded not as +independent societies, but as the integral parts of a political +community (-civitas-, -populus-). This first presents itself as an +aggregate of a number of clan-villages of the same stock, language, +and manners, bound to mutual observance of law and mutual legal +redress and to united action in aggression and defence. A fixed +local centre was quite as necessary in the case of such a canton +as in that of a clanship; but as the members of the clan, or in +other words the constituent elements of the canton, dwelt in their +villages, the centre of the canton cannot have been a place of joint +settlement in the strict sense--a town. It must, on the contrary, +have been simply a place of common assembly, containing the seat of +justice and the common sanctuary of the canton, where the members +of the canton met every eighth day for purposes of intercourse and +amusement, and where, in case of war, they obtained for themselves +and their cattle a safer shelter from the invading enemy than in +the villages: in ordinary circumstances this place of meeting was +not at all or but scantily inhabited. Ancient places of refuge, +of a kind quite similar, may still be recognized at the present +day on the tops of several of the hills in the highlands of east +Switzerland. Such a place was called in Italy "height" (-capitolium-, +like --akra--, the mountain-top), or "stronghold" (-arx-, from +-arcere-); it was not a town at first, but it became the nucleus of +one, as houses naturally gathered round the stronghold and were +afterwards surrounded with the "ring" (-urbs-, connected with +-urvus-, -rurvus-, perhaps also with -orbis-). The stronghold and +town were visibly distinguished from each other by the number of +gates, of which the stronghold has as few as possible, and the town +many, the former ordinarily but one, the latter at least three. +Such fortresses were the bases of that cantonal constitution which +prevailed in Italy anterior to the existence of towns: a constitution, +the nature of which may still be recognized with some degree of +clearness in those provinces of Italy which did not until a late +period reach, and in some cases have not yet fully reached, the +stage of aggregation in towns, such as the land of the Marsi and +the small cantons of the Abruzzi. The country if the Aequiculi, +who even in the imperial period dwelt not in towns, but in numerous +open hamlets, presents a number of ancient ring-walls, which, +regarded as "deserted towns" with their solitary temples, excited +the astonishment of the Roman as well as of modern archaeologists, +who have fancied that they could find accommodation there, the +former for their "primitive inhabitants" (-aborigines-), the latter +for their Pelasgians. We shall certainly be nearer the truth in +recognizing these structures not as walled towns, but as places of +refuge for the inhabitants of the district, such as were doubtless +found in more ancient times over all Italy, although constructed +in less artistic style. It was natural that at the period when the +stocks that had made the transition to urban life were surrounding +their towns with stone walls, those districts whose inhabitants +continued to dwell in open hamlets should replace the earthen ramparts +and palisades of their strongholds with buildings of stone. When +peace came to be securely established throughout the land and +such fortresses were no longer needed, these places of refuge were +abandoned and soon became a riddle to after generations. + + +Localities of the Oldest Cantons + + +These cantons accordingly, having their rendezvous in some +stronghold, and including a certain number of clanships, form the +primitive political unities with which Italian history begins. At +what period, and to what extent, such cantons were formed in Latium, +cannot be determined with precision; nor is it a matter of special +historical interest The isolated Alban range, that natural stronghold +of Latium, which offered to settlers the most wholesome air, the +freshest springs, and the most secure position, would doubtless be +first occupied by the new comers. + + +Alba + + +Here accordingly, along the narrow plateau above Palazzuola, between +the Alban lake (-Lago di Castello-) and the Alban mount (-Monte +Cavo-), extended the town of Alba, which was universally regarded +as the primitive seat of the Latin stock, and the mother-city of +Rome as well as of all the other Old Latin communities; here, too, +on the slopes lay the very ancient Latin canton-centres of Lanuvium, +Aricia, and Tusculum. Here are found some of those primitive works +of masonry, which usually mark the beginnings of civilization and +seem to stand as a witness to posterity that in reality Pallas +Athena when she does appear, comes into the world full grown. Such +is the escarpment of the wall of rock below Alba in the direction +of Palazzuola, whereby the place, which is rendered naturally +inaccessible by the steep declivities of Monte Cavo on the south, +is rendered equally unapproachable on the north, and only the two +narrow approaches on the east and west, which are capable of being +easily defended, are left open for traffic. Such, above all, is +the large subterranean tunnel cut--so that a man can stand upright +within it--through the hard wall of lava, 6000 feet thick, by which +the waters of the lake formed in the old crater of the Alban Mount +were reduced to their present level and a considerable space was +gained for tillage on the mountain itself. + +The summits of the last offshoots of the Sabine range form natural +fastnesses of the Latin plain; and the canton-strongholds there +gave rise at a later period to the considerable towns of Tibur and +Praeneste. Labici too, Gabii, and Nomentum in the plain between the +Alban and Sabine hills and the Tiber, Rome on the Tiber, Laurentum +and Lavinium on the coast, were all more or less ancient centres +of Latin colonization, not to speak of many others less famous and +in some cases almost forgotten. + + +The Latin League + + +All these cantons were in primitive times politically sovereign, +and each of them was governed by its prince with the co-operation +of the council of elders and the assembly of warriors. Nevertheless +the feeling of fellowship based on community of descent and of +language not only pervaded the whole of them, but manifested itself +in an important religious and political institution--the perpetual +league of the collective Latin cantons. The presidency belonged +originally, according to the universal Italian as well as Hellenic +usage, to that canton within whose bounds lay the meeting-place of +the league; in this case it was the canton of Alba, which, as we +have said, was generally regarded as the oldest and most eminent +of the Latin cantons. The communities entitled to participate in +the league were in the beginning thirty--a number which we find +occurring with singular frequency as the sum of the constituent +parts of a commonwealth in Greece and Italy. What cantons originally +made up the number of the thirty old Latin communities or, as with +reference to the metropolitan rights of Alba they are also called, +the thirty Alban colonies, tradition has not recorded, and we can +no longer ascertain. The rendezvous of this union was, like the +Pamboeotia and the Panionia among the similar confederacies of the +Greeks, the "Latin festival" (-feriae Latinae-), at which, on the +"Mount of Alba" (-Mons Albanus-, -Monte Cavo-), upon a day annually +appointed by the chief magistrate for the purpose, an ox was +offered in sacrifice by the assembled Latin stock to the "Latin god" +(-Jupiter Latiaris-). Each community taking part in the ceremony +had to contribute to the sacrificial feast its fixed proportion +of cattle, milk, and cheese, and to receive in return a portion of +the roasted victim. These usages continued down to a late period, +and are well known: respecting the more important legal bearings +of this association we can do little else than institute conjectures. + +From the most ancient times there were held, in connection with +the religious festival on the Mount of Alba, assemblies of the +representatives of the several communities at the neighbouring +Latin seat of justice at the source of the Ferentina (near Marino). +Indeed such a confederacy cannot be conceived to exist without +having a certain power of superintendence over the associated body, +and without possessing a system of law binding on all. Tradition +records, and we may well believe, that the league exercised +jurisdiction in reference to violations of federal law, and that +it could in such cases pronounce even sentence of death. The later +communion of legal rights and, in some sense, of marriage that +subsisted among the Latin communities may perhaps be regarded as +an integral part of the primitive law of the league, so that any +Latin man could beget lawful children with any Latin woman and +acquire landed property and carry on trade in any part of Latium. +The league may have also provided a federal tribunal of arbitration +for the mutual disputes of the cantons; on the other hand, there +is no proof that the league imposed any limitation on the sovereign +right of each community to make peace or war. In like manner +there can be no doubt that the constitution of the league implied +the possibility of its waging defensive or even aggressive war +in its own name; in which case, of course, it would be necessary +to have a federal commander-in-chief. But we have no reason to +suppose that in such an event each community was compelled by law +to furnish a contingent for the army, or that, conversely, any +one was interdicted from undertaking a war on its own account even +against a member of the league. There are, however, indications +that during the Latin festival, just as was the case during the +festivals of the Hellenic leagues, "a truce of God" was observed +throughout all Latium;(5) and probably on that occasion even tribes +at feud granted safe-conducts to each other. + +It is still less in our power to define the range of the privileges +of the presiding canton; only we may safely affirm that there is +no reason for recognizing in the Alban presidency a real political +hegemony over Latium, and that possibly, nay probably, it had no +more significance in Latium than the honorary presidency of Elis +had in Greece.(6) On the whole it is probable that the extent of +this Latin league, and the amount of its jurisdiction, were somewhat +unsettled and fluctuating; yet it remained throughout not an +accidental aggregate of various communities more or less alien to +each other, but the just and necessary expression of the relationship +of the Latin stock. The Latin league may not have at all times +included all Latin communities, but it never at any rate granted +the privilege of membership to any that were not Latin. Its +counterpart in Greece was not the Delphic Amphictyony, but the +Boeotian or Aetolian confederacy. + +These very general outlines must suffice: any attempt to draw the +lines more sharply would only falsify the picture. The manifold play +of mutual attraction and repulsion among those earliest political +atoms, the cantons, passed away in Latium without witnesses competent +to tell the tale. We must now be content to realise the one great +abiding fact that they possessed a common centre, to which they +did not sacrifice their individual independence, but by means of +which they cherished and increased the feeling of their belonging +collectively to the same nation. By such a common possession the +way was prepared for their advance from that cantonal individuality, +with which the history of every people necessarily begins, to the +national union with which the history of every people ends or at +any rate ought to end. + + + + +Notes for Book I Chapter III + + +1. I. II. Italians + +2. Like -latus- (side) and --platus-- (flat); it denotes therefore +the flat country in contrast to the Sabine mountain-land, just +as Campania, the "plain," forms the contrast to Samnium. Latus, +formerly -stlatus-, has no connection with Latium. + +3. A French statist, Dureau de la Malle (-Econ. Pol. des Romains-, +ii. 226), compares with the Roman Campagna the district of Limagne +in Auvergne, which is likewise a wide, much intersected, and uneven +plain, with a superficial soil of decomposed lava and ashes--the +remains of extinct volcanoes. The population, at least 2500 +to the square league, is one of the densest to be found in purely +agricultural districts: property is subdivided to an extraordinary +extent. Tillage is carried on almost entirely by manual labour, +with spade, hoe, or mattock; only in exceptional cases a light +plough is substituted drawn by two cows, the wife of the peasant +not unfrequently taking the place of one of them in the yoke. The +team serves at once to furnish milk and to till the land. They +have two harvests in the year, corn and vegetables; there is no +fallow. The average yearly rent for an arpent of arable land is +100 francs. If instead Of such an arrangement this same land were +to be divided among six or seven large landholders, and a system +of management by stewards and day labourers were to supersede the +husbandry of the small proprietors, in a hundred years the Limagne +would doubtless be as waste, forsaken, and miserable as the Campagna +di Roma is at the present day. + +4. In Slavonia, where the patriarchal economy is retained up to +the present day, the whole family, often to the number of fifty +or even a hundred persons, remains together in the same house under +the orders of the house-father (Goszpodar) chosen by the whole +family for life. The property of the household, which consists +chiefly in cattle, is administered by the house-father; the +surplus is distributed according to the family-branches. Private +acquisitions by industry and trade remain separate property. +Instances of quitting the household occur, in the case even of men, +e. g. by marrying into a stranger household (Csaplovies, -Slavonien-, +i. 106, 179). --Under such circumstances, which are probably +not very widely different from the earliest Roman conditions, the +household approximates in character to the community. + +5. The Latin festival is expressly called "armistice" (-indutiae-, +Macrob. Sat. i. 16; --ekecheipiai--, Dionys. iv. 49); and a war +was not allowed to be begun during its continuance (Macrob. l. c.) + +6. The assertion often made in ancient and modern times, that +Alba once ruled over Latium under the forms of a symmachy, nowhere +finds on closer investigation sufficient support. All history +begins not with the union, but with the disunion of a nation; and +it is very improbable that the problem of the union of Latium, which +Rome finally solved after some centuries of conflict, should have +been already solved at an earlier period by Alba. It deserves to +be remarked too that Rome never asserted in the capacity of heiress +of Alba any claims of sovereignty proper over the Latin communities, +but contented herself with an honorary presidency; which no doubt, +when it became combined with material power, afforded a handle for +her pretensions of hegemony. Testimonies, strictly so called, can +scarcely be adduced on such a question; and least of all do such +passages as Festus -v. praetor-, p. 241, and Dionys. iii. 10, +suffice to stamp Alba as a Latin Athens. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +The Beginnings of Rome + + + +Ramnes + + +About fourteen miles up from the mouth of the river Tiber hills of +moderate elevation rise on both banks of the stream, higher on the +right, lower on the left bank. With the latter group there has been +closely associated for at least two thousand five hundred years the +name of the Romans. We are unable, of course, to tell how or when +that name arose; this much only is certain, that in the oldest +form of it known to us the inhabitants of the canton are called not +Romans, but Ramnians (Ramnes); and this shifting of sound, which +frequently occurs in the older period of a language, but fell very +early into abeyance in Latin,(1) is an expressive testimony to the +immemorial antiquity of the name. Its derivation cannot be given with +certainty; possibly "Ramnes" may mean "the people on the stream." + + +Tities, Luceres + + +But they were not the only dwellers on the hills by the bank +of the Tiber. In the earliest division of the burgesses of Rome a +trace has been preserved of the fact that that body arose out of +the amalgamation of three cantons once probably independent, the +Ramnians, Tities, and Luceres, into a single commonwealth--in other +words, out of such a --synoikismos-- as that from which Athens +arose in Attica.(2) The great antiquity of this threefold division +of the community(3) is perhaps best evinced by the fact that the +Romans, in matters especially of constitutional law, regularly +used the forms -tribuere- ("to divide into three") and -tribus- +("a third") in the general sense of "to divide" and "a part," and +the latter expression (-tribus-), like our "quarter," early lost +its original signification of number. After the union each of these +three communities--once separate, but now forming subdivisions of +a single community--still possessed its third of the common domain, +and had its proportional representation in the burgess-force and +in the council of the elders. In ritual also, the number divisible +by three of the members of almost all the oldest colleges--of the +Vestal Virgins, the Salii, the Arval Brethren, the Luperci, the +Augurs-- probably had reference to that three-fold partition. These +three elements into which the primitive body of burgesses in Rome +was divided have had theories of the most extravagant absurdity +engrafted upon them. The irrational opinion that the Roman nation +was a mongrel people finds its support in that division, and its +advocates have striven by various means to represent the three +great Italian races as elements entering into the composition of +the primitive Rome, and to transform a people which has exhibited +in language, polity, and religion, a pure and national development +such as few have equalled, into a confused aggregate of Etruscan +and Sabine, Hellenic and, forsooth! even Pelasgian fragments. + +Setting aside self-contradictory and unfounded hypotheses, we may +sum up in a few words all that can be said respecting the nationality +of the component elements of the primitive Roman commonwealth. +That the Ramnians were a Latin stock cannot be doubted, for they +gave their name to the new Roman commonwealth and therefore must have +substantially determined the nationality of the united community. +Respecting the origin of the Luceres nothing can be affirmed, except +that there is no difficulty in the way of our assigning them, like +the Ramnians, to the Latin stock. The second of these communities, +on the other hand, is with one consent derived from Sabina; and +this view can at least be traced to a tradition preserved in the +Titian brotherhood, which represented that priestly college as +having been instituted, on occasion of the Tities being admitted +into the collective community, for the preservation of their +distinctive Sabine ritual. It may be, therefore, that at a period +very remote, when the Latin and Sabellian stocks were beyond question +far less sharply contrasted in language, manners, and customs than +were the Roman and the Samnite of a later age, a Sabellian community +entered into a Latin canton-union; and, as in the older and more +credible traditions without exception the Tities take precedence +of the Ramnians, it is probable that the intruding Tities compelled +the older Ramnians to accept the --synoikismos--. A mixture +of different nationalities certainly therefore took place; but +it hardly exercised an influence greater than the migration, for +example, which occurred some centuries afterwards of the Sabine +Attus Clauzus or Appius Claudius and his clansmen and clients to +Rome. The earlier admission of the Tities among the Ramnians does +not entitle us to class the community among mongrel peoples any +more than does that subsequent reception of the Claudii among the +Romans. With the exception, perhaps, of isolated national institutions +handed down in connection with ritual, the existence of Sabellian +elements can nowhere be pointed out in Rome; and the Latin +language in particular furnishes absolutely no support to any such +hypothesis.(4) It would in fact be more than surprising, if the +Latin nation should have had its nationality in any sensible degree +affected by the insertion of a single community from a stock so +very closely related to it; and, besides, it must not be forgotten +that at the time when the Tides settled beside the Ramnians, Latin +nationality rested on Latium as its basis, and not on Rome. The new +tripartite Roman commonwealth was, notwithstanding some incidental +elements which were originally Sabellian, just what the community +of the Ramnians had previously been--a portion of the Latin nation. + + +Rome the Emporium of Latium + + +Long, in all probability, before an urban settlement arose on the +Tiber, these Ramnians, Tities, and Luceres, at first separate, +afterwards united, had their stronghold on the Roman hills, and +tilled their fields from the surrounding villages. The "wolf-festival" +(Lupercalia) which the gens of the Quinctii celebrated on the +Palatine hill, was probably a tradition from these primitive times--a +festival of husbandmen and shepherds, which more than any other +preserved the homely pastimes of patriarchal simplicity, and, +singularly enough, maintained itself longer than all the other +heathen festivals in Christian Rome, + + +Character of Its Site + + +From these settlements the later Rome arose. The founding of a city +in the strict sense, such as the legend assumes, is of course to +be reckoned altogether out of the question: Rome was not built in +a day. But the serious consideration of the historian may well be +directed to the inquiry, in what way Rome can have so early attained +the prominent political position which it held in Latium--so +different from what the physical character of the locality would +have led us to anticipate. The site of Rome is less healthy and +less fertile than that of most of the old Latin towns. Neither the +vine nor the fig succeed well in the immediate environs, and there +is a want of springs yielding a good supply of water; for neither +the otherwise excellent fountain of the Camenae before the Porta +Capena, nor the Capitoline well, afterwards enclosed within the +Tullianum, furnish it in any abundance. Another disadvantage arises +from the frequency with which the river overflows its banks. Its +very slight fall renders it unable to carry off the water, which +during the rainy season descends in large quantities from the +mountains, with sufficient rapidity to the sea, and in consequence +it floods the low-lying lands and the valleys that open between the +hills, and converts them into swamps. For a settler the locality +was anything but attractive. In antiquity itself an opinion was +expressed that the first body of immigrant cultivators could scarce +have spontaneously resorted in search of a suitable settlement to +that unhealthy and unfruitful spot in a region otherwise so highly +favoured, and that it must have been necessity, or rather some +special motive, which led to the establishment of a city there. +Even the legend betrays its sense of the strangeness of the fact: +the story of the foundation of Rome by refugees from Alba under +the leadership of the sons of an Alban prince, Romulus and Remus, +is nothing but a naive attempt of primitive quasi-history to explain +the singular circumstance of the place having arisen on a site so +unfavourable, and to connect at the same time the origin of Rome +with the general metropolis of Latium. Such tales, which profess +to be historical but are merely improvised explanations of no very +ingenious character, it is the first duty of history to dismiss; but +it may perhaps be allowed to go a step further, and after weighing +the special relations of the locality to propose a positive conjecture +not regarding the way in which the place originated, but regarding +the circumstances which occasioned its rapid and surprising prosperity +and led to its occupying its peculiar position in Latium. + + +Earliest Limits of the Roman Territory + + +Let us notice first of all the earliest boundaries of the Roman +territory. Towards the east the towns of Antemnae, Fidenae, Caenina, +and Gabii lie in the immediate neighbourhood, some of them not five +miles distant from the Servian ring-wall; and the boundary of the +canton must have been in the close vicinity of the city gates. +On the south we find at a distance of fourteen miles the powerful +communities of Tusculum and Alba; and the Roman territory appears +not to have extended in this direction beyond the -Fossa Cluilia-, +five miles from Rome. In like manner, towards the south-west, the +boundary betwixt Rome and Lavinium was at the sixth milestone. +While in a landward direction the Roman canton was thus everywhere +confined within the narrowest possible limits, from the earliest +times, on the other hand, it extended without hindrance on both +banks of the Tiber towards the sea. Between Rome and the coast there +occurs no locality that is mentioned as an ancient canton-centre, +and no trace of any ancient canton-boundary. The legend indeed, +which has its definite explanation of the origin of everything, +professes to tell us that the Roman possessions on the right bank of +the Tiber, the "seven hamlets" (-septem pagi-), and the important +salt-works at its mouth, were taken by king Romulus from the Veientes, +and that king Ancus fortified on the right bank the -tete de pont-, +the "mount of Janus" (-Janiculum-), and founded on the left the +Roman Peiraeus, the seaport at the river's "mouth" (-Ostia-). But +in fact we have evidence more trustworthy than that of legend, that +the possessions on the Etruscan bank of the Tiber must have belonged +to the original territory of Rome; for in this very quarter, at +the fourth milestone on the later road to the port, lay the grove +of the creative goddess (-Dea Dia-), the primitive chief seat of +the Arval festival and Arval brotherhood of Rome. Indeed from time +immemorial the clan of the Romilii, once the chief probably of all +the Roman clans, was settled in this very quarter; the Janiculum +formed a part of the city itself, and Ostia was a burgess colony +or, in other words, a suburb. + + +The Tiber and Its Traffic + + +This cannot have been the result of mere accident. The Tiber was +the natural highway for the traffic of Latium; and its mouth, on +a coast scantily provided with harbours, became necessarily the +anchorage of seafarers. Moreover, the Tiber formed from very ancient +times the frontier defence of the Latin stock against their northern +neighbours. There was no place better fitted for an emporium of the +Latin river and sea traffic, and for a maritime frontier fortress +of Latium, than Rome. It combined the advantages of a strong position +and of immediate vicinity to the river; it commanded both banks of +the stream down to its mouth; it was so situated as to be equally +convenient for the river navigator descending the Tiber or the +Anio, and for the seafarer with vessels of so moderate a size as +those which were then used; and it afforded greater protection from +pirates than places situated immediately on the coast. That Rome +was indebted, if not for its origin, at any rate for its importance, +to these commercial and strategical advantages of its position, +there are accordingly numerous further indications, which are +of very different weight from the statements of quasi-historical +romances. Thence arose its very ancient relations with Caere, which +was to Etruria what Rome was to Latium, and accordingly became Rome's +most intimate neighbour and commercial ally. Thence arose the unusual +importance of the bridge over the Tiber, and of bridge-building +generally in the Roman commonwealth. Thence came the galley in the +city arms; thence, too, the very ancient Roman port-duties on the +exports and imports of Ostia, which were from the first levied only +on what was to be exposed for sale (-promercale-), not on what was +for the shipper's own use (-usuarium-), and which were therefore +in reality a tax upon commerce. Thence, to anticipate, the +comparatively early occurrence in Rome of coined money, and of +commercial treaties with transmarine states. In this sense, then, +certainly Rome may have been, as the legend assumes, a creation +rather than a growth, and the youngest rather than the oldest among +the Latin cities. Beyond doubt the country was already in some +degree cultivated, and the Alban range as well as various other +heights of the Campagna were occupied by strongholds, when the Latin +frontier emporium arose on the Tiber. Whether it was a resolution +of the Latin confederacy, or the clear-sighted genius of some +unknown founder, or the natural development of traffic, that called +the city of Rome into being, it is vain even to surmise. + + +Early Urban Character of Rome + + +But in connection with this view of the position of Rome as the +emporium of Latium another observation suggests itself. At the time +when history begins to dawn on us, Rome appears, in contradistinction +to the league of the Latin communities, as a compact urban unity. +The Latin habit of dwelling in open villages, and of using the +common stronghold only for festivals and assemblies or in case of +special need, was subjected to restriction at a far earlier period, +probably, in the canton of Rome than anywhere else in Latium. The +Roman did not cease to manage his farm in person, or to regard it +as his proper home; but the unwholesome atmosphere of the Campagna +could not but induce him to take up his abode as much as possible +on the more airy and salubrious city hills; and by the side of the +cultivators of the soil there must have been a numerous non-agricultural +population, partly foreigners, partly native, settled there from +very early times. This to some extent accounts for the dense +population of the old Roman territory, which may be estimated at +the utmost at 115 square miles, partly of marshy or sandy soil, and +which, even under the earliest constitution of the city, furnished +a force of 3300 freemen; so that it must have numbered at least +10,000 free inhabitants. But further, every one acquainted with +the Romans and their history is aware that it is their urban and +mercantile character which forms the basis of whatever is peculiar +in their public and private life, and that the distinction between +them and the other Latins and Italians in general is pre-eminently +the distinction between citizen and rustic. Rome, indeed, was +not a mercantile city like Corinth or Carthage; for Latium was an +essentially agricultural region, and Rome was in the first instance, +and continued to be, pre-eminently a Latin city. But the distinction +between Rome and the mass of the other Latin towns must certainly +be traced back to its commercial position, and to the type of +character produced by that position in its citizens. If Rome was +the emporium of the Latin districts, we can readily understand +how, along with and in addition to Latin husbandry, an urban life +should have attained vigorous and rapid development there and thus +have laid the foundation for its distinctive career. + +It is far more important and more practicable to follow out the +course of this mercantile and strategical growth of the city of +Rome, than to attempt the useless task of chemically analysing the +insignificant and but little diversified communities of primitive +times. This urban development may still be so far recognized +in the traditions regarding the successive circumvallations and +fortifications of Rome, the formation of which necessarily kept +pace with the growth of the Roman commonwealth in importance as a +city. + + +The Palatine City + + +The town, which in the course of centuries grew up as Rome, in its +original form embraced according to trustworthy testimony only the +Palatine, or "square Rome" (-Roma quadrata-), as it was called in +later times from the irregularly quadrangular form of the Palatine +hill. The gates and walls that enclosed this original city remained +visible down to the period of the empire: the sites of two of the +former, the Porta Romana near S. Giorgio in Velabro, and the Porta +Mugionis at the Arch of Titus, are still known to us, and the +Palatine ring-wall is described by Tacitus from his own observation +at least on the sides looking towards the Aventine and Caelian. +Many traces indicate that this was the centre and original seat of +the urban settlement. On the Palatine was to be found the sacred +symbol of that settlement, the "outfit-vault" (-mundus-) as it +was called, in which the first settlers deposited a sufficiency +of everything necessary for a household and added a clod of their +dear native earth. There, too, was situated the building in which +all the curies assembled for religious and other purposes, each at +its own hearth (-curiae veteres-). There stood the meetinghouse of +the "Leapers" (-curia Saliorum-) in which also the sacred shields +of Mars were preserved, the sanctuary of the "Wolves" (-Lupercal-), +and the dwelling of the priest of Jupiter. On and near this hill +the legend of the founding of the city placed the scenes of its +leading incidents, and the straw-covered house of Romulus, the +shepherd's hut of his foster-father Faustulus, the sacred fig-tree +towards which the cradle with the twins had floated, the cornelian +cherry-tree that sprang from the shaft of the spear which the +founder of the city had hurled from the Aventine over the valley of +the Circus into this enclosure, and other such sacred relics were +pointed out to the believer. Temples in the proper sense of the +term were still at this time unknown, and accordingly the Palatine +has nothing of that sort to show belonging to the primitive age. +The public assemblies of the community were early transferred to +another locality, so that their original site is unknown; only it +may be conjectured that the free space round the -mundus-, afterwards +called the -area Apollinis-, was the primitive place of assembly +for the burgesses and the senate, and the stage erected over the +-mundus- itself the primitive seat of justice of the Roman community. + + +The Seven Mounts + + +The "festival of the Seven Mounts" (-septimontium-), again, has +preserved the memory of the more extended settlement which gradually +formed round the Palatine. Suburbs grew up one after another, each +protected by its own separate though weaker circumvallation and +joined to the original ring-wall of the Palatine, as in fen districts +the outer dikes are joined on to the main dike. The "Seven Rings" +were, the Palatine itself; the Cermalus, the slope of the Palatine +in the direction of the morass that extended between it and the +Capitol towards the river (-velabrum-); the Velia, the ridge which +connected the Palatine with the Esquiline, but in subsequent times +was almost wholly obliterated by the buildings of the empire; the +Fagutal, the Oppius, and the Cispius, the three summits of the +Esquiline; lastly, the Sucusa, or Subura, a fortress constructed +outside of the earthen rampart which protected the new town on the +Carinae, in the depression between the Esquiline and the Quirinal +beneath S. Pietro in Vincoli. These additions, manifestly the +results of a gradual growth, clearly reveal to a certain extent the +earliest history of the Palatine Rome, especially when we compare +with them the Servian arrangement of districts which was afterwards +formed on the basis of this earliest division. + + +Oldest Settlements in the Palatine and Suburan Regions + + +The Palatine was the original seat of the Roman community, the oldest +and originally the only ring-wall. The urban settlement, however, +began at Rome as well as elsewhere not within, but under the +protection of, the stronghold; and the oldest settlements with +which we are acquainted, and which afterwards formed the first and +second regions in the Servian division of the city, lay in a circle +round the Palatine. These included the settlement on the declivity +of the Cermalus with the "street of the Tuscans"--a name in which +there may have been preserved a reminiscence of the commercial +intercourse between the Caerites and Romans already perhaps carried +on with vigour in the Palatine city--and the settlement on the +Velia; both of which subsequently along with the stronghold-hill +itself constituted one region in the Servian city. Further, there +were the component elements of the subsequent second region--the +suburb on the Caelian, which probably embraced only its extreme point +above the Colosseum; that on the Carinae, the spur which projects +from the Esquiline towards the Palatine; and, lastly, the valley +and outwork of the Subura, from which the whole region received +its name. These two regions jointly constituted the incipient city; +and the Suburan district of it, which extended at the base of the +stronghold, nearly from the Arch of Constantine to S. Pietro in +Vincoli, and over the valley beneath, appears to have been more +considerable and perhaps older than the settlements incorporated +by the Servian arrangement in the Palatine district, because in the +order of the regions the former takes precedence of the latter. A +remarkable memorial of the distinction between these two portions +of the city was preserved in one of the oldest sacred customs of +the later Rome, the sacrifice of the October horse yearly offered +in the -Campus Martius-: down to a late period a struggle took +place at this festival for the horse's head between the men of the +Subura and those of the Via Sacra, and according as victory lay +with the former or with the latter, the head was nailed either to +the Mamilian Tower (site unknown) in the Subura, or to the king's +palace under the Palatine. It was the two halves of the old city +that thus competed with each other on equal terms. At that time, +accordingly, the Esquiliae (which name strictly used is exclusive +of the Carinae) were in reality what they were called, the "outer +buildings" (-exquiliae-, like -inquilinus-, from -colere-) or +suburb: this became the third region in the later city division, +and it was always held in inferior consideration as compared with +the Suburan and Palatine regions. Other neighbouring heights also, +such as the Capitol and the Aventine, may probably have been occupied +by the community of the Seven Mounts; the "bridge of piles" in +particular (-pons sublicius-), thrown over the natural pier of the +island in the Tiber, must have existed even then--the pontifical +college alone is sufficient evidence of this--and the -tete de +pont- on the Etruscan bank, the height of the Janiculum, would not +be left unoccupied; but the community had not as yet brought either +within the circuit of its fortifications. The regulation which +was adhered to as a ritual rule down to the latest times, that the +bridge should be composed simply of wood without iron, manifestly +shows that in its original practical use it was to be merely a +flying bridge, which must be capable of being easily at any time +broken off or burnt. We recognize in this circumstance how insecure +for a long time and liable to interruption was the command of the +passage of the river on the part of the Roman community. + +No relation is discoverable between the urban settlements thus +gradually formed and the three communities into which from an +immemorially early period the Roman commonwealth was in political +law divided. As the Ramnes, Tities, and Luceres appear to have +been communities originally independent, they must have had their +settlements originally apart; but they certainly did not dwell +in separate circumvallations on the Seven Hills, and all fictions +to this effect in ancient or modern times must be consigned by +the intelligent inquirer to the same fate with the charming tale +of Tarpeia and the battle of the Palatine. On the contrary each +of the three tribes of Ramnes, Tities, and Luceres must have been +distributed throughout the two regions of the oldest city, the +Subura and Palatine, and the suburban region as well: with this +may be connected the fact, that afterwards not only in the Suburan +and Palatine, but in each of the regions subsequently added to the +city, there were three pairs of Argean chapels. The Palatine city +of the Seven Mounts may have had a history of its own; no other +tradition of it has survived than simply that of its having once +existed. But as the leaves of the forest make room for the new +growth of spring, although they fall unseen by human eyes, so has +this unknown city of the Seven Mounts made room for the Rome of +history. + + +The Hill-Romans on the Quirinal + + +But the Palatine city was not the only one that in ancient times +existed within the circle afterwards enclosed by the Servian walls; +opposite to it, in its immediate vicinity, there lay a second city +on the Quirinal. The "old stronghold" (-Capitolium vetus-) with a +sanctuary of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, and a temple of the goddess +of Fidelity in which state treaties were publicly deposited, forms +the evident counterpart of the later Capitol with its temple to +Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, and with its shrine of Fides Romana +likewise destined as it were for a repository of international +law, and furnishes a sure proof that the Quirinal also was once +the centre of an independent commonwealth. The same fact may be +inferred from the double worship of Mars on the Palatine and the +Quirinal; for Mars was the type of the warrior and the oldest chief +divinity of the burgess communities of Italy. With this is connected +the further circumstance that his ministers, the two primitive +colleges of the "Leapers" (-Salii-) and of the "Wolves" (-Luperci-) +existed in the later Rome in duplicate: by the side of the Salii +of the Palatine there were also Salii of the Quirinal; by the side +of the Quinctian Luperci of the Palatine there was a Fabian guild +of Luperci, which in all probability had their sanctuary on the +Quirinal.(5) + +All these indications, which even in themselves are of great weight, +become more significant when we recollect that the accurately +known circuit of the Palatine city of the Seven Mounts excluded the +Quirinal, and that afterwards in the Servian Rome, while the first +three regions corresponded to the former Palatine city, a fourth +region was formed out of the Quirinal along with the neighbouring +Viminal. Thus, too, we discover an explanation of the reason why +the strong outwork of the Subura was constructed beyond the city +wall in the valley between the Esquiline and Quirinal; it was at +that point, in fact, that the two territories came into contact, +and the Palatine Romans, after having taken possession of the low +ground, were under the necessity of constructing a stronghold for +protection against those of the Quirinal. + +Lastly, even the name has not been lost by which the men of the +Quirinal distinguished themselves from their Palatine neighbours. +As the Palatine city took the name of "the Seven Mounts," its +citizens called themselves the "mount-men" (-montani-), and the +term "mount," while applied to the other heights belonging to the +city, was above all associated with the Palatine; so the Quirinal +height--although not lower, but on the contrary somewhat higher, +than the former--as well as the adjacent Viminal never in the strict +use of the language received any other name than "hill" (collis). +In the ritual records, indeed, the Quirinal was not unfrequently +designated as the "hill" without further addition. In like manner +the gate leading out from this height was usually called the +"hill-gate" (-porta collina-); the priests of Mars settled there +were called those "of the hill" (-Salii collini-) in contrast to +those of the Palatium (-Salii Palatini-) and the fourth Servian +region formed out of this district was termed the hill-region +(-tribus collina-)(6) The name of Romans primarily associated with +the locality was probably appropriated by these "Hill-men" as well +as by those of the "Mounts;" and the former perhaps designated +themselves as "Romans of the Hill" (-Romani collini-). That a +diversity of race may have lain at the foundation of this distinction +between the two neighbouring cities is possible; but evidence +sufficient to warrant our pronouncing a community established on +Latin soil to be of alien lineage is, in the case of the Quirinal +community, totally wanting.(7) + + +Relations between the Palatine and Quirinal Communities + + +Thus the site of the Roman commonwealth was still at this period +occupied by the Mount-Romans of the Palatine and the Hill-Romans +of the Quirinal as two separate communities confronting each other +and doubtless in many respects at feud, in some degree resembling +the Montigiani and the Trasteverini in modern Rome. That the +community of the Seven Mounts early attained a great preponderance +over that of the Quirinal may with certainty be inferred both from +the greater extent of its newer portions and suburbs, and from +the position of inferiority in which the former Hill-Romans were +obliged to acquiesce under the later Servian arrangement. But +even within the Palatine city there was hardly a true and complete +amalgamation of the different constituent elements of the settlement. +We have already mentioned how the Subura and the Palatine annually +contended for the horse's head; the several Mounts also, and even +the several curies (there was as yet no common hearth for the +city, but the various hearths of the curies subsisted side by side, +although in the same locality) probably felt themselves to be as +yet more separated than united; and Rome as a whole was probably +rather an aggregate of urban settlements than a single city. It +appears from many indications that the houses of the old and powerful +families were constructed somewhat after the manner of fortresses +and were rendered capable of defence--a precaution, it may be +presumed, not unnecessary. It was the magnificent structure ascribed +to king Servius Tullius that first surrounded not merely those two +cities of the Palatine and Quirinal, but also the heights of the +Capitol and the Aventine which were not comprehended within their +enclosure, with a single great ring-wall, and thereby created +the new Rome--the Rome of history. But ere this mighty work was +undertaken, the relations of Rome to the surrounding country had +beyond doubt undergone a complete revolution. As the period, during +which the husbandman guided his plough on the seven hills of Rome +just as on the other hills of Latium, and the usually unoccupied +places of refuge on particular summits alone presented the germs +of a more permanent settlement, corresponds to the earliest epoch +of the Latin stock without trace of traffic or achievement; as +thereafter the flourishing settlement on the Palatine and in the +"Seven Rings" was coincident with the occupation of the mouths of +the Tiber by the Roman community, and with the progress of the Latins +to a more stirring and freer intercourse, to an urban civilization +in Rome more especially, and perhaps also to a more consolidated +political union in the individual states as well as in the confederacy; +so the Servian wall, which was the foundation of a single great +city, was connected with the epoch at which the city of Rome was +able to contend for, and at length to achieve, the sovereignty of +the Latin league. + + + + +Notes for Book I Chapter IV + + +1. A similar change of sound is exhibited in the case of the following +formations, all of them of a very ancient kind: -pars--portio-, +-Mars- -Mors-, -farreum- ancient form for -horreum-, -Fabii- -Fovii-, +-Valerius- -Volesus-, -vacuus- -vacivus-. + +2. The --synoikismos-- did not necessarily involve an actual +settlement together at one spot; but while each resided as formerly +on his own land, there was thenceforth only one council-hall and +court-house for the whole (Thucyd. ii. 15; Herodot. i. 170). + +3. We might even, looking to the Attic --trittus-- and the Umbrian +-trifo-, raise the question whether a triple division of the +community was not a fundamental principle of the Graeco-ltalians: +in that case the triple division of the Roman community would not be +referable to the amalgamation of several once independent tribes. +But, in order to the establishment of a hypothesis so much at +variance with tradition, such a threefold division would require to +present itself more generally throughout the Graeco-Italian field +than seems to be the case, and to appear uniformly everywhere as +the ground-scheme. The Umbrians may possibly have adopted the word +-tribus- only when they came under the influence of Roman rule; it +cannot with certainty be traced in Oscan. + +4. Although the older opinion, that Latin is to be viewed as +a mixed language made up of Greek and non-Greek elements, has been +now abandoned on all sides, judicious inquirers even (e. g. Schwegler, +R. G. i. 184, 193) still seek to discover in Latin a mixture of +two nearly related Italian dialects. But we ask in vain for the +linguistic or historical facts which render such an hypothesis +necessary. When a language presents the appearance of being an +intermediate link between two others, every philologist knows that +the phenomenon may quite as probably depend, and more frequently +does depend, on organic development than on external intermixture. + +5. That the Quinctian Luperci had precedence in rank over the Fabian +is evident from the circumstance that the fabulists attribute the +Quinctii to Romulus, the Fabii to Remus (Ovid, Fast. ii. 373 seq.; +Vict. De Orig. 22). That the Fabii belonged to the Hill-Romans is +shown by the sacrifice of their -gens- on the Quirinal (Liv. v. +46, 52), whether that sacrifice may or may not have been connected +with the Lupercalia. + +Moreover, the Lupercus of the former college is called in +inscriptions (Orelli, 2253) -Lupercus Quinctialis vetus-; and the +-praenomen-Kaeso, which was most probably connected with the Lupercal +worship (see Rom. Forschungen, i. 17), is found exclusively among +the Quinctii and Fabii: the form commonly occurring in authors, +-Lupercus Quinctilius- and -Quinctilianus-, is therefore a misnomer, +and the college belonged not to the comparatively recent Quinctilii, +but to the far older Quinctii. When, again, the Quinctii (Liv. i. +30), or Quinctilii (Dion. iii. 29), are named among the Alban clans, +the latter reading is here to be preferred, and the Quinctii are +to be regarded rather as an old Roman -gens-. + +6. Although the name "Hill of Quirinus" was afterwards ordinarily +used to designate the height where the Hill-Romans had their abode, +we need not at all on that account regard the name "Quirites" as +having been originally reserved for the burgesses on the Quirinal. +For, as has been shown, all the earliest indications point, +as regards these, to the name -Collini-; while it is indisputably +certain that the name Quirites denoted from the first, as well as +subsequently, simply the full burgess, and had no connection with +the distinction between montani and collini (comp. chap. v. infra). +The later designation of the Quirinal rests on the circumstance +that, while the -Mars quirinus-, the spear-bearing god of Death, was +originally worshipped as well on the Palatine as on the Quirinal--as +indeed the oldest inscriptions found at what was afterwards called +the Temple of Quirinus designate this divinity simply as Mars,--at +a later period for the sake of distinction the god of the Mount-Romans +more especially was called Mars, the god of the Hill Romans more +especially Quirinus. + +When the Quirinal is called -collis agonalis-, "hill of sacrifice," +it is so designated merely as the centre of the religious rites of +the Hill-Romans. + +7. The evidence alleged for this (comp. e. g. Schwegler, S. G. i. +480) mainly rests on an etymologico-historical hypothesis started +by Varro and as usual unanimously echoed by later writers, that the +Latin -quiris- and -quirinus- are akin to the name of the Sabine +town -Cures-, and that the Quirinal hill accordingly had been peopled +from -Cures-. Even if the linguistic affinity of these words were +more assured, there would be little warrant for deducing from it such +a historical inference. That the old sanctuaries on this eminence +(where, besides, there was also a "Collis Latiaris") were Sabine, +has been asserted, but has not been proved. Mars quirinus, Sol, +Salus, Flora, Semo Sancus or Deus fidius were doubtless Sabine, +but they were also Latin, divinities, formed evidently during the +epoch when Latins and Sabines still lived undivided. If a name like +that of Semo Sancus (which moreover occurs in connection with the +Tiber-island) is especially associated with the sacred places of +the Quirinal which afterwards diminished in its importance (comp. +the Porta Sanqualis deriving its name therefrom), every unbiassed +inquirer will recognize in such a circumstance only a proof of the +high antiquity of that worship, not a proof of its derivation from +a neighbouring land. In so speaking we do not mean to deny that +it is possible that old distinctions of race may have co-operated +in producing this state of things; but if such was the case, they +have, so far as we are concerned, totally disappeared, and the views +current among our contemporaries as to the Sabine element in the +constitution of Rome are only fitted seriously to warn us against +such baseless speculations leading to no result. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +The Original Constitution of Rome + + + +The Roman House + + +Father and mother, sons and daughters, home and homestead, +servants and chattels--such are the natural elements constituting +the household in all cases, where polygamy has not obliterated the +distinctive position of the mother. But the nations that have been +most susceptible of culture have diverged widely from each other +in their conception and treatment of the natural distinctions which +the household thus presents. By some they have been apprehended +and wrought out more profoundly, by others more superficially; +by some more under their moral, by others more under their legal +aspects. None has equalled the Roman in the simple but inexorable +embodiment in law of the principles pointed out by nature herself. + + +The House-father and His Household + + +The family formed an unity. It consisted of the free man who upon +his father's death had become his own master, and the spouse whom +the priests by the ceremony of the sacred salted cake (-confarreatio-) +had solemnly wedded to share with him water and fire, with their son +and sons' sons and the lawful wives of these, and their unmarried +daughters and sons' daughters, along with all goods and substance +pertaining to any of its members. The children of daughters on +the other hand were excluded, because, if born in wedlock, they +belonged to the family of the husband; and if begotten out of +wedlock, they had no place in a family at all. To the Roman citizen +a house of his own and the blessing of children appeared the end +and essence of life. The death of the individual was not an evil, +for it was a matter of necessity; but the extinction of a household +or of a clan was injurious to the community itself, which in the +earliest times therefore opened up to the childless the means of +avoiding such a fatality by their adopting the children of others +as their own. + +The Roman family from the first contained within it the conditions +of a higher culture in the moral adjustment of the mutual relations of +its members. Man alone could be head of a family. Woman did not +indeed occupy a position inferior to man in the acquiring of property +and money; on the contrary the daughter inherited an equal share +with her brother, and the mother an equal share with her children. +But woman always and necessarily belonged to the household, not +to the community; and in the household itself she necessarily held +a position of domestic subjection--the daughter to her father, +the wife to her husband,(1) the fatherless unmarried woman to her +nearest male relatives; it was by these, and not by the king, that +in case of need woman was called to account. Within the house, +however, woman was not servant but mistress. Exempted from the +tasks of corn-grinding and cooking which according to Roman ideas +belonged to the menials, the Roman housewife devoted herself in +the main to the superintendence of her maid-servants, and to the +accompanying labours of the distaff, which was to woman what the +plough was to man.(2) In like manner, the moral obligations of +parents towards their children were fully and deeply felt by the +Roman nation; and it was reckoned a heinous offence if a father +neglected or corrupted his child, or if he even squandered his +property to his child's disadvantage. + +In a legal point of view, however, the family was absolutely guided +and governed by the single all-powerful will of the "father of +the household" (-pater familias-). In relation to him all in the +household were destitute of legal rights--the wife and the child +no less than the bullock or the slave. As the virgin became by the +free choice of her husband his wedded wife, so it rested with his +own free will to rear or not to rear the child which she bore to +him. This maxim was not suggested by indifference to the possession +of a family; on the contrary, the conviction that the founding of +a house and the begetting of children were a moral necessity and a +public duty had a deep and earnest hold of the Roman mind. Perhaps +the only instance of support accorded on the part of the community +in Rome is the enactment that aid should be given to the father who +had three children presented to him at a birth; while their ideas +regarding exposure are indicated by the prohibition of it so far +as concerned all the sons--deformed births excepted--and at least +the first daughter. Injurious, however, to the public weal as +exposure might appear, the prohibition of it soon changed its form +from that of legal punishment into that of religious curse; for +the father was, above all, thoroughly and absolutely master in his +household. The father of the household not only maintained the +strictest discipline over its members, but he had the right and duty +of exercising judicial authority over them and of punishing them as +he deemed fit in life and limb. The grown-up son might establish +a separate household or, as the Romans expressed it, maintain his +"own cattle" (-peculium-) assigned to him by his father; but in +law all that the son acquired, whether by his own labour or by gift +from a stranger, whether in his father's household or in his own, +remained the father's property. So long as the father lived, the +persons legally subject to him could never hold property of their +own, and therefore could not alienate unless by him so empowered, +or yet bequeath. In this respect wife and child stood quite on +the same level with the slave, who was not unfrequently allowed +to manage a household of his own, and who was likewise entitled to +alienate when commissioned by his master. Indeed a father might +convey his son as well as his slave in property to a third person: +if the purchaser was a foreigner, the son became his slave; if +he was a Roman, the son, while as a Roman he could not become a +Roman's slave, stood at least to his purchaser in a slave's stead +(-in mancipii causa-). The paternal and marital power was subject +to a legal restriction, besides the one already mentioned on the +right Of exposure, only in so far as some of the worst abuses were +visited by legal punishment as well as by religious curse. Thus +these penalties fell upon the man who sold his wife or married +son; and it was a matter of family usage that in the exercise of +domestic jurisdiction the father, and still more the husband, should +not pronounce sentence on child or wife without having previously +consulted the nearest blood-relatives, his wife's as well as his +own. But the latter arrangement involved no legal diminution of +power, for the blood-relatives called in to the domestic judgment +had not to judge, but simply to advise the father of the household +in judging. + +But not only was the power of the master of the house substantially +unlimited and responsible to no one on earth; it was also, as long +as he lived, unchangeable and indestructible. According to the +Greek as well as Germanic laws the grown-up son, who was practically +independent of his father, was also independent legally; but the +power of the Roman father could not be dissolved during his life +either by age or by insanity, or even by his own free will, excepting +only that the person of the holder of the power might change, for +the child might certainly pass by way of adoption into the power +of another father, and the daughter might pass by a lawful marriage +out of the hand of her father into the hand of her husband and, +leaving her own -gens- and the protection of her own god to enter +into the -gens- of her husband and the protection of his god, +became thenceforth subject to him as she had hitherto been to her +father. According to Roman law it was made easier for the slave to +obtain release from his master than for the son to obtain release +from his father; the manumission of the former was permitted at an +early period, and by simple forms; the release of the latter was +only rendered possible at a much later date, and by very circuitous +means. Indeed, if a master sold his slave and a father his son +and the purchaser released both, the slave obtained his freedom, +but the son by the release simply reverted into his father's power +as before. Thus the inexorable consistency with which the Romans +carried out their conception of the paternal and marital power +converted it into a real right of property. + +Closely, however, as the power of the master of the household over +wife and child approximated to his proprietary power over slaves +and cattle, the members of the family were nevertheless separated +by a broad line of distinction, not merely in fact but in law, from +the family property. The power of the house-master--even apart from +the fact that it appeared in operation only within the house--was +of a transient, and in some degree of a representative, character. +Wife and child did not exist merely for the house-father's sake in +the sense in which property exists only for the proprietor, or in +which the subjects of an absolute state exist only for the king; +they were the objects indeed of a legal right on his part, but they +had at the same time capacities of right of their own; they were +not things, but persons. Their rights were dormant in respect of +exercise, simply because the unity of the household demanded that +it should be governed by a single representative; but when the +master of the household died, his sons at once came forward as its +masters and now obtained on their own account over the women and +children and property the rights hitherto exercised over these by +the father. On the other hand the death of the master occasioned +no change in the legal position of the slave. + + +Family and Clan (-Gens-) + + +So strongly was the unity of the family realized, that even the +death of the master of the house did not entirely dissolve it. +The descendants, who were rendered by that occurrence independent, +regarded themselves as still in many respects an unity; a principle +which was made use of in arranging the succession of heirs and in +many other relations, but especially in regulating the position +of the widow and unmarried daughters. As according to the older +Roman view a woman was not capable of having power either over +others or over herself, the power over her, or, as it was in this +case more mildly expressed, the "guardianship" (-tutela-) remained +with the house to which she belonged, and was now exercised in the +room of the deceased house-master by the whole of the nearest male +members of the family; ordinarily, therefore, by sons over their +mother and by brothers over their sisters. In this sense the +family, once founded, endured unchanged till the male stock of its +founder died out; only the bond of connection must of course have +become practically more lax from generation to generation, until +at length it became impossible to prove the original unity. On +this, and on this alone, rested the distinction between family and +clan, or, according to the Roman expression, between -agnati- and +-gentiles-. Both denoted the male stock; but the family embraced +only those individuals who, mounting up from generation to generation, +were able to set forth the successive steps of their descent from +a common progenitor; the clan (-gens-) on the other hand comprehended +also those who were merely able to lay claim to such descent from +a common ancestor, but could no longer point out fully the intermediate +links so as to establish the degree of their relationship. This +is very clearly expressed in the Roman names: when they speak +of "Quintus, son of Quintus, grandson of Quintus and so on, +the Quintian," the family reaches as far as the ascendants are +designated individually, and where the family terminates the clan +is introduced supplementary, indicating derivation from the common +ancestor who has bequeathed to all his descendants the name of the +"children of Quintus." + + +Dependents of the Household + + +To these strictly closed unities--the family or household united +under the control of a living master, and the clan which originated +out of the breaking-up of such households--there further belonged +the dependents or "listeners" (-clientes-, from -cluere-). This +term denoted not the guests, that is, the members of other similar +circles who were temporarily sojourning in another household than +their own, and as little the slaves, who were looked upon in law +as the property of the household and not as members of it, but +those individuals who, while they were not free burgesses of any +commonwealth, yet lived within one in a condition of protected +freedom. These included refugees who had found a reception with a +foreign protector, and those slaves in respect of whom their master +had for the time being waived the exercise of his rights, and so +conferred on them practical freedom. This relation had not the +distinctive character of a strict relation -de jure-, like that of +a man to his guest: the client remained a man non-free, in whose +case good faith and use and wont alleviated the condition of +non-freedom. Hence the "listeners" of the household (-clientes-) +together with the slaves strictly so called formed the "body +of servants" (-familia-) dependent on the will of the "burgess" +(-patronus-, like -patricius-). Hence according to original right +the burgess was entitled partially or wholly to resume the property +of the client, to reduce him on emergency once more to the state +of slavery, to inflict even capital punishment on him; and it was +simply in virtue of a distinction -de facto-, that these patrimonial +rights were not asserted with the same rigour against the client +as against the actual slave, and that on the other hand the moral +obligation of the master to provide for his own people and to protect +them acquired a greater importance in the case of the client, who +was practically in a more free position, than in the case of the +slave. Especially must the -de facto- freedom of the client have +approximated to freedom -de jure- in those cases where the relation +had subsisted for several generations: when the releaser and the +released had themselves died, the -dominium- over the descendants +of the released person could not be without flagrant impiety claimed +by the heirs at law of the releaser; and thus there was gradually +formed within the household itself a class of persons in dependent +freedom, who were different alike from the slaves and from the +members of the -gens- entitled in the eye of the law to full and +equal rights. + + +The Roman Community + + +On this Roman household was based the Roman state, as respected +both its constituent elements and its form. The community of the +Roman people arose out of the junction (in whatever way brought +about) of such ancient clanships as the Romilii, Voltinii, Fabii, +etc.; the Roman domain comprehended the united lands of those +clans.(3) Whoever belonged to one of these clans was a burgess +of Rome. Every marriage concluded in the usual forms within this +circle was valid as a true Roman marriage, and conferred burgess-rights +on the children begotten of it. Whoever was begotten in an illegal +marriage, or out of marriage, was excluded from the membership of +the community. On this account the Roman burgesses assumed the name +of the "father's children" (-patricii-), inasmuch as they alone in +the eye of the law had a father. The clans with all the families +that they contained were incorporated with the state just as +they stood. The spheres of the household and the clan continued +to subsist within the state; but the position which a man held in +these did not affect his relations towards the state. The son was +subject to the father within the household, but in political duties +and rights he stood on a footing of equality. The position of the +protected dependents was naturally so far changed that the freedmen +and clients of every patron received on his account toleration in +the community at large; they continued indeed to be immediately +dependent on the protection of the family to which they belonged, +but the very nature of the case implied that the clients of members +of the community could not be wholly excluded from its worship and +its festivals, although, of course, they were not capable of the +proper rights or liable to the proper duties of burgesses. This +remark applies still more to the case of the protected dependents +of the community at large. The state thus consisted, like the +household, of persons properly belonging to it and of dependents--of +"burgesses" and of "inmates" or --metoeci--. + + +The King + + +As the clans resting upon a family basis were the constituent +elements of the state, so the form of the body-politic was modelled +after the family both generally and in detail. The household was +provided by nature herself with a head in the person of the father +with whom it originated, and with whom it perished. But in the +community of the people, which was designed to be imperishable, +there was no natural master; not at least in that of Rome, which +was composed of free and equal husbandmen and could not boast of a +nobility by the grace of God. Accordingly one from its own ranks +became its "leader" (-rex-) and lord in the household of the Roman +community; as indeed at a later period there were to be found in or +near to his dwelling the always blazing hearth and the well-barred +store-chamber of the community, the Roman Vestas and the Roman +Penates--indications of the visible unity of that supreme household +which included all Rome. The regal office began at once and by +right, when the position had become vacant and the successor had +been designated; but the community did not owe full obedience to +the king until he had convoked the assembly of freemen capable of +bearing arms and had formally challenged its allegiance. Then he +possessed in its entireness that power over the community which +belonged to the house-father in his household; and, like him, he +ruled for life. He held intercourse with the gods of the community, +whom he consulted and appeased (-auspicia publica-), and he nominated +all the priests and priestesses. The agreements which he concluded +in name of the community with foreigners were binding upon the whole +people; although in other instances no member of the community was +bound by an agreement with a non-member. His "command" (-imperium-) +was all-powerful in peace and in war, on which account "messengers" +(-lictores-, from -licere-, to summon) preceded him with axes and +rods on all occasions when he appeared officially. He alone had +the right of publicly addressing the burgesses, and it was he who +kept the keys of the public treasury. He had the same right as a +father had to exercise discipline and jurisdiction. He inflicted +penalties for breaches of order, and, in particular, flogging +for military offences. He sat in judgment in all private and in +all criminal processes, and decided absolutely regarding life and +death as well as regarding freedom; he might hand over one burgess +to fill the place of a slave to another; he might even order +a burgess to be sold into actual slavery or, in other words, into +banishment. When he had pronounced sentence of death, he was +entitled, but not obliged, to allow an appeal to the people for +pardon. He called out the people for service in war and commanded +the army; but with these high functions he was no less bound, when +an alarm of fire was raised, to appear in person at the scene of +the burning. + +As the house-master was not simply the greatest but the only power +in the house, so the king was not merely the first but the only +holder of power in the state. He might indeed form colleges of +men of skill composed of those specially conversant with the rules +of sacred or of public law, and call upon them for their advice; +he might, to facilitate his exercise of power, entrust to others +particular functions, such as the making communications to the +burgesses, the command in war, the decision of processes of minor +importance, the inquisition of crimes; he might in particular, if +he was compelled to quit the bounds of the city, leave behind him +a "city-warden" (-praefectus urbi-) with the full powers of an +-alter ego-; but all official power existing by the side of the +king's was derived from the latter, and every official held his +office by the king's appointment and during the king's pleasure. All +the officials of the earliest period, the extraordinary city-warden +as well as the "leaders of division" (-tribuni-, from -tribus-, +part) of the infantry (-milites-) and of the cavalry (-celeres-) +were merely commissioned by the king, and not magistrates in the +subsequent sense of the term. The regal power had not and could +not have any external check imposed upon it by law: the master of +the community had no judge of his acts within the community, any +more than the housefather had a judge within his household. Death +alone terminated his power. The choice of the new king lay with the +council of elders, to which in case of a vacancy the interim-kingship +(-interregnum-) passed. A formal cooperation in the election +of king pertained to the burgesses only after his nomination; -de +jure- the kingly office was based on the permanent college of the +Fathers (-patres-), which by means of the interim holder of the +power installed the new king for life. Thus "the august blessing +of the gods, under which renowned Rome was founded," was transmitted +from its first regal recipient in constant succession to those that +followed him, and the unity of the state was preserved unchanged +notwithstanding the personal change of the holders of power. + +This unity of the Roman people, represented in the field of +religion by the Roman Diovis, was in the field of law represented +by the prince, and therefore his costume was the same as that of +the supreme god; the chariot even in the city, where every one else +went on foot, the ivory sceptre with the eagle, the vermilion-painted +face, the chaplet of oaken leaves in gold, belonged alike to the +Roman god and to the Roman king. It would be a great error, however, +to regard the Roman constitution on that account as a theocracy: +among the Italians the ideas of god and king never faded away into +each other, as they did in Egypt and the East. The king was not +the god of the people; it were much more correct to designate him as +the proprietor of the state. Accordingly the Romans knew nothing +of special divine grace granted to a particular family, or of +any other sort of mystical charm by which a king should be made +of different stuff from other men: noble descent and relationship +with earlier rulers were recommendations, but were not necessary +conditions; the office might be lawfully filled by any Roman come +to years of discretion and sound in body and mind.(4) The king +was thus simply an ordinary burgess, whom merit or fortune, and +the primary necessity of having one as master in every house, had +placed as master over his equals--a husbandman set over husbandmen, +a warrior set over warriors. As the son absolutely obeyed his father +and yet did not esteem himself inferior, so the burgess submitted +to his ruler without precisely accounting him his better. This +constituted the moral and practical limitation of the regal power. +The king might, it is true, do much that was inconsistent with equity +without exactly breaking the law of the land: he might diminish his +fellow-combatants' share of the spoil; he might impose exorbitant +task-works or otherwise by his imposts unreasonably encroach upon +the property of the burgess; but if he did so, he forgot that his +plenary power came not from God, but under God's consent from the +people, whose representative he was; and who was there to protect +him, if the people should in return forget the oath of allegiance +which they had sworn? The legal limitation, again, of the king's +power lay in the principle that he was entitled only to execute the +law, not to alterit. Every deviation from the law had to receive +the previous approval of the assembly of the people and the council +of elders; if it was not so approved, it was a null and tyrannical +act carrying no legal effect. Thus the power of the king in Rome +was, both morally and legally, at bottom altogether different from +the sovereignty of the present day; and there is no counterpart at +all in modern life either to the Roman household or to the Roman +state. + + +The Community + + +The division of the body of burgesses was based on the "wardship," +-curia- (probably related to -curare- = -coerare-, --koiranos--); +ten wardships formed the community; every wardship furnished a +hundred men to the infantry (hence -mil-es-, like -equ-es-, the +thousand-walker), ten horsemen and ten councillors. When communities +combined, each of course appeared as a part (-tribus-) of the +whole community (-tota-in Umbrian and Oscan), and the original unit +became multiplied by the number of such parts. This division had +reference primarily to the personal composition of the burgess-body, +but it was applied also to the domain so far as the latter was +apportioned at all. That the curies had their lands as well as the +tribes, admits of the less doubt, since among the few names of the +Roman curies that have been handed down to us we find along with +some apparently derived from -gentes-, e. g. -Faucia-, others +certainly of local origin, e. g. -Veliensis-; each one of them +embraced, in this primitive period of joint possession of land, a +number of clan-lands, of which we have already spoken.(5) + +We find this constitution under its simplest form(6) in the scheme +of the Latin or burgess communities that subsequently sprang up +under the influence of Rome; these had uniformly the number of a +hundred councillors (-centumviri-). But the same normal numbers make +their appearance throughout in the earliest tradition regarding the +tripartite Rome, which assigns to it thirty curies, three hundred +horsemen, three hundred senators, three thousand foot-soldiers. + +Nothing is more certain than that this earliest constitutional +scheme did not originate in Rome; it was a primitive institution +common to all the Latins, and perhaps reached back to a period +anterior to the separation of the stocks. The Roman constitutional +tradition quite deserving of credit in such matters, while it +accounts historically for the other divisions of the burgesses, +makes the division into curies alone originate with the origin of +the city; and in entire harmony with that view not only does the +curial constitution present itself in Rome, but in the recently +discovered scheme of the organization of the Latin communities it +appears as an essential part of the Latin municipal system. + +The essence of this scheme was, and remained, the distribution +into curies. The tribes ("parts") cannot have been an element of +essential importance for the simple reason that their occurrence +at all was, not less than their number, the result of accident; +where there were tribes, they certainly had no other significance +than that of preserving the remembrance of an epoch when such +"parts" had themselves been wholes.(7) There is no tradition that +the individual tribes had special presiding magistrates or special +assemblies of their own; and it is highly probable that in the +interest of the unity of the commonwealth the tribes which had +joined together to form it were never in reality allowed to have +such institutions. Even in the army, it is true, the infantry had +as many pairs of leaders as there were tribes; but each of these +pairs of military tribunes did not command the contingent of a +tribe; on the contrary each individual war-tribune, as well as all +in conjunction, exercised command over the whole infantry. The +clans were distributed among the several curies; their limits and +those of the household were furnished by nature. That the legislative +power interfered in these groups by way of modification, that it +subdivided the large clan and counted it as two, or joined several +weak ones together, there is no indication at all in Roman tradition; +at any rate this took place only in a way so limited that the +fundamental character of affinity belonging to the clan was not +thereby altered. We may not therefore conceive the number of the +clans, and still less that of the households, as a legally fixed +one; if the -curia- had to furnish a hundred men on foot and ten +horsemen, it is not affirmed by tradition, nor is it credible, that +one horseman was taken from each clan and one foot-soldier from +each house. The only member that discharged functions in the oldest +constitutional organization was the -curia-. Of these there were +ten, or, where there were several tribes, ten to each tribe. Such +a "wardship" was a real corporate unity, the members of which +assembled at least for holding common festivals. Each wardship was +under the charge of a special warden (-curio-), and had a priest of +its own (-flamen curialis-); beyond doubt also levies and valuations +took place according to curies, and in judicial matters the burgesses +met by curies and voted by curies. This organization, however, +cannot have been introduced primarily with a view to voting, for in +that case they would certainly have made the number of subdivisions +uneven. + + +Equality of the Burgesses + + +Sternly defined as was the contrast between burgess and non-burgess, +the equality of rights within the burgess-body was complete. No +people has ever perhaps equalled that of Rome in the inexorable +rigour with which it has carried out these principles, the one as +fully as the other. The strictness of the Roman distinction between +burgesses and non-burgesses is nowhere perhaps brought out with +such clearness as in the treatment of the primitive institution +of honorary citizenship, which was originally designed to mediate +between the two. When a stranger was, by resolution of the community, +adopted into the circle of the burgesses, he might surrender his +previous citizenship, in which case he passed over wholly into the +new community; but he might also combine his former citizenship with +that which had just been granted to him. Such was the primitive +custom, and such it always remained in Hellas, where in later +ages the same person not unfrequently held the freedom of several +communities at the same time. But the greater vividness with which +the conception of the community as such was realized in Latium +could not tolerate the idea that a man might simultaneously belong +in the character of a burgess to two communities; and accordingly, +when the newly-chosen burgess did not intend to surrender his +previous franchise, it attached to the nominal honorary citizenship +no further meaning than that of an obligation to befriend and protect +the guest (-jus hospitii-), such as had always been recognized as +incumbent in reference to foreigners. But this rigorous retention +of barriers against those that were without was accompanied by an +absolute banishment of all difference of rights among the members +included in the burgess community of Rome. We have already mentioned +that the distinctions existing in the household, which of course +could not be set aside, were at least ignored in the community; the +son who as such was subject in property to his father might thus, +in the character of a burgess, come to have command over his father +as master. There were no class-privileges: the fact that the Tities +took precedence of the Ramnes, and both ranked before the Luceres, +did not affect their equality in all legal rights. The burgess +cavalry, which at this period was used for single combat in front +of the line on horseback or even on foot, and was rather a select +or reserve corps than a special arm of the service, and which +accordingly contained by far the wealthiest, best-armed, and +best-trained men, was naturally held in higher estimation than the +burgess infantry; but this was a distinction purely -de facto-, and +admittance to the cavalry was doubtless conceded to any patrician. +It was simply and solely the constitutional subdivision of the +burgess-body that gave rise to distinctions recognized by the law; +otherwise the legal equality of all the members of the community +was carried out even in their external appearance. Dress indeed +served to distinguish the president of the community from its members, +the grown-up man under obligation of military service from the boy +not yet capable of enrolment; but otherwise the rich and the noble +as well as the poor and low-born were only allowed to appear in +public in the like simple wrapper (-toga-) of white woollen stuff. +This complete equality of rights among the burgesses had beyond +doubt its original basis in the Indo-Germanic type of constitution; +but in the precision with which it was thus apprehended and +embodied it formed one of the most characteristic and influential +peculiarities of the Latin nation. And in connection with this we +may recall the fact that in Italy we do not meet with any race of +earlier settlers less capable of culture, that had become subject +to the Latin immigrants.(8) They had no conquered race to deal +with, and therefore no such condition of things as that which gave +rise to the Indian system of caste, to the nobility of Thessaly +and Sparta and perhaps of Hellas generally, and probably also to +the Germanic distinction of ranks. + + +Burdens of the Burgesses + + +The maintenance of the state economy devolved, of course, upon +the burgesses. The most important function of the burgess was his +service in the army; for the burgesses had the right and duty of +bearing arms. The burgesses were at the same time the "body of +warriors" (-populus-, related to -populari-, to lay waste): in the +old litanies it is upon the "spear-armed body of warriors" (-pilumnus +poplus-) that the blessing of Mars is invoked; and even the designation +with which the king addresses them, that of Quirites,(9) is taken +as signifying "warrior." We have already stated how the army of +aggression, the "gathering" (-legio-), was formed. In the tripartite +Roman community it consisted of three "hundreds" (-centuriae-) of +horsemen (-celeres-, "the swift," or -flexuntes-, "the wheelers") +under the three leaders-of-division of the horsemen (-tribuni +celerum-)(10) and three "thousands" of footmen (-milties-) under +the three leaders-of-division of the infantry (-tribuni militum-), +the latter were probably from the first the flower of the general +levy. To these there may perhaps have been added a number +of light-armed men, archers especially, fighting outside of the +ranks.(11) The general was regularly the king himself. Besides +service in war, other personal burdens might devolve upon the burgesses; +such as the obligation of undertaking the king's commissions in +peace and in war,(12) and the task-work of tilling the king's lands +or of constructing public buildings. How heavily in particular the +burden of building the walls of the city pressed upon the community, +is evidenced by the fact that the ring-walls retained the name +of "tasks" (-moenia-). There was no regular direct taxation, nor +was there any direct regular expenditure on the part of the state. +Taxation was not needed for defraying the burdens of the community, +since the state gave no recompense for serving in the army, for +task-work, or for public service generally; so far as there was any +such recompense at all, it was given to the person who performed +the service either by the district primarily concerned in it, or by +the person who could not or would not himself serve. The victims +needed for the public service of the gods were procured by a tax +on actions at law; the defeated party in an ordinary process paid +down to the state a cattle-fine (-sacramentum-) proportioned to +the value of the object in dispute. There is no mention of any +regular presents to the king on the part of the burgesses. On the +other hand there flowed into the royal coffers the port-duties,(13) +as well as the income from the domains--in particular, the pasture +tribute (-scriptura-) from the cattle driven out upon the common +pasture, and the quotas of produce (-vectigalia-) which those +enjoying the use of the lands of the state had to pay instead of +rent. To this was added the produce of cattle-fines and confiscations +and the gains of war. In cases of need a contribution (-tributum-) +was imposed, which was looked upon, however, as a forced loan and +was repaid when the times improved; whether it fell upon the burgesses +generally, or only upon the --metoeci--, cannot be determined; the +latter supposition is, however, the more probable. + +The king managed the finances. The property of the state, +however, was not identified with the private property of the king; +which, judging from the statements regarding the extensive landed +possessions of the last Roman royal house, the Tarquins, must have +been considerable. The ground won by arms, in particular, appears to +have been constantly regarded as property of the state. Whether and +how far the king was restricted by use and wont in the administration +of the public property, can no longer be ascertained; only the +subsequent course of things shows that the burgesses can never have +been consulted regarding it, whereas it was probably the custom to +consult the senate in the imposition of the -tributum- and in the +distribution of the lands won in war. + + +Rights of the Burgesses + + +The Roman burgesses, however, do not merely come into view as +furnishing contributions and rendering service; they also bore a +part in the public government. For this purpose all the members +of the community (with the exception of the women, and the children +still incapable of bearing arms)--in other words, the "spearmen" +(-quirites-) as in addressing them they were designated--assembled +at the seat of justice, when the king convoked them for the purpose +of making a communication (-conventio-, -contio-) or formally bade +them meet (-comitia-) for the third week (-in trinum noundinum-), +to consult them by curies. He appointed such formal assemblies +of the community to be held regularly twice a year, on the 24th of +March and the 24th of May, and as often besides as seemed to him +necessary. The burgesses, however, were always summoned not to +speak, but to hear; not to ask questions, but to answer. No one +spoke in the assembly but the king, or he to whom the king saw +fit to grant liberty of speech; and the speaking of the burgesses +consisted of a simple answer to the question of the king, +without discussion, without reasons, without conditions, without +breaking up the question even into parts. Nevertheless the Roman +burgess-community, like the Germanic and not improbably the primitive +Indo-Germanic communities in general, was the real and ultimate +basis of the political idea of sovereignty. But in the ordinary +course of things this sovereignty was dormant, or only had its +expression in the fact that the burgess-body voluntarily bound +itself to render allegiance to its president. For that purpose +the king, after he had entered on his office, addressed to the +assembled curies the question whether they would be true and loyal +to him and would according to use and wont acknowledge himself as +well as his messengers (-lictores-); a question, which undoubtedly +might no more be answered in the negative than the parallel homage +in the case of a hereditary monarchy might be refused. + +It was in thorough consistency with constitutional principles that +the burgesses, just as being the sovereign power, should not on +ordinary occasions take part in the course of public business. So +long as public action was confined to the carrying into execution +of the existing legal arrangements, the power which was, properly +speaking, sovereign in the state could not and might not interfere: +the laws governed, not the lawgiver. But it was different where a +change of the existing legal arrangements or even a mere deviation +from them in a particular case was necessary; and here accordingly, under +the Roman constitution, the burgesses emerge without exception as +actors; so that each act of the sovereign authority is accomplished +by the co-operation of the burgesses and the king or -interrex-. +As the legal relation between ruler and ruled was itself sanctioned +after the manner of a contract by oral question and answer, so +every sovereign act of the community was accomplished by means of +a question (-rogatio-), which the king addressed to the burgesses, +and to which the majority of the curies gave an affirmative answer. +In this case their consent might undoubtedly be refused. Among +the Romans, therefore, law was not primarily, as we conceive it, +a command addressed by the sovereign to the whole members of the +community, but primarily a contract concluded between the constitutive +powers of the state by address and counter-address.(14) Such +a legislative contract was -de jure- requisite in all cases which +involved a deviation from the ordinary consistency of the legal +system. In the ordinary course of law any one might without +restriction give away his property to whom he would, but only +upon condition of its immediate transfer: that the property should +continue for the time being with the owner, and at his death pass +over to another, was a legal impossibility--unless the community +should allow it; a permission which in this case the burgesses +could grant not only when assembled in their curies, but also when +drawn up for battle. This was the origin of testaments. In the +ordinary course of law the freeman could not lose or surrender the +inalienable blessing of freedom, and therefore one who was subject +to no housemaster could not subject himself to another in the place +of a son--unless the community should grant him leave to do so. This +was the -abrogatio-. In the ordinary course of law burgess-rights +could only be acquired by birth and could never be lost--unless +the community should confer the patriciate or allow its surrender; +neither of which acts, doubtless, could be validly done originally +without a decree of the curies. In the ordinary course of law +the criminal whose crime deserved death, when once the king or his +deputy had pronounced sentence according to judgment and justice, +was inexorably executed; for the king could only judge, not +pardon--unless the condemned burgess appealed to the mercy of the +community and the judge allowed him the opportunity of pleading +for pardon. This was the beginning of the -provocatio-, which for +that reason was especially permitted not to the transgressor who +had refused to plead guilty and had been convicted, but to him +who confessed his crime and urged reasons in palliation of it. In +the ordinary course of law the perpetual treaty concluded with a +neighbouring state might not be broken--unless the burgesses deemed +themselves released from it on account of injuries inflicted on +them. Hence it was necessary that they should be consulted when an +aggressive war was contemplated, but not on occasion of a defensive +war, where the other state had broken the treaty, nor on the +conclusion of peace; it appears, however, that the question was in +such a case addressed not to the usual assembly of the burgesses, +but to the army. Thus, in general, it was necessary to consult the +burgesses whenever the king meditated any innovation, any change +of the existing public law; and in so far the right of legislation +was from antiquity not a right of the king, but a right of the king +and the community. In these and all similar cases the king could +not act with legal effect without the cooperation of the community; +the man whom the king alone declared a patrician remained as before +a non-burgess, and the invalid act could only carry consequences +possibly -de facto-, not -de jure-. Thus far the assembly of the +community, however restricted and bound at its emergence, was yet +from antiquity a constituent element of the Roman commonwealth, +and was in law superior to, rather than co-ordinate with, the king. + + +The Senate + + +But by the side of the king and of the burgess-assembly there +appears in the earliest constitution of the community a third +original power, not destined for acting like the former or for +resolving like the latter, and yet co-ordinate with both and within +its own rightful sphere placed over both. This was the council +of elders or -senatus-. Beyond doubt it had its origin in the +clan-constitution: the old tradition that in the original Rome the +senate was composed of all the heads of households is correct in +state-law to this extent, that each of the clans of the later Rome +which had not merely migrated thither at a more recent date referred +its origin to one of those household-fathers of the primitive +city as its ancestor and patriarch. If, as is probable, there was +once in Rome or at any rate in Latium a time when, like the state +itself, each of its ultimate constituents, that is to say each +clan, had virtually a monarchical organization and was under the +rule of an elder--whether raised to that position by the choice +of the clansmen or of his predecessor, or in virtue of hereditary +succession--the senate of that time was nothing but the collective +body of these clan-elders, and accordingly an institution independent +of the king and of the burgess-assembly; in contradistinction to +the latter, which was directly composed of the whole body of the +burgesses, it was in some measure a representative assembly of +persons acting for the people. Certainly that stage of independence +when each clan was virtually a state was surmounted in the Latin +stock at an immemorially early period, and the first and perhaps +most difficult step towards developing the community out of +the clan-organization--the setting aside of the clan-elders--had +possibly been taken in Latium long before the foundation of Rome; +the Roman clan, as we know it, is without any visible head, and no +one of the living clansmen is especially called to represent the +common patriarch from whom all the clansmen descend or profess to +descend so that even inheritance and guardianship, when they fall +by death to the clan, devolve on the clan-members as a whole. +Nevertheless the original character of the council of elders +bequeathed many and important legal consequences to the Roman +senate. To express the matter briefly, the position of the senate +as something other and more than a mere state-council--than an +assemblage of a number of trusty men whose advice the king found +it fitting to obtain--hinged entirely on the fact that it was once +an assembly, like that described by Homer, of the princes and rulers +of the people sitting for deliberation in a circle round the king. +So long as the senate was formed by the aggregate of the heads +of clans, the number of the members cannot have been a fixed one, +since that of the clans was not so; but in the earliest, perhaps +even in pre-Roman, times the number of the members of the council +of elders for the community had been fixed without respect to +the number of the then existing clans at a hundred, so that the +amalgamation of the three primitive communities had in state-law +the necessary consequence of an increase of the seats in the senate +to what was thenceforth the fixed normal number of three hundred. +Moreover the senators were at all times called to sit for life; and +if at a later period the lifelong tenure subsisted more -de facto- +than -de jure-, and the revisions of the senatorial list that +took place from time to time afforded an opportunity to remove the +unworthy or the unacceptable senator, it can be shown that this +arrangement only arose in the course of time. The selection of +the senators certainly, after there were no longer heads of clans, +lay with the king; but in this selection during the earlier epoch, +so long as the people retained a vivid sense of the individuality +of the clans, it was probably the rule that, when a senator died, +the king should call another experienced and aged man of the same +clanship to fill his place. It was only, we may surmise, when the +community became more thoroughly amalgamated and inwardly united, +that this usage was departed from and the selection of the senators +was left entirely to the free judgment of the king, so that he was +only regarded as failing in his duty when he omitted to fill up +vacancies. + + +Prerogatives of the Senate. The -Interregnum- + + +The prerogatives of this council of elders were based on the view +that the rule over the community composed of clans rightfully +belonged to the collective clan-elders, although in accordance +with the monarchical principle of the Romans, which already found +so stern an expression in the household, that rule could only be +exercised for the time being by one of these elders, namely the +king. Every member of the senate accordingly was as such, not in +practice but in prerogative, likewise king of the community; and +therefore his insignia, though inferior to those of the king, were +of a similar character: he wore the red shoe like the king; only +that of the king was higher and more handsome than that of the +senator. On this ground, moreover, as was already mentioned, the +royal power in the Roman community could never be left vacant When +the king died, the elders at once took his place and exercised the +prerogatives of regal power. According to the immutable principle +however that only one can be master at a time, even now it was only +one of them that ruled, and such an "interim king" (-interrex-) was +distinguished from the king nominated for life simply in respect +to the duration, not in respect to the plenitude, of his authority. +The duration of the office of -interrex- was fixed for the individual +holders at not more than five days; it circulated accordingly among +the senators on the footing that, until the royal office was again +permanently filled up, the temporary holder at the expiry of that +term nominated a successor to himself, likewise for five days, +agreeably to the order of succession fixed by lot. There was not, +as may readily be conceived, any declaration of allegiance to the +-interrex- on the part of the community. Nevertheless the -interrex- +was entitled and bound not merely to perform all the official acts +otherwise pertaining to the king, but even to nominate a king for +life-- with the single exception, that this latter right was not +vested in the first who held the office, presumably because the +first was regarded as defectively appointed inasmuch as he was not +nominated by his predecessor. Thus this assembly of elders was +the ultimate holder of the ruling power (-imperium-) and the divine +protection (-auspicia-) of the Roman commonwealth, and furnished +the guarantee for the uninterrupted continuance of that commonwealth +and of its monarchical--though not hereditarily monarchical--organization. +If therefore this senate subsequently seemed to the Greeks to be +an assembly of kings, this was only what was to be expected; it +had in fact been such originally. + + +The Senate and the Resolutions of the Community: -Patrum Auctoritas- + + +But it was not merely in so far as the idea of a perpetual kingdom +found its living expression in this assembly, that it was an essential +member of the Roman constitution. The council of elders, indeed, +had no title to interfere with the official functions of the king. +The latter doubtless, in the event of his being unable personally +to lead the army or to decide a legal dispute, took his deputies +at all times from the senate; for which reason subsequently the +highest posts of command were regularly bestowed on senators alone, +and senators were likewise employed by preference as jurymen. But +the senate, in its collective capacity, was never consulted in +the leading of the army or in the administration of justice; and +therefore there was no right of military command and no jurisdiction +vested in the senate of the later Rome. On the other hand the +council of elders was held as called to the guardianship of the +existing constitution against encroachments by the king and the +burgesses. On the senate devolved the duty of examining every +resolution adopted by the burgesses at the suggestion of the king, +and of refusing to confirm it if it seemed to violate existing +rights; or, which was the same thing, in all cases where a resolution +of the community was constitutionally requisite--as on every +alteration of the constitution, on the reception of new burgesses, +on the declaration of an aggressive war--the council of elders had +a right of veto. This may not indeed be regarded in the light of +legislation pertaining jointly to the burgesses and the senate, +somewhat in the same way as to the two chambers in the constitutional +state of the present day; the senate was not so much law-maker as +law-guardian, and could only cancel a decree when the community +seemed to have exceeded its competence--to have violated by its +decree existing obligations towards the gods or towards foreign +states or organic institutions of the community. But still it was +a matter of the greatest importance that--to take an example--when +the Roman king had proposed a declaration of war and the burgesses +had converted it into a decree, and when the satisfaction which +the foreign community seemed bound to furnish had been demanded in +vain, the Roman envoy invoked the gods as witnesses of the wrong +and concluded with the words, "But on these matters we shall consult +the elders at home how we may obtain our rights;" it was only when +the council of elders had declared its consent, that the war now +decreed by the burgesses and approved by the senate was formally +declared. Certainly it was neither the design nor the effect of +this rule to occasion a constant interference of the senate with +the resolutions of the burgesses, and by such guardianship to divest +them of their sovereign power; but, as in the event of a vacancy +in the supreme office the senate secured the continuance of the +constitution, we find it here also as the shield of legal order in +opposition even to the supreme power--the community. + + +The Senate As State-Council + + +With this arrangement was probably connected the apparently very +ancient usage, in virtue of which the king previously submitted +to the senate the proposals that were to be brought before the +burgesses, and caused all its members one after another to give their +opinion on the subject. As the senate had the right of cancelling +the resolution adopted, it was natural for the king to assure +himself beforehand that no opposition was to be apprehended from +that quarter; as indeed in general, on the one hand, it was in +accordance with Roman habits not to decide matters of importance +without having taken counsel with other men, and on the other hand +the senate was called, in virtue of its very composition, to act as +a state-council to the ruler of the community. It was from this +usage of giving counsel, far more than from the prerogatives which +we have previously described, that the subsequent extensive powers +of the senate were developed; but it was in its origin insignificant +and really amounted only to the prerogative of the senators to +answer, when they were asked a question. It may have been usual +to ask the previous opinion of the senate in affairs of importance +which were neither judicial nor military, as, for instance--apart +from the proposals to be submitted to the assembly of the people--in +the imposition of task-works and taxes, in the summoning of the +burgesses to war-service, and in the disposal of the conquered +territory; but such a previous consultation, though usual, was not +legally necessary. The king convoked the senate when he pleased, +and laid before it his questions; no senator might declare his +opinion unasked, still less might the senate meet without being +summoned, except in the single case of its meeting on occasion +of a vacancy to settle the order of succession in the office of +-interrex-. That the king was moreover at liberty to call in and +consult other men whom he trusted alongside of, and at the same +time with, the senators, is in a high degree probable. The advice, +accordingly, was not a command; the king might omit to comply with +it, while the senate had no other means for giving practical effect +to its views except the already-mentioned right of cassation, which +was far from being universally applicable. "I have chosen you, +not that ye may be my guides, but that ye may do my bidding:" these +words, which a later author puts into the mouth of king Romulus, +certainly express with substantial correctness the position of the +senate in this respect. + + +The Original Constitution of Rome + + +Let us now sum up the results. Sovereignty, as conceived by +the Romans, was inherent in the community of burgesses; but the +burgess-body was never entitled to act alone, and was only entitled +to co-operate in action, when there was to be a departure from +existing rules. By its side stood the assembly of the elders of +the community appointed for life, virtually a college of magistrates +with regal power, called in the event of a vacancy in the royal +office to administer it by means of their own members until it +should be once more definitively filled, and entitled to overturn +the illegal decrees of the community. The royal power itself was, +as Sallust says, at once absolute and limited by the laws (-imperium +legitimum-); absolute, in so far as the king's command, whether +righteous or not, must in the first instance be unconditionally +obeyed; limited, in so far as a command contravening established +usage and not sanctioned by the true sovereign--the people--carried +no permanent legal consequences. The oldest constitution of Rome +was thus in some measure constitutional monarchy inverted. In +that form of government the king is regarded as the possessor and +vehicle of the plenary power of the state, and accordingly acts of +grace, for example, proceed solely from him, while the administration +of the state belongs to the representatives of the people and to +the executive responsible to them. In the Roman constitution the +community of the people exercised very much the same functions as +belong to the king in England: the right of pardon, which in England +is a prerogative of the crown, was in Rome a prerogative of the +community; while all government was vested in the president of the +state. + +If, in conclusion, we inquire as to the relation of the state itself +to its individual members, we find the Roman polity equally remote +from the laxity of a mere defensive combination and from the +modern idea of an absolute omnipotence of the state. The community +doubtless exercised power over the person of the burgess in the +imposition of public burdens, and in the punishment of offences and +crimes; but any special law inflicting, or threatening to inflict, +punishment on an individual on account of acts not universally +recognized as penal always appeared to the Romans, even when there +was no flaw in point of form, an arbitrary and unjust proceeding. +Far more restricted still was the power of the community in respect +of the rights of property and the rights of family which were +coincident, rather than merely connected, with these; in Rome the +household was not absolutely annihilated and the community aggrandized +at its expense, as was the case in the police organization of +Lycurgus. It was one of the most undeniable as well as one of the +most remarkable principles of the primitive constitution of Rome, +that the state might imprison or hang the burgess, but might not take +away from him his son or his field or even lay permanent taxation +on him. In these and similar things the community itself was +restricted from encroaching on the burgess, nor was this restriction +merely ideal; it found its expression and its practical application +in the constitutional veto of the senate, which was certainly entitled +and bound to annul any resolution of the community contravening +such an original right. No community was so all-powerful within +its own sphere as the Roman; but in no community did the burgess +who conducted himself un-blameably live in an equally absolute +security from the risk of encroachment on the part either of his +fellow-burgesses or of the state itself. + +These were the principles on which the community of Rome governed +itself--a free people, understanding the duty of obedience, clearly +disowning all mystical priestly delusion, absolutely equal in the +eye of the law and one with another, bearing the sharply-defined +impress of a nationality of their own, while at the same time (as +will be afterwards shown) they wisely as well as magnanimously +opened their gates wide for intercourse with other lands. This +constitution was neither manufactured nor borrowed; it grew up +amidst and along with the Roman people. It was based, of course, +upon the earlier constitutions--the Italian, the Graeco-Italian, +and the Indo-Germanic; but a long succession of phases of political +development must have intervened between such constitutions as the +poems of Homer and the Germania of Tacitus delineate and the oldest +organization of the Roman community. In the acclamation of the +Hellenic and in the shield-striking of the Germanic assemblies there +was involved an expression of the sovereign power of the community; +but a wide interval separated forms such as these from the organized +jurisdiction and the regulated declaration of opinion of the Latin +assembly of curies. It is possible, moreover, that as the Roman +kings certainly borrowed the purple mantle and the ivory sceptre +from the Greeks (not from the Etruscans), the twelve lictors also +and various other external arrangements were introduced from abroad. +But that the development of the Roman constitutional law belonged +decidedly to Rome or, at any rate, to Latium, and that the borrowed +elements in it are but small and unimportant, is clearly demonstrated +by the fact that all its ideas are uniformly expressed by words of +Latin coinage. This constitution practically established for all +time the fundamental conceptions of the Roman state; for, as long +as there existed a Roman community, in spite of changes of form +it was always held that the magistrate had absolute command, that +the council of elders was the highest authority in the state, and +that every exceptional resolution required the sanction of the +sovereign or, in other words, of the community of the people. + + + + +Notes for Book I Chapter V + + +1. This was not merely the case under the old religious marriage +(-matrimonium confarreatione-); the civil marriage also (-matrimonium +consensu-), although not in itself giving to the husband proprietary +power over his wife, opened up the way for his acquiring this +proprietary power, inasmuch as the legal ideas of "formal delivery" +(-coemptio-), and "prescription" (-usus-), were applied without +ceremony to such a marriage. Till he acquired it, and in particular +therefore during the period which elapsed before the completion of +the prescription, the wife was (just as in the later marriage by +-causae probatio-, until that took place), not -uxor-, but -pro +uxore-. Down to the period when Roman jurisprudence became a +completed system the principle maintained its ground, that the wife +who was not in her husband's power was not a married wife, but only +passed as such (-uxor tantummodo habetur-. Cicero, Top. 3, 14). + +2. The following epitaph, although belonging to a much later period, +is not unworthy to have a place here. It is the stone that speaks:-- + +-Hospes, quod deico, paullum est. Asta ac pellige. Heic est +sepulcrum haud pulcrum pulcrai feminae, Nomen parentes nominarunt +Claudiam, Suom mareitum corde dilexit sovo, Gnatos duos creavit, +horunc alterum In terra linquit, alium sub terra locat; Sermone +lepido, tum autem incessu commodo, Domum servavit, lanam fecit. +Dixi. Abei.- + +(Corp. Inscr. Lat. 1007.) + +Still more characteristic, perhaps, is the introduction of wool-spinning +among purely moral qualities; which is no very unusual occurrence +in Roman epitaphs. Orelli, 4639: -optima et pulcherrima, lanifica +pia pudica frugi casta domiseda-. Orelli, 4861: -modestia probitate +pudicitia obsequio lanificio diligentia fide par similisque cetereis +probeis femina fuit-. Epitaph of Turia, i. 30: domestica bona +pudicitiae, opsequi, comitatis, facilitatis, lanificiis [tuis +adsiduitatis, religionis] sine superstitione, ornatus non conspiciendi, +cultus modici. + +3. I. III. Clan-villages + +4. Dionysius affirms (v. 25) that lameness excluded from the supreme +magistracy. That Roman citizenship was a condition for the regal +office as well as for the consulate, is so very self-evident as to +make it scarcely worth while to repudiate expressly the fictions +respecting the burgess of Cures. + +5. I. III. Clan-villages + +6. Even in Rome, where the simple constitution of ten curies otherwise +early disappeared, we still discover one practical application of +it, and that singularly enough in the very same formality which we +have other reasons for regarding as the oldest of all those that +are mentioned in our legal traditions, the -confarreatio-. It seems +scarcely doubtful that the ten witnesses in that ceremony had the +same relation to the constitution of ten curies the thirty lictors +had to the constitution of thirty curies. + +7. This is implied in their very name. The "part" (-tribus-) is, +as jurists know, simply that which has once been or may hereafter +come to be a whole, and so has no real standing of its own in the +present. + +8. I. II. Primitive Races of Italy + +9. -Quiris-, -quiritis-, or -quirinus- is interpreted by the +ancients as "lance-bearer," from -quiris- or -curis- = lance and +-ire-, and so far in their view agrees with -samnis-, -samnitis- +and -sabinus-, which also among the ancients was derived from +--saunion--, spear. This etymology, which associates the word +with -arquites-, -milites-, -pedites-, -equites-, -velites- --those +respectively who go with the bow, in bodies of a thousand, on +foot, on horseback, without armour in their mere over-garment--may +be incorrect, but it is bound up with the Roman conception of a +burgess. So too Juno quiritis, (Mars) quirinus, Janus quirinus, +are conceived as divinities that hurl the spear; and, employed in +reference to men, -quiris- is the warrior, that is, the full burgess. +With this view the -usus loquendi- coincides. Where the locality +was to be referred to, "Quirites" was never used, but always "Rome" +and "Romans" (-urbs Roma-, -populus-, -civis-, -ager Romanus-), +because the term -quiris- had as little of a local meaning as +-civis- or -miles-. For the same reason these designations could +not be combined; they did not say -civis quiris-, because both +denoted, though from different points of view, the same legal +conception. On the other hand the solemn announcement of the +funeral of a burgess ran in the words "this warrior has departed +in death" (-ollus quiris leto datus-); and in like manner the king +addressed the assembled community by this name, and, when he sat in +judgment, gave sentence according to the law of the warrior-freemen +(-ex iure quiritium-, quite similar to the later -ex iure civili-). +The phrase -populus Romanus-, -quirites- (-populus Romanus quiritium-is +not sufficiently attested), thus means "the community and the +individual burgesses," and therefore in an old formula (Liv. i. +32) to the -populus Romanus- are opposed the -prisci Latini-, to +the -quirites- the -homines prisci Latini- (Becker, Handb. ii. 20 +seq.) + +In the face of these facts nothing but ignorance of language and of +history can still adhere to the idea that the Roman community was +once confronted by a Quirite community of a similar kind, and that +after their incorporation the name of the newly received community +supplanted in ritual and legal phraseology that of the receiver.--Comp. +iv. The Hill-Romans On The Quirinal, note. + +10. Among the eight ritual institutions of Numa, Dionysius (ii. 64) +after naming the Curiones and Flamines, specifies as the third the +leaders of the horsemen (--oi eigemones ton Kelerion--). According to +the Praenestine calendar a festival was celebrated at the Comitium +on the 19th March [adstantibus pon]tificibus et trib(unis) celer(um). +Valerius Antias (in Dionys. i. 13, comp. iii. 41) assigns to +the earliest Roman cavalry a leader, Celer, and three centurions; +whereas in the treatise De viris ill. i, Celer himself is termed +-centurio-. Moreover Brutus is affirmed to have been -tribunus +celerum- at the expulsion of the kings (Liv. i. 59), and according +to Dionysius (iv. 71) to have even by virtue of this office made the +proposal to banish the Tarquins. And, lastly, Pomponius (Dig. i. +2, 2, 15, 19) and Lydus in a similar way, partly perhaps borrowing +from him (De Mag. i. 14, 37), identify the -tribunus celerum- with +the Celer of Antias, the -magister equitum- of the dictator under +the republic, and the -Praefectus praetorio- of the empire. + +Of these-the only statements which are extant regarding the -tribuni +celerum- --the last mentioned not only proceeds from late and quite +untrustworthy authorities, but is inconsistent with the meaning of +the term, which can only signify "divisional leaders of horsemen," +and above all the master of the horse of the republican period, who +was nominated only on extraordinary occasions and was in later times +no longer nominated at all, cannot possibly have been identical with +the magistracy that was required for the annual festival of the +19th March and was consequently a standing office. Laying aside, as +we necessarily must, the account of Pomponius, which has evidently +arisen solely out of the anecdote of Brutus dressed up with +ever-increasing ignorance as history, we reach the simple result that +the -tribuni celerum- entirely correspond in number and character +to the -tribuni militum-, and that they were the leaders-of-division +of the horsemen, consequently quite distinct from the -magister +equitum-. + +11. This is indicated by the evidently very old forms -velites-and +-arquites-and by the subsequent organization of the legion. + +12. I. V. The King + +13. I. IV. The Tibur and Its Traffic + +14. -Lex- ("that which binds," related to -legare-, "to bind +to something") denotes, as is well known, a contract in general, +along, however, with the connotation of a contract whose terms the +proposer dictates and the other party simply accepts or declines; +as was usually the case, e. g. with public -licitationes-. In the +-lex publica populi Romani- the proposer was the king, the acceptor +the people; the limited co-operation of the latter was thus +significantly indicated in the very language. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +The Non-Burgesses and the Reformed Constitution + + + +Amalgamation of the Palatine and Quirinal Cities + + +The history of every nation, and of Italy more especially, is a +--synoikismos-- on a great scale. Rome, in the earliest form in +which we have any knowledge of it, was already triune, and similar +incorporations only ceased when the spirit of Roman vigour had wholly +died away. Apart from that primitive process of amalgamation of +the Ramnes, Titles, and Luceres, of which hardly anything beyond the +bare fact is known, the earliest act of incorporation of this sort +was that by which the Hill-burgesses became merged in the Palatine +Rome. The organization of the two communities, when they were +about to be amalgamated, may be conceived to have been substantially +similar; and in solving the problem of union they would have to +choose between the alternatives of retaining duplicate institutions +or of abolishing one set of these and extending the other to the whole +united community. They adopted the former course with respect to +all sanctuaries and priesthoods. Thenceforth the Roman community +had its two guilds of Salii and two of Luperci, and as it had +two forms of Mars, it had also two priests for that divinity--the +Palatine priest, who afterwards usually took the designation of +priest of Mars, and the Colline, who was termed priest of Quirinus. +It is likely, although it can no longer be proved, that all the +old Latin priesthoods of Rome--the Augurs, Pontifices, Vestals, +and Fetials--originated in the same way from a combination of the +priestly colleges of the Palatine and Quirinal communities. In +the division into local regions the town on the Quirinal hill was +added as a fourth region to the three belonging to the Palatine +city, viz. the Suburan, Palatine, and suburban (-Esquiliae-). In +the case of the original --synoikismos-- the annexed community was +recognized after the union as at least a tribe (part) of the new +burgess-body, and thus had in some sense a continued political +existence; but this course was not followed in the case of the +Hill-Romans or in any of the later processes of annexation. After +the union the Roman community continued to be divided as formerly +into three tribes, each containing ten wardships (-curiae-); and the +Hill-Romans--whether they were or were not previously distributed +into tribes of their own--must have been inserted into the existing +tribes and wardships. This insertion was probably so arranged that, +while each tribe and wardship received its assigned proportion of +the new burgesses, the new burgesses in these divisions were not +amalgamated completely with the old; the tribes henceforth presented +two ranks: the Tities, Ramnes, and Luceres being respectively +subdivided into first and second (-priores-, -posteriores-). With +this division was connected in all probability that arrangement +of the organic institutions of the community in pairs, which meets +us everywhere. The three pairs of Sacred Virgins are expressly +described as representatives of the three tribes with their first +and second ranks; and it may be conjectured that the pair of Lares +worshipped in each street had a similar origin. This arrangement +is especially apparent in the army: after the union each half-tribe +of the tripartite community furnished a hundred horsemen, and the +Roman burgess cavalry was thus raised to six "hundreds," and the +number of its captains probably from three to six. There is no +tradition of any corresponding increase to the infantry; but to +this origin we may refer the subsequent custom of calling out the +legions regularly two by two, and this doubling of the levy probably +led to the rule of having not three, as was perhaps originally +the case, but six leaders-of-division to command the legion. It +is certain that no corresponding increase of seats in the senate +took place: on the contrary, the primitive number of three hundred +senators remained the normal number down to the seventh century; +with which it is quite compatible that a number of the more prominent +men of the newly annexed community may have been received into the +senate of the Palatine city. The same course was followed with +the magistracies: a single king presided over the united community, +and there was no change as to his principal deputies, particularly +the warden of the city. It thus appears that the ritual institutions +of the Hill-city were continued, and that the doubled burgess-body +was required to furnish a military force of double the numerical +strength; but in other respects the incorporation of the Quirinal +city into the Palatine was really a subordination of the former to +the latter. If we have rightly assumed that the contrast between +the Palatine old and the Quirinal new burgesses was identical +with the contrast between the first and second Tities, Ramnes, and +Luceres, it was thus the -gentes-of the Quirinal city that formed +the "second" or the "lesser." The distinction, however, was +certainly more an honorary than a legal precedence. At the taking +of the vote in the senate the senators taken from the old clans +were asked before those of the "lesser." In like manner the Colline +region ranked as inferior even to the suburban (Esquiline) region +of the Palatine city; the priest of the Quirinal Mars as inferior +to the priest of the Palatine Mars; the Quirinal Salii and Luperci +as inferior to those of the Palatine. It thus appears that the +--synoikismos--, by which the Palatine community incorporated that +of the Quirinal, marked an intermediate stage between the earliest +--synoikismos-- by which the Tities, Ramnes, and Luceres became +blended, and all those that took place afterwards. The annexed +community was no longer allowed to form a separate tribe in the new +whole, but it was permitted to furnish at least a distinct portion +of each tribe; and its ritual institutions were not only allowed to +subsist--as was afterwards done in other cases, after the capture +of Alba for example--but were elevated into institutions of the +united community, a course which was not pursued in any subsequent +instance. + + +Dependents and Guests + + +This amalgamation of two substantially similar commonwealths +produced rather an increase in the size than a change in the +intrinsic character of the existing community. A second process +of incorporation, which was carried out far more gradually and had +far deeper effects, may be traced back, so far as the first steps +in it are concerned, to this epoch; we refer to the amalgamation +of the burgesses and the --metoeci--. At all times there existed +side by side with the burgesses in the Roman community persons who +were protected, the "listeners" (-clientes-), as they were called +from their being dependents on the several burgess-households, or +the "multitude" (-plebes-, from -pleo-, -plenus-), as they were +termed negatively with reference to their want of political rights.(1) +The elements of this intermediate stage between the freeman and +the slave were, as has been shown(2) already in existence in the +Roman household: but in the community this class necessarily acquired +greater importance -de facto- and -de jure-, and that from two +reasons. In the first place the community might itself possess +half-free clients as well as slaves; especially after the conquest +of a town and the breaking up of its commonwealth it might often +appear to the conquering community advisable not to sell the mass +of the burgesses formally as slaves, but to allow them the continued +possession of freedom -de facto-, so that in the capacity as it +were of freedmen of the community they entered into relations of +clientship whether to the clans, or to the king. In the second +place by means of the community and its power over the individual +burgesses, there was given the possibility of protecting the clients +against an abusive exercise of the -dominium- still subsisting in +law. At an immemorially early period there was introduced into +Roman law the principle on which rested the whole legal position +of the --metoeci--, that, when a master on occasion of a public +legal act--such as in the making of a testament, in an action at law, +or in the census--expressly or tacitly surrendered his -dominium-, +neither he himself nor his lawful successors should ever have power +arbitrarily to recall that resignation or reassert a claim to the +person of the freedman himself or of his descendants. The clients +and their posterity did not by virtue of their position possess +either the rights of burgesses or those of guests: for to constitute +a burgess a formal bestowal of the privilege was requisite on the +part of the community, while the relation of guest presumed the +holding of burgess-rights in a community which had a treaty with +Rome. What they did obtain was a legally protected possession of +freedom, while they continued to be -de jure- non-free. Accordingly +for a lengthened period their relations in all matters of property +seem to have been, like those of slaves, regarded in law as +relations of the patron, so that it was necessary that the latter +should represent them in processes at law; in connection with which +the patron might levy contributions from them in case of need, and +call them to account before him criminally. By degrees, however, +the body of --metoeci-- outgrew these fetters; they began to +acquire and to alienate in their own name, and to claim and obtain +legal redress from the Roman burgess-tribunals without the formal +intervention of their patron. + +In matters of marriage and inheritance, equality of rights with the +burgesses was far sooner conceded to foreigners(3) than to those +who were strictly non-free and belonged to no community; but the +latter could not well be prohibited from contracting marriages in +their own circle and from forming the legal relations arising out +of marriage--those of marital and paternal power, of -agnatio- and +-gentilitas- of heritage and of tutelage--after the model of the +corresponding relations among the burgesses. + +Similar consequences to some extent were produced by the exercise +of the -ius hospitii-, in so far as by virtue of it foreigners settled +permanently in Rome and established a domestic position there. In +this respect the most liberal principles must have prevailed in +Rome from primitive times. The Roman law knew no distinctions of +quality in inheritance and no locking up of estates. It allowed +on the one hand to every man capable of making a disposition the +entirely unlimited disposal of his property during his lifetime; and +on the other hand, so far as we know, to every one who was at all +entitled to have dealings with Roman burgesses, even to the foreigner +and the client, the unlimited right of acquiring moveable, and +(from the time when immoveables could be held as private property +at all) within certain limits also immoveable, estate in Rome. Rome +was in fact a commercial city, which was indebted for the commencement +of its importance to international commerce, and which with a noble +liberality granted the privilege of settlement to every child of an +unequal marriage, to every manumitted slave, and to every stranger +who surrendering his rights in his native land emigrated to Rome. + + +Class of --Metoeci-- Subsisting by the Side of the Community + + +At first, therefore, the burgesses were in reality the protectors, +the non-burgesses were the protected; but in Rome as in all communities +which freely admit settlement but do not throw open the rights of +citizenship, it soon became a matter of increasing difficulty to +harmonize this relation -de jure- with the actual state of things. +The flourishing of commerce, the full equality of private rights +guaranteed to all Latins by the Latin league (including even the +acquisition of landed property), the greater frequency of manumissions +as prosperity increased, necessarily occasioned even in peace a +disproportionate increase of the number of --metoeci--. That number +was further augmented by the greater part of the population of the +neighbouring towns subdued by force of arms and incorporated with +Rome; which, whether it removed to the city or remained in its old +home now reduced to the rank of a village, ordinarily exchanged its +native burgess-rights for those of a Roman --metoikos--. Moreover +the burdens of war fell exclusively on the old burgesses and were +constantly thinning the ranks of their patrician descendants, while +the --metoeci-- shared in the results of victory without having to +pay for it with their blood. + +Under such circumstances the only wonder is that the Roman patriciate +did not disappear much more rapidly than it actually did. The fact +of its still continuing for a prolonged period a numerous community +can scarcely be accounted for by the bestowal of Roman burgess-rights +on several distinguished foreign clans, which after emigrating +from their homes or after the conquest of their cities received +the Roman franchise--for such grants appear to have occurred but +sparingly from the first, and to have become always the more rare +as the franchise increased in value. A cause of greater influence, +in all likelihood, was the introduction of the civil marriage, +by which a child begotten of patrician parents living together as +married persons, although without -confarreatio-, acquired full +burgess-rights equally with the child of a -confarreatio- marriage. +It is at least probable that the civil marriage, which already +existed in Rome before the Twelve Tables but was certainly not an +original institution, was introduced for the purpose of preventing +the disappearance of the patriciate.(4) To this connection +belong also the measures which were already in the earliest times +adopted with a view to maintain a numerous posterity in the several +households.(5) + +Nevertheless the number of the --metoeci-- was of necessity +constantly on the increase and liable to no diminution, while that +of the burgesses was at the utmost perhaps not decreasing; and in +consequence the --metoeci-- necessarily acquired by imperceptible +degrees another and a freer position. The non-burgesses were no +longer merely emancipated slaves or strangers needing protection; +their ranks included the former burgesses of the Latin communities +vanquished in war, and more especially the Latin settlers who lived +in Rome not by the favour of the king or of any other burgess, but +by federal right. Legally unrestricted in the acquiring of property, +they gained money and estate in their new home, and bequeathed, like +the burgesses, their homesteads to their children and children's +children. The vexatious relation of dependence on particular +burgess-households became gradually relaxed. If the liberated slave +or the immigrant stranger still held an entirely isolated position +in the state, such was no longer the case with his children, still +less with his grandchildren, and this very circumstance of itself +rendered their relations to the patron of less moment. While in +earlier times the client was exclusively left dependent for legal +protection on the intervention of the patron, the more the state +became consolidated and the importance of the clanships and households +in consequence diminished, the more frequently must the individual +client have obtained justice and redress of injury, even without +the intervention of his patron, from the king. A great number of +the non-burgesses, particularly the members of the dissolved Latin +communities, had, as we have already said, probably from the outset +not any place as clients of the royal or other great clans, and +obeyed the king nearly in the same manner as did the burgesses. The +king, whose sovereignty over the burgesses was in truth ultimately +dependent on the good-will of those obeying, must have welcomed the +means of forming out of his own -proteges- essentially dependent +on him a body bound to him by closer ties. + + +Plebs + + +Thus there grew up by the side of the burgesses a second community +in Rome: out of the clients arose the Plebs. This change of name +is significant. In law there was no difference between the client +and the plebeian, the "dependent" and the "man of the multitude;" +but in fact there was a very important one, for the former term +brought into prominence the relation of dependence on a member of +the politically privileged class; the latter suggested merely the +want of political rights. As the feeling of special dependence +diminished, that of political inferiority forced itself on the +thoughts of the free --metoeci--; and it was only the sovereignty +of the king ruling equally over all that prevented the outbreak of +political conflict between the privileged and the non-privileged +classes. + + +The Servian Constitution + + +The first step, however, towards the amalgamation of the two +portions of the people scarcely took place in the revolutionary +way which their antagonism appeared to foreshadow. The reform of +the constitution, which bears the name of king Servius Tullius, is +indeed, as to its historical origin, involved in the same darkness +with all the events of a period respecting which we learn whatever +we know not by means of historical tradition, but solely by means of +inference from the institutions of later times. But its character +testifies that it cannot have been a change demanded by the +plebeians, for the new constitution assigned to them duties alone, +and not rights. It must rather have owed its origin either to the +wisdom of one of the Roman kings, or to the urgency of the burgesses +that they should be delivered from exclusive liability to burdens, +and that the non-burgesses should be made to share on the one hand +in taxation--that is, in the obligation to make advances to the +state (the -tributum-)--and rendering task-work, and on the other +hand in the levy. Both were comprehended in the Servian constitution, +but they hardly took place at the same time. The bringing in of +the non-burgesses presumably arose out of the economic burdens; +these were early extended to such as were "possessed of means" +(-locupletes-) or "settled people" (-adsidui-, freeholders), and only +those wholly without means, the "children-producers" (-proletarii-, +-capite censi-) remained free from them. Thereupon followed the +politically more important step of bringing in the non-burgesses +to military duty. This was thenceforth laid not upon the burgesses +as such, but upon the possessors of land, the -tribules-, whether +they might be burgesses or mere --metoeci--; service in the army +was changed from a personal burden into a burden on property. The +details of the arrangement were as follow. + + +The Five Classes + + +Every freeholder from the eighteenth to the sixtieth year of his +age, including children in the household of freeholder fathers, +without distinction of birth, was under obligation of service, so +that even the manumitted slave had to serve, if in an exceptional +case he had come into possession of landed property. The Latins +also possessing land--others from without were not allowed to acquire +Roman soil--were called in to service, so far as they had, as was +beyond doubt the case with most of them, taken up their abode on +Roman territory. The body of men liable to serve was distributed, +according to the size of their portions of land, into those bound +to full service or the possessors of a full hide,(6) who were obliged +to appear in complete armour and in so far formed pre-eminently +the war army (-classis-), and the four following ranks of smaller +landholders--the possessors respectively of three fourths, of +a half, of a quarter, or of an eighth of a whole farm--from whom +was required fulfilment of service, but not equipment in complete +armour, and they thus had a position below the full rate (-infra +classem-). As the land happened to be at that time apportioned, +almost the half of the farms were full hides, while each of the +classes possessing respectively three-fourths, the half, and the +quarter of a hide, amounted to scarcely an eighth of the freeholders, +and those again holding an eighth of a hide amounted to fully an +eighth. It was accordingly laid down as a rule that in the case +of the infantry the levy should be in the proportion of eighty +holders of a full hide, twenty from each of the three next ranks, +and twenty-eight from the last. + + +Cavalry + + +The cavalry was similarly dealt with. The number of divisions +in it was tripled, and the only difference in this case was that +the six divisions already existing with the old names (-Tities-, +-Ramnes-, -Luceres- -primi- and -secundi-) were left to the +patricians, while the twelve new divisions were formed chiefly from +the non-burgesses. The reason for this difference is probably to +be sought in the fact that at that period the infantry were formed +anew for each campaign and discharged on their return home, whereas +the cavalry with their horses were on military grounds kept together +also in time of peace, and held their regular drills, which continued +to subsist as festivals of the Roman equites down to the latest +times.(7) Accordingly the squadrons once constituted were allowed, +even under this reform, to keep their ancient names. In order to +make the cavalry accessible to every burgess, the unmarried women +and orphans under age, so far as they had possession of land, +were bound instead of personal service to provide the horses for +particular troopers (each trooper had two of them), and to furnish +them with fodder. On the whole there was one horseman to nine +foot-soldiers; but in actual service the horsemen were used more +sparingly. + +The non-freeholders (-adcensi-, people standing at the side of the +list of those owing military service) had to supply the army with +workmen and musicians as well as with a number of substitutes +who marched with the army unarmed (-velati-), and, when vacancies +occurred in the field, took their places in the ranks equipped with +the weapons of the sick or of the fallen. + + +Levy-Districts + + +To facilitate the levying of the infantry, the city was distributed +into four "parts" (-tribus-); by which the old triple division was +superseded, at least so far as concerned its local significance. +These were the Palatine, which comprehended the height of that name +along with the Velia; the Suburan, to which the street so named, the +Carinae, and the Caelian belonged; the Esquiline; and the Colline, +formed by the Quirinal and Viminal, the "hills" as contrasted with +the "mounts" of the Capitol and Palatine. We have already spoken +of the formation of these regions(8) and shown how they originated +out of the ancient double city of the Palatine and the Quirinal. +By what process it came to pass that every freeholder burgess +belonged to one of those city-districts, we cannot tell; but this +was now the case; and that the four regions were nearly on an +equality in point of numbers, is evident from their being equally +drawn upon in the levy. This division, which had primary reference to +the soil alone and applied only inferentially to those who possessed +it, was merely for administrative purposes, and in particular +never had any religious significance attached to it; for the fact +that in each of the city-districts there were six chapels of the +enigmatical Argei no more confers upon them the character of ritual +districts than the erection of an altar to the Lares in each street +implies such a character in the streets. + +Each of these four levy-districts had to furnish approximately the +fourth part not only of the force as a whole, but of each of its +military subdivisions, so that each legion and each century numbered +an equal proportion of conscripts from each region, in order to +merge all distinctions of a gentile and local nature in the one +common levy of the community and, especially through the powerful +levelling influence of the military spirit, to blend the --metoeci-- +and the burgesses into one people. + + +Organization of the Army + + +In a military point of view, the male population capable of +bearing arms was divided into a first and second levy, the former +of which, the "juniors" from the commencement of the eighteenth to +the completion of the forty-sixth year, were especially employed +for service in the field, while the "seniors" guarded the walls at +home. The military unit came to be in the infantry the now doubled +legion(9)--a phalanx, arranged and armed completely in the old +Doric style, of 6000 men who, six file deep, formed a front of 1000 +heavy-armed soldiers; to which were attached 2400 "unarmed".(10) +The four first ranks of the phalanx, the -classis-, were formed by +the fully-armed hoplites of those possessing a full hide; in the +fifth and sixth were placed the less completely equipped farmers of +the second and third division; the two last divisions were annexed +as rear ranks to the phalanx or fought by its side as light-armed +troops. Provision was made for readily supplying the accidental +gaps which were so injurious to the phalanx. Thus there served in +it 84 centuries or 8400 men, of whom 6000 were hoplites, 4000 of +the first division, 1000 from each of the two following, and 2400 +light-armed, of whom 1000 belonged to the fourth, and 1200 to the +fifth division; approximately each levy-district furnished to the +phalanx 2100, and to each century 25 men. This phalanx was the army +destined for the field, while a like force of troops was reckoned +for the seniors who remained behind to defend the city. In this way +the normal amount of the infantry came to 16,800 men, 80 centuries +of the first division, 20 from each of the three following, and 28 +from the last division--not taking into account the two centuries +of substitutes or those of the workmen or the musicians. To all +these fell to be added the cavalry, which consisted of 1800 horse; +often when the army took the field, however, only the third part +of the whole number was attached to it. The normal amount of the +Roman army of the first and second levy rose accordingly to close +upon 20,000 men: which number must beyond doubt have corresponded +on the whole to the effective strength of the Roman population +capable of arms, as it stood at the time when this new organization +was introduced. As the population increased the number of centuries +was not augmented, but the several divisions were strengthened by +persons added, without altogether losing sight, however, of the +fundamental number. Indeed the Roman corporations in general, closed +as to numbers, very frequently evaded the limit imposed upon them +by admitting supernumerary members. + + +Census + + +This new organization of the army was accompanied by a more careful +supervision of landed property on the part of the state. It was +now either ordained for the first time or, if not, at any rate +defined more carefully, that a land-register should be established, +in which the several proprietors of land should have their fields +with all their appurtenances, servitudes, slaves, beasts of draught +and of burden, duly recorded. Every act of alienation, which did +not take place publicly and before witnesses, was declared null; +and a revision of the register of landed property, which was at +the same time the levy-roll, was directed to be made every fourth +year. The -mancipatio- and the -census- thus arose out of the +Servian military organization. + + +Political Effects of the Servian Military Organization + + +It is evident at a glance that this whole institution was from the +outset of a military nature. In the whole detailed scheme we do +not encounter a single feature suggestive of any destination of the +centuries to other than purely military purposes; and this alone +must, with every one accustomed to consider such matters, form +a sufficient reason for pronouncing its application to political +objects a later innovation. If, as is probable, in the earliest +period every one who had passed his sixtieth year was excluded from +the centuries, this has no meaning, so far as they were intended +from the first to form a representation of the burgess-community +similar to and parallel with the curies. Although, however, the +organization of the centuries was introduced merely to enlarge +the military resources of the burgesses by the inclusion of +the --metoeci-- and, in so far, there is no greater error than to +exhibit the Servian organization as the introduction of a timocracy +in Rome--yet the new obligation imposed upon the inhabitants to +bear arms exercised in its consequences a material influence on +their political position. He who is obliged to become a soldier +must also, so long as the state is not rotten, have it in his power +to become an officer; beyond question plebeians also could now be +nominated in Rome as centurions and as military tribunes. Although, +moreover, the institution of the centuries was not intended +to curtail the political privileges exclusively possessed by the +burgesses as hitherto represented in the curies, yet it was inevitable +that those rights, which the burgesses hitherto had exercised not +as the assembly of curies, but as the burgess-levy, should pass over +to the new centuries of burgesses and --metoeci--. Henceforward, +accordingly, it was the centuries whose consent the king had +to ask before beginning an aggressive war.(11) It is important, +on account of the subsequent course of development, to note these +first steps towards the centuries taking part in public affairs; +but the centuries came to acquire such rights at first more in the +way of natural sequence than of direct design, and subsequently +to the Servian reform, as before, the assembly of the curies was +regarded as the proper burgess-community, whose homage bound the +whole people in allegiance to the king. By the side of these new +landowning full-burgesses stood the domiciled foreigners from the +allied Latium, as participating in the public burdens, tribute and +task-works (hence -municipes-); while the burgesses not domiciled, +who were beyond the pale of the tribes, and had not the right +to serve in war and vote, came into view only as "owing tribute" +(-aerarii-). + +In this way, while hitherto there had been distinguished only two +classes of members of the community, burgesses and clients, there +were now established those three political classes, which exercised +a dominant influence over the constitutional law of Rome for many +centuries. + + +Time and Occasion of the Reform + + +When and how this new military organization of the Roman community +came into existence, can only be conjectured. It presupposes the +existence of the four regions; in other words, the Servian wall must +have been erected before the reform took place. But the territory +of the city must also have considerably exceeded its original limits, +when it could furnish 8000 holders of full hides and as many who +held lesser portions, or sons of such holders. We are not acquainted +with the superficial extent of the normal Roman farm; but it is +not possible to estimate it as under twenty -jugera-.(12) If we +reckon as a minimum 10,000 full hides, this would imply a superficies +of 190 square miles of arable land; and on this calculation, if we +make a very moderate allowance for pasture, the space occupied by +houses, and ground not capable of culture, the territory, at the +period when this reform was carried out, must have had at least +an extent of 420 square miles, probably an extent still more +considerable. If we follow tradition, we must assume a number of +84,000 burgesses who were freeholders and capable of bearing arms; +for such, we are told, were the numbers ascertained by Servius at +the first census. A glance at the map, however, shows that this +number must be fabulous; it is not even a genuine tradition, but +a conjectural calculation, by which the 16,800 capable of bearing +arms who constituted the normal strength of the infantry appeared +to yield, on an average of five persons to each family, the number +of 84,000 burgesses, and this number was confounded with that +of those capable of bearing arms. But even according to the more +moderate estimates laid down above, with a territory of some 16,000 +hides containing a population of nearly 20,000 capable of bearing +arms and at least three times that number of women, children, and +old men, persons who had no land, and slaves, it is necessary to +assume not merely that the region between the Tiber and Anio had +been acquired, but that the Alban territory had also been conquered, +before the Servian constitution was established; a result with +which tradition agrees. What were the numerical proportions of +patricians and plebeians originally in the army, cannot be ascertained. + +Upon the whole it is plain that this Servian institution did not +originate in a conflict between the orders. On the contrary, it +bears the stamp of a reforming legislator like the constitutions of +Lycurgus, Solon, and Zaleucus; and it has evidently been produced +under Greek influence. Particular analogies may be deceptive, such +as the coincidence noticed by the ancients that in Corinth also +widows and orphans were charged with the provision of horses for +the cavalry; but the adoption of the armour and arrangements of +the Greek hoplite system was certainly no accidental coincidence. +Now if we consider the fact that it was in the second century of +the city that the Greek states in Lower Italy advanced from the pure +clan-constitution to a modified one, which placed the preponderance +in the hands of the landholders, we shall recognize in that movement +the impulse which called forth in Rome the Servian reform--a change +of constitution resting in the main on the same fundamental idea, +and only directed into a somewhat different course by the strictly +monarchical form of the Roman state.(13) + + + + +Notes for Book I Chapter VI + + +1. I. V. Dependents of the Household + +2. -Habuit plebem in clientelas principium descriptam-. Cicero, +de Rep. ii. 9. + +3. I. III. The Latin League + +4. The enactments of the Twelve Tables respecting -usus- show +clearly that they found the civil marriage already in existence. +In like manner the high antiquity of the civil marriage is clearly +evident from the fact that it, equally with the religious marriage, +necessarily involved the marital power (v. The House-father and +His Household), and only differed from the religious marriage as +respected the manner in which that power was acquired. The religious +marriage itself was held as the proprietary and legally necessary +form of acquiring a wife; whereas, in the case of civil marriage, +one of the general forms of acquiring property used on other +occasions--delivery on the part of a person entitled to give away, +or prescription--was requisite in order to lay the foundation of +a valid marital power. + +5. I. V. The House-father and His Household. + +6. -Hufe-, hide, as much as can be properly tilled with one plough, +called in Scotland a plough-gate. + +7. For the same reason, when the levy was enlarged after +the admission of the Hill-Romans, the equites were doubled, while +in the infantry force instead of the single "gathering" (-legio-) +two legions were called out (vi. Amalgamation of the Palatine and +Quirinal Cities). + +8. I. IV. Oldest Settlements In the Palatine and Suburan Regions + +9. I. V. Burdens of the Burgesses + +10. -velites-, see v. Burdens of the Burgesses, note + +11. I. V. Rights of the Burgesses + +12. Even about 480, allotments of land of seven -jugera- appeared +to those that received them small (Val. Max. iii. 3, 5; Colum. i, +praef. 14; i. 3, ii; Plin. H. N. xviii. 3, 18: fourteen -jugera-, +Victor, 33; Plutarch, Apophth. Reg. et Imp. p. 235 Dubner, in +accordance with which Plutarch, Crass. 2, is to be corrected). + +A comparison of the Germanic proportions gives the same result. +The -jugerum- and the -morgen- [nearly 5/8 of an English acre], +both originally measures rather of labour than of surface, may be +looked upon as originally identical. As the German hide consisted +ordinarily of 30, but not unfrequently of 20 or 40 -morgen-, and +the homestead frequently, at least among the Anglo-Saxons, amounted +to a tenth of the hide, it will appear, taking into account the +diversity of climate and the size of the Roman -heredium- of 2 +-jugera-, that the hypothesis of a Roman hide of 20 -jugera- is not +unsuitable to the circumstances of the case. It is to be regretted +certainly that on this very point tradition leaves us without +precise information. + +13. The analogy also between the so-called Servian constitution and +the treatment of the Attic --metoeci-- deserves to be particularly +noticed. Athens, like Rome, opened her gates at a comparatively +early period to the --metoeci--, and afterwards summoned them also +to share the burdens of the state. We cannot suppose that any +direct connection existed in this instance between Athens and Rome; +but the coincidence serves all the more distinctly to show how the +same causes--urban centralization and urban development--everywhere +and of necessity produce similar effects. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +The Hegemony of Rome in Latium + + + +Extension of the Roman Territory + + +The brave and impassioned Italian race doubtless never lacked +feuds among themselves and with their neighbours: as the country +flourished and civilization advanced, feuds must have become +gradually changed into war and raids for pillage into conquest, +and political powers must have begun to assume shape. No Italian +Homer, however, has preserved for us a picture of these earliest +frays and plundering excursions, in which the character of nations +is moulded and expressed like the mind of the man in the sports +and enterprises of the boy; nor does historical tradition enable +us to form a judgment, with even approximate accuracy, as to the +outward development of power and the comparative resources of the +several Latin cantons. It is only in the case of Rome, at the +utmost, that we can trace in some degree the extension of its power +and of its territory. The earliest demonstrable boundaries of the +united Roman community have been already stated;(1) in the landward +direction they were on an average just about five miles distant +from the capital of the canton, and it was only toward the coast +that they extended as far as the mouth of the Tiber (-Ostia-), at +a distance of somewhat more than fourteen miles from Rome. "The +new city," says Strabo, in his description of the primitive Rome, +"was surrounded by larger and smaller tribes, some of whom dwelt +in independent villages and were not subordinate to any national +union." It seems to have been at the expense of these neighbours +of kindred lineage in the first instance that the earliest extensions +of the Roman territory took place. + + +Territory on the Anio--Alba + + +The Latin communities situated on the upper Tiber and between the +Tiber and the Anio-Antemnae, Crustumerium, Ficulnea, Medullia, +Caenina, Corniculum, Cameria, Collatia,--were those which pressed +most closely and sorely on Rome, and they appear to have forfeited +their independence in very early times to the arms of the Romans. +The only community that subsequently appears as independent in this +district was Nomentum; which perhaps saved its freedom by alliance +with Rome. The possession of Fidenae, the -tete de pont- of the +Etruscans on the left bank of the Tiber, was contested between the +Latins and the Etruscans--in other words, between the Romans and +Veientes--with varying results. The struggle with Gabii, which +held the plain between the Anio and the Alban hills, was for a +long period equally balanced: down to late times the Gabine dress +was deemed synonymous with that of war, and Gabine ground the +prototype of hostile soil.(2) By these conquests the Roman territory +was probably extended to about 190 square miles. Another very +early achievement of the Roman arms was preserved, although in a +legendary dress, in the memory of posterity with greater vividness +than those obsolete struggles: Alba, the ancient sacred metropolis +of Latium, was conquered and destroyed by Roman troops. How the +collision arose, and how it was decided, tradition does not tell: +the battle of the three Roman with the three Alban brothers born at +one birth is nothing but a personification of the struggle between +two powerful and closely related cantons, of which the Roman at +least was triune. We know nothing at all beyond the naked fact of +the subjugation and destruction of Alba by Rome.(3) + +It is not improbable, although wholly a matter of conjecture, that, +at the same period when Rome was establishing herself on the Anio +and on the Alban hills, Praeneste, which appears at a later date +as mistress of eight neighbouring townships, Tibur, and others of +the Latin communities were similarly occupied in enlarging their +territory and laying the foundations of their subsequent far from +inconsiderable power. + + +Treatment of the Earliest Acquisitons + + +We feel the want of accurate information as to the legal character +and legal effects of these early Latin conquests, still more than +we miss the records of the wars in which they were won. Upon the +whole it is not to be doubted that they were treated in accordance +with the system of incorporation, out of which the tripartite community +of Rome had arisen; excepting that the cantons who were compelled +by arms to enter the combination did not, like the primitive three, +preserve some sort of relative independence as separate regions +in the new united community, but became so entirely merged in the +general whole as to be no longer traced.(4) However far the power +of a Latin canton might extend, in the earliest times it tolerated +no political centre except the proper capital; and still less +founded independent settlements, such as the Phoenicians and the +Greeks established, thereby creating in their colonies clients +for the time being and future rivals to the mother city. In this +respect, the treatment which Ostia experienced from Rome deserves +special notice: the Romans could not and did not wish to prevent +the rise -de facto- of a town at that spot, but they allowed the +place no political independence, and accordingly they did not bestow +on those who settled there any local burgess-rights, but merely +allowed them to retain, if they already possessed, the general +burgess-rights of Rome.(5) This principle also determined the +fate of the weaker cantons, which by force of arms or by voluntary +submission became subject to a stronger. The stronghold of the canton +was razed, its domain was added to the domain of the conquerors, +and a new home was instituted for the inhabitants as well as for +their gods in the capital of the victorious canton. This must not +be understood absolutely to imply a formal transportation of the +conquered inhabitants to the new capital, such as was the rule at +the founding of cities in the East. The towns of Latium at this +time can have been little more than the strongholds and weekly +markets of the husbandmen: it was sufficient in general that the +market and the seat of justice should be transferred to the new +capital. That even the temples often remained at the old spot +is shown in the instances of Alba and of Caenina, towns which must +still after their destruction have retained some semblance of +existence in connection with religion. Even where the strength +of the place that was razed rendered it really necessary to remove +the inhabitants, they would be frequently settled, with a view +to the cultivation of the soil, in the open hamlets of their old +domain. That the conquered, however, were not unfrequently compelled +either as a whole or in part to settle in their new capital, +is proved, more satisfactorily than all the several stories from +the legendary period of Latium could prove it, by the maxim of +Roman state-law, that only he who had extended the boundaries of +the territory was entitled to advance the wall of the city (the +-pomerium-). Of course the conquered, whether transferred or not, +were ordinarily compelled to occupy the legal position of clients;(6) +but particular individuals or clans occasionally had burgess-rights +or, in other words, the patriciate conferred upon them. In the +time of the empire there were still recognized Alban clans which +were introduced among the burgesses of Rome after the fall of their +native seat; amongst these were the Julii, Servilii, Quinctilii, +Cloelii, Geganii, Curiatii, Metilii: the memory of their descent was +preserved by their Alban family shrines, among which the sanctuary +of the -gens- of the Julii at Bovillae again rose under the empire +into great repute. + +This centralizing process, by which several small communities +became absorbed in a larger one, of course was far from being an +idea specially Roman. Not only did the development of Latium and +of the Sabellian stocks hinge upon the distinction between national +centralization and cantonal independence; the case was the same +with the development of the Hellenes. Rome in Latium and Athens +in Attica arose out of a like amalgamation of many cantons into +one state; and the wise Thales suggested a similar fusion to the +hard-pressed league of the Ionic cities as the only means of saving +their nationality. But Rome adhered to this principle of unity with +more consistency, earnestness, and success than any other Italian +canton; and just as the prominent position of Athens in Hellas +was the effect of her early centralization, so Rome was indebted +for her greatness solely to the same system, in her case far more +energetically applied, + + +The Hegemony of Rome over Latium--Alba + + +While the conquests of Rome in Latium may be mainly regarded as +direct extensions of her territory and people presenting the same +general features, a further and special significance attached to +the conquest of Alba. It was not merely the problematical size and +presumed riches of Alba that led tradition to assign a prominence +so peculiar to its capture. Alba was regarded as the metropolis +of the Latin confederacy, and had the right of presiding among the +thirty communities that belonged to it. The destruction of Alba, +of course, no more dissolved the league itself than the destruction +of Thebes dissolved the Boeotian confederacy;(7) but, in entire +consistency with the strict application of the -ius privatum- which +was characteristic of the Latin laws of war, Rome now claimed the +presidency of the league as the heir-at-law of Alba. What sort +of crises, if any, preceded or followed the acknowledgment of this +claim, we cannot tell. Upon the whole the hegemony of Rome over +Latium appears to have been speedily and generally recognized, +although particular communities, such as Labici and above all +Gabii, may for a time have declined to own it. Even at that time +Rome was probably a maritime power in contrast to the Latin "land," +a city in contrast to the Latin villages, and a single state in +contrast to the Latin confederacy; even at that time it was only in +conjunction with and by means of Rome that the Latins could defend +their coasts against Carthaginians, Hellenes, and Etruscans, and +maintain and extend their landward frontier in opposition to their +restless neighbours of the Sabellian stock. Whether the accession +to her material resources which Rome obtained by the subjugation +of Alba was greater than the increase of her power obtained by +the capture of Antemnae or Collatia, cannot be ascertained: it is +quite possible that it was not by the conquest of Alba that Rome +was first constituted the most powerful community in Latium; she +may have been so long before; but she did gain in consequence of +that event the presidency at the Latin festival, which became the +basis of the future hegemony of the Roman community over the whole +Latin confederacy. It is important to indicate as definitely as +possible the nature of a relation so influential. + + +Relation of Rome to Latium + + +The form of the Roman hegemony over Latium was, in general, that +of an alliance on equal terms between the Roman community on the +one hand and the Latin confederacy on the other, establishing a +perpetual peace throughout the whole domain and a perpetual league +for offence and defence. "There shall be peace between the Romans +and all communities of the Latins, as long as heaven and earth +endure; they shall not wage war with each other, nor call enemies +into the land, nor grant passage to enemies: help shall be rendered +by all in concert to any community assailed, and whatever is won +in joint warfare shall be equally distributed." The stipulated +equality of rights in trade and exchange, in commercial credit +and in inheritance, tended, by the manifold relations of business +intercourse to which it led, still further to interweave the +interests of communities already connected by the ties of similar +language and manners, and in this way produced an effect somewhat +similar to that of the abolition of customs-restrictions in our own +day. Each community certainly retained in form its own law: down +to the time of the Social war Latin law was not necessarily identical +with Roman: we find, for example, that the enforcing of betrothal +by action at law, which was abolished at an early period in Rome, +continued to subsist in the Latin communities. But the simple and +purely national development of Latin law, and the endeavour to +maintain as far as possible uniformity of rights, led at length +to the result, that the law of private relations was in matter and +form substantially the same throughout all Latium. This uniformity +of rights comes most distinctly into view in the rules laid down +regarding the loss and recovery of freedom on the part of the +individual burgess. According to an ancient and venerable maxim +of law among the Latin stock no burgess could become a slave +in the state wherein he had been free, or suffer the loss of his +burgess-rights while he remained within it: if he was to be punished +with the loss of freedom and of burgess-rights (which was the same +thing), it was necessary that he should be expelled from the state +and should enter on the condition of slavery among strangers. This +maxim of law was now extended to the whole territory of the league; +no member of any of the federal states might live as a slave within +the bounds of the league. Applications of this principle are seen +in the enactment embodied in the Twelve Tables, that the insolvent +debtor, in the event of his creditor wishing to sell him, must be +sold beyond the boundary of the Tiber, in other words, beyond the +territory of the league; and in the clause of the second treaty +between Rome and Carthage, that an ally of Rome who might be taken +prisoner by the Carthaginians should be free so soon as he entered +a Roman seaport. Although there did not probably subsist a general +intercommunion of marriage within the league, yet, as has been +already remarked(8) intermarriage between the different communities +frequently occurred. Each Latin could primarily exercise political +rights only where he was enrolled as a burgess; but on the other +hand it was implied in an equality of private rights, that any Latin +could take up his abode in any place within the Latin bounds; or, +to use the phraseology of the present day, there existed, side by +side with the special burgess-rights of the individual communities, +a general right of settlement co-extensive with the confederacy; +and, after the plebeian was acknowledged in Rome as a burgess, +this right became converted as regards Rome into full freedom of +settlement. It is easy to understand how this should have turned +materially to the advantage of the capital, which alone in Latium +offered the means of urban intercourse, urban acquisition, and urban +enjoyments; and how the number of --metoeci-- in Rome should have +increased with remarkable rapidity, after the Latin land came to +live in perpetual peace with Rome. + +In constitution and administration the several communities not +only remained independent and sovereign, so far as the federal +obligations did not interfere, but, what was of more importance, +the league of the thirty communities as such retained its autonomy +in contradistinction to Rome. When we are assured that the position +of Alba towards the federal communities was a position superior +to that of Rome, and that on the fall of Alba these communities +attained autonomy, this may well have been the case, in so far as +Alba was essentially a member of the league, while Rome from the +first had rather the position of a separate state confronting the +league than of a member included in it; but, just as the states +of the confederation of the Rhine were formally sovereign, while +those of the German empire had a master, the presidency of Alba may +have been in reality an honorary right(9) like that of the German +emperors, and the protectorate of Rome from the first a supremacy +like that of Napoleon. In fact Alba appears to have exercised the +right of presiding in the federal council, while Rome allowed the +Latin deputies to hold their consultations by themselves under the +guidance, as it appears, of a president selected from their own +number, and contented herself with the honorary presidency at the +federal festival where sacrifice was offered for Rome and Latium, +and with the erection of a second federal sanctuary in Rome--the +temple of Diana on the Aventine--so that thenceforth sacrifice was +offered both on Roman soil for Rome and Latium, and on Latin soil +for Latium and Rome. With equal deference to the interests of +the league the Romans in the treaty with Latium bound themselves +not to enter into a separate alliance with any Latin community--a +stipulation which very clearly reveals the apprehensions entertained, +doubtless not without reason, by the confederacy with reference to +the powerful community taking the lead. The position of Rome not +within, but alongside of Latium, is most clearly apparent in the +arrangements for warfare. The fighting force of the league was +composed, as the later mode of making the levy incontrovertibly +shows, of two masses of equal strength, a Roman and a Latin. The +supreme command lay once for all with the Roman generals; year by +year the Latin contingent had to appear before the gates of Rome, +and there saluted the elected commander by acclamation as its +general, after the Romans commissioned by the Latin federal council +to take the auspices had thereby assured themselves of the contentment +of the gods with the choice that had been made. Whatever land or +property was acquired in the wars of the league was apportioned +among its members according to the judgment of the Romans. That +the Romano-Latin federation was represented as regards its external +relations solely by Rome, cannot with certainty be maintained. +The federal agreement did not prohibit either Rome or Latium from +undertaking an aggressive war on their own behoof; and if a war +was waged by the league, whether pursuant to a resolution of its +own or in consequence of a hostile attack, the Latin federal council +may have been legally entitled to take part in the conduct as well +as in the termination of the war. Practically indeed Rome must +have possessed the hegemony even then, for, wherever a single state +and a federation enter into a permanent connection with each other, +the preponderance usually falls to the side of the former. + + +Extension of the Roman Territory after the Fall of Alba--Hernici--Rutulli +and Volscii + + +The steps by which after the fall of Alba Rome--now mistress of a +territory comparatively considerable, and presumably the leading +power in the Latin confederacy--extended still further her direct +and indirect dominion, can no longer be traced. There was no lack +of feuds with the Etruscans and with the Veientes in particular, +chiefly respecting the possession of Fidenae; but it does not appear +that the Romans were successful in acquiring permanent mastery over +that Etruscan outpost, which was situated on the Latin bank of the +river not much more than five miles from Rome, or in dislodging +the Veientes from that formidable basis of offensive operations. +On the other hand they maintained apparently undisputed possession +of the Janiculum and of both banks of the mouth of the Tiber. As +regards the Sabines and Aequi Rome appears in a more advantageous +position; the connection which afterwards became so intimate with +the more distant Hernici must have had at least its beginning +under the monarchy, and the united Latins and Hernici enclosed on +two sides and held in check their eastern neighbours. But on the +south frontier the territory of the Rutuli and still more that of +the Volsci were scenes of perpetual war. The earliest extension +of the Latin land took place in this direction, and it is here that +we first encounter those communities founded by Rome and Latium +on the enemy's soil and constituted as autonomous members of the +Latin confederacy--the Latin colonies, as they were called--the +oldest of which appear to reach back to the regal period. How +far, however, the territory reduced under the power of the Romans +extended at the close of the monarchy, can by no means be determined. +Of feuds with the neighbouring Latin and Volscian communities the +Roman annals of the regal period recount more than enough; but +only a few detached notices, such as that perhaps of the capture +of Suessa in the Pomptine plain, can be held to contain a nucleus +of historical fact. That the regal period laid not only the +political foundations of Rome, but the foundations also of her +external power, cannot be doubted; the position of the city of +Rome as contradistinguished from, rather than forming part of, the +league of Latin states is already decidedly marked at the beginning +of the republic, and enables us to perceive that an energetic +development of external power must have taken place in Rome during +the time of the kings. Certainly great deeds, uncommon achievements +have in this case passed into oblivion; but the splendour of them +lingers over the regal period of Rome, especially over the royal +house of the Tarquins, like a distant evening twilight in which +outlines disappear. + + +Enlargement of the City of Rome--Servian Wall + + +While the Latin stock was thus tending towards union under the +leadership of Rome and was at the same time extending its territory +on the east and south, Rome itself, by the favour of fortune and +the energy of its citizens, had been converted from a stirring +commercial and rural town into the powerful capital of a flourishing +country. The remodelling of the Roman military system and the +political reform of which it contained the germ, known to us by +the name of the Servian constitution, stand in intimate connection +with this internal change in the character of the Roman community. +But externally also the character of the city cannot but have changed +with the influx of ampler resources, with the rising requirements +of its position, and with the extension of its political horizon. +The amalgamation of the adjoining community on the Quirinal with +that on the Palatine must have been already accomplished when the +Servian reform, as it is called, took place; and after this reform +had united and consolidated the military strength of the community, +the burgesses could no longer rest content with entrenching the +several hills, as one after another they were filled with buildings, +and with possibly also keeping the island in the Tiber and the +height on the opposite bank occupied so that they might command +the course of the river. The capital of Latium required another +and more complete system of defence; they proceeded to construct +the Servian wall. The new continuous city-wall began at the river +below the Aventine, and included that hill, on which there have been +brought to light recently (1855) at two different places, the one +on the western slope towards the river, the other on the opposite +eastern slope, colossal remains of those primitive fortifications--portions +of wall as high as the walls of Alatri and Ferentino, built of large +square hewn blocks of tufo in courses of unequal height--emerging +as it were from the tomb to testify to the might of an epoch, whose +buildings subsist imperishably in these walls of rock, and whose +intellectual achievements will continue to exercise an influence +more lasting even than these. The ring-wall further embraced the +Caelian and the whole space of the Esquiline, Viminal, and Quirinal, +where a structure likewise but recently brought to light on a +great scale (1862)--on the outside composed of blocks of peperino +and protected by a moat in front, on the inside forming a huge +earthen rampart sloped towards the city and imposing even at the +present day--supplied the want of natural means of defence. From +thence it ran to the Capitoline, the steep declivity of which towards +the Campus Martius served as part of the city-wall, and it again +abutted on the river above the island in the Tiber. The Tiber +island with the bridge of piles and the Janiculum did not belong +strictly to the city, but the latter height was probably a fortified +outwork. Hitherto the Palatine had been the stronghold, but now +this hill was left open to be built upon by the growing city; and on +the other hand upon the Tarpeian Hill, standing free on every side, +and from its moderate extent easily defensible, there was constructed +the new "stronghold" (-arx-, -capitolium-(10)), containing the +stronghold-spring, the carefully enclosed "well-house" (-tullianum-), +the treasury (-aerarium-), the prison, and the most ancient place +of assemblage for the burgesses (-area Capitolina-), where still in +after times the regular announcements of the changes of the moon +continued to be made. Private dwellings of a permanent kind, +on the other hand, were not tolerated in earlier times on the +stronghold-hill;(11) and the space between the two summits of the +hill, the sanctuary of the evil god (-Ve-diovis-), or as it was +termed in the later Hellenizing epoch, the Asylum, was covered with +wood and presumably intended for the reception of the husbandmen +and their herds, when inundation or war drove them from the plain. +The Capitol was in reality as well as in name the Acropolis of Rome, +an independent castle capable of being defended even after the city +had fallen: its gate lay probably towards what was afterwards the +Forum.(12) The Aventine seems to have been fortified in a similar +style, although less strongly, and to have been preserved free from +permanent occupation. With this is connected the fact, that for +purposes strictly urban, such as the distribution of the introduced +water, the inhabitants of Rome were divided into the inhabitants +of the city proper (-montani-), and those of the districts situated +within the general ring-wall, but yet not reckoned as strictly +belonging to the city (-pagani Aventinensis-, -Ianiculenses-, +-collegia Capitolinorum et Mercurialium-).(13) The space enclosed +by the new city wall thus embraced, in addition to the former +Palatine and Quirinal cities, the two federal strongholds of the +Capitol and the Aventine, and also the Janiculum;(14) the Palatine, +as the oldest and proper city, was enclosed by the other heights +along which the wall was carried, as if encircled with a wreath, +and the two castles occupied the middle. + +The work, however, was not complete so long as the ground, protected +by so laborious exertions from outward foes, was not also reclaimed +from the dominion of the water, which permanently occupied the +valley between the Palatine and the Capitol, so that there was +perhaps even a ferry there, and which converted the valleys between +the Capitol and the Velia and between the Palatine and the Aventine +into marshes. The subterranean drains still existing at the +present day, composed of magnificent square blocks, which excited +the astonishment of posterity as a marvellous work of regal Rome, +must rather be reckoned to belong to the following epoch, for +travertine is the material employed and we have many accounts of +new structures of the kind in the times of the republic; but the +scheme itself belongs beyond doubt to the regal period, although +presumably to a later epoch than the designing of the Servian wall +and the Capitoline stronghold. The spots thus drained or dried +supplied large open spaces such as were needed by the new enlarged +city. The assembling-place of the community, which had hitherto been +the Area Capitolina at the stronghold itself, was now transferred to +the flat space, where the ground fell from the stronghold towards +the city (-comitium-), and which stretched thence between the +Palatine and the Carinae, in the direction of the Velia. At that +side of the -comitium- which adjoined the stronghold, and upon the +stronghold-wall which arose above the -comitium- in the fashion +of a balcony, the members of the senate and the guests of the city +had the place of honour assigned to them on occasion of festivals +and assemblies of the people; and at the place of assembly itself +was erected the senate-house, which afterwards bore the name of the +Curia Hostilia. The platform for the judgment-seat (-tribunal-), +and the stage whence the burgesses were addressed (the later rostra), +were likewise erected on the -comitium- itself. Its prolongation in +the direction of the Velia became the new market (-forum Romanum-). +At the end of the latter, beneath the Palatine, rose the +community-house, which included the official dwelling of the king +(-regia-) and the common hearth of the city, the rotunda forming +the temple of Vesta; at no great distance, on the south side of the +Forum, there was erected a second round building connected with the +former, the store-room of the community or temple of the Penates, +which still stands at the present day as the porch of the church +Santi Cosma e Damiano. It is a feature significant of the new city +now united in a way very different from the settlement of the "seven +mounts," that, over and above the hearths of the thirty curies +which the Palatine Rome had been content with associating in one +building, the Servian Rome presented this general and single hearth +for the city at large.(15) Along the two longer sides of the Forum +butchers' shops and other traders' stalls were arranged. In the +valley between the Palatine and Aventine a "ring" was staked off +for races; this became the Circus. The cattle-market was laid out +immediately adjoining the river, and this soon became one of the +most densely peopled quarters of Rome. Temples and sanctuaries +arose on all the summits, above all the federal sanctuary of Diana on +the Aventine,(16) and on the summit of the stronghold the far-seen +temple of Father Diovis, who had given to his people all this glory, +and who now, when the Romans were triumphing over the surrounding +nations, triumphed along with them over the subject gods of the +vanquished. + +The names of the men, at whose bidding these great buildings of +the city arose, are almost as completely lost in oblivion as those +of the leaders in the earliest battles and victories of Rome. +Tradition indeed assigns the different works to different kings--the +senate-house to Tullus Hostilius, the Janiculum and the wooden +bridge to Ancus Marcius, the great Cloaca, the Circus, and the +temple of Jupiter to the elder Tarquinius, the temple of Diana and +the ring-wall to Servius Tullius. Some of these statements may +perhaps be correct; and it is apparently not the result of accident +that the building of the new ring-wall is associated both as to date +and author with the new organization of the army, which in fact bore +special reference to the regular defence of the city walls. But +upon the whole we must be content to learn from this tradition--what +is indeed evident of itself--that this second creation of Rome stood +in intimate connection with the commencement of her hegemony over +Latium and with the remodelling of her burgess-army, and that, while +it originated in one and the same great conception, its execution +was not the work either of a single man or of a single generation. +It is impossible to doubt that Hellenic influences exercised +a powerful effect on this remodelling of the Roman community, but +it is equally impossible to demonstrate the mode or the degree of +their operation. It has already been observed that the Servian +military constitution is essentially of an Hellenic type;(17) +and it will be afterwards shown that the games of the Circus were +organized on an Hellenic model. The new -regia-with the city hearth +was quite a Greek --prytaneion--, and the round temple of Vesta, +looking towards the east and not so much as consecrated by the +augurs, was constructed in no respect according to Italian, but +wholly in accordance with Hellenic, ritual. With these facts before +us, the statement of tradition appears not at all incredible that +the Ionian confederacy in Asia Minor to some extent served as a model +for the Romano-Latin league, and that the new federal sanctuary on +the Aventine was for that reason constructed in imitation of the +Artemision at Ephesus. + + + + +Notes for Book I Chapter VII + + +1. I. IV. Earliest Limits of the Roman Territory + +2. The formulae of accursing for Gabii and Fidenae are quite +as characteristic (Macrob. Sat. iii. 9). It cannot, however, be +proved and is extremely improbable that, as respects these towns, +there was an actual historical accursing of the ground on which +they were built, such as really took place at Veii, Carthage, and +Fregellae. It may be conjectured that old accursing formularies +were applied to those two hated towns, and were considered by later +antiquaries as historical documents. + +3. But there seems to be no good ground for the doubt recently +expressed in a quarter deserving of respect as to the destruction +of Alba having really been the act of Rome. It is true, indeed, +that the account of the destruction of Alba is in its details a +series of improbabilities and impossibilities; but that is true of +every historical fact inwoven into legend. To the question as to +the attitude of the rest of Latium towards the struggle between +Rome and Alba, we are unable to give an answer; but the question +itself rests on a false assumption, for it is not proved that the +constitution of the Latin league absolutely prohibited a separate +war between two Latin communities (I. III. The Latin League). Still +less is the fact that a number of Alban families were received +into the burgess-union of Rome inconsistent with the destruction +of Alba by the Romans. Why may there not have been a Roman party +in Alba just as there was in Capua? The circumstance, however, +of Rome claiming to be in a religious and political point of view +the heir-at-law of Alba may be regarded as decisive of the matter; +for such a claim could not be based on the migration of individual +clans to Rome, but could only be based, as it actually was, on the +conquest of the town. + +4. I. VI. Amalgamation of the Palatine and Quirinal Cities + +5. Hence was developed the conception, in political law, of the +maritime colony or colony of burgesses (-colonia civium Romanorum-), +that is, of a community separate in fact, but not independent or +possessing a will of its own in law; a community which merged in +the capital as the -peculium- of the son merged in the property +of the father, and which as a standing garrison was exempt from +serving in the legion. + +6. To this the enactment of the Twelve Tables undoubtedly has +reference: -Nex[i mancipiique] forti sanatique idem ius esto-, +that is, in dealings of private law the "sound" and the "recovered" +shall be on a footing of equality. The Latin allies cannot be here +referred to, because their legal position was defined by federal +treaties, and the law of the Twelve Tables treated only of the law +of Rome. The -sanates- were the -Latini prisci cives Romani-, or +in other words, the communities of Latium compelled by the Romans +to enter the plebeiate. + +7. The community of Bovillae appears even to have been formed out +of part of the Alban domain, and to have been admitted in room of +Alba among the autonomous Latin towns. Its Alban origin is attested +by its having been the seat of worship for the Julian gens and by +the name -Albani Longani Bovillenses- (Orelli-Henzen, 119, 2252, +6019); its autonomy by Dionysius, v. 61, and Cicero, pro Plancio, +9, 23. + +8. I. III. The Latin League + +9. I. III. The Latin League + +10. Both names, although afterwards employed as local names +(-capitolium- being applied to the summit of the stronghold-hill +that lay next to the river, -arx- to that next to the Quirinal), +were originally appellatives, corresponding exactly to the Greek +--akra-- and --koruphei-- every Latin town had its -capitolium-as +well as Rome. The local name of the Roman stronghold-hill was +-mons Tarpeius-. + +11. The enactment -ne quis patricius in arce aut capitolio +habitaret-probably prohibited only the conversion of the ground into +private property, not the construction of dwelling-houses. Comp. +Becker, Top. p. 386. + +12. For the chief thoroughfare, the -Via Sacra-, led from that +quarter to the stronghold; and the bending in towards the gate may +still be clearly recognized in the turn which this makes to the +left at the arch of Severus. The gate itself must have disappeared +under the huge structures which were raised in after ages on the +Clivus. The so-called gate at the steepest part of the Capitoline +Mount, which is known by the name of Janualis or Saturnia, or the +"open," and which had to stand always open in times of war, evidently +had merely a religious significance, and never was a real gate. + +13. Four such guilds are mentioned (1) the -Capitolini- (Cicero, +ad Q. fr. ii. 5, 2), with -magistri- of their own (Henzen, 6010, +6011), and annual games (Liv. v. 50; comp. Corp. Inscr. Lat. i. n. +805); (2) the -Mercuriales- (Liv. ii. 27; Cicero, l. c.; Preller, +Myth. p. 597) likewise with -magistri- (Henzen, 6010), the guild +from the valley of the Circus, where the temple of Mercury stood; +(3) the -pagani Aventinenses- likewise with -magistri- (Henzen, +6010); and (4) the -pagani pagi Ianiculensis- likewise with -magistri- +(C. I. L. i. n. 801, 802). It is certainly not accidental that +these four guilds, the only ones of the sort that occur in Rome, +belong to the very two hills excluded from the four local tribes +but enclosed by the Servian wall, the Capitol and the Aventine, and +the Janiculum belonging to the same fortification; and connected +with this is the further fact that the expression -montani paganive- +is employed as a designation of the whole inhabitants in connection +with the city (comp. besides the well-known passage, Cic. de Domo, +28, 74, especially the law as to the city aqueducts in Festus, v. +sifus, p. 340; [-mon]tani paganive si[fis aquam dividunto-]). The +-montani-, properly the inhabitants of the three regions of the +Palatine town (iv. The Hill-Romans On the Quirinal), appear to be +here put -a potiori- for the whole population of the four regions +of the city proper. The -pagani- are, undoubtedly, the residents +of the Aventine and Janiculum not included in the tribes, and the +analogous -collegia- of the Capitol and the Circus valley. + +14. The "Seven-hill-city" in the proper and religious sense was +and continued to be the narrower Old-Rome of the Palatine (iv. The +Palatine City). Certainly the Servian Rome also regarded itself, +at least as early as the time of Cicero (comp. e. g. Cic. ad Att. +vi. 5, 2; Plutarch, Q. Rom. 69), as "Seven-hill-city," probably +because the festival of the Septimontium, which was celebrated +with great zeal even under the Empire, began to be regarded as a +festival for the city generally; but there was hardly any definite +agreement reached as to which of the heights embraced by the +Servian ring-wall belonged to the "seven." The enumeration of the +Seven Mounts familiar to us, viz. Palatine, Aventine, Caelian, +Esquiline, Viminal, Quirinal, Capitoline, is not given by any +ancient author. It is put together from the traditional narrative +of the gradual rise of the city (Jordan, Topographie, ii. 206 seq.), +and the Janiculum is passed over in it, simply because otherwise +the number would come out as eight. The earliest authority that +enumerates the Seven Mounts (-montes-) of Rome is the description +of the city from the age of Constantine the Great. It names as +such the Palatine, Aventine, Caelian, Esquiline, Tarpeian, Vatican, +and Janiculum,--where the Quirinal and Viminal are, evidently as +-colles-, omitted, and in their stead two "-montes-" are introduced +from the right bank of the Tiber, including even the Vatican which +lay outside of the Servian wall. Other still later lists are +given by Servius (ad Aen. vi. 783), the Berne Scholia to Virgil's +Georgics (ii. 535), and Lydus (de Mens. p. 118, Bekker). + +15. Both the situation of the two temples, and the express testimony +of Dionysius, ii. 65, that the temple of Vesta lay outside of the +Roma quadrata, prove that these structures were connected with the +foundation not of the Palatine, but of the second (Servian) city. +Posterity reckoned this -regia- with the temple of Vesta as a scheme +of Numa; but the cause which gave rise to that hypothesis is too +manifest to allow of our attaching any weight to it. + +16. I. VII. Relation of Rome to Latium + +17. I. VI. Time and Occasion of the Reform + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +The Umbro-Sabellian Stocks--Beginnings of the Samnites + + + +Umbro-Sabellian Migration + + +The migration of the Umbrian stocks appears to have begun at +a period later than that of the Latins. Like the Latin, it moved +in a southerly direction, but it kept more in the centre of the +peninsula and towards the east coast. It is painful to speak of +it; for our information regarding it comes to us like the sound +of bells from a town that has been sunk in the sea. The Umbrian +people extended according to Herodotus as far as the Alps, and +it is not improbable that in very ancient times they occupied the +whole of Northern Italy, to the point where the settlements of the +Illyrian stocks began on the east, and those of the Ligurians on +the west. As to the latter, there are traditions of their conflicts +with the Umbrians, and we may perhaps draw an inference regarding +their extension in very early times towards the south from isolated +names, such as that of the island of Ilva (Elba) compared with the +Ligurian Ilvates. To this period of Umbrian greatness the evidently +Italian names of the most ancient settlements in the valley of the +Po, Atria (black-town), and Spina (thorn-town), probably owe their +origin, as well as the numerous traces of Umbrians in southern +Etruria (such as the river Umbro, Camars the old name of Clusium, +Castrum Amerinum). Such indications of an Italian population +having preceded the Etruscan especially occur in the most southern +portion of Etruria, the district between the Ciminian Forest (below +Viterbo) and the Tiber. In Falerii, the town of Etruria nearest +to the frontier of Umbria and the Sabine country, according to +the testimony of Strabo a language was spoken different from the +Etruscan, and inscriptions bearing out that statement have recently +been brought to light there, the alphabet and language of which, +while presenting points of contact with the Etruscan, exhibit +a general resemblance to the Latin.(1) The local worship also +presents traces of a Sabellian character; and a similar inference +is suggested by the primitive relations subsisting in sacred as +well as other matters between Caere and Rome. It is probable that +the Etruscans wrested those southern districts from the Umbrians +at a period considerably subsequent to their occupation of the +country on the north of the Ciminian Forest, and that an Umbrian +population maintained itself there even after the Tuscan conquest. +In this fact we may presumably find the ultimate explanation of +the surprising rapidity with which the southern portion of Etruria +became Latinized, as compared with the tenacious retention of the +Etruscan language and manners in northern Etruria, after the Roman +conquest. That the Umbrians were after obstinate struggles driven +back from the north and west into the narrow mountainous country +between the two arms of the Apennines which they subsequently +held, is clearly indicated by the very fact of their geographical +position, just as the position of the inhabitants of the Grisons +and that of the Basques at the present day indicates the similar +fate that has befallen them. Tradition also has to report that the +Tuscans wrested from the Umbrians three hundred towns; and, what +is of more importance as evidence, in the national prayers of the +Umbrian Iguvini, which we still possess, along with other stocks +the Tuscans especially are cursed as public foes. + +In consequence, as may be presumed, of this pressure exerted upon +them from the north, the Umbrians advanced towards the south, +keeping in general upon the heights, because they found the plains +already occupied by Latin stocks, but beyond doubt frequently +making inroads and encroachments on the territory of the kindred +race, and intermingling with them the more readily, that the +distinction in language and habits could not have been at all so +marked then as we find it afterwards. To the class of such inroads +belongs the tradition of the irruption of the Reatini and Sabines +into Latium and their conflicts with the Romans; similar phenomena +were probably repeated all along the west coast. Upon the whole +the Sabines maintained their footing in the mountains, as in the +district bordering on Latium which has since been called by their +name, and so too in the Volscian land, presumably because the Latin +population did not extend thither or was there less dense; while +on the other hand the well-peopled plains were better able to offer +resistance to the invaders, although they were not in all cases +able or desirous to prevent isolated bands from gaining a footing, +such as the Tities and afterwards the Claudii in Rome.(2) In this +way the stocks here became variously mingled, a state of things +which serves to explain the numerous relations that subsisted +between the Volscians and Latins, and how it happened that their +district, as well as Sabina, afterwards became so early and speedily +Latinized. + + +Samnites + + +The chief branch, however, of the Umbrian stock threw itself eastward +from Sabina into the mountains of the Abruzzi, and the adjacent +hill-country to the south of them. Here, as on the west coast, +they occupied the mountainous districts, whose thinly scattered +population gave way before the immigrants or submitted to their +yoke; while in the plain along the Apulian coast the ancient native +population, the Iapygians, upon the whole maintained their ground, +although involved in constant feuds, especially on the northern +frontier about Luceria and Arpi. When these migrations took place, +cannot of course be determined; but it was presumably about the +time when kings ruled in Rome. Tradition reports that the Sabines, +pressed by the Umbrians, vowed a -ver sacrum-, that is, swore +that they would give up and send beyond their bounds the sons and +daughters born in the year of war, so soon as these should reach +maturity, that the gods might at their pleasure destroy them +or bestow upon them new abodes in other lands. One band was led +by the ox of Mars; these were the Safini or Samnites, who in the +first instance established themselves on the mountains adjoining +the river Sagrus, and at a later period proceeded to occupy the +beautiful plain on the east of the Matese chain, near the sources +of the Tifernus. Both in their old and in their new territory +they named their place of public assembly--which in the one case +was situated near Agnone, in the other near Bojano--from the ox +which led them Bovianum. A second band was led by the woodpecker +of Mars; these were the Picentes, "the woodpecker-people," who +took possession of what is now the March of Ancona. A third band +was led by the wolf (-hirpus-) into the region of Beneventum; +these were the Hirpini. In a similar manner the other small tribes +branched off from the common stock--the Praetuttii near Teramo; the +Vestini on the Gran Sasso; the Marrucini near Chieti; the Frentani +on the frontier of Apulia; the Paeligni on the Majella mountains; +and lastly the Marsi on the Fucine lake, coming in contact with +the Volscians and Latins. All of these tribes retained, as these +legends clearly show, a vivid sense of their relationship and of +their having come forth from the Sabine land. While the Umbrians +succumbed in the unequal struggle and the western offshoots of the +same stock became amalgamated with the Latin or Hellenic population, +the Sabellian tribes prospered in the seclusion of their distant +mountain land, equally remote from collision with the Etruscans, +the Latins, and the Greeks. There was little or no development +of an urban life amongst them; their geographical position almost +wholly precluded them from engaging in commercial intercourse, and +the mountain-tops and strongholds sufficed for the necessities of +defence, while the husbandmen continued to dwell in open hamlets +or wherever each found the well-spring and the forest or pasture +that he desired. In such circumstances their constitution remained +stationary; like the similarly situated Arcadians in Greece, their +communities never became incorporated into a single state; at the +utmost they only formed confederacies more or less loosely connected. +In the Abruzzi especially, the strict seclusion of the mountain +valleys seems to have debarred the several cantons from intercourse +either with each other or with the outer world. They maintained but +little connection with each other and continued to live in complete +isolation from the rest of Italy; and in consequence, notwithstanding +the bravery of their inhabitants, they exercised less influence +than any other portion of the Italian nation on the development of +the history of the peninsula. + + +Their Political Development + + +On the other hand the Samnite people decidedly exhibited the highest +political development among the eastern Italian stock, as the Latin +nation did among the western. From an early period, perhaps from +its first immigration, a comparatively strong political bond held +together the Samnite nation, and gave to it the strength which +subsequently enabled it to contend with Rome on equal terms for the +first place in Italy. We are as ignorant of the time and manner of +the formation of the bond, as we are of its federal constitution; +but it is clear that in Samnium no single community was preponderant, +and still less was there any town to serve as a central rallying +point and bond of union for the Samnite stock, such as Rome was +for the Latins. The strength of the land lay in its -communes- +of husbandmen, and authority was vested in the assembly formed of +their representatives; it was this assembly which in case of need +nominated a federal commander-in-chief. In consequence of its +constitution the policy of this confederacy was not aggressive like +the Roman, but was limited to the defence of its own bounds; only +where the state forms a unity is power so concentrated and passion +so strong, that the extension of territory can be systematically +pursued. Accordingly the whole history of the two nations is +prefigured in their diametrically opposite systems of colonization. +Whatever the Romans gained, was a gain to the state: the conquests +of the Samnites were achieved by bands of volunteers who went +forth in search of plunder and, whether they prospered or were +unfortunate, were left to their own resources by their native home. +The conquests, however, which the Samnites made on the coasts of +the Tyrrhenian and Ionic seas, belong to a later age; during the +regal period in Rome they seem to have been only gaining possession +of the settlements in which we afterwards find them. As a single +incident in the series of movements among the neighbouring peoples +caused by this Samnite settlement may be mentioned the surprise of +Cumae by Tyrrhenians from the Upper Sea, Umbrians, and Daunians in +the year 230. If we may give credit to the accounts of the matter +which present certainly a considerable colouring of romance, it +would appear that in this instance, as was often the case in such +expeditions, the intruders and those whom they supplanted combined +to form one army, the Etruscans joining with their Umbrian enemies, +and these again joined by the Iapygians whom the Umbrian settlers +had driven towards the south. Nevertheless the undertaking proved +a failure: on this occasion at least the Hellenic superiority in +the art of war, and the bravery of the tyrant Aristodemus, succeeded +in repelling the barbarian assault on the beautiful seaport. + + + + +Notes for Book I Chapter VIII + + +1. In the alphabet the -"id:r" especially deserves notice, being +of the Latin (-"id:R") and not of the Etruscan form (-"id:D"), +and also the -"id:z" (--"id:XI"); it can only be derived from +the primitive Latin, and must very faithfully represent it. The +language likewise has close affinity with the oldest Latin; -Marci +Acarcelini he cupa-, that is, -Marcius Acarcelinius heic cubat-: +-Menerva A. Cotena La. f...zenatuo sentem..dedet cuando..cuncaptum-, +that is, -Minervae A(ulus?) Cotena La(rtis) f(ilius) de senatus +sententia dedit quando (perhaps=olim) conceptum-. At the same +time with these and similar inscriptions there have been found some +others in a different character and language, undoubtedly Etruscan. + +2. I. IV. Tities, Luceres + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +The Etruscans + + + +Etruscan Nationality + + +The Etruscan people, or Ras,(1) as they called themselves, present +a most striking contrast to the Latin and Sabellian Italians as well +as to the Greeks. They were distinguished from these nations by +their very bodily structure: instead of the slender and symmetrical +proportions of the Greeks and Italians, the sculptures of the Etruscans +exhibit only short sturdy figures with large head and thick arms. +Their manners and customs also, so far as we are acquainted with +them, point to a deep and original diversity from the Graeco-Italian +stocks. The religion of the Tuscans in particular, presenting a +gloomy fantastic character and delighting in the mystical handling +of numbers and in wild and horrible speculations and practices, +is equally remote from the clear rationalism of the Romans and the +genial image-worship of the Hellenes. The conclusion which these +facts suggest is confirmed by the most important and authoritative +evidence of nationality, the evidence of language. The remains +of the Etruscan tongue which have reached us, numerous as they are +and presenting as they do various data to aid in deciphering it, +occupy a position of isolation so complete, that not only has no +one hitherto succeeded in interpreting these remains, but no one +has been able even to determine precisely the place of Etruscan in +the classification of languages. Two periods in the development +of the language may be clearly distinguished. In the older period +the vocalization of the language was completely carried out, +and the collision of two consonants was almost without exception +avoided.(2) By throwing off the vocal and consonantal terminations, +and by the weakening or rejection of the vowels, this soft and +melodious language was gradually changed in character, and became +intolerably harsh and rugged.(3) They changed for example -ramu*af- +into -ram*a-, Tarquinius into -Tarchnaf-, Minerva into -Menrva-, +Menelaos, Polydeukes, Alexandros, into -Menle-, -Pultuke-, -Elchsentre-. +The indistinct and rugged nature of their pronunciation is shown +most clearly by the fact that at a very early period the Etruscans +made no distinction of -o from -u, -b from -p, -c from -g, -d +from -t. At the same time the accent was, as in Latin and in the +more rugged Greek dialects, uniformly thrown back upon the initial +syllable. The aspirate consonants were treated in a similar +fashion; while the Italians rejected them with the exception of +the aspirated -b or the -f, and the Greeks, reversing the case, +rejected this sound and retained the others --theta, --phi, --chi, +the Etruscans allowed the softest and most pleasing of them, the +--phi, to drop entirely except in words borrowed from other languages, +but made use of the other three to an extraordinary extent, even +where they had no proper place; Thetis for example became -Thethis-, +Telephus -Thelaphe-, Odysseus -Utuze- or -Uthuze-. Of the few +terminations and words, whose meaning has been ascertained, the +greater part are far remote from all Graeco-Italian analogies; such +as, all the numerals; the termination -al employed as a designation +of descent, frequently of descent from the mother, e. g. -Cania-, +which on a bilingual inscription of Chiusi is translated by -Cainnia +natus-; and the termination -sa in the names of women, used to +indicate the clan into which they have married, e. g. -Lecnesa- +denoting the spouse of a -Licinius-. So -cela- or -clan- with the +inflection -clensi- means son; -se(--chi)- daughter; -ril- year; +the god Hermes becomes -Turms-, Aphrodite -Turan-, Hephaestos +-Sethlans-, Bakchos -Fufluns-. Alongside of these strange forms and +sounds there certainly occur isolated analogies between the Etruscan +and the Italian languages. Proper names are formed, substantially, +after the general Italian system. The frequent gentile termination +-enas or -ena(4) recurs in the termination -enus which is likewise +of frequent occurrence in Italian, especially in Sabellian clan-names; +thus the Etruscan names -Maecenas- and -Spurinna- correspond +closely to the Roman -Maecius-and -Spurius-. A number of names +of divinities, which occur as Etruscan on Etruscan monuments or +in authors, have in their roots, and to some extent even in their +terminations, a form so thoroughly Latin, that, if these names +were really originally Etruscan, the two languages must have been +closely related; such as -Usil- (sun and dawn, connected with +-ausum-, -aurum-, -aurora-, -sol-), -Minerva-(-menervare-) -Lasa- +(-lascivus-), -Neptunus-, -Voltumna-. As these analogies, however, +may have had their origin only in the subsequent political and +religious relations between the Etruscans and Latins, and in the +accommodations and borrowings to which these relations gave rise, +they do not invalidate the conclusion to which we are led by the +other observed phenomena, that the Tuscan language differed at least +as widely from all the Graeco-Italian dialects as did the language +of the Celts or of the Slavonians. So at least it sounded to the +Roman ear; "Tuscan and Gallic" were the languages of barbarians, +"Oscan and Volscian" were but rustic dialects. + +But, while the Etruscans differed thus widely from the Graeco-Italian +family of languages, no one has yet succeeded in connecting them +with any other known race. All sorts of dialects have been examined +with a view to discover affinity with the Etruscan, sometimes by simple +interrogation, sometimes by torture, but all without exception in +vain. The geographical position of the Basque nation would naturally +suggest it for comparison; but even in the Basque language no +analogies of a decisive character have been brought forward. As +little do the scanty remains of the Ligurian language which have +reached our time, consisting of local and personal names, indicate +any connection with the Tuscans. Even the extinct nation which has +constructed those enigmatical sepulchral towers, called -Nuraghe-, +by thousands in the islands of the Tuscan Sea, especially in +Sardinia, cannot well be connected with the Etruscans, for not a +single structure of the same character is to be met with in Etruscan +territory. The utmost we can say is that several traces, that seem +tolerably trustworthy, point to the conclusion that the Etruscans +may be on the whole numbered with the Indo-Germans. Thus -mi- in the +beginning of many of the older inscriptions is certainly --emi--, +--eimi--, and the genitive form of consonantal stems veneruf -rafuvuf-is +exactly reproduced in old Latin, corresponding to the old Sanscrit +termination -as. In like manner the name of the Etruscan Zeus, +-Tina-or -Tinia-, is probably connected with the Sanscrit -dina-, +meaning day, as --Zan-- is connected with the synonymous -diwan-. +But, even granting this, the Etruscan people appears withal scarcely +less isolated "The Etruscans," Dionysius said long ago, "are like +no other nation in language and manners;" and we have nothing to +add to his statement. + + +Home of the Etruscans + + +It is equally difficult to determine from what quarter the Etruscans +migrated into Italy; nor is much lost through our inability to +answer the question, for this migration belonged at any rate to +the infancy of the people, and their historical development began +and ended in Italy. No question, however, has been handled with +greater zeal than this, in accordance with the principle which induces +antiquaries especially to inquire into what is neither capable of +being known nor worth the knowing--to inquire "who was Hecuba's +mother," as the emperor Tiberius professed to do. As the oldest +and most important Etruscan towns lay far inland--in fact we find +not a single Etruscan town of any note immediately on the coast +except Populonia, which we know for certain was not one of the old +twelve cities-- and the movement of the Etruscans in historical +times was from north to south, it seems probable that they migrated +into the peninsula by land. Indeed the low stage of civilization, +in which we find them at first, would ill accord with the hypothesis +of immigration by sea. Nations even in the earliest times crossed +a strait as they would a stream; but to land on the west coast of +Italy was a very different matter. We must therefore seek for the +earlier home of the Etruscans to the west or north of Italy. It is +not wholly improbable that the Etruscans may have come into Italy +over the Raetian Alps; for the oldest traceable settlers in the +Grisons and Tyrol, the Raeti, spoke Etruscan down to historical +times, and their name sounds similar to that of the Ras. These +may no doubt have been a remnant of the Etruscan settlements on +the Po; but it is at least quite as likely that they may have been +a portion of the people which remained behind in its earlier abode. + + +Story of Their Lydian Origin + + +In glaring contradiction to this simple and natural view stands +the story that the Etruscans were Lydians who had emigrated from +Asia. It is very ancient: it occurs even in Herodotus; and it +reappears in later writers with innumerable changes and additions, +although several intelligent inquirers, such as Dionysius, emphatically +declared their disbelief in it, and pointed to the fact that there +was not the slightest apparent similarity between the Lydians and +Etruscans in religion, laws, manners, or language. It is possible +that an isolated band of pirates from Asia Minor may have reached +Etruria, and that their adventure may have given rise to such tales; +but more probably the whole story rests on a mere verbal mistake. +The Italian Etruscans or the -Turs-ennae- (for this appears to +be the original form and the basis of the Greek --Turs-einnoi--, +--Turreinoi--, of the Umbrian -Turs-ci-, and of the two Roman forms +-Tusci-, -Etrusci-) nearly coincide in name with the Lydian people +of the --Torreiboi-- or perhaps also --Turr-einoi--, so named from +the town --Turra--, This manifestly accidental resemblance in name +seems to be in reality the only foundation for that hypothesis--not +rendered more trustworthy by its great antiquity--and for all the +pile of crude historical speculations that has been reared upon +it. By connecting the ancient maritime commerce of the Etruscans +with the piracy of the Lydians, and then by confounding (Thucydides +is the first who has demonstrably done so) the Torrhebian pirates, +whether rightly or wrongly, with the bucaneering Pelasgians who +roamed and plundered on every sea, there has been produced one of +the most mischievous complications of historical tradition. The +term Tyrrhenians denotes sometimes the Lydian Torrhebi--as is the +case in the earliest sources, such as the Homeric hymns; sometimes +under the form Tyrrheno-Pelasgians or simply that of Tyrrhenians, +the Pelasgian nation; sometimes, in fine, the Italian Etruscans, +although the latter never came into lasting contact with the +Pelasgians or Torrhebians, or were at all connected with them by +common descent. + + +Settlements of the Etruscans in Italy + + +It is, on the other hand, a matter of historical interest to +determine what were the oldest traceable abodes of the Etruscans, +and what were their further movements when they issued thence. +Various circumstances attest that before the great Celtic invasion +they dwelt in the district to the north of the Po, being conterminous +on the east along the Adige with the Veneti of Illyrian (Albanian?) +descent, on the west with the Ligurians. This is proved in particular +by the already-mentioned rugged Etruscan dialect, which was still +spoken in the time of Livy by the inhabitants of the Raetian Alps, +and by the fact that Mantua remained Tuscan down to a late period. +To the south of the Po and at the mouths of that river Etruscans +and Umbrians were mingled, the former as the dominant, the latter +as the older race, which had founded the old commercial towns of +Atria and Spina, while the Tuscans appear to have been the founders +of Felsina (Bologna) and Ravenna. A long time elapsed ere the +Celts crossed the Po; hence the Etruscans and Umbrians left deeper +traces of their existence on the right bank of the river than they +had done on the left, which they had to abandon at an early period. +All the regions, however, to the north of the Apennines passed too +rapidly out of the hands of one nation into those of another to +permit the formation of any continuous national development there. + + +Etruria + + +Far more important in an historical point of view was the great +settlement of the Tuscans in the land which still bears their name. +Although Ligurians or Umbrians were probably at one time(5) settled +there, the traces of them have been almost wholly effaced by the +Etruscan occupation and civilization. In this region, which extends +along the coast from Pisae to Tarquinii and is shut in on the east +by the Apennines, the Etruscan nationality found its permanent abode +and maintained itself with great tenacity down to the time of the +empire. The northern boundary of the proper Tuscan territory was +formed by the Arnus; the region north from the Arnus as far as the +mouth of the Macra and the Apennines was a debateable border land +in the possession sometimes of Ligurians, sometimes of Etruscans, +and for this reason larger settlements were not successful there. +The southern boundary was probably formed at first by the Ciminian +Forest, a chain of hills south of Viterbo, and at a later period by +the Tiber. We have already(6) noticed the fact that the territory +between the Ciminian range and the Tiber with the towns of Sutrium, +Nepete, Falerii, Veii, and Caere appears not to have been taken +possession of by the Etruscans till a period considerably later +than the more northern districts, possibly not earlier than in the +second century of Rome, and that the original Italian population must +have maintained its ground in this region, especially in Falerii, +although in a relation of dependence. + + +Relations of the Etruscans to Latium + + +From the time at which the river Tiber became the line of demarcation +between Etruria on the one side and Umbria and Latium on the other, +peaceful relations probably upon the whole prevailed in that quarter, +and no essential change seems to have taken place in the boundary +line, at least so far as concerned the Latin frontier. Vividly +as the Romans were impressed by the feeling that the Etruscan was +a foreigner, while the Latin was their countryman, they yet seem +to have stood in much less fear of attack or of danger from the +right bank of the river than, for example, from their kinsmen in +Gabii and Alba; and this was natural, for they were protected in +that direction not merely by the broad stream which formed a natural +boundary, but also by the circumstance, so momentous in its bearing +on the mercantile and political development of Rome, that none of +the more powerful Etruscan towns lay immediately on the river, as +did Rome on the Latin bank. The Veientes were the nearest to the +Tiber, and it was with them that Rome and Latium came most frequently +into serious conflict, especially for the possession of Fidenae, +which served the Veientes as a sort of -tete de pont- on the left +bank just as the Janiculum served the Romans on the right, and +which was sometimes in the hands of the Latins, sometimes in those +of the Etruscans. The relations of Rome with the somewhat more +distant Caere were on the whole far more peaceful and friendly than +those which we usually find subsisting between neighbours in early +times. There are doubtless vague legends, reaching back to times +of distant antiquity, about conflicts between Latium and Caere; +Mezentius the king of Caere, for instance, is asserted to have +obtained great victories over the Latins, and to have imposed upon +them a wine-tax; but evidence much more definite than that which +attests a former state of feud is supplied by tradition as to +an especially close connection between the two ancient centres of +commercial and maritime intercourse in Latium and Etruria. Sure +traces of any advance of the Etruscans beyond the Tiber, by land, +are altogether wanting. It is true that Etruscans are named +in the first ranks of the great barbarian host, which Aristodemus +annihilated in 230 under the walls of Cumae;(7) but, even if +we regard this account as deserving credit in all its details, it +only shows that the Etruscans had taken part in a great plundering +expedition. It is far more important to observe that south of the +Tiber no Etruscan settlement can be pointed out as having owed its +origin to founders who came by land; and that no indication whatever +is discernible of any serious pressure by the Etruscans upon the +Latin nation. The possession of the Janiculum and of both banks of +the mouth of the Tiber remained, so far as we can see, undisputed +in the hands of the Romans. As to the migrations of bodies of +Etruscans to Rome, we find an isolated statement drawn from Tuscan +annals, that a Tuscan band, led by Caelius Vivenna of Volsinii and +after his death by his faithful companion Mastarna, was conducted +by the latter to Rome. This may be trustworthy, although the +derivation of the name of the Caelian Mount from this Caelius is +evidently a philological invention, and even the addition that this +Mastarna became king in Rome under the name of Servius Tullius is +certainly nothing but an improbable conjecture of the archaeologists +who busied themselves with legendary parallels. The name of the +"Tuscan quarter" at the foot of the Palatine(8) points further to +Etruscan settlements in Rome. + + +The Tarquins + + +It can hardly, moreover, be doubted that the last regal family which +ruled over Rome, that of the Tarquins, was of Etruscan origin, +whether it belonged to Tarquinii, as the legend asserts, or +to Caere, where the family tomb of the Tarchnas has recently been +discovered. The female name Tanaquil or Tanchvil interwoven with +the legend, while it is not Latin, is common in Etruria. But +the traditional story--according to which Tarquin was the son of +a Greek who had migrated from Corinth to Tarquinii, and came to +settle in Rome as a --metoikos-- is neither history nor legend, +and the historical chain of events is manifestly in this instance +not confused merely, but completely torn asunder. If anything more +can be deduced from this tradition beyond the bare and at bottom +indifferent fact that at last a family of Tuscan descent swayed the +regal sceptre in Rome, it can only be held as implying that this +dominion of a man of Tuscan origin ought not to be viewed either +as a dominion of the Tuscans or of any one Tuscan community over +Rome, or conversely as the dominion of Rome over southern Etruria. +There is, in fact, no sufficient ground either for the one hypothesis +or for the other. The history of the Tarquins had its arena in +Latium, not in Etruria; and Etruria, so far as we can see, during +the whole regal period exercised no influence of any essential +moment on either the language or customs of Rome, and did not at +all interrupt the regular development of the Roman state or of the +Latin league. + +The cause of this comparatively passive attitude of Etruria towards +the neighbouring land of Latium is probably to be sought partly +in the struggles of the Etruscans with the Celts on the Po, which +presumably the Celts did not cross until after the expulsion of the +kings from Rome, and partly in the tendency of the Etruscan people +towards seafaring and the acquisition of supremacy on the sea and +seaboard--a tendency decidedly exhibited in their settlements in +Campania, and of which we shall speak more fully in the next chapter. + + +The Etruscan Constitution + + +The Tuscan constitution, like the Greek and Latin, was based on the +gradual transition of the community to an urban life. The early +direction of the national energies towards navigation, trade, and +manufactures appears to have called into existence urban commonwealths, +in the strict sense of the term, earlier in Etruria than elsewhere +in Italy. Caere is the first of all the Italian towns that is +mentioned in Greek records. On the other hand we find that the +Etruscans had on the whole less of the ability and the disposition +for war than the Romans and Sabellians: the un-Italian custom of +employing mercenaries for fighting occurs among the Etruscans at +a very early period. The oldest constitution of the communities +must in its general outlines have resembled that of Rome. Kings or +Lucumones ruled, possessing similar insignia and probably therefore +a similar plenitude of power with the Roman kings. A strict line +of demarcation separated the nobles from the common people. The +resemblance in the clan-organization is attested by the analogy +of the system of names; only, among the Etruscans, descent on the +mother's side received much more consideration than in Roman law. +The constitution of their league appears to have been very lax. It +did not embrace the whole nation; the northern and the Campanian +Etruscans were associated in confederacies of their own, just +in the same way as the communities of Etruria proper. Each of +these leagues consisted of twelve communities, which recognized a +metropolis, especially for purposes of worship, and a federal head +or rather a high priest, but appear to have been substantially equal +in respect of rights; while some of them at least were so powerful +that neither could a hegemony establish itself, nor could the +central authority attain consolidation. In Etruria proper Volsinii +was the metropolis; of the rest of its twelve towns we know by +trustworthy tradition only Perusia, Vetulonium, Volci, and Tarquinii. +It was, however, quite as unusual for the Etruscans really to act +in concert, as it was for the Latin confederacy to do otherwise. +Wars were ordinarily carried on by a single community, which +endeavoured to interest in its cause such of its neighbours as +it could; and when an exceptional case occurred in which war was +resolved on by the league, individual towns very frequently kept +aloof from it. The Etruscan confederations appear to have been +from the first--still more than the other Italian leagues formed +on a similar basis of national affinity--deficient in a firm and +paramount central authority. + + + + +Notes for Book I Chapter IX + + +1. -Ras-ennac-, with the gentile termination mentioned below. + +2. To this period belong e. g. inscriptions on the clay vases of + + + + +umaramlisia(--"id:theta")ipurenaie(--"id:theta")eeraisieepanamine +(--"id:theta")unastavhelefu- or -mi ramu(--"id:theta")af kaiufinaia-. + +3. We may form some idea of the sound which the language now had +from the commencement of the great inscription of Perusia; -eulat +tanna laresul ameva(--"id:chi")r lautn vel(--"id:theta")inase +stlaafunas slele(--"id:theta")caru-. + +4. Such as Maecenas, Porsena, Vivenna, Caecina, Spurinna. The +vowel in the penult is originally long, but in consequence of the +throwing back of the accent upon the initial syllable is frequently +shortened and even rejected. Thus we find Porse(n)na as well as +Porsena, and Ceicne as well as Caecina. + +5. I. VIII. Umbro-Sabellian Migration + +6. I. VIII. Their Political Development + +7. I. VIII. Their Political Development + +8. I. IV. Oldest Settlements in the Palatine and Suburan Regions + + + + +CHAPTER X + +The Hellenes in Italy--Maritime Supremacy of the Tuscans and +Carthaginians + + + +Relations of Italy with Other Lands + + +In the history of the nations of antiquity a gradual dawn ushered +in the day; and in their case too the dawn was in the east. While +the Italian peninsula still lay enveloped in the dim twilight of +morning, the regions of the eastern basin of the Mediterranean had +already emerged into the full light of a varied and richly developed +civilization. It falls to the lot of most nations in the early +stages of their development to be taught and trained by some rival +sister-nation; and such was destined to be in an eminent degree the +lot of the peoples of Italy. The circumstances of its geographical +position, however, prevented this influence from being brought to +bear upon the peninsula by land. No trace is to be found of any +resort in early times to the difficult route by land between Italy +and Greece. There were in all probability from time immemorial +tracks for purposes of traffic, leading from Italy to the lands +beyond the Alps; the oldest route of the amber trade from the Baltic +joined the Mediterranean at the mouth of the Po--on which account +the delta of the Po appears in Greek legend as the home of amber--and +this route was joined by another leading across the peninsula +over the Apennines to Pisae; but from these regions no elements +of civilization could come to the Italians. It was the seafaring +nations of the east that brought to Italy whatever foreign culture +reached it in early times. + + +Phoenicians in Italy + + +The oldest civilized nation on the shores of the Mediterranean, the +Egyptians, were not a seafaring people, and therefore exercised no +influence on Italy. But the same may be with almost equal truth +affirmed of the Phoenicians. It is true that, issuing from their +narrow home on the extreme eastern verge of the Mediterranean, +they were the first of all known races to venture forth in floating +houses on the bosom of the deep, at first for the purpose of +fishing and dredging, but soon also for the prosecution of trade. +They were the first to open up maritime commerce; and at an incredibly +early period they traversed the Mediterranean even to its furthest +extremity in the west. Maritime stations of the Phoenicians appear +on almost all its coasts earlier than those of the Hellenes: in +Hellas itself, in Crete and Cyprus, in Egypt, Libya, and Spain, and +likewise on the western Italian main. Thucydides tells us that all +around Sicily, before the Greeks came thither or at least before +they had established themselves there in any considerable numbers, +the Phoenicians had set up their factories on the headlands +and islets, not with a view to gain territory, but for the sake +of trading with the natives. But it was otherwise in the case of +continental Italy. No sure proof has hitherto been given of the +existence of any Phoenician settlement there excepting one, a Punic +factory at Caere, the memory of which has been preserved partly by +the appellation -Punicum- given to a little village on the Caerite +coast, partly by the other name of the town of Caere itself, +-Agylla-, which is not, as idle fiction asserts, of Pelasgic origin, +but is a Phoenician word signifying the "round town"--precisely +the appearance which Caere presents when seen from the sea. That +this station and any similar establishments which may have elsewhere +existed on the coasts of Italy were neither of much importance nor +of long standing, is evident from their having disappeared almost +without leaving a trace. We have not the smallest reason to think +them older than the Hellenic settlements of a similar kind on the +same coasts. An evidence of no slight weight that Latium at least +first became acquainted with the men of Canaan through the medium +of the Hellenes is furnished by the Latin appellation "Poeni," which +is borrowed from the Greek. All the oldest relations, indeed, of +the Italians to the civilization of the east point decidedly towards +Greece; and the rise of the Phoenician factory at Caere may be very +well explained, without resorting to the pre-Hellenic period, by +the subsequent well-known relations between the commercial state +of Caere and Carthage. In fact, when we recall the circumstance +that the earliest navigation was and continued to be essentially +of a coasting character, it is plain that scarcely any country on +the Mediterranean lay so remote from the Phoenicians as the Italian +mainland. They could only reach it either from the west coast +of Greece or from Sicily; and it may well be believed that the +seamanship of the Hellenes became developed early enough to anticipate +the Phoenicians in braving the dangers of the Adriatic and of the +Tyrrhene seas. There is no ground therefore for the assumption that +any direct influence was originally exercised by the Phoenicians over +the Italians. To the subsequent relations between the Phoenicians +holding the supremacy of the western Mediterranean and the Italians +inhabiting the shores of the Tyrrhene sea our narrative will return +in the sequel. + + +Greeks in Italy--Home of the Greek Immigrants + + +To all appearance, therefore, the Hellenic mariners were the first +among the inhabitants of the eastern basin of the Mediterranean to +navigate the coasts of Italy. Of the important questions however +as to the region from which, and as to the period at which, the Greek +seafarers came thither, only the former admits of being answered +with some degree of precision and fulness. The Aeolian and Ionian +coast of Asia Minor was the region where Hellenic maritime traffic +first became developed on a large scale, and whence issued the +Greeks who explored the interior of the Black Sea on the one hand +and the coasts of Italy on the other. The name of the Ionian Sea, +which was retained by the waters intervening between Epirus and +Sicily, and that of the Ionian gulf, the term by which the Greeks +in earlier times designated the Adriatic Sea, are memorials of +the fact that the southern and eastern coasts of Italy were once +discovered by seafarers from Ionia. The oldest Greek settlement in +Italy, Kyme, was, as its name and legend tell, founded by the town +of the same name on the Anatolian coast. According to trustworthy +Hellenic tradition, the Phocaeans of Asia Minor were the first of +the Hellenes to traverse the more remote western sea. Other Greeks +soon followed in the paths which those of Asia Minor had opened up; +lonians from Naxos and from Chalcis in Euboea, Achaeans, Locrians, +Rhodians, Corinthians, Megarians, Messenians, Spartans. After the +discovery of America the civilized nations of Europe vied with one +another in sending out expeditions and forming settlements there; +and the new settlers when located amidst barbarians recognized their +common character and common interests as civilized Europeans more +strongly than they had done in their former home. So it was with +the new discovery of the Greeks. The privilege of navigating the +western waters and settling on the western land was not the exclusive +property of a single Greek province or of a single Greek stock, +but a common good for the whole Hellenic nation; and, just as in +the formation of the new North American world, English and French, +Dutch and German settlements became mingled and blended, Greek Sicily +and "Great Greece" became peopled by a mixture of all sorts of +Hellenic races often so amalgamated as to be no longer distinguishable. +Leaving out of account some settlements occupying a more isolated +position--such as that of the Locrians with its offsets Hipponium +and Medama, and the settlement of the Phocaeans which was not founded +till towards the close of this period, Hyele (Velia, Elea)--we may +distinguish in a general view three leading groups. The original +Ionian group, comprehended under the name of the Chalcidian towns, +included in Italy Cumae with the other Greek settlements at Vesuvius +and Rhegium, and in Sicily Zankle (afterwards Messana), Naxos, +Catana, Leontini, and Himera. The Achaean group embraced Sybaris +and the greater part of the cities of Magna Graecia. The Dorian +group comprehended Syracuse, Gela, Agrigentum, and the majority +of the Sicilian colonies, while in Italy nothing belonged to it +but Taras (Tarentum) and its offset Heraclea. On the whole the +preponderance lay with the immigrants who belonged to the more +ancient Hellenic influx, that of the lonians and the stocks settled +in the Peloponnesus before the Doric immigration. Among the Dorians +only the communities with a mixed population, such as Corinth and +Megara, took a special part, whereas the purely Doric provinces had +but a subordinate share in the movement. This result was naturally +to be expected, for the lonians were from ancient times a trading +and sea-faring people, while it was only at a comparatively late +period that the Dorian stocks descended from their inland mountains +to the seaboard, and they always kept aloof from maritime commerce. +The different groups of immigrants are very clearly distinguishable, +especially by their monetary standards. The Phocaean settlers coined +according to the Babylonian standard which prevailed in Asia. The +Chalcidian towns followed in the earliest times the Aeginetan, in +other words, that which originally prevailed throughout all European +Greece, and more especially the modification of it which is found +occurring in Euboea. The Achaean communities coined by the Corinthian +standard; and lastly the Doric colonies followed that which Solon +introduced in Attica in the year of Rome 160, with the exception +of Tarentum and Heraclea, which in their principal pieces adopted +rather the standard of their Achaean neighbours than that of the +Dorians in Sicily. + + +Time of the Greek Immigration + + +The dates of the earlier voyages and settlements will probably always +remain enveloped in darkness. We may still, however, distinctly +recognize a certain order of sequence. In the oldest Greek document, +which belongs, like the earliest intercourse with the west, to +the lonians of Asia Minor--the Homeric poems--the horizon scarcely +extends beyond the eastern basin of the Mediterranean. Sailors +driven by storms into the western sea might have brought to Asia +Minor accounts of the existence of a western land and possibly +also of its whirlpools and island-mountains vomiting fire: but in +the age of the Homeric poetry there was an utter want of trustworthy +information respecting Sicily and Italy, even in that Greek land +which was the earliest to enter into intercourse with the west; +and the story-tellers and poets of the east could without fear of +contradiction fill the vacant realms of the west, as those of the +west in their turn filled the fabulous east, with their castles in +the air. In the poems of Hesiod the outlines of Italy and Sicily +appear better defined; there is some acquaintance with the native +names of tribes, mountains, and cities in both countries; but Italy +is still regarded as a group of islands. On the other hand, in +all the literature subsequent to Hesiod, Sicily and even the whole +coast of Italy appear as known, at least in a general sense, to the +Hellenes. The order of succession of the Greek settlements may in +like manner be ascertained with some degree of precision. Thucydides +evidently regarded Cumae as the earliest settlement of note in the +west; and certainly he was not mistaken. It is true that many a +landing-place lay nearer at hand for the Greek mariner, but none +were so well protected from storms and from barbarians as the island +of Ischia, upon which the town was originally situated; and that +such were the prevailing considerations that led to this settlement, +is evident from the very position which was subsequently selected +for it on the mainland--the steep but well-protected cliff, which +still bears to the present day the venerable name of the Anatolian +mother-city. Nowhere in Italy, accordingly, were the scenes of +the legends of Asia Minor so vividly and tenaciously localized as +in the district of Cumae, where the earliest voyagers to the west, +full of those legends of western wonders, first stepped upon the +fabled land and left the traces of that world of story, which they +believed that they were treading, in the rocks of the Sirens and +the lake of Avernus leading to the lower world. On the supposition, +moreover, that it was in Cumae that the Greeks first became the +neighbours of the Italians, it is easy to explain why the name +of that Italian stock which was settled immediately around Cumae, +the name of Opicans, came to be employed by them for centuries +afterwards to designate the Italians collectively. There is a +further credible tradition, that a considerable interval elapsed +between the settlement at Cumae and the main Hellenic immigration +into Lower Italy and Sicily, and that in this immigration Ionians +from Chalcis and from Naxos took the lead. Naxos in Sicily is said +to have been the oldest of all the Greek towns founded by strict +colonization in Italy or Sicily; the Achaean and Dorian colonizations +followed, but not until a later period. + +It appears, however, to be quite impossible to fix the dates of +this series of events with even approximate accuracy. The founding +of the Achaean city of Sybaris in 33, and that of the Dorian city +Tarentum in 46, are probably the most ancient dates in Italian +history, the correctness, or at least approximation to correctness, +of which may be looked upon as established. But how far beyond +that epoch the sending forth of the earlier Ionian colonies reached +back, is quite as uncertain as is the age which gave birth to the +poems of Hesiod or even of Homer. If Herodotus is correct in the +period which he assigns to Homer, the Greeks were still unacquainted +with Italy a century before the foundation of Rome. The date thus +assigned however, like all other statements respecting the Homeric +age, is matter not of testimony, but of inference; and any one who +carefully weighs the history of the Italian alphabets as well as +the remarkable fact that the Italians had become acquainted with +the Greek people before the name "Hellenes" had emerged for the +race, and the Italians borrowed their designation for the Hellenes +from the stock of the -Grai- or -Graeci- that early fell into +abeyance in Hellas,(1) will be inclined to carry back the earliest +intercourse of the Italians with the Greeks to an age considerably +mere remote. + + +Character of the Greek Immigration + + +The history of the Italian and Sicilian Greeks forms no part of +the history of Italy; the Hellenic colonists of the west always +retained the closest connection with their original home and +participated in the national festivals and privileges of Hellenes. +But it is of importance even as bearing on Italy, that we should +indicate the diversities of character that prevailed in the Greek +settlements there, and at least exhibit some of the leading features +which enabled the Greek colonization to exercise so varied an +influence on Italy. + + +The League of the Achaen Cities + + +Of all the Greek settlements, that which retained most thoroughly +its distinctive character and was least affected by influences from +without was the settlement which gave birth to the league of the +Achaean cities, composed of the towns of Siris, Pandosia, Metabus +or Metapontum, Sybaris with its offsets Posidonia and Laus, Croton, +Caulonia, Temesa, Terina, and Pyxus. These colonists, taken as a +whole, belonged to a Greek stock which steadfastly adhered to its +own peculiar dialect, having closest affinity with the Doric, and +for long retained no less steadfastly the old national Hellenic +mode of writing, instead of adopting the more recent alphabet which +had elsewhere come into general use; and which preserved its own +nationality, as distinguished alike from the barbarians and from other +Greeks, by the firm bond of a federal constitution. The language +of Polybius regarding the Achaean symmachy in the Peloponnesus may +be applied also to these Italian Achaeans; "Not only did they live +in federal and friendly communion, but they made use of like laws, +like weights, measures, and coins, as well as of the same magistrates, +councillors, and judges." + +This league of the Achaean cities was strictly a colonization. The +cities had no harbours--Croton alone had a paltry roadstead--and +they had no commerce of their own; the Sybarite prided himself on +growing gray between the bridges of his lagoon-city, and Milesians +and Etruscans bought and sold for him. These Achaean Greeks, +however, were not merely in possession of a narrow belt along the +coast, but ruled from sea to sea in the "land of wine" and "of +oxen" (--Oinotria--, --Italia--) or the "great Hellas;" the native +agricultural population was compelled to farm their lands and to +pay to them tribute in the character of clients or even of serfs. +Sybaris--in its time the largest city in Italy--exercised dominion +over four barbarian tribes and five-and-twenty townships, and was +able to found Laus and Posidonia on the other sea. The exceedingly +fertile low grounds of the Crathis and Bradanus yielded a superabundant +produce to the Sybarites and Metapontines--it was there perhaps +that grain was first cultivated for exportation. The height of +prosperity which these states in an incredibly short time attained +is strikingly attested by the only surviving works of art of +these Italian Achaeans, their coins of chaste antiquely beautiful +workmanship--the earliest monuments of art and writing in Italy +which we possess, as it can be shown that they had already begun to +be coined in 174. These coins show that the Achaeans of the west +did not simply participate in the noble development of plastic art +that was at this very time taking place in the motherland, but were +even superior in technical skill. For, while the silver pieces +which were in use about that time in Greece proper and among the +Dorians in Italy were thick, often stamped only on one side, and +in general without inscription, the Italian Achaeans with great +and independent skill struck from two similar dies partly cut in +relief, partly sunk, large thin silver coins always furnished with +inscriptions, and displaying the advanced organization of a civilized +state in the mode of impression, by which they were carefully +protected from the process of counterfeiting usual in that age--the +plating of inferior metal with thin silver-foil. + +Nevertheless this rapid bloom bore no fruit. Even Greeks speedily +lost all elasticity of body and of mind in a life of indolence, in +which their energies were never tried either by vigorous resistance +on the part of the natives or by hard labour of their own. None +of the brilliant names in Greek art or literature shed glory on the +Italian Achaeans, while Sicily could claim ever so many of them, +and even in Italy the Chalcidian Rhegium could produce its Ibycus +and the Doric Tarentum its Archytas. With this people, among whom +the spit was for ever turning on the hearth, nothing flourished from +the outset but boxing. The rigid aristocracy which early gained +the helm in the several communities, and which found in case of need +a sure reserve of support in the federal power, prevented the rise +of tyrants; but the danger to be apprehended was that the government +of the best might be converted into a government of the few, +especially if the privileged families in the different communities +should combine to assist each other in carrying out their designs. +Such was the predominant aim in the combination of mutually +pledged "friends" which bore the name of Pythagoras. It enjoined +the principle that the ruling class should be "honoured like gods," +and that the subject class should be "held in subservience like +beasts," and by such theory and practice provoked a formidable +reaction, which terminated in the annihilation of the Pythagorean +"friends" and the renewal of the ancient federal constitution. But +frantic party feuds, insurrections en masse of the slaves, social +abuses of all sorts, attempts to supply in practice an impracticable +state-philosophy, in short, all the evils of demoralized civilization +never ceased to rage in the Achaean communities, till under the +accumulated pressure their political power utterly broke down. + +It is no matter of wonder therefore that the Achaeans settled in +Italy exercised less influence on its civilization than the other +Greek settlements. An agricultural people, they had less occasion +than those engaged in commerce to extend their influence beyond +their political bounds. Within their own dominions they enslaved +the native population and crushed the germs of their national +development as Italians, while they refused to open up to them +by means of complete Hellenization a new career. In this way the +Greek characteristics, which were able elsewhere to retain a vigorous +vitality notwithstanding all political misfortunes, disappeared +more rapidly, more completely, and more ingloriously in Sybaris +and Metapontum, in Croton and Posidonia, than in any other region; +and the bilingual mongrel peoples, that arose in subsequent times +out of the remains of the native Italians and Achaeans and the more +recent immigrants of Sabellian descent, never attained any real +prosperity. This catastrophe, however, belongs in point of time +to the succeeding period. + + +Iono-Dorian Towns + + +The settlements of the other Greeks were of a different character, +and exercised a very different effect upon Italy. They by no means +despised agriculture and the acquisition of territory; it was not +the wont of the Hellenes, at least when they had reached their full +vigour, to rest content after the manner of the Phoenicians with a +fortified factory in the midst of a barbarian land. But all their +cities were founded primarily and especially for the sake of trade, +and accordingly, altogether differing from those of the Achaeans, +they were uniformly established beside the best harbours and +lading-places. These cities were very various in their origin and +in the occasion and period of their respective foundations; but +there subsisted between them a certain fellowship, as in the common +use by all of these towns of certain modern forms of the alphabet,(2) +and in the very Dorism of their language, which made its way at an +early date even into those towns that, like Cumae for example,(3) +originally spoke the soft Ionic dialect. These settlements were +of very various degrees of importance in their bearing on the +development of Italy: it is sufficient at present to mention those +which exercised a decided influence over the destinies of the +Italian races, the Doric Tarentum and the Ionic Cumae. + + +Tarentum + + +Of all the Hellenic settlements in Italy, Tarentum was destined +to play the most brilliant part. The excellent harbour, the only +good one on the whole southern coast, rendered the city the natural +emporium for the traffic of the south of Italy, and for some portion +even of the commerce of the Adriatic. The rich fisheries of its +gulf, the production and manufacture of its excellent wool, and +the dyeing of it with the purple juice of the Tarentine -murex-, +which rivalled that of Tyre--both branches of industry introduced +there from Miletus in Asia Minor--employed thousands of hands, and +added to the carrying trade a traffic of export. The coins struck +at Tarentum in greater quantity than anywhere else in Grecian +Italy, and struck pretty numerously even in gold, furnish to us a +significant attestation of the lively and widely extended commerce +of the Tarentines. At this epoch, when Tarentum was still contending +with Sybaris for the first place among the Greek cities of Lower +Italy, its extensive commercial connections must have been already +forming; but the Tarentines seem never to have steadily and +successfully directed their efforts to a substantial extension of +their territory after the manner of the Achaean cities. + + +Greek Cities Near Vesuvius + + +While the most easterly of the Greek settlements in Italy thus rapidly +rose into splendour, those which lay furthest to the north, in the +neighbourhood of Vesuvius, attained a more moderate prosperity. +There the Cumaeans had crossed from the fertile island of Aenaria +(Ischia) to the mainland, and had built a second home on a hill +close by the sea, from whence they founded the seaport of Dicaearchia +(afterwards Puteoli) and, moreover, the "new city" Neapolis. They +lived, like the Chalcidian cities generally in Italy and Sicily, +in conformity with the laws which Charondas of Catana (about 100) +had established, under a constitution democratic but modified by +a high census, which placed the power in the hands of a council +of members selected from the wealthiest men--a constitution which +proved lasting and kept these cities free, upon the whole, from +the tyranny alike of usurpers and of the mob. We know little as to +the external relations of these Campanian Greeks. They remained, +whether from necessity or from choice, confined to a district of +even narrower limits than the Tarentines; and issuing from it not +for purposes of conquest and oppression, but for the holding of +peaceful commercial intercourse with the natives, they created the +means of a prosperous existence for themselves, and at the same time +took the foremost place among the missionaries of Greek civilization +in Italy. + + +Relations of the Adriatic Regions to the Greeks + + +While on the one side of the straits of Rhegium the whole southern +coast of the mainland and its western coast as far as Vesuvius, +and on the other the larger eastern half of the island of Sicily, +were Greek territory, the west coast of Italy northward of Vesuvius +and the whole of the east coast were in a position essentially +different. No Greek settlements arose on the Italian seaboard of +the Adriatic; and with this we may evidently connect the comparatively +small number and subordinate importance of the Greek colonies +planted on the opposite Illyrian shore and on the numerous adjacent +islands. Two considerable mercantile towns, Epidamnus or Dyrrachium +(now Durazzo, 127), and Apollonia (near Avlona, about 167), were +founded upon the portion of this coast nearest to Greece during +the regal period of Rome; but no old Greek colony can be pointed +out further to the north, with the exception perhaps of the +insignificant settlement at Black Corcyra (Curzola, about 174?). No +adequate explanation has yet been given why the Greek colonization +developed itself in this direction to so meagre an extent. Nature +herself appeared to direct the Hellenes thither, and in fact from +the earliest times there existed a regular traffic to that region +from Corinth and still more from the settlement at Corcyra (Corfu) +founded not long after Rome (about 44); a traffic, which had as its +emporia on the Italian coast the towns of Spina and Atria, situated +at the mouth of the Po. The storms of the Adriatic, the inhospitable +character at least of the Illyrian coasts, and the barbarism of +the natives are manifestly not in themselves sufficient to explain +this fact. But it was a circumstance fraught with the most momentous +consequences for Italy, that the elements of civilization which +came from the east did not exert their influence on its eastern +provinces directly, but reached them only through the medium of those +that lay to the west. The Adriatic commerce carried on by Corinth +and Corcyra was shared by the most easterly mercantile city of +Magna Graecia, the Doric Tarentum, which by the possession of Hydrus +(Otranto) had the command, on the Italian side, of the entrance of +the Adriatic. Since, with the exception of the ports at the mouth +of the Po, there were in those times no emporia worthy of mention +along the whole east coast--the rise of Ancona belongs to a far +later period, and later still the rise of Brundisium--it may well +be conceived that the mariners of Epidamnus and Apollonia frequently +discharged their cargoes at Tarentum. The Tarentines had also much +intercourse with Apulia by land; all the Greek civilization to be +met with in the south-east of Italy owed its existence to them. +That civilization, however, was during the present period only in +its infancy; it was not until a later epoch that the Hellenism of +Apulia was developed. + + +Relations of the Western Italians to the Greeks + + +It cannot be doubted, on the other hand, that the west coast +of Italy northward of Vesuvius was frequented in very early times +by the Hellenes, and that there were Hellenic factories on its +promontories and islands. Probably the earliest evidence of such +voyages is the localizing of the legend of Odysseus on the coasts +of the Tyrrhene Sea.(4) When men discovered the isles of Aeolus +in the Lipari islands, when they pointed out at the Lacinian cape +the isle of Calypso, at the cape of Misenum that of the Sirens, +at the cape of Circeii that of Circe, when they recognized in the +steep promontory of Terracina the towering burial-mound of Elpenor, +when the Laestrygones were provided with haunts near Caieta and +Formiae, when the two sons of Ulysses and Circe, Agrius, that is +the "wild," and Latinus, were made to rule over the Tyrrhenians in +the "inmost recess of the holy islands," or, according to a more +recent version, Latinus was called the son of Ulysses and Circe, +and Auson the son of Ulysses and Calypso--we recognize in these +legends ancient sailors' tales of the seafarers of Ionia, who +thought of their native home as they traversed the Tyrrhene Sea. +The same noble vividness of feeling, which pervades the Ionic poem +of the voyages of Odysseus, is discernible in this fresh localization +of the same legend at Cumae itself and throughout the regions +frequented by the Cumaean mariners. + +Other traces of these very ancient voyages are to be found in the +Greek name of the island Aethalia (Ilva, Elba), which appears to +have been (after Aenaria) one of the places earliest occupied by +Greeks, perhaps also in that of the seaport Telamon in Etruria; +and further in the two townships on the Caerite coast, Pyrgi (near +S. Severa) and Alsium (near Palo), the Greek origin of which is +indicated beyond possibility of mistake not only by their names, +but also by the peculiar architecture of the walls of Pyrgi, which +differs essentially in character from that of the walls of Caere +and the Etruscan cities generally. Aethalia, the "fire-island," +with its rich mines of copper and especially of iron, probably +sustained the chief part in this commerce, and there in all likelihood +the foreigners had their central settlement and seat of traffic +with the natives; the more especially as they could not have found +the means of smelting the ores on the small and not well-wooded +island without intercourse with the mainland. The silver mines +of Populonia also on the headland opposite to Elba were perhaps +already known to the Greeks and wrought by them. + +If, as was undoubtedly the case, the foreigners, ever in those times +intent on piracy and plunder as well as trade, did not fail, when +opportunity offered, to levy contributions on the natives and to +carry them off as slaves, the natives on their part exercised the +right of retaliation; and that the Latins and Tyrrhenes retaliated +with greater energy and better fortune than their neighbours in +the south of Italy, is attested not merely by the legends to that +effect, but by the actual results. In these regions the Italians +succeeded in resisting the foreigners and in retaining, or at any +rate soon resuming, the mastery not merely of their own mercantile +cities and mercantile ports, but also of their own sea. The same +Hellenic invasion which crushed and denationalized the races of +the south of Italy, directed the energies of the peoples of Central +Italy--very much indeed against the will of their instructors--towards +navigation and the founding of towns. It must have been in this +quarter that the Italians first exchanged the raft and the boat for +the oared galley of the Phoenicians and Greeks. Here too we first +encounter great mercantile cities, particularly Caere in southern +Etruria and Rome on the Tiber, which, if we may judge from their +Italian names as well as from their being situated at some distance +from the sea, were--like the exactly similar commercial towns at +the mouth of the Po, Spina and Atria, and Ariminum further to the +south--certainly not Greek, but Italian foundations. It is not +in our power, as may easily be supposed, to exhibit the historical +course of this earliest reaction of Italian nationality against +foreign aggression; but we can still recognize the fact, which was +of the greatest importance as bearing upon the further development +of Italy, that this reaction took a different course in Latium and +in southern Etruria from that which it exhibited in the properly +Tuscan and adjoining provinces. + + +Hellenes and Latins + + +Legend itself contrasts in a significant manner the Latin with +the "wild Tyrrhenian," and the peaceful beach at the mouth of the +Tiber with the inhospitable shore of the Volsci. This cannot mean +that Greek colonization was tolerated in some of the provinces of +Central Italy, but not permitted in others. Northward of Vesuvius +there existed no independent Greek community at all in historical +times; if Pyrgi once was such, it must have already reverted, +before the period at which our tradition begins, into the hands of +the Italians or in other words of the Caerites. But in southern +Etruria, in Latium, and likewise on the east coast, peaceful intercourse +with the foreign merchants was protected and encouraged; and such +was not the case elsewhere. The position of Caere was especially +remarkable. "The Caerites," says Strabo, "were held in much repute +among the Hellenes for their bravery and integrity, and because, +powerful though they were, they abstained from robbery." It is +not piracy that is thus referred to, for in this the merchant of +Caere must have indulged like every other. But Caere was a sort +of free port for Phoenicians as well as Greeks. We have already +mentioned the Phoenician station--subsequently called Punicum--and +the two Hellenic stations of Pyrgi and Alsium.(5) It was these +ports that the Caerites refrained from robbing, and it was beyond +doubt through this tolerant attitude that Caere, which possessed +but a wretched roadstead and had no mines in its neighbourhood, +early attained so great prosperity and acquired, in reference to +the earliest Greek commerce, an importance even greater than the +cities of the Italians destined by nature as emporia at the mouths +of the Tiber and Po. The cities we have just named are those which +appear as holding primitive religious intercourse with Greece. The +first of all barbarians to present gifts to the Olympian Zeus was +the Tuscan king Arimnus, perhaps a ruler of Ariminum. Spina and +Caere had their special treasuries in the temple of the Delphic +Apollo, like other communities that had regular dealings with the +shrine; and the sanctuary at Delphi, as well as the Cumaean oracle, +is interwoven with the earliest traditions of Caere and of Rome. +These cities, where the Italians held peaceful sway and carried +on friendly traffic with the foreign merchant, became preeminently +wealthy and powerful, and were genuine marts not only for Hellenic +merchandise, but also for the germs of Hellenic civilization. + + +Hellenes and Etruscans--Etruscan Maritime Power + + +Matters stood on a different footing with the "wild Tyrrhenians." +The same causes, which in the province of Latium, and in the districts +on the right bank of the Tiber and along the lower course of the +Po that were perhaps rather subject to Etruscan supremacy than +strictly Etruscan, had led to the emancipation of the natives +from the maritime power of the foreigner, led in Etruria proper to +the development of piracy and maritime ascendency, in consequence +possibly of the difference of national character disposing the people +to violence and pillage, or it may be for other reasons with which +we are not acquainted. The Etruscans were not content with dislodging +the Greeks from Aethalia and Populonia; even the individual trader +was apparently not tolerated by them, and soon Etruscan privateers +roamed over the sea far and wide, and rendered the name of the +Tyrrhenians a terror to the Greeks. It was not without reason that +the Greeks reckoned the grapnel as an Etruscan invention, and called +the western sea of Italy the sea of the Tuscans. The rapidity +with which these wild corsairs multiplied and the violence of their +proceedings in the Tyrrhene Sea in particular, are very clearly +shown by their establishment on the Latin and Campanian coasts. +The Latins indeed maintained their ground in Latium proper, and +the Greeks at Vesuvius; but between them and by their side the +Etruscans held sway in Antium and in Surrentum. The Volscians became +clients of the Etruscans; their forests contributed the keels for +the Etruscan galleys; and seeing that the piracy of the Antiates was +only terminated by the Roman occupation, it is easy to understand +why the coast of the southern Volscians bore among Greek mariners +the name of the Laestrygones. The high promontory of Sorrento with +the cliff of Capri which is still more precipitous but destitute +of any harbour--a station thoroughly adapted for corsairs on the +watch, commanding a prospect of the Tyrrhene Sea between the bays +of Naples and Salerno--was early occupied by the Etruscans. They are +affirmed even to have founded a "league of twelve towns" of their +own in Campania, and communities speaking Etruscan still existed in +its inland districts in times quite historical. These settlements +were probably indirect results of the maritime dominion of +the Etruscans in the Campanian sea, and of their rivalry with the +Cumaeans at Vesuvius. + + +Etruscan Commerce + + +The Etruscans however by no means confined themselves to robbery +and pillage. The peaceful intercourse which they held with Greek +towns is attested by the gold and silver coins which, at least from +the year 200, were struck by the Etruscan cities, and in particular +by Populonia, after a Greek model and a Greek standard. The +circumstance, moreover, that these coins are modelled not upon +those of Magna Graecia, but rather upon those of Attica and even +Asia Minor, is perhaps an indication of the hostile attitude in +which the Etruscans stood towards the Italian Greeks. For commerce +they in fact enjoyed the most favourable position, far more +advantageous than that of the inhabitants of Latium. Inhabiting +the country from sea to sea, they commanded the great Italian free +ports on the western waters, the mouths of the Po and the Venice +of that time on the eastern sea, and the land route which from +ancient times led from Pisa on the Tyrrhene Sea to Spina on the +Adriatic, while in the south of Italy they commanded the rich plains +of Capua and Nola. They were the holders of the most important +Italian articles of export, the iron of Aethalia, the copper +of Volaterrae and Campania, the silver of Populonia, and even the +amber which was brought to them from the Baltic.(6) Under the +protection of their piracy, which constituted as it were a rude +navigation act, their own commerce could not fail to flourish. +It need not surprise us to find Etruscan and Milesian merchants +competing in the market of Sybaris, nor need we be astonished to +learn that the combination of privateering and commerce on a great +scale generated the unbounded and senseless luxury, in which the +vigour of Etruria early wasted away. + + +Rivalry between the Phoenicians and Hellenes + + +While in Italy the Etruscans and, although in a lesser degree, the +Latins thus stood opposed to the Hellenes, warding them off and +partly treating them as enemies, this antagonism to some extent +necessarily affected the rivalry which then above all dominated the +commerce and navigation of the Mediterranean--the rivalry between +the Phoenicians and Hellenes. This is not the place to set forth +in detail how, during the regal period of Rome, these two great nations +contended for supremacy on all the shores of the Mediterranean, in +Greece even and Asia Minor, in Crete and Cyprus, on the African, +Spanish, and Celtic coasts. This struggle did not take place directly +on Italian soil, but its effects were deeply and permanently felt +in Italy. The fresh energies and more universal endowments of +the younger competitor had at first the advantage everywhere. Not +only did the Hellenes rid themselves of the Phoenician factories +in their own European and Asiatic homes, but they dislodged the +Phoenicians also from Crete and Cyprus, gained a footing in Egypt +and Cyrene, and possessed themselves of Lower Italy and the larger +eastern half of the island of Sicily. On all hands the small trading +stations of the Phoenicians gave way before the more energetic +colonization of the Greeks. Selinus (126) and Agrigentum (174) +were founded in western Sicily; the more remote western sea was +traversed, Massilia was built on the Celtic coast (about 150), and +the shores of Spain were explored, by the bold Phocaeans from Asia +Minor. But about the middle of the second century the progress of +Hellenic colonization was suddenly arrested; and there is no doubt +that the cause of this arrest was the contemporary rapid rise of +Carthage, the most powerful of the Phoenician cities in Libya--a +rise manifestly due to the danger with which Hellenic aggression +threatened the whole Phoenician race. If the nation which had +opened up maritime commerce on the Mediterranean had been already +dislodged by its younger rival from the sole command of the western +half, from the possession of both lines of communication between +the eastern and western basins of the Mediterranean, and from the +monopoly of the carrying trade between east and west, the sovereignty +at least of the seas to the west of Sardinia and Sicily might +still be saved for the Orientals; and to its maintenance Carthage +applied all the tenacious and circumspect energy peculiar to the +Aramaean race. Phoenician colonization and Phoenician resistance +assumed an entirely different character. The earlier Phoenician +settlements, such as those in Sicily described by Thucydides, were +mercantile factories: Carthage subdued extensive territories with +numerous subjects and powerful fortresses. Hitherto the Phoenician +settlements had stood isolated in opposition to the Greeks; now +the powerful Libyan city centralized within its sphere the whole +warlike resources of those akin to it in race with a vigour to +which the history of the Greeks can produce nothing parallel. + + +Phoenicians and Italians in Opposition to the Hellenes + + +Perhaps the element in this reaction which exercised the most +momentous influence in the sequel was the close relation into which +the weaker Phoenicians entered with the natives of Sicily and Italy +in order to resist the Hellenes. When the Cnidians and Rhodians +made an attempt about 175 to establish themselves at Lilybaeum, the +centre of the Phoenician settlements in Sicily, they were expelled +by the natives--the Elymi of Segeste--in concert with the Phoenicians. +When the Phocaeans settled about 217 at Alalia (Aleria) in Corsica +opposite to Caere, there appeared for the purpose of expelling +them a combined fleet of Etruscans and Carthaginians, numbering +a hundred and twenty sail; and although in the naval battle that +ensued--one of the earliest known in history-the fleet of the +Phocaeans, which was only half as strong, claimed the victory, the +Carthaginians and Etruscans gained the object which they had in +view in the attack; the Phocaeans abandoned Corsica, and preferred +to settle at Hyde (Velia) on the less exposed coast of Lucania. A +treaty between Etruria and Carthage not only established regulations +regarding the import of goods and the giving due effect to rights, +but included also an alliance-in-arms (--summachia--), the serious +import of which is shown by that very battle of Alalia. It is a +significant indication of the position of the Caerites, that they +stoned the Phocaean captives in the market at Caere and then sent +an embassy to the Delphic Apollo to atone for the crime. + +Latium did not join in these hostilities against the Hellenes; on +the contrary, we find friendly relations subsisting in very ancient +times between the Romans and the Phocaeans in Velia as well as in +Massilia, and the Ardeates are even said to have founded in concert +with the Zacynthians a colony in Spain, the later Saguntum. Much +less, however, did the Latins range themselves on the side of +the Hellenes: the neutrality of their position in this respect is +attested by the close relations maintained between Caere and Rome, +as well as by the traces of ancient intercourse between the Latins +and the Carthaginians. It was through the medium of the Hellenes +that the Cannanite race became known to the Romans, for, as we have +already seen,(7) they always designated it by its Greek name; but +the fact that they did not borrow from the Greeks either the name +for the city of Carthage(8) or the national name of the -Afri-,(9) +and the circumstance that among the earlier Romans Tyrian wares were +designated by the adjective -Sarranus-,(10) which in like manner +precludes the idea of Greek intervention, demonstrate--what the +treaties of a later period concur in proving--the direct commercial +intercourse anciently subsisting between Latium and Carthage. + +The combined power of the Italians and Phoenicians actually succeeded +in substantially retaining the western half of the Mediterranean +in their hands. The northwestern portion of Sicily, with the +important ports of Soluntum and Panormus on the north coast, and +Motya at the point which looks towards Africa, remained in the +direct or indirect possession of the Carthaginians. About the +age of Cyrus and Croesus, just when the wise Bias was endeavouring +to induce the Ionians to emigrate in a body from Asia Minor and +settle in Sardinia (about 200), the Carthaginian general Malchus +anticipated them, and subdued a considerable portion of that important +island by force of arms; half a century later, the whole coast of +Sardinia appears in the undisputed possession of the Carthaginian +community. Corsica on the other hand, with the towns of Alalia +and Nicaea, fell to the Etruscans, and the natives paid to these +tribute of the products of their poor island, pitch, wax, and honey. +In the Adriatic sea, moreover, the allied Etruscans and Carthaginians +ruled, as in the waters to the west of Sicily and Sardinia. The +Greeks, indeed, did not give up the struggle. Those Rhodians and +Cnidians, who had been driven out of Lilybaeum, established themselves +on the islands between Sicily and Italy and founded there the town +of Lipara (175). Massilia flourished in spite of its isolation, and +soon monopolized the trade of the region from Nice to the Pyrenees. +At the Pyrenees themselves Rhoda (now Rosas) was established as an +offset from Lipara, and it is affirmed that Zacynthians settled in +Saguntum, and even that Greek dynasts ruled at Tingis (Tangiers) +in Mauretania. But the Hellenes no longer gained ground; after +the foundation of Agrigentum they did not succeed in acquiring any +important additions of territory on the Adriatic or on the western +sea, and they remained excluded from the Spanish waters as well +as from the Atlantic Ocean. Every year the Liparaeans had their +conflicts with the Tuscan "sea-robbers," and the Carthaginians with +the Massiliots, the Cyrenaeans, and above all with the Sicilian +Greeks; but no results of permanent moment were on either side +achieved, and the issue of struggles which lasted for centuries +was, on the whole, the simple maintenance of the -status quo-. + +Thus Italy was--if but indirectly--indebted to the Phoenicians for +the exemption of at least her central and northern provinces from +colonization, and for the counter-development of a national maritime +power there, especially in Etruria. But there are not wanting +indications that the Phoenicians already found it worth while +to manifest that jealousy which is usually associated with naval +domination, if not in reference to their Latin allies, at any rate +in reference to their Etruscan confederates, whose naval power was +greater. The statement as to the Carthaginians having prohibited +the sending forth of an Etruscan colony to the Canary islands, whether +true or false, reveals the existence of a rivalry of interests in +the matter. + + + + +Notes for Book I Chapter X + + +1. Whether the name of Graeci was originally associated with the +interior of Epirus and the region of Dodona, or pertained rather +to the Aetolians who perhaps earlier reached the western sea, may +be left an open question; it must at a remote period have belonged +to a prominent stock or aggregate of stocks of Greece proper and +have passed over from these to the nation as a whole. In the Eoai +of Hesiod it appears as the older collective name for the nation, +although it is manifest that it is intentionally thrust aside and +subordinated to that of Hellenes. The latter does not occur in +Homer, but, in addition to Hesiod, it is found in Archilochus about +the year 50, and it may very well have come into use considerably +earlier (Duncker, Gesch. d. Alt. iii. 18, 556). Already before this +period, therefore, the Italians were so widely acquainted with the +Greeks that that name, which early fell into abeyance in Hellas, +was retained by them as a collective name for the Greek nation, +even when the latter itself adopted other modes of self-designation. +It was withal only natural that foreigners should have attained to +an earlier and clearer consciousness of the fact that the Hellenic +stocks belonged to one race than the latter themselves, and that +hence the collective designation should have become more definitely +fixed among the former than with the latter--not the less, that it +was not taken directly from the well-known Hellenes who dwelt the +nearest to them. It is difficult to see how we can reconcile with +this fact the statement that a century before the foundation of +Rome Italy was still quite unknown to the Greeks of Asia Minor. +We shall speak of the alphabet below; its history yields entirely +similar results. It may perhaps be characterized as a rash step +to reject the statement of Herodotus respecting the age of Homer +on the strength of such considerations; but is there no rashness +in following implicitly the guidance of tradition in questions of +this kind? + +2. Thus the three old Oriental forms of the --"id:i" (--"id:S"), +--"id:l" (--"id:/\") and --"id:r" (--"id:P"), for which as apt to +be confounded with the forms of the --"id:s", --"id:g", and --"id:p" +the signs --"id:I") --"id:L" --"id:R") were early proposed to be +substituted, remained either in exclusive or in very preponderant +use among the Achaean colonies, while the other Greeks of Italy +and Sicily without distinction of race used exclusively or at any +rate chiefly the more recent forms. + +3. E. g. the inscription on an earthen vase of Cumae runs thus:----Tataies +emi lequthos Fos d' an me klephsei thuphlos estai--. + +4. Among Greek writers this Tyrrhene legend of Odysseus makes its +earliest appearance in the Theogony of Hesiod, in one of its more +recent sections, and thereafter in authors of the period shortly +before Alexander, Ephorus (from whom the so-called Scymnus drew his +materials), and the writer known as Scylax. The first of these +sources belongs to an age when Italy was still regarded by the +Greeks as a group of islands, and is certainly therefore very old; +so that the origin of these legends may, on the whole, be confidently +placed in the regal period of Rome. + +5. I. X. Phoenicians in Italy, I. X. Relations of the Western +Italians to the Greeks + +6. I. X. Relations of Italy with Other Lands + +7. I. X. Phoenicians in Italy + +8. The Phoenician name was Karthada; the Greek, Karchedon; the +Roman, Cartago. + +9. The name -Afri-, already current in the days of Ennius and Cato +(comp. -Scipio Africanus-), is certainly not Greek, and is most +probably cognate with that of the Hebrews. + +10. The adjective -Sarranus- was from early times applied by the +Romans to the Tyrian purple and the Tyrian flute; and -Sarranus-was +in use also as a surname, at least from the time of the war with +Hannibal. -Sarra-, which occurs in Ennius and Plautus as the name +of the city, was perhaps formed from -Sarranus-, not directly from +the native name -Sor-. The Greek form, -Tyrus-, -Tyrius-, seems +not to occur in any Roman author anterior to Afranius (ap. Fest. +p. 355 M.). Compare Movers, Phon. ii. x, 174. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +Law and Justice + + + +Modern Character of Italian Culture + + +History, as such, cannot reproduce the life of a people in the +infinite variety of its details; it must be content with exhibiting +the development of that life as a whole. The doings and dealings, +the thoughts and imaginings of the individual, however strongly +they may reflect the characteristics of the national mind, form +no part of history. Nevertheless it seems necessary to make some +attempt to indicate--only in the most general outlines--the features +of individual life in the case of those earlier ages which are, +so far as history is concerned, all but lost in oblivion; for it +is in this field of research alone that we acquire some idea of +the breadth of the gulf which separates our modes of thinking and +feeling from those of the civilized nations of antiquity. Tradition, +with its confused mass of national names and its dim legends, +resembles withered leaves which with difficulty we recognize to +have once been green. Instead of threading that dreary maze and +attempting to classify those shreds of humanity, the Chones and +Oenotrians, the Siculi and the Pelasgi, it will be more to the +purpose to inquire how the real life of the people in ancient Italy +expressed itself in their law, and their ideal life in religion; +how they farmed and how they traded; and whence the several nations +derived the art of writing and other elements of culture. Scanty +as our knowledge in this respect is in reference to the Roman people +and still more so in reference to the Sabellians and Etruscans, +even the slight and very defective information which is attainable +will enable the mind to associate with these names some more or +less clear glimpse of the once living reality. The chief result of +such a view (as we may here mention by way of anticipation) may be +summed up in saying that fewer traces comparatively of the primitive +state of things have been preserved in the case of the Italians, +and of the Romans in particular, than in the case of any other +Indo-Germanic race. The bow and arrow, the war-chariot, the incapacity +of women to hold property, the acquiring of wives by purchase, +the primitive form of burial, blood-revenge, the clan-constitution +conflicting with the authority of the community, a vivid natural +symbolism --all these, and numerous phenomena of a kindred character, +must be presumed to have lain at the foundation of civilization in +Italy as well as elsewhere; but at the epoch when that civilization +comes clearly into view they have already wholly disappeared, and +only the comparison of kindred races informs us that such things +once existed. In this respect Italian history begins at a far +later stage of civilization than e.g. the Greek or the Germanic, +and from the first it exhibits a comparatively modern character. + +The laws of most of the Italian stocks are lost in oblivion. Some +information regarding the law of the Latin land alone has survived +in Roman tradition. + + +Jurisdiction + + +All jurisdiction was vested in the community or, in other words, +in the king, who administered justice or "command" (-ius-) on +the "days of utterance" (-dies fasti-) at the "judgment platform" +(-tribunal-) in the place of public assembly, sitting on the +"chariot-seat" (-sella curulis-);(1) by his side stood his "messengers" +(-lictores-), and before him the person accused or the "parties" +(-rei-). No doubt in the case of slaves the decision lay primarily +with the master, and in the case of women with the father, husband, +or nearest male relative;(2) but slaves and women were not primarily +reckoned as members of the community. Over sons and grandsons who +were -in potestate- the power of the -pater familias- subsisted +concurrently with the royal jurisdiction; that power, however, +was not a jurisdiction in the proper sense of the term, but simply +a consequence of the father's inherent right of property in his +children. We find no traces of any jurisdiction appertaining to +the clans as such, or of any judicature at all that did not derive +its authority from the king. As regards the right of self-redress +and in particular the avenging of blood, we still find perhaps in +legends an echo of the original principle that a murderer, or any +one who should illegally protect a murderer, might justifiably be +slain by the kinsmen of the person murdered; but these very legends +characterize this principle as objectionable,(3) and from their +statements blood-revenge would appear to have been very early +suppressed in Rome through the energetic assertion of the authority +of the community. In like manner we perceive in the earliest Roman +law no trace of that influence which under the oldest Germanic +institutions the comrades of the accused and the people present +were entitled to exercise over the pronouncing of judgment; nor +do we find in the former any evidence of the usage so frequent in +the latter, by which the mere will and power to maintain a claim +with arms in hand were treated as judicially necessary or at any +rate admissible. + + +Crimes + + +Judicial procedure took the form of a public or a private process, +according as the king interposed of his own motion or only when +appealed to by the injured party. The former course was taken +only in cases which involved a breach of the public peace. First +of all, therefore, it was applicable in the case of public treason +or communion with the public enemy (-proditio-), and in that of +violent rebellion against the magistracy (-perduellio-). But the +public peace was also broken by the foul murderer (-parricida-), +the sodomite, the violator of a maiden's or matron's chastity, the +incendiary, the false witness, by those, moreover, who with evil +spells conjured away the harvest, or who without due title cut +the corn by night in the field entrusted to the protection of the +gods and of the people; all of these were therefore dealt with as +though they had been guilty of high treason. The king opened and +conducted the process, and pronounced sentence after conferring with +the senators whom he had called in to advise with him. He was at +liberty, however, after he had initiated the process, to commit +the further handling and the adjudication of the matter to deputies +who were, as a rule, taken from the senate. The later extraordinary +deputies, the two men for adjudicating on rebellion (-duoviri +perduellionis-) and the later standing deputies the "trackers of +murder" (-quaestores parricidii-) whose primary duty was to search +out and arrest murderers, and who therefore exercised in some +measure police functions, do not belong to the regal period, but may +probably have sprung out of, or been suggested by, certain of its +institutions. Imprisonment while the case was undergoing investigation +was the rule; the accused might, however, be released on bail. +Torture to compel confession was only applied to slaves. Every one +convicted of having broken the public peace expiated his offence with +his life. The modes of inflicting capital punishment were various: +the false witness, for example, was hurled from the stronghold-rock; +the harvest-thief was hanged; the incendiary was burnt. The king +could not grant pardon, for that power was vested in the community +alone; but the king might grant or refuse to the condemned permission +to appeal for mercy (-provocatio-). In addition to this, the law +recognized an intervention of the gods in favour of the condemned +criminal. He who had made a genuflection before the priest of +Jupiter might not be scourged on the same day; any one under fetters +who set foot in his house had to be released from his bonds; and +the life of a criminal was spared, if on his way to execution he +accidentally met one of the sacred virgins of Vesta. + + +Punishment of Offenses against Order + + +The king inflicted at his discretion fines payable to the state for +trespasses against order and for police offences; they consisted +in a definite number (hence the name -multa-) of cattle or sheep. +It was in his power also to pronounce sentence of scourging. + + +Law of Private Offenses + + +In all other cases, where the individual alone was injured and +not the public peace, the state only interposed upon the appeal of +the party injured, who caused his opponent, or in case of need by +laying violent hands on him compelled him, to appear personally along +with himself before the king. When both parties had appeared and +the plaintiff had orally stated his demand, while the defendant had +in similar fashion refused to comply with it, the king might either +investigate the cause himself or have it disposed of by a deputy +acting in his name. The regular form of satisfaction for such an +injury was a compromise arranged between the injurer and the injured; +the state only interfered supplementarily, when the aggressor did +not satisfy the party aggrieved by an adequate expiation (-poena-), +when any one had his property detained or his just demand was not +fulfilled. + + +Theft + + +Under what circumstances during this epoch theft was regarded as +at all expiable, and what in such an event the person injured was +entitled to demand from the thief, cannot be ascertained. But +the injured party with reason demanded heavier compensation from +a thief caught in the very act than from one detected afterwards, +since the feeling of exasperation which had to be appeased was more +vehement in the case of the former than in that of the latter. If +the theft appeared incapable of expiation, or if the thief was not +in a position to pay the value demanded by the injured party and +approved by the judge, he was by the judge assigned as a bondsman +to the person from whom he had stolen. + + +Injuries + + +In cases of damage (-iniuria-) to person or to property, where the +injury was not of a very serious description, the aggrieved party +was probably obliged unconditionally to accept compensation; if, +on the other hand, any member was lost in consequence of it, the +maimed person could demand eye for eye and tooth for tooth. + + +Property + + +Since the arable land among the Romans was long cultivated upon +the system of joint possession and was not distributed until a +comparatively late age, the idea of property was primarily associated +not with immoveable estate, but with "estate in slaves and cattle" +(-familia pecuniaque-). It was not the right of the stronger that +was regarded as the foundation of a title to it; on the contrary, +all property was considered as conferred by the community upon the +individual burgess for his exclusive possession and use; and therefore +it was only the burgess, and such as the community accounted in +this respect as equal to burgesses, that were capable of holding +property. All property passed freely from hand to hand. The Roman +law made no substantial distinction between moveable and immoveable +estate (from the time that the latter was regarded as private +property at all), and recognized no absolute vested interest of +children or other relatives in the paternal or family property. +Nevertheless it was not in the power of the father arbitrarily +to deprive his children of their right of inheritance, because he +could neither dissolve the paternal power nor execute a testament +except with consent of the whole community, which might be, and +certainly under such circumstances often was, refused. In his +lifetime no doubt the father might make dispositions disadvantageous +to his children; for the law was sparing of personal restrictions +on the proprietor and allowed, upon the whole, every grown-up +man freely to dispose of his property. The regulation, however, +under which he who alienated his hereditary property and deprived +his children of it was placed by order of the magistrate under +guardianship like a lunatic, was probably as ancient as the period +when the arable land was first divided and thereby private property +generally acquired greater importance for the commonwealth. In +this way the two antagonistic principles--the unlimited right of +the owner to dispose of his own, and the preservation of the family +property unbroken--were as far as possible harmonized in the Roman +law. Permanent restrictions on property were in no case allowed, +with the exception of servitudes such as those indispensable in +husbandry. Heritable leases and ground-rents charged upon property +could not legally exist. The law as little recognized mortgaging; +but the same purpose was served by the immediate delivery of the +property in pledge to the creditor as if he were its purchaser, +who thereupon gave his word of honour (-fiducia-) that he would not +alienate the object pledged until the payment fell due, and would +restore it to his debtor when the sum advanced had been repaid. + + +Contracts + + +Contracts concluded between the state and a burgess, particularly +the obligation given by those who became sureties for a payment +to the state (-praevides-, -praedes-), were valid without further +formality. On the other hand, contracts between private persons +under ordinary circumstances gave no claim for legal aid on the +part of the state. The only protection of the creditor was the +debtor's word of honour which was held in high esteem after the +wont of merchants, and possibly also, in those frequent cases where +an oath had been added, the fear of the gods who avenged perjury. +The only contracts legally actionable were those of betrothal (the +effect of which was that the father, in the event of his failing +to give the promised bride, had to furnish satisfaction and +compensation), of purchase (-mancipatio-), and of loan (-nexum-). +A purchase was held to be legally concluded when the seller delivered +the article purchased into the hand of the buyer (-mancipare-) and +the buyer at the same time paid to the seller the stipulated price +in presence of witnesses. This was done, after copper superseded +sheep and cattle as the regular standard of value, by weighing out +the stipulated quantity of copper in a balance adjusted by a neutral +person.(4) These conditions having been complied with, the seller +had to answer for his being the owner, and in addition seller and +purchaser had to fulfil every stipulation specially agreed on; the +party failing to do so made reparation to the other, just as if he +had deprived him of the article in question. But a purchase only +founded an action in the event of its being a transaction for +ready money: a purchase on credit neither gave nor took away the +right of property, and constituted no ground of action. A loan +was negotiated in a similar way; the creditor weighed over to the +debtor in presence of witnesses the stipulated quantity of copper +under the obligation (-nexum-) of repayment. In addition to +the capital the debtor had to pay interest, which under ordinary +circumstances probably amounted to ten per cent per annum.(5) The +repayment of the loan took place, when the time came, with similar +forms. + + +Private Process + + +If a debtor to the state did not fulfil his obligations, he was +without further ceremony sold with all that he had; the simple +demand on the part of the state was sufficient to establish the +debt. If on the other hand a private person informed the king of +any violation of his property (-vindiciae-) or if repayment of the +loan received did not duly take place, the procedure depended on +whether the facts relating to the cause needed to be established, +which was ordinarily the case with actions as to property, or were +already clearly apparent, which in the case of actions as to loans +could easily be accomplished according to the current rules of law +by means of the witnesses. The establishment of the facts assumed +the form of a wager, in which each party made a deposit (-sacramentum-) +against the contingency of his being worsted; in important causes +when the value involved was greater than ten oxen, a deposit of +five oxen, in causes of less amount, a deposit of five sheep. The +judge then decided who had gained the wager, whereupon the deposit +of the losing party fell to the priests for behoof of the public +sacrifices. The party who lost the wager and allowed thirty days +to elapse without giving due satisfaction to his opponent, and the +party whose obligation to pay was established from the first--consequently, +as a rule, the debtor who had got a loan and had not witnesses to +attest its repayment--became liable to proceedings in execution +"by laying on of hands" (-manus iniectio-); the plaintiff seized +him wherever he found him, and brought him to the bar of the judge +simply to satisfy the acknowledged debt. The party seized was not +allowed to defend himself; a third person might indeed intercede for +him and represent this act of violence as unwarranted (-vindex-), +in which case the proceedings were stayed; but such an intercession +rendered the intercessor personally responsible, for which reason +the proletarian could not be intercessor for the tribute-paying +burgess. If neither satisfaction nor intercession took place, the +king adjudged the party seized to his creditor, so that the latter +could lead him away and keep him like a slave. After the expiry +of sixty days during which the debtor had been three times exposed +in the market-place and proclamation had been made to ascertain +whether any one would have compassion upon him, if these steps were +without effect, his creditors had the right to put him to death +and to divide his carcase, or to sell him with his children and his +effects into foreign slavery, or to keep him at home in a slave's +stead; for such an one could not by the Roman law, so long as he +remained within the bounds of the Roman community, become completely +a slave.(6) Thus the Roman community protected every man's estate +and effects with unrelenting rigour as well from the thief and +the injurer, as from the unauthorized possessor and the insolvent +debtor. + + +Guardianship + + +Protection was in like manner provided for the estate of persons +not capable of bearing arms and therefore not capable of protecting +their own property, such as minors and lunatics, and above all +for that of women; in these cases the nearest heirs were called to +undertake the guardianship. + + +Law of Inheritance + + +After a man's death his property fell to the nearest heirs: in the +division all who were equal in proximity of relationship--women +included--shared alike, and the widow along with her children was +admitted to her proportional share. A dispensation from the legal +order of succession could only be granted by the assembly of the +people; previous to which the consent of the priests had to be +obtained on account of the ritual obligations attaching to succession. +Such dispensations appear nevertheless to have become at an early +period very frequent. In the event of a dispensation not being +procured, the want of it might be in some measure remedied by +means of the completely free control which every one had over his +property during his lifetime. His whole property was transferred +to a friend, who distributed it after death according to the wishes +of the deceased. + + +Manumission + + +Manumission was unknown to the law of very early times. The owner +might indeed refrain from exercising his proprietary rights; but +this did not cancel the existing impossibility of master and slave +coming under mutual obligations; still less did it enable the slave +to acquire, in relation to the community, the rights of a guest +or of a burgess. Accordingly manumission must have been at first +simply -de facto-, not -de jure-; and the master cannot have been +debarred from the possibility of again at pleasure treating the +freedman as a slave. But there was a departure from this principle +in cases where the master came under obligation not merely towards +the slave, but towards the community, to leave him in possession +of freedom. There was no special legal form, however, for thus +binding the master--the best proof that there was at first no +such thing as a manumission,--but those methods were employed for +this object which the law otherwise presented, testament, action, +or census. If the master had either declared his slave free when +executing his last will in the assembly of the people, or had allowed +his slave to claim freedom in his own presence before a judge or +to get his name inscribed in the valuation-roll, the freedman was +regarded not indeed as a burgess, but as personally free in relation +to his former master and his heirs, and was accordingly looked upon +at first as a client, and in later times as a plebeian.(7) + +The emancipation of a son encountered greater difficulties than +that of a slave; for while the relation of master to slave was +accidental and therefore capable of being dissolved at will, the +father could never cease to be father. Accordingly in later times +the son was obliged, in order to get free from the father, first +to enter into slavery and then to be set free out of this latter +state; but in the period now before us no emancipation of sons can +have as yet existed. + + +Clients and Foreigners + + +Such were the laws under which burgesses and clients lived in Rome. +Between these two classes, so far as we can see, there subsisted from +the beginning complete equality of private rights. The foreigner +on the other hand, if he had not submitted to a Roman patron and thus +lived as a client, was beyond the pale of the law both in person +and in property. Whatever the Roman burgess took from him was +as rightfully acquired as was the shellfish, belonging to nobody, +which was picked up by the sea-shore; but in the case of ground +lying beyond the Roman bounds, while the Roman burgess might take +practical possession, he could not be regarded as in a legal sense +its proprietor; for the individual burgess was not entitled to +advance the bounds of the community. The case was different in +war: whatever the soldier who was fighting in the ranks of the levy +gained, whether moveable or immoveable property, fell not to him, +but to the state, and accordingly here too it depended upon the +state whether it would advance or contract its bounds. + +Exceptions from these general rules were created by special +state-treaties, which secured certain rights to the members of +foreign communities within the Roman state. In particular, the +perpetual league between Rome and Latium declared all contracts +between Romans and Latins to be valid in law, and at the same time +instituted in their case an accelerated civil process before sworn +"recoverers" (-reciperatores-). As, contrary to Roman usage, +which in other instances committed the decision to a single judge, +these always sat in plural number and that number uneven, they are +probably to be conceived as a court for the cognizance of commercial +dealings, composed of arbiters from both nations and an umpire. +They sat in judgment at the place where the contract was entered +into, and were obliged to have the process terminated at latest +in ten days. The forms, under which the dealings between Romans +and Latins were conducted, were of course the general forms which +regulated the mutual dealings of patricians and plebeians; for +the -mancipatio- and the -nexum- were originally not at all formal +acts, but the significant expression of legal ideas which held a +sway at least as extensive as the range of the Latin language. + +Dealings with countries strictly foreign were carried on in a +different fashion and by means of other forms. In very early times +treaties as to commerce and legal redress must have been entered +into with the Caerites and other friendly peoples, and must have +formed the basis of the international private law (-ius gentium-), +which gradually became developed in Rome alongside of the law of +the land. An indication of the formation of such a law is found +in the remarkable -mutuum-, "the exchange" (from -mutare- like +-dividuus-)--a form of loan, which was not based like the -nexum- +upon a binding declaration of the debtor expressly emitted before +witnesses, but upon the mere transit of the money from one hand +to another, and which as evidently originated in dealings with +foreigners as the -nexum- in business dealings at home. It is +accordingly a significant fact that the word reappears in Sicilian +Greek as --moiton--; and with this is to be connected the reappearance +of the Latin -carcer- in the Sicilian --karkaron--. Since it is +philologically certain that both words were originally Latin, their +occurrence in the local dialect of Sicily becomes an important +testimony to the frequency of the dealings of Latin traders in +the island, which led to their borrowing money there and becoming +liable to that imprisonment for debt, which was everywhere in the +earlier systems of law the consequence of the non-repayment of a +loan. Conversely, the name of the Syracusan prison, "stone-quarries" +or --latomiai--, was transferred at an early period to the enlarged +Roman state-prison, the -lautumiae-. + + +Character of the Roman Law + + +We have derived our outline of these institutions mainly from +the earliest record of the Roman common law prepared about half a +century after the abolition of the monarchy; and their existence in +the regal period, while doubtful perhaps as to particular points of +detail, cannot be doubted in the main. Surveying them as a whole, +we recognize the law of a far-advanced agricultural and mercantile +city, marked alike by its liberality and its consistency. In +its case the conventional language of symbols, such as e. g. the +Germanic laws exhibit, has already quite disappeared. There is no +doubt that such a symbolic language must have existed at one time +among the Italians. Remarkable instances of it are to be found in +the form of searching a house, wherein the searcher must, according +to the Roman as well as the Germanic custom, appear without upper +garment merely in his shirt; and especially in the primitive +Latin formula for declaring war, in which we meet with two symbols +occurring at least also among the Celts and the Germans--the "pure +herb" (-herba pura-, Franconian -chrene chruda-) as a symbol of +the native soil, and the singed bloody staff as a sign of commencing +war. But with a few exceptions, in which reasons of religion +protected the ancient usages--to which class the -confarreatio- +as well as the declaration of war by the college of Fetiales +belonged--the Roman law, as we know it, uniformly and on principle +rejects the symbol, and requires in all cases neither more nor +less than the full and pure expression of will. The delivery of an +article, the summons to bear witness, the conclusion of marriage, +were complete as soon as the parties had in an intelligible manner +declared their purpose; it was usual, indeed, to deliver the article +into the hand of the new owner, to pull the person summoned as +a witness by the ear, to veil the bride's head and to lead her in +solemn procession to her husband's house; but all these primitive +practices were already, under the oldest national law of the +Romans, customs legally worthless. In a way entirely analogous to +the setting aside of allegory and along with it of personification +in religion, every sort of symbolism was on principle expelled from +their law. In like manner that earliest state of things presented +to us by the Hellenic as well as the Germanic institutions, wherein +the power of the community still contends with the authority of +the smaller associations of clans or cantons that are merged in +it, is in Roman law wholly superseded; there is no alliance for the +vindication of rights within the state, to supplement the state's +imperfect aid, by mutual offence and defence; nor is there any +serious trace of vengeance for bloodshed, or of the family property +restricting the individual's power of disposal. Such institutions +must probably at one time have existed among the Italians; traces +of them may perhaps be found in particular institutions of ritual, +e. g. in the expiatory goat, which the involuntary homicide was +obliged to give to the nearest of kin to the slain; but even at the +earliest period of Rome which we can conceive this stage had long +been transcended. The clan and the family doubtless were not +annihilated in the Roman community; but the theoretical as well +as the practical omnipotence of the state in its own sphere was no +more limited by them than by the freedom which the state granted +and guaranteed to the burgess. The ultimate foundation of law was +in all cases the state; freedom was simply another expression for +the right of citizenship in its widest sense; all property was +based on express or tacit transference by the community to the +individual; a contract was valid only so far as the community by +its representatives attested it, a testament only so far as the +community confirmed it. The provinces of public and private law were +definitely and clearly discriminated: the former having reference +to crimes against the state, which immediately called for the +judgment of the state and always involved capital punishment; the +latter having reference to offences against a fellow-burgess or a +guest, which were mainly disposed of in the way of compromise by +expiation or satisfaction made to the party injured, and were never +punished with the forfeit of life, but, at most, with the loss of +freedom. The greatest liberality in the permission of commerce and +the most rigorous procedure in execution went hand in hand; just +as in commercial states at the present day the universal right to +draw bills of exchange appears in conjunction with a strict procedure +in regard to them. The burgess and the client stood in their +dealings on a footing of entire equality; state-treaties conceded +a comprehensive equality of rights also to the guest; women were +placed completely on a level in point of legal capacity with men, +although restricted in action; the boy had scarcely grown up when +he received at once the most comprehensive powers in the disposal +of his estate, and every one who could dispose at all was as +sovereign in his own sphere as was the state in public affairs. A +feature eminently characteristic was the system of credit. There +did not exist any credit on landed security, but instead of a debt +on mortgage the step which constitutes at present the final stage +in mortgage-procedure --the delivery of the property from the debtor +to the creditor--took place at once. On the other hand personal +credit was guaranteed in the most summary, not to say extravagant +fashion; for the lawgiver entitled the creditor to treat his insolvent +debtor like a thief, and granted to him in entire legislative earnest +what Shylock, half in jest, stipulated for from his mortal enemy, +guarding indeed by special clauses the point as to the cutting off +too much more carefully than did the Jew. The law could not have +more clearly expressed its design, which was to establish at once +an independent agriculture free of debt and a mercantile credit, +and to suppress with stringent energy all merely nominal ownership +and all breaches of fidelity. If we further take into consideration +the right of settlement recognized at an early date as belonging +to all the Latins,(8) and the validity which was likewise early +pronounced to belong to civil marriage,(9) we shall perceive that +this state, which made the highest demands on its burgesses and +carried the idea of subordinating the individual to the interest of +the whole further than any state before or since has done, only did +and only could do so by itself removing the barriers to intercourse +and unshackling liberty quite as much as it subjected it to +restriction. In permission or in prohibition the law was always +absolute. As the foreigner who had none to intercede for him was +like the hunted deer, so the guest was on a footing of equality +with the burgess. A contract did not ordinarily furnish a ground +of action, but where the right of the creditor was acknowledged, +it was so all-powerful that there was no deliverance for the poor +debtor, and no humane or equitable consideration was shown towards +him. It seemed as if the law found a pleasure in presenting on all +sides its sharpest spikes, in drawing the most extreme consequences, +in forcibly obtruding on the bluntest understanding the tyrannic +nature of the idea of right. The poetical form and the genial +symbolism, which so pleasingly prevail in the Germanic legal +ordinances, were foreign to the Roman; in his law all was clear and +precise; no symbol was employed, no institution was superfluous. +It was not cruel; everything necessary was performed without much +ceremony, even the punishment of death; that a free man could not +be tortured was a primitive maxim of Roman law, to obtain which +other peoples have had to struggle for thousands of years. Yet this +law was frightful in its inexorable severity, which we cannot suppose +to have been very greatly mitigated by humanity in practice, for +it was really the law of the people; more terrible than Venetian +-piombi- and chambers of torture was that series of living entombments +which the poor man saw yawning before him in the debtors' towers +of the rich. But the greatness of Rome was involved in, and was +based upon, the fact that the Roman people ordained for itself and +endured a system of law, in which the eternal principles of freedom +and of subordination, of property and of legal redress, reigned +and still at the present day reign unadulterated and unmodified. + + + + +Notes for Book I Chapter XI + + +1. This "chariot-seat"--philologically no other explanation can +well be given (comp. Servius ad Aen. i. 16)--is most simply explained +by supposing that the king alone was entitled to ride in a chariot +within the city (v. The King)--whence originated the privilege +subsequently accorded to the chief magistrate on solemn occasions--and +that originally, so long as there was no elevated tribunal, he +gave judgment, at the comitium or wherever else he wished, from +the chariot-seat. + +2. I. V. The Housefather and His Household + +3. The story of the death of king Tatius, as given by Plutarch +(Rom. 23, 24), viz. that kinsmen of Tatius had killed envoys from +Laurentum; that Tatius had refused the complaint of the kinsmen +of the slain for redress; that they then put Tatius to death; that +Romulus acquitted the murderers of Tatius, on the ground that murder +had been expiated by murder; but that, in consequence of the penal +judgments of the gods that simultaneously fell upon Rome and +Laurentum, the perpetrators of both murders were in the sequel +subjected to righteous punishment--this story looks quite like a +historical version of the abolition of blood-revenge, just as the +introduction of the -provocatio- lies at the foundation of the myth +of the Horatii. The versions of the same story that occur elsewhere +certainly present considerable variations, but they seem to be +confused or dressed up. + +4. The -mancipatio- in its developed form must have been more recent +than the Servian reform, as the selection of mancipable objects, +which had for its aim the fixing of agricultural property, shows, +and as even tradition must have assumed, for it makes Servius the +inventor of the balance. But in its origin the -mancipatio- must +be far more ancient; for it primarily applies only to objects which +are acquired by grasping with the hand, and must therefore in its +earliest form have belonged to the epoch when property consisted +essentially in slaves and cattle (-familia pecuniaque-). The enumeration +of those objects which had to be acquired by -mancipatio-, falls +accordingly to be ranked as a Servian innovation; the -mancipatio- +itself, and consequently the use also of the balance and of copper, +are older. Beyond doubt -mancipatio- was originally the universal +form of purchase, and occurred in the case of all articles even +after the Servian reform; it was only a misunderstanding of later +ages which put upon the rule, that certain articles had to be +transferred by -mancipatio-, the construction that these articles +only and no others could be so transferred. + +5. Viz. for the year of ten months one twelfth part of the capital +(-uncia-), which amounts to 8 1/3 per cent for the year of ten, +and 10 per cent for the fear of twelve, months. + +6. I. VII. Relation of Rome to Latium + +7. I. VI. Dependents and Guests. + +8. I. VII. Relation of Rome to Latium + +9. I. VI. Class of --Metoeci-- Subsisting by the Side of the +Community + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +Religion + + + +Roman Religion + + +The Roman world of gods, as we have already indicated,(1) was a +higher counterpart, an ideal reflection, of the earthly Rome, in +which the little and the great were alike repeated with painstaking +exactness. The state and the clan, the individual phenomenon of +nature as well as the individual mental operation, every man, every +place and object, every act even falling within the sphere of Roman +law, reappeared in the Roman world of gods; and, as earthly things +come and go in perpetual flux, the circle of the gods underwent +a corresponding fluctuation. The tutelary spirit, which presided +over the individual act, lasted no longer than that act itself: the +tutelary spirit of the individual man lived and died with the man; +and eternal duration belonged to divinities of this sort only in +so far as similar acts and similarly constituted men and therefore +spirits of a similar kind were ever coming into existence afresh. +As the Roman gods ruled over the Roman community, so every foreign +community was presided over by its own gods; but sharp as was the +distinction between the burgess and non-burgess, between the Roman +and the foreign god, both foreign men and foreign divinities could +be admitted by resolution of the community to the freedom of Rome, +and when the citizens of a conquered city were transported to Rome, +the gods of that city were also invited to take up their new abode +there. + + +Oldest Table of Roman Festivals + + +We obtain information regarding the original cycle of the gods, as +it stood in Rome previous to any contact with the Greeks, from the +list of the public and duly named festival-days (-feriae publicae-) +of the Roman community, which is preserved in its calendar and is +beyond all question the oldest document which has reached us from +Roman antiquity. The first place in it is occupied by the gods +Jupiter and Mars along with the duplicate of the latter, Quirinus. +To Jupiter all the days of full moon (-idus-) are sacred, besides +all the wine-festivals and various other days to be mentioned +afterwards; the 21st May (-agonalia-) is dedicated to his counterpart, +the "bad Jovis" (-Ve-diovis-). To Mars belongs the new-year of the +1st March, and generally the great warrior-festival in this month +which derived its very name from the god; this festival, introduced +by the horse-racing (-equirria-) on the 27th February, had during +March its principal solemnities on the days of the shield-forging +(-equirria- or -Mamuralia-, March 14), of the armed dance at the +Comitium (-quinquatrus-, March 19), and of the consecration of +trumpets (-tubilustrium-, March 23). As, when a war was to be waged, +it began with this festival, so after the close of the campaign +in autumn there followed a further festival of Mars, that of +the consecration of arms (-armilustrium-, October 19). Lastly, +to the second Mars, Quirinus, the 17th February was appropriated +(-Quirinalia-). Among the other festivals those which related to +the culture of corn and wine hold the first place, while the pastoral +feasts play a subordinate part. To this class belongs especially +the great series of spring-festivals in April, in the course of +which sacrifices were offered on the 15th to Tellus, the nourishing +earth (-fordicidia-, sacrifice of the pregnant cow), on the 19th +to Ceres, the goddess of germination and growth (-Cerialia-) on the +21st to Pales, the fecundating goddess of the flocks (-Parilia-), +on the 23rd to Jupiter, as the protector of the vines and of the +vats of the previous year's vintage which were first opened on this +day (-Vinalia-), and on the 25th to the bad enemy of the crops, rust +(-Robigus-: -Robigalia-). So after the completion of the work of +the fields and the fortunate ingathering of their produce double +festivals were celebrated in honour of the god and goddess of +inbringing and harvest, Census (from -condere-) and Ops; the first, +immediately after the completion of cutting (August 21, -Consualia-; +August 25, -Opiconsiva-); and the second, in the middle of winter, +when the blessings of the granary are especially manifest (December +15, -Consualia-; December 19, -Opalia-); between these two latter +days the thoughtfulness of the old arrangers of the festivals inserted +that of seed-sowing (Saturnalia from -Saeturnus- or -Saturnus-, +December 17). In like manner the festival of must or of healing +(-meditrinalia-, October 11), so called because a healing virtue +was attributed to the fresh must, was dedicated to Jovis as the +wine-god after the completion of the vintage; the original reference +of the third wine-feast (-Vinalia-, August 19) is not clear. To +these festivals were added at the close of the year the wolf-festival +(-Lupercalia-, February 17) of the shepherds in honour of the +good god, Faunus, and the boundary-stone festival (-Terminalia-, +February 23) of the husbandmen, as also the summer grove-festival +of two days (-Lucaria-, July 19, 21) which may have had reference +to the forest-gods (-Silvani-), the fountain-festival (-Fontinalia-, +October 13), and the festival of the shortest day, which brings in +the new sun (-An-geronalia-, -Divalia-, December 21). + +Of not less importance--as was to be expected in the case of the +port of Latium--were the mariner-festivals of the divinities of the +sea (-Neptunalia-, July 23), of the harbour (-Portunalia-, August +17), and of the Tiber stream (-Volturnalia-, August 27). + +Handicraft and art, on the other hand, are represented in this cycle +of the gods only by the god of fire and of smith's work, Vulcanus, +to whom besides the day named after him (-Volcanalia-, August 23) +the second festival of the consecration of trumpets was dedicated +(-tubilustrium-, May 23), and eventually also by the festival of +Carmentis (-Carmentalia- January 11, 15), who probably was adored +originally as the goddess of spells and of song and only inferentially +as protectress of births. + +Domestic and family life in general were represented by the festival +of the goddess of the house and of the spirits of the storechamber, +Vesta and the Penates (-Vestalia-, June 9); the festival of the +goddess of birth(2) (-Matralia-, June 11); the festival of the +blessing of children, dedicated to Liber and Libera (-Liberalia-, +March 17), the festival of departed spirits (-Feralia-, February +21), and the three days' ghost-celebration (-Lemuria- May 9, +11, 13); while those having reference to civil relations were the +two--otherwise to us somewhat obscure--festivals of the king's +flight (-Regifugium-, February 24) and of the people's flight +(-Poplifugia-, July 5), of which at least the last day was devoted +to Jupiter, and the festival of the Seven Mounts (-Agonia- or +-Septimontium-, December 11). A special day (-agonia-, January +9) was also consecrated to Janus, the god of beginning. The real +nature of some other days--that of Furrina (July 25), and that +of the Larentalia devoted to Jupiter and Acca Larentia, perhaps a +feast of the Lares (December 23)--is no longer known. + +This table is complete for the immoveable public festivals; +and--although by the side of these standing festal days there +certainly occurred from the earliest times changeable and occasional +festivals--this document, in what it says as well as in what it +omits, opens up to us an insight into a primitive age otherwise +almost wholly lost to us. The union of the Old Roman community and +the Hill-Romans had indeed already taken place when this table of +festivals was formed, for we find in it Quirinus alongside of Mars; +but, when this festival-list was drawn up, the Capitoline temple +was not yet in existence, for Juno and Minerva are absent; nor was +the temple of Diana erected on the Aventine; nor was any notion of +worship borrowed from the Greeks. + + +Mars and Jupiter + + +The central object not only of Roman but of Italian worship generally +in that epoch when the Italian stock still dwelt by itself in the +peninsula was, according to all indications, the god Maurs or Mars, +the killing god,(3) preeminently regarded as the divine champion +of the burgesses, hurling the spear, protecting the flock, +and overthrowing the foe. Each community of course possessed its +own Mars, and deemed him to be the strongest and holiest of all; +and accordingly every "-ver sacrum-" setting out to found a new +community marched under the protection of its own Mars. To Mars +was dedicated the first month not only in the Roman calendar of +the months, which in no other instance takes notice of the gods, +but also probably in all the other Latin and Sabellian calendars: +among the Roman proper names, which in like manner contain no allusion +to any gods, Marcus, Mamercus, and Mamurius appear in prevailing +use from very early times; with Mars and his sacred woodpecker was +connected the oldest Italian prophecy; the wolf, the animal sacred +to Mars, was the badge of the Roman burgesses, and such sacred +national legends as the Roman imagination was able to produce +referred exclusively to the god Mars and to his duplicate Quirinus. +In the list of festivals certainly Father Diovis--a purer and +more civil than military reflection of the character of the Roman +community--occupies a larger space than Mars, just as the priest +of Jupiter has precedence over the two priests of the god of war; +but the latter still plays a very prominent part in the list, and +it is even quite likely that, when this arrangement of festivals +was established, Jovis stood by the side of Mars like Ahuramazda +by the side of Mithra, and that the worship of the warlike Roman +community still really centred at this time in the martial god of +death and his March festival, while it was not the "care-destroyer" +afterwards introduced by the Greeks, but Father Jovis himself, who +was regarded as the god of the heart-gladdening wine. + + +Nature of the Roman Gods + + +It is no part of our present task to consider the Roman deities in +detail; but it is important, even in an historical point of view, +to call attention to the peculiar character at once of shallowness +and of fervour that marked the Roman faith. Abstraction +and personification lay at the root of the Roman as well as of +the Hellenic mythology: the Hellenic as well as the Roman god was +originally suggested by some natural phenomenon or some mental +conception, and to the Roman just as to the Greek every divinity +appeared a person. This is evident from their apprehending the +individual gods as male or female; from their style of appeal to +an unknown deity,--"Be thou god or goddess, man or woman;" and from +the deeply cherished belief that the name of the proper tutelary +spirit of the community ought to remain for ever unpronounced, lest +an enemy should come to learn it and calling the god by his name +should entice him beyond the bounds. A remnant of this strongly +sensuous mode of apprehension clung to Mars in particular, the +oldest and most national form of divinity in Italy. But while +abstraction, which lies at the foundation of every religion, elsewhere +endeavoured to rise to wider and more enlarged conceptions and to +penetrate ever more deeply into the essence of things, the forms +of the Roman faith remained at, or sank to, a singularly low level +of conception and of insight. While in the case of the Greek +every influential motive speedily expanded into a group of forms +and gathered around it a circle of legends and ideas, in the case +of the Roman the fundamental thought remained stationary in its +original naked rigidity. The religion of Rome had nothing of its +own presenting even a remote resemblance to the religion of Apollo +investing earthly morality with a halo of glory, to the divine +intoxication of Dionysus, or to the Chthonian and mystical worships +with their profound and hidden meanings. It had indeed its "bad +god" (-Ve-diovis-), its apparitions and ghosts (-lemures-), and +afterwards its deities of foul air, of fever, of diseases, perhaps even +of theft (-laverna-); but it was unable to excite that mysterious +awe after which the human heart has always a longing, or thoroughly +to embody the incomprehensible and even the malignant elements +in nature and in man, which must not be wanting in religion if it +would reflect man as a whole. In the religion of Rome there was +hardly anything secret except possibly the names of the gods of +the city, the Penates; the real character, moreover, even of these +gods was manifest to every one. + +The national Roman theology sought on all hands to form distinct +conceptions of important phenomena and qualities, to express them +in its terminology, and to classify them systematically--in the +first instance, according to that division of persons and things +which also formed the basis of private law--that it might thus be +able in due fashion to invoke the gods individually or by classes, +and to point out (-indigitare-) to the multitude the modes of +appropriate invocation. Of such notions, the products of outward +abstraction--of the homeliest simplicity, sometimes venerable, +sometimes ridiculous--Roman theology was in substance made up. +Conceptions such as sowing (-saeturnus-) and field-labour (-ops-) +ground (-tellus-) and boundary-stone (-terminus-), were among +the oldest and most sacred of Roman divinities. Perhaps the most +peculiar of all the forms of deity in Rome, and probably the only +one for whose worship there was devised an effigy peculiarly Italian, +was the double-headed lanus; and yet it was simply suggestive of the +idea so characteristic of the scrupulous spirit of Roman religion, +that at the commencement of every act the "spirit of opening" should +first be invoked, while it above all betokened the deep conviction +that it was as indispensable to combine the Roman gods in sets as +it was necessary that the more personal gods of the Hellenes should +stand singly and apart.(4) Of all the worships of Rome that which +perhaps had the deepest hold was the worship of the tutelary spirits +that presided in and over the household and the storechamber: these +were in public worship Vesta and the Penates, in family worship +the gods of forest and field, the Silvani, and above all the gods +of the household in its strict sense, the Lases or Lares, to whom +their share of the family meal was regularly assigned, and before +whom it was, even in the time of Cato the Elder, the first duty +of the father of the household on returning home to perform his +devotions. In the ranking of the gods, however, these spirits +of the house and of the field occupied the lowest rather than the +highest place; it was--and it could not be otherwise with a religion +which renounced all attempts to idealize--not the broadest and +most general, but the simplest and most individual abstraction, in +which the pious heart found most nourishment. + +This indifference to ideal elements in the Roman religion was +accompanied by a practical and utilitarian tendency, as is clearly +enough apparent in the table of festivals which has been already +explained. Increase of substance and of prosperity by husbandry +and the rearing of flocks and herds, by seafaring and commerce--this +was what the Roman desired from his gods; and it very well accords +with this view, that the god of good faith (-deus fidius-), the +goddess of chance and good luck (-fors fortuna-), and the god of +traffic (-mercurius-), all originating out of their daily dealings, +although not occurring in that ancient table of festivals, appear +very early as adored far and near by the Romans. Strict frugality +and mercantile speculation were rooted in the Roman character too +deeply not to find their thorough reflection in its divine counterpart. + + +Spirits + + +Respecting the world of spirits little can be said. The departed +souls of mortal men, the "good" (-manes-) continued to exist as +shades haunting the spot where the body reposed (-dii inferi-), and +received meat and drink from the survivors. But they dwelt in the +depths beneath, and there was no bridge that led from the lower +world either to men ruling on earth or upward to the gods above. +The hero-worship of the Greeks was wholly foreign to the Romans, +and the late origin and poor invention of the legend as to the +foundation of Rome are shown by the thoroughly unRoman transformation +of king Romulus into the god Quirinus. Numa, the oldest and most +venerable name in Roman tradition, never received the honours of +a god in Rome as Theseus did in Athens. + + +Priests + + +The most ancient priesthoods in the community bore reference to +Mars; especially the priest of the god of the community, nominated +for life, "the kindler of Mars" (-flamen Martialis-) as he was +designated from presenting burnt-offerings, and the twelve "leapers" +(-salii-), a band of young men who in March performed the war-dance +in honour of Mars and accompanied it by song. We have already +explained(5) how the amalgamation of the Hill-community with that +of the Palatine gave rise to the duplication of the Roman Mars, +and thereby to the introduction of a second priest of Mars--the +-flamen Quirinalis- --and a second guild of dancers--the -salii +collini-. + +To these were added other public worships (some of which probably +had an origin far earlier than that of Rome), for which either +single priests were appointed--as those of Carmentis, of Volcanus, +of the god of the harbour and the river--or the celebration of +which was committed to particular colleges or clans in name of the +people. Such a college was probably that of the twelve "field-brethren" +(-fratres arvales-) who invoked the "creative goddess" (-dea dia-) in +May to bless the growth of the seed; although it is very doubtful +whether they already at this period enjoyed that peculiar consideration +which we find subsequently accorded to them in the time of the +empire. These were accompanied by the Titian brotherhood, which +had to preserve and to attend to the distinctive -cultus- of the +Roman Sabines,(6) and by the thirty "curial kindlers" (-flamines +curiales-), instituted for the hearth of the thirty curies. The +"wolf festival" (-lupercalia-) already mentioned was celebrated for +the protection of the flocks and herds in honour of the "favourable +god" (-faunus-) by the Quinctian clan and the Fabii who were +associated with them after the admission of the Hill-Romans, in +the month of February--a genuine shepherds' carnival, in which the +"Wolves" (-luperci-) jumped about naked with a girdle of goatskin, +and whipped with thongs those whom they met. In like manner the +community may be conceived as represented and participating in the +case of other gentile worships. + +To this earliest worship of the Roman community new rites were +gradually added. The most important of these worships had reference +to the city as newly united and virtually founded afresh by the +construction of the great wall and stronghold. In it the highest +and best lovis of the Capitol--that is, the genius of the Roman +people--was placed at the head of all the Roman divinities, and +his "kindler" thenceforth appointed, the -flamen Dialis-, formed +in conjunction with the two priests of Mars the sacred triad +of high-priests. Contemporaneously began the -cultus- of the new +single city-hearth--Vesta--and the kindred -cultus- of the Penates +of the community.(7) Six chaste virgins, daughters as it were of +the household of the Roman people, attended to that pious service, +and had to maintain the wholesome fire of the common hearth always +blazing as an example(8) and an omen to the burgesses. This +worship, half-domestic, half-public, was the most sacred of all in +Rome, and it accordingly was the latest of all the heathen worships +there to give way before the ban of Christianity. The Aventine, +moreover, was assigned to Diana as the representative of the Latin +confederacy,(9) but for that very reason no special Roman priesthood +was appointed for her; and the community gradually became accustomed +to render definite homage to numerous other deified abstractions +by means of general festivals or by representative priesthoods +specially destined for their service; in particular instances--such +as those of the goddess of flowers (-Flora-) and of fruits (-Pomona-)--it +appointed also special -flamines-, so that the number of these was +at length fifteen. But among them they carefully distinguished +those three "great kindlers" (-flamines maiores-), who down to the +latest times could only be taken from the ranks of the old burgesses, +just as the old incorporations of the Palatine and Quirinal -Salii- +always asserted precedence over all the other colleges of priests. +Thus the necessary and stated observances due to the gods of the +community were entrusted once for all by the state to fixed colleges +or regular ministers; and the expense of sacrifices, which was +presumably not inconsiderable, was covered partly by the assignation +of certain lands to particular temples, partly by the fines.(10) + +It cannot be doubted that the public worship of the other Latin, +and presumably also of the Sabellian, communities was essentially +similar in character. At any rate it can be shown that the Flamines, +Salii, Luperci, and Vestales were institutions not special to Rome, +but general among the Latins, and at least the first three colleges +appear to have been formed in the kindred communities independently +of the Roman model. + +Lastly, as the state made arrangements for the cycle of its gods, +so each burgess might make similar arrangements within his individual +sphere, and might not only present sacrifices, but might also +consecrate set places and ministers, to his own divinities. + + +Colleges of Sacred Lore + + +There was thus enough of priesthood and of priests in Rome. Those, +however, who had business with a god resorted to the god, and not +to the priest. Every suppliant and inquirer addressed himself +directly to the divinity--the community of course by the king as its +mouthpiece, just as the -curia- by the -curio- and the -equites-by +their colonels; no intervention of a priest was allowed to conceal +or to obscure this original and simple relation. But it was no +easy matter to hold converse with a god. The god had his own way +of speaking, which was intelligible only to the man acquainted +with it; but one who did rightly understand it knew not only how +to ascertain, but also how to manage, the will of the god, and even +in case of need to overreach or to constrain him. It was natural, +therefore, that the worshipper of the god should regularly consult +such men of skill and listen to their advice; and thence arose +the corporations or colleges of men specially skilled in religious +lore, a thoroughly national Italian institution, which had a far +more important influence on political development than the individual +priests and priesthoods. These colleges have been often, but +erroneously, confounded with the priesthoods. The priesthoods +were charged with the worship of a specific divinity; the skilled +colleges, on the other hand, were charged with the preservation of +traditional rules regarding those more general religious observances, +the proper fulfilment of which implied a certain amount of knowledge +and rendered it necessary that the state in its own interest should +provide for the faithful transmission of that knowledge. These +close corporations supplying their own vacancies, of course from +the ranks of the burgesses, became in this way the depositaries of +skilled arts and sciences. + + +Augurs--Pontifices + + +Under the Roman constitution and that of the Latin communities in +general there were originally but two such colleges; that of the +augurs and that of the Pontifices.(11) + +The six "bird-carriers" (-augures-) were skilled in interpreting +the language of the gods from the flight of birds; an art which was +prosecuted with great earnestness and reduced to a quasi-scientific +system. The six "bridge-builders" (-Pontifices-) derived their +name from their function, as sacred as it was politically important, +of conducting the building and demolition of the bridge over the +Tiber. They were the Roman engineers, who understood the mystery +of measures and numbers; whence there devolved upon them also the +duty of managing the calendar of the state, of proclaiming to the +people the time of new and full moon and the days of festivals, and +of seeing that every religious and every judicial act took place +on the right day. As they had thus an especial supervision of all +religious observances, it was to them in case of need--on occasion +of marriage, testament, and -adrogatio- --that the preliminary +question was addressed, whether the business proposed did not in +any respect offend against divine law; and it was they who fixed +and promulgated the general exoteric precepts of ritual, which +were known under the name of the "royal laws." Thus they acquired +(although not probably to the full extent till after the abolition +of the monarchy) the general oversight of Roman worship and of +whatever was connected with it--and what was there that was not so +connected? They themselves described the sum of their knowledge +as "the science of things divine and human." In fact the rudiments +of spiritual and temporal jurisprudence as well as of historical +recording proceeded from this college. For all writing of history +was associated with the calendar and the book of annals; and, as +from the organization of the Roman courts of law no tradition could +originate in these courts themselves, it was necessary that the +knowledge of legal principles and procedure should be traditionally +preserved in the college of the Pontifices, which alone was competent +to give an opinion respecting court-days and questions of religious +law. + + +Fetiales + + +By the side of these two oldest and most eminent corporations of men +versed in spiritual lore may be to some extent ranked the college +of the twenty state-heralds (-fetiales-, of uncertain derivation), +destined as a living repository to preserve traditionally the +remembrance of the treaties concluded with neighbouring communities, +to pronounce an authoritative opinion on alleged infractions of +treaty-rights, and in case of need to attempt reconciliation or +declare war. They had precisely the same position with reference +to international, as the Pontifices had with reference to religious, +law; and were therefore, like the latter, entitled to point out +the law, although not to administer it. + +But in however high repute these colleges were, and important and +comprehensive as were the functions assigned to them, it was never +forgotten--least of all in the case of those which held the highest +position--that their duty was not to command, but to tender skilled +advice, not directly to obtain the answer of the gods, but to +explain the answer when obtained to the inquirer. Thus the highest +of the priests was not merely inferior in rank to the king, but +might not even give advice to him unasked. It was the province of +the king to determine whether and when he would take an observation +of birds; the "bird-seer" simply stood beside him and interpreted +to him, when necessary, the language of the messengers of heaven. +In like manner the Fetialis and the Pontifex could not interfere in +matters of international or common law except when those concerned +therewith desired it. The Romans, notwithstanding all their zeal +for religion, adhered with unbending strictness to the principle +that the priest ought to remain completely powerless in the state +and--excluded from all command-- ought like any other burgess to +render obedience to the humblest magistrate. + + +Character of the -Cultus- + + +The Latin worship was grounded essentially on man's enjoyment of +earthly pleasures, and only in a subordinate degree on his fear +of the wild forces of nature; it consisted pre-eminently therefore +in expressions of joy, in lays and songs, in games and dances, and +above all in banquets. In Italy, as everywhere among agricultural +tribes whose ordinary food consists of vegetables, the slaughter +of cattle was at once a household feast and an act of worship: a +pig was the most acceptable offering to the gods, just because it +was the usual roast for a feast. But all extravagance of expense +as well as all excess of rejoicing was inconsistent with the solid +character of the Romans. Frugality in relation to the gods was +one of the most prominent traits of the primitive Latin worship; +and the free play of imagination was repressed with iron severity +by the moral self-discipline which the nation maintained. In +consequence the Latins remained strangers to the excesses which +grow out of unrestrained indulgence. At the very core of the Latin +religion there lay that profound moral impulse which leads men to +bring earthly guilt and earthly punishment into relation with the +world of the gods, and to view the former as a crime against the +gods, and the latter as its expiation. The execution of the criminal +condemned to death was as much an expiatory sacrifice offered to +the divinity as was the killing of an enemy in just war; the thief +who by night stole the fruits of the field paid the penalty to +Ceres on the gallows just as the enemy paid it to mother earth and +the good spirits on the field of battle. The profound and fearful +idea of substitution also meets us here: when the gods of the +community were angry and nobody could be laid hold of as definitely +guilty, they might be appeased by one who voluntarily gave himself +up (-devovere se-); noxious chasms in the ground were closed, +and battles half lost were converted into victories, when a brave +burgess threw himself as an expiatory offering into the abyss or +upon the foe. The "sacred spring" was based on a similar view; +all the offspring whether of cattle or of men within a specified +period were presented to the gods. If acts of this nature are to +be called human sacrifices, then such sacrifices belonged to the +essence of the Latin faith; but we are bound to add that, far back +as our view reaches into the past, this immolation, so far as life +was concerned, was limited to the guilty who had been convicted +before a civil tribunal, or to the innocent who voluntarily chose +to die. Human sacrifices of a different description run counter +to the fundamental idea of a sacrificial act, and, wherever they +occur among the Indo-Germanic stocks at least, are based on later +degeneracy and barbarism. They never gained admission among the +Romans; hardly in a single instance were superstition and despair +induced, even in times of extreme distress, to seek an extraordinary +deliverance through means so revolting. Of belief in ghosts, fear +of enchantments, or dealing in mysteries, comparatively slight +traces are to be found among the Romans. Oracles and prophecy never +acquired the importance in Italy which they obtained in Greece, +and never were able to exercise a serious control over private or +public life. But on the other hand the Latin religion sank into +an incredible insipidity and dulness, and early became shrivelled +into an anxious and dreary round of ceremonies. The god of the +Italian was, as we have already said, above all things an instrument +for helping him to the attainment of very substantial earthly aims; +this turn was given to the religious views of the Italian by his +tendency towards the palpable and the real, and is no less distinctly +apparent in the saint-worship of the modern inhabitants of Italy. +The gods confronted man just as a creditor confronted his debtor; +each of them had a duly acquired right to certain performances and +payments; and as the number of the gods was as great as the number +of the incidents in earthly life, and the neglect or wrong performance +of the worship of each god revenged itself in the corresponding incident, +it was a laborious and difficult task even to gain a knowledge of +a man's religious obligations, and the priests who were skilled +in the law of divine things and pointed out its requirements--the +-Pontifices- --could not fail to attain an extraordinary influence. +The upright man fulfilled the requirements of sacred ritual with +the same mercantile punctuality with which he met his earthly +obligations, and at times did more than was due, if the god had +done so on his part. Man even dealt in speculation with his god; +a vow was in reality as in name a formal contract between the god +and the man, by which the latter promised to the former for a certain +service to be rendered a certain equivalent return; and the Roman +legal principle that no contract could be concluded by deputy was +not the least important of the reasons on account of which all +priestly mediation remained excluded from the religious concerns +of man in Latium. Nay, as the Roman merchant was entitled, without +injury to his conventional rectitude, to fulfil his contract merely +in the letter, so in dealing with the gods, according to the teaching +of Roman theology, the copy of an object was given and received +instead of the object itself. They presented to the lord of the sky +heads of onions and poppies, that he might launch his lightnings at +these rather than at the heads of men. In payment of the offering +annually demanded by father Tiber, thirty puppets plaited of rushes +were annually thrown into the stream.(12) The ideas of divine mercy +and placability were in these instances inseparably mixed up with +a pious cunning, which tried to delude and to pacify so formidable +a master by means of a sham satisfaction. The Roman fear of the +gods accordingly exercised powerful influence over the minds of the +multitude; but it was by no means that sense of awe in the presence +of an all-controlling nature or of an almighty God, that lies at the +foundation of the views of pantheism and monotheism respectively; +on the contrary, it was of a very earthly character, and scarcely +different in any material respect from the trembling with which the +Roman debtor approached his just, but very strict and very powerful +creditor. It is plain that such a religion was fitted rather to +stifle than to foster artistic and speculative views. When the +Greek had clothed the simple thoughts of primitive times with human +flesh and blood, the ideas of the gods so formed not only became +the elements of plastic and poetic art, but acquired also that +universality and elasticity which are the profoundest characteristics +of human nature and for this very reason are essential to all +religions that aspire to rule the world. Through such means the +simple view of nature became expanded into the conception of a +cosmogony, the homely moral notion became enlarged into a principle +of universal humanity; and for a long period the Greek religion +was enabled to embrace within it the physical and metaphysical +views--the whole ideal development of the nation--and to expand +in depth and breadth with the increase of its contents, until +imagination and speculation rent asunder the vessel which had +nursed them. But in Latium the embodiment of the conceptions of +deity continued so wholly transparent that it afforded no opportunity +for the training either of artist or poet, and the Latin religion +always held a distant and even hostile attitude towards art As the +god was not and could not be aught else than the spiritualizattion +of an earthly phenomenon, this same earthly counterpart naturally +formed his place of abode (-templum-) and his image; walls and +effigies made by the hands of men seemed only to obscure and to +embarrass the spiritual conception. Accordingly the original Roman +worship had no images of the gods or houses set apart for them; +and although the god was at an early period worshipped in Latium, +probably in imitation of the Greeks, by means of an image, and +had a little chapel (-aedicula-) built for him, such a figurative +representation was reckoned contrary to the laws of Numa and was +generally regarded as an impure and foreign innovation. The Roman +religion could exhibit no image of a god peculiar to it, with the +exception, perhaps, of the double-headed Ianus; and Varro even +in his time derided the desire of the multitude for puppets and +effigies. The utter want of productive power in the Roman religion +was likewise the ultimate cause of the thorough poverty which always +marked Roman poetry and still more Roman speculation. + +The same distinctive character was manifest, moreover, in the domain +of its practical use. The practical gain which accrued to the Roman +community from their religion was a code of moral law gradually +developed by the priests, and the -Pontifices- in particular, +which on the one hand supplied the place of police regulations +at a time when the state was still far from providing any direct +police-guardianship for its citizens, and on the other hand brought +to the bar of the gods and visited with divine penalties the breach +of moral obligations. To the regulations of the former class +belonged the religious inculcation of a due observance of holidays +and of a cultivation of the fields and vineyards according to the +rules of good husbandry--which we shall have occasion to notice +more fully in the sequel--as well as the worship of the heath or +of the Lares which was connected with considerations of sanitary +police,(13) and above all the practice of burning the bodies of +the dead, adopted among the Romans at a singularly early period, +far earlier than among the Greeks--a practice implying a rational +conception of life and of death, which was foreign to primitive +times and is even foreign to ourselves at the present day. It must +be reckoned no small achievement that the national religion of the +Latins was able to carry out these and similar improvements. But +the civilizing effect of this law was still more important. If +a husband sold his wife, or a father sold his married son; if a +child struck his father, or a daughter-in-law her father-in-law; +if a patron violated his obligation to keep faith with his guest +or dependent; if an unjust neighbour displaced a boundary-stone, or +the thief laid hands by night on the grain entrusted to the common +good faith; the burden of the curse of the gods lay thenceforth +on the head of the offender. Not that the person thus accursed +(-sacer-) was outlawed; such an outlawry, inconsistent in its +nature with all civil order, was only an exceptional occurrence--an +aggravation of the religious curse in Rome at the time of the quarrels +between the orders. It was not the province of the individual +burgess, or even of the wholly powerless priest, to carry into +effect such a divine curse. Primarily the person thus accursed +became liable to the divine penal judgment, not to human caprice; +and the pious popular faith, on which that curse was based, must +have had power even over natures frivolous and wicked. But the +banning was not confined to this; the king was in reality entitled +and bound to carry the ban into execution, and, after the fact, on +which the law set its curse, had been according to his conscientious +conviction established, to slay the person under ban, as it were, +as a victim offered up to the injured deity (-supplicium-), and thus +to purify the community from the crime of the individual. If the +crime was of a minor nature, for the slaying of the guilty there +was substituted a ransom through the presenting of a sacrificial +victim or of similar gifts. Thus the whole criminal law rested as +to its ultimate basis on the religious idea of expiation. + +But religion performed no higher service in Latium than the furtherance +of civil order and morality by such means as these. In this field +Hellas had an unspeakable advantage over Latium; it owed to its +religion not merely its whole intellectual development, but also +its national union, so far as such an union was attained at all; +the oracles and festivals of the gods, Delphi and Olympia, and the +Muses, daughters of faith, were the centres round which revolved all +that was great in Hellenic life and all in it that was the common +heritage of the nation. And yet even here Latium had, as compared +with Hellas, its own advantages. The Latin religion, reduced +as it was to the level of ordinary perception, was completely +intelligible to every one and accessible in common to all; and +therefore the Roman community preserved the equality of its citizens, +while Hellas, where religion rose to the level of the highest +thought, had from the earliest times to endure all the blessing +and curse of an aristocracy of intellect. The Latin religion like +every other had its origin in the effort of faith to fathom the +infinite; it is only to a superficial view, which is deceived as to +the depth of the stream because it is clear, that its transparent +spirit-world can appear to be shallow. This fervid faith disappeared +with the progress of time as necessarily as the dew of morning +disappears before the rising sun, and thus the Latin religion came +subsequently to wither; but the Latins preserved their simplicity +of belief longer than most peoples and longer especially than the +Greeks. As colours are effects of light and at the same time dim +it, so art and science are not merely the creations but also the +destroyers of faith; and, much as this process at once of development +and of destruction is swayed by necessity, by the same law of +nature certain results have been reserved to the epoch of early +simplicity--results which subsequent epochs make vain endeavours +to attain. The mighty intellectual development of the Hellenes, +which created their religious and literary unity (ever imperfect +as that unity was), was the very thing that made it impossible +for them to attain to a genuine political union; they sacrificed +thereby the simplicity, the flexibility, the self-devotion, the +power of amalgamation, which constitute the conditions of any such +union. It is time therefore to desist from that childish view of +history which believes that it can commend the Greeks only at the +expense of the Romans, or the Romans only at the expense of the +Greeks; and, as we allow the oak to hold its own beside the rose, +so should we abstain from praising or censuring the two noblest +organizations which antiquity has produced, and comprehend the truth +that their distinctive excellences have a necessary connection with +their respective defects. The deepest and ultimate reason of the +diversity between the two nations lay beyond doubt in the fact that +Latium did not, and that Hellas did, during the season of growth +come into contact with the East. No people on earth was great +enough by its own efforts to create either the marvel of Hellenic +or at a later period the marvel of Christian culture; history +has produced these most brilliant results only where the ideas of +Aramaic religion have sunk into an Indo-Germanic soil. But if for +this reason Hellas is the prototype of purely human, Latium is not +less for all time the prototype of national, development; and it +is the duty of us their successors to honour both and to learn from +both. + + +Foreign Worships + + +Such was the nature and such the influence of the Roman religion +in its pure, unhampered, and thoroughly national development. Its +national character was not infringed by the fact that, from the +earliest times, modes and systems of worship were introduced from +abroad; no more than the bestowal of the rights of citizenship on +individual foreigners denationalized the Roman state. An exchange +of gods as well as of goods with the Latins in older time must +have been a matter of course; the transplantation to Rome of gods +and worships belonging to less cognate races is more remarkable. +Of the distinctive Sabine worship maintained by the Tities we +have already spoken.(14) Whether any conceptions of the gods were +borrowed from Etruria is more doubtful: for the Lases, the older +designation of the genii (from -lascivus-), and Minerva the goddess +of memory (-mens-, -menervare-), which it is customary to describe +as originally Etruscan, were on the contrary, judging from philological +grounds, indigenous to Latium. It is at any rate certain, and in +keeping with all that we otherwise know of Roman intercourse that +the Greek worship received earlier and more extensive attention +in Rome than any other of foreign origin. The Greek oracles +furnished the earliest occasion of its introduction. The language +of the Roman gods was on the whole confined to Yea and Nay or at +the most to the making their will known by the method of casting +lots, which appears in its origin Italian;(15) while from very ancient +times--although not apparently until the impulse was received from +the East--the more talkative gods of the Greeks imparted actual +utterances of prophecy. The Romans made efforts, even at an early +period, to treasure up such counsels, and copies of the leaves of +the soothsaying priestess of Apollo, the Cumaean Sibyl, were accordingly +a highly valued gift on the part of their Greek guest-friends from +Campania. For the reading and interpretation of the fortune-telling +book a special college, inferior in rank only to the augurs and +Pontifices, was instituted in early times, consisting of two men +of lore (-duoviri sacris faciundis-), who were furnished at the +expense of the state with two slaves acquainted with the Greek +language. To these custodiers of oracles the people resorted in +cases of doubt, when an act of worship was needed in order to avoid +some impending evil and they did not know to which of the gods or +with what rites it was to be performed. But Romans in search of +advice early betook themselves also to the Delphic Apollo himself. +Besides the legends relating to such an intercourse already +mentioned,(16) it is attested partly by the reception of the word +-thesaurus- so closely connected with the Delphic oracle into all +the Italian languages with which we are acquainted, and partly by +the oldest Roman form of the name of Apollo, -Aperta-, the "opener," +an etymologizing alteration of the Doric Apellon, the antiquity of +which is betrayed by its very barbarism. The Greek Herakles was +naturalized in Italy as Herclus, Hercoles, Hercules, at an early +period and under a peculiar conception of his character, apparently +in the first instance as the god of gains of adventure and of any +extraordinary increase of wealth; for which reason the general was +wont to present the tenth of the spoil which he had procured, and +the merchant the tenth of the substance which he had obtained, to +Hercules at the chief altar (-ara maxima-) in the cattle-market. +Accordingly he became the god of mercantile covenants generally, +which in early times were frequently concluded at this altar and +confirmed by oath, and in so far was identified with the old Latin +god of good faith (-deus fidius-). The worship of Hercules was +from an early date among the most widely diffused; he was, to use +the words of an ancient author, adored in every hamlet of Italy, +and altars were everywhere erected to him in the streets of the +cities and along the country roads. The gods also of the mariner, +Castor and Polydeukes or, in Roman form, Pollux, the god of traffic +Hermes--the Roman Mercurius--and the god of healing, Asklapios or +Aesculapius, became early known to the Romans, although their public +worship only began at a later period. The name of the festival +of the "good goddess" (-bona dea-) -damium-, corresponding to the +Greek --damion-- or --deimion--, may likewise reach back as far as +this epoch. It must be the result also of ancient borrowing, that +the old -Liber pater- of the Romans was afterwards conceived as +"father deliverer" and identified with the wine-god of the Greeks, +the "releaser" (-Lyaeos-), and that the Roman god of the lower +regions was called the "dispenser of riches" (-Pluto- - -Dis pater-), +while his spouse Persephone became converted at once by change of +the initial sound and by transference of the idea into the Roman +Proserpina, that is, "germinatrix." Even the goddess of the +Romano-Latin league, Diana of the Aventine, seems to have been +copied from the federal goddess of the lonians of Asia Minor, the +Ephesian Artemis; at least her carved image in the Roman temple +was formed after the Ephesian type.(17) It was in this way alone, +through the myths of Apollo, Dionysus, Pluto, Herakles, and Artemis, +which were early pervaded by Oriental ideas, that the Aramaic +religion exercised at this period a remote and indirect influence +on Italy. We clearly perceive from these facts that the introduction +of the Greek religion was especially due to commercial intercourse, +and that it was traders and mariners who primarily brought the +Greek gods to Italy. + +These individual cases however of derivation from abroad were but +of secondary moment, while the remains of the natural symbolism +of primeval times, of which the legend of the oxen of Cacus may +perhaps be a specimen,(18) had virtually disappeared. In all its +leading features the Roman religion was an organic creation of the +people among whom we find it. + + +Religion of the Sabellians + + +The Sabellian and Umbrian worship, judging from the little we know +of it, rested upon quite the same fundamental views as the Latin +with local variations of colour and form. That it was different +from the Latin is very distinctly apparent from the founding +of a special college at Rome for the preservation of the Sabine +rites;(19) but that very fact affords an instructive illustration +of the nature of the difference. Observation of the flight of +birds was with both stocks the regular mode of consulting the gods; +but the Tities observed different birds from the Ramnian augurs. +Similar relations present themselves, wherever we have opportunity +of comparing them. Both stocks in common regarded the gods as +abstractions of the earthly and as of an impersonal nature; they +differed in expression and ritual. It was natural that these +diversities should appear of importance to the worshippers of those +days; we are no longer able to apprehend what was the characteristic +distinction, if any really existed. + + +Religion of the Etruscans + + +But the remains of the sacred ritual of the Etruscans that have +reached us are marked by a different spirit. Their prevailing +characteristics are a gloomy and withal tiresome mysticism, ringing +the changes on numbers, soothsaying, and that solemn enthroning of +pure absurdity which at all times finds its own circle of devotees. +We are far from knowing the Etruscan worship in such completeness +and purity as we know the Latin; and it is not improbable--indeed +it cannot well be doubted--that several of its features were only +imported into it by the minute subtlety of a later period, and that +the gloomy and fantastic principles, which were most alien to the +Latin worship, are those that have been especially handed down to +us by tradition. But enough still remains to show that the mysticism +and barbarism of this worship had their foundation in the essential +character of the Etruscan people. + +With our very unsatisfactory knowledge we cannot grasp the intrinsic +contrast subsisting between the Etruscan conceptions of deity and +the Italian; but it is clear that the most prominent among the +Etruscan gods were the malignant and the mischievous; as indeed +their worship was cruel, and included in particular the sacrifice +of their captives; thus at Caere they slaughtered the Phocaean, and +at Traquinii the Roman, prisoners. Instead of a tranquil world of +departed "good spirits" ruling peacefully in the realms beneath, +such as the Latins had conceived, the Etruscan religion presented +a veritable hell, in which the poor souls were doomed to be tortured +by mallets and serpents, and to which they were conveyed by the +conductor of the dead, a savage semi-brutal figure of an old man +with wings and a large hammer--a figure which afterwards served in +the gladiatorial games at Rome as a model for the costume of the +man who removed the corpses of the slain from the arena. So fixed +was the association of torture with this condition of the shades, +that there was even provided a redemption from it, which after certain +mysterious offerings transferred the poor soul to the society of +the gods above. It is remarkable that, in order to people their +lower world, the Etruscans early borrowed from the Greeks their +gloomiest notions, such as the doctrine of Acheron and Charon, +which play an important part in the Etruscan discipline. + +But the Etruscan occupied himself above all in the interpretation +of signs and portents. The Romans heard the voice of the gods +in nature; but their bird-seer understood only the signs in their +simplicity, and knew only in general whether the occurrence boded +good or ill. Disturbances of the ordinary course of nature were +regarded by him as boding evil, and put a stop to the business in +hand, as when for example a storm of thunder and lightning dispersed +the comitia; and he probably sought to get rid of them, as, for +example, in the case of monstrous births, which were put to death +as speedily as possible. But beyond the Tiber matters were carried +much further. The profound Etruscan read off to the believer his +future fortunes in detail from the lightning and from the entrails +of animals offered in sacrifice; and the more singular the language +of the gods, the more startling the portent or prodigy, the more +confidently did he declare what they foretold and the means by +which it was possible to avert the mischief. Thus arose the lore +of lightning, the art of inspecting entrails, the interpretation +of prodigies--all of them, and the science of lightning especially, +devised with the hair-splitting subtlety which characterizes the +mind in pursuit of absurdities. A dwarf called Tages with the +figure of a child but with gray hairs, who had been ploughed up +by a peasant in a field near Tarquinii--we might almost fancy that +practices at once so childish and so drivelling had sought to present +in this figure a caricature of themselves--betrayed the secret of +this lore to the Etruscans, and then straightway died. His disciples +and successors taught what gods were in the habit of hurling the +lightning; how the lightning of each god might be recognized by +its colour and the quarter of the heavens whence it came; whether +the lightning boded a permanent state of things or a single event; +and in the latter case whether the event was one unalterably fixed, +or whether it could be up to a certain limit artificially postponed: +how they might convey the lightning away when it struck, or compel +the threatening lightning to strike, and various marvellous arts +of the like kind, with which there was incidentally conjoined no +small desire of pocketing fees. How deeply repugnant this jugglery +was to the Roman character is shown by the fact that, even when +people came at a later period to employ the Etruscan lore in Rome, +no attempt was made to naturalize it; during our present period +the Romans were probably still content with their own, and with +the Greek oracles. + +The Etruscan religion occupied a higher level than the Roman, in +so far as it developed at least the rudiments of what was wholly +wanting among the Romans--a speculation veiled under religious +forms. Over the world and its gods there ruled the veiled gods +(-Dii involuti-), consulted by the Etruscan Jupiter himself; that +world moreover was finite, and, as it had come into being, so was +it again to pass away after the expiry of a definite period of time, +whose sections were the -saecula-. Respecting the intellectual +value which may once have belonged to this Etruscan cosmogony and +philosophy, it is difficult to form a judgment; they appear however +to have been from the very first characterized by a dull fatalism +and an insipid play upon number. + + + + +Notes for Book I Chapter XII + + +1. I. II. Religion + +2. This was, to all appearance, the original nature of the +"morning-mother" or -Mater matuta-; in connection with which we may +recall the circumstance that, as the names Lucius and especially +-Manius- show, the morning hour was reckoned as lucky for birth. +-Mater matuta-probably became a goddess of sea and harbour only +at a later epoch under the influence of the myth of Leucothea; the +fact that the goddess was chiefly worshipped by women tells against +the view that she was originally a harbour-goddess. + +3. From -Maurs-, which is the oldest form handed down by tradition, +there have been developed by different treatment of the -u -Mars-, +-Mavors-, -Mors-; the transition to -o (similar to -Paula-, -Pola-, +and the like) appears also in the double form Mar-Mor (comp. +-Ma-murius-) alongside of -Mar-Mor- and -Ma-Mers-. + +4. The facts, that gates and doors and the morning (-ianus +matutinus-) were sacred to Ianus, and that he was always invoked +before any other god and was even represented in the series of +coins before Jupiter and the other gods, indicate unmistakeably that +he was the abstraction of opening and beginning. The double-head +looking both ways was connected with the gate that opened both ways. +To make him god of the sun and of the year is the less justifiable, +because the month that bears his name was originally the eleventh, +not the first; that month seems rather to have derived its name +from the circumstance, that at this season after the rest of the +middle of winter the cycle of the labours of the field began afresh. +It was, however, a matter of course that the opening of the year +should also be included in the sphere of Ianus, especially after +Ianuarius came to be placed at its head. + +5. I. IV. Tities and Luceres + +6. I. VI. Amalgamation of the Palatine and Quirinal Cities + +7. I. VII. Servian Wall + +8. I. III. Latium + +9. I. VII. Relation of Rome to Latium + +10. I. V. Burdens of the Burgesses, I. XI. Crimes + +11. The clearest evidence of this is the fact, that in the +communities organized on the Latin scheme augurs and Pontifices +occur everywhere (e. g. Cic. de Lege Agr. ii. 35, 96, and numerous +inscriptions), as does likewise the -pater patratus- of the Fetiales +in Laurentum (Orelli, 2276), but the other colleges do not. The +former, therefore, stand on the same footing with the constitution of +ten curies and the Flamines, Salii, and Luperci, as very ancient +heirlooms of the Latin stock; whereas the Duoviri -sacris faciundis-, +and the other colleges, like the thirty curies and the Servian tribes +and centuries, originated in, and remained therefore confined to, +Rome. But in the case of the second college--the pontifices--the +influence of Rome probably led to the introduction of that name +into the general Latin scheme instead of some earlier--perhaps +more than one--designation; or--a hypothesis which philologically +has much in its favour-- -pons- originally signified not "bridge," +but "way" generally, and -pontifex- therefore meant "constructor +of ways." + +The statements regarding the original number of the augurs in +particular vary. The view that it was necessary for the number to +be an odd one is refuted by Cicero (de Lege Agr. ii. 35, 96); and +Livy (x. 6) does not say so, but only states that the number of +Roman augurs had to be divisible by three, and so must have had +an odd number as its basis. According to Livy (l. c.) the number +was six down to the Ogulnian law, and the same is virtually +affirmed by Cicero (de Rep. ii. 9, 14) when he represents Romulus +as instituting four, and Numa two, augural stalls. On the number +of the pontifices comp. Staatsrecht, ii. 20. + +12. It is only an unreflecting misconception that can discover +in this usage a reminiscence of ancient human sacrifices. + +13. I. XII. Nature of the Roman Gods + +14. I. XII. Priests + +15. -Sors- from -serere-, to place in row. The -sortes- were +probably small wooden tablets arranged upon a string, which when +thrown formed figures of various kinds; an arrangement which puts +one in mind of the Runic characters. + +16. I. X. Hellenes and Latins + +17. I. VII. Servian Wall + +18. I. II. Indo-Germanic Culture + +19. I. IV. Tities and Luceres + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +Agriculture, Trade, and Commerce + + + +Agriculture and commerce are so intimately bound up with the +constitution and the external history of states, that the former +must frequently be noticed in the course of describing the latter. +We shall here endeavour to supplement the detached notices which +we have already given, by exhibiting a summary view of Italian and +particularly of Roman economics. + + +Agriculture + + +It has been already observed(1) that the transition from a pastoral +to an agricultural economy preceded the immigration of the Italians +into the peninsula. Agriculture continued to be the main support +of all the communities in Italy, of the Sabellians and Etruscans +no less than of the Latins. There were no purely pastoral tribes +in Italy during historical times, although of course the various +races everywhere combined pastoral husbandry, to a greater or less +extent according to the nature of the locality, with the cultivation +of the soil. The beautiful custom of commencing the formation of +new cities by tracing a furrow with the plough along the line of +the future ring-wall shows how deeply rooted was the feeling that +every commonwealth is dependent on agriculture. In the case of +Rome in particular--and it is only in its case that we can speak of +agrarian relations with any sort of certainty--the Servian reform +shows very clearly not only that the agricultural class originally +preponderated in the state, but also that an effort was made +permanently to maintain the collective body of freeholders as the +pith and marrow of the community. When in the course of time a +large portion of the landed property in Rome had passed into the +hands of non-burgesses and thus the rights and duties of burgesses +were no longer bound up with freehold property, the reformed +constitution obviated this incongruous state of things, and the +perils which it threatened, not merely temporarily but permanently, +by treating the members of the community without reference to their +political position once for all according to their freeholding, +and imposing the common burden of war-service on the freeholders--a +step which in the natural course of things could not but be followed +by the concession of public rights. The whole policy of Roman war +and conquest rested, like the constitution itself, on the basis of +the freehold system; as the freeholder alone was of value in the +state, the aim of war was to increase the number of its freehold +members. The vanquished community was either compelled to +merge entirely into the yeomanry of Rome, or, if not reduced to +this extremity, it was required, not to pay a war-contribution or +a fixed tribute, but to cede a portion, usually a third part, of +its domain, which was thereupon regularly occupied by Roman farms. +Many nations have gained victories and made conquests as the Romans +did; but none has equalled the Roman in thus making the ground +he had won his own by the sweat of his brow, and in securing by +the ploughshare what had been gained by the lance. That which is +gained by war may be wrested from the grasp by war again, but it +is not so with the conquests made by the plough; while the Romans +lost many battles, they scarcely ever on making peace ceded Roman +soil, and for this result they were indebted to the tenacity with +which the farmers clung to their fields and homesteads. The strength +of man and of the state lies in their dominion over the soil; the +greatness of Rome was built on the most extensive and immediate +mastery of her citizens over her soil, and on the compact unity of +the body which thus acquired so firm a hold. + + +System of Joint Cultivation + + +We have already indicated(2) that in the earliest times the arable +land was cultivated in common, probably by the several clans; each +clan tilled its own land, and thereafter distributed the produce +among the several households belonging to it. There exists indeed +an intimate connection between the system of joint tillage and the +clan form of society, and even subsequently in Rome joint residence +and joint management were of very frequent occurrence in the case +of co-proprietors.(3) Even the traditions of Roman law furnish +the information that wealth consisted at first in cattle and the +usufruct of the soil, and that it was not till later that land +came to be distributed among the burgesses as their own special +property.(4) Better evidence that such was the case is afforded +by the earliest designation of wealth as "cattle-stock" or +"slave-and-cattle-stock" (-pecunia-, -familia pecuniaque-), and of +the separate possessions of the children of the household and of +slaves as "small cattle" (-peculium-) also by the earliest form +of acquiring property through laying hold of it with the hand +(-mancipatio-), which was only appropriate to the case of moveable +articles;(5) and above all by the earliest measure of "land of one's +own" (-heredium-, from -herus-lord), consisting of two -jugera- +(about an acre and a quarter), which can only have applied to +garden-ground, and not to the hide.(6) When and how the distribution +of the arable land took place, can no longer be ascertained. This +much only is certain, that the oldest form of the constitution was +based not on freehold settlement, but on clanship as a substitute +for it, whereas the Servian constitution presupposes the distribution +of the land. It is evident from the same constitution that the +great bulk of the landed property consisted of middle-sized farms, +which provided work and subsistence for a family and admitted of +the keeping of cattle for tillage as well as of the application of +the plough. The ordinary extent of such a Roman full hide has not +been ascertained with precision, but can scarcely, as has already +been shown,(7) be estimated at less than twenty -jugera-(12 1/2 +acres nearly). + + +Culture of Grain + + +Their husbandry was mainly occupied with the culture of the cereals. +The usual grain was spelt (-far-);(8) but different kinds of pulse, +roots, and vegetables were also diligently cultivated. + + +Culture of the Vine + + +That the culture of the vine was not introduced for the first time +into Italy by Greek settlers,(9) is shown by the list of the festivals +of the Roman community which reaches back to a time preceding the +Greeks, and which presents three wine-festivals to be celebrated in +honour of "father Jovis," not in honour of the wine-god of more +recent times who was borrowed from the Greeks, the "father deliverer." +The very ancient legend which represents Mezentius king of Caere as +levying a wine-tax from the Latins or the Rutuli, and the various +versions of the widely-spread Italian story which affirms that the +Celts were induced to cross the Alps in consequence of their coming +to the knowledge of the noble fruits of Italy, especially of the +grape and of wine, are indications of the pride of the Latins in +their glorious vine, the envy of all their neighbours. A careful +system of vine-husbandry was early and generally inculcated by the +Latin priests. In Rome the vintage did not begin until the supreme +priest of the community, the -flamen- of Jupiter, had granted +permission for it and had himself made a beginning; in like manner a +Tusculan ordinance forbade the sale of new wine, until the priest +had proclaimed the festival of opening the casks. The early +prevalence of the culture of the vine is likewise attested not +only by the general adoption of wine-libations in the sacrificial +ritual, but also by the precept of the Roman priests promulgated +as a law of king Numa, that men should present in libation to the +gods no wine obtained from uncut grapes; just as, to introduce +the beneficial practice of drying the grain, they prohibited the +offering of grain undried. + + +Culture of the Olive + + +The culture of the olive was of later introduction, and certainly +was first brought to Italy by the Greeks.(10) The olive is said to +have been first planted on the shores of the western Mediterranean +towards the close of the second century of the city; and this view +accords with the fact that the olive-branch and the olive occupy +in the Roman ritual a place very subordinate to the juice of the +vine. The esteem in which both noble trees were held by the Romans +is shown by the vine and the olive-tree which were planted in the +middle of the Forum, not far from the Curtian lake. + + +The Fig + + +The principal fruit-tree planted was the nutritious fig, which was +probably a native of Italy. The legend of the origin of Rome wove +its threads most closely around the old fig-trees, several of which +stood near to and in the Roman Forum.(11) + + +Management of the Farm + + +It was the farmer and his sons who guided the plough, and performed +generally the labours of husbandry: it is not probable that slaves +or free day-labourers were regularly employed in the work of +the ordinary farm. The plough was drawn by the ox or by the cow; +horses, asses, and mules served as beasts of burden. The rearing +of cattle for the sake of meat or of milk did not exist at all as +a distinct branch of husbandry, or was prosecuted only to a very +limited extent, at least on the land which remained the property of +the clan; but, in addition to the smaller cattle which were driven +out together to the common pasture, swine and poultry, particularly +geese, were kept at the farm-yard. As a general rule, there was no +end of ploughing and re-ploughing: a field was reckoned imperfectly +tilled, in which the furrows were not drawn so close that harrowing +could be dispensed with; but the management was more earnest than +intelligent, and no improvement took place in the defective plough +or in the imperfect processes of reaping and of threshing. This +result is probably attributable rather to the scanty development +of rational mechanics than to the obstinate clinging of the farmers +to use and wont; for mere kindly attachment to the system of tillage +transmitted with the patrimonial soil was far from influencing the +practical Italian, and obvious improvements in agriculture, such +as the cultivation of fodder-plants and the irrigation of meadows, +may have been early adopted from neighbouring peoples or independently +developed--Roman literature itself in fact began with the discussion +of the theory of agriculture. Welcome rest followed diligent and +judicious labour; and here too religion asserted her right to soothe +the toils of life even to the humble by pauses for recreation and +for freer human movement and intercourse. Every eighth day (-nonae-), +and therefore on an average four times a month, the farmer went +to town to buy and sell and transact his other business. But rest +from labour, in the strict sense, took place only on the several +festival days, and especially in the holiday-month after the completion +of the winter sowing (-feriae sementivae-): during these set times +the plough rested by command of the gods, and not the farmer only, +but also his slave and his ox, reposed in holiday idleness. + +Such, probably, was the way in which the ordinary Roman farm was +cultivated in the earliest times. The next heirs had no protection +against bad management except the right of having the spendthrift +who squandered his inherited estate placed under wardship as if he +were a lunatic.(12) Women moreover were in substance divested of +their personal right of disposal, and, if they married, a member +of the same clan was ordinarily assigned as husband, in order to +retain the estate within the clan. The law sought to check the +overburdening of landed property with debt partly by ordaining, in +the case of a debt secured over the land, the provisional transference +of the ownership of the object pledged from the debtor to the +creditor, partly, in the case of a simple loan, by the rigour of the +proceedings in execution which speedily led to actual bankruptcy; +the latter means however, as the sequel will show, attained its +object but very imperfectly. No restriction was imposed by law on +the free divisibility of property. Desirable as it might be that +co-heirs should remain in the undivided possession of their heritage, +even the oldest law was careful to keep the power of dissolving +such a partnership open at any time to any partner; it was good that +brethren should dwell together in peace, but to compel them to do +so was foreign to the liberal spirit of Roman law. The Servian +constitution moreover shows that even in the regal period of Rome +there were not wanting cottagers and garden-proprietors, with whom +the mattock took the place of the plough. It was left to custom and +the sound sense of the population to prevent excessive subdivision +of the soil; and that their confidence in this respect was not +misplaced and the landed estates ordinarily remained entire, is +proved by the universal Roman custom of designating them by permanent +individual names. The community exercised only an indirect influence +in the matter by the sending forth of colonies, which regularly led +to the establishment of a number of new full hides, and frequently +doubtless also to the suppression of a number of cottage holdings, +the small landholders being sent forth as colonists. + + +Landed Proprietors + + +It is far more difficult to perceive how matters stood with landed +property on a larger scale. The fact that such larger properties +existed to no inconsiderable extent, cannot be doubted from the +early development of the -equites-, and may be easily explained +partly by the distribution of the clan-lands, which of itself +could not but call into existence a class of larger landowners +in consequence of the necessary inequality in the numbers of +the persons belonging to the several clans and participating in +the distribution, and partly by the abundant influx of mercantile +capital to Rome. But farming on a large scale in the proper +sense, implying a considerable establishment of slaves, such as we +afterwards meet with at Rome, cannot be supposed to have existed +during this period. On the contrary, to this period we must refer +the ancient definition, which represents the senators as called +fathers from the fields which they parcelled out among the common +people as a father among his children; and originally the landowner +must have distributed that portion of his land which he was unable +to farm in person, or even his whole estate, into little parcels +among his dependents to be cultivated by them, as is the general +practice in Italy at the present day. The recipient might be the +house-child or slave of the granter; if he was a free man, his +position was that which subsequently went by the name of "occupancy +on sufferance" (-precarium-). The recipient retained his occupancy +during the pleasure of the granter, and had no legal means of +protecting himself in possession against him; on the contrary, the +granter could eject him at any time when he pleased. The relation +did not necessarily involve any payment on the part of the person +who had the usufruct of the soil to its proprietor; but such +a payment beyond doubt frequently took place and may, as a rule, +have consisted in the delivery of a portion of the produce. The +relation in this case approximated to the lease of subsequent times, +but remained always distinguished from it partly by the absence of +a fixed term for its expiry, partly by its non-actionable character +on either side and the legal protection of the claim for rent depending +entirely on the lessor's right of ejection. It is plain that it +was essentially a relation based on mutual fidelity, which could +not subsist without the help of the powerful sanction of custom +consecrated by religion; and this was not wanting. The institution +of clientship, altogether of a moral-religious nature, beyond +doubt rested fundamentally on this assignation of the profits of +the soil. Nor was the introduction of such an assignation dependent +on the abolition of the system of common tillage; for, just as +after this abolition the individual, so previous to it the clan +might grant to dependents a joint use of its lands; and beyond +doubt with this very state of things was connected the fact that +the Roman clientship was not personal, but that from the outset +the client along with his clan entrusted himself for protection +and fealty to the patron and his clan. This earliest form of Roman +landholding serves to explain how there sprang from the great +landlords in Rome a landed, and not an urban, nobility. As the +pernicious institution of middlemen remained foreign to the Romans, +the Roman landlord found himself not much less chained to his land +than was the tenant and the farmer; he inspected and took part in +everything himself, and the wealthy Roman esteemed it his highest +praise to be reckoned a good landlord. His house was in the country; +in the city he had only a lodging for the purpose of attending to +his business there, and perhaps of breathing the purer air that +prevailed there during the hot season. Above all, however, these +arrangements furnished a moral basis for the relation between the +upper class and the common people, and so materially lessened its +dangers. The free tenants-on-sufferance, sprung from families of +decayed farmers, dependents, and freedmen, formed the great bulk +of the proletariate,(13) and were not much more dependent on the +landlord than the petty leaseholder inevitably is with reference to +the great proprietor. The slaves tilling the fields for a master +were beyond doubt far less numerous than the free tenants. In all +cases where an immigrant nation has not at once reduced to slavery +a population -en masse-, slaves seem to have existed at first only +to a very limited amount, and consequently free labourers seem to +have played a very different part in the state from that in which +they subsequently appear. In Greece "day-labourers" (--theites--) +in various instances during the earlier period occupy the place +of the slaves of a later age, and in some communities, among the +Locrians for instance, there was no slavery down to historical times. +Even the slave, moreover, was ordinarily of Italian descent; the +Volscian, Sabine, or Etruscan war-captive must have stood in a +different relation towards his master from the Syrian and the Celt +of later times. Besides as a tenant he had in fact, though not +in law, land and cattle, wife and child, as the landlord had, and +after manumission was introduced(14) there was a possibility, not +remote, of working out his freedom. If such then was the footing +on which landholding on a large scale stood in the earliest times, +it was far from being an open sore in the commonwealth; on the +contrary, it was of most material service to it. Not only did it +provide subsistence, although scantier upon the whole, for as many +families in proportion as the intermediate and smaller properties; +but the landlords moreover, occupying a comparatively elevated and +free position, supplied the community with its natural leaders and +rulers, while the agricultural and unpropertied tenants-on-sufferance +furnished the genuine material for the Roman policy of colonization, +without which it never would have succeeded; for while the state +may furnish land to him who has none, it cannot impart to one who +knows nothing of agriculture the spirit and the energy to wield +the plough. + + +Pastoral Husbandry + + +Ground under pasture was not affected by the distribution of the +land. The state, and not the clanship, was regarded as the owner +of the common pastures. It made use of them in part for its +own flocks and herds, which were intended for sacrifice and other +purposes and were always kept up by means of the cattle-fines; and +it gave to the possessors of cattle the privilege of driving them +out upon the common pasture for a moderate payment (-scriptura-). +The right of pasturage on the public domains may have originally +borne some relation -de facto- to the possession of land, but no +connection -de jure- can ever have subsisted in Rome between the +particular hides of land and a definite proportional use of the +common pasture; because property could be acquired even by the +--metoikos--, but the right to use the common pasture was only +granted exceptionally to the --metoikos-- by the royal favour. +At this period, however, the public land seems to have held but +a subordinate place in the national economy generally, for the +original common pasturage was not perhaps very extensive, and the +conquered territory was probably for the most part distributed +immediately as arable land among the clans or at a later period +among individuals. + + +Handicrafts + + +While agriculture was the chief and most extensively prosecuted +occupation in Rome, other branches of industry did not fail to +accompany it, as might be expected from the early development of +urban life in that emporium of the Latins. In fact eight guilds of +craftsmen were numbered among the institutions of king Numa, that +is, among the institutions that had existed in Rome from time +immemorial. These were the flute-blowers, the goldsmiths, the +coppersmiths, the carpenters, the fullers, the dyers, the potters, +and the shoemakers--a list which would substantially exhaust the +class of tradesmen working to order on account of others in the very +early times, when the baking of bread and the professional art of +healing were not yet known and wool was spun into clothing by the +women of the household themselves. It is remarkable that there +appears no special guild of workers in iron. This affords a +fresh confirmation of the fact that the manufacture of iron was of +comparatively late introduction in Latium; and on this account in +matters of ritual down to the latest times copper alone might be +used, e.g. for the sacred plough and the shear-knife of the priests. +These bodies of craftsmen must have been of great importance in +early times for the urban life of Rome and for its position towards +the Latin land--an importance not to be measured by the depressed +condition of Roman handicraft in later times, when it was injuriously +affected by the multitude of artisan-slaves working for their +master or on his account, and by the increased import of articles +of luxury. The oldest lays of Rome celebrated not only the mighty +war-god Mamers, but also the skilled armourer Mamurius, who understood +the art of forging for his fellow-burgesses shields similar to the +divine model shield that had fallen from heaven; Volcanus the god +of fire and of the forge already appears in the primitive list of +Roman festivals.(15) Thus in the earliest Rome, as everywhere, +the arts of forging and of wielding the ploughshare and the sword +went hand in hand, and there was nothing of that arrogant contempt +for handicrafts which we afterwards meet with there. After the +Servian organization, however, imposed the duty of serving in the +army exclusively on the freeholders, the industrial classes were +excluded not by any law, but practically in consequence of their +general want of a freehold qualification, from the privilege of +bearing arms, except in the case of special subdivisions chosen +from the carpenters, coppersmiths, and certain classes of musicians +and attached with a military organization to the army; and this may +perhaps have been the origin of the subsequent habit of depreciating +the manual arts and of the position of political inferiority assigned +to them. The institution of guilds doubtless had the same object +as the colleges of priests that resembled them in name; the men of +skill associated themselves in order more permanently and securely +to preserve the tradition of their art. That there was some mode +of excluding unskilled persons is probable; but no traces are to be +met with either of monopolizing tendencies or of protective steps +against inferior manufactures. There is no aspect, however, of +the life of the Roman people respecting which our information is +so scanty as that of the Roman trades. + + +Inland Commerce of the Italians + + +Italian commerce must, it is obvious, have been limited in the +earliest epoch to the mutual dealings of the Italians themselves. +Fairs (-mercatus-), which must be distinguished from the usual weekly +markets (-nundinae-) were of great antiquity in Latium. Probably +they were at first associated with international gatherings and +festivals, and so perhaps were connected in Rome with the festival +at the federal temple on the Aventine; the Latins, who came for this +purpose to Rome every year on the 13th August, may have embraced +at the same time the opportunity of transacting their business +in Rome and of purchasing what they needed there. A similar and +perhaps still greater importance belonged in the case of Etruria +to the annual general assembly at the temple of Voltumna (perhaps +near Montefiascone) in the territory of Volsinii; it served at the +same time as a fair and was regularly frequented by Roman traders. +But the most important of all the Italian fairs was that which was +held at Soracte in the grove of Feronia, a situation than which +none could be found more favourable for the exchange of commodities +among the three great nations. That high isolated mountain, which +appears to have been set down by nature herself in the midst of the +plain of the Tiber as a goal for the traveller, lay on the boundary +which separated the Etruscan and Sabine lands (to the latter +of which it appears mostly to have belonged), and it was likewise +easily accessible from Latium and Umbria. Roman merchants regularly +made their appearance there, and the wrongs of which they complained +gave rise to many a quarrel with the Sabines. + +Beyond doubt dealings of barter and traffic were carried on at these +fairs long before the first Greek or Phoenician vessel entered the +western sea. When bad harvests had occurred, different districts +supplied each other at these fairs with grain; there, too, they +exchanged cattle, slaves, metals, and whatever other articles were +deemed needful or desirable in those primitive times. Oxen and +sheep formed the oldest medium of exchange, ten sheep being reckoned +equivalent to one ox. The recognition of these objects as universal +legal representatives of value or in other words as money, as well +as the scale of proportion between the large and smaller cattle, +may be traced back--as the recurrence of both especially among the +Germans shows--not merely to the Graeco-Italian period, but beyond +this even to the epoch of a purely pastoral economy.(16) In +Italy, where metal in considerable quantity was everywhere required +especially for agricultural purposes and for armour, but few of its +provinces themselves produced the requisite metals, copper (-aes-) +very early made its appearance alongside of cattle as a second +medium of exchange; and so the Latins, who were poor in copper, +designated valuation itself as "coppering" (-aestimatio-). This +establishment of copper as a general equivalent recognized throughout +the whole peninsula, as well as the simplest numeral signs of +Italian invention to be mentioned more particularly below(17) and +the Italian duodecimal system, may be regarded as traces of this +earliest international intercourse of the Italian peoples while +they still had the peninsula to themselves. + + +Transmarine Traffic of the Italians + + +We have already indicated generally the nature of the influence +exercised by transmarine commerce on the Italians who continued +independent. The Sabellian stocks remained almost wholly unaffected +by it. They were in possession of but a small and inhospitable +belt of coast, and received whatever reached them from foreign +nations--the alphabet for instance--only through the medium of the +Tuscans or Latins; a circumstance which accounts for their want of +urban development. The intercourse of Tarentum with the Apulians +and Messapians appears to have been at this epoch still unimportant. +It was otherwise along the west coast. In Campania the Greeks and +Italians dwelt peacefully side by side, and in Latium, and still +more in Etruria, an extensive and regular exchange of commodities +took place. What were the earliest articles of import, may +be inferred partly from the objects found in the primitive tombs, +particularly those at Caere, partly from indications preserved in +the language and institutions of the Romans, partly and chiefly from +the stimulus given to Italian industry; for of course they bought +foreign manufactures for a considerable time before they began +to imitate them. We cannot determine how far the development of +handicrafts had advanced before the separation of the stocks, or +what progress it thereafter made while Italy remained left to its +own resources; it is uncertain how far the Italian fullers, dyers, +tanners, and potters received their impulse from Greece or Phoenicia +or had their own independent development But certainly the trade +of the goldsmiths, which existed in Rome from time immemorial, can +only have arisen after transmarine commerce had begun and ornaments +of gold had to some extent found sale among the inhabitants of the +peninsula. We find, accordingly, in the oldest sepulchral chambers +of Caere and Vulci in Etruria and of Praeneste in Latium, plates +of gold with winged lions stamped upon them, and similar ornaments +of Babylonian manufacture. It may be a question in reference to +the particular object found, whether it has been introduced from +abroad or is a native imitation; but on the whole it admits of +no doubt that all the west coast of Italy in early times imported +metallic wares from the East. It will be shown still more clearly +in the sequel, when we come to speak of the exercise of art, that +architecture and modelling in clay and metal received a powerful +stimulus in very early times through Greek influence, or, in +other words, that the oldest tools and the oldest models came from +Greece. In the sepulchral chambers just mentioned, besides the +gold ornaments, there were deposited vessels of bluish enamel or +greenish clay, which, judging from the materials and style as well +as from the hieroglyphics impressed upon them, were of Egyptian +origin;(18) perfume-vases of Oriental alabaster, several of them +in the form of Isis; ostrich-eggs with painted or carved sphinxes +and griffins; beads of glass and amber. These last may have come +by the land-route from the north; but the other objects prove the +import of perfumes and articles of ornament of all sorts from the +East. Thence came linen and purple, ivory and frankincense, as is +proved by the early use of linen fillets, of the purple dress and +ivory sceptre for the king, and of frankincense in sacrifice, as +well as by the very ancient borrowed names for them (--linon--, +-linum-; --porphura--, -purpura-; --skeiptron--, --skipon--, -scipio-; +perhaps also --elephas--, -ebur-; --thuos--, -thus-). Of similar +significance is the derivation of a number of words relating to +articles used in eating and drinking, particularly the names of +oil,(19) of jugs (--amphoreus--, -amp(h)ora-, -ampulla-, --krateir--, +-cratera-), of feasting (--komazo--, -comissari-), of a dainty dish +(--opsonion--, -opsonium-) of dough (--maza--, -massa-), and various +names of cakes (--glukons--, -lucuns-; --plakons--, -placenta-; +--turons--, -turunda-); while conversely the Latin names for dishes +(-patina-, --patanei--) and for lard (-arvina-, --arbinei--) have +found admission into Sicilian Greek. The later custom of placing +in the tomb beside the dead Attic, Corcyrean, and Campanian vases +proves, what these testimonies from language likewise show, the +early market for Greek pottery in Italy. That Greek leather-work +made its way into Latium at least in the shape of armour is apparent +from the application of the Greek word for leather --skutos-- to +signify among the Latins a shield (-scutum-; like -lorica-, from +-lorum-). Finally, we deduce a similar inference from the numerous +nautical terms borrowed from the Greek (although it is remarkable +that the chief technical expressions in navigation--the terms +for the sail, mast, and yard--are pure Latin forms);(20) and from +the recurrence in Latin of the Greek designations for a letter +(--epistolei--, -epistula-), a token (-tessera-, from --tessara--(21)), +a balance (--stateir--, -statera-), and earnest-money (--arrabon--, +-arrabo-, -arra-); and conversely from the adoption of Italian +law-terms in Sicilian Greek,(22) as well as from the exchange of +the proportions and names of coins, weights, and measures, which +we shall notice in the sequel. The character of barbarism which +all these borrowed terms obviously present, and especially the +characteristic formation of the nominative from the accusative +(-placenta- = --plakounta--; -ampora- = --amphorea--; -statera-= +--stateira--), constitute the clearest evidence of their great +antiquity. The worship of the god of traffic (-Mercurius-) also +appears to have been from the first influenced by Greek conceptions; +and his annual festival seems even to have been fixed on the ides +of May, because the Hellenic poets celebrated him as the son of +the beautiful Maia. + + +Commerce, in Latium Passive, in Etruria Active + + +It thus appears that Italy in very ancient times derived +its articles of luxury, just as imperial Rome did, from the East, +before it attempted to manufacture for itself after the models which +it imported. In exchange it had nothing to offer except its raw +produce, consisting especially of its copper, silver, and iron, +but including also slaves and timber for shipbuilding, amber from +the Baltic, and, in the event of bad harvests occurring abroad, its +grain. From this state of things as to the commodities in demand +and the equivalents to be offered in return, we have already +explained why Italian traffic assumed in Latium a form so differing +from that which it presented in Etruria. The Latins, who were +deficient in all the chief articles of export, could carry on only +a passive traffic, and were obliged even in the earliest times to +procure the copper of which they had need from the Etruscans in +exchange for cattle or slaves--we have already mentioned the very +ancient practice of selling the latter on the right bank of the +Tiber.(23) On the other hand the Tuscan balance of trade must +have been necessarily favourable in Caere as in Populonia, in Capua +as in Spina. Hence the rapid development of prosperity in these +regions and their powerful commercial position; whereas Latium +remained preeminently an agricultural country. The same contrast +recurs in all their individual relations. The oldest tombs constructed +and furnished in the Greek fashion, but with an extravagance to which +the Greeks were strangers, are to be found at Caere, while--with the +exception of Praeneste, which appears to have occupied a peculiar +position and to have been very intimately connected with Falerii +and southern Etruria--the Latin land exhibits only slight ornaments +for the dead of foreign origin, and not a single tomb of luxury +proper belonging to the earlier times; there as among the Sabellians +a simple turf ordinarily sufficed as a covering for the dead. The +most ancient coins, of a time not much later than those of Magna +Graecia, belong to Etruria, and to Populonia in particular: during +the whole regal period Latium had to be content with copper by +weight, and had not even introduced foreign coins, for the instances +are extremely rare in which such coins (e.g. one of Posidonia) +have been found there. In architecture, plastic art, and embossing, +the same stimulants acted on Etruria and on Latium, but it was only +in the case of the former that capital was everywhere brought to +bear on them and led to their being pursued extensively and with +growing technical skill. The commodities were upon the whole the +same, which were bought, sold, and manufactured in Latium and in +Etruria; but the southern land was far inferior to its northern +neighbours in the energy with which its commerce was plied. The +contrast between them in this respect is shown in the fact that +the articles of luxury manufactured after Greek models in Etruria +found a market in Latium, particularly at Praeneste, and even in +Greece itself, while Latium hardly ever exported anything of the +kind. + + +Etrusco-Attic, and Latino-Sicilian Commerce + + +A distinction not less remarkable between the commerce of the Latins +and that of the Etruscans appears in their respective routes or +lines of traffic. As to the earliest commerce of the Etruscans +in the Adriatic we can hardly do more than express the conjecture +that it was directed from Spina and Atria chiefly to Corcyra. +We have already mentioned(24) that the western Etruscans ventured +boldly into the eastern seas, and trafficked not merely with Sicily, +but also with Greece proper. An ancient intercourse with Attica +is indicated by the Attic clay vases, which are so numerous in the +more recent Etruscan tombs, and had been perhaps even at this time +introduced for other purposes than the already-mentioned decoration +of tombs, while conversely Tyrrhenian bronze candlesticks and gold +cups were articles early in request in Attica. Still more definitely +is such an intercourse indicated by the coins. The silver pieces +of Populonia were struck after the pattern of a very old silver +piece stamped on one side with the Gorgoneion, on the other merely +presenting an incuse square, which has been found at Athens and +on the old amber-route in the district of Posen, and which was in +all probability the very coin struck by order of Solon in Athens. +We have mentioned already that the Etruscans had also dealings, and +perhaps after the development of the Etrusco-Carthaginian maritime +alliance their principal dealings, with the Carthaginians. It is +a remarkable circumstance that in the oldest tombs of Caere, besides +native vessels of bronze and silver, there have been found chiefly +Oriental articles, which may certainly have come from Greek merchants, +but more probably were introduced by Phoenician traders. We must +not, however, attribute too great importance to this Phoenician trade, +and in particular we must not overlook the fact that the alphabet, +as well as the other influences that stimulated and matured native +culture, were brought to Etruria by the Greeks, and not by the +Phoenicians. + +Latin commerce assumed a different direction. Rarely as we have +opportunity of instituting comparisons between the Romans and the +Etruscans as regards the reception of Hellenic elements, the cases +in which such comparisons can be instituted exhibit the two nations +as completely independent of each other. This is most clearly +apparent in the case of the alphabet. The Greek alphabet brought +to the Etruscans from the Chalcidico-Doric colonies in Sicily or +Campania varies not immaterially from that which the Latins derived +from the same quarter, so that, although both peoples have drawn +from the same source, they have done so at different times and +different places. The same phenomenon appears in particular words: +the Roman Pollux and the Tuscan Pultuke are independent corruptions +of the Greek Polydeukes; the Tuscan Utuze or Uthuze is formed from +Odysseus, the Roman Ulixes is an exact reproduction of the form of +the name usual in Sicily; in like manner the Tuscan Aivas corresponds +to the old Greek form of this name, the Roman Aiax to a secondary +form that was probably also Sicilian; the Roman Aperta or Apello +and the Samnite Appellun have sprung from the Doric Apellon, the +Tuscan Apulu from Apollon. Thus the language and writing of Latium +indicate that the direction of Latin commerce was exclusively towards +the Cumaeans and Siceliots. Every other trace which has survived +from so remote an age leads to the same conclusion: such as, the +coin of Posidonia found in Latium; the purchase of grain, when +a failure of the harvest occurred in Rome, from the Volscians, +Cumaeans, and Siceliots (and, as was natural, from the Etruscans +as well); above all, the relations subsisting between the Latin +and Sicilian monetary systems. As the local Dorico-Chalcidian +designation of silver coin --nomos--, and the Sicilian measure +--eimina--, were transferred with the same meaning to Latium as +-nummus- and -hemina-, so conversely the Italian designations of +weight, -libra-, -triens-, -quadrans-, -sextans-, -uncia-, which +arose in Latium for the measurement of the copper which was used +by weight instead of money, had found their way into the common +speech of Sicily in the third century of the city under the corrupt +and hybrid forms, --litra--, --trias--, --tetras--, --exas--, +--ougkia--. Indeed, among all the Greek systems of weights and +moneys, the Sicilian alone was brought into a determinate relation +to the Italian copper-system; not only was the value of silver set +down conventionally and perhaps legally as two hundred and fifty +times that of copper, but the equivalent on this computation of a +Sicilian pound of copper (1/120th of the Attic talent, 2/3 of the +Roman pound) was in very early times struck, especially at Syracuse, +as a silver coin (--litra argurion--, i.e. "copper-pound in +silver"). Accordingly it cannot be doubted that Italian bars of +copper circulated also in Sicily instead of money; and this exactly +harmonizes with the hypothesis that the commerce of the Latins +with Sicily was a passive commerce, in consequence of which Latin +money was drained away thither. Other proofs of ancient intercourse +between Sicily and Italy, especially the adoption in the Sicilian +dialect of the Italian expressions for a commercial loan, a prison, +and a dish, and the converse reception of Sicilian terms in Italy, +have been already mentioned.(25) We meet also with several, though +less definite, traces of an ancient intercourse of the Latins with +the Chalcidian cities in Lower Italy, Cumae and Neapolis, and with +the Phocaeans in Velia and Massilia. That it was however far less +active than that with the Siceliots is shown by the well-known +fact that all the Greek words which made their way in earlier times +to Latium exhibit Doric forms--we need only recall -Aesculapius-, +-Latona-, -Aperta-, -machina-. Had their dealings with the originally +Ionian cities, such as Cumae(26) and the Phocaean settlements, +been even merely on a similar scale with those which they had with +the Sicilian Dorians, Ionic forms would at least have made their +appearance along with the others; although certainly Dorism early +penetrated even into these Ionic colonies themselves, and their +dialect varied greatly. While all the facts thus combine to attest +the stirring traffic of the Latins with the Greeks of the western +main generally, and especially with the Sicilians, there hardly +occurred any immediate intercourse with the Asiatic Phoenicians, +and the intercourse with those of Africa, which is sufficiently +attested by statements of authors and by articles found, can only +have occupied a secondary position as affecting the state of culture +in Latium; in particular it is significant that--if we leave out of +account some local names--there is an utter absence of any evidence +from language as to ancient intercourse between the Latins and the +nations speaking the Aramaic tongue.(27) + +If we further inquire how this traffic was mainly carried on, whether +by Italian merchants abroad or by foreign merchants in Italy, the +former supposition has all the probabilities in its favour, at +least so far as Latium is concerned. It is scarcely conceivable +that those Latin terms denoting the substitute for money and the +commercial loan could have found their way into general use in the +language of the inhabitants of Sicily through the mere resort of +Sicilian merchants to Ostia and their receipt of copper in exchange +for ornaments. Lastly, in regard to the persons and classes +by whom this traffic was carried on in Italy, no special superior +class of merchants distinct from and independent of the class of +landed proprietors developed itself in Rome. The reason of this +surprising phenomenon was, that the wholesale commerce of Latium was +from the beginning in the hands of the large landed proprietors--a +hypothesis which is not so singular as it seems. It was natural +that in a country intersected by several navigable rivers the great +landholder, who was paid by his tenants their quotas of produce in +kind, should come at an early period to possess barks; and there is +evidence that such was the case. The transmarine traffic conducted +on the trader's own account must therefore have fallen into the +hands of the great landholder, seeing that he alone possessed the +vessels for it and--in his produce--the articles for export.(28) +In fact the distinction between a landed and a moneyed aristocracy +was unknown to the Romans of earlier times; the great landholders +were at the same time the speculators and the capitalists. In +the case of a very energetic commerce such a combination certainly +could not have been maintained; but, as the previous representation +shows, while there was a comparatively vigorous traffic in Rome in +consequence of the trade of the Latin land being there concentrated, +Rome was by no means essentially a commercial city like Caere or +Tarentum, but was and continued to be the centre of an agricultural +community. + + + + +Notes for Book I Chapter XIII + + +1. I. II. Agriculture + +2. I. III. Clan Villages, I. V. The Community + +3. The system which we meet with in the case of the Germanic joint +tillage, combining a partition of the land in property among the +clansmen with its joint cultivation by the clan, can hardly ever +have existed in Italy. Had each clansman been regarded in Italy, +as among the Germans, in the light of proprietor of a particular +spot in each portion of the collective domain that was marked off +for tillage, the separate husbandry of later times would probably +have set out from a minute subdivision of hides. But the very +opposite was the case; the individual names of the Roman hides +(-fundus Cornelianus-) show clearly that the Roman proprietor owned +from the beginning a possession not broken up but united. + +4. Cicero (de Rep. ii. 9, 14, comp. Plutarch, Q. Rom. 15) states: +-Tum (in the time of Romulus) erat res in pecore et locorum +possessionibus, ex quo pecuniosi et locupletes vocabantur--(Numa) +primum agros, quos bello Romulus ceperat, divisit viritim civibus-. +In like manner Dionysius represents Romulus as dividing the land into +thirty curial districts, and Numa as establishing boundary-stones +and introducing the festival of the Terminalia (i. 7, ii. 74; and +thence Plutarch, -Numa-, 16). + +5. I. XI. Contracts + +6. Since this assertion still continues to be disputed, we +shall let the numbers speak for themselves. The Roman writers on +agriculture of the later republic and the imperial period reckon on +an average five -modii- of wheat as sufficient to sow a -jugerum-, and +the produce as fivefold. The produce of a -heredium- accordingly +(even when, without taking into view the space occupied by +the dwelling-house and farm-yard, we regard it as entirely arable +land, and make no account of years of fallow) amounts to fifty, or +deducting the seed forty, modii. For an adult hard-working slave +Cato (c. 56) reckons fifty-one -modii-of wheat as the annual +consumption. These data enable any one to answer for himself the +question whether a Roman family could or could not subsist on the +produce of a -heredium-. The attempted proof to the contrary is +based on the ground that the slave of later times subsisted more +exclusively on corn than the free farmer of the earlier epoch, and +that the assumption of a fivefold return is one too low for this +earlier epoch; both assumptions are probably correct, but for both +there is a limit. Doubtless the subsidiary produce yielded by +the arable land itself and by the common pasture, such as figs, +vegetables, milk, flesh (especially as derived from the old and +zealously pursued rearing of swine), and the like, are specially +to be taken into account for the older period; but the older Roman +pastoral husbandry, though not unimportant, was withal of subordinate +importance, and the chief subsistence of the people was always +notoriously grain. We may, moreover, on account of the thoroughness +of the earlier cultivation obtain a very considerable increase, +especially of the gross produce--and beyond doubt the farmers of +this period drew a larger produce from their lands than the great +landholders of the later republic and the empire obtained (iii. +Latium); but moderation must be exercised in forming such estimates, +because we have to deal with a question of averages and with a mode +of husbandry conducted neither methodically nor with large capital. +The assumption of a tenfold instead of a fivefold return will be +the utmost limit, and yet it is far from sufficing. In no case +can the enormous deficit, which is left even according to those +estimates between the produce of the -heredium- and the requirements +of the household, be covered by mere superiority of cultivation. +In fact the counter-proof can only be regarded as successful, when +it shall have produced a methodical calculation based on rural +economics, according to which among a population chiefly subsisting +on vegetables the produce of a piece of land of an acre and a quarter +proves sufficient on an average for the subsistence of a family. + +It is indeed asserted that instances occur even in historical times +of colonies founded with allotments of two -jugera-; but the only +instance of the kind (Liv. iv. 47) is that of the colony of Labici +in the year 336--an instance, which will certainly not be reckoned +(by such scholars as are worth the arguing with) to belong to the +class of traditions that are trustworthy in their historical details, +and which is beset by other very serious difficulties (see book +ii. ch. 5, note). It is no doubt true that in the non-colonial +assignation of land to the burgesses collectively (-adsignatio +viritana-) sometimes only a few -jugera- were granted (as e. g. +Liv. viii. ii, 21). In these cases however it was the intention +not to create new farms with the allotments, but rather, as a rule, +to add to the existing farms new parcels from the conquered lands +(comp. C. I. L. i. p. 88). At any rate, any supposition is better +than a hypothesis which requires us to believe as it were in +a miraculous multiplication of the food of the Roman household. +The Roman farmers were far less modest in their requirements than +their historiographers; they themselves conceived that they could +not subsist even on allotments of seven -jugera- or a produce of +one hundred and forty -modii-. + +7. I. VI. Time and Occasion of the Reform + +8. Perhaps the latest, although probably not the last, attempt +to prove that a Latin farmer's family might have subsisted on two +-jugera- of land, finds its chief support in the argument that Varro +(de R. R. i. 44, i) reckons the seed requisite for the -jugerum- +at five -modii- of wheat but ten -modii- of spelt, and estimates +the produce as corresponding to this, whence it is inferred that +the cultivation of spelt yielded a produce, if not double, at least +considerably higher than that of wheat. But the converse is more +correct, and the nominally higher quantity sown and reaped is simply +to be explained by the fact that the Romans garnered and sowed the +wheat already shelled, but the spelt still in the husk (Pliny, H. +N. xviii. 7, 61), which in this case was not separated from the +fruit by threshing. For the same reason spelt is at the present +day sown twice as thickly as wheat, and gives a produce twice as +great by measure, but less after deduction of the husks. According +to Wurtemberg estimates furnished to me by G. Hanssen, the average +produce of the Wurtemberg -morgen- is reckoned in the case of +wheat (with a sowing of 1/4 to 1/2 -scheffel-) at 3 -scheffel- of +the medium weight of 275 Ibs. (= 825 Ibs.); in the case of spelt +(with a sowing of 1/2 to 1 1/2 -scheffel-) at least 7 -scheffel- of +the medium weight of 150 lbs. ( = 1050 Ibs.), which are reduced +by shelling to about 4 -scheffel-. Thus spelt compared with wheat +yields in the gross more than double, with equally good soil perhaps +triple the crop, but--by specific weight--before the shelling not +much above, after shelling (as "kernel") less than, the half. It +was not by mistake, as has been asserted, but because it was fitting +in computations of this sort to start from estimates of a like +nature handed down to us, that the calculation instituted above was +based on wheat; it may stand, because, when transferred to spelt, +it does not essentially differ and the produce rather falls than +rises. Spelt is less nice as to soil and climate, and exposed +to fewer risks than wheat; but the latter yields on the whole, +especially when we take into account the not inconsiderable expenses +of shelling, a higher net produce (on an average of fifty years in +the district of Frankenthal in Rhenish Bavaria the -malter- of wheat +stands at 11 -gulden- 3 krz., the -malter- of spelt at 4 -gulden-30 +krz.), and, as in South Germany, where the soil admits, the growing +of wheat is preferred and generally with the progress of cultivation +comes to supersede that of spelt, so the analogous transition of +Italian agriculture from the culture of spelt to that of wheat was +undeniably a progress. + +9. I. II. Agriculture + +10. -Oleum- and -oliva- are derived from --elaion--, --elaia--, +and -amurca- (oil-less) from --amorgei--. + +11. But there is no proper authority for the statement that the +fig-tree which stood in front of the temple of Saturn was cut down +in the year 260 (Plin. H. N. xv. 18, 77); the date CCLX. is wanting +in all good manuscripts, and has been interpolated, probably with +reference to Liv. ii. 21. + +12. I. XI. Property + +13. I. VI. Class of --Metoeci-- Subsisting by the Side of the +Community + +14. I. XI. Guardianship + +15. I. XII. Oldest Table of Roman Festivals + +16. The comparative legal value of sheep and oxen, as is well known, +is proved by the fact that, when the cattle-fines were converted +into money-fines, the sheep was rated at ten, and the ox at a +hundred asses (Festus, v. -peculatus-, p. 237, comp. pp. 34, 144; +Gell. xi. i; Plutarch, Poplicola, ii). By a similar adjustment the +Icelandic law makes twelve rams equivalent to a cow; only in this +as in other instances the Germanic law has substituted the duodecimal +for the older decimal system. + +It is well known that the term denoting cattle was transferred to +denote money both among the Latins (-pecunia-) and among the Germans +(English fee). + +17. I. XIV. Decimal System + +18. There has lately been found at Praeneste a silver mixing-jug, +with a Phoenician and a hieroglyphic inscription (Mon. dell Inst. +x. plate 32), which directly proves that such Egyptian wares as +come to light in Italy have found their way thither through the +medium of the Phoenicians. + +19. comp. I. XIII. Culture of the Olive + +20. -Velum- is certainly of Latin origin; so is -malus-, especially +as that term denotes not merely the mast, but the tree in general: +-antenna- likewise may come from --ana-- (-anhelare-, -antestari-), +and -tendere- = -supertensa-. Of Greek origin, on the other +hand, are -gubenare-, to steer (--kubernan--); -ancora-, anchor +(--agkura--); -prora-, ship's bow (--prora--); -aplustre-, +ship's stern (--aphlaston--); -anquina-, the rope fastening the +yards (--agkoina--); -nausea-, sea-sickness (--nausia--). The +four chief winds of the ancients- -aquilo-, the "eagle-wind," the +north-easterly Tramontana; -voltumus- (of uncertain derivation, +perhaps the "vulture-wind"), the south-easterly; -auster- the +"scorching" southwest wind, the Sirocco; -favonius-, the "favourable" +north-west wind blowing from the Tyrrhene Sea--have indigenous +names bearing no reference to navigation; but all the other Latin +names for winds are Greek (such as -eurus-, -notus-), or translations +from the Greek (e.g. -solanus- = --apelioteis--, -Africus- = +--lips--). + +21. This meant in the first instance the tokens used in the service +of the camp, the --xuleiphia kata phulakein brachea teleos echonta +charakteira-- (Polyb. vi. 35, 7); the four -vigiliae- of the +night-service gave name to the tokens generally. The fourfold +division of the night for the service of watching is Greek as well +as Roman; the military science of the Greeks may well have exercised +an influence--possibly through Pyrrhus (Liv. xxxv. 14)--in the +organization of the measures for security in the Roman camp. The +employment of the non-Doric form speaks for the comparatively late +date at which theword was taken over. + +22. I. XI. Character of the Roman Law + +23. I. VII. Relation of Rome to Latium + +24. I. X. Etruscan Commerce + +25. I. XI. Clients and Foreigners, I. XIII. Commerce, in Latium +Passive, in Etruria Active + +26. I. X. Greek Cities Near Vesuvius + +27. If we leave out of view -Sarranus-, -Afer-, and other local +designations (I. X. Phoenicians and Italians in Opposition to the +Hellenes), the Latin language appears not to possess a single word +immediately derived in early times from the Phoenician. The very +few words from Phoenician roots which occur in it, such as -arrabo- +or -arra- and perhaps also -murra-, -nardus-, and the like, are +plainly borrowed proximately from the Greek, which has a considerable +number of such words of Oriental extraction as indications of its +primitive intercourse with the Aramaeans. That --elephas-- and +-ebur- should have come from the same Phoenician original with or +without the addition of the article, and thus have been each formed +independently, is a linguistic impossibility, as the Phoenician +article is in reality -ha-, and is not so employed; besides the +Oriental primitive word has not as yet been found. The same holds +true of the enigmatical word -thesaurus-; whether it may have been +originally Greek or borrowed by the Greeks from the Phoenician +or Persian, it is at any rate, as a Latin word, derived from the +Greek, as the very retaining of its aspiration proves (xii. Foreign +Worships). + +28. Quintus Claudius, in a law issued shortly before 534, prohibited +the senators from having sea-going vessels holding more than 300 +-amphorae- (1 amph. = nearly 6 gallons): -id satis habitum ad fructus +ex agris vectandos; quaestus omnis patribus indecorus visus- (Liv. +xxi. 63). It was thus an ancient usage, and was still permitted, +that the senators should possess sea-going vessels for the transport +of the produce of their estates: on the other hand, transmarine +mercantile speculation (-quaestus-, traffic, fitting-out of vessels, +&c.) on their part was prohibited. It is a curious fact that the +ancient Greeks as well as the Romans expressed the tonnage of their +sea-going ships constantly in amphorae; the reason evidently being, +that Greece as well as Italy exported wine at a comparatively early +period, and on a larger scale than any other bulky article. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +Measuring and Writing + + + +The art of measuring brings the world into subjection to man; +the art of writing prevents his knowledge from perishing along +with himself; together they make man--what nature has not made +him--all-powerful and eternal. It is the privilege and duty of +history to trace the course of national progress along these paths +also. + + +Italian Measures + + +Measurement necessarily presupposes the development of the several +ideas of units of time, of space, and of weight, and of a whole +consisting of equal parts, or in other words of number and of +a numeral system. The most obvious bases presented by nature for +this purpose are, in reference to time, the periodic returns of +the sun and moon, or the day and the month; in reference to space, +the length of the human foot, which is more easily applied in +measuring than the arm; in reference to gravity, the burden which +a man is able to poise (-librare-) on his hand while he holds +his arm stretched out, or the "weight" (-libra-). As a basis for +the notion of a whole made up of equal parts, nothing so readily +suggests itself as the hand with its five, or the hands with their +ten, fingers; upon this rests the decimal system. We have already +observed that these elements of all numeration and measuring +reach back not merely beyond the separation of the Greek and Latin +stocks, but even to the most remote primeval times. The antiquity +in particular of the measurement of time by the moon is demonstrated +by language;(1) even the mode of reckoning the days that elapse +between the several phases of the moon, not forward from the phase +on which it had entered last, but backward from that which was +next to be expected, is at least older than the separation of the +Greeks and Latins. + + +Decimal System + + +The most definite evidence of the antiquity and original exclusive +use of the decimal system among the Indo-Germans is furnished by +the well-known agreement of all Indo-Germanic languages in respect +to the numerals as far as a hundred inclusive.(2) In the case of +Italy the decimal system pervaded all the earliest arrangements: it +may be sufficient to recall the number ten so usual in the case of +witnesses, securities, envoys, and magistrates, the legal equivalence +of one ox and ten sheep, the partition of the canton into ten curies +and the pervading application generally of the decurial system, the +-limitatio-, the tenth in offerings and in agriculture, decimation, +and the praenomen -Decimus-. Among the applications of this most +ancient decimal system in the sphere of measuring and of writing, +the remarkable Italian ciphers claim a primary place. When the Greeks +and Italians separated, there were still evidently no conventional +signs of number. On the other hand we find the three oldest and +most indispensable numerals, one, five, and ten, represented by +three signs--I, V or /\, X, manifestly imitations of the outstretched +finger, and the open hand single and double--which were not derived +either from the Hellenes or the Phoenicians, but were common to +the Romans, Sabellians, and Etruscans. They were the first steps +towards the formation of a national Italian writing, and at the same +time evidences of the liveliness of that earlier inland intercourse +among the Italians which preceded their transmarine commerce.(3) +Which of the Italian stocks invented, and which of them borrowed, +these signs, can of course no longer be ascertained. Other traces +of the pure decimal system occur but sparingly in this field; +among them are the -versus-, the Sabellian measure of surface of +100 square feet,(4) and the Roman year of 10 months. + + +The Duodecimal System + + +Otherwise generally in the case of those Italian measures, which +were not connected with Greek standards and were probably developed +by the Italians before they came into contact with the Greeks, there +prevailed the partition of the "whole" (-as-) into twelve "units" +(-unciae-). The very earliest Latin priesthoods, the colleges of +the Salii and Arvales,(5) as well as the leagues of the Etruscan +cities, were organized on the basis of the number twelve. The +same number predominated in the Roman system of weights and in the +measures of length, where the pound (-libra-) and the foot (-pes-) +were usually subdivided into twelve parts; the unit of the Roman +measures of surface was the "driving" (-actus-) of 120 square feet, +a combination of the decimal and duodecimal systems.(6) Similar +arrangements as to the measures of capacity may have passed into +oblivion. + +If we inquire into the basis of the duodecimal system and consider +how it can have happened that, in addition to ten, twelve should +have been so early and universally singled out from the equal series +of numbers, we shall probably be able to find no other source to +which it can be referred than a comparison of the solar and lunar +periods. Still more than the double hand of ten fingers did the +solar cycle of nearly twelve lunar periods first suggest to man +the profound conception of an unit composed of equal units, and +thereby originate the idea of a system of numbers, the first step +towards mathematical thought. The consistent duodecimal development +of this idea appears to have belonged to the Italian nation, and +to have preceded the first contact with the Greeks. + + +Hellenic Measures in Italy + + +But when at length the Hellenic trader had opened up the route to +the west coast of Italy, the measures of surface remained unaffected, +but the measures of length, of weight, and above all of capacity--in +other words those definite standards without which barter and traffic +are impossible--experienced the effects of the new international +intercourse. The oldest Roman foot has disappeared; that which we +know, and which was in use at a very early period among the Romans, +was borrowed from Greece, and was, in addition to its new Roman +subdivision into twelfths, divided after the Greek fashion into four +hand-breadths (-palmus-) and sixteen finger-breadths (-digitus-). +Further, the Roman weights were brought into a fixed proportional +relation to the Attic system, which prevailed throughout Sicily +but not in Cumae--another significant proof that the Latin traffic +was chiefly directed to the island; four Roman pounds were assumed as +equal to three Attic -minae-, or rather the Roman pound was assumed +as equal to one and a half of the Sicilian -litrae- or half-minae.(7) +But the most singular and chequered aspect is presented by the +Roman measures of capacity, as regards both their names and their +proportions. Their names have come from the Greek terms either by +corruption (-amphora-, -modius- after --medimnos--, -congius- from +--choeus--, -hemina-, -cyathus-) or by translation (-acetabulum-from +--ozubaphon--); while conversely --zesteis-- is a corruption of +-sextarius-. All the measures are not identical, but those in most +common use are so; among liquid measures the -congius- or -chus-, +the -sextarius-, and the -cyathus-, the two last also for dry +goods; the Roman -amphora- was equalized in water-weight to the +Attic talent, and at the same time stood to the Greek --metretes-- +in the fixed ratio of 3:2, and to the Greek --medimnos-- of 2:1. To +one who can decipher the significance of such records, these names +and numerical proportions fully reveal the activity and importance +of the intercourse between the Sicilians and the Latins. The Greek +numeral signs were not adopted; but the Roman probably availed +himself of the Greek alphabet, when it reached him, to form ciphers +for 50 and 1000, perhaps also for 100, out of the signs for the +three aspirated letters which he had no use for. In Etruria the +sign for 100 at least appears to have been obtained in a similar +way. Afterwards, as usually happens, the systems of notation among +the two neighbouring nations became assimilated by the adoption in +substance of the Roman system in Etruria. + + +The Italian Calendar before the Period of Greek Influence in Italy + + +In like manner the Roman calendar--and probably that of the Italians +generally--began with an independent development of its own, but +subsequently came under the influence of the Greeks. In the division +of time the returns of sunrise and sunset, and of the new and full +moon, most directly arrest the attention of man; and accordingly +the day and the month, determined not by cyclic calculation but +by direct observation, were long the exclusive measures of time. +Down to a late age sunrise and sunset were proclaimed in the Roman +market-place by the public crier, and in like manner it may be +presumed that in earlier times, at each of the four phases of the +moon, the number of days that would elapse from that phase until +the next was proclaimed by the priests. The mode of reckoning +therefore in Latium--and the like mode, it may be presumed, was in +use not merely among the Sabellians, but also among the Etruscans--was +by days, which, as already mentioned, were counted not forward +from the phase that had last occurred, but backward from that which +was next expected; by lunar weeks, which varied in length between +7 and 8 days, the average length being 7 3/8; and by lunar months +which in like manner were sometimes of 29, sometimes of 30 days, +the average duration of the synodical month being 29 days 12 hours +44 minutes. For some time the day continued to be among the Italians +the smallest, and the month the largest, division of time. It was +not until afterwards that they began to distribute day and night +respectively into four portions, and it was much later still when +they began to employ the division into hours; which explains why +even stocks otherwise closely related differed in their mode of +fixing the commencement of day, the Romans placing it at midnight, +the Sabellians and the Etruscans at noon. No calendar of the year +had, at least when the Greeks separated from the Italians, as yet +been organized, for the names for the year and its divisions in the +two languages have been formed quite independently of each other. +Nevertheless the Italians appear to have already in the pre-Hellenic +period advanced, if not to the arrangement of a fixed calendar, +at any rate to the institution of two larger units of time. The +simplifying of the reckoning according to lunar months by the +application of the decimal system, which was usual among the Romans, +and the designation of a term of ten months as a "ring" (-annus-) +or complete year, bear in them all the traces of a high antiquity. +Later, but still at a period very early and undoubtedly previous +to the operation of Greek influences, the duodecimal system (as +we have already stated) was developed in Italy, and, as it derived +its very origin from the observation of the fact that the solar +period was equal to twelve lunar periods, it was certainly applied +in the first instance to the reckoning of time. This view accords +with the fact that the individual names of the months--which can +only have originated after the month was viewed as part of a solar +year--particularly those of March and of May, were similar among +the different branches of the Italian stock, while there was +no similarity between the Italian names and the Greek. It is not +improbable therefore that the problem of laying down a practical +calendar which should correspond at once to the moon and the sun--a +problem which may be compared in some sense to the quadrature of the +circle, and the solution of which was only recognized as impossible +and abandoned after the lapse of many centuries--had already employed +the minds of men in Italy before the epoch at which their contact +with the Greeks began; these purely national attempts to solve it, +however, have passed into oblivion. + + +The Oldest Italo-Greek Calendar + + +What we know of the oldest calendar of Rome and of some other Latin +cities--as to the Sabellian and Etruscan measurement of time we +have no traditional information--is decidedly based on the oldest +Greek arrangement of the year, which was intended to answer both +to the phases of the moon and to the seasons of the solar year, +constructed on the assumption of a lunar period of 29 1/2 days and +a solar period of 12 1/2 lunar months or 368 3/4 days, and on the +regular alternation of a full month or month of thirty days with a +hollow month or month of twenty-nine days and of a year of twelve +with a year of thirteen months, but at the same time maintained +in some sort of harmony with the actual celestial phenomena by +arbitrary curtailments and intercalations. It is possible that +this Greek arrangement of the year in the first instance came into +use among the Latins without undergoing any alteration; but the +oldest form of the Roman year which can be historically recognized +varied from its model, not indeed in the cyclical result nor yet in +the alternation of years of twelve with years of thirteen months, +but materially in the designation and in the measuring off of the +individual months. The Roman year began with the beginning of +spring; the first month in it and the only one which bears the name +of a god, was named from Mars (-Martius-), the three following from +sprouting (-aprilis-) growing (-maius-), and thriving (-iunius-), +the fifth onward to the tenth from their ordinal numbers (-quinctilis-, +-sextilis-, -september-, -october-, -november-, -december), the +eleventh from commencing (-ianuarius-),(8) with reference presumably +to the renewal of agricultural operations that followed midwinter +and the season of rest, the twelfth, and in an ordinary year the +last, from cleansing (-februarius-). To this series recurring +in regular succession there was added in the intercalary year a +nameless "labour-month" (-mercedonius-) at the close of the year, +viz. after February. And, as the Roman calendar was independent +as respected the names of the months which were probably taken from +the old national ones, it was also independent as regarded their +duration. Instead of the four years of the Greek cycle, each +composed of six months of 30 and six of 29 days and an intercalary +month inserted every second year alternately of 29 and 30 days (354 + +384 + 354 + 383 = 1475 days), the Roman calendar substituted four +years, each containing four months--the first, third, fifth, and +eighth--of 31 days and seven of 29 days, with a February of 28 +days during three years and of 29 in the fourth, and an intercalary +month of 27 days inserted every second year (355 + 383 + 355 + +382 = 1475 days). In like manner this calendar departed from the +original division of the month into four weeks, sometimes of 7, +sometimes of 8 days; it made the eight-day-week run on through the +years without regard to the other relations of the calendar, as our +Sundays do, and placed the weekly market on the day with which it +began (-noundinae-). Along with this it once for all fixed the +first quarter in the months of 31 days on the seventh, in those +of 29 on the fifth day, and the full moon in the former on the +fifteenth, in the latter on the thirteenth day. As the course of +the months was thus permanently arranged, it was henceforth necessary +to proclaim only the number of days lying between the new moon and +the first quarter; thence the day of the newmoon received the name +of "proclamation-day" (-kalendae-). The first day of the second +section of the month, uniformly of 8 days, was--in conformity with +the Roman custom of reckoning, which included the -terminus ad +quem- --designated as "nine-day" (-nonae-). The day of the full +moon retained the old name of -idus- (perhaps "dividing-day"). +The motive lying at the bottom of this strange remodelling of the +calendar seems chiefly to have been a belief in the salutary virtue +of odd numbers;(9) and while in general it is based on the oldest +form of the Greek year, its variations from that form distinctly +exhibit the influence of the doctrines of Pythagoras, which were +then paramount in Lower Italy, and which especially turned upon a +mystic view of numbers. But the consequence was that this Roman +calendar, clearly as it bears traces of the desire that it should +harmonize with the course both of sun and moon, in reality by +no means so corresponded with the lunar course as did at least on +the whole its Greek model, while, like the oldest Greek cycle, it +could only follow the solar seasons by means of frequent arbitrary +excisions, and did in all probability follow them but very imperfectly, +for it is scarcely likely that the calendar would be handled with +greater skill than was manifested in its original arrangement. +The retention moreover of the reckoning by months or--which is the +same thing--by years of ten months implies a tacit, but not to be +misunderstood, confession of the irregularity and untrustworthiness +of the oldest Roman solar year. This Roman calendar may be regarded, +at least in its essential features, as that generally current +among the Latins. When we consider how generally the beginning of +the year and the names of the months are liable to change, minor +variations in the numbering and designations are quite compatible +with the hypothesis of a common basis; and with such a calendar-system, +which practically was irrespective of the lunar course, the Latins +might easily come to have their months of arbitrary length, possibly +marked off by annual festivals--as in the case of the Alban months, +which varied between 16 and 36 days. It would appear probable +therefore that the Greek --trieteris-- had early been introduced +from Lower Italy at least into Latium and perhaps also among the +other Italian stocks, and had thereafter been subjected in the +calendars of the several cities to further subordinate alterations. + +For the measuring of periods of more than one year the regnal years +of the kings might have been employed: but it is doubtful whether +that method of dating, which was in use in the East, occurred in Greece +or Italy during earlier times. On the other hand the intercalary +period recurring every four years, and the census and lustration +of the community connected with it, appear to have suggested +a reckoning by -lustra- similar in plan to the Greek reckoning by +Olympiads--a method, however, which early lost its chronological +significance in consequence of the irregularity that now prevailed +as to the due holding of the census at the right time. + + +Introduction of Hellenic Alphabets into Italy + + +The art of expressing sounds by written signs was of later origin +than the art of measurement. The Italians did not any more than +the Hellenes develop such an art of themselves, although we may +discover attempts at such a development in the Italian numeral +signs,(10) and possibly also in the primitive Italian custom--formed +independently of Hellenic influence--of drawing lots by means +of wooden tablets. The difficulty which must have attended the +first individualizing of sounds--occurring as they do in so great +a variety of combinations--is best demonstrated by the fact that a +single alphabet propagated from people to people and from generation +to generation has sufficed, and still suffices, for the whole of +Aramaic, Indian, Graeco-Roman, and modern civilization; and this +most important product of the human intellect was the joint creation +of the Aramaeans and the Indo-Germans. The Semitic family of +languages, in which the vowel has a subordinate character and never +can begin a word, facilitates on that very account the individualizing +of the consonants; and it was among the Semites accordingly that +the first alphabet--in which the vowels were still wanting--was +invented. It was the Indians and Greeks who first independently +of each other and by very divergent methods created, out of the +Aramaean consonantal writing brought to them by commerce, a complete +alphabet by the addition of the vowels--which was effected by the +application of four letters, which the Greeks did not use as consonantal +signs, for the four vowels -a -e -i -o, and by the formation of a +new sign for -u --in other words by the introduction of the syllable +into writing instead of the mere consonant, or, as Palamedes says +in Euripides, + +--Ta teis ge leitheis pharmak orthosas monos +Aphona kai phonounta, sullabas te theis, +Ezeupon anthropoisi grammat eidenai.-- + +This Aramaeo-Hellenic alphabet was accordingly brought to the +Italians through the medium, doubtless, of the Italian Hellenes; +not, however, through the agricultural colonies of Magna Graecia, +but through the merchants possibly of Cumae or Tarentum, by whom it +would be brought in the first instance to the very ancient emporia +of international traffic in Latium and Etruria--to Rome and Caere. +The alphabet received by the Italians was by no means the oldest +Hellenic one; it had already experienced several modifications, +particularly the addition of the three letters --"id:xi", --"id:phi", +--"id:chi" and the alteration of the signs for --"id:iota", +--"id:gamma", --"id:lambda".(11) We have already observed(12) that +the Etruscan and Latin alphabets were not derived the one from the +other, but both directly from the Greek; in fact the Greek alphabet +came to Etruria in a form materially different from that which +reached Latium. The Etruscan alphabet has a double sign -s (sigma +-"id:s" and san -"id:sh") and only a single -k,(13) and of the +-r only the older form -"id:P"; the Latin has, so far as we know, +only a single -s, but a double sign for -k (kappa -"id:k" and koppa +-"id:q") and of the -r almost solely the more recent form -"id:R". +The oldest Etruscan writing shows no knowledge of lines, and winds +like the coiling of a snake; the more recent employs parallel +broken-off lines from right to left: the Latin writing, as far as +our monuments reach back, exhibits only the latter form of parallel +lines, which originally perhaps may have run at pleasure from left +to right or from right to left, but subsequently ran among the Romans +in the former, and among the Faliscans in the latter direction. +The model alphabet brought to Etruria must notwithstanding its +comparatively remodelled character reach back to an epoch very ancient, +though not positively to be determined; for, as the two sibilants +sigma and san were always used by the Etruscans as different +sounds side by side, the Greek alphabet which came to Etruria must +doubtless still have possessed both of them in this way as living +signs of sound; but among all the monuments of the Greek language +known to us not one presents sigma and san in simultaneous use. + +The Latin alphabet certainly, as we know it, bears on the whole +a more recent character; and it is not improbable that the Latins +did not simply receive the alphabet once for all, as was the case +in Etruria, but in consequence of their lively intercourse with +their Greek neighbours kept pace for a considerable period with +the alphabet in use among these, and followed its variations. We +find, for instance, that the forms -"id:/\/\/", -"id:P",(14) and +-"id:SIGMA" were not unknown to the Romans, but were superseded +in common use by the later forms -"id:/\/\", -"id:R", and -"id:S" +--a circumstance which can only be explained by supposing that +the Latins employed for a considerable period the Greek alphabet +as such in writing either their mother-tongue or Greek. It is +dangerous therefore to draw from the more recent character of the +Greek alphabet which we meet with in Rome, as compared with the +older character of that brought to Etruria, the inference that +writing was practised earlier in Etruria than in Rome. + +The powerful impression produced by the acquisition of the treasure +of letters on those who received them, and the vividness with which +they realized the power that slumbered in those humble signs, are +illustrated by a remarkable vase from a sepulchral chamber of Caere +built before the invention of the arch, which exhibits the old +Greek model alphabet as it came to Etruria, and also an Etruscan +syllabarium formed from it, which may be compared to that +of Palamedes--evidently a sacred relic of the introduction and +acclimatization of alphabetic writing in Etruria. + + +Development of Alphabets in Italy + + +Not less important for history than the derivation of the alphabet +is the further course of its development on Italian soil: perhaps +it is even of more importance; for by means of it a gleam of light +is thrown upon the inland commerce of Italy, which is involved +in far greater darkness than the commerce with foreigners on its +coasts. In the earliest epoch of Etruscan writing, when the alphabet +was used without material alteration as it had been introduced, its +use appears to have been restricted to the Etruscans on the Po and +in what is now Tuscany. In course of time this alphabet, manifestly +diffusing itself from Atria and Spina, reached southward along +the east coast as far as the Abruzzi, northward to the Veneti and +subsequently even to the Celts at the foot of, among, and indeed +beyond the Alps, so that its last offshoots reached as far as the +Tyrol and Styria. The more recent epoch starts with a reform of +the alphabet, the chief features of which were the introduction of +writing in broken-off lines, the suppression of the -"id:o", which +was no longer distinguished in pronunciation from the -"id:u", and +the introduction of a new letter -"id:f" for which the alphabet as +received by them had no corresponding sign. This reform evidently +arose among the western Etruscans, and while it did not find +reception beyond the Apennines, became naturalized among all the +Sabellian tribes, and especially among the Umbrians. In its further +course the alphabet experienced various fortunes in connection with +the several stocks, the Etruscans on the Arno and around Capua, the +Umbrians and the Samnites; frequently the mediae were entirely or +partially lost, while elsewhere again new vowels and consonants +were developed. But that West-Etruscan reform of the alphabet +was not merely as old as the oldest tombs found in Etruria; it was +considerably older, for the syllabarium just mentioned as found +probably in one of these tombs already presents the reformed +alphabet in an essentially modified and modernized shape; and, as +the reformed alphabet itself is relatively recent as compared with +the primitive one, the mind almost fails in the effort to reach back +to the time when that alphabet came to Italy. While the Etruscans +thus appear as the instruments in diffusing the alphabet in the +north, east, and south of the peninsula, the Latin alphabet on +the other hand was confined to Latium, and maintained its ground, +upon the whole, there with but few alterations; only the letters +-"id:gamma" -"id:kappa" and -"id:zeta" -"id:sigma" gradually +became coincident in sound, the consequence of which was, that in +each case one of the homophonous signs (-"id:kappa" -"id:zeta") +disappeared from writing. In Rome it can be shown that these were +already laid aside before the end of the fourth century of the +city,(15) and the whole monumental and literary tradition that has +reached us knows nothing of them, with a single exception.(16) Now +when we consider that in the oldest abbreviations the distinction +between -"id:gamma" -"id:c" and -"id:kappa" -"id:k" is still +regularly maintained;(17) that the period, accordingly, when the +sounds became in pronunciation coincident, and before that again +the period during which the abbreviations became fixed, lies beyond +the beginning of the Samnite wars; and lastly, that a considerable +interval must necessarily have elapsed between the introduction +of writing and the establishment of a conventional system of +abbreviation; we must, both as regards Etruria and Latium, carry +back the commencement of the art of writing to an epoch which +more closely approximates to the first incidence of the Egyptian +Sirius-period within historical times, the year 1321 B.C., than to +the year 776, with which the chronology of the Olympiads began in +Greece.(18) The high antiquity of the art of writing in Rome is +evinced otherwise by numerous and plain indications. The existence +of documents of the regal period is sufficiently attested; such +was the special treaty between Rome and Gabii, which was concluded +by a king Tarquinius and probably not by the last of that name, +and which, written on the skin of the bullock sacrificed on the +occasion, was preserved in the temple of Sancus on the Quirinal, +which was rich in antiquities and probably escaped the conflagration +of the Gauls; and such was the alliance which king Servius Tullius +concluded with Latium, and which Dionysius saw on a copper tablet +in the temple of Diana on the Aventine. What he saw, however, was +probably a copy restored after the fire with the help of a Latin +exemplar, for it was not likely that engraving on metal was practised +as early as the time of the kings. The charters of foundation of +the imperial period still refer to the charter founding this temple +as the oldest document of the kind in Rome and the common model for +all. But even then they scratched (-exarare-, -scribere-, akin to +-scrobes- (19)) or painted (-linere-, thence -littera-) on leaves +(-folium-), inner bark (-liber-), or wooden tablets (-tabula-, +-album-), afterwards also on leather and linen. The sacred records +of the Samnites as well as of the priesthood of Anagnia were +inscribed on linen rolls, and so were the oldest lists of the Roman +magistrates preserved in the temple of the goddess of recollection +(-Iuno moneta-) on the Capitol. It is scarcely necessary to recall +further proofs in the primitive marking of the pastured cattle +(-scriptura-), in the mode of addressing the senate, "fathers and +enrolled" (-patres conscripti-), and in the great antiquity of +the books of oracles, the clan-registers, and the Alban and Roman +calendars. When Roman tradition speaks of halls in the Forum, +where the boys and girls of quality were taught to read and write, +already in the earliest times of the republic, the statement may +be, but is not necessarily to be deemed, an invention. We have +been deprived of information as to the early Roman history, not in +consequence of the want of a knowledge of writing, or even perhaps +of the lack of documents, but in consequence of the incapacity of +the historians of the succeeding age, which was called to investigate +the history, to work out the materials furnished by the archives, +and of the perversity which led them to desire for the earliest +epoch a delineation of motives and of characters, accounts of +battles and narratives of revolutions, and while engaged in inventing +these, to neglect what the extant written tradition would not have +refused to yield to the serious and self-denying inquirer. + + +Results + + +The history of Italian writing thus furnishes in the first place +a confirmation of the weak and indirect influence exercised by the +Hellenic character over the Sabellians as compared with the more +western peoples. The fact that the former received their alphabet +from the Etruscans and not from the Romans is probably to be +explained by supposing that they already possessed it before they +entered upon their migration along the ridge of the Apennines, and +that therefore the Sabines as well as Samnites carried it along +with them from the mother-land to their new abodes. On the other +hand this history of writing contains a salutary warning against the +adoption of the hypothesis, originated by the later Roman culture +in its devotedness to Etruscan mysticism and antiquarian trifling, +and patiently repeated by modern and even very recent inquirers, +that Roman civilization derived its germ and its pith from Etruria. +If this were the truth, some trace of it ought to be more especially +apparent in this field; but on the contrary the germ of the Latin +art of writing was Greek, and its development was so national, +that it did not even adopt the very desirable Etruscan sign for +-"id:f".(20) Indeed, where there is an appearance of borrowing, +as in the numeral signs, it is on the part of the Etruscans, who +took over from the Romans at least the sign for 50. + + +Corruption of Language and Writing + + +Lastly it is a significant fact, that among all the Italian stocks +the development of the Greek alphabet primarily consisted in a +process of corruption. Thus the -mediae- disappeared in the whole +of the Etruscan dialects, while the Umbrians lost -"id:gamma" and +-"id:d", the Samnites -"id:d", and the Romans -"id:gamma"; and among +the latter -"id:d" also threatened to amalgamate with -"id:r". +In like manner among the Etruscans -"id:o" and -"id:u" early +coalesced, and even among the Latins we meet with a tendency to +the same corruption. Nearly the converse occurred in the case of +the sibilants; for while the Etruscan retained the three signs +-"id:z", -"id:s", -"id:sh", and the Umbrian rejected the last but +developed two new sibilants in its room, the Samnite and the Faliscan +confined themselves like the Greek to -"id:s" and -"id:z", and the +Roman of later times even to -"id:s" alone. It is plain that the +more delicate distinctions of sound were duly felt by the introducers +of the alphabet, men of culture and masters of two languages; +but after the national writing Became wholly detached from the +Hellenic mother-alphabet, the -mediae- and their -tenues- gradually +came to coincide, and the sibilants and vowels were thrown into +disorder--transpositions or rather destructions of sound, of which +the first in particular is entirely foreign to the Greek. The +destruction of the forms of flexion and derivation went hand in +hand with this corruption of sounds. The cause of this barbarization +was thus, upon the whole, simply the necessary process of +corruption which is continuously eating away every language, where +its progress is not stemmed by literature and reason; only in this +case indications of what has elsewhere passed away without leaving a +trace have been preserved in the writing of sounds. The circumstance +that this barbarizing process affected the Etruscans more strongly +than any other of the Italian stocks adds to the numerous proofs +of their inferior capacity for culture. The fact on the other hand +that, among the Italians, the Umbrians apparently were the most +affected by a similar corruption of language, the Romans less so, +the southern Sabellians least of all, probably finds its explanation, +at least in part, in the more lively intercourse maintained by the +former with the Etruscans, and by the latter with the Greeks. + + + + +Notes for Book I Chapter XIV + + +1. I. II. Indo-Germanic Culture + +2. I. II. Indo-Germanic Culture + +3. I. XII. Inland Commerce of the Italians + +4. I. II. Agriculture + +5. I. XII. Priests + +6. Originally both the -actus-, "riving," and its still more +frequently occurring duplicate, the -jugerum-, "yoking," were, +like the German "morgen," not measures of surface, but measures of +labour; the latter denoting the day's work, the former the half-day's +work, with reference to the sharp division of the day especially +in Italy by the ploughman's rest at noon. + +7. I. XIII. Etrusco-Attic and Latino-Sicilian Commerce + +8. I. XII. Nature of the Roman Gods + +9. From the same cause all the festival-days are odd, as well those +recurring every month (-kalendae- on the 1st. -nonae- on the 5th +or 7th, -idus- on the 13th or 15th), as also, with but two exceptions, +those of the 45 annual festivals mentioned above (xii. Oldest Table +Of Roman Festivals). This is carried so far, that in the case of +festivals of several days the intervening even days were dropped +out, and so, for example, that of Carmentis was celebrated on Jan. +11, 15, that of the Grove-festival (-Lucaria-) on July 19, 21, and +that of the Ghosts-festival on May 9, 11, and 13. + +10. I. XIV. Decimal System + +11. The history of the alphabet among the Hellenes turns essentially +on the fact that--assuming the primitive alphabet of 23 letters, +that is to say, the Phoenician alphabet vocalized and enlarged by +the addition of the -"id:u" --proposals of very various kinds were +made to supplement and improve it, and each of these proposals has +a history of its own. The most important of these, which it is +interesting to keep in view as bearing on the history of Italian +writing, are the following:--I. The introduction of special signs +for the sounds --"id:xi" --"id:phi" --"id:chi". This proposal +is so old that all the Greek alphabets--with the single exception +of that of the islands Thera, Melos, and Crete--and all alphabets +derived from the Greek without exception, exhibit its influence. +At first probably the aim was to append the signs --"id:CHI" += --"id:xi iota", --"id:PHI" = --"id:phi iota", and --"id:PSI"= +--"id:chi iota" to the close of the alphabet, and in this shape it +was adopted on the mainland of Hellas--with the exception of Athens +and Corinth--and also among the Sicilian and Italian Greeks. The +Greeks of Asia Minor on the other hand, and those of the islands of +the Archipelago, and also the Corinthians on the mainland appear, +when this proposal reached them, to have already had in use for the +sound --"id:xi iota" the fifteenth sign of the Phoenician alphabet +--"id:XI" (Samech); accordingly of the three new signs they adopted +the --"id:PHI" for --"id:phi iota", but employed the --"id:CHI" +not for --"id:xi iota", but for --"id:chi iota". The third sign +originally invented for --"id:chi iota" was probably allowed in +most instances to drop; only on the mainland of Asia Minor it was +retained, but received the value of --"id:psi iota". The mode of +writing adopted in Asia Minor was followed also by Athens; only in +its case not merely the --"id:psi iota", but the --"id:xi iota" also, +was not received and in their room the two consonants continued to +be written as before.--II. Equally early, if not still earlier, +an effort was made to obviate the confusion that might so easily +occur between the forms for --"id:iota S" and for --"id:s E"; for +all the Greek alphabets known to us bear traces of the endeavour to +distinguish them otherwise and more precisely. Already in very +early times two such proposals of change must have been made, +each of which found a field for its diffusion. In the one case +they employed for the sibilant--for which the Phoenician alphabet +furnished two signs, the fourteenth ( --"id:/\/\") for --"id:sh" and +the eighteenth (--"id:E") for --"id:s" --not the latter, which was +in sound the more suitable, but the former; and such was in earlier +times the mode of writing in the eastern islands, in Corinth and +Corcyra, and among the Italian Achaeans. In the other case they +substituted for the sign of --"id:i" the simple stroke --"id:I", +which was by far the more usual, and at no very late date became +at least so far general that the broken --"id:iota S" everywhere +disappeared, although individual communities retained the --"id:s" +in the form --"id:/\/\" alongside of the --"I".--III. Of later +date is the substitution of --"id:\/" for --"id:/\" (--"id:lambda") +which might readily be confounded with --"id:GAMMA gamma". This we +meet with in Athens and Boeotia, while Corinth and the communities +dependent on Corinth attained the same object by giving +to the --"id:gamma" the semicircular form --"id:C" instead of the +hook-shape.--IV. The forms for --"id:p" --"id:P (with broken-loop)" +and --"id:r" --"id:P", likewise very liable to be confounded, were +distinguished by transforming the latter into --"id:R"; which more +recent form was not used by the Greeks of Asia Minor, the Cretans, +the Italian Achaeans, and a few other districts, but on the other +hand greatly preponderated both in Greece proper and in Magna +Graecia and Sicily. Still the older form of the --"id:r" --"id:P" +did not so early and so completely disappear there as the older +form of the --"id:l"; this alteration therefore beyond doubt is to +be placed later.--V. The differentiating of the long and short -e +and the long and short -o remained in the earlier times confined +to the Greeks of Asia Minor and of the islands of the Aegean Sea. + +All these technical improvements are of a like nature and from a +historical point of view of like value, in so far as each of them +arose at a definite time and at a definite place and thereafter +took its own mode of diffusion and found its special development. +The excellent investigation of Kirchhoff (-Studien zur Geschichte +des griechischen Alphabets-), which has thrown a clear light on +the previously so obscure history of the Hellenic alphabet, and has +also furnished essential data for the earliest relations between the +Hellenes and Italians--establishing, in particular, incontrovertibly +the previously uncertain home of the Etruscan alphabet--is affected +by a certain one-sidedness in so far as it lays proportionally too +great stress on a single one of these proposals. If systems are +here to be distinguished at all, we may not divide the alphabets into +two classes according to the value of the --"id:X" as --"id:zeta" +or as --"id:chi", but we shall have to distinguish the alphabet +of 23 from that of 25 or 26 letters, and perhaps further in this +latter case to distinguish the Ionic of Asia Minor, from which the +later common alphabet proceeded, from the common Greek of earlier +times. In dealing, however, with the different proposals for +the modification of the alphabet the several districts followed +an essentially eclectic course, so that one was received here and +another there; and it is just in this respect that the history of +the Greek alphabet is so instructive, because it shows how particular +groups of the Greek lands exchanged improvements in handicraft +and art, while others exhibited no such reciprocity. As to Italy +in particular we have already called attention to the remarkable +contrast between the Achaean agricultural towns and the Chalcidic +and Doric colonies of a more mercantile character (x. Iono-Dorian +Towns); in the former the primitive forms were throughout retained, +in the latter the improved forms were adopted, even those which +coming from different quarters were somewhat inconsistent, such +as the --"id:C" --"id:gamma" alongside of the --"id:\/" --"id:l". +The Italian alphabets proceed, as Kirchhoff has shown, wholly +from the alphabet of the Italian Greeks and in fact from the +Chalcidico-Doric; but that the Etruscans and Latins received their +alphabet not the one from the other but both directly from the +Greeks, is placed beyond doubt especially by the different form of +the --"id:r". For, while of the four modifications of the alphabet +above described which concern the Italian Greeks (the fifth +was confined to Asia Minor) the first three were already carried +out before the alphabet passed to the Etruscans and Latins, the +differentiation of --"id:p" and --"id:r" had not yet taken place +when it came to Etruria, but on the other hand had at least begun +when the Latins received it; for which reason the Etruscans do +not at all know the form -"id:R" for -"id:r", whereas among the +Faliscans and the Latins, with the single exception of the Dressel +vase (xiv. Note 14 ), the younger form is met with exclusively. + +12. I. XIII. Etrusco-Attic and Latino-Sicilian Commerce + +13. That the Etruscans always were without the koppa, seems +not doubtful; for not only is no sure trace of it to be met with +elsewhere, but it is wanting in the model alphabet of the Galassi +vase. The attempt to show its presence in the syllabarium of the +latter is at any rate mistaken, for the syllabarium can and does +only take notice of the Etruscan letters that were afterwards +in common use, and to these the koppa notoriously did not belong; +moreover the sign placed at the close cannot well from its position +have any other value than that of the -f, which was in fact the last +letter in the Etruscan alphabet, and which could not be omitted in +a syllabarium exhibiting the variations of that alphabet from its +model. It is certainly surprising that the koppa should be absent +from the Greek alphabet that came to Etruria, when it otherwise +so long maintained its place in the Chalcidico-Doric ; but this +may well have been a local peculiarity of the town whose alphabet +first reached Etruria. Caprice and accident have at all times had +a share in determining whether a sign becoming superfluous shall +be retained or dropped from the alphabet; thus the Attic alphabet +lost the eighteenth Phoenician sign, but retained the others which +had disappeared from the -u. + +14. The golden bracelet of Praeneste recently brought to light +(Mitth. der rom. Inst. 1887), far the oldest of the intelligible +monuments of the Latin language and Latin writing, shows the older +form of the -"id:m"; the enigmatic clay vase from the Quirinal +(published by Dressel in the Annali dell Instituto, 1880) shows +the older form of the -"id:r". + +15. At this period we shall have to place that recorded form of the +Twelve Tables, which subsequently lay before the Roman philologues, +and of which we possess fragments. Beyond doubt the code was +at its very origin committed to writing; but that those scholars +themselves referred their text not to the original exemplar, but to +an official document written down after the Gallic conflagration, +is proved by the story of the Tables having undergone reproduction +at that time. This enables us easily to explain how their text by +no means exhibited the oldest orthography, which was not unknown to +them; even apart from the consideration that in the case of such +a written document, employed, moreover, for the purpose of being +committed to memory by the young, a philologically exact transmission +cannot possibly be assumed. + +16. This is the inscription of the bracelet of Praeneste which +has been mentioned at xiv, note 14. On the other hand even on the +Ficoroni cista -"id:C" has the later form of -"id:K". + +17. Thus -"id:C" represents -Gaius-; -"id:CN" -Gnaeus-; while +-"id:K" stands for -Kaeso-. With the more recent abbreviations of +course this is not the case; in these -"id:gamma" is represented +not by -"id:C", but by -"id:G" (-GAL- -Galeria-), --"id:kappa", as +a rule, by -"id:C" (-C- -centum- -COS- -consul; -COL -Collina-), or +before -"id:a" by -"id:K" (-KAR- -karmetalia-; -MERK- -merkatus-). +For they expressed for a time the sound --k before the vowels -e +-i -o and before all consonants by -"id:C", before -a on the other +hand by -"id:K", before -u by the old sign of the koppa -"id:Q". + +18. If this view is correct, the origin of the Homeric poems (though +of course not exactly that of the redaction in which we now have +them) must have been far anterior to the age which Herodotus assigns +for the flourishing of Homer (100 before Rome); for the introduction +of the Hellenic alphabet into Italy, as well as the beginning of +intercourse at all between Hellas and Italy, belongs only to the +post-Homeric period. + +19. Just as the old Saxon -writan- signifies properly to tear, +thence to write. + +20. The enigma as to how the Latins came to employ the Greek sign +corresponding to -v for the -f quite different in sound, has been +solved by the bracelet of Praeneste (xiv. Developments Of Alphabets +in Italy, note) with its -fhefhaked- for -fecit-, and thereby at the +same time the derivation of the Latin alphabet from the Chalcidian +colonies of Lower Italy has been confirmed. For in a Boeotian +inscription belonging to the same alphabet we find in the word +-fhekadamoe-(Gustav Meyer, Griech. Grammatik, sec. 244, ap. fin.) +the same combination of sound, and an aspirated v might certainly +approximate in sound to the Latin -f. + +20. -Ratio Tuscanica,: cavum aedium Tuscanicum.- + +21. When Varro (ap. Augustin. De Civ. Dei, iv. 31; comp. Plutarch +Num. 8) affirms that the Romans for more than one hundred and +seventy years worshipped the gods without images, he is evidently +thinking of this primitive piece of carving, which, according to +the conventional chronology, was dedicated between 176 and 219, and, +beyond doubt, was the first statue of the gods, the consecration +of which was mentioned in the authorities which Varro had before +him. Comp, above, XIV. Development of Alphabets in Italy. + +22. I. XIII. Handicrafts + +23. I. XII. Nature of the Roman Gods + +24. I. XII. Pontifices + + + + +Chapter XV + +Art + + + +Artistic Endowment of the Italians + + +Poetry is impassioned language, and its modulation is melody. While +in this sense no people is without poetry and music, some nations +have received a pre-eminent endowment of poetic gifts. The Italian +nation, however, was not and is not one of these. The Italian is +deficient in the passion of the heart, in the longing to idealize +what is human and to confer humanity on what is lifeless, which +form the very essence of poetic art. His acuteness of perception +and his graceful versatility enabled him to excel in irony and in +the vein of tale-telling which we find in Horace and Boccaccio, +in the humorous pleasantries of love and song which are presented +in Catullus and in the good popular songs of Naples, above all in +the lower comedy and in farce. Italian soil gave birth in ancient +times to burlesque tragedy, and in modern times to mock-heroic +poetry. In rhetoric and histrionic art especially no other nation +equalled or equals the Italians. But in the more perfect kinds of +art they have hardly advanced beyond dexterity of execution, and +no epoch of their literature has produced a true epos or a genuine +drama. The very highest literary works that have been successfully +produced in Italy, divine poems like Dante's Commedia, and historical +treatises such as those of Sallust and Macchiavelli, of Tacitus and +Colletta, are pervaded by a passion more rhetorical than spontaneous. +Even in music, both in ancient and modern times, really creative +talent has been far less conspicuous than the accomplishment which +speedily assumes the character of virtuosoship, and enthrones in +the room of genuine and genial art a hollow and heart-withering +idol. The field of the inward in art--so far as we may in the case +of art distinguish an inward and an outward at all--is not that +which has fallen to the Italian as his special province; the power +of beauty, to have its full effect upon him, must be placed not +ideally before his mind, but sensuously before his eyes. Accordingly +he is thoroughly at home in architecture, painting, and sculpture; +in these he was during the epoch of ancient culture the best disciple +of the Hellenes, and in modern times he has become the master of +all nations. + + +Dance, Music, and Song in Latium + + +From the defectiveness of our traditional information it is +not possible to trace the development of artistic ideas among the +several groups of nations in Italy; and in particular we are no +longer in a position to speak of the poetry of Italy; we can only +speak of that of Latium. Latin poetry, like that of every other +nation, began in the lyrical form, or, to speak more correctly, +sprang out of those primitive festal rejoicings, in which dance, +music, and song were still inseparably blended. It is remarkable, +however, that in the most ancient religious usages dancing, and +next to dancing instrumental music, were far more prominent than +song. In the great procession, with which the Roman festival of +victory was opened, the chief place, next to the images of the gods +and the champions, was assigned to the dancers grave and merry. +The grave dancers were arranged in three groups of men, youths, +and boys, all clad in red tunics with copper belts, with swords +and short lances, the men being moreover furnished with helmets, +and generally in full armed attire. The merry dancers were divided +into two companies--"the sheep" in sheep-skins with a party-coloured +over-garment, and "the goats" naked down to the waist, with a buck's +skin thrown over them. In like manner the "leapers" (-salii-) +were perhaps the most ancient and sacred of all the priesthoods,(1) +and dancers (-ludii-, -ludiones-) were indispensable in all public +processions, and particularly at funeral solemnities; so that +dancing became even in ancient times a common trade. But, wherever +the dancers made their appearance, there appeared also the musicians +or--which was in the earliest times the same thing--the pipers. +They too were never wanting at a sacrifice, at a marriage, or at +a funeral; and by the side of the primitive public priesthood of +the "leapers" there was ranged, of equal antiquity although of far +inferior rank, the guild of the "pipers" (-collegium tibicinum-(2)), +whose true character as strolling musicians is evinced by their +ancient privilege--maintained even in spite of the strictness +of Roman police--of wandering through the streets at their annual +festival, wearing masks and full of sweet wine. While dancing thus +presents itself as an honourable function and music as one subordinate +but still necessary, so that public corporations were instituted +for both of them, poetry appears more as a matter incidental and, +in some measure, indifferent, whether it may have come into existence +on its own account or to serve as an accompaniment to the movements +of the dancers. + + +Religious Chants + + +The earliest chant, in the view of the Romans, was that which the +leaves sang to themselves in the green solitude of the forest. The +whispers and pipings of the "favourable spirit" (-faunus-, from +-favere-) in the grove were reproduced for men, by those who had +the gift of listening to him, in rhythmically measured language +(-casmen-, afterwards -carmen-, from -canere-). Of a kindred nature +to these soothsaying songs of inspired men and women (-vates-) were +the incantations properly so called, the formulae for conjuring +away diseases and other troubles, and the evil spells by which they +prevented rain and called down lightning or even enticed the seed +from one field to another; only in these instances, probably from +the outset, formulae of mere sounds appear side by side with formulae +of words.(3) More firmly rooted in tradition and equally ancient +were the religious litanies which were sung and danced by the Salii +and other priesthoods; the only one of which that has come down to +us, a dance-chant of the Arval Brethren in honour of Mars probably +composed to be sung in alternate parts, deserves a place here. + +-Enos, Lases, iuvate! +Ne velue rue, Marmar, sins incurrere in pleores! +Satur fu, fere Mars! limen sali! sta! berber! +Semunis alternei advocapit conctos! +Enos, Marmar, iuvato! +Triumpe!- + +Which may be thus interpreted: + +To the gods: +-Nos, Lares, iuvate! +Ne veluem (= malam luem) ruem (= ruinam), Mamers, + sinas incurrere in plures! +Satur esto, fere Mars! + +To the individual brethren: +In limen insili! sta! verbera (limen?)! + +To all the brethren: +Semones alterni advocate cunctos! + +To the god: +Nos, Mamers, iuvato! + +To the individual brethren: +Tripudia!-(4) + +The Latin of this chant and of kindred fragments of the Salian +songs, which were regarded even by the philologues of the Augustan +age as the oldest documents of their mother-tongue, is related +to the Latin of the Twelve Tables somewhat as the language of the +Nibelungen is related to the language of Luther; and we may perhaps +compare these venerable litanies, as respects both language and +contents, with the Indian Vedas. + + +Panegyrics and Lampoons + + +Lyrical panegyrics and lampoons belonged to a later epoch. We might +infer from the national character of the Italians that satirical +songs must have abounded in Latium in ancient times, even if their +prevalence had not been attested by the very ancient measures of +police directed against them. But the panegyrical chants became +of more importance. When a burgess was borne to burial, the bier +was followed by a female relative or friend, who, accompanied by a +piper, sang his dirge (-nenia-). In like manner at banquets boys, +who according to the fashion of those days attended their fathers +even at feasts out of their own houses, sang by turns songs in +praise of their ancestors, sometimes to the pipe, sometimes simply +reciting them without accompaniment (-assa voce canere-). The custom +of men singing in succession at banquets was presumably borrowed +from the Greeks, and that not till a later age. We know no further +particulars of these ancestral lays; but it is self-evident that +they must have attempted description and narration and thus have +developed, along with and out of the lyrical element, the features +of epic poetry. + + +The Masked Farce + + +Other elements of poetry were called into action in the primitive +popular carnival, the comic dance or -satura-,(5) which beyond +doubt reached back to a period anterior to the separation of the +stocks. On such occasions song would never be wanting; and the +circumstances under which such pastimes were exhibited, chiefly +at public festivals and marriages, as well as the mainly practical +shape which they certainly assumed, naturally suggested that several +dancers, or sets of dancers, should take up reciprocal parts; +so that the singing thus came to be associated with a species of +acting, which of course was chiefly of a comical and often of a +licentious character. In this way there arose not merely alternative +chants, such as afterwards went by the name of Fescennine songs, but +also the elements of a popular comedy--which were in this instance +planted in a soil admirably adapted for their growth, as an acute +sense of the outward and the comic, and a delight in gesticulation +and masquerade have ever been leading traits of Italian character. + +No remains have been preserved of these -incunabula- of the Roman +epos and drama. That the ancestral lays were traditional is +self-evident, and is abundantly demonstrated by the fact that they +were regularly recited by children; but even in the time of Cato +the Elder they had completely passed into oblivion. The comedies +again, if it be allowable so to name them, were at this period and +long afterwards altogether improvised. Consequently nothing of +this popular poetry and popular melody could be handed down but +the measure, the accompaniment of music and choral dancing, and +perhaps the masks. + + +Metre + + +Whether what we call metre existed in the earlier times is doubtful; +the litany of the Arval Brethren scarcely accommodates itself to +an outwardly fixed metrical system, and presents to us rather the +appearance of an animated recitation. On the other hand we find in +subsequent times a very ancient rhythm, the so-called Saturnian(6) +or Faunian metre, which is foreign to the Greeks, and may be +conjectured to have arisen contemporaneously with the oldest Latin +popular poetry. The following poem, belonging, it is true, to a +far later age, may give an idea of it:-- + + +Quod re sua difeidens--aspere afleicta + +Parens timens heic vovit--voto hoc soluto +___ +Decuma facta poloucta--leibereis lubentis + ____ _____ +Donu danunt__hercolei--maxsume--mereto + _____ +Semol te orant se voti--crebro con__demnes. + +__--'__--'__--'__^/ __--'__--'__--'_^ + + +That which, misfortune dreading--sharply to afflict him, An anxious +parent vowed here,--when his wish was granted, A sacred tenth for +banquet--gladly give his children to Hercules a tribute--most of +all deserving; And now they thee beseech, that--often thou wouldst +hear them. + +Panegyrics as well as comic songs appear to have been uniformly +sung in Saturnian metre, of course to the pipe, and presumably in +such a way that the -caesura- in particular in each line was strongly +marked; and in alternate singing the second singer probably took +up the verse at this point. The Saturnian measure is, like every +other occurring in Roman and Greek antiquity, based on quantity; +but of all the antique metres perhaps it is the least thoroughly +elaborated, for besides many other liberties it allows itself the +greatest license in omitting the short syllables, and it is at the +same time the most imperfect in construction, for these iambic and +trochaic half-lines opposed to each other were but little fitted +to develop a rhythmical structure adequate for the purposes of the +higher poetry. + + +Melody + + +The fundamental elements of the national music and choral dancing +in Latium, which must likewise have been established during this +period, are buried for us in oblivion; except that the Latin pipe +is reported to have been a short and slender instrument, provided +with only four holes, and originally, as the name shows, made out +of the light thighbone of some animal. + + +Masks + + +Lastly, the masks used in after times for the standing characters +of the Latin popular comedy or the Atellana, as it was called: +Maccus the harlequin, Bucco the glutton, Pappus the good papa, and +the wise Dossennus--masks which have been cleverly and strikingly +compared to the two servants, the -pantalon- and the -dottore-, in +the Italian comedy of Pulcinello--already belonged to the earliest +Latin popular art. That they did so cannot of course be strictly +proved; but as the use of masks for the face in Latium in the case +of the national drama was of immemorial antiquity, while the Greek +drama in Rome did not adopt them for a century after its first +establishment, as, moreover, those Atellane masks were of decidedly +Italian origin, and as, in fine, the origination as well as +the execution of improvised pieces cannot well be conceived apart +from fixed masks assigning once for all to the player his proper +position throughout the piece, we must associate fixed masks with +the rudiments of the Roman drama, or rather regard them as constituting +those rudiments themselves. + + +Earliest Hellenic Influences + + +If our information respecting the earliest indigenous culture and +art of Latium is so scanty, it may easily be conceived that our +knowledge will be still scantier regarding the earliest impulses +imparted in this respect to the Romans from without. In a certain +sense we may include under this head their becoming acquainted with +foreign languages, particularly the Greek. To this latter language, of +course, the Latins generally were strangers, as was shown by their +enactment in respect to the Sibylline oracles;(7) but an acquaintance +with it must have been not at all uncommon in the case of merchants. +The same may be affirmed of the knowledge of reading and writing, +closely connected as it was with the knowledge of Greek.(8) The +culture of the ancient world, however, was not based either +on the knowledge of foreign languages or on elementary technical +accomplishments. An influence more important than any thus imparted +was exercised over the development of Latium by the elements of the +fine arts, which were already in very early times received from the +Hellenes. For it was the Hellenes alone, and not the Phoenicians +or the Etruscans, that in this respect exercised an influence on +the Italians. We nowhere find among the latter any stimulus of +the fine arts which can be referred to Carthage or Caere, and the +Phoenician and Etruscan forms of civilization may be in general +perhaps classed with those that are hybrid, and for that reason +not further productive.(9) But the influence of Greece did not +fail to bear fruit. The Greek seven-stringed lyre, the "strings" +(-fides-, from --sphidei--, gut; also -barbitus-, --barbitos--), +was not like the pipe indigenous in Latium, and was always regarded +there as an instrument of foreign origin; but the early period at +which it gained a footing is demonstrated partly by the barbarous +mutilation of its Greek name, partly by its being employed even in +ritual.(10) That some of the legendary stores of the Greeks during +this period found their way into Latium, is shown by the ready +reception of Greek works of sculpture with their representations +based so thoroughly upon the poetical treasures of the nation; and +the old Latin barbarous conversions of Persephone into Prosepna, +Bellerophontes into Melerpanta, Kyklops into Cocles, Laomedon into +Alumentus, Ganymedes into Catamitus, Neilos into Melus, Semele into +Stimula, enable us to perceive at how remote a period such stories +had been heard and repeated by the Latins. Lastly and especially, +the Roman chief festival or festival of the city (-ludi maximi-, +-Romani-) must in all probability have owed, if not its origin, +at any rate its later arrangements to Greek influence. It was an +extraordinary thanksgiving festival celebrated in honour of the +Capitoline Jupiter and the gods dwelling along with him, ordinarily +in pursuance of a vow made by the general before battle, and +therefore usually observed on the return home of the burgess-force +in autumn. A festal procession proceeded toward the Circus staked +off between the Palatine and Aventine, and furnished with an arena +and places for spectators; in front the whole boys of Rome, arranged +according to the divisions of the burgess-force, on horseback and +on foot; then the champions and the groups of dancers which we have +described above, each with their own music; thereafter the servants +of the gods with vessels of frankincense and other sacred utensils; +lastly the biers with the images of the gods themselves. The +spectacle itself was the counterpart of war as it was waged in +primitive times, a contest on chariots, on horseback, and on foot. +First there ran the war-chariots, each of which carried in Homeric +fashion a charioteer and a combatant; then the combatants who had +leaped off; then the horsemen, each of whom appeared after the Roman +style of fighting with a horse which he rode and another led by the +hand (-desultor-); lastly, the champions on foot, naked to the girdle +round their loins, measured their powers in racing, wrestling, and +boxing. In each species of contest there was but one competition, +and that between not more than two competitors. A chaplet rewarded +the victor, and the honour in which the simple branch which formed +the wreath was held is shown by the law permitting it to be laid +on the bier of the victor when he died. The festival thus lasted +only one day, and the competitions probably still left sufficient +time on that day for the carnival proper, at which the groups of +dancers may have displayed their art and above all exhibited their +farces; and doubtless other representations also, such as competitions +in juvenile horsemanship, found a place.(11) The honours won in +real war also played their part in this festival; the brave warrior +exhibited on this day the equipments of the antagonist whom he had +slain, and was decorated with a chaplet by the grateful community +just as was the victor in the competition. + +Such was the nature of the Roman festival of victory or city-festival; +and the other public festivities of Rome may be conceived to +have been of a similar character, although less ample in point of +resources. At the celebration of a public funeral dancers regularly +bore a part, and along with them, if there was to be any further +exhibition, horse-racers; in that case the burgesses were specially +invited beforehand to the funeral by the public crier. + +But this city-festival, so intimately bound up with the manners +and exercises of the Romans, coincides in all essentials with the +Hellenic national festivals: more especially in the fundamental +idea of combining a religious solemnity and a competition in warlike +sports; in the selection of the several exercises, which at the +Olympic festival, according to Pindar's testimony, consisted from +the first in running, wrestling, boxing, chariot-racing, and throwing +the spear and stone; in the nature of the prize of victory, which +in Rome as well as in the Greek national festivals was a chaplet, +and in the one case as well as in the other was assigned not to the +charioteer, but to the owner of the team; and lastly in introducing +the feats and rewards of general patriotism in connection with +the general national festival. This agreement cannot have been +accidental, but must have been either a remnant of the primitive +connection between the peoples, or a result of the earliest +international intercourse; and the probabilities preponderate in +favour of the latter hypothesis. The city-festival, in the form +in which we are acquainted with it, was not one of the oldest +institutions of Rome, for the Circus itself was only laid out in the +later regal period;(12) and just as the reform of the constitution +then took place under Greek influence,(13) the city-festival may +have been at the same time so far transformed as to combine Greek +races with, and eventually to a certain extent to substitute them +for, an older mode of amusement--the "leap" (-triumpus-,(14)), and +possibly swinging, which was a primitive Italian custom and long +continued in use at the festival on the Alban mount. Moreover, +while there is some trace of the use of the war-chariot in actual +warfare in Hellas, no such trace exists in Latium. Lastly, the +Greek term --stadion-- (Doric --spadion--) was at a very early period +transferred to the Latin language, retaining its signification, +as -spatium-; and there exists even an express statement that the +Romans derived their horse and chariot races from the people of +Thurii, although, it is true, another account derives them from +Etruria. It thus appears that, in addition to the impulses imparted +by the Hellenes in music and poetry, the Romans were indebted to +them for the fruitful idea of gymnastic competitions. + + +Character of Poetry and of Education in Latium + + +Thus there not only existed in Latium the same fundamental elements +out of which Hellenic culture and art grew, but Hellenic culture +and art themselves exercised a powerful influence over Latium in +very early times. Not only did the Latins possess the elements +of gymnastic training, in so far as the Roman boy learned like +every farmer's son to manage horses and waggon and to handle the +hunting-spear, and as in Rome every burgess was at the same time +a soldier; but the art of dancing was from the first an object +of public care, and a powerful impulse was further given to such +culture at an early period by the introduction of the Hellenic +games. The lyrical poetry and tragedy of Hellas grew out of songs +similar to the festal lays of Rome; the ancestral lay contained the +germs of epos, the masked farce the germs of comedy; and in this +field also Grecian influences were not wanting. + +In such circumstances it is the more remarkable that these germs +either did not spring up at all, or were soon arrested in their +growth. The bodily training of the Latin youth continued to be +solid and substantial, but far removed from the idea of artistic +culture for the body, such as was the aim of Hellenic gymnastics. +The public games of the Hellenes when introduced into Italy, changed +not so much their formal rules as their essential character. While +they were intended to be competitions of burgesses and beyond doubt +were so at first in Rome, they became contests of professional +riders and professional boxers, and, while the proof of free and +Hellenic descent formed the first condition for participating in +the Greek festal games, those of Rome soon passed into the hands +of freedmen and foreigners and even of persons not free at all. +Consequently the circle of fellow-competitors became converted into +a public of spectators, and the chaplet of the victorious champion, +which has been with justice called the badge of Hellas, was afterwards +hardly ever mentioned in Latium. + +A similar fate befel poetry and her sisters. The Greeks and Germans +alone possess a fountain of song that wells up spontaneously; from +the golden vase of the Muses only a few drops have fallen on the +green soil of Italy. There was no formation of legend in the strict +sense there. The Italian gods were abstractions and remained such; +they never became elevated into or, as some may prefer to say, +obscured under, a true personal shape. In like manner men, even the +greatest and noblest, remained in the view of the Italian without +exception mortal, and were not, as in the longing recollection +and affectionately cherished tradition of Greece, elevated in the +conception of the multitude into god-like heroes. But above all +no development of national poetry took place in Latium. It is +the deepest and noblest effect of the fine arts and above all of +poetry, that they break down the barriers of civil communities and +create out of tribes a nation and out of the nations a world. As +in the present day by means of our cosmopolitan literature the +distinctions of civilized nations are done away, so Greek poetic +art transformed the narrow and egoistic sense of tribal relationship +into the consciousness of Hellenic nationality, and this again +into the consciousness of a common humanity. But in Latium nothing +similar occurred. There might be poets in Alba and in Rome, but there +arose no Latin epos, nor even--what were still more conceivable--a +catechism for the Latin farmer of a kind similar to the "Works and +Days" of Hesiod. The Latin federal festival might well have become +a national festival of the fine arts, like the Olympian and Isthmian +games of the Greeks. A cycle of legends might well have gathered +around the fall of Alba, such as was woven around the conquest of +Ilion, and every community and every noble clan of Latium might +have discovered in it, or imported into it, the story of its own +origin. But neither of these results took place, and Italy remained +without national poetry or art. + +The inference which of necessity follows from these facts, that the +development of the fine arts in Latium was rather a shrivelling up +than an expanding into bloom, is confirmed in a manner even now not +to be mistaken by tradition. The beginnings of poetry everywhere, +perhaps, belong rather to women than to men; the spell of incantation +and the chant for the dead pertain pre-eminently to the former, +and not without reason the spirits of song, the Casmenae or Camenae +and the Carmentis of Latium, like the Muses of Hellas, were conceived +as feminine. But the time came in Hellas, when the poet relieved +the songstress and Apollo took his place at the head of the Muses. +In Latium there was no national god of song, and the older Latin +language had no designation for the poet.(15) The power of song +emerging there was out of all proportion weaker, and was rapidly +arrested in its growth. The exercise of the fine arts was there +early restricted, partly to women and children, partly to incorporated +or unincorporated tradesmen. We have already mentioned that funeral +chants were sung by women and banquet-lays by boys; the religious +litanies also were chiefly executed by children. The musicians formed +an incorporated, the dancers and the wailing women (-praeficae-) +unincorporated, trades. While dancing, music, and singing remained +constantly in Greece--as they were originally also in Latium--reputable +employments redounding to the honour of the burgess and of the +community to which he belonged, in Latium the better portion of the +burgesses drew more and more aloof from these vain arts, and that +the more decidedly, in proportion as art came to be more publicly +exhibited and more thoroughly penetrated by the quickening impulses +derived from other lands. The use of the native pipe was sanctioned, +but the lyre remained despised; and while the national amusement of +masks was allowed, the foreign amusements of the -palaestra- were +not only regarded with indifference, but esteemed disgraceful. While +the fine arts in Greece became more and more the common property of +the Hellenes individually and collectively and thereby became the +means of developing a universal culture, they gradually disappeared +in Latium from the thoughts and feelings of the people; and, as +they degenerated into utterly insignificant handicrafts, the idea +of a general national culture to be communicated to youth never +suggested itself at all. The education of youth remained entirely +confined within the limits of the narrowest domesticity. The boy +never left his father's side, and accompanied him not only to the +field with the plough and the sickle, but also to the house of +a friend or to the council-hall, when his father was invited as a +guest or summoned to the senate. This domestic education was well +adapted to preserve man wholly for the household and wholly for +the state. The permanent intercommunion of life between father +and son, and the mutual reverence felt by adolescence for ripened +manhood and by the mature man for the innocence of youth, lay at the +root of the steadfastness of the domestic and political traditions, +of the closeness of the family bond, and in general of the grave +earnestness (-gravitas-) and character of moral worth in Roman life. +This mode of educating youth was in truth one of those institutions +of homely and almost unconscious wisdom, which are as simple as +they are profound. But amidst the admiration which it awakens we +may not overlook the fact that it could only be carried out, and +was only carried out, by the sacrifice of true individual culture +and by a complete renunciation of the equally charming and perilous +gifts of the Muses. + + +Dance, Music, and Song among the Sabellians and Etruscans + + +Regarding the development of the fine arts among the Etruscans +and Sabellians our knowledge is little better than none.(16) We +can only notice the fact that in Etruria the dancers (-histri-, +-histriones-) and the pipe-players (-subulones-) early made a trade +of their art, probably earlier even than in Rome, and exhibited +themselves in public not only at home, but also in Rome for small +remuneration and less honour. It is a circumstance more remarkable +that at the Etruscan national festival, in the exhibition of which +the whole twelve cities were represented by a federal priest, games +were given like those of the Roman city-festival; we are, however, +no longer in a position to answer the question which it suggests, +how far the Etruscans were more successful than the Latins in +attaining a national form of fine art beyond that of the individual +communities. On the other hand a foundation probably was laid in +Etruria, even in early times, for that insipid accumulation of learned +lumber, particularly of a theological and astrological nature, by +virtue of which afterwards, when amidst the general decay antiquarian +dilettantism began to flourish, the Tuscans divided with the Jews, +Chaldeans, and Egyptians the honour of being admired as primitive +sources of divine wisdom. We know still less, if possible, of +Sabellian art; but that of course by no means warrants the inference +that it was inferior to that of the neighbouring stocks. On the +contrary, it may be conjectured from what we otherwise know of +the character of the three chief races of Italy, that in artistic +gifts the Samnites approached nearest to the Hellenes and the +Etruscans were farthest removed from them; and a sort of confirmation +of this hypothesis is furnished by the fact, that the most gifted +and most original of the Roman poets, such as Naevius, Ennius, +Lucilius, and Horace, belonged to the Samnite lands, whereas +Etruria has almost no representatives in Roman literature except +the Arretine Maecenas, the most insufferable of all heart-withered +and affected(17) court-poets, and the Volaterran Persius, the true +ideal of a conceited and languid, poetry-smitten, youth. + + +Earliest Italian Architecture + + +The elements of architecture were, as has been already indicated, +a primitive common possession of the stocks. The dwelling-house +constitutes the first attempt of structural art; and it was the +same among Greeks and Italians. Built of wood, and covered with a +pointed roof of straw or shingles it formed a square dwelling-chamber, +which let out the smoke and let in the light by an opening in the +roof corresponding with a hole for carrying off the rain in the +ground (-cavum aedium-). Under this "black roof" (-atrium-) the +meals were prepared and consumed; there the household gods were +worshipped, and the marriage bed and the bier were set out; there +the husband received his guests, and the wife sat spinning amid the +circle of her maidens. The house had no porch, unless we take as +such the uncovered space between the house door and the street, +which obtained its name -vestibulum-, i. e. dressing-place, from +the circumstance that the Romans were in the habit of going about +within doors in their tunics, and only wrapped the toga around +them when they went abroad. There was, moreover, no division of +apartments except that sleeping and store closets might be provided +around the dwelling-room; and still less were there stairs, or +stories placed one above another. + + +Earliest Hellenic Influence + + +Whether, or to what extent, a national Italian architecture arose +o ut of these beginnings can scarcely be determined, for in this +field Greek influence, even in the earliest times, had a very +powerful effect and almost wholly overgrew such national attempts +as possibly had preceded it. The very oldest Italian architecture +with which we are acquainted is not much less under the influence +of that of Greece than the architecture of the Augustan age. The +primitive tombs of Caere and Alsium, and probably the oldest one +also of those recently discovered at Praeneste, have been, exactly +like the --thesauroi--of Orchomenos and Mycenae, roofed over with +courses of stone placed one above another, gradually overlapping, +and closed by a large stone cover. A very ancient building at +the city wall of Tusculum was roofed in the same way, and so was +originally the well-house (-tullianum-) at the foot of the Capitol, +till the top was pulled down to make room for another building. +The gates constructed on the same system are entirely similar in +Arpinum and in Mycenae. The tunnel which drains the Alban lake(18) +presents the greatest resemblance to that of lake Copais. What are +called Cyclopean ring-walls frequently occur in Italy, especially +in Etruria, Umbria, Latium, and Sabina, and decidedly belong in +point of design to the most ancient buildings of Italy, although +the greater portion of those now extant were probably not executed +till a much later age, several of them certainly not till the +seventh century of the city. They are, just like those of Greece, +sometimes quite roughly formed of large unwrought blocks of rock +with smaller stones inserted between them, sometimes disposed +in square horizontal courses,(19) sometimes composed of polygonal +dressed blocks fitting into each other. The selection of one or +other of these systems was doubtless ordinarily determined by the +material, and accordingly the polygonal masonry does not occur in +Rome, where in the most ancient times tufo alone was employed for +building. The resemblance in the case of the two former and simpler +styles may perhaps be traceable to the similarity of the materials +employed and of the object in view in building; but it can hardly +be deemed accidental that the artistic polygonal wall-masonry, and +the gate with the path leading up to it universally bending to the +left and so exposing the unshielded right side of the assailant to +the defenders, belong to the Italian fortresses as well as to the +Greek. The facts are significant that in that portion of Italy +which was not reduced to subjection by the Hellenes but yet was +in lively intercourse with them, the true polygonal masonry was at +home, and it is found in Etruria only at Pyrgi and at the towns, +not very far distant from it, of Cosa and Saturnia; as the design +of the walls of Pyrgi, especially when we take into account the +significant name ("towers"), may just as certainly be ascribed to +the Greeks as that of the walls of Tiryns, in them most probably +there still stands before our eyes one of the models from which +the Italians learned how to build their walls. The temple in fine, +which in the period of the empire was called the Tuscanic and was +regarded as a kind of style co-ordinate with the various Greek +temple-structures, not only generally resembled the Greek temple +in being an enclosed space (-cello-) usually quadrangular, over +which walls and columns raised aloft a sloping roof, but was also +in details, especially in the column itself and its architectural +features, thoroughly dependent on the Greek system. It is in accordance +with all these facts probable, as it is credible of itself, that +Italian architecture previous to its contact with the Hellenes was +confined to wooden huts, abattis, and mounds of earth and stones, +and that construction in stone was only adopted in consequence of +the example and the better tools of the Greeks. It is scarcely +to be doubted that the Italians first learned from them the use of +iron, and derived from them the preparation of mortar (-cal[e]x-, +-calecare-, from --chaliz--), the machine (-machina-, --meichanei--), +the measuring-rod (-groma-, a corruption from --gnomon--, --gnoma--), +and the artificial latticework (-clathri-, --kleithron--). Accordingly +we can scarcely speak of an architecture peculiarly Italian. Yet +in the woodwork of the Italian dwelling-house--alongside of +alterations produced by Greek influence--various peculiarities may +have been retained or even for the first time developed, and these +again may have exercised a reflex influence on the building of +the Italian temples. The architectural development of the house +proceeded in Italy from the Etruscans. The Latin and even the +Sabellian still adhered to the hereditary wooden hut and to the +good old custom of assigning to the god or spirit not a consecrated +dwelling, but only a consecrated space, while the Etruscan had +already begun artistically to transform his dwelling-house, and to +erect after the model of the dwelling-house of man a temple also +for the god and a sepulchral chamber for the spirit. That the +advance to such luxurious structures in Latium first took place +under Etruscan influence, is proved by the designation of the +oldest style of temple architecture and of the oldest style of house +architecture respectively as Tuscanic.(20) As concerns the character +of this transference, the Grecian temple probably imitated the +general outlines of the tent or dwelling-house; but it was essentially +built of hewn stone and covered with tiles, and the nature of the +stone and the baked clay suggested to the Greek the laws of necessity +and beauty. The Etruscan on the other hand remained a stranger to +the strict Greek distinction between the dwelling of man necessarily +erected of wood and the dwelling of the gods necessarily formed +of stone. The peculiar characteristics of the Tuscan temple--the +outline approaching nearer to a square, the higher gable, the +greater breadth of the intervals between the columns, above all, +the increased inclination of the roof and the singular projection +of the roof-corbels beyond the supporting columns--all arose out +of the greater approximation of the temple to the dwelling-house, +and out of the peculiarities of wooden architecture. + + +Plastic Art in Italy + + +The plastic and delineative arts are more recent than architecture; +the house must be built before any attempt is made to decorate +gable and walls. It is not probable that these arts really gained +a place in Italy during the regal period of Rome; it was only +in Etruria, where commerce and piracy early gave rise to a great +concentration of riches, that art or handicraft--if the term be +preferred--obtained a footing in the earliest times. Greek art, +when it acted on Etruria, was still, as its copy shows, at a very +primitive stage, and the Etruscans may have learned from the Greeks +the art of working in clay and metal at a period not much later than +that at which they borrowed from them the alphabet. The silver +coins of Populonia, almost the only works that can be with any +precision assigned to this period, give no very high idea of Etruscan +artistic skill as it then stood; yet the best of the Etruscan works +in bronze, to which the later critics of art assigned so high a +place, may have belonged to this primitive age; and the Etruscan +terra-cottas also cannot have been altogether despicable, for the +oldest works in baked clay placed in the Roman temples--the statue +of the Capitoline Jupiter, and the four-horse chariot on the roof +of his temple--were executed in Veii, and the large ornaments of a +similar kind placed on the roofs of temples passed generally among +the later Romans under the name of "Tuscanic works." + +On the other hand, among the Italians--not among the Sabellian +stocks merely, but even among the Latins--native sculpture and +design were at this period only coming into existence. The most +considerable works of art appear to have been executed abroad. +We have just mentioned the statues of clay alleged to have been +executed in Veii; and very recent excavations have shown that works +in bronze made in Etruria, and furnished with Etruscan inscriptions, +circulated in Praeneste at least, if not generally throughout +Latium. The statue of Diana in the Romano-Latin federal temple on +the Aventine, which was considered the oldest statue of a divinity +in Rome,(21) exactly resembled the Massiliot statue of the Ephesian +Artemis, and was perhaps manufactured in Velia or Massilia. The +guilds, which from ancient times existed in Rome, of potters, +coppersmiths, and goldsmiths,(22) are almost the only proofs of +the existence of native sculpture and design there; respecting the +position of their art it is no longer possible to gain any clear +idea. + +Artistic Relations and Endowments of the Etruscans and Italians + +If we endeavour to obtain historical results from the archives of +the tradition and practice of primitive art, it is in the first place +manifest that Italian art, like the Italian measures and Italian +writing, developed itself not under Phoenician, but exclusively +under Hellenic influence. There is not a single one of the aspects +of Italian art which has not found its definite model in the art +of ancient Greece; and, so far, the legend is fully warranted which +traces the manufacture of painted clay figures, beyond doubt the +most ancient form of art in Italy, to the three Greek artists, +the "moulder," "fitter," and "draughtsman," Eucheir, Diopos, and +Eugrammos, although it is more than doubtful whether this art came +directly from Corinth or came directly to Tarquinii. There is +as little trace of any immediate imitation of oriental models as +there is of an independently-developed form of art. The Etruscan +lapidaries adhered to the form of the beetle or -scarabaeus-, which +was originally Egyptian; but --scarabaei-- were also used as models +for carving in Greece in very early times (e. g. such a beetle-stone, +with a very ancient Greek inscription, has been found in Aegina), +and therefore they may very well have come to the Etruscans through +the Greeks. The Italians may have bought from the Phoenician; they +learned only from the Greek. + +To the further question, from what Greek stock the Etruscans in +the first instance received their art-models, a categorical answer +cannot be given; yet relations of a remarkable kind subsist between +the Etruscan and the oldest Attic art. The three forms of art, which +were practised in Etruria at least in after times very extensively, +but in Greece only to an extent very limited, tomb-painting, +mirror-designing, and graving on stone, have been hitherto met with +on Grecian soil only in Athens and Aegina. The Tuscan temple does +not correspond exactly either to the Doric or to the Ionic; but in +the more important points of distinction, in the course of columns +carried round the -cella-, as well as in the placing of a separate +pedestal under each particular column, the Etruscan style follows +the more recent Ionic; and it is this same Iono-Attic style of +building still pervaded by a Doric element, which in its general +design stands nearest of all the Greek styles to the Tuscan. In +the case of Latium there is an almost total absence of any certain +traces of intercourse bearing on the history of art. If it was--as +is indeed almost self-evident--the general relations of traffic +and intercourse that determined also the introduction of models +in art, it may be assumed with certainty that the Campanian and +Sicilian Hellenes were the instructors of Latium in art, as in +the alphabet; and the analogy between the Aventine Diana and the +Ephesian Artemis is at least not inconsistent with such an hypothesis. +Of course the older Etruscan art also served as a model for Latium. +As to the Sabellian tribes, if Greek architectural and plastic art +reached them at all, it must, like the Greek alphabet, have come +to them only through the medium of the more western Italian stocks. + +If, in conclusion, we are to form a judgment respecting the artistic +endowments of the different Italian nations, we already at this +stage perceive--what becomes indeed far more obvious in the later +stages of the history of art--that while the Etruscans attained to +the practice of art at an earlier period and produced more massive +and rich workmanship, their works are inferior to those of the +Latins and Sabellians in appropriateness and utility no less than +in spirit and beauty. This certainly is apparent, in the case of +our present epoch, only in architecture. The polygonal wall-masonry, +as appropriate to its object as it was beautiful, was frequent in +Latium and in the inland country behind it; while in Etruria it was +rare, and not even the walls of Caere are constructed of polygonal +blocks. Even in the religious prominence--remarkable also as +respects the history of art--assigned to the arch(23) and to the +bridge(24) in Latium, we may be allowed to perceive, as it were, +an anticipation of the future aqueducts and consular highways of +Rome. On the other hand, the Etruscans repeated, and at the same +time corrupted, the ornamental architecture of the Greeks: for +while they transferred the laws established for building in stone +to architecture in wood, they displayed no thorough skill of +adaptation, and by the lowness of their roof and the wide intervals +between their columns gave to their temples, to use the language +of an ancient architect, a "heavy, mean, straggling, and clumsy +appearance." The Latins found in the rich stores of Greek art +but very little that was congenial to their thoroughly realistic +tastes; but what they did adopt they appropriated truly and +heartily as their own, and in the development of the polygonal +wall-architecture perhaps excelled their instructors. Etruscan art +is a remarkable evidence of accomplishments mechanically acquired +and mechanically retained, but it is, as little as the Chinese, an +evidence even of genial receptivity. As scholars have long since +desisted from the attempt to derive Greek art from that of the +Etruscans, so they must, with whatever reluctance, make up their +minds to transfer the Etruscans from the first to the lowest place +in the history of Italian art. + + + + +Notes for Book I Chapter XV + + +1. I. XII. Priests + +2. I. XIII. Handicrafts + +3. Thus Cato the Elder (de R. R. 160) gives as potent against sprains +the formula: -hauat hauat hauat ista pista sista damia bodannaustra-, +which was presumably quite as obscure to its inventor as it is to +us. Of course, along with these there were also formulae of words; +e. g. it was a remedy for gout, to think, while fasting, on some +other person, and thrice nine times to utter the words, touching +the earth at the same time and spitting:--"I think of thee, mend +my feet. Let the earth receive the ill, let health with me dwell" +(-terra pestem teneto, salus hie maneto-. Varro de R. R. i. 2, +27). + +4. Each of the first five lines was repeated thrice, and the call +at the close five times. Various points in the interpretation are +uncertain, particularly as respects the third line. --The three +inscriptions of the clay vase from the Quirinal (p. 277, note) +run thus: -iove sat deiuosqoi med mitat nei ted endo gosmis uirgo +sied--asted noisi ope toilesiai pakariuois--duenos med faked +(=bonus me fecit) enmanom einom dze noine (probably=die noni) med +malo statod.-Only individual words admit of being understood with +certainty; it is especially noteworthy that forms, which we have +hitherto known only as Umbrian and Oscan, like the adjective -pacer- +and the particle -einom with the value of -et, here probably meet +us withal as old-Latin. + +5. I. II. Art + +6. The name probably denotes nothing but "the chant-measure," +inasmuch as the -satura- was originally the chant sung at the +carnival (II. Art). The god of sowing, -Saeturnus- or -Saiturnus-, +afterwards -Saturnus-, received his name from the same root; his +feast, the Saturnalia, was certainly a sort of carnival, and it is +possible that the farces were originally exhibited chiefly at this +feast. But there are no proofs of a relation between the Satura +and the Saturnalia, and it may be presumed that the immediate +association of the -versus saturnius- with the god Saturn, and the +lengthening of the first syllable in connection with that view, +belong only to later times. + +7. I. XII. Foreign Worships + +8. I. XIV. Introduction of Hellenic Alphabets into Italy + +9. The statement that "formerly the Roman boys were trained in +Etruscan culture, as they were in later times in Greek" (Liv. ix. +36), is quite irreconcilable with the original character of the +Roman training of youth, and it is not easy to see what the Roman +boys could have learned in Etruria. Even the most zealous modern +partizans of Tages-worship will not maintain that the study of the +Etruscan language played such a part in Rome then as the learning +of French does now with us; that a non-Etruscan should understand +anything of the art of the Etruscan -haruspices- was considered, +even by those who availed themselves of that art, to be a disgrace +or rather an impossibility (Muller, Etr. ii. 4). Perhaps the +statement was concocted by the Etruscizing antiquaries of the last +age of the republic out of stories of the older annals, aiming +at a causal explanation of facts, such as that which makes Mucius +Scaevola learn Etruscan when a child for the sake of his conversation +with Porsena (Dionysius, v. 28; Plutarch, Poplicola, 17; comp. +Dionysius, iii. 70). But there was at any rate an epoch when the +dominion of Rome over Italy demanded a certain knowledge of the +language of the country on the part of Romans of rank. + +10. The employment of the lyre in ritual is attested by Cicero +de Orat. iii. 51, 197; Tusc. iv. 2, 4; Dionysius, vii. 72; Appian, +Pun. 66; and the inscription in Orelli, 2448, comp. 1803. It +was likewise used at the -neniae- (Varro ap. Nonium, v. -nenia- +and -praeficae-). But playing on the lyre remained none the less +unbecoming (Scipio ap. Macrob. Sat. ii. 10, et al.). The prohibition +of music in 639 exempted only the "Latin player on the pipe along +with the singer," not the player on the lyre, and the guests at meals +sang only to the pipe (Cato in Cic. Tusc. i. 2, 3; iv. 2, 3; Varro +ap. Nonium, v. -assa voce-; Horace, Carm. iv. 15, 30). Quintilian, +who asserts the reverse (Inst. i. 10, 20), has inaccurately +transferred to private banquets what Cicero (de Orat. iii. 51) +states in reference to the feasts of the gods. + +11. The city festival can have only lasted at first for a single +day, for in the sixth century it still consisted of four days of +scenic and one day of Circensian sports (Ritschl, Parerga, i. 313) +and it is well known that the scenic amusements were only a subsequent +addition. That in each kind of contest there was originally +only one competition, follows from Livy, xliv. 9; the running +of five-and-twenty pairs of chariots in succession on one day was +a subsequent innovation (Varro ap. Serv. Georg. iii. 18). That +only two chariots--and likewise beyond doubt only two horsemen +and two wrestlers--strove for the prize, may be inferred from the +circumstance, that at all periods in the Roman chariot-races only +as many chariots competed as there were so-called factions; and of +these there were originally only two, the white and the red. The +horsemanship-competition of patrician youths which belonged to +the Circensian games, the so-called Troia, was, as is well known, +revived by Caesar; beyond doubt it was connected with the cavalcade +of the boy-militia, which Dionysius mentions (vii. 72). + +12. I. VII. Servian Wall + +13. I. VI. Time and Occasion of the Reform + +14. I. II. Religion + +15. -Vates- probably denoted in the first instance the "leader of +the singing" (for so the -vates- of the Salii must be understood) +and thereafter in its older usage approximated to the Greek +--propheiteis--; it was a word be longing to religious ritual, +and even when subsequently used of the poet, always retained the +accessory idea of a divinely-inspired singer--the priest of the +Muses. + +16. We shall show in due time that the Atellanae and Fescenninae +belonged not to Campanian and Etruscan, but to Latin art. + +17. Literally "word-crisping," in allusion to the -calamistri +Maecenatis-. + +18. I. III. Alba + +19. Of this character were the Servian walls. They consisted +partly of a strengthening of the hill-slopes by facing them with +lining-walls as much as 4 metres thick, partly--in the intervals, +above all on the Viminal and Quirinal, where from the Esquiline +to the Colline gate there was an absence of natural defence--of an +earthen mound, which was finished off on the outside by a similar +lining-wall. On these lining-walls rested the breastwork. A trench, +according to trustworthy statements of the ancients 30 feet deep +and 100 feet broad, stretched along in front of the wall, for +which the earth was taken from this same trench.--The breastwork +has nowhere been preserved; of the lining-walls extensive remains +have recently been brought to light. The blocks of tufo composing +them are hewn in longish rectangles, on an average of 60 centimetres +(= 2 Roman feet) in height and breadth, while the length varies +from 70 centimetres to 3 metres, and they are, without application +of mortar, laid together in several rows, alternately with the long +and with the narrow side outermost. + +The portion of the Servian wall near the Viminal gate, discovered in +the year 1862 at the Villa Negroni, rests on a foundation of huge +blocks of tufo of 3 to 4 metres in height and breadth, on which was +then raised the outer wall from blocks of the same material and of +the same size as those elsewhere employed in the wall. The earthen +rampart piled up behind appears to have had on the upper surface +a breadth extending about 13 metres or fully 40 Roman feet, and +the whole wall-defence, including the outer wall of freestone, to +have had a breadth of as much as 15 metres or 50 Roman feet. The +portions formed of peperino blocks, which are bound with iron +clamps, have only been added in connection with subsequent labours +of repair.--Essentially similar to the Servian walls are those +discovered in the Vigna Nussiner, on the slope of the Palatine +towards the side of the Capitol, and at other points of the Palatine, +which have been declared by Jordan (Topographic, ii. 173), probably +with reason, to be remnants of the citadel-wall of the Palatine +Rome, + +20. -Ratio Tuscanica,: cavum aedium Tuscanicum.- + +21. When Varro (ap. Augustin. De Civ. Dei, iv. 31; comp. Plutarch +Num. 8) affirms that the Romans for more than one hundred and +seventy years worshipped the gods without images, he is evidently +thinking of this primitive piece of carving, which, according to +the conventional chronology, was dedicated between 176 and 219, and, +beyond doubt, was the first statue of the gods, the consecration +of which was mentioned in the authorities which Varro had before +him. Comp, above, XIV. Development of Alphabets in Italy. + +22. I. XIII. Handicrafts + +23. I. XII. Nature of the Roman Gods + +24. I. XII. Pontifices + + + +End of Book I + + + + * * * * * + + + +THE HISTORY OF ROME: BOOK II + +From the Abolition of the Monarchy in Rome to the Union of Italy + + + + +Preparer's Note + +This work contains many literal citations of and references to +foreign words, sounds, and alphabetic symbols drawn from many +languages, including Gothic and Phoenician, but chiefly Latin and +Greek. This English Gutenberg edition, constrained to the characters +of 7-bit ASCII code, adopts the following orthographic conventions: + +1) Except for Greek, all literally cited non-English words that do +not refer to texts cited as academic references, words that in the +source manuscript appear italicized, are rendered with a single +preceding, and a single following dash; thus, -xxxx-. + +2) Greek words, first transliterated into Roman alphabetic +equivalents, are rendered with a preceding and a following double- +dash; thus, --xxxx--. Note that in some cases the root word itself +is a compound form such as xxx-xxxx, and is rendered as --xxx-xxx-- + +3) Simple unideographic references to vocalic sounds, single +letters, or alphabeic dipthongs; and prefixes, suffixes, and syllabic +references are represented by a single preceding dash; thus, -x, +or -xxx. + +4) Ideographic references, referring to signs of representation rather +than to content, are represented as -"id:xxxx"-. "id:" stands for +"ideograph", and indicates that the reader should form a picture based +on the following "xxxx"; which may be a single symbol, a word, or an +attempt at a picture composed of ASCII characters. For example, + --"id:GAMMA gamma"-- indicates an uppercase Greek gamma-form followed +by the form in lowercase. Some such exotic parsing as this is +necessary to explain alphabetic development because a single symbol +may have been used for a number of sounds in a number of languages, +or even for a number of sounds in the same language at different +times. Thus, -"id:GAMMA gamma" might very well refer to a Phoenician +construct that in appearance resembles the form that eventually +stabilized as an uppercase Greek "gamma" juxtaposed to one of +lowercase. Also, a construct such as --"id:E" indicates a symbol +that with ASCII resembles most closely a Roman uppercase "E", but, +in fact, is actually drawn more crudely. + +5) Dr. Mommsen has given his dates in terms of Roman usage, A.U.C.; +that is, from the founding of Rome, conventionally taken to be +753 B. C. The preparer of this document, has appended to the end +of this combined text (Books I-V) a table of conversion between the +two systems. + + + + +CONTENTS + +BOOK II: From the Abolition of the Monarchy in Rome to the Union + of Italy + + CHAPTER + + I. Change of the Constitution--Limitation of the Power of the + Magistrate + + II. The Tribunate of the Plebs and the Decemvirate + + III. The Equalization of the Orders, and the New Aristocracy + + IV. Fall of the Etruscan Power--the Celts + + V. Subjugation of the Latins and Campanians by Rome + + VI. Struggle of the Italians against Rome + + VII. Struggle Between Pyrrhus and Rome, and Union of Italy + + VIII. Law--Religion--Military System--Economic Condition--Nationality + + IX. Art and Science + + + + +BOOK SECOND + +From the Abolition of the Monarchy in Rome to the Union of Italy + + + + +--dei ouk ekpleittein ton suggraphea terateuomenon dia teis iotopias +tous entugchanontas.-- + +Polybius. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +Change of the Constitution-- +Limitation of the Power of the Magistrate + + +Political and Social Distinctions in Rome + +The strict conception of the unity and omnipotence of the state in +all matters pertaining to it, which was the central principle of the +Italian constitutions, placed in the hands of the single president +nominated for life a formidable power, which was felt doubtless by the +enemies of the land, but was not less heavily felt by its citizens. +Abuse and oppression could not fail to ensue, and, as a necessary +consequence, efforts were made to lessen that power. It was, +however, the grand distinction of the endeavours after reform and +the revolutions in Rome, that there was no attempt either to impose +limitations on the community as such or even to deprive it of +corresponding organs of expression--that there never was any +endeavour to assert the so-called natural rights of the individual in +contradistinction to the community--that, on the contrary, the attack +was wholly directed against the form in which the community was +represented. From the times of the Tarquins down to those of +the Gracchi the cry of the party of progress in Rome was not for +limitation of the power of the state, but for limitation of the power +of the magistrates: nor amidst that cry was the truth ever forgotten, +that the people ought not to govern, but to be governed. + +This struggle was carried on within the burgess-body. Side by +side with it another movement developed itself--the cry of the +non-burgesses for equality of political privileges. Under this head +are included the agitations of the plebeians, the Latins, the Italians, +and the freedmen, all of whom--whether they may have borne the name +of burgesses, as did the plebeians and the freedmen, or not, as was +the case with the Latins and Italians--were destitute of, and desired, +political equality. + +A third distinction was one of a still more general nature; the +distinction between the wealthy and the poor, especially such as had +been dispossessed or were endangered in possession. The legal and +political relations of Rome led to the rise of a numerous class of +farmers--partly small proprietors who were dependent on the mercy of +the capitalist, partly small temporary lessees who were dependent on +the mercy of the landlord--and in many instances deprived individuals +as well as whole communities of the lands which they held, without +affecting their personal freedom. By these means the agricultural +proletariate became at an early period so powerful as to have a +material influence on the destinies of the community. The urban +proletariate did not acquire political importance till a much later +epoch. + +On these distinctions hinged the internal history of Rome, and, as +may be presumed, not less the history--totally lost to us--of the +other Italian communities. The political movement within the +fully-privileged burgess-body, the warfare between the excluded and +excluding classes, and the social conflicts between the possessors +and the non-possessors of land--variously as they crossed and +interlaced, and singular as were the alliances they often produced +--were nevertheless essentially and fundamentally distinct. + +Abolition of the Life-Presidency of the Community + +As the Servian reform, which placed the --metoikos-- on a footing of +equality in a military point of view with the burgess, appears to have +originated from considerations of an administrative nature rather than +from any political party-tendency, we may assume that the first of the +movements which led to internal crises and changes of the constitution +was that which sought to limit the magistracy. The earliest +achievement of this, the most ancient opposition in Rome, consisted +in the abolition of the life-tenure of the presidency of the +community; in other words, in the abolition of the monarchy. How +necessarily this was the result of the natural development of things, +is most strikingly demonstrated by the fact, that the same change of +constitution took place in an analogous manner through the whole +circuit of the Italo-Grecian world. Not only in Rome, but likewise +among the other Latins as well as among the Sabellians, Etruscans, +and Apulians--and generally, in all the Italian communities, just as +in those of Greece--we find the rulers for life of an earlier epoch +superseded in after times by annual magistrates. In the case of the +Lucanian canton there is evidence that it had a democratic government +in time of peace, and it was only in the event of war that the +magistrates appointed a king, that is, an official similar to the +Roman dictator. The Sabellian civic communities, such as those of +Capua and Pompeii, in like manner were in later times governed by +a "community-manager" (-medix tuticus-) changed from year to year, +and we may assume that similar institutions existed among the other +national and civic communities of Italy. In this light the reasons +which led to the substitution of consuls for kings in Rome need no +explanation. The organism of the ancient Greek and Italian polity +developed of itself by a sort of natural necessity the limitation of +the life-presidency to a shortened, and for the most part an annual, +term. Simple, however, as was the cause of this change, it might be +brought about in various ways; a resolution might be adopted on the +death of one life-ruler not to elect another--a course which the +Roman senate is said to have attempted after the death of Romulus; +or the ruler might voluntarily abdicate, as is alleged to have been +the intention of king Servius Tullius; or the people might rise in +rebellion against a tyrannical ruler, and expel him. + +Expulsion of the Tarquins from Rome + +It was in this latter way that the monarchy was terminated in Rome. +For however much the history of the expulsion of the last Tarquinius, +"the proud," may have been interwoven with anecdotes and spun out into +a romance, it is not in its leading outlines to be called in question. +Tradition credibly enough indicates as the causes of the revolt, that +the king neglected to consult the senate and to complete its numbers; +that he pronounced sentences of capital punishment and confiscation +without advising with his counsellors; that he accumulated immense +stores of grain in his granaries, and exacted from the burgesses +military labour and task-work beyond what was due. The exasperation +of the people is attested by the formal vow which they made man by +man for themselves and for their posterity that thenceforth they would +never tolerate a king; by the blind hatred with which the name of king +was ever afterwards regarded in Rome; and above all by the enactment +that the "king for offering sacrifice" (-rex sacrorum- or +-sacrificulus-) --whom they considered it their duty to create that the +gods might not miss their accustomed mediator--should be disqualified +from holding any further office, so that this man became the foremost +indeed, but also the most powerless in the Roman commonwealth. Along +with the last king all the members of his clan were banished--a proof +how close at that time gentile ties still were. The Tarquinii +thereupon transferred themselves to Caere, perhaps their ancient +home,(1) where their family tomb has recently been discovered. +In the room of the one president holding office for life two +annual rulers were now placed at the head of the Roman community. + +This is all that can be looked upon as historically certain in +reference to this important event.(2) It is conceivable that in +a great community with extensive dominion like the Roman the royal +power, particularly if it had been in the same family for several +generations, would be more capable of resistance, and the struggle +would thus be keener, than in the smaller states; but there is no +certain indication of any interference by foreign states in the +struggle. The great war with Etruria--which possibly, moreover, +has been placed so close upon the expulsion of the Tarquins only in +consequence of chronological confusion in the Roman annals--cannot +be regarded as an intervention of Etruria in favour of a countryman +who had been injured in Rome, for the very sufficient reason that the +Etruscans notwithstanding their complete victory neither restored the +Roman monarchy, nor even brought back the Tarquinian family. + +Powers of the Consuls + +If we are left in ignorance of the historical connections of this +important event, we are fortunately in possession of clearer light as +to the nature of the change which was made in the constitution. The +royal power was by no means abolished, as is shown by the very fact +that, when a vacancy occurred afterwards as before, an "interim king" +(-interrex-) was nominated. The one life-king was simply replaced +by two year-kings, who called themselves generals (-praetores-), +or judges (-iudices-), or merely colleagues (consules).(3) +The principles of collegiate tenure and of annual duration are those +which distinguish the republic from the monarchy, and they first meet +us here. + +Collegiate Arrangement + +The collegiate principle, from which the third and subsequently most +current name of the annual kings was derived, assumed in their case an +altogether peculiar form. The supreme power was not entrusted to the +two magistrates conjointly, but each consul possessed and exercised it +for himself as fully and wholly as it had been possessed and exercised +by the king. This was carried so far that, instead of one of the two +colleagues undertaking perhaps the administration of justice, and +the other the command of the army, they both administered justice +simultaneously in the city just as they both set out together to +the army; in case of collision the matter was decided by a rotation +measured by months or days. A certain partition of functions withal, +at least in the supreme military command, might doubtless take place +from the outset--the one consul for example taking the field against +the Aequi, and the other against the Volsci--but it had in no wise +binding force, and each of the colleagues was legally at liberty to +interfere at any time in the province of the other. When, therefore, +supreme power confronted supreme power and the one colleague forbade +what the other enjoined, the consular commands neutralized each other. +This peculiarly Latin, if not peculiarly Roman, institution of +co-ordinate supreme authorities--which in the Roman commonwealth on +the whole approved itself as practicable, but to which it will be +difficult to find a parallel in any other considerable state +--manifestly sprang out of the endeavour to retain the regal power +in legally undiminished fulness. They were thus led not to break +up the royal office into parts or to transfer it from an individual +to a college, but simply to double it and thereby, if necessary, +to neutralize it through its own action. + +Term of Office + +As regards the termination of their tenure of office, the earlier +-interregnum- of five days furnished a legal precedent. The ordinary +presidents of the community were bound not to remain in office +longer than a year reckoned from the day of their entering on their +functions;(4) and they ceased -de jure- to be magistrates upon the +expiry of the year, just as the interrex on the expiry of the five +days. Through this set termination of the supreme office the +practical irresponsibility of the king was lost in the case of the +consul. It is true that the king was always in the Roman commonwealth +subject, and not superior, to the law; but, as according to the Roman +view the supreme judge could not be prosecuted at his own bar, the +king might doubtless have committed a crime, but there was for him no +tribunal and no punishment. The consul, again, if he had committed +murder or treason, was protected by his office, but only so long as +it lasted; on his retirement he was liable to the ordinary penal +jurisdiction like any other burgess. + +To these leading changes, affecting the principles of the +constitution, other restrictions were added of a subordinate and more +external character, some of which nevertheless produced a deep effect +The privilege of the king to have his fields tilled by task-work +of the burgesses, and the special relation of clientship in which +the --metoeci-- as a body must have stood to the king, ceased of +themselves with the life tenure of the office. + +Right of Appeal + +Hitherto in criminal processes as well as in fines and corporal +punishments it had been the province of the king not only to +investigate and decide the cause, but also to decide whether the +person found guilty should or should not be allowed to appeal for +pardon. The Valerian law now (in 245) enacted that the consul must +allow the appeal of the condemned, where sentence of capital or +corporal punishment had been pronounced otherwise than by martial +law--a regulation which by a later law (of uncertain date, but passed +before 303) was extended to heavy fines. In token of this right of +appeal, when the consul appeared in the capacity of judge and not +of general, the consular lictors laid aside the axes which they had +previously carried by virtue of the penal jurisdiction belonging to +their master. The law however threatened the magistrate, who did +not allow due course to the -provocatio-, with no other penalty than +infamy--which, as matters then stood, was essentially nothing but a +moral stain, and at the utmost only had the effect of disqualifying +the infamous person from giving testimony. Here too the course +followed was based on the same view, that it was in law impossible +to diminish the old regal powers, and that the checks imposed upon the +holder of the supreme authority in consequence of the revolution had, +strictly viewed, only a practical and moral value. When therefore the +consul acted within the old regal jurisdiction, he might in so acting +perpetrate an injustice, but he committed no crime and consequently +was not amenable for what he did to the penal judge. + +A limitation similar in its tendency took place in the civil +jurisdiction; for probably there was taken from the consuls at +the very outset the right of deciding at their discretion a legal +dispute between private persons. + +Restrictions on the Delegation of Powers + +The remodelling of the criminal as of civil procedure stood in +connection with a general arrangement respecting the transference +of magisterial power to deputies or successors. While the king had +been absolutely at liberty to nominate deputies but had never been +compelled to do so, the consuls exercised the right of delegating +power in an essentially different way. No doubt the rule that, if +the supreme magistrate left the city, he had to appoint a warden there +for the administration of justice,(5) remained in force also for the +consuls, and the collegiate arrangement was not even extended to such +delegation; on the contrary this appointment was laid on the consul +who was the last to leave the city. But the right of delegation +for the time when the consuls remained in the city was probably +restricted, upon the very introduction of this office, by providing +that delegation should be prescribed to the consul for definite +cases, but should be prohibited for all cases in which it was not so +prescribed. According to this principle, as we have said, the whole +judicial system was organized. The consul could certainly exercise +criminal jurisdiction also as to a capital process in the way of +submitting his sentence to the community and having it thereupon +confirmed or rejected; but he never, so far as we see, exercised +this right, perhaps was soon not allowed to exercise it, and possibly +pronounced a criminal judgment only in the case of appeal to the +community being for any reason excluded. Direct conflict between +the supreme magistrate of the community and the community itself was +avoided, and the criminal procedure was organized really in such a +way, that the supreme magistracy remained only in theory competent, +but always acted through deputies who were necessary though appointed +by himself. These were the two--not standing--pronouncers-of-judgment +for revolt and high treason (-duoviri perduellionis-) and the two +standing trackers of murder, the -quaestores parricidii-. Something +similar may perhaps have occurred in the regal period, where the +king had himself represented in such processes;(6) but the standing +character of the latter institution, and the collegiate principle +carried out in both, belong at any rate to the republic. The latter +arrangement became of great importance also, in so far that thereby +for the first time alongside of the two standing supreme magistrates +were placed two assistants, whom each supreme magistrate nominated at +his entrance on office, and who in due course also went out with him +on his leaving it--whose position thus, like the supreme magistracy +itself, was organized according to the principles of a standing +office, of a collegiate form, and of an annual tenure. This was not +indeed as yet the inferior magistracy itself, at least not in the +sense which the republic associated with the magisterial position, +inasmuch as the commissioners did not emanate from the choice of +the community; but it doubtless became the starting-point for the +institution of subordinate magistrates, which was afterwards developed +in so manifold ways. + +In a similar way the decision in civil procedure was withdrawn from +the supreme magistracy, inasmuch as the right of the king to transfer +an individual process for decision to a deputy was converted into the +duty of the consul, after settling the legitimate title of the party +and the object of the suit, to refer the disposal of it to a private +man to be selected by him and furnished by him with instructions. + +In like manner there was left to the consuls the important +administration of the state-treasure and of the state-archives; +nevertheless probably at once, or at least very early, there were +associated with them standing assistants in that duty, namely, those +quaestors who, doubtless, had in exercising this function absolutely +to obey them, but without whose previous knowledge and co-operation +the consuls could not act. + +Where on the other hand such directions were not in existence, the +president of the community in the capital had personally to intervene; +as indeed, for example, at the introductory steps of a process he +could not under any circumstances let himself be represented by +deputy. + +This double restriction of the consular right of delegation subsisted +for the government of the city, and primarily for the administration +of justice and of the state-chest. As commander-in-chief, on the +other hand, the consul retained the right of handing over all or any +of the duties devolving on him. This diversity in the treatment of +civil and military delegation explains why in the government of the +Roman community proper no delegated magisterial authority (-pro +magistrate-) was possible, nor were purely urban magistrates ever +represented by non-magistrates; and why, on the other hand, military +deputies (-pro consuls-, -pro praetore-, -pro quaestore-) were +excluded from all action within the community proper. + +Nominating a Successor + +The right of nominating a successor had not been possessed by the +king, but only by the interrex.(7) The consul was in this respect +placed on a like footing with the latter; nevertheless, in the event +of his not having exercised the power, the interrex stepped in as +before, and the necessary continuity of the office subsisted still +undiminished under the republican government. The right of +nomination, however, was materially restricted in favour of the +burgesses, as the consul was bound to procure the assent of the +burgesses for the successors designated by him, and, in the sequel, +to nominate only those whom the community designated to him. Through +this binding right of proposal the nomination of the ordinary supreme +magistrates doubtless in a certain sense passed substantially into the +hands of the community; practically, however, there still existed a +very considerable distinction between that right of proposal and the +right of formal nomination. The consul conducting the election was by +no means a mere returning officer; he could still, e. g. by virtue of +his old royal prerogative reject particular candidates and disregard +the votes tendered for them; at first he might even limit the choice +to a list of candidates proposed by himself; and--what was of +still more consequence--when the collegiate consulship was to be +supplemented by the dictator, of whom we shall speak immediately, +in so supplementing it the community was not consulted, but on the +contrary the consul in that case appointed his colleague with the +same freedom, wherewith the interrex had once appointed the king. + +Change in the Nomination of Priests + +The nomination of the priests, which had been a prerogative of the +kings,(8) was not transferred to the consuls; but the colleges of +priests filled up the vacancies in their own ranks, while the Vestals +and single priests were nominated by the pontifical college, on which +devolved also the exercise of the paternal jurisdiction, so to speak, +of the community over the priestesses of Vesta. With a view to the +performance of these acts, which could only be properly performed by +a single individual, the college probably about this period first +nominated a president, the -Pontifex maximus-. This separation of the +supreme authority in things sacred from the civil power--while the +already-mentioned "king for sacrifice" had neither the civil nor the +sacred powers of the king, but simply the title, conferred upon him +--and the semi-magisterial position of the new high priest, so decidedly +contrasting with the character which otherwise marked the priesthood +in Rome, form one of the most significant and important peculiarities +of this state-revolution, the aim of which was to impose limits on the +powers of the magistrates mainly in the interest of the aristocracy. + +We have already mentioned that the outward state of the consul was +far inferior to that of the regal office hedged round as it was +with reverence and terror, that the regal name and the priestly +consecration were withheld from him, and that the axe was taken away +from his attendants. We have to add that, instead of the purple +robe which the king had worn, the consul was distinguished from the +ordinary burgess simply by the purple border of his toga, and that, +while the king perhaps regularly appeared in public in his chariot, +the consul was bound to accommodate himself to the general rule and +like every other burgess to go within the city on foot. + +The Dictator + +These limitations, however, of the plenary power and of the insignia +of the magistracy applied in the main only to the ordinary presidency +of the community. In extraordinary cases, alongside of, and in a +certain sense instead of, the two presidents chosen by the community +there emerged a single one, the master of the army (-magister populi-) +usually designated as the -dictator-. In the choice of dictator the +community exercised no influence at all, but it proceeded solely +from the free resolve of one of the consuls for the time being, whose +action neither his colleague nor any other authority could hinder. +There was no appeal from his sentence any more than from that of the +king, unless he chose to allow it. As soon as he was nominated, all +the other magistrates were by right subject to his authority. On the +other hand the duration of the dictator's office was limited in two +ways: first, as the official colleague of those consuls, one of whom +had nominated him, he might not remain in office beyond their legal +term; and secondly, a period of six months was fixed as the absolute +maximum for the duration of his office. It was a further arrangement +peculiar to the dictatorship, that the "master of the army" was bound +to nominate for himself immediately a "master of horse" (-magister +equitum-), who acted along with him as a dependent assistant somewhat +as did the quaestor along with the consul, and with him retired from +office--an arrangement undoubtedly connected with the fact that +the dictator, presumably as being the leader of the infantry, was +constitutionally prohibited from mounting on horseback. In the light +of these regulations the dictatorship is doubtless to be conceived as +an institution which arose at the same time with the consulship, and +which was designed, especially in the event of war, to obviate for a +time the disadvantages of divided power and to revive temporarily the +regal authority; for in war more particularly the equality of rights +in the consuls could not but appear fraught with danger; and not only +positive testimonies, but above all the oldest names given to the +magistrate himself and his assistant, as well as the limitation of the +office to the duration of a summer campaign, and the exclusion of the +-provocatio- attest the pre-eminently military design of the original +dictatorship. + +On the whole, therefore, the consuls continued to be, as the kings had +been, the supreme administrators, judges, and generals; and even in a +religious point of view it was not the -rex sacrorum- (who was only +nominated that the name might be preserved), but the consul, who +offered prayers and sacrifices for the community, and in its name +ascertained the will of the gods with the aid of those skilled in +sacred lore. Against cases of emergency, moreover, a power was +retained of reviving at any moment, without previous consultation of +the community, the full and unlimited regal authority, so as to set +aside the limitations imposed by the collegiate arrangement and by +the special curtailments of jurisdiction. In this way the problem of +legally retaining and practically restricting the regal authority was +solved in genuine Roman fashion with equal acuteness and simplicity +by the nameless statesmen who worked out this revolution. + +Centuries and Curies + +The community thus acquired by the change of constitution rights +of the greatest importance: the right of annually designating its +presidents, and that of deciding in the last instance regarding the +life or death of the burgess. But the body which acquired these +rights could not possibly be the community as it had been hitherto +constituted--the patriciate which had practically become an order of +nobility. The strength of the nation lay in the "multitude" (-plebs-) +which already comprehended in large numbers people of note and of +wealth. The exclusion of this multitude from the public assembly, +although it bore part of the public burdens, might be tolerated as +long as that public assembly itself had no very material share in +the working of the state machine, and as long as the royal power by +the very fact of its high and free position remained almost equally +formidable to the burgesses and to the --metoeci-- and thereby +maintained equality of legal redress in the nation. But when the +community itself was called regularly to elect and to decide, and the +president was practically reduced from its master to its commissioner +for a set term, this relation could no longer be maintained as it +stood; least of all when the state had to be remodelled on the morrow +of a revolution, which could only have been carried out by the +co-operation of the patricians and the --metoeci--. An extension of +that community was inevitable; and it was accomplished in the most +comprehensive manner, inasmuch as the collective plebeiate, that is, +all the non-burgesses who were neither slaves nor citizens of +extraneous communities living at Rome under the -ius hospitii-, +were admitted into the burgess-body. The curiate assembly of the +old burgesses, which hitherto had been legally and practically the +first authority in the state, was almost totally deprived of its +constitutional prerogatives. It was to retain its previous powers +only in acts purely formal or in those which affected clan-relations +--such as the vow of allegiance to be taken to the consul or to +the dictator when they entered on office just as previously to the +king,(9) and the legal dispensations requisite for an -arrogatio- or +a testament--but it was not in future to perform any act of a properly +political character. Soon even the plebeians were admitted to the +right of voting also in the curies, and by that step the old +burgess-body lost the right of meeting and of resolving at all. +The curial organization was virtually rooted out, in so far as it +was based on the clan-organization and this latter was to be found +in its purity exclusively among the old burgesses. When the plebeians +were admitted into the curies, they were certainly also allowed to +constitute themselves -de jure- as--what in the earlier period they +could only have been -de facto-(10)--families and clans; but it is +distinctly recorded by tradition and in itself also very conceivable, +that only a portion of the plebeians proceeded so far as to constitute +-gentes-, and thus the new curiate assembly, in opposition to its original +character, included numerous members who belonged to no clan. + +All the political prerogatives of the public assembly--as well the +decision on appeals in criminal causes, which indeed were essentially +political processes, as the nomination of magistrates and the adoption +or rejection of laws--were transferred to, or were now acquired by, +the assembled levy of those bound to military service; so that the +centuries now received the rights, as they had previously borne the +burdens, of citizens. In this way the small initial movements made by +the Servian constitution--such as, in particular, the handing over to +the army the right of assenting to the declaration of an aggressive +war(11)--attained such a development that the curies were completely +and for ever cast into the shade by the assembly of the centuries, and +people became accustomed to regard the latter as the sovereign people. +In this assembly debate took place merely when the presiding +magistrate chose himself to speak or bade others do so; of course +in cases of appeal both parties had to be heard. A simple majority +of the centuries was decisive. + +As in the curiate assembly those who were entitled to vote at all were +on a footing of entire equality, and therefore after the admission +of all the plebeians into the curies the result would have been a +complete democracy, it may be easily conceived that the decision of +political questions continued to be withheld from the curies; the +centuriate assembly placed the preponderating influence, not in the +hands of the nobles certainly, but in those of the possessors of +property, and the important privilege of priority in voting, which +often practically decided the election, placed it in the hands of +the -equites- or, in other words, of the rich. + +Senate + +The senate was not affected by the reform of the constitution in the +same way as the community. The previously existing college of elders +not only continued exclusively patrician, but retained also its +essential prerogatives--the right of appointing the interrex, and of +confirming or rejecting the resolutions adopted by the community as +constitutional or unconstitutional. In fact these prerogatives were +enhanced by the reform of the constitution, because the appointment +of the magistrates also, which fell to be made by election of the +community, was thenceforth subject to the confirmation or rejection +of the patrician senate. In cases of appeal alone its confirmation, +so far as we know, was never deemed requisite, because in these the +matter at stake was the pardon of the guilty and, when this was +granted by the sovereign assembly of the people, any cancelling +of such an act was wholly out of the question. + +But, although by the abolition of the monarchy the constitutional +rights of the patrician senate were increased rather than diminished, +there yet took place--and that, according to tradition, immediately on +the abolition of the monarchy--so far as regards other affairs which +fell to be discussed in the senate and admitted of a freer treatment, +an enlargement of that body, which brought into it plebeians also, and +which in its consequences led to a complete remodelling of the whole. +From the earliest times the senate had acted also, although not solely +or especially, as a state-council; and, while probably even in the +time of the kings it was not regarded as unconstitutional for non- +senators in this case to take part in the assembly,(12) it was now +arranged that for such discussions there should be associated with +the patrician senate (-patres-) a number of non-patricians "added to +the roll" (-conscripti-). This did not at all put them on a footing +of equality; the plebeians in the senate did not become senators, but +remained members of the equestrian order, were not designated -patres- +but were even now -conscripti-, and had no right to the badge of +senatorial dignity, the red shoe.(13) Moreover, they not only +remained absolutely excluded from the exercise of the magisterial +prerogatives belonging to the senate (-auctoritas-), but were obliged, +even where the question had reference merely to an advice (-consilium-), +to rest content with the privilege of being present in silence +while the question was put to the patricians in turn, and of only +indicating their opinion by adding to the numbers when the division +was taken--voting with the feet (-pedibus in sententiam ire-, +-pedarii-) as the proud nobility expressed it. Nevertheless, +the plebeians found their way through the new constitution not +merely to the Forum, but also to the senate-house, and the first +and most difficult step towards equality of rights was taken in +this quarter also. + +Otherwise there was no material change in the arrangements affecting +the senate. Among the patrician members a distinction of rank soon +came to be recognized, especially in putting the vote: those who were +proximately designated for the supreme magistracy, or who had already +administered it, were entered on the list and were called upon to vote +before the rest; and the position of the first of them, the foreman of +the senate (-princeps senatus-) soon became a highly coveted place of +honour. The consul in office, on the other hand, no more ranked as a +member of senate than did the king, and therefore in taking the votes +did not include his own. The selection of the members--both of the +narrower patrician senate and of those merely added to the roll--fell +to be made by the consuls just as formerly by the kings; but the +nature of the case implied that, while the king had still perhaps some +measure of regard to the representation of the several clans in the +senate, this consideration was of no account so far as concerned +the plebeians, among whom the clan-organization was but imperfectly +developed, and consequently the relation of the senate to that +organization in general fell more and more into abeyance. We have no +information that the electing consuls were restricted from admitting +more than a definite number of plebeians to the senate; nor was there +need for such a regulation, because the consuls themselves belonged to +the nobility. On the other hand probably from the outset the consul +was in virtue of his very position practically far less free, and +far more bound by the opinions of his order and by custom, in the +appointment of senators than the king. The rule in particular, that +the holding of the consulship should necessarily be followed by +admission to the senate for life, if, as was probably the case at +this time, the consul was not yet a member of it at the time of +his election, must have in all probability very early acquired +consuetudinary force. In like manner it seems to have become early +the custom not to fill up the senators' places immediately on their +falling vacant, but to revise and complete the roll of the senate on +occasion of the census, consequently, as a rule, every fourth year; +which also involved a not unimportant restriction on the authority +entrusted with the selection. The whole number of the senators +remained as before, and in this the -conscripti- were also included; +from which fact we are probably entitled to infer the numerical +falling off of the patriciate.(14) + +Conservative Character of the Revolution + +We thus see that in the Roman commonwealth, even on the conversion of +the monarchy into a republic, the old was as far as possible retained. +So far as a revolution in a state can be conservative at all, this one +was so; not one of the constituent elements of the commonwealth was +really overthrown by it. This circumstance indicates the character +of the whole movement. The expulsion of the Tarquins was not, as the +pitiful and deeply falsified accounts of it represent, the work of a +people carried away by sympathy and enthusiasm for liberty, but the +work of two great political parties already engaged in conflict, and +clearly aware that their conflict would steadily continue--the old +burgesses and the --metoeci-- --who, like the English Whigs and +Tories in 1688, were for a moment united by the common danger which +threatened to convert the commonwealth into the arbitrary government +of a despot, and differed again as soon as the danger was over. +The old burgesses could not get rid of the monarchy without the +cooperation of the new burgesses; but the new burgesses were far from +being sufficiently strong to wrest the power out of the hands of the +former at one blow. Compromises of this sort are necessarily limited +to the smallest measure of mutual concessions obtained by tedious +bargaining; and they leave the future to decide which of the +constituent elements shall eventually preponderate, and whether they +will work harmoniously together or counteract one another. To look +therefore merely to the direct innovations, possibly to the mere +change in the duration of the supreme magistracy, is altogether to +mistake the broad import of the first Roman revolution: its indirect +effects were by far the most important, and vaster doubtless than +even its authors anticipated. + +The New Community + +This, in short, was the time when the Roman burgess-body in the +later sense of the term originated. The plebeians had hitherto been +--metoeci-- who were subjected to their share of taxes and burdens, +but who were nevertheless in the eye of the law really nothing but +tolerated aliens, between whose position and that of foreigners proper +it may have seemed hardly necessary to draw a definite line of +distinction. They were now enrolled in the lists as burgesses liable +to military service, and, although they were still far from being on +a footing of legal equality--although the old burgesses still remained +exclusively entitled to perform the acts of authority constitutionally +pertaining to the council of elders, and exclusively eligible to the +civil magistracies and priesthoods, nay even by preference entitled to +participate in the usufructs of burgesses, such as the joint use of +the public pasture--yet the first and most difficult step towards +complete equalization was gained from the time when the plebeians no +longer served merely in the common levy, but also voted in the common +assembly and in the common council when its opinion was asked, and the +head and back of the poorest --metoikos-- were as well protected by +the right of appeal as those of the noblest of the old burgesses. + +One consequence of this amalgamation of the patricians and plebeians +in a new corporation of Roman burgesses was the conversion of the +old burgesses into a clan-nobility, which was incapable of receiving +additions or even of filling up its own ranks, since the nobles no +longer possessed the right of passing decrees in common assembly +and the adoption of new families into the nobility by decree of the +community appeared still less admissible. Under the kings the ranks +of the Roman nobility had not been thus closed, and the admission of +new clans was no very rare occurrence: now this genuine characteristic +of patricianism made its appearance as the sure herald of the speedy +loss of its political privileges and of its exclusive estimation +in the community. The exclusion of the plebeians from all public +magistracies and public priesthoods--while they were admissible to +the position of officers and senators--and the maintenance, with +perverse obstinacy, of the legal impossibility of marriage between old +burgesses and plebeians, further impressed on the patriciate from the +outset the stamp of an exclusive and wrongly privileged aristocracy. + +A second consequence of the new union of the burgesses must have been +a more definite regulation of the right of settlement, with reference +both to the Latin confederates and to other states. It became +necessary--not so much on account of the right of suffrage in the +centuries (which indeed belonged only to the freeholder) as on +account of the right of appeal, which was intended to be conceded +to the plebeian, but not to the foreigner dwelling for a time or +even permanently in Rome--to express more precisely the conditions +of the acquisition of plebeian rights, and to mark off the enlarged +burgess-body in its turn from those who were now the non-burgesses. +To thisepoch therefore we may trace back--in the views and feelings +of the people--both the invidiousness of the distinction between +patricians and plebeians, and the strict and haughty line of demarcation +between -cives Romani- and aliens. But the former civic distinction was +in its nature transient, while the latter political one was permanent; +and the sense of political unity and rising greatness, which was thus +implanted in the heart of the nation, was expansive enough first +to undermine and then to carry away with its mighty current those +paltry distinctions. + +Law and Edict + +It was at this period, moreover, that law and edict were separated. +The distinction indeed had its foundation in the essential character +of the Roman state; for even the regal power in Rome was subordinate, +not superior, to the law of the land. But the profound and practical +veneration, which the Romans, like every other people of political +capacity, cherished for the principle of authority, gave birth to the +remarkable rule of Roman constitutional and private law, that every +command of the magistrate not based upon a law was at least valid +during his tenure of office, although it expired with that tenure. +It is evident that in this view, so long as the presidents were +nominated for life, the distinction between law and edict must have +practically been almost lost sight of, and the legislative activity +of the public assembly could acquire no development. On the other +hand it obtained a wide field of action after the presidents were +changed annually; and the fact was now by no means void of practical +importance, that, if the consul in deciding a process committed a +legal informality, his successor could institute a fresh trial of +the cause. + +Civil and Military Authority + +It was at this period, finally, that the provinces of civil and +military authority were separated. In the former the law ruled, +in the latter the axe: the former was governed by the constitutional +checks of the right of appeal and of regulated delegation; in the +latter the general held an absolute sway like the king.(15) It was +an established principle, that the general and the army as such should +not under ordinary circumstances enter the city proper. That organic +and permanently operative enactments could only be made under the +authority of the civil power, was implied in the spirit, if not in the +letter, of the constitution. Instances indeed occasionally occurred +where the general, disregarding this principle, convoked his forces +in the camp as a burgess assembly, nor was a decree passed under +such circumstances legally void; but custom disapproved of such +a proceeding, and it soon fell into disuse as though it had been +forbidden. The distinction between Quirites and soldiers became +more and more deeply rooted in the minds of the burgesses. + +Government of the Patriciate + +Time however was required for the development of these consequences +of the new republicanism; vividly as posterity felt its effects, +the revolution probably appeared to the contemporary world at first +in a different light. The non-burgesses indeed gained by it +burgess-rights, and the new burgess-body acquired in the -comitia +centuriata- comprehensive prerogatives; but the right of rejection on +the part of the patrician senate, which in firm and serried ranks +confronted the -comitia- as if it were an Upper House, legally hampered +their freedom of movement precisely in the most important matters, and +although not in a position to thwart the serious will of the collective +body, could yet practically delay and cripple it. If the nobility in +giving up their claim to be the sole embodiment of the community did not +seem to have lost much, they had in other respects decidedly gained. +The king, it is true, was a patrician as well as the consul, and the +right of nominating the members of the senate belonged to the latter as +to the former; but while his exceptional position raised the former no +less above the patricians than above the plebeians, and while cases +might easily occur in which he would be obliged to lean upon the +support of the multitude even against the nobility, the consul--ruling +for a brief term, but before and after that term simply one of the +nobility, and obeying to-morrow the noble fellow-burgess whom he had +commanded to-day--by no means occupied a position aloof from his +order, and the spirit of the noble in him must have been far more +powerful than that of the magistrate. Indeed, if at any time by +way of exception a patrician disinclined to the rule of the nobility +was called to the government, his official authority was paralyzed +partly by the priestly colleges, which were pervaded by an intense +aristocratic spirit, partly by his colleague, and was easily suspended +by the dictatorship; and, what was of still more moment, he wanted +the first element of political power, time. The president of a +commonwealth, whatever plenary authority may be conceded to him, +will never gain possession of political power, if he does not continue +for some considerable time at the head of affairs; for a necessary +condition of every dominion is duration. Consequently the senate +appointed for life inevitably acquired--and that by virtue chiefly +of its title to advise the magistrate in all points, so that we speak +not of the narrower patrician, but of the enlarged patricio-plebeian, +senate--so great an influence as contrasted with the annual rulers, +that their legal relations became precisely inverted; the senate +substantially assumed to itself the powers of government, and +the former ruler sank into a president acting as its chairman and +executing its decrees. In the case of every proposal to be submitted +to the community for acceptance or rejection the practice of +previously consulting the whole senate and obtaining its approval, +while not constitutionally necessary, was consecrated by use and wont; +and it was not lightly or willingly departed from. The same course +was followed in the case of important state-treaties, of the +management and distribution of the public lands, and generally of +every act the effects of which extended beyond the official year; +and nothing was left to the consul but the transaction of current +business, the initial steps in civil processes, and the command in +war. Especially important in its consequences was the change in +virtue of which neither the consul, nor even the otherwise absolute +dictator, was permitted to touch the public treasure except with the +consent and by the will of the senate. The senate made it obligatory +on the consuls to commit the administration of the public chest, which +the king had managed or might at any rate have managed himself, to two +standing subordinate magistrates, who were nominated no doubt by the +consuls and had to obey them, but were, as may easily be conceived, +much more dependent than the consuls themselves on the senate.(16) +It thus drew into its own hands the management of finance; and this +right of sanctioning the expenditure of money on the part of the +Roman senate may be placed on a parallel in its effects with the +right of sanctioning taxation in the constitutional monarchies +of the present day. + +The consequences followed as a matter of course. The first and +most essential condition of all aristocratic government is, that +the plenary power of the state be vested not in an individual but +in a corporation. Now a preponderantly aristocratic corporation, +the senate, had appropriated to itself the government, and at the +same time the executive power not only remained in the hands of the +nobility, but was also entirely subject to the governing corporation. +It is true that a considerable number of men not belonging to the +nobility sat in the senate; but as they were incapable of holding +magistracies or even of taking part in the debates, and thus were +excluded from all practical share in the government, they necessarily +played a subordinate part in the senate, and were moreover kept in +pecuniary dependence on the corporation through the economically +important privilege of using the public pasture. The gradually +recognized right of the patrician consuls to revise and modify the +senatorial list at least every fourth year, ineffective as presumably +it was over against the nobility, might very well be employed in their +interest, and an obnoxious plebeian might by means of it be kept out +of the senate or even be removed from its ranks. + +The Plebeian Opposition + +It is therefore quite true that the immediate effect of the revolution +was to establish the aristocratic government. It is not, however, the +whole truth. While the majority of contemporaries probably thought +that the revolution had brought upon the plebeians only a more rigid +despotism, we who come afterwards discern in that very revolution the +germs of young liberty. What the patricians gained was gained at the +expense not of the community, but of the magistrate's power. It is +true that the community gained only a few narrowly restricted rights, +which were far less practical and palpable than the acquisitions +of the nobility, and which not one in a thousand probably had the +wisdom to value; but they formed a pledge and earnest of the future. +Hitherto the --metoeci-- had been politically nothing, the old +burgesses had been everything; now that the former were embraced +in the community, the old burgesses were overcome; for, however much +might still be wanting to full civil equality, it is the first breach, +not the occupation of the last post, that decides the fall of the +fortress. With justice therefore the Roman community dated its +political existence from the beginning of the consulate. + +While however the republican revolution may, notwithstanding the +aristocratic rule which in the first instance it established, be +justly called a victory of the former --metoeci-- or the -plebs-, +the revolution even in this respect bore by no means the character +which we are accustomed in the present day to designate as democratic. +Pure personal merit without the support of birth and wealth could +perhaps gain influence and consideration more easily under the regal +government than under that of the patriciate. Then admission to +the patriciate was not in law foreclosed; now the highest object of +plebeian ambition was to be admitted into the dumb appendage of +the senate. The nature of the case implied that the governing +aristocratic order, so far as it admitted plebeians at all, would +grant the right of occupying seats in the senate not absolutely to +the best men, but chiefly to the heads of the wealthy and notable +plebeian families; and the families thus admitted jealously guarded +the possession of the senatorial stalls. While a complete legal +equality therefore had subsisted within the old burgess-body, the +new burgess-body or former --metoeci-- came to be in this way divided +from the first into a number of privileged families and a multitude +kept in a position of inferiority. But the power of the community now +according to the centuriate organization came into the hands of that +class which since the Servian reform of the army and of taxation had +borne mainly the burdens of the state, namely the freeholders, and +indeed not so much into the hands of the great proprietors or into +those of the small cottagers, as into those of the intermediate class +of farmers--an arrangement in which the seniors were still so far +privileged that, although less numerous, they had as many voting- +divisions as the juniors. While in this way the axe was laid to the +root of the old burgess-body and their clan-nobility, and the basis +of a new burgess-body was laid, the preponderance in the latter rested +on the possession of land and on age, and the first beginnings were +already visible of a new aristocracy based primarily on the actual +consideration in which the families were held--the future nobility. +There could be no clearer indication of the fundamentally conservative +character of the Roman commonwealth than the fact, that the revolution +which gave birth to the republic laid down at the same time the +primary outlines of a new organization of the state, which was in +like manner conservative and in like manner aristocratic. + + + + +Notes for Book II Chapter I + + +1. I. IX. The Tarquins + +2. The well-known fable for the most part refutes itself. To a +considerable extent it has been concocted for the explanation of +surnames (-Brutus-, -Poplicola-, -Scaevola-). But even its apparently +historical ingredients are found on closer examination to have been +invented. Of this character is the statement that Brutus was captain +of the horsemen (-tribunus celerum-) and in that capacity proposed +the decree of the people as to the banishment of the Tarquins; for, +according to the Roman constitution, it is quite impossible that a +mere officer should have had the right to convoke the curies. The +whole of this statement has evidently been invented with the view of +furnishing a legal basis for the Roman republic; and very ill invented +it is, for in its case the -tribunus celerum- is confounded with the +entirely different -magister equitum- (V. Burdens Of The Burgesses +f.), and then the right of convoking the centuries which pertained +to the latter by virtue of his praetorian rank is made to apply to +the assembly of the curies. + +3. -Consules- are those who "leap or dance together," as -praesul- is +one who "leaps before," -exsul-, one who "leaps out" (--o ekpeson--), +-insula-, a "leap into," primarily applied to a mass of rock fallen +into the sea. + +4. The day of entering on office did not coincide with the beginning +of the year (1st March), and was not at all fixed. The day of +retiring was regulated by it, except when a consul was elected +expressly in room of one who had dropped out (-consul suffectus-); +in which case the substitute succeeded to the rights and consequently +to the term of him whom he replaced. But these supplementary consuls +in the earlier period only occurred when merely one of the consuls had +dropped out: pairs of supplementary consuls are not found until the +later ages of the republic. Ordinarily, therefore, the official year +of a consul consisted of unequal portions of two civil years. + +5. I. V. The King + +6. I. XI. Crimes + +7. I. V. Prerogatives of the Senate + +8. I. V. The King + +9. I. V. The King + +10. I. VI. Dependents and Guests + +11. I. VI. Political Effects of the Servian Military Organization + +12. I. V. The Senate as State Council + +13. I. V. Prerogatives of the Senate + +14. That the first consuls admitted to the senate 164 plebeians, is +hardly to be regarded as a historical fact, but rather as a proof that +the later Roman archaeologists were unable to point out more than 136 +-gentes- of the Roman nobility (Rom, Forsch. i. 121). + +15. It may not be superfluous to remark, that the -iudicium +legitimum-, as well as that -quod imperio continetur-, rested on +the imperium of the directing magistrate, and the distinction only +consisted in the circumstance that the -imperium- was in the former +case limited by the -lex-, while in the latter it was free. + +16. II. I. Restrictions on the Delegation of Powers + + + + +CHAPTER II + +The Tribunate of the Plebs and the Decemvirate + + +Material Interests + +Under the new organization of the commonwealth the old burgesses had +attained by legal means to the full possession of political power. +Governing through the magistracy which had been reduced to be their +servant, preponderating in the Senate, in sole possession of all +public offices and priesthoods, armed with exclusive cognizance of +things human and divine and familiar with the whole routine of +political procedure, influential in the public assembly through the +large number of pliant adherents attached to the several families, +and, lastly, entitled to examine and to reject every decree of the +community,--the patricians might have long preserved their practical +power, just because they had at the right time abandoned their claim +to sole legal authority. It is true that the plebeians could not but +be painfully sensible of their political disabilities; but undoubtedly +in the first instance the nobility had not much to fear from a purely +political opposition, if it understood the art of keeping the +multitude, which desired nothing but equitable administration and +protection of its material interests, aloof from political strife. +In fact during the first period after the expulsion of the kings we +meet with various measures which were intended, or at any rate seemed +to be intended, to gain the favour of the commons for the government +of the nobility especially on economic grounds. The port-dues were +reduced; when the price of grain was high, large quantities of corn +were purchased on account of the state, and the trade in salt was made +a state-monopoly, in order to supply the citizens with corn and salt +at reasonable prices; lastly, the national festival was prolonged for +an additional day. Of the same character was the ordinance which we +have already mentioned respecting property fines,(1) which was not +merely intended in general to set limits to the dangerous +fining-prerogative of the magistrates, but was also, in a significant +manner, calculated for the especial protection of the man of small means. +The magistrate was prohibited from fining the same man on the same +day to an extent beyond two sheep or beyond thirty oxen, without +granting leave to appeal; and the reason of these singular rates +can only perhaps be found in the fact, that in the case of the man of +small means possessing only a few sheep a different maximum appeared +necessary from that fixed for the wealthy proprietor of herds of oxen +--a considerate regard to the wealth or poverty of the person fined, +from which modern legislators might take a lesson. + +But these regulations were merely superficial; the main current flowed +in the opposite direction. With the change in the constitution +there was introduced a comprehensive revolution in the financial and +economic relations of Rome, The government of the kings had probably +abstained on principle from enhancing the power of capital, and had +promoted as far as it could an increase in the number of farms. +The new aristocratic government, again, appears to have aimed from +the first at the destruction of the middle classes, particularly of +the intermediate and smaller holdings of land, and at the development +of a domination of landed and moneyed lords on the one hand, and of +an agricultural proletariate on the other. + +Rising Power of the Capitalists + +The reduction of the port-dues, although upon the whole a popular +measure, chiefly benefited the great merchant. But a much greater +accession to the power of capital was supplied by the indirect system +of finance-administration. It is difficult to say what were the +remote causes that gave rise to it: but, while its origin may +probably be referred to the regal period, after the introduction of +the consulate the importance of the intervention of private agency +must have been greatly increased, partly by the rapid succession of +magistrates in Rome, partly by the extension of the financial action +of the treasury to such matters as the purchase and sale of grain and +salt; and thus the foundation must have been laid for that system of +farming the finances, the development of which became so momentous and +so pernicious for the Roman commonwealth. The state gradually put +all its indirect revenues and all its more complicated payments and +transactions into the hands of middlemen, who gave or received a round +sum and then managed the matter for their own benefit. Of course only +considerable capitalists and, as the state looked strictly to tangible +security, in the main only large landholders, could enter into such +engagements: and thus there grew up a class of tax-farmers and +contractors, who, in the rapid growth of their wealth, in their +power over the state to which they appeared to be servants, and +in the absurd and sterile basis of their moneyed dominion, quite +admit of comparison with the speculators on the stock exchange +of the present day. + +Public Land + +The concentrated aspect assumed by the administration of finance +showed itself first and most palpably in the treatment of the public +lands, which tended almost directly to accomplish the material and +moral annihilation of the middle classes. The use of the public +pasture and of the state-domains generally was from its very nature +a privilege of burgesses; formal law excluded the plebeian from +the joint use of the common pasture. As however, apart from +the conversion of the public land into private property or its +assignation, Roman law knew no fixed rights of usufruct on the part +of individual burgesses to be respected like those of property, it +depended solely on the pleasure of the king, so long as the public +land remained such, to grant and to define its joint enjoyment; and it +is not to be doubted that he frequently made use of his right, or at +least his power, as to this matter in favour of plebeians. But on the +introduction of the republic the principle was again strictly insisted +on, that the use of the common pasture belonged in law merely to the +burgess of best right, or in other words to the patrician; and, though +the senate still as before allowed exceptions in favour of the wealthy +plebeian houses represented in it, the small plebeian landholders and +the day-labourers, who stood most in need of the common pasture, had +its joint enjoyment injuriously withheld from them. Moreover there +had hitherto been paid for the cattle driven out on the common pasture +a grazing-tax, which was moderate enough to make the right of using +that pasture still be regarded as a privilege, and yet yielded no +inconsiderable revenue to the public purse. The patrician quaestors +were now remiss and indulgent in levying it, and gradually allowed it +to fall into desuetude. Hitherto, particularly when new domains were +acquired by conquest, allocations of land had been regularly arranged, +in which all the poorer burgesses and --metoeci-- were provided for; +it was only the land which was not suitable for agriculture that was +annexed to the common pasture. The ruling class did not venture +wholly to give up such assignations, and still less to propose them +merely in favour of the rich; but they became fewer and scantier, and +were replaced by the pernicious system of occupation-that is to say, +the cession of domain-lands, not in property or under formal lease for +a definite term, but in special usufruct until further notice, to the +first occupant and his heirs-at-law, so that the state was at any time +entitled to resume them, and the occupier had to pay the tenth sheaf, +or in oil and wine the fifth part of the produce, to the exchequer. +This was simply the -precarium- already described(2) applied to the +state-domains, and may have been already in use as to the public land +at an earlier period, particularly as a temporary arrangement until +its assignation should be carried out. Now, however, not only did +this occupation-tenure become permanent, but, as was natural, none but +privileged persons or their favourites participated, and the tenth and +fifth were collected with the same negligence as the grazing-money. +A threefold blow was thus struck at the intermediate and smaller +landholders: they were deprived of the common usufructs of burgesses; +the burden of taxation was increased in consequence of the domain +revenues no longer flowing regularly into the public chest; and those +land-allocations were stopped, which had provided a constant outlet +for the agricultural proletariate somewhat as a great and well-regulated +system of emigration would do at the present day. To these +evils was added the farming on a large scale, which was probably +already beginning to come into vogue, dispossessing the small agrarian +clients, and in their stead cultivating the estates by rural slaves; +a blow, which was more difficult to avert and perhaps more pernicious +than all those political usurpations put together. The burdensome and +partly unfortunate wars, and the exorbitant taxes and task-works to +which these gave rise, filled up the measure of calamity, so as either +to deprive the possessor directly of his farm and to make him the +bondsman if not the slave of his creditor-lord, or to reduce him +through encumbrances practically to the condition of a temporary +lessee of his creditor. The capitalists, to whom a new field was +here opened of lucrative speculation unattended by trouble or risk, +sometimes augmented in this way their landed property; sometimes they +left to the farmer, whose person and estate the law of debt placed in +their hands, nominal proprietorship and actual possession. The latter +course was probably the most common as well as the most pernicious; +for while utter ruin might thereby be averted from the individual, +this precarious position of the farmer, dependent at all times on the +mercy of his creditor--a position in which he knew nothing of property +but its burdens--threatened to demoralise and politically to +annihilate the whole farmer-class. The intention of the legislator, +when instead of mortgaging he prescribed the immediate transfer of +the property to the creditor with a view to prevent insolvency and to +devolve the burdens of the state on the real holders of the soil,(3) +was evaded by the rigorous system of personal credit, which might +be very suitable for merchants, but ruined the farmers. The free +divisibility of the soil always involved the risk of an insolvent +agricultural proletariate; and under such circumstances, when all +burdens were increasing and all means of deliverance were foreclosed, +distress and despair could not but spread with fearful rapidity among +the agricultural middle class. + +Relations of the Social Question to the Question between Orders + +The distinction between rich and poor, which arose out of these +relations, by no means coincided with that between the clans and the +plebeians. If far the greater part of the patricians were wealthy +landholders, opulent and considerable families were, of course, +not wanting among the plebeians; and as the senate, which even then +perhaps consisted in greater part of plebeians, had assumed the +superintendence of the finances to the exclusion even of the patrician +magistrates, it was natural that all those economic advantages, for +which the political privileges of the nobility were abused, should go +to the benefit of the wealthy collectively; and the pressure fell the +more heavily upon the commons, since those who were the ablest and +the most capable of resistance were by their admission to the senate +transferred from the class of the oppressed to the ranks of +the oppressors. + +But this state of things prevented the political position of the +aristocracy from being permanently tenable. Had it possessed the +self-control to govern justly and to protect the middle class--as +individual consuls from its ranks endeavoured, but from the reduced +position of the magistracy were unable effectually, to do--it might +have long maintained itself in sole possession of the offices of +state. Had it been willing to admit the wealthy and respectable +plebeians to full equality of rights--possibly by connecting the +acquisition of the patriciate with admission into the senate--both +might long have governed and speculated with impunity. But neither +of these courses was adopted; the narrowness of mind and short- +sightedness, which are the proper and inalienable privileges of +all genuine patricianism, were true to their character also in Rome, +and rent the powerful commonwealth asunder in useless, aimless, +and inglorious strife. + +Secession to the Sacred Mount + +The immediate crisis however proceeded not from those who felt the +disabilities of their order, but from the distress of the farmers. +The rectified annals place the political revolution in the year 244, +the social in the years 259 and 260; they certainly appear to have +followed close upon each other, but the interval was probably longer. +The strict enforcement of the law of debt--so runs the story--excited +the indignation of the farmers at large. When in the year 259 the +levy was called forth for a dangerous war, the men bound to serve +refused to obey the command. Thereupon the consul Publius Servilius +suspended for a time the application of the debtor-laws, and gave +orders to liberate the persons already imprisoned for debt as well as +prohibited further arrests; so that the farmers took their places in +the ranks and helped to secure the victory. On their return from the +field of battle the peace, which had been achieved by their exertions, +brought back their prison and their chains: with merciless rigour +the second consul, Appius Claudius, enforced the debtor-laws and his +colleague, to whom his former soldiers appealed for aid, dared not +offer opposition. It seemed as if collegiate rule had been introduced +not for the protection of the people, but to facilitate breach of +faith and despotism; they endured, however, what could not be changed. +But when in the following year the war was renewed, the word of the +consul availed no longer. It was not till Manius Valerius was +nominated dictator that the farmers submitted, partly from their awe +of the higher magisterial authority, partly from their confidence in +his friendly feeling to the popular cause--for the Valerii were one of +those old patrician clans by whom government was esteemed a privilege +and an honour, not a source of gain. The victory was again with the +Roman standards; but when the victors came home and the dictator +submitted his proposals of reform to the senate, they were thwarted +by its obstinate opposition. The army still stood in its array, as +usual, before the gates of the city. When the news arrived, the long +threatening storm burst forth; the -esprit de corps- and the compact +military organization carried even the timid and the indifferent along +with the movement. The army abandoned its general and its encampment, +and under the leadership of the commanders of the legions--the +military tribunes, who were at least in great part plebeians--marched +in martial order into the district of Crustumeria between the Tiber +and the Anio, where it occupied a hill and threatened to establish +in this most fertile part of the Roman territory a new plebeian city. +This secession showed in a palpable manner even to the most obstinate +of the oppressors that such a civil war must end with economic ruin +to themselves; and the senate gave way. The dictator negotiated an +agreement; the citizens returned within the city walls; unity was +outwardly restored. The people gave Manius Valerius thenceforth the +name of "the great" (-maximus-)--and called the mount beyond the Anio +"the sacred mount." There was something mighty and elevating in such +a revolution, undertaken by the multitude itself without definite +guidance under generals whom accident supplied, and accomplished +without bloodshed; and with pleasure and pride the citizens recalled +its memory. Its consequences were felt for many centuries: it was +the origin of the tribunate of the plebs. + +Plebian Tribunes and Plebian Aediles + +In addition to temporary enactments, particularly for remedying the +most urgent distress occasioned by debt, and for providing for a +number of the rural population by the founding of various colonies, +the dictator carried in constitutional form a law, which he moreover +--doubtless in order to secure amnesty to the burgesses for the +breach of their military oath--caused every individual member of the +community to swear to, and then had it deposited in a temple under the +charge and custody of two magistrates specially appointed from the +plebs for the purpose, the two "house-masters" (-aediles-). This law +placed by the side of the two patrician consuls two plebeian tribunes, +who were to be elected by the plebeians assembled in curies. The +power of the tribunes was of no avail in opposition to the military +-imperium-, that is, in opposition to the authority of the dictator +everywhere or to that of the consuls beyond the city; but it +confronted, on a footing of independence and equality, the ordinary +civil powers which the consuls exercised. There was, however, no +partition of powers. The tribunes obtained the right which pertained +to the consul against his fellow-consul and all the more against an +inferior magistrate,(4) namely, the right to cancel any command issued +by a magistrate, as to which the burgess whom it affected held himself +aggrieved and lodged a complaint, through their protest timeously +and personally interposed, and likewise of hindering or cancelling +at discretion any proposal made by a magistrate to the burgesses, +in other words, the right of intercession or the so-called +tribunician veto. + +Intercession + +The power of the tribunes, therefore, primarily involved the right +of putting a stop to administration and to judicial action at their +pleasure, of enabling a person bound to military service to withhold +himself from the levy with impunity, of preventing or cancelling the +raising of an action and legal execution against the debtor, the +initiation of a criminal process and the arrest of the accused while +the investigation was pending, and other powers of the same sort. +That this legal help might not be frustrated by the absence of the +helpers, it was further ordained that the tribune should not spend +a night out of the city, and that his door must stand open day and +night. Moreover, it lay in the power of the tribunate of the people +through a single word of a single tribune to restrain the adoption +of a resolution by the community, which otherwise by virtue of its +sovereign right might have without ceremony recalled the privileges +conferred by it on the plebs. + +But these rights would have been ineffective, if there had not +belonged to the tribune of the people an instantaneously operative +and irresistible power of enforcing them against him who did not +regard them, and especially against the magistrate contravening them. +This was conferred in such a form that the acting in opposition to +the tribune when making use of his right, above all things the laying +hands on his person, which at the Sacred Mount every plebeian, man by +man for himself and his descendants, had sworn to protect now and in +all time to come from all harm, should be a capital crime; and the +exercise of this criminal justice was committed not to the magistrates +of the community but to those of the plebs. The tribune might in +virtue of this his judicial office call to account any burgess, +especially the consul in office, have him seized if he should not +voluntarily submit, place him under arrest during investigation or +allow him to find bail, and then sentence him to death or to a fine. +For this purpose the two plebeian aediles appointed at the same +time were attached to the tribunes as their servants and assistants, +primarily to effect arrest, on which account the same inviolable +character was assured to them also by the collective oath of the +plebeians. Moreover the aediles themselves had judicial powers like +the tribunes, but only for the minor causes that might be settled by +fines. If an appeal was lodged against the decision of tribune or +aedile, it was addressed not to the whole body of the burgesses, with +which the officials of the plebs were not entitled at all to transact +business, but to the whole body of the plebeians, which in this case +met by curies and finally decided by majority of votes. + +This procedure certainly savoured of violence rather than of justice, +especially when it was adopted against a non-plebeian, as must in fact +have been ordinarily the case. It was not to be reconciled either +with the letter or the spirit of the constitution that a patrician +should be called to account by authorities who presided not over the +body of burgesses, but over an association formed within it, and that +he should be compelled to appeal, not to the burgesses, but to this +very association. This was originally without question Lynch justice; +but the self-help was doubtless carried into effect from early times +in form of law, and was after the legal recognition of the tribunate +of the plebs regarded as lawfully admissible. + +In point of intention this new jurisdiction of the tribunes and the +aediles, and the appellate decision of the plebeian assembly therein +originating, were beyond doubt just as much bound to the laws as the +jurisdiction of the consuls and quaestors and the judgment of the +centuries on appeal; the legal conceptions of crime against the +community(5) and of offences against order(6) were transferred from +the community and its magistrates to the plebs and its champions. +But these conceptions were themselves so little fixed, and their +statutory definition was so difficult and indeed impossible, that +the administration of justice under these categories from its very +nature bore almost inevitably the stamp of arbitrariness. And now +when the very idea of right had become obscured amidst the struggles +of the orders, and when the legal party--leaders on both sides were +furnished with a co-ordinate jurisdiction, this jurisdiction must have +more and more approximated to a mere arbitrary police. It affected +in particular the magistrate. Hitherto the latter according to +Roman state law, so long as he was a magistrate, was amenable to no +jurisdiction at all, and, although after demitting his office he might +have been legally made responsible for each of his acts, the exercise +of this right lay withal in the hands of the members of his own order +and ultimately of the collective community, to which these likewise +belonged. Now in the tribunician jurisdiction there emerged a new +power, which on the one hand might interfere against the supreme +magistrate even during his tenure of office, and on the other hand +was wielded against the noble burgesses exclusively by the non-noble, +and which was the more oppressive that neither the crime nor its +punishment was formally defined by law. In reality through the +co-ordinate jurisdiction of the plebs and the community the estates, +limbs, and lives of the burgesses were abandoned to the arbitrary +pleasure of the party assemblies. + +In civil jurisdiction the plebeian institutions interfered only so +far, that in the processes affecting freedom, which were so important +for the plebs, the nomination of jurymen was withdrawn from the +consuls, and the decisions in such cases were pronounced by the +"ten-men-judges" destined specially for that purpose (-iudices-, +-decemviri-, afterwards -decemviri litibus iudicandis-). + +Legislation + +With this co-ordinate jurisdiction there was further associated a +co-ordinate initiative in legislation. The right of assembling the +members and of procuring decrees on their part already pertained to +the tribunes, in so far as no association at all can be conceived +without such a right. But it was conferred upon them, in a marked +way, by legally securing that the autonomous right of the plebs to +assemble and pass resolutions should not be interfered with on the +part of the magistrates of the community or, in fact, of the community +itself. At all events it was the necessary preliminary to the legal +recognition of the plebs generally, that the tribunes could not be +hindered from having their successors elected by the assembly of the +plebs and from procuring the confirmation of their criminal sentences +by the same body; and this right accordingly was further specially +guaranteed to them by the Icilian law (262), which threatened with +severe punishment any one who should interrupt the tribune while +speaking, or should bid the assembly disperse. It is evident that +under such circumstances the tribune could not well be prevented from +taking a vote on other proposals than the choice of his successor and +the confirmation of his sentences. Such "resolves of the multitude" +(-plebi scita-) were not indeed strictly valid decrees of the +people; on the contrary, they were at first little more than are +the resolutions of our modern public meetings; but, as the distinction +between the comitia of the people and the councils of the multitude +was of a formal nature rather than aught else, the validity of these +resolves as autonomous determinations of the community was at once +claimed at least on the part of the plebeians, and the Icilian law for +instance was immediately carried in this way. Thus was the tribune of +the people appointed as a shield and protection for the individual, +and as leader and manager for all, provided with unlimited judicial +power in criminal proceedings, that in this way he might give emphasis +to his command, and lastly even pronounced to be in his person +inviolable (-sacrosanctus-), inasmuch as whoever laid hands upon +him or his servant was not merely regarded as incurring the vengeance +of the gods, but was also among men accounted as if, after legally +proven crime, deserving of death. + +Relation of the Tribune to the Consul + +The tribunes of the multitude (-tribuni plebis-) arose out +of the military tribunes and derived from them their name; but +constitutionally they had no further relation to them. On the +contrary, in respect of powers the tribunes of the plebs stood on a +level with the consuls. The appeal from the consul to the tribune, +and the tribune's right of intercession in opposition to the consul, +were, as has been already said, precisely of the same nature with the +appeal from consul to consul and the intercession of the one consul in +opposition to the other; and both cases were simply applications of +the general principle of law that, where two equal authorities differ, +the veto prevails over the command. Moreover the original number +(which indeed was soon augmented), and the annual duration of the +magistracy, which in the case of the tribunes changed its occupants +on the 10th of December, were common to the tribunes and the consuls. +They shared also the peculiar collegiate arrangement, which placed the +full powers of the office in the hands of each individual consul and +of each individual tribune, and, when collisions occurred within the +college, did not count the votes, but gave the Nay precedence over +the Yea; for which reason, when a tribune forbade, the veto of the +individual was sufficient notwithstanding the opposition of his +colleagues, while on the other hand, when he brought an accusation, +he could be thwarted by any one of those colleagues. Both consuls and +tribunes had full and co-ordinate criminal jurisdiction, although the +former exercised it indirectly, and the latter directly; as the two +quaestors were attached to the former, the two aediles were associated +with the latter.(7) The consuls were necessarily patricians, the +tribunes necessarily plebeians. The former had the ampler power, the +latter the more unlimited, for the consul submitted to the prohibition +and the judgment of the tribunes, but the tribune did not submit +himself to the consul. Thus the tribunician power was a copy of the +consular; but it was none the less a contrast to it. The power of +the consuls was essentially positive, that of the tribunes essentially +negative. The consuls alone were magistrates of the Roman people, not +the tribunes; for the former were elected by the whole burgesses, the +latter only by the plebeian association. In token of this the consul +appeared in public with the apparel and retinue pertaining to state- +officials; the tribunes sat on a stool instead of the "chariot seat," +and lacked the official attendants, the purple border, and generally +all the insignia of magistracy: even in the senate the tribune had +neither presidency nor so much as a seat. Thus in this remarkable +institution absolute prohibition was in the most stern and abrupt +fashion opposed to absolute command; the quarrel was settled by +legally recognizing and regulating the discord between rich and poor. + +Political Value of the Tribunate + +But what was gained by a measure which broke up the unity of the +state; which subjected the magistrates to a controlling authority +unsteady in its action and dependent on all the passions of +the moment; which in the hour of peril might have brought the +administration to a dead-lock at the bidding of any one of the +opposition chiefs elevated to the rival throne; and which, by +investing all the magistrates with co-ordinate jurisdiction in +the administration of criminal law, as it were formally transferred +that administration from the domain of law to that of politics +and corrupted it for all time coming? It is true indeed that the +tribunate, if it did not directly contribute to the political +equalization of the orders, served as a powerful weapon in the hands +of the plebeians when these soon afterwards desired admission to the +offices of state. But this was not the real design of the tribunate. +It was a concession wrung not from the politically privileged order, +but from the rich landlords and capitalists; it was designed to ensure +to the commons equitable administration of law, and to promote a more +judicious administration of finance. This design it did not, and +could not, fulfil. The tribune might put a stop to particular +iniquities, to individual instances of crying hardship; but the fault +lay not in the unfair working of a righteous law, but in a law which +was itself unrighteous, and how could the tribune regularly obstruct +the ordinary course of justice? Could he have done so, it would have +served little to remedy the evil, unless the sources of impoverishment +were stopped--the perverse taxation, the wretched system of credit, +and the pernicious occupation of the domain-lands. But such measures +were not attempted, evidently because the wealthy plebeians themselves +had no less interest in these abuses than the patricians. So this +singular magistracy was instituted, which presented to the commons an +obvious and available aid, and yet could not possibly carry out the +necessary economic reform. It was no proof of political wisdom, but a +wretched compromise between the wealthy aristocracy and the leaderless +multitude. It has been affirmed that the tribunate of the people +preserved Rome from tyranny. Were it true, it would be of little +moment: a change in the form of the state is not in itself an evil +for a people; on the contrary, it was a misfortune for the Romans +that monarchy was introduced too late, after the physical and mental +energies of the nation were exhausted. But the assertion is not +even correct; as is shown by the circumstance that the Italian states +remained as regularly free from tyrants as the Hellenic states +regularly witnessed their emergence. The reason lies simply in the +fact that tyranny is everywhere the result of universal suffrage, +and that the Italians excluded the burgesses who had no land from +their public assemblies longer than the Greeks did: when Rome departed +from this course, monarchy did not fail to emerge, and was in fact +associated with this very tribunician orifice. That the tribunate had +its use, in pointing out legitimate paths of opposition and averting +many a wrong, no one will fail to acknowledge; but it is equally +evident that, where it did prove useful, it was employed for very +different objects from those for which it had been established. +The bold experiment of allowing the leaders of the opposition a +constitutional veto, and of investing them with power to assert it +regardless of the consequences, proved to be an expedient by which +the state was politically unhinged; and social evils were prolonged +by the application of useless palliatives. + +Further Dissensions + +Now that civil war was organized, it pursued its course. The parties +stood face to face as if drawn up for battle, each under its leaders. +Restriction of the consular and extension of the tribunician power +were the objects contended for on the one side; the annihilation of +the tribunate was sought on the other. Legal impunity secured for +insubordination, refusal to enter the ranks for the defence of the +land, impeachments involving fines and penalties directed specially +against magistrates who had violated the rights of the commons or +who had simply provoked their displeasure, were the weapons of the +plebeians; and to these the patricians opposed violence, concert with +the public foes, and occasionally also the dagger of the assassin. +Hand-to-hand conflicts took place in the streets, and on both sides +the sacredness of the magistrate's person was violated. Many families +of burgesses are said to have migrated, and to have sought more +peaceful abodes in neighbouring communities; and we may well believe +it. The strong patriotism of the people is obvious from the fact, +not that they adopted this constitution, but that they endured it, +and that the community, notwithstanding the most vehement convulsions, +still held together. + +Coriolanus + +The best-known incident in these conflicts of the orders is the +history of Gnaeus Marcius, a brave aristocrat, who derived his +surname from the storming of Corioli. Indignant at the refusal of +the centuries to entrust to him the consulate in the year 263, he is +reported to have proposed, according to one version, the suspension of +the sales of corn from the state-stores, till the hungry people should +give up the tribunate; according to another version, the direct +abolition of the tribunate itself. Impeached by the tribunes so that +his life was in peril, it is said that he left the city, but only to +return at the head of a Volscian army; that when he was on the point +of conquering the city of his fathers for the public foe, the earnest +appeal of his mother touched his conscience; and that thus he expiated +his first treason by a second, and both by death. How much of this +is true cannot be determined; but the story, over which the naive +misrepresentations of the Roman annalists have shed a patriotic glory, +affords a glimpse of the deep moral and political disgrace of these +conflicts between the orders. Of a similar stamp was the surprise +of the Capitol by a band of political refugees, led by a Sabine chief, +Appius Herdonius, in the year 294; they summoned the slaves to arms, +and it was only after a violent conflict, and by the aid of the +Tusculans who hastened to render help, that the Roman burgess-force +overcame the Catilinarian band. The same character of fanatical +exasperation marks other events of this epoch, the historical +significance of which can no longer be apprehended in the lying +family narratives; such as the predominance of the Fabian clan which +furnished one of the two consuls from 269 to 275, and the reaction +against it, the emigration of the Fabii from Rome, and their +annihilation by the Etruscans on the Cremera (277). Still more odious +was the murder of the tribune of the people, Gnaeus Genucius, who had +ventured to call two consulars to account, and who on the morning of +the day fixed for the impeachment was found dead in bed (281). The +immediate effect of this misdeed was the Publilian law (283), one of +the most momentous in its consequences with which Roman history has to +deal. Two of the most important arrangements--the introduction of the +plebeian assembly of tribes, and the placing of the -plebiscitum- on +a level, although conditionally, with the formal law sanctioned by the +whole community--are to be referred, the former certainly, the latter +probably, to the proposal of Volero Publilius the tribune of the +people in 283. The plebs had hitherto adopted its resolutions by +curies; accordingly in these its separate assemblies, on the one hand, +the voting had been by mere number without distinction of wealth or +of freehold property, and, on the other hand, in consequence of that +standing side by side on the part of the clansmen, which was implied +in the very nature of the curial assembly, the clients of the great +patrician families had voted with one another in the assembly of the +plebeians. These two circumstances had given to the nobility various +opportunities of exercising influence on that assembly, and especially +of managing the election of tribunes according to their views; and +both were henceforth done away by means of the new method of voting +according to tribes. Of these, four had been formed under the Servian +constitution for the purposes of the levy, embracing town and country +alike;(8) subsequently-perhaps in the year 259--the Roman territory +had been divided into twenty districts, of which the first four +embraced the city and its immediate environs, while the other sixteen +were formed out of the rural territory on the basis of the clan-cantons +of the earliest Roman domain.(9) To these was added--probably +only in consequence of the Publilian law, and with a view to bring +about the inequality, which was desirable for voting purposes, in +the total number of the divisions--as a twenty-first tribe the +Crustuminian, which derived its name from the place where the plebs +had constituted itself as such and had established the tribunate;(10) +and thenceforth the special assemblies of the plebs took place, no +longer by curies, but by tribes. In these divisions, which were based +throughout on the possession of land, the voters were exclusively +freeholders: but they voted without distinction as to the size of +their possession, and just as they dwelt together in villages and +hamlets. Consequently, this assembly of the tribes, which otherwise +was externally modelled on that of the curies, was in reality an +assembly of the independent middle class, from which, on the one hand, +the great majority of freedmen and clients were excluded as not being +freeholders, and in which, on the other hand, the larger landholders +had no such preponderance as in the centuries. This "meeting of the +multitude" (-concilium plebis-) was even less a general assembly of +the burgesses than the plebeian assembly by curies had been, for it +not only, like the latter, excluded all the patricians, but also the +plebeians who had no land; but the multitude was powerful enough to +carry the point that its decree should have equal legal validity +with that adopted by the centuries, in the event of its having been +previously approved by the whole senate. That this last regulation +had the force of established law before the issuing of the Twelve +Tables, is certain; whether it was directly introduced on occasion +of the Publilian -plebiscitum-, or whether it had already been called +into existence by some other--now forgotten--statute, and was only +applied to the Publilian -plebiscitum- cannot be any longer +ascertained. In like manner it remains uncertain whether the number +of tribunes was raised by this law from two to four, or whether that +increase had taken place previously. + +Agrarian Law of Spurius Cassius + +More sagacious in plan than all these party steps was the attempt +of Spurius Cassius to break down the financial omnipotence of the +rich, and so to put a stop to the true source of the evil. He was +a patrician, and none in his order surpassed him in rank and renown. +After two triumphs, in his third consulate (268), he submitted to the +burgesses a proposal to have the public domain measured and to lease +part of it for the benefit of the public treasury, while a further +portion was to be distributed among the necessitous. In other words, +he attempted to wrest the control of the public lands from the senate, +and, with the support of the burgesses, to put an end to the selfish +system of occupation. He probably imagined that his personal +distinction, and the equity and wisdom of the measure, might carry +it even amidst that stormy sea of passion and of weakness. But he +was mistaken. The nobles rose as one man; the rich plebeians took +part with them; the commons were displeased because Spurius Cassius +desired, in accordance with federal rights and equity, to give to +the Latin confederates their share in the assignation. Cassius had +to die. There is some truth in the charge that he had usurped regal +power, for he had indeed endeavoured like the kings to protect the +free commons against his own order. His law was buried along with +him; but its spectre thenceforward incessantly haunted the eyes of +the rich, and again and again it rose from the tomb against them, +until amidst the conflicts to which it led the commonwealth perished. + +Decemvirs + +A further attempt was made to get rid of the tribunician power by +securing to the plebeians equality of rights in a more regular and +more effectual way. The tribune of the people, Gaius Terentilius +Arsa, proposed in 292 the nomination of a commission of five men to +prepare a general code of law by which the consuls should in future be +bound in exercising their judicial powers. But the senate refused to +sanction this proposal, and ten years elapsed ere it was carried into +effect--years of vehement strife between the orders, and variously +agitated moreover by wars and internal troubles. With equal obstinacy +the party of the nobles hindered the concession of the law in the +senate, and the plebs nominated again and again the same men as +tribunes. Attempts were made to obviate the attack by other +concessions. In the year 297 an increase of the tribunes from four to +ten was sanctioned--a very dubious gain; and in the following year, by +an Icilian -plebiscitum- which was admitted among the sworn privileges +of the plebs, the Aventine, which had hitherto been a temple-grove and +uninhabited, was distributed among the poorer burgesses as sites for +buildings in heritable occupancy. The plebs took what was offered +to them, but never ceased to insist in their demand for a legal code. +At length, in the year 300, a compromise was effected; the senate in +substance gave way. The preparation of a legal code was resolved +upon; for that purpose, as an extraordinary measure, the centuries +were to choose ten men who were at the same time to act as supreme +magistrates in room of the consuls (-decemviri consulari imperio +legibus scribundls-), and to this office not merely patricians, but +plebeians also might be elected. These were here for the first time +designated as eligible, though only for an extraordinary office. This +was a great step in the progress towards full political equality; and +it was not too dearly purchased, when the tribunate of the people as +well as the right of appeal were suspended while the decemvirate +lasted, and the decemvirs were simply bound not to infringe the sworn +liberties of the community. Previously however an embassy was sent +to Greece to bring home the laws of Solon and other Greek laws; and +it was only on its return that the decemvirs were chosen for the year +303. Although they were at liberty to elect plebeians, the choice +fell on patricians alone--so powerful was the nobility still--and +it was only when a second election became necessary for 304, that +some plebeians were chosen--the first non-patrician magistrates that +the Roman community had. + +Taking a connected view of these measures, we can scarcely attribute +to them any other design than that of substituting for tribunician +intercession a limitation of the consular powers by written law. +On both sides there must have been a conviction that things could not +remain as they were, and the perpetuation of anarchy, while it ruined +the commonwealth, was in reality of no benefit to any one. People in +earnest could not but discern that the interference of the tribunes +in administration and their action as prosecutors had an absolutely +pernicious effect; and the only real gain which the tribunate brought +to the plebeians was the protection which it afforded against a +partial administration of justice, by operating as a sort of court +of cassation to check the caprice of the magistrate. Beyond doubt, +when the plebeians desired a written code, the patricians replied that +in that event the legal protection of tribunes would be superfluous; +and upon this there appears to have been concession by both sides. +Perhaps there was never anything definitely expressed as to what +was to be done after the drawing up of the code; but that the plebs +definitely renounced the tribunate is not to be doubted, since it was +brought by the decemvirate into such a position that it could not get +back the tribunate otherwise than by illegal means. The promise given +to the plebs that its sworn liberties should not be touched, may be +referred to the rights of the plebeians independent of the tribunate, +such as the -provocatio- and the possession of the Aventine. The +intention seems to have been that the decemvirs should, on their +retiring, propose to the people to re-elect the consuls who should +now judge no longer according to their arbitrary pleasure but +according to written law. + +Legislation of the Twelve Tables + +The plan, if it should stand, was a wise one; all depended on whether +men's minds exasperated on either side with passion would accept that +peaceful adjustment. The decemvirs of the year 303 submitted their +law to the people, and it was confirmed by them, engraven on ten +tables of copper, and affixed in the Forum to the rostra in front +of the senate-house. But as a supplement appeared necessary, +decemvirs were again nominated in the year 304, who added two more +tables. Thus originated the first and only Roman code, the law of the +Twelve Tables. It proceeded from a compromise between parties, and +for that very reason could not well have contained any changes in the +existing law of a comprehensive nature, going beyond the regulation of +secondary matters and of the mere adaptation of means and ends. Even +in the system of credit no further alleviation was introduced than the +establishment of a--probably low--maximum of interest (10 per cent) +and the threatening of heavy penalties against the usurer-penalties, +characteristically enough, far heavier than those of the thief; the +harsh procedure in actions of debt remained at least in its leading +features unaltered. Still less, as may easily be conceived, were +changes contemplated in the rights of the orders. On the contrary the +legal distinction between burgesses liable to be taxed and those who +were without estate, and the invalidity of marriage between patricians +and plebeians, were confirmed anew in the law of the city. In like +manner, with a view to restrict the caprice of the magistrate and +to protect the burgess, it was expressly enacted that the later law +should uniformly have precedence over the earlier, and that no decree +of the people should be issued against a single burgess. The most +remarkable feature was the exclusion of appeal to the -comitia +tributa- in capital causes, while the privilege of appeal to the +centuries was guaranteed; which admits of explanation from the +circumstance that the penal jurisdiction was in fact usurped by the +plebs and its presidents,(11) and with the tribunate there necessarily +fell the tribunician capital process, while it was perhaps the +intention to retain the aedilician process of fine (-multa-). +The essential political significance of the measure resided far less +in the contents of the legislation than in the formal obligation now +laid upon the consuls to administer justice according to these forms +of process and these rules of law, and in the public exhibition of +the code, by which the administration of justice was subjected to the +control of publicity and the consul was compelled to dispense equal +and truly common justice to all. + +Fall of the Decemvirs + +The end of the decemvirate is involved in much obscurity. It only +remained--so runs the story--for the decemvirs to publish the last +two tables, and then to give place to the ordinary magistracy. But +they delayed to do so: under the pretext that the laws were not yet +ready, they themselves prolonged their magistracy after the expiry +of their official year--which was so far possible, as under Roman +constitutional law the magistracy called in an extraordinary way to +the revision of the constitution could not become legally bound by +the term set for its ending. The moderate section of the aristocracy, +with the Valerii and Horatii at their head, are said to have attempted +in the senate to compel the abdication of the decemvirate; but the +head of the decemvirs Appius Claudius, originally a rigid aristocrat, +but now changing into a demagogue and a tyrant, gained the ascendancy +in the senate, and the people submitted. The levy of two armies +was accomplished without opposition, and war was begun against the +Volscians as well as against the Sabines. Thereupon the former +tribune of the people, Lucius Siccius Dentatus, the bravest man in +Rome, who had fought in a hundred and twenty battles and had forty-five +honourable scars to show, was found dead in front of the camp, +foully murdered, as it was said, at the instigation of the decemvirs. +A revolution was fermenting in men's minds; and its outbreak was +hastened by the unjust sentence pronounced by Appius in the process as +to the freedom of the daughter of the centurion Lucius Verginius, the +bride of the former tribune of the people Lucius Icilius--a sentence +which wrested the maiden from her relatives with a view to make her +non-free and beyond the pale of the law, and induced her father +himself to plunge his knife into the heart of his daughter in the +open Forum, to rescue her from certain shame. While the people in +amazement at the unprecedented deed surrounded the dead body of the +fair maiden, the decemvir commanded his lictors to bring the father +and then the bridegroom before his tribunal, in order to render to +him, from whose decision there lay no appeal, immediate account +for their rebellion against his authority. The cup was now full. +Protected by the furious multitude, the father and the bridegroom of +the maiden made their escape from the lictors of the despot, and +while the senate trembled and wavered in Rome, the pair presented +themselves, with numerous witnesses of the fearful deed, in the two +camps. The unparalleled tale was told; the eyes of all were opened +to the gap which the absence of tribunician protection had made in the +security of law; and what the fathers had done their sons repeated. +Once more the armies abandoned their leaders: they marched in warlike +order through the city, and proceeded once more to the Sacred Mount, +where they again nominated their own tribunes. Still the decemvirs +refused to lay down their power; then the army with its tribunes +appeared in the city, and encamped on the Aventine. Now at length, +when civil war was imminent and the conflict in the streets might +hourly begin, the decemvirs renounced their usurped and dishonoured +power; and the consuls Lucius Valerius and Marcus Horatius negotiated +a second compromise, by which the tribunate of the plebs was again +established. The impeachment of the decemvirs terminated in the two +most guilty, Appius Claudius and Spurius Oppius, committing suicide +in prison, while the other eight went into exile and the state +confiscated their property. The prudent and moderate tribune of +the plebs, Marcus Duilius, prevented further judicial prosecutions +by a seasonable use of his veto. + +So runs the story as recorded by the pen of the Roman aristocrats; +but, even leaving out of view the accessory circumstances, the great +crisis out of which the Twelve Tables arose cannot possibly have +ended in such romantic adventures, and in political issues so +incomprehensible. The decemvirate was, after the abolition of the +monarchy and the institution of the tribunate of the people, the +third great victory of the plebs; and the exasperation of the opposite +party against the institution and against its head Appius Claudius +is sufficiently intelligible. The plebeians had through its means +secured the right of eligibility to the highest magistracy of the +community and a general code of law; and it was not they that had +reason to rebel against the new magistracy, and to restore the +purely patrician consular government by force of arms. This end +can only have been pursued by the party of the nobility, and if the +patricio-plebeian decemvirs made the attempt to maintain themselves +in office beyond their time, the nobility were certainly the first to +enter the lists against them; on which occasion doubtless the nobles +would not neglect to urge that the stipulated rights of the plebs should +be curtailed and the tribunate, in particular, should be taken from it. +If the nobility thereupon succeeded in setting aside the decemvirs, +it is certainly conceivable that after their fall the plebs should +once more assemble in arms with a view to secure the results both +of the earlier revolution of 260 and of the latest movement; and the +Valerio-Horatian laws of 305 can only be understood as forming a +compromise in this conflict. + +The Valerio-Horatian Laws + +The compromise, as was natural, proved very favourable to the +plebeians, and again imposed severely felt restrictions on the +power of the nobility. As a matter of course the tribunate of the +people was restored, the code of law wrung from the aristocracy was +definitively retained, and the consuls were obliged to judge according +to it. Through the code indeed the tribes lost their usurped +jurisdiction in capital causes; but the tribunes got it back, as a way +was found by which it was possible for them to transact business as +to such cases with the centuries. Besides they retained, in the right +to award fines without limitation and to submit this sentence to the +-comitia tributa-, a sufficient means of putting an end to the civic +existence of a patrician opponent. Further, it was on the proposition +of the consuls decreed by the centuries that in future every +magistrate--and therefore the dictator among the rest--should be bound +at his nomination to allow the right of appeal: any one who should +nominate a magistrate on other terms was to expiate the offence with +his life. In other respects the dictator retained his former powers; +and in particular his official acts could not, like those of the +consuls, be cancelled by a tribune. + +The plenitude of the consular power was further restricted in so far +as the administration of the military chest was committed to two +paymasters (-quaestores-) chosen by the community, who were nominated +for the first time in 307. The nomination as well of the two new +paymasters for war as of the two administering the city-chest now +passed over to the community; the consul retained merely the conduct +of the election instead of the election itself. The assembly in which +the paymasters were elected was that of the whole patricio-plebeian +freeholders, and voted by districts; an arrangement which likewise +involved a concession to the plebeian farmers, who had far more +command of these assemblies than of the centuriate -comitia-. + +A concession of still greater consequence was that which allowed the +tribunes to share in the discussions of the senate. To admit the +tribunes to the hall where the senate sat, appeared to that body +beneath its dignity; so a bench was placed for them at the door that +they might from that spot follow its proceedings. The tribunician +right of intercession had extended also to the decrees of the senate +as a collective body, after the latter had become not merely a +deliberative but a decretory board, which probably occurred at first +in the case of a -plebiscitum- that was meant to be binding for the +whole community;(12) it was natural that there should thenceforth be +conceded to the tribunes a certain participation in the discussions +of the senate-house. In order also to secure the decrees of the +senate-- with the validity of which indeed that of the most important +-plebiscita- was bound up--from being tampered with or forged, it +was enacted that in future they should be deposited not merely under +charge of the patrician -quaestores urbani- in the temple of Saturn, +but also under that of the plebian aediles in the temple of Ceres. +Thus this struggle, which was begun in order to get rid of the +tribunician power, terminated in the renewed and now definitive +sanctioning of its right to annul not only particular acts of +administration on the appeal of the person aggrieved, but also any +resolution of the constituent powers of the state at pleasure. +The persons of the tribunes, and the uninterrupted maintenance of +the college at its full number, were once more secured by the most +sacred oaths and by every element of reverence that religion could +present, and not less by the most formal laws. No attempt to abolish +this magistracy was ever from this time forward made in Rome. + + + + +Notes for Book II Chapter II + + +1. II. I. Right of Appeal + +2. I. XIII. Landed proprietors + +3. I. VI. Character of the Roman Law + +4. II. I. Collegiate Arrangement + +5. I. XI. Property + +6. I. XI. Punishment of Offenses against Order + +7. That the plebeian aediles were formed after the model of the +patrician quaestors in the same way as the plebeian tribunes after +the model of the patrician consuls, is evident both as regards their +criminal functions (in which the distinction between the two +magistracies seems to have lain in their tendencies only, not in their +powers) and as regards their charge of the archives. The temple of +Ceres was to the aediles what the temple of Saturn was to the +quaestors, and from the former they derived their name. Significant +in this respect is the enactment of the law of 305 (Liv. iii. 55), +that the decrees of the senate should be delivered over to the aediles +there (p. 369), whereas, as is well known, according to the ancient +--and subsequently after the settlement of the struggles between the +orders, again preponderant--practice those decrees were committed to +the quaestors for preservation in the temple of Saturn. + +8. I. VI. Levy Districts + +9. I. III. Clan-Villages + +10. II. II. Secession to the Sacred mount + +11. II. II. Intercession + +12. II. II. Legislation + + + + +CHAPTER III + +The Equalization of the Orders, and the New Aristocracy + + +Union of the Plebians + +The tribunician movements appear to have mainly originated in social +rather than political discontent, and there is good reason to suppose +that some of the wealthy plebeians admitted to the senate were no +less opposed to these movements than the patricians. For they too +benefited by the privileges against which the agitation was mainly +directed; and although in other respects they found themselves treated +as inferior, it probably seemed to them by no means an appropriate +time for asserting their claim to participate in the magistracies, +when the exclusive financial power of the whole senate was assailed. +This explains why during the first fifty years of the republic no step +was taken aiming directly at the political equalization of the orders. + +But this league between the patricians and the wealthy plebeians by no +means bore within itself any guarantee of permanence. Beyond doubt +from the very first a portion of the leading plebeian families had +attached themselves to the movement-party, partly from a sense of what +was due to the fellow-members of their order, partly in consequence +of the natural bond which unites all who are treated as inferior, +and partly because they perceived that concessions to the multitude +were inevitable in the issue, and that, if turned to due account, +they would result in the abrogation of the exclusive rights of +the patriciate and would thereby give to the plebeian aristocracy a +decisive preponderance in the state. Should this conviction become +--as was inevitable--more and more prevalent, and should the plebeian +aristocracy at the head of its order take up the struggle with the +patrician nobility, it would wield in the tribunate a legalized +instrument of civil warfare, and it might, with the weapon of social +distress, so fight its battles as to dictate to the nobility the terms +of peace and, in the position of mediator between the two parties, +compel its own admission to the offices of state. + +Such a crisis in the position of parties occurred after the fall of +the decemvirate. It had now become perfectly clear that the tribunate +of the plebs could never be set aside; the plebeian aristocracy could +not do better than seize this powerful lever and employ it for the +removal of the political disabilities of their order. + +Throwing Open of Marriage and of Magistracies-- +Military Tribunes with Consular Powers + +Nothing shows so clearly the defencelessness of the clan-nobility +when opposed to the united plebs, as the fact that the fundamental +principle of the exclusive party--the invalidity of marriage between +patricians and plebeians--fell at the first blow scarcely four years +after the decemviral revolution. In the year 309 it was enacted by +the Canuleian plebiscite, that a marriage between a patrician and +a plebeian should be valid as a true Roman marriage, and that the +children begotten of such a marriage should follow the rank of the +father. At the same time it was further carried that, in place of +consuls, military tribunes--of these there were at that time, before +the division of the army into legions, six, and the number of these +magistrates was adjusted accordingly-with consular powers(1) and +consular duration of office should be elected by the centuries. +The proximate cause was of a military nature, as the various wars +required a greater number of generals in chief command than the +consular constitution allowed; but the change came to be of essential +importance for the conflicts of the orders, and it may be that +that military object was rather the pretext than the reason for +this arrangement. According to the ancient law every burgess or +--metoikos-- liable to service might attain the post of an officer,(2) +and in virtue of that principle the supreme magistracy, after having +been temporarily opened up to the plebeians in the decemvirate, was +now after a more comprehensive fashion rendered equally accessible to +all freeborn burgesses. The question naturally occurs, what interest +the aristocracy could have--now that it was under the necessity of +abandoning its exclusive possession of the supreme magistracy and of +yielding in the matter--in refusing to the plebeians the title, and +conceding to them the consulate under this singular form?(3) But, +in the first place, there were associated with the holding of the +supreme magistracy various honorary rights, partly personal, partly +hereditary; thus the honour of a triumph was regarded as legally +dependent on the occupancy of the supreme magistracy, and was never +given to an officer who had not administered the latter office in +person; and the descendants of a curule magistrate were at liberty to +set up the image of such an ancestor in the family hall and to exhibit +it in public on fitting occasions, while this was not allowed in the +case of other ancestors.(4) It is as easy to be explained as it is +difficult to be vindicated, that the governing aristocratic order +should have allowed the government itself to be wrested from their +hands far sooner than the honorary rights associated with it, +especially such as were hereditary; and therefore, when it was obliged +to share the former with the plebeians, it gave to the actual supreme +magistrate the legal standing not of the holder of a curule chair, but +of a simple staff-officer, whose distinction was one purely personal. +Of greater political importance, however, than the refusal of the +-ius imaginum- and of the honour of a triumph was the circumstance, +that the exclusion of the plebeians sitting in the senate from +debate necessarily ceased in respect to those of their number who, +as designated or former consuls, ranked among the senators whose +opinion had to be asked before the rest; so far it was certainly +of great importance for the nobility to admit the plebeian only to +a consular office, and not to the consulate itself. + +Opposition of the Patriciate + +But notwithstanding these vexatious disabilities the privileges of the +clans, so far as they had a political value, were legally superseded +by the new institution; and, had the Roman nobility been worthy of its +name, it must now have given up the struggle. But it did not. Though +a rational and legal resistance was thenceforth impossible, spiteful +opposition still found a wide field of petty expedients, of chicanery +and intrigue; and, far from honourable or politically prudent as such +resistance was, it was still in a certain sense fruitful of results. +It certainly procured at length for the commons concessions which +could not easily have been wrung from the united Roman aristocracy; +but it also prolonged civil war for another century and enabled +the nobility, in defiance of those laws, practically to retain the +government in their exclusive possession for several generations +longer. + +Their Expedients + +The expedients of which the nobility availed themselves were as +various as political paltriness could suggest. Instead of deciding +at once the question as to the admission or exclusion of the plebeians +at the elections, they conceded what they were compelled to concede +only with reference to the elections immediately impending. The vain +struggle was thus annually renewed whether patrician consuls or +military tribunes from both orders with consular powers should be +nominated; and among the weapons of the aristocracy this mode of +conquering an opponent by wearying and annoying him proved by no +means the least effective. + +Subdivision of the Magistracy-- +Censorship + +Moreover they broke up the supreme power which had hitherto been +undivided, in order to delay their inevitable defeat by multiplying +the points to be assailed. Thus the adjustment of the budget and of +the burgess--and taxation-rolls, which ordinarily took place every +fourth year and had hitherto been managed by the consuls, was +entrusted as early as the year 319 to two valuators (-censores-), +nominated by the centuries from among the nobles for a period, at +the most, of eighteen months. The new office gradually became the +palladium of the aristocratic party, not so much on account of its +financial influence as on account of the right annexed to it of +filling up the vacancies in the senate and in the equites, and of +removing individuals from the lists of the senate, equites, and +burgesses on occasion of their adjustment. At this epoch, however, +the censorship by no means possessed the great importance and moral +supremacy which afterwards were associated with it. + +Quaestorship + +But the important change made in the year 333 in respect to the +quaestorship amply compensated for this success of the patrician +party. The patricio-plebeian assembly of the tribes--perhaps taking +up the ground that at least the two military paymasters were in fact +officers rather than civil functionaries, and that so far the plebeian +appeared as well entitled to the quaestorship as to the military +tribuneship--carried the point that plebeian candidates also were +admitted for the quaestorial elections, and thereby acquired for +the first time the privilege of eligibility as well as the right of +election for one of the ordinary magistracies. With justice it was +felt on the one side as a great victory, on the other as a severe +defeat, that thenceforth patrician and plebeian were equally capable +of electing and being elected to the military as well as to the urban +quaestorship. + +Attempts at Counterrevolution + +The nobility, in spite of the most obstinate resistance, only +sustained loss after loss; and their exasperation increased as their +power decreased. Attempts were doubtless still made directly to +assail the rights secured by agreement to the commons; but such +attempts were not so much the well-calculated manoeuvres of party as +the acts of an impotent thirst for vengeance. Such in particular was +the process against Maelius as reported by the tradition--certainly +not very trustworthy--that has come down to us. Spurius Maelius, +a wealthy plebeian, during a severe dearth (315) sold corn at such +prices as to put to shame and annoy the patrician store-president +(-praefectus annonae-) Gaius Minucius. The latter accused him of +aspiring to kingly power; with what amount of reason we cannot decide, +but it is scarcely credible that a man who had not even filled the +tribunate should have seriously thought of sovereignty. Nevertheless +the authorities took up the matter in earnest, and the cry of "King" +always produced on the multitude in Rome an effect similar to that +of the cry of "Pope" on the masses in England. Titus Quinctius +Capitolinus, who was for the sixth time consul, nominated Lucius +Quinctius Cincinnatus, who was eighty years of age, as dictator +without appeal, in open violation of the solemnly sworn laws.(5) +Maelius, summoned before him, seemed disposed to disregard the +summons; and the dictator's master of the horse, Gaius Servilius +Ahala, slew him with his own hand. The house of the murdered man was +pulled down, the corn from his granaries was distributed gratuitously +to the people, and those who threatened to avenge his death were +secretly made away with. This disgraceful judicial murder--a disgrace +even more to the credulous and blind people than to the malignant +party of young patricians--passed unpunished; but if that party had +hoped by such means to undermine the right of appeal, it violated +the laws and shed innocent blood in vain. + +Intrigues of the Nobility + +Electioneering intrigues and priestly trickery proved in the hands +of the nobility more efficient than any other weapons. The extent +to which the former must have prevailed is best seen in the fact +that in 322 it appeared necessary to issue a special law against +electioneering practices, which of course was of little avail. When +the voters could not be influenced by corruption or threatening, the +presiding magistrates stretched their powers--admitting, for example, +so many plebeian candidates that the votes of the opposition were +thrown away amongst them, or omitting from the list of candidates +those whom the majority were disposed to choose. If in spite of all +this an obnoxious election was carried, the priests were consulted +whether no vitiating circumstance had occurred in the auspices or +other religious ceremonies on the occasion; and some such flaw they +seldom failed to discover. Taking no thought as to the consequences +and unmindful of the wise example of their ancestors, the people +allowed the principle to be established that the opinion of the +skilled colleges of priests as to omens of birds, portents, and the +like was legally binding on the magistrate, and thus put it into their +power to cancel any state-act--whether the consecration of a temple +or any other act of administration, whether law or election--on the +ground of religious informality. In this way it became possible that, +although the eligibility of plebeians had been established by law +already in 333 for the quaestorship and thenceforward continued to +be legally recognized, it was only in 345 that the first plebeian +attained the quaestorship; in like manner patricians almost +exclusively held the military tribunate with consular powers down +to 354. It was apparent that the legal abolition of the privileges of +the nobles had by no means really and practically placed the plebeian +aristocracy on a footing of equality with the clan-nobility. Many +causes contributed to this result: the tenacious opposition of the +nobility far more easily allowed itself to be theoretically superseded +in a moment of excitement, than to be permanently kept down in the +annually recurring elections; but the main cause was the inward +disunion between the chiefs of the plebeian aristocracy and the mass +of the farmers. The middle class, whose votes were decisive in the +comitia, did not feel itself specially called on to advance the +interests of genteel non-patricians, so long as its own demands were +disregarded by the plebeian no less than by the patrician aristocracy. + +The Suffering Farmers + +During these political struggles social questions had lain on the +whole dormant, or were discussed at any rate with less energy. After +the plebeian aristocracy had gained possession of the tribunate for +its own ends, no serious notice was taken either of the question of +the domains or of a reform in the system of credit; although there was +no lack either of newly acquired lands or of impoverished or decaying +farmers. Instances indeed of assignations took place, particularly in +the recently conquered border-territories, such as those of the domain +of Ardea in 312, of Labici in 336, and of Veii in 361--more however on +military grounds than for the relief of the farmer, and by no means to +an adequate extent. Individual tribunes doubtless attempted to revive +the law of Cassius--for instance Spurius Maecilius and Spurius +Metilius instituted in the year 337 a proposal for the distribution +of the whole state-lands--but they were thwarted, in a manner +characteristic of the existing state of parties, by the opposition +of their own colleagues or in other words of the plebeian aristocracy. +Some of the patricians also attempted to remedy the common distress; +but with no better success than had formerly attended Spurius Cassius. +A patrician like Cassius and like him distinguished by military renown +and personal valour, Marcus Manlius, the saviour of the Capitol during +the Gallic siege, is said to have come forward as the champion of +the oppressed people, with whom he was connected by the ties of +comradeship in war and of bitter hatred towards his rival, the +celebrated general and leader of the optimate party, Marcus Furius +Camillus. When a brave officer was about to be led away to a debtor's +prison, Manlius interceded for him and released him with his own +money; at the same time he offered his lands to sale, declaring +loudly that, as long as he possessed a foot's breadth of land, such +iniquities should not occur. This was more than enough to unite the +whole government party, patricians as well as plebeians, against the +dangerous innovator. The trial for high treason, the charge of having +meditated a renewal of the monarchy, wrought on the blind multitude +with the insidious charm which belongs to stereotyped party-phrases. +They themselves condemned him to death, and his renown availed him +nothing save that it was deemed expedient to assemble the people for +the bloody assize at a spot whence the voters could not see the rock +of the citadel--the dumb monitor which might remind them how their +fatherland had been saved from the extremity of danger by the hands of +the very man whom they were now consigning to the executioner (370). + +While the attempts at reformation were thus arrested in the bud, +the social disorders became still more crying; for on the one +hand the domain-possessions were ever extending in consequence of +successful wars, and on the other hand debt and impoverishment were +ever spreading more widely among the farmers, particularly from the +effects of the severe war with Veii (348-358) and of the burning of +the capital in the Gallic invasion (364). It is true that, when in +the Veientine war it became necessary to prolong the term of service +of the soldiers and to keep them under arms not--as hitherto at the +utmost--only during summer, but also throughout the winter, and when +the farmers, foreseeing their utter economic ruin, were on the point +of refusing their consent to the declaration of war, the senate +resolved on making an important concession. It charged the pay, which +hitherto the tribes had defrayed by contribution, on the state-chest, +or in other words, on the produce of the indirect revenues and the +domains (348). It was only in the event of the state-chest being at +the moment empty that a general contribution (-tributum-) was imposed +on account of the pay; and in that case it was considered as a forced +loan and was afterwards repaid by the community. The arrangement was +equitable and wise; but, as it was not placed upon the essential +foundation of turning the domains to proper account for the benefit +of the exchequer, there were added to the increased burden of service +frequent contributions, which were none the less ruinous to the man +of small means that they were officially regarded not as taxes +but as advances. + +Combination of the Plebian Aristocracy and the Farmers against the +Nobility-- +Licinio-Sextian Laws + +Under such circumstances, when the plebeian aristocracy saw itself +practically excluded by the opposition of the nobility and the +indifference of the commons from equality of political rights, +and the suffering farmers were powerless as opposed to the close +aristocracy, it was natural that they should help each other by a +compromise. With this view the tribunes of the people, Gaius Licinius +and Lucius Sextius, submitted to the commons proposals to the +following effect: first, to abolish the consular tribunate; secondly, +to lay it down as a rule that at least one of the consuls should be +a plebeian; thirdly, to open up to the plebeians admission to one +of the three great colleges of priests--that of the custodiers of +oracles, whose number was to be increased to ten (-duoviri-, +afterwards -decemviri sacris faciundis-(6)); fourthly, as respected +the domains, to allow no burgess to maintain upon the common pasture +more than a hundred oxen and five hundred sheep, or to hold more than +five hundred -jugera- (about 300 acres) of the domain lands left free +for occupation; fifthly, to oblige the landlords to employ in the +labours of the field a number of free labourers proportioned to that +of their rural slaves; and lastly, to procure alleviation for debtors +by deduction of the interest which had been paid from the capital, +and by the arrangement of set terms for the payment of arrears. + +The tendency of these enactments is obvious. They were designed +to deprive the nobles of their exclusive possession of the curule +magistracies and of the hereditary distinctions of nobility therewith +associated; which, it was characteristically conceived, could only be +accomplished by the legal exclusion of the nobles from the place of +second consul. They were designed, as a consequence, to emancipate +the plebeian members of the senate from the subordinate position which +they occupied as silent by-sitters,(7) in so far as those of them at +least who had filled the consulate thereby acquired a title to deliver +their opinion with the patrician consulars before the other patrician +senators.(8) They were intended, moreover, to withdraw from the +nobles the exclusive possession of spiritual dignities; and in +carrying out this purpose for reasons sufficiently obvious the old +Latin priesthoods of the augurs and Pontifices were left to the old +burgesses, but these were obliged to open up to the new burgesses the +third great college of more recent origin and belonging to a worship +that was originally foreign. They were intended, in fine, to procure +a share in the common usufructs of burgesses for the poorer commons, +alleviation for the suffering debtors, and employment for the +day-labourers that were destitute of work. Abolition of privileges, +civil equality, social reform--these were the three great ideas, of +which it was the design of this movement to secure the recognition. +Vainly the patricians exerted all the means at their command in +opposition to these legislative proposals; even the dictatorship and +the old military hero Camillus were able only to delay, not to avert +their accomplishment. Willingly would the people have separated the +proposals; of what moment to it were the consulate and custodiership +of oracles, if only the burden of debt were lightened and the public +lands were free! But it was not for nothing that the plebeian +nobility had adopted the popular cause; it included the proposals in +one single project of law, and after a long struggle--it is said of +eleven years--the senate at length gave its consent and they passed +in the year 387. + +Political Abolition of the Patriciate + +With the election of the first non-patrician consul--the choice fell +on one of the authors of this reform, the late tribune of the people, +Lucius Sextius Lateranus--the clan-aristocracy ceased both in fact and +in law to be numbered among the political institutions of Rome. When +after the final passing of these laws the former champion of the +clans, Marcus Furius Camillus, founded a sanctuary of Concord at the +foot of the Capitol--upon an elevated platform, where the senate was +wont frequently to meet, above the old meeting-place of the burgesses, +the Comitium--we gladly cherish the belief that he recognized in the +legislation thus completed the close of a dissension only too long +continued. The religious consecration of the new concord of the +community was the last public act of the old warrior and statesman, +and a worthy termination of his long and glorious career. He was +not wholly mistaken; the more judicious portion of the clans +evidently from this time forward looked upon their exclusive political +privileges as lost, and were content to share the government with the +plebeian aristocracy. In the majority, however, the patrician spirit +proved true to its incorrigible character. On the strength of the +privilege which the champions of legitimacy have at all times claimed +of obeying the laws only when these coincide with their party +interests, the Roman nobles on various occasions ventured, in open +violation of the stipulated arrangement, to nominate two patrician +consuls. But, when by way of answer to an election of that sort for +the year 411 the community in the year following formally resolved +to allow both consular positions to be filled by non-patricians, they +understood the implied threat, and still doubtless desired, but never +again ventured, to touch the second consular place. + +Praetorship-- +Curule Aedileship-- +Complete Opening Up of Magistracies and Priesthoods + +In like manner the aristocracy simply injured itself by the attempt +which it made, on the passing of the Licinian laws, to save at least +some remnant of its ancient privileges by means of a system of +political clipping and paring. Under the pretext that the nobility +were exclusively cognizant of law, the administration of justice was +detached from the consulate when the latter had to be thrown open +to the plebeians; and for this purpose there was nominated a special +third consul, or, as he was commonly called, a praetor. In like +manner the supervision of the market and the judicial police-duties +connected with it, as well as the celebration of the city-festival, +were assigned to two newly nominated aediles, who--by way of +distinction from the plebeian aediles--were named from their standing +jurisdiction "aediles of the judgment seat" (-aediles curules-). +But the curule aedileship became immediately so far accessible to +the plebeians, that it was held by patricians and plebeians +alternately. Moreover the dictatorship was thrown open to plebeians +in 398, as the mastership of the horse had already been in the year +before the Licinian laws (386); both the censorships were thrown open +in 403, and the praetorship in 417; and about the same time (415) the +nobility were by law excluded from one of the censorships, as they +had previously been from one of the consulships. It was to no purpose +that once more a patrician augur detected secret flaws, hidden from +the eyes of the uninitiated, in the election of a plebeian dictator +(427), and that the patrician censor did not up to the close of our +present period (474) permit his colleague to present the solemn +sacrifice with which the census closed; such chicanery served merely +to show the ill humour of patricianism. Of as little avail were the +complaints which the patrician presidents of the senate would not fail +to raise regarding the participation of the plebeians in its debates; +it became a settled rule that no longer the patrician members, +but those who had attained to one of the three supreme ordinary +magistracies--the consulship, praetorship, and curule aedileship +--should be summoned to give their opinion in this order and without +distinction of class, while the senators who had held none of these +offices still even now took part merely in the division. The right, +in fine, of the patrician senate to reject a decree of the community +as unconstitutional--a right, however, which in all probability it +rarely ventured to exercise--was withdrawn from it by the Publilian +law of 415 and by the Maenian law which was not passed before the +middle of the fifth century, in so far that it had to bring forward +its constitutional objections, if it had any such, when the list +of candidates was exhibited or the project of law was brought in; +which practically amounted to a regular announcement of its consent +beforehand. In this character, as a purely formal right, the +confirmation of the decrees of the people still continued in +the hands of the nobility down to the last age of the republic. + +The clans retained, as may naturally be conceived, their religious +privileges longer. Indeed, several of these, which were destitute +of political importance, were never interfered with, such as their +exclusive eligibility to the offices of the three supreme -flamines- +and that of -rex sacrorum- as well as to the membership of the +colleges of Salii. On the other hand the two colleges of Pontifices +and of augurs, with which a considerable influence over the courts +and the comitia were associated, were too important to remain in the +exclusive possession of the patricians. The Ogulnian law of 454 +accordingly threw these also open to plebeians, by increasing the +number both of the pontifices and of the augurs from six to nine, and +equally distributing the stalls in the two colleges between patricians +and plebeians. + +Equivalence of Law and Plebiscitum + +The two hundred years' strife was brought at length to: a close by the +law of the dictator Q. Hortensius (465, 468) which was occasioned by a +dangerous popular insurrection, and which declared that the decrees of +the plebs should stand on an absolute footing of equality--instead of +their earlier conditional equivalence--with those of the whole +community. So greatly had the state of things been changed that +that portion of the burgesses which had once possessed exclusively +the right of voting was thenceforth, under the usual form of taking +votes binding for the whole burgess-body, no longer so much as asked +the question. + +The Later Patricianism + +The struggle between the Roman clans and commons was thus +substantially at an end. While the nobility still preserved out +of its comprehensive privileges the -de facto- possession of one of +the consulships and one of the censorships, it was excluded by law +from the tribunate, the plebeian aedileship, the second consulship +and censorship, and from participation in the votes of the plebs +which were legally equivalent to votes of the whole body of burgesses. +As a righteous retribution for its perverse and stubborn resistance, +the patriciate had seen its former privileges converted into so many +disabilities. The Roman clan-nobility, however, by no means +disappeared because it had become an empty name. The less the +significance and power of the nobility, the more purely and +exclusively the patrician spirit developed itself. The haughtiness +of the "Ramnians" survived the last of their class-privileges for +centuries; after they had steadfastly striven "to rescue the consulate +from the plebeian filth" and had at length become reluctantly +convinced of the impossibility of such an achievement, they continued +at least rudely and spitefully to display their aristocratic spirit. +To understand rightly the history of Rome in the fifth and sixth +centuries, we must never overlook this sulking patricianism; it could +indeed do little more than irritate itself and others, but this it +did to the best of its ability. Some years after the passing of the +Ogulnian law (458) a characteristic instance of this sort occurred. +A patrician matron, who was married to a leading plebeian that had +attained to the highest dignities of the state, was on account of this +misalliance expelled from the circle of noble dames and was refused +admission to the common festival of Chastity; and in consequence of +that exclusion separate patrician and plebeian goddesses of Chastity +were thenceforward worshipped in Rome. Doubtless caprices of this +sort were of very little moment, and the better portion of the +clans kept themselves entirely aloof from this miserable policy of +peevishness; but it left behind on both sides a feeling of discontent, +and, while the struggle of the commons against the clans was in itself +a political and even moral necessity, these convulsive efforts to +prolong the strife--the aimless combats of the rear-guard after the +battle had been decided, as well as the empty squabbles as to rank +and standing--needlessly irritated and disturbed the public and +private life of the Roman community. + +The Social Distress, and the Attempt to Relieve It + +Nevertheless one object of the compromise concluded by the two +portions of the plebs in 387, the abolition of the patriciate, had +in all material points been completely attained. The question next +arises, how far the same can be affirmed of the two positive objects +aimed at in the compromise?--whether the new order of things in +reality checked social distress and established political equality? +The two were intimately connected; for, if economic embarrassments +ruined the middle class and broke up the burgesses into a minority of +rich men and a suffering proletariate, such a state of things would at +once annihilate civil equality and in reality destroy the republican +commonwealth. The preservation and increase of the middle class, and +in particular of the farmers, formed therefore for every patriotic +statesman of Rome a problem not merely important, but the most +important of all. The plebeians, moreover, recently called to take +part in the government, greatly indebted as they were for their new +political rights to the proletariate which was suffering and expecting +help at their hands, were politically and morally under special +obligation to attempt its relief by means of government measures, +so far as relief was by such means at all attainable. + +The Licinian Agrarian Laws + +Let us first consider how far any real relief was contained in that +part of the legislation of 387 which bore upon the question. That +the enactment in favour of the free day-labourers could not possibly +accomplish its object--namely, to check the system of farming on +a large scale and by means of slaves, and to secure to the free +proletarians at least a share of work--is self-evident. In this +matter legislation could afford no relief, without shaking the +foundations of the civil organization of the period in a way that +would reach far beyond its immediate horizon. In the question of the +domains, on the other hand, it was quite possible for legislation to +effect a change; but what was done was manifestly inadequate. The new +domain-arrangement, by granting the right of driving very considerable +flocks and herds upon the public pastures, and that of occupying +domain-land not laid out in pasture up to a maximum fixed on a +high scale, conceded to the wealthy an important and perhaps even +disproportionate prior share in the produce of the domains; and by +the latter regulation conferred upon the domain-tenure, although it +remained in law liable to pay a tenth and revocable at pleasure, +as well as upon the system of occupation itself, somewhat of a legal +sanction. It was a circumstance still more suspicious, that the +new legislation neither supplemented the existing and manifestly +unsatisfactory provisions for the collection of the pasture-money +and the tenth by compulsory measures of a more effective kind, nor +prescribed any thorough revision of the domanial possessions, nor +appointed a magistracy charged with the carrying of the new laws into +effect. The distribution of the existing occupied domain-land partly +among the holders up to a fair maximum, partly among the plebeians +who had no property, in both cases in full ownership; the abolition +in future of the system of occupation; and the institution of +an authority empowered to make immediate distribution of any +future acquisitions of territory, were so clearly demanded by the +circumstances of the case, that it certainly was not through want +of discernment that these comprehensive measures were neglected. +We cannot fail to recollect that it was the plebeian aristocracy, +in other words, a portion of the very class that was practically +privileged in respect to the usufructs of the domains, which proposed +the new arrangement, and that one of its very authors, Gaius Licinius +Stolo, was among the first to be condemned for having exceeded the +agrarian maximum; and we cannot but ask whether the legislators dealt +altogether honourably, and whether they did not on the contrary +designedly evade a solution, really tending to the common benefit, +of the unhappy question of the domains. We do not mean, however, to +express any doubt that the regulations of the Licinian laws, such as +they were, might and did substantially benefit the small farmer and +the day-labourer. It must, moreover, be acknowledged that in the +period immediately succeeding the passing of the law the authorities +watched with at least comparative strictness over the observance of +its rules as to the maximum, and frequently condemned the possessors +of large herds and the occupiers of the domains to heavy fines. + +Laws Imposing Taxes-- +Laws of Credit + +In the system of taxation and of credit also efforts were made with +greater energy at this period than at any before or subsequent to it +to remedy the evils of the national economy, so far as legal measures +could do so. The duty levied in 397 of five per cent on the value of +slaves that were to be manumitted was--irrespective of the fact that +it imposed a check on the undesirable multiplication of freedmen--the +first tax in Rome that was really laid upon the rich. In like manner +efforts were made to remedy the system of credit. The usury laws, +which the Twelve Tables had established,(9) were renewed and gradually +rendered more stringent, so that the maximum of interest was +successively lowered from 10 per cent (enforced in 397) to 5 per cent +(in 407) for the year of twelve months, and at length (412) the taking +of interest was altogether forbidden. The latter foolish law remained +formally in force, but, of course, it was practically inoperative; the +standard rate of interest afterwards usual, viz. 1 per cent per month, +or 12 per cent for the civil common year--which, according to the +value of money in antiquity, was probably at that time nearly the same +as, according to its modern value, a rate of 5 or 6 per cent--must +have been already about this period established as the maximum of +appropriate interest. Any action at law for higher rates must have +been refused, perhaps even judicial claims for repayment may have been +allowed; moreover notorious usurers were not unfrequently summoned +before the bar of the people and readily condemned by the tribes to +heavy fines. Still more important was the alteration of the procedure +in cases of debt by the Poetelian law (428 or 441). On the one hand +it allowed every debtor who declared on oath his solvency to save his +personal freedom by the cession of his property; on the other hand it +abolished the former summary proceedings in execution on a loan-debt, +and laid down the rule that no Roman burgess could be led away to +bondage except upon the sentence of jurymen. + +Continued Distress + +It is plain that all these expedients might perhaps in some respects +mitigate, but could not remove, the existing economic disorders. +The continuance of the distress is shown by the appointment of a +bank-commission to regulate the relations of credit and to provide +advances from the state-chest in 402, by the fixing of legal payment +by instalments in 407, and above all by the dangerous popular +insurrection about 467, when the people, unable to obtain new +facilities for the payment of debts, marched out to the Janiculum, +and nothing but a seasonable attack by external enemies, and the +concessions contained in the Hortensian law,(10) restored peace to +the community. It is, however, very unjust to reproach these earnest +attempts to check the impoverishment of the middle class with their +inadequacy. The belief that it is useless to employ partial and +palliative means against radical evils, because they only remedy +them in part, is an article of faith never preached unsuccessfully +by baseness to simplicity, but it is none the less absurd. On the +contrary, we may ask whether the vile spirit of demagogism had not +even thus early laid hold of this matter, and whether expedients were +really needed so violent and dangerous as, for example, the deduction +of the interest paid from the capital. Our documents do not enable +us to decide the question of right or wrong in the case. But we +recognize clearly enough that the middle class of freeholders +still continued economically in a perilous and critical position; +that various endeavours were made by those in power to remedy it by +prohibitory laws and by respites, but of course in vain; and that the +aristocratic ruling class continued to be too weak in point of control +over its members, and too much entangled in the selfish interests of +its order, to relieve the middle class by the only effectual means at +the disposal of the government--the entire and unreserved abolition +of the system of occupying the state-lands--and by that course to free +the government from the reproach of turning to its own advantage the +oppressed position of the governed. + +Influence of the Extension of the Roman Dominion in Elevating the +Farmer-Class + +A more effectual relief than any which the government was willing +or able to give was derived by the middle classes from the political +successes of the Roman community and the gradual consolidation of the +Roman sovereignty over Italy. The numerous and large colonies which +it was necessary to found for the securing of that sovereignty, the +greater part of which were sent forth in the fifth century, furnished +a portion of the agricultural proletariate with farms of their own, +while the efflux gave relief to such as remained at home. The +increase of the indirect and extraordinary sources of revenue, and +the flourishing condition of the Roman finances in general, rendered +it but seldom necessary to levy any contribution from the farmers in +the form of a forced loan. While the earlier small holdings were +probably lost beyond recovery, the rising average of Roman prosperity +must have converted the former larger landholders into farmers, and +in so far added new members to the middle class. People of rank +sought principally to secure the large newly-acquired districts for +occupation; the mass of wealth which flowed to Rome through war and +commerce must have reduced the rate of interest; the increase in the +population of the capital benefited the farmer throughout Latium; +a wise system of incorporation united a number of neighbouring and +formerly subject communities with the Roman state, and thereby +strengthened especially the middle class; finally, the glorious +victories and their mighty results silenced faction. If the distress +of the farmers was by no means removed and still less were its sources +stopped, it yet admits of no doubt that at the close of this period +the Roman middle class was on the whole in a far less oppressed +condition than in the first century after the expulsion of the kings. + +Civic Equality + +Lastly civic equality was in a certain sense undoubtedly attained +or rather restored by the reform of 387, and the development of its +legitimate consequences. As formerly, when the patricians still in +fact formed the burgesses, these had stood upon a footing of absolute +equality in rights and duties, so now in the enlarged burgess-body +there existed in the eye of the law no arbitrary distinctions. +The gradations to which differences of age, sagacity, cultivation, and +wealth necessarily give rise in civil society, naturally also pervaded +the sphere of public life; but the spirit animating the burgesses and +the policy of the government uniformly operated so as to render these +differences as little conspicuous as possible. The whole system of +Rome tended to train up her burgesses on an average as sound and +capable, but not to bring into prominence the gifts of genius. The +growth of culture among the Romans did not at all keep pace with the +development of the power of their community, and it was instinctively +repressed rather than promoted by those in power. That there should +be rich and poor, could not be prevented; but (as in a genuine +community of farmers) the farmer as well as the day-labourer +personally guided the plough, and even for the rich the good economic +rule held good that they should live with uniform frugality and above +all should hoard no unproductive capital at home--excepting the +salt-cellar and the sacrificial ladle, no silver articles were at +this period seen in any Roman house. Nor was this of little moment. +In the mighty successes which the Roman community externally achieved +during the century from the last Veientine down to the Pyrrhic war we +perceive that the patriciate has now given place to the farmers; that +the fall of the highborn Fabian would have been not more and not less +lamented by the whole community than the fall of the plebeian Decian +was lamented alike by plebeians and patricians; that the consulate did +not of itself fall even to the wealthiest aristocrat; and that a poor +husbandman from Sabina, Manius Curius, could conquer king Pyrrhus in +the field of battle and chase him out of Italy, without ceasing to be +a simple Sabine farmer and to cultivate in person his own bread-corn. + +New Aristocracy + +In regard however to this imposing republican equality we must not +overlook the fact that it was to a considerable extent only formal, +and that an aristocracy of a very decided stamp grew out of it or +rather was contained in it from the very first. The non-patrician +families of wealth and consideration had long ago separated from the +plebs, and leagued themselves with the patriciate in the participation +of senatorial rights and in the prosecution of a policy distinct from +that of the plebs and very often counteracting it. The Licinian laws +abrogated the legal distinctions within the ranks of the aristocracy, +and changed the character of the barrier which excluded the plebeian +from the government, so that it was no longer a hindrance unalterable +in law, but one, not indeed insurmountable, but yet difficult to be +surmounted in practice. In both ways fresh blood was mingled with +the ruling order in Rome; but in itself the government still remained, +as before, aristocratic. In this respect the Roman community was a +genuine farmer-commonwealth, in which the rich holder of a whole hide +was little distinguished externally from the poor cottager and held +intercourse with him on equal terms, but aristocracy nevertheless +exercised so all-powerful a sway that a man without means far sooner +rose to be master of the burgesses in the city than mayor in his own +village. It was a very great and valuable gain, that under the new +legislation even the poorest burgess might fill the highest office +of the state; nevertheless it was a rare exception when a man from +the lower ranks of the population reached such a position,(11) and +not only so, but probably it was, at least towards the close of +this period, possible only by means of an election carried by +the opposition. + +New Opposition + +Every aristocratic government of itself calls forth a corresponding +opposition party; and as the formal equalization of the orders only +modified the aristocracy, and the new ruling order not only succeeded +the old patriciate but engrafted itself on it and intimately coalesced +with it, the opposition also continued to exist and in all respects +pursued a similar course. As it was now no longer the plebeian +burgesses as such, but the common people, that were treated as +inferior, the new opposition professed from the first to be the +representative of the lower classes and particularly of the small +farmers; and as the new aristocracy attached itself to the patriciate, +so the first movements of this new opposition were interwoven with the +final struggles against the privileges of the patricians. The first +names in the series of these new Roman popular leaders were Manius +Curius (consul 464, 479, 480; censor 481) and Gaius Fabricius (consul +472, 476, 481; censor 479); both of them men without ancestral lineage +and without wealth, both summoned--in opposition to the aristocratic +principle of restricting re-election to the highest office of the +state--thrice by the votes of the burgesses to the chief magistracy, +both, as tribunes, consuls, and censors, opponents of patrician +privileges and defenders of the small farmer-class against the +incipient arrogance of the leading houses. The future parties were +already marked out; but the interests of party were still suspended +on both sides in presence of the interests of the commonweal. The +patrician Appius Claudius and the farmer Manius Curius--vehement in +their personal antagonism--jointly by wise counsel and vigorous action +conquered king Pyrrhus; and while Gaius Fabricius as censor inflicted +penalties on Publius Cornelius Rufinus for his aristocratic sentiments +and aristocratic habits, this did not prevent him from supporting the +claim of Rufinus to a second consulate on account of his recognized +ability as a general. The breach was already formed; but the +adversaries still shook hands across it. + +The New Government + +The termination of the struggles between the old and new burgesses, +the various and comparatively successful endeavours to relieve the +middle class, and the germs--already making their appearance amidst +the newly acquired civic equality--of the formation of a new +aristocratic and a new democratic party, have thus been passed +in review. It remains that we describe the shape which the new +government assumed amidst these changes, and the positions in which +after the political abolition of the nobility the three elements of +the republican commonwealth--the burgesses, the magistrates, and +the senate--stood towards each other. + +The Burgess-Body-- +Its Composition + +The burgesses in their ordinary assemblies continued as hitherto to +be the highest authority in the commonwealth and the legal sovereign. +But it was settled by law that--apart from the matters committed once +for all to the decision of the centuries, such as the election of +consuls and censors--voting by districts should be just as valid +as voting by centuries: a regulation introduced as regards the +patricio-plebeian assembly by the Valerio-Horatian law of 305(12) and +extended by the Publilian law of 415, but enacted as regards the +plebeian separate assembly by the Hortensian law about 467.(13) We have +already noticed that the same individuals, on the whole, were entitled +to vote in both assemblies, but that--apart from the exclusion of +the patricians from the plebeian separate assembly--in the general +assembly of the districts all entitled to vote were on a footing of +equality, while in the centuriate comitia the working of the suffrage +was graduated with reference to the means of the voters, and in so +far, therefore, the change was certainly a levelling and democratic +innovation. It was a circumstance of far greater importance that, +towards the end of this period, the primitive freehold basis of the +right of suffrage began for the first time to be called in question. +Appius Claudius, the boldest innovator known in Roman history, in his +censorship in 442 without consulting the senate or people so adjusted +the burgess-roll, that a man who had no land was received into +whatever tribe he chose and then according to his means into the +corresponding century. But this alteration was too far in advance +of the spirit of the age to obtain full acceptance. One of the +immediate successors of Appius, Quintus Fabius Rullianus, the famous +conqueror of the Samnites, undertook in his censorship of 450 not to +set it aside entirely, but to confine it within such limits that the +real power in the burgess-assemblies should continue to be vested in +the holders of land and of wealth. He assigned those who had no land +collectively to the four city tribes, which were now made to rank not +as the first but as the last. The rural tribes, on the other hand, +the number of which gradually increased between 367 and 513 from +seventeen to thirty-one--thus forming a majority, greatly +preponderating from the first and ever increasing in preponderance, +of the voting-divisions--were reserved by law for the whole of the +burgesses who were freeholders. In the centuries the equalization of +the freeholders and non-freeholders remained as Appius had introduced +it. In this manner provision was made for the preponderance of the +freeholders in the comitia of the tribes, while for the centuriate +comitia in themselves the wealthy already turned the scale. By this +wise and moderate arrangement on the part of a man who for his warlike +feats and still more for this peaceful achievement justly received the +surname of the Great (-Maximus-), on the one hand the duty of bearing +arms was extended, as was fitting, also to the non-freehold burgesses; +on the other hand care was taken that their influence, especially +that of those who had once been slaves and who were for the most part +without property in land, should be subjected to that check which +is unfortunately, in a state allowing slavery, an indispensable +necessity. A peculiar moral jurisdiction, moreover, which gradually +came to be associated with the census and the making up of the +burgess-roll, excluded from the burgess-body all individuals +notoriously unworthy, and guarded the full moral and political +purity of citizenship. + +Increasing Powers of the Burgesses + +The powers of the comitia exhibited during this period a tendency to +enlarge their range, but in a manner very gradual. The increase in +the number of magistrates to be elected by the people falls, to some +extent, under this head; it is an especially significant fact that +from 392 the military tribunes of one legion, and from 443 four +tribunes in each of the first four legions respectively, were +nominated no longer by the general, but by the burgesses. During this +period the burgesses did not on the whole interfere in administration; +only their right of declaring war was, as was reasonable, emphatically +maintained, and held to extend also to cases in which a prolonged +armistice concluded instead of a peace expired and what was not in +law but in fact a new war began (327). In other instances a question +of administration was hardly submitted to the people except when the +governing authorities fell into collision and one of them referred +the matter to the people--as when the leaders of the moderate party +among the nobility, Lucius Valerius and Marcus Horatius, in 305, and +the first plebeian dictator, Gaius Marcius Rutilus, in 398, were not +allowed by the senate to receive the triumphs they had earned; when +the consuls of 459 could not agree as to their respective provinces of +jurisdiction; and when the senate, in 364, resolved to give up to the +Gauls an ambassador who had forgotten his duty, and a consular tribune +carried the matter to the community. This was the first occasion on +which a decree of the senate was annulled by the people; and heavily +the community atoned for it. Sometimes in difficult cases the +government left the decision to the people, as first, when Caere sued +for peace, after the people had declared war against it but before +war had actually begun (401); and at a subsequent period, when the +senate hesitated to reject unceremoniously the humble entreaty of +the Samnites for peace (436). It is not till towards the close of +this epoch that we find a considerably extended intervention of the +-comitia tributa- in affairs of administration, particularly through +the practice of consulting it as to the conclusion of peace and of +alliances: this extension probably dates from the Hortensian law +of 467. + +Decreasing Importance of the Burgess-Body + +But notwithstanding these enlargements of the powers of the +burgess-assemblies, their practical influence on state affairs began, +particularly towards the close of this period, to wane. First of all, +the extension of the bounds of Rome deprived her primary assembly of +its true basis. As an assembly of the freeholders of the community, +it formerly might very well meet in sufficiently full numbers, and +might very well know its own wishes, even without discussion; but the +Roman burgess-body had now become less a civic community than a state. +The fact that those dwelling together voted also with each other, no +doubt, introduced into the Roman comitia, at least when the voting +was by tribes, a sort of inward connection and into the voting now +and then energy and independence; but under ordinary circumstances +the composition of the comitia and their decision were left dependent +on the person who presided or on accident, or were committed to the +hands of the burgesses domiciled in the capital. It is, therefore, +quite easy to understand how the assemblies of the burgesses, which +had great practical importance during the first two centuries of +the republic, gradually became a mere instrument in the hands of +the presiding magistrate, and in truth a very dangerous instrument, +because the magistrates called to preside were so numerous, and +every resolution of the community was regarded as the ultimate legal +expression of the will of the people. But the enlargement of the +constitutional rights of the burgesses was not of much moment, +inasmuch as these were less than formerly capable of a will and action +of their own, and there was as yet no demagogism, in the proper sense +of that term, in Rome. Had any such demagogic spirit existed, it +would have attempted not to extend the powers of the burgesses, but to +remove the restrictions on political debate in their presence; whereas +throughout this whole period there was undeviating acquiescence in the +old maxims, that the magistrate alone could convoke the burgesses, +and that he was entitled to exclude all debate and all proposal +of amendments. At the time this incipient breaking up of the +constitution made itself felt chiefly in the circumstance that +the primary assemblies assumed an essentially passive attitude, +and did not on the whole interfere in government either to help +or to hinder it. + +The Magistrates. Partition and Weakening of the Consular Powers + +As regards the power of the magistrates, its diminution, although not +the direct design of the struggles between the old and new burgesses, +was doubtless one of their most important results. At the beginning +of the struggle between the orders or, in other words, of the strife +for the possession of the consular power, the consulate was still +the one and indivisible, essentially regal, magistracy; and the +consul, like the king in former times, still had the appointment +of all subordinate functionaries left to his own free choice. +At the termination of that contest its most important functions +--jurisdiction, street-police, election of senators and equites, +the census and financial administration --were separated from the +consulship and transferred to magistrates, who like the consul +were nominated by the community and occupied a position far more +co-ordinate than subordinate. The consulate, formerly the single +ordinary magistracy of the state, was now no longer even absolutely +the first. In the new arrangement as to the ranking and usual order +of succession of the public offices the consulate stood indeed above +the praetorship, aedileship, and quaestorship, but beneath the +censorship, which--in addition to the most important financial duties +--was charged with the adjustment of the rolls of burgesses, equites, +and senators, and thereby wielded a wholly arbitrary moral control +over the entire community and every individual burgess, the humblest +as well as the most prominent. The conception of limited magisterial +power or special function, which seemed to the original Roman state-law +irreconcilable with the conception of supreme office, gradually +gained a footing and mutilated and destroyed the earlier idea of the +one and indivisible -imperium-. A first step was already taken in +this direction by the institution of the standing collateral offices, +particularly the quaestorship;(14) it was completely carried out by +the Licinian laws (387), which prescribed the functions of the three +supreme magistrates, and assigned administration and the conduct of +war to the two first, and the management of justice to the third. But +the change did not stop here. The consuls, although they were in law +wholly and everywhere co-ordinate, naturally from the earliest times +divided between them in practice the different departments of duty +(-provinciae-). Originally this was done simply by mutual concert, or +in default of it by casting lots; but by degrees the other constituent +authorities in the commonwealth interfered with this practical +definition of functions. It became usual for the senate to define +annually the spheres of duty; and, while it did not directly +distribute them among the co-ordinate magistrates, it exercised +decided influence on the personal distribution by advice and request. +In an extreme case the senate doubtless obtained a decree of the +community, definitively to settle the question of distribution;(15) +the government, however, very seldom employed this dangerous +expedient. Further, the most important affairs, such as the +concluding of peace, were withdrawn from the consuls, and they +were in such matters obliged to have recourse to the senate and +to act according to its instructions. Lastly, in cases of extremity +the senate could at any time suspend the consuls from office; for, +according to an usage never established by law but never violated +in practice, the creation of a dictatorship depended simply upon +the resolution of the senate, and the fixing of the person to be +nominated, although constitutionally vested in the nominating +consul, really under ordinary circumstances lay with the senate. + +Limitation of the Dictatorship + +The old unity and plenary legal power of the -imperium- were retained +longer in the case of the dictatorship than in that of the consulship. +Although of course as an extraordinary magistracy it had in reality +from the first its special functions, it had in law far less of a +special character than the consulate. But it also was gradually +affected by the new idea of definite powers and functions introduced +into the legal life of Rome. In 391 we first meet with a dictator +expressly nominated from theological scruples for the mere +accomplishment of a religious ceremony; and though that dictator +himself, doubtless in formal accordance with the constitution, +treated the restriction of his powers as null and took the command +of the army in spite of it, such an opposition on the part of the +magistrate was not repeated on occasion of the subsequent similarly +restricted nominations, which occurred in 403 and thenceforward very +frequently. On the contrary, the dictators thenceforth accounted +themselves bound by their powers as specially defined. + +Restriction as to the Accumulation and the Reoccupation of Offices + +Lastly, further seriously felt restrictions of the magistracy were +involved in the prohibition issued in 412 against the accumulation +of the ordinary curule offices, and in the enactment of the same date, +that the same person should not again administer the same office under +ordinary circumstances before an interval of ten years had elapsed, as +well as in the subsequent regulation that the office which practically +was the highest, the censorship, should not be held a second time +at all (489). But the government was still strong enough not to be +afraid of its instruments or to desist purposely on that account +from employing those who were the most serviceable. Brave officers +were very frequently released from these rules,(16) and cases still +occurred like those of Quintus Fabius Rullianus, who was five times +consul in twenty-eight years, and of Marcus Valerius Corvus (384-483) +who, after he had filled six consulships, the first in his twenty-third, +the last in his seventy-second year, and had been throughout three +generations the protector of his countrymen and the terror +of the foe, descended to the grave at the age of a hundred. + +The Tribunate of the People as an Instrument of Government + +While the Roman magistrate was thus more and more completely and +definitely transformed from the absolute lord into the limited +commissioner and administrator of the community, the old +counter-magistracy, the tribunate of the people, was undergoing at +the same time a similar transformation internal rather than external. +It served a double purpose in the commonwealth. It had been from +the beginning intended to protect the humble and the weak by a +somewhat revolutionary assistance (-auxilium-) against the overbearing +violence of the magistrates; it had subsequently been employed to get +rid of the legal disabilities of the commons and the privileges of the +gentile nobility. The latter end was attained. The original object +was not only in itself a democratic ideal rather than a political +possibility, but it was also quite as obnoxious to the plebeian +aristocracy into whose hands the tribunate necessarily fell, and +quite as incompatible with the new organization which originated +in the equalization of the orders and had if possible a still more +decided aristocratic hue than that which preceded it, as it was +obnoxious to the gentile nobility and incompatible with the patrician +consular constitution. But instead of abolishing the tribunate, they +preferred to convert it from a weapon of opposition into an instrument +of government, and now introduced the tribunes of the people, who were +originally excluded from all share in administration and were neither +magistrates nor members of the senate, into the class of governing +authorities. + +While in jurisdiction they stood from the beginning on an equality +with the consuls and in the early stages of the conflicts between the +orders acquired like the consuls the right of initiating legislation, +they now received--we know not exactly when, but presumably at or soon +after the final equalization of the orders--a position of equality +with the consuls as confronting the practically governing authority, +the senate. Hitherto they had been present at the proceedings of the +senate, sitting on a bench at the door; now they obtained, like the +other magistrates and by their side, a place in the senate itself and +the right to interpose their word in its discussions. If they were +precluded from the right of voting, this was simply an application of +the general principle of Roman state-law, that those only should give +counsel who were not called to act; in accordance with which the whole +of the acting magistrates possessed during their year of office only a +seat, not a vote, in the council of the state.(17) But concession did +not rest here. The tribunes received the distinctive prerogative of +supreme magistracy, which among the ordinary magistrates belonged +only to the consuls and praetors besides--the right of convoking the +senate, of consulting it, and of procuring decrees from it.(18) This +was only as it should be; the heads of the plebeian aristocracy +could not but be placed on an equality with those of the patrician +aristocracy in the senate, when once the government had passed +from the clan-nobility to the united aristocracy. Now that this +opposition-college, originally excluded from all share in the public +administration, became--particularly with reference to strictly urban +affairs--a second supreme executive and one of the most usual and most +serviceable instruments of the government, or in other words of the +senate, for managing the burgesses and especially for checking the +excesses of the magistrates, it was certainly, as respected its +original character, absorbed and politically annihilated; but this +course was really enjoined by necessity. Clearly as the defects of +the Roman aristocracy were apparent, and decidedly as the steady +growth of aristocratic ascendency was connected with the practical +setting aside of the tribunate, none can fail to see that government +could not be long carried on with an authority which was not only +aimless and virtually calculated to put off the suffering proletariate +with a deceitful prospect of relief, but was at the same time +decidedly revolutionary and possessed of a--strictly speaking +--anarchical prerogative of obstruction to the authority of the +magistrates and even of the state itself. But that faith in an ideal, +which is the foundation of all the power and of all the impotence +of democracy, had come to be closely associated in the minds of the +Romans with the tribunate of the plebs; and we do not need to +recall the case of Cola Rienzi in order to perceive that, however +unsubstantial might be the advantage thence arising to the multitude, +it could not be abolished without a formidable convulsion of the +state. Accordingly with genuine political prudence they contented +themselves with reducing it to a nullity under forms that should +attract as little attention as possible. The mere name of this +essentially revolutionary magistracy was still retained within +the aristocratically governed commonwealth--an incongruity for the +present, and for the future, in the hands of a coming revolutionary +party, a sharp and dangerous weapon. For the moment, however, and for +a long time to come the aristocracy was so absolutely powerful and +so completely possessed control over the tribunate, that no trace at +all is to be met with of a collegiate opposition on the part of +the tribunes to the senate; and the government overcame the forlorn +movements of opposition that now and then proceeded from individual +tribunes, always without difficulty, and ordinarily by means of +the tribunate itself. + +The Senate. Its Composition + +In reality it was the senate that governed the commonwealth, and did +so almost without opposition after the equalization of the orders. +Its very composition had undergone a change. The free prerogative of +the chief magistrates in this matter, as it had been exercised after +the setting aside of the old clan-representation,(19) had been already +subjected to very material restrictions on the abolition of the +presidency for life.(20) + +A further step towards the emancipation of the senate from the power +of the magistrates took place, when the adjustment of the senatorial +lists was transferred from the supreme magistrates to subordinate +functionaries--from the consuls to the censors.(21) Certainly, +whether immediately at that time or soon afterwards, the right of +the magistrate entrusted with the preparation of the list to omit +from it individual senators on account of a stain attaching to them +and thereby to exclude them from the senate was, if not introduced, +at least more precisely defined,(22) and in this way the foundations +were laid of that peculiar jurisdiction over morals on which the high +repute of the censors was chiefly based.(23) But censures of that +sort--especially since the two censors had to be at one on the matter +--might doubtless serve to remove particular persons who did not +contribute to the credit of the assembly or were hostile to the spirit +prevailing there, but could not bring the body itself into dependence +on the magistracy. + +But the right of the magistrates to constitute the senate according +to their judgment was decidedly restricted by the Ovinian law, which +was passed about the middle of this period, probably soon after the +Licinian laws. That law at once conferred a seat and vote in the +senate provisionally on every one who had been curule aedile, praetor, +or consul, and bound the next censors either formally to inscribe +these expectants in the senatorial roll, or at any rate to exclude +them from the roll only for such reasons as sufficed for the rejection +of an actual senator. The number of those, however, who had been +magistrates was far from sufficing to keep the senate up to the normal +number of three hundred; and below that point it could not be allowed +to fall, especially as the list of senators was at the same time that +of jurymen. Considerable room was thus always left for the exercise +of the censorial right of election; but those senators who were chosen +not in consequence of having held office, but by selection on the part +of the censor--frequently burgesses who had filled a non-curule public +office, or distinguished themselves by personal valour, who had killed +an enemy in battle or saved the life of a burgess--took part in +voting, but not in debate.(24) The main body of the senate, and +that portion of it into whose hands government and administration +were concentrated, was thus according to the Ovinian law substantially +based no longer on the arbitrary will of a magistrate, but indirectly +on election by the people. The Roman state in this way made some +approach to, although it did not reach, the great institution of +modern times, representative popular government, while the aggregate +of the non-debating senators furnished--what it is so necessary and +yet so difficult to get in governing corporations--a compact mass +of members capable of forming and entitled to pronounce an opinion, +but voting in silence. + +Powers of the Senate + +The powers of the senate underwent scarcely any change in form. The +senate carefully avoided giving a handle to opposition or to ambition +by unpopular changes, or manifest violations, of the constitution; it +permitted, though it did nor promote, the enlargement in a democratic +direction of the power of the burgesses. But while the burgesses +acquired the semblance, the senate acquired the substance of power +--a decisive influence over legislation and the official elections, +and the whole control of the state. + +Its Influence in Legislation + +Every new project of law was subjected to a preliminary deliberation +in the senate, and scarcely ever did a magistrate venture to lay a +proposal before the community without or in opposition to the senate's +opinion. If he did so, the senate had--in the intercessory powers of +the magistrates and the annulling powers of the priests--an ample set +of means at hand to nip in the bud, or subsequently to get rid of, +obnoxious proposals; and in case of extremity it had in its hands +as the supreme administrative authority not only the executing, but +the power of refusing to execute, the decrees of the community. The +senate further with tacit consent of the community claimed the right +in urgent cases of absolving from the laws, under the reservation that +the community should ratify the proceeding--a reservation which from +the first was of little moment, and became by degrees so entirely a +form that in later times they did not even take the trouble to propose +the ratifying decree. + +Influence on the Elections + +As to the elections, they passed, so far as they depended on the +magistrates and were of political importance, practically into the +hands of the senate. In this way it acquired, as has been mentioned +already,(25) the right to appoint the dictator. Great regard had +certainly to be shown to the community; the right of bestowing the +public magistracies could not be withdrawn from it; but, as has +likewise been already observed, care was taken that this election of +magistrates should not be constructed into the conferring of definite +functions, especially of the posts of supreme command when war was +imminent. Moreover the newly introduced idea of special functions on +the one hand, and on the other the right practically conceded to the +senate of dispensation from the laws, gave to it an important share +in official appointments. Of the influence which the senate exercised +in settling the official spheres of the consuls in particular, we have +already spoken.(26) One of the most important applications of the +dispensing right was the dispensation of the magistrate from the legal +term of his tenure of office--a dispensation which, as contrary to the +fundamental laws of the community, might not according to Roman state-law +be granted in the precincts of the city proper, but beyond these +was at least so far valid that the consul or praetor, whose term was +prolonged, continued after its expiry to discharge his functions +"in a consul's or praetor's stead" (-pro consule- -pro praetore-). +Of course this important right of extending the term of office +--essentially on a par with the right of nomination--belonged by +law to the community alone, and at the beginning was in fact exercised +by it; but in 447, and regularly thenceforward, the command of the +commander-in-chief was prolonged by mere decree of the senate. To this +was added, in fine, the preponderating and skilfully concerted influence +of the aristocracy over the elections, which guided them ordinarily, +although not always, to the choice of candidates agreeable to +the government. + +Senatorial Government + +Finally as regards administration, war, peace and alliances, the +founding of colonies, the assignation of lands, building, in fact +every matter of permanent and general importance, and in particular +the whole system of finance, depended absolutely on the senate. +It was the senate which annually issued general instructions to the +magistrates, settling their spheres of duty and limiting the troops +and moneys to be placed at the disposal of each; and recourse was +had to its counsel in every case of importance. The keepers of the +state-chest could make no payment to any magistrate with the exception +of the consul, or to any private person, unless authorized by a previous +decree of the senate. In the management, however, of current affairs +and in the details of judicial and military administration the supreme +governing corporation did not interfere; the Roman aristocracy had too +much political judgment and tact to desire to convert the control of +the commonwealth into a guardianship over the individual official, +or to turn the instrument into a machine. + +That this new government of the senate amidst all its retention +of existing forms involved a complete revolutionizing of the old +commonwealth, is clear. That the free action of the burgesses should +be arrested and benumbed; that the magistrates should be reduced to +be the presidents of its sittings and its executive commissioners; +that a corporation for the mere tendering of advice should seize the +inheritance of both the authorities sanctioned by the constitution +and should become, although under very modest forms, the central +government of the state--these were steps of revolution and +usurpation. Nevertheless, if any revolution or any usurpation appears +justified before the bar of history by exclusive ability to govern, +even its rigorous judgment must acknowledge that this corporation +timeously comprehended and worthily fulfilled its great task. Called +to power not by the empty accident of birth, but substantially by the +free choice of the nation; confirmed every fifth year by the stern +moral judgment of the worthiest men; holding office for life, and so +not dependent on the expiration of its commission or on the varying +opinion of the people; having its ranks close and united ever after +the equalization of the orders; embracing in it all the political +intelligence and practical statesmanship that the people possessed; +absolute in dealing with all financial questions and in the guidance +of foreign policy; having complete power over the executive by virtue +of its brief duration and of the tribunician intercession which was +at the service of the senate after the termination of the quarrels +between the orders--the Roman senate was the noblest organ of the +nation, and in consistency and political sagacity, in unanimity and +patriotism, in grasp of power and unwavering courage, the foremost +political corporation of all times--still even now an "assembly of +kings," which knew well how to combine despotic energy with republican +self-devotion. Never was a state represented in its external +relations more firmly and worthily than Rome in its best times by +its senate. In matters of internal administration it certainly +cannot be concealed that the moneyed and landed aristocracy, which +was especially represented in the senate, acted with partiality in +affairs that bore upon its peculiar interests, and that the sagacity +and energy of the body were often in such cases employed far from +beneficially to the state. Nevertheless the great principle +established amidst severe conflicts, that all Roman burgesses were +equal in the eye of the law as respected rights and duties, and the +opening up of a political career (or in other words, of admission +to the senate) to every one, which was the result of that principle, +concurred with the brilliance of military and political successes in +preserving the harmony of the state and of the nation, and relieved +the distinction of classes from that bitterness and malignity which +marked the struggle of the patricians and plebeians. And, as the +fortunate turn taken by external politics had the effect of giving the +rich for more than a century ample space for themselves and rendered +it unnecessary that they should oppress the middle class, the Roman +people was enabled by means of its senate to carry out for a longer +term than is usually granted to a people the grandest of all human +undertakings--a wise and happy self-government. + + + + +Notes for Book II Chapter III + + +1. The hypothesis that legally the full -imperium- belonged to the +patrician, and only the military -imperium- to the plebeian, consular +tribunes, not only provokes various questions to which there is no +answer--as to the course followed, for example, in the event of the +election falling, as was by law quite possible, wholly on plebeians +--but specially conflicts with the fundamental principle of Roman +constitutional law, that the -imperium-, that is to say, the right +of commanding the burgess in name of the community, was functionally +indivisible and capable of no other limitation at all than a +territorial one. There was a province of urban law and a province +of military law, in the latter of which the -provocatio- and other +regulations of urban law were not applicable; there were magistrates, +such as the proconsuls, who were empowered to discharge functions +simply in the latter; but there were, in the strict sense of law, +no magistrates with merely jurisdictional, as there were none with +merely military, -imperium-. The proconsul was in his province, just +like the consul, at once commander-in-chief and supreme judge, and was +entitled to send to trial actions not only between non-burgesses and +soldiers, but also between one burgess and another. Even when, on the +institution of the praetorship, the idea rose of apportioning special +functions to the -magistratus maiores-, this division of powers had +more of a practical than of a strictly legal force; the -praetor +urbanus- was primarily indeed the supreme judge, but he could also +convoke the centuries, at least for certain cases, and could +command an army; the consul in the city held primarily the supreme +administration and the supreme command, but he too acted as a judge +in cases of emancipation and adoption--the functional indivisibility +of the supreme magistracy was therefore, even in these instances, +very strictly adhered to on both sides. Thus the military as well as +jurisdictional authority, or, laying aside these abstractions foreign +to the Roman law of this period, the absolute magisterial power, must +have virtually pertained to the plebeian consular tribunes as well as +to the patrician. But it may well be, as Becker supposes (Handb. ii. +2, 137), that, for the same reasons, for which at a subsequent period +there was placed alongside of the consulship common to both orders +the praetorship actually reserved for a considerable time for the +patricians, even during the consular tribunate the plebeian members +of the college were -de facto- kept aloof from jurisdiction, and so +far the consular tribunate prepared the way for the subsequent actual +division of jurisdiction between consuls and praetors. + +2. I. VI. Political Effects of the Servian Military Organization + +3. The defence, that the aristocracy clung to the exclusion of +the plebeians from religious prejudice, mistakes the fundamental +character of the Roman religion, and imports into antiquity the modern +distinction between church and state. The admittance of a non-burgess +to a religious ceremony of the citizens could not indeed but appear +sinful to the orthodox Roman; but even the most rigid orthodoxy never +doubted that admittance to civic communion, which absolutely and +solely depended on the state, involved also full religious equality. +All such scruples of conscience, the honesty of which in themselves +we do not mean to doubt, were precluded, when once they granted to the +plebeians -en masse- at the right time the patriciate. This only may +perhaps be alleged by way of excuse for the nobility, that after it +had neglected the right moment for this purpose at the abolition of +the monarchy, it was no longer in a position subsequently of itself +to retrieve the neglect (II. I. The New Community). + +4. Whether this distinction between these "curule houses" and the +other families embraced within the patriciate was ever of serious +political importance, cannot with certainty be either affirmed or +denied; and as little do we know whether at this epoch there really +was any considerable number of patrician families that were not yet +curule. + +5. II. II. The Valerio-Horatian Laws + +6. I. XII. Foreign Worships + +7. II. I. Senate, + +8. II. I. Senate, II. III. Opposition of the Patriciate + +9. II. II. Legislation of the Twelve Tables + +10. II. III. Equivalence Law and Plebiscitum + +11. The statements as to the poverty of the consulars of this period, +which play so great a part in the moral anecdote-books of a later age, +mainly rest on a misunderstanding on the one hand of the old frugal +economy--which might very well consist with considerable prosperity +--and on the other hand of the beautiful old custom of burying men who +had deserved well of the state from the proceeds of penny collections +--which was far from being a pauper burial. The method also of +explaining surnames by etymological guess-work, which has imported +so many absurdities into Roman history, has furnished its quota to +this belief (-Serranus-). + +12. II. II. The Valerio-Horatian Laws + +13. II. III. Equivalence Law and Plebiscitum + +14. II. I. Restrictions on the Delegation of Powers + +15. II. III. Increasing Powers of the Burgesses + +16. Any one who compares the consular Fasti before and after 412 +will have no doubt as to the existence of the above-mentioned law +respecting re-election to the consulate; for, while before that year +a return to office, especially after three or four years, was a +common occurrence, afterwards intervals of ten years and more were +as frequent. Exceptions, however, occur in very great numbers, +particularly during the severe years of war 434-443. On the other +hand, the principle of not allowing a plurality of offices was +strictly adhered to. There is no certain instance of the combination +of two of the three ordinary curule (Liv. xxxix. 39, 4) offices (the +consulate, praetorship, and curule aedileship), but instances occur +of other combinations, such as of the curule aedileship and the office +of master of the horse (Liv. xxiii. 24, 30); of the praetorship +and censorship (Fast. Cap. a. 501); of the praetorship and the +dictatorship (Liv. viii. 12); of the consulate and the dictatorship +(Liv. viii. 12). + +17. II. I. Senate + +18. Hence despatches intended for the senate were addressed to +Consuls, Praetors, Tribunes of the Plebs, and Senate (Cicero, ad +Fam. xv. 2, et al.) + +19. I. V. The Senate + +20. II. I. Senate + +21. II. III. Censorship + +22. This prerogative and the similar ones with reference to the +equestrian and burgess-lists were perhaps not formally and legally +assigned to the censors, but were always practically implied in +their powers. It was the community, not the censor, that conferred +burgess-rights; but the person, to whom the latter in making up the +list of persons entitled to vote did not assign a place or assigned an +inferior one, did not lose his burgess-right, but could not exercise +the privileges of a burgess, or could only exercise them in the +inferior place, till the preparation of a new list. The same was the +case with the senate; the person omitted by the censor from his list +ceased to attend the senate, as long as the list in question remained +valid--unless the presiding magistrate should reject it and reinstate +the earlier list. Evidently therefore the important question in this +respect was not so much what was the legal liberty of the censors, +as how far their authority availed with those magistrates who had to +summon according to their lists. Hence it is easy to understand +how this prerogative gradually rose in importance, and how with the +increasing consolidation of the nobility such erasures assumed +virtually the form of judicial decisions and were virtually respected +as such. As to the adjustment of the senatorial list undoubtedly the +enactment of the Ovinian -plebiscitum- exercised a material share of +influence--that the censors should admit to the senate "the best men +out of all classes." + +23. II. III. The Burgess-Body. Its Composition + +24. II. III. Complete Opening Up of Magistracies and Priesthoods + +25. II. III. Restrictions as to the Accumulation and the Reoccupation +of Offices + +26. II. III. Partition and Weakening of Consular Powers + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +Fall of the Etruscan Power-the Celts + + +Etrusco-Carthaginian Maritime Supremacy + +In the previous chapters we have presented an outline of the +development of the Roman constitution during the first two centuries +of the republic; we now recur to the commencement of that epoch for +the purpose of tracing the external history of Rome and of Italy. +About the time of the expulsion of the Tarquins from Rome the Etruscan +power had reached its height. The Tuscans, and the Carthaginians who +were in close alliance with them, possessed undisputed supremacy on +the Tyrrhene Sea. Although Massilia amidst continual and severe +struggles maintained her independence, the seaports of Campania and +of the Volscian land, and after the battle of Alalia Corsica also,(1) +were in the possession of the Etruscans. In Sardinia the sons of the +Carthaginian general Mago laid the foundation of the greatness both of +their house and of their city by the complete conquest of the island +(about 260); and in Sicily, while the Hellenic colonies were occupied +with their internal feuds, the Phoenicians retained possession of +the western half without material opposition. The vessels of the +Etruscans were no less dominant in the Adriatic; and their pirates +were dreaded even in the more eastern waters. + +Subjugation of Latium by Etruria + +By land also their power seemed to be on the increase. To acquire +possession of Latium was of the most decisive importance to Etruria, +which was separated by the Latins alone from the Volscian towns that +were dependent on it and from its possessions in Campania. Hitherto +the firm bulwark of the Roman power had sufficiently protected Latium, +and had successfully maintained against Etruria the frontier line of +the Tiber. But now, when the whole Tuscan league, taking advantage of +the confusion and the weakness of the Roman state after the expulsion +of the Tarquins, renewed its attack more energetically than before +under the king Lars Porsena of Clusium, it no longer encountered the +wonted resistance. Rome surrendered, and in the peace (assigned to +247) not only ceded all her possessions on the right bank of the Tiber +to the adjacent Tuscan communities and thus abandoned her exclusive +command of the river, but also delivered to the conqueror all her +weapons of war and promised to make use of iron thenceforth only for +the ploughshare. It seemed as if the union of Italy under Tuscan +supremacy was not far distant. + +Etruscans Driven Back from Latium-- +Fall of the Etrusco-Carthaginian Maritime Supremacy-- +Victories of Salamis and Himera, and Their Effects + +But the subjugation, with which the coalition of the Etruscan and +Carthaginian nations had threatened both Greeks and Italians, was +fortunately averted by the combination of peoples drawn towards each +other by family affinity as well as by common peril. The Etruscan +army, which after the fall of Rome had penetrated into Latium, had +its victorious career checked in the first instance before the walls +of Aricia by the well-timed intervention of the Cumaeans who had +hastened to the succour of the Aricines (248). We know not how the +war ended, nor, in particular, whether Rome even at that time tore up +the ruinous and disgraceful peace. This much only is certain, that +on this occasion also the Tuscans were unable to maintain their ground +permanently on the left bank of the Tiber. + +Soon the Hellenic nation was forced to engage in a still more +comprehensive and still more decisive conflict with the barbarians +both of the west and of the east. It was about the time of the +Persian wars. The relation in which the Tyrians stood to the great +king led Carthage also to follow in the wake of Persian policy +--there exists a credible tradition even as to an alliance between +the Carthaginians and Xerxes--and, along with the Carthaginians, the +Etruscans. It was one of the grandest of political combinations which +simultaneously directed the Asiatic hosts against Greece, and the +Phoenician hosts against Sicily, to extirpate at a blow liberty and +civilization from the face of the earth. The victory remained with +the Hellenes. The battle of Salamis (274) saved and avenged Hellas +proper; and on the same day--so runs the story--the rulers of Syracuse +and Agrigentum, Gelon and Theron, vanquished the immense army of the +Carthaginian general Hamilcar, son of Mago, at Himera so completely, +that the war was thereby terminated, and the Phoenicians, who by no +means cherished at that time the project of subduing the whole of +Sicily on their own account, returned to their previous defensive +policy. Some of the large silver pieces are still preserved which +were coined for this campaign from the ornaments of Damareta, the +wife of Gelon, and other noble Syracusan dames: and the latest times +gratefully remembered the gentle and brave king of Syracuse and +the glorious victory whose praises Simonides sang. + +The immediate effect of the humiliation of Carthage was the fall of +the maritime supremacy of her Etruscan allies. Anaxilas, ruler of +Rhegium and Zancle, had already closed the Sicilian straits against +their privateers by means of a standing fleet (about 272); soon +afterwards (280) the Cumaeans and Hiero of Syracuse achieved a +decisive victory near Cumae over the Tyrrhene fleet, to which the +Carthaginians vainly attempted to render aid. This is the victory +which Pindar celebrates in his first Pythian ode; and there is still +extant an Etruscan helmet, which Hiero sent to Olympia, with the +inscription: "Hiaron son of Deinomenes and the Syrakosians to Zeus, +Tyrrhane spoil from Kyma."(2) + +Maritime Supremacy of the Tarentines and Syracusans-- +Dionysius of Syracuse + +While these extraordinary successes against the Carthaginians and +Etruscans placed Syracuse at the head of the Greek cities in Sicily, +the Doric Tarentum rose to undisputed pre-eminence among the Italian +Hellenes, after the Achaean Sybaris had fallen about the time of the +expulsion of the kings from Rome (243). The terrible defeat of the +Tarentines by the Iapygians (280), the most severe disaster which a +Greek army had hitherto sustained, served only, like the Persian +invasion of Hellas, to unshackle the whole might of the national +spirit in the development of an energetic democracy. Thenceforth +the Carthaginians and the Etruscans were no longer paramount in the +Italian waters; the Tarentines predominated in the Adriatic and Ionic, +the Massiliots and Syracusans in the Tyrrhene, seas. The latter in +particular restricted more and more the range of Etruscan piracy. +After the victory at Cumae, Hiero had occupied the island of Aenaria +(Ischia), and by that means interrupted the communication between the +Campanian and the northern Etruscans. About the year 302, with a +view thoroughly to check Tuscan piracy, Syracuse sent forth a special +expedition, which ravaged the island of Corsica and the Etruscan +coast and occupied the island of Aethalia (Elba). Although +Etrusco-Carthaginian piracy was not wholly repressed--Antium, +for example, having apparently continued a haunt of privateering down +to the beginning of the fifth century of Rome--the powerful Syracuse +formed a strong bulwark against the allied Tuscans and Phoenicians. +For a moment, indeed, it seemed as if the Syracusan power must be broken +by the attack of the Athenians, whose naval expedition against Syracuse +in the course of the Peloponnesian war (339-341) was supported by the +Etruscans, old commercial friends of Athens, with three fifty-oared +galleys. But the victory remained, as is well known, both in the west +and in the east with the Dorians. After the ignominious failure of +the Attic expedition, Syracuse became so indisputably the first Greek +maritime power that the men, who were there at the head of the state, +aspired to the sovereignty of Sicily and Lower Italy, and of both the +Italian seas; while on the other hand the Carthaginians, who saw their +dominion in Sicily now seriously in danger, were on their part also +obliged to make, and made, the subjugation of the Syracusans and the +reduction of the whole island the aim of their policy. We cannot +here narrate the decline of the intermediate Sicilian states, and +the increase of the Carthaginian power in the island, which were the +immediate results of these struggles; we notice their effect only so +far as Etruria is concerned. The new ruler of Syracuse, Dionysius +(who reigned 348-387), inflicted on Etruria blows which were severely +felt. The far-scheming king laid the foundation of his new colonial +power especially in the sea to the east of Italy, the more northern +waters of which now became, for the first time, subject to a Greek +maritime power. About the year 367, Dionysius occupied and colonized +the port of Lissus and island of Issa on the Illyrian coast, and the +ports of Ancona, Numana, and Atria, on the coast of Italy. The memory +of the Syracusan dominion in this remote region is preserved not only +by the "trenches of Philistus," a canal constructed at the mouth +of the Po beyond doubt by the well-known historian and friend of +Dionysius who spent the years of his exile (368 et seq.) at Atria, +but also by the alteration in the name of the Italian eastern sea +itself, which from this time forth, instead of its earlier designation +of the "Ionic Gulf",(3) received the appellation still current at the +present day, and probably referable to these events, of the sea +"of Hadria."(4) But not content with these attacks on the possessions +and commercial communications of the Etruscans in the eastern sea, +Dionysius assailed the very heart of the Etruscan power by storming +and plundering Pyrgi, the rich seaport of Caere (369). From this blow +it never recovered. When the internal disturbances that followed the +death of Dionysius in Syracuse gave the Carthaginians freer scope, and +their fleet resumed in the Tyrrhene sea that ascendency which with but +slight interruptions they thenceforth maintained, it proved a burden +no less grievous to Etruscans than to Greeks; so that, when Agathocles +of Syracuse in 444 was making preparations for war with Carthage, he +was even joined by eighteen Tuscan vessels of war. The Etruscans +perhaps had their fears in regard to Corsica, which they probably +still at that time retained. The old Etrusco-Phoenician symmachy, +which still existed in the time of Aristotle (370-432), was thus +broken up; but the Etruscans never recovered their maritime strength. + +The Romans Opposed to the Etruscans in Veii + +This rapid collapse of the Etruscan maritime power would be +inexplicable but for the circumstance that, at the very time when +the Sicilian Greeks were attacking them by sea, the Etruscans found +themselves assailed with the severest blows oil every side by land. +About the time of the battles of Salamis, Himera, and Cumae a furious +war raged for many years, according to the accounts of the Roman +annals, between Rome and Veii (271-280). The Romans suffered in its +course severe defeats. Tradition especially preserved the memory of +the catastrophe of the Fabii (277), who had in consequence of internal +commotions voluntarily banished themselves from the capital(4) and had +undertaken the defence of the frontier against Etruria, and who were +slain to the last man capable of bearing arms at the brook Cremera. +But the armistice for 400 months, which in room of a peace terminated +the war, was so far favourable to the Romans that it at least restored +the -status quo- of the regal period; the Etruscans gave up Fidenae +and the district won by them on the right bank of the Tiber. We +cannot ascertain how far this Romano-Etruscan war was connected +directly with the war between the Hellenes and the Persians, and with +that between the Sicilians and Carthaginians; but whether the Romans +were or were not allies of the victors of Salamis and of Himera, there +was at any rate a coincidence of interests as well as of results. + +The Samnites Opposed to the Etruscans in Campania + +The Samnites as well as the Latins threw themselves upon the +Etruscans; and hardly had their Campanian settlement been cut off +from the motherland in consequence of the battle of Cumae, when it +found itself no longer able to resist the assaults of the Sabellian +mountain tribes. Capua, the capital, fell in 330; and the Tuscan +population there was soon after the conquest extirpated or expelled by +the Samnites. It is true that the Campanian Greeks also, isolated and +weakened, suffered severely from the same invasion: Cumae itself was +conquered by the Sabellians in 334. But the Hellenes maintained their +ground at Neapolis especially, perhaps with the aid of the Syracusans, +while the Etruscan name in Campania disappeared from history +--excepting some detached Etruscan communities, which prolonged +a pitiful and forlorn existence there. + +Events still more momentous, however, occurred about the same time in +Northern Italy. A new nation was knocking at the gates of the Alps: +it was the Celts; and their first pressure fell on the Etruscans. + +The Celtic, Galatian, or Gallic nation received from the common mother +endowments different from those of its Italian, Germanic, and Hellenic +sisters. With various solid qualities and still more that were +brilliant, it was deficient in those deeper moral and political +qualifications which lie at the root of all that is good and great +in human development. It was reckoned disgraceful, Cicero tells us, +for the free Celts to till their fields with their own hands. They +preferred a pastoral life to agriculture; and even in the fertile +plains of the Po they chiefly practised the rearing of swine, feeding +on the flesh of their herds, and staying with them in the oak forests +day and night. Attachment to their native soil, such as characterized +the Italians and the Germans, was wanting in the Celts; while on the +other hand they delighted to congregate in towns and villages, which +accordingly acquired magnitude and importance among the Celts earlier +apparently than in Italy. Their political constitution was imperfect. +Not only was the national unity recognized but feebly as a bond of +connection--as is, in fact, the case with all nations at first--but +the individual communities were deficient in concord and firm +control, in earnest public spirit and consistency of aim. The only +organization for which they were fitted was a military one, where the +bonds of discipline relieved the individual from the troublesome task +of self-control. "The prominent qualities of the Celtic race," says +their historian Thierry, "were personal bravery, in which they +excelled all nations; an open impetuous temperament, accessible to +every impression; much intelligence, but at the same time extreme +mobility, want of perseverance, aversion to discipline and order, +ostentation and perpetual discord--the result of boundless vanity." +Cato the Elder more briefly describes them, nearly to the same effect; +"the Celts devote themselves mainly to two things--fighting and +-esprit-."(6) Such qualities--those of good soldiers but of bad +citizens--explain the historical fact, that the Celts have shaken all +states and have founded none. Everywhere we find them ready to rove +or, in other words, to march; preferring moveable property to landed +estate, and gold to everything else; following the profession of arms +as a system of organized pillage or even as a trade for hire, and +with such success at all events that even the Roman historian Sallust +acknowledges that the Celts bore off the prize from the Romans in +feats of arms. They were the true soldiers-of-fortune of antiquity, +as figures and descriptions represent them: with big but not sinewy +bodies, with shaggy hair and long mustaches--quite a contrast to the +Greeks and Romans, who shaved the head and upper lip; in variegated +embroidered dresses, which in combat were not unfrequently thrown off; +with a broad gold ring round the neck; wearing no helmets and without +missile weapons of any sort, but furnished instead with an immense +shield, a long ill-tempered sword, a dagger and a lance--all +ornamented with gold, for they were not unskilful at working in +metals. Everything was made subservient to ostentation, even wounds, +which were often subsequently enlarged for the purpose of boasting +a broader scar. Usually they fought on foot, but certain tribes on +horseback, in which case every freeman was followed by two attendants +likewise mounted; war-chariots were early in use, as they were among +the Libyans and the Hellenes in the earliest times. Various traits +remind us of the chivalry of the Middle Ages; particularly the custom +of single combat, which was foreign to the Greeks and Romans. Not +only were they accustomed during war to challenge a single enemy to +fight, after having previously insulted him by words and gestures; +during peace also they fought with each other in splendid suits of +armour, as for life or death. After such feats carousals followed as +a matter of course. In this way they led, whether under their own or +a foreign banner, a restless soldier-life; they were dispersed from +Ireland and Spain to Asia Minor, constantly occupied in fighting and +so-called feats of heroism. But all their enterprises melted away +like snow in spring; and nowhere did they create a great state or +develop a distinctive culture of their own. + +Celtic Migrations-- +The Celts Assail the Etruscans in Northern Italy + +Such is the description which the ancients give us of this nation. +Its origin can only be conjectured. Sprung from the same cradle from +which the Hellenic, Italian, and Germanic peoples issued,(7) the +Celts doubtless like these migrated from their eastern motherland into +Europe, where at a very early period they reached the western ocean +and established their headquarters in what is now France, crossing +to settle in the British isles on the north, and on the south passing +the Pyrenees and contending with the Iberian tribes for the possession +of the peninsula. This, their first great migration, flowed past the +Alps, and it was from the lands to the westward that they first began +those movements of smaller masses in the opposite direction--movements +which carried them over the Alps and the Haemus and even over the +Bosporus, and by means of which they became and for many centuries +continued to be the terror of the whole civilized nations of +antiquity, till the victories of Caesar and the frontier defence +organized by Augustus for ever broke their power. + +The native legend of their migrations, which has been preserved to us +mainly by Livy, relates the story of these later retrograde movements +as follows.(8) The Gallic confederacy, which was headed then as in +the time of Caesar by the canton of the Bituriges (around Bourges), +sent forth in the days of king Ambiatus two great hosts led by the +two nephews of the king. One of these nephews, Sigovesus, crossed +the Rhine and advanced in the direction of the Black Forest, while the +second, Bellovesus, crossed the Graian Alps (the Little St. Bernard) +and descended into the valley of the Po. From the former proceeded +the Gallic settlement on the middle Danube; from the latter the oldest +Celtic settlement in the modern Lombardy, the canton of the Insubres +with Mediolanum (Milan) as its capital. Another host soon followed, +which founded the canton of the Cenomani with the towns of Brixia +(Brescia) and Verona. Ceaseless streams thenceforth poured over the +Alps into the beautiful plain; the Celtic tribes with the Ligurians +whom they dislodged and swept along with them wrested place after +place from the Etruscans, till the whole left bank of the Po was +in their hands. After the fall of the rich Etruscan town Melpum +(presumably in the district of Milan), for the subjugation of which +the Celts already settled in the basin of the Po had united with newly +arrived tribes (358?), these latter crossed to the right bank of the +river and began to press upon the Umbrians and Etruscans in their +original abodes. Those who did so were chiefly the Boii, who are +alleged to have penetrated into Italy by another route, over the +Poenine Alps (the Great St. Bernard): they settled in the modern +Romagna, where the old Etruscan town Felsina, with its name changed +by its new masters to Bononia, became their capital. Finally came +the Senones, the last of the larger Celtic tribes which made their +way over the Alps; they took up their abode along the coast of the +Adriatic from Rimini to Ancona. But isolated bands of Celtic settlers +must have advanced even far in the direction of Umbria, and up to +the border of Etruria proper; for stone-inscriptions in the Celtic +language have been found even at Todi on the upper Tiber. The limits +of Etruria on the north and east became more and more contracted, +and about the middle of the fourth century the Tuscan nation found +themselves substantially restricted to the territory which thenceforth +bore and still bears their name. + +Attack on Etruria by the Romans + +Subjected to these simultaneous and, as it were, concerted assaults on +the part of very different peoples--the Syracusans, Latins, Samnites, +and above all the Celts--the Etruscan nation, that had just acquired +so vast and sudden an ascendency in Latium and Campania and on both +the Italian seas, underwent a still more rapid and violent collapse. +The loss of their maritime supremacy and the subjugation of the +Campanian Etruscans belong to the same epoch as the settlement of +the Insubres and Cenomani on the Po; and about this same period the +Roman burgesses, who had not very many years before been humbled to +the utmost and almost reduced to bondage by Porsena, first assumed an +attitude of aggression towards Etruria. By the armistice with Veii in +280 Rome had recovered its ground, and the two nations were restored +in the main to the state in which they had stood in the time of the +kings. When it expired in the year 309, the warfare began afresh; but +it took the form of border frays and pillaging excursions which led to +no material result on either side. Etruria was still too powerful for +Rome to be able seriously to attack it. At length the revolt of the +Fidenates, who expelled the Roman garrison, murdered the Roman envoys, +and submitted to Lars Tolumnius, king of the Veientes, gave rise to +a more considerable war, which ended favourably for the Romans; the +king Tolumnius fell in combat by the hand of the Roman consul Aulus +Cornelius Cossus (326?), Fidenae was taken, and a new armistice for +200 months was concluded in 329. During this truce the troubles of +Etruria became more and more aggravated, and the Celtic arms were +already approaching the settlements that hitherto had been spared on +the right bank of the Po. When the armistice expired in the end of +346, the Romans on their part resolved to undertake a war of conquest +against Etruria; and on this occasion the war was carried on not +merely to vanquish Veii, but to crush it. + +Conquest of Veii + +The history of the war against the Veientes, Capenates, and Falisci, +and of the siege of Veii, which is said, like that of Troy, to have +lasted ten years, rests on evidence far from trustworthy. Legend and +poetry have taken possession of these events as their own, and with +reason; for the struggle in this case was waged, with unprecedented +exertions, for an unprecedented prize. It was the first occasion on +which a Roman army remained in the field summer and winter, year +after year, till its object was attained. It was the first occasion +on which the community paid the levy from the resources of the state. +But it was also the first occasion on which the Romans attempted +to subdue a nation of alien stock, and carried their arms beyond +the ancient northern boundary of the Latin land. The struggle was +vehement, but the issue was scarcely doubtful. The Romans were +supported by the Latins and Hernici, to whom the overthrow of their +dreaded neighbour was productive of scarcely less satisfaction and +advantage than to the Romans themselves; whereas Veii was abandoned +by its own nation, and only the adjacent towns of Capena and Falerii, +along with Tarquinii, furnished contingents to its help. The +contemporary attacks of the Celts would alone suffice to explain +the nonintervention of the northern communities; it is affirmed +however, and there is no reason to doubt, that this inaction of the +other Etruscans was primarily occasioned by internal factions in the +league of the Etruscan cities, and particularly by the opposition +which the regal form of government retained or restored by the +Veientes encountered from the aristocratic governments of the other +cities. Had the Etruscan nation been able or willing to take part +in the conflict, the Roman community would hardly have been able +--undeveloped as was the art of besieging at that time--to accomplish +the gigantic task of subduing a large and strong city. But isolated +and forsaken as Veii was, it succumbed (358) after a valiant +resistance to the persevering and heroic spirit of Marcus Furius +Camillus, who first opened up to his countrymen the brilliant and +perilous career of foreign conquest. The joy which this great success +excited in Rome had its echo in the Roman custom, continued down to a +late age, of concluding the festal games with a "sale of Veientes," at +which, among the mock spoils submitted to auction, the most wretched +old cripple who could be procured wound up the sport in a purple +mantle and ornaments of gold as "king of the Veientes." The city was +destroyed, and the soil was doomed to perpetual desolation. Falerii +and Capena hastened to make peace; the powerful Volsinii, which with +federal indecision had remained quiet during the agony of Veii and +took up arms after its capture, likewise after a few years (363) +consented to peace. The statement that the two bulwarks of the +Etruscan nation, Melpum and Veii, yielded on the same day, the former +to the Celts, the latter to the Romans, may be merely a melancholy +legend; but it at any rate involves a deep historical truth. The +double assault from the north and from the south, and the fall of +the two frontier strongholds, were the beginning of the end of the +great Etruscan nation. + +The Celts Attack Rome-- +Battle on the Allia-- +Capture of Rome + +For a moment, however, it seemed as if the two peoples, through whose +co-operation Etruria saw her very existence put in jeopardy, were +about to destroy each other, and the reviving power of Rome was to +be trodden under foot by foreign barbarians. This turn of things, +so contrary to what might naturally have been expected, the Romans +brought upon themselves by their own arrogance and shortsightedness. + +The Celtic swarms, which had crossed the river after the fall of +Melpum, rapidly overflowed northern Italy--not merely the open country +on the right bank of the Po and along the shore of the Adriatic, but +also Etruria proper to the south of the Apennines. A few years +afterwards (363) Clusium situated in the heart of Etruria (Chiusi, on +the borders of Tuscany and the Papal State) was besieged by the Celtic +Senones; and so humbled were the Etruscans that the Tuscan city in +its straits invoked aid from the destroyers of Veii. Perhaps it would +have been wise to grant it and to reduce at once the Gauls by arms, +and the Etruscans by according to them protection, to a state of +dependence on Rome; but an intervention with aims so extensive, which +would have compelled the Romans to undertake a serious struggle on the +northern Tuscan frontier, lay beyond the horizon of the Roman policy +at that time. No course was therefore left but to refrain from all +interference. Foolishly, however, while declining to send auxiliary +troops, they despatched envoys. With still greater folly these sought +to impose upon the Celts by haughty language, and, when this failed, +they conceived that they might with impunity violate the law of +nations in dealing with barbarians; in the ranks of the Clusines they +took part in a skirmish, and in the course of it one of them stabbed +and dismounted a Gallic officer. The barbarians acted in this case +with moderation and prudence. They sent in the first instance to the +Roman community to demand the surrender of those who had outraged the +law of nations, and the senate was ready to comply with the reasonable +request. But with the multitude compassion for their countrymen +outweighed justice towards the foreigners; satisfaction was refused by +the burgesses; and according to some accounts they even nominated the +brave champions of their fatherland as consular tribunes for the +year 364,(9) which was to be so fatal in the Roman annals. Then the +Brennus or, in other words, the "king of the army" of the Gauls broke +up the siege of Clusium, and the whole Celtic host--the numbers of +which are stated at 70,000 men--turned against Rome. Such expeditions +into unknown land distant regions were not unusual for the Gauls, who +marched as bands of armed emigrants, troubling themselves little as +to the means of cover or of retreat; but it was evident that none in +Rome anticipated the dangers involved in so sudden and so mighty an +invasion. It was not till the Gauls were marching upon Rome that a +Roman military force crossed the Tiber and sought to bar their way. +Not twelve miles from the gates, opposite to the confluence of the +rivulet Allia with the Tiber, the armies met, and a battle took place +on the 18th July, 364. Even now they went into battle--not as against +an army, but as against freebooters--with arrogance and foolhardiness +and under inexperienced leaders, Camillus having in consequence of +the dissensions of the orders withdrawn from taking part in affairs. +Those against whom they were to fight were but barbarians; what need +was there of a camp, or of securing a retreat? These barbarians, +however, were men whose courage despised death, and their mode of +fighting was to the Italians as novel as it was terrible; sword in +hand the Celts precipitated themselves with furious onset on the Roman +phalanx, and shattered it at the first shock. The overthrow was +complete; of the Romans, who had fought with the river in their rear, +a large portion met their death in the attempt to cross it; such as +escaped threw themselves by a flank movement into the neighbouring +Veii. The victorious Celts stood between the remnant of the beaten +army and the capital. The latter was irretrievably abandoned to the +enemy; the small force that was left behind, or that had fled thither, +was not sufficient to garrison the walls, and three days after the +battle the victors marched through the open gates into Rome. Had they +done so at first, as they might have done, not only the city, but the +state also must have been lost; the brief interval gave opportunity +to carry away or to bury the sacred objects, and, what was more +important, to occupy the citadel and to furnish it with provisions for +the exigency. No one was admitted to the citadel who was incapable of +bearing arms--there was not food for all. The mass of the defenceless +dispersed among the neighbouring towns; but many, and in particular a +number of old men of high standing, would not survive the downfall +of the city and awaited death in their houses by the sword of the +barbarians. They came, murdered all they met with, plundered whatever +property they found, and at length set the city on fire on all sides +before the eyes of the Roman garrison in the Capitol. But they had +no knowledge of the art of besieging, and the blockade of the steep +citadel rock was tedious and difficult, because subsistence for the +great host could only be procured by armed foraging parties, and the +citizens of the neighbouring Latin cities, the Ardeates in particular, +frequently attacked the foragers with courage and success. +Nevertheless the Celts persevered, with an energy which in their +circumstances was unparalleled, for seven months beneath the rock, +and the garrison, which had escaped a surprise on a dark night only +in consequence of the cackling of the sacred geese in the Capitoline +temple and the accidental awaking of the brave Marcus Manlius, already +found its provisions beginning to fail, when the Celts received +information as to the Veneti having invaded the Senonian territory +recently acquired on the Po, and were thus induced to accept the +ransom money that was offered to procure their withdrawal. The +scornful throwing down of the Gallic sword, that it might be +outweighed by Roman gold, indicated very truly how matters stood. +The iron of the barbarians had conquered, but they sold their +victory and by selling lost it. + +Fruitlessness of the Celtic Victory + +The fearful catastrophe of the defeat and the conflagration, the +18th of July and the rivulet of the Allia, the spot where the sacred +objects were buried, and the spot where the surprise of the citadel +had been repulsed--all the details of this unparalleled event--were +transferred from the recollection of contemporaries to the imagination +of posterity; and we can scarcely realize the fact that two thousand +years have actually elapsed since those world-renowned geese showed +greater vigilance than the sentinels at their posts. And yet +--although there was an enactment in Rome that in future, on occasion +of a Celtic invasion no legal privilege should give exemption from +military service; although dates were reckoned by the years from +the conquest of the city; although the event resounded throughout +the whole of the then civilized world and found its way even into +the Grecian annals--the battle of the Allia and its results can +scarcely be numbered among those historical events that are fruitful +of consequences. It made no alteration at all in political relations. +When the Gauls had marched off again with their gold--which only a +legend of late and wretched invention represents the hero Camillus as +having recovered for Rome--and when the fugitives had again made their +way home, the foolish idea suggested by some faint-hearted prudential +politicians, that the citizens should migrate to Veii, was set aside +by a spirited speech of Camillus; houses arose out of the ruins +hastily and irregularly--the narrow and crooked streets of Rome owed +their origin to this epoch; and Rome again stood in her old commanding +position. Indeed it is not improbable that this occurrence +contributed materially, though not just at the moment, to diminish +the antagonism between Rome and Etruria, and above all to knit more +closely the ties of union between Latium and Rome. The conflict +between the Gauls and the Romans was not, like that between Rome and +Etruria or between Rome and Samnium, a collision of two political +powers which affect and modify each other; it may be compared to +those catastrophes of nature, after which the organism, if it is not +destroyed, immediately resumes its equilibrium. The Gauls often +returned to Latium: as in the year 387, when Camillus defeated them +at Alba--the last victory of the aged hero, who had been six times +military tribune with consular powers, and five times dictator, and +had four times marched in triumph to the Capitol; in the year 393, +when the dictator Titus Quinctius Pennus encamped opposite to them +not five miles from the city at the bridge of the Anio, but before any +encounter took place the Gallic host marched onward to Campania; in +the year 394, when the dictator Quintus Servilius Ahala fought in +front of the Colline gate with the hordes returning from Campania; in +the year 396, when the dictator Gaius Sulpicius Peticus inflicted on +them a signal defeat; in the year 404, when they even spent the winter +encamped upon the Alban mount and joined with the Greek pirates along +the coast for plunder, till Lucius Furius Camillus, the son of the +celebrated general, in the following year dislodged them--an incident +which came to the ears of Aristotle who was contemporary (370-432) in +Athens. But these predatory expeditions, formidable and troublesome +as they may have been, were rather incidental misfortunes than events +of political significance; and their most essential result was, that +the Romans were more and more regarded by themselves and by foreigners +as the bulwark of the civilized nations of Italy against the onset +of the dreaded barbarians--a view which tended more than is usually +supposed to further their subsequent claim to universal empire. + +Further Conquests of Rome in Etruria-- +South Etruria Roman + +The Tuscans, who had taken advantage of the Celtic attack on Rome to +assail Veii, had accomplished nothing, because they had appeared in +insufficient force; the barbarians had scarcely departed, when the +heavy arm of Latium descended on the Tuscans with undiminished weight. +After the Etruscans had been repeatedly defeated, the whole of +southern Etruria as far as the Ciminian hills remained in the hands +of the Romans, who formed four new tribes in the territories of Veii, +Capena, and Falerii (367), and secured the northern boundary by +establishing the fortresses of Sutrium (371) and Nepete (381). +With rapid steps this fertile region, covered with Roman colonists, +became completely Romanized. About 396 the nearest Etruscan towns, +Tarquinii, Caere, and Falerii, attempted to revolt against the Roman +encroachments, and the deep exasperation which these had aroused in +Etruria was shown by the slaughter of the whole of the Roman prisoners +taken in the first campaign, three hundred and seven in number, in the +market-place of Tarquinii; but it was the exasperation of impotence. +In the peace (403) Caere, which as situated nearest to the Romans +suffered the heaviest retribution, was compelled to cede half its +territory to Rome, and with the diminished domain which was left +to it to withdraw from the Etruscan league, and to enter into the +relationship of subjects to Rome which had in the meanwhile been +constituted primarily for individual Latin communities. It seemed, +however, not advisable to leave to this more remote community alien in +race from the Roman such communal independence as was still retained +by the subject communities of Latium; the Caerite community received +the Roman franchise not merely without the privilege of electing or +of being elected at Rome, but also subject to the withholding of +self-administration, so that the place of magistrates of its own +was as regards justice and the census taken by those of Rome, and +a representative (-praefectus-) of the Roman praetor conducted +the administration on the spot--a form of subjection, which in +state-law first meets us here, whereby a state which had hitherto +been independent became converted into a community continuing to +subsist -de jure-, but deprived of all power of movement on its own part. +Not long afterwards (411) Falerii, which had preserved its original +Latin nationality even under Tuscan rule, abandoned the Etruscan league +and entered into perpetual alliance with Rome; and thereby the whole +of southern Etruria became in one form or other subject to Roman +supremacy. In the case of Tarquinii and perhaps of northern Etruria +generally, the Romans were content with restraining them for a +lengthened period by a treaty of peace for 400 months (403). + +Pacification of Northern Italy + +In northern Italy likewise the peoples that had come into collision +and conflict gradually settled on a permanent footing and within more +defined limits. The migrations over the Alps ceased, partly perhaps +in consequence of the desperate defence which the Etruscans made +in their more restricted home, and of the serious resistance of the +powerful Romans, partly perhaps also in consequence of changes unknown +to us on the north of the Alps. Between the Alps and the Apennines, +as far south as the Abruzzi, the Celts were now generally the ruling +nation, and they were masters more especially of the plains and rich +pastures; but from the lax and superficial nature of their settlement +their dominion took no deep root in the newly acquired land and by no +means assumed the shape of exclusive possession. How matters stood in +the Alps, and to what extent Celtic settlers became mingled there with +earlier Etruscan or other stocks, our unsatisfactory information as +to the nationality of the later Alpine peoples does not permit us +to ascertain; only the Raeti in the modern Grisons and Tyrol may be +described as a probably Etruscan stock. The Umbrians retained the +valleys of the Apennines, and the Veneti, speaking a different +language, kept possession of the north-eastern portion of the valley +of the Po. Ligurian tribes maintained their footing in the western +mountains, dwelling as far south as Pisa and Arezzo, and separating +the Celt-land proper from Etruria. The Celts dwelt only in the +intermediate flat country, the Insubres and Cenomani to the north +of the Po, the Boii to the south, and--not to mention smaller tribes +--the Senones on the coast of the Adriatic, from Ariminum to Ancona, +in the so-called "country of the Gauls" (-ager Gallicus-). But even +there Etruscan settlements must have continued partially at least to +subsist, somewhat as Ephesus and Miletus remained Greek under the +supremacy of the Persians. Mantua at any rate, which was protected +by its insular position, was a Tuscan city even in the time of the +empire, and Atria on the Po also, where numerous discoveries of vases +have been made, appears to have retained its Etruscan character; the +description of the coasts that goes under the name of Scylax, composed +about 418, calls the district of Atria and Spina Tuscan land. This +alone, moreover, explains how Etruscan corsairs could render the +Adriatic unsafe till far into the fifth century, and why not only +Dionysius of Syracuse covered its coasts with colonies, but even +Athens, as a remarkable document recently discovered informs us, +resolved about 429 to establish a colony in the Adriatic for +the protection of seafarers against the Tyrrhene pirates. + +But while more or less of an Etruscan character continued to mark +these regions, it was confined to isolated remnants and fragments of +their earlier power; the Etruscan nation no longer reaped the benefit +of such gains as were still acquired there by individuals in peaceful +commerce or in maritime war. On the other hand it was probably +from these half-free Etruscans that the germs proceeded of such +civilization as we subsequently find among the Celts and Alpine +peoples in general.(10) The very fact that the Celtic hordes in +the plains of Lombardy, to use the language of the so-called Scylax, +abandoned their warrior-life and took to permanent settlement, must +in part be ascribed to this influence; the rudiments moreover of +handicrafts and arts and the alphabet came to the Celts in Lombardy, +and in fact to the Alpine peoples as far as the modern Styria, +through the medium of the Etruscans. + +Etruria Proper at Peace and on the Decline + +Thus the Etruscans, after the loss of their possessions in Campania +and of the whole district to the north of the Apennines and to the +south of the Ciminian Forest, remained restricted to very narrow +bounds; their season of power and of aspiration had for ever passed +away. The closest reciprocal relations subsisted between this +external decline and the internal decay of the nation, the seeds +of which indeed were doubtless already deposited at a far earlier +period. The Greek authors of this age are full of descriptions of +the unbounded luxury of Etruscan life: poets of Lower Italy in the +fifth century of the city celebrate the Tyrrhenian wine, and the +contemporary historians Timaeus and Theopompus delineate pictures of +Etruscan unchastity and of Etruscan banquets, such as fall nothing +short of the worst Byzantine or French demoralization. Unattested as +may be the details in these accounts, the statement at least appears +to be well founded, that the detestable amusement of gladiatorial +combats--the gangrene of the later Rome and of the last epoch of +antiquity generally--first came into vogue among the Etruscans. At +any rate on the whole they leave no doubt as to the deep degeneracy +of the nation. It pervaded even its political condition. As far +as our scanty information reaches, we find aristocratic tendencies +prevailing, in the same way as they did at the same period in Rome, +but more harshly and more perniciously. The abolition of royalty, +which appears to have been carried out in all the cities of Etruria +about the time of the siege of Veii, called into existence in the +several cities a patrician government, which experienced but slight +restraint from the laxity of the federal bond. That bond but seldom +succeeded in combining all the Etruscan cities even for the defence of +the land, and the nominal hegemony of Volsinii does not admit of the +most remote comparison with the energetic vigour which the leadership +of Rome communicated to the Latin nation. The struggle against the +exclusive claim put forward by the old burgesses to all public offices +and to all public usufructs, which must have destroyed even the Roman +state, had not its external successes enabled it in some measure to +satisfy the demands of the oppressed proletariate at the expense of +foreign nations and to open up other paths to ambition--that struggle +against the exclusive rule and (what was specially prominent in +Etruria) the priestly monopoly of the clan-nobility--must have ruined +Etruria politically, economically, and morally. Enormous wealth, +particularly in landed property, became concentrated in the hands of a +few nobles, while the masses were impoverished; the social revolutions +which thence arose increased the distress which they sought to remedy; +and, in consequence of the impotence of the central power, no course +at last remained to the distressed aristocrats-- e. g. in Arretium +in 453, and in Volsinii in 488--but to call in the aid of the Romans, +who accordingly put an end to the disorder but at the same time +extinguished the remnant of independence. The energies of the nation +were broken from the day of Veii and Melpum. Earnest attempts were +still once or twice made to escape from the Roman supremacy, but in +such instances the stimulus was communicated to the Etruscans from +without--from another Italian stock, the Samnites. + + + + +Notes for Book II Chapter IV + + +1. I. X. Phoenicians and Italians in Opposition to the Hellenes + +2. --Fiaron o Deinomeneos kai toi Surakosioi toi Di Turan +apo Kumas.-- + +3. I. X. Home of the Greek Immigrants + +4. Hecataeus (after 257 u. c.) and Herodotus also (270-after 345) +only know Hatrias as the delta of the Po and the sea that washes +its shores (O. Muller, Etrusker, i. p. 140; Geogr. Graeci min. ed. +C. Muller, i. p. 23). The appellation of Adriatic sea, in its more +extended sense, first occurs in the so-called Scylax about 418 U. C. + +5. II. II. Coriolanus + +6. -Pleraque Gallia duas res industriosissime persequitur: rem +militarem et argute loqui- (Cato, Orig, l. ii. fr. 2. Jordan). + +7. It has recently been maintained by expert philologists that there +is a closer affinity between the Celts and Italians than there is even +between the latter and the Hellenes. In other words they hold that +the branch of the great tree, from which the peoples of Indo-Germanic +extraction in the west and south of Europe have sprung, divided itself +in the first instance into Greeks and Italo-Celts, and that the latter +at a considerably later period became subdivided into Italians and +Celts. This hypothesis commends itself much to acceptance in a +geographical point of view, and the facts which history presents may +perhaps be likewise brought into harmony with it, because what has +hitherto been regarded as Graeco-Italian civilization may very +well have been Graeco-Celto-Italian--in fact we know nothing of the +earliest stage of Celtic culture. Linguistic investigation, however, +seems not to have made as yet such progress as to warrant the +insertion of its results in the primitive history of the peoples. + +8. The legend is related by Livy, v. 34, and Justin, xxiv. 4, and +Caesar also has had it in view (B. G. vi. 24). But the association +of the migration of Bellovesus with the founding of Massilia, by which +the former is chronologically fixed down to the middle of the second +century of Rome, undoubtedly belongs not to the native legend, which +of course did not specify dates, but to later chronologizing research; +and it deserves no credit. Isolated incursions and immigrations may +have taken place at a very early period; but the great overflowing of +northern Italy by the Celts cannot be placed before the age of the +decay of the Etruscan power, that is, not before the second half +of the third century of the city. + +In like manner, after the judicious investigations of Wickham and +Cramer, we cannot doubt that the line of march of Bellovesus, like +that of Hannibal, lay not over the Cottian Alps (Mont Genevre) and +through the territory of the Taurini, but over the Graian Alps (the +Little St. Bernard) and through the territory of the Salassi. The +name of the mountain is given by Livy doubtless not on the authority +of the legend, but on his own conjecture. + +Whether the representation that the Italian Boii came through the more +easterly pass of the Poenine Alps rested on the ground of a genuine +legendary reminiscence, or only on the ground of an assumed connection +with the Boii dwelling to the north of the Danube, is a question that +must remain undecided. + +9. This is according to the current computation 390 B. C.; but, in +fact, the capture of Rome occurred in Ol. 98, 1 = 388 B. C., and has +been thrown out of its proper place merely by the confusion of the +Roman calendar. + +10. I. XIV. Development of Alphabets in Italy + + + + +CHAPTER V + +Subjugation of the Latins and Campanians by Rome + + +The Hegemony of Rome over Latium Shaken and Re-established + +The great achievement of the regal period was the establishment of the +sovereignty of Rome over Latium under the form of hegemony. It is in +the nature of the case evident that the change in the constitution of +Rome could not but powerfully affect both the relations of the Roman +state towards Latium and the internal organization of the Latin +communities themselves; and that it did so, is obvious from tradition. +The fluctuations which the revolution in Rome occasioned in the +Romano-Latin confederacy are attested by the legend, unusually vivid +and various in its hues, of the victory at the lake Regillus, which +the dictator or consul Aulus Postumius (255? 258?) is said to have +gained over the Latins with the help of the Dioscuri, and still more +definitely by the renewal of the perpetual league between Rome and +Latium by Spurius Cassius in his second consulate (261). These +narratives, however, give us no information as to the main matter, +the legal relation between the new Roman republic and the Latin +confederacy; and what from other sources we learn regarding that +relation comes to us without date, and can only be inserted here +with an approximation to probability. + +Original Equality of Rights between Rome and Latium + +The nature of a hegemony implies that it becomes gradually converted +into sovereignty by the mere inward force of circumstances; and the +Roman hegemony over Latium formed no exception to the rule. It was +based upon the essential equality of rights between the Roman state +on the one side and the Latin confederacy on the other;(1) but at +least in matters of war and in the treatment of the acquisitions +thereby made this relation between the single state on the one hand +and the league of states on the other virtually involved a hegemony. +According to the original constitution of the league not only was the +right of making wars and treaties with foreign states--in other words, +the full right of political self-determination--reserved in all +probability both to Rome and to the individual towns of the Latin +league; and when a joint war took place, Rome and Latium probably +furnished the like contingent, each, as a rule, an "army" of 8400 +men;(2) but the chief command was held by the Roman general, who then +nominated the officers of the staff, and so the leaders-of-division +(-tribuni militum-), according to his own choice. In case of victory +the moveable part of the spoil, as well as the conquered territory, +was shared between Rome and the confederacy; when the establishment of +fortresses in the conquered territory was resolved on, their garrisons +and population were composed partly of Roman, partly of confederate +colonists; and not only so, but the newly-founded community was +received as a sovereign federal state into the Latin confederacy +and furnished with a seat and vote in the Latin diet. + +Encroachments on That Equality of Rights-- +As to Wars and Treaties-- +As to the Officering of the Army-- +As to Acquisitions in War + +These stipulations must probably even in the regal period, certainly +in the republican epoch, have undergone alteration more and more to +the disadvantage of the confederacy and to the further development of +the hegemony of Rome. The earliest that fell into abeyance was beyond +doubt the right of the confederacy to make wars and treaties with +foreigners;(3) the decision of war and treaty passed once for all to +Rome. The staff officers for the Latin troops must doubtless in +earlier times have been likewise Latins; afterwards for that +purpose Roman citizens were taken, if not exclusively, at any rate +predominantly.(4) On the other hand, afterwards as formerly, no +stronger contingent could be demanded from the Latin confederacy +as a whole than was furnished by the Roman community; and the Roman +commander-in-chief was likewise bound not to break up the Latin +contingents, but to keep the contingent sent by each community as a +separate division of the army under the leader whom that community had +appointed.(5) The right of the Latin confederacy to an equal share in +the moveable spoil and in the conquered land continued to subsist in +form; in reality, however, the substantial fruits of war beyond doubt +went, even at an early period, to the leading state. Even in the +founding of the federal fortresses or the so-called Latin colonies +as a rule presumably most, and not unfrequently all, of the colonists +were Romans; and although by the transference they were converted from +Roman burgesses into members of an allied community, the newly planted +township in all probability frequently retained a preponderant--and +for the confederacy dangerous--attachment to the real mother-city. + +Private Rights + +The rights, on the contrary, which were secured by the federal +treaties to the individual burgess of one of the allied communities +in every city belonging to the league, underwent no restriction. +These included, in particular, full equality of rights as to the +acquisition of landed property and moveable estate, as to traffic +and exchange, marriage and testament, and an unlimited liberty of +migration; so that not only was a man who had burgess-rights in a +town of the league legally entitled to settle in any other, but +whereever he settled, he as a right-sharer (-municeps-) participated +in all private and political rights and duties with the exception of +eligibility to office, and was even--although in a limited fashion +--entitled to vote at least in the -comitia tributa-.(6) + +Of some such nature, in all probability, was the relation between +the Roman community and the Latin confederacy in the first period +of the republic. We cannot, however ascertain what elements are +to be referred to earlier stipulations, and what to the revision +of the alliance in 261. + +With somewhat greater certainty the remodelling of the arrangements of +the several communities belonging to the Latin confederacy, after the +pattern of the consular constitution in Rome, may be characterized as +an innovation and introduced in this connection. For, although the +different communities may very well have arrived at the abolition +of royalty in itself independently of each other,(7) the identity +in the appellation of the new annual kings in the Roman and other +commonwealths of Latium, and the comprehensive application of the +peculiar principle of collegiateness,(8) evidently point to some +external connection. At some time or other after the expulsion of +the Tarquins from Rome the arrangements of the Latin communities must +have been throughout revised in accordance with the scheme of the +consular constitution. This adjustment of the Latin constitutions in +conformity with that of the leading city may possibly belong only to a +later period; but internal probability rather favours the supposition +that the Roman nobility, after having effected the abolition of +royalty for life at home, suggested a similar change of constitution +to the communities of the Latin confederacy, and at length introduced +aristocratic government everywhere in Latium-- notwithstanding the +serious resistance, imperilling the stability of the Romano-Latin +league itself, which seems to have been offered on the one hand by +the expelled Tarquins, and on the other by the royal clans and by +partisans well affected to monarchy in the other communities of +Latium. The mighty development of the power of Etruria that occurred +at this very time, the constant assaults of the Veientes, and the +expedition of Porsena, may have materially contributed to secure the +adherence of the Latin nation to the once-established form of union, +or, in other words, to the continued recognition of the supremacy +of Rome, and disposed them for its sake to acquiesce in a change +of constitution for which, beyond doubt, the way had been in many +respects prepared even in the bosom of the Latin communities, nay +perhaps to submit even to an enlargement of the rights of hegemony. + +Extension of Rome and Latium to the East and South + +The permanently united nation was able not only to maintain, but +also to extend on all sides its power. We have already(9) mentioned +that the Etruscans remained only for a short time in possession of +supremacy over Latium, and that the relations there soon returned to +the position in which they stood during the regal period; but it was +not till more than a century after the expulsion of the kings from +Rome that any real extension of the Roman boundaries took place +in this direction. + +With the Sabines who occupied the middle mountain range from the +borders of the Umbrians down to the region between the Tiber and +the Anio, and who, at the epoch when the history of Rome begins, +penetrated fighting and conquering as far as Latium itself, the +Romans notwithstanding their immediate neighbourhood subsequently came +comparatively little into contact. The feeble sympathy of the Sabines +with the desperate resistance offered by the neighbouring peoples in +the east and south, is evident even from the accounts of the annals; +and--what is of more importance--we find here no fortresses to keep +the land in subjection, such as were so numerously established +especially in the Volscian plain. Perhaps this lack of opposition +was connected with the fact that the Sabine hordes probably about +this very time poured themselves over Lower Italy. Allured by the +pleasantness of the settlements on the Tifernus and Volturnus, they +appear to have interfered but little in the conflicts of which the +region to the south of the Tiber was the arena. + +At the Expense of the Aequi and Volsci-- +League with the Hernici + +Far more vehement and lasting was the resistance of the Aequi, who, +having their settlements to the eastward of Rome as far as the valleys +of the Turano and Salto and on the northern verge of the Fucine lake, +bordered with the Sabines and Marsi,(10) and of the Volsci, who to the +south of the Rutuli settled around Ardea, and of the Latins extending +southward as far as Cora, possessed the coast almost as far as the +river Liris along with the adjacent islands and in the interior the +whole region drained by the Liris. We do not intend to narrate the +feuds annually renewed with these two peoples--feuds which are related +in the Roman chronicles in such a way that the most insignificant +foray is scarcely distinguishable from a momentous war, and historical +connection is totally disregarded; it is sufficient to indicate the +permanent results. We plainly perceive that it was the especial aim +of the Romans and Latins to separate the Aequi from the Volsci, and +to become masters of the communications between them; in the region +between the southern slope of the Alban range, the Volscian mountains +and the Pomptine marshes, moreover, the Latins and the Volscians +appear to have come first into contact and to have even had their +settlements intermingled.(11) In this region the Latins took +the first steps beyond the bounds of their own land, and federal +fortresses on foreign soil--Latin colonies, as they were called--were +first established, namely: in the plain Velitrae (as is alleged, about +260) beneath the Alban range itself, and Suessa in the Pomptine low +lands, in the mountains Norba (as is alleged, in 262) and Signia +(alleged to have been strengthened in 259), both of which lie at +the points of connection between the Aequian and Volscian territories. +The object was attained still more fully by the accession of the +Hernici to the league of the Romans and Latins (268), an accession +which isolated the Volscians completely, and provided the league with +a bulwark against the Sabellian tribes dwelling on the south and east; +it is easy therefore to perceive why this little people obtained the +concession of full equality with the two others in counsel and in +distribution of the spoil. The feebler Aequi were thenceforth but +little formidable; it was sufficient to undertake from time to time +a plundering expedition against them. The Rutuli also, who bordered +with Latium on the south in the plain along the coast, early +succumbed; their town Ardea was converted into a Latin colony as +early as 312.(12) The Volscians opposed a more serious resistance. +The first notable success, after those mentioned above, achieved over +them by the Romans was, remarkably enough, the foundation of Circeii +in 361, which, as long as Antium and Tarracina continued free, can +only have held communication with Latium by sea. Attempts were often +made to occupy Antium, and one was temporarily successful in 287; but +in 295 the town recovered its freedom, and it was not till after the +Gallic conflagration that, in consequence of a violent war of thirteen +years (365-377), the Romans gained a decided superiority in the +Antiate and Pomptine territory. Satricum, not far from Antium, was +occupied with a Latin colony in 369, and not long afterwards probably +Antium itself as well as Tarracina.(13) The Pomptine territory was +secured by the founding of the fortress Setia (372, strengthened in +375), and was distributed into farm-allotments and burgess-districts +in the year 371 and following years. After this date the Volscians +still perhaps rose in revolt, but they waged no further wars +against Rome. + +Crises within the Romano-Latin League + +But the more decided the successes that the league of Romans, Latins, +and Hernici achieved against the Etruscans, Aequi, Volsci, and Rutuli, +the more that league became liable to disunion. The reason lay +partly in the increase of the hegemonic power of Rome, of which +we have already spoken as necessarily springing out of the existing +circumstances, but which nevertheless was felt as a heavy burden in +Latium; partly in particular acts of odious injustice perpetrated by +the leading community. Of this nature was especially the infamous +sentence of arbitration between the Aricini and the Rutuli in Ardea +in 308, in which the Romans, called in to be arbiters regarding a +border territory in dispute between the two communities, took it to +themselves; and when this decision occasioned in Ardea internal +dissensions in which the people wished to join the Volsci, while +the nobility adhered to Rome, these dissensions were still more +disgracefully employed as a pretext for the--already mentioned +--sending of Roman colonists into the wealthy city, amongst whom the +lands of the adherents of the party opposed to Rome were distributed +(312). The main cause however of the internal breaking up of the +league was the very subjugation of the common foe; forbearance ceased +on one side, devotedness ceased on the other, from the time when they +thought that they had no longer need of each other. The open breach +between the Latins and Hernici on the one hand and the Romans on the +other was more immediately occasioned partly by the capture of Rome +by the Celts and the momentary weakness which it produced, partly by +the definitive occupation and distribution of the Pomptine territory. +The former allies soon stood opposed in the field. Already Latin +volunteers in great numbers had taken part in the last despairing +struggle of the Antiates: now the most famous of the Latin cities, +Lanuvium (371), Praeneste (372-374, 400), Tusculum (373), Tibur (394, +400), and even several of the fortresses established in the Volscian +land by the Romano-Latin league, such as Velitrae and Circeii, had to +be subdued by force of arms, and the Tiburtines were not afraid even +to make common cause against Rome with the once more advancing hordes +of the Gauls. No concerted revolt however took place, and Rome +mastered the individual towns without much trouble. + +Tusculum was even compelled (in 373) to give up its political +independence, and to enter into the burgess-union of Rome as a +subject community (-civitas sine suffragio-) so that the town +retained its walls and an--although limited--self-administration, +including magistrates and a burgess-assembly of its own, whereas +its burgesses as Romans lacked the right of electing or being elected +--the first instance of a whole burgess-body being incorporated as +a dependent community with the Roman commonwealth. + +Renewal of the Treaties of Alliance + +The struggle with the Hernici was more severe (392-396); the first +consular commander-in-chief belonging to the plebs, Lucius Genucius, +fell in it; but here too the Romans were victorious. The crisis +terminated with the renewal of the treaties between Rome and the Latin +and Hernican confederacies in 396. The precise contents of these +treaties are not known, but it is evident that both confederacies +submitted once more, and probably on harder terms, to the Roman +hegemony. The institution which took place in the same year of two +new tribes in the Pomptine territory shows clearly the mighty +advances made by the Roman power. + +Closing of the Latin Confederation + +In manifest connection with this crisis in the relations between Rome +and Latium stands the closing of the Latin confederation,(14) which +took place about the year 370, although we cannot precisely determine +whether it was the effect or, as is more probable, the cause of the +revolt of Latium against Rome which we have just described. As the +law had hitherto stood, every sovereign city founded by Rome and +Latium took its place among the communes entitled to participate +in the federal festival and federal diet, whereas every community +incorporated with another city and thereby politically annihilated +was erased from the ranks of the members of the league. At the same +time, however, according to Latin use and wont the number once fixed +of thirty confederate communities was so adhered to, that of the +participating cities never more and never less than thirty were +entitled to vote, and a number of the communities that were of later +admission, or were disqualified for their slight importance or for the +crimes they had committed, were without the right of voting. In this +way the confederacy was constituted about 370 as follows. Of old +Latin townships there were--besides some which have now fallen into +oblivion, or whose sites are unknown--still autonomous and entitled to +vote, Nomentum, between the Tiber and the Anio; Tibur, Gabii, Scaptia, +Labici,(15) Pedum, and Praeneste, between the Anio and the Alban +range; Corbio, Tusculum, Bovillae, Aricia, Corioli, and Lanuvium on +the Alban range; Cora in the Volscian mountains, and lastly, Laurentum +in the plain along the coast. To these fell to be added the colonies +instituted by Rome and the Latin league; Ardea in the former territory +of the Rutuli, and Satricum, Velitrae, Norba, Signia, Setia and +Circeii in that of the Volsci. Besides, seventeen other townships, +whose names are not known with certainty, had the privilege of +participating in the Latin festival without the right of voting. +On this footing--of forty-seven townships entitled to participate and +thirty entitled to vote--the Latin confederacy continued henceforward +unalterably fixed. The Latin communities founded subsequently, such +as Sutrium, Nepete,(16) Antium, Tarracina,(17) and Gales, were not +admitted into the confederacy, nor were the Latin communities +subsequently divested of their autonomy, such as Tusculum and +Lanuvium, erased from the list. + +Fixing of the Limits of Latium + +With this closing of the confederacy was connected the geographical +settlement of the limits of Latium. So long as the Latin confederacy +continued open, the bounds of Latium had advanced with the +establishment of new federal cities: but as the later Latin +colonies had no share in the Alban festival, they were not regarded +geographically as part of Latium. For this reason doubtless Ardea +and Circeii were reckoned as belonging to Latium, but not Sutrium +or Tarracina. + +Isolation of the Later Latin Cities as Respected Private Rights + +But not only were the places on which Latin privileges were bestowed +after 370 kept aloof from the federal association; they were isolated +also from one another as respected private rights. While each of +them was allowed to have reciprocity of commercial dealings and +probably also of marriage (-commercium et conubium-) with Rome, +no such reciprocity was permitted with the other Latin communities. +The burgess of Satrium, for example, might possess in full property +a piece of ground in Rome, but not in Praeneste; and might have +legitimate children with a Roman, but not with a Tiburtine, wife.(18) + +Prevention of Special Leagues + +If hitherto considerable freedom of movement had been allowed within +the confederacy, and for example the six old Latin communities, +Aricia, Tusculum, Tibur, Lanuvium, Cora, and Laurentum, and the two +new Latin, Ardea and Suessa Pometia, had been permitted to found in +common a shrine for the Aricine Diana; it is doubtless not the mere +result of accident that we find no further instance in later times +of similar separate confederations fraught with danger to the hegemony +of Rome. + +Revision of the Municipal Constitutions. Police Judges + +We may likewise assign to this epoch the further remodelling which +the Latin municipal constitutions underwent, and their complete +assimilation to the constitution of Rome. If in after times two +aediles, intrusted with the police-supervision of markets and highways +and the administration of justice in connection therewith, make their +appearance side by side with the two praetors as necessary elements +of the Latin magistracy, the institution of these urban police +functionaries, which evidently took place at the same time and at +the instigation of the leading power in all the federal communities, +certainly cannot have preceded the establishment of the curule +aedileship in Rome, which occurred in 387; probably it took place +about that very time. Beyond doubt this arrangement was only one +of a series of measures curtailing the liberties and modifying +the organization of the federal communities in the interest of +aristocratic policy. + +Domination of the Romans; Exasperation of the Latins-- +Collision between the Romans and the Samnites + +After the fall of Veii and the conquest of the Pomptine territory, +Rome evidently felt herself powerful enough to tighten the reins of +her hegemony and to reduce the whole of the Latin cities to a position +so dependent that they became in fact completely subject. At this +period (406) the Carthaginians, in a commercial treaty concluded with +Rome, bound themselves to inflict no injury on the Latins who were +subject to Rome, viz. the maritime towns of Ardea, Antium, Circeii, +and Tarracina; if, however, any one of the Latin towns should fall +away from the Roman alliance, the Phoenicians were to be allowed to +attack it, but in the event of conquering it they were bound not to +raze it, but to hand it over to the Romans. This plainly shows by +what chains the Roman community bound to itself the towns protected +by it and how much a town, which dared to withdraw from the native +protectorate, sacrificed or risked by such a course. + +It is true that even now the Latin confederacy at least--if not also +the Hernican--retained its formal title to a third of the gains of +war, and doubtless some other remnants of the former equality of +rights; but what was palpably lost was important enough to explain the +exasperation which at this period prevailed among the Latins against +Rome. Not only did numerous Latin volunteers fight under foreign +standards against the community at their head, wherever they found +armies in the field against Rome; but in 405 even the Latin federal +assembly resolved to refuse to the Romans its contingent. To all +appearance a renewed rising of the whole Latin confederacy might be +anticipated at no distant date; and at that very moment a collision +was imminent with another Italian nation, which was able to encounter +on equal terms the united strength of the Latin stock. After the +overthrow of the northern Volscians no considerable people in +the first instance opposed the Romans in the south; their legions +unchecked approached the Liris. As early as 397 they had contended; +successfully with the Privernates; and in 409 occupied Sora on the +upper Liris. Thus the Roman armies had reached the Samnite frontier; +and the friendly alliance, which the two bravest and most powerful +of the Italian nations concluded with each other in 400, was the +sure token of an approaching struggle for the supremacy of Italy--a +struggle which threatened to become interwoven with the crisis within +the Latin nation. + +Conquests of the Samnites in the South of Italy + +The Samnite nation, which, at the time of the expulsion of the +Tarquins from Rome, had doubtless already been for a considerable +period in possession of the hill-country which rises between the +Apulian and Campanian plains and commands them both, had hitherto +found its further advance impeded on the one side by the Daunians +--the power and prosperity of Arpi fall within this period--on the +other by the Greeks and Etruscans. But the fall of the Etruscan power +towards the end of the third, and the decline of the Greek colonies in +the course of the fourth century, made room for them towards the west +and south; and now one Samnite host after another marched down to, +and even moved across, the south Italian seas. They first made their +appearance in the plain adjoining the bay, with which the name of +the Campanians has been associated from the beginning of the fourth +century; the Etruscans there were suppressed, and the Greeks were +confined within narrower bounds; Capua was wrested from the former +(330), Cumae from the latter (334). About the same time, perhaps even +earlier, the Lucanians appeared in Magna Graecia: at the beginning +of the fourth century they were involved in conflict with the people +of Terina and Thurii; and a considerable time before 364 they had +established themselves in the Greek Laus. About this period their +levy amounted to 30,000 infantry and 4000 cavalry. Towards the end of +the fourth century mention first occurs of the separate confederacy of +the Bruttii,(19) who had detached themselves from the Lucanians--not, +like the other Sabellian stocks, as a colony, but through a quarrel +--and had become mixed up with many foreign elements. The Greeks of +Lower Italy tried to resist the pressure of the barbarians; the league +of the Achaean cities was reconstructed in 361; and it was determined +that, if any of the allied towns should be assailed by the Lucanians, +all should furnish contingents, and that the leaders of contingents +which failed to appear should suffer the punishment of death. But +even the union of Magna Graecia no longer availed; for the ruler of +Syracuse, Dionysius the Elder, made common cause with the Italians +against his countrymen. While Dionysius wrested from the fleets of +Magna Graecia the mastery of the Italian seas, one Greek city after +another was occupied or annihilated by the Italians. In an incredibly +short time the circle of flourishing cities was destroyed or laid +desolate. Only a few Greek settlements, such as Neapolis, succeeded +with difficulty, and more by means of treaties than by force of +arms, in preserving at least their existence and their nationality. +Tarentum alone remained thoroughly independent and powerful, +maintaining its ground in consequence of its more remote position +and its preparation for war--the result of its constant conflicts +with the Messapians. Even that city, however, had constantly to +fight for its existence with the Lucanians, and was compelled to +seek for alliances and mercenaries in the mother-country of Greece. + +About the period when Veii and the Pomptine plain came into the hands +of Rome, the Samnite hordes were already in possession of all Lower +Italy, with the exception of a few unconnected Greek colonies, and +of the Apulo-Messapian coast. The Greek Periplus, composed about 418, +sets down the Samnites proper with their "five tongues" as reaching +from the one sea to the other; and specifies the Campanians as +adjoining them on the Tyrrhene sea to the north, and the Lucanians +to the south, amongst whom in this instance, as often, the Bruttii +are included, and who already had the whole coast apportioned among +them from Paestum on the Tyrrhene, to Thurii on the Ionic sea. In +fact to one who compares the achievements of the two great nations +of Italy, the Latins and the Samnites, before they came into contact, +the career of conquest on the part of the latter appears far wider +and more splendid than that of the former. But the character of their +conquests was essentially different. From the fixed urban centre +which Latium possessed in Rome the dominion of the Latin stock spread +slowly on all sides, and lay within limits comparatively narrow; but +it planted its foot firmly at every step, partly by founding fortified +towns of the Roman type with the rights of dependent allies, partly +by Romanizing the territory which it conquered. It was otherwise +with Samnium. There was in its case no single leading community and +therefore no policy of conquest. While the conquest of the Veientine +and Pomptine territories was for Rome a real enlargement of power, +Samnium was weakened rather than strengthened by the rise of the +Campanian cities and of the Lucanian and Bruttian confederacies; for +every swarm, which had sought and found new settlements, thenceforward +pursued a path of its own. + +Relations between the Samnites and the Greeks + +The Samnite tribes filled a disproportionately large space, while +yet they showed no disposition to make it thoroughly their own. +The larger Greek cities, Tarentum, Thurii, Croton, Metapontum, +Heraclea, Rhegium, and Neapolis, although weakened and often +dependent, continued to exist; and the Hellenes were tolerated +even in the open country and in the smaller towns, so that Cumae +for instance, Posidonia, Laus, and Hipponium, still remained--as +the Periplus already mentioned and coins show--Greek cities even +under Samnite rule. Mixed populations thus arose; the bi-lingual +Bruttii, in particular, included Hellenic as well as Samnite elements +and even perhaps remains of the ancient autochthones; in Lucania +and Campania also similar mixtures must to a lesser extent have +taken place. + +Campanian Hellenism + +The Samnite nation, moreover, could not resist the dangerous charm +of Hellenic culture; least of all in Campania, where Neapolis early +entered into friendly intercourse with the immigrants, and where +the sky itself humanized the barbarians. Nola, Nuceria, and Teanum, +although having a purely Samnite population, adopted Greek manners +and a Greek civic constitution; in fact the indigenous cantonal form +of constitution could not possibly subsist under these altered +circumstances. The Samnite cities of Campania began to coin money, +in part with Greek inscriptions; Capua became by its commerce and +agriculture the second city in Italy in point of size--the first in +point of wealth and luxury. The deep demoralization, in which, +according to the accounts of the ancients, that city surpassed all +others in Italy, is especially reflected in the mercenary recruiting +and in the gladiatorial sports, both of which pre-eminently flourished +in Capua. Nowhere did recruiting officers find so numerous a +concourse as in this metropolis of demoralized civilization; while +Capua knew not how to save itself from the attacks of the aggressive +Samnites, the warlike Campanian youth flocked forth in crowds under +self-elected -condottteri-, especially to Sicily. How deeply these +soldiers of fortune influenced by their enterprises the destinies of +Italy, we shall have afterwards to show; they form as characteristic +a feature of Campanian life as the gladiatorial sports which likewise, +if they did not originate, were at any rate carried to perfection in +Capua. There sets of gladiators made their appearance even during +banquets; and their number was proportioned to the rank of the guests +invited. This degeneracy of the most important Samnite city--a +degeneracy which beyond doubt was closely connected with the Etruscan +habits that lingered there--must have been fatal for the nation at +large; although the Campanian nobility knew how to combine chivalrous +valour and high mental culture with the deepest moral corruption, it +could never become to its nation what the Roman nobility was to the +Latin. Hellenic influence had a similar, though less powerful, effect +on the Lucanians and Bruttians as on the Campanians. The objects +discovered in the tombs throughout all these regions show how Greek +art was cherished there in barbaric luxuriance; the rich ornaments +of gold and amber and the magnificent painted pottery, which are now +disinterred from the abodes of the dead, enable us to conjecture how +extensive had been their departure from the ancient manners of their +fathers. Other indications are preserved in their writing. The old +national writing which they had brought with them from the north was +abandoned by the Lucanians and Bruttians, and exchanged for Greek; +while in Campania the national alphabet, and perhaps also the +language, developed itself under the influence of the Greek model +into greater clearness and delicacy. We meet even with isolated +traces of the influence of Greek philosophy. + +The Samnite Confederacy + +The Samnite land, properly so called, alone remained unaffected by +these innovations, which, beautiful and natural as they may to some +extent have been, powerfully contributed to relax still more the bond +of national unity which even from the first was loose. Through the +influence of Hellenic habits a deep schism took place in the Samnite +stock. The civilized "Philhellenes" of Campania were accustomed to +tremble like the Hellenes themselves before the ruder tribes of +the mountains, who were continually penetrating into Campania and +disturbing the degenerate earlier settlers. Rome was a compact state, +having the strength of all Latium at its disposal; its subjects might +murmur, but they obeyed. The Samnite stock was dispersed and divided; +and, while the confederacy in Samnium proper had preserved unimpaired +the manners and valour of their ancestors, they were on that very +account completely at variance with the other Samnite tribes +and towns. + +Submission of Capua to Rome-- +Rome and Samnium Come to Terms-- +Revolt of the Latins and Campanians against Rome-- +Victory of the Romans-- +Dissolution of the Latin League-- +Colonization of the Land of the Volsci + +In fact, it was this variance between the Samnites of the plain and +the Samnites of the mountains that led the Romans over the Liris. +The Sidicini in Teanum, and the Campanians in Capua, sought aid +from the Romans (411) against their own countrymen, who in swarms ever +renewed ravaged their territory and threatened to establish themselves +there. When the desired alliance was refused, the Campanian envoys +made offer of the submission of their country to the supremacy of +Rome: and the Romans were unable to resist the bait. Roman envoys +were sent to the Samnites to inform them of the new acquisition, +and to summon them to respect the territory of the friendly power. +The further course of events can no longer be ascertained in +detail;(20) we discover only that--whether after a campaign, +or without the intervention of a war--Rome and Samnium came to +an agreement, by which Capua was left at the disposal of the Romans, +Teanum in the hands of the Samnites, and the upper Liris in those +of the Volscians. + +The consent of the Samnites to treat is explained by the energetic +exertions made about this very period by the Tarentines to get quit +of their Sabellian neighbours. But the Romans also had good reason +for coming to terms as quickly as possible with the Samnites; for the +impending transition of the region bordering on the south of Latium +into the possession of the Romans converted the ferment that had long +existed among the Latins into open insurrection. All the original +Latin towns, even the Tusculans who had been received into the +burgess-union of Rome, took up arms against Rome, with the single +exception of the Laurentes, whereas of the colonies founded beyond +the bounds of Latium only the old Volscian towns Velitrae, Antium, +and Tarracina adhered to the revolt. We can readily understand how +the Capuans, notwithstanding their very recent and voluntarily offered +submission to the Romans, should readily embrace the first opportunity +of again ridding themselves of the Roman rule and, in spite of the +opposition of the optimate party that adhered to the treaty with Rome, +should make common cause with the Latin confederacy, whereas the still +independent Volscian towns, such as Fundi and Formiae, and the Hernici +abstained like the Campanian aristocracy from taking part in this +revolt. The position of the Romans was critical; the legions which +had crossed the Liris and occupied Campania were cut off by the revolt +of the Latins and Volsci from their home, and a victory alone could +save them. The decisive battle was fought near Trifanum (between +Minturnae, Suessa, and Sinuessa) in 414; the consul Titus Manlius +Imperiosus Torquatus achieved a complete victory over the united +Latins and Campanians. In the two following years the individual +towns, so far as they still offered resistance, were reduced by +capitulation or assault, and the whole country was brought into +subjection. The effect of the victory was the dissolution of the +Latin league. It was transformed from an independent political +federation into a mere association for the purpose of a religious +festival; the ancient stipulated rights of the confederacy as to +a maximum for the levy of troops and a share of the gains of war +perished as such along with it, and assumed, where they were +recognized in future, the character of acts of grace. Instead of +the one treaty between Rome on the one hand and the Latin confederacy +on the other, there came at best perpetual alliances between Rome and +the several confederate towns. To this footing of treaty there were +admitted of the old-Latin places, besides Laurentum, also Tibur and +Praeneste, which however were compelled to cede portions of their +territory to Rome. Like terms were obtained by the communities of +Latin rights founded outside of Latium, so far as they had not taken +part in the war. The principle of isolating the communities from each +other, which had already been established in regard to the places +founded after 370,(21) was thus extended to the whole Latin nation. +In other respects the several places retained their former privileges +and their autonomy. The other old-Latin communities as well as the +colonies that had revolted lost--all of them--independence and +entered in one form or another into the Roman burgess-union. The two +important coast towns Antium (416) and Tarracina (425) were, after +the model of Ostia, occupied with Roman full-burgesses and restricted +to a communal independence confined within narrow limits, while the +previous burgesses were deprived in great part of their landed +property in favour of the Roman colonists and, so far as they retained +it, likewise adopted into the full burgess-union. Lanuvium, Aricia, +Momentum, Pedum became Roman burgess-communities after the model of +Tusculum.(22) The walls of Velitrae were demolished, its senate was +ejected -en masse- and deported to the interior of Roman Etruria, +and the town was probably constituted a dependent community with +Caerite rights.(23) Of the land acquired a portion--the estates, +for instance, of the senators of Velitrae--was distributed to Roman +burgesses: with these special assignations was connected the erection +of two new tribes in 422. The deep sense which prevailed in Rome +of the enormous importance of the result achieved is attested by +the honorary column, which was erected in the Roman Forum to the +victorious dictator of 416, Gaius Maenius, and by the decoration +of the orators' platform in the same place with the beaks taken +from the galleys of Antium that were found unserviceable. + +Complete Submission of the Volscian and Campanian Provinces + +In like manner the dominion of Rome was established and confirmed in +the south Volscian and Campanian territories. Fundi, Formiae, +Capua, Cumae, and a number of smaller towns became dependent Roman +communities with self-administration. To secure the pre-eminently +important city of Capua, the breach between the nobility and commons +was artfully widened, the communal constitution was revised in the +Roman interest, and the administration of the town was controlled by +Roman officials annually sent to Campania. The same treatment was +measured out some years after to the Volscian Privernum, whose +citizens, supported by Vitruvius Vaccus a bold partisan belonging to +Fundi, had the honour of fighting the last battle for the freedom of +this region; the struggle ended with the storming of the town (425) +and the execution of Vaccus in a Roman prison. In order to rear a +population devoted to Rome in these regions, they distributed, out +of the lands won in war particularly in the Privernate and Falernian +territories, so numerous allotments to Roman burgesses, that a few +years later (436) they were able to institute there also two new +tribes. The establishment of two fortresses as colonies with Latin +rights finally secured the newly won land. These were Cales (420) +in the middle of the Campanian plain, whence the movements of Teanum +and Capua could be observed, and Fregellae (426), which commanded +the passage of the Liris. Both colonies were unusually strong, and +rapidly became flourishing, notwithstanding the obstacles which the +Sidicines interposed to the founding of Cales and the Samnites to that +of Fregellae. A Roman garrison was also despatched to Sora, a step +of which the Samnites, to whom this district had been left by the +treaty, complained with reason, but in vain. Rome pursued her purpose +with undeviating steadfastness, and displayed her energetic and +far-reaching policy--more even than on the battlefield--in the securing +of the territory which she gained by enveloping it, politically and +militarily, in a net whose meshes could not be broken. + +Inaction of the Samnites + +As a matter of course, the Samnites could not behold the threatening +progress of the Romans with satisfaction, and they probably put +obstacles in its way; nevertheless they neglected to intercept the new +career of conquest, while there was still perhaps time to do so, with +that energy which the circumstances required. They appear indeed in +accordance with their treaty with Rome to have occupied and strongly +garrisoned Teanum; for while in earlier times that city sought help +against Samnium from Capua and Rome, in the later struggles it appears +as the bulwark of the Samnite power on the west. They spread, +conquering and destroying, on the upper Liris, but they neglected +to establish themselves permanently in that quarter. They destroyed +the Volscian town Fregellae--by which they simply facilitated the +institution of the Roman colony there which we have just mentioned +--and they so terrified two other Volscian towns, Fabrateria (Ceccano) +and Luca (site unknown), that these, following the example of Capua, +surrendered themselves to the Romans (424). The Samnite confederacy +allowed the Roman conquest of Campania to be completed before they in +earnest opposed it; and the reason for their doing so is to be sought +partly in the contemporary hostilities between the Samnite nation and +the Italian Hellenes, but principally in the remiss and distracted +policy which the confederacy pursued. + + + + +Notes for Book II Chapter V + + +1. I. VII. Relation of Rome to Latium + +2. The original equality of the two armies is evident from Liv. i. 52; +viii. 8, 14, and Dionys. viii, 15; but most clearly from Polyb. vi. 26. + +3. Dionysius (viii. 15) expressly states, that in the later federal +treaties between Rome and Latium the Latin communities were interdicted +from calling out their contingents of their own motion and sending them +into the field alone. + +4. These Latin staff-officers were the twelve -praefecti sociorum-, +who subsequently, when the old phalanx had been resolved into the +later legions and -alae-, had the charge of the two -alae- of the +federal contingents, six to each -ala-, just as the twelve war-tribunes +of the Roman army had charge of the two legions, six to each legion. +Polybius (vi. 26, 5) states that the consul nominated the former, +as he originally nominated the latter. Now, as according to the +ancient maxim of law, that every person under obligation of service +might become an officer (p. 106), it was legally allowable for the +general to appoint a Latin as leader of a Roman, as well as conversely +a Roman as leader of a Latin, legion, this led to the practical result +that the -tribuni militum- were wholly, and the -praefecti sociorum- +at least ordinarily, Romans. + +5. These were the -decuriones turmarum- and -praefecti cohortium- +(Polyb. vi. 21, 5; Liv. xxv. 14; Sallust. Jug. 69, et al.) Of +course, as the Roman consuls were in law and ordinarily also in fact +commanders-in-chief, the presidents of the community in the dependent +towns also were perhaps throughout, or at least very frequently, +placed at the head of the community-contingents (Liv. xxiii. 19; +Orelli, Inscr. 7022). Indeed, the usual name given to the Latin +magistrates (-praetores-) indicates that they were officers. + +6. Such a --metoikos-- was not like an actual burgess assigned to a +specific voting district once for all, but before each particular vote +the district in which the --metoeci-- were upon that occasion to vote +was fixed by lot. In reality this probably amounted to the concession +to the Latins of one vote in the Roman -comitia tributa-. As a place +in some tribe was a preliminary condition of the ordinary centuriate +suffrage, if the --metoeci-- shared in the voting in the assembly of +the centuries-which we do not know-a similar allotment must have been +fixed for the latter. In the curies they must have taken part like +the plebeians. + +7. II. I. Abolition of the Life-Presidency of the Community + +8. Ordinarily, as is well known, the Latin communities were +presided over by two praetors. Besides these there occur in several +communities single magistrates, who in that case bear the title of +dictator; as in Alba (Orelli-Henzen, Inscr. 2293), Tusculum (p. 445, +note 2), Lanuvium (Cicero, pro Mil. 10, 27; 17, 45; Asconius, in Mil. +p. 32, Orell.; Orelli, n. 2786, 5157, 6086); Compitum (Orelli, 3324); +Nomentum (Orelli, 208, 6138, 7032; comp. Henzen, Bullett. 1858, p. +169); and Aricia (Orelli, n. 1455). To these falls to be added the +similar dictator in the -civitas sine suffragio- of Caere (Orelli, n. +3787, 5772; also Garrucci Diss. arch., i. p. 31, although erroneously +placed after Sutrium); and further the officials of the like name at +Fidenae (Orelli, 112). All these magistracies or priesthoods that +originated in magistracies (the dictator of Caere is to be explained +in accordance with Liv. ix. 43: -Anagninis--magistratibus praeter quam +sacrorum curatione interdictum-), were annual (Orelli, 208). +The statement of Macer likewise and of the annalists who borrowed +from him, that Alba was at the time of its fall no longer under kings, +but under annual directors (Dionys. v. 74; Plutarch, Romul. 27; Liv. +i. 23), is presumably a mere inference from the institution, with +which he was acquainted, of the sacerdotal Alban dictatorship which +was beyond doubt annual like that of Nomentum; a view in which, +moreover, the democratic partisanship of its author may have come +into play. It may be a question whether the inference is valid, and +whether, even if Alba at the time of its dissolution was under rulers +holding office for life, the abolition of monarchy in Rome might not +subsequently lead to the conversion of the Alban dictatorship into +an annual office. + +All these Latin magistracies substantially coincide in reality, as +well as specially in name, with the arrangement established in Rome +by the revolution in a way which is not adequately explained by the +mere similarity of the political circumstances underlying them. + +9. II. IV. Etruscans Driven Back from Latium + +10. The country of the Aequi embraces not merely the valley of +the Anio above Tibur and the territory of the later Latin colonies +Carsioli (on the upper part of the Turano) and Alba (on the Fucine +lake), but also the district of the later municipium of the Aequiculi, +who are nothing but that remnant of the Aequi to which, after the +subjugation by the Romans, and after the assignation of the largest +portion of the territory to Roman or Latin colonists, municipal +independence was left. + +11. To all appearance Velitrae, although situated in the plain, was +originally Volscian, and so a Latin colony; Cora, on the other hand, +on the Volscian mountains, was originally Latin. + +12. Not long afterwards must have taken place the founding of the +-Nemus Dianae- in the forest of Aricia, which, according to Cato's +account (p. 12, Jordan), a Tusculan dictator accomplished for +the urban communities of old Latium, Tusculum, Aricia, Lanuvium, +Laurentum, Cora, and Tibur, and of the two Latin colonies (which +therefore stand last) Suessa Pometia and Ardea (-populus Ardeatis +Rutulus-). The absence of Praeneste and of the smaller communities +of the old Latium shows, as was implied in the nature of the case, +that not all the communities of the Latin league at that time took +part in the consecration. That it falls before 372 is proved by the +emergence of Pometia (II. V. Closing Of The Latin Confederation), and +the list quite accords with what can otherwise be ascertained as to +the state of the league shortly after the accession of Ardea. + +More credit may be given to the traditional statements regarding the +years of the foundations than to most of the oldest traditions, seeing +that the numbering of the year -ab urbe condita-, common to the +Italian cities, has to all appearance preserved, by direct tradition, +the year in which the colonies were founded. + +13. The two do not appear as Latin colonies in the so-called Cassian +list about 372, but they so appear in the Carthaginian treaty of 406; +the towns had thus become Latin colonies in the interval. + +14. In the list given by Dionysius (v. 61) of the thirty Latin +federal cities--the only list which we possess--there are named the +Ardeates, Aricini, Bovillani, Bubentani (site unknown), Corni (rather +Corani), Carventani (site unknown), Circeienses, Coriolani, Corbintes, +Cabani (perhaps the Cabenses on the Alban Mount, Bull, dell' Inst. +1861, p. 205), Fortinei (unknown), Gabini, Laurentes, Lanuvini, +Lavinates, Labicani, Nomentani, Norbani, Praenestini, Pedani, +Querquetulani (site unknown), Satricani, Scaptini, Setini, Tiburtini, +Tusculani, Tellenii (site unknown), Tolerini (site unknown), and +Veliterni. The occasional notices of communities entitled to +participate, such as of Ardea (Liv. xxxii. x), Laurentum (Liv. xxxvii. +3), Lanuvium (Liv. xli. 16), Bovillae, Gabii, Labici (Cicero, pro +Plane. 9, 23) agree with this list. Dionysius gives it on occasion +of the declaration of war by Latium against Rome in 256, and it was +natural therefore to regard--as Niebuhr did--this list as derived +from the well-known renewal of the league in 261, But, as in this list +drawn up according to the Latin alphabet the letter -g appears in a +position which it certainly had not at the time of the Twelve Tables +and scarcely came to occupy before the fifth century (see my +Unteritalische Dial. p. 33), it must be taken from a much more recent +source; and it is by far the simplest hypothesis to recognize it as +a list of those places which were afterwards regarded as the ordinary +members of the Latin confederacy, and which Dionysius in accordance +with his systematizing custom specifies as its original component +elements. As was to be expected, the list presents not a single +non-Latin community; it simply enumerates places originally Latin +or occupied by Latin colonies--no one will lay stress on Corbio and +Corioli as exceptions. Now if we compare with this list that of the +Latin colonies, there had been founded down to 372 Suessa Pometia, +Velitrae, Norba, Signia, Ardea, Circeii (361), Satricum (369), Sutrium +(371), Nepete (371), Setia (372). Of the last three founded at nearly +the same time the two Etruscan ones may very well date somewhat later +than Setia, since in fact the foundation of every town claimed +a certain amount of time, and our list cannot be free from minor +inaccuracies. If we assume this, then the list contains all the +colonies sent out up to the year 372, including the two soon +afterwards deleted from the list, Satricum destroyed in 377 and +Velitrae divested of Latin rights in 416; there are wanting only +Suessa Pometia, beyond doubt as having been destroyed before 372, and +Signia, probably because in the text of Dionysius, who mentions only +twenty-nine names, --SIGNINON-- has dropped out after --SEITINON--. +In entire harmony with this view there are absent from this list all +the Latin colonies founded after 372 as well as all places, which like +Ostia, Antemnae, Alba, were incorporated with the Roman community +before the year 370, whereas those incorporated subsequently, such +as Tusculum, Lanuvium, Velitrae, are retained in it. + +As regards the list given by Pliny of thirty-two townships extinct in +his time which had formerly participated in the Alban festival, after +deduction of seven that also occur in Dionysius (for the Cusuetani +of Pliny appear to be the Carventani of Dionysius), there remain +twenty-five townships, most of them quite unknown, doubtless made up +partly of those seventeen non-voting communities--most of which perhaps +were just the oldest subsequently disqualified members of the Alban +festal league--partly of a number of other decayed or ejected members +of the league, to which latter class above all the ancient presiding +township of Alba, also named by Pliny, belonged. + +15. Livy certainly states (iv. 47) that Labici became a colony in +336. But--apart from the fact that Diodorus (xiii. 6) says nothing +of it--Labici cannot have been a burgess-colony, for the town did +not lie on the coast and besides it appears subsequently as still in +possession of autonomy; nor can it have been a Latin one, for there is +not, nor can there be from the nature of these foundations, a single +other example of a Latin colony established in the original Latium. +Here as elsewhere it is most probable--especially as two -jugera- are +named as the portion of land allotted--that a public assignation to +the burgesses has been confounded with a colonial assignation ( I. +XIII. System of Joint Cultivation ). + +16. II. IV. South Etruria Roman + +17. II. V. League with the Hernici + +18. This restriction of the ancient full reciprocity of Latin rights +first occurs in the renewal of the treaty in 416 (Liv. viii. 14); but +as the system of isolation, of which it was an essential part, first +began in reference to the Latin colonies settled after 370, and was +only generalized in 416, it is proper to mention this alteration here. + +19. The name itself is very ancient; in fact it is the most +ancient indigenous name for the inhabitants of the present Calabria +(Antiochus, Fr. 5. Mull.). The well-known derivation is doubtless +an invention. + +20. Perhaps no section of the Roman annals has been more disfigured +than the narrative of the first Samnite-Latin war, as it stands or +stood in Livy, Dionysius, and Appian. It runs somewhat to the +following effect. After both consuls had marched into Campania in +411, first the consul Marcus Valerius Corvus gained a severe and +bloody victory over the Samnites at Mount Gaurus; then his colleague +Aulus Cornelius Cossus gained another, after he had been rescued from +annihilation in a narrow pass by the self-devotion of a division led +by the military tribune Publius Decius. The third and decisive battle +was fought by both consuls at the entrance of the Caudine Pass near +Suessula; the Samnites were completely vanquished--forty thousand of +their shields were picked up on the field of battle--and they were +compelled to make a peace, in which the Romans retained Capua, which +had given itself over to their possession, while they left Teanum to +the Samnites (413). Congratulations came from all sides, even from +Carthage. The Latins, who had refused their contingent and seemed to +be arming against Rome, turned their arms not against Rome but against +the Paeligni, while the Romans were occupied first with a military +conspiracy of the garrison left behind in Campania (412), then with +the capture of Privernum (413) and the war against the Antiates. But +now a sudden and singular change occurred in the position of parties. +The Latins, who had demanded in vain Roman citizenship and a share in +the consulate, rose against Rome in conjunction with the Sidicines, +who had vainly offered to submit to the Romans and knew not how to +save themselves from the Samnites, and with the Campanians, who were +already tired of the Roman rule. Only the Laurentes in Latium and the +-equites- of Campania adhered to the Romans, who on their part found +support among the Paeligni and Samnites. The Latin army fell upon +Samnium; the Romano-Samnite army, after it had marched to the Fucine +lake and from thence, avoiding Latium, into Campania, fought the +decisive battle against the combined Latins and Campanians at +Vesuvius; the consul Titus Manlius Imperiosus, after he had himself +restored the wavering discipline of the army by the execution of his +own son who had slain a foe in opposition to orders from headquarters, +and after his colleague Publius Decius Mus had appeased the gods by +sacrificing his life, at length gained the victory by calling up the +last reserves. But the war was only terminated by a second battle, +in which the consul Manlius engaged the Latins and Campanians near +Trifanum; Latium and Capua submitted, and were mulcted in a portion +of their territory. + +The judicious and candid reader will not fail to observe that this +report swarms with all sorts of impossibilities. Such are the +statement of the Antiates waging war after the surrender of 377 (Liv. +vi. 33); the independent campaign of the Latins against the Paeligni, +in distinct contradiction to the stipulations of the treaties between +Rome and Latium; the unprecedented march of the Roman army through the +Marsian and Samnite territory to Capua, while all Latium was in arms +against Rome; to say nothing of the equally confused and sentimental +account of the military insurrection of 412, and the story of +its forced leader, the lame Titus Quinctius, the Roman Gotz von +Berlichingen. Still more suspicious perhaps, are the repetitions. +Such is the story of the military tribune Publius Decius modelled on +the courageous deed of Marcus Calpurnius Flamma, or whatever he was +called, in the first Punic war; such is the recurrence of the conquest +of Privernum by Gaius Plautius in the year 425, which second conquest +alone is registered in the triumphal Fasti; such is the self-immolation +of Publius Decius, repeated, as is well known, in the case of his son +in 459. Throughout this section the whole representation betrays +a different period and a different hand from the other more credible +accounts of the annals. The narrative is full of detailed pictures +of battles; of inwoven anecdotes, such as that of the praetor +of Setia, who breaks his neck on the steps of the senate-house because +he had been audacious enough to solicit the consulship, and the +various anecdotes concocted out of the surname of Titus Manlius; and +of prolix and in part suspicious archaeological digressions. In this +class we include the history of the legion--of which the notice, most +probably apocryphal, in Liv. i. 52, regarding the maniples of Romans +and Latins intermingled formed by the second Tarquin, is evidently a +second fragment, the erroneous view given of the treaty between Capua +and Rome (see my Rom. Munzwesen, p. 334, n. 122); the formularies of +self-devotion, the Campanian -denarius-, the Laurentine alliance, +and the -bina jugera- in the assignation (p. 450, note). Under such +circumstances it appears a fact of great weight that Diodorus, who +follows other and often older accounts, knows absolutely nothing of +any of these events except the last battle at Trifanum; a battle +in fact that ill accords with the rest of the narrative, which, in +accordance with the rules of poetical justice, ought to have concluded +with the death of Decius. + +21. II. V. Isolation of the Later Latin Cities as Respected Private +Rights + +22. II. V. Crises within the Romano-Latin League + +23. II. IV. South Etruria Roman + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +Struggle of the Italians against Rome + + +Wars between the Sabellians and Tarentines-- +Archidamus-- +Alexander the Molossian-- + +While the Romans were fighting on the Liris and Volturnus, other +conflicts agitated the south-east of the peninsula. The wealthy +merchant-republic of Tarentum, daily exposed to more serious peril +from the Lucanian and Messapian bands and justly distrusting its own +sword, gained by good words and better coin the help of -condottieri- +from the mother-country. The Spartan king, Archidamus, who with +a strong band had come to the assistance of his fellow-Dorians, +succumbed to the Lucanians on the same day on which Philip conquered +at Chaeronea (416); a retribution, in the belief of the pious Greeks, +for the share which nineteen years previously he and his people had +taken in pillaging the sanctuary of Delphi. His place was taken by +an abler commander, Alexander the Molossian, brother of Olympias the +mother of Alexander the Great. In addition to the troops which he had +brought along with him he united under his banner the contingents of +the Greek cities, especially those of the Tarentines and Metapontines; +the Poediculi (around Rubi, now Ruvo), who like the Greeks found +themselves in danger from the Sabellian nation; and lastly, even the +Lucanian exiles themselves, whose considerable numbers point to the +existence of violent internal troubles in that confederacy. Thus he +soon found himself superior to the enemy. Consentia (Cosenza), which +seems to have been the federal headquarters of the Sabellians settled +in Magna Graecia, fell into his hands. In vain the Samnites came to +the help of the Lucanians; Alexander defeated their combined forces +near Paestum. He subdued the Daunians around Sipontum, and the +Messapians in the south-eastern peninsula; he already commanded from +sea to sea, and was on the point of arranging with the Romans a joint +attack on the Samnites in their native abodes. But successes so +unexpected went beyond the desires of the Tarentine merchants, and +filled them with alarm. War broke out between them and their captain, +who had come amongst them a hired mercenary and now appeared desirous +to found a Hellenic empire in the west like his nephew in the east. +Alexander had at first the advantage; he wrested Heraclea from the +Tarentines, restored Thurii, and seems to have called upon the other +Italian Greeks to unite under his protection against the Tarentines, +while he at the same time tried to bring about a peace between them +and the Sabellian tribes. But his grand projects found only feeble +support among the degenerate and desponding Greeks, and the forced +change of sides alienated from him his former Lucanian adherents: he +fell at Pandosia by the hand of a Lucanian emigrant (422).(1) On his +death matters substantially reverted to their old position. The Greek +cities found themselves once more isolated and once more left to +protect themselves as best they might by treaty or payment of tribute, +or even by extraneous aid; Croton for instance repulsed the Bruttii +about 430 with the help of the Syracusans. The Samnite tribes acquire +renewed ascendency, and were able, without troubling themselves +about the Greeks, once more to direct their eyes towards Campania +and Latium. + +But there during the brief interval a prodigious change had occurred. +The Latin confederacy was broken and scattered, the last resistance +of the Volsci was overcome, the province of Campania, the richest +and finest in the peninsula, was in the undisputed and well-secured +possession of the Romans, and the second city of Italy was a +dependency of Rome. While the Greeks and Samnites were contending +with each other, Rome had almost without a contest raised herself to +a position of power which no single people in the peninsula possessed +the means of shaking, and which threatened to render all of them +subject to her yoke. A joint exertion on the part of the peoples who +were not severally a match for Rome might perhaps still burst the +chains, ere they became fastened completely. But the clearness of +perception, the courage, the self-sacrifice required for such a +coalition of numerous peoples and cities that had hitherto been for +the most part foes or at any rate strangers to each other, were not +to be found at all, or were found only when it was already too late. + +Coalition of the Italians against Rome + +After the fall of the Etruscan power and the weakening of the Greek +republics, the Samnite confederacy was beyond doubt, next to Rome, the +most considerable power in Italy, and at the same time that which was +most closely and immediately endangered by Roman encroachments. To +its lot therefore fell the foremost place and the heaviest burden in +the struggle for freedom and nationality which the Italians had to +wage against Rome. It might reckon upon the assistance of the small +Sabellian tribes, the Vestini, Frentani, Marrucini, and other smaller +cantons, who dwelt in rustic seclusion amidst their mountains, but +were not deaf to the appeal of a kindred stock calling them to take +up arms in defence of their common possessions. The assistance +of the Campanian Greeks and those of Magna Graecia (especially the +Tarentines), and of the powerful Lucanians and Bruttians would have +been of greater importance; but the negligence and supineness of the +demagogues ruling in Tarentum and the entanglement of that city in +the affairs of Sicily, the internal distractions of the Lucanian +confederacy, and above all the deep hostility that had subsisted +for centuries between the Greeks of Lower Italy and their Lucanian +oppressors, scarcely permitted the hope that Tarentum and Lucania +would make common cause with the Samnites. From the Sabines and the +Marsi, who were the nearest neighbours of the Romans and had long +lived in peaceful relations with Rome, little more could be expected +than lukewarm sympathy or neutrality. The Apulians, the ancient and +bitter antagonists of the Sabellians, were the natural allies of the +Romans. On the other hand it might be expected that the more remote +Etruscans would join the league if a first success were gained; and +even a revolt in Latium and the land of the Volsci and Hernici was +not impossible. But the Samnites--the Aetolians of Italy, in whom +national vigour still lived unimpaired--had mainly to rely on their +own energies for such perseverance in the unequal struggle as would +give the other peoples time for a generous sense of shame, for calm +deliberation, and for the mustering of their forces; a single success +might then kindle the flames of war and insurrection all around Rome. +History cannot but do the noble people the justice of acknowledging +that they understood and performed their duty. + +Outbreak of War between Samnium and Rome-- +Pacification of Campania + +Differences had already for several years existed between Rome and +Samnium in consequence of the continual aggressions in which the +Romans indulged on the Liris, and of which the founding of Fregellae +in 426 was the latest and most important. But it was the Greeks of +Campania that gave occasion to the outbreak of the contest. After +Cumae and Capua had become Roman, nothing so naturally suggested +itself to the Romans as the subjugation of the Greek city Neapolis, +which ruled also over the Greek islands in the bay--the only town +not yet reduced to subjection within the field of the Roman power. +The Tarentines and Samnites, informed of the scheme of the Romans to +obtain possession of the town, resolved to anticipate them; and while +the Tarentines were too remiss perhaps rather than too distant for the +execution of this plan, the Samnites actually threw into it a strong +garrison. The Romans immediately declared war nominally against the +Neapolitans, really against the Samnites (427), and began the siege +of Neapolis. After it had lasted a while, the Campanian Greeks +became weary of the disturbance of their commerce and of the foreign +garrison; and the Romans, whose whole efforts were directed to keep +states of the second and third rank by means of separate treaties +aloof from the coalition which was about to be formed, hastened, as +soon as the Greeks consented to negotiate, to offer them the most +favourable terms--full equality of rights and exemption from land +service, equal alliance and perpetual peace. Upon these conditions, +after the Neapolitans had rid themselves of the garrison by stratagem, +a treaty was concluded (428). + +The Sabellian towns to the south of the Volturnus, Nola, Nuceria, +Herculaneum, and Pompeii, took part with Samnium in the beginning of +the war; but their greatly exposed situation and the machinations of +the Romans--who endeavoured to bring over to their side the optimate +party in these towns by all the levers of artifice and self-interest, +and found a powerful support to their endeavours in the precedent of +Capua--induced these towns to declare themselves either in favour of +Rome or neutral not long after the fall of Neapolis. + +Alliance between the Romans and Lucanians + +A still more important success befell the Romans in Lucania. There +also the people with true instinct was in favour of joining the +Samnites; but, as an alliance with the Samnites involved peace with +Tarentum and a large portion of the governing lords of Lucania were +not disposed to suspend their profitable pillaging expeditions, the +Romans succeeded in concluding an alliance with Lucania--an alliance +which was invaluable, because it provided employment for the +Tarentines and thus left the whole power of Rome available +against Samnium. + +War in Samnium-- +The Caudine Pass and the Caudine Peace + +Thus Samnium stood on all sides unsupported; excepting that some of +the eastern mountain districts sent their contingents. In the year +428 the war began within the Samnite land itself: some towns on the +Campanian frontier, Rufrae (between Venafrum and Teanum) and Allifae, +were occupied by the Romans. In the following years the Roman armies +penetrated Samnium, fighting and pillaging, as far as the territory of +the Vestini, and even as far as Apulia, where they were received with +open arms; everywhere they had very decidedly the advantage. +The courage of the Samnites was broken; they sent back the Roman +prisoners, and along with them the dead body of the leader of the war +party, Brutulus Papius, who had anticipated the Roman executioners, +when the Samnite national assembly determined to ask the enemy for +peace and to procure for themselves more tolerable terms by the +surrender of their bravest general. But when the humble, almost +suppliant, request was not listened to by the Roman people (432), +the Samnites, under their new general Gavius Pontius, prepared for the +utmost and most desperate resistance. The Roman army, which under the +two consuls of the following year (433) Spurius Postumius and Titus +Veturius was encamped near Calatia (between Caserta and Maddaloni), +received accounts, confirmed by the affirmation of numerous captives, +that the Samnites had closely invested Luceria, and that that +important town, on which depended the possession of Apulia, was +in great danger. They broke up in haste. If they wished to arrive in +good time, no other route could be taken than through the midst of the +enemy's territory--where afterwards, in continuation of the Appian +Way, the Roman road was constructed from Capua by way of Beneventum +to Apulia. This route led, between the present villages of Arpaja +and Montesarchio (Caudium), through a watery meadow, which was wholly +enclosed by high and steep wooded hills and was only accessible +through deep defiles at the entrance and outlet. Here the Samnites +had posted themselves in ambush. The Romans, who had entered the +valley unopposed, found its outlet obstructed by abattis and strongly +occupied; on marching back they saw that the entrance was similarly +closed, while at the same time the crests of the surrounding mountains +were crowned by Samnite cohorts. They perceived, when it was too +late, that they had suffered themselves to be misled by a stratagem, +and that the Samnites awaited them, not at Luceria, but in the fatal +pass of Caudium. They fought, but without hope of success and without +earnest aim; the Roman army was totally unable to manoeuvre and was +completely vanquished without a struggle. The Roman generals offered +to capitulate. It is only a foolish rhetoric that represents the +Samnite general as shut up to the simple alternatives of disbanding or +of slaughtering the Roman army; he could not have done better than +accept the offered capitulation and make prisoners of the hostile +army--the whole force which for the moment the Roman community could +bring into action--with both its commanders-in-chief. In that case +the way to Campania and Latium would have stood open; and in the then +existing state of feeling, when the Volsci and Hernici and the larger +portion of the Latins would have received him with open arms, the +political existence of Rome would have been in serious danger. But +instead of taking this course and concluding a military convention, +Gavius Pontius thought that he could at once terminate the whole +quarrel by an equitable peace; whether it was that he shared that +foolish longing of the confederates for peace, to which Brutulus +Papius had fallen a victim in the previous year, or whether it was +that he was unable to prevent the party which was tired of the war +from spoiling his unexampled victory. The terms laid down were +moderate enough; Rome was to raze the fortresses which she had +constructed in defiance of the treaty--Cales and Fregellae--and to +renew her equal alliance with Samnium. After the Roman generals had +agreed to these terms and had given six hundred hostages chosen from +the cavalry for their faithful execution--besides pledging their own +word and that of all their staff-officers on oath to the same effect +--the Roman army was dismissed uninjured, but disgraced; for the +Samnite army, drunk with victory, could not resist the desire to +subject their hated enemies to the disgraceful formality of laying +down their arms and passing under the yoke. + +But the Roman senate, regardless of the oath of their officers and +of the fate of the hostages, cancelled the agreement, and contented +themselves with surrendering to the enemy those who had concluded it +as personally responsible for its fulfilment. Impartial history can +attach little importance to the question whether in so doing the +casuistry of Roman advocates and priests kept the letter of the law, +or whether the decree of the Roman senate violated it; under a human +and political point of view no blame in this matter rests upon the +Romans. It was a question of comparative indifference whether, +according to the formal state law of the Romans, the general in +command was or was not entitled to conclude peace without reserving +its ratification by the burgesses. According to the spirit and +practice of the constitution it was quite an established principle +that in Rome every state-agreement, not purely military, pertained +to the province of the civil authorities, and a general who concluded +peace without the instructions of the senate and the burgesses +exceeded his powers. It was a greater error on the part of the +Samnite general to give the Roman generals the choice between saving +their army and exceeding their powers, than it was on the part of +the latter that they had not the magnanimity absolutely to repel such +a suggestion; and it was right and necessary that the Roman senate +should reject such an agreement. A great nation does not surrender +what it possesses except under the pressure of extreme necessity: all +treaties making concessions are acknowledgments of such a necessity, +not moral obligations. If every people justly reckons it a point +of honour to tear to pieces by force of arms treaties that are +disgraceful, how could honour enjoin a patient adherence to a +convention like the Caudine to which an unfortunate general was +morally compelled, while the sting of the recent disgrace was +keenly felt and the vigour of the nation subsisted unimpaired? + +Victory of the Romans + +Thus the convention of Caudium did not produce the rest which the +enthusiasts for peace in Samnium had foolishly expected from it, but +only led to war after war with exasperation aggravated on either side +by the opportunity forfeited, by the breach of a solemn engagement, +by military honour disgraced, and by comrades that had been abandoned. +The Roman officers given up were not received by the Samnites, partly +because they were too magnanimous to wreak their vengeance on those +unfortunates, partly because they would thereby have admitted the +Roman plea that the agreement bound only those who swore to it, not +the Roman state. Magnanimously they spared even the hostages whose +lives had been forfeited by the rules of war, and preferred to resort +at once to arms. + +Luceria was occupied by them and Fregellae surprised and taken by +assault (434) before the Romans had reorganized their broken army; +the passing of the Satricans(2) over to the Samnites shows what they +might have accomplished, had they not allowed their advantage to slip +through their hands. But Rome was only momentarily paralyzed, not +weakened; full of shame and indignation the Romans raised all the +men and means they could, and placed the highly experienced Lucius +Papirius Cursor, equally distinguished as a soldier and as a general, +at the head of the newly formed army. The army divided; the one-half +marched by Sabina and the Adriatic coast to appear before Luceria, +the other proceeded to the same destination through Samnium itself, +successfully engaging and driving before it the Samnite army. They +formed a junction again under the walls of Luceria, the siege of which +was prosecuted with the greater zeal, because the Roman equites lay +in captivity there; the Apulians, particularly the Arpani, lent the +Romans important assistance in the siege, especially by procuring +supplies. After the Samnites had given battle for the relief of +the town and been defeated, Luceria surrendered to the Romans (435). +Papirius enjoyed the double satisfaction of liberating his comrades +who had been given up for lost, and of requiting the yoke of Caudium +on the Samnite garrison of Luceria. In the next years (435-437) +the war was carried on(3) not so much in Samnium itself as in the +adjoining districts. In the first place the Romans chastised the +allies of the Samnites in the Apulian and Frentanian territories, +and concluded new conventions with the Teanenses of Apulia and the +Canusini. At the same time Satricum was again reduced to subjection +and severely punished for its revolt. Then the war turned to +Campania, where the Romans conquered the frontier town towards +Samnium, Saticula (perhaps S. Agata de' Goti) (438). But now +the fortune of war seemed disposed once more to turn against them. +The Samnites gained over the Nucerians (438), and soon afterwards +the Nolans, to their side; on the upper Liris the Sorani of themselves +expelled the Roman garrison (439); the Ausonians were preparing to +rise, and threatened the important Cales; even in Capua the party +opposed to Rome was vigorously stirring. A Samnite army advanced into +Campania and encamped before the city, in the hope that its vicinity +might place the national party in the ascendant (440). But Sora was +immediately attacked by the Romans and recaptured after the defeat +of a Samnite relieving force (440). The movements among the Ausonians +were suppressed with cruel rigour ere the insurrection fairly broke +out, and at the same time a special dictator was nominated to +institute and decide political processes against the leaders of +the Samnite party in Capua, so that the most illustrious of them +died a voluntary death to escape from the Roman executioner (440). +The Samnite army before Capua was defeated and compelled to retreat +from Campania; the Romans, following close at the heels of the enemy, +crossed the Matese and encamped in the winter of 440 before Bovianum, +the: capital of Samnium. Nola was abandoned by its allies; and the +Romans had the sagacity to detach the town for ever from the Samnite +party by a very favourable convention, similar to that concluded with +Neapolis (441). Fregellae, which after the catastrophe of Caudium had +fallen into the hands of the party adverse to Rome and had been their +chief stronghold in the district on the Liris, finally fell in the +eighth year after its occupation by the Samnites (441); two hundred of +the citizens, the chief members of the national party, were conveyed +to Rome, and there openly beheaded in the Forum as an example and a +warning to the patriots who were everywhere bestirring themselves. + +New Fortresses in Apulia and Campania + +Apulia and Campania were thus in the hands of the Romans. In order +finally to secure and permanently to command the conquered territory, +several new fortresses were founded in it during the years 440-442: +Luceria in Apulia, to which on account of its isolated and exposed +situation half a legion was sent as a permanent garrison; Pontiae (the +Ponza islands) for the securing of the Campanian waters; Saticula on +the Campano-Samnite frontier, as a bulwark against Samnium; and lastly +Interamna (near Monte Cassino) and Suessa Aurunca (Sessa) on the +road from Rome to Capua. Garrisons moreover were sent to Caiatia +(Cajazzo), Sora, and other stations of military importance. The great +military road from Rome to Capua, which with the necessary embankment +for it across the Pomptine marshes the censor Appius Claudius caused +to be constructed in 442, completed the securing of Campania. The +designs of the Romans were more and more fully developed; their object +was the subjugation of Italy, which was enveloped more closely from +year to year in a network of Roman fortresses and roads. The Samnites +were already on both sides surrounded by the Roman meshes; already the +line from Rome to Luceria severed north and south Italy from each +other, as the fortresses of Norba and Signia had formerly severed the +Volsci and Aequi; and Rome now rested on the Arpani, as it formerly +rested on the Hernici. The Italians could not but see that the +freedom of all of them was gone if Samnium succumbed, and that it was +high time at length to hasten with all their might to the help of the +brave mountain people which had now for fifteen years singly sustained +the unequal struggle with the Romans. + +Intervention of the Tarentines + +The most natural allies of the Samnites would have been the +Tarentines; but it was part of that fatality that hung over Samnium +and over Italy in general, that at this moment so fraught with the +destinies of the future the decision lay in the hands of these +Athenians of Italy. Since the constitution of Tarentum, which was +originally after the old Doric fashion strictly aristocratic, had +become changed to a complete democracy, a life of singular activity +had sprung up in that city, which was inhabited chiefly by mariners, +fishermen, and artisans. The sentiments and conduct of the +population, more wealthy than noble, discarded all earnestness +amidst the giddy bustle and witty brilliance of their daily life, and +oscillated between the grandest boldness of enterprise and elevation +of spirit on the one hand, and a shameful frivolity and childish whim +on the other. It may not be out of place, in connection with a crisis +wherein the existence or destruction of nations of noble gifts and +ancient renown was at stake, to mention that Plato, who came to +Tarentum some sixty years before this time, according to his own +statement saw the whole city drunk at the Dionysia, and that the +burlesque farce, or "merry tragedy" as it was called, was created +in Tarentum about the very time of the great Samnite war. This +licentious life and buffoon poetry of the Tarentine fashionables and +literati had a fitting counterpart in the inconstant, arrogant, and +short-sighted policy of the Tarentine demagogues, who regularly +meddled in matters with which they had nothing to do, and kept aloof +where their immediate interests called for action. After the Caudine +catastrophe, when the Romans and Samnites stood opposed in Apulia, +they had sent envoys thither to enjoin both parties to lay down their +arms (434). This diplomatic intervention in the decisive struggle of +the Italians could not rationally have any other meaning than that of +an announcement that Tarentum had at length resolved to abandon +the neutrality which it had hitherto maintained. It had in fact +sufficient reason to do so. It was no doubt a difficult and dangerous +thing for Tarentum to be entangled in such a war; for the democratic +development of the state had directed its energies entirely to the +fleet, and while that fleet, resting upon the strong commercial +marine of Tarentum, held the first rank among the maritime powers +of Magna Graecia, the land force, on which they were in the present +case dependent, consisted mainly of hired soldiers and was sadly +disorganized. Under these circumstances it was no light undertaking +for the Tarentine republic to take part in the conflict between Rome +and Samnium, even apart from the--at least troublesome--feud in which +Roman policy had contrived to involve them with the Lucanians. But +these obstacles might be surmounted by an energetic will; and both the +contending parties construed the summons of the Tarentine envoys that +they should desist from the strife as meant in earnest. The Samnites, +as the weaker, showed themselves ready to comply with it; the Romans +replied by hoisting the signal for battle. Reason and honour dictated +to the Tarentines the propriety of now following up the haughty +injunction of their envoys by a declaration of war against Rome; but +in Tarentum neither reason nor honour characterized the government, +and they had simply been trifling in a very childish fashion with +very serious matters. No declaration of war against Rome took place; +in its stead they preferred to support the oligarchical party in the +Sicilian towns against Agathocles of Syracuse who had at a former +period been in the Tarentine service and had been dismissed in +disgrace, and following the example of Sparta, they sent a fleet +to the island--a fleet which would have rendered better service +in the Campanian seas (440). + +Accession of the Etruscans to the Coalition-- +Victory at the Vadimonian Lake + +The peoples of northern and central Italy, who seem to have been +roused especially by the establishment of the fortress of Luceria, +acted with more energy. The Etruscans first drew the sword (443), the +armistice of 403 having already expired some years before. The Roman +frontier-fortress of Sutrium had to sustain a two years' siege, and in +the vehement conflicts which took place under its walls the Romans as +a rule were worsted, till the consul of the year 444 Quintus Fabius +Rullianus, a leader who had gained experience in the Samnite wars, not +only restored the ascendency of the Roman arms in Roman Etruria, but +boldly penetrated into the land of the Etruscans proper, which had +hitherto from diversity of language and scanty means of communication +remained almost unknown to the Romans. His march through the Ciminian +Forest which no Roman army had yet traversed, and his pillaging of a +rich region that had long been spared the horrors of war, raised +all Etruria in arms. The Roman government, which had seriously +disapproved the rash expedition and had when too late forbidden the +daring leader from crossing the frontier, collected in the greatest +haste new legions, in order to meet the expected onslaught of the +whole Etruscan power. But a seasonable and decisive victory of +Rullianus, the battle at the Vadimonian lake which long lived in +the memory of the people, converted an imprudent enterprise into a +celebrated feat of heroism and broke the resistance of the Etruscans. +Unlike the Samnites who had now for eighteen years maintained the +unequal struggle, three of the most powerful Etruscan towns--Perusia, +Cortona, and Arretium--consented after the first defeat to a separate +peace for three hundred months (444), and after the Romans had once +more beaten the other Etruscans near Perusia in the following year, +the Tarquinienses also agreed to a peace of four hundred months (446); +whereupon the other cities desisted from the contest, and a temporary +cessation of arms took place throughout Etruria. + +Last Campaigns in Samnium + +While these events were passing, the war had not been suspended in +Samnium. The campaign of 443 was confined like the preceding to the +besieging and storming of several strongholds of the Samnites; but +in the next year the war took a more vigorous turn. The dangerous +position of Rullianus in Etruria, and the reports which spread as +to the annihilation of the Roman army in the north, encouraged the +Samnites to new exertions; the Roman consul Gaius Marcius Rutilus was +vanquished by them and severely wounded in person. But the sudden +change in the aspect of matters in Etruria destroyed their newly +kindled hopes. Lucius Papirius Cursor again appeared at the head of +the Roman troops sent against the Samnites, and again remained the +victor in a great and decisive battle (445), in which the confederates +had put forth their last energies. The flower of their army--the +wearers of the striped tunics and golden shields, and the wearers of +the white tunics and silver shields--were there extirpated, and their +splendid equipments thenceforth on festal occasions decorated the rows +of shops along the Roman Forum. Their distress was ever increasing; +the struggle was becoming ever more hopeless. In the following year +(446) the Etruscans laid down their arms; and in the same year the +last town of Campania which still adhered to the Samnites, Nuceria, +simultaneously assailed on the part of the Romans by water and by +land, surrendered under favourable conditions. The Samnites found new +allies in the Umbrians of northern, and in the Marsi and Paeligni of +central, Italy, and numerous volunteers even from the Hernici joined +their ranks; but movements which might have decidedly turned the scale +against Rome, had the Etruscans still remained under arms, now simply +augmented the results of the Roman victory without seriously adding to +its difficulties. The Umbrians, who gave signs of marching on Rome, +were intercepted by Rullianus with the army of Samnium on the upper +Tiber--a step which the enfeebled Samnites were unable to prevent; +and this sufficed to disperse the Umbrian levies. The war once more +returned to central Italy. The Paeligni were conquered, as were also +the Marsi; and, though the other Sabellian tribes remained nominally +foes of Rome, in this quarter Samnium gradually came to stand +practically alone. But unexpected assistance came to them from +the district of the Tiber. The confederacy of the Hernici, called +by the Romans to account for their countrymen found among the Samnite +captives, now declared war against Rome (in 448)--more doubtless from +despair than from calculation. Some of the more considerable Hernican +communities from the first kept aloof from hostilities; but Anagnia, +by far the most eminent of the Hernican cities, carried out this +declaration of war. In a military point of view the position of the +Romans was undoubtedly rendered for the moment highly critical by this +unexpected rising in the rear of the army occupied with the siege of +the strongholds of Samnium. Once more the fortune of war favoured the +Samnites; Sora and Caiatia fell into their hands. But the Anagnines +succumbed with unexpected rapidity before troops despatched from Rome, +and these troops also gave seasonable relief to the army stationed +in Samnium: all in fact was lost. The Samnites sued for peace, but +in vain; they could not yet come to terms. The final decision was +reserved for the campaign of 449. Two Roman consular armies +penetrated--the one, under Tiberius Minucius and after his fall under +Marcus Fulvius, from Campania through the mountain passes, the other, +under Lucius Postumius, from the Adriatic upwards by the Biferno--into +Samnium, there to unite in front of Bovianum the capital; a decisive +victory was achieved, the Samnite general Statius Gellius was taken +prisoner, and Bovianum was carried by storm. + +Peace with Samnium + +The fall of the chief stronghold of the land terminated the twenty-two +years' war. The Samnites withdrew their garrisons from Sora and +Arpinum, and sent envoys to Rome to sue for peace; the Sabellian +tribes, the Marsi, Marrucini, Paeligni, Frentani, Vestini, and +Picentes followed their example. The terms granted by Rome were +tolerable; cessions of territory were required from some of them, +from the Paeligni for instance, but they do not seem to have been of +much importance. The equal alliance was renewed between the Sabellian +tribes and the Romans (450). + +And with Tarentum + +Presumably about the same time, and in consequence doubtless of the +Samnite peace, peace was also made between Rome and Tarentum. The two +cities had not indeed directly opposed each other in the field. The +Tarentines had been inactive spectators of the long contest between +Rome and Samnium from its beginning to its close, and had only kept up +hostilities in league with the Sallentines against the Lucanians who +were allies of Rome. In the last years of the Samnite war no doubt +they had shown some signs of more energetic action. The position of +embarrassment to which the ceaseless attacks of the Lucanians reduced +them on the one hand, and on the other hand the feeling ever obtruding +itself on them more urgently that the complete subjugation of Samnium +would endanger their own independence, induced them, notwithstanding +their unpleasant experiences with Alexander, once more to entrust +themselves to a -condottiere-. There came at their call the Spartan +prince Cleonymus, accompanied by five thousand mercenaries; with whom +he united a band equally numerous raised in Italy, as well as the +contingents of the Messapians and of the smaller Greek towns, and +above all the Tarentine civic army of twenty-two thousand men. At +the head of this considerable force he compelled the Lucanians to make +peace with Tarentum and to install a government of Samnite tendencies; +in return for which Metapontum was abandoned to them. The Samnites +were still in arms when this occurred; there was nothing to prevent +the Spartan from coming to their aid and casting the weight of his +numerous army and his military skill into the scale in favour of +freedom for the cities and peoples of Italy. But Tarentum did not +act as Rome would in similar circumstances have acted; and prince +Cleonymus himself was far from being an Alexander or a Pyrrhus. He +was in no hurry to undertake a war in which he might expect more blows +than booty, but preferred to make common cause with the Lucanians +against Metapontum, and made himself comfortable in that city, while +he talked of an expedition against Agathocles of Syracuse and of +liberating the Sicilian Greeks. Thereupon the Samnites made peace; +and when after its conclusion Rome began to concern herself more +seriously about the south-east of the peninsula--in token of which +in the year 447 a Roman force levied contributions, or rather +reconnoitred by order of the government, in the territory of the +Sallentines--the Spartan -condottiere- embarked with his mercenaries +and surprised the island of Corcyra, which was admirably situated as +a basis for piratical expeditions against Greece and Italy. Thus +abandoned by their general, and at the same time deprived of their +allies in central Italy, the Tarentines and their Italian allies, +the Lucanians and Sallentines, had now no course left but to solicit +an accommodation with Rome, which appears to have been granted on +tolerable terms. Soon afterwards (451) even an incursion of +Cleonymus, who had landed in the Sallentine territory and laid +siege to Uria, was repulsed by the inhabitants with Roman aid. + +Consolidation of the Roman Rule in Central Italy + +The victory of Rome was complete; and she turned it to full account. +It was not from magnanimity in the conquerors--for the Romans knew +nothing of the sort--but from shrewd and far-seeing calculation that +terms so moderate were granted to the Samnites, the Tarentines, and +the more distant peoples generally. The first and main object was not +so much to compel southern Italy as quickly as possible to recognize +formally the Roman supremacy, as to supplement and complete the +subjugation of central Italy, for which the way had been prepared by +the military roads and fortresses already established in Campania and +Apulia during the last war, and by that means to separate the northern +and southern Italians into two masses cut off in a military point of +view from direct contact with each other. To this object accordingly +the next undertakings of the Romans were with consistent energy +directed. Above all they used, or made, the opportunity for getting +rid of the confederacies of the Aequi and the Hernici which had once +been rivals of the Roman single power in the region of the Tiber and +were not yet quite set aside. In the same year, in which the peace +with Samnium took place (450), the consul Publius Sempronius Sophus +waged war on the Aequi; forty townships surrendered in fifty days; the +whole territory with the exception of the narrow and rugged mountain +valley, which still in the present day bears the old name of the +people (Cicolano), passed into the possession of the Romans, and here +on the northern border of the Fucine lake was founded the fortress +Alba with a garrison of 6000 men, thenceforth forming a bulwark +against the valiant Marsi and a curb for central Italy; as was also +two years afterwards on the upper Turano, nearer to Rome, Carsioli +--both as allied communities with Latin rights. + +The fact that in the case of the Hernici at least Anagnia had taken +part in the last stage of the Samnite war, furnished the desired +reason for dissolving the old relation of alliance. The fate of the +Anagnines was, as might be expected, far harder than that which had +under similar circumstances been meted out to the Latin communities +in the previous generation. They not merely had, like these, to +acquiesce in the Roman citizenship without suffrage, but they also +like the Caerites lost self-administration; out of a portion of their +territory on the upper Trerus (Sacco), moreover, a new tribe was +instituted, and another was formed at the same time on the lower Anio +(455). The only regret was that the three Hernican communities next +in importance to Anagnia, Aletrium, Verulae, and Ferentinum, had not +also revolted; for, as they courteously declined the suggestion that +they should voluntarily enter into the bond of Roman citizenship and +there existed no pretext for compelling them to do so, the Romans were +obliged not only to respect their autonomy, but also to allow to them +even the right of assembly and of intermarriage, and in this way +still to leave a shadow of the old Hernican confederacy. No such +considerations fettered their action in that portion of the Volscian +country which had hitherto been held by the Samnites. There Arpinum +and Frusino became subject, the latter town was deprived of a third +of its domain, and on the upper Liris in addition to Fregellae the +Volscian town of Sora, which had previously been garrisoned, was now +permanently converted into a Roman fortress and occupied by a legion +of 4000 men. In this way the old Volscian territory was completely +subdued, and became rapidly Romanized. The region which separated +Samnium from Etruria was penetrated by two military roads, both of +which were secured by new fortresses. The northern road, which +afterwards became the Flaminian, covered the line of the Tiber; it +led through Ocriculum, which was in alliance with Rome, to Narnia, the +name which the Romans gave to the old Umbrian fortress Nequinum when +they settled a military colony there (455). The southern, afterwards +the Valerian, ran along the Fucine lake by way of the just mentioned +fortresses of Carsioli and Alba. The small tribes within whose bounds +these colonies were instituted, the Umbrians who obstinately defended +Nequinum, the Aequians who once more assailed Alba, and the Marsians +who attacked Carsioli, could not arrest the course of Rome: the two +strong curb-fortresses were inserted almost without hindrance between +Samnium and Etruria. We have already mentioned the great roads and +fortresses instituted for permanently securing Apulia and above all +Campania: by their means Samnium was further surrounded on the east +and west with the net of Roman strongholds. It is a significant +token of the comparative weakness of Etruria that it was not deemed +necessary to secure the passes through the Ciminian Forest in a +similar mode--by a highway and corresponding fortresses. The former +frontier fortress of Sutrium continued to be in this quarter the +terminus of the Roman military line, and the Romans contented +themselves with having the road leading thence to Arretium kept +in a serviceable state for military purposes by the communities +through whose territories it passed.(4) + +Renewed Outbreak of the Samnite-Etruscan War-- +Junction of the Troops of the Coalition in Etruria + +The high-spirited Samnite nation perceived that such a peace was more +ruinous than the most destructive war; and, what was more, it acted +accordingly. The Celts in northern Italy were just beginning to +bestir themselves again after a long suspension of warfare; moreover +several Etruscan communities there were still in arms against the +Romans, and brief armistices alternated in that quarter with vehement +but indecisive conflicts. All central Italy was still in ferment and +partly in open insurrection; the fortresses were still only in course +of construction; the way between Etruria and Samnium was not yet +completely closed. Perhaps it was not yet too late to save freedom; +but, if so, there must be no delay; the difficulty of attack +increased, the power of the assailants diminished with every year +by which the peace was prolonged. Five years had scarce elapsed since +the contest ended, and all the wounds must still have been bleeding +which the twenty-two years' war had inflicted on the peasantry of +Samnium, when in the year 456 the Samnite confederacy renewed the +struggle. The last war had been decided in favour of Rome mainly +through the alliance of Lucania with the Romans and the consequent +standing aloof of Tarentum. The Samnites, profiting by that lesson, +now threw themselves in the first instance with all their might on the +Lucanians, and succeeded in bringing their party in that quarter to +the helm of affairs, and in concluding an alliance between Samnium and +Lucania. Of course the Romans immediately declared war; the Samnites +had expected no other issue. It is a significant indication of the +state of feeling, that the Samnite government informed the Roman +envoys that it was not able to guarantee their inviolability, if +they should set foot on Samnite ground. + +The war thus began anew (456), and while a second army was fighting +in Etruria, the main Roman army traversed Samnium and compelled the +Lucanians to make peace and send hostages to Rome. The following +year both consuls were able to proceed to Samnium; Rullianus conquered +at Tifernum, his faithful comrade in arms, Publius Decius Mus, at +Maleventum, and for five months two Roman armies encamped in the land +of the enemy. They were enabled to do so, because the Tuscan states +had on their own behalf entered into negotiations for peace with Rome. +The Samnites, who from the beginning could not but see that their only +chance of victory lay in the combination of all Italy against Rome, +exerted themselves to the utmost to prevent the threatened separate +peace between Etruria and Rome; and when at last their general, +Gellius Egnatius, offered to bring aid to the Etruscans in their own +country, the Etruscan federal council in reality agreed to hold out +and once more to appeal to the decision of arms. Samnium made the +most energetic efforts to place three armies simultaneously in the +field, the first destined for the defence of its own territory, the +second for an invasion of Campania, the third and most numerous +for Etruria; and in the year 458 the last, led by Egnatius himself, +actually reached Etruria in safety through the Marsian and Umbrian +territories, with whose inhabitants there was an understanding. +Meanwhile the Romans were capturing some strong places in Samnium and +breaking the influence of the Samnite party in Lucania; they were not +in a position to prevent the departure of the army led by Egnatius. +When information reached Rome that the Samnites had succeeded in +frustrating all the enormous efforts made to sever the southern +from the northern Italians, that the arrival of the Samnite bands in +Etruria had become the signal for an almost universal rising against +Rome, and that the Etruscan communities were labouring with the utmost +zeal to get their own forces ready for war and to take into their pay +Gallic bands, every nerve was strained also in Rome; the freedmen and +the married were formed into cohorts--it was felt on all hands that +the decisive crisis was near. The year 458 however passed away, +apparently, in armings and marchings. For the following year (459) +the Romans placed their two best generals, Publius Decius Mus and the +aged Quintus Fabius Rullianus, at the head of their army in Etruria, +which was reinforced with all the troops that could be spared from +Campania, and amounted to at least 60,000 men, of whom more than a +third were full burgesses of Rome. Besides this, two reserves were +formed, the first at Falerii, the second under the walls of the +capital. The rendezvous of the Italians was Umbria, towards which the +roads from the Gallic, Etruscan, and Sabellian territories converged; +towards Umbria the consuls also moved off their main force, partly +along the left, partly along the right bank of the Tiber, while at +the same time the first reserve made a movement towards Etruria, in +order if possible to recall the Etruscan troops from the main scene +of action for the defence of their homes. The first engagement did +not prove fortunate for the Romans; their advanced guard was defeated +by the combined Gauls and Samnites in the district of Chiusi. But +that diversion accomplished its object. Less magnanimous than the +Samnites, who had marched through the ruins of their towns that they +might not be absent from the chosen field of battle, a great part of +the Etruscan contingents withdrew from the federal army on the news +of the advance of the Roman reserve into Etruria, and its ranks +were greatly thinned when the decisive battle came to be fought on +the eastern declivity of the Apennines near Sentinum. + +Battle of Sentinum-- +Peace with Etruria + +Nevertheless it was a hotly contested day. On the right wing of +the Romans, where Rullianus with his two legions fought against the +Samnite army, the conflict remained long undecided. On the left, +which Publius Decius commanded, the Roman cavalry was thrown into +confusion by the Gallic war chariots, and the legions also already +began to give way. Then the consul called to him Marcus Livius the +priest, and bade him devote to the infernal gods both the head of +the Roman general and the army of the enemy; and plunging into the +thickest throng of the Gauls he sought death and found it. This +heroic deed of despair on the part of one so eminent as a man and so +beloved as a general was not in vain. The fugitive soldiers rallied; +the bravest threw themselves after their leader into the hostile +ranks, to avenge him or to die with him; and just at the right moment +the consular Lucius Scipio, despatched by Rullianus, appeared with the +Roman reserve on the imperilled left wing. The excellent Campanian +cavalry, which fell on the flank and rear of the Gauls, turned the +scale; the Gauls fled, and at length the Samnites also gave way, +their general Egnatius falling at the gate of the camp. Nine thousand +Romans strewed the field of battle; but dearly as the victory was +purchased, it was worthy of such a sacrifice. The army of the +coalition was dissolved, and with it the coalition itself; Umbria +remained in the power of the Romans, the Gauls dispersed, the remnant +of the Samnites still in compact order retreated homeward through the +Abruzzi. Campania, which the Samnites had overrun during the Etruscan +war, was after its close re-occupied with little difficulty by the +Romans. Etruria sued for peace in the following year (460); Volsinii, +Perusia, Arretium, and in general all the towns that had joined the +league against Rome, promised a cessation of hostilities for four +hundred months. + +Last Struggles of Samnium + +But the Samnites were of a different mind; they prepared for their +hopeless resistance with the courage of free men, which cannot +compel success but may put it to shame. When the two consular armies +advanced into Samnium, in the year 460, they encountered everywhere +the most desperate resistance; in fact Marcus Atilius was discomfited +near Luceria, and the Samnites were able to penetrate into Campania +and to lay waste the territory of the Roman colony Interamna on the +Liris. In the ensuing year Lucius Papirius Cursor, the son of the +hero of the first Samnite war, and Spurius Carvilius, gave battle on +a great scale near Aquilonia to the Samnite army, the flower of which +--the 16,000 in white tunics--had sworn a sacred oath to prefer death +to flight. Inexorable destiny, however, heeds neither the oaths nor +the supplications of despair; the Roman conquered and stormed the +strongholds where the Samnites had sought refuge for themselves and +their property. Even after this great defeat the confederates still +for years resisted the ever-increasing superiority of the enemy with +unparalleled perseverance in their fastnesses and mountains, and still +achieved various isolated advantages. The experienced arm of the old +Rullianus was once more called into the field against them (462), and +Gavius Pontius, a son perhaps of the victor of Caudium, even gained +for his nation a last victory, which the Romans meanly enough avenged +by causing him when subsequently taken to be executed in prison (463). +But there was no further symptom of movement in Italy; for the war, +which Falerii began in 461, scarcely deserves such a name. The +Samnites doubtless turned with longing eyes towards Tarentum, which +alone was still in a position to grant them aid; but it held aloof. +The same causes as before occasioned its inaction--internal +misgovernment, and the passing over of the Lucanians once more to the +Roman party in the year 456; to which fell to be added a not unfounded +dread of Agathocles of Syracuse, who just at that time had reached the +height of his power and began to turn his views towards Italy. +About 455 the latter established himself in Corcyra whence Cleonymus +had been expelled by Demetrius Poliorcetes, and now threatened the +Tarentines from the Adriatic as well as from the Ionian sea. +The cession of the island to king Pyrrhus of Epirus in 459 certainly +removed to a great extent the apprehensions which they had cherished; +but the affairs of Corcyra continued to occupy the Tarentines--in the +year 464, for instance, they helped to protect Pyrrhus in possession +of the island against Demetrius--and in like manner Agathocles did not +cease to give the Tarentines uneasiness by his Italian policy. When +he died (465) and with him the power of the Syracusans in Italy went +to wreck, it was too late; Samnium, weary of the thirty-seven years' +struggle, had concluded peace in the previous year (464) with the +Roman consul Manius Curius Dentatus, and had in form renewed its +league with Rome. On this occasion, as in the peace of 450, no +disgraceful or destructive conditions were imposed on the brave people +by the Romans; no cessions even of territory seem to have taken place. +The political sagacity of Rome preferred to follow the path which it +had hitherto pursued, and to attach in the first place the Campanian +and Adriatic coast more and more securely to Rome before proceeding to +the direct conquest of the interior. Campania, indeed, had been long +in subjection; but the far-seeing policy of Rome found it needful, in +order to secure the Campanian coast, to establish two coast-fortresses +there, Minturnae and Sinuessa (459), the new burgesses of which were +admitted according to the settled rule in the case of maritime +colonies to the full citizenship of Rome. With still greater energy +the extension of the Roman rule was prosecuted in central Italy. As +the subjugation of the Aequi and Hernici was the immediate sequel of +the first Samnite war, so that of the Sabines followed on the end of +the second. The same general, who ultimately subdued the Samnites, +Manius Curius broke down in the same year (464) the brief and feeble +resistance of the Sabines and forced them to unconditional surrender. +A great portion of the subjugated territory was immediately taken into +possession of the victors and distributed to Roman burgesses, and +Roman subject-rights (-civitas sine suffragio-) were imposed on the +communities that were left--Cures, Reate, Amiternum, Nursia. Allied +towns with equal rights were not established here; on the contrary the +country came under the immediate rule of Rome, which thus extended as +far as the Apennines and the Umbrian mountains. Nor was it even now +restricted to the territory on Rome's side of the mountains; the last +war had shown but too clearly that the Roman rule over central Italy +was only secured, if it reached from sea to sea. The establishment +of the Romans beyond the Apennines begins with the laying out of the +strong fortress of Atria (Atri) in the year 465, on the northern slope +of the Abruzzi towards the Picenian plain, not immediately on the +coast and hence with Latin rights, but still near to the sea, and the +keystone of the mighty wedge separating northern and southern Italy. +Of a similar nature and of still greater importance was the founding +of Venusia (463), whither the unprecedented number of 20,000 colonists +was conducted. That city, founded at the boundary of Samnium, Apulia, +and Lucania, on the great road between Tarentum and Samnium, in an +uncommonly strong position, was destined as a curb to keep in check +the surrounding tribes, and above all to interrupt the communications +between the two most powerful enemies of Rome in southern Italy. +Beyond doubt at the same time the southern highway, which Appius +Claudius had carried as far as Capua, was prolonged thence to Venusia. +Thus, at the close of the Samnite wars, the Roman domain closely +compact--that is, consisting almost exclusively of communities with +Roman or Latin rights--extended on the north to the Ciminian Forest, +on the east to the Abruzzi and to the Adriatic, on the south as far as +Capua, while the two advanced posts, Luceria and Venusia, established +towards the east and south on the lines of communication of their +opponents, isolated them on every side. Rome was no longer merely the +first, but was already the ruling power in the peninsula, when towards +the end of the fifth century of the city those nations, which had been +raised to supremacy in their respective lands by the favour of the +gods and by their own capacity, began to come into contact in council +and on the battle-field; and, as at Olympia the preliminary victors +girt themselves for a second and more serious struggle, so on the +larger arena of the nations, Carthage, Macedonia, and Rome now +prepared for the final and decisive contest. + + + + +Notes for Book II Chapter VI + + +1. It may not be superfluous to mention that our knowledge Archidamus +and Alexander is derived from Greek annals, and that the synchronism +between these and the Roman is in reference to the present epoch only +approximately established. We must beware, therefore, of pursuing too +far into detail the unmistakable general connection between the events +in the west and those in the east of Italy. + +2. These were not the inhabitants of Satricum near Antium (II. V. +League with The Hernici), but those of another Volscian town +constituted at that time as a Roman burgess-community without right +of voting, near Arpinum. + +3. That a formal armistice for two years subsisted between the Romans +and Samnites in 436-437 is more than improbable. + +4. The operations in the campaign of 537, and still more plainly the +formation of the highway from Arretium to Bononia in 567, show that +the road from Rome to Arretium had already been rendered serviceable +before that time. But it cannot at that period have been a Roman +military road, because, judging from its later appellation of the +"Cassian way," it cannot have been constructed as a -via consularis- +earlier than 583; for no Cassian appears in the lists of Roman consuls +and censors between Spurius Cassius, consul in 252, 261, and 268--who +of course is out of the question--and Gaius Cassius Longinus, consul +in 583. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +Struggle between Pyrrhus and Rome, and Union of Italy + + +Relations between the East and West + +After Rome had acquired the undisputed mastery of the world, the +Greeks were wont to annoy their Roman masters by the assertion that +Rome was indebted for her greatness to the fever of which Alexander of +Macedonia died at Babylon on the 11th of June, 431. As it was not too +agreeable for them to reflect on the actual past, they were fond of +allowing their thoughts to dwell on what might have happened, had the +great king turned his arms--as was said to have been his intention at +the time of his death--towards the west and contested the Carthaginian +supremacy by sea with his fleet, and the Roman supremacy by land with +his phalanxes. It is not impossible that Alexander may have cherished +such thoughts; nor is it necessary to resort for an explanation of +their origin to the mere difficulty which an autocrat, who is fond +of war and is well provided with soldiers and ships, experiences in +setting limits to his warlike career. It was an enterprise worthy of +a Greek great king to protect the Siceliots against Carthage and the +Tarentines against Rome, and to put an end to piracy on either sea; +and the Italian embassies from the Bruttians, Lucanians, and +Etruscans,(1) that along with numerous others made their appearance at +Babylon, afforded him sufficient opportunities of becoming acquainted +with the circumstances of the peninsula and of entering into relations +with it. Carthage with its many connections in the east could not but +attract the attention of the mighty monarch, and it was probably one +of his designs to convert the nominal sovereignty of the Persian king +over the Tyrian colony into a real one: it was not for nothing that +a Phoenician spy was found in the retinue of Alexander. Whether, +however, these ideas were dreams or actual projects, the king died +without having interfered in the affairs of the west, and his ideas +were buried with him. For but a few brief years a Greek ruler had +held in his hand the whole intellectual vigour of the Hellenic race +combined with the whole material resources of the east. On his death +the work to which his life had been devoted--the establishment of +Hellenism in the east--was by no means undone; but his empire had +barely been united when it was again dismembered, and, amidst the +constant quarrels of the different states that were formed out of +its ruins, the object of world-wide interest which they were destined +to promote--the diffusion of Greek culture in the east--though not +abandoned, was prosecuted on a feeble and stunted scale. Under such +circumstances, neither the Greek nor the Asiatico-Egyptian states +could think of acquiring a footing in the west or of turning their +efforts against the Romans or the Carthaginians. The eastern and +western state-systems subsisted side by side for a time without +crossing, politically, each other's path; and Rome in particular +remained substantially aloof from the complications in the days +of Alexander's successors. The only relations established were of +a mercantile kind; as in the instance of the free state of Rhodes, +the leading representative of the policy of commercial neutrality in +Greece and in consequence the universal medium of intercourse in an +age of perpetual wars, which about 448 concluded a treaty with Rome +--a commercial convention of course, such as was natural between a +mercantile people and the masters of the Caerite and Campanian +coasts. Even in the supply of mercenaries from Hellas, the universal +recruiting field of those times, to Italy, and to Tarentum in +particular, political relations--such as subsisted, for instance, +between Tarentum and Sparta its mother-city--exercised but a very +subordinate influence. In general the raising of mercenaries was +simply a matter of traffic, and Sparta, although it regularly supplied +the Tarentines with captains for their Italian wars, was by that +course as little involved in hostilities with the Italians, as in the +North American war of independence the German states were involved in +hostilities with the Union, to whose opponents they sold the services +of their subjects. + +The Historical Position of Pyrrhus + +Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, was himself simply a military adventurer. +He was none the less a soldier of fortune that he traced back his +pedigree to Aeacus and Achilles, and that, had he been more peacefully +disposed, he might have lived and died as "king" of a small mountain +tribe under the supremacy of Macedonia or perhaps in isolated +independence. He has been compared to Alexander of Macedonia; and +certainly the idea of founding a Hellenic empire of the west--which +would have had as its core Epirus, Magna Graecia, and Sicily, would +have commanded both the Italian seas, and would have reduced Rome and +Carthage to the rank of barbarian peoples bordering on the Hellenistic +state-system, like the Celts and the Indians--was analogous in +greatness and boldness to the idea which led the Macedonian king over +the Hellespont. But it was not the mere difference of issue that +formed the distinction between the expedition to the east and that +to the west. Alexander with his Macedonian army, in which the +staff especially was excellent, could fully make head against the +great-king; but the king of Epirus, which stood by the side of +Macedonia somewhat as Hesse by the side of Prussia, could only raise +an army worthy of the name by means of mercenaries and of alliances +based on accidental political combinations. Alexander made his +appearance in the Persian empire as a conqueror; Pyrrhus appeared in +Italy as the general of a coalition of secondary states. Alexander +left his hereditary dominions completely secured by the unconditional +subjection of Greece, and by the strong army that remained behind +under Antipater; Pyrrhus had no security for the integrity of his +native dominions but the word of a doubtful neighbour. In the case +of both conquerors, if their plans should be crowned with success, +their native country would necessarily cease to be the centre of +their new empire; but it was far more practicable to transfer the +seat of the Macedonian military monarchy to Babylon than to found a +soldier-dynasty in Tarentum or Syracuse. The democracy of the Greek +republics--perpetual agony though it was--could not be at all coerced +into the stiff forms of a military state; Philip had good reason for +not incorporating the Greek republics with his empire. In the east no +national resistance was to be expected; ruling and subject races had +long lived there side by side, and a change of despot was a matter of +indifference or even of satisfaction to the mass of the population. +In the west the Romans, the Samnites, the Carthaginians, might be +vanquished; but no conqueror could have transformed the Italians +into Egyptian fellahs, or rendered the Roman farmers tributaries of +Hellenic barons. Whatever we take into view--whether their own power, +their allies, or the resources of their antagonists--in all points the +plan of the Macedonian appears as a feasible, that of the Epirot an +impracticable, enterprise; the former as the completion of a great +historical task, the latter as a remarkable blunder; the former as +the foundation of a new system of states and of a new phase of +civilization, the latter as a mere episode in history. The work of +Alexander outlived him, although its creator met an untimely death; +Pyrrhus saw with his own eyes the wreck of all his plans, ere death +called him away. Both were by nature daring and great, but Pyrrhus +was only the foremost general, Alexander was eminently the most gifted +statesman, of his time; and, if it is insight into what is and what is +not possible that distinguishes the hero from the adventurer, Pyrrhus +must be numbered among the latter class, and may as little be placed +on a parallel with his greater kinsman as the Constable of Bourbon may +be put in comparison with Louis the Eleventh. + +And yet a wondrous charm attaches to the name of the Epirot--a +peculiar sympathy, evoked certainly in some degree by his chivalrous +and amiable character, but still more by the circumstance that he +was the first Greek that met the Romans in battle. With him began +those direct relations between Rome and Hellas, on which the whole +subsequent development of ancient, and an essential part of modern, +civilization are based. The struggle between phalanxes and cohorts, +between a mercenary army and a militia, between military monarchy and +senatorial government, between individual talent and national vigour +--this struggle between Rome and Hellenism was first fought out in +the battles between Pyrrhus and the Roman generals; and though the +defeated party often afterwards appealed anew to the arbitration of +arms, every succeeding day of battle simply confirmed the decision. +But while the Greeks were beaten in the battlefield as well as in +the senate-hall, their superiority was none the less decided on every +other field of rivalry than that of politics; and these very struggles +already betokened that the victory of Rome over the Hellenes would be +different from her victories over Gauls and Phoenicians, and that the +charm of Aphrodite only begins to work when the lance is broken and +the helmet and shield are laid aside. + +Character and Earlier History of Pyrrhus + +King Pyrrhus was the son of Aeacides, ruler of the Molossians (about +Janina), who, spared as a kinsman and faithful vassal by Alexander, +had been after his death drawn into the whirlpool of Macedonian +family-politics, and lost in it first his kingdom and then his life +(441). His son, then six years of age, was saved by Glaucias the +ruler of the Illyrian Taulantii, and in the course of the conflicts +for the possession of Macedonia he was, when still a boy, restored by +Demetrius Poliorcetes to his hereditary principality (447)--but only +to lose it again after a few years through the influence of the +opposite party (about 452), and to begin his military career as an +exiled prince in the train of the Macedonian generals. Soon his +personality asserted itself. He shared in the last campaigns of +Antigonus; and the old marshal of Alexander took delight in the born +soldier, who in the judgment of the grey-headed general only wanted +years to be already the first warrior of the age. The unfortunate +battle at Ipsus brought him as a hostage to Alexandria, to the court +of the founder of the Lagid dynasty, where by his daring and downright +character, and his soldierly spirit thoroughly despising everything +that was not military, he attracted the attention of the politic king +Ptolemy no less than he attracted the notice of the royal ladies by +his manly beauty, which was not impaired by his wild look and stately +tread. Just at this time the enterprising Demetrius was once more +establishing himself in a new kingdom, which on this occasion was +Macedonia; of course with the intention of using it as a lever to +revive the monarchy of Alexander. To keep down his ambitious designs, +it was important to give him employment at home; and Ptolemy, who knew +how to make admirable use of such fiery spirits as the Epirot youth in +the prosecution of his subtle policy, not only met the wishes of his +consort queen Berenice, but also promoted his own ends, by giving his +stepdaughter the princess Antigone in marriage to the young prince, +and lending his aid and powerful influence to support the return of +his beloved "son" to his native land (458). Restored to his paternal +kingdom, he soon carried all before him. The brave Epirots, the +Albanians of antiquity, clung with hereditary loyalty and fresh +enthusiasm to the high-spirited youth--the "eagle," as they called +him. In the confusion that arose regarding the succession to the +Macedonian throne after the death of Cassander (457), the Epirot +extended his dominions: step by step he gained the regions on the +Ambracian gulf with the important town of Ambracia, the island of +Corcyra,(2) and even a part of the Macedonian territory, and with +forces far inferior he made head against king Demetrius to the +admiration of the Macedonians themselves. Indeed, when Demetrius was +by his own folly hurled from the Macedonian throne, it was voluntarily +proffered by them to his chivalrous opponent, a kinsman of the +Alexandrid house (467). No one was in reality worthier than Pyrrhus +to wear the royal diadem of Philip and of Alexander. In an age of +deep depravity, in which princely rank and baseness began to be +synonymous, the personally unspotted and morally pure character of +Pyrrhus shone conspicuous. For the free farmers of the hereditary +Macedonian soil, who, although diminished and impoverished, were +far from sharing in that decay of morals and of valour which the +government of the Diadochi produced in Greece and Asia, Pyrrhus +appeared exactly formed to be the fitting king, --Pyrrhus, who, +like Alexander, in his household and in the circle of his friends +preserved a heart open to all human sympathies, and constantly +avoided the bearing of an Oriental sultan which was so odious to the +Macedonians; and who, like Alexander, was acknowledged to be the first +tactician of his time. But the singularly overstrained national +feeling of the Macedonians, which preferred the most paltry Macedonian +sovereign to the ablest foreigner, and the irrational insubordination +of the Macedonian troops towards every non-Macedonian leader, to which +Eumenes the Cardian, the greatest general of the school of Alexander, +had fallen a victim, put a speedy termination to the rule of the +prince of Epirus. Pyrrhus, who could not exercise sovereignty over +Macedonia with the consent of the Macedonians, and who was too +powerless and perhaps too high spirited to force himself on the nation +against its will, after reigning seven months left the country to its +native misgovernment, and went home to his faithful Epirots (467). +But the man who had worn the crown of Alexander, the brother-in-law +of Demetrius, the son-in-law of Ptolemy Lagides and of Agathocles +of Syracuse, the highly-trained tactician who wrote memoirs and +scientific dissertations on the military art, could not possibly end +his days in inspecting at a set time yearly the accounts of the royal +cattle steward, in receiving from his brave Epirots their customary +gifts of oxen and sheep, in thereupon, at the altar of Zeus, procuring +the renewal of their oath of allegiance and repeating his own +engagement to respect the laws, and--for the better confirmation of +the whole--in carousing with them all night long. If there was no +place for him on the throne of Macedonia, there was no abiding in the +land of his nativity at all; he was fitted for the first place, and +he could not be content with the second. His views therefore turned +abroad. The kings, who were quarrelling for the possession of +Macedonia, although agreeing in nothing else, were ready and glad to +concur in aiding the voluntary departure of their dangerous rival; and +that his faithful war-comrades would follow him where-ever he led, he +knew full well. Just at that time the circumstances of Italy were +such, that the project which had been meditated forty years before by +Pyrrhus's kinsman, his father's cousin, Alexander of Epirus, and quite +recently by his father-in-law Agathocles, once more seemed feasible; +and so Pyrrhus resolved to abandon his Macedonian schemes and to found +for himself and for the Hellenic nation a new empire in the west. + +Rising of the Italians against Rome-- +The Lucanians-- +The Etruscans and Celts-- +The Samnites-- +The Senones Annihilated + +The interval of repose, which the peace with Samnium in 464 had +procured for Italy, was of brief duration; the impulse which led to +the formation of a new league against Roman ascendency came on this +occasion from the Lucanians. This people, by taking part with Rome +during the Samnite wars, paralyzed the action of the Tarentines and +essentially contributed to the decisive issue; and in consideration of +their services, the Romans gave up to them the Greek cities in their +territory. Accordingly after the conclusion of peace they had, in +concert with the Bruttians, set themselves to subdue these cities in +succession. The Thurines, repeatedly assailed by Stenius Statilius +the general of the Lucanians and reduced to extremities, applied for +assistance against the Lucanians to the Roman senate--just as formerly +the Campanians had asked the aid of Rome against the Samnites--and +beyond doubt with a like sacrifice of their liberty and independence. +In consequence of the founding of the fortress Venusia, Rome could +dispense with the alliance of the Lucanians; so the Romans granted +the prayer of the Thurines, and enjoined their friends and allies to +desist from their designs on a city which had surrendered itself to +Rome. The Lucanians and Bruttians, thus cheated by their more +powerful allies of their share in the common spoil, entered into +negotiations with the opposition-party among the Samnites and +Tarentines to bring about a new Italian coalition; and when the Romans +sent an embassy to warn them, they detained the envoys in captivity +and began the war against Rome with a new attack on Thurii (about +469), while at the same time they invited not only the Samnites and +Tarentines, but the northern Italians also--the Etruscans, Umbrians, +and Gauls--to join them in the struggle for freedom. The Etruscan +league actually revolted, and hired numerous bands of Gauls; the Roman +army, which the praetor Lucius Caecilius was leading to the help of +the Arretines who had remained faithful, was annihilated under the +walls of Arretium by the Senonian mercenaries of the Etruscans: the +general himself fell with 13,000 of his men (470). The Senones were +reckoned allies of Rome; the Romans accordingly sent envoys to them to +complain of their furnishing warriors to serve against Rome, and to +require the surrender of their captives without ransom. But by the +command of their chieftain Britomaris, who had to take vengeance on +the Romans for the death of his father, the Senones slew the Roman +envoys and openly took the Etruscan side. All the north of Italy, +Etruscans, Umbrians, Gauls, were thus in arms against Rome; great +results might be achieved, if its southern provinces also should +seize the moment and declare, so far as they had not already done so, +against Rome. In fact the Samnites, ever ready to make a stand on +behalf of liberty, appear to have declared war against the Romans; but +weakened and hemmed in on all sides as they were, they could be of +little service to the league; and Tarentum manifested its wonted +delay. While her antagonists were negotiating alliances, settling +treaties as to subsidies, and collecting mercenaries, Rome was acting. +The Senones were first made to feel how dangerous it was to gain a +victory over the Romans. The consul Publius Cornelius Dolabella +advanced with a strong army into their territory; all that were not +put to the sword were driven forth from the land, and this tribe was +erased from the list of the Italian nations (471). In the case of a +people subsisting chiefly on its flocks and herds such an expulsion +en masse was quite practicable; and the Senones thus expelled from +Italy probably helped to make up the Gallic hosts which soon after +inundated the countries of the Danube, Macedonia, Greece, and Asia +Minor. + +The Boii + +The next neighbours and kinsmen of the Senones, the Boii, terrified +and exasperated by a catastrophe which had been accomplished with so +fearful a rapidity, united instantaneously with the Etruscans, who +still continued the war, and whose Senonian mercenaries now fought +against the Romans no longer as hirelings, but as desperate avengers +of their native land. A powerful Etrusco-Gallic army marched against +Rome to retaliate the annihilation of the Senonian tribe on the +enemy's capital, and to extirpate Rome from the face of the earth more +completely than had been formerly done by the chieftain of these same +Senones. But the combined army was decidedly defeated by the Romans +at its passage of the Tiber in the neighbourhood of the Vadimonian +lake (471). After they had once more in the following year risked a +general engagement near Populonia with no better success, the Boii +deserted their confederates and concluded a peace on their own account +with the Romans (472). Thus the Gauls, the most formidable member of +the league, were conquered in detail before the league was fully +formed, and by that means the hands of Rome were left free to act +against Lower Italy, where during the years 469-471 the contest had +not been carried on with any vigour. Hitherto the weak Roman army had +with difficulty maintained itself in Thurii against the Lucanians and +Bruttians; but now (472) the consul Gaius Fabricius Luscinus appeared +with a strong army in front of the town, relieved it, defeated the +Lucanians in a great engagement, and took their general Statilius +prisoner. The smaller non-Doric Greek towns, recognizing the Romans +as their deliverers, everywhere voluntarily joined them. Roman +garrisons were left behind in the most important places, in Locri, +Croton, Thurii, and especially in Rhegium, on which latter town the +Carthaginians seem also to have had designs. Everywhere Rome had most +decidedly the advantage. The annihilation of the Senones had given to +the Romans a considerable tract of the Adriatic coast. With a view, +doubtless, to the smouldering feud with Tarentum and the already +threatened invasion of the Epirots, they hastened to make themselves +sure of this coast as well as of the Adriatic sea. A burgess colony +was sent out (about 471) to the seaport of Sena (Sinigaglia), the +former capital of the Senonian territory; and at the same time a Roman +fleet sailed from the Tyrrhene sea into the eastern waters, manifestly +for the purpose of being stationed in the Adriatic and of protecting +the Roman possessions there. + +Breach between Rome and Tarentum + +The Tarentines since the treaty of 450 had lived at peace with Rome. +They had been spectators of the long struggle of the Samnites, and of +the rapid extirpation of the Senones; they had acquiesced without +remonstrance in the establishment of Venusia, Atria, and Sena, and in +the occupation of Thurii and of Rhegium. But when the Roman fleet, on +its voyage from the Tyrrhene to the Adriatic sea, now arrived in the +Tarentine waters and cast anchor in the harbour of the friendly city, +the long, cherished resentment at length overflowed. Old treaties, +which prohibited the war-vessels of Rome from sailing to the east of +the Lacinian promontory, were appealed to by popular orators in the +assembly of the citizens. A furious mob fell upon the Roman ships of +war, which, assailed suddenly in a piratical fashion, succumbed after +a sharp struggle; five ships were taken and their crews executed +or sold into slavery; the Roman admiral himself had fallen in the +engagement. Only the supreme folly and supreme unscrupulousness of +mob-rule can account for those disgraceful proceedings. The treaties +referred to belonged to a period long past and forgotten; it is clear +that they no longer had any meaning, at least subsequently to the +founding of Atria and Sena, and that the Romans entered the bay on +the faith of the existing alliance; indeed, it was very much their +interest--as the further course of things showed--to afford the +Tarentines no sort of pretext for declaring war. In declaring war +against Rome--if such was their wish--the statesmen of Tarentum were +only doing what they should have done long before; and if they +preferred to rest their declaration of war upon the formal pretext +of a breach of treaty rather than upon the real ground, no further +objection could be taken to that course, seeing that diplomacy has +always reckoned it beneath its dignity to speak the plain truth in +plain language. But to make an armed attack upon the fleet without +warning, instead of summoning the admiral to retrace his course, was +a foolish no less than a barbarous act--one of those horrible +barbarities of civilization, when moral principle suddenly forsakes +the helm and the merest coarseness emerges in its room, as if to warn +us against the childish belief that civilization is able to extirpate +brutality from human nature. + +And, as if what they had done had not been enough, the Tarentines +after this heroic feat attacked Thurii, the Roman garrison of which +capitulated in consequence of the surprise (in the winter of 472-473); +and inflicted: severe chastisement on the Thurines--the same, whom +Tarentine policy had abandoned to the Lucanians and thereby forcibly +constrained into surrender to Rome--for their desertion from the +Hellenic party to the barbarians. + +Attempts at Peace + +The barbarians, however, acted with a moderation which, considering +their power and the provocation they had received, excites +astonishment. It was the interest of Rome to maintain as long as +possible the Tarentine neutrality, and the leading men in the senate +accordingly rejected the proposal, which a minority had with natural +resentment submitted, to declare war at once against the Tarentines. +In fact, the continuance of peace on the part of Rome was proffered on +the most moderate terms consistent with her honour--the release of the +captives, the restoration of Thurii, the surrender of the originators +of the attack on the fleet. A Roman embassy proceeded with these +proposals to Tarentum (473), while at the same time, to add weight to +their words, a Roman army under the consul Lucius Aemilius advanced +into Samnium. The Tarentines could, without forfeiting aught of +their independence, accept these terms; and considering the little +inclination for war in so wealthy a commercial city, the Romans had +reason to presume that an accommodation was still possible. But the +attempt to preserve peace failed, whether through the opposition +of those Tarentines who recognized the necessity of meeting the +aggressions of Rome, the sooner the better, by a resort to arms, +or merely through the unruliness of the city rabble, which with +characteristic Greek naughtiness subjected the person of the envoy +to an unworthy insult. The consul now advanced into the Tarentine +territory; but instead of immediately commencing hostilities, he +offered once more the same terms of peace; and, when this proved in +vain, he began to lay waste the fields and country houses, and he +defeated the civic militia. The principal persons captured, however, +were released without ransom; and the hope was not abandoned that the +pressure of war would give to the aristocratic party ascendency in the +city and so bring about peace. The reason of this reserve was, that +the Romans were unwilling to drive the city into the arms of the +Epirot king. His designs on Italy were no longer a secret. A +Tarentine embassy had already gone to Pyrrhus and returned without +having accomplished its object. The king had demanded more than it +had powers to grant. It was necessary that they should come to a +decision. That the civic militia knew only how to run away from the +Romans, had been made sufficiently clear. There remained only the +choice between a peace with Rome, which the Romans still were ready +to agree to on equitable terms, and a treaty with Pyrrhus on any +condition that the king might think proper; or, in other words, the +choice between submission to the supremacy of Rome, and subjection +to the --tyrannis-- of a Greek soldier. + +Pyrrhus Summoned to Italy + +The parties in the city were almost equally balanced. At length the +ascendency remained with the national party--a result, that was due +partly to the justifiable predilection which led them, if they must +yield to a master at all, to prefer a Greek to a barbarian, but partly +also to the dread of the demagogues that Rome, notwithstanding the +moderation now forced upon it by circumstances, would not neglect on a +fitting opportunity to exact vengeance for the outrages perpetrated +by the Tarentine rabble. The city, accordingly, came to terms with +Pyrrhus. He obtained the supreme command of the troops of the +Tarentines and of the other Italians in arms against Rome, along with +the right of keeping a garrison in Tarentum. The expenses of the war +were, of course, to be borne by the city. Pyrrhus, on the other hand, +promised to remain no longer in Italy than was necessary; probably +with the tacit reservation that his own judgment should fix the time +during which he would be needed there. Nevertheless, the prey had +almost slipped out of his hands. While the Tarentine envoys--the +chiefs, no doubt, of the war party--were absent in Epirus, the state +of feeling in the city, now hard pressed by the Romans, underwent +a change. The chief command was already entrusted to Agis, a man +favourable to Rome, when the return of the envoys with the concluded +treaty, accompanied by Cineas the confidential minister of Pyrrhus, +again brought the war party to the helm. + +Landing of Pyrrhus + +A firmer hand now grasped the reins, and put an end to the pitiful +vacillation. In the autumn of 473 Milo, the general of Pyrrhus, +landed with 3000 Epirots and occupied the citadel of the town. +He was followed in the beginning of the year 474 by the king himself, +who landed after a stormy passage in which many lives were lost. +He transported to Tarentum a respectable but miscellaneous army, +consisting partly of the household troops, Molossians, Thesprotians, +Chaonians, and Ambraciots; partly of the Macedonian infantry and the +Thessalian cavalry, which Ptolemy king of Macedonia had conformably to +stipulation handed over to him; partly of Aetolian, Acarnanian, and +Athamanian mercenaries. Altogether it numbered 20,000 phalangitae, +2000 archers, 500 slingers, 3000 cavalry, and 20 elephants, and thus +was not much smaller than the army with which fifty years before +Alexander had crossed the Hellespont + +Pyrrhus and the Coalition + +The affairs of the coalition were in no very favourable state when the +king arrived. The Roman consul indeed, as soon as he saw the soldiers +of Milo taking the field against him instead of the Tarentine militia, +had abandoned the attack on Tarentum and retreated to Apulia; but, +with the exception of the territory of Tarentum, the Romans virtually +ruled all Italy. The coalition had no army in the field anywhere in +Lower Italy; and in Upper Italy the Etruscans, who alone were still +in arms, had in the last campaign (473) met with nothing but defeat. +The allies had, before the king embarked, committed to him the chief +command of all their troops, and declared that they were able to place +in the field an army of 350,000 infantry and 20,000 cavalry. The +reality formed a sad contrast to these great promises. The army, +whose chief command had been committed to Pyrrhus, had still to be +created; and for the time being the main resources available for +forming it were those of Tarentum alone. The king gave orders for +the enlisting of an army of Italian mercenaries with Tarentine money, +and called out the able-bodied citizens to serve in the war. But the +Tarentines had not so understood the agreement. They had thought to +purchase victory, like any other commodity, with money; it was a sort +of breach of contract, that the king should compel them to fight for +it themselves. The more glad the citizens had been at first after +Milo's arrival to be quit of the burdensome service of mounting guard, +the more unwillingly they now rallied to the standards of the king: +it was necessary to threaten the negligent with the penalty of death. +This result now justified the peace party in the eyes of all, and +communications were entered into, or at any rate appeared to have been +entered into, even with Rome. Pyrrhus, prepared for such opposition, +immediately treated Tarentum as a conquered city; soldiers were +quartered in the houses, the assemblies of the people and the numerous +clubs (--sussitia--) were suspended, the theatre was shut, the +promenades were closed, and the gates were occupied with Epirot +guards. A number of the leading men were sent over the sea as +hostages; others escaped the like fate by flight to Rome. These +strict measures were necessary, for it was absolutely impossible in +any sense to rely upon the Tarentines. It was only now that the king, +in possession of that important city as a basis, could begin +operations in the field. + +Preparations in Rome-- +Commencement of the Conflict in Lower Italy + +The Romans too were well aware of the conflict which awaited them. In +order first of all to secure the fidelity of their allies or, in other +words, of their subjects, the towns that could not be depended on were +garrisoned, and the leaders of the party of independence, where it +seemed needful, were arrested or executed: such was the case with a +number of the members of the senate of Praeneste. For the war itself +great exertions were made; a war contribution was levied; the full +contingent was called forth from all their subjects and allies; even +the proletarians who were properly exempt from obligation of service +were called to arms. A Roman army remained as a reserve in the +capital. A second advanced under the consul Tiberius Coruncanius +into Etruria, and dispersed the forces of Volci and Volsinii. The +main force was of course destined for Lower Italy; its departure was +hastened as much as possible, in order to reach Pyrrhus while still +in the territory of Tarentum, and to prevent him and his forces from +forming a junction with the Samnites and other south Italian levies +that were in arms against Rome. The Roman garrisons, that were placed +in the Greek towns of Lower Italy, were intended temporarily to check +the king's progress. But the mutiny of the troops stationed in +Rhegium--one of the legions levied from the Campanian subjects of +Rome under a Campanian captain Decius--deprived the Romans of that +important town. It was not, however, transferred to the hands of +Pyrrhus. While on the one hand the national hatred of the Campanians +against the Romans undoubtedly contributed to produce this military +insurrection, it was impossible on the other hand that Pyrrhus, who +had crossed the sea to shield and protect the Hellenes, could receive +as his allies troops who had put to death their Rhegine hosts in their +own houses. Thus they remained isolated, in close league with their +kinsmen and comrades in crime, the Mamertines, that is, the Campanian +mercenaries of Agathocles, who had by similar means gained possession +of Messana on the opposite side of the straits; and they pillaged and +laid waste for their own behoof the adjacent Greek towns, such as +Croton, where they put to death the Roman garrison, and Caulonia, +which they destroyed. On the other hand the Romans succeeded, by +means of a weak corps which advanced along the Lucanian frontier and +of the garrison of Venusia, in preventing the Lucanians and Samnites +from uniting with Pyrrhus; while the main force--four legions as it +would appear, and so, with a corresponding number of allied troops, at +least 50,000 strong--marched against Pyrrhus, under the consul Publius +Laevinus. + +Battle near Heraclea + +With a view to cover the Tarentine colony of Heraclea, the king had +taken up a position with his own and the Tarentine troops between that +city and Pandosia (3) (474). The Romans, covered by their cavalry, +forced the passage of the Siris, and opened the battle with a +vehement and successful cavalry charge; the king, who led his +cavalry in person, was thrown from his horse, and the Greek horsemen, +panic-struck by the disappearance of their leader, abandoned the field +to the squadrons of the enemy. Pyrrhus, however, put himself at the +head of his infantry, and began a fresh and more decisive engagement. +Seven times the legions and the phalanx met in shock of battle, and +still the conflict was undecided. Then Megacles, one of the best +officers of the king, fell, and, because on this hotly-contested day +he had worn the king's armour, the army for the second time believed +that the king had fallen; the ranks wavered; Laevinus already felt +sure of the victory and threw the whole of his cavalry on the flank of +the Greeks. But Pyrrhus, marching with uncovered head through the +ranks of the infantry, revived the sinking courage of his troops. +The elephants which had hitherto been kept in reserve were brought up +to meet the cavalry; the horses took fright at them; the soldiers, not +knowing how to encounter the huge beasts, turned and fled; the masses +of disordered horsemen and the pursuing elephants at length broke the +compact ranks of the Roman infantry, and the elephants in concert with +the excellent Thessalian cavalry wrought great slaughter among the +fugitives. Had not a brave Roman soldier, Gaius Minucius, the first +hastate of the fourth legion, wounded one of the elephants and thereby +thrown the pursuing troops into confusion, the Roman army would have +been extirpated; as it was, the remainder of the Roman troops +succeeded in retreating across the Siris. Their loss was great; 7000 +Romans were found by the victors dead or wounded on the field of +battle, 2000 were brought in prisoners; the Romans themselves stated +their loss, including probably the wounded carried off the field, at +15,000 men. But Pyrrhus's army had suffered not much less: nearly +4000 of his best soldiers strewed the field of battle, and several of +his ablest captains had fallen. Considering that his loss fell +chiefly on the veteran soldiers who were far more difficult to be +replaced than the Roman militia, and that he owed his victory only to +the surprise produced by the attack of the elephants which could not +be often repeated, the king, skilful judge of tactics as he was, may +well at an after period have described this victory as resembling a +defeat; although he was not so foolish as to communicate that piece of +self-criticism to the public--as the Roman poets afterwards invented +the story--in the inscription of the votive offering presented by him +at Tarentum. Politically it mattered little in the first instance at +what sacrifices the victory was bought; the gain of the first battle +against the Romans was of inestimable value for Pyrrhus. His talents +as a general had been brilliantly displayed on this new field of +battle, and if anything could breathe unity and energy into the +languishing league of the Italians, the victory of Heraclea could not +fail to do so. But even the immediate results of the victory were +considerable and lasting. Lucania was lost to the Romans: Laevinus +collected the troops stationed there and marched to Apulia, The +Bruttians, Lucanians, and Samnites joined Pyrrhus unmolested. With +the exception of Rhegium, which pined under the oppression of the +Campanian mutineers, the whole of the Greek cities joined the king, +and Locri even voluntarily delivered up to him the Roman garrison; in +his case they were persuaded, and with reason, that they would not be +abandoned to the Italians. The Sabellians and Greeks thus passed over +to Pyrrhus; but the victory produced no further effect. The Latins +showed no inclination to get quit of the Roman rule, burdensome as it +might be, by the help of a foreign dynast. Venusia, although now +wholly surrounded by enemies, adhered with unshaken steadfastness to +Rome. Pyrrhus proposed to the prisoners taken on the Siris, whose +brave demeanour the chivalrous king requited by the most honourable +treatment, that they should enter his army in accordance with +the Greek fashion; but he learned that he was fighting not with +mercenaries, but with a nation. Not one, either Roman or Latin, +took service with him. + +Attempts at Peace + +Pyrrhus offered peace to the Romans. He was too sagacious a soldier +not to recognize the precariousness of his footing, and too skilled a +statesman not to profit opportunely by the moment which placed him in +the most favourable position for the conclusion of peace. He now +hoped that under the first impression made by the great battle on the +Romans he should be able to secure the freedom of the Greek towns in +Italy, and to call into existence between them and Rome a series of +states of the second and third order as dependent allies of the new +Greek power; for such was the tenor of his demands: the release of all +Greek towns--and therefore of the Campanian and Lucanian towns in +particular--from allegiance to Rome, and restitution of the territory +taken from the Samnites, Daunians, Lucanians, and Bruttians, or in +other words especially the surrender of Luceria and Venusia. If a +further struggle with Rome could hardly be avoided, it was not +desirable at any rate to begin it till the western Hellenes should +be united under one ruler, till Sicily should be acquired and perhaps +Africa be conquered. + +Provided with such instructions, the Thessalian Cineas, the +confidential minister of Pyrrhus, went to Rome. That dexterous +negotiator, whom his contemporaries compared to Demosthenes so far as +a rhetorician might be compared to a statesman and the minister of a +sovereign to a popular leader, had orders to display by every means +the respect which the victor of Heraclea really felt for his +vanquished opponents, to make known the wish of the king to come to +Rome in person, to influence men's minds in the king's favour by +panegyrics which sound so well in the mouth of an enemy, by earnest +flatteries, and, as opportunity offered, also by well-timed gifts--in +short to try upon the Romans all the arts of cabinet policy, as they +had been tested at the courts of Alexandria and Antioch. The senate +hesitated; to many it seemed a prudent course to draw back a step and +to wait till their dangerous antagonist should have further entangled +himself or should be no more. But the grey-haired and blind consular +Appius Claudius (censor 442, consul 447, 458), who had long withdrawn +from state affairs but had himself conducted at this decisive moment +to the senate, breathed the unbroken energy of his own vehement nature +with words of fire into the souls of the younger generation. They +gave to the message of the king the proud reply, which was first heard +on this occasion and became thenceforth a maxim of the state, that +Rome never negotiated so long as there were foreign troops on Italian +ground; and to make good their words they dismissed the ambassador at +once from the city. The object of the mission had failed, and +the dexterous diplomatist, instead of producing an effect by his +oratorical art, had on the contrary been himself impressed by such +manly earnestness after so severe a defeat--he declared at home that +every burgess in that city had seemed to him a king; in truth, the +courtier had gained a sight of a free people. + +Pyrrhus Marches against Rome + +Pyrrhus, who during these negotiations had advanced into Campania, +immediately on the news of their being broken off marched against +Rome, to co-operate with the Etruscans, to shake the allies of Rome, +and to threaten the city itself. But the Romans as little allowed +themselves to be terrified as cajoled. At the summons of the herald +"to enrol in the room of the fallen," the young men immediately after +the battle of Heraclea had pressed forward in crowds to enlist; with +the two newly-formed legions and the corps withdrawn from Lucania, +Laevinus, stronger than before, followed the march of the king. He +protected Capua against him, and frustrated his endeavours to enter +into communications with Neapolis. So firm was the attitude of the +Romans that, excepting the Greeks of Lower Italy, no allied state of +any note dared to break off from the Roman alliance. Then Pyrrhus +turned against Rome itself. Through a rich country, whose flourishing +condition he beheld with astonishment, he marched against Fregellae +which he surprised, forced the passage of the Liris, and reached +Anagnia, which is not more than forty miles from Rome. No army +crossed his path; but everywhere the towns of Latium closed their +gates against him, and with measured step Laevinus followed him +from Campania, while the consul Tiberius Coruncanius, who had just +concluded a seasonable peace with the Etruscans, brought up a +second Roman army from the north, and in Rome itself the reserve was +preparing for battle under the dictator Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus. +In these circumstances Pyrrhus could accomplish nothing; no course was +left to him but to retire. For a time he still remained inactive in +Campania in presence of the united armies of the two consuls; but no +opportunity occurred of striking an effective blow. When winter came +on, the king evacuated the enemy's territory, and distributed his +troops among the friendly towns, taking up his own winter quarters in +Tarentum. Thereupon the Romans also desisted from their operations. +The army occupied standing quarters near Firmum in Picenum, where by +command of the senate the legions defeated on the Siris spent the +winter by way of punishment under tents. + +Second Year of the War + +Thus ended the campaign of 474. The separate peace which at the +decisive moment Etruria had concluded with Rome, and the king's +unexpected retreat which entirely disappointed the high-strung hopes +of the Italian confederates, counterbalanced in great measure the +impression of the victory of Heraclea. The Italians complained of the +burdens of the war, particularly of the bad discipline of the +mercenaries quartered among them, and the king, weary of the petty +quarrelling and of the impolitic as well as unmilitary conduct of his +allies, began to have a presentiment that the problem which had fallen +to him might be, despite all tactical successes, politically +insoluble. The arrival of a Roman embassy of three consulars, +including Gaius Fabricius the conqueror of Thurii, again revived in +him for a moment the hopes of peace; but it soon appeared that they +had only power to treat for the ransom or exchange of prisoners. +Pyrrhus rejected their demand, but at the festival of the Saturnalia +he released all the prisoners on their word of honour. Their keeping +of that word, and the repulse by the Roman ambassador of an attempt at +bribery, were celebrated by posterity in a manner most unbecoming and +betokening rather the dishonourable character of the later, than the +honourable feeling of that earlier, epoch. + +Battle of Ausculum + +In the spring of 475 Pyrrhus resumed the offensive, and advanced into +Apulia, whither the Roman army marched to meet him. In the hope of +shaking the Roman symmachy in these regions by a decisive victory, the +king offered battle a second time, and the Romans did not refuse it. +The two armies encountered each other near Ausculum (Ascoli di +Puglia). Under the banners of Pyrrhus there fought, besides +his Epirot and Macedonian troops, the Italian mercenaries, the +burgess-force--the white shields as they were called--of Tarentum, +and the allied Lucanians, Bruttians, and Samnites--altogether 70,000 +infantry, of whom 16,000 were Greeks and Epirots, more than 8000 +cavalry, and nineteen elephants. The Romans were supported on +that day by the Latins, Campanians, Volscians, Sabines, Umbrians, +Marrucinians, Paelignians, Frentanians, and Arpanians. They too +numbered above 70,000 infantry, of whom 20,000 were Roman citizens, +and 8000 cavalry. Both parties had made alterations in their military +system. Pyrrhus, perceiving with the sharp eye of a soldier the +advantages of the Roman manipular organization, had on the wings +substituted for the long front of his phalanxes an arrangement by +companies with intervals between them in imitation of the cohorts, +and-- perhaps for political no less than for military reasons--had +placed the Tarentine and Samnite cohorts between the subdivisions of +his own men. In the centre alone the Epirot phalanx stood in close +order. For the purpose of keeping off the elephants the Romans +produced a species of war-chariot, from which projected iron poles +furnished with chafing-dishes, and on which were fastened moveable +masts adjusted with a view to being lowered, and ending in an iron +spike--in some degree the model of the boarding-bridges which were +to play so great a part in the first Punic war. + +According to the Greek account of the battle, which seems less +one-sided than the Roman account also extant, the Greeks had the +disadvantage on the first day, as they did not succeed in deploying +their line along the steep and marshy banks of the river where they +were compelled to accept battle, or in bringing their cavalry and +elephants into action. On the second day, however, Pyrrhus +anticipated the Romans in occupying the intersected ground, and thus +gained without loss the plain where he could without disturbance draw +up his phalanx. Vainly did the Romans with desperate courage fall +sword in hand on the -sarissae-; the phalanx preserved an unshaken +front under every assault, but in its turn was unable to make any +impression on the Roman legions. It was not till the numerous escort +of the elephants had, with arrows and stones hurled from slings, +dislodged the combatants stationed in the Roman war-chariots and had +cut the traces of the horses, and the elephants pressed upon the Roman +line, that it began to waver. The giving way of the guard attached +to the Roman chariots formed the signal for universal flight, which, +however, did not involve the sacrifice of many lives, as the adjoining +camp received the fugitives. The Roman account of the battle alone +mentions the circumstance, that during the principal engagement an +Arpanian corps detached from the Roman main force had attacked and +set on fire the weakly-guarded Epirot camp; but, even if this were +correct, the Romans are not at all justified in their assertion that +the battle remained undecided. Both accounts, on the contrary, agree +in stating that the Roman army retreated across the river, and that +Pyrrhus remained in possession of the field of battle. The number of +the fallen was, according to the Greek account, 6000 on the side of +the Romans, 3505 on that of the Greeks.(4) Amongst the wounded was +the king himself, whose arm had been pierced with a javelin, while he +was fighting, as was his wont, in the thickest of the fray. Pyrrhus +had achieved a victory, but his were unfruitful laurels; the victory +was creditable to the king as a general and as a soldier, but it +did not promote his political designs. What Pyrrhus needed was a +brilliant success which should break up the Roman army and give an +opportunity and impulse to the wavering allies to change sides; but +the Roman army and the Roman confederacy still remained unbroken, and +the Greek army, which was nothing without its leader, was fettered for +a considerable time in consequence of his wound. He was obliged to +renounce the campaign and to go into winter quarters; which the king +took up in Tarentum, the Romans on this occasion in Apulia. It was +becoming daily more evident that in a military point of view the +resources of the king were inferior to those of the Romans, just as, +politically, the loose and refractory coalition could not stand a +comparison with the firmly-established Roman symmachy. The sudden and +vehement style of the Greek warfare and the genius of the general +might perhaps achieve another such victory as those of Heraclea and +Ausculum, but every new victory was wearing out his resources for +further enterprise, and it was clear that the Romans already felt +themselves the stronger, and awaited with a courageous patience final +victory. Such a war as this was not the delicate game of art that +was practised and understood by the Greek princes. All strategical +combinations were shattered against the full and mighty energy of the +national levy. Pyrrhus felt how matters stood: weary of his victories +and despising his allies, he only persevered because military honour +required him not to leave Italy till he should have secured his +clients from barbarian assault. With his impatient temperament it +might be presumed that he would embrace the first pretext to get rid +of the burdensome duty; and an opportunity of withdrawing from Italy +was soon presented to him by the affairs of Sicily. + +Relations of Sicily, Syracuse, and Carthage-- +Pyrrhus Invited to Syracuse + +After the death of Agathocles (465) the Greeks of Sicily were without +any leading power. While in the several Hellenic cities incapable +demagogues and incapable tyrants were replacing each other, the +Carthaginians, the old rulers of the western point, were extending +their dominion unmolested. After Agrigentum had surrendered to them, +they believed that the time had come for taking final steps towards +the end which they had kept in view for centuries, and for reducing +the whole island under their authority; they set themselves to attack +Syracuse. That city, which formerly by its armies and fleets had +disputed the possession of the island with Carthage, had through +internal dissension and the weakness of its government fallen so low +that it was obliged to seek for safety in the protection of its walls +and in foreign aid; and none could afford that aid but king Pyrrhus. +Pyrrhus was the husband of Agathocles's daughter, and his son +Alexander, then sixteen years of age, was Agathocles's grandson. +Both were in every respect natural heirs of the ambitious schemes +of the ruler of Syracuse; and if her freedom was at an end, Syracuse +might find compensation in becoming the capital of a Hellenic empire +of the West. So the Syracusans, like the Tarentines, and under +similar conditions, voluntarily offered their sovereignty to king +Pyrrhus (about 475); and by a singular conjuncture of affairs +everything seemed to concur towards the success of the magnificent +plans of the Epirot king, based as they primarily were on the +possession of Tarentum and Syracuse. + +League between Rome and Carthage-- +Third Year of the War + +The immediate effect, indeed, of this union of the Italian and +Sicilian Greeks under one control was a closer concert also on the +part of their antagonists. Carthage and Rome now converted their old +commercial treaties into an offensive and defensive league against +Pyrrhus (475), the tenor of which was that, if Pyrrhus invaded Roman +or Carthaginian territory, the party which was not attacked should +furnish that which was assailed with a contingent on its own territory +and should itself defray the expense of the auxiliary troops; that in +such an event Carthage should be bound to furnish transports and to +assist the Romans also with a war fleet, but the crews of that fleet +should not be obliged to fight for the Romans by land; that lastly, +both states should pledge themselves not to conclude a separate peace +with Pyrrhus. The object of the Romans in entering into the treaty +was to render possible an attack on Tarentum and to cut off Pyrrhus +from his own country, neither of which ends could be attained without +the co-operation of the Punic fleet; the object of the Carthaginians +was to detain the king in Italy, so that they might be able without +molestation to carry into effect their designs on Syracuse.(5) It was +accordingly the interest of both powers in the first instance to +secure the sea between Italy and Sicily. A powerful Carthaginian +fleet of 120 sail under the admiral Mago proceeded from Ostia, whither +Mago seems to have gone to conclude the treaty, to the Sicilian +straits. The Mamertines, who anticipated righteous punishment for +their outrage upon the Greek population of Messana in the event of +Pyrrhus becoming ruler of Sicily and Italy, attached themselves +closely to the Romans and Carthaginians, and secured for them the +Sicilian side of the straits. The allies would willingly have brought +Rhegium also on the opposite coast under their power; but Rome could +not possibly pardon the Campanian garrison, and an attempt of the +combined Romans and Carthaginians to gain the city by force of arms +miscarried. The Carthaginian fleet sailed thence for Syracuse and +blockaded the city by sea, while at the same time a strong Phoenician +army began the siege by land (476). It was high time that Pyrrhus +should appear at Syracuse: but, in fact, matters in Italy were by no +means in such a condition that he and his troops could be dispensed +with there. The two consuls of 476, Gaius Fabricius Luscinus, and +Quintus Aemilius Papus, both experienced generals, had begun the new +campaign with vigour, and although the Romans had hitherto sustained +nothing but defeat in this war, it was not they but the victors that +were weary of it and longed for peace. Pyrrhus made another attempt +to obtain accommodation on tolerable terms. The consul Fabricius had +handed over to the king a wretch, who had proposed to poison him on +condition of being well paid for it. Not only did the king in token +of gratitude release all his Roman prisoners without ransom, but he +felt himself so moved by the generosity of his brave opponents that +he offered, by way of personal recompense, a singularly fair and +favourable peace. Cineas appears to have gone once more to Rome, and +Carthage seems to have been seriously apprehensive that Rome might +come to terms. But the senate remained firm, and repeated its former +answer. Unless the king was willing to allow Syracuse to fall into +the hands of the Carthaginians and to have his grand scheme thereby +disconcerted, no other course remained than to abandon his Italian +allies and to confine himself for the time being to the occupation of +the most important seaports, particularly Tarentum and Locri. In vain +the Lucanians and Samnites conjured him not to desert them; in vain +the Tarentines summoned him either to comply with his duty as their +general or to give them back their city. The king met their +complaints and reproaches with the consolatory assurance that better +times were coming, or with abrupt dismissal. Milo remained behind in +Tarentum; Alexander, the king's son, in Locri; and Pyrrhus, with his +main force, embarked in the spring of 476 at Tarentum for Syracuse. + +Embarkation of Pyrrhus for Sicily-- +The War in Italy Flags + +By the departure of Pyrrhus the hands of the Romans were set free +in Italy; none ventured to oppose them in the open field, and their +antagonists everywhere confined themselves to their fastnesses or +their forests. The struggle however was not terminated so rapidly as +might have been expected; partly in consequence of its nature as a +warfare of mountain skirmishes and sieges, partly also, doubtless, +from the exhaustion of the Romans, whose fearful losses are indicated +by a decrease of 17,000 in the burgess-roll from 473 to 479. In 476 +the consul Gaius Fabricius succeeded in inducing the considerable +Tarentine settlement of Heraclea to enter into a separate peace, which +was granted to it on the most favourable terms. In the campaign of +477 a desultory warfare was carried on in Samnium, where an attack +thoughtlessly made on some entrenched heights cost the Romans many +lives, and thereafter in southern Italy, where the Lucanians and +Bruttians were defeated. On the other hand Milo, issuing from +Tarentum, anticipated the Romans in their attempt to surprise Croton: +whereupon the Epirot garrison made even a successful sortie against +the besieging army. At length, however, the consul succeeded by a +stratagem in inducing it to march forth, and in possessing himself +of the undefended town (477). An incident of more moment was the +slaughter of the Epirot garrison by the Locrians, who had formerly +surrendered the Roman garrison to the king, and now atoned for one act +of treachery by another. By that step the whole south coast came into +the hands of the Romans, with the exception of Rhegium and Tarentum. +These successes, however, advanced the main object but little. Lower +Italy itself had long been defenceless; but Pyrrhus was not subdued so +long as Tarentum remained in his hands and thus rendered it possible +for him to renew the war at his pleasure, and the Romans could not +think of undertaking the siege of that city. Even apart from the fact +that in siege-warfare, which had been revolutionized by Philip of +Macedonia and Demetrius Poliorcetes, the Romans were at a very decided +disadvantage when matched against an experienced and resolute Greek +commandant, a strong fleet was needed for such an enterprise, and, +although the Carthaginian treaty promised to the Romans support by +sea, the affairs of Carthage herself in Sicily were by no means in +such a condition as to enable her to grant that support. + +Pyrrhus Master of Sicily + +The landing of Pyrrhus on the island, which, in spite of the +Carthaginian fleet, had taken place without interruption, had changed +at once the aspect of matters there. He had immediately relieved +Syracuse, had in a short time united under his sway all the free Greek +cities, and at the head of the Sicilian confederation had wrested +from the Carthaginians nearly their whole possessions. It was with +difficulty that the Carthaginians could, by the help of their fleet +which at that time ruled the Mediterranean without a rival, maintain +themselves in Lilybaeum; it was with difficulty, and amidst constant +assaults, that the Mamertines held their ground in Messana. Under +such circumstances, agreeably to the treaty of 475, it would have been +the duty of Rome to lend her aid to the Carthaginians in Sicily, far +rather than that of Carthage to help the Romans with her fleet to +conquer Tarentum; but on the side of neither ally was there much +inclination to secure or to extend the power of the other. Carthage +had only offered help to the Romans when the real danger was past; +they in their turn had done nothing to prevent the departure of the +king from Italy and the fall of the Carthaginian power in Sicily. +Indeed, in open violation of the treaties Carthage had even proposed +to the king a separate peace, offering, in return for the undisturbed +possession of Lilybaeum, to give up all claim to her other Sicilian +possessions and even to place at the disposal of the king money and +ships of war, of course with a view to his crossing to Italy and +renewing the war against Rome. It was evident, however, that with +the possession of Lilybaeum and the departure of the king the position +of the Carthaginians in the island would be nearly the same as it had +been before the landing of Pyrrhus; the Greek cities if left to +themselves were powerless, and the lost territory would be easily +regained. So Pyrrhus rejected the doubly perfidious proposal, and +proceeded to build for himself a war fleet. Mere ignorance and +shortsightedness in after times censured this step; but it was really +as necessary as it was, with the resources of the island, easy of +accomplishment. Apart from the consideration that the master of +Ambracia, Tarentum, and Syracuse could not dispense with a naval +force, he needed a fleet to conquer Lilybaeum, to protect Tarentum, +and to attack Carthage at home as Agathocles, Regulus, and Scipio +did before or afterwards so successfully. Pyrrhus never was so near +to the attainment of his aim as in the summer of 478, when he saw +Carthage humbled before him, commanded Sicily, and retained a +firm footing in Italy by the possession of Tarentum, and when the +newly-created fleet, which was to connect, to secure, and to augment +these successes, lay ready for sea in the harbour of Syracuse. + +The Sicilian Government of Pyrrhus + +The real weakness of the position of Pyrrhus lay in his faulty +internal policy. He governed Sicily as he had seen Ptolemy rule in +Egypt: he showed no respect to the local constitutions; he placed +his confidants as magistrates over the cities whenever, and for as +long as, he pleased; he made his courtiers judges instead of the +native jurymen; he pronounced arbitrary sentences of confiscation, +banishment, or death, even against those who had been most active +in promoting his coming thither; he placed garrisons in the towns, +and ruled over Sicily not as the leader of a national league, but +as a king. In so doing he probably reckoned himself according to +oriental-Hellenistic ideas a good and wise ruler, and perhaps he +really was so; but the Greeks bore this transplantation of the system +of the Diadochi to Syracuse with all the impatience of a nation that +in its long struggle for freedom had lost all habits of discipline; +the Carthaginian yoke very soon appeared to the foolish people more +tolerable than their new military government. The most important +cities entered into communications with the Carthaginians, and even +with the Mamertines; a strong Carthaginian army ventured again to +appear on the island; and everywhere supported by the Greeks, it made +rapid progress. In the battle which Pyrrhus fought with it fortune +was, as always, with the "Eagle"; but the circumstances served to show +what the state of feeling was in the island, and what might and must +ensue, if the king should depart. + +Departure of Pyrrhus to Italy + +To this first and most essential error Pyrrhus added a second; he +proceeded with his fleet, not to Lilybaeum, but to Tarentum. It was +evident, looking to the very ferment in the minds of the Sicilians, +that he ought first of all to have dislodged the Carthaginians wholly +from the island, and thereby to have cut off the discontented from +their last support, before he turned his attention to Italy; in that +quarter there was nothing to be lost, for Tarentum was safe enough for +him, and the other allies were of little moment now that they had been +abandoned. It is conceivable that his soldierly spirit impelled him +to wipe off the stain of his not very honourable departure in the year +476 by a brilliant return, and that his heart bled when he heard the +complaints of the Lucanians and Samnites. But problems, such as +Pyrrhus had proposed to himself, can only be solved by men of iron +nature, who are able to control their feelings of compassion and even +their sense of honour; and Pyrrhus was not one of these. + +Fall of the Sicilian Kingdom-- +Recommencement of the Italian War + +The fatal embarkation took place towards the end of 478. On the +voyage the new Syracusan fleet had to sustain a sharp engagement with +that of Carthage, in which it lost a considerable number of vessels. +The departure of the king and the accounts of this first misfortune +sufficed for the fall of the Sicilian kingdom. On the arrival of the +news all the cities refused to the absent king money and troops; and +the brilliant state collapsed even more rapidly than it had arisen, +partly because the king had himself undermined in the hearts of +his subjects the loyalty and affection on which every commonwealth +depends, partly because the people lacked the devotedness to +renounce freedom for perhaps but a short term in order to save +their nationality. Thus the enterprise of Pyrrhus was wrecked, and +the plan of his life was ruined irretrievably; he was thenceforth an +adventurer, who felt that he had been great and was so no longer, and +who now waged war no longer as a means to an end, but in order to +drown thought amidst the reckless excitement of the game and to find, +if possible, in the tumult of battle a soldier's death. Arrived on +the Italian coast, the king began by an attempt to get possession of +Rhegium; but the Campanians repulsed the attack with the aid of the +Mamertines, and in the heat of the conflict before the town the king +himself was wounded in the act of striking down an officer of the +enemy. On the other hand he surprised Locri, whose inhabitants +suffered severely for their slaughter of the Epirot garrison, and he +plundered the rich treasury of the temple of Persephone there, to +replenish his empty exchequer. Thus he arrived at Tarentum, it is +said with 20,000 infantry and 3000 cavalry. But these were no longer +the experienced veterans of former days, and the Italians no longer +hailed them as deliverers; the confidence and hope with which they +had received the king five years before were gone; the allies were +destitute of money and of men. + +Battle near Beneventum-- +Pyrrhus Leaves Italy-- +Death of Pyrrhus + +The king took the field in the spring of 479 with the view of aiding +the hard-pressed Samnites, in whose territory the Romans had passed +the previous winter; and he forced the consul Manius Curius to give +battle near Beneventum on the -campus Arusinus-, before he could +form a junction with his colleague advancing from Lucania. But the +division of the army, which was intended to take the Romans in flank, +lost its way during its night march in the woods, and failed to appear +at the decisive moment; and after a hot conflict the elephants again +decided the battle, but decided it this time in favour of the Romans, +for, thrown into confusion by the archers who were stationed to +protect the camp, they attacked their own people. The victors +occupied the camp; there fell into their hands 1300 prisoners and four +elephants--the first that were seen in Rome--besides an immense spoil, +from the proceeds of which the aqueduct, which conveyed the water of +the Anio from Tibur to Rome, was subsequently built. Without troops +to keep the field and without money, Pyrrhus applied to his allies who +had contributed to his equipment for Italy, the kings of Macedonia +and Asia; but even in his native land he was no longer feared, and +his request was refused. Despairing of success against Rome and +exasperated by these refusals, Pyrrhus left a garrison in Tarentum, +and went home himself in the same year (479) to Greece, where some +prospect of gain might open up to the desperate player sooner than +amidst the steady and measured course of Italian affairs. In fact, +he not only rapidly recovered the portion of his kingdom that had +been taken away, but once more grasped, and not without success, at +the Macedonian throne. But his last plans also were thwarted by the +calm and cautious policy of Antigonus Gonatas, and still more by his +own vehemence and inability to tame his proud spirit; he still gained +battles, but he no longer gained any lasting success, and met his +death in a miserable street combat in Peloponnesian Argos (482). + +Last Struggles in Italy-- +Capture of Tarentum + +In Italy the war came to an end with the battle of Beneventum; the +last convulsive struggles of the national party died slowly away. +So long indeed as the warrior prince, whose mighty arm had ventured +to seize the reins of destiny in Italy, was still among the living, +he held, even when absent, the stronghold of Tarentum against Rome. +Although after the departure of the king the peace party recovered +ascendency in the city, Milo, who commanded there on behalf of +Pyrrhus, rejected their suggestions and allowed the citizens +favourable to Rome, who had erected a separate fort for themselves +in the territory of Tarentum, to conclude peace with Rome as they +pleased, without on that account opening his gates. But when after +the death of Pyrrhus a Carthaginian fleet entered the harbour, and +Milo saw that the citizens were on the point of delivering up the city +to the Carthaginians, he preferred to hand over the citadel to the +Roman consul Lucius Papirius (482), and by that means to secure a free +departure for himself and his troops. For the Romans this was an +immense piece of good fortune. After the experiences of Philip before +Perinthus and Byzantium, of Demetrius before Rhodes, and of Pyrrhus +before Lilybaeum, it may be doubted whether the strategy of that +period was at all able to compel the surrender of a town well +fortified, well defended, and freely accessible by sea; and how +different a turn matters might have taken, had Tarentum become to the +Phoenicians in Italy what Lilybaeum was to them in Sicily! What was +done, however, could not be undone. The Carthaginian admiral, when he +saw the citadel in the hands of the Romans, declared that he had only +appeared before Tarentum conformably to the treaty to lend assistance +to his allies in the siege of the town, and set sail for Africa; and +the Roman embassy, which was sent to Carthage to demand explanations +and make complaints regarding the attempted occupation of Tarentum, +brought back nothing but a solemn confirmation on oath of that +allegation as to its ally's friendly design, with which accordingly +the Romans had for the time to rest content. The Tarentines obtained +from Rome, presumably on the intercession of their emigrants, the +restoration of autonomy; but their arms and ships had to be given up +and their walls had to be pulled down. + +Submission of Lower Italy + +In the same year, in which Tarentum became Roman, the Samnites, +Lucanians, and Bruttians finally submitted. The latter were obliged +to cede the half of the lucrative, and for ship-building important, +forest of Sila. + +At length also the band that for ten years had sheltered themselves in +Rhegium were duly chastised for the breach of their military oath, as +well as for the murder of the citizens of Rhegium and of the garrison +of Croton. In this instance Rome, while vindicating her own rights +vindicated the general cause of the Hellenes against the barbarians. +Hiero, the new ruler of Syracuse, accordingly supported the Romans +before Rhegium by sending supplies and a contingent, and in +combination with the Roman expedition against the garrison of Rhegium +he made an attack upon their fellow-countrymen and fellow-criminals, +the Mamertines of Messana. The siege of the latter town was long +protracted. On the other hand Rhegium, although the mutineers +resisted long and obstinately, was stormed by the Romans in 484; the +survivors of the garrison were scourged and beheaded in the public +market at Rome, while the old inhabitants were recalled and, as far as +possible, reinstated in their possessions. Thus all Italy was, in +484, reduced to subjection. The Samnites alone, the most obstinate +antagonists of Rome, still in spite of the official conclusion of +peace continued the struggle as "robbers," so that in 485 both +consuls had to be once more despatched against them. But even the +most high-spirited national courage--the bravery of despair--comes +to an end; the sword and the gibbet at length carried quiet even +into the mountains of Samnium. + +Construction of New Fortresses and Roads + +For the securing of these immense acquisitions a new series of +colonies was instituted: Paestum and Cosa in Lucania (481); Beneventum +(486), and Aesernia (about 491) to hold Samnium in check; and, as +outposts against the Gauls, Ariminum (486), Firmum in Picenum (about +490), and the burgess colony of Castrum Novum. Preparations were made +for the continuation of the great southern highway--which acquired in +the fortress of Beneventum a new station intermediate between Capua +and Venusia--as far as the seaports of Tarentum and Brundisium, and +for the colonization of the latter seaport, which Roman policy had +selected as the rival and successor of the Tarentine emporium. The +construction of the new fortresses and roads gave rise to some further +wars with the small tribes, whose territory was thereby curtailed: +with the Picentes (485, 486), a number of whom were transplanted to +the district of Salernum; with the Sallentines about Brundisium (487, +488); and with the Umbrian Sassinates (487, 488), who seem to have +occupied the territory of Ariminum after the expulsion of the Senones. +By these establishments the dominion of Rome was extended over the +interior of Lower Italy, and over the whole Italian east coast from +the Ionian sea to the Celtic frontier. + +Maritime Relations + +Before we describe the political organization under which the Italy +which was thus united was governed on the part of Rome, it remains +that we should glance at the maritime relations that subsisted in the +fourth and fifth centuries. At this period Syracuse and Carthage were +the main competitors for the dominion of the western waters. On the +whole, notwithstanding the great temporary successes which Dionysius +(348-389), Agathocles (437-465), and Pyrrhus (476-478) obtained at +sea, Carthage had the preponderance and Syracuse sank more and more +into a naval power of the second rank. The maritime importance of +Etruria was wholly gone;(6) the hitherto Etruscan island of Corsica, +if it did not quite pass into the possession, fell under the maritime +supremacy, of the Carthaginians. Tarentum, which for a time had +played a considerable part, had its power broken by the Roman +occupation. The brave Massiliots maintained their ground in their +own waters; but they exercised no material influence over the course +of events in those of Italy. The other maritime cities hardly came +as yet into serious account. + +Decline of the Roman Naval Power + +Rome itself was not exempt from a similar fate; its own waters were +likewise commanded by foreign fleets. It was indeed from the first +a maritime city, and in the period of its vigour never was so untrue +to its ancient traditions as wholly to neglect its war marine or so +foolish as to desire to be a mere continental power. Latium furnished +the finest timber for ship-building, far surpassing the famed growths +of Lower Italy; and the very docks constantly maintained in Rome are +enough to show that the Romans never abandoned the idea of possessing +a fleet of their own. During the perilous crises, however, which the +expulsion of the kings, the internal disturbances in the Romano-Latin +confederacy, and the unhappy wars with the Etruscans and Celts brought +upon Rome, the Romans could take but little interest in the state of +matters in the Mediterranean; and, in consequence of the policy of +Rome directing itself more and more decidedly to the subjugation of +the Italian continent, the growth of its naval power was arrested. +There is hardly any mention of Latin vessels of war up to the end of +the fourth century, except that the votive offering from the Veientine +spoil was sent to Delphi in a Roman vessel (360). The Antiates indeed +continued to prosecute their commerce with armed vessels and thus, +as occasion offered, to practise the trade of piracy also, and the +"Tyrrhene corsair" Postumius, whom Timoleon captured about 415, may +certainly have been an Antiate; but the Antiates were scarcely to be +reckoned among the naval powers of that period, and, had they been so, +the fact must from the attitude of Antium towards Rome have been +anything but an advantage to the latter. The extent to which the +Roman naval power had declined about the year 400 is shown by the +plundering of the Latin coasts by a Greek, presumably a Sicilian, war +fleet in 405, while at the same time Celtic hordes were traversing and +devastating the Latin land.(7) In the following year (406), and +beyond doubt under the immediate impression produced by these serious +events, the Roman community and the Phoenicians of Carthage, acting +respectively for themselves and for their dependent allies, concluded +a treaty of commerce and navigation-- the oldest Roman document of +which the text has reached us, although only in a Greek +translation.(8) In that treaty the Romans had to come under +obligation not to navigate the Libyan coast to the west of the Fair +Promontory (Cape Bon) excepting in cases of necessity. On the other +hand they obtained the privilege of freely trading, like the natives, +in Sicily, so far as it was Carthaginian; and in Africa and Sardinia +they obtained at least the right to dispose of their merchandise at a +price fixed with the concurrence of the Carthaginian officials and +guaranteed by the Carthaginian community. The privilege of free +trading seems to have been granted to the Carthaginians at least in +Rome, perhaps in all Latium; only they bound themselves neither to do +violence to the subject Latin communities,(9) nor, if they should set +foot as enemies on Latin soil, to take up their quarters for a night +on shore--in other words, not to extend their piratical inroads into +the interior--nor to construct any fortresses in the Latin land. + +We may probably assign to the same period the already mentioned(10) +treaty between Rome and Tarentum, respecting the date of which we are +only told that it was concluded a considerable time before 472. By it +the Romans bound themselves--for what concessions on the part of +Tarentum is not stated--not to navigate the waters to the east of +the Lacinian promontory; a stipulation by which they were thus wholly +excluded from the eastern basin of the Mediterranean. + +Roman Fortification of the Coast + +These were disasters no less than the defeat on the Allia, and the +Roman senate seems to have felt them as such and to have made use of +the favourable turn, which the Italian relations assumed soon after +the conclusion of the humiliating treaties with Carthage and Tarentum, +with all energy to improve its depressed maritime position. The most +important of the coast towns were furnished with Roman colonies: Pyrgi +the seaport of Caere, the colonization of which probably falls within +this period; along the west coast, Antium in 415,(11) Tarracina in +425,(12) the island of Pontia in 441,(13) so that, as Ardea and +Circeii had previously received colonists, all the Latin seaports of +consequence in the territory of the Rutuli and Volsci had now become +Latin or burgess colonies; further, in the territory of the Aurunci, +Minturnae and Sinuessa in 459;(14) in that of the Lucanians, Paestum +and Cosa in 481;(15) and, on the coast of the Adriatic, Sena Gallica +and Castrum Novum about 471,(16) and Ariminum in 486;(17) to which +falls to be added the occupation of Brundisium, which took place +immediately after the close of the Pyrrhic war. In the greater part +of these places--the burgess or maritime colonies(18)--the young men +were exempted from serving in the legions and destined solely for the +watching of the coasts. The well judged preference given at the same +time to the Greeks of Lower Italy over their Sabellian neighbours, +particularly to the considerable communities of Neapolis, Rhegium, +Locri, Thurii, and Heraclea, and their similar exemption under the +like conditions from furnishing contingents to the land army, +completed the network drawn by Rome around the coasts of Italy. + +But with a statesmanlike sagacity, from which the succeeding +generations might have drawn a lesson, the leading men of the Roman +commonwealth perceived that all these coast fortifications and coast +garrisons could not but prove inadequate, unless the war marine of +the state were again placed on a footing that should command respect. +Some sort of nucleus for this purpose was already furnished on the +subjugation of Antium (416) by the serviceable war-galleys which were +carried off to the Roman docks; but the enactment at the same time, +that the Antiates should abstain from all maritime traffic,(19) is a +very clear and distinct indication how weak the Romans then felt +themselves at sea, and how completely their maritime policy was still +summed up in the occupation of places on the coast. Thereafter, when +the Greek cities of southern Italy, Neapolis leading the way in 428, +were admitted to the clientship of Rome, the war-vessels, which each +of these cities bound itself to furnish as a war contribution under +the alliance to the Romans, formed at least a renewed nucleus for a +Roman fleet. In 443, moreover, two fleet-masters (-duoviri navales-) +were nominated in consequence of a resolution of the burgesses +specially passed to that effect, and this Roman naval force +co-operated in the Samnite war at the siege of Nuceria.(20) Perhaps +even the remarkable mission of a Roman fleet of twenty-five sail to +found a colony in Corsica, which Theophrastus mentions in his "History +of Plants" written about 446, belongs to this period. But how little +was immediately accomplished with all this preparation, is shown by +the renewed treaty with Carthage in 448. While the stipulations of +the treaty of 406 relating to Italy and Sicily(21) remained unchanged, +the Romans were now prohibited not only from the navigation of the +eastern waters, but also from that of the Atlantic Ocean which was +previously permitted, as well as debarred from holding commercial +intercourse with the subjects of Carthage in Sardinia and Africa, and +also, in all probability, from effecting a settlement in Corsica;(22) +so that only Carthaginian Sicily and Carthage itself remained open +to their traffic. We recognize here the jealousy of the dominant +maritime power, gradually increasing with the extension of the Roman +dominion along the coasts. Carthage compelled the Romans to acquiesce +in her prohibitive system, to submit to be excluded from the seats of +production in the west and east (connected with which exclusion is the +story of a public reward bestowed on the Phoenician mariner who at the +sacrifice of his own ship decoyed a Roman vessel, steering after him +into the Atlantic Ocean, to perish on a sand-bank), and to restrict +their navigation under the treaty to the narrow space of the western +Mediterranean--and all this for the mere purpose of averting pillage +from their coasts and of securing their ancient and important trading +connection with Sicily. The Romans were obliged to yield to these +terms; but they did not desist from their efforts to rescue their +marine from its condition of impotence. + +Quaestors of the Fleet-- +Variance between Rome and Carthage + +A comprehensive measure with that view was the institution of four +quaestors of the fleet (-quaestores classici-) in 487: of whom the +first was stationed at Ostia the port of Rome; the second, stationed +at Cales then the capital of Roman Campania, had to superintend the +ports of Campania and Magna Graecia; the third, stationed at Ariminum, +superintended the ports on the other side of the Apennines; the +district assigned to the fourth is not known. These new standing +officials were intended to exercise not the sole, but a conjoint, +guardianship of the coasts, and to form a war marine for their +protection. The objects of the Roman senate--to recover their +independence by sea, to cut off the maritime communications of +Tarentum, to close the Adriatic against fleets coming from Epirus, +and to emancipate themselves from Carthaginian supremacy--were very +obvious. Their already explained relations with Carthage during the +last Italian war discover traces of such views. King Pyrrhus indeed +compelled the two great cities once more--it was for the last time +--to conclude an offensive alliance; but the lukewarmness and +faithlessness of that alliance, the attempts of the Carthaginians +to establish themselves in Rhegium and Tarentum, and the immediate +occupation of Brundisium by the Romans after the termination of the +war, show clearly how much their respective interests already came +into collision. + +Rome and the Greek Naval Powers + +Rome very naturally sought to find support against Carthage from the +Hellenic maritime states. Her old and close relations of amity with +Massilia continued uninterrupted. The votive offering sent by Rome +to Delphi, after the conquest of Veii, was preserved there in the +treasury of the Massiliots. After the capture of Rome by the Celts +there was a collection in Massilia for the sufferers by the fire, +in which the city chest took the lead; in return the Roman senate +granted commercial advantages to the Massiliot merchants, and, at the +celebration of the games in the Forum assigned a position of honour +(-Graecostasis-) to the Massiliots by the side of the platform for the +senators. To the same category belong the treaties of commerce and +amity concluded by the Romans about 448 with Rhodes and not long after +with Apollonia, a considerable mercantile town on the Epirot coast, +and especially the closer relation, so fraught with danger for +Carthage, which immediately after the end of the Pyrrhic war +sprang up between Rome and Syracuse.(23) + +While the Roman power by sea was thus very far from keeping pace with +the immense development of their power by land, and the war marine +belonging to the Romans in particular was by no means such as from the +geographical and commercial position of the city it ought to have +been, yet it began gradually to emerge out of the complete nullity to +which it had been reduced about the year 400; and, considering the +great resources of Italy, the Phoenicians might well follow its +efforts with anxious eyes. + +The crisis in reference to the supremacy of the Italian waters was +approaching; by land the contest was decided. For the first time +Italy was united into one state under the sovereignty of the Roman +community. What political prerogatives the Roman community on this +occasion withdrew from all the other Italian communities and took into +its own sole keeping, or in other words, what conception in state-law +is to be associated with this sovereignty of Rome, we are nowhere +expressly informed, and--a significant circumstance, indicating +prudent calculation--there does not even exist any generally current +expression for that conception.(24) The only privileges that +demonstrably belonged to it were the rights of making war, of +concluding treaties, and of coining money. No Italian community could +declare war against any foreign state, or even negotiate with it, or +coin money for circulation. On the other hand every declaration of +war made by the Roman people and every state-treaty resolved upon by +it were binding in law on all the other Italian communities, and the +silver money of Rome was legally current throughout all Italy. It is +probable that the formulated prerogatives of the leading community +extended no further. But to these there were necessarily attached +rights of sovereignty that practically went far beyond them. + +The Full Roman Franchise + +The relations, which the Italians sustained to the leading community, +exhibited in detail great inequalities. In this point of view, in +addition to the full burgesses of Rome, there were three different +classes of subjects to be distinguished. The full franchise itself, +in the first place, was extended as far as was possible, without +wholly abandoning the idea of an urban commonwealth as applied to the +Roman commune. The old burgess-domain had hitherto been enlarged +chiefly by individual assignation in such a way that southern Etruria +as far as towards Caere and Falerii,(25) the districts taken from the +Hernici on the Sacco and on the Anio(26) the largest part of the +Sabine country(27) and large tracts of the territory formerly +Volscian, especially the Pomptine plain(28) were converted into land +for Roman farmers, and new burgess-districts were instituted mostly +for their inhabitants. The same course had even already been taken +with the Falernian district on the Volturnus ceded by Capua.(29) All +these burgesses domiciled outside of Rome were without a commonwealth +and an administration of their own; on the assigned territory there +arose at the most market-villages (-fora et conciliabula-). In a +position not greatly different were placed the burgesses sent out +to the so-called maritime colonies mentioned above, who were likewise +left in possession of the full burgess-rights of Rome, and whose +self-administration was of little moment. Towards the close of +this period the Roman community appears to have begun to grant full +burgess-rights to the adjoining communities of passive burgesses who +were of like or closely kindred nationality; this was probably done +first for Tusculum,(30) and so, presumably, also for the other +communities of passive burgesses in Latium proper, then at the end +of this period (486) was extended to the Sabine towns, which doubtless +were even then essentially Latinized and had given sufficient proof +of their fidelity in the last severe war. These towns retained the +restricted self-administration, which under their earlier legal +position belonged to them, even after their admission into the Roman +burgess-union; it was they more than the maritime colonies that +furnished the model for the special commonwealths subsisting within +the body of Roman full burgesses and so, in the course of time, for +the Roman municipal organization. Accordingly the range of the full +Roman burgesses must at the end of this epoch have extended northward +as far as the vicinity of Caere, eastward as far as the Apennines, and +southward as far as Tarracina; although in this case indeed we cannot +speak of boundary in a strict sense, partly because a number of +federal towns with Latin rights, such as Tibur, Praeneste, Signia, +Norba, Circeii, were found within these bounds, partly because beyond +them the inhabitants of Minturnae, Sinuessa, of the Falernian +territory, of the town Sena Gallica and some other townships, +likewise possessed the full franchise, and families of Roman +farmers were presumably to be even now found scattered throughout +Italy, either isolated or united in villages. + +Subject Communities + +Among the subject communities the passive burgesses (-cives sine +suffragio-) apart from the privilege of electing and being elected, +stood on an equality of rights and duties with the full burgesses. +Their legal position was regulated by the decrees of the Roman comitia +and the rules issued for them by the Roman praetor, which, however, +were doubtless based essentially on the previous arrangements. +Justice was administered for them by the Roman praetor or his deputies +(-praefecti-) annually sent to the individual communities. Those of +them in a better position, such as the city of Capua,(31) retained +self-administration and along with it the continued use of the native +language, and had officials of their own who took charge of the levy +and the census. The communities of inferior rights such as Caere(32) +were deprived even of self-administration, and this was doubtless the +most oppressive among the different forms of subjection. However, as +was above remarked, there is already apparent at the close of this +period an effort to incorporate these communities, at least so far +as they were -de facto- Latinized, among the full burgesses. + +Latins + +Among the subject communities the most privileged and most important +class was that of the Latin towns, which obtained accessions equally +numerous and important in the autonomous communities founded by Rome +within and even beyond Italy--the Latin colonies, as they were called +--and was always increasing in consequence of new settlements of the +same nature. These new urban communities of Roman origin, but with +Latin rights, became more and more the real buttresses of the Roman +rule over Italy. These Latins, however, were by no means those with +whom the battles of the lake Regillus and Trifanum had been fought. +They were not those old members of the Alban league, who reckoned +themselves originally equal to, if not better than, the community of +Rome, and who felt the dominion of Rome to be an oppressive yoke, as +the fearfully rigorous measures of security taken against Praeneste +at the beginning of the war with Pyrrhus, and the collisions that +evidently long continued to occur with the Praenestines in particular, +show. This old Latium had essentially either perished or become +merged in Rome, and it now numbered but few communities politically +self-subsisting, and these, with the exception of Tibur and Praeneste, +throughout insignificant. The Latium of the later times of +the republic, on the contrary, consisted almost exclusively of +communities, which from the beginning had honoured Rome as their +capital and parent city; which, settled amidst regions of alien +language and of alien habits, were attached to Rome by community of +language, of law, and of manners; which, as the petty tyrants of the +surrounding districts, were obliged doubtless to lean on Rome for +their very existence, like advanced posts leaning upon the main army; +and which, in fine, in consequence of the increasing material +advantages of Roman citizenship, were ever deriving very considerable +benefit from their equality of rights with the Romans, limited though +it was. A portion of the Roman domain, for instance, was usually +assigned to them for their separate use, and participation in the +state leases and contracts was open to them as to the Roman burgess. +Certainly in their case also the consequences of the self-subsistence +granted to them did not wholly fail to appear. Venusian inscriptions +of the time of the Roman republic, and Beneventane inscriptions +recently brought to light,(33) show that Venusia as well as Rome +had its plebs and its tribunes of the people, and that the chief +magistrates of Beneventum bore the title of consul at least about +the time of the Hannibalic war. Both communities are among the most +recent of the Latin colonies with older rights: we perceive what +pretensions were stirring in them about the middle of the fifth +century. These so-called Latins, issuing from the Roman burgess-body +and feeling themselves in every respect on a level with it, already +began to view with displeasure their subordinate federal rights and to +strive after full equalization. Accordingly the senate had exerted +itself to curtail these Latin communities--however important they were +for Rome--as far as possible, in their rights and privileges, and to +convert their position from that of allies to that of subjects, so far +as this could be done without removing the wall of partition between +them and the non-Latin communities of Italy. We have already +described the abolition of the league of the Latin communities +itself as well as of their former complete equality of rights, +and the loss of the most important political privileges belonging to +them. On the complete subjugation of Italy a further step was taken, +and a beginning was made towards the restriction of the personal +rights--that had not hitherto been touched--of the individual Latin, +especially the important right of freedom of settlement. In the case +of Ariminum founded in 486 and of all the autonomous communities +constituted afterwards, the advantage enjoyed by them, as compared +with other subjects, was restricted to their equalization with +burgesses of the Roman community so far as regarded private rights +--those of traffic and barter as well as those of inheritance.(34) +Presumably about the same time the full right of free migration +allowed to the Latin communities hitherto established--the title of +every one of their burgesses to gain by transmigration to Rome full +burgess-rights there--was, for the Latin colonies of later erection, +restricted to those persons who had attained to the highest office of +the community in their native home; these alone were allowed to +exchange their colonial burgess-rights for the Roman. This clearly +shows the complete revolution in the position of Rome. So long as +Rome was still but one among the many urban communities of Italy, +although that one might be the first, admission even to the +unrestricted Roman franchise was universally regarded as a gain for +the admitting community, and the acquisition of that franchise by +non-burgesses was facilitated in every way, and was in fact often +imposed on them as a punishment. But after the Roman community became +sole sovereign and all the others were its servants, the state of +matters changed. The Roman community began jealously to guard its +franchise, and accordingly put an end in the first instance to the old +full liberty of migration; although the statesmen of that period were +wise enough still to keep admission to the Roman franchise legally +open at least to the men of eminence and of capacity in the highest +class of subject communities. The Latins were thus made to feel that +Rome, after having subjugated Italy mainly by their aid, had now no +longer need of them as before. + +Non-Latin Allied Communities + +Lastly, the relations of the non-Latin allied communities were +subject, as a matter of course, to very various rules, just as each +particular treaty of alliance had defined them. Several of these +perpetual alliances, such as that with the Hernican communities,(35) +passed over to a footing of complete equalization with the Latin. +Others, in which this was not the case, such as those with +Neapolis(36), Nola(37), and Heraclea(38), granted rights +comparatively comprehensive; while others, such as the Tarentine +and Samnite treaties, may have approximated to despotism. + +Dissolution of National Leagues-- +Furnishing of Contingents + +As a general rule, it may be taken for granted that not only the +Latin and Hernican national confederations--as to which the fact is +expressly stated--but all such confederations subsisting in Italy, and +the Samnite and Lucanian leagues in particular, were legally dissolved +or at any rate reduced to insignificance, and that in general no +Italian community was allowed the right of acquiring property or of +intermarriage, or even the right of joint consultation and resolution, +with any other. Further, provision must have been made, under +different forms, for placing the military and financial resources of +all the Italian communities at the disposal of the leading community. +Although the burgess militia on the one hand, and the contingents of +the "Latin name" on the other, were still regarded as the main and +integral constituents of the Roman army, and in that way its national +character was on the whole preserved, the Roman -cives sine suffragio- +were called forth to join its ranks, and not only so, but beyond doubt +the non-Latin federate communities also were either bound to furnish +ships of war, as was the case with the Greek cities, or were placed on +the roll of contingent-furnishing Italians (-formula togatorum-), +as must have been ordained at once or gradually in the case of the +Apulians, Sabellians, and Etruscans. In general this contingent, +like that of the Latin communities, appears to have had its numbers +definitely fixed, although, in case of necessity, the leading +community was not precluded from making a larger requisition. +This at the same time involved an indirect taxation, as every +community was bound itself to equip and to pay its own contingent. +Accordingly it was not without design that the supply of the most +costly requisites for war devolved chiefly on the Latin, or non-Latin +federate communities; that the war marine was for the most part kept +up by the Greek cities; and that in the cavalry service the allies, +at least subsequently, were called upon to furnish a proportion thrice +as numerous as the Roman burgesses, while in the infantry the old +principle, that the contingent of the allies should not be more +numerous than the burgess army, still remained in force for a long +time at least as the rule. + +System of Government-- +Division and Classification of the Subjects + +The system, on which this fabric was constructed and kept together, +can no longer be ascertained in detail from the few notices that have +reached us. Even the numerical proportions of the three classes of +subjects relatively to each other and to the full burgesses, can no +longer be determined even approximately;(39) and in like manner the +geographical distribution of the several categories over Italy is but +imperfectly known. The leading ideas on which the structure was +based, on the other hand, are so obvious that it is scarcely necessary +specially to set them forth. First of all, as we have already said, +the immediate circle of the ruling community was extended--partly +by the settlement of full burgesses, partly by the conferring of +passive burgess-rights--as far as was possible without completely +decentralizing the Roman community, which was an urban one and was +intended to remain so. When the system of incorporation was extended +up to and perhaps even beyond its natural limits, the communities that +were subsequently added had to submit to a position of subjection; for +a pure hegemony as a permanent relation was intrinsically impossible. +Thus not through any arbitrary monopolizing of sovereignty, but +through the inevitable force of circumstances, by the side of the +class of ruling burgesses a second class of subjects took its place. +It was one of the primary expedients of Roman rule to subdivide the +governed by breaking up the Italian confederacies and instituting as +large a number as possible of comparatively small communities, and +to graduate the pressure of that rule according to the different +categories of subjects. As Cato in the government of his household +took care that the slaves should not be on too good terms with one +another, and designedly fomented variances and factions among them, +so the Roman community acted on a great scale. The expedient was not +generous, but it was effectual. + +Aristocratic Remodelling of the Constitutions of the Italian +Communities + +It was but a wider application of the same expedient, when in each +dependent community the constitution was remodelled after the Roman +pattern and a government of the wealthy and respectable families was +installed, which was naturally more or less keenly opposed to the +multitude and was induced by its material interests and by its wish +for local power to lean on Roman support. The most remarkable +instance of this sort is furnished by the treatment of Capua, which +appears to have been from the first treated with suspicious precaution +as the only Italian city that could come into possible rivalry with +Rome. The Campanian nobility received a privileged jurisdiction, +separate places of assembly, and in every respect a distinctive +position; indeed they even obtained not inconsiderable pensions +--sixteen hundred of them at 450 -stateres- (about 30 pounds) +annually--charged on the Campanian exchequer. It was these Campanian +equites, whose refusal to take part in the great Latino-Campanian +insurrection of 414 mainly contributed to its failure, and whose brave +swords decided the day in favour of the Romans at Sentinum in 459;(40) +whereas the Campanian infantry at Rhegium was the first body of +troops that in the war with Pyrrhus revolted from Rome.(41) Another +remarkable instance of the Roman practice of turning to account for +their own interest the variances between the orders in the dependent +communities by favouring the aristocracy, is furnished by the +treatment which Volsinii met with in 489. There, just as in Rome, +the old and new burgesses must have stood opposed to one another, +and the latter must have attained by legal means equality of political +rights. In consequence of this the old burgesses of Volsinii resorted +to the Roman senate with a request for the restoration of their old +constitution--a step which the ruling party in the city naturally +viewed as high treason, and inflicted legal punishment accordingly on +the petitioners. The Roman senate, however, took part with the old +burgesses, and, when the city showed no disposition to submit, not +only destroyed by military violence the communal constitution of +Volsinii which was In recognized operation, but also, by razing the +old capital of Etruria, exhibited to the Italians a fearfully palpable +proof of the mastery of Rome. + +Moderation of the Government + +But the Roman senate had the wisdom not to overlook the fact, that the +only means of giving permanence to despotism is moderation on the part +of the despots. On that account there was left with, or conferred on, +the dependent communities an autonomy, which included a shadow of +independence, a special share in the military and political successes +of Rome, and above all a free communal constitution--so far as +the Italian confederacy extended, there existed no community of +Helots. On that account also Rome from the very first, with a +clear-sightedness and magnanimity perhaps unparalleled in history, +waived the most dangerous of all the rights of government, the right +of taxing her subjects. At the most tribute was perhaps imposed +on the dependent Celtic cantons: so far as the Italian confederacy +extended, there was no tributary community. On that account, lastly, +while the duty of bearing arms was partially devolved on the subjects, +the ruling burgesses were by no means exempt from it; it is probable +that the latter were proportionally far more numerous than the body +of the allies; and in that body, again, probably the Latins as a whole +were liable to far greater demands upon them than the non-Latin +allied communities. There was thus a certain reasonableness in the +appropriation by which Rome ranked first, and the Latins next to her, +in the distribution of the spoil acquired in war. + +Intermediate Functionaries-- +Valuation of the Empire + +The central administration at Rome solved the difficult problem of +preserving its supervision and control over the mass of the Italian +communities liable to furnish contingents, partly by means of the four +Italian quaestorships, partly by the extension of the Roman censorship +over the whole of the dependent communities. The quaestors of the +fleet,(42) along with their more immediate duty, had to raise +the revenues from the newly acquired domains and to control the +contingents of the new allies; they were the first Roman functionaries +to whom a residence and district out of Rome were assigned by law, and +they formed the necessary intermediate authority between the Roman +senate and the Italian communities. Moreover, as is shown by the +later municipal constitution, the chief functionaries in every Italian +community,(43) whatever might be their title, had to undertake a +valuation every fourth or fifth year--an institution, the suggestion +of which must necessarily have emanated from Rome, and which can +only have been intended to furnish the senate with a view of the +resources in men and money of the whole of Italy, corresponding +to the census in Rome. + +Italy and the Italians + +Lastly, with this military administrative union of the whole peoples +dwelling to the south of the Apennines, as far as the Iapygian +promontory and the straits of Rhegium, was connected the rise of a +new name common to them all--that of "the men of the toga" (-togati-), +which was their oldest designation in Roman state law, or that of the +"Italians," which was the appellation originally in use among the +Greeks and thence became universally current. The various nations +inhabiting those lands were probably first led to feel and own their +unity, partly through their common contrast to the Greeks, partly and +mainly through their common resistance to the Celts; for, although +an Italian community may now and then have made common cause with +the Celts against Rome and employed the opportunity to recover +independence, yet in the long run sound national feeling necessarily +prevailed. As the "Gallic field" down to a late period stood +contrasted in law with the Italian, so the "men of the toga" were thus +named in contrast to the Celtic "men of the hose" (-braccati-); and it +is probable that the repelling of the Celtic invasions played an +important diplomatic part as a reason or pretext for centralizing +the military resources of Italy in the hands of the Romans. Inasmuch +as the Romans on the one hand took the lead in the great national +struggle and on the other hand compelled the Etruscans, Latins, +Sabellians, Apulians, and Hellenes (within the bounds to be +immediately described) alike to fight under their standards, that +unity, which hitherto had been undefined and latent rather than +expressed, obtained firm consolidation and recognition in state law; +and the name -Italia-, which originally and even in the Greek authors +of the fifth century--in Aristotle for instance--pertained only to the +modern Calabria, was transferred to the whole land of these wearers of +the toga. + +Earliest Boundaries of the Italian Confederacy + +The earliest boundaries of this great armed confederacy led by Rome, +or of the new Italy, reached on the western coast as far as the +district of Leghorn south of the Arnus,(44) on the east as far as +the Aesis north of Ancona. The townships colonized by Italians, +lying beyond these limits, such as Sena Gallica and Ariminum beyond +the Apennines, and Messana in Sicily, were reckoned geographically as +situated out of Italy--even when, like Ariminum, they were members of +the confederacy or even, like Sena, were Roman burgess communities. +Still less could the Celtic cantons beyond the Apennines be reckoned +among the -togati-, although perhaps some of them were already among +the clients of Rome. + +First Steps towards the Latininzing of Italy-- +New Position of Rome as a Great Power + +The new Italy had thus become a political unity; it was also in +the course of becoming a national unity. Already the ruling Latin +nationality had assimilated to itself the Sabines and Volscians and +had scattered isolated Latin communities over all Italy; these germs +were merely developed, when subsequently the Latin language became +the mother-tongue of every one entitled to wear the Latin toga. +That the Romans already clearly recognized this as their aim, +is shown by the familiar extension of the Latin name to the whole body +of contingent-furnishing Italian allies.(45) Whatever can still be +recognized of this grand political structure testifies to the great +political sagacity of its nameless architects; and the singular +cohesion, which that confederation composed of so many and so +diversified ingredients subsequently exhibited under the severest +shocks, stamped their great work with the seal of success. From the +time when the threads of this net drawn as skilfully as firmly around +Italy were concentrated in the hands of the Roman community, it was a +great power, and took its place in the system of the Mediterranean +states in the room of Tarentum, Lucania, and other intermediate +and minor states erased by the last wars from the list of political +powers. Rome received, as it were, an official recognition of its new +position by means of the two solemn embassies, which in 481 were sent +from Alexandria to Rome and from Rome to Alexandria, and which, though +primarily they regulated only commercial relations, beyond doubt +prepared the way for a political alliance. As Carthage was contending +with the Egyptian government regarding Cyrene and was soon to contend +with that of Rome regarding Sicily, so Macedonia was contending with +the former for the predominant influence in Greece, with the latter +proximately for the dominion of the Adriatic coasts. The new +struggles, which were preparing on all sides, could not but influence +each other, and Rome, as mistress of Italy, could not fail to be drawn +into the wide arena which the victories and projects of Alexander the +Great had marked out as the field of conflict for his successors. + + + + +Notes for Book II Chapter VII + + +1. The story that the Romans also sent envoys to Alexander at Babylon +on the testimony of Clitarchus (Plin. Hist. Nat. iii. 5, 57), from +whom the other authorities who mention this fact (Aristus and +Asclepiades, ap. Arrian, vii. 15, 5; Memnon, c. 25) doubtless derived +it. Clitarchus certainly was contemporary with these events; +nevertheless, his Life of Alexander was decidedly a historical romance +rather than a history; and, looking to the silence of the trustworthy +biographers (Arrian, l. c.; Liv. ix. 18) and the utterly romantic +details of the account--which represents the Romans, for instance, +as delivering to Alexander a chaplet of gold, and the latter as +prophesying the future greatness of Rome--we cannot but set down this +story as one of the many embellishments which Clitarchus introduced +into the history. + +2. II. VI. Last Struggles of Samnium + +3. Near the modern Anglona; not to be confounded with the better +known town of the same name in the district of Cosenza. + +4. These numbers appear credible. The Roman account assigns, +probably in dead and wounded, 15,000 to each side; a later one even +specifies 5000 as dead on the Roman, and 20,000 on the Greek side. +These accounts may be mentioned here for the purpose of exhibiting, +in one of the few instances where it is possible to check the +statement, the untrustworthiness--almost without exception--of the +reports of numbers, which are swelled by the unscrupulous invention +of the annalists with avalanche-like rapidity. + +5. The later Romans, and the moderns following them, give a version +of the league, as if the Romans had designedly avoided accepting the +Carthaginian help in Italy. This would have been irrational, and the +facts pronounce against it. The circumstance that Mago did not land +at Ostia is to be explained not by any such foresight, but simply by +the fact that Latium was not at all threatened by Pyrrhus and so did +not need Carthaginian aid; and the Carthaginians certainly fought for +Rome in front of Rhegium. + +6. II. IV. Victories of Salamis and Himera, and Their Effects + +7. II. IV. Fruitlessness of the Celtic Victory + +8. The grounds for assigning the document given in Polybius (iii. 22) +not to 245, but to 406, are set forth in my Rom. Chronologie, p. 320 +f. [translated in the Appendix to this volume]. + +9. II. V. Domination of the Romans; Exasperation of the Latins + +10. II. VII. Breach between Rome and Tarentum + +11. II. V. Colonization of the Volsci + +12. II. V. Colonization of the Volsci + +13. II. VI. New Fortresses in Apulia and Campania + +14. II. VI. Last Struggles of Samnium + +15. II. VII. Construction of New Fortresses and Roads + +16. II. VII. The Boii + +17. II. VII. Construction of New Fortresses and Roads + +18. These were Pyrgi, Ostia, Antium, Tarracina, Minturnae, Sinuessa +Sena Gallica, and Castrum Novum. + +19. This statement is quite as distinct (Liv. viii. 14; -interdictum +mari Antiati populo est-) as it is intrinsically credible; for Antium +was inhabited not merely by colonists, but also by its former citizens +who had been nursed in enmity to Rome (II. V. Colonizations in The +Land Of The Volsci). This view is, no doubt, inconsistent with the +Greek accounts, which assert that Alexander the Great (431) and +Demetrius Poliorcetes (471) lodged complaints at Rome regarding +Antiate pirates. The former statement is of the same stamp, and +perhaps from the same source, with that regarding the Roman embassy to +Babylon (II. VII. Relations Between The East and West). It seems more +likely that Demetrius Poliorcetes may have tried by edict to put down +piracy in the Tyrrhene sea which he had never set eyes upon, and it is +not at all inconceivable that the Antiates may have even as Roman +citizens, in defiance of the prohibition, continued for a time their +old trade in an underhand fashion: much dependence must not however, +be placed even on the second story. + +20. II. VI. Last Campaigns in Samnium + +21. II. VII. Decline of the Roman Naval Power + +22. According to Servius (in Aen. iv. 628) it was stipulated in the +Romano-Carthaginian treaties, that no Roman should set foot on (or +rather occupy) Carthaginian, and no Carthaginian on Roman, soil, but +Corsica was to remain in a neutral position between them (-ut neque +Romani ad litora Carthaginiensium accederent neque Carthaginienses +ad litora Romanorum.....Corsica esset media inter Romanos et +Carthaginienses-). This appears to refer to our present period, +and the colonization of Corsica seems to have been prevented by +this very treaty. + +23. II. VII. Submission of Lower Italy + +24. The clause, by which a dependent people binds itself "to uphold +in a friendly manner the sovereignty of that of Rome" (-maiestatem +populi Romani comiter conservare-), is certainly the technical +appellation of that mildest form of subjection, but it probably did +not come into use till a considerably later period (Cic. pro Balbo, +16, 35). The appellation of clientship derived from private law, +aptly as in its very indefiniteness it denotes the relation (Dig. +xlix. 15, 7, i), was scarcely applied to it officially in earlier +times. + +25. II. IV. South Etruria Roman + +26. II. VI. Consolidation of the Roman Rule in Central Italy + +27. II. VI. Last Struggles of Samnium + +28. II. V. Complete Submission of the Volscian and Campanian +Provinces + +29. II. V. Complete Submission of the Volscian and Campanian +Provinces + +30. That Tusculum as it was the first to obtain passive +burgess-rights (II. V. Crises within the Romano-Latin League) +was also the first to exchange these for the rights of full burgesses, +is probable in itself and presumably it is in the latter and not in +the former respect that the town is named by Cicero (pro Mur. 8, 19) +-municipium antiquissimum-. + +31. II. V. Complete Submission of the Volscian and Campanian +Provinces + +32. II. IV. South Etruria Roman + +33. -V. Cervio A. f. cosol dedicavit- and -lunonei Quiritri sacra. C. +Falcilius L. f. consol dedicavit-. + +34. According to the testimony of Cicero (pro Caec. 35) Sulla gave to +the Volaterrans the former -ius- of Ariminum, that is--adds the +orator--the -ius- of the "twelve colonies" which had not the Roman +-civitas- but had full -commercium- with the Romans. Few things have +been so much discussed as the question to what places this -ius- of +the twelve towns refers; and yet the answer is not far to seek. There +were in Italy and Cisalpine Gaul--laying aside some places that soon +disappeared again--thirty-four Latin colonies established in all. +The twelve most recent of these--Ariminum, Beneventum, Firmum, +Aesernia, Brundisium, Spoletium, Cremona, Placentia, Copia, Valentia, +Bononia, and Aquileia--are those here referred to; and because +Ariminum was the oldest of these and the town for which this new +organization was primarily established, partly perhaps also because it +was the first Roman colony founded beyond Italy, the -ius- of these +colonies rightly took its name from Ariminum. This at the same time +demonstrates the truth of the view--which already had on other grounds +very high probability--that all the colonies established in Italy (in +the wider sense of the term) after the founding of Aquileia belonged +to the class of burgess-colonies. + +We cannot fully determine the extent to which the curtailment of the +rights of the more recent Latin towns was carried, as compared with +the earlier. If intermarriage, as is not improbable but is in fact +anything but definitely established (i. 132; Diodor. p. 590, 62, fr. +Vat. p. 130, Dind.), formed a constituent element of the original +federal equality of rights, it was, at any rate, no longer conceded +to the Latin colonies of more recent origin. + +35. II. V. League with the Hernici + +36. II. VI. Pacification of Campania + +37. II. VI. Victory of the Romans + +38. II. VII. The War in Italy Flags + +39. It is to be regretted that we are unable to give satisfactory +information as to the proportional numbers. We may estimate the +number of Roman burgesses capable of bearing arms in the later regal +period as about 20,000. (I. VI. Time and Occasion of the Reform) Now +from the fall of Alba to the conquest of Veii the immediate territory +of Rome received no material extension; in perfect accordance with +which we find that from the first institution of the twenty-one tribes +about 259, (II. II. Coriolanus) which involved no, or at any rate no +considerable, extension of the Roman bounds, no new tribes were +instituted till 367. However abundant allowance we make for increase +by the excess of births over deaths, by immigration, and by +manumissions, it is absolutely impossible to reconcile with the narrow +limits of a territory of hardly 650 square miles the traditional +numbers of the census, according to which the number of Roman +burgesses capable of bearing arms in the second half of the third +century varied between 104,000 and 150,000, and in 362, regarding +which a special statement is extant, amounted to 152,573. These +numbers must rather stand on a parallel with the 84,700 burgesses of +the Servian census; and in general the whole earlier census-lists, +carried back to the four lustres of Servius Tullius and furnished with +copious numbers, must belong to the class of those apparently +documentary traditions which delight in, and betray themselves +by the very fact of, such numerical details. + +It was only with the second half of the fourth century that the large +extensions of territory, which must have suddenly and considerably +augmented the burgess roll, began. It is reported on trustworthy +authority and is intrinsically credible, that about 416 the Roman +burgesses numbered 165,000; which very well agrees with the statement +that ten years previously, when the whole militia was called out +against Latium and the Gauls, the first levy amounted to ten legions, +that is, to 50,000 men. Subsequently to the great extensions of +territory in Etruria, Latium, and Campania, in the fifth century the +effective burgesses numbered, on an average, 250,000; immediately +before the first Punic war, 280,000 to 290,000. These numbers are +certain enough, but they are not quite available historically for +another reason, namely, that in them probably the Roman full burgesses +and the "burgesses without vote" not serving, like the Campanians, in +legions of their own, --such, e. g., as the Caerites, --are included +together in the reckoning, while the latter must at any rate -de +facto- be counted among the subjects (Rom. Forsch. ii. 396). + +40. II. VI. Battle of Sentinum + +41. II. VII. Commencement of the Conflict in Lower Italy + +42. II. VII. Quaestors of the Fleet + +43. Not merely in every Latin one; for the censorship or so-called +-quinquennalitas- occurs, as is well known, also among communities +whose constitution was not formed according to the Latin scheme. + +44. This earliest boundary is probably indicated by the two small +townships -Ad fines-, of which one lay north of Arezzo on the road +to Florence, the second on the coast not far from Leghorn. Somewhat +further to the south of the latter, the brook and valley of Vada are +still called -Fiume della fine-, -Valle della fine- (Targioni +Tozzetti, Viaggj, iv. 430). + +45. In strict official language, indeed, this was not the case. +The fullest designation of the Italians occurs in the agrarian law of +643, line 21; -[ceivis] Romanus sociumve nominisve Latini, quibus ex +formula togatorum [milites in terra Italia imperare solent]-; in like +manner at the 29th line of the same -peregrinus- is distinguished from +the -Latinus-, and in the decree of the senate as to the Bacchanalia +in 568 the expression is used: -ne quis ceivis Romanus neve nominis +Latini neve socium quisquam-. But in common use very frequently the +second or third of these three subdivisions is omitted, and along +with the Romans sometimes only those Latini nominis are mentioned, +sometimes only the -socii- (Weissenborn on Liv. xxii. 50, 6), while +there is no difference in the meaning. The designation -homines +nominis Latini ac socii Italici- (Sallust. Jug. 40), correct as it is +in itself, is foreign to the official -usus loquendi, which knows +-Italia-, but not -Italici-. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +Law, Religion, Military System, Economic Condition, Nationality + + +Development of Law + +In the development which law underwent during this period within the +Roman community, probably the most important material innovation was +that peculiar control which the community itself, and in a subordinate +degree its office-bearers, began to exercise over the manners and +habits of the individual burgesses. The germ of it is to be sought in +the right of the magistrate to inflict property-fines (-multae-) for +offences against order.(1) In the case of all fines of more than two +sheep and thirty oxen or, after the cattle-fines had been by the +decree of the people in 324 commuted into money, of more than 3020 +libral -asses- (30 pounds), the decision soon after the expulsion of +the kings passed by way of appeal into the hands of the community;(2) +and thus procedure by fine acquired an importance which it was far +from originally possessing. Under the vague category of offences +against order men might include any accusations they pleased, and by +the higher grades in the scale of fines they might accomplish whatever +they desired. The dangerous character of such arbitrary procedure was +brought to light rather than obviated by the mitigating proviso, that +these property-fines, where they were not fixed by law at a definite +sum, should not amount to half the estate belonging to the person +fined. To this class belonged the police-laws, which from the earliest +times were especially abundant in the Roman community. Such were those +enactments of the Twelve Tables, which prohibited the anointing of a +dead body by persons hired for the purpose, the dressing it out with +more than one cushion or more than three purple-edged coverings, the +decorating it with gold or gaudy chaplets, the use of dressed wood for +the funeral pile, and the perfuming or sprinkling of the pyre with +frankincense or myrrh-wine; which limited the number of flute-players +in the funeral procession to ten at most; and which forbade wailing +women and funeral banquets--in a certain measure the earliest Roman +legislation against luxury. Such also were the laws--originating +in the conflicts of the orders--directed against usury as well as +against an undue use of the common pasture and a disproportionate +appropriation of the occupiable domain-land. But far more fraught +with danger than these and similar fining-laws, which at any rate +formulated once for all the trespass and often also the measure of +punishment, was the general prerogative of every magistrate who +exercised jurisdiction to inflict a fine for an offence against order, +and, if the fine reached the amount necessary to found an appeal and +the person fined did not submit to the penalty, to bring the case +before the community. Already in the course of the fifth century +quasi-criminal proceedings had been in this way instituted against +immorality of life both in men and women, against the forestalling of +grain, witchcraft, and similar matters. Closely akin to this was the +quasi-jurisdiction of the censors, which likewise sprang up at this +period. They were invested with authority to adjust the Roman budget +and the burgess-roll, and they availed themselves of it, partly to +impose of their own accord taxes on luxury which differed only in form +from penalties on it, partly to abridge or withdraw the political +privileges of the burgess who was reported to have been guilty of any +infamous action.(3) The extent to which this surveillance was already +carried is shown by the fact that penalties of this nature were +inflicted for the negligent cultivation of a man's own land, and that +such a man as Publius Cornelius Rufinus (consul in 464, 477) was +struck off the list of senators by the censors of 479, because he +possessed silver plate to the value of 3360 sesterces (34 pounds). +No doubt, according to the rule generally applicable to the edicts of +magistrates,(4) the sentences of the censors had legal force only +during their censorship, that is on an average for the next five +years, and might be renewed or not by the next censors at pleasure. +Nevertheless this censorial prerogative was of so immense importance, +that in virtue of it the censorship, originally a subordinate +magistracy, became in rank and consideration the first of all.(5) +The government of the senate rested essentially on this twofold +police control supreme and subordinate, vested in the community and +its officials, and furnished with powers as extensive as they were +arbitrary. Like every such arbitrary government, it was productive +of much good and much evil, and we do not mean to combat the view of +those who hold that the evil preponderated. But we must not forget +that--amidst the morality external certainly but stern and energetic, +and the powerful enkindling of public spirit, that were the genuine +characteristics of this period--these institutions remained exempt +as yet from any really base misuse; and if they were the chief +instruments in repressing individual freedom, they were also the means +by which the public spirit and the good old manners and order of the +Roman community were with might and main upheld. + +Modifications in the Laws + +Along with these changes a humanizing and modernizing tendency showed +itself slowly, but yet clearly enough, in the development of Roman +law. Most of the enactmerits of the Twelve Tables, which coincide with +the laws of Solon and therefore may with reason be considered as in +substance innovations, bear this character; such as the securing the +right of free association and the autonomy of the societies that +originated under it; the enactment that forbade the ploughing up of +boundary-balks; and the mitigation of the punishment of theft, so that +a thief not caught in the act might henceforth release himself from +the plaintiff's suit by payment of double compensation. The law of +debt was modified in a similar sense, but not till upwards of a +century afterwards, by the Poetelian law.(6) The right freely to +dispose of property, which according to the earliest Roman law was +accorded to the owner in his lifetime but in the case of death had +hitherto been conditional on the consent of the community, was +liberated from this restriction, inasmuch as the law of the Twelve +Tables or its interpretation assigned to the private testament the +same force as pertained to that confirmed in the curies. This was +an important step towards the breaking up of the clanships, and +towards the full carrying out of individual liberty in the disposal +of property. The fearfully absolute paternal power was restricted by +the enactment, that a son thrice sold by his father should not relapse +into his power, but should thenceforth be free; to which--by a legal +inference that, strictly viewed, was no doubt absurd--was soon +attached the possibility that a father might voluntarily divest +himself of dominion over his son by emancipation. In the law of +marriage civil marriage was permitted;(7) and although the full +marital power was associated as necessarily with a true civil as with +a true religious marriage, yet the permission of a connection instead +of marriage,(8) formed without that power, constituted a first step +towards relaxation of the full power of the husband. The first step +towards a legal enforcement of married life was the tax on old +bachelors (-aes uxorium-) with the introduction of which Camillus +began his public career as censor in 351. + +Administration of Justice-- +Code of Common Law-- +New Judicial Functionaries + +Changes more comprehensive than those effected in the law itself were +introduced into--what was more important in a political point of view, +and more easily admitted of alteration--the system of judicial +administration. First of all came the important limitation of the +supreme judicial power by the embodiment of the common law in a +written code, and the obligation of the magistrate thenceforth to +decide no longer according to varying usage, but according to the +written letter, in civil as well as in criminal procedure (303, 304). +The appointment of a supreme magistrate in Rome exclusively for the +administration of justice in 387,(9) and the establishment of +separate police functionaries which took place contemporaneously +in Rome, and was imitated under Roman influence in all the Latin +communities,(10) secured greater speed and precision of justice. +These police-magistrates or aediles had, of course, a certain +jurisdiction at the same time assigned to them. On the one hand, +they were the ordinary civil judges for sales concluded in open +market, for the cattle and slave markets in particular; and on +the other hand, they ordinarily acted in processes of fines and +amercements as judges of first instance or--which was in Roman +law the same thing--as public prosecutors. In consequence of this the +administration of the laws imposing fines, and the equally indefinite +and politically important right of fining in general, were vested +mainly in them. Similar but subordinate functions, having especial +reference to the poorer classes, pertained to the three night--or +blood-masters (-tres viri nocturni- or -capitales-), first nominated +in 465; they were entrusted with the duties of nocturnal police as +regards fire and the public safety and with the superintendence of +executions, with which a certain summary jurisdiction was very soon, +perhaps even from the outset, associated.(11) Lastly from the +increasing extent of the Roman community it became necessary, out of +regard to the convenience of litigants, to station in the more remote +townships special judges competent to deal at least with minor civil +causes. This arrangement was the rule for the communities of burgesses +-sine suffragio-,(12) and was perhaps even extended to the more +remote communities of full burgesses,(13)--the first germs of a +Romano-municipal jurisdiction developing itself by the side of that +which was strictly Roman. + +Changes in Procedure + +In civil procedure (which, however, according to the ideas of that +period included most of the crimes committed against fellow-citizens) +the division of a process into the settlement of the question of law +before the magistrate (-ius-), and the decision of the question of +fact by a private person nominated by the magistrate (-iudicium-) +--a division doubtless customary even in earlier times--was on +the abolition of the monarchy prescribed by law;(14) and to that +separation the private law of Rome was mainly indebted for its logical +clearness and practical precision.(15) In actions regarding property, +the decision as to what constituted possession, which hitherto had +been left to the arbitrary caprice of the magistrate, was subjected +gradually to legal rules; and, alongside of the law of property, a law +of possession was developed--another step, by which the magisterial +authority lost an important part of its powers. In criminal processes, +the tribunal of the people, which hitherto had exercised the +prerogative of mercy, became a court of legally secured appeal. If the +accused after hearing (-quaestio-) was condemned by the magistrate and +appealed to the burgesses, the magistrate proceeded in presence of +these to the further hearing (-anquisitio-) and, when he after three +times discussing the matter before the community had repeated his +decision, in the fourth diet the sentence was confirmed or rejected +by the burgesses. Modification was not allowed. A similar republican +spirit breathed in the principles, that the house protected the +burgess, and that an arrest could only take place out of doors; that +imprisonment during investigation was to be avoided; and that it +was allowable for every accused and not yet condemned burgess by +renouncing his citizenship to withdraw from the consequences of +condemnation, so far as they affected not his property but his +person-principles, which certainly were not embodied in formal laws +and accordingly did not legally bind the prosecuting magistrate, but +yet were by their moral weight of the greatest influence, particularly +in limiting capital punishment. But, if the Roman criminal law +furnishes a remarkable testimony to the strong public spirit and to +the increasing humanity of this epoch, it on the other hand suffered +in its practical working from the struggles between the orders, which +in this respect were specially baneful. The co-ordinate primary +jurisdiction of all the public magistrates in criminal cases, that +arose out of these conflicts,(16) led to the result, that there was +no longer any fixed authority for giving instructions, or any serious +preliminary investigation, in Roman criminal procedure. And, as the +ultimate criminal jurisdiction was exercised in the forms and by +the organs of legislation, and never disowned its origin from the +prerogative of mercy; as, moreover, the treatment of police fines had +an injurious reaction on the criminal procedure which was externally +very similar; the decision in criminal causes was pronounced--and that +not so much by way of abuse, as in some degree by virtue of the +constitution--not according to fixed law, but according to the +arbitrary pleasure of the judges. In this way the Roman criminal +procedure was completely void of principle, and was degraded into +the sport and instrument of political parties; which can the less be +excused, seeing that this procedure, while especially applied to +political crimes proper, was applicable also to others, such as murder +and arson. The evil was aggravated by the clumsiness of that +procedure, which, in concert with the haughty republican contempt for +non-burgesses, gave rise to a growing custom of tolerating, side by +side with the more formal process, a summary criminal, or rather +police, procedure against slaves and common people. Here too the +passionate strife regarding political processes overstepped natural +limits, and introduced institutions which materially contributed to +estrange the Romans step by step from the idea of a fixed moral order +in the administration of justice. + +Religion-- +New Gods + +We are less able to trace the progress of the religious conceptions of +the Romans during this epoch. In general they adhered with simplicity +to the simple piety of their ancestors, and kept equally aloof from +superstition and from unbelief. How vividly the idea of spiritualizing +all earthly objects, on which the Roman religion was based, still +prevailed at the close of this epoch, is shown by the new "God of +silver" (-Argentinus-), who presumably came into existence only in +consequence of the introduction of the silver currency in 485, and who +naturally was the son of the older "God of copper" (-Aesculanus-). + +The relations to foreign lands were the same as heretofore; but here, +and here especially, Hellenic influences were on the increase. It was +only now that temples began to rise in Rome itself in honour of the +Hellenic gods. The oldest was the temple of Castor and Pollux, which +had been vowed in the battle at lake Regillus(17) and was consecrated +on 15th July 269. The legend associated with it, that two youths of +superhuman size and beauty had been seen fighting on the battle-field +in the ranks of the Romans and immediately after the battle watering +their foaming steeds in the Roman Forum at the fountain of luturna, +and announcing the great victory, bears a stamp thoroughly un-Roman, +and was beyond doubt at a very early period modelled on the appearance +of the Dioscuri--similar down to its very details--in the famous +battle fought about a century before between the Crotoniates and +Locrians at the river Sagras. The Delphic Apollo too was not only +consulted--as was usual with all peoples that felt the influence of +Grecian culture--and presented moreover after special successes, such +as the capture of Veii, with a tenth of the spoil (360), but also had +a temple built for him in the city (323, renewed 401). The same honour +was towards the close of this period accorded to Aphrodite (459), who +was in some enigmatical way identified with the old Roman garden +goddess, Venus;(18) and to Asklapios or Aesculapius, who was obtained +by special request from Epidaurus in the Peloponnesus and solemnly +conducted to Rome (463). Isolated complaints were heard in serious +emergencies as to the intrusion of foreign superstition, presumably +the art of the Etruscan -haruspices- (as in 326); but in such cases +the police did not fail to take proper cognisance of the matter. + +In Etruria on the other hand, while the nation stagnated and decayed +in political nullity and indolent opulence, the theological monopoly +of the nobility, stupid fatalism, wild and meaningless mysticism, the +system of soothsaying and of mendicant prophecy gradually developed +themselves, till they reached the height at which we afterwards find +them. + +Sacerdotal System + +In the sacerdotal system no comprehensive changes, so far as we know, +took place. The more stringent enactments, that were made about 465 +regarding the collection of the process-fines destined to defray the +cost of public worship, point to an increase in the ritual budget of +the state--a necessary result of the increase in the number of its +gods and its temples. It has already been mentioned as one of the evil +effects of the dissensions between the orders that an illegitimate +influence began to be conceded to the colleges of men of lore, and +that they were employed for the annulling of political acts(19)--a +course by which on the one hand the faith of the people was shaken, +and on the other hand the priests were permitted to exercise a very +injurious influence on public affairs. + +Military System-- +Manipular Legion-- +Entrenchment of Camp-- +Cavalry-- +Officers-- +Military Discipline-- +Training and Classes of Soldiers-- +Military Value of the Manipular Legion + +A complete revolution occurred during this epoch in the military +system. The primitive Graeco-Italian military organization, which was +probably based, like the Homeric, on the selection of the most +distinguished and effective warriors--who ordinarily fought on +horseback--to form a special vanguard, had in the later regal period +been superseded by the -legio--the old Dorian phalanx of hoplites, +probably eight file deep.(20) This phalanx thenceforth undertook the +chief burden of the battle, while the cavalry were stationed on the +flanks, and, mounted or dismounted according to circumstances, were +chiefly employed as a reserve. From this arrangement there were +developed nearly at the same time the phalanx of -sarrissae-in +Macedonia and the manipular arrangement in Italy, the former formed by +closing and deepening, the latter by breaking up and multiplying, the +ranks, in the first instance by the division of the old -legio- of +8400 into two -legiones- of 4200 men each. The old Doric phalanx had +been wholly adapted to close combat with the sword and especially with +the spear, and only an accessory and subordinate position in the order +of battle was assigned to missile weapons. In the manipular legion the +thrusting-lance was confined to the third division, and instead of it +the first two were furnished with a new and peculiar Italian missile +weapon, the -pilum- a square or round piece of wood, four and a half +feet long, with a triangular or quadrangular iron point--which had +been originally perhaps invented for the defence of the ramparts of +the camp, but was soon transferred from the rear to the front ranks, +and was hurled by the advancing line into the ranks of the enemy at a +distance of from ten to twenty paces. At the same time the sword +acquired far greater importance than the short knife of the phalangite +could ever have had; for the volley of javelins was intended in the +first instance merely to prepare the way for an attack sword in hand. +While, moreover, the phalanx had, as if it were a single mighty lance, +to be hurled at once upon the enemy, in the new Italian legion the +smaller units, which existed also in the phalanx system but were in +the order of battle firmly and indissolubly united, were tactically +separated from each other. Not merely was the close square divided, as +we have said, into two equally strong halves, but each of these was +separated in the direction of its depth into the three divisions of +the -hastati-, - principes-, and -triarii-, each of a moderate depth +probably amounting in ordinary cases to only four files; and was +broken up along the front into ten bands (-manipuli-), in such a way +that between every two divisions and every two maniples there was left +a perceptible interval. It was a mere continuation of the same process +of individualizing, by which the collective mode of fighting was +discouraged even in the diminished tactical unit and the single combat +became prominent, as is evident from the (already mentioned) decisive +part played by hand-to-hand encounters and combats with the sword. The +system of entrenching the camp underwent also a peculiar development. +The place where the army encamped, even were it only for a single +night, was invariably provided with a regular circumvallation and as +it were converted into a fortress. Little change took place on the +other hand in the cavalry, which in the manipular legion retained the +secondary part which it had occupied by the side of the phalanx. The +system of officering the army also continued in the main unchanged; +only now over each of the two legions of the regular army there were +set just as many war-tribunes as had hitherto commanded the whole +army, and the number of staff-officers was thus doubled. It was at +this period probably that the clear line of demarcation became +established between the subaltern officers, who as common soldiers had +to gain their place at the head of the maniples by the sword and +passed by regular promotion from the lower to the higher maniples, and +the military tribunes placed at the head of whole legions--six to +each--in whose case there was no regular promotion, and for whom men +of the better class were usually taken. In this respect it must have +become a matter of importance that, while previously the subaltern +as well as the staff-officers had been uniformly nominated by the +general, after 392 some of the latter posts were filled up through +election by the burgesses.(21) Lastly, the old, fearfully strict, +military discipline remained unaltered. Still, as formerly, the +general was at liberty to behead any man serving in his camp, and to +scourge with rods the staff-officer as well as the common soldier; +nor were such punishments inflicted merely on account of common +crimes, but also when an officer had allowed himself to deviate from +the orders which he had received, or when a division had allowed +itself to be surprised or had fled from the field of battle. On the +other hand, the new military organization necessitated a far more +serious and prolonged military training than the previous phalanx +system, in which the solidity of the mass kept even the inexperienced +in their ranks. If nevertheless no special soldier-class sprang up, +but on the contrary the army still remained, as before, a burgess +army, this object was chiefly attained by abandoning the former mode +of ranking the soldiers according to property(22) and arranging them +according to length of service. The Roman recruit now entered among +the light-armed "skirmishers" (-rorarii-), who fought outside of the +line and especially with stone slings, and he advanced from this step +by step to the first and then to the second division, till at length +the soldiers of long service and experience were associated together +in the corps of the -triarii-, which was numerically the weakest but +imparted its tone and spirit to the whole army. + +The excellence of this military organization, which became the primary +cause of the superior political position of the Roman community, +chiefly depended on the three great military principles of maintaining +a reserve, of combining the close and distant modes of fighting, and +of combining the offensive and the defensive. The system of a reserve +was already foreshadowed in the earlier employment of the cavalry, +but it was now completely developed by the partition of the army into +three divisions and the reservation of the flower of the veterans for +the last and decisive shock. While the Hellenic phalanx had developed +the close, and the Oriental squadrons of horse armed with bows and +light missile spears the distant, modes of fighting respectively, the +Roman combination of the heavy javelin with the sword produced results +similar, as has justly been remarked, to those attained in modern +warfare by the introduction of bayonet-muskets; the volley of javelins +prepared the way for the sword encounter, exactly in the same way as a +volley of musketry now precedes a charge with the bayonet. Lastly, +the elaborate system of encampment allowed the Romans to combine the +advantages of defensive and offensive war and to decline or give +battle according to circumstances, and in the latter case to fight +under the ramparts of their camp just as under the walls of a +fortress--the Roman, says a Roman proverb, conquers by sitting still. + +Origin of the Manipular Legion + +That this new military organization was in the main a Roman, or at any +rate Italian, remodelling and improvement of the old Hellenic tactics +of the phalanx, is plain. If some germs of the system of reserve and +of the individualizing of the smaller subdivisions of the army are +found to occur among the later Greek strategists, especially Xenophon, +this only shows that they felt the defectiveness of the old system, +but were not well able to obviate it. The manipular legion appears +fully developed in the war with Pyrrhus; when and under what +circumstances it arose, whether at once or gradually, can no +longer be ascertained. The first tactical system which the Romans +encountered, fundamentally different from the earlier Italo-Hellenic +system, was the Celtic sword-phalanx. It is not impossible that the +subdivision of the army and the intervals between the maniples in +front were arranged with a view to resist, as they did resist, its +first and only dangerous charge; and it accords with this hypothesis +that Marcus Furius Camillus, the most celebrated Roman general of the +Gallic epoch, is presented in various detached notices as the reformer +of the Roman military system. The further traditions associated with +the Samnite and Pyrrhic wars are neither sufficiently accredited, nor +can they with certainty be duly arranged;(23) although it is in itself +probable that the prolonged Samnite mountain warfare exercised a +lasting influence on the individual development of the Roman soldier, +and that the struggle with one of the first masters of the art of war, +belonging to the school of the great Alexander, effected an +improvement in the technical features of the Roman military system. + +National Economy-- +The Farmers-- +Farming of Estates + +In the national economy agriculture was, and continued to be, the +social and political basis both of the Roman community and of the new +Italian state. The common assembly and the army consisted of Roman +farmers; what as soldiers they had acquired by the sword, they secured +as colonists by the plough. The insolvency of the middle class of +landholders gave rise to the formidable internal crises of the third +and fourth centuries, amidst which it seemed as if the young republic +could not but be destroyed. The revival of the Latin farmer-class, +which was produced during the fifth century partly by the large +assignations of land and incorporations, partly by the fall in the +rate of interest and the increase of the Roman population, was at once +the effect and the cause of the mighty development of Roman power. +The acute soldier's eye of Pyrrhus justly discerned the cause of the +political and military ascendency of the Romans in the flourishing +condition of the Roman farms. But the rise also of husbandry on a +large scale among the Romans appears to fall within this period. +In earlier times indeed there existed landed estates of--at least +comparatively--large size; but their management was not farming on a +large scale, it was simply a husbandry of numerous small parcels.(24) +On the other hand the enactment in the law of 387, not incompatible +indeed with the earlier mode of management but yet far more +appropriate to the later, viz. that the landholder should be bound +to employ along with his slaves a proportional number of free +persons,(25) may well be regarded as the oldest trace of the later +centralized farming of estates;(26) and it deserves notice that even +here at its first emergence it essentially rests on slave-holding. How +it arose, must remain an undecided point; possibly the Carthaginian +plantations in Sicily served as models to the oldest Roman +landholders, and perhaps even the appearance of wheat in husbandry +by the side of spelt,(27) which Varro places about the period of the +decemvirs, was connected with that altered style of management. Still +less can we ascertain how far this method of husbandry had already +during this period spread; but the history of the wars with Hannibal +leaves no doubt that it cannot yet have become the rule, nor can it +have yet absorbed the Italian farmer class. Where it did come into +vogue, however, it annihilated the older clientship based on the +-precarium-; just as the modern system of large farms has been formed +in great part by the suppression of petty holdings and the conversion +of hides into farm-fields. It admits of no doubt that the restriction +of this agricultural clientship very materially contributed towards +the distress of the class of small cultivators. + +Inland Intercourse in Italy + +Respecting the internal intercourse of the Italians with each other +our written authorities are silent; coins alone furnish some +information. We have already mentioned(28) that in Italy, with the +exception of the Greek cities and of the Etruscan Populonia, there was +no coinage during the first three centuries of Rome, and that cattle +in the first instance, and subsequently copper by weight, served as +the medium of exchange. Within the present epoch occurred the +transition on the part of the Italians from the system of barter to +that of money; and in their money they were naturally led at first to +Greek models. The circumstances of central Italy led however to the +adoption of copper instead of silver as the metal for their coinage, +and the unit of coinage was primarily based on the previous unit of +value, the copper pound; hence they cast their coins instead of +stamping them, for no die would have sufficed for pieces so large and +heavy. Yet there seems from the first to have been a fixed ratio for +the relative value of copper and silver (250:1), and with reference to +that ratio the copper coinage seems to have been issued; so that, for +example, in Rome the large copper piece, the -as-, was equal in value +to a scruple (1/288 of a pound) of silver. It is a circumstance +historically more remarkable, that coining in Italy most probably +originated in Rome, and in fact with the decemvirs, who found in the +Solonian legislation a pattern for the regulation of their coinage; +and that from Rome it spread over a number of Latin, Etruscan, +Umbrian, and east-Italian communities, --a clear proof of the superior +position which Rome from the beginning of the fourth century held in +Italy. As all these communities subsisted side by side in formal +independence, legally the monetary standard was entirely local, and +the territory of every city had its own monetary system. Nevertheless +the standards of copper coinage in central and northern Italy may be +comprehended in three groups, within which the coins in common +intercourse seem to have been treated as homogeneous. These groups +are, first, the coins of the cities of Etruria lying north of the +Ciminian Forest and those of Umbria; secondly, the coins of Rome and +Latium; and lastly, those of the eastern seaboard. We have already +observed that the Roman coins held a certain ratio to silver by +weight; on the other hand we find those of the east coast of Italy +placed in a definite proportional relation to the silver coins which +were current from an early period in southern Italy, and the standard +of which was adopted by the Italian immigrants, such as the Bruttians, +Lucanians, and Nolans, by the Latin colonies in that quarter, such as +Cales and Suessa, and even by the Romans themselves for their +possessions in Lower Italy. Accordingly the inland traffic of Italy +must have been divided into corresponding provinces, which dealt with +one another like foreign nations. + +In transmarine commerce the relations we have previously described(29) +between Sicily and Latium, Etruria and Attica, the Adriatic and +Tarentum, continued to subsist during the epoch before us or rather, +strictly speaking, belonged to it; for although facts of this class, +which as a rule are mentioned without a date, have been placed +together for the purpose of presenting a general view under the first +period, the statements made apply equally to the present. The clearest +evidence in this respect is, of course, that of the coins. As the +striking of Etruscan silver money after an Attic standard(30) and the +penetrating of Italian and especially of Latin copper into Sicily(31) +testify to the two former routes of traffic, so the equivalence, which +we have just mentioned, between the silver money of Magna Graecia and +the copper coinage of Picenum and Apulia, forms, with numerous other +indications, an evidence of the active traffic which the Greeks of +Lower Italy, the Tarentines in particular, held with the east Italian +seaboard. The commerce again, which was at an earlier period perhaps +still more active, between the Latins and the Campanian Greeks seems +to have been disturbed by the Sabellian immigration, and to have been +of no great moment during the first hundred and fifty years of the +republic. The refusal of the Samnites in Capua and Cumae to supply +the Romans with grain in the famine of 343 may be regarded as an +indication of the altered relations which subsisted between Latium and +Campania, till at the commencement of the fifth century the Roman arms +restored and gave increased impetus to the old intercourse. + +Touching on details, we may be allowed to mention, as one of the few +dated facts in the history of Roman commerce, the notice drawn from +the annals of Ardea, that in 454 the first barber came from Sicily to +Ardea; and to dwell for a moment on the painted pottery which was sent +chiefly from Attica, but also from Corcyra and Sicily, to Lucania, +Campania, and Etruria, to serve there for the decoration of tombs--a +traffic, as to the circumstances of which we are accidentally better +informed than as to any other article of transmarine commerce. The +commencement of this import trade probably falls about the period of +the expulsion of the Tarquins; for the vases of the oldest style, +which are of very rare occurrence in Italy, were probably painted in +the second half of the third century of the city, while those of the +chaste style, occurring in greater numbers, belong to the first half, +those of the most finished beauty to the second half, of the fourth +century; and the immense quantities of the other vases, often marked +by showiness and size but seldom by excellence in workmanship, must be +assigned as a whole to the following century. It was from the Hellenes +undoubtedly that the Italians derived this custom of embellishing +tombs; but while the moderate means and fine discernment of the Greeks +confined the practice in their case within narrow limits, it was +stretched in Italy by barbaric opulence and barbaric extravagance +far beyond its original and proper bounds. It is a significant +circumstance, however, that in Italy this extravagance meets us only +in the lands that had a Hellenic semi-culture. Any one who can read +such records will perceive in the cemeteries of Etruria and Campania +--the mines whence our museums have been replenished--a significant +commentary on the accounts of the ancients as to the Etruscan and +Campanian semi-culture choked amidst wealth and arrogance.(32) +The homely Samnite character on the other hand remained at all times +a stranger to this foolish luxury; the absence of Greek pottery from +the tombs exhibits, quite as palpably as the absence of a Samnite +coinage, the slight development of commercial intercourse and of urban +life in this region. It is still more worthy of remark that Latium +also, although not less near to the Greeks than Etruria and Campania, +and in closest intercourse with them, almost wholly refrained from +such sepulchral decorations. It is more than probable--especially on +account of the altogether different character of the tombs in the +unique Praeneste--that in this result we have to recognize the +influence of the stern Roman morality or--if the expression be +preferred--of the rigid Roman police. Closely connected with this +subject are the already-mentioned interdicts, which the law of the +Twelve Tables fulminated against purple bier-cloths and gold ornaments +placed beside the dead; and the banishment of all silver plate, +excepting the salt-cellar and sacrificial ladle, from the Roman +household, so far at least as sumptuary laws and the terror of +censorial censure could banish it: even in architecture we shall again +encounter the same spirit of hostility to luxury whether noble or +ignoble. Although, however, in consequence of these influences Rome +probably preserved a certain outward simplicity longer than Capua and +Volsinii, her commerce and trade--on which, in fact, along with +agriculture her prosperity from the beginning rested--must not be +regarded as having been inconsiderable, or as having less sensibly +experienced the influence of her new commanding position. + +Capital in Rome + +No urban middle class in the proper sense of that term, no body of +independent tradesmen and merchants, was ever developed in Rome. The +cause of this was--in addition to the disproportionate centralization +of capital which occurred at an early period--mainly the employment of +slave labour. It was usual in antiquity, and was in fact a necessary +consequence of slavery, that the minor trades in towns were very +frequently carried on by slaves, whom their master established as +artisans or merchants; or by freedmen, in whose case the master not +only frequently furnished the capital, but also regularly stipulated +for a share, often the half, of the profits. Retail trading and +dealing in Rome were undoubtedly constantly on the increase; and +there are proofs that the trades which minister to the luxury of +great cities began to be concentrated in Rome--the Ficoroni casket +for instance was designed in the fifth century of the city by a +Praenestine artist and was sold to Praeneste, but was nevertheless +manufactured in Rome.(33) But as the net proceeds even of retail +business flowed for the most part into the coffers of the great +houses, no industrial and commercial middle-class arose to an extent +corresponding to that increase. As little were the great merchants and +great manufacturers marked off as a distinct class from the great +landlords. On the one hand, the latter were from ancient times(34) +simultaneously traders and capitalists, and combined in their hands +lending on security, trafficking on a great scale, the undertaking +of contracts, and the executing of works for the state. On the other +hand, from the emphatic moral importance which in the Roman +commonwealth attached to the possession of land, and from its +constituting the sole basis of political privileges--a basis which was +infringed for the first time only towards the close of this epoch +(35)--it was undoubtedly at this period already usual for the +fortunate speculator to invest part of his capital in land. It is +clear enough also from the political privileges given to freedmen +possessing freeholds,(36) that the Roman statesmen sought in this way +to diminish the dangerous class of the rich who had no land. + +Development of Rome as A Great City + +But while neither an opulent urban middle class nor a strictly close +body of capitalists grew up in Rome, it was constantly acquiring more +and more the character of a great city. This is plainly indicated by +the increasing number of slaves crowded together in the capital (as +attested by the very serious slave conspiracy of 335), and still more +by the increasing multitude of freedmen, which was gradually becoming +inconvenient and dangerous, as we may safely infer from the +considerable tax imposed on manumissions in 397(37) and from the +limitation of the political rights of freedmen in 450.(38) For not +only was it implied in the circumstances that the great majority of +the persons manumitted had to devote themselves to trade or commerce, +but manumission itself among the Romans was, as we have already said, +less an act of liberality than an industrial speculation, the master +often finding it more for his interest to share the profits of the +trade or commerce of the freedman than to assert his title to +the whole proceeds of the labour of his slave. The increase of +manumissions must therefore have necessarily kept pace with the +increase of the commercial and industrial activity of the Romans. + +Urban Police + +A similar indication of the rising importance of urban life in Rome is +presented by the great development of the urban police. To this period +probably belong in great measure the enactments under which the +four aediles divided the city into four police districts, and made +provision for the discharge of their equally important and difficult +functions--for the efficient repair of the network of drains small and +large by which Rome was pervaded, as well as of the public buildings +and places; for the proper cleansing and paving of the streets; for +obviating the nuisances of ruinous buildings, dangerous animals, or +foul smells; for the removing of waggons from the highway except +during the hours of evening and night, and generally for the keeping +open of the communication; for the uninterrupted supply of the market +of the capital with good and cheap grain; for the destruction of +unwholesome articles, and the suppression of false weights and +measures; and for the special oversight of baths, taverns, and +houses of bad fame. + +Building-- +Impulse Given to It + +In respect to buildings the regal period, particularly the epoch of +the great conquests, probably accomplished more than the first two +centuries of the republic. Structures like the temples on the Capitol +and on the Aventine and the great Circus were probably as obnoxious to +the frugal fathers of the city as to the burgesses who gave their +task-work; and it is remarkable that perhaps the most considerable +building of the republican period before the Samnite wars, the temple +of Ceres in the Circus, was a work of Spurius Cassius (261) who in +more than one respect, sought to lead the commonwealth back to the +traditions of the kings. The governing aristocracy moreover repressed +private luxury with a rigour such as the rule of the kings, if +prolonged, would certainly not have displayed. But at length even +the senate was no longer able to resist the superior force of +circumstances. It was Appius Claudius who in his epoch-making +censorship (442) threw aside the antiquated rustic system of +parsimonious hoarding, and taught his fellow-citizens to make a worthy +use of the public resources. He began that noble system of public +works of general utility, which justifies, if anything can justify, +the military successes of Rome even from the point of view of the +welfare of the nations, and which even now in its ruins furnishes some +idea of the greatness of Rome to thousands on thousands who have never +read a page of her history. To him the Roman state was indebted for +its great military road, and the city of Rome for its first aqueduct. +Following in the steps of Claudius, the Roman senate wove around Italy +that network of roads and fortresses, the formation of which has +already been described,(39) and without which, as the history of all +military states from the Achaemenidae down to the creator of the road +over the Simplon shows, no military hegemony can subsist. Following in +the steps of Claudius, Manius Curius built from the proceeds of the +Pyrrhic spoil a second aqueduct for the capital (482); and some years +previously (464) with the gains of the Sabine war he opened up for the +Velino, at the point above Terni where it falls into the Nera, that +broader channel in which the stream still flows, with a view to drain +the beautiful valley of Rieti and thereby to gain space for a large +burgess settlement along with a modest farm for himself. Such works, +in the eyes of persons of intelligence, threw into the shade the +aimless magnificence of the Hellenic temples. + +Embellishment of the City + +The style of living also among the citizens now was altered. About +the time of Pyrrhus silver plate began to make its appearance on Roman +tables, and the chroniclers date the disappearance of shingle roofs in +Rome from 470.(40) The new capital of Italy gradually laid aside its +village-like aspect, and now began to embellish itself. It was not yet +indeed customary to strip the temples in conquered towns of their +ornaments for the decoration of Rome; but the beaks of the galleys of +Antium were displayed at the orator's platform in the Forum(41) and +on public festival days the gold-mounted shields brought home from +the battle-fields of Samnium were exhibited along the stalls of the +market.(42) The proceeds of fines were specially applied to the paving +of the highways in and near the city, or to the erection and +embellishment of public buildings. The wooden booths of the butchers, +which stretched along the Forum on both sides, gave way, first on the +Palatine side, then on that also which faced the Carinae, to the stone +stalls of the money-changers; so that this place became the Exchange +of Rome. Statues of the famous men of the past, of the kings, priests, +and heroes of the legendary period, and of the Grecian -hospes- who +was said to have interpreted to the decemvirs the laws of Solon; +honorary columns and monuments dedicated to the great burgomasters who +had conquered the Veientes, the Latins, the Samnites, to state envoys +who had perished while executing their instructions, to rich women +who had bequeathed their property to public objects, nay even to +celebrated Greek philosophers and heroes such as Pythagoras and +Alcibiades, were erected on the Capitol or in the Forum. Thus, now +that the Roman community had become a great power, Rome itself +became a great city. + +Silver Standard of Value + +Lastly Rome, as head of the Romano-Italian confederacy, not only +entered into the Hellenistic state-system, but also conformed to the +Hellenic system of moneys and coins. Up to this time the different +communities of northern and central Italy, with few exceptions, had +struck only a copper currency; the south Italian towns again +universally had a currency of silver; and there were as many legal +standards and systems of coinage as there were sovereign communities +in Italy. In 485 all these local mints were restricted to the issuing +of small coin; a general standard of currency applicable to all Italy +was introduced, and the coining of the currency was centralized in +Rome; Capua alone continued to retain its own silver coinage struck in +the name of Rome, but after a different standard. The new monetary +system was based on the legal ratio subsisting between the two metals, +as it had long been fixed.(43) The common monetary unit was the piece +of ten -asses- (which were no longer of a pound, but reduced to the +third of a pound), the -denarius-, which weighed in copper 3 1/3 and +in silver 1/72, of a Roman pound, a trifle more than the Attic +--drachma--. At first copper money still predominated in the coinage; +and it is probable that the earliest silver -denarius- was coined +chiefly for Lower Italy and for intercourse with other lands. As the +victory of the Romans over Pyrrhus and Tarentum and the Roman embassy +to Alexandria could not but engage the thoughts of the contemporary +Greek statesman, so the sagacious Greek merchant might well ponder as +he looked on these new Roman drachmae. Their flat, unartistic, and +monotonous stamping appeared poor and insignificant by the side of +the marvellously beautiful contemporary coins of Pyrrhus and the +Siceliots; nevertheless they were by no means, like the barbarian +coins of antiquity, slavishly imitated and unequal in weight and +alloy, but, on the contrary, worthy from the first by their +independent and conscientious execution to be placed on a level +with any Greek coin. + +Extension of the Latin Nationality + +Thus, when the eye turns from the development of constitutions and +from the national struggles for dominion and for freedom which +agitated Italy, and Rome in particular, from the banishment of the +Tarquinian house to the subjugation of the Samnites and the Italian +Greeks, and rests on those calmer spheres of human existence which +history nevertheless rules and pervades, it everywhere encounters the +reflex influence of the great events, by which the Roman burgesses +burst the bonds of patrician sway, and the rich variety of the +national cultures of Italy gradually perished to enrich a single +people. While the historian may not attempt to follow out the great +course of events into the infinite multiplicity of individual detail, +he does not overstep his province when, laying hold of detached +fragments of scattered tradition, he indicates the most important +changes which during this epoch took place in the national life of +Italy. That in such an inquiry the life of Rome becomes still more +prominent than in the earlier epoch, is not merely the result of the +accidental blanks of our tradition; it was an essential consequence +of the change in the political position of Rome, that the Latin +nationality should more and more cast the other nationalities of Italy +into the shade. We have already pointed to the fact, that at this +epoch the neighbouring lands--southern Etruria, Sabina, the land of +the Volscians, --began to become Romanized, as is attested by the +almost total absence of monuments of the old native dialects, and by +the occurrence of very ancient Roman inscriptions in those regions; +the admission of the Sabines to full burgess-rights at the end of this +period(44) betokens that the Latinizing of Central Italy was already +at that time the conscious aim of Roman policy. The numerous +individual assignations and colonial establishments scattered +throughout Italy were, not only in a military but also in a linguistic +and national point of view, the advanced posts of the Latin stock. The +Latinizing of the Italians was scarcely at this time generally aimed +at; on the contrary, the Roman senate seems to have intentionally +upheld the distinction between the Latin and the other nationalities, +and they did not yet, for example, allow the introduction of Latin +into official use among the half-burgess communities of Campania. The +force of circumstances, however, is stronger than even the strongest +government: the language and customs of the Latin people immediately +shared its predominance in Italy, and already began to undermine +the other Italian nationalities. + +Progress of Hellenism in Italy-- +Adoption of Greek Habits at the Table + +These nationalities were at the same time assailed from another +quarter and by an ascendency resting on another basis--by Hellenism. +This was the period when Hellenism began to become conscious of its +intellectual superiority to the other nations, and to diffuse itself +on every side. Italy did not remain unaffected by it. The most +remarkable phenomenon of this sort is presented by Apulia, which after +the fifth century of Rome gradually laid aside its barbarian dialect +and silently became Hellenized. This change was brought about, as in +Macedonia and Epirus, not by colonization, but by civilization, which +seems to have gone hand in hand with the land commerce of Tarentum; at +least that hypothesis is favoured by the facts, that the districts +of the Poediculi and Daunii who were on friendly terms with the +Tarentines carried out their Hellenization more completely than the +Sallentines who lived nearer to Tarentum but were constantly at feud +with it, and that the towns that were soonest Graecized, such as Arpi, +were not situated on the coast. The stronger influence exerted by +Hellenism over Apulia than over any other Italian region is explained +partly by its position, partly by the slight development of any +national culture of its own, and partly also perhaps by its +nationality presenting a character less alien to the Greek stock than +that of the rest of Italy.(45) We have already called attention(46) to +the fact that the southern Sabellian stocks, although at the outset in +concert with the tyrants of Syracuse they crushed and destroyed the +Hellenism of Magna Graecia, were at the same time affected by contact +and mingling with the Greeks, so that some of them, such as the +Bruttians and Nolans, adopted the Greek language by the side of their +native tongue, and others, such as the Lucanians and a part of the +Campanians, adopted at least Greek writing and Greek manners. Etruria +likewise showed tendencies towards a kindred development in the +remarkable vases which have been discovered(47) belonging to this +period, rivalling those of Campania and Lucania; and though Latium and +Samnium remained more strangers to Hellenism, there were not wanting +there also traces of an incipient and ever-growing influence of Greek +culture. In all branches of the development of Rome during this epoch, +in legislation and coinage, in religion, in the formation of national +legend, we encounter traces of the Greeks; and from the commencement +of the fifth century in particular, in other words, after the conquest +of Campania, the Greek influence on Roman life appears rapidly and +constantly on the increase. In the fourth century occurred the +erection of the "-Graecostasis-"--remarkable in the very form of the +word--a platform in the Roman Forum for eminent Greek strangers and +primarily for the Massiliots.(48) In the following century the annals +began to exhibit Romans of quality with Greek surnames, such as +Philipus or in Roman form Pilipus, Philo, Sophus, Hypsaeus. Greek +customs gained ground: such as the non-Italian practice of placing +inscriptions in honour of the dead on the tomb--of which the epitaph +of Lucius Scipio (consul in 456) is the oldest example known to us; +the fashion, also foreign to the Italians, of erecting without any +decree of the state honorary monuments to ancestors in public places +--a system begun by the great innovator Appius Claudius, when he +caused bronze shields with images and eulogies of his ancestors to be +suspended in the new temple of Bellona (442); the distribution of +branches of palms to the competitors, introduced at the Roman national +festival in 461; above all, the Greek manners and habits at table. +The custom not of sitting as formerly on benches, but of reclining +on sofas, at table; the postponement of the chief meal from noon to +between two and three o'clock in the afternoon according to our mode +of reckoning; the institution of masters of the revels at banquets, +who were appointed from among the guests present, generally by +throwing the dice, and who then prescribed to the company what, how, +and when they should drink; the table-chants sung in succession by the +guests, which, however, in Rome were not -scolia-, but lays in praise +of ancestors--all these were not primitive customs in Rome, but were +borrowed from the Greeks at a very early period, for in Cato's time +these usages were already common and had in fact partly fallen into +disuse again. We must therefore place their introduction in this +period at the latest. A characteristic feature also was the erection +of statues to "the wisest and the bravest Greek" in the Roman Forum, +which took place by command of the Pythian Apollo during the Samnite +wars. The selection fell--evidently under Sicilian or Campanian +influence--on Pythagoras and Alcibiades, the saviour and the Hannibal +of the western Hellenes. The extent to which an acquaintance with +Greek was already diffused in the fifth century among Romans of +quality is shown by the embassies of the Romans to Tarentum--when +their mouthpiece spoke, if not in the purest Greek, at any rate +without an interpreter--and of Cineas to Rome. It scarcely admits +of a doubt that from the fifth century the young Romans who devoted +themselves to state affairs universally acquired a knowledge of what +was then the general language of the world and of diplomacy. + +Thus in the intellectual sphere Hellenism made advances quite as +incessant as the efforts of the Romans to subject the earth to their +sway; and the secondary nationalities, such as the Samnite, Celt, and +Etruscan, hard pressed on both sides, were ever losing their inward +vigour as well as narrowing their outward bounds. + +Rome and the Romans of This Epoch + +When the two great nations, both arrived at the height of their +development, began to mingle in hostile or in friendly contact, their +antagonism of character was at the same time prominently and fully +brought out--the total want of individuality in the Italian and +especially in the Roman character, as contrasted with the boundless +variety, lineal, local, and personal, of Hellenism. There was no epoch +of mightier vigour in the history of Rome than the epoch from the +institution of the republic to the subjugation of Italy. That epoch +laid the foundations of the commonwealth both within and without; it +created a united Italy; it gave birth to the traditional groundwork of +the national law and of the national history; it originated the +-pilum- and the maniple, the construction of roads and of aqueducts, +the farming of estates and the monetary system; it moulded the +she-wolf of the Capitol and designed the Ficoroni casket. But the +individuals, who contributed the several stones to this gigantic +structure and cemented them together, have disappeared without leaving +a trace, and the nations of Italy did not merge into that of Rome more +completely than the single Roman burgess merged in the Roman +community. As the grave closes alike over all whether important or +insignificant, so in the roll of the Roman burgomasters the empty +scion of nobility stands undistinguishable by the side of the great +statesman. Of the few records that have reached us from this period +none is more venerable, and none at the same time more characteristic, +than the epitaph of Lucius Cornelius Scipio, who was consul in 456, +and three years afterwards took part in the decisive battle of +Sentinum.(49) On the beautiful sarcophagus, in noble Doric style, +which eighty years ago still enclosed the dust of the conqueror of the +Samnites, the following sentence is inscribed:-- + +-Cornelius Lucius--Scipio Barbatus, +Gnaivod patre prognatus, --fortis vir sapiensque, +Quoius forma virtu--tei parisuma fuit, +Consol censor aidilis--quei fuit apud vos, +Taurasia Cisauna--Samnio cepit, +Subigit omne Loucanum--opsidesque abdoucit.- + +_-'_-'_-'_||-'_-'_-'_ + +Innumerable others who had been at the head of the Roman commonwealth, +as well as this Roman statesman and warrior, might be commemorated as +having been of noble birth and of manly beauty, valiant and wise; but +there was no more to record regarding them. It is doubtless not the +mere fault of tradition that no one of these Cornelii, Fabii, Papirii, +or whatever they were called, confronts us in a distinct individual +figure. The senator was supposed to be no worse and no better than +other senators, nor at all to differ from them. It was not necessary +and not desirable that any burgess should surpass the rest, whether by +showy silver plate and Hellenic culture, or by uncommon wisdom and +excellence. Excesses of the former kind were punished by the censor, +and for the latter the constitution gave no scope. The Rome of this +period belonged to no individual; it was necessary for all the +burgesses to be alike, that each of them might be like a king. + +Appius Claudius + +No doubt, even now Hellenic individual development asserted its claims +by the side of that levelling system; and the genius and force which +it exhibited bear, no less than the tendency to which it opposed +itself, the full stamp of that great age. We can name but a single man +in connection with it; but he was, as it were, the incarnation of the +idea of progress. Appius Claudius (censor 442; consul 447, 458), the +great-great-grandson of the decemvir, was a man of the old nobility +and proud of the long line of his ancestors; but yet it was he who +set aside the restriction which confined the full franchise of the +state to the freeholders,(50) and who broke up the old system of +finance.(51) From Appius Claudius date not only the Roman aqueducts +and highways, but also Roman jurisprudence, eloquence, poetry, and +grammar. The publication of a table of the -legis actiones-, speeches +committed to writing and Pythagorean sentences, and even innovations +in orthography, are attributed to him. We may not on this account call +him absolutely a democrat or include him in that opposition party +which found its champion in Manius Curius;(52) in him on the contrary +the spirit of the ancient and modern patrician kings predominated +--the spirit of the Tarquins and the Caesars, between whom he forms +a connecting link in that five hundred years' interregnum of +extraordinary deeds and ordinary men. So long as Appius Claudius took +an active part in public life, in his official conduct as well as his +general carriage he disregarded laws and customs on all hands with the +hardihood and sauciness of an Athenian; till, after having long +retired from the political stage, the blind old man, returning as it +were from the tomb at the decisive Moment, overcame king Pyrrhus in +the senate, and first formally and solemnly proclaimed the complete +sovereignty of Rome over Italy.(53) But the gifted man came too early +or too late; the gods made him blind on account of his untimely +wisdom. It was not individual genius that ruled in Rome and through +Rome in Italy; it was the one immoveable idea of a policy--propagated +from generation to generation in the senate--with the leading maxims +of which the sons of the senators became already imbued, when in the +company of their fathers they went to the council and there at the +door of the hall listened to the wisdom of the men whose seats they +were destined at some future time to fill. Immense successes were +thus obtained at an immense price; for Nike too is followed by her +Nemesis. In the Roman commonwealth there was no special dependence +on any one man, either on soldier or on general, and under the +rigid discipline of its moral police all the idiosyncrasies of human +character were extinguished. Rome reached a greatness such as no other +state of antiquity attained; but she dearly purchased her greatness at +the sacrifice of the graceful variety, of the easy abandon and of +the inward freedom of Hellenic life. + + + + +Notes for Book II Chapter VIII + + +1. I. XI. Punishment of Offenses against Order + +2. II. I. Right of Appeal + +3. II. III. The Senate, Its Composition + +4. II. I. Law and Edict + +5. II. III. Censorship, the Magistrates, Partition and Weakening of +the Consular Powers + +6. II. III. Laws Imposing Taxes + +7. I. VI. Class of --Metoeci-- Subsisting by the Side of the Community + +8. I. V. The Housefather and His Household, note + +9. II. III. Praetorship + +10. II. III. Praetorship, II. V. Revision of the Municipal +Constitutions, Police Judges + +11. The view formerly adopted, that these -tres viri- belonged to the +earliest period, is erroneous, for colleges of magistrates with odd +numbers are foreign to the oldest state-arrangements (Chronol. p. 15, +note 12). Probably the well-accredited account, that they were first +nominated in 465 (Liv. Ep. 11), should simply be retained, and the +otherwise suspicious inference of the falsifier Licinius Macer (in +Liv. vii. 46), which makes mention of them before 450, should be +simply rejected. At first undoubtedly the -tres viri- were nominated +by the superior magistrates, as was the case with most of the later +-magistratus minores-; the Papirian -plebiscitum-, which transferred +the nomination of them to the community (Festus, -v. sacramentum-, +p. 344, Niall.), was at any rate not issued till after the institution +of the office of -praetor peregrinus-, or at the earliest towards the +middle of the sixth century, for it names the praetor -qui inter jus +cives ius dicit-. + +12. II. VII. Subject Communities + +13. This inference is suggested by what Livy says (ix. 20) as to the +reorganization of the colony of Antium twenty years after it was +founded; and it is self-evident that, while the Romans might very +well impose on the inhabitant of Ostia the duty of settling all his +lawsuits in Rome, the same course could not be followed with townships +like Antium and Sena. + +14. II. I. Restrictions on the Delegation of Powers + +15. People are in the habit of praising the Romans as a nation +specially privileged in respect to jurisprudence, and of gazing with +wonder on their admirable law as a mystical gift of heaven; presumably +by way of specially excusing themselves for the worthlessness of +their own legal system. A glance at the singularly fluctuating and +undeveloped criminal law of the Romans might show the untenableness +of ideas so confused even to those who may think the proposition too +simple, that a sound people has a sound law, and a morbid people an +unsound. Apart from the more general political conditions on which +jurisprudence also, and indeed jurisprudence especially, depends, the +causes of the excellence of the Roman civil law lie mainly in two +features: first, that the plaintiff and defendant were specially +obliged to explain and embody in due and binding form the grounds of +the demand and of the objection to comply with it; and secondly, that +the Romans appointed a permanent machinery for the edictal development +of their law, and associated it immediately with practice. By the +former the Romans precluded the pettifogging practices of advocates, +by the latter they obviated incapable law-making, so far as such +things can be prevented at all; and by means of both in conjunction +they satisfied, as far as is possible, the two conflicting +requirements, that law shall constantly be fixed, and that it +shall constantly be in accordance with the spirit of the age. + +16. II. II. Relation of the Tribune to the Consul + +17. V. V. The Hegemony of Rome over Latium Shaken and Re-established + +18. Venus probably first appears in the later sense as Aphrodite on +occasion of the dedication of the temple consecrated in this year +(Liv. x. 31; Becker, Topographie, p. 472). + +19. II. III. Intrigues of the Nobility + +20. I. VI. Organization of the Army + +21. II. III. Increasing Powers of the Burgesses + +22. I. VI. the Five Classes + +23. According to Roman tradition the Romans originally carried +quadrangular shields, after which they borrowed from the Etruscans the +round hoplite shield (-clupeus-, --aspis--), and from the Samnites the +later square shield (-scutum-, --thureos--), and the javelin (-veru-) +(Diodor. Vat. Fr. p. 54; Sallust, Cat. 51, 38; Virgil, Aen. vii. 665; +Festus, Ep. v. Samnites, p. 327, Mull.; and the authorities cited in +Marquardt, Handb. iii. 2, 241). But it may be regarded as certain that +the hoplite shield or, in other words, the tactics of the Doric +phalanx were imitated not from the Etruscans, but directly from the +Hellenes, As to the -scutum-, that large, cylindrical, convex leather +shield must certainly have taken the place of the flat copper +-clupeus-, when the phalanx was broken up into maniples; but the +undoubted derivation of the word from the Greek casts suspicion on the +derivation of the thing itself from the Samnites. From the Greeks the +Romans derived also the sling (-funda- from --sphendone--). (like +-fides- from --sphion--),(I. XV. Earliest Hellenic Influences). +The pilum was considered by the ancients as quite a Roman invention. + +24. I. XIII. Landed Proprietors + +25. II. III. Combination of the Plebian Aristocracy and the Farmers +against the Nobility + +26. Varro (De R. R. i. 2, 9) evidently conceives the author of the +Licinian agrarian law as fanning in person his extensive lands; +although, we may add, the story may easily have been invented to +explain the cognomen (-Stolo-). + +27. I. XIII. System of Joint Cultivation + +28. I. XIII. Inland Commerce of the Italians + +29. I. XIII. Commerce in Latium Passive, in Etruria Active + +30. I. XIII. Etrusco-Attic, and Latino-Sicilian Commerce + +31. I. XIII. Etrusco-Attic, and Latino-Sicilian Commerce + +32. II. IV. Etruria at Peace and on the Decline, II. V. Campanian +Hellenism + +33. The conjecture that Novius Flautius, the artist who worked at +this casket for Dindia Macolnia, in Rome, may have been a Campanian, +is refuted by the old Praenestine tomb-stones recently discovered, +on which, among other Macolnii and Plautii, there occurs also a Lucius +Magulnius, son of Haulms (L. Magolnio Pla. f.). + +34. I. XIII. Etrusco-Attic, and Latino-Sicilian Commerce, II. II. +Rising Power of the Capitalists + +35. II. III. The Burgess Body + +36. II. III. The Burgess Body + +37. II. III. Laws Imposing Taxes + +38. II. III. The Burgess Body + +39. II. VII. Construction of New Fortresses and Roads + +40. We have already mentioned the censorial stigma attached to Publius +Cornelius Rufinus (consul 464, 477) for his silver plate.(II. VIII. +Police) The strange statement of Fabius (in Strabo, v. p. 228) that +the Romans first became given to luxury (--aisthesthae tou plouton--) +after the conquest of the Sabines, is evidently only a historical +version of the same matter; for the conquest of the Sabines falls in +the first consulate of Rufinus. + +41. II. V. Colonizations in the Land of the Volsci + +42. II. VI. Last Campaigns in Samnium + +43. II. VIII. Inland Intercourse in Italy + +44. I. III. Localities of the Oldest Cantons + +45. I. II. Iapygians + +46. II. V. Campanian Hellenism + +47. II. VIII. Transmarine Commerce + +48. II. VII. The Full Roman Franchise + +49. II. VI. Battle of Sentinum + +50. II. III. The Burgess-Body + +51. II. VIII. Impulse Given to It + +52. II. III. New Opposition + +53. II. VII. Attempts at Peace + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +Art and Science + + +The Roman National Festival-- +The Roman Stage + +The growth of art, and of poetic art especially, in antiquity was +intimately associated with the development of national festivals. +The thanksgiving-festival of the Roman community, which had been +already organized in the previous period essentially under Greek +influence and in the first instance as an extraordinary festival, +--the -ludi maximi- or -Romani-,(1) --acquired during the present +epoch a longer duration and greater variety in the amusements. +Originally limited to one day, the festival was prolonged by an +additional day after the happy termination of each of the three +great revolutions of 245, 260, and 387, and thus at the close of +this period it had already a duration of four days.(2) + +A still more important circumstance was, that, probably on the +institution of the curule aedileship (387) which was from the first +entrusted with the preparation and oversight of the festival,(3) it +lost its extraordinary character and its reference to a special vow +made by the general, and took its place in the series of the ordinary +annually recurring festivals as the first of all. Nevertheless the +government adhered to the practice of allowing the spectacle proper +--namely the chariot-race, which was the principal performance--to +take place not more than once at the close of the festival. On the +other days the multitude were probably left mainly to furnish +amusement for themselves, although musicians, dancers, rope-walkers, +jugglers, jesters and such like would not fail to make their +appearance on the occasion, whether hired or not But about the year +390 an important change occurred, which must have stood in connection +with the fixing and prolongation of the festival, that took place +perhaps about the same time. A scaffolding of boards was erected at +the expense of the state in the Circus for the first three days, and +suitable representations were provided on it for the entertainment of +the multitude. That matters might not be carried too far however in +this way, a fixed sum of 200,000 -asses- (2055 pounds) once for all +appropriated from the exchequer for the expenses of the festival; and +the sum was not increased up to the period of the Punic wars. The +aediles, who had to expend this sum, were obliged to defray any +additional amount out of their own pockets; and it is not probable +that they at this time contributed often or considerably from their +own resources. That the new stage was generally under Greek influence, +is proved by its very name (-scaena-, --skene--). It was no doubt at +first designed merely for musicians and buffoons of all sorts, amongst +whom the dancers to the flute, particularly those then so celebrated +from Etruria, were probably the most distinguished; but a public stage +had at any rate now arisen in Rome and it soon became open also to +the Roman poets. + +Ballad Singers, -Satura- -- +Censure of Art + +There was no want of such poets in Latium. Latin "strolling minstrels" +or "ballad-singers" (-grassatores-, -spatiatores-) went from town to +town and from house to house, and recited their chants (-saturae-(4)), +gesticulating and dancing to the accompaniment of the flute. +The measure was of course the only one that then existed, the +so-called Saturnian.(5) No distinct plot lay at the basis of the +chants, and as little do they appear to have been in the form of +dialogue. We must conceive of them as resembling those monotonous +--sometimes improvised, sometimes recited--ballads and -tarantelle-, +such as one may still hear in the Roman hostelries. Songs of this sort +accordingly early came upon the public stage, and certainly formed the +first nucleus of the Roman theatre. But not only were these beginnings +of the drama in Rome, as everywhere, modest and humble; they were, in +a remarkable manner, accounted from the very outset disreputable. +The Twelve Tables denounced evil and worthless song-singing, imposing +severe penalties not only upon incantations but even on lampoons +composed against a fellow-citizen or recited before his door, and +forbidding the employment of wailing-women at funerals. But far more +severely, than by such legal restrictions, the incipient exercise of +art was affected by the moral anathema, which was denounced against +these frivolous and paid trades by the narrowminded earnestness of +the Roman character. "The trade of a poet," says Cato, "in former +times was not respected; if any one occupied himself with it or was a +hanger-on at banquets, he was called an idler." But now any one who +practised dancing, music, or ballad-singing for money was visited +with a double stigma, in consequence of the more and more confirmed +disapproval of gaining a livelihood by services rendered for +remuneration. While accordingly the taking part in the masked +farces with stereotyped characters, that formed the usual native +amusement,(6) was looked upon as an innocent youthful frolic, the +appearing on a public stage for money and without a mask was +considered as directly infamous, and the singer and poet were in +this respect placed quite on a level with the rope-dancer and the +harlequin. Persons of this stamp were regularly pronounced by the +censors(7) incapable of serving in the burgess-army and of voting +in the burgess-assembly. Moreover, not only was the direction of the +stage regarded as pertaining to the province of the city police--a +fact significant enough even in itself--but the police was probably, +even at this period, invested with arbitrary powers of an +extraordinary character against professional stage-artists. Not only +did the police magistrates sit in judgment on the performance after +its conclusion--on which occasion wine flowed as copiously for those +who had acquitted themselves well, as stripes fell to the lot of the +bungler--but all the urban magistrates were legally entitled to +inflict bodily chastisement and imprisonment on any actor at any +time and at any place. The necessary effect of this was that dancing, +music, and poetry, at least so far as they appeared on the public +stage, fell into the hands of the lowest classes of the Roman +burgesses, and especially into those of foreigners; and while at +this period poetry still played altogether too insignificant a part +to engage the attention of foreign artists, the statement on the other +hand, that in Rome all the music, sacred and profane, was essentially +Etruscan, and consequently the ancient Latin art of the flute, +which was evidently at one time held in high esteem,(8) had been +supplanted by foreign music, may be regarded as already applicable +to this period. + +There is no mention of any poetical literature. Neither the masked +plays nor the recitations of the stage can have had in the proper +sense fixed texts; on the contrary, they were ordinarily improvised +by the performers themselves as circumstances required. Of works +composed at this period posterity could point to nothing but a sort +of Roman "Works and Days"--counsels of a farmer to his son,(9) and +the already-mentioned Pythagorean poems of Appius Claudius(10) the +first commencement of Roman poetry after the Hellenic type. Nothing +of the poems of this epoch has survived but one or two epitaphs +in Saturnian measure.(11) + +Roman Historical Composition + +Along with the rudiments of the Roman drama, the rudiments of Roman +historical composition belong to this period; both as regards the +contemporary recording of remarkable events, and as regards the +conventional settlement of the early history of the Roman community. + +Registers of Magistrates + +The writing of contemporary history was associated with the register +of the magistrates. The register reaching farthest back, which was +accessible to the later Roman inquirers and is still indirectly +accessible to us, seems to have been derived from the archives of the +temple of the Capitoline Jupiter; for it records the names of the +annual presidents of the community onward from the consul Marcus +Horatius, who consecrated that temple on the 13th Sept. in his year of +office, and it also notices the vow which was made on occasion of a +severe pestilence under the consuls Publius Servilius and Lucius +Aebutius (according to the reckoning now current, 291), that +thenceforward a nail should be driven every hundredth year into the +wall of the Capitoline temple. Subsequently it was the state officials +who were learned in measuring and in writing, or in other words, the +pontifices, that kept an official record of the names of the annual +chief magistrates, and thus combined an annual, with the earlier +monthly, calendar. Both these calendars were afterwards comprehended +under the name of Fasti--which strictly belonged only to the list of +court-days. This arrangement was probably adopted not long after the +abolition of the monarchy; for in fact an official record of the +annual magistrates was of urgent practical necessity for the purpose +of authenticating the order of succession of official documents. But, +if there was an official register of the consuls so old, it probably +perished in the Gallic conflagration (364); and the list of the +pontifical college was subsequently completed from the Capitoline +register which was not affected by that catastrophe, so far as this +latter reached back. That the list of presidents which we now have +--although in collateral matters, and especially in genealogical +statements, it has been supplemented at pleasure from the family +pedigrees of the nobility--is in substance based from the beginning +on contemporary and credible records, admits of no doubt. But it +reproduces the calendar years only imperfectly and approximately: for +the consuls did not enter on office with the new year, or even on a +definite day fixed once for all; on the contrary from various causes +the day of entering on office was fluctuating, and the -interregna- +that frequently occurred between two consulates were entirely omitted +in the reckoning by official years. Accordingly, if the calendar years +were to be reckoned by this list of consuls, it was necessary to note +the days of entering on and of demitting office in the case of each +pair, along with such -interregna- as occurred; and this too may have +been early done. But besides this, the list of the annual magistrates +was adjusted to the list of calendar years in such a way that a pair +of magistrates were by accommodation assigned to each calendar year, +and, where the list did not suffice, intercalary years were inserted, +which are denoted in the later (Varronian) table by the figures 379, +383, 421, 430, 445, 453. From 291 u. c. (463 B. C.) the Roman list +demonstrably coincides, not indeed in detail but yet on the whole, +with the Roman calendar, and is thus chronologically certain, so far +as the defectiveness of the calendar itself allows. The 47 years +preceding that date cannot be checked, but must likewise be at least +in the main correct.(12) Whatever lies beyond 245 remains, +chronologically, in oblivion. + +Capitoline Era + +No era was formed for ordinary use; but in ritual matters they +reckoned from the year of the consecration of the temple of the +Capitoline Jupiter, from which the list of magistrates also started. + +Annals + +The idea naturally suggested itself that, along with the names of +the magistrates, the most important events occurring under their +magistracy might be noted; and from such notices appended to the +catalogue of magistrates the Roman annals arose, just as the +chronicles of the middle ages arose out of the memoranda marginally +appended to the table of Easter. But it was not until a late period +that the pontifices formed the scheme of a formal chronicle (-liber +annalis-), which should steadily year by year record the names of all +the magistrates and the remarkable events. Before the eclipse of the +sun noticed under the 5th of June 351, by which is probably meant that +of the 20th June 354, no solar eclipse was found recorded from +observation in the later chronicle of the city: its statements as to +the numbers of the census only begin to sound credible after the +beginning of the fifth century,(13) the cases of fines brought before +the people, and the prodigies expiated on behalf of the community, +appear to have been regularly introduced into the annals only after +the second half of the fifth century began. To all appearance the +institution of an organized book of annals, and--what was certainly +associated with it--the revision (which we have just explained) of the +earlier list of magistrates so as to make it a year-calendar by the +insertion, where chronologically necessary, of intercalary years, took +place in the first half of the fifth century. But even after it became +a practically recognized duty of the -pontifex maximus- to record year +after year campaigns and colonizations, pestilences and famines, +eclipses and portents, the deaths of priests and other men of note, +the new decrees of the people, and the results of the census, and +to deposit these records in his official residence for permanent +preservation and for any one's inspection, these records were still +far removed from the character of real historical writings. How scanty +the contemporary record still was at the close of this period and how +ample room is left for the caprice of subsequent annalists, is shown +with incisive clearness by a comparison of the accounts as to the +campaign of 456 in the annals and in the epitaph of the consul +Scipio.(14) The later historians were evidently unable to construct a +readable and in some measure connected narrative out of these notices +from the book of annals; and we should have difficulty, even if the +book of annals still lay before us with its original contents, in +writing from it in duly connected sequence the history of the times. +Such chronicles, however, did not exist merely in Rome; every Latin +city possessed its annals as well as its pontifices, as is clear from +isolated notices relative to Ardea for instance, Ameria, and Interamna +on the Nar; and from the collective mass of these city-chronicles +some result might perhaps have been attained similar to what has +been accomplished for the earlier middle ages by the comparison of +different monastic chronicles. Unfortunately the Romans in later times +preferred to supply the defect by Hellenic or Hellenizing falsehoods. + +Family Pedigrees + +Besides these official arrangements, meagrely planned and uncertainly +handled, for commemorating past times and past events, there can +scarcely have existed at this epoch any other records immediately +serviceable for Roman history. Of private chronicles we find no trace. +The leading houses, however, were careful to draw up genealogical +tables, so important in a legal point of view, and to have the family +pedigree painted for a perpetual memorial on the walls of the +entrance-hall. These lists, which at least named the magistracies held +by the family, not only furnished a basis for family tradition, but +doubtless at an early period had biographical notices attached to +them. The memorial orations, which in Rome could not be omitted at the +funeral of any person of quality, and were ordinarily pronounced by +the nearest relative of the deceased, consisted essentially not merely +in an enumeration of the virtues and excellencies of the dead, but +also in a recital of the deeds and virtues of his ancestors; and so +they were doubtless, even in the earliest times, transmitted +traditionally from one generation to another. Many a valuable +notice may by this means have been preserved; but many a daring +perversion and falsification also may have been in this way +introduced into tradition. + +Roman Early History of Rome + +But as the first steps towards writing real history belonged to +this period, to it belonged also the first attempts to record, and +conventionally distort, the primitive history of Rome. The sources +whence it was formed were of course the same as they are everywhere. +Isolated names like those of the kings Numa, Ancus, Tullus, to whom +the clan-names were probably only assigned subsequently, and isolated +facts, such as the conquest of the Latins by king Tarquinius and the +expulsion of the Tarquinian royal house, may have continued to live in +true general tradition orally transmitted. Further materials were +furnished by the traditions of the patrician clans, such as the +various tales that relate to the Fabii. Other tales gave a symbolic +and historic shape to primitive national institutions, especially +setting forth with great vividness the origin of rules of law. The +sacredness of the walls was thus illustrated in the tale of the death +of Remus, the abolition of blood-revenge in the tale of the end of +king Tatius(15), the necessity of the arrangement as to the -pons +sublicius- in the legend of Horatius Cocles,(15) the origin of the +-provocatio- in the beautiful tale of the Horatii and Curiatii, the +origin of manumission and of the burgess-rights of freedmen in the +tale of the Tarquinian conspiracy and the slave Vindicius. To the same +class belongs the history of the foundation of the city itself, which +was designed to connect the origin of Rome with Latium and with Alba, +the general metropolis of the Latins. Historical glosses were annexed +to the surnames of distinguished Romans; that of Publius Valerius the +"servant of the people" (-Poplicola-), for instance, gathered around +it a whole group of such anecdotes. Above all, the sacred fig-tree and +other spots and notable objects in the city were associated with a +great multitude of sextons' tales of the same nature as those out of +which, upwards of a thousand years afterwards, there grew up on the +same ground the Mirabilia Urbis. Some attempts to link together these +different tales--the adjustment of the series of the seven kings, the +setting down of the duration of the monarchy at 240 years in all, +which was undoubtedly based on a calculation of the length of +generations,(16) and even the commencement of an official record of +these assumed facts--probably took place already in this epoch. The +outlines of the narrative, and in particular its quasi-chronology, +make their appearance in the later tradition so unalterably fixed, +that for that very reason the fixing of them must be placed not in, +but previous to, the literary epoch of Rome. If a bronze casting of +the twins Romulus and Remus sucking the teats of the she-wolf was +already placed beside the sacred fig-tree in 458, the Romans who +subdued Latium and Samnium must have heard the history of the origin +of their ancestral city in a form not greatly differing from what +we read in Livy. Even the Aborigines--i. e. "those from the very +beginning"--that simple rudimental form of historical speculation as +to the Latin race--are met with about 465 in the Sicilian author +Callias. It is of the very nature of a chronicle that it should attach +prehistoric speculation to history and endeavour to go back, if not +to the origin of heaven and earth, at least to the origin of the +community; and there is express testimony that the table of the +pontifices specified the year of the foundation of Rome. Accordingly +it may be assumed that, when the pontifical college in the first half +of the fifth century proceeded to substitute for the former scanty +records--ordinarily, doubtless, confined to the names of the +magistrates--the scheme of a formal yearly chronicle, it also added +what was wanting at the beginning, the history of the kings of Rome +and of their fall, and, by placing the institution of the republic on +the day of the consecration of the Capitoline temple, the 13th of +Sept. 245, furnished a semblance of connection between the dateless +and the annalistic narrative. That in this earliest record of the +origin of Rome the hand of Hellenism was at work, can scarcely +be doubted. The speculations as to the primitive and subsequent +population, as to the priority of pastoral life over agriculture, and +the transformation of the man Romulus into the god Quirinus,(17) have +quite a Greek aspect, and even the obscuring of the genuinely national +forms of the pious Numa and the wise Egeria by the admixture of alien +elements of Pythagorean primitive wisdom appears by no means to be +one of the most recent ingredients in the Roman prehistoric annals. + +The pedigrees of the noble clans were completed in a manner analogous +to these -origines- of the community, and were, in the favourite style +of heraldry, universally traced back to illustrious ancestors. The +Aemilii, for instance, Calpurnii, Pinarii, and Pomponii professed to +be descended from the four sons of Numa, Mamercus, Calpus, Pinus, and +Pompo; and the Aemilii, yet further, from Mamercus, the son of +Pythagoras, who was named the "winning speaker" (--aimulos--) + +But, notwithstanding the Hellenic reminiscences that are everywhere +apparent, these prehistoric annals of the community and of the leading +houses may be designated at least relatively as national, partly +because they originated in Rome, partly because they tended primarily +to form links of connection not between Rome and Greece, but between +Rome and Latium. + +Hellenic Early History of Rome + +It was Hellenic story and fiction that undertook the task of +connecting Rome and Greece. Hellenic legend exhibits throughout an +endeavour to keep pace with the gradual extension of geographical +knowledge, and to form a dramatized geography by the aid of its +numerous stories of voyagers and emigrants. In this, however, it +seldom follows a simple course. An account like that of the earliest +Greek historical work which mentions Rome, the "Sicilian History" of +Antiochus of Syracuse (which ended in 330)--that a man named Sikelos +had migrated from Rome to Italia, that is, to the Bruttian peninsula +--such an account, simply giving a historical form to the family +affinity between the Romans, Siculi, and Bruttians, and free from all +Hellenizing colouring, is a rare phenomenon. Greek legend as a whole +is pervaded--and the more so, the later its rise--by a tendency to +represent the whole barbarian world as having either issued from the +Greeks or having been subdued by them; and it early in this sense spun +its threads also around the west. For Italy the legends of Herakles +and of the Argonauts were of less importance--although Hecataeus +(after 257) is already acquainted with the Pillars of Herakles, and +carries the Argo from the Black Sea into the Atlantic Ocean, from the +latter into the Nile, and thus back to the Mediterranean--than were +the homeward voyages connected with the fall of Ilion. With the first +dawn of information as to Italy Diomedes begins to wander in the +Adriatic, and Odysseus in the Tyrrhene Sea;(18) as indeed the +latter localization at least was naturally suggested by the Homeric +conception of the legend. Down to the times of Alexander the countries +on the Tyrrhene Sea belonged in Hellenic fable to the domain of the +legend of Odysseus; Ephorus, who ended his history with the year 414, +and the so-called Scylax (about 418) still substantially follow it. +Of Trojan voyages the whole earlier poetry has no knowledge; +in Homer Aeneas after the fall of Ilion rules over the Trojans +that remained at home. + +Stesichorus + +It was the great remodeller of myths, Stesichorus (122-201) who first +in his "Destruction of Ilion" brought Aeneas to the land of the west, +that he might poetically enrich the world of fable in the country of +his birth and of his adoption, Sicily and Lower Italy, by the contrast +of the Trojan heroes with the Hellenic. With him originated the +poetical outlines of this fable as thenceforward fixed, especially the +group of the hero and his wife, his little son and his aged father +bearing the household gods, departing from burning Troy, and the +important identification of the Trojans with the Sicilian and Italian +autochthones, which is especially apparent in the case of the Trojan +trumpeter Misenus who gave his name to the promontory of Misenum.(19) +The old poet was guided in this view by the feeling that the +barbarians of Italy were less widely removed from the Hellenes than +other barbarians were, and that the relation between the Hellenes and +Italians might, when measured poetically, be conceived as similar to +that between the Homeric Achaeans and the Trojans. This new Trojan +fable soon came to be mixed up with the earlier legend of Odysseus, +while it spread at the same time more widely over Italy. According to +Hellanicus (who wrote about 350) Odysseus and Aeneas came through the +country of the Thracians and Molottians (Epirus) to Italy, where the +Trojan women whom they had brought with them burnt the ships, and +Aeneas founded the city of Rome and named it after one of these Trojan +women. To a similar effect, only with less absurdity, Aristotle +(370-432) related that an Achaean squadron cast upon the Latin coast +had been set on fire by Trojan female slaves, and that the Latins +had originated from the descendants of the Achaeans who were thus +compelled to remain there and of their Trojan wives. With these tales +were next mingled elements from the indigenous legend, the knowledge +of which had been diffused as far as Sicily by the active intercourse +between Sicily and Italy, at least towards the end of this epoch. +In the version of the origin of Rome, which the Sicilian Callias +put on record about 465, the fables of Odysseus, Aeneas, and Romulus +were intermingled.(20) + +Timaeus + +But the person who really completed the conception subsequently +current of this Trojan migration was Timaeus of Tauromenium in Sicily, +who concluded his historical work with 492. It is he who represents +Aeneas as first founding Lavinium with its shrine of the Trojan +Penates, and as thereafter founding Rome; he must also have interwoven +the Tyrian princess Elisa or Dido with the legend of Aeneas, for with +him Dido is the foundress of Carthage, and Rome and Carthage are said +by him to have been built in the same year. These alterations were +manifestly suggested by certain accounts that had reached Sicily +respecting Latin manners and customs, in conjunction with the critical +struggle which at the very time and place where Timaeus wrote was +preparing between the Romans and the Carthaginians. In the main, +however, the story cannot have been derived from Latium, but can only +have been the good-for-nothing invention of the old "gossip-monger" +himself. Timaeus had heard of the primitive temple of the household +gods in Lavinium; but the statement, that these were regarded by the +Lavinates as the Penates brought by the followers of Aeneas from +Ilion, is as certainly an addition of his own, as the ingenious +parallel between the Roman October horse and the Trojan horse, and the +exact inventory taken of the sacred objects of Lavinium--there were, +our worthy author affirms, heralds' staves of iron and copper, and an +earthen vase of Trojan manufacture! It is true that these same Penates +might not at all be seen by any one for centuries afterwards; but +Timaeus was one of the historians who upon no matter are so fully +informed as upon things unknowable. It is not without reason that +Polybius, who knew the man, advises that he should in no case be +trusted, and least of all where, as in this instance, he appeals to +documentary proofs. In fact the Sicilian rhetorician, who professed to +point out the grave of Thucydides in Italy, and who found no higher +praise for Alexander than that he had finished the conquest of Asia +sooner than Isocrates finished his "Panegyric," was exactly the man to +knead the naive fictions of the earlier time into that confused medley +on which the play of accident has conferred so singular a celebrity. + +How far the Hellenic play of fable regarding Italian matters, as it +in the first instance arose in Sicily, gained admission during this +period even in Italy itself, cannot be ascertained with precision. +Those links of connection with the Odyssean cycle, which we +subsequently meet with in the legends of the foundation of Tusculum, +Praeneste, Antium, Ardea, and Cortona, must probably have been already +concocted at this period; and even the belief in the descent of the +Romans from Trojan men or Trojan women must have been established at +the close of this epoch in Rome, for the first demonstrable contact +between Rome and the Greek east is the intercession of the senate on +behalf of the "kindre" Ilians in 472. That the fable of Aeneas was +nevertheless of comparatively recent origin in Italy, is shown by +the extremely scanty measure of its localization as compared with +the legend of Odysseus; and at any rate the final redaction of these +tales, as well as their reconciliation with the legend of the origin +of Rome, belongs only to the following age. + +While in this way historical composition, or what was so called among +the Hellenes, busied itself in its own fashion with the prehistoric +times of Italy, it left the contemporary history of Italy almost +untouched--a circumstance as significant of the sunken condition of +Hellenic history, as it is to be for our sakes regretted. Theopompus +of Chios (who ended his work with 418) barely noticed in passing the +capture of Rome by the Celts; and Aristotle,(21) Clitarchus,(22) +Theophrastus,(23) Heraclides of Pontus (about 450), incidentally +mention particular events relating to Rome. It is only with Hieronymus +of Cardia, who as the historian of Pyrrhus narrated also his Italian +wars, that Greek historiography becomes at the same time an authority +for the history of Rome. + +Jurisprudence + +Among the sciences, that of jurisprudence acquired an invaluable basis +through the committing to writing of the laws of the city in the years +303, 304. This code, known under the name of the Twelve Tables, is +perhaps the oldest Roman document that deserves the name of a book. +The nucleus of the so-called -leges regiae- was probably not much more +recent. These were certain precepts chiefly of a ritual nature, which +rested upon traditional usage, and were probably promulgated to the +general public under the form of royal enactments by the college of +pontifices, which was entitled not to legislate but to point out the +law. Moreover it may be presumed that from the commencement of this +period the more important decrees of the senate at any rate--if not +those of the people--were regularly recorded in writing; for already +in the earliest conflicts between the orders disputes took place as +to their preservation.(24) + +Opinions-- +Table of Formulae for Actions + +While the mass of written legal documents thus increased, the +foundations of jurisprudence in the proper sense were also firmly +laid. It was necessary that both the magistrates who were annually +changed and the jurymen taken from the people should be enabled to +resort to men of skill, who were acquainted with the course of law and +knew how to suggest a decision accordant with precedents or, in the +absence of these, resting on reasonable grounds. The pontifices who +were wont to be consulted by the people regarding court-days and on +all questions of difficulty and of legal observance relating to the +worship of the gods, delivered also, when asked, counsels and opinions +on other points of law, and thus developed in the bosom of their +college that tradition which formed the basis of Roman private law, +more especially the formulae of action proper for each particular +case. A table of formulae which embraced all these actions, along with +a calendar which specified the court-days, was published to the people +about 450 by Appius Claudius or by his clerk, Gnaeus Flavius. This +attempt, however, to give formal shape to a science, that as yet +hardly recognized itself, stood for a long time completely isolated. + +That the knowledge of law and the setting it forth were even now a +means of recommendation to the people and of attaining offices of +state, may be readily conceived, although the story, that the first +plebeian pontifex Publius Sempronius Sophus (consul 450), and the +first plebeian pontifex maximus Tiberius Coruncanius (consul 474), +were indebted for these priestly honours to their knowledge of law, +is probably rather a conjecture of posterity than a statement +of tradition. + +Language + +That the real genesis of the Latin and doubtless also of the other +Italian languages was anterior to this period, and that even at its +commencement the Latin language was substantially an accomplished +fact, is evident from the fragments of the Twelve Tables, which, +however, have been largely modernized by their semi-oral tradition. +They contain doubtless a number of antiquated words and harsh +combinations, particularly in consequence of omitting the indefinite +subject; but their meaning by no means presents, like that of the +Arval chant, any real difficulty, and they exhibit far more agreement +with the language of Cato than with that of the ancient litanies. +If the Romans at the beginning of the seventh century had difficulty +in understanding documents of the fifth, the difficulty doubtless +proceeded merely from the fact that there existed at that time in Rome +no real, least of all any documentary, research. + +Technical Style + +On the other hand it must have been at this period, when the +indication and redaction of law began, that the Roman technical style +first established itself--a style which at least in its developed +shape is nowise inferior to the modern legal phraseology of England in +stereotyped formulae and turns of expression, endless enumeration of +particulars, and long-winded periods; and which commends itself to the +initiated by its clearness and precision, while the layman who does +not understand it listens, according to his character and humour, with +reverence, impatience, or chagrin. + +Philology + +Moreover at this epoch began the treatment of the native languages +after a rational method. About its commencement the Sabellian as well +as the Latin idiom threatened, as we saw,(25) to become barbarous, +and the abrasion of endings and the corruption of the vowels and more +delicate consonants spread on all hands, just as was the case with the +Romanic languages in the fifth and sixth centuries of the Christian +era. But a reaction set in: the sounds which had coalesced in Oscan, +-d and -r, and the sounds which had coalesced in Latin, -g and -k, +were again separated, and each was provided with its proper sign; +-o and -u, for which from the first the Oscan alphabet had lacked +separate signs, and which had been in Latin originally separate but +threatened to coalesce, again became distinct, and in Oscan even the +-i was resolved into two signs different in sound and in writing; +lastly, the writing again came to follow more closely the +pronunciation--the -s for instance among the Romans being in many +cases replaced by -r. Chronological indications point to the fifth +century as the period of this reaction; the Latin -g for instance was +not yet in existence about 300 but was so probably about 500; the +first of the Papirian clan, who called himself Papirius instead of +Papisius, was the consul of 418; the introduction of that -r instead +of -s is attributed to Appius Claudius, censor in 442. Beyond doubt +the re-introduction of a more delicate and precise pronunciation was +connected with the increasing influence of Greek civilization, which +is observable at this very period in all departments of Italian life; +and, as the silver coins of Capua and Nola are far more perfect than +the contemporary asses of Ardea and Rome, writing and language appear +also to have been more speedily and fully reduced to rule in the +Campanian land than in Latium. How little, notwithstanding the labour +bestowed on it, the Roman language and mode of writing had become +settled at the close of this epoch, is shown by the inscriptions +preserved from the end of the fifth century, in which the greatest +arbitrariness prevails, particularly as to the insertion or omission +of -m, -d and -s in final sounds and of -n in the body of a word, +and as to the distinguishing of the vowels -o -u and -e -i.(26) It is +probable that the contemporary Sabellians were in these points further +advanced, while the Umbrians were but slightly affected by the +regenerating influence of the Hellenes. + +Instruction + +In consequence of this progress of jurisprudence and grammar, +elementary school-instruction also, which in itself had doubtless +already emerged earlier, must have undergone a certain improvement. +As Homer was the oldest Greek, and the Twelve Tables was the oldest +Roman, book, each became in its own land the essential basis of +instruction; and the learning by heart the juristico-political +catechism was a chief part of Roman juvenile training. Alongside of +the Latin "writing-masters" (-litteratores-) there were of course, +from the time when an acquaintance with Greek was indispensable for +every statesman and merchant, also Greek "language-masters" +(-grammatici-)(27)--partly tutor-slaves, partly private teachers, +who at their own dwelling or that of their pupil gave instructions +in the reading and speaking of Greek. As a matter of course, the rod +played its part in instruction as well as in military discipline and +in police.(28) The instruction of this epoch cannot however have +passed beyond the elementary stage: there was no material shade +of difference, in a social respect, between the educated and +the non-educated Roman. + +Exact Sciences-- +Regulation of the Calendar + +That the Romans at no time distinguished themselves in the +mathematical and mechanical sciences is well known, and is attested, +in reference to the present epoch, by almost the only fact which can +be adduced under this head with certainty--the regulation of the +calendar attempted by the decemvirs. They wished to substitute for the +previous calendar based on the old and very imperfect -trieteris-(29) +the contemporary Attic calendar of the -octaeteris-, which retained +the lunar month of 29 1/2 days but assumed the solar year at 365 1/4 +days instead of 368 3/4, and therefore, without making any alteration +in the length of the common year of 354 days, intercalated, not as +formerly 59 days every 4 years, but 90 days every 8 years. With the +same view the improvers of the Roman calendar intended--while +otherwise retaining the current calendar--in the two inter-calary +years of the four years' cycle to shorten not the intercalary months, +but the two Februaries by 7 days each, and consequently to fix that +month in the intercalary years at 22 and 21 days respectively instead +of 29 and 28. But want of mathematical precision and theological +scruples, especially in reference to the annual festival of Terminus +which fell within those very days in February, disarranged the +intended reform, so that the Februaries of the intercalary years came +to be of 24 and 23 days, and thus the new Roman solar year in reality +ran to 366 1/4 days. Some remedy for the practical evils resulting +from this was found in the practice by which, setting aside the +reckoning by the months or ten months of the calendar (30) as now no +longer applicable from the inequality in the length of the months, +wherever more accurate specifications were required, they accustomed +themselves to reckon by terms of ten months of a solar year of 365 +days or by the so-called ten-month year of 304 days. Over and above +this, there came early into use in Italy, especially for agricultural +purposes, the farmers' calendar based on the Egyptian solar year of +365 1/4 days by Eudoxus (who flourished 386). + +Structural and Plastic Art + +A higher idea of what the Italians were able to do in these +departments is furnished by their works of structural and plastic art, +which are closely associated with the mechanical sciences. Here too we +do not find phenomena of real originality; but if the impress of +borrowing, which the plastic art of Italy bears throughout, diminishes +its artistic interest, there gathers around it a historical interest +all the more lively, because on the one hand it preserves the most +remarkable evidences of an international intercourse of which other +traces have disappeared, and on the other hand, amidst the well-nigh +total loss of the history of the non-Roman Italians, art is almost +the sole surviving index of the living activity which the different +peoples of the peninsula displayed. No novelty is to be reported in +this period; but what we have already shown(31) may be illustrated +in this period with greater precision and on a broader basis, namely, +that the stimulus derived from Greece powerfully affected the +Etruscans and Italians on different sides, and called forth among +the former a richer and more luxurious, among the latter--where it +had any influence at all--a more intelligent and more genuine, art. + +Architecture-- +Etruscan + +We have already shown how wholly the architecture of all the Italian +lands was, even in its earliest period, pervaded by Hellenic elements. +Its city walls, its aqueducts, its tombs with pyramidal roofs, and its +Tuscanic temple, are not at all, or not materially, different from the +oldest Hellenic structures. No trace has been preserved of any advance +in architecture among the Etruscans during this period; we find among +them neither any really new reception, nor any original creation, +unless we ought to reckon as such the magnificent tombs, e. g. the +so-called tomb of Porsena at Chiusi described by Varro, which vividly +recalls the strange and meaningless grandeur of the Egyptian pyramids. + +Latin-- +The Arch + +In Latium too, during the first century and a half of the republic, +it is probable that they moved solely in the previous track, and it +has already been stated that the exercise of art rather sank than rose +with the introduction of the republic.(32) There can scarcely be named +any Latin building of architectural importance belonging to this +period, except the temple of Ceres built in the Circus at Rome in 261, +which was regarded in the period of the empire as a model of the +Tuscanic style. But towards the close of this epoch a new spirit +appeared in Italian and particularly in Roman architecture;(33) the +building of the magnificent arches began. It is true that we are not +entitled to pronounce the arch and the vault Italian inventions. +It is well ascertained that at the epoch of the genesis of Hellenic +architecture the Hellenes were not yet acquainted with the arch, and +therefore had to content themselves with a flat ceiling and a sloping +roof for their temples; but the arch may very well have been a later +invention of the Hellenes originating in more scientific mechanics; +as indeed the Greek tradition refers it to the natural philosopher +Democritus (294-397). With this priority of Hellenic over Roman +arch-building the hypothesis, which has been often and perhaps justly +propounded, is quite compatible, that the vaulted roof of the Roman +great -cloaca-, and that which was afterwards thrown over the old +Capitoline well-house which originally had a pyramidal roof,(34) are +the oldest extant structures in which the principle of the arch is +applied; for it is more than probable that these arched buildings +belong not to the regal but to the republican period,(35) and that +in the regal period the Italians were acquainted only with flat or +overlapped roofs.(34) But whatever may be thought as to the invention +of the arch itself, the application of a principle on a great scale is +everywhere, and particularly in architecture, at least as important as +its first exposition; and this application belongs indisputably to the +Romans. With the fifth century began the building of gates, bridges, +and aqueducts based mainly on the arch, which is thenceforth +inseparably associated with the Roman name. Akin to this was the +development of the form of the round temple with the dome-shaped roof, +which was foreign to the Greeks, but was held in much favour with the +Romans and was especially applied by them in the case of the cults +peculiar to them, particularly the non-Greek worship of Vesta.(37) + +Something the same may be affirmed as true of various subordinate, +but not on that account unimportant, achievements in this field. +They do not lay claim to originality or artistic accomplishment; +but the firmly-jointed stone slabs of the Roman streets, their +indestructible highways, the broad hard ringing tiles, the everlasting +mortar of their buildings, proclaim the indestructible solidity and +the energetic vigour of the Roman character. + +Plastic and Delineative Art + +Like architectural art, and, if possible, still more completely, the +plastic and delineative arts were not so much matured by Grecian +stimulus as developed from Greek seeds on Italian soil. We have +already observed(38) that these, although only younger sisters of +architecture, began to develop themselves at least in Etruria, even +during the Roman regal period; but their principal development in +Etruria, and still more in Latium, belongs to the present epoch, as is +very evident from the fact that in those districts which the Celts +and Samnites wrested from the Etruscans in the course of the fourth +century there is scarcely a trace of the practice of Etruscan art. +The plastic art of the Tuscans applied itself first and chiefly to +works in terra-cotta, in copper, and in gold-materials which were +furnished to the artists by the rich strata of clay, the copper mines, +and the commercial intercourse of Etruria. The vigour with which +moulding in clay was prosecuted is attested by the immense number of +bas-reliefs and statuary works in terra-cotta, with which the walls, +gables, and roofs of the Etruscan temples were once decorated, as +their still extant ruins show, and by the trade which can be shown to +have existed in such articles from Etruria to Latium. Casting in +copper occupied no inferior place. Etruscan artists ventured to make +colossal statues of bronze fifty feet in height, and Volsinii, the +Etruscan Delphi, was said to have possessed about the year 489 two +thousand bronze statues. Sculpture in stone, again, began in Etruria, +as probably everywhere, at a far later date, and was prevented from +development not only by internal causes, but also by the want of +suitable material; the marble quarries of Luna (Carrara) were not yet +opened. Any one who has seen the rich and elegant gold decorations +of the south-Etruscan tombs, will have no difficulty in believing the +statement that Tyrrhene gold cups were valued even in Attica. +Gem-engraving also, although more recent, was in various forms +practised in Etruria. Equally dependent on the Greeks, but otherwise +quite on a level with the workers in the plastic arts, were the +Etruscan designers and painters, who manifested extraordinary activity +both in outline-drawing on metal and in monochromatic fresco-painting. + +Campanian and Sabellian + +On comparing with this the domain of the Italians proper, it appears +at first, contrasted with the Etruscan riches, almost poor in art. +But on a closer view we cannot fail to perceive that both the +Sabellian and the Latin nations must have had far more capacity +and aptitude for art than the Etruscans. It is true that in the proper +Sabellian territory, in Sabina, in the Abruzzi, in Samnium, there are +hardly found any works of art at all, and even coins are wanting. +But those Sabellian stocks, which reached the coasts of the Tyrrhene +or Ionic seas, not only appropriated Hellenic art externally, like +the Etruscans, but more or less completely acclimatized it. Even in +Velitrae, where probably alone in the former land of the Volsci their +language and peculiar character were afterwards maintained, painted +terra-cottas have been found, displaying vigorous and characteristic +treatment. In Lower Italy Lucania was to a less degree influenced +by Hellenic art; but in Campania and in the land of the Bruttii, +Sabellians and Hellenes became completely intermingled not only in +language and nationality, but also and especially in art, and the +Campanian and Bruttian coins in particular stand so entirely in point +of artistic treatment on a level with the contemporary coins of +Greece, that the inscription alone serves to distinguish the one +from the other. + +Latin + +It is a fact less known, but not less certain, that Latium also, while +inferior to Etruria in the copiousness and massiveness of its art, +was not inferior in artistic taste and practical skill. Evidently the +establishment of the Romans in Campania which took place about the +beginning of the fifth century, the conversion of the town of Cales +into a Latin community, and that of the Falernian territory near Capua +into a Roman tribe,(39) opened up in the first instance Campanian art +to the Romans. It is true that among these the art of gem-engraving so +diligently prosecuted in luxurious Etruria is entirely wanting, and we +find no indication that the Latin workshops were, like those of the +Etruscan goldsmiths and clay-workers, occupied in supplying a foreign +demand. It is true that the Latin temples were not like the Etruscan +overloaded with bronze and clay decorations, that the Latin tombs were +not like the Etruscan filled with gold ornaments, and their walls +shone not, like those of the Tuscan tombs, with paintings of various +colours. Nevertheless, on the whole the balance does not incline in +favour of the Etruscan nation. The device of the effigy of Janus, +which, like the deity itself, may be attributed to the Latins,(40) +is not unskilful, and is of a more original character than that of +any Etruscan work of art. The beautiful group of the she-wolf with the +twins attaches itself doubtless to similar Greek designs, but was--as +thus worked out--certainly produced, if not in Rome, at any rate by +Romans; and it deserves to be noted that it first appears on the +silver moneys coined by the Romans in and for Campania. In the +above-mentioned Cales there appears to have been devised soon after +its foundation a peculiar kind of figured earthenware, which was +marked with the name of the masters and the place of manufacture, +and was sold over a wide district as far even as Etruria. The little +altars of terra-cotta with figures that have recently been brought +to light on the Esquiline correspond in style of representation as in +that of ornament exactly to the similar votive gifts of the Campanian +temples. This however does not exclude Greek masters from having also +worked for Rome. The sculptor Damophilus, who with Gorgasus prepared +the painted terra-cotta figures for the very ancient temple of Ceres, +appears to have been no other than Demophilus of Himera, the teacher +of Zeuxis (about 300). The most instructive illustrations are +furnished by those branches of art in which we are able to form a +comparative judgment, partly from ancient testimonies, partly from +our own observation. Of Latin works in stone scarcely anything else +survives than the stone sarcophagus of the Roman consul Lucius Scipio, +wrought at the close of this period in the Doric style; but its noble +simplicity puts to shame all similar Etruscan works. Many beautiful +bronzes of an antique chaste style of art, particularly helmets, +candelabra, and the like articles, have been taken from Etruscan +tombs; but which of these works is equal to the bronze she-wolf +erected from the proceeds of fines in 458 at the Ruminal fig-tree in +the Roman Forum, and still forming the finest ornament of the Capitol? +And that the Latin metal-founders as little shrank from great +enterprises as the Etruscans, is shown by the colossal bronze figure +of Jupiter on the Capitol erected by Spurius Carvilius (consul in 461) +from the melted equipments of the Samnites, the chisellings of which +sufficed to cast the statue of the victor that stood at the feet of +the Colossus; this statue of Jupiter was visible even from the Alban +Mount. Amongst the cast copper coins by far the finest belong to +southern Latium; the Roman and Umbrian are tolerable, the Etruscan +almost destitute of any image and often really barbarous. +The fresco-paintings, which Gaius Fabius executed in the temple of +Health on the Capitol, dedicated in 452, obtained in design and +colouring the praise even of connoisseurs trained in Greek art in +the Augustan age; and the art-enthusiasts of the empire commended +the frescoes of Caere, but with still greater emphasis those of Rome, +Lanuvium, and Ardea, as masterpieces of painting. Engraving on metal, +which in Latium decorated not the hand-mirror, as in Etruria, but the +toilet-casket with its elegant outlines, was practised to a far less +extent in Latium and almost exclusively in Praeneste. There are +excellent works of art among the copper mirrors of Etruria as among +the caskets of Praeneste; but it was a work of the latter kind, and +in fact a work which most probably originated in the workshop of a +Praenestine master at this epoch,(41) regarding which it could with +truth be affirmed that scarcely another product of the graving of +antiquity bears the stamp of an art so finished in its beauty and +characteristic expression, and yet so perfectly pure and chaste, +as the Ficoroni -cista-. + +Character of Etruscan Art + +The general character of Etruscan works of art is, on the one hand, a +sort of barbaric extravagance in material as well as in style; on the +other hand, an utter absence of original development. Where the Greek +master lightly sketches, the Etruscan disciple lavishes a scholar's +diligence; instead of the light material and moderate proportions of +the Greek works, there appears in the Etruscan an ostentatious stress +laid upon the size and costliness, or even the mere singularity, of +the work. Etruscan art cannot imitate without exaggerating; the chaste +in its hands becomes harsh, the graceful effeminate, the terrible +hideous, and the voluptuous obscene; and these features become more +prominent, the more the original stimulus falls into the background +and Etruscan art finds itself left to its own resources. Still more +surprising is the adherence to traditional forms and a traditional +style. Whether it was that a more friendly contact with Etruria at the +outset allowed the Hellenes to scatter there the seeds of art, and +that a later epoch of hostility impeded the admission into Etruria +of the more recent developments of Greek art, or whether, as is more +probable, the intellectual torpor that rapidly came over the nation +was the main cause of the phenomenon, art in Etruria remained +substantially stationary at the primitive stage which it had occupied +on its first entrance. This, as is well known, forms the reason why +Etruscan art, the stunted daughter, was so long regarded as the +mother, of Hellenic art. Still more even than the rigid adherence to +the style traditionally transmitted in the older branches of art, +the sadly inferior handling of those branches that came into vogue +afterwards, particularly of sculpture in stone and of copper-casting +as applied to coins, shows how quickly the spirit of Etruscan art +evaporated. Equally instructive are the painted vases, which are found +in so enormous numbers in the later Etruscan tombs. Had these come +into current use among the Etruscans as early as the metal plates +decorated with contouring or the painted terra-cottas, beyond doubt +they would have learned to manufacture them at home in considerable +quantity, and of a quality at least relatively good; but at the period +at which this luxury arose, the power of independent reproduction +wholly failed--as the isolated vases provided with Etruscan +inscriptions show--and they contented themselves with buying +instead of making them. + +North Etruscan and South Etruscan Art + +But even within Etruria there appears a further remarkable distinction +in artistic development between the southern and northern districts. +It is South Etruria, particularly in the districts of Caere, +Tarquinii, and Volci, that has preserved the great treasures of art +which the nation boasted, especially in frescoes, temple decorations, +gold ornaments, and painted vases. Northern Etruria is far inferior; +no painted tomb, for example, has been found to the north of Chiusi. +The most southern Etruscan cities, Veii, Caere, and Tarquinii, were +accounted in Roman tradition the primitive and chief seats of Etruscan +art; the most northerly town, Volaterrae, with the largest territory +of all the Etruscan communities, stood most of all aloof from art +While a Greek semi-culture prevailed in South Etruria, Northern +Etruria was much more marked by an absence of all culture. The causes +of this remarkable contrast may be sought partly in differences of +nationality--South Etruria being largely peopled in all probability by +non-Etruscan elements(42)--partly in the varying intensity of Hellenic +influence, which must have made itself very decidedly felt at Caere in +particular. The fact itself admits of no doubt. The more injurious on +that account must have been the early subjugation of the southern half +of Etruria by the Romans, and the Romanizing--which there began very +early--of Etruscan art. What Northern Etruria, confined to its own +efforts, was able to produce in the way of art, is shown by the copper +coins which essentially belong to it. + +Character of Latin Art + +Let us now turn from Etruria to glance at Latium. The latter, it is +true, created no new art; it was reserved for a far later epoch of +culture to develop on the basis of the arch a new architecture +different from the Hellenic, and then to unfold in harmony with that +architecture a new style of sculpture and painting. Latin art is +nowhere original and often insignificant; but the fresh sensibility +and the discriminating tact, which appropriate what is good in others, +constitute a high artistic merit. Latin art seldom became barbarous, +and in its best products it comes quite up to the level of Greek +technical execution. We do not mean to deny that the art of Latium, +at least in its earlier stages, had a certain dependence on the +undoubtedly earlier Etruscan;(43) Varro may be quite right in +supposing that, previous to the execution by Greek artists of the clay +figures in the temple of Ceres,(44) only "Tuscanic" figures adorned +the Roman temples; but that, at all events, it was mainly the direct +influence of the Greeks that led Latin art into its proper channel, +is self-evident, and is very obviously shown by these very statues as +well as by the Latin and Roman coins. Even the application of graving +on metal in Etruria solely to the toilet mirror, and in Latium solely +to the toilet casket, indicates the diversity of the art-impulses that +affected the two lands. It does not appear, however, to have been +exactly at Rome that Latin art put forth its freshest vigour; the +Roman -asses- and Roman -denarii- are far surpassed in fineness and +taste of workmanship by the Latin copper, and the rare Latin silver, +coins, and the masterpieces of painting and design belong chiefly to +Praeneste, Lanuvium, and Ardea. This accords completely with the +realistic and sober spirit of the Roman republic which we have already +described--a spirit which can hardly have asserted itself with equal +intensity in other parts of Latium. But in the course of the fifth +century, and especially in the second half of it, there was a mighty +activity in Roman art. This was the epoch, in which the construction +of the Roman arches and Roman roads began; in which works of art like +the she-wolf of the Capitol originated; and in which a distinguished +man of an old Roman patrician clan took up his pencil to embellish a +newly constructed temple and thence received the honorary surname of +the "Painter." This was not accident. Every great age lays grasp on +all the powers of man; and, rigid as were Roman manners, strict as was +Roman police, the impulse received by the Roman burgesses as masters +of the peninsula or, to speak more correctly, by Italy united for the +first time as one state, became as evident in the stimulus given to +Latin and especially to Roman art, as the moral and political decay of +the Etruscan nation was evident in the decline of art in Etruria. +As the mighty national vigour of Latium subdued the weaker nations, +it impressed its imperishable stamp also on bronze and on marble. + + + + +Notes for Book II Chapter IX + + +1. I. XV. Earliest Hellenic Influences + +2. The account given by Dionysius (vi. 95; comp. Niebuhr, ii. 40) and +by Plutarch (Camill. 42), deriving his statement from another passage +in Dionysius regarding the Latin festival, must be understood to apply +rather to the Roman games, as, apart from other grounds, is strikingly +evident from comparing the latter passage with Liv. vi. 42 (Ritschl, +Parerg. i. p. 313). Dionysius has--and, according to his wont when in +error, persistently--misunderstood the expression -ludi maximi-. + +There was, moreover, a tradition which referred the origin of the +national festival not, as in the common version, to the conquest of +the Latins by the first Tarquinius, but to the victory over the Latins +at the lake Regillus (Cicero, de Div. i. 26, 55; Dionys. vii. 71). +That the important statements preserved in the latter passage from +Fabius really relate to the ordinary thanksgiving-festival, and not to +any special votive solemnity, is evident from the express allusion to +the annual recurrence of the celebration, and from the exact agreement +of the sum of the expenses with the statement in the Pseudo-Asconius +(p. 142 Or.). + +3. II. III. Curule Aedileship + +4. I. II. Art + +5. I. XV. Metre + +6. I. XV. Masks + +7. II. VIII. Police f. + +8. I. XV. Melody + +9. A fragment has been preserved: + +-Hiberno pulvere, verno luto, grandia farra +Camille metes- + +We do not know by what right this was afterwards regarded as the +oldest Roman poem (Macrob. Sat. v. 20; Festus, Ep. v. Flaminius, +p. 93, M.; Serv. on Virg. Georg, i. 101; Plin. xvii. 2. 14). + +10. II. VIII. Appius Claudius + +11. II. VIII. Rome and the Romans of This Epoch + +12. The first places in the list alone excite suspicion, and may have +been subsequently added, with a view to round off the number of years +between the flight of the king and the burning of the city to 120. + +13. I. VI. Time and the Occasion of the Reform, II. VII. System of +Government + +14. II. VIII Rome and the Romans of This Epoch. According to the +annals Scipio commands in Etruria and his colleague in Samnium, and +Lucania is during this year in league with Rome; according to the +epitaph Scipio conquers two towns in Samnium and all Lucania. + +15. I. XI. Jurisdiction, second note. + +16. They appear to have reckoned three generations to a hundred years +and to have rounded off the figures 233 1/3 to 240, just as the epoch +between the king's flight and the burning of the city was rounded off +to 120 years (II. IX. Registers of Magistrates, note). The reason why +these precise numbers suggested themselves, is apparent from the +similar adjustment (above explained, I. XIV. The Duodecimal System) +of the measures of surface. + +17. I. XII. Spirits + +18. I. X. Relations of the Western Italians to the Greeks + +19. The "Trojan colonies" in Sicily, mentioned by Thucydides, the +pseudo-Scylax, and others, as well as the designation of Capua as a +Trojan foundation in Hecataeus, must also be traced to Stesichorus +and his identification of the natives of Italy and Sicily with +the Trojans. + +20. According to his account Rome, a woman who had fled from Ilion +to Rome, or rather her daughter of the same name, married Latinos, +king of the Aborigines, and bore to him three sons, Romos, Romylos, +and Telegonos. The last, who undoubtedly emerges here as founder +of Tusculum and Praeneste, belongs, as is well known, to the legend +of Odysseus. + +21. II. IV. Fruitlessness of the Celtic Victory + +22. II. VII. Relations between the East and West + +23. II. VII. The Roman Fleet + +24. II. II. Political Value of the Tribunates, II. II. +The Valerio-Horatian Laws + +25. I. XIV. Corruption of Language and Writing + +26. In the two epitaphs, of Lucius Scipio consul in 456, and of the +consul of the same name in 495, -m and -d are ordinarily wanting in +the termination of cases, yet -Luciom- and -Gnaivod- respectively +occur once; there occur alongside of one another in the nominative +-Cornelio- and -filios-; -cosol-, -cesor-, alongside of -consol-, +-censor-; -aidiles-, -dedet-, -ploirume- (= -plurimi-) -hec- (nom. +sing.) alongside of -aidilis-, -cepit-, -quei-, -hic-. Rhotacism is +already carried out completely; we find -duonoro-(= -bonorum-), +-ploirume-, not as in the chant of the Salii -foedesum-, -plusima-. +Our surviving inscriptions do not in general precede the age of +rhotacism; of the older -s only isolated traces occur, such as +afterwards -honos-, -labos- alongside of -honor-, -labor-; and the +similar feminine -praenomina-, -Maio- (= -maios- -maior-) and -Mino- +in recently found epitaphs at Praeneste. + +27. -Litterator- and -grammaticus- are related nearly as elementary +teacher and teacher of languages with us; the latter designation +belonged by earlier usage only to the teacher of Greek, not to a +teacher of the mother-tongue. -Litteratus- is more recent, and +denotes not a schoolmaster but a man of culture. + +28. It is at any rate a true Roman picture, which Plautus (Bacch. 431) +produces as a specimen of the good old mode of training children:-- + +... -ubi revenisses domum, +Cincticulo praecinctus in sella apud magistrum adsideres; +Si, librum cum legeres, unam peccavisses syllabam, +Fieret corium tam maculosum, quam est nutricis pallium-. + +29. I. XIV. The Oldest Italo-Greek Calendar + +30. I. XIV. The Oldest Italo-Greek Calendar + +31. I. XV. Plastic Art in Italy + +32. II. VIII. Building + +33. II. VIII. Building + +34. I. XV. Earliest Hellenic Influences + +35. I. VII. Servian Wall + +36. I. XV. Earliest Hellenic Influences + +37. The round temple certainly was not, as has been supposed, an +imitation of the oldest form of the house; on the contrary, house +architecture uniformly starts from the square form. The later Roman +theology associated this round form with the idea of the terrestrial +sphere or of the universe surrounding like a sphere the central sun +(Fest. v. -rutundam-, p. 282; Plutarch, Num. 11; Ovid, Fast. vi. 267, +seq.). In reality it may be traceable simply to the fact, that the +circular shape has constantly been recognized as the most convenient +and the safest form of a space destined for enclosure and custody. +That was the rationale of the round --thesauroi-- of the Greeks as +well as of the round structure of the Roman store-chamber or temple of +the Penates. It was natural, also, that the fireplace--that is, the +altar of Vesta--and the fire-chamber--that is, the temple of Vesta +--should be constructed of a round form, just as was done with the +cistern and the well-enclosure (-puteal-). The round style of building +in itself was Graeco-Italian as was the square form, and the former +was appropriated to the store-place, the latter to the dwelling-house; +but the architectural and religious development of the simple -tholos- +into the round temple with pillars and columns was Latin. + +38. I. XV. Plastic Art in Italy + +39. II. V. Complete Submission of the Campanian and Volscian Provinces + +40. I. XII. Nature of the Roman Gods + +41. Novius Plautius (II. VIII. Capital in Rome) cast perhaps only the +feet and the group on the lid; the casket itself may have proceeded +from an earlier artist, but hardly from any other than a Praenestine, +for the use of these caskets was substantially confined to Praeneste. + +42. I. IX. Settlements of the Etruscans in Italy + +43. I. XV. Earliest Hellenic Influences + +44. I. VI. Time and Occasion of the Reform + + + +End of Book II + + + + * * * * * + + + +THE HISTORY OF ROME: BOOK III + +From the Union of Italy to the Subjugation of Carthage and the Greek +States + + + + +Preparer's Note + +This work contains many literal citations of and references to +foreign words, sounds, and alphabetic symbols drawn from many +languages, including Gothic and Phoenician, but chiefly Latin and +Greek. This English Gutenberg edition, constrained to the characters +of 7-bit ASCII code, adopts the following orthographic conventions: + +1) Except for Greek, all literally cited non-English words that do +not refer to texts cited as academic references, words that in the +source manuscript appear italicized, are rendered with a single +preceding, and a single following dash; thus, -xxxx-. + +2) Greek words, first transliterated into Roman alphabetic +equivalents, are rendered with a preceding and a following double- +dash; thus, --xxxx--. Note that in some cases the root word itself +is a compound form such as xxx-xxxx, and is rendered as --xxx-xxx-- + +3) Simple unideographic references to vocalic sounds, single +letters, or alphabeic dipthongs; and prefixes, suffixes, and syllabic +references are represented by a single preceding dash; thus, -x, +or -xxx. + +4) Ideographic references, referring to signs of representation rather +than to content, are represented as -"id:xxxx"-. "id:" stands for +"ideograph", and indicates that the reader should form a picture based +on the following "xxxx"; which may be a single symbol, a word, or an +attempt at a picture composed of ASCII characters. For example, + --"id:GAMMA gamma"-- indicates an uppercase Greek gamma-form followed +by the form in lowercase. Some such exotic parsing as this is +necessary to explain alphabetic development because a single symbol +may have been used for a number of sounds in a number of languages, +or even for a number of sounds in the same language at different +times. Thus, "-id:GAMMA gamma" might very well refer to a Phoenician +construct that in appearance resembles the form that eventually +stabilized as an uppercase Greek "gamma" juxtaposed to one of +lowercase. Also, a construct such as --"id:E" indicates a symbol +that with ASCII resembles most closely a Roman uppercase "E", but, +in fact, is actually drawn more crudely. + +5) Dr. Mommsen has given his dates in terms of Roman usage, A.U.C.; +that is, from the founding of Rome, conventionally taken to be +753 B. C. The preparer of this document, has appended to the end +of each volume a table of conversion between the two systems. + + + + +CONTENTS + +BOOK III: From the Union of Italy to the Subjugation of Carthage + and the Greek States + + CHAPTER + + I. Carthage + + II. The War between Rome and Carthage Concerning Sicily + + III. The Extension of Italy to Its Natural Boundaries + + IV. Hamilcar and Hannibal + + V. The War under Hannibal to the Battle of Cannae + + VI. The War under Hannibal from Cannae to Zama + + VII. The West from the Peace of Hannibal to the Close + of the Third Period + + VIII. The Eastern States and the Second Macedonian War + + IX. The War with Antiochus of Asia + + X. The Third Macedonian War + + XI. The Government and the Governed + + XII. The Management of Land and of Capital + + XIII. Faith and Manners + + XIV. Literature and Art + + + + +BOOK THIRD + +From the Union of Italy to the Subjugation of Carthage and the Greek +States + + + + +Arduum res gestas scribere. + +--Sallust. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +Carthage + +The Phoenicians + +The Semitic stock occupied a place amidst, and yet aloof from, the +nations of the ancient classical world. The true centre of the +former lay in the east, that of the latter in the region of the +Mediterranean; and, however wars and migrations may have altered the +line of demarcation and thrown the races across each other, a deep +sense of diversity has always severed, and still severs, the Indo- +Germanic peoples from the Syrian, Israelite, and Arabic nations. +This diversity was no less marked in the case of that Semitic people +which spread more than any other in the direction of the west--the +Phoenicians. Their native seat was the narrow border of coast bounded +by Asia Minor, the highlands of Syria, and Egypt, and called Canaan, +that is, the "plain." This was the only name which the nation itself +made use of; even in Christian times the African farmer called himself +a Canaanite. But Canaan received from the Hellenes the name of +Phoenike, the "land of purple," or "land of the red men," and the +Italians also were accustomed to call the Canaanites Punians, as we +are accustomed still to speak of them as the Phoenician or Punic race. + +Their Commerce + +The land was well adapted for agriculture; but its excellent harbours +and the abundant supply of timber and of metals favoured above all +things the growth of commerce; and it was there perhaps, where the +opulent eastern continent abuts on the wide-spreading Mediterranean +so rich in harbours and islands, that commerce first dawned in all +its greatness upon man. The Phoenicians directed all the resources of +courage, acuteness, and enthusiasm to the full development of commerce +and its attendant arts of navigation, manufacturing, and colonization, +and thus connected the east and the west. At an incredibly early +period we find them in Cyprus and Egypt, in Greece and Sicily, in +Africa and Spain, and even on the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea. +The field of their commerce reached from Sierra Leone and Cornwall +in the west, eastward to the coast of Malabar. Through their hands +passed the gold and pearls of the East, the purple of Tyre, slaves, +ivory, lions' and panthers' skins from the interior of Africa, +frankincense from Arabia, the linen of Egypt, the pottery and fine +wines of Greece, the copper of Cyprus, the silver of Spain, tin from +England, and iron from Elba. The Phoenician mariners brought to +every nation whatever it could need or was likely to purchase; and +they roamed everywhere, yet always returned to the narrow home to +which their affections clung. + +Their Intellectual Endowments + +The Phoenicians are entitled to be commemorated in history by the +side of the Hellenic and Latin nations; but their case affords a +fresh proof, and perhaps the strongest proof of all, that the +development of national energies in antiquity was of a one-sided +character. Those noble and enduring creations in the field of +intellect, which owe their origin to the Aramaean race, do not belong +primarily to the Phoenicians. While faith and knowledge in a certain +sense were the especial property of the Aramaean nations and first +reached the Indo-Germans from the east, neither the Phoenician +religion nor Phoenician science and art ever, so far as we can +see, held an independent rank among those of the Aramaean family. +The religious conceptions of the Phoenicians were rude and uncouth, +and it seemed as if their worship was meant to foster rather than to +restrain lust and cruelty. No trace is discernible, at least in times +of clear historical light, of any special influence exercised by their +religion over other nations. As little do we find any Phoenician +architecture or plastic art at all comparable even to those of Italy, +to say nothing of the lands where art was native. The most ancient +seat of scientific observation and of its application to practical +purposes was Babylon, or at any rate the region of the Euphrates. It +was there probably that men first followed the course of the stars; it +was there that they first distinguished and expressed in writing the +sounds of language; it was there that they began to reflect on time +and space and on the powers at work in nature: the earliest traces +of astronomy and chronology, of the alphabet, and of weights and +measures, point to that region. The Phoenicians doubtless availed +themselves of the artistic and highly developed manufactures of +Babylon for their industry, of the observation of the stars for +their navigation, of the writing of sounds and the adjustment of +measures for their commerce, and distributed many an important germ +of civilization along with their wares; but it cannot be demonstrated +that the alphabet or any other of those ingenious products of the +human mind belonged peculiarly to them, and such religious and +scientific ideas as they were the means of conveying to the Hellenes +were scattered by them more after the fashion of a bird dropping +grains than of the husbandman sowing his seed. The power which +the Hellenes and even the Italians possessed, of civilizing and +assimilating to themselves the nations susceptible of culture with +whom they came into contact, was wholly wanting in the Phoenicians. +In the field of Roman conquest the Iberian and the Celtic languages +have disappeared before the Romanic tongue; the Berbers of Africa +speak at the present day the same language as they spoke in the times +of the Hannos and the Barcides. + +Their Political Qualities + +Above all, the Phoenicians, like the rest of the Aramaean nations as +compared with the Indo-Germans, lacked the instinct of political life +--the noble idea of self-governing freedom. During the most +flourishing times of Sidon and Tyre the land of the Phoenicians was +a perpetual apple of contention between the powers that ruled on the +Euphrates and on the Nile, and was subject sometimes to the Assyrians, +sometimes to the Egyptians. With half its power Hellenic cities +would have made themselves independent; but the prudent men of Sidon +calculated that the closing of the caravan-routes to the east or of +the ports of Egypt would cost them more than the heaviest tribute, and +so they punctually paid their taxes, as it might happen, to Nineveh or +to Memphis, and even, if they could not avoid it, helped with their +ships to fight the battles of the kings. And, as at home the +Phoenicians patiently bore the oppression of their masters, so also +abroad they were by no means inclined to exchange the peaceful career +of commerce for a policy of conquest. Their settlements were +factories. It was of more moment in their view to deal in buying and +selling with the natives than to acquire extensive territories in +distant lands, and to carry out there the slow and difficult work of +colonization. They avoided war even with their rivals; they allowed +themselves to be supplanted in Egypt, Greece, Italy, and the east of +Sicily almost without resistance; and in the great naval battles, +which were fought in early times for the supremacy of the western +Mediterranean, at Alalia (217) and at Cumae (280), it was the +Etruscans, and not the Phoenicians, that bore the brunt of the +struggle with the Greeks. If rivalry could not be avoided, they +compromised the matter as best they could; no attempt was ever made +by the Phoenicians to conquer Caere or Massilia. Still less, of +course, were the Phoenicians disposed to enter on aggressive war. +On the only occasion in earlier times when they took the field on the +offensive--in the great Sicilian expedition of the African Phoenicians +which ended in their defeat at Himera by Gelo of Syracuse (274)--it +was simply as dutiful subjects of the great-king and in order to avoid +taking part in the campaign against the Hellenes of the east, that +they entered the lists against the Hellenes of the west; just as their +Syrian kinsmen were in fact obliged in that same year to share the +defeat of the Persians at Salamis(1). + +This was not the result of cowardice; navigation in unknown waters +and with armed vessels requires brave hearts, and that such were to be +found among the Phoenicians, they often showed. Still less was it +the result of any lack of tenacity and idiosyncrasy of national +feeling; on the contrary the Aramaeans defended their nationality with +the weapons of intellect as well as with their blood against all the +allurements of Greek civilization and all the coercive measures of +eastern and western despots, and that with an obstinacy which no Indo- +Germanic people has ever equalled, and which to us who are Occidentals +seems to be sometimes more, sometimes less, than human. It was the +result of that want of political instinct, which amidst all their +lively sense of the ties of race, and amidst all their faithful +attachment to the city of their fathers, formed the most essential +feature in the character of the Phoenicians. Liberty had no charms +for them, and they lusted not after dominion; "quietly they lived," +says the Book of Judges, "after the manner of the Sidonians, careless +and secure, and in possession of riches." + +Carthage + +Of all the Phoenician settlements none attained a more rapid and +secure prosperity than those which were established by the Tyrians and +Sidonians on the south coast of Spain and the north coast of Africa-- +regions that lay beyond the reach of the arm of the great-king and the +dangerous rivalry of the mariners of Greece, and in which the natives +held the same relation to the strangers as the Indians in America held +to the Europeans. Among the numerous and flourishing Phoenician +cities along these shores, the most prominent by far was the "new +town," Karthada or, as the Occidentals called it, Karchedon or +Carthago. Although not the earliest settlement of the Phoenicians +in this region, and originally perhaps a dependency of the adjoining +Utica, the oldest of the Phoenician towns in Libya, it soon +outstripped its neighbours and even the motherland through the +incomparable advantages of its situation and the energetic activity +of its inhabitants. It was situated not far from the (former) mouth +of the Bagradas (Mejerda), which flows through the richest corn +district of northern Africa, and was placed on a fertile rising +ground, still occupied with country houses and covered with groves +of olive and orange trees, falling off in a gentle slope towards the +plain, and terminating towards the sea in a sea-girt promontory. +Lying in the heart of the great North-African roadstead, the Gulf of +Tunis, at the very spot where that beautiful basin affords the best +anchorage for vessels of larger size, and where drinkable spring water +is got close by the shore, the place proved singularly favourable for +agriculture and commerce and for the exchange of their respective +commodities--so favourable, that not only was the Tyrian settlement +in that quarter the first of Phoenician mercantile cities, but even +in the Roman period Carthage was no sooner restored than it became the +third city in the empire, and even now, under circumstances far from +favourable and on a site far less judiciously chosen, there exists and +flourishes in that quarter a city of a hundred thousand inhabitants. +The prosperity, agricultural, mercantile, and industrial, of a city +so situated and so peopled, needs no explanation; but the question +requires an answer--in what way did this settlement come to attain +a development of political power, such as no other Phoenician +city possessed? + +Carthage Heads the Western Phoenicians in Opposition to the Hellenes + +That the Phoenician stock did not even in Carthage renounce its policy +of passiveness, there is no lack of evidence to prove. Carthage paid, +even down to the times of its prosperity, a ground-rent for the space +occupied by the city to the native Berbers, the tribe of the Maxyes or +Maxitani; and although the sea and the desert sufficiently protected +the city from any assault of the eastern powers, Carthage appears to +have recognized--although but nominally--the supremacy of the great- +king, and to have paid tribute to him occasionally, in order to secure +its commercial communications with Tyre and the East. + +But with all their disposition to be submissive and cringing, +circumstances occurred which compelled these Phoenicians to adopt a +more energetic policy. The stream of Hellenic migration was pouring +ceaselessly towards the west: it had already dislodged the Phoenicians +from Greece proper and Italy, and it was preparing to supplant them +also in Sicily, in Spain, and even in Libya itself. The Phoenicians +had to make a stand somewhere, if they were not willing to be totally +crushed. In this case, where they had to deal with Greek traders and +not with the great-king, submission did not suffice to secure the +continuance of their commerce and industry on its former footing, +liable merely to tax and tribute. Massilia and Cyrene were already +founded; the whole east of Sicily was already in the hands of the +Greeks; it was full time for the Phoenicians to think of serious +resistance. The Carthaginians undertook the task; after long and +obstinate wars they set a limit to the advance of the Cyrenaeans, +and Hellenism was unable to establish itself to the west of the desert +of Tripolis. With Carthaginian aid, moreover, the Phoenician settlers +on the western point of Sicily defended themselves against the Greeks, +and readily and gladly submitted to the protection of the powerful +cognate city.(2) These important successes, which occurred in the +second century of Rome, and which saved for the Phoenicians the south- +western portion of the Mediterranean, served of themselves to give to +the city which had achieved them the hegemony of the nation, and to +alter at the same time its political position. Carthage was no longer +a mere mercantile city: it aimed at the dominion of Libya and of a +part of the Mediterranean, because it could not avoid doing so. +It is probable that the custom of employing mercenaries contributed +materially to these successes. That custom came into vogue in Greece +somewhere about the middle of the fourth century of Rome, but among +the Orientals and the Carians more especially it was far older, and it +was perhaps the Phoenicians themselves that began it. By the system +of foreign recruiting war was converted into a vast pecuniary +speculation, which was quite in keeping with the character and +habits of the Phoenicians. + +The Carthaginian Dominion in Africa + +It was probably the reflex influence of these successes abroad, +that first led the Carthaginians to change the character of their +occupation in Africa from a tenure of hire and sufferance to one of +proprietorship and conquest. It appears to have been only about the +year 300 of Rome that the Carthaginian merchants got rid of the rent +for the soil, which they had hitherto been obliged to pay to the +natives. This change enabled them to prosecute a husbandry of their +own on a great scale. From the outset the Phoenicians had been +desirous to employ their capital as landlords as well as traders, +and to practise agriculture on a large scale by means of slaves or +hired labourers; a large portion of the Jews in this way served the +merchant-princes of Tyre for daily wages. Now the Carthaginians +could without restriction extract the produce of the rich Libyan soil +by a system akin to that of the modern planters; slaves in chains +cultivated the land--we find single citizens possessing as many as +twenty thousand of them. Nor was this all. The agricultural villages +of the surrounding region--agriculture appears to have been introduced +among the Libyans at a very early period, probably anterior to the +Phoenician settlement, and presumably from Egypt--were subdued by +force of arms, and the free Libyan farmers were transformed into +fellahs, who paid to their lords a fourth part of the produce of the +soil as tribute, and were subjected to a regular system of recruiting +for the formation of a home Carthaginian army. Hostilities were +constantly occurring with the roving pastoral tribes (--nomades--) +on the borders; but a chain of fortified posts secured the territory +enclosed by them, and the Nomades were slowly driven back into the +deserts and mountains, or were compelled to recognize Carthaginian +supremacy, to pay tribute, and to furnish contingents. About the +period of the first Punic war their great town Theveste (Tebessa, at +the sources of the Mejerda) was conquered by the Carthaginians. These +formed the "towns and tribes (--ethne--) of subjects," which appear in +the Carthaginian state-treaties; the former being the non-free Libyan +villages, the latter the subject Nomades. + +Libyphoenicians + +To this fell to be added the sovereignty of Carthage over the other +Phoenicians in Africa, or the so-called Liby-phoenicians. These +included, on the one hand, the smaller settlements sent forth from +Carthage along the whole northern and part of the north-western coast +of Africa--which cannot have been unimportant, for on the Atlantic +seaboard alone there were settled at one time 30,000 such colonists +--and, on the other hand, the old Phoenician settlements especially +numerous along the coast of the present province of Constantine +and Beylik of Tunis, such as Hippo afterwards called Regius (Bona), +Hadrumetum (Susa), Little Leptis (to the south of Susa)--the second +city of the Phoenicians in Africa--Thapsus (in the same quarter), and +Great Leptis (Lebda to the west of Tripoli). In what way all these +cities came to be subject to Carthage--whether voluntarily, for their +protection perhaps from the attacks of the Cyrenaeans and Numidians, +or by constraint--can no longer be ascertained; but it is certain that +they are designated as subjects of the Carthaginians even in official +documents, that they had to pull down their walls, and that they had +to pay tribute and furnish contingents to Carthage. They were +not liable however either to recruiting or to the land-tax, but +contributed a definite amount of men and money, Little Leptis for +instance paying the enormous sum annually of 365 talents (90,000 +pounds); moreover they lived on a footing of equality in law with +the Carthaginians, and could marry with them on equal terms.(3) +Utica alone escaped a similar fate and had its walls and independence +preserved to it, less perhaps from its own power than from the pious +feeling of the Carthaginians towards their ancient protectors; +in fact, the Phoenicians cherished for such relations a remarkable +feeling of reverence presenting a thorough contrast to the +indifference of the Greeks. Even in intercourse with foreigners it is +always "Carthage and Utica" that stipulate and promise in conjunction; +which, of course, did not preclude the far more important "new town" +from practically asserting its hegemony also over Utica. Thus the +Tyrian factory was converted into the capital of a mighty North +-African empire, which extended from the desert of Tripoli to the +Atlantic Ocean, contenting itself in its western portion (Morocco and +Algiers) with the occupation, and that to some extent superficial, of +a belt along the coast, but in the richer eastern portion (the present +districts of Constantine and Tunis) stretching its sway over the +interior also and constantly pushing its frontier farther to the +south. The Carthaginians were, as an ancient author significantly +expresses it, converted from Tyrians into Libyans. Phoenician +civilization prevailed in Libya just as Greek civilization prevailed +in Asia Minor and Syria after the campaigns of Alexander, although +not with the same intensity. Phoenician was spoken and written at +the courts of the Nomad sheiks, and the more civilized native tribes +adopted for their language the Phoenician alphabet;(4) to Phoenicise +them completely suited neither the genius of the nation nor +the policy of Carthage. + +The epoch, at which this transformation of Carthage into the capital +of Libya took place, admits the less of being determined, because +the change doubtless took place gradually. The author just mentioned +names Hanno as the reformer of the nation. If the Hanno is meant who +lived at the time of the first war with Rome, he can only be regarded +as having completed the new system, the carrying out of which +presumably occupied the fourth and fifth centuries of Rome. + +The flourishing of Carthage was accompanied by a parallel decline +in the great cities of the Phoenician mother-country, in Sidon and +especially in Tyre, the prosperity of which was destroyed partly by +internal commotions, partly by the pressure of external calamities, +particularly of its sieges by Salmanassar in the first, Nebuchodrossor +in the second, and Alexander in the fifth century of Rome. The noble +families and the old firms of Tyre emigrated for the most part to +the secure and flourishing daughter-city, and carried thither their +intelligence, their capital, and their traditions. At the time when +the Phoenicians came into contact with Rome, Carthage was as decidedly +the first of Canaanite cities as Rome was the first of the +Latin communities. + +Naval Power of Carthage + +But the empire of Libya was only half of the power of Carthage; its +maritime and colonial dominion had acquired, during the same period, +a not less powerful development. + +Spain + +In Spain the chief station of the Phoenicians was the primitive Tyrian +settlement at Gades (Cadiz). Besides this they possessed to the west +and east of it a chain of factories, and in the interior the region of +the silver mines; so that they held nearly the modern Andalusia and +Granada, or at least the coasts of these provinces. They made no +effort to acquire the interior from the warlike native nations; they +were content with the possession of the mines and of the stations for +traffic and for shell and other fisheries; and they had difficulty in +maintaining their ground even in these against the adjoining tribes. +It is probable that these possessions were not properly Carthaginian +but Tyrian, and Gades was not reckoned among the cities tributary to +Carthage; but practically, like all the western Phoenicians, it was +under Carthaginian hegemony, as is shown by the aid sent by Carthage +to the Gaditani against the natives, and by the institution of +Carthaginian trading settlements to the westward of Gades. Ebusus and +the Baleares, again, were occupied by the Carthaginians themselves at +an early period, partly for the fisheries, partly as advanced posts +against the Massiliots, with whom furious conflicts were waged +from these stations. + +Sardinia + +In like manner the Carthaginians already at the end of the second +century of Rome established themselves in Sardinia, which was +utilized by them precisely in the same way as Libya. While the +natives withdrew into the mountainous interior of the island to +escape from bondage as agricultural serfs, just as the Numidians in +Africa withdrew to the borders of the desert, Phoenician colonies +were conducted to Caralis (Cagliari) and other important points, and +the fertile districts along the coast were turned to account by the +introduction of Libyan cultivators. + +Sicily + +Lastly in Sicily the straits of Messana and the larger eastern half of +the island had fallen at an early period into the hands of the Greeks; +but the Phoenicians, with the help of the Carthaginians, retained the +smaller adjacent islands, the Aegates, Melita, Gaulos, Cossyra--the +settlement in Malta especially was rich and flourishing--and they kept +the west and north-west coast of Sicily, whence they maintained +communication with Africa by means of Motya and afterwards of +Lilybaeum and with Sardinia by means of Panormus and Soluntum. +The interior of the island remained in the possession of the natives, +the Elymi, Sicani, and Siceli. After the further advance of the +Greeks was checked, a state of comparative peace had prevailed in +the island, which even the campaign undertaken by the Carthaginians +at the instigation of the Persians against their Greek neighbours on +the island (274) did not permanently interrupt, and which continued +on the whole to subsist till the Attic expedition to Sicily (339-341). +The two competing nations made up their minds to tolerate each other, +and confined themselves in the main each to its own field. + +Maritime Supremacy +Rivalry with Syracuse + +All these settlements and possessions were important enough in +themselves; but they were of still greater moment, inasmuch as they +became the pillars of the Carthaginian maritime supremacy. By their +possession of the south of Spain, of the Baleares, of Sardinia, of +western Sicily and Melita, and by their prevention of Hellenic +colonies on the east coast of Spain, in Corsica, and in the region of +the Syrtes, the masters of the north coast of Africa rendered their +sea a closed one, and monopolized the western straits. In the +Tyrrhene and Gallic seas alone the Phoenicians were obliged to +admit the rivalry of other nations. This state of things might +perhaps be endured, so long as the Etruscans and the Greeks served +to counterbalance each other in these waters; with the former, as the +less dangerous rivals, Carthage even entered into an alliance against +the Greeks. But when, on the fall of the Etruscan power--a fall +which, as is usually the case in such forced alliances, Carthage had +hardly exerted all her power to avert--and after the miscarriage of +the great projects of Alcibiades, Syracuse stood forth as indisputably +the first Greek naval power, not only did the rulers of Syracuse +naturally begin to aspire to dominion over Sicily and lower Italy +and at the same time over the Tyrrhene and Adriatic seas, but the +Carthaginians also were compelled to adopt a more energetic policy. +The immediate result of the long and obstinate conflicts between +them and their equally powerful and infamous antagonist, Dionysius +of Syracuse (348-389), was the annihilation or weakening of the +intervening Sicilian states--a result which both parties had an +interest in accomplishing--and the division of the island between +the Syracusans and Carthaginians. The most flourishing cities in +the island--Selinus, Himera, Agrigentum, Gela, and Messana--were +utterly destroyed by the Carthaginians in the course of these unhappy +conflicts: and Dionysius was not displeased to see Hellenism destroyed +or suppressed there, so that, leaning for support on foreign +mercenaries enlisted from Italy, Gaul and Spain, he might rule in +greater security over provinces which lay desolate or which were +occupied by military colonies. The peace, which was concluded after +the victory of the Carthaginian general Mago at Kronion (371), and +which subjected to the Carthaginians the Greek cities of Thermae (the +ancient Himera), Segesta, Heraclea Minoa, Selinus, and a part of the +territory of Agrigentum as far as the Halycus, was regarded by the two +powers contending for the possession of the island as only a temporary +accommodation; on both sides the rivals were ever renewing their +attempts to dispossess each other. Four several times--in 360 in the +time of Dionysius the elder; in 410 in that of Timoleon; in 445 in +that of Agathocles; in 476 in that of Pyrrhus--the Carthaginians were +masters of all Sicily excepting Syracuse, and were baffled by its +solid walls; almost as often the Syracusans, under able leaders, such +as were the elder Dionysius, Agathocles, and Pyrrhus, seemed equally +on the eve of dislodging the Africans from the island. But more and +more the balance inclined to the side of the Carthaginians, who were, +as a rule, the aggressors, and who, although they did not follow out +their object with Roman steadfastness, yet conducted their attack with +far greater method and energy than the Greek city, rent and worn out +by factions, conducted its defence. The Phoenicians might with reason +expect that a pestilence or a foreign -condottiere- would not always +snatch the prey from their hands; and for the time being, at least at +sea, the struggle was already decided:(5) the attempt of Pyrrhus to +re-establish the Syracusan fleet was the last. After the failure of +that attempt, the Carthaginian fleet commanded without a rival the +whole western Mediterranean; and their endeavours to occupy Syracuse, +Rhegium, and Tarentum, showed the extent of their power and the +objects at which they aimed. Hand in hand with these attempts went +the endeavour to monopolize more and more the maritime commerce of +this region, at the expense alike of foreigners and of their own +subjects; and it was not the wont of the Carthaginians to recoil from +any violence that might help forward their purpose. A contemporary +of the Punic wars, Eratosthenes, the father of geography (479-560), +affirms that every foreign mariner sailing towards Sardinia or towards +the Straits of Gades, who fell into the hands of the Carthaginians, +was thrown by them into the sea; and with this statement the fact +completely accords, that Carthage by the treaty of 406 (6) declared +the Spanish, Sardinian, and Libyan ports open to Roman trading +vessels, whereas by that of 448,(7) it totally closed them, with +the exception of the port of Carthage itself, against the same. + +Constitution of Carthage +Council +Magistrates + +Aristotle, who died about fifty years before the commencement of the +first Punic war, describes the constitution of Carthage as having +changed from a monarchy to an aristocracy, or to a democracy inclining +towards oligarchy, for he designates it by both names. The conduct +of affairs was immediately vested in the hands of the Council of +Ancients, which, like the Spartan gerusia, consisted of the two kings +nominated annually by the citizens, and of twenty-eight gerusiasts, +who were also, as it appears, chosen annually by the citizens. It was +this council which mainly transacted the business of the state-making, +for instance, the preliminary arrangements for war, appointing levies +and enlistments, nominating the general, and associating with him a +number of gerusiasts from whom the sub-commanders were regularly +taken; and to it despatches were addressed. It is doubtful whether by +the side of this small council there existed a larger one; at any rate +it was not of much importance. As little does any special influence +seem to have belonged to the kings; they acted chiefly as supreme +judges, and they were frequently so named (shofetes, -praetores-). +The power of the general was greater. Isocrates, the senior +contemporary of Aristotle, says that the Carthaginians had an +oligarchical government at home, but a monarchical government in +the field; and thus the office of the Carthaginian general may be +correctly described by Roman writers as a dictatorship, although the +gerusiasts attached to him must have practically at least restricted +his power and, after he had laid down his office, a regular official +reckoning--unknown among the Romans--awaited him. There existed no +fixed term of office for the general, and for this very reason he was +doubtless different from the annual king, from whom Aristotle also +expressly distinguishes him. The combination however of several +offices in one person was not unusual among the Carthaginians, and it +is not therefore surprising that often the same person appears as at +once general and shofete. + +Judges + +But the gerusia and the magistrates were subordinate to the +corporation of the Hundred and Four (in round numbers the Hundred), +or the Judges, the main bulwark of the Carthaginian oligarchy. +It had no place in the original constitution of Carthage, but, like +the Spartan ephorate, it originated in an aristocratic opposition to +the monarchical elements of that constitution. As public offices were +purchasable and the number of members forming the supreme board was +small, a single Carthaginian family, eminent above all others in +wealth and military renown, the clan of Mago,(8) threatened to unite +in its own hands the management of the state in peace and war and the +administration of justice. This led, nearly about the time of the +decemvirs, to an alteration of the constitution and to the appointment +of this new board. We know that the holding of the quaestorship gave +a title to admission into the body of judges, but that the candidate +had nevertheless to be elected by certain self-electing Boards of Five +(Pentarchies); and that the judges, although presumably by law chosen +from year to year, practically remained in office for a longer +period or indeed for life, for which reason they are usually called +"senators" by the Greeks and Romans. Obscure as are the details, we +recognize clearly the nature of the body as an oligarchical board +constituted by aristocratic cooptation; an isolated but characteristic +indication of which is found in the fact that there were in Carthage +special baths for the judges over and above the common baths for the +citizens. They were primarily intended to act as political jurymen, +who summoned the generals in particular, but beyond doubt the shofetes +and gerusiasts also when circumstances required, to a reckoning on +resigning office, and inflicted even capital punishment at pleasure, +often with the most reckless cruelty. Of course in this as in every +instance, where administrative functionaries are subjected to the +control of another body, the real centre of power passed over from +the controlled to the controlling authority; and it is easy to +understand on the one hand how the latter came to interfere in all +matters of administration--the gerusia for instance submitted +important despatches first to the judges, and then to the people +--and on the other hand how fear of the control at home, which +regularly meted out its award according to success, hampered the +Carthaginian statesman and general in council and action. + +Citizens + +The body of citizens in Carthage, though not expressly restricted, as +in Sparta, to the attitude of passive bystanders in the business of +the state, appears to have had but a very slight amount of practical +influence on it In the elections to the gerusia a system of open +corruption was the rule; in the nomination of a general the people +were consulted, but only after the nomination had really been made by +proposal on the part of the gerusia; and other questions only went to +the people when the gerusia thought fit or could not otherwise agree. +Assemblies of the people with judicial functions were unknown in +Carthage. The powerlessness of the citizens probably in the main +resulted from their political organization; the Carthaginian mess- +associations, which are mentioned in this connection and compared +with the Spartan Pheiditia, were probably guilds under oligarchical +management. Mention is made even of a distinction between "burgesses +of the city" and "manual labourers," which leads us to infer that the +latter held a very inferior position, perhaps beyond the pale of law. + +Character of the Government + +On a comprehensive view of its several elements, the Carthaginian +constitution appears to have been a government of capitalists, such as +might naturally arise in a burgess-community which had no middle class +of moderate means but consisted on the one hand of an urban rabble +without property and living from hand to mouth, and on the other hand +of great merchants, planters, and genteel overseers. The system of +repairing the fortunes of decayed grandees at the expense of the +subjects, by despatching them as tax-assessors and taskwork-overseers +to the dependent communities--that infallible token of a rotten urban +oligarchy--was not wanting in Carthage; Aristotle describes it as the +main cause of the tried durability of the Carthaginian constitution. +Up to his time no revolution worth mentioning had taken place in +Carthage either from above or from below. The multitude remained +without leaders in consequence of the material advantages which the +governing oligarchy was able to offer to all ambitious or necessitous +men of rank, and was satisfied with the crumbs, which in the form of +electoral corruption or otherwise fell to it from the table of the +rich. A democratic opposition indeed could not fail with such a +government to emerge; but at the time of the first Punic war it was +still quite powerless. At a later period, partly under the influence +of the defeats which were sustained, its political influence appears +on the increase, and that far more rapidly than the influence of the +similar party at the same period in Rome; the popular assemblies began +to give the ultimate decision in political questions, and broke down +the omnipotence of the Carthaginian oligarchy. After the termination +of the Hannibalic war it was even enacted, on the proposal of +Hannibal, that no member of the council of a Hundred could hold office +for two consecutive years; and thereby a complete democracy was +introduced, which certainly was under existing circumstances the only +means of saving Carthage, if there was still time to do so. This +opposition was swayed by a strong patriotic and reforming enthusiasm; +but the fact cannot withal be overlooked, that it rested on a corrupt +and rotten basis. The body of citizens in Carthage, which is compared +by well-informed Greeks to the people of Alexandria, was so disorderly +that to that extent it had well deserved to be powerless; and it might +well be asked, what good could arise from revolutions, where, as in +Carthage, the boys helped to make them. + +Capital and Its Power in Carthage + +From a financial point of view, Carthage held in every respect +the first place among the states of antiquity. At the time of the +Peloponnesian war this Phoenician city was, according to the testimony +of the first of Greek historians, financially superior to all +the Greek states, and its revenues were compared to those of the +great-king; Polybius calls it the wealthiest city in the world. +The intelligent character of the Carthaginian husbandry--which, as was +the case subsequently in Rome, generals and statesmen did not disdain +scientifically to practise and to teach--is attested by the agronomic +treatise of the Carthaginian Mago, which was universally regarded by +the later Greek and Roman farmers as the fundamental code of rational +husbandry, and was not only translated into Greek, but was edited also +in Latin by command of the Roman senate and officially recommended +to the Italian landholders. A characteristic feature was the close +connection between this Phoenician management of land and that of +capital: it was quoted as a leading maxim of Phoenician husbandry that +one should never acquire more land than he could thoroughly manage. +The rich resources of the country in horses, oxen, sheep, and goats, +in which Libya by reason of its Nomad economy perhaps excelled at that +time, as Polybius testifies, all other lands of the earth, were of +great advantage to the Carthaginians. As these were the instructors +of the Romans in the art of profitably working the soil, they were so +likewise in the art of turning to good account their subjects; by +virtue of which Carthage reaped indirectly the rents of the "best +part of Europe," and of the rich--and in some portions, such as in +Byzacitis and on the lesser Syrtis, surpassingly productive--region +of northern Africa. Commerce, which was always regarded in Carthage +as an honourable pursuit, and the shipping and manufactures which +commerce rendered flourishing, brought even in the natural course of +things golden harvests annually to the settlers there; and we have +already indicated how skilfully, by an extensive and evergrowing +system of monopoly, not only all the foreign but also all the inland +commerce of the western Mediterranean, and the whole carrying trade +between the west and east, were more and more concentrated in that +single harbour. + +Science and art in Carthage, as afterwards in Rome, seem to have been +mainly dependent on Hellenic influences, but they do not appear to +have been neglected. There was a respectable Phoenician literature; +and on the conquest of the city there were found rich treasures of +art--not created, it is true, in Carthage, but carried off from +Sicilian temples--and considerable libraries. But even intellect +there was in the service of capital; the prominent features of its +literature were chiefly agronomic and geographical treatises, such +as the work of Mago already mentioned and the account by the admiral +Hanno of his voyage along the west coast of Africa, which was +originally deposited publicly in one of the Carthaginian temples, and +which is still extant in a translation. Even the general diffusion of +certain attainments, and particularly of the knowledge of foreign +languages,(9) as to which the Carthage of this epoch probably stood +almost on a level with Rome under the empire, forms an evidence of the +thoroughly practical turn given to Hellenic culture in Carthage. It +is absolutely impossible to form a conception of the mass of capital +accumulated in this London of antiquity, but some notion at least may +be gained of the sources of public revenue from the fact, that, in +spite of the costly system on which Carthage organized its wars and +in spite of the careless and faithless administration of the state +property, the contributions of its subjects and the customs-revenue +completely covered the expenditure, so that no direct taxes were +levied from the citizens; and further, that even after the second +Punic war, when the power of the state was already broken, the current +expenses and the payment to Rome of a yearly instalment of 48,000 +pounds could be met, without levying any tax, merely by a somewhat +stricter management of the finances, and fourteen years after the +peace the state proffered immediate payment of the thirty-six +remaining instalments. But it was not merely the sum total of its +revenues that evinced the superiority of the financial administration +at Carthage. The economical principles of a later and more advanced +epoch are found by us in Carthage alone of all the more considerable +states of antiquity. Mention is made of foreign state-loans, and in +the monetary system we find along with gold and silver mention of a +token-money having no intrinsic value--a species of currency not used +elsewhere in antiquity. In fact, if government had resolved itself +into mere mercantile speculation, never would any state have solved +the problem more brilliantly than Carthage. + +Comparison between Carthage and Rome +In Their Economy + +Let us now compare the respective resources of Carthage and Rome. +Both were agricultural and mercantile cities, and nothing more; art +and science had substantially the same altogether subordinate and +altogether practical position in both, except that in this respect +Carthage had made greater progress than Rome. But in Carthage the +moneyed interest preponderated over the landed, in Rome at this +time the landed still preponderated over the moneyed; and, while +the agriculturists of Carthage were universally large landlords +and slave-holders, in the Rome of this period the great mass of the +burgesses still tilled their fields in person. The majority of the +population in Rome held property, and was therefore conservative; the +majority in Carthage held no property, and was therefore accessible +to the gold of the rich as well as to the cry of the democrats for +reform. In Carthage there already prevailed all that opulence which +marks powerful commercial cities, while the manners and police of Rome +still maintained at least externally the severity and frugality of +the olden times. When the ambassadors of Carthage returned from Rome, +they told their colleagues that the relations of intimacy among the +Roman senators surpassed all conception; that a single set of silver +plate sufficed for the whole senate, and had reappeared in every house +to which the envoys had been invited. The sneer is a significant +token of the difference in the economic conditions on either side. + +In Their Constitution + +In both the constitution was aristocratic; the judges governed in +Carthage, as did the senate in Rome, and both on the same system of +police-control. The strict state of dependence in which the governing +board at Carthage held the individual magistrate, and the injunction +to the citizens absolutely to refrain from learning the Greek language +and to converse with a Greek only through the medium of the public +interpreter, originated in the same spirit as the system of government +at Rome; but in comparison with the cruel harshness and the absolute +precision, bordering on silliness, of this Carthaginian state- +tutelage, the Roman system of fining and censure appears mild and +reasonable. The Roman senate, which opened its doors to eminent +capacity and in the best sense represented the nation, was able +also to trust it, and had no need to fear the magistrates. +The Carthaginian senate, on the other hand, was based on a jealous +control of administration by the government, and represented +exclusively the leading families; its essence was mistrust of all +above and below it, and therefore it could neither be confident that +the people would follow whither it led, nor free from the dread of +usurpations on the part of the magistrates. Hence the steady course +of Roman policy, which never receded a step in times of misfortune, +and never threw away the favours of fortune by negligence or +indifference; whereas the Carthaginians desisted from the struggle +when a last effort might perhaps have saved all, and, weary or +forgetful of their great national duties, allowed the half-completed +building to fall to pieces, only to begin it in a few years anew. +Hence the capable magistrate in Rome was ordinarily on a good +understanding with his government; in Carthage he was frequently +at decided feud with his masters at home, and was forced to resist +them by unconstitutional means and to make common cause with the +opposing party of reform. + +In the Treatment of Their Subject + +Both Carthage and Rome ruled over communities of lineage kindred with +their own, and over numerous others of alien race. But Rome had +received into her citizenship one district after another, and had +rendered it even legally accessible to the Latin communities; Carthage +from the first maintained her exclusiveness, and did not permit the +dependent districts even to cherish a hope of being some day placed +upon an equal footing. Rome granted to the communities of kindred +lineage a share in the fruits of victory, especially in the acquired +domains; and sought, by conferring material advantages on the rich and +noble, to gain over at least a party to her own interest in the other +subject states. Carthage not only retained for herself the produce +of her victories, but even deprived the most privileged cities of +their freedom of trade. Rome, as a rule, did not wholly take away +independence even from the subject communities, and imposed a fixed +tribute on none; Carthage despatched her overseers everywhere, and +loaded even the old-Phoenician cities with a heavy tribute, while her +subject tribes were practically treated as state-slaves. In this way +there was not in the compass of the Carthagino-African state a single +community, with the exception of Utica, that would not have been +politically and materially benefited by the fall of Carthage; in the +Romano-Italic there was not one that had not much more to lose than +to gain in rebelling against a government, which was careful to avoid +injuring material interests, and which never at least by extreme +measures challenged political opposition to conflict. If Carthaginian +statesmen believed that they had attached to the interests of Carthage +her Phoenician subjects by their greater dread of a Libyan revolt +and all the landholders by means of token-money, they transferred +mercantile calculation to a sphere to which it did not apply. +Experience proved that the Roman symmachy, notwithstanding its +seemingly looser bond of connection, kept together against Pyrrhus +like a wall of rock, whereas the Carthaginian fell to pieces like a +gossamer web as soon as a hostile army set foot on African soil. It +was so on the landing of Agathocles and of Regulus, and likewise in +the mercenary war; the spirit that prevailed in Africa is illustrated +by the fact, that the Libyan women voluntarily contributed their +ornaments to the mercenaries for their war against Carthage. In +Sicily alone the Carthaginians appear to have exercised a milder rule, +and to have attained on that account better results. They granted to +their subjects in that quarter comparative freedom in foreign trade, +and allowed them to conduct their internal commerce, probably from the +outset and exclusively, with a metallic currency; far greater freedom +of movement generally was allowed to them than was permitted to the +Sardinians and Libyans. Had Syracuse fallen into Carthaginian hands, +their policy would doubtless soon have changed. But that result did +not take place; and so, owing to the well-calculated mildness of the +Carthaginian government and the unhappy distractions of the Sicilian +Greeks, there actually existed in Sicily a party really friendly to +the Phoenicians; for example, even after the island had passed to the +Romans, Philinus of Agrigentum wrote the history of the great war in +a thoroughly Phoenician spirit. Nevertheless on the whole the +Sicilians must, both as subjects and as Hellenes, have been at +least as averse to their Phoenician masters as the Samnites +and Tarentines were to the Romans. + +In Finance + +In a financial point of view the state revenues of Carthage doubtless +far surpassed those of Rome; but this advantage was partly neutralized +by the facts, that the sources of the Carthaginian revenue--tribute +and customs--dried up far sooner (and just when they were most needed) +than those of Rome, and that the Carthaginian mode of conducting war +was far more costly than the Roman. + +In Their Military System + +The military resources of the Romans and Carthaginians were very +different, yet in many respects not unequally balanced. The citizens +of Carthage still at the conquest of the city amounted to 700,000, +including women and children,(10) and were probably at least as +numerous at the close of the fifth century; in that century they were +able in case of need to set on foot a burgess-army of 40,000 hoplites. +At the very beginning of the fifth century, Rome had in similar +circumstances sent to the field a burgess-army equally strong;(11) +after the great extensions of the burgess-domain in the course of that +century the number of full burgesses capable of bearing arms must at +least have doubled. But far more than in the number of men capable of +bearing arms, Rome excelled in the effective condition of the burgess- +soldier. Anxious as the Carthaginian government was to induce its +citizens to take part in military service, it could neither furnish +the artisan and the manufacturer with the bodily vigour of the +husbandman, nor overcome the native aversion of the Phoenicians to +warfare. In the fifth century there still fought in the Sicilian +armies a "sacred band" of 2500 Carthaginians as a guard for the +general; in the sixth not a single Carthaginian, officers excepted, +was to be met with in the Carthaginian armies, e. g. in that of Spain. +The Roman farmers, again, took their places not only in the muster- +roll, but also in the field of battle. It was the same with the +cognate races of both communities; while the Latins rendered to +the Romans no less service than their own burgess-troops, the Liby- +phoenicians were as little adapted for war as the Carthaginians, and, +as may easily be supposed, still less desirous of it, and so they too +disappeared from the armies; the towns bound to furnish contingents +presumably redeemed their obligation by a payment of money. In the +Spanish army just mentioned, composed of some 15,000 men, only a +single troop of cavalry of 450 men consisted, and that but partly, of +Liby-phoenicians. The flower of the Carthaginian armies was formed by +the Libyan subjects, whose recruits were capable of being trained +under able officers into good infantry, and whose light cavalry was +unsurpassed in its kind. To these were added the forces of the more +or less dependent tribes of Libya and Spain and the famous slingers of +the Baleares, who seem to have held an intermediate position between +allied contingents and mercenary troops; and finally, in case of need, +the hired soldiery enlisted abroad. So far as numbers were concerned, +such an army might without difficulty be raised almost to any desired +strength; and in the ability of its officers, in acquaintance with +arms, and in courage it might be capable of coping with that of Rome. +Not only, however, did a dangerously long interval elapse, in the +event of mercenaries being required, ere they could be got ready, +while the Roman militia was able at any moment to take the field, but +--which was the main matter--there was nothing to keep together the +armies of Carthage but military honour and personal advantage, while +the Romans were united by all the ties that bound them to their common +fatherland. The Carthaginian officer of the ordinary type estimated +his mercenaries, and even the Libyan farmers, very much as men +in modern warfare estimate cannon-balls; hence such disgraceful +proceedings as the betrayal of the Libyan troops by their general +Himilco in 358, which was followed by a dangerous insurrection of the +Libyans, and hence that proverbial cry of "Punic faith," which did the +Carthaginians no small injury. Carthage experienced in full measure +all the evils which armies of fellahs and mercenaries could bring upon +a state, and more than once she found her paid serfs more dangerous +than her foes. + +The Carthaginian government could not fail to perceive the defects +of this military system, and they certainly sought to remedy them by +every available means. They insisted on maintaining full chests +and full magazines, that they might at any time be able to equip +mercenaries. They bestowed great care on those elements which among +the ancients represented the modern artillery--the construction of +machines, in which we find the Carthaginians regularly superior to +the Siceliots, and the use of elephants, after these had superseded in +warfare the earlier war-chariots: in the casemates of Carthage there +were stalls for 300 elephants. They could not venture to fortify the +dependent cities, and were obliged to submit to the occupation of the +towns and villages as well as of the open country by any hostile army +that landed in Africa--a thorough contrast to the state of Italy, +where most of the subject towns had retained their walls, and a +chain of Roman fortresses commanded the whole peninsula. But on the +fortification of the capital they expended all the resources of money +and of art, and on several occasions nothing but the strength of its +walls saved the state; whereas Rome held a political and military +position so secure that it never underwent a formal siege. +Lastly, the main bulwark of the state was their war-marine, on which +they lavished the utmost care. In the building as well as in the +management of vessels the Carthaginians excelled the Greeks; it was at +Carthage that ships were first built of more than three banks of oars, +and the Carthaginian war-vessels, at this period mostly quinqueremes, +were ordinarily better sailors than the Greek; the rowers, all of them +public slaves, who never stirred from the galleys, were excellently +trained, and the captains were expert and fearless. In this respect +Carthage was decidedly superior to the Romans, who, with the few ships +of their Greek allies and still fewer of their own, were unable even +to show themselves in the open sea against the fleet which at that +time without a rival ruled the western Mediterranean. + +If, in conclusion, we sum up the results of this comparison of +the resources of the two great powers, the judgment expressed by a +sagacious and impartial Greek is perhaps borne out, that Carthage and +Rome were, when the struggle between them began, on the whole equally +matched. But we cannot omit to add that, while Carthage had put forth +all the efforts of which intellect and wealth were capable to provide +herself with artificial means of attack and defence, she was unable in +any satisfactory way to make up for the fundamental wants of a land +army of her own and of a symmachy resting on a self-supporting basis. +That Rome could only be seriously attacked in Italy, and Carthage only +in Libya, no one could fail to see; as little could any one fail to +perceive that Carthage could not in the long run escape from such +an attack. Fleets were not yet in those times of the infancy of +navigation a permanent heirloom of nations, but could be fitted out +wherever there were trees, iron, and water. It was clear, and had +been several times tested in Africa itself, that even powerful +maritime states were not able to prevent enemies weaker by sea from +landing. When Agathocles had shown the way thither, a Roman general +could follow the same course; and while in Italy the entrance of an +invading army simply began the war, the same event in Libya put an +end to it by converting it into a siege, in which, unless special +accidents should intervene, even the most obstinate and heroic courage +must finally succumb. + + + + +Notes for Chapter I + + +1. II. IV. Victories of Salamis and Himera, and Their Effects + +2. I. X. Phoenicians and Italians in Opposition to the Hellenes + +3. The most precise description of this important class occurs in +the Carthaginian treaty (Polyb. vii. 9), where in contrast to the +Uticenses on the one hand, and to the Libyan subjects on the other, +they are called --ol Karchedonion uparchoi osoi tois autois nomois +chrontai--. Elsewhere they are spoken of as cities allied +(--summachides poleis--, Diod. xx. 10) or tributary (Liv. xxxiv. 62; +Justin, xxii. 7, 3). Their -conubium- with the Carthaginians is +mentioned by Diodorus, xx. 55; the -commercium- is implied in the +"like laws." That the old Phoenician colonies were included among +the Liby-phoenicians, is shown by the designation of Hippo as a +Liby-phoenician city (Liv. xxv. 40); on the other hand as to the +settlements founded from Carthage, for instance, it is said in the +Periplus of Hanno: "the Carthaginians resolved that Hanno should sail +beyond the Pillars of Hercules and found cities of Liby-phoenicians." +In substance the word "Liby-phoenicians" was used by the Carthaginians +not as a national designation, but as a category of state-law. This +view is quite consistent with the fact that grammatically the name +denotes Phoenicians mingled with Libyans (Liv. xxi. 22, an addition to +the text of Polybius); in reality, at least in the institution of very +exposed colonies, Libyans were frequently associated with Phoenicians +(Diod. xiii. 79; Cic. pro Scauro, 42). The analogy in name and legal +position between the Latins of Rome and the Liby-phoenicians +of Carthage is unmistakable. + +4. The Libyan or Numidian alphabet, by which we mean that which was +and is employed by the Berbers in writing their non-Semitic language +--one of the innumerable alphabets derived from the primitive Aramaean +one--certainly appears to be more closely related in several of its +forms to the latter than is the Phoenician alphabet; but it by no +means follows from this, that the Libyans derived their writing not +from Phoenicians but from earlier immigrants, any more than the +partially older forms of the Italian alphabets prohibit us from +deriving these from the Greek. We must rather assume that the Libyan +alphabet has been derived from the Phoenician at a period of the +latter earlier than the time at which the records of the Phoenician +language that have reached us were written. + +5. II. VII. Decline of the Roman Naval Power + +6. II. VII. Decline of the Roman Naval Power + +7. II. VII. The Roman Fleet + +8. II. IV. Etrusco-Carthaginian Maritime Supremacy + +9. The steward on a country estate, although a slave, ought, according +to the precept of the Carthaginian agronome Mago (ap. Varro, R. R. i. +17), to be able to read, and ought to possess some culture. In the +prologue of the "Poenulus" of Plautus, it is said of the hero of +the title:- + +-Et is omnes linguas scit; sed dissimulat sciens +Se scire; Poenus plane est; quid verbit opus't-? + +10. Doubts have been expressed as to the correctness of this number, +and the highest possible number of inhabitants, taking into account +the available space, has been reckoned at 250,000. Apart from the +uncertainty of such calculations, especially as to a commercial city +with houses of six stories, we must remember that the numbering is +doubtless to be understood in a political, not in an urban, sense, +just like the numbers in the Roman census, and that thus all +Carthaginians would be included in it, whether dwelling in the city +or its neighbourhood, or resident in its subject territory or in other +lands. There would, of course, be a large number of such absentees in +the case of Carthage; indeed it is expressly stated that in Gades, for +the same reason, the burgess-roll always showed a far higher number +than that of the citizens who had their fixed residence there. + +11. II. VII. System of Government, note + + + + +CHAPTER II + +The War between Rome and Carthage Concerning Sicily + +State of Sicily + +For upwards of a century the feud between the Carthaginians and +the rulers of Syracuse had devastated the fair island of Sicily. +On both sides the contest was carried on with the weapons of political +proselytism, for, while Carthage kept up communications with the +aristocratic-republican opposition in Syracuse, the Syracusan dynasts +maintained relations with the national party in the Greek cities that +had become tributary to Carthage. On both sides armies of mercenaries +were employed to fight their battles--by Timoleon and Agathocles, as +well as by the Phoenician generals. And as like means were employed +on both sides, so the conflict had been waged on both with a disregard +of honour and a perfidy unexampled in the history of the west. The +Syracusans were the weaker party. In the peace of 440 Carthage had +still limited her claims to the third of the island to the west of +Heraclea Minoa and Himera, and had expressly recognized the hegemony +of the Syracusans over all the cities to the eastward. The expulsion +of Pyrrhus from Sicily and Italy (479) left by far the larger half of +the island, and especially the important Agrigentum, in the hands of +Carthage; the Syracusans retained nothing but Tauromenium and the +south-east of the island. + +Campanian Mercenaries + +In the second great city on the east coast, Messana, a band of foreign +soldiers had established themselves and held the city, independent +alike of Syracusans and Carthaginians. These new rulers of Messana +were Campanian mercenaries. The dissolute habits that had become +prevalent among the Sabellians settled in and around Capua,(1) had +made Campania in the fourth and fifth centuries--what Aetolia, Crete, +and Laconia were afterwards--the universal recruiting field for +princes and cities in search of mercenaries. The semi-culture that +had been called into existence there by the Campanian Greeks, the +barbaric luxury of life in Capua and the other Campanian cities, +the political impotence to which the hegemony of Rome condemned them, +while yet its rule was not so stern as wholly to withdraw from them +the right of self-disposal--all tended to drive the youth of Campania +in troops to the standards of the recruiting officers. As a matter of +course, this wanton and unscrupulous selling of themselves here, as +everywhere, brought in its train estrangement from their native land, +habits of violence and military disorder, and indifference to the +breach of their allegiance. These Campanians could see no reason why +a band of mercenaries should not seize on their own behalf any city +entrusted to their guardianship, provided only they were in a position +to hold it--the Samnites had established their dominion in Capua +itself, and the Lucanians in a succession of Greek cities, after +a fashion not much more honourable. + +Mammertines + +Nowhere was the state of political relations more inviting for such +enterprises than in Sicily. Already the Campanian captains who came +to Sicily during the Peloponnesian war had insinuated themselves in +this way into Entella and Aetna. Somewhere about the year 470 a +Campanian band, which had previously served under Agathocles and after +his death (465) took up the trade of freebooters on their own account, +established themselves in Messana, the second city of Greek Sicily, +and the chief seat of the anti-Syracusan party in that portion of +the island which was still in the power of the Greeks. The citizens +were slain or expelled, their wives and children and houses were +distributed among the soldiers, and the new masters of the city, the +Mamertines or "men of Mars," as they called themselves, soon became +the third power in the island, the north-eastern portion of which they +reduced to subjection in the times of confusion that succeeded the +death of Agathocles. The Carthaginians were no unwilling spectators +of these events, which established in the immediate vicinity of the +Syracusans a new and powerful adversary instead of a cognate and +ordinarily allied or dependent city. With Carthaginian aid the +Mamertines maintained themselves against Pyrrhus, and the untimely +departure of the king restored to them all their power. + +Hiero of Syracuse +War between the Syracusans and the Mammertines + +It is not becoming in the historian either to excuse the perfidious +crime by which the Mamertines seized their power, or to forget that +the God of history does not necessarily punish the sins of the fathers +to the fourth generation. He who feels it his vocation to judge the +sins of others may condemn the human agents; for Sicily it might be a +blessing that a warlike power, and one belonging to the island, thus +began to be formed in it--a power which was already able to bring +eight thousand men into the field, and which was gradually putting +itself in a position to take up at the proper time and on its own +resources that struggle against the foreigners, to the maintenance +of which the Hellenes, becoming more and more unaccustomed to arms +notwithstanding their perpetual wars, were no longer equal. + +In the first instance, however, things took another turn. A young +Syracusan officer, who by his descent from the family of Gelo and +his intimate relations of kindred with king Pyrrhus as well as by the +distinction with which he had fought in the campaigns of the latter, +had attracted the notice of his fellow-citizens as well as of the +Syracusan soldiery--Hiero, son of Hierocles--was called by military +election to command the army, which was at variance with the citizens +(479-480). By his prudent administration, the nobility of his +character, and the moderation of his views, he rapidly gained the +hearts of the citizens of Syracuse--who had been accustomed to the +most scandalous lawlessness in their despots--and of the Sicilian +Greeks in general. He rid himself--in a perfidious manner, it is +true--of the insubordinate army of mercenaries, revived the citizen- +militia, and endeavoured, at first with the title of general, +afterwards with that of king, to re-establish the deeply sunken +Hellenic power by means of his civic troops and of fresh and more +manageable recruits. With the Carthaginians, who in concert with the +Greeks had driven king Pyrrhus from the island, there was at that time +peace. The immediate foes of the Syracusans were the Mamertines. +They were the kinsmen of those hated mercenaries whom the Syracusans +had recently extirpated; they had murdered their own Greek hosts; + they had curtailed the Syracusan territory; they had oppressed and +plundered a number of smaller Greek towns. In league with the Romans +who just about this time were sending their legions against the +Campanians in Rhegium, the allies, kinsmen, and confederates in crime +of the Mamertines,(2) Hiero turned his arms against Messana. By a +great victory, after which Hiero was proclaimed king of the Siceliots +(484), he succeeded in shutting up the Mamertines within their city, +and after the siege had lasted some years, they found themselves +reduced to extremity and unable to hold the city longer against Hiero +on their own resources. It is evident that a surrender on stipulated +conditions was impossible, and that the axe of the executioner, which +had fallen upon the Campanians of Rhegium at Rome, as certainly +awaited those of Messana at Syracuse. Their only means of safety lay +in delivering up the city either to the Carthaginians or to the +Romans, both of whom could not but be so strongly set upon acquiring +that important place as to overlook all other scruples. Whether it +would be more advantageous to surrender it to the masters of Africa +or to the masters of Italy, was doubtful; after long hesitation the +majority of the Campanian burgesses at length resolved to offer +the possession of their sea-commanding fortress to the Romans. + +The Mammertines Received into the Italian Confederacy + +It was a moment of the deepest significance in the history of the +world, when the envoys of the Mamertines appeared in the Roman senate. +No one indeed could then anticipate all that was to depend on the +crossing of that narrow arm of the sea; but that the decision, however +it should go, would involve consequences far other and more important +than had attached to any decree hitherto passed by the senate, must +have been manifest to every one of the deliberating fathers of the +city. Strictly upright men might indeed ask how it was possible to +deliberate at all, and how any one could even think of suggesting +that the Romans should not only break their alliance with Hiero, but +should, just after the Campanians of Rhegium had been punished by them +with righteous severity, admit the no less guilty Sicilian accomplices +to the alliance and friendship of the state, and thereby rescue them +from the punishment which they deserved. Such an outrage on propriety +would not only afford their adversaries matter for declamation, +but must seriously offend all men of moral feeling. But even the +statesman, with whom political morality was no mere phrase, might ask +in reply, how Roman burgesses, who had broken their military oath and +treacherously murdered the allies of Rome, could be placed on a level +with foreigners who had committed an outrage on foreigners, where +no one had constituted the Romans judges of the one or avengers of +the other? Had the question been only whether the Syracusans or +Mamertines should rule in Messana, Rome might certainly have +acquiesced in the rule of either. Rome was striving for the +possession of Italy, as Carthage for that of Sicily; the designs of +the two powers scarcely then went further. But that very circumstance +formed a reason why each desired to have and retain on its frontier an +intermediate power--the Carthaginians for instance reckoning in this +way on Tarentum, the Romans on Syracuse and Messana--and why, if that +course was impossible, each preferred to see these adjacent places +given over to itself rather than to the other great power. +As Carthage had made an attempt in Italy, when Rhegium and Tarentum +were about to be occupied by the Romans, to acquire these cities for +itself, and had only been prevented from doing so by accident, so in +Sicily an opportunity now offered itself for Rome to bring the city of +Messana into its symmachy; should the Romans reject it, it was not to +be expected that the city would remain independent or would become +Syracusan; they would themselves throw it into the arms of the +Phoenicians. Were they justified in allowing an opportunity to +escape, such as certainly would never recur, of making themselves +masters of the natural tete de pont between Italy and Sicily, and of +securing it by means of a brave garrison on which they could, for good +reasons, rely? Were they justified in abandoning Messana, and thereby +surrendering the command of the last free passage between the eastern +and western seas, and sacrificing the commercial liberty of Italy? +It is true that other objections might be urged to the occupation of +Messana besides mere scruples of feeling and of honourable policy. +That it could not but lead to a war with Carthage, was the least of +these; serious as was such a war, Rome might not fear it. But there +was the more important objection that by crossing the sea the Romans +would depart from the purely Italian and purely continental policy +which they had hitherto pursued; they would abandon the system by +which their ancestors had founded the greatness of Rome, to enter upon +another system the results of which no one could foretell. It was one +of those moments when calculation ceases, and when faith in men's own +and in their country's destiny alone gives them courage to grasp the +hand which beckons to them out of the darkness of the future, and +to follow it no one knows whither. Long and seriously the senate +deliberated on the proposal of the consuls to lead the legions to the +help of the Mamertines; it came to no decisive resolution. But the +burgesses, to whom the matter was referred, were animated by a lively +sense of the greatness of the power which their own energy had +established. The conquest of Italy encouraged the Romans, as that of +Greece encouraged the Macedonians and that of Silesia the Prussians, +to enter upon a new political career. A formal pretext for supporting +the Mamertines was found in the protectorate which Rome claimed the +right to exercise over all Italians. The transmarine Italians were +received into the Italian confederacy;(3) and on the proposal of +the consuls the citizens resolved to send them aid (489). + +Variance between Rome and Carthage +Carthaginians in Messana +Messana Seized by the Romans +War between the Romans and the Carthaginians and the Syracusans + +Much depended on the way in which the two Sicilian powers, immediately +affected by this intervention of the Romans in the affairs of the +island, and both hitherto nominally in alliance with Rome, would +regard her interference. Hiero had sufficient reason to treat the +summons, by which the Romans required him to desist from hostilities +against their new confederates in Messana, precisely in the same way +as the Samnites and Lucanians in similar circumstances had received +the occupation of Capua and Thurii, and to answer the Romans by a +declaration of war. If, however, he remained unsupported, such a war +would be folly; and it might be expected from his prudent and moderate +policy that he would acquiesce in what was inevitable, if Carthage +should be disposed for peace. This seemed not impossible. A Roman +embassy was now (489) sent to Carthage, seven years after the attempt +of the Phoenician fleet to gain possession of Tarentum, to demand +explanations as to these incidents.(4) Grievances not unfounded, but +half-forgotten, once more emerged--it seemed not superfluous amidst +other warlike preparations to replenish the diplomatic armoury +with reasons for war, and for the coming manifesto to reserve to +themselves, as was the custom of the Romans, the character of the +party aggrieved. This much at least might with entire justice be +affirmed, that the respective enterprises on Tarentum and Messana +stood upon exactly the same footing in point of design and of pretext, +and that it was simply the accident of success that made the +difference. Carthage avoided an open rupture. The ambassadors +carried back to Rome the disavowal of the Carthaginian admiral who +had made the attempt on Tarentum, along with the requisite false +oaths: the counter-complaints, which of course were not wanting on +the part of Carthage, were studiously moderate, and abstained from +characterizing the meditated invasion of Sicily as a ground for war. +Such, however, it was; for Carthage regarded the affairs of Sicily +--just as Rome regarded those of Italy--as internal matters in which +an independent power could allow no interference, and was determined +to act accordingly. But Phoenician policy followed a gentler course +than that of threatening open war. When the preparations of Rome for +sending help to the Mamertines were at length so far advanced that the +fleet formed of the war-vessels of Naples, Tarentum, Velia, and Locri, +and the vanguard of the Roman land army under the military tribune +Gaius Claudius, had appeared at Rhegium (in the spring of 490), +unexpected news arrived from Messana that the Carthaginians, having +come to an understanding with the anti-Roman party there, had as a +neutral power arranged a peace between Hiero and the Mamertines; that +the siege had in consequence been raised; and that a Carthaginian +fleet lay in the harbour of Messana, and a Carthaginian garrison in +the citadel, both under the command of admiral Hanno. The Mamertine +citizens, now controlled by Carthaginian influence, informed the Roman +commanders, with due thanks to the federal help so speedily accorded +to them, that they were glad that they no longer needed it. +The adroit and daring officer who commanded the Roman vanguard +nevertheless set sail with his troops. But the Carthaginians warned +the Roman vessels to retire, and even made some of them prizes; these, +however, the Carthaginian admiral, remembering his strict orders to +give no pretext for the outbreak of hostilities, sent back to his good +friends on the other side of the straits. It almost seemed as if the +Romans had compromised themselves as uselessly before Messana, as the +Carthaginians before Tarentum. But Claudius did not allow himself +to be deterred, and on a second attempt he succeeded in landing. +Scarcely had he arrived when he called a meeting of the citizens; and, +at his wish, the Carthaginian admiral also appeared at the meeting, +still imagining that he should be able to avoid an open breach. But +the Romans seized his person in the assembly itself; and Hanno and the +Phoenician garrison in the citadel, weak and destitute of a leader, +were pusillanimous enough, the former to give to his troops the +command to withdraw, the latter to comply with the orders of their +captive general and to evacuate the city along with him. Thus the +tete de pont of the island fell into the hands of the Romans. The +Carthaginian authorities, justly indignant at the folly and weakness +of their general, caused him to be executed, and declared war against +the Romans. Above all it was their aim to recover the lost place. A +strong Carthaginian fleet, led by Hanno, son of Hannibal, appeared off +Messana; while the fleet blockaded the straits, the Carthaginian army +landing from it began the siege on the north side. Hiero, who had +only waited for the Carthaginian attack to begin the war with Rome, +again brought up his army, which he had hardly withdrawn, against +Messana, and undertook the attack on the south side of the city. + +Peace with Hiero + +But meanwhile the Roman consul Appius Claudius Caudex had appeared at +Rhegium with the main body of his army, and succeeded in crossing on +a dark night in spite of the Carthaginian fleet. Audacity and fortune +were on the side of the Romans; the allies, not prepared for an attack +by the whole Roman army and consequently not united, were beaten in +detail by the Roman legions issuing from the city; and thus the siege +was raised. The Roman army kept the field during the summer, and +even made an attempt on Syracuse; but, when that had failed and the +siege of Echetla (on the confines of the territories of Syracuse and +Carthage) had to be abandoned with loss, the Roman army returned to +Messana, and thence, leaving a strong garrison behind them, to Italy. +The results obtained in this first campaign of the Romans out of Italy +may not quite have corresponded to the expectations at home, for the +consul had no triumph; nevertheless, the energy which the Romans +displayed in Sicily could not fail to make a great impression on the +Sicilian Greeks. In the following year both consuls and an army twice +as large entered the island unopposed. One of them, Marcus Valerius +Maximus, afterwards called from this campaign the "hero of Messana" +(-Messalla-), achieved a brilliant victory over the allied +Carthaginians and Syracusans. After this battle the Phoenician army +no longer ventured to keep the field against the Romans; Alaesa, +Centuripa, and the smaller Greek towns generally fell to the victors, +and Hiero himself abandoned the Carthaginian side and made peace and +alliance with the Romans (491). He pursued a judicious policy in +joining the Romans as soon as it appeared that their interference in +Sicily was in earnest, and while there was still time to purchase +peace without cessions and sacrifices. The intermediate states in +Sicily, Syracuse and Messana, which were unable to follow out a policy +of their own and had only the choice between Roman and Carthaginian +hegemony, could not but at any rate prefer the former; because the +Romans had very probably not as yet formed the design of conquering +the island for themselves, but sought merely to prevent its being +acquired by Carthage, and at all events Rome might be expected to +substitute a more tolerable treatment and a due protection of +commercial freedom for the tyrannizing and monopolizing system that +Carthage pursued. Henceforth Hiero continued to be the most +important, the steadiest, and the most esteemed ally of the Romans +in the island. + +Capture of Agrigentum + +The Romans had thus gained their immediate object. By their double +alliance with Messana and Syracuse, and the firm hold which they had +on the whole east coast, they secured the means of landing on the +island and of maintaining--which hitherto had been a very difficult +matter--their armies there; and the war, which had previously been +doubtful and hazardous, lost in a great measure its character of risk. +Accordingly, no greater exertions were made for it than for the wars +in Samnium and Etruria; the two legions which were sent over to the +island for the next year (492) sufficed, in concert with the Sicilian +Greeks, to drive the Carthaginians everywhere into their fortresses. +The commander-in-chief of the Carthaginians, Hannibal son of Gisgo, +threw himself with the flower of his troops into Agrigentum, to defend +to the last that most important of the Carthaginian inland cities. +Unable to storm a city so strong, the Romans blockaded it with +entrenched lines and a double camp; the besieged, who numbered 50,000 +soon suffered from want of provisions. To raise the siege the +Carthaginian admiral Hanno landed at Heraclea, and cut off in turn the +supplies from the Roman besieging force. On both sides the distress +was great. At length a battle was resolved on, to put an end to the +state of embarrassment and uncertainty. In this battle the Numidian +cavalry showed itself just as superior to the Roman horse as the Roman +infantry was superior to the Phoenician foot; the infantry decided +the victory, but the losses even of the Romans were very considerable. +The result of the successful struggle was somewhat marred by the +circumstance that, after the battle, during the confusion and fatigue +of the conquerors, the beleaguered army succeeded in escaping from +the city and in reaching the fleet. The victory was nevertheless of +importance; Agrigentum fell into the hands of the Romans, and thus the +whole island was in their power, with the exception of the maritime +fortresses, in which the Carthaginian general Hamilcar, Hanno's +successor in command, entrenched himself to the teeth, and was not to +be driven out either by force or by famine. The war was thenceforth +continued only by sallies of the Carthaginians from the Sicilian +fortresses and their descents on the Italian coasts. + +Beginning of the Maritime War +The Romans Build a Fleet + +In fact, the Romans now for the first time felt the real difficulties +of the war. If, as we are told, the Carthaginian diplomatists before +the outbreak of hostilities warned the Romans not to push the matter +to a breach, because against their will no Roman could even wash his +hands in the sea, the threat was well founded. The Carthaginian fleet +ruled the sea without a rival, and not only kept the coast towns of +Sicily in due obedience and provided them with all necessaries, +but also threatened a descent upon Italy, for which reason it was +necessary in 492 to retain a consular army there. No invasion on a +large scale occurred; but smaller Carthaginian detachments landed on +the Italian coasts and levied contributions on the allies of Rome, +and what was worst of all, completely paralyzed the commerce of Rome +and her allies. The continuance of such a course for even a short +time would suffice entirely to ruin Caere, Ostia, Neapolis, Tarentum, +and Syracuse, while the Carthaginians easily consoled themselves for +the loss of the tribute of Sicily with the contributions which they +levied and the rich prizes of their privateering. The Romans now +learned, what Dionysius, Agathocles, and Pyrrhus had learned before, +that it was as difficult to conquer the Carthaginians as it was easy +to beat them in the field. They saw that everything depended on +procuring a fleet, and resolved to form one of twenty triremes and +a hundred quinqueremes. The execution, however, of this energetic +resolution was not easy. The representation originating in the +schools of the rhetoricians, which would have us believe that the +Romans then for the first time dipped their oars in water, is no doubt +a childish tale; the mercantile marine of Italy must at this time have +been very extensive, and there was no want even of Italian vessels of +war. But these were war-barks and triremes, such as had been in use +in earlier times; quinqueremes, which under the more modern system of +naval warfare that had originated chiefly in Cartilage were almost +exclusively employed in the line, had not yet been built in Italy. +The measure adopted by the Romans was therefore much as if a maritime +state of the present day were to pass at once from the building of +frigates and cutters to the building of ships of the line; and, just +as in such a case now a foreign ship of the line would, if possible, +be adopted as a pattern, the Romans referred their master shipbuilders +to a stranded Carthaginian -penteres- as a model No doubt the Romans, +had they wished, might have sooner attained their object with the aid +of the Syracusans and Massiliots; but their statesmen had too much +sagacity to desire to defend Italy by means of a fleet not Italian. +The Italian allies, however, were largely drawn upon both for the +naval officers, who must have been for the most part taken from the +Italian mercantile marine, and for the sailors, whose name (-socii +navales-) shows that for a time they were exclusively furnished by +the allies; along with these, slaves provided by the state and +the wealthier families were afterwards employed, and ere long also +the poorer class of burgesses. Under such circumstances, and when we +take into account, as is but fair, on the one hand the comparatively +low state of shipbuilding at that time, and on the other hand the +energy of the Romans, there is nothing incredible in the statement +that the Romans solved within a year the problem--which baffled +Napoleon--of converting a continental into a maritime power, and +actually launched their fleet of 120 sail in the spring of 494. +It is true, that it was by no means a match for the Carthaginian fleet +in numbers and efficiency at sea; and these were points of the greater +importance, as the naval tactics of the period consisted mainly in +manoeuvring. In the maritime warfare of that period hoplites and +archers no doubt fought from the deck, and projectile machines were +also plied from it; but the ordinary and really decisive mode of +action consisted in running foul of the enemy's vessels, for which +purpose the prows were furnished with heavy iron beaks: the vessels +engaged were in the habit of sailing round each other till one or the +other succeeded in giving the thrust, which usually proved decisive. +Accordingly the crew of an ordinary Greek trireme, consisting of about +200 men, contained only about 10 soldiers, but on the other hand 170 +rowers, from 50 to 60 on each deck; that of a quinquereme numbered +about 300 rowers, and soldiers in proportion. + +The happy idea occurred to the Romans that they might make up for +what their vessels, with their unpractised officers and crews, +necessarily lacked in ability of manoeuvring, by again assigning a +more considerable part in naval warfare to the soldiers. They +stationed at the prow of each vessel a flying bridge, which could be +lowered in front or on either side; it was furnished on both sides +with parapets, and had space for two men in front. When the enemy's +vessel was sailing up to strike the Roman one, or was lying alongside +of it after the thrust had been evaded, the bridge on deck was +suddenly lowered and fastened to its opponent by means of a grappling- +iron: this not only prevented the running down, but enabled the Roman +marines to pass along the bridge to the enemy's deck and to carry it +by assault as in a conflict on land. No distinct body of marines +was formed, but land troops were employed, when required, for this +maritime service. In one instance as many as 120 legionaries fought +in each ship on occasion of a great naval battle; in that case however +the Roman fleet had at the same time a landing-army on board. + +In this way the Romans created a fleet which was a match for the +Carthaginians. Those err, who represent this building of a Roman +fleet as a fairy tale, and besides they miss their aim; the feat must +be understood in order to be admired. The construction of a fleet by +the Romans was in very truth a noble national work--a work through +which, by their clear perception of what was needful and possible, by +ingenuity in invention, and by energy in resolution and in execution, +they rescued their country from a position which was worse than at +first it seemed. + +Naval Victory at Mylae + +The outset, nevertheless, was not favourable to the Romans. The Roman +admiral, the consul Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio, who had sailed for +Messana with the first seventeen vessels ready for sea (494), fancied, +when on the voyage, that he should be able to capture Lipara by a +coup de main. But a division of the Carthaginian fleet stationed at +Panormus blockaded the harbour of the island where the Roman vessels +rode at anchor, and captured the whole squadron along with the consul +without a struggle. This, however, did not deter the main fleet from +likewise sailing, as soon as its preparations were completed, for +Messana. On its voyage along the Italian coast it fell in with a +Carthaginian reconnoitring squadron of less strength, on which it +had the good fortune to inflict a loss more than counterbalancing +the first loss of the Romans; and thus successful and victorious it +entered the port of Messana, where the second consul Gaius Duilius +took the command in room of his captured colleague. At the promontory +of Mylae, to the north-west of Messana, the Carthaginian fleet, that +advanced from Panormus under the command of Hannibal, encountered the +Roman, which here underwent its first trial on a great scale. The +Carthaginians, seeing in the ill-sailing and unwieldy vessels of the +Romans an easy prey, fell upon them in irregular order; but the newly +invented boarding-bridges proved their thorough efficiency. The Roman +vessels hooked and stormed those of the enemy as they came up one +by one; they could not be approached either in front or on the sides +without the dangerous bridge descending on the enemy's deck. When the +battle was over, about fifty Carthaginian vessels, almost the half of +the fleet, were sunk or captured by the Romans; among the latter was +the ship of the admiral Hannibal, formerly belonging to king Pyrrhus. +The gain was great; still greater the moral effect of the victory. +Rome had suddenly become a naval power, and held in her hand the + means of energetically terminating a war which threatened to be +endlessly prolonged and to involve the commerce of Italy in ruin. + +The War on the Coasts of Sicily and Sardinia + +Two plans were open to the Romans. They might attack Carthage on the +Italian islands and deprive her of the coast fortresses of Sicily and +Sardinia one after another--a scheme which was perhaps practicable +through well-combined operations by land and sea; and, in the event of +its being accomplished, peace might either be concluded with Carthage +on the basis of the cession of these islands, or, should such terms +not be accepted or prove unsatisfactory, the second stage of the war +might be transferred to Africa. Or they might neglect the islands and +throw themselves at once with all their strength on Africa, not, in +the adventurous style of Agathocles, burning their vessels behind them +and staking all on the victory of a desperate band, but covering with +a strong fleet the communications between the African invading army +and Italy; and in that case a peace on moderate terms might be +expected from the consternation of the enemy after the first +successes, or, if the Romans chose, they might by pushing matters +to an extremity compel the enemy to entire surrender. + +They chose, in the first instance, the former plan of operations. +In the year after the battle of Mylae (495) the consul Lucius Scipio +captured the port of Aleria in Corsica--we still possess the tombstone +of the general, which makes mention of this deed--and made Corsica a +naval station against Sardinia. An attempt to establish a footing in +Ulbia on the northern coast of that island failed, because the fleet +wanted troops for landing. In the succeeding year (496) it was +repeated with better success, and the open villages along the coast +were plundered; but no permanent establishment of the Romans took +place. Nor was greater progress made in Sicily. Hamilcar conducted +the war with energy and adroitness, not only by force of arms on sea +and land, but also by political proselytism. Of the numerous small +country towns some every year fell away from the Romans, and had to +be laboriously wrested afresh from the Phoenician grasp; while in +the coast fortresses the Carthaginians maintained themselves without +challenge, particularly in their headquarters of Panormus and in their +new stronghold of Drepana, to which, on account of its easier defence +by sea, Hamilcar had transferred the inhabitants of Eryx. A second +great naval engagement off the promontory of Tyndaris (497), in which +both parties claimed the victory, made no change in the position of +affairs. In this way no progress was made, whether in consequence +of the division and rapid change of the chief command of the Roman +troops, which rendered the concentrated management of a series of +operations on a small scale exceedingly difficult, or from the general +strategical relations of the case, which certainly, as the science +of war then stood, were unfavourable to the attacking party in +general,(5) and particularly so to the Romans, who were still on +the mere threshold of scientific warfare. Meanwhile, although the +pillaging of the Italian coasts had ceased, the commerce of Italy +suffered not much less than it had done before the fleet was built. + +Attack on Africa +Naval Victory of Ecnomus + +Weary of a course of operations without results, and impatient to put +an end to the war, the senate resolved to change its system, and to +assail Carthage in Africa. In the spring of 498 a fleet of 330 ships +of the line set sail for the coast of Libya: at the mouth of the river +Himera on the south coast of Sicily it embarked the army for landing, +consisting of four legions, under the charge of the two consuls Marcus +Atilius Regulus and Lucius Manlius Volso, both experienced generals. +The Carthaginian admiral suffered the embarkation of the enemy's +troops to take place; but on continuing their voyage towards Africa +the Romans found the Punic fleet drawn up in order of battle off +Ecnomus to protect its native land from invasion. Seldom have greater +numbers fought at sea than were engaged in the battle that now ensued. +The Roman fleet: of 330 sail contained at least 100,000 men in its +crews, besides the landing army of about 40,000; the Carthaginian of +350 vessels was manned by at least an equal number; so that well-nigh +three hundred thousand men were brought into action on this day to +decide the contest between the two mighty civic communities. +The Phoenicians were placed in a single widely-extended line, with +their left wing resting on the Sicilian coast. The Romans arranged +themselves in a triangle, with the ships of the two consuls as +admirals at the apex, the first and second squadrons drawn out in +oblique line to the right and left, and a third squadron, having the +vessels built for the transport of the cavalry in tow, forming the +line which closed the triangle. They thus bore down in close order on +the enemy. A fourth squadron placed in reserve followed more slowly. +The wedge-shaped attack broke without difficulty the Carthaginian +line, for its centre, which was first assailed, intentionally gave +way, and the battle resolved itself into three separate engagements. +While the admirals with the two squadrons drawn up on the wings +pursued the Carthaginian centre and were closely engaged with it, the +left wing of the Carthaginians drawn up along the coast wheeled round +upon the third Roman squadron, which was prevented by the vessels +which it had in tow from following the two others, and by a vehement +onset in superior force drove it against the shore; at the same time +the Roman reserve was turned on the open sea, and assailed from +behind, by the right wing of the Carthaginians. The first of these +three engagements was soon at an end; the ships of the Carthaginian +centre, manifestly much weaker than the two Roman squadrons with which +they were engaged, took to flight. Meanwhile the two other divisions +of the Romans had a hard struggle with the superior enemy; but in +close fighting the dreaded boarding-bridges stood them in good stead, +and by this means they succeeded in holding out till the two admirals +with their vessels could come up. By their arrival the Roman reserve +was relieved, and the Carthaginian vessels of the right wing retired +before the superior force. And now, when this conflict had been +decided in favour of the Romans, all the Roman vessels that still +could keep the sea fell on the rear of the Carthaginian left wing, +which was obstinately following up its advantage, so that it was +surrounded and almost all the vessels composing it were taken. The +losses otherwise were nearly equal. Of the Roman fleet 24 sail were +sunk; of the Carthaginian 30 were sunk, and 64 were taken. + +Landing of Regulus in Africa + +Notwithstanding its considerable loss, the Carthaginian fleet did not +give up the protection of Africa, and with that view returned to the +gulf of Carthage, where it expected the descent to take place and +purposed to give battle a second time. But the Romans landed, not on +the western side of the peninsula which helps to form the gulf, but on +the eastern side, where the bay of Clupea presented a spacious harbour +affording protection in almost all winds, and the town, situated close +by the sea on a shield-shaped eminence rising out of the plain, +supplied an excellent defence for the harbour. They disembarked the +troops without hindrance from the enemy, and established themselves +on the hill; in a short time an entrenched naval camp was constructed, +and the land army was at liberty to commence operations. The Roman +troops ranged over the country and levied contributions: they were +able to send as many as 20,000 slaves to Rome. Through the rarest +good fortune the bold scheme had succeeded at the first stroke, and +with but slight sacrifices: the end seemed attained. The feeling of +confidence that in this respect animated the Romans is evinced by the +resolution of the senate to recall to Italy the greater portion of the +fleet and half of the army; Marcus Regulus alone remained in Africa +with 40 ships, 15,000 infantry, and 500 cavalry. Their confidence, +however, was seemingly not overstrained. The Carthaginian army, which +was disheartened, did not venture forth into the plain, but waited to +sustain discomfiture in the wooded defiles, in which it could make no +use of its two best arms, the cavalry and the elephants. The towns +surrendered -en masse-; the Numidians rose in insurrection, and +overran the country far and wide. Regulus might hope to begin the +next campaign with the siege of the capital, and with that view he +pitched his camp for the winter in its immediate vicinity at Tunes. + +Vain Negotiations for Peace + +The spirit of the Carthaginians was broken: they sued for peace. +But the conditions which the consul proposed--not merely the cession +of Sicily and Sardinia, but the conclusion of an alliance on unequal +terms with Rome, which would have bound the Carthaginians to renounce +a war-marine of their own and to furnish vessels for the Roman wars +--conditions which would have placed Carthage on a level with Neapolis +and Tarentum, could not be accepted, so long as a Carthaginian army +kept the field and a Carthaginian fleet kept the sea, and the capital +stood unshaken. + +Preparations of Carthage + +The mighty enthusiasm, which is wont to blaze up nobly among Oriental +nations, even the most abased, on the approach of extreme peril--the +energy of dire necessity--impelled the Carthaginians to exertions, +such as were by no means expected from a nation of shopkeepers. +Hamilcar, who had carried on the guerilla war against the Romans in +Sicily with so much success, appeared in Libya with the flower of +the Sicilian troops, which furnished an admirable nucleus for the +newly-levied force. The connections and gold of the Carthaginians, +moreover, brought to them excellent Numidian horsemen in troops, +and also numerous Greek mercenaries; amongst whom was the celebrated +captain Xanthippus of Sparta, whose talent for organization and +strategical skill were of great service to his new masters.(6) While +the Carthaginians were thus making their preparations in the course of +the winter, the Roman general remained inactive at Tunes. Whether it +was that he did not anticipate the storm which was gathering over his +head, or that a sense of military honour prohibited him from doing +what his position demanded--instead of renouncing a siege which he was +not in a condition even to attempt, and shutting himself up in the +stronghold of Clupea, he remained with a handful of men before the +walls of the hostile capital, neglecting even to secure his line of +retreat to the naval camp, and neglecting to provide himself with +--what above all he wanted, and what might have been so easily +obtained through negotiation with the revolted Numidian tribes +--a good light cavalry. He thus wantonly brought himself and +his army into a plight similar to that which formerly befell +Agathocles in his desperate adventurous expedition. + +Defeat of Regulus + +When spring came (499), the state of affairs had so changed, that now +the Carthaginians were the first to take the field and to offer battle +to the Romans. It was natural that they should do so, for everything +depended on their getting quit of the army of Regulus, before +reinforcements could arrive from Italy. The same reason should have +led the Romans to desire delay; but, relying on their invincibleness +in the open field, they at once accepted battle notwithstanding their +inferiority of strength--for, although the numbers of the infantry on +both sides were nearly the same, their 4000 cavalry and 100 elephants +gave to the Carthaginians a decided superiority--and notwithstanding +the unfavourable nature of the ground, the Carthaginians having taken +up their position in a broad plain presumably not far from Tunes. +Xanthippus, who on this day commanded the Carthaginians, first threw +his cavalry on that of the enemy, which was stationed, as usual, on +the two flanks of the line of battle; the few squadrons of the Romans +were scattered like dust in a moment before the masses of the enemy's +horse, and the Roman infantry found itself outflanked by them and +surrounded. The legions, unshaken by their apparent danger, advanced +to attack the enemy's line; and, although the row of elephants placed +as a protection in front of it checked the right wing and centre of +the Romans, the left wing at any rate, marching past the elephants, +engaged the mercenary infantry on the right of the enemy, and +overthrew them completely. But this very success broke up the Roman +ranks. The main body indeed, assailed by the elephants in front and +by the cavalry on the flanks and in the rear, formed square, and +defended itself with heroic courage, but the close masses were at +length broken and swept away. The victorious left wing encountered +the still fresh Carthaginian centre, where the Libyan infantry +prepared a similar fate for it. From the nature of the ground and the +superior numbers of the enemy's cavalry, all the combatants in these +masses were cut down or taken prisoners; only two thousand men, +chiefly, in all probability, the light troops and horsemen who were +dispersed at the commencement, gained--while the Roman legions stood +to be slaughtered--a start sufficient to enable them with difficulty +to reach Clupea. Among the few prisoners was the consul himself, who +afterwards died in Carthage; his family, under the idea that he had +not been treated by the Carthaginians according to the usages of war, +wreaked a most revolting vengeance on two noble Carthaginian captives, +till even the slaves were moved to pity, and on their information the +tribunes put a stop to the shameful outrage.(7) + +Evacuation of Africa + +When the terrible news reached Rome, the first care of the Romans was +naturally directed to the saving of the force shut up in Clupea. A +Roman fleet of 350 sail immediately started, and after a noble victory +at the Hermaean promontory, in which the Carthaginians lost 114 ships, +it reached Clupea just in time to deliver from their hard-pressed +position the remains of the defeated army which were there entrenched. +Had it been despatched before the catastrophe occurred, it might have +converted the defeat into a victory that would probably have put an +end to the Punic wars. But so completely had the Romans now lost +their judgment, that after a successful conflict before Clupea they +embarked all their troops and sailed home, voluntarily evacuating +that important and easily defended position which secured to +them facilities for landing in Africa, and abandoning their +numerous African allies without protection to the vengeance of the +Carthaginians. The Carthaginians did not neglect the opportunity of +filling their empty treasury, and of making their subjects clearly +understand the consequences of unfaithfulness. An extraordinary +contribution of 1000 talents of silver (244,000 pounds) and 20,000 +oxen was levied, and the sheiks in all the communities that had +revolted were crucified; it is said that there were three thousand of +them, and that this revolting atrocity on the part of the Carthaginian +authorities really laid the foundation of the revolution which broke +forth in Africa some years later. Lastly, as if to fill up the +measure of misfortune to the Romans even as their measure of success +had been filled before, on the homeward voyage of the fleet three- +fourths of the Roman vessels perished with their crews in a violent +storm; only eighty reached their port (July 499). The captains had +foretold the impending mischief, but the extemporised Roman admirals +had nevertheless given orders to sail. + +Recommencement of the War in Sicily + +After successes so immense the Carthaginians were able to resume their +offensive operations, which had long been in abeyance. Hasdrubal son +of Hanno landed at Lilybaeum with a strong force, which was enabled, +particularly by its enormous number of elephants--amounting to 140 +--to keep the field against the Romans: the last battle had shown +that it was possible to make up for the want of good infantry to some +extent by elephants and cavalry. The Romans also resumed the war in +Sicily; the annihilation of their invading army had, as the voluntary +evacuation of Clupea shows, at once restored ascendency in the senate +to the party which was opposed to the war in Africa and was content +with the gradual subjugation of the islands. But for this purpose +too there was need of a fleet; and, since that which had conquered at +Mylae, at Ecnomus, and at the Hermaean promontory was destroyed, they +built a new one. Keels were at once laid down for 220 new vessels +of war--they had never hitherto undertaken the building of so many +simultaneously--and in the incredibly short space of three months +they were all ready for sea. In the spring of 500 the Roman fleet, +numbering 300 vessels mostly new, appeared on the north coast of +Sicily; Panormus, the most important town in Carthaginian Sicily, +was acquired through a successful attack from the seaboard, and the +smaller places there, Soluntum, Cephaloedium, and Tyndaris, likewise +fell into the hands of the Romans, so that along the whole north coast +of the island Thermae alone was retained by the Carthaginians. +Panormus became thenceforth one of the chief stations of the Romans +in Sicily. The war by land, nevertheless, made no progress; the two +armies stood face to face before Lilybaeum, but the Roman commanders, +who knew not how to encounter the mass of elephants, made no attempt +to compel a pitched battle. + +In the ensuing year (501) the consuls, instead of pursuing sure +advantages in Sicily, preferred to make an expedition to Africa, for +the purpose not of landing but of plundering the coast towns. They +accomplished their object without opposition; but, after having first +run aground in the troublesome, and to their pilots unknown, waters of +the Lesser Syrtis, whence they with difficulty got clear again, the +fleet encountered a storm between Sicily and Italy, which cost more +than 150 ships. On this occasion also the pilots, notwithstanding +their representations and entreaties to be allowed to take the course +along the coast, were obliged by command of the consuls to steer +straight from Panormus across the open sea to Ostia. + +Suspension of the Maritime War +Roman Victory at Panormus + +Despondency now seized the fathers of the city; they resolved to +reduce their war-fleet to sixty sail, and to confine the war by sea +to the defence of the coasts, and to the convoy of transports. +Fortunately, just at this time, the languishing war in Sicily took a +more favourable turn. In the year 502, Thermae, the last point which +the Carthaginians held on the north coast, and the important island of +Lipara, had fallen into the hands of the Romans, and in the following +year (summer of 503) the consul Lucius Caecilius Metellus achieved +a brilliant victory over the army of elephants under the walls of +Panormus. These animals, which had been imprudently brought forward, +were wounded by the light troops of the Romans stationed in the moat +of the town; some of them fell into the moat, and others fell back +on their own troops, who crowded in wild disorder along with the +elephants towards the beach, that they might be picked up by the +Phoenician ships. One hundred and twenty elephants were captured, and +the Carthaginian army, whose strength depended on these animals, was +obliged once more to shut itself up in its fortresses. Eryx soon fell +into the hands of the Romans (505), and the Carthaginians retained +nothing in the island but Drepana and Lilybaeum. Carthage a second +time offered peace; but the victory of Metellus and the exhaustion +of the enemy gave to the more energetic party the upper hand +in the senate. + +Siege of Lilybaeum + +Peace was declined, and it was resolved to prosecute in earnest the +siege of the two Sicilian cities and for this purpose to send to sea +once more a fleet of 200 sail. The siege of Lilybaeum, the first +great and regular siege undertaken by Rome, and one of the most +obstinate known in history, was opened by the Romans with an important +success: they succeeded in introducing their fleet into the harbour +of the city, and in blockading it on the side facing the sea. +The besiegers, however, were not able to close the sea completely. +In spite of their sunken vessels and their palisades, and in spite of +the most careful vigilance, dexterous mariners, accurately acquainted +with the shallows and channels, maintained with swift-sailing vessels +a regular communication between the besieged in the city and the +Carthaginian fleet in the harbour of Drepana. In fact after some +time a Carthaginian squadron of 50 sail succeeded in running into +the harbour, in throwing a large quantity of provisions and a +reinforcement of 10,000 men into the city, and in returning +unmolested. The besieging land army was not much more fortunate. +They began with a regular attack; machines were erected, and in a +short time the batteries had demolished six of the towers flanking +the walls, so that the breach soon appeared to be practicable. But +the able Carthaginian commander Himilco parried this assault by giving +orders for the erection of a second wall behind the breach. An +attempt of the Romans to enter into an understanding with the garrison +was likewise frustrated in proper time. And, after a first sally + made for the purpose of burning the Roman set of machines had +been repulsed, the Carthaginians succeeded during a stormy night +in effecting their object. Upon this the Romans abandoned their +preparations for an assault, and contented themselves with blockading +the walls by land and water. The prospect of success in this way was +indeed very remote, so long as they were unable wholly to preclude the +entrance of the enemy's vessels; and the army of the besiegers was in +a condition not much better than that of the besieged in the city, +because their supplies were frequently cut off by the numerous and +bold light cavalry of the Carthaginians, and their ranks began to be +thinned by the diseases indigenous to that unwholesome region. The +capture of Lilybaeum, however, was of sufficient importance to induce +a patient perseverance in the laborious task, which promised to be +crowned in time with the desired success. + +Defeat of the Roman Fleet before Drepana +Annililation of the Roman Transport Fleet + +But the new consul Publius Claudius considered the task of maintaining +the investment of Lilybaeum too trifling: he preferred to change once +more the plan of operations, and with his numerous newly-manned +vessels suddenly to surprise the Carthaginian fleet which was waiting +in the neighbouring harbour of Drepana. With the whole blockading +squadron, which had taken on board volunteers from the legions, he +started about midnight, and sailing in good order with his right wing +by the shore, and his left in the open sea, he safely reached the +harbour of Drepana at sunrise. Here the Phoenician admiral Atarbas +was in command. Although surprised, he did not lose his presence of +mind or allow himself to be shut up in the harbour, but as the Roman +ships entered the harbour, which opens to the south in the form of +a sickle, on the one side, he withdrew his vessels from it by the +opposite side which was still free, and stationed them in line on the +outside. No other course remained to the Roman admiral but to recall +as speedily as possible the foremost vessels from the harbour, and to +make his arrangements for battle in like manner in front of it; but in +consequence of this retrograde movement he lost the free choice of his +position, and was obliged to accept battle in a line, which on the one +hand was outflanked by that of the enemy to the extent of five ships +--for there was not time fully to deploy the vessels as they issued +from the harbour--and on the other hand was crowded so close on the +shore that his vessels could neither retreat, nor sail behind the +line so as to come to each other's aid. Not only was the battle lost +before it began, but the Roman fleet was so completely ensnared that +it fell almost wholly into the hands of the enemy. The consul indeed +escaped, for he was the first who fled; but 93 Roman vessels, more +than three-fourths of the blockading fleet, with the flower of the +Roman legions on board, fell into the hands of the Phoenicians. It +was the first and only great naval victory which the Carthaginians +gained over the Romans. Lilybaeum was practically relieved on the +side towards the sea, for though the remains of the Roman fleet +returned to their former position, they were now much too weak +seriously to blockade a harbour which had never been wholly closed, +and they could only protect themselves from the attack of the +Carthaginian ships with the assistance of the land army. That single +imprudent act of an inexperienced and criminally thoughtless officer +had thrown away all that had been with so much difficulty attained +by the long and galling warfare around the fortress; and those war- +vessels of the Romans which his presumption had not forfeited were +shortly afterwards destroyed by the folly of his colleague. + +The second consul, Lucius Junius Pullus, who had received the charge +of lading at Syracuse the supplies destined for the army at Lilybaeum, +and of convoying the transports along the south coast of the island +with a second Roman fleet of 120 war-vessels, instead of keeping his +ships together, committed the error of allowing the first convoy +to depart alone and of only following with the second. When the +Carthaginian vice-admiral, Carthalo, who with a hundred select ships +blockaded the Roman fleet in the port of Lilybaeum, received the +intelligence, he proceeded to the south coast of the island, cut off +the two Roman squadrons from each other by interposing between them, +and compelled them to take shelter in two harbours of refuge on the +inhospitable shores of Gela and Camarina. The attacks of the +Carthaginians were indeed bravely repulsed by the Romans with the help +of the shore batteries, which had for some time been erected there +as everywhere along the coast; but, as the Romans could not hope to +effect a junction and continue their voyage, Carthalo could leave +the elements to finish his work. The next great storm, accordingly, +completely annihilated the two Roman fleets in their wretched +roadsteads, while the Phoenician admiral easily weathered it on +the open sea with his unencumbered and well-managed ships. +The Romans, however, succeeded in saving the greater part +of the crews and cargoes (505). + +Perplexity of the Romans + +The Roman senate was in perplexity. The war had now reached its +sixteenth year; and they seemed to be farther from their object in +the sixteenth than in the first. In this war four large fleets had +perished, three of them with Roman armies on board; a fourth select +land army had been destroyed by the enemy in Libya; to say nothing of +the numerous losses which had been occasioned by the minor naval +engagements, and by the battles, and still more by the outpost +warfare and the diseases, of Sicily. + +What a multitude of human lives the war swept away may be seen from +the fact, that the burgess-roll merely from 502 to 507 decreased by +about 40,000, a sixth part of the entire number; and this does not +include the losses of the allies, who bore the whole brunt of the war +by sea, and, in addition, at least an equal proportion with the Romans +of the warfare by land. Of the financial loss it is not possible to +form any conception; but both the direct damage sustained in ships and +-materiel-, and the indirect injury through the paralyzing of trade, +must have been enormous. An evil still greater than this was the +exhaustion of all the methods by which they had sought to terminate +the war. They had tried a landing in Africa with their forces fresh +and in the full career of victory, and had totally failed. They had +undertaken to storm Sicily town by town; the lesser places had fallen, +but the two mighty naval strongholds of Lilybaeum and Drepana stood +more invincible than ever. What were they to do? In fact, there was +to some extent reason for despondency. The fathers of the city became +faint-hearted; they allowed matters simply to take their course, +knowing well that a war protracted without object or end was more +pernicious for Italy than the straining of the last man and the last +penny, but without that courage and confidence in the nation and in +fortune, which could demand new sacrifices in addition to those that +had already been lavished in vain. They dismissed the fleet; at the +most they encouraged privateering, and with that view placed the war- +vessels of the state at the disposal of captains who were ready to +undertake a piratical warfare on their own account. The war by land +was continued nominally, because they could not do otherwise; but +they were content with observing the Sicilian fortresses and barely +maintaining what they possessed,--measures which, in the absence +of a fleet, required a very numerous army and extremely +costly preparations. + +Now, if ever, the time had come when Carthage was in a position to +humble her mighty antagonist. She, too, of course must have felt +some exhaustion of resources; but, in the circumstances, the +Phoenician finances could not possibly be so disorganized as to +prevent the Carthaginians from continuing the war--which cost them +little beyond money--offensively and with energy. The Carthaginian +government, however, was not energetic, but on the contrary weak and +indolent, unless impelled to action by an easy and sure gain or by +extreme necessity. Glad to be rid of the Roman fleet, they foolishly +allowed their own also to fall into decay, and began after the example +of the enemy to confine their operations by land and sea to the petty +warfare in and around Sicily. + +Petty War in Sicily +Hamilcar Barcas + +Thus there ensued six years of uneventful warfare (506-511), the most +inglorious in the history of this century for Rome, and inglorious +also for the Carthaginian people. One man, however, among the latter +thought and acted differently from his nation. Hamilcar, named Barak +or Barcas (i. e. lightning), a young officer of much promise, took +over the supreme command in Sicily in the year 507. His army, like +every Carthaginian one, was defective in a trustworthy and experienced +infantry; and the government, although it was perhaps in a position to +create such an infantry and at any rate was bound to make the attempt, +contented itself with passively looking on at its defeats or at most +with nailing the defeated generals to the cross. Hamilcar resolved to +take the matter into his own hands. He knew well that his mercenaries +were as indifferent to Carthage as to Rome, and that he had to expect +from his government not Phoenician or Libyan conscripts, but at the +best a permission to save his country with his troops in his own way, +provided it cost nothing. But he knew himself also, and he knew men. +His mercenaries cared nothing for Carthage; but a true general is able +to substitute his own person for his country in the affections of his +soldiers; and such an one was this young commander. After he had +accustomed his men to face the legionaries in the warfare of outposts +before Drepana and Lilybaeum, he established himself with his force on +Mount Ercte (Monte Pellegrino near Palermo), which commands like a +fortress the neighbouring country; and making them settle there with +their wives and children, levied contributions from the plains, while +Phoenician privateers plundered the Italian coast as far as Cumae. He +thus provided his people with copious supplies without asking money +from the Carthaginians, and, keeping up the communication with Drepana +by sea, he threatened to surprise the important town of Panormus in +his immediate vicinity. Not only were the Romans unable to expel +him from his stronghold, but after the struggle had lasted awhile at +Ercte, Hamilcar formed for himself another similar position at Eryx. +This mountain, which bore half-way up the town of the same name and +on its summit the temple of Aphrodite, had been hitherto in the hands +of the Romans, who made it a basis for annoying Drepana. Hamilcar +deprived them of the town and besieged the temple, while the Romans +in turn blockaded him from the plain. The Celtic deserters from the +Carthaginian army who were stationed by the Romans at the forlorn post +of the temple--a reckless pack of marauders, who in the course of this +siege plundered the temple and perpetrated every sort of outrage +--defended the summit of the rock with desperate courage; but Hamilcar +did not allow himself to be again dislodged from the town, and kept +his communications constantly open by sea with the fleet and the +garrison of Drepana. The war in Sicily seemed to be assuming a turn +more and more unfavourable for the Romans. The Roman state was losing +in that warfare its money and its soldiers, and the Roman generals +their repute; it was already clear that no Roman general was a +match for Hamilcar, and the time might be calculated when even the +Carthaginian mercenary would be able boldly to measure himself +against the legionary. The privateers of Hamilcar appeared with ever- +increasing audacity on the Italian coast: already a praetor had been +obliged to take the field against a band of Carthaginian rovers which +had landed there. A few years more, and Hamilcar might with his fleet +have accomplished from Sicily what his son subsequently undertook by +the land route from Spain. + +A Fleet Built by the Romans +Victory of Catulus at the Island Aegusa + +The Roman senate, however, persevered in its inaction; +the desponding party for once had the majority there. At length a +number of sagacious and high-spirited men determined to save the state +even without the interposition of the government, and to put an end to +the ruinous Sicilian war. Successful corsair expeditions, if they had +not raised the courage of the nation, had aroused energy and hope in +a portion of the people; they had already joined together to form +a squadron, burnt down Hippo on the African coast, and sustained a +successful naval conflict with the Carthaginians off Panormus. By a +private subscription--such as had been resorted to in Athens also, +but not on so magnificent a scale--the wealthy and patriotic Romans +equipped a war fleet, the nucleus of which was supplied by the ships +built for privateering and the practised crews which they contained, +and which altogether was far more carefully fitted out than had +hitherto been the case in the shipbuilding of the state. This fact +--that a number of citizens in the twenty-third year of a severe war +voluntarily presented to the state two hundred ships of the line, +manned by 60,000 sailors--stands perhaps unparalleled in the annals of +history. The consul Gaius Lutatius Catulus, to whom fell the honour +of conducting this fleet to the Sicilian seas, met there with almost +no opposition: the two or three Carthaginian vessels, with which +Hamilcar had made his corsair expeditions, disappeared before the +superior force, and almost without resistance the Romans occupied +the harbours of Lilybaeum and Drepana, the siege of which was now +undertaken with energy by water and by land. Carthage was completely +taken by surprise; even the two fortresses, weakly provisioned, were +in great danger. A fleet was equipped at home; but with all the haste +which they displayed, the year came to an end without any appearance +of Carthaginian sails in the Sicilian waters; and when at length, in +the spring of 513, the hurriedly-prepared vessels appeared in the +offing of Drepana, they deserved the name of a fleet of transports +rather than that of a war fleet ready for action. The Phoenicians had +hoped to land undisturbed, to disembark their stores, and to be able +to take on board the troops requisite for a naval battle; but the +Roman vessels intercepted them, and forced them, when about to sail +from the island of Hiera (now Maritima) for Drepana, to accept battle +near the little island of Aegusa (Favignana) (10 March, 513). The +issue was not for a moment doubtful; the Roman fleet, well built and +manned, and admirably handled by the able praetor Publius Valerius +Falto (for a wound received before Drepana still confined the consul +Catulus to his bed), defeated at the first blow the heavily laden and +poorly and inadequately manned vessels of the enemy; fifty were sunk, +and with seventy prizes the victors sailed into the port of Lilybaeum. +The last great effort of the Roman patriots had borne fruit; it +brought victory, and with victory peace. + +Conclusion of Peace + +The Carthaginians first crucified the unfortunate admiral--a step +which did not alter the position of affairs--and then dispatched + to the Sicilian general unlimited authority to conclude a peace. +Hamilcar, who saw his heroic labours of seven years undone by the +fault of others, magnanimously submitted to what was inevitable +without on that account sacrificing either his military honour, or +his nation, or his own designs. Sicily indeed could not be retained, +seeing that the Romans had now command of the sea; and it was not +to be expected that the Carthaginian government, which had vainly +endeavoured to fill its empty treasury by a state-loan in Egypt, +would make even any further attempt to vanquish the Roman fleet He +therefore surrendered Sicily. The independence and integrity of the +Carthaginian state and territory, on the other hand, were expressly +recognized in the usual form; Rome binding herself not to enter into +a separate alliance with the confederates of Carthage, and Carthage +engaging not to enter into separate alliance with the confederates +of Rome,--that is, with their respective subject and dependent +communities; neither was to commence war, or exercise rights of +sovereignty, or undertake recruiting within the other's dominions.(8) +The secondary stipulations included, of course, the gratuitous return +of the Roman prisoners of war and the payment of a war contribution; +but the demand of Catulus that Hamilcar should deliver up his arms and +the Roman deserters was resolutely refused by the Carthaginian, and +with success. Catulus desisted from his second request, and allowed +the Phoenicians a free departure from Sicily for the moderate ransom +of 18 -denarii- (12 shillings) per man. + +If the continuance of the war appeared to the Carthaginians +undesirable, they had reason to be satisfied with these terms. It may +be that the natural wish to bring to Rome peace as well as triumph, +the recollection of Regulus and of the many vicissitudes of the war, +the consideration that such a patriotic effort as had at last decided +the victory could neither be enjoined nor repeated, perhaps even the +personal character of Hamilcar, concurred in influencing the Roman +general to yield so much as he did. It is certain that there was +dissatisfaction with the proposals of peace at Rome, and the assembly +of the people, doubtless under the influence of the patriots who had +accomplished the equipment of the last fleet, at first refused to +ratify it. We do not know with what view this was done, and therefore +we are unable to decide whether the opponents of the proposed peace in +reality rejected it merely for the purpose of exacting some further +concessions from the enemy, or whether, remembering that Regulus had +summoned Carthage to surrender her political independence, they were +resolved to continue the war till they had gained that end--so that it +was no longer a question of peace, but a question of conquest. If the +refusal took place with the former view, it was presumably mistaken; +compared with the gain of Sicily every other concession was of little +moment, and looking to the determination and the inventive genius of +Hamilcar, it was very rash to stake the securing of the principal +gain on the attainment of secondary objects. If on the other hand +the party opposed to the peace regarded the complete political +annihilation of Carthage as the only end of the struggle that would +satisfy the Roman community, it showed political tact and anticipation +of coming events; but whether the resources of Rome would have +sufficed to renew the expedition of Regulus and to follow it up as far +as might be required not merely to break the courage but to breach the +walls of the mighty Phoenician city, is another question, to which +no one now can venture to give either an affirmative or a negative +answer. At last the settlement of the momentous question was +entrusted to a commission which was to decide it upon the spot in +Sicily. It confirmed the proposal in substance; only, the sum to be +paid by Carthage for the costs of the war was raised to 3200 talents +(790,000 pounds), a third of which was to be paid down at once, and +the remainder in ten annual instalments. The definitive treaty +included, in addition to the surrender of Sicily, the cession also of +the islands between Sicily and Italy, but this can only be regarded as +an alteration of detail made on revision; for it is self-evident that +Carthage, when surrendering Sicily, could hardly desire to retain the +island of Lipara which had long been occupied by the Roman fleet, +and the suspicion, that an ambiguous stipulation was intentionally +introduced into the treaty with reference to Sardinia and Corsica, +is unworthy and improbable. + +Thus at length they came to terms. The unconquered general of a +vanquished nation descended from the mountains which he had defended +so long, and delivered to the new masters of the island the fortresses +which the Phoenicians had held in their uninterrupted possession for +at least four hundred years, and from whose walls all assaults of the +Hellenes had recoiled unsuccessful. The west had peace (513). + +Remarks on the Roman Conduct of the War + +Let us pause for a moment over the conflict, which extended the +dominion of Rome beyond the circling sea that encloses the peninsula. +It was one of the longest and most severe which the Romans ever waged; +many of the soldiers who fought in the decisive battle were unborn +when the contest began. Nevertheless, despite the incomparably noble +incidents which it now and again presented, we can scarcely name any +war which the Romans managed so wretchedly and with such vacillation, +both in a military and in a political point of view. It could hardly +be otherwise. The contest occurred amidst a transition in their +political system--the transition from an Italian policy, which no +longer sufficed, to the policy befitting a great state, which had not +yet been found. The Roman senate and the Roman military system were +excellently organized for a purely Italian policy. The wars which +such a policy provoked were purely continental wars, and always rested +on the capital situated in the middle of the peninsula as the ultimate +basis of operations, and proximately on the chain of Roman fortresses. +The problems to be solved were mainly tactical, not strategical; +marches and operations occupied but a subordinate, battles held the +first, place; fortress warfare was in its infancy; the sea and naval +war hardly crossed men's thoughts even incidentally. We can easily +understand--especially if we bear in mind that in the battles of that +period, where the naked weapon predominated, it was really the hand- +to-hand encounter that proved decisive--how a deliberative assembly +might direct such operations, and how any one who just was burgomaster +might command the troops. All this was changed in a moment. The +field of battle stretched away to an incalculable distance, to the +unknown regions of another continent, and beyond a broad expanse of +sea; every wave was a highway for the enemy; from any harbour he +might be expected to issue for his onward march. The siege of +strong places, particularly maritime fortresses, in which the first +tacticians of Greece had failed, had now for the first time to be +attempted by the Romans. A land army and the system of a civic +militia no longer sufficed. It was essential to create a fleet, and, +what was more difficult, to employ it; it was essential to find out +the true points of attack and defence, to combine and to direct +masses, to calculate expeditions extending over long periods and great +distances, and to adjust their co-operation; if these things were not +attended to, even an enemy far weaker in the tactics of the field +might easily vanquish a stronger opponent. Is there any wonder that +the reins of government in such an exigency slipped from the hands of +a deliberative assembly and of commanding burgomasters? + +It was plain, that at the beginning of the war the Romans did not +know what they were undertaking; it was only during the course of the +struggle that the inadequacies of their system, one after another, +forced themselves on their notice--the want of a naval power, the +lack of fixed military leadership, the insufficiency of their +generals, the total uselessness of their admirals. In part these +evils were remedied by energy and good fortune; as was the case with +the want of a fleet. That mighty creation, however, was but a grand +makeshift, and always remained so. A Roman fleet was formed, but it +was rendered national only in name, and was always treated with the +affection of a stepmother; the naval service continued to be little +esteemed in comparison with the high honour of serving in the legions; +the naval officers were in great part Italian Greeks; the crews were +composed of subjects or even of slaves and outcasts. The Italian +farmer was at all times distrustful of the sea; and of the three +things in his life which Cato regretted one was, that he had travelled +by sea when he might have gone by land. This result arose partly out +of the nature of the case, for the vessels were oared galleys and the +service of the oar can scarcely be ennobled; but the Romans might at +least have formed separate legions of marines and taken steps towards +the rearing of a class of Roman naval officers. Taking advantage +of the impulse of the nation, they should have made it their aim +gradually to establish a naval force important not only in numbers +but in sailing power and practice, and for such a purpose they had a +valuable nucleus in the privateering that was developed during the +long war; but nothing of the sort was done by the government. +Nevertheless the Roman fleet with its unwieldy grandeur was the +noblest creation of genius in this war, and, as at its beginning, so +at its close it was the fleet that turned the scale in favour of Rome. + +Far more difficult to be overcome were those deficiencies, which could +not be remedied without an alteration of the constitution. That the +senate, according to the strength of the contending parties within it, +should leap from one system of conducting the war to another, and +perpetrate errors so incredible as the evacuation of Clupea and the +repeated dismantling of the fleet; that the general of one year should +lay siege to Sicilian towns, and his successor, instead of compelling +them to surrender, should pillage the African coast or think proper to +risk a naval battle; and that at any rate the supreme command should +by law change hands every year--all these anomalies could not be done +away without stirring constitutional questions the solution of which +was more difficult than the building of a fleet, but as little could +their retention be reconciled with the requirements of such a war. +Above all, moreover, neither the senate nor the generals could at once +adapt themselves to the new mode of conducting war. The campaign of +Regulus is an instance how singularly they adhered to the idea that +superiority in tactics decides everything. There are few generals who +have had such successes thrown as it were into their lap by fortune: +in the year 498 he stood precisely where Scipio stood fifty years +later, with this difference, that he had no Hannibal and no +experienced army arrayed against him. But the senate withdrew half +the army, as soon as they had satisfied themselves of the tactical +superiority of the Romans; in blind reliance on that superiority the +general remained where he was, to be beaten in strategy, and accepted +battle when it was offered to him, to be beaten also in tactics. +This was the more remarkable, as Regulus was an able and experienced +general of his kind. The rustic method of warfare, by which Etruria +and Samnium had been won, was the very cause of the defeat in the +plain of Tunes. The principle, quite right in its own province, that +every true burgher is fit for a general, was no longer applicable; +the new system of war demanded the employment of generals who had a +military training and a military eye, and every burgomaster had not +those qualities. The arrangement was however still worse, by which +the chief command of the fleet was treated as an appanage to the chief +command of the land army, and any one who chanced to be president of +the city thought himself able to act the part not of general only, but +of admiral too. The worst disasters which Rome suffered in this war +were due not to the storms and still less to the Carthaginians, but +to the presumptuous folly of its own citizen-admirals. + +Rome was victorious at last. But her acquiescence in a gain far less +than had at first been demanded and indeed offered, as well as the +energetic opposition which the peace encountered in Rome, very clearly +indicate the indecisive and superficial character of the victory and +of the peace; and if Rome was the victor, she was indebted for her +victory in part no doubt to the favour of the gods and to the energy +of her citizens, but still more to the errors of her enemies in the +conduct of the war--errors far surpassing even her own. + + + + +Notes for Chapter II + + +1. II. V. Campanian Hellenism + +2. II. VII. Submission of Lower Italy + +3. The Mamertines entered quite into the same position towards Rome +as the Italian communities, bound themselves to furnish ships (Cic. +Verr. v. 19, 50), and, as the coins show, did not possess the right +of coining silver. + +4. II. VII. Submission of Lower Italy + +5. II. VII. Last Struggles in Italy + +6. The statement, that the military talent of Xanthippus was the +primary means of saving Carthage, is probably coloured; the officers +of Carthage can hardly have waited for foreigners to teach them that +the light African cavalry could be more appropriately employed on the +plain than among hills and forests. From such stories, the echo of +the talk of Greek guardrooms, even Polybius is not free. The +statement that Xanthippus was put to death by the Carthaginians after +the victory, is a fiction; he departed voluntarily, perhaps to enter +the Egyptian service. + +7. Nothing further is known with certainty as to the end of Regulus; +even his mission to Rome--which is sometimes placed in 503, sometimes +in 513--is very ill attested. The later Romans, who sought in the +fortunes and misfortunes of their forefathers mere materials for +school themes, made Regulus the prototype of heroic misfortune as +they made Fabricius the prototype of heroic poverty, and put into +circulation in his name a number of anecdotes invented by way of +due accompaniment--incongruous embellishments, contrasting ill with +serious and sober history. + +8. The statement (Zon. viii. 17) that the Carthaginians had to promise +that they would not send any vessels of war into the territories of +the Roman symmachy--and therefore not to Syracuse, perhaps even not +to Massilia--sounds credible enough; but the text of the treaty says +nothing of it (Polyb. iii. 27). + + + + +CHAPTER III + +The Extension of Italy to Its Natural Boundaries + +Natural Boundaries of Italy + +The Italian confederacy as it emerged from the crises of the fifth +century--or, in other words, the State of Italy--united the various +civic and cantonal communities from the Apennines to the Ionian Sea +under the hegemony of Rome. But before the close of the fifth century +these limits were already overpassed in both directions, and Italian +communities belonging to the confederacy had sprung up beyond the +Apennines and beyond the sea. In the north the republic, in revenge +for ancient and recent wrongs, had already in 471 annihilated the +Celtic Senones; in the south, through the great war from 490 to 513, +it had dislodged the Phoenicians from the island of Sicily. In the +north there belonged to the combination headed by Rome the Latin town +of Ariminum (besides the burgess-settlement of Sena), in the south the +community of the Mamertines in Messana, and as both were nationally of +Italian origin, so both shared in the common rights and obligations of +the Italian confederacy. It was probably the pressure of events at +the moment rather than any comprehensive political calculation, that +gave rise to these extensions of the confederacy; but it was natural +that now at least, after the great successes achieved against +Carthage, new and wider views of policy should dawn upon the Roman +government--views which even otherwise were obviously enough suggested +by the physical features of the peninsula. Alike in a political and +in a military point of view Rome was justified in shifting its +northern boundary from the low and easily crossed Apennines to the +mighty mountain-wall that separates northern from southern Europe, +the Alps, and in combining with the sovereignty of Italy the +sovereignty of the seas and islands on the west and east of the +peninsula; and now, when by the expulsion of the Phoenicians from +Sicily the most difficult portion of the task had been already +achieved, various circumstances united to facilitate its completion +by the Roman government. + +Sicily a Dependency of Italy + +In the western sea which was of far more account for Italy than the +Adriatic, the most important position, the large and fertile island +of Sicily copiously furnished with harbours, had been by the peace +with Carthage transferred for the most part into the possession of the +Romans. King Hiero of Syracuse indeed, who during the last twenty-two +years of the war had adhered with unshaken steadfastness to the Roman +alliance, might have had a fair claim to an extension of territory; +but, if Roman policy had begun the war with the resolution of +tolerating only secondary states in the island, the views of the +Romans at its close decidedly tended towards the seizure of Sicily +for themselves. Hiero might be content that his territory--namely, in +addition to the immediate district of Syracuse, the domains of Elorus, +Neetum, Acrae, Leontini, Megara, and Tauromenium--and his independence +in relation to foreign powers, were (for want of any pretext to +curtail them) left to him in their former compass; he might well be +content that the war between the two great powers had not ended in +the complete overthrow of the one or of the other, and that there +consequently still remained at least a possibility of subsistence for +the intermediate power in Sicily. In the remaining and by far the +larger portion of Sicily, at Panormus, Lilybaeum, Agrigentum, Messana, +the Romans effected a permanent settlement. + +Sardinia Roman +The Libyan Insurrection +Corsica + +They only regretted that the possession of that beautiful island was +not enough to convert the western waters into a Roman inland sea, +so long as Sardinia still remained Carthaginian. Soon, however, +after the conclusion of the peace there appeared an unexpected +prospect of wresting from the Carthaginians this second island of the +Mediterranean. In Africa, immediately after peace had been concluded +with Rome, the mercenaries and the subjects of the Phoenicians joined +in a common revolt. The blame of the dangerous insurrection was +mainly chargeable on the Carthaginian government. In the last years +of the war Hamilcar had not been able to pay his Sicilian mercenaries +as formerly from his own resources, and he had vainly requested that +money might be sent to him from home; he might, he was told, send his +forces to Africa to be paid off. He obeyed; but as he knew the men, +he prudently embarked them in small subdivisions, that the authorities +might pay them off by troops or might at least separate them, and +thereupon he laid down his command. But all his precautions were +thwarted not so much by the emptiness of the exchequer, as by the +collegiate method of transacting business and the folly of the +bureaucracy. They waited till the whole army was once more united in +Libya, and then endeavoured to curtail the pay promised to the men. +Of course a mutiny broke out among the troops, and the hesitating and +cowardly demeanour of the authorities showed the mutineers what they +might dare. Most of them were natives of the districts ruled by, or +dependent on, Carthage; they knew the feelings which had been provoked +throughout these districts by the slaughter decreed by the government +after the expedition of Regulus(1) and by the fearful pressure of +taxation, and they knew also the character of their government, which +never kept faith and never pardoned; they were well aware of what +awaited them, should they disperse to their homes with pay exacted by +mutiny. The Carthaginians had for long been digging the mine, and +they now themselves supplied the men who could not but explode it. +Like wildfire the revolution spread from garrison to garrison, from +village to village; the Libyan women contributed their ornaments to +pay the wages of the mercenaries; a number of Carthaginian citizens, +amongst whom were some of the most distinguished officers of the +Sicilian army, became the victims of the infuriated multitude; +Carthage was already besieged on two sides, and the Carthaginian +army marching out of the city was totally routed in consequence of +the blundering of its unskilful leader. + +When the Romans thus saw their hated and still dreaded foe involved in +a greater danger than any ever brought on that foe by the Roman wars, +they began more and more to regret the conclusion of the peace of 513 +--which, if it was not in reality precipitate, now at least appeared +so to all--and to forget how exhausted at that time their own state +had been and how powerful had then been the standing of their +Carthaginian rival. Shame indeed forbade their entering into +communication openly with the Carthaginian rebels; in fact, they gave +an exceptional permission to the Carthaginians to levy recruits for +this war in Italy, and prohibited Italian mariners from dealing with +the Libyans. But it may be doubted whether the government of Rome +was very earnest in these acts of friendly alliance; for, in spite +of them, the dealings between the African insurgents and the Roman +mariners continued, and when Hamilcar, whom the extremity of the peril +had recalled to the command of the Carthaginian army, seized and +imprisoned a number of Italian captains concerned in these dealings, +the senate interceded for them with the Carthaginian government and +procured their release. The insurgents themselves appeared to +recognize in the Romans their natural allies. The garrisons in +Sardinia, which like the rest of the Carthaginian army had declared +in favour of the insurgents, offered the possession of the island to +the Romans, when they saw that they were unable to hold it against the +attacks of the un-conquered mountaineers of the interior (about 515); +and similar offers came even from the community of Utica, which had +likewise taken part in the revolt and was now hard pressed by the +arms of Hamilcar. The latter suggestion was declined by the Romans, +chiefly doubtless because its acceptance would have carried them +beyond the natural boundaries of Italy and therefore farther than +the Roman government was then disposed to go; on the other hand they +entertained the offers of the Sardinian mutineers, and took over +from them the portion of Sardinia which had been in the hands of the +Carthaginians (516). In this instance, even more than in the affair +of the Mamertines, the Romans were justly liable to the reproach that +the great and victorious burgesses had not disdained to fraternize +and share the spoil with a venal pack of mercenaries, and had not +sufficient self-denial to prefer the course enjoined by justice and +by honour to the gain of the moment. The Carthaginians, whose troubles +reached their height just about the period of the occupation of +Sardinia, were silent for the time being as to the unwarrantable +violence; but, after this peril had been, contrary to the expectations +and probably contrary to the hopes of the Romans, averted by the +genius of Hamilcar, and Carthage had been reinstated to her full +sovereignty in Africa (517), Carthaginian envoys immediately appeared +at Rome to require the restitution of Sardinia. But the Romans, not +inclined to restore their booty, replied with frivolous or at any rate +irrelevant complaints as to all sorts of injuries which they alleged +that the Carthaginians had inflicted on the Roman traders, and +hastened to declare war;(2) the principle, that in politics power +is the measure of right, appeared in its naked effrontery. Just +resentment urged the Carthaginians to accept that offer of war; had +Catulus insisted upon the cession of Sardinia five years before, the +war would probably have pursued its course. But now, when both +islands were lost, when Libya was in a ferment, and when the state was +weakened to the utmost by its twenty-four years' struggle with Rome +and the dreadful civil war that had raged for nearly five years more, +they were obliged to submit It was only after repeated entreaties, +and after the Phoenicians had bound themselves to pay to Rome a +compensation of 1200 talents (292,000 pounds) for the warlike +preparations which had been wantonly occasioned, that the Romans +reluctantly desisted from war. Thus the Romans acquired Sardinia +almost without a struggle; to which they added Corsica, the ancient +possession of the Etruscans, where perhaps some detached Roman +garrisons still remained over from the last war.(3) In Sardinia, +however, and still more in the rugged Corsica, the Romans restricted +themselves, just as the Phoenicians had done, to an occupation of +the coasts. With the natives in the interior they were continually +engaged in war or, to speak more correctly, in hunting them like wild +beasts; they baited them with dogs, and carried what they captured to +the slave market; but they undertook no real conquest. They had +occupied the islands not on their own account, but for the security +of Italy. Now that the confederacy possessed the three large islands, +it might call the Tyrrhene Sea its own. + +Method of Administration in the Transmarine Possessions +Provincial Praetors + +The acquisition of the islands in the western sea of Italy introduced +into the state administration of Rome a distinction, which to all +appearance originated in mere considerations of convenience and almost +accidentally, but nevertheless came to be of the deepest importance +for all time following--the distinction between the continental and +transmarine forms of administration, or to use the appellations +afterwards current, the distinction between Italy and the provinces. +Hitherto the two chief magistrates of the community, the consuls, had +not had any legally defined sphere of action; on the contrary their +official field extended as far as the Roman government itself. Of +course, however, in practice they made a division of functions +between them, and of course also they were bound in every particular +department of their duties by the enactments existing in regard to it; +the jurisdiction, for instance, over Roman citizens had in every case +to be left to the praetor, and in the Latin and other autonomous +communities the existing treaties had to be respected. The four +quaestors who had been since 487 distributed throughout Italy did not, +formally at least, restrict the consular authority, for in Italy, +just as in Rome, they were regarded simply as auxiliary magistrates +dependent on the consuls. This mode of administration appears to have +been at first extended also to the territories taken from Carthage, +and Sicily and Sardinia to have been governed for some years by +quaestors under the superintendence of the consuls; but the Romans +must very soon have become practically convinced that it was +indispensable to have superior magistrates specially appointed for +the transmarine regions. As they had been obliged to abandon the +concentration of the Roman jurisdiction in the person of the praetor +as the community became enlarged, and to send to the more remote +districts deputy judges,(4) so now (527) the concentration of +administrative and military power in the person of the consuls had to +be abandoned. For each of the new transmarine regions--viz. Sicily, +and Sardinia with Corsica annexed to it--there was appointed a special +auxiliary consul, who was in rank and title inferior to the consul and +equal to the praetor, but otherwise was--like the consul in earlier +times before the praetorship was instituted--in his own sphere of +action at once commander-in-chief, chief magistrate, and supreme +judge. The direct administration of finance alone was withheld from +these new chief magistrates, as from the first it had been withheld +from the consuls;(5) one or more quaestors were assigned to them, +who were in every way indeed subordinate to them, and were their +assistants in the administration of justice and in command, but yet +had specially to manage the finances and to render account of their +administration to the senate after having laid down their office. + +Organization of the Provinces +-Commercium- +Property +Autonomy + +This difference in the supreme administrative power was the essential +distinction between the transmarine and continental possessions. The +principles on which Rome had organized the dependent lands in Italy, +were in great part transferred also to the extra-Italian possessions. +As a matter of course, these communities without exception lost +independence in their external relations. As to internal intercourse, +no provincial could thenceforth acquire valid property in the province +out of the bounds of his own community, or perhaps even conclude a +valid marriage. On the other hand the Roman government allowed, at +least to the Sicilian towns which they had not to fear, a certain +federative organization, and probably even general Siceliot diets +with a harmless right of petition and complaint.(6) In monetary +arrangements it was not indeed practicable at once to declare the +Roman currency to be the only valid tender in the islands; but it +seems from the first to have obtained legal circulation, and in like +manner, at least as a rule, the right of coining in precious metals +seems to have been withdrawn from the cities in Roman Sicily.(7) On +the other hand not only was the landed property in all Sicily left +untouched--the principle, that the land out of Italy fell by right of +war to the Romans as private property, was still unknown to this +century--but all the Sicilian and Sardinian communities retained self- +administration and some sort of autonomy, which indeed was not assured +to them in a way legally binding, but was provisionally allowed. +If the democratic constitutions of the communities were everywhere +set aside, and in every city the power was transferred to the hands +of a council representing the civic aristocracy; and if moreover the +Sicilian communities, at least, were required to institute a general +valuation corresponding to the Roman census every fifth year; both +these measures were only the necessary sequel of subordination +to the Roman senate, which in reality could not govern with Greek +--ecclesiae--, or without a view of the financial and military +resources of each dependent community; in the various districts +of Italy also the same course was in both respects pursued. + +Tenths and Customs +Communities Exempted + +But, side by side with this essential equality of rights, there was +established a distinction, very important in its effects, between the +Italian communities on the one hand and the transmarine communities +on the other. While the treaties concluded with the Italian towns +imposed on them a fixed contingent for the army or the fleet of +the Romans, such a contingent was not imposed on the transmarine +communities, with which no binding paction was entered into at all, +but they lost the right of arms,(8) with the single exception that +they might be employed on the summons of the Roman praetor for the +defence of their own homes. The Roman government regularly sent +Italian troops, of the strength which it had fixed, to the islands; +in return for this, a tenth of the field-produce of Sicily, and a toll +of 5 per cent on the value of all articles of commerce exported from +or imported into the Sicilian harbours, were paid to Rome. To the +islanders these taxes were nothing new. The imposts levied by the +Persian great-king and the Carthaginian republic were substantially of +the same character with that tenth; and in Greece also such a taxation +had for long been, after Oriental precedent, associated with the +-tyrannis- and often also with a hegemony. The Sicilians had in this +way long paid their tenth either to Syracuse or to Carthage, and had +been wont to levy customs-dues no longer on their own account. "We +received," says Cicero, "the Sicilian communities into our clientship +and protection in such a way that they continued under the same law +under which they had lived before, and obeyed the Roman community +under relations similar to those in which they had obeyed their +own rulers." It is fair that this should not be forgotten; but to +continue an injustice is to commit injustice. Viewed in relation not +to the subjects, who merely changed masters, but to their new rulers, +the abandonment of the equally wise and magnanimous principle of Roman +statesmanship--viz., that Rome should accept from her subjects simply +military aid, and never pecuniary compensation in lieu of it--was of +a fatal importance, in comparison with which all alleviations in the +rates and the mode of levying them, as well as all exceptions in +detail, were as nothing. Such exceptions were, no doubt, made in +various cases. Messana was directly admitted to the confederacy of +the -togati-, and, like the Greek cities in Italy, furnished its +contingent to the Roman fleet. A number of other cities, while not +admitted to the Italian military confederacy, yet received in addition +to other favours immunity from tribute and tenths, so that their +position in a financial point of view was even more favourable than +that of the Italian communities. These were Segesta and Halicyae, +which were the first towns of Carthaginian Sicily that joined the +Roman alliance; Centuripa, an inland town in the east of the island, +which was destined to keep a watch over the Syracusan territory in its +neighbourhood;(9) Halaesa on the northern coast, which was the first +of the free Greek towns to join the Romans, and above all Panormus, +hitherto the capital of Carthaginian, and now destined to become +that of Roman, Sicily. The Romans thus applied to Sicily the ancient +principle of their policy, that of subdividing the dependent +communities into carefully graduated classes with different +privileges; but, on the average, the Sardinian and Sicilian +communities were not in the position of allies but in the +manifest relation of tributary subjection. + +Italy and the Provinces + +It is true that this thorough distinction between the communities that +furnished contingents and those that paid tribute, or at least did not +furnish contingents, was not in law necessarily coincident with the +distinction between Italy and the provinces. Transmarine communities +might belong to the Italian confederacy; the Mamertines for example +were substantially on a level with the Italian Sabellians, and there +existed no legal obstacle to the establishment even of new communities +with Latin rights in Sicily and Sardinia any more than in the country +beyond the Apennines. Communities on the mainland might be deprived +of the right of bearing arms and become tributary; this arrangement +was already the case with certain Celtic districts on the Po, and was +introduced to a considerable extent in after times. But, in reality, +the communities that furnished contingents just as decidedly +preponderated on the mainland as the tributary communities in the +islands; and while Italian settlements were not contemplated on the +part of the Romans either in Sicily with its Hellenic civilization or +in Sardinia, the Roman government had beyond doubt already determined +not only to subdue the barbarian land between the Apennines and the +Alps, but also, as their conquests advanced, to establish in it +new communities of Italic origin and Italic rights. Thus their +transmarine possessions were not merely placed on the footing of land +held by subjects, but were destined to remain on that footing in all +time to come; whereas the official field recently marked off by law +for the consuls, or, which is the same thing, the continental +territory of the Romans, was to become a new and more extended Italy, +which should reach from the Alps to the Ionian sea. In the first +instance, indeed, this essentially geographical conception of Italy +was not altogether coincident with the political conception of the +Italian confederacy; it was partly wider, partly narrower. But even +now the Romans regarded the whole space up to the boundary of the Alps +as -Italia-, that is, as the present or future domain of the -togati- +and, just as was and still is the case in North America, the boundary +was provisionally marked off in a geographical sense, that the field +might be gradually occupied in a political sense also with the advance +of colonization.(10) + +Events on the Adriatic Coasts + +In the Adriatic sea, at the entrance of which the important and long- +contemplated colony of Brundisium had at length been founded before +the close of the war with Carthage (510), the supremacy of Rome was +from the very first decided. In the western sea Rome had been obliged +to rid herself of rivals; in the eastern, the quarrels of the Hellenes +themselves prevented any of the states in the Grecian peninsula from +acquiring or retaining power. The most considerable of them, that of +Macedonia, had through the influence of Egypt been dislodged from the +upper Adriatic by the Aetolians and from the Peloponnesus by the +Achaeans, and was scarcely even in a position to defend its northern +frontier against the barbarians. How concerned the Romans were to +keep down Macedonia and its natural ally, the king of Syria, and how +closely they associated themselves with the Egyptian policy directed +to that object, is shown by the remarkable offer which after the end +of the war with Carthage they made to king Ptolemy III. Euergetes, +to support him in the war which he waged with Seleucus II. Callinicus +of Syria (who reigned 507-529) on account of the murder of Berenice, +and in which Macedonia had probably taken part with the latter. +Generally, the relations of Rome with the Hellenistic states became +closer; the senate already negotiated even with Syria, and interceded +with the Seleucus just mentioned on behalf of the Ilians with whom +the Romans claimed affinity. + +For a direct interference of the Romans in the affairs of +the eastern powers there was no immediate need. The Achaean league, +the prosperity of which was arrested by the narrow-minded coterie- +policy of Aratus, the Aetolian republic of military adventurers, and +the decayed Macedonian empire kept each other in check; and the Romans +of that time avoided rather than sought transmarine acquisitions. +When the Acarnanians, appealing to the ground that they alone of all +the Greeks had taken no part in the destruction of Ilion, besought +the descendants of Aeneas to help them against the Aetolians, the +senate did indeed attempt a diplomatic mediation; but when the +Aetolians returned an answer drawn up in their own saucy fashion, +the antiquarian interest of the Roman senators by no means provoked +them into undertaking a war by which they would have freed the +Macedonians from their hereditary foe (about 515). + +Illyrian Piracy +Expedition against Scodra + +Even the evil of piracy, which was naturally in such a state of +matters the only trade that flourished on the Adriatic coast, and +from which the commerce of Italy suffered greatly, was submitted to by +the Romans with an undue measure of patience, --a patience intimately +connected with their radical aversion to maritime war and their +wretched marine. But at length it became too flagrant. Favoured by +Macedonia, which no longer found occasion to continue its old function +of protecting Hellenic commerce from the corsairs of the Adriatic for +the benefit of its foes, the rulers of Scodra had induced the Illyrian +tribes--nearly corresponding to the Dalmatians, Montenegrins, and +northern Albanians of the present day--to unite for joint piratical +expeditions on a great scale. + +With whole squadrons of their swift-sailing biremes, the veil-known +"Liburnian" cutters, the Illyrians waged war by sea and along the +coasts against all and sundry. The Greek settlements in these +regions, the island-towns of Issa (Lissa) and Pharos (Lesina), the +important ports of Epidamnus (Durazzo) and Apollonia (to the north of +Avlona on the Aous) of course suffered especially, and were repeatedly +beleaguered by the barbarians. Farther to the south, moreover, the +corsairs established themselves in Phoenice, the most flourishing town +of Epirus; partly voluntarily, partly by constraint, the Epirots and +Acarnanians entered into an unnatural symmachy with the foreign +freebooters; the coast was insecure even as far as Elis and Messene. +In vain the Aetolians and Achaeans collected what ships they had, with +a view to check the evil: in a battle on the open sea they were beaten +by the pirates and their Greek allies; the corsair fleet was able at +length to take possession even of the rich and important island of +Corcyra (Corfu). The complaints of Italian mariners, the appeals for +aid of their old allies the Apolloniates, and the urgent entreaties +of the besieged Issaeans at length compelled the Roman senate to +send at least ambassadors to Scodra. The brothers Gaius and Lucius +Coruncanius went thither to demand that king Agron should put an end +to the disorder. The king answered that according to the national law +of the Illyrians piracy was a lawful trade, and that the government +had no right to put a stop to privateering; whereupon Lucius +Coruncanius replied, that in that case Rome would make it her business +to introduce a better law among the Illyrians. For this certainly not +very diplomatic reply one of the envoys was--by the king's orders, as +the Romans asserted--murdered on the way home, and the surrender of +the murderers was refused. The senate had now no choice left to it. +In the spring of 525 a fleet of 200 ships of the line, with a landing- +army on board, appeared off Apollonia; the corsair-vessels were +scattered before the former, while the latter demolished the piratic +strongholds; the queen Teuta, who after the death of her husband +Agron conducted the government during the minority of her son Pinnes, +besieged in her last retreat, was obliged to accept the conditions +dictated by Rome. The rulers of Scodra were again confined both on +the north and south to the narrow limits of their original domain, +and had to quit their hold not only on all the Greek towns, but also +on the Ardiaei in Dalmatia, the Parthini around Epidamnus, and the +Atintanes in northern Epirus; no Illyrian vessel of war at all, and +not more than two unarmed vessels in company, were to be allowed in +future to sail to the south of Lissus (Alessio, between Scutari and +Durazzo). The maritime supremacy of Rome in the Adriatic was +asserted, in the most praiseworthy and durable way, by the rapid +and energetic suppression of the evil of piracy. + +Acquisition of Territory in Illyria +Impression in Greece and Macedonia + +But the Romans went further, and established themselves on the east +coast. The Illyrians of Scodra were rendered tributary to Rome; +Demetrius of Pharos, who had passed over from the service of Teuta to +that of the Romans, was installed, as a dependent dynast and ally of +Rome, over the islands and coasts of Dalmatia; the Greek cities +Corcyra, Epidamnus, Apollonia, and the communities of the Atintanes +and Parthini were attached to Rome under mild forms of symmachy. +These acquisitions on the east coast of the Adriatic were not +sufficiently extensive to require the appointment of a special +auxiliary consul; governors of subordinate rank appear to have +been sent to Corcyra and perhaps also to other places, and the +superintendence of these possessions seems to have been entrusted +to the chief magistrates who administered Italy.(11) Thus the most +important maritime stations in the Adriatic became subject, like +Sicily and Sardinia, to the authority of Rome. What other result was +to be expected? Rome was in want of a good naval station in the upper +Adriatic--a want which was not supplied by her possessions on the +Italian shore; her new allies, especially the Greek commercial towns, +saw in the Romans their deliverers, and doubtless did what they could +permanently to secure so powerful a protection; in Greece itself +no one was in a position to oppose the movement; on the contrary, +the praise of the liberators was on every one's lips. It may be a +question whether there was greater rejoicing or shame in Hellas, when, +in place of the ten ships of the line of the Achaean league, the most +warlike power in Greece, two hundred sail belonging to the barbarians +now entered her harbours and accomplished at a blow the task, which +properly belonged to the Greeks, but in which they had failed so +miserably. But if the Greeks were ashamed that the salvation of their +oppressed countrymen had to come from abroad, they accepted the +deliverance at least with a good grace; they did not fail to receive +the Romans solemnly into the fellowship of the Hellenic nation by +admitting them to the Isthmian games and the Eleusinian mysteries. + +Macedonia was silent; it was not in a condition to protest in arms, +and disdained to do so in words. No resistance was encountered. +Nevertheless Rome, by seizing the keys to her neighbour's house, had +converted that neighbour into an adversary who, should he recover his +power, or should a favourable opportunity occur, might be expected to +know how to break the silence. Had the energetic and prudent king +Antigonus Doson lived longer, he would have doubtless taken up the +gauntlet which the Romans had flung down, for, when some years +afterwards the dynast Demetrius of Pharos withdrew from the hegemony +of Rome, prosecuted piracy contrary to the treaty in concert with +the Istrians, and subdued the Atintanes whom the Romans had declared +independent, Antigonus formed an alliance with him, and the troops +of Demetrius fought along with the army of Antigonus at the battle +of Sellasia (532). But Antigonus died (in the winter 533-4); and his +successor Philip, still a boy, allowed the Consul Lucius Aemilius +Paullus to attack the ally of Macedonia, to destroy his capital, +and to drive him from his kingdom into exile (535). + +Northern Italy + +The mainland of Italy proper, south of the Apennines, enjoyed profound +peace after the fall of Tarentum: the six days' war with Falerii (513) +was little more than an interlude. But towards the north, between the +territory of the confederacy and the natural boundary of Italy--the +chain of the Alps--there still extended a wide region which was not +subject to the Romans. What was regarded as the boundary of Italy on +the Adriatic coast was the river Aesis immediately above Ancona. +Beyond this boundary the adjacent properly Gallic territory as far as, +and including, Ravenna belonged in a similar way as did Italy proper +to the Roman alliance; the Senones, who had formerly settled there, +were extirpated in the war of 471-2,(12) and the several townships +were connected with Rome, either as burgess-colonies, like Sena +Gallica,(13) or as allied towns, whether with Latin rights, like +Ariminum,(14) or with Italian rights, like Ravenna. On the wide +region beyond Ravenna as far as the Alps non-Italian peoples were +settled. South of the Po the strong Celtic tribe of the Boii still +held its ground (from Parma to Bologna); alongside of them, the +Lingones on the east and the Anares on the west (in the region of +Parma)--two smaller Celtic cantons presumably clients of the Boii-- +peopled the plain. At the western end of the plain the Ligurians +began, who, mingled with isolated Celtic tribes, and settled on the +Apennines from above Arezzo and Pisa westward, occupied the region of +the sources of the Po. The eastern portion of the plain north of the +Po, nearly from Verona to the coast, was possessed by the Veneti, a +race different from the Celts and probably of Illyrian extraction. +Between these and the western mountains were settled the Cenomani +(about Brescia and Cremona) who rarely acted with the Celtic nation +and were probably largely intermingled with Veneti, and the Insubres +(around Milan). The latter was the most considerable of the Celtic +cantons in Italy, and was in constant communication not merely +with the minor communities partly of Celtic, partly of non-Celtic +extraction, that were scattered in the Alpine valleys, but also with +the Celtic cantons beyond the Alps. The gates of the Alps, the mighty +stream navigable for 230 miles, and the largest and most fertile plain +of the then civilized Europe, still continued in the hands of the +hereditary foes of the Italian name, who, humbled indeed and weakened, +but still scarce even nominally dependent and still troublesome +neighbours, persevered in their barbarism, and, thinly scattered over +the spacious plains, continued to pasture their herds and to plunder. +It was to be anticipated that the Romans would hasten to possess +themselves of these regions; the more so as the Celts gradually began +to forget their defeats in the campaigns of 471 and 472 and to bestir +themselves again, and, what was still more dangerous, the Transalpine +Celts began anew to show themselves on the south of the Alps. + +Celtic Wars + +In fact the Boii had already renewed the war in 516, and their +chiefs Atis and Galatas had--without, it is true, the authority of the +general diet--summoned the Transalpine Gauls to make common cause with +them. The latter had numerously answered the call, and in 518 a +Celtic army, such as Italy had not seen for long, encamped before +Ariminum. The Romans, for the moment much too weak to attempt a +battle, concluded an armistice, and to gain time allowed envoys from +the Celts to proceed to Rome, who ventured in the senate to demand +the cession of Ariminum--it seemed as if the times of Brennus had +returned. But an unexpected incident put an end to the war before it +had well begun. The Boii, dissatisfied with their unbidden allies and +afraid probably for their own territory, fell into variance with the +Transalpine Gauls. An open battle took place between the two Celtic +hosts; and, after the chiefs of the Boii had been put to death by +their own men, the Transalpine Gauls returned home. The Boii were +thus delivered into the hands of the Romans, and the latter were at +liberty to expel them like the Senones, and to advance at least to +the Po; but they preferred to grant the Boii peace in return for +the cession of some districts of their land (518). This was probably +done, because they were just at that time expecting the renewed +outbreak of war with Carthage; but, after that war had been averted by +the cession of Sardinia, true policy required the Roman government to +take possession as speedily and entirely as possible of the country up +to the Alps. The constant apprehensions on the part of the Celts as +to such a Roman invasion were therefore sufficiently justified; but +the Romans were in no haste. So the Celts on their part began the +war, either because the Roman assignations of land on the east coast +(522), although not a measure immediately directed against them, made +them apprehensive of danger; or because they perceived that a war with +Rome for the possession of Lombardy was inevitable; or, as is perhaps +most probable, because their Celtic impatience was once more weary of +inaction and preferred to arm for a new warlike expedition. With the +exception of the Cenomani, who acted with the Veneti and declared for +the Romans, all the Italian Celts concurred in the war, and they were +joined by the Celts of the upper valley of the Rhone, or rather by +a number of adventurers belonging to them, under the leaders +Concolitanus and Aneroestus.(15) With 50,000 warriors on foot, and +20,000 on horseback or in chariots, the leaders of the Celts advanced +to the Apennines (529). The Romans had not anticipated an attack on +this side, and had not expected that the Celts, disregarding the Roman +fortresses on the east coast and the protection of their own kinsmen, +would venture to advance directly against the capital. Not very long +before a similar Celtic swarm had in an exactly similar way overrun +Greece. The danger was serious, and appeared still more serious than +it really was. The belief that Rome's destruction was this time +inevitable, and that the Roman soil was fated to become the property +of the Gauls, was so generally diffused among the multitude in Rome +itself that the government reckoned it not beneath its dignity to +allay the absurd superstitious belief of the mob by an act still more +absurd, and to bury alive a Gaulish man and a Gaulish woman in the +Roman Forum with a view to fulfil the oracle of destiny. At the same +time they made more serious preparations. Of the two consular armies, +each of which numbered about 25,000 infantry and 1100 cavalry, one +was stationed in Sardinia under Gaius Atilius Regulus, the other at +Ariminum under Lucius Aemilius Papus. Both received orders to repair +as speedily as possible to Etruria, which was most immediately +threatened. The Celts had already been under the necessity of leaving +a garrison at home to face the Cenomani and Veneti, who were allied +with Rome; now the levy of the Umbrians was directed to advance from +their native mountains down into the plain of the Boii, and to inflict +all the injury which they could think of on the enemy upon his own +soil. The militia of the Etruscans and Sabines was to occupy the +Apennines and if possible to obstruct the passage, till the regular +troops could arrive. A reserve was formed in Rome of 50,000 men. +Throughout all Italy, which on this occasion recognized its true +champion in Rome, the men capable of service were enrolled, and stores +and materials of war were collected. + +Battle of Telamon + +All this, however, required time. For once the Romans had allowed +themselves to be surprised, and it was too late at least to save +Etruria. The Celts found the Apennines hardly defended, and plundered +unopposed the rich plains of the Tuscan territory, which for long had +seen no enemy. They were already at Clusium, three days' march from +Rome, when the army of Ariminum, under the consul Papus, appeared on +their flank, while the Etruscan militia, which after crossing the +Apennines had assembled in rear of the Gauls, followed the line of the +enemy's march. Suddenly one evening, after the two armies had already +encamped and the bivouac fires were kindled, the Celtic infantry again +broke up and retreated on the road towards Faesulae (Fiesole): the +cavalry occupied the advanced posts during the night, and followed the +main force next morning. When the Tuscan militia, who had pitched +their camp close upon the enemy, became aware of his departure, they +imagined that the host had begun to disperse, and marched hastily in +pursuit. The Gauls had reckoned on this very result: their infantry, +which had rested and was drawn up in order, awaited on a well-chosen +battlefield the Roman militia, which came up from its forced march +fatigued and disordered. Six thousand men fell after a furious +combat, and the rest of the militia, which had been compelled to seek +refuge on a hill, would have perished, had not the consular army +appeared just in time. This induced the Gauls to return homeward. +Their dexterously-contrived plan for preventing the union of the two +Roman armies and annihilating the weaker in detail, had only been +partially successful; now it seemed to them advisable first of all to +place in security their considerable booty. For the sake of an easier +line of march they proceeded from the district of Chiusi, where they +were, to the level coast, and were marching along the shore, when +they found an unexpected obstacle in the way. It was the Sardinian +legions, which had landed at Pisae; and, when they arrived too late to +obstruct the passage of the Apennines, had immediately put themselves +in motion and were advancing along the coast in a direction opposite +to the march of the Gauls. Near Telamon (at the mouth of the Ombrone) +they met with the enemy. While the Roman infantry advanced with close +front along the great road, the cavalry, led by the consul Gaius +Atilius Regulus in person, made a side movement so as to take the +Gauls in flank, and to acquaint the other Roman army under Papus as +soon as possible with their arrival. A hot cavalry engagement took +place, in which along with many brave Romans Regulus fell; but he had +not sacrificed his life in vain: his object was gained. Papus became +aware of the conflict, and guessed how matters stood; he hastily +arrayed his legions, and on both sides the Celtic host was now pressed +by Roman legions. Courageously it made its dispositions for the +double conflict, the Transalpine Gauls and Insubres against the +troops of Papus, the Alpine Taurisci and the Boii against the +Sardinian infantry; the cavalry combat pursued its course apart on +the flank. The forces were in numbers not unequally matched, and the +desperate position of the Gauls impelled them to the most obstinate +resistance. But the Transalpine Gauls, accustomed only to close +fighting, gave way before the missiles of the Roman skirmishers; in +the hand-to-hand combat the better temper of the Roman weapons placed +the Gauls at a disadvantage; and at last an attack in flank by the +victorious Roman cavalry decided the day. The Celtic horsemen made +their escape; the infantry, wedged in between the sea and the three +Roman armies, had no means of flight. 10,000 Celts, with their king +Concolitanus, were taken prisoners; 40,000 others lay dead on the +field of battle; Aneroestus and his attendants had, after the Celtic +fashion, put themselves to death. + +The Celts Attacked in Their Own Land + +The victory was complete, and the Romans were firmly resolved to +prevent the recurrence of such surprises by the complete subjugation +of the Celts on the south of the Alps. In the following year (530) +the Boii submitted without resistance along with the Lingones; and in +the year after that (531) the Anares; so that the plain as far as the +Po was in the hands of the Romans. The conquest of the northern bank +of the river cost a more serious struggle. Gaius Flaminius crossed +the river in the newly-acquired territory of the Anares (somewhere +near Piacenza) in 531; but during the crossing, and still more while +making good his footing on the other bank, he suffered so heavy losses +and found himself with the river in his rear in so dangerous a +position, that he made a capitulation with the enemy to secure a free +retreat, which the Insubres foolishly conceded. Scarce, however, had +he escaped when he appeared in the territory of the Cenomani, and, +united with them, advanced for the second time from the north into the +canton of the Insubres. The Gauls perceived what was now the object +of the Romans, when it was too late: they took from the temple of +their goddess the golden standards called the "immovable," and with +their whole levy, 50,000 strong, they offered battle to the Romans. +The situation of the latter was critical: they were stationed with +their back to a river (perhaps the Oglio), separated from home by the +enemy's territory, and left to depend for aid in battle as well as for +their line of retreat on the uncertain friendship of the Cenomani. +There was, however, no choice. The Gauls fighting in the Roman ranks +were placed on the left bank of the stream; on the right, opposite to +the Insubres, the legions were drawn up, and the bridges were broken +down that they might not be assailed, at least in the rear, by their +dubious allies. + +The Celts Conquered by Rome + +In this way undoubtedly the river cut off their retreat, and their way +homeward lay through the hostile army. But the superiority of the +Roman arms and of Roman discipline achieved the victory, and the army +cut its way through: once more the Roman tactics had redeemed the +blunders of the general. The victory was due to the soldiers and +officers, not to the generals, who gained a triumph only through +popular favour in opposition to the just decree of the senate. Gladly +would the Insubres have made peace; but Rome required unconditional +subjection, and things had not yet come to that pass. They tried to +maintain their ground with the help of their northern kinsmen; and, +with 30,000 mercenaries whom they had raised amongst these and their +own levy, they received the two consular armies advancing once more in +the following year (532) from the territory of the Cenomani to invade +their land. Various obstinate combats took place; in a diversion, +attempted by the Insubres against the Roman fortress of Clastidium +(Casteggio, below Pavia), on the right bank of the Po, the Gallic +king Virdumarus fell by the hand of the consul Marcus Marcellus. But, +after a battle already half won by the Celts but ultimately decided +in favour of the Romans, the consul Gnaeus Scipio took by assault +Mediolanum, the capital of the Insubres, and the capture of that town +and of Comum terminated their resistance. Thus the Celts of Italy +were completely vanquished, and as, just before, the Romans had shown +to the Hellenes in the war with the pirates the difference between a +Roman and a Greek sovereignty of the seas, so they had now brilliantly +demonstrated that Rome knew how to defend the gates of Italy against +freebooters on land otherwise than Macedonia had guarded the gates of +Greece, and that in spite of all internal quarrels Italy presented as +united a front to the national foe, as Greece exhibited distraction +and discord. + +Romanization of the Entire of Italy + +The boundary of the Alps was reached, in so far as the whole flat +country on the Po was either rendered subject to the Romans, or, like +the territories of the Cenomani and Veneti, was occupied by dependent +allies. It needed time, however, to reap the consequences of this +victory and to Romanize the land. In this the Romans did not adopt +a uniform mode of procedure. In the mountainous northwest of Italy +and in the more remote districts between the Alps and the Po they +tolerated, on the whole, the former inhabitants; the numerous wars, +as they are called, which were waged with the Ligurians in particular +(first in 516) appear to have been slave-hunts rather than wars, and, +often as the cantons and valleys submitted to the Romans, Roman +sovereignty in that quarter was hardly more than a name. The +expedition to Istria also (533) appears not to have aimed at much +more than the destruction of the last lurking-places of the Adriatic +pirates, and the establishment of a communication by land along the +coast between the Italian conquests of Rome and her acquisitions on +the other shore. On the other hand the Celts in the districts south +of the Po were doomed irretrievably to destruction; for, owing to +the looseness of the ties connecting the Celtic nation, none of the +northern Celtic cantons took part with their Italian kinsmen except +for money, and the Romans looked on the latter not only as their +national foes, but as the usurpers of their natural heritage. The +extensive assignations of land in 522 had already filled the whole +territory between Ancona and Ariminum with Roman colonists, who +settled here without communal organization in market-villages and +hamlets. Further measures of the same character were taken, and +it was not difficult to dislodge and extirpate a half-barbarous +population like the Celtic, only partially following agriculture, +and destitute of walled towns. The great northern highway, which had +been, probably some eighty years earlier, carried by way of Otricoli +to Narni, and had shortly before been prolonged to the newly-founded +fortress of Spoletium (514), was now (534) carried, under the name of +the "Flaminian" road, by way of the newly-established market-village +Forum Flaminii (near Foligno), through the pass of Furlo to the coast, +and thence along the latter from Fanum (Fano) to Ariminum; it was the +first artificial road which crossed the Apennines and connected the +two Italian seas. Great zeal was manifested in covering the newly- +acquired fertile territory with Roman townships. Already, to cover +the passage of the Po, the strong fortress of Placentia (Piacenza) +had been founded on the right bank; not far from it Cremona had been +laid out on the left bank, and the building of the walls of Mutina +(Modena), in the territory taken away from the Boii, had far advanced +--already preparations were being made for further assignations of +land and for continuing the highway, when sudden event interrupted +the Romans in reaping the fruit of their successes. + + + + +Notes for Chapter III + + +1. III. II. Evacuation of Africa + +2. That the cession of the islands lying between Sicily and Italy, +which the peace of 513 prescribed to the Carthaginians, did not +include the cession of Sardinia is a settled point (III. II. Remarks +On the Roman Conduct of the War); but the statement, that the Romans +made that a pretext for their occupation of the island three years +after the peace, is ill attested. Had they done so, they would merely +have added a diplomatic folly to the political effrontery. + +3. III. II. The War on the Coasts of Sicily and Sardinia + +4. III. VIII. Changes in Procedure + +5. II. I. Restrictions on the Delegation of Powers + +6. That this was the case may be gathered partly from the appearance +of the "Siculi" against Marcellus (Liv. xxvi. 26, seq.), partly from +the "conjoint petitions of all the Sicilian communities" (Cicero, +Verr. ii. 42, 102; 45, 114; 50, 146; iii. 88, 204), partly from well- +known analogies (Marquardt, Handb. iii. i, 267). Because there was no +-commercium- between the different towns, it by no means follows that +there was no -concilium-. + +7. The right of coining gold and silver was not monopolized by Rome +in the provinces so strictly as in Italy, evidently because gold +and silver money not struck after the Roman standard was of less +importance. But in their case too the mints were doubtless, as a +rule, restricted to the coinage of copper, or at most silver, small +money; even the most favourably treated communities of Roman Sicily, +such as the Mamertines, the Centuripans, the Halaesines, the +Segestans, and also in the main the Pacormitaus coined only copper. + +8. This is implied in Hiero's expression (Liv. xxii. 37): +that he knew that the Romans made use of none but Roman or Latin +infantry and cavalry, and employed "foreigners" at most only among +the light-armed troops. + +9. This is shown at once by a glance at the map, and also by the +remarkable exceptional provision which allowed the Centuripans +to buy to any part of Sicily. They needed, as Roman spies, the +utmost freedom of movement We may add that Centuripa appears to +have been among the first cities that went over to Rome +(Diodorus, l. xxiii. p. 501). + +10. This distinction between Italy as the Roman mainland or consular +sphere on the one hand, and the transmarine territory or praetorial +sphere on the other, already appears variously applied in the sixth +century. The ritual rule, that certain priests should not leave Rome +(Val. Max. i. i, 2), was explained to mean, that they were not allowed +to cross the sea (Liv. Ep. 19, xxxvii. 51; Tac. Ann. iii. 58, 71; Cic. +Phil. xi. 8, 18; comp. Liv. xxviii. 38, 44, Ep. 59). To this head +still more definitely belongs the interpretation which was proposed in +544 to be put upon the old rule, that the consul might nominate the +dictator only on "Roman ground": viz. that "Roman ground" comprehended +all Italy (Liv. xxvii. 5). The erection of the Celtic land between +the Alps and Apennines into a special province, different from that of +the consuls and subject to a separate Standing chief magistrate, was +the work of Sulla. Of course no one will Urge as an objection to this +view, that already in the sixth century Gallia or Ariminum is very +often designated as the "official district" (-provincia-), usually of +one of the consuls. -Provincia-, as is well known, was in the older +language not--what alone it denoted subsequently--a definite space +assigned as a district to a standing chief magistrate, but the +department of duty fixed for the individual consul, in the first +instance by agreement with his colleague, under concurrence of the +senate; and in this sense frequently individual regions in northern +Italy, or even North Italy generally, were assigned to individual +consuls as -provincia-. + +11. A standing Roman commandant of Corcyra is apparently mentioned in +Polyb. xxii. 15, 6 (erroneously translated by Liv. xxxviii. ii, comp. +xlii. 37), and a similar one in the case of Issa in Liv. xliii. 9. +We have, moreover, the analogy of the -praefectus pro legato insularum +Baliarum- (Orelli, 732), and of the governor of Pandataria (Inscr. +Reg. Neapol. 3528). It appears, accordingly, to have been a rule in +the Roman administration to appoint non-senatorial -praefecti- for the +more remote islands. But these "deputies" presuppose in the nature of +the case a superior magistrate who nominates and superintends them; +and this superior magistracy can only have been at this period that of +the consuls. Subsequently, after the erection of Macedonia and Gallia +Cisalpina into provinces, the superior administration was committed to +one of these two governors; the very territory now in question, the +nucleus of the subsequent Roman province of Illyricum, belonged, as +is well known, in part to Caesar's district of administration. + +12. III. VII. The Senones Annihilated + +13. III. VII. Breach between Rome and Tarentum + +14. III. VII. Construction of New Fortresses and Roads + +15. These, whom Polybius designates as the "Celts in the Alps and on +the Rhone, who on account of their character as military adventurers +are called Gaesatae (free lances)," are in the Capitoline Fasti named +-Germani-. It is possible that the contemporary annalists may have +here mentioned Celts alone, and that it was the historical speculation +of the age of Caesar and Augustus that first induced the redactors of +these Fasti to treat them as "Germans." If, on the other hand, the +mention of the Germans in the Fasti was based on contemporary records +--in which case this is the earliest mention of the name--we shall here +have to think not of the Germanic races who were afterwards so called, +but of a Celtic horde. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +Hamilcar and Hannibal + +Situation of Carthage after the Peace + +The treaty with Rome in 513 gave to the Carthaginians peace, but they +paid for it dearly. That the tribute of the largest portion of Sicily +now flowed into the enemy's exchequer instead of the Carthaginian +treasury, was the least part of their loss. They felt a far keener +regret when they not merely had to abandon the hope of monopolizing +all the sea-routes between the eastern and the western Mediterranean +--just as that hope seemed on the eve of fulfilment--but also saw +their whole system of commercial policy broken up, the south-western +basin of the Mediterranean, which they had hitherto exclusively +commanded, converted since the loss of Sicily into an open +thoroughfare for all nations, and the commerce of Italy rendered +completely independent of the Phoenician. Nevertheless the quiet +men of Sidon might perhaps have prevailed on themselves to acquiesce +in this result. They had met with similar blows already; they had +been obliged to share with the Massiliots, the Etruscans, and the +Sicilian Greeks what they had previously possessed alone; even now +the possessions which they retained, Africa, Spain, and the gates of +the Atlantic Ocean, were sufficient to confer power and prosperity. +But in truth, where was their security that these at least would +continue in their hands? The demands made by Regulus, and his very +near approach to the obtaining of what he asked, could only be +forgotten by those who were willing to forget; and if Rome should now +renew from Lilybaeum the enterprise which she had undertaken with so +great success from Italy, Carthage would undoubtedly fall, unless the +perversity of the enemy or some special piece of good fortune should +intervene to save it No doubt they had peace for the present; but the +ratification of that peace had hung on a thread, and they knew what +public opinion in Rome thought of the terms on which it was concluded. +It might be that Rome was not yet meditating the conquest of Africa +and was as yet content with Italy; but if the existence of the +Carthaginian state depended on that contentment, the prospect was but +a sorry one; and where was the security that the Romans might not find +it even convenient for their Italian policy to extirpate rather than +reduce to subjection their African neighbour? + +War Party and Peace Party in Carthage + +In short, Carthage could only regard the peace of 513 in the light +of a truce, and could not but employ it in preparations for the +inevitable renewal of the war; not for the purpose of avenging the +defeat which she had suffered, nor even with the primary view of +recovering what she had lost, but in order to secure for herself an +existence that should not be dependent on the good-will of the enemy. +But when a war of annihilation is surely, though in point of time +indefinitely, impending over a weaker state, the wiser, more +resolute, and more devoted men--who would immediately prepare for the +unavoidable struggle, accept it at a favourable moment, and thus cover +their defensive policy by a strategy of offence--always find +themselves hampered by the indolent and cowardly mass of the money- +worshippers, of the aged and feeble, and of the thoughtless who are +minded merely to gain time, to live and die in peace, and to postpone +at any price the final struggle. So there was in Carthage a party +for peace and a party for war, both, as was natural, associating +themselves with the political distinction which already existed +between the conservatives and the reformers. The former found its +support in the governing boards, the council of the Ancients and that +of the Hundred, led by Hanno the Great, as he was called; the latter +found its support in the leaders of the multitude, particularly the +much-respected Hasdrubal, and in the officers of the Sicilian army, +whose great successes under the leadership of Hamilcar, although they +had been otherwise fruitless, had at least shown to the patriots a +method which seemed to promise deliverance from the great danger that +beset them. Vehement feud had probably long subsisted between these +parties, when the Libyan war intervened to suspend the strife. We +have already related how that war arose. After the governing party +had instigated the mutiny by their incapable administration which +frustrated all the precautionary measures of the Sicilian officers, +had converted that mutiny into a revolution by the operation of their +inhuman system of government, and had at length brought the country to +the verge of ruin by their military incapacity--and particularly that +of their leader Hanno, who ruined the army--Hamilcar Barcas, the hero +of Ercte, was in the perilous emergency solicited by the government +itself to save it from the effects of its blunders and crimes. He +accepted the command, and had the magnanimity not to resign it +even when they appointed Hanno as his colleague. Indeed, when the +indignant army sent the latter home, Hamilcar had the self-control +a second time to concede to him, at the urgent request of the +government, a share in the command; and, in spite of his enemies and +in spite of such a colleague, he was able by his influence with the +insurgents, by his dexterous treatment of the Numidian sheiks, and +by his unrivalled genius for organization and generalship, in a +singularly short time to put down the revolt entirely and to recall +rebellious Africa to its allegiance (end of 517). + +During this war the patriot party had kept silence; now it spoke out +the louder. On the one hand this catastrophe had brought to light +the utterly corrupt and pernicious character of the ruling oligarchy, +their incapacity, their coterie-policy, their leanings towards the +Romans. On the other hand the seizure of Sardinia, and the +threatening attitude which Rome on that occasion assumed, showed +plainly even to the humblest that a declaration of war by Rome was +constantly hanging like the sword of Damocles over Carthage, and that, +if Carthage in her present circumstances went to war with Rome, +the consequence must necessarily be the downfall of the Phoenician +dominion in Libya. Probably there were in Carthage not a few who, +despairing of the future of their country, counselled emigration to +the islands of the Atlantic; who could blame them? But minds of the +nobler order disdain to save themselves apart from their nation, +and great natures enjoy the privilege of deriving enthusiasm from +circumstances in which the multitude of good men despair. They +accepted the new conditions just as Rome dictated them; no course +was left but to submit and, adding fresh bitterness to their former +hatred, carefully to cherish and husband resentment--that last +resource of an injured nation. They then took steps towards a +political reform.(1) They had become sufficiently convinced of the +incorrigibleness of the party in power: the fact that the governing +lords had even in the last war neither forgotten their spite nor +learned greater wisdom, was shown by the effrontery bordering on +simplicity with which they now instituted proceedings against Hamilcar +as the originator of the mercenary war, because he had without full +powers from the government made promises of money to his Sicilian +soldiers. Had the club of officers and popular leaders desired to +overthrow this rotten and wretched government, it would hardly have +encountered much difficulty in Carthage itself; but it would have met +with more formidable obstacles in Rome, with which the chiefs of the +government in Carthage already maintained relations that bordered on +treason. To all the other difficulties of the position there fell +to be added the circumstance, that the means of saving their country +had to be created without allowing either the Romans, or their own +government with its Roman leanings, to become rightly aware of +what was doing. + +Hamilcar Commander-in-Chief + +So they left the constitution untouched, and the chiefs of the +government in full enjoyment of their exclusive privileges and of the +public property. It was merely proposed and carried, that of the two +commanders-in-chief, who at the end of the Libyan war were at the head +of the Carthaginian troops, Hanno and Hamilcar, the former should be +recalled, and the latter should be nominated commander-in-chief for +all Africa during an indefinite period. It was arranged that he +should hold a position independent of the governing corporations +--his antagonists called it an unconstitutional monarchical power, +Cato calls it a dictatorship--and that he could only be recalled and +placed upon his trial by the popular assembly.(2) Even the choice +of a successor was to be vested not in the authorities of the capital, +but in the army, that is, in the Carthaginians serving in the array as +gerusiasts or officers, who were named in treaties also along with +the general; of course the right of confirmation was reserved to the +popular assembly at home. Whether this may or may not have been a +usurpation, it clearly indicates that the war party regarded and +treated the army as its special domain. + +The commission which Hamilcar thus received sounded but little +liable to exception. Wars with the Numidian tribes on the borders +never ceased; only a short time previously the "city of a hundred +gates," Theveste (Tebessa), in the interior had been occupied by the +Carthaginians. The task of continuing this border warfare, which was +allotted to the new commander-in-chief of Africa, was not in itself of +such importance as to prevent the Carthaginian government, which was +allowed to do as it liked in its own immediate sphere, from tacitly +conniving at the decrees passed in reference to the matter by the +popular assembly; and the Romans did not perhaps recognize its +significance at all. + +Hamilcar's War Projects +The Army +The Citizens + +Thus there stood at the head of the army the one man, who had given +proof in the Sicilian and in the Libyan wars that fate had destined +him, if any one, to be the saviour of his country. Never perhaps was +the noble struggle of man with fate waged more nobly than by him. +The army was expected to save the state; but what sort of army? +The Carthaginian civic militia had fought not badly under Hamilcar's +leadership in the Libyan war; but he knew well, that it is one thing +to lead out the merchants and artisans of a city, which is in the +extremity of peril, for once to battle, and another to form them +into soldiers. The patriotic party in Carthage furnished him with +excellent officers, but it was of course almost exclusively the +cultivated class that was represented in it. He had no citizen- +militia, at most a few squadrons of Libyphoenician cavalry. The task +was to form an army out of Libyan forced recruits and mercenaries; a +task possible in the hands of a general like Hamilcar, but possible +even for him only on condition that he should be able to pay his men +punctually and amply. But he had learned, by experience in Sicily, +that the state revenues of Carthage were expended in Carthage itself +on matters much more needful than the payment of the armies that +fought against the enemy. The warfare which he waged, accordingly, +had to support itself, and he had to carry out on a great scale what +he had already attempted on a smaller scale at Monte Pellegrino. But +further, Hamilcar was not only a military chief, he was also a party +leader. In opposition to the implacable governing party, which +eagerly but patiently waited for an opportunity of overthrowing him, +he had to seek support among the citizens; and although their leaders +might be ever so pure and noble, the multitude was deeply corrupt and +accustomed by the unhappy system of corruption to give nothing without +being paid for it. In particular emergencies, indeed, necessity or +enthusiasm might for the moment prevail, as everywhere happens even +with the most venal corporations; but, if Hamilcar wished to secure +the permanent support of the Carthaginian community for his plan, +which at the best could only be carried out after a series of years, +he had to supply his friends at home with regular consignments of +money as the means of keeping the mob in good humour. Thus compelled +to beg or to buy from the lukewarm and venal multitude the permission +to save it; compelled to bargain with the arrogance of men whom +he hated and whom he had constantly conquered, at the price of +humiliation and of silence, for the respite indispensable for his +ends; compelled to conceal from those despised traitors to their +country, who called themselves the lords of his native city, his plans +and his contempt--the noble hero stood with few like-minded friends +between enemies without and enemies within, building upon the +irresolution of the one and of the other, at once deceiving both and +defying both, if only he might gain means, money, and men for the +contest with a land which, even were the army ready to strike the +blow, it seemed difficult to reach and scarce possible to vanquish. +He was still a young man, little beyond thirty, but he had apparently, +when he was preparing for his expedition, a foreboding that he would +not be permitted to attain the end of his labours, or to see otherwise +than afar off the promised land. When he left Carthage he enjoined +his son Hannibal, nine years of age, to swear at the altar of the +supreme God eternal hatred to the Roman name, and reared him and his +younger sons Hasdrubal and Mago--the "lion's brood," as he called +them--in the camp as the inheritors of his projects, of his genius, +and of his hatred. + +Hamilcar Proceed to Spain +Spanish Kingdom of the Barcides + +The new commander-in-chief of Libya departed from Carthage immediately +after the termination of the mercenary war (perhaps in the spring of +518). He apparently meditated an expedition against the free Libyans +in the west. His army, which was especially strong in elephants, +marched along the coast; by its side sailed the fleet, led by his +faithful associate Hasdrubal. Suddenly tidings came that he had +crossed the sea at the Pillars of Hercules and had landed in Spain, +where he was waging war with the natives--with people who had done him +no harm, and without orders from his government, as the Carthaginian +authorities complained. They could not complain at any rate that he +neglected the affairs of Africa; when the Numidians once more +rebelled, his lieutenant Hasdrubal so effectually routed them that +for a long period there was tranquillity on the frontier, and several +tribes hitherto independent submitted to pay tribute. What he +personally did in Spain, we are no longer able to trace in detail. +His achievements compelled Cato the elder, who, a generation after +Hamilcar's death, beheld in Spain the still fresh traces of his +working, to exclaim, notwithstanding all his hatred of the +Carthaginians, that no king was worthy to be named by the side of +Hamilcar Barcas. The results still show to us, at least in a general +way, what was accomplished by Hamilcar as a soldier and a statesman in +the last nine years of his life (518-526)--till in the flower of his +age, fighting bravely in the field of battle, he met his death like +Scharn-horst just as his plans were beginning to reach maturity--and +what during the next eight years (527-534) the heir of his office +and of his plans, his son-in-law Hasdrubal, did to prosecute, in the +spirit of the master, the work which Hamilcar had begun. Instead of +the small entrepot for trade, which, along with the protectorate over +Gades, was all that Carthage had hitherto possessed on the Spanish +coast, and which she had treated as a dependency of Libya, a +Carthaginian kingdom was founded in Spain by the generalship of +Hamilcar, and confirmed by the adroit statesmanship of Hasdrubal. +The fairest regions of Spain, the southern and eastern coasts, +became Phoenician provinces. Towns were founded; above all, "Spanish +Carthage" (Cartagena) was established by Hasdrubal on the only good +harbour along the south coast, containing the splendid "royal castle" +of its founder. Agriculture flourished, and, still more, mining in +consequence of the fortunate discovery of the silver-mines of +Cartagena, which a century afterwards had a yearly produce of more +than 360,000 pounds (36,000,000 sesterces). Most of the communities +as far as the Ebro became dependent on Carthage and paid tribute to +it. Hasdrubal skilfully by every means, even by intermarriages, +attached the chiefs to the interests of Carthage. Thus Carthage +acquired in Spain a rich market for its commerce and manufactures; +and not only did the revenues of the province sustain the army, but +there remained a balance to be remitted to Carthage and reserved for +future use. The province formed and at the same time trained the +army; regular levies took place in the territory subject to Carthage; +the prisoners of war were introduced into the Carthaginian corps. +Contingents and mercenaries, as many as were desired, were supplied +by the dependent communities. During his long life of warfare the +soldier found in the camp a second home, and found a substitute for +patriotism in fidelity to his standard and enthusiastic attachment +to his great leaders. Constant conflicts with the brave Iberians and +Celts created a serviceable infantry, to co-operate with the excellent +Numidian cavalry. + +The Carthaginian Government and the Barcides + +So far as Carthage was concerned, the Barcides were allowed to go on. +Since the citizens were not asked for regular contributions, but on +the contrary some benefit accrued to them and commerce recovered in +Spain what it had lost in Sicily and Sardinia, the Spanish war and the +Spanish army with its brilliant victories and important successes soon +became so popular that it was even possible in particular emergencies, +such as after Hamilcar's fall, to effect the despatch of considerable +reinforcements of African troops to Spain; and the governing party, +whether well or ill affected, had to maintain silence, or at any rate +to content themselves with complaining to each other or to their +friends in Rome regarding the demagogic officers and the mob. + +The Roman Government and the Barcides + +On the part of Rome too nothing took place calculated seriously to +alter the course of Spanish affairs. The first and chief cause of +the inactivity of the Romans was undoubtedly their very want of +acquaintance with the circumstances of the remote peninsula--which was +certainly also Hamilcar's main reason for selecting Spain and not, as +might otherwise have been possible, Africa itself for the execution of +his plan. The explanations with which the Carthaginian generals met +the Roman commissioners sent to Spain to procure information on the +spot, and their assurances that all this was done only to provide +the means of promptly paying the war-contributions to Rome, could not +possibly find belief in the senate. But they probably discerned +only the immediate object of Hamilcar's plans, viz. to procure +compensation in Spain for the tribute and the traffic of the islands +which Carthage had lost; and they deemed an aggressive war on the part +of the Carthaginians, and in particular an invasion of Italy from +Spain--as is evident both from express statements to that effect and +from the whole state of the case--as absolutely impossible. Many, of +course, among the peace party in Carthage saw further; but, whatever +they might think, they could hardly be much inclined to enlighten +their Roman friends as to the impending storm, which the Carthaginian +authorities had long been unable to prevent, for that step would +accelerate, instead of averting, the crisis; and even if they did so, +such denunciations proceeding from partisans would justly be received +with great caution at Rome. By degrees, certainly, the inconceivably +rapid and mighty extension of the Carthaginian power in Spain could +not but excite the observation and awaken the apprehensions of the +Romans. In fact, in the course of the later years before the outbreak +of war, they did attempt to set bounds to it. About the year 528, +mindful of their new-born Hellenism, they concluded an alliance +with the two Greek or semi-Greek towns on the east coast of Spain, +Zacynthus or Saguntum (Murviedro, not far from Valencia), and Emporiae +(Ampurias); and when they acquainted the Carthaginian general +Hasdrubal that they had done so, they at the same time warned him +not to push his conquests over the Ebro, with which he promised +compliance. This was not done by any means to prevent an invasion +of Italy by the land-route--no treaty could fetter the general who +undertook such an enterprise--but partly to set a limit to the +material power of the Spanish Carthaginians which began to be +dangerous, partly to secure the free communities between the Ebro +and the Pyrenees whom Rome thus took under her protection, a basis +of operations in case of its being necessary to land and make war in +Spain. In reference to the impending war with Carthage, which the +senate did not fail to see was inevitable, they hardly apprehended any +greater inconvenience from the events that had occurred in Spain than +that they might be compelled to send some legions thither, and that +the enemy would be somewhat better provided with money and soldiers +than, without Spain, he would have been; they were at any rate firmly +resolved, as the plan of the campaign of 536 shows and as indeed could +not but be the case, to begin and terminate the next war in Africa, +--a course which would at the same time decide the fate of Spain. +Further grounds for delay were suggested during the first years by the +instalments from Carthage, which a declaration of war would have cut +off, and then by the death of Hamilcar, which probably induced friends +and foes to think that his projects must have died with him. Lastly, +during the latter years when the senate certainly began, to apprehend +that it was not prudent long to delay the renewal of the war, there +was the very intelligible wish to dispose of the Gauls in the +valley of the Po in the first instance, for these, threatened with +extirpation, might be expected to avail themselves of any serious war +undertaken by Rome to allure the Transalpine tribes once more to +Italy, and to renew those Celtic migrations which were still fraught +with very great peril. That it was not regard either for the +Carthaginian peace party or for existing treaties which withheld the +Romans from action, is self-evident; moreover, if they desired war, +the Spanish feuds furnished at any moment a ready pretext. The +conduct of Rome in this view is by no means unintelligible; but as +little can it be denied that the Roman senate in dealing with this +matter displayed shortsightedness and slackness--faults which were +still more inexcusably manifested in their mode of dealing at the same +epoch with Gallic affairs. The policy of the Romans was always more +remarkable for tenacity, cunning, and consistency, than for grandeur +of conception or power of rapid organization--qualities in which the +enemies of Rome from Pyrrhus down to Mithradates often surpassed her. + +Hannibal + +Thus the smiles of fortune inaugurated the brilliantly conceived +project of Hamilcar. The means of war were acquired--a numerous army +accustomed to combat and to conquer, and a constantly replenished +exchequer; but, in order that the right moment might be discovered for +the struggle and that the right direction might be given to it, there +was wanted a leader. The man, whose head and heart had in a desperate +emergency and amidst a despairing people paved the way for their +deliverance, was no more, when it became possible to carry out his +design. Whether his successor Hasdrubal forbore to make the attack +because the proper moment seemed to him to have not yet come, or +whether, more a statesman than a general, he believed himself unequal +to the conduct of the enterprise, we are unable to determine. When, +at the beginning of 534, he fell by the hand of an assassin, the +Carthaginian officers of the Spanish army summoned to fill his place +Hannibal, the eldest son of Hamilcar. He was still a young man--born +in 505, and now, therefore, in his twenty-ninth year; but his had +already been a life of manifold experience. His first recollections +pictured to him his father fighting in a distant land and conquering +on Ercte; he had keenly shared that unconquered father's feelings on +the peace of Catulus, on the bitter return home, and throughout the +horrors of the Libyan war. While yet a boy, he had followed his +father to the camp; and he soon distinguished himself. His light +and firmly-knit frame made him an excellent runner and fencer, and a +fearless rider at full speed; the privation of sleep did not affect +him, and he knew like a soldier how to enjoy or to dispense with food. +Although his youth had been spent in the camp, he possessed such +culture as belonged to the Phoenicians of rank in his day; in Greek, +apparently after he had become a general, he made such progress under +the guidance of his confidant Sosilus of Sparta as to be able to +compose state papers in that language. As he grew up, he entered +the army of his father, to perform his first feats of arms under the +paternal eye and to see him fall in battle by his side. Thereafter he +had commanded the cavalry under his sister's husband, Hasdrubal, and +distinguished himself by brilliant personal bravery as well as by his +talents as a leader. The voice of his comrades now summoned him--the +tried, although youthful general--to the chief command, and he could +now execute the designs for which his father and his brother-in-law +had lived and died. He took up the inheritance, and he was worthy of +it. His contemporaries tried to cast stains of various sorts on his +character; the Romans charged him with cruelty, the Carthaginians with +covetousness; and it is true that he hated as only Oriental natures +know how to hate, and that a general who never fell short of money and +stores can hardly have been other than covetous. But though anger and +envy and meanness have written his history, they have not been able to +mar the pure and noble image which it presents. Laying aside wretched +inventions which furnish their own refutation, and some things which +his lieutenants, particularly Hannibal Monomachus and Mago the +Samnite, were guilty of doing in his name, nothing occurs in the +accounts regarding him which may not be justified under the +circumstances, and according to the international law, of the times; +and all agree in this, that he combined in rare perfection discretion +and enthusiasm, caution and energy. He was peculiarly marked by that +inventive craftiness, which forms one of the leading traits of the +Phoenician character; he was fond of taking singular and unexpected +routes; ambushes and stratagems of all sorts were familiar to him; +and he studied the character of his antagonists with unprecedented +care. By an unrivalled system of espionage--he had regular spies even +in Rome--he kept himself informed of the projects of the enemy; he +himself was frequently seen wearing disguises and false hair, in order +to procure information on some point or other. Every page of the +history of this period attests his genius in strategy; and his gifts +as a statesman were, after the peace with Rome, no less conspicuously +displayed in his reform of the Carthaginian constitution, and in the +unparalleled influence which as a foreign exile he exercised in the +cabinets of the eastern powers. The power which he wielded over men +is shown by his incomparable control over an army of various nations +and many tongues--an army which never in the worst times mutinied +against him. He was a great man; wherever he went, he riveted the +eyes of all. + +Rupture between Rome and Carthage + +Hannibal resolved immediately after his nomination (in the spring +of 534) to commence the war. The land of the Celts was still in a +ferment, and a war seemed imminent between Rome and Macedonia: he had +good reason now to throw off the mask without delay and to carry the +war whithersoever he pleased, before the Romans began it at their own +convenience with a descent on Africa. His army was soon ready to take +the field, and his exchequer was filled by some razzias on a great +scale; but the Carthaginian government showed itself far from desirous +of despatching the declaration of war to Rome. The place of +Hasdrubal, the patriotic national leader, was even more difficult +to fill in Carthage than that of Hasdrubal the general in Spain; the +peace party had now the ascendency at home, and persecuted the leaders +of the war party with political indictments. The rulers who had +already cut down and mutilated the plans of Hamilcar were by no means +inclined to allow the unknown young man, who now commanded in Spain, +to vent his youthful patriotism at the expense of the state; and +Hannibal hesitated personally to declare war in open opposition to the +legitimate authorities. He tried to provoke the Saguntines to break +the peace; but they contented themselves with making a complaint to +Rome. Then, when a commission from Rome appeared, he tried to +drive it to a declaration of war by treating it rudely; but the +commissioners saw how matters stood: they kept silence in Spain, +with a view to lodge complaints at Carthage and to report at home that +Hannibal was ready to strike and that war was imminent. Thus the time +passed away; accounts had already come of the death of Antigonus +Doson, who had suddenly died nearly at the same time with Hasdrubal; +in Cisalpine Gaul the establishment of fortresses was carried on by +the Romans with redoubled rapidity and energy; preparations were made +in Rome for putting a speedy end in the course of the next spring to +the insurrection in Illyria. Every day was precious; Hannibal formed +his resolution. He sent summary intimation to Carthage that the +Saguntines were making aggressions on the Torboletes, subjects of +Carthage, and he must therefore attack them; and without waiting for +a reply he began in the spring of 535 the siege of a town which was in +alliance with Rome, or, in other words, war against Rome. We may form +some idea of the views and counsels that would prevail in Carthage +from the impression produced in certain circles by York's +capitulation. All "respectable men," it was said, disapproved an +attack made "without orders"; there was talk of disavowal, of +surrendering the daring officer. But whether it was that dread of the +army and of the multitude nearer home outweighed in the Carthaginian +council the fear of Rome; or that they perceived the impossibility +of retracing such a step once taken; or that the mere -vis inertiae- +prevented any definite action, they resolved at length to resolve on +nothing and, if not to wage war, to let it nevertheless be waged. +Saguntum defended itself, as only Spanish towns know how to conduct +defence: had the Romans showed but a tithe of the energy of their +clients, and not trifled away their time during the eight months' +siege of Saguntum in the paltry warfare with Illyrian brigands, they +might, masters as they were of the sea and of places suitable for +landing, have spared themselves the disgrace of failing to grant the +protection which they had promised, and might perhaps have given a +different turn to the war. But they delayed, and the town was at +length taken by storm. When Hannibal sent the spoil for distribution +to Carthage, patriotism and zeal for war were roused in the hearts of +many who had hitherto felt nothing of the kind, and the distribution +cut off all prospect of coming to terms with Rome. Accordingly, when +after the destruction of Saguntum a Roman embassy appeared at Carthage +and demanded the surrender of the general and of the gerusiasts +present in the camp, and when the Roman spokesman, interrupting an +attempt at justification, broke off the discussion and, gathering +up his robe, declared that he held in it peace and war and that the +gerusia might choose between them, the gerusiasts mustered courage +to reply that they left it to the choice of the Roman; and when he +offered war, they accepted it (in the spring of 536). + +Preparations for Attacking Italy + +Hannibal, who had lost a whole year through the obstinate resistance +of the Saguntines, had as usual retired for the winter of 535-6 to +Cartagena, to make all his preparations on the one hand for the attack +of Italy, on the other for the defence of Spain and Africa; for, as +he, like his father and his brother-in-law, held the supreme command +in both countries, it devolved upon him to take measures also for the +protection of his native land. The whole mass of his forces amounted +to about 120,000 infantry and 16,000 cavalry; he had also 58 +elephants, 32 quinqueremes manned, and 18 not manned, besides the +elephants and vessels remaining at the capital. Excepting a few +Ligurians among the light troops, there were no mercenaries in this +Carthaginian army; the troops, with the exception of some Phoenician +squadrons, consisted mainly of the Carthaginian subjects called out +for service--Libyans and Spaniards. To insure the fidelity of the +latter the general, who knew the men with whom he had to deal, gave +them as a proof of his confidence a general leave of absence for the +whole winter; while, not sharing the narrow-minded exclusiveness of +Phoenician patriotism, he promised to the Libyans on his oath the +citizenship of Carthage, should they return to Africa victorious. +This mass of troops however was only destined in part for the +expedition to Italy. Some 20,000 men were sent to Africa, the smaller +portion of them proceeding to the capital and the Phoenician territory +proper, the majority to the western point of Africa. For the +protection of Spain 12,000 infantry, 2500 cavalry, and nearly the half +of the elephants were left behind, in addition to the fleet stationed +there; the chief command and the government of Spain were entrusted +to Hannibal's younger brother Hasdrubal. The immediate territory of +Carthage was comparatively weakly garrisoned, because the capital +afforded in case of need sufficient resources; in like manner a +moderate number of infantry sufficed for the present in Spain, where +new levies could be procured with ease, whereas a comparatively large +proportion of the arms specially African--horses and elephants--was +retained there. The chief care was bestowed in securing the +communications between Spain and Africa: with that view the fleet +remained in Spain, and western Africa was guarded by a very strong +body of troops. The fidelity of the troops was secured not only by +hostages collected from the Spanish communities and detained in the +stronghold of Saguntum, but by the removal of the soldiers from the +districts where they were raised to other quarters: the east African +militia were moved chiefly to Spain, the Spanish to Western Africa, +the West African to Carthage. Adequate provision was thus made for +defence. As to offensive measures, a squadron of 20 quinqueremes with +1000 soldiers on board was to sail from Carthage for the west coast of +Italy and to pillage it, and a second of 25 sail was, if possible, +to re-establish itself at Lilybaeum; Hannibal believed that he might +count upon the government making this moderate amount of exertion. +With the main army he determined in person to invade Italy; as was +beyond doubt part of the original plan of Hamilcar. A decisive attack +on Rome was only possible in Italy, as a similar attack on Carthage +was only possible in Libya; as certainly as Rome meant to begin her +next campaign with the latter, so certainly ought Carthage not to +confine herself at the outset either to any secondary object of +operations, such as Sicily, or to mere defence--defeat would in +any case involve equal destruction, but victory would not yield +equal fruit. + +Method of Attack + +But how could Italy be attacked? He might succeed in reaching the +peninsula by sea or by land; but if the project was to be no mere +desperate adventure, but a military expedition with a strategic aim, +a nearer basis for its operations was requisite than Spain or Africa. +Hannibal could not rely for support on a fleet and a fortified +harbour, for Rome was now mistress of the sea. As little did the +territory of the Italian confederacy present any tenable basis. If +in very different times, and in spite of Hellenic sympathies, it had +withstood the shock of Pyrrhus, it was not to be expected that it +would now fall to pieces on the appearance of the Phoenician general; +an invading army would without doubt be crushed between the network of +Roman fortresses and the firmly-consolidated confederacy. The land of +the Ligurians and Celts alone could be to Hannibal, what Poland was to +Napoleon in his very similar Russian campaigns. These tribes still +smarting under their scarcely ended struggle for independence, alien +in race from the Italians, and feeling their very existence endangered +by the chain of Roman fortresses and highways whose first coils were +even now being fastened around them, could not but recognize their +deliverers in the Phoenician army (which numbered in its ranks +numerous Spanish Celts), and would serve as a first support for it to +fall back upon--a source whence it might draw supplies and recruits. +Already formal treaties were concluded with the Boii and the Insubres, +by which they bound themselves to send guides to meet the Carthaginian +army, to procure for it a good reception from the cognate tribes and +supplies along its route, and to rise against the Romans as soon as +it should set foot on Italian ground. In fine, the relations of Rome +with the east led the Carthaginians to this same quarter. Macedonia, +which by the victory of Sellasia had re-established its sovereignty +in the Peloponnesus, was in strained relations with Rome; Demetrius of +Pharos, who had exchanged the Roman alliance for that of Macedonia +and had been dispossessed by the Romans, lived as an exile at the +Macedonian court, and the latter had refused the demand which the +Romans made for his surrender. If it was possible to combine the +armies from the Guadalquivir and the Karasu anywhere against the +common foe, it could only be done on the Po. Thus everything directed +Hannibal to Northern Italy; and that the eyes of his father had +already been turned to that quarter, is shown by the reconnoitring +party of Carthaginians, whom the Romans to their great surprise +encountered in Liguria in 524. + +The reason for Hannibal's preference of the land route to that by sea +is less obvious; for that neither the maritime supremacy of the Romans +nor their league with Massilia could have prevented a landing at +Genoa, is evident, and was shown by the sequel. Our authorities fail +to furnish us with several of the elements, on which a satisfactory +answer to this question would depend, and which cannot be supplied by +conjecture. Hannibal had to choose between two evils. Instead of +exposing himself to the unknown and less calculable contingencies of +a sea voyage and of naval war, it must have seemed to him the better +course to accept the assurances, which beyond doubt were seriously +meant, of the Boii and Insubres, and the more so that, even if the +army should land at Genoa, it would still have mountains to cross; +he could hardly know exactly, how much smaller are the difficulties +presented by the Apennines at Genoa than by the main chain of the +Alps. At any rate the route which he took was the primitive Celtic +route, by which many much larger hordes had crossed the Alps: the +ally and deliverer of the Celtic nation might without temerity +venture to traverse it. + +Departure of Hannibal + +So Hannibal collected the troops, destined for the grand army, in +Cartagena at the beginning of the favourable season; there were 90,000 +infantry and 12,000 cavalry, of whom about two-thirds were Africans +and a third Spaniards. The 37 elephants which they took with them +were probably destined rather to make an impression on the Gauls than +for serious warfare. Hannibal's infantry no longer needed, like that +led by Xanthippus, to shelter itself behind a screen of elephants, and +the general had too much sagacity to employ otherwise than sparingly +and with caution that two-edged weapon, which had as often occasioned +the defeat of its own as of the enemy's army. With this force the +general set out in the spring of 536 from Cartagena towards the Ebro. +He so far informed his soldiers as to the measures which he had taken, +particularly as to the connections he had entered into with the Celts +and the resources and object of the expedition, that even the common +soldier, whose military instincts lengthened war had developed, felt +the clear perception and the steady hand of his leader, and followed +him with implicit confidence to the unknown and distant land; and the +fervid address, in which he laid before them the position of their +country and the demands of the Romans, the slavery certainly reserved +for their dear native land, and the disgrace of the imputation that +they could surrender their beloved general and his staff, kindled a +soldierly and patriotic ardour in the hearts of all. + +Position of Rome +Their Uncertain Plans for War + +The Roman state was in a plight, such as may occur even in firmly- +established and sagacious aristocracies. The Romans knew doubtless +what they wished to accomplish, and they took various steps; but +nothing was done rightly or at the right time. They might long ago +have been masters of the gates of the Alps and have settled matters +with the Celts; the latter were still formidable, and the former were +open. They might either have had friendship, with Carthage, had they +honourably kept the peace of 513, or, had they not been disposed for +peace, they might long ago have conquered Cartilage: the peace was +practically broken by the seizure of Sardinia, and they allowed the +power of Carthage to recover itself undisturbed for twenty years. +There was no great difficulty in maintaining peace with Macedonia; but +they had forfeited her friendship for a trifling gain. There must +have been a lack of some leading statesman to take a connected and +commanding view of the position of affairs; on all hands either too +little was done, or too much. Now the war began at a time and at a +place which they had allowed the enemy to determine; and, with all +their well-founded conviction of military superiority, they were +perplexed as to the object to be aimed at and the course to be +followed in their first operations. They had at their disposal more +than half a million of serviceable soldiers; the Roman cavalry alone +was less good, and relatively less numerous, than the Carthaginian, +the former constituting about a tenth, the latter an eighth, of the +whole number of troops taking the field. None of the states affected +by the war had any fleet corresponding to the Roman fleet of 220 +quinqueremes, which had just returned from the Adriatic to the western +sea. The natural and proper application of this crushing superiority +of force was self-evident. It had been long settled that the war +ought to be opened with a landing in Africa. The subsequent turn +taken by events had compelled the Romans to embrace in their scheme +of the war a simultaneous landing in Spain, chiefly to prevent the +Spanish army from appearing before the walls of Carthage. In +accordance with this plan they ought above all, when the war had been +practically opened by Hannibal's attack on Saguntum in the beginning +of 535, to have thrown a Roman army into Spain before the town fell; +but they neglected the dictates of interest no less than of honour. +For eight months Saguntum held out in vain: when the town passed into +other hands, Rome had not even equipped her armament for landing in +Spain. The country, however, between the Ebro and the Pyrenees was +still free, and its tribes were not only the natural allies of the +Romans, but had also, like the Saguntines, received from Roman +emissaries promises of speedy assistance. Catalonia may be reached by +sea from Italy in not much longer time than from Cartagena by and: had +the Romans started, like the Phoenicians, in April, after the formal +declaration of war that had taken place in the interval, Hannibal +might have encountered the Roman legions on the line of the Ebro. + +Hannibal on the Ebro + +At length, certainly, the greater part of the army and of the fleet +was got ready for the expedition to Africa, and the second consul +Publius Cornelius Scipio was ordered to the Ebro; but he took time, +and when an insurrection broke out on the Po, he allowed the army that +was ready for embarkation to be employed there, and formed new legions +for the Spanish expedition. So although Hannibal encountered on the +Ebro very vehement resistance, it proceeded only from the natives; +and, as under existing circumstances time was still more precious to +him than the blood of his men, he surmounted the opposition after some +months with the loss of a fourth part of his army, and reached the +line of the Pyrenees. That the Spanish allies of Rome would be +sacrificed a second time by that delay might have been as certainly +foreseen, as the delay itself might have been easily avoided; but +probably even the expedition to Italy itself, which in the spring of +536 must not have been anticipated in Rome, would have been averted +by the timely appearance of the Romans in Spain. Hannibal had by no +means the intention of sacrificing his Spanish "kingdom," and throwing +himself like a desperado on Italy. The time which he had spent in +the siege of Saguntum and in the reduction of Catalonia, and the +considerable corps which he left behind for the occupation of the +newly-won territory between the Ebro and the Pyrenees, sufficiently +show that, had a Roman army disputed the possession of Spain with him, +he would not have been content to withdraw from it; and--which was the +main point--had the Romans been able to delay his departure from Spain +for but a few weeks, winter would have closed the passes of the Alps +before Hannibal reached them, and the African expedition would have +departed without hindrance for its destination. + +Hannibal in Gaul +Scipio at Massilia +Passage of the Rhone + +Arrived at the Pyrenees, Hannibal sent home a portion of his troops; +a measure which he had resolved on from the first with the view of +showing to the soldiers how confident their general was of success, +and of checking the feeling that his enterprise was one of those from +which there is no return home. With an army of 50,000 infantry and +9000 cavalry, entirely veteran soldiers, he crossed the Pyrenees +without difficulty, and then took the coast route by Narbonne and +Nimes through the Celtic territory, which was opened to the army +partly by the connections previously formed, partly by Carthaginian +gold, partly by arms. It was not till it arrived in the end of July +at the Rhone opposite Avignon, that a serious resistance appeared to +await it. The consul Scipio, who on his voyage to Spain had landed at +Massilia (about the end of June), had there been informed that he had +come too late and that Hannibal had crossed not only the Ebro but the +Pyrenees. On receiving these accounts, which appear to have first +opened the eyes of the Romans to the course and the object of +Hannibal, the consul had temporarily given up his expedition to Spain, +and had resolved in connection with the Celtic tribes of that region, +who were under the influence of the Massiliots and thereby under that +of Rome, to receive the Phoenicians on the Rhone, and to obstruct +their passage of the river and their march into Italy. Fortunately +for Hannibal, opposite to the point at which he meant to cross, there +lay at the moment only the general levy of the Celts, while the consul +himself with his army of 22,000 infantry and 2000 horse was still in +Massilia, four days' march farther down the stream. The messengers of +the Gallic levy hastened to inform him. It was the object of Hannibal +to convey his army with its numerous cavalry and elephants across the +rapid stream under the eyes of the enemy, and before the arrival of +Scipio; and he possessed not a single boat. Immediately by his +directions all the boats belonging to the numerous navigators of +the Rhone in the neighbourhood were bought up at any price, and the +deficiency of boats was supplied by rafts made from felled trees; +and in fact the whole numerous army could be conveyed over in one day. +While this was being done, a strong division under Hanno, son of +Bomilcar, proceeded by forced marches up the stream till they reached +a suitable point for crossing, which they found undefended, situated +two short days' march above Avignon. Here they crossed the river on +hastily constructed rafts, with the view of then moving down on the +left bank and taking the Gauls, who were barring the passage of the +main army, in the rear. On the morning of the fifth day after they +had reached the Rhone, and of the third after Hanno's departure, the +smoke-signals of the division that had been detached rose up on the +opposite bank and gave to Hannibal the anxiously awaited summons for +the crossing. Just as the Gauls, seeing that the enemy's fleet of +boats began to move, were hastening to occupy the bank, their camp +behind them suddenly burst into flames. Surprised and divided, they +were unable either to withstand the attack or to resist the passage, +and they dispersed in hasty flight. + +Scipio meanwhile held councils of war in Massilia as to the proper +mode of occupying the ferries of the Rhone, and was not induced to +move even by the urgent messages that came from the leaders of the +Celts. He distrusted their accounts, and he contented himself with +detaching a weak Roman cavalry division to reconnoitre on the left +bank of the Rhone. This detachment found the whole enemy's army +already transported to that bank, and occupied in bringing over the +elephants which alone remained on the right bank of the stream; and, +after it had warmly engaged some Carthaginian squadrons in the +district of Avignon, merely for the purpose of enabling it to complete +its reconnaissance--the first encounter of the Romans and Phoenicians +in this war--it hastily returned to report at head-quarters. Scipio +now started in the utmost haste with all his troops for Avignon; but, +when he arrived there, even the Carthaginian cavalry that had been +left behind to cover the passage of the elephants had already taken +its departure three days ago, and nothing remained for the consul but +to return with weary troops and little credit to Massilia, and to +revile the "cowardly flight" of the Punic leader. Thus the Romans had +for the third time through pure negligence abandoned their allies and +an important line of defence; and not only so, but by passing after +this first blunder from mistaken slackness to mistaken haste, and by +still attempting without any prospect of success to do what might have +been done with so much certainty a few days before, they let the real +means of repairing their error pass out of their hands. When once +Hannibal was in the Celtic territory on the Roman side of the Rhone, +he could no longer be prevented from reaching the Alps; but if Scipio +had at the first accounts proceeded with his whole army to Italy--the +Po might have been reached by way of Genoa in seven days--and had +united with his corps the weak divisions in the valley of the Po, +he might have at least prepared a formidable reception for the enemy. +But not only did he lose precious time in the march to Avignon, but, +capable as otherwise he was, he wanted either the political courage +or the military sagacity to change the destination of his corps as the +change of circumstances required. He sent the main body under his +brother Gnaeus to Spain, and returned himself with a few men to Pisae. + +Hannibal's Passage of the Alps + +Hannibal, who after the passage of the Rhone had in a great assembly +of the army explained to his troops the object of his expedition, and +had brought forward the Celtic chief Magilus himself, who had arrived +from the valley of the Po, to address the army through an interpreter, +meanwhile continued his march to the passes of the Alps without +obstruction. Which of these passes he should choose, could not be +at once determined either by the shortness of the route or by the +disposition of the inhabitants, although he had no time to lose +either in circuitous routes or in combat. He had necessarily to +select a route which should be practicable for his baggage, his +numerous cavalry, and his elephants, and in which an army could +procure sufficient means of subsistence either by friendship or by +force; for, although Hannibal had made preparations to convey +provisions after him on beasts of burden, these could only meet for +a few days the wants of an army which still, notwithstanding its great +losses, amounted to nearly 50,000 men. Leaving out of view the coast +route, which Hannibal abstained from taking not because the Romans +barred it, but because it would have led him away from his +destination, there were only two routes of note leading across the +Alps from Gaul to Italy in ancient times:(3) the pass of the Cottian +Alps (Mont Genevre) leading into the territory of the Taurini (by Susa +or Fenestrelles to Turin), and that of the Graian Alps (the Little St. +Bernard) leading into the territory of the Salassi (to Aosta and +Ivrea). The former route is the shorter; but, after leaving the +valley of the Rhone, it passes by the impracticable and unfruitful +river-valleys of the Drac, the Romanche, and the upper Durance, +through a difficult and poor mountain country, and requires at least +a seven or eight days' mountain march. A military road was first +constructed there by Pompeius, to furnish a shorter communication +between the provinces of Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul. + +The route by the Little St. Bernard is somewhat longer; but after +crossing the first Alpine wall that forms the eastern boundary of +the Rhone valley, it keeps by the valley of the upper Isere, which +stretches from Grenoble by way of Chambery up to the very foot of the +Little St. Bernard or, in other words, of the chain of the higher +Alps, and is the broadest, most fertile and most populous of all the +Alpine valleys. Moreover, the pass of the Little St. Bernard, while +not the lowest of all the natural passes of the Alps, is by far the +easiest; although no artificial road was constructed there, an +Austrian corps with artillery crossed the Alps by that route in 1815. +And lastly this route, which only leads over two mountain ridges, has +been from the earliest times the great military route from the Celtic +to the Italian territory. The Carthaginian army had thus in fact no +choice. It was a fortunate coincidence, but not a motive influencing +the decision of Hannibal, that the Celtic tribes allied with him in +Italy inhabited the country up to the Little St. Bernard, while +the route by Mont Genevre would have brought him at first into the +territory of the Taurini, who were from ancient times at feud with +the Insubres. + +So the Carthaginian army marched in the first instance up the Rhone +towards the valley of the upper Isere, not, as might be presumed, by +the nearest route up the left bank of the lower Isere from Valence to +Grenoble, but through the "island" of the Allobroges, the rich, and +even then thickly peopled, low ground, which is enclosed on the north +and west by the Rhone, on the south by the Isere, and on the east +by the Alps. The reason of this movement was, that the nearest route +would have led them through an impracticable and poor mountain- +country, while the "island" was level and extremely fertile, and was +separated by but a single mountain-wall from the valley of the upper +Isere. The march along the Rhone into, and across, the "island" +to the foot of the Alpine wall was accomplished in sixteen days: it +presented little difficulty, and in the "island" itself Hannibal +dexterously availed himself of a feud that had broken out between two +chieftains of the Allobroges to attach to his interests one of the +most important of the chiefs, who not only escorted the Carthaginians +through the whole plain, but also supplied them with provisions, and +furnished the soldiers with arms, clothing, and shoes. But the +expedition narrowly escaped destruction at the crossing of the first +Alpine chain, which rises precipitously like a wall, and over which +only a single available path leads (over the Mont du Chat, near the +hamlet Chevelu). The population of the Allobroges had strongly +occupied the pass. Hannibal learned the state of matters early enough +to avoid a surprise, and encamped at the foot, until after sunset the +Celts dispersed to the houses of the nearest town; he then seized the +pass in the night Thus the summit was gained; but on the extremely +steep path, which leads down from the summit to the lake of Bourget, +the mules and horses slipped and fell. The assaults, which at +suitable points were made by the Celts upon the army in march, were +very annoying, not so much of themselves as by reason of the turmoil +which they occasioned; and when Hannibal with his light troops threw +himself from above on the Allobroges, these were chased doubtless +without difficulty and with heavy loss down the mountain, but the +confusion, in the train especially, was further increased by the noise +of the combat. So, when after much loss he arrived in the plain, +Hannibal immediately attacked the nearest town, to chastise and +terrify the barbarians, and at the same time to repair as far as +possible his loss in sumpter animals and horses. After a day's repose +in the pleasant valley of Chambery the army continued its march up the +Isere, without being detained either by want of supplies or by attacks +so long as the valley continued broad and fertile. It was only when +on the fourth day they entered the territory of the Ceutrones (the +modern Tarantaise) where the valley gradually contracts, that they had +again greater occasion to be on their guard. The Ceutrones received +the army at the boundary of their country (somewhere about Conflans) +with branches and garlands, furnished cattle for slaughter, guides, +and hostages; and the Carthaginians marched through their territory +as through a friendly land. When, however, the troops had reached the +very foot of the Alps, at the point where the path leaves the Isere, +and winds by a narrow and difficult defile along the brook Reclus +up to the summit of the St. Bernard, all at once the militia of the +Ceutrones appeared partly in the rear of the army, partly on the +crests of the rocks enclosing the pass on the right and left, in +the hope of cutting off the train and baggage. But Hannibal, whose +unerring tact had seen in all those advances made by the Ceutrones +nothing but the design of procuring at once immunity for their +territory and a rich spoil, had in expectation of such an attack +sent forward the baggage and cavalry, and covered the march with all +his infantry. By this means he frustrated the design of the enemy, +although he could not prevent them from moving along the mountain +slopes parallel to the march of the infantry, and inflicting very +considerable loss by hurling or rolling down stones. At the "white +stone" (still called -la roche blanche-), a high isolated chalk cliff +standing at the foot of the St. Bernard and commanding the ascent to +it, Hannibal encamped with his infantry, to cover the march of the +horses and sumpter animals laboriously climbing upward throughout +the whole night; and amidst continual and very bloody conflicts he at +length on the following day reached the summit of the pass. There, +on the sheltered table-land which spreads to the extent of two and a +half miles round a little lake, the source of the Doria, he allowed +the army to rest. Despondency had begun to seize the minds of the +soldiers. The paths that were becoming ever more difficult, the +provisions failing, the marching through defiles exposed to the +constant attacks of foes whom they could not reach, the sorely thinned +ranks, the hopeless situation of the stragglers and the wounded, the +object which appeared chimerical to all save the enthusiastic leader +and his immediate staff--all these things began to tell even on the +African and Spanish veterans. But the confidence of the general +remained ever the same; numerous stragglers rejoined the ranks; the +friendly Gauls were near; the watershed was reached, and the view of +the descending path, so gladdening to the mountain-pilgrim, opened up: +after a brief repose they prepared with renewed courage for the last +and most difficult undertaking, --the downward march. In it the army +was not materially annoyed by the enemy; but the advanced season--it +was already the beginning of September--occasioned troubles in the +descent, equal to those which had been occasioned in the ascent by the +attacks of the adjoining tribes. On the steep and slippery mountain- +slope along the Doria, where the recently-fallen snow had concealed +and obliterated the paths, men and animals went astray and slipped, +and were precipitated into the chasms. In fact, towards the end of +the first day's march they reached a portion of the path about 200 +paces in length, on which avalanches are constantly descending from +the precipices of the Cramont that overhang it, and where in cold +summers snow lies throughout the year. The infantry passed over; +but the horses and elephants were unable to cross the smooth masses +of ice, on which there lay but a thin covering of freshly-fallen snow, +and the general encamped above the difficult spot with the baggage, +the cavalry, and the elephants. On the following day the horsemen, +by zealous exertion in entrenching, prepared a path for horses and +beasts of burden; but it was not until after a further labour of three +days with constant reliefs, that the half-famished elephants could at +length be conducted over. In this way the whole army was after a +delay of four days once more united; and after a further three days' +march through the valley of the Doria, which was ever widening and +displaying greater fertility, and whose inhabitants the Salassi, +clients of the Insubres, hailed in the Carthaginians their allies +and deliverers, the army arrived about the middle of September in the +plain of Ivrea, where the exhausted troops were quartered in the +villages, that by good nourishment and a fortnight's repose they might +recruit from their unparalleled hardships. Had the Romans placed a +corps, as they might have done, of 30,000 men thoroughly fresh and +ready for action somewhere near Turin, and immediately forced on a +battle, the prospects of Hannibal's great plan would have been very +dubious; fortunately for him, once more, they were not where they +should have been, and they did not disturb the troops of the enemy +in the repose which was so greatly needed.(4) + +Results + +The object was attained, but at a heavy cost. Of the 50,000 +veteran infantry and the 9000 cavalry, which the army had numbered +at the crossing of the Pyrenees, more than half had been sacrificed +in the conflicts, the marches, and the passages of the rivers. +Hannibal now, according to his own statement, numbered not more +than 20,000 infantry--of whom three-fifths were Libyans and two-fifths +Spaniards--and 6000 cavalry, part of them doubtless dismounted: the +comparatively small loss of the latter proclaimed the excellence of +the Numidian cavalry no less than the consideration of the general +in making a sparing use of troops so select. A march of 526 miles or +about 33 moderate days' marching--the continuance and termination of +which were disturbed by no special misfortunes on a great scale that +could not be anticipated, but were, on the other hand, rendered +possible only by incalculable pieces of good fortune and still more +incalculable blunders of the enemy, and which yet not only cost such +sacrifices, but so fatigued and demoralized the army, that it needed +a prolonged rest in order to be again ready for action--is a military +operation of doubtful value, and it may be questioned whether Hannibal +himself regarded it as successful. Only in so speaking we may not +pronounce an absolute censure on the general: we see well the defects +of the plan of operations pursued by him, but we cannot determine +whether he was in a position to foresee them--his route lay through +an unknown land of barbarians--or whether any other plan, such as that +of taking the coast road or of embarking at Cartagena or at Carthage, +would have exposed him to fewer dangers. The cautious and masterly +execution of the plan in its details at any rate deserves our +admiration, and to whatever causes the result may have been due +--whether it was due mainly to the favour of fortune, or mainly to +the skill of the general--the grand idea of Hamilcar, that of taking +up the conflict with Rome in Italy, was now realized. It was his +genius that projected this expedition; and as the task of Stein and +Scharnhorst was more difficult and nobler than that of York and +Blucher, so the unerring tact of historical tradition has always dwelt +on the last link in the great chain of preparatory steps, the passage +of the Alps, with a greater admiration than on the battles of the +Trasimene lake and of the plain of Cannae. + + + + +Notes for Chapter IV + + +1. Our accounts as to these events are not only imperfect but one- +sided, for of course it was the version of the Carthaginian peace +party which was adopted by the Roman annalists. Even, however, in +our fragmentary and confused accounts (the most important are those of +Fabius, in Polyb. iii. 8; Appian. Hisp. 4; and Diodorus, xxv. p. 567) +the relations of the parties appear dearly enough. Of the vulgar +gossip by which its opponents sought to blacken the "revolutionary +combination" (--etaireia ton ponerotaton anthropon--) specimens may +be had in Nepos (Ham. 3), to which it will be difficult perhaps +to find a parallel. + +2. The Barca family conclude the most important state treaties, and +the ratification of the governing board is a formality (Pol. iii. 21). +Rome enters her protest before them and before the senate (Pol. iii. +15). The position of the Barca family towards Carthage in many points +resembles that of the Princes of Orange towards the States-General. + +3. It was not till the middle ages that the route by Mont Cenis became +a military road. The eastern passes, such as that over the Poenine +Alps or the Great St. Bernard--which, moreover, was only converted +into a military road by Caesar and Augustus--are, of course, in this +case out of the question. + +4. The much-discussed questions of topography, connected with this +celebrated expedition, may be regarded as cleared up and substantially +solved by the masterly investigations of Messrs. Wickham and Cramer. +Respecting the chronological questions, which likewise present +difficulties, a few remarks may be exceptionally allowed to have +a place here. + +When Hannibal reached the summit of the St. Bernard, "the peaks were +already beginning to be thickly covered with snow" (Pol. iii. 54), +snow lay on the route (Pol. iii. 55), perhaps for the most part snow +not freshly fallen, but proceeding from the fall of avalanches. At +the St. Bernard winter begins about Michaelmas, and the falling of +snow in September; when the Englishmen already mentioned crossed +the mountain at the end of August, they found almost no snow on +their road, but the slopes on both sides were covered with it. +Hannibal thus appears to have arrived at the pass in the beginning +of September; which is quite compatible with the statement that +he arrived there "when the winter was already approaching" +--for --sunaptein ten tes pleiados dusin-- (Pol. iii. 54) does +not mean anything more than this, least of all, the day of the +heliacal setting of the Pleiades (about 26th October); comp. +Ideler, Chronol. i. 241. + +If Hannibal reached Italy nine days later, and therefore about the +middle of September, there is room for the events that occurred from +that time up to the battle of the Trebia towards the end of December +(--peri cheimerinas tropas--, Pol. iii. 72), and in particular for +the transporting of the army destined for Africa from Lilybaeum to +Placentia. This hypothesis further suits the statement that the +day of departure was announced at an assembly of the army --upo ten +earinen oran-- (Pol. iii. 34), and therefore towards the end of March, +and that the march lasted five (or, according to App. vii. 4, six) +months. If Hannibal was thus at the St. Bernard in the beginning of +September, he must have reached the Rhone at the beginning of August +--for he spent thirty days in making his way from the Rhone thither +--and in that case it is evident that Scipio, who embarked at +the beginning of summer (Pol. iii. 41) and so at latest by the +commencement of June, must have spent much time on the voyage or +remained for a considerable period in singular inaction at Massilia. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +The War under Hannibal to the Battle of Cannae + +Hannibal and the Italian Celts + +The appearance of the Carthaginian army on the Roman side of the Alps +changed all at once the situation of affairs, and disconcerted the +Roman plan of war. Of the two principal armies of the Romans, one had +landed in Spain and was already engaged with the enemy there: it was +no longer possible to recall it. The second, which was destined +for Africa under the command of the consul Tiberius Sempronius, was +fortunately still in Sicily: in this instance Roman delay for once +proved useful. Of the two Carthaginian squadrons destined for Italy +and Sicily, the first was dispersed by a storm, and some of its +vessels were captured by the Syracusans near Messana; the second had +endeavoured in vain to surprise Lilybaeum, and had thereafter been +defeated in a naval engagement off that port. But the continuance of +the enemy's squadrons in the Italian waters was so inconvenient, that +the consul determined, before crossing to Africa, to occupy the small +islands around Sicily, and to drive away the Carthaginian fleet +operating against Italy. The summer passed away in the conquest of +Melita, in the chase after the enemy's squadron, which he expected +to find at the Lipari islands while it had made a descent near Vibo +(Monteleone) and pillaged the Bruttian coast, and, lastly, in gaining +information as to a suitable spot for landing on the coast of Africa; +so that the army and fleet were still at Lilybaeum, when orders +arrived from the senate that they should return with all possible +speed for the defence of their homes. + +In this way, while the two great Roman armies, each in itself equal +in numbers to that of Hannibal, remained at a great distance from the +valley of the Po, the Romans were quite unprepared for an attack in +that quarter. No doubt a Roman army was there, in consequence of +an insurrection that had broken out among the Celts even before the +arrival of the Carthaginian army. The founding of the two Roman +strongholds of Placentia and Cremona, each of which received 6000 +colonists, and more especially the preparations for the founding of +Mutina in the territory of the Boii, had already in the spring of 536 +driven the Boii to revolt before the time concerted with Hannibal; +and the Insubres had immediately joined them. The colonists already +settled in the territory of Mutina, suddenly attacked, took refuge in +the town. The praetor Lucius Manlius, who held the chief command at +Ariminum, hastened with his single legion to relieve the blockaded +colonists; but he was surprised in the woods, and no course was left +to him after sustaining great loss but to establish himself upon a +hill and to submit to a siege there on the part of the Boii, till +a second legion sent from Rome under the praetor Lucius Atilius +succeeded in relieving army and town, and in suppressing for the +moment the Gaulish insurrection. This premature rising of the Boii +on the one hand, by delaying the departure of Scipio for Spain, +essentially promoted the plans of Hannibal; on the other hand, but +for its occurrence he would have found the valley of the Po entirely +unoccupied, except the fortresses. But the Roman corps, whose two +severely thinned legions did not number 20,000 soldiers, had enough +to do to keep the Celts in check, and did not think of occupying the +passes of the Alps. The Romans only learned that the passes were +threatened, when in August the consul Publius Scipio returned without +his army from Massilia to Italy, and perhaps even then they gave +little heed to the matter, because, forsooth, the foolhardy attempt +would be frustrated by the Alps alone. Thus at the decisive hour and +on the decisive spot there was not even a Roman outpost. Hannibal had +full time to rest his army, to capture after a three days' siege the +capital of the Taurini which closed its gates against him, and to +induce or terrify into alliance with him all the Ligurian and Celtic +communities in the upper basin of the Po, before Scipio, who had +taken the command in the Po valley, encountered him. + +Scipio in the Valley of the Po +Conflict on the Ticino +The Armies at Placentia + +Scipio, who, with an army considerably smaller and very weak in +cavalry, had the difficult task of preventing the advance of the +superior force of the enemy and of repressing the movements of +insurrection which everywhere were spreading among the Celts, had +crossed the Po presumably at Placentia, and marched up the river to +meet the enemy, while Hannibal after the capture of Turin marched +downwards to relieve the Insubres and Boii. In the plain between +the Ticino and the Sesia, not far from Vercelli, the Roman cavalry, +which had advanced with the light infantry to make a reconnaissance +in force, encountered the Punic cavalry sent out for the like purpose, +both led by the generals in person. Scipio accepted battle when +offered, notwithstanding the superiority of the enemy; but his light +infantry, which was placed in front of the cavalry, dispersed before +the charge of the heavy cavalry of the enemy, and while the latter +engaged the masses of the Roman horsemen in front, the light Numidian +cavalry, after having pushed aside the broken ranks of the enemy's +infantry, took the Roman horsemen in flank and rear. This decided +the combat. The loss of the Romans was very considerable. The consul +himself, who made up as a soldier for his deficiencies as a general, +received a dangerous wound, and owed his safety entirely to the +devotion of his son of seventeen, who, courageously dashing into the +ranks of the enemy, compelled his squadron to follow him and rescued +his father. Scipio, enlightened by this combat as to the strength of +the enemy, saw the error which he had committed in posting himself, +with a weaker army, in the plain with his back to the river, and +resolved to return to the right bank of the Po under the eyes of his +antagonist. As the operations became contracted into a narrower space +and his illusions regarding Roman invincibility departed, he recovered +the use of his considerable military talents, which the adventurous +boldness of his youthful opponent's plans had for a moment paralyzed. +While Hannibal was preparing for a pitched battle, Scipio by a rapidly +projected and steadily executed march succeeded in reaching the right +bank of the river which in an evil hour he had abandoned, and broke +down the bridge over the Po behind his army; the Roman detachment of +600 men charged to cover the process of destruction were, however, +intercepted and made prisoners. But as the upper course of the river +was in the hands of Hannibal, he could not be prevented from marching +up the stream, crossing on a bridge of boats, and in a few days +confronting the Roman army on the right bank. The latter had taken +a position in the plain in front of Placentia; but the mutiny of a +Celtic division in the Roman camp, and the Gallic insurrection +breaking out afresh all around, compelled the consul to evacuate the +plain and to post himself on the hills behind the Trebia. This was +accomplished without notable loss, because the Numidian horsemen sent +in pursuit lost their time in plundering, and setting fire to, the +abandoned camp. In this strong position, with his left wing resting +on the Apennines, his right on the Po and the fortress of Placentia, +and covered in front by the Trebia--no inconsiderable stream at that +season--Scipio was unable to save the rich stores of Clastidium +(Casteggio) from which in this position he was cut off by the army of +the enemy; nor was he able to avert the insurrectionary movement on +the part of almost all the Gallic cantons, excepting the Cenomani who +were friendly to Rome; but he completely checked the progress of +Hannibal, and compelled him to pitch his camp opposite to that of +the Romans. Moreover, the position taken up by Scipio, and the +circumstance of the Cenomani threatening the borders of the Insubres, +hindered the main body of the Gallic insurgents from directly joining +the enemy, and gave to the second Roman army, which meanwhile had +arrived at Ariminum from Lilybaeum, the opportunity of reaching +Placentia through the midst of the insurgent country without material +hindrance, and of uniting itself with the army of the Po. + +Battle on the Trebia + +Scipio had thus solved his difficult task completely and brilliantly. +The Roman army, now close on 40,000 strong, and though not a match for +its antagonist in cavalry, at least equal in infantry, had simply to +remain in its existing position, in order to compel the enemy either +to attempt in the winter season the passage of the river and an attack +upon the camp, or to suspend his advance and to test the fickle temper +of the Gauls by the burden of winter quarters. Clear, however, as +this was, it was no less clear that it was now December, and that +under the course proposed the victory might perhaps be gained by Rome, +but would not be gained by the consul Tiberius Sempronius, who held +the sole command in consequence of Scipio's wound, and whose year of +office expired in a few months. Hannibal knew the man, and neglected +no means of alluring him to fight. The Celtic villages that had +remained faithful to the Romans were cruelly laid waste, and, when +this brought on a conflict between the cavalry, Hannibal allowed his +opponents to boast of the victory. Soon thereafter on a raw rainy +day a general engagement came on, unlocked for by the Romans. From +the earliest hour of the morning the Roman light troops had been +skirmishing with the light cavalry of the enemy; the latter slowly +retreated, and the Romans eagerly pursued it through the deeply +swollen Trebia to follow up the advantage which they had gained. +Suddenly the cavalry halted; the Roman vanguard found itself face to +face with the army of Hannibal drawn up for battle on a field chosen +by himself; it was lost, unless the main body should cross the stream +with all speed to its support. Hungry, weary, and wet, the Romans +came on and hastened to form in order of battle, the cavalry, as +usual, on the wings, the infantry in the centre. The light troops, +who formed the vanguard on both sides, began the combat: but the +Romans had already almost exhausted their missiles against the +cavalry, and immediately gave way. In like manner the cavalry gave +way on the wings, hard pressed by the elephants in front, and +outflanked right and left by the far more numerous Carthaginian horse. +But the Roman infantry proved itself worthy of its name: at the +beginning of the battle it fought with very decided superiority +against the infantry of the enemy, and even when the repulse of the +Roman horse allowed the enemy's cavalry and light-armed troops to turn +their attacks against the Roman infantry, the latter, although ceasing +to advance, obstinately maintained its ground. At this stage a select +Carthaginian band of 1000 infantry, and as many horsemen, under the +leadership of Mago, Hannibal's youngest brother, suddenly emerged from +an ambush in the rear of the Roman army, and fell upon the densely +entangled masses. The wings of the army and the rear ranks of the +Roman centre were broken up and scattered by this attack, while the +first division, 10,000 men strong, in compact array broke through the +Carthaginian line, and made a passage for itself obliquely through the +midst of the enemy, inflicting great loss on the opposing infantry and +more especially on the Gallic insurgents. This brave body, pursued +but feebly, thus reached Placentia. The remaining mass was for the +most part slaughtered by the elephants and light troops of the enemy +in attempting to cross the river: only part of the cavalry and some +divisions of infantry were able, by wading through the river, to gain +the camp whither the Carthaginians did not follow them, and thus they +too reached Placentia.(1) Few battles confer more honour on the Roman +soldier than this on the Trebia, and few at the same time furnish +graver impeachment of the general in command; although the candid +judge will not forget that a commandership in chief expiring on a +definite day was an unmilitary institution, and that figs cannot be +reaped from thistles. The victory came to be costly even to the +victors. Although the loss in the battle fell chiefly on the Celtic +insurgents, yet a multitude of the veteran soldiers of Hannibal died +afterwards from diseases engendered by that raw and wet winter day, +and all the elephants perished except one. + +Hannibal Master of Northern Italy + +The effect of this first victory of the invading army was, that the +national insurrection now spread and assumed shape without hindrance +throughout the Celtic territory. The remains of the Roman army of +the Po threw themselves into the fortresses of Placentia and Cremona: +completely cut off from home, they were obliged to procure their +supplies by way of the river. The consul Tiberius Sempronius only +escaped, as if by miracle, from being taken prisoner, when with a +weak escort of cavalry he went to Rome on account of the elections. +Hannibal, who would not hazard the health of his troops by further +marches at that inclement season, bivouacked for the winter where he +was; and, as a serious attempt on the larger fortresses would have +led to no result, contented himself with annoying the enemy by attacks +on the river port of Placentia and other minor Roman positions. He +employed himself mainly in organizing the Gallic insurrection: more +than 60,000 foot soldiers and 4000 horsemen from the Celts are said +to have joined his army. + +Military and Political Position of Hannibal + +No extraordinary exertions were made in Rome for the campaign of 537. +The senate thought, and not unreasonably, that, despite the lost +battle, their position was by no means fraught with serious danger. +Besides the coast garrisons, which were despatched to Sardinia, +Sicily, and Tarentum, and the reinforcements which were sent to Spain, +the two new consuls Gaius Flaminius and Gnaeus Servilius obtained +only as many men as were necessary to restore the four legions to +their full complement; additions were made to the strength of the +cavalry alone. The consuls had to protect the northern frontier, and +stationed themselves accordingly on the two highways which led from +Rome to the north, the western of which at that lime terminated at +Arretium, and the eastern at Ariminum; Gaius Flaminius occupied the +former, Gnaeus Servilius the latter. There they ordered the troops +from the fortresses on the Po to join them, probably by water, and +awaited the commencement of the favourable season, when they proposed +to occupy in the defensive the passes of the Apennines, and then, +taking up the offensive, to descend into the valley of the Po and +effect a junction somewhere near Placentia. But Hannibal by no means +intended to defend the valley of the Po. He knew Rome better perhaps +than the Romans knew it themselves, and was very well aware how +decidedly he was the weaker and continued to be so notwithstanding the +brilliant battle on the Trebia; he knew too that his ultimate object, +the humiliation of Rome, was not to be wrung from the unbending Roman +pride either by terror or by surprise, but could only be gained by +the actual subjugation of the haughty city. It was clearly apparent +that the Italian federation was in political solidity and in military +resources infinitely superior to an adversary, who received only +precarious and irregular support from home, and who in Italy was +dependent for primary aid solely on the vacillating and capricious +nation of the Celts; and that the Phoenician foot soldier was, +notwithstanding all the pains taken by Hannibal, far inferior in +point of tactics to the legionary, had been completely proved by +the defensive movements of Scipio and the brilliant retreat of the +defeated infantry on the Trebia. From this conviction flowed the two +fundamental principles which determined Hannibal's whole method of +operations in Italy--viz., that the war should be carried on, in +somewhat adventurous fashion, with constant changes in the plan and +in the theatre of operations; and that its favourable issue could +only be looked for as the result of political and not of military +successes--of the gradual loosening and final breaking up of the +Italian federation. That mode of carrying on the war was necessary, +because the single element which Hannibal had to throw into the scale +against so many disadvantages--his military genius--only told with +its full weight, when he constantly foiled his opponents by unexpected +combinations; he was undone, if the war became stationary. That aim +was the aim dictated to him by right policy, because, mighty conqueror +though he was in battle, he saw very clearly that on each occasion he +vanquished the generals and not the city, and that after each new +battle the Romans remained just as superior to the Carthaginians as +he was personally superior to the Roman commanders. That Hannibal +even at the height of his fortune never deceived himself on this +point, is worthier of admiration than his most admired battles. + +Hannibal Crosses the Apennines + +It was these motives, and not the entreaties of the Gauls that he +should spare their country--which would not have influenced him--that +induced Hannibal now to forsake, as it were, his newly acquired basis +of operations against Italy, and to transfer the scene of war to Italy +itself. Before doing so he gave orders that all the prisoners should +be brought before him. He ordered the Romans to be separated and +loaded with chains as slaves--the statement that Hannibal put to death +all the Romans capable of bearing arms, who here and elsewhere fell +into his hands, is beyond doubt at least strongly exaggerated. On the +other hand, all the Italian allies were released without ransom, and +charged to report at home that Hannibal waged war not against Italy, +but against Rome; that he promised to every Italian community the +restoration of its ancient independence and its ancient boundaries; +and that the deliverer was about to follow those whom he had set free, +bringing release and revenge. In fact, when the winter ended, he +started from the valley of the Po to search for a route through +the difficult defiles of the Apennines. Gaius Flaminius, with the +Etruscan army, was still for the moment at Arezzo, intending to move +from that point towards Lucca in order to protect the vale of the Arno +and the passes of the Apennines, so soon as the season should allow. +But Hannibal anticipated him. The passage of the Apennines was +accomplished without much difficulty, at a point as far west as +possible or, in other words, as distant as possible from the enemy; +but the marshy low grounds between the Serchio and the Arno were so +flooded by the melting of the snow and the spring rains, that the army +had to march four days in water, without finding any other dry spot +for resting by night than was supplied by piling the baggage or by +the sumpter animals that had fallen. The troops underwent unutterable +sufferings, particularly the Gallic infantry, which marched behind the +Carthaginians along tracks already rendered impassable: they murmured +loudly and would undoubtedly have dispersed to a man, had not the +Carthaginian cavalry under Mago, which brought up the rear, rendered +flight impossible. The horses, assailed by a distemper in their +hoofs, fell in heaps; various diseases decimated the soldiers; +Hannibal himself lost an eye in consequence of ophthalmia. + +Flaminius + +But the object was attained. Hannibal encamped at Fiesole, while +Gaius Flaminius was still waiting at Arezzo until the roads should +become passable that he might blockade them. After the Roman +defensive position had thus been turned, the best course for the +consul, who might perhaps have been strong enough to defend the +mountain passes but certainly was unable now to face Hannibal in the +open field, would have been to wait till the second army, which had +now become completely superfluous at Ariminum, should arrive. He +himself, however, judged otherwise. He was a political party leader, +raised to distinction by his efforts to limit the power of the senate; +indignant at the government in consequence of the aristocratic +intrigues concocted against him during his consulship; carried away, +through a doubtless justifiable opposition to their beaten track of +partisanship, into a scornful defiance of tradition and custom; +intoxicated at once by blind love of the common people and equally +bitter hatred of the party of the nobles; and, in addition to all +this, possessed with the fixed idea that he was a military genius. +His campaign against the Insubres of 531, which to unprejudiced +judges only showed that good! soldiers often repair the errors +of bad generals,(2) was regarded by him and by his adherents as an +irrefragable proof that the Romans had only to put Gaius Flaminius at +the head of the army in order to make a speedy end of Hannibal. Talk +of this sort had procured for him his second consulship, and hopes of +this sort had now brought to his camp so great a multitude of unarmed +followers eager for spoil, that their number, according to the +assurance of sober historians, exceeded that of the legionaries. +Hannibal based his plan in part on this circumstance. So far from +attacking him, he marched past him, and caused the country all around +to be pillaged by the Celts who thoroughly understood plundering, +and by his numerous cavalry. The complaints and indignation of the +multitude which had to submit to be plundered under the eyes of the +hero who had promised to enrich them, and the protestation of the +enemy that they did not believe him possessed of either the power +or the resolution to undertake anything before the arrival of his +colleague, could not but induce such a man to display his genius +for strategy, and to give a sharp lesson to his inconsiderate +and haughty foe. + +Battle on the Trasimene Lake + +No plan was ever more successful. In haste, the consul followed the +line of march of the enemy, who passed by Arezzo and moved slowly +through the rich valley of the Chiana towards Perugia. He overtook +him in the district of Cortona, where Hannibal, accurately informed +of his antagonist's march, had had full time to select his field of +battle--a narrow defile between two steep mountain walls, closed at +its outlet by a high hill, and at its entrance by the Trasimene lake. +With the flower of his infantry he barred the outlet; the light troops +and the cavalry placed themselves in concealment on either side. The +Roman columns advanced without hesitation into the unoccupied pass; +the thick morning mist concealed from them the position of the enemy. +As the head of the Roman line approached the hill, Hannibal gave the +signal for battle; the cavalry, advancing behind the heights, closed +the entrance of the pass, and at the same time the mist rolling away +revealed the Phoenician arms everywhere along the crests on the right +and left. There was no battle; it was a mere rout. Those that +remained outside of the defile were driven by the cavalry into the +lake. The main body was annihilated in the pass itself almost without +resistance, and most of them, including the consul himself, were cut +down in the order of march. The head of the Roman column, formed of +6000 infantry, cut their way through the infantry of the enemy, and +proved once more the irresistible might of the legions; but, cut off +from the rest of the army and without knowledge of its fate, they +marched on at random, were surrounded on the following day, on a +hill which they had occupied, by a corps of Carthaginian cavalry, +and--as the capitulation, which promised them a free retreat, was +rejected by Hannibal--were all treated as prisoners of war. 15,000 +Romans had fallen, and as many were captured; in other words, the +army was annihilated. The slight Carthaginian loss--1500 men--again +fell mainly upon the Gauls.(3) And, as if this were not enough, +immediately after the battle on the Trasimene lake, the cavalry of +the army of Ariminum under Gaius Centenius, 4000 strong, which Gnaeus +Servilius had sent forward for the temporary support of his colleague +while he himself advanced by slow marches, was likewise surrounded by +the Phoenician army, and partly slain, partly made prisoners. All +Etruria was lost, and Hannibal might without hindrance march on Rome. +The Romans prepared themselves for the worst; they broke down the +bridges over the Tiber, and nominated Quintus Fabius Maximus dictator +to repair the walls and conduct the defence, for which an army of +reserve was formed. At the same time two new legions were summoned +under arms in the room of those annihilated, and the fleet, which +might become of importance in the event of a siege, was put in order. + +Hannibal on the East Coast +Reorganization of the Carthaginian Army + +But Hannibal was more farsighted than king Pyrrhus. He did not march +on Rome; nor even against Gnaeus Servilius, an able general, who had +with the help of the fortresses on the northern road preserved his +army hitherto uninjured, and would perhaps have kept his antagonist +at bay. Once more a movement occurred which was quite unexpected. +Hannibal marched past the fortress of Spoletium, which he attempted in +vain to surprise, through Umbria, fearfully devastated the territory +of Picenum which was covered all over with Roman farmhouses, and +halted on the shores of the Adriatic. The men and horses of his +army had not yet recovered from the painful effects of their spring +campaign; here he rested for a considerable time to allow his army to +recruit its strength in a pleasant district and at a fine season of +the year, and to reorganize his Libyan infantry after the Roman mode, +the means for which were furnished to him by the mass of Roman arms +among the spoil. From this point, moreover, he resumed his long- +interrupted communication with his native land, sending his messages +of victory by water to Carthage. At length, when his army was +sufficiently restored and had been adequately exercised in the use +of the new arms, he broke up and marched slowly along the coast into +southern Italy. + +War in Lower Italy +Fabius + +He had calculated correctly, when he chose this time for remodelling +his infantry. The surprise of his antagonists, who were in constant +expectation of an attack on the capital, allowed him at least four +weeks of undisturbed leisure for the execution of the unprecedentedly +bold experiment of changing completely his military system in the +heart of a hostile country and with an army still comparatively small, +and of attempting to oppose African legions to the invincible legions +of Italy. But his hope that the confederacy would now begin to break +up was not fulfilled. In this respect the Etruscans, who had carried +on their last wars of independence mainly with Gallic mercenaries, +were of less moment; the flower of the confederacy, particularly +in a military point of view, consisted--next to the Latins--of the +Sabellian communities, and with good reason Hannibal had now come into +their neighbourhood. But one town after another closed its gates; not +a single Italian community entered into alliance with the Phoenicians. +This was a great, in fact an all-important, gain for the Romans. +Nevertheless it was felt in the capital that it would be imprudent to +put the fidelity of their allies to such a test, without a Roman army +to keep the field. The dictator Quintus Fabius combined the two +supplementary legions formed in Rome with the army of Ariminum, +and when Hannibal marched past the Roman fortress of Luceria towards +Arpi, the Roman standards appeared on his right flank at Aeca. +Their leader, however, pursued a course different from that of his +predecessors. Quintus Fabius was a man advanced in years, of a +deliberation and firmness, which to not a few seemed procrastination +and obstinacy. Zealous in his reverence for the good old times, for +the political omnipotence of the senate, and for the command of the +burgomasters, he looked to a methodical prosecution of the war as +--next to sacrifices and prayers--the means of saving the state. +A political antagonist of Gaius Flaminius, and summoned to the head of +affairs in virtue of the reaction against his foolish war-demagogism, +Fabius departed for the camp just as firmly resolved to avoid a +pitched battle at any price, as his predecessor had been determined at +any price to fight one; he was without doubt convinced that the first +elements of strategy would forbid Hannibal to advance so long as the +Roman army confronted him intact, and that accordingly it would not be +difficult to weaken by petty conflicts and gradually to starve out the +enemy's army, dependent as it was on foraging for its supplies. + +March to Capua and Back to Apulia +War in Apulia + +Hannibal, well served by his spies in Rome and in the Roman army, +immediately learned how matters stood, and, as usual, adjusted the +plan of his campaign in accordance with the individual character of +the opposing leader. Passing the Roman army, he marched over the +Apennines into the heart of Italy towards Beneventum, took the open +town of Telesia on the boundary between Samnium and Campania, and +thence turned against Capua, which as the most important of all the +Italian cities dependent on Rome, and the only one standing in some +measure on a footing of equality with it, had for that very reason +felt more severely than any other community the oppression of the +Roman government. He had formed connections there, which led him to +hope that the Campanians might revolt from the Roman alliance; but in +this hope he was disappointed. So, retracing his steps, he took the +road to Apulia. During all this march of the Carthaginian army the +dictator had followed along the heights, and had condemned his +soldiers to the melancholy task of looking on with arms in their +hands, while the Numidian cavalry plundered the faithful allies far +and wide, and the villages over all the plain rose in flames. At +length he opened up to the exasperated Roman army the eagerly-coveted +opportunity of attacking the enemy. When Hannibal had begun his +retreat, Fabius intercepted his route near Casilinum (the modern +Capua), by strongly garrisoning that town on the left bank of the +Volturnus and occupying the heights that crowned the right bank with +his main army, while a division of 4000 men encamped on the road +itself that led along by the river. But Hannibal ordered his light- +armed troops to climb the heights which rose immediately alongside +of the road, and to drive before them a number of oxen with lighted +faggots on their horns, so that it seemed as if the Carthaginian army +were thus marching off during the night by torchlight. The Roman +division, which barred the road, imagining that they were evaded and +that further covering of the road was superfluous, marched by a side +movement to the same heights. Along the road thus left free Hannibal +then retreated with the bulk of his army, without encountering the +enemy; next morning he without difficulty, but with severe loss to +the Romans, disengaged and recalled his light troops. Hannibal then +continued his march unopposed in a north-easterly direction; and +by a widely-circuitous route, after traversing and laying under +contribution the lands of the Hirpinians, Campanians, Samnites, +Paelignians, and Frentanians without resistance, he arrived with rich +booty and a full chest once more in the region of Luceria, just as +the harvest there was about to begin. Nowhere in his extensive march +had he met with active opposition, but nowhere had he found allies. +Clearly perceiving that no course remained for him but to take up +winter quarters in the open field, he began the difficult operation +of collecting the winter supplies requisite for the army, by means of +its own agency, from the fields of the enemy. For this purpose he +had selected the broad and mostly flat district of northern Apulia, +which furnished grain and grass in abundance, and which could be +completely commanded by his excellent cavalry. An entrenched camp +was constructed at Gerunium, twenty-five miles to the north of +Luceria. Two-thirds of the army were daily despatched from it to +bring in the stores, while Hannibal with the remainder took up a +position to protect the camp and the detachments sent out. + +Fabius and Minucius + +The master of the horse, Marcus Minucius, who held temporary command +in the Roman camp during the absence of the dictator, deemed this a +suitable opportunity for approaching the enemy more closely, and +formed a camp in the territory of the Larinates; where on the one hand +by his mere presence he checked the sending out of detachments and +thereby hindered the provisioning of the enemy's army, and on the +other hand, in a series of successful conflicts in which his troops +encountered isolated Phoenician divisions and even Hannibal himself, +drove the enemy from their advanced positions and compelled them to +concentrate themselves at Gerunium. On the news of these successes, +which of course lost nothing in the telling, the storm broke, forth +in the capital against Quintus Fabius. It was not altogether +unwarranted. Prudent as it was on the part of Rome to abide by the +defensive and to expect success mainly from the cutting off of the +enemy's means of subsistence, there was yet something strange in a +system of defence and of starving out, under which the enemy had laid +waste all central Italy without opposition beneath the eyes of a Roman +army of equal numbers, and had provisioned themselves sufficiently for +the winter by an organized method of foraging on the greatest scale. +Publius Scipio, when he commanded on the Po, had not adopted this view +of a defensive attitude, and the attempt of his successor to imitate +him at Casilinum had failed in such a way as to afford a copious fund +of ridicule to the scoffers of the city. It was wonderful that the +Italian communities had not wavered, when Hannibal so palpably showed +them the superiority of the Phoenicians and the nullity of Roman aid; +but how long could they be expected to bear the burden of a double +war, and to allow themselves to be plundered under the very eyes of +the Roman troops and of their own contingents? Finally, it could not +be alleged that the condition of the Roman army compelled the general +to adopt this mode of warfare. It was composed, as regarded its core, +of the capable legions of Ariminum, and, by their side, of militia +called out, most of whom were likewise accustomed to service; and, far +from being discouraged by the last defeats, it was indignant at the +but little honourable task which its general, "Hannibal's lackey," +assigned to it, and it demanded with a loud voice to be led against +the enemy. In the assemblies of the people the most violent +invectives were directed against the obstinate old man. His political +opponents, with the former praetor Gaius Terentius Varro at their +head, laid hold of the quarrel--for the understanding of which we must +not forget that the dictator was practically nominated by the senate, +and the office was regarded as the palladium of the conservative +party--and, in concert with the discontented soldiers and the +possessors of the plundered estates, they carried an unconstitutional +and absurd resolution of the people conferring the dictatorship, which +was destined to obviate the evils of a divided command in times of +danger, on Marcus Minucius,(4) who had hitherto been the lieutenant +of Quintus Fabius, in the same way as on Fabius himself. Thus the +Roman army, after its hazardous division into two separate corps had +just been appropriately obviated, was once more divided; and not only +so, but the two sections were placed under leaders who notoriously +followed quite opposite plans of war. Quintus Fabius of course +adhered more than ever to his methodical inaction; Marcus Minucius, +compelled to justify in the field of battle his title of dictator, +made a hasty attack with inadequate forces, and would have been +annihilated had not his colleague averted greater misfortune by the +seasonable interposition of a fresh corps. This last turn of matters +justified in some measure the system of passive resistance. But in +reality Hannibal had completely attained in this campaign all that +arms could attain: not a single material operation had been frustrated +either by his impetuous or by his deliberate opponent; and his +foraging, though not unattended with difficulty, had yet been in the +main so successful that the army passed the winter without complaint +in the camp at Gerunium. It was not the Cunctator that saved Rome, +but the compact structure of its confederacy and, not less perhaps, +the national hatred with which the Phoenician hero was regarded on +the part of Occidentals. + +New War-like Preparations in Rome +Paullus and Varro + +Despite all its misfortunes, Roman pride stood no less unshaken than +the Roman symmachy. The donations which were offered by king Hiero of +Syracuse and the Greek cities in Italy for the next campaign--the war +affected the latter less severely than the other Italian allies of +Rome, for they sent no contingents to the land army--were declined +with thanks; the chieftains of Illyria were informed that they could +not be allowed to neglect payment of their tribute; and even the +king of Macedonia was once more summoned to surrender Demetrius of +Pharos. The majority of the senate, notwithstanding the semblance +of legitimation which recent events had given to the Fabian system +of delay, had firmly resolved to depart from a mode of war that was +slowly but certainly ruining the state; if the popular dictator had +failed in his more energetic method of warfare, they laid the blame +of the failure, and not without reason, on the fact that they had +adopted a half-measure and had given him too few troops. This error +they determined to avoid and to equip an army, such as Rome had never +sent out before--eight legions, each raised a fifth above the normal +strength, and a corresponding number of allies--enough to crush an +opponent who was not half so strong. Besides this, a legion under +the praetor Lucius Postumius was destined for the valley of the Po, +in order, if possible, to draw off the Celts serving in the army of +Hannibal to their homes. These resolutions were judicious; everything +depended on their coming to an equally judicious decision respecting +the supreme command. The stiff carriage of Quintus Fabius, and +the attacks of the demagogues which it provoked, had rendered the +dictatorship and the senate generally more unpopular than ever: +amongst the people, not without the connivance of their leaders, +the foolish report circulated that the senate was intentionally +prolonging the war. As, therefore, the nomination of a dictator was +not to be thought of, the senate attempted to procure the election of +suitable consuls; but this only had the effect of thoroughly rousing +suspicion and obstinacy. With difficulty the senate carried one of +its candidates, Lucius Aemilius Paullus, who had with judgment +conducted the Illyrian war in 535;(5) an immense majority of the +citizens assigned to him as colleague the candidate of the popular +party, Gaius Terentius Varro, an incapable man, who was known only by +his bitter opposition to the senate and more especially as the main +author of the proposal to elect Marcus Minucius co-dictator, and who +was recommended to the multitude solely by his humble birth and his +coarse effrontery. + +Battle at Cannae + +While these preparations for the next campaign were being made in +Rome, the war had already recommenced in Apulia. As soon as the +season allowed him to leave his winter quarters, Hannibal, determining +as usual the course of the war and assuming the offensive, set out +from Gerunium in a southerly direction, and marching past Luceria +crossed the Aufidus and took the citadel of Cannae (between Canosa +and Barletta) which commanded the plain of Canusium, and had hitherto +served the Romans as their chief magazine. The Roman army which, +since Fabius had conformably to the constitution resigned his +dictatorship in the middle of autumn, was now commanded by Gnaeus +Servilius and Marcus Regulus, first as consuls then as proconsuls, +had been unable to avert a loss which they could not but feel. On +military as well as on political grounds, it became more than ever +necessary to arrest the progress of Hannibal by a pitched battle. +With definite orders to this effect from the senate, accordingly, the +two new commanders-in-chief, Paullus and Varro, arrived in Apulia in +the beginning of the summer of 538. With the four new legions and a +corresponding contingent of Italians which they brought up, the Roman +army rose to 80,000 infantry, half burgesses, half allies, and 6000 +cavalry, of whom one-third were burgesses and two-thirds allies; +whereas Hannibal's army numbered 10,000 cavalry, but only about 40,000 +infantry. Hannibal wished nothing so much as a battle, not merely for +the general reasons which we have explained above, but specially +because the wide Apulian plain allowed him to develop the whole +superiority of his cavalry, and because the providing supplies for +his numerous army would soon, in spite of that excellent cavalry, be +rendered very difficult by the proximity of an enemy twice as strong +and resting on a chain of fortresses. The leaders of the Roman forces +also had, as we have said, made up their minds on the general question +of giving battle, and approached the enemy with that view; but the +more sagacious of them saw the position of Hannibal, and were disposed +accordingly to wait in the first instance and simply to station +themselves in the vicinity of the enemy, so as to compel him to retire +and accept battle on a ground less favourable to him. Hannibal +encamped at Cannae on the right bank of the Aufidus. Paullus pitched +his camp on both banks of the stream, so that the main force came to +be stationed on the left bank, but a strong corps took up a position +on the right immediately opposite to the enemy, in order to impede his +supplies and perhaps also to threaten Cannae. Hannibal, to whom it +was all-important to strike a speedy blow, crossed the stream with the +bulk of his troops, and offered battle on the left bank, which Paullus +did not accept. But such military pedantry was disapproved by the +democratic consul--so much had been said about men taking the field +not to stand guard, but to use their swords--and he gave orders +accordingly to attack the enemy, wherever and whenever they found him. +According to the old custom foolishly retained, the decisive voice in +the council of war alternated between the commanders-in-chief day by +day; it was necessary therefore on the following day to submit, and +to let the hero of the pavement have his way. On the left bank, +where the wide plain offered full scope to the superior cavalry of +the enemy, certainly even he would not fight; but he determined to +unite the whole Roman forces on the right bank, and there, taking up +a position between the Carthaginian camp and Cannae and seriously +threatening the latter, to offer battle. A division of 10,000 men +was left behind in the principal Roman camp, charged to capture the +Carthaginian encampment during the conflict and thus to intercept the +retreat of the enemy's army across the river. The bulk of the Roman +army, at early dawn on the and August according to the unconnected, +perhaps in tune according to the correct, calendar, crossed the river +which at this season was shallow and did not materially hamper the +movements of the troops, and took up a position in line near the +smaller Roman camp to the westward of Cannae. The Carthaginian army +followed and likewise crossed the stream, on which rested the right +Roman as well as the left Carthaginian wing. The Roman cavalry was +stationed on the wings: the weaker portion consisting of burgesses, +led by Paullus, on the right next the river; the stronger consisting +of the allies, led by Varro, on the left towards the plain. In the +centre was stationed the infantry in unusually deep files, under the +command of the consul of the previous year Gnaeus Servilius. Opposite +to this centre Hannibal arranged his infantry in the form of a +crescent, so that the Celtic and Iberian troops in their national +armour formed the advanced centre, and the Libyans, armed after the +Roman fashion, formed the drawn-back wings on either side. On the +side next the river the whole heavy cavalry under Hasdrubal was +stationed, on the side towards the plain the light Numidian horse. +After a short skirmish between the light troops the whole line was +soon engaged. Where the light cavalry of the Carthaginians fought +against the heavy cavalry of Varro, the conflict was prolonged, +amidst constant charges of the Numidians, without decisive result. +In the centre, on the other hand, the legions completely overthrew +the Spanish and Gallic troops that first encountered them; eagerly the +victors pressed on and followed up their advantage. But meanwhile, on +the right wing, fortune had turned against the Romans. Hannibal had +merely sought to occupy the left cavalry wing of the enemy, that he +might bring Hasdrubal with the whole regular cavalry to bear against +the weaker right and to overthrow it first. After a brave resistance, +the Roman horse gave way, and those that were not cut down were chased +up the river and scattered in the plain; Paullus, wounded, rode to the +centre to turn or, if not, to share the fate of the legions. These, +in order the better to follow up the victory over the advanced +infantry of the enemy, had changed their front disposition into a +column of attack, which, in the shape of a wedge, penetrated the +enemy's centre. In this position they were warmly assailed on both +sides by the Libyan infantry wheeling inward upon them right and left, +and a portion of them were compelled to halt in order to defend +themselves against the flank attack; by this means their advance was +checked, and the mass of infantry, which was already too closely +crowded, now had no longer room to develop itself at all. Meanwhile +Hasdrubal, after having completed the defeat of the wing of Paullus, +had collected and arranged his cavalry anew and led them behind the +enemy's centre against the wing of Varro. His Italian cavalry, +already sufficiently occupied with the Numidians, was rapidly +scattered before the double attack, and Hasdrubal, leaving the +pursuit of the fugitives to the Numidians, arranged his squadrons +for the third time, to lead them against the rear of the Roman +infantry. This last charge proved decisive. Flight was not possible, +and quarter was not given. Never, perhaps, was an army of such size +annihilated on the field of battle so completely, and with so little +loss to its antagonist, as was the Roman army at Cannae. Hannibal +had lost not quite 6000 men, and two-thirds of that loss fell upon +the Celts, who sustained the first shock of the legions. On the other +hand, of the 76,000 Romans who had taken their places in the line of +battle 70,000 covered the field, amongst whom were the consul Lucius +Paullus, the proconsul Gnaeus Servilius, two-thirds of the staff- +officers, and eighty men of senatorial rank. The consul Gaius Varro +was saved solely by his quick resolution and his good steed, reached +Venusia, and was not ashamed to survive. The garrison also of the +Roman camp, 10,000 strong, were for the most part made prisoners of +war; only a few thousand men, partly of these troops, partly of the +line, escaped to Canusium. Nay, as if in this year an end was to +be made with Rome altogether, before its close the legion sent to +Gaul fell into an ambush, and was, with its general Lucius Postumius +who was nominated as consul for the next year, totally destroyed +by the Gauls. + +Consequences of the Battle of Cannae +Prevention of Reinforcements from Spain + +This unexampled success appeared at length to mature the great +political combination, for the sake of which Hannibal had come to +Italy. He had, no doubt, based his plan primarily upon his army; but +with accurate knowledge of the power opposed to him he designed that +army to be merely the vanguard, in support of which the powers of the +west and east were gradually to unite their forces, so as to prepare +destruction for the proud city. That support however, which seemed +the most secure, namely the sending of reinforcements from Spain, had +been frustrated by the boldness and firmness of the Roman general sent +thither, Gnaeus Scipio. After Hannibal's passage of the Rhone Scipio +had sailed for Emporiae, and had made himself master first of the +coast between the Pyrenees and the Ebro, and then, after conquering +Hanno, of the interior also (536). In the following year (537) he had +completely defeated the Carthaginian fleet at the mouth of the Ebro, +and after his brother Publius, the brave defender of the valley of +the Po, had joined him with a reinforcement of 8000 men, he had even +crossed the Ebro, and advanced as far as Saguntum. Hasdrubal had +indeed in the succeeding year (538), after obtaining reinforcements +from Africa, made an attempt in accordance with his brother's orders +to conduct an army over the Pyrenees; but the Scipios opposed his +passage of the Ebro, and totally defeated him, nearly at the same +time that Hannibal conquered at Cannae. The powerful tribe of the +Celtiberians and numerous other Spanish tribes had joined the Scipios; +they commanded the sea, the passes of the Pyrenees, and, by means of +the trusty Massiliots, the Gallic coast also. Now therefore support +to Hannibal was less than ever to be looked for from Spain. + +Reinforcements from Spain + +On the part of Carthage as much had hitherto been done in support +of her general in Italy as could be expected. Phoenician squadrons +threatened the coasts of Italy and of the Roman islands and guarded +Africa from a Roman landing, and there the matter ended. More +substantial assistance was prevented not so much by the uncertainty +as to where Hannibal was to be found and the want of a port of +disembarkation in Italy, as by the fact that for many years the +Spanish army had been accustomed to be self-sustaining, and above +all by the murmurs of the peace party. Hannibal severely felt the +consequences of this unpardonable inaction; in spite of all his saving +of his money and of the soldiers whom he had brought with him, his +chests were gradually emptied, the pay fell into arrear, and the ranks +of his veterans began to thin. But now the news of the victory of +Cannae reduced even the factious opposition at home to silence. The +Carthaginian senate resolved to place at the disposal of the general +considerable assistance in money and men, partly from Africa, partly +from Spain, including 4000 Numidian horse and 40 elephants, and to +prosecute the war with energy in Spain as well as in Italy. + +Alliance between Carthage and Macedonia + +The long-discussed offensive alliance between Carthage and Macedonia +had been delayed, first by the sudden death of Antigonus, and then by +the indecision of his successor Philip and the unseasonable war waged +by him and his Hellenic allies against the Aetolians (534-537). It +was only now, after the battle of Cannae, that Demetrius of Pharos +found Philip disposed to listen to his proposal to cede to Macedonia +his Illyrian possessions--which it was necessary, no doubt, to wrest +in the first place from the Romans--and it was only now that the court +of Pella came to terms with Carthage. Macedonia undertook to land an +invading army on the east coast of Italy, in return for which she +received an assurance that the Roman possessions in Epirus should +be restored to her. + +Alliance between Carthage and Syracuse + +In Sicily king Hiero had during the years of peace maintained a policy +of neutrality, so far as he could do so with safety, and he had shown +a disposition to accommodate the Carthaginians during the perilous +crises after the peace with Rome, particularly by sending supplies of +corn. There is no doubt that he saw with the utmost regret a renewed +breach between Carthage and Rome; but he had no power to avert it, and +when it occurred he adhered with well-calculated fidelity to Rome. +But soon afterwards (in the autumn of 538) death removed the old man +after a reign of fifty-four years. The grandson and successor of the +prudent veteran, the young and incapable Hieronymus, entered at once +into negotiations with the Carthaginian diplomatists; and, as they +made no difficulty in consenting to secure to him by treaty, first, +Sicily as far as the old Carthagino-Sicilian frontier, and then, when +he rose in the arrogance of his demands, the possession even of the +whole island, he entered into alliance with Carthage, and ordered +the Syracusan fleet to unite with the Carthaginian which had come +to threaten Syracuse. The position of the Roman fleet at Lilybaeum, +which already had to deal with a second Carthaginian squadron +stationed near the Aegates, became all at once very critical, while at +the same time the force that was in readiness at Rome for embarkation +to Sicily had, in consequence of the defeat at Cannae, to be diverted +to other and more urgent objects. + +Capua and Most of the Communities of Lower Italy Pass over to Hannibal + +Above all came the decisive fact, that now at length the fabric of the +Roman confederacy began to be unhinged, after it had survived unshaken +the shocks of two severe years of war. There passed over to the side +of Hannibal Arpi in Apulia, and Uzentum in Messapia, two old towns +which had been greatly injured by the Roman colonies of Luceria and +Brundisium; all the towns of the Bruttii--who took the lead--with the +exception of the Petelini and the Consentini who had to be besieged +before yielding; the greater portion of the Lucanians; the Picentes +transplanted into the region of Salernum; the Hirpini; the Samnites +with the exception of the Pentri; lastly and chiefly, Capua the +second city of Italy, which was able to bring into the field 30,000 +infantry and 4000 horse, and whose secession determined that of +the neighbouring towns Atella and Caiatia. The aristocratic party, +indeed, attached by many ties to the interest of Rome everywhere, +and more especially in Capua, very earnestly opposed this change of +sides, and the obstinate internal conflicts which arose regarding it +diminished not a little the advantage which Hannibal derived from +these accessions. He found himself obliged, for instance, to have one +of the leaders of the aristocratic party in Capua, Decius Magius, who +even after the entrance of the Phoenicians obstinately contended for +the Roman alliance, seized and conveyed to Carthage; thus furnishing +a demonstration, very inconvenient for himself, of the small value of +the liberty and sovereignty which had just been solemnly assured to +the Campanians by the Carthaginian general. On the other hand, the +south Italian Greeks adhered to the Roman alliance--a result to which +the Roman garrisons no doubt contributed, but which was still more due +to the very decided dislike of the Hellenes towards the Phoenicians +themselves and towards their new Lucanian and Bruttian allies, and +their attachment on the other hand to Rome, which had zealously +embraced every opportunity of manifesting its Hellenism, and had +exhibited towards the Greeks in Italy an unwonted gentleness. Thus +the Campanian Greeks, particularly Neapolis, courageously withstood +the attack of Hannibal in person: in Magna Graecia Rhegium, Thurii, +Metapontum, and Tarentum did the same notwithstanding their very +perilous position. Croton and Locri on the other hand were partly +carried by storm, partly forced to capitulate, by the united +Phoenicians and Bruttians; and the citizens of Croton were conducted +to Locri, while Bruttian colonists occupied that important naval +station. The Latin colonies in southern Italy, such as Brundisium, +Venusia, Paesturn, Cosa, and Cales, of course maintained unshaken +fidelity to Rome. They were the strongholds by which the conquerors +held in check a foreign land, settled on the soil of the surrounding +population, and at feud with their neighbours; they, too, would be the +first to be affected, if Hannibal should keep his word and restore to +every Italian community its ancient boundaries. This was likewise +the case with all central Italy, the earliest seat of the Roman rule, +where Latin manners and language already everywhere preponderated, and +the people felt themselves to be the comrades rather than the subjects +of their rulers. The opponents of Hannibal in the Carthaginian senate +did not fail to appeal to the fact that not one Roman citizen or one +Latin community had cast itself into the arms of Carthage. This +groundwork of the Roman power could only be broken up, like the +Cyclopean walls, stone by stone. + +Attitude of the Romans + +Such were the consequences of the day of Cannae, in which the flower +of the soldiers and officers of the confederacy, a seventh of the +whole number of Italians capable of bearing arms, perished. It was +a cruel but righteous punishment for the grave political errors with +which not merely some foolish or miserable individuals, but the Roman +people themselves, were justly chargeable. A constitution adapted for +a small country town was no longer suitable for a great power; it was +simply impossible that the question as to the leadership of the armies +of the city in such a war should be left year after year to be decided +by the Pandora's box of the balloting-urn. As a fundamental revision +of the constitution, if practicable at all, could not at least be +undertaken now, the practical superintendence of the war, and in +particular the bestowal and prolongation of the command, should have +been at once left to the only authority which was in a position to +undertake it--the senate--and there should have been reserved for the +comitia the mere formality of confirmation. The brilliant successes +of the Scipios in the difficult arena of Spanish warfare showed what +might in this way be achieved. But political demagogism, which was +already gnawing at the aristocratic foundations of the constitution, +had seized on the management of the Italian war. The absurd +accusation, that the nobles were conspiring with the enemy without, +had made an impression on the "people." The saviours to whom +political superstition looked for deliverance, Gaius Flaminius and +Gaius Varro, both "new men" and friends of the people of the purest +dye, had accordingly been empowered by the multitude itself to execute +the plans of operations which, amidst the approbation of that +multitude, they had unfolded in the Forum; and the results were the +battles on the Trasimene lake and at Cannae. Duty required that the +senate, which now of course understood its task better than when it +recalled half the army of Regulus from Africa, should take into its +hands the management of affairs, and should oppose such mischievous +proceedings; but when the first of those two defeats had for the +moment placed the rudder in its hands, it too had hardly acted in a +manner unbiassed by the interests of party. Little as Quintus Fabius +may be compared with these Roman Cleons, he had yet conducted the war +not as a mere military leader, but had adhered to his rigid attitude +of defence specially as the political opponent of Gaius Flaminius; and +in the treatment of the quarrel with his subordinate, had done what he +could to exasperate at a time when unity was needed. The consequence +was, first, that the most important instrument which the wisdom of +their ancestors had placed in the hands of the senate just for such +cases--the dictatorship--broke down in his hands; and, secondly--at +least indirectly--the battle of Cannae. But the headlong fall of the +Roman power was owing not to the fault of Quintus Fabius or Gaius +Varro, but to the distrust between the government and the governed--to +the variance between the senate and the burgesses. If the deliverance +and revival of the state were still possible, the work had to begin at +home with the re-establishment of unity and of confidence. To have +perceived this and, what is of more importance, to have done it, +and done it with an abstinence from all recriminations however just, +constitutes the glorious and imperishable honour of the Roman senate. +When Varro--alone of all the generals who had command in the battle +--returned to Rome, and the Roman senators met him at the gate and +thanked him that he had not despaired of the salvation of his country, +this was no empty phraseology veiling the disaster under sounding +words, nor was it bitter mockery over a poor wretch; it was the +conclusion of peace between the government and the governed. In +presence of the gravity of the time and the gravity of such an appeal, +the chattering of demagogues was silent; henceforth the only thought +of the Romans was how they might be able jointly to avert the common +peril. Quintus Fabius, whose tenacious courage at this decisive +moment was of more service to the state than all his feats of war, +and the other senators of note took the lead in every movement, and +restored to the citizens confidence in themselves and in the future. +The senate preserved its firm and unbending attitude, while messengers +from all sides hastened to Rome to report the loss of battles, the +secession of allies, the capture of posts and magazines, and to ask +reinforcements for the valley of the Po and for Sicily at a time +when Italy was abandoned and Rome was almost without a garrison. +Assemblages of the multitude at the gates were forbidden; onlookers +and women were sent to their houses; the time of mourning for the +fallen was restricted to thirty days that the service of the gods of +joy, from which those clad in mourning attire were excluded, might +not be too long interrupted--for so great was the number of the +fallen, that there was scarcely a family which had not to lament its +dead. Meanwhile the remnant saved from the field of battle had been +assembled by two able military tribunes, Appius Claudius and Publius +Scipio the younger, at Canusium. The latter managed, by his lofty +spirit and by the brandished swords of his faithful comrades, to +change the views of those genteel young lords who, in indolent despair +of the salvation of their country, were thinking of escape beyond the +sea. The consul Gaius Varro joined them with a handful of men; about +two legions were gradually collected there; the senate gave orders +that they should be reorganized and reduced to serve in disgrace and +without pay. The incapable general was on a suitable pretext recalled +to Rome; the praetor Marcus Claudius Marcellus, experienced in the +Gallic wars, who had been destined to depart for Sicily with the fleet +from Ostia, assumed the chief command. The utmost exertions were made +to organize an army capable of taking the field. The Latins were +summoned to render aid in the common peril. Rome itself set the +example, and called to arms all the men above boyhood, armed the +debtor-serfs and criminals, and even incorporated in the army eight +thousand slaves purchased by the state. As there was a want of arms, +they took the old spoils from the temples, and everywhere set the +workshops and artisans in action. The senate was completed, not as +timid patriots urged, from the Latins, but from the Roman burgesses +who had the best title. Hannibal offered a release of captives at the +expense of the Roman treasury; it was declined, and the Carthaginian +envoy who had arrived with the deputation of captives was not admitted +into the city: nothing should look as if the senate thought of peace. +Not only were the allies to be prevented from believing that Rome was +disposed to enter into negotiations, but even the meanest citizen was +to be made to understand that for him as for all there was no peace, +and that safety lay only in victory. + + + + +Notes for Chapter V + + +1. Polybius's account of the battle on the Trebia is quite clear. If +Placentia lay on the right bank of the Trebia where it falls into the +Po, and if the battle was fought on the left bank, while the Roman +encampment was pitched upon the right--both of which points have been +disputed, but are nevertheless indisputable--the Roman soldiers must +certainly have passed the Trebia in order to gain Placentia as well +as to gain the camp. But those who crossed to the camp must have made +their way through the disorganized portions of their own army and +through the corps of the enemy that had gone round to their rear, +and must then have crossed the river almost in hand-to-hand combat +with the enemy. On the other hand the passage near Placentia was +accomplished after the pursuit had slackened; the corps was several +miles distant from the field of battle, and had arrived within reach +of a Roman fortress; it may even have been the case, although it +cannot be proved, that a bridge led over the Trebia at that point, +and that the -tete de pont- on the other bank was occupied by the +garrison of Placentia. It is evident that the first passage was +just as difficult as the second was easy, and therefore with good +reason Polybius, military judge as he was, merely says of the corps +of 10,000, that in close columns it cut its way to Placentia (iii. 74, +6), without mentioning the passage of the river which in this case +was unattended with difficulty. + +The erroneousness of the view of Livy, which transfers the Phoenician +camp to the right, the Roman to the left bank of the Trebia, has +lately been repeatedly pointed out. We may only further mention, +that the site of Clastidium, near the modern Casteggio, has now been +established by inscriptions (Orelli-Henzen, 5117). + +2. III. III. The Celts Attacked in Their Own Land + +3. The date of the battle, 23rd June according to the uncorrected +calendar, must, according to the rectified calendar, fall somewhere +in April, since Quintus Fabius resigned his dictatorship, after six +months, in the middle of autumn (Lav. xxii. 31, 7; 32, i), and must +therefore have entered upon it about the beginning of May. The +confusion of the calendar (p. 117) in Rome was even at this period +very great. + +4. The inscription of the gift devoted by the new dictator on account +of his victory at Gerunium to Hercules Victor-- -Hercolei sacrom M. +Minuci(us) C. f. dictator vovit- --was found in the year 1862 at Rome, +near S. Lorenzo. + +5. III. III. Northern Italy + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +The War under Hannibal from Cannae to Zama + +The Crisis + +The aim of Hannibal in his expedition to Italy had been to break up +the Italian confederacy: after three campaigns that aim had been +attained, so far as it was at all attainable. It was clear that the +Greek and Latin or Latinized communities of Italy, since they had not +been shaken in their allegiance by the day of Cannae, would not yield +to terror, but only to force; and the desperate courage with which +even in Southern Italy isolated little country towns, such as the +Bruttian Petelia, maintained their forlorn defence against the +Phoenicians, showed very plainly what awaited them among the Marsians +and Latins. If Hannibal had expected to accomplish more in this way +and to be able to lead even the Latins against Rome, these hopes had +proved vain. But it appears as if even in other respects the Italian +coalition had by no means produced the results which Hannibal hoped +for. Capua had at once stipulated that Hannibal should not have the +right to call Campanian citizens compulsorily to arms; the citizens +had not forgotten how Pyrrhus had acted in Tarentum, and they +foolishly imagined that they should be able to withdraw at once from +the Roman and from the Phoenician rule. Samnium and Luceria were no +longer what they had been, when king Pyrrhus had thought of marching +into Rome at the head of the Sabellian youth. + +Not only did the chain of Roman fortresses everywhere cut the nerves +and sinews of the land, but the Roman rule, continued for many years, +had rendered the inhabitants unused to arms--they furnished only a +moderate contingent to the Roman armies--had appeased their ancient +hatred, and had gained over a number of individuals everywhere to the +interest of the ruling community. They joined the conqueror of the +Romans, indeed, after the cause of Rome seemed fairly lost, but they +felt that the question was no longer one of liberty; it was simply +the exchange of an Italian for a Phoenician master, and it was not +enthusiasm, but despair that threw the Sabellian communities into +the arms of the victor. Under such circumstances the war in Italy +flagged. Hannibal, who commanded the southern part of the peninsula +as far up as the Volturnus and Garganus, and who could not simply +abandon these lands again as he had abandoned that of the Celts, had +now likewise a frontier to protect, which could not be left uncovered +with impunity; and for the purpose of defending the districts that he +had gained against the fortresses which everywhere defied him and the +armies advancing from the north, and at the same time of resuming the +difficult offensive against central Italy, his forces--an army of +about 40,000 men, without reckoning the Italian contingents--were far +from sufficient. + +Marcellus + +Above all, he found that other antagonists were opposed to him. +Taught by fearful experience, the Romans adopted a more judicious +system of conducting the war, placed none but experienced officers +at the head of their armies, and left them, at least where it was +necessary, for a longer period in command. These generals neither +looked down on the enemy's movements from the mountains, nor did they +throw themselves on their adversary wherever they found him; but, +keeping the true mean between inaction and precipitation, they took up +their positions in entrenched camps under the walls of fortresses, and +accepted battle where victory would lead to results and defeat would +not be destruction. The soul of this new mode of warfare was Marcus +Claudius Marcellus. With true instinct, after the disastrous day of +Cannae, the senate and people had turned their eyes to this brave and +experienced officer, and entrusted him at once with the actual supreme +command. He had received his training in the troublesome warfare +against Hamilcar in Sicily, and had given brilliant evidence of his +talents as a leader as well as of his personal valour in the last +campaigns against the Celts. Although far above fifty, he still +glowed with all the ardour of the most youthful soldier, and only a +few years before this he had, as general, cut down the mounted general +of the enemy(1)--the first and only Roman consul who achieved that +feat of arms. His life was consecrated to the two divinities, to +whom he erected the splendid double temple at the Capene Gate--to +Honour and to Valour; and, while the merit of rescuing Rome from this +extremity of danger belonged to no single individual, but pertained to +the Roman citizens collectively and pre-eminently to the senate, yet +no single man contributed more towards the success of the common +enterprise than Marcus Marcellus. + +Hannibal Proceeds to Campania + +From the field of battle Hannibal had turned his steps to Campania, He +knew Rome better than the simpletons, who in ancient and modern times +have fancied that he might have terminated the struggle by a march on +the enemy's capital. Modern warfare, it is true, decides a war on the +field of battle; but in ancient times, when the system of attacking +fortresses was far less developed than the system of defence, the most +complete success in the field was on numberless occasions neutralized +by the resistance of the walls of the capitals. The council and +citizens of Carthage were not at all to be compared to the senate +and people of Rome; the peril of Carthage after the first campaign of +Regulus was infinitely more urgent than that of Rome after the battle +of Cannae; yet Carthage had made a stand and been completely +victorious. With what colour could it be expected that Rome would now +deliver her keys to the victor, or even accept an equitable peace? +Instead therefore of sacrificing practicable and important successes +for the sake of such empty demonstrations, or losing time in the +besieging of the two thousand Roman fugitives enclosed within the +walls of Canusium, Hannibal had immediately proceeded to Capua before +the Romans could throw in a garrison, and by his advance had induced +this second city of Italy after long hesitation to join him. He might +hope that, in possession of Capua, he would be able to seize one of +the Campanian ports, where he might disembark the reinforcements which +his great victories had wrung from the opposition at home. + +Renewal of the War in Campania +The War in Apulia + +When the Romans learned whither Hannibal had gone, they also left +Apulia, where only a weak division was retained, and collected +their remaining forces on the right bank of the Volturnus. With +the two legions saved from Cannae Marcus Marcellus marched to Teanum +Sidicinum, where he was joined by such troops as were at the moment +disposable from Rome and Ostia, and advanced--while the dictator +Marcus Junius slowly followed with the main army which had been +hastily formed--as far as the Volturnus at Casilinum, with a view if +possible to save Capua. That city he found already in the power of +the enemy; but on the other hand the attempts of the enemy on Neapolis +had been thwarted by the courageous resistance of the citizens, and +the Romans were still in good time to throw a garrison into that +important port. With equal fidelity the two other large coast towns, +Cumae and Nuceria, adhered to Rome. In Nola the struggle between +the popular and senatorial parties as to whether they should attach +themselves to the Carthaginians or to the Romans, was still undecided. +Informed that the former were gaining the superiority, Marcellus +crossed the river at Caiatia, and marching along the heights of +Suessula so as to evade the enemy's army, he reached Nola in +sufficient time to hold it against the foes without and within. +In a sally he even repulsed Hannibal in person with considerable loss; +a success which, as the first defeat sustained by Hannibal, was of far +more importance from its moral effect than from its material results. +In Campania indeed, Nuceria, Acerrae, and, after an obstinate siege +prolonged into the following year (539), Casilinum also, the key +of the Volturnus, were conquered by Hannibal, and the severest +punishments were inflicted on the senates of these towns which had +adhered to Rome. But terror is a bad weapon of proselytism; the +Romans succeeded, with comparatively trifling loss, in surmounting the +perilous moment of their first weakness. The war in Campania came to +a standstill; then winter came on, and Hannibal took up his quarters +in Capua, the luxury of which was by no means fraught with benefit to +his troops who for three years had not been under a roof. In the next +year (539) the war acquired another aspect. The tried general Marcus +Marcellus, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus who had distinguished himself +in the campaign of the previous year as master of the horse to the +dictator, and the veteran Quintus Fabius Maximus, took--Marcellus as +proconsul, the two others as consuls--the command of the three Roman +armies which were destined to surround Capua and Hannibal; Marcellus +resting on Nola and Suessula, Maximus taking a position on the right +bank of the Volturnus near Cales, and Gracchus on the coast near +Liternum, covering Neapolis and Cumae. The Campanians, who marched +to Hamae three miles from Cumae with a view to surprise the Cumaeans, +were thoroughly defeated by Gracchus; Hannibal, who had appeared +before Cumae to wipe out the stain, was himself worsted in a combat, +and when the pitched battle offered by him was declined, retreated +in ill humour to Capua. While the Romans in Campania thus not only +maintained what they possessed, but also recovered Compulteria and +other smaller places, loud complaints were heard from the eastern +allies of Hannibal. A Roman army under the praetor Marcus Valerius +had taken position at Luceria, partly that it might, in connection +with the Roman fleet, watch the east coast and the movements of the +Macedonians; partly that it might, in connection with the army of +Nola, levy contributions on the revolted Samnites, Lucanians, and +Hirpini. To give relief to these, Hannibal turned first against his +most active opponent, Marcus Marcellus; but the latter achieved under +the walls of Nola no inconsiderable victory over the Phoenician army, +and it was obliged to depart, without having cleared off the stain, +from Campania for Arpi, in order at length to check the progress of +the enemy's army in Apulia. Tiberius Gracchus followed it with his +corps, while the two other Roman armies in Campania made arrangements +to proceed next spring to the attack of Capua. + +Hannibal Reduced to the Defensive +His Prospects as to Reinforcements + +The clear vision of Hannibal had not been dazzled by his victories. +It became every day more evident that he was not thus gaining his +object Those rapid marches, that adventurous shifting of the war to +and fro, to which Hannibal was mainly indebted for his successes, +were at an end; the enemy had become wiser; further enterprises were +rendered almost impossible by the inevitable necessity of defending +what had been gained. The offensive was not to be thought of; the +defensive was difficult, and threatened every year to become more so. +He could not conceal from himself that the second half of his great +task, the subjugation of the Latins and the conquest of Rome, could +not be accomplished with his own forces and those of his Italian +allies alone. Its accomplishment depended on the council at Carthage, +on the head-quarters at Cartagena, on the courts of Pella and of +Syracuse. If all the energies of Africa, Spain, Sicily, and Macedonia +should now be exerted in common against the common enemy; if Lower +Italy should become the great rendezvous for the armies and fleets of +the west, south, and east; he might hope successfully to finish what +the vanguard under his leadership had so brilliantly begun. The most +natural and easy course would have been to send to him adequate +support from home; and the Carthaginian state, which had remained +almost untouched by the war and had been brought from deep decline so +near to complete victory by a small band of resolute patriots acting +of their own accord and at their own risk, could beyond doubt have +done this. That it would have been possible for a Phoenician fleet +of any desired strength to effect a landing at Locri or Croton, +especially as long as the port of Syracuse remained open to the +Carthaginians and the fleet at Brundisium was kept in check by +Macedonia, is shown by the unopposed disembarkation at Locri of 4000 +Africans, whom Bomilcar about this time brought over from Carthage to +Hannibal, and still more by Hannibal's undisturbed embarkation, when +all had been already lost. But after the first impression of the +victory of Cannae had died away, the peace party in Carthage, which +was at all times ready to purchase the downfall of its political +opponents at the expense of its country, and which found faithful +allies in the shortsightedness and indolence of the citizens, refused +the entreaties of the general for more decided support with the half- +simple, half-malicious reply, that he in fact needed no help inasmuch +as he was really victor; and thus contributed not much less than +the Roman senate to save Rome. Hannibal, reared in the camp and a +stranger to the machinery of civic factions, found no popular leader +on whose support he could rely, such as his father had found in +Hasdrubal; and he was obliged to seek abroad the means of saving +his native country--means which itself possessed in rich abundance +at home. + +For this purpose he might, at least with more prospect of success, +reckon on the leaders of the Spanish patriot army, on the connections +which he had formed in Syracuse, and on the intervention of Philip. +Everything depended on bringing new forces into the Italian field of +war against Rome from Spain, Syracuse, or Macedonia; and for the +attainment or for the prevention of this object wars were carried +on in Spain, Sicily, and Greece. All of these were but means to an +end, and historians have often erred in accounting them of greater +importance. So far as the Romans were concerned, they were +essentially defensive wars, the proper objects of which were to hold +the passes of the Pyrenees, to detain the Macedonian army in Greece, +to defend Messana and to bar the communication between Italy and +Sicily. Of course this defensive warfare was, wherever it was +possible, waged by offensive methods; and, should circumstances be +favourable, it might develop into the dislodging of the Phoenicians +from Spain and Sicily, and into the dissolution of Hannibal's +alliances with Syracuse and with Philip. The Italian war in itself +fell for the time being into the shade, and resolved itself into +conflicts about fortresses and razzias, which had no decisive effect +on the main issue. Nevertheless, so long as the Phoenicians retained +the offensive at all, Italy always remained the central aim of +operations; and all efforts were directed towards, as all interest +centred in, the doing away, or perpetuating, of Hannibal's isolation +in southern Italy. + +The Sending of Reinforcements Temporarily Frustrated + +Had it been possible, immediately after the battle of Cannae, to bring +into play all the resources on which Hannibal thought that he might +reckon, he might have been tolerably certain of success. But the +position of Hasdrubal at that time in Spain after the battle on the +Ebro was so critical, that the supplies of money and men, which the +victory of Cannae had roused the Carthaginian citizens to furnish, +were for the most part expended on Spain, without producing much +improvement in the position of affairs there. The Scipios transferred +the theatre of war in the following campaign (539) from the Ebro to +the Guadalquivir; and in Andalusia, in the very centre of the proper +Carthaginian territory, they achieved at Illiturgi and Intibili two +brilliant victories. In Sardinia communications entered into with +the natives led the Carthaginians to hope that they should be able +to master the island, which would have been of importance as an +intermediate station between Spain and Italy. But Titus Manlius +Torquatus, who was sent with a Roman army to Sardinia, completely +destroyed the Carthaginian landing force, and reassured to the Romans +the undisputed possession of the island (539). The legions from +Cannae sent to Sicily held their ground in the north and east of +the island with courage and success against the Carthaginians and +Hieronymus; the latter met his death towards the end of 539 by the +hand of an assassin. Even in the case of Macedonia the ratification +of the alliance was delayed, principally because the Macedonian envoys +sent to Hannibal were captured on their homeward journey by the Roman +vessels of war. Thus the dreaded invasion of the east coast was +temporarily suspended; and the Romans gained time to secure the very +important station of Brundisium first by their fleet and then by the +land army which before the arrival of Gracchus was employed for the +protection of Apulia, and even to make preparations for an invasion of +Macedonia in the event of war being declared. While in Italy the war +thus came to a stand, out of Italy nothing was done on the part of +Carthage to accelerate the movement of new armies or fleets towards +the seat of war. The Romans, again, had everywhere with the greatest +energy put themselves in a state of defence, and in that defensive +attitude had fought for the most part with good results wherever the +genius of Hannibal was absent. Thereupon the short-lived patriotism, +which the victory of Cannae had awakened in Carthage, evaporated; the +not inconsiderable forces which had been organized there were, either +through factious opposition or merely through unskilful attempts +to conciliate the different opinions expressed in the council, so +frittered away that they were nowhere of any real service, and but a +very small portion arrived at the spot where they would have been most +useful. At the close of 539 the reflecting Roman statesman might +assure himself that the urgency of the danger was past, and that the +resistance so heroically begun had but to persevere in its exertions +at all points in order to achieve its object. + +War in Sicily +Siege of Syracuse + +First of all the war in Sicily came to an end. It had formed no part +of Hannibal's original plan to excite a war on the island; but partly +through accident, chiefly through the boyish vanity of the imprudent +Hieronymus, a land war had broken out there, which--doubtless because +Hannibal had not planned it--the Carthaginian council look up with +especial zeal. After Hieronymus was killed at the close of 539, it +seemed more than doubtful whether the citizens would persevere in +the policy which he had pursued. If any city had reason to adhere +to Rome, that city was Syracuse; for the victory of the Carthaginians +over the Romans could not but give to the former, at any rate, the +sovereignty of all Sicily, and no one could seriously believe that +the promises made by Carthage to the Syracusans would be really kept. +Partly induced by this consideration, partly terrified by the +threatening preparations of the Romans--who made every effort to +bring once more under their complete control that important island, +the bridge between Italy and Africa, and now for the campaign of 540 +sent their best general, Marcus Marcellus, to Sicily--the Syracusan +citizens showed a disposition to obtain oblivion of the past by a +timely return to the Roman alliance. But, amidst the dreadful +confusion in the city--which after the death of Hieronymus was +agitated alternately by endeavours to re-establish the ancient freedom +of the people and by the -coups de main- of the numerous pretenders to +the vacant throne, while the captains of the foreign mercenary troops +were the real masters of the place--Hannibal's dexterous emissaries, +Hippocrates and Epicydes, found opportunity to frustrate the projects +of peace. They stirred up the multitude in the name of liberty; +descriptions, exaggerated beyond measure, of the fearful punishment +that the Romans were said to have inflicted on the Leontines, who had +just been re-conquered, awakened doubts even among the better portion +of the citizens whether it was not too late to restore their old +relations with Rome; while the numerous Roman deserters among the +mercenaries, mostly runaway rowers from the fleet, were easily +persuaded that a peace on the part of the citizens with Rome would +be their death-warrant. So the chief magistrates were put to death, +the armistice was broken, and Hippocrates and Epicydes undertook +the government of the city. No course was left to the consul except +to undertake a siege; but the skilful conduct of the defence, +in which the Syracusan engineer Archimedes, celebrated as a learned +mathematician, especially distinguished himself, compelled the Romans +after besieging the city for eight months to convert the siege into +a blockade by sea and land. + +Carthaginian Expedition to Sicily +The Carthaginian Troops Destroyed +Conquest of Syracuse + +In the meanwhile Carthage, which hitherto had only supported the +Syracusans with her fleets, on receiving news of their renewed rising +in arms against the Romans had despatched a strong land army under +Himilco to Sicily, which landed without interruption at Heraclea Minoa +and immediately occupied the important town of Agrigentum. To effect +a junction with Himilco, the bold and able Hippocrates marched forth +from Syracuse with an army: the position of Marcellus between the +garrison of Syracuse and the two hostile armies began to be critical. +With the help of some reinforcements, however, which arrived from +Italy, he maintained his position in the island and continued the +blockade of Syracuse. On the other hand, the greater portion of the +small inland towns were driven to the armies of the Carthaginians not +so much by the armies of the enemy, as by the fearful severity of the +Roman proceedings in the island, more especially the slaughter of the +citizens of Enna, suspected of a design to revolt, by the Roman +garrison which was stationed there. In 542 the besiegers of Syracuse +during a festival in the city succeeded in scaling a portion of the +extensive outer walls that had been deserted by the guard, and in +penetrating into the suburbs which stretched from the "island" and +the city proper on the shore (Achradina) towards the interior. The +fortress of Euryalus, which, situated at the extreme western end of +the suburbs, protected these and the principal road leading from the +interior to Syracuse, was thus cut off and fell not long afterwards. +When the siege of the city thus began to assume a turn favourable +to the Romans, the two armies under Himilco and Hippocrates advanced +to its relief, and attempted a simultaneous attack on the Roman +positions, combined with an attempt at landing on the part of the +Carthaginian fleet and a sally of the Syracusan garrison; but the +attack was repulsed on all sides, and the two relieving armies were +obliged to content themselves with encamping before the city, in the +low marshy grounds along the Anapus, which in the height of summer and +autumn engender pestilences fatal to those that tarry in them. These +pestilences had often saved the city, oftener even than the valour of +its citizens; in the times of the first Dionysius, two Phoenician +armies in the act of besieging the city had been in this way destroyed +under its very walls. Now fate turned the special defence of the city +into the means of its destruction; while the army of Marcellus +quartered in the suburbs suffered but little, fevers desolated the +Phoenician and Syracusan bivouacs. Hippocrates died; Himilco and +most of the Africans died also; the survivors of the two armies, +mostly native Siceli, dispersed into the neighbouring cities. The +Carthaginians made a further attempt to save the city from the sea +side; but the admiral Bomilcar withdrew, when the Roman fleet offered +him battle. Epicydes himself, who commanded in the city, now +abandoned it as lost, and made his escape to Agrigentum. Syracuse +would gladly have surrendered to the Romans; negotiations had already +begun. But for the second time they were thwarted by the deserters: +in another mutiny of the soldiers the chief magistrates and a number +of respectable citizens were slain, and the government and the defence +of the city were entrusted by the foreign troops to their captains. +Marcellus now entered into a negotiation with one of these, which gave +into his hands one of the two portions of the city that were still +free, the "island"; upon which the citizens voluntarily opened to +him the gates of Achradina also (in the autumn of 542). If mercy +was to be shown in any case, it might, even according to the far +from laudable principles of Roman public law as to the treatment +of perfidious communities, have been extended to this city, which +manifestly had not been at liberty to act for itself, and which had +repeatedly made the most earnest attempts to get rid of the tyranny +of the foreign soldiers. Nevertheless, not only did Marcellus stain +his military honour by permitting a general pillage of the wealthy +mercantile city, in the course of which Archimedes and many other +citizens were put to death, but the Roman senate lent a deaf ear to +the complaints which the Syracusans afterwards presented regarding the +celebrated general, and neither returned to individuals their pillaged +property nor restored to the city its freedom. Syracuse and the towns +that had been previously dependent on it were classed among the +communities tributary to Rome--Tauromenium and Neetum alone obtained +the same privileges as Messana, while the territory of Leontini became +Roman domain and its former proprietors Roman lessees--and no +Syracusan citizen was henceforth allowed to reside in the "island," +the portion of the city that commanded the harbour. + +Guerilla War in Sicily +Agrigentum Occupied by the Romans +Sicily Tranquillized + +Sicily thus appeared lost to the Carthaginians; but the genius of +Hannibal exercised even from a distance its influence there. He +despatched to the Carthaginian army, which remained at. Agrigentum +in perplexity and inaction under Hanno and Epicydes, a Libyan cavalry +officer Muttines, who took the command of the Numidian cavalry, and +with his flying squadrons, fanning into an open flame the bitter +hatred which the despotic rule of the Romans had excited over all the +island, commenced a guerilla warfare on the most extensive scale and +with the happiest results; so that he even, when the Carthaginian and +Roman armies met on the river Himera, sustained some conflicts with +Marcellus himself successfully. The relations, however, which +prevailed between Hannibal and the Carthaginian council, were here +repeated on a small scale. The general appointed by the council +pursued with jealous envy the officer sent by Hannibal, and insisted +upon giving battle to the proconsul without Muttines and the +Numidians. The wish of Hanno was carried out, and he was completely +beaten. Muttines was not induced to deviate from his course; he +maintained himself in the interior of the country, occupied several +small towns, and was enabled by the not inconsiderable reinforcements +which joined him from Carthage gradually to extend his operations. +His successes were so brilliant, that at length the commander-in- +chief, who could not otherwise prevent the cavalry officer from +eclipsing him, deprived him summarily of the command of the light +cavalry, and entrusted it to his own son. The Numidian, who had +now for two years preserved the island for his Phoenician masters, +had the measure of his patience exhausted by this treatment. He and +his horsemen who refused to follow the younger Hanno entered into +negotiations with the Roman general Marcus Valerius Laevinus and +delivered to him Agrigentum. Hanno escaped in a boat, and went to +Carthage to report to his superiors the disgraceful high treason of +Hannibal's officer; the Phoenician garrison in the town was put to +death by the Romans, and the citizens were sold into slavery (544). +To secure the island from such surprises as the landing of 540, the +city received a new body of inhabitants selected from Sicilians well +disposed towards Rome; the old glorious Akragas was no more. After +the whole of Sicily was thus subdued, the Romans exerted themselves to +restore some sort of tranquillity and order to the distracted island. +The pack of banditti that haunted the interior were driven together +en masse and conveyed to Italy, that from their head-quarters at +Rhegium they might burn and destroy in the territories of Hannibal's +allies. The government did its utmost to promote the restoration +of agriculture which had been totally neglected in the island. +The Carthaginian council more than once talked of sending a fleet +to Sicily and renewing the war there; but the project went no further. + +Philip of Macedonia and His Delay + +Macedonia might have exercised an influence over the course of +events more decisive than that of Syracuse. From the Eastern powers +neither furtherance nor hindrance was for the moment to be expected. +Antiochus the Great, the natural ally of Philip, had, after the +decisive victory of the Egyptians at Raphia in 537, to deem himself +fortunate in obtaining peace from the indolent Philopator on the basis +of the -status quo ante-. The rivalry of the Lagidae and the constant +apprehension of a renewed outbreak of the war on the one hand, and +insurrections of pretenders in the interior and enterprises of all +sorts in Asia Minor, Bactria, and the eastern satrapies on the other, +prevented him from joining that great anti-Roman alliance which +Hannibal had in view. The Egyptian court was decidedly on the side +of Rome, with which it renewed alliance in 544; but it was not to be +expected of Ptolemy Philopator, that he would support otherwise than +by corn-ships. Accordingly there was nothing to prevent Greece and +Macedonia from throwing a decisive weight into the great Italian +struggle except their own discord; they might save the Hellenic name, +if they had the self-control to stand by each other for but a few +years against the common foe. Such sentiments doubtless were current +in Greece. The prophetic saying of Agelaus of Naupactus, that he was +afraid that the prize-fights in which the Hellenes now indulged at +home might soon be over; his earnest warning to direct their eyes to +the west, and not to allow a stronger power to impose on all the +parties now contending a peace of equal servitude--such sayings had +essentially contributed to bring about the peace between Philip and +the Aetolians (537), and it was a significant proof of the tendency +of that peace that the Aetolian league immediately nominated Agelaus +as its -strategus-. + +National patriotism was bestirring itself in Greece as in Carthage: +for a moment it seemed possible to kindle a Hellenic national war +against Rome. But the general in such a crusade could only be Philip +of Macedonia; and he lacked the enthusiasm and the faith in the +nation, without which such a war could not be waged. He knew not +how to solve the arduous problem of transforming himself from the +oppressor into the champion of Greece. His very delay in the +conclusion of the alliance with Hannibal damped the first and best +zeal of the Greek patriots; and when he did enter into the conflict +with Rome, his mode of conducting war was still less fitted to awaken +sympathy and confidence. His first attempt, which was made in the +very year of the battle of Cannae (538), to obtain possession of the +city of Apollonia, failed in a way almost ridiculous, for Philip +turned back in all haste on receiving the totally groundless report +that a Roman fleet was steering for the Adriatic. This took place +before there was a formal breach with Rome; when the breach at length +ensued, friend and foe expected a Macedonian landing in Lower Italy. +Since 539 a Roman fleet and army had been stationed at Brundisium to +meet it; Philip, who was without vessels of war, was constructing a +flotilla of light Illyrian barks to convey his army across. But when +the endeavour had to be made in earnest, his courage failed to +encounter the dreaded quinqueremes at sea; he broke the promise which +he had given to his ally Hannibal to attempt a landing, and with the +view of still doing something he resolved to make an attack on his own +share of the spoil, the Roman possessions in Epirus (540). Nothing +would have come of this even at the best; but the Romans, who well +knew that offensive was preferable to defensive protection, were by no +means content to remain--as Philip may have hoped--spectators of the +attack from the opposite shore. The Roman fleet conveyed a division +of the army from Brundisium to Epirus; Oricum was recaptured from the +king, a garrison was thrown into Apollonia, and the Macedonian camp +was stormed. Thereupon Philip passed from partial action to total +inaction, and notwithstanding all the complaints of Hannibal, who +vainly tried to breathe into such a halting and shortsighted policy +his own fire and clearness of decision, he allowed some years to +elapse in armed inactivity. + +Rome Heads a Greek Coalition against Macedonia + +Nor was Philip the first to renew the hostilities. The fall of +Tarentum (542), by which Hannibal acquired an excellent port on the +coast which was the most convenient for the landing of a Macedonian +army, induced the Romans to parry the blow from a distance and to give +the Macedonians so much employment at home that they could not think +of an attempt on Italy. The national enthusiasm in Greece had of +course evaporated long ago. With the help of the old antagonism to +Macedonia, and of the fresh acts of imprudence and injustice of which +Philip had been guilty, the Roman admiral Laevinus found no difficulty +in organizing against Macedonia a coalition of the intermediate and +minor powers under the protectorate of Rome. It was headed by the +Aetolians, at whose diet Laevinus had personally appeared and had +gained its support by a promise of the Acarnanian territory which +the Aetolians had long coveted. They concluded with Rome a modest +agreement to rob the other Greeks of men and land on the joint +account, so that the land should belong to the Aetolians, the men +and moveables to the Romans. They were joined by the states of anti- +Macedonian, or rather primarily of anti-Achaean, tendencies in Greece +proper; in Attica by Athens, in the Peloponnesus by Elis and Messene +and especially by Sparta, the antiquated constitution of which had +been just about this time overthrown by a daring soldier Machanidas, +in order that he might himself exercise despotic power under the +name of king Pelops, a minor, and might establish a government of +adventurers sustained by bands of mercenaries. The coalition was +joined moreover by those constant antagonists of Macedonia, the +chieftains of the half-barbarous Thracian and Illyrian tribes, and +lastly by Attalus king of Pergamus, who followed out his own interest +with sagacity and energy amidst the ruin of the two great Greek states +which surrounded him, and had the acuteness even now to attach himself +as a client to Rome when his assistance was still of some value. + +Resultless Warfare +Peace between Philip and the Greeks +Peace between Philip and Rome + +It is neither agreeable nor necessary to follow the vicissitudes of +this aimless struggle. Philip, although he was superior to each one +of his opponents and repelled their attacks on all sides with energy +and personal valour, yet consumed his time and strength in that +profitless defensive. Now he had to turn against the Aetolians, +who in concert with the Roman fleet annihilated the unfortunate +Acarnanians and threatened Locris and Thessaly; now an invasion of +barbarians summoned him to the northern provinces; now the Achaeans +solicited his help against the predatory expeditions of Aetolians and +Spartans; now king Attalus of Pergamus and the Roman admiral Publius +Sulpicius with their combined fleets threatened the east coast or +landed troops in Euboea. The want of a war fleet paralyzed Philip in +all his movements; he even went so far as to beg vessels of war from +his ally Prusias of Bithynia, and even from Hannibal. It was only +towards the close of the war that he resolved--as he should have done +at first--to order the construction of 100 ships of war; of these +however no use was made, if the order was executed at all. All who +understood the position of Greece and sympathized with it lamented +the unhappy war, in which the last energies of Greece preyed upon +themselves and the prosperity of the land was destroyed; repeatedly +the commercial states, Rhodes, Chios, Mitylene, Byzantium, Athens, and +even Egypt itself had attempted a mediation. In fact both parties had +an interest in coming to terms. The Aetolians, to whom their Roman +allies attached the chief importance, had, like the Macedonians, +much to suffer from the war; especially after the petty king of the +Athamanes had been gained by Philip, and the interior of Aetolia had +thus been laid open to Macedonian incursions. Many Aetolians too had +their eyes gradually opened to the dishonourable and pernicious part +which the Roman alliance condemned them to play; a cry of horror +pervaded the whole Greek nation when the Aetolians in concert with +the Romans sold whole bodies of Hellenic citizens, such as those of +Anticyra, Oreus, Dyme, and Aegina, into slavery. But the Aetolians +were no longer free; they ran a great risk if of their own accord they +concluded peace with Philip, and they found the Romans by no means +disposed, especially after the favourable turn which matters were +taking in Spain and in Italy, to desist from a war, which on their +part was carried on with merely a few ships, and the burden and +injury of which fell mainly on the Aetolians. At length however +the Aetolians resolved to listen to the mediating cities: and, +notwithstanding the counter-efforts of the Romans, a peace was +arranged in the winter of 548-9 between the Greek powers. Aetolia had +converted an over-powerful ally into a dangerous enemy; but the Roman +senate, which just at that time was summoning all the resources of the +exhausted state for the decisive expedition to Africa, did not deem it +a fitting moment to resent the breach of the alliance. The war with +Philip could not, after the withdrawal of the Aetolians, have been +carried on by the Romans without considerable exertions of their own; +and it appeared to them more convenient to terminate it also by a +peace, whereby the state of things before the war was substantially +restored and Rome in particular retained all her possessions on the +coast of Epirus except the worthless territory of the Atintanes. +Under the circumstances Philip had to deem himself fortunate in +obtaining such terms; but the fact proclaimed--what could not indeed +be longer concealed--that all the unspeakable misery which ten years +of a warfare waged with revolting inhumanity had brought upon Greece +had been endured in vain, and that the grand and just combination, +which Hannibal had projected and all Greece had for a moment joined, +was shattered irretrievably. + +Spanish War + +In Spain, where the spirit of Hamilcar and Hannibal was powerful, the +struggle was more earnest. Its progress was marked by the singular +vicissitudes incidental to the peculiar nature of the country and the +habits of the people. The farmers and shepherds, who inhabited the +beautiful valley of the Ebro and the luxuriantly fertile Andalusia as +well as the rough intervening highland region traversed by numerous +wooded mountain ranges, could easily be assembled in arms as a general +levy; but it was difficult to lead them against the enemy or even to +keep them together at all. The towns could just as little be combined +for steady and united action, obstinately as in each case they bade +defiance to the oppressor behind their walls. They all appear to have +made little distinction between the Romans and the Carthaginians; +whether the troublesome guests who had established themselves in the +valley of the Ebro, or those who had established themselves on the +Guadalquivir, possessed a larger or smaller portion of the peninsula, +was probably to the natives very much a matter of indifference; and +for that reason the tenacity of partisanship so characteristic of +Spain was but little prominent in this war, with isolated exceptions +such as Saguntum on the Roman and Astapa on the Carthaginian side. +But, as neither the Romans nor the Africans had brought with them +sufficient forces of their own, the war necessarily became on both +sides a struggle to gain partisans, which was decided rarely by solid +attachment, more usually by fear, money, or accident, and which, when +it seemed about to end, resolved itself into an endless series of +fortress-sieges and guerilla conflicts, whence it soon revived with +fresh fury. Armies appeared and disappeared like sandhills on the +seashore; on the spot where a hill stood yesterday, not a trace of +it remains today. In general the superiority was on the side of +the Romans, partly because they at first appeared in Spain as the +deliverers of the land from Phoenician despotism, partly because of +the fortunate selection of their leaders and of the stronger nucleus +of trustworthy troops which these brought along with them. It is +hardly possible, however, with the very imperfect and--in point of +chronology especially--very confused accounts which have been handed +down to us, to give a satisfactory view of a war so conducted. + +Successes of the Scipios +Syphax against Carthage + +The two lieutenant-governors of the Romans in the peninsula, Gnaeus +and Publius Scipio--both of them, but especially Gnaeus, good +generals and excellent administrators--accomplished their task with +the most brilliant success. Not only was the barrier of the Pyrenees +steadfastly maintained, and the attempt to re-establish the +interrupted communication by land between the commander-in-chief of +the enemy and his head-quarters sternly repulsed; not only had a +Spanish New Rome been created, after the model of the Spanish New +Carthage, by means of the comprehensive fortifications and harbour +works of Tarraco, but the Roman armies had already in 539 fought with +success in Andalusia.(2) Their expedition thither was repeated in +the following year (540) with still greater success. The Romans +carried their arms almost to the Pillars of Hercules, extended their +protectorate in South Spain, and lastly by regaining and restoring +Saguntum secured for themselves an important station on the line from +the Ebro to Cartagena, repaying at the same time as far as possible +an old debt which the nation owed. While the Scipios thus almost +dislodged the Carthaginians from Spain, they knew how to raise up a +dangerous enemy to them in western Africa itself in the person of the +powerful west African prince Syphax, ruling in the modern provinces of +Oran and Algiers, who entered into connections with the Romans (about +541). Had it been possible to supply him with a Roman army, great +results might have been expected; but at that time not a man could be +spared from Italy, and the Spanish army was too weak to be divided. +Nevertheless the troops belonging to Syphax himself, trained and led +by Roman officers, excited so serious a ferment among the Libyan +subjects of Carthage that the lieutenant-commander of Spain and +Africa, Hasdrubal Barcas, went in person to Africa with the flower +of his Spanish troops. His arrival in all likelihood gave another +turn to the matter; the king Gala--in what is now the province of +Constantine--who had long been the rival of Syphax, declared for +Carthage, and his brave son Massinissa defeated Syphax, and compelled +him to make peace. Little more is related of this Libyan war than the +story of the cruel vengeance which Carthage, according to her wont, +inflicted on the rebels after the victory of Massinissa. + +The Scipios Defeated and Killed +Spain South of the Ebro Lost to the Romans +Nero Sent to Spain + +This turn of affairs in Africa had an important effect on the war in +Spain. Hasdrubal was able once more to turn to that country (543), +whither he was soon followed by considerable reinforcements and by +Massinissa himself. The Scipios, who during the absence of the +enemy's general (541, 542) had continued to plunder and to gain +partisans in the Carthaginian territory, found themselves unexpectedly +assailed by forces so superior that they were under the necessity of +either retreating behind the Ebro or calling out the Spaniards. They +chose the latter course, and took into their pay 20,000 Celtiberians; +and then, in order the better to encounter the three armies of the +enemy under Hasdrubal Barcas, Hasdrubal the son of Gisgo, and Mago, +they divided their army and did not even keep their Roman troops +together. They thus prepared the way for their own destruction. +While Gnaeus with his corps, containing a third of the Roman and all +the Spanish troops, lay encamped opposite to Hasdrubal Barcas, the +latter had no difficulty in inducing the Spaniards in the Roman army +by means of a sum of money to withdraw--which perhaps to their free- +lance ideas of morals did not even seem a breach of fidelity, seeing +that they did not pass over to the enemies of their paymaster. +Nothing was left to the Roman general but hastily to begin his +retreat, in which the enemy closely followed him. Meanwhile the +second Roman corps under Publius found itself vigorously assailed +by the two other Phoenician armies under Hasdrubal son of Gisgo +and Mago, and the daring squadrons of Massinissa's horse gave to +the Carthaginians a decided advantage. The Roman camp was almost +surrounded; when the Spanish auxiliaries already on the way should +arrive, the Romans would be completely hemmed in. The bold resolve +of the proconsul to encounter with his best troops the advancing +Spaniards, before their appearance should fill up the gap in the +blockade, ended unfortunately. The Romans indeed had at first the +advantage; but the Numidian horse, who were rapidly despatched in +pursuit, soon overtook them and prevented them both from following up +the victory which they had already half gained, and from marching +back, until the Phoenician infantry came up and at length the fall of +the general converted the lost battle into a defeat. After Publius +had thus fallen, Gnaeus, who slowly retreating had with difficulty +defended himself against the one Carthaginian army, found himself +suddenly assailed at once by three, and all retreat cut off by the +Numidian cavalry. Hemmed in upon a bare hill, which did not even +afford the possibility of pitching a camp, the whole corps were cut +down or taken prisoners. As to the fate of the general himself no +certain information was ever obtained. A small division alone was +conducted by Gaius Marcius, an excellent officer of the school of +Gnaeus, in safety to the other bank of the Ebro; and thither the +legate Titus Fonteius also succeeded in bringing safely the portion +of the corps of Publius that had been left in the camp; most even of +the Roman garrisons scattered in the south of Spain were enabled to +flee thither. In all Spain south of the Ebro the Phoenicians ruled +undisturbed; and the moment seemed not far distant, when the river +would be crossed, the Pyrenees would be open, and the communication +with Italy would be restored. But the emergency in the Roman camp +called the right man to the command. The choice of the soldiers, +passing over older and not incapable officers, summoned that Gaius +Marcius to become leader of the army; and his dexterous management +and quite as much perhaps, the envy and discord among the three +Carthaginian generals, wrested from these the further fruits of their +important victory. Such of the Carthaginians as had crossed the river +were driven back, and the line of the Ebro was held in the meanwhile, +till Rome gained time to send a new army and a new general. +Fortunately the turn of the war in Italy, where Capua had just fallen, +allowed this to be done. A strong legion--12,000 men--arriving under +the propraetor Gaius Claudius Nero, restored the balance of arms. +An expedition to Andalusia in the following year (544) was most +successful; Hasdrubal Barcas was beset and surrounded, and escaped a +capitulation only by ignoble stratagem and open perfidy. But Nero was +not the right general for the Spanish war. He was an able officer, +but a harsh, irritable, unpopular man, who had little skill in the +art of renewing old connections or of forming new ones, or in taking +advantage of the injustice and arrogance with which the Carthaginians +after the death of the Scipios had treated friend and foe in Further +Spain, and had exasperated all against them. + +Publius Scipio + +The senate, which formed a correct judgment as to the importance +and the peculiar character of the Spanish war, and had learned from +the Uticenses brought in as prisoners by the Roman fleet the great +exertions which were making in Carthage to send Hasdrubal and +Massinissa with a numerous army over the Pyrenees, resolved to +despatch to Spain new reinforcements and an extraordinary general of +higher rank, the nomination of whom they deemed it expedient to leave +to the people. For long--so runs the story--nobody announced himself +as ready to take in hand the complicated and perilous business; but +at last a young officer of twenty-seven, Publius Scipio (son of the +general of the same name that had fallen in Spain), who had held the +offices of military tribune and aedile, came forward to solicit it. +It is incredible that the Roman senate should have left to accident +an election of such importance in this meeting of the Comitia which +it had itself suggested, and equally incredible that ambition and +patriotism should have so died out in Rome that no tried officer +presented himself for the important post. If on the other hand the +eyes of the senate turned to the young, talented, and experienced +officer, who had brilliantly distinguished himself in the hotly- +contested days on the Ticinus and at Cannae, but who still had not the +rank requisite for his coming forward as the successor of men who had +been praetors and consuls, it was very natural to adopt this course, +which compelled the people out of good nature to admit the only +candidate notwithstanding his defective qualification, and which could +not but bring both him and the Spanish expedition, which was doubtless +very unpopular, into favour with the multitude. If the effect of this +ostensibly unpremeditated candidature was thus calculated, it was +perfectly successful. The son, who went to avenge the death of a +father whose life he had saved nine years before on the Ticinus; +the young man of manly beauty and long locks, who with modest blushes +offered himself in the absence of a better for the post of danger; +the mere military tribune, whom the votes of the centuries now raised +at once to the roll of the highest magistracies--all this made a +wonderful and indelible impression on the citizens and farmers of +Rome. And in truth Publius Scipio was one, who was himself +enthusiastic, and who inspired enthusiasm. He was not one of the few +who by their energy and iron will constrain the world to adopt and to +move in new paths for centuries, or who at any rate grasp the reins of +destiny for years till its wheels roll over them. Publius Scipio +gained battles and conquered countries under the instructions of the +senate; with the aid of his military laurels he took also a prominent +position in Rome as a statesman; but a wide interval separates such a +man from an Alexander or a Caesar. As an officer he rendered at least +no greater service to his country than Marcus Marcellus; and as a +politician, although not perhaps himself fully conscious of the +unpatriotic and personal character of his policy, he injured his +country at least as much, as he benefited it by his military skill. +Yet a special charm lingers around the form of that graceful hero; +it is surrounded, as with a dazzling halo, by the atmosphere of serene +and confident inspiration, in which Scipio with mingled credulity and +adroitness always moved. With quite enough of enthusiasm to warm +men's hearts, and enough of calculation to follow in every case the +dictates of intelligence, while not leaving out of account the vulgar; +not naive enough to share the belief of the multitude in his divine +inspirations, nor straightforward enough to set it aside, and yet in +secret thoroughly persuaded that he was a man specially favoured of +the gods--in a word, a genuine prophetic nature; raised above the +people, and not less aloof from them; a man of steadfast word and +kingly spirit, who thought that he would humble himself by adopting +the ordinary title of a king, but could never understand how the +constitution of the republic should in his case be binding; +so confident in his own greatness that he knew nothing of envy +or of hatred, courteously acknowledged other men's merits, and +compassionately forgave other men's faults; an excellent officer and +a refined diplomatist without the repellent special impress of either +calling, uniting Hellenic culture with the fullest national feeling of +a Roman, an accomplished speaker and of graceful manners--Publius +Scipio won the hearts of soldiers and of women, of his countrymen +and of the Spaniards, of his rivals in the senate and of his greater +Carthaginian antagonist. His name was soon on every one's lips, and +his was the star which seemed destined to bring victory and peace +to his country. + +Scipio Goes to Spain +Capture of New Carthage + +Publius Scipio went to Spain in 544-5, accompanied by the propraetor +Marcus Silanus, who was to succeed Nero and to serve as assistant and +counsellor to the young commander-in-chief, and by his intimate friend +Gaius Laelius as admiral, and furnished with a legion exceeding the +usual strength and a well-filled chest. His appearance on the scene +was at once signalized by one of the boldest and most fortunate -coups +de main- that are known in history. Of the three Carthaginian +generals Hasdrubal Barcas was stationed at the sources, Hasdrubal +son of Gisgo at the mouth, of the Tagus, and Mago at the Pillars of +Hercules; the nearest of them was ten days' march from the Phoenician +capital New Carthage. Suddenly in the spring of 545, before the +enemy's armies began to move, Scipio set out with his whole army of +nearly 30,000 men and the fleet for this town, which he could reach +from the mouth of the Ebro by the coast route in a few days, and +surprised the Phoenician garrison, not above 1000 men strong, by a +combined attack by sea and land. The town, situated on a tongue of +land projecting into the harbour, found itself threatened at once on +three sides by the Roman fleet, and on the fourth by the legions; and +all help was far distant. Nevertheless the commandant Mago defended +himself with resolution and armed the citizens, as the soldiers did +not suffice to man the walls. A sortie was attempted; but the Romans +repelled it with ease and, without taking time to open a regular +siege, began the assault on the landward side. Eagerly the assailants +pushed their advance along the narrow land approach to the town; +new columns constantly relieved those that were fatigued; the weak +garrison was utterly exhausted; but the Romans had gained no +advantage. Scipio had not expected any; the assault was merely +designed to draw away the garrison from the side next to the harbour, +where, having been informed that part of the latter was left dry at +ebb-tide, he meditated a second attack. While the assault was raging +on the landward side, Scipio sent a division with ladders over the +shallow bank "where Neptune himself showed them the way," and they had +actually the good fortune to find the walls at that point undefended. +Thus the city was won on the first day; whereupon Mago in the citadel +capitulated. With the Carthaginian capital there fell into the hands +of the Romans 18 dismantled vessels of war and 63 transports, the +whole war-stores, considerable supplies of corn, the war-chest of 600 +talents (more than; 40,000 pounds), ten thousand captives, among whom +were eighteen Carthaginian gerusiasts or judges, and the hostages of +all the Spanish allies of Carthage. Scipio promised the hostages +permission to return home so soon as their respective communities +should have entered into alliance with Rome, and employed the +resources which the city afforded to reinforce and improve the +condition of his army. He ordered the artisans of New Carthage, +2000 in number, to work for the Roman army, promising to them liberty +at the close of the war, and he selected the able-bodied men among +the remaining multitude to serve as rowers in the fleet. But the +burgesses of the city were spared, and allowed to retain their liberty +and former position. Scipio knew the Phoenicians, and was aware that +they would obey; and it was important that a city possessing the only +excellent harbour on the east coast and rich silver mines should be +secured by something more than a garrison. + +Success thus crowned the bold enterprise--bold, because it was not +unknown to Scipio that Hasdrubal Barcas had received orders from his +government to advance towards Gaul and was engaged in fulfilling them, +and because the weak division left behind on the Ebro was not in a +position seriously to oppose that movement, should the return of +Scipio be delayed. But he was again at Tarraco, before Hasdrubal made +his appearance on the Ebro. The hazard of the game which the young +general played, when he abandoned his primary task in order to execute +a dashing stroke, was concealed by the fabulous success which Neptune +and Scipio had gained in concert. The marvellous capture of the +Phoenician capital so abundantly justified all the expectations +which had been formed at home regarding the wondrous youth, that +none could venture to utter any adverse opinion. Scipio's command was +indefinitely prolonged; he himself resolved no longer to confine his +efforts to the meagre task of guarding the passes of the Pyrenees. +Already, in consequence of the fall of New Carthage, not only had +the Spaniards on the north of the Ebro completely submitted, but +even beyond the Ebro the most powerful princes had exchanged +the Carthaginian for the Roman protectorate. + +Scipio Goes to Andalusia +Hasdrubal Crosses the Pyrenees + +Scipio employed the winter of 545-6 in breaking up his fleet and +increasing his land army with the men thus acquired, so that he +might at once guard the north and assume the offensive in the south +more energetically than before; and he marched in 546 to Andalusia. +There he: encountered Hasdrubal Barcas, who, in the execution of his +long-cherished plan, was moving northward to the help of his brother. +A battle took place at Baecula, in which the Romans claimed the +victory and professed to have made 10,000 captives; but Hasdrubal +substantially attained his end, although at the sacrifice of a portion +of his army. With his chest, his elephants, and the best portion of +his troops, he fought his way to the north coast of Spain; marching +along the shore, he reached the western passes of the Pyrenees which +appear to have been unoccupied, and before the bad season began he +was in Gaul, where he took up quarters for the winter. It was evident +that the resolve of Scipio to combine offensive operations with the +defensive which he had been instructed to maintain was inconsiderate +and unwise. The immediate task assigned to the Spanish army, which +not only Scipio's father and uncle, but even Gaius Marcius and Gaius +Nero had accomplished with much inferior means, was not enough for the +arrogance of the victorious general at the head of a numerous army; +and he was mainly to blame for the extremely critical position of Rome +in the summer of 547, when the plan of Hannibal for a combined attack +on the Romans was at length realized. But the gods covered the errors +of their favourite with laurels. In Italy the peril fortunately +passed over; the Romans were glad to accept the bulletin of the +ambiguous victory of Baecula, and, when fresh tidings of victory +arrived from Spain, they thought no more of the circumstance that +they had had to combat the ablest general and the flower of the +Hispano-Phoenician army in Italy. + +Spain Conquered +Mago Goes to Italy +Gades Becomes Roman + +After the removal of Hasdrubal Barcas the two generals who were +left in Spain determined for the time being to retire, Hasdrubal +son of Gisgo to Lusitania, Mago even to the Baleares; and, until new +reinforcements should arrive from Africa, they left the light cavalry +of Massinissa alone to wage a desultory warfare in Spain, as Muttines +had done so successfully in Sicily. The whole east coast thus fell +into the power of the Romans. In the following year (547) Hanno +actually made his appearance from Africa with a third army, whereupon +Mago and Hasdrubal returned to Andalusia. But Marcus Silanus defeated +the united armies of Mago and Hanno, and captured the latter in +person. Hasdrubal upon this abandoned the idea of keeping the open +field, and distributed his troops among the Andalusian cities, of +which Scipio was during this year able to storm only one, Oringis. +The Phoenicians seemed vanquished; but yet they were able in the +following year (548) once more to send into the field a powerful army, +32 elephants, 4000 horse, and 70,000 foot, far the greater part of +whom, it is true, were hastily-collected: Spanish militia. Again +a battle took place at Baecula. The Roman army numbered little +more than half that of the enemy, and was also to a considerable +extent composed of Spaniards. Scipio, like Wellington in similar +circumstances, disposed his Spaniards so that they should not partake +in the fight--the only possible mode of preventing their dispersion +--while on the other hand he threw his Roman troops in the first +instance on the Spaniards. The day was nevertheless obstinately +contested; but at length the Romans were the victors, and, as a matter +of course, the defeat of such an army was equivalent to its complete +dissolution--Hasdrubal and Mago singly made their escape to Gades. +The Romans were now without a rival in the peninsula; the few towns +that did not submit with good will were subdued one by one, and some +of them were punished with cruel severity. Scipio was even able to +visit Syphax on the African coast, and to enter into communications +with him and also with Massinissa with reference to an expedition +to Africa--a foolhardy venture, which was not warranted by any +corresponding advantage, however much the report of it might please +the curiosity of the citizens of the capital at home. Gades alone, +where Mago held command, was still Phoenician. For a moment it seemed +as if, after the Romans had entered upon the Carthaginian heritage and +had sufficiently undeceived the expectation cherished here and there +among the Spaniards that after the close of the Phoenician rule they +would get rid of their Roman guests also and regain their ancient +freedom, a general insurrection against the Romans would break forth +in Spain, in which the former allies of Rome would take the lead. +The sickness of the Roman general and the mutiny of one of his corps, +occasioned by their pay being in arrear for many years, favoured +the rising. But Scipio recovered sooner than was expected, and +dexterously suppressed the tumult among the soldiers; upon which +the communities that had taken the lead in the national rising were +subdued at once before the insurrection gained ground. Seeing that +nothing came of this movement and Gades could not be permanently held, +the Carthaginian government ordered Mago to gather together whatever +could be got in ships, troops, and money, and with these, if possible, +to give another turn to the war in Italy. Scipio could not prevent +this--his dismantling of the fleet now avenged itself--and he was a +second time obliged to leave in the hands of his gods the defence, +with which he had been entrusted, of his country against new +invasions. The last of Hamilcar's sons left the peninsula without +opposition. After his departure Gades, the oldest and last possession +of the Phoenicians on Spanish soil, submitted on favourable conditions +to the new masters. Spain was, after a thirteen years' struggle, +converted from a Carthaginian into a Roman province, in which the +conflict with the Romans was still continued for centuries by means of +insurrections always suppressed and yet never subdued, but in which at +the moment no enemy stood opposed to Rome. Scipio embraced the first +moment of apparent peace to resign his command (in the end of 548), +and to report at Rome in person the victories which he had achieved +and the provinces which he had won. + +Italian War +Position of the Armies + +While the war was thus terminated in Sicily by Marcellus, in Greece by +Publius Sulpicius, and in Spain by Scipio, the mighty struggle went on +without interruption in the Italian peninsula. There after the battle +of Cannae had been fought and its effects in loss or gain could by +degrees be discerned, at the commencement of 540, the fifth year of +the war, the dispositions of the opposing Romans and Phoenicians were +the following. North Italy had been reoccupied by the Romans after +the departure of Hannibal, and was protected by three legions, two of +which were stationed in the Celtic territory, the third as a reserve +in Picenum. Lower Italy, as far as Mount Garganus and the Volturnus, +was, with the exception of the fortresses and most of the ports, in +the hands of Hannibal. He lay with his main army at Arpi, while +Tiberius Gracchus with four legions confronted him in Apulia, resting +upon the fortresses of Luceria and Beneventum. In the land of the +Bruttians, where the inhabitants had thrown themselves entirely into +the arms of Hannibal, and where even the ports--excepting Rhegium, +which the Romans protected from Messana--had been occupied by the +Phoenicians, there was a second Carthaginian army under Hanno, which +in the meanwhile saw no enemy to face it. The Roman main army of four +legions under the two consuls, Quintus Fabius and Marcus Marcellus, +was on the point of attempting to recover Capua. To these there fell +to be added on the Roman side the reserve of two legions in the +capital, the garrisons placed in all the seaports--Tarentum and +Brundisium having been reinforced by a legion on account of the +Macedonian landing apprehended there--and lastly the strong fleet +which had undisputed command of the sea. If we add to these the Roman +armies in Sicily, Sardinia, and Spain, the whole number of the Roman +forces, even apart from the garrison service in the fortresses of +Lower Italy which was provided for by the colonists occupying them, +may be estimated at not less than 200,000 men, of whom one-third were +newly enrolled for this year, and about one-half were Roman citizens. +It may be assumed that all the men capable of service from the 17th +to the 46th year were under arms, and that the fields, where the war +permitted them to be tilled at all, were cultivated by the slaves +and the old men, women, and children. As may well be conceived, +under such circumstances the finances were in the most grievous +embarrassment; the land-tax, the main source of revenue, came in but +very irregularly. Yet notwithstanding these difficulties as to men +and money the Romans were able--slowly indeed and by exerting all +their energies, but still surely--to recover what they had so rapidly +lost; to increase their armies yearly, while those of the Phoenicians +were diminishing; to gain ground year by year on the Italian allies +of Hannibal, the Campanians, Apulians, Samnites, and Bruttians, who +neither sufficed, like the Roman fortresses in Lower Italy, for their +own protection nor could be adequately protected by the weak army of +Hannibal; and finally, by means of the method of warfare instituted by +Marcus Marcellus, to develop the talent of their officers and to bring +into full play the superiority of the Roman infantry. Hannibal might +doubtless still hope for victories, but no longer such victories as +those on the Trasimene lake and on the Aufidus; the times of the +citizen-generals were gone by. No course was left to him but to wait +till either Philip should execute his long-promised descent or his own +brothers should join him from Spain, and meanwhile to keep himself, +his army, and his clients as far as possible free from harm and in +good humour. We hardly recognize in the obstinate defensive system +which he now began the same general who had carried on the offensive +with almost unequalled impetuosity and boldness; it is marvellous in +a psychological as well as in a military point of view, that the same +man should have accomplished the two tasks set to him--tasks so +diametrically opposite in their character--with equal completeness. + +Conflicts in the South of Italy + +At first the war turned chiefly towards Campania. Hannibal appeared +in good time to protect its capital, which he prevented from being +invested; but he was unable either to wrest any of the Campanian towns +held by the Romans from their strong Roman garrisons, or to prevent +--in addition to a number of less important country towns--Casilinum, +which secured his passage over the Volturnus, from being taken by + the two consular armies after an obstinate defence. An attempt of +Hannibal to gain Tarentum, with the view especially of acquiring a +safe landing-place for the Macedonian army, proved unsuccessful. +Meanwhile the Bruttian army of the Carthaginians under Hanno had +various encounters in Lucania with the Roman army of Apulia; here +Tiberius Gracchus sustained the struggle with good results, and after +a successful combat not far from Beneventum, in which the slave +legions pressed into service had distinguished themselves, he +bestowed liberty and burgess-rights on his slave-soldiers in +the name of the people. + +Arpi Acquired by the Romans + +In the following year (541) the Romans recovered the rich and +important Arpi, whose citizens, after the Roman soldiers had stolen +into the town, made common cause with them against the Carthaginian +garrison. In general the bonds of the symmachy formed by Hannibal +were relaxing; a number of the leading Capuans and several of the +Bruttian towns passed over to Rome; even a Spanish division of the +Phoenician army, when informed by Spanish emissaries of the course +of events in their native land, passed from the Carthaginian into +the Roman service. + +Tarentum Taken by Hannibal + +The year 542 was more unfavourable for the Romans in consequence of +fresh political and military errors, of which Hannibal did not fail +to take advantage. The connections which Hannibal maintained in the +towns of Magna Graecia had led to no serious result; save that the +hostages from Tarentum and Thurii, who were kept at Rome, were induced +by his emissaries to make a foolhardy attempt at escape, in which they +were speedily recaptured by the Roman posts. But the injudicious +spirit of revenge displayed by the Romans was of more service to +Hannibal than his intrigues; the execution of all the hostages who +had sought to escape deprived them of a valuable pledge, and the +exasperated Greeks thenceforth meditated how they might open +their gates to Hannibal. Tarentum was actually occupied by the +Carthaginians in consequence of an understanding with the citizens and +of the negligence of the Roman commandant; with difficulty the Roman +garrison maintained itself in the citadel. The example of Tarentum +was followed by Heraclea, Thurii, and Metapontum, from which town the +garrison had to be withdrawn in order to save the Tarentine Acropolis. +These successes so greatly increased the risk of a Macedonian landing, +that Rome felt herself compelled to direct renewed attention and +renewed exertions to the Greek war, which had been almost totally +neglected; and fortunately the capture of Syracuse and the favourable +state of the Spanish war enabled her to do so. + +Conflicts around Capua + +At the chief seat of war, in Campania, the struggle went on with very +varying success. The legions posted in the neighbourhood of Capua had +not yet strictly invested the city, but had so greatly hindered the +cultivation of the soil and the ingathering of the harvest, that the +populous city was in urgent need of supplies from without. Hannibal +accordingly collected a considerable supply of grain, and directed +the Campanians to receive it at Beneventum; but their tardiness gave +the consuls Quintus Flaccus and Appius Claudius time to come up, to +inflict a severe defeat on Hanno who protected the grain, and to seize +his camp and all his stores. The two consuls then invested the town, +while Tiberius Gracchus stationed himself on the Appian Way to prevent +Hannibal from approaching to relieve it But that brave officer fell +in consequence of the shameful stratagem of a perfidious Lucanian; +and his death was equivalent to a complete defeat, for his army, +consisting mostly of those slaves whom he had manumitted, dispersed +after the fall of their beloved leader. So Hannibal found the road to +Capua open, and by his unexpected appearance compelled the two consuls +to raise the blockade which they had barely begun. Their cavalry had +already, before Hannibal's arrival, been thoroughly defeated by the +Phoenician cavalry, which lay as a garrison in Capua under Hanno and +Bostar, and by the equally excellent Campanian horse. The total +destruction of the regular troops and free bands in Lucania led by +Marcus Centenius, a man imprudently promoted from a subaltern to be +a general, and the not much less complete defeat of the negligent and +arrogant praetor Gnaeus Fulvius Flaccus in Apulia, closed the long +series of the misfortunes of this year. But the stubborn perseverance +of the Romans again neutralized the rapid success of Hannibal, at +least at the most decisive point. As soon as Hannibal turned his back +on Capua to proceed to Apulia, the Roman armies once more gathered +around that city, one at Puteoli and Volturnum under Appius Claudius, +another at Casilinum under Quintus Fulvius, and a third on the Nolan +road under the praetor Gaius Claudius Nero. The three camps, well +entrenched and connected with one another by fortified lines, +precluded all access to the place, and the large, inadequately +provisioned city could not but find itself compelled by the mere +investment to surrender at no distant time, should no relief arrive. +As the winter of 542-3 drew to an end, the provisions were almost +exhausted, and urgent messengers, who were barely able to steal +through the well-guarded Roman lines, requested speedy help from +Hannibal, who was at Tarentum, occupied with the siege of the +citadel. With 33 elephants and his best troops he departed by +forced marches from Tarentum for Campania, captured the Roman post at +Caiatia, and took up his camp on Mount Tifata close by Capua, in the +confident expectation that the Roman generals would, now raise the +siege as they had done the year before. But the Romans, who had had +time to entrench their camps and their lines like a fortress, did not +stir, and looked on unmoved from their ramparts, while on one side +the Campanian horsemen, on the other the Numidian squadrons, dashed +against their lines. A serious assault could not be thought of by +Hannibal; he could foresee that his advance would soon draw the other +Roman armies after him to Campania, if even before their arrival the +scarcity of supplies in a region so systematically foraged did not +drive him away. Nothing could be done in that quarter. + +Hannibal Marches toward Rome + +Hannibal tried a further expedient, the last which occurred to his +inventive genius, to save the important city. After giving the +Campanians information of his intention and exhorting them to hold +out, he started with the relieving army from Capua and took the road +for Rome. With the same dexterous boldness which he had shown in his +first Italian campaigns, he threw himself with a weak army between the +armies and fortresses of the enemy, and led his troops through Samnium +and along the Valerian Way past Tibur to the bridge over the Anio, +which he passed and encamped on the opposite bank, five miles from +the city. The children's children of the Romans still shuddered, when +they were told of "Hannibal at the gate"; real danger there was none. +The country houses and fields in the neighbourhood of the city were +laid waste by the enemy; the two legions in the city, who went forth +against them, prevented the investment of the walls. Besides, +Hannibal had never expected to surprise Rome by a -coup de main-, +such as Scipio soon afterwards executed against New Carthage, and +still less had he meditated a siege in earnest; his only hope was that +in the first alarm part of the besieging army of Capua would march to +Rome and thus give him an opportunity of breaking up the blockade. +Accordingly after a brief stay he departed. The Romans saw in his +withdrawal a miraculous intervention of the gods, who by portents and +visions had compelled the wicked man to depart, when in truth the +Roman legions were unable to compel him; at the spot where Hannibal +had approached nearest to the city, at the second milestone on the +Appian Way in front of the Capene gate, with grateful credulity the +Romans erected an altar to the god "who turned back and protected" +(-Rediculus Tutanus-), Hannibal in reality retreated, because this was +part of his plan, and directed his march towards Capua. But the Roman +generals had not committed the mistake on which their opponent had +reckoned; the legions remained unmoved in the lines round Capua, and +only a weak corps had been detached on the news of Hannibal's march +towards Rome. When Hannibal learned this, he suddenly turned against +the consul Publius Galba, who had imprudently followed him from Rome, +and with whom he had hitherto avoided an engagement, vanquished him, +and took his camp by storm. + +Capua Capitulates + +But this was a poor compensation for the now inevitable fall of Capua. +Long had its citizens, particularly the better passes, anticipated +with sorrowful forebodings what was coming; the senate-house and the +administration of the city were left almost exclusively to the leaders +of the popular party hostile to Rome. Now despair seized high and +low, Campanians and Phoenicians alike. Twenty-eight senators chose a +voluntary death; the remainder gave over the city to the discretion of +an implacably exasperated foe. Of course a bloody retribution had to +follow; the only discussion was as to whether the process should be +long or short: whether the wiser and more appropriate course was to +probe to the bottom the further ramifications of the treason even +beyond Capua, or to terminate the matter by rapid executions. Appius +Claudius and the Roman senate wished to take the former course; the +latter view, perhaps the less inhuman, prevailed. Fifty-three of the +officers and magistrates of Capua were scourged and beheaded in the +marketplaces of Cales and Teanum by the orders and before the eyes +of the proconsul Quintus Flaccus, the rest of the senators were +imprisoned, numbers of the citizens were sold into slavery, and the +estates of the more wealthy were confiscated. Similar penalties were +inflicted upon Atella and Caiatia. These punishments were severe; +but, when regard is had to the importance of the revolt of Capua +from Rome, and to what was the ordinary if not warrantable usage of +war in those times, they were not unnatural. And had not the citizens +themselves pronounced their own sentence, when immediately after their +defection they put to death all the Roman citizens present in Capua at +the time of the revolt? But it was unjustifiable in Rome to embrace +this opportunity of gratifying the secret rivalry that had long +subsisted between the two largest cities of Italy, and of wholly +annihilating, in a political point of view, her hated and envied +competitor by abolishing the constitution of the Campanian city. + +Superiority of the Romans +Tarentum Capitulates + +Immense was the impression produced by the fall of Capua, and all the +more that it had not been brought about by surprise, but by a two +years' siege carried on in spite of all the exertions of Hannibal. +It was quite as much a token that the Romans had recovered their +ascendency in Italy, as its defection some years before to Hannibal +had been a token that that ascendency was lost. In vain Hannibal had +tried to counteract the impression of this news on his allies by the +capture of Rhegium or of the citadel of Tarentum. His forced march +to surprise Rhegium had yielded no result. The citadel of Tarentum +suffered greatly from famine, after the Tarentino-Carthaginian +squadron closed the harbour; but, as the Romans with their much more +powerful fleet were able to cut off the supplies from that squadron +itself, and the territory, which Hannibal commanded, scarce sufficed +to maintain his army, the besiegers on the side next the sea suffered +not much less than did the besieged in the citadel, and at length they +left the harbour. No enterprise was now successful; Fortune herself +seemed to have deserted the Carthaginians. These consequences of the +fall of Capua--the deep shock given to the respect and confidence +which Hannibal had hitherto enjoyed among the Italian allies, and the +endeavours made by every community that was not too deeply compromised +to gain readmission on tolerable terms into the Roman symmachy +--affected Hannibal much more keenly than the immediate loss. He had +to choose one of two courses; either to throw garrisons into the +wavering towns, in which case he would weaken still more his army +already too weak and would expose his trusty troops to destruction in +small divisions or to treachery--500 of his select Numidian horsemen +were put to death in this way in 544 on the defection of the town of +Salapia; or to pull down and burn the towns which could not be +depended on, so as to keep them out of the enemy's hands--a course, +which could not raise the spirits of his Italian clients. On the +fall of Capua the Romans felt themselves once more confident as to +the final issue of the war in Italy; they despatched considerable +reinforcements to Spain, where the existence of the Roman army was +placed in jeopardy by the fall of the two Scipios; and for the first +time since the beginning of the war they ventured on a diminution in +the total number of their troops, which had hitherto been annually +augmented notwithstanding the annually-increasing difficulty of +levying them, and had risen at last to 23 legions. Accordingly in +the next year (544) the Italian war was prosecuted more remissly than +hitherto by the Romans, although Marcus Marcellus had after the close +of the Sicilian war resumed the command of the main army; he applied +himself to the besieging of fortresses in the interior, and had +indecisive conflicts with the Carthaginians. The struggle for the +Acropolis of Tarentum also continued without decisive result. In +Apulia Hannibal succeeded in defeating the proconsul Gnaeus Fulvius +Centumalus at Herdoneae. In the following year (545) the Romans took +steps to regain possession of the second large city, which had passed +over to Hannibal, the city of Tarentum. While Marcus Marcellus +continued the struggle against Hannibal in person with his wonted +obstinacy and energy, and in a two days' battle, beaten on the first +day, achieved on the second a costly and bloody victory; while the +consul Quintus Fulvius induced the already wavering Lucanians and +Hirpinians to change sides and to deliver up their Phoenician +garrisons; while well-conducted razzias from Rhegium compelled +Hannibal to hasten to the aid of the hard-pressed Bruttians; +the veteran Quintus Fabius, who had once more--for the fifth +time--accepted the consulship and along with it the commission to +reconquer Tarentum, established himself firmly in the neighbouring +Messapian territory, and the treachery of a Bruttian division of +the garrison surrendered to him the city. Fearful excesses were +committed by the exasperated victors. They put to death all of +the garrison or of the citizens whom they could find, and pillaged +the houses. 30,000 Tarentines are said to have been sold as slaves, +and 3000 talents (730,000 pounds) are stated to have been sent to the +state treasury. It was the last feat in arms of the general of eighty +years; Hannibal arrived to the relief of the city when all was over, +and withdrew to Metapontum. + +Hannibal Driven Back +Death of Marcellus + +After Hannibal had thus lost his most important acquisitions and +found himself hemmed in by degrees to the south-western point of the +peninsula, Marcus Marcellus, who had been chosen consul for the next +year (546), hoped that, in connection with his capable colleague +Titus Quintius Crispinus, he should be able to terminate the war by a +decisive attack. The old soldier was not disturbed by the burden of +his sixty years; sleeping and waking he was haunted by the one thought +of defeating Hannibal and of liberating Italy. But fate reserved that +wreath of victory for a younger brow. While engaged in an unimportant +reconnaissance in the district of Venusia, both consuls were suddenly +attacked by a division of African cavalry. Marcellus maintained the +unequal struggle--as he had fought forty years before against Hamilcar +and fourteen years before at Clastidium--till he sank dying from +his horse; Crispinus escaped, but died of his wounds received +in the conflict (546). + +Pressure of the War + +It was now the eleventh year of the war. The danger which some years +before had threatened the very existence of the state seemed to have +vanished; but all the more the Romans felt the heavy burden--a burden +pressing more severely year after year--of the endless war. The +finances of the state suffered beyond measure. After the battle of +Cannae (538) a special bank-commission (-tres viri mensarii-) had +been appointed, composed of men held in the highest esteem, to form +a permanent and circumspect board of superintendence for the public +finances in these difficult times. It may have done what it could; +but the state of things was such as to baffle all financial sagacity. +At the very beginning of the war the Romans had debased the silver and +copper coin, raised the legal value of the silver piece more than a +third, and issued a gold coin far above the value of the metal. This +very soon proved insufficient; they were obliged to take supplies from +the contractors on credit, and connived at their conduct because they +needed them, till the scandalous malversation at last induced the +aediles to make an example of some of the worst by impeaching them +before the people. Appeals were often made, and not in vain, to the +patriotism of the wealthy, who were in fact the very persons that +suffered comparatively the most. The soldiers of the better classes +and the subaltern officers and equites in a body, either voluntarily +or constrained by the -esprit de corps-, declined to receive pay. +The owners of the slaves armed by the state and manumitted after the +engagement at Beneventum(3) replied to the bank-commission, which +offered them payment, that they would allow it to stand over to the +end of the war (540). When there was no longer money in the exchequer +for the celebration of the national festivals and the repairs of the +public buildings, the companies which had hitherto contracted for +these matters declared themselves ready to continue their services for +a time without remuneration (540). A fleet was even fitted out and +manned, just as in the first Punic war, by means of a voluntary loan +among the rich (544). They spent the moneys belonging to minors; and +at length, in the year of the conquest of Tarentum, they laid hands +on the last long-spared reserve fund (164,000 pounds). The state +nevertheless was unable to meet its most necessary payments; the pay +of the soldiers fell dangerously into arrear, particularly in the more +remote districts. But the embarrassment of the state was not the +worst part of the material distress. Everywhere the fields lay +fallow: even where the war did not make havoc, there was a want of +hands for the hoe and the sickle. The price of the -medimnus- +(a bushel and a half) had risen to 15 -denarii- (10s.), at least three +times the average price in the capital; and many would have died of +absolute want, if supplies had not arrived from Egypt, and if, above +all, the revival of agriculture in Sicily(4) had not prevented the +distress from coming to the worst. The effect which such a state of +things must have had in ruining the small farmers, in eating away +the savings which had been so laboriously acquired, and in +converting flourishing villages into nests of beggars and brigands, +is illustrated by similar wars of which fuller details have +been preserved. + +The Allies + +Still more ominous than this material distress was the increasing +aversion of the allies to the Roman war, which consumed their +substance and their blood. In regard to the non-Latin communities, +indeed, this was of less consequence. The war itself showed that they +could do nothing, so long as the Latin nation stood by Rome; their +greater or less measure of dislike was not of much moment. Now, +however, Latium also began to waver. Most of the Latin communes in +Etruria, Latium, the territory of the Marsians, and northern Campania +--and so in those very districts of Italy which directly had suffered +least from the war--announced to the Roman senate in 545 that +thenceforth they would send neither contingents nor contributions, +and would leave it to the Romans themselves to defray the costs of a +war waged in their interest. The consternation in Rome was great; +but for the moment there were no means of compelling the refractory. +Fortunately all the Latin communities did not act in this way. The +colonies in the land of the Gauls, in Picenum, and in southern Italy, +headed by the powerful and patriotic Fregellae, declared on the +contrary that they adhered the more closely and faithfully to Rome; in +fact, it was very clearly evident to all of these that in the present +war their existence was, if possible, still more at stake than that of +the capital, and that this war was really waged not for Rome merely, +but for the Latin hegemony in Italy, and in truth for the independence +of the Italian nation. That partial defection itself was certainly +not high treason, but merely the result of shortsightedness and +exhaustion; beyond doubt these same towns would have rejected with +horror an alliance with the Phoenicians. But still there was a +variance between Romans and Latins, which did not fail injuriously +to react on the subject population of these districts. A dangerous +ferment immediately showed itself in Arretium; a conspiracy organized +in the interest of Hannibal among the Etruscans was discovered, and +appeared so perilous that Roman troops were ordered to march thither. +The military and police suppressed this movement without difficulty; +but it was a significant token of what might happen in those +districts, if once the Latin strongholds ceased to inspire terror. + +Hasdrubal's Approach + +Amidst these difficulties and strained relations, news suddenly +arrived that Hasdrubal had crossed the Pyrenees in the autumn of 546, +and that the Romans must be prepared to carry on the war next year +with both the sons of Hamilcar in Italy. Not in vain had Hannibal +persevered at his post throughout the long anxious years; the aid, +which the factious opposition at home and the shortsighted Philip had +refused to him, was at length in the course of being brought to him +by his brother, who, like himself, largely inherited the spirit of +Hamilcar. Already 8000 Ligurians, enlisted by Phoenician gold, were +ready to unite with Hasdrubal; if he gained the first battle, he might +hope that like his brother he should be able to bring the Gauls and +perhaps the Etruscans into arms against Rome. Italy, moreover, was + no longer what it had been eleven years before; the state and the +individual citizens were exhausted, the Latin league was shaken, their +best general had just fallen in the field of battle, and Hannibal was +not subdued. In reality Scipio might bless the star of his genius, if +it averted the consequences of his unpardonable blunder from himself +and from his country. + +New Armaments +Hasdrubal and Hannibal on the March + +As in the times of the utmost danger, Rome once more called out +twenty-three legions. Volunteers were summoned to arm, and those +legally exempt from military service were included in the levy. +Nevertheless, they were taken by surprise. Far earlier than either +friends or foes expected, Hasdrubal was on the Italian side of the +Alps (547); the Gauls, now accustomed to such transits, were readily +bribed to open their passes, and furnished what the army required. +If the Romans had any intention of occupying the outlets of the Alpine +passes, they were again too late; already they heard that Hasdrubal +was on the Po, that he was calling the Gauls to arms as successfully +as his brother had formerly done, that Placentia was invested. With +all haste the consul Marcus Livius proceeded to the northern army; and +it was high time that he should appear. Etruria and Umbria were in +sullen ferment; volunteers from them reinforced the Phoenician army. +His colleague Gaius Nero summoned the praetor Gaius Hostilius Tubulus +from Venusia to join him, and hastened with an army of 40,000 men to +intercept the march of Hannibal to the north. The latter collected +all his forces in the Bruttian territory, and, advancing along the +great road leading from Rhegium to Apulia, encountered the consul at +Grumentum. An obstinate engagement took place in which Nero claimed +the victory; but Hannibal was able at all events, although with some +loss, to evade the enemy by one of his usual adroit flank-marches, and +to reach Apulia without hindrance. There he halted, and encamped at +first at Venusia, then at Canusium: Nero, who had followed closely in +his steps, encamped opposite to him at both places. That Hannibal +voluntarily halted and was not prevented from advancing by the Roman +army, appears to admit of no doubt; the reason for his taking up his +position exactly at this point and not farther to the north, must have +depended on arrangements concerted between himself and Hasdrubal, or +on conjectures as to the route of the latter's march, with which we +are not acquainted. While the two armies thus lay inactive, face to +face, the despatch from Hasdrubal which was anxiously expected in +Hannibal's camp was intercepted by the outposts of Nero. It stated +that Hasdrubal intended to take the Flaminian road, in other words, +to keep in the first instance along the coast and then at Fanum to +turn across the Apennines towards Narnia, at which place he hoped to +meet Hannibal. Nero immediately ordered the reserve in the capital +to proceed to Narnia as the point selected for the junction of the two +Phoenician armies, while the division stationed at Capua went to the +capital, and a new reserve was formed there. Convinced that Hannibal +was not acquainted with the purpose of his brother and would continue +to await him in Apulia, Nero resolved on the bold experiment of +hastening northward by forced marches with a small but select corps +of 7000 men and, if possible, in connection with his colleague, +compelling Hasdrubal to fight. He was able to do so, for the Roman +army which he left behind still continued strong enough either to +hold its ground against Hannibal if he should attack it, or to +accompany him and to arrive simultaneously with him at the +decisive scene of action, should he depart. + +Battle of Sena +Death of Hasdrubal + +Nero found his colleague Marcus Livius at Sena Gallica awaiting the +enemy. Both consuls at once marched against Hasdrubal, whom they +found occupied in crossing the Metaurus. Hasdrubal wished to avoid +a battle and to escape from the Romans by a flank movement, but his +guides left him in the lurch; he lost his way on the ground strange to +him, and was at length attacked on the march by the Roman cavalry +and detained until the Roman infantry arrived and a battle became +inevitable. Hasdrubal stationed the Spaniards on the right wing, with +his ten elephants in front of it, and the Gauls on the left, which he +kept back. Long the fortune of battle wavered on the right wing, and +the consul Livius who commanded there was hard pressed, till Nero, +repeating his strategical operation as a tactical manoeuvre, allowed +the motionless enemy opposite to him to remain as they stood, and +marching round his own army fell upon the flank of the Spaniards. +This decided the day. The severely bought and very bloody victory was +complete; the army, which had no retreat, was destroyed, and the camp +was taken by assault. Hasdrubal, when he: saw the admirably-conducted +battle lost, sought and found like his father an honourable soldier's +death. As an officer and a man, he was worthy to be the brother +of Hannibal. + +Hannibal Retires to the Bruttian Territory + +On the day after the battle Nero started, and after scarcely fourteen +days' absence once more confronted Hannibal in Apulia, whom no message +had reached, and who had not stirred. The consul brought the message +with him; it was the head of Hannibal's brother, which the Roman +ordered to be thrown into the enemy's outposts, repaying in this +way his great antagonist, who scorned to war with the dead, for +the honourable burial which he had given to Paullus, Gracchus, and +Marcellus. Hannibal saw that his hopes had been in vain, and that +all was over. He abandoned Apulia and Lucania, even Metapontum, +and retired with his troops to the land of the Bruttians, whose ports +formed his only means of withdrawal from Italy. By the energy of the +Roman generals, and still more by a conjuncture of unexampled good +fortune, a peril was averted from Rome, the greatness of which +justified Hannibal's tenacious perseverance in Italy, and which fully +bears comparison with the magnitude of the peril of Cannae. The joy +in Rome was boundless; business was resumed as in time of peace; every +one felt that the danger of the war was surmounted. + +Stagnation of the War in Italy + +Nevertheless the Romans were in no hurry to terminate the war. The +state and the citizens were exhausted by the excessive moral and +material strain on their energies; men gladly abandoned themselves +to carelessness and repose. + +The army and fleet were reduced; the Roman and Latin farmers were +brought back to their desolate homesteads the exchequer was filled by +the sale of a portion of the Campanian domains. The administration +of the state was regulated anew and the disorders which had prevailed +were done away; the repayment of the voluntary war-loan was begun, +and the Latin communities that remained in arrears were compelled +to fulfil their neglected obligations with heavy interest. + +The war in Italy made no progress. It forms a brilliant proof of the +strategic talent of Hannibal as well as of the incapacity of the Roman +generals now opposed to him, that after this he was still able for +four years to keep the field in the Bruttian country, and that all the +superiority of his opponents could not compel him either to shut +himself up in fortresses or to embark. It is true that he was obliged +to retire farther and farther, not so much in consequence of the +indecisive engagements which took place with the Romans, as because +his Bruttian allies were always becoming more troublesome, and at last +he could only reckon on the towns which his army garrisoned. Thus he +voluntarily abandoned Thurii; Locri was, on the suggestion of Publius +Scipio, recaptured by an expedition from Rhegium (549). As if at last +his projects were to receive a brilliant justification at the hands of +the very Carthaginian authorities who had thwarted him in them, these +now, in their apprehension as to the anticipated landing of the +Romans, revived of their own accord those plans (548, 549), and sent +reinforcements and subsidies to Hannibal in Italy, and to Mago in +Spain, with orders to rekindle the war in Italy so as to achieve some +further respite for the trembling possessors of the Libyan country +houses and the shops of Carthage. An embassy was likewise sent to +Macedonia, to induce Philip to renew the alliance and to land in Italy +(549). But it was too late. Philip had made peace with Rome some +months before; the impending political annihilation of Carthage was +far from agreeable to him, but he took no step openly at least against +Rome. A small Macedonian corps went to Africa, the expenses of which, +according to the assertion of the Romans, were defrayed by Philip from +his own pocket; this may have been the case, but the Romans had at any +rate no proof of it, as the subsequent course of events showed. +No Macedonian landing in Italy was thought of. + +Mago in Italy + +Mago, the youngest son of Hamilcar, set himself to his task more +earnestly. With the remains of the Spanish army, which he had +conducted in the first instance to Minorca, he landed in 549 at Genoa, +destroyed the city, and summoned the Ligurians and Gauls to arms. +Gold and the novelty of the enterprise led them now, as always, to +come to him in troops; he had formed connections even throughout +Etruria, where political prosecutions never ceased. But the troops +which he had brought with him were too few for a serious enterprise +against Italy proper; and Hannibal likewise was much too weak, and his +influence in Lower Italy had fallen much too low, to permit him to +advance with any prospect of success. The rulers of Carthage had not +been willing to save their native country, when its salvation was +possible; now, when they were willing, it was possible no longer. + +The African Expedition of Scipio + +Nobody probably in the Roman senate doubted either that the war on +the part of Carthage against Rome was at an end, or that the war on +the part of Rome against Carthage must now be begun; but unavoidable +as was the expedition to Africa, they were afraid to enter on its +preparation. They required for it, above all, an able and beloved +leader; and they had none. Their best generals had either fallen in +the field of battle, or they were, like Quintus Fabius and Quintus +Fulvius, too old for such an entirely new and probably tedious war. +The victors of Sena, Gaius Nero and Marcus Livius, would perhaps have +been equal to the task, but they were both in the highest degree +unpopular aristocrats; it was doubtful whether they would succeed in +procuring the command--matters had already reached such a pass that +ability, as such, determined the popular choice only in times of grave +anxiety--and it was more than doubtful whether these were the men to +stimulate the exhausted people to fresh exertions. At length Publius +Scipio returned from Spain, and the favourite of the multitude, who +had so brilliantly fulfilled, or at any rate seemed to have fulfilled, +the task with which it had entrusted him, was immediately chosen +consul for the next year. He entered on office (549) with the firm +determination of now realizing that African expedition which he had +projected in Spain. In the senate, however, not only was the party +favourable to a methodical conduct of the war unwilling to entertain +the project of an African expedition so long as Hannibal remained in +Italy, but the majority was by no means favourably disposed towards +the young general himself. His Greek refinement and his modern +culture and tone of thought were but little agreeable to the austere +and somewhat boorish fathers of the city; and serious doubts existed +both as to his conduct of the Spanish war and as to his military +discipline. How much ground there was for the objection that he +showed too great indulgence towards his officers of division, was very +soon demonstrated by the disgraceful proceedings of Gaius Pleminius at +Locri, the blame of which certainly was indirectly chargeable to the +scandalous negligence which marked Scipio's supervision. In the +proceedings in the senate regarding the organization of the African +expedition and the appointment of a general for it, the new consul, +wherever usage or the constitution came into conflict with his private +views, showed no great reluctance to set such obstacles aside, and +very clearly indicated that in case of need he was disposed to rely +for support against the governing board on his fame and his popularity +with the people. These things could not but annoy the senate and +awaken, moreover, serious apprehension as to whether, in the impending +decisive war and the eventual negotiations for peace with Carthage, +such a general would hold himself bound by the instructions which he +received--an apprehension which his arbitrary management of the +Spanish expedition was by no means fitted to allay. Both sides, +however, displayed wisdom enough not to push matters too far. The +senate itself could not fail to see that the African expedition was +necessary, and that it was not wise indefinitely to postpone it; it +could not fail to see that Scipio was an extremely able officer and so +far well adapted to be the leader in such a war, and that he, if any +one, could prevail on the people to protract his command as long as +was necessary and to put forth their last energies. The majority came +to the resolution not to refuse to Scipio the desired commission, +after he had previously observed, at least in form, the respect due to +the supreme governing board and had submitted himself beforehand to +the decree of the senate. Scipio was to proceed this year to Sicily +to superintend the building of the fleet, the preparation of siege +materials, and the formation of the expeditionary army, and then in +the following year to land in Africa. For this purpose the army of +Sicily--still composed of those two legions that were formed from the +remnant of the army of Cannae--was placed at his disposal, because a +weak garrison and the fleet were quite sufficient for the protection +of the island; and he was permitted moreover to raise volunteers in +Italy. It was evident that the senate did not appoint the expedition, +but merely allowed it: Scipio did not obtain half the resources which +had formerly been placed at the command of Regulus, and he got that +very corps which for years had been subjected by the senate to +intentional degradation. The African army was, in the view of the +majority of the senate, a forlorn hope of disrated companies and +volunteers, the loss of whom in any event the state had no great +occasion to regret. + +Any one else than Scipio would perhaps have declared that the African +expedition must either be undertaken with other means, or not at all; +but Scipio's confidence accepted the terms, whatever they were, solely +with the view of attaining the eagerly-coveted command. He carefully +avoided, as far as possible, the imposition of direct burdens on the +people, that he might not injure the popularity of the expedition. +Its expenses, particularly those of building the fleet which were +considerable, were partly procured by what was termed a voluntary +contribution of the Etruscan cities--that is, by a war tribute imposed +as a punishment on the Arretines and other communities disposed to +favour the Phoenicians--partly laid upon the cities of Sicily. In +forty days the fleet was ready for sea. The crews were reinforced by +volunteers, of whom seven thousand from all parts of Italy responded +to the call of the beloved officer. So Scipio set sail for Africa in +the spring of 550 with two strong legions of veterans (about 30,000 +men), 40 vessels of war, and 400 transports, and landed successfully, +without meeting the slightest resistance, at the Fair Promontory in +the neighbourhood of Utica. + +Preparations in Africa + +The Carthaginians, who had long expected that the plundering +expeditions, which the Roman squadrons had frequently made during +the last few years to the African coast, would be followed by a more +serious invasion, had not only, in order to ward it off, endeavoured +to bring about a revival of the Italo-Macedonian war, but had also +made armed preparation at home to receive the Romans. Of the two +rival Berber kings, Massinissa of Cirta (Constantine), the ruler of +the Massylians, and Syphax of Siga (at the mouth of the Tafna westward +from Oran), the ruler of the Massaesylians, they had succeeded in +attaching the latter, who was far the more powerful and hitherto had +been friendly to the Romans, by treaty and marriage alliance closely +to Carthage, while they cast off the other, the old rival of Syphax +and ally of the Carthaginians. Massinissa had after desperate +resistance succumbed to the united power of the Carthaginians and +of Syphax, and had been obliged to leave his territories a prey to +the latter; he himself wandered with a few horsemen in the desert. +Besides the contingent to be expected from Syphax, a Carthaginian army +of 20,000 foot, 6000 cavalry, and 140 elephants--Hanno had been sent +out to hunt elephants for the very purpose--was ready to fight for +the protection of the capital, under the command of Hasdrubal son of +Gisgo, a general who had gained experience in Spain; in the port +there lay a strong fleet. A Macedonian corps under Sopater, and a +consignment of Celtiberian mercenaries, were immediately expected. + +Scipio Driven Back to the Coast +Surprise of the Carthaginian Camp + +On the report of Scipio's landing, Massinissa immediately arrived in +the camp of the general, whom not long before he had confronted as an +enemy in Spain; but the landless prince brought in the first instance +nothing beyond his personal ability to the aid of the Romans, and the +Libyans, although heartily weary of levies and tribute, had acquired +too bitter experience in similar cases to declare at once for the +invaders. So Scipio began the campaign. So long as he was only +opposed by the weaker Carthaginian army, he had the advantage, and was +enabled after some successful cavalry skirmishes to proceed to the +siege of Utica; but when Syphax arrived, according to report with +50,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry, the siege had to be raised, and a +fortified naval camp had to be constructed for the winter on a +promontory, which easily admitted of entrenchment, between Utica and +Carthage. Here the Roman general passed the winter of 550-1. From +the disagreeable situation in which the spring found him he extricated +himself by a fortunate -coup de main-. The Africans, lulled into +security by proposals of peace suggested by Scipio with more artifice +than honour, allowed themselves to be surprised on one and the same +night in their two camps; the reed huts of the Numidians burst into +flames, and, when the Carthaginians hastened to their help, their own +camp shared the same fate; the fugitives were slain without resistance +by the Roman divisions. This nocturnal surprise was more destructive +than many a battle; nevertheless the Carthaginians did not suffer +their courage to sink, and they rejected even the advice of the timid, +or rather of the judicious, to recall Mago and Hannibal. Just at this +time the expected Celtiberian and Macedonian auxiliaries arrived; it +was resolved once more to try a pitched battle on the "Great Plains," +five days' march from Utica. Scipio hastened to accept it; with +little difficulty his veterans and volunteers dispersed the hastily- +collected host of Carthaginians and Numidians, and the Celtiberians, +who could not reckon on any mercy from Scipio, were cut down after +obstinate resistance. After this double defeat the Africans could no +longer keep the field. An attack on the Roman naval camp attempted by +the Carthaginian fleet, while not unsuccessful, was far from decisive, +and was greatly outweighed by the capture of Syphax, which Scipio's +singular good fortune threw in his way, and by which Massinissa became +to the Romans what Syphax had been at first to the Carthaginians. + +Negotiations for Peace +Machinations of the Carthaginian Patriots + +After such defeats the Carthaginian peace party, which had been +reduced to silence for sixteen years, was able once more to raise its +head and openly to rebel against the government of the Barcides and +the patriots. Hasdrubal son of Gisgo was in his absence condemned +by the government to death, and an attempt was made to obtain an +armistice and peace from Scipio. He demanded the cession of their +Spanish possessions and of the islands of the Mediterranean, the +transference of the kingdom of Syphax to Massinissa, the surrender of +all their vessels of war except 20, and a war contribution of 4000 +talents (nearly 1,000,000 pounds)--terms which seemed so singularly +favourable to Carthage, that the question obtrudes itself whether they +were offered by Scipio more in his own interest or in that of Rome. +The Carthaginian plenipotentiaries accepted them under reservation of +their being ratified by the respective authorities, and accordingly a +Carthaginian embassy was despatched to Rome. But the patriot party in +Carthage were not disposed to give up the struggle so cheaply; faith +in the nobleness of their cause, confidence in their great leader, +even the example that had been set to them by Rome herself, stimulated +them to persevere, apart from the fact that peace of necessity +involved the return of the opposite party to the helm of affairs +and their own consequent destruction. The patriotic party had the +ascendency among the citizens; it was resolved to allow the opposition +to negotiate for peace, and meanwhile to prepare for a last and +decisive effort. Orders were sent to Mago and Hannibal to return with +all speed to Africa. Mago, who for three years (549-551) had been +labouring to bring about a coalition in Northern Italy against Rome, +had just at this time in the territory of the Insubres (about Milan) +been defeated by the far superior double army of the Romans. The +Roman cavalry had been brought to give way, and the infantry had been +thrown into confusion; victory seemed on the point of declaring for +the Carthaginians, when a bold attack by a Roman troop on the enemy's +elephants, and above all a serious wound received by their beloved and +able commander, turned the fortune of the battle. The Phoenician army +was obliged to retreat to the Ligurian coast, where it received and +obeyed the order to embark; but Mago died of his wound on the voyage. + +Hannibal Recalled to Africa + +Hannibal would probably have anticipated the order, had not the +last negotiations with Philip presented to him a renewed prospect of +rendering better service to his country in Italy than in Libya; when +he received it at Croton, where he latterly had his head-quarters, he +lost no time in complying with it. He caused his horses to be put +to death as well as the Italian soldiers who refused to follow him +over the sea, and embarked in the transports that had been long in +readiness in the roadstead of Croton. The Roman citizens breathed +freely, when the mighty Libyan lion, whose departure no one even now +ventured to compel, thus voluntarily turned his back on Italian +ground. On this occasion the decoration of a grass wreath was +bestowed by the senate and burgesses on the only survivor of the Roman +generals who had traversed that troubled time with honour, the veteran +of nearly ninety years, Quintus Fabius. To receive this wreath--which +by the custom of the Romans the army that a general had saved +presented to its deliverer--at the hands of the whole community was +the highest distinction which had ever been bestowed upon a Roman +citizen, and the last honorary decoration accorded to the old general, +who died in the course of that same year (551). Hannibal, doubtless +not under the protection of the armistice, but solely through his +rapidity of movement and good fortune, arrived at Leptis without +hindrance, and the last of the "lion's brood" of Hamilcar trode once +more, after an absence of thirty-six years, his native soil. He had +left it, when still almost a boy, to enter on that noble and yet so +thoroughly fruitless career of heroism, in which he had set out +towards the west to return homewards from the east, having described +a wide circle of victory around the Carthaginian sea. Now, when what +he had wished to prevent, and what he would have prevented had he been +allowed, was done, he was summoned to help and if possible, to save; +and he obeyed without complaint or reproach. + +Recommencement of Hostilities + +On his arrival the patriot party came forward openly; the disgraceful +sentence against Hasdrubal was cancelled; new connections were formed +with the Numidian sheiks through the dexterity of Hannibal; and not +only did the assembly of the people refuse to ratify the peace +practically concluded, but the armistice was broken by the plundering +of a Roman transport fleet driven ashore on the African coast, and by +the seizure even of a Roman vessel of war carrying Roman envoys. In +just indignation Scipio started from his camp at Tunes (552) and +traversed the rich valley of the Bagradas (Mejerdah), no longer +allowing the townships to capitulate, but causing the inhabitants of +the villages and towns to be seized en masse and sold. He had already +penetrated far into the interior, and was at Naraggara (to the west of +Sicca, now El Kef, on the frontier between Tunis and Algiers), when +Hannibal, who had marched out from Hadrumetum, fell in with him. The +Carthaginian general attempted to obtain better conditions from the +Roman in a personal conference; but Scipio, who had already gone to +the extreme verge of concession, could not possibly after the breach +of the armistice agree to yield further, and it is not credible that +Hannibal had any other object in this step than to show to the +multitude that the patriots were not absolutely opposed to peace. +The conference led to no result. + +Battle of Zama + +The two armies accordingly came to a decisive battle at Zama +(presumably not far from Sicca).(5) Hannibal arranged his infantry +in three lines; in the first rank the Carthaginian hired troops, in +the second the African militia and the Phoenician civic force along +with the Macedonian corps, in the third the veterans who had followed +him from Italy. In front of the line were placed the 80 elephants; +the cavalry were stationed on the wings. Scipio likewise disposed his +legions in three ranks, as was the wont of the Romans, and so arranged +them that the elephants could pass through and alongside of the line +without breaking it. Not only was this disposition completely +successful, but the elephants making their way to the side disordered +also the Carthaginian cavalry on the wings, so that Scipio's cavalry +--which moreover was by the arrival of Massinissa's troops rendered +far superior to the enemy--had little trouble in dispersing them, +and were soon engaged in full pursuit. The struggle of the infantry +was more severe. The conflict lasted long between the first ranks on +either side; at length in the extremely bloody hand-to-hand encounter +both parties fell into confusion, and were obliged to seek a support +in the second ranks. The Romans found that support; but the +Carthaginian militia showed itself so unsteady and wavering, that +the mercenaries believed themselves betrayed and a hand-to-hand combat +arose between them and the Carthaginian civic force. But Hannibal now +hastily withdrew what remained of the first two lines to the flanks, +and pushed forward his choice Italian troops along the whole line. +Scipio, on the other hand, gathered together in the centre as many of +the first line as still were able to fight, and made the second and +third ranks close up on the right and left of the first. Once more +on the same spot began a still more fearful conflict; Hannibal's old +soldiers never wavered in spite of the superior numbers of the enemy, +till the cavalry of the Romans and of Massinissa, returning from the +pursuit of the beaten cavalry of the enemy, surrounded them on all +sides. This not only terminated the struggle, but annihilated the +Phoenician army; the same soldiers, who fourteen years before had +given way at Cannae, had retaliated on their conquerors at Zama. +With a handful of men Hannibal arrived, a fugitive, at Hadrumetum. + +Peace + +After this day folly alone could counsel a continuance of the war on +the part of Carthage. On the other hand it was in the power of the +Roman general immediately to begin the siege of the capital, which was +neither protected nor provisioned, and, unless unforeseen accidents +should intervene, now to subject Carthage to the fate which Hannibal +had wished to bring upon Rome. Scipio did not do so; he granted peace +(553), but no longer upon the former terms. Besides the concessions +which had already in the last negotiations been demanded in favour of +Rome and of Massinissa, an annual contribution of 200 talents (48,000 +pounds) was imposed for fifty years on the Carthaginians; and they had +to bind themselves that they would not wage war against Rome or its +allies or indeed beyond the bounds of Africa at all, and that in +Africa they would not wage war beyond their own territory without +having sought the permission of Rome--the practical effect of which +was that Carthage became tributary and lost her political +independence. It even appears that the Carthaginians were bound +in certain cases to furnish ships of war to the Roman fleet. + +Scipio has been accused of granting too favourable conditions to the +enemy, lest he might be obliged to hand over the glory of terminating +the most severe war which Rome had waged, along with his command, to +a successor. The charge might have had some foundation, had the first +proposals been carried out; it seems to have no warrant in reference +to the second. His position in Rome was not such as to make the +favourite of the people, after the victory of Zama, seriously +apprehensive of recall--already before the victory an attempt to +supersede him had been referred by the senate to the burgesses, and by +them decidedly rejected. Nor do the conditions themselves warrant +such a charge. The Carthaginian city never, after its hands were thus +tied and a powerful neighbour was placed by its side, made even an +attempt to withdraw from Roman supremacy, still less to enter into +rivalry with Rome; besides, every one who cared to know knew that the +war just terminated had been undertaken much more by Hannibal than by +Carthage, and that it was absolutely impossible to revive the gigantic +plan of the patriot party. It might seem little in the eyes of the +vengeful Italians, that only the five hundred surrendered ships of war +perished in the flames, and not the hated city itself; spite and +pedantry might contend for the view that an opponent is only really +vanquished when he is annihilated, and might censure the man who had +disdained to punish more thoroughly the crime of having made Romans +tremble. Scipio thought otherwise; and we have no reason and +therefore no right to assume that the Roman was in this instance +influenced by vulgar motives rather than by the noble and magnanimous +impulses which formed part of his character. It was not the +consideration of his own possible recall or of the mutability of +fortune, nor was it any apprehension of the outbreak of a Macedonian +war at certainly no distant date, that prevented the self-reliant and +confident hero, with whom everything had hitherto succeeded beyond +belief, from accomplishing the destruction of the unhappy city, which +fifty years afterwards his adopted grandson was commissioned to +execute, and which might indeed have been equally well accomplished +now. It is much more probable that the two great generals, on whom +the decision of the political question now devolved, offered and +accepted peace on such terms in order to set just and reasonable +limits on the one hand to the furious vengeance of the victors, on +the other to the obstinacy and imprudence of the vanquished. The +noble-mindedness and statesmanlike gifts of the great antagonists are +no less apparent in the magnanimous submission of Hannibal to what was +inevitable, than in the wise abstinence of Scipio from an extravagant +and insulting use of victory. Is it to be supposed that one so +generous, unprejudiced, and intelligent should not have asked himself +of what benefit it could be to his country, now that the political +power of the Carthaginian city was annihilated, utterly to destroy +that ancient seat of commerce and of agriculture, and wickedly to +overthrow one of the main pillars of the then existing civilization? +The time had not yet come when the first men of Rome lent themselves +to destroy the civilization of their neighbours, and frivolously +fancied that they could wash away from themselves the eternal +infamy of the nation by shedding an idle tear. + +Results of the War + +Thus ended the second Punic or, as the Romans more correctly called +it, the Hannibalic war, after it had devastated the lands and islands +from the Hellespont to the Pillars of Hercules for seventeen years. +Before this war the policy of the Romans had no higher aim than to +acquire command of the mainland of the Italian peninsula within its +natural boundaries, and of the Italian islands and seas; it is clearly +proved by their treatment of Africa on the conclusion of peace that +they also terminated the war with the impression, not that they +had laid the foundation of sovereignty over the states of the +Mediterranean or of the so-called universal empire, but that they had +rendered a dangerous rival innocuous and had given to Italy agreeable +neighbours. It is true doubtless that other results of the war, the +conquest of Spain in particular, little accorded with such an idea; +but their very successes led them beyond their proper design, and it +may in fact be affirmed that the Romans came into possession of Spain +accidentally. The Romans achieved the sovereignty of Italy, because +they strove for it; the hegemony--and the sovereignty which grew out +of it--over the territories of the Mediterranean was to a certain +extent thrown into the hands of the Romans by the force of +circumstances without intention on their part to acquire it. + +Out of Italy + +The immediate results of the war out of Italy were, the conversion +of Spain into two Roman provinces--which, however, were in perpetual +insurrection; the union of the hitherto dependent kingdom of Syracuse +with the Roman province of Sicily; the establishment of a Roman +instead of a Carthaginian protectorate over the most important +Numidian chiefs; and lastly the conversion of Carthage from a powerful +commercial state into a defenceless mercantile town. In other words, +it established the uncontested hegemony of Rome over the western +region of the Mediterranean. Moreover, in its further development, +it led to that necessary contact and interaction between the state +systems of the east and the west, which the first Punic war had +only foreshadowed; and thereby gave rise to the proximate decisive +interference of Rome in the conflicts of the Alexandrine monarchies. + +In Italy + +As to its results in Italy, first of all the Celts were now certainly, +if they had not been already beforehand, destined to destruction; and +the execution of the doom was only a question of time. Within the +Roman confederacy the effect of the war was to bring into more +distinct prominence the ruling Latin nation, whose internal union +had been tried and attested by the peril which, notwithstanding +isolated instances of wavering, it had surmounted on the whole in +faithful fellowship; and to depress still further the non-Latin or +non-Latinized Italians, particularly the Etruscans and the Sabellians +of Lower Italy. The heaviest punishment or rather vengeance was +inflicted partly on the most powerful, partly on those who were at +once the earliest and latest, allies of Hannibal--the community of +Capua, and the land of the Bruttians. The Capuan constitution was +abolished, and Capua was reduced from the second city into the first +village of Italy; it was even proposed to raze the city and level +it with the ground. The whole soil, with the exception of a few +possessions of foreigners or of Campanians well disposed towards Rome, +was declared by the senate to be public domain, and was thereafter +parcelled out to small occupiers on temporary lease. The Picentes on +the Silarus were similarly treated; their capital was razed, and the +inhabitants were dispersed among the surrounding villages. The doom +of the Bruttians was still more severe; they were converted en masse +into a sort of bondsmen to the Romans, and were for ever excluded from +the right of bearing arms. The other allies of Hannibal also dearly +expiated their offence. The Greek cities suffered severely, with the +exception of the few which had steadfastly adhered to Rome, such as +the Campanian Greeks and the Rhegines. Punishment not much lighter +awaited the Arpanians and a number of other Apulian, Lucanian, and +Samnite communities, most of which lost portions of their territory. +On a part of the lands thus acquired new colonies were settled. Thus +in the year 560 a succession of burgess-colonies was sent to the best +ports of Lower Italy, among which Sipontum (near Manfredonia) and +Croton may be named, as also Salernum placed in the former territory +of the southern Picentes and destined to hold them in check, and above +all Puteoli, which soon became the seat of the genteel -villeggiatura- +and of the traffic in Asiatic and Egyptian luxuries. Thurii became +a Latin fortress under the new name of Copia (560), and the rich +Bruttian town of Vibo under the name of Valentia (562). The veterans +of the victorious army of Africa were settled singly on various +patches of land in Samnium and Apulia; the remainder was retained as +public land, and the pasture stations of the grandees of Rome replaced +the gardens and arable fields of the farmers. As a matter of course, +moreover, in all the communities of the peninsula the persons of note +who were not well affected to Rome were got rid of, so far as this +could be accomplished by political processes and confiscations of +property. Everywhere in Italy the non-Latin allies felt that their +name was meaningless, and that they were thenceforth subjects of Rome; +the vanquishing of Hannibal was felt as a second subjugation of Italy, +and all the exasperation and all the arrogance of the victor vented +themselves especially on the Italian allies who were not Latin. Even +the colourless Roman comedy of this period, well subjected as it was +to police control, bears traces of this. When the subjugated towns +of Capua and Atella were abandoned without restraint to the unbridled +wit of the Roman farce, so that the latter town became its very +stronghold, and when other writers of comedy jested over the fact +that the Campanian serfs had already learned to survive amidst the +deadly atmosphere in which even the hardiest race of slaves, the +Syrians, pined away; such unfeeling mockeries re-echoed the scorn of +the victors, but not less the cry of distress from the down-trodden +nations. The position in which matters stood is shown by the anxious +carefulness, which during the ensuing Macedonian war the senate +evinced in the watching of Italy, and by the reinforcements which were +despatched from Rome to the most important colonies, to Venusia in +554, Narnia in 555, Cosa in 557, and Cales shortly before 570. + +What blanks were produced by war and famine in the ranks of the +Italian population, is shown by the example of the burgesses of +Rome, whose numbers during the war had fallen almost a fourth. +The statement, accordingly, which puts the whole number of Italians +who fell in the war under Hannibal at 300,000, seems not at all +exaggerated. Of course this loss fell chiefly on the flower of the +burgesses, who in fact furnished the -elite- as well as the mass of +the combatants. How fearfully the senate in particular was thinned, +is shown by the filling up of its complement after the battle of +Cannae, when it had been reduced to 123 persons, and was with +difficulty restored to its normal state by an extraordinary nomination +of 177 senators. That, moreover, the seventeen years' war, which had +been carried on simultaneously in all districts of Italy and towards +all the four points of the compass abroad, must have shaken to the +very heart the national economy, is, as a general position, clear; but +our tradition does not suffice to illustrate it in detail. The state +no doubt gained by the confiscations, and the Campanian territory in +particular thenceforth remained an inexhaustible source of revenue to +the state; but by this extension of the domain system the national +prosperity of course lost just about as much as at other times it had +gained by the breaking up of the state lands. Numbers of flourishing +townships--four hundred, it was reckoned--were destroyed and ruined; +the capital laboriously accumulated was consumed; the population were +demoralized by camp life; the good old traditional habits of the +burgesses and farmers were undermined from the capital down to the +smallest village. Slaves and desperadoes associated themselves in +robber-bands, of the dangers of which an idea may be formed from the +fact that in a single year (569) 7000 men had to be condemned for +highway robbery in Apulia alone; the extension of the pastures, +with their half-savage slave-herdsmen, favoured this mischievous +barbarizing of the land. Italian agriculture saw its very existence +endangered by the proof, first afforded in this war, that the Roman +people could be supported by grain from Sicily and from Egypt instead +of that which they reaped themselves. + +Nevertheless the Roman, whom the gods had allowed to survive the close +of that gigantic struggle, might look with pride to the past and with +confidence to the future. Many errors had been committed, but much +suffering had also been endured; the people, whose whole youth capable +of arms had for ten years hardly laid aside shield or sword, might +excuse many faults. The living of different nations side by side in +peace and amity upon the whole--although maintaining an attitude of +mutual antagonism--which appears to be the aim of modern phases of +national life, was a thing foreign to antiquity. In ancient times it +was necessary to be either anvil or hammer; and in the final struggle +between the victors victory remained with the Romans. Whether they +would have the judgment to use it rightly--to attach the Latin nation +by still closer bonds to Rome, gradually to Latinize Italy, to rule +their dependents in the provinces as subjects and not to abuse them as +slaves, to reform the constitution, to reinvigorate and to enlarge the +tottering middle class--many a one might ask. If they should know how +to use it, Italy might hope to see happy times, in which prosperity +based on personal exertion under favourable circumstances, and the +most decisive political supremacy over the then civilized world, would +impart a just self-reliance to every member of the great whole, +furnish a worthy aim for every ambition, and open a career for every +talent. It would, no doubt, be otherwise, should they fail to use +aright their victory. But for the moment doubtful voices and gloomy +apprehensions were silent, when from all quarters the warriors and +victors returned to their homes; thanksgivings and amusements, and +rewards to the soldiers and burgesses were the order of the day; +the released prisoners of war were sent home from Gaul, Africa, +and Greece; and at length the youthful conqueror moved in splendid +procession through the decorated streets of the capital, to deposit +his laurels in the house of the god by whose direct inspiration, as +the pious whispered one to another, he had been guided in counsel +and in action. + + + + +Notes for Chapter VI + + +1. III. III. The Celts Conquered by Rome + +2. III. VI. The Sending of Reinforcements Temporarily Frustrated + +3. III. VI. Conflicts in the South of Italy + +4. III. VI. Sicily Tranquillized + +5. Of the two places bearing this name, the more westerly, situated +about 60 miles west of Hadrumetum, was probably the scene of the +battle (comp. Hermes, xx. 144, 318). The time was the spring or +summer of the year 552; the fixing of the day as the 19th October, +on account of the alleged solar eclipse, is of no account. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +The West from the Peace of Hannibal to the Close of the Third Period + +Subjugation of the Valley of the Po + +The war waged by Hannibal had interrupted Rome in the extension of her +dominion to the Alps or to the boundary of Italy, as was even now the +Roman phrase, and in the organization and colonizing of the Celtic +territories. It was self-evident that the task would now be resumed +at the point where it had been broken off, and the Celts were well +aware of this. In the very year of the conclusion of peace with +Carthage (553) hostilities had recommenced in the territory of the +Boii, who were the most immediately exposed to danger; and a first +success obtained by them over the hastily-assembled Roman levy, +coupled with the persuasions of a Carthaginian officer, Hamilcar, who +had been left behind from the expedition of Mago in northern Italy, +produced in the following year (554) a general insurrection spreading +beyond the two tribes immediately threatened, the Boii and Insubres. +The Ligurians were driven to arms by the nearer approach of the +danger, and even the youth of the Cenomani on this occasion listened +less to the voice of their cautious chiefs than to the urgent appeal +of their kinsmen who were in peril. Of "the two barriers against the +raids of the Gauls," Placentia and Cremona, the former was sacked--not +more than 2000 of the inhabitants of Placentia saved their lives--and +the second was invested. In haste the legions advanced to save what +they could. A great battle took place before Cremona. The dexterous +management and the professional skill of the Phoenician leader failed +to make up for the deficiencies of his troops; the Gauls were unable +to withstand the onset of the legions, and among the numerous dead who +covered the field of battle was the Carthaginian officer. The Celts, +nevertheless, continued the struggle; the same Roman army which had +conquered at Cremona was next year (555), chiefly through the fault of +its careless leader, almost destroyed by the Insubres; and it was not +till 556 that Placentia could be partially re-established. But the +league of the cantons associated for the desperate struggle suffered +from intestine discord; the Boii and Insubres quarrelled, and the +Cenomani not only withdrew from the national league, but purchased +their pardon from the Romans by a disgraceful betrayal of their +countrymen; during a battle in which the Insubres engaged the Romans +on the Mincius, the Cenomani attacked in rear, and helped to destroy, +their allies and comrades in arms (557). Thus humbled and left in the +lurch, the Insubres, after the fall of Comum, likewise consented to +conclude a separate peace (558). The conditions, which the Romans +prescribed to the Cenomani and Insubres, were certainly harder than +they had been in the habit of granting to the members of the Italian +confederacy; in particular, they were careful to confirm by law the +barrier of separation between Italians and Celts, and to enact that +never should a member of these two Celtic tribes be capable of +acquiring the citizenship of Rome. But these Transpadane Celtic +districts were allowed to retain their existence and their national +constitution--so that they formed not town-domains, but tribal +cantons--and no tribute, as it would seem, was imposed on them. +They were intended to serve as a bulwark for the Roman settlements +south of the Po, and to ward off from Italy the incursions of the +migratory northern tribes and the aggressions of the predatory +inhabitants of the Alps, who were wont to make regular razzias in +these districts. The process of Latinizing, moreover, made rapid +progress in these regions; the Celtic nationality was evidently far +from able to oppose such resistance as the more civilized nations of +Sabellians and Etruscans. The celebrated Latin comic poet Statius +Caecilius, who died in 586, was a manumitted Insubrian; and Polybius, +who visited these districts towards the close of the sixth century, +affirms, not perhaps without some exaggeration, that in that quarter +only a few villages among the Alps remained Celtic. The Veneti, on +the other hand, appear to have retained their nationality longer. + +Measures Adopted to Check the Immigrations of the Transalpine Gauls + +The chief efforts of the Romans in these regions were naturally +directed to check the immigration of the Transalpine Celts, and to +make the natural wall, which separates the peninsula from the interior +of the continent, also its political boundary. That the terror of +the Roman name had already penetrated to the adjacent Celtic cantons +beyond the Alps, is shown not only by the totally passive attitude +which they maintained during the annihilation or subjugation of their +Cisalpine countrymen, but still more by the official disapproval and +disavowal which the Transalpine cantons--we shall have to think +primarily of the Helvetii (between the lake of Geneva and the Main) +and the Carni or Taurisci (in Carinthia and Styria)--expressed to +the envoys from Rome, who complained of the attempts made by isolated +Celtic bands to settle peacefully on the Roman side of the Alps. Not +less significant was the humble spirit in which these same bands of +emigrants first came to the Roman senate entreating an assignment +of land, and then without remonstrance obeyed the rigorous order to +return over the Alps (568-575), and allowed the town, which they +had already founded not far from the later Aquileia, to be again +destroyed. With wise severity the senate permitted no sort of +exception to the principle that the gates of the Alps should be +henceforth closed for the Celtic nation, and visited with heavy +penalties those Roman subjects in Italy, who had instigated any such +schemes of immigration. An attempt of this kind which was made on a +route hitherto little known to the Romans, in the innermost recess of +the Adriatic, and still more, as if would seem, the project of Philip +of Macedonia for invading Italy from the east as Hannibal had done +from the west, gave occasion to the founding of a fortress in the +extreme north-eastern corner of Italy--Aquileia, the most northerly of +the Italian colonies (571-573)--which was intended not only to close +that route for ever against foreigners, but also to secure the command +of the gulf which was specially convenient for navigation, and to +check the piracy which was still not wholly extirpated in those +waters. The establishment of Aquileia led to a war with the Istrians +(576, 577), which was speedily terminated by the storming of some +strongholds and the fall of the king, Aepulo, and which was remarkable +for nothing except for the panic, which the news of the surprise of +the Roman camp by a handful of barbarians called forth in the fleet +and throughout Italy. + +Colonizing of the Region on the South of the Po + +A different course was adopted with the region on the south of the Po, +which the Roman senate had determined to incorporate with Italy. The +Boii, who were immediately affected by this step, defended themselves +with the resolution of despair. They even crossed the Po and made an +attempt to rouse the Insubres once more to arms (560); they blockaded +a consul in his camp, and he was on the point of succumbing; Placentia +maintained itself with difficulty against the constant assaults of +the exasperated natives. At length the last battle was fought at +Mutina; it was long and bloody, but the Romans conquered (561); +and thenceforth the struggle was no longer a war, but a slave-hunt. +The Roman camp soon was the only asylum in the Boian territory; +thither the better part of the still surviving population began to +take refuge; and the victors were able, without much exaggeration, to +report to Rome that nothing remained of the nation of the Boii but old +men and children. The nation was thus obliged to resign itself to the +fate appointed for it. The Romans demanded the cession of half the +territory (563); the demand could not be refused, and even within the +diminished district which was left to the Boii, they soon disappeared, +and amalgamated with their conquerors.(1) + +After the Romans had thus cleared the ground for themselves, +the fortresses of Placentia and Cremona, whose colonists had been +in great part swept away or dispersed by the troubles of the last few +years, were reorganized, and new settlers were sent thither. The new +foundations were, in or near the former territory of the Senones, +Potentia (near Recanati not far from Ancona: in 570) and Pisaurum +(Pesaro: in 570), and, in the newly acquired district of the Boii, the +fortresses of Bononia (565), Mutina (571), and Parma (571); the colony +of Mutina had been already instituted before the war under Hannibal, +but that war had interrupted the completion of the settlement. +The construction of fortresses was associated, as was always the case, +with the formation of military roads. The Flaminian way was prolonged +from its northern termination at Ariminum, under the name of the +Aemilian way, to Placentia (567). Moreover, the road from Rome to +Arretium or the Cassian way, which perhaps had already been long a +municipal road, was taken in charge and constructed anew by the Roman +community probably in 583; while in 567 the track from Arretium over +the Apennines to Bononia as far as the new Aemilian road had been put +in order, and furnished a shorter communication between Rome and the +fortresses on the Po. By these comprehensive measures the Apennines +were practically superseded as the boundary between the Celtic and +Italian territories, and were replaced by the Po. South of the Po +there henceforth prevailed mainly the urban constitution of the +Italians, beyond it mainly the cantonal constitution of the Celts; +and, if the district between the Apennines and the Po was still +reckoned Celtic land, it was but an empty name. + +Liguria + +In the north-western mountain-land of Italy, whose valleys and hills +were occupied chiefly by the much-subdivided Ligurian stock, the +Romans pursued a similar course. Those dwelling immediately to the +north of the Arno were extirpated. This fate befell chiefly the +Apuani, who dwelt on the Apennines between the Arno and the Magra, and +incessantly plundered on the one side the territory of Pisae, on the +other that of Bononia and Mutina. Those who did not fall victims in +that quarter to the sword of the Romans were transported into Lower +Italy to the region of Beneventum (574); and by energetic measures the +Ligurian nation, from which the Romans were obliged in 578 to recover +the colony of Mutina which it had conquered, was completely crushed in +the mountains which separate the valley of the Po from that of the +Arno. The fortress of Luna (not far from Spezzia), established in 577 +in the former territory of the Apuani, protected the frontier against +the Ligurians just as Aquileia did against the Transalpines, and gave +the Romans at the same time an excellent port which henceforth became +the usual station for the passage to Massilia and to Spain. The +construction of the coast or Aurelian road from Rome to Luna, and +of the cross road carried from Luca by way of Florence to Arretium +between the Aurelian and Cassian ways, probably belongs to the +same period. + +With the more western Ligurian tribes, who held the Genoese Apennines +and the Maritime Alps, there were incessant conflicts. They were +troublesome neighbours, accustomed to pillage by land and by sea: the +Pisans and Massiliots suffered no little injury from their incursions +and their piracies. But no permanent results were gained amidst these +constant hostilities, or perhaps even aimed at; except apparently +that, with a view to have a communication by land with Transalpine +Gaul and Spain in addition to the regular route by sea, the Romans +endeavoured to clear the great coast road from Luna by way of Massilia +to Emporiae, at least as far as the Alps--beyond the Alps it devolved +on the Massiliots to keep the coast navigation open for Roman vessels +and the road along the shore open for travellers by land. The +interior with its impassable valleys and its rocky fastnesses, +and with its poor but dexterous and crafty inhabitants, served +the Romans mainly as a school of war for the training and hardening +of soldiers and officers. + +Corsica +Sardinia + +Wars as they are called, of a similar character with those against the +Ligurians, were waged with the Corsicans and to a still greater extent +with the inhabitants of the interior of Sardinia, who retaliated for +the predatory expeditions directed against them by sudden attacks on +the districts along the coast. The expedition of Tiberius Gracchus +against the Sardinians in 577 was specially held in remembrance, +not so much because it gave "peace" to the province, as because +he asserted that he had slain or captured as many as 80,000 of +the islanders, and dragged slaves thence in such multitudes to +Rome that "cheap as a Sardinian" became a proverb. + +Carthage + +In Africa the policy of Rome was substantially summed up in the one +idea, as short-sighted as it was narrow-minded, that she ought to +prevent the revival of the power of Carthage, and ought accordingly +to keep the unhappy city constantly oppressed and apprehensive of +a declaration of war suspended over it by Rome like the sword of +Damocles. The stipulation in the treaty of peace, that the +Carthaginians should retain their territory undiminished, but +that their neighbour Massinissa should have all those possessions +guaranteed to him which he or his predecessor had possessed within +the Carthaginian bounds, looks almost as if it had been inserted not +to obviate, but to provoke disputes. The same remark applies to the +obligation imposed by the Roman treaty of peace on the Carthaginians +not to make war upon the allies of Rome; so that, according to the +letter of the treaty, they were not even entitled to expel their +Numidian neighbours from their own undisputed territory. With such +stipulations and amidst the uncertainty of African frontier questions +in general, the situation of Carthage in presence of a neighbour +equally powerful and unscrupulous and of a liege lord who was at once +umpire and party in the cause, could not but be a painful one; but +the reality was worse than the worst expectations. As early as 561 +Carthage found herself suddenly assailed under frivolous pretexts, +and saw the richest portion of her territory, the province of Emporiae +on the Lesser Syrtis, partly plundered by the Numidians, partly +even seized and retained by them. Encroachments of this kind were +multiplied; the level country passed into the hands of the Numidians, +and the Carthaginians with difficulty maintained themselves in the +larger places. Within the last two years alone, the Carthaginians +declared in 582, seventy villages had been again wrested from them in +opposition to the treaty. Embassy after embassy was despatched to +Rome; the Carthaginians adjured the Roman senate either to allow them +to defend themselves by arms, or to appoint a court of arbitration +with power to enforce their award, or to regulate the frontier anew +that they might at least learn once for all how much they were to +lose; otherwise it were better to make them Roman subjects at once +than thus gradually to deliver them over to the Libyans. But the +Roman government, which already in 554 had held forth a direct +prospect of extension of territory to their client, of course at the +expense of Carthage, seemed to have little objection that he should +himself take the booty destined for him; they moderated perhaps at +times the too great impetuosity of the Libyans, who now retaliated +fully on their old tormentors for their former sufferings; but it +was in reality for the very sake of inflicting this torture that the +Romans had assigned Massinissa as a neighbour to Carthage. All the +requests and complaints had no result, except either that Roman +commissions made their appearance in Africa and after a thorough +investigation came to no decision, or that in the negotiations at +Rome the envoys of Massinissa pretended a want of instructions and +the matter was adjourned. Phoenician patience alone was able to +submit meekly to such a position, and even to exhibit towards +the despotic victors every attention and courtesy, solicited or +unsolicited with unwearied perseverance. The Carthaginians +especially courted Roman favour by sending supplies of grain. + +Hannibal +Reform of the Carthaginian Constitution +Hannibal's Flight + +This pliability on the part of the vanquished, however was not mere +patience and resignation. There was still in Carthage a patriotic +party, and at its head stood the man who, wherever fate placed him, +was still dreaded by the Romans. It had not abandoned the idea of +resuming the struggle by taking advantage of those complications that +might be easily foreseen between Rome and the eastern powers; and, as +the failure of the magnificent scheme of Hamilcar and his sons had +been due mainly to the Carthaginian oligarchy, the chief object was +internally to reinvigorate the country for this new struggle. The +salutary influence of adversity, and the clear, noble, and commanding +mind of Hannibal, effected political and financial reforms. The +oligarchy, which had filled up the measure of its guilty follies by +raising a criminal process against the great general, charging him +with having intentionally abstained from the capture of Rome and with +embezzlement of the Italian spoil--that rotten oligarchy was, on the +proposition of Hannibal, overthrown, and a democratic government was +introduced such as was suited to the circumstances of the citizens +(before 559). The finances were so rapidly reorganized by the +collection of arrears and of embezzled moneys and by the introduction +of better control, that the contribution due to Rome could be paid +without burdening the citizens in any way with extraordinary taxes. +The Roman government, just then on the point of beginning its critical +war with the great-king of Asia, observed the progress of these +events, as may easily be conceived, with apprehension; it was no +imaginary danger that the Carthaginian fleet might land in Italy and +a second war under Hannibal might spring up there, while the Roman +legions fighting in Asia Minor. We can scarcely, therefore, censure +the Romans for sending an embassy to Carthage (in 559) which was +presumably charged to demand the surrender of Hannibal. The spiteful +Carthaginian oligarchs, who sent letter after letter to Rome to +denounce to the national foe the hero who had overthrown them as +having entered into secret communications with the powers unfriendly +to Rome, were contemptible, but their information was probably +correct; and, true as it was that that embassy involved a humiliating +confession of the dread with which the simple shofete of Carthage +inspired so powerful a people, and natural and honourable as it was +that the proud conqueror of Zama should take exception in the senate +to so humiliating a step, still that confession was nothing but the +simple truth, and Hannibal was of a genius so extraordinary, that none +but sentimental politicians in Rome could tolerate him longer at the +head of the Carthaginian state. The marked recognition thus accorded +to him by the Roman government scarcely took himself by surprise. +As it was Hannibal and not Carthage that had carried on the last war, +so it was he who had to bear the fate of the vanquished. The +Carthaginians could do nothing but submit and be thankful that +Hannibal, sparing them the greater disgrace by his speedy and prudent +flight to the east, left to his ancestral city merely the lesser +disgrace of having banished its greatest citizen for ever from his +native land, confiscated his property, and razed his house. The +profound saying that those are the favourites of the gods, on whom +they lavish infinite joys and infinite sorrows, thus verified itself +in full measure in the case of Hannibal. + +Continued Irritation in Rome towards Carthage + +A graver responsibility than that arising out of their proceedings +against Hannibal attaches to the Roman government for their +persistence in suspecting and tormenting the city after his removal. +Parties indeed fermented there as before; but, after the withdrawal +of the extraordinary man who had wellnigh changed the destinies of the +world, the patriot party was not of much more importance in Carthage +than in Aetolia or Achaia. The most rational of the various ideas +which then agitated the unhappy city was beyond doubt that of +attaching themselves to Massinissa and of converting him from +the oppressor into the protector of the Phoenicians. But neither +the national section of the patriots nor the section with Libyan +tendencies attained the helm; on the contrary the government remained +in the hands of the oligarchs friendly to Rome, who, so far as they +did not altogether renounce thought of the future, clung to the single +idea of saving the material welfare and the communal freedom of +Carthage under Roman protection. With this state of matters the +Romans might well have been content. But neither the multitude, nor +even the ruling lords of the average stamp, could rid themselves of +the profound alarm produced by the Hannibalic war; and the Roman +merchants with envious eyes beheld the city even now, when its +political power was gone, possessed of extensive commercial +dependencies and of a firmly established wealth which nothing could +shake. Already in 567 the Carthaginian government offered to pay up +at once the whole instalments stipulated in the peace of 553--an offer +which the Romans, who attached far more importance to the having +Carthage tributary than to the sums of money themselves, naturally +declined, and only deduced from it the conviction that, in spite of +all the trouble they had taken, the city was not ruined and was not +capable of ruin. Fresh reports were ever circulating through Rome as +to the intrigues of the faithless Phoenicians. At one time it was +alleged that Aristo of Tyre had been seen in Carthage as an emissary +of Hannibal, to prepare the citizens for the landing of an Asiatic +war-fleet (561); at another, that the council had, in a secret +nocturnal sitting in the temple of the God of Healing, given audience +to the envoys of Perseus (581); at another there was talk of the +powerful fleet which was being equipped in Carthage for the Macedonian +war (583). It is probable that these and similar reports were founded +on nothing more than, at most, individual indiscretions; but still +they were the signal for new diplomatic ill usage on the part of Rome, +and for new aggressions on the part of Massinissa, and the idea gained +ground the more, the less sense and reason there was in it, that the +Carthaginian question would not be settled without a third Punic war. + +Numidians + +While the power of the Phoenicians was thus sinking in the land of +their choice, just as it had long ago succumbed in their original +home, a new state grew up by their side. The northern coast of Africa +has been inhabited from time immemorial, and is inhabited still, by +the people, who themselves assume the name of Shilah or Tamazigt, whom +the Greeks and Romans call Nomades or Numidians, i. e. the "pastoral" +people, and the Arabs call Berbers, although they also at times +designate them as "shepherds" (Shawie), and to whom we are wont to +give the name of Berbers or Kabyles. This people is, so far as its +language has been hitherto investigated, related to no other known +nation. In the Carthaginian period these tribes, with the exception +of those dwelling immediately around Carthage or immediately on the +coast, had on the whole maintained their independence, and had also +substantially retained their pastoral and equestrian life, such as the +inhabitants of the Atlas lead at the present day; although they were +not strangers to the Phoenician alphabet and Phoenician civilization +generally,(2) and instances occurred in which the Berber sheiks had +their sons educated in Carthage and intermarried with the families of +the Phoenician nobility. It was not the policy of the Romans to have +direct possessions of their own in Africa; they preferred to rear a +state there, which should not be of sufficient importance to be able +to dispense with Roman protection, and yet should be sufficiently +strong to keep down the power of Carthage now that it was restricted +to Africa, and to render all freedom of movement impossible for the +tortured city. They found what they sought among the native princes. +About the time of the Hannibalic war the natives of North Africa were +subject to three principal kings, each of whom, according to the +custom there, had a multitude of princes bound to follow his banner; +Bocchar king of the Mauri, who ruled from the Atlantic Ocean to the +river Molochath (now Mluia, on the boundary between Morocco and the +French territory); Syphax king of the Massaesyli, who ruled from the +last-named point to the "Perforated Promontory," as it was called +(Seba Rus, between Jijeli and Bona), in what are now the provinces of +Oran and Algiers; and Massinissa king of the Massyli, who ruled from +the Tretum Promontorium to the boundary of Carthage, in what is now +the province of Constantine. The most powerful of these, Syphax king +of Siga, had been vanquished in the last war between Rome and Carthage +and carried away captive to Rome, where he died in captivity. His +wide dominions were mainly given to Massinissa; although Vermina the +son of Syphax by humble petition recovered a small portion of his +father's territory from the Romans (554), he was unable to deprive +the earlier ally of the Romans of his position as the privileged +oppressor of Carthage. + +Massinissa + +Massinissa became the founder of the Numidian kingdom; and seldom has +choice or accident hit upon a man so thoroughly fitted for his post. +In body sound and supple up to extreme old age; temperate and sober +like an Arab; capable of enduring any fatigue, of standing on the same +spot from morning to evening, and of sitting four-and-twenty hours on +horseback; tried alike as a soldier and a general amidst the romantic +vicissitudes of his youth as well as on the battle-fields of Spain, +and not less master of the more difficult art of maintaining +discipline in his numerous household and order in his dominions; +with equal unscrupulousness ready to throw himself at the feet of his +powerful protector, or to tread under foot his weaker neighbour; and, +in addition to all this, as accurately acquainted with the +circumstances of Carthage, where he was educated and had been on +familiar terms in the noblest houses, as he was filled with an African +bitterness of hatred towards his own and his people's oppressors, +--this remarkable man became the soul of the revival of his nation, +which had seemed on the point of perishing, and of whose virtues and +faults he appeared as it were a living embodiment. Fortune favoured +him, as in everything, so especially in the fact, that it allowed +him time for his work. He died in the ninetieth year of his age +(516-605), and in the sixtieth year of his reign, retaining to the +last the full possession of his bodily and mental powers, leaving +behind him a son one year old and the reputation of having been +the strongest man and the best and most fortunate king of his age. + +Extension and Civilization of Numidia + +We have already narrated how purposely and clearly the Romans in +their management of African affairs evinced their taking part with +Massinissa, and how zealously and constantly the latter availed +himself of the tacit permission to enlarge his territory at the +expense of Carthage. The whole interior to the border of the desert +fell to the native sovereign as it were of its own accord, and even +the upper valley of the Bagradas (Mejerdah) with the rich town of Vaga +became subject to the king; on the coast also to the east of Carthage +he occupied the old Sidonian city of Great Leptis and other districts, +so that his kingdom stretched from the Mauretanian to the Cyrenaean +frontier, enclosed the Carthaginian territory on every side by land, +and everywhere pressed, in the closest vicinity, on the Phoenicians. +It admits of no doubt, that he looked on Carthage as his future +capital; the Libyan party there was significant. But it was not +only by the diminution of her territory that Carthage suffered injury. +The roving shepherds were converted by their great king into another +people. After the example of the king, who brought the fields +under cultivation far and wide and bequeathed to each of his sons +considerable landed estates, his subjects also began to settle and +to practise agriculture. As he converted his shepherds into settled +citizens, he converted also his hordes of plunderers into soldiers who +were deemed by Rome worthy to fight side by side with her legions; +and he bequeathed to his successors a richly-filled treasury, a well- +disciplined army, and even a fleet. His residence Cirta (Constantine) +became the stirring capital of a powerful state, and a chief seat of +Phoenician civilization, which was zealously fostered at the court of +the Berber king--fostered perhaps studiously with a view to the future +Carthagino-Numidian kingdom. The hitherto degraded Libyan nationality +thus rose in its own estimation, and the native manners and language +made their way even into the old Phoenician towns, such as Great +Leptis. The Berber began, under the aegis of Rome, to feel himself +the equal or even the superior of the Phoenician; Carthaginian envoys +at Rome had to submit to be told that they were aliens in Africa, +and that the land belonged to the Libyans. The Phoenico-national +civilization of North Africa, which still retained life and vigour +even in the levelling times of the Empire, was far more the work +of Massinissa than of the Carthaginians. + +The State of Culture in Spain + +In Spain the Greek and Phoenician towns along the coast, such as +Emporiae, Saguntum, New Carthage, Malaca, and Gades, submitted to the +Roman rule the more readily, that, left to their own resources, they +would hardly have been able to protect themselves from the natives; +as for similar reasons Massilia, although far more important and more +capable of self-defence than those towns, did not omit to secure a +powerful support in case of need by closely attaching itself to the +Romans, to whom it was in return very serviceable as an intermediate +station between Italy and Spain. The natives, on the other hand, gave +to the Romans endless trouble. It is true that there were not wanting +the rudiments of a national Iberian civilization, although of its +special character it is scarcely possible for us to acquire any clear +idea. We find among the Iberians a widely diffused national writing, +which divides itself into two chief kinds, that of the valley of the +Ebro, and the Andalusian, and each of these was presumably subdivided +into various branches: this writing seems to have originated at a very +early period, and to be traceable rather to the old Greek than to the +Phoenician alphabet. There is even a tradition that the Turdetani +(round Seville) possessed lays from very ancient times, a metrical +book of laws of 6000 verses, and even historical records; at any rate +this tribe is described as the most civilized of all the Spanish +tribes, and at the same time the least warlike; indeed, it regularly +carried on its wars by means of foreign mercenaries. To the same +region probably we must refer the descriptions given by Polybius of +the flourishing condition of agriculture and the rearing of cattle +in Spain--so that, in the absence of opportunity of export, grain and +flesh were to be had at nominal prices--and of the splendid royal +palaces with golden and silver jars full of "barley wine." At least a +portion of the Spaniards, moreover, zealously embraced the elements of +culture which the Romans brought along with them, so that the process +of Latinizing made more rapid progress in Spain than anywhere else in +the transmarine provinces. For example, warm baths after the Italian +fashion came into use even at this period among the natives. Roman +money, too, was to all appearance not only current in Spain far +earlier than elsewhere out of Italy, but was imitated in Spanish +coins; a circumstance in some measure explained by the rich silver- +mines of the country. The so-called "silver of Osca" (now Huesca +in Arragon), i. e. Spanish -denarii- with Iberian inscriptions, is +mentioned in 559; and the commencement of their coinage cannot be +placed much later, because the impression is imitated from that of +the oldest Roman -denarii-. + +But, while in the southern and eastern provinces the culture of the +natives may have so far prepared the way for Roman civilization and +Roman rule that these encountered no serious difficulties, the west +and north on the other hand, and the whole of the interior, were +occupied by numerous tribes more or less barbarous, who knew little of +any kind of civilization--in Intercatia, for instance, the use of gold +and silver was still unknown about 600--and who were on no better +terms with each other than with the Romans. A characteristic trait +in these free Spaniards was the chivalrous spirit of the men and, at +least to an equal extent, of the women. When a mother sent forth her +son to battle, she roused his spirit by the recital of the feats of +his ancestors; and the fairest maiden unasked offered her hand in +marriage to the bravest man. Single combat was common, both with +a view to determine the prize of valour, and for the settlement of +lawsuits; even disputes among the relatives of princes as to the +succession were settled in this way. It not unfrequently happened +that a well-known warrior confronted the ranks of the enemy and +challenged an antagonist by name; the defeated champion then +surrendered his mantle and sword to his opponent, and even entered +into relations of friendship and hospitality with him. Twenty years +after the close of the second Punic war, the little Celtiberian +community of Complega (in the neighbourhood of the sources of the +Tagus) sent a message to the Roman general, that unless he sent to +them for every man that had fallen a horse, a mantle, and a sword, +it would fare ill with him. Proud of their military honour, so that +they frequently could not bear to survive the disgrace of being +disarmed, the Spaniards were nevertheless disposed to follow any +one who should enlist their services, and to stake their lives in +any foreign quarrel. The summons was characteristic, which a Roman +general well acquainted with the customs of the country sent to a +Celtiberian band righting in the pay of the Turdetani against the +Romans--either to return home, or to enter the Roman service with +double pay, or to fix time and place for battle. If no recruiting +officer made his appearance, they met of their own accord in free +bands, with the view of pillaging the more peaceful districts and +even of capturing and occupying towns, quite after the manner of the +Campanians. The wildness and insecurity of the inland districts are +attested by the fact that banishment into the interior westward of +Cartagena was regarded by the Romans as a severe punishment, and that +in periods of any excitement the Roman commandants of Further Spain +took with them escorts of as many as 6000 men. They are still more +clearly shown by the singular relations subsisting between the Greeks +and their Spanish neighbours in the Graeco-Spanish double city of +Emporiae, at the eastern extremity of the Pyrenees. The Greek +settlers, who dwelt on the point of the peninsula separated on the +landward side from the Spanish part of the town by a wall, took care +that this wall should be guarded every night by a third of their civic +force, and that a higher official should constantly superintend the +watch at the only gate; no Spaniard was allowed to set foot in the +Greek city, and the Greeks conveyed their merchandise to the natives +only in numerous and well-escorted companies. + +Wars between the Romans and Spaniards + +These natives, full of restlessness and fond of war--full of the +spirit of the Cid and of Don Quixote--were now to be tamed and, if +possible, civilized by the Romans. In a military point of view +the task was not difficult. It is true that the Spaniards showed +themselves, not only when behind the walls of their cities or under +the leadership of Hannibal, but even when left to themselves and in +the open field of battle, no contemptible opponents; with their short +two-edged sword which the Romans subsequently adopted from them, and +their formidable assaulting columns, they not unfrequently made even +the Roman legions waver. Had they been able to submit to military +discipline and to political combination, they might perhaps have +shaken off the foreign yoke imposed on them. But their valour was +rather that of the guerilla than of the soldier, and they were utterly +void of political judgment. Thus in Spain there was no serious war, +but as little was there any real peace; the Spaniards, as Caesar +afterwards very justly pointed out to them, never showed themselves +quiet in peace or strenuous in war. Easy as it was for a Roman +general to scatter a host of insurgents, it was difficult for the +Roman statesman to devise any suitable means of really pacifying and +civilizing Spain. In fact, he could only deal with it by palliative +measures; because the only really adequate expedient, a comprehensive +Latin colonization, was not accordant with the general aim of Roman +policy at this period. + +The Romans Maintain a Standing Army in Spain +Cato +Gracchus + +The territory which the Romans acquired in Spain in the course of the +second Punic war was from the beginning divided into two masses--the +province formerly Carthaginian, which embraced in the first instance +the present districts of Andalusia, Granada, Murcia, and Valencia, and +the province of the Ebro, or the modern Arragon and Catalonia, the +fixed quarters of the Roman army during the last war. Out of these +territories were formed the two Roman provinces of Further and Hither +Spain. The Romans sought gradually to reduce to subjection the +interior corresponding nearly to the two Castiles, which they +comprehended under the general name of Celtiberia, while they were +content with checking the incursions of the inhabitants of the western +provinces, more especially those of the Lusitanians in the modern +Portugal and the Spanish Estremadura, into the Roman territory; +with the tribes on the north coast, the Callaecians, Asturians, +and Cantabrians, they did not as yet come into contact at all. +The territories thus won, however, could not be maintained and secured +without a standing garrison, for the governor of Hither Spain had no +small trouble every year with the chastisement of the Celtiberians, +and the governor of the more remote province found similar employment +in repelling the Lusitanians. It was needful accordingly to maintain +in Spain a Roman army of four strong legions, or about 40,000 men, +year after year; besides which the general levy had often to be called +out in the districts occupied by Rome, to reinforce the legions. This +was of great importance for two reasons: it was in Spain first, at +least first on any larger scale, that the military occupation of the +land became continuous; and it was there consequently that the service +acquired a permanent character. The old Roman custom of sending +troops only where the exigencies of war at the moment required them, +and of not keeping the men called to serve, except in very serious +and important wars, under arms for more than a year, was found +incompatible with the retention of the turbulent and remote Spanish +provinces beyond the sea; it was absolutely impossible to withdraw +the troops from these, and very dangerous even to relieve them +extensively. The Roman burgesses began to perceive that dominion over +a foreign people is an annoyance not only to the slave, but to the +master, and murmured loudly regarding the odious war-service of Spain. +While the new generals with good reason refused to allow the relief of +the existing corps as a whole, the men mutinied and threatened that, +if they were not allowed their discharge, they would take it of +their own accord. + +The wars themselves, which the Romans waged in Spain, were but of +a subordinate importance. They began with the very departure of +Scipio,(3) and continued as long as the war under Hannibal lasted. +After the peace with Carthage (in 553) there was a cessation of +arms in the peninsula; but only for a short time. In 557 a general +insurrection broke out in both provinces; the commander of the +Further province was hard pressed; the commander of Hither Spain was +completely defeated, and was himself slain. It was necessary to take +up the war in earnest, and although in the meantime the able praetor +Quintus Minucius had mastered the first danger, the senate resolved in +559 to send the consul Marcus Cato in person to Spain. On landing at +Emporiae he actually found the whole of Hither Spain overrun by the +insurgents; with difficulty that seaport and one or two strongholds +in the interior were still held for Rome. A pitched battle took place +between the insurgents and the consular army, in which, after an +obstinate conflict man against man, the Roman military skill at length +decided the day with its last reserve. The whole of Hither Spain +thereupon sent in its submission: so little, however, was this +submission meant in earnest, that on a rumour of the consul having +returned to Rome the insurrection immediately recommenced. But the +rumour was false; and after Cato had rapidly reduced the communities +which had revolted for the second time and sold them -en masse- into +slavery, he decreed a general disarming of the Spaniards in the Hither +province, and issued orders to all the towns of the natives from the +Pyrenees to the Guadalquivir to pull down their walls on one and the +same day. No one knew how far the command extended, and there was no +time to come to any understanding; most of the communities complied; +and of the few that were refractory not many ventured, when the Roman +army soon appeared before their walls, to await its assault. + +These energetic measures were certainly not without permanent effect. +Nevertheless the Romans had almost every year to reduce to subjection +some mountain valley or mountain stronghold in the "peaceful +province," and the constant incursions of the Lusitanians into the +Further province led occasionally to severe defeats of the Romans. +In 563, for instance, a Roman army was obliged after heavy loss to +abandon its camp, and to return by forced inarches into the more +tranquil districts. It was not till after a victory gained by the +praetor Lucius Aemilius Paullus in 565,(4) and a second still more +considerable gained by the brave praetor Gaius Calpurnius beyond the +Tagus over the Lusitanians in 569, that quiet for some time prevailed. +In Hither Spain the hitherto almost nominal rule of the Romans over +the Celtiberian tribes was placed on a firmer basis by Quintus Fulvius +Flaccus, who after a great victory over them in 573 compelled at least +the adjacent cantons to submission; and especially by his successor +Tiberius Gracchus (575, 576), who achieved results of a permanent +character not only by his arms, by which he reduced three hundred +Spanish townships, but still more by his adroitness in adapting +himself to the views and habits of the simple and haughty nation. +He induced Celtiberians of note to take service in the Roman army, +and so created a class of dependents; he assigned land to the roving +tribes, and collected them in towns--the Spanish town Graccurris +preserved the Roman's name--and so imposed a serious check on their +freebooter habits; he regulated the relations of the several tribes +to the Romans by just and wise treaties, and so stopped, as far as +possible, the springs of future rebellion. His name was held in +grateful remembrance by the Spaniards, and comparative peace +henceforth reigned in the land, although the Celtiberians still +from time to time winced under the yoke. + +Administration of Spain + +The system of administration in the two Spanish provinces was similar +to that of the Sicilo-Sardinian province, but not identical. The +superintendence was in both instances vested in two auxiliary consuls, +who were first nominated in 557, in which year also the regulation of +the boundaries and the definitive organization of the new provinces +took place. The judicious enactment of the Baebian law (573), that +the Spanish praetors should always be nominated for two years, was not +seriously carried out in consequence of the increasing competition for +the highest magistracies, and still more in consequence of the jealous +supervision exercised over the powers of the magistrates by the +senate; and in Spain also, except where deviations occurred in +extraordinary circumstances, the Romans adhered to the system of +annually changing the governors--a system especially injudicious in +the case of provinces so remote and with which it was so difficult to +gain an acquaintance. The dependent communities were throughout +tributary; but, instead of the Sicilian and Sardinian tenths and +customs, in Spain fixed payments in money or other contributions were +imposed by the Romans, just as formerly by the Carthaginians, on the +several towns and tribes: the collection of these by military means +was prohibited by a decree of the senate in 583, in consequence of the +complaints of the Spanish communities. Grain was not furnished in +their case except for compensation, and even then the governor might +not levy more than a twentieth; besides, conformably to the just- +mentioned ordinance of the supreme authority, he was bound to adjust +the compensation in an equitable manner. On the other hand, the +obligation of the Spanish subjects to furnish contingents to the Roman +armies had an importance very different from that which belonged to +it at least in peaceful Sicily, and it was strictly regulated in the +several treaties. The right, too, of coining silver money of the +Roman standard appears to have been very frequently conceded to the +Spanish towns, and the monopoly of coining seems to have been by no +means asserted here by the Roman government with the same strictness +as in Sicily. Rome had too much need of her subjects everywhere in +Spain, not to proceed with all possible tenderness in the introduction +and handling of the provincial constitution there. Among the +communities specially favoured by Rome were the great cities along +the coast of Greek, Phoenician, or Roman foundation, such as Saguntum, +Gades, and Tarraco, which, as the natural pillars of the Roman rule +in the peninsula, were admitted to alliance with Rome. On the whole, +Spain was in a military as well as financial point of view a burden +rather than a gain to the Roman commonwealth; and the question +naturally occurs, Why did the Roman government, whose policy at that +time evidently did not contemplate the acquisition of countries beyond +the sea, not rid itself of these troublesome possessions? The not +inconsiderable commercial connections of Spain, her important iron- +mines, and her still more important silver-mines famous from ancient +times even in the far east(5)--which Rome, like Carthage, took into +her own hands, and the management of which was specially regulated by +Marcus Cato (559)--must beyond doubt have co-operated to induce its +retention; but the chief reason of the Romans for retaining the +peninsula in their own immediate possession was, that there were no +states in that quarter of similar character to the Massiliot republic +in the land of the Celts and the Numidian kingdom in Libya, and that +thus they could not abandon Spain without putting it into the power +of any adventurer to revive the Spanish empire of the Barcides. + + + + +Notes for Chapter VII + + +1. According to the account of Strabo these Italian Boii were driven +by the Romans over the Alps, and from them proceeded that Boian +settlement in what is now Hungary about Stein am Anger and Oedenburg, +which was attacked and annihilated in the time of Augustus by the +Getae who crossed the Danube, but which bequeathed to this district +the name of the Boian desert. This account is far from agreeing with +the well-attested representation of the Roman annals, according to +which the Romans were content with the cession of half the territory; +and, in order to explain the disappearance of the Italian Boii, +we have really no need to assume a violent expulsion--the other +Celtic peoples, although visited to a far less extent by war and +colonization, disappeared not much less rapidly and totally from the +ranks of the Italian nations. On the other hand, other accounts +suggest the derivation of those Boii on the Neusiedler See from the +main stock of the nation, which formerly had its seat in Bavaria and +Bohemia before Germanic tribes pushed it towards the south. But it is +altogether very doubtful whether the Boii, whom we find near Bordeaux, +on the Po, and in Bohemia, were really scattered branches of one +stock, or whether this is not an instance of mere similarity of name. +The hypothesis of Strabo may have rested on nothing else than an +inference from the similarity of name--an inference such as the +ancients drew, often without due reason, in the case of the Cimbri, +Veneti, and others. + +2. III. I. Libyphoenicians + +3. III. VI. Gades Becomes Roman + +4. Of this praetor there has recently come to light the following +decree on a copper tablet found in the neighbourhood of Gibraltar +and now preserved in the Paris Museum: "L. Aimilius, son of Lucius, +Imperator, has ordained that the slaves of the Hastenses [of Hasta +regia, not far from Jerez de la Frontera], who dwell in the tower of +Lascuta [known by means of coins and Plin. iii. i, 15, but uncertain +as to site] should be free. The ground and the township, of which +they are at the time in possession, they shall continue to possess and +hold, so long as it shall please the people and senate of the Romans. +Done in camp on 12 Jan. [564 or 565]." (-L. Aimilius L. f. inpeirator +decreivit utei qui Hastensium servei in turri Lascutana habitarent, +leiberei essent, Agrum oppidumqu[e], guod ea tempestate posedissent, +item possidere habereque ioussit, dum poplus senatusque Romanus +vettet. Act. in castreis a. d. XII. k. Febr.-) This is the oldest +Roman document which we possess in the original, drawn up three years +earlier than the well-known edict of the consuls of the year 568 in +the affair of the Bacchanalia. + +5. 1 Maccab. viii. 3. "And Judas heard what the Romans had done +to the land of Hispania to become masters of the silver and gold +mines there." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +The Eastern States and the Second Macedonian War + +The Hellenic East + +The work, which Alexander king of Macedonia had begun a century +before the Romans acquired their first footing in the territory which +he had called his own, had in the course of time--while adhering +substantially to the great fundamental idea of Hellenizing the east +--changed and expanded into the construction of a system of Hellene- +Asiatic states. The unconquerable propensity of the Greeks for +migration and colonizing, which had formerly carried their traders +to Massilia and Cyrene, to the Nile and to the Black Sea, now firmly +held what the king had won; and under the protection of the -sarissae-, +Greek civilization peacefully domiciled itself everywhere throughout +the ancient empire of the Achaemenidae. The officers, who divided the +heritage of the great general, gradually settled their differences, +and a system of equilibrium was established, of which the very +Oscillations manifest some sort of regularity. + +The Great States +Macedonia + +Of the three states of the first rank belonging to this system +--Macedonia, Asia, and Egypt--Macedonia under Philip the Fifth, who +had occupied the throne since 534, was externally at least very much +what it had been under Philip the Second the father of Alexander +--a compact military state with its finances in good order. On its +northern frontier matters had resumed their former footing, after the +waves of the Gallic inundation had rolled away; the guard of the +frontier kept the Illyrian barbarians in check without difficulty, +at least in ordinary times. In the south, not only was Greece in +general dependent on Macedonia, but a large portion of it--including +all Thessaly in its widest sense from Olympus to the Spercheius and +the peninsula of Magnesia, the large and important island of Euboea, +the provinces of Locris, Phocis, and Doris, and lastly, a number of +isolated positions in Attica and in the Peloponnesus, such as the +promontory of Sunium, Corinth, Orchomenus, Heraea, the Triphylian +territory--was directly subject to Macedonia and received Macedonian +garrisons; more especially the three important fortresses of Demetrias +in Magnesia, Chalcis in Euboea, and Corinth, "the three fetters of +the Hellenes." But the strength of the state lay above all in its +hereditary soil, the province of Macedonia. The population, indeed, +of that extensive territory was remarkably scanty; Macedonia, putting +forth all her energies, was scarcely able to bring into the field as +many men as were contained in an ordinary consular army of two +legions; and it was unmistakeably evident that the land had not yet +recovered from the depopulation occasioned by the campaigns of +Alexander and by the Gallic invasion. But while in Greece proper +the moral and political energy of the people had decayed, the day of +national vigour seemed to have gone by, life appeared scarce worth +living for, and even of the better spirits one spent time over the +wine-cup, another with the rapier, a third beside the student's lamp; +while in the east and Alexandria the Greeks were able perhaps to +disseminate elements of culture among the dense native population and +to diffuse among that population their language and their loquacity, +their science and pseudo-science, but were barely sufficient in point +of number to supply the nations with officers, statesmen, and +schoolmasters, and were far too few to form even in the cities middle- +class of the pure Greek type; there still existed, or the other hand, +in northern Greece a goodly portion of the old national vigour, which +had produced the warriors of Marathon. Hence arose the confidence +with which the Macedonians, Aetolians, and Acarnanians, wherever they +made their appearance in the east, claimed to be, and were taken as, +a better race; and hence the superior part which they played at the +courts of Alexandria and Antioch. There is a characteristic story, +that an Alexandrian who had lived for a considerable time in Macedonia +and had adopted the manners and the dress of that country, on +returning to his native city, now looked upon himself as a man and +upon the Alexandrians as little better than slaves. This sturdy +vigour and unimpaired national spirit were turned to peculiarly good +account by the Macedonians, as the most powerful and best organized +of the states of northern Greece. There, no doubt, absolutism had +emerged in opposition to the old constitution, which to some extent +recognized different estates; but sovereign and subject by no means +stood towards each other in Macedonia as they stood in Asia and Egypt, +and the people still felt itself independent and free. In steadfast +resistance to the public enemy under whatever name, in unshaken +fidelity towards their native country and their hereditary government, +and in persevering courage amidst the severest trials, no nation in +ancient history bears so close a resemblance to the Roman people as +the Macedonians; and the almost miraculous regeneration of the state +after the Gallic invasion redounds to the imperishable honour of its +leaders and of the people whom they led. + +Asia + +The second of the great states, Asia, was nothing but Persia +superficially remodelled and Hellenized--the empire of "the king +of kings," as its master was wont to call himself in a style +characteristic at once of his arrogance and of his weakness--with the +same pretensions to rule from the Hellespont to the Punjab, and with +the same disjointed organization; an aggregate of dependent states in +various degrees of dependence, of insubordinate satrapies, and of +half-free Greek cities. In Asia Minor more especially, which was +nominally included in the empire of the Seleucidae, the whole north +coast and the greater part of the eastern interior were practically +in the hands of native dynasties or of the Celtic hordes that had +penetrated thither from Europe; a considerable portion of the west was +in the possession of the kings of Pergamus, and the islands and coast +towns were some of them Egyptian, some of them free; so that little +more was left to the great-king than the interior of Cilicia, Phrygia, +and Lydia, and a great number of titular claims, not easily made good, +against free cities and princes--exactly similar in character to the +sovereignty of the German emperor, in his day, beyond his hereditary +dominions. The strength of the empire was expended in vain endeavours +to expel the Egyptians from the provinces along the coast; in frontier +strife with the eastern peoples, the Parthians and Bactrians; in feuds +with the Celts, who to the misfortune of Asia Minor had settled within +its bounds; in constant efforts to check the attempts of the eastern +satraps and of the Greek cities of Asia Minor to achieve their +independence; and in family quarrels and insurrections of pretenders. +None indeed of the states founded by the successors of Alexander were +free from such attempts, or from the other horrors which absolute +monarchy in degenerate times brings in its train; but in the kingdom +of Asia these evils were more injurious than elsewhere, because, from +the lax composition of the empire, they usually led to the severance +of particular portions from it for longer or shorter periods. + +Egypt + +In marked contrast to Asia, Egypt formed a consolidated and united +state, in which the intelligent statecraft of the first Lagidae, +skilfully availing itself of ancient national and religious precedent, +had established a completely absolute cabinet government, and in which +even the worst misrule failed to provoke any attempt either at +emancipation or disruption. Very different from the Macedonians, +whose national attachment to royalty was based upon their personal +dignity and was its political expression, the rural population +in Egypt was wholly passive; the capital on the other hand was +everything, and that capital was a dependency of the court. The +remissness and indolence of its rulers, accordingly, paralyzed the +state in Egypt still more than in Macedonia and in Asia; while on +the other hand when wielded by men, like the first Ptolemy and Ptolemy +Euergetes, such a state machine proved itself extremely useful. It +was one of the peculiar advantages of Egypt as compared with its two +great rivals, that its policy did not grasp at shadows, but pursued +clear and attainable objects. Macedonia, the home of Alexander, and +Asia, the land where he had established his throne, never ceased to +regard themselves as direct continuations of the Alexandrine monarchy +and more or less loudly asserted their claim to represent it at least, +if not to restore it. The Lagidae never tried to found a universal +empire, and never dreamt of conquering India; but, by way of +compensation, they drew the whole traffic between India and the +Mediterranean from the Phoenician ports to Alexandria, and made Egypt +the first commercial and maritime state of this epoch, and the +mistress of the eastern Mediterranean and of its coasts and islands. +It is a significant fact, that Ptolemy III. Euergetes voluntarily +restored all his conquests to Seleucus Callinicus except the seaport +of Antioch. Partly by this means, partly by its favourable +geographical situation, Egypt attained, with reference to the two +continental powers, an excellent military position either for defence +or for attack. While an opponent even in the full career of success +was hardly in a position seriously to threaten Egypt, which was almost +inaccessible on any side to land armies, the Egyptians were able by +sea to establish themselves not only in Cyrene, but also in Cyprus +and the Cyclades, on the Phoenico-Syrian coast, on the whole south +and west coast of Asia Minor and even in Europe on the Thracian +Chersonese. By their unexampled skill in turning to account the +fertile valley of the Nile for the direct benefit of the treasury, +and by a financial system--equally sagacious and unscrupulous +--earnestly and adroitly calculated to foster material interests, +the court of Alexandria was constantly superior to its opponents even +as a moneyed power. Lastly, the intelligent munificence, with which +the Lagidae welcomed the tendency of the age towards earnest inquiry +in all departments of enterprise and of knowledge, and knew how to +confine such inquiries within the bounds, and entwine them with the +interests, of absolute monarchy, was productive of direct advantage to +the state, whose ship-building and machine-making showed traces of the +beneficial influence of Alexandrian mathematics; and not only so, but +also rendered this new intellectual power--the most important and the +greatest, which the Hellenic nation after its political dismemberment +put forth--subservient, so far as it would consent to be serviceable +at all, to the Alexandrian court. Had the empire of Alexander +continued to stand, Greek science and art would have found a state +worthy and capable of containing them. Now, when the nation had +fallen to pieces, a learned cosmopolitanism grew up in it luxuriantly, +and was very soon attracted by the magnet of Alexandria, where +scientific appliances and collections were inexhaustible, where kings +composed tragedies and ministers wrote commentaries on them, and where +pensions and academies flourished. + +The mutual relations of the three great states are evident from +what has been said. The maritime power, which ruled the coasts and +monopolized the sea, could not but after the first great success +--the political separation of the European from the Asiatic continent +--direct its further efforts towards the weakening of the two great +states on the mainland, and consequently towards the protection of the +several minor states; whereas Macedonia and Asia, while regarding each +other as rivals, recognized above all their common adversary in Egypt, +and combined, or at any rate ought to have combined, against it. + +The Kingdoms of Asia Minor + +Among the states of the second rank, merely an indirect importance, +so far as concerned the contact of the east with the west, attached +in the first instance to that series of states which, stretching from +the southern end of the Caspian Sea to the Hellespont, occupied the +interior and the north coast of Asia Minor: Atropatene (in the modern +Aderbijan, south-west of the Caspian), next to it Armenia, Cappadocia +in the interior of Asia Minor, Pontus on the south-east, and Bithynia +on the south-west, shore of the Black Sea. All of these were +fragments of the great Persian Empire, and were ruled by Oriental, +mostly old Persian, dynasties--the remote mountain-land of Atropatene +in particular was the true asylum of the ancient Persian system, over +which even the expedition of Alexander had swept without leaving a +trace--and all were in the same relation of temporary and superficial +dependence on the Greek dynasty, which had taken or wished to take +the place of the great-kings in Asia. + +The Celts of Asia Minor + +Of greater importance for the general relations was the Celtic +state in the interior of Asia Minor. There, intermediate between +Bithynia, Paphlagonia, Cappadocia, and Phrygia, three Celtic tribes +--the Tolistoagii, the Tectosages, and Trocmi--had settled, without +abandoning either their native language and manners or their +constitution and their trade as freebooters. The twelve tetrarchs, +one of whom was appointed to preside over each of the four cantons in +each of the three tribes, formed, with their council of 300 men, the +supreme authority of the nation, and assembled at the "holy place" + (-Drunemetum-), especially for the pronouncing of capital sentences. +Singular as this cantonal constitution of the Celts appeared to the +Asiatics, equally strange seemed to them the adventurous and marauding +habits of the northern intruders, who on the one hand furnished their +unwarlike neighbours with mercenaries for every war, and on the other +plundered on their own account or levied contributions from the +surrounding districts. These rude but vigorous barbarians were the +general terror of the effeminate surrounding nations, and even of the +great-kings of Asia themselves, who, after several Asiatic armies had +been destroyed by the Celts and king Antiochus I. Soter had even +lost his life in conflict with them (493), agreed at last to pay +them tribute. + +Pergamus + +In consequence of bold and successful opposition to these Gallic +hordes, Attalus, a wealthy citizen of Pergamus, received the royal +title from his native city and bequeathed it to his posterity. This +new court was in miniature what that of Alexandria was on a great +scale. Here too the promotion of material interests and the fostering +of art and literature formed the order of the day, and the government +pursued a cautious and sober cabinet policy, the main objects of +which were the weakening the power of its two dangerous continental +neighbours, and the establishing an independent Greek state in the +west of Asia Minor. A well-filled treasury contributed greatly to the +importance of these rulers of Pergamus. They advanced considerable +sums to the kings of Syria, the repayment of which afterwards formed +part of the Roman conditions of peace. They succeeded even in +acquiring territory in this way; Aegina, for instance, which the +allied Romans and Aetolians had wrested in the last war from Philip's +allies, the Achaeans, was sold by the Aetolians, to whom it fell in +terms of the treaty, to Attalus for 30 talents (7300 pounds). But, +notwithstanding the splendour of the court and the royal title, +the commonwealth of Pergamus always retained something of the urban +character; and in its policy it usually went along with the free +cities. Attalus himself, the Lorenzo de' Medici of antiquity, +remained throughout life a wealthy burgher; and the family life +of the Attalid house, from which harmony and cordiality were not +banished by the royal title, formed a striking contrast to the +dissolute and scandalous behaviour of more aristocratic dynasties. + +Greece +Epirots, Acarnanians, Boeotians + +In European Greece--exclusive of the Roman possessions on the west +coast, in the most important of which, particularly Corcyra, Roman +magistrates appear to have resided,(1) and the territory directly +subject to Macedonia--the powers more or less in a position to pursue +a policy of their own were the Epirots, Acarnanians, and Aetolians +in northern Greece, the Boeotians and Athenians in central Greece, +and the Achaeans, Lacedaemonians, Messenians, and Eleans in the +Peloponnesus. Among these, the republics of the Epirots, Acarnanians, +and Boeotians were in various ways closely knit to Macedonia--the +Acarnanians more especially, because it was only Macedonian protection +that enabled them to escape the destruction with which they were +threatened by the Aetolians; none of them were of any consequence. +Their internal condition was very various. The state of things may +to some extent be illustrated by the fact, that among the Boeotians +--where, it is true, matters reached their worst--it had become +customary to make over every property, which did not descend to heirs +in the direct line, to the -syssitia-; and, in the case of candidates +for the public magistracies, for a quarter of a century the primary +condition of election was that they should bind themselves not to +allow any creditor, least of all a foreign one, to sue his debtor. + +The Athenians + +The Athenians were in the habit of receiving support against Macedonia +from Alexandria, and were in close league with the Aetolians. But +they too were totally powerless, and hardly anything save the halo +of Attic poetry and art distinguished these unworthy successors of +a glorious past from a number of petty towns of the same stamp. + +The Aetolians + +The power of the Aetolian confederacy manifested a greater vigour. +The energy of the northern Greek character was still unbroken there, +although it had degenerated into a reckless impatience of discipline +and control. It was a public law in Aetolia, that an Aetolian might +serve as a mercenary against any state, even against a state in +alliance with his own country; and, when the other Greeks urgently +besought them to redress this scandal, the Aetolian diet declared that +Aetolia might sooner be removed from its place than this principle +from their national code. The Aetolians might have been of great +service to the Greek nation, had they not inflicted still greater +injury on it by this system of organized robbery, by their thorough +hostility to the Achaean confederacy, and by their unhappy antagonism +to the great state of Macedonia. + +The Achaeans + +In the Peloponnesus, the Achaean league had united the best elements +of Greece proper in a confederacy based on civilization, national +spirit, and peaceful preparation for self-defence. But the vigour +and more especially the military efficiency of the league had, +notwithstanding its outward enlargement, been arrested by the selfish +diplomacy of Aratus. The unfortunate variances with Sparta, and the +still more lamentable invocation of Macedonian interference in the +Peloponnesus, had so completely subjected the Achaean league to +Macedonian supremacy, that the chief fortresses of the country +thenceforward received Macedonian garrisons, and the oath of +fidelity to Philip was annually taken there. + +Sparta, Elis, Messene + +The policy of the weaker states in the Peloponnesus, Messene, and +Sparta, was determined by their ancient enmity to the Achaean league +--an enmity specially fostered by disputes regarding their frontiers +--and their tendencies were Aetolian and anti-Macedonian, because +the Achaeans took part with Philip. The only one of these states +possessing any importance was the Spartan military monarchy, which +after the death of Machanidas had passed into the hands of one Nabis. +With ever-increasing hardihood Nabis leaned on the support of +vagabonds and itinerant mercenaries, to whom he assigned not only the +houses and lands, but also the wives and children, of the citizens; +and he assiduously maintained connections, and even entered into an +association for the joint prosecution of piracy, with the great refuge +of mercenaries and pirates, the island of Crete, where he possessed +some townships. His predatory expeditions by land, and the piratical +vessels which he maintained at the promontory of Malea, were dreaded +far and wide; he was personally hated for his baseness and cruelty; +but his rule was extending, and about the time of the battle of Zama +he had even succeeded in gaining possession of Messene. + +League of the Greek Cities +Rhodes + +Lastly, the most independent position among the intermediate states +was held by the free Greek mercantile cities on the European shore of +the Propontis as well as along the whole coast of Asia Minor, and on +the islands of the Aegean Sea; they formed, at the same time, the +brightest elements in the confused and multifarious picture which was +presented by the Hellenic state-system. Three of them, in particular, +had after Alexander's death again enjoyed their full freedom, and by +the activity of their maritime commerce had attained to respectable +political power and even to considerable territorial possessions; +namely, Byzantium the mistress of the Bosporus, rendered wealthy and +powerful by the transit dues which she levied and by the important +corn trade carried on with the Black Sea; Cyzicus on the Asiatic side +of the Propontis, the daughter and heiress of Miletus, maintaining +the closest relations with the court of Pergamus; and lastly and +above all, Rhodes. The Rhodians, who immediately after the death +of Alexander had expelled the Macedonian garrison had, by their +favourable position for commerce and navigation, secured the carrying +trade of all the eastern Mediterranean; and their well-handled fleet, +as well as the tried courage of the citizens in the famous siege of +450, enabled them in that age of promiscuous and ceaseless hostilities +to become the prudent and energetic representatives and, when occasion +required, champions of a neutral commercial policy. They compelled +the Byzantines, for instance, by force of arms to concede to the +vessels of Rhodes exemption from dues in the Bosporus; and they did +not permit the dynast of Pergamus to close the Black Sea. On the +other hand they kept themselves, as far as possible, aloof from land +warfare, although they had acquired no inconsiderable possessions on +the opposite coast of Caria; where war could not be avoided, they +carried it on by means of mercenaries. With their neighbours on +all sides they were in friendly relations--with Syracuse, Macedonia, +Syria, but more especially with Egypt--and they enjoyed high +consideration at these courts, so that their mediation was not +unfrequently invoked in the wars of the great states. But they +interested themselves quite specially on behalf of the Greek maritime +cities, which were so numerously spread along the coasts of the +kingdoms of Pontus, Bithynia, and Pergamus, as well as on the coasts +and islands of Asia Minor that had been wrested by Egypt from the +Seleucidae; such as Sinope, Heraclea Pontica, Cius, Lampsacus, Abydos, +Mitylene, Chios, Smyrna, Samos, Halicarnassus and various others. All +these were in substance free and had nothing to do with the lords of +the soil except to ask for the confirmation of their privileges and, +at most, to pay a moderate tribute: such encroachments, as from time +to time were threatened by the dynasts, were skilfully warded off +sometimes by cringing, sometimes by strong measures. In this case the +Rhodians were their chief auxiliaries; they emphatically supported +Sinope, for instance, against Mithradates of Pontus. How firmly +amidst the quarrels, and by means of the very differences, of the +monarchs the liberties of these cities of Asia Minor were established, +is shown by the fact, that the dispute between Antiochus and the +Romans some years after this time related not to the freedom of these +cities in itself, but to the question whether they were to ask +confirmation of their charters from the king or not. This league of +the cities was, in this peculiar attitude towards the lords of the +soil as well as in other respects, a formal Hanseatic association, +headed by Rhodes, which negotiated and stipulated in treaties for +itself and its allies. This league upheld the freedom of the cities +against monarchical interests; and while wars raged around their +walls, public spirit and civic prosperity were sheltered in +comparative peace within, and art and science flourished without +the risk of being crushed by a dissolute soldiery or corrupted +by the atmosphere of a court. + +Philip, King of Macedonia + +Such was the state of things in the east, at the time when the wall of +political separation between the east and the west was broken down and +the eastern powers, Philip of Macedonia leading the way, were induced +to interfere in the relations of the west. We have already set forth +to some extent the origin of this interference and the course of the +first Macedonian war (540-549); and we have pointed out what Philip +might have accomplished during the second Punic war, and how little +of all that Hannibal was entitled to expect and to count on was really +fulfilled. A fresh illustration had been afforded of the truth, that +of all haphazards none is more hazardous than an absolute hereditary +monarchy. Philip was not the man whom Macedonia at that time +required; yet his gifts were far from insignificant He was a genuine +king, in the best and worst sense of the term. A strong desire to +rule in person and unaided was the fundamental trait of his character; +he was proud of his purple, but he was no less proud of other gifts, +and he had reason to be so. He not only showed the valour of a +soldier and the eye of a general, but he displayed a high spirit in +the conduct of public affairs, whenever his Macedonian sense of honour +was offended. Full of intelligence and wit, he won the hearts of all +whom he wished to gain, especially of the men who were ablest and most +refined, such as Flamininus and Scipio; he was a pleasant boon +companion and, not by virtue of his rank alone, a dangerous wooer. +But he was at the same time one of the most arrogant and flagitious +characters, which that shameless age produced. He was in the habit of +saying that he feared none save the gods; but it seemed almost as if +his gods were those to whom his admiral Dicaearchus regularly offered +sacrifice--Godlessness (-Asebeia-) and Lawlessness (-Paranomia-). The +lives of his advisers and of the promoters of his schemes possessed no +sacredness in his eyes, nor did he disdain to pacify his indignation +against the Athenians and Attalus by the destruction of venerable +monuments and illustrious works of art; it is quoted as one of his +maxims of state, that "whoever causes the father to be put to death +must also kill the sons." It may be that to him cruelty was not, +strictly, a delight; but he was indifferent to the lives and +sufferings of others, and relenting, which alone renders men +tolerable, found no place in his hard and stubborn heart. So abruptly +and harshly did he proclaim the principle that no promise and no moral +law are binding on an absolute king, that he thereby interposed the +most serious obstacles to the success of his plans. No one can deny +that he possessed sagacity and resolution, but these were, in a +singular manner, combined with procrastination and supineness; which +is perhaps partly to be explained by the fact, that he was called in +his eighteenth year to the position of an absolute sovereign, and that +his ungovernable fury against every one who disturbed his autocratic +course by counter-argument or counter-advice scared away from him all +independent counsellors. What various causes cooperated to produce +the weak and disgraceful management which he showed in the first +Macedonian war, we cannot tell; it may have been due perhaps to that +indolent arrogance which only puts forth its full energies against +danger when it becomes imminent, or perhaps to his indifference +towards a plan which was not of his own devising and his jealousy of +the greatness of Hannibal which put him to shame. It is certain that +his subsequent conduct betrayed no further trace of the Philip, +through whose negligence the plan of Hannibal suffered shipwreck. + +Macedonia and Asia Attack Egypt + +When Philip concluded his treaty with the Aetolians and Romans in +548-9, he seriously intended to make a lasting peace with Rome, and +to devote himself exclusively in future to the affairs of the east. +It admits of no doubt that he saw with regret the rapid subjugation of +Carthage; and it may be, that Hannibal hoped for a second declaration +of war from Macedonia, and that Philip secretly reinforced the last +Carthaginian army with mercenaries.(2) But the tedious affairs in +which he had meanwhile involved himself in the east, as well as the +nature of the alleged support, and especially the total silence of the +Romans as to such a breach of the peace while they were searching for +grounds of war, place it beyond doubt, that Philip was by no means +disposed in 551 to make up for what he ought to have done ten years +before. He had turned his eyes to an entirely different quarter. + +Ptolemy Philopator of Egypt had died in 549. Philip and Antiochus, +the kings of Macedonia and Asia, had combined against his successor +Ptolemy Epiphanes, a child of five years old, in order completely +to gratify the ancient grudge which the monarchies of the mainland +entertained towards the maritime state. The Egyptian state was to be +broken up; Egypt and Cyprus were to fall to Antiochus Cyrene, Ionia, +and the Cyclades to Philip. Thoroughly after the manner of Philip, +who ridiculed such considerations, the kings began the war not merely +without cause but even without pretext, "just as the large fishes +devour the small." The allies, moreover, had made their calculations +correctly, especially Philip. Egypt had enough to do in defending +herself against the nearer enemy in Syria, and was obliged to leave +her possessions in Asia Minor and the Cyclades undefended when Philip +threw himself upon these as his share of the spoil. In the year in +which Carthage concluded peace with Rome (553), Philip ordered a fleet +equipped by the towns subject to him to take on board troops, and to +sail along the coast of Thrace. There Lysimachia was taken from the +Aetolian garrison, and Perinthus, which stood in the relation of +clientship to Byzantium, was likewise occupied. Thus the peace was +broken as respected the Byzantines; and as respected the Aetolians, +who had just made peace with Philip, the good understanding was +at least disturbed. The crossing to Asia was attended with no +difficulties, for Prusias king of Bithynia was in alliance with +Macedonia. By way of recompense, Philip helped him to subdue the +Greek mercantile cities in his territory. Chalcedon submitted. +Cius, which resisted, was taken by storm and levelled with the ground, +and its inhabitants were reduced to slavery--a meaningless barbarity, +which annoyed Prusias himself who wished to get possession of the town +uninjured, and which excited profound indignation throughout the +Hellenic world. The Aetolians, whose -strategus- had commanded +in Cius, and the Rhodians, whose attempts at mediation had been +contemptuously and craftily frustrated by the king, were +especially offended. + +The Rhodian Hansa and Pergamus Oppose Philip + +But even had this not been so, the interests of all Greek commercial +cities were at stake. They could not possibly allow the mild and +almost purely nominal Egyptian rule to be supplanted by the Macedonian +despotism, with which urban self-government and freedom of commercial +intercourse were not at all compatible; and the fearful treatment +of the Cians showed that the matter at stake was not the right of +confirming the charters of the towns, but the life or death of one and +all. Lampsacus had already fallen, and Thasos had been treated like +Cius; no time was to be lost. Theophiliscus, the vigilant -strategus- +of Rhodes, exhorted his citizens to meet the common danger by common +resistance, and not to suffer the towns and islands to become one by +one a prey to the enemy. Rhodes resolved on its course, and declared +war against Philip. Byzantium joined it; as did also the aged Attalus +king of Pergamus, personally and politically the enemy of Philip. +While the fleet of the allies was mustering on the Aeolian coast, +Philip directed a portion of his fleet to take Chios and Samos. With +the other portion he appeared in person before Pergamus, which however +he invested in vain; he had to content himself with traversing the +level country and leaving the traces of Macedonian valour on the +temples which he destroyed far and wide. Suddenly he departed and +re-embarked, to unite with his squadron which was at Samos. But the +Rhodo-Pergamene fleet followed him, and forced him to accept battle in +the straits of Chios. The number of the Macedonian decked vessels + was smaller, but the multitude of their open boats made up for this +inequality, and the soldiers of Philip fought with great courage. +But he was at length defeated. Almost half of his decked vessels, +24 sail, were sunk or taken; 6000 Macedonian sailors and 3000 soldiers +perished, amongst whom was the admiral Democrates; 2000 were taken +prisoners. The victory cost the allies no more than 800 men and six +vessels. But, of the leaders of the allies, Attalus had been cut off +from his fleet and compelled to let his own vessel run aground at +Erythrae; and Theophiliscus of Rhodes, whose public spirit had decided +the question of war and whose valour had decided the battle, died on +the day after it of his wounds. Thus while the fleet of Attalus went +home and the Rhodian fleet remained temporarily at Chios, Philip, who +falsely ascribed the victory to himself, was able to continue his +voyage and to turn towards Samos, in order to occupy the Carian towns. +On the Carian coast the Rhodians, not on this occasion supported by +Attalus, gave battle for the second time to the Macedonian fleet under +Heraclides, near the little island of Lade in front of the port of +Miletus. The victory, claimed again by both sides, appears to have +been this time gained by the Macedonians; for while the Rhodians +retreated to Myndus and thence to Cos, the Macedonians occupied +Miletus, and a squadron under Dicaearchus the Aetolian occupied the +Cyclades. Philip meanwhile prosecuted the conquest of the Rhodian +possessions on the Carian mainland, and of the Greek cities: had he +been disposed to attack Ptolemy in person, and had he not preferred to +confine himself to the acquisition of his own share in the spoil, he +would now have been able to think even of an expedition to Egypt. In +Caria no army confronted the Macedonians, and Philip traversed without +hindrance the country from Magnesia to Mylasa; but every town in that +country was a fortress, and the siege-warfare was protracted without +yielding or promising any considerable results. Zeuxis the satrap of +Lydia supported the ally of his master with the same lukewarmness as +Philip had manifested in promoting the interests of the Syrian king, +and the Greek cities gave their support only under the pressure +of fear or force. The provisioning of the army became daily more +difficult; Philip was obliged today to plunder those who but yesterday +had voluntarily supplied his wants, and then he had reluctantly to +submit to beg afresh. Thus the good season of the year gradually drew +to an end, and in the interval the Rhodians had reinforced their fleet +and had also been rejoined by that of Attalus, so that they were +decidedly superior at sea. It seemed almost as if they might cut off +the retreat of the king and compel him to take up winter quarters in +Caria, while the state of affairs at home, particularly the threatened +intervention of the Aetolians and Romans, urgently demanded his +return. Philip saw the danger; he left garrisons amounting together +to 3000 men, partly in Myrina to keep Pergamus in check, partly in +the petty towns round Mylasa--Iassus, Bargylia, Euromus and Pedasa +--to secure for him the excellent harbour and a landing place in +Caria; and, owing to the negligence with which the allies guarded the +sea, he succeeded in safely reaching the Thracian coast with his fleet +and arriving at home before the winter of 553-4. + +Diplomatic Intervention of Rome + +In fact a storm was gathering against Philip in the west, which +did not permit him to continue the plundering of defenceless Egypt. +The Romans, who had at length in this year concluded peace on their +own terms with Carthage, began to give serious attention to these +complications in the east. It has often been affirmed, that after +the conquest of the west they forthwith proceeded to the subjugation +of the east; a serious consideration will lead to a juster judgment. +It is only dull prejudice which fails to see that Rome at this period +by no means grasped at the sovereignty of the Mediterranean states, +but, on the contrary, desired nothing further than to have neighbours +that should not be dangerous in Africa and in Greece; and Macedonia +was not really dangerous to Rome. Its power certainly was far from +small, and it is evident that the Roman senate only consented with +reluctance to the peace of 548-9, which left it in all its integrity; +but how little any serious apprehensions of Macedonia were or could be +entertained in Rome, is best shown by the small number of troops--who +yet were never compelled to fight against a superior force--with which +Rome carried on the next war. The senate doubtless would have gladly +seen Macedonia humbled; but that humiliation would be too dearly +purchased at the cost of a land war carried on in Macedonia with Roman +troops; and accordingly, after the withdrawal of the Aetolians, the +senate voluntarily concluded peace at once on the basis of the -status +quo-. It is therefore far from made out, that the Roman government +concluded this peace with the definite design of beginning the war at +a more convenient season; and it is very certain that, at the moment, +from the thorough exhaustion of the state and the extreme +unwillingness of the citizens to enter into a second transmarine +struggle, the Macedonian war was in a high degree unwelcome to the +Romans. But now it was inevitable. They might have acquiesced in +the Macedonian state as a neighbour, such as it stood in 549; but it +was impossible that they could permit it to acquire the best part of +Asiatic Greece and the important Cyrene, to crush the neutral +commercial states, and thereby to double its power. Further, the fall +of Egypt and the humiliation, perhaps the subjugation, of Rhodes would +have inflicted deep wounds on the trade of Sicily and Italy; and could +Rome remain a quiet spectator, while Italian commerce with the east +was made dependent on the two great continental powers? Rome had, +moreover, an obligation of honour to fulfil towards Attalus her +faithful ally since the first Macedonian war, and had to prevent +Philip, who had already besieged him in his capital, from expelling +him from his dominions. Lastly, the claim of Rome to extend her +protecting arm over all the Hellenes was by no means an empty phrase: +the citizens of Neapolis, Rhegium, Massilia, and Emporiae could +testify that that protection was meant in earnest, and there is no +question at all that at this time the Romans stood in a closer +relation to the Greeks than any other nation--one little more remote +than that of the Hellenized Macedonians. It is strange that any +should dispute the right of the Romans to feel their human, as well as +their Hellenic, sympathies revolted at the outrageous treatment of the +Cians and Thasians. + +Preparations and Pretexts for Second Macedonian War + +Thus in reality all political, commercial, and moral motives concurred +in inducing Rome to undertake the second war against Philip--one of +the most righteous, which the city ever waged. It greatly redounds +to the honour of the senate, that it immediately resolved on its +course and did not allow itself to be deterred from making the +necessary preparations either by the exhaustion of the state or by +the unpopularity of such a declaration of war. The propraetor Marcus +Valerius Laevinus made his appearance as early as 553 with the +Sicilian fleet of 38 sail in the eastern waters. The government, +however, were at a loss to discover an ostensible pretext for the war; +a pretext which they needed in order to satisfy the people, even +although they had not been far too sagacious to undervalue, as was the +manner of Philip, the importance of assigning a legitimate ground for +hostilities. The support, which Philip was alleged to have granted to +the Carthaginians after the peace with Rome, manifestly could not be +proved. The Roman subjects, indeed, in the province of Illyria had +for a considerable time complained of the Macedonian encroachments. +In 551 a Roman envoy at the head of the Illyrian levy had driven +Philip's troops from the Illyrian territory; and the senate had +accordingly declared to the king's envoys in 552, that if he sought +war, he would find it sooner than was agreeable to him. But these +encroachments were simply the ordinary outrages which Philip practised +towards his neighbours; a negotiation regarding them at the present +moment would have led to his humbling himself and offering +satisfaction, but not to war. With all the belligerent powers in the +east the Roman community was nominally in friendly relations, and +might have granted them aid in repelling Philip's attack. But Rhodes +and Pergamus, which naturally did not fail to request Roman aid, were +formally the aggressors; and although Alexandrian ambassadors besought +the Roman senate to undertake the guardianship of the boy king, +Egypt appears to have been by no means eager to invoke the direct +intervention of the Romans, which would put an end to her difficulties +for the moment, but would at the same time open up the eastern sea to +the great western power. Aid to Egypt, moreover, must have been in +the first instance rendered in Syria, and would have entangled Rome +simultaneously in a war with Asia and with Macedonia; which the +Romans were naturally the more desirous to avoid, as they were firmly +resolved not to intermeddle at least in Asiatic affairs. No course +was left but to despatch in the meantime an embassy to the east for +the purpose, first, of obtaining--what was not in the circumstances +difficult--the sanction of Egypt to the interference of the Romans in +the affairs of Greece; secondly, of pacifying king Antiochus by +abandoning Syria to him; and, lastly, of accelerating as much as +possible a breach with Philip and promoting a coalition of the minor +Graeco-Asiatic states against him (end of 553). At Alexandria they +had no difficulty in accomplishing their object; the court had no +choice, and was obliged gratefully to receive Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, +whom the senate had despatched as "guardian of the king" to uphold +his interests, so far as that could be done without an actual +intervention. Antiochus did not break off his alliance with Philip, +nor did he give to the Romans the definite explanations which they +desired; in other respects, however--whether from remissness, or +influenced by the declarations of the Romans that they did not wish to +interfere in Syria--he pursued his schemes in that direction and left +things in Greece and Asia Minor to take their course. + +Progress of the War + +Meanwhile, the spring of 554 had arrived, and the war had recommenced. +Philip first threw himself once more upon Thrace, where he occupied +all the places on the coast, in particular Maronea, Aenus, Elaeus, +and Sestus; he wished to have his European possessions secured against +the risk of a Roman landing. He then attacked Abydus on the Asiatic +coast, the acquisition of which could not but be an object of +importance to him, for the possession of Sestus and Abydus would bring +him into closer connection with his ally Antiochus, and he would no +longer need to be apprehensive lest the fleet of the allies might +intercept him in crossing to or from Asia Minor. That fleet commanded +the Aegean Sea after the withdrawal of the weaker Macedonian squadron: +Philip confined his operations by sea to maintaining garrisons on +three of the Cyclades, Andros, Cythnos, and Paros, and fitting out +privateers. The Rhodians proceeded to Chios, and thence to Tenedos, +where Attalus, who had passed the winter at Aegina and had spent his +time in listening to the declamations of the Athenians, joined them +with his squadron. The allies might probably have arrived in time +to help the Abydenes, who heroically defended themselves; but they +stirred not, and so at length the city surrendered, after almost all +who were capable of bearing arms had fallen in the struggle before the +walls. After the capitulation a large portion of the inhabitants fell +by their own hand--the mercy of the victor consisted in allowing the +Abydenes a term of three days to die voluntarily. Here, in the camp +before Abydus. the Roman embassy, which after the termination of its +business in Syria and Egypt had visited and dealt with the minor Greek +states, met with the king, and submitted the proposals which it had +been charged to make by the senate, viz. that the king should wage no +aggressive war against any Greek state, should restore the possessions +which he had wrested from Ptolemy, and should consent to an +arbitration regarding the injury inflicted on the Pergamenes and +Rhodians. The object of the senate, which sought to provoke the king +to a formal declaration of war, was not gained; the Roman ambassador, +Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, obtained from the king nothing but the polite +reply that he would excuse what the envoy had said because he was +young, handsome, and a Roman. + +Meanwhile, however, the occasion for declaring war, which Rome +desired, had been furnished from another quarter. The Athenians +in their silly and cruel vanity had put to death two unfortunate +Acarnanians, because these had accidentally strayed into their +mysteries. When the Acarnanians, who were naturally indignant, asked +Philip to procure them satisfaction, he could not refuse the just +request of his most faithful allies, and he allowed them to levy men +in Macedonia and, with these and their own troops, to invade Attica +without a formal declaration of war. This, it is true, was no war +in the proper sense of the term; and, besides, the leader of the +Macedonian band, Nicanor, immediately gave orders to his troops to +retreat, when the Roman envoys, who were at Athens at the time, used +threatening language (in the end of 553). But it was too late. An +Athenian embassy was sent to Rome to report the attack made by Philip +on an ancient ally of the Romans; and, from the way in which the +senate received it, Philip saw clearly what awaited him; so that he +at once, in the very spring of 554, directed Philocles, his general +in Greece, to lay waste the Attic territory and to reduce the city +to extremities. + +Declaration of War by Rome + +The senate now had what they wanted; and in the summer of 554 they +were able to propose to the comitia a declaration of war "on account +of an attack on a state in alliance with Rome." It was rejected on the +first occasion almost unanimously: foolish or evil-disposed tribunes +of the people complained of the senate, which would allow the citizens +no rest; but the war was necessary and, in strictness, was already +begun, so that the senate could not possibly recede. The burgesses +were induced to yield by representations and concessions. It is +remarkable that these concessions were made mainly at the expense of +the allies. The garrisons of Gaul, Lower Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia, +amounting in all to 20,000 men, were exclusively taken from the allied +contingents that were in active service--quite contrary to the former +principles of the Romans. All the burgess troops, on the other hand, +that had continued under arms from the Hannibalic war, were +discharged; volunteers alone, it was alleged, were to be enrolled for +the Macedonian war, but they were, as was afterwards found, for the +most part forced volunteers--a fact which in the autumn of 555 +called forth a dangerous military revolt in the camp of Apollonia. +Six legions were formed of the men newly called out; of these two +remained in Rome and two in Etruria, and only two embarked at +Brundisium for Macedonia, led by the consul Publius Sulpicius Galba. + +Thus it was once more clearly demonstrated, that the sovereign burgess +assemblies, with their shortsighted resolutions dependent often on +mere accident, were no longer at all fitted to deal with the +complicated and difficult relations into which Rome was drawn by her +victories; and that their mischievous intervention in the working of +the state machine led to dangerous modifications of the measures which +in a military point of were necessary, and to the still more dangerous +course of treating the Latin allies as inferiors. + +The Roman League + +The position of Philip was very disadvantageous. The eastern states, +which ought to have acted in unison against all interference of Rome +and probably under other circumstances would have so acted, had been +mainly by Philip's fault so incensed at each other, that they were +not inclined to hinder, or were inclined even to promote, the Roman +invasion. Asia, the natural and most important ally of Philip, had +been neglected by him, and was moreover prevented at first from active +interference by being entangled in the quarrel with Egypt and the +Syrian war. Egypt had an urgent interest in keeping the Roman fleet +out of the eastern waters; even now an Egyptian embassy intimated at +Rome very plainly, that the court of Alexandria was ready to relieve +the Romans from the trouble of intervention in Attica. But the treaty +for the partition of Egypt concluded between Asia and Macedonia threw +that important state thoroughly into the arms of Rome, and compelled +the cabinet of Alexandria to declare that it would only intermeddle in +the affairs of European Greece with consent of the Romans. The Greek +commercial cities, with Rhodes, Pergamus, and Byzantium at their head, +were in a position similar, but of still greater perplexity. They +would under other circumstances have beyond doubt done what they +could to close the eastern seas against the Romans; but the cruel and +destructive policy of conquest pursued by Philip had driven them to +an unequal struggle, in which for their self-preservation they were +obliged to use every effort to implicate the great Italian power. +In Greece proper also the Roman envoys, who were commissioned to +organize a second league against Philip there, found the way already +substantially paved for them by the enemy. Of the anti-Macedonian +party--the Spartans, Eleans, Athenians, and Aetolians--Philip might +perhaps have gained the latter, for the peace of 548 had made a deep, +and far from healed, breach in their friendly Alliance with Rome; but +apart from the old differences which subsisted between Aetolia and +Macedonia regarding the Thessalian towns withdrawn by Macedonia from +the Aetolian confederacy--Echinus, Larissa Cremaste, Pharsalus, and +Thebes in Phthiotis--the expulsion of the Aetolian garrisons from +Lysimachia and Cius had produced fresh exasperation against Philip +in the minds of the Aetolians. If they delayed to join the league +against him, the chief reason doubtless was the ill-feeling that +continued to prevail between them and the Romans. + +It was a circumstance still more ominous, that even among the Greek +states firmly attached to the interests of Macedonia--the Epirots, +Acarnanians, Boeotians, and Achaeans--the Acarnanians and Boeotians +alone stood steadfastly by Philip. With the Epirots the Roman envoys +negotiated not without success; Amynander, king of the Athamanes, in +particular closely attached himself to Rome. Even among the Achaeans, +Philip had offended many by the murder of Aratus; while on the other +hand he had thereby paved the way for a more free development of the +confederacy. Under the leadership of Philopoemen (502-571, for the +first time -strategus- in 546) it had reorganized its military system, +recovered confidence in itself by successful conflicts with Sparta, +and no longer blindly followed, as in the time of Aratus, the policy +of Macedonia. The Achaean league, which had to expect neither profit +nor immediate injury from the thirst of Philip for aggrandizement, +alone in all Hellas looked at this war from an impartial and national- +Hellenic point of view. It perceived--what there was no difficulty in +perceiving--that the Hellenic nation was thereby surrendering itself +to the Romans even before these wished or desired its surrender, and +attempted accordingly to mediate between Philip and the Rhodians; +but it was too late. The national patriotism, which had formerly +terminated the federal war and had mainly contributed to bring about +the first war between Macedonia and Rome, was extinguished the Achaean +mediation remained fruitless, and in vain Philip visited the cities +and islands to rekindle the zeal of the nation--its apathy was the +Nemesis for Cius and Abydus. The Achaeans, as they could effect +no change and were not disposed to render help to either party, +remained neutral. + +Landing of the Romans in Macedonia + +In the autumn of 554 the consul, Publius Sulpicius Galba, landed +with his two legions and 1000 Numidian cavalry accompanied even by +elephants derived from the spoils of Carthage, at Apollonia; on +receiving accounts of which the king returned in haste from the +Hellespont to Thessaly. But, owing partly to the far-advanced season, +partly to the sickness of the Roman general, nothing was undertaken +by land that year except a reconnaissance in force, in the course of +which the townships in the vicinity, and in particular the Macedonian +colony Antipatria, were occupied by the Romans. For the next year a +joint attack on Macedonia was concerted with the northern barbarians, +especially with Pleuratus, the then ruler of Scodra, and Bato, prince +of the Dardani, who of course were eager to profit by the favourable +opportunity. + +More importance attached to the enterprises of the Roman fleet, which +numbered 100 decked and 80 light vessels. While the rest of the ships +took their station for the winter at Corcyra, a division under Gaius +Claudius Cento proceeded to the Piraeeus to render assistance to the +hard-pressed Athenians. But, as Cento found the Attic territory +already sufficiently protected against the raids of the Corinthian +garrison and the Macedonian corsairs, he sailed on and appeared +suddenly before Chalcis in Euboea, the chief stronghold of Philip in +Greece, where his magazines, stores of arms, and prisoners were kept, +and where the commandant Sopater was far from expecting a Roman +attack. The undefended walls were scaled, and the garrison was put +to death; the prisoners were liberated and the stores were burnt; +unfortunately, there was a want of troops to hold the important +position. On receiving news of this invasion, Philip immediately in +vehement indignation started from Demetrias in Thessaly for Chalcis, +and when he found no trace of the enemy there save the scene of ruin, +he went on to Athens to retaliate. But his attempt to surprise the +city was a failure, and even the assault was in vain, greatly as +the king exposed his life; the approach of Gaius Claudius from the +Piraeeus, and of Attalus from Aegina, compelled him to depart. +Philip still tarried for some time in Greece; but in a political and +in a military point of view his successes were equally insignificant. +In vain he tried to induce the Achaeans to take up arms in his behalf; +and equally fruitless were his attacks on Eleusis and the Piraeeus, +as well as a second attempt on Athens itself. Nothing remained for +him but to gratify his natural exasperation in an unworthy manner +by laying waste the country and destroying the trees of Academus, +and then to return to the north. + +Attempt of the Romans to Invade Macedonia + +Thus the winter passed away. With the spring of 555 the proconsul +Publius Sulpicius broke up from his winter camp, determined to conduct +his legions from Apollonia by the shortest route into Macedonia +proper. This principal attack from the west was to be supported by +three subordinate attacks; on the north by an invasion of the Dardani +and Illyrians; on the east by an attack on the part of the combined +fleet of the Romans and allies, which assembled at Aegina; while +lastly the Athamanes, and the Aetolians also, if the attempt to induce +them to share in the struggle should prove successful, were to advance +from the south. After Galba had crossed the mountains pierced by the +Apsus (now the Beratind), and had marched through the fertile plain of +Dassaretia, he reached the mountain range which separates Illyria from +Macedonia, and crossing it, entered the proper Macedonian territory. +Philip had marched to meet him; but in the extensive and thinly- +peopled regions of Macedonia the antagonists for a time sought each +other in vain; at length they met in the province of Lyncestis, a +fertile but marshy plain not far from the north-western frontier, +and encamped not 1000 paces apart. Philip's army, after he had been +joined by the corps detached to occupy the northern passes, numbered +about 20,000 infantry and 2000 cavalry; the Roman army was nearly +as strong. The Macedonians however had the great advantage, that, +fighting in their native land and well acquainted with its highways +and byways, they had little trouble in procuring supplies of +provisions, while they had encamped so close to the Romans that +the latter could not venture to disperse for any extensive foraging. +The consul repeatedly offered battle, but the king persisted in +declining it; and the combats between the light troops, although +the Romans gained some advantages in them, produced no material +alteration. Galba was obliged to break up his camp and to pitch +another eight miles off at Octolophus, where he conceived that he +could more easily procure supplies. But here too the divisions sent +out were destroyed by the light troops and cavalry of the Macedonians; +the legions were obliged to come to their help, whereupon the +Macedonian vanguard, which had advanced too far, were driven back to +their camp with heavy loss; the king himself lost his horse in the +action, and only saved his life through the magnanimous self-devotion +of one of his troopers. From this perilous position the Romans were +liberated through the better success of the subordinate attacks which +Galba had directed the allies to make, or rather through the weakness +of the Macedonian forces. Although Philip had instituted levies +as large as possible in his own dominions, and had enlisted Roman +deserters and other mercenaries, he had not been able to bring into +the field (over and above the garrisons in Asia Minor and Thrace) +more than the army, with which in person he confronted the consul; +and besides, in order to form even this, he had been obliged to leave +the northern passes in the Pelagonian territory undefended. For the +protection of the east coast he relied partly on the orders which +he had given for the laying waste of the islands of Sciathus and +Peparethus, which might have furnished a station to the enemy's fleet, +partly on the garrisoning of Thasos and the coast and on the fleet +organized at Demetrias under Heraclides. For the south frontier +be had been obliged to reckon solely upon the more than doubtful +neutrality of the Aetolians. These now suddenly joined the league +against Macedonia, and immediately in conjunction with the Athamanes +penetrated into Thessaly, while simultaneously the Dardani and +Illyrians overran the northern provinces, and the Roman fleet +under Lucius Apustius, departing from Corcyra, appeared in the +eastern waters, where the ships of Attalus, the Rhodians, and +the Istrians joined it. + +Philip, on learning this, voluntarily abandoned his position and +retreated in an easterly direction: whether he did so in order to +repel the probably unexpected invasion of the Aetolians, or to draw +the Roman army after him with a view to its destruction, or to take +either of these courses according to circumstances, cannot well be +determined. He managed his retreat so dexterously that Galba, who +adopted the rash resolution of following him, lost his track, and +Philip was enabled to reach by a flank movement, and to occupy, the +narrow pass which separates the provinces of Lyncestis and Eordaea, +with the view of awaiting the Romans and giving them a warm reception +there. A battle took place on the spot which he had selected; but the +long Macedonian spears proved unserviceable on the wooded and uneven +ground. The Macedonians were partly turned, partly broken, and lost +many men. + +Return of the Romans + +But, although Philip's army was after this unfortunate action no +longer able to prevent the advance of the Romans, the latter were +themselves afraid to encounter further unknown dangers in an +impassable and hostile country; and returned to Apollonia, after they +had laid waste the fertile provinces of Upper Macedonia--Eordaea, +Elymaea, and Orestis. Celetrum, the most considerable town of Orestis +(now Kastoria, on a peninsula in the lake of the same name), had +surrendered to them: it was the only Macedonian town that opened its +gates to the Romans. In the Illyrian land Pelium, the city of the +Dassaretae, on the upper confluents of the Apsus, was taken by +storm and strongly garrisoned to serve as a future basis for a +similar expedition. + +Philip did not disturb the Roman main army in its retreat, but turned +by forced marches against the Aetolians and Athamanians who, in the +belief that the legions were occupying the attention of the king, were +fearlessly and recklessly plundering the rich vale of the Peneius, +defeated them completely, and compelled such as did not fall to make +their escape singly through the well-known mountain paths. The +effective strength of the confederacy was not a little diminished by +this defeat, and not less by the numerous enlistments made in Aetolia +on Egyptian account. The Dardani were chased back over the mountains +by Athena-goras, the leader of Philip's light troops, without +difficulty and with severe loss. The Roman fleet also did not +accomplish much; it expelled the Macedonian garrison from Andros, +punished Euboea and Sciathus, and then made attempts on the Chalcidian +peninsula, which were, however, vigorously repulsed by the Macedonian +garrison at Mende. The rest of the summer was spent in the capture +of Oreus in Euboea, which was long delayed by the resolute defence of +the Macedonian garrison. The weak Macedonian fleet under Heraclides +remained inactive at Heraclea, and did not venture to dispute the +possession of the sea with the enemy. The latter went early to +winter quarters, the Romans proceeding to the Piraeeus and Corcyra, +the Rhodians and Pergamenes going home. + +Philip might on the whole congratulate himself upon the results of +this campaign. The Roman troops, after an extremely troublesome +campaign, stood in autumn precisely on the spot whence they had +started in spring; and, but for the well-timed interposition of the +Aetolians and the unexpected success of the battle at the pass of +Eordaea, perhaps not a man of their entire force would have again seen +the Roman territory. The fourfold offensive had everywhere failed in +its object, and not only did Philip in autumn see his whole dominions +cleared of the enemy, but he was able to make an attempt--which, +however, miscarried--to wrest from the Aetolians the strong town of +Thaumaci, situated on the Aetolo-Thessalian frontier and commanding +the plain of the Peneius. If Antiochus, for whose coming Philip +vainly supplicated the gods, should unite with him in the next +campaign, he might anticipate great successes. For a moment it +seemed as if Antiochus was disposed to do so; his army appeared in +Asia Minor, and occupied some townships of king Attalus, who requested +military protection from the Romans. The latter, however, were not +anxious to urge the great-king at this time to a breach: they sent +envoys, who in fact obtained an evacuation of the dominions of +Attalus. From that quarter Philip had nothing to hope for. + +Philip Encamps on the Aous +Flaminius +Philip Driven Back to Tempe +Greece in the Power of the Romans + +But the fortunate issue of the last campaign had so raised the courage +or the arrogance of Philip, that, after having assured himself afresh +of the neutrality of the Achaeans and the fidelity of the Macedonians +by the sacri fice of some strong places and of the detested admiral +Heraclides, he next spring (556) assumed the offensive and advanced +into the territory of the Atintanes, with a view to form a well- +entrenched camp in the narrow pass, where the Aous (Viosa) winds +its way between the mountains Aeropus and Asnaus. Opposite to him +encamped the Roman army reinforced by new arrivals of troops, and +commanded first by the consul of the previous year, Publius Villius, +and then from the summer of 556 by that year's consul, Titus Quinctius +Flamininus. Flamininus, a talented man just thirty years of age, +belonged to the younger generation who began to lay aside the +patriotism as well as the habits of their forefathers and, though not +unmindful of their fatherland, were still more mindful of themselves +and of Hellenism. A skilful officer and a better diplomatist, he was +in many respects admirably adapted for the management of the troubled +affairs of Greece. Yet it would perhaps have been better both for +Rome and for Greece, if the choice had fallen on one less full of +Hellenic sympathies, and if the general despatched thither had been +a man, who would neither have been bribed by delicate flattery nor +stung by pungent sarcasm; who would not amidst literary and +artistic reminiscences have overlooked the pitiful condition of the +constitutions of the Hellenic states; and who, while treating Hellas +according to its deserts, would have spared the Romans the trouble of +striving after unattainable ideals. + +The new commander-in-chief immediately had a conference with the king, +while the two armies lay face to face inactive. Philip made proposals +of peace; he offered to restore all his own conquests, and to submit +to an equitable arbitration regarding the damage inflicted on the +Greek cities; but the negotiations broke down, when he was asked to +give up ancient possessions of Macedonia and particularly Thessaly. +For forty days the two armies lay in the narrow pass of the Aous; +Philip would not retire, and Flamininus could not make up his mind +whether he should order an assault, or leave the king alone and +reattempt the expedition of the previous year. At length the Roman +general was helped out of his perplexity by the treachery of some +men of rank among the Epirots--who were otherwise well disposed to +Macedonia--and especially of Charops. They conducted a Roman corps of +4000 infantry and 300 cavalry by mountain paths to the heights above +the Macedonian camp; and, when the consul attacked the enemy's army +in front, the advance of that Roman division, unexpectedly descending +from the mountains commanding the position, decided the battle. +Philip lost his camp and entrenchments and nearly 2000 men, and +hastily retreated to the pass of Tempe, the gate of Macedonia proper. +He gave up everything which he had held except the fortresses; the +Thessalian towns, which he could not defend, he himself destroyed; +Pherae alone closed its gates against him and thereby escaped +destruction. The Epirots, induced partly by these successes of the +Roman arms, partly by the judicious moderation of Flamininus, were the +first to secede from the Macedonian alliance. On the first accounts +of the Roman victory the Athamanes and Aetolians immediately invaded +Thessaly, and the Romans soon followed; the open country was easily +overrun, but the strong towns, which were friendly to Macedonia and +received support from Philip, fell only after a brave resistance or +withstood even the superior foe--especially Atrax on the left bank +of the Peneius, where the phalanx stood in the breach as a substitute +for the wall. Except these Thessalian fortresses and the territory +of the faithful Acarnanians, all northern Greece was thus in the hands +of the coalition. + +The Achaeans Enter into Alliance with Rome + +The south, on the other hand, was still in the main retained under +the power of Macedonia by the fortresses of Chalcis and Corinth, which +maintained communication with each other through the territory of the +Boeotians who were friendly to the Macedonians, and by the Achaean +neutrality; and as it was too late to advance into Macedonia this +year, Flamininus resolved to direct his land army and fleet in the +first place against Corinth and the Achaeans. The fleet, which had +again been joined by the Rhodian and Pergamene ships, had hitherto +been employed in the capture and pillage of two of the smaller towns +in Euboea, Eretria and Carystus; both however, as well as Oreus, +were thereafter abandoned, and reoccupied by Philocles the Macedonian +commandant of Chalcis. The united fleet proceeded thence to +Cenchreae, the eastern port of Corinth, to threaten that strong +fortress. On the other side Flamininus advanced into Phocis and +occupied the country, in which Elatea alone sustained a somewhat +protracted siege: this district, and Anticyra in particular on the +Corinthian gulf, were chosen as winter quarters. The Achaeans, who +thus saw on the one hand the Roman legions approaching and on the +other the Roman fleet already on their own coast, abandoned their +morally honourable, but politically untenable, neutrality. After +the deputies from the towns most closely attached to Macedonia +--Dyme, Megalopolis, and Argos--had left the diet, it resolved to + join the coalition against Philip. Cycliades and other leaders of +the Macedonian party went into exile; the troops of the Achaeans +immediately united with the Roman fleet and hastened to invest Corinth +by land, which city--the stronghold of Philip against the Achaeans +--had been guaranteed to them on the part of Rome in return for +their joining the coalition. Not only, however, did the Macedonian +garrison, which was 1300 strong and consisted chiefly of Italian +deserters, defend with determination the almost impregnable city, +but Philocles also arrived from Chalcis with a division of 1500 men, +which not only relieved Corinth but also invaded the territory of +the Achaeans and, in concert with the citizens who were favourable +to Macedonia, wrested from them Argos. But the recompense of such +devotedness was, that the king delivered over the faithful Argives +to the reign of terror of Nabis of Sparta. Philip hoped, after the +accession of the Achaeans to the Roman coalition, to gain over Nabis +who had hitherto been the ally of the Romans; for his chief reason +for joining the Roman alliance had been that he was opposed to the +Achaeans and since 550 was even at open war with them. But the +affairs of Philip were in too desperate a condition for any one +to feel satisfaction in joining his side now. Nabis indeed accepted +Argos from Philip, but he betrayed the traitor and remained in +alliance with Flamininus, who, in his perplexity at being now +allied with two powers that were at war with each other, had in +the meantime arranged an armistice of four months between the +Spartans and Achaeans. + +Vain Attempts to Arrange a Peace + +Thus winter came on; and Philip once more availed himself of it to +obtain if possible an equitable peace. At a conference held at Nicaea +on the Maliac gulf the king appeared in person, and endeavoured to +come to an understanding with Flamininus. With haughty politeness he +repelled the forward insolence of the petty chiefs, and by marked +deference to the Romans, as the only antagonists on an equality with +him, he sought to obtain from them tolerable terms. Flamininus was +sufficiently refined to feel himself flattered by the urbanity of +the vanquished prince towards himself and his arrogance towards the +allies, whom the Roman as well as the king had learned to despise; +but his powers were not ample enough to meet the king's wishes. He +granted him a two months' armistice in return for the evacuation of +Phocis and Locris, and referred him, as to the main matter, to his +government. The Roman senate had long been at one in the opinion that +Macedonia must give up all her possessions abroad; accordingly, when +the ambassadors of Philip appeared in Rome, they were simply asked +whether they had full powers to renounce all Greece and in particular +Corinth, Chalcis, and Demetrias, and when they said that they had not, +the negotiations were immediately broken off, and it was resolved +that the war should be prosecuted with vigour. With the help of the +tribunes of the people, the senate succeeded in preventing a change +in the chief command--which had often proved so injurious--and in +prolonging the command of Flamininus; he obtained considerable +reinforcements, and the two former commanders-in-chief, Publius Galba +and Publius Villius, were instructed to place themselves at his +disposal. Philip resolved once more to risk a pitched battle. +To secure Greece, where all the states except the Acarnanians and +Boeotians were now in arms against him, the garrison of Corinth was +augmented to 6000 men, while he himself, straining the last energies +of exhausted Macedonia and enrolling children and old men in the ranks +of the phalanx, brought into the field an army of about 26,000 men, +of whom 16,000 were Macedonian -phalangitae-. + +Philip Proceed to Thessaly +Battle of Cynoscephalae + +Thus the fourth campaign, that of 557, began. Flamininus despatched +a part of the fleet against the Acarnanians, who were besieged in +Leucas; in Greece proper he became by stratagem master of Thebes, +the capital of Boeotia, in consequence of which the Boeotians were +compelled to join at least nominally the alliance against Macedonia. +Content with having thus interrupted the communication between Corinth +and Chalcis, he proceeded to the north, where alone a decisive blow +could be struck. The great difficulties of provisioning the army in +a hostile and for the most part desolate country, which had often +hampered its operations, were now to be obviated by the fleet +accompanying the army along the coast and carrying after it supplies +sent from Africa, Sicily, and Sardinia. The decisive blow came, +however, earlier than Flamininus had hoped. Philip, impatient and +confident as he was, could not endure to await the enemy on the +Macedonian frontier: after assembling his army at Dium, he advanced +through the pass of Tempe into Thessaly, and encountered the army of +the enemy advancing to meet him in the district of Scotussa. + +The Macedonian and Roman armies--the latter of which had been +reinforced by contingents of the Apolloniates and the Athamanes, +by the Cretans sent by Nabis, and especially by a strong band of +Aetolians--contained nearly equal numbers of combatants, each about +26,000 men; the Romans, however, had the superiority in cavalry. +In front of Scotussa, on the plateau of the Karadagh, during a gloomy +day of rain, the Roman vanguard unexpectedly encountered that of the +enemy, which occupied a high and steep hill named Cynoscephalae, that +lay between the two camps. Driven back into the plain, the Romans +were reinforced from the camp by the light troops and the excellent +corps of Aetolian cavalry, and now in turn forced the Macedonian +vanguard back upon and over the height. But here the Macedonians +again found support in their whole cavalry and the larger portion +of their light infantry; the Romans, who had ventured forward +imprudently, were pursued with great loss almost to their camp, and +would have wholly taken to flight, had not the Aetolian horsemen +prolonged the combat in the plain until Flamininus brought up his +rapidly-arranged legions. The king yielded to the impetuous cry of +his victorious troops demanding the continuance of the conflict, and +hastily drew up his heavy-armed soldiers for the battle, which neither +general nor soldiers had expected on that day. It was important to +occupy the hill, which for the moment was quite denuded of troops. +The right wing of the phalanx, led by the king in person, arrived +early enough to form without trouble in battle order on the height; +the left had not yet come up, when the light troops of the +Macedonians, put to flight by the legions, rushed up the hill. Philip +quickly pushed the crowd of fugitives past the phalanx into the middle +division, and, without waiting till Nicanor had arrived on the left +wing with the other half of the phalanx which followed more slowly, +he ordered the right phalanx to couch their spears and to charge +down the hill on the legions, and the rearranged light infantry +simultaneously to turn them and fall upon them in flank. The attack +of the phalanx, irresistible on so favourable ground, shattered the +Roman infantry, and the left wing of the Romans was completely beaten. +Nicanor on the other wing, when he saw the king give the attack, +ordered the other half of the phalanx to advance in all haste; by this +movement it was thrown into confusion, and while the first ranks were +already rapidly following the victorious right wing down the hill, and +were still more thrown into disorder by the inequality of the ground, +the last files were just gaining the height. The right wing of the +Romans under these circumstances soon overcame the enemy's left; the +elephants alone, stationed upon this wing, annihilated the broken +Macedonian ranks. While a fearful slaughter was taking place at this +point, a resolute Roman officer collected twenty companies, and with +these threw himself on the victorious Macedonian wing, which had +advanced so far in pursuit of the Roman left that the Roman right +came to be in its rear. Against an attack from behind the phalanx +was defenceless, and this movement ended the battle. From the +complete breaking up of the two phalanxes we may well believe that +the Macedonian loss amounted to 13,000, partly prisoners, partly +fallen--but chiefly the latter, because the Roman soldiers were not +acquainted with the Macedonian sign of surrender, the raising of the + -sarissae-. The loss of the victors was slight. Philip escaped to +Larissa, and, after burning all his papers that nobody might be +compromised, evacuated Thessaly and returned home. + +Simultaneously with this great defeat, the Macedonians suffered other +discomfitures at all the points which they still occupied; in Caria +the Rhodian mercenaries defeated the Macedonian corps stationed there +and compelled it to shut itself up in Stratonicea; the Corinthian +garrison was defeated by Nicostratus and his Achaeans with severe +loss, and Leucas in Acarnania was taken by assault after a heroic +resistance. Philip was completely vanquished; his last allies, the +Acarnanians, yielded on the news of the battle of Cynoscephalae. + +Preliminaries of Peace + +It was completely in the power of the Romans to dictate peace; they +used their power without abusing it. The empire of Alexander might be +annihilated; at a conference of the allies this desire was expressly +put forward by the Aetolians. But what else would this mean, than to +demolish the rampart protecting Hellenic culture from the Thracians +and Celts? Already during the war just ended the flourishing +Lysimachia on the Thracian Chersonese had been totally destroyed by +the Thracians--a serious warning for the future. Flamininus, who had +clearly perceived the bitter animosities subsisting among the Greek +states, could never consent that the great Roman power should be the +executioner for the grudges of the Aetolian confederacy, even if his +Hellenic sympathies had not been as much won by the polished and +chivalrous king as his Roman national feeling was offended by the +boastings of the Aetolians, the "victors of Cynoscephalae," as they +called themselves. He replied to the Aetolians that it was not the +custom of Rome to annihilate the vanquished, and that, besides, they +were their own masters and were at liberty to put an end to Macedonia, +if they could. The king was treated with all possible deference, and, +on his declaring himself ready now to entertain the demands formerly +made, an armistice for a considerable term was agreed to by Flamininus +in return for the payment of a sum of money and the furnishing of +hostages, among whom was the king's son Demetrius,--an armistice which +Philip greatly needed in order to expel the Dardani out of Macedonia. + +Peace with Macedonia + +The final regulation of the complicated affairs of Greece was +entrusted by the senate to a commission of ten persons, the head and +soul of which was Flamininus. Philip obtained from it terms similar +to those laid down for Carthage. He lost all his foreign possessions +in Asia Minor, Thrace, Greece, and in the islands of the Aegean Sea; +while he retained Macedonia proper undiminished, with the exception of +some unimportant tracts on the frontier and the province of Orestis, +which was declared free--a stipulation which Philip felt very keenly, +but which the Romans could not avoid prescribing, for with his +character it was impossible to leave him free to dispose of subjects +who had once revolted from their allegiance. Macedonia was further +bound not to conclude any foreign alliances without the previous +knowledge of Rome, and not to send garrisons abroad; she was bound, +moreover, not to make war out of Macedonia against civilized states +or against any allies of Rome at all; and she was not to maintain +any army exceeding 5000 men, any elephants, or more than five decked +ships--the rest were to be given up to the Romans. Lastly, Philip +entered into symmachy with the Romans, which obliged him to send a +contingent when requested; indeed, Macedonian troops immediately +afterwards fought side by side with the legions. Moreover, he paid +a contribution of 1000 talents (244,000 pounds). + +Greece Free + +After Macedonia had thus been reduced to complete political nullity +and was left in possession of only as much power as was needful to +guard the frontier of Hellas against the barbarians, steps were taken +to dispose of the possessions ceded by the king. The Romans, who just +at that time were learning by experience in Spain that transmarine +provinces were a very dubious gain, and who had by no means begun the +war with a view to the acquisition of territory, took none of the +spoil for themselves, and thus compelled their allies also to +moderation. They resolved to declare all the states of Greece, +which had previously been under Phillip free: and Flamininus was +commissioned to read the decree to that effect to the Greeks assembled +at the Isthmian games (558). Thoughtful men doubtless might ask +whether freedom was a blessing capable of being thus bestowed, and +what was the value of freedom to a nation apart from union and unity; +but the rejoicing was great and sincere, as the intention of the +senate was sincere in conferring the freedom.(2) + +Scodra +The Achaean League Enlarged +The Aetolians + +The only exceptions to this general rule were, the Illyrian provinces +eastward of Epidamnus, which fell to Pleuratus the ruler of Scodra, +and rendered that state of robbers and pirates, which a century before +had been humbled by the Romans,(3) once more one of the most powerful +of the petty principalities in those regions; some townships in +western Thessaly, which Amynander had occupied and was allowed to +retain; and the three islands of Paros, Scyros, and Imbros, which were +presented to Athens in return for her many hardships and her still +more numerous addresses of thanks and courtesies of all sorts. The +Rhodians, of course, retained their Carian possessions, and the +Pergamenes retained Aegina. The remaining allies were only indirectly +rewarded by the accession of the newly-liberated cities to the several +confederacies. The Achaeans were the best treated, although they were +the latest in joining the coalition against Philip; apparently for the +honourable reason, that this federation was the best organized and +most respectable of all the Greek states. All the possessions of +Philip in the Peloponnesus and on the Isthmus, and consequently +Corinth in particular, were incorporated with their league. With the +Aetolians on the other hand the Romans used little ceremony; they were +allowed to receive the towns of Phocis and Locris into their symmachy, +but their attempts to extend it also to Acarnania and Thessaly were in +part decidedly rejected, in part postponed, and the Thessalian cities +were organized into four small independent confederacies. The Rhodian +city-league reaped the benefit of the liberation of Thasos, Lemnos, +and the towns of Thrace and Asia Minor. + +War against Nabis of Sparta + +The regulation of the affairs of the Greek states, as respected both +their mutual relations and their internal condition, was attended with +difficulty. The most urgent matter was the war which had been carried +on between the Spartans and Achaeans since 550, in which the duty of +mediating necessarily fell to the Romans. But after various attempts +to induce Nabis to yield, and particularly to give up the city of +Argos belonging to the Achaean league, which Philip had surrendered to +him, no course at last was left to Flamininus but to have war declared +against the obstinate petty robber-chieftain, who reckoned on the +well-known grudge of the Aetolians against the Romans and on the +advance of Antiochus into Europe, and pertinaciously refused to +restore Argos. War was declared, accordingly, by all the Hellenes at +a great diet in Corinth, and Flamininus advanced into the Peloponnesus +accompanied by the fleet and the Romano-allied army, which included a +contingent sent by Philip and a division of Lacedaemonian emigrants +under Agesipolis, the legitimate king of Sparta (559). In order to +crush his antagonist immediately by an overwhelming superiority of +force, no less than 50,000 men were brought into the field, and, +the other towns being disregarded, the capital itself was at once +invested; but the desired result was not attained. Nabis had sent +into the field a considerable army amounting to 15,000 men, of whom +5000 were mercenaries, and he had confirmed his rule afresh by a +complete reign of terror--by the execution -en masse- of the officers +and inhabitants of the country whom he suspected. Even when he +himself after the first successes of the Roman army and fleet resolved +to yield and to accept the comparatively favourable terms of peace +proposed by Flamininus, "the people," that is to say the gang of +robbers whom Nabis had domiciled in Sparta, not without reason +apprehensive of a reckoning after the victory, and deceived by an +accompaniment of lies as to the nature of the terms of peace and as to +the advance of the Aetolians and Asiatics, rejected the peace offered +by the Roman general, so that the struggle began anew. A battle took +place in front of the walls and an assault was made upon them; they +were already scaled by the Romans, when the setting on fire of the +captured streets compelled the assailants to retire. + +Settlement of Spartan Affairs + +At last the obstinate resistance came to an end. Sparta retained its +independence and was neither compelled to receive back the emigrants +nor to join the Achaean league; even the existing monarchical +constitution, and Nabis himself, were left intact. On the other hand +Nabis had to cede his foreign possessions, Argos, Messene, the Cretan +cities, and the whole coast besides; to bind himself neither to +conclude foreign alliances, nor to wage war, nor to keep any other +vessels than two open boats; and lastly to disgorge all his plunder, +to give to the Romans hostages, and to pay to them a war-contribution. +The towns on the Laconian coast were given to the Spartan emigrants, +and this new community, who named themselves the "free Laconians" in +contrast to the monarchically governed Spartans, were directed to +enter the Achaean league. The emigrants did not receive back their +property, as the district assigned to them was regarded as a +compensation for it; it was stipulated, on the other hand, that +their wives and children should not be detained in Sparta against +their will. The Achaeans, although by this arrangement they gained +the accession of the free Laconians as well as Argos, were yet far +from content; they had expected that the dreaded and hated Nabis would +be superseded, that the emigrants would be brought back, and that +the Achaean symmachy would be extended to the whole Peloponnesus. +Unprejudiced persons, however, will not fail to see that Flamininus +managed these difficult affairs as fairly and justly as it was +possible to manage them where two political parties, both chargeable +with unfairness and injustice stood opposed to each other. With the +old and deep hostility subsisting between the Spartans and Achaeans, +the incorporation of Sparta into the Achaean league would have been +equivalent to subjecting Sparta to the Achaeans, a course no less +contrary to equity than to prudence. The restitution of the +emigrants, and the complete restoration of a government that had been +set aside for twenty years, would only have substituted one reign of +terror for another; the expedient adopted by Flamininus was the right +one, just because it failed to satisfy either of the extreme parties. +At length thorough provision appeared to be made that the Spartan +system of robbery by sea and land should cease, and that the +government there, such as it was, should prove troublesome only +to its own subjects. It is possible that Flamininus, who knew +Nabis and could not but be aware how desirable it was that he should +personally be superseded, omitted to take such a step from the mere +desire to have done with the matter and not to mar the clear +impression of his successes by complications that might be prolonged +beyond all calculation; it is possible, moreover, that he sought +to preserve Sparta as a counterpoise to the power of the Achaean +confederacy in the Peloponnesus. But the former objection relates to +a point of secondary importance; and as to the latter view, it is far +from probable that the Romans condescended to fear the Achaeans. + +Final Regulation of Greece + +Peace was thus established, externally at least, among the petty Greek +states. But the internal condition of the several communities also +furnished employment to the Roman arbiter. The Boeotians openly +displayed their Macedonian tendencies, even after the expulsion of the +Macedonians from Greece; after Flamininus had at their request allowed +their countrymen who were in the service of Philip to return home, +Brachyllas, the most decided partisan of Macedonia, was elected to the +presidency of the Boeotian confederacy, and Flamininus was otherwise +irritated in every way. He bore it with unparalleled patience; but +the Boeotians friendly to Rome, who knew what awaited them after the +departure of the Romans, determined to put Brachyllas to death, and +Flamininus, whose permission they deemed it necessary to ask, at least +did not forbid them. Brachyllas was accordingly killed; upon which +the Boeotians were not only content with prosecuting the murderers, +but lay in wait for the Roman soldiers passing singly or in small +parties through their territories, and killed about 500 of them. +This was too much to be endured; Flamininus imposed on them a fine +of a talent for every soldier; and when they did not pay it, he +collected the nearest troops and besieged Coronea (558). Now they +betook themselves to entreaty; Flamininus in reality desisted on the +intercession of the Achaeans and Athenians, exacting but a very +moderate fine from those who were guilty; and although the Macedonian +party remained continuously at the helm in the petty province, the +Romans met their puerile opposition simply with the forbearance of +superior power. In the rest of Greece Flamininus contented himself +with exerting his influence, so far as he could do so without +violence, over the internal affairs especially of the newly-freed +communities; with placing the council and the courts in the hands of +the more wealthy and bringing the anti-Macedonian party to the helm; +and with attaching as much as possible the civic commonwealths to the +Roman interest, by adding everything, which in each community should +have fallen by martial law to the Romans, to the common property of +the city concerned. The work was finished in the spring of 560; +Flamininus once more assembled the deputies of all the Greek +communities at Corinth, exhorted them to a rational and moderate use +of the freedom conferred on them, and requested as the only return for +the kindness of the Romans, that they would within thirty days send to +him the Italian captives who had been sold into Greece during the +Hannibalic war. Then he evacuated the last fortresses in which Roman +garrisons were still stationed, Demetrias, Chalcis along with the +smaller forts dependent upon it in Euboea, and Acrocorinthus--thus +practically giving the lie to the assertion of the Aetolians that +Rome had inherited from Philip the "fetters" of Greece--and departed +homeward with all the Roman troops and the liberated captives. + +Results + +It is only contemptible disingenuousness or weakly sentimentality, +which can fail to perceive that the Romans were entirely in earnest +with the liberation of Greece; and the reason why the plan so nobly +projected resulted in so sorry a structure, is to be sought only in +the complete moral and political disorganization of the Hellenic +nation. It was no small matter, that a mighty nation should have +suddenly with its powerful arm brought the land, which it had been +accustomed to regard as its primitive home and as the shrine of +its intellectual and higher interests, into the possession of +full freedom, and should have conferred on every community in it +deliverance from foreign taxation and foreign garrisons and the +unlimited right of self-government; it is mere paltriness that sees +in this nothing save political calculation. Political calculation +made the liberation of Greece a possibility for the Romans; it was +converted into a reality by the Hellenic sympathies that were at that +time indescribably powerful in Rome, and above all in Flamininus +himself. If the Romans are liable to any reproach, it is that all +of them, and in particular Flamininus who overcame the well-founded +scruples of the senate, were hindered by the magic charm of the +Hellenic name from perceiving in all its extent the wretched character +of the Greek states of that period, and so allowed yet further freedom +for the doings of communities which, owing to the impotent antipathies +that prevailed alike in their internal and their mutual relations, +knew neither how to act nor how to keep quiet. As things stood, it +was really necessary at once to put an end to such a freedom, equally +pitiful and pernicious, by means of a superior power permanently +present on the spot; the feeble policy of sentiment, with all its +apparent humanity, was far more cruel than the sternest occupation +would have been. In Boeotia for instance Rome had, if not to +instigate, at least to permit, a political murder, because the Romans +had resolved to withdraw their troops from Greece and, consequently, +could not prevent the Greeks friendly to Rome from seeking their +remedy in the usual manner of the country. But Rome herself also +suffered from the effects of this indecision. The war with Antiochus +would not have arisen but for the political blunder of liberating +Greece, and it would not have been dangerous but tor the military +blunder of withdrawing the garrisons from the principal fortresses on +the European frontier. History has a Nemesis for every sin--for an +impotent craving after freedom, as well as for an injudicious +generosity. + + + + +Notes for Chapter VIII + + +1. III. III. Acquisition of Territory in Illyria + +2. III. VI. Stagnation of the War in Italy + +3. There are still extant gold staters, with the head of Flamininus +and the inscription "-T. Quincti(us)-," struck in Greece under the +government of the liberator of the Hellenes. The use of the Latin +language is a significant compliment. + +4. III. III. Acquisition of Territory in Illyria + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +The War with Antiochus of Asia + +Antiochus the Great + +In the kingdom of Asia the diadem of the Seleucidae had been worn since +531 by king Antiochus the Third, the great-great-grandson of the founder +of the dynasty. He had, like Philip, begun to reign at nineteen years +of age, and had displayed sufficient energy and enterprise, especially +in his first campaigns in the east, to warrant his being without too +ludicrous impropriety addressed in courtly style as "the Great." He +had succeeded--more, however, through the negligence of his opponents +and of the Egyptian Philopator in particular, than through any ability +of his own--in restoring in some degree the integrity of the monarchy, +and in reuniting with his crown first the eastern satrapies of Media +and Parthyene, and then the separate state which Achaeus had founded +on this side of the Taurus in Asia Minor. A first attempt to wrest +from the Egyptians the coast of Syria, the loss of which he sorely +felt, had, in the year of the battle of the Trasimene lake, met with a +bloody repulse from Philopator at Raphia; and Antiochus had taken good +care not to resume the contest with Egypt, so long as a man--even +though he were but an indolent one--occupied the Egyptian throne. +But, after Philopator's death (549), the right moment for crushing +Egypt appeared to have arrived; with that view Antiochus entered into +concert with Philip, and had thrown himself upon Coele-Syria, while +Philip attacked the cities of Asia Minor. When the Romans interposed +in that quarter, it seemed for a moment as if Antiochus would make +common cause with Philip against them--the course suggested by the +position of affairs, as well as by the treaty of alliance. But, not +far-seeing enough to repel at once with all his energy any +interference whatever by the Romans in the affairs of the east, +Antiochus thought that his best course was to take advantage of the +subjugation of Philip by the Romans (which might easily be foreseen), +in order to secure the kingdom of Egypt, which he had previously been +willing to share with Philip, for himself alone. Notwithstanding the +close relations of Rome with the court of Alexandria and her royal +ward, the senate by no means intended to be in reality, what it was in +name, his "protector;" firmly resolved to give itself no concern +about Asiatic affairs except in case of extreme necessity, and to +limit the sphere of the Roman power by the Pillars of Hercules and the +Hellespont, it allowed the great-king to take his course. He himself +was not probably in earnest with the conquest of Egypt proper--which +was more easily talked of than achieved--but he contemplated the +subjugation of the foreign possessions of Egypt one after another, and +at once attacked those in Cilicia as well as in Syria and Palestine. +The great victory, which he gained in 556 over the Egyptian general +Scopas at Mount Panium near the sources of the Jordan, not only gave +him complete possession of that region as far as the frontier of Egypt +proper, but so alarmed the Egyptian guardians of the young king that, +to prevent Antiochus from invading Egypt, they submitted to a peace +and sealed it by the betrothal of their ward to Cleopatra the daughter +of Antiochus. When he had thus achieved his first object, he +proceeded in the following year, that of the battle of Cynoscephalae, +with a strong fleet of 100 decked and 100 open vessels to Asia Minor, +to take possession of the districts that formerly belonged to Egypt on +the south and west coasts of Asia Minor--probably the Egyptian +government had ceded these districts, which were -de facto- in the +hands of Philip, to Antiochus under the peace, and had renounced all +their foreign possessions in his favour--and to recover the Greeks of +Asia Minor generally for his empire. At the same time a strong Syrian +land-army assembled in Sardes. + +Difficulties with Rome + +This enterprise had an indirect bearing on the Romans who from the +first had laid it down as a condition for Philip that he should +withdraw his garrisons from Asia Minor and should leave to the +Rhodians and Pergamenes their territory and to the free cities their +former constitution unimpaired, and who had now to look on while +Antiochus took possession of them in Philip's place. Attalus and the +Rhodians found themselves now directly threatened by Antiochus with +precisely the same danger as had driven them a few years before into +the war with Philip; and they naturally sought to involve the Romans +in this war as well as in that which had just terminated. Already in +555-6 Attalus had requested from the Romans military aid against +Antiochus, who had occupied his territory while the troops of Attalus +were employed in the Roman war. The more energetic Rhodians even +declared to king Antiochus, when in the spring of 557 his fleet +appeared off the coast of Asia Minor, that they would regard its +passing beyond the Chelidonian islands (off the Lycian coast) as a +declaration of war; and, when Antiochus did not regard the threat, +they, emboldened by the accounts that had just arrived of the battle +at Cynoscephalae, had immediately begun the war and had actually +protected from the king the most important of the Carian cities, +Caunus, Halicarnassus, and Myndus, and the island of Samos. Most of +the half-free cities had submitted to Antiochus, but some of them, +more especially the important cities of Smyrna, Alexandria Troas, and +Lampsacus, had, on learning the discomfiture of Philip, likewise taken +courage to resist the Syrian; and their urgent entreaties were +combined with those of the Rhodians. + +It admits of no doubt, that Antiochus, so far as he was at all capable +of forming a resolution and adhering to it, had already made up his +mind not only to attach to his empire the Egyptian possessions in +Asia, but also to make conquests on his own behalf in Europe and, if +not to seek on that account a war with Rome, at any rate to risk it +The Romans had thus every reason to comply with that request of their +allies, and to interfere directly in Asia; but they showed little +inclination to do so. They not only delayed as long as the Macedonian +war lasted, and gave to Attalus nothing but the protection of +diplomatic intercession, which, we may add, proved in the first +instance effective; but even after the victory, while they doubtless +spoke as though the cities which had been in the hands of Ptolemy and +Philip ought not to be taken possession of by Antiochus, and while the +freedom of the Asiatic cities, Myrina, Abydus, Lampsacus,(1) and Cius, +figured in Roman documents, they took not the smallest step to give +effect to it, and allowed king Antiochus to employ the favourable +opportunity presented by the withdrawal of the Macedonian garrisons to +introduce his own. In fact, they even went so far as to submit to his +landing in Europe in the spring of 558 and invading the Thracian +Chersonese, where he occupied Sestus and Madytus and spent a +considerable time in the chastisement of the Thracian barbarians and +the restoration of the destroyed Lysimachia, which he had selected as +his chief place of arms and as the capital of the newly-instituted +satrapy of Thrace. Flamininus indeed, who was entrusted with the +conduct of these affairs, sent to the king at Lysimachia envoys, who +talked of the integrity of the Egyptian territory and of the freedom +of all the Hellenes; but nothing came out of it. The king talked in +turn of his undoubted legal title to the ancient kingdom of Lysimachus +conquered by his ancestor Seleucus, explained that he was employed not +in making territorial acquisitions but only in preserving the +integrity of his hereditary dominions, and declined the intervention +of the Romans in his disputes with the cities subject to him in Asia +Minor. With justice he could add that peace had already been +concluded with Egypt, and that the Romans were thus far deprived of +any formal pretext for interfering.(2) The sudden return of the king +to Asia occasioned by a false report of the death of the young king of +Egypt, and the projects which it suggested of a landing in Cyprus or +even at Alexandria, led to the breaking off of the conferences without +coming to any conclusion, still less producing any result. In the +following year, 559, Antiochus returned to Lysimachia with his fleet +and army reinforced, and employed himself in organizing the new +satrapy which he destined for his son Seleucus. Hannibal, who had +been obliged to flee from Carthage, came to him at Ephesus; and the +singularly honourable reception accorded to the exile was virtually a +declaration of war against Rome. Nevertheless Flamininus in the +spring of 560 withdrew all the Roman garrisons from Greece. This was +under the existing circumstances at least a mischievous error, if not +a criminal acting in opposition to his own better knowledge; for we +cannot dismiss the idea that Flamininus, in order to carry home with +him the undiminished glory of having wholly terminated the war and +liberated Hellas, contented himself with superficially covering up for +the moment the smouldering embers of revolt and war. The Roman +statesman might perhaps be right, when he pronounced any attempt to +bring Greece directly under the dominion of the Romans, and any +intervention of the Romans in Asiatic affairs, to be a political +blunder; but the opposition fermenting in Greece, the feeble arrogance +of the Asiatic king, the residence, at the Syrian head-quarters, of +the bitter enemy of the Romans who had already raised the west in arms +against Rome--all these were clear signs of the approach of a fresh +rising in arms on the part of the Hellenic east, which could not but +have for its aim at least to transfer Greece from the clientship of +Rome to that of the states opposed to Rome, and, if this object should +be attained, would immediately extend the circle of its operations. +It is plain that Rome could not allow this to take place. When +Flamininus, ignoring all these sure indications of war, withdrew the +garrisons from Greece, and yet at the same time made demands on the +king of Asia which he had no intention of employing his army to +support, he overdid his part in words as much as he fell short in +action, and forgot his duty as a general and as a citizen in the +indulgence of his personal vanity--a vanity, which wished to confer, +and imagined that it had conferred, peace on Rome and freedom +on the Greeks of both continents. + +Preparations of Antiochus for War with Rome + +Antiochus employed the unexpected respite in strengthening his +position at home and his relations with his neighbours before +beginning the war, on which for his part he was resolved, and became +all the more so, the more the enemy appeared to procrastinate. He now +(561) gave his daughter Cleopatra, previously betrothed, in marriage +to the young king of Egypt. That he at the same time promised to +restore the provinces wrested from his son-in-law, was afterwards +affirmed on the part of Egypt, but probably without warrant; at any +rate the land remained actually attached to the Syrian kingdom.(3) +He offered to restore to Eumenes, who had in 557 succeeded his father +Attalus on the throne of Pergamus, the towns taken from him, and to +give him also one of his daughters in marriage, if he would abandon +the Roman alliance. In like manner he bestowed a daughter on +Ariarathes, king of Cappadocia, and gained the Galatians by presents, +while he reduced by arms the Pisidians who were constantly in revolt, +and other small tribes. Extensive privileges were granted to the +Byzantines; respecting the cities in Asia Minor, the king declared +that he would permit the independence of the old free cities such as +Rhodes and Cyzicus, and would be content in the case of the others +with a mere formal recognition of his sovereignty; he even gave them +to understand that he was ready to submit to the arbitration of the +Rhodians. In European Greece he could safely count on the Aetolians, +and he hoped to induce Philip again to take up arms. In fact, a plan +of Hannibal obtained the royal approval, according to which he was to +receive from Antiochus a fleet of 100 sail and a land army of 10,000 +infantry and 1000 cavalry, and was to employ them in kindling first +a third Punic war in Carthage, and then a second Hannibalic war in +Italy; Tyrian emissaries proceeded to Carthage to pave the way for a +rising in arms there(4) Finally, good results were anticipated from +the Spanish insurrection, which, at the time when Hannibal left +Carthage, was at its height.(5) + +Aetolian Intrigues against Rome + +While the storm was thus gathering from far and wide against Rome, it +was on this, as on all occasions, the Hellenes implicated in the +enterprise, who were of the least moment, and yet took action of the +greatest importance and with the utmost impatience. The exasperated +and arrogant Aetolians began by degrees to persuade themselves that +Philip had been vanquished by them and not by the Romans, and could +not even wait till Antiochus should advance into Greece. Their policy +is characteristically expressed in the reply, which their -strategus- +gave soon afterwards to Flamininus, when he requested a copy of the +declaration of war against Rome: that he would deliver it to him in +person, when the Aetolian army should encamp on the Tiber. The +Aetolians acted as the agents of the Syrian king in Greece and +deceived both parties, by representing to the king that all the +Hellenes were waiting with open arms to receive him as their true +deliverer, and by telling those in Greece who were disposed to listen +to them that the landing of the king was nearer than it was in +reality. Thus they actually succeeded in inducing the simple +obstinacy of Nabis to break loose and to rekindle in Greece the flame +of war two years after Flamininus's departure, in the spring of 562; +but in doing so they missed their aim. Nabis attacked Gythium, one of +the towns of the free Laconians that by the last treaty had been +annexed to the Achaean league, and took it; but the experienced +-strategus- of the Achaeans, Philopoemen, defeated him at the +Barbosthenian mountains, and the tyrant brought back barely a fourth +part of his army to his capital, in which Philopoemen shut him up. As +such a commencement was no sufficient inducement for Antiochus to come +to Europe, the Aetolians resolved to possess themselves of Sparta, +Chalcis, and Demetrias, and by gaining these important towns to +prevail upon the king to embark. In the first place they thought to +become masters of Sparta, by arranging that the Aetolian Alexamenus +should march with 1000 men into the town under pretext of bringing a +contingent in terms of the alliance, and should embrace the +opportunity of making away with Nabis and of occupying the town. This +was done, and Nabis was killed at a review of the troops; but, when +the Aetolians dispersed to plunder the town, the Lacedaemonians found +time to rally and slew them to the last man. The city was then +induced by Philopoemen to join the Achaean league. After this +laudable project of the Aetolians had thus not only deservedly failed, +but had had precisely the opposite effect of uniting almost the whole +Peloponnesus in the hands of the other party, it fared little better +with them at Chalcis, for the Roman party there called in the citizens +of Eretria and Carystus in Euboea, who were favourable to Rome, to +render seasonable aid against the Aetolians and the Chalcidian exiles. +On the other hand the occupation of Demetrias was successful, for the +Magnetes to whom the city had been assigned were, not without reason, +apprehensive that it had been promised by the Romans to Philip as a +prize in return for his aid against Antiochus; several squadrons of +Aetolian horse moreover managed to steal into the town under the +pretext of forming an escort for Eurylochus, the recalled head of the +opposition to Rome. Thus the Magnetes passed over, partly of their +own accord, partly by compulsion, to the side of the Aetolians, and +the latter did not fail to make use of the fact at the court of the +Seleucid. + +Rupture between Antiochus and the Romans + +Antiochus took his resolution. A rupture with Rome, in spite of +endeavours to postpone it by the diplomatic palliative of embassies, +could no longer be avoided. As early as the spring of 561 Flamininus, +who continued to have the decisive voice in the senate as to eastern +affairs, had expressed the Roman ultimatum to the envoys of the king, +Menippus and Hegesianax; viz. that he should either evacuate Europe +and dispose of Asia at his pleasure, or retain Thrace and submit to +the Roman protectorate over Smyrna, Lampsacus, and Alexandria Troas. +These demands had been again discussed at Ephesus, the chief place of +arms and fixed quarters of the king in Asia Minor, in the spring of +562, between Antiochus and the envoys of the senate, Publius Sulpicius +and Publius Villius; and they had separated with the conviction on +both sides thata peaceful settlement was no longer possible. +Thenceforth war was resolved on in Rome. In that very summer of 562 +a Roman fleet of 30 sail, with 3000 soldiers on board, under Aulus +Atilius Serranus, appeared off Gythium, where their arrival +accelerated the conclusion of the treaty between the Achaeans +and Spartans; the eastern coasts of Sicily and Italy were strongly +garrisoned, so as to be secure against any attempts at a landing; a +land army was expected in Greece in the autumn. Since the spring of +562 Flamininus, by direction of the senate, had journeyed through +Greece to thwart the intrigues of the opposite party, and to +counteract as far as possible the evil effects of the ill-timed +evacuation of the country. The Aetolians had already gone so far as +formally to declare war in their diet against Rome. But Flamininus +succeeded In saving Chalcis for the Romans by throwing into it a +garrison of 500 Achaeans and 500 Pergamenes. He made an attempt also +to recover Demetrias; and the Magnetes wavered. Though some towns in +Asia Minor, which Antiochus had proposed to subdue before beginning +the great war, still held out, he could now no longer delay his +landing, unless he was willing to let the Romans recover all the +advantages which they had surrendered two years before by withdrawing +their garrisons from Greece. He collected the vessels and troops +which were at hand--he had but 40 decked vessels and 10,000 infantry, +along with 500 horse and 6 elephants--and started from the Thracian +Chersonese for Greece, where he landed in the autumn of 562 at +Pteleum on the Pagasaean gulf, and immediately occupied the adjoining +Demetrias. Nearly about the same time a Roman army of some 25,000 men +under the praetor Marcus Baebius landed at Apollonia. The war was +thus begun on both sides. + +Attitude of the Minor Powers +Carthage and Hannibal + +Everything depended on the extent to which that comprehensively- +planned coalition against Rome, of which Antiochus came forward as the +head, might be realized. As to the plan, first of all, of stirring +up enemies to the Romans in Carthage and Italy, it was the fate of +Hannibal at the court of Ephesus, as through his whole career, to have +projected his noble and high-spirited plans for the behoof of people +pedantic and mean. Nothing was done towards their execution, except +that some Carthaginian patriots were compromised; no choice was left +to the Carthaginians but to show unconditional submission to Rome. +The camarilla would have nothing to do with Hannibal--such a man was +too inconveniently great for court cabals; and, after having tried all +sorts of absurd expedients, such as accusing the general, with whose +name the Romans frightened their children, of concert with the Roman +envoys, they succeeded in persuading Antiochus the Great, who like all +insignificant monarchs plumed himself greatly on his independence and +was influenced by nothing so easily as by the fear of being ruled, +into the wise belief that he ought not to allow himself to be thrown +into the shade by so celebrated a man. Accordingly it was in solemn +council resolved that the Phoenician should be employed in future +only for subordinate enterprises and for giving advice--with the +reservation, of course, that the advice should never be followed. +Hannibal revenged himself on the rabble, by accepting every commission +and brilliantly executing all. + +States of Asia Minor + +In Asia Cappadocia adhered to the great-king; Prusias of Bithynia on +the other hand took, as always, the side of the stronger. King +Eumenes remained faithful to the old policy of his house, which was +now at length to yield to him its true fruit. He had not only +persistently refused |the offers of Antiochus, but had constantly +urged the Romans to a war, from which he expected the aggrandizement +of his kingdom. The Rhodians and Byzantines likewise joined their +old allies. Egypt too took the side of Rome and offered support in +supplies and men; which, however, the Romans did not accept. + +Macedonia + +In Europe the result mainly depended on the position which Philip of +Macedonia would take up. It would have been perhaps the right policy +for him, notwithstanding all the injuries or shortcomings of the past, +to unite with Antiochus. But Philip was ordinarily influenced not by +such considerations, but by his likings and dislikings; and his hatred +was naturally directed much more against the faithless ally, who had +left him to contend alone with the common enemy, had sought merely to +seize his own share in the spoil, and had become a burdensome +neighbour to him in Thrace, than against the conqueror, who had +treated him respectfully and honourably. Antiochus had, moreover, +given deep offence to the hot temper of Philip by the setting up of +absurd pretenders to the Macedonian crown, and by the ostentatious +burial of the Macedonian bones bleaching at Cynoscephalae. Philip +therefore placed his whole force with cordial zeal at the disposal +of the Romans. + +The Lesser Greek States + +The second power of Greece, the Achaean league, adhered no less +decidedly than the first to the alliance with Rome. Of the smaller +powers, the Thessalians and the Athenians held by Rome; among the +latter an Achaean garrison introduced by Flamininus into the citadel +brought the patriotic party, which was pretty strong, to reason. The +Epirots exerted themselves to keep on good terms, if possible, with +both parties. Thus, in addition to the Aetolians and the Magnetes who +were joined by a portion of the neighbouring Perrhaebians, Antiochus +was supported only by Amynander, the weak king of the Athamanes, who +allowed himself to be dazzled by foolish designs on the Macedonian +crown; by the Boeotians, among whom the party opposed to Rome was +still at the helm; and in the Peloponnesus by the Eleans and +Messenians, who were in the habit of taking part with the Aetolians +against the Achaeans. This was indeed a hopeful beginning; and the +title of commander-in-chief with absolute power, which the Aetolians +decreed to the great-king, seemed insult added to injury. There had +been, just as usual, deception on both sides. Instead of the +countless hordes of Asia, the king brought up a force scarcely half as +strong as an ordinary consular army; and instead of the open arms with +which all the Hellenes were to welcome their deliverer from the Roman +yoke, one or two bands of klephts and some dissolute civic communities +offered to the king brotherhood in arms. + +Antiochus in Greece + +For the moment, indeed, Antiochus had anticipated the Romans in Greece +proper. Chalcis was garrisoned by the Greek allies of the Romans, and +refused the first summons but the fortress surrendered when Antiochus +advanced with all his force; and a Roman division, which arrived too +late to occupy it, was annihilated by Antiochus at Deliurn. Euboea +was thus lost to the Romans. Antiochus still made even in winter +an attempt, in concert with the Aetolians and Athamanes, to gain +Thessaly; Thermopylae was occupied, Pherae and other towns were taken, +but Appius Claudius came up with 2000 men from Apollonia, relieved +Larisa, and took up his position there. Antiochus, tired of the +winter campaign, preferred to return to his pleasant quarters at +Chalcis, where the time was spent merrily, and the king even, in spite +of his fifty years and his warlike schemes, wedded a fair Chalcidian. +So the winter of 562-3 passed, without Antiochus doing much more than +sending letters hither and thither through Greece: he waged the war +--a Roman officer remarked--by means of pen and ink. + +Landing of the Romans + +In the beginning of spring 563 the Roman staff arrived at Apollonia. +The commander-in-chief was Manius Acilius Glabrio, a man of humble +origin, but an able general feared both by his soldiers and by the +enemy; the admiral was Gaius Livius; and among the military tribunes +were Marcus Porcius Cato, the conqueror of Spain, and Lucius Valerius +Flaccus, who after the old Roman wont did not disdain, although they +had been consuls, to re-enter the army as simple war-tribunes. They +brought with them reinforcements in ships and men, including Numidian +cavalry and Libyan elephants sent by Massinissa, and the permission +of the senate to accept auxiliary troops to the number of 5000 from +the extra-Italian allies, so that the whole number of the Roman forces +was raised to about 40,000 men. The king, who in the beginning of +spring had gone to the Aetolians and had thence made an aimless +expedition to Acarnania, on the news of Glabrio's landing returned to +his head-quarters to begin the campaign in earnest. But incom +prehensibly, through his own negligence and that of his lieutenants in +Asia, reinforcements had wholly failed to reach him, so that he had +nothing but the weak army--now further decimated by sickness and +desertion in its dissolute winter-quarters--with which he had landed +at Pteleum in the autumn of the previous year. The Aetolians too, who +had professed to send such enormous numbers into the field, now, when +their support was of moment, brought to their commander-in-chief no +more than 4000 men. The Roman troops had already begun operations in +Thessaly, where the vanguard in concert with the Macedonian army drove +the garrisons of Antiochus out of the Thessalian towns and occupied +the territory of the Athamanes. The consul with the main army +followed; the whole force of the Romans assembled at Larisa. + +Battle at Thermopylae +Greece Occupied by the Romans +Resistance of the Aetolians + +Instead of returning with all speed to Asia and evacuating the field +before an enemy in every respect superior, Antiochus resolved to +entrench himself at Thermopylae, which he had occupied, and there to +await the arrival of the great army from Asia. He himself took up a +position in the chief pass, and commanded the Aetolians to occupy the +mountain-path, by which Xerxes had formerly succeeded in turning the +Spartans. But only half of the Aetolian contingent was pleased to +comply with this order of the commander-in-chief; the other 2000 men +threw themselves into the neighbouring town of Heraclea, where they +took no other part in the battle than that of attempting during its +progress to surprise and plunder the Roman camp. Even the Aetolians +posted on the heights discharged their duty of watching with +remissness and reluctance; their post on the Callidromus allowed +itself to be surprised by Cato, and the Asiatic phalanx, which the +consul had meanwhile assailed in front, dispersed, when the Romans +hastening down the mountain fell upon its flank. As Antiochus had +made no provision for any case and had not thought of retreat, the +army was destroyed partly on the field of battle, partly during its +flight; with difficulty a small band reached Demetrias, and the king +himself escaped to Chalcis with 500 men. He embarked in haste for +Ephesus; Europe was lost to him all but his possessions in Thrace, and +even the fortresses could be no longer defended Chalcis surrendered to +the Romans, and Demetrias to Philip, who received permission--as a +compensation for the conquest of the town of Lamia in Achaia +Phthiotis, which he was on the point of accomplishing and had then +abandoned by orders of the consul--to make himself master of all the +communities that had gone over to Antiochus in Thessaly proper, and +even of the territories bordering on Aetolia, the districts of Dolopia +and Aperantia. All the Greeks that had pronounced in favour of +Antiochus hastened to make their peace; the Epirots humbly besought +pardon for their ambiguous conduct, the Boeotians surrendered at +discretion, the Eleans and Messenians, the latter after some struggle, +submitted to the Achaeans. The prediction of Hannibal to the king was +fulfilled, that no dependence at all could be placed upon the Greeks, +who would submit to any conqueror. Even the Aetolians, when their +corps shut up in Heraclea had been compelled after obstinate +resistance to capitulate, attempted to make their peace with the +sorely provoked Romans; but the stringent demands of the Roman consul, +and a consignment of money seasonably arriving from Antiochus, +emboldened them once more to break off the negotiations and to sustain +for two whole months a siege in Naupactus. The town was already +reduced to extremities, and its capture or capitulation could not have +been long delayed, when Flamininus, constantly striving to save every +Hellenic community from the worst consequences of its own folly and +from the severity of his ruder colleagues, interposed and arranged in +the first instance an armistice on tolerable terms. This terminated, +at least for the moment, armed resistance in Greece. + +Maritime War, and Preparations for Crossing to Asia +Polyxenidas and Pausistratus +Engagement off Aspendus +Battle of Myonnesus + +A more serious war was impending in Asia--a war which appeared of a +very hazardous character on account not so much of the enemy as of the +great distance and the insecurity of the communications with home, +while yet, owing to the short-sighted obstinacy of Antiochus, the +struggle could not well be terminated otherwise than by an attack on +the enemy in his own country. The first object was to secure the sea. +The Roman fleet, which during the campaign in Greece was charged with +the task of interrupting the communication between Greece and Asia +Minor, and which had been successful about the time of the battle at +Thermopylae in seizing a strong Asiatic transport fleet near Andros, +was thenceforth employed in making preparations for the crossing of +the Romans to Asia next year and first of all in driving the enemy's +fleet out of the Aegean Sea. It lay in the harbour of Cyssus on the +southern shore of the tongue of land that projects from Ionia towards +Chios; thither in search of it the Roman fleet proceeded, consisting +of 75 Roman, 24 Pergamene, and 6 Carthaginian, decked vessels under +the command of Gaius Livius. The Syrian admiral, Polyxenidas, a +Rhodian emigrant, had only 70 decked vessels to oppose to it; but, as +the Roman fleet still expected the ships of Rhodes, and as Polyxenidas +relied on the superior seaworthiness of his vessels, those of Tyre and +Sidon in particular, he immediately accepted battle. At the outset +the Asiatics succeeded in sinking one of the Carthaginian vessels; +but, when they came to grapple, Roman valour prevailed, and it was +owing solely to the swiftness of their rowing and sailing that the +enemy lost no more than 23 ships. During the pursuit the Roman fleet +was joined by 25 ships from Rhodes, and the superiority of the Romans +in those waters was now doubly assured. The enemy's fleet thenceforth +kept the shelter of the harbour of Ephesus, and, as it could not be +induced to risk a second battle, the fleet of the Romans and allies +broke up for the winter; the Roman ships of war proceeded to the +harbour of Cane in the neighbourhood of Pergamus. Both parties were +busy during the winter in preparing for the next campaign. The Romans +sought to gain over the Greeks of Asia Minor; Smyrna, which had +perseveringly resisted all the attempts of the king to get possession +of the city, received the Romans with open arms, and the Roman party +gained the ascendency in Samos, Chios, Erythrae, Clazomenae, Phocaea, +Cyme, and elsewhere. Antiochus was resolved, if possible, to prevent +the Romans from crossing to Asia, and with that view he made zealous +naval preparations--employing Polyxenidas to fit out and augment the +fleet stationed at Ephesus, and Hannibal to equip a new fleet in +Lycia, Syria, and Phoenicia; while he further collected in Asia Minor +a powerful land army from all regions of his extensive empire. Early +next year (564) the Roman fleet resumed its operations. Gaius Livius +left the Rhodian fleet--which had appeared in good time this year, +numbering 36 sail--to observe that of the enemy in the offing of +Ephesus, and went with the greater portion of the Roman and Pergamene +vessels to the Hellespont in accordance with his instructions, to +pave the way for the passage of the land army by the capture of the +fortresses there. Sestus was already occupied and Abydus reduced to +extremities, when the news of the defeat of the Rhodian fleet recalled +him. The Rhodian admiral Pausistratus, lulled into security by the +representations of his countryman that he wished to desert from +Antiochus, had allowed himself to be surprised in the harbour of +Samos; he himself fell, and all his vessels were destroyed except five +Rhodian and two Coan ships; Samos, Phocaea, and Cyme on hearing the +news went over to Seleucus, who held the chief command by land in +those provinces for his father. + +But when the Roman fleet arrived partly from Cane, partly from the +Hellespont, and was after some time joined by twenty new ships of the +Rhodians at Samos, Polyxenidas was once more compelled to shut himself +up in the harbour of Ephesus. As he declined the offered naval +battle, and as, owing to the small numbers of the Roman force, an +attack by land was not to be thought of, nothing remained for the +Roman fleet but to take up its position in like manner at Samos. A +division meanwhile proceeded to Patara on the Lycian coast, partly to +relieve the Rhodians from the very troublesome attacks that were +directed against them from that quarter, partly and chiefly to prevent +the hostile fleet, which Hannibal was expected to bring up, from +entering the Aegean Sea. When the squadron sent against Patara +achieved nothing, the new admiral Lucius Aemilius Regillus, who had +arrived with 20 war-vessels from Rome and had relieved Gaius Livius at +Samos, was so indignant that he proceeded thither with the whole +fleet; his officers with difficulty succeeded, while they were on +their voyage, in making him understand that the primary object was not +the conquest of Patara but the command of the Aegean Sea, and in +inducing him to return to Samos. On the mainland of Asia Minor +Seleucus had in the meanwhile begun the siege of Pergamus, while +Antiochus with his chief army ravaged the Pergamene territory and the +possessions of the Mytilenaeans on the mainland; they hoped to crush +the hated Attalids, before Roman aid appeared. The Roman fleet went +to Elaea and the port of Adramytium to help their ally; but, as the +admiral wanted troops, he accomplished nothing. Pergamus seemed lost; +but the laxity and negligence with which the siege was conducted +allowed Eumenes to throw into the city Achaean auxiliaries under +Diophanes, whose bold and successful sallies compelled the Gallic +mercenaries, whom Antiochus had entrusted with the siege, to raise it. + +In the southern waters too the projects of Antiochus were frustrated. +The fleet equipped and led by Hannibal, after having been long +detained by the constant westerly winds, attempted at length to reach +the Aegean; but at the mouth of the Eurymedon, off Aspendus in +Pamphylia, it encountered a Rhodian squadron under Eudamus; and in the +battle, which ensued between the two fleets, the excellence of the +Rhodian ships and naval officers carried the victory over Hannibal's +tactics and his numerical superiority. It was the first naval battle, +and the last battle against Rome, fought by the great Carthaginian. +The victorious Rhodian fleet then took its station at Patara, and +there prevented the intended junction of the two Asiatic fleets. In +the Aegean Sea the Romano-Rhodian fleet at Samos, after being weakened +by detaching the Pergamene ships to the Hellespont to support the land +army which had arrived there, was in its turn attacked by that of +Polyxenidas, who now numbered nine sail more than his opponents. On +December 23 of the uncorrected calendar, according to the corrected +calendar about the end of August, in 564, a battle took place at the +promontory of Myonnesus between Teos and Colophon; the Romans broke +through the line of the enemy, and totally surrounded the left wing, +so that they took or sank 42 ships. An inscription in Saturnian verse +over the temple of the Lares Permarini, which was built in the Campus +Martius in memory of this victory, for many centuries thereafter +proclaimed to the Romans how the fleet of the Asiatics had been +defeated before the eyes of king Antiochus and of all his land army, +and how the Romans thus "settled the mighty strife and subdued the +kings." Thenceforth the enemy's ships no longer ventured to show +themselves on the open sea, and made no further attempt to obstruct +the crossing of the Roman land army. + +Expedition to Asia + +The conqueror of Zama had been selected at Rome to conduct the war on +the Asiatic continent; he practically exercised the supreme command +for the nominal commander-in-chief, his brother Lucius Scipio, whose +intellect was insignificant, and who had no military capacity. The +reserve hitherto stationed in Lower Italy was destined for Greece, the +army of Glabrio for Asia: when it became known who was to command it, +5000 veterans from the Hannibalic war voluntarily enrolled, to fight +once more under their beloved leader. In the Roman July, but +according to the true time in March, the Scipios arrived at the army +to commence the Asiatic campaign; but they were disagreeably surprised +to find themselves instead involved, in the first instance, in an +endless struggle with the desperate Aetolians. The senate, finding +that Flamininus pushed his boundless consideration for the Hellenes +too far, had left the Aetolians to choose between paying an utterly +exorbitant war contribution and unconditional surrender, and thus had +driven them anew to arms; none could tell when this warfare among +mountains and strongholds would come to an end. Scipio got rid +of the inconvenient obstacle by concerting a six-months' armistice, +and then entered on his march to Asia. As the one fleet of the enemy +was only blockaded in the Aegean Sea, and the other, which was coming +up from the south, might daily arrive there in spite of the squadron +charged to intercept it, it seemed advisable to take the land route +through Macedonia and Thrace and to cross the Hellespont. In that +direction no real obstacles were to be anticipated; for Philip of +Macedonia might be entirely depended on, Prusias king of Bithynia was +in alliance with the Romans, and the Roman fleet could easily +establish itself in the straits. The long and weary march along the +coast of Macedonia and Thrace was accomplished without material loss; +Philip made provision on the one hand for supplying their wants, on +the other for their friendly reception by the Thracian barbarians. +They had lost so much time however, partly with the Aetolians, partly +on the march, that the army only reached the Thracian Chersonese about +the time of the battle of Myonnesus. But the marvellous good fortune +of Scipio now in Asia, as formerly in Spain and Africa, cleared his +path of all difficulties. + +Passage of the Hellespont by the Romans + +On the news of the battle at Myonnesus Antiochus so completely lost +his judgment, that in Europe he caused the strongly-garrisoned and +well-provisioned fortress of Lysimachia to be evacuated by the +garrison and by the inhabitants who were faithfully devoted to the +restorer of their city, and withal even forgot to withdraw in like +manner the garrisons or to destroy the rich magazines at Aenus and +Maronea; and on the Asiatic coast he opposed not the slightest +resistance to the landing of the Romans, but on the contrary, while +it was taking place, spent his time at Sardes in upbraiding destiny. +It is scarcely doubtful that, had he but provided for the defence of +Lysimachia down to the no longer distant close of the summer, and +moved forward his great army to the Hellespont, Scipio would have +been compelled to take up winter quarters on the European shore, +in a position far from being, in a military or political point +of view, secure. + +While the Romans, after disembarking on the Asiatic shore, paused for +some days to refresh themselves and to await their leader who was +detained behind by religious duties, ambassadors from the great-king +arrived in their camp to negotiate for peace. Antiochus offered half +the expenses of the war, and the cession of his European possessions +as well as of all the Greek cities in Asia Minor that had gone over to +Rome; but Scipio demanded the whole costs of the war and the surrender +of all Asia Minor. The former terms, he declared, might have been +accepted, had the army still been before Lysimachia, or even on the +European side of the Hellespont; but they did not suffice now, when +the steed felt the bit and knew its rider. The attempts of the great- +king to purchase peace from his antagonist after the Oriental manner +by sums of money--he offered the half of his year's revenues!--failed +as they deserved; the proud burgess, in return for the gratuitous +restoration of his son who had fallen a captive, rewarded the great- +king with the friendly advice to make peace on any terms. This was +not in reality necessary: had the king possessed the resolution to +prolong the war and to draw the enemy after him by retreating into the +interior, a favourable issue was still by no means impossible. But +Antiochus, irritated by the presumably intentional arrogance of his +antagonist, and too indolent for any persevering and consistent +warfare, hastened with the utmost eagerness to expose his unwieldy, +but unequal, and undisciplined mass of an army to the shock of the +Roman legions. + +Battle of Magnesia + +In the valley of the Hermus, near Magnesia at the foot of Mount +Sipylus not far from Smyrna, the Roman troops fell in with the enemy +late in the autumn of 564. The force of Antiochus numbered close on +80,000 men, of whom 12,000 were cavalry; the Romans--who had along +with them about 5000 Achaeans, Pergamenes, and Macedonian volunteers +--had not nearly half that number, but they were so sure of victory, +that they did not even wait for the recovery of their general who had +remained behind sick at Elaea; Gnaeus Domitius took the command in his +stead. Antiochus, in order to be able even to place his immense mass +of troops, formed two divisions. In the first were placed the mass of +the light troops, the peltasts, bowmen, slingers, the mounted archers +of Mysians, Dahae, and Elymaeans, the Arabs on their dromedaries, and +the scythe-chariots. In the second division the heavy cavalry (the +Cataphractae, a sort of cuirassiers) were stationed on the flanks; +next to these, in the intermediate division, the Gallic and +Cappadocian infantry; and in the very centre the phalanx armed after +the Macedonian fashion, 16,000 strong, the flower of the army, which, +however, had not room in the narrow space and had to be drawn up in +double files 32 deep. In the space between the two divisions were +placed 54 elephants, distributed between the bands of the phalanx and +of the heavy cavalry. The Romans stationed but a few squadrons on the +left wing, where the river gave protection; the mass of the cavalry +and all the light armed were placed on the right, which was led by +Eumenes; the legions stood in the centre. Eumenes began the battle by +despatching his archers and slingers against the scythe-chariots with +orders to shoot at the teams; in a short time not only were these +thrown into disorder, but the camel-riders stationed next to them were +also carried away, and even in the second division the left wing of +heavy cavalry placed behind fell into confusion. Eumenes now threw +himself with all the Roman cavalry, numbering 3000 horse, on the +mercenary infantry, which was placed in the second division between +the phalanx and the left wing of heavy cavalry, and, when these gave +way, the cuirassiers who had already fallen into disorder also fled. +The phalanx, which had just allowed the light troops to pass through +and was preparing to advance against the Roman legions, was hampered +by the attack of the cavalry in flank, and compelled to stand still +and to form front on both sides--a movement which the depth of its +disposition favoured. Had the heavy Asiatic cavalry been at hand, the +battle might have been restored; but the left wing was shattered, and +the right, led by Antiochus in person, had driven before it the little +division of Roman cavalry opposed to it, and had reached the Roman +camp, which was with great difficulty defended from its attack. In +this way the cavalry were at the decisive moment absent from the scene +of action. The Romans were careful not to assail the phalanx with +their legions, but sent against it the archers and slingers, not one +of whose missiles failed to take effect on the densely-crowded mass. +The phalanx nevertheless retired slowly and in good order, till the +elephants stationed in the interstices became frightened and broke the +ranks. Then the whole army dispersed in tumultuous flight; an attempt +to hold the camp failed, and only increased the number of the dead and +the prisoners. The estimate of the loss of Antiochus at 50,000 men +is, considering the infinite confusion, not incredible; the legions of +the Romans had never been engaged, and the victory, which gave them a +third continent, cost them 24 horsemen and 300 foot soldiers. Asia +Minor submitted; including even Ephesus, whence the admiral had +hastily to withdraw his fleet, and Sardes the residence of the court. + +Conclusion of Peace +Expedition against the Celts of Asia Minor +Regulation of the Affairs of Asia Minor + +The king sued for peace and consented to the terms proposed by the +Romans, which, as usual, were just the same as those offered before +the battle and consequently included the cession of Asia Minor. Till +they were ratified, the army remained in Asia Minor at the expense of +the king; which came to cost him not less than 3000 talents (730,000 +pounds). Antiochus himself in his careless fashion soon consoled +himself for the loss of half his kingdom; it was in keeping with his +character, that he declared himself grateful to the Romans for saving +him the trouble of governing too large an empire. But with the day of +Magnesia Asia was erased from the list of great states; and never +perhaps did a great power fall so rapidly, so thoroughly, and so +ignominiously as the kingdom of the Seleucidae under this Antiochus +the Great. He himself was soon afterwards (567) slain by the +indignant inhabitants of Elymais at the head of the Persian gulf, on +occasion of pillaging the temple of Bel, with the treasures of which +he had sought to replenish his empty coffers. + +The Roman government, after having achieved the victory, had to +arrange the affairs of Asia Minor and of Greece. If the Roman rule +was here to be erected on a firm foundation, it was by no means enough +that Antiochus should have renounced the supremacy in the west of Asia +Minor. The circumstances of the political situation there have been +set forth above.(6) The Greek free cities on the Ionian and Aeolian +coast, as well as the kingdom of Pergamus of a substantially similar +nature, were certainly the natural pillars of the new Roman supreme +power, which here too came forward essentially as protector of the +Hellenes kindred in race. But the dynasts in the interior of Asia +Minor and on the north coast of the Black Sea had hardly yielded for +long any serious obedience to the kings of Asia, and the treaty with +Antiochus alone gave to the Romans no power over the interior. It was +indispensable to draw a certain line within which the Roman influence +was henceforth to exercise control. Here the element of chief +importance was the relation of the Asiatic Hellenes to the Celts who +had been for a century settled there. These had formally apportioned +among them the regions of Asia Minor, and each one of the three +cantons raised its fixed tribute from the territory laid under +contribution. Doubtless the burgesses of Pergamus, under the vigorous +guidance of their presidents who had thereby become hereditary +princes, had rid themselves of the unworthy yoke; and the fair +afterbloom of Hellenic art, which had recently emerged afresh from the +soil, had grown out of these last Hellenic wars sustained by a +national public spirit. But it was a vigorous counterblow, not a +decisive success; again and again the Pergamenes had to defend with +arms their urban peace against the raids of the wild hordes from the +eastern mountains, and the great majority of the other Greek cities +probably remained in their old state of dependence.(7) + +If the protectorate of Rome over the Hellenes was to be in Asia more +than a name, an end had to be put to this tributary obligation of +their new clients; and, as the Roman policy at this time declined, +much more even in Asia than on the Graeco-Macedonian peninsula, the +possession of the country on its own behalf and the permanent +occupation therewith connected, there was no course in fact left but +to carry the arms of Rome up to the limit which was to be staked off +for the domain of Rome's power, and effectively to inaugurate the new +supremacy among the inhabitants of Asia Minor generally, and above all +in the Celtic cantons. + +This was done by the new Roman commander-in-chief, Gnaeus Manlius +Volso, who relieved Lucius Scipio in Asia Minor. He was subjected +to severe reproach on this score; the men in the senate who were +averse to the new turn of policy failed to see either the aim, or +the pretext, for such a war. There is no warrant for the former +objection, as directed against this movement in particular; it +was on the contrary, after the Roman state had once interfered +in Hellenic affairs as it had done, a necessary consequence of this +policy. Whether it was the right course for Rome to undertake the +protectorate over the Hellenes collectively, may certainly be called +in question; but regarded from the point of view which Flamininus +and the majority led by him had now taken up, the overthrow of the +Galatians was in fact a duty of prudence as well as of honour. Better +founded was the objection that there was not at the time a proper +ground of war against them; for they had not been, strictly speaking, +in alliance with Antiochus, but had only according to their wont +allowed him to levy hired troops in their country. But on the other +side there fell the decisive consideration, that the sending of a +Roman military force to Asia could only be demanded of the Roman +burgesses under circumstances altogether extraordinary, and, if once +such an expedition was necessary, everything told in favour of +carrying it out at once and with the victorious army that was now +stationed in Asia. So, doubtless under the influence of Flamininus +and of those who shared his views in the senate, the campaign into +the interior of Asia Minor was undertaken in the spring of 565. The +consul started from Ephesus, levied contributions from the towns and +princes on the upper Maeander and in Pamphylia without measure, and +then turned northwards against the Celts. Their western canton, the +Tolistoagii, had retired with their belongings to Mount Olympus, and +the middle canton, the Tectosages, to Mount Magaba, in the hope that +they would be able there to defend themselves till the winter should +compel the strangers to withdraw. But the missiles of the Roman +slingers and archers--which so often turned the scale against the +Celts unacquainted with such weapons, almost as in more recent times +firearms have turned the scale against savage tribes--forced the +heights, and the Celts succumbed in a battle, such as had often its +parallels before and after on the Po and on the Seine, but here +appears as singular as the whole phenomenon of this northern race +emerging amidst the Greek and Phrygian nations. The number of the +slain was at both places enormous, and still greater that of the +captives. The survivors escaped over the Halys to the third Celtic +canton of the Trocmi, which the consul did not attack. That river was +the limit at which the leaders of Roman policy at that time had +resolved to halt. Phrygia, Bithynia, and Paphlagonia were to +become dependent on Rome; the regions lying farther to the east +were left to themselves. + +The affairs of Asia Minor were regulated partly by the peace with +Antiochus (565), partly by the ordinances of a Roman commission +presided over by the consul Volso. Antiochus had to furnish hostages, +one of whom was his younger son of the same name, and to pay a war- +contribution--proportional in amount to the treasures of Asia--of +15,000 Euboic talents (3,600,000 pounds), a fifth of which was to be +paid at once, and the remainder in twelve yearly instalments. He was +called, moreover, to cede all the lands which he possessed in Europe +and, in Asia Minor, all his possessions and claims of right to the +north of the range of the Taurus and to the west of the mouth of the +Cestrus between Aspendus and Perga in Pamphylia, so that he retained +nothing in Asia Minor but eastern Pamphylia and Cilicia. His +protectorate over its kingdoms and principalities of course ceased. +Asia, or, as the kingdom of the Seleucids was thenceforth usually and +more appropriately named, Syria, lost the right of waging aggressive +wars against the western states, and in the event of a defensive war, +of acquiring territory from them on the conclusion of peace; lost, +moreover, the right of navigating the sea to the west of the mouth of +the Calycadnus in Cilicia with vessels of war, except for the +conveyance of envoys, hostages, or tribute; was further prevented from +keeping more than ten decked vessels in all, except in the case of a +defensive war, from taming war-elephants, and lastly from the levying +of mercenaries in the western states, or receiving political refugees +and deserters from them at court. The war vessels which he possessed +beyond the prescribed number, the elephants, and the political +refugees who had sought shelter with him, he delivered up. By way of +compensation the great-king received the title of a friend of the +Roman commonwealth. The state of Syria was thus by land and sea +completely and for ever dislodged from the west; it is a significant +indication of the feeble and loose organization of the kingdom of the +Seleucidae, that it alone, of all the great states conquered by Rome +never after the first conquest desired a second appeal to the decision +of arms. + +Armenia + +The two Armenias, hitherto at least nominally Asiatic satrapies, +became transformed, if not exactly in pursuance with the Roman treaty +of peace, yet under its influence into independent kingdoms; and their +holders, Artaxias and Zariadris, became founders of new dynasties. + +Cappadocia + +Ariarathes, king of Cappadocia, whose land lay beyond the boundary +laid down by the Romans for their protectorate, escaped with a money- +fine of 600 talents (146,000 pounds); which was afterwards, on the +intercession of his son-in-law Eumenes, abated to half that sum. + +Bithynia + +Prusias, king of Bithynia, retained his territory as it stood, and so +did the Celts; but they were obliged to promise that they would no +longer send armed bands beyond their bounds, and the disgraceful +payments of tribute by the cities of Asia Minor came to an end. The +Asiatic Greeks did not fail to repay the benefit--which was certainly +felt as a general and permanent one--with golden chaplets and +transcendental panegyrics. + +The Free Greek Cities + +In the western portion of Asia Minor the regulation of the territorial +arrangements was not without difficulty, especially as the dynastic +policy of Eumenes there came into collision with that of the Greek +Hansa. At last an understanding was arrived at to the following +effect. All the Greek cities, which were free and had joined the +Romans on the day of the battle of Magnesia, had their liberties +confirmed, and all of them, excepting those previously tributary to +Eumenes, were relieved from the payment of tribute to the different +dynasts for the future. In this way the towns of Dardanus and Ilium, +whose ancient affinity with the Romans was traced to the times of +Aeneas, became free, along with Cyme, Smyrna, Clazomenae, Erythrae, +Chios, Colophon, Miletus, and other names of old renown. Phocaea +also, which in spite of its capitulation had been plundered by +the soldiers of the Roman fleet--although it did not fall under +the category designated in the treaty--received back by way of +compensation its territory and its freedom. Most of the cities of +the Graeco-Asiatic Hansa acquired additions of territory and other +advantages. Rhodes of course received most consideration; it obtained +Lycia exclusive of Telmissus, and the greater part of Caria south of +the Maeander; besides, Antiochus guaranteed the property and the +claims of the Rhodians within his kingdom, as well as the exemption +from customs-dues which they had hitherto enjoyed. + +Extension of the Kingdom of Pergamus + +All the rest, forming by far the largest share of the spoil, fell to +the Attalids, whose ancient fidelity to Rome, as well as the hardships +endured by Eumenes in the war and his personal merit in connection +with the issue of the decisive battle, were rewarded by Rome as no +king ever rewarded his ally. Eumenes received, in Europe, the +Chersonese with Lysimachia; in Asia--in addition to Mysia which he +already possessed--the provinces of Phrygia on the Hellespont, Lydia +with Ephesus and Sardes, the northern district of Caria as far as the +Maeander with Tralles and Magnesia, Great Phrygia and Lycaonia along +with a portion of Cilicia, the district of Milyas between Phrygia and +Lycia, and, as a port on the southern sea, the Lycian town Telmissus. +There was a dispute afterwards between Eumenes and Antiochus regarding +Pamphylia, as to how far it lay on this side of or beyond the +prescribed boundary, and accordingly belonged to the former or to the +latter. He further acquired the protectorate over, and the right of +receiving tribute from, those Greek cities which did not receive +absolute freedom; but it was stipulated in this case that the cities +should retain their charters, and that the tribute should not be +heightened. Moreover, Antiochus had to bind himself to pay to Eumenes +the 350 talents (85,000 pounds) which he owed to his father Attalus, +and likewise to pay a compensation of 127 talents (31,000 pounds) for +arrears in the supplies of corn. Lastly, Eumenes obtained the royal +forests and the elephants delivered up by Antiochus, but not the ships +of war, which were burnt: the Romans tolerated no naval power by the +side of their own. By these means the kingdom of the Attalids became +in the east of Europe and Asia what Numidia was in Africa, a powerful +state with an absolute constitution dependent on Rome, destined and +able to keep in check both Macedonia and Syria without needing, except +in extraordinary cases, Roman support. With this creation dictated by +policy the Romans had as far as possible combined the liberation of +the Asiatic Greeks, which was dictated by republican and national +sympathy and by vanity. About the affairs of the more remote east +beyond the Taurus and Halys they were firmly resolved to give +themselves no concern. This is clearly shown by the terms of the +peace with Antiochus, and still more decidedly by the peremptory +refusal of the senate to guarantee to the town of Soli in Cilicia the +freedom which the Rhodians requested for it. With equal fidelity they +adhered to the fixed principle of acquiring no direct transmarine +possessions. After the Roman fleet had made an expedition to Crete +and had accomplished the release of the Romans sold thither into +slavery, the fleet and land army left Asia towards the end of the +summer of 566; on which occasion the land army, which again marched +through Thrace, in consequence of the negligence of the general +suffered greatly on the route from the attacks of the barbarians. +The Romans brought nothing home from the east but honour and gold, +both of which were already at this period usually conjoined in the +practical shape assumed by the address of thanks--the golden chaplet. + +Settlement of Greece +Conflicts and Peace with the Aetolians + +European Greece also had been agitated by this Asiatic war, and needed +reorganization. The Aetolians, who had not yet learned to reconcile +themselves to their insignificance, had, after the armistice concluded +with Scipio in the spring of 564, rendered intercourse between Greece +and Italy difficult and unsafe by means of their Cephallenian +corsairs; and not only so, but even perhaps while the armistice yet +lasted, they, deceived by false reports as to the state of things in +Asia, had the folly to place Amynander once more on his Athamanian +throne, and to carry on a desultory warfare with Philip in the +districts occupied by him on the borders of Aetolia and Thessaly, in +the course of which Philip suffered several discomfitures. After +this, as a matter of course, Rome replied to their request for peace +by the landing of the consul Marcus Fulvius Nobilior. He arrived +among the legions in the spring of 565, and after fifteen days' siege +gained possession of Ambracia by a capitulation honourable for the +garrison; while simultaneously the Macedonians, Illyrians, Epirots, +Acarnanians, and Achaeans fell upon the Aetolians. There was no such +thing as resistance in the strict sense; after repeated entreaties of +the Aetolians for peace the Romans at length desisted from the war, +and granted conditions which must be termed reasonable when viewed +with reference to such pitiful and malicious opponents. The Aetolians +lost all cities and territories which were in the hands of their +adversaries, more especially Ambracia which afterwards became free and +independent in consequence of an intrigue concocted in Rome against +Marcus Fulvius, and Oenia which was given to the Acarnanians: they +likewise ceded Cephallenia. They lost the right of making peace and +war, and were in that respect dependent on the foreign relations of +Rome. Lastly, they paid a large sum of money. Cephallenia opposed +this treaty on its own account, and only submitted when Marcus Fulvius +landed on the island. In fact, the inhabitants of Same, who feared +that they would be dispossessed from their well-situated town by a +Roman colony, revolted after their first submission and sustained a +four months' siege; the town, however, was finally taken and the whole +inhabitants were sold into slavery. + +Macedonia + +In this case also Rome adhered to the principle of confining herself +to Italy and the Italian islands. She took no portion of the spoil +for herself, except the two islands of Cephallenia and Zacynthus, +which formed a desirable supplement to the possession of Corcyra and +other naval stations in the Adriatic. The rest of the territorial +gain went to the allies of Rome. But the two most important of these, +Philip and the Achaeans, were by no means content with the share of +the spoil granted to them. Philip felt himself aggrieved, and not +without reason. He might safely say that the chief difficulties +in the last war--difficulties which arose not from the character +of the enemy, but from the distance and the uncertainty of the +communications--had been overcome mainly by his loyal aid. The senate +recognized this by remitting his arrears of tribute and sending back +his hostages; but he did not receive those additions to his territory +which he expected. He got the territory of the Magnetes, with +Demetrias which he had taken from the Aetolians; besides, there +practically remained in his hands the districts of Dolopia and +Athamania and a part of Thessaly, from which also the Aetolians had +been expelled by him. In Thrace the interior remained under +Macedonian protection, but nothing was fixed as to the coast towns +and the islands of Thasos and Lemnos which were -de facto- in Philip's +hands, while the Chersonese was even expressly given to Eumenes; and +it was not difficult to see that Eumenes received possessions in +Europe, simply that he might in case of need keep not only Asia but +Macedonia in check. The exasperation of the proud and in many +respects chivalrous king was natural; it was not chicane, however, +but an unavoidable political necessity that induced the Romans to take +this course. Macedonia suffered for having once been a power of the +first rank, and for having waged war on equal terms with Rome; there +was much better reason in her case than in that of Carthage for +guarding against the revival of her old powerful position. + +The Achaeans + +It was otherwise with the Achaeans. They had, in the course of the +war with Antiochus, gratified their long-cherished wish to bring the +whole Peloponnesus into their confederacy; for first Sparta, and then, +after the expulsion of the Asiatics from Greece, Elis and Messene had +more or less reluctantly joined it. The Romans had allowed this to +take place, and had even tolerated the intentional disregard of Rome +which marked their proceedings. When Messene declared that she wished +to submit to the Romans but not to enter the confederacy, and the +latter thereupon employed force, Flamininus had not failed to remind +the Achaeans that such separate arrangements as to the disposal of a +part of the spoil were in themselves unjust, and were, in the relation +in which the Achaeans stood to the Romans, more than unseemly; and yet +in his very impolitic complaisance towards the Hellenes he had +substantially done what the Achaeans willed. But the matter did not +end there. The Achaeans, tormented by their dwarfish thirst for +aggrandizement, would not relax their hold on the town of Pleuron in +Aetolia which they had occupied during the war, but on the contrary +made it an involuntary member of their confederacy; they bought +Zacynthus from Amynander the lieutenant of the last possessor, and +would gladly have acquired Aegina also. It was with reluctance that +they gave up the former island to Rome, and they heard with great +displeasure the good advice of Flamininus that they should content +themselves with their Peloponnesus. + +The Achaean Patriots + +The Achaeans believed it their duty to display the independence of +their state all the more, the less they really had; they talked of the +rights of war, and of the faithful aid of the Achaeans in the wars of +the Romans; they asked the Roman envoys at the Achaean diet why Rome +should concern herself about Messene when Achaia put no questions as +to Capua; and the spirited patriot, who had thus spoken, was applauded +and was sure of votes at the elections. All this would have been very +right and very dignified, had it not been much more ridiculous. There +was a profound justice and a still more profound melancholy in the +fact, that Rome, however earnestly she endeavoured to establish the +freedom and to earn the thanks of the Hellenes, yet gave them nothing +but anarchy and reaped nothing but ingratitude. Undoubtedly very +generous sentiments lay at the bottom of the Hellenic antipathies to +the protecting power, and the personal bravery of some of the men who +took the lead in the movement was unquestionable; but this Achaean +patriotism remained not the less a folly and a genuine historical +caricature. With all that ambition and all that national +susceptibility the whole nation was, from the highest to the lowest, +pervaded by the most thorough sense of impotence. Every one was +constantly listening to learn the sentiments of Rome, the liberal +man no less than the servile; they thanked heaven, when the dreaded +decree was not issued; they were sulky, when the senate gave them to +understand that they would do well to yield voluntarily in order that +they might not need to be compelled; they did what they were obliged +to do, if possible, in a way offensive to the Romans, "to save forms"; +they reported, explained, postponed, evaded, and, when all this would +no longer avail, yielded with a patriotic sigh. Their proceedings +might have claimed indulgence at any rate, if not approval, had their +leaders been resolved to fight, and had they preferred the destruction +of the nation to its bondage; but neither Philopoemen nor Lycortas +thought of any such political suicide--they wished, if possible, +to be free, but they wished above all to live. Besides all this, the +dreaded intervention of Rome in the internal affairs of Greece was not +the arbitrary act of the Romans, but was always invoked by the Greeks +themselves, who, like boys, brought down on their own heads the rod +which they feared. The reproach repeated -ad nauseam- by the erudite +rabble in Hellenic and post-Hellenic times--that the Romans had been +at pains to stir up internal discord in Greece--is one of the most +foolish absurdities which philologues dealing in politics have ever +invented. It was not the Romans that carried strife to Greece--which +in truth would have been "carrying owls to Athens"--but the Greeks +that carried their dissensions to Rome. + +Quarrels between Achaeans and Spartans + +The Achaeans in particular, who, in their eagerness to round their +territory, wholly failed to see how much it would have been for their +own good that Flamininus had not incorporated the towns of Aetolian +sympathies with their league, acquired in Lacedaemon and Messene a +very hydra of intestine strife. Members of these communities were +incessantly at Rome, entreating and beseeching to be released from the +odious connection; and amongst them, characteristically enough, were +even those who were indebted to the Achaeans for their return to their +native land. The Achaean league was incessantly occupied in the work +of reformation and restoration at Sparta and Messene; the wildest +refugees from these quarters determined the measures of the diet. +Four years after the nominal admission of Sparta to the confederacy +matters came even to open war and to an insanely thorough restoration, +in which all the slaves on whom Nabis had conferred citizenship were +once more sold into slavery, and a colonnade was built from the +proceeds in the Achaean city of Megalopolis; the old state of property +in Sparta was re-established, the of Lycurgus were superseded by +Achaean laws, and the walls were pulled down (566). At last the Roman +senate was summoned by all parties to arbitrate on all these doings +--an annoying task, which was the righteous punishment of the +sentimental policy that the senate had pursued. Far from mixing +itself up too much in these affairs, the senate not only bore the +sarcasms of Achaean candour with exemplary composure, but even +manifested a culpable indifference while the worst outrages were +committed. There was cordial rejoicing in Achaia when, after that +restoration, the news arrived from Rome that the senate had found +fault with it, but had not annulled it. Nothing was done for the +Lacedaemonians by Rome, except that the senate, shocked at the +judicial murder of from sixty to eighty Spartans committed by the +Achaeans, deprived the diet of criminal jurisdiction over the +Spartans--truly a heinous interference with the internal affairs of +an independent state! The Roman statesmen gave themselves as little +concern as possible about this tempest in a nut-shell, as is best +shown by the many complaints regarding the superficial, contradictory, +and obscure decisions of the senate; in fact, how could its decisions +be expected to be clear, when there were four parties from Sparta +simultaneously speaking against each other at its bar? Add to this +the personal impression, which most of these Peloponnesian statesmen +produced in Rome; even Flamininus shook his head, when one of them +showed him on the one day how to perform some dance, and on the next +entertained him with affairs of state. Matters went so far, that the +senate at last lost patience and informed the Peloponnesians that it +would no longer listen to them, and that they might do what they chose +(572). This was natural enough, but it was not right; situated as +the Romans were, they were under a moral and political obligation +earnestly and steadfastly to rectify this melancholy state of things. +Callicrates the Achaean, who went to the senate in 575 to enlighten +it as to the state of matters in the Peloponnesus and to demand a +consistent and calm intervention, may have had somewhat less worth as +a man than his countryman Philopoemen who was the main founder of that +patriotic policy; but he was in the right. + +Death of Hannibal + +Thus the protectorate of the Roman community now embraced all the +states from the eastern to the western end of the Mediterranean. +There nowhere existed a state that the Romans would have deemed it +worth while to fear. But there still lived a man to whom Rome +accorded this rare honour--the homeless Carthaginian, who had +raised in arms against Rome first all the west and then all the east, +and whose schemes perhaps had been only frustrated by infamous +aristocratic policy in the former case, and by stupid court policy in +the latter. Antiochus had been obliged to bind himself in the treaty +of peace to deliver up Hannibal; but the latter had escaped, first to +Crete, then to Bithynia,(8) and now lived at the court of Prusias king +of Bithynia, employed in aiding the latter in his wars with Eumenes, +and victorious as ever by sea and by land. It is affirmed that he was +desirous of stirring up Prusias also to make war on Rome; a folly, +which, as it is told, sounds very far from credible. It is more +certain that, while the Roman senate deemed it beneath its dignity to +have the old man hunted out in his last asylum--for the tradition +which inculpates the senate appears to deserve no credit--Flamininus, +whose restless vanity sought after new opportunities for great +achievements, undertook on his own part to deliver Rome from Hannibal +as he had delivered the Greeks from their chains, and, if not to +wield--which was not diplomatic--at any rate to whet and to point, +the dagger against the greatest man of his time. Prusias, the most +pitiful among the pitiful princes of Asia, was delighted to grant the +little favour which the Roman envoy in ambiguous terms requested; and, +when Hannibal saw his house beset by assassins, he took poison. He +had long been prepared to do so, adds a Roman, for he knew the Romans +and the word of kings. The year of his death is uncertain; probably +he died in the latter half of the year 571, at the age of sixty-seven. +When he was born, Rome was contending with doubtful success for the +possession of Sicily; he had lived long enough to see the West wholly +subdued, and to fight his own last battle with the Romans against the +vessels of his native city which had itself become Roman; and he was +constrained at last to remain a mere spectator, while Rome overpowered +the East as the tempest overpowers the ship that has no one at the +helm, and to feel that he alone was the pilot that could have +weathered the storm. There was left to him no further hope to be +disappointed, when he died; but he had honestly, through fifty years +of struggle, kept the oath which he had sworn when a boy. + +Death of Scipio + +About the same time, probably in the same year, died also the man whom +the Romans were wont to call his conqueror, Publius Scipio. On him +fortune had lavished all the successes which she denied to his +antagonist--successes which did belong to him, and successes which did +not. He had added to the empire Spain, Africa, and Asia; and Rome, +which he had found merely the first community of Italy, was at his +death mistress of the civilized world. He himself had so many titles +of victory, that some of them were made over to his brother and his +cousin.(9) And yet he too spent his last years in bitter vexation, +and died when little more than fifty years of age in voluntary +banishment, leaving orders to his relatives not to bury his remains +in the city for which he had lived and in which his ancestors reposed. +It is not exactly known what drove him from the city. The charges of +corruption and embezzlement, which were directed against him and still +more against his brother Lucius, were beyond doubt empty calumnies, +which do not sufficiently explain such bitterness of feeling; although +it is characteristic of the man, that instead of simply vindicating +himself by means of his account-books, he tore them in pieces in +presence of the people and of his accusers, and summoned the Romans +to accompany him to the temple of Jupiter and to celebrate the +anniversary of his victory at Zama. The people left the accuser on +the spot, and followed Scipio to the Capitol; but this was the last +glorious day of the illustrious man. His proud spirit, his belief +that he was different from, and better than, other men, his very +decided family-policy, which in the person of his brother Lucius +especially brought forward a clumsy man of straw as a hero, gave +offence to many, and not without reason. While genuine pride protects +the heart, arrogance lays it open to every blow and every sarcasm, and +corrodes even an originally noble-minded spirit. It is throughout, +moreover, the distinguishing characteristic of such natures as that of +Scipio--strange mixtures of genuine gold and glittering tinsel--that +they need the good fortune and the brilliance of youth in order +to exercise their charm, and, when this charm begins to fade, it is +the charmer himself that is most painfully conscious of the change. + + + + +Notes for Chapter IX + + +1. According to a recently discovered decree of the town of Lampsacus +(-Mitth, des arch. Inst, in Athen-, vi. 95) the Lampsacenes after the +defeat of Philip sent envoys to the Roman senate with the request that +the town might be embraced in the treaty concluded between Rome and +(Philip) the king (--opos sumperilephthomen [en tais sunthekais] tais +genomenais Pomaiois pros ton [basilea]--), which the senate, at least +according to the view of the petitioners, granted to them and referred +them, as regarded other matters, to Flamininus and the ten envoys. +From the latter they then obtain in Corinth a guarantee of their +constitution and "letters to the kings." Flamininus also gives to them +similar letters; of their contents we learn nothing more particular, +than that in the decree the embassy is described as successful. But +if the senate and Flamininus had formally and positively guaranteed +the autonomy and democracy of the Lampsacenes, the decree would hardly +dwell so much at length on the courteous answers, which the Roman +commanders, who had been appealed to on the way for their intercession +with the senate, gave to the envoys. + +Other remarkable points in this document are the "brotherhood" of the +Lampsacenes and the Romans, certainly going back to the Trojan legend, +and the mediation, invoked by the former with success, of the allies +and friends of Rome, the Massiliots, who were connected with the +Lampsacenes through their common mother-city Phocaea. + +2. The definite testimony of Hieronymus, who places the betrothal of +the Syrian princess Cleopatra with Ptolemy Epiphanes in 556, taken in +connection with the hints in Liv. xxxiii. 40 and Appian. Syr. 3, and +with the actual accomplishment of the marriage in 561, puts it beyond +a doubt that the interference of the Romans in the affairs of Egypt +was in this case formally uncalled for. + +3. For this we have the testimony of Polybius (xxviii. i), which the +sequel of the history of Judaea completely confirms; Eusebius (p. 117, +-Mai-) is mistaken in making Philometor ruler of Syria. We certainly +find that about 567 farmers of the Syrian taxes made their payments at +Alexandria (Joseph, xii. 4, 7); but this doubtless took place without +detriment to the rights of sovereignty, simply because the dowry of +Cleopatra constituted a charge on those revenues; and from this very +circumstance presumably arose the subsequent dispute. + +4. II. VII. Submission of Lower Italy + +5. III. VII. The Romans Maintain a Standing Army in Spain + +6. III. VIII. The Celts of Asia Minor ff. + +7. From the decree of Lampsacus mentioned at III. IX. Difficulties +with Rome, it appears pretty certain that the Lampsacenes requested +from the Massiliots not merely intercession at Rome, but also +intercession with the Tolistoagii (so the Celts, elsewhere named +Tolistobogi, are designated in this document and in the Pergamene +inscription, C. J. Gr. 3536,--the oldest monuments which mention +them). Accordingly the Lampsacenes were probably still about the +time of the wax with Philip tributary to this canton (comp. Liv. +xxxviii. 16). + +8. The story that he went to Armenia and at the request of king +Artaxias built the town of Artaxata on the Araxes (Strabo, xi. p. 528; +Plutarch, Luc. 31), is certainly a fiction; but it is a striking +circumstance that Hannibal should have become mixed up, almost like +Alexander, with Oriental fables. + +9. Africanus, Asiagenus, Hispallus. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +The Third Macedonian War + +Dissatisfactions of Philip with Rome + +Philip of Macedonia was greatly annoyed by the treatment which he +met with from the Romans after the peace with Antiochus; and the +subsequent course of events was not fitted to appease his wrath. +His neighbours in Greece and Thrace, mostly communities that had once +trembled at the Macedonian name not less than now they trembled at +the Roman, made it their business, as was natural, to retaliate on the +fallen great power for all the injuries which since the times of +Philip the Second they had received at the hands of Macedonia. The +empty arrogance and venal anti-Macedonian patriotism of the Hellenes +of this period found vent at the diets of the different confederacies +and in ceaseless complaints addressed to the Roman senate. Philip had +been allowed by the Romans to retain what he had taken from the +Aetolians; but in Thessaly the confederacy of the Magnetes alone +had formally joined the Aetolians, while those towns which Philip +had wrested from the Aetolians in other two of the Thessalian +confederacies--the Thessalian in its narrower sense, and the +Perrhaebian--were demanded back by their leagues on the ground that +Philip had only liberated these towns, not conquered them. The +Athamahes too believed that they might crave their freedom; and +Eumenes demanded the maritime cities which Antiochus had possessed +in Thrace proper, especially Aenus and Maronea, although in the peace +with Antiochus the Thracian Chersonese alone had been expressly +promised to him. All these complaints and numerous minor ones from +all the neighbours of Philip as to his supporting king Prusias against +Eumenes, as to competition in trade, as to the violation of contracts +and the seizing of cattle, were poured forth at Rome. The king of +Macedonia had to submit to be accused by the sovereign rabble before +the Roman senate, and to accept justice or injustice as the senate +chose; he was compelled to witness judgment constantly going against +him; he had with deep chagrin to withdraw his garrisons from the +Thracian coast and from the Thessalian and Perrhaebian towns, and +courteously to receive the Roman commissioners, who came to see +whether everything required had been carried out in accordance with +instructions. The Romans were not so indignant against Philip as they +had been against Carthage; in fact, they were in many respects even +favourably disposed to the Macedonian ruler; there was not in his case +so reckless a violation of forms as in that of Libya; but the +situation of Macedonia was at bottom substantially the same as that of +Carthage. Philip, however, was by no means the man to submit to this +infliction with Phoenician patience. Passionate as he was, he had +after his defeat been more indignant with the faithless ally than with +the honourable antagonist; and, long accustomed to pursue a policy not +Macedonian but personal, he had seen in the war with Antiochus simply +an excellent opportunity of instantaneously revenging himself on the +ally who had disgracefully deserted and betrayed him. This object he +had attained; but the Romans, who saw very clearly that the Macedonian +was influenced not by friendship for Rome, but by enmity to Antiochus, +and who moreover were by no means in the habit of regulating their +policy by such feelings of liking and disliking, had carefully +abstained from bestowing any material advantages on Philip, and had +preferred to confer their favours on the Attalids. From their first +elevation the Attalids had been at vehement feud with Macedonia, and +were politically and personally the objects of Philip's bitterest +hatred; of all the eastern powers they had contributed most to maim +Macedonia and Syria, and to extend the protectorate of Rome in the +east; and in the last war, when Philip had voluntarily and loyally +embraced the side of Rome, they had been obliged to take the same side +for the sake of their very existence. The Romans had made use of +these Attalids for the purpose of reconstructing in all essential +points the kingdom of Lysimachus--the destruction of which had been +the most important achievement of the Macedonian rulers after +Alexander--and of placing alongside of Macedonia a state, which was +its equal in point of power and was at the same time a client of Rome. +In the special circumstances a wise sovereign, devoted to the +interests of his people, would perhaps have resolved not to resume the +unequal struggle with Rome; but Philip, in whose character the sense +of honour was the most powerful of all noble, and the thirst for +revenge the most potent of all ignoble, motives, was deaf to the voice +of timidity or of resignation, and nourished in the depths of his +heart a determination once more to try the hazard of the game. When +he received the report of fresh invectives, such as were wont to be +launched against Macedonia at the Thessalian diets, he replied with +the line of Theocritus, that his last sun had not yet set.(1) + +The Latter Years of Philip + +Philip displayed in the preparation and the concealment of his designs +a calmness, earnestness, and persistency which, had he shown them in +better times, would perhaps have given a different turn to the +destinies of the world. In particular the submissiveness towards +Rome, by which he purchased the time indispensable for his objects, +formed a severe trial for the fierce and haughty man; nevertheless he +courageously endured it, although his subjects and the innocent +occasions of the quarrel, such as the unfortunate Maronea, paid +severely for the suppression of his resentment. It seemed as if war +could not but break out as early as 571; but by Philip's instructions, +his younger son, Demetrius, effected a reconciliation between his +father and Rome, where he had lived some years as a hostage and was a +great favourite. The senate, and particularly Flamininus who managed +Greek affairs, sought to form in Macedonia a Roman party that would be +able to paralyze the exertions of Philip, which of course were not +unknown to the Romans; and had selected as its head, and perhaps as +the future king of Macedonia, the younger prince who was passionately +attached to Rome. With this purpose in view they gave it clearly to +be understood that the senate forgave the father for the sake of the +son; the natural effect of which was, that dissensions arose in the +royal household itself, and that the king's elder son, Perseus, who, +although the offspring of an unequal marriage, was destined by his +father for the succession, sought to ruin his brother as his future +rival. It does not appear that Demetrius was a party to the Roman +intrigues; it was only when he was falsely suspected that he was +forced to become guilty, and even then he intended, apparently, +nothing more than flight to Rome. But Perseus took care that his +father should be duly informed of this design; an intercepted letter +from Flamininus to Demetrius did the rest, and induced the father to +give orders that his son should be put to death. Philip learned, when +it was too late, the intrigues which Perseus had concocted; and death +overtook him, as he was meditating the punishment of the fratricide +and his exclusion from the throne. He died in 575 at Demetrias, in +his fifty-ninth year. He left behind him a shattered kingdom and a +distracted household, and with a broken heart confessed to himself +that all his toils and all his crimes had been in vain. + +King Perseus + +His son Perseus then entered on the government, without encountering +opposition either in Macedonia or in the Roman senate. He was a man +of stately aspect, expert in all bodily exercises, reared in the camp +and accustomed to command, imperious like his father and unscrupulous +in the choice of his means. Wine and women, which too often led +Philip to forget the duties of government, had no charm for Perseus; +he was as steady and persevering as his father had been fickle and +impulsive. Philip, a king while still a boy, and attended by good +fortune during the first twenty years of his reign, had been spoiled +and ruined by destiny; Perseus ascended the throne in his thirty-first +year, and, as he had while yet a boy borne a part in the unhappy war +with Rome and had grown up under the pressure of humiliation and under +the idea that a revival of the state was at hand, so he inherited +along with the kingdom of his father his troubles, resentments, and +hopes. In fact he entered with the utmost determination on the +continuance of his father's work, and prepared more zealously than +ever for war against Rome; he was stimulated, moreover, by the +reflection, that he was by no means indebted to the goodwill of the +Romans for his wearing the diadem of Macedonia. The proud Macedonian +nation looked with pride upon the prince whom they had been accustomed +to see marching and fighting at the head of their youth; his +countrymen, and many Hellenes of every variety of lineage, conceived +that in him they had found the right general for the impending war of +liberation. But he was not what he seemed. He wanted Philip's +geniality and Philip's elasticity--those truly royal qualities, which +success obscured and tarnished, but which under the purifying power of +adversity recovered their lustre. Philip was self-indulgent, and +allowed things to take their course; but, when there was occasion, he +found within himself the vigour necessary for rapid and earnest +action. Perseus devised comprehensive and subtle plans, and +prosecuted them with unwearied perseverance; but, when the moment +arrived for action and his plans and preparations confronted him in +living reality, he was frightened at his own work. As is the wont of +narrow minds, the means became to him the end; he heaped up treasures +on treasures for war with the Romans, and, when the Romans were in the +land, he was unable to part with his golden pieces. It is a +significant indication of character that after defeat the father first +hastened to destroy the papers in his cabinet that might compromise +him, whereas the son took his treasure-chests and embarked. In +ordinary times he might have made an average king, as good as or +better than many another; but he was not adapted for the conduct of +an enterprise, which was from the first a hopeless one unless some +extraordinary man should become the soul of the movement. + +Resources of Macedonia + +The power of Macedonia was far from inconsiderable. The devotion of +the land to the house of the Antigonids was unimpaired; in this one +respect the national feeling was not paralyzed by the dissensions +of political parties. A monarchical constitution has the great +advantage, that every change of sovereign supersedes old resentments +and quarrels and introduces a new era of other men and fresh hopes. +The king had judiciously availed himself of this, and had begun his +reign with a general amnesty, with the recall of fugitive bankrupts, +and with the remission of arrears of taxes. The hateful severity of +the father thus not only yielded benefit, but conciliated affection, +to the son. Twenty-six years of peace had partly of themselves filled +up the blanks in the Macedonian population, partly given opportunity +to the government to take serious steps towards rectifying this which +was really the weak point of the land. Philip urged the Macedonians +to marry and raise up children; he occupied the coast towns, whose +inhabitants he carried into the interior, with Thracian colonists of +trusty valour and fidelity. He formed a barrier on the north to check +once for all the desolating incursions of the Dardani, by converting +the space intervening between the Macedonian frontier and the +barbarian territory into a desert, and by founding new towns in the +northern provinces. In short he took step by step the same course in +Macedonia, as Augustus afterwards took when he laid afresh the +foundations of the Roman empire. The army was numerous--30,000 men +without reckoning contingents and hired troops--and the younger men +were well exercised in the constant border warfare with the Thracian +barbarians. It is strange that Philip did not try, like Hannibal, to +organize his army after the Roman fashion; but we can understand it +when we recollect the value which the Macedonians set upon their +phalanx, often conquered, but still withal believed to be invincible. +Through the new sources of revenue which Philip had created in mines, +customs, and tenths, and through the flourishing state of agriculture +and commerce, he had succeeded in replenishing his treasury, +granaries, and arsenals. When the war began, there was in the +Macedonian treasury money enough to pay the existing army and 10,000 +hired troops for ten years, and there were in the public magazines +stores of grain for as long a period (18,000,000 medimni or 27,000,000 +bushels), and arms for an army of three times the strength of the +existing one. In fact, Macedonia had become a very different state +from what it was when surprised by the outbreak of the second war with +Rome. The power of the kingdom was in all respects at least doubled: +with a power in every point of view far inferior Hannibal had been +able to shake Rome to its foundations. + +Attempted Coalition against Rome + +Its external relations were not in so favourable a position. The +nature of the case required that Macedonia should now take up the +plans of Hannibal and Antiochus, and should try to place herself at +the head of a coalition of all oppressed states against the supremacy +of Rome; and certainly threads of intrigue ramified in all directions +from the court of Pydna. But their success was slight. It was indeed +asserted that the allegiance of the Italians was wavering; but neither +friend nor foe could fail to see that an immediate resumption of the +Samnite wars was not at all probable. The nocturnal conferences +likewise between Macedonian deputies and the Carthaginian senate, +which Massinissa denounced at Rome, could occasion no alarm to serious +and sagacious men, even if they were not, as is very possible, an +utter fiction. The Macedonian court sought to attach the kings of +Syria and Bithynia to its interests by intermarriages; but nothing +further came of it, except that the immortal simplicity of the +diplomacy which seeks to gain political ends by matrimonial means once +more exposed itself to derision. Eumenes, whom it would have been +ridiculous to attempt to gain, the agents of Perseus would have gladly +put out of the way: he was to have been murdered at Delphi on his way +homeward from Rome, where he had been active against Macedonia; but +the pretty project miscarried. + +Bastarnae +Genthius + +Of greater moment were the efforts made to stir up the northern +barbarians and the Hellenes to rebellion against Rome. Philip had +conceived the project of crushing the old enemies of Macedonia, +the Dardani in what is now Servia, by means of another still more +barbarous horde of Germanic descent brought from the left bank of the +Danube, the Bastarnae, and of then marching in person with these and +with the whole avalanche of peoples thus set in motion by the land- +route to Italy and invading Lombardy, the Alpine passes leading to +which he had already sent spies to reconnoitre--a grand project, +worthy of Hannibal, and doubtless immediately suggested by Hannibal's +passage of the Alps. It is more than probable that this gave occasion +to the founding of the Roman fortress of Aquileia,(2) which was formed +towards the end of the reign of Philip (573), and did not harmonize +with the system followed elsewhere by the Romans in the establishment +of fortresses in Italy. The plan, however, was thwarted by the +desperate resistance of the Dardani and of the adjoining tribes +concerned; the Bastarnae were obliged to retreat, and the whole horde +were drowned in returning home by the giving way of the ice on the +Danube. The king now sought at least to extend his clientship among +the chieftains of the Illyrian land, the modern Dalmatia and northern +Albania. One of these who faithfully adhered to Rome, Arthetaurus, +perished, not without the cognizance of Perseus, by the hand of an +assassin. The most considerable of the whole, Genthius the son and +heir of Pleuratus, was, like his father, nominally in alliance with +Rome; but the ambassadors of Issa, a Greek town on one of the +Dalmatian islands, informed the senate, that Perseus had a secret +understanding with the young, weak, and drunken prince, and that +the envoys of Genthius served as spies for Perseus in Rome. + +Cotys + +In the regions on the east of Macedonia towards the lower Danube the +most powerful of the Thracian chieftains, the brave and sagacious +Cotys, prince of the Odrysians and ruler of all eastern Thrace from +the Macedonian frontier on the Hebrus (Maritza) down to the fringe of +coast covered with Greek towns, was in the closest alliance with +Perseus. Of the other minor chiefs who in that quarter took part +with Rome, one, Abrupolis prince of the Sagaei, was, in consequence +of a predatory expedition directed against Amphipolis on the Strymon, +defeated by Perseus and driven out of the country. From these regions +Philip had drawn numerous colonists, and mercenaries were to be had +there at any time and in any number. + +Greek National Party + +Among the unhappy nation of the Hellenes Philip and Perseus had, long +before declaring war against Rome carried on a lively double system of +proselytizing, attempting to gain over to the side of Macedonia on the +one hand the national, and on the other--if we may be permitted the +expression--the communistic, party. As a matter of course, the whole +national party among the Asiatic as well as the European Greeks was +now at heart Macedonian; not on account of isolated unrighteous acts +on the part of the Roman deliverers, but because the restoration of +Hellenic nationality by a foreign power involved a contradiction in +terms, and now, when it was in truth too late, every one perceived +that the most detestable form of Macedonian rule was less fraught with +evil for Greece than a free constitution springing from the noblest +intentions of honourable foreigners. That the most able and upright +men throughout Greece should be opposed to Rome was to be expected; +the venal aristocracy alone was favourable to the Romans, and here +and there an isolated man of worth, who, unlike the great majority, +was under no delusion as to the circumstances and the future of the +nation. This was most painfully felt by Eumenes of Pergamus, the main +upholder of that extraneous freedom among the Greeks. In vain he +treated the cities subject to him with every sort of consideration; +in vain he sued for the favour of the communities and diets by fair- +sounding words and still better-sounding gold; he had to learn that +his presents were declined, and that all the statues that had formerly +been erected to him were broken in pieces and the honorary tablets +were melted down, in accordance with a decree of the diet, +simultaneously throughout the Peloponnesus (584). The name of Perseus +was on all lips; even the states that formerly were most decidedly +anti-Macedonian, such as the Achaeans, deliberated as to the +cancelling of the laws directed against Macedonia; Byzantium, +although situated within the kingdom of Pergamus, sought and obtained +protection and a garrison against the Thracians not from Eumenes, but +from Perseus, and in like manner Lampsacus on the Hellespont joined +the Macedonian: the powerful and prudent Rhodians escorted the Syrian +bride of king Perseus from Antioch with their whole magnificent war- +fleet--for the Syrian war-vessels were not allowed to appear in the +Aegean--and returned home highly honoured and furnished with rich +presents, more especially with wood for shipbuilding; commissioners +from the Asiatic cities, and consequently subjects of Eumenes, held +secret conferences with Macedonian deputies in Samothrace. That +sending of the Rhodian war-fleet had at least the aspect of a +demonstration; and such, certainly, was the object of king Perseus, +when he exhibited himself and all his army before the eyes of the +Hellenes under pretext of performing a religious ceremony at Delphi. +That the king should appeal to the support of this national +partisanship in the impending war, was only natural. But it was wrong +in him to take advantage of the fearful economic disorganization of +Greece for the purpose of attaching to Macedonia all those who desired +a revolution in matters of property and of debt. It is difficult to +form any adequate idea of the unparalleled extent to which the +commonwealths as well as individuals in European Greece--excepting the +Peloponnesus, which was in a somewhat better position in this respect +--were involved in debt. Instances occurred of one city attacking and +pillaging another merely to get money--the Athenians, for example, +thus attacked Oropus--and among the Aetolians, Perrhaebians, and +Thessalians formal battles took place between those that had property +and those that had none. Under such circumstances the worst outrages +were perpetrated as a matter of course; among the Aetolians, for +instance, a general amnesty was proclaimed and a new public peace was +made up solely for the purpose of entrapping and putting to death a +number of emigrants. The Romans attempted to mediate; but their +envoys returned without success, and announced that both parties were +equally bad and that their animosities were not to be restrained. In +this case there was, in fact, no longer other help than the officer +and the executioner; sentimental Hellenism began to be as repulsive as +from the first it had been ridiculous. Yet king Perseus sought to +gain the support of this party, if it deserve to be called such--of +people who had nothing, and least of all an honourable name, to lose +--and not only issued edicts in favour of Macedonian bankrupts, but +also caused placards to be put up at Larisa, Delphi, and Delos, which +summoned all Greeks that were exiled on account of political or other +offences or on account of their debts to come to Macedonia and to +look for full restitution of their former honours and estates. As may +easily be supposed, they came; the social revolution smouldering +throughout northern Greece now broke out into open flame, and the +national-social party there sent to Perseus for help. If Hellenic +nationality was to be saved only by such means, the question might +well be asked, with all respect for Sophocles and Phidias, whether +the object was worth the cost. + +Rupture with Perseus + +The senate saw that it had delayed too long already, and that it was +time to put an end to such proceedings. The expulsion of the Thracian +chieftain Abrupolis who was in alliance with the Romans, and the +alliances of Macedonia with the Byzantines, Aetolians, and part of the +Boeotian cities, were equally violations of the peace of 557, and +sufficed for the official war-manifesto: the real ground of war was +that Macedonia was seeking to convert her formal sovereignty into a +real one, and to supplant Rome in the protectorate of the Hellenes. +As early as 581 the Roman envoys at the Achaean diet stated pretty +plainly, that an alliance with Perseus was equivalent to casting off +the alliance of Rome. In 582 king Eumenes came in person to Rome with +a long list of grievances and laid open to the senate the whole +situation of affairs; upon which the senate unexpectedly in a secret +sitting resolved on an immediate declaration of war, and furnished the +landing-places in Epirus with garrisons. For the sake of form an +embassy was sent to Macedonia, but its message was of such a nature +that Perseus, perceiving that he could not recede, replied that he +was ready to conclude with Rome a new alliance on really equal terms, +but that he looked upon the treaty of 557 as cancelled; and he bade +the envoys leave the kingdom within three days. Thus war was +practically declared. + +This was in the autumn of 582. Perseus, had he wished, might have +occupied all Greece and brought the Macedonian party everywhere to the +helm, and he might perhaps have crushed the Roman division of 5000 men +stationed under Gnaeus Sicinius at Apollonia and have disputed the +landing of the Romans. But the king, who already began to tremble at +the serious aspect of affairs, entered into discussions with his +guest-friend the consular Quintus Marcius Philippus, as to the +frivolousness of the Roman declaration of war, and allowed himself to +be thereby induced to postpone the attack and once more to make an +effort for peace with Rome: to which the senate, as might have been +expected, only replied by the dismissal of all Macedonians from Italy +and the embarkation of the legions. Senators of the older school no +doubt censured the "new wisdom" of their colleague, and his un-Roman +artifice; but the object was gained and the winter passed away without +any movement on the part of Perseus. The Romati diplomatists made all +the more zealous use of the interval to deprive Perseus of any support +in Greece. They were sure of the Achaeans. Even the patriotic party +among them--who had neither agreed with those social movements, nor +had soared higher than the longing after a prudent neutrality--had no +idea of throwing themselves into the arms of Perseus; and, besides, +the opposition party there had now been brought by Roman influence to +the helm, and attached itself absolutely to Rome. The Aetolian league +had doubtless asked aid from Perseus in its internal troubles; but +the new strategus, Lyciscus, chosen under the eyes of the Roman +ambassadors, was more of a Roman partisan than the Romans themselves. +Among the Thessalians also the Roman party retained the ascendency. +Even the Boeotians, old partisans as they were of Macedonia, and sunk +in the utmost financial disorder, had not in their collective capacity +declared openly for Perseus; nevertheless at least three of their +cities, Thisbae, Haliartus and Coronea, had of their own accord +entered into engagements with him. When on the complaint of the Roman +envoy the government of the Boeotian confederacy communicated to him +the position of things, he declared that it would best appear which +cities adhered to Rome, and which did not, if they would severally +pronounce their decision in his presence; and thereupon the Boeotian +confederacy fell at once to pieces. It is not true that the great +structure of Epaminondas was destroyed by the Romans; it actually +collapsed before they touched it, and thus indeed became the prelude +to the dissolution of the other still more firmly consolidated leagues +of Greek cities.(3) With the forces of the Boeotian towns friendly +to Rome the Roman envoy Publius Lentulus laid siege to Haliartus, +even before the Roman fleet appeared in the Aegean. + +Preparations for War + +Chalcis was occupied with Achaean, and the province of Orestis with +Epirot, forces: the fortresses of the Dassaretae and Illyrians on the +west frontier of Macedonia were occupied by the troops of Gnaeus +Sicinius; and as soon as the navigation was resumed, Larisa received a +garrison of 2000 men. Perseus during all this remained inactive and +had not a foot's breadth of land beyond his own territory, when in the +spring, or according to the official calendar in June, of 583, the +Roman legions landed on the west coast. It is doubtful whether +Perseus would have found allies of any mark, even had he shown as much +energy as he displayed remissness; but, as circumstances stood, he +remained of course completely isolated, and those prolonged attempts +at proselytism led, for the time at least, to no result. Carthage, +Genthius of Illyria, Rhodes and the free cities of Asia Minor, and +even Byzantium hitherto so very friendly with Perseus, offered to the +Romans vessels of war; which these, however, declined. Eumenes put +his land army and his ships on a war footing. Ariarathes king of +Cappadocia sent hostages, unsolicited, to Rome. The brother-in-law of +Perseus, Prusias II. king of Bithynia, remained neutral. No one +stirred in all Greece. Antiochus IV. king of Syria, designated +in court style "the god, the brilliant bringer of victory," to +distinguish him from his father the "Great," bestirred himself, but +only to wrest the Syrian coast during this war from the entirely +impotent Egypt. + +Beginning of the War + +But, though Perseus stood almost alone, he was no contemptible +antagonist. His army numbered 43,000 men; of these 21,000 were +phalangites, and 4000 Macedonian and Thracian cavalry; the rest were +chiefly mercenaries. The whole force of the Romans in Greece amounted +to between 30,000 and 40,000 Italian troops, besides more than 10,000 +men belonging to Numidian, Ligurian, Greek, Cretan, and especially +Pergamene contingents. To these was added the fleet, which numbered +only 40 decked vessels, as there was no fleet of the enemy to oppose +it--Perseus, who had been prohibited from building ships of war by the +treaty with Rome, was only now erecting docks at Thessalonica--but it +had on board 10,000 troops, as it was destined chiefly to co-operate +in sieges. The fleet was commanded by Gaius Lucretius, the land army +by the consul Publius Licinius Crassus. + +The Romans Invade Thessaly + +The consul left a strong division in Illyria to harass Macedonia +from the west, while with the main force he started, as usual, from +Apollonia for Thessaly. Perseus did not think of disturbing their +arduous march, but contented himself with advancing into Perrhaebia +and occupying the nearest fortresses. He awaited the enemy at Ossa, +and not far from Larisa the first conflict took place between the +cavalry and light troops on both sides. The Romans were decidedly +beaten. Cotys with the Thracian horse had defeated and broken the +Italian, and Perseus with his Macedonian horse the Greek, cavalry; the +Romans had 2000 foot and 200 horsemen killed, and 600 horsemen made +prisoners, and had to deem themselves fortunate in being allowed to +cross the Peneius without hindrance. Perseus employed the victory to +ask peace on the same terms which Philip had obtained: he was ready +even to pay the same sum. The Romans refused his request: they never +concluded peace after a defeat, and in this case the conclusion +of peace would certainly have involved as a consequence the loss +of Greece. + +Their Lax and Unsuccessful Management of the War + +The wretched Roman commander, however, knew not how or where to +attack; the army marched to and fro in Thessaly, without accomplishing +anything of importance. Perseus might have assumed the offensive; he +saw that the Romans were badly led and dilatory; the news had passed +like wildfire through Greece, that the Greek army had been brilliantly +victorious in the first engagement; a second victory might lead to a +general rising of the patriot party, and, by commencing a guerilla +warfare, might produce incalculable results. But Perseus, while a +good soldier, was not a general like his father; he had made his +preparations for a defensive war, and, when things took a different +turn, he felt himself as it were paralyzed. He made an unimportant +success, which the Romans obtained in a second cavalry combai near +Phalanna, a pretext for reverting, as is the habit of narrow and +obstinate minds, to his first plan and evacuating Thessaly. +This was of course equivalent to renouncing all idea of a Hellenic +insurrection: what might have been attained by a different course was +shown by the fact that, notwithstanding what had occurred, the Epirots +changed sides. Thenceforth nothing serious was accomplished on either +side. Perseus subdued king Genthius, chastised the Dardani, and, by +means of Cotys, expelled from Thrace the Thracians friendly to Rome +and the Pergamene troops. On the other hand the western Roman army +took some Illyrian towns, and the consul busied himself in clearing +Thessaly of the Macedonian garrisons and making sure of the turbulent +Aetolians and Acarnanians by occupying Ambracia. But the heroic +courage of the Romans was most severely felt by the unfortunate +Boeotian towns which took part with Perseus; the inhabitants as well +of Thisbae, which surrendered without resistance as soon as the Roman +admiral Gaius Lucretius appeared before the city, as of Haliartus, +which closed its gates against him and had to be taken by storm, were +sold by him into slavery; Corcnea was treated in the same manner by +the consul Crassus in spite even of its capitulation. Never had a +Roman army exhibited such wretched discipline as the force under these +commanders. They had so disorganized the army that, even in the next +campaign of 584, the new consul Aulus Hostilius could not think of +undertaking anything serious, especially as the new admiral Lucius +Hortensius showed himself to be as incapable and unprincipled as his +predecessor. The fleet visited the towns on the Thracian coast +without result. The western army under Appius Claudius, whose +headquarters were at Lychnidus in the territory of the Dassaretae, +sustained one defeat after another: after an expedition to Macedonia +had been utterly unsuccessful, the king in turn towards the beginning +of winter assumed the aggressive with the troops which were no longer +needed on the south frontier in consequence of the deep snow blocking +up all the passes, took from Appius numerous townships and a multitude +of prisoners, and entered into connections with king Genthius; he was +able in fact to attempt an invasion of Aetolia, while Appius allowed +himself to be once more defeated in Epirus by the garrison of a +fortress which he had vainly besieged. The Roman main army made two +attempts to penetrate into Macedonia: first, ovei the Cambunian +mountains, and then through the Thessalian passes; but they were +negligently planned, and both were repulsed by Perseus. + +Abuses in the Army + +The consul employed himself chiefly in the reorganization of the army +--a work which was above all things needful, but which required a +sterner man and an officer of greater mark. Discharges and furloughs +might be bought, and therefore the divisions were never up to their +full numbers; the men were put into quarters in summer, and, as the +officers plundered on a large, the common soldiers plundered on a +small, scale. Friendly peoples were subjected to the most shameful +suspicions: for instance, the blame of the disgraceful defeat at +Larisa was imputed to the pretended treachery of the Aetolian cavalry, +and, what was hitherto unprecedented, its officers were sent to be +criminally tried at Rome; and the Molossians in Epirus were forced +by false suspicions into actual revolt. The allied states had war- +contributions imposed upon them as if they had been conquered, and if +they appealed to the Roman senate, their citizens were executed or +sold into slavery: this was done, for instance, at Abdera, and similar +outrages were committed at Chalcis. The senate interfered very +earnestly:(4) it enjoined the liberation of the unfortunate Coroneans +and Abderites, and forbade the Roman magistrates to ask contributions +from the allies without its leave. Gaius Lucretius was unanimously +condemned by the burgesses. But such steps could not alter the fact, +that the military result of these first two campaigns had been null, +while the political result had been a foul stain on the Romans, whose +extraordinary successes in the east were based in no small degree on +their reputation for moral purity and solidity as compared with the +scandals of Hellenic administration. Had Philip commanded instead of +Perseus, the war would presumably have begun with the destruction of +the Roman army and the defection of most of the Hellenes; but Rome +was fortunate enough to be constantly outstripped in blunders by her +antagonists. Perseus was content with entrenching himself in +Macedonia--which towards the south and west is a true mountain- +fortress--as in a beleaguered town. + +Marcius Enters Macedonia through the Pass of Tempe +The Armies on the Elpius + +The third commander-in-chief also, whom Rome sent to Macedonia in 585, +Quintus Marcius Philippus, that already-mentioned upright guest-friend +of the king, was not at all equal to his far from easy task. He was +ambitious and enterprising, but a bad officer. His hazardous venture +of crossing Olympus by the pass of Lapathus westward of Tempe, leaving +behind one division to face the garrison of the pass, and making his +way with his main force through impracticable denies to Heracleum, is +not excused by the fact of its success. Not only might a handful of +resolute men have blocked the route, in which case retreat was out of +the question; but even after the passage, when he stood with the +Macedonian main force in front and the strongly-fortified mountain- +fortresses of Tempe and Lapathus behind him, wedged into a narrow +plain on the shore and without supplies or the possibility of foraging +for them, his position was no less desperate than when, in his first +consulate, he had allowed himself to be similarly surrounded in the +Ligurian defiles which thenceforth bore his name. But as an accident +saved him then, so the incapacity of Perseus saved him now. As if he +could not comprehend the idea of defending himself against the Romans +otherwise than by blocking the passes, he strangely gave himself over +as lost as soon as he saw the Romans on the Macedonian side of them, +fled in all haste to Pydna, and ordered his ships to be burnt and +his treasures to be sunk. But even this voluntary retreat of the +Macedonian army did not rescue the consul from his painful position. +He advanced indeed without hindrance, but was obliged after four days' +march to turn back for want of provisions; and, when the king came to +his senses and returned in all haste to resume the position which he +had abandoned, the Roman army would have been in great danger, had not +the impregnable Tempe surrendered at the right moment and handed over +its rich stores to the enemy. The communication with the south was +by this means secured to the Roman army; but Perseus had strongly +barricaded himself in his former well-chosen position on the bank of +the little river Elpius, and there checked the farther advance of the +Romans. So the Roman army remained, during the rest of the summer and +the winter, hemmed in in the farthest corner of Thessaly; and, while +the crossing of the passes was certainly a success and the first +substantial one in the war, it was due not to the ability of the +Roman, but to the blundering of the Macedonian, general. The Roman +fleet in vain attempted the capture of Demetrias, and performed no +exploit whatever. The light ships of Perseus boldly cruised between +the Cyclades, protected the corn-vessels destined for Macedonia, and +attacked the transports of the enemy. With the western army matters +were still worse: Appius Claudius could do nothing with his weakened +division, and the contingent which he asked from Achaia was prevented +from coming to him by the jealousy of the consul. Moreover, Genthius +had allowed himself to be bribed by Perseus with the promise of a +great sum of money to break with Rome, and to imprison the Roman +envoys; whereupon the frugal king deemed it superfluous to pay the +money which he had promised, since Genthius was now forsooth +compelled, independently of it, to substitute an attitude of decided +hostility to Rome for the ambiguous position which he had hitherto +maintained. Accordingly the Romans had a further petty war by the +side of the great one, which had already lasted three years. In fact +had Perseus been able to part with his money, he might easily have +aroused enemies still more dangerous to the Romans. A Celtic host +under Clondicus--10,000 horsemen and as many infantry--offered to take +service with him in Macedonia itself; but they could not agree as to +the pay. In Hellas too there was such a ferment that a guerilla +warfare might easily have been kindled with a little dexterity and a +full exchequer; but, as Perseus had no desire to give and the Greeks +did nothing gratuitously, the land remained quiet. + +Paullus + +At length the Romans resolved to send the right man to Greece. This +was Lucius Aemilius Paullus, son of the consul of the same name that +fell at Cannae; a man of the old nobility but of humble means, and +therefore not so successful in the comitia as on the battle-field, +where he had remarkably distinguished himself in Spain and still more +so in Liguria. The people elected him for the second time consul in +the year 586 on account of his merits--a course which was at that +time rare and exceptional. He was in all respects the right man: an +excellent general of the old school, strict as respected both himself +and his troops, and, notwithstanding his sixty years, still hale and +vigorous; an incorruptible magistrate--"one of the few Romans of that +age, to whom one could not offer money," as a contemporary says of +him--and a man of Hellenic culture, who, even when commander-in-chief, +embraced the opportunity of travelling through Greece to inspect its +works of art. + +Perseus Is Driven Back to Pydna +Battle of Pydna +Perseus Taken Prisoner + +As soon as the new general arrived in the camp at Heracleum, he gave +orders for the ill-guarded pass at Pythium to be surprised by Publius +Nasica, while skirmishes between the outposts in the channel of the +river Elpius occupied the attention of the Macedonians; the enemy was +thus turned, and was obliged to retreat to Pydna. There on the Roman +4th of September, 586, or on the 22nd of June of the Julian calendar +--an eclipse of the moon, which a scientific Roman officer announced +beforehand to the army that it might not be regarded as a bad omen, +affords in this case the means of determining the date--the outposts +accidentally fell into conflict as they were watering their horses +after midday; and both sides determined at once to give the battle, +which it was originally intended to postpone till the following day. +Passing through the ranks in person, without helmet or shield, the +grey-headed Roman general arranged his men. Scarce were they in +position, when the formidable phalanx assailed them; the general +himself, who had witnessed many a hard fight, afterwards acknowledged +that he had trembled. The Roman vanguard dispersed; a Paelignian +cohort was overthrown and almost annihilated; the legions themselves +hurriedly retreated till they reached a hill close upon the Roman +camp. Here the fortune of the day changed. The uneven ground and the +hurried pursuit had disordered the ranks of the phalanx; the Romans in +single cohorts entered at every gap, and attacked it on the flanks and +in rear; the Macedonian cavalry which alone could have rendered aid +looked calmly on, and soon fled in a body, the king among the +foremost; and thus the fate of Macedonia was decided in less than an +hour. The 3000 select phalangites allowed themselves to be cut down +to the last man; it was as if the phalanx, which fought its last great +battle at Pydna, had itself wished to perish there. The overthrow was +fearful; 20,000 Macedonians lay on the field of battle, 11,000 were +prisoners. The war was at an end, on the fifteenth day after Paullus +had assumed the command; all Macedonia submitted in two days. The +king fled with his gold--he still had more than 6000 talents +(1,460,000 pounds) in his chest--to Samothrace, accompanied by a few +faithful attendants. But he himself put to death one of these, +Evander of Crete, who was to be called to account as instigator of the +attempted assassination of Eumenes; and then the king's pages and his +last comrades also deserted him. For a moment he hoped that the right +of asylum would protect him; but he himself perceived that he was +clinging to a straw. An attempt to take flight to Cotys failed. So +he wrote to the consul; but the letter was not received, because he +had designated himself in it as king. He recognized his fate, and +surrendered to the Romans at discretion with his children and his +treasures, pusillanimous and weeping so as to disgust even his +conquerors. With a grave satisfaction, and with thoughts turning +rather on the mutability of fortune than on his own present success, +the consul received the most illustrious captive whom Roman general +had ever brought home. Perseus died a few years after, as a state +prisoner, at Alba on the Fucine lake;(5) his son in after years +earned a living in the same Italian country town as a clerk. + +Thus perished the empire of Alexander the Great, which had subdued and +Hellenized the east, 144 years after its founder's death. + +Defeat and Capture of Genthius + +That the tragedy, moreover, might not be without its accompaniment of +farce, at the same time the war against "king" Genthius of Illyria was +also begun and ended by the praetor Lucius Anicius within thirty days. +The piratical fleet was taken, the capital Scodra was captured, and +the two kings, the heir of Alexander the Great and the heir of +Pleuratus, entered Rome side by side as prisoners. + +Macedonia Broken Up + +The senate had resolved that the peril, which the unseasonable +gentleness of Flamininus had brought on Rome, should not recur. +Macedonia was abolished. In the conference at Amphipolis on the +Strymon the Roman commission ordained that the compact, thoroughly +monarchical, single state should be broken up into four republican- +federative leagues moulded on the system of the Greek confederacies, +viz. that of Amphipolis in the eastern regions, that of Thessalonica +with the Chalcidian peninsula, that of Pella on the frontiers of +Thessaly, and that of Pelagonia in the interior. Intermarriages +between persons belonging to different confederacies were to be +invalid, and no one might be a freeholder in more than one of them. +All royal officials, as well as their grown-up sons, were obliged to +leave the country and resort to Italy on pain of death; the Romans +still dreaded, and with reason, the throbbings of the ancient loyalty. +The law of the land and the former constitution otherwise remained in +force; the magistrates were of course nominated by election in each +community, and the power in the communities as well as in the +confederacies was placed in the hands of the upper class. The royal +domains and royalties were not granted to the confederacies, and these +were specially prohibited from working the gold and silvei mines, +a chief source of the national wealth; but in 596 they were again +permitted to work at least the silver-mines.(6) The import of salt, +and the export of timber for shipbuilding, were prohibited. The land- +tax hitherto paid to the king ceased, and the confederacies and +communities were left to tax themselves; but these had to pay to Rome +half of the former land-tax, according to a rate fixed once for all, +amounting in all to 100 talents annually (24,000 pounds).(7) The +whole land was for ever disarmed, and the fortress of Demetrias was +razed; on the northern frontier alone a chain of posts was to be +retained to guard against the incursions of the barbarians. Of the +arms given up, the copper shields were sent to Rome, and the rest +were burnt. + +The Romans gained their object. The Macedonian land still on two +occasions took up arms at the call of princes of the old reigning +house; but otherwise from that time to the present day it has remained +without a history. + +Illyria Broken Up + +Illyria was treated in a similar way. The kingdom of Genthius was +split up into three small free states. There too the freeholders paid +the half of the former land-tax to their new masters, with the +exception of the towns, which had adhered to Rome and in return +obtained exemption from land-tax--an exception, which there was no +opportunity to make in the case of Macedonia. The Illyrian piratic +fleet was confiscated, and presented to the more reputable Greek +communities along that coast. The constant annoyances, which the +Illyrians inflicted on the neighbours by their corsairs, were in this +way put an end to, at least for a lengthened period. + +Cotys + +Cotys in Thrace, who was difficult to be reached and might +conveniently be used against Eumenes, obtained pardon and received +back his captive son. + +Thus the affairs of the north were settled, and Macedonia also was at +last released from the yoke of monarchy--in fact Greece was more free +than ever; a king no longer existed anywhere. + +Humiliation of the Greeks in General +Course Pursued with Pergamus + +But the Romans did not confine themselves to cutting the nerves and +sinews of Macedonia. The senate resolved at once to render all the +Hellenic states, friend and foe, for ever incapable of harm, and to +reduce all of them alike to the same humble clientship. The course +pursued may itself admit of justification; but the mode in which it +was carried out in the case of the more powerful of the Greek client- +states was unworthy of a great power, and showed that the epoch of +the Fabii and the Scipios was at an end. + +The state most affected by this change in the position of parties was +the kingdom of the Attalids, which had been created and fostered by +Rome to keep Macedonia in check, and which now, after the destruction +of Macedonia, was forsooth no longer needed. It was not easy to find +a tolerable pretext for depriving the prudent and considerate Eumenes +of his privileged position, and allowing him to fall into disfavour. +All at once, about the time when the Romans were encamped at +Heracleum, strange reports were circulated regarding him--that he was +in secret intercourse with Perseus; that his fleet had been suddenly, +as it were, wafted away; that 500 talents had been offered for his +non-participation in the campaign and 1500 for his mediation to +procure peace, and that the agreement had only broken down through the +avarice of Perseus. As to the Pergamene fleet, the king, after having +paid his respects to the consul, went home with it at the same time +that the Roman fleet went into winter quarters. The story about +corruption was as certainly a fable as any newspaper canard of the +present day; for that the rich, cunning, and consistent Attalid, who +had primarily occasioned the breach between Rome and Macedonia by +his journey in 582 and had been on that account wellnigh assassinated +by the banditti of Perseus, should--at the moment when the real +difficulties of a war, of whose final issue, moreover, he could never +have had any serious doubt, were overcome--have sold to the instigator +of the murder his share in the spoil for a few talents, and should +have perilled the work of long years for so pitiful a consideration, +may be set down not merely as a fabrication, but as a very silly one. +That no proof was found either in the papers of Perseus or elsewhere, +is sufficiently certain; for even the Romans did not venture to +express those suspicions aloud, But they gained their object. Their +wishes appeared in the behaviour of the Roman grandees towards +Attalus, the brother of Eumenes, who had commanded the Pergamene +auxiliary troops in Greece. Their brave and faithful comrade was +received in Rome with open arms and invited to ask not for his +brother, but for himself--the senate would be glad to give him a +kingdom of his own. Attalus asked nothing but Aenus and Maronea. The +senate thought that this was only a preliminary request, and granted +it with great politeness. But when he took his departure without +having made any further demands, and the senate came to perceive that +the reigning family in Pergamus did not live on such terms with each +other as were customary in princely houses, Aenus and Maronea were +declared free cities. The Pergamenes obtained not a foot's breadth +of territory out of the spoil of Macedonia; if after the victory over +Antiochus the Romans had still saved forms as respected Philip, they +were now disposed to hurt and to humiliate. About this time the +senate appears to have declared Pamphylia, for the possession of which +Eumenes and Antiochus had hitherto contended, independent. What was +of more importance, the Galatians--who had been substantially in the +power of Eumenes, ever since he had expelled the king of Pontus by +force of arms from Caiatia and had on making peace extorted from him +the promise that he would maintain no further communication with the +Galatian princes--now, reckoning beyond doubt on the variance that had +taken place between Eumenes and the Romans, if not directly instigated +by the latter, rose against Eumenes, overran his kingdom, and brought +him into great danger. Eumenes besought the mediation of the Romans; +the Roman envoy declared his readiness to mediate, but thought it +better that Attalus, who commanded the Pergamene army, should not +accompany him lest the barbarians might be put into ill humour. +Singularly enough, he accomplished nothing; in fact, he told on +his return that his mediation had only exasperated the barbarians. +No long time elapsed before the independence of the Galatians was +expressly recognized and guaranteed by the senate. Eumenes determined +to proceed to Rome in person, and to plead his cause in the senate. +But the latter, as if troubled by an evil conscience, suddenly decreed +that in future kings should not be allowed to come to Rome; and +despatched a quaestor to meet him at Brundisium, to lay before him +this decree of the senate, to ask him what he wanted, and to hint to +him that they would be glad to see his speedy departure. The king was +long silent; at length he said that he desired nothing farther, and +re-embarked. He saw how matters stood: the epoch of half-powerful and +half-free alliance was at an end; that of impotent subjection began. + +Humiliation of Rhodes + +Similar treatment befell the Rhodians. They had a singularly +privileged position: their relation to Rome assumed the form not of +symmachy properly so called, but of friendly equality; it did not +prevent them from entering into alliances of any kind, and did not +compel them to supply the Romans with a contingent on demand. This +very circumstance was presumably the real reason why their good +understanding with Rome had already for some time been impaired. +The first dissensions with Rome had arisen in consequence of the +rising of the Lycians, who were handed over to Rhodes after the defeat +of Antiochus, against their oppressors who had (576) cruelly reduced +them to slavery as revolted subjects; the Lycians, however, asserted +that they were not subjects but allies of the Rhodians, and prevailed +with this plea in the Roman senate, which was invited to settle the +doubtful meaning of the instrument of peace. But in this result a +justifiable sympathy with the victims of grievous oppression had +perhaps the chief share; at least nothing further was done on the part +of the Romans, who left this as well as other Hellenic quarrels to +take their course. When the war with Perseus broke out, the Rhodians, +like all other sensible Greeks, viewed it with regret, and blamed +Eumenes in particular as the instigator of it, so that his festal +embassy was not even permitted to be present at the festival of Helios +in Rhodes. But this did not prevent them from adhering to Rome and +keeping the Macedonian party, which existed in Rhodes as well as +everywhere else, aloof from the helm of affairs. The permission given +to them in 585 to export grain from Sicily shows the continuance of +the good understanding with Rome. All of a sudden, shortly before the +battle of Pydna, Rhodian envoys appeared at the Roman head-quarters +and in the Roman senate, announcing that the Rhodians would no longer +tolerate this war which was injurious to their Macedonian traffic and +their revenue from port-dues, that they were disposed themselves to +declare war against the party which should refuse to make peace, and +that with this view they had already concluded an alliance with Crete +and with the Asiatic cities. Many caprices are possible in a republic +governed by primary assemblies; but this insane intervention of a +commercial city--which can only have been resolved on after the +fall of the pass of Tempe was known at Rhodes--requires special +explanation. The key to it is furnished by the well-attested account +that the consul Quintus Marcius, that master of the "new-fashioned +diplomacy," had in the camp at Heracleum (and therefore after the +occupation of the pass of Tempe) loaded the Rhodian envoy Agepolis +with civilities and made an underhand request to him to mediate a +peace. Republican wrongheadedness and vanity did the rest; the +Rhodians fancied that the Romans had given themselves up as lost; +they were eager to play the part of mediator among four great powers +at once; communications were entered into with Perseus; Rhodian envoys +with Macedonian sympathies said more than they should have said; and +they were caught. The senate, which doubtless was itself for the most +part unaware of those intrigues, heard the strange announcement, as +may be conceived, with indignation, and was glad of the favourable +opportunity to humble the haughty mercantile city. A warlike praetor +went even so far as to propose to the people a declaration of war +against Rhodes. In vain the Rhodian ambassadors repeatedly on their +knees adjured the senate to think of the friendship of a hundred and +forty years rather than of the one offence; in vain they sent the +heads of the Macedonian party to the scaffold or to Rome; in vain they +sent a massive wreath of gold in token of their gratitude for the non- +declaration of war. The upright Cato indeed showed that strictly the +Rhodians had committed no offence and asked whether the Romans were +desirous to undertake the punishment of wishes and thoughts, and +whether they could blame the nations for being apprehensive that Rome +might allow herself all license if she had no longer any one to fear? +His words and warnings were in vain. The senate deprived the Rhodians +of their possessions on the mainland, which yielded a yearly produce +of 120 talents (29,000 pounds). Still heavier were the blows aimed at +the Rhodian commerce. The very prohibition of the import of salt to, +and of the export of shipbuilding timber from, Macedonia appears to +have been directed against Rhodes. Rhodian commerce was still more +directly affected by the erection of the free port at Delos; the +Rhodian customs-dues, which hitherto had produced 1,000,000 drachmae +(41,000 pounds) annually, sank in a very brief period to 150,000 +drachmae (6180 pounds). Generally, the Rhodians were paralyzed in +their freedom of action and in their liberal and bold commercial +policy, and the state began to languish. Even the alliance asked +for was at first refused, and was only renewed in 590 after urgent +entreaties. The equally guilty but powerless Cretans escaped with +a sharp rebuke. + +Intervention in the Syro-Egyptian War + +With Syria and Egypt the Romans could go to work more summarily. +War had broken out between them; and Coelesyria and Palaestina formed +once more the subject of dispute. According to the assertion of the +Egyptians, those provinces had been ceded to Egypt on the marriage of +the Syrian Cleopatra: this however the court of Babylon, which was in +actual possession, disputed. Apparently the charging of her dowry on +the taxes of the Coelesyrian cities gave occasion to the quarrel, and +the Syrian side was in the right; the breaking out of the war was +occasioned by the death of Cleopatra in 581, with which at latest the +payments of revenue terminated. The war appears to have been begun by +Egypt; but king Antiochus Epiphanes gladly embraced the opportunity +of once more--and for the last time--endeavouring to achieve the +traditional aim of the policy of the Seleucidae, the acquisition of +Egypt, while the Romans were employed in Macedonia. Fortune seemed +favourable to him. The king of Egypt at that time, Ptolemy VI, +Philometor, the son of Cleopatra, had hardly passed the age of boyhood +and had bad advisers; after a great victory on the Syro-Egyptian +frontier Antiochus was able to advance into the territories of his +nephew in the same year in which the legions landed in Greece (583), +and soon had the person of the king in his power. Matters began to +look as if Antiochus wished to possess himself of all Egypt in +Philometor's name; Alexandria accordingly closed its gates against +him, deposed Philometor, and nominated as king in his stead his +younger brother, named Euergetes II, or the Fat. Disturbances in his +own kingdom recalled the Syrian king from Egypt; when he returned, he +found that the brothers had come to an understanding during his +absence; and he then continued the war against both. Just as he lay +before Alexandria, not long after the battle of Pydna (586), the Roman +envoy Gaius Popillius, a harsh rude man, arrived, and intimated to him +the command of the senate that he should restore all that he had +conquered and should evacuate Egypt within a set term. Antiochus +asked time for consideration; but the consular drew with his staff a +circle round the king, and bade him declare his intentions before he +stepped beyond the circle. Antiochus replied that he would comply; +and marched off to his capital that he might there, in his character +of "the god, the brilliant bringer of victory," celebrate in Roman +fashion his conquest of Egypt and parody the triumph of Paullus. + +Measures of Security in Greece + +Egypt voluntarily submitted to the Roman protectorate; and thereupon +the kings of Babylon also desisted from the last attempt to maintain +their independence against Rome. As with Macedonia in the war waged +by Perseus, the Seleucidae in the war regarding Coelesyria made a +similar and similarly final effort to recover their former power; but +it is a significant indication of the difference between the two +kingdoms, that in the former case the legions, in the latter the +abrupt language of a diplomatist, decided the controversy. In Greece +itself, as the two Boeotian cities had already paid more than a +sufficient penalty, the Molottians alone remained to be punished as +allies of Perseus. Acting on secret orders from the senate, Paullus +in one day gave up seventy townships in Epirus to plunder, and sold +the inhabitants, 150,000 in number, into slavery. The Aetolians lost +Amphipolis, and the Acarnanians Leucas, on account of their equivocal +behaviour; whereas the Athenians, who continued to play the part of +the begging poet in their own Aristophanes, not only obtained a gift +of Delos and Lemnos, but were not ashamed even to petition for the +deserted site of Haliartus, which was assigned to them accordingly. +Thus something was done for the Muses; but more had to be done for +justice. There was a Macedonian party in every city, and therefore +trials for high treason began in all parts of Greece. Whoever had +served in the army of Perseus was immediately executed, whoever was +compromised by the papers of the king or the statements of political +opponents who flocked to lodge informations, was despatched to Rome; +the Achaean Callicrates and the Aetolian Lyciscus distinguished +themselves in the trade of informers. In this way the more +conspicuous patriots among the Thessalians, Aetolians, Acarnanians, +Lesbians and so forth, were removed from their native land; and, +in particular, more than a thousand Achaeans were thus disposed of +--a step taken with the view not so much of prosecuting those who were +carried off, as of silencing the childish opposition of the Hellenes. + +To the Achaeans, who, as usual, were not content till they got the +answer which they anticipated, the senate, wearied by constant +requests for the commencement of the investigation, at length roundly +declared that till further orders the persons concerned were to remain +in Italy. There they were placed in country towns in the interior, +and tolerably well treated; but attempts to escape were punished with +death. The position of the former officials removed from Macedonia +was, in all probability, similar. This expedient, violent as it was, +was still, as things stood, the most lenient, and the enraged Greeks +of the Roman party were far from content with the paucity of the +executions. Lyciscus had accordingly deemed it proper, by way of +preliminary, to have 500 of the leading men of the Aetolian patriotic +party slain at the meeting of the diet; the Roman commission, which +needed the man, suffered the deed to pass unpunished, and merely +censured the employment of Roman soldiers in the execution of this +Hellenic usage. We may presume, however, that the Romans instituted +the system of deportation to Italy partly in order to prevent such +horrors. As in Greece proper no power existed even of such importance +as Rhodes or Pergamus, there was no need in its case for any further +humiliation; the steps taken were taken only in the exercise of +justice--in the Roman sense, no doubt, of that term--and for +the prevention of the most scandalous and palpable outbreaks of +party discord. + +Rome and Her Dependencies + +All the Hellenistic states had thus been completely subjected to the +protectorate of Rome, and the whole empire of Alexander the Great had +fallen to the Roman commonwealth just as if the city had inherited it +from his heirs. From all sides kings and ambassadors flocked to Rome +to congratulate her; and they showed that fawning is never more abject +than when kings are in the antechamber. King Massinissa, who only +desisted from presenting himself in person on being expressly +prohibited from doing so, ordered his son to declare that he +regarded himself as merely the beneficiary, and the Romans as the true +proprietors, of his kingdom, and that he would always be content with +what they were willing to leave to him. There was at least truth +in this. But Prusias king of Bithynia, who had to atone for his +neutrality, bore off the palm in this contest of flattery; he fell on +his face when he was conducted into the senate, and did homage to "the +delivering gods." As he was so thoroughly contemptible, Polybius tells +us, they gave him a polite reply, and presented him with the fleet +of Perseus. + +The moment was at least well chosen for such acts of homage. Polybius +dates from the battle of Pydna the full establishment of the universal +empire of Rome. It was in fact the last battle in which a civilized +state confronted Rome in the field on a footing of equality with her +as a great power; all subsequent struggles were rebellions or wars +with peoples beyond the pale of the Romano-Greek civilization +--with barbarians, as they were called. The whole civilized world +thenceforth recognized in the Roman senate the supreme tribunal, whose +commissions decided in the last resort between kings and nations; and +to acquire its language and manners foreign princes and youths of +quality resided in Rome. A clear and earnest attempt to get rid of +this dominion was in reality made only once--by the great Mithradates +of Pontus. The battle of Pydna, moreover, marks the last occasion on +which the senate still adhered to the state-maxim that they should, if +possible, hold no possessions and maintain no garrisons beyond the +Italian seas, but should keep the numerous states dependent on them in +order by a mere political supremacy. The aim of their policy was that +these states should neither decline into utter weakness and anarchy, +as had nevertheless happened in Greece nor emerge out of their half- +free position into complete independence, as Macedonia had attempted +to do not without success. No state was to be allowed utterly to +perish, but no one was to be permitted to stand on its own resources. +Accordingly the vanquished foe held at least an equal, often a better, +position with the Roman diplomatists than the faithful ally; and, +while a defeated opponent was reinstated, those who attempted to +reinstate themselves were abased--as the Aetolians, Macedonia after +the Asiatic war, Rhodes, and Pergamus learned by experience. But not +only did this part of protector soon prove as irksome to the masters +as to the servants; the Roman protectorate, with its ungrateful +Sisyphian toil that continually needed to be begun afresh, showed +itself to be intrinsically untenable. Indications of a change of +system, and of an increasing disinclination on the part of Rome to +tolerate by its side intermediate states even in such independence as +was possible for them, were very clearly given in the destruction of +the Macedonian monarchy after the battle of Pydna, The more and more +frequent and more and more unavoidable intervention in the internal +affairs of the petty Greek states through their misgovernment and +their political and social anarchy; the disarming of Macedonia, where +the northern frontier at any rate urgently required a defence +different from that of mere posts; and, lastly, the introduction of +the payment of land-tax to Rome from Macedonia and Illyria, were so +many symptoms of the approaching conversion of the client states +into subjects of Rome. + +The Italian and Extra-Italian Policy of Rome + +If, in conclusion, we glance back at the career of Rome from the union +of Italy to the dismemberment of Macedonia, the universal empire of +Rome, far from appearing as a gigantic plan contrived and carried out +by an insatiable thirst for territorial aggrandizement, appears to +have been a result which forced itself on the Roman government +without, and even in opposition to, its wish. It is true that the +former view naturally suggests itself--Sallust is right when he makes +Mithradates say that the wars of Rome with tribes, cities, and kings +originated in one and the same prime cause, the insatiable longing +after dominion and riches; but it is an error to give forth this +judgment--influenced by passion and the event--as a historical fact. +It is evident to every one whose observation is not superficial, that +the Roman government during this whole period wished and desired +nothing but the sovereignty of Italy; that they were simply desirous +not to have too powerful neighbours alongside of them; and that--not +out of humanity towards the vanquished, but from the very sound view +that they ought not to suffer the kernel of their empire to be stifled +by the shell--they earnestly opposed the introduction first of Africa, +then of Greece, and lastly of Asia into the sphere of the Roman +protectorate, till circumstances in each case compelled, or at least +suggested with irresistible force, the extension of that sphere. The +Romans always asserted that they did not pursue a policy of conquest, +and that they were always the party assailed; and this was something +more, at any rate, than a mere phrase. They were in fact driven to +all their great wars with the exception of that concerning Sicily--to +those with Hannibal and Antiochus, no less than to those with Philip +and Perseus--either by a direct aggression or by an unparalleled +disturbance of the existing political relations; and hence they were +ordinarily taken by surprise on their outbreak. That they did not +after victory exhibit the moderation which they ought to have done in +the interest more especially of Italy itself; that the retention of +Spain, for instance, the undertaking of the guardianship of Africa, +and above all the half-fanciful scheme of bringing liberty everywhere +to the Greeks, were in the light of Italian policy grave errors, is +sufficiently clear. But the causes of these errors were, on the +one hand a blind dread of Carthage, on the other a still blinder +enthusiasm for Hellenic liberty; so little did the Romans exhibit +during this period the lust of conquest, that they, on the contrary, +displayed a very judicious dread of it. The policy of Rome throughout +was not projected by a single mightly intellect and bequeathed +traditionally from generation to generation; it was the policy of a +very able but somewhat narrow-minded deliberative assembly, which had +far too little power of grand combination, and far too much of a right +instinct for the preservation of its own commonwealth, to devise +projects in the spirit of a Caesar or a Napoleon. The universal +empire of Rome had its ultimate ground in the political development of +antiquity in general. The ancient world knew nothing of a balance of +power among nations; and therefore every nation which had attained +internal unity strove either directly to subdue its neighbors, as did +the Hellenic states, or at any rate to render them innocuous, as Rome +did,--an effort, it is true, which also issued ultimately in +subjugation. Egypt was perhaps the only great power in antiquity +which seriously pursued a system of equilibrium; on the opposite +system Seleucus and Antigonous, Hannibal and Scipio, came into +collision. And, if it seems to us sad that all the other richly- +endowed and highly-developed nations of antiquity had to perish in +order to enrich a single one out of the whole, and that all in the +long run appear to have only arisen to contribute to the greatness +of Italy and to the decay involved in that greatness, yet historical +justice must acknowledge that this result was not produced by the +military superiority of the legion over the phalanx, but was the +necessary development of the international relations of antiquity +generally-so that the issue was not decided by provoking chance, +but was the fulfillment of an unchangeable, and therefore +endurable, destiny. + + + + +Notes for Chapter X + + +1. --Ide gar prasde panth alion ammi dedukein-- (i. 102). + +2. II. VII. Last Struggles in Italy + +3. The legal dissolution of the Boeotian confederacy, however, took +place not at this time, but only after the destruction of Corinth +(Pausan. vii. 14, 4; xvi. 6). + +4. The recently discovered decree of the senate of 9th Oct. 584, which +regulates the legal relations of Thisbae (Ephemeris epigraphica, 1872, +p. 278, fig.; Mitth. d. arch. Inst., in Athen, iv. 235, fig.), gives +a clear insight into these relations. + +5. The story, that the Romans, in order at once to keep the promise +which had guaranteed his life and to take vengeance on him, put him +to death by depriving him of sleep, is certainly a fable. + +6. The statement of Cassiodorus, that the Macedonian mines were +reopened in 596, receives its more exact interpretation by means of +the coins. No gold coins of the four Macedonias are extant; either +therefore the gold-mines remained closed, or the gold extracted was +converted into bars. On the other hand there certainly exist silver +coins of Macedonia -prima- (Amphipolis) in which district the silver- +mines were situated. For the brief period, during which they must +have been struck (596-608), the number of them is remarkably great, +and proves either that the mines were very energetically worked, or +that the old royal money was recoined in large quantity. + +7. The statement that the Macedonian commonwealth was "relieved of +seignorial imposts and taxes" by the Romans (Polyb. xxxvii. 4) does +not necessarily require us to assume a subsequent remission of these +taxes: it is sufficient, for the explanation of Polybius' words, to +assume that the hitherto seignorial tax now became a public one. The +continuance of the constitution granted to the province of Macedonia +by Paullus down to at least the Augustan age (Liv. xlv. 32; Justin, +xxxiii. 2), would, it is true, be compatible also with the remission +of the taxes. + + +CHAPTER XI + +The Government and the Governed + +Formation of New Parties + +The fall of the patriciate by no means divested the Roman commonwealth +of its aristocratic character. We have already(1) indicated that the +plebeian party carried within it that character from the first as well +as, and in some sense still more decidedly than, the patriciate; for, +while in the old body of burgesses an absolute equality of rights +prevailed, the new constitution set out from a distinction between +the senatorial houses who were privileged in point of burgess +rights and of burgess usufructs, and the mass of the other citizens. +Immediately, therefore, on the abolition of the patriciate and the +formal establishment of civic equality, a new aristocracy and a +corresponding opposition were formed; and we have already shown how +the former engrafted itself as it were on the fallen patriciate, and +how, accordingly, the first movements of the new party of progress +were mixed up with the last movements of the old opposition between +the orders.(2) The formation of these new parties began in the fifth +century, but they assumed their definite shape only in the century +which followed. The development of this internal change is, as it +were, drowned amidst the noise of the great wars and victories, and +not merely so, but the process of formation is in this case more +withdrawn from view than any other in Roman history. Like a crust +of ice gathering imperceptibly over the surface of a stream and +imperceptibly confining it more and more, this new Roman aristocracy +silently arose; and not less imperceptibly, like the current +concealing itself beneath and slowly extending, there arose in +opposition to it the new party of progress. It is very difficult +to sum up in a general historical view the several, individually +insignificant, traces of these two antagonistic movements, which do +not for the present yield their historical product in any distinct +actual catastrophe. But the freedom hitherto enjoyed in the +commonwealth was undermined, and the foundation for future revolutions +was laid, during this epoch; and the delineation of these as well as +of the development of Rome in general would remain imperfect, if we +should fail to give some idea of the strength of that encrusting ice, +of the growth of the current beneath, and of the fearful moaning and +cracking that foretold the mighty breaking up which was at hand. + +Germs of the Nobility in the Patriciate + +The Roman nobility attached itself, in form, to earlier institutions +belonging to the times of the patriciate. Persons who once had filled +the highest ordinary magistracies of the state not only, as a matter +of course, practically enjoyed all along a higher honour, but also had +at an early period certain honorary privileges associated with their +position. The most ancient of these was doubtless the permission +given to the descendants of such magistrates to place the wax images +of these illustrious ancestors after their death in the family hall, +along the wall where the pedigree was painted, and to have these +images carried, on occasion of the death of members of the family, +in the funeral procession.(3) To appreciate the importance of this +distinction, we must recollect that the honouring of images was +regarded in the Italo-Hellenic view as unrepublican, and on that +account the Roman state-police did not at all tolerate the exhibition +of effigies of the living, and strictly superintended that of effigies +of the dead. With this privilege were associated various external +insignia, reserved by law or custom for such magistrates and their +descendants:--the golden finger-ring of the men, the silver-mounted +trappings of the youths, the purple border on the toga and the golden +amulet-case of the boys (4)--trifling matters, but still important in +a community where civic equality even in external appearance was so +strictly adhered to,(5) and where, even during the second Punic war, +a burgess was arrested and kept for years in prison because he had +appeared in public, in a manner not sanctioned by law, with a garland +of roses upon his head.(6) + +Patricio-Plebian Nobility + +These distinctions may perhaps have already existed partially in the +time of the patrician government, and, so long as families of higher +and humbler rank were distinguished within the patriciate, may have +served as external insignia for the former; but they certainly only +acquired political importance in consequence of the change of +constitution in 387, by which the plebeian families that attained +the consulate were placed on a footing of equal privilege with the +patrician families, all of whom were now probably entitled to carry +images of their ancestors. Moreover, it was now settled that the +offices of state to which these hereditary privileges were attached +should include neither the lower nor the extraordinary magistracies +nor the tribunate of the plebs, but merely the consulship, the +praetorship which stood on the same level with it,(7) and the curule +aedileship, which bore a part in the administration of public justice +and consequently in the exercise of the sovereign powers of the +state.(8) Although this plebeian nobility, in the strict sense of the +term, could only be formed after the curule offices were opened to +plebeians, yet it exhibited in a short time, if not at the very first, +a certain compactness of organization--doubtless because such a +nobility had long been prefigured in the old senatorial plebeian +families. The result of the Licinian laws in reality therefore +amounted nearly to what we should now call the creation of a batch of +peers. Now that the plebeian families ennobled by their curule +ancestors were united into one body with the patrician families and +acquired a distinctive position and distinguished power in the +commonwealth, the Romans had again arrived at the point whence they +had started; there was once more not merely a governing aristocracy +and a hereditary nobility--both of which in fact had never +disappeared--but there was a governing hereditary nobility, and the +feud between the gentes in possession of the government and the +commons rising in revolt against the gentes could not but begin +afresh. And matters very soon reached that stage. The nobility was +not content with its honorary privileges which were matters of +comparative indifference, but strove after separate and sole political +power, and sought to convert the most important institutions of the +state--the senate and the equestrian order--from organs of the +commonwealth into organs of the plebeio-patrician aristocracy. + +The Nobility in Possession of the Senate + +The dependence -de jure- of the Roman senate of the republic, more +especially of the larger patricio-plebeian senate, on the magistracy +had rapidly become lax, and had in fact been converted into +independence. The subordination of the public magistracies to +the state-council, introduced by the revolution of 244;(9) the +transference of the right of summoning men to the senate from the +consul to the censor;(10) lastly, and above all, the legal recognition +of the right of those who had been curule magistrates to a seat and +vote in the senate,(11) had converted the senate from a council +summoned by the magistrates and in many respects dependent on them +into a governing corporation virtually independent, and in a certain +sense filling up its own ranks; for the two modes by which its members +obtained admission--election to a curule office and summoning by the +censor--were both virtually in the power of the governing board +itself. The burgesses, no doubt, at this epoch were still too +independent to allow the entire exclusion of non-nobles from the +senate, and the nobility were perhaps still too judicious even to wish +for this; but, owing to the strictly aristocratic gradations in the +senate itself--in which those who had been curule magistrates were +sharply distinguished, according to their respective classes of +-consulares-, -praetorii-, and -aedilicii-, from the senators who +had not entered the senate through a curule office and were therefore +excluded from debate--the non-nobles, although they probably sat in +considerable numbers in the senate, were reduced to an insignificant +and comparatively uninfluential position in it, and the senate became +substantially a mainstay of the nobility. + +The Nobility in Possession of the Equestrian Centuries + +The institution of the equites was developed into a second, less +important but yet far from unimportant, organ of the nobility. As the +new hereditary nobility had not the power to usurp sole possession of +the comitia, it necessarily became in the highest degree desirable +that it should obtain at least a separate position within the body +representing the community. In the assembly of the tribes there +was no method of managing this; but the equestrian centuries under +the Servian organization seemed as it were created for the very +purpose. The 1800 horses which the community furnished(12) were +constitutionally disposed of likewise by the censors. It was, no +doubt, the duty of these to select the equites on military grounds and +at their musters to insist that all horsemen incapacitated by age or +otherwise, or at all unserviceable, should surrender their public +horse; but the very nature of the institution implied that the +equestrian horses should be given especially to men of means, and it +was not at all easy to hinder the censors from looking to genteel +birth more than to capacity, and from allowing men of standing who +were once admitted, senators particularly, to retain their horse +beyond the proper time. Perhaps it was even fixed by law that the +senator might retain it as long as he wished. Accordingly it became +at least practically the rule for the senators to vote in the eighteen +equestrian centuries, and the other places in these were assigned +chiefly to the young men of the nobility. The military system, of +course, suffered from this not so much through the unfitness for +effective service of no small part of the legionary cavalry, as +through the destruction of military equality to which the change gave +rise, inasmuch as the young men of rank more and more withdrew from +service in the infantry. The closed aristocratic corps of the equites +proper came to set the tone for the whole legionary cavalry, taken +from the citizens who were of highest position by descent and wealth. +This enables us in some degree to understand why the equites during +the Sicilian war refused to obey the order of the consul Gaius +Aurelius Cotta that they should work at the trenches with the +legionaries (502), and why Cato, when commander-in-chief of the army +in Spain, found himself under the necessity of addressing a severe +reprimand to his cavalry. But this conversion of the burgess-cavalry +into a mounted guard of nobles redounded not more decidedly to the +injury of the commonwealth than to the advantage of the nobility, +which acquired in the eighteen equestrian centuries a suffrage not +merely separate but giving the tone to the rest. + +Separation of the Orders in the Theatre + +Of a kindred character was the formal separation of the places +assigned to the senatorial order from those occupied by the rest of +the multitude as spectators at the national festivals. It was the +great Scipio, who effected this change in his second consulship in +560. The national festival was as much an assembly of the people as +were the centuries convoked for voting; and the circumstance that the +former had no resolutions to pass made the official announcement of a +distinction between the ruling order and the body of subjects--which +the separation implied--all the more significant. The innovation +accordingly met with much censure even from the ruling class, because +it was simply invidious and not useful, and because it gave a very +manifest contradiction to the efforts of the more prudent portion of +the aristocracy to conceal their exclusive government under the forms +of civil equality. + +The Censorship a Prop of the Nobility + +These circumstances explain, why the censorship became the pivot of +the later republican constitution; why an office, originally standing +by no means in the first rank, came to be gradually invested with +external insignia which did not at all belong to it in itself and with +an altogether unique aristocratic-republican glory, and was viewed as +the crown and completion of a well-conducted public career; and why +the government looked upon every attempt of the opposition to +introduce their men into this office, or even to hold the censor +responsible to the people for his administration during or after his +term of office, as an attack on their palladium, and presented a +united front of resistance to every such attempt. It is sufficient +in this respect to mention the storm which the candidature of Cato for +the censorship provoked, and the measures, so extraordinarily reckless +and in violation of all form, by which the senate prevented the +judicial prosecution of the two unpopular censors of the year 550. +But with their magnifying the glory of the censorship the government +combined a characteristic distrust of this, their most important and +for that very reason most dangerous, instrument. It was thoroughly +necessary to leave to the censors absolute control over the personal +composition of the senate and the equites; for the right of exclusion +could not well be separated from the right of summoning, and it was +indispensable to retain such a right, not so much for the purpose of +removing from the senate capable men of the opposition--a course which +the smooth-going government of that age cautiously avoided--as for the +purpose of preserving around the aristocracy that moral halo, without +which it must have speedily become a prey to the opposition. The +right of ejection was retained; but what they chiefly needed was the +glitter of the naked blade--the edge of it, which they feared, they +took care to blunt. Besides the check involved in the nature of the +office--under which the lists of the members of the aristocratic +corporations were liable to revision only at intervals of five years +--and besides the limitations resulting from the right of veto vested +in the colleague and the right of cancelling vested in the successor, +there was added a farther check which exercised a very sensible +influence; a usage equivalent to law made it the duty of the censor +not to erase from the list any senator or knight without specifying in +writing the grounds for his decision, or, in other words, adopting, as +a rule, a quasi-judicial procedure. + +Remodelling of the Constitution According to the Views of the Nobility +Inadequate Number of Magistrates + +In this political position--mainly based on the senate, the equites, +and the censorship--the nobility not only usurped in substance the +government, but also remodelled the constitution according to their +own views. It was part of their policy, with a view to keep up the +appreciation of the public magistracies, to add to the number of these +as little as possible, and to keep it far below what was required by +the extension of territory and the increase of business. Only the +most urgent exigencies were barely met by the division of the judicial +functions hitherto discharged by a single praetor between two judges +--one of whom tried the lawsuits between Roman burgesses, and the +other those that arose between non-burgesses or between burgess and +non-burgess--in 511, and by the nomination of four auxiliary consuls +for the four transmarine provinces of Sicily (527), Sardinia including +Corsica (527), and Hither and Further Spain (557). The far too +summary mode of initialing processes in Rome, as well as the +increasing influence of the official staff, are doubtless traceable +in great measure to the practically inadequate numbers of the +Roman magistracy. + +Election of Officers in the Comitia + +Among the innovations originated by the government--which were none +the less innovations, that almost uniformly they changed not the +letter, but merely the practice of the existing constitution--the most +prominent were the measures by which the filling up of officers' posts +as well as of civil magistracies was made to depend not, as the letter +of the constitution allowed and its spirit required, simply on merit +and ability, but more and more on birth and seniority. As regards the +nomination of staff-officers this was done not in form, but all the +more in substance. It had already, in the course of the previous +period, been in great part transferred from the general to the +burgesses;(13) in this period came the further step, that the whole +staff-officers of the regular yearly levy--the twenty-four military +tribunes of the four ordinary legions--were nominated in the -comitia +tributa-. Thus a line of demarcation more and more insurmountable was +drawn between the subalterns, who gained their promotion from the +general by punctual and brave service, and the staff, which obtained +its privileged position by canvassing the burgesses.(14) With a view +to check simply the worst abuses in this respect and to prevent young +men quite untried from holding these important posts, it became +necessary to require, as a preliminary to the bestowal of staff +appointments, evidence of a certain number of years of service. +Nevertheless, when once the military tribunate, the true pillar of the +Roman military system, was laid down as the first stepping-stone in +the political career of the young aristocrats, the obligation of +service inevitably came to be frequently eluded, and the election of +officers became liable to all the evils of democratic canvassing and +of aristocratic exclusiveness. It was a cutting commentary on the new +institution, that in serious wars (as in 583) it was found necessary +to suspend this democratic mode of electing officers, and to leave +once more to the general the nomination of his staff. + +Restrictions on the Election of Consuls and Censors + +In the case of civil offices, the first and chief object was to +limit re-election to the supreme magistracies. This was certainly +necessary, if the presidency of annual kings was not to be an empty +name; and even in the preceding period reelection to the consulship +was not permitted till after the lapse often years, while in the case +if the censorship it was altogether forbidden.(15) No farther law was +passed in the period before us; but an increased stringency in its +application is obvious from the fact that, while the law as to the ten +years' interval was suspended in 537 during the continuance of the war +in Italy, there was no farther dispensation from it afterwards, and +indeed towards the close of this period re-election seldom occurred at +all. Moreover, towards the end of this epoch (574) a decree of the +people was issued, binding the candidates for public magistracies to +undertake them in a fixed order of succession, and to observe certain +intervals between the offices, and certain limits of age. Custom, +indeed, had long prescribed both of these; but it was a sensibly +felt restriction of the freedom of election, when the customary +qualification was raised into a legal requirement, and the right of +disregarding such requirements in extraordinary cases was withdrawn +from the elective body. In general, admission to the senate was +thrown open to persons belonging to the ruling families without +distinction as to ability, while not only were the poorer and humbler +ranks of the population utterly precluded from access to the offices +of government, but all Roman burgesses not belonging to the hereditary +aristocracy were practically excluded, not indeed exactly from the +senate, but from the two highest magistracies, the consulship and the +censorship. After Manius Curius and Gaius Fabricius,(16) no instance +can be pointed out of a consul who did not belong to the social +aristocracy, and probably no instance of the kind occurred at all. +But the number of the -gentes-, which appear for the first time in the +lists of consuls and censors in the half-century from the beginning of +the war with Hannibal to the close of that with Perseus, is extremely +limited; and by far the most of these, such as the Flaminii, Terentii, +Porcii, Acilii, and Laelii, may be referred to elections by the +opposition, or are traceable to special aristocratic connections. +The election of Gaius Laelius in 564, for instance, was evidently +due to the Scipios. The exclusion of the poorer classes from the +government was, no doubt, required by the altered circumstances of the +case. Now that Rome had ceased to be a purely Italian state and had +adopted Hellenic culture, it was no longer possible to take a small +farmer from the plough and to set him at the head of the community. +But it was neither necessary nor beneficial that the elections should +almost without exception be confined to the narrow circle of the +curule houses, and that a "new man" could only make his way into that +circle by a sort of usurpation.(17) No doubt a certain hereditary +character was inherent not merely in the nature of the senate as +an institution, in so far as it rested from the outset on a +representation of the clans,(18) but in the nature of aristocracy +generally, in so far as statesmanly wisdom and statesmanly experience +are bequeathed from the able father to the able son, and the inspiring +spirit of an illustrious ancestry fans every noble spark within the +human breast into speedier and more brilliant flame. In this sense +the Roman aristocracy had been at all times hereditary; in fact, it +had displayed its hereditary character with great naivete in the old +custom of the senator taking his sons with him to the senate, and of +the public magistrate decorating his sons, as it were by anticipation, +with the insignia of the highest official honour--the purple border of +the consular, and the golden amulet-case of the triumphator. But, +while in the earlier period the hereditariness of the outward dignity +had been to a certain extent conditioned by the inheritance of +intrinsic worth, and the senatorial aristocracy had guided the state +not primarily by virtue of hereditary right, but by virtue of the +highest of all rights of representation--the right of the excellent, +as contrasted with the ordinary, man--it sank in this epoch (and with +specially great rapidity after the end of the Hannibalic war) from its +original high position, as the aggregate of those in the community who +were most experienced in counsel and action, down to an order of lords +filling up its ranks by hereditary succession, and exercising +collegiate misrule. + +Family Government + +Indeed, matters had already at this time reached such a height, that +out of the grave evil of oligarchy there emerged the still worse evil +of usurpation of power by particular families. We have already +spoken(19) of the offensive family-policy of the conqueror of Zama, +and of his unhappily successful efforts to cover with his own laurels +the incapacity and pitifulness of his brother; and the nepotism of the +Flaminini was, if possible, still more shameless and scandalous than +that of the Scipios. Absolute freedom of election in fact turned to +the advantage of such coteries far more than of the electing body. +The election of Marcus Valerius Corvus to the consulship at twenty- +three had doubtless been for the benefit of the state; but now, when +Scipio obtained the aedileship at twenty-three and the consulate at +thirty, and Flamininus, while not yet thirty years of age, rose from +the quaestorship to the consulship, such proceedings involved serious +danger to the republic. Things had already reached such a pass, that +the only effective barrier against family rule and its consequences +had to be found in a government strictly oligarchical; and this was +the reason why even the party otherwise opposed to the oligarchy +agreed to restrict the freedom of election. + +Government of the Nobility +Internal Administration + +The government bore the stamp of this gradual change in the spirit of +the governing class. It is true that the administration of external +affairs was still dominated at this epoch by that consistency and +energy, by which the rule of the Roman community over Italy had been +established. During the severe disciplinary times of the war as to +Sicily the Roman aristocracy had gradually raised itself to the height +of its new position; and if it unconstitutionally usurped for the +senate functions of government which by right foil to be shared +between the magistrates and the comitia alone, it vindicated the step +by its certainly far from brilliant, but sure and steady, pilotage +of the vessel of the state during the Hannibalic storm and the +complications thence arising, and showed to the world that the Roman +senate was alone able, and in many respects alone deserved, to rule +the wide circle of the Italo-Hellenic states. But admitting the noble +attitude of the ruling Roman senate in opposition to the outward foe +--an attitude crowned with the noblest results--we may not overlook +the fact, that in the less conspicuous, and yet far more important +and far more difficult, administration of the internal affairs of the +state, both the treatment of the existing arrangements and the new +institutions betray an almost opposite spirit, or, to speak more +correctly, indicate that the opposite tendency has already acquired +the predominance in this field. + +Decline in the Administration + +In relation, first of all, to the individual burgess the government +was no longer what it had been. The term "magistrate" meant a man who +was more than other men; and, if he was the servant of the community, +he was for that very reason the master of every burgess. But the +tightness of the rein was now visibly relaxed. Where coteries and +canvassing flourish as they did in the Rome of that age, men are chary +of forfeiting the reciprocal services of their fellows or the favour +of the multitude by stern words and impartial discharge of official +duty. If now and then magistrates appeared who displayed the gravity +and the sternness of the olden time, they were ordinarily, like Cotta +(502) and Cato, new men who had not sprung from the bosom of the +ruling class. It was already something singular, when Paullus, who +had been named commander-in-chief against Perseus, instead of +tendering his thanks in the usual manner to the burgesses, declared +to them that he presumed they had chosen him as general because +they accounted him the most capable of command, and requested them +accordingly not to help him to command, but to be silent and obey. + +As to Military Discipline and Administration of Justice + +The supremacy and hegemony of Rome in the territories of the +Mediterranean rested not least on the strictness of her military +discipline and her administration of justice. Undoubtedly she was +still, on the whole, at that time infinitely superior in these +respects to the Hellenic, Phoenician, and Oriental states, which were +without exception thoroughly disorganized; nevertheless grave abuses +were already occurring in Rome. We have previously(20) pointed out +how the wretched character of the commanders-in-chief--and that not +merely in the case of demagogues chosen perhaps by the opposition, +like Gaius Flaminius and Gaius Varro, but of men who were good +aristocrats--had already in the third Macedonian war imperilled the +weal of the state. And the mode in which justice was occasionally +administered is shown by the scene in the camp of the consul Lucius +Quinctius Flamininus at Placentia (562). To compensate a favourite +youth for the gladiatorial games of the capital, which through his +attendance on the consul he had missed the opportunity of seeing, that +great lord had ordered a Boian of rank who had taken refuge in the +Roman camp to be summoned, and had killed him at a banquet with his +own hand. Still worse than the occurrence itself, to which various +parallels might be adduced, was the fact that the perpetrator was not +brought to trial; and not only so, but when the censor Cato on account +of it erased his name from the roll of the senate, his fellow-senators +invited the expelled to resume his senatorial stall in the theatre +--he was, no doubt, the brother of the liberator of the Greeks, +and one of the most powerful coterie-leaders in the senate. + +As to the Management of Finances + +The financial system of the Roman community also retrograded rather +than advanced during this epoch. The amount of their revenues, +indeed, was visibly on the increase. The indirect taxes--there were +no direct taxes in Rome--increased in consequence of the enlargement +of the Roman territory, which rendered it necessary, for example, to +institute new customs-offices along the Campanian and Bruttian coasts +at Puteoli, Castra (Squillace), and elsewhere, in 555 and 575. The +same reason led to the new salt-tariff of 550 fixing the scale of +prices at which salt was to be sold in the different districts of +Italy, as it was no longer possible to furnish salt at one and the +same price to the Roman burgesses now scattered throughout the land; +but, as the Roman government probably supplied the burgesses with salt +at cost price, if not below it, this financial measure yielded no gain +to the state. Still more considerable was the increase in the produce +of the domains. The duty indeed, which of right was payable to the +treasury from the Italian domain-lands granted for occupation, was in +the great majority of cases neither demanded nor paid. On the other +hand the -scriptura- was retained; and not only so, but the domains +recently acquired in the second Punic war, particularly the greater +portion of the territory of Capua(21) and that of Leontini,(22) +instead of being given up to occupation, were parcelled out and let to +petty temporary lessees, and the attempts at occupation made in these +cases were opposed with more than usual energy by the government; by +which means the state acquired a considerable and secure source of +income. The mines of the state also, particularly the important +Spanish mines, were turned to profit on lease. Lastly, the revenue +was augmented by the tribute of the transmarine subjects. From +extraordinary sources very considerable sums accrued during this epoch +to the state treasury, particularly the produce of the spoil in the +war with Antiochus, 200 millions of sesterces (2,000,000 pounds), and +that of the war with Perseus, 210 millions of sesterces (2,100,000 +pounds)--the latter, the largest sum in cash which ever came at one +time into the Roman treasury. + +But this increase of revenue was for the most part counterbalanced by +the increasing expenditure. The provinces, Sicily perhaps excepted, +probably cost nearly as much as they yielded; the expenditure on +highways and other structures rose in proportion to the extension of +territory; the repayment also of the advances (-tributa-) received +from the freeholder burgesses during times of severe war formed a +burden for many a year afterwards on the Roman treasury. To these +fell to be added very considerable losses occasioned to the revenue +by the mismanagement, negligence, or connivance of the supreme +magistrates. Of the conduct of the officials in the provinces, of +their luxurious living at the expense of the public purse, of their +embezzlement more especially of the spoil, of the incipient system of +bribery and extortion, we shall speak in the sequel. How the state +fared generally as regarded the farming of its revenues and the +contracts for supplies and buildings, may be estimated from the +circumstance, that the senate resolved in 587 to desist from the +working of the Macedonian mines that had fallen to Rome, because the +lessees of the minerals would either plunder the subjects or cheat +the exchequer--truly a naive confession of impotence, in which the +controlling board pronounced its own censure. Not only was the duty +from the occupied domain-land allowed tacitly to fall into abeyance, +as has been already mentioned, but private buildings in the capital +and elsewhere were suffered to encroach on ground which was public +property, and the water from the public aqueducts was diverted to +private purposes: great dissatisfaction was created on one occasion +when a censor took serious steps against such trespassers, and +compelled them either to desist from the separate use of the public +property, or to pay the legal rate for the ground and water. The +conscience of the Romans, otherwise in economic matters so scrupulous, +showed, so far as the community was concerned, a remarkable laxity. +"He who steals from a burgess," said Cato, "ends his days in chains +and fetters; but he who steals from the community ends them in gold +and purple." If, notwithstanding the fact that the public property +of the Roman community was fearlessly and with impunity plundered by +officials and speculators, Polybius still lays stress on the rarity +of embezzlement in Rome, while Greece could hardly produce a single +official who had not touched the public money, and on the honesty with +which a Roman commissioner or magistrate would upon his simple word of +honour administer enormous sums, while in the case of the paltriest +sum in Greece ten letters were sealed and twenty witnesses were +required and yet everybody cheated, this merely implies that social +and economic demoralization had advanced much further in Greece than +in Rome, and in particular, that direct and palpable peculation was +not as yet so flourishing in the one case as in the other. The +general financial result is most clearly exhibited to us by the state +of the public buildings, and by the amount of cash in the treasury. +We find in times of peace a fifth, in times of war a tenth, of the +revenues expended on public buildings; which, in the circumstances, +does not seem to have been a very copious outlay. With these sums, as +well as with fines which were not directly payable into the treasury, +much was doubtless done for the repair of the highways in and near the +capital, for the formation of the chief Italian roads,(23) and for the +construction of public buildings. Perhaps the most important of the +building operations in the capital, known to belong to this period, +was the great repair and extension of the network of sewers throughout +the city, contracted for probably in 570, for which 24,000,000 +sesterces (240,000 pounds) were set apart at once, and to which it may +be presumed that the portions of the -cloacae- still extant, at least +in the main, belong. To all appearance however, even apart from the +severe pressure of war, this period was inferior to the last section +of the preceding epoch in respect of public buildings; between 482 and +607 no new aqueduct was constructed at Rome. The treasure of the +state, no doubt, increased; the last reserve in 545, when: they found +themselves under the necessity of laying hands on it, amounted only to +164,000 pounds (4000 pounds of gold);(24) whereas a short time after +the close of this period (597) close on 860,000 pounds in precious +metals were stored in the treasury. But, when we take into account +the enormous extraordinary revenues which in the generation after the +close of the Hannibalic war came into the Roman treasury, the latter +sum surprises us rather by its smallness than by its magnitude. So +far as with the extremely meagre statements before us it is allowable +to speak of results, the finances of the Roman state exhibit doubtless +an excess of income over expenditure, but are far from presenting a +brilliant result as a whole. + +Italian Subjects +Passive Burgesses + +The change in the spirit of the government was most distinctly +apparent in the treatment of the Italian and extra-Italian subjects of +the Roman community. Formerly there had been distinguished in Italy +the ordinary, and the Latin, allied communities, the Roman burgesses +-sine suffragio- and the Roman burgesses with the full franchise. Of +these four classes the third was in the course of this period almost +completely set aside, inasmuch as the course which had been earlier +taken with the communities of passive burgesses in Latium and Sabina, +was now applied also to those of the former Volscian territory, and +these gradually--the last perhaps being in the year 566 Arpinum, +Fundi, and Formiae--obtained full burgess-rights. In Campania Capua +along with a number of minor communities in the neighbourhood was +broken up in consequence of its revolt from Rome in the Hannibalic +war. Although some few communities, such as Velitrae in the Volscian +territory, Teanum and Cumae in Campania, may have remained on their +earlier legal footing, yet, looking at the matter in the main, this +franchise of a passive character may be held as now superseded. + +Dediticii + +On the other hand there emerged a new class in a position of +peculiar inferiority, without communal freedom and the right to +carry arms, and, in part, treated almost like public slaves +(-peregrini dediticii-); to which, in particular, the members of +the former Campanian, southern Picentine, and Bruttian communities, +that had been in alliance with Hannibal,(25) belonged. To these were +added the Celtic tribes tolerated on the south side of the Alps, whose +position in relation to the Italian confederacy is indeed only known +imperfectly, but is sufficiently characterized as inferior by the +clause embodied in their treaties of alliance with Rome, that no +member of these communities should ever be allowed to acquire +Roman citizenship.(26) + +Allies + +The position of the non-Latin allies had, as we have mentioned +before,(27) undergone a change greatly to their disadvantage in +consequence of the Hannibalic war. Only a few communities in this +category, such as Neapolis, Nola, Rhegium, and Heraclea, had during +all the vicissitudes of that war remained steadfastly on the Roman +side, and therefore retained their former rights as allies unaltered; +by far the greater portion were obliged in consequence of having +changed sides to acquiesce in a revision of the existing treaties to +their disadvantage. The reduced position of the non-Latin allies is +attested by the emigration from their communities into the Latin: +when in 577 the Samnites and Paelignians applied to the senate for a +reduction of their contingents, their request was based on the ground +that during late years 4000 Samnite and Paelignian families had +migrated to the Latin colony of Fregellae. + +Latins + +That the Latins--which term now denoted the few towns in old Latium +that were not included in the Roman burgess-union, such as Tibur and +Praeneste, the allied cities placed in law on the same footing with +them, such as several of the Hernican towns, and the Latin colonies +dispersed throughout Italy--were still at this time in a better +position, is implied in their very name; but they too had, in +proportion, hardly less deteriorated. The burdens imposed on them +were unjustly increased, and the pressure of military service was more +and more devolved from the burgesses upon them and the other Italian +allies. For instance, in 536, nearly twice as many of the allies were +called out as of the burgesses: after the end of the Hannibalic war +all the burgesses received their discharge, but not all the allies; +the latter were chiefly employed for garrison duty and for the odious +service in Spain; in the triumphal largess of 577 the allies received +not as formerly an equal share with the burgesses, but only the half, +so that amidst the unrestrained rejoicing of that soldiers' carnival +the divisions thus treated as inferior followed the chariot of victory +in sullen silence: in the assignations of land in northern Italy the +burgesses received ten jugera of arable land each, the non-burgesses +three -jugera- each. The unlimited liberty of migration had already +at an earlier period been taken from the Latin communities, and +migration to Rome was only allowed to them in the event of their +leaving behind children of their own and a portion of their estate in +the community which had been their home.(28) But these burdensome +requirements were in various ways evaded or transgressed; and the +crowding of the burgesses of Latin townships to Rome, and the +complaints of their magistrates as to the increasing depopulation +of the cities and the impossibility under such circumstances of +furnishing the fixed contingent, led the Roman government to institute +police-ejections from the capital on a large scale (567, 577). The +measure might be unavoidable, but it was none the less severely felt. +Moreover, the towns laid out by Rome in the interior of Italy began +towards the close of this period to receive instead of Latin rights +the full franchise, which previously had only been given to the +maritime colonies; and the enlargement of the Latin body by the +accession of new communities, which hitherto had gone on so regularly, +thus came to an end. Aquileia, the establishment of which began in +571, was the latest of the Italian colonies of Rome that received +Latin rights; the full franchise was given to the colonies, sent forth +nearly at the same time, of Potentia, Pisaurum, Mutina, Parma, and +Luna (570-577). The reason for this evidently lay in the decline of +the Latin as compared with the Roman franchise. The colonists +conducted to the new settlements were always, and now more than ever, +chosen in preponderating number from the Roman burgesses; and even +among the poorer portion of these there was a lack of people willing, +for the sake even of acquiring considerable material advantages, to +exchange their rights as burgesses for those of the Latin franchise. + +Roman Franchise More Difficult of Acquisition + +Lastly, in the case of non-burgesses--communities as well as +individuals--admission to the Roman franchise was almost completely +foreclosed. The earlier course incorporating the subject communities +in that of Rome had been dropped about 400, that the Roman burgess +body might not be too much decentralized by its undue extension; and +therefore communities of half-burgesses were instituted.(29) Now +the centralization of the community was abandoned, partly through +the admission of the half-burgess communities to the full franchise, +partly through the accession of numerous more remote burgess-colonies +to its ranks; but the older system of incorporation was not resumed +with reference to the allied communities. It cannot be shown that +after the complete subjugation of Italy even a single Italian +community exchanged its position as an ally for the Roman franchise; +probably none after that date in reality acquired it Even the +transition of individual Italians to the Roman franchise was confined +almost solely to the case of magistrates of the Latin communities(30) +and, by special favour, of individual non-burgesses admitted to share +it at the founding of burgess-colonies.(31) + +It cannot be denied that these changes -de facto- and -de jure- in +the relations of the Italian subjects exhibit at least an intimate +connection and consistency. The situation of the subject classes was +throughout deteriorated in proportion to the gradations previously +subsisting, and, while the government had formerly endeavoured to +soften the distinctions and to provide means of transition from one to +another, now the intermediate links were everywhere set aside and the +connecting bridges were broken down. As within the Roman burgess-body +the ruling class separated itself from the people, uniformly withdrew +from public burdens, and uniformly took for itself the honours and +advantages, so the burgesses in their turn asserted their distinction +from the Italian confederacy, and excluded it more and more from the +joint enjoyment of rule, while transferring to it a double or triple +share in the common burdens. As the nobility, in relation to the +plebeians, returned to the close exclusiveness of the declining +patriciate, so did the burgesses in relation to the non-burgesses; +the plebeiate, which had become great through the liberality of +its institutions, now wrapped itself up in the rigid maxims of +patricianism. The abolition of the passive burgesses cannot in itself +be censured, and, so far as concerned the motive which led to it, +belongs presumably to another connection to be discussed afterwards; +but through its abolition an intermediate link was lost. Far more +fraught with peril, however, was the disappearance of the distinction +between the Latin and the other Italian communities. The privileged +position of the Latin nation within Italy was the foundation of the +Roman power; that foundation gave way, when the Latin towns began to +feel that they were no longer privileged partakers in the dominion of +the powerful cognate community, but substantially subjects of Rome +like the rest, and when all the Italians began to find their position +equally intolerable. It is true, that there were still distinctions: +the Bruttians and their companions in misery were already treated +exactly like slaves and conducted themselves accordingly, deserting, +for instance, from the fleet in which they served as galley-slaves, +whenever they could, and gladly taking service against Rome; and the +Celtic, and above all the transmarine, subjects formed by the side of +the Italians a class still more oppressed and intentionally abandoned +by the government to contempt and maltreatment at the hands of the +Italians. But such distinctions, while implying a gradation of +classes among the subjects, could not withal afford even a remote +compensation for the earlier contrast between the cognate, and the +alien, Italian subjects. A profound dissatisfaction prevailed through +the whole Italian confederacy, and fear alone prevented it from +finding loud expression. The proposal made in the senate after the +battle at Cannae, to give the Roman franchise and a seat in the senate +to two men from each Latin community, was made at an unseasonable +time, and was rightly rejected; but it shows the apprehension with +which men in the ruling community even then viewed the relations +between Latium and Rome. Had a second Hannibal now carried the war to +Italy, it may be doubted whether he would have again been thwarted by +the steadfast resistance of the Latin name to a foreign domination. + +The Provinces + +But by far the most important institution which this epoch introduced +into the Roman commonwealth, and that at the same time which involved +the most decided and fatal deviation from the course hitherto pursued, +was the new provincial magistracies. The earlier state-law of Rome +knew nothing of tributary subjects: the conquered communities were +either sold into slavery, or merged in the Roman commonwealth, or +lastly, admitted to an alliance which secured to them at least +communal independence and freedom from taxation. But the Carthaginian +possessions in Sicily, Sardinia, and Spain, as well as the kingdom of +Hiero, had paid tribute and rent to their former masters: if Rome was +desirous of retaining these possessions at all, it was in the judgment +of the short-sighted the most judicious, and undoubtedly the most +convenient, course to administer the new territories entirely in +accordance with the rules heretofore observed. Accordingly the Romans +simply retained the Carthagino-Hieronic provincial constitution, and +organized in accordance with it those provinces also, such as Hither +Spain, which they wrested from the barbarians. It was the shirt of +Nessus which they inherited from the enemy. Beyond doubt at first +the Roman government intended, in imposing taxes on their subjects, +not strictly to enrich themselves, but only to cover the cost of +administration and defence; but they already deviated from this +course, when they made Macedonia and Illyria tributary without +undertaking the government or the guardianship of the frontier there. +The fact, however, that they still maintained moderation in the +imposition of burdens was of little consequence, as compared with the +conversion of their sovereignty into a right yielding profit at all; +the fall was the same, whether a single apple was taken or the tree +was plundered. + +Position of the Governors + +Punishment followed in the steps of wrong. The new provincial +system necessitated the appointment of governors, whose position was +absolutely incompatible not only with the welfare of the provinces, +but with the Roman constitution. As the Roman community in the +provinces took the place of the former ruler of the land, so their +governor appeared there in the king's stead; the Sicilian praetor, for +example, resided in the palace of Hiero at Syracuse. It is true, that +by right the governor nevertheless ought to administer his office with +republican honesty and frugality. Cato, when governor of Sardinia, +appeared in the towns subject to him on foot and attended by a single +servant, who carried his coat and sacrificial ladle; and, when he +returned home from his Spanish governorship, he sold his war-horse +beforehand, because he did not hold himself entitled to charge the +state with the expenses of its transport. There is no question that +the Roman governors--although certainly but few of them pushed their +conscientiousness, like Cato, to the verge of being niggardly and +ridiculous--made in many cases a powerful impression on the subjects, +more especially on the frivolous and unstable Greeks, by their old- +fashioned piety, by the reverential stillness prevailing at their +repasts, by their comparatively upright administration of office and +of justice, especially by their proper severity towards the worst +bloodsuckers of the provincials--the Roman revenue-farmers and +bankers--and in general by the gravity and dignity of their +deportment. The provincials found their government comparatively +tolerable. They had not been pampered by their Carthaginian stewards +and Syracusan masters, and they were soon to find occasion for +recalling with gratitude the present rods as compared with the coming +scorpions: it is easy to understand how, in later times, the sixth +century of the city appeared as the golden era of provincial rule. +But it was not practicable for any length of time to be at once +republican and king. Playing the part of governors demoralized the +Roman ruling class \vith fearful rapidity. Haughtiness and arrogance +towards the provincials were so natural in the circumstances, as +scarcely to form matter of reproach against the individual magistrate. +But already it was a rare thing--and the rarer, because the government +adhered rigidly to the old principle of not paying public officials +--that a governor returned with quite clean hands from his province; +it was already remarked upon as something singular that Paullus, the +conqueror of Pydna, did not take money. The bad custom of delivering +to the governor "honorary wine" and other "voluntary" gifts seems as +old as the provincial constitution itself, and may perhaps have been +a legacy from the Carthaginians; even Cato in his administration of +Sardinia in 556 had to content himself with regulating and moderating +such contributions. The right of the magistrates, and of those +travelling on the business of the state generally, to free quarters +and free conveyance was already employed as a pretext for exactions. +The more important right of the magistrate to make requisitions of +grain in his province--partly for the maintenance of himself and his +retinue (-in cellam-) partly for the provisioning of the army in case +of war, or on other special occasions at a fair valuation--was already +so scandalously abused, that on the complaint of the Spaniards the +senate in 583 found it necessary to withdraw from the governors the +right of fixing the price of the supplies for either purpose.(32) +Requisitions had begun to be made on the subjects even for the popular +festivals in Rome; the unmeasured vexatious demands made on the +Italian as well as extra-Italian communities by the aedile Tiberius +Sempronius Gracchus, for the festival which he had to provide, induced +the senate officially to interfere against them (572). The liberties +which Roman magistrates at the close of this period allowed themselves +to take not only with the unhappy subjects, but even with the +dependent free-states and kingdoms, are illustrated by the raids of +Gaius Volso in Asia Minor,(33) and above all by the scandalous +proceedings in Greece during the war with Perseus.(34) + +Control over the Governors +Supervision of the Senate over the Provinces and Their Governors + +The government had no right to be surprised at such things, for it +provided no serious check on the excesses of this capricious military +administration. Judicial control, it is true, was not entirely +wanting. Although, according to the universal but more than +questionable rule of allowing no complaint to be brought against a +commander-in-chief during his term of office,(35) the Roman governor +could ordinarily be called to account only after the mischief had +been done, yet he was amenable both to a criminal and to a civil +prosecution. In order to the institution of the former, a tribune of +the people by virtue of the judicial power pertaining to him had to +take the case in hand and bring it to the bar of the people; the civil +action was remitted by the senator who administered the corresponding +praetorship to a jury appointed, according to the constitution of the +tribunal in those times, from the ranks of the senate. In both cases, +therefore, the control lay in the hands of the ruling class, and, +although the latter was still sufficiently upright and honourable not +absolutely to set aside well-founded complaints, and the senate even +in various instances, at the call of those aggrieved, condescended +itself to order the institution of a civil process, yet the complaints +of poor men and foreigners against powerful members of the ruling +aristocracy--submitted to judges and jurymen far remote from the scene +and, if not involved in the like guilt, at least belonging to the same +order as the accused--could from the first only reckon on success in +the event of the wrong being clear and crying; and to complain in vain +was almost certain destruction. The aggrieved no doubt found a sort +of support in the hereditary relations of clientship, which the +subject cities and provinces entered into with their conquerors and +other Romans brought into close contact with them. The Spanish +governors felt that no one could with impunity maltreat clients of +Cato; and the circumstance that the representatives of the three +nations conquered by Paullus--the Spaniards, Ligurians, and +Macedonians--would not forgo the privilege of carrying his bier to the +funeral pile, was the noblest dirge in honour of that noble man. But +not only did this special protection give the Greeks opportunity to +display in Rome all their talent for abasing themselves in presence of +their masters, and to demoralize even those masters by their ready +servility--the decrees of the Syracusans in honour of Marcellus, after +he had destroyed and plundered their city and they had complained of +his conduct in these respects to the senate in vain, form one of the +most scandalous pages in the far from honourable annals of Syracuse +--but, in connection with the already dangerous family-politics, this +patronage on the part of great houses had also its politically +perilous side. In this way the result perhaps was that the Roman +magistrates in some degree feared the gods and the senate, and for +the most part were moderate in their plundering; but they plundered +withal, and did so with impunity, if they but observed such +moderation. The mischievous rule became established, that in the case +of minor exactions and moderate violence the Roman magistrate acted in +some measure within his sphere and was in law exempt from punishment, +so that those who were aggrieved had to keep silence; and from this +rule succeeding ages did not fail to draw the fatal consequences. +Nevertheless, even though the tribunals had been as strict as they +were lax, the liability to a judicial reckoning could only check +the worst evils. The true security for a good administration lay +in a strict and uniform supervision by the supreme administrative +authority: and this the senate utterly failed to provide. It was +in this respect that the laxity and helplessness of the collegiate +government became earliest apparent. By right the governors ought to +have been subjected to an oversight far more strict and more special +than had sufficed for the administration of Italian municipal affairs; +and now, when the empire embraced great transmarine territories, the +arrangements, through which the government preserved to itself the +supervision of the whole, ought to have undergone a corresponding +expansion. In both respects the reverse was the case. The governors +ruled virtually as sovereign; and the most important of the +institutions serving for the latter purpose, the census of the empire, +was extended to Sicily alone, not to any of the provinces subsequently +acquired. This emancipation of the supreme administrative officials +from the central authority was more than hazardous. The Roman +governor, placed at the head of the armies of the state, and in +possession of considerable financial resources: subject to but a +lax judicial control, and practically independent of the supreme +administration; and impelled by a sort of necessity to separate the +interest of himself and of the people whom he governed from that of +the Roman community and to treat them as conflicting, far more +resembled a Persian satrap than one of the commissioners of the Roman +senate at the time of the Samnite wars. The man, moreover, who had +just conducted a legalized military tyranny abroad, could with +difficulty find his way back to the common civic level, which +distinguished between those who commanded and those who obeyed, but +not between masters and slaves. Even the government felt that their +two fundamental principles--equality within the aristocracy, and the +subordination of the power of the magistrates to the senatorial +college--began in this instance to give way in their hands. The +aversion of the government to the acquisition of new provinces and to +the whole provincial system; the institution of the provincial +quaestorships, which were intended to take at least the financial +power out of the hands of the governors; and the abolition of the +arrangement--in itself so judicious--for a longer tenure of such +offices,(36) very clearly evince the anxiety felt by the more far- +seeing of the Roman statesmen as to the fruits of the seed thus sown. +But diagnosis is not cure. The internal government of the nobility +continued to follow the direction once given to it; and the decay of +the administration and of the financial system--paving the way for +future revolutions and usurpations--steadily pursued its course, +if not unnoticed, yet unchecked. + +The Opposition + +If the new nobility was less sharply defined than the old aristocracy +of the clans, and if the encroachment on the other burgesses as +respected the joint enjoyment of political rights was in the one +case -de jure-, in the other only -de facto-, the second form of +inferiority was for that very reason worse to bear and worse to throw +off than the first. Attempts to throw it off were, as a matter of +course, not wanting. The opposition rested on the support of the +public assembly, as the nobility did on the senate: in order to +understand the opposition, we must first describe the Roman burgess- +body during this period as regards its spirit and its position in the +commonwealth. + +Character of the Roman Burgess-Body + +Whatever could be demanded of an assembly of burgesses like the Roman, +which was not the moving spring, but the firm foundation, of the whole +machinery--a sure perception of the common good, a sagacious deference +towards the right leader, a steadfast spirit in prosperous and evil +days, and, above all, the capacity of sacrificing the individual for +the general welfare and the comfort of the present for the advantage +of the future--all these qualities the Roman community exhibited in so +high a degree that, when we look to its conduct as a whole, all +censure is lost in reverent admiration. Even now good sense and +discretion still thoroughly predominated. The whole conduct of +the burgesses with reference to the government as well as to the +opposition shows quite clearly that the same mighty patriotism before +which even the genius of Hannibal had to quit the field prevailed also +in the Roman comitia. No doubt they often erred; but their errors +originated not in the mischievous impulses of a rabble, but in the +narrow views of burgesses and farmers. The machinery, however, by +means of which the burgesses intervened in the course of public +affairs became certainly more and more unwieldy, and the circumstances +in which they were placed through their own great deeds far outgrew +their power to deal with them. We have already stated, that in the +course of this epoch most of the former communities of passive +burgesses, as well as a considerable number of newly established +colonies, received the full Roman franchise.(37) At the close of this +period the Roman burgess-body, in a tolerably compact mass, filled +Latium in its widest sense, Sabina, and a part of Campania, so that it +reached on the west coast northward to Caere and southward to Cumae; +within this district there were only a few cities not included in it, +such as Tibur, Praeneste, Signia, Norba, and Ferentinum. To this +fell to be added the maritime colonies on the coasts of Italy which +uniformly possessed the full Roman franchise, the Picenian and Trans- +Apennine colonies of the most recent times, to which the franchise +must have been conceded,(38) and a very considerable number of Roman +burgesses, who, without forming separate communities in a strict +sense, were scattered throughout Italy in market-villages and hamlets +(-fora et conciliabula-). To some extent the unwieldiness of a civic +community so constituted was remedied, for the purposes of justice(39) +and of administration, by the deputy judges previously mentioned;(40) +and already perhaps the maritime(41) and the new Picenian and Trans- +Apennine colonies exhibited at least the first lineaments of the +system under which afterwards smaller urban communities were organized +within the great city-commonwealth of Rome. But in all political +questions the primary assembly in the Roman Forum remained alone +entitled to act; and it is obvious at a glance, that this assembly +was no longer, in its composition or in its collective action, what +it had been when all the persons entitled to vote could exercise their +privilege as citizens by leaving their farms in the morning and +returning home the same evening. Moreover the government--whether +from want of judgment, from negligence, or from any evil design, we +cannot tell--no longer as formerly enrolled the communities admitted +to the franchise after 513 in newly instituted election-districts, but +included them along with others in the old; so that gradually each +tribe came to be composed of different townships scattered over the +whole Roman territory. Election-districts such as these, containing +on an average 8000--the urban naturally having more, the rural fewer +--persons entitled to vote, without local connection or inward unity, +no longer admitted of any definite leading or of any satisfactory +previous deliberation; disadvantages which must have been the more +felt, since the voting itself was not preceded by any free debate. +Moreover, while the burgesses had quite sufficient capacity to discern +their communal interests, it was foolish and utterly ridiculous to +leave the decision of the highest and most difficult questions which +the power that ruled the world had to solve to a well-disposed but +fortuitous concourse of Italian farmers, and to allow the nomination +of generals and the conclusion of treaties of state to be finally +judged of by people who understood neither the grounds nor the +consequences of their decrees. In all matters transcending mere +communal affairs the Roman primary assemblies accordingly played a +childish and even silly part. As a rule, the people stood and gave +assent to all proposals; and, when in exceptional instances they of +their own impulse refused assent, as on occasion of the declaration +of war against Macedonia in 554,(42) the policy of the market-place +certainly made a pitiful opposition--and with a pitiful issue--to the +policy of the state. + +Rise of a City Rabble + +At length the rabble of clients assumed a position, formally of +equality and often even, practically, of superiority, alongside of +the class of independent burgesses. The institutions out of which it +sprang were of great antiquity. From time immemorial the Roman of +quality exercised a sort of government over his freedmen and +dependents, and was consulted by them in all their more important +affairs; a client, for instance, was careful not to give his children +in marriage without having obtained the consent of his patron, and +very often the latter directly arranged the match. But as the +aristocracy became converted into a special ruling class concentrating +in its hands not only power but also wealth, the clients became +parasites and beggars; and the new adherents of the rich undermined +outwardly and inwardly the burgess class. The aristocracy not only +tolerated this sort of clientship, but worked it financially and +politically for their own advantage. Thus, for instance, the old +penny collections, which hitherto had taken place chiefly for +religious purposes and at the burial of men of merit, were now +employed by lords of high standing--for the first time by Lucius +Scipio, in 568, on occasion of a popular festival which he had in +contemplation--for the purpose of levying on extraordinary occasions a +contribution from the public. Presents were specially placed under +legal restriction (in 550), because the senators began under that name +to take regular tribute from their clients. But the retinue of +clients was above all serviceable to the ruling class as a means of +commanding the comitia; and the issue of the elections shows clearly +how powerfully the dependent rabble already at this epoch competed +with the independent middle class. + +The very rapid increase of the rabble in the capital particularly, +which is thus presupposed, is also demonstrable otherwise. The +increasing number and importance of the freedmen are shown by the very +serious discussions that arose in the previous century,(43) and were +continued during the present, as to their right to vote in the public +assemblies, and by the remarkable resolution, adopted by the senate +during the Hannibalic war, to admit honourable freedwomen to a +participation in the public collections, and to grant to the +legitimate children of manumitted fathers the insignia hitherto +belonging only to the children of the free-born.(44) The majority of +the Hellenes and Orientals who settled in Rome were probably little +better than the freedmen, for national servility clung as indelibly +to the former as legal servility to the latter. + +Systematic Corruption of the Multitude +Distributions of Grain + +But not only did these natural causes co-operate to produce a +metropolitan rabble: neither the nobility nor the demagogues, +moreover, can be acquitted from the reproach of having systematically +nursed its growth, and of having undermined, so far as in them lay, +the old public spirit by flattery of the people and things still +worse. The electors as a body were still too respectable to admit of +direct electoral corruption showing itself on a great scale; but the +favour of those entitled to vote was indirectly courted by methods far +from commendable. The old obligation of the magistrates, particularly +of the aediles, to see that corn could be procured at a moderate price +and to superintend the games, began to degenerate into the state of +things which at length gave rise to the horrible cry of the city +populace under the Empire, "Bread for nothing and games for ever!" +Large supplies of grain, cither placed by the provincial governors at +the disposal of the Roman market officials, or delivered at Rome free +of cost by the provinces themselves for the purpose of procuring +favour with particular Roman magistrates, enabled the aediles, from +the middle of the sixth century, to furnish grain to the population of +the capital at very low prices. "It was no wonder," Cato considered, +"that the burgesses no longer listened to good advice--the belly +forsooth had no ears." + +Festivals + +Popular amusements increased to an alarming extent. For five hundred +years the community had been content with one festival in the year, +and with one circus. The first Roman demagogue by profession, Gaius +Flaminius, added a second festival and a second circus (534);(45) and +by these institutions--the tendency of which is sufficiently indicated +by the very name of the new festival, "the plebeian games"--he +probably purchased the permission to give battle at the Trasimene +lake. When the path was once opened, the evil made rapid progress. +The festival in honour of Ceres, the goddess who protected the +plebeian order,(46) must have been but little, if at all, later than +the plebeian games. On the suggestion of the Sibylline and Marcian +prophecies, moreover, a fourth festival was added in 542 in honour of +Apollo, and a fifth in 550 in honour of the "Great Mother" recently +transplanted from Phrygia to Rome. These were the severe years of +the Hannibalic war--on the first celebration of the games of Apollo +the burgesses were summoned from the circus itself to arms; the +superstitious fear peculiar to Italy was feverishly excited, and +persons were not wanting who took advantage of the opportunity to +circulate Sibylline and prophetic oracles and to recommend themselves +to the multitude through their contents and advocacy: we can scarcely +blame the government, which was obliged to call for so enormous +sacrifices from the burgesses, for yielding in such matters. But what +was once conceded had to be continued; indeed, even in more peaceful +times (581) there was added another festival, although of minor +importance--the games in honour of Flora. The cost of these new +festal amusements was defrayed by the magistrates entrusted with the +providing of the respective festivals from their own means: thus the +curule aediles had, over and above the old national festival, those +of the Mother of the Gods and of Flora; the plebeian aediles had the +plebeian festival and that of Ceres, and the urban praetor the +Apollinarian games. Those who sanctioned the new festivals perhaps +excused themselves in their own eyes by the reflection that they were +not at any rate a burden on the public purse; but it would have been +in reality far less injurious to burden the public budget with a +number of useless expenses, than to allow the providing of an +amusement for the people to become practically a qualification for +holding the highest office in the state. The future candidates for +the consulship soon entered into a mutual rivalry in their expenditure +on these games, which incredibly increased their cost; and, as may +well be conceived, it did no harm if the consul expectant gave, +over and above this as it were legal contribution, a voluntary +"performance" (-munus-), a gladiatorial show at his own expense for +the public benefit. The splendour of the games became gradually the +standard by which the electors measured the fitness of the candidates +for the consulship. The nobility had, in truth, to pay dear for their +honours--a gladiatorial show on a respectable scale cost 720,000 +sesterces (7200 pounds)--but they paid willingly, since by this +means they absolutely precluded men who were not wealthy from a +political career. + +Squandering of the Spoil + +Corruption, however, was not restricted to the Forum; it was +transferred even to the camp. The old burgess militia had reckoned +themselves fortunate when they brought home a compensation for the +toil of war, and, in the event of success, a trifling gift as a +memorial of victory. The new generals, with Scipio Africanus at their +head, lavishly scattered amongst their troops the money of Rome as +well as the proceeds of the spoil: it was on this point, that Cato +quarrelled with Scipio during the last campaigns against Hannibal in +Africa. The veterans from the second Macedonian war and that waged in +Asia Minor already returned home throughout as wealthy men: even the +better class began to commend a general, who did not appropriate the +gifts of the provincials and the gains of war entirely to himself and +his immediate followers, and from whose camp not a few men returned +with gold, and many with silver, in their pockets: men began to forget +that the moveable spoil was the property of the state. When Lucius +Paullus again dealt with it in the old mode, his own soldiers, +especially the volunteers who had been allured in numbers by the +prospect of rich plunder, fell little short of refusing to the +victor of Pydna by popular decree the honour of a triumph--an honour +which they already threw away on every one who had subjugated three +Ligurian villages. + +Decline of Warlike Spirit + +How much the military discipline and the martial spirit of the +burgesses suffered from this conversion of war into a traffic in +plunder, may be traced in the campaigns against Perseus; and the +spread of cowardice was manifested in a way almost scandalous during +the insignificant Istrian war (in 576). On occasion of a trifling +skirmish magnified by rumour to gigantic dimensions, the land army +and the naval force of the Romans, and even the Italians, ran off +homeward, and Cato found it necessary to address a special reproof to +his countrymen for their cowardice. In this too the youth of quality +took precedence. Already during the Hannibalic war (545) the censors +found occasion to visit with severe penalties the remissness of those +who were liable to military service under the equestrian census. +Towards the close of this period (574?) a decree of the people +prescribed evidence of ten years' service as a qualification for +holding any public magistracy, with a view to compel the sons of +the nobility to enter the army. + +Title-Hunting + +But perhaps nothing so clearly evinces the decay of genuine pride and +genuine honour in high and low alike as the hunting after insignia and +titles, which appeared under different forms of expression, but with +substantial identity of character, among all ranks and classes. So +urgent was the demand for the honour of a triumph that there was +difficulty in upholding the old rule, which accorded a triumph only +to the ordinary supreme magistrate who augmented the power of the +commonwealth in open battle, and thereby, it is true, not unfrequently +excluded from that honour the very authors of the most important +successes. There was a necessity for acquiescence, while those +generals, who had in vain solicited, or had no prospect of attaining, +a triumph from the senate or the burgesses, marched in triumph on +their own account at least to the Alban Mount (first in 523). No +combat with a Ligurian or Corsican horde was too insignificant to be +made a pretext for demanding a triumph. In order to put an end to the +trade of peaceful triumphators, such as were the consuls of 574, the +granting of a triumph was made to depend on the producing proof of a +pitched battle which had cost the lives of at least 5000 of the enemy; +but this proof was frequently evaded by false bulletins--already in +houses of quality many an enemy's armour might be seen to glitter, +which had by no means come thither from the field of battle. While +formerly the commander-in-chief of the one year had reckoned it an +honour to serve next year on the staff of his successor, the fact that +the consular Cato took service as a military tribune under Tiberius +Sempronius Longus (560) and Manius Glabrio (563;(47)), was now +regarded as a demonstration against the new-fashioned arrogance. +Formerly the thanks of the community once for all had sufficed for +service rendered to the state: now every meritorious act seemed to +demand a permanent distinction. Already Gaius Duilius, the victor of +Mylae (494), had gained an exceptional permission that, when he walked +in the evening through the streets of the capital, he should be +preceded by a torch-bearer and a piper. Statues and monuments, very +often erected at the expense of the person whom they purported to +honour, became so common, that it was ironically pronounced a +distinction to have none. But such merely personal honours did not +long suffice. A custom came into vogue, by which the victor and his +descendants derived a permanent surname from the victories they had +won--a custom mainly established by the victor of Zama who got himself +designated as the hero of Africa, his brother as the hero of Asia, and +his cousin as the hero of Spain.(48) The example set by the higher +was followed by the humbler classes. When the ruling order did not +disdain to settle the funeral arrangements for different ranks and to +decree to the man who had been censor a purple winding-sheet, it could +not complain of the freedmen for desiring that their sons at any rate +might be decorated with the much-envied purple border. The robe, the +ring, and the amulet-case distinguished not only the burgess and the +burgess's wife from the foreigner and the slave, but also the person +who was free-born from one who had been a slave, the son of free-born, +from the son of manumitted, parents, the son of the knight and the +senator from the common burgess, the descendant of a curule house from +the common senator(49)--and this in a community where all that was +good and great was the work of civil equality! + +The dissension in the community was reflected in the ranks of the +opposition. Resting on the support of the farmers, the patriots +raised a loud cry for reform; resting on the support of the mob in +the capital, demagogism began its work. Although the two tendencies +do not admit of being wholly separated but in various respects go hand +in hand, it will be necessary to consider them apart. + +The Party of Reform +Cato + +The party of reform emerges, as it were, personified in Marcus Porcius +Cato (520-605). Cato, the last statesman of note belonging to that +earlier system which restricted its ideas to Italy and was averse to +universal empire, was for that reason accounted in after times the +model of a genuine Roman of the antique stamp; he may with greater +justice be regarded as the representative of the opposition of the +Roman middle class to the new Hellenico-cosmopolite nobility. Brought +up at the plough, he was induced to enter on a political career by the +owner of a neighbouring estate, one of the few nobles who kept aloof +from the tendencies of the age, Lucius Valerius Flaccus. That upright +patrician deemed the rough Sabine farmer the proper man to stem the +current of the times; and he was not deceived in his estimate. +Beneath the aegis of Flaccus, and after the good old fashion serving +his fellow-citizens and the commonwealth in counsel and action, Cato +fought his way up to the consulate and a triumph, and even to the +censorship. Having in his seventeenth year entered the burgess-army, +he had passed through the whole Hannibalic war from the battle on the +Trasimene lake to that of Zama; had served under Marcellus and Fabius, +under Nero and Scipio; and at Tarentum and Sena, in Africa, Sardinia, +Spain, and Macedonia, had shown himself capable as a soldier, a staff- +officer, and a general. He was the same in the Forum, as in the +battle-field. His prompt and fearless utterance, his rough but +pungent rustic wit, his knowledge of Roman law and Roman affairs, his +incredible activity and his iron frame, first brought him into notice +in the neighbouring towns; and, when at length he made his appearance +on the greater arena of the Forum and the senate-house in the capital, +constituted him the most influential advocate and political orator of +his time. He took up the key-note first struck by Manius Curius, his +ideal among Roman statesmen;(50) throughout his long life he made it +his task honestly, to the best of his judgment, to assail on all hands +the prevailing declension; and even in his eighty-fifth year he +battled in the Forum with the new spirit of the times. He was +anything but comely--he had green eyes, his enemies alleged, and red +hair--and he was not a great man, still less a far-seeing statesman. +Thoroughly narrow in his political and moral views, and having the +ideal of the good old times always before his eyes and on his lips, he +cherished an obstinate contempt for everything new. Deeming himself +by virtue of his own austere life entitled to manifest an unrelenting +severity and harshness towards everything and everybody; upright and +honourable, but without a glimpse of any duty lying beyond the sphere +of police order and of mercantile integrity; an enemy to all villany +and vulgarity as well as to all refinement and geniality, and above +all things the foe of his foes; he never made an attempt to stop evils +at their source, but waged war throughout life against symptoms, and +especially against persons. The ruling lords, no doubt, looked down +with a lofty disdain on the ignoble growler, and believed, not without +reason, that they were far superior; but fashionable corruption in and +out of the senate secretly trembled in the presence of the old censor +of morals with his proud republican bearing, of the scar-covered +veteran from the Hannibalic war, and of the highly influential senator +and the idol of the Roman farmers. He publicly laid before his noble +colleagues, one after another, his list of their sins; certainly +without being remarkably particular as to the proofs, and certainly +also with a peculiar relish in the case of those who had personally +crossed or provoked him. With equal fearlessness he reproved and +publicly scolded the burgesses for every new injustice and every fresh +disorder. His vehement attacks provoked numerous enemies, and he +lived in declared and irreconcilable hostility with the most powerful +aristocratic coteries of the time, particularly the Scipios and +Flaminini; he was publicly accused forty-four times. But the farmers +--and it is a significant indication how powerful still in the Roman +middle class was the spirit which had enabled them to survive the day +of Cannae--never allowed the unsparing champion of reform to lack the +support of their votes. Indeed when in 570 Cato and his like-minded +patrician colleague, Lucius Flaccus, solicited the censorship, and +announced beforehand that it was their intention when in that office +to undertake a vigorous purification of the burgess-body through all +its ranks, the two men so greatly dreaded were elected by the +burgesses notwithstanding all the exertions of the nobility; and the +latter were obliged to submit, while the great purgation actually took +place and erased among others the brother of Africanus from the roll +of the equites, and the brother of the deliverer of the Greeks from +the roll of the senate. + +Police Reform + +This warfare directed against individuals, and the various attempts to +repress the spirit of the age by means of justice and of police, +however deserving of respect might be the sentiments in which they +originated, could only at most stem the current of corruption for a +short time; and, while it is remarkable that Cato was enabled in spite +of that current, or rather by means of it, to play his political part, +it is equally significant that he was as little successful in getting +rid of the leaders of the opposite party as they were in getting rid +of him. The processes of count and reckoning instituted by him and by +those who shared his views before the burgesses uniformly remained, +at least in the cases that were of political importance, quite as +ineffectual as the counter-accusations directed against him. Nor was +much more effect produced by the police-laws, which were issued at +this period in unusual numbers, especially for the restriction of +luxury and for the introduction of a frugal and orderly housekeeping, +and some of which have still to be touched on in our view of the +national economics. + +Assignations of Land + +Far more practical and more useful were the attempts made to +counteract the spread of decay by indirect means; among which, beyond +doubt, the assignations of new farms out of the domain land occupy the +first place. These assignations were made in great numbers and of +considerable extent in the period between the first and second war +with Carthage, and again from the close of the latter till towards the +end of this epoch. The most important of them were the distribution +of the Picenian possessions by Gaius Flaminius in 522;(51) the +foundation of eight new maritime colonies in 560;(52) and above all +the comprehensive colonization of the district between the Apennines +and the Po by the establishment of the Latin colonies of Placentia, +Cremona,(53) Bononia,(54) and Aquileia,(55) and of the burgess- +colonies, Potentia, Pisaurum, Mutina, Parma, and Luna(56) in the years +536 and 565-577. By far the greater part of these highly beneficial +foundations may be ascribed to the reforming party. Cato and those +who shared his opinions demanded such measures, pointing, on the +one hand, to the devastation of Italy by the Hannibalic war and the +alarming diminution of the farms and of the free Italian population +generally, and, on the other, to the widely extended possessions of +the nobles--occupied along with, and similarly to, property of their +own--in Cisalpine Gaul, in Samnium, and in the Apulian and Bruttian +districts; and although the rulers of Rome did not probably comply +with these demands to the extent to which they might and should have +complied with them, yet they did not remain deaf to the warning voice +of so judicious a man. + +Reforms in the Military Service + +Of a kindred character was the proposal, which Cato made in the +senate, to remedy the decline of the burgess-cavalry by the +institution of four hundred new equestrian stalls.(57) The exchequer +cannot have wanted means for the purpose; but the proposal appears to +have been thwarted by the exclusive spirit of the nobility and their +endeavour to remove from the burgess-cavalry those who were troopers +merely and not knights. On the other hand, the serious emergencies of +the war, which even induced the Roman government to make an attempt +--fortunately unsuccessful--to recruit their armies after the Oriental +fashion from the slave-market,(58) compelled them to modify the +qualifications hitherto required for service in the burgess-army, viz. +a minimum census of 11,000 -asses- (43 pounds), and free birth. Apart +from the fact that they took up for service in the fleet the persons +of free birth rated between 4000 -asses- (17 pounds) and 1500 -asses- +(6 pounds) and all the freedmen, the minimum census for the legionary +was reduced to 4000 -asses- (17 pounds); and, in case of need, both +those who were bound to serve in the fleet and the free-born rated +between 1500 -asses- (6 pounds) and 375 -asses- (1 pound 10 shillings) +were enrolled in the burgess-infantry. These innovations, which +belong presumably to the end of the preceding or beginning of the +present epoch, doubtless did not originate in party efforts any more +than did the Servian military reform; but they gave a material impulse +to the democratic party, in so far as those who bore civic burdens +necessarily claimed and eventually obtained equalization of civic +rights. The poor and the freedmen began to be of some importance in +the commonwealth from the time when they served it; and chiefly from +this cause arose one of the most important constitutional changes of +this epoch --the remodelling of the -comitia centuriata-, which most +probably took place in the same year in which the war concerning +Sicily terminated + +Reform of the Centuries + +According to the order of voting hitherto followed in the centuriate +comitia, although the freeholders were no longer--as down to the +reform of Appius Claudius(59) they had been--the sole voters, the +wealthy had the preponderance. The equites, or in other words the +patricio-plebeian nobility, voted first, then those of the highest +rating, or in other words those who had exhibited to the censor an +estate of at least 100,000 -asses- (420 pounds);(60) and these two +divisions, when they kept together, had derided every vote. The +suffrage of those assessed under the four following classes had been +of doubtful weight; that of those whose valuation remained below the +standard of the lowest class, 11,000 -asses- (43 pounds), had been +essentially illusory. According to the new arrangement the right of +priority in voting was withdrawn from the equites, although they +retained their separate divisions, and it was transferred to a voting +division chosen from the first class by lot. The importance of that +aristocratic right of prior voting cannot be estimated too highly, +especially at an epoch in which practically the influence of the +nobility on the burgesses at large was constantly on the increase. +Even the patrician order proper were still at this epoch powerful +enough to fill the second consulship and the second censorship, which +stood open in law alike to patricians and plebeians, solely with men +of their own body, the former up to the close of this period (till +582), the latter even for a generation longer (till 623); and in fact, +at the most perilous moment which the Roman republic ever experienced +--in the crisis after the battle of Cannae--they cancelled the quite +legally conducted election of the officer who was in all respects the +ablest--the plebeian Marcellus--to the consulship vacated by the death +of the patrician Paullus, solely on account of his plebeianism. At +the same time it is a significant token of the nature even of this +reform that the right of precedence in voting was withdrawn only from +the nobility, not from those of the highest rating; the right of prior +voting withdrawn from the equestrian centuries passed not to a +division chosen incidentally by lot from the whole burgesses, but +exclusively to the first class. This as well as the five grades +generally remained as they were; only the lower limit was probably +shifted in such a way that the minimum census was, for the right of +voting in the centuries as for service in the legion, reduced from +11,000 to 4000 -asses-. Besides, the formal retention of the earlier +rates, while there was a general increase in the amount of men's +means, involved of itself in some measure an extension of the suffrage +in a democratic sense. The total number of the divisions remained +likewise unchanged; but, while hitherto, as we have said, the 18 +equestrian centuries and the 80 of the first class had, standing by +themselves, the majority in the 193 voting centuries, in the reformed +arrangement the votes of the first class were reduced to 70, with the +result that under all circumstances at least the second grade came to +vote. Still more important, and indeed the real central element of +the reform, was the connection into which the new voting divisions +were brought with the tribal arrangement. Formerly the centuries +originated from the tribes on the footing, that whoever belonged to a +tribe had to be enrolled by the censor in one of the centuries. From +the time that the non-freehold burgesses had been enrolled in the +tribes, they too came thus into the centuries, and, while they were +restricted in the -comitia tributa- to the four urban divisions, +they had in the -comitia centuriata- formally the same right with +the freehold burgesses, although probably the censorial arbitrary +prerogative intervened in the composition of the centuries, and +granted to the burgesses enrolled in the rural tribes the +preponderance also in the centuriate assembly. This preponderance was +established by the reformed arrangement on the legal footing, that of +the 70 centuries of the first class, two were assigned to each tribe +and, accordingly, the non-freehold burgesses obtained only eight of +them; in a similar way the preponderance must have been conceded also +in the four other grades to the freehold burgesses. In a like spirit +the previous equalization of the freedmen with the free-born in the +right of voting was set aside at this time, and even the freehold +freedmen were assigned to the four urban tribes. This was done in the +year 534 by one of the most notable men of the party of reform, the +censor Gaius Flaminius, and was then repeated and more stringently +enforced fifty years later (585) by the censor Tiberius Sempronius +Gracchus, the father of the two authors of the Roman revolution. This +reform of the centuries, which perhaps in its totality proceeded +likewise from Flaminius, was the first important constitutional change +which the new opposition wrung from the nobility, the first victory of +the democracy proper. The pith of it consists partly in the +restriction of the censorial arbitrary rule, partly in the restriction +of the influence of the nobility on the one hand, and of the non- +freeholders and the freedmen on the other, and so in the remodelling +of the centuriate comitia according to the principle which already +held good for the comitia of the tribes; a course which commended +itself by the circumstance that elections, projects of law, criminal +impeachments, and generally all affairs requiring the co-operation of +the burgesses, were brought throughout to the comitia of the tribes +and the more unwieldy centuries were but seldom called together, +except where it was constitutionally necessary or at least usual, in +order to elect the censors, consuls, and praetors, and in order to +resolve upon an aggressive war. + +Thus this reform did not introduce a new principle into the +constitution, but only brought into general application the principle +that had long regulated the working of the practically more frequent +and more important form of the burgess-assemblies. Its democratic, +but by no means demagogic, tendency is clearly apparent in the +position which it took up towards the proper supports of every really +revolutionary party, the proletariate and the freedmen. For that +reason the practical significance of this alteration in the order of +voting regulating the primary assemblies must not be estimated too +highly. The new law of election did not prevent, and perhaps did +not even materially impede, the contemporary formation of a new +politically privileged order. It is certainly not owing to the mere +imperfection of tradition, defective as it undoubtedly is, that we are +nowhere able to point to a practical influence exercised by this much- +discussed reform on the course of political affairs. An intimate +connection, we may add, subsisted between this reform, and the +already-mentioned abolition of the Roman burgess-communities -sine +suffragio-, which were gradually merged in the community of full +burgesses. The levelling spirit of the party of progress suggested +the abolition of distinctions within the middle class, while the +chasm between burgesses and non-burgesses was at the same time +widened and deepened. + +Results of the Efforts at Reform + +Reviewing what the reform party of this age aimed at and obtained, we +find that it undoubtedly exerted itself with patriotism and energy to +check, and to a certain extent succeeded in checking, the spread of +decay--more especially the falling off of the farmer class and the +relaxation of the old strict and frugal habits--as well as the +preponderating political influence of the new nobility. But we fail +to discover any higher political aim. The discontent of the multitude +and the moral indignation of the better classes found doubtless in +this opposition their appropriate and powerful expression; but we do +not find either a clear insight into the sources of the evil, or any +definite and comprehensive plan of remedying it. A certain want of +thought pervades all these efforts otherwise so deserving of honour, +and the purely defensive attitude of the defenders forebodes little +good for the sequel. Whether the disease could be remedied at all by +human skill, remains fairly open to question; the Roman reformers of +this period seem to have been good citizens rather than good +statesmen, and to have conducted the great struggle between the +old civism and the new cosmopolitanism on their part after a somewhat +inadequate and narrow-minded fashion. + +Demagogism + +But, as this period witnessed the rise of a rabble by the side of the +burgesses, so it witnessed also the emergence of a demagogism that +flattered the populace alongside of the respectable and useful party +of opposition. Cato was already acquainted with men who made a trade +of demagogism; who had a morbid propensity for speechifying, as others +had for drinking or for sleeping; who hired listeners, if they could +find no willing audience otherwise; and whom people heard as they +heard the market-crier, without listening to their words or, in the +event of needing help, entrusting themselves to their hands. In his +caustic fashion the old man describes these fops formed after the +model of the Greek talkers of the agora, dealing in jests and +witticisms, singing and dancing, ready for anything; such an one was, +in his opinion, good for nothing but to exhibit himself as harlequin +in a procession and to bandy talk with the public--he would sell his +talk or his silence for a bit of bread. In reality these demagogues +were the worst enemies of reform. While the reformers insisted above +all things and in every direction on moral amendment, demagogism +preferred to insist on the limitation of the powers of the government +and the extension of those of the burgesses. + +Abolition of the Dictatorship + +Under the former head the most important innovation was the practical +abolition of the dictatorship. The crisis occasioned by Quintus +Fabius and his popular opponents in 537(61) gave the death-blow to +this all-along unpopular institution. Although the government once +afterwards, in 538, under the immediate impression produced by the +battle of Cannae, nominated a dictator invested with active command, +it could not again venture to do so in more peaceful times. On +several occasions subsequently (the last in 552), sometimes after +a previous indication by the burgesses of the person to be nominated, +a dictator was appointed for urban business; but the office, without +being formally abolished, fell practically into desuetude. Through +its abeyance the Roman constitutional system, so artificially +constructed, lost a corrective which was very desirable with reference +to its peculiar feature of collegiate magistrates;(62) and the +government, which was vested with the sole power of creating a +dictatorship or in other words of suspending the consuls, and +ordinarily designated also the person who was to be nominated as +dictator, lost one of its most important instruments. Its place +was but very imperfectly supplied by the power--which the senate +thenceforth claimed--of conferring in extraordinary emergencies, +particularly on the sudden outbreak of revolt or war, a quasi- +dictatorial power on the supreme magistrates for the time being, by +instructing them "to take measures for the safety of the commonwealth +at their discretion," and thus creating a state of things similar to +the modern martial law. + +Election of Priests by the Community + +Along with this change the formal powers of the people in the +nomination of magistrates as well as in questions of government, +administration, and finance, received a hazardous extension. The +priesthoods--particularly those politically most important, the +colleges of men of lore--according to ancient custom filled up the +vacancies in their own ranks, and nominated also their own presidents, +where these corporations had presidents at all; and in fact, for such +institutions destined to transmit the knowledge of divine things from +generation to generation, the only form of election in keeping with +their spirit was cooptation. It was therefore--although not of great +political importance--significant of the incipient disorganization of +the republican arrangements, that at this time (before 542), while +election into the colleges themselves was left on its former footing, +the designation of the presidents--the -curiones- and -pontifices- +--from the ranks of those corporations was transferred from the +colleges to the community. In this case, however, with a pious regard +for forms that is genuinely Roman, in order to avoid any error, only a +minority of the tribes, and therefore not the "people," completed the +act of election. + +Interference of the Community in War and Administration + +Of greater importance was the growing interference of the burgesses in +questions as to persons and things belonging to the sphere of military +administration and external policy. To this head belong the +transference of the nomination of the ordinary staff-officers from the +general to the burgesses, which has been already mentioned;(63) the +elections of the leaders of the opposition as commanders-in-chief +against Hannibal;(64) the unconstitutional and irrational decree of +the people in 537, which divided the supreme command between the +unpopular generalissimo and his popular lieutenant who opposed him in +the camp as well as at home;(65) the tribunician complaint laid before +the burgesses, charging an officer like Marcellus with injudicious and +dishonest management of the war (545), which even compelled him to +come from the camp to the capital and there demonstrate his military +capacity before the public; the still more scandalous attempts to +refuse by decree of the burgesses to the victor of Pydna his +triumph;(66) the investiture--suggested, it is true, by the senate--of +a private man with extraordinary consular authority (544;(67)); the +dangerous threat of Scipio that, if the senate should refuse him the +chief command in Africa, he would seek the sanction of the burgesses +(549;(68)); the attempt of a man half crazy with ambition to extort +from the burgesses, against the will of the government, a declaration +of war in every respect unwarranted against the Rhodians (587;(69)); +and the new constitutional axiom, that every state-treaty acquired +validity only through the ratification of the people. + +Interference of the Community with the Finances + +This joint action of the burgesses in governing and in commanding was +fraught in a high degree with peril. But still more dangerous was +their interference with the finances of the state; not only because +any attack on the oldest and most important right of the government +--the exclusive administration of the public property--struck at the +root of the power of the senate, but because the placing of the most +important business of this nature--the distribution of the public +domains--in the hands of the primary assemblies of the burgesses +necessarily dug the grave of the republic. To allow the primary +assembly to decree the transference of public property without limit +to its own pocket is not only wrong, but is the beginning of the end; +it demoralizes the best-disposed citizens, and gives to the proposer +a power incompatible with a free commonwealth. Salutary as was the +distribution of the public land, and doubly blameable as was the +senate accordingly for omitting to cut off this most dangerous of all +weapons of agitation by voluntarily distributing the occupied lands, +yet Gaius Flaminius, when he came to the burgesses in 522 with the +proposal to distribute the domains of Picenum, undoubtedly injured the +commonwealth more by the means than he benefited it by the end. +Spurius Cassius had doubtless two hundred and fifty years earlier +proposed the same thing;(70) but the two measures, closely as they +coincided in the letter, were yet wholly different, inasmuch as +Cassius submitted a matter affecting the community to that community +while it was in vigour and self-governing, whereas Flaminius submitted +a question of state to the primary assembly of a great empire. + +Nullity of the Comitia + +Not the party of the government only, but the party of reform also, +very properly regarded the military, executive, and financial +government as the legitimate domain of the senate, and carefully +abstained from making full use of, to say nothing of augmenting, the +formal power vested in primary assemblies that were inwardly doomed to +inevitable dissolution. Never even in the most limited monarchy was a +part so completely null assigned to the monarch as was allotted to the +sovereign Roman people: this was no doubt in more than one respect to +be regretted, but it was, owing to the existing state of the comitial +machine, even in the view of the friends of reform a matter of +necessity. For this reason Cato and those who shared his views never +submitted to the burgesses a question, which trenched on government +strictly so called; and never, directly or indirectly, by decree of +the burgesses extorted from the senate the political or financial +measures which they wished, such as the declaration of war against +Carthage and the assignations of land. The government of the senate +might be bad; the primary assemblies could not govern at all. Not +that an evil-disposed majority predominated in them; on the contrary +the counsel of a man of standing, the loud call of honour, and the +louder call of necessity were still, as a rule, listened to in the +comitia, and averted the most injurious and disgraceful results. +The burgesses, before whom Marcellus pleaded his cause, ignominiously +dismissed his accuser, and elected the accused as consul for the +following year: they suffered themselves also to be persuaded of the +necessity of the war against Philip, terminated the war against +Perseus by the election of Paullus, and accorded to the latter his +well-deserved triumph. But in order to such elections and such +decrees there was needed some special stimulus; in general the mass +having no will of its own followed the first impulse, and folly or +accident dictated the decision. + +Disorganisation of Government + +In the state, as in every organism, an organ which no longer +discharges its functions is injurious. The nullity of the sovereign +assembly of the people involved no small danger. Any minority in the +senate might constitutionally appeal to the comitia against the +majority. To every individual, who possessed the easy art of +addressing untutored ears or of merely throwing away money, a path was +opened up for his acquiring a position or procuring a decree in his +favour, to which the magistrates and the government were formally +bound to do homage. Hence sprang those citizen-generals, accustomed +to sketch plans of battle on the tables of taverns and to look down on +the regular service with compassion by virtue of their inborn genius +for strategy: hence those staff-officers, who owed their command to +the canvassing intrigues of the capital and, whenever matters looked +serious, had at once to get leave of absence -en masse-; and hence +the battles on the Trasimene lake and at Cannae, and the disgraceful +management of the war with Perseus. At every step the government +was thwarted and led astray by those incalculable decrees of the +burgesses, and as was to be expected, most of all in the very +cases where it was most in the right. + +But the weakening of the government and the weakening of the community +itself were among the lesser dangers that sprang from this demagogism. +Still more directly the factious violence of individual ambition +pushed itself forward under the aegis of the constitutional rights of +the burgesses. That which formally issued forth as the will of the +supreme authority in the state was in reality very often the mere +personal pleasure of the mover; and what was to be the fate of a +commonwealth in which war and peace, the nomination and deposition of +the general and his officers, the public chest and the public +property, were dependent on the caprices of the multitude and its +accidental leaders? The thunder-storm had not yet burst; but the +clouds were gathering in denser masses, and occasional peals of +thunder were already rolling through the sultry air. It was a +circumstance, moreover, fraught with double danger, that the +tendencies which were apparently most opposite met together at their +extremes both as regarded ends and as regarded means. Family policy +and demagogism carried on a similar and equally dangerous rivalry in +patronizing and worshipping the rabble. Gaius Flaminius was regarded +by the statesmen of the following generation as the initiator of that +course from which proceeded the reforms of the Gracchi and--we may +add--the democratico-monarchical revolution that ensued. But Publius +Scipio also, although setting the fashion to the nobility in +arrogance, title-hunting, and client-making, sought support for his +personal and almost dynastic policy of opposition to the senate in the +multitude, which he not only charmed by the dazzling effect of his +personal qualities, but also bribed by his largesses of grain; in the +legions, whose favour he courted by all means whether right or wrong; +and above all in the body of clients, high and low, that personally +adhered to him. Only the dreamy mysticism, on which the charm as well +as the weakness of that remarkable man so largely depended, never +suffered him to awake at all, or allowed him to awake but imperfectly, +out of the belief that he was nothing, and that he desired to be +nothing, but the first burgess of Rome. + +To assert the possibility of a reform would be as rash as to deny it: +this much is certain, that a thorough amendment of the state in all +its departments was urgently required, and that in no quarter was any +serious attempt made to accomplish it. Various alterations in +details, no doubt, were made on the part of the senate as well as on +the part of the popular opposition. The majorities in each were still +well disposed, and still frequently, notwithstanding the chasm that +separated the parties, joined hands in a common endeavour to effect +the removal of the worst evils. But, while they did not stop the evil +at its source, it was to little purpose that the better-disposed +listened with anxiety to the dull murmur of the swelling flood and +worked at dikes and dams. Contenting themselves with palliatives, +and failing to apply even these--especially such as were the most +important, the improvement of justice, for instance, and the +distribution of the domains--in proper season and due measure, they +helped to prepare evil days for their posterity. By neglecting to +break up the field at the proper time, they allowed weeds even to +ripen which they had not sowed. To the later generations who survived +the storms of revolution the period after the Hannibalic war appeared +the golden age of Rome, and Cato seemed the model of the Roman +statesman. It was in reality the lull before the storm and the epoch +of political mediocrities, an age like that of the government of +Walpole in England; and no Chatham was found in Rome to infuse fresh +energy into the stagnant life of the nation. Wherever we cast our +eyes, chinks and rents are yawning in the old building; we see workmen +busy sometimes in filling them up, sometimes in enlarging them; but we +nowhere perceive any trace of preparations for thoroughly rebuilding +or renewing it, and the question is no longer whether, but simply +when, the structure will fall. During no epoch did the Roman +constitution remain formally so stable as in the period from the +Sicilian to the third Macedonian war and for a generation beyond it; +but the stability of the constitution was here, as everywhere, not a +sign of the health of the state, but a token of incipient sickness and +the harbinger of revolution. + + + + +Notes for Chapter XI + + +1. II. III. New Aristocracy + +2. II. III. New Opposition + +3. II. III. Military Tribunes with Consular Powers + +4. All these insignia probably belonged on their first emergence only +to the nobility proper, i. e. to the agnate descendants of curule +magistrates; although, after the manner of such decorations, all of +them in course of time were extended to a wider circle. This can be +distinctly proved in the case of the gold finger-ring, which in the +fifth century was worn only by the nobility (Plin. H. N., xxxiii. i. +18), in the sixth by every senator and senator's son (Liv. xxvi. 36), +in the seventh by every one of equestrian rank, under the empire by +every one who was of free birth. So also with the silver trappings, +which still, in the second Punic war, formed a badge of the nobility +alone (Liv. xxvi. 37); and with the purple border of the boys' toga, +which at first was granted only to the sons of curule magistrates, +then to the sons of equites, afterwards to those of all free-born +persons, lastly--yet as early as the time of the second Punic war +--even to the sons of freedmen (Macrob. Sat. i. 6). The golden +amulet-case (-bulla-) was a badge of the children of senators in the +time of the second Punic war (Macrob. l. c.; Liv. xxvi. 36), in that +of Cicero as the badge of the children of the equestrian order (Cic. +Verr. i. 58, 152), whereas children of inferior rank wore the leathern +amulet (-lorum-). The purple stripe (-clavus-) on the tunic was a +badge of the senators (I. V. Prerogatives of the Senate) and of the +equites, so that at least in later times the former wore it broad, the +latter narrow; with the nobility the -clavus- had nothing to do. + +5. II. III. Civic Equality + +6. Plin. H. N. xxi. 3, 6. The right to appear crowned in public was +acquired by distinction in war (Polyb. vi. 39, 9; Liv. x. 47); +consequently, the wearing a crown without warrant was an offence +similar to the assumption, in the present day, of the badge of a +military order of merit without due title. + +7. II. III. Praetorship + +8. Thus there remained excluded the military tribunate with consular +powers (II. III. Throwing Open of Marriage and of Magistracies) the +proconsulship, the quaestorship, the tribunate of the people, and +several others. As to the censorship, it does not appear, +notwithstanding the curule chair of the censors (Liv. xl. 45; comp, +xxvii. 8), to have been reckoned a curule office; for the later +period, however, when only a man of consular standing could be made +censor, the question has no practical importance. The plebeian +aedileship certainly was not reckoned originally one of the curule +magistracies (Liv. xxiii. 23); it may, however, have been subsequently +included amongst them. + +9. II. I. Government of the Patriciate + +10. II. III. Censorship + +11. II. III. The Senate + +12. The current hypothesis, according to which the six centuries of +the nobility alone amounted to 1200, and the whole equestrian force +accordingly to 3600 horse, is not tenable. The method of determining +the number of the equites by the number of duplications specified by +the annalists is mistaken: in fact, each of these statements has +originated and is to be explained by itself. But there is no evidence +either for the first number, which is only found in the passage of +Cicero, De Rep. ii. 20, acknowledged as miswritten even by the +champions of this view, or for the second, which does not appear at +all in ancient authors. In favour, on the other hand, of the +hypothesis set forth in the text, we have, first of all, the number as +indicated not by authorities, but by the institutions themselves; for +it is certain that the century numbered 100 men, and there were +originally three (I. V. Burdens of the Burgesses), then six (I. Vi. +Amalgamation of the Palatine and Quirinal Cities), and lastly after +the Servian reform eighteen (I. VI. The Five Classes), equestrian +centuries. The deviations of the authorities from this view are only +apparent. The old self-consistent tradition, which Becker has +developed (ii. i, 243), reckons not the eighteen patricio-plebeian, +but the six patrician, centuries at 1800 men; and this has been +manifestly followed by Livy, i. 36 (according to the reading which +alone has manuscript authority, and which ought not to be corrected +from Livy's particular estimates), and by Cicero l. c. (according to +the only reading grammatically admissible, MDCCC.; see Becker, ii. i, +244). But Cicero at the same time indicates very plainly, that in +that statement he intended to describe the then existing amount of the +Roman equites in general. The number of the whole body has therefore +been transferred to the most prominent portion of it by a prolepsis, +such as is common in the case of the old annalists not too much given +to reflection: just in the same way 300 equites instead of 100 are +assigned to the parent-community, including, by anticipation, the +contingents of the Tities and the Luceres (Becker, ii. i, 238). +Lastly, the proposition of Cato (p. 66, Jordan), to raise the number +of the horses of the equites to 2200, is as distinct a confirmation of +the view proposed above, as it is a distinct refutation of the +opposite view. The closed number of the equites probably continued to +subsist down to Sulla's time, when with the -de facto- abeyance of the +censorship the basis of it fell away, and to all appearance in place +of the censorial bestowal of the equestrian horse came its acquisition +by hereditary right; thenceforth the senator's son was by birth an +-eques-. Alongside, however, of this closed equestrian body, the +-equites equo publico-, stood from an early period of the republic the +burgesses bound to render mounted service on their own horses, who are +nothing but the highest class of the census; they do not vote in the +equestrian centuries, but are regarded otherwise as equites, and lay +claim likewise to the honorary privileges of the equestrian order. + +In the arrangement of Augustus the senatorial houses retained the +hereditary equestrian right; but by its side the censorial bestowal of +the equestrian horse is renewed as a prerogative of the emperor and +without restriction to a definite time, and thereby the designation of +equites for the first class of the census as such falls into abeyance. + +13. II. III. Increasing Powers of the Burgesses + +14. II. VIII. Officers + +15. II. III. Restrictions As to the Accumulation and Reoccupation of +Offices + +16. II. III. New Opposition + +17. The stability of the Roman nobility may be clearly traced, more +especially in the case of the patrician -gentes-, by means of the +consular and aedilician Fasti. As is well known, the consulate was +held by one patrician and one plebeian in each year from 388 to 581 +(with the exception of the years 399, 400, 401, 403, 405, 409, 411, in +which both consuls were patricians). Moreover, the colleges of curule +aediles were composed exclusively of patricians in the odd years of +the Varronian reckoning, at least down to the close of the sixth +century, and they are known for the sixteen years 541, 545, 547, 549, +551, 553, 555, 557, 561, 565, 567, 575, 585, 589, 591, 593. These +patrician consuls and aediles are, as respects their -gentes-, +distributed as follows:-- + + Consuls Consuls Curule aediles of those + 388-500 501-581 16 patrician colleges + +Cornelii 15 15 15 +Valerii 10 8 4 +Claudii 4 8 2 +Aemilii 9 6 2 +Fabii 6 6 1 +Manlii 4 6 1 +Postumii 2 6 2 +Servilii 3 4 2 +Quinctii 2 3 1 +Furii 2 3 - +Sulpicii 6 4 2 +Veturii - 2 - +Papirii 3 1 - +Nautii 2 - - +Julii 1 - 1 +Foslii 1 - - + --- --- --- + 70 70 32 + +Thus the fifteen or sixteen houses of the high nobility, that were +powerful in the state at the time of the Licinian laws, maintained +their ground without material change in their relative numbers--which +no doubt were partly kept up by adoption--for the next two centuries, +and indeed down to the end of the republic. To the circle of the +plebeian nobility new -gentes- doubtless were from time to time added; +but the old plebian houses, such as the Licinii, Fulvii, Atilii, +Domitii, Marcii, Junii, predominate very decidedly in the Fasti +throughout three centuries. + +18. I. V. The Senate + +19. III. IX. Death of Scipio + +20. III. X. Their Lax and Unsuccessful Management of the War f. + +21. III. VI. In Italy + +22. III. VI. Conquest of Sicily + +23. The expenses of these were, however, probably thrown in great part +on the adjoining inhabitants. The old system of making requisitions +of task-work was not abolished: it must not unfrequently have happened +that the slaves of the landholders were called away to be employed in +the construction of roads. (Cato, de R. R. 2 ) + +24. III. VI. Pressure of the War + +25. III. VI. In Italy + +26. III. VII. Celtic Wars + +27. III. VI In Italy + +28. III. VII. Latins + +29. II. VII. Non-Latin Allied Communities + +30. III. VII. Latins + +31. Thus, as is well known, Ennius of Rudiae received burgess-rights +from one of the triumvirs, Q. Fulvius Nobilior, on occasion of the +founding of the burgess-colonies of Potentia and Pisaurum (Cic. Brut. +20, 79); whereupon, according to the well-known custom, he adopted the +-praenomen- of the latter. The non-burgesses who were sent to share +in the foundation of a burgess-colony, did not, at least in tin's +epoch, thereby acquire -de jure- Roman citizenship, although they +frequently usurped it (Liv. xxxiv. 42); but the magistrates charged +with the founding of a colony were empowered, by a clause in the +decree of the people relative to each case, to confer burgess-rights +on a limited number of persons (Cic. pro Balb. 21, 48). + +32. III. VII. Administration of Spain + +33. III. IX. Expedition against the Celts in Asia Minor + +34. III. X. Their Lax and Unsuccessful Management of the War f. + +35. II. I. Term of Office + +36. III. VII. Administration of Spain + +37. III. XI. Italian Subjects, Roman Franchise More Difficult of +Acquisition + +38. III. XI. Roman Franchise More Difficult of Acquisition + +39. In Cato's treatise on husbandry, which, as is well known, +primarily relates to an estate in the district of Venafrum, the +judicial discussion of such processes as might arise is referred to +Rome only as respects one definite case; namely, that in which the +landlord leases the winter pasture to the owner of a flock of sheep, +and thus has to deal with a lessee who, as a rule, is not domiciled in +the district (c. 149). It may be inferred from this, that in ordinary +cases, where the contract was with a person domiciled in the district, +such processes as might spring out of it were even in Cato's time +decided not at Rome, but before the local judges. + +40. II. VII. The Full Roman Franchise + +41. II. VII. Subject Communities + +42. III. VIII. Declaration of War by Rome + +43. II. III. The Burgess-Body + +44. III. XI. Patricio-Plebian Nobility + +45. The laying out of the circus is attested. Respecting the origin +of the plebeian games there is no ancient tradition (for what is said +by the Pseudo-Asconius, p. 143, Orell. is not such); but seeing that +they were celebrated in the Flaminian circus (Val. Max. i, 7, 4), and +first certainly occur in 538, four years after it was built (Liv. +xxiii. 30), what we have stated above is sufficiently proved. + +46. II. II. Political Value of the Tribunate + +47. III. IX. Landing of the Romans + +48. III. IX. Death of Scipio. The first certain instance of such a +surname is that of Manius Valerius Maximus, consul in 491, who, as +conqueror of Messana, assumed the name Messalla (ii. 170): that the +consul of 419 was, in a similar manner, called Calenus, is an error. +The presence of Maximus as a surname in the Valerian (i. 348) and +Fabian (i. 397) clans is not quite analogous. + +49. III. XI. Patricio-Plebian Nobility + +50. II. III. New Opposition + +51. III. III. The Celts Conquered by Rome + +52. III. VI. In Italy + +53. III. III. The Celts Conquered by Rome + +54. III. VII. Liguria + +55. III. VII. Measures Adopted to Check the Immigration of the +Transalpine Gauls + +56. III. VII. Liguria + +57. III. XI. The Nobility in Possession of the Equestrian Centuries + +58. III. V. Attitude of the Romans, III. VI. Conflicts in the South of +Italy + +59. II. III. The Burgess-Body + +60. As to the original rates of the Roman census it is difficult to +lay down anything definite. Afterwards, as is well known, 100,000 +-asses- was regarded as the minimum census of the first class; to +which the census of the other four classes stood in the (at least +approximate) ratio of 3/4, 1/2, 1/4, 1/9. But these rates are +understood already by Polybius, as by all later authors, to refer to +the light -as- (1/10th of the -denarius-), and apparently this view +must be adhered to, although in reference to the Voconian law the same +sums are reckoned as heavy -asses- (1/4 of the -denarius-: Geschichte +des Rom. Munzwesens, p. 302). But Appius Claudius, who first in 442 +expressed the census-rates in money instead of the possession of land +(II. III. The Burgess-Body), cannot in this have made use of the light +-as-, which only emerged in 485 (II. VIII. Silver Standard of Value). +Either therefore he expressed the same amounts in heavy -asses-, and +these were at the reduction of the coinage converted into light; or he +proposed the later figures, and these remained the same +notwithstanding the reduction or the coinage, which in this case would +have involved a lowering of the class-rates by more than the half. +Grave doubts may be raised in opposition to either hypothesis; but the +former appears the more credible, for so exorbitant an advance in +democratic development is not probable either for the end of the fifth +century or as an incidental consequence of a mere administrative +measure, and besides it would scarce have disappeared wholly from +tradition. 100,000 light -asses-, or 40,000 sesterces, may, moreover, +be reasonably regarded as the equivalent of the original Roman full +hide of perhaps 20 -jugera- (I. VI. Time and Occasion of the Reform); +so that, according to this view, the rates of the census as a whole +have changed merely in expression, and not in value. + +61. III. V. Fabius and Minucius + +62. II. I. The Dictator + +63. III. XI. Election of Officers in the Comitia + +64. III. V. Flaminius, New Warlike Preparations in Rome + +65. III. V. Fabius and Minucius + +66. III. XI. Squandering of the Spoil + +67. III. VI. Publius Scipio + +68. III. VI. The African Expedition of Scipio + +69. III. X. Humiliation of Rhodes + +70. II. II. Agrarian Law of Spurius Cassius + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +The Management of Land and of Capital + +Roman Economics + +It is in the sixth century of the city that we first find materials +for a history of the times exhibiting in some measure the mutual +connection of events; and it is in that century also that the economic +condition of Rome emerges into view more distinctly and clearly. +It is at this epoch that the wholesale system, as regards both the +cultivation of land and the management of capital, becomes first +established under the form, and on the scale, which afterwards +prevailed; although we cannot exactly discriminate how much of that +system is traceable to earlier precedent, how much to an imitation of +the methods of husbandry and of speculation among peoples that were +earlier civilized, especially the Phoenicians, and how much to the +increasing mass of capital and the growth of intelligence in the +nation. A summary outline of these economic relations will conduce +to a more accurate understanding of the internal history of Rome. + +Roman husbandry(1) applied itself either to the farming of estates, to +the occupation of pasture lands, or to the tillage of petty holdings. +A very distinct view of the first of these is presented to us in the +description given by Cato. + +Farming of Estates +Their Size + +The Roman land-estates were, considered as larger holdings, uniformly +of limited extent. That described by Cato had an area of 240 jugera; +a very common measure was the so-called -centuria- of 200 -jugera-. +Where the laborious culture of the vine was pursued, the unit of +husbandry was made still less; Cato assumes in that case an area of +100 -jugera-. Any one who wished to invest more capital in farming +did not enlarge his estate, but acquired several estates; accordingly +the amount of 500 -jugera-,(2) fixed as the maximum which it was +allowable to occupy, has been conceived to represent the contents of +two or three estates. + +Management of the Estate + +Object of Husbandry + +The heritable lease was not recognised in the management of Italian +private any more than of Roman public land; it occurred only in the +case of the dependent communities. Leases for shorter periods, +granted either for a fixed sum of money or on condition that the +lessee should bear all the costs of tillage and should receive in +return a share, ordinarily perhaps one half, of the produce,(3) were +not unknown, but they were exceptional and a makeshift; so that no +distinct class of tenant-farmers grew up in Italy.(4) Ordinarily +therefore the proprietor himself superintended the cultivation of his +estates; he did not, however, manage them strictly in person, but only +appeared from time to time on the property in order to settle the plan +of operations, to look after its execution, and to audit the accounts +of his servants. He was thus enabled on the one hand to work a number +of estates at the same time, and on the other hand to devote himself, +as circumstances might require, to public affairs. + +The grain cultivated consisted especially of spelt and wheat, with +some barley and millet; turnips, radishes, garlic, poppies, were also +grown, and--particularly as fodder for the cattle--lupines, beans, +pease, vetches, and other leguminous plants. The seed was sown +ordinarily in autumn, only in exceptional cases in spring. Much +activity was displayed in irrigation and draining; and drainage by +means of covered ditches was early in use. Meadows also for supplying +hay were not wanting, and even in the time of Cato they were +frequently irrigated artificially. Of equal, if not of greater, +economic importance than grain and vegetables were the olive and the +vine, of which the former was planted between the crops, the latter in +vineyards appropriated to itself.(5) Figs, apples, pears, and other +fruit trees were cultivated; and likewise elms, poplars, and other +leafy trees and shrubs, partly for the felling of the wood, partly for +the sake of the leaves which were useful as litter and as fodder for +cattle. The rearing of cattle, on the other hand, held a far less +important place in the economy of the Italians than it holds in modern +times, for vegetables formed the general fare, and animal food made +its appearance at table only exceptionally; where it did appear, it +consisted almost solely of the flesh of swine or lambs. Although the +ancients did not fail to perceive the economic connection between +agriculture and the rearing of cattle, and in particular the +importance of producing manure, the modern combination of the growth +of corn with the rearing of cattle was a thing foreign to antiquity. +The larger cattle were kept only so far as was requisite for the +tillage of the fields, and they were fed not on special pasture-land, +but, wholly during summer and mostly during winter also, in the stall +Sheep, again, were driven out on the stubble pasture; Cato allows 100 +head to 240 -jugera-. Frequently, however, the proprietor preferred +to let his winter pasture to a large sheep-owner, or to hand over his +flock of sheep to a lessee who was to share the produce, stipulating +for the delivery of a certain number of lambs and of a certain +quantity of cheese and milk. Swine--Cato assigns to a large estate +ten sties--poultry, and pigeons were kept in the farmyard, and fed as +there was need; and, where opportunity offered, a small hare-preserve +and a fish-pond were constructed--the modest commencement of that +nursing and rearing of game and fish which was afterwards prosecuted +to so enormous an extent. + +Means of Husbandry +Cattle + +The labours of the field were performed by means of oxen which were +employed for ploughing, and of asses, which were used specially for +the carriage of manure and for driving the mill; perhaps a horse also +was kept, apparently for the use of the master. These animals were +not reared on the estate, but were purchased; oxen and horses at least +were generally castrated. Cato assigns to an estate of 100 -jugera- +one, to one of 240 -jugera- three, yoke of oxen; a later writer on +agriculture, Saserna, assigns two yoke to the 200 -jugera-. Three +asses were, according to Cato's estimate, required for the smaller, +and four for the larger, estate. + +Slaves + +The human labour on the farm was regularly performed by slaves. At +the head of the body of slaves on the estate (-familia rustica-) stood +the steward (-vilicus-, from -villa-), who received and expended, +bought and sold, went to obtain the instructions of the landlord, and +in his absence issued orders and administered punishment. Under him +were placed the stewardess (-vilica-) who took charge of the house, +kitchen and larder, poultry-yard and dovecot: a number of ploughmen +(-bubulci-) and common serfs, an ass-driver, a swineherd, and, where a +flock of sheep was kept, a shepherd. The number, of course, varied +according to the method of husbandry pursued. An arable estate of 200 +-jugera- without orchards was estimated to require two ploughmen and +six serfs: a similar estate with two orchards two plough-men and nine +serfs; an estate of 240 -jugera- with olive plantations and sheep, +three ploughmen, five serfs, and three herdsmen. A vineyard naturally +required a larger expenditure of labour: an estate of 100 -jugera- +with vine-plantations was supplied with one ploughman, eleven serfs, +and two herdsmen. The steward of course occupied a freer position +than the other slaves: the treatise of Mago advised that he should be +allowed to marry, to rear children, and to have funds of his own, and +Cato advises that he should be married to the stewardess; he alone had +some prospect, in the event of good behaviour, of obtaining liberty +from his master. In other respects all formed a common household. +The slaves were, like the larger cattle, not bred on the estate, but +purchased at an age capable of labour in the slave-market; and, when +through age or infirmity they had become incapable of working, they +were again sent with other refuse to the market.(6) The farm- +buildings (-villa rustica-) supplied at once stabling for the cattle, +storehouses for the produce, and a dwelling for the steward and the +slaves; while a separate country house (-villa urbana-) for the master +was frequently erected on the estate. Every slave, even the steward +himself, had all the necessaries of life delivered to him on the +master's behalf at certain times and according to fixed rates; and +upon these he had to subsist. He received in this way clothes and +shoes, which were purchased in the market, and which the recipients +had merely to keep in repair; a quantity of wheat monthly, which each +had to grind for himself; as also salt, olives or salted fish to form +a relish to their food, wine, and oil. The quantity was adjusted +according to the work; on which account the steward, who had easier +work than the common slaves, got scantier measure than these. The +stewardess attended to all the baking and cooking; and all partook of +the same fare. It was not the ordinary practice to place chains on +the slaves; but when any one had incurred punishment or was thought +likely to attempt an escape, he was set to work in chains and was shut +up during the night in the slaves' prison.(7) + +Other Labourers + +Ordinarily these slaves belonging to the estate were sufficient; in +case of need neighbours, as a matter of course, helped each other with +their slaves for day's wages. Otherwise labourers from without were +not usually employed, except in peculiarly unhealthy districts, where +it was found advantageous to limit the amount of slaves and to employ +hired persons in their room, and for the ingathering of the harvest, +for which the regular supply of labour on the farm did not suffice. +At the corn and hay harvests they took in hired reapers, who often +instead of wages received from the sixth to the ninth sheaf of the +produce reaped, or, if they also thrashed, the fifth of the grain: +Umbrian labourers, for instance, went annually in great numbers to the +vale of Rieti, to help to gather in the harvest there. The grape and +olive harvest was ordinarily let to a contractor, who by means of his +men--hired free labourers, or slaves of his own or of others-- +conducted the gleaning and pressing under the inspection of some +persons appointed by the landlord for the purpose, and delivered the +produce to the master;(8) very frequently the landlord sold the +harvest on the tree or branch, and left the purchaser to look +after the ingathering. + +Spirit of the System + +The whole system was pervaded by the utter regardless-ness +characteristic of the power of capital. Slaves and cattle stood on +the same level; a good watchdog, it is said in a Roman writer on +agriculture, must not be on too friendly terms with his "fellow- +slaves." The slave and the ox were fed properly so long as they could +work, because it would not have been good economy to let them starve; +and they were sold like a worn-out ploughshare when they became unable +to work, because in like manner it would not have been good economy to +retain them longer. In earlier times religious considerations had +here also exercised an alleviating influence, and had released the +slave and the plough-ox from labour on the days enjoined for festivals +and for rest.(9) Nothing is more characteristic of the spirit of Cato +and those who shared his sentiments than the way in which they +inculcated the observance of the holiday in the letter, and evaded it +in reality, by advising that, while the plough should certainly be +allowed to rest on these days, the slaves should even then be +incessantly occupied with other labours not expressly prohibited. +On principle no freedom of movement whatever was allowed to them--a +slave, so runs one of Cato's maxims, must either work or sleep--and no +attempt was ever made to attach the slaves to the estate or to their +master by any bond of human sympathy. The letter of the law in all +its naked hideousness regulated the relation, and the Romans indulged +no illusions as to the consequences. "So many slaves, so many foes," +said a Roman proverb. It was an economic maxim, that dissensions +among the slaves ought rather to be fostered than suppressed. In the +same spirit Plato and Aristotle, and no less strongly the oracle of +the landlords, the Carthaginian Mago, caution masters against bringing +together slaves of the same nationality, lest they should originate +combinations and perhaps conspiracies of their fellow-countrymen. The +landlord, as we have already said, governed his slaves exactly in the +same way as the Roman community governed its subjects in the "country +estates of the Roman people," the provinces; and the world learned by +experience, that the ruling state had modelled its new system of +government on that of the slave-holder. If, moreover, we have risen +to that little-to-be-envied elevation of thought which values no +feature of an economy save the capital invested in it, we cannot deny +to the management of the Roman estates the praise of consistency, +energy, punctuality, frugality, and solidity. The pithy practical +husbandman is reflected in Cato's description of the steward, as he +ought to be. He is the first on the farm to rise and the last to go +to bed; he is strict in dealing with himself as well as with those +under him, and knows more especially how to keep the stewardess in +order, but is also careful of his labourers and his cattle, and in +particular of the ox that draws the plough; he puts his hand +frequently to work and to every kind of it, but never works himself +weary like a slave; he is always at home, never borrows nor lends, +gives no entertainments, troubles himself about no other worship than +that of the gods of the hearth and the field, and like a true slave +leaves all dealings with the gods as well as with men to his master; +lastly and above all, he modestly meets that master and faithfully and +simply, without exercising too little or too much of thought, conforms +to the instructions which that master has given. He is a bad +husbandman, it is elsewhere said, who buys what he can raise on his +own land; a bad father of a household, who takes in hand by day what +can be done by candle-light, unless the weather be bad; a still worse, +who does on a working-day what might be done on a holiday; but worst +of all is he, who in good weather allows work to go on within doors +instead of in the open air. The characteristic enthusiasm too of high +farming is not wanting; and the golden rules are laid down, that the +soil was given to the husbandman not to be scoured and swept but to be +sown and reaped, and that the farmer therefore ought first to plant +vines and olives and only thereafter, and that not too early in life, +to build himself a villa. A certain boorishness marks the system, +and, instead of the rational investigation of causes and effects, the +well-known rules of rustic experience are uniformly brought forward; +yet there is an evident endeavour to appropriate the experience of +others and the products of foreign lands: in Cato's list of the +sorts of fruit trees, for instance, Greek, African, and Spanish +species appear. + +Husbandry of the Petty Farmers + +The husbandry of the petty farmer differed from that of the estate- +holder only or chiefly in its being on a smaller scale. The owner +himself and his children in this case worked along with the slaves or +in their room. The quantity of cattle was reduced, and, where an +estate no longer covered the expenses of the plough and of the yoke +that drew it, the hoe formed the substitute. The culture of the olive +and the vine was less prominent, or was entirely wanting. + +In the vicinity of Rome or of any other large seat of consumption +there existed also carefully-irrigated gardens for flowers and +vegetables, somewhat similar to those which one now sees around +Naples; and these yielded a very abundant return. + +Pastoral Husbandry + +Pastoral husbandry was prosecuted on a great scale far more than +agriculture. An estate in pasture land (-saltus-) had of necessity in +every case an area considerably greater than an arable estate--the +least allowance was 800 -jugera- --and it might with advantage to the +business be almost indefinitely extended. Italy is so situated in +respect of climate that the summer pasture in the mountains and the +winter pasture in the plains supplement each other: already at that +period, just as at the present day, and for the most part probably +along the same paths, the flocks and herds were driven in spring from +Apulia to Samnium, and in autumn back again from Samnium to Apulia. +The winter pasturage, however, as has been already observed, did not +take place entirely on ground kept for the purpose, but was partly the +grazing of the stubbles. Horses, oxen, asses, and mules were reared, +chiefly to supply the animals required by the landowners, carriers, +soldiers, and so forth; herds of swine and of goats also were not +neglected. But the almost universal habit of wearing woollen stuffs +gave a far greater independence and far higher development to the +breeding of sheep. The management was in the hands of slaves, and was +on the whole similar to the management of the arable estate, the +cattle-master (-magister pecoris-) coming in room of the steward. +Throughout the summer the shepherd-slaves lived for the most part not +under a roof, but, often miles remote from human habitations, under +sheds and sheepfolds; it was necessary therefore that the strongest +men should be selected for this employment, that they should be +provided with horses and arms, and that they should be allowed +far greater freedom of movement than was granted to the slaves +on arable estates. + +Results +Competition of Transmarine Corn + +In order to form some estimate of the economic results of this system +of husbandry, we must consider the state of prices, and particularly +the prices of grain at this period. On an average these were +alarmingly low; and that in great measure through the fault of the +Roman government, which in this important question was led into the +most fearful blunders not so much by its short-sightedness, as by an +unpardonable disposition to favour the proletariate of the capital at +the expense of the farmers of Italy. The main question here was that +of the competition between transmarine and Italian corn. The grain +which was delivered by the provincials to the Roman government, +sometimes gratuitously, sometimes for a moderate compensation, was in +part applied by the government to the maintenance of the Roman +official staff and of the Roman armies on the spot, partly given up to +the lessees of the -decumae- on condition of their either paying a sum +of money for it or of their undertaking to deliver certain quantities +of grain at Rome or wherever else it should be required. From the +time of the second Macedonian war the Roman armies were uniformly +supported by transmarine corn, and, though this tended to the benefit +of the Roman exchequer, it cut off the Italian farmer from an +important field of consumption for his produce. This however was +the least part of the mischief. The government had long, as was +reasonable, kept a watchful eye on the price of grain, and, when there +was a threatening of dearth, had interfered by well-timed purchases +abroad; and now, when the corn-deliveries of its subjects brought into +its hands every year large quantities of grain--larger probably than +were needed in times of peace--and when, moreover, opportunities were +presented to it of acquiring foreign grain in almost unlimited +quantity at moderate prices, there was a natural temptation to glut +the markets of the capital with such grain, and to dispose of it at +rates which either in themselves or as compared with the Italian rates +were ruinously low. Already in the years 551-554, and in the first +instance apparently at the suggestion of Scipio, 6 -modii- (1 1/2 +bush.) of Spanish and African wheat were sold on public account to the +citizens of Rome at 24 and even at 12 -asses- (1 shilling 8 pence or +ten pence). Some years afterwards (558), more than 240,000 bushels of +Sicilian grain were distributed at the latter illusory price in the +capital. In vain Cato inveighed against this shortsighted policy: +the rise of demagogism had a part in it, and these extraordinary, but +presumably very frequent, distributions of grain under the market +price by the government or individual magistrates became the germs of +the subsequent corn-laws. But, even where the transmarine corn did +not reach the consumers in this extraordinary mode, it injuriously +affected Italian agriculture. Not only were the masses of grain which +the state sold off to the lessees of the tenths beyond doubt acquired +under ordinary circumstances by these so cheaply that, when re-sold, +they could be disposed of under the price of production; but it is +probable that in the provinces, particularly in Sicily--in consequence +partly of the favourable nature of the soil, partly of the extent +to which wholesale farming and slave-holding were pursued on the +Carthaginian system(10)--the price of production was in general +considerably lower than in Italy, while the transport of Sicilian and +Sardinian corn to Latium was at least as cheap as, if not cheaper +than, its transport thither from Etruria, Campania, or even northern +Italy. In the natural course of things therefore transmarine corn +could not but flow to the peninsula, and lower the price of the grain +produced there. Under the unnatural disturbance of relations +occasioned by the lamentable system of slave-labour, it would perhaps +have been justifiable to impose a duty on transmarine corn for the +protection of the Italian farmer; but the very opposite course seems +to have been pursued, and with a view to favour the import of +transmarine corn to Italy, a prohibitive system seems to have been +applied in the provinces--for though the Rhodians were allowed to +export a quantity of corn from Sicily by way of special favour, the +export of grain from the provinces must probably, as a rule, have been +free only as regarded Italy, and the transmarine corn must thus have +been monopolized for the benefit of the mother-country. + +Prices of Italian Corn + +The effects of this system are clearly evident. A year of +extraordinary fertility like 504--when the people of the capital paid +for 6 Roman -modii- (1 1/2 bush.) of spelt not more than 3/5 of a +-denarius- (about 5 pence), and at the same price there were sold 180 +Roman pounds (a pound = 11 oz.) of dried figs, 60 pounds of oil, 72 +pounds of meat, and 6 -congii- (= 4 1/2 gallons) of wine--is scarcely +by reason of its very singularity to be taken into account; but other +facts speak more distinctly. Even in Cato's time Sicily was called +the granary of Rome. In productive years Sicilian and Sardinian corn +was disposed of in the Italian ports for the freight. In the richest +corn districts of the peninsula--the modern Romagna and Lombardy +--during the time of Polybius victuals and lodgings in an inn cost on +an average half an -as- (1/3 pence) per day; a bushel and a half of +wheat was there worth half a -denarius- (4 pence). The latter average +price, about the twelfth part of the normal price elsewhere,(11) shows +with indisputable clearness that the producers of grain in Italy were +wholly destitute of a market for their produce, and in consequence +corn and corn-land there were almost valueless. + +Revolution in Roman Agriculture + +In a great industrial state, whose agriculture cannot feed its +population, such a result might perhaps be regarded as useful or at +any rate as not absolutely injurious; but a country like Italy, where +manufactures were inconsiderable and agriculture was altogether the +mainstay of the state, was in this way systematically ruined, and the +welfare of the nation as a whole was sacrificed in the most shameful +fashion to the interests of the essentially unproductive population +of the capital, to which in fact bread could never become too cheap. +Nothing perhaps evinces so clearly as this, how wretched was the +constitution and how incapable was the administration of this +so-called golden age of the republic. Any representative system, +however meagre, would have led at least to serious complaints and to +a perception of the seat of the evil; but in those primary assemblies +of the burgesses anything was listened to sooner than the warning +voice of a foreboding patriot. Any government that deserved the name +would of itself have interfered; but the mass of the Roman senate +probably with well-meaning credulity regarded the low prices of grain +as a real blessing for the people, and the Scipios and Flamininuses +had, forsooth, more important things to do--to emancipate the Greeks, +and to exercise the functions of republican kings. So the ship drove +on unhindered towards the breakers. + +Decay of the Farmers + +When the small holdings ceased to yield any substantial clear return, +the farmers were irretrievably ruined, and the more so that they +gradually, although more slowly than the other classes, lost the moral +tone and frugal habits of the earlier ages of the republic It was +merely a question of time, how rapidly the hides of the Italian +farmers would, by purchase or by resignation, become merged in +the larger estates. + +Culture of Oil and Wine, and Rearing of Cattle + +The landlord was better able to maintain himself than the farmer. +The former produced at a cheaper rate than the latter, when, instead +of letting his land according to the older system to petty temporary +lessees, he caused it according to the newer system to be cultivated +by his slaves. Accordingly, where this course had not been adopted +even at an earlier period,(12) the competition of Sicilian slave-corn +compelled the Italian landlord to follow it, and to have the work +performed by slaves without wife or child instead of families of free +labourers. The landlord, moreover, could hold his ground better +against competitors by means of improvements or changes in +cultivation, and he could content himself with a smaller return from +the soil than the farmer, who wanted capital and intelligence and who +merely had what was requisite for his subsistence. Hence the Roman +landholder comparatively neglected the culture of grain--which in many +rases seems to have been restricted to the raising of the quantity +required for the staff of labourers(13)--and gave increased attention +to the production of oil and wine as well as to the breeding of +cattle. These, under the favourable climate of Italy, had no need to +fear foreign competition; Italian wine, Italian oil, Italian wool not +only commanded the home markets, but were soon sent abroad; the valley +of the Po, which could find no consumption for its corn, provided the +half of Italy with swine and bacon. With this the statements that +have reached us as to the economic results of the Roman husbandry very +well agree. There is some ground for assuming that capital invested +in land was reckoned to yield a good return at 6 per cent; this +appears to accord with the average interest of capital at this period, +which was about twice as much. The rearing of cattle yielded on the +whole better results than arable husbandry: in the latter the vineyard +gave the best return, next came the vegetable garden and the olive +orchard, while meadows and corn-fields yielded least.(14) + +It is of course presumed that each species of husbandry was prosecuted +under the conditions that suited it, and on the soil which was adapted +to its nature. These circumstances were already in themselves +sufficient to supersede the husbandry of the petty farmer gradually by +the system of farming on a great scale; and it was difficult by means +of legislation to counteract them. But an injurious effect was +produced by the Claudian law to be mentioned afterwards (shortly +before 536), which excluded the senatorial houses from mercantile +speculation, and thereby artificially compelled them to invest their +enormous capitals mainly in land or, in other words, to replace the +old homesteads of the farmers by estates under the management of land- +stewards and by pastures for cattle. Moreover special circumstances +tended to favour cattle-husbandry as contrasted with agriculture, +although the former was far more injurious to the state. First of +all, this form of extracting profit from the soil--the only one which +in reality demanded and rewarded operations on a great scale--was +alone in keeping with the mass of capital and with the spirit of the +capitalists of this age. An estate under cultivation, although not +demanding the presence of the master constantly, required his frequent +appearance on the spot, while the circumstances did not well admit of +his extending the estate or of his multiplying his possessions except +within narrow limits; whereas an estate under pasture admitted of +unlimited extension, and claimed little of the owner's attention. For +this reason men already began to convert good arable land into pasture +even at an economic loss--a practice which was prohibited by +legislation (we know not when, perhaps about this period) but hardly +with success. The growth of pastoral husbandry was favoured also by +the occupation of domain-land. As the portions so occupied were +ordinarily large, the system gave rise almost exclusively to great +estates; and not only so, but the occupiers of these possessions, +which might be resumed by the state at pleasure and were in law +always insecure, were afraid to invest any considerable amount in +their cultivation--by planting vines for instance, or olives. +The consequence was, that these lands were mainly turned to +account as pasture. + +Management of Money + +We are prevented from giving a similar comprehensive view of the +moneyed economy of Rome, partly by the want of special treatises +descending from Roman antiquity on the subject, partly by its very +nature which was far more complex and varied than that of the Roman +husbandry. So far as can be ascertained, its principles were, still +less perhaps than those of husbandry, the peculiar property of the +Romans; on the contrary, they were the common heritage of all ancient +civilization, under which, as under that of modern times, the +operations on a great scale naturally were everywhere much alike. +In money matters especially the mercantile system appears to have been +established in the first instance by the Greeks, and to have been +simply adopted by the Romans. Yet the precision with which it was +carried out and the magnitude of the scale on which its operations +were conducted were so peculiarly Roman, that the spirit of the Roman +economy and its grandeur whether for good or evil are pre-eminently +conspicuous in its monetary transactions. + +Moneylending + +The starting-point of the Roman moneyed economy was of course +money-lending; and no branch of commercial industry was more +zealously prosecuted by the Romans than the trade of the professional +money-lender (-fenerator-) and of the money-dealer or banker (-argent +arius-). The transference of the charge of the larger monetary +transactions from the individual capitalists to the mediating banker, +who receives and makes payments for his customers, invests and borrows +money, and conducts their money dealings at home and abroad--which is +the mark of a developed monetary economy--was already completely +carried out in the time of Cato. The bankers, however, were not only +the cashiers of the rich in Rome, but everywhere insinuated themselves +into minor branches of business and settled in ever-increasing numbers +in the provinces and dependent states. Already throughout the whole +range of the empire the business of making advances to those who +wanted money began to be, so to speak, monopolized by the Romans. + +Speculation of Contractors + +Closely connected with this was the immeasurable field of enterprise. +The system of transacting business through mediate agency pervaded the +whole dealings of Rome. The state took the lead by letting all its +more complicated revenues and all contracts for furnishing supplies +and executing buildings to capitalists, or associations of +capitalists, for a fixed sum to be given or received. But private +persons also uniformly contracted for whatever admitted of being done +by contract--for buildings, for the ingathering of the harvest,(15) +and even for the partition of an inheritance among the heirs or the +winding up of a bankrupt estate; in which case the contractor--usually +a banker--received the whole assets, and engaged on the other hand to +settle the liabilities in full or up to a certain percentage and to +pay the balance as the circumstances required. + +Commerce +Manufacturing Industry + +The prominence of transmarine commerce at an early period in the Roman +national economy has already been adverted to in its proper place. +The further stimulus, which it received during the present period, is +attested by the increased importance of the Italian customs-duties in +the Roman financial system.(16) In addition to the causes of this +increase in the importance of transmarine commerce which need no +further explanation, it was artificially promoted by the privileged +position which the ruling Italian nation assumed in the provinces, and +by the exemption from customs-dues which was probably even now in many +of the client-states conceded by treaty to the Romans and Latins. + +On the other hand, industry remained comparatively undeveloped. +Trades were no doubt indispensable, and there appear indications that +to a certain extent they were concentrated in Rome; Cato, for +instance, advises the Campanian landowner to purchase the slaves' +clothing and shoes, the ploughs, vats, and locks, which he may +require, in Rome. From the great consumption of woollen stuffs the +manufacture of cloth must undoubtedly have been extensive and +lucrative.(17) But no endeavours were apparently made to transplant +to Italy any such professional industry as existed in Egypt and Syria, +or even merely to carry it on abroad with Italian capital. Flax +indeed was cultivated in Italy and purple dye was prepared there, +but the latter branch of industry at least belonged essentially +to the Greek Tarentum, and probably the import of Egyptian linen +and Milesian or Tyrian purple even now preponderated everywhere over +the native manufacture. + +Under this category, however, falls to some extent the leasing or +purchase by Roman capitalists of landed estates beyond Italy, with +a view to carry on the cultivation of grain and the rearing of cattle +on a great scale. This species of speculation, which afterwards +developed to proportions so enormous, probably began particularly in +Sicily, within the period now before us; seeing that the commercial +restrictions imposed on the Siceliots,(18) if not introduced for +the very purpose, must have at least tended to give to the Roman +speculators, who were exempt from such restrictions, a sort of +monopoly of the profits derivable from land. + +Management of Business by Slaves + +Business in all these different branches was uniformly carried on by +means of slaves. The money-lenders and bankers instituted, throughout +the range of their business, additional counting-houses and branch +banks under the direction of their slaves and freedmen. The company, +which had leased the customs-duties from the state, appointed chiefly +its slaves and freedmen to levy them at each custom-house. Every one +who took contracts for buildings bought architect-slaves; every one +who undertook to provide spectacles or gladiatorial games on account +of those giving them purchased or trained a company of slaves skilled +in acting, or a band of serfs expert in the trade of fighting. The +merchant imported his wares in vessels of his own under the charge +of slaves or freedmen, and disposed of them by the same means in +wholesale or retail. We need hardly add that the working of mines and +manufactories was conducted entirely by slaves. The situation of +these slaves was, no doubt, far from enviable, and was throughout less +favourable than that of slaves in Greece; but, if we leave out of +account the classes last mentioned, the industrial slaves found their +position on the whole more tolerable than the rural serfs. They had +more frequently a family and a practically independent household, with +no remote prospect of obtaining freedom and property of their own. +Hence such positions formed the true training school of those upstarts +from the servile class, who by menial virtues and often by menial +vices rose to the rank of Roman citizens and not seldom attained +great prosperity, and who morally, economically, and politically +contributed at least as much as the slaves themselves to the ruin +of the Roman commonwealth. + +Extent of Roman Mercantile Transactions +Coins and Moneys + +The Roman mercantile transactions of this period fully kept pace with +the contemporary development of political power, and were no less +grand of their kind. Any one who wishes to have a clear idea of the +activity of the traffic with other lands, needs only to look into the +literature, more especially the comedies, of this period, in which the +Phoenician merchant is brought on the stage speaking Phoenician, and +the dialogue swarms with Greek and half Greek words and phrases. +But the extent and zealous prosecution of Roman business-dealings may +be traced most distinctly by means of coins and monetary relations. +The Roman denarius quite kept pace with the Roman legions. We have +already mentioned(19) that the Sicilian mints--last of all that of +Syracuse in 542--were closed or at any rate restricted to small money +in consequence of the Roman conquest, and that in Sicily and Sardinia +the -denarius- obtained legal circulation at least side by side with +the older silver currency and probably very soon became the exclusive +legal tender. With equal if not greater rapidity the Roman silver +coinage penetrated into Spain, where the great silver-mines existed +and there was virtually no earlier national coinage; at a very +early period the Spanish towns even began to coin after the Roman +standard.(20) On the whole, as Carthage coined only to a very limited +extent,(21) there existed not a single important mint in addition to +that of Rome in the region of the western Mediterranean, with the +exception of that of Massilia and perhaps also those of the Illyrian +Greeks in Apollonia and Dyrrhachium. Accordingly, when the Romans +began to establish themselves in the region of the Po, these mints +were about 525 subjected to the Roman standard in such a way, that, +while they retained the right of coining silver, they uniformly +--and the Massiliots in particular--were led to adjust their +--drachma-- to the weight of the Roman three-quarter -denarius-, which +the Roman government on its part began to coin, primarily for the use +of Upper Italy, under the name of the "coin of victory" (-victoriatus- +). This new system, dependent on the Roman, not merely prevailed +throughout the Massiliot, Upper Italian, and Illyrian territories; but +these coins even penetrated into the barbarian lands on the north, +those of Massilia, for instance, into the Alpine districts along the +whole basin of the Rhone, and those of Illyria as far as the modern +Transylvania. The eastern half of the Mediterranean was not yet +reached by the Roman money, as it had not yet fallen under the direct +sovereignty of Rome; but its place was filled by gold, the true and +natural medium for international and transmarine commerce. It is +true that the Roman government, in conformity with its strictly +conservative character, adhered--with the exception of a temporary +coinage of gold occasioned by the financial embarrassment during the +Hannibalic war(22)--steadfastly to the rule of coining silver only in +addition to the national-Italian copper; but commerce had already +assumed such dimensions, that it was able even in the absence of money +to conduct its transactions with gold by weight. Of the sum in cash, +which lay in the Roman treasury in 597, scarcely a sixth was coined or +uncoined silver, five-sixths consisted of gold in bars,(23) and beyond +doubt the precious metals were found in all the chests of the larger +Roman capitalists in substantially similar proportions. Already +therefore gold held the first place in great transactions; and, +as may be further inferred from this fact, in general commerce the +preponderance belonged to that carried on with foreign lands, and +particularly with the east, which since the times of Philip and +Alexander the Great had adopted a gold currency. + +Roman Wealth + +The whole gain from these immense transactions of the Roman +capitalists flowed in the long run to Rome; for, much as they went +abroad, they were not easily induced to settle permanently there, but +sooner or later returned to Rome, either realizing their gains and +investing them in Italy, or continuing to carry on business from Rome +as a centre by means of the capital and connections which they had +acquired. The moneyed superiority of Rome as compared with the rest +of the civilized world was, accordingly, quite as decided as its +political and military ascendency. Rome in this respect stood towards +other countries somewhat as the England of the present day stands +towards the Continent--a Greek, for instance, observes of the younger +Scipio Africanus, that he was not rich "for a Roman." We may form some +idea of what was considered as riches in the Rome of those days from +the fact, that Lucius Paullus with an estate of 60 talents (14,000 +pounds) was not reckoned a wealthy senator, and that a dowry--such as +each of the daughters of the elder Scipio Africanus received--of 50 +talents (12,000 pounds) was regarded as a suitable portion for a +maiden of quality, while the estate of the wealthiest Greek of this +century was not more than 300 talents (72,000 pounds). + +Mercantile Spirit + +It was no wonder, accordingly, that the mercantile spirit took +possession of the nation, or rather--for that was no new thing in +Rome--that the spirit of the capitalist now penetrated and pervaded +all other aspects and stations of life, and agriculture as well as the +government of the state began to become enterprises of capitalists. +The preservation and increase of wealth quite formed a part of public +and private morality. "A widow's estate may diminish;" Cato wrote in +the practical instructions which he composed for his son, "a man must +increase his means, and he is deserving of praise and full of a divine +spirit, whose account-books at his death show that he has gained more +than he has inherited." Wherever, therefore, there was giving and +counter-giving, every transaction although concluded without any sort +of formality was held as valid, and in case of necessity the right of +action was accorded to the party aggrieved if not by the law, at any +rate by mercantile custom and judicial usage;(24) but the promise of a +gift without due form was null alike in legal theory and in practice. +In Rome, Polybius tells us, nobody gives to any one unless he must do +so, and no one pays a penny before it falls due, even among near +relatives. The very legislation yielded to this mercantile morality, +which regarded all giving away without recompense as squandering; the +giving of presents and bequests and the undertaking of sureties were +subjected to restriction at this period by decree of the burgesses, +and heritages, if they did not fall to the nearest relatives, were at +least taxed. In the closest connection with such views mercantile +punctuality, honour, and respectability pervaded the whole of Roman +life. Every ordinary man was morally bound to keep an account-book of +his income and expenditure--in every well-arranged house, accordingly, +there was a separate account-chamber (-tablinum-)--and every one took +care that he should not leave the world without having made his will: +it was one of the three matters in his life which Cato declares that +he regretted, that he had been a single day without a testament. +Those household books were universally by Roman usage admitted as +valid evidence in a court of justice, nearly in the same way as we +admit the evidence of a merchant's ledger. The word of a man of +unstained repute was admissible not merely against himself, but also +in his own favour; nothing was more common than to settle differences +between persons of integrity by means of an oath demanded by the one +party and taken by the other--a mode of settlement which was reckoned +valid even in law; and a traditional rule enjoined the jury, in the +absence of evidence, to give their verdict in the first instance for +the man of unstained character when opposed to one who was less +reputable, and only in the event of both parties being of equal repute +to give it in favour of the defendant.(25) The conventional +respectability of the Romans was especially apparent in the more and +more strict enforcement of the rule, that no respectable man should +allow himself to be paid for the performance of personal services. +Accordingly, magistrates, officers, jurymen, guardians, and generally +all respectable men entrusted with public functions, received no other +recompense for the services which they rendered than, at most, +compensation for their outlays; and not only so, but the services +which acquaintances (-amici-) rendered to each other--such as giving +security, representation in lawsuits, custody (-depositum-), lending +the use of objects not intended to be let on hire (-commodatum-), the +managing and attending to business in general (-procuratio-)--were +treated according to the same principle, so that it was unseemly to +receive any compensation for them and an action was not allowable even +where a compensation had been promised. How entirely the man was +merged in the merchant, appears most distinctly perhaps in the +substitution of a money-payment and an action at law for the duel +--even for the political duel--in the Roman life of this period. +The usual form of settling questions of personal honour was this: a +wager was laid between the offender and the party offended as to the +truth or falsehood of the offensive assertion, and under the shape of +an action for the stake the question of fact was submitted in due form +of law to a jury; the acceptance of such a wager when offered by the +offended or offending party was, just like the acceptance of a +challenge to a duel at the present day, left open in law, but was +often in point of honour not to be avoided. + +Associations + +One of the most important consequences of this mercantile spirit, +which displayed itself with an intensity hardly conceivable by those +not engaged in business, was the extraordinary impulse given to the +formation of associations. In Rome this was especially fostered by +the system already often mentioned whereby the government had its +business transacted through middlemen: for from the extent of the +transactions it was natural, and it was doubtless often required by +the state for the sake of greater security, that capitalists should +undertake such leases and contracts not as individuals, but in +partnership. All great dealings were organized on the model of these +state-contracts. Indications are even found of the occurrence among +the Romans of that feature so characteristic of the system of +association--a coalition of rival companies in order jointly to +establish monopolist prices.(26) In transmarine transactions more +especially and such as were otherwise attended with considerable risk, +the system of partnership was so extensively adopted, that it +practically took the place of insurances, which were unknown to +antiquity. Nothing was more common than the nautical loan, as it was +called--the modern "bottomry"--by which the risk and gain of +transmarine traffic were proportionally distributed among the owners +of the vessel and cargo and all the capitalists advancing money for +the voyage. It was, however, a general rule of Roman economy that one +should rather take small shares in many speculations than speculate +independently; Cato advised the capitalist not to fit out a single +ship with his money, but in concert with forty-nine other capitalists +to send out fifty ships and to take an interest in each to the extent +of a fiftieth part. The greater complication thus introduced into +business was overcome by the Roman merchant through his punctual +laboriousness and his system of management by slaves and freedmen +--which, regarded from the point of view of the pure capitalist, was +far preferable to our counting-house system. Thus these mercantile +companies, with their hundred ramifications, largely influenced the +economy of every Roman of note. There was, according to the testimony +of Polybius, hardly a man of means in Rome who had not been concerned +as an avowed or silent partner in leasing the public revenues; and +much more must each have invested on an average a considerable portion +of his capital in mercantile associations generally. + +All this laid the foundation for that endurance of Roman wealth, +which was perhaps still more remarkable than its magnitude. The +phenomenon, unique perhaps of its kind, to which we have already +called attention(27)--that the standing of the great clans remained +almost the same throughout several centuries--finds its explanation +in the somewhat narrow but solid principles on which they managed +their mercantile property. + +Moneyed Aristocracy + +In consequence of the one-sided prominence assigned to capital in +the Roman economy, the evils inseparable from a pure capitalist system +could not fail to appear. + +Civil equality, which had already received a fatal wound through the +rise of the ruling order of lords, suffered an equally severe blow in +consequence of the line of social demarcation becoming more and more +distinctly drawn between the rich and the poor. Nothing more +effectually promoted this separation in a downward direction than the +already-mentioned rule--apparently a matter of indifference, but in +reality involving the utmost arrogance and insolence on the part of +the capitalists--that it was disgraceful to take money for work; a +wall of partition was thus raised not merely between the common day- +labourer or artisan and the respectable landlord or manufacturer, but +also between the soldier or subaltern and the military tribune, and +between the clerk or messenger and the magistrate. In an upward +direction a similar barrier was raised by the Claudian law suggested +by Gaius Flaminius (shortly before 536), which prohibited senators +and senators' sons from possessing sea-going vessels except for the +transport of the produce of their estates, and probably also from +participating in public contracts--forbidding them generally from +carrying on whatever the Romans included under the head of +"speculation" (-quaestus-).(28) It is true that this enactment was +not called for by the senators; it was on the contrary a work of the +democratic opposition, which perhaps desired in the first instance +merely to prevent the evil of members of the governing class +personally entering into dealings with the government. It may be, +moreover, that the capitalists in this instance, as so often +afterwards, made common cause with the democratic party, and seized +the opportunity of diminishing competition by the exclusion of the +senators. The former object was, of course, only very imperfectly +attained, for the system of partnership opened up to the senators +ample facilities for continuing to speculate in secret; but this +decree of the people drew a legal line of demarcation between those +men of quality who did not speculate at all or at any rate not openly +and those who did, and it placed alongside of the aristocracy which +was primarily political an aristocracy which was purely moneyed--the +equestrian order, as it was afterwards called, whose rivalries with +the senatorial order fill the history of the following century. + +Sterility of the Capitalist Question + +A further consequence of the one-sided power of capital was the +disproportionate prominence of those branches of business which were +the most sterile and the least productive for the national economy as +a whole. Industry, which ought to have held the highest place, in +fact occupied the lowest. Commerce flourished; but it was universally +passive, importing, but not exporting. Not even on the northern +frontier do the Romans seem to have been able to give merchandise in +exchange for the slaves, who were brought in numbers from the Celtic +and probably even from the Germanic territories to Ariminum and the +other markets of northern Italy; at least as early as 523 the export +of silver money to the Celtic territory was prohibited by the Roman +government. In the intercourse with Greece, Syria, Egypt, Cyrene, and +Carthage, the balance of trade was necessarily unfavourable to Italy. +Rome began to become the capital of the Mediterranean states, and +Italy to become the suburbs of Rome; the Romans had no wish to be +anything more, and in their opulent indifference contented themselves +with a passive commerce, such as every city which is nothing more than +a capital necessarily carries on--they possessed, forsooth, money +enough to pay for everything which they needed or did not need. On +the other hand the most unproductive of all sorts of business, the +traffic in money and the farming of the revenue, formed the true +mainstay and stronghold of the Roman economy. And, lastly, whatever +elements that economy had contained for the production of a wealthy +middle class, and of a lower one making enough for its subsistence, +were extinguished by the unhappy system of employing slaves, or, +at the best, contributed to the multiplication of the troublesome +order of freedmen. + +The Capitalists and Public Opinion + +But above all the deep rooted immorality, which is inherent in an +economy of pure capital, ate into the heart of society and of the +commonwealth, and substituted an absolute selfishness for humanity +and patriotism. The better portion of the nation were very keenly +sensible of the seeds of corruption which lurked in that system of +speculation; and the instinctive hatred of the great multitude, as +well as the displeasure of the well-disposed statesman, was especially +directed against the trade of the professional money-lender, which for +long had been subjected to penal laws and still continued under the +letter of the law amenable to punishment. In a comedy of this period +the money-lender is told that the class to which he belongs is on a +parallel with the -lenones- -- + +-Eodem hercle vos pono et paro; parissumi estis ibus. +Hi saltem in occultis locis prostant: vos in foro ipso. +Vos fenore, hi male suadendo et lustris lacerant homines. +Rogitationes plurimas propter vos populus scivit, +Quas vos rogatas rumpitis: aliquam reperitis rimam. +Quasi aquam ferventem frigidam esse, ita vos putatis leges.- + +Cato the leader of the reform party expresses himself still more +emphatically than the comedian. "Lending money at interest," he says +in the preface to his treatise on agriculture, "has various +advantages; but it is not honourable. Our forefathers accordingly +ordained, and inscribed it among their laws, that the thief should be +bound to pay twofold, but the man who takes interest fourfold, +compensation; whence we may infer how much worse a citizen they deemed +the usurer than the thief." There is no great difference, he elsewhere +considers, between a money-lender and a murderer; and it must be +allowed that his acts did not fall short of his words--when governor +of Sardinia, by his rigorous administration of the law he drove the +Roman bankers to their wits' end. The great majority of the ruling +senatorial order regarded the system of the speculators with dislike, +and not only conducted themselves in the provinces on the whole with +more integrity and honour than these moneyed men, but often acted as +a restraint on them. The frequent changes of the Roman chief +magistrates, however, and the inevitable inequality in their mode +of handling the laws, necessarily abated the effort to check such +proceedings. + +Reaction of the Capitalist System on Agriculture + +The Romans perceived moreover--as it was not difficult to perceive +--that it was of far more consequence to give a different direction +to the whole national economy than to exercise a police control over +speculation; it was such views mainly that men like Cato enforced +by precept and example on the Roman agriculturist. "When our +forefathers," continues Cato in the preface just quoted, "pronounced +the eulogy of a worthy man, they praised him as a worthy farmer and a +worthy landlord; one who was thus commended was thought to have +received the highest praise. The merchant I deem energetic and +diligent in the pursuit of gain; but his calling is too much exposed +to perils and mischances. On the other hand farmers furnish the +bravest men and the ablest soldiers; no calling is so honourable, +safe, and free from odium as theirs, and those who occupy themselves +with it are least liable to evil thoughts." He was wont to say of +himself, that his property was derived solely from two sources +--agriculture and frugality; and, though this was neither very logical +in thought nor strictly conformable to the truth,(29) yet Cato was not +unjustly regarded by his contemporaries and by posterity as the model +of a Roman landlord. Unhappily it is a truth as remarkable as it is +painful, that this husbandry, commended so much and certainly with so +entire good faith as a remedy, was itself pervaded by the poison of +the capitalist system. In the case of pastoral husbandry this was +obvious; for that reason it was most in favour with the public and +least in favour with the party desirous of moral reform. But how +stood the case with agriculture itself? The warfare, which from the +third onward to the fifth century capital had waged against labour, +by withdrawing under the form of interest on debt the revenues of the +soil from the working farmers and bringing them into the hands of the +idly consuming fundholder, had been settled chiefly by the extension +of the Roman economy and the throwing of the capital which existed in +Latium into the field of mercantile activity opened up throughout the +range of the Mediterranean. Now even the extended field of business +was no longer able to contain the increased mass of capital; and an +insane legislation laboured simultaneously to compel the investment +of senatorial capital by artificial means in Italian estates, and +systematically to reduce the value of the arable land of Italy by +interference with the prices of grain. Thus there began a second +campaign of capital against free labour or--what was substantially the +same thing in antiquity--against the small farmer system; and, if the +first had been bad, it yet seemed mild and humane as compared with the +second. The capitalists no longer lent to the farmer at interest +--a course, which in itself was not now practicable because the petty +landholder no longer aimed at any considerable surplus, and was +moreover not sufficiently simple and radical--but they bought up the +farms and converted them, at the best, into estates managed by +stewards and worked by slaves. This likewise was called agriculture; +it was essentially the application of the capitalist system to the +production of the fruits of the soil. The description of the +husbandmen, which Cato gives, is excellent and quite just; but how +does it correspond to the system itself, which he portrays and +recommends? If a Roman senator, as must not unfrequently have been +the case, possessed four such estates as that described by Cato, the +same space, which in the olden time when small holdings prevailed had +supported from 100 to 150 farmers' families, was now occupied by one +family of free persons and about 50, for the most part unmarried, +slaves. If this was the remedy by which the decaying national economy +was to be restored to vigour, it bore, unhappily, an aspect of extreme +resemblance to the disease. + +Development of Italy + +The general result of this system is only too clearly obvious in the +changed proportions of the population. It is true that the condition +of the various districts of Italy was very unequal, and some were even +prosperous. The farms, instituted in great numbers in the region +between the Apennines and the Po at the time of its colonization, did +not so speedily disappear. Polybius, who visited that quarter not +long after the close of the present period, commends its numerous, +handsome, and vigorous population: with a just legislation as to corn +it would doubtless have been possible to make the basin of the Po, and +not Sicily the granary of the capital. In like manner Picenum and the +so-called -ager Gallicus- acquired a numerous body of farmers through +the distributions of domain-land consequent on the Flaminian law of +522--a body, however, which was sadly reduced in the Hannibalic war. +In Etruria, and perhaps also in Umbria, the internal condition of the +subject communities was unfavourable to the flourishing of a class +of free farmers, Matters were better in Latium--which could not be +entirely deprived of the advantages of the market of the capital, and +which had on the whole been spared by the Hannibalic war--as well as +in the secluded mountain-valleys of the Marsians and Sabellians. On +the other hand the Hannibalic war had fearfully devastated southern +Italy and had ruined, in addition to a number of smaller townships, +its two largest cities, Capua and Tarentum, both once able to send +into the field armies of 30,000 men. Samnium had recovered from the +severe wars of the fifth century: according to the census of 529 it +was in a position to furnish half as many men capable of arms as all +the Latin towns, and it was probably at that time, next to the -ager +Romanus-, the most flourishing region of the peninsula. But the +Hannibalic war had desolated the land afresh, and the assignations +of land in that quarter to the soldiers of Scipio's army, although +considerable, probably did not cover the loss. Campania and Apulia, +both hitherto well-peopled regions, were still worse treated in the +same war by friend and foe. In Apulia, no doubt, assignations of land +took place afterwards, but the colonies instituted there were not +successful. The beautiful plain of Campania remained more populous; +but the territory of Capua and of the other communities broken up in +the Hannibalic war became state-property, and the occupants of it were +uniformly not proprietors, but petty temporary lessees. Lastly, in +the wide Lucanian and Bruttian territories the population, which was +already very thin before the Hannibalic war, was visited by the whole +severity of the war itself and of the penal executions that followed +in its train; nor was much done on the part of Rome to revive the +agriculture there--with the exception perhaps of Valentia (Vibo, +now Monteleone), none of the colonies established there attained +real prosperity. + +Falling Off in the Population + +With every allowance for the inequality in the political and economic +circumstances of the different districts and for the comparatively +flourishing condition of several of them, the retrogression is yet on +the whole unmistakeable, and it is confirmed by the most indisputable +testimonies as to the general condition of Italy. Cato and Polybius +agree in stating that Italy was at the end of the sixth century far +weaker in population than at the end of the fifth, and was no longer +able to furnish armies so large as in the first Punic war. The +increasing difficulty of the levy, the necessity of lowering the +qualification for service in the legions, and the complaints of the +allies as to the magnitude of the contingents to be furnished by them, +confirm these statements; and, in the case of the Roman burgesses, the +numbers tell the same tale. In 502, shortly after the expedition of +Regulus to Africa, they amounted to 298,000 men capable of bearing +arms; thirty years later, shortly before the commencement of the +Hannibalic war (534), they had fallen off to 270,000, or about a +tenth, and again twenty years after that, shortly before the end of +the same war (550), to 214,000, or about a fourth; and a generation +afterwards--during which no extraordinary losses occurred, but the +institution of the great burgess-colonies in the plain of northern +Italy in particular occasioned a perceptible and exceptional increase +--the numbers of the burgesses had hardly again reached the point at +which they stood at the commencement of this period. If we had +similar statements regarding the Italian population generally, +they would beyond all doubt exhibit a deficit relatively still more +considerable. The decline of the national vigour less admits of +proof; but it is stated by the writers on agriculture that flesh and +milk disappeared more and more from the diet of the common people. +At the same time the slave population increased, as the free +population declined. In Apulia, Lucania, and the Bruttian land, +pastoral husbandry must even in the time of Cato have preponderated +over agriculture; the half-savage slave-herdsmen were here in reality +masters in the house. Apulia was rendered so insecure by them that a +strong force had to be stationed there; in 569 a slave-conspiracy +planned on the largest scale, and mixed up with the proceedings of the +Bacchanalia, was discovered there, and nearly 7000 men were condemned +as criminals. In Etruria also Roman troops had to take the field +against a band of slaves (558), and even in Latium there were +instances in which towns like Setia and Praeneste were in danger of +being surprised by a band of runaway serfs (556). The nation was +visibly diminishing, and the community of free burgesses was resolving +itself into a body composed of masters and slaves; and, although it +was in the first instance the two long wars with Carthage which +decimated and ruined both the burgesses and the allies, the Roman +capitalists beyond doubt contributed quite as much as Hamilcar and +Hannibal to the decline in the vigour and the numbers of the Italian +people. No one can say whether the government could have rendered +help; but it was an alarming and discreditable fact, that the circles +of the Roman aristocracy, well-meaning and energetic as in great part +they were, never once showed any insight into the real gravity of the +situation or any foreboding of the full magnitude of the danger. When +a Roman lady belonging to the high nobility, the sister of one of the +numerous citizen-admirals who in the first Punic war had ruined the +fleets of the state, one day got among a crowd in the Roman Forum, she +said aloud in the hearing of those around, that it was high time to +place her brother once more at the head of the fleet and to relieve +the pressure in the market-place by bleeding the citizens afresh +(508). Those who thus thought and spoke were, no doubt, a small +minority; nevertheless this outrageous speech was simply a forcible +expression of the criminal indifference with which the whole noble +and rich world looked down on the common citizens and farmers. + +They did not exactly desire their destruction, but they allowed it to +run its course; and so desolation advanced with gigantic steps over +the flourishing land of Italy, where countless free men had just been +enjoying a moderate and merited prosperity. + + + + +Notes for Chapter XII + + +1. In order to gain a correct picture of ancient Italy, it is +necessary for us to bear in mind the great changes which have been +produced there by modern cultivation. Of the -cerealia-, rye was not +cultivated in antiquity; and the Romans of the empire were astonished +to rind that oats, with which they were well acquainted as a weed, was +used by the Germans for making porridge. Rice was first cultivated in +Italy at the end of the fifteenth, and maize at the beginning of the +seventeenth, century. Potatoes and tomatoes were brought from +America; artichokes seem to be nothing but a cultivated variety of the +cardoon which was known to the Romans, yet the peculiar character +superinduced by cultivation appears of more recent origin. The +almond, again, or "Greek nut," the peach, or "Persian nut," and also +the "soft nut" (-nux mollusca-), although originally foreign to Italy, +are met with there at least 150 years before Christ. The date-palm, +introduced into Italy from Greece as into Greece from the East, and +forming a living attestation of the primitive commercial-religious +intercourse between the west and the east, was already cultivated in +Italy 300 years before Christ (Liv. x. 47; Pallad. v. 5, 2; xi. 12, i) +not for its fruit (Plin. H. N. xiii. 4, 26), but, just as in the +present day, as a handsome plant, and for the sake of the leaves which +were used at public festivals. The cherry, or fruit of Cerasus on the +Black Sea, was later in being introduced, and only began to be planted +in Italy in the time of Cicero, although the wild cherry is indigenous +there; still later, perhaps, came the apricot, or "Armenian plum." The +citron-tree was not cultivated in Italy till the later ages of the +empire; the orange was only introduced by the Moors in the twelfth or +thirteenth, and the aloe (Agave Americana) from America only in the +sixteenth, century. Cotton was first cultivated in Europe by the +Arabs. The buffalo also and the silkworm belong only to modern, not +to ancient Italy. + +It is obvious that the products which Italy had not originally are for +the most part those very products which seem to us truly "Italian;" +and if modern Germany, as compared with the Germany visited by Caesar, +may be called a southern land, Italy has since in no less degree +acquired a "more southern" aspect. + +2. II. III. Licinio-Sextian Laws + +3. According to Cato, de R. R, 137 (comp. 16), in the case of a lease +with division of the produce the gross produce of the estate, after +deduction of the fodder necessary for the oxen that drew the plough, +was divided between lessor and lessee (-colonus partiarius-) in the +proportions agreed upon between them. That the shares were ordinarily +equal may be conjectured from the analogy of the French -bail a +cheptel- and the similar Italian system of half-and-half leases, +as well as from the absence of all trace of any other scheme of +partition. It is erroneous to refer to the case of the -politor-, +who got the fifth of the grain or, if the division took place before +thrashing, from the sixth to the ninth sheaf (Cato, 136, comp. 5); +he was not a lessee sharing the produce, but a labourer assumed in +the harvest season, who received his daily wages according to that +contract of partnership (III. XII. Spirit of the System). + +4. The lease lirst assumed real importance when the Roman capitalists +began to acquire transmarine possessions on a great scale; then indeed +they knew how to value it, when a temporary lease was continued +through several generations (Colum. i. 7, 3). + +5. That the space between the vines was occupied not by grain, but +only at the most by such fodder plants as easily grew in the shade, is +evident from Cato (33, comp. 137), and accordingly Columella (iii. 3) +calculates on no other accessory gain in the case of a vineyard except +the produce of the young shoots sold. On the other hand, the orchard +(-arbustum-) was sown like any corn field (Colum. ii. 9, 6). It was +only where the vine was trained on living trees that corn was +cultivated in the intervals between them. + +6. Mago, or his translator (in Varro, R. R., i. 17, 3), advises that +slaves should not be bred, but should be purchased not under 22 years +of age; and Cato must have had a similar course in view, as the +personal staff of his model farm clearly shows, although he does not +exactly say so. Cato (2) expressly counsels the sale of old and +diseased slaves. The slave-breeding described by Columella (I. I. +Italian History), under which female slaves who had three sons were +exempted from labour, and the mothers of four sons were even +manumitted, was doubtless an independent speculation rather than a +part of the regular management of the estate--similar to the trade +pursued by Cato himself of purchasing slaves to be trained and sold +again (Plutarch, Cat. Mai. 21). The characteristic taxation mentioned +in this same passage probably has reference to the body of servants +properly so called (-familia urbana-). + +7. In this restricted sense the chaining of slaves, and even of the +sons of the family (Dionys. ii. 26), was very old; and accordingly +chained field-labourers are mentioned by Cato as exceptions, to whom, +as they could not themselves grind, bread had to be supplied instead +of grain (56). Even in the times of the empire the chaining of slaves +uniformly presents itself as a punishment inflicted definitively by +the master, provisionally by the steward (Colum. i. 8; Gai. i. 13; +Ulp. i. ii). If, notwithstanding, the tillage of the fields by means +of chained slaves appeared in subsequent times as a distinct system, +and the labourers' prison (-ergastulum-)--an underground cellar with +window-aperatures numerous but narrow and not to be reached from the +ground by the hand (Colum. i. 6)--became a necessary part of the farm- +buildings, this state of matters was occasioned by the fact that the +position of the rural serfs was harder than that of other slaves and +therefore those slaves were chiefly taken for it, who had, or seemed +to have, committed some offence. That cruel masters, moreover, +applied the chains without any occasion to do so, we do not mean to +deny, and it is clearly indicated by the circumstance that the law- +books do not decree the penalties applicable to slave transgressors +against those in chains, but prescribe the punishment of the half- +chained. It was precisely the same with branding; it was meant to be, +strictly, a punishment; but the whole flock was probably marked +(Diodor. xxxv. 5; Bernays, --Phokytides--, p. xxxi.). + +8. Cato does not expressly say this as to the vintage, but Varro does +so (I. II. Relation of the Latins to the Umbro-Samnites), and it is +implied in the nature of the case. It would have been economically an +error to fix the number of the slaves on a property by the standard of +the labours of harvest; and least of all, had such been the case, +would the grapes have been sold on the tree, which yet was frequently +done (Cato, 147). + +9. Columella (ii. 12, 9) reckons to the year on an average 45 rainy +days and holidays; with which accords the statement of Tertullian (De +Idolol. 14), that the number of the heathen festival days did not come +up to the fifty days of the Christian festal season from Easter to +Whitsunday. To these fell to be added the time of rest in the middle +of winter after the completion of the autumnal bowing, which Columella +estimates at thirty days. Within this time, doubtless, the moveable +"festival of seed-sowing" (-feriae sementivae-; comp. i. 210 and Ovid. +Fast, i. 661) uniformly occurred. This month of rest must not be +confounded with the holidays for holding courts in the season of the +harvest (Plin. Ep. viii. 21, 2, et al.) and vintage. + +10. III. I. The Carthaginian Dominion in Africa + +11. The medium price of grain in the capital may be assumed at least +for the seventh and eighth centuries of Rome at one -denarius- for the +Roman -modius-, or 2 shillings 8 pence per bushel of wheat, for which +there is now paid (according to the average of the prices in the +provinces of Brandenburg and Pomerania from 1816 to 1841) about 3 +shillings 5 pence. Whether this not very considerable difference +between the Roman and the modern prices depends on a rise in the value +of corn or on a fall in the value of silver, can hardly be decided. + +It is very doubtful, perhaps, whether in the Rome of this and of later +times the prices of corn really fluctuated more than is the case in +modern times. If we compare prices like those quoted above, of 4 +pence and 5 pence for the bushel and a half, with those of the worst +times of war-dearth and famine--such as in the second Punic war when +the same quantity rose to 9 shillings 7 pence (1 -medimnus- = 15 -- +drachmae--; Polyb. ix. 44), in the civil war to 19 shillings 2 pence +(1 -modius- = 5 -denarii-; Cic. Verr. iii. 92, 214), in the great +dearth under Augustus, even to 21 shillings 3 pence (5 -modii- =27 1/2 +-denarii-; Euseb. Chron. p. Chr. 7, Scal.)--the difference is indeed +immense; but such extreme cases are but little instructive, and might +in either direction be found recurring under the like conditions at +the present day. + +12. II. VIII. Farming of Estates + +13. Accordingly Cato calls the two estates, which he describes, +summarily "olive-plantation" (-olivetum-) and "vineyard" (-vinea-), +although not wine and oil merely, but grain also and other products +were cultivated there. If indeed the 800 -culei-, for which the +possessor of the vineyard is directed to provide himself with casks +(11), formed the maximum of a year's vintage, the whole of the 100 +-jugera- must have been planted with vines, because a produce of 8 +-culei- per -jugerum- was almost unprecedented (Colum. iii. 3); but +Varro (i. 22) understood, and evidently with reason, the statement to +apply to the case of the possessor of a vineyard who found it +necessary to make the new vintage before he had sold the old. + +14. That the Roman landlord made on an average 6 per cent from his +capital, may be inferred from Columella, iii. 3, 9. We have a more +precise estimate of the expense and produce only in the case of the +vine yard, for which Columella gives the following calculation of +the cost per -jugerum-: + +Price of the ground 1000 sesterces. +Price of the slaves who work it 1143 +(proportion to-jugerum-) +Vines and stakes 2000 +Loss of interest during the first two years 497 + ---- +Total 4640 sesterces= 47 pounds. + +He calculates the produce as at any rate 60 -amphorae-, worth at least +900 sesterces (9 pounds), which would thus represent a return of 17 +per cent. But this is somewhat illusory, as, apart from bad harvests, +the cost of gathering in the produce (III. XII. Spirit of the System), +and the expenses of the maintenance of the vines, stakes, and slaves, +are omitted from the estimate. + +The gross produce of meadow, pasture, and forest is estimated by the +same agricultural writer as, at most, 100 sesterces per -jugerum-, and +that of corn land as less rather than more: in fact, the average +return of 25 -modii- of wheat per -jugerum- gives, according to the +average price in the capital of 1 -denarius- per -modius-, not more +than 100 sesterces for the gross proceeds, and at the seat of +production the price must have been still lower. Varro (iii. 2) +reckons as a good ordinary gross return for a larger estate 150 +sesterces per -jugerum-. Estimates of the corresponding expense have +not reached us: as a matter of course, the management in this instance +cost much less than in that of a vineyard. + +All these statements, moreover, date from a century or more after +Gate's death. From him we have only the general statement that the +breeding of cattle yielded a better return than agriculture (ap. +Cicero, De Off. ii. 25, 89; Colum. vi. praef. 4, comp. ii. 16, 2; +Plin. H. N. xviii. 5, 30; Plutarch, Cato, 21); which of course is not +meant to imply that it was everywhere advisable to convert arable land +into pasture, but is to be understood relatively as signifying that +the capital invested in the rearing of flocks and herds on mountain +pastures and other suitable pasture-land yielded, as compared with +capital invested in cultivating Suitable corn land, a higher interest. +Perhaps the circumstance has been also taken into account in the +calculation, that the want of energy and intelligence in the landlord +operates far less injuriously in the case of pasture-land than in the +highly-developed culture of the vine and olive. On an arable estate, +according to Cato, the returns of the soil stood as follows in a +descending series:--1, vineyard; 2, vegetable garden; 3, osier copse, +which yielded a large return in consequence of the culture of the +vine; 4, olive plantation; 5, meadow yielding hay; 6, corn fields; +7, copse; 8, wood for felling; 9, oak forest for forage to the cattle; +all of which nine elements enter into the scheme of husbandry for +Cato's model estates. + +The higher net return of the culture of the vine as compared with that +of corn is attested also by the fact, that under the award pronounced +in the arbitration between the city of Genua and the villages +tributary to it in 637 the city received a sixth of wine, and a +twentieth of grain, as quitrent. + +15. III. XII. Spirit of the System + +16. III. XI. As to the Management of the Finances + +17. The industrial importance of the Roman cloth-making is evident +from the remarkable part which is played by the fullers in Roman +comedy. The profitable nature of the fullers' pits is attested by +Cato (ap. Plutarch, Cat 21). + +18. III. III. Organization of the Provinces + +19. III. III. Property + +20. III. VII. The State of Culture in Spain + +21. III. I. Comparison between Carthage and Rome + +22. III. VI. Pressure of the War + +23. There were in the treasury 17,410 Roman pounds of gold, 22,070 +pounds of uncoined, and 18,230 pounds of coined, silver. The legal +ratio of gold to silver was: 1 pound of gold = 4000 sesterces, or 1: +11.91. + +24. On this was based the actionable character of contracts of +buying, hiring, and partnership, and, in general, the whole system +of non-formal actionable contracts. + +25. The chief passage as to this point is the fragment of Cato in +Gellius, xiv. 2. In the case of the -obligatio litteris- also, +i. e. a claim based solely on the entry of a debt in the account-book +of the creditor, this legal regard paid to the personal credibility of +the party, even where his testimony in his own cause is concerned, +affords the key of explanation; and hence it happened that in later +times, when this mercantile repute had vanished from Roman life, the +-obligatio litteris-, while not exactly abolished, fell of itself into +desuetude. + +26. In the remarkable model contract given by Cato (141) for the +letting of the olive harvest, there is the following paragraph:-- + +"None [of the persons desirous to contract on the occasion of letting] +shall withdraw, for the sake of causing the gathering and pressing of +the olives to be let at a dearer rate; except when [the joint bidder] +immediately names [the other bidder] as his partner. If this rule +shall appear to have been infringed, all the partners [of the company +with which the contract has been concluded] shall, if desired by the +landlord or the overseer appointed by him, take an oath [that they +have not conspired in this way to prevent competition]. If they do +not take the oath, the stipulated price is not to be paid." It is +tacitly assumed that the contract is taken by a company, not by an +individual capitalist. + +27. III. XIII. Religious Economy + +28. Livy (xxi. 63; comp. Cic. Verr. v. 18, 45) mentions only the +enactment as to the sea-going vessels; but Asconius (in Or. in toga +cand. p. 94, Orell.) and Dio. (lv. 10, 5) state that the senator was +also forbidden by law to undertake state-contracts (-redemptiones-); +and, as according to Livy "all speculation was considered unseemly for +a senator," the Claudian law probably reached further than he states. + +29. Cato, like every other Roman, invested a part of his means in the +breeding of cattle, and in commercial and other undertakings. But it +was not his habit directly to violate the laws; he neither speculated +in state-leases--which as a senator he was not allowed to do--nor +practised usury. It is an injustice to charge him with a practice in +the latter respect at variance with his theory; the -fenus nauticum-, +in which he certainly engaged, was not a branch of usury prohibited by +the law; it really formed an essential part of the business of +chartering and freighting vessels. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +Faith and Manners + +Roman Austerity and Roman Pride + +Life in the case of the Roman was spent under conditions of austere +restraint, and, the nobler he was, the less he was a free man. + All-powerful custom restricted him to a narrow range of thought +and action; and to have led a serious and strict or, to use the +characteristic Latin expressions, a sad and severe life, was his +glory. No one had more and no one had less to do than to keep his +household in good order and manfully bear his part of counsel and +action in public affairs. But, while the individual had neither the +wish nor the power to be aught else than a member of the community, +the glory and the might of that community were felt by every +individual burgess as a personal possession to be transmitted along +with his name and his homestead to his posterity; and thus, as one +generation after another was laid in the tomb and each in succession +added its fresh contribution to the stock of ancient honours, the +collective sense of dignity in the noble families of Rome swelled into +that mighty civic pride, the like of which the earth has never seen +again, and the traces of which, as strange as they are grand, seem to +us, wherever we meet them, to belong as it were to another world. It +was one of the characteristic peculiarities of this powerful sense of +citizenship, that it was, while not suppressed, yet compelled by the +rigid simplicity and equality that prevailed among the citizens to +remain locked up within the breast during life, and was only allowed +to find expression after death; but then it was displayed in the +funeral rites of the man of distinction so conspicuously and +intensely, that this ceremonial is better fitted than any other +phenomenon of Roman life to give to us who live in later times a +glimpse of that wonderful spirit of the Romans. + +A Roman Funeral + +It was a singular procession, at which the burgesses were invited to +be present by the summons of the public crier: "Yonder warrior is +dead; whoever can, let him come to escort Lucius Aemilius; he is borne +forth from his house." It was opened by bands of wailing women, +musicians, and dancers; one of the latter was dressed out and +furnished with a mask after the likeness of the deceased, and by +gesture doubtless and action recalled once more to the multitude the +appearance of the well-known man. Then followed the grandest and most +peculiar part of the solemnity--the procession of ancestors--before +which all the rest of the pageant so faded in comparison, that men of +rank of the true Roman type enjoined their heirs to restrict the +funeral ceremony to that procession alone. We have already mentioned +that the face-masks of those ancestors who had filled the curule +aedileship or any higher ordinary magistracy, wrought in wax and +painted--modelled as far as possible after life, but not wanting even +for the earlier ages up to and beyond the time of the kings--were wont +to be placed in wooden niches along the walls of the family hall, and +were regarded as the chief ornament of the house. When a death +occurred in the family, suitable persons, chiefly actors, were dressed +up with these face-masks and the corresponding official costume to +take part in the funeral ceremony, so that the ancestors--each in the +principal dress worn by him in his lifetime, the triumphator in his +gold-embroidered, the censor in his purple, and the consul in his +purple-bordered, robe, with their lictors and the other insignia of +office--all in chariots gave the final escort to the dead. On the +bier overspread with massive purple and gold-embroidered coverlets and +fine linen cloths lay the deceased himself, likewise in the full +costume of the highest office which he had filled, and surrounded by +the armour of the enemies whom he had slain and by the chaplets which +in jest or earnest he had won. Behind the bier came the mourners, all +dressed in black and without ornament, the sons of the deceased with +their heads veiled, the daughters without veil, the relatives and +clansmen, the friends, the clients and freedmen. Thus the procession +passed on to the Forum. There the corpse was placed in an erect +position; the ancestors descended from their chariots and seated +themselves in the curule chairs; and the son or nearest gentile +kinsman of the deceased ascended the rostra, in order to announce to +the assembled multitude in simple recital the names and deeds of each +of the men sitting in a circle around him and, last of all, those of +him who had recently died. + +This may be called a barbarous custom, and a nation of artistic +feelings would certainly not have tolerated the continuance of this +odd resurrection of the dead down to an epoch of fully-developed +civilization; but even Greeks who were very dispassionate and but +little disposed to reverence, such as Polybius, were greatly impressed +by the naive pomp of this funeral ceremony. It was a conception +essentially in keeping with the grave solemnity, the uniform movement, +and the proud dignity of Roman life, that departed generations should +continue to walk, as it were, corporeally among the living, and that, +when a burgess weary of labours and of honours was gathered to his +fathers, these fathers themselves should appear in the Forum to +receive him among their number. + +The New Hellenism + +But the Romans had now reached a crisis of transition. Now that the +power of Rome was no longer confined to Italy but had spread far and +wide to the east and to the west, the days of the old home life of +Italy were over, and a Hellenizing civilization came in its room. It +is true that Italy had been subject to the influence of Greece, ever +since it had a history at all. We have formerly shown how the +youthful Greece and the youthful Italy--both of them with a certain +measure of simplicity and originality--gave and received intellectual +impulses; and how at a later period Rome endeavoured after a more +external manner to appropriate to practical use the language and +inventions of the Greeks. But the Hellenism of the Romans of the +present period was, in its causes as well as its consequences, +something essentially new. The Romans began to feel the need of a +richer intellectual life, and to be startled as it were at their own +utter want of mental culture; and, if even nations of artistic gifts, +such as the English and Germans, have not disdained in the pauses of +their own productiveness to avail themselves of the miserable French +culture for filling up the gap, it need excite no surprise that the +Italian nation now flung itself with fervid zeal on the glorious +treasures as well as on the dissolute filth of the intellectual +development of Hellas. But it was an impulse still more profound and +deep-rooted, which carried the Romans irresistibly into the Hellenic +vortex. Hellenic civilization still doubtless called itself by that +name, but it was Hellenic no longer; it was, in fact, humanistic and +cosmopolitan. It had solved the problem of moulding a mass of +different nations into one whole completely in the field of intellect, +and to a certain extent also in that of politics; and, now when the +same task on a wider scale devolved on Rome, she took over Hellenism +along with the rest of the inheritance of Alexander the Great. +Hellenism therefore was no longer a mere stimulus or accessory +influence; it penetrated the Italian nation to the very core. Of +course, the vigorous home life of Italy strove against the foreign +element. It was only after a most vehement struggle that the Italian +farmer abandoned the field to the cosmopolite of the capital; and, as +in Germany the French coat called forth the national Germanic frock, +so the reaction against Hellenism aroused in Rome a tendency which +opposed the influence of Greece on principle, in a fashion altogether +foreign to the earlier centuries, and in doing so fell pretty +frequently into downright follies and absurdities. + +Hellenism in Politics + +No department of human action or thought remained unaffected by this +struggle between the old fashion and the new. Even political +relations were largely influenced by it The whimsical project of +emancipating the Hellenes, the well deserved failure of which has +already been described, the kindred, likewise Hellenic, idea of a +common interest of republics in opposition to kings, and the desire of +propagating Hellenic polity at the expense of eastern despotism--the +two principles that helped to regulate, for instance, the treatment of +Macedonia--were fixed ideas of the new school, just as dread of the +Carthaginians was the fixed idea of the old; and, if Cato pushed the +latter to a ridiculous excess, Philhellenism now and then indulged in +extravagances at least quite as foolish. For example, the conqueror +of king Antiochus not only had a statue of him self in Greek costume +erected on the Capitol, but also, instead of calling himself in good +Latin -Asiaticus-, assumed the unmeaning and anomalous, but yet +magnificent and almost Greek, surname of --Asiagenus--.(1) A more +important consequence of this attitude of the ruling nation towards +Hellenism was, that the process of Latinizing gained ground everywhere +in Italy except where it encountered the Hellenes. The cities of the +Greeks in Italy, so far as the war had not destroyed them, remained +Greek. Apulia, about which, it is true, the Romans gave themselves +little concern, appears at this very epoch to have been thoroughly +pervaded by Hellenism, and the local civilization there seems to have +attained the level of the decaying Hellenic culture by its side. +Tradition is silent on the matter; but the numerous coins of cities, +uniformly furnished with Greek inscriptions, and the manufacture of +painted clay-vases after the Greek style, which was carried on in that +part of Italy alone with more ambition and gaudiness than taste, show +that Apulia had completely adopted Greek habits and Greek art. + +But the real struggle between Hellenism and its national antagonists +during the present period was carried on in the field of faith, of +manners, and of art and literature; and we must not omit to attempt +some delineation of this great strife of principles, however difficult +it may be to present a summary view of the myriad forms and aspects +which the conflict assumed. + +The National Religion and Unbelief + +The extent to which the old simple faith still retained a living hold +on the Italians is shown very clearly by the admiration or +astonishment which this problem of Italian piety excited among the +contemporary Greeks. On occasion of the quarrel with the Aetolians it +was reported of the Roman commander-in-chief that during battle he was +solely occupied in praying and sacrificing like a priest; whereas +Polybius with his somewhat stale moralizing calls the attention of his +countrymen to the political usefulness of this piety, and admonishes +them that a state cannot consist of wise men alone, and that such +ceremonies are very convenient for the sake of the multitude. + +Religious Economy + +But if Italy still possessed--what had long been a mere antiquarian +curiosity in Hellas--a national religion, it was already visibly +beginning to be ossified into theology. The torpor creeping over +faith is nowhere perhaps so distinctly apparent as in the alterations +in the economy of divine service and of the priesthood. The public +service of the gods became not only more tedious, but above all more +and more costly. In 558 there was added to the three old colleges of +the augurs, pontifices, and keepers of oracles, a fourth consisting of +three "banquet-masters" (-tres viri epulones-), solely for the +important purpose of superintending the banquets of the gods. The +priests, as well as the gods, were in fairness entitled to feast; new +institutions, however, were not needed with that view, as every +college applied itself with zeal and devotion to its convivial +affairs. The clerical banquets were accompanied by the claim of +clerical immunities. The priests even in times of grave embarrassment +claimed the right of exemption from public burdens, and only after +very troublesome controversy submitted to make payment of the taxes in +arrear (558). To the individual, as well as to the community, piety +became a more and more costly article. The custom of instituting +endowments, and generally of undertaking permanent pecuniary +obligations, for religious objects prevailed among the Romans in a +manner similar to that of its prevalence in Roman Catholic countries +at the present day. These endowments--particularly after they came to +be regarded by the supreme spiritual and at the same time the supreme +juristic authority in the state, the pontifices, as a real burden +devolving -de jure- on every heir or other person acquiring the +estate--began to form an extremely oppressive charge on property; +"inheritance without sacrificial obligation" was a proverbial saying +among the Romans somewhat similar to our "rose without a thorn." The +dedication of a tenth of their substance became so common, that twice +every month a public entertainment was given from the proceeds in the +Forum Boarium at Rome. With the Oriental worship of the Mother of the +Gods there was imported to Rome among other pious nuisances the +practice, annually recurring on certain fixed days, of demanding +penny-collections from house to house (-stipem cogere-). Lastly, the +subordinate class of priests and soothsayers, as was reasonable, +rendered no service without being paid for it; and beyond doubt the +Roman dramatist sketched from life, when in the curtain-conversation +between husband and wife he represents the account for pious services +as ranking with the accounts for the cook, the nurse, and other +customary presents:-- + +-Da mihi, vir,--quod dem Quinquatribus +Praecantrici, conjectrici, hariolae atquc haruspicae; +Tum piatricem clementer non potest quin munerem. +Flagitium est, si nil mittetur, quo supercilio spicit.- + +The Romans did not create a "God of gold," as they had formerly +created a "God of silver";(2) nevertheless he reigned in reality alike +over the highest and lowest spheres of religious life. The old pride +of the Latin national religion--the moderation of its economic +demands--was irrevocably gone. + +Theology + +At the same time its ancient simplicity also departed. Theology, the +spurious offspring of reason and faith, was already occupied in +introducing its own tedious prolixity and solemn inanity into the old +homely national faith, and thereby expelling the true spirit of that +faith. The catalogue of the duties and privileges of the priest of +Jupiter, for instance, might well have a place in the Talmud. They +pushed the natural rule--that no religious service can be acceptable +to the gods unless it is free from flaw--to such an extent in +practice, that a single sacrifice had to be repeated thirty times in +succession on account of mistakes again and again committed, and that +the games, which also formed a part of divine service, were regarded +as undone if the presiding magistrate had committed any slip in word +or deed or if the music even had paused at a wrong time, and so had to +be begun afresh, frequently for several, even as many as seven, times +in succession. + +Irreligious Spirit + +This exaggeration of conscientiousness was already a symptom of its +incipient torpor; and the reaction against it--indifference and +unbelief--failed not soon to appear. Even in the first Punic war +(505) an instance occurred in which the consul himself made an open +jest of consulting the auspices before battle--a consul, it is true, +belonging to the peculiar clan of the Claudii, which alike in good and +evil was ahead of its age. Towards the end of this epoch complaints +were loudly made that the lore of the augurs was neglected, and that, +to use the language of Cato, a number of ancient auguries and auspices +were falling into oblivion through the indolence of the college. An +augur like Lucius Paullus, who saw in the priesthood a science and not +a mere title, was already a rare exception, and could not but be so, +when the government more and more openly and unhesitatingly employed +the auspices for the accomplishment of its political designs, or, in +other words, treated the national religion in accordance with the view +of Polybius as a superstition useful for imposing on the public at +large. Where the way was thus paved, the Hellenistic irreligious +spirit found free course. In connection with the incipient taste for +art the sacred images of the gods began as early as the time of Cato +to be employed, like other furniture, in adorning the chambers of the +rich. More dangerous wounds were inflicted on religion by the rising +literature. It could not indeed venture on open attacks, and such +direct additions as were made by its means to religious conceptions +--e.g. the Pater Caelus formed by Ennius from the Roman Saturnus in +imitation of the Greek Uranos--were, while Hellenistic, of no great +importance. But the diffusion of the doctrines of Epichar and +Euhemerus in Rome was fraught with momentous consequences. The +poetical philosophy, which the later Pythagoreans had extracted from +the writings of the old Sicilian comedian Epicharmus of Megara (about +280), or rather had, at least for the most part, circulated under +cover of his name, saw in the Greek gods natural substances, in Zeus +the atmosphere, in the soul a particle of sun-dust, and so forth. In +so far as this philosophy of nature, like the Stoic doctrine in later +times, had in its most general outlines a certain affinity with the +Roman religion, it was calculated to undermine the national religion +by resolving it into allegory. A quasi-historical analysis of +religion was given in the "Sacred Memoirs" of Euhemerus of Messene +(about 450), which, under the form of reports on the travels of the +author among the marvels of foreign lands, subjected to thorough and +documentary sifting the accounts current as to the so-called gods, and +resulted in the conclusion that there neither were nor are gods at +all. To indicate the character of the book, it may suffice to mention +the one fact, that the story of Kronos devouring his children is +explained as arising out of the existence of cannibalism in the +earliest times and its abolition by king Zeus. Notwithstanding, or +even by virtue of, its insipidity and of its very obvious purpose, the +production had an undeserved success in Greece, and helped, in concert +with the current philosophies there, to bury the dead religion. It is +a remarkable indication of the expressed and conscious antagonism +between religion and the new philosophy that Ennius already translated +into Latin those notoriously destructive writings of Epicharmus and +Euhemerus. The translators may have justified themselves at the bar +of Roman police by pleading that the attacks were directed only +against the Greek, and not against the Latin, gods; but the evasion +was tolerably transparent. Cato was, from his own point of view, +quite right in assailing these tendencies indiscriminately, wherever +they met him, with his own peculiar bitterness, and in calling even +Socrates a corrupter of morals and offender against religion. + +Home and Foreign Superstition + +Thus the old national religion was visibly on the decline; and, as +the great trees of the primeval forest were uprooted the soil became +covered with a rank growth of thorns and of weeds that had never been +seen before. Native superstitions and foreign impostures of the most +various hues mingled, competed, and conflicted with each other. No +Italian stock remained exempt from this transmuting of old faith into +new superstition. As the lore of entrails and of lightning was +cultivated among the Etruscans, so the liberal art of observing birds +and conjuring serpent? flourished luxuriantly among the Sabellians +and more particularly the Marsians. Even among the Latin nation, and +in fact in Rome itself, we meet with similar phenomena, although they +are, comparatively speaking, less conspicuous. Such for instance were +the lots of Praeneste, and the remarkable discovery at Rome in 573 of +the tomb and posthumous writings of the king Numa, which are alleged +to have prescribed religious rites altogether strange and unheard of. +But the credulous were to their regret not permitted to learn more +than this, coupled with the fact that the books looked very new; for +the senate laid hands on the treasure and ordered the rolls to be +summarily thrown into the fire. The home manufacture was thus quite +sufficient to meet such demands of folly as might fairly be expected; +but the Romans were far from being content with it. The Hellenism of +that epoch, already denationalized and pervaded by Oriental mysticism, +introduced not only unbelief but also superstition in its most +offensive and dangerous forms to Italy; and these vagaries moreover +had quite a special charm, precisely because they were foreign. + +Worship of Cybele + +Chaldaean astrologers and casters of nativities were already in the +sixth century spread throughout Italy; but a still more important +event--one making in fact an epoch in the world's history--was the +reception of the Phrygian Mother of the Gods among the publicly +recognized divinities of the Roman state, to which the government had +been obliged to give its consent during the last weary years of the +Hannibalic war (550). A special embassy was sent for the purpose to +Pessinus, a city in the territory of the Celts of Asia Minor; and the +rough field-stone, which the priests of the place liberally presented +to the foreigners as the real Mother Cybele, was received by the +community with unparalleled pomp. Indeed, by way of perpetually +commemorating the joyful event, clubs in which the members entertained +each other in rotation were instituted among the higher classes, and +seem to have materially stimulated the rising tendency to the +formation of cliques. With the permission thus granted for the +-cultus- of Cybele the worship of the Orientals gained a footing +officially in Rome; and, though the government strictly insisted that +the emasculate priests of the new gods should remain Celts (-Galli-) +as they were called, and that no Roman burgess should devote himself +to this pious eunuchism, yet the barbaric pomp of the "Great Mother" +--her priests clad in Oriental costume with the chief eunuch at their +head, marching in procession through the streets to the foreign music +of fifes and kettledrums, and begging from house to house--and the +whole doings, half sensuous, half monastic, must have exercised a most +material influence over the sentiments and views of the people. + +Worship of Bacchus + +The effect was only too rapidly and fearfully apparent. A few years +later (568) rites of the most abominable character came to the +knowledge of the Roman authorities; a secret nocturnal festival in +honour of the god Bacchus had been first introduced into Etruria +through a Greek priest, and, spreading like a cancer, had rapidly +reached Rome and propagated itself over all Italy, everywhere +corrupting families and giving rise to the most heinous crimes, +unparalleled unchastity, falsifying of testaments, and murdering by +poison. More than 7000 men were sentenced to punishment, most of them +to death, on this account, and rigorous enactments were issued as to +the future; yet they did not succeed in repressing the ongoings, and +six years later (574) the magistrate to whom the matter fell +complained that 3000 men more had been condemned and still there +appeared no end of the evil. + +Repressive Measures + +Of course all rational men were agreed in the condemnation of these +spurious forms of religion--as absurd as they were injurious to the +commonwealth: the pious adherents of the olden faith and the partisans +of Hellenic enlightenment concurred in their ridicule of, and +indignation at, this superstition. Cato made it an instruction to his +steward, "that he was not to present any offering, or to allow any +offering to be presented on his behalf, without the knowledge and +orders of his master, except at the domestic hearth and on the +wayside-altar at the Compitalia, and that he should consult no +-haruspex-, -hariolus-, or -Chaldaeus-." The well-known question, as +to how a priest could contrive to suppress laughter when he met his +colleague, originated with Cato, and was primarily applied to the +Etruscan -haruspex-. Much in the same spirit Ennius censures in true +Euripidean style the mendicant soothsayers and their adherents: + +-Sed superstitiosi vates impudentesque arioli, +Aut inertes aut insani aut quibus egestas imperat, +Qui sibi semitam non sapiunt, alteri monstrant viam, +Quibus divitias pollicentur, ab eis drachumam ipsi petunt.- + +But in such times reason from the first plays a losing game against +unreason. The government, no doubt, interfered; the pious impostors +were punished and expelled by the police; every foreign worship not +specially sanctioned was forbidden; even the consulting of the +comparatively innocent lot-oracle of Praeneste was officially +prohibited in 512; and, as we have already said, those who took part +in the Bacchanalia were rigorously prosecuted. But, when once men's +heads are thoroughly turned, no command of the higher authorities +avails to set them right again. How much the government was obliged +to concede, or at any rate did concede, is obvious from what has been +stated. The Roman custom, under which the state consulted Etruscan +sages in certain emergencies and the government accordingly took steps +to secure the traditional transmission of Etruscan lore in the noble +families of Etruria, as well as the permission of the secret worship +of Demeter, which was not immoral and was restricted to women, may +probably be ranked with the earlier innocent and comparatively +indifferent adoption of foreign rites. But the admission of the +worship of the Mother of the Gods was a bad sign of the weakness which +the government felt in presence of the new superstition, perhaps even +of the extent to which it was itself pervaded by it; and it showed in +like manner either an unpardonable negligence or something still +worse, that the authorities only took steps against such proceedings +as the Bacchanalia at so late a stage, and even then on an accidental +information. + +Austerity of Manners +Catos's Family Life + +The picture, which has been handed down to us of the life of Cato the +Elder, enables us in substance to perceive how, according to the ideas +of the respectable burgesses of that period, the private life of the +Roman should be spent. Active as Cato was as a statesman, pleader, +author, and mercantile speculator, family life always formed with him +the central object of existence; it was better, he thought, to be a +good husband than a great senator. His domestic discipline was +strict. The servants were not allowed to leave the house without +orders, nor to talk of what occurred to the household to strangers. +The more severe punishments were not inflicted capriciously, but +sentence was pronounced and executed according to a quasi-judicial +procedure: the strictness with which offences were punished may be +inferred from the fact, that one of his slaves who had concluded a +purchase without orders from his master hanged himself on the matter +coming to Cato's ears. For slight offences, such as mistakes +committed in waiting at table, the consular was wont after dinner to +administer to the culprit the proper number of lashes with a thong +wielded by his own hand. He kept his wife and children in order no +less strictly, but by other means; for he declared it sinful to lay +hands on a wife or grown-up children in the same way as on slaves. +In the choice of a wife he disapproved marrying for money, and +recommended men to look to good descent; but he himself married in +old age the daughter of one of his poor clients. Moreover he adopted +views in regard to continence on the part of the husband similar to +those which everywhere prevail in slave countries; a wife was +throughout regarded by him as simply a necessary evil. His writings +abound in invectives against the chattering, finery-loving, +ungovernable fair sex; it was the opinion of the old lord that "all +women are plaguy and proud," and that, "were men quit of women, our +life might probably be less godless." On the other hand the rearing +of children born in wedlock was a matter which touched his heart and +his honour, and the wife in his eyes existed strictly and solely for +the children's sake. She nursed them ordinarily herself, or, if she +allowed her children to be suckled by female slaves, she also allowed +their children in return to draw nourishment from her own breast; one +of the few traits, which indicate an endeavour to mitigate the +institution of slavery by ties of human sympathy--the common impulses +of maternity and the bond of foster-brotherhood. The old general was +present in person, whenever it was possible, at the washing and +swaddling of his children. He watched with reverential care over +their childlike innocence; he assures us that he was as careful lest +he should utter an unbecoming word in presence of his children as if +he had been in presence of the Vestal Virgins, and that he never +before the eyes of his daughters embraced their mother, except when +she had become alarmed during a thunder-storm. The education of the +son was perhaps the noblest portion of his varied and variously +honourable activity. True to his maxim, that a ruddy-checked boy was +worth more than a pale one, the old soldier in person initiated his +son into all bodily exercises, and taught him to wrestle, to ride, to +swim, to box, and to endure heat and cold. But he felt very justly, +that the time had gone by when it sufficed for a Roman to be a good +farmer and soldier; and be felt also that it could not but have an +injurious influence on the mind of his boy, if he should subsequently +learn that the teacher, who had rebuked and punished him and had won +his reverence, was a mere slave. Therefore he in person taught the +boy what a Roman was wont to learn, to read and write and know the law +of the land; and even in his later years he worked his way so far into +the general culture of the Hellenes, that he was able to deliver to +his son in his native tongue whatever in that culture he deemed to be +of use to a Roman. All his writings were primarily intended for his +son, and he wrote his historical work for that son's use with large +distinct letters in his own hand. He lived in a homely and frugal +style. His strict parsimony tolerated no expenditure on luxuries. He +allowed no slave to cost him more than 1500 -denarii- (65 pounds) and +no dress more than 100 -denarii- (4 pounds: 6 shillings); no carpet was +to be seen in his house, and for a long time there was no whitewash on +the walls of the rooms. Ordinarily he partook of the same fare with +his servants, and did not buffer his outlay in cash for the meal to +exceed 30 -asses- (2 shillings); in time of war even wine was +uniformly banished from his table, and he drank water or, according to +circumstances, water mixed with vinegar. On the other hand, he was no +enemy to hospitality; he was fond of associating both with his club in +town and with the neighbouring landlords in the country; he sat long +at table, and, as his varied experience and his shrewd and ready wit +made him a pleasant companion, he disdained neither the dice nor the +wine-flask: among other receipts in his book on husbandry he even +gives a tried recipe for the case of a too hearty meal and too deep +potations. His life up to extreme old age was one of ceaseless +activity. Every moment was apportioned and occupied; and every +evening he was in the habit of turning over in his mind what he had +heard, said, or done during the day. Thus he found time for his own +affairs as well as for those of his friends and of the state, and time +also for conversation and pleasure; everything was done quickly and +without many words, and his genuine spirit of activity hated nothing +so much as bustle or a great ado about trifles. So lived the man who +was regarded by his contemporaries and by posterity as the true model +of a Roman burgess, and who appeared as it were the living embodiment +of the--certainly somewhat coarse-grained--energy and probity of Rome +in contrast with Greek indolence and Greek immorality; as a later +Roman poet says: + +-Sperne mores transmarinos, mille habent offucias. +Cive Romano per orbem nemo vivit rectius. +Quippe malim unum Catonem, quam trecentos Socratas.- (3) + +Such judgments will not be absolutely adopted by history; but every +one who carefully considers the revolution which the degenerate +Hellenism of this age accomplished in the modes of life and thought +among the Romans, will be inclined to heighten rather than to lessen +that condemnation of the foreign manners. + +New Manners + +The ties of family life became relaxed with fearful rapidity. The +evil of grisettes and boy-favourites spread like a pestilence, and, as +matters stood, it was not possible to take any material steps in the +way of legislation against it. The high tax, which Cato as censor +(570) laid on this most abominable species of slaves kept for luxury, +would not be of much moment, and besides fell practically into disuse +a year or two afterwards along with the property-tax generally. +Celibacy--as to which grave complaints were made as early as 520--and +divorces naturally increased in proportion. Horrible crimes were +perpetrated in the bosom of families of the highest rank; for +instance, the consul Gaius Calpurnius Piso was poisoned by his wife +and his stepson, in order to occasion a supplementary election to the +consulship and so to procure the supreme magistracy for the latter +--a plot which was successful (574). Moreover the emancipation of +women began. According to old custom the married woman was subject +in law to the marital power which was parallel with the paternal, and +the unmarried woman to the guardianship of her nearest male -agnati-, +which fell little short of the paternal power; the wife had no +property of her own, the fatherless virgin and the widow had at any +rate no right of management. But now women began to aspire to +independence in respect to property, and, getting quit of the +guardianship of their -agnati- by evasive lawyers' expedients +--particularly through mock marriages--they took the management +of their property into their own hands, or, in the event of being +married, sought by means not much better to withdraw themselves +from the marital power, which under the strict letter of the law was +necessary. The mass of capital which was collected in the hands of +women appeared to the statesmen of the time so dangerous, that they +resorted to the extravagant expedient of prohibiting by law the +testamentary nomination of women as heirs (585), and even sought by a +highly arbitrary practice to deprive women for the most part of the +collateral inheritances which fell to them without testament. In like +manner the exercise of family jurisdiction over women, which was +connected with that marital and tutorial power, became practically +more and more antiquated. Even in public matters women already +began to have a will of their own and occasionally, as Cato thought, +"to rule the rulers of the world;" their influence was to be traced +in the burgess-assembly, and already statues were erected in the +provinces to Roman ladies. + +Luxury + +Luxury prevailed more and more in dress, ornaments, and furniture, in +buildings and at table. Especially after the expedition to Asia Minor +in 564 Asiatico-Hellenic luxury, such as prevailed at Ephesus and +Alexandria, transferred its empty refinement and its dealing in +trifles, destructive alike of money, time, and pleasure, to Rome. +Here too women took the lead: in spite of the zealous invective of +Cato they managed to procure the abolition, after the peace with +Cartilage (559), of the decree of the people passed soon after the +battle of Cannae (539), which forbade them to use gold ornaments, +variegated dresses, or chariots; no course was left to their zealous +antagonist but to impose a high tax on those articles (570). A +multitude of new and for the most part frivolous articles--silver +plate elegantly figured, table-couches with bronze mounting, Attalic +dresses as they were called, and carpets of rich gold brocade--now +found their way to Rome. Above all, this new luxury appeared in the +appliances of the table. Hitherto without exception the Romans had +only partaken of hot dishes once a day; now hot dishes were not +unfrequently produced at the second meal (-prandium-), and for the +principal meal the two courses formerly in use no longer sufficed. +Hitherto the women of the household had themselves attended to +the baking of bread and cooking; and it was only on occasion of +entertainments that a professional cook was specially hired, who in +that case superintended alike the cooking and the baking. Now, on +the other hand, a scientific cookery began to prevail. In the +better houses a special cook was kept The division of labour became +necessary, and the trade of baking bread and cakes branched off from +that of cooking--the first bakers' shops in Rome appeared about 583. +Poems on the art of good eating, with long lists of the most palatable +fishes and other marine products, found their readers: and the theory +was reduced to practice. Foreign delicacies--anchovies from Pontus, +wine from Greece--began to be esteemed in Rome, and Cato's receipt for +giving to the ordinary wine of the country the flavour of Coan by +means of brine would hardly inflict any considerable injury on the +Roman vintners. The old decorous singing and reciting of the guests +and their boys were supplanted by Asiatic -sambucistriae-. Hitherto +the Romans had perhaps drunk pretty deeply at supper, but drinking- +banquets in the strict sense were unknown; now formal revels came into +vogue, on which occasions the wine was little or not at all diluted +and was drunk out of large cups, and the drink-pledging, in which each +was bound to follow his neighbour in regular succession, formed the +leading feature--"drinking after the Greek style" (-Graeco more +bibere-) or "playing the Greek" (-pergraecari-, -congraecare-) as the +Romans called it. In consequence of this debauchery dice-playing, +which had doubtless long been in use among the Romans, reached such +proportions that it was necessary for legislation to interfere. The +aversion to labour and the habit of idle lounging were visibly on the +increase.(4) Cato proposed to have the market paved with pointed +stones, in order to put a stop to the habit of idling; the Romans +laughed at the jest and went on to enjoy the pleasure of loitering +and gazing all around them. + +Increase of Amusements + +We have already noticed the alarming extension of the popular +amusements during this epoch. At the beginning of it, apart from some +unimportant foot and chariot races which should rather be ranked with +religious ceremonies, only a single general festival was held in the +month of September, lasting four days and having a definitely fixed +maximum of cost.(5) At the close of the epoch, this popular festival +had a duration of at least six days; and besides this there were +celebrated at the beginning of April the festival of the Mother of the +Gods or the so-called Megalensia, towards the end of April that of +Ceres and that of Flora, in June that of Apollo, in November the +Plebeian games--all of them probably occupying already more days than +one. To these fell to be added the numerous cases where the games +were celebrated afresh--in which pious scruples presumably often +served as a mere pretext--and the incessant extraordinary festivals. +Among these the already-mentioned banquets furnished from the +dedicated tenths(6) the feasts of the gods, the triumphal and funeral +festivities, were conspicuous; and above all the festal games which +were celebrated--for the first time in 505--at the close of one of +those longer periods which were marked off by the Etrusco-Roman +religion, the -saecula-, as they were called. At the same time +domestic festivals were multiplied. During the second Punic war there +were introduced, among people of quality, the already-mentioned +banquetings on the anniversary of the entrance of the Mother of the +Gods (after 550), and, among the lower orders, the similar Saturnalia +(after 537), both under the influence of the powers henceforth closely +allied--the foreign priest and the foreign cook. A very near approach +was made to that ideal condition in which every idler should know +where he might kill time every day; and this in a commonwealth where +formerly action had been with all and sundry the very object of +existence, and idle enjoyment had been proscribed by custom as well +as by law! The bad and demoralizing elements in these festal +observances, moreover, daily acquired greater ascendency. It is true +that still as formerly the chariot races formed the brilliant finale +of the national festivals; and a poet of this period describes very +vividly the straining expectancy with which the eyes of the multitude +were fastened on the consul, when he was on the point of giving the +signal for the chariots to start. But the former amusements no longer +sufficed; there was a craving for new and more varied spectacles. +Greek athletes now made their appearance (for the first time in 568) +alongside of the native wrestlers and boxers. Of the dramatic +exhibitions we shall speak hereafter: the transplanting of Greek +comedy and tragedy to Rome was a gain perhaps of doubtful value, but +it formed at any rate the best of the acquisitions made at this time. +The Romans had probably long indulged in the sport of coursing hares +and hunting foxes in presence of the public; now these innocent hunts +were converted into formal baitings of wild animals, and the wild +beasts of Africa--lions and panthers--were (first so far as can be +proved in 568) transported at great cost to Rome, in order that by +killing or being killed they might serve to glut the eyes of the +gazers of the capital. The still more revolting gladiatorial games, +which prevailed in Campania and Etruria, now gained admission to Rome; +human blood was first shed for sport in the Roman forum in 490. Of +course these demoralizing amusements encountered severe censure: the +consul of 486, Publius Sempronius Sophus, sent a divorce to his wife, +because she had attended funeral games; the government carried a +decree of the people prohibiting the bringing over of wild beasts to +Rome, and strictly insisted that no gladiators should appear at the +public festivals. But here too it wanted either the requisite power +or the requisite energy: it succeeded, apparently, in checking the +practice of baiting animals, but the appearance of sets of gladiators +at private festivals, particularly at funeral celebrations, was not +suppressed. Still less could the public be prevented from preferring +the comedian to the tragedian, the rope-dancer to the comedian, the +gladiator to the rope-dancer; or the stage be prevented from revelling +by choice amidst the pollution of Hellenic life. Whatever elements of +culture were contained in the scenic and artistic entertainments were +from the first thrown aside; it was by no means the object of the +givers of the Roman festivals to elevate--though it should be but +temporarily--the whole body of spectators through the power of poetry +to the level of feeling of the best, as the Greek stage did in the +period of its prime, or to prepare an artistic pleasure for a select +circle, as our theatres endeavour to do. The character of the +managers and spectators in Rome is illustrated by a scene at the +triumphal games in 587, where the first Greek flute-players, on their +melodies failing to please, were instructed by the director to box +with one another instead of playing, upon which the delight would +know no bounds. + +Nor was the evil confined to the corruption of Roman manners by +Hellenic contagion; conversely the scholars began to demoralize their +instructors. Gladiatorial games, which were unknown in Greece, were +first introduced by king Antiochus Epiphanes (579-590), a professed +imitator of the Romans, at the Syrian court, and, although they +excited at first greater horror than pleasure in the Greek public, +which was more humane and had more sense of art than the Romans, yet +they held their ground likewise there, and gradually came more and +more into vogue. + +As a matter of course, this revolution in life and manners brought an +economic revolution in its train. Residence in the capital became +more and more coveted as well as more costly. Rents rose to an +unexampled height. Extravagant prices were paid for the new +articles of luxury; a barrel of anchovies from the Black Sea cost +1600 sesterces (16 pounds)--more than the price of a rural slave; a +beautiful boy cost 24,000 sesterces (240 pounds)--more than many a +farmer's homestead. Money therefore, and nothing but money, became +the watchword with high and low. In Greece it had long been the case +that nobody did anything for nothing, as the Greeks themselves with +discreditable candour allowed: after the second Macedonian war the +Romans began in this respect also to imitate the Greeks. +Respectability had to provide itself with legal buttresses; pleaders, +for instance, had to be prohibited by decree of the people from taking +money for their services; the jurisconsults alone formed a noble +exception, and needed no decree of the people to compel their +adherence to the honourable custom of giving good advice gratuitously. +Men did not, if possible, steal outright; but all shifts seemed +allowable in order to attain rapidly to riches--plundering and +begging, cheating on the part of contractors and swindling on the part +of speculators, usurious trading in money and in grain, even the +turning of purely moral relations such as friendship and marriage to +economic account. Marriage especially became on both sides an object +of mercantile speculation; marriages for money were common, and it +appeared necessary to refuse legal validity to the' presents which the +spouses made to each other. That, under such a state of things, plans +for setting fire on all sides to the capital came to the knowledge of +the authorities, need excite no surprise. When man no longer finds +enjoyment in work, and works merely in order to attain as quickly as +possible to enjoyment, it is a mere accident that he does not become a +criminal. Destiny had lavished all the glories of power and riches +with liberal hand on the Romans; but, in truth, the Pandora's box was +a gift of doubtful value. + + + + +Notes for Chapter XIII + + +1. That --Asiagenus-- was the original title of the hero of Magnesia +and of his descendants, is established by coins and inscriptions; the +fact that the Capitoline Fasti call him -Asiaticus- is one of several +traces indicating that these have undergone a non-contemporary +revision. The former surname can only he a corruption of --Asiagenus-- +--the form which later authors substituted for it--which signifies +not the conqueror of Asia, but an Asiatic by birth. + +2. II. VIII. Religion + +3. [In the first edition of this translation I gave these lines in +English on the basis of Dr. Mommsen's German version, and added in a +note that I had not been able to find the original. Several scholars +whom I consulted were not more successful; and Dr. Mommsen was at the +time absent from Berlin. Shortly after the first edition appeared, I +received a note from Sir George Cornewall Lewis informing me that I +should find them taken from Florus (or Floridus) in Wernsdorf, Poetae +Lat. Min. vol. iii. p. 487. They were accordingly given in the +revised edition of 1868 from the Latin text Baehrens (Poet. Lat. Min. +vol. iv. p. 347) follows Lucian Muller in reading -offucia-. --TR.] + +4. A sort of -parabasis- in the -Curculio- of Plautus describes what +went on in the market-place of the capital, with little humour +perhaps, but with life-like distinctness. + +-Conmonstrabo, quo in quemque hominem facile inveniatis loco, +Ne nimio opere sumat operam, si quis conventum velit +Vel vitiosum vel sine vitio, vel probum vel inprobum. +Qui perjurum convenire volt hominem, ito in comitium; +Qui mendacem et gloriosum, apud Cloacinae sacrum. +[Ditis damnosos maritos sub basilica quaerito. +Ibidem erunt scorta exoleta quique stipulari solent.] +Symbolarum conlatores apud forum piscarium. +In foro infumo boni homines atque dites ambulant; +In medio propter canalem ibi ostentatores meri. +Confidentes garrulique et malevoli supra lacum, +Qui alteri de nihilo audacter dicunt contumeliam +Et qui ipsi sat habent quod in se possit vere dicier. +Sub veteribus ibi sunt, qui dant quique accipiunt faenore. +Pone aedem Castoris ibi sunt, subito quibus credas male. +In Tusco vico ibi sunt homines, qui ipsi sese venditant. +In Velabro vel pistorem vel lanium vel haruspicem +Vel qui ipsi vorsant, vel qui aliis, ut vorsentur, praebeant. +Ditis damnosos maritos apud Leucadiam Oppiam.- + +The verses in brackets are a subsequent addition, inserted after the +building of the first Roman bazaar (570). The business of the baker +(-pistor-, literally miller) embraced at this time the sale of +delicacies and the providing accommodation for revellers (Festus, Ep. +v. alicariae, p. 7, Mull.; Plautus, Capt. 160; Poen. i. a, 54; Trin. +407). The same was the case with the butchers. Leucadia Oppia may +have kept a house of bad fame. + +5. II. IX. The Roman National Festival + +6. III. XIII. Religious Economy + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +Literature and Art + +The influences which stimulated the growth of Roman literature were +of a character altogether peculiar and hardly paralleled in any other +nation. To estimate them correctly, it is necessary in the first +place that we should glance at the instruction of the people and +its recreations during this period. + +Knowledge of Languages + +Language lies at the root of all mental culture; and this was +especially the case in Rome. In a community where so much importance +was attached to speeches and documents, and where the burgess, at an +age which is still according to modern ideas regarded as boyhood, was +already entrusted with the uncontrolled management of his property and +might perhaps find it necessary to make formal speeches to the +assembled community, not only was great value set all along on the +fluent and polished use of the mother-tongue, but efforts were early +made to acquire a command of it in the years of boyhood. The Greek +language also was already generally diffused in Italy in the time of +Hannibal. In the higher circles a knowledge of that language, which +was the general medium of intercourse for ancient civilization, had +long been a far from uncommon accomplishment; and now, when the change +of Rome's position in the world had so enormously increased the +intercourse with foreigners and the foreign traffic, such a knowledge +was, if not necessary, yet presumably of very material importance to +the merchant as well as the statesman. By means of the Italian slaves +and freedmen, a very large portion of whom were Greek or half-Greek +by birth the Greek language and Greek knowledge to a certain extent +reached even the lower ranks of the population, especially in the +capital. The comedies of this period may convince us that even the +humbler classes of the capital were familiar with a sort of Latin, +which could no more be properly understood without a knowledge of +Greek than the English of Sterne or the German of Wieland without +a knowledge of French.(1) Men of senatorial families, however, not +only addressed a Greek audience in Greek, but even published their +speeches--Tiberius Gracchus (consul in 577 and 591) so published a +speech which he had given at Rhodes--and in the time of Hannibal wrote +their chronicles in Greek, as we shall have occasion to mention more +particularly in the sequel. Individuals went still farther. The +Greeks honoured Flamininus by complimentary demonstrations in the +Roman language,(2) and he returned the compliment; the "great general +of the Aeneiades" dedicated his votive gifts to the Greek gods after +the Greek fashion in Greek distichs.(3) Cato reproached another +senator with the fact, that he had the effrontery to deliver Greek +recitations with the due modulation at Greek revels. + +Under the influence of such circumstances Roman instruction developed +itself. It is a mistaken opinion, that antiquity was materially +inferior to our own times in the general diffusion of elementary +attainments. Even among the lower classes and slaves there was much +reading, writing, and counting: in the case of a slave steward, for +instance, Cato, following the example of Mago, takes for granted the +ability to read and write. Elementary instruction, as well as +instruction in Greek, must have been long before this period imparted +to a very considerable extent in Rome. But the epoch now before us +initiated an education, the aim of which was to communicate not merely +an outward expertness, but a real mental culture. Hitherto in Rome +a knowledge of Greek had conferred on its possessor as little +superiority in civil or social life, as a knowledge of French perhaps +confers at the present day in a hamlet of German Switzerland; and the +earliest writers of Greek chronicles may have held a position among +the other senators similar to that of the farmer in the fens of +Holstein who has been a student and in the evening, when he comes home +from the plough, takes down his Virgil from the shelf. A man who +assumed airs of greater importance by reason of his Greek, was +reckoned a bad patriot and a fool; and certainly even in Cato's time +one who spoke Greek ill or not at all might still be a man of rank +and become senator and consul. But a change was already taking place. +The internal decomposition of Italian nationality had already, +particularly in the aristocracy, advanced so far as to render the +substitution of a general humane culture for that nationality +inevitable: and the craving after a more advanced civilization was +already powerfully stirring the minds of men. Instruction in the +Greek language as it were spontaneously met this craving. The +classical literature of Greece, the Iliad and still more the Odyssey, +had all along formed the basis of that instruction; the overflowing +treasures of Hellenic art and science were already by this means +spread before the eyes of the Italians. Without any outward +revolution, strictly speaking, in the character of the instruction +the natural result was, that the empirical study of the language +became converted into a higher study of the literature; that the +general culture connected with such literary studies was communicated +in increased measure to the scholars; and that these availed +themselves of the knowledge thus acquired to dive into that Greek +literature which most powerfully influenced the spirit of the age +--the tragedies of Euripides and the comedies of Menander. + +In a similar way greater importance came to be attached to instruction +in Latin. The higher society of Rome began to feel the need, if not +of exchanging their mother-tongue for Greek, at least of refining it +and adapting it to the changed state of culture; and for this purpose +too they found themselves in every respect dependent on the Greeks. +The economic arrangements of the Romans placed the work of elementary +instruction in the mother-tongue--like every other work held in little +estimation and performed for hire--chiefly in the hands of slaves, +freedmen, or foreigners, or in other words chiefly in the hands of +Greeks or half-Greeks;(4) which was attended with the less difficulty, +because the Latin alphabet was almost identical with the Greek and the +two languages possessed a close and striking affinity. But this was +the least part of the matter; the importance of the study of Greek in +a formal point of view exercised a far deeper influence over the study +of Latin. Any one who knows how singularly difficult it is to find +suitable matter and suitable forms for the higher intellectual culture +of youth, and how much more difficult it is to set aside the matter +and forms once found, will understand how it was that the Romans knew +no mode of supplying the desideratum of a more advanced Latin +instruction except that of simply transferring the solution of this +problem, which instruction in the Greek language and literature +furnished, to instruction in Latin. In the present day a process +entirely analogous goes on under our own eyes in the transference of +the methods of instruction from the dead to the living languages. + +But unfortunately the chief requisite for such a transference was +wanting. The Romans could, no doubt, learn to read and write Latin +by means of the Twelve Tables; but a Latin culture presupposed a +literature, and no such literature existed in Rome. + +The Stage under Greek Influence + +To this defect was added a second. We have already described the +multiplication of the amusements of the Roman people. The stage had +long played an important part in these recreations; the chariot-races +formed strictly the principal amusement in all of them, but these +races uniformly took place only on one, viz. the concluding, day, +while the earlier days were substantially devoted to stage- +entertainments. But for long these stage-representations consisted +chiefly of dances and jugglers' feats; the improvised chants, which +were produced on these occasions, had neither dialogue nor plot.(5) +It was only now that the Romans looked around them for a real drama. +The Roman popular festivals were throughout under the influence of +the Greeks, whose talent for amusing and for killing time naturally +rendered them purveyors of pleasure for the Romans. Now no national +amusement was a greater favourite in Greece, and none was more varied, +than the theatre; it could not but speedily attract the attention of +those who provided the Roman festivals and their staff of assistants. +The earlier Roman stage-chant contained within it a dramatic germ +capable perhaps of development; but to develop the drama from that +germ required on the part of the poet and the public a genial power +of giving and receiving, such as was not to be found among the Romans +at all, and least of all at this period; and, had it been possible to +find it, the impatience of those entrusted with the amusement of the +multitude would hardly have allowed to the noble fruit peace and +leisure to ripen. In this case too there was an outward want, which +the nation was unable to satisfy; the Romans desired a theatre, but +the pieces were wanting. + +Rise of a Roman Literature + +On these elements Roman literature was based; and its defective +character was from the first and necessarily the result of such +an origin. All real art has its root in individual freedom and a +cheerful enjoyment of life, and the germs of such an art were not +wanting in Italy; but, when Roman training substituted for freedom +and joyousness the sense of belonging to the community and the +consciousness of duty, art was stifled and, instead of growing, could +not but pine away. The culminating point of Roman development was the +period which had no literature. It was not till Roman nationality +began to give way and Hellenico-cosmopolite tendencies began to +prevail, that literature made its appearance at Rome in their train. +Accordingly from the beginning, and by stringent internal necessity, +it took its stand on Greek ground and in broad antagonism to the +distinctively Roman national spirit. Roman poetry above all had its +immediate origin not from the inward impulse of the poets, but from +the outward demands of the school, which needed Latin manuals, and of +the stage, which needed Latin dramas. Now both institutions--the +school and the stage--were thoroughly anti-Roman and revolutionary. +The gaping and staring idleness of the theatre was an abomination to +the sober earnestness and the spirit of activity which animated the +Roman of the olden type; and--inasmuch as it was the deepest and +noblest conception lying at the root of the Roman commonwealth, that +within the circle of Roman burgesses there should be neither master +nor slave, neither millionnaire nor beggar, but that above all a like +faith and a like culture should characterize all Romans--the school +and the necessarily exclusive school-culture were far more dangerous +still, and were in fact utterly destructive of the sense of equality. +The school and the theatre became the most effective levers in the +hands of the new spirit of the age, and all the more so that they used +the Latin tongue. Men might perhaps speak and write Greek and yet not +cease to be Romans; but in this case they accustomed themselves to +speak in the Roman language, while the whole inward being and life +were Greek. It is not one of the most pleasing, but it is one of the +most remarkable and in a historical point of view most instructive, +facts in this brilliant era of Roman conservatism, that during its +course Hellenism struck root in the whole field of intellect not +immediately political, and that the -maitre de plaisir- of the +great public and the schoolmaster in close alliance created +a Roman literature. + +Livius Andronicus + +In the very earliest Roman author the later development appears, as it +were, in embryo. The Greek Andronikos (from before 482, till after +547), afterwards as a Roman burgess called Lucius(6) Livius +Andronicus, came to Rome at an early age in 482 among the other +captives taken at Tarentum(7) and passed into the possession of the +conqueror of Sena(8) Marcus Livius Salinator (consul 535, 547). He +was employed as a slave, partly in acting and copying texts, partly in +giving instruction in the Latin and Greek languages, which he taught +both to the children of his master and to other boys of wealthy +parents in and out of the house. He distinguished himself so much in +this way that his master gave him freedom, and even the authorities, +who not unfrequently availed themselves of his services--commissioning +him, for instance, to prepare a thanksgiving-chant after the fortunate +turn taken by the Hannibalic war in 547--out of regard for him +conceded to the guild of poets and actors a place for their common +worship in the temple of Minerva on the Aventine. His authorship +arose out of his double occupation. As schoolmaster he translated the +Odyssey into Latin, in order that the Latin text might form the basis +of his Latin, as the Greek text was the basis of his Greek, +instruction; and this earliest of Roman school-books maintained its +place in education for centuries. As an actor, he not only like every +other wrote for himself the texts themselves, but he also published +them as books, that is, he read them in public and diffused them by +copies. What was still more important, he substituted the Greek drama +for the old essentially lyrical stage poetry. It was in 514, a year +after the close of the first Punic war, that the first play was +exhibited on the Roman stage. This creation of an epos, a tragedy, +and a comedy in the Roman language, and that by a man who was more +Roman than Greek, was historically an event; but we cannot speak of +his labours as having any artistic value. They make no sort of claim +to originality; viewed as translations, they are characterized by a +barbarism which is only the more perceptible, that this poetry does +not naively display its own native simplicity, but strives, after a +pedantic and stammering fashion, to imitate the high artistic culture +of the neighbouring people. The wide deviations from the original +have arisen not from the freedom, but from the rudeness of the +imitation; the treatment is sometimes insipid, sometimes turgid, the +language harsh and quaint.(9) We have no difficulty in believing the +statement of the old critics of art, that, apart from the compulsory +reading at school, none of the poems of Livius were taken up a second +time. Yet these labours were in various respects norms for succeeding +times. They began the Roman translated literature, and naturalized +the Greek metres in Latium. The reason why these were adopted only +in the dramas, while the Odyssey of Livius was written in the national +Saturnian measure, evidently was that the iambuses and trochees of +tragedy and comedy far more easily admitted of imitation in Latin +than the epic dactyls. + +But this preliminary stage of literary development was soon passed. +The epics and dramas of Livius were regarded by posterity, and +undoubtedly with perfect justice, as resembling the rigid statues +of Daedalus destitute of emotion or expression--curiosities rather +than works of art. + +But in the following generation, now that the foundations were +once laid, there arose a lyric, epic, and dramatic art; and it is +of great importance, even in a historical point of view, to trace +this poetical development. + +Drama +Theatre + +Both as respects extent of production and influence over the public, +the drama stood at the head of the poetry thus developed in Rome. In +antiquity there was no permanent theatre with fixed admission-money; +in Greece as in Rome the drama made its appearance only as an element +in the annually-recurring or extraordinary amusements of the citizens. +Among the measures by which the government counteracted or imagined +that they counteracted that extension of the popular festivals which +they justly regarded with anxiety, they refused to permit the erection +of a stone building for a theatre.(10) Instead of this there was +erected for each festival a scaffolding of boards with a stage for +the actors (-proscaenium-, -pulpitum-) and a decorated background +(-scaena-); and in a semicircle in front of it was staked off the +space for the spectators (-cavea-), which was merely sloped without +steps or seats, so that, if the spectators had not chairs brought +along with them, they squatted, reclined, or stood.(11) The women +were probably separated at an early period, and were restricted to +the uppermost and worst places; otherwise there was no distinction of +places in law till 560, after which, as already mentioned,(12) the +lowest and best positions were reserved for the senators. + +Audience + +The audience was anything but genteel. The better classes, it is +true, did not keep aloof from the general recreations of the people; +the fathers of the city seem even to have been bound for decorum's +sake to appear on these occasions. But the very nature of a burgess +festival implied that, while slaves and probably foreigners also were +excluded, admittance free of charge was given to every burgess with +his wife and children;(13) and accordingly the body of spectators +cannot have differed much from what one sees in the present day at +public fireworks and -gratis- exhibitions. Naturally, therefore, the +proceedings were not too orderly; children cried, women talked and +shrieked, now and then a wench prepared to push her way to the stage; +the ushers had on these festivals anything but a holiday, and found +frequent occasion to confiscate a mantle or to ply the rod. + +The introduction of the Greek drama increased the demands on the +dramatic staff, and there seems to have been no redundance in the +supply of capable actors: on one occasion for want of actors a piece +of Naevius had to be performed by amateurs. But this produced no +change in the position of the artist; the poet or, as he was at this +time called, the "writer," the actor, and the composer not only +belonged still, as formerly, to the class of workers for hire in +itself little esteemed,(14) but were still, as formerly, placed in +the most marked way under the ban of public opinion, and subjected +to police maltreatment.(15) Of course all reputable persons kept +aloof from such an occupation. The manager of the company (-dominus +gregis-, -factionis-, also -choragus-), who was ordinarily also the +chief actor, was generally a freedman, and its members were ordinarily +his slaves; the composers, whose names have reached us, were all of +them non-free. The remuneration was not merely small--a -honorarium- +of 8000 sesterces (80 pounds) given to a dramatist is described +shortly after the close of this period as unusually high--but was, +moreover, only paid by the magistrates providing the festival, if the +piece was not a failure. With the payment the matter ended; poetical +competitions and honorary prizes, such as took place in Attica, were +not yet heard of in Rome--the Romans at this time appear to have +simply applauded or hissed as we now do, and to have brought forward +only a single piece for exhibition each day.(16) Under such +circumstances, where art worked for daily wages and the artist instead +of receiving due honour was subjected to disgrace, the new national +theatre of the Romans could not present any development either +original or even at all artistic; and, while the noble rivalry of +the noblest Athenians had called into life the Attic drama, the Roman +drama taken as a whole could be nothing but a spoiled copy of its +predecessor, in which the only wonder is that it has been able to +display so much grace and wit in the details. + +That only one piece was produced each day we infer from the fact, +that the spectators come from home at the beginning of the piece +(Poen. 10), and return home after its close (Epid. Pseud. Rud. Stich. +Truc. ap. fin.). They went, as these passages show, to the theatre +after the second breakfast, and were at home again for the midday +meal; the performance thus lasted, according to our reckoning, from +about noon till half-past two o'clock, and a piece of Plautus, with +music in the intervals between the acts, might probably occupy nearly +that length of time (comp. Horat. Ep. ii. i, 189). The passage, in +which Tacitus (Ann. xiv. 20) makes the spectators spend "whole days" +in the theatre, refers to the state of matters at a later period. + +Comedy + +In the dramatic world comedy greatly preponderated over tragedy; the +spectators knit their brows, when instead of the expected comedy a +tragedy began. Thus it happened that, while this period exhibits +poets who devoted themselves specially to comedy, such as Plautus +and Caecilius, it presents none who cultivated tragedy alone; and +among the dramas of this epoch known to us by name there occur three +comedies for one tragedy. Of course the Roman comic poets, or rather +translators, laid hands in the first instance on the pieces which had +possession of the Hellenic stage at the time; and thus they found +themselves exclusively(17) confined to the range of the newer Attic +comedy, and chiefly to its best-known poets, Philemon of Soli in +Cilicia (394?-492) and Menander of Athens (412-462). This comedy came +to be of so great importance as regards the development not only of +Roman literature, but even of the nation at large, that even history +has reason to pause and consider it. + +Character of the Newer Attic Comedy + +The pieces are of tiresome monotony. Almost without exception the +plot turns on helping a young man, at the expense either of his father +or of some -leno-, to obtain possession of a sweetheart of undoubted +charms and of very doubtful morals. The path to success in love +regularly lies through some sort of pecuniary fraud; and the crafty +servant, who provides the needful sum and performs the requisite +swindling while the lover is mourning over his amatory and pecuniary +distresses, is the real mainspring of the piece. There is no want of +the due accompaniment of reflections on the joys and sorrows of love, +of tearful parting scenes, of lovers who in the anguish of their +hearts threaten to do themselves a mischief; love or rather amorous +intrigue was, as the old critics of art say, the very life-breath of +the Menandrian poetry. Marriage forms, at least with Menander, the +inevitable finale; on which occasion, for the greater edification +and satisfaction of the spectators, the virtue of the heroine usually +comes forth almost if not wholly untarnished, and the heroine herself +proves to be the lost daughter of some rich man and so in every +respect an eligible match. Along with these love-pieces we find +others of a pathetic kind. Among the comedies of Plautus, for +instance, the -Rudens- turns on a shipwreck and the right of asylum; +while the -Trinummus- and the -Captivi- contain no amatory intrigue, +but depict the generous devotedness of the friend to his friend and +of the slave to his master. Persons and situations recur down to the +very details like patterns on a carpet; we never get rid of the asides +of unseen listeners, of knocking at the house-doors, and of slaves +scouring the streets on some errand or other. The standing masks, +of which there was a certain fixed number--viz., eight masks for old +men, and seven for servants--from which alone in ordinary cases at +least the poet had to make his choice, further favoured a stock-model +treatment. Such a comedy almost of necessity rejected the lyrical +element in the older comedy--the chorus--and confined itself from the +first to conversation, or at most recitation; it was devoid not of the +political element only, but of all true passion and of all poetical +elevation. The pieces judiciously made no pretence to any grand or +really poetical effect: their charm resided primarily in furnishing +occupation for the intellect, not only through their subject-matter +--in which respect the newer comedy was distinguished from the old as +much by the greater intrinsic emptiness as by the greater outward +complication of the plot--but more especially through their execution +in detail, in which the point and polish of the conversation more +particularly formed the triumph of the poet and the delight of the +audience. Complications and confusions of one person with another, +which very readily allowed scope for extravagant, often licentious, +practical jokes--as in the -Casina-, which winds up in genuine +Falstaffian style with the retiring of the two bridegrooms and of the +soldier dressed up as bride--jests, drolleries, and riddles, which in +fact for want of real conversation furnished the staple materials of +entertainment at the Attic table of the period, fill up a large +portion of these comedies. The authors of them wrote not like Eupolis +and Aristophanes for a great nation, but rather for a cultivated +society which spent its time, like other clever circles whose +cleverness finds little fit scope for action, in guessing riddles and +playing at charades. They give us, therefore, no picture of their +times; of the great historical and intellectual movements of the age +no trace appears in these comedies, and we need to recall, in order +to realize, the fact that Philemon and Menander were really +contemporaries of Alexander and Aristotle. But they give us a +picture, equally elegant and faithful, of that refined Attic society +beyond the circles of which comedy never travels. Even in the dim +Latin copy, through which we chiefly know it, the grace of the +original is not wholly obliterated; and more especially in the pieces +which are imitated from Menander, the most talented of these poets, +the life which the poet saw and shared is delicately reflected not so +much in its aberrations and distortions as in its amiable every day +course. The friendly domestic relations between father and daughter, +husband and wife, master and servant, with their love-affairs and +other little critical incidents, are portrayed with so broad a +truthfulness, that even now they do not miss their effect: the +servants' feast, for instance, with which the -Stichus- concludes is, +in the limited range of its relations and the harmony of the two +lovers and the one sweetheart, of unsurpassed gracefulness in its +kind. The elegant grisettes, who make their appearance perfumed and +adorned, with their hair fashionably dressed and in variegated, gold- +embroidered, sweeping robes, or even perform their toilette on the +stage, are very effective. In their train come the procuresses, +sometimes of the most vulgar sort, such as one who appears in the +-Curculio-, sometimes duennas like Goethe's old Barbara, such as +Scapha in the -Mostettaria-; and there is no lack of brothers and +comrades ready with their help. There is great abundance and variety +of parts representing the old: there appear in turn the austere +and avaricious, the fond and tender-hearted, and the indulgent +accommodating, papas, the amorous old man, the easy old bachelor, the +jealous aged matron with her old maid-servant who takes part with her +mistress against her master; whereas the young men's parts are less +prominent, and neither the first lover, nor the virtuous model son who +here and there occurs, lays claim to much significance. The servant- +world--the crafty valet, the stern house-steward, the old vigilant +tutor, the rural slave redolent of garlic, the impertinent page--forms +a transition to the very numerous professional parts. A standing +figure among these is the jester (-parasitus-) who, in return for +permission to feast at the table of the rich, has to entertain the +guests with drolleries and charades, or, according to circumstances, +to let the potsherds be flung at his head. This was at that time a +formal trade in Athens; and it is certainly no mere poetical fiction +which represents such a parasite as expressly preparing himself for +his work by means of his books of witticisms and anecdotes. Favourite +parts, moreover, are those of the cook, who understands not only how +to boast of unheard-of sauces, but also how to pilfer like a +professional thief; the shameless -leno-, complacently confessing to +the practice of every vice, of whom Ballio in the -Pseudolus- is a +model specimen; the military braggadocio, in whom we trace a very +distinct reflection of the free-lance habits that prevailed under +Alexander's successors; the professional sharper or sycophant, the +stingy money-changer, the solemnly silly physician, the priest, +mariner, fisherman, and the like. To these fall to be added, lastly, +the parts delineative of character in the strict sense, such as the +superstitious man of Menander and the miser in the -Aulularia- of +Plautus. The national-Hellenic poetry has preserved, even in this its +last creation, its indestructible plastic vigour; but the delineation +of character is here copied from without rather than reproduced from +inward experience, and the more so, the more the task approaches to +the really poetical. It is a significant circumstance that, in the +parts illustrative of character to which we have just referred, +the psychological truth is in great part represented by abstract +development of the conception; the miser here collects the parings of +his nails and laments the tears which he sheds as a waste of water. +But the blame of this want of depth in the portraying of character, +and generally of the whole poetical and moral hollowness of this newer +comedy, lay less with the comic writers than with the nation as a +whole. Everything distinctively Greek was expiring: fatherland, +national faith, domestic life, all nobleness of action and sentiment +were gone; poetry, history, and philosophy were inwardly exhausted; +and nothing remained to the Athenian save the school, the fish-market, +and the brothel. It is no matter of wonder and hardly a matter of +blame, that poetry, which is destined to shed a glory over human +existence, could make nothing more out of such a life than the +Menandrian comedy presents to us. It is at the same time very +remarkable that the poetry of this period, wherever it was able to +turn away in some degree from the corrupt Attic life without falling +into scholastic imitation, immediately gathers strength and freshness +from the ideal. In the only remnant of the mock-heroic comedy of this +period--the -Amphitruo- of Plautus--there breathes throughout a purer +and more poetical atmosphere than in all the other remains of the +contemporary stage. The good-natured gods treated with gentle irony, +the noble forms from the heroic world, and the ludicrously cowardly +slaves present the most wonderful mutual contrasts; and, after the +comical course of the plot, the birth of the son of the gods amidst +thunder and lightning forms an almost grand concluding effect But this +task of turning the myths into irony was innocent and poetical, as +compared with that of the ordinary comedy depicting the Attic life of +the period. No special accusation may be brought from a historico- +moral point of view against the poets, nor ought it to be made matter +of individual reproach to any particular poet that he occupies the +level of his epoch: comedy was not the cause, but the effect of the +corruption that prevailed in the national life. But it is necessary, +more especially with a view to judge correctly the influence of these +comedies on the life of the Roman people, to point out the abyss which +yawned beneath all that polish and elegance. The coarsenesses and +obscenities, which Menander indeed in some measure avoided, but of +which there is no lack in the other poets, are the least part of the +evil. Features far worse are, the dreadful desolation of life in +which the only oases are lovemaking and intoxication; the fearfully +prosaic atmosphere, in which anything resembling enthusiasm is to be +found only among the sharpers whose heads have been turned by their +own swindling, and who prosecute the trade of cheating with some sort +of zeal; and above all that immoral morality, with which the pieces of +Menander in particular are garnished. Vice is chastised, virtue is +rewarded, and any peccadilloes are covered by conversion at or after +marriage. There are pieces, such as the -Trinummus- of Plautus and +several of Terence, in which all the characters down to the slaves +possess some admixture of virtue; all swarm with honest men who allow +deception on their behalf, with maidenly virtue wherever possible, +with lovers equally favoured and making love in company; moral +commonplaces and well-turned ethical maxims abound. A finale of +reconciliation such as that of the -Bacchides-, where the swindling +sons and the swindled fathers by way of a good winding up all go to +carouse together in the brothel, presents a corruption of morals +thoroughly worthy of Kotzebue. + +Roman Comedy +Its Hellenism a Necessary Result of the Law + +Such were the foundations, and such the elements which shaped the +growth, of Roman comedy. Originality was in its case excluded not +merely by want of aesthetic freedom, but in the first instance, +probably, by its subjection to police control. Among the considerable +number of Latin comedies of this sort which are known to us, there is +not one that did not announce itself as an imitation of a definite +Greek model; the title was only complete when the names of the Greek +piece and of its author were also given, and if, as occasionally +happened, the "novelty" of a piece was disputed, the question was +merely whether it had been previously translated. Comedy laid the +scene of its plot abroad not only frequently, but regularly and under +the pressure of necessity; and that species of art derived its special +name (-fabula palliata-) from the fact, that the scene was laid away +from Rome, usually in Athens, and thai the -dramatis personae- were +Greeks or at any rate not Romans. The foreign costume is strictly +carried out even in detail, especially in those things in which the +uncultivated Roman was distinctly sensible of the contrast, Thus the +names of Rome and the Romans are avoided, and, where they are referred +to, they are called in good Greek "foreigners" (-barbari-); in like +manner among the appellations of moneys and coins, that occur ever +so frequently, there does not once appear a Roman coin. We form a +strange idea of men of so great and so versatile talents as Naevius +and Plautus, if we refer such things to their free choice: this +strange and clumsy "exterritorial" character of Roman comedy +was undoubtedly due to causes very different from aesthetic +considerations. The transference of such social relations, as are +uniformly delineated in the new Attic comedy, to the Rome of the +Hannibalic period would have been a direct outrage on its civic order +and morality. But, as the dramatic spectacles at this period were +regularly given by the aediles and praetors who were entirely +dependent on the senate, and even extraordinary festivals, funeral +games for instance, could not take place without permission of the +government; and as the Roman police, moreover, was not in the habit +of standing on ceremony in any case, and least of all in dealing with +the comedians; the reason is self-evident why this comedy, even after +it was admitted as one of the Roman national amusements, might still +bring no Roman upon the stage, and remained as it were banished to +foreign lands. + +Political Neutrality + +The compilers were still more decidedly prohibited from naming any +living person in terms either of praise or censure, as well as from +any captious allusion to the circumstances of the times. In the whole +repertory of the Plautine and post-Plautine comedy, there is not, +so far as we know, matter for a single action of damages. In like +manner--if we leave out of view some wholly harmless jests--we meet +hardly any trace of invectives levelled at communities (invectives +which, owing to the lively municipal spirit of the Italians, would +have been specially dangerous), except the significant scoff at the +unfortunate Capuans and Atellans (18) and, what is remarkable, various +sarcasms on the arrogance and the bad Latin of the Praenestines.(19) +In general no references to the events or circumstances of the +present occur in the pieces of Plautus. The only exceptions are, +congratulations on the course of the war(20) or on the peaceful times; +general sallies directed against usurious dealings in grain or money, +against extravagance, against bribery by candidates, against the +too frequent triumphs, against those who made a trade of collecting +forfeited fines, against farmers of the revenue distraining for +payment, against the dear prices of the oil-dealers; and once--in the +-Curculio- --a more lengthened diatribe as to the doings in the Roman +market, reminding us of the -parabases- of the older Attic comedy, and +but little likely to cause offence(21) But even in the midst of such +patriotic endeavours, which from a police point of view were entirely +in order, the poet interrupts himself; + +-Sed sumne ego stultus, qui rem curo publicam +Ubi sunt magistratus, quos curare oporteat?- + +and taken as a whole, we can hardly imagine a comedy politically more +tame than was that of Rome in the sixth century.(22) The oldest +Roman comic writer of note, Gnaeus Naevius, alone forms a remarkable +exception. Although he did not write exactly original Roman comedies, +the few fragments of his, which we possess, are full of references to +circumstances and persons in Rome. Among other liberties he not only +ridiculed one Theodotus a painter by name, but even directed against +the victor of Zama the following verses, of which Aristophanes need +not have been ashamed: + +-Etiam qui res magnas manu saepe gessit gloriose, +Cujus facta viva nunc vigent, qui apud gentes solus praestat, +Eum suus pater cum pallio uno ab amica abduxit.- + +As he himself says, + +-Libera lingua loquemur ludis Liberalibus,- + +he may have often written at variance with police rules, and put +dangerous questions, such as: + +-Cedo qui vestram rem publicam tantam amisistis tam cito?- + +which he answered by an enumeration of political sins, such as: + +-Proveniebant oratores novi, stulti adulescentuli.- + +But the Roman police was not disposed like the Attic to hold stage- +invectives and political diatribes as privileged, or even to tolerate +them at all. Naevius was put in prison for these and similar sallies, +and was obliged to remain there, till he had publicly made amends and +recantation in other comedies. These quarrels, apparently, drove +him from his native land; but his successors took warning from his +example--one of them indicates very plainly, that he has no desire +whatever to incur an involuntary gagging like his colleague Naevius. +Thus the result was accomplished--not much less unique of its kind +than the conquest of Hannibal--that, during an epoch of the most +feverish national excitement, there arose a national stage utterly +destitute of political tinge. + +Character of the Editing of Roman Comedy +Persons and Situations + +But the restrictions thus stringently and laboriously imposed by +custom and police on Roman poetry stifled its very breath, Not without +reason might Naevius declare the position of the poet under the +sceptre of the Lagidae and Seleucidae enviable as compared with his +position in free Rome.(23) The degree of success in individual +instances was of course determined by the quality of the original +which was followed, and by the talent of the individual editor; but +amidst all their individual variety the whole stock of translations +must have agreed in certain leading features, inasmuch as all the +comedies were adapted to similar conditions of exhibition and a +similar audience. The treatment of the whole as well as of the +details was uniformly in the highest degree free; and it was necessary +that it should be so. While the original pieces were performed in +presence of that society which they copied, and in this very fact +lay their principal charm, the Roman audience of this period was so +different from the Attic, that it was not even in a position rightly +to understand that foreign world. The Roman comprehended neither +the grace and kindliness, nor the sentimentalism and the whitened +emptiness of the domestic life of the Hellenes. The slave-world was +utterly different; the Roman slave was a piece of household furniture, +the Attic slave was a servant. Where marriages of slaves occur or a +master carries on a kindly conversation with his slave, the Roman +translators ask their audience not to take offence at such things +which are usual in Athens;(24) and, when at a later period comedies +began to be written in Roman costume, the part of the crafty servant +had to be rejected, because the Roman public did not tolerate slaves +of this sort overlooking and controlling their masters. The +professional figures and those illustrative of character, which were +sketched more broadly and farcically, bore the process of transference +better than the polished figures of every-day life; but even of those +delineations the Roman editor had to lay aside several--and these +probably the very finest and most original, such as the Thais, the +match-maker, the moon-conjuress, and the mendicant priest of Menander +--and to keep chiefly to those foreign trades, with which the Greek +luxury of the table, already very generally diffused in Rome, had made +his audience familiar. If the professional cook and the jester in the +comedy of Plautus are delineated with so striking vividness and so +much relish, the explanation lies in the fact, that Greek cooks had +even at that time daily offered their services in the Roman market, +and that Cato found it necessary even to instruct his steward not to +keep a jester. In like manner the translator could make no use of a +very large portion of the elegant Attic conversation in his originals. +The Roman citizen or farmer stood in much the same relation to +the refined revelry and debauchery of Athens, as the German of a +provincial town to the mysteries of the Palais Royal. A science of +cookery, in the strict sense, never entered into his thoughts; the +dinner-parties no doubt continued to be very numerous in the Roman +imitation, but everywhere the plain Roman roast pork predominated +over the variety of baked meats and the refined sauces and dishes of +fish. Of the riddles and drinking songs, of the Greek rhetoric and +philosophy, which played so great a part in the originals, we meet +only a stray trace now and then in the Roman adaptation. + +Construction of the Plot + +The havoc, which the Roman editors were compelled in deference to +their audience to make in the originals, drove them inevitably into +methods of cancelling and amalgamating incompatible with any artistic +construction. It was usual not only to throw out whole character- +parts of the original, but also to insert others taken from other +comedies of the same or of another poet; a treatment indeed which, +owing to the outwardly methodical construction of the originals and +the recurrence of standing figures and incidents, was not quite so bad +as it might seem. Moreover the poets, at least in the earlier period, +allowed themselves the most singular liberties in the construction of +the plot. The plot of the -Stichus- (performed in 554) otherwise so +excellent turns upon the circumstance, that two sisters, whom their +father urges to abandon their absent husbands, play the part of +Penelopes, till the husbands return home with rich mercantile gains +and with a beautiful damsel as a present for their father-in-law. +In the -Casina-, which was received with quite special favour by the +public, the bride, from whom the piece is named and around whom the +plot revolves, does not make her appearance at all, and the denouement +is quite naively described by the epilogue as "to be enacted later +within." Very often the plot as it thickens is suddenly broken off, +the connecting thread is allowed to drop, and other similar signs of +an unfinished art appear. The reason of this is to be sought probably +far less in the unskilfulness of the Roman editors, than in the +indifference of the Roman public to aesthetic laws. Taste, however, +gradually formed itself. In the later pieces Plautus has evidently +bestowed more care on their construction, and the -Captivi- for +instance, the -Pseudolus-, and the -Bacchides- are executed in a +masterly manner after their kind. His successor Caecilius, none of +whose pieces are extant, is said to have especially distinguished +himself by the more artistic treatment of the subject. + +Roman Barbarism + +In the treatment of details the endeavour of the poet to bring matters +as far as possible home to his Roman hearers, and the rule of police +which required that the pieces should retain a foreign character, +produced the most singular contrasts. The Roman gods, the ritual, +military, and juristic terms of the Romans, present a strange +appearance amid the Greek world; Roman -aediles- and -tresviri- are +grotesquely mingled with -agoranomi- and -demarchi-; pieces whose +scene is laid in Aetolia or Epidamnus send the spectator without +scruple to the Velabrum and the Capitol. Such a patchwork of Roman +local tints distributed over the Greek ground is barbarism enough; but +interpolations of this nature, which are often in their naive way very +ludicrous, are far more tolerable than that thorough alteration of the +pieces into a ruder shape, which the editors deemed necessary to suit +the far from Attic culture of their audience. It is true that several +even of the new Attic poets probably needed no accession to their +coarseness; pieces like the -Asinaria- of Plautus cannot owe their +unsurpassed dulness and vulgarity solely to the translator. +Nevertheless coarse incidents so prevail in the Roman comedy, that the +translators must either have interpolated them or at least have made a +very one-sided selection. In the endless abundance of cudgelling and +in the lash ever suspended over the back of the slaves we recognize +very clearly the household-government inculcated by Cato, just as +we recognize the Catonian opposition to women in the never-ending +disparagement of wives. Among the jokes of their own invention, with +which the Roman editors deemed it proper to season the elegant Attic +dialogue, several are almost incredibly unmeaning and barbarous.(25) + +Metrical Treatment + +So far as concerns metrical treatment on the other hand, the flexible +and sounding verse on the whole does all honour to the composers. The +fact that the iambic trimeters, which predominated in the originals +and were alone suitable to their moderate conversational tone, were +very frequently replaced in the Latin edition by iambic or trochaic +tetrameters, is to be attributed not so much to any want of skill +on the part of the editors who knew well how to handle the trimeter, +as to the uncultivated taste of the Roman public which was pleased +with the sonorous magnificence of the long verse even where it was +not appropriate. + +Scenic Arrangements + +Lastly, the arrangements for the production of the pieces on the stage +bore the like stamp of indifference to aesthetic requirements on the +part of the managers and the public. The stage of the Greeks--which +on account of the extent of the theatre and from the performances +taking place by day made no pretension to acting properly so called, +employed men to represent female characters, and absolutely required +an artificial strengthening of the voice of the actor--was entirely +dependent, in a scenic as well as acoustic point of view, on the use +of facial and resonant masks. These were well known also in Rome; in +amateur performances the players appeared without exception masked. +But the actors who were to perform the Greek comedies in Rome were +not supplied with the masks--beyond doubt much more artificial--that +were necessary for them; a circumstance which, apart from all else in +connection with the defective acoustic arrangements of the stage,(26) +not only compelled the actor to exert his voice unduly, but drove +Livius to the highly inartistic but inevitable expedient of having +the portions which were to be sung performed by a singer not belonging +to the staff of actors, and accompanied by the mere dumb show of the +actor within whose part they fell. As little were the givers of the +Roman festivals disposed to put themselves to material expense for +decorations and machinery. The Attic stage regularly presented a +street with houses in the background, and had no shifting decorations; +but, besides various other apparatus, it possessed more especially +a contrivance for pushing forward on the chief stage a smaller one +representing the interior of a house. The Roman theatre, however, was +not provided with this; and we can hardly therefore throw the blame +on the poet, if everything, even childbirth, was represented on +the street. + +Aesthetic Result + +Such was the nature of the Roman comedy of the sixth century. The +mode in which the Greek dramas were transferred to Rome furnishes a +picture, historically invaluable, of the diversity in the culture +of the two nations; but in an aesthetic and a moral point of view the +original did not stand high, and the imitation stood still lower. The +world of beggarly rabble, to whatever extent the Roman editors might +take possession of it under the benefit of the inventory, presented +in Rome a forlorn and strange aspect, shorn as it were of its delicate +characteristics: comedy no longer rested on the basis of reality, but +persons and incidents seemed capriciously or carelessly mingled as in +a game of cards; in the original a picture from life, it became in the +reproduction a caricature. Under a management which could announce +a Greek agon with flute-playing, choirs of dancers, tragedians, and +athletes, and eventually convert it into a boxing-match;(27) and in +presence of a public which, as later poets complain, ran away en masse +from the play, if there were pugilists, or rope-dancers, or even +gladiators to be seen; poets such as the Roman composers were--workers +for hire and of inferior social position--were obliged even perhaps +against their own better judgment and their own better taste to +accommodate themselves more or less to the prevailing frivolity and +rudeness. It was quite possible, nevertheless, that there might arise +among them individuals of lively and vigorous talent, who were able at +least to repress the foreign and factitious element in poetry, and, +when they had found their fitting sphere, to produce pleasing and +even important creations. + +Naevius + +At the head of these stood Gnaeus Naevius, the first Roman who +deserves to be called a poet, and, so far as the accounts preserved +regarding him and the few fragments of his works allow us to form +an opinion, to all appearance as regards talent one of the most +remarkable and most important names in the whole range of Roman +literature. He was a younger contemporary of Andronicus--his poetical +activity began considerably before, and probably did not end till +after, the Hannibalic war--and felt in a general sense his influence; +he was, as is usually the case in artificial literatures, a worker in +all the forms of art produced by his predecessor, in epos, tragedy, +and comedy, and closely adhered to him in the matter of metres. +Nevertheless, an immense chasm separates the poets and their poems. +Naevius was neither freedman, schoolmaster, nor actor, but a citizen +of unstained character although not of rank, belonging probably to one +of the Latin communities of Campania, and a soldier in the first Punic +war.(28) In thorough contrast to the language of Livius, that of +Naevius is easy and clear, free from all stiffness and affectation, +and seems even in tragedy to avoid pathos as it were on purpose; his +verses, in spite of the not unfrequent -hiatus- and various other +licences afterwards disallowed, have a smooth and graceful flow.(29) +While the quasi-poetry of Livius proceeded, somewhat like that of +Gottsched in Germany, from purely external impulses and moved wholly +in the leading-strings of the Greeks, his successor emancipated Roman +poetry, and with the true divining-rod of the poet struck those +springs out of which alone in Italy a native poetry could well up +--national history and comedy. Epic poetry no longer merely +furnished the schoolmaster with a lesson-book, but addressed itself +independently to the hearing and reading public. Composing for the +stage had been hitherto, like the preparation of the stage costume, a +subsidiary employment of the actor or a mechanical service performed +for him; with Naevius the relation was inverted, and the actor now +became the servant of the composer. His poetical activity is marked +throughout by a national stamp. This stamp is most distinctly +impressed on his grave national drama and on his national epos, of +which we shall have to speak hereafter; but it also appears in his +comedies, which of all his poetic performances seem to have been the +best adapted to his talents and the most successful. It was probably, +as we have already said,(30) external considerations alone that +induced the poet to adhere in comedy so much as he did to the Greek +originals; and this did not prevent him from far outstripping his +successors and probably even the insipid originals in the freshness of +his mirth and in the fulness of his living interest in the present; +indeed in a certain sense he reverted to the paths of the Aristophanic +comedy. He felt full well, and in his epitaph expressed, what he had +been to his nation: + +-Immortales mortales si foret fas fiere, +Flerent divae Camenae Naevium poetam; +Itaque, postquam est Orci traditus thesauro, +Obliti sunt Romae loquier lingua Latina.- + +Such proud language on the part of the man and the poet well befitted +one who had witnessed and had personally taken part in the struggles +with Hamilcar and with Hannibal, and who had discovered for the +thoughts and feelings of that age--so deeply agitated and so +elevated by mighty joy--a poetical expression which, if not exactly +the highest, was sound, adroit, and national. We have already +mentioned(31) the troubles into which his licence brought him with +the authorities, and how, driven presumably by these troubles from +Rome, he ended his life at Utica. In his instance likewise the +individual life was sacrificed for the common weal, and the +beautiful for the useful. + +Plautus + +His younger contemporary, Titus Maccius Plautus (500?-570), appears to +have been far inferior to him both in outward position and in the +conception of his poetic calling. A native of the little town of +Sassina, which was originally Umbrian but was perhaps by this time +Latinized, he earned his livelihood in Rome at first as an actor, and +then--after he had lost in mercantile speculations what he had gained +by his acting--as a theatrical composer reproducing Greek comedies, +without occupying himself with any other department of literature and +probably without laying claim to authorship properly so called. There +seems to have been at that time a considerable number of persons who +made a trade of thus editing comedies in Rome; but their names, +especially as they did not perhaps in general publish their works,(32) +were virtually forgotten, and the pieces belonging to this stock of +plays, which were preserved, passed in after times under the name +of the most popular of them, Plautus. The -litteratores- of the +following century reckoned up as many as 130 such "Plautine pieces"; +but of these a large portion at any rate were merely revised by +Plautus or had no connection with him at all; the best of them are +still extant. To form a proper judgment, however, regarding the +poetical character of the editor is very difficult, if not impossible, +since the originals have not been preserved. That the editors +reproduced good and bad pieces without selection; that they were +subject and subordinate both to the police and to the public; that +they were as indifferent to aesthetical requirements as their +audience, and to please the latter, lowered the originals to a +farcical and vulgar tone--are objections which apply rather to the +whole manufacture of translations than to the individual remodeller. +On the other hand we may regard as characteristic of Plautus, the +masterly handling of the language and of the varied rhythms, a rare +skill in adjusting and working the situation for dramatic effect, +the almost always clever and often excellent dialogue, and, above all, +a broad and fresh humour, which produces an irresistible comic effect +with its happy jokes, its rich vocabulary of nicknames, its whimsical +coinage of words, its pungent, often mimic, descriptions and +situations--excellences, in which we seem to recognize the former +actor. Undoubtedly the editor even in these respects retained what +was successful in the originals rather than furnished contributions +of his own. Those portions of the pieces which can with certainty +be traced to the translator are, to say the least, mediocre; but they +enable us to understand why Plautus became and remained the true +popular poet of Rome and the true centre of the Roman stage, and +why even after the passing away of the Roman world the theatre has +repeatedly reverted to his plays. + +Caecilius + +Still less are we able to form a special opinion as to the third +and last--for though Ennius wrote comedies, he did so altogether +unsuccessfully--comedian of note in this epoch, Statins Caecilius. He +resembled Plautus in his position in life and his profession. Born in +Cisalpine Gaul in the district of Mediolanum, he was brought among the +Insubrian prisoners of war(33) to Rome, and earned a livelihood, first +as a slave, afterwards as a freedman, by remodelling Greek comedies +for the theatre down to his probably early death (586). His language +was not pure, as was to be expected from his origin; on the other +hand, he directed his efforts, as we have already said,(34) to a more +artistic construction of the plot. His pieces experienced but a dull +reception from his contemporaries, and the public of later times laid +aside Caecilius for Plautus and Terence; and, if nevertheless the +critics of the true literary age of Rome--the Varronian and Augustan +epoch--assigned to Caecilius the first place among the Roman editors +of Greek comedies, this verdict appears due to the mediocrity of the +connoisseur gladly preferring a kindred spirit of mediocrity in the +poet to any special features of excellence. These art-critics +probably took Caecilius under their wing, simply because he was more +regular than Plautus and more vigorous than Terence; notwithstanding +which he may very well have been far inferior to both. + +Moral Result + +If therefore the literary historian, while fully acknowledging the +very respectable talents of the Roman comedians, cannot recognize +in their mere stock of translations a product either artistically +important or artistically pure, the judgment of history respecting its +moral aspects must necessarily be far more severe. The Greek comedy +which formed its basis was morally so far a matter of indifference, as +it was simply on the same level of corruption with its audience; but +the Roman drama was, at this epoch when men were wavering between the +old austerity and the new corruption, the academy at once of Hellenism +and of vice. This Attico-Roman comedy, with its prostitution of body +and soul usurping the name of love--equally immoral in shamelessness +and in sentimentality--with its offensive and unnatural generosity, +with its uniform glorification of a life of debauchery, with its +mixture of rustic coarseness and foreign refinement, was one +continuous lesson of Romano-Hellenic demoralization, and was felt +as such. A proof of this is preserved in the epilogue of the +-Captivi- of Plautus:-- + +-Spectators, ad pudicos mores facta haec fabulast. +Neque in hoc subigitationes sunt neque ulla amatio +Nec pueri suppositio nec argenti circumductio, +Neque ubi amans adulescens scortum liberet clam suum patrem. +Huius modi paucas poetae reperiunt comoedias, +Ubi boni meliores fiant. Nunc vos, si vobis placet, +Et si placuimus neque odio fuimus, signum hoc mittite; +Qui pudicitiae esse voltis praemium, plausum date!- + +We see here the opinion entertained regarding the Greek comedy by +the party of moral reform; and it may be added, that even in those +rarities, moral comedies, the morality was of a character only adapted +to ridicule innocence more surely. Who can doubt that these dramas +gave a practical impulse to corruption? When Alexander the Great +derived no pleasure from a comedy of this sort which its author read +before him, the poet excused himself by saying that the fault lay not +with him, but with the king; that, in order to relish such a piece, a +man must be in the habit of holding revels and of giving and receiving +blows in an intrigue. The man knew his trade: if, therefore, the +Roman burgesses gradually acquired a taste for these Greek comedies, +we see at what a price it was bought. It is a reproach to the Roman +government not that it did so little in behalf of this poetry, but +that it tolerated it at all Vice no doubt is powerful even without a +pulpit; but that is no excuse for erecting a pulpit to proclaim it. +To debar the Hellenic comedy from immediate contact with the persons +and institutions of Rome, was a subterfuge rather than a serious means +of defence. In fact, comedy would probably have been much less +injurious morally, had they allowed it to have a more free course, +so that the calling of the poet might have been ennobled and a Roman +poetry in some measure independent might have been developed; for +poetry is also a moral power, and, if it inflicts deep wounds, it can +do much to heal them. As it was, in this field also the government +did too little and too much; the political neutrality and moral +hypocrisy of its stage-police contributed their part to the fearfully +rapid breaking up of the Roman nation. + +National Comedy +Titinius + +But, while the government did not allow the Roman comedian to depict +the state of things in his native city or to bring his fellow-citizens +on the stage, a national Latin comedy was not absolutely precluded +from springing up; for the Roman burgesses at this period were not yet +identified with the Latin nation, and the poet was at liberty to lay +the plot of his pieces in the Italian towns of Latin rights just as +in Athens or Massilia. In this way, in fact, the Latin original +comedy arose (-fabula togata- (35)): the earliest known composer +of such pieces, Titinius, flourished probably about the close of +this period.(36) + +This comedy was also based on the new Attic intrigue-piece; it was +not translation, however, but imitation; the scene of the piece lay +in Italy, and the actors appeared in the national dress,(37) the +-toga-. Here the Latin life and doings were brought out with peculiar +freshness. The pieces delineate the civil life of the middle-sized +towns of Latium; the very titles, such as -Psaltria- or -Ferentinatis- +, -Tibicina-, -Iurisperita-, -Fullones-, indicate this; and many +particular incidents, such as that of the townsman who has his shoes +made after the model of the sandals of the Alban kings, tend to +confirm it. The female characters preponderate in a remarkable manner +over the male.(38) With genuine national pride the poet recalls +the great times of the Pyrrhic war, and looks down on his new +Latin neighbours,-- + +-Qui Obsce et Volsce fabulantur; nam Latine nesciunt.- + +This comedy belongs to the stage of the capital quite as much as did +the Greek; but it was probably animated by something of that rustic +antagonism to the ways and the evils of a great town, which appeared +contemporaneously in Cato and afterwards in Varro. As in the German +comedy, which proceeded from the French in much the same way as the +Roman comedy from the Attic, the French Lisette was very soon +superseded by the -Frauenzimmerchen- Franziska, so the Latin national +comedy sprang up, if not with equal poetical power, at any rate with +the same tendency and perhaps with similar success, by the side of +the Hellenizing comedy of the capital. + +Tragedies +Euripides + +Greek tragedy as well as Greek comedy came in the course of this epoch +to Rome. It was a more valuable, and in a certain respect also an +easier, acquisition than comedy. The Greek and particularly the +Homeric epos, which was the basis of tragedy, was not unfamiliar +to the Romans, and was already interwoven with their own national +legends; and the susceptible foreigner found himself far more at home +in the ideal world of the heroic myths than in the fish-market of +Athens. Nevertheless tragedy also promoted, only with less abruptness +and less vulgarity, the anti-national and Hellenizing spirit; and in +this point of view it was a circumstance of the most decisive +importance, that the Greek tragic stage of this period was chiefly +under the sway of Euripides (274-348). This is not the place for a +thorough delineation of that remarkable man and of his still more +remarkable influence on his contemporaries and posterity; but the +intellectual movements of the later Greek and the Graeco-Roman epoch +were to so great an extent affected by him, that it is indispensable +to sketch at least the leading outlines of his character. Euripides +was one of those poets who raise poetry doubtless to a higher level, +but in this advance manifest far more the true sense of what ought to +be than the power of poetically creating it. The profound saying which +morally as well as poetically sums up all tragic art--that action is +passion--holds true no doubt also of ancient tragedy; it exhibits +man in action, but it makes no real attempt to individualize him. +The unsurpassed grandeur with which the struggle between man and +destiny fulfils its course in Aeschylus depends substantially on +the circumstance, that each of the contending powers is only conceived +broadly and generally; the essential humanity in Prometheus and +Agamemnon is but slightly tinged by poetic individualizing. Sophocles +seizes human nature under its general conditions, the king, the old +man, the sister; but not one of his figures displays the microcosm of +man in all his aspects--the features of individual character. A high +stage was here reached, but not the highest; the delineation of man +in his entireness and the entwining of these individual--in themselves +finished--figures into a higher poetical whole form a greater +achievement, and therefore, as compared with Shakespeare, Aeschylus +and Sophocles represent imperfect stages of development. But, when +Euripides undertook to present man as he is, the advance was logical +and in a certain sense historical rather than poetical. He was +able to destroy the ancient tragedy, but not to create the modern. +Everywhere he halted half-way. Masks, through which the expression +of the life of the soul is, as it were, translated from the particular +into the general, were as necessary for the typical tragedy of +antiquity as they are incompatible with the tragedy of character; +but Euripides retained them. With remarkably delicate tact the older +tragedy had never presented the dramatic element, to which it was +unable to allow free scope, unmixed, but had constantly fettered it +in some measure by epic subjects from the superhuman world of gods and +heroes and by the lyrical choruses. One feels that Euripides was +impatient under these fetters: with his subjects he came down at least +to semi-historic times, and his choral chants were of so subordinate +importance, that they were frequently omitted in subsequent +performance and hardly to the injury of the pieces; but yet he has +neither placed his figures wholly on the ground of reality, nor +entirely thrown aside the chorus. Throughout and on all sides he is +the full exponent of an age in which, on the one hand, the grandest +historical and philosophical movement was going forward, but in which, +on the other hand, the primitive fountain of all poetry--a pure and +homely national life--had become turbid. While the reverential piety +of the older tragedians sheds over their pieces as it were a reflected +radiance of heaven; while the limitation of the narrow horizon of the +older Hellenes exercises its satisfying power even over the hearer; +the world of Euripides appears in the pale glimmer of speculation as +much denuded of gods as it is spiritualised, and gloomy passions shoot +like lightnings athwart the gray clouds. The old deeply-rooted faith +in destiny has disappeared; fate governs as an outwardly despotic +power, and the slaves gnash their teeth as they wear its fetters. +That unbelief, which is despairing faith, speaks in this poet with +superhuman power. Of necessity therefore the poet never attains a +plastic conception overpowering himself, and never reaches a truly +poetic effect on the whole; for which reason he was in some measure +careless as to the construction of his tragedies, and indeed not +unfrequently altogether spoiled them in this respect by providing no +central interest either of plot or person--the slovenly fashion of +weaving the plot in the prologue, and of unravelling it by a -Deus ex +machina- or a similar platitude, was in reality brought into vogue by +Euripides. All the effect in his case lies in the details; and with +great art certainly every effort has in this respect been made to +conceal the irreparable want of poetic wholeness. Euripides is +a master in what are called effects; these, as a rule, have a +sensuously-sentimental colouring, and often moreover stimulate +the sensuous impression by a special high seasoning, such as the +interweaving of subjects relating to love with murder or incest. +The delineations of Polyxena willing to die and of Phaedra pining +away under the grief of secret love, above all the splendid picture +of the mystic ecstasies of the Bacchae, are of the greatest beauty +in their kind; but they are neither artistically nor morally pure, +and the reproach of Aristophanes, that the poet was unable to paint a +Penelope, was thoroughly well founded. Of a kindred character is the +introduction of common compassion into the tragedy of Euripides. +While his stunted heroes or heroines, such as Menelaus in the -Helena-, +Andromache, Electra as a poor peasant's wife, the sick and ruined +merchant Telephus, are repulsive or ridiculous and ordinarily both, +the pieces, on the other hand, which keep more to the atmosphere of +common reality and exchange the character of tragedy for that of the +touching family-piece or that almost of sentimental comedy, such as +the -Iphigenia in Aulis-, the -Ion-, the -Alcestis-, produce perhaps +the most pleasing effect of all his numerous works. With equal +frequency, but with less success, the poet attempts to bring into play +an intellectual interest. Hence springs the complicated plot, which +is calculated not like the older tragedy to move the feelings, but +rather to keep curiosity on the rack; hence the dialectically pointed +dialogue, to us non-Athenians often absolutely intolerable; hence the +apophthegms, which are scattered throughout the pieces of Euripides +like flowers in a pleasure-garden; hence above all the psychology of +Euripides, which rests by no means on direct reproduction of human +experience, but on rational reflection. His Medea is certainly in so +far painted from life, that she is before departure properly provided +with money for her voyage; but of the struggle in the soul between +maternal love and jealousy the unbiassed reader will not find much in +Euripides. But, above all, poetic effect is replaced in the tragedies +of Euripides by moral or political purpose. Without strictly or +directly entering on the questions of the day, and having in view +throughout social rather than political questions, Euripides in the +legitimate issues of his principles coincided with the contemporary +political and philosophical radicalism, and was the first and chief +apostle of that new cosmopolitan humanity which broke up the old Attic +national life. This was the ground at once of that opposition which +the ungodly and un-Attic poet encountered among his contemporaries, +and of that marvellous enthusiasm, with which the younger generation +and foreigners devoted themselves to the poet of emotion and of love, +of apophthegm and of tendency, of philosophy and of humanity. Greek +tragedy in the hands of Euripides stepped beyond its proper sphere and +consequently broke down; but the success of the cosmopolitan poet was +only promoted by this, since at the same time the nation also stepped +beyond its sphere and broke down likewise. The criticism of +Aristophanes probably hit the truth exactly both in a moral and in a +poetical point of view; but poetry influences the course of history +not in proportion to its absolute value, but in proportion as it is +able to forecast the spirit of the age, and in this respect Euripides +was unsurpassed. And thus it happened, that Alexander read him +diligently; that Aristotle developed the idea of the tragic poet with +special reference to him; that the latest poetic and plastic art in +Attica as it were originated from him (for the new Attic comedy did +nothing but transfer Euripides into a comic form, and the school of +painters which we meet with in the designs of the later vases derived +its subjects no longer from the old epics, but from the Euripidean +tragedy); and lastly that, the more the old Hellas gave place to the +new Hellenism, the more the fame and influence of the poet increased, +and Greek life abroad, in Egypt as well as in Rome, was directly or +indirectly moulded in the main by Euripides. + +Roman Tragedy + +The Hellenism of Euripides flowed to Rome through very various +channels, and probably produced a speedier and deeper effect there +by indirect means than in the form of direct translation. The tragic +drama in Rome was not exactly later in its rise than the comic;(39) +but the far greater expense of putting a tragedy on the stage--which +was undoubtedly felt as a consideration of moment, at least during the +Hannibalic war--as well as the nature of the audience(40) retarded the +development of tragedy. In the comedies of Plautus the allusions to +tragedies are not very frequent, and most references of this kind may +have been taken from the originals. The first and only influential +tragedian of this epoch was the younger contemporary of Naevius +and Plautus, Quintus Ennius (515-585), whose pieces were already +travestied by contemporary comic writers, and were exhibited and +declaimed by posterity down to the days of the empire. + +The tragic drama of the Romans is far less known to us than the comic: +on the whole the same features, which have been noticed in the case of +comedy, are presented by tragedy also. The dramatic stock, in like +manner, was mainly formed by translations of Greek pieces. The +preference was given to subjects derived from the siege of Troy and +the legends immediately connected with it, evidently because this +cycle of myths alone was familiar to the Roman public through +instruction at school; by their side incidents of striking horror +predominate, such as matricide or infanticide in the -Eumenides-, +the -Alcmaeon-, the -Cresphontes-, the -Melanippe-, the -Medea-, and +the immolation of virgins in the -Polyxena-, the -Erechthides-, the +-Andromeda-, the -Iphigenia- --we cannot avoid recalling the fact, +that the public for which these tragedies were prepared was in the +habit of witnessing gladiatorial games. The female characters and +ghosts appear to have made the deepest impression. In addition to the +rejection of masks, the most remarkable deviation of the Roman edition +from the original related to the chorus. The Roman theatre, fitted up +doubtless in the first instance for comic plays without chorus, had +not the special dancing-stage (-orchestra-) with the altar in the +middle, on which the Greek chorus performed its part, or, to speak +more correctly, the space thus appropriated among the Greeks served +with the Romans as a sort of pit; accordingly the choral dance at +least, with its artistic alternations and intermixture of music and +declamation, must have been omitted in Rome, and, even if the chorus +was retained, it had but little importance. Of course there were +various alterations of detail, changes in the metres, curtailments, +and disfigurements; in the Latin edition of the -Iphigenia- of +Euripides, for instance, the chorus of women was--either after the +model of another tragedy, or by the editor's own device--converted +into a chorus of soldiers. The Latin tragedies of the sixth century +cannot be pronounced good translations in our sense of the word;(41) +yet it is probable that a tragedy of Ennius gave a far less imperfect +image of the original of Euripides than a comedy of Plautus gave of +the original of Menander. + +Moral Effect of Tragedy + +The historical position and influence of Greek tragedy in Rome +were entirely analogous to those of Greek comedy; and while, as +the difference in the two kinds of composition necessarily implied, +the Hellenistic tendency appeared in tragedy under a purer and more +spiritual form, the tragic drama of this period and its principal +representative Ennius displayed far more decidedly an anti-national +and consciously propagandist aim. Ennius, hardly the most important +but certainly the most influential poet of the sixth century, was not +a Latin by birth, but on the contrary by virtue of his origin half a +Greek. Of Messapian descent and Hellenic training, he settled in his +thirty-fifth year at Rome, and lived there--at first as a resident +alien, but after 570 as a burgess(42)--in straitened circumstances, +supported partly by giving instruction in Latin and Greek, partly by +the proceeds of his pieces, partly by the donations of those Roman +grandees, who, like Publius Scipio, Titus Flamininus, and Marcus +Fulvius Nobilior, were inclined to promote the modern Hellenism and +to reward the poet who sang their own and their ancestors' praises and +even accompanied some of them to the field in the character, as it +were, of a poet laureate nominated beforehand to celebrate the great +deeds which they were to perform. He has himself elegantly described +the client-like qualities requisite for such a calling.(43) From the +outset and by virtue of the whole tenor of his life a cosmopolite, he +had the skill to appropriate the distinctive features of the nations +among which he lived--Greek, Latin, and even Oscan--without devoting +himself absolutely to any cne of them; and while the Hellenism of the +earlier Roman poets was the result rather than the conscious aim of +their poetic activity, and accordingly they at least attempted more or +less to take their stand on national ground, Ennius on the contrary is +very distinctly conscious of his revolutionary tendency, and evidently +labours with zeal to bring into vogue neologico-Hellenic ideas among +the Italians. His most serviceable instrument was tragedy. The +remains of his tragedies show that he was well acquainted with the +whole range of the Greek tragic drama and with Aeschylus and Sophocles +in particular; it is the less therefore the result of accident, that +he has modelled the great majority of his pieces, and all those that +attained celebrity, on Euripides. In the selection and treatment he +was doubtless influenced partly by external considerations. But these +alone cannot account for his bringing forward so decidedly the +Euripidean element in Euripides; for his neglecting the choruses still +more than did his original; for his laying still stronger emphasis on +sensuous effect than the Greek; nor for his taking up pieces like the +-Thyestes- and the -Telephus- so well known from the immortal ridicule +of Aristophanes, with their princes' woes and woful princes, and even +such a piece as Menalippa the Female Philosopher, in which the whole +plot turns on the absurdity of the national religion, and the tendency +to make war on it from the physicist point of view is at once +apparent. The sharpest arrows are everywhere--and that partly in +passages which can be proved to have been inserted(44)--directed +against faith in the miraculous, and we almost wonder that the +censorship of the Roman stage allowed such tirades to pass as +the following:-- + +-Ego deum genus esse semper dixi et dicam caelitum, +Sed eos non curare opinor, quid agat humanum genus; +Nam si curent, bene bonis sit, male malis, quod nunc abest.- + +We have already remarked(45) that Ennius scientifically inculcated the +same irreligion in a didactic poem of his own; and it is evident that +he was in earnest with this freethinking. With this trait other +features are quite accordant--his political opposition tinged with +radicalism, that here and there appears;(46) his singing the praises +of the Greek pleasures of the table;(47) above all his setting aside +the last national element in Latin poetry, the Saturnian measure, and +substituting for it the Greek hexameter. That the "multiform" poet +executed all these tasks with equal neatness, that he elaborated +hexameters out of a language of by no means dactylic structure, and +that without checking the natural flow of his style he moved with +confidence and freedom amidst unwonted measures and forms--are so many +evidences of his extraordinary plastic talent, which was in fact more +Greek than Roman;(48) where he offends us, the offence is owing much +more frequently to Greek alliteration(49) than to Roman ruggedness. +He was not a great poet, but a man of graceful and sprightly talent, +throughout possessing the vivid sensibilities of a poetic nature, but +needing the tragic buskin to feel himself a poet and wholly destitute +of the comic vein. We can understand the pride with which the +Hellenizing poet looked down on those rude strains -- + +-quos olim Faunei vatesque canebant,- + +and the enthusiasm with which he celebrates his own artistic poetry: + +-Enni foeta, salve, +Versus propinas flammeos medullitus.- + +The clever man had an instinctive assurance that he had spread his +sails to a prosperous breeze; Greek tragedy became, and thenceforth +remained, a possession of the Latin nation. + +National Dramas + +Through less frequented paths, and with a less favourable wind, a +bolder mariner pursued a higher aim. Naevius not only like Ennius +--although with far less success--adapted Greek tragedies for the +Roman stage, but also attempted to create, independently of the +Greeks, a grave national drama (-fabula praetextata-). No outward +obstacles here stood in the way; he brought forward subjects both +from Roman legend and from the contemporary history of the country on +the stage of his native land. Such were his Nursing of Romulus and +Remus or the Wolf, in which Amulius king of Alba appeared, and his +-Clastidium-, which celebrated the victory of Marcellus over the +Celts in 532.(49) After his example, Ennius in his -Ambracia- +described from personal observation the siege of that city by his +patron Nobilior in 565.(50) But the number of these national dramas +remained small, and that species of composition soon disappeared from +the stage; the scanty legend and the colourless history of Rome were +unable permanently to compete with the rich cycle of Hellenic legends. +Respecting the poetic value of the pieces we have no longer the means +of judging; but, if we may take account of the general poetical +intention, there were in Roman literature few such strokes of genius +as the creation of a Roman national drama. Only the Greek tragedians +of that earliest period which still felt itself nearer to the gods +--only poets like Phrynichus and Aeschylus--had the courage to bring +the great deeds which they had witnessed, and in which they had borne +a part, on the stage by the side of those of legendary times; and +here, if anywhere, we are enabled vividly to realize what the Punic +wars were and how powerful was their effect, when we find a poet, +who like Aeschylus had himself fought in the battles which he sang, +introducing the kings and consuls of Rome upon that stage on which +men had hitherto been accustomed to see none but gods and heroes. + +Recitative Poetry + +Recitative poetry also took its rise during this epoch at Rome. +Livius naturalized the custom which among the ancients held the +place of our modern publication--the public reading of new works by +the author--in Rome, at least to the extent of reciting them in his +school. As poetry was not in this instance practised with a view to +a livelihood, or at any rate not directly so, this branch of it was +not regarded by public opinion with such disfavour as writing for the +stage: towards the end of this epoch one or two Romans of quality had +publicly come forward in this manner as poets.(51) Recitative poetry +however was chiefly cultivated by those poets who occupied themselves +with writing for the stage, and the former held a subordinate place as +compared with the latter; in fact, a public to which read poetry might +address itself can have existed only to a very limited extent at this +period in Rome. + +Satura + +Above all, lyrical, didactic, and epigrammatic poetry found but feeble +representation. The religious festival chants--as to which the annals +of this period certainly have already thought it worth while to +mention the author--as well as the monumental inscriptions on temples +and tombs, for which the Saturnian remained the regular measure, +hardly belong to literature proper. So far as the minor poetry makes +its appearance at all, it presents itself ordinarily, and that as +early as the time of Naevius, under the name of -satura-. This term +was originally applied to the old stage-poem without action, which +from the time of Livius was driven off the stage by the Greek drama; +but in its application to recitative poetry it corresponds in some +measure to our "miscellaneous poems," and like the latter denotes not +any positive species or style of art, but simply poems not of an epic +or dramatic kind, treating of any matters (mostly subjective), and +written in any form, at the pleasure of the author. In addition to +Cato's "poem on Morals" to be noticed afterwards, which was presumably +written in Saturnian verses after the precedent of the older first +attempts at a national didactic poetry,(52) there came under this +category especially the minor poems of Ennius, which that writer, +who was very fertile in this department, published partly in his +collection of -saturae-, partly separately. Among these were brief +narrative poems relating to the legendary or contemporary history of +his country; editions of the religious romance of Euhemerus,(53) of +the poems dealing with natural philosophy circulating in the name +of Epicharmus,(54) and of the gastronomies of Archestratus of Gela, +a poet who treated of the higher cookery; as also a dialogue between +Life and Death, fables of Aesop, a collection of moral maxims, +parodies and epigrammatic trifles--small matters, but indicative +of the versatile powers as well as the neological didactic tendencies +of the poet, who evidently allowed himself the freest range in this +field, which the censorship did not reach. + +Metrical Annals +Naevius + +The attempts at a metrical treatment of the national annals lay +claim to greater poetical and historical importance. Here too it was +Naevius who gave poetic form to so much of the legendary as well as +of the contemporary history as admitted of connected narrative; and +who, more especially, recorded in the half-prosaic Saturnian national +metre the story of the first Punic war simply and distinctly, with +a straightforward adherence to fact, without disdaining anything at +all as unpoetical, and without at all, especially in the description +of historical times, going in pursuit of poetical flights or +embellishments--maintaining throughout his narrative the present +tense.(55) What we have already said of the national drama of the +same poet, applies substantially to the work of which we are now +speaking. The epic, like the tragic, poetry of the Greeks lived and +moved essentially in the heroic period; it was an altogether new and, +at least in design, an enviably grand idea--to light up the present +with the lustre of poetry. Although in point of execution the +chronicle of Naevius may not have been much better than the rhyming +chronicles of the middle ages, which are in various respects of +kindred character, yet the poet was certainly justified in regarding +this work of his with an altogether peculiar complacency. It was no +small achievement, in an age when there was absolutely no historical +literature except official records, to have composed for his +countrymen a connected account of the deeds of their own and the +earlier time, and in addition to have placed before their eyes +the noblest incidents of that history in a dramatic form. + +Ennius + +Ennius proposed to himself the very same task as Naevius; but the +similarity of the subject only brings out into stronger relief the +political and poetical contrast between the national and the anti- +national poet. Naevius sought out for the new subject a new form; +Ennius fitted or forced it into the forms of the Hellenic epos. The +hexameter took the place of the Saturnian verse; the ornate style of +the Homeridae, striving after plastic vividness of delineation, +took the place of the homely historic narrative. Wherever the +circumstances admit, Homer is directly translated; e. g. the burial of +those that fell at Heraclea is described after the model of the burial +of Patroclus, and under the helmet of Marcus Livius Stolo, the +military tribune who fights with the Istrians, lurks none other than +the Homeric Ajax; the reader is not even spared the Homeric invocation +of the Muse. The epic machinery is fully set agoing; after the battle +of Cannae, for instance, Juno in a full council of the gods pardons +the Romans, and Jupiter after obtaining the consent of his wife +promises them a final victory over the Carthaginians. Nor do the +"Annals" fail to betray the neological and Hellenistic tendencies of +the author. The very employment of the gods for mere decoration bears +this stamp. The remarkable vision, with which the poem opens, tells +in good Pythagorean style how the soul now inhabiting Quintus Ennius +had previously been domiciled in Homer and still earlier in a peacock, +and then in good physicist style explains the nature of things and +the relation of the body to the mind. Even the choice of the subject +serves the same purpose--at any rate the Hellenic literati of all ages +have found an especially suitable handle for their Graeco-cosmopolite +tendencies in this very manipulation of Roman history. Ennius lays +stress on the circumstance that the Romans were reckoned Greeks: + +-Contendunt Graecos, Graios memorare solent sos.- + +The poetical value of the greatly celebrated Annals may easily be +estimated after the remarks which we have already made regarding the +excellences and defects of the poet in general. It was natural that +as a poet of lively sympathies, he should feel himself elevated by the +enthusiastic impulse which the great age of the Punic wars gave to the +national sensibilities of Italy, and that he should not only often +happily imitate Homeric simplicity, but should also and still more +frequently make his lines strikingly echo the solemnity and decorum of +the Roman character. But the construction of his epic was defective; +indeed it must have been very lax and indifferent, when it was +possible for the poet to insert a special book by way of supplement +to please an otherwise forgotten hero and patron. On the whole the +Annals were beyond question the work in which Ennius fell farthest +short of his aim. The plan of making an Iliad pronounces its own +condemnation. It was Ennius, who in this poem for the first time +introduced into literature that changeling compound of epos and of +history, which from that time up to the present day haunts it like a +ghost, unable either to live or to die. But the poem certainly had +its success. Ennius claimed to be the Roman Homer with still greater +ingenuousness than Klopstock claimed to be the German, and was +received as such by his contemporaries and still more so by posterity. +The veneration for the father of Roman poetry was transmitted from +generation to generation; even the polished Quintilian says, "Let us +revere Ennius as we revere an ancient sacred grove, whose mighty oaks +of a thousand years are more venerable than beautiful;" and, if any +one is disposed to wonder at this, he may recall analogous phenomena +in the successes of the Aeneid, the Henriad, and the Messiad. A +mighty poetical development of the nation would indeed have set +aside that almost comic official parallel between the Homeric +Iliad and the Ennian + +Annals as easily as we have set aside the comparison of Karschin +with Sappho and of Willamov with Pindar; but no such development took +place in Rome. Owing to the interest of the subject especially for +aristocratic circles, and the great plastic talent of the poet, the +Annals remained the oldest Roman original poem which appeared to the +culture of later generations readable or worth reading; and thus, +singularly enough, posterity came to honour this thoroughly anti- +national epos of a half-Greek -litterateur- as the true model +poem of Rome. + +Prose Literature + +A prose literature arose in Rome not much later than Roman poetry, +but in a very different way. It experienced neither the artificial +furtherance, by which the school and the stage prematurely forced the +growth of Roman poetry, nor the artificial restraint, to which Roman +comedy in particular was subjected by the stern and narrow-minded +censorship of the stage. Nor was this form of literary activity +placed from the outset under the ban of good society by the stigma +which attached to the "ballad-singer." Accordingly the prose +literature, while far less extensive and less active than the +contemporary poetical authorship, had a far more natural growth. +While poetry was almost wholly in the hands of men of humble rank and +not a single Roman of quality appears among the celebrated poets of +this age, there is, on the contrary, among the prose writers of this +period hardly a name that is not senatorial; and it is from the +circles of the highest aristocracy, from men who had been consuls and +censors--the Fabii, the Gracchi, the Scipios--that this literature +throughout proceeds. The conservative and national tendency, in the +nature of the case, accorded better with this prose authorship than +with poetry; but here too--and particularly in the most important +branch of this literature, historical composition--the Hellenistic +bent had a powerful, in fact too powerful, influence both on matter +and form. + +Writing of History + +Down to the period of the Hannibalic war there was no historical +composition in Rome; for the entries in the book of Annals were of the +nature of records and not of literature, and never made any attempt to +develop the connection of events. It is a significant illustration of +the peculiarity of Roman character, that notwithstanding the extension +of the power of the Roman community far beyond the bounds of Italy, +and notwithstanding the constant contact of the noble society of Rome +with the Greeks who were so fruitful in literary activity, it was not +till the middle of the sixth century that there was felt the need and +desire of imparting a knowledge of the deeds and fortunes of the Roman +people, by means of authorship, to the contemporary world and to +posterity. When at length this desire was felt, there were neither +literary forms ready at hand for the use of Roman history, nor was +there a public prepared to read it, and great talent and considerable +time were required to create both. In the first instance, +accordingly, these difficulties were in some measure evaded by writing +the national history either in the mother-tongue but in that case in +verse, or in prose but in that case in Greek. We have already spoken +of the metrical chronicles of Naevius (written about 550?) and of +Ennius (written about 581); both belong to the earliest historical +literature of the Romans, and the work of Naevius may be regarded as +the oldest of all Roman historical works. At nearly the same period +were composed the Greek "Histories" of Quintus Fabius Pictor(56) +(after 553), a man of noble family who took an active part in state +affairs during the Hannibalic war, and of Publius Scipio, the son of +Scipio Africanus (about 590). In the former case they availed +themselves of the poetical art which was already to a certain extent +developed, and addressed themselves to a public with a taste for +poetry, which was not altogether wanting; in the latter case they +found the Greek forms ready to their hand, and addressed themselves +--as the interest of their subject stretching far beyond the bounds +of Latium naturally suggested--primarily to the cultivated foreigner. +The former plan was adopted by the plebeian authors, the latter by +those of quality; just as in the time of Frederick the Great an +aristocratic literature in the French language subsisted side by side +with the native German authorship of pastors and professors, and, +while men like Gleim and Ramler wrote war-songs in German, kings and +generals wrote military histories in French. Neither the metrical +chronicles nor the Greek annals by Roman authors constituted Latin +historical composition in the proper sense; this only began with Cato, +whose "Origines," not published before the close of this epoch, formed +at once the oldest historical work written in Latin and the first +important prose work in Roman literature.(57) + +All these works, while not coming up to the Greek conception of +history,(58) were, as contrasted with the mere detached notices of +the book of Annals, systematic histories with a connected narrative +and a more or less regular structure. They all, so far as we can see, +embraced the national history from the building of Rome down to the +time of the writer, although in point of title the work of Naevius +related only to the first war with Carthage, and that of Cato only +to the very early history. They were thus naturally divided into +the three sections of the legendary period, of earlier, and of +contemporary, history. + +History of the Origin of Rome + +In the legendary period the history of the origin of the city of Rome +was set forth with great minuteness; and in its case the peculiar +difficulty had to be surmounted, that there were, as we have already +shown,(59) two wholly irreconcileable versions of it in circulation: +the national version, which, in its leading outlines at least, was +probably already embodied in the book of Annals, and the Greek +version of Timaeus, which cannot have remained unknown to these Roman +chroniclers. The object of the former was to connect Rome with +Alba, that of the latter to connect Rome with Troy; in the former +accordingly the city was built by Romulus son of the Alban king, +in the latter by the Trojan prince Aeneas. To the present epoch, +probably either to Naevius or to Pictor, belongs the amalgamation of +the two stories. The Alban prince Romulus remains the founder of +Rome, but becomes at the same time the grandson of Aeneas; Aeneas does +not found Rome, but is represented as bringing the Roman Penates to +Italy and building Lavinium as their shrine, while his son Ascanius +founds Alba Longa, the mother-city of Rome and the ancient metropolis +of Latium. All this was a sorry and unskilful patchwork. The view +that the original Penates of Rome were preserved not, as had hitherto +been believed, in their temple in the Roman Forum, but in the shrine +at Lavinium, could not but be offensive to the Romans; and the Greek +fiction was a still worse expedient, inasmuch as under it the gods +only bestowed on the grandson what they had adjudged to the grandsire. +But the redaction served its object: without exactly denying the +national origin of Rome, it yet deferred to the Hellenizing tendency, +and legalized in some degree that desire to claim kindred with Aeneas +and his descendants which was already at this epoch greatly in +vogue;(60) and thus it became the stereotyped, and was soon accepted +as the official, account of the origin of the mighty community. + +Apart from the fable of the origin of the city, the Greek +historiographers had otherwise given themselves little or no concern +as to the Roman commonwealth; so that the presentation of the further +course of the national history must have been chiefly derived from +native sources. But the scanty information that has reached us does +not enable us to discern distinctly what sort of traditions, in +addition to the book of Annals, were at the command of the earliest +chroniclers, and what they may possibly have added of their own. +The anecdotes inserted from Herodotus(61) were probably still foreign +to these earliest annalists, and a direct borrowing of Greek materials +in this section cannot be proved. The more remarkable, therefore, is +the tendency, which is everywhere, even in the case of Cato the enemy +of the Greeks, very distinctly apparent, not only to connect Rome with +Hellas, but to represent the Italian and Greek nations as having been +originally identical. To this tendency we owe the primitive-Italians +or Aborigines who were immigrants from Greece, and the primitive- +Greeks or Pelasgians whose wanderings brought them to Italy. + +The Earlier History + +The current story led with some measure of connection, though the +connecting thread was but weak and loose through the regal period down +to the institution of the republic; but at that point legend dried up; +and it was not merely difficult but altogether impossible to form a +narrative, in any degree connected and readable, out of the lists of +magistrates and the scanty notices appended to them. The poets felt +this most. Naevius appears for that reason to have passed at once +from the regal period to the war regarding Sicily: Ennius, who in the +third of his eighteen books was still describing the regal period and +in the sixth had already reached the war with Pyrrhus, must have +treated the first two centuries of the republic merely in the most +general outline. How the annalists who wrote in Greek managed the +matter, we do not know. Cato adopted a peculiar course. He felt no +pleasure, as he himself says, "in relating what was set forth on the +tablet in the house of the Pontifex Maximus, how often wheat had been +dear, and when the sun or moon had been eclipsed;" and so he devoted +the second and third books of his historical work to accounts of the +origin of the other Italian communities and of their admission to the +Roman confederacy. He thus got rid of the fetters of chronicle, which +reports events year by year under the heading of the magistrates for +the time being; the statement in particular, that Cato's historical +work narrated events "sectionally," must refer to this feature of his +method. This attention bestowed on the other Italian communities, +which surprises us in a Roman work, had a bearing on the political +position of the author, who leaned throughout on the support of the +municipal Italy in his opposition to the doings of the capital; while +it furnished a sort of substitute for the missing history of Rome +from the expulsion of king Tarquinius down to the Pyrrhic war, by +presenting in its own way the main result of that history--the union +of Italy under the hegemony of Rome. + +Contemporary History + +Contemporary history, again, was treated in a connected and detailed +manner. Naevius described the first, and Fabius the second, war with +Carthage from their own knowledge; Ennius devoted at least thirteen +out of the eighteen books of his Annals to the epoch from Pyrrhus down +to the Istrian war;(62) Cato narrated in the fourth and fifth books +of his historical work the wars from the first Punic war down to that +with Perseus, and in the two last books, which probably were planned +on a different and ampler scale, he related the events of the last +twenty years of his life. For the Pyrrhic war Ennius may have +employed Timaeus or other Greek authorities; but on the whole +the accounts given were based, partly on personal observation +or communications of eye-witnesses, partly on each other. + +Speeches and Letters + +Contemporaneously with historical literature, and in some sense as an +appendage to it, arose the literature of speeches and letters. This +in like manner was commenced by Cato; for the Romans possessed nothing +of an earlier age except some funeral orations, most of which probably +were only brought to light at a later period from family archives, +such as that which the veteran Quintus Fabius, the opponent of +Hannibal, delivered when an old man over his son who had died in his +prime. Cato on the other hand committed to writing in his old age +such of the numerous orations which he had delivered during his long +and active public career as were historically important, as a sort of +political memoirs, and published them partly in his historical work, +partly, it would seem, as independent supplements to it. There also +existed a collection of his letters. + +History of Other Nations + +With non-Roman history the Romans concerned themselves so far, that +a certain knowledge of it was deemed indispensable for the cultivated +Roman; even old Fabius is said to have been familiar not merely with +the Roman, but also with foreign, wars, and it is distinctly testified +that Cato diligently read Thucydides and the Greek historians in +general. But, if we leave out of view the collection of anecdotes and +maxims which Cato compiled for himself as the fruits of this reading, +no trace is discernible of any literary activity in this field. + +Uncritical Treatment of History + +These first essays in historical literature were all of them, as +a matter of course, pervaded by an easy, uncritical spirit; neither +authors nor readers readily took offence at inward or outward +inconsistencies. King Tarquinius the Second, although he was already +grown up at the time of his father's death and did not begin to reign +till thirty-nine years afterwards, is nevertheless still a young man +when he ascends the throne. Pythagoras, who came to Italy about a +generation before the expulsion of the kings, is nevertheless set +down by the Roman historians as a friend of the wise Numa. The state- +envoys sent to Syracuse in the year 262 transact business with +Dionysius the elder, who ascended the throne eighty-six years +afterwards (348). This naive uncritical spirit is especially apparent +in the treatment of Roman chronology. Since according to the Roman +reckoning--the outlines of which were probably fixed in the previous +epoch--the foundation of Rome took place 240 years before the +consecration of the Capitoline temple(63) and 360 years before the +burning of the city by the Gauls,(64) and the latter event, which +is mentioned also in Greek historical works, fell according to these +in the year of the Athenian archon Pyrgion 388 B. C. Ol. 98, i, the +building of Rome accordingly fell on Ol. 8, i. This was, according +to the chronology of Eratosthenes which was already recognized as +canonical, the year 436 after the fall of Troy; nevertheless the +common story retained as the founder of Rome the grandson of the +Trojan Aeneas. Cato, who like a good financier checked the +calculation, no doubt drew attention in this instance to the +incongruity; but he does not appear to have proposed any mode of +getting over the difficulty--the list of the Alban kings, which +was afterwards inserted with this view, certainly did not proceed +from him. + +The same uncritical spirit, which prevailed in the early history, +prevailed also to a certain extent in the representation of historical +times. The accounts certainly without exception bore that strong +party colouring, for which the Fabian narrative of the commencement +of the second war with Carthage is censured by Polybius with the +calm severity characteristic of him. Mistrust, however, is more +appropriate in such circumstances than reproach. It is somewhat +ridiculous to expect from the Roman contemporaries of Hannibal a +just judgment on their opponents; but no conscious misrepresentation +of the facts, except such as a simple-minded patriotism of itself +involves, has been proved against the fathers of Roman history. + +Science + +The beginnings of scientific culture, and even of authorship relating +to it, also fall within this epoch. The instruction hitherto given +had been substantially confined to reading and writing and a knowledge +of the law of the land.(65) But a closer contact with the Greeks +gradually suggested to the Romans the idea of a more general culture; +and stimulated the endeavour, if not directly to transplant this +Greek culture to Rome, at any rate to modify the Roman culture to +some extent after its model. + +Grammar + +First of all, the knowledge of the mother-tongue began to shape itself +into Latin grammar; Greek philology transferred its methods to the +kindred idiom of Italy. The active study of grammar began nearly at +the same time with Roman authorship. About 520 Spurius Carvilius, a +teacher of writing, appears to have regulated the Latin alphabet, and +to have given to the letter -g, which was not previously included in +it,(66) the place of the -z which could be dispensed with--the place +which it still holds in the modern Occidental alphabets. The Roman +school-masters must have been constantly working at the settlement +of orthography; the Latin Muses too never disowned their scholastic +Hippocrene, and at all times applied themselves to orthography side +by side with poetry. Ennius especially--resembling Klopstock in this +respect also--not only practised an etymological play on assonance +quite after the Alexandrian style,(67) but also introduced, in place +of the simple signs for the double consonants that had hitherto been +usual, the more accurate Greek double writing. Of Naevius and +Plautus, it is true, nothing of the kind is known; the popular +poets in Rome must have treated orthography and etymology with +the indifference which is usual with poets. + +Rhetoric and Philosophy + +The Romans of this epoch still remained strangers to rhetoric and +philosophy. The speech in their case lay too decidedly at the very +heart of public life to be accessible to the handling of the foreign +schoolmaster; the genuine orator Cato poured forth all the vials of +his indignant ridicule over the silly Isocratean fashion of ever +learning, and yet never being able, to speak. The Greek philosophy, +although it acquired a certain influence over the Romans through the +medium of didactic and especially of tragic poetry, was nevertheless +viewed with an apprehension compounded of boorish ignorance and of +instinctive misgiving. Cato bluntly called Socrates a talker and a +revolutionist, who was justly put to death as an offender against the +faith and the laws of his country; and the opinion, which even Romans +addicted to philosophy entertained regarding it, may well be expressed +in the words of Ennius: + +-Philosophari est mihi necesse, at paucis, nam omnino haut placet. +Degustandum ex ea, non in eam ingurgitandum censeo.- + +Nevertheless the poem on Morals and the instructions in Oratory, which +were found among the writings of Cato, may be regarded as the Roman +quintessence or, if the expression be preferred, the Roman -caput +mortuum- of Greek philosophy and rhetoric. The immediate sources +whence Cato drew were, in the case of the poem on Morals, presumably +the Pythagorean writings on morals (along with, as a matter of course, +due commendation of the simple ancestral habits), and, in the case of +the book on Oratory, the speeches in Thucydides and more especially +the orations of Demosthenes, all of which Cato zealously studied. +Of the spirit of these manuals we may form some idea from the golden +oratorical rule, oftener quoted than followed by posterity, "to think +of the matter and leave the words to follow from it."(68) + +Medicine + +Similar manuals of a general elementary character were composed by +Cato on the Art of Healing, the Science of War, Agriculture, and +Jurisprudence--all of which studies were likewise more or less under +Greek influence. Physics and mathematics were not much studied in +Rome; but the applied sciences connected with them received a certain +measure of attention. This was most of all true of medicine. In 535 +the first Greek physician, the Peloponnesian Archagathus, settled in +Rome and there acquired such repute by his surgical operations, that a +residence was assigned to him on the part of the state and he received +the freedom of the city; and thereafter his colleagues flocked in +crowds to Italy. Cato no doubt not only reviled the foreign medical +practitioners with a zeal worthy of a better cause, but attempted, +by means of his medical manual compiled from his own experience and +probably in part also from the medical literature of the Greeks, to +revive the good old fashion under which the father of the family was +at the same time the family physician. The physicians and the public +gave themselves, as was reasonable, but little concern about his +obstinate invectives: at any rate the profession, one of the most +lucrative which existed in Rome, continued a monopoly in the hands +of the foreigners, and for centuries there were none but Greek +physicians in Rome. + +Mathematics + +Hitherto the measurement of time had been treated in Rome with +barbarous indifference, but matters were now at least in some degree +improved. With the erection of the first sundial in the Roman Forum +in 491 the Greek hour (--ora--, -hora-) began to come into use at +Rome: it happened, however, that the Romans erected a sundial which +had been prepared for Catana situated four degrees farther to the +south, and were guided by this for a whole century. Towards the end +of this epoch we find several persons of quality taking an interest +in mathematical studies. Manius Acilius Glabrio (consul in 563) +attempted to check the confusion of the calendar by a law, which +allowed the pontifical college to insert or omit intercalary months at +discretion: if the measure failed in its object and in fact aggravated +the evil, the failure was probably owing more to the unscrupulousness +than to the want of intelligence of the Roman theologians. Marcus +Fulvius Nobilior (consul in 565), a man of Greek culture, endeavoured +at least to make the Roman calendar more generally known. Gaius +Sulpicius Gallus (consul in 588), who not only predicted the eclipse +of the moon in 586 but also calculated the distance of the moon +from the earth, and who appears to have come forward even as an +astronomical writer, was regarded on this account by his +contemporaries as a prodigy of diligence and acuteness. + +Agriculture and the Art of War + +Agriculture and the art of war were, of course, primarily regulated +by the standard of traditional and personal experience, as is very +distinctly apparent in that one of the two treatises of Cato on +Agriculture which has reached our time. But the results of Graeco- +Latin, and even of Phoenician, culture were brought to bear on these +subordinate fields just as on the higher provinces of intellectual +activity, and for that reason the foreign literature relating to +them cannot but have attracted some measure of attention. + +Jurisprudence + +Jurisprudence, on the other hand, was only in a subordinate degree +affected by foreign elements. The activity of the jurists of this +period was still mainly devoted to the answering of parties consulting +them and to the instruction of younger listeners; but this oral +instruction contributed to form a traditional groundwork of rules, +and literary activity was not wholly wanting. A work of greater +importance for jurisprudence than the short sketch of Cato was the +treatise published by Sextus Aelius Paetus, surnamed the "subtle" +(-catus-), who was the first practical jurist of his time, and, in +consequence of his exertions for the public benefit in this respect, +rose to the consulship (556) and to the censorship (560). His +treatise --the "-Tripartita-" as it was called--was a work on the +Twelve Tables, which appended to each sentence of the text an +explanation--chiefly, doubtless, of the antiquated and unintelligible +expressions--and the corresponding formula of action. While this +process of glossing undeniably indicated the influence of Greek +grammatical studies, the portion treating of the formulae of action, +on the contrary, was based on the older collection of Appius(69) +and on the whole system of procedure developed by national usage +and precedent. + +Cato's Encyclopaedia + +The state of science generally at this epoch is very distinctly +exhibited in the collection of those manuals composed by Cato for his +son which, as a sort of encyclopaedia, were designed to set forth in +short maxims what a "fit man" (-vir bonus-) ought to be as orator, +physician, husbandman, warrior, and jurist. A distinction was not yet +drawn between the propaedeutic and the professional study of science; +but so much of science generally as seemed necessary or useful was +required of every true Roman. The work did not include Latin grammar, +which consequently cannot as yet have attained that formal development +which is implied in a properly scientific instruction in language; and +it excluded music and the whole cycle of the mathematical and physical +sciences. Throughout it was the directly practical element in science +which alone was to be handled, and that with as much brevity and +simplicity as possible. The Greek literature was doubtless made use +of, but only to furnish some serviceable maxims of experience culled +from the mass of chaff and rubbish: it was one of Cato's commonplaces, +that "Greek books must be looked into, but not thoroughly studied." +Thus arose those household manuals of necessary information, which, +while rejecting Greek subtlety and obscurity, banished also Greek +acuteness and depth, but through that very peculiarity moulded the +attitude of the Romans towards the Greek sciences for all ages. + +Character and Historical Position of Roman Literature + +Thus poetry and literature made their entrance into Rome along with +the sovereignty of the world, or, to use the language of a poet of +the age of Cicero: + +-Poenico bello secundo Musa pennato gradu +Intulit se bellicosam Romuli in gentem feram.- + +In the districts using the Sabellian and Etruscan dialects also there +must have been at the same period no want of intellectual movement +Tragedies in the Etruscan language are mentioned, and vases with +Oscan inscriptions show that the makers of them were acquainted with +Greek comedy. The question accordingly presents itself, whether, +contemporarily with Naevius and Cato, a Hellenizing literature like +the Roman may not have been in course of formation on the Arnus and +Volturnus. But all information on the point is lost, and history +can in such circumstances only indicate the blank. + +Hellenizing Literature + +The Roman literature is the only one as to which we can still form an +opinion; and, however problematical its absolute worth may appear to +the aesthetic judge, for those who wish to apprehend the history of +Rome it remains of unique value as the mirror of the inner mental +life of Italy in that sixth century--full of the din of arms and +pregnant for the future--during which its distinctively Italian phase +closed, and the land began to enter into the broader career of ancient +civilization. In it too there prevailed that antagonism, which +everywhere during this epoch pervaded the life of the nation and +characterized the age of transition. No one of unprejudiced mind, +and who is not misled by the venerable rust of two thousand years, +can be deceived as to the defectiveness of the Hellenistico-Roman +literature. Roman literature by the side of that of Greece resembles +a German orangery by the side of a grove of Sicilian orange-trees; +both may give us pleasure, but it is impossible even to conceive them +as parallel. This holds true of the literature in the mother-tongue +of the Latins still more decidedly, if possible, than of the Roman +literature in a foreign tongue; to a very great extent the former was +not the work of Romans at all, but of foreigners, of half-Greeks, +Celts, and ere long even Africans, whose knowledge of Latin was only +acquired by study. Among those who in this age came before the public +as poets, none, as we have already said, can be shown to have been +persons of rank; and not only so, but none can be shown to have +been natives of Latium proper. The very name given to the poet was +foreign; even Ennius emphatically calls himself a -poeta-(70). But +not only was this poetry foreign; it was also liable to all those +defects which are found to occur where schoolmasters become authors +and the great multitude forms the public. We have shown how comedy +was artistically debased by a regard to the multitude, and in fact +sank into vulgar coarseness; we have further shown that two of the +most influential Roman authors were schoolmasters in the first +instance and only became poets in the sequel, and that, while the +Greek philology which only sprang up after the decline of the national +literature experimented merely on the dead body, in Latium grammar and +literature had their foundations laid simultaneously and went hand +in hand, almost as in the case of modern missions to the heathen. In +fact, if we view with an unprejudiced eye this Hellenistic literature +of the sixth century--that poetry followed out professionally and +destitute of all productiveness of its own, that uniform imitation +of the very shallowest forms of foreign art, that repertoire of +translations, that changeling of epos--we are tempted to reckon +it simply one of the diseased symptoms of the epoch before us. + +But such a judgment, if not unjust, would yet be just only in a very +partial sense. We must first of all consider that this artificial +literature sprang up in a nation which not only did not possess any +national poetic art, but could never attain any such art. In +antiquity, which knew nothing of the modern poetry of individual life, +creative poetical activity fell mainly within the mysterious period +when a nation was experiencing the fears and pleasures of growth: +without prejudice to the greatness of the Greek epic and tragic poets +we may assert that their poetry mainly consisted in reproducing the +primitive stories of human gods and divine men. This basis of ancient +poetry was totally wanting in Latium: where the world of gods remained +shapeless and legend remained barren, the golden apples of poetry +could not voluntarily ripen. To this falls to be added a second +and more important consideration. + +The inward mental development and the outward political evolution of +Italy had equally reached a point at which it was no longer possible +to retain the Roman nationality based on the exclusion of all higher +and individual mental culture, and to repel the encroachments of +Hellenism. The propagation of Hellenism in Italy had certainly a +revolutionary and a denationalizing tendency, but it was indispensable +for the necessary intellectual equalization of the nations; and this +primarily forms the historical and even the poetical justification of +the Romano-Hellenistic literature. Not a single new and genuine work +of art issued from its workshop, but it extended the intellectual +horizon of Hellas over Italy. Viewed even in its mere outward aspect, +Greek poetry presumes in the hearer a certain amount of positive +acquired knowledge. That self-contained completeness, which is one +of the most essential peculiarities of the dramas of Shakespeare for +instance, was foreign to ancient poetry; a person unacquainted with +the cycle of Greek legend would fail to discover the background and +often even the ordinary meaning of every rhapsody and every tragedy. +If the Roman public of this period was in some degree familiar, as the +comedies of Plautus show, with the Homeric poems and the legends of +Herakles, and was acquainted with at least the more generally current +of the other myths,(71) this knowledge must have found its way to the +public primarily through the stage alongside of the school, and thus +have formed at least a first step towards the understanding of the +Hellenic poetry. But still deeper was the effect--on which the most +ingenious literary critics of antiquity justly laid emphasis--produced +by the naturalization of the Greek poetic language and the Greek +metres in Latium. If "conquered Greece vanquished her rude conqueror +by art," the victory was primarily accomplished by elaborating from +the unpliant Latin idiom a cultivated and elevated poetical language, +so that instead of the monotonous and hackneyed Saturnian the senarius +flowed and the hexameter rushed, and the mighty tetrameters, the +jubilant anapaests, and the artfully intermingled lyrical rhythms +fell on the Latin ear in the mother-tongue. Poetical language is the +key to the ideal world of poetry, poetic measure the key to poetical +feeling; for the man, to whom the eloquent epithet is dumb and the +living image is dead, and in whom the times of dactyls and iambuses +awaken no inward echo, Homer and Sophocles have composed in vain. +Let it not be said that poetical and rhythmical feeling comes +spontaneously. The ideal feelings are no doubt implanted by nature +in the human breast, but they need favourable sunshine in order to +germinate; and especially in the Latin nation, which was but little +susceptible of poetic impulses, they needed external nurture. Nor let +it be said, that, by virtue of the widely diffused acquaintance with +the Greek language, its literature would have sufficed for the +susceptible Roman public. The mysterious charm which language +exercises over man, and which poetical language and rhythm only +enhance, attaches not to any tongue learned accidentally, but only +to the mother-tongue. From this point of view, we shall form a juster +judgment of the Hellenistic literature, and particularly of the +poetry, of the Romans of this period. If it tended to transplant +the radicalism of Euripides to Rome, to resolve the gods either into +deceased men or into mental conceptions, to place a denationalized +Latium by the side of a denationalized Hellas, and to reduce all +purely and distinctly developed national peculiarities to the +problematic notion of general civilization, every one is at liberty to +find this tendency pleasing or disagreeable, but none can doubt its +historical necessity. From this point of view the very defectiveness +of the Roman poetry, which cannot be denied, may be explained and +so may in some degree be justified. It is no doubt pervaded by a +disproportion between the trivial and often bungled contents and the +comparatively finished form; but the real significance of this poetry +lay precisely in its formal features, especially those of language and +metre. It was not seemly that poetry in Rome was principally in the +hands of schoolmasters and foreigners and was chiefly translation or +imitation; but, if the primary object of poetry was simply to form +a bridge from Latium to Hellas, Livius and Ennius had certainly a +vocation to the poetical pontificate in Rome, and a translated +literature was the simplest means to the end. It was still less +seemly that Roman poetry preferred to lay its hands on the most worn- +out and trivial originals; but in this view it was appropriate. No +one will desire to place the poetry of Euripides on a level with that +of Homer; but, historically viewed, Euripides and Menander were quite +as much the oracles of cosmopolitan Hellenism as the Iliad and +Odyssey were the oracles of national Hellenism, and in so far +the representatives of the new school had good reason for +introducing their audience especially to this cycle of literature. +The instinctive consciousness also of their limited poetical powers +may partly have induced the Roman composers to keep mainly by +Euripides and Menander and to leave Sophocles and even Aristophanes +untouched; for, while poetry is essentially national and difficult to +transplant, intellect and wit, on which the poetry of Euripides as +well as of Menander is based, are in their very nature cosmopolitan. +Moreover the fact always deserves to be honourably acknowledged, that +the Roman poets of the sixth century did not attach themselves to the +Hellenic literature of the day or what is called Alexandrinism, but +sought their models solely in the older classical literature, although +not exactly in its richest or purest fields. On the whole, however +innumerable may be the false accommodations and sins against the rules +of art which we can point out in them, these were just the offences +which were by stringent necessity attendant on the far from scrupulous +efforts of the missionaries of Hellenism; and they are, in a +historical and even aesthetic point of view, outweighed in some +measure by the zeal of faith equally inseparable from propagandism. +We may form a different opinion from Ennius as to the value of his new +gospel; but, if in the case of faith it does not matter so much what, +as how, men believe, we cannot refuse recognition and admiration to +the Roman poets of the sixth century. A fresh and strong sense of the +power of the Hellenic world-literature, a sacred longing to transplant +the marvellous tree to the foreign land, pervaded the whole poetry of +the sixth century, and coincided in a peculiar manner with the +thoroughly elevated spirit of that great age. The later refined +Hellenism looked down on the poetical performances of this period +with some degree of contempt; it should rather perhaps have looked +up to the poets, who with all their imperfection yet stood in a more +intimate relation to Greek poetry, and approached nearer to genuine +poetical art, than their more cultivated successors. In the bold +emulation, in the sounding rhythms, even in the mighty professional +pride of the poets of this age there is, more than in any other epoch +of Roman literature, an imposing grandeur; and even those who are +under no illusion as to the weak points of this poetry may apply to +it the proud language, already quoted, in which Ennius celebrates +its praise: + +-Enni poeta, salve, qui mortalibus +Versus propinas flammeos medullitus.- + +National Opposition + +As the Hellenico-Roman literature of this period was essentially +marked by a dominant tendency, so was also its antithesis, the +contemporary national authorship. While the former aimed at neither +more nor less than the annihilation of Latin nationality by the +creation of a poetry Latin in language but Hellenic in form and +spirit, the best and purest part of the Latin nation was driven to +reject and place under the ban of outlawry the literature of Hellenism +along with Hellenism itself. The Romans in the time of Cato stood +opposed to Greek literature, very much as in the time of the Caesars +they stood opposed to Christianity; freedmen and foreigners formed the +main body of the poetical, as they afterwards formed the main body of +the Christian, community; the nobility of the nation and above all +the government saw in poetry as in Christianity an absolutely hostile +power; Plautus and Ennius were ranked with the rabble by the Roman +aristocracy for reasons nearly the same as those for which the +apostles and bishops were put to death by the Roman government. +In this field too it was Cato, of course, who took the lead as the +vigorous champion of his native country against the foreigners. The +Greek literati and physicians were in his view the most dangerous scum +of the radically corrupt Greek people,(72) and the Roman "ballad- +singers" are treated by him with ineffable contempt.(73) He and +those who shared his sentiments have been often and harshly censured +on this account, and certainly the expressions of his displeasure +are not unfrequently characterized by the bluntness and narrowness +peculiar to him; on a closer consideration, however, we must not only +confess him to have been in individual instances substantially right, +but we must also acknowledge that the national opposition in this +field, more than anywhere else, went beyond the manifestly inadequate +line of mere negative defence. When his younger contemporary, Aulus +Postumius Albinus, who was an object of ridicule to the Hellenes +themselves by his offensive Hellenizing, and who, for example, even +manufactured Greek verses--when this Albinus in the preface to his +historical treatise pleaded in excuse for his defective Greek that he +was by birth a Roman--was not the question quite in place, whether he +had been doomed by authority of law to meddle with matters which he +did not understand? Were the trades of the professional translator of +comedies and of the poet celebrating heroes for bread and protection +more honourable, perhaps, two thousand years ago than they are now? +Had Cato not reason to make it a reproach against Nobilior, that he +took Ennius--who, we may add, glorified in his verses the Roman +potentates without respect of persons, and overloaded Cato himself +with praise--along with him to Ambracia as the celebrator of his +future achievements? Had he not reason to revile the Greeks, with +whom he had become acquainted in Rome and Athens, as an incorrigibly +wretched pack? This opposition to the culture of the age and the +Hellenism of the day was well warranted; but Cato was by no means +chargeable with an opposition to culture and to Hellenism in general. +On the contrary it is the highest merit of the national party, that +they comprehended very clearly the necessity of creating a Latin +literature and of bringing the stimulating influences of Hellenism +to bear on it; only their intention was, that Latin literature should +not be a mere copy taken from the Greek and intruded on the national +feelings of Rome, but should, while fertilized by Greek influences, +be developed in accordance with Italian nationality. With a genial +instinct, which attests not so much the sagacity of individuals as +the elevation of the epoch, they perceived that in the case of Rome, +owing to the total want of earlier poetical productiveness, history +furnished the only subject-matter for the development of an +intellectual life of their own. Rome was, what Greece was not, a +state; and the mighty consciousness of this truth lay at the root both +of the bold attempt which Naevius made to attain by means of history a +Roman epos and a Roman drama, and of the creation of Latin prose by +Cato. It is true that the endeavour to replace the gods and heroes of +legend by the kings and consuls of Rome resembles the attempt of the +giants to storm heaven by means of mountains piled one above another: +without a world of gods there is no ancient epos and no ancient drama, +and poetry knows no substitutes. With greater moderation and good +sense Cato left poetry proper, as a thing irremediably lost, to the +party opposed to him; although his attempt to create a didactic poetry +in national measure after the model of the earlier Roman productions +--the Appian poem on Morals and the poem on Agriculture--remains +significant and deserving of respect, in point if not of success, at +least of intention. Prose afforded him a more favourable field, and +accordingly he applied the whole varied power and energy peculiar to +him to the creation of a prose literature in his native tongue. This +effort was all the more Roman and all the more deserving of respect, +that the public which he primarily addressed was the family circle, +and that in such an effort he stood almost alone in his time. Thus +arose his "Origines," his remarkable state-speeches, his treatises +on special branches of science. They are certainly pervaded by a +national spirit, and turn on national subjects; but they are far +from anti-Hellenic: in fact they originated essentially under Greek +influence, although in a different sense from that in which the +writings of the opposite party so originated. The idea and even the +title of his chief work were borrowed from the Greek "foundation- +histories" (--ktoeis--). The same is true of his oratorical +authorship; he ridiculed Isocrates, but he tried to learn from +Thucydides and Demosthenes. His encyclopaedia is essentially the +result of his study of Greek literature. Of all the undertakings +of that active and patriotic man none was more fruitful of results +and none more useful to his country than this literary activity, +little esteemed in comparison as it probably was by himself. +He found numerous and worthy successors in oratorical and scientific +authorship; and though his original historical treatise, which of its +kind may be compared with the Greek logography, was not followed by +any Herodotus or Thucydides, yet by and through him the principle +was established that literary occupation in connection with the +useful sciences as well as with history was not merely becoming +but honourable in a Roman. + +Architecture + +Let us glance, in conclusion, at the state of the arts of +architecture, sculpture, and painting. So far as concerns the former, +the traces of incipient luxury were less observable in public than in +private buildings. It was not till towards the close of this period, +and especially from the time of the censorship of Cato (570), that +the Romans began in the case of the former to have respect to the +convenience as well as to the bare wants of the public; to line with +stone the basins (-lacus-) supplied from the aqueducts, (570); to +erect colonnades (575, 580); and above all to transfer to Rome the +Attic halls for courts and business--the -basilicae- as they were +called. The first of these buildings, somewhat corresponding to our +modern bazaars--the Porcian or silversmiths' hall--was erected by Cato +in 570 alongside of the senate-house; others were soon associated with +it, till gradually along the sides of the Forum the private shops were +replaced by these splendid columnar halls. Everyday life, however, +was more deeply influenced by the revolution in domestic architecture +which must, at latest, be placed in this period. The hall of the +house (-atrium-), court (-cavum aedium-), garden and garden colonnade +(-peristylium-), the record-chamber (-tablinum-), chapel, kitchen, +and bedrooms were by degrees severally provided for; and, as to the +internal fittings, the column began to be applied both in the court +and in the hall for the support of the open roof and also for the +garden colonnades: throughout these arrangements it is probable +that Greek models were copied or at any rate made use of. Yet the +materials used in building remained simple; "our ancestors," says +Varro, "dwelt in houses of brick, and laid merely a moderate +foundation of stone to keep away damp." + +Plastic Art and Painting + +Of Roman plastic art we scarcely encounter any other trace than, +perhaps, the embossing in wax of the images of ancestors. Painters +and painting are mentioned somewhat more frequently. Manius Valerius +caused the victory which he obtained over the Carthaginians and Hiero +in 491 off Messana(74) to be depicted on the side wall of the senate- +house--the first historical frescoes in Rome, which were followed by +many of similar character, and which were in the domain of the arts of +design what the national epos and the national drama became not much +later in the domain of poetry. We find named as painters, one +Theodotus who, as Naevius scoffingly said, + +-Sedens in cella circumtectus tegetibus +Lares ludentis peni pinxit bubulo;- + +Marcus Pacuvius of Brundisium, who painted in the temple of Hercules +in the Forum Boarium--the same who, when more advanced in life, made +himself a name as an editor of Greek tragedies; and Marcus Plautius +Lyco, a native of Asia Minor, whose beautiful paintings in the temple +of Juno at Ardea procured for him the freedom of that city.(75) But +these very facts clearly indicate, not only that the exercise of art +in Rome was altogether of subordinate importance and more of a manual +occupation than an art, but also that it fell, probably still more +exclusively than poetry, into the hands of Greeks and half Greeks. + +On the other hand there appeared in genteel circles the first +traces of the tastes subsequently displayed by the dilettante and +the collector. They admired the magnificence of the Corinthian and +Athenian temples, and regarded with contempt the old-fashioned terra- +cotta figures on the roofs of those of Rome: even a man like Lucius +Paullus, who shared the feelings of Cato rather than of Scipio, viewed +and judged the Zeus of Phidias with the eye of a connoisseur. The +custom of carrying off the treasures of art from the conquered Greek +cities was first introduced on a large scale by Marcus Marcellus +after the capture of Syracuse (542). The practice met with severe +reprobation from men of the old school of training, and the stern +veteran Quintus Fabius Maximus, for instance, on the capture of +Tarentum (545) gave orders that the statues in the temples should not +be touched, but that the Tarentines should be allowed to retain their +indignant gods. Yet the plundering of temples in this way became of +more and more frequent occurrence. Titus Flamininus in particular +(560) and Marcus Fulvius Nobilior (567), two leading champions of +Roman Hellenism, as well as Lucius Paullus (587), were the means of +filling the public buildings of Rome with the masterpieces of the +Greek chisel. Here too the Romans had a dawning consciousness of the +truth that an interest in art as well as an interest in poetry formed +an essential part of Hellenic culture or, in other words, of modern +civilization; but, while the appropriation of Greek poetry was +impossible without some sort of poetical activity, in the case of art +the mere beholding and procuring of its productions seemed to suffice, +and therefore, while a native literature was formed in an artificial +way in Rome, no attempt even was made to develop a native art. + + + + +Notes for Chapter XIV + + +1. A distinct set of Greek expressions, such as -stratioticus-, +-machaera-, -nauclerus-, -trapezita-, -danista-, -drapeta-, - +oenopolium-, -bolus-, -malacus-, -morus-, -graphicus-, -logus-, +- apologus-, -techna-, -schema-, forms quite a special feature in +the language of Plautus. Translations are seldom attached, and that +only in the case of words not embraced in the circle of ideas to which +those which we have cited belong; for instance, in the -Truculentus- +--in a verse, however, that is perhaps a later addition (i. 1, 60) +--we find the explanation: --phronesis-- -est sapientia-. Fragments +of Greek also are common, as in the -Casina-, (iii. 6, 9): + +--Pragmata moi parecheis-- -- -Dabo- --mega kakon--, -ut opinor-. + +Greek puns likewise occur, as in the -Bacchides- (240): + +-opus est chryso Chrysalo-. + +Ennius in the same way takes for granted that the etymological meaning +of Alexandros and Andromache is known to the spectators (Varro, de L. +L. vii. 82). Most characteristic of all are the half-Greek +formations, such as -ferritribax-, -plagipatida-, -pugilice-, +or in the -Miles Gloriosus- (213): + +-Fuge! euscheme hercle astitit sic dulice et comoedice!- + +2. III. VIII. Greece Free + +3. One of these epigrams composed in the name of Flamininus runs thus: + +--Zenos io kraipnaisi gegathotes ipposunaisi +Kouroi, io Spartas Tundaridai basileis, +Aineadas Titos ummin upertatos opase doron +Ellenon teuxas paisin eleutherian.-- + +4. Such, e. g, was Chilo, the slave of Cato the Elder, who earned +money en bis master's behalf as a teacher of children (Plutarch, +Cato Mai. 20). + +5. II. IX. Ballad-Singers + +6. The later rule, by which the freedman necessarily bore the +-praenomen- of his patron, was not yet applied in republican Rome. + +7. II. VII. Capture of Tarentum + +8. III. VI. Battle of Sena + +9. One of the tragedies of Livius presented the line-- + +-Quem ego nefrendem alui Iacteam immulgens opem.- + +The verses of Homer (Odyssey, xii. 16): + +--oud ara Kirken +ex Aideo elthontes elethomen, alla mal oka +elth entunamene ama d amphipoloi pheron aute +siton kai krea polla kai aithopa oinon eruthron.-- + +are thus interpreted: + +-Topper citi ad aedis--venimus Circae +Simul duona coram(?)--portant ad navis, +Milia dlia in isdem--inserinuntur.- + +The most remarkable feature is not so much the barbarism as the +thoughtlessness of the translator, who, instead of sending Circe to +Ulysses, sends Ulysses to Circe. Another still more ridiculous +mistake is the translation of --aidoioisin edoka-- (Odyss. xv. 373) +by -lusi- (Festus, Ep. v. affatim, p. ii, Muller). Such traits are +not in a historical point of view matters of difference; we recognize +in them the stage of intellectual culture which irked these earliest +Roman verse-making schoolmasters, and we at the same time perceive +that, although Andronicus was born in Tarentum, Greek cannot have +been properly his mother-tongue. + +10. Such a building was, no doubt, constructed for the Apollinarian +games in the Flaminian circus in 575 (Liv. xl. 51; Becker, Top. p. +605); but it was probably soon afterwards pulled down again (Tertull. +de Spect. 10). + +11. In 599 there were still no seats in the theatre (Ritschl, Parerg. +i. p. xviii. xx. 214; comp. Ribbeck, Trag. p. 285); but, as not only +the authors of the Plautine prologues, but Plautus himself on +various occasions, make allusions to a sitting audience (Mil. Glor. +82, 83; Aulul. iv. 9, 6; Triicul. ap. fin.; Epid. ap. fin.), most +of the spectators must have brought stools with them or have seated +themselves on the ground. + +12. III. XI. Separation of Orders in the Theatre + +13. Women and children appear to have been at all times admitted to +the Roman theatre (Val. Max. vi. 3, 12; Plutarch., Quaest. Rom. 14; +Cicero, de Har. Resp. 12, 24; Vitruv. v. 3, i; Suetonius, Aug. +44,&c.); but slaves were -de jure- excluded (Cicero, de Har. Resp. 12, +26; Ritschl. Parerg. i. p. xix. 223), and the same must doubtless have +been the case with foreigners, excepting of course the guests of the +community, who took their places among or by the side of the senators +(Varro, v. 155; Justin, xliii. 5. 10; Sueton. Aug. 44). + +14. III. XII. Moneyed Aristocracy + +15. II. IX. Censure of Art + +16. It is not necessary to infer from the prologues of Plautus (Cas. +17; Amph. 65) that there was a distribution of prizes (Ritschl, +Parerg. i. 229); even the passage Trin. 706, may very well belong to +the Greek original, not to the translator; and the total silence of +the -didascaliae- and prologues, as well as of all tradition, on +the point of prize tribunals and prizes is decisive. + +17. The scanty use made of what is called the middle Attic comedy does +not require notice in a historical point of view, since it was nothing +but the Menandrian comedy in a less developed form. There is no trace +of any employment of the older comedy. The Roman tragi-comedy--after +the type of the -Amphitruo- of Plautus--was no doubt styled by the +Roman literary historians -fabula Rhinthonica-; but the newer Attic +comedians also composed such parodies, and it is difficult to see why +the Ionians should have resorted for their translations to Rhinthon +and the older writers rather than to those who were nearer to their +own times. + +18. III. VI In Italy + +19. Bacch. 24; Trin. 609; True. iii. 2, 23. Naevius also, who in +fact was generally less scrupulous, ridicules the Praenestines and +Lanuvini (Com. 21, Ribb.). There are indications more than once of a +certain variance between the Praenestines and Romans (Liv. xxiii. 20, +xlii. i); and the executions in the time of Pyrrhus (ii. 18) as well +as the catastrophe in that of Sulla, were certainly connected with +this variance. --Innocent jokes, such as Capt. 160, 881, of course +passed uncensured. --The compliment paid to Massilia in Cas. v. 4., i, +deserves notice. + +20. Thus the prologue of the -Cistellaria- concludes with the +following words, which may have a place here as the only contemporary +mention of the Hannibalic war in the literature that has come down +to us:-- + +-Haec res sic gesta est. Bene valete, et vincite +Virtute vera, quod fecistis antidhac; +Servate vostros socios, veteres et novos; +Augete auxilia vostris iustis legibus; +Perdite perduelles: parite laudem et lauream +Ut vobis victi Poeni poenas sufferant.- + +The fourth line (-augete auxilia vostris iustis Iegibus-) has +reference to the supplementary payments imposed on the negligent +Latin colonies in 550 (Liv. xxix. 15; see ii. 350). + +21. III. XIII. Increase of Amusements + +22. For this reason we can hardly be too cautious in assuming +allusions on the part of Plautus to the events of the times. Recent +investigation has set aside many instances of mistaken acuteness of +this sort; but might not even the reference to the Bacchanalia, +which is found in Cas. v. 4, 11 (Ritschl, Parerg. 1. 192), have been +expected to incur censure? We might even reverse the case and infer +from the notices of the festival of Bacchus in the -Casina-, and some +other pieces (Amph. 703; Aul. iii. i, 3; Bacch. 53, 371; Mil. Glor. +1016; and especially Men. 836), that these were written at a time +when it was not yet dangerous to speak of the Bacchanalia. + +23. The remarkable passage in the -Tarentilla- can have no +other meaning:-- + +-Quae ego in theatro hic meis probavi plausibus, +Ea non audere quemquam regem rumpere: +Quanto libertatem hanc hic superat servitus!- + +24. The ideas of the modern Hellas on the point of slavery are +illustrated by the passage in Euripides (Ion, 854; comp. Helena, +728):-- + +--En gar ti tois douloisin alochunen pherei, +Tounoma ta d' alla panta ton eleutheron +Oudeis kakion doulos, ostis esthlos e.-- + +25. For instance, in the otherwise very graceful examination which in +the -Stichus- of Plautus the father and his daughters institute into +the qualities of a good wife, the irrelevant question--whether it is +better to marry a virgin or a widow--is inserted, merely in order that +it may be answered by a no less irrelevant and, in the mouth of the +interlocutrix, altogether absurd commonplace against women. But that +is a trifle compared with the following specimen. In Menander's +-Plocium- a husband bewails his troubles to his friend:-- + +--Echo d' epikleron Lamian ouk eireka soi +Tout'; eit' ap' ouchi; kurian tes oikias +Kai ton agron kai panton ant' ekeines +Echoumen, Apollon, os chalepon chalepotaton +Apasi d' argalea 'stin, ouk emoi mono, +Tio polu mallon thugatri.--pragm' amachon legeis' +Eu oida-- + +In the Latin edition of Caecilius, this conversation, so elegant in +its simplicity, is converted into the following uncouth dialogue:-- + +-Sed tua morosane uxor quaeso est?--Ua! rogas?-- +Qui tandem?--Taedet rientionis, quae mihi +Ubi domum adveni ac sedi, extemplo savium +Dat jejuna anima.--Nil peccat de savio: +Ut devomas volt, quod foris polaveris.- + +26. Even when the Romans built stone theatres, these had not the +sounding-apparatus by which the Greek architects supported the efforts +of the actors (Vitruv. v. 5, 8). + +27. III. XIII. Increase of Amusements + +28. The personal notices of Naevius are sadly confused. Seeing that +he fought in the first Punic war, he cannot have been born later than +495. Dramas, probably the first, were exhibited by him in 519 (Gell. +xii. 21. 45). That he had died as early as 550, as is usually +stated, was doubted by Varro (ap. Cic. Brut. 15, 60), and certainly +with reason; if it were true, he must have made his escape during the +Hannibalic war to the soil of the enemy. The sarcastic verses on +Scipio (p. 150) cannot have been written before the battle of +Zama. We may place his life between 490 and 560, so that he was a +contemporary of the two Scipios who fell in 543 (Cic. de Rep. iv. 10), +ten years younger than Andronicus, and perhaps ten years older than +Plautus. His Campanian origin is indicated by Gellius, and his Latin +nationality, if proof of it were needed, by himself in his epitaph. +The hypothesis that he was not a Roman citizen, but possibly a burgess +of Cales or of some other Latin town in Campania, renders the fact +that the Roman police treated him so unscrupulously the more easy +of explanation. At any rate he was not an actor, for he served in +the army. + +29. Compare, e. g., with the verse of Livius the fragment from +Naevius' tragedy of -Lycurgus- :-- + +-Vos, qui regalis cordons custodias +Agitatis, ite actutum in frundiferos locos, +Ingenio arbusta ubi nata sunt, non obsita-; + +Or the famous words, which in the -Hector Profisciscens- Hector +addresses to Priam: + +-Laetus sum laudari me abs te, pater, a laudato viro;- + +and the charming verse from the -Tarentilla-; -- + +-Alii adnutat, alii adnictat; alium amat, alium tenet.- + +30. III. XIV. Political Neutrality + +31. III. XIV. Political Neutrality + +32. This hypothesis appears necessary, because otherwise the ancients +could not have hesitated in the way they did as to the genuineness or +spuriousness of the pieces of Plautus: in the case of no author, +properly so called, of Roman antiquity, do we find anything like a +similar uncertainty as to his literary property. In this respect, +as in so many other external points, there exists the most remarkable +analogy between Plautus and Shakespeare. + +33. III. III. The Celts Conquered by Rome, III. VII. Measures Adopted +to Check the Immigration of the Trans-Alpine Gauls + +34. III. XIV. Roman Barbarism + +35 -Togatus- denotes, in juristic and generally in technical language, +the Italian in contradistinction not merely to the foreigner, but also +to the Roman burgess. Thus especially -formula togatorum- (Corp. +Inscr. Lat., I. n. 200, v. 21, 50) is the list of those Italians bound +to render military serviee, who do not serve in the legions. The +designation also of Cisalpine Gaul as -Gallia togata-, which first +occurs in Hirtius and not long after disappears again from the +ordinary -usus loquendi-, describes this region presumably according +to its legal position, in so far as in the epoch from 665 to 705 the +great majority of its communities possessed Latin rights. Virgil +appears likewise in the -gens togata-, which he mentions along with +the Romans (Aen. i. 282), to have thought of the Latin nation. + +According to this view we shall have to recognize in the -fabula +togata-the comedy which laid its plot in Latium, as the -fabula +palliata- had its plot in Greece; the transference of the scene of +action to a foreign land is common to both, and the comic writer is +wholly forbidden to bring on the stage the city or the burgesses of +Rome. That in reality the -togata- could only have its plot laid in +the towns of Latin rights, is shown by the fact that all the towns +in which, to our knowledge, pieces of Titinius and Afranius had their +scene--Setia, Ferentinum, Velitrae, Brundisium,--demonstrably had +Latin or, at any rate, allied rights down to the Social war. By the +extension of the franchise to all Italy the writers of comedy lost +this Latin localisation for their pieces, for Cisalpine Gaul, which +-de jure- took the place of the Latin communities, lay too far off +for the dramatists of the capital, and so the -fabula togata- seems in +fact to have disappeared. But the -de jure- suppressed communities of +Italy, such as Capua and Atella, stepped into this gap (ii. 366, iii. +148), and so far the -fabula Atellana- was in some measure the +continuation of the -togata-. + +36. Respecting Titinius there is an utter want of literary +information; except that, to judge from a fragment of Varro, he seems +to have been older than Terence (558-595, Ritschl, Parerg. i. 194) for +more indeed, cannot he inferred from that passage, and though, of the +two groups there compared the second (Trabea, Atilius, Caecilius) is +on the whole older than the first (Titinius, Terentius, Atta), it does +not exactly follow that the oldest of the junior group is to be deemed +younger than the youngest of the elder. + +37. II. VII. First Steps toward the Latinizing of Italy + +38. Of the fifteen comedies of Titinius, with which we are acquainted, +six are named after male characters (-baratus-? -coecus-, -fullones-, +-Hortensius-, -Quintus-, -varus-), and nine after female (-Gemina-, +-iurisperita-, -prilia-? -privigna-, -psaltria- or -Ferentinatis-, +-Setina-, -tibicina-, -Veliterna-, -Ulubrana?), two of which, the +-iurisperita- and the -tibicina-, are evidently parodies of men's +occupations. The feminine world preponderates also in the fragments. + +39. III. XIV. Livius Andronicus + +40. III. XIV. Audience + +41. We subjoin, for comparison, the opening lines of the -Medea- in +the original of Euripides and in the version of Ennius:-- + +--Eith' ophel' 'Apgous me diaptasthai skaphos +Kolchon es aian kuaneas sumplegadas +Med' en napaisi Pelion pesein pote +Tmetheisa peuke, med' epetmosai cheras +Andron arioton, oi to pagchruson deros +Pelia metelthon ou gar an despoin +Medeia purgous ges epleus Iolkias +'Eroti thumon ekplageis' 'Iasonos.-- + +-Utinam ne in nemore Pelio securibus +Caesa accidisset abiegna ad terram trabes, +Neve inde navis inchoandae exordium +Coepisset, quae nunc nominatur nomine +Argo, quia Argivi in ea dilecti viri +Vecti petebant pellem inauratam arietis +Colchis, imperio regis Peliae, per dolum. +Nam nunquam era errans mea domo efferret pedem +Medea, animo aegra, amort saevo saucia.- + +The variations of the translation from the original are instructive +--not only its tautologies and periphrases, but also the omission +or explanation of the less familiar mythological names, e. g. the +Symplegades, the Iolcian land, the Argo. But the instances in which +Ennius has really misunderstood the original are rare. + +42. III. XI. Roman Franchise More Difficult of Acquisition + +43. Beyond doubt the ancients were right in recognizing a sketch of +the poet's own character in the passage in the seventh book of the +Annals, where the consul calls to his side the confidant, + +-quocum bene saepe libenter +Mensam sermonesque suos rerumque suarum +Congeriem partit, magnam cum lassus diei +Partem fuisset de summis rebus regundis +Consilio indu foro lato sanctoque senatu: +Cui res audacter magnas parvasque iocumque +Eloqueretur, cuncta simul malaque et bona dictu +Evomeret, si qui vellet, tutoque locaret. +Quocum multa volup ac gaudia clamque palamque, +Ingenium cui nulla malum sententia suadet +Ut faceret facinus lenis aut malus, doctus fidelis +Suavis homo facundus suo contentus beatus +Scitus secunda loquens in tempore commodus verbum +Paucum, multa tenens antiqua sepulta, vetustas +Quem fecit mores veteresque novosque tenentem, +Multorum veterum leges divumque hominumque, +Prudenter qui dicta loquive tacereve possit.- + +In the line before the last we should probably read -multarum leges +divumque hominumque.- + +44. Euripides (Iph. in Aul. 956) defines the soothsayer as a man, + +--Os olig' alethe, polla de pseuon legei +Tuchon, otan de me, tuche oioichetai-- + +This is turned by the Latin translator into the following diatribe +against the casters of horoscopes:-- + +-Astrologorum signa in caelo quaesit, observat, +Iovis +Cum capra aut nepa aut exoritur lumen aliquod beluae. +Quod est ante pedes, nemo spectat: caeli scrutantur plagas.- + +45. III. XII. Irreligious Spirit + +46. In the -Telephus- we find him saying-- + +-Palam mutire plebeio piaculum est.- + +47. III. XIII. Luxury + +48. The following verses, excellent in matter and form, belong to the +adaptation of the -Phoenix- of Euripides:-- + +-Sed virum virtute vera vivere animatum addecet, +Fortiterque innoxium vocare adversum adversarios. +Ea libertas est, qui pectus purum et firmum gestitat: +Aliae res obnoxiosae nocte in obscura latent.- + +In the -Scipio-, which was probably incorporated in the collection of +miscellaneous poems, the graphic lines occurred:-- + +-- -- -mundus caeli vastus constitit silentio, +Et Neptunus saevus undis asperis pausam dedit. +Sol equis iter repressit ungulis volantibus; +Constitere amnes perennes, arbores vento vacant.- + +This last passage affords us a glimpse of the way in which the poet +worked up his original poems. It is simply an expansion of the words +which occur in the tragedy -Hectoris Lustra- (the original of which +was probably by Sophocles) as spoken by a spectator of the combat +between Hephaestus and the Scamander:-- + +-Constitit credo Scamander, arbores vento vacant,- + +and the incident is derived from the Iliad (xxi. 381). + +49. Thus in the Phoenix we find the line:-- + +-- -- -stultust, qui cupita cupiens cupienter cupit,- + +and this is not the most absurd specimen of such recurring assonances. +He also indulged in acrostic verses (Cic. de Div. ii. 54, iii). + +50. III. III. The Celts Conquered by Rome + +51. III. IX. Conflicts and Peace with the Aetolians + +52. Besides Cato, we find the names of two "consulars and poets" +belonging to this period (Sueton. Vita Terent. 4)--Quintus Labeo, +consul in 571, and Marcus Popillius, consul in 581. But it remains +uncertain whether they published their poems. Even in the case of +Cato this may be doubted. + +53. II. IX. Roman Historical Composition + +54. III. XII. Irreligious Spirit + +55. III. XII. Irreligious Spirit + +56. The following fragments will give some idea of its tone. Of Dido +he says: + +-Blande et docte percontat--Aeneas quo pacto +Troiam urbem liquerit.- + +Again of Amulius: + +-Manusque susum ad caelum--sustulit suas rex +Amulius; gratulatur--divis-. + +Part of a speech where the indirect construction is remarkable: + +-Sin illos deserant for--tissumos virorum +Magnum stuprum populo--fieri per gentis-. + +With reference to the landing at Malta in 498: + +-Transit Melitam Romanus--insuiam integram +Urit populatur vastat--rem hostium concinnat.- + +Lastly, as to the peace which terminated the war concerning Sicily: + +-Id quoque paciscunt moenia--sint Lutatium quae +Reconcilient; captivos--plurimos idem +Sicilienses paciscit--obsides ut reddant.- + +57. That this oldest prose work on the history of Rome was composed in +Greek, is established beyond a doubt by Dionys. i. 6, and Cicero, de +Div. i. 21, 43. The Latin Annals quoted under the same name by +Quintilian and later grammarians remain involved in mystery, and the +difficulty is increased by the circumstance, that there is also quoted +under the same name a very detailed exposition of the pontifical law +in the Latin language. But the latter treatise will not be attributed +by any one, who has traced the development of Roman literature in its +connection, to an author of the age of the Hannibalic war; and even +Latin annals from that age appear problematical, although it must +remain a moot question whether there has been a confusion of the +earlier with a later annalist, Quintus Fabius Maximus Servilianus +(consul in 612), or whether there existed an old Latin edition of the +Greek Annals of Fabius as well as of those of Acilius and Albinus, or +whether there were two annalists of the name of Fabius Pictor. + +The historical work likewise written in Greek, ascribed to Lucius +Cincius Alimentus a contemporary of Fabius, seems spurious and a +compilation of the Augustan age. + +58. Cato's whole literary activity belonged to the period of his old +age (Cicero, Cat. ii, 38; Nepos, Cato, 3); the composition even of the +earlier books of the "Origines" falls not before, and yet probably not +long subsequent to, 586 (Plin. H. N. iii. 14, 114). + +59. It is evidently by way of contrast with Fabius that Polybius +(xl. 6, 4) calls attention to the fact, that Albinus, madly fond of +everything Greek, had given himself the trouble of writing history +systematically [--pragmatiken iotorian--]. + +60. II. IX. Roman Early History of Rome + +61. III. XIV. Knowledge of Languages + +62. For instance the history of the siege of Gabii is compiled from +the anecdotes in Herodotus as to Zopyrus and the tyrant Thrasybulus, +and one version of the story of the exposure of Romulus is framed +on the model of the history of the youth of Cyrus as Herodotus +relates it. + +63. III. VII. Measures Adopted to Check the Immigration of the +Transalpine Gauls + +64. II. IX. Roman Early History of Rome + +65. II. IX. Registers of Magistrates + +66. Plautus (Mostell. 126) says of parents, that they teach their +children -litteras-, -iura-, -leges-; and Plutarch (Cato Mai. 20) +testifies to the same effect. + +67. II. IX. Philology + +68. Thus in his Epicharmian poems Jupiter is so called, -quod iuvat-; +and Ceres, -quod gerit fruges.- + +69. -Rem tene, verba sequentur.- + +70. II. IX. Language + +71. See the lines already quoted at III. II. The War on the Coasts of +Sicily and Sardinia. + +The formation of the name -poeta- from the vulgar Greek --poetes-- +instead of --poietes-- --as --epoesen-- was in use among the Attic +potters--is characteristic. We may add that -poeta- technically +denotes only the author of epic or recitative poems, not the composer +for the stage, who at this time was styled -scriba- (III. XIV. Audience; +Festus, s. v., p. 333 M.). + +72. Even subordinate figures from the legends of Troy and of Herakles +niake their appearance, e. g. Talthybius (Stich. 305), Autolycus +(Bacch. 275), Parthaon (Men. 745). Moreover the most general outlines +must have been known in the case of the Theban and the Argonautic +legends, and of the stories of Bellerophon (Bacch. 810), Pentheus +(Merc. 467), Procne and Philomela (Rud. 604). Sappho and Phaon (Mil. +1247). + +73. "As to these Greeks," he says to his son Marcus, "I shall tell at +the proper place, what I came to learn regarding them at Athens; and +shall show that it is useful to look into their writings, but not to +study them thoroughly. They are an utterly corrupt and ungovernable +race--believe me, this is true as an oracle; if that people bring +hither its culture, it will ruin everything, and most especially if +it send hither its physicians. They have conspired to despatch all +barbarians by their physicking, but they get themselves paid for it, +that people may trust them and that they may the more easily bring us +to ruin. They call us also barbarians, and indeed revile us by the +still more vulgar name of Opicans. I interdict thee, therefore, from +all dealings with the practitioners of the healing art." + +Cato in his zeal was not aware that the name of Opicans, which had in +Latin an obnoxious meaning, was in Greek quite unobjectionable, and +that the Greeks had in the most innocent way come to designate the +Italians by that term (I. X. Time of the Greek Immigration). + +74. II. IX. Censure of Art + +75. III. II. War between the Romans and Carthaginians and Syracusans + +76. Plautius belongs to this or to the beginning of the following +period, for the inscription on his pictures (Plin. H. N. xxxv. 10, +115), being hexametrical, cannot well be older than Ennius, and the +bestowal of the citizenship of Ardea must have taken place before the +Social War, through which Ardea lost its independence. + + + +End of Book III + + + + * * * * * + + + +THE HISTORY OF ROME: BOOK IV + +The Revolution + + + + +Preparer's Note + +This work contains many literal citations of and references to words, +sounds, and alphabetic symbols drawn from many languages, including +Gothic and Phoenician, but chiefly Latin and Greek. This English +language Gutenberg edition, constrained within the scope of 7-bit +ASCII code, adopts the following orthographic conventions: + +1) Words and phrases regarded as "foreign imports", italicized in the +original text published in 1903; but which in the intervening century +have become "naturalized" into English; words such as "de jure", +"en masse", etc. are not given any special typographic distinction. + +2) Except for Greek, all literally cited non-English words that do +not refer to texts cited as academic references, words that in the +source manuscript appear italicized, are rendered with a single +preceding, and a single following dash; thus, -xxxx-. + +3) Greek words, first transliterated into Roman alphabetic equivalents, +are rendered with a preceding and a following double-dash; thus, --xxxx--. +Note that in some cases the root word itself is a compound form such as +xxx-xxxx, and is rendered as --xxx-xxx-- + +4) Simple non-ideographic references to vocalic sounds, single letters, +or alphabeic dipthongs; and prefixes, suffixes, and syllabic references +are represented by a single preceding dash; thus, -x, or -xxx. + +5) The following refers particularly to the complex discussion of +alphabetic evolution in Ch. XIV: Measuring And Writing). Ideographic +references, meaning pointers to the form of representation itself rather +than to its content, are represented as -"id:xxxx"-. "id:" stands for +"ideograph", and indicates that the reader should form a mental picture +based on the "xxxx" following the colon. "xxxx" may represent a single +symbol, a word, or an attempt at a picture composed of ASCII characters. +E. g. --"id:GAMMA gamma"-- indicates an uppercase Greek gamma-form +Followed by the form in lowercase. Some such exotic parsing as this +is necessary to explain alphabetic development because a single symbol +may have been used for a number of sounds in a number of languages, +or even for a number of sounds in the same language at different +times. Thus, -"id:GAMMA gamma" might very well refer to a Phoenician +construct that in appearance resembles the form that eventually +stabilized as an uppercase Greek "gamma" juxtaposed to another one +of lowercase. Also, a construct such as --"id:E" indicates a symbol +that in graphic form most closely resembles an ASCII uppercase "E", +but, in fact, is actually drawn more crudely. + +6) The numerous subheading references, of the form "XX. XX. Topic" +found in the appended section of endnotes are to be taken as "proximate" +rather than topical indicators. That is, the information contained +in the endnote indicates primarily the location in the main text +of the closest indexing "handle", a subheading, which may or may not +echo congruent subject matter. + +The reason for this is that in the translation from an original +paged manuscript to an unpaged "cyberscroll", page numbers are lost. +In this edition subheadings are the only remaining indexing "handles" +of sub-chapter scale. Unfortunately, in some stretches of text these +subheadings may be as sparse as merely one in three pages. Therefore, +it would seem to make best sense to save the reader time and temper +by adopting a shortest path method to indicate the desired reference. + +7) Dr. Mommsen has given his dates in terms of Roman usage, A.U.C.; +that is, from the founding of Rome, conventionally taken to be 753 B. C. +To the end of each volume is appended a table of conversion between +the two systems. + + + + +CONTENTS + +BOOK IV: The Revolution + + CHAPTER + + I. The Subject Countries Down to the Times of the Gracchi + + II. The Reform Movement and Tiberius Gracchus + + III. The Revolution and Gaius Gracchus + + IV. The Rule of the Restoration + + V. The Peoples of the North + + VI. The Attempt of Marius at Revolution and the Attempt + of Drusus at Reform + + VII. The Revolt of the Italian Subjects, and the Sulpician + Revolution + + VIII. The East and King Mithradates + + IX. Cinna and Sulla + + X. The Sullan Constitution + + XI. The Commonwealth and Its Economy + + XII. Nationality, Religion, and Education + + XIII. Literature and Art + + + + +BOOK FOURTH + +The Revolution + + + + +"-Aber sie treiben's toll; +Ich furcht', es breche." +Nicht jeden Wochenschluss +Macht Gott die Zeche-. + +Goethe. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +The Subject Countries Down to the Times of the Gracchi + +The Subjects + +With the abolition of the Macedonian monarchy the supremacy of Rome +not only became an established fact from the Pillars of Hercules to +the mouths of the Nile and the Orontes, but, as if it were the final +decree of fate, it weighed on the nations with all the pressure of +an inevitable necessity, and seemed to leave them merely the choice +of perishing in hopeless resistance or in hopeless endurance. +If history were not entitled to insist that the earnest reader +should accompany her through good and evil days, through landscapes +of winter as well as of spring, the historian might be tempted to shun +the cheerless task of tracing the manifold and yet monotonous turns +of this struggle between superior power and utter weakness, both in +the Spanish provinces already annexed to the Roman empire and in the +African, Hellenic, and Asiatic territories which were still treated +as clients of Rome. But, however unimportant and subordinate the +individual conflicts may appear, they have collectively a deep +historical significance; and, in particular, the state of things +in Italy at this period only becomes intelligible in the light of +the reaction which the provinces exercised over the mother-country. + +Spain + +Except in the territories which may be regarded as natural appendages +of Italy--in which, however, the natives were still far from being +completely subdued, and, not greatly to the credit of Rome, Ligurians, +Sardinians, and Corsicans were continually furnishing occasion for +"village triumphs"--the formal sovereignty of Rome at the commencement +of this period was established only in the two Spanish provinces, +which embraced the larger eastern and southern portions of the +peninsula beyond the Pyrenees. We have already(1) attempted to +describe the state of matters in the peninsula. Iberians and Celts, +Phoenicians, Hellenes, and Romans were there confusedly intermingled. +The most diverse kinds and stages of civilization subsisted there +simultaneously and at various points crossed each other, the ancient +Iberian culture side by side with utter barbarism, the civilized +relations of Phoenician and Greek mercantile cities side by side with +an incipient process of Latinizing, which was especially promote +by the numerous Italians employed in the silver mines and by the +large standing garrison. In this respect the Roman township of +Italica (near Seville) and the Latin colony of Carteia (on the bay +Of Gibraltar) deserve mention--the latter being the first transmarine +urban community of Latin tongue and Italian constitution. Italica +was founded by the elder Scipio, before he left Spain (548), for +his veterans who were inclined to remain in the peninsula--probably, +however, not as a burgess-community, but merely as a market-place.(2) +Carteia was founded in 583 and owed its existence to the multitude of +camp-children--the offspring of Roman soldiers and Spanish slaves--who +grew up as slaves de jure but as free Italians de facto, and were now +manumitted on behalf of the state and constituted, along with the old +inhabitants of Carteia, into a Latin colony. For nearly thirty years +after the organizing of the province of the Ebro by Tiberius Sempronius +Gracchus (575, 576)(3) the Spanish provinces, on the whole, enjoyed the +blessings of peace undisturbed, although mention is made of one or two +expeditions against the Celtiberians and Lusitanians. + +Lusitanian War + +But more serious events occurred in 600. The Lusitanians, under the +leadership of a chief called Punicus, invaded the Roman territory, +defeated the two Roman governors who had united to oppose them, and +slew a great number of their troops. The Vettones (between the Tagus +and the Upper Douro) were thereby induced to make common cause with +the Lusitanians; and these, thus reinforced, were enabled to extend +their excursions as far as the Mediterranean, and to pillage even +the territory of the Bastulo-Phoenicians not far from the Roman +capital New Carthage (Cartagena). The Romans at home took the matter +seriously enough to resolve on sending a consul to Spain, a step +which had not been taken since 559; and, in order to accelerate the +despatch of aid, they even made the new consuls enter on office two +months and a half before the legal time. For this reason the day for +the consuls entering on office was shifted from the 15th of March +to the 1st of January; and thus was established the beginning of the +year, which we still make use of at the present day. But, before +the consul Quintus Fulvius Nobilior with his army arrived, a very +serious encounter took place on the right bank of the Tagus between +the praetor Lucius Mummius, governor of Further Spain, and the +Lusitanians, now led after the fall of Punicus by his successor +Caesarus (601). Fortune was at first favourable to the Romans; the +Lusitanian army was broken and their camp was taken. But the Romans, +partly already fatigued by their march and partly broken up in the +disorder of the pursuit, were at length completely beaten by their +already vanquished antagonists, and lost their own camp in addition +to that of the enemy, as well as 9000 dead. + +Celtiberian War + +The flame of war now blazed up far and wide. The Lusitanians on +the left bank of the Tagus, led by Caucaenus, threw themselves on +the Celtici subject to the Romans (in Alentejo), and took away their +town Conistorgis. The Lusitanians sent the standards taken from +Mummius to the Celtiberians at once as an announcement of victory +and as a warning; and among these, too, there was no want of ferment. +Two small Celtiberian tribes in the neighbourhood of the powerful +Arevacae (about the sources of the Douro and Tagus), the Belli and +the Titthi, had resolved to settle together in Segeda, one of their +towns. While they were occupied in building the walls, the Romans +ordered them to desist, because the Sempronian regulations prohibited +the subject communities from founding towns at their own discretion; +and they at the same time required the contribution of money and men +which was due by treaty but for a considerable period had not been +demanded. The Spaniards refused to obey either command, alleging +that they were engaged merely in enlarging, not in founding, a city, +and that the contribution had not been merely suspended, but +remitted by the Romans. Thereupon Nobilior appeared in Hither +Spain with an army of nearly 30,000 men, including some Numidian +horsemen and ten elephants. The walls of the new town of Segeda +still stood unfinished: most of the inhabitants submitted. But the +most resolute men fled with their wives and children to the powerful +Arevacae, and summoned these to make common cause with them against +the Romans. The Arevacae, emboldened by the victory of the +Lusitanians over Mummius, consented, and chose Carus, one of the +Segedan refugees, as their general. On the third day after his +election the valiant leader had fallen, but the Roman army was +defeated and nearly 6000 Roman burgesses were slain; the 23rd day of +August, the festival of the Volcanalia, was thenceforth held in sad +remembrance by the Romans. The fall of their general, however, +induced the Arevacae to retreat into their strongest town Numantia +(Guarray, a Spanish league to the north of Soria on the Douro), +whither Nobilior followed them. Under the walls of the town a second +engagement took place, in which the Romans at first by means of their +elephants drove the Spaniards back into the town; but while doing +so they were thrown into confusion in consequence of one of the +animals being wounded, and sustained a second defeat at the hands of +the enemy again issuing from the walls. This and other misfortunes-- +such as the destruction of a corps of Roman cavalry despatched to +call forth the contingents--imparted to the affairs of the Romans in +the Hither province so unfavourable an aspect that the fortress of +Ocilis, where the Romans had their chest and their stores, passed +over to the enemy, and the Arevacae were in a position to think, +although without success, of dictating peace to the Romans. These +disadvantages, however, were in some measure counterbalanced by the +successes which Mummius achieved in the southern province. Weakened +though his army was by the disaster which it had suffered, he yet +succeeded with it in defeating the Lusitanians who had imprudently +dispersed themselves on the right bank of the Tagus; and passing +over to the left bank, where the Lusitanians had overrun the whole +Roman territory, and had even made a foray into Africa, he cleared +the southern province of the enemy. + +Marcellus + +To the northern province in the following year (602) the senate sent +considerable reinforcements and a new commander-in-chief in the place +of the incapable Nobilior, the consul Marcus Claudius Marcellus, who +had already, when praetor in 586, distinguished himself in Spain, and +had since that time given proof of his talents as a general in two +consulships. His skilful leadership, and still more his clemency, +speedily changed the position of affairs: Ocilis at once surrendered +to him; and even the Arevacae, confirmed by Marcellus in the hope +that peace would be granted to them on payment of a moderate fine, +concluded an armistice and sent envoys to Rome. Marcellus could thus +proceed to the southern province, where the Vettones and Lusitanians +had professed submission to the praetor Marcus Atilius so long as he +remained within their bounds, but after his departure had immediately +revolted afresh and chastised the allies of Rome. The arrival of +the consul restored tranquillity, and, while he spent the winter +in Corduba, hostilities were suspended throughout the peninsula. +Meanwhile the question of peace with the Arevacae was discussed at +Rome. It is a significant indication of the relations subsisting +among the Spaniards themselves, that the emissaries of the Roman +party subsisting among the Arevacae were the chief occasion of the +rejection of the proposals of peace at Rome, by representing that, +if the Romans were not willing to sacrifice the Spaniards friendly +to their interests, they had no alternative save either to send a +consul with a corresponding army every year to the peninsula or to +make an emphatic example now. In consequence of this, the ambassadors +of the Arevacae were dismissed without a decisive answer, and it was +resolved that the war should be prosecuted with vigour. Marcellus +accordingly found himself compelled in the following spring (603) to +resume the war against the Arevacae. But--either, as was asserted, +from his unwillingness to leave to his successor, who was to be +expected soon, the glory of terminating the war, or, as is perhaps +more probable, from his believing like Gracchus that a humane +treatment of the Spaniards was the first thing requisite for a lasting +peace--the Roman general after holding a secret conference with the +most influential men of the Arevacae concluded a treaty under the +walls of Numantia, by which the Arevacae surrendered to the Romans +at discretion, but were reinstated in their former rights according +to treaty on their undertaking to pay money and furnish hostages. + +Lucullus + +When the new commander-in-chief, the consul Lucius Lucullus, arrived +at head-quarters, he found the war which he had come to conduct already +terminated by a formally concluded peace, and his hopes of bringing +home honour and more especially money from Spain were apparently +frustrated. But there was a means of surmounting this difficulty. +Lucullus of his own accord attacked the western neighbours of the +Arevacae, the Vaccaei, a Celtiberian nation still independent which +was living on the best understanding with the Romans. The question +of the Spaniards as to what fault they had committed was answered by +a sudden attack on the town of Cauca (Coca, eight Spanish leagues to +the west of Segovia); and, while the terrified town believed that it +had purchased a capitulation by heavy sacrifices of money, Roman +troops marched in and enslaved or slaughtered the inhabitants without +any pretext at all. After this heroic feat, which is said to have +cost the lives of some 20,000 defenceless men, the army proceeded +on its march. Far and wide the villages and townships were abandoned +or, as in the case of the strong Intercatia and Pallantia (Palencia) +the capital of the Vaccaei, closed their gates against the Roman army. +Covetousness was caught in its own net; there was no community +That would venture to conclude a capitulation with the perfidious +commander, and the general flight of the inhabitants not only +rendered booty scarce, but made it almost impossible for him +to remain for any length of time in these inhospitable regions. +In front of Intercatia, Scipio Aemilianus, an esteemed military tribune, +the son of the victor of Pydna and the adopted grandson of the victor +of Zama, succeeded, by pledging his word of honour when that of the +general no longer availed, in inducing the inhabitants to conclude an +agreement by virtue of which the Roman army departed on receiving a +supply of cattle and clothing. But the siege of Pallantia had to +be raised for want of provisions, and the Roman army in its retreat +was pursued by the Vaccaei as far as the Douro. Lucullus thereupon +proceeded to the southern province, where in the same year the +praetor, Servius Sulpicius Galba, had allowed himself to be defeated +by the Lusitanians. They spent the winter not far from each other-- +Lucullus in the territory of the Turdetani, Galba at Conistorgis-- +And in the following year (604) jointly attacked the Lusitanians. +Lucullus gained some advantages over them near the straits of Gades. +Galba performed a greater achievement, for he concluded a treaty with +three Lusitanian tribes on the right bank of the Tagus and promised +to transfer them to better settlements; whereupon the barbarians, +who to the number of 7000 came to him for the sake of the expected +lands, were separated into three divisions, disarmed, and partly +carried off into slavery, partly massacred. War has hardly ever +been waged with so much perfidy, cruelty, and avarice as by these +two generals; who yet by means of their criminally acquired treasures +escaped the one from condemnation, and the other even from impeachment. +The veteran Cato in his eighty-fifth year, a few months before his +death, attempted to bring Galba to account before the burgesses; +but the weeping children of the general, and the gold which he had +brought home with him, proved to the Roman people his innocence. + +Variathus + +It was not so much the inglorious successes which Lucullus and Galba +had attained in Spain, as the outbreak of the fourth Macedonian +and of the third Carthaginian war in 605, which induced the Romans +again to leave Spanish affairs in the first instance to the ordinary +governors. Accordingly the Lusitanians, exasperated rather than +humbled by the perfidy of Galba, immediately overran afresh the rich +territory of the Turdetani. The Roman governor Gaius Vetilius +(607-8?)(4) marched against them, and not only defeated them, but +drove the whole host towards a hill where it seemed lost irretrievably. +The capitulation was virtually concluded, when Viriathus--a man of +humble origin, who formerly, when a youth, had bravely defended +his flock from wild beasts and robbers and was now in more serious +conflictsa dreaded guerilla chief, and who was one of the few that had +accidentally escaped from the perfidious onslaught of Galba--warned his +countrymen against relying on the Roman word of honour, and promised +them deliverance if they would follow him. His language and his +example produced a deep effect: the army entrusted him with the +supreme command. Viriathus gave orders to the mass of his men to +proceed in detached parties, by different routes, to the appointed +rendezvous; he himself formed the best mounted and most trustworthy +into a corps of 1000 horse, with which he covered the departure of +his men. The Romans, who wanted light cavalry, did not venture to +disperse for the pursuit under the eyes of the enemy's horsemen. +After Viriathus and his band had for two whole days held in check +the entire Roman army he suddenly disappeared during the night and +hastened to the general rendezvous. The Roman general followed him, +but fell into an adroitly-laid ambush, in which he lost the half of +his army and was himself captured and slain; with difficulty the +rest of the troops escaped to the colony of Carteia on the Straits. +In all haste 5000 men of the Spanish militia were despatched from the +Ebro to reinforce the defeated Romans; but Viriathus destroyed the +corps while still on its march, and commanded so absolutely the whole +interior of Carpetania that the Romans did not even venture to seek +him there. Viriathus, now recognized as lord and king of all the +Lusitanians, knew how to combine the full dignity of his princely +position with the homely habits of a shepherd. No badge distinguished +him from the common soldier: he rose from the richly adorned marriage- +table of his father-in-law, the prince Astolpa in Roman Spain, without +having touched the golden plate and the sumptuous fare, lifted his bride +on horseback, and rode back with her to his mountains. He never took +more of the spoil than the share which he allotted to each of his +comrades. The soldier recognized the general simply by his tall +figure, by his striking sallies of wit, and above all by the fact +that he surpassed every one of his men in temperance as well as in toil, +sleeping always in full armour and fighting in front of all in battle. +It seemed as if in that thoroughly prosaic age one of the Homeric +heroes had reappeared: the name of Viriathus resounded far and wide +through Spain; and the brave nation conceived that in him it had +at length found the man who was destined to break the fetters +of alien domination. + +His Successors + +Extraordinary successes in northern and in southern Spain marked the +next years of his generalship. After destroying the vanguard of the +praetor Gaius Plautius (608-9), Viriathus had the skill to lure him +over to the right bank of the Tagus, and there to defeat him so +emphatically that the Roman general went into winter quarters in +the middle of summer--on which account he was afterwards charged +before the people with having disgraced the Roman community, and was +compelled to live in exile. In like manner the army of the governor-- +apparently of the Hither province--Claudius Unimanus was destroyed, +that of Gaius Negidius was vanquished, and the level country was +pillaged far and wide. Trophies of victory, decorated with the insignia +of the Roman governors and the arms of the legions, were erected on the +Spanish mountains; people at Rome heard with shame and consternation +of the victories of the barbarian king. The conduct of the Spanish +war was now committed to a trustworthy officer, the consul Quintus +Fabius Maximus Aemilianus, the second son of the victor of Pydna +(609). But the Romans no longer ventured to send the experienced +veterans, who bad just returned from Macedonia and Asia, forth anew +tothe detested Spanish war; the two legions, which Maximus brought +with him, were new levies and scarcely more to be trusted than the +old utterly demoralized Spanish army. After the first conflicts had +again issued favourably for the Lusitanians, the prudent general +kept together his troops for the remainder of the year in the camp +at Urso (Osuna, south-east from Seville) without accepting the +enemy's offer of battle, and only took the field afresh in the +following year (610), after his troops had by petty warfare become +qualified for fighting; he was then enabled to maintain the +superiority, and after successful feats of arms went into winter +quarters at Corduba. But when the cowardly and incapable praetor +Quinctius took the command in room of Maximus, the Romans again +suffered defeat after defeat, and their general in the middle of +summer shut himself up in Corduba, while the bands of Viriathus +overran the southern province (611). + +His successor, Quintus Fabius Maximus Servilianus, the adopted brother +of Maximus Aemilianus, sent to the peninsula with two fresh legions +and ten elephants, endeavoured to penetrate into the Lusitanian +country, but after a series of indecisive conflicts and an assault +on the Roman camp, which was with difficulty repulsed, found himself +compelled to retreat to the Roman territory. Viriathus followed him +into the province, but as his troops after the wont of Spanish +insurrectionary armies suddenly melted away, he was obliged to return +to Lusitania (612). Next year (613) Servilianus resumed the offensive, +traversed the districts on the Baetis and Anas, and then advancing +into Lusitania occupied a number of townships. A large number of the +insurgents fell into his hands; the leaders--of whom there were about +500--were executed; those who had gone over from Roman territory to +the enemy had their hands cut off; the remaining mass were sold into +slavery. But on this occasion also the Spanish war proved true to +its fickle and capricious character. After all these successes the +Roman army was attacked by Viriathus while it was besieging Erisane, +defeated, and driven to a rock where it was wholly in the power of the +enemy. Viriathus, however, was content, like the Samnite general +formerly at the Caudine passes, to conclude a peace with Servilianus, +in which the community of the Lusitanians was recognized as sovereign +and Viriathus acknowledged as its king. The power of the Romans had +not risen more than the national sense of honour had sunk; in the +capital men were glad to be rid of the irksome war, and the senate +and people ratified the treaty. But Quintus Servilius Caepio, the +full brother of Servilianus and his successor in office, was far +from satisfied with this complaisance; and the senate was weak +enough at first to authorize the consul to undertake secret +machinations against Viriathus, and then to view at least with +indulgence the open breach of his pledged word for which there was +no palliation. So Caepio invaded Lusitania, and traversed the land +as far as the territories of the Vettones and Callaeci; Viriathus +declined a conflict with the superior force, and by dexterous movements +evaded his antagonist (614). But when in the ensuing year (615) +Caepio renewed the attack, and in addition the army, which had in +The meantime become available in the northern province, made its +appearance under Marcus Popillius in Lusitania, Viriathus sued for +peace on any terms. He was required to give up to the Romans all +who had passed over to him from the Roman territory, amongst whom +was his own father-in-law; he did so, and the Romans ordered them +to be executed or to have their hands cut off. But this was not +sufficient; the Romans were not in the habit of announcing to the +vanquished all at once their destined fate. + +His Death + +One behest after another was issued to the Lusitanians, each successive +demand more intolerable than its predecessors; and at length they were +required even to surrender their arms. Then Viriathus recollected +the fate of his countrymen whom Galba had caused to be disarmed, and +grasped his sword afresh. But it was too late. His wavering had +sown the seeds of treachery among those who were immediately around +him; three of his confidants, Audas, Ditalco, and Minucius from Urso, +despairing of the possibility of renewed victory, procured from the +king permission once more to enter into negotiations for peace with +Caepio, and employed it for the purpose of selling the life of the +Lusitanian hero to the foreigners in return for the assurance of +personal amnesty and further rewards. On their return to the camp +they assured the king of the favourable issue of their negotiations, +and in the following night stabbed him while asleep in his tent. +The Lusitanians honoured the illustrious chief by an unparalleled +funeral solemnity at which two hundred pairs of champions fought in +the funeral games; and still more highly by the fact, that they did +not renounce the struggle, but nominated Tautamus as their commander- +in-chief in room of the fallen hero. The plan projected by the +latter for wresting Saguntum from the Romans was sufficiently bold; +but the new general possessed neither the wise moderation nor the +military skill of his predecessor. The expedition utterly broke +down, and the army on its return was attacked in crossing the Baetis +and compelled to surrender unconditionally. Thus was Lusitania +subdued, far more by treachery and assassination on the part of +foreigners and natives than by honourable war. + +Numantia + +While the southern province was scourged by Viriathus and the +Lusitanians, a second and not less serious war had, not without +their help, broken out in the northern province among the Celtiberian +nations. The brilliant successes of Viriathus induced the Arevacae +likewise in 610 to rise against the Romans; and for this reason the +consul Quintus Caecilius Metellus, who was sent to Spain to relieve +Maximus Aemilianus, did hot proceed to the southern province, but +turned against the Celtiberians. In the contest with them, and +more especially during the siege of the town of Contrebia which was +deemed impregnable, he showed the same ability which he had displayed +in vanquishing the Macedonian pretender; after his two years' +administration (611, 612) the northern province was reduced to +obedience. The two towns of Termantia and Numantia alone had not +yet opened their gates to the Romans; but in their case also a +capitulation had been almost concluded, and the greater part of +the conditions had been fulfilled by the Spaniards. When required, +however, to deliver up their arms, they were restrained like +Viriathus by their genuine Spanish pride in the possession of a well- +wielded sword, and they resolved to continue the war under the daring +Megaravicus. It seemed folly: the consular army, the command of +which was taken up in 613 by the consul Quintus Pompeius, was four +times as numerous as the whole population capable of bearing arms in +Numantia. But the general, who was wholly unacquainted with war, +sustained defeats so severe under the walls of the two cities (613, +614), that he preferred at length to procure by means of negotiations +the peace which he could not compel. With Termantia a definitive +agreement must have taken place. In the case of the Numantines the +Roman general liberated their captives, and summoned the community +under the secret promise of favourable treatment to surrender to him +at discretion. The Numantines, weary of the war, consented, and +the general actually limited his demands to the smallest possible +measure. Prisoners of war, deserters, and hostages were delivered up, +and the stipulated sum of money was mostly paid, when in 615 the new +general Marcus Popillius Laenas arrived in the camp. As soon as +Pompeius saw the burden of command devolve on other shoulders, he, +with a view to escape from the reckoning that awaited him at Rome +for a peace which was according to Roman ideas disgraceful, lighted +on the expedient of not merely breaking, but of disowning his word; +and when the Numantines came to make their last payment, in the +presence of their officers and his own he flatly denied the conclusion +of the agreement. The matter was referred for judicial decision to +the senate at Rome. While it was discussed there, the war before +Numantia was suspended, and Laenas occupied himself with an expedition +to Lusitania where he helped to accelerate the catastrophe of +Viriathus, and with a foray against the Lusones, neighbours of the +Numantines. When at length the decision of the senate arrived, its +purport was that the war should be continued--the state became thus +a party to the knavery of Pompeius. + +Mancinus + +With unimpaired courage and increased resentment the Numantines +resumed the struggle; Laenas fought against them unsuccessfully, +nor was his successor Gaius Hostilius Mancinus more fortunate (617). +But the catastrophe was brought about not so much by the arms of the +Numantines, as by the lax and wretched military discipline of the Roman +generals and by--what was its natural consequence--the annually- +increasing dissoluteness, insubordination, and cowardice of the Roman +soldiers. The mere rumour, which moreover was false, that the +Cantabri and Vaccaei were advancing to the relief of Numantia, +induced the Roman army to evacuate the camp by night without orders, +and to seek shelter in the entrenchments constructed sixteen years +before by Nobilior.(5) The Numantines, informed of their sudden +departure, hotly pursued the fugitive army, and surrounded it: +there remained to it no choice save to fight its way with sword in +hand through the enemy, or to conclude peace on the terms laid down +by the Numantines. Although the consul was personally a man of +honour, he was weak and little known. Tiberius Gracchus, who served +in the army as quaestor, had more influence with the Celtiberians from +the hereditary respect in which he was held on account of his father +who had so wisely organized the province of the Ebro, and induced the +Numantines to be content with an equitable treaty of peace sworn to +by all the staff-officers. But the senate not only recalled the +general immediately, but after long deliberation caused a proposal to +be submitted to the burgesses that the convention should be treated +as they had formerly treated that of Caudium, in other words, that +they should refuse to ratify it and should devolve the responsibility +for it on those by whom it had been concluded. By right this +category ought to have included all the officers who had sworn to the +treaty; but Gracchus and the others were saved by their connections. +Mancinus alone, who did not belong to the circles of the highest +aristocracy, was destined to pay the penalty for his own and others' +guilt. Stripped of his insignia, the Roman consular was conducted to +the enemy's outposts, and, when the Numantines refused to receive him +that they might not on their part acknowledge the treaty as null, +the late commander-in-chief stood in his shirt and with his hands tied +behind his back for a whole day before the gates of Numantia, a +pitiful spectacle to friend and foe. Yet the bitter lesson seemed +utterly lost on the successor of Mancinus, his colleague in the +consulship, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. While the discussions as to +the treaty with Mancinus were pending in Rome, he attacked the free +people of the Vaccaei under frivolous pretexts just as Lucullus had +done sixteen years before, and began in concert with the general of +the Further province to besiege Pallantia (618). A decree of the +senate enjoined him to desist from the war; nevertheless, under the +pretext that the circumstances had meanwhile changed, he continued +the siege. In doing so he showed himself as bad a soldier as he was +a bad citizen. After lying so long before the large and strong city +that his supplies in that rugged and hostile country failed, he was +obliged to leave behind all the sick and wounded and to undertake a +retreat, in which the pursuing Pallantines destroyed half of his +soldiers, and, if they had not broken off the pursuit too early, +would probably have utterly annihilated the Roman army, which was +already in full course of dissolution. For this conduct a fine was +imposed on the high-born general at his return. His successors +Lucius Furius Philus (618) and Gaius Calpurnius Piso (619) had +again to wage war against the Numantines; and, inasmuch as they +did nothing at all, they fortunately came home without defeat. + +Scipio Aemilianus + +Even the Roman government began at length to perceive that matters +could no longer continue on this footing; they resolved to entrust +the subjugation of the small Spanish country-town, as an extraordinary +measure, to the first general of Rome, Scipio Aemilianus. The pecuniary +means for carrying on the war were indeed doled out to him with +preposterous parsimony, and the permission to levy soldiers, which +he asked, was even directly refused--a result towards which coterie- +intrigues and the fear of being burdensome to the sovereign people may +have co-operated. But a great number of friends and clients voluntarily +accompanied him; among them was his brother Maximus Aemilianus, whosome +years before had commanded with distinction against Viriathus. Supported +by this trusty band, which was formed into a guard for the general, Scipio +began to reorganize the deeply disordered army (620). First of all, the +camp-followers had to take their departure--there were found as many as +2000 courtesans, and an endless number of soothsayers and priests of all +sorts--and, if the soldier was not available for fighting, he had at +least to work in the trenches and to march. During the first summer +the general avoided any conflict with the Numantines; he contented +himself with destroying the stores in the surrounding country, and with +chastising the Vaccaei who sold corn to the Numantines, and compelling +them to acknowledge the supremacy of Rome. It was only towards winter +that Scipio drew together his army round Numantia. Besides the Numidian +contingent of horsemen, infantry, and twelve elephants led by the +prince Jugurtha, and the numerous Spanish contingents, there were +four legions, in all a force of 60,000 men investing a city whose +citizens capable of bearing arms did not exceed 8000 at the most. +Nevertheless the besieged frequently offered battle; but Scipio, +perceiving clearly that the disorganization of many years was not to +be repaired all at once, refused to accept it, and, when conflicts +did occur in connection with the sallies of the besieged, the +cowardly flight of the legionaries, checked with difficulty by +the appearance of the general in person, justified such tactics +only too forcibly. Never did a general treat his soldiers more +contemptuously than Scipio treated the Numantine army; and he showed +his opinion of it not only by bitter speeches, but above all by his +course of action. For the first time the Romans waged war by means of +mattock and spade, where it depended on themselves alone whether they +should use the sword. Around the whole circuit of the city wall, +which was nearly three miles in length, there was constructed a double +line of circumvallation of twice that extent, provided with walls, +towers, and ditches; and the river Douro, by which at first some +supplies had reached the besieged through the efforts of bold boatmen +and divers, was at length closed. Thus the town, which they did not +venture to assault, could not well fail to be reduced through famine; +the more so, as it had not been possible for the citizens to lay in +provisions during the last summer. The Numantines soon suffered from +want of everything. One of their boldest men, Retogenes, cut his +way with a few companions through the lines of the enemy, and his +touching entreaty that kinsmen should not be allowed to perish without +help produced a great effect in Lutia at least, one of the towns +of the Arevacae. But before the citizens of Lutia had come to a +decision, Scipio, having received information from the partisans of +Rome in the town, appeared with a superior force before its walls, and +compelled the authorities to deliver up to him the leaders of the +movement, 400 of the flower of the youth, whose hands were all cut +off by order of the Roman general. The Numantines, thus deprived of +their last hope, sent to Scipio to negotiate as to their submission +and called on the brave man to spare the brave; but when the envoys +on their return announced that Scipio required unconditional surrender, +they were torn in pieces by the furious multitude, and a fresh term +elapsed before famine and pestilence had completed their work. +At length a second message was sent to the Roman headquarters, +that the town was now ready to submit at discretion. When the citizens +were accordingly instructed to appear on the following day before the +gates, they asked for some days delay, to allow those of their number +who had determined not to survive the loss of liberty time to die. +It was granted, and not a few took advantage of it. At last the +miserable remnant appeared before the gates. Scipio chose fifty of +the most eminent to form part of his triumphal procession; the rest +were sold into slavery, the city was levelled with the ground, and +its territory was distributed among the neighbouring towns. This +occurred in the autumn of 621, fifteen months after Scipio had +assumed the chief command. + +The fall of Numantia struck at the root of the opposition that was +still here and there stirring against Rome; military demonstrations +and the imposition of fines sufficed to secure the acknowledgment of +the Roman supremacy in all Hither Spain. + +The Callaeci Conquered +New Organization of Spain + +In Further Spain the Roman dominion was confirmed and extended by +the subjugation of the Lusitanians. The consul Decimus Junius Brutus, +who came in Caepio's room, settled the Lusitanian war-captives in +the neighbourhood of Saguntum, and gave to their new town Valentia +(Valencia), like Carteia, a Latin constitution (616); he moreover +(616-618) traversed the Iberian west coast in various directions, +and was the first of the Romans to reach the shore of the Atlantic Ocean. +The towns of the Lusitanians dwelling there, which were obstinately +defended by their inhabitants, both men and women, were subdued by +him; and the hitherto independent Callaeci were united with the Roman +province after a great battle, in which 50,000 of them are said to +have fallen. After the subjugation of the Vaccaei, Lusitanians, and +Callaeci, the whole peninsula, with the exception of the north coast, +was now at least nominally subject to the Romans. + +A senatorial commission was sent to Spain in order to organize, in +concert with Scipio, the newly-won provincial territory after the Roman +method; and Scipio did what he could to obviate the effects of the +infamous and stupid policy of his predecessors. The Caucani for +instance, whose shameful maltreatment by Lucullus he had been obliged +to witness nineteen years before when a military tribune, were invited +by him to return to their town and to rebuild it. Spain began again +to experience more tolerable times. The suppression of piracy, which +found dangerous lurking-places in the Baleares, through the occupation +of these islands by Quintus Caecilius Metellus in 631, was singularly +conducive, to the prosperity of Spanish commerce; and in other respects +also the fertile islands, inhabited by a dense population which was +unsurpassed in the use of the sling, were a valuable possession. +How numerous the Latin-speaking population in the peninsula was even +then, is shown by the settlement of 3000 Spanish Latins in the towns +of Palma and Pollentia (Pollenza) in the newly-acquired islands. +In spite of various grave evils the Roman administration of Spain +preserved on the whole the stamp which the Catonian period, and +primarily Tiberius Gracchus, had impressed on it. It is true that +the Roman frontier territory had not a little to suffer from the +inroads of the tribes, but half subdued or not subdued at all, on +the north and west. Among the Lusitanians in particular the poorer +youths regularly congregated as banditti, and in large gangs levied +contributions from their countrymen or their neighbours, for which +reason, even at a much later period, the isolated homesteads in this +region were constructed in the style of fortresses, and were, in case +of need, capable of defence; nor did the Romans succeed in putting +an end to these predatory habits in the inhospitable and almost +inaccessible Lusitanian mountains. But what had previously been wars +assumed more and more the character of brigandage, which every tolerably +efficient governor was able to repress with his ordinary resources; +and in spite of such inflictions on the border districts Spain was +the most flourishing and best-organized country in all the Roman +dominions; the system of tenths and the middlemen were there +unknown; the population was numerous, and the country was rich +in corn and cattle. + +The Protected States + +Far more insupportable was the condition--intermediate between formal +sovereignty and actual subjection--of the African, Greek, and Asiatic +states which were brought within the sphere of Roman hegemony through +the wars of Rome with Carthage, Macedonia, and Syria, and their +consequences. An independent state does not pay too dear a price +for its independence in accepting the sufferings of war when it +cannot avoid them; a state which has lost its independence may find +at least some compensation in the fact that its protector procures +for it peace with its neighbours. But these client states of Rome +had neither independence nor peace. In Africa there practically +subsisted a perpetual border-war between Carthage and Numidia. +In Egypt Roman arbitration had settled the dispute as to the +succession between the two brothers Ptolemy Philometor and Ptolemy +the Fat; nevertheless the new rulers of Egypt and Cyrene waged war +for the possession of Cyprus. In Asia not only were most of the +kingdoms--Bithynia, Cappadocia, Syria--likewise torn by internal +quarrels as to the succession and by the interventions of +neighbouring states to which these quarrels gave rise, but various +and severe wars were carried on between the Attalids and the +Galatians, between the Attalids and the kings of Bithynia, and even +between Rhodes and Crete. In Hellas proper, in like manner, the +pigmy feuds which were customary there continued to smoulder; and +even Macedonia, formerly so tranquil, consumed its strength in the +intestine strife that arose out of its new democratic constitutions. +It was the fault of the rulers as well as the ruled, that the last +vital energies and the last prosperity of the nations were expended +in these aimless feuds. The client states ought to have perceived +that a state which cannot wage war against every one cannot wage war +at all, and that, as the possessions and power enjoyed by all these +states were practically under Roman guarantee, they had in the event +of any difference no alternative but to settle the matter amicably +with their neighbours or to call in the Romans as arbiters. When the +Achaean diet was urged by the Rhodians and Cretans to grant them the +aid of the league, and seriously deliberated as to sending it (601), +it was simply a political farce; the principle which the leader of the +party friendly to Rome then laid down--that the Achaeans were no +longer at liberty to wage war without the permission of the Romans-- +expressed, doubtless with disagreeable precision, the simple truth +that the sovereignty of the dependent states was merely a formal +one, and that any attempt to give life to the shadow must necessarily +lead to the destruction of the shadow itself. But the ruling +community deserves a censure more severe than that directed against +the ruled. It is no easy task for a man--any more than for a +state--to own to insignificance; it is the duty and right of the +ruler either to renounce his authority, or by the display of an +imposing material superiority to compel the ruled to resignation. +The Roman senate did neither. Invoked and importuned on all hands, +the senate interfered incessantly in the course of African, Hellenic, +Asiatic, and Egyptian affairs; but it did so after so inconstant +and loose a fashion, that its attempts to settle matters usually only +rendered the confusion worse. It was the epoch of commissions. +Commissioners of the senate were constantly going to Carthage and +Alexandria, to the Achaean diet, and to the courts of the rulers of +western Asia; they investigated, inhibited, reported, and yet +decisive steps were not unfrequently taken in the most important +matters without the knowledge, or against the wishes, of the senate. +It might happen that Cyprus, for instance, which the senate had +assigned to the kingdom of Cyrene, was nevertheless retained by Egypt; +that a Syrian prince ascended the throne of his ancestors under the +pretext that he had obtained a promise of it from the Romans, while +the senate had in fact expressly refused to give it to him, and he +himself had only escaped from Rome by breaking their interdict; that +even the open murder of a Roman commissioner, who under the orders of +the senate administered as guardian the government of Syria, passed +totally unpunished. The Asiatics were very well aware that they +were not in a position to resist the Roman legions; but they were +no less aware that the senate was but little inclined to give the +burgesses orders to march for the Euphrates or the Nile. Thus the +state of these remote countries resembled that of the schoolroom +when the teacher is absent or lax; and the government of Rome +deprived the nations at once of the blessings of freedom and of +the blessings of order. For the Romans themselves, moreover, this +state of matters was so far perilous that it to a certain extent left +their northern and eastern frontier exposed. In these quarters +kingdoms might be formed by the aid of the inland countries situated +beyond the limits of the Roman hegemony and in antagonism to the weak +states under Roman protection, without Rome being able directly or +speedily to interfere, and might develop a power dangerous to, and +entering sooner or later into rivalry with, Rome. No doubt the +condition of the bordering nations--everywhere split into fragments +and nowhere favourable to political development on a great scale-- +formed some sort of protection against this danger; yet we very +clearly perceive in the history of the east, that at this period the +Euphrates was no longer guarded by the phalanx of Seleucus and was +not yet watched by the legions of Augustus. It was high time to put +an end to this state of indecision. But the only possible way of +ending it was by converting the client states into Roman provinces. +This could be done all the more easily, that the Roman provincial +constitution in substance only concentrated military power in the +hands of the Roman governor, while administration and jurisdiction +in the main were, or at any rate were intended to be, retained by +the communities, so that as much of the old political independence as +was at all capable of life might be preserved in the form of communal +freedom. The necessity for this administrative reform could not +well be mistaken; the only question was, whether the senate would +delay and mar it, or whether it would have the courage and the power +clearly to discern and energetically to execute what was needful. + +Carthage and Numidia + +Let us first glance at Africa. The order of things established by +the Romans in Libya rested in substance on a balance of power between +the Nomad kingdom of Massinissa and the city of Carthage. While the +former was enlarged, confirmed, and civilized under the vigorous +and sagacious government of Massinissa,(6) Carthage in consequence +simply of a state of peace became once more, at least in wealth and +population, what it had been at the height of its political power. +The Romans saw with ill-concealed and envious fear the apparently +indestructible prosperity of their old rival; while hitherto they had +refused to grant to it any real protection against the constantly +continued encroachments of Massinissa, they now began openly to +interfere in favour of the neighbouring prince. The dispute which +had been pending for more than thirty years between the city and the +king as to the possession of the province of Emporia on the Lesser +Syrtis, one of the most fertile in the Carthaginian territory, was +at length (about 594) decided by Roman commissioners to the effect +that the Carthaginians should evacuate those towns of Eniporia which +still remained in their possession, and should pay 500 talents +(120,000 pounds) to the king as compensation for the illegal enjoyment +of the territory. The consequence was, that Massinissa immediately +seized another Carthaginian district on the western frontier of +their territory, the town of Tusca and the great plains near the +Bagradas; no course was left to the Carthaginians but to commence +another hopeless process at Rome. After long and, beyond doubt, +intentional delay a second commission appeared in Africa (597); +but, when the Carthaginians were unwilling to commit themselves +unconditionally to a decision to be pronounced by it as arbiter +without an exact preliminary investigation into the question of +legal right, and insisted on a thorough discussion of the latter +question, the commissioners without further ceremony returned to Rome. + +The Destruction of Carthage Resolved on at Rome + +The question of right between Carthage and Massinissa thus remained +unsettled; but the mission gave rise to a more important decision. +The head of this commission had been the old Marcus Cato, at that +time perhaps the most influential man in the senate, and, as a +veteran survivor from the Hannibalic war, still filled with thorough +hatred and thorough dread of the Phoenicians. With surprise and +jealousy Cato had seen with his own eyes the flourishing state of +the hereditary foes of Rome, the luxuriant country and the crowded +streets, the immense stores of arms in the magazines and the rich +materials for a fleet; already he in spirit beheld a second +Hannibal wielding all these resources against Rome. In his honest +and manly, but thoroughly narrow-minded, fashion, he came to the +conclusion that Rome could not be secure until Carthage had +disappeared from the face of the earth, and immediately after his +return set forth this view in the senate. Those of the aristocracy +whose ideas were more enlarged, and especially Scipio Nasica, +opposed this paltry policy with great earnestness; and showed how +blind were the fears entertained regarding a mercantile city whose +Phoenician inhabitants were becoming more and more disused to warlike +arts and ideas, and how the existence of that rich commercial city +was quite compatible with the political supremacy of Rome. Even the +conversion of Carthage into a Roman provincial town would have been +practicable, and indeed, compared with the present condition of the +Phoenicians, perhaps even not unwelcome. Cato, however, desired not +the submission, but the destruction of the hated city. His policy, +as it would seem, found allies partly in the statesmen who were +inclined to bring the transmarine territories into immediate +dependence on Rome, partly and especially in the mighty influence +of the Roman bankers and great capitalists on whom, after the +destruction of the rich moneyed and mercantile city, its inheritance +would necessarily devolve. The majority resolved at the first fitting +opportunity--respect for public opinion required that they should +wait for such--to bring about war with Carthage, or rather the +destruction of the city. + +War between Massinissa and Carthage + +The desired occasion was soon found. The provoking violations of +right on the part of Massinissa and the Romans brought to the helm +in Carthage Hasdrubal and Carthalo, the leaders of the patriotic +party, which was not indeed, like the Achaean, disposed to revolt +against the Roman supremacy, but was at least resolved to defend, +if necessary, by arms against Massinissa the rights belonging by +treaty to the Carthaginians. The patriots ordered forty of the most +decided partisans of Massinissa to be banished from the city, and made +the people swear that they would on no account ever permit their return; +at the same time, in order to repel the attacks that might be expected +from Massinissa, they formed out of the free Numidians a numerous army +under Arcobarzanes, the grandson of Syphax (about 600). Massinissa, +however, was prudent enough not to take arms now, but to submit +himself unconditionally to the decision of the Romans respecting +the disputed territory on the Bagradas; and thus the Romans could +assert with some plausibility that the Carthaginian preparations must +have been directed against them, and could insist on the immediate +dismissal of the army and destruction of the naval stores. +The Carthaginian senate was disposed to consent, but the multitude +prevented the execution of the decree, and the Roman envoys, who +had brought this order to Carthage, were in peril of their lives. +Massinissa sent his son Gulussa to Rome to report the continuance of +the Carthaginian warlike preparations by land and sea, and to hasten +the declaration of war. After a further embassy of ten men had +confirmed the statement that Carthage was in reality arming (602), +the senate rejected the demand of Cato for an absolute declaration +of war, but resolved in a secret sitting that war should be declared +if the Carthaginians would not consent to dismiss their army and +to burn their materials for a fleet. Meanwhile the conflict had +already begun in Africa. Massinissa had sent back the men whom the +Carthaginians had banished, under the escort of his son Gulussa, to +the city. When the Carthaginians closed their gates against them and +killed also some of the Numidians returning home, Massinissa put his +troops in motion, and the patriot party in Carthage also prepared +for the struggle. But Hasdrubal, who was placed at the head of their +army, was one of the usual army-destroyers whom the Carthaginians +were in the habit of employing as generals; strutting about in his +general's purple like a theatrical king, and pampering his portly +person even in the camp, that vain and unwieldy man was little +fitted to render help in an exigency which perhaps even the genius +of Hamilcar and the arm of Hannibal could have no longer averted. +Before the eyes of Scipio Aemilanus, who at that time a military tribune +in the Spanish army, had been sent to Massinissa to bring over African +elephants for his commander, and who on this occasion looked down on +the conflict from a mountain "like Zeus from Ida," the Carthaginians +and Numidians fought a great battle, in which the former, though +reinforced by 6000 Numidian horsemen brought to them by discontented +captains of Massinissa, and superior in number to the enemy, were +worsted. After this defeat the Carthaginians offered to make +cessions of territory and payments of money to Massinissa, and +Scipio at their solicitation attempted to bring about an agreement; +but the project of peace was frustrated by the refusal of the +Carthaginian patriots to surrender the deserters. Hasdrubal, +however, closely hemmed in by the troops of his antagonist, was +compelled to grant to the latter all that he demanded--the surrender +of the deserters, the return of the exiles, the delivery of arms, +the marching off under the yoke, the payment of 100 talents (24,000 +pounds) annually for the next fifty years. But even this agreement +was not kept by the Numidians; on the contrary the disarmed remnant +of the Carthaginian army was cut to pieces by them on the way home. + +Declaration of War by Rome + +The Romans, who had carefully abstained from preventing the war +Itself by seasonable interposition, had now what they wished: namely, +A serviceable pretext for war--for the Carthaginians had certainly +Now transgressed the stipulations of the treaty, that they should not +wage war against the allies of Rome or beyond their own bounds(7)-- +and an antagonist already beaten beforehand. The Italian contingents +were already summoned to Rome, and the ships were assembled; the +declaration of war might issue at any moment. The Carthaginians made +every effort to avert the impending blow. Hasdrubal and Carthalo, +the leaders of the patriot party, were condemned to death, and an +embassy was sent to Rome to throw the responsibility on them. +But at the same time envoys from Utica, the second city of the +Libyan Phoenicians, arrived there with full powers to surrender +their Community wholly to the Romans--compared with such obliging +submissiveness, it seemed almost an insolence that the Carthaginians +had rested content with ordering, unbidden, the execution of their most +eminent men. The senate declared that the excuse of the Carthaginians +was found insufficient; to the question, what in that case would suffice, +the reply was given that the Carthaginians knew that themselves. They +might, no doubt, have known what the Romans wished; but yet it seemed +impossible to believe that the last hour of their loved native city had +really come. Once more Carthaginian envoys--on this occasion thirty +in number and with unlimited powers--were sent to Rome. When they +arrived, war was already declared (beginning of 605), and the double +consular army had embarked. Yet they even now attempted to dispel +the storm by complete submission. The senate replied that Rome was +ready to guarantee to the Carthaginian community its territory, its +municipal freedom and its laws, its public and private property, +provided that it would furnish to the consuls who had just departed for +Sicily within the space of a month at Lilybaeum 300 hostages from the +children of the leading families, and would fulfil the further orders +which the consuls in conformity with their instructions should issue +to them. The reply has been called ambiguous; but very erroneously, +as even at the time clearsighted men among the Carthaginians themselves +pointed out. The circumstance that everything which they could ask +was guaranteed with the single exception of the city, and that +nothing was said as to stopping the embarkation of the troops for +Africa, showed very clearly what the Roman intentions were; the +senate acted with fearful harshness, but it did not assume the +semblance of concession. The Carthaginians, however, would not open +their eyes; there was no statesman found, who had the power to move +the unstable multitude of the city either to thorough resistance or +to thorough resignation. When they heard at the same time of the +horrible decree of war and of the endurable demand for hostages, they +complied immediately with the latter, and still clung to hope, because +they had not the courage fully to realize the import of surrendering +themselves beforehand to the arbitrary will of a mortal foe. +The consuls sent back the hostages from Lilybaeum to Rome, and informed +the Carthaginian envoys that they would learn further particulars in +Africa. The landing was accomplished without resistance, and the +provisions demanded were supplied. When the gerusia of Carthage +appeared in a body at the head-quarters in Utica to receive the +further orders, the consuls required in the first instance the +disarming of the city. To the question of the Carthaginians, who +was in that case to protect them even against their own emigrants-- +against the army, which had swelled to 20,000 men, under the command +of Husdrubal who had saved himself from the sentence of death by +flight--it was replied, that this would be the concern of the Romans. +Accordingly the council of the city obsequiously appeared before the +consuls, with all their fleet-material, all the military stores of the +public magazines, all the arms that were found in the possession of +private persons--to the number of 3000 catapults and 200,000 sets of +armour--and inquired whether anything more was desired. Then the +consul Lucius Marcius Censorinus rose and announced to the council, +that in accordance with the instructions given by the senate the +existing city was to be destroyed, but that the inhabitants were +at liberty to settle anew in their territory wherever they chose, +provided it were at a distance of at least ten miles from the sea. + +Resistance of the Carthaginians + +This fearful command aroused in the Phoenicians all the--shall +we say magnanimous or frenzied?--enthusiasm, which was displayed +previously by the Tyrians against Alexander, and subsequently by the +Jews against Vespasian. Unparalleled as was the patience with which +this nation could endure bondage and oppression, as unparalleled was +now the furious rising of that mercantile and seafaring population, +when the things at stake were not the state and freedom, but the +beloved soil of their ancestral city and their venerated and dear +home beside the sea. Hope and deliverance were out of the question; +political discretion enjoined even now an unconditional submission. +But the voice of the few who counselled the acceptance of what was +inevitable was, like the call of the pilot during a hurricane, +drowned amidst the furious yells of the multitude; which, in its +frantic rage, laid hands on the magistrates of the city who had +counselled the surrender of the hostages and arms, made such of the +innocent bearers of the news as had ventured at all to return home +expiate their terrible tidings, and tore in pieces the Italians who +chanced to be sojourning in the city by way of avenging beforehand, +at least on them, the destruction of its native home. No resolution +was passed to defend themselves; unarmed as they were, this was +a matter of course. The gates were closed; stones were carried +to the battlements of the walls that had been stripped of the +catapults; the chief command was entrusted to Hasdrubal, the grandson +of Massinissa; the slaves in a body were declared free. The army +of refugees under the fugitive Hasdrubal--which was in possession of +the whole Carthaginian territory with the exception of the towns on +the east coast occupied by the Romans, viz. Hadrumetum, Little +Leptis, Thapsus and Achulla, and the city of Utica, and offered an +invaluable support for the defence--was entreated not to refuse its +aid to the commonwealth in this dire emergency. At the same time, +concealing in true Phoenician style the most unbounded resentment +under the cloak of humility, they attempted to deceive the enemy. +A message was sent to the consuls to request a thirty days' +armistice for the despatch of an embassy to Rome. The Carthaginians +were well aware that the generals neither would nor could grant this +request, which had been refused once already; but the consuls were +confirmed by it in the natural supposition that after the first outbreak +of despair the utterly defenceless city would submit, and accordingly +postponed the attack. The precious interval was employed in preparing +catapults and armour; day and night all, without distinction of age or +sex, were occupied in constructing machines and forging arms; the public +buildings were torn down to procure timber and metal; women cut off +their hair to furnish the strings indispensable for the catapults; in +an incredibly short time the walls and the men were once more armed. +That all this could be done without the consuls, who were but a few +miles off, learning anything of it, is not the least marvellous feature +in this marvellous movement sustained by a truly enthusiastic, and in +fact superhuman, national hatred. When at length the consuls, weary +of waiting, broke up from their camp at Utica, and thought that they +should be able to scale the bare walls with ladders, they found to their +surprise and horror the battlements crowned anew with catapults, and +the large populous city which they had hoped to occupy like an open +village, able and ready to defend itself to the last man. + +Situation of Carthage + +Carthage was rendered very strong both by the nature of its +situation(8) and by the art of its inhabitants, who had very often +to depend on the protection of its walls. Into the broad gulf of +Tunis, which is bounded on the west by Cape Farina and on the east +by Cape Bon, there projects in a direction from west to east a +promontory, which is encompassed on three sides by the sea and is +connected with the mainland only towards the west. This promontory, +at its narrowest part only about two miles broad and on the whole flat, +again expands towards the gulf, and terminates there in the two +heights of Jebel-Khawi and Sidi bu Said, between which extends +the plain of El Mersa. On its southern portion which ends in the +height of Sidi bu Said lay the city of Carthage. The pretty steep +declivity of that height towards the gulf and its numerous rocks and +shallows gave natural strength to the side of the city next to the +gulf, and a simple circumvallation was sufficient there. On the +wall along the west or landward side, on the other hand, where nature +afforded no protection, every appliance within the power of the art +of fortification in those times was expended. It consisted, as its +recently discovered remains exactly tallying with the description of +Polybius have shown, of an outer wall 6 1/2 feet thick and immense +casemates attached to it behind, probably along its whole extent; +these were separated from the outer wall by a covered way 6 feet +broad, and had a depth of 14 feet, exclusive of the front and back +walls, each of which was fully 3 feet broad.(9) This enormous wall, +composed throughout of large hewn blocks, rose in two stories, +exclusive of the battlements and the huge towers four stories high, +to a height of 45 feet,(10) and furnished in the lower range of the +casemates stables and provender-stores for 300 elephants, in the upper +range stalls for horses, magazines, and barracks.(11) The citadel-hill, +the Byrsa (Syriac, birtha = citadel), a comparatively considerable +rock having a height of 188 feet and at its base a circumference +of fully 2000 double paces,(12) was joined to this wall at its +southern end, just as the rock-wall of the Capitol was joined +to the city-wall of Rome. Its summit bore the huge temple of the +God of Healing, resting on a basement of sixty steps. The south +side of the city was washed partly by the shallow lake of Tunes towards +the south-west, which was separated almost wholly from the gulf by a +narrow and low tongue of land running southwards from the Carthaginian +peninsula,(13) partly by the open gulf towards the south-east. +At this last spot was situated the double harbour of the city, +a work of human hands; the outer or commercial harbour, a longish +rectangle with the narrow end turned to the sea, from whose entrance, +only 70 feet wide, broad quays stretched along the water on both sides, +and the inner circular war-harbour, the Cothon,(14) with the island +containing the admiral's house in the middle, which was approached +through the outer harbour. Between the two passed the city wall, +which turning eastward from the Byrsa excluded the tongue of +land and the outer harbour, but included the war-harbour, so that +the entrance to the latter must be conceived as capable of being +closed like a gate. Not far from the war-harbour lay the +marketplace, which was connected by three narrow streets with +the citadel open on the side towards the town. To the north of, +and beyond, the city proper, the pretty considerable space of +the modern El Mersa, even at that time occupied in great part by +villas and well-watered gardens, and then called Magalia, had a +circumvallation of its own joining on to the city wall. On the +opposite point of the peninsula, the Jebel-Khawi near the modern +village of Ghamart, lay the necropolis. These three--the old +city, the suburb, and the necropolis--together filled the whole +breadth of the promontory on its side next the gulf, and were only +accessible by the two highways leading to Utica and Tunes along +that narrow tongue of land, which, although not closed by a wall, +yet afforded a most advantageous position for the armies taking +their stand under the protection of the capital with the view of +protecting it in return. + +The difficult task of reducing so well fortified a city was rendered +still more difficult by the fact, that the resources of the capital +itself and of its territory which still included 800 townships and +was mostly under the power of the emigrant party on the one hand, +and the numerous tribes of the free or half-free Libyans hostile to +Massinissa on the other, enabled the Carthaginians simultaneously +with their defence of the city to keep a numerous army in the field-- +an army which, from the desperate temper of the emigrants and the +serviceableness of the light Numidian cavalry, the besiegers could +not afford to disregard. + +The Siege + +The consuls accordingly had by no means an easy task to perform, +when they now found themselves compelled to commence a regular siege. +Manius Manilius, who commanded the land army, pitched his camp +opposite the wall of the citadel, while Lucius Censorinus stationed +himself with the fleet on the lake and there began operations on the +tongue of land. The Carthaginian army, under Hasdrubal, encamped on +the other side of the lake near the fortress of Nepheris, whence it +obstructed the labours of the Roman soldiers despatched to cut +timber for constructing machines, and the able cavalry-leader in +particular, Himilco Phameas, slew many of the Romans. Censorinus +fitted up two large battering-rams on the tongue, and made a +breach with them at this weakest place of the wall; but, as evening +had set in, the assault had to be postponed. During the night the +besieged succeeded in filling up a great part of the breach, and in +so damaging the Roman machines by a sortie that they could not work +next day. Nevertheless the Romans ventured on the assault; but +they found the breach and the portions of the wall and houses in the +neighbourhood so strongly occupied, and advanced with such imprudence, +that they were repulsed with severe loss and would have suffered +still greater damage, had not the military tribune Scipio Aemilianus, +foreseeing the issue of the foolhardy attack, kept together his men +in front of the walls and with them intercepted the fugitives. +Manilius accomplished still less against the impregnable wall of +the citadel. The siege thus lingered on. The diseases engendered in +the camp by the heat of summer, the departure of Censorinus the abler +general, the ill-humour and inaction of Massinissa who was naturally +far from pleased to see the Romans taking for themselves the booty +which he had long coveted, and the death of the king at the age of +ninety which ensued soon after (end of 605), utterly arrested the +offensive operations of the Romans. They had enough to do in +protecting their ships against the Carthaginian incendiaries and +their camp against nocturnal surprises, and in securing food for +their men and horses by the construction of a harbour-fort and by +forays in the neighbourhood. Two expeditions directed against +Hasdrubal remained without success; and in fact the first, badly +led over difficult ground, had almost terminated in a formal defeat. +But, while the course of the war was inglorious for the general +and the army, the military tribune Scipio achieved in it brilliant +distinction. It was he who, on occasion of a nocturnal attack by +the enemy on the Roman camp, starting with some squadrons of horse +and taking the enemy in rear, compelled him to retreat. On the +first expedition to Nepheris, when the passage of the river had +taken place in opposition to his advice and had almost occasioned +the destruction of the army, by a bold attack in flank he relieved +the pressure on the retreating troops, and by his devoted and +heroic courage rescued a division which had been given up as +lost While the other officers, and the consul in particular, +by their perfidy deterred the towns and party-leaders that were +inclined to negotiate, Scipio succeeded in inducing one of the +ablest of the latter, Himilco Phameas, to pass over to the Romans +with 2200 cavalry. Lastly, after he had in fulfilment of the charge +of the dying Massinissa divided his kingdom among his three sons, +Micipsa, Gulussa, and Mastanabal, he brought to the Roman army in +Gulussa a cavalry-leader worthy of his father, and thereby remedied +the want, which had hitherto been seriously felt, of light cavalry. +His refined and yet simple demeanour, which recalled rather his own +father than him whose name he bore, overcame even envy, and in the +camp as in the capital the name of Scipio was on the lips of all. +Even Cato, who was not liberal with his praise, a few months before +his death--he died at the end of 605 without having seen the wish of +his life, the destruction of Carthage, accomplished--applied to the +young officer and to his incapable comrades the Homeric line:-- + +He only is a living man, the rest are gliding shades.(15) + +While these events were passing, the close of the year had come +and with it a change of commanders; the consul Lucius Piso (606) +was somewhat late in appearing and took the command of the land +army, while Lucius Mancinus took charge of the fleet. But, if their +predecessors had done little, these did nothing at all. Instead of +prosecuting the siege of Carthage or subduing the army of Hasdrubal, +Piso employed himself in attacking the small maritime towns of the +Phoenicians, and that mostly without success. Clupea, for example, +repulsed him, and he was obliged to retire in disgrace from Hippo +Diarrhytus, after having lost the whole summer in front of it and +having had his besieging apparatus twice burnt. Neapolis was no +doubt taken; but the pillage of the town in opposition to his pledged +word of honour was not specially favourable to the progress of +the Roman arms. The courage of the Carthaginians rose. Bithyas, +a Numidian sheik, passed over to them with 800 horse; Carthaginian +envoys were enabled to attempt negotiations with the kings of Numidia +and Mauretania and even with Philip the Macedonian pretender. +It was perhaps internal intrigues--Hasdrubal the emigrant brought +the general of the same name, who commanded in the city, into +suspicion on account of his relationship with Massinissa, and +caused him to be put to death in the senate-house--rather than +the activity of the Romans, that prevented things from assuming +a turn still more favourable for Carthage. + +Scipio Aemilianus + +With the view of producing a change in the state of African affairs, +which excited uneasiness, the Romans resorted to the extraordinary +measure of entrusting the conduct of the war to the only man who had +as yet brought home honour from the Libyan plains, and who was +recommended for this war by his very name. Instead of calling Scipio +to the aedileship for which he was a candidate, they gave to him +the consulship before the usual time, setting aside the laws to the +contrary effect, and committed to him by special decree the conduct +of the African war. He arrived (607) in Utica at a moment when much +was at stake. The Roman admiral Mancinus, charged by Piso with the +nominal continuance of the siege of the capital, had occupied a steep +cliff, far remote from the inhabited district and scarcely defended, +on the almost inaccessible seaward side of the suburb of Magalia, and +had united nearly his whole not very numerous force there, in the hope +of being able to penetrate thence into the outer town. In fact the +assailants had been for a moment within its gates and the camp- +followers had flocked forward in a body in the hope of spoil, when +they were again driven back to the cliff and, being without supplies +and almost cut off, were in the greatest danger. Scipio found matters +in that position. He had hardly arrived when he despatched the +troops which he had brought with him and the militia of Utica by sea +to the threatened point, and succeeded in saving its garrison and +holding the cliff itself. After this danger was averted, the general +proceeded to the camp of Piso to take over the army and bring it back +to Carthage. Hasdrubal and Bithyas availed themselves of his absence +to move their camp immediately up to the city, and to renew the +attack on the garrison of the cliff before Magalia; but even now +Scipio appeared with the vanguard of the main army in sufficient time +to afford assistance to the post. Then the siege began afresh and +more earnestly. First of all Scipio cleared the camp of the mass of +camp-followers and sutlers and once more tightened the relaxed reins +of discipline. Military operations were soon resumed with increased +vigour. In an attack by night on the suburb the Romans succeeded in +passing from a tower--placed in front of the walls and equal to them +in height--on to the battlements, and opened a little gate through +which the whole army entered. The Carthaginians abandoned the +suburb and their camp before the gates, and gave the chief command +of the garrison of the city, amounting to 30,000 men, to Hasdrubal. +The new commander displayed his energy in the first instance by +giving orders that all the Roman prisoners should be brought to the +battlements and, after undergoing cruel tortures, should be thrown +over before the eyes of the besieging army; and, when voices were +raised in disapproval of the act, a reign of terror was introduced +with reference to the citizens also. Scipio, meanwhile, after having +confined the besieged to the city itself, sought totally to cut off +their intercourse with the outer world. He took up his head-quarters +on the ridge by which the Carthaginian peninsula was connected with +the mainland, and, notwithstanding the various attempts of the +Carthaginians to disturb his operations, constructed a great camp +across the whole breadth of the isthmus, which completely blockaded +the city from the landward side. Nevertheless ships with provisions +still ran into the harbour, partly bold merchantmen allured by the +great gain, partly vessels of Bithyas, who availed himself of every +favourable wind to convey supplies to the city from Nepheris at the +end of the lake of Tunes; whatever might now be the sufferings of the +citizens, the garrison was still sufficiently provided for. Scipio +therefore constructed a stone mole, 96 feet broad, running from the +tongue of land between the lake and gulf into the latter, so as thus +to close the mouth of the harbour. The city seemed lost, when the +success of this undertaking, which was at first ridiculed by the +Carthaginians as impracticable, became evident. But one surprise +was balanced by another. While the Roman labourers were constructing +the mole, work was going forward night and day for two months +in the Carthaginian harbour, without even the deserters being +able to tell what were the designs of the besieged. All of a +sudden, just as the Romans had completed the bar across the entrance +to the harbour, fifty Carthaginian triremes and a number of boats and +skiffs sailed forth from that same harbour into the gulf--while the +enemy were closing the old mouth of the harbour towards the south, +the Carthaginians had by means of a canal formed in an easterly +direction procured for themselves a new outlet, which owing to the +depth of the sea at that spot could not possibly be closed. Had the +Carthaginians, instead of resting content with a mere demonstration, +thrown themselves at once and resolutely on the half-dismantled and +wholly unprepared Roman fleet, it must have been lost; when they +returned on the third day to give the naval battle, they found the +Romans in readiness. The conflict came off without decisive result; +but on their return the Carthaginian vessels so ran foul of each +other in and before the entrance of the harbour, that the damage thus +occasioned was equivalent to a defeat. Scipio now directed his +attacks against the outer quay, which lay outside of the city walls +and was only protected for the exigency by an earthen rampart of recent +construction. The machines were stationed on the tongue of land, +and a breach was easily made; but with unexampled intrepidity the +Carthaginians, wading through the shallows, assailed the besieging +implements, chased away the covering force which ran off in such a +manner that Scipio was obliged to make his own troopers cut them +down, and destroyed the machines. In this way they gained time to +close the breach. Scipio, however, again established the machines +and set on fire the wooden towers of the enemy; by which means he +obtained possession of the quay and of the outer harbour along +with it. A rampart equalling the city wall in height was here +constructed, and the town was now at length completely blockaded +by land and sea, for the inner harbour could only be reached through +the outer. To ensure the completeness of the blockade, Scipio +ordered Gaius Laelius to attack the camp at Nepheris, where Diogenes +now held the command; it was captured by a fortunate stratagem, +and the whole countless multitude assembled there were put to +death or taken prisoners. Winter had now arrived and Scipio +suspended his operations, leaving famine and pestilence to +complete what he had begun. + +Capture of the City + +How fearfully these mighty agencies had laboured in the work of +destruction during the interval while Hasdrubal continued to vaunt +and to gormandize, appeared so soon as the Roman army proceeded in +the spring of 608 to attack the inner town. Hasdrubal gave orders +to set fire to the outer harbour and made himself ready to repel +the expected assault on the Cothon; but Laelius succeeded in scaling +the wall, hardly longer defended by the famished garrison, at a point +farther up and thus penetrated into the inner harbour. The city +was captured, but the struggle was still by no means at an end. +The assailants occupied the market-place contiguous to the small +harbour, and slowly pushed their way along the three narrow streets +leading from this to the citadel--slowly, for the huge houses of +six stories in height had to be taken one by one; on the roofs or +on beams laid over the street the soldiers penetrated from one of +these fortress-like buildings to that which was adjoining or opposite, +and cut down whatever they encountered there. Thus six days +elapsed, terrible for the inhabitants of the city and full of +difficulty and danger also for the assailants; at length they +arrived in front of the steep citadel-rock, whither Hasdrubal and +the force still surviving had retreated. To procure a wider approach, +Scipio gave orders to set fire to the captured streets and to level +the ruins; on which occasion a number of persons unable to fight, who +were concealed in the houses, miserably perished. Then at last the +remnant of the population, crowded together in the citadel, besought +for mercy. Bare life was conceded to them, and they appeared before +the victor, 30,000 men and 25,000 women, not the tenth part of the +former population. The Roman deserters alone, 900 in number, and +the general Hasdrubal with his wife and his two children had thrown +themselves into the temple of the God of Healing; for them--for +soldiers who had deserted their posts, and for the murderer of the +Roman prisoners--there were no terms. But when, yielding to famine, +the most resolute of them set fire to the temple, Hasdrubal could +not endure to face death; alone he ran forth to the victor and +falling upon his knees pleaded for his life. It was granted; but, +when his wife who with her children was among the rest on the roof +of the temple saw him at the feet of Scipio, her proud heart swelled +at this disgrace brought on her dear perishing home, and, with bitter +words bidding her husband be careful to save his life, she plunged +first her sons and then herself into the flames. The struggle was +at an end. The joy in the camp and at Rome was boundless; the +noblest of the people alone were in secret ashamed of the most recent +grand achievement of the nation. The prisoners were mostly sold as +slaves; several were allowed to languish in prison; the most notable, +Hasdrubal and Bithyas, were sent to the interior of Italy as Roman +state-prisoners and tolerably treated. The moveable property, with +the exception of gold, silver, and votive gifts, was abandoned to +the pillage of the soldiers. As to the temple treasures, the booty +that had been in better times carried off by the Carthaginians from +the Sicilian towns was restored to them; the bull of Phalaris, +for example, was returned to the Agrigentines; the rest fell +to the Roman state. + +Destruction of Carthage + +But by far the larger portion of the city still remained standing. +We may believe that Scipio desired its preservation; at least he +addressed a special inquiry to the senate on the subject. Scipio +Nasica once more attempted to gain a hearing for the demands of +reason and honour; but in vain. The senate ordered the general +to level the city of Carthage and the suburb of Magalia with the +ground, and to do the same with all the townships which had held by +Carthage to the last; and thereafter to pass the plough over the site +of Carthage so as to put an end in legal form to the existence of +the city, and to curse the soil and site for ever, that neither +house nor cornfield might ever reappear on the spot. The command was +punctually obeyed. The ruins burned for seventeen days: recently, +when the remains of the Carthaginian city wall were excavated, they +were found to be covered with a layer of ashes from four to five feet +deep, filled with half-charred pieces of wood, fragments of iron, +and projectiles. Where the industrious Phoenicians had bustled and +trafficked for five hundred years, Roman slaves henceforth pastured +the herds of their distant masters. Scipio, however, whom nature +had destined for a nobler part than that of an executioner, gazed +with horror on his own work; and, instead of the joy of victory, +the victor himself was haunted by a presentiment of the retribution +that would inevitably follow such a misdeed. + +Province of Africa + +There remained the work of arranging the future organization of +the country. The earlier plan of investing the allies of Rome with +the transmarine possessions that she acquired was no longer viewed +with favour. Micipsa and his brothers retained in substance their +former territory, including the districts recently wrested from the +Carthaginians on the Bagradas and in Emporia; their long-cherished +hope of obtaining Carthage as a capital was for ever frustrated; +the senate presented them instead with the Carthaginian libraries. +The Carthaginian territory as possessed by the city in its last days-- +viz. The narrow border of the African coast lying immediately opposite +to Sicily, from the river Tusca (near Thabraca) to Thaenae (opposite +to the island of Karkenah)--became a Roman province. In the interior, +where the constant encroachments of Massinissa had more and more +narrowed the Carthaginian dominions and Bulla, Zama, and Aquae +already belonged to the kings, the Numidians retained what they +possessed. But the careful regulation of the boundary between the +Roman province and the Numidian kingdom, which enclosed it on three +sides, showed that Rome would by no means tolerate in reference +to herself what she had permitted in reference to Carthage; while +the name of the new province, Africa, on the other hand appeared +to indicate that Rome did not at all regard the boundary now marked +off as a definitive one. The supreme administration of the new +province was entrusted to a Roman governor, who had his seat at Utica. +Its frontier did not need any regular defence, as the allied Numidian +kingdom everywhere separated it from the inhabitants of the desert. +In the matter of taxes Rome dealt on the whole with moderation. +Those communities which from the beginning of the war had taken part +with Rome--viz. Only the maritime towns of Utica, Hadrumetum, Little +Leptis, Thapsus, Achulla, and Usalis, and the inland town of Theudalis-- +retained their territory and became free cities; which was also the +case with the newly-founded community of deserters. The territory +of the city of Carthage--with the exception of a tract presented to +Utica--and that of the other destroyed townships became Roman domain- +land, which was let on lease. The remaining townships likewise +forfeited in law their property in the soil and their municipal +liberties; but their land and their constitution were for the time +being, and until further orders from the Roman government, left to +them as a possession liable to be recalled, and the communities paid +annually to Rome for the use of their soil which had become Roman a +once-for-all fixed tribute (stipendium), which they in their turn +collected by means of a property-tax levied from the individuals +liable. The real gainers, however, by this destruction of the +first commercial city of the west were the Roman merchants, who, as +soon as Carthage lay in ashes, flocked in troops to Utica, and from +this as their head-quarters began to turn to profitable account not +only the Roman province, but also the Numidian and Gaetulian regions +which had hitherto been closed to them. + +Macedonia and the Pseudo-Phillip +Victory of Metellus + +Macedonia also disappeared about the same time as Carthage from +the ranks of the nations. The four small confederacies, into which +the wisdom of the Roman senate had parcelled out the ancient kingdom, +could not live at peace either internally or one with another. +How matters stood in the country appears from a single accidentally +mentioned occurrence at Phacus, where the whole governing council +of one of these confederacies were murdered on the instigation of +one Damasippus. Neither the commissions sent by the senate (590), +nor the foreign arbiters, such as Scipio Aemilianus (603) called in +after the Greek fashion by the Macedonians, were able to establish +any tolerable order. Suddenly there appeared in Thrace a young man, +who called himself Philip the son of king Perseus, whom he strikingly +resembled, and of the Syrian Laodice. He had passed his youth +in the Mysian town of Adramytium; there he asserted that he had +preserved the sure proofs of his illustrious descent. With these +he had, after a vain attempt to obtain recognition in his native +country, resorted to Demetrius Soter, king of Syria, his mother's +brother. There were in fact some who believed the Adramytene or +professed to believe him, and urged the king either to reinstate +the prince in his hereditary kingdom or to cede to him the crown +of Syria; whereupon Demetrius, to put an end to the foolish proceedings, +arrested the pretender and sent him to the Romans. But the senate +attached so little importance to the man, that it confined him in an +Italian town without taking steps to have him even seriously guarded. +Thus he had escaped to Miletus, where the civic authorities once more +seized him and asked the Roman commissioners what they should do with +the prisoner. The latter advised them to let him go; and they did +so. He now tried his fortune further in Thrace; and, singularly +enough, he obtained recognition and support there not only from +Teres the chief of the Thracian barbarians, the husband of his +father's sister, and Barsabas, but also from the prudent Byzantines. +With Thracian support the so-called Philip invaded Macedonia, and, +although he was defeated at first, he soon gained one victory over +the Macedonian militia in the district of Odomantice beyond the Strymon, +followed by a second on the west side of the river, which gave him +possession of all Macedonia. Apocryphal as his story sounded, and +decidedly as it was established that the real Philip, the son of +Perseus, had died when eighteen years of age at Alba, and that this +man, so far from being a Macedonian prince, was Andriscus a fuller of +Adramytium, yet the Macedonians were too much accustomed to the rule +of a king not to be readily satisfied on the point of legitimacy and +to return with pleasure into the old track. Messengers arrived +from the Thessalians, announcing that the pretender had advanced +into their territory; the Roman commissioner Nasica, who, in the +expectation that a word of earnest remonstrance would put an end +to the foolish enterprise, had been sent by the senate to Macedonia +without soldiers, was obliged to call out the Achaean and Pergamene +troops and to protect Thessaly against the superior force by +means of the Achaeans, as far as was practicable, till (605?) +the praetor Juventius appeared with a legion. The latter attacked +the Macedonians with his small force; but he himself fell, his army +was almost wholly destroyed, and the greater part of Thessaly fell into +the power of the pseudo-Philip, who conducted his government there and +in Macedonia with cruelty and arrogance. At length a stronger Roman +army under Quintus Caecilius Metellus appeared on the scene of +conflict, and, supported by the Pergamene fleet, advanced into +Macedonia. In the first cavalry combat the Macedonians retained +the superiority; but soon dissensions and desertions occurred in the +Macedonian army, and the blunder of the pretender in dividing his +army and detaching half of it to Thessaly procured for the Romans an +easy and decisive victory (606). Philip fled to the chieftain Byzes +in Thrace, whither Metellus followed him and after a second victory +obtained his surrender. + +Province of Macedonia + +The four Macedonian confederacies had not voluntarily submitted to +the pretender, but had simply yielded to force. According to the +policy hitherto pursued there was therefore no reason for depriving +the Macedonians of the shadow of independence which the battle of +Pydna had still left to them; nevertheless the kingdom of Alexander +was now, by order of the senate, converted by Metellus into a Roman +province. This case clearly showed that the Roman government had +changed its system, and had resolved to substitute for the relation +of clientship that of simple subjects; and accordingly the suppression +of the four Macedonian confederacies was felt throughout the whole range +of the client-states as a blow directed against all. The possessions +in Epirus which were formerly after the first Roman victories detached +from Macedonia--the Ionian islands and the ports of Apollonia and +Epidamnus,(16) that had hitherto been under the jurisdiction of the +Italian magistrates--were now reunited with Macedonia, so that the latter, +probably as early as this period, reached on the north-west to a point +beyond Scodra, where Illyria began. The protectorate which Rome claimed +over Greece proper likewise devolved, of itself, on the new governor of +Macedonia. Thus Macedonia recovered its unity and nearly the same limits +which it had in its most flourishing times. It had no longer, however, +the unity of a kingdom, but that of a province, retaining its communal +and even, as it would seem, its district organization, but placed under +an Italian governor and quaestor, whose names make their appearance +on the native coins along with the name of the country. As tribute, +there was retained the old moderate land-tax, as Paullus had arranged +it(17)--a sum of 100 talents (24,000 pounds) which was allocated in +fixed proportions on the several communities. Yet the land could not +forget its old glorious dynasty. A few years after the subjugation +of the pseudo-Philip another pretended son of Perseus, Alexander, +raised the banner of insurrection on the Nestus (Karasu), and +had in a short time collected 1600 men; but the quaestor Lucius +Tremellius mastered the insurrection without difficulty and pursued +the fugitive pretender as far as Dardania (612). This was the last +movement of the proud national spirit of Macedonia, which two +hundred years before had accomplished so great things in Hellas +and Asia. Henceforward there is scarcely anything else to be told of +the Macedonians, save that they continued to reckon their inglorious +years from the date at which the country received its definitive +provincial organization (608). + +Thenceforth the defence of the northern and eastern frontiers +of Macedonia or, in other words, of the frontier of Hellenic +civilization against the barbarians devolved on the Romans. It was +conducted by them with inadequate forces and not, on the whole, with +befitting energy; but with a primary view to this military object +the great Egnatian highway was constructed, which as early as the +time of Polybius ran from Apollonia and Dyrrhachium, the two chief +ports on the west coast, across the interior to Thessalonica, and was +afterwards prolonged to the Hebrus (Maritza).(18) The new province +became the natural basis, on the one hand for the movements against +the turbulent Dalmatians, and on the other hand for the numerous +expeditions against the Illyrian, Celtic, and Thracian tribes settled +to the north of the Grecian peninsula, which we shall afterwards +have to exhibit in their historical connection. + +Greece + +Greece proper had greater occasion than Macedonia to congratulate +herself on the favour of the ruling power; and the Philhellenes of +Rome might well be of opinion that the calamitous effects of the war +with Perseus were disappearing, and that the state of things in general +was improving there. The bitterest abettors of the now dominant +party, Lyciscus the Aetolian, Mnasippus the Boeotian, Chrematas +the Acarnanian, the infamous Epirot Charops whom honourable Romans +forbade even to enter their houses, descended one after another to +the grave; another generation grew up, in which the old recollections +and the old antagonisms had faded. The Roman senate thought that +the time for general forgiveness and oblivion had come, and in 604 +released the survivors of those Achaean patriots who had been +confined for seventeen years in Italy, and whose liberation the +Achaean diet had never ceased to demand. Nevertheless they were +mistaken. How little the Romans with all their Philhellenism had +been successful in heartily conciliating Hellenic patriotism, was +nowhere more clearly apparent than in the attitude of the Greeks +towards the Attalids. King Eumenes II had been, as a friend of +the Romans, extremely hated in Greece;(19) but scarcely had a +coldness arisen between him and the Romans, when he became suddenly +popular in Greece, and the Hellenic hopefuls expected the deliverer +from a foreign yoke to come now from Pergamus as formerly from +Macedonia. Social disorganization more especially was visibly +on the increase among the petty states of Hellas now left to +themselves. The country became desolate not through war and +pestilence, but through the daily increasing disinclination of +the higher classes to trouble themselves with wife and children; +on the other hand the criminal or the thoughtless flocked as +hitherto chiefly to Greece, there to await the recruiting officer. +The communities sank into daily deeper debt, and into financial +dishonour and a corresponding want of credit: some cities, more +especially Athens and Thebes, resorted in their financial distress +to direct robbery, and plundered the neighbouring communities. +The internal dissensions in the leagues also--e. g. between the +voluntary and the compulsory members of the Achaean confederacy-- +were by no means composed. If the Romans, as seems to have been +the case, believed what they wished and confided in the calm which +for the moment prevailed, they were soon to learn that the younger +generation in Hellas was in no respect better or wiser than the older. +The Greeks directly sought an opportunity of picking a quarrel +with the Romans. + +Achaean War + +In order to screen a foul transaction, Diaeus, the president of the +Achaean league for the time being, about 605 threw out in the diet +the assertion that the special privileges conceded by the Achaean +league to the Lacedaemonians as members--viz. their exemption from +the Achaean criminal jurisdiction, and the right to send separate +embassies to Rome--were not at all guaranteed to them by the Romans. +It was an audacious falsehood; but the diet naturally believed what +it wished, and, when the Achaeans showed themselves ready to make +good their assertions with arms in hand, the weaker Spartans yielded +for the time, or, to speak more correctly, those whose surrender was +demanded by the Achaeans left the city to appear as complainants +before the Roman senate. The senate answered as usual that it would +send a commission to investigate the matter; but instead of reporting +this reply the envoys stated in Achaia as well as in Sparta, and in +both cases falsely, that the senate had decided in their favour. +The Achaeans, who felt more than ever their equality with Rome as +allies and their political importance on account of the aid which +the league had just rendered in Thessaly against the pseudo-Philip, +advanced in 606 under their -strategus- Damocritus into Laconia: in +vain a Roman embassy on its way to Asia, at the suggestion of Metellus, +admonished them to keep the peace and to await the commissioners of +the senate. A battle took place, in which nearly 1000 Spartans +fell, and Sparta might have been taken if Damocritus had not been +equally incapable as an officer and as a statesman. He was superseded, +and his successor Diaeus, the instigator of all this mischief, +zealously continued the war, while at the same time he gave to the +dreaded commandant of Macedonia assurances of the full loyalty of the +Achaean league. Thereupon the long-expected Roman commission made its +appearance, with Aurelius Orestes at its head; hostilities were now +suspended, and the Achaean diet assembled at Corinth to receive its +communications. They were of an unexpected and far from agreeable +character. The Romans had resolved to cancel the unnatural and +forced(20) inclusion of Sparta among the Achaean states, and generally +to act with vigour against the Achaeans. Some years before (591) +these had been obliged to release from their league the Aetolian +town of Pleuron;(21) now they were directed to renounce all the +acquisitions which they had made since the second Macedonian war--viz. +Corinth, Orchomenus, Argos, Sparta in the Peloponnesus, and Heraclea +near to Oeta--and to reduce their league to the condition in which it +stood at the end of the Hannibalic war. When the Achaean deputies +learned this, they rushed immediately to the market-place without even +hearing the Romans to an end, and communicated the Roman demands to the +multitude; whereupon the governing and the governed rabble with one +voice resolved to arrest at once the whole Lacedaemonians present in +Corinth, because Sparta forsooth had brought on them this misfortune. +The arrest accordingly took place in the most tumultuary fashion, +so that the possession of Laconian names or Laconian shoes appeared +sufficient ground for imprisonment: in fact they even entered the +dwellings of the Roman envoys to seize the Lacedaemonians who had +taken shelter there, and hard words were uttered against the Romans, +although they did not lay hands on their persons. The envoys +returned home in indignation, and made bitter and even exaggerated +complaints in the senate; but the latter, with the same moderation +which marked all its measures against the Greeks, confined itself at +first to representations. In the mildest form, and hardly mentioning +satisfaction for the insults which they had endured, Sextus Julius +Caesar repeated the commands of the Romans at the diet in Aegium +(spring of 607). But the leaders of affairs in Achaia with the new +-strategus- Critolaus at their head -strategus- (from May 607 to May +608), as men versed in state affairs and familiar with political arts, +merely drew from that fact the inference that the position of Rome +with reference to Carthage and Viriathus could not but be very +unfavourable, and continued at once to cheat and to affront the +Romans. Caesar was requested to arrange a conference of deputies of +the contending parties at Tegea for the settlement of the question. +He did so; but, after Caesar and the Lacedaemonian envoys had waited +there long in vain for the Achaeans, Critolaus at last appeared +alone and informed them that the general assembly of the Achaeans +was solely competent in this matter, and that it could only be settled +at the diet or, in other words, in six months. Caesar thereupon +returned to Rome; and the next national assembly of the Achaeans +on the proposal of Critolaus formally declared war against Sparta. +Even now Metellus made an attempt amicably to settle the quarrel, and +sent envoys to Corinth; but the noisy -ecclesia-, consisting mostly of +the populace of that wealthy commercial and manufacturing city, drowned +the voice of the Roman envoys and compelled them to leave the platform. +The declaration of Critolaus, that they wished the Romans to be their +friends but not their masters, was received with inexpressible delight; +and, when the members of the diet wished to interpose, the mob +protected the man after its own heart, and applauded the sarcasms +as to the high treason of the rich and the need of a military +dictatorship as well as the mysterious hints regarding an impending +insurrection of countless peoples and kings against Rome. The spirit +animating the movement is shown by the two resolutions, that all clubs +should be permanent and all actions for debt should be suspended till +the restoration of peace. + +The Achaeans thus had war; and they had even actual allies, namely +the Thebans and Boeotians and also the Chalcidians. At the beginning +of 608 the Achaeans advanced into Thessaly to reduce to obedience +Heraclea near to Oeta, which, in accordance with the decree of +the senate, had detached itself from the Achaean league. The consul +Lucius Mummius, whom the senate had resolved to send to Greece, +had not yet arrived; accordingly Metellus undertook to protect +Heraclea with the Macedonian legions. When the advance of the Romans +was announced to the Achaeo-Theban army, there was no more talk of +fighting; they deliberated only how they might best succeed in reaching +once more the secure Peloponnesus; in all haste the army made off, +and did not even attempt to hold the position at Thermopylae. +But Metellus quickened the pursuit, and overtook and defeated +the Greek army near Scarpheia in Locris. The loss in prisoners and +dead was considerable; Critolaus was never heard of after the battle. +The remains of the defeated army wandered about Greece in single troops, +and everywhere sought admission in vain; the division of Patrae +was destroyed in Phocis, the Arcadian select corps at Chaeronea; +all northern Greece was evacuated, and only a small portion of +the Achaean army and of the citizens of Thebes, who fled in a body, +reached the Peloponnesus. Metellus sought by the utmost moderation +to induce the Greeks to abandon their senseless resistance, and gave +orders, for example, that all the Thebans with a single exception, +should be allowed their liberty; his well-meant endeavours were +thwarted not by the energy of the people, but by the desperation of +the leaders apprehensive for their own safety. Diaeus, who after +the fall of Critolaus had resumed the chief command, summoned all men +capable of bearing arms to the isthmus, and ordered 12,000 slaves, +natives of Greece, to be enrolled in the army; the rich were applied +to for advances, and the ranks of the friends of peace, so far as they +did not purchase their lives by bribing the ruling agents in this reign +of terror, were thinned by bloody prosecutions. The war accordingly was +continued, and after the same style. The Achaean vanguard, which, 4000 +strong, was stationed under Alcamenes at Megara, dispersed as soon as +it saw the Roman standards. Metellus was just about to order an +attack upon the main force on the isthmus, when the consul Lucius +Mummius with a few attendants arrived at the Roman head-quarters +and took the command. Meanwhile the Achaeans, emboldened by a +successful attack on the too incautious Roman outposts, offered +battle to the Roman army, which was about twice as strong, at +Leucopetra on the isthmus. The Romans were not slow to accept it. +At the very first the Achaean horsemen broke off en masse before the +Roman cavalry of six times their strength; the hoplites withstood the +enemy till a flank attack by the Roman select corps brought confusion +also into their ranks. This terminated the resistance. Diaeus fled +to his home, put his wife to death, and took poison himself. All the +cities submitted without opposition; and even the impregnable Corinth, +into which Mummius for three days hesitated to enter because he +feared an ambush, was occupied by the Romans without a blow. + +Province of Achaia + +The renewed regulation of the affairs of Greece was entrusted to +a commission of ten senators in concert with the consul Mummius, +who left behind him on the whole a blessed memory in the conquered +country. Doubtless it was, to say the least, a foolish thing in him +to assume the name of "Achaicus" on account of his feats of war and +victory, and to build in the fulness of his gratitude a temple to +Hercules Victor; but, as he had not been reared in aristocratic +luxury and aristocratic corruption but was a "new man" and +comparatively without means, he showed himself an upright and +indulgent administrator. The statement, that none of the Achaeans +perished but Diaeus and none of the Boeotians but Pytheas, is a +rhetorical exaggeration: in Chalcis especially sad outrages occurred; +but yet on the whole moderation was observed in the infliction of +penalties. Mummius rejected the proposal to throw down the statues +of Philopoemen, the founder of the Achaean patriotic party; the +fines imposed on the communities were destined not for the Roman +exchequer, but for the injured Greek cities, and were mostly +remitted afterwards; and the property of those traitors who had +parents or children was not sold on public account, but handed over +to their relatives. The works of art alone were carried away from +Corinth, Thespiae, and other cities and were erected partly in the +capital, partly in the country towns of Italy:(22) several pieces were +also presented to the Isthmian, Delphic, and Olympic temples. In the +definitive organization of the country also moderation was in general +displayed. It is true that, as was implied in the very introduction +of the provincial constitution,(23) the special confederacies, and +the Achaean in particular, were as such dissolved; the communities were +isolated; and intercourse between them was hampered by the rule that no +one might acquire landed property simultaneously in two communities. +Moreover, as Flamininus had already attempted,(24) the democratic +constitutions of the towns were altogether set aside, and the +government in each community was placed in the hands of a council +composed of the wealthy. A fixed land-tax to be paid to Rome was +imposed on each community; and they were all subordinated to the +governor of Macedonia in such a manner that the latter, as supreme +military chief, exercised a superintendence over administration and +justice, and could, for example, personally assume the decision of +the more important criminal processes. Yet the Greek communities +retained "freedom," that is, a formal sovereignty--reduced, doubtless, +by the Roman hegemony to a name--which involved the property of the +soil and the right to a distinct administration and jurisdiction of +their own.(25) Some years later not only were the old confederacies +again allowed to have a shadowy existence, but the oppressive +restriction on the alienation of landed property was removed. + +Destruction of Corinth + +The communities of Thebes, Chalcis, and Corinth experienced a treatment +more severe. There is no ground for censure in the fact that the two +former were disarmed and converted by the demolition of their walls +into open villages; but the wholly uncalled-for destruction of +the flourishing Corinth, the first commercial city in Greece, remains +a dark stain on the annals of Rome. By express orders from the senate +the Corinthian citizens were seized, and such as were not killed were +sold into slavery; the city itself was not only deprived of its walls +and its citadel--a measure which, if the Romans were not disposed +permanently to garrison it, was certainly inevitable--but was +levelled with the ground, and all rebuilding on the desolate site +was prohibited in the usual forms of accursing; part of its territory +was given to Sicyon under the obligation that the latter should +defray the costs of the Isthmian national festival in room of Corinth, +but the greater portion was declared to be public land of Rome. +Thus was extinguished "the eye of Hellas," the last precious ornament +of the Grecian land, once so rich in cities. If, however, we review +the whole catastrophe, the impartial historian must acknowledge-- +what the Greeks of this period themselves candidly confessed--that +the Romans were not to blame for the war itself, but that on the +contrary, the foolish perfidy and the feeble temerity of the Greeks +compelled the Roman intervention. The abolition of the mock +sovereignty of the leagues and of all the vague and pernicious dreams +connected with them was a blessing for the country; and the government +of the Roman commander-in-chief of Macedonia, however much it fell +short of what was to be wished, was yet far better than the previous +confusion and misrule of Greek confederacies and Roman commissions. +The Peloponnesus ceased to be the great harbour of mercenaries; +it is affirmed, and may readily be believed, that with the direct +government of Rome security and prosperity in some measure returned. +The epigram of Themistocles, that ruin had averted ruin, was applied +by the Hellenes of that day not altogether without reason to the loss +of Greek independence. The singular indulgence, which Rome even now +showed towards the Greeks, becomes fully apparent only when compared +with the contemporary conduct of the same authorities towards the +Spaniards and Phoenicians. To treat barbarians with cruelty seemed +not unallowable, but the Romans of this period, like the emperor Trajan +in later times, deemed it "harsh and barbarous to deprive Athens +and Sparta of the shadow of freedom which they still retained." All +the more marked is the contrast between this general moderation and +the revolting treatment of Corinth--a treatment disapproved by the +orators who defended the destruction of Numantia and Carthage, and +far from justified, even according to Roman international law, by +the abusive language uttered against the Roman deputies in the streets +of Corinth. And yet it by no means proceeded from the brutality +of any single individual, least of all of Mummius, but was a measure +deliberated and resolved on by the Roman senate. We shall not err, +if we recognize it as the work of the mercantile party, which even thus +early began to interfere in politics by the side of the aristocracy +proper, and which in destroying Corinth got rid of a commercial +rival. If the great merchants of Rome had anything to say in the +regulation of Greece, we can understand why Corinth was singled out for +punishment, and why the Romans not only destroyed the city as it stood, +but also prohibited any future settlement on a site so pre-eminently +favourable for commerce. The Peloponnesian Argos thenceforth became +the rendezvous for the Roman merchants, who were very numerous even +in Greece. For the Roman wholesale traffic, however, Delos was +of greater importance; a Roman free port as early as 586, it had +attracted a great part of the business of Rhodes,(26) and now +in a similar way entered on the heritage of Corinth. This island +remained for a considerable time the chief emporium for merchandise +going from the east to the west.(27) + +In the third and more distant continent the Roman dominion +exhibited a development more imperfect than in the African and +Macedono-Hellenic countries, which were separated from Italy +only by narrow seas. + +Kingdom of Pergamus + +In Asia Minor, after the Seleucids were driven back, the kingdom +of Pergamus had become the first power. Not led astray by +the traditions of the Alexandrine monarchies, but sagacious and +dispassionate enough to renounce what was impossible, the Attalids +kept quiet; and endeavoured not to extend their bounds nor to +withdraw from the Roman hegemony, but to promote the prosperity of +their empire, so far as the Romans allowed, and to foster the arts +of peace. Nevertheless they did not escape the jealousy and suspicion +of Rome. In possession of the European shore of the Propontis, +of the west coast of Asia Minor, and of its interior as far as +the Cappadocian and Cilician frontiers, and in close connection with +the Syrian kings--one of whom, Antiochus Epiphanes (d. 590), had +ascendedthe throne by the aid of the Attalids--king Eumenes II had +by his power, which seemed still more considerable from the more and +more deep decline of Macedonia and Syria, instilled apprehension +in the minds even of its founders. We have already related(28) +how the senate sought to humble and weaken this ally after the third +Macedonian war by unbecoming diplomatic arts. The relations-- +perplexing from the very nature of the case--of the rulers of +Pergamus towards the free or half-free commercial cities within +their kingdom, and towards their barbarous neighbours on its borders, +became complicated still more painfully by this ill humour on the part +of their patrons. As it was not clear whether, according to the +treaty of peace in 565, the heights of the Taurus in Pamphylia and +Pisidia belonged to the kingdom of Syria or to that of Pergamus,(29) +the brave Selgians, nominally recognizing, as it would seem, the Syrian +supremacy, made a prolonged and energetic resistance to the kings +Eumenes II and Attalus II in the hardly accessible mountains of +Pisidia. The Asiatic Celts also, who for a time with the permission +of the Romans had yielded allegiance to Pergamus, revolted from +Eumenes and, in concert with Prusias king of Bithynia the hereditary +enemy of the Attalids, suddenly began war against him about 587. +The king had had no time to hire mercenary troops; all his skill +and valour could not prevent the Celts from defeating the Asiatic +militia and overrunning his territory; the peculiar mediation, to which +the Romans condescended at the request of Eumenes, has already been +mentioned.(30) But, as soon as he had found time with the help of his +well-filled exchequer to raise an army capable of taking the field, he +speedily drove the wild hordes back over the frontier, and, although +Galatia remained lost to him, and his obstinately-continued attempts +to maintain his footing there were frustrated by Roman influence,(31) +he yet, in spite of all the open attacks and secret machinations which +his neighbours and the Romans directed against him, at his death +(about 595) left his kingdom in standing un-diminished. His brother +Attalus II Philadelphia (d. 616) with Roman aid repelled the attempt +of Pharnaces king of Pontus to seize the guardianship of Eumenes' +son who was a minor, and reigned in the room of his nephew, like +Antigonus Doson, as guardian for life. Adroit, able, pliant, +a genuine Attalid, he had the art to convince the suspicious senate +that the apprehensions which it had formerly cherished were baseless. +The anti-Roman party accused him of having to do with keeping the land +for the Romans, and of acquiescing in every insult and exaction at +their hands; but, sure of Roman protection, he was able to interfere +decisively in the disputes as to the succession to the throne in Syria, +Cappadocia, and Bithynia. Even from the dangerous Bithynian war, which +king Prusias II, surnamed the Hunter (572?-605), a ruler who combined +in his own person all the vices of barbarism and of civilization, +began against him, Roman intervention saved him--although not until +he had been himself besieged in his capital, and a first warning given +by the Romans had remained unattended to, and had even been scoffed at, +by Prusias (598-600). But, when his ward Attalus III Philometor +ascended the throne (616-621), the peaceful and moderate rule of +the citizen kings was replaced by the tyranny of an Asiatic sultan; +under which for instance, the king, with a view to rid himself of +the inconvenient counsel of his father's friends, assembled them in +the palace, and ordered his mercenaries to put to death first them, +and then their wives and children. Along with such recreations he +wrote treatises on gardening, reared poisonous plants, and prepared +wax models, till a sudden death carried him off. + +Province of Asia +War against Aristonicus + +With him the house of the Attalids became extinct. In such an event, +according to the constitutional law which held good at least for +the client-states of Rome, the last ruler might dispose of the +succession by testament. Whether it was the insane rancour against +his subjects which had tormented the last Attalid during life that +now suggested to him the thought of bequeathing his kingdom by will +to the Romans, or whether his doing so was merely a further recognition +of the practical supremacy of Rome, cannot be determined. The testament +was made;(32) the Romans accepted the bequest, and the question as to +the land and the treasure of the Attalids threw a new apple of contention +among the conflicting political parties in Rome. In Asia also this +royal testament kindled a civil war. Relying on the aversion of +the Asiatics to the foreign rule which awaited them, Aristonicus, +a natural son of Eumenes II, made his appearance in Leucae, a small +seaport between Smyrna and Phocaea, as a pretender to the crown. +Phocaea and other towns joined him, but he was defeated at sea off +Cyme by the Ephesians--who saw that a steady adherence to Rome +was the only possible way of preserving their privileges--and was +obliged to flee into the interior. The movement was believed to +have died away when he suddenly reappeared at the head of the new +"citizens of the city of the sun,"(33) in other words, of the slaves +whom he had called to freedom en masse, mastered the Lydian towns of +Thyatira and Apollonis as well as a portion of the Attalic townships, +and summoned bands of Thracian free-lances to join his standard. +The struggle was serious. There were no Roman troops in Asia; +the Asiatic free cities and the contingents of the client-princes +of Bithynia, Paphlagonia, Cappadocia, Pontus, Armenia, could not +withstand the pretender; he penetrated by force of arms into Colophon, +Samos, and Myndus, and already ruled over almost all his father's +kingdom, when at the close of 623 a Roman army landed in Asia. +Its commander, the consul and -pontifex maximus- Publius Licinius +Crassus Mucianus, one of the wealthiest and at the same time one of +the most cultivated men in Rome, equally distinguished as an orator +and as a jurist, was about to besiege the pretender in Leucae, but +during his preparations for that purpose allowed himself to be surprised +and defeated by his too-much-underrated opponent, and was made a prisoner +in person by a Thracian band. But he did not allow such an enemy +the triumph of exhibiting the Roman commander-in-chief as a captive; +he provoked the barbarians, who had captured him without knowing +who he was, to put him to death (beginning of 624), and the consular +was only recognised when a corpse. With him, as it would seem, fell +Ariarathes king of Cappadocia. But not long after this victory +Aristonicus was attacked by Marcus Perpenna, the successor of +Crassus; his army was dispersed, he himself was besieged and taken +prisoner in Stratonicea, and was soon afterwards executed in Rome. +The subjugation of the last towns that still offered resistance +and the definitive regulation of the country were committed, after +the sudden death of Perpenna, to Manius Aquillius (625). The same +policy was followed as in the case of the Carthaginian territory. + +The eastern portion of the kingdom of the Attalids was assigned +to the client kings, so as to release the Romans from the protection +of the frontier and thereby from the necessity of maintaining a +standing force in Asia; Telmissus(34) went to the Lycian confederacy; +the European possessions in Thrace were annexed to the province of +Macedonia; the rest of the territory was organized as a new Roman +province, which like that of Carthage was, not without design, +designated by the name of the continent in which it lay. The land +was released from the taxes which had been paid to Pergamus; and it +was treated with the same moderation as Hellas and Macedonia. Thus +the most considerable state in Asia Minor became a Roman province. + +Western Asia +Cappadocia + +The numerous other small states and cities of western Asia-- +the kingdom of Bithynia, the Paphlagonian and Gallic principalities, +the Lycian and Pamphylian confederacies, the free cities of Cyzicus +and Rhodes--continued in their former circumscribed relations. + +Beyond the Halys Cappadocia--after king Ariarathes V Philopator +(591-624) had, chiefly by the aid of the Attalids, held his ground +against his brother and rival Holophernes who was supported by Syria-- +followed substantially the Pergamene policy, as respected both absolute +devotion to Rome and the tendency to adopt Hellenic culture. He was +the means of introducing that culture into the hitherto almost barbarous +Cappadocia, and along with it its extravagancies also, such as +the worship of Bacchus and the dissolute practices of the bands +of wandering actors--the "artists" as they were called. In reward +for the fidelity to Rome, which had cost this prince his life in the +struggle with the Pergamene pretender, his youthful heir Ariarathes +VI was not only protected by the Romans against the usurpation +attempted by the king of Pontus, but received also the south-eastern +part of the kingdom of the Attalids, Lycaonia, along with the +district bordering on it to the eastward reckoned in earlier +times as part of Cilicia. + +Pontus + +In the remote north-east of Asia Minor "Cappadocia on the sea," +or more briefly the "sea-state," Pontus, increased in extent and +importance. Not long after the battle of Magnesia king Pharnaces I +had extended his dominion far beyond the Halys to Tius on the +frontier of Bithynia, and in particular had possessed himself of +the rich Sinope, which was converted from a Greek free city into the +residence of the kings of Pontus. It is true that the neighbouring +states endangered by these encroachments, with king Eumenes II at +their head, had on that account waged war against him (571-575), and +under Roman mediation had exacted from him a promise to evacuate +Galatia and Paphlagonia; but the course of events shows that Pharnaces +as well as his successor Mithradates V. Euergetes (598?-634), +faithful allies of Rome in the third Punic war as well as in the +struggle with Aristonicus, not only remained in possession beyond +the Halys, but also in substance retained the protectorate over +the Paphlagonian and Galatian dynasts. It is only on this hypothesis +that we can explain how Mithradates, ostensibly for his brave +deeds in the war against Aristonicus, but in reality for +considerable sums paid to the Roman general, could receive Great +Phrygia from the latter after the dissolution of the Attalid +kingdom. How far on the other hand the kingdom of Pontus about +this time extended in the direction of the Caucasus and the sources +of the Euphrates, cannot be precisely determined; but it seems +to have embraced the western part of Armenia about Enderes and +Divirigi, or what was called Lesser Armenia, as a dependent +satrapy, while the Greater Armenia and Sophene formed distinct +and independent kingdoms. + +Syria and Egypt + +While in the peninsula of Asia Minor Rome thus substantially conducted +the government and, although much was done without or in opposition +to her wishes, yet determined on the whole the state of possession, +the wide tracts on the other hand beyond the Taurus and the Upper +Euphrates as far down as the valley of the Nile continued to be mainly +left to themselves. No doubt the principle which formed the basis of +the regulation of Oriental affairs in 565, viz. That the Halys should +form the eastern boundary of the Roman client-states,(35) was not +adhered to by the senate and was in its very nature untenable. +The political horizon is a self-deception as well as the physical; +if the state of Syria had the number of ships of war and war-elephants +allowed to it prescribed in the treaty of peace,(36) and if the +Syrian army at the bidding of the Roman senate evacuated Egypt when +half-won(37), these things implied a complete recognition of hegemony +and of clientship. Accordingly the disputes as to the throne in +Syria and in Egypt were referred for settlement to the Roman +government. In the former after the death of Antiochus Epiphanes +(590) Demetrius afterwards named Soter, the son of Seleucus IV, +living as a hostage at Rome, and Antiochus Eupator, a minor, the son +of the last king Antiochus Epiphanes, contended for the crown; in +the latter Ptolemy Philometor (573-608), the elder of the two +brothers who had reigned jointly since 584, had been driven from +the country (590) by the younger Ptolemy Euergetes II or the Fat +(d. 637), and had appeared in person at Rome to procure his restoration. +Both affairs were arranged by the senate entirely through diplomatic +agency, and substantially in accordance with Roman advantage. +In Syria Demetrius, who had the better title, was set aside, and +Antiochus Eupator was recognized as king; while the guardianship of +the royal boy was entrusted by the senate to the Roman senator Gnaeus +Octavius, who, as was to be expected, governed thoroughly in the +interest of Rome, reduced the war-marine and the army of elephants +agreeably to the treaty of 565, and was in the fair way of completing +the military ruin of the country. In Egypt not only was the +restoration of Philometor accomplished, but--partly in order to put +an end to the quarrel between the brothers, partly in order to weaken +the still considerable power of Egypt--Cyrene was separated from that +kingdom and assigned as a provision for Euergetes. "The Romans make +kings of those whom they wish," a Jew wrote not long after this, "and +those whom they do not wish they chase away from land and people." +But this was the last occasion--for a long time--on which the Roman +senate came forward in the affairs of the east with that ability and +energy, which it had uniformly displayed in the complications with +Philip, Antiochus, and Perseus. Though the internal decline of the +government was late in affecting the treatment of foreign affairs, +yet it did affect them at length. The government became unsteady and +vacillating; they allowed the reins which they had just grasped to +slacken and almost to slip from their hands. The guardian-regent +of Syria was murdered at Laodicea; the rejected pretender Demetrius +escaped from Rome and, setting aside the youthful prince, seized the +government of his ancestral kingdom under the bold pretext that the +Roman senate had fully empowered him to do so (592). Soon afterwards +war broke out between the kings of Egypt and Cyrene respecting the +possession of the island of Cyprus, which the senate had assigned first +to the elder, then to the younger; and in opposition to the most +recent Roman decision it finally remained with Egypt. Thus the +Roman government, in the plenitude of its power and during the most +profound inward and outward peace at home, had its decrees derided +by the impotent kings of the east; its name was misused, its ward +and its commissioner were murdered. Seventy years before, when +the Illyrians had in a similar way laid hands on Roman envoys, +the senate of that day had erected a monument to the victim in the +market-place, and had with an army and fleet called the murderers to +account. The senate of this period likewise ordered a monument to be +raised to Gnaeus Octavius, as ancestral custom prescribed; but instead +of embarking troops for Syria they recognized Demetrius as king of the +land. They were forsooth now so powerful, that it seemed superfluous +to guard their own honour. In like manner not only was Cyprus +retained by Egypt in spite of the decree of the senate to the +contrary, but, when after the death of Philometor (608) Euergetes +succeeded him and so reunited the divided kingdom, the senate +allowed this also to take place without opposition. + +India, Bactria + +After such occurrences the Roman influence in these countries was +practically shattered, and events pursued their course there for +the present without the help of the Romans; but it is necessary for +the right understanding of the sequel that we should not wholly omit +to notice the history of the nearer, and even of the more remote, +east. While in Egypt, shut off as it is on all sides, the status quo +did not so easily admit of change, in Asia both to the west and +east of the Euphrates the peoples and states underwent essential +modifications during, and partly in consequence of, this temporary +suspension of the Roman superintendence. Beyond the great desert +of Iran there had arisen not long after Alexander the Great +the kingdom of Palimbothra under Chandragupta (Sandracottus) +on the Indus, and the powerful Bactrian state on the upper Oxus, +both formed from a mixture of national elements with the most +eastern offshoots of Hellenic civilization. + +Decline of the Kingdom of Asia + +To the west of these began the kingdom of Asia, which, although +diminished under Antiochus the Great, still stretched its unwieldy +bulk from the Hellespont to the Median and Persian provinces, and +embraced the whole basin of the Euphrates and Tigris. That king had +still carried his arms beyond the desert into the territory of the +Parthians and Bactrians; it was only under him that the vast state +had begun to melt away. Not only had western Asia been lost in +consequence of the battle of Magnesia; the total emancipation of the +two Cappadocias and the two Armenias--Armenia proper in the northeast +and the region of Sophene in the south-west--and their conversion +from principalities dependent on Syria into independent kingdoms +also belong to this period.(38) Of these states Great Armenia in +particular, under the Artaxiads, soon attained to a considerable +position. Wounds perhaps still more dangerous were inflicted on the +empire by the foolish levelling policy of his successor Antiochus +Epiphanes (579-590). Although it was true that his kingdom resembled +an aggregation of countries rather than a single state, and that the +differences of nationality and religion among his subjects placed the +most material obstacles in the way of the government, yet the plan +of introducing throughout his dominions Helleno-Roman manners and +Helleno-Roman worship and of equalizing the various peoples in a +political as well as a religious point of view was under any +circumstances a folly; and all the more so from the fact, that +this caricature of Joseph II was personally far from equal to so +gigantic an enterprise, and introduced his reforms in the very worst +way by the pillage of temples on the greatest scale and the most +insane persecution of heretics. + +The Jews + +One consequence of this policy was, that the inhabitants of the +province next to the Egyptian frontier, the Jews, a people formerly +submissive even to humility and extremely active and industrious, were +driven by systematic religious persecution to open revolt (about 587). +The matter came to the senate; and, as it was just at that time with +good reason indignant at Demetrius Soter and apprehensive of a +combination between the Attalids and Seleucids, while the establishment +of a power intermediate between Syria and Egypt was at any rate for +the interest of Rome, it made no difficulty in at once recognizing +the freedom and autonomy of the insurgent nation (about 593). Nothing, +however, was done by Rome for the Jews except what could be done +without personal exertion: in spite of the clause of the treaty +concluded between the Romans and the Jews which promised Roman aid to +the latter in the event of their being attacked, and in spite of the +injunction addressed to the kings of Syria and Egypt not to march +their troops through Judaea, it was of course entirely left to the Jews +themselves to hold their ground against the Syrian kings. The brave +and prudent conduct of the insurrection by the heroic family of the +Maccabees and the internal dissension in the Syrian empire did more +for them than the letters of their powerful allies; during the strife +between the Syrian kings Trypho and Demetrius Nicator autonomy and +exemption from tribute were formally accorded to the Jews (612); +and soon afterwards the head of the Maccabaean house, Simon son of +Mattathias, was even formally acknowledged by the nation as well as by +the Syrian great-king as high priest and prince of Israel (615).(39) + +The Parthian Empire + +Of still more importance in the sequel than this insurrection of +the Israelites was the contemporary movement--probably originating +from the same cause--in the eastern provinces, where Antiochus Epiphanes +emptied the temples of the Persian gods just as he had emptied that at +Jerusalem, and doubtless accorded no better treatment there to the +adherents of Ahuramazda and Mithra than here to those of Jehovah. +Just as in Judaea--only with a wider range and ampler proportions-- +the result was a reaction on the part of the native manners and +the native religion against Hellenism and the Hellenic gods; the +promoters of this movement were the Parthians, and out of it arose +the great Parthian empire. The "Parthwa," or Parthians, who are early +met with as one of the numerous peoples merged in the great Persian +empire, at first in the modern Khorasan to the south-east of the +Caspian sea, appear after 500 under the Scythian, i. e. Turanian, +princely race of the Arsacids as an independent state; which, +however, only emerged from its obscurity about a century afterwards. +The sixth Arsaces, Mithradates I (579?-618?), was the real founder +of the Parthian as a great power. To him succumbed the Bactrian +empire, in itself far more powerful, but already shaken to the very +foundation partly by hostilities with the hordes of Scythian horsemen +from Turan and with the states of the Indus, partly by internal +disorders. He achieved almost equal successes in the countries +to the west of the great desert. The Syrian empire was just then +in the utmost disorganization, partly through the failure of the +Hellenizing attempts of Antiochus Epiphanes, partly through the +troubles as to the succession that occurred after his death; and +the provinces of the interior were in full course of breaking off +from Antioch and the region of the coast. In Commagene for instance, +the most northerly province of Syria on the Cappadocian frontier, +the satrap Ptolemaeus asserted his independence, as did also on +the opposite bank of the Euphrates the prince of Edessa in northern +Mesopotamia or the province of Osrhoene, and the satrap Timarchus in +the important province of Media; in fact the latter got his independence +confirmed by the Roman senate, and, supported by Armenia as his ally, +ruled as far down as Seleucia on the Tigris. Disorders of this sort +were permanent features of the Asiatic empire: the provinces under +their partially or wholly independent satraps were in continual +revolt, as was also the capital with its unruly and refractory +populace resembling that of Rome or Alexandria. The whole pack of +neighbouring kings--those of Egypt, Armenia, Cappadocia, Pergamus-- +incessantly interfered in the affairs of Syria and fostered disputes +as to the succession, so that civil war and the division of the +sovereignty de facto among two or more pretenders became almost +standing calamities of the country. The Roman protecting power, +if it did not instigate these neighbours, was an inactive spectator. +In addition to all this the new Parthian empire from the eastward +pressed hard on the aliens not merely with its material power, but +with the whole superiority of its national language and religion +and of its national military and political organization. This is +not yet the place for a description of this regenerated empire of +Cyrus; it is sufficient to mention generally the fact that powerful +as was the influence of Hellenism in its composition, the Parthian +state, as compared with that of the Seleucids, was based on a national +and religious reaction, and that the old Iranian language, the order +of the Magi and the worship of Mithra, the Oriental feudatory system, +the cavalry of the desert and the bow and arrow, first emerged there +in renewed and superior opposition to Hellenism. The position of the +imperial kings in presence of all this was really pitiable. The family +of the Seleucids was by no means so enervated as that of the Lagids +for instance, and individuals among them were not deficient in +valour and ability; they reduced, it may be, one or another of those +numerous rebels, pretenders, and intermeddlers to due bounds; but +their dominion was so lacking in a firm foundation, that they were +unable to impose even a temporary check on anarchy. The result was +inevitable. The eastern provinces of Syria under their unprotected +or even insurgent satraps fell into subjection to the Parthians; +Persia, Babylonia, Media were for ever severed from the Syrian +empire; the new state of the Parthians reached on both sides of the +great desert from the Oxus and the Hindoo Coosh to the Tigris and +the Arabian desert--once more, like the Persian empire and all the +older great states of Asia, a pure continental monarchy, and once +more, just like the Persian empire, engaged in perpetual feud on +the one side with the peoples of Turan, on the other with the +Occidentals. The Syrian state embraced at the most Mesopotamia +in addition to the region of the coast, and disappeared, more in +consequence of its internal disorganization than of its diminished +size, for ever from the ranks of the great states. If the danger-- +which was repeatedly imminent--of a total subjugation of the land by +the Parthians was averted, that result must be ascribed not to the +resistance of the last Seleucids and still less to the influence of +Rome, but rather to the manifold internal disturbances in the Parthian +empire itself, and above all to the incursions of the peoples of the +Turanian steppes into its eastern provinces. + +Reaction of the East against the West + +This revolution in the relations of the peoples in the interior of +Asia is the turning-point in the history of antiquity. The tide of +national movement, which had hitherto poured from the west to the east +and had found in Alexander the Great its last and highest expression, +was followed by the ebb. On the establishment of the Parthian state +not only were such Hellenic elements, as may still perhaps have +been preserved in Bactria and on the Indus, lost, but western Iran +also relapsed into the track which had been abandoned for centuries +but was not yet obliterated. The Roman senate sacrificed the first +essential result of the policy of Alexander, and thereby paved the +way for that retrograde movement, whose last offshoots ended in +the Alhambra of Granada and in the great Mosque of Constantinople. +So long as the country from Ragae and Persepolis to the Mediterranean +obeyed the king of Antioch, the power of Rome extended to the border +of the great desert; the Parthian state could never take its place +among the dependencies of the Mediterranean empire, not because +it was so very powerful, but because it had its centre far from +the coast, in the interior of Asia. Since the time of Alexander +the world had obeyed the Occidentals alone, and the east seemed to +be for these merely what America and Australia afterwards became +for the Europeans; with Mithradates I the east re-entered the sphere +of political movement. The world had again two masters. + +Maritime Relations +Piracy + +It remains that we glance at the maritime relations of this period; +although there is hardly anything else to be said, than that there +no longer existed anywhere a naval power. Carthage was annihilated; +the war-fleet of Syria was destroyed in accordance with the treaty; +the war-marine of Egypt, once so powerful, was under its present +indolent rulers in deep decay. The minor states, and particularly +the mercantile cities, had doubtless some armed transports; but +these were not even adequate for the task--so difficult in the +Mediterranean--of repressing piracy. This task necessarily devolved +on Rome as the leading power in the Mediterranean. While a century +previously the Romans had come forward in this matter with especial +and salutary decision, and had in particular introduced their supremacy +in the east by a maritime police energetically handled for the general +good,(40) the complete nullity of this police at the very beginning +of this period as distinctly betokens the fearfully rapid decline of +the aristocratic government. Rome no longer possessed a fleet of +her own; she was content to make requisitions for ships, when it +seemed necessary, from the maritime towns of Italy, Asia Minor, +and elsewhere. The consequence naturally was, that buccaneering +became organized and consolidated. Something, perhaps, though +not enough, was done towards its suppression, so far as the direct +power of the Romans extended, in the Adriatic and Tyrrhene seas. +The expeditions directed against the Dalmatian and Ligurian coasts +at this epoch aimed especially at the suppression of piracy in the +two Italian seas; for the same reason the Balearic islands were +occupied in 631.(41) But in the Mauretanian and Greek waters the +inhabitants along the coast and the mariners were left to settle +matters with the corsairs in one way or another, as they best +could; for Roman policy adhered to the principle of troubling +itself as little as possible about these more remote regions. +The disorganized and bankrupt commonwealths in the states along +the coast thus left to themselves naturally became places of refuge +for the corsairs; and there was no want of such, especially in Asia. + +Crete + +A bad pre-eminence in this respect belonged to Crete, which, from its +favourable situation and the weakness or laxity of the great states +of the west and east, was the only one of all the Greek settlements +that had preserved its independence. Roman commissions doubtless came +and went to this island, but accomplished still less there than they +did even in Syria and Egypt. It seemed almost as if fate had left +liberty to the Cretans only in order to show what was the result of +Hellenic independence. It was a dreadful picture. The old Doric +rigour of the Cretan institutions had become, just as in Tarentum, +changed into a licentious democracy, and the chivalrous spirit +of the inhabitants into a wild love of quarrelling and plunder; +a respectable Greek himself testifies, that in Crete alone nothing +was accounted disgraceful that was lucrative, and even the Apostle +Paul quotes with approval the saying of a Cretan poet, + +--Kretes aei pseustai, kaka theria, gasteres argai--. + +Perpetual civil wars, notwithstanding the Roman efforts to bring +about peace, converted one flourishing township after another +on the old "island of the hundred cities" into heaps of ruins. +Its inhabitants roamed as robbers at home and abroad, by land and +by sea; the island became the recruiting ground for the surrounding +kingdoms, after that evil was no longer tolerated in the Peloponnesus, +and above all the true seat of piracy; about this period, for instance, +the island of Siphnus was thoroughly pillaged by a fleet of Cretan +corsairs. Rhodes--which, besides, was unable to recover from the loss +of its possessions on the mainland and from the blows inflicted on its +commerce(42)--expended its last energies in the wars which it found +itself compelled to wage against the Cretans for the suppression of +piracy (about 600), and in which the Romans sought to mediate, but +without earnestness and apparently without success. + +Cilicia + +Along with Crete, Cilicia soon began to become a second home for +this buccaneering system. Piracy there not only gained ground +owing to the impotence of the Syrian rulers, but the usurper Diodotus +Tryphon, who had risen from a slave to be king of Syria (608-615), +encouraged it by all means in his chief seat, the rugged or western +Cilicia, with a view to strengthen his throne by the aid of the +corsairs. The uncommonly lucrative character of the traffic with +the pirates, who were at once the principal captors of, and dealers +in slaves, procured for them among the mercantile public, even in +Alexandria, Rhodes, and Delos, a certain toleration, in which the +very governments shared at least by inaction. The evil was so +serious that the senate, about 611, sent its best man Scipio +Aemilianus to Alexandria and Syria, in order to ascertain on the spot +what could be done in the matter. But diplomatic representations of +the Romans did not make weak governments strong; there was no other +remedy but that of directly maintaining a fleet in these waters, and +for this the Roman government lacked energy and perseverance. So all +things just remained on the old footing; the piratic fleet was the +only considerable naval power in the Mediterranean; the capture of +men was the only trade that flourished there. The Roman government +was an onlooker; but the Roman merchants, as the best customers in +the slave market, kept up an active and friendly traffic with the +pirate captains, as the most important wholesale dealers in that +commodity, at Delos and elsewhere. + +General Result + +We have followed the transformation of the outward relations of +Rome and the Romano-Hellenic world generally in its leading outlines, +from the battle of Pydna to the period of the Gracchi, from the Tagus +and the Bagradas to the Nile and the Euphrates. It was a great and +difficult problem which Rome undertook, when she undertook to govern +this Romano-Hellenic world; it was not wholly misunderstood, but it +was by no means solved. The untenableness of the idea of Cato's time-- +that the state should be limited to Italy, and that its rule beyond +Italy should be only over clients--was doubtless discerned by the +leading men of the following generation; and the necessity of +substituting for this ruling by clientship a direct sovereignty +of Rome, that should preserve the liberties of the communities, +was doubtless recognized. But instead of carrying out this new +arrangement firmly, speedily, and uniformly, they annexed isolated +provinces just as convenience, caprice, collateral advantage, or +accident led them to do so; whereas the greater portion of the +territory under clientship either remained in the intolerable +uncertainty of its former position, or even, as was the case with +Syria especially, withdrew entirely from the influence of Rome. +And even the government itself degenerated more and more into a feeble +and short-sighted selfishness. They were content with governing from +one day to another, and merely transacting the current business as +exigency required. They were stern masters towards the weak. When +the city of Mylasa in Caria sent to Publius Crassus, consul in 623, +a beam for the construction of a battering-ram different from what +he had asked, the chief magistrate of the town was scourged for it; +and Crassus was not a bad man, and a strictly upright magistrate. +On the other hand sternness was wanting in those cases where it would +have been in place, as in dealing with the barbarians on the frontiers +and with the pirates. When the central government renounced all +superintendence and all oversight of provincial affairs, it entirely +abandoned not only the interests of the subjects, but also those of +the state, to the governor of the day. The events which occurred in +Spain, unimportant in themselves, are instructive in this respect. +In that country, where the government was less able than in other +provinces to confine itself to the part of a mere onlooker, the law +of nations was directly trampled under foot by the Roman governors; +and the honour of Rome was permanently dragged in the mire by a +faithlessness and treachery without parallel, by the most wanton +trifling with capitulations and treaties, by massacring people who +had submitted and instigating the assassination of the generals of +the enemy. Nor was this all; war was even waged and peace concluded +against the expressed will of the supreme authority in Rome, and +unimportant incidents, such as the disobedience of the Numantines, +were developed by a rare combination of perversity and folly into +a crisis of fatal moment for the state. And all this took place +without any effort to visit it with even a serious penalty in Rome. +Not only did the sympathies and rivalries of the different coteries +in the senate contribute to decide the filling up of the most +important places and the treatment of the most momentous political +questions; but even thus early the money of foreign dynasts found +its way to the senators of Rome. Timarchus, the envoy of Antiochus +Epiphanes king of Syria (590), is mentioned as the first who +attempted with success to bribe the Roman senate; the bestowal of +presents from foreign kings on influential senators soon became so +common, that surprise was excited when Scipio Aemilianus cast into +the military chest the gifts from the king of Syria which reached +him in camp before Numantia. The ancient principle, that rule was +its own sole reward and that such rule was as much a duty and a +burden as a privilege and a benefit, was allowed to fall wholly into +abeyance. Thus there arose the new state-economy, which turned its +eyes away from the taxation of the burgesses, but regarded the body +of subjects, on the other hand, as a profitable possession of the +community, which it partly worked out for the public benefit, partly +handed over to be worked out by the burgesses. Not only was free +scope allowed with criminal indulgence to the unscrupulous greed of +the Roman merchant in the provincial administration, but even the +commercial rivals who were disagreeable to him were cleared away by +the armies of the state, and the most glorious cities of neighbouring +lands were sacrificed, not to the barbarism of the lust of power, but +to the far more horrible barbarism of speculation. By the ruin of +the earlier military organization, which certainly imposed heavy +burdens on the burgesses, the state, which was solely dependent in +the last resort on its military superiority, undermined its own +support. The fleet was allowed to go to ruin; the system of land +warfare fell into the most incredible decay. The duty of guarding +the Asiatic and African frontiers was devolved on the subjects; and +what could not be so devolved, such as the defence of the frontier +in Italy, Macedonia, and Spain, was managed after the most wretched +fashion. The better classes began to disappear so much from the +army, that it was already difficult to raise the necessary number of +officers for the Spanish armies. The daily increasing aversion to +the Spanish war-service in particular, combined with the partiality +shown by the magistrates in the levy, rendered it necessary in 602 +to abandon the old practice of leaving the selection of the requisite +number of soldiers from the men liable to serve to the free discretion +of the officers, and to substitute for it the drawing lots on the +part of all the men liable to service--certainly not to the advantage +of the military esprit de corps, or of the warlike efficiency +of the individual divisions. The authorities, instead of acting +with vigour and sternness, extended their pitiful flattery of the +people even to this field; whenever a consul in the discharge of +his duty instituted rigorous levies for the Spanish service, the +tribunes made use of their constitutional right to arrest him (603, +616); and it has been already observed, that Scipio's request that +he should be allowed a levy for the Numantine war was directly +rejected by the senate. Accordingly the Roman armies before +Carthage or Numantia already remind one of those Syrian armies, in +which the number of bakers, cooks, actors, and other non-combatants +exceeded fourfold that of the so-called soldiers; already the Roman +generals are little behind their Carthaginian colleagues in the art +of ruining armies, and the wars in Africa as in Spain, in Macedonia +as in Asia, are regularly opened with defeats; the murder of Gnaeus +Octavius is now passed over in silence; the assassination of +Viriathus is now a masterpiece of Roman diplomacy; the conquest +of Numantia is now a great achievement. How completely the idea +of national and manly honour was already lost among the Romans, +was shown with epigrammatic point by the statue of the stripped +and bound Mancinus, which he himself, proud of his patriotic +devotedness, caused to be erected in Rome. Wherever we turn our +eyes, we find the internal energy as well as the external power +of Rome rapidly on the decline. The ground won in gigantic struggles +is not extended, norin fact even maintained, in this period of peace. +The government of the world, which it was difficult to achieve, it +was still more difficult to preserve; the Roman senate had mastered +the former task, but it broke down under the latter. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +The Reform Movement and Tiberius Gracchus + +The Roman Government before the Period of the Gracchi + +For a whole generation after the battle of Pydna the Roman state +enjoyed a profound calm, scarcely varied by a ripple here and there +on the surface. Its dominion extended over the three continents; +the lustre of the Roman power and the glory of the Roman name were +constantly on the increase; all eyes rested on Italy, all talents and +all riches flowed thither; it seemed as if a golden age of peaceful +prosperity and intellectual enjoyment of life could not but there +begin. The Orientals of this period told each other with astonishment +of the mighty republic of the west, "which subdued kingdoms far and +near, and whoever heard its name trembled; but it kept good faith +with its friends and clients. Such was the glory of the Romans, and +yet no one usurped the crown and no one paraded in purple dress; but +they obeyed whomsoever from year to year they made their master, and +there was among them neither envy nor discord." + +Spread of Decay + +So it seemed at a distance; matters wore a different aspect on a +closer view. The government of the aristocracy was in full train +to destroy its own work. Not that the sons and grandsons of the +vanquished at Cannae and of the victors at Zama had so utterly +degenerated from their fathers and grandfathers; the difference was +not so much in the men who now sat in the senate, as in the times. +Where a limited number of old families of established wealth and +hereditary political importance conducts the government, it will +display in seasons of danger an incomparable tenacity of purpose and +power of heroic self-sacrifice, just as in seasons of tranquillity +it will be shortsighted, selfish, and negligent--the germs of both +results are essentially involved in its hereditary and collegiate +character. The morbid matter had been long in existence, but it +needed the sun of prosperity to develop it. There was a profound +meaning in the question of Cato, "What was to become of Rome, when +she should no longer have any state to fear?" That point had now +been reached. Every neighbour whom she might have feared was +politically annihilated; and of the men who had been reared under +the old order of things in the severe school of the Hannibalic war, +and whose words still sounded as echoes of that mighty epoch so long +as they survived, death called one after another away, till at length +even the voice of the last of them, the veteran Cato, ceased to be heard +in the senate-house and in the Forum. A younger generation came to the +helm, and their policy was a sorry answer to that question of the old +patriot. We have already spoken of the shape which the government of +the subjects and the external policy of Rome assumed in their hands. +In internal affairs they were, if possible, still more disposed to +let the ship drive before the wind: if we understand by internal +government more than the transaction of current business, there was at +this period no government in Rome at all. The single leading thought +of the governing corporation was the maintenance and, if possible, the +increase of their usurped privileges. It was not the state that had +a title to get the right and best man for its supreme magistracy; +but every member of the coterie had an inborn title to the highest +office of the state--a title not to be prejudiced either by the +unfair rivalry of men of his own class or by the encroachments of +the excluded. Accordingly the clique proposed to itself, as its +most important political aim, the restriction of re-election to the +consulship and the exclusion of "new men"; and in fact it succeeded +in obtaining the legal prohibition of the former about 603,(1) and +in sufficing with a government of aristocratic nobodies. Even the +inaction of the government in its outward relations was doubtless +connected with this policy of the nobility, exclusive towards +commoners, and distrustful towards the individual members of their +own order. By no surer means could they keep commoners, whose deeds +were their patent of nobility, aloof from the pure circles of the +aristocracy than by giving no opportunity to any one to perform +deeds at all; to the existing government of general mediocrity +even an aristocratic conqueror of Syria or Egypt would have +proved extremely inconvenient. + +Attempts at Reform +Permanent Criminal Commissions +Vote by Ballot +Exclusion of the Senators from the Equestrian Centuries +The Public Elections + +It is true that now also there was no want of opposition, and it was +even to a certain extent effectual. The administration of justice +was improved. The administrative jurisdiction, which the senate +exercised either of itself or, on occasion, by extraordinary commissions, +over the provincial magistrates, was confessedly inadequate. It was +an innovation with a momentous bearing on the whole public life of the +Roman community, when in 605, on the proposal of Lucius Calpurnius Piso, +a standing senatorial commission (-quaestio ordinaria-) was instituted to +try in judicial form the complaints of the provincials against the Roman +magistrates placed over them on the score of extortion. An effort +was made to emancipate the comitia from the predominant influence +of the aristocracy. The panacea of Roman democracy was secret voting +in the assemblies of the burgesses, which was introduced first for +the elections of magistrates by the Gabinian law (615), then for +the public tribunals by the Cassian law (617), lastly for the voting +on legislative proposals by the Papirian law (623). In a similar +way soon afterwards (about 625) the senators were by decree of the +people enjoined on admission to the senate to surrender their public +horse, and thereby to renounce their privileged place in the voting +of the eighteen equestrian centuries.(2) These measures, directed to +the emancipation of the electors from the ruling aristocratic order, +may perhaps have seemed to the party which suggested them the first +step towards a regeneration of the state; in fact they made not the +slightest change in the nullity and want of freedom of the legally +supreme organ of the Roman community; that nullity indeed was only +the more palpably evinced to all whom it did or did not concern. +Equally ostentatious and equally empty was the formal recognition +accorded to the independence and sovereignty of the burgesses by +the transference of their place of assembly from the old Comitium below +the senate-house to the Forum (about 609). But this hostility between +the formal sovereignty of the people and the practically subsisting +constitution was in great part a semblance. Party phrases were in +free circulation: of the parties themselves there was little trace in +matters really and directly practical. Throughout the whole seventh +century the annual public elections to the civil magistracies, +especially to the consulship and censorship, formed the real standing +question of the day and the focus of political agitation; but it was +only in isolated and rare instances that the different candidates +represented opposite political principles; ordinarily the question +related purely to persons, and it was for the course of affairs a +matter of indifference whether the majority of the votes fell to a +Caecilian or to a Cornelian. The Romans thus lacked that which +outweighs and compensates all the evils of party-life--the free and +common movement of the masses towards what they discern as a befitting +aim--and yet endured all those evils solely for the benefit of the +paltry game of the ruling coteries. + +It was comparatively easy for the Roman noble to enter on the career +of office as quaestor or tribune of the people; but the consulship +and the censorship were attainable by him only through great exertions +prolonged for years. The prizes were many, but those really worth +having were few; the competitors ran, as a Roman poet once said, as +it were over a racecourse wide at the starting-point but gradually +narrowing its dimensions. This was right, so long as the magistracy +was--what it was called--an "honour" and men of military, political, +or juristic ability were rival competitors for the rare chaplets; but +now the practical closeness of the nobility did away with the benefit +of competition, and left only its disadvantages. With few exceptions +the young men belonging to the ruling families crowded into the +political career, and hasty and premature ambition soon caught at +means more effective than was useful action for the common good. +The first requisite for a public career came to be powerful connections; +and therefore that career began, not as formerly in the camp, but in +the ante-chambers of influential men. A new and genteel body of clients +now undertook--what had formerly been done only by dependents and +freedmen--to come and wait on their patron early in the morning, and +to appear publicly in his train. But the mob also is a great lord, +and desires as such to receive attention. The rabble began to demand +as its right that the future consul should recognize and honour the +sovereign people in every ragged idler of the street, and that every +candidate should in his "going round" (-ambitus-) salute every +individual voter by name and press his hand. The world of quality +readily entered into this degrading canvass. The true candidate +cringed not only in the palace, but also on the street, and +recommended himself to the multitude by flattering attentions, +indulgences, and civilities more or less refined. Demagogism and +the cry for reforms were sedulously employed to attract the notice and +favour of the public; and they were the more effective, the more they +attacked not things but persons. It became the custom for beardless +youths of genteel birth to introduce themselves with -eclat- into +public life by playing afresh the part of Cato with the immature +passion of their boyish eloquence, and by constituting and proclaiming +themselves state-attorneys, if possible, against some man of very +high standing and very great unpopularity; the Romans suffered the +grave institutions of criminal justice and of political police to +become a means of soliciting office. The provision or, what was +still worse, the promise of magnificent popular amusements had long +been the, as it were legal, prerequisite to the obtaining of the +consulship;(3) now the votes of the electors began to be directly +purchased with money, as is shown by the prohibition issued against +this about 595. Perhaps the worst consequence of the continual +courting of the favour of the multitude by the ruling aristocracy +was the incompatibility of such a begging and fawning part with +the position which the government should rightfully occupy in +relation to the governed. The government was thus converted from +a blessing into a curse for the people. They no longer ventured to +dispose of the property and blood of the burgesses, as exigency required, +for the good of their country. They allowed the burgesses to become +habituated to the dangerous idea that they were legally exempt from +the payment of direct taxes even by way of advance--after the war +with Perseus no further advance had been asked from the community. +They allowed their military system to decay rather than compel the +burgesses to enter the odious transmarine service; how it fared +with the individual magistrates who attempted to carry out the +conscription according to the strict letter of the law, has +already been related.(4) + +Optimates and Populares + +In the Rome of this epoch the two evils of a degenerate oligarchy +and a democracy still undeveloped but already cankered in the bud +were interwoven in a manner pregnant with fatal results. According +to their party names, which were first heard during this period, +the "Optimates" wished to give effect to the will of the best, the +"Populares" to that of the community; but in fact there was in the Rome +of that day neither a true aristocracy nor a truly self-determining +community. Both parties contended alike for shadows, and numbered +in their ranks none but enthusiasts or hypocrites. Both were equally +affected by political corruption, and both were in fact equally +worthless. Both were necessarily tied down to the status quo, for +neither on the one side nor on the other was there found any political +idea--to say nothing of any political plan--reaching beyond the +existing state of things; and accordingly the two parties were so +entirely in agreement that they met at every step as respected both +means and ends, and a change of party was a change of political +tactics more than of political sentiments. The commonwealth would +beyond doubt have been a gainer, if either the aristocracy had directly +introduced a hereditary rotation instead of election by the burgesses, +or the democracy had produced from within it a real demagogic government. +But these Optimates and these Populares of the beginning of the seventh +century were far too indispensable for eachother to wage such internecine +war; they not only could not destroy each other, but, even if they had +been able to do so, they would not have been willing. Meanwhile the +commonwealth was politically and morally more and more unhinged, and +was verging towards utter disorganization. + +Social Crisis + +The crisis with which the Roman revolution was opened arose not out +of this paltry political conflict, but out of the economic and social +relations which the Roman government allowed, like everything else, +simply to take their course, and which thus found opportunity to +bring the morbid matter, that had been long fermenting, without +hindrance and with fearful rapidity and violence to maturity. From +a very early period the Roman economy was based on the two factors +--always in quest of each other, and always at variance--the husbandry +of the small farmer and the money of the capitalist. The latter in the +closest alliance with landholding on a great scale had already for +centuries waged against the farmer-class a war, which seemed as though +it could not but terminate in the destruction first of the farmers +and thereafter of the whole commonwealth, but was broken off without +being properly decided in consequence of the successful wars and the +comprehensive and ample distribution of domains for which these wars +gave facilities. It has already been shown(5) that in the same age, +which renewed the distinction between patricians and plebeians under +altered names, the disproportionate accumulation of capital was +preparing a second assault on the farming system. It is true that +the method was different. Formerly the small farmer had been ruined +by advances of money, which practically reduced him to be the steward +of his creditor; now he was crushed by the competition of transmarine, +and especially of slave-grown, corn. The capitalists kept pace with +the times; capital, while waging war against labour or in other words +against the liberty of the person, of course, as it had always done, +under the strictest form of law, waged it no longer in the unseemly +fashion which converted the free man on account of debt into a slave, +but, throughout, with slaves legitimately bought and paid; the former +usurer of the capital appeared in a shape conformable to the times +as the owner of industrial plantations. But the ultimate result was +in both cases the same--the depreciation of the Italian farms; the +supplanting of the petty husbandry, first in a part of the provinces +and then in Italy, by the farming of large estates; the prevailing +tendency to devote the latter in Italy to the rearing of cattle and +the culture of the olive and vine; finally, the replacing of the +free labourers in the provinces as in Italy by slaves. Just as the +nobility was more dangerous than the patriciate, because the former +could not, like the latter, be set aside by a change of the +constitution; so this new power of capital was more dangerous than +that of the fourth and fifth centuries, because nothing was to be +done against it by changes in the law of the land. + +Slavery and Its Consequences + +Before we attempt to describe the course of this second great +conflict between labour and capital, it is necessary to give here +some indication of the nature and extent of the system of slavery. +We have not now to do with the old, in some measure innocent, rural +slavery, under which the farmer either tilled the field along with +his slave, or, if he possessed more land than he could manage, placed +the slave--either as steward or as a sort of lessee obliged to render +up a portion of the produce--over a detached farm.(6) Such relations +no doubt existed at all times--around Comum, for instance, they were +still the rule in the time of the empire--but as exceptional features +in privileged districts and on humanely-managed estates. What we now +refer to is the system of slavery on a great scale, which in the Roman +state, as formerly in the Carthaginian, grew out of the ascendency +of capital. While the captives taken in war and the hereditary +transmission of slavery sufficed to keep up the stock of slaves +during the earlier period, this system of slavery was, just like that +of America, based on the methodically-prosecuted hunting of man; for, +owing to the manner in which slaves were used with little regard to +their life or propagation, the slave population was constantly on +the wane, and even the wars which were always furnishing fresh +masses to the slave-market were not sufficient to cover the deficit. +No country where this species of game could be hunted remained exempt +from visitation; even in Italy it was a thing by no means unheard +of, that the poor freeman was placed by his employer among the slaves. +But the Negroland of that period was western Asia,(7) where the Cretan +and Cilician corsairs, the real professional slave-hunters and slave- +dealers, robbed the coasts of Syria and the Greek islands; and where, +emulating their feats, the Roman revenue-farmers instituted human hunts +in the client states and incorporated those whom they captured among +their slaves. This was done to such an extent, that about 650 the king +of Bithynia declared himself unable to furnish the required contingent, +because all the people capable of labour had been dragged off from his +kingdom by the revenue-farmers. At the great slave-market in Delos, +where the slave-dealers of Asia Minor disposed of their wares to +Italian speculators, on one day as many as 10,000 slaves are said to +have been disembarked in the morning and to have been all sold before +evening--a proof at once how enormous was the number of slaves +delivered, and how, notwithstanding, the demand still exceeded the +supply. It was no wonder. Already in describing the Roman economy +of the sixth century we have explained that it was based, like all +the large undertakings of antiquity generally, on the employment of +slaves.(8) In whatever direction speculation applied itself, its +instrument was without exception man reduced in law to a beast of +burden. Trades were in great part carried on by slaves, so that +the proceeds fell to the master. The levying of the public revenues +in the lower grades was regularly conducted by the slaves of the +associations that leased them. Servile hands performed the operations +of mining, making pitch, and others of a similar kind; it became early +the custom to send herds of slaves to the Spanish mines, whose +superintendents readily received them and paid a high rent for them. +The vine and olive harvest in Italy was not conducted by the people +on the estate, but was contracted for by a slave-owner. The tending +of cattle was universally performed by slaves. We have already +mentioned the armed, and frequently mounted, slave-herdsmen in +the great pastoral ranges of Italy;(9) and the same sort of pastoral +husbandry soon became in the provinces also a favourite object of Roman +speculation--Dalmatia, for instance, was hardly acquired (599) when +the Roman capitalists began to prosecute the rearing of cattle there on +a great scale after the Italian fashion. But far worse in every respect +was the plantation-system proper--the cultivation of the fields by a +band of slaves not unfrequently branded with iron, who with shackles +on their legs performed the labours of the field under overseers +during the day, and were locked up together by night in the common, +frequently subterranean, labourers' prison. This plantation-system +had migrated from the east to Carthage,(10) and seems to have been +brought by the Carthaginians to Sicily, where, probably for this reason, +it appears developed earlier and more completely than in any other part +of the Roman dominions.(11) We find the territory of Leontini, about +30,000 -jugera- of arable land, which was let on lease as Roman +domain(12) by the censors, divided some decades after the time of the +Gracchi among not more than 84 lessees, to each of whom there thus fell +on an average 360 jugera, and among whom only one was a Leontine; the +rest were foreign, mostly Roman, speculators. We see from this instance +with what zeal the Roman speculators there walked in the footsteps of +their predecessors, and what extensive dealings in Sicilian cattle +and Sicilian slave-corn must have been carried on by the Roman and +Non-Roman speculators who covered the fair island with their pastures +and plantations. Italy however still remained for the present +substantially exempt from this worst form of slave-husbandry. Although +in Etruria, where the plantation-system seems to have first emerged +in Italy, and where it existed most extensively at least forty years +afterwards, it is extremely probable that even now -ergastula- were +not wanting; yet Italian agriculture at this epoch was still chiefly +carried on by free persons or at any rate by non-fettered slaves, +while the greater tasks were frequently let out to contractors. +The difference between Italian and Sicilian slavery is very clearly +apparent from the fact, that the slaves of the Mamertine community, +which lived after the Italian fashion, were the only slaves who did +not take part in the Sicilian servile revolt of 619-622. + +The abyss of misery and woe, which opens before our eyes in this most +miserable of all proletariates, may be fathomed by those who venture +to gaze into such depths; it is very possible that, compared with the +sufferings of the Roman slaves, the sum of all Negro sufferings is but +a drop. Here we are not so much concerned with the hardships of the +slaves themselves as with the perils which they brought upon the Roman +state, and with the conduct of the government in confronting them. +It is plain that this proletariate was not called into existence by +the government and could not be directly set aside by it; this could +only have been accomplished by remedies which would have been still +worse than the disease. The duty of the government was simply, on +the one hand, to avert the direct danger to property and life, with +which the slave-proletariate threatened the members of the state, +by an earnest system of police for securing order; and on the other +hand, to aim at the restriction of the proletariate, as far as possible, +by the elevation of free labour. Let us see how the Roman aristocracy +executed these two tasks. + +Insurrection of the Slaves +The First Sicilian Slave War + +The servile conspiracies and servile wars, breaking out everywhere, +illustrate their management as respects police. In Italy the scenes +of disorder, which were among the immediate painful consequences of +the Hannibalic war,(13) seemed now to be renewed; all at once the +Romans were obliged to seize and execute in the capital 150, in +Minturnae 450, in Sinuessa even 4000 slaves (621). Still worse, +as may be conceived, was the state of the provinces. At the great +slave-market at Delos and in the Attic silver-mines about the same +period the revolted slaves had to be put down by force of arms. +The war against Aristonicus and his "Heliopolites" in Asia Minor was +in substance a war of the landholders against the revolted slaves.(14) +But worst of all, naturally, was the condition of Sicily, the chosen +land of the plantation system. Brigandage had long been a standing +evil there, especially in the interior; it began to swell into +insurrection. Damophilus, a wealthy planter of Enna (Castrogiovanni), +who vied with the Italian lords in the industrial investment of his +living capital, was attacked and murdered by his exasperated rural +slaves; whereupon the savage band flocked into the town of Enna, and +there repeated the same process on a greater scale. The slaves rose +in a body against their masters, killed or enslaved them, and summoned +to the head of the already considerable insurgent army a juggler +from Apamea in Syria who knew how to vomit fire and utter oracles, +formerly as a slave named Eunus, now as chief of the insurgents +styled Antiochus king of the Syrians. And why not? A few years before +another Syrian slave, who was not even a prophet, had in Antioch +itself worn the royal diadem of the Seleucids.(15) The Greek slave +Achaeus, the brave "general" of the new king, traversed the island, +and not only did the wild herdsmen flock from far and near to +the strange standards, but the free labourers also, who bore no +goodwill to the planters, made common cause with the revolted slaves. +In another district of Sicily Cleon, a Cilician slave, formerly in his +native land a daring bandit, followed the example which had been set +and occupied Agrigentum; and, when the leaders came to a mutual +understanding, after gaining various minor advantages they succeeded +in at last totally defeating the praetor Lucius Hypsaeus in person +and his army, consisting mostly of Sicilian militia, and in capturing +his camp. By this means almost the whole island came into the power +of the insurgents, whose numbers, according to the most moderate +estimates, are alleged to have amounted to 70,000 men capable of +bearing arms. The Romans found themselves compelled for three +successive years (620-622) to despatch consuls and consular armies +to Sicily, till, after several undecided and even some unfavourable +conflicts, the revolt was at length subdued by the capture of +Tauromenium and of Enna. The most resolute men of the insurgents +threw themselves into the latter town, in order to hold their ground +in that impregnable position with the determination of men who +despair of deliverance or of pnrdon; the consuls Lucius Calpurnius +Piso and Publius Rupilius lay before it for two years, and reduced +it at last more by famine than by arms.(16) + +These were the results of the police system for securing order, as +it was handled by the Roman senate and its officials in Italy and +the provinces. While the task of getting quit of the proletariate +demands and only too often transcends the whole power and wisdom of +a government, its repression by measures of police on the other hand +is for any larger commonwealth comparatively easy. It would be well +with states, if the unpropertied masses threatened them with no other +danger than that with which they are menaced by bears and wolves; +only the timid and those who trade upon the silly fears of the +multitude prophesy the destruction of civil order through servile +revolts or insurrections of the proletariate. But even to this easier +task of restraining the oppressed masses the Roman government was by no +means equal, notwithstanding the profound peace and the inexhaustible +resources of the state. This was a sign of its weakness; but not of +its weakness alone. By law the Roman governor was bound to keep the +public roads clear and to have the robbers who were caught, if they were +slaves, crucified; and naturally, for slavery is not possible without a +reign of terror. At this period in Sicily a razzia was occasionally +doubtless set on foot by the governor, when the roads became too +insecure; but, in order not to disoblige the Italian planters, the +captured robbers were ordinarily given up by the authorities to +their masters to be punished at their discretion; and those masters +were frugal people who, if their slave-herdsmen asked clothes, replied +with stripes and with the inquiry whether travellers journeyed through +the land naked. The consequence of such connivance accordingly was, +that OH the subjugation of the slave-revolt the consul Publius Rupilius +ordered all that came into his hands alive--it is said upwards of +20,000 men--to be crucified. It was in truth no longer possible +to spare capital. + +The Italian Farmers + +The care of the government for the elevation of free labour, +and by consequence for the restriction of the slave-proletariate, +promised fruits far more difficult to be gained but also far richer. +Unfortunately, in this respect there was nothing done at all. In the +first social crisis the landlord had been enjoined by law to employ +a number of free labourers proportioned to the number of his slave +labourers.(17) Now at the suggestion of the government a Punic +treatise on agriculture,(18) doubtless giving instructions in the +system of plantation after the Carthaginian mode, was translated +into Latin for the use and benefit of Italian speculators--the first +and only instance of a literary undertaking suggested by the Roman +senate! The same tendency showed itself in a more important matter, +or to speak more correctly in the vital question for Rome--the system +of colonization. It needed no special wisdom, but merely a +recollection of the course of the first social crisis in Rome, +to perceive that the only real remedy against an agricultural +proletariate consisted in a comprehensive and duly-regulated system +of emigration;(19) for which the external relations of Rome offered +the most favourable opportunity. Until nearly the close of the sixth +century, in fact, the continuous diminution of the small landholders +of Italy was counteracted by the continuous establishment of new +farm-allotments.(20) This, it is true, was by no means done to the +extent to which it might and should have been done; not only was the +domain-land occupied from ancient times by private persons(21) not +recalled, but further occupations of newly-won land were permitted; +and other very important acquisitions, such as the territory of Capua, +while not abandoned to occupation, were yet not brought into +distribution, but were let on lease as usufructuary domains. +Nevertheless the assignation of land had operated beneficially--giving +help to many of the sufferers and hope to all. But after the founding +of Luna (577) no trace of further assignations of land is to be met +with for a long time, with the exception of the isolated institution +of the Picenian colony of Auximum (Osimo) in 597. The reason is +simple. After the conquest of the Boii and Apuani no new territory was +acquired in Italy excepting the far from attractive Ligurian valleys; +therefore no other land existed for distribution there except the +leased or occupied domain-land, the laying hands on which was, as may +easily be conceived, just as little agreeable to the aristocracy now as +it was three hundred years before. The distribution of the territory +acquired out of Italy appeared for political reasons inadmissible; +Italy was to remain the ruling country, and the wall of partition +between the Italian masters and their provincial servants was not +to be broken down. Unless the government were willing to set aside +considerations of higher policy or even the interests of their order, +no course was left to them but to remain spectators of the ruin of +the Italian farmer-class; and this result accordingly ensued. +The capitalists continued to buy out the small landholders, or indeed, +if they remained obstinate, to seize their fields without title of +purchase; in which case, as may be supposed, matters were not always +amicably settled. A peculiarly favourite method was to eject the wife +and children of the farmer from the homestead, while he was in the +field, and to bring him to compliance by means of the theory of +"accomplished fact." The landlords continued mainly to employ slaves +instead of free labourers, because the former could not like the +latter be called away to military service; and thus reduced the free +proletariate to the same level of misery with the slaves. They +continued to supersede Italian grain in the market of the capital, +and to lessen its value over the whole peninsula, by selling Sicilian +slave-corn at a mere nominal price. In Etruria the old native +aristocracy in league with the Roman capitalists had as early as 620 +brought matters to such a pass, that there was no longer a free farmer +there. It could be said aloud in the market of the capital, that the +beasts had their lairs but nothing was left to the burgesses save +the air and sunshine, and that those who were styled the masters +of the world had no longer a clod that they could call their own. +The census lists of the Roman burgesses furnished the commentary on +these words. From the end of the Hannibalic war down to 595 the numbers +of the burgesses were steadily on the increase, the cause of which is +mainly to be sought in the continuous and considerable distributions +of domain-land:(22) after 595 again, when the census yielded 328,000 +burgesses capable of bearing arms, there appears a regular falling-off, +for the list in 600 stood at 324,000, that in 607 at 322,000, that +in 623 at 319,000 burgesses fit for service--an alarming result for a +time of profound peace at home and abroad. If matters were to go on +at this rate, the burgess-body would resolve itself into planters and +slaves; and the Roman state might at length, as was the case with the +Parthians, purchase its soldiers in the slave-market. + +Ideas of Reform +Scipio Aemilianus + +Such was the external and internal condition of Rome, when the state +entered on the seventh century of its existence. Wherever the eye +turned, it encountered abuses and decay; the question could not +but force itself on every sagacious and well-disposed man, whether +this state of things was not capable of remedy or amendment. There +was no want of such men in Rome; but no one seemed more called to the +great work of political and social reform than Publius Cornelius Scipio +Aemilianus Africanus (570-625), the favourite son of Aemilius Paullus +and the adopted grandson of the great Scipio, whose glorious surname +of Africanus he bore by virtue not merely of hereditary but of +personal right. Like his father, he was a man temperate and +thoroughly healthy, never ailing in body, and never at a loss to +resolve on the immediate and necessary course of action. Even +in his youth he had kept aloof from the usual proceedings of +political novices--the attending in the antechambers of prominent +senators and the delivery of forensic declamations. On the other +hand he loved the chase--when a youth of seventeen, after having +served with distinction under his father in the campaign against +Perseus, he had asked as his reward the free range of the deer +forest of the kings of Macedonia which had been untouched for +four years--and he was especially fond of devoting his leisure to +scientific and literary enjoyment. By the care of his father he had +been early initiated into that genuine Greek culture, which elevated +him above the insipid Hellenizing of the semi-culture commonly in +vogue; by his earnest and apt appreciation of the good and bad +qualities in the Greek character, and by his aristocratic carriage, +this Roman made an impression on the courts of the east and even on +the scoffing Alexandrians. His Hellenism was especially recognizable +in the delicate irony of his discourse and in the classic purity of +his Latin. Although not strictly an author, he yet, like Cato, +committed to writing his political speeches--they were, like the letters +of his adopted sister the mother of the Gracchi, esteemed by the later +-litteratores- as masterpieces of model prose--and took pleasure in +surrounding himself with the better Greek and Roman -litterati-, +a plebeian society which was doubtless regarded with no small +suspicion by those colleagues in the senate whose noble birth was +their sole distinction. A man morally steadfast and trustworthy, +his word held good with friend and foe; he avoided buildings and +speculations, and lived with simplicity; while in money matters he +acted not merely honourably and disinterestedly, but also with a +tenderness and liberality which seemed singular to the mercantile +spirit of his contemporaries. He was an able soldier and officer; +he brought home from the African war the honorary wreath which was +wont to be conferred on those who saved the lives of citizens in +danger at the peril of their own, and terminated as general the +war which he had begun as an officer; circumstances gave him no +opportunity of trying his skill as a general on tasks really +difficult. Scipio was not, any more than his father, a man +of brilliant gifts--as is indicated by the very fact of his +predilection for Xenophon, the sober soldier and correct author- +but he was an honest and true man, who seemed pre-eminently called +to stem the incipient decay by organic reforms. All the more +significant is the fact that he did not attempt it. It is true +that he helped, as he had opportunity and means, to redress or +prevent abuses, and laboured in particular at the improvement of +the administration of justice. It was chiefly by his assistance +that Lucius Cassius, an able man of the old Roman austerity and +uprightness, was enabled to carry against the most vehement +opposition of the Optimates his law as to voting, which introduced +vote by ballot for those popular tribunals which still embraced +the most important part of the criminal jurisdiction.(23) In like +manner, although he had not chosen to take part in boyish +impeachments, he himself in his mature years put upon their trial +several of the guiltiest of the aristocracy. In a like spirit, when +commanding before Carthage and Numantia, he drove forth the women +and priests to the gates of the camp, and subjected the rabble of +soldiers once more to the iron yoke of the old military discipline; +and when censor (612), he cleared away the smooth-chinned coxcombs +among the world of quality and in earnest language urged the +citizens to adhere more faithfully to the honest customs of their +fathers. But no one, and least of all he himself, could fail to +see that increased stringency in the administration of justice and +isolated interference were not even first steps towards the healing +of the organic evils under which the state laboured. These Scipio did +not touch. Gaius Laelius (consul in 614), Scipio's elder friend and +his political instructor and confidant, had conceived the plan of +proposing the resumption of the Italian domain-land which had not +been given away but had been temporarily occupied, and of giving +relief by its distribution to the visibly decaying Italian farmers; +but he desisted from the project when he saw what a storm he was +going to raise, and was thenceforth named the "Judicious." Scipio was +of the same opinion. He was fully persuaded of the greatness of the +evil, and with a courage deserving of honour he without respect of +persons remorselessly assailed it and carried his point, where he +risked himself alone; but he was also persuaded that the country +could only be relieved at the price of a revolution similar to that +which in the fourth and fifth centuries had sprung out of the question +of reform, and, rightly or wrongly, the remedy seemed to him worse than +the disease. So with the small circle of his friends he held a middle +position between the aristocrats, who never forgave him for his advocacy +of the Cassian law, and the democrats, whom he neither satisfied nor +wished to satisfy; solitary during his life, praised after his death +by both parties, now as the champion of the aristocracy, now as +the promoter of reform. Down to his time the censors on laying +down their office had called upon the gods to grant greater power +and glory to the state: the censor Scipio prayed that they might +deign to preserve the state. His whole confession of faith lies +in that painful exclamation. + +Tiberius Gracchus + +But where the man who had twice led the Roman army from deep decline +to victory despaired, a youth without achievements had the boldness to +give himself forth as the saviour of Italy. He was called Tiberius +Sempronius Gracchus (591-621). His father who bore the same name +(consul in 577, 591; censor in 585), was the true model of a Roman +aristocrat. The brilliant magnificence of his aedilician games, not +produced without oppressing the dependent communities, had drawn upon +him the severe and deserved censure of the senate;(24) his interference +in the pitiful process directed against the Scipios who were personally +hostile to him(25) gave proof of his chivalrous feeling, and perhaps of +his regard for his own order; and his energetic action against the +freedmen in his censorship(26) evinced his conservative disposition. +As governor, moreover, of the province of the Ebro,(27) by his bravery +and above all by his integrity he rendered a permanent service to his +country, and at the same time raised to himself in the hearts of +the subject nation an enduring monument of reverence and affection. + +His mother Cornelia was the daughter of the conqueror of Zama, who, +simply on account of that generous intervention, had chosen his former +opponent as a son-in-law; she herself was a highly cultivated and +notable woman, who after the death of her much older husband had +refused the hand of the king of Egypt and reared her three surviving +children in memory of her husband and her father. Tiberius, the +elder of the two sons, was of a good and moral disposition, of +gentle aspect and quiet bearing, apparently fitted for anything rather +than for an agitator of the masses. In all his relations and views +he belonged to the Scipionic circle, whose refined and thorough +culture, Greek and national, he and his brother and sister shared. +Scipio Aemilianus was at once his cousin and his sister's husband; +under him Tiberius, at the age of eighteen, had taken part in the +storming of Carthage, and had by his valour acquired the commendation +of the stern general and warlike distinctions. It was natural +that the able young man should, with all the vivacity and all the +stringent precision of youth, adopt and intensify the views as to +the pervading decay of the state which were prevalent in that circle, +and more especially their ideas as to the elevation of the Italian +farmers. Nor was it merely to the young men that the shrinking of +Laelius from the execution of his ideas of reform seemed to be not +judicious, but weak. Appius Claudius, who had already been consul +(611) and censor (618), one of the most respected men in the senate, +censured the Scipionic circle for having so soon abandoned the scheme +of distributing the domain-lands with all the passionate vehemence +which was the hereditary characteristic of the Claudian house; and with +the greater bitterness, apparently because he had come into personal +conflict with Scipio Aemilianus in his candidature for the censorship. +Similar views were expressed by Publius Crassus Mucianus,(28) the +-pontifex maximus- of the day, who was held in universal honour by +the senate and the citizens as a man and a jurist. Even his brother +Publius Mucius Scaevola, the founder of scientific jurisprudence in +Rome, seemed not averse to the plan of reform; and his voice was of +the greater weight, as he stood in some measure aloof from the parties. +Similar were the sentiments of Quintus Metellus, the conqueror of +Macedonia and of the Achaeans, but respected not so much on account of +his warlike deeds as because he was a model of the old discipline and +manners alike in his domestic and his public life. Tiberius Gracchus +was closely connected with these men, particularly with Appius whose +daughter he had married, and with Mucianus whose daughter was married +to his brother. It was no wonder that he cherished the idea of +resuming in person the scheme of reform, so soon as he should find +himself in a position which would constitutionally allow him the +initiative. Personal motives may have strengthened this resolution. +The treaty of peace which Mancinus concluded with the Numantines in +617, was in substance the work of Gracchus;(29) the recollection that +the senate had cancelled it, that the general had been on its account +surrendered to the enemy, and that Gracchus with the other superior +officers had only escaped a like fate through the greater favour +which he enjoyed among the burgesses, could not put the young, +upright, and proud man in better humour with the ruling aristocracy. +The Hellenic rhetoricians with whom he was fond of discussing philosophy +and politics, Diophanes of Mytilene and Gaius Blossius of Cumae, +nourished within his soul the ideals over which he brooded: when his +intentions became known in wider circles, there was no want of approving +voices, and many a public placard summoned the grandson of Africanus to +think of the poor people and the deliverance of Italy. + +Tribunate of Gracchus +His Agrarian Law + +Tiberius Gracchus was invested with the tribunate of the people on +the 10th of December, 620. The fearful consequences of the previous +misgovernment, the political, military, economic, and moral decay of +the burgesses, were just at that time naked and open to the eyes of +all. Of the two consuls of this year one fought without success in +Sicily against the revolted slaves, and the other, Scipio Aemilianus, +was employed for months not in conquering, but in crushing a small +Spanish country town. If Gracchus still needed a special summons to +carry his resolution into effect, he found it in this state of matters +which filled the mind of every patriot with unspeakable anxiety. +His father-in-law promised assistance in counsel and action; the support +of the jurist Scaevola, who had shortly before been elected consul for +621, might be hoped for. So Gracchus, immediately after entering on +office, proposed the enactment of an agrarian law, which in a certain +sense was nothing but a renewal of the Licinio-Sextian law of 387.(30) +Under it all the state-lands which were occupied and enjoyed by +the possessors without remuneration--those that were let on lease, +such as the territory of Capua, were not affected by the law--were to +be resumed on behalf of the state; but with the restriction, that +each occupier should reserve for himself 500 -jugera- and for each son +250 (so as not, however, to exceed 1000 -jugera- in all) in permanent +and guaranteed possession, or should be entitled to claim compensation +in land to that extent. Indemnification appears to have been +granted for any improvements executed by the former holders, such +as buildings and plantations. The domain-land thus resumed was to +be broken up into lots of 30 jugera; and these were to be distributed +partly to burgesses, partly to Italian allies, not as their own free +property, but as inalienable heritable leaseholds, whose holders bound +themselves to use the land for agriculture and to pay a moderate +rent to the state-chest. A -collegium- of three men, who were +regarded as ordinary and standing magistrates of the state and were +annually elected by the assembly of the people, was entrusted with +the work of resumption and distribution; to which was afterwards added +the important and difficult function of legally settling what was +domain-land and what was private property. The distribution was +accordingly designed to go on for an indefinite period until the +Italian domains which were very extensive and difficult of adjustment +should be regulated. The new features in the Sempronian agrarian law, +as compared with the Licinio-Sextian, were, first, the clause in favour +of the hereditary possessors; secondly, the leasehold and inalienable +tenure proposed for the new allotments; thirdly and especially, the +regulated and permanent executive, the want of which under the older +law had been the chief reason why it had remained without lasting +practical application. + +War was thus declared against the great landholders, who now, as +three centuries ago, found substantially their organ in the senate; +and once more, after a long interval, a single magistrate stood forth +in earnest opposition to the aristocratic government. It took up the +conflict in the mode--sanctioned by use and wont for such cases--of +paralyzing the excesses of the magistrates by means of the magistracy +itself.(31) A colleague of Gracchus, Marcus Octavius, a resolute man +who was seriously persuaded of the objectionable character of the +proposed domain law, interposed his veto when it was about to be put +to the vote; a step, the constitutional effect of which was to set +aside the proposal. Gracchus in his turn suspended the business +of the state and the administration of justice, and placed his seal +on the public chest; the government acquiesced--it was inconvenient, +but the year would draw to an end. Gracchus, in perplexity, brought his +law to the vote a second time. Octavius of course repeated his -veto-; +and to the urgent entreaty of his colleague and former friend, that +he would not obstruct the salvation of Italy, he might reply that on +that very question, as to how Italy could be saved, opinions differed, +but that his constitutional right to use his veto against the proposal +of his colleague was beyond all doubt. The senate now made an attempt +to open up to Gracchus a tolerable retreat; two consulars challenged +him to discuss the matter further in the senate house, and the tribune +entered into the scheme with zeal. He sought to construe this +proposal as implying that the senate had conceded the principle of +distributing the domain-land; but neither was this implied in it, +nor was the senate at all disposed to yield in the matter; the +discussions ended without any result. Constitutional means were +exhausted. In earlier times under such circumstances men were not +indisposed to let the proposal go to sleep for the current year, and +to take it up again in each succeeding one, till the earnestness of +the demand and the pressure of public opinion overbore resistance. +Now things were carried with a higher hand. Gracchus seemed to himself +to have reached the point when he must either wholly renounce his +reform or begin a revolution. He chose the latter course; for he +came before the burgesses with the declaration that either he or +Octavius must retire from the college, and suggested to Octavius +that a vote of the burgesses should be taken as to which of them +they wished to dismiss. Octavius naturally refused to consent to +this strange challenge; the -intercessio- existed for the very purpose +of giving scope to such differences of opinion among colleagues. Then +Gracchus broke off the discussion with his colleague, and turned to +the assembled multitude with the question whether a tribune of the +people, who acted in opposition to the people, had not forfeited his +office; and the assembly, long accustomed to assent to all proposals +presented to it, and for the most part composed of the agricultural +proletariate which had flocked in from the country and was +personally interested in the carrying of the law, gave almost +unanimously an affirmative answer. Marcus Octavius was at the bidding +of Gracchus removed by the lictors from the tribunes' bench; and then, +amidst universal rejoicing, the agrarian law was carried and the +first allotment-commissioners were nominated. The votes fell on the +author of the law along with his brother Gaius, who was only twenty +years of age, and his father-in-law Appius Claudius. Such a family- +selection augmented the exasperation of the aristocracy. When the +new magistrates applied as usual to the senate to obtain the moneys +for their equipment and for their daily allowance, the former was +refused, and a daily allowance was assigned to them of 24 -asses- +(1 shilling). The feud spread daily more and more, and became +more envenomed and more personal. The difficult and intricate task +of defining, resuming, and distributing the domains carried strife +into every burgess-community, and even into the allied Italian towns. + +Further Plans of Gracchus + +The aristocracy made no secret that, while they would acquiesce perhaps +in the law because they could not do otherwise, the officious legislator +should never escape their vengeance; and the announcement of Quintus +Pompeius, that he would impeach Gracchus on the very day of his +resigning his tribunate, was far from being the worst of the threats +thrown out against the tribune. Gracchus believed, probably with +reason, that his personal safety was imperilled, and no longer +appeared in the Forum without a retinue of 3000 or 4000 men--a step +which drew down on him bitter expressions in the senate, even from +Metellus who was not averse to reform in itself. Altogether, if +he had expected to reach the goal by the carrying of his agrarian +law, he had now to learn that he was only at the starting-point. +The "people" owed him gratitude; but he was a lost man, if he had +no farther protection than this gratitude of the people, if he did +not continue indispensable to them and did not constantly attach +to himself fresh interests and hopes by means of other and more +comprehensive proposals. Just at that time the kingdom and wealth +of the Attalids had fallen to the Romans by the testament of the +last king of Pergamus;(32) Gracchus proposed to the people that the +Pergamene treasure should be distributed among the new landholders for +the procuring of the requisite implements and stock, and vindicated +generally, in opposition to the existing practice, the right of the +burgesses to decide definitively as to the new province. He is said +to have prepared farther popular measures, for shortening the period +of service, for extending the right of appeal, for abolishing the +prerogative of the senators exclusively to do duty as civil jurymen, +and even for the admission of the Italian allies to Roman +citizenship. How far his projects in reality reached, cannot be +ascertained; this alone is certain, that Gracchus saw that his only +safety lay in inducing the burgesses to confer on him for a second +year the office which protected him, and that, with a view to obtain +this unconstitutional prolongation, he held forth a prospect of +further reforms. If at first he had risked himself in order to save +the commonwealth, he was now obliged to put the commonwealth at stake +in order to his own safety. + +He Solicits Re-election to the Tribunate + +The tribes met to elect the tribunes for the ensuing year, and +the first divisions gave their votes for Gracchus; but the opposite +party in the end prevailed with their veto, so far at least that +the assembly broke up without having accomplished its object, and +the decision was postponed to the following day. For this day Gracchus +put in motion all means legitimate and illegitimate; he appeared to the +people dressed in mourning, and commended to them his youthful son; +anticipating that the election would once more be disturbed by the +veto, he made provision for expelling the adherents of the aristocracy +by force from the place of assembly in front of the Capitoline +temple. So the second day of election came on; the votes fell as on +the preceding day, and again the veto was exercised; the tumult began. +The burgesses dispersed; the elective assembly was practically dissolved; +the Capitoline temple was closed; it was rumoured in the city, now that +Tiberius had deposed all the tribunes, now that he had resolved to +continue his magistracy without reelection. + +Death of Gracchus + +The senate assembled in the temple of Fidelity, close by the temple +of Jupiter; the bitterest opponents of Gracchus spoke in the sitting; +when Tiberius moved his hand towards his forehead to signify +to the people, amidst the wild tumult, that his head was in danger, +it was said that he was already summoning the people to adorn his +brow with the regal chaplet. The consul Scaevola was urged to have +the traitor put to death at once. When that temperate man, by no +means averse to reform in itself, indignantly refused the equally +irrational and barbarous request, the consular Publius Scipio Nasica, +a harsh and vehement aristocrat, summoned those who shared his views +to arm themselves as they could and to follow him. Almost none of the +country people had come into town for the elections; the people of the +city timidly gave way, when they saw men of quality rushing along with +fury in their eyes, and legs of chairs and clubs in their hands. +Gracchus attempted with a few attendants to escape. But in his +flight he fell on the slope of the Capitol, and was killed by a +blow on the temples from the bludgeon of one of his furious pursuers +--Publius Satureius and Lucius Rufus afterwards contested the infamous +honour--before the statues of the seven kings at the temple of +Fidelity; with him three hundred others were slain, not one by +weapons of iron. When evening had come on, the bodies were thrown +into the Tiber; Gaius vainly entreated that the corpse of his +brother might be granted to him for burial. Such a day had never +before been seen by Rome. The party-strife lasting for more than +a century during the first social crisis had led to no such +catastrophe as that with which the second began. The better portion +of the aristocracy might shudder, but they could no longer recede. +They had no choice save to abandon a great number of their most +trusty partisans to the vengeance of the multitude, or to assume +collectively the responsibility of the outrage: the latter course was +adopted. They gave official sanction to the assertion that Gracchus +had wished to seize the crown, and justified this latest crime by +the primitive precedent of Ahala;(33) in fact, they even committed +the duty of further investigation as to the accomplices of Gracchus +to a special commission and made its head, the consul Publius Popillius, +take care that a sort of legal stamp should be supplementarily impressed +on the murder of Gracchus by bloody sentences directed against a large +number of inferior persons (622). Nasica, against whom above all +others the multitude breathed vengeance, and who had at least the +courage openly to avow his deed before the people and to defend it, +was under honourable pretexts despatched to Asia, and soon afterwards +(624) invested, during his absence, with the office of Pontifex +Maximus. Nor did the moderate party dissociate themselves from these +proceedings of their colleagues. Gaius Laelius bore a part in the +investigations adverse to the partisans of Gracchus; Publius Scaevola, +who had attempted to prevent the murder, afterwards defended it in the +senate; when Scipio Aemilianus, after his return from Spain (622), was +challenged publicly to declare whether he did or did not approve the +killing of his brother-in-law, he gave the at least ambiguous reply +that, so far as Tiberius had aspired to the crown, he had been +justly put to death. + +The Domain Question Viewed in Itself + +Let us endeavour to form a judgment regarding these momentous events. +The appointment of an official commission, which had to counteract +the dangerous diminution of the farmer-class by the comprehensive +establishment of new small holdings from the whole Italian landed +property at the disposal of the state, was doubtless no sign of a +healthy condition of the national economy; but it was, under the +existing circumstances political and social, suited to its purpose. +The distribution of the domains, moreover, was in itself no political +party-question; it might have been carried out to the last sod without +changing the existing constitution or at all shaking the government +of the aristocracy. As little could there be, in that case, any +complaint of a violation of rights. The state was confessedly +the owner of the occupied land; the holder as a possessor on mere +sufferance could not, as a rule, ascribe to himself even a bonafide +proprietary tenure, and, in the exceptional instances where he could +do so, he was confronted by the fact that by the Roman law prescription +did not run against the state. The distribution of the domains was not +an abolition, but an exercise, of the right of property; all jurists +were agreed as to its formal legality. But the attempt now to carry +out these legal claims of the state was far from being politically +warranted by the circumstance that the distribution of the domains +neither infringed the existing constitution nor involved a violation +of right. Such objections as have been now and then raised in our +day, when a great landlord suddenly begins to assert in all their +compass claims belonging to him in law but suffered for a long period +to lie dormant in practice, might with equal and better right be +advanced against the rogation of Gracchus. These occupied domains +had been undeniably in heritable private possession, some of them for +three hundred years; the state's proprietorship of the soil, which +from its very nature loses more readily than that of the burgess the +character of a private right, had in the case of these lands become +virtually extinct, and the present holders had universally come +to their possessions by purchase or other onerous acquisition. +The jurist might say what he would; to men of business the measure +appeared to be an ejection of the great landholders for the benefit +of the agricultural proletariate; and in fact no statesman could give +it any other name. That the leading men of the Catonian epoch formed +no other judgment, is very clearly shown by their treatment of a similar +case that occurred in their time. The territory of Capua and the +neighbouring towns, which was annexed as domain in 543, had for +the most part practically passed into private possession during +the following unsettled times. In the last years of the sixth +century, when in various respects, especially through the influence +of Cato, the reins of government were drawn tighter, the burgesses +resolved to resume the Campanian territory and to let it out for +the benefit of the treasury (582). The possession in this instance +rested on an occupation justified not by previous invitation but +at the most by the connivance of the authorities, and had continued +in no case much beyond a generation; but the holders were not +dispossessed except in consideration of a compensatory sum disbursed +under the orders of the senate by the urban praetor Publius Lentulus +(c. 589).(34) Less objectionable perhaps, but still not without +hazard, was the arrangement by which the new allotments bore +the character of heritable leaseholds and were inalienable. The most +liberal principles in regard to freedom of dealing had made Rome +great; and it was very little consonant to the spirit of the Roman +institutions, that these new farmers were peremptorily bound down +to cultivate their portions of land in a definite manner, and that +their allotments were subject to rights of revocation and all the +cramping measures associated with commercial restriction. + +It will be granted that these objections to the Sempronian agrarian +law were of no small weight. Yet they are not decisive. Such a +practical eviction of the holders of the domains was certainly a +great evil; yet it was the only means of checking, at least for a +long time, an evil much greater still and in fact directly destructive +to the state--the decline of the Italian farmer-class. We can well +understand therefore why the most distinguished and patriotic men +even of the conservative party, headed by Gaius Laelius and Scipio +Aemilianus, approved and desired the distribution of the domains +viewed in itself. + +The Domain Question before the Burgesses + +But, if the aim of Tiberius Gracchus probably appeared to +the great majority of the discerning friends of their country +good and salutary, the method which he adopted, on the other hand, +did not and could not meet with the approval of a single man of note +and of patriotism. Rome about this period was governed by the senate. +Any one who carried a measure of administration against the majority +of the senate made a revolution. It was revolution against the spirit +of the constitution, when Gracchus submitted the domain question to the +people; and revolution also against the letter, when he destroyed not +only for the moment but for all time coming the tribunician veto-- +the corrective of the state machine, through which the senate +constitutionally got rid of interferences with its government--by the +deposition of his colleague, which he justified with unworthy sophistry. +But it was not in this step that the moral and political mistake of +the action of Gracchus lay. There are no set forms of high treason +in history; whoever provokes one power in the state to conflict with +another is certainly a revolutionist, but he may be at the same time +a discerning and praiseworthy statesman. The essential defect of the +Gracchan revolution lay in a fact only too frequently overlooked--in +the nature of the then existing burgess-assemblies. The agrarian law +of Spurius Cassius(35) and that of Tiberius Gracchus had in the main +the same tenor and the same object; but the enterprises of the two +men were as different, as the former Roman burgess-body which shared +the Volscian spoil with the Latins and Hernici was different from +the present which erected the provinces of Asia and Africa. The former +was an urban community, which could meet together and act together; +the latter was a great state, as to which the attempt to unite those +belonging to it in one and the same primary assembly, and to leave to +this assembly the decision, yielded a result as lamentable as it was +ridiculous.(36) The fundamental defect of the policy of antiquity +--that it never fully advanced from the urban form of constitution to +that of a state or, which is the same thing, from the system of +primary assemblies to a parliamentary system--in this case avenged +itself. The sovereign assembly of Rome was what the sovereign +assembly in England would be, if instead of sending representatives +all the electors of England should meet together as a parliament--an +unwieldy mass, wildly agitated by all interests and all passions, in +which intelligence was totally lost; a body, which was neither able +to take a comprehensive view of things nor even to form a resolution +of its own; a body above all, in which, saving in rare exceptional +cases, a couple of hundred or thousand individuals accidentally +picked up from the streets of the capital acted and voted in name of +the burgesses. The burgesses found themselves, as a rule, nearly as +satisfactorily represented by their de facto representatives in the +tribes and centuries as by the thirty lictors who de jure represented +them in the curies; and just as what was called the decree of the +curies was nothing but a decree of the magistrate who convoked the +lictors, so the decree of the tribes and centuries at this time was +in substance simply a decree of the proposing magistrate, legalised +by some consentients indispensable for the occasion. But while in +these voting-assemblies, the -comitia-, though they were far from +dealing strictly in the matter of qualification, it was on the whole +burgesses alone that appeared, in the mere popular assemblages on the +other hand--the -contiones---every one in the shape of a man was +entitled to take his place and to shout, Egyptians and Jews, street- +boys and slaves. Such a "meeting" certainly had no significance +in the eyes of the law; it could neither vote nor decree. But it +practically ruled the street, and already the opinion of the street +was a power in Rome, so that it was of some importance whether this +confused mass received the communications made to it with silence or +shouts, whether it applauded and rejoiced or hissed and howled at +the orator. Not many had the courage to lord it over the populace +as Scipio Aemilianus did, when they hissed him on account of his +expression as to the death of his brother-in-law. "Ye," he said, +"to whom Italy is not mother but step-mother, ought to keep silence!" +and when their fury grew still louder, "Surely you do not think +that I will fear those let loose, whom I have sent in chains +to the slave-market?" + +That the rusty machinery of the comitia should be made use of for the +elections and for legislation, was already bad enough. But when those +masses--the -comitia- primarily, and practically also the -contiones--- +were permitted to interfere in the administration, and the instrument +which the senate employed to prevent such interferences was wrested out +of its hands; when this so-called burgess-body was allowed to decree +to itself lands along with all their appurtenances out of the public +purse; when any one, whom circumstances and his influence with the +proletariate enabled to command the streets for a few hours, found it +possible to impress on his projects the legal stamp of the sovereign +people's will, Rome had reached not the beginning, but the end of +popular freedom--had arrived not at democracy, but at monarchy. +For that reason in the previous period Cato and those who shared +his views never brought such questions before the burgesses, +but discussed them solely in the senate.(37) For that reason +contemporaries of Gracchus, the men of the Scipionic circle, +described the Flaminian agrarian law of 522--the first step in +that fatal career--as the beginning of the decline of Roman greatness. +For that reason they allowed the author of the domain-distribution +to fall, and saw in his dreadful end, as it were, a rampart against +similar attempts in future, while yet they maintained and turned +to account with all their energy the domain-distribution itself +which he had carried through--so sad was the state of things in +Rome that honest patriots were forced into the horrible hypocrisy +of abandoning the evil-doer and yet appropriating the fruit of +the evil deed. For that reason too the opponents of Gracchus were +in a certain sense not wrong, when they accused him of aspiring to the +crown. For him it is a fresh impeachment rather than a justification, +that he himself was probably a stranger to any such thought. +The aristocratic government was so thoroughly pernicious, that +the citizen, who was able to depose the senate and to put +himself in its place, might perhaps benefit the commonwealth +more than he injured it. + +Results + +But such a bold player Tiberius Gracchus was not. He was a tolerably +capable, thoroughly well-meaning, conservative patriot, who simply +did not know what he was doing; who in the fullest belief that he +was calling the people evoked the rabble, and grasped at the crown +without being himself aware of it, until the inexorable sequence of +events urged him irresistibly into the career of the demagogue-tyrant; +until the family commission, the interferences with the public +finances, the further "reforms" exacted by necessity and despair, +the bodyguard from the pavement, and the conflicts in the streets +betrayed the lamentable usurper more and more clearly to himself and +others; until at length the unchained spirits of revolution seized and +devoured the incapable conjurer. The infamous butchery, through which +he perished, condemns itself, as it condemns the aristocratic faction +whence it issued; but the glory of martyrdom, with which it has +embellished the name of Tiberius Gracchus, came in this instance, +as usually, to the wrong man. The best of his contemporaries judged +otherwise. When the catastrophe was announced to Scipio Aemilianus, +he uttered the words of Homer: + +"--Os apoloito kai allos, otis toiauta ge pezoi--" + +and when the younger brother of Tiberius seemed disposed to come forward +in the same career, his own mother wrote to him: "Shall then our house +have no end of madness? Where shall be the limit? Have we not yet +enough to be ashamed of, in having confused and disorganized the state?" +So spoke not the anxious mother, but the daughter of the conqueror of +Carthage, who knew and experienced a misfortune yet greater than the +death of her children. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +The Revolution and Gaius Gracchus + +The Commisssion for Distributing the Domains + +Tiberius Gracchus was dead; but his two works, the distribution +of land and the revolution, survived their author. In presence +of the starving agricultural proletariate the senate might venture +on a murder, but it could not make use of that murder to annul +the Sempronian agrarian law; the law itself had been far more +strengthened than shaken by the frantic outbreak of party fury. +The party of the aristocracy friendly towards reform, which openly +favoured the distribution of the domains--headed by Quintus Metellus, +just about this time (623) censor, and Publius Scaevola--in concert with +the party of Scipio Aemilianus, which was at least not disinclined to +reform, gained the upper hand for the time being even in the senate; +and a decree of the senate expressly directed the triumvirs to begin +their labours. According to the Sempronian law these were to be +nominated annually by the community, and this was probably done: but +from the nature of their task it was natural that the election should +fall again and again on the same men, and new elections in the proper +sense occurred only when a place became vacant through death. Thus in +the place of Tiberius Gracchus there was appointed the father-in-law +of his brother Gaius, Publius Crassus Mucianus; and after the fall of +Mucianus in 624(1) and the death of Appius Claudius, the business of +distribution was managed in concert with the young Gaius Gracchus by +two of the most active leaders of the movement party, Marcus Fulvius +Flaccus and Gaius Papirius Carbo. The very names of these men are +vouchers that the work of resuming and distributing the occupied +domain-land was prosecuted with zeal and energy; and, in fact, proofs +to that effect are not wanting. As early as 622 the consul of that +year, Publius Popillius, the same who directed the prosecutions of +the adherents of Tiberius Gracchus, recorded on a public monument that +he was "the first who had turned the shepherds out of the domains and +installed farmers in their stead"; and tradition otherwise affirms that +the distribution extended over all Italy, and that in the formerly +existing communities the number of farms was everywhere augmented--for +it was the design of the Sempronian agrarian law to elevate the farmer- +class not by the founding of new communities, but by the strengthening +of those already in existence. The extent and the comprehensive effect +of these distributions are attested by the numerous arrangements +in the Roman art of land-measuring that go back to the Gracchan +assignations of land; for instance, a due placing of boundary-stones +so as to obviate future mistakes appears to have been first called +into existence by the Gracchan courts for demarcation and the land- +distributions. But the numbers on the burgess-rolls give the +clearest evidence. The census, which was published in 623 and actually +took place probably in the beginning of 622, yielded not more than +319,000 burgesses capable of bearing arms, whereas six years afterwards +(629) in place of the previous falling-off(2) the number rises to +395,000, that is 76,000 of an increase--beyond all doubt solely +in consequence of what the allotment-commission did for the Roman +burgesses. Whether it multiplied the farms among the Italians in +the same proportion maybe doubted; at any rate what it did accomplish +yielded a great and beneficent result. It is true that this +result was not achieved without various violations of respectable +interests and existing rights. The allotment-commission, composed +of the most decided partisans, and absolute judge in its own cause, +proceeded with its labours in a reckless and even tumultuary fashion; +public notices summoned every one, who was able, to give information +regarding the extent of the domain-lands; the old land-registers were +inexorably referred to, and not only was occupation new and old +revoked without distinction, but in various cases real private +property, as to which the holder was unable satisfactorily to prove +his tenure, was included in the confiscation. Loud and for the most +part well founded as were the complaints, the senate allowed the +distributors to pursue their course; it was clear that, if the +domain question was to be settled at all, the matter could not +be carried through without such unceremonious vigour of action. + +Its Suspension by Scipio Aemilianus + +But this acquiescence had its limit. The Italian domain-land was not +solely in the hands of Roman burgesses; large tracts of it had been +assigned in exclusive usufruct to particular allied communities by +decrees of the people or senate, and other portions had been occupied +with or without permission by Latin burgesses. The allotment- +commission at length attacked these possessions also. The resumption +of the portions simply occupied by non-burgesses was no doubt allowable +in formal law, and not less presumably the resumption of the domain-land +handed over by decrees of the senate or even by resolutions of the +burgesses to the Italian communities, since thereby the state by no +means renounced its ownership and to all appearance gave its grants +to communities, just as to private persons, subject to revocation. +But the complaints of these allied or subject communities, that Rome +did not keep the settlements that were in force, could not be simply +disregarded like the complaints of the Roman citizens injured by the +action of the commissioners. Legally the former might be no better +founded than the latter; but, while in the latter case the matter +at stake was the private interests of members of the state, in +reference to the Latin possessions the question arose, whether it was +politically right to give fresh offence to communities so important in +a military point of view and already so greatly estranged from Rome by +numerous disabilities de jure and de facto(3) through this keenly-felt +injury to their material interests. The decision lay in the hands +of the middle party; it was that party which after the fall of +Gracchus had, in league with his adherents, protected reform against +the oligarchy, and it alone was now able in concert with the oligarchy +to set a limit to reform. The Latins resorted personally to the +most prominent man of this party, Scipio Aemilianus, with a request +that he would protect their rights. He promised to do so; and +mainly through his influence,(4) in 625, a decree of the people +withdrew from the commission its jurisdiction, and remitted the +decision respecting what were domanial and what private possessions +to the censors and, as proxies for them, the consuls, to whom according +to the general principles of law it pertained. This was simply a +suspension of further domain-distribution under a mild form. The consul +Tuditanus, by no means Gracchan in his views and little inclined to +occupy himself with the difficult task of agrarian definition, +embraced the opportunity of going off to the Illyrian army and leaving +the duty entrusted to him unfulfilled. The allotment-commission no +doubt continued to subsist, but, as the judicial regulation of the +domain-land was at a standstill, it was compelled to remain inactive. + +Assassination of Aemilianus + +The reform-party was deeply indignant. Even men like Publius Mucius +and Quintus Metellus disapproved of the intervention of Scipio. Other +circles were not content with expressing disapproval. Scipio had +announced for one of the following days an address respecting the +relations of the Latins; on the morning of that day he was found dead +in his bed. He was but fifty-six years of age, and in full health +and vigour; he had spoken in public the day before, and then in the +evening had retired earlier than usual to his bedchamber with a view +to prepare the outline of his speech for the following day. That he +had been the victim of a political assassination, cannot be doubted; +he himself shortly before had publicly mentioned the plots formed +to murder him. What assassin's hand had during the night slain +the first statesman and the first general of his age, was never +discovered; and it does not become history either to repeat the +reports handed down from the contemporary gossip of the city, or +to set about the childish attempt to ascertain the truth out of such +materials. This much only is clear, that the instigator of the deed +must have belonged to the Gracchan party; the assassination of Scipio +was the democratic reply to the aristocratic massacre at the temple +of Fidelity. The tribunals did not interfere. The popular party, +justly fearing that its leaders Gaius Gracchus, Flaccus, and Carbo, +whether guilty or not, might be involved in the prosecution, opposed +with all its might the institution of an inquiry; and the aristocracy, +which lost in Scipio quite as much an antagonist as an ally, was not +unwilling to let the matter sleep. The multitude and men of moderate +views were shocked; none more so than Quintus Metellus, who had +disapproved of Scipio's interference against reform, but turned away +with horror from such confederates, and ordered his four sons to carry +the bier of his great antagonist to the funeral pile. The funeral +was hurried over; with veiled head the last of the family of the +conqueror of Zama was borne forth, without any one having been +previously allowed to see the face of the deceased, and the flames +of the funeral pile consumed with the remains of the illustrious +man the traces at the same time of the crime. + +The history of Rome presents various men of greater genius than Scipio +Aemilianus, but none equalling him in moral purity, in the utter +absence of political selfishness, in generous love of his country, +and none, perhaps, to whom destiny has assigned a more tragic part. +Conscious of the best intentions and of no common abilities, he was +doomed to see the ruin of his country carried out before his eyes, +and to repress within him every earnest attempt to save it, because +he clearly perceived that he should only thereby make the evil worse; +doomed to the necessity of sanctioning outrages like that of Nasica, +and at the same time of defending the work of the victim against +his murderers. Yet he might say that he had not lived in vain. +It was to him, at least quite as much as to the author of the +Sempronian law, that the Roman burgesses were indebted for an increase +of nearly 80,000 new farm-allotments; he it was too who put a stop to +this distribution of the domains, when it had produced such benefit +as it could produce. That it was time to break it off, was no doubt +disputed at the moment even by well-meaning men; but the fact that +Gaius Gracchus did not seriously recur to those possessions which +might have been, and yet were not, distributed under the law of his +brother, tells very much in favour of the belief that Scipio hit +substantially the right moment. Both measures were extorted from +the parties--the first from the aristocracy, the second from the +friends of reform; for each its author paid with his life. It was +Scipio's lot to fight for his country on many a battle-field and to +return home uninjured, that he might perish there by the hand of an +assassin; but in his quiet chamber he no less died for Rome than if +he had fallen before the walls of Carthage. + +Democratic Agitation under Carbo and Flaccus + +The distribution of land was at an end; the revolution went on. +The revolutionary party, which possessed in the allotment-commission +as it were a constituted leadership, had even in the lifetime of Scipio +skirmished now and then with the existing government. Carbo, in +particular, one of the most distinguished men of his time in oratorical +talent, had as tribune of the people in 623 given no small trouble to +the senate; had carried voting by ballot in the burgess-assemblies, so +far as it had not been introduced already;(5) and had even made the +significant proposal to leave the tribunes of the people free to +reappear as candidates for the same office in the year immediately +following, and thus legally to remove the obstacle by which Tiberius +Gracchus had primarily been thwarted. The scheme had been at that +time frustrated by the resistance of Scipio; some years later, +apparently after his death, the law was reintroduced and carried +through, although with limiting clauses.(6) The principal object +of the party, however, was to revive the action of the allotment- +commission which had been practically suspended; the leaders seriously +talked of removing the obstacles which the Italian allies interposed +to the scheme by conferring on them the rights of citizenship, and the +agitation assumed mainly that direction. In order to meet it, the +senate in 628 got the tribune of the people Marcus Junius Pennus to +propose the dismissal of all non-burgesses from the capital, and +in spite of the resistance of the democrats, particularly of Gaius +Gracchus, and of the ferment occasioned by this odious measure in the +Latin communities, the proposal was carried. Marcus Fulvius Flaccus +retorted in the following year (629) as consul with the proposal to +facilitate the acquisition of burgess-rights by the burgesses of the +allied communities, and to concede even to those who had not acquired +them an appeal to the Roman comitia against penal judgments. But he +stood almost alone--Carbo had meanwhile changed his colours and was +now a zealous aristocrat, Gaius Gracchus was absent as quaestor in +Sardinia--and the project was frustrated by the resistance not of the +senate merely, but also of the burgesses, who were but little inclined +to extend their privileges to still wider circles. Flaccus left Rome +to undertake the supreme command against the Celts; by his Transalpine +conquests he prepared the way for the great schemes of the democracy, +while he at the same time withdrew out of the difficulty of having to +bear arms against the allies instigated by himself. + +Destruction of Fregallae + +Fregellae, situated on the borders of Latium and Campania at the +principal passage of the Liris in the midst of a large and fertile +territory, at that time perhaps the second city of Italy and in the +discussions with Rome the usual mouthpiece of all the Latin colonies, +began war against Rome in consequence of the rejection of the proposal +brought in by Flaccus--the first instance which had occurred for a +hundred and fifty years of a serious insurrection, not brought about +by foreign powers, in Italy against the Roman hegemony. But on this +occasion the fire was successfully extinguished before it had caught +hold of other allied communities. Not through the superiority of +the Roman arms, but through the treachery of a Fregellan Quintus +Numitorius Pullus, the praetor Lucius Opimius quickly became master +of the revolted city, which lost its civic privileges and its walls +and was converted like Capua into a village. The colony of Fabrateria +was founded on a part of its territory in 630; the remainder and +the former city itself were distributed among the surrounding +communities. This rapid and fearful punishment alarmed the +allies, and endless impeachments for high treason pursued not only +the Fregellans, but also the leaders of the popular party in Rome, +who naturally were regarded by the aristocracy as accomplices in +this insurrection. Meanwhile Gaius Gracchus reappeared in Rome. +The aristocracy had first sought to detain the object of their dread +in Sardinia by omitting to provide the usual relief, and then, when +without caring for that point he returned, had brought him to trial +as one of the authors of the Fregellan revolt (629-30). But the +burgesses acquitted him; and now he too threw down the gauntlet, +became a candidate for the tribuneship of the people, and was +nominated to that office for the year 631 in an elective assembly +attended by unusual numbers. War was thus declared. The democratic +party, always poor in leaders of ability, had from sheer necessity +remained virtually at rest for nine years; now the truce was at an +end, and this time it was headed by a man who, with more honesty +than Carbo and with more talent than Flaccus, was in every respect +called to take the lead. + +Gaius Gracchus + +Gaius Gracchus (601-633) was very different from his brother, who +was about nine years older. Like the latter, he had no relish for +vulgar pleasures and vulgar pursuits; he was a man of thorough +culture and a brave soldier; he had served with distinction before +Numantia under his brother-in-law, and afterwards in Sardinia. +But in talent, in character, and above all in passion he was decidedly +superior to Tiberius. The clearness and self-possession, which the +young man afterwards displayed amidst the pressure of all the varied +labours requisite for the practical carrying out of his numerous laws, +betokened his genuine statesmanly talent; as the passionate devotedness +faithful even to death, with which his intimate friends clung to +him, evinced the loveable nature of that noble mind. The discipline +of suffering which he had undergone, and his compulsory reserve during +the last nine years, augmented his energy of purpose and action; the +indignation repressed within the depths of his breast only glowed there +with an intensified fervour against the party which had disorganized +his country and murdered his brother. By virtue of this fearful +vehemence of temperament he became the foremost orator that Rome ever +had; without it, we should probably have been able to reckon him among +the first statesmen of all times. Among the few remains of his +recorded orations several are, even in their present condition, of +heart-stirring power;(7) and we can well understand how those who heard +or even merely read them were carried away by the impetuous torrent +of his words. Yet, great master as he was of speech, he was himself +not unfrequently mastered by anger, so that the utterance of the +brilliant speaker became confused or faltering. It was the true image +of his political acting and suffering. In the nature of Gaius there was +no vein, such as his brother had, of that somewhat sentimental but very +short-sighted and confused good-nature, which would have desired to +change the mind of a political opponent by entreaties and tears; with +full assurance he entered on the career of revolution and strove to +reach the goal of vengeance. "To me too," his mother wrote to him, +"nothing seems finer and more glorious than to retaliate on an enemy, +so far as it can be done without the country's ruin. But if this is +not possible, then may our enemies continue and remain what they are, +a thousand times rather than that our country should perish." +Cornelia knew her son; his creed was just the reverse. Vengeance he +would wreak on the wretched government, vengeance at any price, though +he himself and even the commonwealth were to be ruined by it--the +presentiment, that fate would overtake him as certainly as his brother, +drove him only to make haste like a man mortally wounded who throws +himself on the foe. The mother thought more nobly; but the son-- +with his deeply provoked, passionately excited, thoroughly Italian +nature--has been more lamented than blamed by posterity, and posterity +has been right in its judgment. + +Alterations on the Constituion by Gaius Gracchus +Distribution of Grain +Change in the Order of Voting + +Tiberius Gracchus had come before the burgesses with a single +administrative reform. What Gaius introduced in a series of separate +proposals was nothing else than an entirely new constitution; the +foundation-stone of which was furnished by the innovation previously +carried through, that a tribune of the people should be at liberty to +solicit re-election for the following year.(8) While this step enabled +the popular chief to acquire a permanent position and one which +protected its holder, the next object was to secure for him material +power or, in other words, to attach the multitude of the capital--for +that no reliance was to be placed on the country people coming only +from time to time to the city, had been sufficiently apparent--with its +interests steadfastly to its leader. This purpose was served, first of +all, by introducing distributions of corn in the capital. The grain +accruing to the state from the provincial tenths had already been +frequently given away at nominal prices to the burgesses.(9) Gracchus +enacted that every burgess who should personally present himself in the +capital should thenceforth be allowed monthly a definite quantity-- +apparently 5 -modii- (1 1/4 bushel)--from the public stores, at 6 1/3 +-asses- (3d.) for the -modius-, or not quite the half of a low average +price;(10) for which purpose the public corn-stores were enlarged by the +construction of the new Sempronian granaries. This distribution--which +consequently excluded the burgesses living out of the capital, and +could not but attract to Rome the whole mass of the burgess- +proletariate--was designed to bring the burgess-proletariate of the +capital, which hitherto had mainly depended on the aristocracy, into +dependence on the leaders of the movement-party, and thus to supply +the new master of the state at once with a body-guard and with a firm +majority in the comitia. For greater security as regards the latter, +moreover, the order of voting still subsisting in the -comitia +centuriata-, according to which the five property-classes in each +tribe gave their votes one after another,(11) was done away; instead +of this, all the centuries were in future to vote promiscuously in an +order of succession to be fixed on each occasion by lot. While these +enactments were mainly designed to procure for the new chief of the +state by means of the city-proletariate the complete command of the +capital and thereby of the state, the amplest control over the comitial +machinery, and the possibility in case of need of striking terror into +the senate and magistrates, the legislator certainly at the same +time set himself with earnestness and energy to redress the +existing social evils. + +Agrarian Laws +Colony of Capua +Transmarine Colonialization + +It is true that the Italian domain question was in a certain sense +settled. The agrarian law of Tiberius and even theallotment-commission +still continued legally in force; the agrarian law carried by Gracchus +can have enacted nothing new save the restoration to the commissioners +of the jurisdiction which they had lost. That the object of this step +was only to save the principle, and that the distribution of lands, +if resumed at all, was resumed only to a very limited extent, is +shown by the burgess-roll, which gives exactly the same number of +persons for the years 629 and 639. Gaius beyond doubt did not +proceed further in this matter, because the domain-land taken +into possession by Roman burgesses was already in substance distributed, +and the question as to the domains enjoyed by the Latins could only +be taken up anew in connection with the very difficult question as +to the extension of Roman citizenship. On the other hand he took an +important step beyond the agrarian law of Tiberius, when he proposed +the establishment of colonies in Italy--at Tarentum, and more +especially at Capua--and by that course rendered the domain-land, +which had been let on lease by the state and was hitherto excluded +from distribution, liable to be also parcelled out, not, however, +according to the previous method, which excluded the founding of new +communities,(12) but according to the colonial system. Beyond doubt +these colonies were also designed to aid in permanently defending the +revolution to which they owed their existence. Still more significant +and momentous was the measure, by which Gaius Gracchus first proceeded +to provide for the Italian proletariate in the transmarine territories +of the state. He despatched to the site on which Carthage had stood +6000 colonists selected perhaps not merely from Roman burgesses but +also from the Italian allies, and conferred on the new town Junonia +the rights of a Roman burgess-colony. The foundation was important, +but still more important was the principle of transmarine emigration +thereby laid down. It opened up for the Italian proletariate a +permanent outlet, and a relief in fact more than provisional; but +it certainly abandoned the principle of state-law hitherto in force, +by which Italy was regarded as exclusively the governing, and the +provincial territory as exclusively the governed, land. + +Modifications of the Penal Law + +To these measures having immediate reference to the great question of +the proletariate there was added a series of enactments, which arose +out of the general tendency to introduce principles milder and more +accordant with the spirit of the age than the antiquated severity of +the existing constitution. To this head belong the modifications in +the military system. As to the length of the period of service there +existed under the ancient law no other limit, except that no citizen +was liable to ordinary service in the field before completing his +seventeenth or after completing his forty-sixth year. When, in +consequence of the occupation of Spain, the service began to become +permanent,(13) it seems to have been first legally enacted that any +one who had been in the field for six successive years acquired thereby +a right to discharge, although this discharge did not protect him from +being called out again afterwards. At a later period, perhaps about +the beginning of this century, the rule arose, that a service of +twenty years in the infantry or ten years in the cavalry gave exemption +from further military service.(14) Gracchus renewed the rule--which +presumably was often violently infringed--that no burgess should be +enlisted in the army before the commencement of his eighteenth year; +and also, apparently, restricted the number of campaigns requisite +for full exemption from military duty. Besides, the clothing of the +soldiers, the value of which had hitherto been deducted from their pay, +was henceforward furnished gratuitously by the state. + +To this head belongs, moreover, the tendency which is on various +occasions apparent in the Gracchan legislation, if not to abolish +capital punishment, at any rate to restrict it still further than had +been done before--a tendency, which to some extent made itself felt even +in military jurisdiction. From the very introduction of the republic +the magistrate had lost the right of inflicting capital punishment on +the burgess without consulting the community, except under martial +law;(15) if this right of appeal by the burgess appears soon after +the period of the Gracchi available even in the camp, and the right +of the general to inflict capital punishments appears restricted to +allies and subjects, the source of the change is probably to be sought +in the law of Gaius Gracchus -de provocatione- But the right of the +community to inflict or rather to confirm sentence of death was +indirectly yet essentially limited by the fact, that Gracchus withdrew +the cognizance of those public crimes which most frequently gave +occasion to capital sentences--poisoning and murder generally-- +from the burgesses, and entrusted it to permanent judicial commissions. +These could not, like the tribunals of the people, be broken up by +the intercession of a tribune, and there not only lay no appeal from +them to the community, but their sentences were as little subject to +be annulled by the community as those of the long-established civil +jurymen. In the burgess-tribunals it had, especially in strictly +political processes, no doubt long been the rule that the accused +remained at liberty during his trial, and was allowed by +surrendering his burgess-rights to save at least life and freedom; +for the fine laid on property, as well as the civil condemnation, +might still affect even the exiled. But preliminary arrest and +complete execution of the sentence remained in such cases at least +legally possible, and were still sometimes carried into effect even +against persons of rank; for instance, Lucius Hostilius Tubulus, +praetor of 612, who was capitally impeached for a heinous crime, +was refused the privilege of exile, arrested, and executed. On the +other hand the judicial commissions, which originated out of the civil +procedure, probably could not at the outset touch the liberty or +life of the citizen, but at the most could only pronounce sentence +of exile; this, which had hitherto been a mitigation of punishment +accorded to one who was found guilty, now became for the first time a +formal penalty This involuntary exile however, like the voluntary, left +to the person banished his property, so far as it was not exhausted +in satisfying claims for compensation and money-fines. Lastly, in +the matter of debt Gaius Gracchus made no alteration; but very +respectable authorities assert that he held out to those in debt the +hope of a diminution or remission of claims--which, if it is correct, +must likewise be reckoned among those radically popular measures. + +Elevation of the Equestrian Order + +While Gracchus thus leaned on the support of the multitude, which +partly expected, partly received from him a material improvement +of its position, he laboured with equal energy at the ruin of the +aristocracy. Perceiving clearly how insecure was the rule of the +head of the state built merely on the proletariate, he applied himself +above all to split the aristocracy and to draw a part of it over to +his interests. The elements of such a rupture were already in +existence. The aristocracy of the rich, which had risen as one man +against Tiberius Gracchus, consisted in fact of two essentially +dissimilar bodies, which may be in some measure compared to the +peerage and the city aristocracy of England. The one embraced the +practically closed circle of the governing senatorial families who +kept aloof from direct speculation and invested their immense capital +partly in landed property, partly as sleeping partners in the great +associations. The core of the second class was composed of the +speculators, who, as managers of these companies, or on their own +account, conducted the large mercantile and pecuniary transactions +throughout the range of the Roman hegemony. We have already shown(16) +how the latter class, especially in the course of the sixth century, +gradually took its place by the side of the senatorial aristocracy, +and how the legal exclusion of the senators from mercantile pursuits +by the Claudian enactment, suggested by Gaius Flaminius the precursor +of the Gracchi, drew an outward line of demarcation between the senators +and the mercantile and moneyed men. In the present epoch the mercantile +aristocracy began, under the name of the -equites-, to exercise a +decisive influence in political affairs. This appellation, which +originally belonged only to the burgess-cavalry on service, came +gradually to be transferred, at any rate in ordinary use, to all +those who, as possessors of an estate of at least 400,000 sesterces, +were liable to cavalry service in general, and thus comprehended the +whole of the upper society, senatorial and non-senatorial, in Rome. +But not long before the time of Gaius Gracchus the law had declared +a seat in the senate incompatible with service in the cavalry,(17) and +the senators were thus eliminated from those qualified to be equites; +and accordingly the equestrian order, taken as a whole, might be regarded +as representing the aristocracy of speculators in contradistinction +to the senate. Nevertheless those members of senatorial families who +had not entered the senate, especially the younger members, did not +cease to serve as equites and consequently to bear the name; and, +in fact, the burgess-cavalry properly so called--that is, the +eighteen equestrian centuries--in consequence of being made up +by the censors continued to be chiefly filled up from the young +senatorial aristocracy.(18) + +This order of the equites--that is to say, substantially, of the +wealthy merchants--in various ways came roughly into contact with +the governing senate. There was a natural antipathy between the +genteel aristocrats and the men to whom money had brought rank. +The ruling lords, especially the better class of them, stood just +as much aloof from speculations, as the men of material interests +were indifferent to political questions and coterie-feuds. The two +classes had already frequently come into sharp collision, particularly +in the provinces; for, though in general the provincials had far more +reason than the Roman capitalists had to complain of the partiality of +the Roman magistrates, yet the ruling lords of the senate did not lend +countenance to the greedy and unjust doings of the moneyed men, at +the expense of the subjects, so thoroughly and absolutely as those +capitalists desired. In spite of their concord in opposing a common +foe such as was Tiberius Gracchus, a deep gulf lay between the nobility +and the moneyed aristocracy; and Gaius, more adroit than his brother, +enlarged it till the alliance was broken up and the mercantile class +ranged itself on his side. + +Insignia of the Equites + +That the external privileges, through which afterwards the men of +equestrian census were distinguished from the rest of the multitude-- +the golden finger-ring instead of the ordinary ring of iron or copper, +and the separate and better place at the burgess-festivals--were first +conferred on the equites by Gaius Gracchus, is not certain, but is not +improbable. For they emerged at any rate about this period, and, as +the extension of these hitherto mainly senatorial privileges(19) to +the equestrian order which he brought into prominence was quite in +the style of Gracchus, so it was in very truth his aim to impress on +the equites the stamp of an order, similarly close and privileged, +intermediate between the senatorial aristocracy and the common multitude; +and this same aim was more promoted by those class-insignia, trifling +though they were in themselves and though many qualified to be equites +might not avail themselves of them, than by many an ordinance far +more intrinsically important. But the party of material interests, +though it by no means despised such honours, was yet not to be +gained through these alone. Gracchus perceived well that it would +doubtless duly fall to the highest bidder, but that it needed a high +and substantial bidding; and so he offered to it the revenues of Asia +and the jury courts. + +Taxation of Asia + +The system of Roman financial administration, under which the indirect +taxes as well as the domain-revenues were levied by means of +middlemen, in itself granted to the Roman capitalist-class the most +extensive advantages at the expense of those liable to taxation. +But the direct taxes consisted either, as in most provinces, of fixed +sums of money payable by the communities--which of itself excluded +the intervention of Roman capitalists--or, as in Sicily and Sardinia, +of a ground-tenth, the levying of which for each particular community +was leased in the provinces themselves, so that wealthy provincials +regularly, and the tributary communities themselves very frequently, +farmed the tenth of their districts and thereby kept at a distance +the dangerous Roman middlemen. Six years before, when the province +of Asia had fallen to the Romans, the senate had organized it +substantially according to the first system.(20) Gaius Gracchus(21) +overturned this arrangement by a decree of the people, and not only +burdened the province, which had hitherto been almost free from +taxation, with the most extensive indirect and direct taxes, +particularly the ground-tenth, but also enacted that these taxes +should be exposed to auction for the province as a whole and in Rome-- +a rule which practically excluded the provincials from participation, +and called into existence in the body of middlemen for the -decumae-, +-scriptura-, and -vectigalia- of the province of Asia an association of +capitalists of colossal magnitude. A significant indication, moreover, +of the endeavour of Gracchus to make the order of capitalists +independent of the senate was the enactment, that the entire or +partial remission of the stipulated rent was no longer, as hitherto, +to be granted by the senate at discretion, but was under definite +contingencies to be accorded by law. + +Jury Courts + +While a gold mine was thus opened for the mercantile class, and the +members of the new partnership constituted a great financial power +imposing even for the government--a "senate of merchants"-a definite +sphere of public action was at the same time assigned to them in +the jury courts. The field of the criminal procedure, which by right +came before the burgesses, was among the Romans from the first very +narrow, and was, as we have already stated,(22) still further narrowed +by Gracchus; most processes--both such as related to public crimes, and +civil causes--were decided either by single jurymen [-indices-], or by +commissions partly permanent, partly extraordinary. Hitherto both the +former and the latter had been exclusively taken from the senate; +Gracchus transferred the functions of jurymen--both in strictly civil +processes, and in the case of the standing and temporary commissions-- +to the equestrian order, directing a new list of jurymen to be +annually formed after the analogy of the equestrian centuries from +all persons of equestrian rating, and excluding the senators +directly, and the young men of senatorial families by the fixing of +a certain limit of age, from such judicial functions.(23) It is not +improbable that the selection of jurymen was chiefly made to fall +on the same men who played the leading part in the great mercantile +associations, particularly those farming the revenues in Asia and +elsewhere, just because these had a very close personal interest in +sitting in the courts; and, if the lists of jurymen and the societies +of -publicani- thus coincided as regards their chiefs, we can all +the better understand the significance of the counter-senate thus +constituted. The substantial effect of this was, that, while hitherto +there had been only two authorities in the state--the government as the +administering and controlling, and the burgesses as the legislative, +authority--and the courts had been divided between them, now the moneyed +aristocracy was not only united into a compact and privileged class on +the solid basis of material interests, but also, as a judicial and +controlling power, formed part of the state and took its place almost +on a footing of equality by the side of the ruling aristocracy. All +the old antipathies of the merchants against the nobility could not +but thenceforth find only too practical an expression in the sentences +of the jurymen; above all, when the provincial governors were called +to a reckoning, the senator had to await a decision involving his +civic existence at the hands no longer as formerly of his peers, +but of great merchants and bankers. The feuds between the Roman +capitalists and the Roman governors were transplanted from the +provincial administration to the dangerous field of these processes +of reckoning. Not only was the aristocracy of the rich divided, but +care was taken that the variance should always find fresh nourishment +and easy expression. + +Monarchical Government Substituted for That of the Senate + +With his weapons--the proletariate and the mercantile class--thus +prepared, Gracchus set about his main work, the overthrow of the +ruling aristocracy. The overthrow of the senate meant, on the one +hand, the depriving it of its essential functions by legislative +alterations; and on the other hand, the ruining of the existing +aristocracy by measures of a more personal and transient kind. +Gracchus did both. The function of administration, in particular, +had hitherto belonged exclusively to the senate; Gracchus took it away, +partly by settling the most important administrative questions by means +of comitial laws or, in other words, practically through tribunician +dictation, partly by restricting the senate as much as possible +in current affairs, partly by taking business after the most +comprehensive fashion into his own hands. The measures of the +former kind have been mentioned already: the new master of the state +without consulting the senate dealt with the state-chest, by imposing +a permanent and oppressive burden on the public finances in the +distribution of corn; dealt with the domains, by sending out colonies +not as hitherto by decree of the senate and people, but by decree of +the people alone; and dealt with the provincial administration, by +overturning through a law of the people the financial constitution given +by the senate to the province of Asia and substituting for it one +altogether different. One of the most important of the current duties +of the senate--that of fixing at its pleasure the functions for the +time being of the two consuls--was not withdrawn from it; but the +indirect pressure hitherto exercised in this way over the supreme +magistrates was limited by directing the senate to fix these functions +before the consuls concerned were elected. With unrivalled +activity, lastly, Gaius concentrated the most varied and most +complicated functions of government in his own person. He himself +watched over the distribution of grain, selected the jurymen, founded +the colonies in person notwithstanding that his magistracy legally +chained him to the city, regulated the highways and concluded building- +contracts, led the discussions of the senate, settled the consular +elections--in short, he accustomed the people to the fact that one man +was foremost in all things, and threw the lax and lame administration +of the senatorial college into the shade by the vigour and versatility +of his personal rule. Gracchus interfered with the judicial +omnipotence, still more energetically than with the administration, +of the senate. We have already mentioned that he set aside the +senators as jurymen; the same course was taken with the jurisdiction +which the senate as the supreme administrative board allowed to itself +in exceptional cases. Under severe penalties he prohibited-- +apparently in his renewal of the law -de provocatione-(24)--the +appointment of extraordinary commissions of high treason by decree +of the senate, such as that which after his brother's murder had sat +in judgment on his adherents. The aggregate effect of these measures +was, that the senate wholly lost the power of control, and retained +only so much of administration as the head of the state thought fit +to leave to it. But these constitutive measures were not enough; the +governing aristocracy for the time being was also directly assailed. +It was a mere act of revenge, which assigned retrospective effect to +the last-mentioned law and thereby compelled Publius Popillius--the +aristocrat who after the death of Nasica, which had occurred in the +interval, was chiefly obnoxious to the democrats--to go into exile. +It is remarkable that this proposal was only carried by 18 to 17 +votes in the assembly of the tribes--a sign how much the influence +of the aristocracy still availed with the multitude, at least in +questions of a personal interest. A similar but far less justifiable +decree--the proposal, directed against Marcus Octavius, that whoever +had been deprived of his office by decree of the people should be +for ever incapable of filling a public post--was recalled by Gaius +at the request of his mother; and he was thus spared the disgrace +of openly mocking justice by legalizing a notorious violation of +the constitution, and of taking base vengeance on a man of honour, +who had not spoken an angry word against Tiberius and had only acted +constitutionally and in accordance with what he conceived to be +his duty. But of very different importance from these measures was +the scheme of Gaius--which, it is true, was hardly carried into effect-- +to strengthen the senate by 300 new members, that is, by just about as +many as it hitherto had contained, and to have them elected from the +equestrian order by the comitia--a creation of peers after the most +comprehensive style, which would have reduced the senate into the most +complete dependence on the chief of the state. + +Character of the Constitution of Gaius Gracchus + +This was the political constitution which Gaius Gracchus projected +and, in its most essential points, carried out during the two years +of his tribunate (631, 632), without, so far as we can see, +encountering any resistance worthy of mention, and without requiring +to apply force for the attainment of his ends. The order of sequence +in which these measures were carried can no longer be recognized in +the confused accounts handed down to us, and various questions that +suggest themselves have to remain unanswered. But it does not seem +as if, in what is missing, many elements of material importance have +escaped us; for as to the principal matters we have quite trustworthy +information, and Gaius was by no means, like his brother, urged on +further and further by the current of events, but evidently had a well- +considered and comprehensive plan, the substance of which he fully +embodied in a series of special laws. Now the Sempronian constitution +itself shows very clearly to every one who is able and willing to +see, that Gaius Gracchus did not at all, as many good-natured +people in ancient and modern times have supposed, wish to place +the Roman republic on new democratic bases, but that on the contrary +he wished to abolish it and to introduce in its stead a -tyrannis--- +that is, in modern language, a monarchy not of the feudal or of the +theocratic, but of the Napoleonic absolute, type--in the form of a +magistracy continued for life by regular re-election and rendered +absolute by an unconditional control over the formally sovereign +comitia, an unlimited tribuneship of the people for life. In fact +if Gracchus, as his words and still more his works plainly testify, +aimed at the overthrow of the government of the senate, what other +political organization but the -tyrannis- remained possible, after +overthrowing the aristocratic government, in a commonwealth which +had outgrown primary assemblies and for which parliamentary government +did not exist? Dreamers such as was his predecessor, and knaves such +as after-times produced, might call this in question; but Gaius +Gracchus was a statesman, and though the formal shape, which that great +man had inwardly projected for his great work, has not been handed +down to us and may be conceived of very variously, yet he was beyond +doubt aware of what he was doing. Little as the intention of +usurping monarchical power can be mistaken, as little will those +who survey the whole circumstances on this account blame Gracchus. +An absolute monarchy is a great misfortune for a nation, but it is +a less misfortune than an absolute oligarchy; and history cannot +censure one who imposes on a nation the lesser suffering instead +of the greater, least of all in the case of a nature so vehemently +earnest and so far aloof from all that is vulgar as was that of Gaius +Gracchus. Nevertheless it may not conceal the fact that his whole +legislation was pervaded in a most pernicious way by conflicting +aims; for on the one hand it aimed at the public good, while on the +other hand it ministered to the personal objects and in fact the +personal vengeance of the ruler. Gracchus earnestly laboured to find +a remedy for social evils, and to check the spread of pauperism; yet +he at the same time intentionally reared up a street proletariate of +the worst kind in the capital by his distributions of corn, which were +designed to be, and became, a premium to all the lazy and hungry civic +rabble. Gracchus censured in the bitterest terms the venality of +the senate, and in particular laid bare with unsparing and just +severity the scandalous traffic which Manius Aquillius had driven with +the provinces of Asia Minor;(25) yet it was through the efforts of +the same man that the sovereign populace of the capital got itself +alimented, in return for its cares of government, by the body of its +subjects. Gracchus warmly disapproved the disgraceful spoliation of +the provinces, and not only instituted proceedings of wholesome +severity in particular cases, but also procured the abolition of the +thoroughly insufficient senatorial courts, before which even Scipio +Aemilianus had vainly staked his whole influence to bring the most +decided criminals to punishment. Yet he at the same time, by the +introduction of courts composed of merchants, surrendered the +provincials with their hands fettered to the party of material +interests, and thereby to a despotism still more unscrupulous than +that of the aristocracy had been; and he introduced into Asia a +taxation, compared with which even the form of taxation current after +the Carthaginian model in Sicily might be called mild and humane-- +just because on the one hand he needed the party of moneyed men, +and on the other hand required new and comprehensive resources to +meet his distributions of grain and the other burdens newly imposed +on the finances. Gracchus beyond doubt desired a firm administration +and a well-regulated dispensing of justice, as numerous thoroughly +judicious ordinances testify; yet his new system of administration +rested on a continuous series of individual usurpations only formally +legalized, and he intentionally drew the judicial system--which every +well-ordered state will endeavour as far as possible to place, if not +above political parties, at any rate aloof from them--into the midst +of the whirlpool of revolution. Certainly the blame of these +conflicting tendencies in Gaius Gracchus is chargeable to a very great +extent on his position rather than on himself personally. On the +very threshold of the -tyrannis- he was confronted by the fatal +dilemma, moral and political, that the same man had at one and the +same time to maintain his ground, we may say, as a robber-chieftain +and to lead the state as its first citizen--a dilemma to which +Pericles, Caesar, and Napoleon had also to make dangerous sacrifices. +But the conduct of Gaius Gracchus cannot be wholly explained from +this necessity; along with it there worked in him the consuming +passion, the glowing revenge, which foreseeing its own destruction +hurls the firebrand into the house of the foe. He has himself +expressed what he thought of his ordinance as to the jurymen and similar +measures intended to divide the aristocracy; he called them daggers +which he had thrown into the Forum that the burgesses--the men of +rank, obviously--might lacerate each other with them. He was a +political incendiary. Not only was the hundred years' revolution which +dates from him, so far as it was one man's work, the work of Gaius +Gracchus, but he was above all the true founder of that terrible +urban proletariate flattered and paid by the classes above it, which +through its aggregation in the capital--the natural consequence of +the largesses of corn--became at once utterly demoralized and aware +of its power, and which--with its demands, sometimes stupid, sometimes +knavish, and its talk of the sovereignty of the people--lay like +an incubus for five hundred years upon the Roman commonwealth and +only perished along with it And yet--this greatest of political +transgressors was in turn the regenerator of his country. There is +scarce a structural idea in Roman monarchy, which is not traceable +to Gaius Gracchus. From him proceeded the maxim--founded doubtless +in a certain sense in the nature of the old traditional laws of war, +but yet, in the extension and practical application now given to it, +foreign to the older state-law--that all the land of the subject +communities was to be regarded as the private property of the state; +a maxim, which was primarily employed to vindicate the right of the +state to tax that land at pleasure, as was the case in Asia, or to +apply it for the institution of colonies, as was done in Africa, +and which became afterwards a fundamental principle of law under the +empire. From him proceeded the tactics, whereby demagogues and +tyrants, leaning for support on material interests, break down the +governing Aristocracy, but subsequently legitimize the change of +constitution by substituting a strict and efficient administration +for the previous misgovernment. To him, in particular, are traceable +the first steps towards such a reconciliation between Rome and the +provinces as the establishment of monarchy could not but bring in its +train; the attempt to rebuild Carthage destroyed by Italian rivalry +and generally to open the way for Italian emigration towards the +provinces, formed the first link in the long chain of that momentous +and beneficial course of action. Right and wrong, fortune and +misfortune were so inextricably blended in this singular man +and in this marvellous political constellation, that it may well +beseem history in this case--though it beseems her but seldom-- +to reserve her judgment. + +The Question As to the Allies + +When Gracchus had substantially completed the new constitution +projected by him for the state, he applied himself to a second and +more difficult work. The question as to the Italian allies was still +undecided. What were the views of the democratic leaders regarding +it, had been rendered sufficiently apparent.(26) They naturally +desired the utmost possible extension of the Roman franchise, not +merely that they might bring in the domains occupied by the Latins for +distribution, but above all that they might strengthen their body of +adherents by the enormous mass of the new burgesses, might bring the +comitial machine still more fully under their power by widening the +body of privileged electors, and generally might abolish a distinction +which had now with the fall of the republican constitution lost all +serious importance. But here they encountered resistance from their +own party, and especially from that band which otherwise readily gave +its sovereign assent to all which it did or did not understand. +For the simple reason that Roman citizenship seemed to these people, +so to speak, like a partnership which gave them a claim to share in +sundry very tangible profits, direct and indirect, they were not at +all disposed to enlarge the number of the partners. The rejection +of the Fulvian law in 629, and the insurrection of the Fregellans +arising out of it, were significant indications both of the obstinate +perseverance of the fraction of the burgesses that ruled the comitia, +and of the impatient urgency of the allies. Towards the end of his +second tribunate (632) Gracchus, probably urged by obligations which +he had undertaken towards the allies, ventured on a second attempt. +In concert with Marcus Flaccus--who, although a consular, had again +taken the tribuneship of the people, in order now to carry the law +which he had formerly proposed without success--he made a proposal +to grant to the Latins the full franchise, and to the other Italian +allies the former rights of the Latins. But the proposal encountered +the united opposition of the senate and the mob of the capital. +The nature of this coalition and its mode of conflict are clearly and +distinctly seen from an accidentally preserved fragment of the speech +which the consul Gaius Fannius made to the burgesses in opposition to +the proposal. "Do you then think," said the Optimate, "that, if you +confer the franchise on the Latins, you will be able to find a place +in future--just as you are now standing there in front of me--in the +burgess-assembly, or at the games and popular amusements? Do you not +believe, on the contrary, that those people will occupy every spot?" +Among the burgesses of the fifth century, who on one day conferred +the franchise on all the Sabines, such an orator might perhaps have +been hissed; those of the seventh found his reasoning uncommonly clear +and the price of the assignation of the Latin domains, which was +offered to it by Gracchus, far too low. The very circumstance, that +the senate carried a permission to eject from the city all non- +burgesses before the day for the decisive vote, showed the fate in +store for the proposal. And when before the voting Livius Drusus, +a colleague of Gracchus, interposed his veto against the law, the +people received the veto in such a way that Gracchus could not +venture to proceed further or even to prepare for Drusus the fate +of Marcus Octavius. + +Overthrow of Gracchus + +It was, apparently, this success which emboldened the senate to +attempt the overthrow of the victorious demagogue. The weapons of +attack were substantially the same with which Gracchus himself had +formerly operated. The power of Gracchus rested on the mercantile +class and the proletariate; primarily on the latter, which in this +conflict, wherein neither side had any military reserve, acted as +it were the part of an army. It was clear that the senate was not +powerful enough to wrest either from the merchants or from the +proletariate their new privileges; any attempt to assail the corn- +laws or the new jury-arrangement would have led, under a somewhat +grosser or somewhat more civilized form, to a street-riot in presence +of which the senate was utterly defenceless. But it was no less +clear, that Gracchus himself and these merchants and proletarians were +only kept together by mutual advantage, and that the men of material +interests were ready to accept their posts, and the populace strictly so +called its bread, quite as well from any other as from Gaius Gracchus. +The institutions of Gracchus stood, for the moment at least, +immoveably firm with the exception of a single one--his own supremacy. +The weakness of the latter lay in the fact, that in the constitution of +Gracchus there was no relation of allegiance subsisting at all between +the chief and the army; and, while the new constitution possessed all +other elements of vitality, it lacked one--the moral tie between ruler +and ruled, without which every state rests on a pedestal of clay. +In the rejection of the proposal to admit the Latins to the franchise +it had been demonstrated with decisive clearness that the multitude +in fact never voted for Gracchus, but always simply for itself. +The aristocracy conceived the plan of offering battle to the author +of the corn-largesses and land-assignations on his own ground. + +Rival Demagogism of the Senate +The Livian Laws + +As a matter of course, the senate offered to the proletariate not merely +the same advantages as Gracchus had already assured to it in corn and +otherwise, but advantages still greater. Commissioned by the senate, +the tribune of the people Marcus Livius Drusus proposed to relieve +those who received land under the laws of Gracchus from the rent +imposed on them,(27) and to declare their allotments to be free and +alienable property; and, further, to provide for the proletariate +not in transmarine, but in twelve Italian, colonies, each of 3000 +colonists, for the planting of which the people might nominate +suitable men; only, Drusus himself declined--in contrast with the +family-complexion of the Gracchan commission--to take part in this +honourable duty. Presumably the Latins were named as those who would +have to bear the costs of the plan, for there does not appear to have +now existed in Italy other occupied domain-land of any extent save that +which was enjoyed by them. We find isolated enactments of Drusus-- +such as the regulation that the punishment of scourging might only be +inflicted on the Latin soldier by the Latin officer set over him, and +not by the Roman officer--which were to all appearance intended to +indemnify the Latins for other losses. The plan was not the most +refined. The attempt at rivalry was too clear; the endeavour to draw +the fair bond between the nobles and the proletariate still closer +by their exercising jointly a tyranny over the Latins was too +transparent; the inquiry suggested itself too readily, In what part of +the peninsula, now that the Italian domains had been mainly given away +already--even granting that the whole domains assigned to the Latins +were confiscated--was the occupied domain-land requisite for the +formation of twelve new, numerous, and compact burgess-communities to +be discovered? Lastly the declaration of Drusus, that he would have +nothing to do with the execution of his law, was so dreadfully prudent +as to border on sheer folly. But the clumsy snare was quite suited +for the stupid game which they wished to catch. There was the +additional and perhaps decisive consideration, that Gracchus, +on whose personal influence everything depended, was just then +establishing the Carthaginian colony in Africa, and that his +lieutenant in the capital, Marcus Flaccus, played into the hands of +his opponents by his vehement and maladroit actings. The "people" +accordingly ratified the Livian laws as readily as it had before +ratified the Sempronian. It then, as usual, repaid its latest, by +inflicting a gentle blow on its earlier, benefactor, declining to +re-elect him when he stood for the third time as a candidate for the +tribunate for the year 633; on which occasion, however, there are +alleged to have been unjust proceedings on the part of the tribune +presiding at the election, who had been formerly offended by +Gracchus. Thus the foundation of his despotism gave way beneath +him. A second blow was inflicted on him by the consular elections, +which not only proved in a general sense adverse to the democracy, +but which placed at the head of the state Lucius Opimius, who as +praetor in 629 had conquered Fregellae, one of the most decided +and least scrupulous chiefs of the strict aristocratic party, +and a man firmly resolved to get rid of their dangerous antagonist +at the earliest opportunity. + +Attack on the Transmarine Colonialization +Downfall of Gracchus + +Such an opportunity soon occurred. On the 10th of December, 632, +Gracchus ceased to be tribune of the people; on the 1st of January, +633, Opimius entered on his office. The first attack, as was fair, +was directed against the most useful and the most unpopular measure of +Gracchus, the re-establishment of Carthage. While the transmarine +colonies had hitherto been only indirectly assailed through the +greater allurements of the Italian, African hyaenas, it was now alleged, +dug up the newly-placed boundary-stones of Carthage, and the Roman +priests, when requested, certified that such signs and portents ought +to form an express warning against rebuilding on a site accursed by the +gods. The senate thereby found itself in its conscience compelled to +have a law proposed, which prohibited the planting of the colony of +Junonia. Gracchus, who with the other men nominated to establish it +was just then selecting the colonists, appeared on the day of voting +at the Capitol whither the burgesses were convoked, with a view to +procure by means of his adherents the rejection of the law. He wished +to shun acts of violence, that he might not himself supply his +opponents with the pretext which they sought; but he had not been able +to prevent a great portion of his faithful partisans, who remembered +the catastrophe of Tiberius and were well acquainted with the designs +of the aristocracy, from appearing in arms, and amidst the immense +excitement on both sides quarrels could hardly be avoided. The consul +Lucius Opimius offered the usual sacrifice in the porch of the +Capitoline temple; one of the attendants assisting at the ceremony, +Quintus Antullius, with the holy entrails in his hand, haughtily +ordered the "bad citizens" to quit the porch, and seemed as though he +would lay hands on Gaius himself; whereupon a zealous Gracchan drew his +sword and cut the man down. A fearful tumult arose. Gracchus vainly +sought to address the people and to disclaim the responsibility for +the sacrilegious murder; he only furnished his antagonists with a +further formal ground of accusation, as, without being aware of it in +the confusion, he interrupted a tribune in the act of speaking to +the people--an offence, for which an obsolete statute, originating at +the time of the old dissensions between the orders,(28) had prescribed +the severest penalty. The consul Lucius Opimius took his measures to +put down by force of arms the insurrection for the overthrow of the +republican constitution, as they were fond of designating the events +of this day. He himself passed the night in the temple of Castor in +the Forum; at early dawn the Capitol was filled with Cretan archers, +the senate-house and Forum with the men of the government party--the +senators and the section of the equites adhering to them--who by order +of the consul had all appeared in arms and each attended by two +armed slaves. None of the aristocracy were absent; even the aged and +venerable Quintus Metellus, well disposed to reform, had appeared with +shield and sword. An officer of ability and experience acquired in +the Spanish wars, Decimus Brutus, was entrusted with the command of +the armed force; the senate assembled in the senate-house. The bier +with the corpse of Antullius was deposited in front of it; the senate, +as if surprised, appeared en masse at the door in order to view +the dead body, and then retired to determine what should be done. +The leaders of the democracy had gone from the Capitol to their +houses; Marcus Flaccus had spent the night in preparing for the war +in the streets, while Gracchus apparently disdained to strive with +destiny. Next morning, when they learned the preparations made by +their opponents at the Capitol and the Forum, both proceeded to the +Aventine, the old stronghold of the popular party in the struggles +between the patricians and the plebeians. Gracchus went thither +silent and unarmed; Flaccus called the slaves to arms and entrenched +himself in the temple of Diana, while he at the same time sent his +younger son Quintus to the enemy's camp in order if possible to arrange +a compromise. The latter returned with the announcement that the +aristocracy demanded unconditional surrender; at the same time he +brought a summons from the senate to Gracchus and Flaccus to appear +before it and to answer for their violation of the majesty of the +tribunes. Gracchus wished to comply with the summons, but Flaccus +prevented him from doing so, and repeated the equally weak and +mistaken attempt to move such antagonists to a compromise. When +instead of the two cited leaders the young Quintus Flaccus once more +presented himself alone, the consul treated their refusal to appear +as the beginning of open insurrection against the government; he +ordered the messenger to be arrested and gave the signal for attack +on the Aventine, while at the same time he caused proclamation to be +made in the streets that the government would give to whosoever should +bring the head of Gracchus or of Flaccus its literal weight in gold, +and that they would guarantee complete indemnity to every one who +should leave the Aventine before the beginning of the conflict. +The ranks on the Aventine speedily thinned; the valiant nobility in +union with the Cretans and the slaves stormed the almost undefended +mount, and killed all whom they found, about 250 persons, mostly of +humble rank. Marcus Flaccus fled with his eldest son to a place of +concealment, where they were soon afterwards hunted out and put to +death. Gracchus had at the beginning of the conflict retired into +the temple of Minerva, and was there about to pierce himself with his +sword, when his friend Publius Laetorius seized his arm and besought +him to preserve himself if possible for better times. Gracchus was +induced to make an attempt to escape to the other bank of the Tiber; +but when hastening down the hill he fell and sprained his foot. +To gain time for him to escape, his two attendants turned to face +his pursuers and allowed themselves to be cut down, Marcus Pomponius +at the Porta Trigemina under the Aventine, Publius Laetorius at +the bridge over the Tiber where Horatius Cocles was said to have once +singly withstood the Etruscan army; so Gracchus, attended only by his +slave Euporus, reached the suburb on the right bank of the Tiber. +There, in the grove of Furrina, were afterwards found the two dead +bodies; it seemed as if the slave had put to death first his master +and then himself. The heads of the two fallen leaders were handed over +to the government as required; the stipulated price and more was paid +to Lucius Septumuleius, a man of quality, the bearer of the head of +Gracchus, while the murderers of Flaccus, persons of humble rank, were +sent away with empty hands. The bodies of the dead were thrown into +the river; the houses of the leaders were abandoned to the pillage of +the multitude. The warfare of prosecution against the partisans of +Gracchus began on the grandest scale; as many as 3000 of them are said +to have been strangled in prison, amongst whom was Quintus Flaccus, +eighteen years of age, who had taken no part in the conflict and +was universally lamented on account of his youth and his amiable +disposition. On the open space beneath the Capitol where the altar +consecrated by Camillus after the restoration of internal peace(29) and +other shrines erected on similar occasions to Concord were situated, +these small chapels were pulled down; and out of the property of the +killed or condemned traitors, which was confiscated even to the +portions of their wives, a new and splendid temple of Concord with +the basilica belonging to it was erected in accordance with a decree +of the senate by the consul Lucius Opimius. Certainly it was an act +in accordance with the spirit of the age to remove the memorials of +the old, and to inaugurate a new, concord over the remains of the three +grandsons of the conqueror of Zama, all of whom--first Tiberius +Gracchus, then Scipio Aemilianus, and lastly the youngest and the +mightiest, Gaius Gracchus--had now been engulfed by the revolution. +The memory of the Gracchi remained officially proscribed; Cornelia was +not allowed even to put on mourning for the death of her last son; +but the passionate attachment, which very many had felt towards the two +noble brothers and especially towards Gaius during their life, was +touchingly displayed also after their death in the almost religious +veneration which the multitude, in spite of all precautions of +police, continued to pay to their memory and to the spots where +they had fallen. + +CHAPTER IV + +The Rule of the Restoration + +Vacancy in the Government + +The new structure, which Gaius Gracchus had reared, became on +his death a ruin. His death indeed, like that of his brother, was +primarily a mere act of vengeance; but it was at the same time a very +material step towards the restoration of the old constitution, when +the person of the monarch was taken away from the monarchy, just as +it was on the point of being established. It was all the more so in +the present instance, because after the fall of Gaius and the sweeping +and bloody prosecutions of Opimius there existed at the moment +absolutely no one, who, either by blood-relationship to the fallen +chief of the state or by preeminent ability, might feel himself +warranted in even attempting to occupy the vacant place. Gaius +had departed from the world childless, and the son whom Tiberius +had left behind him died before reaching manhood; the whole popular +party, as it was called, was literally without any one who could be +named as leader. The Gracchan constitution resembled a fortress +without a commander; the walls and garrison were uninjured, but +the general was wanting, and there was no one to take possession of +the vacant place save the very government which had been overthrown. + +The Restored Aristocracy + +So it accordingly happened. After the decease of Gaius Gracchus +without heirs, the government of the senate as it were spontaneously +resumed its place; and this was the more natural, that it had not +been, in the strict sense, formally abolished by the tribune, but +had merely been reduced to a practical nullity by his exceptional +proceedings. Yet we should greatly err, if we should discern in +this restoration nothing further than a relapse of the state-machine +into the old track which had been trodden and worn for centuries. +Restoration is always revolution; but in this case it was not so +much the old government as the old governor that was restored. +The oligarchy made its appearance newly equipped in the armour of +the -tyrannis- which had been overthrown. As the senate had beaten +Gracchus from the field with his own weapons, so it continued in the +most essential points to govern with the constitution of the Gracchi; +though certainly with the ulterior idea, if not of setting it aside +entirely, at any rate of thoroughly purging it in due time from the +elements really hostile to the ruling aristocracy. + +Prosecutions of the Democrats + +At first the reaction was mainly directed against persons. Publius +Popillius was recalled from banishment after the enactments relating +to him had been cancelled (633), and a warfare of prosecution was +waged against the adherents of Gracchus; whereas the attempt of +the popular party to have Lucius Opimius after his resignation of +office condemned for high treason was frustrated by the partisans +of the government (634). The character of this government of +the restoration is significantly indicated by the progress of the +aristocracy in soundness of sentiment. Gaius Carbo, once the ally +of the Gracchi, had for long been a convert,(1) and had but recently +shown his zeal and his usefulness as defender of Opimius. But he +remained the renegade; when the same accusation was raised against him +by the democrats as against Opimius, the government were not unwilling +to let him fall, and Carbo, seeing himself lost between the two +parties, died by his own hand. Thus the men of the reaction showed +themselves in personal questions pure aristocrats. But the reaction +did not immediately attack the distributions of grain, the taxation +of the province of Asia, or the Gracchan arrangement as to the jurymen +and courts; on the contrary, it not only spared the mercantile +class and the proletariate of the capital, but continued to render +homage, as it had already done in the introduction of the Livian +laws, to these powers and especially to the proletariate far more +decidedly than had been done by the Gracchi. This course was not +adopted merely because the Gracchan revolution still thrilled for +long the minds of its contemporaries and protected its creations; +the fostering and cherishing at least of the interests of the populace +was in fact perfectly compatible with the personal advantage of +the aristocracy, and thereby nothing further was sacrificed than +merely the public weal. + +The Domain Question under the Restoration + +All those measures which were devised by Gaius Gracchus for the +promotion of the public welfare--the best but, as may readily be +conceived, also the most unpopular part of his legislation--were +allowed by the aristocracy to drop. Nothing was so speedily and so +successfully assailed as the noblest of his projects, the scheme of +introducing a legal equality first between the Roman burgesses and +Italy, and thereafter between Italy and the provinces, and--inasmuch +as the distinction between the merely ruling and consuming and the +merely serving and working members of the state was thus done away-- +at the same time solving the social question by the most comprehensive +and systematic emigration known in history. With all the determination +and all the peevish obstinacy of dotage the restored oligarchy +obtruded the principle of deceased generations--that Italy must +remain the ruling land and Rome the ruling city in Italy--afresh +on the present. Even in the lifetime of Gracchus the claims of +the Italian allies had been decidedly rejected, and the great idea of +transmarine colonization had been subjected to a very serious attack, +which became the immediate cause of Gracchus' fall. After his +death the scheme of restoring Carthage was set aside with little +difficulty by the government party, although the individual allotments +already distributed there were left to the recipients. It is true +that they could not prevent a similar foundation by the democratic +party from succeeding at another point: in the course of the conquests +beyond the Alps which Marcus Flaccus had begun, the colony of Narbo +(Narbonne) was founded there in 636, the oldest transmarine burgess- +city in the Roman empire, which, in spite of manifold attacks by the +government party and in spite of a proposal directly made by the +senate to abolish it, permanently held its ground, protected, as it +probably was, by the mercantile interests that were concerned. But, +apart from this exception--in its isolation not very important--the +government was uniformly successful in preventing the assignation +of land out of Italy. + +The Italian domain-question was settled in a similar spirit. +The Italian colonies of Gaius, especially Capua, were cancelled, +and such of them as had already been planted were again broken up; +only the unimportant one of Tarentum was allowed to subsist in the +form of the new town Neptunia placed alongside of the former Greek +community. So much of the domains as had already been distributed +by non-colonial assignation remained in the hands of the recipients; +the restrictions imposed on them by Gracchus in the interest of the +commonwealth--the ground-rent and the prohibition of alienation--had +already been abolished by Marcus Drusus. With reference on the other +hand to the domains still possessed by right of occupation--which, +over and above the domain-land enjoyed by the Latins, must have mostly +consisted of the estates left with their holders in accordance with +the Gracchan maximum(2)--it was resolved definitively to secure them to +those who had hitherto been occupants and to preclude the possibility +of future distribution. It was primarily from these lands, no doubt, +that the 36,000 new farm-allotments promised by Drusus were to have +been formed; but they saved themselves the trouble of inquiring where +those hundreds of thousands of acres of Italian domain-land were to +be found, and tacitly shelved the Livian colonial law, which had +served its purpose;--only perhaps the small colony of Scolacium +(Squillace) may be referred to the colonial law of Drusus. On the +other hand by a law, which the tribune of the people Spurius Thorius +carried under the instructions of the senate, the allotment-commission +was abolished in 635, and there was imposed on the occupants of the +domain-land a fixed rent, the proceeds of which went to the benefit +of the populace of the capital--apparently by forming part of the fund +for the distribution of corn; proposals going still further, including +perhaps an increase of the largesses of grain, were averted by the +judicious tribune of the people Gaius Marius. The final step was +taken eight years afterwards (643), when by a new decree of the +people(3) the occupied domain-land was directly converted into the +rent-free private property of the former occupants. It was added, +that in future domain-land was not to be occupied at all, but was +either to be leased or to lie open as public pasture; in the latter +case provision was made by the fixing of a very low maximum of ten +head of large and fifty head of small cattle, that the large herd- +owner should not practically exclude the small. In these judicious +regulations the injurious character of the occupation-system, which +moreover was long ago given up,(4) was at length officially recognized, +but unhappily they were only adopted when it had already deprived the +state in substance of its domanial possessions. While the Roman +aristocracy thus took care of itself and got whatever occupied land +was still in its hands converted into its own property, it at the same +time pacified the Italian allies, not indeed by conferring on them the +property of the Latin domain-land which they and more especially their +municipal aristocracy enjoyed, but by preserving unimpaired the rights +in relation to it guaranteed to them by their charters. The opposite +party was in the unfortunate position, that in the most important +material questions the interests of the Italians ran diametrically +counter to those of the opposition in the capital; in fact the +Italians entered into a species of league with the Roman government, +and sought and found protection from the senate against the +extravagant designs of various Roman demagogues. + +The Proletariate and the Equestrian Order under the Restoration + +While the restored government was thus careful thoroughly to eradicate +the germs of improvement which existed in the Gracchan constitution, +it remained completely powerless in presence of the hostile powers +that had been, not for the general weal, aroused by Gracchus. +The proletariate of the capital continued to have a recognized title +to aliment; the senate likewise acquiesced in the taking of the jurymen +from the mercantile order, repugnant though this yoke was to the +better and prouder portion of the aristocracy. The fetters which +the aristocracy wore did not beseem its dignity; but we do not find +that it seriously set itself to get rid of them. The law of Marcus +Aemilius Scaurus in 632, which at least enforced the constitutional +restrictions on the suffrage of freedmen, was for long the only +attempt--and that a very tame one--on the part of the senatorial +government once more to restrain their mob-tyrants. The proposal, +which the consul Quintus Caepio seventeen years after the introduction +of the equestrian tribunals (648) brought in for again entrusting the +trials to senatorial jurymen, showed what the government wished; but +showed also how little it could do, when the question was one not +of squandering domains but of carrying a measure in the face of +an influential order. It broke down.(5) The government was not +emancipated from the inconvenient associates who shared its power; +but these measures probably contributed still further to disturb the +never sincere agreement of the ruling aristocracy with the merchant- +class and the proletariate. Both were very well aware, that the +senate granted all its concessions only from fear and with reluctance; +permanently attached to the rule of the senate by considerations +neither of gratitude nor of interest, both were very ready to render +similar services to any other master who offered them more or even as +much, and had no objection, if an opportunity occurred, to cheat or +to thwart the senate. Thus the restoration continued to govern with +the desires and sentiments of a legitimate aristocracy, and with +the constitution and means of government of a -tyrannis-. Its rule +not only rested on the same bases as that of Gracchus, but it was +equally ill, and in fact still worse, consolidated; it was strong, +when in league with the populace it overthrew serviceable +institutions, but it was utterly powerless, when it had to face the +bands of the streets or the interests of the merchants. It sat on +the vacated throne with an evil conscience and divided hopes, indignant +at the institutions of the state which it ruled and yet incapable of +even systematically assailing them, vacillating in all its conduct +except where its own material advantage prompted a decision, a picture +of faithlessness towards its own as well as the opposite party, of +inward inconsistency, of the most pitiful impotence, of the meanest +selfishness--an unsurpassed ideal of misrule. + +The Men of the Restoration + +It could not be otherwise; the whole nation was in a state of +intellectual and moral decline, but especially the upper classes. +The aristocracy before the period of the Gracchi was truly not over- +rich in talent, and the benches of the senate were crowded by a pack +of cowardly and dissolute nobles; nevertheless there sat in it Scipio +Aemilianus, Gaius Laelius, Quintus Metellus, Publius Crassus, Publius +Scaevola and numerous other respectable and able men, and an observer +favourably predisposed might be of opinion that the senate maintained +a certain moderation in injustice and a certain decorum in +misgovernment. This aristocracy had been overthrown and then +reinstated; henceforth there rested on it the curse of restoration. +While the aristocracy had formerly governed for good or ill, and for +more than a century without any sensible opposition, the crisis which +it had now passed through revealed to it, like a flash of lightning +in a dark night, the abyss which yawned before its feet. Was it any +wonder that henceforward rancour always, and terror wherever they +durst, characterized the government of the lords of the old +nobility? that those who governed confronted as an united and compact +party, with far more sternness and violence than hitherto, the non- +governing multitude? that family-policy now prevailed once more, just +as in the worst times of the patriciate, so that e. g. the four +sons and (probably) the two nephews of Quintus Metellus--with a +single exception persons utterly insignificant and some of them called +to office on account of their very simplicity--attained within fifteen +years (631-645) all of them to the consulship, and all with one +exception also to triumphs--to say nothing of sons-in-law and so +forth? that the more violent and cruel the bearing of any of their +partisans towards the opposite party, he received the more signal +honour, and every outrage and every infamy were pardoned in the +genuine aristocrat? that the rulers and the ruled resembled two +parties at war in every respect, save in the fact that in their +warfare no international law was recognized? It was unhappily only +too palpable that, if the old aristocracy beat the people with rods, +this restored aristocracy chastised it with scorpions. It returned +to power; but it returned neither wiser nor better. Never hitherto +had the Roman aristocracy been so utterly deficient in men of +statesmanly and military capacity, as it was during this epoch +of restoration between the Gracchan and the Cinnan revolutions. + +Marcus Aemilius Scaurus + +A significant illustration of this is afforded by the chief of the +senatorial party at this time, Marcus Aemilius Scaurus. The son of +highly aristocratic but not wealthy parents, and thus compelled to +make use of his far from mean talents, he raised himself to the +consulship (639) and censorship (645), was long the chief of the +senate and the political oracle of his order, and immortalized his +name not only as an orator and author, but also as the originator +of some of the principal public buildings executed in this century. +But, if we look at him more closely, his greatly praised achievements +amount merely to this much, that, as a general, he gained some +cheap village triumphs in the Alps, and, as a statesman, won by his +laws about voting and luxury some victories nearly as serious over +the revolutionary spirit of the times. His real talent consisted +in this, that, while he was quite as accessible and bribable as any +other upright senator, he discerned with some cunning the moment when +the matter began to be hazardous, and above all by virtue of his +superior and venerable appearance acted the part of Fabricius before +the public. In a military point of view, no doubt, we find some +honourable exceptions of able officers belonging to the highest +circles of the aristocracy; but the rule was, that the lords of +quality, when they were to assume the command of armies, hastily +read up from the Greek military manuals and the Roman annals as much +as was required for holding a military conversation, and then, when +in the field, acted most wisely by entrusting the real command to an +officer of humble lineage but of tried capacity and tried discretion. +In fact, if a couple of centuries earlier the senate resembled an +assembly of kings, these their successors played not ill the part of +princes. But the incapacity of these restored aristocrats was fully +equalled by their political and moral worthlessness. If the state +of religion, to which we shall revert, did not present a faithful +reflection of the wild dissoluteness of this epoch, and if the +external history of the period did not exhibit the utter depravity of +the Roman nobles as one of its most essential elements, the horrible +crimes, which came to light in rapid succession among the highest +circles of Rome, would alone suffice to indicate their character. + +Administration under the Restoration +Social State of Italy + +The administration, internal and external, was what was to be +expected under such a government. The social ruin of Italy spread +with alarming rapidity; since the aristocracy had given itself legal +permission to buy out the small holders, and in its new arrogance +allowed itself with growing frequency to drive them out, the farms +disappeared like raindrops in the sea. That the economic oligarchy +at least kept pace with the political, is shown by the opinion +expressed about 650 by Lucius Marcius Philippus, a man of moderate +democratic views, that there were among the whole burgesses hardly +2000 families of substantial means. A practical commentary on this +state of things was once more furnished by the servile insurrections, +which during the first years of the Cimbrian war broke out annually +in Italy, e. g. at Nuceria, at Capua, and in the territory of +Thurii. This last conspiracy was so important that the urban +praetor had to march with a legion against it and yet overcame +the insurrection not by force of arms, but only by insidious treachery. +It was moreover a suspicious circumstance, that the insurrection was +headed not by a slave, but by the Roman knight Titus Vettius, whom +his debts had driven to the insane step of manumitting his slaves +and declaring himself their king (650). The apprehensions of the +government with reference to the accumulation of masses of slaves in +Italy are shown by the measures of precaution respecting the gold- +washings of Victumulae, which were carried on after 611 on account of +the Roman government: the lessees were at first bound not to employ +more than 5000 labourers, and subsequently the workings were totally +stopped by decree of the senate. Under such a government as the +present there was every reason in fact for fear, if, as was very +possible, a Transalpine host should penetrate into Italy and summon +the slaves, who were in great part of kindred lineage, to arms. + +The Provinces +Occupation of Cilicia + +The provinces suffered still more in comparison. We shall have an +idea of the condition of Sicily and Asia, if we endeavour to realize +what would be the aspect of matters in the East Indies provided the +English aristocracy were similar to the Roman aristocracy of that +day. The legislation, which entrusted the mercantile class with +control over the magistrates, compelled the latter to make common cause +to a certain extent with the former, and to purchase for themselves +unlimited liberty of plundering and protection from impeachment by +unconditional indulgence towards the capitalists in the provinces. +In addition to these official and semi-official robbers, freebooters +and pirates pillaged all the countries of the Mediterranean. In the +Asiatic waters more especially the buccaneers carried their outrages +so far that even the Roman government found itself under the necessity +in 652 of despatching to Cilicia a fleet, mainly composed of the vessels +of the dependent mercantile cities, under the praetor Marcus Antonius, +who was invested with proconsular powers. This fleet captured a number +of corsair-vessels and destroyed some rock-strongholds and not only so, +but the Romans even settled themselves permanently there, and in order +to the suppression of piracy in its chief seat, the Rugged or western +Cilicia occupied strong military positions--the first step towards the + establishment of the province of Cilicia, which thenceforth appears +among the Roman magistracies.(7) The design was commendable, and the +scheme in itself was suitable for its purpose; only, the continuance +and the increase of the evil of piracy in the Asiatic waters, and +especiallyin Cilicia, unhappily showed with how inadequate means +the pirates were combated from the newly-acquired position. + +Revolt of the Slaves + +But nowhere did the impotence and perversity of the Roman provincial +administration come to light so conspicuously as in the insurrections +of the slave proletariate, which seemed to have revived on their +former footing simultaneously with the restoration of the aristocracy. +These insurrections of the slaves swelling from revolts into wars-- +which had emerged just about 620 as one, and that perhaps the proximate, +cause of the Gracchan revolution--were renewed and repeated with dreary +uniformity. Again, as thirty years before, a ferment pervaded the body +of slaves throughout the Roman empire. We have already mentioned +the Italian conspiracies. The miners in the Attic silver-mines rose +in revolt, occupied the promontory of Sunium, and issuing thence +pillaged for a length of time the surrounding country. Similar +movements appeared at other places. + +The Second Sicilian Slave-War + +But the chief seat of these fearful commotions was once more Sicily +with its plantations and its hordes of slaves brought thither from +Asia Minor. It is significant of the greatness of the evil, that +an attempt of the government to check the worst iniquities of the +slaveholders was the immediate cause of the new insurrection. That +the free proletarians in Sicily were little better than the slaves, +had been shown by their attitude in the first insurrection;(8) +after it was subdued, the Roman speculators took their revenge and +reduced numbers of the free provincials into slavery. In consequence +of a sharp enactment issued against this by the senate in 650, Publius +Licinius Nerva, the governor of Sicily at the time, appointed a court +for deciding on claims of freedom to sit in Syracuse. The court +went earnestly to work; in a short time decision was given in eight +hundred processes against the slave-owners, and the number of causes in +dependence was daily on the increase. The terrified planters hastened +to Syracuse, to compel the Roman governor to suspend such unparalleled +administration of justice; Nerva was weak enough to let himself be +terrified, and in harsh language informed the non-free persons +requesting trial that they should forgo their troublesome demand for +right and justice and should instantly return to those who called +themselves their masters. Those who were thus dismissed, instead of +doing as he bade them, formed a conspiracy and went to the mountains. + +The governor was not prepared for military measures, and even the +wretched militia of the island was not immediately at hand; so that he +concluded an alliance with one of the best known captains of banditti +in the island, and induced him by the promise of personal pardon to +betray the revolted slaves into the hands of the Romans. He thus +gained the mastery over this band. But another band of runaway +slaves succeeded in defeating a division of the garrison of Enna +(Castrogiovanni); and this first success procured for the insurgents-- +what they especially needed--arms and a conflux of associates. +The armour of their fallen or fugitive opponents furnished the first +basis of their military organization, and the number of the insurgents +soon swelled to many thousands. These Syrians in a foreign land +already, like their predecessors, seemed to themselves not unworthy +to be governed by kings, as were their countrymen at home; and-- +parodying the trumpery king of their native land down to the very +name--they placed the slave Salvius at their head as king Tryphon. +In the district between Enna and Leontini (Lentini) where these bands +had their head-quarters, the open country was wholly in the hands of +the insurgents and Morgantia and other walled towns were already +besieged by them, when the Roman governor with his hastily-collected +Sicilian and Italian troops fell upon the slave-army in front +of Morgantia. He occupied the undefended camp; but the slaves, +although surprised, made a stand. In the combat that ensued the +levy of the island not only gave way at the first onset, but, as the +slaves allowed every one who threw down his arms to escape unhindered, +the militia almost without exception embraced the good opportunity +of taking their departure, and the Roman army completely dispersed. +Had the slaves in Morgantia been willing to make common cause with +their comrades before the gates, the town was lost; but they preferred +to accept the gift of freedom in legal form from their masters, and by +their valour helped them to save the town--whereupon the Roman governor +declared the promise of liberty solemnly given to the slaves by the +masters to be void in law, as having been illegally extorted. + +Athenion + +While the revolt thus spread after an alarming manner in the interior +of the island, a second broke out on the west coast. It was headed +by Athenion. He had formerly been, just like Cleon, a dreaded +captain of banditti in his native country of Cilicia, and had been +carried thence as a slave to Sicily. He secured, just as his +predecessors had done, the adherence of the Greeks and Syrians +especially by prophesyings and other edifying impostures; but skilled +in war and sagacious as he was, he did not, like the other leaders, arm +the whole mass that flocked to him, but formed out of the men able for +warfare an organized army, while he assigned the remainder to peaceful +employment. In consequence of his strict discipline, which repressed +all vacillation and all insubordinate movement in his troops, and his +gentle treatment of the peaceful inhabitants of the country and even of +the captives, he gained rapid and great successes. The Romans were on +this occasion disappointed in the hope that the two leaders would fall +out; Athenion voluntarily submitted to the far less capable king +Tryphon, and thus preserved unity among the insurgents. These soon +ruled with virtually absolute power over the flat country, where +the free proletarians again took part more or less openly with the +slaves; the Roman authorities were not in a position to take the field +against them, and had to rest content with protecting the towns, +which were in the most lamentable plight, by means of the militia of +Sicily and that of Africa brought over in all haste. The administration +of justice was suspended over the whole island, and force was +the only law. As no cultivator living in town ventured any longer +beyond the gates, and no countryman ventured into the towns, the most +fearful famine set in, and the town-population of this island which +formerly fed Italy had to be supported by the Roman authorities +sending supplies of grain. Moreover, conspiracies of the town- +slaves everywhere threatened to break out within, while the insurgent +armies lay before, the walls; even Messana was within a hair's breadth +of being conquered by Athenion. + +Aquillius + +Difficult as it was for the government during the serious war with +the Cimbri to place a second army in the field, it could not avoid +sending in 651 an army of 14,000 Romans and Italians, not including +the transmarine militia, under the praetor Lucius Lucullus to the +island. The united slave-army was stationed in the mountains above +Sciacca, and accepted the battle which Lucullus offered. The better +military organization of the Romans gave them the victory; Athenion +was left for dead on the field, Tryphon had to throw himself into the +mountain-fortress of Triocala; the insurgents deliberated earnestly +whether it was possible to continue the struggle longer. But the +party, which was resolved to hold out to the last man, retained the +upper hand; Athenion, who had been saved in a marvellous manner, +reappeared among his troops and revived their sunken courage; above +all Lucullus with incredible negligence took not the smallest step +to follow up his victory; in fact, he is said to have intentionally +disorganized the army and to have burned his field baggage, with a +view to screen the total inefficacy of his administration and not to +be cast into the shade by his successor. Whether this was true or +not, his successor Gaius Servilius (652) obtained no better results; +and both generals were afterwards criminally impeached and condemned +for their conduct in office--which, however, was not at all a certain +proof of their guilt. Athenion, who after the death of Tryphon +(652) was invested with the sole command, stood victorious at the +head of a considerable army, when in 653 Manius Aquillius, who had +during the previous year distinguished himself under Marius in the +war with the Teutones, was as consul and governor entrusted with the +conduct of the war. After two years of hard conflicts--Aquillius is +said to have fought in person with Athenion, and to have killed him +in single combat--the Roman general at length put down the desperate +resistance, and vanquished the insurgents in their last retreats by +famine. The slaves on the island were prohibited from bearing arms +and peace was again restored to it, or, in other words, its recent +tormentors were relieved by those of former use and wont; in fact, +the victor himself occupied a prominent place among the numerous +and energetic robber-magistrates of this period. Any one who still +required a proof of the internal quality of the government of +the restored aristocracy might be referred to the origin and +to the conduct of this second Sicilian slave-war, which, +lasted for five years. + +The Dependent States + +But wherever the eye might turn throughout the wide sphere of Roman +administration, the same causes and the same effects appeared. +If the Sicilian slave-war showed how far the government was from +being equal to even its simplest task of keeping in check the +proletariate, contemporary events in Africa displayed the skill with +which the Romans now governed the client-states. About the very time +when the Sicilian slave-war broke out, there was exhibited before +the eyes of the astonished world the spectacle of an unimportant +client-prince able to carry out a fourteen years' usurpation and +insurrection against the mighty republic which had shattered the +kingdoms of Macedonia and Asia with one blow of its weighty arm-- +and that not by means of arms, but through the pitiful character +of its rulers. + +Numidia +Jugurtha + +The kingdom of Numidia stretched from the river Molochath to +the great Syrtis,(9) bordering on the one side with the Mauretanian +kingdom of Tingis (the modern Morocco) and on the other with Cyrene +and Egypt, and surrounding on the west, south, and east the narrow +district of coast which formed the Roman province of Africa. +In addition to the old possessions of the Numidian chiefs, it embraced +by far the greatest portion of the territory which Carthage had possessed +in Africa during the times of its prosperity--including several +important Old-Phoenician cities, such as Hippo Regius (Bona) and Great +Leptis (Lebidah)--altogether the largest and best part of the rich +seaboard of northern Africa. Numidia was beyond question, next to +Egypt, the most considerable of all the Roman client-states. After the +death of Massinissa (605), Scipio had divided the sovereign functions +of that prince among his three sons, the kings Micipsa, Gulussa, and +Mastanabal, in such a way that the firstborn obtained the residency +and the state-chest, the second the charge of war, and the third the +administration of justice.(10) Now after the death of his two brothers +Massinissa's eldest son, Micipsa,(11) reigned alone, a feeble peaceful +old man, who was fond of occupying himself more with the study of +Greek philosophy than with affairs of state. As his sons were not +yet grown up, the reins of government were practically held by an +illegitimate nephew of the king, the prince Jugurtha. Jugurtha was +no unworthy grandson of Massinissa. He was a handsome man and a +skilled and courageous rider and hunter; his countrymen held him +in high honour as a clear and sagacious administrator, and he had +displayed his military ability as leader of the Numidian contingent +before Numantia under the eyes of Scipio. His position in the +kingdom, and the influence which he possessed with the Roman +government by means of his numerous friends and war-comrades, made +it appear to king Micipsa advisable to adopt him (634), and to arrange +in his testament that his own two elder sons Adherbal and Hiempsal, +and his adopted son Jugurtha along with them, should jointly inherit +and govern the kingdom, just as he himself had done with his two +brothers. For greater security this arrangement was placed under +the guarantee of the Roman government. + +The War for the Numidian Succession + +Soon afterwards, in 636, king Micipsa died. The testament came into +force: but the two sons of Micipsa--the vehement Hiempsal still more +than his weak elder brother--soon came into so violent collision +with their cousin whom they looked on as an intruder into the +legitimate line of succession, that the idea of a joint reign of the +three kings had to be abandoned. An attempt was made to carry out +a division of the heritage; but the quarrelling kings could not agree +as to their quotas of land and treasure, and the protecting power, to +which in this case the decisive word by right belonged, gave itself, +as usual, no concern about this affair. A rupture took place; +Adherbal and Hiempsal were disposed to characterize their father's +testament as surreptitious and altogether to dispute Jugurtha's right +of joint inheritance, while on the other hand Jugurtha came forward +as a pretender to the whole kingdom. While the discussions as to the +partition were still going on, Hiempsal was made away with by hired +assassins; then a civil war arose between Adherbal and Jugurtha, in +which all Numidia took part. With his less numerous but better +disciplined and better led troops Jugurtha conquered, and seized the +whole territory of the kingdom, subjecting the chiefs who adhered to +his cousin to the most cruel persecution. Adherbal escaped to the +Roman province and proceeded to Rome to make his complaint there. +Jugurtha had expected this, and had made his arrangements to meet the +threatened intervention. In the camp before Numantia he had learned +more from Rome than Roman tactics; the Numidian prince, introduced +to the circles of the Roman aristocracy, had at the same time been +initiated into the intrigues of Roman coteries, and had studied at +the fountain-head what might be expected from Roman nobles. Even +then, sixteen years before Micipsa's death, he had entered into +disloyal negotiations as to the Numidian succession with Roman +comrades of rank, and Scipio had been under the necessity of gravely +reminding him that it was becoming in foreign princes to be on terms +of friendship with the Roman state rather than with individual +Roman citizens. The envoys of Jugurtha appeared in Rome, furnished +with something more than words: that they had chosen the right means +of diplomatic persuasion, was shown by the result. The most zealous +champions of Adherbal's just title were with incredible rapidity +convinced that Hiempsal had been put to death by his subjects on +account of his cruelty, and that the originator of the war as to the +succession was not Jugurtha, but Adherbal. Even the leading men in +the senate were shocked at the scandal; Marcus Scaurus sought to +check it, but in vain. The senate passed over what had taken place +in silence, and ordained that the two surviving testamentary heirs +should have the kingdom equally divided between them, and that, for +the prevention of fresh quarrels, the division should be undertaken +by a commission of the senate. This was done: the consular Lucius +Opimius, well known through his services in setting aside the +revolution, had embraced the opportunity of gathering the reward +of his patriotism, and had got himself placed at the head of the +commission. The division turned out thoroughly in favour of Jugurtha, +and not to the disadvantage of the commissioners; Cirta (Constantine) +the capital with its port of Rusicade (Philippeville) was no doubt +given to Adherbal, but by that very arrangement the portion which +fell to him was the eastern part of the kingdom consisting almost +wholly of sandy deserts, while Jugurtha obtained the fertile +and populous western half (what was afterwards Mauretania +Caesariensis and Sitifensis). + +Siege of Cirta + +This was bad; but matters soon became worse. In order to be able +under the semblance of self-defence to defraud Adherbal of his portion, +Jugurtha provoked him to war; but when the weak man, rendered wiser +by experience, allowed Jugurtha's horsemen to ravage his territory +unhindered and contented himself with lodging complaints at Rome, +Jugurtha, impatient of these ceremonies, began the war even without +pretext. Adherbal was totally defeated in the region of the modern +Philippeville, and threw himself into his capital of Cirta in the +immediate vicinity. While the siege was in progress, and Jugurtha's +troops were daily skirmishing with the numerous Italians who were +settled in Cirta and who took a more vigorous part in the defence of +the city than the Africans themselves, the commission despatched by +the Roman senate on Adherbal's first complaint made its appearance; +composed, of course, of young inexperienced men, such as the +government of those times regularly employed in the ordinary missions +of the state. The envoys demanded that Jugurtha should allow them +as deputed by the protecting power to Adherbal to enter the city, +and generally that he should suspend hostilities and accept their +mediation. Jugurtha summarily rejected both demands, and the envoys +hastily returned home--like boys, as they were--to report to the +fathers of the city. The fathers listened to the report, and +allowed their countrymen in Cirta just to fight on as long as they +pleased. It was not till, in the fifth month of the siege, a +messenger of Adherbal stole through the entrenchments of the enemy +and a letter of the king full of the most urgent entreaties reached +the senate, that the latter roused itself and actually adopted a +resolution--not to declare war as the minority demanded but to send a +new embassy--an embassy, however, headed by Marcus Scaurus, the great +conqueror of the Taurisci and the freedmen, the imposing hero of +the aristocracy, whose mere appearance would suffice to bring the +refractory king to a different mind. In fact Jugurtha appeared, as +he was bidden, at Utica to discuss the matter with Scaurus; endless +debates were held; when at length the conference was concluded, not +the slightest result had been obtained. The embassy returned to Rome +without having declared war, and the king went off again to the +siege of Cirta. Adherbal found himself reduced to extremities and +despaired of Roman support; the Italians in Cirta moreover, weary of +the siege and firmly relying for their own safety on the terror of the +Roman name, urged a surrender. So the town capitulated. Jugurtha +ordered his adopted brother to be executed amid cruel tortures, and +all the adult male population of the town, Africans as well as +Italians, to be put to the sword (642). + +Roman Intervention +Treaty between Rome and Numidia + +A cry of indignation rose throughout Italy. The minority in the +senate itself and every one out of the senate unanimously condemned +the government, with whom the honour and interest of the country +seemed mere commodities for sale; loudest of all was the outcry of +the mercantile class, which was most directly affected by the sacrifice +of the Roman and Italian merchants at Cirta. It is true that the +majority of the senate still even now struggled; they appealed to +the class-interests of the aristocracy, and set in motion all the +contrivances of collegiate procrastination, with a view to preserve +still longer the peace which they loved. But when Gaius Memmius, +designated as tribune of the people for next year, an active and +eloquent man, brought the matter publicly forward and threatened in +his capacity of tribune to call the worst offenders to judicial account, +the senate permitted war to be declared against Jugurtha (642-3). +The step seemed taken in earnest. The envoys of Jugurtha were dismissed +from Italy without being admitted to an audience; the new consul +Lucius Calpurnius Bestia, who was distinguished, among the members of +his order at least, by judgment and activity, prosecuted the warlike +preparations with energy; Marcus Scaurus himself took the post of a +commander in the African army. In a short time a Roman army was on +African ground, and marching upward along the Bagradas (Mejerdah) +advanced into the Numidian kingdom, where the towns most remote from +the seat of the royal power, such as Great Leptis, already voluntarily +sent in their submission, while Bocchus king of Mauretania, although +his daughter was married to Jugurtha, offered friendship and alliance +to the Romans. Jugurtha himself lost courage, and sent envoys to the +Roman headquarters to request an armistice. The end of the contest +seemed near, and came still more rapidly than was expected. The treaty +with Bocchus broke down, because the king, unacquainted with Roman +customs, had conceived that he should be able to conclude a treaty so +advantageous for the Romans without any gratuity, and therefore had +neglected to furnish his envoys with the usual market price of Roman +alliances. Jugurtha at all events knew Roman institutions better, +and had not omitted to support his proposals for an armistice by a +due accompaniment of money; but he too was deceived. After the first +negotiations it turned out that not an armistice merely but a peace +was purchaseable at the Roman head-quarters. The royal treasury +was still well filled with the savings of Massinissa; the transaction +was soon settled. The treaty was concluded, after it had been for the +sake of form submitted to a council of war whose consent was procured +after an irregular and extremely summary discussion. Jugurtha +submitted at discretion; but the victor was merciful and gave him back +his kingdom undiminished, in consideration of his paying a moderate +fine and delivering up the Roman deserters and the war elephants +(643); the greater part of the latter the king afterwards repurchased +by bargaining with the individual Roman commandants and officers. + +On the news of this peace the storm once more broke forth in Rome. +Everybody knew how the peace had been brought about; even Scaurus was +evidently open to bribery, only at a price higher than the ordinary +senatorial average. The legal validity of the peace was seriously +assailed in the senate; Gaius Memmius declared that the king, if he +had really submitted unconditionally, could not refuse to appear in +Rome, and that he should accordingly be summoned before them, with +the view of ascertaining how the matter actually stood as to the +thoroughly irregular negotiations for peace by hearing both the +contracting parties. They yielded to the inconvenient demand: but +at the same time granted a safe-conduct to the king inconsistently +with the law, for he came not as an enemy, but as one who had made +his submission. Thereupon the king actually appeared at Rome and +presented himself to be heard before the assembled people, which was +with difficulty induced to respect the safe-conduct and to refrain +from tearing in pieces on the spot the murderer of the Italians at +Cirta. But scarcely had Gaius Memmius addressed his first question +to the king, when one of his colleagues interfered in virtue of his +veto and enjoined the king to be silent. Here too African gold was +more powerful than the will of the sovereign people and of its +supreme magistrates. Meanwhile the discussions respecting the +validity of the peace so concluded went on in the senate, and the +new consul Spurius Postumius Albinus zealously supported the proposal +to cancel it, in the expectation that in that case the chief command +in Africa would devolve on him. This induced Massiva, a grandson of +Massinissa living in Rome, to assert before the senate his claims +to the vacant Numidian kingdom; upon which Bomilcar, one of the +confidants of king Jugurtha, doubtless under his instructions made +away with the rival of his master by assassination, and, when he was +prosecuted on account of it, escaped with Jugurtha's aid from Rome. + +Cancelling of the Treaty +Declaration of War +Capitulation of the Romans +Second Peace + +This new outrage perpetrated under the eyes of the Roman government +was at least so far effectual, that the senate now cancelled the +peace and dismissed the king from the city (winter of 643-644). +The war was accordingly resumed, and the consul Spurius Albinus was +invested with the command (644). But the African army down to its +lowest ranks was in a state of disorganization corresponding to such +a political and military superintendence. Not only had discipline +ceased and the spoliation of Numidian townships and even of the +Roman provincial territory become during the suspension of hostilities +the chief business of the Roman soldiery, but not a few officers +and soldiers had as well as their generals entered into secret +understanding with the enemy. It is easy to see that such an army +could do nothing in the field; and if Jugurtha on this occasion +bribed the Roman general into inaction, as was afterwards judicially +asserted against the latter, he did in truth what was superfluous. +Spurius Albinus therefore contented himself with doing nothing. +On the other hand his brother who after his departure assumed the +interim command--the equally foolhardy and incapable Aulus Postumius-- +in the middle of winter fell on the idea of seizing by a bold coup de +main the treasures of the king, which were kept in the town of Suthul +(afterwards Calama, now Guelma) difficult of access and still more +difficult of conquest. The army set out thither and reached the +town; but the siege was unsuccessful and without prospect of result, +and, when the king who had remained for a time with his troops in +front of the town went into the desert, the Roman general preferred +to pursue him. This was precisely what Jugurtha intended in a +nocturnal assault, which was favoured by the difficulties of the +ground and the secret understanding which Jugurtha had with some in +the Roman army, the Numidians captured the Roman camp, and drove +the Romans, many of whom were unarmed, before them in the most +complete and disgraceful rout. The consequence was a capitulation, +the terms of which--the marching off of the Roman army under the yoke, +the immediate evacuation of the whole Numidian territory, and the +renewal of the treaty cancelled by the senate--were dictated by +Jugurtha and accepted by the Romans (in the beginning of 645). + +Dissatisfaction in the Capital + +This was too much to be borne. While the Africans were exulting and +the prospect--thus suddenly opened up--of such an overthrow of the +alien domination as had been reckoned scarcely possible was bringing +numerous tribes of the free and half-free inhabitants of the desert +to the standards of the victorious king, public opinion in Italy was +vehemently aroused against the equally corrupt and pernicious governing +aristocracy, and broke out in a storm of prosecutions which, fostered +by the exasperation of the mercantile class, swept away a succession +of victims from the highest circles of the nobility. On the proposal +of the tribune of the people Gaius Mamilius Limetanus, in spite of the +timid attempts of the senate to avert the threatened punishment, an +extraordinary jury-commission was appointed to investigate the high +treason that had occurred in connection with the question of the +Numidian succession; and its sentences sent the two former commanders- +in-chief Gaius Bestia and Spurius Albinus as well as Lucius Opimius, +the head of the first African commission and the executioner withal +of Gaius Gracchus, along with numerous other less notable men of the +government party, guilty and innocent, into exile. That these +prosecutions, however, were only intended to appease the excitement +of public opinion, in the capitalist circles more especially, by the +sacrifice of some of the persons most compromised, and that there was +in them not the slightest trace of a rising of popular indignation +against the government itself, void as it was of right and honour, +is shown very clearly by the fact that no one ventured to attack +the guiltiest of the guilty, the prudent and powerful Scaurus; on +the contrary he was about this very time elected censor and also, +incredible as it may seem, chosen as one of the presidents of the +extraordinary commission of treason. Still less was any attempt even +made to interfere with the functions of the government, and it was +left solely to the senate to put an end to the Numidian scandal in a +manner as gentle as possible for the aristocracy; for that it was +time to do so, even the most aristocratic aristocrat probably began +to perceive. + +Cancelling of the Second Treaty +Metellus Appointed to the Command +Renewal of the War + +The senate in the first place cancelled the second treaty of peace-- +to surrender to the enemy the commander who had concluded it, as was +done some thirty years before, seemed according to the new ideas of +the sanctity of treaties no longer necessary--and determined, this +time in all earnest, to renew the war. The supreme command in Africa +was entrusted, as was natural, to an aristocrat, but yet to one of +the few men of quality who in a military and moral point of view were +equal to the task. The choice fell on Quintus Metellus. He was, +like the whole powerful family to which he belonged, in principle a +rigid and unscrupulous aristocrat; as a magistrate, he, no doubt, +reckoned it honourable to hire assassins for the good of the state and +would presumably have ridiculed the act of Fabricius towards Pyrrhus +as unpractical knight errantry, but he was an inflexible administrator +accessible neither to fear nor to corruption, and a judicious and +experienced warrior. In this respect he was so far free from the +prejudices of his order that he selected as his lieutenants not men +of rank, but the excellent officer Publius Rutilius Rufus, who was +esteemed in military circles for his exemplary discipline and as the +author of an altered and improved system of drill, and the brave Latin +farmer's son Gaius Marius, who had risen from the pike. Attended by +these and other able officers, Metellus presented himself in the course +of 645 as consul and commander-in-chief to the African army, which he +found in such disorder that the generals had not hitherto ventured +to lead it into the enemy's territory and it was formidable to none +save the unhappy inhabitants of the Roman province. It was +sternly and speedily reorganized, and in the spring of 646.(12) + +Metellus led it over the Numidian frontier. When Jugurtha +perceived the altered state of things, he gave himself up as lost, +and, before the struggle began, made earnest proposals for an +accommodation, requesting ultimately nothing more than a guarantee for +his life. Metellus, however, was resolved and perhaps even instructed +not to terminate the war except with the unconditional subjugation and +execution of the daring client-prince; which was in fact the only +issue that could satisfy the Romans. Jugurtha since the victory over +Albinus was regarded as the deliverer of Libya from the rule of the +hated foreigners; unscrupulous and cunning as he was, and unwieldy +as was the Roman government, he might at any time even after a peace +rekindle the war in his native country; tranquillity would not be +secured, and the removal of the African army would not be possible, +until king Jugurtha should cease to exist. Officially Metellus gave +evasive answers to the proposals of the king; secretly he instigated +the envoys to deliver their master living or dead to the Romans. But, +when the Roman general undertook to compete with the African in the +field of assassination, he there met his master; Jugurtha saw +through the plan, and, when he could not do otherwise, prepared +for a desperate resistance. + +Battle on the Muthul + +Beyond the utterly barren mountain-range, over which lay the route of +the Romans into the interior, a plain of eighteen miles in breadth +extended as far as the river Muthul, which ran parallel to the +mountain-chain. The plain was destitute of water and of trees except +in the immediate vicinity of the river, and was only intersected by +a hill-ridge covered with low brushwood. On this ridge Jugurtha +awaited the Roman army. His troops were arranged in two masses; +the one, including a part of the infantry and the elephants, under +Bomilcar at the point where the ridge abutted on the river, the +other, embracing the flower of the infantry and all the cavalry, +higher up towards the mountain-range, concealed by the bushes. +On debouching from the mountains, the Romans saw the enemy in a +position completely commanding their right flank; and, as they could +not possibly remain on the bare and arid crest of the chain and were +under the necessity of reaching the river, they had to solve the +difficult problem of gaining the stream through the entirely open plain +of eighteen miles in breadth, under the eyes of the enemy's horsemen and +without light cavalry of their own. Metellus despatched a detachment +under Rufus straight towards the river, to pitch a camp there; +the main body marched from the defiles of the mountain-chain in an +oblique direction through the plain towards the hill-ridge, with a +view to dislodge the enemy from the latter. But this march in the +plain threatened to become the destruction of the army; for, while +Numidian infantry occupied the mountain defiles in the rear of the +Romans as the latter evacuated them, the Roman attacking column found +itself assailed on all sides by swarms of the enemy's horse, who +charged down on it from the ridge. The constant onset of the +hostile swarms hindered the advance, and the battle threatened to +resolve itself into a number of confused and detached conflicts; +while at the same time Bomilcar with his division detained the corps +under Rufus, to prevent it from hastening to the help of the hard- +pressed Roman main army. Nevertheless Metellus and Marius with a +couple of thousand soldiers succeeded in reaching the foot of the +ridge; and the Numidian infantry which defended the heights, in +spite of their superior numbers and favourable position, fled almost +without resistance when the legionaries charged at a rapid pace +up the hill. The Numidian infantry held its ground equally ill +against Rufus; it was scattered at the first charge, and the +elephants were all killed or captured on the broken ground. Late +in the evening the two Roman divisions, each victorious on its +own part and each anxious as to the fate of the other, met between +the two fields of battle. It was a battle attesting alike the +uncommon military talent of Jugurtha and the indestructible solidity +of the Roman infantry, which alone had converted their strategical +defeat into a victory. Jugurtha sent home a great part of his troops +after the battle, and restricted himself to a guerilla warfare, which +he likewise managed with skill. + +Numidia Occupied by the Romans + +The two Roman columns, the one led by Metellus, the other by Marius-- +who, although by birth and rank the humblest, occupied since the +battle on the Muthul the first place among the chiefs of the staff-- +traversed the Numidian territory, occupied the towns, and, when any +place did not readily open its gates, put to death the adult male +population. But the most considerable among the eastern inland +towns, Zama, opposed to the Romans a serious resistance, which the +king energetically supported. He was even successful in surprising +the Roman camp; and the Romans found themselves at last compelled to +abandon the siege and to go into winter quarters. For the sake of +more easily provisioning his army Metellus, leaving behind garrisons +in the conquered towns, transferred it into the Roman province, and +employed the opportunity of suspended hostilities to institute fresh +negotiations, showing a disposition to grant to the king a peace on +tolerable terms. Jugurtha readily entered into them; he had at +once bound himself to pay 200,000 pounds of silver, and had even +delivered up his elephants and 300 hostages, as well as 3000 Roman +deserters, who were immediately put to death. At the same time, +however, the king's most confidential counsellor, Bomilcar--who not +unreasonably apprehended that, if peace should ensue, Jugurtha would +deliver him up as the murderer of Massiva to the Roman courts--was +gained by Metellus and induced, in consideration of an assurance of +impunity as respected that murder and of great rewards, to promise +that he would deliver the king alive or dead into the hands of the +Romans. But neither that official negotiation nor this intrigue +led to the desired result. When Metellus brought forward the +suggestion that the king should give himself up in person as a +prisoner, the latter broke off the negotiations; Bomilcar's +intercourse with the enemy was discovered, and he was arrested and +executed. These diplomatic cabals of the meanest kind admit of no +apology; but the Romans had every reason to aim at the possession of +the person of their antagonist. The war had reached a point, at which +it could neither be carried farther nor abandoned. The state of +feeling in Numidia was evinced by the revolt of Vaga,(13) the most +considerable of the cities occupied by the Romans, in the winter of +646-7; on which occasion the whole Roman garrison, officers and men, +were put to death with the exception of the commandant Titus Turpilius +Silanus, who was afterwards--whether rightly or wrongly, we cannot +tell--condemned to death by a Roman court-martial and executed for +having an understanding with the enemy. The town was surprised +by Metellus on the second day after its revolt, and given over to +all the rigour of martial law; but if such was the temper of the +easy to be reached and comparatively submissive dwellers on the +banks of the Bagradas, what might be looked for farther inland and +among the roving tribes of the desert? Jugurtha was the idol of +the Africans, who readily overlooked the double fratricide in the +liberator and avenger of their nation. Twenty years afterwards a +Numidian corps which was fighting in Italy for the Romans had to +be sent back in all haste to Africa, when the son of Jugurtha +appeared in the enemy's ranks; we may infer from this, how great +was the influence which he himself exercised over his people. +What prospect was there of a termination of the struggle in regions +where the combined peculiarities of the population and of the soil +allowed a leader, who had once secured the sympathies of the +nation, to protract the war in endless guerilla conflicts, or even +to let it sleep for a time in order to revive it at the right moment +with renewed vigour? + +War in the Desert +Mauretanian Complications + +When Metellus again took the field in 647, Jugurtha nowhere held +his ground against him; he appeared now at one point, now at another +far distant; it seemed as if they would as easily get the better of +the lions as of these horsemen of the desert. A battle was fought, +a victory was won; but it was difficult to say what had been +gained by the victory. The king had vanished out of sight in +the distance. In the interior of the modern beylik of Tunis, +close on the edge of the great desert, there lay on an oasis +provided with springs the strong place Thala;(14) thither Jugurtha +had retired with his children, his treasures, and the flower of his +troops, there to await better times. Metellus ventured to follow the +king through a desert, in which his troops had to carry water along +with them in skins forty-five miles; Thala was reached and fell after +a forty days' siege; but the Roman deserters destroyed the most +valuable part of the booty along with the building in which they +burnt themselves after the capture of the town, and--what was of more +consequence--king Jugurtha escaped with his children and his chest. +Numidia was no doubt virtually in the hands of the Romans; but, +instead of their object being thereby gained, the war seemed only +to extend over a field wider and wider. In the south the free +Gaetulian tribes of the desert began at the call of Jugurtha a +national war against the Romans. In the west Bocchus king of +Mauretania, whose friendship the Romans had in earlier times +despised, seemed now not indisposed to make common cause with his +son-in-law against them; he not only received him in his court, but, +uniting to Jugurtha's followers his own numberless swarms of horsemen, +he marched into the region of Cirta, where Metellus was in winter +quarters. They began to negotiate: it was clear that in the +person of Jugurtha he held in his hands the real prize of the +struggle for Rome. But what were his intentions--whether to sell +his son-in-law dear to the Romans, or to take up the national war +in concert with that son-in-law--neither the Romans nor Jugurtha +nor perhaps even the king himself knew; and he was in no hurry +to abandon his ambiguous position. + +Marius Commander-in-Chief + +Thereupon Metellus left the province, which he had been compelled by +decree of the people to give up to his former lieutenant Marius who +was now consul; and the latter assumed the supreme command for the +next campaign in 648. He was indebted for it in some degree to a +revolution. Relying on the services which he had rendered and at +the same time on oracles which had been communicated to him, he had +resolved to come forward as a candidate for the consulship. If the +aristocracy had supported the constitutional, and in other respects +quite justifiable, candidature of this able man, who was not at all +inclined to take part with the opposition, nothing would have come +of the matter but the enrolment of a new family in the consular +Fasti. Instead of this the man of non-noble birth, who aspired to +the highest public dignity, was reviled by the whole governing caste +as a daring innovator and revolutionist; just as the plebeian +candidate had been formerly treated by the patricians, but now +without any formal ground in law. The brave officer was sneered at +in sharp language by Metellus--Marius was told that he might wait with +his candidature till Metellus' son, a beardless boy, could be his +colleague--and he was with the worst grace suffered to leave almost +at the last moment, that he might appear in the capital as a candidate +for the consulship of 647. There he amply retaliated on his +general the wrong which he had suffered, by criticising before the +gaping multitude the conduct of the war and the administration of +Metellus in Africa in a manner as unmilitary as it was disgracefully +unfair; and he did not even disdain to serve up to the darling +populace--always whispering about secret conspiracies equally +unprecedented and indubitable on the part of their noble masters-- +the silly story, that Metellus was designedly protracting the war +in order to remain as long as possible commander-in-chief. To the +idlers of the streets this was quite clear: numerous persons +unfriendly for reasons good or bad to the government, and especially +the justly-indignant mercantile order, desired nothing better than such +an opportunity of annoying the aristocracy in its most sensitive point: +he was elected to the consulship by an enormous majority, and not only +so, but, while in other cases by the law of Gaius Gracchus the +decision as to the respective functions to be assigned to the consuls +lay with the senate (p. 355), the arrangement made by the senate +which left Metellus at his post was overthrown, and by decree of +the sovereign comitia the supreme command in the African war +was committed to Marius. + +Conflicts without Result + +Accordingly he took the place of Metellus in the course of 647; +and held the command in the campaign of the following year; but his +confident promise to do better than his predecessor and to deliver +Jugurtha bound hand and foot with all speed at Rome was more easily +given than fulfilled. Marius carried on a desultory warfare with +the Gaetulians; he reduced several towns that had not previously been +occupied; he undertook an expedition to Capsa (Gafsa) in the extreme +south-east of the kingdom, which surpassed even that of Thala in +difficulty, took the town by capitulation, and in spite of the +convention caused all the adult men in it to be slain--the only +means, no doubt, of preventing the renewed revolt of that remote city +of the desert; he attacked a mountain-stronghold--situated on the +river Molochath, which separated the Numidian territory from the +Mauretanian--whither Jugurtha had conveyed his treasure-chest, and, +just as he was about to desist from the siege in despair of success, +fortunately gained possession of the impregnable fastness through +the coup de main of some daring climbers. Had his object merely +been to harden the army by bold razzias and to procure booty for the +soldiers, or even to eclipse the march of Metellus into the desert +by an expedition going still farther, this method of warfare might +be allowed to pass unchallenged; but the main object to be aimed at, +and which Metellus had steadfastly and perseveringly kept in view-- +the capture of Jugurtha--was in this way utterly set aside. +The expedition of Marius to Capsa was a venture as aimless, as +that of Metellus to Thala had been judicious; but the expedition +to the Molochath, which passed along the border of, if not into, +the Mauretanian territory, was directly repugnant to sound policy. +King Bocchus, in whose power it lay to bring the war to an issue +favourable for the Romans or endlessly to prolong it, now concluded +with Jugurtha a treaty, in which the latter ceded to him a part of +his kingdom and Bocchus promised actively to support his son-in-law +against Rome. The Roman army, which was returning from the river +Molochath, found itself one evening suddenly surrounded by immense +masses of Mauretanian and Numidian cavalry; they were obliged to fight +just as the divisions stood without forming in a proper order of battle +or carrying out any leading command, and had to deem themselves +fortunate when their sadly-thinned troops were brought into temporary +safety for the night on two hills not far remote from each other. +But the culpable negligence of the Africans intoxicated with victory +wrested from them its consequences; they allowed themselves to be +surprised in a deep sleep during the morning twilight by the Roman +troops which had been in some measure reorganized during the night, +and were fortunately dispersed. Thereupon the Roman army continued +its retreat in better order and with greater caution; but it was +yet again assailed simultaneously on ail the four sides and was in +great danger, till the cavalry officer Lucius Cornelius Sulla first +dispersed the squadrons opposed to him and then, rapidly returning +from their pursuit, threw himself also on Jugurtha and Bocchus at +the point where they in person pressed hard on the rear of the +Roman infantry. Thus this attack also was successfully repelled; +Marius brought his army back to Cirta, and took up his winter +quarters there (648-9). + +Negotiations with Bocchus + +Strange as it may seem, we can yet understand why the Romans now, +after king Bocchus had commenced the war, began to make most zealous +exertions to secure his friendship, which they had at first slighted +and thereafter had at least not specially sought; by doing so they +gained this advantage, that no formal declaration of war took place +on the part of Mauretania. King Bocchus was not unwilling to return +to his old ambiguous position: without dissolving his agreement with +Jugurtha or dismissing him, he entered into negotiations with the +Roman general respecting the terms of an alliance with Rome. When +they were agreed or seemed to be so, the king requested that, for +the purpose of concluding the treaty and receiving the royal captive, +Marius would send to him Lucius Sulla, who was known and acceptable +to the king partly from his having formerly appeared as envoy of +the senate at the Mauretanian court, partly from the commendations of +the Mauretanian envoys destined for Rome to whom Sulla had rendered +services on their way. Marius was in an awkward position. +His declining the suggestion would probably lead to a breach; his +accepting it would throw his most aristocratic and bravest officer +into the hands of a man more than untrustworthy, who, as every one +knew, played a double game with the Romans and with Jugurtha, and +who seemed almost to have contrived the scheme for the purpose of +obtaining for himself provisional hostages from both sides in the +persons of Jugurtha and Sulla. But the wish to terminate the war +outweighed every other consideration, and Sulla agreed to undertake +the perilous task which Marius suggested to him. He boldly departed +under the guidance of Volux the son of king Bocchus, nor did his +resolution waver even when his guide led him through the midst of +Jugurtha's camp. He rejected the pusillanimous proposals of flight +that came from his attendants, and marched, with the king's son at +his side, uninjured through the enemy. The daring officer evinced +the same decision in the discussions with the sultan, and induced +him at length seriously to make his choice. + +Surrender and Execution of Jugurtha + +Jugurtha was sacrificed. Under the pretext that all his requests were +to be granted, he was allured by his own father-in-law into an ambush, +his attendants were killed, and he himself was taken prisoner. +The great traitor thus fell by the treachery of his nearest relatives. +Lucius Sulla brought the crafty and restless African in chains along +with his children to the Roman headquarters; and the war which had +lasted for seven years was at an end. The victory was primarily +associated with the name of Marius. King Jugurtha in royal robes +and in chains, along with his two sons, preceded the triumphal chariot +of the victor, when he entered Rome on the 1st of January 650: by +his orders the son of the desert perished a few days afterwards in +the subterranean city-prison, the old -tullianum- at the Capitol-- +the "bath of ice," as the African called it, when he crossed the +threshold in order either to be strangled or to perish from cold and +hunger there. But it could not be denied that Marius had the least +important share in the actual successes: the conquest of Numidia up +to the edge of the desert was the work of Metellus, the capture of +Jugurtha was the work of Sulla, and between the two Marius played a +part somewhat compromising the dignity of an ambitious upstart. +Marius reluctantly tolerated the assumption by his predecessor of the +name of conqueror of Numidia; he flew into a violent rage when king +Bocchus afterwards consecrated a golden effigy at the Capitol, which +represented the surrender of Jugurtha to Sulla; and yet in the eyes +of unprejudiced judges the services of these two threw the generalship +of Marius very much into the shade--more especially Sulla's brilliant +expedition to the desert, which had made his courage, his presence of +mind, his acuteness, his power over men to be recognized by the +general himself and by the whole army. In themselves these military +rivalries would have been of little moment, if they had not been mixed +up with the conflict of political parties, if the opposition had not +supplanted the senatorial general by Marius, and if the party of the +government had not, with the deliberate intention of exasperating, +praised Metellus and still more Sulla as the military celebrities +and preferred them to the nominal victor. We shall have to return +to the fatal consequences of these animosities when narrating +the internal history. + +Reorganization of Numidia + +Otherwise, this insurrection of the Numidian client-state passed +away without producing any noticeable change either in political +relations generally or even in those of the African province. +By a deviation from the policy elsewhere followed at this period +Numidia was not converted into a Roman province; evidently because +the country could not be held without an army to protect the frontier +against the barbarians of the desert, and the Romans were by no +means disposed to maintain a standing army in Africa. They +contented themselves accordingly with annexing the most westerly +district of Numidia, probably the tract from the river Molochath to +the harbour of Saldae (Bougie)--the later Mauretania Caesariensis +(province of Algiers)--to the kingdom of Bocchus, and with handing +over the kingdom of Numidia thus diminished to the last legitimate +grandson of Massinissa still surviving, Gauda the half-brother of +Jugurtha, feeble in body and mind, who had already in 646 at the +suggestion of Marius asserted his claims before the senate.(15) +At the same time the Gaetulian tribes in the interior of Africa were +received as free allies into the number of the independent nations +that had treaties with Rome. + +Political Issues + +Of greater importance than this regulation of African clientship were +the political consequences of the Jugurthine war or rather of the +Jugurthine insurrection, although these have been frequently estimated +too highly. Certainly all the evils of the government were therein +brought to light in all their nakedness; it was now not merely +notorious but, so to speak, judicially established, that among the +governing lords of Rome everything was treated as venal--the treaty +of peace and the right of intercession, the rampart of the camp and +the life of the soldier; the African had said no more than the simple +truth, when on his departure from Rome he declared that, if he +had only gold enough, he would undertake to buy the city itself. +But the whole external and internal government of this period bore +the same stamp of miserable baseness. In our case the accidental fact, +that the war in Africa is brought nearer to us by means of better +accounts than the other contemporary military and political events, +shifts the true perspective; contemporaries learned by these +revelations nothing but what everybody knew long before and every +intrepid patriot had long been in a position to support by facts. +The circumstance, however, that they were now furnished with some fresh, +still stronger and still more irrefutable, proofs of the baseness of +the restored senatorial government--a baseness only surpassed by its +incapacity--might have been of importance, had there been an opposition +and a public opinion with which the government would have found +it necessary to come to terms. But this war had in fact exposed the +corruption of the government no less than it had revealed the utter +nullity of the opposition. It was not possible to govern worse than +the restoration governed in the years 637-645; it was not possible +to stand forth more defenceless and forlorn than was the Roman +senate in 645: had there been in Rome a real opposition, that is to +say, a party which wished and urged a fundamental alteration of the +constitution, it must necessarily have now made at least an attempt +to overturn the restored senate. No such attempt took place; the +political question was converted into a personal one, the generals +were changed, and one or two useless and unimportant people were +banished. It was thus settled, that the so-called popular party +as such neither could nor would govern; that only two forms of +government were at all possible in Rome, a -tyrannis- or an +oligarchy; that, so long as there happened to be nobody sufficiently +well known, if not sufficiently important, to usurp the regency of +the state, the worst mismanagement endangered at the most individual +oligarchs, but never the oligarchy; that on the other hand, so soon +as such a pretender appeared, nothing was easier than to shake the +rotten curule chairs. In this respect the coming forward of Marius +was significant, just because it was in itself so utterly unwarranted. +If the burgesses had stormed the senate-house after the defeat of +Albinus, it would have been a natural, not to say a proper course; but +after the turn which Metellus had given to the Numidian war, nothing +more could be said of mismanagement, and still less of danger to the +commonwealth, at least in this respect; and yet the first ambitious +officer who turned up succeeded in doing that with which the older +Africanus had once threatened the government,(16) and procured for +himself one of the principal military commands against the distinctly- +expressed will of the governing body. Public opinion, unavailing in +the hands of the so-called popular party, became an irresistible +weapon in the hands of the future king of Rome. We do not mean to say +that Marius intended to play the pretender, at least at the time when +he canvassed the people for the supreme command in Africa; but, +whether he did or did not understand what he was doing, there was +evidently an end of the restored aristocratic government when the +comitial machine began to make generals, or, which was nearly the +same thing, when every popular officer was able in legal fashion to +nominate himself as general. Only one new element emerged in these +preliminary crises; this was the introduction of military men and of +military power into the political revolution. Whether the coming +forward of Marius would be the immediate prelude of a new attempt +to supersede the oligarchy by the -tyrannis-, or whether it would, +as in various similar cases, pass away without further consequence +as an isolated encroachment on the prerogative of the government, +could not yet be determined; but it could well be foreseen that, if +these rudiments of a second -tyrannis- should attain any development, +it was not a statesman like Gaius Gracchus, but an officer that would +become its head. The contemporary reorganization of the military +system--which Marius introduced when, in forming his army destined +for Africa, he disregarded the property-qualification hitherto +required, and allowed even the poorest burgess, if he was otherwise +serviceable, to enter the legion as a volunteer--may have been +projected by its author on purely military grounds; but it was none +the less on that account a momentous political event, that the army +was no longer, as formerly, composed of those who had much, no +longer even, as in the most recent times, composed of those who had +something, to lose, but became gradually converted into a host of +people who had nothing but their arms and what the general bestowed +on them. The aristocracy ruled in 650 just as absolutely as in 620; +but the signs of the impending catastrophe had multiplied, and on +the political horizon the sword had begun to appear by the side +of the crown. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +The Peoples of the North + +Relations of Rome to the North +The Country between the Alps and the Pyrenees +Conflicts with the Ligurians and the Salassi + +From the close of the sixth century the Roman community ruled over +the three great peninsulas projecting from the northern continent into +the Mediterranean, at least taken as a whole. Even there however--in +the north and west of Spain, in the valleys of the Ligurian Apennines +and the Alps, and in the mountains of Macedonia and Thrace--tribes +wholly or partially free continued to defy the lax Roman government. +Moreover the continental communication between Spain and Italy as +well as between Italy and Macedonia was very superficially provided +for, and the countries beyond the Pyrenees, the Alps, and the Balkan +chain--the great river basins of the Rhone, the Rhine, and the Danube-- +in the main lay beyond the political horizon of the Romans. We have +now to set forth what steps were taken on the part of Rome to secure +and to round off her empire in this direction, and how at the same +time the great masses of peoples, who were ever moving to and fro +behind that mighty mountain-screen, began to beat at the gates of the +northern mountains and rudely to remind the Graeco-Roman world that +it was mistaken in believing itself the sole possessor of the earth. + +Let us first glance at the region between the western Alps and the +Pyrenees. The Romans had for long commanded this part of the coast +of the Mediterranean through their client city of Massilia, one of +the oldest, most faithful, and most powerful of the allied communities +dependent on Rome. Its maritime stations, Agatha (Agde) and Rhoda +(Rosas) to the westward, and Tauroentium (Ciotat), Olbia (Hyeres?), +Antipolis (Antibes), and Nicaea (Nice) on the east secured the +navigation of the coast as well as the land-route from the Pyrenees +to the Alps; and its mercantile and political connections reached far +into the interior. An expedition into the Alps above Nice and Antibes, +directed against the Ligurian Oxybii and Decietae, was undertaken by +the Romans in 600 partly at the request of the Massiliots, partly +in their own interest; and after hot conflicts, some of which were +attended with much loss, this district of the mountains was compelled +to furnish thenceforth standing hostages to the Massiliots and to pay +them a yearly tribute. It is not improbable that about this same +period the cultivation of the vine and olive, which flourished in this +quarter after the model set by the Massiliots, was in the interest +of the Italian landholders and merchants simultaneously prohibited +throughout the territory beyond the Alps dependent on Massilia.(1) +A similar character of financial speculation marks the war, which was +waged by the Romans under the consul Appius Claudius in 611 against the +Salassi respecting the gold mines and gold washings of Victumulae (in +the district of Vercelli and Bard and in the whole valley of the Dorea +Baltea). The great extent of these washings, which deprived the +inhabitants of the country lying lower down of water for their fields, +first gave rise to an attempt at mediation and then to the armed +intervention of the Romans. The war, although the Romans began it +like all the other wars of this period with a defeat, led at last to +the subjugation of the Salassi, and the cession of the gold district +to the Roman treasury. Some forty years afterwards (654) the colony of +Eporedia (Ivrea) was instituted on the territory thus gained, chiefly +doubtless with a view to command the western, as Aquileia commanded +the eastern, passage of the Alps. + +Transalpine Relations of Rome +The Arverni + +These Alpine wars first assumed a more serious character, when Marcus +Fulvius Flaccus, the faithful ally of Gaius Gracchus, took the chief +command in this quarter as consul in 629. He was the first to enter +on the career of Transalpine conquest. In the much-divided Celtic +nation at this period the canton of the Bituriges had lost its +real hegemony and retained merely an honorary presidency, and the +actually leading canton in the region from the Pyrenees to the Rhine +and from the Mediterranean to the Western Ocean was that of the +Arverni;(2) so that the statement seems not quite an exaggeration, +that it could bring into the field as many as 180,000 men. With +them the Haedui (about Autun) carried on an unequal rivalry for the +hegemony; while in north-eastern Gaul the kings of the Suessiones +(about Soissons) united under their protectorate the league of the +Belgic tribes extending as far as Britain. Greek travellers of +that period had much to tell of the magnificent state maintained by +Luerius, king of the Arvernians--how, surrounded by his brilliant train +of clansmen, his huntsmen with their pack of hounds in leash and his +band of wandering minstrels, he travelled in a silver-mounted chariot +through the towns of his kingdom, scattering the gold with a full +hand among the multitude, and gladdening above all the heart of the +minstrel with the glittering shower. The descriptions of the open +table which he kept in an enclosure of 1500 double paces square, and +to which every one who came in the way was invited, vividly remind us +of the marriage table of Camacho. In fact, the numerous Arvernian +gold coins of this period still extant show that the canton of the +Arvernians had attained to extraordinary wealth and a comparatively +high standard of civilization. + +War with Allobroges and Arverni + +The attack of Flaccus, however, fell in the first instance not on +the Arverni, but on the smaller tribes in the district between the Alps +and the Rhone, where the original Ligurian inhabitants had become mixed +with subsequent arrivals of Celtic bands, and there had arisen a +Celto-Ligurian population that may in this respect be compared to the +Celtiberian. He fought (629, 630) with success against the Salyes +or Salluvii in the region of Aix and in the valley of the Durance, +and against their northern neighbours the Vocontii (in the departments +of Vaucluse and Drome); and so did his successor Gaius Sextius Calvinus +(631, 632) against the Allobroges, a powerful Celtic clan in the rich +valley of the Isere, which had come at the request of the fugitive +king of the Salyes, Tutomotulus, to help him to reconquer his land, but +was defeated in the district of Aix. When the Allobroges nevertheless +refused to surrender the king of the Salyes, Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, +the successor of Calvinus, penetrated into their own territory (632). +Up to this period the leading Celtic tribe had been spectators of the +encroachments of their Italian neighbours; the Arvernian king Betuitus, +son of the Luerius already mentioned, seemed not much inclined to enter +on a dangerous war for the sake of the loose relation of clientship +in which the eastern cantons might stand to him. But when the Romans +showed signs of attacking the Allobroges in their own territory, +he offered his mediation, the rejection of which was followed by +his taking the field with all his forces to help the Allobroges; +whereas the Haedui embraced the side of the Romans. On receiving +accounts of the rising of the Arverni, the Romans sent the consul +of 633, Quintus Fabius Maximus, to meet in concert with Ahenobarbus +the impending attack. On the southern border of the canton of the +Allobroges at the confluence of the Isere with the Rhone, on the +8th of August 633, the battle was fought which decided the mastery +of southern Gaul. King Betuitus, when he saw the innumerable +hosts of the dependent clans marching over to him on the bridge +of boats thrown across the Rhone and the Romans who had not a +third of their numbers forming in array against them, is said to have +exclaimed that there were not enough of the latter to satisfy the dogs +of the Celtic army. Nevertheless Maximus, a grandson of the victor +of Pydna, achieved a decisive victory, which, as the bridge of boats +broke down under the mass of the fugitives, ended in the destruction +of the greater part of the Arvernian army. The Allobroges, to whom +the king of the Arverni declared himself unable to render further +assistance, and whom he advised to make their peace with Maximus, +submitted to the consul; whereupon the latter, thenceforth called +Allobrogicus, returned to Italy and left to Ahenobarbus the no longer +distant termination of the Arvernian war. Ahenobarbus, personally +exasperated at king Betuitus because he had induced the Allobroges +to surrender to Maximus and not to him, possessed himself +treacherously of the person of the king and sent him to Rome, where +the senate, although disapproving the breach of fidelity, not only kept +the men betrayed, but gave orders that his son, Congonnetiacus, should +likewise be sent to Rome. This seems to have been the reason why +the Arvernian war, already almost at an end, once more broke out, and +a second appeal to arms took place at Vindalium (above Avignon) at +the confluence of the Sorgue with the Rhone. The result was not +different from that of the first: on this occasion it was chiefly +the African elephants that scattered the Celtic army. Thereupon +the Arverni submitted to peace, and tranquillity was re-established +in the land of the Celts.(3) + +Province of Narbo + +The result of these military operations was the institution of a +new Roman province between the maritime Alps and the Pyrenees. +All the tribes between the Alps and the Rhone became dependent +on the Romans and, so far as they did not pay tribute to Massilia, +presumably became now tributary to Rome. In the country between +the Rhone and the Pyrenees the Arverni retained freedom and were not +bound to pay tribute to the Romans; but they had to cede to Rome +the most southerly portion of their direct or indirect territory- +the district to the south of the Cevennes as far as the Mediterranean, +and the upper course of the Garonne as far as Tolosa (Toulouse). +As the primary object of these occupations was the establishment of +a land communication between Italy and Spain, arrangements were made +immediately thereafter for the construction of the road along the +coast. For this purpose a belt of coast from the Alps to the Rhone, +from 1 to 1 3/4 of a mile in breadth, was handed over to the Massiliots, +who already had a series of maritime stations along this coast, with +the obligation of keeping the road in proper condition; while from +the Rhone to the Pyrenees the Romans themselves laid out a military +highway, which obtained from its originator Ahenobarbus the name +of the -Via Domitia-. + +Roman Settlements in the Region of the Rhone + +As usual, the formation of new fortresses was combined with +the construction of roads. In the eastern portion the Romans chose +the spot where Gaius Sextius had defeated the Celts, and where the +pleasantness and fertility of the region as well as the numerous hot +and cold springs invited them to settlement; a Roman township sprang +up there--the "baths of Sextius," Aquae Sextiae (Aix). To the west +of the Rhone the Romans settled in Narbo, an ancient Celtic town on the +navigable river Atax (Aude) at a small distance from the sea, which is +already mentioned by Hecataeus, and which even before its occupation +by the Romans vied with Massilia as a place of stirring commerce, and +as sharing the trade in British tin. Aquae did not obtain civic rights, +but remained a standing camp;(4) whereas Narbo, although in like +manner founded mainly as a watch and outpost against the Celts, +became as "Mars' town," a Roman burgess-colony and the usual seat +of the governor of the new Transalpine Celtic province or, as it +was more frequently called, the province of Narbo. + +The Advance of the Romans Checked by the Policy of the Restoration + +The Gracchan party, which suggested these extensions of territory +beyond the Alps, evidently wished to open up there a new and +immeasurable field for their plans of colonization,--a field which +offered the same advantages as Sicily and Africa, and could be more +easily wrested from the natives than he Sicilian and Libyan estates +from the Italian capitalists. The fall of Gaius Gracchus, no doubt, +made itself felt here also in the restriction of acquisitions of +territory and still more of the founding of towns; but, if the design +was not carried out in its full extent, it was at any rate not wholly +frustrated. The territory acquired and, still more, the foundation of +Narbo--a settlement for which the senate vainly endeavoured to prepare +the fate of that at Carthage--remained standing as parts of an +unfinished structure, exhorting the future successor of Gracchus +to continue the building. It is evident that the Roman mercantile +class, which was able to compete with Massilia in the Gallo-Britannic +traffic at Narbo alone, protected that settlement from the assaults +of the Optimates. + +Illyria +Dalmatians +Their Subjugation + +A problem similar to that in the north-west had to be dealt +with in the north-east of Italy; it was in like manner not wholly +neglected, but was solved still more imperfectly than the former. +With the foundation of Aquileia (571) the Istrian peninsula came +into possession of the Romans;(5) in part of Epirus and the former +territory of the lords of Scodra they had already ruled for some +considerable time previously. But nowhere did their dominion reach +into the interior; and even on the coast they exercised scarcely a +nominal sway over the inhospitable shore-belt between Istria and +Epirus, which, with its wild series of mountain-caldrons broken neither +by river-valleys nor by coast-plains and arranged like scales one above +another, and with its chain of rocky islands stretching along the +shore, separates more than it connects Italy and Greece. Around the +town of Delminium (on the Cettina near Trigl) clustered the confederacy +of the Delmatians or Dalmatians, whose manners were rough as their +mountains. While the neighbouring peoples had already attained a +high degree of culture, the Dalmatians were as yet unacquainted with +money, and divided their land, without recognizing any special right +of property in it, afresh every eight years among the members of +the community. Brigandage and piracy were the only native trades. +These tribes had in earlier times stood in a loose relation of +dependence on the rulers of Scodra, and had so far shared in the +chastisement inflicted by the Roman expeditions against queen +Teuta(6) and Demetrius of Pharos;(7) but on the accession of king +Genthius they had revolted and had thus escaped the fate which involved +southern Illyria in the fall of the Macedonian empire and rendered it +permanently dependent on Rome.(8) The Romans were glad to leave the +far from attractive region to itself. But the complaints of the Roman +Illyrians, particularly of the Daorsi, who dwelt on the Narenta to +the south of the Dalmatians, and of the inhabitants of the islands of +Issa (Lissa), whose continental stations Tragyrium (Trau) and Epetium +(near Spalato) suffered severely from the natives, compelled the Roman +government to despatch an embassy to the latter, and on receiving the +reply that the Dalmatians had neither troubled themselves hitherto +about the Romans nor would do so in future, to send thither an army +in 598 under the consul Gaius Marcius Figulus. He penetrated into +Dalmatia, but was again driven back as far as the Roman territory. +It was not till his successor Publius Scipio Nasica took the large +and strong town of Delminium in 599, that the confederacy conformed +and professed itself subject to the Romans. But the poor and only +superficially subdued country was not sufficiently important to be +erected into a distinct province: the Romans contented themselves, as +they had already done in the case of the more important possessions in +Epirus, with having it administered from Italy along with Cisalpine +Gaul; an arrangement which was, at least as a rule, retained even +when the province of Macedonia had been erected in 608 and its north +western frontier had been fixed to the northward of Scodra.(9) + +The Romans in Macedonia and Thrace + +But this very conversion of Macedonia into a province directly +dependent on Rome gave to the relations of Rome with the peoples +on the north-east greater importance, by imposing on the Romans +the obligation of defending the everywhere exposed frontier on +the north and east against the adjacent barbarian tribes; and in +a similar way not long afterwards (621) the acquisition by Rome of +the Thracian Chersonese (peninsula of Gallipoli) previously belonging +to the kingdom of the Attalids devolved on the Romans the obligation +hitherto resting on the kings of Pergamus to protect the Hellenes here +against the Thracians. From the double basis furnished by the valley +of the Po and the province of Macedonia the Romans could now advance +in earnest towards the region of the headwaters of the Rhine and towards +the Danube, and possess themselves of the northern mountains at least +so far as was requisite for the security of the lands to the south. + +The Tribes at the Sources of the Rhine and along the Danube +Helvetii +Boii +Taurisci +Cerni +Raeti, Euganei, Veneti + +In these regions the most powerful nation at that time was the great +Celtic people, which according to the native tradition(10) had issued +from its settlements on the Western Ocean and poured itself about the +same time into the valley of the Po on the south of the main chain of +the Alps and into the regions on the Upper Rhine and on the Danube to +the north of that chain. Among their various tribes, both banks of +the Upper Rhine were occupied by the powerful and rich Helvetii, who +nowhere came into immediate contact with the Romans and so lived in +peace and in treaty with them: at this time they seem to have stretched +from the lake of Geneva to the river Main, and to have occupied the +modern Switzerland, Suabia, and Franconia Adjacent to them dwelt +the Boii, whose settlements were probably in the modern Bavaria and +Bohemia.(11) To the south-east of these we meet with another Celtic +stock, which made its appearance in Styria and Carinthia under the +name of the Taurisci and afterwards of the Norici, in Friuli, Carniola, +and Istria under that of the Carni. Their city Noreia (not far from +St. Veit to the north of Klagenfurt) was flourishing and widely known +from the iron mines that were even at that time zealously worked +in those regions; still more were the Italians at this very period +allured thither by the rich seams of gold brought to light, till the +natives excluded them and took this California of that day wholly into +their own hands. These Celtic hordes streaming along on both sides of +the Alps had after their fashion occupied chiefly the flat and hill +country; the Alpine regions proper and likewise the districts along +the Adige and the Lower Po were not occupied by them, and remained +in the hands of the earlier indigenous population. Nothing certain +has yet been ascertained as to the nationality of the latter; but they +appear under the name of the Raeti in the mountains of East Switzerland +and the Tyrol, and under that of the Euganei and Veneti about Padua +and Venice; so that at this last point the two great Celtic streams +almost touched each other, and only a narrow belt of native population +separated the Celtic Cenomani about Brescia from the Celtic Carnians +in Friuli. The Euganei and Veneti had long been peaceful subjects of +the Romans; whereas the peoples of the Alps proper were not only still +free, but made regular forays down from their mountains into the +plain between the Alps and the Po, where they were not content with +levying contributions, but conducted themselves with fearful cruelty +in the townships which they captured, not unfrequently slaughtering +the whole male population down to the infant in the cradle--the practical +answer, it may be presumed, to the Roman razzias in the Alpine valleys. +How dangerous these Raetian inroads were, appears from the fact that +one of them about 660 destroyed the considerable township of Comum. + +Illyrian Peoples +Japydes +Scordisci + +If these Celtic and non-Celtic tribes having their settlements upon and +beyond the Alpine chain were already variously intermingled, there was, +as may easily be conceived, a still more comprehensive intermixture +of peoples in the countries on the Lower Danube, where there were no +high mountain ranges, as in the more western regions, to serve as +natural walls of partition. The original Illyrian population, of +which the modern Albanians seem to be the last pure survivors, was +throughout, at least in the interior, largely mixed with Celtic +elements, and the Celtic armour and Celtic method of warfare were +probably everywhere introduced in that quarter. Next to the Taurisci +came the Japydes, who had their settlements on the Julian Alps in the +modern Croatia as far down as Fiume and Zeng,--a tribe originally +doubtless Illyrian, but largely mixed with Celts. Bordering with these +along the coast were the already-mentioned Dalmatians, into whose rugged +mountains the Celts do not seem to have penetrated; whereas in the +interior the Celtic Scordisci, to whom the tribe of the Triballi +formerly especially powerful in that quarter had succumbed, and who +had played a principal part in the Celtic expeditions to Delphi, +were about this time the leading nation along the Lower Save as far +as the Morava in the modern Bosnia and Servia. They roamed far and +wide towards Moesia, Thrace, and Macedonia, and fearful tales were +told of their savage valour and cruel customs. Their chief place of +arms was the strong Segestica or Siscia at the point where the Kulpa +falls into the Save. The peoples who were at that time settled in +Hungary, Transylvania, Roumania, and Bulgaria still remained for the +present beyond the horizon of the Romans; the latter came into contact +only with the Thracians on the eastern frontier of Macedonia in +the Rhodope mountains. + +Conflicts on the Frontier +In the Alps + +It would have been no easy task for a government more energetic than was +the Roman government of that day to establish an organized and adequate +defence of the frontier against these wide domains of barbarism; what +was done for this important object under the auspices of the government +ment of the restoration, did not come up to even the most moderate +requirements. There seems to have been no want of expeditions against +the inhabitants of the Alps: in 636 there was a triumph over the Stoeni, +who were probably settled in the mountains above Verona; in 659 the consul +Lucius Crassus caused the Alpine valleys far and wide to De ransacked +and the inhabitants to be put to death, and yet he did not succeed in +killing enough of them to enable him to celebrate a village triumph and +to couple the laurels of the victor with his oratorical fame. But as +the Romans remained satisfied with razzias of this sort which merely +exasperated the natives without rendering them harmless, and, apparently, +withdrew the troops again after every such inroad, the state of matters +in the region beyond the Po remained substantially the same as before. + +In Thrace + +On the opposite Thracian frontier they appear to have given themselves +little concern about their neighbours; except that there is mention +made in 651 of conflicts with the Thracians, and in 657 of others with +the Maedi in the border mountains between Macedonia and Thrace. + +In Illyria + +More serious conflicts took place in the Illyrian land, where complaints +were constantly made as to the turbulent Dalmatians by their neighbours +and those who navigated the Adriatic; and along the wholly exposed +northern frontier of Macedonia, which, according to the significant +expression of a Roman, extended as far as the Roman swords and spears +reached, the conflicts with the barbarians never ceased. In 619 an +expedition was undertaken against the Ardyaei or Vardaei and the Pleraei +or Paralii, a Dalmatian tribe on the coast to the north of the mouth +of the Narenta, which was incessantly perpetrating outrages on the sea +and on the opposite coast: by order of the Romans they removed from +the coast and settled in the interior, the modern Herzegovina, where +they began to cultivate the soil, but, unused to their new calling, +pined away in that inclement region. At the same time an attack was +directed from Macedonia against the Scordisci, who had, it may be +presumed, made common cause with the assailed inhabitants of the coast. +Soon afterwards (625) the consul Tuditanus in connection with the able +Decimus Brutus, the conqueror of the Spanish Callaeci, humbled +the Japydes, and, after sustaining a defeat at the outset, at length +carried the Roman arms into the heart of Dalmatia as far as the river +Kerka, 115 miles distant from Aquileia; the Japydes thenceforth appear +as a nation at peace and on friendly terms with Rome. But ten years +later (635) the Dalmatians rose afresh, once more in concert with +the Scordisci. While the consul Lucius Cotta fought against the latter +and in doing so advanced apparently as far as Segestica, his colleague +Lucius Metellus afterwards named Dalmaticus, the elder brother of the +conqueror of Numidia, marched against the Dalmatians, conquered them +and passed the winter in Salona (Spalato), which town henceforth +appears as the chief stronghold of the Romans in that region. It is +not improbable that the construction of the Via Gabinia, which led +from Salona in an easterly direction to Andetrium (near Much) +and thence farther into the interior, falls within this period. + +The Romans Cross the Eastern Alps and Reach the Danube + +The expedition of the consul of 639, Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, against +the Taurisci(12) presented more the character of a war of conquest. +He was the first of the Romans to cross the chain of the eastern Alps +where it falls lowest between Trieste and Laybach, and contracted +hospitable relations with the Taurisci; which secured a not +unimportant commercial intercourse without involving the Romans, +as a formal subjugation would have involved them, in the movements +of the peoples to the north of the Alps. Of the conflicts with the +Scordisci, which have passed almost wholly into oblivion, a page, +which speaks clearly even in its isolation, has recently been brought +to light through a memorial stone from the year 636 lately discovered +in the neighbourhood of Thessalonica. According to it, in this year +the governor of Macedonia Sextus Pompeius fell near Argos (not far from +Stobi on the upper Axius or Vardar) in a battle fought with these +Celts; and, after his quaestor Marcus Annius had come up with his +troops and in some measure mastered the enemy, these same Celts in +connection with Tipas the king of the Maedi (on the upper Strymon) +soon made a fresh irruption in still larger masses, and it was with +difficulty that the Romans defended themselves against the onset of +the barbarians.(13) Things soon assumed so threatening a shape that +it became necessary to despatch consular armies to Macedonia.(14) +A few years afterwards the consul of 640 Gaius Porcius Cato was +surprised in the Servian mountains by the same Scordisci, and his +army completely destroyed, while he himself with a few attendants +disgracefully fled; with difficulty the praetor Marcus Didius +protected the Roman frontier. His successors fought with better +fortune, Gaius Metellus Caprarius (641-642), Marcus Livius Drusus +(642-643), the first Roman general to reach the Danube, and Quintus +Minucius Rufus (644-647) who carried his arms along the Morava(15) and +thoroughly defeated the Scordisci. Nevertheless they soon afterwards +in league with the Maedi and the Dardani invaded the Roman territory +and plundered even the sanctuary at Delphi; it was not till then +that Lucius Scipio put an end to the thirty-two years' warfare with +the Scordisci and drove the remnant over to the left bank of the +Danube.(16) Thenceforth in their stead the just-named Dardani +(in Servia) begin to play the first part in the territory between +the northern frontier of Macedonia and the Danube. + +The Cimbri + +But these victories had an effect which the victors did not +anticipate. For a considerable period an "unsettled people" had +been wandering along the northern verge of the country occupied by +the Celts on both sides of the Danube. They called themselves the +Cimbri, that is, the Chempho, the champions or, as their enemies +translated it, the robbers; a designation, however, which to all +appearance had become the name of the people even before their +migration. They came from the north, and the first Celtic people +with whom they came in contact were, so far as is known, the Boii, +probably in Bohemia. More exact details as to the cause and +the direction of their migration have not been recorded by +contemporaries,(17) and cannot be supplied by conjecture, since the +state of things in those times to the north of Bohemia and the Main +and to the east of the Lower Rhine lies wholly beyond our knowledge. +But the hypothesis that the Cimbri, as well as the similar horde of +the Teutones which afterwards joined them, belonged essentially not +to the Celtic nation, to which the Romans at first assigned them, +but to the Germanic, is supported by the most definite facts: viz., +by the appearance of two small tribes of the same name--remnants +apparently left behind in their primitive seats--the Cimbri in +the modern Denmark, the Teutones in the north-east of Germany in +the neighbourhood of the Baltic, where Pytheas, a contemporary of +Alexander the Great, makes mention of them thus early in connection +with the amber trade; by the insertion of the Cimbri and Teutones in +the list of the Germanic peoples among the Ingaevones alongside of +the Chauci; by the judgment of Caesar, who first made the Romans +acquainted with the distinction betweenthe Ge rmans and the Celts, +and who includes the Cimbri, many of whom he must himself have seen, +among the Germans; and lastly, by the very names of the peoples and +the statements as to their physical appearance and habits in other +respects, which, while applying to the men of the north generally, +are especially applicable to the Germans. On the other hand it is +conceivable enough that such a horde, after having been engaged in +wandering perhaps for many years and having in its movements near to +or within the land of the Celts doubtless welcomed every brother-in-arms +who joined it, would include a certain amount of Celtic elements; so +that it is not surprising that men of Celtic name should be at +the head of the Cimbri, or that the Romans should employ spies +speaking the Celtic tongue to gain information among them. It was +a marvellous movement, the like of which the Romans had not yet seen; +not a predatory expedition of men equipped for the purpose, nor +a "-ver sacrum-" of young men migrating to a foreign land, but a +migratory people that had set out with their women and children, with +their goods and chattels, to seek a new home. The waggon, which had +everywhere among the still not fully settled peoples of the north a +different importance from what it had among the Hellenes and the +Italians, and which universally accompanied the Celts also in their +encampments, was among the Cimbri as it were their house, where, +beneath the leather covering stretched over it, a place was found for +the wife and children and even for the house-dog as well as for the +furniture. The men of the south beheld with astonishment those tall +lank figures with the fair locks and bright blue eyes, the hardy and +stately women who were little inferior in size and strength to the +men, and the children with old men's hair, as the amazed Italians +called the flaxen-haired youths of the north. Their system of warfare +was substantially that of the Celts of this period, who no longer +fought, as the Italian Celts had formerly done, bareheaded and with +merely sword and dagger, but with copper helmets often richly adorned +and with a peculiar missile weapon, the -materis-; the large sword was +retained and the long narrow shield, along with which they probably +wore also a coat of mail. They were not destitute of cavalry; but +the Romans were superior to them in that arm. Their order of battle +was as formerly a rude phalanx professedly drawn up with just as many +ranks in depth as in breadth, the first rank of which in dangerous +combats not unfrequently tied together their metallic girdles with +cords. Their manners were rude. Flesh was frequently devoured raw. +The bravest and, if possible, the tallest man was king of the host. +Not unfrequently, after the manner of the Celts and of barbarians +generally, the time and place of the combat were previously arranged +with the enemy, and sometimes also, before the battle began, an individual +opponent was challenged to single combat. The conflict was ushered +in by their insulting the enemy with unseemly gestures, and by a +horrible noise--the men raising their battle-shout, and the women +and children increasing the din by drumming on the leathern covers +of the waggons. The Cimbrian fought bravely--death on the bed of +honour was deemed by him the only death worthy of a free man--but +after the victory he indemnified himself by the most savage brutality, +and sometimes promised beforehand to present to the gods of +battle whatever victory should place in the power of the victor. +The effects of the enemy were broken in pieces, the horses were killed, +the prisoners were hanged or preserved only to be sacrificed to the gods. +It was the priestesses--grey-haired women in white linen dresses and +unshod--who, like Iphigenia in Scythia, offered these sacrifices, and +prophesied the future from the streaming blood of the prisoner of war +or the criminal who formed the victim. How much in these customs was +the universal usage of the northern barbarians, how much was borrowed +from the Celts, and how much was peculiar to the Germans, cannot +be ascertained; but the practice of having the army accompanied +and directed not by priests, but by priestesses, may be pronounced +an undoubtedly Germanic custom. Thus marched the Cimbri into +the unknown land--an immense multitude of various origin which had +congregated round a nucleus of Germanic emigrants from the Baltic-- +not without resemblance to the great bodies of emigrants, that in our +own times cross the ocean similarly burdened and similarly mingled, and +with aims not much less vague; carrying their lumbering waggon-castle, +with the dexterity which a long migratory life imparts, over streams +and mountains; dangerous to more civilized nations like the sea-wave +and the hurricane, and like these capricious and unaccountable, now +rapidly advancing, now suddenly pausing, turning aside, or receding. +They came and struck like lightning; like lightning they vanished; +and unhappily, in the dull age in which they appeared, there was +no observer who deemed it worth while accurately to describe the +marvellous meteor. When men afterwards began to trace the chain, +of which this emigration, the first Germanic movement which touched +the orbit of ancient civilization, was a link, the direct and living +knowledge of it had long passed away. + +Cimbrian Movements and Conflicts +Defeat of Carbo + +This homeless people of the Cimbri, which hitherto had been +prevented from advancing to the south by the Celts on the Danube, +more especially by the Boii, broke through that barrier in consequence +of the attacks directed by the Romans against the Danubian Celts; +either because the latter invoked the aid of their Cimbrian +antagonists against the advancing legions, or because the Roman attack +prevented them from protecting as hitherto their northern frontiers. +Advancing through the territory of the Scordisci into the Tauriscan +country, they approached in 641 the passes of the Carnian Alps, to +protect which the consul Gnaeus Papirius Carbo took up a position +on the heights not far from Aquileia. Here, seventy years before, +Celtic tribes had attempted to settle on the south of the Alps, but +at the bidding of the Romans had evacuated without resistance the +ground which they had already occupied;(18) even now the dread of +the Transalpine peoples at the Roman name showed itself strongly. +The Cimbri did not attack; indeed, when Carbo ordered them to evacuate +the territory of the Taurisci who were in relations of hospitality +with Rome--an order which the treaty with the latter by no means bound +him to make--they complied and followed the guides whom Carbo had +assigned to them to escort them over the frontier. But these guides +were in fact instructed to lure the Cimbri into an ambush, where the +consul awaited them. Accordingly an engagement took place not far +from Noreia in the modern Carinthia, in which the betrayed gained +the victory over the betrayer and inflicted on him considerable loss; +a storm, which separated the combatants, alone prevented the complete +annihilation of the Roman army. The Cimbri might have immediately +directed their attack towards Italy; they preferred to turn to the +westward. By treaty with the Helvetii and the Sequani rather than by +force of arms they made their way to the left bank of the Rhine and +over the Jura, and there some years after the defeat of Carbo once +more threatened the Roman territory by their immediate vicinity. + +Defeat of Silanus + +With a view to cover the frontier of the Rhine and the immediately +threatened territory of the Allobroges, a Roman army under Marcus +Junius Silanus appeared in 645 in Southern Gaul. The Cimbri +requested that land might be assigned to them where they might +peacefully settle--a request which certainly could not be granted. +The consul instead of replying attacked them; he was utterly defeated +and the Roman camp was taken. The new levies which were occasioned +by this misfortune were already attended with so much difficulty, that +the senate procured the abolition of the laws--presumably proceeding +from Gaius Gracchus--which limited the obligation to military service +in point of time.(19) But the Cimbri, instead of following up their +victory over the Romans, sent to the senate at Rome to repeat their +request for the assignment of land, and meanwhile employed themselves, +apparently, in the subjugation of the surrounding Celtic cantons. + +Inroad of the Helvetii into Southern Gaul +Defeat of Longinus + +Thus the Roman province and the new Roman army were left for the +moment undisturbed by the Germans; but a new enemy arose in Gaul +itself. The Helvetii, who had suffered much in the constant conflicts +with their north-eastern neighbours, felt themselves stimulated by +the example of the Cimbri to seek in their turn for more quiet and +fertile settlements in western Gaul, and had perhaps, even when the +Cimbrian hosts marched through their land, formed an alliance with +them for that purpose. Now under the leadership of Divico the forces +of the Tougeni (position unknown) and of the Tigorini (on the lake +of Murten) crossed the Jura,(20) and reached the territory of the +Nitiobroges (about Agen on the Garonne). The Roman army under the +consul Lucius Cassius Longinus, which they here encountered, allowed +itself to be decoyed by the Helvetii into an ambush, in which the +general himself and his legate, the consular Lucius Piso, along with +the greater portion of the soldiers met their death; Gaius Popillius, +the interim commander-in-chief of the force which had escaped to +the camp, was allowed to withdraw under the yoke on condition of +surrendering half the property which the troops carried with them +and furnishing hostages (647). So perilous was the state of things +for the Romans, that one of the most important towns in their +own province, Tolosa, rose against them and placed the Roman +garrison in chains. + +But, as the Cimbri continued to employ themselves elsewhere, and +the Helvetii did not further molest for the moment the Roman province, +the new Roman commander-in-chief, Quintus Servilius Caepio, had full +time to recover possession of the town of Tolosa by treachery and to +empty at leisure the immense treasures accumulated in the old and +famous sanctuary of the Celtic Apollo. It was a desirable gain for +the embarrassed exchequer, but unfortunately the gold and silver vessels +on the way from Tolosa to Massilia were taken from the weak escort by +a band of robbers, and totally disappeared: the consul himself and +his staff were, it was alleged, the instigators of this onset (648). +Meanwhile they confined themselves to the strictest defensive +as regarded the chief enemy, and guarded the Roman province +with three strong armies, till it should please the Cimbri +to repeat their attack. + +Defeat of Arausio + +They came in 649 under their king Boiorix, on this occasion seriously +meditating an inroad into Italy. They were opposed on the right bank +of the Rhone by the proconsul Caepio, on the left by the consul Gnaeus +Mallius Maximus and by his legate, the consular Marcus Aurelius +Scaurus, under him at the head of a detached corps. The first onset +fell on the latter; he was totally defeated and brought in person as +a prisoner to the enemy's head-quarters, where the Cimbrian king, +indignant at the proud warning given to him by the captive Roman +not to venture with his army into Italy, put him to death. Maximus +thereupon ordered his colleague to bring his army over the Rhone: +the latter complying with reluctance at length appeared at Arausio +(Orange) on the left bank of the river, where the whole Roman force +now stood confronting the Cimbrian army, and is alleged to have made +such an impression by its considerable numbers that the Cimbri began +to negotiate. But the two leaders lived in the most vehement discord. +Maximus, an insignificant and incapable man, was as consul the legal +superior of his prouder and better born, but not better qualified, +proconsular colleague Caepio; but the latter refused to occupy a +common camp and to devise operations in concert with him, and still, +as formerly, maintained his independent command. In vain deputies from +the Roman senate endeavoured to effect a reconciliation; a personal +conference between the generals, on which the officers insisted, only +widened the breach. When Caepio saw Maximus negotiating with the +envoys of the Cimbri, he fancied that the latter wished to gain the +sole credit of their subjugation, and threw himself with his portion of +the army alone in all haste on the enemy. He was utterly annihilated, +so that even his camp fell into the hands of the enemy (6 Oct. 649); +and his destruction was followed by the no less complete defeat +of the second Roman army. It is asserted that 80,000 Roman soldiers +and half as many of the immense and helpless body of camp-followers +perished, and that only ten men escaped: this much is certain, that only +a few out of the two armies succeeded in escaping, for the Romans had +fought with the river in their rear. It was a calamity which materially +and morally far surpassed the day of Cannae. The defeats of Carbo, +of Silanus, and of Longinus had passed without producing any permanent +impression on the Italians. They were accustomed to open every war +with disasters; the invincibleness of the Roman arms was so firmly +established, that it seemed superfluous to attend to the pretty numerous +exceptions. But the battle of Arausio, the alarming proximity of +the victorious Cimbrian army to the undefended passes of the Alps, +the insurrections breaking out afresh and with increased force both +in the Roman territory beyond the Alps and among the Lusitanians, +the defenceless condition of Italy, produced a sudden and fearful +awakening from these dreams. Men recalled the never wholly forgotten +Celtic inroads of the fourth century, the day on the Allia and +the burning of Rome: with the double force at once of the oldest +remembrance and of the freshest alarm the terror of the Gauls came +upon Italy; through all the west people seemed to be aware that +the Roman empire was beginning to totter. As after the battle +of Cannae, the period of mourning was shortened by decree of +the senate.(21) The new enlistments brought out the most painful +scarcity of men. All Italians capable of bearing arms had to swear +that they would not leave Italy; the captains of the vessels lying +in the Italian ports were instructed not to take on board any man fit +for service. It is impossible to tell what might have happened, had +the Cimbri immediately after their double victory advanced through +the gates of the Alps into Italy. But they first overran the territory +of the Arverni, who with difficulty defended themselves in their +fortresses against the enemy; and soon, weary of sieges, set out +from thence, not to Italy, but westward to the Pyrenees. + +The Roman Opposition +Warfare of Prosecutions + +If the torpid organism of the Roman polity could still of itself reach +a crisis of wholesome reaction, that reaction could not but set in +now, when, by one of the marvellous pieces of good fortune, in which +the history of Rome is so rich, the danger was sufficiently imminent +to rouse all the energy and all the patriotism of the burgesses, and +yet did not burst upon them so suddenly as to leave no space for the +development of their resources. But the very same phenomena, which +had occurred four years previously after the African defeats, presented +themselves afresh. In fact the African and Gallic disasters were +essentially of the same kind. It may be that primarily the blame +of the former fell more on the oligarchy as a whole, that of the +latter more on individual magistrates; but public opinion justly +recognized in both, above all things, the bankruptcy of the government, +which in its progressive development imperilled first the honour and +now the very existence of the state. People just as little deceived +themselves then as now regarding the true seat of the evil, but +as little now as then did they make even an attempt to apply the +remedy at the proper point. They saw well that the system was +to blame; but on this occasion also they adhered to the method +of calling individuals to account--only no doubt this second storm +discharged itself on the heads of the oligarchy so much the more +heavily, as the calamity of 649 exceeded in extent and peril that of +645. The sure instinctive feeling of the public, that there was no +resource against the oligarchy except the -tyrannis-, was once more +apparent in their readily entering into every attempt by officers +of note to force the hand of the government and, under one form +or another, to overturn the oligarchic rule by a dictatorship. + +It was against Quintus Caepio that their attacks were first +directed; and justly, in so far as he had primarily occasioned the +defeat of Arausio by his insubordination, even apart from the probably +well-founded but not proved charge of embezzling the Tolosan booty; +but the fury which the opposition displayed against him was essentially +augmented by the fact, that he had as consul ventured on an attempt +to wrest the posts of jurymen from the capitalists.(22) On his account +the old venerable principle, that the sacredness of the magistracy +should be respected even in the person of its worst occupant, was +violated; and, while the censure due to the author of the calamitous +day of Cannae had been silently repressed within the breast, the author +of the defeat of Arausio was by decree of the people unconstitutionally +deprived of his proconsulship, and--what had not occurred since +the crisis in which the monarchy had perished--his property was +confiscated to the state-chest (649?). Not long afterwards he was +by a second decree of the burgesses expelled from the senate (650). +But this was not enough; more victims were desired, and above all +Caepio's blood. A number of tribunes of the people favourable to the +opposition, with Lucius Appuleius Saturninus and Gaius Norbanus at their +head, proposed in 651 to appoint an extraordinary judicial commission in +reference to the embezzlement and treason perpetrated in Gaul; in spite +of the de facto abolition of arrest during investigation and of the +punishment of death for political offences, Caepio was arrested and +the intention of pronouncing and executing in his case sentence of +death was openly expressed. The government party attempted to get +rid of the proposal by tribunician intervention; but the interceding +tribunes were violently driven from the assembly, and in the furious +tumult the first men of the senate were assailed with stones. +The investigation could not be prevented, and the warfare of +prosecutions pursued its course in 651 as it had done six years +before; Caepio himself, his colleague in the supreme command Gnaeus +Mallius Maximus, and numerous other men of note were condemned: a +tribune of the people, who was a friend of Caepio, with difficulty +succeeded by the sacrifice of his own civic existence in saving at +least the life of the chief persons accused.(23) + +Marius Commander-in-Chief + +Of more importance than this measure of revenge was the question how +the dangerous war beyond the Alps was to be further carried on, and +first of all to whom the supreme command in it was to be committed. +With an unprejudiced treatment of the matter it was not difficult to +make a fitting choice. Rome was doubtless, in comparison with earlier +times, not rich in military notabilities; yet Quintus Maximus had +commanded with distinction in Gaul, Marcus Aemilius Scaurus and +Quintus Minucius in the regions of the Danube, Quintus Metellus, +Publius Rutilius Rufus, Gaius Marius in Africa; and the object +proposed was not to defeat a Pyrrhus or a Hannibal, but again +to make good the often-tried superiority of Roman arms and Roman +tactics in opposition to the barbarians of the north--an object which +required no genius, but merely a stern and capable soldier. But it +was precisely a time when nothing was so difficult as the unprejudiced +settlement of a question of administration. The government was, as +it could not but be and as the Jugurthine war had already shown, so +utterly bankrupt in public opinion, that its ablest generals had to +retire in the full career of victory, whenever it occurred to an +officer of mark to revile them before the people and to get himself as +the candidate of the opposition appointed by the latter to the head of +affairs. It was no wonder that what took place after the victories of +Metellus was repeated on a greater scale after the defeats of Gnaeus +Mallius and Quintus Caepio. Once more Gaius Marius came forward, in +spite of the law which prohibited the holding of the consulship more +than once, as a candidate for the supreme magistracy; and not only was +he nominated as consul and charged with the chief command in the Gallic +war, while he was still in Africa at the head of the army there, but +he was reinvested with the consulship for five years in succession +(650-654)--in a way, which looked like an intentional mockery of +the exclusive spirit that the nobility had exhibited in reference +to this very man in all its folly and shortsightedness, but was also +unparalleled in the annals of the republic, and in fact absolutely +incompatible with the spirit of the free constitution of Rome. +In the Roman military system in particular--the transformation of which +from a burgess-militia into a body of mercenaries, begun in the African +war, was continued and completed by Marius during his five years of a +supreme command unlimited through the exigencies of the time still more +than through the terms of his appointment--the profound traces of this +unconstitutional commandership-in-chief of the first democratic general +remained visible for all time. + +Roman Defensive + +The new commander-in-chief, Gaius Marius, appeared in 650 beyond the +Alps, followed by a number of experienced officers--among whom the +bold captor of Jugurtha, Lucius Sulla, soon acquired fresh distinction-- +and by a numerous host of Italian and allied soldiers. At first he +did not find the enemy against whom he was sent. The singular people, +who had conquered at Arausio, had in the meantime (as we have +already mentioned), after plundering the country to the west of +the Rhone, crossed the Pyrenees and were carrying on a desultory +warfare in Spain with the brave inhabitants of the northern coast +and of the interior; it seemed as if the Germans wished at their very +first appearance in the field of history to display their lack of +persistent grasp. So Marius found ample time on the one hand to +reduce the revolted Tectosages to obedience, to confirm afresh the +wavering fidelity of the subject Gallic and Ligurian cantons, and to +obtain support and contingents within and without the Roman province +from the allies who were equally with the Romans placed in peril by +the Cimbri, such as the Massiliots, the Allobroges, and the Sequani; +and on the other hand, to discipline the army entrusted to him by +strict training and impartial justice towards all whether high or +humble, and to prepare the soldiers for the more serious labours of +war by marches and extensive works of entrenching--particularly the +construction of a canal of the Rhone, afterwards handed over to the +Massiliots, for facilitating the transit of the supplies sent from +Italy to the army. He maintained a strictly defensive attitude, +and did not cross the bounds of the Roman province. + +The Cimbri, Teutones, and Helvetii Unite +Expedition to Italy Resolved on +Teutones in the Province of Gaul + +At length, apparently in the course of 651, the wave of the Cimbri, +after having broken itself in Spain on the brave resistance of the +native tribes and especially of the Celtiberians, flowed back again +over the Pyrenees and thence, as it appears, passed along the shore +of the Atlantic Ocean, where everything from the Pyrenees to the +Seine submitted to the terrible invaders. There, on the confines +of the brave confederacy of the Belgae, they first encountered serious +resistance; but there also, while they were in the territory of the +Vellocassi (near Rouen), considerable reinforcements reached them. +Not only three cantons of the Helvetii, including the Tigorini +and Tougeni who had formerly fought against the Romans at the Garonne, +associated themselves, apparently about this period, with the Cimbri, +but these were also joined by the kindred Teutones under their king +Teutobod, who had been driven by events which tradition has not +recorded from their home on the Baltic sea to appear now on the +Seine.(24) But even the united hordes were unable to overcome the +brave resistance of the Belgae. The leaders accordingly resolved, +now that their numbers were thus swelled, to enter in all earnest on +the expedition to Italy which they had several times contemplated. +In order not to encumber themselves with the spoil which they had +heretofore collected, they left it behind under the protection of a +division of 6000 men, which after many wanderings subsequently gave +rise to the tribe of the Aduatuci on the Sambre. But, whether from +the difficulty of finding supplies on the Alpine routes or from other +reasons, the mass again broke up into two hosts, one of which, +composed of the Cimbri and Tigorini, was to recross the Rhine +and to invade Italy through the passes of the eastern Alps already +reconnoitred in 641, and the other, composed of the newly-arrived +Teutones, the Tougeni, and the Ambrones--the flower of the Cimbrian +host already tried in the battle of Arausio--was to invade Italy +through Roman Gaul and the western passes. It was this second +division, which in the summer of 652 once more crossed the Rhone +without hindrance, and on its left bank resumed, after a pause of +nearly three years, the struggle with the Romans. Marius awaited them +in a well-chosen and well-provisioned camp at the confluence of the +Isere with the Rhone, in which position he intercepted the passage +of the barbarians by either of the only two military routes to Italy +then practicable, that over the Little St. Bernard, and that along +the coast. The Teutones attacked the camp which obstructed their +passage; for three consecutive days the assault of the barbarians +raged around the Roman entrenchments, but their wild courage was +thwarted by the superiority of the Romans in fortress-warfare and by +the prudence of the general. After severe loss the bold associates +resolved to give up the assault, and to march onward to Italy past +the camp. For six successive days they continued to defile--a proof +of the cumbrousness of their baggage still more than of the immensity +of their numbers. The general permitted the march to proceed without +attacking them. We can easily understand why he did not allow himself +to be led astray by the insulting inquiries of the enemy whether the +Romans had no commissions for their wives at home; but the fact, that +he did not take advantage of this audacious defiling of the hostile +columns in front of the concentrated Roman troops for the purpose of +attack, shows how little he trusted his unpractised soldiers. + +Battle of Aquae Sextiae + +When the march was over, he broke up his encampment and followed +in the steps of the enemy, preserving rigorous order and carefully +entrenching himself night after night. The Teutones, who were striving +to gain the coast road, marching down the banks of the Rhone reached +the district of Aquae Sextiae, followed by the Romans. The light +Ligurian troops of the Romans, as they were drawing water, here came +into collision with the Celtic rear-guard, the Ambrones; the conflict +soon became general; after a hot struggle the Romans conquered and +pursued the retreating enemy up to their waggon-stronghold. This first +successful collision elevated the spirits of the general as well as of +the soldiers; on the third day after it Marius drew up his array for +a decisive battle on the hill, the summit of which bore the Roman +camp. The Teutones, long impatient to measure themselves against +their antagonists, immediately rushed up the hill and began the +conflict. It was severe and protracted: up to midday the Germans +stood like walls; but the unwonted heat of the Provengal sun +relaxed their energies, and a false alarm in their rear, where a +band of Roman camp-boys ran forth from a wooded ambuscade with loud +shouts, utterly decided the breaking up of the wavering ranks. +The whole horde was scattered, and, as was to be expected in a foreign +land, either put to death or taken prisoners. Among the captives +was king Teutobod; among the killed a multitude of women, who, not +unacquainted with the treatment which awaited them as slaves, had +caused themselves to be slain in desperate resistance at their +waggons, or had put themselves to death in captivity, after having +vainly requested to be dedicated to the service of the gods and of +the sacred virgins of Vesta (summer of 652). + +Cimbrians in Italy + +Thus Gaul was relieved from the Germans; and it was time, for +their brothers-in-arms were already on the south side of the Alps. +In alliance with the Helvetii, the Cimbri had without difficulty passed +from the Seine to the upper valley of the Rhine, had crossed the chain +of the Alps by the Brenner pass, and had descended thence through +the valleys of the Eisach and Adige into the Italian plain. Here +the consul Quintus Lutatius Catulus was to guard the passes; but +not fully acquainted with the country and afraid of having his flank +turned, he had not ventured to advance into the Alps themselves, but +had posted himself below Trent on the left bank of the Adige, and had +secured in any event his retreat to the right bank by the construction +of a bridge. When the Cimbri, however, pushed forward in dense +masses from the mountains, a panic seized the Roman army, and +legionaries and horsemen ran off, the latter straight for the capital, +the former to the nearest height which seemed to afford security. +With great difficulty Catulus brought at least the greater portion of +his army by a stratagem back to the river and over the bridge, before +the enemy, who commanded the upper course of the Adige and were +already floating down trees and beams against the bridge, succeeded +in destroying it and thereby cutting off the retreat of the army. +But the general had to leave behind a legion on the other bank, and +the cowardly tribune who led it was already disposed to capitulate, +when the centurion Gnaeus Petreius of Atina, struck him down and cut +his way through the midst of the enemy to the main army on the right +bank of the Adige. Thus the army, and in some degree even the +honour of their arms, was saved; but the consequences of the neglect +to occupy the passes and of the too hasty retreat were yet very +seriously felt Catulus was obliged to withdraw to the right bank of +the Po and to leave the whole plain between the Po and the Alps in +the power of the Cimbri, so that communication was maintained with +Aquileia only by sea. This took place in the summer of 652, about +the same time when the decisive battle between the Teutones and the +Romans occurred at Aquae Sextiae. Had the Cimbri continued their +attack without interruption, Rome might have been greatly embarrassed; +but on this occasion also they remained faithful to their custom of +resting in winter, and all the more, because the rich country, the +unwonted quarters under the shelter of a roof, the warm baths, and +the new and abundant supplies for eating and drinking invited them +to make themselves comfortable for the moment. Thereby the Romans +gained time to encounter them with united forces in Italy. It was +no season to resume--as the democratic general would perhaps otherwise +have done--the interrupted scheme of conquest in Gaul, such as Gaius +Gracchus had probably projected. From the battle-field of Aix the +victorious army was conducted to the Po; and after a brief stay in +the capital, where Marius refused the triumph offered to him until +he had utterly subdued the barbarians, he arrived in person at the +united armies. In the spring of 653 they again crossed the Po, +50,000 strong, under the consul Marius and the proconsul Catulus, +and marched against the Cimbri, who on their part seem to have marched +up the river with a view to cross the mighty stream at its source. + +Battle on the Raudine Plain + +The two armies met below Vercellae not far from the confluence of +the Sesia with the Po,(25) just at the spot where Hannibal had fought +his first battle on Italian soil. The Cimbri desired battle, and +according to their custom sent to the Romans to settle the time and +place for it; Marius gratified them and named the next day--it was +the 30th July 653--and the Raudine plain, a wide level space, which +the superior Roman cavalry found advantageous for their movements. +Here they fell upon the enemy expecting them and yet taken by +surprise; for in the dense morning mist the Cimbrian cavalry found +itself in hand-to-hand conflict with the stronger cavalry of the +Romans before it anticipated attack, and was thereby thrown back +upon the infantry which was just making its dispositions for battle. +A complete victory was gained with slight loss, and the Cimbri were +annihilated. Those might be deemed fortunate who met death in the +battle, as most did, including the brave king Boiorix; more fortunate +at least than those who afterwards in despair laid hands on themselves, +or were obliged to seek in the slave-market of Rome the master who +might retaliate on the individual Northman for the audacity of having +coveted the beauteous south before it was time. The Tigorini, who had +remained behind in the passes of the Alps with the view of subsequently +following the Cimbri, ran off on the news of the defeat to their native +land. The human avalanche, which for thirteen years had alarmed the +nations from the Danube to the Ebro, from the Seine to the Po, rested +beneath the sod or toiled under the yoke of slavery; the forlorn hope +of the German migrations had performed its duty; the homeless people +of the Cimbri and their comrades were no more. + +The Victory and the Parties + +The political parties of Rome continued their pitiful quarrels over +the carcase, without troubling themselves about the great chapter in +the world's history the first page of which was thus opened, without +even giving way to the pure feeling that on this day Rome's aristocrats +as well as Rome's democrats had done their duty. The rivalry of +the two generals--who were not only political antagonists, but were +also set at variance in a military point of view by the so different +results of the two campaigns of the previous year--broke out immediately +after the battle in the most offensive form. Catulus might with +justice assert that the centre division which he commanded had +decided the victory, and that his troops had captured thirty-one +standards, while those of Marius had brought in only two, his +soldiers led even the deputies of the town of Parma through the heaps +of the dead to show to them that Marius had slain his thousand, but +Catulus his ten thousand. Nevertheless Marius was regarded as the real +conqueror of the Cimbri, and justly; not merely because by virtue of +his higher rank he had held the chief command on the decisive day, +and was in military gifts and experience beyond doubt far superior to +his colleague, but especially because the second victory at Vercellae +had in fact been rendered possible only by the first victory at Aquae +Sextiae. But at that period it was considerations of political +partisanship rather than of military merit which attached the glory +of having saved Rome from the Cimbri and Teutones entirely to the name +of Marius. Catulus was a polished and clever man, so graceful a +speaker that his euphonious language sounded almost like eloquence, +a tolerable writer of memoirs and occasional poems, and an excellent +connoisseur and critic of art; but he was anything but a man of the +people, and his victory was a victory of the aristocracy. The battles +of the rough farmer on the other hand, who had been raised to honour +by the common people and had led the common people to victory, were +not merely defeats of the Cimbri and Teutones, but also defeats of the +government: there were associated with them hopes far different from +that of being able once more to carry on mercantile transactions on +the one side of the Alps or to cultivate the fields without molestation +on the other. Twenty years had elapsed since the bloody corpse of +Gaius Gracchus had been flung into the Tiber; for twenty years the +government of the restored oligarchy had been endured and cursed; +still there had risen no avenger for Gracchus, no second master to +prosecute the building which he had begun. There were many who +hated and hoped, many of the worst and many of the best citizens +of the state: was the man, who knew how to accomplish this vengeance +and these wishes, found at last in the son of the day-labourer of +Arpinum? Were they really on the threshold of the new much-dreaded +and much-desired second revolution? + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +The Attempt of Marius at Revolution and the Attempt of Drusus at Reform + +Marius + +Gaius Marius, the son of a poor day-labourer, was born in 599 at the +village of Cereatae then belonging to Arpinum, which afterwards obtained +municipal rights as Cereatae Marianae and still at the present day bears +the name of "Marius' home" (Casamare). He was reared at the plough, +in circumstances so humble that they seemed to preclude him from access +even to the municipal offices of Arpinum: he learned early--what he +practised afterwards even when a general--to bear hunger and thirst, +the heat of summer and the cold of winter, and to sleep on the hard +ground. As soon as his age allowed him, he had entered the army and +through service in the severe school of the Spanish wars had rapidly +risen to be an officer. In Scipio's Numantine war he, at that time +twenty-three years of age, attracted the notice of the stern general +by the neatness with which he kept his horse and his accoutrements, +as well as by his bravery in combat and his decorous demeanour in camp. +He had returned home with honourable scars and warlike distinctions, +and with the ardent wish to make himself a name in the career on which +he had gloriously entered; but, as matters then stood, a man of even the +highest merit could not attain those political offices, which alone led +to the higher military posts, without wealth and without connections. +The young officer acquired both by fortunate commercial speculations and +by his union with a maiden of the ancient patrician clan of the Julii. +So by dint of great efforts and after various miscarriages he succeeded, +in 639, in attaining the praetorship, in which he found opportunity of +displaying afresh his military ability as governor of Further Spain. +How he thereafter in spite of the aristocracy received the consulship in +647 and, as proconsul (648, 649), terminated the African war; and how, +called after the calamitous day of Arausio to the superintendence of +the war against the Germans, he had his consulship renewed for four +successive years from 650 to 653 (a thing unexampled in the annals of +the republic) and vanquished and annihilated the Cimbri in Cisalpine, +and the Teutones in Transalpine, Gaul--has been already related. In his +military position he had shown himself a brave and upright man, who +administered justice impartially, disposed of the spoil with rare +honesty and disinterestedness, and was thoroughly incorruptible; a +skilful organizer, who had brought the somewhat rusty machinery of the +Roman military system once more into a state of efficiency; an able +general, who kept the soldier under discipline and withal in good humour +and at the same time won his affections in comrade-like intercourse, but +looked the enemy boldly in the face and joined issue with him at the +proper time. He was not, as far as we can judge, a man of eminent +military capacity; but the very respectable qualities which he possessed +were quite sufficient under the existing circumstances to procure for +him the reputation of such capacity, and by virtue of it he had taken +his place in a fashion of unparalleled honour among the consulars and +the triumphators. But he was none the better fitted on that account for +the brilliant circle. His voice remained harsh and loud, and his look +wild, as if he still saw before him Libyans or Cimbrians, and not well- +bred and perfumed colleagues. That he was superstitious like a genuine +soldier of fortune; that he was induced to become a candidate for his +first consulship, not by the impulse of his talents, but primarily by +the utterances of an Etruscan -haruspex-; and that in the campaign with +the Teutones a Syrian prophetess Martha lent the aid of her oracles +to the council of war,--these things were not, in the strict sense, +unaristocratic: in such matters, then as at all times, the highest and +lowest strata of society met. But the want of political culture was +unpardonable; it was commendable, no doubt, that he had the skill to +defeat the barbarians, but what was to be thought of a consul who was so +ignorant of constitutional etiquette as to appear in triumphal costume +in the senate! In other respects too the plebeian character clung to +him. He was not merely--according to aristocratic phraseology--a poor +man, but, what was worse, frugal and a declared enemy of all bribery and +corruption. After the manner of soldiers he was not nice, but was fond +of his cups, especially in his later years; he knew not the art of +giving feasts, and kept a bad cook. It was likewise awkward that the +consular understood nothing but Latin and had to decline conversing +in Greek; that he felt the Greek plays wearisome might pass--he was +presumably not the only one who did so--but to confess to the feeling of +weariness was naive. Thus he remained throughout life a countryman cast +adrift among aristocrats, and annoyed by the keenly-felt sarcasms and +still more keenly--felt commiseration of his colleagues, which he +had not the self-command to despise as he despised themselves. + +Political Position of Marius + +Marius stood aloof from the parties not much less than from society. +The measures which he carried in his tribunate of the people (635)--a +better control over the delivery of the voting-tablets with a view to +do away with the scandalous frauds that were therein practised, and the +prevention of extravagant proposals for largesses to the people(1)--do +not bear the stamp of a party, least of all that of the democratic, but +merely show that he hated what was unjust and irrational; and how could +a man like this, a farmer by birth and a soldier by inclination, have +been from the first a revolutionist? The hostile attacks of the +aristocracy had no doubt driven him subsequently into the camp of +the opponents of the government; and there he speedily found himself +elevated in the first instance to be general of the opposition, and +destined perhaps for still higher things hereafter. But this was far +more the effect of the stringent force of circumstances and of the +general need which the opposition had for a chief, than his own work; +he had at any rate since his departure for Africa in 647-8 hardly +tarried, in passing, for a brief period in the capital. It was not till +the latter half of 653 that he returned to Rome, victor over the Teutones +as over the Cimbri, to celebrate his postponed triumph now with double +honours--decidedly the first man in Rome, and yet at the same time a +novice in politics. It was certain beyond dispute, not only that Marius +had saved Rome, but that he was the only man who could have saved it; +his name was on every one's lips; the men of quality acknowledged his +services; with the people he was more popular than any one before or +after him, popular alike by his virtues and by his faults, by his +unaristocratic disinterestedness no less than by his boorish roughness; +he was called by the multitude a third Romulus and a second Camillus; +libations were poured forth to him like the gods. It was no wonder that +the head of the peasant's son grew giddy at times with all this glory; +that he compared his march from Africa to Gaul to the victorious +processions of Dionysus from continent to continent, and had a cup--none +of the smallest--manufactured for his use after the model of that of +Bacchus. There was just as much of hope as of gratitude in this +delirious enthusiasm of the people, which might well have led astray +a man of colder blood and more mature political experience. The work +of Marius seemed to his admirers by no means finished. The wretched +government oppressed the land more heavily than did the barbarians: on +him, the first man of Rome, the favourite of the people, the head of the +opposition, devolved the task of once more delivering Rome. It is true +that to one who was a rustic and a soldier the political proceedings +of the capital were strange and incongruous: he spoke as ill as he +commanded well, and displayed a far firmer bearing in presence of +the lances and swords of the enemy than in presence of the applause +or hisses of the multitude; but his inclinations were of little moment. +The hopes of which he was the object constrained him. His military +and political position was such that, if he would not break with the +glorious past, if he would not deceive the expectations of his party and +in fact of the nation, if he would not be unfaithful to his own sense of +duty, he must check the maladministration of public affairs and put an +end to the government of the restoration; and if he only possessed the +internal qualities of a head of the people, he might certainly dispense +with those which he lacked as a popular leader. + +The New Military Organization + +He held in his hand a formidable weapon in the newly organized army. +Previously to his time the fundamental principle of the Servian +constitution--by which the levy was limited entirely to the burgesses +possessed of property, and the distinctions as to armour were regulated +solely by the property qualification(2)--had necessarily been in various +respects relaxed. The minimum census of 11,000 -asses- (43 pounds), +which bound its possessor to enter the burgess-army, had been lowered to +4000 (17 pounds;(3)). The older six property-classes, distinguished by +their respective kinds of armour, had been restricted to three; for, +while in accordance with the Servian organization they selected the +cavalry from the wealthiest, and the light-armed from the poorest, +of those liable to serve, they arranged the middle class, the proper +infantry of the line, no longer according to property but according to +age of service, in the three divisions of -hastati-, -principes-, and +-triarii-. They had, moreover, long ago brought in the Italian allies +to share to a very great extent in war-service; but in their case too, +just as among the Roman burgesses, military duty was chiefly imposed +on the propertied classes. Nevertheless the Roman military system down +to the time of Marius rested in the main on that primitive organization +of the burgess-militia. But it was no longer suited for the altered +circumstances. The better classes of society kept aloof more and more +from service in the army, and the Roman and Italic middle class in +general was disappearing; while on the other hand the considerable +military resources of the extra-Italian allies and subjects had become +available, and the Italian proletariate also, properly applied, afforded +at least a very useful material for military objects. The burgess- +cavalry,(4) which was meant to be formed from the class of the wealthy, +had practically ceased from service in the field even before the time of +Marius. It is last mentioned as an actual corps d'armee in the Spanish +campaign of 614, when it drove the general to despair by its insolent +arrogance and its insubordination, and a war broke out between +the troopers and the general, waged on both sides with equal +unscrupulousness. In the Jugurthine war it continues to appear merely +as a sort of guard of honour for the general and foreign princes; +thenceforth it wholly disappears. In like manner the filling up of the +complement of the legions with properly qualified persons bound to serve +proved in the ordinary course of things difficult; so that exertions, +such as were necessary after the battle of Arausio, would have been in +all probability really impracticable with the retention of the existing +rules as to the obligation of service. On the other hand even before +the time of Marius, especially in the cavalry and the light infantry, +extra-Italian subjects--the heavy mounted troopers of Thrace, the light +African cavalry, the excellent light infantry of the nimble Ligurians, +the slingers from the Baleares--were employed in ever-increasing numbers +even beyond their own provinces for the Roman armies; and at the same +time, while there was a want of qualified burgess-recruits, the non- +qualified poorer burgesses pressed forward unbidden to enter the army; +in fact, from the mass of the civic rabble without work or averse +to it, and from the considerable advantages which the Roman war-service +yielded, the enlistment of volunteers could not be difficult. It was +therefore simply a necessary consequence of the political and social +changes in the state, that its military arrangements should exhibit +a transition from the system of the burgess-levy to the system of +contingents and enlisting; that the cavalry and light troops should +be essentially formed out of the contingents of the subjects--in the +Cimbrian campaign, for instance, contingents were summoned from as far +as Bithynia; and that in the case of the infantry of the line, while +the former arrangement of obligation to service was not abolished, +every free-born burgess should at the same time be permitted voluntarily +to enter the army as was first done by Marius in 647. + +To this was added the reducing the infantry of the line to a level, +which is likewise to be referred to Marius. The Roman method of +aristocratic classification had hitherto prevailed also within the +legion. Each of the four divisions of the -velites-, the -hastati-, +the -principes-, and the -triarii---or, as we may say, the vanguard, +the first, second, and third line--had hitherto possessed its special +qualification for service, as respected property or age, and in great +part also its distinctive equipment; each had its definite place once +for all assigned in the order of battle; each had its definite military +rank and its own standard. All these distinctions were now superseded. +Any one admitted as a legionary at all needed no further qualification +in order to serve in any division; the discretion of the officers alone +decided as to his place. All distinctions of armour were set aside, and +consequently all recruits were uniformly trained. Connected, doubtless, +with this change were the various improvements which Marius introduced +in the armament, the carrying of the baggage, and similar matters, and +which furnish an honourable evidence of his insight into the practical +details of the business of war and of his care for his soldiers; and +more especially the new method of drill devised by Publius Rutilius +Rufus (consul 649) the comrade of Marius in the African war. It is a +significant fact, that this method considerably increased the military +culture of the individual soldier, and was essentially based upon the +training of the future gladiators which was usual in the fighting- +schools of the time. The arrangement of the legion became totally +different. The thirty companies (-manipuli-) of heavy infantry, which-- +each in two sections (-centuriae-) composed respectively of 60 men in +the first two, and of 30 men in the third, division--had hitherto formed +the tactical unit, were replaced by 10 cohorts (-cohortes-) each with +its own standard and each of 6, or often only of 5, sections of 100 +men apiece; so that, although at the same time 1200 men were saved by +the suppression of the light infantry of the legion, yet the total +numbers of the legion were raised from 4200 to from 5000 to 6000 men. +The custom of fighting in three divisions was retained, but, while +previously each division had formed a distinct corps, it was in future +left to the general to distribute the cohorts, of which he had the +disposal, in the three lines as he thought best. Military rank was +determined solely by the numerical order of the soldiers and of the +divisions. The four standards of the several parts of the legion--the +wolf, the ox with a man's head, the horse, the boar--which had hitherto +probably been carried before the cavalry and the three divisions of +heavy infantry, disappeared; there came instead the ensigns of the new +cohorts, and the new standard which Marius gave to the legion as a +whole--the silver eagle. While within the legion every trace of the +previous civic and aristocratic classification thus disappeared, and the +only distinctions henceforth occurring among the legionaries were purely +military, accidental circumstances had some decades earlier given +rise to a privileged division of the army alongside of the legions-- +the bodyguard of the general. Hitherto selected men from the allied +contingents had formed the personal escort of the general; the +employment of Roman legionaries, or even men voluntarily offering +themselves, for personal service with him was at variance with the +stern disciplinary obligations of the mighty commonwealth. But when the +Numantine war had reared an army demoralized beyond parallel, and Scipio +Aemilianus, who was called to check the wild disorder, had not been able +to prevail on the government to call entirely new troops under arms, he +was at least allowed to form, in addition to a number of men whom the +dependent kings and free cities outside of the Roman bounds placed at +his disposal, a personal escort of 500 men composed of volunteer Roman +burgesses (p. 230). This cohort drawn partly from the better classes, +partly from the humbler personal clients of the general, and hence +called sometimes that of the friends, sometimes that of the headquarters +(-praetoriani-), had the duty of serving in the latter (-praetorium-) +in return for which it was exempt from camp and entrenching service +and enjoyed higher pay and greater repute. + +Political Significance of the Marian Military Reform + +This complete revolution in the constitution of the Roman army seems +certainly in substance to have originated from purely military motives; +and on the whole to have been not so much the work of an individual, +least of all of a man of calculating ambition, as the remodelling which +the force of circumstances enjoined in arrangements which had become +untenable. It is probable that the introduction of the system of inland +enlistment by Marius saved the state in a military point of view from +destruction, just as several centuries afterwards Arbogast and Stilicho +prolonged its existence for a time by the introduction of foreign +enlistment. Nevertheless, it involved a complete--although not yet +developed--political revolution. The republican constitution was +essentially based on the view that the citizen was at the same time +a soldier, and that the soldier was above all a citizen; there was an +end of it, so soon as a soldier-class was formed. To this issue the +new system of drill, with its routine borrowed from the professional +gladiator, could not but lead; the military service became gradually +a profession. Far more rapid was the effect of the admission--though +but limited--of the proletariate to participate in military service; +especially in connection with the primitive maxims, which conceded to +the general an arbitrary right of rewarding his soldiers compatible only +with very solid republican institutions, and gave to the capable and +successful soldier a sort of title to demand from the general a share +of the moveable spoil and from the stale a portion of the soil that had +been won. While the burgess or farmer called out under the levy saw in +military service nothing but a burden to be undertaken for the public +good, and in the gains of war nothing but a slight compensation for the +far more considerable loss brought upon him by serving, it was otherwise +with the enlisted proletarian. Not only was he for the moment solely +dependent upon his pay, but, as there was no Hotel des Invalides nor +even a poorhouse to receive him after his discharge, for the future +also he could not but wish to abide by his standard, and not to leave +it otherwise than with the establishment of his civic status, His only +home was the camp, his only science war, his only hope the general--what +this implied, is clear. When Marius after the engagement on the Raudine +plain unconstitutionally gave Roman citizenship on the very field +of battle to two cohorts of Italian allies en masse for their brave +conduct, he justified himself afterwards by saying that amidst the noise +of battle he had not been able to distinguish the voice of the laws. +If once in more important questions the interest of the army and that +of the general should concur to produce unconstitutional demands, +who could be security that then other laws also would not cease to +be heard amid the clashing of swords? They had now the standing army, +the soldier-class, the bodyguard; as in the civil constitution, so also +in the military, all the pillars of the future monarchy were already +in existence: the monarch alone was wanting. When the twelve eagles +circled round the Palatine hill, they ushered in the reign of the Kings; +the new eagle which Gaius Marius bestowed on the legions proclaimed +the near advent of the Emperors. + +Political Projects of Marius + +There is hardly any doubt that Marius entered into the brilliant +prospects which his military and political position opened up to him. +It was a sad and troubled time. Men had peace, but they were not glad +of having it; the state of things was not now such as it had formerly +been after the first mighty onset of the men of the north on Rome, when, +so soon as the crisis was over, all energies were roused anew in the +fresh consciousness of recovered health, and had by their vigorous +development rapidly and amply made up for what was lost. Every one felt +that, though able generals might still once and again avert immediate +destruction, the commonwealth was only the more surely on the way to +ruin under the government of the restored oligarchy; but every one felt +also that the time was past when in such cases the burgess-body came to +its own help, and that there was no amendment so long as the place of +Gaius Gracchus remained empty. How deeply the multitude felt the blank +that was left after the disappearance of those two illustrious youths +who had opened the gates to revolution, and how childishly in fact it +grasped at any shadow of a substitute, was shown by the case of the +pretended son of Tiberius Gracchus, who, although the very sister of +the two Gracchi charged him with fraud in the open Forum, was yet chosen +by the people in 655 as tribune solely on account of his usurped name. +In the same spirit the multitude exulted in the presence of Gaius +Marius; how should it not? He, if any one, seemed the right man--he +was at any rate the first general and the most popular name of his time, +confessedly brave and upright, and recommended as regenerator of the +state by his very position aloof from the proceedings of party--how +should not the people, how should not he himself, have held that he was +so! Public opinion as decidedly as possible favoured the opposition. +It was a significant indication of this, that the proposal to have the +vacant stalls in the chief priestly colleges filled up by the burgesses +instead of the colleges themselves--which the government had frustrated +in the comitia in 609 by the suggestion of religious scruples--was +carried in 650 by Gnaeus Domitius without the senate having been able +even to venture a serious resistance. On the whole it seemed as if +nothing was wanted but a chief, who should give to the opposition a firm +rallying point and a practical aim; and this was now found in Marius. + +For the execution of his task two methods of operation offered +themselves; Marius might attempt to overthrow the oligarchy either as +-imperator- at the head of the army, or in the mode prescribed by the +constitution for constitutional changes: his own past career pointed to +the former course, the precedent of Gracchus to the latter. It is easy +to understand why he did not adopt the former plan, perhaps did not even +think of the possibility of adopting it The senate was or seemed so +powerless and helpless, so hated and despised, that Marius conceived +himself scarcely to need any other support in opposing it than his +immense popularity, but hoped in case of necessity to find such a +support, notwithstanding the dissolution of the army, in the soldiers +discharged and waiting for their rewards. It is probable that Marius, +looking to Gracchus' easy and apparently almost complete victory and to +his own resources far surpassing those of Gracchus, deemed the overthrow +of a constitution four hundred years old, and intimately bound up with +the manifold habits and interests of the body-politic arranged in a +complicated hierarchy, a far easier task than it was. But any one, who +looked more deeply into the difficulties of the enterprise than Marius +probably did, might reflect that the army, although in the course of +transition from a militia to a body of mercenaries, was still during +this state of transition by no means adapted for the blind instrument of +a coup d'etat, and that an attempt to set aside the resisting elements +by military means would have probably augmented the power of resistance +in his antagonists. To mix up the organized armed force in the struggle +could not but appear at the first glance superfluous and at the second +hazardous; they were just at the beginning of the crisis, and the +antagonistic elements were still far from having reached their last, +shortest, and simplest expression. + +The Popular Party + +Marius therefore discharged the army after his triumph in accordance +with the existing regulation, and entered on the course traced out by +Gaius Gracchus for procuring to himself supremacy in the state by +undertaking its constitutional magistracies. In this enterprise he +found himself dependent for support on what was called the popular +party, and sought his allies in its leaders for the time being all +the more, that the victorious general by no means possessed the gifts +and experiences requisite for the command of the streets. Thus the +democratic party after long insignificance suddenly regained political +importance. It had, in the long interval from Gaius Gracchus to Marius, +materially deteriorated. Perhaps the dissatisfaction with the +senatorial government was not now less than it was then; but several +of the hopes, which had brought to the Gracchi their most faithful +adherents, had in the meanwhile been recognized as illusory, and there +had sprung up in many minds a misgiving that this Gracchan agitation +tended towards an issue whither a very large portion of the discontented +were by no means willing to follow it. In fact, amidst the chase and +turmoil of twenty years there had been rubbed off and worn away very +much of the fresh enthusiasm, the steadfast faith, the moral purity +of effort, which mark the early stages of revolutions. But, if the +democratic party was no longer what it had been under Gaius Gracchus, +the leaders of the intervening period were now as far beneath their +party as Gaius Gracchus had been exalted above it. This was implied +in the nature of the case. Until there should emerge a man having +the boldness like Gaius Gracchus to grasp at the supremacy of the state, +the leaders could only be stopgaps: either political novices, who gave +furious vent to their youthful love of opposition and then, when duly +accredited as fiery declaimers and favourite speakers, effected with +more or less dexterity their retreat to the camp of the government +party; or people who had nothing to lose in respect of property and +influence, and usually not even anything to gain in respect of honour, +and who made it their business to obstruct and annoy the government +from personal exasperation or even from the mere pleasure of creating a +noise. To the former sort belonged, for instance, Gaius Memmius(5) and +the well-known orator Lucius Crassus, who turned the oratorical laurels +which they had won in the ranks of the opposition to account in the +sequel as zealous partisans of the government. + +Glaucia +Saturninus + +But the most notable leaders of the popular party about this time were +men of the second sort. Such were Gaius Servilius Glaucia, called by +Cicero the Roman Hyperbolus, a vulgar fellow of the lowest origin and of +the most shameless street-eloquence, but effective and even dreaded by +reason of his pungent wit; and his better and abler associate, Lucius +Appuleius Saturninus, who even according to the accounts of his enemies +was a fiery and impressive speaker, and was at least not guided by +motives of vulgar selfishness. When he was quaestor, the charge of the +importation of corn, which had fallen to him in the usual way, had been +withdrawn from him by decree of the senate, not so much perhaps on +account of maladministration, as in order to confer this--just at that +time popular--office on one of the heads of the government party, Marcus +Scaurus, rather than upon an unknown young man belonging to none of +the ruling families. This mortification had driven the aspiring and +sensitive man into the ranks of the opposition; and as tribune of +the people in 651 he repaid what he had received with interest. +One scandalous affair had at that time followed hard upon another. +He had spoken in the open market of the briberies practised in Rome +by the envoys of king Mithradates--these revelations, compromising in +the highest degree the senate, had wellnigh cost the bold tribune his +life. He had excited a tumult against the conqueror of Numidia, Quintus +Metellus, when he was a candidate for the censorship in 652, and kept +him besieged in the Capitol till the equites liberated him not without +bloodshed; the retaliatory measure of the censor Metellus--the expulsion +with infamy of Saturninus and of Glaucia from the senate on occasion of +the revision of the senatorial roll--had only miscarried through the +remissness of the colleague assigned to Metellus. Saturninus mainly had +carried that exceptional commission against Caepio and his associates(6) +in spite of the most vehement resistance by the government party; and in +opposition to the same he had carried the keenly-contested re-election +of Marius as consul for 652. Saturninus was decidedly the most +energetic enemy of the senate and the most active and eloquent leader +of the popular party since Gaius Gracchus; but he was also violent +and unscrupulous beyond any of his predecessors, always ready to +descend into the street and to refute his antagonist with blows +instead of words. + +Such were the two leaders of the so-called popular party, who now made +common cause with the victorious general. It was natural that they +should do so; their interests and aims coincided, and even in the +earlier candidatures of Marius Saturninus at least had most decidedly +and most effectively taken his side. It was agreed between them that +for 654 Marius should become a candidate for a sixth consulship, +Saturninus for a second tribunate, Glaucia for the praetorship, in order +that, possessed of these offices, they might carry out the intended +revolution in the state. The senate acquiesced in the nomination of +the less dangerous Glaucia, but did what it could to hinder the election +of Marius and Saturninus, or at least to associate with the former a +determined antagonist in the person of Quintus Metellus as his colleague +in the consulship. All appliances, lawful and unlawful, were put in +motion by both parties; but the senate was not successful in arresting +the dangerous conspiracy in the bud. Marius did not disdain in person +to solicit votes and, it was said, even to purchase them; in fact, at +the tribunician elections when nine men from the list of the government +party were proclaimed, and the tenth place seemed already secured for a +respectable man of the same complexion Quintus Nunnius, the latter was +set upon and slain by a savage band, which is said to have been mainly +composed of discharged soldiers of Marius. Thus the conspirators gained +their object, although by the most violent means. Marius was chosen as +consul, Glaucia as praetor, Saturninus as tribune of the people for 654; +the second consular place was obtained not by Quintus Metellus, but by +an insignificant man, Lucius Valerius Flaccus: the confederates might +proceed to put into execution the further schemes which they +contemplated and to complete the work broken off in 633. + +The Appuleian Laws + +Let us recall the objects which Gaius Gracchus pursued, and the means +by which he pursued them. His object was to break down the oligarchy +within and without. He aimed, on the one hand, to restore the power of +the magistrates, which had become completely dependent on the senate, to +its original sovereign rights, and to re-convert the senatorial assembly +from a governing into a deliberative board; and, on the other hand, to +put an end to the aristocratic division of the state into the three +classes of the ruling burgesses, the Italian allies, and the subjects, +by the gradual equalization of those distinctions which were +incompatible with a government not oligarchical. These ideas the three +confederates revived in the colonial laws, which Saturninus as tribune +of the people had partly introduced already (651), partly now introduced +(654).(7) As early as the former year the interrupted distribution of +the Carthaginian territory had been resumed primarily for the benefit of +the soldiers of Marius--not the burgesses only but, as it would seem, +also the Italian allies--and each of these veterans had been promised an +allotment of 100 -jugera-, or about five times the size of an ordinary +Italian farm, in the province of Africa. Now not only was the +provincial land already available claimed in its widest extent for +the Romano-Italian emigration, but also all the land of the still +independent Celtic tribes beyond the Alps, by virtue of the legal +fiction that through the conquest of the Cimbri all the territory +occupied by these had been acquired de jure by the Romans. Gaius Marius +was called to conduct the assignations of land and the farther measures +that might appear necessary in this behalf; and the temple-treasures of +Tolosa, which had been embezzled but were refunded or had still to be +refunded by the guilty aristocrats, were destined for the outfit of the +new receivers of land. This law therefore not only revived the plans of +conquest beyond the Alps and the projects of Transalpine and transmarine +colonization, which Gaius Gracchus and Flaccus had sketched, on the most +extensive scale; but, by admitting the Italians along with the Romans +to emigration and yet undoubtedly prescribing the erection of all the +new communities as burgess-colonies, it formed a first step towards +satisfying the claims--to which it was so difficult to give effect, and +which yet could not be in the long run refused--of the Italians to be +placed on an equality with the Romans. First of all, however, if the +law passed and Marius was called to the independent carrying out of +these immense schemes of conquest and assignation, he would become +practically--until those plans should be realized or rather, considering +their indefinite and unlimited character, for his lifetime--monarch of +Rome; with which view it may be presumed that Marius intended to have +his consulship annually renewed, like the tribunate of Gracchus. But, +amidst the agreement of the political positions marked out for the +younger Gracchus and for Marius in all other essential particulars, +there was yet a very material distinction between the land-assigning +tribune and the land-assigning consul in the fact, that the former was +to occupy a purely civil position, the latter a military position as +well; a distinction, which partly but by no means solely arose out of +the personal circumstances under which the two men had risen to the head +of the state. While such was the nature of the aim which Marius and his +comrades had proposed to themselves, the next question related to the +means by which they purposed to break down the resistance--which might +be anticipated to be obstinate--of the government party. Gaius Gracchus +had fought his battles with the aid of the capitalist class and the +proletariate. His successors did not neglect to make advances likewise +to these. The equites were not only left in possession of the +tribunals, but their power as jurymen was considerably increased, partly +by a stricter ordinance regarding the standing commission--especially +important to the merchants--as to extortions on the part of the public +magistrates in the provinces, which Glaucia carried probably in this +year, partly by the special tribunal, appointed doubtless as early as +651 on the proposal of Saturninus, respecting the embezzlements and +other official malversations that had occurred during the Cimbrian +movement in Gaul. For the benefit, moreover, of the proletariate of +the capital the sum below cost price, which hitherto had to be paid on +occasion of the distributions of grain for the -modius-, was lowered +from 6 1/3 -asses- to a mere nominal charge of 5/6 of an -as-. +But although they did not despise the alliance with the equites and +the proletariate of the capital, the real power by which the confederates +enforced their measures lay not in these, but in the discharged soldiers +of the Marian army, who for that very reason had been provided for in +the colonial laws themselves after so extravagant a fashion. In this +also was evinced the predominating military character, which forms +the chief distinction between this attempt at revolution and that +which preceded it. + +Violent Proceedings in the Voting + +They went to work accordingly. The corn and colonial laws encountered, +as was to be expected, the keenest opposition from the government. +They proved in the senate by striking figures, that the former must +make the public treasury bankrupt; Saturninus did not trouble himself +about that. They brought tribunician intercession to bear against +both laws; Saturninus ordered the voting to go on. They informed +the magistrates presiding at the voting that a peal of thunder had +been heard, a portent by which according to ancient belief the gods +enjoined the dismissal of the public assembly; Saturninus remarked +to the messengers that the senate would do well to keep quiet, otherwise +the thunder might very easily be followed by hail. Lastly the urban +quaestor, Quintus Caepio, the son, it may be presumed, of the general +condemned three years before,(8) and like his father a vehement +antagonist of the popular party, with a band of devoted partisans +dispersed the comitia by violence. But the tough soldiers of Marius, +who had flocked in crowds to Rome to vote on this occasion, quickly +rallied and dispersed the city bands, and on the voting ground thus +reconquered the vote on the Appuleian laws was successfully brought to +an end. The scandal was grievous; but when it came to the question +whether the senate would comply with the clause of the law that +within five days after its passing every senator should on pain of +forfeiting his senatorial seat take an oath faithfully to observe it, +all the senators took the oath with the single exception of Quintus +Metellus, who preferred to go into exile. Marius and Saturninus +were not displeased to see the best general and the ablest man among +the opposing party removed from the state by voluntary banishment. + +The Fall of the Revolutionary Party + +Their object seemed to be attained; but even now to those who saw +more clearly the enterprise could not but appear a failure. The cause +of the failure lay mainly in the awkward alliance between a politically +incapable general and a street-demagogue, capable but recklessly +violent, and filled with passion rather than with the aims of a +statesman. They had agreed excellently, so long as the question related +only to plans. But when the plans came to be executed, it was very soon +apparent that the celebrated general was in politics utterly incapable; +that his ambition was that of the farmer who would cope with and, +if possible, surpass the aristocrats in titles, and not that of the +statesman who desires to govern because he feels within him the power +to do so; that every enterprise, which was based on his personal standing +as a politician, must necessarily even under the most favourable +circumstances be ruined by himself. + +Opposition of the Whole Aristocracy + +He knew neither the art of gaining his antagonists, nor that of keeping +his own party in subjection. The opposition against him and his +comrades was even of itself sufficiently considerable; for not only did +the government party belong to it in a body, but also a great part of +the burgesses, who guarded with jealous eyes their exclusive privileges +against the Italians; and by the course which things took the whole +class of the wealthy was also driven over to the government. Saturninus +and Glaucia were from the first masters and servants of the proletariate +and therefore not at all on a good footing with the moneyed aristocracy, +which had no objection now and then to keep the senate in check by means +of the rabble, but had no liking for street-riots and violent outrages. +As early as the first tribunate of Saturninus his armed bands had their +skirmishes with the equites; the vehement opposition which his election +as tribune for 654 encountered shows clearly how small was the party +favourable to him. It should have been the endeavour of Marius to avail +himself of the dangerous help of such associates only in moderation, +and to convince all and sundry that they were destined not to rule, but +to serve him as the ruler. As he did precisely the contrary, and the +matter came to look quite as if the object was to place the government +in the hands not of an intelligent and vigorous master, but of the mere +-canaille-, the men of material interests, terrified to death at the +prospect of such confusion, again attached themselves closely to the +senate in presence of this common danger. While Gaius Gracchus, clearly +perceiving that no government could be overthrown by means of the +proletariate alone, had especially sought to gain over to his side +the propertied classes, those who desired to continue his work began by +producing a reconciliation between the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie. + +Variance between Marius and the Demogogues + +But the ruin of the enterprise was brought about, still more rapidly +than by this reconciliation of enemies, through the dissension which +the more than ambiguous behaviour of Marius necessarily produced among +its promoters. While the decisive proposals were brought forward by +his associates and carried after a struggle by his soldiers, Marius +maintained an attitude wholly passive, just as if the political leader +was not bound quite as much as the military, when the brunt of battle +came, to present himself everywhere and foremost in person. Nor was +this all; he was terrified at, and fled from the presence of, the +spirits which he had himself evoked. When his associates resorted to +expedients which an honourable man could not approve, but without which +in fact the object of their efforts could not be attained, he attempted, +in the fashion usual with men whose ideas of political morality are +confused, to wash his hands of participation in those crimes and at the +same time to profit by their results. There is a story that the general +once conducted secret negotiations in two different rooms of his house, +with Saturninus and his partisans in the one, and with the deputies of +the oligarchy in the other, talking with the former of striking a blow +against the senate, and with the latter of interfering against the +revolt, and that under a pretext which was in keeping with the anxiety +of the situation he went to and fro between the two conferences--a story +as certainly invented, and as certainly appropriate, as any incident in +Aristophanes. The ambiguous attitude of Marius became notorious in the +question of the oath. At first he seemed as though he would himself +refuse the oath required by the Appuleian laws on account of the +informalities that had occurred at their passing, and then swore it with +the reservation, "so far as the laws were really valid"; a reservation +which annulled the oath itself, and which of course all the senators +likewise adopted in swearing, so that by this mode of taking the oath +the validity of the laws was not secured, but on the contrary was for +the first time really called in question. + +The consequences of this behaviour--stupid beyond parallel--on the part +of the celebrated general soon developed themselves. Saturninus and +Glaucia had not undertaken the revolution and procured for Marius +the supremacy of the state, in order that they might be disowned and +sacrificed by him; if Glaucia, the favourite jester of the people, had +hitherto lavished on Marius the gayest flowers of his jovial eloquence, +the garlands which he now wove for him were by no means redolent of +roses and violets. A total rupture took place, by which both parties +were lost; for Marius had not a footing sufficiently firm singly to +maintain the colonial law which he had himself called in question and +to possess himself of the position which it assigned to him, nor were +Saturninus and Glaucia in a condition to continue on their own account +the work which Marius had begun. + +Saturninus Isolated +Saturninus Assailed and Overpowered + +But the two demagogues were so compromised that they could not recede; +they had no alternative save to resign their offices in the usual way +and thereby to deliver themselves with their hands bound to their +exasperated opponents, or now to grasp the sceptre for themselves, +although they felt that they could not bear its weight. They resolved +on the latter course; Saturninus would come forward once more as a +candidate for the tribunate of the people for 655, Glaucia, although +praetor and not eligible for the consulship till two years had elapsed, +would become a candidate for the latter. In fact the tribunician +elections were decided entirely to their mind, and the attempt of +Marius to prevent the spurious Tiberius Gracchus from soliciting the +tribuneship served only to show the celebrated man what was now the +worth of his popularity; the multitude broke the doors of the prison in +which Gracchus was confined, bore him in triumph through the streets, +and elected him by a great majority as their tribune. Saturninus and +Glaucia sought to control the more important consular election by the +expedient for the removal of inconvenient competitors which had been +tried in the previous year; the counter-candidate of the government +party, Gaius Memmius--the same who eleven years before had led the +opposition against them(9)--was suddenly assailed by a band of ruffians +and beaten to death. But the government party had only waited for a +striking event of this sort in order to employ force. The senate +required the consul Gaius Marius to interfere, and the latter in reality +professed his readiness now to draw for the conservative party the +sword, which he had obtained from the democracy and had promised to +wield on its behalf. The young men were hastily called out, equipped +with arms from the public buildings, and drawn up in military array; the +senate itself appeared under arms in the Forum, with its venerable chief +Marcus Scaurus at its head. The opposite party were doubtless superior +in a street-riot, but were not prepared for such an attack; they had now +to defend themselves as they could. They broke open the doors of the +prisons, and called the slaves to liberty and to arms; they proclaimed-- +so it was said at any rate--Saturninus as king or general; on the day +when the new tribunes of the people had to enter on their office, the +10th of December 654, a battle occurred in the great market-place--the +first which, since Rome existed, had ever been fought within the walls +of the capital. The issue was not for a moment doubtful. The Populares +were beaten and driven up to the Capitol, where the supply of water was +cut off from them and they were thus compelled to surrender. Marius, +who held the chief command, would gladly have saved the lives of his +former allies who were now his prisoners; Saturninus proclaimed to the +multitude that all which he had proposed had been done in concert with +the consul: even a worse man than Marius was could not but shudder at +the inglorious part which he played on this day. But he had long ceased +to be master of affairs. Without orders the youth of rank climbed +the roof of the senate-house in the Forum where the prisoners were +temporarily confined, stripped off the tiles, and with these stoned +their victims. Thus Saturninus perished with most of the more notable +prisoners. Glaucia was found in a lurking-place and likewise put +to death. Without sentence or trial there died on this day four +magistrates of the Roman people--a praetor, a quaestor, and two +tribunes of the people--and a number of other well-known men, some of +whom belonged to good families. In spite of the grave faults by which +the chiefs had invited on themselves this bloody retribution, we may +nevertheless lament them: they fell like advanced posts, which are left +unsupported by the main army and are forced to perish without aim in +a conflict of despair. + +Ascendency of the Government +Marius Politically Annihilated + +Never had the government party achieved a more complete victory, never +had the opposition suffered a more severe defeat, than on this 10th of +December. It was the least part of the success that they had got rid +of some troublesome brawlers, whose places might be supplied any day by +associates of a like stamp; it was of greater moment that the only man, +who was then in a position to become dangerous to the government, had +publicly and completely effected his own annihilation; and most +important of all that the two elements of the opposition, the capitalist +order and the proletariate, emerged from the strife wholly at variance. +It is true that this was not the work of the government; the fabric +which had been put together by the adroit hands of Gaius Gracchus +had been broken up, partly by the force of circumstances, partly +and especially by the coarse and boorish management of his incapable +successor; but in the result it mattered not whether calculation or good +fortune helped the government to its victory. A more pitiful position +can hardly be conceived than that occupied by the hero of Aquae and +Vercellae after such a disaster--all the more pitiful, because people +could not but compare it with the lustre which only a few months before +surrounded the same man. No one either on the aristocratic or the +democratic side any longer thought of the victorious general on occasion +of filling up the magistracies; the hero of six consulships could not +even venture to become a candidate in 656 for the censorship. He went +away to the east, ostensibly for the purpose of fulfilling a vow there, +but in reality that he might not be a witness of the triumphant return +of his mortal foe Quintus Metellus; he was allowed to go. He returned +and opened his house; his halls stood empty. He always hoped that +conflicts and battles would occur and that the people would once +more need his experienced arm; he thought to provide himself with an +opportunity for war in the east, where the Romans might certainly have +found sufficient occasion for energetic interference. But this also +miscarried, like every other of his wishes; profound peace continued +to prevail. Yet the longing after honours once aroused within him, +the oftener it was disappointed, ate the more deeply into his heart. +Superstitious as he was, he cherished in his bosom an old oracular +saying which had promised him seven consulships, and in gloomy +meditation brooded over the means by which this utterance was to +obtain its fulfilment and he his revenge, while he appeared to all, +himself alone excepted, insignificant and innocuous. + +The Equestrian Party + +Still more important in its consequences than the setting aside of the +dangerous man was the deep exasperation against the Populares, as they +were called, which the insurrection of Saturninus left behind in the +party of material interests. With the most remorseless severity the +equestrian tribunals condemned every one who professed oppositional +views; Sextus Titius, for instance, was condemned not so much on +account of his agrarian law as because he had in his house a statue of +Saturninus; Gaius Appuleius Decianus was condemned, because he had as +tribune of the people characterized the proceedings against Saturninus +as illegal. Even for earlier injuries inflicted by the Populares on +the aristocracy satisfaction was now demanded, not without prospect of +success, before the equestrian tribunals. Because Gaius Norbanus had +eight years previously in concert with Saturninus driven the consular +Quintus Caepio into exile(10) he was now (659) on the ground of his own +law accused of high treason, and the jurymen hesitated long--not whether +the accused was guilty or innocent, but whether his ally Saturninus +or his enemy Caepio was to be regarded as the most deserving of their +hate--till at last they decided for acquittal. Even if people were not +more favourably disposed towards the government in itself than before, +yet, after having found themselves, although but for a moment, on the +verge of a real mob-rule, all men who had anything to lose viewed the +existing government in a different light; it was notoriously wretched +and pernicious for the state, but the anxious dread of the still more +wretched and still more pernicious government of the proletariate had +conferred on it a relative value. The current now set so much in that +direction that the multitude tore in pieces a tribune of the people +who had ventured to postpone the return of Quintus Metellus, and the +democrats began to seek their safety in league with murderers and +poisoners--ridding themselves, for example, of the hated Metellus +by poison--or even in league with the public enemy, several of them +already taking refuge at the court of king Mithradates who was secretly +preparing for war against Rome. External relations also assumed an +aspect favourable for the government. The Roman arms were employed but +little in the period from the Cimbrian to the Social war, but everywhere +with honour. The only serious conflict was in Spain, where, during +the recent years so trying for Rome (649 seq.), the Lusitanians and +Celtiberians had risen with unwonted vehemence against the Romans. +In the years 656-661 the consul Titus Didius in the northern and the consul +Publius Crassus in the southern province not only re-established with +valour and good fortune the ascendency of the Roman arms, but also razed +the refractory towns and, where it seemed necessary, transplanted the +population of the strong mountain-towns to the plains. We shall show in +the sequel that about the same time the Roman government again directed +its attention to the east which had been for a generation neglected, +and displayed greater energy than had for long been heard of in Cyrene, +Syria, and Asia Minor. Never since the commencement of the revolution +had the government of the restoration been so firmly established, or so +popular. Consular laws were substituted for tribunician; restrictions +on liberty replaced measures of progress. The cancelling of the laws of +Saturninus was a matter of course; the transmarine colonies of Marius +disappeared down to a single petty settlement on the barbarous island +of Corsica. When the tribune of the people Sextus Titius--a caricatured +Alcibiades, who was greater in dancing and ball-playing than in +politics, and whose most prominent talent consisted in breaking the +images of the gods in the streets at night--re-introduced and carried +the Appuleian agrarian law in 655, the senate was able to annul the new +law on a religious pretext without any one even attempting to defend it; +the author of it was punished, as we have already mentioned, by the +equites in their tribunals. Next year (656) a law brought in by the +two consuls made the usual four-and-twenty days' interval between the +introduction and the passing of a project of law obligatory, and forbade +the combination of several enactments different in their nature in one +proposal; by which means the unreasonable extension of the initiative +in legislation was at least somewhat restricted, and the government was +prevented from being openly taken by surprise with new laws. It became +daily more evident that the Gracchan constitution, which had survived +the fall of its author, was now, since the multitude and the moneyed +aristocracy no longer went together, tottering to its foundations. +As that constitution had been based on division in the ranks of +the aristocracy, so it seemed that dissensions in the ranks of the +opposition could not but bring about its fall. Now, if ever, the +time had come for completing the unfinished work of restoration of 633, +for making the Gracchan constitution share the fate of the tyrant, +and for replacing the governing oligarchy in the sole possession +of political power. + +Collision between the Senate and Equites in the Administration of +the Provinces + +Everything depended on recovering the nomination of the jurymen. +The administration of the provinces--the chief foundation of the +senatorial government--had become dependent on the jury courts, more +particularly on the commission regarding exactions, to such a degree +that the governor of a province seemed to administer it no longer for +the senate, but for the order of capitalists and merchants. Ready as +the moneyed aristocracy always was to meet the views of the government +when measures against the democrats were in question, it sternly +resented every attempt to restrict it in this its well-acquired right +of unlimited sway in the provinces. Several such attempts were now +made; the governing aristocracy began again to come to itself, and +its very best men reckoned themselves bound, at least for their +own part, to oppose the dreadful maladministration in the provinces. +The most resolute in this respect was Quintus Mucius Scaevola, like +his father Publius -pontifex maximus- and in 659 consul, the foremost +jurist and one of the most excellent men of his time. As praetorian +governor (about 656) of Asia, the richest and worst-abused of all the +provinces, he--in concert with his older friend, distinguished as an +officer, jurist, and historian, the consular Publius Rutilius Rufus-- +set a severe and deterring example. Without making any distinction +between Italians and provincials, noble and ignoble, he took up every +complaint, and not only compelled the Roman merchants and state-lessees +to give full pecuniary compensation for proven injuries, but, when some +of their most important and most unscrupulous agents were found guilty +of crimes deserving death, deaf to all offers of bribery he ordered them +to be duly crucified. The senate approved his conduct, and even made it +an instruction afterwards to the governors of Asia that they should take +as their model the principles of Scaevola's administration; but the +equites, although they did not venture to meddle with that highly +aristocratic and influential statesman himself, brought to trial his +associates and ultimately (about 662) even the most considerable of +them, his legate Publius Rufus, who was defended only by his merits +and recognized integrity, not by family connection. The charge that +such a man had allowed himself to perpetrate exactions in Asia, almost +broke down under its own absurdity and under the infamy of the accuser, +one Apicius; yet the welcome opportunity of humbling the consular was +not allowed to pass, and, when the latter, disdaining false rhetoric, +mourning robes, and tears, defended himself briefly, simply, and to +the point, and proudly refused the homage which the sovereign capitalists +desired, he was actually condemned, and his moderate property was +confiscated to satisfy fictitious claims for compensation. The condemned +resorted to the province which he was alleged to have plundered, and +there, welcomed by all the communities with honorary deputations, and +praised and beloved during his lifetime, he spent in literary leisure +his remaining days. And this disgraceful condemnation, while perhaps +the worst, was by no means the only case of the sort. The senatorial +party was exasperated, not so much perhaps by such abuse of justice in +the case of men of stainless walk but of new nobility, as by the fact +that the purest nobility no longer sufficed to cover possible stains +on its honour. Scarcely was Rufus out of the country, when the most +respected of all aristocrats, for twenty years the chief of the senate, +Marcus Scaurus at seventy years of age was brought to trial for exactions; +a sacrilege according to aristocratic notions, even if he were guilty. +The office of accuser began to be exercised professionally by worthless +fellows, and neither irreproachable character, nor rank, nor age longer +furnished protection from the most wicked and most dangerous attacks. +The commission regarding exactions was converted from a shield of the +provincials into their worst scourge; the most notorious robber escaped +with impunity, if he only indulged his fellow-robbers and did not refuse +to allow part of the sums exacted to reach the jury; but any attempt +to respond to the equitable demands of the provincials for right and +justice sufficed for condemnation. It seemed as if the intention was to +bring the Roman government into the same dependence on the controlling +court, as that in which the college of judges at Carthage had formerly +held the council there. The prescient expression of Gaius Gracchus was +finding fearful fulfilment, that with the dagger of his law as to the +jurymen the world of quality would lacerate itself. + +Livius Drusus + +An attack on the equestrian courts was inevitable. Every one in the +government party who was still alive to the fact that governing implies +not merely rights but also duties, every one in fact who still felt any +nobler or prouder ambition within him, could not but rise in revolt +against this oppressive and disgraceful political control, which +precluded any possibility of upright administration. The scandalous +condemnation of Rutilius Rufus seemed a summons to begin the attack at +once, and Marcus Livius Drusus, who was tribune of the people in 663, +regarded that summons as specially addressed to himself. Son of the man +of the same name, who thirty years before had primarily caused the +overthrow of Gaius Gracchus(11) and had afterwards made himself a name +as an officer by the subjugation of the Scordisci,(12) Drusus was, like +his father, of strictly conservative views, and had already given +practical proof that such were his sentiments in the insurrection of +Saturninus. He belonged to the circle of the highest nobility, and was +the possessor of a colossal fortune; in disposition too he was a genuine +aristocrat--a man emphatically proud, who scorned to bedeck himself with +the insignia of his offices, but declared on his death-bed that there +would not soon arise a citizen like to him; a man with whom the +beautiful saying, that nobility implies obligation, was and continued +to be the rule of his life. With all the vehement earnestness of his +temperament he had turned away from the frivolity and venality that +marked the nobles of the common stamp; trustworthy and strict in morals, +he was respected rather than properly beloved on the part of the common +people, to whom his door and his purse were always open, and +notwithstanding his youth, he was through the personal dignity of his +character a man of weight in the senate as in the Forum. Nor did he +stand alone. Marcus Scaurus had the courage on occasion of his defence +in the trial for extortion publicly to summon Drusus to undertake a +reform of the judicial arrangements; he and the famous orator, Lucius +Crassus, were in the senate the most zealous champions of his proposals, +and were perhaps associated with him in originating them. But the mass +of the governing aristocracy was by no means of the same mind with +Drusus, Scaurus, and Crassus. There were not wanting in the senate +decided adherents of the capitalist party, among whom in particular a +conspicuous place belonged to the consul of the day, Lucius Marcius +Philippus, who maintained the cause of the equestrian order as he had +formerly maintained that of the democracy(13) with zeal and prudence, +and to the daring and reckless Quintus Caepio, who was induced to this +opposition primarily by his personal hostility to Drusus and Scaurus. +More dangerous, however, than these decided opponents was the cowardly +and corrupt mass of the aristocracy, who no doubt would have preferred +to plunder the provinces alone, but in the end had not much objection to +share the spoil with the equites, and, instead of taking in hand the +grave and perilous struggle against the haughty capitalists, reckoned +it far more equitable and easy to purchase impunity at their hands by +fair words and by an occasional prostration or even by a round sum. +The result alone could show how far success would attend the attempt to +carry along with the movement this body, without which it was impossible +to attain the desired end. + +Attempt at Reform on the Part of the Moderate Party + +Drusus drew up a proposal to withdraw the functions of jurymen from +the burgesses of equestrian rating and to restore them to the senate, +which at the same time was to be put in a position to meet its increased +obligations by the admission of 300 new members; a special criminal +commission was to be appointed for pronouncing judgment in the case +of those jurymen who had been or should be guilty of accepting bribes. +By this means the immediate object was gained; the capitalists were +deprived of their political exclusive rights, and were rendered +responsible for the perpetration of injustice. But the proposals +and designs of Drusus were by no means limited to this; his projects +were not measures adapted merely for the occasion, but a comprehensive +and thoroughly-considered plan of reform. He proposed, moreover, +to increase the largesses of grain and to cover the increased expense +by the permanent issue of a proportional number of copper plated, +alongside of the silver, -denarii-; and then to set apart all the +still undistributed arable land of Italy--thus including in particular +the Campanian domains--and the best part of Sicily for the settlement +of burgess-colonists. Lastly, he entered into the most distinct +obligations towards the Italian allies to procure for them the Roman +franchise. Thus the very same supports of power and the very same ideas +of reform, on which the constitution of Gaius Gracchus had rested, +presented themselves now on the side of the aristocracy--a singular, +and yet easily intelligible coincidence. It was only to be expected +that, as the -tyrannis- had rested for its support against the oligarchy, +so the latter should rest for its support against the moneyed aristocracy, +on the paid and in some degree organized proletariate; while the +government had formerly accepted the feeding of the proletariate at +the expense of the state as an inevitable evil, Drusus now thought of +employing it, at least for the moment, against the moneyed aristocracy. +It was only to be expected that the better part of the aristocracy, just +as it formerly consented to the agrarian law of Tiberius Gracchus, would +now readily consent to all those measures of reform, which, without +touching the question of a supreme head, only aimed at the cure of the +old evils of the state. In the question of emigration and colonization, +it is true, they could not go so far as the democracy, since the power +of the oligarchy mainly rested on their free control over the provinces +and was endangered by any permanent military command; the ideas of +equalizing Italy and the provinces and of making conquests beyond the +Alps were not compatible with conservative principles. But the senate +might very well sacrifice the Latin and even the Campanian domains +as well as Sicily in order to raise the Italian farmer class, and +yet retain the government as before; to which fell to be added the +consideration, that they could not more effectually obviate future +agitations than by providing that all the land at all disposable should +be brought to distribution by the aristocracy itself, and that according +to Drusus' own expression, nothing should be left for future demagogues +to distribute but "the street-dirt and the daylight." In like manner it +was for the government--whether that might be a monarch, or a close +number of ruling families--very much a matter of indifference whether +the half or the whole of Italy possessed the Roman franchise; and hence +the reforming men on both sides probably could not but coincide in the +idea of averting the danger of a recurrence of the insurrection of +Fregellae on a larger scale by a judicious and reasonable extension of +the franchise, and of seeking allies, moreover, for their plans in the +numerous and influential Italians. Sharply as in the question of the +headship of the state the views and designs of the two great political +parties differed, the best men of both camps had many points of contact +in their means of operation and in their reforming tendencies; and, as +Scipio Aemilianus may be named alike among the adversaries of Tiberius +Gracchus and among the promoters of his reforming efforts, so Drusus +was the successor and disciple no less than the antagonist of Gaius. +The two high-born and high-minded youthful reformers had a greater +resemblance than was apparent at the first glance; and, personally also, +the two were not unworthy to meet, as respects the substance of their +patriotic endeavours, in purer and higher views above the obscuring +mists of prejudiced partisanship. + +Discussions on the Livian Laws + +The question at stake was the passing of the laws drawn up by Drusus. +Of these the proposer, just like Gaius Gracchus, kept in reserve for +the moment the hazardous project of conferring the Roman franchise on +the Italian allies, and brought forward at first only the laws as to +the jurymen, the assignation of land, and the distribution of grain. +The capitalist party offered the most vehement resistance, and, in +consequence of the irresolution of the greater part of the aristocracy +and the vacillation of the comitia, would beyond question have carried +the rejection of the law as to jurymen, if it had been put to the vote +by itself. Drusus accordingly embraced all his proposals in one law; +and, as thus all the burgesses interested in the distributions of grain +and land were compelled to vote also for the law as to jurymen, he +succeeded in carrying the law with their help and that of the Italians, +who stood firmly by Drusus with the exception of the large landowners, +particularly those in Umbria and Etruria, whose domanial possessions +were threatened. It was not carried, however, until Drusus had caused +the consul Philippus, who would not desist from opposition, to be +arrested and carried off to prison by a bailiff. The people celebrated +the tribune as their benefactor, and received him in the theatre by +rising up and applauding; but the voting had not so much decided the +struggle as transferred it to another ground, for the opposite party +justly characterized the proposal of Drusus as contrary to the law +of 656(14) and therefore as null. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +The Revolt of the Italian Subjects, and the Sulpician Revolution + +Romans and Italians + +From the time when the defeat of Pyrrhus had put an end to the last +war which the Italians had waged for their independence--or, in other +words, for nearly two hundred years--the Roman primacy had now +subsisted in Italy, without having been once shaken in its +foundations even under circumstances of the utmost peril. Vainly +had the heroic family of the Barcides, vainly had the successors +of Alexander the Great and of the Achaemenids, endeavoured to rouse +the Italian nation to contend with the too powerful capital; it had +obsequiously appeared in the fields of battle on the Guadalquivir +and on the Mejerdah, at the pass of Tempe and at Mount Sipylus, and +with the best blood of its youth had helped its masters to achieve +the subjugation of three continents. Its own position meanwhile had +changed, but had deteriorated rather than improved. In a material +point of view, doubtless, it had in general not much ground to +complain. Though the small and intermediate landholders throughout +Italy suffered in consequence of the injudicious Roman legislation +as to corn, the larger landlords and still more the mercantile and +capitalist class were flourishing, for the Italians enjoyed, as +respected the turning of the provinces to financial account, +substantially the same protection and the same privileges as +Roman burgesses, and thus shared to a great extent in the material +advantages of the political ascendency of the Romans. In general, +the economic and social condition of Italy was not primarily dependent +on political distinctions; there were allied districts, such as Umbria +and Etruria, in which the class of free farmers had mostly disappeared, +while in others, such as the valleys of the Abruzzi, the same +class had still maintained a tolerable footing or remained almost +unaffected--just as a similar diversity could be pointed out in the +different Roman burgess-districts. On the other hand the political +inferiority of Italy was daily displayed more harshly and more +abruptly. No formal open breach of right indeed occurred, at +least in the principal questions. The communal freedom, which +under the name of sovereignty was accorded by treaty to the Italian +communities, was on the whole respected by the Roman government; +the attack, which the Roman reform party at the commencement of the +agrarian agitation made on the Roman domains guaranteed to the +communities of better position, had not only been earnestly opposed +by the strictly conservative as well as by the middle party in Rome, +but had been very soon abandoned by the Roman opposition itself. + +Disabilities and Wrongs of the Subjects + +But the rights, which belonged and could not but belong to Rome as +the leading community--the supreme conduct of war-affairs, and the +superintendence of the whole administration--were exercised in a way +which was almost as bad as if the allies had been directly declared +to be subjects devoid of rights. The numerous modifications of the +fearfully severe martial law of Rome, which were introduced there in +the course of the seventh century, seem to have remained on the whole +limited to the Roman burgess-soldiers: this is certain as to the most +important, the abolition of executions by martial law,(1) and we may +easily conceive the impression which was produced when, as happened +in the Jugurthine war, Latin officers of repute were beheaded by +sentence of the Roman council of war, while the lowest burgess-soldier +had in the like case the right of presenting an appeal to the civil +tribunals of Rome. The proportions in which the burgesses and +Italian allies were to be drawn for military service had, as was fair, +remained undefined by treaty; but, while in earlier times the two had +furnished on an average equal numbers of soldiers,(2) now, although the +proportions of the population had changed probably in favour of the +burgesses rather than to their disadvantage, the demands on the allies +were by degrees increased disproportionately,(3) so that on the one +hand they had the chief burden of the heavier and more costly service +imposed on them, and on the other hand there were two allies now +regularly levied for one burgess. In like manner with this military +supremacy the civil superintendence, which (including the supreme +administrative jurisdiction which could hardly be separated from it) +the Roman government had always and rightly reserved to itself over +the dependent Italian communities, was extended in such a way that +the Italians were hardly less than the provincials abandoned without +protection to the caprice of any one of the numberless Roman +magistrates. In Teanum Sidicinum, one of the most considerable +of the allied towns, a consul had ordered the chief magistrate of +the town to be scourged with rods at the stake in the marketplace, +because, on the consul's wife expressing a desire to bathe in the +men's bath, the municipal officers had not driven forth the bathers +quickly enough, and the bath appeared to her not to be clean. +Similar scenes had taken place in Ferentinum, likewise a town +holding the best position in law, and even in the old and important +Latin colony of Cales. In the Latin colony of Venusia a free peasant +had been seized by a young Roman diplomatist not holding office but +passing through the town, on account of a jest which he had allowed +himself to make on the Roman's litter, had been thrown down, and +whipped to death with the straps of the litter. These occurrences are +incidentally mentioned about the time of the Fregellan insurrection; +it admits of no doubt that similar outrages frequently occurred, and +of as little that no real satisfaction for such misdeeds could anywhere +be obtained, whereas the right of appeal--not lightly violated with +impunity--protected in some measure at least the life and limbs of the +Roman burgess. In consequence of this treatment of the Italians on the +part of the Roman government, the variance, which the wisdom of their +ancestors had carefully fostered between the Latin and the other +Italian communities, could not fail, if not to disappear, at any +rate to undergo abatement.(4) The curb-fortresses of Rome and the +districts kept to their allegiance by these fortresses lived now under +the like oppression; the Latin could remind the Picentine that they +were both in like manner "subject to the fasces"; the overseers and +the slaves of former days were now united by a common hatred towards +the common despot. + +While the present state of the Italian allies was thus transformed from +a tolerable relation of dependence into the most oppressive bondage, +they were at the same time deprived of every prospect of obtaining +better rights. With the subjugation of Italy the Roman burgess-body +had closed its ranks; the bestowal of the franchise on whole +communities was totally given up, its bestowal on individuals was +greatly restricted.(5) They now advanced a step farther: on occasion +of the agitation which contemplated the extension of the Roman franchise +to all Italy in the years 628, 632, the right of migration to Rome was +itself attacked, and all the non-burgesses resident in Rome were +directly ejected by decree of the people and of the senate from the +capital(6)--a measure as odious on account of its illiberality, as +dangerous from the various private interests which it injuriously +affected. In short, while the Italian allies had formerly stood to +the Romans partly in the relation of brothers under tutelage, protected +rather than ruled and not destined to perpetual minority, partly in +that of slaves tolerably treated and not utterly deprived of the hope +of manumission, they were now all of them subject nearly in equal +degree, and with equal hopelessness, to the rods and axes of their +Roman masters, and might at the utmost presume like privileged +slaves to transmit the kicks received from their masters onward +to the poor provincials. + +The Rupture +Fregellan War +Difficulty of a General Insurrection + +It belongs to the nature of such differences that, restrained by the +sense of national unity and by the remembrance of dangers surmounted +in common, they make their appearance at first gently and as it were +modestly, till the breach gradually widens and the relation between +the rulers, whose might is their sole right, and the ruled, whose +obedience reaches no farther than their fears, manifests at length +undisguisedly the character of force. Down to the revolt and razing +of Fregellae in 629, which as it were officially attested the altered +character of the Roman rule, the ferment among the Italians did not +properly wear a revolutionary character. The longing after equal +rights had gradually risen from a silent wish to a loud request, +only to be the more decidedly rejected, the more distinctly it was +put forward. It was very soon apparent that a voluntary concession +was not to be hoped for, and the wish to extort what was refused +would not be wanting; but the position of Rome at that time hardly +permitted them to entertain any idea of realizing that wish. Although +the numerical proportions of the burgesses and non-burgesses in Italy +cannot be properly ascertained, it may be regarded as certain that +the number of the burgesses was not very much less than that of the +Italian allies; for nearly 400,000 burgesses capable of bearing arms +there were at least 500,000, probably 600,000 allies.(7) So long +as with such proportions the burgesses were united and there was no +outward enemy worthy of mention, the Italian allies, split up into +an endless number of isolated urban and cantonal communities, and +connected with Rome by a thousand relations public and private, +could never attain to common action; and with moderate prudence the +government could not fail to control their troublesome and indignant +subjects partly by the compact mass of the burgesses, partly by the very +considerable resources which the provinces afforded, partly by setting +one community against another. + +The Italian and the Roman Parties + +Accordingly the Italians kept themselves quiet, till the revolution +began to shake Rome; but, as soon as this had broken out, they too +mingled in the movements and agitations of the Roman parties, with a +view to obtain equality of rights by means of the one or the other. +They had made common cause first with the popular and then with the +senatorial party, and gained equally little by either. They had been +driven to the conviction that, while the best men of both parties +acknowledged the justice and equity of their claims, these best men, +aristocrats as well as Populares, had equally little power to +procure ahearing for those claims with the mass of their party. +They had also observed that the most gifted, most energetic, and most +celebrated statesmen of Rome had found themselves, at the very moment +when they came forward as advocates of the Italians, deserted by their +own adherents and had been accordingly overthrown. In all the +vicissitudes of the thirty years of revolution and restoration +governments enough had been installed and deposed, but, however +the programme might vary, a short-sighted and narrow-minded spirit +sat always at the helm. + +The Italians and the Oligarchy +The Licinio-Mucian Law + +Above all, the recent occurrences had clearly shown how vain was the +expectation of the Italians that their claims would be attended to +by Rome. So long as the demands of the Italians were mixed up with +those of the revolutionary party and had in the hands of the latter +been thwarted by the folly of the masses, they might still resign +themselves to the belief that the oligarchy had been hostile merely +to the proposers, not to the proposal itself, and that there was still +a possibility that the mere intelligent senate would accept a measure +which was compatible with the nature of the oligarchy and salutary +for the state. But the recent years, in which the senate once more +ruled almost absolutely, had shed only too disagreeable a light on +the designs of the Roman oligarchy also. Instead of the expected +modifications, there was issued in 659 a consular law which most +strictly prohibited the non-burgesses from laying claim to the +franchise and threatened transgressors with trial and punishment--a +law which threw back a large number of most respectable persons who +were deeply interested in the question of equalization from the ranks +of Romans into those of Italians, and which in point of indisputable +legality and of political folly stands completely on a parallel with +that famous act which laid the foundation for the separation of North +America from the mother-country; in fact it became, just like that +act, the proximate cause of the civil war. It was only so much +the worse, that the authors of this law by no means belonged to +the obstinate and incorrigible Optimates; they were no other than +the sagacious and universally honoured Quintus Scaevola, destined, +like George Grenville, by nature to be a jurist and by fate to be +a statesman--who by his equally honourable and pernicious rectitude +inflamed more than any one else first the war between senate and +equites, and then that between Romans and Italians--and the orator +Lucius Crassus, the friend and ally of Drusus and altogether one of +the most moderate and judicious of the Optimates. + +The Italians and Drusus + +Amidst the vehement ferment, which this law and the numerous processes +arising out of it called forth throughout Italy, the star of hope once +more appeared to arise for the Italians in the person of Marcus +Drusus. That which had been deemed almost impossible--that a +conservative should take up the reforming ideas of the Gracchi, +and should become the champion of equal rights for the Italians--had +nevertheless occurred; a man of the high aristocracy had resolved to +emancipate the Italians from the Sicilian Straits to the Alps and +the government at one and the same time, and to apply all his earnest +zeal, all his trusty devotedness to these generous plans of reform. +Whether he actually, as was reported, placed himself at the head of +a secret league, whose threads ramified through Italy and whose +members bound themselves by an oath(8) to stand by each other +for Drusus and for the common cause, cannot be ascertained; but, +even if he did not lend himself to acts so dangerous and in fact +unwarrantable for a Roman magistrate, yet it is certain that he did +not keep to mere general promises, and that dangerous connections were +formed in his name, although perhaps without his consent and against +his will. With joy the Italians heard that Drusus had carried his +first proposals with the consent of the great majority of the senate; +with still greater joy all the communities of Italy celebrated not long +afterwards the recovery of the tribune, who had been suddenly attacked +by severe illness. But as the further designs of Drusus became +unveiled, a change took place; he could not venture to bring in +his chief law; he had to postpone, he had to delay, he had soon +to retire. It was reported that the majority of the senate were +vacillating and threatened to fall away from their leader; in rapid +succession the tidings ran through the communities of Italy, that the +law which had passed was annulled, that the capitalists ruled more +absolutely than ever, that the tribune had been struck by the hand +of an assassin, that he was dead (autumn of 663). + +Preparations for General Revolt against Rome + +The last hope that the Italians might obtain admission to Roman +citizenship by agreement was buried with Marcus Drusus. A measure, +which that conservative and energetic man had not been able under the +most favourable circumstances to induce his own party to adopt, was +not to be gained at all by amicable means. The Italians had no +course left save to submit patiently or to repeat once more, and +if possible with their united strength, the attempt which had been +crushed in the bud five-and-thirty years before by the destruction +of Fregellae--so as by force of arms either to destroy Rome and +succeed to her heritage, or at least to compel her to grant equality +of rights. The latter resolution was no doubt a resolution of +despair; as matters stood, the revolt of the isolated urban communities +against the Roman government might well appear still more hopeless +than the revolt of the American colonies against the British empire; +to all appearance the Roman government might with moderate attention +and energy of action prepare for this second insurrection the fate +of its predecessor. But was it less a resolution of despair, to sit +still and allow things to take their course? When they recollected +how the Romans had been in the habit of behaving in Italy without +provocation, what could they expect now that the most considerable +men in every Italian town had or were alleged to have had--the +consequences on either supposition being pretty much the same--an +understanding with Drusus, which was immediately directed against the +party now victorious and might well be characterized as treason? All +those who had taken part in this secret league, all in fact who +might be merely suspected of participation, had no choice left +save to begin the war or to bend their neck beneath the axe +of the executioner. + +Moreover, the present moment presented comparatively favourable +prospects for a general insurrection throughout Italy. We are not +exactly informed how far the Romans had carried out the dissolution +of the larger Italian confederacies;(9) but it is not improbable that +the Marsians, the Paelignians, and perhaps even the Samnites and +Lucanians still were associated in their old communal leagues, though +these had lost their political significance and were in some cases +probably reduced to mere fellowship of festivals and sacrifices. +The insurrection, if it should now begin, would still find a rallying +point in these unions; but who could say how soon the Romans would +for that very reason proceed to abolish these also? The secret +league, moreover, which was alleged to be headed by Drusus, had lost +in him its actual or expected chief, but it continued to exist and +afforded an important nucleus for the political organization of the +insurrection; while its military organization might be based on the +fact that each allied town possessed its own armament and experienced +soldiers. In Rome on the other hand no serious preparations had +been made. It was reported, indeed, that restless movements were +occurring in Italy, and that the communities of the allies maintained +a remarkable intercourse with each other; but instead of calling the +citizens in all haste to arms, the governing corporation contented +itself with exhorting the magistrates in the customary fashion to +watchfulness and with sending out spies to learn farther particulars. +The capital was so totally undefended, that a resolute Marsian officer +Quintus Pompaedius Silo, one of the most intimate friends of Drusus, +is said to have formed the design of stealing into the city at the +head of a band of trusty associates carrying swords under their +clothes, and of seizing it by a coup de main. Preparations were +accordingly made for a revolt; treaties were concluded, and arming +went on silently but actively, till at last, as usual, the insurrection +broke out through an accident somewhat earlier than the leading +men had intended. + +Outbreak of the Insurrection in Asculum + +Marsians and Sabellians +Central and Southern Italy + +The Roman praetor with proconsular powers, Gaius Servilius, informed +by his spies that the town of Asculum (Ascoli) in the Abruzzi was +sending hostages to the neighbouring communities, proceeded thither +with his legate Fonteius and a small escort, and addressed to the +multitude, which was just then assembled in the theatre for the +celebration of the great games, a vehement and menacing harangue. +The sight of the axes known only too well, the proclamation of +threats that were only too seriously meant, threw the spark into +the fuel of bitter hatred that had been accumulating for centuries; +the Roman magistrates were torn to pieces by the multitude in the +theatre itself, and immediately, as if it were their intention by a +fearful outrage to break down every bridge of reconciliation, the +gates were closed by command of the magistracy, all the Romans +residing in Asculum were put to death, and their property was +plundered. The revolt ran through the peninsula like the flame +through the steppe. The brave and numerous people of the Marsians +took the lead, in connection with the small but hardy confederacies +in the Abruzzi--the Paeligni, Marrucini, Frentani, and Vestini. +The brave and sagacious Quintus Silo, already mentioned, was here +the soul of the movement. The Marsians were the first formally to +declare against the Romans, whence the war retained afterwards the +name of the Marsian war. The example thus given was followed by +the Samnite communities, and generally by the mass of the communities +from the Liris and the Abruzzi down to Calabria and Apulia; so that +all Central and Southern Italy was soon in arms against Rome. + +Italians Friendly to Rome + +The Etruscans and Umbrians on the other hand held by Rome, as they +had already taken part with the equites against Drusus.(10) It is +a significant fact, that in these regions the landed and moneyed +aristocracy had from ancient times preponderated and the middle class +had totally disappeared, whereas among and near the Abruzzi the +farmer-class had preserved its purity and vigour better than anywhere +else in Italy: it was from the farmers accordingly and the middle +class in general that the revolt substantially proceeded, whereas the +municipal aristocracy still went hand in hand with the government of +the capital. This also readily explains the fact, that there were in +the insurgent districts isolated communities, and in the insurgent +communities minorities, adhering to the Roman alliance; the Vestinian +town Pinna, for instance, sustained a severe siege for Rome, and a +corps of loyalists that was formed in the Hirpinian country under +Minatius Magius of Aeclanum supported the Roman operations in Campania. +Lastly, there adhered to Rome the allied communities of best legal +position--in Campania Nola and Nuceria and the Greek maritime towns +Neapolis and Rhegium, and in like manner at least most of the Latin +colonies, such as Alba and Aesernia--just as in the Hannibalic war +the Latin and Greek towns on the whole had taken part with, and the +Sabellian towns against, Rome. The forefathers of the city had +based their dominion over Italy on an aristocratic classification, +and with skilful adjustment of the degrees of dependence had kept in +subjection the less privileged communities by means of those with +better rights, and the burgesses within each community by means of +the municipal aristocracy. It was only now, under the incomparably +wretched government of the oligarchy, that the solidity and strength +with which the statesmen of the fourth and fifth centuries had joined +together the stones of their structure were thoroughly put to the test; +the building, though shaken in various ways, still held out against +this storm. When we say, however, that the towns of better position +did not at the first shock abandon Rome, we by no means affirm that +they would now, as in the Hannibalic war, hold out for a length of +time and after severe defeats, without wavering in their allegiance +to Rome; that fiery trial had not yet been endured. + +Impression As to the Insurrection in Rome +Rejection of the Proposals for an Accomodation +Commission of High Treason + +The first blood was thus shed, and Italy was divided into two great +military camps. It is true, as we have seen, that the insurrection +was still very far from being a general rising of the Italian allies; +but it had already acquired an extent exceeding perhaps the hopes of +the leaders themselves, and the insurgents might without arrogance +think of offering to the Roman government a fair accommodation. They +sent envoys to Rome, and bound themselves to lay down their arms in +return for admission to citizenship; it was in vain. The public +spirit, which had been so long wanting in Rome, seemed suddenly to +have returned, when the question was one of obstructing with stubborn +narrow-mindedness a demand of the subjects just in itself and now +supported by a considerable force. The immediate effect of the +Italian insurrection was, just as was the case after the defeats +which the policy of the government had suffered in Africa and Gaul,(11) +the commencement of a warfare of prosecutions, by means of which +the aristocracy of judges took vengeance on those men of the government +whom they, rightly or wrongly, looked upon as the primary cause +of this mischief. On the proposal of the tribune Quintus Varius, +in spite of the resistance of the Optimates and in spite of tribunician +interference, a special commission of high treason--formed, of course, +from the equestrian order which contended for the proposal with +open violence--was appointed for the investigation of the conspiracy +instigated by Drusus and widely ramified in Italy as well as in Rome, +out of which the insurrection had originated, and which now, when +the half of Italy was under arms, appeared to the whole of the indignant +and alarmed burgesses as undoubted treason. The sentences of this +commission largely thinned the ranks of the senatorial party favourable +to mediation: among other men of note Drusus' intimate friend, the young +and talented Gaius Cotta, was sent into banishment, and with difficulty +the grey-haired Marcus Scaurus escaped the same fate. Suspicion went +so far against the senators favourable to the reforms of Drusus, that +soon afterwards the consul Lupus reported from the camp to the senate +regarding the communications that were constantly maintained between +the Optimates in his camp and the enemy; a suspicion which, it is true, +was soon shown to be unfounded by the arrestof Marsian spies. So far +king Mithradates might not without reason assert, that the mutual +enmities of the factions were more destructive to the Roman state +than the Social War itself. + +Energetic Decrees + +In the first instance, however, the outbreak of the insurrection, +and the terrorism which the commission of high treason exercised, +produced at least a semblance of unity and vigour. Party feuds were +silent; able officers of all shades--democrats like Gaius Marius, +aristocrats like Lucius Sulla, friends of Drusus like Publius +Sulpicius Rafus--placed themselves at the disposal of the government. +The largesses of corn were, apparently about this time, materially +abridged by decree of the people with a view to husband the financial +resources of the state for the war; which was the more necessary, as, +owing to the threatening attitude of king Mithradates, the province of +Asia might at any moment fall into the hand of the enemy and thus one +of the chief sources of the Roman revenue be dried up. The courts, +with the exception of the commission of high treason, in accordance +with a decree of the senate temporarily suspended their action; all +business stood still, and nothing was attended to but the levying of +soldiers and the manufacture of arms. + +Political Organizatin of the Insurrection +Opposition--Rome + +While the leading state thus collected its energies in the prospect +of the severe war impending, the insurgents had to solve the more +difficult task of acquiring political organization during the +struggle. In the territory of the Paeligni situated in the centre +of the Marsian, Samnite, Marrucinian, and Vestinian cantons and +consequently in the heart of the insurgent districts, in the beautiful +plain on the river Pescara, the town of Corfinium was selected as the +Opposition-Rome or city of Italia, whose citizenship was conferred on +the burgesses of all the insurgent communities; there a Forum and a +senate-house were staked off on a suitable scale. A senate of five +hundred members was charged with the settlement of the constitution +and the superintendence of the war. In accordance with its directions +the burgesses selected from the men of senatorial rank two consuls and +twelve praetors, who, just like the two consuls and six praetors of +Rome, were invested with the supreme authority in war and peace. +The Latin language, which was even then the prevailing language among +the Marsians and Picentes, continued in official use, but the Samnite +language which predominated in Southern Italy was placed side by +side with it on a footing of equality; and the two were made use of +alternately on the silver pieces which the new Italian state began to +coin in its own name after Roman models and after the Roman standard, +thus appropriating likewise the monopoly of coinage which Rome had +exercised for two centuries. It is evident from these arrangements-- +and was, indeed a matter of course-that the Italians now no longer +thought of wresting equality of rights from the Romans, but purposed +to annihilate or subdue them and to form a new state. But it is also +obvious that their constitution was nothing but a pure copy of that +of Rome or, in other words, was the ancient polity handed down by +tradition among the Italian nations from time immemorial:--the +organization of a city instead of the constitution of a state, with +primary assemblies as unwieldy and useless as the Roman comitia, with +a governing corporation which contained within it the same elements +of oligarchy as the Roman senate, with an executive administered in +like manner by a plurality of coordinate supreme magistrates. This +imitation descended to the minutest details; for instance, the title +of consul or praetor held by the magistrate in chief command was +after a victory exchanged by the general of the Italians also for +the title of Imperator. Nothing in fact was changed but the name; +on the coins of the insurgents the same image of the gods appears, the +inscription only being changed from Roma to Italia. This Rome of the +insurgents was distinguished--not to its advantage--from the original +Rome merely by the circumstance, that, while the latter had at any +rate an urban development, and its unnatural position intermediate +between a city and a state had formed itself at least in a natural +way, the new Italia was nothing at all but a place of congress +for the insurgents, and it was by a pure fiction of law that the +inhabitants of the peninsula were stamped as burgesses of this new +capital. But it is significant that in this case, where the sudden +amalgamation of a number of isolated cantons into a new political unity +might have so naturally suggested the idea of a representative +constitution in the modern sense, no trace of any such idea occurs; +in fact the very opposite course was followed,(12) and the communal +organization was simply reproduced in a far more absurd manner than +before. Nowhere perhaps is it so clearly apparent as in this +instance, that in the view of antiquity a free constitution was +inseparable from the appearance of the sovereign people in person in +the primary assemblies, or from a city; and that the great fundamental +idea of the modern republican-constitutional state, viz. the expression +of the sovereignty of the people by a representative assembly--an idea +without which a free state would be a chaos--is wholly modern. Even +the Italian polity, although in its somewhat representative senates +and in the diminished importance of the comitia it approximated to a +free state, never was able in the case either of Rome or of Italia +to cross the boundary-line. + +Warlike Preparations + +Thus began, a few months after the death of Drusus, in the winter of +663-4, the struggle--as one of the coins of the insurgents represents +it--of the Sabellian ox against the Roman she-wolf. Both sides made +zealous preparations: in Italia great stores of arms, provisions, and +money were accumulated; in Rome the requisite supplies were drawn from +the provinces and particularly from Sicily, and the long-neglected walls +were put in a state of defence against any contingency. The forces +were in some measure equally balanced. The Romans filled up the +blanks in their Italian contingents partly by increased levies from +the burgesses and from the inhabitants--already almost wholly Romanized-- +of the Celtic districts on the south of the Alps, of whom 10,000 +served in the Campanian army alone,(13) partly by the contingents +of the Numidians and other transmarine nations; and with the aid +of the free cities in Greece and Asia Minor they collected a war +fleet.(14) On both sides, without reckoning garrisons, as many as +100,000 soldiers were brought into the field,(15) and in the ability +of their men, in military tactics and armament, the Italians were +nowise inferior to the Romans. + +Subdivision of the Armies on Either Side + +The conduct of the war was very difficult both for the insurgents and +for the Romans, because the territory in revolt was very extensive and +a great number of fortresses adhering to Rome were scattered up and +down in it: so that on the one hand the insurgents found themselves +compelled to combine a siege-warfare, which broke up their forces +and consumed their time, with the protection of an extended frontier; +and on the other hand the Romans could not well do otherwise than +combat the insurrection, which had no proper centre, simultaneously +in all the insurgent districts. In a military point of view the +insurgent country fell into two divisions; in the northern, which +reached from Picenum and the Abruzzi to the northern border of +Campania and embraced the districts speaking Latin, the chief command +was held on the Italian side by the Marsian Quintus Silo, on the Roman +side by Publius Rutilius Lupus, both as consuls; in the southern, +which included Campania, Samnium, and generally the regions speaking +Sabellian, the Samnite Gaius Papius Mutilus commanded as consul of the +insurgents, and Lucius Julius Caesar as the Roman consul. With each +of the two commanders-in-chief there were associated on the Italian +side six, on the Roman side five, lieutenant-commanders, each of whom +conducted the attack or defence in a definite district, while the +consular armies were destined to act more freely and to strike the +decisive blow. The most esteemed Roman officers, such as Gaius +Marius, Quintus Catulus, and the two consulars of experience in the +Spanish war, Titus Didius and Publius Crassus, placed themselves at +the disposal of the consuls for these posts; and though the Italians +had not names so celebrated to oppose to them, yet the result +showed that their leaders were in a military point of view nowise +inferior to the Romans. + +The offensive in this thoroughly desultory war was on the whole on the +side of the Romans, but was nowhere decisively assumed even on their +part. It is surprising that the Romans did not collect their troops +for the purpose of attacking the insurgents with a superior force, +and that the insurgents made no attempt to advance into Latium and to +throw themselves on the hostile capital. We are how ever too little +acquainted with their respective circumstances to judge whether or +how they could have acted otherwise, or to what extent the remissness +of the Roman government on the one hand and the looseness of the +connection among the federate communities on the other contributed +to this want of unity in the conduct of the war. It is easy to see +that with such a system there would doubtless be victories and defeats, +but the final settlement might be very long delayed; and it is no less +plain that a clear and vivid picture of such a war--which resolved +itself into a series of engagements on the part of individual corps +operating at the same time, sometimes separately, sometimes in +combination--cannot be prepared out of the remarkably fragmentary +accounts which have come down to us. + +Commencement of the War +The Fortresses +Caesar in Campania and Samnium +Aesernia Taken by the Insurgents +As also Nola +Campania for the Most Part Lost to the Romans + +The first assault, as a matter of course, fell on the fortresses +adhering to Rome in the insurgent districts, which in all haste +closed their gates and carried in their moveable property from the +country. Silo threw himself on the fortress designed to hold in +check the Marsians, the strong Alba, Mutilus on the Latin town of +Aesernia established in the heart of Samnium: in both cases they +encountered the most resolute resistance. Similar conflicts probably +raged in the north around Firmum, Atria, Pinna, in the south around +Luceria, Beneventum, Nola, Paestum, before and while the Roman armies +gathered on the borders of the insurgent country. After the southern +army under Caesar had assembled in the spring of 664 in Campania which +for the most part held by Rome, and had provided Capua--with its +domain so important for the Roman finances--as well as the more +important allied cities with garrisons, it attempted to assume the +offensive and to come to the aid of the smaller divisions sent on +before it to Samnium and Lucania under Marcus Marcellus and Publius +Crassus. But Caesar was repulsed by the Samnites and Marsians under +Publius Vettius Scato with severe loss, and the important town of +Venafrum thereupon passed over to the insurgents, into whose hands +it delivered its Roman garrison. By the defection of this town, +which lay on the military road from Campania to Samnium, Aesernia was +isolated, and that fortress already vigorously assailed found itself now +exclusively dependent on the courage and perseverance of its defenders +and their commandant Marcellus. It is true that an incursion, which +Sulla happily carried out with the same artful audacity as formerly +his expedition to Bocchus, relieved the hard-pressed Aesernians for a +moment; nevertheless they were after an obstinate resistance compelled +by the extremity of famine to capitulate towards the end of the year. +In Lucania too Publius Crassus was defeated by Marcus Lamponius, and +compelled to shut himself up in Grumentum, which fell after a long +and obstinate siege. With these exceptions, they had been obliged +to leave Apulia and the southern districts totally to themselves. +The insurrection spread; when Mutilus advanced into Campania at the +head of the Samnite army, the citizens of Nola surrendered to him +their city and delivered up the Roman garrison, whose commander was +executed by the orders of Mutilus, while the men were distributed +through the victorious army. With the single exception of Nuceria, +which adhered firmly to Rome, all Campania as far as Vesuvius was lost +to the Romans; Salernum, Stabiae, Pompeii, Herculaneum declared for +the insurgents; Mutilus was able to advance into the region to the +north of Vesuvius, and to besiege Acerrae with his Samnito-Lucanian +army. The Numidians, who were in great numbers in Caesar's army, +began to pass over in troops to Mutilus or rather to Oxyntas, the son +of Jugurtha, who on the surrender of Venusia had fallen into the hands +of the Samnites and now appeared among their ranks in regal purple; +so that Caesar found himself compelled to send home the whole +African corps. Mutilus ventured even to attack the Roman camp; +but he was repulsed, and the Samnites, who while retreating were +assailed in the rear by the Roman cavalry, left nearly 6000 dead on +the field of battle. It was the first notable success which the Romans +gained in this war; the army proclaimed the general -imperator-, and +the sunken courage of the capital began to revive. It is true that +not long afterwards the victorious army was attacked in crossing a +river by Marius Egnatius, and so emphatically defeated that it had +to retreat as far as Teanum and to be reorganized there; but the +exertions of the active consul succeeded in restoring his army to +a serviceable condition even before the arrival of winter, and he +reoccupied his old position under the walls of Acerrae, which the +Samnite main army under Mutilus continued to besiege. + +Combats with the Marsians +Defeat and Death of Lupus + +At the same time operations had also begun in Central Italy, where +the revolt of the Abruzzi and the region of the Fucine lake threatened +the capital in dangerous proximity. An independent corps under Gnaeus +Pompeius Strabo was sent into Picenum in order that, resting for +support on Firmum and Falerio, it might threaten Asculum; but the +main body of the Roman northern army took its position under the +consul Lupus on the borders of the Latin and Marsian territories, +where the Valerian and Salarian highways brought the enemy nearest to +the capital; the rivulet Tolenus (Turano), which crosses the Valerian +road between Tibur and Alba and falls into the Velino at Rieti, +separated the two armies. The consul Lupus impatiently pressed for +a decision, and did not listen to the disagreeable advice of Marius +that he should exercise his men--unaccustomed to service--in the first +instance in petty warfare. At the very outset the division of Gaius +Perpenna, 10,000 strong, was totally defeated. The commander-in- +chief deposed the defeated general from his command and united the +remnant of the corps with that which was under the orders of Marius, +but did not allow himself to be deterred from assuming the offensive +and crossing the Tolenus in two divisions, led partly by himself, +partly by Marius, on two bridges constructed not far from each other. +Publius Scato with the Marsians confronted them; he had pitched his +camp at the spot where Marius crossed the brook, but, before the +passage took place, he had withdrawn thence, leaving behind the mere +posts that guarded the camp, and had taken a position in ambush +farther up the river. There he attacked the other Roman corps under +Lupus unexpectedly during the crossing, and partly cut it down, partly +drove it into the river (11th June 664). The consul in person and +8000 of his troops fell. It could scarcely be called a compensation +that Marius, becoming at length aware of Scato's departure, had crossed +the river and not without loss to the enemy occupied their camp. +Yet this passage of the river, and a victory at the same time obtained +over the Paelignians by the general Servius Sulpicius, compelled the +Marsians to draw their line of defence somewhat back, and Marius, who +by decree of the senate succeeded Lupus as commander-in-chief, at least +prevented the enemy from gaining further successes. But, when Quintus +Caepio was soon afterwards associated in the command with equal powers, +not so much on account of a conflict which he had successfully +sustained, as because he had recommended himself to the equites then +leading the politics of Rome by his vehement opposition to Drusus, +he allowed himself to be lured into an ambush by Silo on the pretext +that the latter wished to betray to him his army, and was cut to +pieces with a great part of his force by the Marsians and Vestinians. +Marius, after Caepio's fall once more sole commander-in-chief, through +his tenacious resistance prevented his antagonist from profiting by +the advantages which he had gained, and gradually penetrated far into +the Marsian territory. He long refused battle; when he at length +gave it, he vanquished his impetuous opponent, who left on the battle-- +field among other dead Herius Asinius the chieftain of the Marrucini. +In a second engagement the army of Marius and the corps of Sulla +which belonged to the army of the south co-operated to inflict on +the Marsians a still more considerable defeat, which cost them 6000 men; +but the glory of this day remained with the younger officer, for, while +Marius had given and gained the battle, Sulla had intercepted the retreat +of the fugitives and destroyed them. + +Picenian War + +While the conflict was proceeding thus warmly and with varying success +at the Fucine lake, the Picenian corps under Strabo had also fought +with alternations of fortune. The insurgent chiefs, Gaius Iudacilius +from Asculum, Publius Vettius Scato, and Titus Lafrenius, had +assailed it with their united forces, defeated it, and compelled it +to throw itself into Firmum, where Lafrenius kept Strabo besieged, +while Iudacilius moved into Apulia and induced Canusium, Venusia, and +the other towns still adhering to Rome in that quarter to join the +insurgents. But on the Roman side Servius Sulpicius by his victory +over the Paeligni cleared the way for his advancing into Picenum and +rendering aid to Strabo; Lafrenius was attacked by Strabo in front +and taken in rear by Sulpicius, and his camp was set on fire; he +himself fell, the remnant of his troops fled in disorder and threw +themselves into Asculum. So completely had the state of affairs +changed in Picenum, that the Italians now found themselves confined +to Asculum as the Romans were previously to Firmum, and the war was +thus once more converted into a siege. + +Umbro-Etruscan Conflicts + +Lastly, there was added in the course of the year to the two difficult +and straggling wars in southern and central Italy a third in the +north. The state of matters apparently so dangerous for Rome after +the first months of the war had induced a great portion of the +Umbrian, and isolated Etruscan, communities to declare for the +insurrection; so that it became necessary to despatch against the +Umbrians Aulus Plotius, and against the Etruscans Lucius Porcius Cato. +Here however the Romans encountered a far less energetic resistance +than in the Marsian and Samnite countries, and maintained a most +decided superiority in the field. + +Disadvantageous Aggregate Result of the First Year of the War + +Thus the severe first year of the war came to an end, leaving behind +it, both in a military and political point of view, sorrowful +memories and dubious prospects. In a military point of view both +armies of the Romans, the Marsian as well as the Campanian, had been +weakened and discouraged by severe defeats; the northern army had +been compelled especially to attend to the protection of the capital, +the southern army at Neapolis had been seriously threatened in its +communications, as the insurgents could without much difficulty break +forth from the Marsian or Samnite territory and establish themselves +between Rome and Naples; for which reason it was found necessary to +draw at least a chain of posts from Cumae to Rome. In a political +point of view, the insurrection had gained ground on all sides during +this first year of the war; the secession of Nola, the rapid +capitulation of the strong and large Latin colony of Venusia, and +the Umbro-Etruscan revolt were suspicious signs that the Roman symmachy +was tottering to its very base and was not in a position to hold out +against this last trial. They had already made the utmost demands on +the burgesses; they had already, with a view to form that chain of +posts along the Latino-Campanian coast, incorporated nearly 6000 +freedmen in the burgess-militia; they had already required the +severest sacrifices from the allies that still remained faithful; +it was not possible to draw the string of the bow any tighter +without hazarding everything. + +Despondency of the Romans + +The temper of the burgesses was singularly depressed. After the +battle on the Tolenus, when the dead bodies of the consul and the +numerous citizens of note who had fallen with him were brought back +from the neighbouring battlefield to the capital and were buried there; +when the magistrates in token of public mourning laid aside their +purple and insignia; when the government issued orders to the +inhabitants of the capital to arm en masse; not a few had resigned +themselves to despair and given up all as lost. It is true that the +worst despondency had somewhat abated after the victories achieved by +Caesar at Acerrae and by Strabo in Picenum: on the news of the former +the wardress in the capital had been once more exchanged for the dress +of the citizen, on the news of the second the signs of public mourning +had been laid aside; but it was not doubtful that on the whole the +Romans had been worsted in this passage of arms: and above all the +senate and the burgesses had lost the spirit, which had formerly +borne them to victory through all the crises of the Hannibalic war. +They still doubtless began war with the same defiant arrogance as then, +but they knew not how to end it as they had then done; rigid obstinacy, +tenacious persistence had given place to a remiss and cowardly +disposition. Already after the first year of war their outward and +inward policy became suddenly changed, and betook itself to compromise. +There is no doubt that in this they did the wisest thing which could +be done; not however because, compelled by the immediate force of +arms, they could not avoid acquiescing in disadvantageous conditions, +but because the subject-matter of dispute--the perpetuation of the +political precedence of the Romans over the other Italians--was +injurious rather than beneficial to the commonwealth itself. +It sometimes happens in public life that one error compensates another; +in this case cowardice in some measure remedied the mischief which +obstinacy had incurred. + +Revolution in Political Processes + +The year 664 had begun with a most abrupt rejection of the +compromise offered by the insurgents and with the opening of a war +of prosecutions, in which the most passionate defenders of patriotic +selfishness, the capitalists, took vengeance on all those who were +suspected of having counselled moderation and seasonable concession. +On the other hand the tribune Marcus Plautius Silvanus, who entered +on his office on the 10th of December of the same year, carried a +law which took the commission of high treason out of the hands +of the capitalist jurymen, and entrusted it to other jurymen who +were nominated by the free choice of the tribes without class-- +qualification; the effect of which was, that this commission was +converted from a scourge of the moderate party into a scourge of the +ultras, and sent into exile among others its own author, Quintus +Varius, who was blamed by the public voice for the worst democratic +outrages--the poisoning of Quintus Metellus and the murder of Drusus. + +Bestowal of the Franchise on the Italians Who Remained Faithful-- +or Submitted + +Of greater importance than this singularly candid political +recantation, was the change in the course of their policy toward +the Italians. Exactly three hundred years had passed since Rome had +last been obliged to submit to the dictation of peace; Rome was now +worsted once more, and the peace which she desired could only be got +by yielding in part at least to the terms of her antagonists. With +the communities, doubtless, which had already risen in arms to subdue +and to destroy Rome, the feud had become too bitter for the Romans to +prevail on themselves to make the required concessions; and, had they +done so, these terms would now perhaps have been rejected by the other +side. But, if the original demands were conceded under certain +limitations to the communities that had hitherto remained faithful, +such a course would on the one hand preserve the semblance of voluntary +concession, while on the other hand it would prevent the otherwise +inevitable consolidation of the confederacy and thereby pave the way +for its subjugation. Accordingly the gates of Roman citizenship, which +had so long remained closed against entreaty, now suddenly opened when +the sword knocked at them; yet even now not fully and wholly, but in +a manner reluctant and annoying even for those admitted. A law carried +by the consul Lucius Caesar(16) conferred the Roman franchise on the +burgesses of all those communities of Italian allies which had not up +to that time openly declared against Rome; a second, emanating from +the tribunes of the people Marcus Plautius Silvanus and Gaius Papirius +Carbo, laid down for every man who had citizenship and domicile in +Italy a term of two months, within which he was to be allowed to acquire +the Roman franchise by presenting himself before a Roman magistrate. +But these new burgesses were to be restricted as to the right of +voting in a way similar to the freedmen, inasmuch as they could only +be enrolled in eight, as the freedmen only in four, of the thirty-five +tribes; whether the restriction was personal or, as it would seem, +hereditary, cannot be determined with certainty. + +Bestowal of Latin Rights on the Italian Celts + +This measure related primarily to Italy proper, which at that time +extended northward little beyond Ancona and Florence. In Cisalpine +Gaul, which was in the eye of the law a foreign country, but in +administration and colonization had long passed as part of Italy, +all the Latin colonies were treated like the Italian communities. +Otherwise on the south side of the Po the greatest portion of the +soil was, after the dissolution of the old Celtic tribal communities, +not organized according to the municipal system, but remained withal in +the ownership of Roman burgesses mostly dwelling together in market- +villages (-fora-). The not numerous allied townships to the south of +the Po, particularly Ravenna, as well as the whole country between the +Po and the Alps was, in consequence of a law brought in by the consul +Strabo in 665, organized after the Italian urban constitution, so that +the communities not adapted for this, more especially the townships in +the Alpine valleys, were assigned to particular towns as dependent and +tributary villages. These new town-communities, however, were not +presented with the Roman franchise, but, by means of the legal fiction +that they were Latin colonies, were invested with those rights which +had hitherto belonged to the Latin towns of inferior legal position. +Thus Italy at that time ended practically at the Po, while the +Transpadane country was treated as an outlying dependency. Here +to the north of the Po, with the exception of Cremona, Eporedia +and Aquileia, there were no burgess or Latin colonies, and even +the native tribes here had been by no means dislodged as they were +to the south of the Po. The abolition of the Celtic cantonal, and +the introduction of the Italian urban, constitution paved the way +for the Romanizing of the rich and important territory; this was the +first step in the long and momentous transformation of the Gallic stock-- +which once stood contrasted with Italy, and the assaults of which +Italy had rallied to repel--into comrades of their Italian masters. + +Considerable as these concessions were, if we compare them with the +rigid exclusiveness which the Roman burgess-body had retained for +more than a hundred and fifty years, they were far from involving a +capitulation with the actual insurgents; they were on the contrary +intended partly to retain the communities that were wavering and +threatening to revolt, partly to draw over as many deserters as +possible from the ranks of the enemy. To what extent these laws and +especially the most important of them--that of Caesar--were applied, +cannot be accurately stated, as we are only able to specify in general +terms the extent of the insurrection at the time when the law was +issued. The main matter at any rate was that the communities hitherto +Latin--not only the survivors of the old Latin confederacy, such as +Tibur and Praeneste, but more especially the Latin colonies, with the +exception of the few that passed over to the insurgents--were thereby +admitted to Roman citizenship. Besides, the law was applied to the +allied cities that remained faithful in Etruria and especially in +Southern Italy, such as Nuceria and Neapolis. It was natural that +individual communities, hitherto specially privileged, should hesitate +as to the acceptance of the franchise; that Neapolis, for example, +should scruple to give up its former treaty with Rome--which +guaranteed to its citizens exemption from land-service and their +Greek constitution, and perhaps domanial advantages besides--for +the restricted rights of new burgesses. It was probably in virtue of +conventions concluded on account of these scruples that this city, as +well as Rhegium and perhaps other Greek communities in Italy, even +after their admission to Roman citizenship retained unchanged their +former communal constitution and Greek as their official language. +At all events, as a consequence of these laws, the circle of Roman +burgesses was extraordinarily enlarged by the merging into it of +numerous and important urban communities scattered from the Sicilian +Straits to the Po; and, further, the country between the Po and the +Alps was, by the bestowal of the best rights of allies, as it were +invested with the legal expectancy of full citizenship. + +Second Year of the War +Etruria and Umbria Tranquillized + +On the strength of these concessions to the wavering communities, the +Romans resumed with fresh courage the conflict against the insurgent +districts. They had pulled down as much of the existing political +institutions as seemed necessary to arrest the extension of the +conflagration; the insurrection thenceforth at least spread no +farther. In Etruria and Umbria especially, where it was just +beginning, it was subdued with singular rapidity, still more, probably, +by means of the Julian law than through the success of the Roman arms. +In the former Latin colonies, and in the thickly-peopled region of the +Po, there were opened up copious and now trustworthy sources of aid: +with these, and with the resources of the burgesses themselves, they +could proceed to subdue the now isolated conflagration. The two former +commanders-in-chief returned to Rome, Caesar as censor elect, Marius +because his conduct of the war was blamed as vacillating and slow, and +the man of sixty-six was declared to be in his dotage. This objection +was very probably groundless; Marius showed at least his bodily +vigour by appearing daily in the circus at Rome, and even as +commander-in-chief he seems to have displayed on the whole his old +ability in the last campaign; but he had not achieved the brilliant +successes by which alone after his political bankruptcy he could have +rehabilitated himself in public opinion, and so the celebrated champion +was to his bitter vexation now, even as an officer, unceremoniously laid +aside as useless. The place of Marius in the Marsian army was taken +by the consul of this year, Lucius Porcius Cato, who had fought with +distinction in Etruria, and that of Caesar in the Campanian army by +his lieutenant, Lucius Sulla, to whom were due some of the most +material successes of the previous campaign; Gnaeus Strabo retained-- +now as consul--the command which he had held so successfully in +the Picenian territory. + +War in Picenum +Asculum Besieged +And Conquered +Subjugation of the Sabellians and Marsians + +Thus began the second campaign in 665. The insurgents opened it, +even before winter was over, by the bold attempt--recalling the grand +passages of the Samnite wars--to send a Marsian army of 15,000 men to +Etruria with a view to aid the insurrection brewing in Northern Italy. +But Strabo, through whose district it had to pass, intercepted +and totally defeated it; only a few got back to their far distant +home. When at length the season allowed the Roman armies to assume +the offensive, Cato entered the Marsian territory and advanced, +successfully encountering the enemy there; but he fell in the region +of the Fucine lake during an attack on the enemy's camp, so that the +exclusive superintendence of the operations in Central Italy devolved +on Strabo. The latter employed himself partly in continuing the +siege of Asculum, partly in the subjugation of the Marsian, Sabellian, +and Apulian districts. To relieve his hard-pressed native town, +Iudacilius appeared before Asculum with the Picentine levy and +attacked the besieging army, while at the same time the garrison +sallied forth and threw itself on the Roman lines. It is said that +75,000 Romans fought on this day against 60,000 Italians. Victory +remained with the Romans, but Iudacilius succeeded in throwing himself +with a part of the relieving army into the town. The siege resumed +its course; it was protracted(17) by the strength of the place and the +desperate defence of the inhabitants, who fought with a recollection of +the terrible declaration of war within its walls. When Iudacilius +at length after a brave defence of several months saw the day of +capitulation approach, he ordered the chiefs of that section of +the citizens which was favourable to Rome to be put to death under +torture, and then died by his own hand. So the gates were opened, +and Roman executions were substituted for Italian; all officers and +all the respectable citizens were executed, the rest were driven forth +to beggary, and all their property was confiscated on account of +the state. During the siege and after the fall of Asculum numerous +Roman corps marched through the adjacent rebel districts, and induced +one after another to submit. The Marrucini yielded, after Servius +Sulpicius had defeated them decidedly at Teate (Chieti). The praetor +Gaius Cosconius penetrated into Apulia, took Salapia and Cannae, and +besieged Canusium. A Samnite corps under Marius Egnatius came to the +help of the unwarlike region and actually drove back the Romans, but +the Roman general succeeded in defeating it at the passage of the +Aufidus; Egnatius fell, and the rest of the army had to seek shelter +behind the walls of Canusium. The Romans again advanced as far +as Venusia and Rubi, and became masters of all Apulia. Along the +Fucine lake also and at the Majella mountains--the chief seats of +the insurrection--the Romans re-established their mastery; the Marsians +succumbed to Strabo's lieutenants, Quintus Metellus Pius and Gaius +Cinna, the Vestinians and Paelignians in the following year (666) to +Strabo himself; Italia the capital of the insurgents became once more +the modest Paelignian country-town of Corfinium; the remnant of the +Italian senate fled to the Samnite territory. + +Subjugation of Campania As Far As Nola +Sulla in Samnium + +The Roman southern army, which was now under the command of Lucius +Sulla, had at the same time assumed the offensive and had penetrated +into southern Campania which was occupied by the enemy. Stabiae was +taken and destroyed by Sulla in person (30 April 665) and Herculaneum +by Titus Didius, who however fell himself (11 June) apparently at the +assault on that city. Pompeii resisted longer. The Samnite general +Lucius Cluentius came up to bring relief to the town, but he was +repulsed by Sulla; and when, reinforced by bands of Celts, he +renewed his attempt, he was, chiefly owing to the wavering of these +untrustworthy associates, so totally defeated that his camp was taken +and he himself was cut down with the greater part of his troops on +their flight towards Nola. The grateful Roman army conferred on its +general the grass-wreath--the homely badge with which the usage of +the camp decorated the soldier who had by his capacity saved a division +of his comrades. Without pausing to undertake the siege of Nola and +of the other Campanian towns still occupied by the Samnites, Sulla +at once advanced into the interior, which was the head-quarters of +the insurrection. The speedy capture and fearful punishment of +Aeclanum spread terror throughout the Hirpinian country; it submitted +even before the arrival of the Lucanian contingent which had set itself +in motion to render help, and Sulla was able to advance unhindered as +far as the territory of the Samnite confederacy. The pass, where the +Samnite militia under Mutilus awaited him, was turned, the Samnite army +was attacked in rear, and defeated; the camp was lost, the general +escaped wounded to Aesernia. Sulla advanced to Bovianum, the capital of +the Samnite country, and compelled it to surrender by a second victory +achieved beneath its walls. The advanced season alone put an end +to the campaign there. + +The Insurrection on the Whole Overpowered + +The position of affairs had undergone a most complete change. +Powerful, victorious, aggressive as was the insurrection when it +began the campaign of 665, it emerged from it deeply humbled, everywhere +beaten, and utterly hopeless. All northern Italy was pacified. +In central Italy both coasts were wholly in the Roman power, and the +Abruzzi almost entirely; Apulia as far as Venusia, and Campania as far +as Nola, were in the hands of the Romans; and by the occupation of the +Hirpinian territory the communication was broken off between the only +two regions still persevering in open resistance, the Samnite and the +Lucano-Bruttian. The field of the insurrection resembled the scene +of an immense conflagration dying out; everywhere the eye fell on +ashes and ruins and smouldering brands; here and there the flame +still blazed up among the ruins, but the fire was everywhere mastered, +and there was no further threatening of danger. It is to be +regretted that we no longer sufficiently discern in the superficial +accounts handed down to us the causes of this sudden revolution. +While undoubtedly the dexterous leadership of Strabo and still more +of Sulla, and especially the more energetic concentration of the +Roman forces, and their more rapid offensive contributed materially +to that result, political causes may have been at work along with the +military in producing the singularly rapid fall of the power of the +insurgents; the law of Silvanus and Carbo may have fulfilled its design +in carrying defection and treason to the common cause into the ranks +of the enemy; and misfortune, as has so frequently happened, may +have fallen as an apple of discord among the loosely-connected +insurgent communities. + +Perseverance of the Samnites + +We see only--and this fact points to an internal breaking up of Italia, +that must certainly have been attended by violent convulsions--that +the Samnites, perhaps under the leadership of the Marsian Quintus Silo +who had been from the first the soul of the insurrection and after the +capitulation of the Marsians had gone as a fugitive to the neighbouring +people, now assumed another organization purely confined to their +own land, and, after "Italia" was vanquished, undertook to continue +the struggle as "Safini" or Samnites.(18) The strong Aesernia was +converted from the fortress that had curbed, into the last retreat +that sheltered, Samnite freedom; an army assembled consisting, it was +said, of 30,000 infantry and 1000 cavalry, and was strengthened by the +manumission and incorporation of 20,000 slaves; five generals were +placed at its head, among whom Silo was the first and Mutilus next to +him. With astonishment men saw the Samnite wars beginning anew after +a pause of two hundred years, and the resolute nation of farmers making +a fresh attempt, just as in the fifth century, after the Italian +confederation was shattered, to force Rome with their own hand to +recognize their country's independence. But this resolution of the +bravest despair made not much change in the main result; although the +mountain-war in Samnium and Lucania might still require some time and +some sacrifices, the insurrection was nevertheless already +substantially at an end. + +Outbreak of the Mithradatic War + +In the meanwhile, certainly, there had occurred a fresh complication, +for the Asiatic difficulties had rendered it imperatively necessary +to declare war against Mithradates king of Pontus, and for next year +(666) to destine the one consul and a consular army to Asia Minor. +Had this war broken out a year earlier, the contemporary revolt of +the half of Italy and of the most important of the provinces would have +formed an immense peril to the Roman state. Now that the marvellous +good fortune of Rome had once more been evinced in the rapid collapse +of the Italian insurrection, this Asiatic war just beginning was, +notwithstanding its being mixed up with the expiring Italian +struggle, not of a really dangerous character; and the less so, +because Mithradates in his arrogance refused the invitation of the +Italians that he should afford them direct assistance. Still it +was in a high degree inconvenient. The times had gone by, when +they without hesitation carried on simultaneously an Italian and +a transmarine war, the state-chest was already after two years of +warfare utterly exhausted, and the formation of a new army in addition +to that already in the field seemed scarcely practicable. But they +resorted to such expedients as they could. The sale of the sites +that had from ancient times(19) remained unoccupied on and near the +citadel to persons desirous of building, which yielded 9000 pounds of +gold (360,000 pounds), furnished the requisite pecuniary means. No new +army was formed, but that which was under Sulla in Campania was destined +to embark for Asia, as soon as the state of things in southern Italy +should allow its departure; which might be expected, from the progress +of the army operating in the north under Strabo, to happen soon. + +Third Campaign +Capture of Venusia +Fall of Silo + +So the third campaign in 666 began amidst favourable prospects for +Rome. Strabo put down the last resistance which was still offered +in the Abruzzi. In Apulia the successor of Cosconius, Quintus Metellus +Pius, son of the conqueror of Numidia and not unlike his father in +his strongly conservative views as well as in military endowments, +put an end to the resistance by the capture of Venusia, at which 3000 +armed men were taken prisoners. In Samnium Silo no doubt succeeded +in retaking Bovianum; but in a battle, in which he engaged the Roman +general Mamercus Aemilius, the Romans conquered, and--what was more +important than the victory itself--Silo was among the 6000 dead whom +the Samnites left on the field. In Campania the smaller townships, +which the Samnites still occupied, were wrested from them by Sulla, +and Nola was invested. The Roman general Aulus Gabinius penetrated +also into Lucania and gained no small advantages; but, after he had +fallen in an attack on the enemy's camp, Lamponius the insurgent +leader and his followers once more held almost undisturbed command +over the wide and desolate Lucano-Bruttian country. He even made an +attempt to seize Rhegium, which was frustrated, however, by the Sicilian +governor Gaius Norbanus. Notwithstanding isolated mischances the Romans +were constantly drawing nearer to the attainment of their end; the fall +of Nola, the submission of Samnium, the possibility of rendering +considerable forces available for Asia appeared no longer distant, +when the turn taken by affairs in the capital unexpectedly gave fresh +life to the well-nigh extinguished insurrection. + +Ferment in Rome +The Bestowal of the Franchise and Its Limitations +Secondary Effect of the Political Prosecutions +Marius + +Rome was in a fearful ferment. The attack of Drusus upon the +equestrian courts and his sudden downfall brought about by the +equestrian party, followed by the two-edged Varian warfare of +prosecutions, had sown the bitterest discord between the aristocracy +and the bourgeoisie as well as between the moderates and the ultras. +Events had completely justified the party of concession; what it had +proposed voluntarily to bestow, men had been more than half compelled +to concede; but the mode in which the concession was made bore, just +like the earlier refusal, the stamp of obstinate and shortsighted +envy. Instead of granting equality of rights to all Italian +communities, they had only expressed the inferiority in another form. +They had received a great number of Italian communities into Roman +citizenship, but had attached to what they thus conferred an offensive +stigma, by placing the new burgesses alongside of the old on nearly +the same footing as the freedmen occupied alongside of the freeborn. +They had irritated rather than pacified the communities between the +Po and the Alps by the concession of Latin rights. Lastly, they had +withheld the franchise from a considerable, and that not the worst, +portion of the Italians--the whole of the insurgent communities +which had again submitted; and not only so, but, instead of legally +re-establishing the former treaties annulled by the insurrection, they +had at most renewed them as a matter of favour and subject to revocation +at pleasure.(20) The disability as regarded the right of voting +gave the deeper offence, that it was--as the comitia were then +constituted--politically absurd, and the hypocritical care of the +government for the unstained purity of the electors appeared to every +unprejudiced person ridiculous; but all these restrictions were +dangerous, inasmuch as they invited every demagogue to carry his +ulterior objects by taking up the more or less just demands of the +new burgesses and of the Italians excluded from the franchise. While +accordingly the more clear-seeing of the aristocracy could not but find +these partial and grudging concessions as inadequate as did the new +burgesses and the excluded themselves, they further painfully felt +the absence from their ranks of the numerous and excellent men whom +the Varian commission of high treason had exiled, and whom it was the +more difficult to recall because they had been condemned by the verdict +not of the people but of the jury-courts; for, while there was little +hesitation as to cancelling a decree of the people even of a judicial +character by means of a second, the cancelling of a verdict of +jurymen bythe people appeared to the betterportion of the aristocracy +as a very dangerous precedent. Thus neither the ultras nor the +moderates were content with the issue of the Italian crisis. But still +deeper indignation swelled the heart of the old man, who had gone +forth to the Italian war with freshened hopes and had come back from +it reluctantly, with the consciousness of having rendered new services +and of having received in return new and most severe mortifications, +with the bitter feeling of being no longer dreaded but despised by +his enemies, with that gnawing spirit of vengeance in his heart, +which feeds on its own poison. It was true of him also, as of the +new burgesses and the excluded; incapable and awkward as he had shown +himself to be, his popular name was still a formidable weapon in +the hand of a demagogue. + +Decay of Military Discipline + +With these elements of political convulsion was combined the rapidly +spreading decay of decorous soldierly habits and of military +discipline. The seeds, which were sown by the enrolment of the +proletariate in the army, developed themselves with alarming rapidity +during the demoralizing insurrectionary war, which compelled Rome +to admit to the service every man capable of bearing arms without +distinction, and which above all carried political partizanship +directly into the headquarters and into the soldiers' tent. +The effects soon appeared in the slackening of all the bonds of +the military hierarchy. During the siege of Pompeii the commander +of the Sullan besieging corps, the consular Aulus Postumius Albinus, +was put to death with stones and bludgeons by his soldiers, who believed +themselves betrayed by their general to the enemy; and Sulla the +commander-in-chief contented himself with exhorting the troops to efface +the memory of that occurrence by their brave conduct in presence of +the enemy. The authors of that deed were the marines, from of old +the least respectable of the troops. A division of legionaries raised +chiefly from the city populace soon followed the example thus given. +Instigated by Gaius Titius, one of the heroes of the market-place, it +laid hands on the consul Cato. By an accident he escaped death on +this occasion; Titius was arrested, but was not punished. When Cato +soon afterwards actually perished in a combat, his own officers, and +particularly the younger Gaius Marius, were--whether justly or unjustly, +cannot be ascertained--designated as the authors of his death. + +Economic Crisis +Murder of Asellio + +To the political and military crisis thus beginning fell to be added +the economic crisis--perhaps still more terrible--which set in upon the +Roman capitalists in consequence of the Social war and the Asiatic +troubles. The debtors, unable even to raise the interest due and yet +inexorably pressed by their creditors, had on the one hand entreated +from the proper judicial authority, the urban praetor Asellio, a +respite to enable them to dispose of their possessions, and on the +other hand had searched out once more the old obsolete laws as to +usury(21) and, according to the rule established in olden times, +had sued their creditors for fourfold the amount of the interest +paid to them contrary to the law. Asellio lent himself to bend the +actually existing law into conformity with the letter, and put into +shape in the usual way the desired actions for interest; whereupon +the offended creditors assembled in the Forum under the leadership of +the tribune of the people Lucius Cassius, and attacked and killed the +praetor in front of the temple of Concord, just as in his priestly +robes he was presenting a sacrifice--an outrage which was not even +made a subject of investigation (665). On the other hand it was +said in the circles of the debtors, that the suffering multitude could +not be relieved otherwise than by "new account-books," that is, by +legally cancelling the claims of all creditors against all debtors. +Matters stood again exactly as they had stood during the strife +of the orders; once more the capitalists in league with the +prejudiced aristocracy made war against, and prosecuted, the oppressed +multitude and the middle party which advised a modification of the +rigour of the law; once more Rome stood on the verge of that abyss +into which the despairing debtor drags his creditor along with him. +Only, since that time the simple civil and moral organization of a +great agricultural city had been succeeded by the social antagonisms +of a capital of many nations, and by that demoralization in which +the prince and the beggar meet; now all incongruities had come to be +on a broader, more abrupt, and fearfully grander scale. When the +Social war brought all the political and social elements fermenting +among the citizens into collision with each other, it laid the +foundation for a new resolution. An accident led to its outbreak. + +The Sulpician Laws +Sulpicius Rufus + +It was the tribune of the people Publius Sulpicius Rufus who in 666 +proposed to the burgesses to declare that every senator, who owed more +than 2000 -denarii- (82 pounds), should forfeit his seat in the senate; +to grant to the burgesses condemned by non-free jury courts liberty +to return home; to distribute the new burgesses among all the tribes, +and likewise to allow the right of voting in all tribes to the +freedmen. They were proposals which from the mouth of such a man +were at least somewhat surprising. Publius Sulpicius Rufus (born in +630) owed his political importance not so much to his noble birth, his +important connections, and his hereditary wealth, as to his remarkable +oratorical talent, in which none of his contemporaries equalled him. +His powerful voice, his lively gestures sometimes bordering on +theatrical display, the luxuriant copiousness of his flow of words +arrested, even if they did not convince, his hearers. As a partisan +he was from the outset on the side of the senate, and his first public +appearance (659) had been the impeachment of Norbanus who was mortally +hated by the government party.(22) Among the conservatives he belonged +to the section of Crassus and Drusus. We do not know what primarily +gave occasion to his soliciting the tribuneship of the people for 666, +and on its account renouncing his patrician nobility; but he seems +to have been by no means rendered a revolutionist through the +fact that he, like the whole middle party, had been persecuted as +revolutionary by the conservatives, and to have by no means intended +an overthrow of the constitution in the sense of Gaius Gracchus. +It would rather seem that, as the only man of note belonging to +the party of Crassus and Drusus who had come forth uninjured from +the storm of the Varian prosecutions, he felt himself called on +to complete the work of Drusus and finally to set aside the still +subsisting disabilities of the new burgesses--for which purpose he +needed the tribunate. Several acts of his even during his tribuneship +are mentioned, which betray the very opposite of demagogic designs. +For instance, he prevented by his veto one of his colleagues from +cancelling through a decree of the people the sentences of jurymen +issued under the Varian law; and when the late aedile Gaius Caesar, +passing over the praetorship, unconstitutionally became a candidate +for the consulship for 667, with the design, it was alleged, of getting +the charge of the Asiatic war afterwards entrusted to him, Sulpicius +opposed him more resolutely and sharply than any one else. Entirely +in the spirit of Drusus, he thus demanded from himself as from +others primarily and especially the maintenance of the constitution. +But in fact he was as little able as was Drusus to reconcile things +that were incompatible, and to carry out in strict form of law the +change of the constitution which he had in view--a change judicious +in itself, but never to be obtained from the great majority of the +old burgesses by amicable means. His breach with the powerful +family of the Julii--among whom in particular the consular Lucius +Caesar, the brother of Gaius, was very influential in the senate-- +and withthesectionof the aristocracy adhering to it, beyond doubt +materially cooperated and carried the irascible man through personal +exasperation beyond his original design. + +Tendency of These Laws + +Yet the proposals brought in by him were of such a nature as +to be by no means out of keeping with the personal character and +the previous party-position of their author. The equalization of +the new burgesses with the old was simply a partial resumption of +the proposals drawn up by Drusus in favour of the Italians; and, +like these, only carried out the requirements of a sound policy. +The recall of those condemned by the Varian jurymen no doubt sacrificed +the principle of the inviolability of such a sentence, in defence of +which Sulpicius himself had just practically interposed; but it mainly +benefited in the first instance the members of the proposer's own +party, the moderate conservatives, and it may be very well conceived +that so impetuous a man might when first coming forward decidedly +combat such a measure and then, indignant at the resistance which +he encountered, propose it himself. The measure against the +insolvency of senators was doubtless called forth by the exposure +of the economic condition of the ruling families--so deeply embarrassed +notwithstanding all their outward splendour--on occasion of the last +financial crisis. It was painful doubtless, but yet of itself +conducive to the rightly understood interest of the aristocracy, +if, as could not but be the effect of the Sulpician proposal, all +individuals should withdraw from the senate who were unable speedily +to meet their liabilities, and if the coterie-system, which found its +main support in the insolvency of many senators and their consequent +dependence on their wealthy colleagues, should be checked by the +removal of the notoriously venal pack of the senators. At the same +time, of course, we do not mean to deny that such a purification +of the senate-house so abruptly and invidiously exposing the senate, +as Rufus proposed, would certainly never have been proposed without +his personal quarrels with the ruling coterie-heads. Lastly, the +regulationin favour of the freedmen had undoubtedly for its primary +object to make its proposer master of the street; but in itself it +was neither unwarranted nor incompatible with the aristocratic +constitution. Since the freedmen had begun to be drawn upon for +military service, their demand for the right of voting was so far +justified, as the right of voting and the obligation of service had +always gone hand in hand. Moreover, looking to the nullity of the +comitia, it was politically of very little moment whether one sewer +more emptied itself into that slough. The difficulty which the +oligarchy felt in governing with the comitia was lessened rather than +increased by the unlimited admission of the freedmen, who were to a +very great extent personally and financially dependent on the ruling +families and, if rightly used, might quite furnish the government with +a means of controlling the elections more thoroughly than before. +This measure certainly, like every other political favour shown to +the proletariate, ran counter to the tendencies of the aristocracy +friendly to reform; but it was for Rufus hardly anything else +than what the corn-law had been for Drusus--a means of drawing +the proletariate over to his side and of breaking down with its aid +the opposition against the truly beneficial reforms which he meditated. +It was easy to foresee that this opposition would not be slight; that +the narrow-minded aristocracy and the narrow-minded bourgeoisie would +display the same stupid jealousy after the subduing of the insurrection +as they had displayed before its outbreak; that the great majority +of all parties would secretly or even openly characterize the partial +concessions made at the moment of the most formidable danger as +unseasonable compliances, and would passionately resist every attempt +to extend them. The example of Drusus had shown what came of +undertakingto carry conservative reforms solely in reliance on the +majority of the senate; it was a course quite intelligible, that his +friend who shared his views should attempt to carry out kindred designs +in opposition to that majority and under the forms of demagogism. +Rufus accordingly gave himself no trouble to gain the senate over to +his views by the bait of the jury courts. He found a better support +in the freedmen and above all in the armed retinue--consisting, +according to the report of his opponents, of 3000 hired men and an +"opposition-senate" of 600 young men from the better class--with +which he appeared in the streets and in the Forum. + +Resistance of the Government +Riots +Position of Sulla + +His proposals accordingly met with the most decided resistance from +the majority of the senate, which first, to gain time, induced the +consuls Lucius Cornelius Sulla and Quintus Pompeius Rufus, both declared +opponents of demagogism, to enjoin extraordinary religious observances, +during which the popular assemblies were suspended. Sulpicius +replied by a violent tumult, in which among other victims the young +Quintus Pompeius, son of the one and son-in-law of the other consul, +met his death and the lives of both consuls themselves were seriously +threatened--Sulla is said even to have escaped only by Marius +opening to him his house. They were obliged to yield; Sulla agreed +to countermand the announced solemnities, and the Sulpician proposals +now passed without further difficulty. But this was far from +determining their fate. Though the aristocracy in the capital might +own its defeat, there was now--for the first time since the commencement +of the revolution--yet another power in Italy which could not be +overlooked, viz. the two strong and victorious armies of the proconsul +Strabo and the consul Sulla. The political position of Strabo might +be ambiguous, but Sulla, although he had given way to open violence +for the moment, was on the best terms with the majority of the senate; +and not only so, but he had, immediately after countermanding +the solemnities, departed for Campania to join his army. To terrify +the unarmed consul by bludgeon-men or the defenceless capital by +the swords of the legions, amounted to the same thing in the end: +Sulpicius assumed that his opponent, now when he could, would +requite violence with violence and return to the capital at the head +of his legions to overthrow the conservative demagogue and his laws +along with him. Perhaps he was mistaken. Sulla was just as eager +for the war against Mithradates as he was probably averse to the +political exhalations of the capital; considering his original spirit +of indifference and his unrivalled political nonchalance, there is +great probability that he by no means intended the coup d'etat which +Sulpicius expected, and that, if he had been let alone, he would have +embarked without delay with his troops for Asia so soon as he had +captured Nola, with the siege of which he was still occupied. + +Marius Nominated Commander-in-Chief in Sulla's Stead + +But, be this as it might, Sulpicius, with a view to parry the presumed +blow, conceived the scheme of taking the supreme command from Sulla; +and for this purpose joined with Marius, whose name was still +sufficiently popular to make a proposal to transfer to him the chief +command in the Asiatic war appear plausible to the multitude, and +whose military position and ability might prove a support in the +event of a rupture with Sulla. Sulpicius probably did not overlook +the danger involved in placing that old man--not less incapable than +vengeful and ambitious--at the head of the Campanian army, and as little +the scandalous irregularity of entrusting an extraordinary supreme +command by decree of the people to a private man; but the very tried +incapacity of Marius as a statesman gave a sort of guarantee that he +would not be able seriously to endanger the constitution, and above +all the personal position of Sulpicius, if he formed a correct +estimate of Sulla's designs, was one of so imminent peril that such +considerations could hardly be longer heeded. That the worn-out +hero himself readily met the wishes of any one who would employ him +as a -condottiere-, was a matter of course; his heart had now for +many years longed for the command in an Asiatic war, and not less +perhaps for an opportunity of once settling accounts thoroughly with +the majority of the senate. Accordingly on the proposal of Sulpicius +Gaius Marius was by decree of the people invested with extraordinary +supreme, or as it was called proconsular, power, and obtained the +command of the Campanian army and the superintendence of the war +against Mithradates; and two tribunes of the people were despatched +to the camp at Nola, to take over the army from Sulla. + +Sulla's Recall + +Sulla was not the man to yield to such a summons. If any one had a +vocation to the chief command in the Asiatic war, it was Sulla. He +had a few years before commanded with the greatest success in the +same theatre of war; he had contributed more than any other man to +the subjugation of the dangerous Italian insurrection; as consul of +the year in which the Asiatic war broke out, he had been invested with +the command in it after the customary way and with the full consent +of his colleague, who was on friendly terms with him and related to +him by marriage. It was expecting a great deal to suppose that he +would, in accordance with a decree of the sovereign burgesses of +Rome, give up a command undertaken in such circumstances to an old +military and political antagonist, in whose hands the army might be +turned to none could tell what violent and preposterous proceedings. +Sulla was neither good-natured enough to comply voluntarily with such +an order, nor dependent enough to need to do so. His army was-- +partly in consequence of the alterations of the military system +which originated with Marius, partly from the moral laxity and the +military strictness of its discipline in the hands of Sulla--little +more than a body of mercenaries absolutely devoted to their leader +and indifferent to political affairs. Sulla himself was a hardened, +cool, and clearheaded man, in whose eyes the sovereign Roman burgesses +were a rabble, the hero of Aquae Sextiae a bankrupt swindler, +formal legality a phrase, Rome itself a city without a garrison +and with its walls half in ruins, which could be far more easily +captured than Nola. + +Sulla's March on Rome + +On these views he acted. He assembled his soldiers--there were six +legions, or about 35,000 men--and explained to them the summons that +had arrived from Rome, not forgetting to hint that the new commander- +in-chief would undoubtedly lead to Asia Minor not the army as it stood, +but another formed of fresh troops. The superior officers, who still +had more of the citizen than the soldier, kept aloof, and only one +of them followed the general towards the capital; but the soldiers, +who in accordance with earlier experiences(23) hoped to find in Asia an +easy war and endless booty, were furious; in a moment the two tribunes +that had come from Rome were torn in pieces, and from all sides the +cry arose that the general should lead them to Rome. Without delay +the consul started, and forming a junction with his like-minded +colleague by the way, he arrived by quick marches--little troubling +himself about the deputies who hastened from Rome to meet and +attempted to detain him--beneath the walls of the capital. Suddenly +the Romans beheld columns of Sulla's army take their station at the +bridge over the Tiber and at the Colline and Esquiline gates; and then +two legions in battle array, with their standards at their head, passed +the sacred ring-wall within which the law had forbidden war to enter. +Many a worse quarrel, many an important feud had been brought to a +settlement within those walls, without any need for a Roman army +breaking the sacred peace of the city; that step was now taken, +primarily for thesake of the miserable question whether this or +that officer was called to command in the east. + +Rome Occupied + +The entering legions advanced as far as the height of the Esquiline; +when the missiles and stones descending in showers from the roofs made +the soldiers waver and they began to give way, Sulla himself brandished +a blazing torch, and with firebrands and threats of setting the houses +on fire the legions cleared their way to the Esquiline market-place +(not far from S. Maria Maggiore). There the force hastily collected +by Marius and Sulpicius awaited them, and by its superior numbers +repelled the first invading columns. But reinforcements came up from +the gates; another division of the Sullans made preparations for +turning the defenders by the street of the Subura; the latter were +obliged to retire. At the temple of Tellus, where the Esquiline +begins to slope towards the great Forum, Marius attempted once more +to make a stand; he adjured the senate and equites and all the citizens +to throw themselves across the path of the legions. But he himself +had transformed them from citizens to mercenaries; his own work turned +against him: they obeyed not the government, but their general. Even +when the slaves were summoned to arm under the promise of freedom, +not more than three of them appeared. Nothing remained for the +leaders but to escape in all haste through the still unoccupied gates; +after a few hours Sulla was absolute master of Rome. That night +the watchfires of the legions blazed in the great market-place +of the capital. + +First Sullan Restoration +Death of Sulpicius +Flight of Marius + +The first military intervention in civil feuds had made it quite +evident, not only that the political struggles had reached the point +at which nothing save open and direct force proves decisive, but +also that the power of the bludgeon was of no avail against the +power of the sword. It was the conservative party which first drew +the sword, and which accordingly in due time experienced the truth +of the ominous words of the Gospel as to those who first have recourse +to it. For the present it triumphed completely and might put the +victory into formal shape at its pleasure. As a matter of course, +the Sulpician laws were characterized as legally null. Their author +and his most notable adherents had fled; they were, twelve in number, +proscribed by the senate for arrest and execution as enemies of their +country. Publius Sulpicius was accordingly seized at Laurentum and +put to death; and the head of the tribune, sent to Sulla, was by +his orders exposed in the Forum at the very rostra where he himself had +stood but a few days before in the full vigour of youth and eloquence. +The rest of the proscribed were pursued; the assassins were on the +track of even the old Gaius Marius. Although the general might have +clouded the memory of his glorious days by a succession of pitiful +proceedings, now that the deliverer of his country was running for +his life, he was once more the victor of Vercellae, and with breathless +suspense all Italy listened to the incidents of his marvellous +flight. At Ostia he had gone on board a transport with the view of +sailing for Africa; but adverse winds and want of provisions compelled +him to land at the Circeian promontory and to wander at random. +With few attendants and without trusting himself under a roof, the +grey-haired consular, often suffering from hunger, found his way on +foot to the neighbourhood of the Roman colony of Minturnae at the mouth +of the Garigliano. There the pursuing cavalry were seen in the +distance; with great difficulty he reached the shore, and a trading-- +vessel lying there withdrew him from his pursuers; but the timid +mariners soon put him ashore again and made off, while Marius stole +along the beach. His pursuers found him in the salt-marsh of +Minturnae sunk to the girdle in the mud and with his head concealed +amidst a quantity of reeds, and delivered him to the civic authorities +of Minturnae. He was placed in prison, and the town-executioner, a +Cimbrian slave, was sent to put him to death; but the German trembled +before the flashing eyes of his old conqueror and the axe fell from +his hands, when the general with his powerful voice haughtily demanded +whether he dared to kill Gaius Marius. When they learned this, the +magistrates of Minturnae were ashamed that the deliverer of Rome should +meet with greater reverence from slaves to whom he had brought bondage +than from his fellow-citizens to whom he had brought freedom; they +loosed his fetters, gave him a vessel and money for travelling expenses, +and sent him to Aenaria (Ischia). The proscribed with the exception +of Sulpicius gradually met in those waters; they landed at Eryx and +at what was formerly Carthage, but the Roman magistrates both in +Sicily and in Africa sent them away. So they escaped to Numidia, +whose desert sand-dunes gave them a place of refuge for the winter. +But the king Hiempsal II, whom they hoped to gain and who had seemed +for a while willing to unite with them, had only done so to lull them +into security, and now attempted to seize their persons. With great +difficulty the fugitives escaped from his cavalry, and found a temporary +refuge in the little island of Cercina (Kerkena) on the coast of Tunis. +We know not whether Sulla thanked his fortunate star that he had been +spared the odium of putting to death the victor of the Cimbrians; at any +rate it does not appear that the magistrates of Minturnae were punished. + +Legislation of Sulla + +With a view to remove existing evils and to prevent future +revolutions, Sulla suggested a series of new legislative enactments. +For the hard-pressed debtors nothing seems to have been done, except +that the rules as to the maximum of interest were enforced;(24) +directions moreover were given for the sending out of a number of +colonies. The senate which had been greatly thinned by the battles +and prosecutions of the Social war was filled up by the admission of +300 new senators, who were naturally selected in the interest of the +Optimates. Lastly, material changes were adopted in respect to the +mode of election and the initiative of legislation. The old Servian +arrangement for voting in the centuriate comitia, under which the +first class, with an estate of 100,000 sesterces (1000 pounds) or +upwards, alone possessed almost half of the votes, again took the +place of the arrangements introduced in 513 to mitigate the +preponderance of the first class.(25) Practically there was thus +introduced for the election of consuls, praetors, and censors, a +census which really excluded the non-wealthy from exercising the +suffrage. The legislative initiative in the case of the tribunes +of the people was restricted by the rule, that every proposal had +henceforth to be submitted by them in the first instance to +the senate and could only come before the people in the event +of the senate approving it. + +These enactments which were called forth by the Sulpician attempt at +revolution from the man who then came forward as the shield and sword +of the constitutional party--the consul Sulla--bear an altogether +peculiar character. Sulla ventured, without consulting the burgesses +or jurymen, to pronounce sentence of death on twelve of the most +distinguished men, including magistrates actually in office and +the most famous general of his time, and publicly to defend these +proscriptions; a violation of the venerable and sacred laws of appeal, +which met with severe censure even from very conservative men, such +as Quintus Scaevola. He ventured to overthrow an arrangement as to +the elections which had subsisted for a century and a half, and to +re-establish the electoral census which had been long obsolete and +proscribed. He ventured practically to withdraw the right of +legislation from its two primitive factors, the magistrates and the +comitia, and to transfer it to a board which had at no time possessed +formally any other privilege in this respect than that of being asked +for its advice.(26) Hardly had any democrat ever exercised justice +in forms so tyrannical, or disturbed and remodelled the foundations of +the constitution with so reckless an audacity, as this conservative +reformer. But if we look at the substance instead of the form, we +reach very different results. Revolutions have nowhere ended, and +least of all in Rome, without demanding a certain number of victims, +who under forms more or less borrowed from justice atone for the fault +of being vanquished as though it were a crime. Any one who recalls +the succession of prosecutions carried on by the victorious party +after the fall of the Gracchi and Saturninus(27) will be inclined +to yield to the victor of the Esquiline market the praise of candour +and comparative moderation, in so far as, first he without ceremony +accepted as war what was really such and proscribed the men who were +defeated as enemies beyond the pale of the law, and, secondly, he +limited as far as possible the number of victims and allowed at least +no offensive outbreak of fury against inferior persons. A similar +moderation appears in the political arrangements. The innovation as +respects legislation--the most important and apparently the most +comprehensive--in fact only brought the letter of the constitution +into harmony with its spirit. The Roman legislation, under which +any consul, praetor, or tribune could propose to the burgesses any +measure at pleasure and bring it to the vote without debate, had from +the first been, irrational and had become daily more so with the +growing nullity of the comitia; it was only tolerated, because in +practice the senate had claimed for itself the right of previous +deliberation and regularly crushed any proposal, if put to the vote +without such previous deliberation, by means of the political or +religious veto.(28) The revolution hadswept away thesebarriers; +andin consequence that absurd system now began fully to develop its +results, and to put it in the power of any petulant knave to overthrow +the state in due form of law. What was under such circumstances more +natural, more necessary, more truly conservative, than now to recognize +formally and expressly the legislation of the senate to which effect +had been hitherto given by a circuitous process? Something similar +may be said of the renewal of the electoral census. The earlier +constitution was throughout based on it; even the reform of 513 had +merely restricted the privileges of the men of wealth. But since that +year there had occurred an immense financial revolution, which might +well justify a raising of the electoral census. The new timocracy +thus changed the letter of the constitution only to remain faithful +to its spirit, while it at the same time in the mildest possible form +attempted at least to check the disgraceful purchase of votes with all +the evils therewith connected. Lastly, the regulations in favour of +debtors and the resumption of the schemes of colonization gave express +proof that Sulla, although not disposed to approve the impetuous +proposals of Sulpicius, was yet, like Sulpicius and Drusus and all the +more far-seeing aristocrats in general, favourable to material reforms +in themselves; as to which we may not overlook the circumstance, that +he proposed these measures after the victory and entirely of his own +free will. If we combine with such considerations the fact, that Sulla +allowed the principal foundations of the Gracchan constitution to +stand and disturbed neither the equestrian courts nor the largesses +of grain, we shall find warrant for the opinion that the Sullan +arrangement of 666 substantially adhered to the status quo subsisting +since the fall of Gaius Gracchus; he merely, on the one hand, altered +as the times required the traditional rules that primarily threatened +danger to the existing government, and, on the other hand, sought to +remedy according to his power the existing social evils, so far as +either could be done without touching ills that lay deeper. Emphatic +contempt for constitutional formalism in connection with a vivid +appreciation of the intrinsic value of existing arrangements, clear +perceptions, and praiseworthy intentions mark this legislation +throughout. But it bears also a certain frivolous and superficial +character; it needed in particular a great amount of good nature +to believe that the fixing a maximum of interest would remedy the +confused relations of credit, and that the right of previous +deliberation on the part of the senate would prove more capable +of resisting future demagogism than the right of veto and religion +had previously been. + +New Complications +Cinna +Strabo +Sulla Embarks for Asia + +In reality new clouds very soon began to overcast the clear sky +of the conservatives. The relations of Asia assumed daily a more +threatening character. The state had already suffered the utmost +injury through the delay which the Sulpician revolution had +occasioned in the departure of the army for Asia; the embarkation +could on no account be longer postponed. Meanwhile Sulla hoped to +leave behind him guarantees against a new assault on the oligarchy +in Italy, partly in the consuls who would be elected under the new +electoral arrangement, partly and especially in the armies employed +in suppressing the remains of the Italian insurrection. In the +consular comitia, however, the choice did not fall on the candidates +set up by Sulla, but Lucius Cornelius Cinna, who belonged to the most +determined opposition, was associated with Gnaeus Octavius, a man +certainly of strictly Optimate views. It may be presumed that it +was chiefly the capitalist party, which by this choice retaliated +on the author of the law as to interest. Sulla accepted the +unpleasant election with the declaration that he was glad to see +the burgesses making use of their constitutional liberty of choice, +and contented himself with exacting from both consuls an oath that they +would faithfully observe the existing constitution. Of the armies, +the one on which the matter chiefly depended was that of the north, +as the greater part of the Campanian army was destined to depart for +Asia. Sulla got the command of the former entrusted by decree of the +people to his devoted colleague Quintus Rufus, and procured the recall +of the former general Gnaeus Strabo in such a manner as to spare as far +as possible his feelings--the more so, because the latter belonged to +the equestrian party and his passive attitude during the Sulpician +troubles had occasioned no small anxiety to the aristocracy. Rufus +arrived at the army and took the chief command in Strabo's stead; +but a few days afterwards he was killed by the soldiers, and Strabo +returned to the command which he had hardly abdicated. He was +regarded as the instigator of the murder; it is certain that he +was a man from whom such a deed might be expected, that he reaped the +fruits of the crime, and that he punished the well-known originators +of it only with words. The removal of Rufus and the commandership of +Strabo formed a new and serious danger for Sulla; yet he did nothing +to deprive the latter of his command. Soon afterwards, when his +consulship expired, he found himself on the one hand urged by his +successor Cinna to depart at length for Asia where his presence was +certainly urgently needed, and on the other hand cited by one of +the new tribunes before the bar of the people; it was clear to +the dullest eye, that a new attack on him and his party was in +preparation, and that his opponents wished his removal. Sulla had +no alternative save either to push the matter to a breach with Cinna +and perhaps with Strabo and once more to march on Rome, or to leave +Italian affairs to take their course and to remove to another +continent. Sulla decided--whether more from patriotism or more from +indifference, will never be ascertained--for the latter alternative; +handed over the corps left behind in Samnium to the trustworthy and +experienced soldier, Quintus Metellus Pius, who was invested in +Sulla's stead with the proconsular commandership-in-chief over Lower +Italy; gave the conduct of the siege of Nola to the propraetor Appius +Claudius; and in the beginning of 667 embarked with his legions for +the Hellenic East. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +The East and King Mithradates + +State of the East + +The state of breathless excitement, in which the revolution kept +the Roman government by perpetually renewing the alarm of fire and +the cry to quench it, made them lose sight of provincial matters +generally; and that most of all in the case of the Asiatic lands, +whose remote and unwarlike nations did not thrust themselves so +directly on the attention of the government as Africa, Spain, and +its Transalpine neighbours. After the annexation of the kingdom of +Attalus, which took place contemporaneously with the outbreak of +the revolution, for a whole generation there is hardly any evidence +of Rome taking a serious part in Oriental affairs--with the exception +of the establishment of the province of Cilicia in 652,(1) to which +the Romans were driven by the boundless audacity of the Cilician +pirates, and which was in reality nothing more than the institution +of a permanent station for a small division of the Roman army and +fleet in the eastern waters. It was not till the downfall of Marius +in 654 had in some measure consolidated the government of the +restoration, that the Roman authorities began anew to bestow +some attention on the events in the east + +Cyrene Romans + +In many respects matters still stood as they had done thirty years +ago. The kingdom of Egypt with its two appendages of Cyrene and +Cyprus was broken up, partly de jure, partly de facto, on the death +of Euergetes II (637). Cyrene went to his natural son, Ptolemaeus +Apion, and was for ever separated from Egypt. The sovereignty of +the latter formed a subject of contention between the widow of +the last king Cleopatra (665), and his two sons Soter II Lathyrus +(673) and Alexander I (666); which gave occasion to Cyprus also to +separate itself for a considerable period from Egypt. The Romans +did not interfere in these complications; in fact, when the +Cyrenaean kingdom fell to them in 658 by the testament of the +childless king Apion, while not directly rejecting the acquisition, +they left the country in substance to itself by declaring the Greek +towns of the kingdom, Cyrene, Ptolemais, and Berenice, free cities +and even handing over to them the use of the royal domains. +The supervision of the governor of Africa over this territory was +from its remoteness merely nominal, far more so than that of the +governor of Macedonia over the Hellenic free cities. The consequences +of this measure--which beyond doubt originated not in Philhellenism, +but simply in the weakness and negligence of the Roman government-- +were substantially similar to those which had occurred under the like +circumstances in Hellas; civil wars and usurpations so rent the land +that, when a Roman officer of rank accidentally made his appearance +there in 668, the inhabitants urgently besought him to regulate +their affairs and to establish a permanent government among them. + +In Syria also during the interval there had not been much change, +and still less any improvement. During the twenty years' war of +succession between the two half-brothers Antiochus Grypus (658) and +Antiochus of Cyzicus(659), which after their death was inherited by +their sons, the kingdom which was the object of contention became +almost an empty name, inasmuch as the Cilician sea-kings, the Arab +sheiks of the Syrian desert, the princes of the Jews, and the +magistrates of the larger towns had ordinarily more to say than the +wearers of the diadem. Meanwhile the Romans established themselves +in western Cilicia, and the important Mesopotamia passed over +definitively to the Parthians. + +The Parthian State +Armenia + +The monarchy of the Arsacids had to pass through a dangerous crisis +about the time of the Gracchi, chiefly in consequence of the inroads +of Turanian tribes. The ninth Arsacid, Mithradates II or the Great +(630?-667?), had recovered for the state its position of ascendency +in the interior of Asia, repulsed the Scythians, and advanced the +frontier of the kingdom towards Syria and Armenia; but towards the +end of his life new troubles disturbed his reign; and, while the +grandees of the kingdom including his own brother Orodes rebelled +against the king and at length that brother overthrew him and had +put him to death, the hitherto unimportant Armenia rose into power. +This country, which since its declaration of independence(2) had +been divided into the north-eastern portion or Armenia proper, the +kingdom of the Artaxiads, and the south-western or Sophene, the +kingdom of the Zariadrids, was for the first time united into one +kingdom by the Artaxiad Tigranes (who had reigned since 660); and +this doubling of his power on the one hand, and the weakness of the +Parthian rule on the other, enabled the new king of all Armenia not +only to free himself from dependence on the Parthians and to recover +the provinces formerly ceded to them, but even to bring to Armenia +the titular supremacy of Asia, as it had passed from the Achaemenids +to the Seleucids and from the Seleucids to the Arsacids. + +Asia Minor + +Lastly in Asia Minor the territorial arrangements, which had been +made under Roman influence after the dissolution of the kingdom of +Attalus,(3) still subsisted in the main unchanged. In the condition +of the dependent states--the kingdoms of Bithynia, Cappadocia, +Pontus, the principalities of Paphlagonia and Galatia, the numerous +city-leagues and free towns--no outward change was at first +discernible. But, intrinsically, the character of the Roman rule +had certainly undergone everywhere a material alteration. Partly +through the constant growth of oppression naturally incident to every +tyrannic government, partly through the indirect operation of the +Roman revolution--in the seizure, for instance, of the property of +the soil in the province of Asia by Gaius Gracchus, in the Roman +tenths and customs, and in the human hunts which the collectors of +the revenue added to their other avocations there--the Roman rule, +barely tolerable even from the first, pressed so heavily on Asia +that neither the crown of the king nor the hut of the peasant there +was any longer safe from confiscation, that every stalk of corn +seemed to grow for the Roman -decumanus-, and every child of free +parents seemed to be born for the Roman slave-drivers. It is true +that the Asiatic bore even this torture with his inexhaustible +passive endurance; but it was not patience and reflection that +made him bear it peacefully. It was rather the peculiarly Oriental +lack of initiative; and in these peaceful lands, amidst these +effeminate nations, strange and terrible things might happen, +if once there should appear among them a man who knew how to +give the signal for revolt. + +Mithradates Eupator + +There reigned at that time in the kingdom of Pontus Mithradates VI +surnamed Eupator (born about 624, 691) who traced back his lineage on +the father's side in the sixteenth generation to king Darius the son +of Hystaspes and in the eighth to Mithradates I the founder of the +Pontic kingdom, and was on the mother's side descended from the +Alexandrids and the Seleucids. After the early death of his father +Mithradates Euergetes, who fell by the hand of an assassin at Sinope, +he had received the title of king about 634, when a boy of eleven +years of age; but the diadem brought to him only trouble and danger. +His guardians, and even as it would seem his own mother called to +take a part in the government by his father's will, conspired against +the boy-king's life. It is said that, in order to escape from the +daggers of his legal protectors, he became of his own accord a +wanderer, and during seven years, changing his resting-place night +after night, a fugitive in his own kingdom, led the homeless life +of a hunter. Thus the boy grew into a powerful man. Although our +accounts regarding him are in substance traceable to written +records of contemporaries, yet the legendary tradition, which is +generated in the east with the rapidity of lightning, early adorned +the mighty king with many of the traits of its Samsons and Rustems. +These traits, however, belong to the character, just as the crown of +clouds belongs to the character of the highest mountain-peaks; the +outlines of the figure appear in both cases only more coloured and +fantastic, not disturbed or essentially altered. The armour, which +fitted the gigantic frame of king Mithradates, excited the wonder of +the Asiatics and still more that of the Italians. As a runner he +overtook the swiftest deer; as a rider he broke in the wild steed, +and was able by changing horses to accomplish 120 miles in a day; +as a charioteer he drove with sixteen in hand, and gained in +competition many a prize--it was dangerous, no doubt, in such sport +to carry off victory from the king. In hunting on horseback, he hit +the game at full gallop and never missed his aim. He challenged +competition at table also--he arranged banqueting matches and carried +off in person the prizes proposed for the most substantial eater and +the hardest drinker--and not less so in the pleasures of the harem, +as was shown among other things by the licentious letters of his Greek +mistresses, which were found among his papers. His intellectual +wants he satisfied by the wildest superstition--the interpretation of +dreams and the Greek mysteries occupied not a few of the king's hours-- +and by a rude adoption of Hellenic civilization. He was fond of +Greek art and music; that is to say, he collected precious articles, +rich furniture, old Persian and Greek objects of luxury--his cabinet +of rings was famous--he had constantly Greek historians, philosophers, +and poets in his train, and proposed prizes at his court-festivals not +only for the greatest eaters and drinkers, but also for the merriest +jester and the best singer. Such was the man; the sultan +corresponded. In the east, where the relation between the ruler +and the ruled bears the character of natural rather than of moral +law, the subject resembles the dog alike in fidelity and in +falsehood, the ruler is cruel and distrustful. In both respects +Mithradates has hardly been surpassed. By his orders there died +or pined in perpetual captivity for real or alleged treason his +mother, his brother, his sister espoused to him, three of his sons +and as many of his daughters. Still more revolting perhaps is the +fact, that among his secret papers were found sentences of death, +drawn up beforehand, against several of his most confidential +servants. In like manner it was a genuine trait of the sultan, that +he afterwards, for the mere purpose of withdrawing from his enemies +the trophies of victory, caused his two Greek wives, his sister and +his whole harem to be put to death, and merely left to the women +the choice of the mode of dying. He prosecuted the experimental +study of poisons and antidotes as an important branch of the +business of government, and tried to inure his body to particular +poisons. He had early learned to look for treason and assassination +at the hands of everybody and especially of his nearest relatives, +and he had early learned to practise them against everybody and +most of all against those nearest to him; of which the necessary +consequence--attested by all his history--was, that all his +undertakings finally miscarried through the perfidy of those whom +he trusted. At the same time we doubtless meet with isolated +traits of high-minded justice: when he punished traitors, he +ordinarily spared those who had become involved in the crime simply +from their personal relations with the leading culprit; but such fits +of equity are not wholly wanting in every barbarous tyrant. What +really distinguishes Mithradates amidst the multitude of similar +sultans, is his boundless activity. He disappeared one fine morning +from his palace and remained unheard of for months, so that he was +given over as lost; when he returned, he had wandered incognito +through all western Asia and reconnoitred everywhere the country +and the people. In like manner he was not only in general a man of +fluent speech, but he administered justice to each of the twenty-two +nations over which he ruled in its own language without needing +an interpreter--a trait significant of the versatile ruler of +the many-tongued east. His whole activity as a ruler bears +the same character. So far as we know (for our authorities are +unfortunately altogether silent as to his internal administration) +his energies, like those of every other sultan, were spent in +collecting treasures, in assembling armies--which were usually, +in his earlier years at least, led against the enemy not by the king +in person, but by some Greek -condottiere---in efforts to add new +satrapies to the old. Of higher elements--desire to advance +civilization, earnest leadership of the national opposition, special +gifts of genius--there are found, in our traditional accounts at +least, no distinct traces in Mithradates, and we have no reason to +place him on a level even with the great rulers of the Osmans, such +as Mohammed II and Suleiman. Notwithstanding his Hellenic culture, +which sat on him not much better than the Roman armour sat on his +Cappadocians, he was throughout an Oriental of the ordinary stamp, +coarse, full of the most sensual appetites, superstitious, cruel, +perfidious, and unscrupulous, but so vigorous in organization, so +powerful in physical endowments, that his defiant laying about him +and his unshaken courage in resistance look frequently like talent, +sometimes even like genius. Granting that during the death-struggle +of the republic it was easier to offer resistance to Rome than in the +times of Scipio or Trajan, and that it was only the complication of the +Asiatic events with the internal commotions of Italy which rendered +it possible for Mithradates to resist the Romans twice as long as +Jugurtha did, it remains nevertheless true that before the Parthian +wars he was the only enemy who gave serious trouble to the Romans in +the east, and that he defended himself against them as the lion of the +desert defends himself against the hunter. Still we are not entitled, +in accordance with what we know, to recognize in him more than the +resistance to be expected from so vigorous a nature. But, whatever +judgment we may form as to the individual character of the king, +his historical position remains in a high degree significant. +The Mithradatic wars formed at once the last movement of the political +opposition offered by Hellas to Rome, and the beginning of a revolt +against the Roman supremacy resting on very different and far deeper +grounds of antagonism--the national reaction of the Asiatics against +the Occidentals. The empire of Mithradates was, like himself, +Oriental; polygamy and the system of the harem prevailed at court +and generally among persons of rank; the religion of the inhabitants +of the country as well as the official religion of the court was +pre-eminently the old national worship; the Hellenism there was +little different from the Hellenism of the Armenian Tigranids and +the Arsacids of the Parthian empire. The Greeks of Asia Minor +might imagine for a brief moment that they had found in this king a +support for their political dreams; his battles were really fought +for matters very different from those which were decided on the fields +of Magnesia and Pydna. They formed--after a long truce--a new +passage in the huge duel between the west and the east, which has +been transmitted from the conflicts at Marathon to the present +generation and will perhaps reckon its future by thousands of +years as it has reckoned its past. + +The Nationalities of Asia Minor + +Manifest however as is the foreign and un-Hellenic character of +the whole life and action of the Cappadocian king, it is difficult +definitely to specify the national element preponderating in it, +nor will research perhaps ever succeed in getting beyondbgeneralities +or in attaining clear views on this point. In the whole circle +of ancient civilization there is no region where the stocks +subsisting side by side or crossing each other were so numerous, +so heterogeneous, so variously from the remotest times intermingled, +and where in consequence the relations of the nationalities were +less clear than in Asia Minor. The Semitic population continued in +an unbroken chain from Syria to Cyprus and Cilicia, and to it the +original stock of the population along the west coast in the regions +of Caria and Lydia seems also to have belonged, while the north- +western point was occupied by the Bithynians, who were akin to +the Thracians in Europe. The interior and the north coast, on +the other hand, were filled chiefly by Indo-Germanic peoples most +nearly cognate to the Iranian. In the case of the Armenian and +Phrygian languages(4) it is ascertained, in that of the Cappadocian +it is highly probable, that they had immediate affinity with the Zend; +and the statement made as to the Mysians, that among them the Lydian +and Phrygian languages met, just denotes a mixed Semitic-Iranian +population that may be compared perhaps with that of Assyria. As to +the regions stretching between Cilicia and Caria, more especially +Lydia, there is still, notwithstanding the full remains of the +native language and writing that are in this particular instance +extant, a want of assured results, and it is merely probable that +these tribes ought to be reckoned among the Indo-Germans rather +than the Semites. How all this confused mass of peoples was +overlaid first with a net of Greek mercantile cities, and then +with the Hellenism called into life by the military as well +as intellectual ascendency of the Greek nation, has been set +forth in outline already. + +Pontus + +In these regions ruled king Mithradates, and that first of all in +Cappadocia on the Black Sea or Pontus as it was called, a district +in which, situated as it was at the northeastern extremity of Asia +Minor towards Armenia and in constant contact with the latter, the +Iranian nationality presumably preserved itself with less admixture +than anywhere else in Asia Minor. Not even Hellenism had penetrated +far into that region. With the exception of the coast where several +originally Greek settlements subsisted--especially the important +commercial marts Trapezus, Amisus, and above all Sinope, the birthplace +and residence of Mithradates and the most flourishing city of the +empire--the country was still in a very primitive condition. Not that +it had lain waste; on the contrary, as the region of Pontus is still +one of the most fertile on the face of the earth, with its fields of +grain alternating with forests of wild fruit trees, it was beyond +doubt even in the time of Mithradates well cultivated and also +comparatively populous. But there were hardly any towns properly +so called; the country possessed nothing but strongholds, which +served the peasants as places of refuge and the king as treasuries +for the custody of the revenues which accrued to him; in the Lesser +Armenia alone, in fact, there were counted seventy-five of these +little royal forts. We do not find that Mithradates materially +contributed to promote the growth of towns in his empire; and situated +as he was,--in practical, though not perhaps on his own part quite +conscious, reaction against Hellenism,--this is easily conceivable. + +Acquisitions of Territory by Mithradates +Colchis +Northern Shores of the Black Sea + +He appears more actively employed--likewise quite in the Oriental +style--in enlarging on all sides his kingdom, which was even then not +small, though its compass is probably over-stated at 2300 miles; we find +his armies, his fleets, and his envoys busy along the Black Sea as well +as towards Armenia and towards Asia Minor. But nowhere did so free and +ample an arena present itself to him as on the eastern and northern +shores of the Black Sea, the state of which at that time we must not +omit to glance at, however difficult or in fact impossible it is to +give a really distinct idea of it. On the eastern coast of the Black +Sea--which, previously almost unknown, was first opened up to more +general knowledge by Mithradates--the region of Colchis on the +Phasis (Mingrelia and Imeretia) with the important commercial town +of Dioscurias was wrested from the native princes and converted into +a satrapy of Pontus. Of still greater moment were his enterprises in +the northern regions.(5) The wide steppes destitute of hills and +trees, which stretch to the north of the Black Sea, of the Caucasus, +and of the Caspian, are by reason of their natural conditions--more +especially from the variations of temperature fluctuating between +the climate of Stockholm and that of Madeira, and from the absolute +destitution of rain or snow which occurs not unfrequently and lasts +for a period of twenty-two months or longer--little adapted for +agriculture or for permanent settlement at all; and they always were +so, although two thousand years ago the state of the climate was +presumably somewhat less unfavourable than it is at the present +day.(6) The various tribes, whose wandering impulse led them into +these regions, submitted to this ordinance of nature and led (and still +to some extent lead) a wandering pastoral life with their herds of oxen +or still more frequently of horses, changing their places of abode and +pasture, and carrying their effects along with them in waggon-houses. +Their equipment and style of fighting were consonant to this mode of +life; the inhabitants of these steppes fought in great measure on +horseback and always in loose array, equipped with helmet and coat +of mail of leather and leather-covered shield, armed with sword, +lance, and bow--the ancestors of the modern Cossacks. The Scythians +originally settled there, who seem to have been of Mongolian race +and akin in their habits and physical appearance to the present +inhabitants of Siberia, had been followed up by Sarmatian tribes +advancing from east to west,--Sauromatae, Roxolani, Jazyges,--who are +commonly reckoned of Slavonian descent, although the proper names, which +we are entitled to ascribe to them, show more affinity with Median +and Persian names and those peoples perhaps belonged rather to the +great Zend stock. Thracian tribes moved in the opposite direction, +particularly the Getae, who reached as far as the Dniester. Between +the two there intruded themselves--probably as offsets of the great +Germanic migration, the main body of which seems not to have touched +the Black Sea--the Celts, as they were called, on the Dnieper, the +Bastarnae in the same quarter, and the Peucini at the mouth of the +Danube. A state, in the proper sense, was nowhere formed; every +tribe lived by itself under its princes and elders. + +Hellenism in That Quarter + +In sharp contrast to all these barbarians stood the Hellenic +settlements, which at the time of the mighty impetus given to Greek +commerce had been founded chiefly by the efforts of Miletus on these +coasts, partly as trading-marts, partly as stations for prosecuting +important fisheries and even for agriculture, for which, as we have +already said, the north-western shores of the Black Sea presented in +antiquity conditions less unfavourable than at the present day. +For the use of the soil the Hellenes paid here, like the Phoenicians +in Libya, tax and ground-rent to the native rulers. The most important +of these settlements were the free city of Chersonesus (not far from +Sebastopol), built on the territory of the Scythians in the Tauric +peninsula (Crimea), and maintaining itself in moderate prosperity, +under circumstances far from favourable, by virtue of its good +constitution and the public spirit of its citizens; and Panticapaeum +(Kertch) at the opposite side of the peninsula on the straits leading +from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov, governed since the year 457 +by hereditary burgomasters, afterwards called kings of the Bosporus, +the Archaeanactidae, Spartocidae, and Paerisadae. The culture of +corn and the fisheries of the Sea of Azov had rapidly raised the +city to prosperity. Its territory still in the time of Mithradates +embraced the lesser eastern division of the Crimea including the town +of Theodosia, and on the opposite Asiatic continent the town of +Phanagoria and the district of Sindica. In better times the lords +of Panticapaeum had by land ruled the peoples on the east coast +of the Sea of Azov and the valley of the Kuban, and had commanded +the Black Sea with their fleet; but Panticapaeum was no longer what +it had been. Nowhere was the sad decline of the Hellenic nation felt +more deeply than at these distant outposts. Athens in its good times +had been the only Greek state which fulfilled there the duties of a +leading power--duties which certainly were specially brought home to +the Athenians by their need of Pontic grain. After the downfall of +the Attic maritime power these regions were, on the whole, left to +themselves. The Greek land-powers never got so far as to intervene +seriously there, although Philip the father of Alexander and +Lysimachus sometimes attempted it; and the Romans, on whom with the +conquest of Macedonia and Asia Minor devolved the political obligation +of becoming the strong protectors of Greek civilization at the point +where it needed such protection, utterly neglected the summons of +interest as well as of honour. The fall of Sinope, the decline of +Rhodes, completed the isolation of the Hellenes on the northern +shore of the Black Sea. A vivid picture of their position with +reference to the roving barbarians is given to us by an inscription +of Olbia (near Oczakow not far from the mouth of the Dnieper), which +apparently may be placed not long before the time of Mithradates. +The citizens had not only to send annual tribute to the court-camp +of the barbarian king, but also to make him a gift when he encamped +before the town or even simply passed by, and in a similar way to +buy off minor chieftains and in fact sometimes the whole horde with +presents; and it fared ill with them if the gift appeared too small. +The treasury of the town was bankrupt and they had to pledge the +temple-jewels. Meanwhile the savage tribes were thronging without in +front of the gates; the territory was laid waste, the field-labourers +were dragged away en masse, and, what was worst of all, the weaker +of their barbarian neighbours, the Scythians, sought, in order +to shelter themselves from the pressure of the more savage Celts, +to obtain possession of the walled town, so that numerous +citizens were leaving it and the inhabitants already contemplated +its entire surrender. + +Mithradates Master of the Bosphoran Kingdom + +Such was the state in which Mithradates found matters, when his +Macedonian phalanx crossing the ridge of the Caucasus descended into +the valleys of the Kuban and Terek and his fleet at the same time +appeared in the Crimean waters. No wonder that here too, as had +already been the case in Dioscurias, the Hellenes everywhere received +the king of Pontus with open arms and regarded the half-Hellene and +his Cappadocians armed in Greek fashion as their deliverers. What +Rome had here neglected, became apparent. The demands on the rulers +of Panticapaeum for tribute had just then been raised to an exorbitant +height; the town of Chersonesus found itself hard pressed by Scilurus +king of the Scythians dwelling in the peninsula and his fifty sons; +the former were glad to surrender their hereditary lordship, and +the latter their long-preserved freedom, in order to save their +last possession, their Hellenism. It was not in vain. Mithradates' +brave generals, Diophantus and Neoptolemus, and his disciplined troops +easily got the better of the peoples of the steppes. Neoptolemus +defeated them at the straits of Panticapaeum partly by water, partly +in winter on the ice; Chersonesus was delivered, the strongholds of +the Taurians were broken, and the possession of the peninsula was +secured by judiciously constructed fortresses. Diophantus marched +against the Reuxinales or, as they were afterwards called, the Roxolani +(between the Dnieper and Don) who came forward to the aid of the Taurians; +50,000 of them fled before his 6000 phalangites, and the Pontic arms +penetrated as far as the Dnieper.(7) Thus Mithradates acquired here +a second kingdom combined with that of Pontus and, like the latter, +mainly based on a number of Greek commercial towns. It was called +the kingdom of the Bosporus; it embraced the modern Crimea with the +opposite Asiatic promontory, and annually furnished to the royal +chests and magazines 200 talents (48,000 pounds) and 270,000 bushels +of grain. The tribes of the steppe themselves from the north slope +of the Caucasus to the mouth of the Danube entered, at least in great +part, into relations of dependence on, or treaty with, the Pontic +king and, if they furnished him with no other aid, afforded at any +rate an inexhaustible field for recruiting his armies. + +Lesser Armenia +Alliance with Tigranes + +While thus the most important successes were gained towards the north, +the king at the same time extended his dominions towards the east and +the west. The Lesser Armenia was annexed by him and converted from a +dependent principality into an integral part of the Pontic kingdom; +but still more important was the close connection which he formed with +the king of the Greater Armenia. He not only gave his daughter +Cleopatra in marriage to Tigranes, but it was mainly through his +support that Tigranes shook off the yoke of the Arsacids and took +their place in Asia. An agreement seems to have been made between +the two to the effect that Tigranes should take in hand to occupy +Syria and the interior of Asia, and Mithradates Asia Minor and +the coasts of the Black Sea, under promise of mutual support; +and it was beyond doubt the more active and capable Mithradates +who brought about this agreement with a view to cover his rear +and to secure a powerful ally. + +Paphlagonia and Cappadocia Acquired + +Lastly, in Asia Minor the king turned his eyes towards the interior +of Paphlagonia--the coast had for long belonged to the Pontic empire-- +and towards Cappadocia.(8) The former was claimed on the part of +Pontus as having been bequeathed by the testament of the last of +the Pylaemenids to king Mithradates Euergetes: against this, however, +legitimate or illegitimate pretenders and the land itself protested. +As to Cappadocia, the Pontic rulers had not forgotten that this +country and Cappadocia on the sea had been formerly united, and +continually cherished ideas of reunion. Paphlagonia was occupied by +Mithradates in concert with Nicomedes king of Bithynia, with whom he +shared the land. When the senate raised objections to this course, +Mithradates yielded to its remonstrance, while Nicomedes equipped one +of his sons with the name of Pylaemenes and under this title retained +the country to himself. The policy of the allies adopted still worse +expedients in Cappadocia. King Ariarathes VI was killed by Gordius, +it was said by the orders, at any rate in the interest, of Ariarathes' +brother-in-law Mithradates Eupator: his young son Ariarathes knew no +means of meeting the encroachments of the king of Bithynia except +the ambiguous help of his uncle, in return for which the latter then +suggested to him that he should allow the murderer of his father, +who had taken flight, to return to Cappadocia. This led to a rupture +and to war; but when the two armies confronted each other ready for +battle, the uncle requested a previous conference with the nephew and +thereupon cut down the unarmed youth with his own hand. Gordius, the +murderer of the father, then undertook the government by the directions +of Mithradates; and although the indignant population rose against +him and called the younger son of the last king to the throne, the +latter was unable to offer any permanent resistance to the superior +forces of Mithradates. The speedy death of the youth placed by the +people on the throne gave to the Pontic king the greater liberty of +action, because with that youth the Cappadocian royal house became +extinct. A pseudo-Ariarathes was proclaimed as nominal regent, +just as had been done in Paphlagonia; under whose name Gordius +administered the kingdom as lieutenant of Mithradates. + +Empire of Mithradates + +Mightier than any native monarch for many a day had been, +Mithradates bore rule alike over the northern and the southern +shores of the Black Sea and far into the interior of Asia Minor. +The resources of the king for war by land and by sea seemed +immeasurable. His recruiting field stretched from the mouth of +the Danube to the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea; Thracians, Scythians, +Sauromatae, Bastarnae, Colchians, Iberians (in the modern Georgia) +crowded under his banners; above all he recruited his war-hosts from +the brave Bastarnae. For his fleet the satrapy of Colchis supplied +him with the most excellent timber, which was floated down from the +Caucasus, besides flax, hemp, pitch, and wax; pilots and officers +were hired in Phoenicia and Syria. The king, it was said, had +marched into Cappadocia with 600 scythe-chariots, 10,000 horse, +80,000 foot; and he had by no means mustered for this war all his +resources. In the absence of any Roman or other naval power worth +mentioning, the Pontic fleet, with Sinope and the ports of the Crimea +as its rallying points, had exclusive command of the Black Sea. + +The Romans and Mithradates +Intervention of the Senate + +That the Roman senate asserted its general policy--of keeping down +the states more or less dependent on it--also in dealing with that +of Pontus, is shown by its attitude on occasion of the succession to +the throne after the sudden death of Mithradates V. From the boy in +minority who followed him there was taken away Great Phrygia, which +had been conferred on his father for his taking part in the war +against Aristonicus or rather for his good money,(9) and this region +was added to the territory immediately subject to Rome.(10) But, +after this boy had at length attained majority, the same senate +showed utter passiveness towards his aggressions on all sides and +towards the formation of this imposing power, the development of +which occupies perhaps a period of twenty years. It was passive, +while one of its dependent states became developed into a great +military power, having at command more than a hundred thousand +armed men; while the ruler of that state entered into the closest +connection with the new great-king of the east, who was placed partly +by his aid at the head of the states in the interior of Asia; while +he annexed the neighbouring Asiatic kingdoms and principalities under +pretexts which sounded almost like a mockery of the ill-informed +and far-distant protecting power; while, in fine, he even +established himself in Europe and ruled as king over the Tauric +peninsula, and as lord-protector almost to the Macedono-Thracian +frontier. These circumstances indeed formed the subject of +discussion in the senate; but when the illustrious corporation +consoled itself in the affair of the Paphlagonian succession with +the fact that Nicomedes appealed to his pseudo-Pylaemenes, it was +evidently not so much deceived as grateful for any pretext which +spared it from serious interference. Meanwhile the complaints +became daily more numerous and more urgent. The princes of the +Tauric Scythians, whom Mithradates had driven from the Crimea, +turned for help to Rome; those of the senators who at all reflected +on the traditional maxims of Roman policy could not but recollect +that formerly, under circumstances so wholly different, the crossing +of king Antiochus to Europe and the occupation of the Thracian +Chersonese by his troops had become the signal for the Asiatic +war,(11) and could not but see that the occupation of the Tauric +Chersonese by the Pontic king ought still less to be tolerated now. +The scale was at last turned by the practical reunion of the kingdom +of Cappadocia, respecting which, moreover, Nicomedes of Bithynia-- +who on his part had hoped to gain possession of Cappadocia by +another pseudo-Ariarathes, and now saw that the Pontic pretender +excluded his own--would hardly fail to urge the Roman government to +intervention. The senate resolved that Mithradates should reinstate +the Scythian princes--so far were they driven out of the track of +right policy by their negligent style of government, that instead of +supporting the Hellenes against the barbarians they had now on the +contrary to support the Scythians against those who were half their +countrymen. Paphlagonia was declared independent, and the pseudo- +Pylaemenes of Nicomedes was directed to evacuate the country. +In like manner the pseudo-Ariarathes of Mithradates was to retire +from Cappadocia, and, as the representatives of the country refused +the freedom proffered to it, a king was once more to be appointed +by free popular election. + +Sulla Sent to Cappadocia + +The decrees sounded energetic enough; only it was an error, that +instead of sending an army they directed the governor of Cilicia, +Lucius Sulla, with the handful of troops whom he commanded there +against the pirates and robbers, to intervene in Cappadocia. +Fortunately the remembrance of the former energy of the Romans +defended their interests in the east better than their present +government did, and the energy and dexterity of the governor supplied +what the senate lacked in both respects. Mithradates kept back and +contented himself with inducing Tigranes the great-king of Armenia, +who held a more free position with reference to the Romans than he +did, to send troops to Cappadocia. Sulla quickly collected his +forces and the contingents of the Asiatic allies, crossed the +Taurus, and drove the governor Gordius along with his Armenian +auxiliaries out of Cappadocia. This proved effectual. Mithradates +yielded on all points; Gordius had to assume the blame of the +Cappadocian troubles, and the pseudo-Ariarathes disappeared; +the election of king, which the Pontic faction had vainly +attempted to direct towards Gordius, fell on the respected +Cappadocian Ariobarzanes. + +First Contact between the Romans and the Parthians + +When Sulla in following out his expedition arrived in the region of +the Euphrates, in whose waters the Roman standards were then first +mirrored, the Romans came for the first time into contact with the +Parthians, who in consequence of the variance between them and Tigranes +had occasion to make approaches to the Romans. On both sides there +seemed a feeling that it was of some moment, in this first contact +between the two great powers of the east and the west, that neither +should renounce its claims to the sovereignty of the world; but Sulla, +bolder than the Parthian envoy, assumed and maintained in the +conference the place of honour between the king of Cappadocia and +the Parthian ambassador. Sulla's fame was more increased by this +greatly celebrated conference on the Euphrates than by his victories +in the east; on its account the Parthian envoy afterwards forfeited +his life to his masters resentment. But for the moment this contact +had no further result. Nicomedes in reliance on the favour of +the Romans omitted to evacuate Paphlagonia, but the decrees adopted +by the senate against Mithradates were carried further into effect, +the reinstatement of the Scythian chieftains was at least promised by +him; the earlier status quo in the east seemed to be restored (662). + +New Aggressions of Mithradates + +So it was alleged; but in fact there was little trace of any real +return of the former order of things. Scarce had Sulla left Asia, +when Tigranes king of Great Armenia fell upon Ariobarzanes the new +king of Cappadocia, expelled him, and reinstated in his stead the +Pontic pretender Ariarathes. In Bithynia, where after the death +of the old king Nicomedes II (about 663) his son Nicomedes III +Philopator had been recognized by the people and by the Roman senate +as legitimate king, his younger brother Socrates came forward as +pretender to the crown and possessed himself of the sovereignty. +It was clear that the real author of the Cappadocian as of the Bithynian +troubles was no other than Mithradates, although he refrained from +taking any open part. Every one knew that Tigranes only acted at +his beck; but Socrates also had marched into Bithynia with Pontic +troops, and the legitimate king's life was threatened by the +assassins of Mithradates. In the Crimea even and the neighbouring +countries the Pontic king had no thought of receding, but on the +contrary carried his arms farther and farther. + +Aquillius Sent to Asia + +The Roman government, appealed to for aid by the kings Ariobarzanes +and Nicomedes in person, despatched to Asia Minor in support of +Lucius Cassius who was governor there the consular Manius Aquillius-- +an officer tried in the Cimbrian and Sicilian wars--not, however, +as general at the head of an army, but as an ambassador, and +directed the Asiatic client states and Mithradates in particular +to lend armed assistance in case of need. The result was as +it had been two years before. The Roman officer accomplished the +commission entrusted to him with the aid of the small Roman corps +which the governor of the province of Asia had at his disposal, and +of the levy of the Phrygians and Galatians; king Nicomedes and king +Ariobarzanes again ascended their tottering thrones; Mithradates +under various pretexts evaded the summons to furnish contingents, +but gave to the Romans no open resistance; on the contrary +the Bithynian pretender Socrates was even put to death by +his orders (664). + +The State of Things Intermediate between War and Peace + +It was a singular complication. Mithradates was fully convinced +that he could do nothing against the Romans in open conflict, and +was therefore firmly resolved not to allow matters to come to an +open rupture and war with them. Had he not been so resolved, there +was no more favourable opportunity for beginning the struggle than +the present: just at the time when Aquillius marched into Bithynia +and Cappadocia, the Italian insurrection was at the height of its +power and might encourage even the weak to declare against Rome; +yet Mithradates allowed the year 664 to pass without profiting by +the opportunity. Nevertheless he pursued with equal tenacity and +activity his plan of extending his territory in Asia Minor. This +strange combination of a policy of peace at any price with a policy +of conquest was certainly in itself untenable, and was simply a +fresh proof that Mithradates did not belong to the class of genuine +statesmen; he knew neither how to prepare for conflict like king +Philip nor how to submit like king Attalus, but in the true style +of a sultan was perpetually fluctuating between a greedy desire of +conquest and the sense of his own weakness. But even in this point +of view his proceedings can only be understood, when we recollect +that Mithradates had become acquainted by twenty years' experience +with the Roman policy of that day. He knew very well that the Roman +government were far from desirous of war; that they in fact, looking +to the serious danger which threatened their rule from any general +of reputation, and with the fresh remembrance of the Cimbrian war +and Marius, dreaded war still more if possible than he did himself. +He acted accordingly. He was not afraid to demean himself in a way +which would have given to any energetic government not fettered by +selfish considerations manifold ground and occasion for declaring war; +but he carefully avoided any open rupture which would have placed the +senate under the necessity of declaring it. As soon as men appeared +to be in earnest he drew back, before Sulla as well as before +Aquillius; he hoped, doubtless, that he would not always be +confronted by energetic generals, that he too would, as well as +Jugurtha, fall in with his Scaurus or Albinus. It must be owned +that this hope was not without reason; although the very example +of Jugurtha had on the other hand shown how foolish it was to +confound the bribery of a Roman commander and the corruption +of a Roman army with the conquest of the Roman people. + +Aquillius Brings about War +Nicomedes + +Thus matters stood between peace and war, and looked quite as if +they would drag on for long in the same indecisive position. But +it was not the intention of Aquillius to allow this; and, as he could +not compel his government to declare war against Mithradates, he +made use of Nicomedes for that purpose. The latter, who was under +the power of the Roman general and was, moreover, his debtor for +the accumulated war expenses and for sums promised to the general in +person, could not avoid complying with the suggestion that he should +begin war with Mithradates. The declaration of war by Bithynia +took place; but, even when the vessels of Nicomedes closed the +Bosporus against those of Pontus, and his troops marched into the +frontier districts of Pontus and laid waste the region of Amastris, +Mithradates remained still unshaken in his policy of peace; instead +of driving the Bithynians over the frontier, he lodged a complaint +with the Roman envoys and asked them either to mediate or to allow +him the privilege of self-defence. But he was informed by +Aquillius, that he must under all circumstances refrain from war +against Nicomedes. That indeed was plain. They had employed +exactly the same policy against Carthage; they allowed the victim +to be set upon by the Roman hounds and forbade its defending itself +against them. Mithradates reckoned himself lost, just as the +Carthaginians had done; but, while the Phoenicians yielded from +despair, the king of Sinope did the very opposite and assembled +his troops and ships. "Does not even he who must succumb," he is +reported to have said, "defend himself against the robber?" His son +Ariobarzanes received orders to advance into Cappadocia; a message +was sent once more to the Roman envoys to inform them of the step +to which necessity had driven the king, and to demand their +ultimatum. It was to the effect which was to be anticipated. +Although neither the Roman senate nor king Mithradates nor king +Nicomedes had desired the rupture, Aquillius desired it and war +ensued (end of 665). + +Preparations of Mithradates + +Mithradates prosecuted the political and military preparations for +the passage of arms thus forced upon him with all his characteristic +energy. First of all he drew closer his alliance with Tigranes king +of Armenia, and obtained from him the promise of an auxiliary army +which was to march into western Asia and to take possession of the +soil there for king Mithradates and of the moveable property for +king Tigranes. The Parthian king, offended by the haughty carriage +of Sulla, though not exactly coming forward as an antagonist to +the Romans, did not act as their ally. To the Greeks the king +endeavoured to present himself in the character of Philip and +Perseus, as the defender of the Greek nation against the alien rule +of the Romans. Pontic envoys were sent to the king of Egypt and to +the last remnant of free Greece, the league of the Cretan cities, +and adjured those for whom Rome had already forged her chains to rise +now at the last moment and save Hellenic nationality; the attempt was +in the case of Crete at least not wholly in vain, and numerous Cretans +took service in the Pontic army. Hopes were entertained that the +lesser and least of the protected states--Numidia, Syria, the Hellenic +republics--would successively rebel, and that the provinces would +revolt, particularly the west of Asia Minor, the victim of unbounded +oppression. Efforts were made to excite a Thracian rising, and even +to arouse Macedonia to revolt. Piracy, which even previously was +flourishing, was now everywhere let loose as a most welcome ally, +and with alarming rapidity squadrons of corsairs, calling themselves +Pontic privateers, filled the Mediterranean far and wide. With +eagerness and delight accounts were received of the commotions among +the Roman burgesses, and of the Italian insurrection subdued yet far +from extinguished. No direct relations, however, were formed with +the discontented and the insurgents in Italy; except that a foreign +corps armed and organized in the Roman fashion was created in Asia, +the flower of which consisted of Roman and Italian refugees. +Forces like those of Mithradates had not been seen in Asia since +the Persian wars. The statements that, leaving out of account the +Armenian auxiliary army, he took the field with 250,000 infantry and +40,000 cavalry, and that 300 Pontic decked and 100 open vessels put +to sea, seem not too exaggerated in the case of a warlike sovereign +who had at his disposal the numberless inhabitants of the steppes. +His generals, particularly the brothers Neoptolemus and Archelaus, +were experienced and cautious Greek captains; among the soldiers of +the king there was no want of brave men who despised death; and the +armour glittering with gold and silver and the rich dresses of the +Scythians and Medes mingled gaily with the bronze and steel of the +Greek troopers. No unity of military organization, it is true, +bound together these party-coloured masses; the army of Mithradates +was just one of those unwieldy Asiatic war-machines, which had so often +already--on the last occasion exactly a century before at Magnesia-- +succumbed to a superior military organization; but still the east was +in arms against the Romans, while in the western half of the empire +also matters looked far from peaceful. + +Weak Counterpreparatons of the Romans + +However much it was in itself a political necessity for Rome to +declare war against Mithradates, yet the particular moment was as +unhappily chosen as possible; and for this reason it is very probable +that Manius Aquillius brought about the rupture between Rome and +Mithradates at this precise time primarily from regard to his own +interests. For the moment they had no other troops at their disposal +in Asia than the small Roman division under Lucius Cassius and the +militia of western Asia, and, owing to the military and financial +distress in which they were placed at home in consequence of the +insurrectionary war, a Roman army could not in the most favourable +case land in Asia before the summer of 666. Hitherto the Roman +magistrates there had a difficult position; but they hoped to +protect the Roman province and to be able to hold their ground as +they stood--the Bithynian army under king Nicomedes in its position +taken up in the previous year in the Paphlagonian territory between +Amastris and Sinope, and the divisions under Lucius Cassius, Manius +Aquillius, and Quintus Oppius, farther back in the Bithynian, Galatian, +and Cappadocian territories, while the Bithyno-Roman fleet continued +to blockade the Bosporus. + +Mithradates Occupies Asia Minor +Anti-Roman Movements There + +In the beginning of the spring of 666 Mithradates assumed the +offensive. On a tributary of the Halys, the Amnias (near the modern +Tesch Kopri), the Pontic vanguard of cavalry and light-armed +troops encountered the Bithynian army, and notwithstanding its very +superior numbers so broke it at the first onset that the beaten army +dispersed and the camp and military chest fell into the hands of the +victors. It was mainly to Neoptolemus and Archelaus that the king +was indebted for this brilliant success. The far more wretched +Asiatic militia, stationed farther back, thereupon gave themselves +up as vanquished, even before they encountered the enemy; when the +generals of Mithradates approached them, they dispersed. A Roman +division was defeated in Cappadocia; Cassius sought to keep the field +in Phrygia with the militia, but he discharged it again without +venturing on a battle, and threw himself with his few trustworthy +troops into the townships on the upper Maeander, particularly into +Apamea. Oppius in like manner evacuated Pamphylia and shut himself +up in the Phrygian Laodicea; Aquillius was overtaken while retreating +at the Sangarius in the Bithynian territory, and so totally defeated +that he lost his camp and had to seek refuge at Pergamus in the Roman +province; the latter also was soon overrun, and Pergamus itself fell +into the hands of the king, as likewise the Bosporus and the ships +that were there. After each victory Mithradates had dismissed all +the prisoners belonging to the militia of Asia Minor, and had +neglected no step to raise to a higher pitch the national sympathies +that were from the first turned towards him. Now the whole country +as far as the Maeander was with the exception of a few fortresses in +his power; and news at the same time arrived, that a new revolution +had broken out at Rome, that the consul Sulla destined to act +against Mithradates had instead of embarking for Asia marched on +Rome, that the most celebrated Roman generals were fighting battles +with each other in order to settle to whom the chief command in the +Asiatic war should belong. Rome seemed zealously employed in the +work of self-destruction: it is no wonder that, though even now +minorities everywhere adhered to Rome, the great body of the natives +of Asia Minor joined the Pontic king. Hellenes and Asiatics united +in the rejoicing which welcomed the deliverer; it became usual to +compliment the king, in whom as in the divine conqueror of the +Indians Asia and Hellas once more found a common meeting-point, under +the name of the new Dionysus. The cities and islands sent messengers +to meet him, wherever he went, and to invite "the delivering god" +to visit them; and in festal attire the citizens flocked forth in +front of their gates to receive him. Several places delivered the +Roman officers sojourning among them in chains to the king; Laodicea +thus surrendered Quintus Oppius, the commandant of the town, and +Mytilene in Lesbos the consular Manius Aquillius.(12) The whole +fury of the barbarian, who gets the man before whom he has trembled +into his power, discharged itself on the unhappy author of the war. +The aged man was led throughout Asia Minor, sometimes on foot chained +to a powerful mounted Bastarnian, sometimes bound on an ass and +proclaiming his own name; and, when at length the pitiful spectacle +again arrived at the royal quarters in Pergamus, by the king's +orders molten gold was poured down his throat--in order to +satiate his avarice, which had really occasioned the war-- +till he expired in torture. + +Orders Issued from Ephesus for a General Massacre + +But the king was not content with this savage mockery, which alone +suffices to erase its author's name from the roll of true nobility. +From Ephesus king Mithradates issued orders to all the governors +and cities dependent on him to put to death on one and the same day +all Italians residing within their bounds, whether free or slaves, +without distinction of sex or age, and on no account, under severe +penalties, to aid any of the proscribed to escape; to cast forth +the corpses of the slain as a prey to the birds; to confiscate their +property and to hand over one half of it to the murderers, and the +other half to the king. The horrible orders were--excepting in a +few districts, such as the island of Cos--punctually executed, +and eighty, or according to other accounts one hundred and fifty, +thousand--if not innocent, at least defenceless--men, women, and +children were slaughtered in cold blood in one day in Asia Minor; +a fearful execution, in which the good opportunity of getting +rid of debts and the Asiatic servile willingness to perform any +executioner's office at the bidding of the sultan had at least +as much part as the comparatively noble feeling of revenge. In a +political point of view this measure was not only without any rational +object--for its financial purpose might have been attained without +this bloody edict, and the natives of Asia Minor were not to be driven +into warlike zeal even by the consciousness of the most blood-stained +guilt--but even opposed to the king's designs, for on the one hand +it compelled the Roman senate, so far as it was still capable of +energy at all, to an energetic prosecution of the war, and on the +other hand it struck at not the Romans merely, but the king's natural +allies as well, the non-Roman Italians. This Ephesian massacre +was altogether a mere meaningless act of brutally blind revenge, +which obtains a false semblance of grandeur simply through the +colossal proportions in which the character of sultanic rule +was here displayed. + +Organization of the Conquered Provinces + +The king's views altogether grew high; he had begun the war from +despair, but the unexpectedly easy victory and the non-arrival of +the dreaded Sulla occasioned a transition to the most highflown hopes. +He set up his home in the west of Asia Minor; Pergamus the seat +of the Roman governor became his new capital, the old kingdom +of Sinope was handed over to the king's son Mithradates to be +administered as a viceroyship; Cappadocia, Phrygia, Bithynia were +organized as Pontic satrapies. The grandees of the empire and the +king's favourites were loaded with rich gifts and fiefs, and not +only were the arrears of taxes remitted, but exemption from +taxation for five years was promised, to all the communities- +a measure which was as much a mistake as the massacre of the +Romans, if the king expected thereby to secure the fidelity of +the inhabitants of Asia Minor. + +The king's treasury was, no doubt, copiously replenished otherwise +by the immense sums which accrued from the property of the Italians +and other confiscations; for instance in Cos alone 800 talents +(195,000 pounds) which the Jews had deposited there were carried +of by Mithradates. The northern portion of Asia Minor and most of +the islands belonging to it were in the king's power; except some petty +Paphlagonian dynasts, there was hardly a district which still adhered +to Rome; the whole Aegean Sea was commanded by his fleets. The south- +west alone, the city-leagues of Caria and Lycia and the city of Rhodes, +resisted him. In Caria, no doubt, Stratonicea was reduced by force +of arms; but Magnesia on the Sipylus successfully withstood a severe +siege, in which Mithradates' ablest officer Archelaus was defeated and +wounded. Rhodes, the asylum of the Romans who had escaped from Asia +with the governor Lucius Cassius among them, was assailed on the part +of Mithradates by sea and land with immense superiority of force. +But his sailors, courageously as they did their duty under the eyes +of the king, were awkward novices, and so Rhodian squadrons +vanquished those of Pontus four times as strong and returned home +with captured vessels. By land also the siege made no progress; +after a part of the works had been destroyed, Mithradates abandoned +the enterprise, and the important island as well as the mainland +opposite remained in the hands of the Romans. + +Pontic Invasion of Europe +Predatory Inroads of the Thracians +Thrace and Macedonia Occupied by the Pontic Armies +Pontic Fleet in the Aegean + +But not only was the Asiatic province occupied by Mithradates almost +without defending itself, chiefly in consequence of the Sulpician +revolution breaking out at a most unfavourable time; Mithradates +even directed an attack against Europe. Already since 662 the +neighbours of Macedonia on her northern and eastern frontier had been +renewing their incursions with remarkable vehemence and perseverance; +in the years 664, 665 the Thracians overran Macedonia and all Epirus +and plundered the temple of Dodona. Still more singular was the +circumstance, that with these movements was combined a renewed +attempt to place a pretender on the Macedonian throne in the person +of one Euphenes. Mithradates, who from the Crimea maintained +connections with the Thracians, was hardly a stranger to all these +events. The praetor Gaius Sentius defended himself, it is true, +against these intruders with the aid of the Thracian Dentheletae; +but it was not long before mightier opponents came against him. +Mithradates, carried away by his successes, had formed the bold +resolution that he would, like Antiochus, bring the war for the +sovereignty of Asia to a decision in Greece, and had by land and sea +directed thither the flower of his troops. His son Ariarathes +penetrated from Thrace into the weakly-defended Macedonia, subduing +the country as he advanced and parcelling it into Pontic satrapies. +Abdera and Philippi became the principal bases for the operations of +the Pontic arms in Europe. The Pontic fleet, commanded by +Mithradates' best general Archelaus, appeared in the Aegean Sea, +where scarce a Roman sail was to be found. Delos, the emporium of +the Roman commerce in those waters, was occupied and nearly 20,000 +men, mostly Italians, were massacred there; Euboea suffered a similar +fate; all the islands to the east of the Malean promontory were soon +in the hands of the enemy; they might proceed to attack the mainland +itself. The assault, no doubt, which the Pontic fleet made from +Euboea on the important Demetrias, was repelled by Bruttius Sura, the +brave lieutenant of the governor of Macedonia, with his handful of +troops and a few vessels hurriedly collected, and he even occupied +the island of Sciathus; but he could not prevent the enemy from +establishing himself in Greece proper. + +The Pontic Proceedings in Greece + +There Mithradates carried on his operations not only by arms, but +at the same time by national propagandism. His chief instrument +for Athens was one Aristion, by birth an Attic slave, by profession +formerly a teacher of the Epicurean philosophy, now a minion of +Mithradates; an excellent master of persuasion, who by the brilliant +career which he pursued at court knew how to dazzle the mob, and +with due gravity to assure them that help was already on the way +to Mithradates from Carthage, which had been for about sixty years +lying in ruins. These addresses of the new Pericles were so far +effectual that, while the few persons possessed of judgment escaped +from Athens, the mob and one or two literati whose heads were turned +formally renounced the Roman rule. So the ex-philosopher became a +despot who, supported by his bands of Pontic mercenaries, commenced +an infamous and bloody rule; and the Piraeeus was converted into +a Pontic harbour. As soon as the troops of Mithradates gained a +footing on the Greek continent, most of the small free states--the +Achaeans, Laconians, Boeotians--as far as Thessaly joined them. +Sura, after having drawn some reinforcements from Macedonia, advanced +into Boeotia to bring help to the besieged Thespiae and engaged in +conflicts with Archelaus and Aristion during three days at Chaeronea; +but they led to no decision and Sura was obliged to retire when +the Pontic reinforcements from the Peloponnesus approached (end of +666, beg. of 667). So commanding was the position of Mithradates, +particularly by sea, that an embassy of Italian insurgents could invite +him to make an attempt to land in Italy; but their cause was already +by that time lost, and the king rejected the suggestion. + +Position of the Romans + +The position of the Roman government began to be critical. Asia +Minor and Hellas were wholly, Macedonia to a considerable extent, +in the enemy's hands; by sea the Pontic flag ruled without a rival. +Then there was the Italian insurrection, which, though baffled on +the whole, still held the undisputed command of wide districts of +Italy; the barely hushed revolution, which threatened every moment +to break out afresh and more formidably; and, lastly, the alarming +commercial and monetary crisis(13) occasioned by the internal +troubles of Italy and the enormous losses of the Asiatic +capitalists, and the want of trustworthy troops. The government +would have required three armies, to keep down the revolution in +Rome, to crush completely the insurrection in Italy, and to wage +war in Asia; it had but one, that of Sulla; for the northern army +was, under the untrustworthy Gnaeus Strabo, simply an additional +embarrassment. Sulla had to choose which of these three tasks he +would undertake; he decided, as we have seen, for the Asiatic war. +It was no trifling matter--we should perhaps say, it was a great +act of patriotism--that in this conflict between the general interest +of his country and the special interest of his party the former +retained the ascendency; and that Sulla, in spite of the dangers +which his removal from Italy involved for his constitution and his +party, landed in the spring of 667 on the coast of Epirus. + +Sulla's Landing +Greece Occupied + +But he came not, as Roman commanders-in-chief had been wont to +make their appearance in the East. That his army of five legions +or of at most 30,000 men,(14) was little stronger than an ordinary +consular army, was the least element of difference. Formerly in +the eastern wars a Roman fleet had never been wanting, and had in +fact without exception commanded the sea; Sulla, sent to reconquer +two continents and the islands of the Aegean sea, arrived without a +single vessel of war. Formerly the general had brought with him a +full chest and drawn the greatest portion of his supplies by sea +from home; Sulla came with empty hands--for the sums raised with +difficulty for the campaign of 666 were expended in Italy--and +found himself exclusively left dependent on requisitions. Formerly +the general had found his only opponent in the enemy's camp, and +since the close of the struggle between the orders political +factions had without exception been united in opposing the public +foe; but Romans of note fought under the standards of Mithradates, +large districts of Italy desired to enter into alliance with him, +and it was at least doubtful whether the democratic party would follow +the glorious example that Sulla had set before it, and keep truce with +him so long as he was fighting against the Asiatic king. But the +vigorous general, who had to contend with all these embarrassments, +was not accustomed to trouble himself about more remote dangers +before finishing the task immediately in hand. When his proposals +of peace addressed to the king, which substantially amounted to a +restoration of the state of matters before the war, met with no +acceptance, he advanced just as he had landed, from the harbours of +Epirus to Boeotia, defeated the generals of the enemy Archelaus and +Aristion there at Mount Tilphossium, and after that victory +possessed himself almost without resistance of the whole Grecian +mainland with the exception of the fortresses of Athens and the +Piraeeus, into which Aristion and Archelaus had thrown themselves, +and which he failed to carry by a coup de main. A Roman division +under Lucius Hortensius occupied Thessaly and made incursions into +Macedonia; another under Munatius stationed itself before Chalcis, +to keep off the enemy's corps under Neoptolemus in Euboea; Sulla +himself formed a camp at Eleusis and Megara, from which he +commanded Greece and the Peloponnesus, and prosecuted the siege of +the city and harbour of Athens. The Hellenic cities, governed as +they always were by their immediate fears, submitted unconditionally +to the Romans, and were glad when they were allowed to ransom +themselves from more severe punishment by supplying provisions +and men and paying fines. + +Protracted Siege of Athens and the Piraeus +Athens Falls + +The sieges in Attica advanced less rapidly. Sulla found himself +compelled to prepare all sorts of heavy besieging implements for +which the trees of the Academy and the Lyceum had to supply the +timber. Archelaus conducted the defence with equal vigour and +judgment; he armed the crews of his vessels, and thus reinforced +repelled the attacks of the Romans with superior strength and made +frequent and not seldom successful sorties. The Pontic army of +Dromichaetes advancing to the relief of the city was defeated under +the walls of Athens by the Romans after a severe struggle, in which +Sulla's brave legate Lucius Licinius Murena particularly distinguished +himself; but the siege did not on that account advance more rapidly. +From Macedonia, where the Cappadocians had meanwhile definitively +established themselves, plentiful and regular supplies arrived by +sea, which Sulla was not in a condition to cut off from the harbour- +fortress; in Athens no doubt provisions were beginning to fail, but +from the proximity of the two fortresses Archelaus was enabled to +make various attempts to throw quantities of grain into Athens, which +were not wholly unsuccessful. So the winter of 667-8 passed away +tediously without result. As soon as the season allowed, Sulla threw +himself with vehemence on the Piraeus; he in fact succeeded by +missiles and mines in making a breach in part of the strong walls of +Pericles, and immediately the Romans advanced to the assault; but it +was repulsed, and on its being renewed crescent-shaped entrenchments +were found constructed behind the fallen walls, from which the +invaders found themselves assailed on three sides with missiles +and compelled to retire. Sulla then raised the siege, and contented +himself with a blockade. In the meanwhile the provisions in Athens +were wholly exhausted; the garrison attempted to procure a capitulation, +but Sulla sent back their fluent envoys with the hint that he stood +before them not as a student but as a general, and would accept only +unconditional surrender. When Aristion, well knowing what fate was +in store for him, delayed compliance, the ladders were applied and +the city, hardly any longer defended, was taken by storm (1 March +668). Aristion threw himself into the Acropolis, where he soon +afterwards surrendered. The Roman general left the soldiery to +murder and plunder in the captured city and the more considerable +ringleaders of the revolt to be executed; but the city itself +obtained back from him its liberty and its possessions-- +even the important Delos,--and was thus once more saved +by its illustrious dead. + +Critical Position of Sulla +Want of a Fleet + +The Epicurean schoolmaster had thus been vanquished; but the position +of Sulla remained in the highest degree difficult, and even +desperate. He had now been more than a year in the field without +having advanced a step worth mentioning; a single port mocked all +his exertions, while Asia was utterly left to itself, and the conquest +of Macedonia by Mithradates' lieutenants had recently been completed +by the capture of Amphipolis. Without a fleet--it was becoming daily +more apparent--it was not only impossible to secure his communications +and supplies in presence of the ships of the enemy and the numerous +pirates, but impossible to recover even the Piraeeus, to say +nothing of Asia and the islands; and yet it was difficult to see +how ships of war were to be got. As early as the winter of 667-8 +Sulla had despatched one of his ablest and most dexterous officers, +Lucius Licinius Lucullus, into the eastern waters, to raise ships +there if possible. Lucullus put to sea with six open boats, which he +had borrowed from the Rhodians and other small communities; he himself +merely by an accident escaped from a piratic squadron, which captured +most of his boats; deceiving the enemy by changing his vessels he +arrived by way of Crete and Cyrene at Alexandria; but the Egyptian +court rejected his request for the support of ships of war with equal +courtesy and decision. Hardly anything illustrates so clearly as +does this fact the sad decay of the Roman state, which had once +been able gratefully to decline the offer of the kings of Egypt to +assist the Romans with all their naval force, and now itself seemed +to the Alexandrian statesmen bankrupt. To all this fell to be added +the financial embarrassment; Sulla had already been obliged to empty +the treasuries of the Olympian Zeus, of the Delphic Apollo, and of +the Epidaurian Asklepios, for which the gods were compensated by +the moiety, confiscated by way of penalty, of the Theban territory. +But far worse than all this military and financial perplexity was +the reaction of the political revolution in Rome; the rapid, sweeping, +violent accomplishment of which had far surpassed the worst +apprehensions. The revolution conducted the government in the +capital; Sulla had been deposed, his Asiatic command had been +entrusted to the democratic consul Lucius Valerius Flaccus, who +might be daily looked for in Greece. The soldiers had no doubt +adhered to Sulla, who made every effort to keep them in good humour; +but what could be expected, when money and supplies were wanting, +when the general was deposed and proscribed, when his successor +was on the way, and, in addition to all this, the war against +the tough antagonist who commanded the sea was protracted without +prospect of a close? + +Pontic Armies Enter Greece +Evacuation of the Piraeus + +King Mithradates undertook to deliver his antagonist from his +perilous position. He it was, to all appearance, who disapproved +the defensive system of his generals and sent orders to them to +vanquish the enemy with the utmost speed. As early as 667 his son +Ariarathes had started from Macedonia to combat Sulla in Greece +proper; only the sudden death, which overtook the prince on the march +at the Tisaean promontory in Thessaly, had at that time led to the +abandonment of the expedition. His successor Taxiles now appeared +(668), driving before him the Roman corps stationed in Thessaly, +with an army of, it is said, 100,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry at +Thermopylae. Dromichaetes joined him. Archelaus also--compelled, +apparently, not so much by Sulla's arms as by his master's orders-- +evacuated the Piraeeus first partially and then entirely, and joined +the Pontic main army in Boeotia. Sulla, after the Piraeeus with +all its greatly-admired fortifications had been by his orders +destroyed, followed the Pontic army, in the hope of being able +to fight a pitched battle before the arrival of Flaccus. In vain +Archelaus advised that they should avoid such a battle, but should +keep the sea and the coast occupied and the enemy in suspense. +Now just as formerly under Darius and Antiochus, the masses of +the Orientals, like animals terrified in the midst of a fire, flung +themselves hastily and blindly into battle; and did so on this +occasion more foolishly than ever, since the Asiatics might perhaps +have needed to wait but a few months in order to be the spectators +of a battle between Sulla and Flaccus. + +Battle of Chaerones + +In the plain of the Cephissus not far from Chaeronea, in March 668, +the armies met. Even including the division driven back from +Thessaly, which had succeeded in accomplishing its junction with +the Roman main army, and including the Greek contingents, the Roman +army found itself opposed to a foe three times as strong and +particularly to a cavalry fur superior and from the nature of +the field of battle very dangerous, against which Sulla found it +necessary to protect his flanks by digging trenches, while in front +he caused a chain of palisades to be introduced between his first and +second lines for protection against the enemy's war-chariots. When +the war chariots rolled on to open the battle, the first line of the +Romans withdrew behind this row of stakes: the chariots, rebounding +from it and scared by the Roman slingers and archers, threw themselves +on their own line and carried confusion both into the Macedonian +phalanx and into the corps of the Italian refugees. Archelaus +brought up in haste his cavalry from both flanks and sent it to +engage the enemy, with a view to gain time for rearranging his infantry; +it charged with great fury and broke through the Roman ranks; but +the Roman infantry rapidly formed in close masses and courageously +withstood the horsemen assailing them on every side. Meanwhile Sulla +himself on the right wing led his cavalry against the exposed flank +of the enemy; the Asiatic infantry gave way before it was even properly +engaged, and its giving way carried confusion also into the masses +of the cavalry. A general attack of the Roman infantry, which +through the wavering demeanour of the hostile cavalry gained time +to breathe, decided the victory. The closing of the gates of the +camp which Archelaus ordered to check the flight, only increased +the slaughter, and when the gates at length were opened, the Romans +entered at the same time with the Asiatics. It is said that +Archelaus brought not a twelfth part of his force in safety to +Chalcis; Sulla followed him to the Euripus; he was not in a position +to cross that narrow arm of the sea. + +Slight Effect of the Victory +Sulla and Flaccus + +It was a great victory, but the results were trifling, partly +because of the want of a fleet, partly because the Roman conqueror, +instead of pursuing the vanquished, was under the necessity in the +first instance of protecting himself against his own countrymen. +The sea was still exclusively covered by Pontic squadrons, which +now showed themselves even to the westward of the Malean promontory; +even after the battle of Chaeronea Archelaus landed troops on +Zacynthus and made an attempt to establish himself on that island. +Moreover Lucius Flaccus had in the meanwhile actually landed with two +legions in Epirus, not without having sustained severe loss on the +way from storms and from the war-vessels of the enemy cruising in +the Adriatic; his troops were already in Thessaly; thither Sulla had +in the first instance to turn. The two Roman armies encamped over +against each other at Melitaea on the northern slope of Mount +Othrys; a collision seemed inevitable. But Flaccus, after he had +opportunity of convincing himself that Sulla's soldiers were by no +means inclined to betray their victorious leader to the totally +unknown democratic commander-in chief, but that on the contrary his +own advanced guard began to desert to Sulla's camp, evaded a conflict +to which he was in no respect equal, and set out towards the north, +with the view of getting through Macedonia and Thrace to Asia and +there paving the way for further results by subduing Mithradates. +That Sulla should have allowed his weaker opponent to depart without +hindrance, and instead of following him should have returned to +Athens, where he seems to have passed the winter of 668-9, is in +a military point of view surprising. We may suppose perhaps that +in this also he was guided by political motives, and that he was +sufficiently moderate and patriotic in his views willingly to forgo +a victory over his countrymen, at least so long as they had +still the Asiatics to deal with, and to find the most tolerable +solution of the unhappy dilemma in allowing the armies of the +revolution in Asia and of the oligarchy in Europe to fight +against the common foe. + +Second Pontic Army Sent to Greece +Battle of Orchomenus + +In the spring of 669 there was again fresh work in Europe. +Mithradates, who continued his preparations indefatigably in Asia +Minor, had sent an army not much less than that which had been +extirpated at Chaeronea, under Dorylaus to Euboea; thence it had, +after a junction with the remains of the army of Archelaus, passed +over the Euripus to Boeotia. The Pontic king, who judged of what his +army could do by the standard of victories over the Bithynian and +Cappadocian militia, did not understand the unfavourable turn which +things had taken in Europe; the circles of the courtiers were +already whispering as to the treason of Archelaus; peremptory orders +were issued to fight a second battle at once with the new army, and +not to fail on this occasion to annihilate the Romans. The master's +will was carried out, if not in conquering, at least in fighting. +The Romans and Asiatics met once more in the plain of the Cephissus, +near Orchomenus. The numerous and excellent cavalry of the latter +flung itself impetuously on the Roman infantry, which began to waver +and give way: the danger was so urgent, that Sulla seized a standard +and advancing with his adjutants and orderlies against the enemy +called out with a loud voice to the soldiers that, if they should +be asked at home where they had abandoned their general, they +might reply--at Orchomenus. This had its effect; the legions +rallied and vanquished the enemy's horse, after which the infantry +were overthrown with little difficulty. On the following day the camp +of the Asiatics was surrounded and stormed; far the greatest portion +of them fell or perished in the Copaic marshes; a few only, +Archelaus among the rest, reached Euboea. The Boeotian communities +had severely to pay for their renewed revolt from Rome, some of +them even to annihilation. Nothing opposed the advance into +Macedonia and Thrace; Philippi was occupied, Abdera was voluntarily +evacuated by the Pontic garrison, the European continent in general +was cleared of the enemy. At the end of the third year of the war +(669) Sulla was able to take up winter-quarters in Thessaly, with a +view to begin the Asiatic campaign in the spring of 670,(15) for +which purpose he gave orders to build ships in the Thessalian ports. + +Reaction in Asia Minor against Mithradates + +Meanwhile the circumstances of Asia Minor also had undergone a +material change. If king Mithradates had once come forward as the +liberator of the Hellenes, if he had introduced his rule with the +recognition of civic independence and with remission of taxes, they +had after this brief ecstasy been but too rapidly and too bitterly +undeceived. He had very soon emerged in his true character, and +had begun to exercise a despotism far surpassing the tyranny of +the Roman governors--a despotism which drove even the patient +inhabitants of Asia Minor to open revolt. The sultan again resorted +to the most violent expedients. His decrees granted independence +to the townships which turned to him, citizenship to the -metoeci-, +full remission of debts to the debtors, lands to those that had none, +freedom to the slaves; nearly 15,000 such manumitted slaves fought +in the army of Archelaus. The most fearful scenes were the result +of this high-handed subversion of all existing order. The most +considerable mercantile cities, Smyrna, Colophon, Ephesus, Tralles, +Sardes, closed their gates against the king's governors or put +them to death, and declared for Rome.(16) On the other hand the +king's lieutenant Diodorus, a philosopher of note like Aristion, of +another school, but equally available for the worst subservience, +under the instructions of his master caused the whole town-council +of Adramyttium to be put to death. The Chians, who were suspected +of an inclination to Rome, were fined in the first instance in 2000 +talents (480,000 pounds) and, when the payment was found not correct, +they were en masse put on board ship and deported in chains under +the charge of their own slaves to the coast of Colchis, while their +island was occupied with Pontic colonists. The king gave orders that +the chiefs of the Celts in Asia Minor should all be put to death along +with their wives and children in one day, and that Galatia should be +converted into a Pontic satrapy. Most of these bloody edicts were +carried into effect either at Mithradates' own headquarters or in +Galatia, but the few who escaped placed themselves at the head of +their powerful tribes and expelled Eumachus, the governor of the king, +out of their bounds. It may readily be conceived that such a king +would be pursued by the daggers of assassins; sixteen hundred men +were condemned to death by the royal courts of inquisition as having +been implicated in such conspiracies. + +Lucullus and the Fleet on the Asiatic Coast + +While the king was thus by his suicidal fury provoking his +temporary subjects to rise in arms against him, he was at the same +time hard pressed by the Romans in Asia, both by sea and by land. +Lucullus, after the failure of his attempt to lead forth the Egyptian +fleet against Mithradates, had with better success repeated his +efforts to procure vessels of war in the Syrian maritime towns, and +reinforced his nascent fleet in the ports of Cyprus, Pamphylia, and +Rhodes till he found himself strong enough to proceed to the attack. +He dexterously avoided measuring himself against superior forces and +yet obtained no inconsiderable advantages. The Cnidian island and +peninsula were occupied by him, Samos was assailed, Colophon and +Chios were wrested from the enemy. + +Flaccus Arrives in Asia +Fimbria +Fimbria's Victory at Miletopolis +Perilous Position of Mithradates + +Meanwhile Flaccus had proceeded with his army through Macedonia and +Thrace to Byzantium, and thence, passing the straits, had reached +Chalcedon (end of 668). There a military insurrection broke out +against the general, ostensibly because he embezzled the spoil +from the soldiers. The soul of it was one of the chief officers +of the army, a man whose name had become a proverb in Rome for a +true mob-orator, Gaius Flavius Fimbria, who, after having differed +with his commander-in-chief, transferred the demagogic practices +which he had begun in the Forum to the camp. Flaccus was deposed +by the army and soon afterwards put to death at Nicomedia, not far +from Chalcedon; Fimbria was installed by decree of the soldiers +in his stead. As a matter of course he allowed his troops every +indulgence; in the friendly Cyzicus, for instance, the citizens +were ordered to surrender all their property to the soldiers on pain +of death, and by way of warning example two of the most respectable +citizens were at once executed. Nevertheless in a military point +of view the change of commander-in-chief was a gain; Fimbria was not, +like Flaccus, an incapable general, but energetic and talented. +At Miletopolis (on the Rhyndacus to the west of Brussa) he defeated +the younger Mithradates, who as governor of the satrapy of Pontus had +marched against him, completely in a nocturnal assault, and by this +victory opened his way to Pergamus, the capital formerly of the +Roman province and now of the Pontic king, whence he dislodged the +king and compelled him to take flight to the port of Pitane not far +off, with the view of there embarking. Just at that moment Lucullus +appeared in those waters with his fleet; Fimbria adjured him to +render assistance so that he might be enabled to capture the king. +But the Optimate was stronger in Lucullus than the patriot; he +sailed onward and the king escaped to Mitylene. The situation +of Mithradates was even thus sufficiently embarrassed. At the end +of 669 Europe was lost, Asia Minor was partly in rebellion against +him, partly occupied by a Roman army; and he was himself threatened +by the latter in his immediate vicinity. The Roman fleet under +Lucullus had maintained its position on the Trojan coast by two +successful naval engagements at the promontory of Lectum and at +the island of Tenedos; it was joined there by the ships which had +in the meanwhile been built by Sulla's orders in Thessaly, and by +it position commanding the Hellespont it secured to the general of +the Roman senatorial army a safe and easy passage next spring to Asia. + +Negotiations for Peace + +Mithradates attempted to negotiate. Under other circumstances no +doubt the author of the edict for the Ephesian massacre could never +have cherished the hope of being admitted at all to terms of peace +with Rome; but amidst the internal convulsions of the Roman +republic, when the ruling government had declared the general sent +against Mithradates an outlaw and subjected his partisans at home to +the most fearful persecutions, when one Roman general opposed the +other and yet both stood opposed to the same foe, he hoped that he +should be able to obtain not merely a peace, but a favourable peace. +He had the choice of applying to Sulla or to Fimbria; he caused +negotiations to be instituted with both, yet it seems from the first +to have been his design to come to terms with Sulla, who, at least +from the king's point of view, seemed decidedly superior to his +rival. His general Archelaus, a instructed by his master, asked +Sulla to cede Asia to the king and to expect in return the king's +aid against the democratic party in Rome. But Sulla, cool and +clear as ever, while urgently desiring a speedy settlement of +Asiatic affairs on account of the position of things in Italy, +estimated the advantages of the Cappadocian alliance for +the war impending over him in Italy as very slight, and was +altogether too much of a Roman to consent to so disgraceful +and so injurious a concession. + +Preliminaries of Delium + +In the peace conferences, which took place in the winter of 669-70, +at Delium on the coast of Boeotia opposite to Euboea, Sulla distinctly +refused to cede even a foot's-breadth of land, but, with good +reason faithful to the old Roman custom of not increasing after +victory the demands made before battle, did not go beyond the +conditions previously laid down. He required the restoration of +all the conquests made by the king and not wrested from him again-- +Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, Galatia, Bithynia, Asia Minor and the +islands--the surrender of prisoners and deserters, the delivering +up of the eighty war-vessels of Archelaus to reinforce the still +insignificant Roman fleet; lastly, pay and provisions for the army +and the very moderate sum of 3000 talents (720,000 pounds) as +indemnity for the expenses of the war. The Chians carried off to +the Black Sea were to be sent home, the families of the Macedonians +who were friendly to Rome and had become refugees were to be +restored, and a number of war-vessels were to be delivered to the +cities in alliance with Rome. Respecting Tigranes, who in strictness +should likewise have been included in the peace, there was silence on +both sides, since neither of the contracting parties cared for the +endless further steps which would be occasioned by making him a party. +The king thus retained the state of possession which he had before +the war, nor was he subjected to any humiliation affecting his +honour.(17) Archelaus, clearly perceiving that much comparatively +beyond expectation was obtained and that more was not obtainable, +concluded the preliminaries and an armistice on these conditions, +and withdrew the troops from the places which the Asiatics +still possessed in Europe. + +New Difficulties +Sulla Proceeds to Asia + +But Mithradates rejected the peace and demanded at least that +the Romans should not insist on the surrender of the war-vessels +and should concede to him Paphlagonia; while he at the same time +asserted that Fimbria was ready to grant him far more favourable +conditions. Sulla, offended by this placing of his offers on an +equal footing with those of an unofficial adventurer, and having +already gone to the utmost measure of concession, broke off the +negotiations. He had employed the interval to reorganize Macedonia +and to chastise the Dardani, Sinti, and Maedi, in doing which he at +once procured booty for his army and drew nearer Asia; for he was +resolved at any rate to go thither, in order to come to a reckoning +with Fimbria. He now at once put his legions stationed in Thrace as +well as his fleet in motion towards the Hellespont. Then at length +Archelaus succeeded in wringing from his obstinate master a reluctant +consent to the treaty; for which he was subsequently regarded with +an evil eye at court as the author of the injurious peace, and even +accused of treason, so that some time afterwards he found himself +compelled to leave the country and to take refuge with the Romans, +who readily received him and loaded him with honours. The Roman +soldiers also murmured; their disappointment doubtless at not +receiving the expected spoil of Asia probably contributed to that +murmuring more than their indignation--in itself very justifiable-- +that the barbarian prince, who had murdered eighty thousand of their +countrymen and had brought unspeakable misery on Italy and Asia, +should be allowed to return home unpunished with the greatest part +of the treasures which he had collected by the pillage of Asia. +Sulla himself may have been painfully sensible that the political +complications thwarted in a most vexatious way a task which was +in a military point of view so simple, and compelled him after +such victories to content himself with such a peace. But the self- +denial and the sagacity with which he had conducted this whole war +were only displayed afresh in the conclusion of this peace; for war +with a prince, to whom almost the whole coast of the Black Sea +belonged, and whose obstinacy was clearly displayed by the very last +negotiations, would still under the most favourable circumstances +require years, and the situation of Italy was such that it seemed +almost too late even for Sulla to oppose the party in power there +with the few legions which he possessed.(18) Before this could be +done, however, it was absolutely necessary to overthrow the bold +officer who was at the head of the democratic army in Asia, in order +that he might not at some future time come from Asia to the help of +the Italian revolution, just as Sulla now hoped to return from Asia +and crush it. At Cypsela on the Hebrus Sulla obtained accounts of +the ratification of the peace by Mithradates; but the march to Asia +went on. The king, it was said, desired personally to confer with +the Roman general and to cement the peace with him; it may be +presumed that this was simply a convenient pretext for transferring +the army to Asia and there putting an end to Fimbria. + +Peace at Dardanus +Sulla against Fimbria +Fimbria's Death + +So Sulla, attended by his legions and by Archelaus, crossed the +Hellespont; after he had met with Mithradates on its Asiatic shore +at Dardanus and had orally concluded the treaty, he made his army +continue its march till he came upon the camp of Fimbria at +Thyatira not far from Pergamus, and pitched his own close beside +it. The Sullan soldiers, far superior to the Fimbrians in number, +discipline, leadership, and ability, looked with contempt on the +dispirited and demoralized troops and their uncalled commander-in- +chief. Desertions from the ranks of the Fimbrians became daily more +numerous. When Fimbria ordered an attack, the soldiers refused to +fight against their fellow-citizens, or even to take the oath which he +required that they would stand faithfully by each other in battle. +An attempt to assassinate Sulla miscarried; at the conference which +Fimbria requested Sulla did not make his appearance, but contented +himself with suggesting to him through one of his officers a means of +personal escape. Fimbria was of an insolent temperament, but he was +no poltroon; instead of accepting the vessel which Sulla offered to +him and fleeing to the barbarians, he went to Pergamus and fell on +his own sword in the temple of Asklepios. Those who were most +compromised in his army resorted to Mithradates or to the pirates, +with whom they found ready reception; the main body placed itself +under the orders of Sulla. + +Regulation of Asiatic Affairs + +Sulla determined to leave these two legions, whom he did not trust +for the impending war, behind in Asia, where the fearful crisis +left for long its lingering traces in the several cities and +districts. The command of this corps and the governorship of Roman +Asia he committed to his best officer, Lucius Licinius Murena. +The revolutionary measures of Mithradates, such as the liberation +of the slaves and the annulling of debts, were of course cancelled; +a restoration, which in many places could not be carried into effect +without force of arms. The towns of the territory on the eastern +frontier underwent a comprehensive reorganization, and reckoned +from the year 670 as the date of their being constituted. Justice +moreover was exercised, as the victors understood the term. +The most noted adherents of Mithradates and the authors of the +massacre of the Italians were punished with death. The persons +liable to taxes were obliged immediately to pay down in cash according +to valuation the whole arrears of tenths and customs for the last five +years; besides which they had to pay a war-indemnity of 20,000 +talents (4,800,000 pounds), for the collection of which Lucius +Lucullus was left behind. These were measures fearful in their rigour +and dreadful in their effects; but when we recall the Ephesian decree +and its execution, we feel inclined to regard them as a comparatively +mild retaliation. That the exactions in other respects were not +unusually oppressive, is shown by the value of the spoil afterwards +carried in triumph, which amounted in precious metal to only about +1,000,000 pounds. The few communities on the other hand that had +remained faithful--particularly the island of Rhodes, the region of +Lycia, Magnesia on the Maeander--were richly rewarded: Rhodes received +back at least a portion of the possessions withdrawn from it after +the war against Perseus.(19) In like manner compensation was made +as far as possible by free charters and special favours to the Chians +for the hardships which they had borne, and to the Ilienses for the +insanely cruel maltreatment inflicted on them by Fimbria on account +of the negotiations into which they had entered with Sulla. Sulla +had already brought the kings of Bithynia and Cappadocia to meet +the Pontic king at Dardanus, and had made them all promise to live +in peace and good neighbourhood; on which occasion, however, the +haughty Mithradates had refused to admit Ariobarzanes who was not +descended of royal blood--the slave, as he called him--to his +presence. Gaius Scribonius Curio was commissioned to superintend +the restoration of the legal order of things in the two kingdoms +evacuated by Mithradates. + +Sulla Embarks for Italy + +The goal was thus attained. After four years of war the Pontic +king was again a client of the Romans, and a single and settled +government was re-established in Greece, Macedonia, and Asia Minor; +the requirements of interest and honour were satisfied, if not +adequately, yet so far as circumstances would allow; Sulla had not +only brilliantly distinguished himself as a soldier and general, but +had the skill, in his path crossed by a thousand obstacles, to preserve +the difficult mean between bold perseverance and prudent concession. +Almost like Hannibal he had fought and conquered, in order that +with the forces, which the first victory gave him, he might prepare +forthwith for a second and severer struggle. After he had in some +degree compensated his soldiers for the fatigues which they had +undergone by luxurious winter-quarters in the rich west of Asia Minor, +he in the spring of 671 transferred them in 1600 vessels from +Ephesus to the Piraeeus and thence by the land route to Patrae, +where the vessels again lay ready to convey the troops to Brundisium. +His arrival was preceded by a report addressed to the senate +respecting his campaigns in Greece and Asia, the writer of which +appeared to know nothing of his deposition; it was the mute herald +of the impending restoration. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +Cinna and Sulla + +Ferment in Italy + +This state of suspense and uncertainty existing in Italy when +Sulla took his departure for Greece in the beginning of 667 has been +already described: the half-suppressed insurrection, the principal +army under the more than half-usurped command of a general whose +politics were very doubtful, the confusion and the manifold +activity of intrigue in the capital. The victory of the oligarchy +by force of arms had, in spite or because of its moderation, +engendered manifold discontent. The capitalists, painfully +affected by the blows of the most severe financial crisis which +Rome had yet witnessed, were indignant at the government on account +of the law which it had issued as to interest, and on account +of the Italian and Asiatic wars which it had not prevented. +The insurgents, so far as they had laid down their arms, bewailed +not only the disappointment of their proud hopes of obtaining equal +rights with the ruling burgesses, but also the forfeiture of their +venerable treaties, and their new position as subjects utterly +destitute of rights. The communities between the Alps and the Po +were likewise discontented with the partial concessions made to +them, and the new burgesses and freedmen were exasperated by +the cancelling of the Sulpician laws. The populace of the city +suffered amid the general distress, and found it intolerable that +the government of the sabre was no longer disposed to acquiesce in +the constitutional rule of the bludgeon. The adherents, resident +in the capital, of those outlawed after the Sulpician revolution-- +adherents who remained very numerous in consequence of the +remarkable moderation of Sulla--laboured zealously to procure +permission for the outlaws to return home; and in particular some +ladies of wealth and distinction spared for this purpose neither +trouble nor money. None of these grounds of ill-humour were such +as to furnish any immediate prospect of a fresh violent collision +between the parties; they were in great part of an aimless and +temporary nature; but they all fed the general discontent, and had +already been more or less concerned in producing the murder of +Rufus, the repeated attempts to assassinate Sulla, the issue +of the consular and tribunician elections for 667 partly in +favour of the opposition. + +Cinna +Carbo +Sertorius + +The name of the man whom the discontented had summoned to the head +of the state, Lucius Cornelius Cinna, had been hitherto scarcely +heard of, except so far as he had borne himself well as an officer +in the Social war. We have less information regarding the +personality and the original designs of Cinna than regarding those +of any other party leader in the Roman revolution. The reason is, +to all appearance, simply that this man, altogether vulgar and +guided by the lowest selfishness, had from the first no ulterior +political plans whatever. It was asserted at his very first +appearance that he had sold himself for a round sum of money to +the new burgesses and the coterie of Marius, and the charge looks +very credible; but even were it false, it remains nevertheless +significant that a suspicion of the sort, such as was never +expressed against Saturninus and Sulpicius, attached to Cinna. +In fact the movement, at the head of which he put himself, has +altogether the appearance of worthlessness both as to motives and +as to aims. It proceeded not so much from a party as from a number +of malcontents without proper political aims or notable support, +who had mainly undertaken to effect the recall of the exiles by +legal or illegal means. Cinna seems to have been admitted into the +conspiracy only by an afterthought and merely because the intrigue, +which in consequence of the restriction of the tribunician powers +needed a consul to bring forward its proposals, saw in him among +the consular candidates for 667 its fittest instrument and so +pushed him forward as consul. Among the leaders appearing in the +second rank of the movement were some abler heads; such was the +tribune of the people Gnaeus Papirius Carbo, who had made himself +a name by his impetuous popular eloquence, and above all Quintus +Sertorius, one of the most talented of Roman officers and a man +in every respect excellent, who since his candidature for the +tribunate of the people had been a personal enemy to Sulla and had +been led by this quarrel into the ranks of the disaffected to which +he did not at all by nature belong. The proconsul Strabo, although +at variance with the government, was yet far from going along +with this faction. + +Outbreak of the Cinnan Revolution +Victory of the Government + +So long as Sulla was in Italy, the confederates for good reasons +remained quiet. But when the dreaded proconsul, yielding not to +the exhortations of the consul Cinna but to the urgent state of +matters in the east, had embarked, Cinna, supported by the majority +of the college of tribunes, immediately submitted the projects +of law which had been concerted as a partial reaction against +the Sullan restoration of 666. They embraced the political +equalization of the new burgesses and the freedmen, as Sulpicius +had proposed it, and the restitution of those who had been banished +in consequence of the Sulpician revolution to their former status. +The new burgesses flocked en masse to the capital, that along with +the freedmen they might terrify, and in case of need force, their +opponents into compliance. But the government party was determined +not to yield, consul stood against consul, Gnaeus Octavius against +Lucius Cinna, and tribune against tribune; both sides appeared in +great part armed on the day and at the place of voting. The +tribunes of the senatorial party interposed their veto; when swords +were drawn against them even on the rostra, Octavius employed force +against force. His compact bands of armed men not only cleared the +Via Sacra and the Forum, but also, disregarding the commands of +their more gentle-minded leader, exercised horrible atrocities +against the assembled multitude. The Forum swam with blood on this +"Octavius' day," as it never did before or afterwards--the number +of corpses was estimated at ten thousand. Cinna called on the +slaves to purchase freedom for themselves by sharing in the +struggle; but his appeal was as unsuccessful as the like appeal of +Marius in the previous year, and no course was left to the leaders +of the movement but to take flight. The constitution supplied no +means of proceeding farther against the chiefs of the conspiracy, +so long as their year of office lasted. But a prophet presumably +more loyal than pious had announced that the banishment of the +consul Cinna and of the six tribunes of the people adhering to +him would restore peace and tranquillity to the country; and, +in conformity not with the constitution but with this counsel of +the gods fortunately laid hold of by the custodiers of oracles, +the consul Cinna was by decree of the senate deprived of his office, +Lucius Cornelius Merula was chosen in his stead, and outlawry was +pronounced against the chiefs who had fled. It seemed as if the +whole crisis were about to end in a few additions to the number +of the men who were exiles in Numidia. + +The Cinnans in Italy +Landing of Marius + +Beyond doubt nothing further would have come of the movement, had +not the senate on the one hand with its usual remissness omitted to +compel the fugitives at least rapidly to quit Italy, and had the +latter on the other hand been, as champions of the emancipation of +the new burgesses, in a position to renew to some extent in their +own favour the revolt of the Italians. Without obstruction they +appeared in Tibur, in Praeneste, in all the important communities +of new burgesses in Latium and Campania, and asked and obtained +everywhere money and men for the furtherance of the common cause. +Thus supported, they made their appearance at the army besieging +Nola, The armies of this period were democratic and revolutionary +in their views, wherever the general did not attach them to himself +by the weight of his personal influence; the speeches of the +fugitive magistrates, some of whom, especially Cinna and Sertorius, +were favourably remembered by the soldiers in connection with the +last campaigns, made a deep impression; the unconstitutional +deposition of the popular consul and the interference of the senate +with the rights of the sovereign people told on the common soldier, +and the gold of the consul or rather of the new burgesses made the +breach of the constitution clear to the officers. The Campanian +army recognized Cinna as consul and swore the oath of fidelity to +him man by man; it became a nucleus for the bands that flocked in +from the new burgesses and even from the allied communities; a +considerable army, though consisting mostly of recruits, soon moved +from Campania towards the capital. Other bands approached it from +the north. On the invitation of Cinna those who had been banished +in the previous year had landed at Telamon on the Etruscan coast. +There were not more than some 500 armed men, for the most part +slaves of the refugees and enlisted Numidian horsemen; but, as +Gaius Marius had in the previous year been willing to fraternize +with the rabble of the capital, so he now ordered the -ergastula- +in which the landholders of this region shut up their field- +labourers during the night to be broken open, and the arms which +he offered to these for the purpose of achieving their freedom were +not despised. Reinforced by these men and the contingents of the +new burgesses, as well as by the exiles who flocked to him with +their partisans from all sides, he soon numbered 6000 men under his +eagles and was able to man forty ships, which took their station +before the mouth of the Tiber and gave chase to the corn-ships +sailing towards Rome. With these he placed himself at the disposal +of the "consul" Cinna. The leaders of the Campanian army +hesitated; the more sagacious, Sertorius in particular, seriously +pointed out the danger of too closely connecting themselves with +a man whose name would necessarily place him at the head of +the movement, and who yet was notoriously incapable of any +statesmanlike action and haunted by an insane thirst for revenge; +but Cinna disregarded these scruples, and confirmed Marius in the +supreme command in Etruria and at sea with proconsular powers. + +Dubious Attitude of Strabo +The Cinnans around Rome + +Thus the storm gathered around the capital, and the government +could no longer delay bringing forward their troops to protect +it.(1) But the forces of Metellus were detained by the Italians +in Samnium and before Nola; Strabo alone was in a position to hasten +to the help of the capital. He appeared and pitched his camp at +the Colline gate: with his numerous and experienced army he might +doubtless have rapidly and totally annihilated the still weak bands +of insurgents; but this seemed to be no part of his design. On the +contrary he allowed Rome to be actually invested by the insurgents. +Cinna with his corps and that of Carbo took post on the right bank +of the Tiber opposite to the Janiculum, Sertorius on the left bank +confronting Pompeius over against the Servian wall. Marius with +his band which had gradually increased to three legions, and in +possession of a number of war-vessels, occupied one place on the +coast after another till at length even Ostia fell into his hands +through treachery, and, by way of prelude as it were to the +approaching reign of terror, was abandoned by the general to +the savage band for massacre and pillage. The capital was placed, +even by the mere obstruction of traffic, in great danger; by command +of the senate the walls and gates were put in a state of defence and +the burgess-levy was ordered to the Janiculum. The inaction of +Strabo excited among all classes alike surprise and indignation. +The suspicion that he was negotiating secretly with Cinna was +natural, but was probably without foundation. A serious conflict +in which he engaged the band of Sertorius, and the support which +he gave to the consul Octavius when Marius had by an understanding +with one of the officers of the garrison penetrated into the +Janiculum, and by which in fact the insurgents were successfully +beaten off again with much loss, showed that he was far from +intending to unite with, or rather to place himself under, the +leaders of the insurgents. It seems rather to have been his design +to sell his assistance in subduing the insurrection to the alarmed +government and citizens of the capital at the price of the +consulship for the next year, and thereby to get the reins +of government into his own hands. + +Negotiations of Parties with the Italians +Death of Strabo + +The senate was not, however, inclined to throw itself into the +arms of one usurper in order to escape from another, and sought +help elsewhere. The franchise was by decree of the senate +supplementarily conferred on all the Italian communities involved +in the Social war, which had laid down their arms and had in +consequence thereof forfeited their old alliance.(2) It seemed as +it were their intention officially to demonstrate that Rome in the +war against the Italians had staked her existence for the sake not +of a great object but of her own vanity: in the first momentary +embarrassment, for the purpose of bringing into the field an +additional thousand or two of soldiers, she sacrificed everything +which had been gained at so terribly dear a cost in the Social war. +In fact, troops arrived from the communities who were benefited by +this concession; but instead of the many legions promised, their +contingent on the whole amounted to not more than, at most, ten +thousand men. It would have been of more moment that an agreement +should be come to with the Samnites and Nolans, so that the troops +of the thoroughly trustworthy Metellus might be employed for the +protection of the capital. But the Samnites made demands which +recalled the yoke of Caudium--restitution of the spoil taken from +the Samnites and of their prisoners and deserters, renunciation of +the booty wrested by the Samnites from the Romans, the bestowal of +the franchise on the Samnites themselves as well as on the Romans +who had passed over to them. The senate rejected even in this +emergency terms of peace so disgraceful, but instructed Metellus to +leave behind a small division and to lead in person all the troops +that could at all be dispensed with in southern Italy as quickly as +possible to Rome. He obeyed. But the consequence was, that the +Samnites attacked and defeated Plautius the legate left behind by +Metellus and his weak band; that the garrison of Nola marched out +and set on fire the neighbouring town of Abella in alliance with +Rome; that Cinna and Marius, moreover, granted to the Samnites +everything they asked--what mattered Roman honour to them!--and a +Samnite contingent reinforced the ranks of the insurgents. It was +a severe loss also, when after a combat unfavourable to the troops +of the government Ariminum was occupied by the insurgents and thus +the important communication between Rome and the valley of the Po, +whence men and supplies were expected, was interrupted. Scarcity +and famine set in. The large populous city numerously garrisoned +with troops was but inadequately supplied with provisions; and +Marius in particular took care to cut off its supplies more and +more. He had already blocked up the Tiber by a bridge of ships; +now by the capture of Antium, Lanuvium, Aricia, and other townships +he gained control over the means of land communication still open, +and at the same time appeased temporarily his revenge by causing +all the citizens, wherever resistance was offered, to be put to +the sword with the exception of those who had possibly betrayed +to him the town. Contagious diseases followed on the distress and +committed dreadful ravages among the masses of soldiers densely +crowded round the capital; of Strabo's veteran army 11,000, and of +the troops of Octavius 6000 are said to have fallen victims to +them. Yet the government did not despair; and the sudden death of +Strabo was a fortunate event for it. He died of the pestilence;(3) +the masses, exasperated on many grounds against him, tore his +corpse from the bier and dragged it through the streets. +The remnant of his troops was incorporated by the consul +Octavius with his army. + +Vacillation of the Government +Rome Capitulates + +After the arrival of Metellus and the decease of Strabo the army +of the government was again at least a match for its antagonists, +and was able to array itself for battle against the insurgents at +the Alban Mount. But the minds of the soldiers of the government +were deeply agitated; when Cinna appeared in front of them, they +received him with acclamation as if he were still their general and +consul; Metellus deemed it advisable not to allow the battle to +come on, but to lead back the troops to their camp. The Optimates +themselves wavered, and fell at variance with each other. While +one party, with the honourable but stubborn and shortsighted consul +Octavius at their head, perseveringly opposed all concession, +Metellus more experienced in war and more judicious attempted to +bring about a compromise; but his conference with Cinna excited +the wrath of the extreme men on both sides: Cinna was called by +Marius a weakling, Metellus was called by Octavius a traitor. +The soldiers, unsettled otherwise and not without cause distrusting +the leadership of the untried Octavius, suggested to Metellus that +he should assume the chief command, and, when he refused, began +in crowds to throw away their arms or even to desert to the enemy. +The temper of the burgesses became daily more depressed and +troublesome. On the proclamation of the heralds of Cinna +guaranteeing freedom to the slaves who should desert, these flocked +in troops from the capital to the enemy's camp. But the proposal +that the senate should guarantee freedom to the slaves willing to +enter the army was decidedly resisted by Octavius. The government +could not conceal from itself that it was defeated, and that +nothing remained but to come to terms if possible with the leaders +of the band, as the overpowered traveller comes to terms with +the captain of banditti. Envoys went to Cinna; but, while they +foolishly made difficulties as to recognizing him as consul, and +Cinna in the interval thus prolonged transferred his camp close to +the city-gates, the desertion spread to so great an extent that it +was no longer possible to settle any terms. The senate submitted +itself unconditionally to the outlawed consul, adding only a +request that he would refrain from bloodshed, Cinna promised this, +but refused to ratify his promise by an oath; Marius, who kept by +his side during the negotiations, maintained a sullen silence. + +Marian Reign of Terror + +The gates of the capital were opened. The consul marched in with +his legions; but Marius, scoffingly recalling the law of outlawry, +refused to set foot in the city until the law allowed him to do +so and the burgesses hastily assembled in the Forum to pass the +annulling decree. He then entered, and with him the reign of +terror. It was determined not to select individual victims, but +to have all the notable men of the Optimate party put to death and +to confiscate their property. The gates were closed; for five days +and five nights the slaughter continued without interruption; even +afterwards the execution of individuals who had escaped or been +overlooked was of daily occurrence, and for months the bloody +persecution went on throughout Italy. The consul Gnaeus Octavius +was the first victim. True to his often-expressed principle, that +he would rather suffer death than make the smallest concession to +men acting illegally, he refused even now to take flight, and in +his consular robes awaited at the Janiculum the assassin, who was +not slow to appear. Among the slain were Lucius Caesar (consul in +664) the celebrated victor of Acerrae;(4) his brother Gaius, whose +unseasonable ambition had provoked the Sulpician tumult,(5) well +known as an orator and poet and as an amiable companion; Marcus +Antonius (consul in 655), after the death of Lucius Crassus beyond +dispute the first pleader of his time; Publius Crassus (consul +in 657) who had commanded with distinction in the Spanish and in +the Social wars and also during the siege of Rome; and a multitude +of the most considerable men of the government party, among whom +the wealthy were traced out with especial zeal by the greedy +executioners. Peculiarly sad seemed the death of Lucius Merula, +who very much against his own wish had become Cinna's successor, +and who now, when criminally impeached on that account and cited +before the comitia, in order to anticipate the inevitable +condemnation opened his veins, and at the altar of the Supreme +Jupiter whose priest he was, after laying aside the priestly +headband as the religious duty of the dying Flamen required, +breathed his last; and still more the death of Quintus Catulus +(consul in 652), once in better days the associate of the most +glorious victory and triumph of that same Marius who now had no +other answer for the suppliant relatives of his aged colleague +than the monosyllabic order, "He must die." + +The Last Days of Marius + +The originator of all these outrages was Gaius Marius. +He designated the victims and the executioners--only in exceptional +cases, as in those of Merula and Catulus, was any form of law +observed; not unfrequently a glance or the silence with which he +received those who saluted him formed the sentence of death, which +was always executed at once. His revenge was not satisfied even +with the death of his victim; he forbade the burial of the dead +bodies: he gave orders--anticipated, it is true, in this respect +by Sulla--that the heads of the senators slain should be fixed to +the rostra in the Forum; he ordered particular corpses to be dragged +through the Forum, and that of Gaius Caesar to be stabbed afresh +at the tomb of Quintus Varius, whom Caesar presumably had once +impeached;(6) he publicly embraced the man who delivered to him +as he sat at table the head of Antonius, whom he had been with +difficulty restrained from seeking out in his hiding-place, +an slaying with his own hand. His legions of slaves, and in +particular a division of Ardyaeans,(7) chiefly served as his +executioners, and did not neglect, amidst these Saturnalia of +their new freedom, to plunder the houses of their former masters +and to dishonour and murder all whom they met with there. His own +associates were in despair at this insane fury; Sertorius adjured +the consul to put a stop to it at any price, and even Cinna was +alarmed. But in times such as these were, madness itself becomes +a power; man hurls himself into the abyss, to save himself from +giddiness. It was not easy to restrain the furious old man and +his band, and least of all had Cinna the courage to do so; on the +contrary, he chose Marius as his colleague in the consulship for +the next year. The reign of terror alarmed the more moderate of +the victors not much less than the defeated party; the capitalists +alone were not displeased to see that another hand lent itself to +the work of thoroughly humbling for once the haughty oligarchs, +and that at the same time, in consequence of the extensive +confiscations and auctions, the best part of the spoil came to +themselves--in these times of terror they acquired from the people +the surname of the "hoarders." + +Death of Marius + +Fate had thus granted to the author of this reign of terror, +the old Gaius Marius, his two chief wishes. He had taken vengeance +on the whole genteel pack that had embittered his victories and +envenomed his defeats; he had been enabled to retaliate for every +sarcasm by a stroke of the dagger. Moreover he entered on the new +year once more as consul; the vision of a seventh consulate, which +the oracle had promised him, and which he had sought for thirteen +years to grasp, had now been realized. The gods had granted to him +what he wished; but now too, as in the old legendary period, they +practised the fatal irony of destroying man by the fulfilment of +his wishes. In his early consulates the pride, in his sixth the +laughing-stock, of his fellow-citizens, he was now in his seventh +loaded with the execration of all parties, with the hatred of the +whole nation; he, the originally upright, capable, gallant man, was +branded as the crackbrained chief of a reckless band of robbers. +He himself seemed to feel it. His days were passed as in delirium, +and by night his couch denied him rest, so that he grasped the +wine-cup in order merely to drown thought. A burning fever seized +him; after being stretched for seven days on a sick bed, in the +wild fancies of which he was fighting on the fields of Asia Minor +the battles of which the laurels were destined for Sulla, he +expired on the 13th Jan. 668. He died, more than seventy years +old, in full possession of what he called power and honour, and in +his bed; but Nemesis assumes various shapes, and does not always +expiate blood with blood. Was there no sort of retaliation in the +fact, that Rome and Italy now breathed more freely on the news of +the death of the famous saviour of the people than at the tidings +of the battle on the Raudine plain? + +Even after his death individual incidents no doubt occurred, which +recalled that time of terror; Gaius Fimbria, for instance, who more +than any other during the Marian butcheries had dipped his hand in +blood, made an attempt at the very funeral of Marius to kill the +universally revered -pontifex maximus- Quintus Scaevola (consul in +659) who had been spared even by Marius, and then, when Scaevola +recovered from the wound he had received, indicted him criminally +on account of the offence, as Fimbria jestingly expressed it, of +having not been willing to let himself be murdered. But the orgies +of murder at any rate were over. Sertorius called together the +Marian bandits, under pretext of giving them their pay, surrounded +them with his trusty Celtic troops, and caused them to be cut down +en masse to the number, according to the lowest estimate, of 4000. + +Government of Cinna + +Along with the reign of terror came the -tyrannis-. Cinna not +only stood at the head of the state for four years in succession +(667-670) as consul, but he regularly nominated himself and his +colleagues without consulting the people; it seemed as if these +democrats set aside the sovereign popular assembly with intentional +contempt. No other chief of the popular party, before or +afterwards, possessed so perfectly absolute a power in Italy +and in the greater part of the provinces for so long a time almost +undisturbed, as Cinna; but no one can be named, whose government +was so utterly worthless and aimless. The law proposed by +Sulpicius and thereafter by Cinna himself, which promised to +the new burgesses and the freedmen equality of suffrage with the +old burgesses, was naturally revived; and it was formally confirmed +by a decree of the senate as valid in law (670). Censors were +nominated (668) for the purpose of distributing all the Italians, +in accordance with it, into the thirty-five burgess-districts--by a +singular conjuncture, in consequence of a want of qualified +candidates for the censorship the same Philippus, who when consul +in 663 had chiefly occasioned the miscarriage of the plan of Drusus +for bestowing the franchise on the Italians,(8) was now selected +as censor to inscribe them in the burgess-rolls. The reactionary +institutions established by Sulla in 666 were of course overthrown. +Some steps were taken to please the proletariate--for instance, +the restrictions on the distribution of grain introduced some years +ago,(9) were probably now once more removed; the design of Gaius +Gracchus to found a colony at Capua was in reality carried out +in the spring of 671 on the proposal of the tribune of the people, +Marcus Junius Brutus; Lucius Valerius Flaccus the younger +introduced a law as to debt, which reduced every private claim to +the fourth part of its nominal amount and cancelled three fourths +in favour of the debtors. But these measures, the only positive +ones during the whole Cinnan government, were without exception the +dictates of the moment; they were based--and this is perhaps the +most shocking feature in this whole catastrophe--not on a plan +possibly erroneous, but on no political plan at all. The populace +were caressed, and at the same time offended in a very unnecessary +way by a meaningless disregard of the constitutional arrangements +for election. The capitalist party might have furnished a support, +but it was injured in the most sensitive point by the law as to +debt. The true mainstay of the government was--wholly without +any cooperation on its part--the new burgesses; their assistance +was acquiesced in, but nothing was done to regulate the strange +position of the Samnites, who were now nominally Roman citizens, +but evidently regarded their country's independence as practically +the real object and prize of the struggle and remained in arms +to defend it against all and sundry. Illustrious senators were +struck down like mad dogs; but not the smallest step was taken to +reorganize the senate in the interest of the government, or even +permanently to terrify it; so that the government was by no means +sure of its aid. Gaius Gracchus had not understood the fall of the +oligarchy as implying that the new master might conduct himself on +his self-created throne, as legitimate cipher-kings think proper to +do. But this Cinna had been elevated to power not by his will, but +by pure accident; was there any wonder that he remained where the +storm-wave of revolution had washed him up, till a second wave came +to sweep him away again? + +Cinna and Sulla +Italy and the Provinces in Favour of the Government + +The same union of the mightiest plenitude of power with the most +utter impotence and incapacity in those who held it, was apparent +in the warfare waged by the revolutionary government against the +oligarchy--a warfare on which withal its existence primarily +depended. In Italy it ruled with absolute sway. Of the old +burgesses a very large portion were on principle favourable to +democratic views; and the still greater mass of quiet people, while +disapproving the Marian horrors, saw in an oligarchic restoration +simply the commencement of a second reign of terror by the opposite +party. The impression of the outrages of 667 on the nation at +large had been comparatively slight, as they had chiefly affected +the mere aristocracy of the capital; and it was moreover somewhat +effaced by the three years of tolerably peaceful government that +ensued. Lastly the whole mass of the new burgesses--three-fifths +perhaps of the Italians--were decidedly, if not favourable to the +present government, yet opposed to the oligarchy. + +Like Italy, most of the provinces adhered to the oligarchy-- +Sicily, Sardinia, the two Gauls, the two Spains. In Africa +Quintus Metellus, who had fortunately escaped the murderers, made +an attempt to hold that province for the Optimates; Marcus Crassus, +the youngest son of the Publius Crassus who had perished in the +Marian massacre, resorted to him from Spain, and reinforced him +by a band which he had collected there. But on their quarrelling +with each other they were obliged to yield to Gaius Fabius Hadrianus, +the governor appointed by the revolutionary government. Asia +was in the hands of Mithradates; consequently the province of +Macedonia, so far as it was in the power of Sulla, remained the +only asylum of the exiled oligarchy. Sulla's wife and children +who had with difficulty escaped death, and not a few senators +who had made their escape, sought refuge there, so that a sort +of senate was soon formed at his head-quarters. + +Measures against Sulla + +The government did not fail to issue decrees against the oligarchic +proconsul. Sulla was deprived by the comitia of his command and of +his other honours and dignities and outlawed, as was also the case +with Metellus, Appius Claudius, and other refugees of note; his +house in Rome was razed, his country estates were laid waste. +But such proceedings did not settle the matter. Had Gaius Marius +lived longer, he would doubtless have marched in person against Sulla +to those fields whither the fevered visions of his death-bed drew him; +the measures which the government took after his death have been +stated already. Lucius Valerius Flaccus the younger,(10) who after +Marius' death was invested with the consulship and the command in +the east (668), was neither soldier nor officer; Gaius Fimbria who +accompanied him was not without ability, but insubordinate; the +army assigned to them was even in numbers three times weaker than +the army of Sulla. Tidings successively arrived, that Flaccus, in +order not to be crushed by Sulla, had marched past him onward to +Asia (668); that Fimbria had set him aside and installed himself +in his room (beg. of 669); that Sulla had concluded peace with +Mithradates (669-670). Hitherto Sulla had been silent so far as +the authorities ruling in the capital were concerned. Now a letter +from him reached the senate, in which he reported the termination +of the war and announced his return to Italy; he stated that he +would respect the rights conferred on the new burgesses, and that, +while penal measures were inevitable, they would light not on the +masses, but on the authors of the mischief. This announcement +frightened Cinna out of his inaction: while he had hitherto taken +no step against Sulla except the placing some men under arms and +collecting a number of vessels in the Adriatic, he now resolved to +cross in all haste to Greece. + +Attempts at a Compromise +Death of Cinna +Carbo and the New Burgesses Arm against Sulla + +On the other hand Sulla's letter, which in the circumstances might +be called extremely moderate, awakened in the middle-party hopes +of a peaceful adjustment. The majority of the senate resolved, +on the proposal of the elder Flaccus, to set on foot an attempt +at reconciliation, and with that view to summon Sulla to come under +the guarantee of a safe-conduct to Italy, and to suggest to the +consuls Cinna and Carbo that they should suspend their preparations +till the arrival of Sulla's answer. Sulla did not absolutely +reject the proposals. Of course he did not come in person, but +he sent a message that he asked nothing but the restoration of +the banished to their former status and the judicial punishment of +the crimes that had been perpetrated, and moreover that he did not +desire security to be provided for himself, but proposed to bring +it to those who were at home. His envoys found the state of things +in Italy essentially altered. Cinna had, without concerning +himself further about that decree of the senate, immediately after +the termination of its sitting proceeded to the army and urged +it embarkation. The summons to trust themselves to the sea at +that unfavourable season of the year provoked among the already +dissatisfied troops in the head-quarters at Ancona a mutiny, to +which Cinna fell a victim (beg. of 670); whereupon his colleague +Carbo found himself compelled to bring back the divisions that had +already crossed and, abandoning the idea of taking up the war in +Greece, to enter into winter-quarters in Ariminum. But Sulla's +offers met no better reception on that account; the senate rejected +his proposals without even allowing the envoys to enter Rome, and +enjoined him summarily to lay down arms. It was not the coterie of +the Marians which primarily brought about this resolute attitude. +That faction was obliged to abandon its hitherto usurped occupation +of the supreme magistracy at the very time when it was of moment, +and again to institute consular elections for the decisive year +671. The suffrages on this occasion were united not in favour +of the former consul Carbo or of any of the able officers of the +hitherto ruling clique, such as Quintus Sertorius or Gaius Marius +the younger, but in favour of Lucius Scipio and Gaius Norbanus, +two incapables, neither of whom knew how to fight and Scipio not +even how to speak; the former of these recommended himself to the +multitude only as the great-grandson of the conqueror of Antiochus, +and the latter as a political opponent of the oligarchy.(11) The +Marians were not so much abhorred for their misdeeds as despised +for their incapacity; but if the nation would have nothing to do +with these, the great majority of it would have still less to do +with Sulla and an oligarchic restoration. Earnest measures of +self-defence were contemplated. While Sulla crossed to Asia and +induced such defection in the army of Fimbria that its leader +fell by his own hand, the government in Italy employed the further +interval of a year granted to it by these steps of Sulla in +energetic preparations; it is said that at Sulla's landing 100,000 +men, and afterwards even double that number of troops, were arrayed +in arms against him. + +Difficult Position of Sulla + +Against this Italian force Sulla had nothing to place in the scale +except his five legions, which, even including some contingents +levied in Macedonia and the Peloponnesus, probably amounted to +scarce 40,000 men. It is true that this army had been, during +its seven years' conflicts in Italy, Greece, and Asia, weaned from +politics, and adhered to its general--who pardoned everything in +his soldiers, debauchery, brutality, even mutiny against their +officers, required nothing but valour and fidelity towards their +general, and set before them the prospect of the most extravagant +rewards in the event of victory--with all that soldierly +enthusiasm, which is the more powerful that the noblest and the +meanest passions often combine to produce it in the same breast. +The soldiers of Sulla voluntarily according to the Roman custom +swore mutual oaths that they would stand firmly by each other, and +each voluntarily brought to the general his savings as a contribution +to the costs of the war. But considerable as was the weight +of this solid and select body of troops in comparison with the +masses of the enemy, Sulla saw very well that Italy could not +be subdued with five legions if it remained united in resolute +resistance. To settle accounts with the popular party and their +incapable autocrats would not have been difficult; but he saw +opposed to him and united with that party the whole mass of those +who desired no oligarchic restoration with its terrors, and above +all the whole body of new burgesses--both those who had been +withheld by the Julian law from taking part in the insurrection, +and those whose revolt a few years before had brought Rome to +the brink of ruin. + +His Moderation + +Sulla fully surveyed the situation of affairs, and was far +removed from the blind exasperation and the obstinate rigour which +characterized the majority of his party. While the edifice of the +state was in flames, while his friends were being murdered, his +houses destroyed, his family driven into exile, he had remained +undisturbed at his post till the public foe was conquered and the +Roman frontier was secured. He now treated Italian affairs in the +same spirit of patriotic and judicious moderation, and did whatever +he could to pacify the moderate party and the new burgesses, and +to prevent the civil war from assuming the far more dangerous form +of a fresh war between the Old Romans and the Italian allies. +The first letter which Sulla addressed to the senate had asked +nothing but what was right and just, and had expressly disclaimed +a reign of terror. In harmony with its terms, he now presented +the prospect of unconditional pardon to all those who should even +now break off from the revolutionary government, and caused his +soldiers man by man to swear that they would meet the Italians +thoroughly as friends and fellow-citizens. The most binding +declarations secured to the new burgesses the political rights +which they had acquired; so that Carbo, for that reason, wished +hostages to be furnished to him by every civic community in Italy, +but the proposal broke down under general indignation and under the +opposition of the senate. The chief difficulty in the position of +Sulla really consisted in the fact, that in consequence of the +faithlessness and perfidy which prevailed the new burgesses had +every reason, if not to suspect his personal designs, to doubt at +any rate whether he would be able to induce his party to keep their +word after the victory. + +Sulla Lands in Italy +And Is Reinforced by Partisans and Deserters + +In the spring of 671 Sulla landed with his legions in the port +of Brundisium. The senate, on receiving the news, declared the +commonwealth in danger, and committed to the consuls unlimited +powers; but these incapable leaders had not looked before them, +and were surprised by a landing which had nevertheless been +foreseen for years. The army was still at Ariminum, the ports +were not garrisoned, and--what is almost incredible--there was +not a man under arms at all along the whole south-eastern coast. +The consequences were soon apparent Brundisium itself, a considerable +community of new burgesses, at once opened its gates without +resistance to the oligarchic general, and all Messapia and Apulia +followed its example. The army marched through these regions as +through a friendly country, and mindful of its oath uniformly +maintained the strictest discipline. From all sides the scattered +remnant of the Optimate party flocked to the camp of Sulla. +Quintus Metellus came from the mountain ravines of Liguria, whither +he had made his escape from Africa, and resumed, as colleague of +Sulla, the proconsular command committed to him in 667,(12) and +withdrawn from him by the revolution. Marcus Crassus in like +manner appeared from Africa with a small band of armed men. Most +of the Optimates, indeed, came as emigrants of quality with great +pretensions and small desire for fighting, so that they had to +listen to bitter language from Sulla himself regarding the noble +lords who wished to have themselves preserved for the good of the +state and could not even be brought to arm their slaves. It was of +more importance, that deserters already made their appearance from +the democratic camp--for instance, the refined and respected Lucius +Philippus, who was, along with one or two notoriously incapable +persons, the only consular that had come to terms with the +revolutionary government and accepted offices under it He met with +the most gracious reception from Sulla, and obtained the honourable +and easy charge of occupying for him the province of Sardinia. +Quintus Lucretius Ofella and other serviceable officers were +likewise received and at once employed; even Publius Cethegus, +one of the senators banished after the Sulpician -emeute- by Sulla, +obtained pardon and a position in the army. + +Pompeius + +Still more important than these individual accessions was the gain +of the district of Picenum, which was substantially due to the son +of Strabo, the young Gnaeus Pompeius. The latter, like his father +originally no adherent of the oligarchy, had acknowledged the +revolutionary government and even taken service in Cinna's army; +but in his case the fact was not forgotten, that his father had +borne arms against the revolution; he found himself assailed in +various forms and even threatened with the loss of his very +considerable wealth by an indictment charging him to give up +the booty which was, or was alleged to have been, embezzled by his +father after the capture of Asculum. The protection of the consul +Carbo, who was personally attached to him, still more than the +eloquence of the consular Lucius Philippus and of the young +Quintus Hortensius, averted from him financial ruin; but the +dissatisfaction remained. On the news of Sulla's landing he +went to Picenum, where he had extensive possessions and the best +municipal connections derived from his father and the Social war, +and set up the standard of the Optimate party in Auximum (Osimo). +The district, which was mostly inhabited by old burgesses, joined +him; the young men, many of whom had served with him under his +father, readily ranged themselves under the courageous leader who, +not yet twenty-three years of age, was as much soldier as general, +sprang to the front of his cavalry in combat, and vigorously +assailed the enemy along with them. The corps of Picenian +volunteers soon grew to three legions; divisions under Cloelius, +Gaius Carrinas, Lucius Junius Brutus Damasippus,(13) were +despatched from the capital to put down the Picenian insurrection, +but the extemporized general, dexterously taking advantage of the +dissensions that arose among them, had the skill to evade them or +to beat them in detail and to effect his junction with the main +army of Sulla, apparently in Apulia. Sulla saluted him as +-imperator-, that is, as an officer commanding in his own name +and not subordinate but co-ordinate, and distinguished the youth +by marks of honour such as he showed to none of his noble +clients--presumably not without the collateral design of thereby +administering an indirect rebuke to the lack of energetic character +among his own partisans. + +Sulla in Campania Opposed by Norbanus and Scipio +Sulla Gains a Victory over Norbanus at Mount Tifata +Defection of Scipio's Army + +Reinforced thus considerably both in a moral and material point +of view, Sulla and Metellus marched from Apulia through the still +insurgent Samnite districts towards Campania. The main force of +the enemy also proceeded thither, and it seemed as if the matter +could not but there be brought to a decision. The army of the +consul Gaius Norbanus was already at Capua, where the new colony +had just established itself with all democratic pomp; the second +consular army was likewise advancing along the Appian road. But, +before it arrived, Sulla was in front of Norbanus. A last attempt +at mediation, which Sulla made, led only to the arrest of his +envoys. With fresh indignation his veteran troops threw themselves +on the enemy; their vehement charge down from Mount Tifata at the +first onset broke the enemy drawn up in the plain; with the remnant +of his force Norbanus threw himself into the revolutionary colony +of Capua and the new-burgess town of Neapolis, and allowed himself +to be blockaded there. Sulla's troops, hitherto not without +apprehension as they compared their weak numbers with the masses +of the enemy, had by this victory gained a full conviction of their +military superiority, instead of pausing to besiege the remains of +the defeated army, Sulla left the towns where they took shelter to +be invested, and advanced along the Appian highway against Teanum, +where Scipio was posted. To him also, before beginning battle, +he made fresh proposals for peace; apparently in good earnest. +Scipio, weak as he was, entered into them; an armistice was +concluded; between Cales and Teanum the two generals, both members +of the same noble -gens-, both men of culture and refinement +and for many years colleagues in the senate, met in personal +conference; they entered upon the several questions; they had +already made such progress, that Scipio despatched a messenger +to Capua to procure the opinion of his colleague. Meanwhile the +soldiers of the two camps mingled; the Sullans, copiously furnished +with money by their general, had no great difficulty in persuading +the recruits--not too eager for warfare--over their cups that it +was better to have them as comrades than as foes; in vain Sertorius +warned the general to put a stop to this dangerous intercourse. +The agreement, which had seemed so near, was not effected; it was +Scipio who denounced the armistice. But Sulla maintained that it +was too late and that the agreement had been already concluded; +whereupon Scipio's soldiers, under the pretext that their general +had wrongfully denounced the armistice, passed over en masse to the +ranks of the enemy. The scene closed with an universal embracing, +at which the commanding officers of the revolutionary army had to +look on. Sulla gave orders that the consul should be summoned to +resign his office--which he did--and should along with his staff be +escorted by his cavalry to whatever point they desired; but Scipio +was hardly set at liberty when he resumed the insignia of his +dignity and began afresh to collect troops, without however +executing anything further of moment. Sulla and Metellus took +up winter-quarters in Campania and, after the failure of a second +attempt to come to terms with Norbanus, maintained the blockade +of Capua during the winter. + +Preparations on Either Side + +The results of the first campaign in favour of Sulla were the +submission of Apulia, Picenum, and Campania, the dissolution of +the one, and the vanquishing and blockading of the other, consular +army. The Italian communities, compelled severally to choose +between their twofold oppressors, already in numerous instances +entered into negotiations with him, and caused the political +rights, which had been won from the opposition party, to be +guaranteed to them by formal separate treaties on the part +of the general of the oligarchy. Sulla cherished the distinct +expectation, and intentionally made boast of it, that he would +overthrow the revolutionary government in the next campaign and +again march into Rome. + +But despair seemed to furnish the revolution with fresh energies. +The consulship was committed to two of its most decided leaders, +to Carbo for the third time and to Gaius Marius the younger; the +circumstance that the latter, who was just twenty years of age, +could not legally be invested with the consulship, was as little +heeded as any other point of the constitution. Quintus Sertorius, +who in this and other matters proved an inconvenient critic, was +ordered to proceed to Etruria with a view to procure new levies, +and thence to his province Hither Spain. To replenish the +treasury, the senate was obliged to decree the melting down of +the gold and silver vessels of the temples in the capital; how +considerable the produce was, is clear from the fact that after +several months' warfare there was still on hand nearly 600,000 +pounds (14,000 pounds of gold and 6000 pounds of silver). In the +considerable portion of Italy, which still voluntarily or under +compulsion adhered to the revolution, warlike preparations were +prosecuted with vigour. Newly-formed divisions of some strength +came from Etruria, where the communities of new burgesses were very +numerous, and from the region of the Po. The veterans of Marius +in great numbers ranged themselves under the standards at the call +of his son. But nowhere were preparations made for the struggle +against Sulla with such eagerness as in the insurgent Samnium and +some districts of Lucania. It was owing to anything but devotion +towards the revolutionary Roman government, that numerous +contingents from the Oscan districts reinforced their armies; +but it was well understood there that an oligarchy restored by +Sulla would not acquiesce, like the lax Cinnan government, in +the independence of these lands as now de facto subsisting; and +therefore the primitive rivalry between the Sabellians and +the Latins was roused afresh in the struggle against Sulla. +For Samnium and Latium this war was as much a national struggle +as the wars of the fifth century; they strove not for a greater +or less amount of political rights, but for the purpose of appeasing +long-suppressed hate by the annihilation of their antagonist. +It was no wonder, therefore, that the war in this region bore +a character altogether different from the conflicts elsewhere, +that no compromise was attempted there, that no quarter was given +or taken, and that the pursuit was continued to the very uttermost. + +Thus the campaign of 672 was begun on both sides with augmented +military resources and increased animosity. The revolution in +particular threw away the scabbard: at the suggestion of Carbo +the Roman comitia outlawed all the senators that should be found +in Sulla's camp. Sulla was silent; he probably thought that +they were pronouncing sentence beforehand on themselves. + +Sulla Proceeds to Latium to Oppose the Younger Marius +His Victory at Sacriportus +Democratic Massacres in Rome + +The army of the Optimates was divided. The proconsul Metellus +undertook, resting on the support of the Picenian insurrection, to +advance to Upper Italy, while Sulla marched from Campania straight +against the capital. Carbo threw himself in the way of the former; +Marius would encounter the main army of the enemy in Latium. +Advancing along the Via Latina, Sulla fell in with the enemy not +far from Signia; they retired before him as far as the so-called +"Port of Sacer," between Signia and the chief stronghold of the +Marians, the strong Praeneste. There Marius drew up his force for +battle. His army was about 40,000 strong, and he was in savage +fury and personal bravery the true son of his father; but his +troops were not the well trained bands with which the latter had +fought his battles, and still less might this inexperienced young +man bear comparison with the old master of war. His troops soon +gave way; the defection of a division even during the battle +accelerated the defeat. More than the half of the Marians were +dead or prisoners; the remnant, unable either to keep the field or +to gain the other bank of the Tiber, was compelled to seek +protection in the neighbouring fortresses; the capital, which they +had neglected to provision, was irrecoverably lost. In consequence +of this Marius gave orders to Lucius Brutus Damasippus, the praetor +commanding there, to evacuate it, but before doing so to put to +death all the esteemed men, hitherto spared, of the opposite party. +This injunction, by which the son even outdid the proscriptions of +his father, was carried into effect; Damasippus made a pretext for +convoking the senate, and the marked men were struck down partly in +the sitting itself, partly on their flight from the senate-house. +Notwithstanding the thorough clearance previously effected, there +were still found several victims of note. Such were the former +aedile Publius Antistius, the father-in-law of Gnaeus Pompeius, +and the former praetor Gaius Carbo, son of the well-known friend +and subsequent opponent of the Gracchi,(14) since the death of +so many men of more distinguished talent the two best orators in +the judicial courts of the desolated Forum; the consular Lucius +Domitius, and above all the venerable -pontifex maximus- Quintus +Scaevola, who had escaped the dagger of Fimbria only to bleed to +death during these last throes of the revolution in the vestibule +of the temple of Vesta entrusted to his guardianship. With +speechlesshorror the multitude saw the corpses of these last +victims of the reign of terror dragged through the streets, +and thrown into the river. + +Siege of Praeneste +Occupation of Rome + +The broken bands of Marius threw themselves into the neighbouring +and strong cities of new burgesses Norba and Praeneste: Marius in +person with the treasure and the greater part of the fugitives +entered the latter. Sulla left an able officer, Quintus Ofella, +before Praeneste just as he had done in the previous year before +Capua, with instructions not to expend his strength in the siege +of the strong town, but to enclose it with an extended line of +blockade and starve it into surrender. He himself advanced from +different sides upon the capital, which as well as the whole +surrounding district he found abandoned by the enemy, and occupied +without resistance. He barely took time to compose the minds of +the people by an address and to make the most necessary arrangements, +and immediately passed on to Etruria, that in concert with Metellus +he might dislodge his antagonists from Northern Italy. + +Metellus against Carbo in Northern Italy +Carbo Assailed on Three Sides of Etruria + +Metellus had meanwhile encountered and defeated Carbo's lieutenant +Carrinas at the river Aesis (Esino between Ancona and Sinigaglia), +which separated the district of Picenum from the Gallic province; +when Carbo in person came up with his superior army, Metellus had +been obliged to abstain from any farther advance. But on the news +of the battle at Sacriportus, Carbo, anxious about his communications, +had retreated to the Flaminian road, with a view to take up his +headquarters at the meeting-point of Ariminum, and from that point +to hold the passes of the Apennines on the one hand and the valley +of the Po on the other. In this retrograde movement different +divisions fell into the hands of the enemy, and not only so, +but Sena Gallica was stormed and Carbo's rearguard was broken +in a brilliant cavalry engagement by Pompeius; nevertheless Carbo +attained on the whole his object. The consular Norbanus took +the command in the valley of the Po; Carbo himself proceeded to +Etruria. But the march of Sulla with his victorious legions to +Etruria altered the position of affairs; soon three Sullan armies +from Gaul, Umbria, and Rome established communications with each +other. Metellus with the fleet went past Ariminum to Ravenna, and +at Faventia cut off the communication between Ariminum and the +valley of the Po, into which he sent forward a division along the +great road to Placentia under Marcus Lucullus, the quaestor of +Sulla and brother of his admiral in the Mithradatic war. The young +Pompeius and his contemporary and rival Crassus penetrated from +Picenum by mountain-paths into Umbria and gained the Flaminian road +at Spoletium, where they defeated Carbo's legate Carrinas and shut +him up in the town; he succeeded, however, in escaping from it on +a rainy night and making his way, though not without loss, to the +army of Carbo. Sulla himself marched from Rome into Etruria with +his army in two divisions, one of which advancing along the coast +defeated the corps opposed to it at Saturnia (between the rivers +Ombrone and Albegna); the second led by Sulla in person fell in +with the army of Carbo in the valley of the Clanis, and sustained +a successful conflict with his Spanish cavalry. But the pitched +battle which was fought between Carbo and Sulla in the region of +Chiusi, although it ended without being properly decisive, was +so far at any rate in favour of Carbo that Sulla's victorious +advance was checked. + +Conflicts about Praeneste + +In the vicinity of Rome also events appeared to assume a more +favourable turn for the revolutionary party, and the war seemed +as if it would again be drawn chiefly towards this region. +For, while the oligarchic party were concentrating all their +energies on Etruria, the democracy everywhere put forth the utmost +efforts to break the blockade of Praeneste. Even the governor of +Sicily Marcus Perpenna set out for that purpose; it does not appear, +however, that he reached Praeneste. Nor was the very considerable +corps under Marcius, detached by Carbo, more successful in this; +assailed and defeated by the troops of the enemy which were at +Spoletium, demoralized by disorder, want of supplies, and mutiny, +one portion went back to Carbo, another to Ariminum; the rest +dispersed. Help in earnest on the other hand came from Southern +Italy. There the Samnites under Pontius of Telesia, and the +Lucanians under their experienced general Marcus Lamponius, set +out without its being possible to prevent their departure, were +joined in Campania where Capua still held out by a division of +the garrison under Gutta, and thus to the number, it was said, of +70,000 marched upon Praeneste. Thereupon Sulla himself, leaving +behind a corps against Carbo, returned to Latium and took up a +well-chosen position in the defiles in front of Praeneste, where +he barred the route of the relieving army.(15) In vain the garrison +attempted to break through the lines of Ofella, in vain the +relieving army attempted to dislodge Sulla; both remained +immoveable in their strong positions, even after Damasippus, +sent by Carbo, had reinforced the relieving army with two legions. + +Successes of the Sullans in Upper Italy +Etruria Occupied by the Sullans + +But while the war stood still in Etruria and in Latium, matters +came to a decision in the valley of the Po. There the general of +the democracy, Gaius Norbanus, had hitherto maintained the upper +hand, had attacked Marcus Lucullus the legate of Metellus with +superior force and compelled him to shut himself up in Placentia, +and had at length turned against Metellus in person. He encountered +the latter at Faventia, and immediately made his attack late in +the afternoon with his troops fatigued by their march; the consequence +was a complete defeat and the total breaking up of his corps, of which +only about 1000 men returned to Etruria. On the news of this battle +Lucullus sallied from Placentia, and defeated the division left behind +to oppose him at Fidentia (between Piacenza and Parma). The Lucanian +troops of Albinovanus deserted in a body: their leader made up +for his hesitation at first by inviting the chief officers of +the revolutionary army to banquet with him and causing them to be +put to death; in general every one, who at all could, now concluded +his peace. Ariminum with all its stores and treasures fell into the +power of Metellus; Norbanus embarked for Rhodes; the whole land between +the Alps and Apennines acknowledged the government of the Optimates. +The troops hitherto employed there were enabled to turn to the attack +of Etruria, the last province where their antagonists still kept +the field. When Carbo received this news in the camp at Clusium, +he lost his self-command; although he had still a considerable body +of troops under his orders, he secretly escaped from his headquarters +and embarked for Africa. Part of his abandoned troops followed the +example which their general had set, and went home; part of them were +destroyed by Pompeius: Carrinas gathered together the remainder and +led them to Latium to join the army of Praeneste. There no change +had in the meanwhile taken place; and the final decision drew nigh. +The troops of Carrinas were not numerous enough to shake Sulla's +position; the vanguard of the army of the oligarchic party, +hitherto employed in Etruria, was approaching under Pompeius; +in a few days the net would be drawn tight around the army of +the democrats and the Samnites. + +The Samnites and Democrats Attack Rome +Battle at the Colline Gate +Slaughter of the Prisoners + +Its leaders then determined to desist from the relief of Praeneste +and to throw themselves with all their united strength on Rome, +which was only a good day's march distant. By so doing they were, +in a military point of view, ruined; their line of retreat, the +Latin road, would by such a movement fall into Sulla's hands; +and even if they got possession of Rome, they would be infallibly +crushed there, enclosed within a city by no means fitted for +defence, and wedged in between the far superior armies of Metellus +and Sulla. Safety, however, was no longer thought of; revenge +alone dictated this march to Rome, the last outbreak of fury in +the passionate revolutionists and especially in the despairing +Sabellian nation. Pontius of Telesia was in earnest, when he +called out to his followers that, in order to get rid of the wolves +which had robbed Italy of freedom, the forest in which they +harboured must be destroyed. Never was Rome in a more fearful +peril than on the 1st November 672, when Pontius, Lamponius, +Carrinas, Damasippus advanced along the Latin road towards Rome, +and encamped about a mile from the Colline gate. It was threatened +with a day like the 20th July 365 u. c. or the 15th June 455 a. d.-- +the days of the Celts and the Vandals. The time was gone by when +a coup de main against Rome was a foolish enterprise, and the +assailants could have no want of connections in the capital. +The band of volunteers which sallied from the city, mostly youths +of quality, was scattered like chaff before the immense superiority +of force. The only hope of safety rested on Sulla. The latter, +on receiving accounts of the departure of the Samnite army in +the direction of Rome, had likewise set out in all haste to the +assistance of the capital. The appearance of his foremost horsemen +under Balbus in the course of the morning revived the sinking +courage of the citizens; about midday he appeared in person with +his main force, and immediately drew up his ranks for battle at +the temple of the Erycine Aphrodite before the Colline gate (not +far from Porta Pia). His lieutenants adjured him not to send the +troops exhausted by the forced march at once into action; but Sulla +took into consideration what the night might bring on Rome, and, +late as it was in the afternoon, ordered the attack. The battle +was obstinately contested and bloody. The left wing of Sulla, +which he led in person, gave way as far as the city wall, so that +it became necessary to close the city gates; stragglers even +brought accounts to Ofella that the battle was lost. But on the +right wing Marcus Crassus overthrew the enemy and pursued him as +far as Antemnae; this somewhat relieved the left wing also, and an +hour after sunset it in turn began to advance. The fight continued +the whole night and even on the following morning; it was only the +defection of a division of 3000 men, who immediately turned their +arms against their former comrades, that put an end to the +struggle. Rome was saved. The army of the insurgents, for which +there was no retreat, was completely extirpated. The prisoners +taken in the battle--between 3000 and 4000 in number, including the +generals Damasippus, Carrinas, and the severely-wounded Pontius-- +were by Sulla's orders on the third day after the battle brought to +the Villa Publica in the Campus Martius and there massacred to the +last man, so that the clatter of arms and the groans of the dying +were distinctly heard in the neighbouring temple of Bellona, where +Sulla was just holding a meeting of the senate. It was a ghastly +execution, and it ought not to be excused; but it is not right to +forget that those very men who perished there had fallen like a +band of robbers on the capital and the burgesses, and, had they +found time, would have destroyed them as far as fire and sword +can destroy a city and its citizens. + +Sieges +Praeneste +Norba +Nola + +With this battle the war was, in the main, at an end. The garrison +of Praeneste surrendered, when it learned the issue of the battle +of Rome from the heads of Carrinas and other officers thrown over +the walls. The leaders, the consul Gaius Marius and the son of +Pontius, after having failed in an attempt to escape, fell on each +other's swords. The multitude cherished the hope, in which it +was confirmed by Cethegus, that the victor would even now have +mercy upon them. But the times of mercy were past. The more +unconditionally Sulla had up to the last moment granted full pardon +to those who came over to him, the more inexorable he showed +himself toward the leaders and communities that had held out to +the end. Of the Praenestine prisoners, 12,000 in number, most +of the Romans and individual Praenestines as well as the women +and children were released, but the Roman senators, almost all +the Praenestines and the whole of the Samnites, were disarmed and +cut to pieces; and the rich city was given up to pillage. It was +natural that, after such an occurrence, the cities of new burgesses +which had not yet passed over should continue their resistance with +the utmost obstinacy. In the Latin town of Norba for instance, +when Aemilius Lepidus got into it by treason, the citizens killed +each other and set fire themselves to their town, solely in order +to deprive their executioners of vengeance and of booty. In Lower +Italy Neapolis had already been taken by assault, and Capua had, +as it would seem, been voluntarily surrendered; but Nola was only +evacuated by the Samnites in 674. On his flight from Nola the last +surviving leader of note among the Italians, the consul of the +insurgents in the hopeful year 664, Gaius Papius Mutilus, disowned +by his wife to whom he had stolen in disguise and with whom he had +hoped to find an asylum, fell on his sword in Teanum before the +door of his own house. As to the Samnites, the dictator declared +that Rome would have no rest so long as Samnium existed, and that +the Samnite name must therefore be extirpated from the earth; and, +as he verified these words in terrible fashion on the prisoners +taken before Rome and in Praeneste, so he appears to have also +undertaken a raid for the purpose of laying waste the country, +to have captured Aesernia(16) (674?), and to have converted that +hitherto flourishing and populous region into the desert which it +has since remained. In the same manner Tuder in Umbria was stormed +by Marcus Crassus. A longer resistance was offered in Etruria +by Populonium and above all by the impregnable Volaterrae, which +gathered out of the remains of the beaten party an army of four +legions, and stood a two years' siege conducted first by Sulla +in person and then by the former praetor Gaius Carbo, the brother +of the democratic consul, till at length in the third year after +the battle at the Colline gate (675) the garrison capitulated on +condition of free departure. But in this terrible time neither +military law nor military discipline was regarded; the soldiers +raised a cry of treason and stoned their too compliant general; a +troop of horse sent by the Roman government cut down the garrison +as it withdrew in terms of the capitulation. The victorious army +was distributed throughout Italy, and all the insecure townships +were furnished with strong garrisons: under the iron hand of the +Sullan officers the last palpitations of the revolutionary and +national opposition slowly died away. + +The Provinces + +There was still work to be done in the provinces. Sardinia had +been speedily wrested by Lucius Philippus from the governor of the +revolutionary government Quintus Antonius (672), and Transalpine +Gaul offered little or no resistance; but in Sicily, Spain, and +Africa the cause of the party defeated in Italy seemed still by +no means lost. Sicily was held for them by the trustworthy governor +Marcus Perpenna. Quintus Sertorius had the skill to attach to +himself the provincials in Hither Spain, and to form from among the +Romans settled in that quarter a not inconsiderable army, which in +the first instance closed the passes of the Pyrenees: in this he +had given fresh proof that, wherever he was stationed, he was in +his place, and amidst all the incapables of the revolution was the +only man practically useful. In Africa the governor Hadrianus, who +followed out the work of revolutionizing too thoroughly and began +to give liberty to the slaves, had been, on occasion of a tumult +instigated by the Roman merchants of Utica, attacked in his +official residence and burnt with his attendants (672); nevertheless +the province adhered to the revolutionary government, and Cinna's +son-in-law, the young and able Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, +was invested with the supreme command there. Propagandism had +even been carried from thence into the client-states, Numidia +and Mauretania. Their legitimate rulers, Hiempsal II son of Gauda, +and Bogud son of Bocchus, adhered doubtless to Sulla; but with the +aid of the Cinnans the former had been dethroned by the democratic +pretender Hiarbas, and similar feuds agitated the Mauretanian +kingdom. The consul Carbo who had fled from Italy tarried on the +island Cossyra (Pantellaria) between Africa and Sicily, at a loss, +apparently, whether he should flee to Egypt or should attempt to +renew the struggle in one of the faithful provinces. + +Spain +Sertorius Embarks + +Sulla sent to Spain Gaius Annius and Gaius Valerius Flaccus, +the former as governor of Further Spain, the latter as governor +of the province of the Ebro. They were spared the difficult task +of opening up the passes of the Pyrenees by force, in consequence +of the general who was sent thither by Sertorius having been killed +by one of his officers and his troops having thereafter melted away. +Sertorius, much too weak to maintain an equal struggle, hastily +collected the nearest divisions and embarked at New Carthage--for +what destination he knew not himself, perhaps for the coast of +Africa, or for the Canary Islands--it mattered little whither, +provided only Sulla's arm did not reach him. Spain then willingly +submitted to the Sullan magistrates (about 673) and Flaccus fought +successfully with the Celts, through whose territory he marched, +and with the Spanish Celtiberians (674). + +Sicily + +Gnaeus Pompeius was sent as propraetor to Sicily, and, when he +appeared on the coast with 120 sail and six legions, the island was +evacuated by Perpenna without resistance. Pompeius sent a squadron +thence to Cossyra, which captured the Marian officers sojourning +there. Marcus Brutus and the others were immediately executed; +but Pompeius had enjoined that the consul Carbo should be brought +before himself at Lilybaeum in order that, unmindful of the +protection accorded to him in a season of peril by that very +man,(17) he might personally hand him over to the executioner (672). + +Africa + +Having been ordered to go on to Africa, Pompeius with his +army which was certainly far more numerous, defeated the not +inconsiderable forces collected by Ahenobarbus and Hiarbas, and, +declining for the time to be saluted as -imperator-, he at once +gave the signal for assault on the hostile camp. He thus became +master of the enemy in one day; Ahenobarbus was among the fallen: +with the aid of king Bogud, Hiarbas was seized and slain at Bulla, +and Hiempsal was reinstated in his hereditary kingdom; a great +razzia against the inhabitants of the desert, among whom a number +of Gaetulian tribes recognized as free by Marius were made subject +to Hiempsal, revived in Africa also the fallen repute of the Roman +name: in forty days after the landing of Pompeius in Africa all was +at an end (674?). The senate instructed him to break up his army-- +an implied hint that he was not to be allowed a triumph, to which +as an extraordinary magistrate he could according to precedent make +no claim. The general murmured secretly, the soldiers loudly; it +seemed for a moment as if the African army would revolt against the +senate and Sulla would have to take the field against his son-in- +law. But Sulla yielded, and allowed the young man to boast of +being the only Roman who had become a triumphator before he was +a senator (12 March 675); in fact the "Fortunate," not perhaps +without a touch of irony, saluted the youth on his return from +these easy exploits as the "Great." + +Fresh Difficulties with Mithradates + +In the east also, after the embarkation of Sulla in the spring of +671, there had been no cessation of warfare. The restoration of +the old state of things and the subjugation of individual towns +cost in Asia as in Italy various bloody struggles. Against the +free city of Mytilene in particular Lucius Lucullus was obliged +at length to bring up troops, after having exhausted all gentler +measures; and even a victory in the open field did not put an end +to the obstinate resistance of the citizens. + +Meanwhile the Roman governor of Asia, Lucius Murena, had fallen +into fresh difficulties with king Mithradates. The latter had +since the peace busied himself in strengthening anew his rule, +which was shaken even in the northern provinces; he had pacified +the Colchians by appointing his able son Mithradates as their +governor; he had then made away with that son, and was now preparing +for an expedition into his Bosporan kingdom. The assurances of +Archelaus who had meanwhile been obliged to seek an asylum with +Murena,(18) that these preparations were directed against Rome, +induced Murena, under the pretext that Mithradates still kept +possession of Cappadocian frontier districts, to move his troops +towards the Cappadocian Comana and thus to violate the Pontic +frontier (671). Mithradates contented himself with complaining +to Murena and, when this was in vain, to the Roman government. +In fact commissioners from Sulla made their appearance to dissuade +the governor, but he did not submit; on the contrary he crossed +the Halys and entered on the undisputed territory of Pontus, +whereupon Mithradates resolved to repel force by force. His general +Gordius had to detain the Roman army till the king came up with +far superior forces and compelled battle; Murena was vanquished +and with great loss driven back over the Roman frontier to Phrygia, +and the Roman garrisons were expelled from all Cappadocia. Murena +had the effrontery, no doubt, to call himself the victor and to +assume the title of -imperator- on account of these events (672); +but the sharp lesson and a second admonition from Sulla induced +him at last to push the matter no farther; the peace between +Rome and Mithradates was renewed (673). + +Second Peace +Capture of Mytilene + +This foolish feud, while it lasted, had postponed the reduction +of the Mytilenaeans; it was only after a long siege by land and +by sea, in which the Bithynian fleet rendered good service, that +Murena's successor succeeded in taking the city by storm (675). + +General Peace + +The ten years' revolution and insurrection were at an end in the +west and in the east; the state had once more unity of government +and peace without and within. After the terrible convulsions of +the last years even this rest was a relief. Whether it was to +furnish more than a mere relief; whether the remarkable man, who +had succeeded in the difficult task of vanquishing the public foe +and in the more difficult work of subduing the revolution, would +be able to meet satisfactorily the most difficult task of all-- +the re-establishing of social and political order shaken to its +very foundations--could not but be speedily decided + + + + +CHAPTER X + +The Sullan Constitution + +The Restoration + +About the time when the first pitched battle was fought between +Romans and Romans, in the night of the 6th July 671, the venerable +temple, which had been erected by the kings, dedicated by the +youthful republic, and spared by the storms of five hundred years-- +the temple of the Roman Jupiter in the Capitol--perished in the flames. +It was no augury, but it was an image of the state of the Roman +constitution. This, too, lay in ruins and needed reconstruction. +The revolution was no doubt vanquished, but the victory was far +from implying as a matter of course the restoration of the old +government. The mass of the aristocracy certainly was of opinion +that now, after the death of the two revolutionary consuls, it would +be sufficient to make arrangements for the ordinary supplemental +election and to leave it to the senate to take such steps as should +seem farther requisite for the rewarding of the victorious army, for +the punishment of the most guilty revolutionists, and possibly also +for the prevention of similar outbreaks. But Sulla, in whose hands +the victory had concentrated for the moment all power, formed a +more correct judgment of affairs and of men. The aristocracy of +Rome in its best epoch had not risen above an adherence--partly +noble and partly narrow--to traditional forms; how should the clumsy +collegiate government of this period be in a position to carry out +with energy and thoroughness a comprehensive reform of the state? +And at the present moment, when the last crisis had swept away +almost all the leading men of the senate, the vigour and intelligence +requisite for such an enterprise were less than ever to be found there. +How thoroughly useless was the pure aristocratic blood, and how little +doubt Sulla had as to its worthlessness, is shown by the fact that, +with the exception of Quintus Metellus who was related to him by marriage, +he selected all his instruments out of what was previously the middle +party and the deserters from the democratic camp--such as Lucius +Flaccus, Lucius Philippus, Quintus Ofella, Gnaeus Pompeius. +Sulla was as much in earnest about the re-establishment of the old +constitution as the most vehement aristocratic emigrant; he understood +however, not perhaps to the full extent--for how in that case could +he have put hand to the work at all?--but better at any rate than +his party, the enormous difficulties which attended this work of +restoration. Comprehensive concessions so far as concession was +possible without affecting the essence of oligarchy, and the +establishment of an energetic system of repression and prevention, +were regarded by him as unavoidable; and he saw clearly that the senate +as it stood would refuse or mutilate every concession, and would +parliamentarily ruin every systematic reconstruction. If Sulla had +already after the Sulpician revolution carried out what he deemed +necessary in both respects without asking much of their advice, he +was now determined, under circumstances of far more severe and intense +excitement, to restore the oligarchy--not with the aid, but in spite, +of the oligarchs--by his own hand. + +Sulla Regent of Rome + +Sulla, however, was not now consul as he had been then, but was +furnished merely with proconsular, that is to say, purely military +power: he needed an authority keeping as near as possible to +constitutional forms, but yet extraordinary, in order to impose his +reform on friends and foes. In a letter to the senate he announced +to them that it seemed to him indispensable that they should place +the regulation of the state in the hands of a single man equipped +with unlimited plenitude of power, and that he deemed himself qualified +to fulfil this difficult task. This proposal, disagreeable as it was +to many, was under the existing circumstances a command. By direction +of the senate its chief, the interrex Lucius Valerius Flaccus the +father, as interim holder of the supreme power, submitted to the +burgesses the proposal that the proconsul Lucius Cornelius Sulla +should receive for the past a supplementary approval of all the +official acts performed by him as consul and proconsul, and should +for the future be empowered to adjudicate without appeal on the life +and property of the burgesses, to deal at his pleasure with the +state-domains, to shift at discretion the boundaries of Rome, of +Italy, and of the state, to dissolve or establish urban communities +in Italy, to dispose of the provinces and dependent states, to confer +the supreme -imperium- instead of the people and to nominate proconsuls +and propraetors, and lastly to regulate the state for the future by +means of new laws; that it should be left to his own judgment to +determine when he had fulfilled his task and might deem it time to +resign this extraordinary magistracy; and, in fine, that during its +continuance it should depend on his pleasure whether the ordinary +supreme magistracy should subsist side by side with his own or should +remain in abeyance. As a matter of course, the proposal was adopted +without opposition (Nov. 672); and now the new master of the state, +who hitherto had as proconsul avoided entering the capital, appeared +for the first time within the walls of Rome. This new office derived +its name from the dictatorship, which had been practically abolished +since the Hannibalic war;(1) but, as besides his armed retinue he was +preceded by twice as many lictors as the dictator of earlier times, +this new "dictatorship for the making of laws and the regulation of +the commonwealth," as its official title ran, was in fact altogether +different from the earlier magistracy which had been limited in point +of duration and of powers, had not excluded appeal to the burgesses, +and had not annulled the ordinary magistracy. It much more resembled +that of the -decemviri legibus scribundis-, who likewise came forward +as an extraordinary government with unlimited fulness of powers +superseding the ordinary magistracy, and practically at least +administered their office as one which was unlimited in point of +time. Or, we should rather say, this new office, with its absolute +power based on a decree of the people and restrained by no set term +or colleague, was no other than the old monarchy, which in fact just +rested on the free engagement of the burgesses to obey one of their +number as absolute lord. It was urged even by contemporaries in +vindication of Sulla that a king is better than a bad constitution,(2) +and presumably the title of dictator was only chosen to indicate +that, as the former dictatorship implied a reassumptionwith various +limitations,(3) so this new dictatorship involved a complete +reassumption, of the regal power. Thus, singularly enough, +the course of Sulla here also coincided with that on which Gaius +Gracchus had entered with so wholly different a design. In this +respect too the conservative party had to borrow from its opponents; +the protector of the oligarchic constitution had himself to +come forward as a tyrant, in order to avert the ever-impending +-tyrannis-. There was not a little of defeat in this last victory +of the oligarchy. + +Executions + +Sulla had not sought and had not desired the difficult and dreadful +labour of the work of restoration; out, as no other choice was left +to him but either to leave it to utterly incapable hands or to +undertake it in person, he set himself to it with remorseless energy. +First of all a settlement had to be effected in respect to the guilty. +Sulla was personally inclined to pardon. Sanguine as he was in +temperament, he could doubtless break forth into violent rage, and +well might those beware who saw his eye gleam and his cheeks colour; +but the chronic vindictiveness, which characterized Marius in the +embitterment of his old age, was altogether foreign to Sulla's easy +disposition. Not only had he borne himself with comparatively great +moderation after the revolution of 666;(4) even the second revolution, +which had perpetrated so fearful outrages and had affected him in +person so severely, had not disturbed his equilibrium. At the same +time that the executioner was dragging the bodies of his friends +through the streets of the capital, he had sought to save the life of +the blood-stained Fimbria, and, when the latter died by his own hand, +had given orders for his decent burial. On landing in Italy he had +earnestly offered to forgive and to forget, and no one who came to +make his peace had been rejected. Even after the first successes +he had negotiated in this spirit with Lucius Scipio; it was the +revolutionary party, which had not only broken off these negotiations, +but had subsequently, at the last moment before their downfall, +resumed the massacres afresh and more fearfully than ever, and had +in fact conspired with the inveterate foes of their country for the +destruction of the city of Rome. The cup was now full. By virtue +of his new official authority Sulla, immediately after assuming the +regency, outlawed as enemies of their country all the civil and +military officials who had taken an active part in favour of the +revolution after the convention with Scipio (which according to +Sulla's assertion was validly concluded), and such of the other +burgesses as had in any marked manner aided its cause. Whoever +killed one of these outlaws was not only exempt from punishment like +an executioner duly fulfilling his office, but also obtained for the +execution a compensation of 12,000 -denarii- (480 pounds); any one on +the contrary who befriended an outlaw, even the nearest relative, was +liable to the severest punishment. The property of the proscribed +was forfeited to the state like the spoil of an enemy; their children +and grandchildren were excluded from a political career, and yet, +so far as they were of senatorial rank, were bound to undertake their +share of senatorial burdens. The last enactments also applied to the +estates and the descendants of those who had fallen in conflict for +the revolution--penalties which went even beyond those enjoined by +the earliest law in the case of such as had borne arms against their +fatherland. The most terrible feature in this system of terror was +the indefiniteness of the proposed categories, against which there was +immediate remonstrance in the senate, and which Sulla himself sought +to remedy by directing the names of the proscribed to be publicly +posted up and fixing the 1st June 673 as the final term for closing +the lists of proscription. + +Proscription-Lists + +Much as this bloody roll, swelling from day to day and amounting +at last to 4700 names,(5) excited the just horror of the multitude, +it at any rate checked in some degree the mere caprice of the +executioners. It was not at least to the personal resentment of +the regent that the mass of these victims were sacrificed; his furious +hatred was directed solely against the Marians, the authors of the +hideous massacres of 667 and 672. By his command the tomb of the +victor of Aquae Sextiae was broken open and his ashes were scattered +in the Anio, the monuments of his victories over Africans and Germans +were overthrown, and, as death had snatched himself and his son from +Sulla's vengeance, his adopted nephew Marcus Marius Gratidianus, +who had been twice praetor and was a great favourite with the Roman +burgesses, was executed amid the most cruel tortures at the tomb +of Catulus, who most deserved to be regretted of all the Marian +victims. In other cases also death had already swept away the most +notable of his opponents: of the leaders there survived only Gaius +Norbanus, who laid hands on himself at Rhodes, while the -ecclesia- +was deliberating on his surrender; Lucius Scipio, for whom his +insignificance and probably also his noble birth procured indulgence +and permission to end his days in peace at his retreat in Massilia; +and Quintus Sertorius, who was wandering about as an exile on the +coast of Mauretania. But yet the heads of slaughtered senators were +piled up at the Servilian Basin, at the point where the -Vicus +Jugarius- opened into the Forum, where the dictator had ordered them +to be publicly exposed; and among men of the second and third rank in +particular death reaped a fearful harvest. In addition to those who +were placed on the list for their services in or on behalf of the +revolutionary army with little discrimination, sometimes on account of +money advanced to one of its officers or on account of relations of +hospitality formed with such an one, the retaliation fell specially on +those capitalists who had sat in judgment on the senators and had +speculated in Marian confiscations--the "hoarders"; about 1600 of +the equites, as they were called,(6) were inscribed on the proscription- +list. In like manner the professional accusers, the worst scourge of +the nobility, who made it their trade to bring men of the senatorial +order before the equestrian courts, had now to suffer for it--"how +comes it to pass," an advocate soon after asked, "that they have left +to us the courts, when they were putting to death the accusers and +judges?" The most savage and disgraceful passions raged without +restraint for many months throughout Italy. In the capital a Celtic +band was primarily charged with the executions, and Sullan soldiers +and subaltern officers traversed for the same purpose the different +districts of Italy; but every volunteer was also welcome, and the +rabble high and low pressed forward not only to earn the rewards +of murder, but also to gratify their own vindictive or covetous +dispositions under the mantle of political prosecution. It sometimes +happened that the assassination did not follow, but preceded, the +placing of the name on the list of the proscribed. One example shows +the way in which these executions took place. At Larinum, a town of +new burgesses and favourable to Marian views, one Statius Albius +Oppianicus, who had fled to Sulla's headquarters to avoid a charge +of murder, made his appearance after the victory as commissioner of +the regent, deposed the magistrates of the town, installed himself +and his friends in their room, and caused the person who had +threatened to accuse him, along with his nearest relatives and +friends, to be outlawed and killed. Countless persons--including +not a few decided adherents of the oligarchy--thus fell as the victims +of private hostility or of their own riches: the fearful confusion, +and the culpable indulgence which Sulla displayed in this as in every +instance towards those more closely connected with him, prevented +any punishment even of the ordinary crimes that were perpetrated +amidst the disorder. + +Confiscations + +The confiscated property was dealt with in a similar way. Sulla +from political considerations sought to induce the respectable +burgesses to take part in its purchase; a great portion of them, +moreover, voluntarily pressed forward, and none more zealously than +the young Marcus Crassus. Under the existing circumstances the +utmost depreciation was inevitable; indeed, to some extent it was the +necessary result of the Roman plan of selling the property confiscated +by the state for a round sum payable in ready money. Moreover, the +regent did not forget himself; while his wife Metella more especially +and other persons high and low closely connected with him, even +freedmen and boon-companions, were sometimes allowed to purchase without +competition, sometimes had the purchase-money wholly or partially +remitted. One of his freedmen, for instance, is said to have +purchased a property of 6,000,000 sesterces (60,000 pounds) for 2000 +(20 pounds), and one of his subalterns is said to have acquired by +such speculations an estate of 10,000,000 sesterces (100,000 pounds). +The indignation was great and just; even during Sulla's regency an +advocate asked whether the nobility had waged civil war solely for the +purpose of enriching their freedmen and slaves. But in spite of this +depreciation the whole proceeds of the confiscated estates amounted to +not less than 350,000,000 sesterces (3,500,000 pounds), which gives +an approximate idea of the enormous extent of these confiscations +falling chiefly on the wealthiest portion of the burgesses. It was +altogether a fearful punishment. There was no longer any process or +any pardon; mute terror lay like a weight of lead on the land, and +free speech was silenced in the market-place alike of the capital and +of the country-town. The oligarchic reign of terror bore doubtless a +different stamp from that of the revolution; while Marius had glutted +his personal vengeance in the blood of his enemies, Sulla seemed +to account terrorism in the abstract, if we may so speak, a thing +necessary to the introduction of the new despotism, and to prosecute +and make others prosecute the work of massacre almost with indifference. +But the reign of terror presented an appearance all the more horrible, +when it proceeded from the conservative side and was in some measure +devoid of passion; the commonwealth seemed all the more irretrievably +lost, when the frenzy and the crime on both sides were equally balanced. + +Maintenance of the Burgess-Rights Previously Conferred + +In regulating the relations of Italy and of the capital, Sulla-- +although he otherwise in general treated as null all state-acts done +during the revolution except in the transaction of current business-- +firmly adhered to the principle, which it had laid down, that every +burgess of an Italian community was by that very fact a burgess also +of Rome; the distinctions between burgesses and Italian allies, +between old burgesses with better, and new burgesses with more +restricted, rights, were abolished, and remained so. In the case +of the freedmen alone the unrestricted right of suffrage was again +withdrawn, and for them the old state of matters was restored. +To the aristocratic ultras this might seem a great concession; +Sulla perceived that it was necessary to wrest these mighty levers +out of the hands of the revolutionary chiefs, and that the rule +of the oligarchy was not materially endangered by increasing +the number of the burgesses. + +Punishments Inflicted on Particular Communities + +But with this concession in principle was combined a most rigid +inquisition, conducted by special commissioners with the co-operation +of the garrisons distributed throughout Italy, in respect to +particular communities in all districts of the land. Several towns +were rewarded; for instance Brundisium, the first community which +had joined Sulla, now obtained the exemption from customs so +important for such a seaport; more were punished. The less guilty +were required to pay fines, to pull down their walls, to raze their +citadels; in the case of those whose opposition had been most +obstinate the regent confiscated a part of their territory, in some +cases even the whole of it--as it certainly might be regarded in law as +forfeited, whether they were to be treated as burgess-communities which +had borne arms against their fatherland, or as allied states which had +waged war with Rome contrary to their treaties of perpetual peace. +In this case all the dispossessed burgesses--but these only--were +deprived of their municipal, and at the same time of the Roman, +franchise, receiving in return the lowest Latin rights.(7) Sulla +thus avoided furnishing the opposition with a nucleus in Italian +subject-communities of inferior rights; the homeless dispossessed +of necessity were soon lost in the mass of the proletariate. +In Campania not only was the democratic colony of Capua done away +and its domain given back to the state, as was naturally to be +expected, but the island of Aenaria (Ischia) was also, probably +about this time, withdrawn from the community of Neapolis. In Latium +the whole territory of the large and wealthy city of Praeneste and +presumably of Norba also was confiscated, as was likewise that of +Spoletium in Umbria. Sulmo in the Paelignian district was even +razed. But the iron arm of the regent fell with especial weight +on the two regions which had offered a serious resistance up to +the end and even after the battle at the Colline gate--Etruria and +Samnium. There a number of the most considerable communes, such +as Florentia, Faesulae, Arretium, Volaterrae, were visited with total +confiscation. Of the fate of Samnium we have already spoken; there +was no confiscation there, but the land was laid waste for ever, its +flourishing towns, even the former Latin colony of Aesernia, were left +in ruins, and the country was placed on the same footing with the +Bruttian and Lucanian regions. + +Assignations to the Soldiers + +These arrangements as to the property of the Italian soil placed +on the one hand those Roman domain-lands which had been handed +over in usufruct to the former allied communities and now on their +dissolution reverted to the Roman government, and on the other hand +the confiscated territories of the communities incurring punishment, +at the disposal of the regent; and he employed them for the purpose +of settling thereon the soldiers of the victorious army. Most of these +new settlements were directed towards Etruria, as for instance to +Faesulae and Arretium, others to Latium and Campania, where Praeneste +and Pompeii among other places became Sullan colonies. To repeople +Samnium was, as we have said, no part of the regent's design. +A great part of these assignations took place after the Gracchan +mode, so that the settlers were attached to an already-existing urban +community. The comprehensiveness of this settlement is shown by the +number of land-allotments distributed, which is stated at 120,000; +while yet some portions of land withal were otherwise applied, as +in the case of the lands bestowed on the temple of Diana at Mount +Tifata; others, such as the Volaterran domain and a part of the +Arretine, remained undistributed; others in fine, according to +the old abuse legally forbidden(8) but now reviving, were taken +possession of on the part of Sulla's favourites by the right of +occupation. The objects which Sulla aimed at in this colonization +were of a varied kind. In the first place, he thereby redeemed +the pledge given to his soldiers. Secondly, he in so doing adopted +the idea, in which the reform-party and the moderate conservatives +concurred, and in accordance with which he had himself as early +as 666 arranged the establishment of a number of colonies-- +the idea namely of augmenting the number of the small agricultural +proprietors in Italy by a breaking up of the larger possessions +on the part of the government; how seriously he had this at heart +is shown by the renewed prohibition of the throwing together of +allotments. Lastly and especially, he saw in these settled +soldiers as it were standing garrisons, who would protect his new +constitution along with their own right of property. For this +reason, where the whole territory was not confiscated, as at Pompeii, +the colonists were not amalgamated with the urban-community, but +the old burgesses and the colonists were constituted as two bodies +of burgesses associated within the same enclosing wall. In other +respects these colonial foundations were based, doubtless, like the +older ones, on a decree of the people, but only indirectly, in so +far as the regent constituted them by virtue of the clause of the +Valerian law to that effect; in reality they originated from the +ruler's plenitude of power, and so far recalled the freedom with +which the former regal authority disposed of the state-property. +But, in so far as the contrast between the soldier and the burgess, +which was in other instances done away by the very sending out of +the soldiers or colonists, was intended to remain, and did remain, +in force in the Sullan colonies even after their establishment, +and these colonists formed, as it were, the standing array of the +senate, they are not incorrectly designated, in contradistinction +to the older ones, as military colonies. + +The Cornelian Freedmen in Rome + +Akin to this practical constituting of a standing army for the senate +was the measure by which the regent selected from the slaves of the +proscribed upwards of 10,000 of the youngest and most vigorous men, +and manumitted them in a body. These new Cornelians, whose civil +existence was linked to the legal validity of the institutions of their +patron, were designed to be a sort of bodyguard for the oligarchy and +to help it to command the city populace, on which, indeed, in the +absence of a garrison everything in the capital now primarily depended. + +Abolition of the Gracchan Institutions + +These extraordinary supports on which the regent made the oligarchy +primarily to rest, weak and ephemeral as they doubtless might appear +even to their author, were yet its only possible buttresses, unless +expedients were to be resorted to--such as the formal institution +of a standing army in Rome and other similar measures--which would +have put an end to the oligarchy far sooner than the attacks of +demagogues. The permanent foundation of the ordinary governing +power of the oligarchy of course could not but be the senate, +with a power so increased and so concentrated that it presented a +superiority to its non-organized opponents at every single point +of attack. The system of compromises followed for forty years was +at an end. The Gracchan constitution, still spared in the first +Sullan reform of 666, was now utterly set aside. Since the time of +Gaius Gracchus the government had conceded, as it were, the right of +-'emeute- to the proletariate of the capital, and bought it off by +regular distributions of corn to the burgesses domiciled there; +Sulla abolished these largesses. Gaius Gracchus had organized and +consolidated the order of capitalists by the letting of the tenths +and customs of the province of Asia in Rome; Sulla abolished the +system of middlemen, and converted the former contributions of the +Asiatics into fixed taxes, which were assessed on the several +districts according to the valuation-rolls drawn up for the purpose +of gathering in the arrears.(9) Gaius Gracchus had by entrusting +the posts of jurymen to men of equestrian census procured for +the capitalist class an indirect share in administering and in +governing, which proved itself not seldom stronger than the official +adminis-tration and government; Sulla abolished the equestrian and +restored the senatorial courts. Gaius Gracchus or at any rate the +Gracchan period had conceded to the equites a special place at the +popular festivals, such as the senators had for long possessed;(10) +Sulla abolished it and relegated the equites to the plebeian benches.(11) +The equestrian order, created as such by Gaius Gracchus, was deprived +of its political existence by Sulla. The senate was to exercise +the supreme power in legislation, administration, and jurisdiction, +unconditionally, indivisibly, and permanently, and was to be +distinguished also by outward tokens not merely as a privileged, +but as the only privileged, order. + +Reorganization of the Senate +Its Complement Filled Up by Extraordinary Election +Admission to the Senate through the Quaestorship +Abolition of the Censorial Supervision of the Senate + +For this purpose the governing board had, first of all, to have its +ranks filled up and to be itself placed on a footing of independence. +The numbers of the senators had been fearfully reduced by the recent +crises. Sulla no doubt now gave to those who were exiled by the +equestrian courts liberty to return, for instance to the consular +Publius Rutilius Rufus,(12) who however made no use of the permission, +and to Gaius Cotta the friend of Drusus;(13) but this made only slight +amends for the gaps which the revolutionary and reactionary reigns +of terror had created in the ranks of the senate. Accordingly by +Sulla's directions the senate had its complement extraordinarily made +up by about 300 new senators, whom the assembly of the tribes had +to nominate from among men of equestrian census, and whom they +selected, as may be conceived, chiefly from the younger men of the +senatorial houses on the one hand, and from Sullan officers and +others brought into prominence by the last revolution on the other. +For the future also the mode of admission to the senate was +regulated anew and placed on an essentially different basis. +As the constitution had hitherto stood, men entered the senate +either through the summons of the censors, which was the proper and +ordinary way, or through the holding of one of the three curule +magistracies--the consulship, the praetorship, or the aedileship-- +to which since the passing of the Ovinian law a seat and vote in +the senate had been de jure attached.(14) The holding of an inferior +magistracy, of the tribunate or the quaestorship, gave doubtless a +claim de facto to a place in the senate--inasmuch as the censorial +selection especially turned towards the men who had held such +offices--but by no means a reversion de jure. Of these two modes +of admission, Sulla abolished the former by setting aside--at least +practically--the censorship, and altered the latter to the effect +that the right of admission to the senate was attached to the +quaestorship instead of the aedileship, and at the same time +the number of quaestors to be annually nominated was raised to +twenty.(15) The prerogative hitherto legally pertaining to the +censors, although practically no longer exercised in its original +serious sense--of deleting any senator from the roll, with a +statement of the reasons for doing so, at the revisals which +took place every five years (16)--likewise fell into abeyance for +the future; the irremoveable character which had hitherto de facto +belonged to the senators was thus finally fixed by Sulla. +The total number of senators, which hitherto had presumably not +much exceeded the old normal number of 300 and often perhaps had +not even reached it, was by these means considerably augmented, +perhaps on an average doubled(17)--an augmentation which was rendered +necessary by the great increase of the duties of the senate through +the transference to it of the functions of jurymen. As, moreover, +both the extraordinarily admitted senators and the quaestors were +nominated by the -comitia tributa-, the senate, hitherto resting +indirectly on the election of the people,(18) was now based throughout +on direct popular election; and thus made as close an approach to a +representative government as was compatible with the nature of the +oligarchy and the notions of antiquity generally. The senate had in +course of time been converted from a corporation intended merely to +advise the magistrates into a board commanding the magistrates and +self-governing; it was only a consistent advance in the same direction, +when the right of nominating and cancelling senators originally +belonging to the magistrates was withdrawn from them, and the senate +was placed on the same legal basis on which the magistrates' power +itself rested. The extravagant prerogative of the censors to revise +the list of the senate and to erase or add names at pleasure was +in reality incompatible with an organized oligarchic constitution. +As provision was now made for a sufficient regular recruiting of its +ranks by the election of the quaestors, the censorial revisions became +superfluous; and by their abeyance the essential principle at the +bottom of every oligarchy, the irremoveable character and life-tenure +of the members of the ruling order who obtained seat and vote, +was definitively consolidated. + +Regulations As to the Burgesses + +In respect to legislation Sulla contented himself with reviving the +regulations made in 666, and securing to the senate the legislative +initiative, which had long belonged to it practically, by legal +enactment at least as against the tribunes. The burgess-body +remained formally sovereign; but so far as its primary assemblies +were concerned, while it seemed to the regent necessary carefully +to preserve the form, he was still more careful to prevent any real +activity on their part. Sulla dealt even with the franchise itself +in the most contemptuous manner; he made no difficulty either in +conceding it to the new burgess-communities, or in bestowing it on +Spaniards and Celts en masse; in fact, probably not without design, +no steps were taken at all for the adjustment of the burgess-roll, +which nevertheless after so violent revolutions stood in urgent +need of a revision, if the government was still at all in earnest +with the legal privileges attaching to it. The legislative functions +of the comitia, however, were not directly restricted; there was +no need in fact for doing so, for in consequence of the better- +secured initiative of the senate the people could not readily +against the will of the government intermeddle with administration, +finance, or criminal jurisdiction, and its legislative co-operation +was once more reduced in substance to the right of giving assent to +alterations of the constitution. + +Co-optation Restored in the Priestly Colleges +Regulating of the Qualifications for Office + +Of greater moment was the participation of the burgesses in the +elections--a participation, with which they seemed not to be able to +dispense without disturbing more than Sulla's superficial restoration +could or would disturb. The interferences of the movement party in +the sacerdotal elections were set aside; not only the Domitian law +of 650, which transferred the election of the supreme priesthoods +generally to the people,(19) but also the similar older enactments +as to the -Pontifex Maximus- and the -Curio Maximus-(20) were +cancelled by Sulla, and the colleges of priests received back the +right of self-completion in its original absoluteness. In the case +of elections to the offices of state, the mode hitherto pursued was +on the whole retained; except in so far as the new regulation of +the military command to be mentioned immediately certainly involved +as its consequence a material restriction of the powers of the +burgesses, and indeed in some measure transferred the right of +bestowing the appointment of generals from the burgesses to the +senate. It does not even appear that Sulla now resumed the previously +attempted restoration of the Servian voting-arrangement;(21) whether +it was that he regarded the particular composition of the voting- +divisions as altogether a matter of indifference, or whether it was +that this older arrangement seemed to him to augment the dangerous +influence of the capitalists. Only the qualifications were restored +and partially raised. The limit of age requisite for the holding +of each office was enforced afresh; as was also the enactment that +every candidate for the consulship should have previously held the +praetorship, and every candidate for the praetorship should have +previously held the quaestorship, whereas the aedileship was +allowed to be passed over. The various attempts that had been +recently made to establish a -tyrannis- under the form of a +consulship continued for several successive years led to special +rigour in dealing with this abuse; and it was enacted that at +least two years should elapse between the holding of one magistracy +and the holding of another, and at least ten years should elapse +before the same office could be held a second time. In this +latter enactment the earlier ordinance of 412 (22) was revived, +instead of the absolute prohibition of all re-election to the +consulship, which had been the favourite idea of the most recent +ultra-oligarchical epoch.(23) On the whole, however, Sulla left +the elections to take their course, and sought merely to fetter the +power of the magistrates in such a way that--let the incalculable +caprice of the comitia call to office whomsoever it might--the person +elected should not be in a position to rebel against the oligarchy. + +Weakening of the Tribunate of the People + +The supreme magistrates of the state were at this period practically +the three colleges of the tribunes of the people, the consuls and +praetors, and the censors. They all emerged from the Sullan +restoration with materially diminished rights, more especially +the tribunician office, which appeared to the regent an instrument +indispensable doubtless for senatorial government, but yet-- +as generated by revolution and having a constant tendency to +generate fresh revolutions in its turn--requiring to be rigorously +and permanently shackled. The tribunician authority had arisen out +of the right to annul the official acts of the magistrates by veto, +and, eventually, to fine any one who should oppose that right and to +take steps for his farther punishment; this was still left to the +tribunes, excepting that a heavy fine, destroying as a rule a man's +civil existence, was imposed on the abuse of the right of intercession. +The further prerogative of the tribune to have dealings with the +people at pleasure, partly for the purpose of bringing up accusations +and especially of calling former magistrates to account at the bar +of the people, partly for the purpose of submitting laws to the vote, +had been the lever by which the Gracchi, Saturninus, and Sulpicius +had revolutionized the state; it was not abolished, but its exercise +was probably made dependent on a permission to be previously requested +from the senate.(24) Lastly it was added that the holding of +the tribunate should in future disqualify for the undertaking of +a higher office--an enactment which, like many other points in Sulla's +restoration, once more reverted to the old patrician maxims, and, +just as in the times before the admission of the plebeians to +the civil magistracies, declared the tribunate and the curule +offices to be mutually incompatible. In this way the legislator +of the oligarchy hoped to check tribunician demagogism and to keep +all ambitious and aspiring men aloof from the tribunate, but to +retain it as an instrument of the senate both for mediating +between it and the burgesses, and, should circumstances require, +for keeping in check the magistrates; and, as the authority of the +king and afterwards of the republican magistrates over the burgesses +scarcely anywhere comes to light so clearly as in the principle +that they exclusively had the right of addressing the people, +so the supremacy of the senate, now first legally established, +is most distinctly apparent in this permission which the leader +of the people had to ask from the senate for every transaction +with his constituents. + +Limitation of the Supreme Magistracy +Regulation of the Consular and Praetorian Functions before-- +The Time of Sulla + +The consulship and praetorship also, although viewed by the +aristocratic regenerator of Rome with a more favourable eye than +the tribunate liable in itself to be regarded with suspicion, by +no means escaped that distrust towards its own instruments which is +throughout characteristic of oligarchy. They were restricted with +more tenderness in point of form, but in a way very sensibly felt. +Sulla here began with the partition of functions. At the beginning +of this period the arrangement in that respect stood as follows. +As formerly there had devolved on the two consuls the collective +functions of the supreme magistracy, so there still devolved on them +all those official duties for which distinct functionaries had not +been by law established. This latter course had been adopted with +the administration of justice in the capital, in which the consuls, +according to a rule inviolably adhered to, might not interfere, and +with the transmarine provinces then existing--Sicily, Sardinia, and +the two Spains--in which, while the consul might no doubt exercise +his -imperium-, he did so only exceptionally. In the ordinary course +of things, accordingly, the six fields of special jurisdiction-- +the two judicial appointments in the capital and the four transmarine +provinces--were apportioned among the six praetors, while there devolved +on the two consuls, by virtue of their general powers, the management +of the non-judicial business of the capital and the military command +in the continental possessions. Now as this field of general powers +was thus doubly occupied, the one consul in reality remained at the +disposal of the government; and in ordinary times accordingly those +eight supreme annual magistrates fully, and in fact amply, sufficed. +For extraordinary cases moreover power was reserved on the one +hand to conjoin the non-military functions, and on the other hand +to prolong the military powers beyond the term of their expiry +(-prorogare-). It was not unusual to commit the two judicial offices +to the same praetor, and to have the business of the capital, which +in ordinary circumstances had to be transacted by the consuls, +managed by the -praetor urbanus-; whereas, as far as possible, the +combination of several commands in the same hand was judiciously +avoided. For this case in reality a remedy was provided by the +rule that there was no interregnum in the military -imperium-, so +that, although it had its legal term, it yet continued after the +arrival of that term de jure, until the successor appeared and +relieved his predecessor of the command; or--which is the same thing-- +the commanding consul or praetor after the expiry of his term of +office, if a successor did not appear, might continue to act, and was +bound to do so, in the consul's or praetor's stead. The influence +of the senate on this apportionment of functions consisted in its +having by use and wont the power of either giving effect to the +ordinary rule--so that the six praetors allotted among themselves +the six special departments and the consuls managed the continental +non-judicial business--or prescribing some deviation from it; it +might assign to the consul a transmarine command of especial importance +at the moment, or include an extraordinary military or judicial +commission--such as the command of the fleet or an important criminal +inquiry--among the departments to be distributed, and might arrange +the further cumulations and extensions of term thereby rendered +necessary. In this case, however, it was simply the demarcation of +the respective consular and praetorian functions on each occasion +which belonged to the senate, not the designation of the persons to +assume the particular office; the latter uniformly took place by +agreement among the magistrates concerned or by lot. The burgesses +in the earlier period were doubtless resorted to for the purpose +of legitimising by special decree of the community the practical +prolongation of command that was involved in the non-arrival of +relief;(25) but this was required rather by the spirit than by the +letter of the constitution, and soon the burgesses ceased from +intervention in the matter. In the course of the seventh century +there were gradually added to the six special departments already +existing six others, viz. the five new governorships of Macedonia, +Africa, Asia, Narbo, and Cilicia, and the presidency of the standing +commission respecting exactions.(26) With the daily extending sphere +of action of the Roman government, moreover, it was a case of more +and more frequent occurrence, that the supreme magistrates were +called to undertake extraordinary military or judicial commissions. +Nevertheless the number of the ordinary supreme annual magistrates +was not enlarged; and there thus devolved on eight magistrates to +be annually nominated--apart from all else--at least twelve special +departments to be annually occupied. Of course it was no mere +accident, that this deficiency was not covered once for all by +the creation of new praetorships. According to the letter of +the constitution all the supreme magistrates were to be nominated +annually by the burgesses; according to the new order or rather +disorder--under which the vacancies that arose were filled up mainly +by prolonging the term of office, and a second year was as a rule +added by the senate to the magistrates legally serving for one year, +but might also at discretion be refused--the most important and +most lucrative places in the state were filled up no longer by the +burgesses, but by the senate out of a list of competitors formed by +the burgess-elections. Since among these positions the transmarine +commands were especially sought after as being the most lucrative, +it was usual to entrust a transmarine command on the expiry of +their official year to those magistrates whom their office confined +either in law or at any rate in fact to the capital, that is, to the +two praetors administering justice in the city and frequently also +to the consuls; a course which was compatible with the nature of +prorogation, since the official authority of supreme magistrates +acting in Rome and in the provinces respectively, although differently +entered on, was not in strict state-law different in kind. + +Regulation of Their Functions by Sulla +Separation of the Political and Military Authority +Cisalpine Gaul Erected into a Province + +Such was the state of things which Sulla found existing, and which +formed the basis of his new arrangement. Its main principles were, +a complete separation between the political authority which governed +in the burgess-districts and the military authority which governed in +the non-burgess-districts, and an uniform extension of the duration of +the supreme magistracy from one year to two, the first of which was +devoted to civil, and the second to military affairs. Locally the +civil and the military authority had certainly been long separated +by the constitution, and the former ended at the -pomerium-, where +the latter began; but still the same man held the supreme political +and the supreme military power united in his hand. In future the +consul and praetor were to deal with the senate and burgesses, the +proconsul and propraetor were to command the army; but all military +power was cut off by law from the former, and all political action +from the latter. This primarily led to the political separation of +the region of Northern Italy from Italy proper. Hitherto they had +stood doubtless in a national antagonism, inasmuch as Northern Italy +was inhabited chiefly by Ligurians and Celts, Central and Southern +Italy by Italians; but, in a political and administrative point of +view, the whole continental territory of the Roman state from the +Straits to the Alps including the Illyrian possessions--burgess, +Latin, and non-Italian communities without exception--was in the +ordinary course of things under the administration of the supreme +magistrates who were acting in Rome, as in fact her colonial +foundations extended through all this territory. According to Sulla's +arrangement Italy proper, the northern boundary of which was at the +same time changed from the Aesis to the Rubico, was--as a region now +inhabited without exception by Roman citizens--made subject to the +ordinary Roman authorities; and it became one of the fundamental +principles of Roman state-law, that no troops and no commandant +should ordinarily be stationed in this district. The Celtic +country south of the Alps on the other hand, in which a military +command could not be dispensed with on account of the continued +incursions of the Alpine tribes, was constituted a distinct +governorship after the model of the older transmarine commands.(27) + +Lastly, as the number of praetors to be nominated yearly was raised +from six to eight, the new arrangement of the duties was such, that +the ten chief magistrates to be nominated yearly devoted themselves, +during their first year of office, as consuls or praetors to +the business of the capital--the two consuls to government and +administration, two of the praetors to the administration of civil +law, the remaining six to the reorganized administration of criminal +justice--and, during their second year of office, were as proconsuls +or propraetors invested with the command in one of the ten +governorships: Sicily, Sardinia, the two Spains, Macedonia, Asia, +Africa, Narbo, Cilicia, and Italian Gaul. The already-mentioned +augmentation of the number of quaestors by Sulla to twenty was +likewise connected with this arrangement.(28) + +Better Arrangement of Business +Increase of the Power of the Senate + +By this plan, in the first instance, a clear and fixed rule was +substituted for the irregular mode of distributing offices hitherto +adopted, a mode which invited all manner of vile manoeuvres and +intrigues; and, secondly, the excesses of magisterial authority were +as far as possible obviated and the influence of the supreme governing +board was materially increased. According to the previous +arrangement the only legal distinction in the empire was that drawn +between the city which was surrounded by the ring-wall, and the +country beyond the -pomerium-; the new arrangement substituted for +the city the new Italy henceforth, as in perpetual peace, withdrawn +from the regular -imperium-,(29) and placed in contrast to it the +continental and transmarine territories, which were, on the other hand, +necessarily placed under military commandants--the provinces as they +were henceforth called. According to the former arrangement the +same man had very frequently remained two, and often more years in +the same office. The new arrangement restricted the magistracies +of the capital as well as the governorships throughout to one year; +and the special enactment that every governor should without fail +leave his province within thirty days after his successor's arrival +there, shows very clearly--particularly if we take along with it the +formerly-mentioned prohibition of the immediate re-election of the +late magistrate to the same or another public office--what the +tendency of these arrangements was. It was the time-honoured maxim +by which the senate had at one time made the monarchy subject to +it, that the limitation of the magistracy in point of function +was favourable to democracy, and its limitation in point of time +favourable to oligarchy. According to the previous arrangement +Gaius Marius had acted at once as head of the senate and as +commander-in-chief of the state; if he had his own unskilfulness +alone to blame for his failure to overthrow the oligarchy by means +of this double official power, care seemed now taken to prevent +some possibly wiser successor from making a better use of the +same lever. According to the previous arrangement the magistrate +immediately nominated by the people might have had a military +position; the Sullan arrangement, on the other hand, reserved +such a position exclusively for those magistrates whom the senate +confirmed in their official authority by prolonging their term +of office. No doubt this prolongation of office had now become +a standing usage; but it still--so far as respects the auspices +and the name, and constitutional form in general--continued to be +treated as an extraordinary extension of their term. This was no +matter of indifference. The burgesses alone could depose the consul +or praetor from his office; the proconsul and propraetor were +nominated and dismissed by the senate, so that by this enactment +the whole military power, on which withal everything ultimately +depended, became formally at least dependent on the senate. + +Shelving of the Censorship + +Lastly we have already observed that the highest of all magistracies, +the censorship, though not formally abolished, was shelved in the +same way as the dictatorship had previously been. Practically it +might certainly be dispensed with. Provision was otherwise made +for filling up the senate. From the time that Italy was practically +tax-free and the army was substantially formed by enlistment, the +register of those liable to taxation and service lost in the main +its significance; and, if disorder prevailed in the equestrian roll +or the list of those entitled to the suffrage, that disorder was +probably not altogether unwelcome. There thus remained only the current +financial functions which the consuls had hitherto discharged when, +as frequently happened, no election of censors had taken place, and +which they now took as a part of their ordinary official duties. +Compared with the substantial gain that by the shelving of the +censorship the magistracy lost its crowning dignity, it was a matter +of little moment and was not at all prejudicial to the sole dominion +of the supreme governing corporation, that--with a view to satisfy +the ambition of the senators now so much more numerous--the number +of the pontifices and that of the augurs was increased from +nine,(30) that of the custodiers of oracles from ten,(31) to fifteen +each, and that of the banquet-masters from three(32) to seven. + +Regulation of the Finances + +In financial matters even under the former constitution the decisive +voice lay with the senate; the only point to be dealt with, accordingly, +was the re-establishment of an orderly administration. Sulla had found +himself at first in no small difficulty as to money; the sums brought +with him from Asia Minor were soon expended for the pay of his numerous +and constantly swelling army. Even after thevictory at the Colline gate +the senate, seeing that the state-chest had been carried off to Praeneste, +had been obliged to resort to urgent measures. Various building-sites +in the capital and several portions of the Campanian domains were exposed +to sale, the client kings, the freed and allied communities, were laid +under extraordinary contribution, their landed property and their +customs-revenues were in some cases confiscated, and in others new +privileges were granted to them for money. But the residue of nearly +600,000 pounds found in the public chest on the surrender of Praeneste, +the public auctions which soon began, and other extraordinary resources, +relieved the embarrassment of the moment. Provision was made for +the future not so much by the reform in the Asiatic revenues, under +which the tax-payers were the principal gainers, and the state chest +was perhaps at most no loser, as by the resumption of the Campanian +domains, to which Aenaria was now added,(33) and above all by the +abolition of the largesses of grain, which since the time of Gaius +Gracchus had eaten like a canker into the Roman finances. + +Reorganization of the Judicial System. +Previous Arrangements +Ordinary Procedure +Permanent and Special -Quaestiones- +Centumviral Court + +The judicial system on the other hand was essentially revolutionized, +partly from political considerations, partly with a view to +introduce greater unity and usefulness into the previous very +insufficient and unconnected legislation on the subject. According +to the arrangements hitherto subsisting, processes fell to be decided +partly by the burgesses, partly by jurymen. The judicial cases in +which the whole burgesses decided on appeal from the judgment of +the magistrate were, down to the time of Sulla, placed in the +hands primarily of the tribunes of the people, secondarily of the +aediles, inasmuch as all the processes, through which a person +entrusted with an office or commission by the community was brought +to answer for his conduct of its affairs, whether they involved +life and limb or money-fines, had to be in the first instance dealt +with by the tribunes of the people, and all the other processes in +which ultimately the people decided, were in the first instance +adjudicated on, in the second presided over, by the curule or plebeian +aediles. Sulla, if he did not directly abolish the tribunician +process of calling to account, yet made it dependent, just like +the initiative of the tribunes in legislation, on the previous +consent of the senate, and presumably also limited in like manner +the aedilician penal procedure. On the other hand he enlarged the +jurisdiction of the jury courts. There existed at that time two +sorts of procedure before jurymen. The ordinary procedure, which +was applicable in all cases adapted according to our view for a +criminal or civil process with the exception of crimes immediately +directed against the state, consisted in this, that one of the two +praetors of the capital technically adjusted the cause and a juryman +(-iudex-) nominated by him decided it on the basis of this adjustment. +The extraordinary jury-procedure again was applicable in particular +civil or criminal cases of importance, for which, instead of +the single juryman, a special jury-court had been appointed by +special laws. Of this sort were the special tribunals constituted +for individual cases;(34) the standing commissional tribunals, such +as had been appointed for exactions,(35) for poisoning and murder,(36) +perhaps also for bribery at elections and other crimes, in the course +of the seventh century; and lastly, the two courts of the "Ten-men" +for processes affecting freedom, and the "Hundred and five," or more +briefly, the "Hundred-men," for processes affecting inheritance, +also called, from the shaft of a spear employed in all disputes +as to property, the "spear-court" (-hasta-). The court of Ten-men +(-decemviri litibus iudicandis-) was a very ancient institution for +the protection of the plebeians against their masters.(37) The period +and circumstances in which the spear-court originated are involved in +obscurity; but they must, it may be presumed, have been nearly the +same as in the case of the essentially similar criminal commissions +mentioned above. As to the presidency of these different tribunals +there were different regulations in the respective ordinances +appointing them: thus there presided over the tribunal as to +exactions a praetor, over the court for murder a president specially +nominated from those who had been aediles, over the spear-court several +directors taken from the former quaestors. The jurymen at least for +the ordinary as for the extraordinary procedure were, in accordance +with the Gracchan arrangement, taken from the non-senatorial men +of equestrian census; the selection belonged in general to the +magistrates who had the conducting of the courts, yet on such a +footing that they, in entering upon their office, had to set +forth once for all the list of jurymen, and then the jury for an +individual case was formed from these, not by free choice of the +magistrate, but by drawing lots, and by rejection on behalf of the +parties. From the choice of the people there came only the "Ten-men" +for procedure affecting freedom. + +Sullan -Quaestiones- + +Sulla's leading reforms were of a threefold character. First, he +very considerably increased the number of the jury-courts. There +were henceforth separate judicial commissions for exactions; for +murder, including arson and perjury; for bribery at elections; for +high treason and any dishonour done to the Roman name; for the most +heinous cases of fraud--the forging of wills and of money; for +adultery; for the most heinous violations of honour, particularly +for injuries to the person and disturbance of the domestic peace; +perhaps also for embezzlement of public moneys, for usury and other +crimes; and at least the greater number of these courts were either +found in existence or called into life by Sulla, and were provided +by him with special ordinances setting forth the crime and form of +criminal procedure. The government, moreover, was not deprived of +the right to appoint in case of emergency special courts for +particular groups of crimes. As a result of these arrangements, +the popular tribunals were in substance done away with, processes +of high treason in particular were consigned to the new high treason +commission, and the ordinary jury procedure was considerably +restricted, for the more serious falsifications and injuries were +withdrawn from it. Secondly, as respects the presidency of the courts, +six praetors, as we have already mentioned, were now available for +the superintendence of the different jury-courts, and to these were +added a number of other directors in the care of the commission +which was most frequently called into action--that for dealing with +murder. Thirdly, the senators were once more installed in the +office of jurymen in room of the Gracchan equites. + +The political aim of these enactments--to put an end to the share +which the equites had hitherto had in the government--is clear as +day; but it as little admits of doubt, that these were not mere +measures of a political tendency, but that they formed the first +attempt to amend the Roman criminal procedure and criminal law, which +had since the struggle between the orders fallen more and more into +confusion. From this Sullan legislation dates the distinction-- +substantially unknown to the earlier law--between civil and criminal +causes, in the sense which we now attach to these expressions; +henceforth a criminal cause appears as that which comes before the +bench of jurymen under the presidency of the praetor, a civil cause +as the procedure, in which the juryman or jurymen do not discharge +their duties under praetorian presidency. The whole body of the +Sullan ordinances as to the -quaestiones- may be characterized +at once as the first Roman code after the Twelve Tables, and as +the first criminal code ever specially issued at all. But in +the details also there appears a laudable and liberal spirit. +Singular as it may sound regarding the author of the proscriptions, +it remains nevertheless true that he abolished the punishment +of death for political offences; for, as according to the Roman +custom which even Sulla retained unchanged the people only, and +not the jury-commission, could sentence to forfeiture of life or +to imprisonment,(38) the transference of processes of high treason +from the burgesses to a standing commission amounted to the abolition +of capital punishment for such offences. On the other hand, the +restriction of the pernicious special commissions for particular cases +of high treason, of which the Varian commission(39) in the Social war +had been a specimen, likewise involved an improvement. The whole +reform was of singular and lasting benefit, and a permanent monument +of the practical, moderate, statesmanly spirit, which made its author +well worthy, like the old decemvirs, to step forward between the +parties as sovereign mediator with his code of law. + +Police Laws + +We may regard as an appendix to these criminal laws the police +ordinances, by which Sulla, putting the law in place of the censor, +again enforced good discipline and strict manners, and, by +establishing new maximum rates instead of the old ones which +had long been antiquated, attempted to restrain luxury at banquets, +funerals, and otherwise. + +The Roman Municipal System + +Lastly, the development of an independent Roman municipal system +was the work, if not of Sulla, at any rate of the Sullan epoch. +The idea of organically incorporating the community as a subordinate +political unit in the higher unity of the state was originally +foreign to antiquity; the despotism of the east knew nothing of urban +commonwealths in the strict sense of the word, and city and state +were throughout the Helleno-Italic world necessarily coincident. +In so far there was no proper municipal system from the outset either +in Greece or in Italy. The Roman polity especially adhered to this +view with its peculiar tenacious consistency; even in the sixth +century the dependent communities of Italy were either, in order to +their keeping their municipal constitution, constituted as formally +sovereign states of non-burgesses, or, if they obtained the Roman +franchise, were--although not prevented from organizing themselves +as collective bodies--deprived of properly municipal rights, so that +in all burgess-colonies and burgess--municipia- even the administration +of justice and the charge of buildings devolved on the Roman praetors +and censors. The utmost to which Rome consented was to allow at +least the most urgent lawsuits to be settled on the spot by a +deputy (-praefectus-) of the praetor nominated from Rome.(40) +The provinces were similarly dealt with, except that the governor +there came in place of the authorities of the capital. In the free, +that is, formally sovereign towns the civil and criminal jurisdiction +was administered by the municipal magistrates according to the local +statutes; only, unless altogether special privileges stood in the +way, every Roman might either as defendant or as plaintiff request +to have his cause decided before Italian judges according to Italian +law For the ordinary provincial communities the Roman governor was +the only regular judicial authority, on whom devolved the direction +of all processes. It was a great matter when, as in Sicily, in the +event of the defendant being a Sicilian, the governor was bound by the +provincial statute to give a native juryman and to allow him to decide +according to local usage; in most of the provinces this seems to +have depended on the pleasure of the directing magistrate. + +In the seventh century this absolute centralization of the public +life of the Roman community in the one focus of Rome was given up, +so far as Italy at least was concerned. Now that Italy was a +single civic community and the civic territory reached from the Arnus +and Rubico down to the Sicilian Straits,(41) it was necessary to +consent to the formation of smaller civic communities within that +larger unit. So Italy was organized into communities of full +burgesses; on which occasion also the larger cantons that were +dangerous from their size were probably broken up, so far as this +had not been done already, into several smaller town-districts.(42) +The position of these new communities of full burgesses was a compromise +between that which had belonged to them hitherto as allied states, +and that which by the earlier law would have belonged to them as +integral parts of the Roman community. Their basis was in general +the constitution of the former formally sovereign Latin community, or, +so far as their constitution in its principles resembled the Roman, +that of the Roman old-patrician-consular community; only care was +taken to apply to the same institutions in the -municipium- names +different from, and inferior to, those used in the capital, or, +in other words, in the state. A burgess-assembly was placed at +the head, with the prerogative of issuing municipal statutes and +nominating the municipal magistrates. A municipal council of a +hundred members acted the part of the Roman senate. The administration +of justice was conducted by four magistrates, two regular judges +corresponding to the two consuls, and two market-judges corresponding +to the curule aediles. The functions of the censorship, which +recurred, as in Rome, every five years and, to all appearance, +consisted chiefly in the superintendence of public buildings, were also +undertaken by the supreme magistrates of the community, namely the +ordinary -duumviri-, who in this case assumed the distinctive title +of -duumviri- "with censorial or quinquennial power." The municipal +funds were managed by two quaestors. Religious functions primarily +devolved on the two colleges of men of priestly lore alone known to +the earliest Latin constitution, the municipal pontifices and augurs. + +Relation of the -Municipium- to the State + +With reference to the relation of this secondary political organism +to the primary organism of the state, political prerogatives in +general belonged completely to the former as well as to the latter, +and consequently the municipal decree and the -imperium- of the +municipal magistrates bound the municipal burgess just as the +decree of the people and the consular -imperium- bound the Roman. +This led, on the whole, to a co-ordinate exercise of power by the +authorities of the state and of the town; both had, for instance, +the right of valuation and taxation, so that in the case of any +municipal valuations and taxes those prescribed by Rome were not +taken into account, and vice versa; public buildings might be +instituted both by the Roman magistrates throughout Italy and by +the municipal authorities in their own district, and so in other +cases. In the event of collision, of course the community yielded +to the state and the decree of the people invalidated the municipal +decree. A formal division of functions probably took place only in +the administration of justice, where the system of pure co-ordination +would have led to the greatest confusion. In criminal procedure +presumably all capital causes, and in civil procedure those more +difficult cases which presumed an independent action on the part +of the directing magistrate, were reserved for the authorities and +jurymen of the capital, and the Italian municipal courts were +restricted to the minor and less complicated lawsuits, or to those +which were very urgent. + +Rise of the -Municipium- + +The origin of this Italian municipal system has not been recorded +by tradition. It is probable that its germs may be traced to +exceptional regulations for the great burgess-colonies, which were +founded at the end of the sixth century;(43) at least several, in +themselves indifferent, formal differences between burgess-colonies +and burgess--municipia- tend to show that the new burgess-colony, +which at that time practically took the place of the Latin, had +originally a better position in state-law than the far older burgess- +-municipium-, and the advantage doubtless can only have consisted in a +municipal constitution approximating to the Latin, such as afterwards +belonged to all burgess-colonies and burgess--municipia-. The new +organization is first distinctly demonstrable for the revolutionary +colony of Capua;(44) and it admits of no doubt that it was first +fully applied, when all the hitherto sovereign towns of Italy had +to be organized, in consequence of the Social war, as burgess- +communities. Whether it was the Julian law, or the censors of 668, +or Sulla, that first arranged the details, cannot be determined: +the entrusting of the censorial functions to the -duumviri- seems +indeed to have been introduced after the analogy of the Sullan +ordinance superseding the censorship, but may be equally well +referred to the oldest Latin constitution to which also the +censorship was unknown. In any case this municipal constitution-- +inserted in, and subordinate to, the state proper--is one of the +most remarkable and momentous products of the Sullan period, and +of the life of the Roman state generally. Antiquity was certainly +as little able to dovetail the city into the state as to develop +of itself representative government and other great principles of +our modern state-life; but it carried its political development +up to those limits at which it outgrows and bursts its assigned +dimensions, and this was the case especially with Rome, which in +every respect stands on the line of separation and connection between +the old and the new intellectual worlds. In the Sullan constitution +the primary assembly and the urban character of the commonwealth +of Rome, on the one hand, vanished almost into a meaningless form; +the community subsisting within the state on the other hand was +already completely developed in the Italian -municipium-. Down +to the name, which in such cases no doubt is the half of the matter, +this last constitution of the free republic carried out the +representative system and the idea of the state built upon the +basis of the municipalities. + +The municipal system in the provinces was not altered by this +movement; the municipal authorities of the non-free towns continued-- +special exceptions apart--to be confined to administration and +police, and to such jurisdiction as the Roman authorities did +not prefer to take into their own hands. + +Impression Produced by the Sullan Reorganization +Opposition of the Officers + +Such was the constitution which Lucius Cornelius Sulla gave to +the commonwealth of Rome. The senate and equestrian order, the +burgesses and proletariate, Italians and provincials, accepted it +as it was dictated to them by the regent, if not without grumbling, +at any rate without rebelling: not so the Sullan officers. The Roman +army had totally changed its character. It had certainly been +rendered by the Marian reform more ready for action and more +militarily useful than when it did not fight before the walls of +Numantia; but it had at the same time been converted from a burgess- +force into a set of mercenaries who showed no fidelity to the state +at all, and proved faithful to the officer only if he had the skill +personally to gain their attachment. The civil war had given fearful +evidence of this total revolution in the spirit of the army: six +generals in command, Albinus,(45) Cato,(46) Rufus,(47) Flaccus,(48) +Cinna,(49) and Gaius Carbo,(50) had fallen during its course by the +hands of their soldiers: Sulla alone had hitherto been able to +retain the mastery of the dangerous crew, and that only, in fact, +by giving the rein to all their wild desires as no Roman general +before him had ever done. If the blame of destroying the old +military discipline is on this account attached to him, the +censure is not exactly without ground, but yet without justice; +he was indeed the first Roman magistrate who was only enabled to +discharge his military and political task by coming forward as a +-condottiere-. He had not however taken the military dictatorship +for the purpose of making the state subject to the soldiery, but +rather for the purpose of compelling everything in the state, and +especially the army and the officers, to submit once more to the +authority of civil order. When this became evident, an opposition +arose against him among his own staff. The oligarchy might play +the tyrant as respected other citizens; but that the generals also, +who with their good swords had replaced the overthrown senators in +their seats, should now be summoned to yield implicit obedience to +this very senate, seemed intolerable. The very two officers in +whom Sulla had placed most confidence resisted the new order of +things. When Gnaeus Pompeius, whom Sulla had entrusted with the +conquest of Sicily and Africa and had selected for his son-in-law, +after accomplishing his task received orders from the senate to +dismiss his army, he omitted to comply and fell little short +of open insurrection. + +Quintus Ofella, to whose firm perseverance in front of Praeneste +the success of the last and most severe campaign was essentially +due in equally open violation of the newly issued ordinances became +a candidate for the consulship without having held the inferior +magistracies. With Pompeius there was effected, if not a cordial +reconciliation, at any rate a compromise. Sulla, who knew his man +sufficiently not to fear him, did not resent the impertinent remark +which Pompeius uttered to his face, that more people concerned +themselves with the rising than with the setting sun; and accorded +to the vain youth the empty marks of honour to which his heart +clung.(51) If in this instance he appeared lenient, he showed on +the other hand in the case of Ofella that he was not disposed to +allow his marshals to take advantage of him; as soon as the latter +had appeared unconstitutionally as candidate, Sulla had him cut down +in the public market-place, and then explained to the assembled citizens +that the deed was done by his orders and the reason for doing it. +So this significant opposition of the staff to the new order of things +was no doubt silenced for the present; but it continued to subsist +and furnished the practical commentary on Sulla's saying, that what +he did on this occasion could not be done a second time. + +Re-establishment of Constitutional Order + +One thing still remained--perhaps the most difficult of all: +to bring the exceptional state of things into accordance with +the paths prescribed by the new or old laws. It was facilitated +by the circumstance, that Sulla never lost sight of this as his +ultimate aim. Although the Valerian law gave him absolute power +and gave to each of his ordinances the force of law, he had nevertheless +availed himself of this extraordinary prerogative only in the case of +measures, which were of transient importance, and to take part in +which would simply have uselessly compromised the senate and burgesses, +especially in the case of the proscriptions. + +Sulla Resigns the Regency + +Ordinarily he had himself observed those regulations, which he +prescribed for the future. That the people were consulted, we read +in the law as to the quaestors which is still in part extant; and the +same is attested of other laws, e. g. the sumptuary law and those +regarding the confiscation of domains. In like manner the senate +was previously consulted in the more important administrative acts, +such as in the sending forth and recall of the African army and in +the conferring of the charters of towns. In the same spirit Sulla +caused consuls to be elected even for 673, through which at least +the odious custom of dating officially by the regency was avoided; +nevertheless the power still lay exclusively with the regent, and +the election was directed so as to fall on secondary personages. +But in the following year (674) Sulla revived the ordinary constitution +in full efficiency, and administered the state as consul in concert +with his comrade in arms Quintus Metellus, retaining the regency, but +allowing it for the time to lie dormant. He saw well how dangerous +it was for his own very institutions to perpetuate the military +dictatorship. When the new state of things seemed likely to hold +its ground and the largest and most important portion of the +new arrangements had been completed, although various matters, +particularly in colonization, still remained to be done, he allowed +the elections for 675 to have free course, declined re-election to +the consulship as incompatible with his own ordinances, and at the +beginning of 675 resigned the regency, soon after the new consuls +Publius Servilius and Appius Claudius had entered on office. Even +callous hearts were impressed, when the man who had hitherto dealt +at his pleasure with the life and property of millions, at whose nod +so many heads had fallen, who had mortal enemies dwelling in every +street of Rome and in every town of Italy, and who without an ally +of equal standing and even, strictly speaking, without the support +of a fixed party had brought to an end his work of reorganizing +the state, a work offending a thousand interests and opinions--when +this man appeared in the market-place of the capital, voluntarily +renounced his plenitude of power, discharged his armed attendants, +dismissed his lictors, and summoned the dense throng of burgesses to +speak, if any one desired from him a reckoning. All were silent: Sulla +descended from the rostra, and on foot, attended only by his friends, +returned to his dwelling through the midst of that very populace which +eight years before had razed his house to the ground. + +Character of Sulla + +Posterity has not justly appreciated either Sulla himself or his work +of reorganization, as indeed it is wont to judge unfairly of persons +who oppose themselves to the current of the times. In fact Sulla +is one of the most marvellous characters--we may even say a unique +phenomenon--in history. Physically and mentally of sanguine +temperament, blue-eyed, fair, of a complexion singularly white but +blushing with every passionate emotion--though otherwise a handsome +man with piercing eyes--he seemed hardly destined to be of more +moment to the state than his ancestors, who since the days of his +great-great-grandfather Publius Cornelius Rufinus (consul in 464, 477), +one of the most distinguished generals and at the same time the +most ostentatious man of the times of Pyrrhus, had remained in second- +rate positions. He desired from life nothing but serene enjoyment. +Reared in the refinement of such cultivated luxury as was at that +time naturalized even in the less wealthy senatorial families of +Rome, he speedily and adroitly possessed himself of all the fulness of +sensuous and intellectual enjoyments which the combination of Hellenic +polish and Roman wealth could secure. He was equally welcome as a +pleasant companion in the aristocratic saloon and as a good comrade +in the tented field; his acquaintances, high and low, found in him a +sympathizing friend and a ready helper in time of need, who gave his +gold with far more pleasure to his embarrassed comrade than to his +wealthy creditor. Passionate was his homage to the wine-cup, still +more passionate to women; even in his later years he was no longer +the regent, when after the business of the day was finished he +took his place at table. A vein of irony--we might perhaps say +of buffoonery--pervaded his whole nature. Even when regent he gave +orders, while conducting the public sale of the property of the +proscribed, that a donation from the spoil should be given to the +author of a wretched panegyric which was handed to him, on condition +that the writer should promise never to sing his praises again. +When he justified before the burgesses the execution of Ofella, +he did so by relating to the people the fable of the countryman and +the lice. He delighted to choose his companions among actors, and +was fond of sitting at wine not only with Quintus Roscius--the Roman +Talma--but also with far inferior players; indeed he was himself not +a bad singer, and even wrote farces for performance within his own +circle. Yet amidst these jovial Bacchanalia he lost neither bodily +nor mental vigour, in the rural leisure of his last years he was +still zealously devoted to the chase, and the circumstance that he +brought the writings of Aristotle from conquered Athens to Rome +attests withal his interest in more serious reading. The specific +type of Roman character rather repelled him. Sulla had nothing +of the blunt hauteur which the grandees of Rome were fond of +displaying in presence of the Greeks, or of the pomposity of +narrow-minded great men; on the contrary he freely indulged his +humour, appeared, to the scandal doubtless of many of his countrymen, +in Greek towns in the Greek dress, or induced his aristocratic +companions to drive their chariots personally at the games. +He retained still less of those half-patriotic, half-selfish hopes, +which in countries of free constitution allure every youth of talent +into the political arena, and which he too like all others probably +at one time felt. In such a life as his was, oscillating between +passionate intoxication and more than sober awaking, illusions are +speedily dissipated. Wishing and striving probably appeared to him +folly in a world which withal was absolutely governed by chance, and +in which, if men were to strive after anything at all, this chance +could be the only aim of their efforts. He followed the general +tendency of the age in addicting himself at once to unbelief and +to superstition. His whimsical credulity was not the plebeian +superstition of Marius, who got a priest to prophesy to him for money +and determined his actions accordingly; still less was it the sullen +belief of the fanatic in destiny; it was that faith in the absurd, +which necessarily makes its appearance in every man who has out and +out ceased to believe in a connected order of things--the superstition +of the fortunate player, who deems himself privileged by fate to throw +on each and every occasion the right number. In practical questions +Sulla understood very well how to satisfy ironically the demands of +religion. When he emptied the treasuries of the Greek temples, he +declared that the man could never fail whose chest was replenished +by the gods themselves. When the Delphic priests reported to him +that they were afraid to send the treasures which he asked, because +the harp of the god emitted a clear sound when they touched it, +he returned the reply that they might now send them all the more +readily, as the god evidently approved his design. Nevertheless +he fondly flattered himself with the idea that he was the chosen +favourite of the gods, and in an altogether special manner of that +goddess, to whom down to his latest years he assigned the pre- +eminence, Aphrodite. In his conversations as well as in his +autobiography he often plumed himself on the intercourse which +the immortals held with him in dreams and omens. He had more right +than most men to be proud of his achievements he was not so, but he +was proud of his uniquely faithful fortune. He was wont to say that +every improvised enterprise turned out better with him than those +which were systematically planned; and one of his strangest whims-- +that of regularly stating the number of those who had fallen on his +side in battle as nil--was nothing but the childishness of a child of +fortune. It was but the utterance of his natural disposition, when, +having reached the culminating point of his career and seeing all +his contemporaries at a dizzy depth beneath him, he assumed the +designation of the Fortunate--Sulla Felix--as a formal surname, +and bestowed corresponding appellations on his children, + +Sulla's Political Career + +Nothing lay farther from Sulla than systematic ambition. He had too +much sense to regard, like the average aristocrats of his time, the +inscription of his name in the roll of the consuls as the aim of his +life; he was too indifferent and too little of an ideologue to be +disposed voluntarily to engage in the reform of the rotten structure +of the state. He remained--where birth and culture placed him--in the +circle of genteel society, and passed through the usual routine of +offices; he had no occasion to exert himself, and left such exertion +to the political working bees, of whom there was in truth no lack. +Thus in 647, on the allotment of the quaestorial places, accident +brought him to Africa to the headquarters of Gaius Marius. +The untried man-of-fashion from the capital was not very well received +by the rough boorish general and his experienced staff. Provoked +by this reception Sulla, fearless and skilful as he was, rapidly +made himself master of the profession of arms, and in his daring +expedition to Mauretania first displayed that peculiar combination +of audacity and cunning with reference to which his contemporaries +said of him that he was half lion half fox, and that the fox in him +was more dangerous than the lion. To the young, highborn, brilliant +officer, who was confessedly the real means of ending the vexatious +Numidian war, the most splendid career now lay open; he took part +also in the Cimbrian war, and manifested his singular talent for +organization in the management of the difficult task of providing +supplies; yet even now the pleasures of life in the capital had far +more attraction for him than war or even politics. During his +praetorship, which office he held in 661 after having failed in a +previous candidature, it once more chanced that in his province, +the least important of all, the first victory over king Mithradates +and the first treaty with the mighty Arsacids, as well as their first +humiliation, occurred. The Civil war followed. It was Sulla +mainly, who decided the first act of it--the Italian insurrection-- +in favour of Rome, and thus won for himself the consulship by his +sword; it was he, moreover, who when consul suppressed with +energetic rapidity the Sulpician revolt. Fortune seemed to make +it her business to eclipse the old hero Marius by means of this +younger officer. The capture of Jugurtha, the vanquishing of +Mithradates, both of which Marius had striven for in vain, were +accomplished in subordinate positions by Sulla: in the Social war, +in which Marius lost his renown as a general and was deposed, +Sulla established his military repute and rose to the consulship; +the revolution of 666, which was at the same time and above all a +personal conflict between the two generals, ended with the outlawry +and flight of Marius. Almost without desiring it, Sulla had +become the most famous general of his time and the shield of the +oligarchy. New and more formidable crises ensued--the Mithradatic war, +the Cinnan revolution; the star of Sulla continued always in the +ascendant. Like the captain who seeks not to quench the flames of +his burning ship but continues to fire on the enemy, Sulla, while +the revolution was raging in Italy, persevered unshaken in Asia +till the public foe was subdued. So soon as he had done with that +foe, he crushed anarchy and saved the capital from the firebrands of +the desperate Samnites and revolutionists. The moment of his return +home was for Sulla an overpowering one in joy and in pain: he himself +relates in his memoirs that during his first night in Rome he had +not been able to close an eye, and we may well believe it. +But still his task was not at an end; his star was destined to +rise still higher. Absolute autocrat as was ever any king, and +yet constantly abiding on the ground of formal right, he bridled +the ultra-reactionary party, annihilated the Gracchan constitution +which had for forty years limited the oligarchy, and compelled first +the powers of the capitalists and of the urban proletariate which +had entered into rivalry with the oligarchy, and ultimately the +arrogance of the sword which had grown up in the bosom of his own +staff, to yield once more to the law which he strengthened afresh. +He established the oligarchy on a more independent footing than ever, +placed the magisterial power as a ministering instrument in its +hands, committed to it the legislation, the courts, the supreme +military and financial power, and furnished it with a sort of +bodyguard in the liberated slaves and with a sort of army in the +settled military colonists. Lastly, when the work was finished, +the creator gave way to his own creation; the absolute autocrat +became of his own accord once more a simple senator. In all this +long military and political career Sulla never lost a battle, was +never compelled to retrace a single step, and, led astray neither +by friends nor by foes, brought his work to the goal which he had +himself proposed. He had reason, indeed, to thank his star. +The capricious goddess of fortune seemed in his case for once to +have exchanged caprice for steadfastness, and to have taken a +pleasure in loading her favourite with successes and honours-- +whether he desired them or not. But history must be more just +towards him than he was towards himself, and must place him in a +higher rank than that of the mere favourites of fortune. + +Sulla and His Work + +We do not mean that the Sullan constitution was a work of political +genius, such as those of Gracchus and Caesar. There does not occur +in it--as is, indeed, implied in its very nature as a restoration--a +single new idea in statesmanship. All its most essential features-- +admission to the senate by the holding of the quaestorship, the +abolition of the censorial right to eject a senator from the senate, +the initiative of the senate in legislation, the conversion of the +tribunician office into an instrument of the senate for fettering +the -imperium-, the prolonging of the duration of the supreme +office to two years, the transference of the command from the +popularly-elected magistrate to the senatorial proconsul or +propraetor, and even the new criminal and municipal arrangements-- +were not created by Sulla, but were institutions which had +previously grown out of the oligarchic government, and which he +merely regulated and fixed. And even as to the horrors attaching +to his restoration, the proscriptions and confiscations--are they, +compared with the doings of Nasica, Popillius, Opimius, Caepio and +so on, anything else than the legal embodiment of the customary +oligarchic mode of getting rid of opponents? On the Roman +oligarchy of this period no judgment can be passed save one of +inexorable and remorseless condemnation; and, like everything, else +connected with it, the Sullan constitution is completely involved in +that condemnation. To accord praise which the genius of a bad man +bribes us into bestowing is to sin against the sacred character of +history; but we may be allowed to bear in mind that Sulla was far +less answerable for the Sullan restoration than the body of the +Roman aristocracy, which had ruled as a clique for centuries and had +every year become more enervated and embittered by age, and that all +that was hollow and all that was nefarious therein is ultimately +traceable to that aristocracy. Sulla reorganized the state--not, +however, as the master of the house who puts his shattered estate +and household in order according to his own discretion, but as +the temporary business-manager who faithfully complies with his +instructions; it is superficial and false in such a case to devolve +the final and essential responsibility from the master upon the +manager. We estimate the importance of Sulla much too highly, or +rather we dispose of those terrible proscriptions, ejections, and +restorations--for which there never could be and never was any +reparation--on far too easy terms, when we regard them as the work +of a bloodthirsty tyrant whom accident had placed at the head of +the state. These and the terrorism of the restoration were the +deeds of the aristocracy, and Sulla was nothing more in the matter +than, to use the poet's expression, the executioner's axe following +the conscious thought as its unconscious instrument. Sulla carried +out that part with rare, in fact superhuman, perfection; but within +the limits which it laid down for him, his working was not only +grand but even useful. Never has any aristocracy deeply decayed +and decaying still farther from day to day, such as was the Roman +aristocracy of that time, found a guardian so willing and able as +Sulla to wield for it the sword of the general and the pen of the +legislator without any regard to the gain of power for himself. +There is no doubt a difference between the case of an officer who +refuses the sceptre from public spirit and that of one who throws it +away from a cloyed appetite; but, so far as concerns the total absence +of political selfishness--although, it is true, in this one respect +only--Sulla deserves to be named side by side with Washington. + +Value of the Sullan Constitution + +But the whole country--and not the aristocracy merely--was more +indebted to him than posterity was willing to confess. Sulla +definitely terminated the Italian revolution, in so far as it was +based on the disabilities of individual less privileged districts +as compared with others of better rights, and, by compelling himself +and his party to recognize the equality of the rights of all +Italians in presence of the law, he became the real and final +author of the full political unity of Italy--a gain which was +not too dearly purchased by ever so many troubles and streams +of blood. Sulla however did more. For more than half a century +the power of Rome had been declining, and anarchy had been her +permanent condition: for the government of the senate with the +Gracchan constitution was anarchy, and the government of Cinna and +Carbo was a yet far worse illustration of the absence of a master- +hand (the sad image of which is most clearly reflected in that +equally confused and unnatural league with the Samnites), the most +uncertain, most intolerable, and most mischievous of all +conceivable political conditions--in fact the beginning of the +end. We do not go too far when we assert that the long-undermined +Roman commonwealth must have necessarily fallen to pieces, had not +Sulla by his intervention in Asia and Italy saved its existence. +It is true that the constitution of Sulla had as little endurance +as that of Cromwell, and it was not difficult to see that his +structure was no solid one; but it is arrant thoughtlessness to +overlook the fact that without Sulla most probably the very site of +the building would have been swept away by the waves; and even the +blame of its want of stability does not fall primarily on Sulla. +The statesman builds only so much as in the sphere assigned to him +he can build. What a man of conservative views could do to save the +old constitution, Sulla did; and he himself had a foreboding that, +while he might doubtless erect a fortress, he would be unable to +create a garrison, and that the utter worthlessness of the oligarchs +would render any attempt to save the oligarchy vain. His constitution +resembled a temporary dike thrown into the raging breakers; it was +no reproach to the builder, if some ten years afterwards the waves +swallowed up a structure at variance with nature and not defended +even by those whom it sheltered. The statesman has no need to be +referred to highly commendable isolated reforms, such as those of +the Asiatic revenue-system and of criminal justice, that he may not +summarily dismiss Sulla's ephemeral restoration: he will admire it +as a reorganization of the Roman commonwealth judiciously planned +and on the whole consistently carried out under infinite difficulties, +and he will place the deliverer of Rome and the accomplisher of Italian +unity below, but yet by the side of, Cromwell. + +Immoral and Superficial Nature of the Sullan Restoration + +It is not, however, the statesman alone who has a voice in +judging the dead; and with justice outraged human feeling will +never reconcile itself to what Sulla did or suffered others to do. +Sulla not only established his despotic power by unscrupulous violence, +but in doing so called things by their right name with a certain cynical +frankness, through which he has irreparably offended the great mass +of the weakhearted who are more revolted at the name than at the +thing, but through which, from the cool and dispassionate character +of his crimes, he certainly appears to the moral judgment more +revolting than the criminal acting from passion. Outlawries, rewards +to executioners, confiscations of goods, summary procedure with +insubordinate officers had occurred a hundred times, and the obtuse +political morality of ancient civilization had for such things +only lukewarm censure; but it was unexampled that the names of +the outlaws should be publicly posted up and their heads publicly +exposed, that a set sum should be fixed for the bandits who slew them +and that it should be duly entered in the public account-books, that +the confiscated property should be brought to the hammer like the spoil +of an enemy in the public market, that the general should order a +refractory officer to be at once cut down and acknowledge the deed +before all the people. This public mockery of humanity was also +a political error; it contributed not a little to envenom later +revolutionary crises beforehand, and on that account even now +a dark shadow deservedly rests on the memory of the author +of the proscriptions. + +Sulla may moreover be justly blamed that, while in all important +matters he acted with remorseless vigour, in subordinate and more +especially in personal questions he very frequently yielded to +his sanguine temperament and dealt according to his likings or +dislikings. Wherever he really felt hatred, as for instance against +the Marians, he allowed it to take its course without restraint even +against the innocent, and boasted of himself that no one had better +requited friends and foes.(52) He did not disdain on occasion of +his plenitude of power to accumulate a colossal fortune. The first +absolute monarch of the Roman state, he verified the maxim of +absolutism--that the laws do not bind the prince--forthwith in +the case of those laws which he himself issued as to adultery and +extravagance. But his lenity towards his own party and his own +circle was more pernicious for the state than his indulgence towards +himself. The laxity of his military discipline, although it was +partly enjoined by his political exigencies, may be reckoned as +coming under this category; but far more pernicious was his indulgence +towards his political adherents. The extent of his occasional +forbearance is hardly credible: for instance Lacius Murena was not only +released from punishment for defeats which he sustained through arrant +perversity and insubordination,(53) but was even allowed a triumph; +Gnaeus Pompeius, who had behaved still worse, was still more +extravagantly honoured by Sulla.(54) The extensive range and +the worst enormities of the proscriptions and confiscations probably +arose not so much from Sulla's own wish as from this spirit of +indifference, which in his position indeed was hardly more pardonable. +That Sulla with his intrinsically energetic and yet withal indifferent +temperament should conduct himself very variously, sometimes with +incredible indulgence, sometimes with inexorable severity, may readily +be conceived. The saying repeated a thousand times, that he was before +his regency a good-natured, mild man, but when regent a bloodthirsty +tyrant, carries in it its own refutation; if he as regent displayed +the reverse of his earlier gentleness, it must rather be said that +he punished with the same careless nonchalance with which he +pardoned. This half-ironical frivolity pervades his whole +political action. It is always as if the victor, just as it +pleased him to call his merit in gaining victory good fortune, +esteemed the victory itself of no value; as if he had a partial +presentiment of the vanity and perishableness of his own work; as +if after the manner of a steward he preferred making repairs to +pulling down and rebuilding, and allowed himself in the end to +be content with a sorry plastering to conceal the flaws. + +Sulla after His Retirement + +But, such as he was, this Don Juan of politics was a man of one +mould. His whole life attests the internal equilibrium of his +nature; in the most diverse situations Sulla remained unchangeably +the same. It was the same temper, which after the brilliant +successes in Africa made him seek once more the idleness of the +capital, and after the full possession of absolute power made him +find rest and refreshment in his Cuman villa. In his mouth the +saying, that public affairs were a burden which he threw off so +soon as he might and could, was no mere phrase. After his resignation +he remained entirely like himself, without peevishness and without +affectation, glad to be rid of public affairs and yet interfering +now and then when opportunity offered. Hunting and fishing and +the composition of his memoirs occupied his leisure hours; by way +of interlude he arranged, at the request of the discordant citizens, +the internal affairs of the neighbouring colony of Puteoli as +confidently and speedily as he had formerly arranged those of +the capital. His last action on his sickbed had reference to the +collection of a contribution for the rebuilding of the Capitoline +temple, of which he was not allowed to witness the completion. + +Death of Sulla + +Little more than a year after his retirement, in the sixtieth year +of his life, while yet vigorous in body and mind, he was overtaken by +death; after a brief confinement to a sick-bed--he was writing at his +autobiography two days even before his death--the rupture of a blood- +vessel(55) carried him off (676). His faithful fortune did not +desert him even in death. He could have no wish to be drawn once +more into the disagreeable vortex of party struggles, and to be +obliged to lead his old warriors once more against a new revolution; +yet such was the state of matters at his death in Spain and in +Italy, that he could hardly have been spared this task had his life +been prolonged. Even now when it was suggested that he should have a +public funeral in the capital, numerous voices there, which had been +silent in his lifetime, were raised against the last honour which it +was proposed to show to the tyrant. But his memory was still too +fresh and the dread of his old soldiers too vivid: it was resolved +that the body should be conveyed to the capital and that the obsequies +should be celebrated there. + +His Funeral + +Italy never witnessed a grander funeral solemnity. In every place +through which the deceased was borne in regal attire, with his well- +known standards and fasces before him, the inhabitants and above all +his old soldiers joined the mourning train: it seemed as if the whole +army would once more meet round the hero in death, who had in life +led it so often and never except to victory. So the endless +funeral procession reached the capital, where the courts kept +holiday and all business was suspended, and two thousand golden +chaplets awaited the dead--the last honorary gifts of the faithful +legions, of the cities, and of his more intimate friends. Sulla, +faithful to the usage of the Cornelian house, had ordered that his +body should be buried without being burnt; but others were more +mindful than he was of what past days had done and future days +might do: by command of the senate the corpse of the man who had +disturbed the bones of Marius from their rest in the grave was +committed to the flames. Headed by all the magistrates and the +whole senate, by the priests and priestesses in their official robes +and the band of noble youths in equestrian armour, the procession +arrived at the great market-place; at this spot, filled by his +achievements and almost by the sound as yet of his dreaded words, +the funeral oration was delivered over the deceased; and thence the +bier was borne on the shoulders of senators to the Campus Martius, +where the funeral pile was erected. While the flames were blazing, +the equites and the soldiers held their race of honour round +the corpse; the ashes of the regent were deposited in the Campus +Martius beside the tombs of the old kings, and the Roman women +mourned him for a year. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +The Commonwealth and Its Economy + +External and Internal Bankruptcy of the Roman State + +We have traversed a period of ninety years--forty years of profound +peace, fifty of an almost constant revolution. It is the most +inglorious epoch known in Roman history. It is true that the Alps +were crossed both in an easterly and westerly direction,(1) and the +Roman arms reached in the Spanish peninsula as far as the Atlantic +Ocean(2) and in the Macedono-Grecian peninsula as far as the +Danube;(3) but the laurels thus gained were as cheap as they were +barren. The circle of the "extraneous peoples under the will, +sway, dominion, or friendship of the Roman burgesses,"(4) was not +materially extended; men were content to realize the gains of a +better age and to bring the communities, annexed to Rome in laxer +forms of dependence, more and more into full subjection. Behind +the brilliant screen of provincial reunions was concealed a very +sensible decline of Roman power. While the whole ancient civilization +was daily more and more distinctly embraced in the Roman state, +and embodied there in forms of more general validity, the nations +excluded from it began simultaneously beyond the Alps and beyond +the Euphrates to pass from defence to aggression. On the battle- +fields of Aquae Sextiae and Vercellae, of Chaeronea and Orchomenus, +were heard the first peals of that thunderstorm, which the Germanic +tribes and the Asiatic hordes were destined to bring upon the Italo- +Grecian world, and the last dull rolling of which has reached +almost to our own times. But in internal development also this +epoch bears the same character. The old organization collapses +irretrievably. The Roman commonwealth was planned as an urban +community, which through its free burgess-body gave to itself +rulers and laws; which was governed by these well-advised rulers +within these legal limits with kingly freedom; and around which +the Italian confederacy, as an aggregate of free urban communities +essentially homogeneous and cognate with the Roman, and the body +of extra-Italian allies, as an aggregate of Greek free cities and +barbaric peoples and principalities--both more superintended, than +domineered over, by the community of Rome--formed a double circle. +It was the final result of the revolution--and both parties, the +nominally conservative as well as the democratic party, had co- +operated towards it and concurred in it--that of this venerable +structure, which at the beginning of the present epoch, though full +of chinks and tottering, still stood erect, not one stone was at +its close left upon another. The holder of sovereign power was +now either a single man, or a close oligarchy--now of rank, now +of riches. The burgesses had lost all legitimate share in the +government. The magistrates were instruments without independence +in the hands of the holder of power for the time being. The urban +community of Rome had broken down by its unnatural enlargement. +The Italian confederacy had been merged in the urban community. +The body of extra-Italian allies was in full course of being +converted into a body of subjects. The whole organic classification +of the Roman commonwealth had gone to wreck, and nothing was left +but a crude mass of more or less disparate elements. + +The Prospect + +The state of matters threatened to end in utter anarchy and in +the inward and outward dissolution of the state. The political +movement tended thoroughly towards the goal of despotism; the only +point still in dispute was whether the close circle of the families +of rank, or the senate of capitalists, or a monarch was to be the +despot. The political movement followed thoroughly the paths that +led to despotism; the fundamental principle of a free commonwealth-- +that the contending powers should reciprocally confine themselves +to indirect coercion--had become effete in the eyes of all parties +alike, and on both sides the fight for power began to be carried on +first by the bludgeon, and soon by the sword. The revolution, at +an end in so far as the old constitution was recognized by both +sides as finally set aside and the aim and method of the new +political development were clearly settled, had yet up to this +time discovered nothing but provisional solutions for this problem +of the reorganization of the state; neither the Gracchan nor the +Sullan constitution of the community bore the stamp of finality. +But the bitterest feature of this bitter time was that even hope +and effort failed the clear-seeing patriot. The sun of freedom +with all its endless store of blessings was constantly drawing +nearer to its setting, and the twilight was settling over the +very world that was still so brilliant. It was no accidental +catastrophe which patriotism and genius might have warded off; +it was ancient social evils--at the bottom of all, the ruin of +the middle class by the slave proletariate--that brought destruction +on the Roman commonwealth. The most sagacious statesman was in the +plight of the physician to whom it is equally painful to prolong or +to abridge the agony of his patient. Beyond doubt it was the +better for the interests of Rome, the more quickly and thoroughly +a despot set aside all remnants of the ancient free constitution, +and invented new forms and expressions for the moderate measure +of human prosperity for which in absolutism there is room: the +intrinsic advantage, which belonged to monarchy under the given +circumstances as compared with any oligarchy, lay mainly in the +very circumstance that such a despotism, energetic in pulling +down and energetic in building up, could never be exercised by +a collegiate board. But such calm considerations do not mould +history; it is not reason it is passion alone, that builds for +the future. The Romans had just to wait and to see how long their +commonwealth would continue unable to live and unable to die, and +whether it would ultimately find its master and, so far as might +be possible, its regenerator, in a man of mighty gifts, or would +collapse in misery and weakness. + +Finances of the State + +It remains that we should notice the economic and social relations +of the period before us, so far as we have not already done so. + +Italian Revenues + +The finances of the state were from the commencement of this +epoch substantially dependent on the revenues from the provinces. +In Italy the land-tax, which had always occurred there merely as +an extraordinary impost by the side of the ordinary domanial and +other revenues, had not been levied since the battle of Pydna, +so that absolute freedom from land-tax began to be regarded as a +constitutional privilege of the Roman landowner. The royalties of +the state, such as the salt monopoly(5) and the right of coinage, +were not now at least, if ever at all, treated as sources of income. +The new tax on inheritance(6) was allowed to fall into abeyance or +was perhaps directly abolished. Accordingly the Roman exchequer +drew from Italy including Cisalpine Gaul nothing but the produce +of the domains, particularly of the Campanian territory and of +the gold mines in the land of the Celts, and the revenue from +manumissions and from goods imported by sea into the Roman civic +territory not for the personal consumption of the importer. Both +of these may be regarded essentially as taxes on luxury, and they +certainly must have been considerably augmented by the extension +of the field of Roman citizenship and at the same time of Roman +customs-dues to all Italy, probably including Cisalpine Gaul. + +Provincial Revenues + +In the provinces the Roman state claimed directly as its private +property, on the one hand, in the states annulled by martial law +the whole domain, on the other hand in those states, where the +Roman government came in room of the former rulers, the landed +property possessed by the latter. By virtue of this right the +territories of Leontini, Carthage, and Corinth, the domanial +property of the kings of Macedonia, Pergamus, and Cyrene, the mines +in Spain and Macedonia were regarded as Roman domains; and, in like +manner with the territory of Capua, were leased by the Roman +censors to private contractors in return for the delivery of a +proportion of the produce or a fixed sum of money. We have already +explained that Gaius Gracchus went still farther, claimed the whole +land of the provinces as domain, and in the case of the province of +Asia practically carried out this principle; inasmuch as he legally +justified the -decumae-, -scriptura-, and -vectigalia- levied there +on the ground of the Roman state's right of property in the land, +pasture, and coasts of the province, whether these had previously +belonged to the king or private persons.(7) + +There do not appear to have been at this period any royalties +from which the state derived profit, as respected the provinces; +the prohibition of the culture of the vine and olive in Transalpine +Gaul did not benefit the state-chest as such. On the other hand +direct and indirect taxes were levied to a great extent. The client +states recognized as fully sovereign--such as the kingdoms of Numidia +and Cappadocia, the allied states (-civitates foederatae-) of Rhodes, +Messana, Tauromenium, Massilia, Gades--were legally exempt from taxation, +and merely bound by their treaties to support the Roman republic in times +of war by regularly furnishing a fixed number of ships or men at their +own expense, and, as a matter of course in case of need, by rendering +extraordinary aid of any kind. + +Taxes + +The rest of the provincial territory on the other hand, even +including the free cities, was throughout liable to taxation; the +only exceptions were the cities invested with the Roman franchise, +such as Narbo, and the communities on which immunity from taxation +was specially conferred (-civitates immunes-), such as Centuripa +in Sicily. The direct taxes consisted partly--as in Sicily and +Sardinia--of a title to the tenth(8) of the sheaves and other field +produce as of grapes and olives, or, if the land lay in pasture, +to a corresponding -scriptura-; partly--as in Macedonia, Achaia, +Cyrene, the greater part of Africa, the two Spains, and by Sulla's +arrangements also in Asia--of a fixed sum of money to be paid +annually by each community to Rome (-stipendium-, -tributum-). +This amounted, e. g. for all Macedonia, to 600,000 -denarii- +(24,000 pounds), for the small island of Gyaros near Andros to 150 +-denarii- (6 pounds, 10 shillings), and was apparently on the whole +low and less than the tax paid before the Roman rule. Those +ground-tenths and pasture-moneys the state farmed out to private +contractors on condition of their paying fixed quantities of grain +or fixed sums of money; with respect to the latter money-payments +the state drew upon the respective communities, and left it to +these to assess the amount, according to the general principles +laid down by the Roman government, on the persons liable, and to +collect it from them.(9) + +Customs + +The indirect taxes consisted--apart from the subordinate moneys +levied from roads, bridges, and canals--mainly of customs-duties. +The customs-duties of antiquity were, if not exclusively, at any +rate principally port-dues, less frequently frontier-dues, on +imports and exports destined for sale, and were levied by each +community in its ports and its territory at discretion. The Romans +recognized this principle generally, in so far as their original +customs-domain did not extend farther than the range of the Roman +franchise and the limit of the customs was by no means coincident +with the limits of the empire, so that a general imperial tariff +was unknown: it was only by means of state-treaty that a total +exemption from customs-dues in the client communities was secured +for the Roman state, and in various cases at least favourable +term for the Roman burgess. But in those districts, which had +not been admitted to alliance with Rome but were in the condition +of subjects proper and had not acquired immunity, the customs fell +as a matter of course to the proper sovereign, that is, to the Roman +community; and in consequence of this several larger regions within +the empire were constituted as separate Roman customs-districts, in +which the several communities allied or privileged with immunity +were marked off as exempt from Roman customs. Thus Sicily even +from the Carthaginian period formed a closed customs-district, on +the frontier of which a tax of 5 per cent on the value was levied +from all imports or exports; thus on the frontiers of Asia there +was levied in consequence of the Sempronian law(10) a similar tax +of 21 per cent; in like manner the province of Narbo, exclusively +the domain of the Roman colony, was organized as a Roman customs- +district This arrangement, besides its fiscal objects, may have +been partly due to the commendable purpose of checking the +confusion inevitably arising out of a variety of communal tolls by +a uniform regulation of frontier-dues. The levying of the customs, +like that of the tenths, was without exception leased to middlemen. + +Costs of Collection + +The ordinary burdens of Roman taxpayers were limited to these +imposts; but we may not overlook the fact, that the expenses of +collection were very considerable, and the contributors paid an +amount disproportionately great as compared with what the Roman +government received. For, while the system of collecting taxes +by middlemen, and especially by general lessees, is in itself +the most expensive of all, in Rome effective competition was +rendered extremely difficult in consequence of the slight +extent to which the lettings were subdivided and the immense +association of capital. + +Requisitions + +To these ordinary burdens, however, fell to be added in the first +place the requisitions which were made. The costs of military +administration were in law defrayed by the Roman community. +It provided the commandants of every province with the means of +transport and all other requisites; it paid and provisioned the +Roman soldiers in the province. The provincial communities had to +furnish merely shelter, wood, hay, and similar articles free of +cost to the magistrates and soldiers; in fact the free towns were +even ordinarily exempted from the winter quartering of the troops-- +permanent camps were not yet known. If the governor therefore +needed grain, ships, slaves to man them, linen, leather, money, +or aught else, he was no doubt absolutely at liberty in time +of war--nor was it far otherwise in time of peace--to demand such +supplies according to his discretion and exigencies from the subject- +communities or the sovereign protected states; but these supplies +were, like the Roman land-tax, treated legally as purchases or +advances, and the value was immediately or afterwards made good by +the Roman exchequer. Nevertheless these requisitions became, if +not in the theory of state-law, at any rate practically, one of the +most oppressive burdens of the provincials; and the more so, that +the amount of compensation was ordinarily settled by the government +or even by the governor after a one-sided fashion. We meet indeed +with several legislative restrictions on this dangerous right of +requisition of the Roman superior magistrates: for instance, the +rule already mentioned, that in Spain there should not be taken +from the country people by requisitions for grain more than the +twentieth sheaf, and that the price even of this should be equitably +ascertained;(11) the fixing of a maximum quantity of grain to be +demanded by the governor for the wants of himself and his retinue; +the previous adjustment of a definite and high rate of compensation +for the grain which was frequently demanded, at least from Sicily, +for the wants of the capital. But, while by fixing such rules +the pressure of those requisitions on the economy of the communities +and of individuals in the province was doubtless mitigated here +and there, it was by no means removed. In extraordinary crises +this pressure unavoidably increased and often went beyond all bounds, +for then in fact the requisitions not unfrequently assumed the form +of a punishment imposed or that of voluntary contributions enforced, +and compensation was thus wholly withheld. Thus Sulla in 670-671 +compelled the provincials of Asia Minor, who certainly had very +gravely offended against Rome, to furnish to every common soldier +quartered among them forty-fold pay (per day 16 -denarii- = 11 shillings), +to every centurion seventy-five-fold pay, in addition to clothing +and meals along with the right to invite guests at pleasure; thus +the same Sulla soon afterwards imposed a general contribution on +the client and subject communities,(12) in which case nothing, +of course, was said of repayment. + +Local Burdens + +Further the local public burdens are not to be left out of view. +They must have been, comparatively, very considerable;(13) for the +costs of administration, the keeping of the public buildings in +repair, and generally all civil expenses were borne by the local +budget, and the Roman government simply undertook to defray the +military expenses from their coffers. But even of this military +budget considerable items were devolved on the communities--such as +the expense of making and maintaining the non-Italian military +roads, the costs of the fleets in the non-Italian seas, nay even +in great part the outlays for the army, inasmuch as the forces of +the client-states as well as those of the subjects were regularly +liable to serve at the expense of their communities within their +province, and began to be employed with increasing frequency even +beyond it--Thracians in Africa, Africans in Italy, arid so on--at +the discretion of the Romans.(14) If the provinces only and not +Italy paid direct taxes to the government, this was equitable in +a financial, if not in a political, aspect so long as Italy alone +bore the burdens and expense of the military system; but from the +time that this system was abandoned, the provincials were, in a +financial point of view, decidedly overburdened. + +Extortions + +Lastly we must not forget the great chapter of injustice by which +in manifold ways the Roman magistrates and farmers of the revenue +augmented the burden of taxation on the provinces. Although every +present which the governor took might be treated legally as an +exaction, and even his right of purchase might be restricted by +law, yet the exercise of his public functions offered to him, if he +was disposed to do wrong, pretexts more than enough for doing so. +The quartering of the troops; the free lodging of the magistrates +and of the host of adjutants of senatorial or equestrian rank, of +clerks, lictors, heralds, physicians, and priests; the right which +the messengers of the state had to be forwarded free of cost; the +approval of, and providing transport for, the contributions payable +in kind; above all the forced sales and the requisitions--gave all +magistrates opportunity to bring home princely fortunes from the +provinces. And the plundering became daily more general, the more +that the control of the government appeared to be worthless and +that of the capitalist-courts to be in reality dangerous to the +upright magistrate alone. The institution of a standing commission +regarding the exactions of magistrates in the provinces, occasioned +by the frequency of complaints as to such cases, in 605,(15) and +the laws as to extortion following each other so rapidly and +constantly augmenting its penalties, show the daily increasing +height of the evil, as the Nilometer shows the rise of the flood. + +Under all these circumstances even a taxation moderate in theory +might become extremely oppressive in its actual operation; and that +it was so is beyond doubt, although the financial oppression, which +the Italian merchants and bankers exercised over the provinces, was +probably felt as a far heavier burden than the taxation with all +the abuses that attached to it. + +Aggregate Financial Result + +If we sum up, the income which Rome drew from the provinces was +not properly a taxation of the subjects in the sense which we now +attach to that expression, but rather in the main a revenue that +may be compared with the Attic tributes, by means of which the +leading state defrayed the expense of the military system which +it maintained. This explains the surprisingly small amount of the +gross as well as of the net proceeds. There exists a statement, +according to which the income of Rome, exclusive, it may be +presumed, of the Italian revenues and of the grain delivered in +kind to Italy by the -decumani- up to 691 amounted to not more +than 200 millions of sesterces (2,000,000 pounds); that is, but +two-thirds of the sum which the king of Egypt drew from his country +annually. The proportion can only seem strange at the first +glance. The Ptolemies turned to account the valley of the Nile as +great, plantation-owners, and drew immense sums from their monopoly +of the commercial intercourse with the east; the Roman treasury was +not much more than the joint military chest of the communities +united under Rome's protection. The net produce was probably still +less in proportion. The only provinces yielding a considerable +surplus were perhaps Sicily, where the Carthaginian system of +taxation prevailed, and more especially Asia from the time that +Gaius Gracchus, in order to provide for his largesses of corn, had +carried out the confiscation of the soil and a general domanial +taxation there. According to manifold testimonies the finances of +the Roman state were essentially dependent on the revenues of Asia. +The assertion sounds quite credible that the other provinces on an +average cost nearly as much as they brought in; in fact those which +required a considerable garrison, such as the two Spains, +Transalpine Gaul, and Macedonia, probably often cost more than they +yielded. On the whole certainly the Roman treasury in ordinary +times possessed a surplus, which enabled them amply to defray the +expense of the buildings of the state and city, and to accumulate a +reserve-fund; but even the figures appearing for these objects, +when compared with the wide domain of the Roman rule, attest the +small amount of the net proceeds of the Roman taxes. In a certain +sense therefore the old principle equally honourable and judicious-- +that the political hegemony should not be treated as a privilege +yielding profit--still governed the financial administration of the +provinces as it had governed that of Rome in Italy. What the Roman +community levied from its transmarine subjects was, as a rule, re- +expended for the military security of the transmarine possessions; +and if these Roman imposts fell more heavily on those who paid them +than the earlier taxation, in so far as they were in great part +expended abroad, the substitution, on the other hand, of a single +ruler and a centralized military administration for the many petty +rulers and armies involved a very considerable financial saving. +It is true, however, that this principle of a previous better age +came from the very first to be infringed and mutilated by the +numerous exceptions which were allowed to prevail. The ground- +tenth levied by Hiero and Carthage in Sicily went far beyond the +amount of an annual war-contributioa With justice moreover Scipio +Aemilianus says in Cicero, that it was unbecoming for the Roman +burgess-body to be at the same time the ruler and the tax-gatherer +of the nations. The appropriation of the customs-dues was not +compatible with the principle of disinterested hegemony, and the +high rates of the customs as well as the vexatious mode of levying +them were not fitted to allay the sense of the injustice thereby +inflicted. Even as early probably as this period the name of +publican became synonymous among the eastern peoples with that of +rogue and robber: no burden contributed so much as this to make the +Roman name offensive and odious especially in the east. But when +Gaius Gracchus and those who called themselves the "popular party" +in Rome came to the helm, political sovereignty was declared in +plain terms to be a right which entitled every one who shared in +it to a number of bushels of corn, the hegemony was converted into +a direct ownership of the soil, and the most complete system of +making the most of that ownership was not only introduced but +with shameless candour legally justified and proclaimed. It was +certainly not a mere accident, that the hardest lot in this respect +fell precisely to the two least warlike provinces, Sicily and Asia. + +The Finances and Public Buildings + +An approximate measure of the condition of Roman finance at this +period is furnished, in the absence of definite statements, first +of all by the public buildings. In the first decades of this epoch +these were prosecuted on the greatest scale, and the construction +of roads in particular had at no time been so energetically +pursued. In Italy the great southern highway of presumably earlier +origin, which as a prolongation of the Appian road ran from Rome by +way of Capua, Beneventum, and Venusia to the ports of Tarentum and +Brundisium, had attached to it a branch-road from Capua to the +Sicilian straits, a work of Publius Popillius, consul in 622. +On the east coast, where hitherto only the section from Fanum to +Ariminum had been constructed as part of the Flaminian highway (ii. +229), the coast road was prolonged southward as far as Brundisium, +northward by way of Atria on the Po as far as Aquileia, and the +portion at least from Ariminum to Atria was formed by the Popillius +just mentioned in the same year. The two great Etruscan highways-- +the coast or Aurelian road from Rome to Pisa and Luna, which was in +course of formation in 631, and the Cassian road leading by way of +Sutrium and Clusium to Arretium and Florentia, which seems not to +have been constructed before 583--may as Roman public highways +belong only to this age. About Rome itself new projects were +not required; but the Mulvian bridge (Ponte Molle), by which +the Flaminian road crossed the Tiber not far from Rome, was in 645 +reconstructed of stone. Lastly in Northern Italy, which hitherto +had possessed no other artificial road than the Flaminio-Aemilian +terminating at Placentia, the great Postumian road was constructed +in 606, which led from Genua by way of Dertona, where probably +a colony was founded at the same time, and onward by way of +Placentia, where it joined the Flaminio-Aemilian road, and of +Cremona and Verona to Aquileia, and thus connected the Tyrrhenian +and Adriatic seas; to which was added the communication established +in 645 by Marcus Aemilius Scaurus between Luna and Genua, which +connected the Postumian road directly with Rome. Gaius Gracchus +exerted himself in another way for the improvement of the Italian +roads. He secured the due repair of the great rural roads by +assigning, on occasion of his distribution of lands, pieces of +ground alongside of the roads, to which was attached the obligation +of keeping them in repair as an heritable burden. To him, +moreover, or at any rate to the allotment-commission, the custom +of erecting milestones appears to be traceable, as well as that +of marking the limits of fields by regular boundary-stones. Lastly +he provided for good -viae vicinales-, with the view of thereby +promoting agriculture. But of still greater moment was the +construction of the imperial highways in the provinces, which +beyond doubt began in this epoch. The Domitian highway after long +preparations(16) furnished a secure land-route from Italy to Spain, +and was closely connected with the founding of Aquae Sextiae and +Narbo;(17) the Gabinian(18) and the Egnatian (19) led from the +principal places on the east coast of the Adriatic sea--the former +from Salona, the latter from Apollonia and Dyrrhachium--into +the interior; the network of roads laid out by Manius Aquillius +immediately after the erection of the Asiatic province in 625 +led from the capital Ephesus in different directions towards the +frontier. Of the origin of these works no mention is to be found +in the fragmentary tradition of this epoch, but they were +nevertheless undoubtedly connected with the consolidation +of the Roman rule in Gaul, Dalmatia, Macedonia, and Asia Minor, +and came to be of the greatest importance for the centralization of +the state and the civilizing of the subjugated barbarian districts. + +In Italy at least great works of drainage were prosecuted as well +as the formation of roads. In 594 the drying of the Pomptine +marshes--a vital matter for Central Italy--was set about with great +energy and at least temporary success; in 645 the draining of the +low-lying lands between Parma and Placentia was effected in +connection with the construction of the north Italian highway. +Moreover, the government did much for the Roman aqueducts, as +indispensable for the health and comfort of the capital as they +were costly. Not only were the two that had been in existence +since the years 442 and 492--the Appian and the Anio aqueducts-- +thoroughly repaired in 610, but two new ones were formed; the +Marcian in 610, which remained afterwards unsurpassed for the +excellence and abundance of the water, and the Tepula as it was +called, nineteen years later. The power of the Roman exchequer to +execute great operations by means of payments in pure cash without +making use of the system of credit, is very clearly shown by the +way in which the Marcian aqueduct was created: the sum required for +it of 180,000,000 sesterces (in gold nearly 2,000,000 pounds) was +raised and applied within three years. This leads us to infer a +very considerable reserve in the treasury: in fact at the very +beginning of this period it amounted to almost 860,000 pounds,(20) +and was doubtless constantly on the increase. + +All these facts taken together certainly lead to the inference that +the position of the Roman finances at this epoch was on the whole +favourable. Only we may not in a financial point of view overlook +the fact that, while the government during the two earlier thirds +of this period executed splendid and magnificent buildings, it +neglected to make other outlays at least as necessary. We have +already indicated how unsatisfactory were its military provisions; +the frontier countries and even the valley of the Po(21) were +pillaged by barbarians, and bands of robbers made havoc in the +interior even of Asia Minor, Sicily, and Italy. The fleet even was +totally neglected; there was hardly any longer a Roman vessel of +war; and the war-vessels, which the subject cities were required to +build and maintain, were not sufficient, so that Rome was not only +absolutely unable to carry on a naval war, but was not even in a +position to check the trade of piracy. In Rome itself a number of +the most necessary improvements were left untouched, and the river- +buildings in particular were singularly neglected. The capital +still possessed no other bridge over the Tiber than the primitive +wooden gangway, which led over the Tiber island to the Janiculum; +the Tiber was still allowed to lay the streets every year under +water, and to demolish houses and in fact not unfrequently whole +districts, without anything being done to strengthen the banks; +mighty as was the growth of transmarine commerce, the roadstead +of Ostia--already by nature bad--was allowed to become more and +more sanded up. A government, which under the most favourable +circumstances and in an epoch of forty years of peace abroad and +at home neglected such duties, might easily allow taxes to fall +into abeyance and yet obtain an annual surplus of income over +expenditure and a considerable reserve; but such a financial +administration by no means deserves commendation for its mere +semblance of brilliant results, but rather merits the same censure-- +in respect of laxity, want of unity in management, mistaken +flattery of the people--as falls to be brought in every other +sphere of political life against the senatorial government +of this epoch. + +The Finances in the Revolution + +The financial condition of Rome of course assumed a far worse +aspect, when the storms of revolution set in. The new and, even in +a mere financial point of view, extremely oppressive burden imposed +upon the state by the obligation under which Gaius Gracchus placed +it to furnish corn at nominal rates to the burgesses of the +capital, was certainly counterbalanced at first by the newly-opened +sources of income in the province of Asia. Nevertheless the public +buildings seem from that time to have almost come to a standstill. +While the public works which can be shown to have been constructed +from the battle of Pydna down to the time of Gaius Gracchus were +numerous, from the period after 632 there is scarcely mention of +any other than the projects of bridges, roads, and drainage which +Marcus Aemilius Scaurus organized as censor in 645. It must remain +a moot point whether this was the effect of the largesses of grain +or, as is perhaps more probable, the consequence of the system of +increased savings, such as befitted a government which became daily +more and more a rigid oligarchy, and such as is indicated by the +statement that the Roman reserve reached its highest point in 663. +The terrible storm of insurrection and revolution, in combination +with the five years' deficit of the revenues of Asia Minor, was the +first serious trial to which the Roman finances were subjected +after the Hannibalic war: they failed to sustain it. Nothing +perhaps so clearly marks the difference of the times as the +circumstance that in the Hannibalic war it was not till the tenth +year of the struggle, when the burgesses were almost sinking under +taxation, that the reserve was touched;(22) whereas the Social war +was from the first supported by the balance in hand, and when this +was expended after two campaigns to the last penny, they preferred +to sell by auction the public sites in the capital(23) and to seize +the treasures of the temples(24) rather than levy a tax on the +burgesses. The storm however, severe as it was, passed over; +Sulla, at the expense doubtless of enormous economic sacrifices +imposed on the subjects and Italian revolutionists in particular, +restored order to the finances and, by abolishing the largesses of +corn and retaining although in a reduced form the Asiatic revenues, +secured for the commonwealth a satisfactory economic condition, at +least in the sense of the ordinary expenditure remaining far below +the ordinary income. + +Private Economics +Agriculture + +In the private economics of this period hardly any new feature +emerges; the advantages and disadvantages formerly set forth as +incident to the social circumstances of Italy(25) were not altered, +but merely farther and more distinctly developed. In agriculture +we have already seen that the growing power of Roman capital was +gradually absorbing the intermediate and small landed estates in +Italy as well as in the provinces, as the sun sucks up the drops of +rain. The government not only looked on without preventing, but +even promoted this injurious division of the soil by particular +measures, especially by prohibiting the production of wine and oil +beyond the Alps with a view to favour the great Italian landlords +and merchants.(26) It is true that both the opposition and the +section of the conservatives that entered into ideas of reform +worked energetically to counteract the evil; the two Gracchi, by +carrying out the distribution of almost the whole domain land, gave +to the state 80,000 new Italian farmers; Sulla, by settling 120,000 +colonists in Italy, filled up at least in part the gaps which the +revolution and he himself had made in the ranks of the Italian +yeomen. But, when a vessel is emptying itself by constant efflux, +the evil is to be remedied not by pouring in even considerable +quantities, but only by the establishment of a constant influx-- +a remedy which was on various occasions attempted, but not with +success. In the provinces, not even the smallest effort was made +to save the farmer class there from being bought out by the Roman +speculators; the provincials, forsooth, were merely men, and not a +party. The consequence was, that even the rents of the soil beyond +Italy flowed more and more to Rome. Moreover the plantation- +system, which about the middle of this epoch had already gained +the ascendant even in particular districts of Italy, such as Etruria, +had, through the co-operation of an energetic and methodical +management and abundant pecuniary resources, attained to a state +of high prosperity after its kind. The production of Italian wine +in particular, which was artificially promoted partly by the opening +of forced markets in a portion of the provinces, partly by the +prohibition of foreign wines in Italy as expressed for instance +in the sumptuary law of 593, attained very considerable results: +the Aminean and Falernian wine began to be named by the side of the +Thasian and Chian, and the "Opimian wine" of 633, the Roman vintage +"Eleven," was long remembered after the last jar was exhausted. + +Trades + +Of trades and manufactur es there is nothing to be said, except +that the Italian nation in this respect persevered in an inaction +bordering on barbarism. They destroyed the Corinthian factories, +the depositories of so many valuable industrial traditions--not +however that they might establish similar factories for themselves, +but that they might buy up at extravagant prices such Corinthian +vases of earthenware or copper and similar "antique works" as were +preserved in Greek houses. The trades that were still somewhat +prosperous, such as those connected with building, were productive +of hardly any benefit for the commonwealth, because here too the +system of employing slaves in every more considerable undertaking +intervened: in the construction of the Marcian aqueduct, for +instance, the government concluded contracts for building and +materials simultaneously with 3000 master-tradesmen, each of whom +then performed the work contracted for with his band of slaves. + +Money-Dealing and Commerce + +The most brilliant, or rather the only brilliant, side of Roman +private economics was money-dealing and commerce. First of all +stood the leasing of the domains and of the taxes, through which a +large, perhaps the larger, part of the income of the Roman state +flowed into the pockets of the Roman capitalists. The money- +dealings, moreover, throughout the range of the Roman state were +monopolized by the Romans; every penny circulated in Gaul, it is +said in a writing issued soon after the end of this period, passes +through the books of the Roman merchants, and so it was doubtless +everywhere. The co-operation of rude economic conditions and of +the unscrupulous employment of Rome's political ascendency for the +benefit of the private interests of every wealthy Roman rendered a +usurious system of interest universal, as is shown for example by +the treatment of the war-tax imposed by Sulla on the province of +Asia in 670, which the Roman capitalists advanced; it swelled with +paid and unpaid interest within fourteen years to sixfold its +original amount. The communities had to sell their public buildings, +their works of art and jewels, parents had to sell their grown-up +children, in order to meet the claims of the Roman creditor: it +was no rare occurrence for the debtor to be not merely subjected +to moral torture, but directly placed upon the rack. To these +sources of gain fell to be added the wholesale traffic. The exports +and imports of Italy were very considerable. The former consisted +chiefly of wine and oil, with which Italy and Greece almost +exclusively--for the production of wine in the Massiliot and +Turdetanian territories can at that time have been but small-- +supplied the whole region of the Mediterranean; Italian wine was +sent in considerable quantities to the Balearic islands and +Celtiberia, to Africa, which was merely a corn and pasture country, +to Narbo and into the interior of Gaul. Still more considerable +was the import to Italy, where at that time all luxury was +concentrated, and whither most articles of luxury for food, drink, +or clothing, ornaments, books, household furniture, works of art +were imported by sea. The traffic in slaves, above all, received +through the ever-increasing demand of the Roman merchants an +impetus to which no parallel had been known in the region of the +Mediterranean, and which stood in the closest connection with the +flourishing of piracy. All lands and all nations were laid under +contribution for slaves, but the places where they were chiefly +captured were Syria and the interior of Asia Minor.(27) + +Ostia +Puteoli + +In Italy the transmarine imports were chiefly concentrated in +the two great emporia on the Tyrrhene sea, Ostia and Puteoli. +The grain destined for the capital was brought to Ostia, which +was far from having a good roadstead, but, as being the nearest +port to Rome, was the most appropriate mart for less valuable wares; +whereas the traffic in luxuries with the east was directed mainly +to Puteoli, which recommended itself by its good harbour for ships +with valuable cargoes, and presented to merchants a market in its +immediate neighbourhood little inferior to that of the capital-- +the district of Baiae, which came to be more and more filled with +villas. For a long time this latter traffic was conducted through +Corinth and after its destruction through Delos, and in this sense +accordingly Puteoli is called by Lucilius the Italian "Little Delos"; +but after the catastrophe which befel Delos in the Mithradatic war,(28) +and from which it never recovered, the Puteolans entered into direct +commercial connections with Syria and Alexandria, and their city became +more and more decidedly the first seat of transmarine commerce in Italy. +But it was not merely the gain which was made by the Italian exports +and imports, that fell mainly to the Italians; at Narbo they competed +in the Celtic trade with the Massiliots, and in general it admits of +no doubt that the Roman merchants to be met with everywhere, floating +or settled, took to themselves the best share of all speculations. + +Capitalist Oligarchy + +Putting together these phenomena, we recognize as the most prominent +feature in the private economy of this epoch the financial oligarchy +of Roman capitalists standing alongside of, and on a par with, +the political oligarchy. In their hands were united the rents +of the soil of almost all Italy and of the best portions of +the provincial territory, the proceeds at usury of the capital +monopolized by them, the commercial gain from the whole empire, +and lastly, a very considerable part of the Roman state-revenue +in the form of profits accruing from the lease of that revenue. +The daily-increasing accumulation of capital is evident in the rise +of the average rate of wealth: 3,000,000 sesterces (30,000 pounds) +was now a moderate senatorial, 2,000,000 (20,000 pounds) was a decent +equestrian fortune; the property of the wealthiest man of the +Gracchan age, Publius Crassus consul in 623 was estimated at +100,000,000 sesterces (1,000,000 pounds). It is no wonder, +that this capitalist order exercised a preponderant influence +on external policy; that it destroyed out of commercial rivalry +Carthage and Corinth(29) as the Etruscans had formerly destroyed +Alalia and the Syracusans Caere; that it in spite of the senate +upheld the colony of Narbo.(30) It is likewise no wonder, that +this capitalist oligarchy engaged in earnest and often victorious +competition with the oligarchy of the nobles in internal politics. +But it is also no wonder, that ruined men of wealth put themselves +at the head of bands of revolted slaves,(31) and rudely reminded +the public that the transition is easy from the haunts of +fashionable debauchery to the robber's cave. It is no wonder, +that that financial tower of Babel, with its foundation not purely +economic but borrowed from the political ascendency of Rome, +tottered at every serious political crisis nearly in the same +way as our very similar fabric of a paper currency. The great +financial crisis, which in consequence of the Italo-Asiatic +commotions of 664 f. set in upon the Roman capitalist-class, +the bankruptcy of the state and of private persons, the general +depreciation of landed property and of partnership-shares, can no +longer be traced out in detail; but their general nature and their +importance are placed beyond doubt by their results--the murder of +the praetor by a band of creditors,(32) the attempt to eject from +the senate all the senators not free of debt,(33) the renewal of +the maximum of interest by Sulla,(34) the cancelling of 75 per cent +of all debts by the revolutionary party.(35) The consequence of +this system was naturally general impoverishment and depopulation +in the provinces, whereas the parasitic population of migratory +or temporarily settled Italians was everywhere on the increase. +In Asia Minor 80,000 men of Italian origin are said to have perished +in one day.(36) How numerous they were in Delos, is evident from +the tombstones still extant on the island and from the statement +that 20,000 foreigners, mostly Italian merchants, were put to death +there by command of Mithradates.(37) In Africa the Italians were +so many, that even the Numidian town of Cirta could be defended +mainly by them against Jugurtha.(38) Gaul too, it is said, was +filled with Roman merchants; in the case of Spain alone--perhaps +not accidentally--no statements of this sort are found. In Italy +itself, on the other hand, the condition of the free population +at this epoch had on the whole beyond doubt retrograded. To this +result certainly the civil wars essentially contributed, which, +according to statements of a general kind and but littletrustworthy, +are alleged to have swept away from 100,000 to 150,000 of the Roman +burgesses and 300,000 of the Italian population generally; but still +worse was the effect of the economic ruin of the middle class, and of +the boundless extent of the mercantile emigration which induced a great +portion of the Italian youth to spend their most vigorous years abroad. + +A compensation of very dubious value was afforded by the free +parasitic Helleno-Oriental population, which sojourned in the +capital as diplomatic agents for kings or communities, as physicians, +schoolmasters, priests, servants, parasites, and in the myriad +employments of sharpers and swindlers, or, as traders and +mariners, frequented especially Ostia, Puteoli, and Brundisium. +Still more hazardous was the disproportionate increase of the +multitude of slaves in the peninsula. The Italian burgesses by +the census of 684 numbered 910,000 men capable of bearing arms, to +which number, in order to obtain the amount of the free population +in the peninsula, those accidentally passed over in the census, +the Latins in the district between the Alps and the Po, and the +foreigners domiciled in Italy, have to be added, while the Roman +burgesses domiciled abroad are to be deducted. It will therefore +be scarcely possible to estimate the free population of the +peninsula at more than from 6 to 7 millions. If its whole +population at this time was equal to that of the present day, we +should have to assume accordingly a mass of slaves amounting to 13 +or 14 millions. It needs however no such fallacious calculations +to render the dangerous tension of this state of things apparent; +this is loudly enough attested by the partial servile insurrections, +and by the appeal which from the beginning of the revolutions was +at the close of every outbreak addressed to the slaves to take +up arms against their masters and to fight out their liberty. +If we conceive of England with its lords, its squires, and +above all its City, but with its freeholders and lessees converted +into proletarians, and its labourers and sailors converted into slaves, +we shall gain an approximate image of the population of the Italian +peninsula in those days. + +The economic relations of this epoch are clearly mirrored to +us even now in the Roman monetary system. Its treatment shows +throughout the sagacious merchant. For long gold and silver stood +side by side as general means of payment on such a footing that, +while for the purpose of general cash-balances a fixed ratio of +value was legally laid down between the two metals,(39) the giving +one metal for the other was not, as a rule, optional, but payment +was to be in gold or silver according to the tenor of the bond. +In this way the great evils were avoided, that are otherwise +inevitably associated with the setting up of two precious metals; +the severe gold crises--as about 600, for instance, when in +consequence of the discovery of the Tauriscan gold-seams(40) gold +as compared with silver fell at once in Italy about 33 1/3 per +cent--exercised at least no direct influence on the silver money +and retail transactions. The nature of the case implied that, +the more transmarine traffic extended, gold the more decidedly +rose from the second place to the first; and that it did so, is +confirmed by the statements as to the balances in the treasury and +as to its transactions; but the government was not thereby induced +to introduce gold into the coinage. The coining of gold attempted +in the exigency of the Hannibalic war(41) had been long allowed +to fall into abeyance; the few gold pieces which Sulla struck as +regent were scarcely more than pieces coined for the occasion +of his triumphal presents. Silver still as before circulated +exclusively as actual money; gold, whether it, as was usual, +circulated in bars or bore the stamp of a foreign or possibly even +of an inland mint, was taken solely by weight. Nevertheless gold +and silver were on a par as means of exchange, and the fraudulent +alloying of gold was treated in law, like the issuing of spurious +silver money, as a monetary offence. They thus obtained the +immense advantage of precluding, in the case of the most important +medium of payment, even the possibility of monetary fraud and +monetary adulteration. Otherwise the coinage was as copious as it +was of exemplary purity. After the silver piece had been reduced +in the Hannibalic war from 1/72 (42) to 1/84 of a pound,(43) it +retained for more than three centuries quite the same weight +and the same quality; no alloying took place. The copper money +became about the beginning of this period quite restricted to +small change, and ceased to be employed as formerly in large +transactions; for this reason the -as- was no longer coined after +perhaps the beginning of the seventh century, and the copper +coinage was confined to the smaller values of a -semis- (1/4 pence) +and under, which could not well be represented in silver. +The sorts of coins were arranged according to a simple principle, +and in the then smallest coin of the ordinary issue--the -quadrans- +(1/8 pence)--carried down to the limit of appreciable value. +It was a monetary system, which, for the judicious principles +on which it was based and for the iron rigour with which they +were applied, stands alone in antiquity and has been but rarely +paralleled even in modern times. + +Yet it had also its weak point. According to a custom, common +in all antiquity, but which reached its highest development at +Carthage,(44) the Roman government issued along with the good +silver -denarii- also -denarii- of copper plated with silver, which +had to be accepted like the former and were just a token-money +analogous to our paper currency, with compulsory circulation and +recourse on the public chest, inasmuch as it also was not entitled +to reject the plated pieces. This was no more an official +adulteration of the coinage than our manufacture of paper-money, +for they practised the thing quite openly; Marcus Drusus proposed +in 663, with the view of gaining the means for his largesses of +grain, the sending forth of one plated -denarius- for every seven +silver ones issuing fresh from the mint; nevertheless this measure +not only offered a dangerous handle to private forgery, but +designedly left the public uncertain whether it was receiving +silver or token money, and to what total amount the latter was +in circulation. In the embarrassed period of the civil war and +of the great financial crisis they seem to have so unduly availed +themselves of plating, that a monetary crisis accompanied the +financial one, and the quantity of spurious and really worthless +pieces rendered dealings extremely insecure. Accordingly during +the Cinnan government an enactment was passed by the praetors and +tribunes, primarily by Marcus Marius Gratidianus,(45) for redeeming +all the token-money by silver, and for that purpose an assay-office +was established. How far the calling-in was accomplished, +tradition has not told us; the coining of token-money itself +continued to subsist. + +As to the provinces, in accordance with the setting aside of gold +money on principle, the coining of gold was nowhere permitted, not +even in the client-states; so that a gold coinage at this period +occurs only where Rome had nothing at all to say, especially among +the Celts to the north of the Cevennes and among the states in +revolt against Rome; the Italians, for instance, as well as +Mithradates Eupator struck gold coins. The government seems to +have made efforts to bring the coinage of silver also more and more +into its hands, particularly in the west. In Africa and Sardinia +the Carthaginian gold and silver money may have remained in +circulation even after the fall of the Carthaginian state; but +no coinage of precious metals took place there after either the +Carthaginian or the Roman standard, and certainly very soon after +the Romans took possession, the -denarius- introduced from Italy +acquired the predominance in the transactions of the two countries. +In Spain and Sicily, which came earlier to the Romans and +experienced altogether a milder treatment, silver was no doubt +coined under the Roman rule, and indeed in the former country the +silver coinage was first called into existence by the Romans and +based on the Roman standard;(46) but there exist good grounds for +the supposition, that even in these two countries, at least from +the beginning of the seventh century, the provincial and urban +mints were obliged to restrict their issues to copper small money. +Only in Narbonese Gaul the right of coining silver could not be +withdrawn from the old-allied and considerable free city of +Massilia; and the same was presumably true of the Greek cities in +Illyria, Apollonia and Dyrrhachium. But the privilege of these +communities to coin money was restricted indirectly by the fact, +that the three-quarter -denarius-, which by ordinance of the Roman +government was coined both at Massilia and in Illyria, and which +had been under the name of -victoriatus- received into the Roman +monetary system,(47) was about the middle of the seventh century +set aside in the latter; the effect of which necessarily was, that +the Massiliot and Illyrian currency was driven out of Upper Italy +and only remained in circulation, over and above its native field, +perhaps in the regions of the Alps and the Danube. Such progress +had thus been made already in this epoch, that the standard of the +-denarius- exclusively prevailed in the whole western division of +the Roman state; for Italy, Sicily--of which it is as respects the +beginning of the next period expressly attested, that no other +silver money circulated there but the -denarius---Sardinia, Africa, +used exclusively Roman silver money, and the provincial silver +still current in Spain as well as the silver money of the Massiliots +and Illyrians were at least struck after the standard of the -denarius-. + +It was otherwise in the east. Here, where the number of the states +coining money from olden times and the quantity of native coin in +circulation were very considerable, the -denarius- did not make its +way into wider acceptance, although it was perhaps declared a legal +tender. On the contrary either the previous monetary standard +continued in use, as in Macedonia for instance, which still as +a province--although partially adding the names of the Roman +magistrates to that of the country--struck its Attic -tetradrachmae- +and certainly employed in substance no other money; or a peculiar +money-standard corresponding to the circumstances was introduced +under Roman authority, as on the institution of the province of Asia, +when a new -stater-, the -cistophorus- as it was called, was prescribed +by the Roman government and was thenceforth struck by the district- +capitals there under Roman superintendence. This essential diversity +between the Occidental and Oriental systems of currency came to be +of the greatest historical importance: the Romanizing of the subject +lands found one of its mightiest levers in the adoption of Roman money, +and it was not through mere accident that what we have designated at +this epoch as the field of the -denarius- became afterwards the Latin, +while the field of the -drachma- became afterwards the Greek, half +of the empire. Still at the present day the former field substantially +represents the sum of Romanic culture, whereas the latter has +severed itself from European civilization. + +It is easy to form a general conception of the aspect which under +such economic conditions the social relations must have assumed; +but to follow out in detail the increase of luxury, of prices, of +fastidiousness and frivolity is neither pleasant nor instructive. +Extravagance and sensuous enjoyment formed the main object with +all, among the parvenus as well as among the Licinii and Metelli; +not the polished luxury which is the acme of civilization, but +that sort of luxury which had developed itself amidst the decaying +Hellenic civilization of Asia Minor and Alexandria, which degraded +everything beautiful and significant to the purpose of decoration +and studied enjoyment with a laborious pedantry, a precise +punctiliousness, rendering it equally nauseous to the man of fresh +feeling as to the man of fresh intellect. As to the popular +festivals, the importation of transmarine wild beasts prohibited +in the time of Cato(48) was, apparently about the middle of this +century, formally permitted anew by a decree of the burgesses +proposed by Gnaeus Aufidius; the effect of which was, that animal- +hunts came into enthusiastic favour and formed a chief feature of +the burgess-festivals. Several lions first appeared in the Roman +arena about 651, the first elephants about 655; Sulla when praetor +exhibited a hundred lions in 661. The same holds true of +gladiatorial games. If the forefathers had publicly exhibited +representations of great battles, their grandchildren began to +do the same with their gladiatorial games, and by means of such +leading or state performances of the age to make themselves a +laughing-stock to their descendants. What sums were spent on these +and on funeral solemnities generally, may be inferred from the +testament of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (consul in 567, 579; 602); +he gave orders to his children, forasmuch as the true last honours +consisted not in empty pomp but in the remembrance of personal +and ancestral services, to expend on his funeral not more than +1,000,000 -asses- (4000 pounds). Luxury was on the increase also +as respected buildings and gardens; the splendid town house of the +orator Crassus (663), famous especially for the old trees of its +garden, was valued with the trees at 6,000,000 sesterces (60,000 +pounds), without them at the half; while the value of an ordinary +dwelling-house in Rome may be estimated perhaps at 60,000 sesterces +(600 pounds).(49) How quickly the prices of ornamental estates +increased, is shown by the instance of the Misenian villa, for +which Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, paid 75,000 sesterces +(750 pounds), and Lucius Lucullus, consul in 680, thirty-three +times that price. The villas and the luxurious rural and sea- +bathing life rendered Baiae and generally the district around the +Bay of Naples the El Dorado of noble idleness. Games of hazard, +in which the stake was no longer as in the Italian dice-playing a +trifle, became common, and as early as 639 a censorial edict was +issued against them. Gauze fabrics, which displayed rather than +concealed the figure, and silken clothing began to displace the old +woollen dresses among women and even among men. Against the insane +extravagance in the employment of foreign perfumery the sumptuary +laws interfered in vain. + +But the real focus in which the brilliance of this genteel life was +concentrated was the table. Extravagant prices--as much as 100,000 +sesterces (1000 pounds)--were paid for an exquisite cook. Houses +were constructed with special reference to this object, and the +villas in particular along the coast were provided with salt-water +tanks of their own, in order that they might furnish marine fishes +and oysters at any time fresh to the table. A dinner was already +described as poor, at which the fowls were served up to the guests +entire and not merely the choice portions, and at which the guests +were expected to eat of the several dishes and not simply to taste +them. They procured at a great expense foreign delicacies and +Greek wine, which had to be sent round at least once at every +respectable repast. At banquets above all the Romans displayed +their hosts of slaves ministering to luxury, their bands of +musicians, their dancing-girls, their elegant furniture, their +carpets glittering with gold or pictorially embroidered, their +purple hangings, their antique bronzes, their rich silver plate. +Against such displays the sumptuary laws were primarily directed, +which were issued more frequently (593, 639, 665, 673) and in +greater detail than ever; a number of delicacies and wines were +therein totally prohibited, for others a maximum in weight and +price was fixed; the quantity of silver plate was likewise +restricted by law, and lastly general maximum rates were prescribed +for the expenses of ordinary and festal meals; these, for example, +were fixed in 593 at 10 and 100 sesterces (2 shillings and 1 pound) +in 673 at 30 and 300 sesterces (6 shillings and 3 pounds) +respectively. Unfortunately truth requires us to add that, of all +the Romans of rank, not more than three--and these not including +the legislators themselves--are said to have complied with these +imposing laws; and in the case of these three it was the law of the +Stoa, and not that of the state, that curtailed the bill of fare. + +It is worth while to dwell for a moment on the luxury that went +on increasing in defiance of these laws, as respects silver plate. +In the sixth century silver plate for the table was, with the +exception of the traditionary silver salt-dish, a rarity; the +Carthaginian ambassadors jested over the circumstance, that at +every house to which they were invited they had encountered the +same silver plate.(50) Scipio Aemilianus possessed not more than +32 pounds (120 pounds) in wrought silver; his nephew Quintus Fabius +(consul in 633) first brought his plate up to 1000 pounds (4000 +pounds), Marcus Drusus (tribune of the people in 663) reached +10,000 pounds (40,000 pounds); in Sulla's time there were already +counted in the capital about 150 silver state-dishes weighing 100 +pounds each, several of which brought their possessors into the +lists of proscription. To judge of the sums expended on these, +we must recollect that the workmanship also was paid for at enormous +rates; for instance Gaius Gracchus paid for choice articles of +silver fifteen times, and Lucius Crassus, consul in 659, eighteen +times the value of the metal, and the latter gave for a pair of +cups by a noted silversmith 100,000 sesterces (1000 pounds). +So it was in proportion everywhere. + +How it fared with marriage and the rearing of children, is shown +by the Gracchan agrarian laws, which first placed a premium on +these.(51) Divorce, formerly in Rome almost unheard of, was now an +everyday occurrence; while in the oldest Roman marriage the husband +had purchased his wife, it might have been proposed to the Romans +of quality in the present times that, with the view of bringing +the name into accordance with the reality, they should introduce +marriage for hire. Even a man like Metellus Macedonicus, who for +his honourable domestic life and his numerous host of children was +the admiration of his contemporaries, when censor in 623 enforced +the obligation of the burgesses to live in a state of matrimony by +describing it as an oppressive public burden, which patriots ought +nevertheless to undertake from a sense of duty.(52) + +There were, certainly, exceptions. The circles of the rural towns, +and particularly those of the larger landholders, had preserved +more faithfully the old honourable habits of the Latin nation. +In the capital, however, the Catonian opposition had become a mere +form of words; the modern tendency bore sovereign sway, and though +individuals of firm and refined organization, such as Scipio +Aemilianus, knew the art of combining Roman manners with Attic +culture, Hellenism was among the great multitude synonymous with +intellectual and moral corruption. We must never lose sight of +the reaction exercised by these social evils on political life, +if we would understand the Roman revolution. It was no matter +of indifference, that of the two men of rank, who in 662 acted +as supreme masters of morals to the community, the one publicly +reproached the other with having shed tears over the death of a +-muraena- the pride of his fishpond, and the latter retaliated on +the former that he had buried three wives and had shed tears over +none of them. It was no matter of indifference, that in 593 an +orator could make sport in the open Forum with the following +description of a senatorial civil juryman, whom the time fixed +for the cause finds amidst the circle of his boon-companions. +"They play at hazard, delicately perfumed, surrounded by their +mistresses. As the afternoon advances, they summon the servant +and bid him make enquiries on the Comitium, as to what has occurred +in the Forum, who has spoken in favour of or against the new project +of law, what tribes have voted for and what against it. At length +they go themselves to the judgment-seat, just early enough not to +bring the process down on their own neck. On the way there is no +opportunity in any retired alley which they do not avail themselves +of, for they have gorged themselves with wine. Reluctantly they +come to the tribunal and give audience to the parties. Those who +are concerned bring forward their cause. The juryman orders the +witnesses to come forward; he himself steps aside. When he returns, +he declares that he has heard everything, and asks for the documents. +He looks into the writings; he can hardly keep his eyes open for wine. +When he thereupon withdraws to consider his sentence, he says to his +boon-companions, 'What concern have I with these tiresome people? +why should we not rather go to drink a cup of mulse mixed with Greek wine, +and accompany it with a fat fieldfare and a good fish, a veritable pike +from the Tiber island?' Those who heard the orator laughed; but was it +not a very serious matter, that such things were subjects for laughter?" + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +Nationality, Religion, and Education + +Paramount Ascendency of Latinism and Hellenism + +In the great struggle of the nationalities within the wide circuit +of the Roman empire, the secondary nations seem at this period on +the wane or disappearing. The most important of them all, the +Phoenician, received through the destruction of Carthage a mortal +wound from which it slowly bled to death. The districts of Italy +which had hitherto preserved their old language and manners, +Etruria and Samnium, were not only visited by the heaviest blows +of the Sullan reaction, but were compelled also by the political +levelling of Italy to adopt the Latin language and customs in +public intercourse, so that the old native languages were reduced +to popular dialects rapidly decaying. There no longer appears +throughout the bounds of the Roman state any nationality entitled +even to compete with the Roman and the Greek. + +Latinism + +On the other hand the Latin nationality was, as respected both +the extent of its diffusion and the depth of its hold, in the most +decided ascendant. As after the Social war any portion of Italian +soil might belong to any Italian in full Roman ownership, and any +god of an Italian temple might receive Roman gifts; as in all +Italy, with the exception of the region beyond the Po, the Roman +law thenceforth had exclusive authority, superseding all other +civic and local laws; so the Roman language at that time became +the universal language of business, and soon likewise the universal +language of cultivated intercourse, in the whole peninsula from the +Alps to the Sicilian Straits. But it no longer restricted itself +to these natural limits. The mass of capital accumulating in +Italy, the riches of its products, the intelligence of its +agriculturists, the versatility of its merchants, found no adequate +scope in the peninsula; these circumstances and the public service +carried the Italians in great numbers to the provinces.(1) Their +privileged position there rendered the Roman language and the Roman +law privileged also, even where Romans were not merely transacting +business with each other.(2) Everywhere the Italians kept together +as compact and organized masses, the soldiers in their legions, the +merchants of every larger town as special corporations, the Roman +burgesses domiciled or sojourning in the particular provincial +court-district as "circuits" (-conventus civium Romanorum-) with +their own list of jurymen and in some measure with a communal +constitution; and, though these provincial Romans ordinarily +returned sooner or later to Italy, they nevertheless gradually +laid the foundations of a fixed population in the provinces, +partly Roman, partly mixed, attaching itself to the Roman settlers. +We have already mentioned that it was in Spain, where the Roman army +first became a standing one, that distinct provincial towns with +Italian constitution were first organized--Carteia in 583,(3) +Valentia in 616,(4) and at a later date Palma and Pollentia.(5) +Although the interior was still far from civilized,--the territory +of the Vaccaeans, for instance, being still mentioned long after +this time as one of the rudest and most repulsive places of abode +for the cultivated Italian--authors and inscriptions attest that as +early as the middle of the seventh century the Latin language was +in common use around New Carthage and elsewhere along the coast. +Gracchus first distinctly developed the idea of colonizing, or in +other words of Romanizing, the provinces of the Roman state by +Italian emigration, and endeavoured to carry it out; and, although +the conservative opposition resisted the bold project, destroyed +for the most part its attempted beginnings, and prevented its +continuation, yet the colony of Narbo was preserved, important even +of itself as extending the domain of the Latin tongue, and far more +important still as the landmark of a great idea, the foundation- +stone of a mighty structure to come. The ancient Gallic, and in +fact the modern French, type of character, sprang out of that +settlement, and are in their ultimate origin creations of Gaius +Gracchus. But the Latin nationality not only filled the bounds +of Italy and began to pass beyond them; it came also to acquire +intrinsically a deeper intellectual basis. We find it in the +course of creating a classical literature, and a higher instruction +of its own; and, though in comparison with the Hellenic classics +and Hellenic culture we may feel ourselves tempted to attach little +value to the feeble hothouse products of Italy, yet, so far as its +historical development was primarily concerned, the quality of +the Latin classical literature and the Latin culture was of far +less moment than the fact that they subsisted side by side with +the Greek; and, sunken as were the contemporary Hellenes in a +literary point of view, one might well apply in this case also +the saying of the poet, that the living day-labourer is better +than the dead Achilles. + +Hellenism + +But, however rapidly and vigorously the Latin language and +nationality gain ground, they at the same time recognize the +Hellenic nationality as having an entirely equal, indeed an earlier +and better title, and enter everywhere into the closest alliance +with it or become intermingled with it in a joint development. +The Italian revolution, which otherwise levelled all the non-Latin +nationalities in the peninsula, did not disturb the Greek cities of +Tarentum, Rhegium, Neapolis, Locri.(6) In like manner Massilia, +although now enclosed by Roman territory, remained continuously +a Greek city and, just as such, firmly connected with Rome. With +the complete Latinizing of Italy the growth of Hellenizing went hand +in hand. In the higher circles of Italian society Greek training +became an integral element of their native culture. The consul of 623, +the -pontifex maximus- Publius Crassus, excited the astonishment even +of the native Greeks, when as governor of Asia he delivered his judicial +decisions, as the case required, sometimes in ordinary Greek, sometimes +in one of the four dialects which had become written languages. And if +the Italian literature and art for long looked steadily towards the east, +Hellenic literature and art now began to look towards the west. Not only +did the Greek cities in Italy continue to maintain an active intellectual +intercourse with Greece, Asia Minor, and Egypt, and confer on the +Greek poets and actors who had acquired celebrity there the like +recognition and the like honours among themselves; in Rome also, +after the example set by the destroyer of Corinth at his triumph +in 608, the gymnastic and aesthetic recreations of the Greeks-- +competitions in wrestling as well as in music, acting, reciting, +and declaiming--came into vogue.(7) Greek men of letters even thus +early struck root in the noble society of Rome, especially in the +Scipionic circle, the most prominent Greek members of which--the +historian Polybius and the philosopher Panaetius--belong rather to +the history of Roman than of Greek development. But even in other +less illustrious circles similar relations occur; we may mention +another contemporary of Scipio, the philosopher Clitomachus, +because his life at the same time presents a vivid view of the +great intermingling of nations at this epoch. A native of +Carthage, then a disciple of Carneades at Athens, and afterwards +his successor in his professorship, Clitomachus held intercourse +from Athens with the most cultivated men of Italy, the historian +Aulus Albinus and the poet Lucilius, and dedicated on the one hand +a scientific work to Lucius Censorinus the Roman consul who opened +the siege of Carthage, and on the other hand a philosophic +consolatory treatise to his fellow-citizens who were conveyed to +Italy as slaves. While Greek literary men of note had hitherto +taken up their abode temporarily in Rome as ambassadors, exiles, +or otherwise, they now began to settle there; for instance, the +already-mentioned Panaetius lived in the house of Scipio, and +the hexameter-maker Archias of Antioch settled at Rome in 652 and +supported himself respectably by the art of improvising and by epic +poems on Roman consulars. Even Gaius Marius, who hardly understood +a line of his -carmen- and was altogether as ill adapted as +possible for a Maecenas, could not avoid patronizing the artist +in verse. While intellectual and literary life thus brought the +more genteel, if not the purer, elements of the two nations into +connection with each other, on the other hand the arrival of troops +of slaves from Asia Minor and Syria and the mercantile immigration +from the Greek and half-Greek east brought the coarsest strata of +Hellenism--largely alloyed with Oriental and generally barbaric +ingredients--into contact with the Italian proletariate, and gave +to that also a Hellenic colouring. The remark of Cicero, that new +phrases and new fashions first make their appearance in maritime +towns, probably had a primary reference to the semi-Hellenic +character of Ostia, Puteoli, and Brundisium, where with foreign +wares foreign manners also first found admission and became thence +more widely diffused. + +Mixture of Peoples + +The immediate result of this complete revolution in the relations +of nationality was certainly far from pleasing. Italy swarmed with +Greeks, Syrians, Phoenicians, Jews, Egyptians, while the provinces +swarmed with Romans; sharply defined national peculiarities +everywhere came into mutual contact, and were visibly worn off; it +seemed as if nothing was to be left behind but the general impress +of utilitarianism. What the Latin character gained in diffusion +it lost in freshness; especially in Rome itself, where the middle +class disappeared the soonest and most entirely, and nothing was +left but the grandees and the beggars, both in like measure +cosmopolitan. Cicero assures us that about 660 the general culture +in the Latin towns stood higher than in Rome; and this is confirmed +by the literature of this period, whose most pleasing, healthiest, +and most characteristic products, such as the national comedy and +the Lucilian satire, are with greater justice described as Latin, +than as Roman. That the Italian Hellenism of the lower orders was +in reality nothing but a repulsive cosmopolitanism tainted at once +with all the extravagances of culture and with a superficially +whitewashed barbarism, is self-evident; but even in the case of +the better society the fine taste of the Scipionic circle did not +remain the permanent standard. The more the mass of society began +to take interest in Greek life, the more decidedly it resorted not +to the classical literature, but to the most modern and frivolous +productions of the Greek mind; instead of moulding the Roman +character in the Hellenic spirit, they contented themselves with +borrowing that sort of pastime which set their own intellect to +work as little as possible. In this sense the Arpinate landlord +Marcus Cicero, the father of the orator, said that among the +Romans, just as among Syrian slaves, each was the less worth, +the more he understood Greek. + +National Decomposition + +This national decomposition is, like the whole age, far from +pleasing, but also like that age significant and momentous. +The circle of peoples, which we are accustomed to call the ancient +world, advances from an outward union under the authority of Rome +to an inward union under the sway of the modern culture resting +essentially on Hellenic elements. Over the ruins of peoples of the +second rank the great historical compromise between the two ruling +nations is silently completed; the Greek and Latin nationalities +conclude mutual peace. The Greeks renounce exclusive claims for +their language in the field of culture, as do the Romans for theirs +in the field of politics; in instruction Latin is allowed to stand +on a footing of equality--restricted, it is true, and imperfect-- +with Greek; on the other hand Sulla first allows foreign ambassadors +to speak Greek before the Roman senate without an interpreter. +The time heralds its approach, when the Roman commonwealth will +pass into a bilingual state and the true heir of the throne and +the ideas of Alexander the Great will arise in the west, at once +a Roman and a Greek. + +The suppression of the secondary, and the mutual interpenetration +of the two primary nationalities, which are thus apparent on a +general survey of national relations, now fall to be more precisely +exhibited in detail in the several fields of religion, national +education, literature, and art. + +Religion + +The Roman religion was so intimately interwoven with the Roman +commonwealth and the Roman household--so thoroughly in fact the +pious reflection of the Roman burgess-world--that the political +and social revolution necessarily overturned also the fabric of +religion. The ancient Italian popular faith fell to the ground; +over its ruins rose--like the oligarchy and the -tyrannis- rising +over the ruins of the political commonwealth--on the one side +unbelief, state-religion, Hellenism, and on the other side +superstition, sectarianism, the religion of the Orientals, The +germs certainly of both, as indeed the germs of the politico-social +revolution also, may be traced back to the previous epoch (iii. +109-117). Even then the Hellenic culture of the higher circles was +secretly undermining their ancestral faith; Ennius introduced the +allegorizing and historical versions of the Hellenic religion into +Italy; the senate, which subdued Hannibal, had to sanction the +transference of the worship of Cybele from Asia Minor to Rome, +and to take the most serious steps against other still worse +superstitions, particularly the Bacchanalian scandal. But, as +during the preceding period the revolution generally was rather +preparing its way in men's minds than assuming outward shape, so +the religious revolution was in substance, at any rate, the work +only of the Gracchan and Sullan age. + +Greek Philosophy + +Let us endeavour first to trace the tendency associating itself +with Hellenism. The Hellenic nation, which bloomed and faded far +earlier than the Italian, had long ago passed the epoch of faith +and thenceforth moved exclusively in the sphere of speculation and +reflection; for long there had been no religion there--nothing but +philosophy. But even the philosophic activity of the Hellenic mind +had, when it began to exert influence on Rome, already left the +epoch of productive speculation far behind it, and had arrived at +the stage at which there is not only no origination of truly new +systems, but even the power of apprehending the more perfect of +the older systems begins to wane and men restrict themselves to the +repetition, soon passing into the scholastic tradition, of the less +complete dogmas of their predecessors; at that stage, accordingly, +when philosophy, instead of giving greater depth and freedom to +the mind, rather renders it shallow and imposes on it the worst of +all chains--chains of its own forging. The enchanted draught of +speculation, always dangerous, is, when diluted and stale, certain +poison. The contemporary Greeks presented it thus flat and diluted +to the Romans, and these had not the judgment either to refuse it +or to go back from the living schoolmasters to the dead masters. +Plato and Aristotle, to say nothing of the sages before Socrates, +remained without material influence on the Roman culture, although +their illustrious names were freely used, and their more easily +understood writings were probably read and translated. Accordingly +the Romans became in philosophy simply inferior scholars of bad +teachers. + +Leading Schools +Newer Academy +Epicurus and Zeno + +Besides the historico-rationalistic conception of religion, which +resolved the myths into biographies of various benefactors of the +human race living in the grey dawn of early times whom superstition +had transformed into gods, or Euhemerism as it was called,(8) there +were chiefly three philosophical schools that came to be of +importance for Italy; viz. the two dogmatic schools of Epicurus +(484) and Zeno (491) and the sceptical school of Arcesilaus (513) +and Carneades (541-625), or, to use the school-names, Epicureanism, +the Stoa, and the newer Academy. The last of these schools, which +started from the impossibility of assured knowledge and in its +stead conceded as possible only a provisional opinion sufficient +for practical needs, presented mainly a polemical aspect, seeing +that it caught every proposition of positive faith or of +philosophic dogmatism in the meshes of its dilemmas. So far it +stands nearly on a parallel with the older method of the sophists; +except that, as may be conceived, the sophists made war more +against the popular faith, Carneades and his disciples more against +their philosophical colleagues. On the other hand Epicurus and +Zeno agreed both in their aim of rationally explaining the nature +of things, and in their physiological method, which set out from +the conception of matter. They diverged, in so far as Epicurus, +following the atomic theory of Democritus, conceived the first +principle as rigid matter, and evolved the manifoldness of things +out of this matter merely by mechanical variations; whereas Zeno, +forming his views after the Ephesian Heraclitus, introduces even +into his primordial matter a dynamic antagonism and a movement +of fluctuation up and down. From this are derived the further +distinctions--that in the Epicurean system the gods as it were did +not exist or were at the most a dream of dreams, while the Stoical +gods formed the ever-active soul of the world, and were as spirit, +as sun, as God powerful over the body, the earth, and nature; that +Epicurus did not, while Zeno did, recognize a government of the +world and a personal immortality of the soul; that the proper +object of human aspiration was according to Epicurus an absolute +equilibrium disturbed neither by bodily desire nor by mental +conflict, while it was according to Zeno a manly activity always +increased by the constant antagonistic efforts of the mind and +body, and striving after a harmony with nature perpetually in +conflict and perpetually at peace. But in one point all these +schools were agreed with reference to religion, that faith as such +was nothing, and had necessarily to be supplemented by reflection-- +whether this reflection might consciously despair of attaining any +result, as did the Academy; or might reject the conceptions of +the popular faith, as did the school of Epicurus; or might partly +retain them with explanation of the reasons for doing so, and +partly modify them, as did the Stoics. + +Carneades at Rome + +It was accordingly only a natural result, that the first contact of +Hellenic philosophy with the Roman nation equally firm in faith and +adverse to speculation should be of a thoroughly hostile character. +The Roman religion was entirely right in disdaining alike the +assaults and the reasoned support of these philosophical systems, +both of which did away with its proper character. The Roman state, +which instinctively felt itself assailed when religion was +attacked, reasonably assumed towards the philosophers the attitude +which a fortress assumes towards the spies of the army advancing +to besiege it, and as early as 593 dismissed the Greek philosophers +along with the rhetoricians from Rome. In fact the very first +debut of philosophy on a great scale in Rome was a formal +declaration of war against faith and morals. It was occasioned +by the occupation of Oropus by the Athenians, a step which they +commissioned three of the most esteemed professors of philosophy, +including Carneades the master of the modern sophistical school, +to justify before the senate (599). The selection was so far +appropriate, as the utterly scandalous transaction defied any +justification in common sense; whereas it was quite in keeping with +the circumstances of the case, when Carneades proved by thesis and +counter-thesis that exactly as many and as cogent reasons might be +adduced in praise of injustice as in praise of justice, and when +he showed in the best logical form that with equal propriety the +Athenians might be required to surrender Oropus and the Romans +to confine themselves once more to their old straw huts on the +Palatine. The young men who were masters of the Greek language +were attracted in crowds by the scandal as well as by the rapid and +emphatic delivery of the celebrated man; but on this occasion at +least Cato could not be found fault with, when he not only bluntly +enough compared the dialectic arguments of the philosophers to +the tedious dirges of the wailing-women, but also insisted on the +senate dismissing a man who understood the art of making right +wrong and wrong right, and whose defence was in fact nothing but +a shameless and almost insulting confession of wrong. But such +dismissals had no great effect, more especially as the Roman youth +could not be prevented from hearing philosophic discourses at +Rhodes and Athens. Men became accustomed first to tolerate +philosophy at least as a necessary evil, and ere long to seek for +the Roman religion, which in its simplicity was no longer tenable, +a support in foreign philosophy--a support which no doubt ruined +it as faith, but in return at any rate allowed the man of culture +decorously to retain in some measure the names and forms of the +popular creed. But this support could neither be Euhemerism, nor +the system of Carneades or of Epicurus. + +Euhemerism Not an Adequate Support + +The historical version of the myths came far too rudely into +collision with the popular faith, when it declared the gods +directly to be men; Carneades called even their existence in +question, and Epicurus denied to them at least any influence on +the destinies of men. Between these systems and the Roman religion +no alliance was possible; they were proscribed and remained so. +Even in the writings of Cicero it is declared the duty of a citizen +to resist Euhemerism as prejudicial to religious worship; and if the +Academic and the Epicurean appear in his dialogues, the former has +to plead the excuse that, while as a philosopher he is a disciple +of Carneades, as a citizen and -pontifex- he is an orthodox +confessor of the Capitoline Jupiter, and the Epicurean has even +ultimately to surrender and be converted. No one of these three +systems became in any proper sense popular. The plain intelligible +character of Euhemerism exerted doubtless a certain power of +attraction over the Romans, and in particular produced only too +deep an effect on the conventional history of Rome with its at +once childish and senile conversion of fable into history; but it +remained without material influence on the Roman religion, because +the latter from the first dealt only in allegory and not in fable, +and it was not possible in Rome as in Hellas to write biographies +of Zeus the first, second, and third. The modern sophistry could +only succeed where, as in Athens, clever volubility was indigenous, +and where, moreover, the long series of philosophical systems that +had come and gone had accumulated huge piles of intellectual +rubbish. Against the Epicurean quietism, in fine, everything +revolted that was sound and honest in the Roman character so +thoroughly addressing itself to action. Yet it found more +partisans than Euhemerism and the sophistic school, and this was +probably the reason why the police continued to wage war against +it longest and most seriously. But this Roman Epicureanism was not +so much a philosophic system as a sort of philosophic mask, under +which--very much against the design of its strictly moral founder-- +thoughtless sensual enjoyment disguised itself for good society; +one of the earliest adherents of this sect, for instance, Titus +Albucius, figures in the poems of Lucilius as the prototype of +a Roman Hellenizing to bad purpose. + +Roman Stoa + +Far different were the position and influence of the Stoic +philosophy in Italy. In direct contrast to these schools it +attached itself to the religion of the land as closely as science +can at all accommodate itself to faith. To the popular faith with +its gods and oracles the Stoic adhered on principle, in so far as +he recognized in it an instinctive knowledge, to which scientific +knowledge was bound to have regard and even in doubtful cases +to subordinate itself. He believed in a different way from +the people rather than in different objects; the essentially true +and supreme God was in his view doubtless the world-soul, but every +manifestation of the primitive God was in its turn divine, the +stars above all, but also the earth, the vine, the soul of the +illustrious mortal whom the people honoured as a hero, and in fact +every departed spirit of a former man. This philosophy was really +better adapted for Rome than for the land where it first arose. +The objection of the pious believer, that the god of the Stoic had +neither sex nor age nor corporeality and was converted from a +person into a conception, had a meaning in Greece, but not in +Rome. The coarse allegorizing and moral purification, which were +characteristic of the Stoical doctrine of the gods, destroyed the +very marrow of the Hellenic mythology; but the plastic power of the +Romans, scanty even in their epoch of simplicity, had produced no +more than a light veil enveloping the original intuition or the +original conception, out of which the divinity had arisen--a veil +that might be stripped off without special damage. Pallas Athene +might be indignant, when she found herself suddenly transmuted into +the conception of memory: Minerva had hitherto been in reality not +much more. The supernatural Stoic, and the allegoric Roman, +theology coincided on the whole in their result. But, even if +the philosopher was obliged to designate individual propositions +of the priestly lore as doubtful or as erroneous--as when the Stoics, +for example, rejecting the doctrine of apotheosis, saw in Hercules, +Castor, and Pollux nothing but the spirits of distinguished men, or +as when they could not allow the images of the gods to be regarded +as representations of divinity--it was at least not the habit of +the adherents of Zeno to make war on these erroneous doctrines +and to overthrow the false gods; on the contrary, they everywhere +evinced respect and reverence for the religion of the land even +in its weaknesses. The inclination also of the Stoa towards a +casuistic morality and towards a systematic treatment of the +professional sciences was quite to the mind of the Romans, +especially of the Romans of this period, who no longer like their +fathers practised in unsophisticated fashion self-government and +good morals, but resolved the simple morality of their ancestors +into a catechism of allowable and non-allowable actions; whose +grammar and jurisprudence, moreover, urgently demanded a methodical +treatment, without possessing the ability to develop such a +treatment of themselves. + +Wide Influence of Stoicism +Panaetius + +So this philosophy thoroughly incorporated itself, as a plant +borrowed no doubt from abroad but acclimatized on Italian soil, +with the Roman national economy, and we meet its traces in the +most diversified spheres of action. Its earliest appearance beyond +doubt goes further back; but the Stoa was first raised to full +influence in the higher ranks of Roman society by means of the +group which gathered round Scipio Aemilianus. Panaetius of Rhodes, +the instructor of Scipio and of all Scipio's intimate friends in +the Stoic philosophy, who was constantly in his train and usually +attended him even on journeys, knew how to adapt the system to +clever men of the world, to keep its speculative side in the +background, and to modify in some measure the dryness of the +terminology and the insipidity of its moral catechism, more +particularly by calling in the aid of the earlier philosophers, +among whom Scipio himself had an especial predilection for the +Socrates of Xenophon. Thenceforth the most noted statesmen and +scholars professed the Stoic philosophy--among others Stilo and +Quintus Scaevola, the founders of scientific philology and of +scientific jurisprudence. The scholastic formality of system, +which thenceforth prevails at least externally in these +professional sciences and is especially associated with a fanciful, +charade-like, insipid method of etymologizing, descends from the +Stoa. But infinitely more important was the new state-philosophy +and state-religion, which emanated from the blending of the Stoic +philosophy and the Roman religion. The speculative element, from +the first impressed with but little energy on the system of Zeno, +and still further weakened when that system found admission to +Rome--after the Greek schoolmasters had already for a century been +busied in driving this philosophy into boys' heads and thereby +driving the spirit out of it--fell completely into the shade in +Rome, where nobody speculated but the money-changers; little more +was said as to the ideal development of the God ruling in the soul +of man, or of the divine world-law. The Stoic philosophers showed +themselves not insensible to the very lucrative distinction of +seeing their system raised into the semi-official Roman state- +philosophy, and proved altogether more pliant than from their +rigorous principles we should have expected. Their doctrine as to +the gods and the state soon exhibited a singular family resemblance +to the actual institutions of those who gave them bread; instead of +illustrating the cosmopolitan state of the philosopher, they made +their meditations turn on the wise arrangement of the Roman +magistracies; and while the more refined Stoics such as Panaetius +had left the question of divine revelation by wonders and signs +open as a thing conceivable but uncertain, and had decidedly +rejected astrology, his immediate successors contended for that +doctrine of revelation or, in other words, for the Roman augural +discipline as rigidly and firmly as for any other maxim of the +school, and made extremely unphilosophical concessions even to +astrology. The leading feature of the system came more and more +to be its casuistic doctrine of duties. It suited itself to the +hollow pride of virtue, in which the Romans of this period sought +their compensation amidst the various humbling circumstances of +their contact with the Greeks; and it put into formal shape a +befitting dogmatism of morality, which, like every well-bred system +of morals, combined with the most rigid precision as a whole the +most complaisant indulgence in the details.(9) Its practical +results can hardly be estimated as much more than that, as +we have said, two or three families of rank ate poor fare +to please the Stoa. + +State-Religion + +Closely allied to this new state-philosophy--or, strictly speaking, +its other side--was the new state-religion; the essential +characteristic of which was the conscious retention, for reasons of +outward convenience, of the principles of the popular faith, which +were recognized as irrational. One of the most prominent men of +the Scipionic circle, the Greek Polybius, candidly declares that +the strange and ponderous ceremonial of Roman religion was invented +solely on account of the multitude, which, as reason had no power +over it, required to be ruled by signs and wonders, while people of +intelligence had certainly no need of religion. Beyond doubt the +Roman friends of Polybius substantially shared these sentiments, +although they did not oppose science and religion to each other +in so gross and downright a fashion. Neither Laelius nor Scipio +Aemilianus can have looked on the augural discipline, which +Polybius has primarily in view, as anything else than a political +institution; yet the national spirit in them was too strong and +their sense of decorum too delicate to have permitted their coming +forward in public with such hazardous explanations. But even in +the following generation the -pontifex maximus- Quintus Scaevola +(consul in 659;(10)) set forth at least in his oral instructions in +law without hesitation the propositions, that there were two sorts +of religion--one philosophic, adapted to the intellect, and one +traditional, not so adapted; that the former was not fitted for +the religion of the state, as it contained various things which +it was useless or even injurious for the people to know; and that +accordingly the traditional religion of the state ought to remain +as it stood. The theology of Varro, in which the Roman religion +is treated throughout as a state institution, is merely a further +development of the same principle. The state, according to his +teaching, was older than the gods of the state as the painter is +older than the picture; if the question related to making the gods +anew, it would certainly be well to make and to name them after a +manner more befitting and more in theoretic accordance with the +parts of the world-soul, and to lay aside the images of the gods +which only excited erroneous ideas,(11) and the mistaken system of +sacrifice; but, since these institutions had been once established, +every good citizen ought to own and follow them and do his part, +that the "common man" might learn rather to set a higher value on, +than to contemn, the gods. That the common man, for whose benefit +the grandees thus surrendered their judgment, now despised this +faith and sought his remedy elsewhere, was a matter of course and +will be seen in the sequel. Thus then the Roman "high church" +was ready, a sanctimonious body of priests and Levites, and an +unbelieving people. The more openly the religion of the land was +declared a political institution, the more decidedly the political +parties regarded the field of the state-church as an arena for +attack and defence; which was especially, in a daily-increasing +measure, the case with augural science and with the elections to +the priestly colleges. The old and natural practice of dismissing +the burgess-assembly, when a thunderstorm came on, had in the hands +of the Roman augurs grown into a prolix system of various celestial +omens and rules of conduct associated therewith; in the earlier +portion of this period it was even directly enacted by the Aelian +and Fufian law, that every popular assembly should be compelled +to disperse if it should occur to any of the higher magistrates +to look for signs of a thunderstorm in the sky; and the Roman +oligarchy was proud of the cunning device which enabled them +thenceforth by a single pious fraud to impress the stamp of +invalidity on any decree of the people. + +Priestly Colleges + +Conversely, the Roman opposition rebelled against the ancient +practice under which the four principal colleges of priests filled +up their own ranks when vacancies arose, and demanded the extension +of popular election to the stalls themselves, as it had been +previously introduced with reference to the presidents, of these +colleges.(12) This was certainly inconsistent with the spirit of +these corporations; but they had no right to complain of it, after +they had become themselves untrue to their spirit, and had played +into the hands of the government at its request by furnishing +religious pretexts for the annulling of political proceedings. +This affair became an apple of contention between the parties: +the senate beat off the first attack in 609, on which occasion the +Scipionic circle especially turned the scale for the rejection of +the proposal; on the other hand the project passed in 650 with the +proviso already made in reference to the election of the presidents +for the benefit of scrupulous consciences, that not the whole +burgesses but only the lesser half of the tribes should make +the election;(13) finally Sulla restored the right of co-optation +in its full extent.(14) + +Practical Use Made of Religion + +With this care on the part of the conservatives for the pure +national religion, it was of course quite compatible that the +circles of the highest rank should openly make a jest of it. +The practical side of the Roman priesthood was the priestly cuisine; +the augural and pontifical banquets were as it were the official +gala-days in the life of a Roman epicure, and several of them +formed epochs in the history of gastronomy: the banquet on the +accession of the augur Quintus Hortensius for instance brought +roast peacocks into vogue. Religion was also found very useful +in giving greater zest to scandal. It was a favourite recreation +of the youth of quality to disfigure or mutilate the images of the +gods in the streets by night.(15) Ordinary love affairs had for +long been common, and intrigues with married women began to become +so; but an amour with a Vestal virgin was as piquant as the +intrigues with nuns and the cloister-adventures in the world of +the Decamerone. The scandalous affair of 640 seq. is well known, +in which three Vestals, daughters of the noblest families, and their +paramours, young men likewise of the best houses, were brought to +trial for unchastity first before the pontifical college, and then, +when it sought to hush up the matter, before an extraordinary court +instituted by special decree of the people, and were all condemned +to death. Such scandals, it is true, sedate people could not +approve; but there was no objection to men finding positive +religion to be a folly in their familiar circle; the augurs might, +when one saw another performing his functions, smile in each +other's face without detriment to their religious duties. We learn +to look favourably on the modest hypocrisy of kindred tendencies, +when we compare with it the coarse shamelessness of the Roman +priests and Levites. The official religion was quite candidly +treated as a hollow framework, now serviceable only for political +machinists; in this respect with its numerous recesses and trapdoors +it might and did serve either party, as it happened. Most of +all certainly the oligarchy recognized its palladium in the state- +religion, and particularly in the augural discipline; but the +opposite party also made no resistance in point of principle to +an institute, which had now merely a semblance of life; they rather +regarded it, on the whole, as a bulwark which might pass from the +possession of the enemy into their own. + +Oriental Religions in Italy + +In sharp contrast to this ghost of religion which we have just +described stand the different foreign worships, which this epoch +cherished and fostered, and which were at least undeniably +possessed of a very decided vitality. They meet us everywhere, +among genteel ladies and lords as well as among the circles of +the slaves, in the general as in the trooper, in Italy as in the +provinces. It is incredible to what a height this superstition +already reached. When in the Cimbrian war a Syrian prophetess, +Martha, offered to furnish the senate with ways and means for the +vanquishing of the Germans, the senate dismissed her with contempt; +nevertheless the Roman matrons and Marius' own wife in particular +despatched her to his head-quarters, where the general readily +received her and carried her about with him till the Teutones were +defeated. The leaders of very different parties in the civil war, +Marius, Octavius, Sulla, coincided in believing omens and oracles. +During its course even the senate was under the necessity, in the +troubles of 667, of consenting to issue directions in accordance +with the fancies of a crazy prophetess. It is significant of +the ossification of the Romano-Hellenic religion as well as of +the increased craving of the multitude after stronger religious +stimulants, that superstition no longer, as in the Bacchic +mysteries, associates itself with the national religion; even +the Etruscan mysticism is already left behind; the worships matured +in the sultry regions of the east appear throughout in the foremost +rank. The copious introduction of elements from Asia Minor and +Syria into the population, partly by the import of slaves, partly +by the augmented traffic of Italy with the east, contributed very +greatly to this result. + +The power of these foreign religions is very distinctly apparent +in the revolts of the Sicilian slaves, who for the most part were +natives of Syria. Eunus vomited fire, Athenion read the stars; +the plummets thrown by the slaves in these wars bear in great part +the names of gods, those of Zeus and Artemis, and especially that +of the mysterious Mother who had migrated from Crete to Sicily and +was zealously worshipped there. A similar effect was produced by +commercial intercourse, particularly after the wares of Berytus and +Alexandria were conveyed directly to the Italian ports; Ostia and +Puteoli became the great marts not only for Syrian unguents and +Egyptian linen, but also for the faith of the east. Everywhere +the mingling of religions was constantly on the increase along with +the mingling of nations. Of all allowed worships the most popular +was that of the Pessinuntine Mother of the Gods, which made a deep +impression on the multitude by its eunuch-celibacy, its banquets, +its music, its begging processions, and all its sensuous pomp; the +collections from house to house were already felt as an economic +burden. In the most dangerous time of the Cimbrian war Battaces +the high-priest of Pessinus appeared in person at Rome, in order +to defend the interests of the temple of his goddess there which +was alleged to have been profaned, addressed the Roman people by +the special orders of the Mother of the Gods, and performed also +various miracles. Men of sense were scandalized, but the women +and the great multitude were not to be debarred from escorting +the prophet at his departure in great crowds. Vows of pilgrimage +to the east were already no longer uncommon; Marius himself, for +instance, thus undertook a pilgrimage to Pessinus; in fact even +thus early (first in 653) Roman burgesses devoted themselves +to the eunuch-priesthood. + +Secret Worships + +But the unallowed and secret worships were naturally still more +popular. As early as Cato's time the Chaldean horoscope-caster had +begun to come into competition with the Etruscan -haruspex- and the +Marsian bird-seer;(16) star-gazing and astrology were soon as much +at home in Italy as in their dreamy native land. In 615 the Roman +-praetor peregrinus- directed all the Chaldeans to evacuate Rome +and Italy within ten days. The same fate at the same time befel +the Jews, who had admitted Italian proselytes to their sabbath. +In like manner Scipio had to clear the camp before Numantia from +soothsayers and pious impostors of every sort. Some forty years +afterwards (657) it was even found necessary to prohibit human +sacrifices. The wild worship of the Cappadocian Ma, or, as the +Romans called her, Bellona, to whom the priests in their festal +processions shed their own blood as a sacrifice, and the gloomy +Egyptian worships began to make their appearance; the former +Cappadocian goddess appeared in a dream to Sulla, and of the later +Roman communities of Isis and Osiris the oldest traced their origin +to the Sullan period. Men had become perplexed not merely as to +the old faith, but as to their very selves; the fearful crises of a +fifty years' revolution, the instinctive feeling that the civil war +was still far from being at an end, increased the anxious suspense, +the gloomy perplexity of the multitude. Restlessly the wandering +imagination climbed every height and fathomed every abyss, where it +fancied that it might discover new prospects or new light amidst +the fatalities impending, might gain fresh hopes in the desperate +struggle against destiny, or perhaps might find merely fresh +alarms. A portentous mysticism found in the general distraction-- +political, economic, moral, religious--the soil which was adapted +for it, and grew with alarming rapidity; it was as if gigantic +trees had grown by night out of the earth, none knew whence +or whither, and this very marvellous rapidity of growth +worked new wonders and seized like an epidemic on all minds +not thoroughly fortified. + +Education + +Just as in the sphere of religion, the revolution begun in the +previous epoch was now completed also in the sphere of education +and culture. We have already shown how the fundamental idea of +the Roman system--civil equality--had already during the sixth +century begun to be undermined in this field also. Even in the +time of Pictor and Cato Greek culture was widely diffused in Rome, +and there was a native Roman culture; but neither of them had then +got beyond the initial stage. Cato's encyclopaedia shows tolerably +what was understood at this period by a Romano-Greek model +training;(16) it was little more than an embodiment of the +knowledge of the old Roman householder, and truly, when compared +with the Hellenic culture of the period, scanty enough. At how +low a stage the average instruction of youth in Rome still stood +at the beginning of the seventh century, may be inferred from +the expressions of Polybius, who in this one respect prominently +censures the criminal indifference of the Romans as compared +with the intelligent private and public care of his countrymen; +no Hellene, not even Polybius himself, could rightly enter +into the deeper idea of civil equality that lay at the root +of this indifference. + +Now the case was altered. Just as the naive popular faith was +superseded by an enlightened Stoic supernaturalism, so in education +alongside of the simple popular instruction a special training, an +exclusive -humanitas-, developed itself and eradicated the last +remnants of the old social equality. It will not be superfluous +to cast a glance at the aspect assumed by the new instruction of +the young, both the Greek and the higher Latin. + +Greek Instruction + +It was a singular circumstance that the same man, who in a +political point of view definitively vanquished the Hellenic +nation, Lucius Aemilius Paullus, was at the same time the first or +one of the first who fully recognized the Hellenic civilization as-- +what it has thenceforth continued to be beyond dispute--the +civilization of the ancient world. He was himself indeed an old +man before it was granted to him, with the Homeric poems in his +mind, to stand before the Zeus of Phidias; but his heart was young +enough to carry home the full sunshine of Hellenic beauty and the +unconquerable longing after the golden apples of the Hesperides +in his soul; poets and artists had found in the foreigner a more +earnest and cordial devotee than was any of the wise men of the +Greece of those days. He made no epigram on Homer or Phidias, +but he had his children introduced into the realms of intellect. +Without neglecting their national education, so far as there +was such, he made provision like the Greeks for the physical +development of his boys, not indeed by gymnastic exercises which +were according to Roman notions inadmissible, but by instruction in +the chase, which was among the Greeks developed almost like an art; +and he elevated their Greek instruction in such a way that the +language was no longer merely learned and practised for the sake +of speaking, but after the Greek fashion the whole subject-matter +of general higher culture was associated with the language and +developed out of it--embracing, first of all, the knowledge of +Greek literature with the mythological and historical information +necessary for understanding it, and then rhetoric and philosophy. +The library of king Perseus was the only portion of the Macedonian +spoil that Paullus took for himself, with the view of presenting it +to his sons. Even Greek painters and sculptors were found in his +train and completed the aesthetic training of his children. That +the time was past when men could in this field preserve a merely +repellent attitude as regarded Hellenism, had been felt even by +Cato; the better classes had probably now a presentiment that the +noble substance of Roman character was less endangered by Hellenism +as a whole, than by Hellenism mutilated and misshapen: the mass of +the upper society of Rome and Italy went along with the new mode. +There had been for long no want of Greek schoolmasters in Rome; now +they arrived in troops--and as teachers not merely of the language +but of literature and culture in general--at the newly-opened +lucrative market for the sale of their wisdom. Greek tutors and +teachers of philosophy, who, even if they were not slaves, were +as a rule accounted as servants,(17) were now permanent inmates +in the palaces of Rome; people speculated in them, and there is +a statement that 200,000 sesterces (2000 pounds) were paid for +a Greek literary slave of the first rank. As early as 593 there +existed in the capital a number of special establishments for +the practice of Greek declamation. Several distinguished names +already occur among these Roman teachers; the philosopher Panaetius +has been already mentioned;(18) the esteemed grammarian Crates of +Mallus in Cilicia, the contemporary and equal rival of Aristarchus, +found about 585 at Rome an audience for the recitation and +illustration, language, and matter of the Homeric poems. It is +true that this new mode of juvenile instruction, revolutionary +and anti-national as it was, encountered partially the resistance +of the government; but the edict of dismissal, which the authorities +in 593 fulminated against rhetoricians and philosophers, remained +(chiefly owing to the constant change of the Roman chief +magistrates) like all similar commands without any result worth +mentioning, and after the death of old Cato there were still +doubtless frequent complaints in accordance with his views, but +there was no further action. The higher instruction in Greek and +in the sciences of Greek culture remained thenceforth recognized +as an essential part of Italian training. + +Latin Instruction +Public Readings of Classical Works + +But by its side there sprang up also a higher Latin instruction. +We have shown in the previous epoch how Latin elementary instruction +raised its character; how the place of the Twelve Tables was taken +by the Latin Odyssey as a sort of improved primer, and the Roman +boy was now trained to the knowledge and delivery of his mother-tongue +by means of this translation, as the Greek by means of the original: +how noted teachers of the Greek language and literature, Andronicus, +Ennius, and others, who already probably taught not children properly +so called, but boys growing up to maturity and young men, did not +disdain to give instruction in the mother-tongue along with the Greek. +These were the first steps towards a higher Latin instruction, but +they did not as yet form such an instruction itself. Instruction +in a language cannot go beyond the elementary stage, so long as it +lacks a literature. It was not until there were not merely Latin +schoolbooks but a Latin literature, and this literature already +somewhat rounded-off in the works of the classics of the sixth century, +that the mother-tongue and the native literature truly entered into +the circle of the elements of higher culture; and the emancipation +from the Greek schoolmasters was now not slow to follow. Stirred up +by the Homeric prelections of Crates, cultivated Romans began to read +the recitative works of their own literature, the Punic War of Naevius, +the Annals of Ennius, and subsequently also the Poems of Lucilius first +to a select circle, and then in public on set days and in presence of +a great concourse, and occasionally also to treat them critically after +the precedent of the Homeric grammarians. These literary prelections, +which cultivated -dilettanti- (-litterati-) held gratuitously, were not +formally a part of juvenile instruction, but were yet an essential means +of introducing the youth to the understanding and the discussion of +the classic Latin literature. + +Rhetorical Exercises + +The formation of Latin oratory took place in a similar way. +The Roman youth of rank, who were even at an early age incited +to come forward in public with panegyrics and forensic speeches, +can never have lacked exercises in oratory; but it was only at this +epoch, and in consequence of the new exclusive culture, that there +arose a rhetoric properly so called. Marcus Lepidus Porcina (consul +in 617) is mentioned as the first Roman advocate who technically +handled the language and subject-matter; the two famous advocates +of the Marian age, the masculine and vigorous Marcus Antonius (611- +667) and the polished and chaste orator Lucius Crassus (614-663) +were already complete rhetoricians. The exercises of the young men +in speaking increased naturally in extent and importance, but still +remained, just like the exercises in Latin literature, essentially +limited to the personal attendance of the beginner on the master of +the art so as to be trained by his example and his instructions. + +Formal instruction both in Latin literature and in Latin rhetoric +was given first about 650 by Lucius Aelius Praeconinus of Lanuvium, +called the "penman" (-Stilo-), a distinguished Roman knight of +strict conservative views, who read Plautus and similar works with +a select circle of younger men--including Varro and Cicero--and +sometimes also went over outlines of speeches with the authors, +or put similar outlines into the hands of his friends. This was +instruction, but Stilo was not a professional schoolmaster; he +taught literature and rhetoric, just as jurisprudence was taught +at Rome, in the character of a senior friend of aspiring young men, +not of a man hired and holding himself at every one's command. + +Course of Literature and Rhetoric + +But about his time began also the scholastic higher instruction +in Latin, separated as well from elementary Latin as from Greek +instruction, and imparted in special establishments by paid +masters, ordinarily manumitted slaves. That its spirit and method +were throughout borrowed from the exercises in the Greek literature +and language, was a matter of course; and the scholars also consisted, +as at these exercises, of youths, and not of boys. This Latin +instruction was soon divided like the Greek into two courses; +in so far as the Latin literature was first the subject of +scientific lectures, and then a technical introduction was given +to the preparation of panegyrics, public, and forensic orations. +The first Roman school of literature was opened about Stilo's time +by Marcus Saevius Nicanor Postumus, the first separate school for +Latin rhetoric about 660 by Lucius Plotius Gallus; but ordinarily +instructions in rhetoric were also given in the Latin schools of +literature. This new Latin school-instruction was of the most +comprehensive importance. The introduction to the knowledge of +Latin literature and Latin oratory, such as had formerly been +imparted by connoisseurs and masters of high position, had +preserved a certain independence in relation to the Greeks. +The judges of language and the masters of oratory were doubtless +under the influence of Hellenism, but not absolutely under that of +the Greek school-grammar and school-rhetoric; the latter in particular +was decidedly an object of dread. The pride as well as the sound +common sense of the Romans demurred to the Greek assertion that +the ability to speak of things, which the orator understood and felt, +intelligibly and attractively to his peers in the mother-tongue +could be learned in the school by school-rules. To the solid +practical advocate the procedure of the Greek rhetoricians, so +totally estranged from life, could not but appear worse for the +beginner than no preparation at all; to the man of thorough culture +and matured by the experience of life, the Greek rhetoric seemed +shallow and repulsive; while the man of serious conservative views +did not fail to observe the close affinity between a professionally +developed rhetoric and the trade of the demagogue. Accordingly +the Scipionic circle had shown the most bitter hostility to the +rhetoricians, and, if Greek declamations before paid masters were +tolerated doubtless primarily as exercises in speaking Greek, Greek +rhetoric did not thereby find its way either into Latin oratory or +into Latin oratorical instruction. But in the new Latin rhetorical +schools the Roman youths were trained as men and public orators by +discussing in pairs rhetorical themes; they accused Ulysses, who +was found beside the corpse of Ajax with the latter's bloody sword, +of the murder of his comrade in arms, or upheld his innocence; they +charged Orestes with the murder of his mother, or undertook to +defend him; or perhaps they helped Hannibal with a supplementary +good advice as to the question whether he would do better to comply +with the invitation to Rome, or to remain in Carthage, or to take +flight. It was natural that the Catonian opposition should once +more bestir itself against these offensive and pernicious conflicts +of words. The censors of 662 issued a warning to teachers and +parents not to allow the young men to spend the whole day in +exercises, whereof their ancestors had known nothing; and the man, +from whom this warning came, was no less than the first forensic +orator of his age, Lucius Licinius Crassus. Of course the +Cassandra spoke in vain; declamatory exercises in Latin on the +current themes of the Greek schools became a permanent ingredient +in the education of Roman youth, and contributed their part to +educate the very boys as forensic and political players and to +stifle in the bud all earnest and true eloquence. + +As the aggregate result of this modern Roman education there sprang +up the new idea of "humanity," as it was called, which consisted +partly of a more or less superficial appropriation of the aesthetic +culture of the Hellenes, partly of a privileged Latin culture as +an imitation or mutilated copy of the Greek. This new humanity, +as the very name indicates, renounced the specific characteristics +of Roman life, nay even came forward in opposition to them, and +combined in itself, just like our closely kindred "general +culture," a nationally cosmopolitan and socially exclusive +character. Here too we trace the revolution, which separated +classes and blended nations. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +Literature and Art + +Literary Reaction + +The sixth century was, both in a political and a literary point of +view, a vigorous and great age. It is true that we do not find in +the field of authorship any more than in that of politics a man of +the first rank; Naevius, Ennius, Plautus, Cato, gifted and lively +authors of distinctly-marked individuality, were not in the highest +sense men of creative talent; nevertheless we perceive in the +soaring, stirring, bold strain of their dramatic, epic, and +historic attempts, that these rest on the gigantic struggles of +the Punic wars. Much is only artificially transplanted, there +are various faults in delineation and colouring, the form of art +and the language are deficient in purity of treatment, Greek and +national elements are quaintly conjoined; the whole performance +betrays the stamp of its scholastic origin and lacks independence +and completeness; yet there exists in the poets and authors of that +age, if not the full power to reach their high aim, at any rate +the courage to compete with and the hope of rivalling the Greeks. +It is otherwise in the epoch before us. The morning mists fell; +what had been begun in the fresh feeling of the national strength +hardened amidst war, with youthful want of insight into the +difficulty of the undertaking and into the measure of their own +talent, but also with youthful delight in and love to the work, +could not be carried farther now, when on the one hand the dull +sultriness of the approaching revolutionary storm began to fill +the air, and on the other hand the eyes of the more intelligent +were gradually opened to the incomparable glory of Greek poetry and +art and to the very modest artistic endowments of their own nation. +The literature of the sixth century had arisen from the influence +of Greek art on half-cultivated, but excited and susceptible minds. +The increased Hellenic culture of the seventh called forth a literary +reaction, which destroyed the germs of promise contained in those +simple imitative attempts by the winter-frost of reflection, and rooted +up the wheat and the tares of the older type of literature together. + +Scipionic Circle + +This reaction proceeded primarily and chiefly from the circle +which assembled around Scipio Aemilianus, and whose most prominent +members among the Roman world of quality were, in addition to +Scipio himself, his elder friend and counsellor Gaius Laelius +(consul in 614) and Scipio's younger companions, Lucius Furius +Philus (consul in 618) and Spurius Mummius, the brother of the +destroyer of Corinth, among the Roman and Greek literati the +comedian Terence, the satirist Lucilius, the historian Polybius, +and the philosopher Panaetius. Those who were familiar with the +Iliad, with Xenophon, and with Menander, could not be greatly +impressed by the Roman Homer, and still less by the bad +translations of the tragedies of Euripides which Ennius had +furnished and Pacuvius continued to furnish. While patriotic +considerations might set bounds to criticism in reference to the +native chronicles, Lucilius at any rate directed very pointed +shafts against "the dismal figures from the complicated expositions +of Pacuvius"; and similar severe, but not unjust criticisms of +Ennius, Plautus, Pacuvius--all those poets "who appeared to have a +licence to talk pompously and to reason illogically"--are found in +the polished author of the Rhetoric dedicated to Herennius, written +at the close of this period. People shrugged their shoulders at +the interpolations, with which the homely popular wit of Rome +had garnished the elegant comedies of Philemon and Diphilus. +Half smiling, half envious, they turned away from the inadequate +attempts of a dull age, which that circle probably regarded +somewhat as a mature man regards the poetical effusions of his +youth; despairing of the transplantation of the marvellous tree, +they allowed the higher species of art in poetry and prose +substantially to fall into abeyance, and restricted themselves +in these departments to an intelligent enjoyment of foreign +masterpieces. The productiveness of this epoch displayed itself +chiefly in the subordinate fields of the lighter comedy, the +poetical miscellany, the political pamphlet, and the professional +sciences. The literary cue was correctness, in the style of art +and especially in the language, which, as a more limited circle of +persons of culture became separated from the body of the people, +was in its turn divided into the classical Latin of higher society +and the vulgar Latin of the common people. The prologues of +Terence promise "pure Latin"; warfare against faults of language +forms a chief element of the Lucilian satire; and with this +circumstance is connected the fact, that composition in Greek among +the Romans now falls decidedly into the shade. In so far certainly +there is an improvement; inadequate efforts occur in this epoch far +less frequently; performances in their kind complete and thoroughly +pleasing occur far oftener than before or afterwards; in a +linguistic point of view Cicero calls the age of Laelius and Scipio +the golden age of pure unadulterated Latin. In like manner +literary activity gradually rises in public opinion from a trade +to an art. At the beginning of this period the preparation of +theatrical pieces at any rate, if not the publication of recitative +poems, was still regarded as not becoming for the Roman of quality; +Pacuvius and Terence lived by their pieces; the writing of dramas +was entirely a trade, and not one of golden produce. About the time +of Sulla the state of matters had entirely changed. The remuneration +given to actors at this time proves that even the favourite dramatic +poet might then lay claim to a payment, the high amount of which +removed the stigma. By this means composing for the stage was raised +into a liberal art; and we accordingly find men of the highest +aristocratic circles, such as Lucius Caesar (aedile in 664, 667), +engaged in writing for the Roman stage and proud of sitting in the Roman +"poet's club" by the side of the ancestorless Accius. Art gains in +sympathy and honour; but the enthusiasm has departed in life and in +literature. The fearless self-confidence, which makes the poet a poet, +and which is very decidedly apparent in Plautus especially, is found +in none of those that follow; the Epigoni of the men that fought with +Hannibal are correct, but feeble. + +Tragedy +Pacuvius + +Let us first glance at the Roman dramatic literature and the stage +itself. Tragedy has now for the first time her specialists; the +tragic poets of this epoch do not, like those of the preceding, +cultivate comedy and epos side by side. The appreciation of this +branch of art among the writing and reading circles was evidently +on the increase, but tragic poetry itself hardly improved. We now +meet with the national tragedy (-praetexta-), the creation of +Naevius, only in the hands of Pacuvius to be mentioned immediately-- +an after-growth of the Ennian epoch. Among the probably numerous +poets who imitated Greek tragedies two alone acquired a +considerable name. Marcus Pacuvius from Brundisium (535-c. 625) +who in his earlier years earned his livelihood in Rome by painting +and only composed tragedies when advanced in life, belongs as +respects both his years and his style to the sixth rather than +the seventh century, although his poetical activity falls within +the latter. He composed on the whole after the manner of his +countryman, uncle, and master Ennius. Polishing more carefully and +aspiring to a higher strain than his predecessor, he was regarded +by favourable critics of art afterwards as a model of artistic +poetry and of rich style: in the fragments, however, that have +reached us proofs are not wanting to justify the censure of the +poet's language by Cicero and the censure of his taste by Lucilius; +his language appears more rugged than that of his predecessor, his +style of composition pompous and punctilious.(1) There are traces +that he like Ennius attached more value to philosophy than to +religion; but he did not at any rate, like the latter, prefer +dramas chiming in with neological views and preaching sensuous +passion or modern enlightenment, and drew without distinction from +Sophocles or from Euripides--of that poetry with a decided special +aim, which almost stamps Ennius with genius, there can have been +no vein in the younger poet. + +Accius + +More readable and adroit imitations of Greek tragedy were furnished +by Pacuvius' younger contemporary, Lucius Accius, son of a freedman +of Pisaurum (584-after 651), with the exception of Pacuvius the +only notable tragic poet of the seventh century. An active author +also in the field of literary history and grammar, he doubtless +laboured to introduce instead of the crude manner of his +predecessors greater purity of language and style into Latin +tragedy; yet even his inequality and incorrectness were +emphatically censured by men of strict observance like Lucilius. + +Greek Comedy +Terence + +Far greater activity and far more important results are apparent +in the field of comedy. At the very commencement of this period +a remarkable reaction set in against the sort of comedy hitherto +prevalent and popular. Its representative Terentius (558-595) is +one of the most interesting phenomena, in a historical point of +view, in Roman literature. Born in Phoenician Africa, brought in +early youth as a slave to Rome and there introduced to the Greek +culture of the day, he seemed from the very first destined for the +vocation of giving back to the new Attic comedy that cosmopolitan +character, which in its adaptation to the Roman public under the +rough hands of Naevius, Plautus, and their associates it had in +some measure lost. Even in the selection and employment of models +the contrast is apparent between him and that predecessor whom +alone we can now compare with him. Plautus chooses his pieces from +the whole range of the newer Attic comedy, and by no means disdains +the livelier and more popular comedians, such as Philemon; Terence +keeps almost exclusively to Menander, the most elegant, polished, +and chaste of all the poets of the newer comedy. The method of +working up several Greek pieces into one Latin is retained by +Terence, because in fact from the state of the case it could not be +avoided by the Roman editors; but it is handled with incomparably +more skill and carefulness. The Plautine dialogue beyond doubt +departed very frequently from its models; Terence boasts of the +verbal adherence of his imitations to the originals, by which +however we are not to understand a verbal translation in our sense. +The not unfrequently coarse, but always effective laying on of +Roman local tints over the Greek ground-work, which Plautus was +fond of, is completely and designedly banished from Terence; +not an allusion puts one in mind of Rome, not a proverb, hardly +a reminiscence;(2) even the Latin titles are replaced by Greek. +The same distinction shows itself in the artistic treatment. First +of all the players receive back their appropriate masks, and greater +care is observed as to the scenic arrangements, so that it is no +longer the case, as with Plautus, that everything needs to take +place on the street, whether belonging to it or not. Plautus ties +and unties the dramatic knot carelessly and loosely, but his plot +is droll and often striking; Terence, far less effective, keeps +everywhere account of probability, not unfrequently at the cost of +suspense, and wages emphatic war against the certainly somewhat +flat and insipid standing expedients of his predecessors, e. g. +against allegoric dreams.(3) Plautus paints his characters with +broad strokes, often after a stock-model, always with a view to +the gross effect from a distance and on the whole; Terence handles +the psychological development with a careful and often excellent +miniature-painting, as in the -Adelphi- for instance, where the +two old men--the easy bachelor enjoying life in town, and the sadly +harassed not at all refined country-landlord--form a masterly +contrast. The springs of action and the language of Plautus are +drawn from the tavern, those of Terence from the household of the +good citizen. The lazy Plautine hostelry, the very unconstrained +but very charming damsels with the hosts duly corresponding, +the sabre-rattling troopers, the menial world painted with an +altogether peculiar humour, whose heaven is the cellar, and whose +fate is the lash, have disappeared in Terence or at any rate +undergone improvement. In Plautus we find ourselves, on the whole, +among incipient or thorough rogues, in Terence again, as a rule, +among none but honest men; if occasionally a -leno- is plundered or +a young man taken to the brothel, it is done with a moral intent, +possibly out of brotherly love or to deter the boy from frequenting +improper haunts. The Plautine pieces are pervaded by the significant +antagonism of the tavern to the house; everywhere wives are +visited with abuse, to the delight of all husbands temporarily +emancipated and not quite sure of an amiable salutation at home. +The comedies of Terence are pervaded by a conception not more +moral, but doubtless more becoming, of the feminine nature and of +married life. As a rule, they end with a virtuous marriage, or, +if possible, with two--just as it was the glory of Menander that +he compensated for every seduction by a marriage. The eulogies of +a bachelor life, which are so frequent in Menander, are repeated by +his Roman remodeller only with characteristic shyness,(4) whereas +the lover in his agony, the tender husband at the -accouchement-, +the loving sister by the death-bed in the -Eunuchus- and the +-Andria- are very gracefully delineated; in the -Hecyra- there even +appears at the close as a delivering angel a virtuous courtesan, +likewise a genuine Menandrian figure, which the Roman public, it is +true, very properly hissed. In Plautus the fathers throughout only +exist for the purpose of being jeered and swindled by their sons; +with Terence in the -Heauton Timorumenos- the lost son is reformed +by his father's wisdom, and, as in general he is full of excellent +instructions as to education, so the point of the best of his +pieces, the -Adelphi-, turns on finding the right mean between the +too liberal training of the uncle and the too rigid training of the +father. Plautus writes for the great multitude and gives utterance +to profane and sarcastic speeches, so far as the censorship of the +stage at all allowed; Terence on the contrary describes it as his +aim to please the good and, like Menander, to offend nobody. +Plautus is fond of vigorous, often noisy dialogue, and his pieces +require a lively play of gesture in the actors; Terence confines +himself to "quiet conversation." The language of Plautus abounds in +burlesque turns and verbal witticisms, in alliterations, in comic +coinages of new terms, Aristophanic combinations of words, pithy +expressions of the day jestingly borrowed from the Greek. Terence +knows nothing of such caprices; his dialogue moves on with the +purest symmetry, and its points are elegant epigrammatic and +sententious turns. The comedy of Terence is not to be called an +improvement, as compared with that of Plautus, either in a poetical +or in a moral point of view. Originality cannot be affirmed of +either, but, if possible, there is less of it in Terence; and +the dubious praise of more correct copying is at least outweighed +by the circumstance that, while the younger poet reproduced the +agreeableness, he knew not how to reproduce the merriment of +Menander, so that the comedies of Plautus imitated from Menander, +such as the -Stichus-, the -Cistellaria-, the -Bacchides-, probably +preserve far more of the flowing charm of the original than the +comedies of the "-dimidiatus Menander-." And, while the aesthetic +critic cannot recognize an improvement in the transition from the +coarse to the dull, as little can the moralist in the transition +from the obscenity and indifference of Plautus to the accommodating +morality of Terence. But in point of language an improvement +certainly took place. Elegance of language was the pride of the +poet, and it was owing above all to its inimitable charm that the +most refined judges of art in aftertimes, such as Cicero, Caesar, +and Quinctilian, assigned the palm to him among all the Roman poets +of the republican age. In so far it is perhaps justifiable to date +a new era in Roman literature--the real essence of which lay not +in the development of Latin poetry, but in the development of +the Latin language--from the comedies of Terence as the first +artistically pure imitation of Hellenic works of art. The modern +comedy made its way amidst the most determined literary warfare. +The Plautine style of composing had taken root among the Roman +bourgeoisie; the comedies of Terence encountered the liveliest +opposition from the public, which found their "insipid language," +their "feeble style," intolerable. The, apparently, pretty +sensitive poet replied in his prologues--which properly were not +intended for any such purpose--with counter-criticisms full of +defensive and offensive polemics; and appealed from the multitude, +which had twice run off from his -Hecyra- to witness a band of +gladiators and rope-dancers, to the cultivated circles of the +genteel world. He declared that he only aspired to the approval +of the "good"; in which doubtless there was not wanting a hint, +that it was not at all seemly to undervalue works of art which +had obtained the approval of the "few." He acquiesced in or even +favoured the report, that persons of quality aided him in composing +with their counsel or even with their cooperation.(5) In reality +he carried his point; even in literature the oligarchy prevailed, +and the artistic comedy of the exclusives supplanted the comedy +of the people: we find that about 620 the pieces of Plautus +disappeared from the set of stock plays. This is the more +significant, because after the early death of Terence no man of +conspicuous talent at all further occupied this field. Respecting +the comedies of Turpilius (651 at an advanced age) and other stop- +gaps wholly or almost wholly forgotten, a connoisseur already at +the close of this period gave it as his opinion, that the new +comedies were even much worse than the bad new pennies.(6) + +National Comedy +Afranius + +We have formerly shown(7) that in all probability already in the +course of the sixth century a national Roman comedy (-togata-) was +added to the Graeco-Roman (-palliata-), as a portraiture not of the +distinctive life of the capital, but of the ways and doings of the +Latin land. Of course the Terentian school rapidly took possession +of this species of comedy also; it was quite in accordance with +its spirit to naturalise Greek comedy in Italy on the one hand +by faithful translation, and on the other hand by pure Roman +imitation. The chief representative of this school was Lucius +Afranius (who flourished about 66). The fragments of his comedies +remaining give no distinct impression, but they are not +inconsistent with what the Roman critics of art remark regarding +him. His numerous national comedies were in their construction +thoroughly formed on the model of the Greek intrigue-piece; only, +as was natural in imitation, they were simpler and shorter. In the +details also he borrowed what pleased him partly from Menander, +partly from the older national literature. But of the Latin local +tints, which are so distinctly marked in Titinius the creator of +this species of art, we find not much in Afranius;(8) his subjects +retain a very general character, and may well have been throughout +imitations of particular Greek comedies with merely an alteration +of costume. A polished eclecticism and adroitness in composition-- +literary allusions not unfrequently occur--are characteristic of +him as of Terence: the moral tendency too, in which his pieces +approximated to the drama, their inoffensive tenor in a police +point of view, their purity of language are common to him with the +latter. Afranius is sufficiently indicated as of a kindred spirit +with Menander and Terence by the judgment of posterity that he wore +the -toga- as Menander would have worn it had he been an Italian, +and by his own expression that to his mind Terence surpassed +all other poets. + +Atellanae + +The farce appeared afresh at this period in the field of Roman +literature. It was in itself very old:(9) long before Rome arose, +the merry youths of Latium may have improvised on festal occasions +in the masks once for all established for particular characters. +These pastimes obtained a fixed local background in the Latin +"asylum of fools," for which they selected the formerly Oscan +town of Atella, which was destroyed in the Hannibalic war and +was thereby handed over to comic use; thenceforth the name of +"Oscan plays" or "plays of Atella" was commonly used for these +exhibitions.(10) But these pleasantries had nothing to do with +the stage(11) and with literature; they were performed by amateurs +where and when they pleased, and the text was not written or at any +rate was not published. It was not until the present period that +the Atellan piece was handed over to actors properly so called,(12) +and was employed, like the Greek satyric drama, as an afterpiece +particularly after tragedies; a change which naturally suggested +the extension of literary activity to that field. Whether this +authorship developed itself altogether independently, or whether +possibly the art-farce of Lower Italy, in various respects of +kindred character, gave the impulse to this Roman farce,(13) can +no longer be determined; that the several pieces were uniformly +original works, is certain. The founder of this new species of +literature, Lucius Pomponius from the Latin colony of Bononia, +appeared in the first half of the seventh century;(14) and along +with his pieces those of another poet Novius soon became +favourites. So far as the few remains and the reports of the old +-litteratores- allow us to form an opinion, they were short farces, +ordinarily perhaps of one act, the charm of which depended less on +the preposterous and loosely constructed plot than on the drastic +portraiture of particular classes and situations. Festal days and +public acts were favourite subjects of comic delineation, such as +the "Marriage," the "First of March," "Harlequin Candidate"; +so were also foreign nationalities--the Transalpine Gauls, +the Syrians; above all, the various trades frequently appear +on the boards. The sacristan, the soothsayer, the bird-seer, +the physician, the publican, the painter, fisherman, baker, pass +across the stage; the public criers were severely assailed and still +more the fullers, who seem to have played in the Roman fool-world +the part of our tailors. While the varied life of the city thus +received its due attention, the farmer with his joys and sorrows +was also represented in all aspects. The copiousness of this rural +repertory may be guessed from the numerous titles of that nature, +such as "the Cow," "the Ass," "the Kid," "the Sow," "the Swine," +"the Sick Boar," "the Farmer," "the Countryman," "Harlequin +Countryman," "the Cattle-herd," "the Vinedresser," "the Fig- +gatherer," "Woodcutting," "Pruning," "the Poultry-yard." In these +pieces it was always the standing figures of the stupid and the +artful servant, the good old man, the wise man, that delighted +the public; the first in particular might never be wanting-- +the -Pulcinello- of this farce--the gluttonous filthy -Maccus-, +hideously ugly and yet eternally in love, always on the point +of stumbling across his own path, set upon by all with jeers +and with blows and eventually at the close the regular scapegoat. +The titles "-Maccus Miles-," "-Maccus Copo-," "-Maccus Virgo-," +"-Maccus Exul-," "-Macci Gemini-" may furnish the good-humoured +reader with some conception of the variety of entertainment in the +Roman masquerade. Although these farces, at least after they came +to be written, accommodated themselves to the general laws of +literature, and in their metres for instance followed the Greek +stage, they yet naturally retained a far more Latin and more +popular stamp than even the national comedy. The farce resorted +to the Greek world only under the form of travestied tragedy;(15) +and this style appears to have been cultivated first by Novius, +and not very frequently in any case. The farce of this poet moreover +ventured, if not to trespass on Olympus, at least to touch the most +human of the gods, Hercules: he wrote a -Hercules Auctionator-. +The tone, as a matter of course, was not the most refined; very +unambiguous ambiguities, coarse rustic obscenities, ghosts +frightening and occasionally devouring children, formed part of +the entertainment, and offensive personalities, even with the mention +of names, not unfrequently crept in. But there was no want also of +vivid delineation, of grotesque incidents, of telling jokes, and of +pithy sayings; and the harlequinade rapidly won for itself no +inconsiderable position in the theatrical life of the capital +and even in literature. + +Dramatic Arrangements + +Lastly as regards the development of dramatic arrangements we are +not in a position to set forth in detail--what is clear on the +whole--that the general interest in dramatic performances was +constantly on the increase, and that they became more and more +frequent and magnificent. Not only was there hardly any ordinary +or extraordinary popular festival that was now celebrated without +dramatic exhibitions; even in the country-towns and in private +houses representations by companies of hired actors were common. +It is true that, while probably various municipal towns already at +this time possessed theatres built of stone, the capital was still +without one; the building of a theatre, already contracted for, +had been again prohibited by the senate in 599 on the suggestion +of Publius Scipio Nasica. It was quite in the spirit of the +sanctimonious policy of this age, that the building of a permanent +theatre was prohibited out of respect for the customs of their +ancestors, but nevertheless theatrical entertainments were allowed +rapidly to increase, and enormous sums were expended annually +in erecting and decorating structures of boards for them. +The arrangements of the stage became visibly better. The improved +scenic arrangements and the reintroduction of masks about the time +of Terence are doubtless connected with the fact, that the erection +and maintenance of the stage and stage-apparatus were charged +in 580 on the public chest.(16) The plays which Lucius Mummius +produced after the capture of Corinth (609) formed an epoch in +the history of the theatre. It was probably then that a theatre +acoustically constructed after the Greek fashion and provided with +seats was first erected, and more care generally was expended on +the exhibitions.(17) Now also there is frequent mention of the +bestowal of a prize of victory--which implies the competition of +several pieces--of the audience taking a lively part for or against +the leading actors, of cliques and -claqueurs-. The decorations +and machinery were improved; moveable scenery artfully painted +and audible theatrical thunder made their appearance under the +aedileship of Gaius Claudius Pulcher in 655;(18) and twenty years +later (675) under the aedileship of the brothers Lucius and Marcus +Lucullus came the changing of the decorations by shifting the +scenes. To the close of this epoch belongs the greatest of Roman +actors, the freedman Quintus Roscius (d. about 692 at a great age), +throughout several generations the ornament and pride of the Roman +stage,(19) the friend and welcome boon-companion of Sulla--to whom +we shall have to recur in the sequel. + +Satura + +In recitative poetry the most surprising circumstance is the +insignificance of the Epos, which during the sixth century had +occupied decidedly the first place in the literature destined for +reading; it had numerous representatives in the seventh, but not a +single one who had even temporary success. From the present epoch +there is hardly anything to be reported save a number of rude +attempts to translate Homer, and some continuations of the Ennian +Annals, such as the "Istrian War" of Hostius and the "Annals +(perhaps) of the Gallic War" by Aulus Furius (about 650), which to +all appearance took up the narrative at the very point where Ennius +had broken off--the description of the Istrian war of 576 and 577. +In didactic and elegiac poetry no prominent name appears. The only +successes which the recitative poetry of this period has to show, +belong to the domain of what was called -Satura---a species of art, +which like the letter or the pamphlet allowed of any form and +admitted any sort of contents, and accordingly in default of all +proper generic characters derived its individual shape wholly from +the individuality of each poet, and occupied a position not merely +on the boundary between poetry and prose, but even more than half +beyond the bounds of literature proper. The humorous poetical +epistles, which one of the younger men of the Scipionic circle, +Spurius Mummius, the brother of the destroyer of Corinth, sent home +from the camp of Corinth to his friends, were still read with +pleasure a century afterwards; and numerous poetical pleasantries +of that sort not destined for publication probably proceeded at +that time from the rich social and intellectual life of the +better circles of Rome. + +Lucilius + +Its representative in literature is Gaius Lucilius (606-651) sprung +of a respectable family in the Latin colony of Suessa, and likewise +a member of the Scipionic circle. His poems are, as it were, open +letters to the public. Their contents, as a clever successor +gracefully says, embrace the whole life of a cultivated man of +independence, who looks upon the events passing on the political +stage from the pit and occasionally from the side-scenes; who +converses with the best of his epoch as his equals; who follows +literature and science with sympathy and intelligence without +wishing personally to pass for a poet or scholar; and who, in fine, +makes his pocket-book the confidential receptacle for everything +good and bad that he meets with, for his political experiences and +expectations, for grammatical remarks and criticisms on art, for +incidents of his own life, visits, dinners, journeys, as well as +for anecdotes which he has heard. Caustic, capricious, thoroughly +individual, the Lucilian poetry has yet the distinct stamp of an +oppositional and, so far, didactic aim in literature as well as in +morals and politics; there is in it something of the revolt of the +country against the capital; the Suessan's sense of his own purity +of speech and honesty of life asserts itself in antagonism to the +great Babel of mingled tongues and corrupt morals. The aspiration +of the Scipionic circle after literary correctness, especially in +point of language, finds critically its most finished and most +clever representative in Lucilius. He dedicated his very first +book to Lucius Stilo, the founder of Roman philology,(20) and +designated as the public for which he wrote not the cultivated +circles of pure and classical speech, but the Tarentines, the +Bruttians, the Siculi, or in other words the half-Greeks of Italy, +whose Latin certainly might well require a corrective. Whole books +of his poems are occupied with the settlement of Latin orthography +and prosody, with the combating of Praenestine, Sabine, Etruscan +provincialisms, with the exposure of current solecisms; along with +which, however, the poet by no means forgets to ridicule the +insipidly systematic Isocratean purism of words and phrases,(21) +and even to reproach his friend Scipio in right earnest jest +with the exclusive fineness of his language.(22) But the poet +inculcates purity of morals in public and private life far more +earnestly than he preaches pure and simple Latinity. For this +his position gave him peculiar advantages. Although by descent, +estate, and culture on a level with the genteel Romans of his time +and possessor of a handsome house in the capital, he was yet not a +Roman burgess, but a Latin; even his position towards Scipio, under +whom he had served in his early youth during the Numantine war, and +in whose house he was a frequent visitor, may be connected with the +fact, that Scipio stood in varied relations to the Latins and was +their patron in the political feuds of the time.(23) He was thus +precluded from a public life, and he disdained the career of a +speculator--he had no desire, as he once said, to "cease to be +Lucilius in order to become an Asiatic revenue-farmer." So he lived +in the sultry age of the Gracchan reforms and the agitations preceding +the Social war, frequenting the palaces and villas of the Roman +grandees and yet not exactly their client, at once in the midst +of the strife of political coteries and parties and yet not directly +taking part with one or another; in a way similar to Beranger, +of whom there is much that reminds us in the political and poetical +position of Lucilius. From this position he uttered his comments +on public life with a sound common sense that was not to be +shaken, with a good humour that was inexhaustible, and with +a wit perpetually gushing: + +-Nunc vero a mane ad noctem, festo atque profesto +Toto itidem pariterque die populusque patresque +Iactare indu foro se omnes, decedere nusquam. +Uni se atque eidem studio omnes dedere et arti; +Verba dare ut caute possint, pugnare dolose, +Blanditia certare, bonum simulare virum se, +Insidias facere ut si hostes sint omnibus omnes-. + +The illustrations of this inexhaustible text remorselessly, without +omitting his friends or even the poet himself, assailed the evils +of the age, the coterie-system, the endless Spanish war-service, +and the like; the very commencement of his Satires was a great +debate in the senate of the Olympian gods on the question, whether +Rome deserved to enjoy the continued protection of the celestials. +Corporations, classes, individuals, were everywhere severally +mentioned by name; the poetry of political polemics, shut out +from the Roman stage, was the true element and life-breath of +the Lucilian poems, which by the power of the most pungent wit +illustrated with the richest imagery--a power which still entrances +us even in the remains that survive--pierce and crush their +adversary "as by a drawn sword." In this--in the moral ascendency +and the proud sense of freedom of the poet of Suessa--lies the +reason why the refined Venusian, who in the Alexandrian age of +Roman poetry revived the Lucilian satire, in spite of all his +superiority in formal skill with true modesty yields to the earlier +poet as "his better." The language is that of a man of thorough +culture, Greek and Latin, who freely indulges his humour; a poet +like Lucilius, who is alleged to have made two hundred hexameters +before dinner and as many after it, is in far too great a hurry to +be nice; useless prolixity, slovenly repetition of the same turn, +culpable instances of carelessness frequently occur: the first +word, Latin or Greek, is always the best. The metres are similarly +treated, particularly the very predominant hexameter: if we transpose +the words--his clever imitator says--no man would observe that +he had anything else before him than simple prose; in point of +effect they can only be compared to our doggerel verses.(24) +The poems of Terence and those of Lucilius stand on the same level +of culture, and have the same relation to each other as a carefully +prepared and polished literary work has to a letter written on the +spur of the moment. But the incomparably higher intellectual gifts +and the freer view of life, which mark the knight of Suessa as +compared with the African slave, rendered his success as rapid +and brilliant as that of Terence had been laborious and doubtful; +Lucilius became immediately the favourite of the nation, and he +like Beranger could say of his poems that "they alone of all were +read by the people." The uncommon popularity of the Lucilian poem +is, in a historical point of view, a remarkable event; we see from +it that literature was already a power, and beyond doubt we should +fall in with various traces of its influence, if a thorough history +of this period had been preserved. Posterity has only confirmed +the judgment of contemporaries; the Roman judges of art who were +opposed to the Alexandrian school assigned to Lucilius the first +rank among all the Latin poets. So far as satire can be regarded +as a distinct form of art at all, Lucilius created it; and in it +created the only species of art which was peculiar to the Romans +and was bequeathed by them to posterity. + +Of poetry attaching itself to the Alexandrian school nothing +occurs in Rome at this epoch except minor poems translated from or +modelled on Alexandrian epigrams, which deserve notice not on their +own account, but as the first harbingers of the later epoch of +Roman literature. Leaving out of account some poets little known +and whose dates cannot be fixed with certainty, there belong to +this category Quintus Catulus, consul in 652(25) and Lucius +Manlius, an esteemed senator, who wrote in 657. The latter seems +to have been the first to circulate among the Romans various +geographical tales current among the Greeks, such as the Delian +legend of Latona, the fables of Europa and of the marvellous bird +Phoenix; as it was likewise reserved for him on his travels to +discover at Dodona and to copy that remarkable tripod, on which +might be read the oracle imparted to the Pelasgians before their +migration into the land of the Siceli and Aborigines--a discovery +which the Roman annals did not neglect devoutly to register. + +Historical Composition +Polybius + +In historical composition this epoch is especially marked by the +emergence of an author who did not belong to Italy either by birth +or in respect of his intellectual and literary standpoint, but who +first or rather alone brought literary appreciation and description +to bear on Rome's place in the world, and to whom all subsequent +generations, and we too, owe the best part of our knowledge of +the Roman development. Polybius (c. 546-c. 627) of Megalopolis in +the Peloponnesus, son of the Achaean statesman Lycortas, took part +apparently as early as 565 in the expedition of the Romans against +the Celts of Asia Minor, and was afterwards on various occasions, +especially during the third Macedonian war, employed by his +countrymen in military and diplomatic affairs. After the crisis +occasioned by that war in Hellas he was carried off along with the +other Achaean hostages to Italy,(26) where he lived in exile for +seventeen years (587-604) and was introduced by the sons of Paullus +to the genteel circles of the capital. By the sending back of +the Achaean hostages(27) he was restored to his home, where he +thenceforth acted as permanent mediator between his confederacy +and the Romans. He was present at the destruction of Carthage +and of Corinth (608). He seemed educated, as it were, by destiny +to comprehend the historical position of Rome more clearly than +the Romans of that day could themselves. From the place which +he occupied, a Greek statesman and a Roman prisoner, esteemed and +occasionally envied for his Hellenic culture by Scipio Aemilianus +and the first men of Rome generally, he saw the streams, which had +so long flowed separately, meet together in the same channel and +the history of the states of the Mediterranean resolve itself into +the hegemony of Roman power and Greek culture. Thus Polybius +became the first Greek of note, who embraced with serious +conviction the comprehensive view of the Scipionic circle, and +recognized the superiority of Hellenism in the sphere of intellect +and of the Roman character in the sphere of politics as facts, +regarding which history had given her final decision, and to which +people on both sides were entitled and bound to submit. In this +spirit he acted as a practical statesman, and wrote his history. +If in his youth he had done homage to the honourable but +impracticable local patriotism of the Achaeans, during his later +years, with a clear discernment of inevitable necessity, he +advocated in the community to which he belonged the policy of the +closest adherence to Rome. It was a policy in the highest degree +judicious and beyond doubt well-intentioned, but it was far from +being high-spirited or proud. Nor was Polybius able wholly to +disengage himself from the vanity and paltriness of the Hellenic +statesmanship of the time. He was hardly released from exile, +when he proposed to the senate that it should formally secure to +the released their former rank in their several homes; whereupon +Cato aptly remarked, that this looked to him as if Ulysses were to +return to the cave of Polyphemus to request from the giant his hat +and girdle. He often made use of his relations with the great +men in Rome to benefit his countrymen; but the way in which he +submitted to, and boasted of, the illustrious protection somewhat +approaches fawning servility. His literary activity breathes +throughout the same spirit as his practical action. It was +the task of his life to write the history of the union of the +Mediterranean states under the hegemony of Rome. From the first +Punic war down to the destruction of Carthage and Corinth his work +embraces the fortunes of all the civilized states--namely Greece, +Macedonia, Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, Carthage, and Italy--and +exhibits in causal connection the mode in which they came under +the Roman protectorate; in so far he describes it as his object to +demonstrate the fitness and reasonableness of the Roman hegemony. +In design as in execution, this history stands in clear and +distinct contrast with the contemporary Roman as well as with the +contemporary Greek historiography. In Rome history still remained +wholly at the stage of chronicle; there existed doubtless important +historical materials, but what was called historical composition +was restricted--with the exception of the very respectable but +purely individual writings of Cato, which at any rate did not reach +beyond the rudiments of research and narration--partly to nursery +tales, partly to collections of notices. The Greeks had certainly +exhibited historical research and had written history; but the +conceptions of nation and state had been so completely lost amidst +the distracted times of the Diadochi, that none of the numerous +historians succeeded in following the steps of the great Attic +masters in spirit and in truth, or in treating from a general +point of view the matter of world-wide interest in the history +of the times. + +Their histories were either purely outward records, or they were +pervaded by the verbiage and sophistries of Attic rhetoric and only +too often by the venality and vulgarity, the sycophancy and the +bitterness of the age. Among the Romans as among the Greeks there +was nothing but histories of cities or of tribes. Polybius, +a Peloponnesian, as has been justly remarked, and holding +intellectually a position at least as far aloof from the Attics +as from the Romans, first stepped beyond these miserable limits, +treated the Roman materials with mature Hellenic criticism, and +furnished a history, which was not indeed universal, but which was +at any rate dissociated from the mere local states and laid hold of +the Romano-Greek state in the course of formation. Never perhaps +has any historian united within himself all the advantages of an +author drawing from original sources so completely as Polybius. +The compass of his task is completely clear and present to him +at every moment; and his eye is fixed throughout on the real +historical connection of events. The legend, the anecdote, +the mass of worthless chronicle-notices are thrown aside; the +description of countries and peoples, the representation of +political and mercantile relations--all the facts of so infinite +importance, which escape the annalist because they do not admit of +being nailed to a particular year--are put into possession of their +long-suspended rights. In the procuring of historic materials +Polybius shows a caution and perseverance such as are not perhaps +paralleled in antiquity; he avails himself of documents, gives +comprehensive attention to the literature of different nations, +makes the most extensive use of his favourable position for +collecting the accounts of actors and eye-witnesses, and, in fine, +methodically travels over the whole domain of the Mediterranean +states and part of the coast of the Atlantic Ocean.(28) +Truthfulness is his nature. In all great matters he has no +interest for one state or against another, for this man or against +that, but is singly and solely interested in the essential +connection of events, to present which in their true relation of +causes and effects seems to him not merely the first but the sole +task of the historian. Lastly, the narrative is a model of +completeness, simplicity, and clearness. Still all these uncommon +advantages by no means constitute a historian of the first rank. +Polybius grasps his literary task, as he grasped his practical, +with great understanding, but with the understanding alone. +History, the struggle of necessity and liberty, is a moral problem; +Polybius treats it as if it were a mechanical one. The whole alone +has value for him, in nature as in the state; the particular event, +the individual man, however wonderful they may appear, are yet +properly mere single elements, insignificant wheels in the highly +artificial mechanism which is named the state. So far Polybius was +certainly qualified as no other was to narrate the history of the +Roman people, which actually solved the marvellous problem of +raising itself to unparalleled internal and external greatness +without producing a single statesman of genius in the highest +sense, and which resting on its simple foundations developed itself +with wonderful almost mathematical consistency. But the element of +moral freedom bears sway in the history of every people, and it was +not neglected by Polybius in the history of Rome with impunity. +His treatment of all questions, in which right, honour, religion +are involved, is not merely shallow, but radically false. The same +holds true wherever a genetic construction is required; the purely +mechanical attempts at explanation, which Polybius substitutes, +are sometimes altogether desperate; there is hardly, for instance, +a more foolish political speculation than that which derives +the excellent constitution of Rome from a judicious mixture of +monarchical, aristocratic, and democratic elements, and deduces +the successes of Rome from the excellence of her constitution. +His conception of relations is everywhere dreadfully jejune and +destitute of imagination: his contemptuous and over-wise mode of +treating religious matters is altogether offensive. The narrative, +preserving throughout an intentional contrast to the usual Greek +historiography with its artistic style, is doubtless correct and +clear, but flat and languid, digressing with undue frequency into +polemical discussions or into biographical, not seldom very self- +sufficient, description of his own experiences. A controversial +vein pervades the whole work; the author destined his treatise +primarily for the Romans, and yet found among them only a very +small circle that understood him; he felt that he remained in the +eyes of the Romans a foreigner, in the eyes of his countrymen a +renegade, and that with his grand conception of his subject he +belonged more to the future than to the present Accordingly he was +not exempt from a certain ill-humour and personal bitterness, which +frequently appear after a quarrelsome and paltry fashion in his +attacks upon the superficial or even venal Greek and the uncritical +Roman historians, so that he degenerates from the tone of the +historian to that of the reviewer. Polybius is not an attractive +author; but as truth and truthfulness are of more value than all +ornament and elegance, no other author of antiquity perhaps can +be named to whom we are indebted for so much real instruction. +His books are like the sun in the field of Roman history; at the point +where they begin the veil of mist which still envelops the Samnite +and Pyrrhic wars is raised, and at the point where they end a new +and, if possible, still more vexatious twilight begins. + +Roman Chroniclers + +In singular contrast to this grand conception and treatment of +Roman history by a foreigner stands the contemporary historical +literature of native growth. At the beginning of this period we +still find some chronicles written in Greek such as that already +mentioned(29) of Aulus Postumius (consul in 603), full of wretched +rationalizing, and that of Gaius Acilius (who closed it at an +advanced age about 612). Yet under the influence partly of +Catonian patriotism, partly of the more refined culture of +the Scipionic circle, the Latin language gained so decided an +ascendency in this field, that of the later historical works not +more than one or two occur written in Greek;(30) and not only so, +but the older Greek chronicles were translated into Latin and were +probably read mainly in these translations. Unhappily beyond the +employment of the mother-tongue there is hardly anything else +deserving of commendation in the chronicles of this epoch composed +in Latin. They were numerous and detailed enough--there are +mentioned, for example, those of Lucius Cassius Hemina (about 608), +of Lucius Calpurnius Piso (consul in 621), of Gaius Sempronius +Tuditanus (consul in 625), of Gaius Fannius (consul in 632). +To these falls to be added the digest of the official annals of +the city in eighty books, which Publius Mucius Scaevola (consul +in 621), a man esteemed also as a jurist, prepared and published +as -pontifex maximus-, thereby closing the city-chronicle in so +far as thenceforth the pontifical records, although not exactly +discontinued, were no longer at any rate, amidst the increasing +diligence of private chroniclers, taken account of in literature. +All these annals, whether they gave themselves forth as private or +as official works, were substantially similar compilations of the +extant historical and quasi-historical materials; and the value of +their authorities as well as their formal value declined beyond +doubt in the same proportion as their amplitude increased. +Chronicle certainly nowhere presents truth without fiction, and it +would be very foolish to quarrel with Naevius and Pictor because +they have not acted otherwise than Hecataeus and Saxo Grammaticus; +but the later attempts to build houses out of such castles in the +air put even the most tried patience to a severe test No blank in +tradition presents so wide a chasm, but that this system of smooth +and downright invention will fill it up with playful facility. +The eclipses of the sun, the numbers of the census, family-registers, +triumphs, are without hesitation carried back from the current year +up to the year One; it stands duly recorded, in what year, month, +and day king Romulus went up to heaven, and how king Servius +Tullius triumphed over the Etruscans first on the 25th November +183, and again on the 25th May 187, In entire harmony with such +details accordingly the vessel in which Aeneas had voyaged from +Ilion to Latium was shown in the Roman docks, and even the +identical sow, which had served as a guide to Aeneas, was preserved +well pickled in the Roman temple of Vesta. With the lying +disposition of a poet these chroniclers of rank combine all the +tiresome exactness of a notary, and treat their great subject +throughout with the dulness which necessarily results from the +elimination at once of all poetical and all historical elements. +When we read, for instance, in Piso that Romulus avoided indulging +in his cups when he had a sitting of the senate next day; or that +Tarpeia betrayed the Capitol to the Sabines out of patriotism, +with a view to deprive the enemy of their shields; we cannot be +surprised at the judgment of intelligent contemporaries as to all +this sort of scribbling, "that it was not writing history, but +telling stories to children." Of far greater excellence were +isolated works on the history of the recent past and of the +present, particularly the history of the Hannibalic war by Lucius +Caelius Antipater (about 633) and the history of his own time +by Publius Sempronius Asellio, who was a little younger. These +exhibited at least valuable materials and an earnest spirit of truth, +in the case of Antipater also a lively, although strongly affected, +style of narrative; yet, judging from all testimonies and fragments, +none of these books came up either in pithy form or in originality +to the "Origines" of Cato, who unhappily created as little of a school +in the field of history as in that of politics. + +Memoirs and Speeches + +The subordinate, more individual and ephemeral, species of +historical literature--memoirs, letters, and speeches--were +strongly represented also, at least as respects quantity. +The first statesmen of Rome already recorded in person their +experiences: such as Marcus Scaurus (consul in 639), Publius Rufus +(consul in 649), Quintus Catulus (consul in 652), and even the +regent Sulla; but none of these productions seem to have been of +importance for literature otherwise than by the substance of their +contents. The collection of letters of Cornelia, the mother of +the Gracchi, was remarkable partly for the classical purity of +the language and the high spirit of the writer, partly as the first +correspondence published in Rome, and as the first literary +production of a Roman lady. The literature of speeches preserved +at this period the stamp impressed on it by Cato; advocates' +pleadings were not yet looked on as literary productions, and such +speeches as were published were political pamphlets. During the +revolutionary commotions this pamphlet-literature increased in +extent and importance, and among the mass of ephemeral productions +there were some which, like the Philippics of Demosthenes and +the fugitive pieces of Courier, acquired a permanent place in +literature from the important position of their authors or from +their own weight. Such were the political speeches of Gaius +Laelius and of Scipio Aemilianus, masterpieces of excellent Latin +as of the noblest patriotism; such were the gushing speeches of +Gaius Titius, from whose pungent pictures of the place and the +time--his description of the senatorial juryman has been given +already(31)--the national comedy borrowed various points; such +above all were the numerous orations of Gaius Gracchus, whose +fiery words preserved in a faithful mirror the impassioned +earnestness, the aristocratic bearing, and the tragic destiny +of that lofty nature. + +Sciences + +In scientific literature the collection of juristic opinions by +Marcus Brutus, which was published about the year 600, presents +a remarkable attempt to transplant to Rome the method usual among +the Greeks of handling professional subjects by means of dialogue, +and to give to his treatise an artistic semi-dramatic form by a +machinery of conversation in which the persons, time, and place +were distinctly specified. But the later men of science, such +as Stilo the philologist and Scaevola the jurist, laid aside +this method, more poetical than practical, both in the sciences +of general culture and in the special professional sciences. +The increasing value of science as such, and the preponderance +of a material interest in it at Rome, are clearly reflected in this +rapid rejection of the fetters of artistic form. We have already +spoken(32) in detail of the sciences of general liberal culture, +grammar or rather philology, rhetoric and philosophy, in so far +as these now became essential elements of the usual Roman training +and thereby first began to be dissociated from the professional +sciences properly so called. + +Philology + +In the field of letters Latin philology flourished vigorously, in +close association with the philological treatment--long ago placed +on a sure basis--of Greek literature. It was already mentioned +that about the beginning of this century the Latin epic poets found +their -diaskeuastae- and revisers of their text;(33) it was also +noticed, that not only did the Scipionic circle generally insist +on correctness above everything else, but several also of the most +noted poets, such as Accius and Lucilius, busied themselves with +the regulation of orthography and of grammar. At the same period +we find isolated attempts to develop archaeology from the +historical side; although the dissertations of the unwieldy +annalists of this age, such as those of Hemina "on the Censors" +and of Tuditanus "on the Magistrates," can hardly have been better +than their chronicles. Of more interest were the treatise on +the Magistracies by Marcus Junius the friend of Gaius Gracchus, as +the first attempt to make archaeological investigation serviceable +for political objects,(34) and the metrically composed -Didascaliae- +of the tragedian Accius, an essay towards a literary history of the +Latin drama. But those early attempts at a scientific treatment +of the mother-tongue still bear very much a dilettante stamp, and +strikingly remind us of our orthographic literature in the Bodmer- +Klopstock period; and we may likewise without injustice assign but +a modest place to the antiquarian researches of this epoch. + +Stilo + +The Roman, who established the investigation of the Latin language +and antiquities in the spirit of the Alexandrian masters on a +scientific basis, was Lucius Aelius Stilo about 650.(35) He first +went back to the oldest monuments of the language, and commented on +the Salian litanies and the Twelve Tables. He devoted his special +attention to the comedy of the sixth century, and first formed a +list of the pieces of Plautus which in his opinion were genuine. +He sought, after the Greek fashion, to determine historically the +origin of every single phenomenon in the Roman life and dealings +and to ascertain in each case the "inventor," and at the same time +brought the whole annalistic tradition within the range of his +research. The success, which he had among his contemporaries, is +attested by the dedication to him of the most important poetical, +and the most important historical, work of his time, the Satires +of Lucilius and the Annals of Antipater; and this first Roman +philologist influenced the studies of his nation for the future by +transmitting his spirit of investigation both into words and into +things to his disciple Varro. + +Rhetoric + +The literary activity in the field of Latin rhetoric was, as might +be expected, of a more subordinate kind. There was nothing here to +be done but to write manuals and exercise-books after the model of +the Greek compendia of Hermagoras and others; and these accordingly +the schoolmasters did not fail to supply, partly on account of the +need for them, partly on account of vanity and money. Such a +manual of rhetoric has been preserved to us, composed under Sulla's +dictatorship by an unknown author, who according to the fashion +then prevailing(36) taught simultaneously Latin literature and +Latin rhetoric, and wrote on both; a treatise remarkable not merely +for its terse, clear, and firm handling of the subject, but above +all for its comparative independence in presence of Greek models. +Although in method entirely dependent on the Greeks, the Roman yet +distinctly and even abruptly rejects all "the useless matter which +the Greeks had gathered together, solely in order that the science +might appear more difficult to learn." The bitterest censure is +bestowed on the hair-splitting dialectics--that "loquacious science +of inability to speak"--whose finished master, for sheer fear of +expressing himself ambiguously, at last no longer ventures to +pronounce his own name. The Greek school-terminology is throughout +and intentionally avoided. Very earnestly the author points out +the danger of many teachers, and inculcates the golden rule that +the scholar ought above all to be induced by the teacher to help +himself; with equal earnestness he recognizes the truth that the +school is a secondary, and life the main, matter, and gives in +his examples chosen with thorough independence an echo of those +forensic speeches which during the last decades had excited notice +in the Roman advocate-world. It deserves attention, that the +opposition to the extravagances of Hellenism, which had formerly +sought to prevent the rise of a native Latin rhetoric,(37) +continued to influence it after it arose, and thereby secured +to Roman eloquence, as compared with the contemporary eloquence +of the Greeks, theoretically and practically a higher dignity +and a greater usefulness. + +Philosophy + +Philosophy, in fine, was not yet represented in literature, +since neither did an inward need develop a national Roman philosophy +nor did outward circumstances call forth a Latin philosophical +authorship. It cannot even be shown with certainty that there +were Latin translations of popular summaries of philosophy +belonging to this period; those who pursued philosophy read +and disputed in Greek. + +Professional Sciences +Jurisprudence + +In the professional sciences there was but little activity. +Well as the Romans understood how to farm and how to calculate, +physical and mathematical research gained no hold among them. +The consequences of neglecting theory appeared practically in +the low state of medical knowledge and of a portion of the military +sciences. Of all the professional sciences jurisprudence alone was +flourishing. We cannot trace its internal development with +chronological accuracy. On the whole ritual law fell more and +more into the shade, and at the end of this period stood nearly +in the same position as the canon law at the present day. The finer +and more profound conception of law, on the other hand, which +substitutes for outward criteria the motive springs of action +within--such as the development of the ideas of offences arising +from intention and from carelessness respectively, and of +possession entitled to temporary protection--was not yet in +existence at the time of the Twelve Tables, but was so in the age +of Cicero, and probably owed its elaboration substantially to the +present epoch. The reaction of political relations on the development +of law has been already indicated on several occasions; it was +not always advantageous. By the institution of the tribunal of the +-Centumviri- to deal with inheritance,(38) for instance, there was +introduced in the law of property a college of jurymen, which, like +the criminal authorities, instead of simply applying the law placed +itself above it and with its so-called equity undermined the legal +institutions; one consequence of which among others was the +irrational principle, that any one, whom a relative had passed over +in his testament, was at liberty to propose that the testament +should be annulled by the court, and the court decided according +to its discretion. + +The development of juristic literature admits of being more +distinctly recognized. It had hitherto been restricted to +collections of formularies and explanations of terms in the laws; +at this period there was first formed a literature of opinions +(-responsa-), which answers nearly to our modern collections of +precedents. These opinions--which were delivered no longer merely +by members of the pontifical college, but by every one who found +persons to consult him, at home or in the open market-place, +and with which were already associated rational and polemical +illustrations and the standing controversies peculiar to +jurisprudence--began to be noted down and to be promulgated in +collections about the beginning of the seventh century. This was +done first by the younger Cato (d. about 600) and by Marcus Brutus +(nearly contemporary); and these collections were, as it would +appear, arranged in the order of matters.(39) A strictly +systematic treatment of the law of the land soon followed. +Its founder was the -pontifex maximus- Quintus Mucius Scaevola +(consul in 659, d. 672),(40) in whose family jurisprudence was, +like the supreme priesthood, hereditary. His eighteen books +on the -Ius Civile-, which embraced the positive materials of +jurisprudence--legislative enactments, judicial precedents, and +authorities--partly from the older collections, partly from oral +tradition in as great completeness as possible, formed the starting- +point and the model of the detailed systems of Roman law; in like +manner his compendious treatise of "Definitions" (--oroi--) became +the basis of juristic summaries and particularly of the books +of Rules. Although this development of law proceeded of course +in the main independently of Hellenism, yet an acquaintance with +the philosophico-practical scheme-making of the Greeks beyond +doubt gave a general impulse to the more systematic treatment of +jurisprudence, as in fact the Greek influence is in the case of +the last-mentioned treatise apparent in the very title. We have +already remarked that in several more external matters Roman +jurisprudence was influenced by the Stoa.(41) + +Art exhibits still less pleasing results. In architecture, +sculpture, and painting there was, no doubt, a more and more +general diffusion of a dilettante interest, but the exercise of +native art retrograded rather than advanced. It became more and +more customary for those sojourning in Grecian lands personally to +inspect the works of art; for which in particular the winter- +quarters of Sulla's army in Asia Minor in 670-671 formed an epoch. +Connoisseur-ship developed itself also in Italy. They had +commenced with articles in silver and bronze; about the commencement +of this epoch they began to esteem not merely Greek statues, +but also Greek pictures. The first picture publicly exhibited in +Rome was the Bacchus of Aristides, which Lucius Mummius withdrew +from the sale of the Corinthian spoil, because king Attalus offered +as much as 6000 -denarii- (260 pounds) for it. The buildings became +more splendid; and in particular transmarine, especially Hymettian, +marble (Cipollino) came into use for that purpose--the Italian +marble quarries were not yet in operation. A magnificent colonnade +still admired in the time of the empire, which Quintus Metellus +(consul in 611) the conqueror of Macedonia constructed in the +Campus Martius, enclosed the first marble temple which the capital +had seen; it was soon followed by similar structures built on the +Capitol by Scipio Nasica (consul in 616), and near to the Circus by +Gnaeus Octavius (consul in 626). The first private house adorned +with marble columns was that of the orator Lucius Crassus (d. 663) +on the Palatine.(42) But where they could plunder or purchase, +instead of creating for themselves, they did so; it was a wretched +indication of the poverty of Roman architecture, that it already +began to employ the columns of the old Greek temples; the Roman +Capitol, for instance, was embellished by Sulla with those of the +temple of Zeus at Athens. The works, that were produced in Rome, +proceeded from the hands of foreigners; the few Roman artists of +this period, who are particularly mentioned, are without exception +Italian or transmarine Greeks who had migrated thither. Such was +the case with the architect Hermodorus from the Cyprian Salamis, +who among other works restored the Roman docks and built for +Quintus Metellus (consul in 611) the temple of Jupiter Stator +in the basilica constructed by him, and for Decimus Brutus (consul +in 616) the temple of Mars in the Flaminian circus; with the sculptor +Pasiteles (about 665) from Magna Graecia, who furnished images +of the gods in ivory for Roman temples; and with the painter +and philosopher Metrodorus of Athens, who was summoned to paint +the pictures for the triumph of Lucius Paullus (587). It is +significant that the coins of this epoch exhibit in comparison +with those of the previous period a greater variety of types, +but a retrogression rather than an improvement in the cutting +of the dies. + +Finally, music and dancing passed over in like manner from Hellas +to Rome, solely in order to be there applied to the enhancement of +decorative luxury. Such foreign arts were certainly not new in +Rome; the state had from olden time allowed Etruscan flute-players +and dancers to appear at its festivals, and the freedmen and +the lowest class of the Roman people had previously followed +this trade. But it was a novelty that Greek dances and musical +performances should form the regular accompaniment of a genteel +banquet. Another novelty was a dancing-school, such as Scipio +Aemilianus full of indignation describes in one of his speeches, +in which upwards of five hundred boys and girls--the dregs of the +people and the children of magistrates and of dignitaries mixed up +together--received instruction from a ballet-master in far from +decorous castanet-dances, in corresponding songs, and in the use of +the proscribed Greek stringed instruments. It was a novelty too-- +not so much that a consular and -pontifex maximus- like Publius +Scaevola (consul in 621) should catch the balls in the circus as +nimbly as he solved the most complicated questions of law at home-- +as that young Romans of rank should display their jockey-arts +before all the people at the festal games of Sulla. The government +occasionally attempted to check such practices; as for instance in +639, when all musical instruments, with the exception of the simple +flute indigenous in Latium, were prohibited by the censors. +But Rome was no Sparta; the lax government by such prohibitions +rather drew attention to the evils than attempted to remedy them +by a sharp and consistent application of the laws. + +If, in conclusion, we glance back at the picture as a whole which +the literature and art of Italy unfold to our view from the death +of Ennius to the beginning of the Ciceronian age, we find in these +respects as compared with the preceding epoch a most decided +decline of productiveness. The higher kinds of literature--such +as epos, tragedy, history--have died out or have been arrested in +their development. The subordinate kinds--the translation and +imitation of the intrigue-piece, the farce, the poetical and prose +brochure--alone are successful; in this last field of literature +swept by the full hurricane of revolution we meet with the two men +of greatest literary talent in this epoch, Gaius Gracchus and Gaius +Lucilius, who stand out amidst a number of more or less mediocre +writers just as in a similar epoch of French literature Courier +and Beranger stand out amidst a multitude of pretentious nullities. +In the plastic and delineative arts likewise the production, +always weak, is now utterly null. On the other hand the receptive +enjoyment of art and literature flourished; as the Epigoni of +this period in the political field gathered in and used up the +inheritance that fell to their fathers, we find them in this field +also as diligent frequenters of plays, as patrons of literature, +as connoisseurs and still more as collectors in art. The most +honourable aspect of this activity was its learned research, +which put forth a native intellectual energy, more especially in +jurisprudence and in linguistic and antiquarian investigation. +The foundation of these sciences which properly falls within the +present epoch, and the first small beginnings of an imitation of +the Alexandrian hothouse poetry, already herald the approaching +epoch of Roman Alexandrinism. All the productions of the present +epoch are smoother, more free from faults, more systematic than +the creations of the sixth century. The literati and the friends +of literature of this period not altogether unjustly looked down +on their predecessors as bungling novices: but while they ridiculed +or censured the defective labours of these novices, the very men +who were the most gifted among them may have confessed to themselves +that the season of the nation's youth was past, and may have +ever and anon perhaps felt in the still depths of the heart +a secret longing to stray once more in the delightful paths +of youthful error. + + + + +NOTES FOR VOLUME IV + + + +Chapter I + +1. III. VII. The State of Culture in Spain. + +2. Italica must have been intended by Scipio to be what was called in +Italy forum et -conciliabulum civium Romanorum-; Aquae Sextiae in Gaul +had a similar origin afterwards. The formation of transmarine burgess- +communities only began at a later date with Carthage and Narbo: yet +it is remarkable that Scipio already made a first step, in a certain +sense, in that direction. + +3. III. VII. Gracchus + +4. The chronology of the war with Viriathus is far from being +precisely settled. It is certain that the appearance of Viriathus +dates from the conflict with Vetilius (Appian, Hisp. 61; Liv. lii.; +Oros. v. 4), and that he perished in 615 (Diod. Vat. p. 110, etc.); +the duration of his rule is reckoned at eight (Appian, Hisp. 63), ten +(Justin, xliv. 2), eleven (Diodorus, p. 597), fifteen (Liv. liv.; +Eutrop. iv. 16; Oros. v. 4; Flor. i. 33), and twenty years (Vellei. +ii. 90). The first estimate possesses some probability, because the +appearance of Viriathus is connected both in Diodorus (p. 591; Vat. +p. 107, 108) and in Orosius (v. 4) with the destruction of Corinth. +Of the Roman governors, with whom Viriathus fought, several undoubtedly +belong to the northern province; for though Viriathus was at work +chiefly in the southern, he was not exclusively so (Liv. lii.); +consequently we must not calculate the number of the years of his +generalship by the number of these names. + +5. IV. I. Celtiberian War + +6. III. VII. Massinissa + +7. III. VI. Peace, III. VII. Carthage + +8. The line of the coast has been in the course of centuries so +much changed that the former local relations are but imperfectly +recognizable on the ancient site. The name of the city is preserved +by Cape Cartagena--also called from the saint's tomb found there +Ras Sidi bu Said--the eastern headland of the peninsula, projecting +into the gulf with its highest point rising to 393 feet above +the level of the sea. + +9. The dimensions given by Beule (Fouilles a Carthage, 1861) +are as follows in metres and in Greek feet (1=0.309 metre):-- + +Outer wall 2 metres = 6 1/2 feet. +Corridor 1.9 " = 6 " +Front wall of casemates 1 " = 3 1/4 " +Casemate rooms 4.2 " = 14 " +Back wall of casemates 1 " = 3 1/4 " + ------------------------ +Whole breadth of the walls 10.1 metres = 33 feet. + +Or, as Diodorus (p. 522) states it, 22 cubits (1 Greek cubit = 1 1/2 +feet), while Livy (ap. Oros. iv. 22) and Appian (Pun. 95), who seem +to have had before them another less accurate passage of Polybius, +state the breadth of the walls at 30 feet. The triple wall of +Appian--as to which a false idea has hitherto been diffused by +Floras (i. 31)--denotes the outer wall, and the front and back walls +of the casemates. That this coincidence is not accidental, and that +we have here in reality the remains of the famed walls of Carthage +before us, will be evident to every one: the objections of Davis +(Carthage and her Remains, p. 370 et seq.) only show how little +even the utmost zeal can adduce in opposition to the main results +of Beule. Only we must maintain that all the ancient authorities +give the statements of which we are now speaking with reference not +to the citadel-wall, but to the city-wall on the landward side, of +which the wall along the south side of the citadel-hill was an +integral part (Oros. iv. 22). In accordance with this view, the +excavations at the citadel-hill on the east, north, and west, have +shown no traces of fortifications, whereas on the south side they +have brought to light the very remains of this great wall. There is +no reason for regarding these as the remains of a separate +fortification of the citadel distinct from the city wall; it may +be presumed that further excavations at a corresponding depth--the +foundation of the city wall discovered at the Byrsa lies fifty-six +feet beneath the present surface--will bring to light like, or at +any rate analogous, foundations along the whole landward side, +although it is probable that at the point where the walled suburb of +Magalia rested on the main wall the fortification was either weaker +from the first or was early neglected. The length of the wall as a +whole cannot be stated with precision; but it must have been very +considerable, for three hundred elephants were stabled there, and +the stores for their fodder and perhaps other spaces also as well as +the gates are to be taken into account. It is easy to conceive how +the inner city, within the walls of which the Byrsa was included, +should, especially by way of contrast to the suburb of Magalia which +had its separate circumvallation, be sometimes itself called Byrsa +(App. Pun. 117; Nepos, ap. Serv. Aen. i. 368). + +10. Such is the height given by Appian, l. c.; Diodorus gives +the height, probably inclusive of the battlements, at 40 cubits +or 60 feet. The remnant preserved is still from 13 to 16 feet +(4-5 metres) high. + +11. The rooms of a horse-shoe shape brought to light in excavation +have a depth of 14, and a breadth of 11, Greek feet; the width of +the entrances is not specified. Whether these dimensions and the +proportions of the corridor suffice for our recognizing them +as elephants' stalls, remains to be settled by a more accurate +investigation. The partition-walls, which separate the apartments, +have a thickness of 1.1 metre = 3 1/2 feet. + +12. Oros. iv. 22. Fully 2000 paces, or--as Polybius must have +said--16 stadia, are=about 3000 metres. The citadel-hill, on which +the church of St. Louis now stands, measures at the top about 1400, +half-way up about 2600, metres in circumference (Beule, p. 22); for +the circumference at the base that estimate will very well suffice. + +13. It now bears the fort Goletta. + +14. That this Phoenician word signifies a basin excavated in a +circular shape, is shown both by Diodorus (iii. 44), and by its +being employed by the Greeks to denote a "cup." It thus suits only +the inner harbour of Carthage, and in that sense it is used by Strabo +(xvii. 2, 14, where it is strictly applied to the admiral's island) +and Fest. Ep. v. -cothones-, p. 37. Appian (Pun. 127) is not quite +accurate in describing the rectangular harbour in front of the Cothon +as part of it. + +15. --Oios pepnutai, toi de skiai aissousin--. + +16. III. III. Acquisition of Territory in Illyria, III. IX. Macedonia + +17. III. X. Macedonia Broken Up + +18. This road was known already by the author of the pseudo- +Aristotelian treatise De Mirabilibus as a commercial route between +the Adriatic and Black seas, viz. As that along which the wine jars +from Corcyra met halfway those from Thasos and Lesbos. Even now +it runs substantially in the same direction from Durazzo, cutting +through the mountains of Bagora (Candavian chain) near the lake +of Ochrida (Lychnitis), by way of Monastir to Salonica. + +19. III. X. Greek National Party + +20. III. IX. The Achaeans + +21. III. IX. The Achaeans + +22. At Sabine townships, at Parma, and even at Italica in Spain +(p. 214), several pediments marked with the name of Mummius have +been brought to light, which once supported gifts forming part +of the spoil. + +23. III. III. Organization of the Provinces + +24. III. VIII. Final Regulation of Greece + +25. The question whether Greece did or did not become a Roman +province in 608, virtually runs into a dispute about words. It is +certain that the Greek communities throughout remained "free" (C. I. +Gr. 1543, 15; Caesar, B. C. iii. 5; Appian, Mithr. 58; Zonar. ix. +31). But it is no less certain that Greece was then "taken possession +of" by the Romans (Tac. Ann. xiv. 21; 1 Maccab. viii. 9, 10); that +thenceforth each community paid a fixed tribute to Rome (Pausan. vii. +16, 6; comp. Cic. De Prov. Cons. 3, 5), the little island of Gyarus, +for instance, paying 150 --drachmae-- annually (Strabo, x. 485); +that the "rods and axes" of the Roman governor thenceforth ruled +in Greece (Polyb. xxxviii. l. c.; comp. Cic. Verr. l. i. 21, 55), +and that he thenceforth exercised the superintendence over the +constitutions of the cities (C. I. Gr. 1543), as well as in certain +cases the criminal jurisdiction (C. I. Gr. 1543; Plut. Cim. 2), just +as the senate had hitherto done; and that, lastly, the Macedonian +provincial era was also in use in Greece. Between these facts there +is no inconsistency, or at any rate none further than is involved +in the position of the free cities generally, which are spoken of +sometimes as if excluded from the province (e. g. Sueton. Cats., 25; +Colum. xi. 3, 26), sometimes as assigned to it (e. g. Joseph. Ant. +Jud. xiv. 4, 4). The Roman domanial possessions in Greece were, +no doubt, restricted to the territory of Corinth and possibly some +portions of Euboea (C. I. Gr. 5879), and there were no subjects +in the strict sense there at all; yet if we look to the relations +practically subsisting between the Greek communities and the +Macedonian governor, Greece may be reckoned as included in the +province of Macedonia in the same manner as Massilia in the province +of Narbo or Dyrrhachium in that of Macedonia. We find even cases +that go much further: Cisalpine Gaul consisted after 665 of mere +burgess or Latin communities and was yet made a province by Sulla, +and in the time of Caesar we meet with regions which consisted +exclusively of burgess-communities and yet by no means ceased to +be provinces. In these cases the fundamental idea of the Roman +-provinicia- comes out very clearly; it was primarily nothing but +a "command," and all the administrative and judicial functions of +the commandant were originally collateral duties and corollaries +of his military position. + +On the other hand, if we look to the formal sovereignty of the free +communities, it must be granted that the position of Greece was not +altered in point of constitutional law by the events of 608. It was +a difference de facto rather than de jure, when instead of the Achaean +league the individual communities of Achaia now appeared by the side +of Rome as tributary protected states, and when, after the erection +of Macedonia as a separate Roman province, the latter relieved the +authorities of the capital of the superintendence over the Greek +client-states. Greece therefore may or may not be regarded as a part +of the "command" of Macedonia, according as the practical or the +formal point of view preponderates; but the preponderance is justly +conceded to the former. + +26. III. X. Intervention in the Syro-Egyptian War + +27. A remarkable proof of this is found in the names employed to +designate the fine bronze and copper wares of Greece, which in the time +of Cicero were called indiscriminately "Corinthian" or "Delian" copper. +Their designation in Italy was naturally derived not from the places +of manufacture but from those of export (Plin. H. N. xxxiv. 2, 9); +although, of course, we do not mean to deny that similar vases were +manufactured in Corinth and Delos themselves. + +28. III. X. Course Pursued with Pergamus + +29. III. IX. Extension of the Kingdom of Pergamus + +30. III. X. Course Pursued with Pergamus + +31. Several letters recently brought to light (Munchener +Sitzungsberichte, 1860, p. 180 et seq.) from the kings Eumenes II, +and Attalus II to the priest of Pessinus, who was uniformly called +Attis (comp. Polyb. xxii. 20), very clearly illustrate these +relations. The earliest of these and the only one with a date, +written in the 34th year of the reign of Eumenes on the 7th day +before the end of Gorpiaeus, and therefore in 590-1 u. c. offers to +the priest military aid in order to wrest from the Pesongi (not +otherwise known) temple-land occupied by them. The following, +likewise from Eumenes, exhibits the king as a party in the feud +between the priest of Pessinus and his brother Aiorix. Beyond doubt +both acts of Eumenes were included among those which were reported at +Rome in 590 et seq. as attempts on his part to interfere further in +Gallic affairs, and to support his partisans in that quarter (Polyb. +xxxi. 6, 9; xxxii. 3, 5). On the other hand it is plain from one of +the letters of his successor Attalus that the times had changed and +his wishes had lowered their tone. The priest Attis appears to have +at a conference at Apamea obtained once more from Attalus the promise +of armed assistance; but afterwards the king writes to him that in a +state council held for the purpose, at which Athenaeus (certainly the +known brother of the king), Sosander, Menogenes, Chlorus, and other +relatives (--anagkaioi--) had been present, after long hesitation the +majority had at length acceded to the opinion of Chlorus that nothing +should be done without previously consulting the Romans; for, even if +a success were obtained, they would expose themselves to its being lost +again, and to the evil suspicion "which they had cherished also +against his brother" (Eumenes II.). + +32. In the same testament the king gave to his city Pergamus +"freedom," that is the --demokratia--, urban self-government. +According to the tenor of a remarkable document that has recently +been found there (Staatsrecht, iii(3). p. 726) after the testament +was opened, but before its confirmation by the Romans, the Demos thus +constituted resolved to confer urban burgess-rights on the classes +of the population hitherto excluded from them, especially on the +-paroeci- entered in the census and on the soldiers dwelling in town +and country, including the Macedonians, in order thus to bring +about a good understanding among the whole population. Evidently +the burgesses, in confronting the Romans with this comprehensive +reconciliation as an accomplished fact, desired, before the Roman +rule was properly introduced, to prepare themselves against it +and to take away from the foreign rulers the possibility of using +the differences of rights within the population for breaking up +its municipal freedom. + +33. These strange "Heliopolites" may, according to the probable +opinion which a friend has expressed to me, be accounted for by supposing +that the liberated slaves constituted themselves citizens of a town +Heliopolis--not otherwise mentioned or perhaps having an existence +merely in imagination for the moment--which derived its name from +the God of the Sun so highly honoured in Syria. + +34. III. IX. Extension of the Kingdom of Pergamus + +35. III. IX. Extension of the Kingdom of Pergamus + +36. III. IX. Extension of the Kingdom of Pergamus + +37. III. X. Intervention in the Syro-Egyptian War + +38. III. IX. Armenia + +39. From him proceed the coins with the inscription "Shekel +Israel," and the date of the "holy Jerusalem," or the "deliverance +of Sion." The similar coins with the name of Simon, the prince +(Nessi) of Israel, belong not to him, but to Bar-Cochba the leader +of the insurgents in the time of Hadrian. + +40. III. III. Illyrian Piracy + +41. IV. I. New Organization of Spain + +42. III. X. Intervention in the Syro-Egyptian War + + + +Chapter II + +1. In 537 the law restricting re-election to the consulship was +suspended during the continuance of the war in Italy, that is, down to +551 (p. 14; Liv. xxvii. 6). But after the death of Marcellus in 546 +re-elections to the consulship, if we do not include the abdicating +consuls of 592, only occurred in the years 547, 554, 560, 579, 585, 586, +591, 596, 599, 602; consequently not oftener in those fifty-six years +than, for instance, in the ten years 401-410. Only one of these, and +that the very last, took place in violation of the ten years' interval +(i. 402); and beyond doubt the singular election of Marcus Marcellus +who was consul in 588 and 599 to a third consulship in 602, with the +special circumstances of which we are not acquainted, gave occasion to +the law prohibiting re-election to the consulship altogether (Liv. Ep. +56); especially as this proposal must have been introduced before 605, +seeing that it was supported by Cato (p. 55, Jordan). + +2. III. XI. The Nobility in Possession of the Equestrian Centuries + +3. III. XI. Festivals + +4. IV. I. General Results + +5. III. XII. Results + +6. I. XIII. Landed Proprietors + +7. It was asserted even then, that the human race in that quarter +was pre-eminently fitted for slavery by its especial power of +endurance. Plautus (Trin. 542) commends the Syrians: -genus quod +patientissitmum est hominum-. + +8. III. XII. Rural Slaves ff., III. XII. Culture of Oil and Wine, +and Rearing of Cattle + +9. III. XII. Pastoral Husbandry + +10. III. I. The Carthaginian Dominion in Africa + +11. The hybrid Greek name for the workhouse (-ergastulum-, from +--ergaszomai--, after the analogy of -stabulum-, -operculum-) is +an indication that this mode of management came to the Romans from +a region where the Greek language was used, but at a period when +a thorough Hellenic culture was not yet attained. + +12. III. VI. Guerilla War in Sicily + +13. III. XII. Falling Off in the Population + +14. IV. I. War against Aristonicus + +15. IV. I. Cilicia + +16. Even now there are not unfrequently found in front of +Castrogiovanni, at the point where the ascent is least abrupt, Roman +projectiles with the name of the consul of 621: L. Piso L. f. cos. + +17. II. III. Licinio-Sextian Laws + +18. III. I. Capital and Its Power in Carthage + +19. II. III. Influence of the Extension of the Roman Dominion in +Elevating the Farmer-Class + +20. III. XI. Assignations of Land + +21. II. II. Public Land + +22. III. XII. Falling Off of the Population + +23. IV. II. Permanent Criminal Commissions + +24. III. XI. Position of the Governors + +25. III. IX. Death of Scipio + +26. III. XI. Reform of the Centuries + +27. III. VII. Gracchus + +28. IV. I. War against Aristonicus + +29. IV. I. Mancinus + +30. II. III. Licinio-Sextian Laws + +31. II. III. Its Influence in Legislation + +32. IV. I. War against Aristonicus + +33. II. III. Attempts at Counter-Revolution + +34. This fact, hitherto only partially known from Cicero (De L. Agr. +ii. 31. 82; comp. Liv. xlii. 2, 19), is now more fully established +by the fragments of Licinianus, p. 4. The two accounts are to be +combined to this effect, that Lentulus ejected the possessors in +consideration of a compensatory sum fixed by him, but accomplished +nothing with real landowners, as he was not entitled to dispossess +them and they would not consent to sell. + +35. II. II. Agrarian Law of Spurius Cassius + +36. III. XI. Rise of A City Rabble + +37. III. IX. Nullity of the Comitia + + + +Chapter III + +1. IV. I. War against Aristonicus + +2. IV. II. Ideas of Reform + +3. III. VI. The African Expedition of Scipio + +4. To this occasion belongs his oration -contra legem iudiciariam- +Ti. Gracchi--which we are to understand as referring not, as has been +asserted, to a law as to the -indicia publica-, but to the supplementary +law annexed to his agrarian rogation: -ut triumviri iudicarent-, qua +publicus ager, qua privatus esset (Liv. Ep. lviii.; see IV. II. +Tribunate of Gracchus above). + +5. IV. II. Vote by Ballot + +6. The restriction, that the continuance should only be allowable if +there was a want of other qualified candidates (Appian, B. C. i. 21), +was not difficult of evasion. The law itself seems not to have belonged +to the older regulations (Staatsrecht, i. 473), but to have been +introduced for the first time by the Gracchans. + +7. Such are the words spoken on the announcement of his projects of +law:--"If I were to speak to you and ask of you--seeing that I am of +noble descent and have lost my brother on your account, and that there +is now no survivor of the descendants of Publius Africanus and Tiberius +Gracchus excepting only myself and a boy--to allow me to take rest for +the present, in order that our stock may not be extirpated and that +an offset of this family may still survive; you would perhaps readily +grant me such a request." + +8. IV. III. Democratic Agitation under Carbo and Flaccus + +9. III. XII. Results. Competition of Transmarine Corn + +10. III. XII. Prices of Italian Corn + +11. III. XI. Reform of the Centuries + +12. IV. III. The Commission for Distributing the Domains + +13. III. VII. The Romans Maintain A Standing Army in Spain + +14. Thus the statement of Appian (Hisp. 78) that six years' service +entitled a man to demand his discharge, may perhaps be reconciled with +the better known statement of Polybius (vi. 19), respecting which +Marquardt (Handbuch, vi. 381) has formed a correct judgment. The time, +at which the two alterations were introduced, cannot be determined +further, than that the first was probably in existence as early as 603 +(Nitzsch, Gracchen, p. 231), and the second certainly as early as the +time of Polybius. That Gracchus reduced the number of the legal years of +service, seems to follow from Asconius in Cornel, p. 68; comp. Plutarch, +Ti. Gracch. 16; Dio, Fr. 83, 7, Bekk. + +15. II. I. Right of Appeal; II. VIII. Changes in Procedure + +16. III. XII. Moneyed Aristocracy + +17. IV. II. Exclusion of the Senators from the Equestrian Centuries + +18. III. XI. The Censorship A Prop of the Nobility + +19. III. XI. Patricio-Plebeian Nobility, III. XI. Family Government + +20. IV. I. Western Asia + +21. That he, and not Tiberius, was the author of this law, now appears +from Fronto in the letters to Verus, init. Comp. Gracchus ap. Gell. xi. +10; Cic. de. Rep. iii. 29, and Verr. iii. 6, 12; Vellei. ii. 6. + +22. IV. III. Modifications of the Penal Law + +23. We still possess a great portion of the new judicial ordinance-- +primarily occasioned by this alteration in the personnel of the judges-- +for the standing commission regarding extortion; it is known under the +name of the Servilian, or rather Acilian, law -de repetundis-. + +24. This and the law -ne quis iudicio circumveniatur- may +have been identical. + +25. A considerable fragment of a speech of Gracchus, still extant, +relates to this trafficking about the possession of Phrygia, which after +the annexation of the kingdom of Attalus was offered for sale by Manius +Aquillius to the kings of Bithynia and of Pontus, and was bought by the +latter as the highest bidder.(p. 280) In this speech he observes that +no senator troubled himself about public affairs for nothing, and adds +that with reference to the law under discussion (as to the bestowal +of Phrygia on king Mithradates) the senate was divisible into three +classes, viz. Those who were in favour of it, those who were against it, +and those who were silent: that the first were bribed by kingMithra dates, +the second by king Nicomedes, while the third were the most cunning, +for they accepted money from the envoys of both kings and made each +party believe that they were silent in its interest. + +26. IV. III. Democratic Agitation under Carbo and Flaccus + +27. IV. II. Tribunate of Gracchus + +28. II. II. Legislation + +29. II. III. Political Abolition of the Patriciate + + + +Chapter IV + +1. IV. III. Democratic Agitation under Carbo and Flaccus + +2. IV. II. Tribunate of Gracchus + +3. It is in great part still extant and known under the erroneous +name, which has now been handed down for three hundred years, +of the Thorian agrarian law. + +4. II. VII. Attempts at Peace + +5. II. VII. Attempts at Peace + +6. This is apparent, as is well known, from the further course of +events. In opposition to this view stress has been laid on the fact +that in Valerius Maximus, vi. 9, 13, Quintus Caepio is called patron +of the senate; but on the one hand this does not prove enough, and on +the other hand what is there narrated does not at all suit the consul +of 648, so that there must be an error either in the name or in +the facts reported. + +7. It is assumed in many quarters that the establishment of the +province of Cilicia only took place after the Cilician expedition of +Publius Servilius in 676 et seq., but erroneously; for as early as 662 +we find Sulla (Appian, Mithr. 57; B. C. i. 77; Victor, 75), and in +674, 675, Gnaeus Dolabella (Cic. Verr. i. 1, 16, 44) as governors of +Cilicia--which leaves no alternative but to place the establishment of +the province in 652. This view is further supported by the fact that +at this time the expeditions of the Romans against the corsairs--e. g. +the Balearic, Ligurian, and Dalmatian expeditions--appear to have been +regularly directed to the occupation of the points of the coast whence +piracy issued; and this was natural, for, as the Romans had no standing +fleet, the only means of effectually checking piracy was the occupation +of the coasts. It is to be remembered, moreover, that the idea of a +-provincia- did not absolutely involve possession of the country, but +in itself implied no more than an independent military command; it is +very possible, that the Romans in the first instance occupied nothing in +this rugged country save stations for their vessels and troops. + +The plain of eastern Cilicia remained down to the war against Tigranes +attached to the Syrian empire (Appian, Syr. 48); the districts to +the north of the Taurus formerly reckoned as belonging to Cilicia-- +Cappadocian Cilicia, as it was called, and Cataonia--belonged to +Cappadocia, the former from the time of the breaking up of the kingdom +of Attalus (Justin, xxxvii. 1; see above, IV. I. War against Aristonicus), +the latter probably even from the time of the peace with Antiochus. + +8. IV. II. Insurrections of the Slaves + +9. III. VII. Numidians + +10. IV. I The Siege + +11. The following table exhibits the genealogy of the Numidian princes:-- + +Massinissa +516-605 +(238-149) +------------------------------------------------------ +Micipsa Gulussa Mastanabal +d. 636 d. bef. 636 d. bef. 636 +(118) (118) (118) +---------------------------- ------- --------------------- +Adherbal Hiempsal I Micipsa Massiva Gauda Jugurtha +d. 642 d. c. 637 (Diod. d. 643 d.bef. 666 d. 650 +(112) (117) p. 607) (111) (88) (104) + ----------- ------- + Hiempsal II Oxyntas + ------ + Juba I + ------- + Juba II + +12. In the exciting and clever description of this war by Sallust +the chronology has been unduly neglected. The war terminated in the +summer of 649 (c. 114); if therefore Marius began his management +of the war as consul in 647, he held the command there in three +campaigns. But the narrative describes only two, and rightly so. +For, just as Metellus to all appearance went to Africa as early as 645, +but, since he arrived late (c. 37, 44), and the reorganization of the +army cost time (c. 44), only began his operations in the following +year, in like manner Marius, who was likewise detained for a +considerable time in Italy by his military preparations (c. 84), +entered on the chief command either as consul in 647 late in the +season and after the close of the campaign, or only as proconsul in +648; so that the two campaigns of Metellus thus fall in 646, 647, and +those of Marius in 648, 649. It is in keeping with this that Metellus +did not triumph till the year 648 (Eph. epigr. iv. p. 277). With this +view the circumstance also very well accords, that the battle on the +Muthul and the siege of Zama must, from the relation in which they +stand to Marius' candidature for the consulship, be necessarily +placed in 646. In no case can the author be pronounced free from +inaccuracies; Marius, for instance, is even spoken of by him +as consul in 649. + +The prolongation of the command of Metellus, which Sallust reports +(lxii. 10), can in accordance with the place at which it stands only +refer to the year 647; when in the summer of 646 on the footing of the +Sempronian law the provinces of the consuls to be elected for 647 were +to be fixed, the senate destined two other provinces and thus left +Numidia to Metellus. This resolve of the senate was overturned by +the plebiscitum mentioned at lxxii. 7. The following words which are +transmitted to us defectively in the best manuscripts of both families, +-sed paulo... decreverat; ea res frustra fuit,- must either have named +the provinces destined for the consuls by the senate, possibly -sed +paulo [ante ut consulibus Italia et Gallia provinciae essent senatus] +decreverat- or have run according to the way of filling up the +passage in the ordinary manuscripts; -sed paulo [ante senatus +Metello Numidiam] decreverat-. + +13. Now Beja on the Mejerdah. + +14. The locality has not been discovered. The earlier supposition +that Thelepte (near Feriana, to the northward of Capsa) was meant, is +arbitrary; and the identification with a locality still at the present +day named Thala to the east of Capsa is not duly made out. + +15. Sallust's political genre-painting of the Jugurthine war--the +only picture that has preserved its colours fresh in the otherwise +utterly faded and blanched tradition of this epoch--closes with the +fall of Jugurtha, faithful to its style of composition, poetical, not +historical; nor does there elsewhere exist any connected account of +the treatment of the Numidian kingdom. That Gauda became Jugurtha's +successor is indicated by Sallust, c. 65 and Dio. Fr. 79, 4, Bekk., +and confirmed by an inscription of Carthagena (Orell. 630), which +calls him king and father of Hiempsal II. That on the east the +frontier relations subsisting between Numidia on the one hand and +Roman Africa and Cyrene on the other remained unchanged, is shown by +Caesar (B. C. ii. 38; B. Afr. 43, 77) and by the later provincial +constitution. On the other hand the nature of the case implied, and +Sallust (c. 97, 102, 111) indicates, that the kingdom of Bocchus was +considerably enlarged; with which is undoubtedly connected the fact, +that Mauretania, originally restricted to the region of Tingis +(Morocco), afterwards extended to the region of Caesarea (province +of Algiers) and to that of Sitifis (western half of the province of +Constantine). As Mauretania was twice enlarged by the Romans, first +in 649 after the surrender of Jugurtha, and then in 708 after the +breaking up of the Numidian kingdom, it is probable that the +region of Caesarea was added on the first, and that of Sitifis +on the second augmentation. + +16. III. VIII. Interference of the Community with the Finances + + + +Chapter V + +1. If Cicero has not allowed himself to fall into an anachronism +when he makes Africanus say this as early as 625 (de Rep. iii. 9), +the view indicated in the text remains perhaps the only possible one. +This enactment did not refer to Northern Italy and Liguria, as the +cultivation of the vine by the Genuates in 637 (III. XII. Culture Of +Oil and Wine, and Rearing of Cattle, note) proves; and as little to +the immediate territory of Massilia (Just. xliii 4; Posidon. Fr. 25, +Mull.; Strabo, iv. 179). The large export of wine and oil from +Italy to the region of the Rhone in the seventh century of the +city is well known. + +2. In Auvergne. Their capital, Nemetum or Nemossus, lay not +far from Clermont. + +3. The battle at Vindalium is placed by the epitomator of Livy and by +Orosius before that on the Isara; but the reverse order is supported by +Floras and Strabo (iv. 191), and is confirmed partly by the circumstance +that Maximus, according to the epitome of Livy and Pliny, H. N. vii. 50, +conquered the Gauls when consul, partly and especially by the Capitoline +Fasti, according to which Maximus not only triumphed before Ahenobarbus, +but the former triumphed over the Allobroges and the king of the Arverni, +the latter only over the Arverni. It is clear that the battle with +the Allobroges and Arverni must have taken place earlier than that +with the Arverni alone. + +4. Aquae was not a colony, as Livy says (Ep. 61), but a -castellum- +(Strabo, iv. 180; Velleius, i. 15; Madvig, Opusc. i. 303). The same +holds true of Italica (p. 214), and of many other places--Vindonissa, +for instance, never was in law anything else than a Celtic village, +but was withal a fortified Roman camp, and a township of very +considerable importance. + +5. III. VII. Measures Adopted to Check the Immigrations of +the Transalpine Gauls + +6. III. III. Expedition against Scodra + +7. III. III. Impression in Greece and Macedonia + +8. III. X. Humiliation of the Greeks in General + +9. IV. I. Province of Macedonia. the Pirustae in the valleys of +the Drin belonged to the province of Macedonia, but made forays +into the neighbouring Illyricum (Caesar, B. G. v. 1). + +10. II. IV. the Celts Assail the Etruscans in Northern Italy + +11. "The Helvetii dwelt," Tacitus says (Germ. 28), "between the +Hercynian Forest (i. e. here probably the Rauhe Alp), the Rhine, and +the Main; the Boii farther on." Posidonius also (ap. Strab. vii. 293) +states that the Boii, at the time when they repulsed the Cimbri, +inhabited the Hercynian Forest, i. e. the mountains from the Rauhe +Alp to the Bohmerwald The circumstance that Caesar transplants them +"beyond the Rhine" (B. G. i. 5) is by no means inconsistent with this, +for, as he there speaks from the Helvetian point of view, he may very +well mean the country to the north-east of the lake of Constance; which +quite accords with the fact, that Strabo (vii. 292) describes the former +Boian country as bordering on the lake of Constance, except that he is +not quite accurate in naming along with them the Vindelici as dwelling +by the lake of Constance, for the latter only established themselves +there after the Boii had evacuated these districts. From these seats +of theirs the Boii were dispossessed by the Marcomani and other +Germanic tribes even before the time of Posidonius, consequently +before 650; detached portions of them in Caesar's time roamed about +in Carinthia (B. G. i. 5), and came thence to the Helvetii and into +western Gaul; another swarm found new settlements on the Plattensee, +where it was annihilated by the Getae; but the district--the "Boian +desert," as it was called--preserved the name of this the most harassed +of all the Celtic peoples (III. VII. Colonizing of The Region South +of The Po, note). + +12. They are called in the Triumphal Fasti -Galli Karni-; and in Victor +-Ligures Taurisci- (for such should be the reading instead of the +received -Ligures et Caurisci-). + +13. The quaestor of Macedonia M. Annius P. f., to whom the town of +Lete (Aivati four leagues to the north-west of Thessalonica) erected +in the year 29 of the province and 636 of the city this memorial stone +(Dittenberger, Syll. 247), is not otherwise known; the praetor Sex. +Pompeius whose fall is mentioned in it can be no other than the +grandfather of the Pompeius with whom Caesar fought and the brother-in- +law of the poet Lucilius. The enemy are designated as --Galaton +ethnos--. It is brought into prominence that Annius in order to spare +the provincials omitted to call out their contingents and repelled the +barbarians with the Roman troops alone. To all appearance Macedonia +even at that time required a de facto standing Roman garrison. + +14. If Quintus Fabius Maximus Eburnus consul in 638 went to Macedonia +(C. I. Gr. 1534; Zumpt, Comm. Epigr. ii. 167), he too must have +suffered a misfortune there, since Cicero, in Pison. 16, 38, says: +-ex (Macedonia) aliquot praetorio imperio, consulari quidem nemo rediit, +qui incolumis fuerit, quin triumpharit-; for the triumphal list, which +is complete for this epoch, knows only the three Macedonian triumphs +of Metellus in 643, of Drusus in 644, and of Minucius in 648. + +15. As, according to Frontinus (ii. 43), Velleius and Eutropius, the +tribe conquered by Minucius was the Scordisci, it can only be through +an error on the part of Florus that he mentions the Hebrus (the Maritza) +instead of the Margus (Morava). + +16. This annihilation of the Scordisci, while the Maedi and Dardani +were admitted to treaty, is reported by Appian (Illyr. 5), and in fact +thence forth the Scordisci disappear from this region. If the final +subjugation took place in the 32nd year --apo teis proteis es Keltous +peiras--, it would seem that this must be understood of a thirty-two +years' war between the Romans and the Scordisci, the commencement of +which presumably falls not long after the constituting of the province +of Macedonia (608) and of which the incidents in arms above recorded, +636-647, are a part. It is obvious from Appian's narrative that the +conquest ensued shortly before the outbreak of the Italian civil wars, +and so probably at the latest in 663. It falls between 650 and 656, +if a triumph followed it, for the triumphal list before and after is +complete; it is possible however that for some reason there was no +triumph. The victor is not further known; perhaps it was no other than +the consul of the year 671; since the latter may well have been late +in attaining the consulate in consequence of the Cinnan-Marian troubles. + +17. The account that large tracts on the coasts of the North Sea +had been torn away by inundations, and that this had occasioned the +migration of the Cimbri in a body (Strabo, vii. 293), does not indeed +appear to us fabulous, as it seemed to those who recorded it; but +whether it was based on tradition or on conjecture, cannot be decided. + +18. III. VII. Measures Adopted to Check the Immigrations of +the Transalpine Gauls + +19. IV. III. Modifications of the Penal Law + +20. The usual hypothesis, that the Tougeni and Tigorini had advanced +at the same time with the Cimbri into Gaul, cannot be supported by +Strabo (vii. 293), and is little in harmony with the separate part acted +by the Helvetii. Our traditional accounts of this war are, besides, so +fragmentary that, just as in the case of the Samnite wars, a connected +historical narration can only lay claim to approximate accuracy. + +21. To this, beyond doubt, the fragment of Diodorus (Vat. p. 122) +relates. + +22. IV. IV. The Proletariate and Equestrian Order under the Restoration + +23. The deposition from office of the proconsul Caepio, with which was +combined the confiscation of his property (Liv. Ep. 67), was probably +pronounced by the assembly of the people immediately after the battle +of Arausio (6th October 649). That some time elapsed between the +deposition and his proper downfall, is clearly shown by the proposal +made in 650, and aimed at Caepio, that deposition from office should +involve the forfeiture of a seat in the senate (Asconius in Cornel, +p. 78). The fragments of Licinianus (p. 10; -Cn. Manilius ob eandem +causam quam et Caepio L. Saturnini rogatione e civitate est cito [?] +eiectus-; which clears up the allusion in Cic. de Or. ii. 28, 125) now +inform us that a law proposed by Lucius Appuleius Saturninus brought +about this catastrophe. This is evidently no other than the Appuleian +law as to the -minuta maiestas- of the Roman state (Cic. de Or. ii. +25, 107; 49, 201), or, as its tenor was already formerly explained +(ii. p. 143 of the first edition [of the German]), the proposal of +Saturninus for the appointment of an extraordinary commission to +investigate the treasons that had taken place during the Cimbrian +troubles. The commission of inquiry as to the gold of Tolosa +(Cic. de N. D. iii. 30, 74) arose in quite a similar way out of +the Appuleian law, as the special courts of inquiry--further mentioned +in that passage--as to a scandalous bribery of judges out of the Mucian +law of 613, as to the occurrences with the Vestals out of the Peducaean +law of 641, and as to the Jugurthine war out of the Mamilian law of 644. +A comparison of these cases also shows that in such special +commissions--different in this respect from the ordinary ones--even +punishments affecting life and limb might be and were inflicted. If +elsewhere the tribune of the people, Gaius Norbanus, is named as the +person who set agoing the proceedings against Caepio and was afterwards +brought to trial for doing so (Cic. de Or. ii. 40, 167; 48, 199; 49, 200; +Or. Part. 30, 105, et al.), this is not inconsistent with the view +given above; for the proposal proceeded as usual from several tribunes +of the people (ad Herenn. i. 14, 24; Cic. de Or. ii. 47, 197), and, +as Saturninus was already dead when the aristocratic party was in a +position to think of retaliation, they fastened on his colleague. +As to the period of this second and final condemnation of Caepio, +the usual very inconsiderate hypothesis, which places it in 659, +ten years after the battle of Arausio, has been already rejected. +It rests simply on the fact that Crassus when consul, consequently +in 659, spoke in favour of Caepio (Cic. Brut. 44, 162); which, however, +he manifestly did not as his advocate, but on the occasion when +Norbanus was brought to account by Publius Sulpicius Rufus for his +conduct toward Caepio in 659. Formerly the year 650 was assumed for +this second accusation; now that we know that it originated from a +proposal of Saturninus, we can only hesitate between 651, when he was +tribune of the people for the first time (Plutarch, Mar. 14; Oros, +v. 17; App. i. 28; Diodor. p. 608, 631), and 654, when he held that +office a second time. There are not materials for deciding the point +with entire certainty, but the great preponderance of probability is +in favour of the former year; partly because it was nearer to the +disastrous events in Gaul, partly because in the tolerably full +accounts of the second tribunate of Saturninus there is no mention +of Quintus Caepio the father and the acts of violence directed against +him. The circumstance, that the sums paid back to the treasury in +consequence of the verdicts as to the embezzlement of the Tolosan +booty were claimed by Saturninus in his second tribunate for his +schemes of colonization (De Viris Ill. 73, 5, and thereon Orelli, +Ind. Legg. p. 137), is not in itself decisive, and may, moreover, +have been easily transferred by mistake from the first African to +the second general agrarian law of Saturninus. + +The fact that afterwards, when Norbanus was impeached, his impeachment +proceeded on the very ground of the law which he had taken part in +suggesting, was an ironical incident common in the Roman political +procedure of this period (Cic. Brut. 89, 305) and should not mislead +us into the belief that the Appuleian law was, like the later +Cornelian, a general law of high treason. + +24. The view here presented rests in the main on the comparatively +trustworthy account in the Epitome of Livy (where we should read +-reversi in Gallium in Vellocassis se Teutonis coniunxerunt) and in +Obsequens; to the disregard of authorities of lesser weight, which +make the Teutones appear by the side of the Cimbri at an earlier date, +some of them, such as Appian, Celt. 13, even as early as the battle of +Noreia. With these we connect the notices in Caesar (B. G. i. 33; ii. +4, 29); as the invasion of the Roman province and of Italy by the Cimbri +can only mean the expedition of 652. + +25. It is injudicious to deviate from the traditional account +and to transfer the field of battle to Verona: in so doing the fact +is overlooked that a whole winter and various movements of troops +intervened between the conflicts on the Adige and the decisive +engagement, and that Catulus, according to express statement (Plut. Mar. +24), had retreated as far as the right bank of the Po. The statements +that the Cimbri were defeated on the Po (Hier. Chron.), and that they +were defeated where Stilicho afterwards defeated the Getae, i. e. at +Cherasco on the Tanaro, although both inaccurate, point at least to +Vercellae much rather than to Verona. + + + +Chapter VI + +1. IV. IV. The Domain Question under the Restoration + +2. I. VI. The Servian Constitution, II. III. Its Composition + +3. III. XI. Reforms in the Military Service + +4. III. XI. The Nobility in Possession of the Equestrian Centuries + +5. IV. IV. Treaty between Rome and Numidia + +6. IV. V. Warfare of Prosecutions + +7. It is not possible to distinguish exactly what belongs to the first +and what to the second tribunate of Saturninus; the more especially, +as in both he evidently followed out the same Gracchan tendencies. +The African agrarian law is definitely placed by the treatise De Viris Ill. +73, 1 in 651; and this date accords with the termination, which had +taken place just shortly before, of the Jugurthine war. The second +agrarian law belongs beyond doubt to 654. The treason-law and the corn- +law have been only conjecturally placed, the former in 651 (p. 442 +note), the latter in 654. + +8. All indications point to this conclusion. The elder Quintus Caepio +was consul in 648, the younger quaestor in 651 or 654, the former +consequently was born about or before 605, the latter about 624 or 627. +The fact that the former died without leaving sons (Strabo, iv. 188) is +not inconsistent with this view, for the younger Caepio fell in 664, +and the elder, who ended his life in exile at Smyrna, may very well +have survived him. + +9. IV. IV. Treaty between Rome and Numidia + +10. IV. V. Warfare of Prosecutions + +11. IV. IV. Rival Demagogism of the Senate. The Livian Laws + +12. IV. V. And Reach the Danube + +13. IV. IV. Administration under the Restoration + +14. IV. VI. Collision between the Senate and Equites in +the Administration of the Provinces + + + +Chapter VII + +1. IV. III. Modifications of the Penal Law + +2. I. VII. Relation of Rome to Latium, II. V. As to the Officering +of the Army + +3. II. VII. Furnishing of Contingents; III. XI. Latins + +4. III. XI. Roman Franchise More Difficult of Acquisition + +5. III. XI. Roman Franchise More Difficult of Acquisition + +6. IV. III. Democratic Agitation under Carbo and Flaccus, +IV. III. Overthrow of Gracchus + +7. These figures are taken from the numbers of the census of 639 and +684; there were in the former year 394, 336 burgesses capable of bearing +arms, in the latter 910,000 (according to Phlegon Fr. 12 Mull., which +statement Clinton and his copyists erroneously refer to the census of +668; according to Liv. Ep. 98 the number was--by the correct reading-- +900,000 persons). The only figures known between these two--those of +the census of 668, which according to Hieronymus gave 463,000 persons-- +probably turned out so low only because the census took place amidst +the crisis of the revolution. As an increase of the population of Italy +is not conceivable in the period from 639 to 684, and even the Sullan +assignations of land can at the most have but filled the gaps which the +war had made, the surplus of fully 500,000 men capable of bearing arms +may be referred with certainty to the reception of the allies which had +taken place in the interval. But it is possible, and even probable, +that in these fateful years the total amount of the Italian population +may have retrograded rather than advanced: if we reckon the total +deficit at 100,000 men capable of bearing arms, which seems not +excessive, there were at the time of the Social War in Italy three non- +burgesses for two burgesses. + +8. The form of oath is preserved (in Diodor. Vat. p. 116); it runs +thus: "I swear by the Capitoline Jupiter and by the Roman Vesta and by +the hereditary Mars and by the generative Sun and by the nourishing +Earth and by the divine founders and enlargers (the Penates) of the City +of Rome, that he shall be my friend and he shall be my foe who is friend +or foe to Drusus; also that I will spare neither mine own life nor the +life of my children or of my parents, except in so far as it is for the +good of Drusus and those who share this oath. But if I should become a +burgess by the law of Drusus, I will esteem Rome as my home and Drusus +as the greatest of my benefactors. I shall tender this oath to as many +of my fellow-citizens as I can; and if I swear truly, may it fare with +me well; if I swear falsely, may it fare with me ill." But we shall do +well to employ this account with caution; it is derived either from +the speeches delivered against Drusus by Philippus (which seems to +be indicated by the absurd title "oath of Philippus" prefixed by the +extractor of the formula) or at best from the documents of criminal +procedure subsequently drawn up respecting this conspiracy in Rome; and +even on the latter hypothesis it remains questionable, whether this form +of oath was elicited from the accused or imputed to them in the inquiry. + +9. II. VII. Dissolution of National Leagues + +10. IV. VI. Discussions on the Livian Laws + +11. IV. IV. Dissatisfaction in the Capital, IV. V. Warfare +of Prosecutions + +12. Even from our scanty information, the best part of which is +given by Diodorus, p. 538 and Strabo, v. 4, 2, this is very distinctly +apparent; for example, the latter expressly says that the burgess-body +chose the magistrates. That the senate of Italia was meant to be formed +in another manner and to have different powers from that of Rome, +has been asserted, but has not been proved. Of course in its first +composition care would be taken to have a representation in some degree +uniform of the insurgent cities; but that the senators were to be +regularly deputed by the communities, is nowhere stated. As little +does the commission given to the senate to draw up a constitution exclude +its promulgation by the magistrates and ratification by the assembly +of the people. + +13. The bullets found at Asculum show that the Gauls were very +numerousalso in the army of Strabo. + +14. We still have a decree of the Roman senate of 22 May 676, which +grants honours and advantages on their discharge to three Greek ship- +captains of Carystus, Clazomenae, and Miletus for faithful services +renderedsince the commencement of the Italian war (664). Of the same +nature is the account of Memnon, that two triremes were summoned from +Heraclea on the Black Sea for the Italian war, and that they returned +in the eleventh year with rich honorary gifts. + +15. That this statement of Appian is not exaggerated, is shown +by the bullets found at Asculum which name among others the +fifteenth legion. + +16. The Julian law must have been passed in the last months of 664, +for during the good season of the year Caesar was in the field; +the Plautian was probably passed, as was ordinarily the rule with +tribunician proposals, immediately after the tribunes entered on office, +consequently in Dec. 664 or Jan. 665. + +17. Leaden bullets with the name of the legion which threw them, and +sometimes with curses against the "runaway slaves"--and accordingly +Roman--or with the inscription "hit the Picentes" or "hit Pompeius"-- +the former Roman, the latter Italian--are even now sometimes found, +belonging to that period, in the region of Ascoli. + +18. The rare -denarii- with -Safinim- and -G. Mutil- in Oscan +characters must belong to this period; for, as long as the designation +-Italia- was retained by the insurgents, no single canton could, as a +sovereign power, coin money with its own name. + +19. I. VII. Servian Wall + +20. Licinianus (p. 15) under the year 667 says: -dediticiis omnibus +[ci]vita[s] data; qui polliciti mult[a] milia militum vix XV... cohortes +miserunt-; a statement in which Livy's account (Epit. 80): -Italicis +populis a senatu civitas data est- reappears in a somewhat more precise +shape. The -dediticii- were according to Roman state-law those +-peregrini liberi- (Gaius i. 13-15, 25, Ulp. xx. 14, xxii. 2) who +had become subject to the Romans and had not been admitted to alliance. +They not merely retain life, liberty, and property, but may be formed +into communities with a constitution of their own. --Apolides--, +-nullius certae civitatis cives- (Ulp. xx. 14; comp. Dig. xlviii. 19, 17, +i), were only the freedmen placed by legal fiction on the same footing +with the -dediticii qui dediticiorum numero sunt-, only by erroneous +usage and rarely by the better authors called directly -dediticii-; (Gai. +i. 12, Ulp. i. 14, Paul. iv. 12, 6) as well as the kindred -liberti +Latini Iuniani-. But the -dediticii-nevertheless were destitute of +rights as respected the Roman state, in so far as by Roman state-law +every -deditio- was necessarily unconditional (Polyb, xxi. 1; comp. xx. +9, 10, xxxvi. 2) and all the privileges expressly or tacitly conceded to +them were conceded only -precario- and therefore revocable at pleasure +(Appian, Hisp. 44); so that the Roman state, what ever it might +immediately or afterwards decree regarding its -dediticii-, could never +perpetrate as respected them a violation of rights. This destitution of +rights only ceased on the conclusion of a treaty of alliance (Liv. +xxxiv. 57). Accordingly -deditio- and -foedus- appear in constitutional +law as contrasted terms excluding each other (Liv. iv. 30, xxviii. 34; +Cod. Theod. vii. 13, 16 and Gothofr. thereon), and of precisely the same +nature is the distinction current among the jurists between the -quasi- +dediticii- and the -quasi Latini-, for the Latins are just the +-foederati- in an eminent sense (Cic. pro Balb. 24, 54). + +According to the older constitutional law there were, with the exception +of the not numerous communities that were declared to have forfeited +their treaties in consequence of the Hannibalic war (p. 24), no Italian +-dediticii-; in the Plautian law of 664-5 the description: -qui +foederatis civitatibus adscripti fuerunt- (Cic. pro Arch. 4, 7) +still included in substance all Italians. But as the -dediticii- +who received the franchise supplementary in 667 cannot reasonably +be understood as embracing merely the Bruttii and Picentes, we may +assume that all the insurgents, so far as they had laid down their +arms and had not acquired the franchise under the Plautio-Papirian +law were treated as -dediticii-, or--which is the same thing-- +that their treaties cancelled as a matter of course by the insurrection +(hence -qui foederati fuerunt- in the passage of Cicero cited) were +not legally renewed to them on their surrender. + +21. II. III. Laws Imposing Taxes + +22. IV. VI. The Equestrian Party + +23. II. XI. Squandering of the Spoil + +24. It is not clear, what the -lex unciaria- of the consuls Sulla and +Rufus in the year 666 prescribed in this respect; but the simplest +hypothesis is that which regards it as a renewal of the law of 397 (i. +364), so that the highest allowable rate of interest was again 1 1/12th +of the capital for the year of ten months or 10 per cent for the year +of twelve months. + +25. III. XI. Reform of the Centuries + +26. II. III. Powers of the Senate + +27. IV. II. Death of Gracchus, IV. III. Attack on The Transmarine +Colonization. Downfall of Gracchus, IV. VI. Saturninus Assailed + +28. II. III. The Tribunate of the People As an Instrument of Government + + + +Chapter VIII + +1. IV. VIII. Occupation of Cilicia + +2. III. IX. Armenia + +3. IV. I. Western Asia + +4. The words quoted as Phrygian --Bagaios-- = Zeus and the old +royal name --Manis-- have been beyond doubt correctly referred to +the Zend -bagha- = God and the Germanic -Mannus-, Indian -Manus- +(Lassen, -Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenland-. Gesellschaft, +vol. x. p. 329 f.). + +5. They are here grouped together, because, though they were in +part doubtless not executed till between the first and the second +war with Rome, they to some extent preceded even the first (Memn. +30; Justin, xxxviii. 7 ap. fin.; App. Mithr. 13; Eutrop. v. 5) and +a narrative in chronological order is in this case absolutely +impracticable. Even the recently found decree of Chersonesus +(p. 17) has given no information in this respect According to it +Diophantus was twice sent against the Taurian Scythians; but that +the second insurrection of these is connected with the decree of +the Roman senate in favour of the Scythian princes (p. 21) is not +clear from the document, and is not even probable. + +6. It is very probable that the extraordinary drought, which +is the chief obstacle now to agriculture in the Crimea and in +these regions generally, has been greatly increased by the +disappearance of the forests of central and southern Russia, +which formerly to some extent protected the coast-provinces +from the parching northeast wind. + +7. The recently discovered decree of the town of Chersonesus in +honour of this Diophantus (Dittenberger, Syll. n. 252) thoroughly +confirms the traditional account. It shows us the city in the +immediate vicinity--the port of Balaclava must at that time have +been in the power of the Tauri and Simferopol in that of the +Scythians--hard pressed partly by the Tauri on the south coast of +the Crimea, partly and especially by the Scythians who held in +their power the whole interior of the peninsula and the mainland +adjoining; it shows us further how the general of king Mithradates +relieves on all sides the Greek city, defeats the Tauri, and erects +in their territory a stronghold (probably Eupatorion), restores the +connection between the western and the eastern Hellenes of the +peninsula, overpowers in the west the dynasty of Scilurus, and in +the east Saumacus prince of the Scythians, pursues the Scythians +even to the mainland, and at length conquers them with the +Reuxinales--such is the name given to the later Roxolani here, +where they first appear--in the great pitched battle, which is +mentioned also in the traditional account. There does not seem to +have been any formal subordination of the Greek city under the king; +Mithradates appears only as protecting ally, who fights the battles +against the Scythians that passed as invincible (--tous anupostatous +dokountas eimen--), on behalf of the Greek city, which probably +stood to him nearly in the relation of Massilia and Athens to Rome. +The Scythians on the other band in the Crimea become subjects +(--upakooi--) of Mithradates. + +8. The chronology of the following events can only be determined +approximately. Mithradates Eupator seems to have practically +entered on the government somewhere about 640; Sulla's intervention +took place in 662 (Liv. Ep. 70) with which accords the calculation +assigning to the Mithradatic wars a period of thirty years (662-691) +(Plin. H. N. vii. 26, 97). In the interval fell the quarrels as to +the Paphlagonian and Cappadocian succession, with which the bribery +attempted by Mithradates in Rome (Diod. 631) apparently in the first +tribunate of Saturninus in 651 (IV. VI. Saturninus) was probably +connected. Marius, who left Rome in 665 and did not remain long +in the east, found Mithradates already in Cappadocia and negotiated +with him regarding his aggressions (Cic. ad Brut. i. 5; Plut. Mar. 31); +Ariarathes VI had consequently been by that time put to death. + +9. IV. III. Character of the Constitution of Gaius Gracchus + +10. A decree of the senate of the year 638 recently found in the +village Aresti to the south of Synnada (Viereck, -Sermo Graecus quo +senatus Romanus usus sit-, p. 51) confirms all the regulations made +by the king up to his death and thus shows that Great Phrygia after +the death of the father was not merely taken from the son, as Appian +also states, but was thereby brought directly under Roman allegiance. + +11. III. IX. Rupture between Antiochus and the Romans + +12. Retribution came upon the authors of the arrest and surrender +of Aquillius twenty-five years afterwards, when after Mithradates' +death his son Pharnaces handed them over to the Romans. + +13. IV. VII. Economic Crisis + +14. We must recollect that after the outbreak of the Social War +the legion had at least not more than half the number of men which it +had previously, as it was no longer accompanied by Italian contingents. + +15. The chronology of these events is, like all their details, +enveloped in an obscurity which investigation is able to dispel, +at most, only partially. That the battle of Chaeronea took place, +if not on the same day as the storming of Athens (Pausan, i. 20), +at any rate soon afterwards, perhaps in March 668, is tolerably certain. +That the succeeding Thessalian and the second Boeotian campaign took +up not merely the remainder of 668 but also the whole of 669, is in +itself probable and is rendered still more so by the fact that Sulla's +enterprises in Asia are not sufficient to fill more than a single +campaign. Licinianus also appears to indicate that Sulla returned to +Athens for the winter of 668-669 and there took in hand the work of +investigation and punishment; after which he relates the battle of +Orchomenus. The crossing of Sulla to Asia has accordingly been +placed not in 669, but in 670. + +16. The resolution of the citizens of Ephesus to this effect has +recently been found (Waddington, Additions to Lebas, Inscr. iii. +136 a). They had, according to their own declaration, fallen into +the power of Mithradates "the king of Cappadocia," being frightened +by the magnitude of his forces and the suddenness of his attack; +but, when opportunity offered, they declared war against him "for +the rule (--egemonia--) of the Romans and the common weal." + +17. The statement that Mithradates in the peace stipulated for +impunity to the towns which had embraced his side (Memnon, 35) +seems, looking to the character of the victor and of the +vanquished, far from credible, and it is not given by Appian +or by Licinianus. They neglected to draw up the treaty of +peace in writing, and this neglect afterwards left room far +various misrepresentations. + +18. Armenian tradition also is acquainted with the first +Mithradatic war. Ardasches king of Armenia--Moses of Chorene tells +us--was not content with the second rank which rightfully belonged +to him in the Persian (Parthian) empire, but compelled the Parthian +king Arschagan to cede to him the supreme power, whereupon he had a +palace built for himself in Persia and had coins struck there with +his own image. He appointed Arschagan viceroy of Persia and his +son Dicran (Tigranes) viceroy of Armenia, and gave his daughter +Ardaschama in marriage to the great-prince of the Iberians +Mihrdates (Mithradates) who was descended from Mihrdates satrap +of Darius and governor appointed by Alexander over the conquered +Iberians, and ruled in the northern mountains as well as over the +Black Sea. Ardasches then took Croesus the king of the Lydians +prisoner, subdued the mainland between the two great seas (Asia +Minor), and crossed the sea with innumerable vessels to subjugate +the west. As there was anarchy at that time in Rome, he nowhere +encountered serious resistance, but his soldiers killed each other +and Ardasches fell by the hands of his own troops. After +Ardasches' death his successor Dicran marched against the army of +the Greeks (i. e. the Romans) who now in turn invaded the Armenian +land; he set a limit to their advance, handed over to his brother- +in-law Mihrdates the administration of Madschag (Mazaca in +Cappadocia) and of the interior along with a considerable force, +and returned to Armenia. Many years afterwards there were still +pointed out in the Armenian towns statues of Greek gods by well- +known masters, trophies of this campaign. + +We have no difficulty in recognizing here various facts of +the first Mithradatic war, but the whole narrative is evidently +confused, furnished with heterogeneous additions, and in particular +transferred by patriotic falsification to Armenia. In just the +same way the victory over Crassus is afterwards attributed to +the Armenians. These Oriental accounts are to be received with all +the greater caution, that they are by no means mere popular legends; +on the contrary the accounts of Josephus, Eusebius, and other +authorities current among the Christians of the fifth century have been +amalgamated with the Armenian traditions, and the historical romances +of the Greeks and beyond doubt the patriotic fancies also of Moses +himself have been laid to a considerable extent under contribution. +Bad as is cur Occidental tradition in itself, to call in the aid of +Oriental tradition in this and similar cases--as has been attempted +for instance by the uncritical Saint-Martin--can only lead to +still further confusion. + +19. III. X. Intervention in the Syro-Egyptian War + + + +Chapter IX + +1. The whole of the representation that follows is based in +substance on the recently discovered account of Licinianus, which +communicates a number of facts previously unknown, and in +particular enables us to perceive the sequence and connection of +these events more clearly than was possible before. + +2. IV. VII. The Bestowal of the Franchise and Its Limitations. +That there was no confirmation by the comitia, is clear from +Cic. Phil. xii. 11, 27. The senate seems to have made use of +the form of simply prolonging the term of the Plautio- Papirian +law (IV. VII. Bestowal of Latin Rights on the Italian Celts), +a course which by use and wont (i. 409) was open to it and +practically amounted to conferring the franchise on all Italians. + +3. "-Ad flatus sidere-," as Livy (according to Obsequens, 56) +expresses it, means "seized by the pestilence" (Petron. Sat. 2; +Plin. H. N. ii. 41, 108; Liv. viii. 9, 12), not "struck by +lightning," as later writers have misunderstood it. + +4. IV. VII. Combats with the Marsians + +5. IV. VII. Sulpicius Rufus + +6. IV. VII. Bestowal of Latin Rights on the Italian Celts + +7. IV. V. In Illyria + +8. IV. VI. Discussions on the Livian Laws + +9. IV. VII. Energetic Decrees + +10. Lucius Valerius Flaccus, whom the Fasti name as consul in 668, +was not the consul of 654, but a younger man of the same name, +perhaps son of the preceding. For, first, the law which prohibited +re-election to the consulship remained legally in full force from +c. 603 (IV. II. Attempts at Reform) to 673, and it is not probable +that what was done in the case of Scipio Aemilianus and Marius was +done also for Flaccus. Secondly, there is no mention anywhere, when +either Flaccus is named, of a double consulship, not even where it +was necessary as in Cic. pro Flacc. 32, 77. Thirdly, the Lucius +Valerius Flaccus who was active in Rome in 669 as -princeps +senatus- and consequently of consular rank (Liv. 83), cannot have +been the consul of 668, for the latter had already at that time +departed for Asia and was probably already dead. The consul of +654, censor in 657, is the person whom Cicero (ad Att. viii. 3, 6) +mentions among the consulars present in Rome in 667; he was in 669 +beyond doubt the oldest of the old censors living and thus fitted +to be -princeps senatus-; he was also the -interrex- and the +-magister equitum- of 672. On the other hand, the consul of 668, +who Perished at Nicomedia (p. 47), was the father of the Lucius +Flaccus defended by Cicero (pro Flacc. 25, 61, comp. 23, 55. 32, 77). + +11. IV. VI. The Equestrian Party + +12. IV. VII. Sulla Embarks for Asia + +13. We can only suppose this to be the Brutus referred to, since +Marcus Brutus the father of the so-called Liberator was tribune of +the people in 671, and therefore could not command in the field. + +14. IV. IV. Prosecutions of the Democrats + +15. It is stated, that Sulla occupied the defile by which alone +Praeneste was accessible (App. i. 90); and the further events +showed that the road to Rome was open to him as well as to the +relieving army. Beyond doubt Sulla posted himself on the cross +road which turns off from the Via Latina, along which the Samnites +advanced, at Valmontone towards Palestrina; in this case Sulla +communicated with the capital by the Praenestine, and the enemy by +the Latin or Labican, road. + +16. Hardly any other name can well be concealed under the corrupt +reading in Liv. 89 -miam in Samnio-; comp. Strabo, v. 3, 10. + +17. IV. IX. Pompeius + +18. IV. VIII. New Difficulties + + + +Chapter X + +1. III. XI. Abolition of the Dictatorship + +2. -Satius est uti regibus quam uti malis legibus- (Ad Herenn. ii. +36). + +3. II. I. The Dictator, II. II. The Valerio-Horatian Laws, II. III. +Limitation of the Dictatorship + +4. IV. VII. Legislation of Sulla + +5. This total number is given by Valerius Maximus, ix. 2. 1. +According to Appian (B. C. i. 95), there were proscribed by Sulla +nearly 40 senators, which number subsequently received some +additions, and about 1600 equites; according to Florus (ii. 9, +whence Augustine de Civ. Dei, iii. 28), 2000 senators and equites. +According to Plutarch (Sull. 31), 520 names were placed on the list +in the first three days; according to Orosius (v. 21), 580 names +during the first days. there is no material contradiction between +these various reports, for it was not senators and equites alone +that were put to death, and the list remained open for months. +When Appian, at another passage (i. 103), mentions as put to death +or banished by Sulla, 15 consulars, 90 senators, 2600 equites, he +there confounds, as the connection shows, the victims of the civil +war throughout with the victims of Sulla. The 15 consulars were-- +Quintus Catulus, consul in 652; Marcus Antonius, 655; Publius +Crassus, 657; Quintus Scaevola, 659; Lucius Domitius, 660; Lucius +Caesar, 664; Quintus Rufus, 666; Lucius Cinna, 667-670; Gnaeus +Octavius, 667; Lucius Merula, 667; Lucius Flaccus, 668; Gnaeus +Carbo, 669, 670, 672; Gaius Norbanus, 671; Lucius Scipio, 671; +Gaius Marius, 672; of whom fourteen were killed, and one, Lucius +Scipio, was banished. When, on the other hand, the Livian account +in Eutropius (v. 9) and Orosius (v. 22) specifies as swept away +(-consumpti-) in the Social and Civil wars, 24 consulars, 7 +praetorians, 60 aedilicians, 200 senators, the calculation includes +partly the men who fell in the Italian war, such as the consulars +Aulus Albinus, consul in 655; Titus Didius, 656; Publius Lupus, +664; Lucius Cato, 665; partly perhaps Quintus Metellus Numidicus +(IV. VI. Violent Proceedings in The Voting), Manius Aquillius, +Gaius Marius the father, Gnaeus Strabo, whom we may certainly regard +as also victims of that period, or other men whose fate is unknown to us. +Of the fourteen consulars killed, three--Rufus, Cinna, and Flaccus-- +fell through military revolts, while eight Sullan and three Marian +consulars fell as victims to the opposite party. On a comparison of +the figures given above, 50 senators and 1000 equites were regarded +as victims of Marius, 40 senators and 1600 equites as victims +of Sulla; this furnishes a standard--at least not altogether +arbitrary--for estimating the extent of the crimes on both sides. + +6. The Sextus Alfenus, frequently mentioned in Cicero's oration on +behalf of Publius Quinctius, was one of these. + +7. II. VII. Latins. To this was added the peculiar aggravation that, +while in other instances the right of the Latins, like that of +the -peregrini-, implied membership in a definite Latin or foreign +community, in this case--just as with the later freedmen of Latin +and deditician rights (comp. IV. VII. The Bestowal of the Franchise and +Its Limitations. n.)--it was without any such right of urban membership. +The consequence was, that these Latins were destitute of the privileges +attaching to an urban constitution, and, strictly speaking, could not +even make a testament, since no one could execute a testament otherwise +than according to the law of his town; they could doubtless, however, +acquire under Roman testaments, and among the living could hold dealings +with each other and with Romans or Latins in the forms of Roman law. + +8. IV. IV. The Domain Question under the Restoration + +9. That Sulla's assessment of the five years' arrears and of the +war expenses levied on the communities of Asia (Appian, Mithr. 62 +et al.) formed a standard for the future, is shown by the facts, +that the distribution of Asia into forty districts is referred to +Sulla (Cassiodor. Chron. 670) and that the Sullan apportionment +was assumed as a basis in the case of subsequent imposts (Cic. pro +Flacc. 14, 32), and by the further circumstance, that on occasion +of building a fleet in 672 the sums applied for that purpose were +deducted from the payment of tribute (-ex pecunia vectigali populo +Romano-: Cic. Verr. l. i. 35, 89). Lastly, Cicero (ad Q. fr. i. i, +ii, 33) directly says, that the Greeks "were not in a position of +themselves to pay the tax imposed on them by Sulla without -publicani-." + +10. III. XI. Separation of the Orders in the Theatre + +11. IV. III. Insignia of the Equites. Tradition has not indeed +informed us by whom that law was issued, which rendered it necessary +that the earlier privilege should be renewed by the Roscian theatre-law +of 687 (Becker-Friedlander, iv, 531); but under the circumstances +the author of that law was undoubtedly Sulla. + +12. IV. VI. Livius Drusus + +13. IV. VII. Rejection of the Proposals for an Accomodation + +14. III. XI. The Nobility in Possession of the Senate + +15. How many quaestors had been hitherto chosen annually, is not +known. In 487 the number stood at eight--two urban, two military, +and four naval, quaestors (II. VII. Quaestors of the Fleet, +II. VII. Intermediate Fuctionaries); to which there fell to be added +the quaestors employed in the provinces (III. III. Provincial Praetors). +For the naval quaestors at Ostia, Cales, and so forth were by no means +discontinued, and the military quaestors could not be employed +elsewhere, since in that case the consul, when he appeared as +commander-in-chief, would have been without a quaestor. Now, as +down to Sulla's time there were nine provinces, and moreover two +quaestors were sent to Sicily, he may possibly have found as many +as eighteen quaestors in existence. But as the number of the +supreme magistrates of this period was considerably less than that +of their functions (p. 120), and the difficulty thus arising was +constantly remedied by extension of the term of office and other +expedients, and as generally the tendency of the Roman government +was to limit as much as possible the number of magistrates, there +may have been more quaestorial functions than quaestors, and it may +be even that at this period no quaestor at all was sent to small +provinces such as Cilicia. Certainly however there were, already +before Sulla's time, more than eight quaestors. + +16. III. XI. The Censorship A Prop of the Nobility + +17. We cannot strictly speak at all of a fixed number of senators. +Though the censors before Sulla prepared on each occasion a list of +300 persons, there always fell to be added to this list those non- +senators who filled a curule office between the time when the list +was drawn up and the preparation of the next one; and after Sulla +there were as many senators as there were surviving quaestorians +But it may be probably assumed that Sulla meant to bring the senate +up to 500 or 600 members; and this number results, if we assume +that 20 new members, at an average age of 30, were admitted +annually, and we estimate the average duration of the senatorial +dignity at from 25 to 30 years. At a numerously attended sitting +of the senate in Cicero's time 417 members were present. + +18. II. III. The Senate. Its Composition + +19. IV. VI. Political Projects of Marius + +20. III. XI. Interference of the Community in War and Administration + +21. IV. VII. Legislation of Sulla + +22. II. III. Restrictions As to the Accumulation and the Reoccupation +of Offices + +23. IV. II. Attempts at Reform + +24. To this the words of Lepidus in Sallust (Hist. i. 41, 11 +Dietsch) refer: -populus Romanus excitus... iure agitandi-, to +which Tacitus (Ann. iii. 27) alludes: -statim turbidis Lepidi +rogationibus neque multo post tribunis reddita licentia quoquo +vellent populum agitandi-. That the tribunes did not altogether +lose the right of discussing matters with the people is shown by +Cic. De Leg. iii. 4, 10 and more clearly by the -plebiscitum de +Thermensibus-, which however in the opening formula also designates +itself as issued -de senatus sententia-. That the consuls on the +other hand could under the Sullan arrangements submit proposals to +the people without a previous resolution of the senate, is shown +not only by the silence of the authorities, but also by the course +of the revolutions of 667 and 676, whose leaders for this very +reason were not tribunes but consuls. Accordingly we find at this +period consular laws upon secondary questions of administration, +such as the corn law of 681, for which at other times we should +have certainly found -plebiscita-. + +25. II. III. Influence of the Elections + +26. IV. II. Vote by Ballot + +27. For this hypothesis there is no other proof, except that +the Italian Celt-land was as decidedly not a province--in the sense +in which the word signifies a definite district administered by a +governor annually changed--in the earlier times, as it certainly was +one in the time of Caesar (comp. Licin. p. 39; -data erat et Sullae +provincia Gallia Cisalpina-). + +The case is much the same with the advancement of the frontier; +we know that formerly the Aesis, and in Caesar's time the Rubico, +separated the Celtic land from Italy, but we do not know when the +boundary was shifted. From the circumstance indeed, that Marcus +Terentius Varro Lucullus as propraetor undertook a regulation of +the frontier in the district between the Aesis and Rubico (Orelli, +Inscr. 570), it has been inferred that that must still have been +provincial land at least in the year after Lucullus' praetorship 679, +since the propraetor had nothing to do on Italian soil. But it was +only within the -pomerium- that every prolonged -imperium- ceased of +itself; in Italy, on the other hand, such a prolonged -imperium- was +even under Sulla's arrangement--though not regularly existing--at +any rate allowable, and the office held by Lucullus was in any case +an extraordinary one. But we are able moreover to show when and +how Lucullus held such an office in this quarter. He was already +before the Sullan reorganization in 672 active as commanding +officer in this very district (p, 87), and was probably, just like +Pompeius, furnished by Sulla with propraetorian powers; in this +character he must have regulated the boundary in question in 672 +or 673 (comp. Appian, i. 95). No inference therefore may be drawn +from this inscription as to the legal position of North Italy, and +least of all for the time after Sulla's dictatorship. On the other +hand a remarkable hint is contained in the statement, that Sulla +advanced the Roman -pomerium- (Seneca, de brev. vitae, 14; Dio, +xliii. 50); which distinction was by Roman state-law only accorded +to one who had advanced the bounds not of the empire, but of the +city--that is, the bounds of Italy (i. 128). + +28. As two quaestors were sent to Sicily, and one to each of the +other provinces, and as moreover the two urban quaestors, the two +attached to the consuls in conducting war, and the four quaestors +of the fleet continued to subsist, nineteen magistrates were +annually required for this office. The department of the twentieth +quaestor cannot be ascertained. + +29. The Italian confederacy was much older (II. VII. Italy and +The Italians); but it was a league of states, not, like the Sullan +Italy, a state-domain marked off as an unit within the Roman empire. + +30. II. III. Complete Opening Up of Magistracies and Priesthoods + +31. II. III. Combination of The Plebian Aristocracy and The Farmers +against The Nobility + +32. III. XIII. Religious Economy + +33. IV. X. Punishments Inflicted on Particular Communities + +34. e. g. IV. IV. Dissatisfaction in the Capital, IV. V. Warfare of +Prosecutions + +35. IV. II. Vote by Ballot + +36. IV. III. Modifications of the Penal Law + +37. II. II. Intercession + +38. IV. III. Modifications of the Penal Law + +39. IV. VII. Rejection of the Proposals for an Accomodation + +40. II. VII. Subject Communities + +41. IV. X. Cisapline Gaul Erected into A Province + +42. IV. VII. Preparations for General Revolt against Rome + +43. III. XI. Roman Franchise More Difficult of Acquisition + +44. IV. IX. Government of Cinna + +45. IV. VII. Decay of Military Discipline + +46. IV. VII. Economic Crisis + +47. IV. VII. Strabo + +48. IV. VIII. Flaccus Arrives in Asia + +49. IV. IX. Death of Cinna + +50. IV. IX. Nola + +51. IV. IX. Fresh Difficulties with Mithradates + +52. Euripides, Medea, 807:-- --Meideis me phaulein kasthenei +nomizeto Meid eisuchaian, alla thateron tropou Bareian echthrois +kai philoisin eumenei--. + +53. IV. IX. Fresh Difficulties with Mithradates + +54. IV. IX. Fresh Difficulties with Mithradates, IV. X. Re-establishment +of Constitutional Order + +55. Not -pthiriasis-, as another account states; for the simple +reason that such a disease is entirely imaginary. + + + +Chapter XI + +1. IV. V. Transalpine Relations of Rome, IV. V. The Romans Cross +the Eastern Alps + +2. IV. I. The Callaeci Conquered + +3. IV. V. And Reach the Danube + +4. -Exterae nationes in arbitratu dicione potestate amicitiave +populi Romani- (lex repet. v. i), the official designation of the +non-Italian subjects and clients as contrasted with the Italian +"allies and kinsmen" (-socii nominisve Latini-). + +5. III. XI. As to the Management of the Finances + +6. III. XII. Mercantile Spirit + +7. IV. III. Jury Courts, IV. III. Character of the Constitution +of Gaius Gracchus + +8. This tax-tenth, which the state levied from private landed +property, is to be clearly distinguished from the proprietor's +tenth, which it imposed on the domain-land. The former was let in +Sicily, and was fixed once for all; the latter--especially that of +the territory of Leontini--was let by the censors in Rome, and the +proportion of produce payable and other conditions were regulated +at their discretion (Cic. Verr. iii. 6, 13; v. 21, 53; de leg. agr. +i. 2, 4; ii. 18, 48). Comp, my Staatsrecht, iii. 730. + +9. The mode of proceeding was apparently as follows. The Roman +government fixed in the first instance the kind and the amount of +the tax. Thus in Asia, for instance, according to the arrangement +of Sulla and Caesar the tenth sheaf was levied (Appian. B. C. v. +4); thus the Jews by Caesar's edict contributed every second year +a fourth of the seed (Joseph, iv. 10, 6; comp. ii. 5); thus in +Cilicia and Syria subsequently there was paid 5 per cent from +estate (Appian. Syr. 50), and in Africa also an apparently similar +tax was paid--in which case, we may add, the estate seems to have +been valued according to certain presumptive indications, e. g. the +size of the land occupied, the number of doorways, the number of +head of children and slaves (-exactio capitum atque ostiorum-, +Cicero, Ad Fam. iii. 8, 5, with reference to Cilicia; --phoros epi +tei gei kai tois somasin--, Appian. Pun. 135, with reference to +Africa). In accordance with this regulation the magistrates of +each community under the superintendence of the Roman governor +(Cic. ad Q. Fr. i. 1, 8; SC. de Asclep. 22, 23) settled who were +liable to the tax, and what was to be paid by each tributary ( +-imperata- --epikephalia--, Cic. ad Att. v. 16); if any one did not +pay this in proper time, his tax-debt was sold just as in Rome, i. +e. it was handed over to a contractor with an adjudication to +collect it (-venditio tributorum-, Cic. Ad Fam. iii. 8, 5; --onas-- +-omnium venditas-, Cic. ad Att. v. 16). The produce of these taxes +flowed into the coffers of the leading communities--the Jews, for +instance, had to send their corn to Sidon--and from these coffers +the fixed amount in money was then conveyed to Rome. These taxes +also were consequently raised indirectly, and the intermediate +agent either retained, according to circumstances, a part of the +produce of the taxes for himself, or advanced it from his own +substance; the distinction between this mode of raising and the +other by means of the -publicani- lay merely in the circumstance, +that in the former the public authorities of the contributors, +in the latter Roman private contractors, constituted the +intermediate agency. + +10. IV. III. Jury Courts + +11. III. VII. Administration of Spain + +12. IV. X. Regulation of the Finances + +13. For example, in Judaea the town of Joppa paid 26,075 -modii- +of corn, the other Jews the tenth sheaf, to the native princes; to +which fell to be added the temple-tribute and the Sidonian payment +destined for the Romans. In Sicily too, in addition to the Roman +tenth, a very considerable local taxation was raised from property. + +14. IV. VI. The New Military Organization + +15. IV. II. Vote by Ballot + +16. III. VII. Liguria + +17. IV. V. Province of Narbo + +18. IV. V. In Illyria + +19. IV. I. Province of Macedonia + +20. III. XI. Italian Subjects, III. XII. Roman Wealth + +21. IV. V. Taurisci + +22. III. IV. Pressure of the War + +23. IV. VII. Outbreak of the Mithradatic War + +24. IV. IX. Preparations on Either Side + +25. III. XII. The Management of Land and of Capital + +26. IV. V. Conflicts with the Ligurians. With this may be connected +the remark of the Roman agriculturist, Saserna, who lived after Cato +and before Varro (ap. Colum. i. 1, 5), that the culture of the vine +and olive was constantly moving farther to the north.--The decree of +the senate as to the translation of the treatise of Mago (IV. II. +The Italian Farmers) belongs also to this class of measures. + +27. IV. II. Slavery and Its Consequences + +28. IV. VIII. Thrace and Macedonia Occupied by the Pontic Armies. + +29. IV. I. Destruction of Carthage, IV. I. Destruction of Corinth + +30. IV. V. The Advance of the Romans Checked by the Policy +of the Restoration + +31. IV. IV. The Provinces + +32. IV. VII. Economic Crisis + +33. IV. VII. The Sulpician Laws + +34. IV. VII. Legislation of Sulla + +35. IV. IX. Government of Cinna + +36. IV. VIII. Orders Issued from Ephesus for A General Massacre + +37. IV. VIII. Thrace and Macedonia Occupied by the Pontic Armies. + +38. IV. VI. Roman Intervention + +39. III. XII. Roman Wealth + +40. IV. V. Taurisci + +41. III. VI. Pressure of the War + +42. II. VIII. Silver Standard of Value + +43. III. VI. Pressure of the War + +44. III. I. Comparison between Carthage and Rome + +45. IV. X. Proscription-Lists + +46. III. III. Autonomy, III. VII. the State of Culture in Spain, +III. XII. Coins and Moneys + +47. III. XII. Coins and Moneys + +48. III. XIII. Increase of Amusements + +49. In the house, which Sulla inhabited when a young man, he paid +for the ground-floor a rent of 3000 sesterces, and the tenant of +the upper story a rent of 2000 sesterces (Plutarch, Sull. 1); +which, capitalized at two-thirds of the usual interest on capital, +yields nearly the above amount. This was a cheap dwelling. That a +rent of 6000 sesterces (60 pounds) in the capital is called a high +one in the case of the year 629 (Vell. ii. 10) must have been due +to special circumstances. + +50. III. I. Comparison between Carthage and Rome + +51. IV. II. Tribunate of Gracchus + +52. "If we could, citizens"--he said in his speech--"we should +indeed all keep clear of this burden. But, as nature has so +arranged it that we cannot either live comfortably with wives +or live at all without them, it is proper to have regard rather +to the permanent weal than to our own brief comfort." + + + +Chapter XII + +1. IV. XI. Money-Dealing and Commerce + +2. IV. X. The Roman Municipal System + +3. IV. I. The Subjects + +4. IV. I. The Callaeci Conquered + +5. IV. I. The New Organization of Spain + +6. IV. VII. Second Year of the War + +7. The statement that no "Greek games" were exhibited in Rome +before 608 (Tac. Ann. xiv. 21) is not accurate: Greek artists +(--technitai--) and athletes appeared as early as 568 (Liv. xxxix. +22), and Greek flute-players, tragedians, and pugilists in 587 +(Pol. xxx, 13). + +8. III. XIII. Irreligious Spirit + +9. A delightful specimen may be found in Cicero de Officiis, +iii. 12, 13. + +10. IV. VI. Collision between the Senate and Equites in the +Administration of the Provinces; IV. IX. Siege of Praeneste + +11. In Varro's satire, "The Aborigines," he sarcastically set +forth how the primitive men had not been content with the God +who alone is recognized by thought, but had longed after +puppets and effigies. + +12. III. XI. Interference of The Community in War and Administration + +13. IV. VI. Political Projects of Marius + +14. IV. X. Co-optation Restored in the Priestly Colleges + +15. IV. VI. The Equestrian Party + +16. III. XIV. Cato's Encyclopedia + +17. Cicero says that he treated his learned slave Dionysius more +respectfully than Scipio treated Panaetius, and in the same sense +it is said in Lucilius:-- + +-Paenula, si quaeris, canteriu', servu', segestre Utilior mihi, +quam sapiens-. + +18. IV. XII. Panaetius + + + +Chapter XIII + +1. Thus in the -Paulus-, an original piece, the following line +occurred, probably in the description of the pass of Pythium +(III. X. Perseus Is Driven Back to Pydna):-- + +-Qua vix caprigeno generi gradilis gressio est-. + +And in another piece the hearers are expected to understand the +following description-- + +-Quadrupes tardigrada agrestis humilis aspera, Capite brevi, +cervice anguina, aspectu truci, Eviscerata inanima cum +animali sono-. + +To which they naturally reply-- + +-Ita saeptuosa dictione abs te datur, Quod conjectura sapiens aegre +contuit; Non intellegimus, nisi si aperte dixeris-. + +Then follows the confession that the tortoise is referred to. +Such enigmas, moreover, were not wanting even among the Attic +tragedians, who on that account were often and sharply taken to +task by the Middle Comedy. + +2. Perhaps the only exception is in the -Andria- (iv. 5) the +answer to the question how matters go:-- + +"-Sic Ut quimus," aiunt, "quando ut volumus non licet-" + +in allusion to the line of Caecilius, which is, indeed, also +imitated from a Greek proverb:-- + +-Vivas ut possis, quando non quis ut velis-. + +The comedy is the oldest of Terence's, and was exhibited by +the theatrical authorities on the recommendation of Caecilius. +The gentle expression of gratitude is characteristic. + +3. A counterpart to the hind chased by dogs and with tears calling +on a young man for help, which Terence ridicules (Phorm. prol. 4), +may be recognized in the far from ingenious Plautine allegory of +the goat and the ape (Merc, ii. 1). Such excrescences are +ultimately traceable to the rhetoric of Euripides (e. g. +Eurip. Hec. 90). + +4. Micio in the -Adelphi- (i. i) praises his good fortune in life, +more particularly because he has never had a wife, "which those +(the Greeks) reckon a piece of good fortune." + +5. In the prologue of the -Heauton Timorumenos- he puts +the objection into the mouth of his censors:-- + +-Repente ad studium hunc se applicasse musicum Amicum ingenio +fretum, haud natura sua-. + +And in the later prologue (594) to the -Adelphi- he says-- + +-Nam quod isti dicunt malevoli, homines nobiles Eum adiutare, +adsidueque una scribere; Quod illi maledictum vehemens esse +existimant Eam laudem hic ducit maximam, quum illis placet Qui +vobis universis et populo placent; Quorum opera in bello, in otio, +in negotio, Suo quisque tempore usus est sine superbia-. + +As early as the time of Cicero it was the general supposition that +Laelius and Scipio Aemilianus were here meant: the scenes were +designated which were alleged to proceed from them; stories were +told of the journeys of the poor poet with his genteel patrons to +their estates near Rome; and it was reckoned unpardonable that +they should have done nothing at all for the improvement of his +financial circumstances. But the power which creates legend is, +as is well known, nowhere more potent than in the history of +literature. It is clear, and even judicious Roman critics +acknowledged, that these lines could not possibly apply to Scipio +who was then twenty-five years of age, and to his friend Laelius +who was not much older. Others with at least more judgment thought +of the poets of quality Quintus Labeo (consul in 571) and Marcus +Popillius (consul in 581), and of the learned patron of art and +mathematician, Lucius Sulpicius Gallus (consul in 588); but this +too is evidently mere conjecture. That Terence was in close +relations with the Scipionic house cannot, however, be doubted: it +is a significant fact, that the first exhibition of the -Adelphi- +and the second of the -Hecyra- took place at the funeral games of +Lucius Paullus, which were provided by his sons Scipio and Fabius. + +6. IV. XI. Token-Money + +7. III. XIV. National Comedy + +8. External circumstances also, it may be presumed, co-operated in +bringing about this change. After all the Italian communities had +obtained the Roman franchise in consequence of the Social war, it +was no longer allowable to transfer the scene of a comedy to any +such community, and the poet had either to keep to general ground +or to choose places that had fallen into ruin or were situated +abroad. Certainly this circumstance, which was taken into account +even in the production of the older comedies, exercised an +unfavourable effect on the national comedy. + +9. I. XV. Masks + +10. With these names there has been associated from ancient times +a series of errors. The utter mistake of Greek reporters, that +these farces were played at Rome in the Oscan language, is now with +justice universally rejected; but it is, on a closer consideration, +little short of impossible to bring these pieces, which are laid in +the midst of Latin town and country life, into relation with the +national Oscan character at all. The appellation of "Atellan play" +is to be explained in another way. The Latin farce with its fixed +characters and standing jests needed a permanent scenery: the fool- +world everywhere seeks for itself a local habitation. Of course +under the Roman stage-police none of the Roman communities, or of +the Latin communities allied with Rome, could be taken for this +purpose, although it was allowable to transfer the -togatae- to +these. But Atella, which, although destroyed de jure along with +Capua in 543 (III. VI. Capua Capitulates, III. VI. In Italy), +continued practically to subsist as a village inhabited by Roman +farmers, was adapted in every respect for the purpose. This conjecture +is changed into certainty by our observing that several of these farces +are laid in other communities within the domain of the Latin tongue, +which existed no longer at all, or no longer at any rate in the eye +of the law-such as the -Campani- of Pomponius and perhaps also his +-Adelphi- and his -Quinquatria- in Capua, and the -Milites Pometinenses- +of Novius in Suessa Pometia--while no existing community was subjected +to similar maltreatment. The real home of these pieces was +therefore Latium, their poetical stage was the Latinized Oscan +land; with the Oscan nation they have no connection. The statement +that a piece of Naevius (d. after 550) was for want of proper +actors performed by "Atellan players" and was therefore called +-personata- (Festus, s. v.), proves nothing against this view: +the appellation "Atellan players" comes to stand here proleptically, +and we might even conjecture from this passage that they were +formerly termed "masked players" (-personati-). + +An explanation quite similar may be given of the "lays of +Fescennium," which likewise belong to the burlesque poetry of +the Romans and were localized in the South Etruscan village of +Fescennium; it is not necessary on that account to class them +with Etruscan poetry any more than the Atellanae with Oscan. +That Fescennium was in historical times not a town but a village, +cannot certainly be directly proved, but is in the highest degree +probable from the way in which authors mention the place and from +the silence of inscriptions. + +11. The close and original connection, which Livy in particular +represents as subsisting between the Atellan farce and the -satura- +with the drama thence developed, is not at all tenable. The +difference between the -histrio- and the Atellan player was +just about as great as is at present the difference between a +professional actor and a man who goes to a masked ball; between the +dramatic piece, which down to Terence's time had no masks, and the +Atellan, which was essentially based on the character-mask, there +subsisted an original distinction in no way to be effaced. The +drama arose out of the flute-piece, which at first without any +recitation was confined merely to song and dance, then acquired a +text (-satura-), and lastly obtained through Andronicus a libretto +borrowed from the Greek stage, in which the old flute-lays occupied +nearly the place of the Greek chorus. This course of development +nowhere in its earlier stages comes into contact with the farce, +which was performed by amateurs. + +12. In the time of the empire the Atellana was represented by +professional actors (Friedlander in Becker's Handbuch. vi. 549). +The time at which these began to engage in it is not reported, but +it can hardly have been other than the time at which the Atellan +was admitted among the regular stage-plays, i. e. the epoch before +Cicero (Cic. ad Fam. ix. 16). This view is not inconsistent with +the circumstance that still in Livy's time (vii. 2) the Atellan +players retained their honorary rights as contrasted with other +actors; for the statement that professional actors began to take +part in performing the Atellana for pay does not imply that +the Atellana was no longer performed, in the country towns +for instance, by unpaid amateurs, and the privilege therefore +still remained applicable, + +13. It deserves attention that the Greek farce was not only +especially at home in Lower Italy, but that several of its +pieces (e. g. among those of Sopater, the "Lentile-Porridge," +the "Wooers of Bacchis," the "Valet of Mystakos," the "Bookworms," +the "Physiologist") strikingly remind us of the Atellanae. +This composition of farces must have reached down to the time +at which the Greeks in and around Neapolis formed a circle +enclosed within the Latin-speaking Campania; for one of these +writers of farces, Blaesus of Capreae, bears even a Roman name +and wrote a farce "Saturnus." + +14. According to Eusebius, Pomponius flourished about 664; +Velleius calls him a contemporary of Lucius Crassus (614-663) and +Marcus Antonius (611-667). The former statement is probably about +a generation too late; the reckoning by -victoriati- (p. 182) which +was discontinued about 650 still occurs in his -Pictores-, and +about the end of this period we already meet the mimes which +displaced the Atellanae from the stage. + +15. It was probably merry enough in this form. In the +-Phoenissae- of Novius, for instance, there was the line:-- + +-Sume arma, iam te occidam clava scirpea-, Just as Menander's +--Pseudeirakleis-- makes his appearance. + +16. Hitherto the person providing the play had been obliged to fit +up the stage and scenic apparatus out of the round sum assigned to +him or at his own expense, and probably much money would not often +be expended on these. But in 580 the censors made the erection of +the stage for the games of the praetors and aediles a matter of +special contract (Liv. xli. 27); the circumstance that the stage- +apparatus was now no longer erected merely for a single performance +must have led to a perceptible improvement of it. + +17. The attention given to the acoustic arrangements of the Greeks +may be inferred from Vitruv. v. 5, 8. Ritschl (Parerg. i. 227, xx.) +has discussed the question of the seats; but it is probable +(according to Plautus, Capt. prol. 11) that those only who were +not -capite censi- had a claim to a seat. It is probable, moreover, +that the words of Horace that "captive Greece led captive her +conqueror" primarily refer to these epoch-making theatrical games +of Mummius (Tac. Ann. xiv. 21). + +18. The scenery of Pulcher must have been regularly painted, since +the birds are said to have attempted to perch on the tiles (Plin. +H. N. xxxv. 4, 23; Val. Max. ii. 4, 6). Hitherto the machinery for +thunder had consisted in the shaking of nails and stones in a +copper kettle; Pulcher first produced a better thunder by rolling +stones, which was thenceforth named "Claudian thunder" (Festus, +v. Claudiana, p. 57). + +19. Among the few minor poems preserved from this epoch there +occurs the following epigram on this illustrious actor:-- + +-Constiteram, exorientem Auroram forte salutans, Cum subito a laeva +Roscius exoritur. Pace mihi liceat, coelestes, dicere vestra; +Mortalis visust pulchrior esse deo-. + +The author of this epigram, Greek in its tone and inspired by Greek +enthusiasm for art, was no less a man than the conqueror of the +Cimbri, Quintus Lutatius Catulus, consul in 652. + +20. IV. XII. Course of Literature and Rhetoric + +21. -Quam lepide --legeis-- compostae ut tesserulae omnes Arte +pavimento atque emblemate vermiculato-. + +22. The poet advises him-- + +-Quo facetior videare et scire plus quant ceteri---to say not +-pertaesum- but -pertisum-. + +23. IV. III. Its Suspension by Scipio Aemilianus + +24. The following longer fragment is a characteristic specimen of +the style and metrical treatment, the loose structure of which +cannot possibly be reproduced in German hexameters:-- + +-Virtus, Albine, est pretium persolvere verum +Queis in versamur, queis vivimu' rebu' potesse; +Virtus est homini scire quo quaeque habeat res; +Virtus scire homini rectum, utile, quid sit honestum, +Quae bona, quae mala item, quid inutile, turpe, inhonestum; +Virtus quaerendae finem rei scire modumque; +Virtus divitiis pretium persolvere posse; +Virtus id dare quod re ipsa debetur honori, +Hostem esse atque inimicum hominum morumque malorum, +Contra defensorem hominum morumque bonorum, +Hos magni facere, his bene velle, his vivere amicum; +Commoda praeterea patriai prima putare, +Deinde parentum, tertia iam postremaque nostra-. + +25. IV. XIII. Dramatic Arrangements, second note + +26. III. X. Measures of Security in Greece + +27. IV. I. Greece + +28. Such scientific travels were, however, nothing uncommon among +the Greeks of this period. Thus in Plautus (Men. 248, comp. 235) +one who has navigated the whole Mediterranean asks-- + +-Quin nos hinc domum Redimus, nisi si historiam scripturi sumus-? + +29. III. XIV. National Opposition + +30. The only real exception, so far as we know, is the Greek +history of Gnaeus Aufidius, who flourished in Cicero's boyhood +(Tusc, v. 38, 112), that is, about 660. The Greek memoirs of +Publius Rutilius Rufus (consul in 649) are hardly to be regarded +as an exception, since their author wrote them in exile at Smyrna. + +31. IV. XI. Hellenism and Its Results + +32. IV. XII. Education + +33. IV. XII. Latin Instruction + +34. The assertion, for instance, that the quaestors were +nominated in the regal period by the burgesses, not by the king, +is as certainly erroneous as it bears on its face the impress of +a partisan character. + +35. IV. XII. Course of Literature and Rhetoric + +36. IV. XII. Course of Literature and Rhetoric + +37. IV. XII. Course of Literature and Rhetoric + +38. IV. X. Permanent and Special -Quaestiones- + +39. Cato's book probably bore the title -De iuris disciplina- +(Gell. xiii. 20), that of Brutus the title -De iure civili- (Cic. +pro Cluent. 51, 141; De Orat. ii. 55, 223); that they were +essentially collections of opinions, is shown by Cicero (De Orat. +ii. 33, 142). + +40. IV. VI. Collision between the Senate and Equites in the +Administration of the Provinces, pp. 84, 205 + +41. IV. XII. Roman Stoa f. + +42. IV. XI. Buildings + + + +End of Book IV + + + + * * * * * + + + +THE HISTORY OF ROME: BOOK V + +The Establishment of the Military Monarchy + + + + +Preparer's Notes + +This work contains many literal citations of and references to words, +sounds, and alphabetic symbols drawn from many languages, including +Gothic and Phoenician, but chiefly Latin and Greek. This English +language Gutenberg edition, constrained within the scope of 7-bit +ASCII code, adopts the following orthographic conventions: + +1) Words and phrases regarded as "foreign imports", italicized +in the original text published in 1903; but which in the intervening +century have become "naturalized" into English; words such as "de jure", +"en masse", etc. are not given any special typographic distinction. + +2) Except for Greek, all literally cited non-English words that do not +refer to texts cited as academic references, words that in the source +manuscript appear italicized, are rendered with a single preceding, +and a single following dash; thus, -xxxx-. + +3) Greek words, first transliterated into Roman alphabetic equivalents, +are rendered with a preceding and a following double-dash; thus, --xxxx--. +Note that in some cases the root word itself is a compound form such as +xxx-xxxx, and is rendered as --xxx-xxx-- + +4) Simple non-ideographic references to vocalic sounds, single letters, +or alphabeic dipthongs; and prefixes, suffixes, and syllabic references +are represented by a single preceding dash; thus, -x, or -xxx. + +5) The following refers particularly to the complex discussion +of alphabetic evolution in Ch. XIV: Measuring and Writing). Ideographic +references, meaning pointers to the form of representation itself rather +than to its content, are represented as -"id:xxxx"-. "id:" stands for +"ideograph", and indicates that the reader should form a mental picture +based on the "xxxx" following the colon. "xxxx" may represent a single +symbol, a word, or an attempt at a picture composed of ASCII characters. +E. g. --"id:GAMMA gamma"-- indicates an uppercase Greek gamma-form +Followed by the form in lowercase. Such exotic parsing is necessary +to explain alphabetic development because a single symbol +may have been used for a number of sounds in a number of languages, +or even for a number of sounds in the same language at different +times. Thus, -"id:GAMMA gamma" might very well refer to a Phoenician +construct that in appearance resembles the form that eventually +stabilized as an uppercase Greek "gamma" juxtaposed to another one +of lowercase. Also, a construct such as --"id:E" indicates a symbol +that in graphic form most closely resembles an ASCII uppercase "E", +but, in fact, is actually drawn more crudely. + +6) The numerous subheading references, of the form "XX. XX. Topic" +found in the appended section of endnotes are to be taken as "proximate" +rather than topical indicators. That is, the information contained +in the endnote indicates primarily the location in the main text +of the closest indexing "handle", a subheading, which may or may not +echo congruent subject matter. + +The reason for this is that in the translation from an original +paged manuscript to an unpaged "cyberscroll", page numbers are lost. +In this edition subheadings are the only remaining indexing "handles" +of sub-chapter scale. Unfortunately, in some stretches of text these +subheadings may be as sparse as merely one in three pages. Therefore, +it would seem to make best sense to save the reader time and temper +by adopting a shortest path method to indicate the desired reference. + +7) The attentive reader will notice occasional typographic or syntactic +anomalies and errors. In almost all cases this conscious and due to +an editorial decision for the first Gutenberg edition to transmit +transparently all but the most egregious flaws found in the source text +Scribner edition of 1903. Furthermore, a number of sentences may be +virtually unintelligible to the English reader due to the architecture +of relative clauses, prepositions, and verbs as carried over +from the original German. It is the preparer's ambition for a second +Gutenberg edition of the History of Rome to reconstruct and clarify +the most turgid specimens. + +8) Dr. Mommsen has given his dates in terms of Roman usage, A.U.C.; +that is, from the founding of Rome, conventionally taken to be 753 B. C. +To the end of each volume is appended a table of conversion between +the two systems. + + + + +CONTENTS + +BOOK V: The Establishment of the Military Monarchy + + CHAPTER + + I. Marcus Lepidus and Quintus Sertorius + + II. Rule of the Sullan Restoration + + III. The Fall of the Oligarchy and the Rule of Pompeius + + IV. Pompeius and the East + + V. The Struggle of Parties during the Absence of Pompeius + + VI. Retirement of Pompeius and Coalition of the Pretenders + + VII. The Subjugation of the West + + VIII. The Joint Rule of Pompeius and Caesar + + IX. Death of Crassus--Rupture between the Joint Rulers + + X. Brundisium, Ilerda, Pharsalus, and Thapsus + + XI. The Old Republic and the New Monarchy + + XII. Religion, Culture, Literature, and Art + + + + +BOOK FIFTH + +The Establishment of the Military Monarchy + + + + +Wie er sich sieht so um und um, +Kehrt es ihm fast den Kopf herum, +Wie er wollt' Worte zu allem finden? +Wie er mocht' so viel Schwall verbinden? +Wie er mocht' immer muthig bleiben +So fort und weiter fort zu schreiben? + +Goethe. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +Marcus Lepidus and Quintus Sertorius + +The Opposition +Jurists +Aristocrats Friendly to Reform +Democrats + +When Sulla died in the year 676, the oligarchy which he had +restored ruled with absolute sway over the Roman state; but, +as it had been established by force, it still needed force +to maintain its ground against its numerous secret and open foes. +It was opposed not by any single party with objects clearly +expressed and under leaders distinctly acknowledged, but by a mass +of multifarious elements, ranging themselves doubtless +under the general name of the popular party, but in reality opposing +the Sullan organization of the commonwealth on very various grounds +and with very different designs. There were the men of positive +law who neither mingled in nor understood politics, but who detested +the arbitrary procedure of Sulla in dealing with the lives +and property of the burgesses. Even during Sulla's lifetime, +when all other opposition was silent, the strict jurists resisted +the regent; the Cornelian laws, for example, which deprived various +Italian communities of the Roman franchise, were treated +in judicial decisions as null and void; and in like manner the courts +held that, where a burgess had been made a prisoner of war and sold +into slavery during the revolution, his franchise was not forfeited. +There was, further, the remnant of the old liberal minority +in the senate, which in former times had laboured to effect +a compromise with the reform party and the Italians, and was now +in a similar spirit inclined to modify the rigidly oligarchic +constitution of Sulla by concessions to the Populares. +There were, moreover, the Populares strictly so called, +the honestly credulous narrow-minded radicals, who staked property +and life for the current watchwords of the party-programme, +only to discover with painful surprise after the victory +that they had been fighting not for a reality, but for a phrase. +Their special aim was to re-establish the tribunician power, which Sulla +had not abolished but had divested of its most essential prerogatives, +and which exercised over the multitude a charm all the more mysterious, +because the institution had no obvious practical use and was +in fact an empty phantom--the mere name of tribune of the people, +more than a thousand years later, revolutionized Rome. + +Transpadanes +Freedmen +Capitalists +Proletarians of the Capital +The Dispossessed +The Proscribed and Their Adherents + +There were, above all, the numerous and important classes +whom the Sullan restoration had left unsatisfied, or whose political +or private interests it had directly injured. Among those +who for such reasons belonged to the opposition ranked the dense +and prosperous population of the region between the Po and the Alps, +which naturally regarded the bestowal of Latin rights in 665(1) +as merely an instalment of the full Roman franchise, and so afforded +a ready soil for agitation. To this category belonged also +the freedmen, influential in numbers and wealth, and specially +dangerous through their aggregation in the capital, who could +not brook their having been reduced by the restoration to their +earlier, practically useless, suffrage. In the same position +stood, moreover, the great capitalists, who maintained a cautious +silence, but still as before preserved their tenacity of resentment +and their equal tenacity of power. The populace of the capital, +which recognized true freedom in free bread-corn, was likewise +discontented. Still deeper exasperation prevailed among +the burgess-bodies affected by the Sullan confiscations--whether +they like those of Pompeii, lived on their property curtailed +by the Sullan colonists, within the same ring-wall with the latter, +and at perpetual variance with them; or, like the Arretines +and Volaterrans, retained actual possession of their territory, +but had the Damocles' sword of confiscation suspended over them +by the Roman people; or, as was the case in Etruria especially, +were reduced to be beggars in their former abodes, or robbers +in the woods. Finally, the agitation extended to the whole family +connections and freedmen of those democratic chiefs who had lost +their lives in consequence of the restoration, or who were wandering +along the Mauretanian coasts, or sojourning at the court +and in the army of Mithradates, in all the misery of emigrant exile; +for, according to the strict family-associations that governed +the political feeling of this age, it was accounted a point of honour(2) +that those who were left behind should endeavour to procure for exiled +relatives the privilege of returning to their native land, and, +in the case of the dead, at least a removal of the stigma attaching +to their memory and to their children, and a restitution to the latter +of their paternal estate. More especially the immediate children +of the proscribed, whom the regent had reduced in point of law +to political Pariahs,(3) had thereby virtually received from the law +itself a summons to rise in rebellion against the existing +order of things. + +Men of Ruined Fortunes +Men of Ambition + +To all these sections of the opposition there was added the whole +body of men of ruined fortunes. All the rabble high and low, +whose means and substance had been spent in refined or in vulgar +debauchery; the aristocratic lords, who had no farther mark +of quality than their debts; the Sullan troopers whom the regent's +fiat could transform into landholders but not into husbandmen, +and who, after squandering the first inheritance of the proscribed, +were longing to succeed to a second--all these waited only +the unfolding of the banner which invited them to fight against +the existing order of things, whatever else might be inscribed on it. +From a like necessity all the aspiring men of talent, in search +of popularity, attached themselves to the opposition; not only +those to whom the strictly closed circle of the Optimates denied +admission or at least opportunities for rapid promotion, +and who therefore attempted to force their way into the phalanx +and to break through the laws of oligarchic exclusiveness and seniority +by means of popular favour, but also the more dangerous men, +whose ambition aimed at something higher than helping to determine +the destinies of the world within the sphere of collegiate intrigues. +On the advocates' platform in particular--the only field of legal +opposition left open by Sulla--even in the regent's lifetime +such aspirants waged lively war against the restoration with the weapons +of formal jurisprudence and combative oratory: for instance, +the adroit speaker Marcus Tullius Cicero (born 3rd January 648), +son of a landholder of Arpinum, speedily made himself a name +by the mingled caution and boldness of his opposition to the dictator. +Such efforts were not of much importance, if the opponent desired +nothing farther than by their means to procure for himself a curule +chair, and then to sit in it in contentment for the rest of his life. +No doubt, if this chair should not satisfy a popular man +and Gaius Gracchus should find a successor, a struggle for life +or death was inevitable; but for the present at least no name could +be mentioned, the bearer of which had proposed to himself +any such lofty aim. + +Power of the Opposition + +Such was the sort of opposition with which the oligarchic government +instituted by Sulla had to contend, when it had, earlier than +Sulla himself probably expected, been thrown by his death +on its own resources. The task was in itself far from easy, and it +was rendered more difficult by the other social and political evils +of this age--especially by the extraordinary double difficulty +of keeping the military chiefs in the provinces in subjection +to the supreme civil magistracy, and of dealing with the masses +of the Italian and extra-Italian populace accumulating in the capital, +and of the slaves living there to a great extent in de facto freedom, +without having troops at disposal. The senate was placed +as it were, in a fortress exposed and threatened on all sides, +and serious conflicts could not fail to ensue. But the means +of resistance organized by Sulla were considerable and lasting; +and although the majority of the nation was manifestly disinclined +to the government which Sulla had installed, and even animated +by hostile feelings towards it, that government might very well +maintain itself for a long time in its stronghold against +the distracted and confused mass of an opposition which was not agreed +either as to end or means, and, having no head, was broken up +into a hundred fragments. Only it was necessary that it should +be determined to maintain its position, and should bring +at least a spark of that energy, which had built the fortress, +to its defence; for in the case of a garrison which will not +defend itself, the greatest master of fortification constructs +his walls and moats in vain. + +Want of Leaders +Coterie-Systems + +The more everything ultimately depended on the personality +of the leading men on both sides, it was the more unfortunate +that both, strictly speaking, lacked leaders. The politics of +thisperiod were thoroughly under the sway of the coterie-system +in its worst form. This, indeed, was nothing new; close unions +of families and clubs were inseparable from an aristocratic +organizationof the state, and had for centuries prevailed in Rome. +But it was not till this epoch that they became all-powerful, +for it was only now (first in 690) that their influence was attested +rather than checked by legal measures of repression. + +All persons of quality, those of popular leanings no less than +the oligarchy proper, met in Hetaeriae; the mass of the burgesses +likewise, so far as they took any regular part in political events +at all, formed according to their voting-districts close unions +with an almost military organization, which found their natural +captains and agents in the presidents of the districts, "tribe- +distributors" (-divisores tribuum-). With these political clubs +everything was bought and sold; the vote of the elector especially, +but also the votes of the senator and the judge, the fists too +which produced the street riot, and the ringleaders who directed +it--the associations of the upper and of the lower ranks +were distinguished merely in the matter of tariff. The Hetaeria +decided the elections, the Hetaeria decreed the impeachments, +the Hetaeria conducted the defence; it secured the distinguished +advocate, and in case of need it contracted for an acquittal +with one of the speculators who pursued on a great scale lucrative +dealings in judges' votes. The Hetaeria commanded by its compact bands +the streets of the capital, and with the capital but too often the state. +All these things were done in accordance with a certain rule, +and, so to speak, publicly; the system of Hetaeriae was better organized +and managed than any branch of state administration; although there was, +as is usual among civilized swindlers, a tacit understanding +that there should be no direct mention of the nefarious proceedings, +nobody made a secret of them, and advocates of repute were not ashamed +to give open and intelligible hints of their relation to the Hetaeriae +of their clients. If an individual was to be found here or there +who kept aloof from such doings and yet did not forgo public life, +he was assuredly, like Marcus Cato, a political Don Quixote. +Parties and party-strife were superseded by the clubs and their rivalry; +government was superseded by intrigue. A more than equivocal +character, Publius Cethegus, formerly one of the most zealous +Marians, afterwards as a deserter received into favour by Sulla,(4) +acted a most influential part in the political doings +of this period--unrivalled as a cunning tale-bearer and mediator +between the sections of the senate, and as having a statesman's +acquaintance with the secrets of all cabals: at times the appointment +to the most important posts of command was decided by a word +from his mistress Praecia. Such a plight was only possible +where none of the men taking part in politics rose above mediocrity: +any man of more than ordinary talent would have swept away +this system of factions like cobwebs; but there was in reality +the saddest lack of men of political or military capacity. + +Phillipus +Metellus, Catulus, the Luculli + +Of the older generation the civil wars had left not a single man +of repute except the old shrewd and eloquent Lucius Philippus (consul +in 663), who, formerly of popular leanings,(5) thereafter leader +of the capitalist party against the senate,(6) and closely associated +with the Marians,(7) and lastly passing over to the victorious +oligarchy in sufficient time to earn thanks and commendation,(8) +had managed to escape between the parties. Among the men +of the following generation the most notable chiefs of the pure +aristocracy were Quintus Metellus Pius (consul in 674), Sulla's +comrade in dangers and victories; Quintus Lutatius Catulus, consul +in the year of Sulla's death, 676, the son of the victor of Vercellae; +and two younger officers, the brothers Lucius and Marcus Lucullus, +of whom the former had fought with distinction under Sulla +in Asia, the latter in Italy; not to mention Optimates like Quintus +Hortensius (640-704), who had importance only as a pleader, +or men like Decimus Junius Brutus (consul in 677), Mamercus +Aemilius Lepidus Livianus (consul in 677), and other such nullities, +whose best quality was a euphonious aristocratic name. +But even those four men rose little above the average calibre +of the Optimates of this age. Catulus was like his father a man of +refined culture and an honest aristocrat, but of moderate talents +and, in particular, no soldier. Metellus was not merely estimable +in his personal character, but an able and experienced officer; +and it was not so much on account of his close relations as a kinsman +and colleague with the regent as because of his recognized ability +that he was sent in 675, after resigning the consulship, to Spain, +where the Lusitanians and the Roman emigrants under Quintus +Sertorius were bestirring themselves afresh. The two Luculli +were also capable officers--particularly the elder, who combined +very respectable military talents with thorough literary culture +and leanings to authorship, and appeared honourable also as a man. +But, as statesmen, even these better aristocrats were not much less +remiss and shortsighted than the average senators of the time. +In presence of an outward foe the more eminent among them, doubtless, +proved themselves useful and brave; but no one of them evinced +the desire or the skill to solve the problems of politics proper, +and to guide the vessel of the state through the stormy sea of intrigues +and factions as a true pilot. Their political wisdom was limited +to a sincere belief in the oligarchy as the sole means of salvation, +and to a cordial hatred and courageous execration of demagogism +as well as of every individual authority which sought to emancipate +itself. Their petty ambition was contented with little. +The stories told of Metellus in Spain--that he not only allowed +himself to be delighted with the far from harmonious lyre +of the Spanish occasional poets, but even wherever he went had himself +received like a god with libations of wine and odours of incense, +and at table had his head crowned by descending Victories amidst +theatrical thunder with the golden laurel of the conqueror-- +are no better attested than most historical anecdotes; but even +such gossip reflects the degenerate ambition of the generations +of Epigoni. Even the better men were content when they had gained +not power and influence, but the consulship and a triumph +and a place of honour in the senate; and at the very time +when with right ambition they would have just begun to be truly useful +to their country and their party, they retired from the political stage +to be lost in princely luxury. Men like Metellus and Lucius Lucullus +were, even as generals, not more attentive to the enlargement +of the Roman dominion by fresh conquests of kings and peoples than +to the enlargement of the endless game, poultry, and dessert lists +of Roman gastronomy by new delicacies from Africa and Asia Minor, +and they wasted the best part of their lives in more or less ingenious +idleness. The traditional aptitude and the individual self-denial, +on which all oligarchic government is based, were lost +in the decayed and artificially restored Roman aristocracy of this age; +in its judgment universally the spirit of clique was accounted +as patriotism, vanity as ambition, and narrow-mindedness as consistency. +Had the Sullan constitution passed into the guardianship of men +such as have sat in the Roman College of Cardinals or the Venetian +Council of Ten, we cannot tell whether the opposition would have been able +to shake it so soon; with such defenders every attack involved, +at all events, a serious peril. + +Pompeius + +Of the men, who were neither unconditional adherents nor open +opponents of the Sullan constitution, no one attracted more the eyes +of the multitude than the young Gnaeus Pompeius, who was at the time +of Sulla's death twenty-eight years of age (born 29th September 648). +The fact was a misfortune for the admired as well as +for the admirers; but it was natural. Sound in body and mind, +a capable athlete, who even when a superior officer vied with his +soldiers in leaping, running, and lifting, a vigorous and skilled +rider and fencer, a bold leader of volunteer bands, the youth had +become Imperator and triumphator at an age which excluded him +from every magistracy and from the senate, and had acquired +the first place next to Sulla in public opinion; nay, had obtained +from the indulgent regent himself--half in recognition, half in irony-- +the surname of the Great. Unhappily, his mental endowments by no means +corresponded with these unprecedented successes. He was neither +a bad nor an incapable man, but a man thoroughly ordinary, created +by nature to be a good sergeant, called by circumstances to be +a general and a statesman. An intelligent, brave and experienced, +thoroughly excellent soldier, he was still, even in his military +capacity, without trace of any higher gifts. It was characteristic +of him as a general, as well as in other respects, to set to work +with a caution bordering on timidity, and, if possible, to give +the decisive blow only when he had established an immense superiority +over his opponent. His culture was the average culture of the time; +although entirely a soldier, he did not neglect, when he went +to Rhodes, dutifully to admire, and to make presents to, +the rhetoricians there. His integrity was that of a rich man +who manages with discretion his considerable property inherited +and acquired. He did not disdain to make money in the usual senatorial +way, but he was too cold and too rich to incur special risks, +or draw down on himself conspicuous disgrace, on that account. +The vice so much in vogue among his contemporaries, rather than +any virtue of his own, procured for him the reputation--comparatively, +no doubt, well warranted--of integrity and disinterestedness. +His "honest countenance" became almost proverbial, and even after +his death he was esteemed as a worthy and moral man; he was in fact +a good neighbour, who did not join in the revolting schemes +by which the grandees of that age extended the bounds of their domains +through forced sales or measures still worse at the expense +of their humbler neighbours, and in domestic life he displayed +attachment to his wife and children: it redounds moreover to his +credit that he was the first to depart from the barbarous custom +of putting to death the captive kings and generals of the enemy, +after they had been exhibited in triumph. But this did not prevent +him from separating from his beloved wife at the command of his lord +and master Sulla, because she belonged to an outlawed family, +nor from ordering with great composure that men who had stood +by him and helped him in times of difficulty should be executed +before his eyes at the nod of the same master:(9) he was not cruel, +thoughhe was reproached with being so, but--what perhaps was worse-- +he was cold and, in good as in evil, unimpassioned. In the tumult +of battle he faced the enemy fearlessly; in civil life he was a shy +man, whose cheek flushed on the slightest occasion; he spoke +in public not without embarrassment, and generally was angular, stiff, +and awkward in intercourse. With all his haughty obstinacy he was-- +as indeed persons ordinarily are, who make a display of their +independence--a pliant tool in the hands of men who knew how +to manage him, especially of his freedmen and clients, by whom he had +no fear of being controlled. For nothing was he less qualified +than for a statesman. Uncertain as to his aims, unskilful in the choice +of his means, alike in little and great matters shortsighted +and helpless, he was wont to conceal his irresolution and indecision +under a solemn silence, and, when he thought to play a subtle +game, simply to deceive himself with the belief that he was +deceiving others. By his military position and his territorial +connections he acquired almost without any action of his own +a considerable party personally devoted to him, with which +the greatest things might have been accomplished; but Pompeius +was in every respect incapable of leading and keeping together a party, +and, if it still kept together, it did so--in like manner without +his action--through the sheer force of circumstances. In this, +as in other things, he reminds us of Marius; but Marius, with his +nature of boorish roughness and sensuous passion, was still less +intolerable than this most tiresome and most starched of all +artificial great men. His political position was utterly perverse. +He was a Sullan officer and under obligation to stand up for +the restored constitution, and yet again in opposition to Sulla +personally as well as to the whole senatorial government. The gens +of the Pompeii, which had only been named for some sixty years +in the consular lists, had by no means acquired full standing +in the eyes of the aristocracy; even the father of this Pompeius +had occupied a very invidious equivocal position towards +the senate,(10) and he himself had once been in the ranks +of the Cinnans(11)--recollections which were suppressed perhaps, +but not forgotten. The prominent position which Pompeius +acquired for himself under Sulla set him at inward variance +with the aristocracy, quite as much as it brought him into outward +connection with it. Weak-headed as he was, Pompeius was seized +with giddiness on the height of glory which he had climbed +with such dangerous rapidity and ease. Just as if he would himself +ridicule his dry prosaic nature by the parallel with the most +poetical of all heroic figures, he began to compare himself +with Alexander the Great, and to account himself a man of unique +standing, whom it did not beseem to be merely one of the five +hundred senators of Rome. In reality, no one was more fitted +to take his place as a member of an aristocratic government than +Pompeius. His dignified outward appearance, his solemn formality, +his personal bravery, his decorous private life, his want +of all initiative might have gained for him, had he been born +two hundred years earlier, an honourable place by the side +of Quintus Maximus and Publius Decius: this mediocrity, so characteristic +of the genuine Optimate and the genuine Roman, contributed not a little +to the elective affinity which subsisted at all times between Pompeius +and the mass of the burgesses and the senate. Even in his own age +he would have had a clearly defined and respectable position +had he contented himself with being the general of the senate, +for which he was from the outset destined. With this he was +not content, and so he fell into the fatal plight of wishing +to be something else than he could be. He was constantly aspiring +to a special position in the state, and, when it offered itself, +he could not make up his mind to occupy it; he was deeply indignant +when persons and laws did not bend unconditionally before him, +and yet he everywhere bore himself with no mere affectation +of modesty as one of many peers, and trembled at the mere thought +of undertaking anything unconstitutional. Thus constantly +at fundamental variance with, and yet at the same time the obedient +servant of, the oligarchy, constantly tormented by an ambition +which was frightened at its own aims, his much-agitated life +passed joylessly away in a perpetual inward contradiction. + +Crassus + +Marcus Crassus cannot, any more than Pompeius, be reckoned among +the unconditional adherents of the oligarchy. He is a personage +highly characteristic of this epoch. Like Pompeius, whose senior +he was by a few years, he belonged to the circle of the high Roman +aristocracy, had obtained the usual education befitting his rank, +and had like Pompeius fought with distinction under Sulla +in the Italian war. Far inferior to many of his peers in mental gifts, +literary culture, and military talent, he outstripped them +by his boundless activity, and by the perseverance with which he strove +to possess everything and to become all-important. Above all, +he threw himself into speculation. Purchases of estates during +the revolution formed the foundation of his wealth; but he disdained +no branch of gain; he carried on the business of building +in the capital on a great scale and with prudence; he entered +into partnership with his freedmen in the most varied undertakings; +he acted as banker both in and out of Rome, in person or by his agents; +he advanced money to his colleagues in the senate, and undertook-- +as it might happen--to execute works or to bribe the tribunals +on their account. He was far from nice in the matter +of making profit. On occasion of the Sullan proscriptions a forgery +in the lists had been proved against him, for which reason Sulla +made no more use of him thenceforward in the affairs of state: +he did not refuse to accept an inheritance, because the testamentary +document which contained his name was notoriously forged; he made +no objection, when his bailiffs by force or by fraud dislodged +the petty holders from lands which adjoined his own. He avoided open +collisions, however, with criminal justice, and lived himself +like a genuine moneyed man in homely and simple style. In this way +Crassus rose in the course of a few years from a man of ordinary +senatorial fortune to be the master of wealth which not long before +his death, after defraying enormous extraordinary expenses, still +amounted to 170,000,000 sesterces (1,700,000 pounds). He had +become the richest of Romans and thereby, at the same time, a great +political power. If, according to his expression, no one might +call himself rich who could not maintain an army from his revenues, +one who could do this was hardly any longer a mere citizen. +In reality the views of Crassus aimed at a higher object than +the possession of the best-filled money-chest in Rome. He grudged +no pains to extend his connections. He knew how to salute by name +every burgess of the capital. He refused to no suppliant +his assistance in court. Nature, indeed, had not done much +for him as an orator: his speaking was dry, his delivery monotonous, +he had difficulty of hearing; but his tenacity of purpose, +which no wearisomeness deterred and no enjoyment distracted, overcame +such obstacles. He never appeared unprepared, he never extemporized, +and so he became a pleader at all times in request and at all times +ready; to whom it was no derogation that a cause was rarely too bad +for him, and that he knew how to influence the judges not merely +by his oratory, but also by his connections and, on occasion, +by his gold. Half the senate was in debt to him; his habit of advancing +to "friends" money without interest revocable at pleasure rendered +a number of influential men dependent on him, and the more so that, +like a genuine man of business, he made no distinction among +the parties, maintained connections on all hands, and readily lent +to every one who was able to pay or otherwise useful. The most daring +party-leaders, who made their attacks recklessly in all directions, +were careful not to quarrel with Crassus; he was compared +to the bull of the herd, whom it was advisable for none to provoke. +That such a man, so disposed and so situated, could not strive +after humble aims is clear; and, in a very different way from Pompeius, +Crassus knew exactly like a banker the objects and the means +of political speculation. From the origin of Rome capital +was a political power there; the age was of such a sort, that everything +seemed accessible to gold as to iron. If in the time of revolution +a capitalist aristocracy might have thought of overthrowing +the oligarchy of the gentes, a man like Crassus might raise +his eyes higher than to the -fasces- and embroidered mantle +of the triumphators. For the moment he was a Sullan and adherent +of the senate; but he was too much of a financier to devote himself +to a definite political party, or to pursue aught else than his personal +advantage. Why should Crassus, the wealthiest and most intriguing +man in Rome, and no penurious miser but a speculator on the greatest +scale, not speculate also on the crown? Alone, perhaps, +he could not attain this object; but he had already carried out +various great transactions in partnership; it was not impossible +that for this also a suitable partner might present himself. +It is a trait characteristic of the time, that a mediocre orator +and officer, a politician who took his activity for energy +and his covetousness for ambition, one who at bottom had nothing +but a colossal fortune and the mercantile talent of forming +connections--that such a man, relying on the omnipotence of coteries +and intrigues, could deem himself on a level with the first generals +and statesmen of his day, and could contend with them +for the highest prize which allures political ambition. + +Leaders of the Democrats + +In the opposition proper, both among the liberal conservatives +and among the Populares, the storms of revolution had made fearful +havoc. Among the former, the only surviving man of note was Gaius +Cotta (630-c. 681), the friend and ally of Drusus, and as such +banished in 663,(12) and then by Sulla's victory brought back +to his native land;(13) he was a shrewd man and a capable advocate, +but not called, either by the weight of his party or by that of his +personal standing, to act more than a respectable secondary part. +In the democratic party, among the rising youth, Gaius Julius +Caesar, who was twenty-four years of age (born 12 July 652?(14)), +drew towards him the eyes of friend and foe. His relationship +with Marius and Cinna (his father's sister had been the wife of Marius, +he himself had married Cinna's daughter); the courageous refusal +of the youth who had scarce outgrown the age of boyhood to send +a divorce to his young wife Cornelia at the bidding of the dictator, +as Pompeius had in the like case done; his bold persistence +in the priesthood conferred upon him by Marius, but revoked by Sulla; +his wanderings during the proscription with which he was threatened, +and which was with difficulty averted by the intercession +of his relatives; his bravery in the conflicts before Mytilene +and in Cilicia, a bravery which no one had expected from the tenderly +reared and almost effeminately foppish boy; even the warnings +of Sulla regarding the "boy in the petticoat" in whom more than a Marius +lay concealed--all these were precisely so many recommendations +in the eyes of the democratic party. But Caesar could only be the object +of hopes for the future; and the men who from their age and their +public position would have been called now to seize the reins +of the party and the state, were all dead or in exile. + +Lepidus + +Thus the leadership of the democracy, in the absence of a man +with a true vocation for it, was to be had by any one who might please +to give himself forth as the champion of oppressed popular freedom; +and in this way it came to Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, a Sullan, +who from motives more than ambiguous deserted to the camp +of the democracy. Once a zealous Optimate, and a large purchaser +at the auctions of the proscribed estates, he had, as governor of Sicily, +so scandalously plundered the province that he was threatened +with impeachment, and, to evade it, threw himself into opposition. +It was a gain of doubtful value. No doubt the opposition +thus acquired a well-known name, a man of quality, a vehement orator +in the Forum; but Lepidus was an insignificant and indiscreet +personage, who did not deserve to stand at the head either +in council or in the field. Nevertheless the opposition welcomed him, +and the new leader of the democrats succeeded not only in deterring +his accusers from prosecuting the attack on him which they had +begun, but also in carrying his election to the consulship +for 676; in which, we may add, he was helped not only by the treasures +exacted in Sicily, but also by the foolish endeavour of Pompeius +to show Sulla and the pure Sullans on this occasion what he could do. +Now that the opposition had, on the death of Sulla, found a head +once more in Lepidus, and now that this their leader had become +the supreme magistrate of the state, the speedy outbreak of a new +revolution in the capital might with certainty be foreseen. + +The Emigrants in Spain +Sertorius + +But even before the democrats moved in the capital, the democratic +emigrants had again bestirred themselves in Spain. The soul +of this movement was Quintus Sertorius. This excellent man, +a native of Nursia in the Sabine land, was from the first +of a tender and even soft organization--as his almost enthusiastic love +for his mother, Raia, shows--and at the same time of the most chivalrous +bravery, as was proved by the honourable scars which he brought +home from the Cimbrian, Spanish, and Italian wars. Although wholly +untrained as an orator, he excited the admiration of learned +advocates by the natural flow and the striking self-possession +of his address. His remarkable military and statesmanly talent +had found opportunity of shining by contrast, more particularly +in the revolutionary war which the democrats so wretchedly and stupidly +mismanaged; he was confessedly the only democratic officer +who knew how to prepare and to conduct war, and the only democratic +statesman who opposed the insensate and furious doings of his party +with statesmanlike energy. His Spanish soldiers called him the new +Hannibal, and not merely because he had, like that hero, lost +an eye in war. He in reality reminds us of the great Phoenician +by his equally cunning and courageous strategy, by his rare talent +of organizing war by means of war, by his adroitness in attracting +foreign nations to his interest and making them serviceable to his ends, +by his prudence in success and misfortune, by the quickness +of his ingenuity in turning to good account his victories +and averting the consequences of his defeats. It may be doubted +whether any Roman statesman of the earlier period, or of the present, +can be compared in point of versatile talent to Sertorius. +After Sulla's generals had compelled him to quit Spain,(15) +he had led a restless life of adventure along the Spanish and African +coasts, sometimes in league, sometimes at war, with the Cilician +pirates who haunted these seas, and with the chieftains +of the roving tribes of Libya. The victorious Roman restoration had +pursued him even thither: when he was besieging Tingis (Tangiers), +a corps under Pacciaecus from Roman Africa had come to the help +of the prince of the town; but Pacciaecus was totally defeated, +and Tingis was taken by Sertorius. On the report of such achievements +by the Roman refugee spreading abroad, the Lusitanians, who, +notwithstanding their pretended submission to the Roman supremacy, +practically maintained their independence, and annually fought +with the governors of Further Spain, sent envoys to Sertorius +in Africa, to invite him to join them, and to commit to him +the command of their militia. + +Renewed Outbreak of the Spanish Insurrection +Metellus Sent to Spain + +Sertorius, who twenty years before had served under Titus Didius +in Spain and knew the resources of the land, resolved to comply +with the invitation, and, leaving behind a small detachment +on the Mauretanian coast, embarked for Spain (about 674). +The straits separating Spain and Africa were occupied by a Roman +squadron commanded by Cotta; to steal through it was impossible; +so Sertorius fought his way through and succeeded in reaching +the Lusitanians. There were not more than twenty Lusitanian +communities that placed themselves under his orders; and even +of "Romans" he mustered only 2600 men, a considerable part +of whom were deserters from the army of Pacciaecus or Africans +armed after the Roman style. Sertorius saw that everything depended on +his associating with the loose guerilla-bands a strong nucleus +of troops possessing Roman organization and discipline: for this end +he reinforced the band which he had brought with him by levying +4000 infantry and 700 cavalry, and with this one legion +and the swarms of Spanish volunteers advanced against the Romans. +The command in Further Spain was held by Lucius Fufidius, +who through his absolute devotion to Sulla--well tried amidst +the proscriptions--had risen from a subaltern to be propraetor; +he was totally defeated on the Baetis; 2000 Romans covered the field +of battle. Messengers in all haste summoned the governor +of the adjoining province of the Ebro, Marcus Domitius Calvinus, +to check the farther advance of the Sertorians; and there soon appeared +(675) also the experienced general Quintus Metellus, sent by Sulla +to relieve the incapable Fufidius in southern Spain. But they did +not succeed in mastering the revolt. In the Ebro province +not only was the army of Calvinus destroyed and he himself slain +by the lieutenant of Sertorius, the quaestor Lucius Hirtuleius, +but Lucius Manlius, the governor of Transalpine Gaul, who had crossed +the Pyrenees with three legions to the help of his colleague, +was totally defeated by the same brave leader. With difficulty +Manlius escaped with a few men to Ilerda (Lerida) and thence +to his province, losing on the march his whole baggage through +a sudden attack of the Aquitanian tribes. In Further Spain Metellus +penetrated into the Lusitanian territory; but Sertorius succeeded +during the siege of Longobriga (not far from the mouth +of the Tagus) in alluring a division under Aquinus into an ambush, +and thereby compelling Metellus himself to raise the siege +and to evacuate the Lusitanian territory. Sertorius followed him, +defeated on the Anas (Guadiana) the corps of Thorius, and inflicted +vast damage by guerilla warfare on the army of the commander-in- +chief himself. Metellus, a methodical and somewhat clumsy +tactician, was in despair as to this opponent, who obstinately +declined a decisive battle, but cut off his supplies +and communications and constantly hovered round him on all sides. + +Organizations of Sertorius + +These extraordinary successes obtained by Sertorius +in the two Spanish provinces were the more significant, +that they were not achieved merely by arms and were not of a mere +military nature. The emigrants as such were not formidable; +nor were isolated successes of the Lusitanians under this or that +foreign leader of much moment. But with the most decided political +and patriotic tact Sertorius acted, whenever he could do so, +not as condottiere of the Lusitanians in revolt against Rome, +but as Roman general and governor of Spain, in which capacity +he had in fact been sent thither by the former rulers. +He began(16) to form the heads of the emigration into a senate, +which was to increase to 300 members and to conduct affairs +and to nominate magistrates in Roman form. He regarded his army +as a Roman one, and filled the officers' posts, without exception, +with Romans. When facing the Spaniards, he was the governor, +who by virtue of his office levied troops and other support +from them; but he was a governor who, instead of exercising +the usual despotic sway, endeavoured to attach the provincials +to Rome and to himself personally. His chivalrous character +rendered it easy for him to enter into Spanish habits, +and excited in the Spanish nobility the most ardent enthusiasm +for the wonderful foreigner who had a spirit so kindred +with their own. According to the warlike custom of personal following +which subsisted in Spain as among the Celts and the Germans, +thousands of the noblest Spaniards swore to stand faithfully +by their Roman general unto death; and in them Sertorius found +more trustworthy comrades than in his countrymen and party-associates. +He did not disdain to turn to account the superstition of the ruder +Spanish tribes, and to have his plans of war brought to him as commands +of Diana by the white fawn of the goddess. Throughout he exercised +a just and gentle rule. His troops, at least so far as his eye +and his arm reached, had to maintain the strictest discipline. +Gentle as he generally was in punishing, he showed himself inexorable +when any outrage was perpetrated by his soldiers on friendly soil. +Nor was he inattentive to the permanent alleviation of the condition +of the provincials; he reduced the tribute, and directed the soldiers +to construct winter barracks for themselves, so that the oppressive +burden of quartering the troops was done away and thus a source +of unspeakable mischief and annoyance was stopped. For the children +of Spaniards of quality an academy was erected at Osca (Huesca), +in which they received the higher instruction usual in Rome, +learning to speak Latin and Greek, and to wear the toga--a remarkable +measure, which was by no means designed merely to take from the allies +in as gentle a form as possible the hostages that in Spain +were inevitable, but was above all an emanation from, and an advance +onthe great project of Gaius Gracchus and the democratic +party for gradually Romanizing the provinces. It was the first +attempt to accomplish their Romanization not by extirpating +the old inhabitants and filling their places with Italian emigrants, +but by Romanizing the provincials themselves. The Optimates +in Rome sneered at the wretched emigrant, the runaway from the Italian +army, the last of the robber-band of Carbo; the sorry taunt +recoiled upon its authors. The masses that had been brought into +the field against Sertorius were reckoned, including the Spanish +general levy, at 120,000 infantry, 2000 archers and slingers, +and 6000 cavalry. Against this enormous superiority of force Sertorius +had not only held his ground in a series of successful conflicts +and victories, but had also reduced the greater part of Spain +under his power. In the Further province Metellus found himself +confined to the districts immediately occupied by his troops; +hereall the tribes, who could, had taken the side of Sertorius. +In the Hither province, after the victories of Hirtuleius, +there no longer existed a Roman army. Emissaries of Sertorius +roamed through the whole territory of Gaul; there, too, +the tribes began to stir, and bands gathering together began +to make the Alpine passes insecure. Lastly the sea too belonged +quite as much to the insurgents as to the legitimate government, +since the allies of the former--the pirates--were almost as powerful +in the Spanish waters as the Roman ships of war. At the promontory +of Diana (now Denia, between Valencia and Alicante) Sertorius established +for the corsairs a fixed station, where they partly lay in wait +for such Roman ships as were conveying supplies to the Roman +maritime towns and the army, partly carried away or delivered goods +for the insurgents, and partly formed their medium of intercourse +with Italy and Asia Minor. The constant readiness of these men moving +to and fro to carry everywhere sparks from the scene of conflagration +tended in a high degree to excite apprehension, especially at a time +when so much combustible matter was everywhere accumulated +in the Roman empire. + +Death of Sulla and Its Consequences + +Amidst this state of matters the sudden death of Sulla took place +(676). So long as the man lived, at whose voice a trained +and trustworthy army of veterans was ready any moment to rise, +the oligarchy might tolerate the almost (as it seemed) +definite abandonment of the Spanish provinces to the emigrants, +and the election of the leader of the opposition at home to be supreme +magistrate, at all events as transient misfortunes; and in their +shortsighted way, yet not wholly without reason, might cherish +confidence either that the opposition would not venture to proceed +to open conflict, or that, if it did venture, he who had twice +saved the oligarchy would set it up a third time. Now the state +of things was changed. The democratic Hotspurs in the capital, +long impatient of the endless delay and inflamed by the brilliant news +from Spain, urged that a blow should be struck; and Lepidus, +with whom the decision for the moment lay, entered into the proposal +with all the zeal of a renegade and with his own characteristic +frivolity. For a moment it seemed as if the torch which kindled +the funeral pile of the regent would also kindle civil war; +but the influence of Pompeius and the temper of the Sullan veterans +induced the opposition to let the obsequies of the regent +pass over in peace. + +Insurrection of Lepidus + +Yet all the more openly were arrangements thenceforth made +to introduce a fresh revolution. Daily the Forum resounded +with accusations against the "mock Romulus" and his executioners. +Even before the great potentate had closed his eyes, the overthrow +of the Sullan constitution, the re-establishment of the distributions +of grain, the reinstating of the tribunes of the people in their +former position, the recall of those who were banished contrary +to law, the restoration of the confiscated lands, were openly indicated +by Lepidus and his adherents as the objects at which they aimed. +Now communications were entered into with the proscribed; +Marcus Perpenna, governor of Sicily in the days of Cinna,(17) +arrived in the capital. The sons of those whom Sulla had declared +guilty of treason--on whom the laws of the restoration bore +with intolerable severity--and generally the more noted men of Marian +views were invited to give their accession. Not a few, such as +the young Lucius Cinna, joined the movement; others, however, +followed the example of Gaius Caesar, who had returned home from Asia +on receiving the accounts of the death of Sulla and of the plans +of Lepidus, but after becoming more accurately acquainted +with the character of the leader and of the movement prudently withdrew. +Carousing and recruiting went on in behalf of Lepidus +in the taverns and brothels of the capital. At length a conspiracy +against the new order of things was concocted among the Etruscan +malcontents.(18) + +All this took place under the eyes of the government The consul +Catulus as well as the more judicious Optimates urged an immediate +decisive interference and suppression of the revolt in the bud; +the indolent majority, however, could not make up their minds to begin +the struggle, but tried to deceive themselves as long as possible +by a system of compromises and concessions. Lepidus also on his +part at first entered into it. The suggestion, which proposed +a restoration of the prerogatives taken away from the tribunes +of the people, he as well as his colleague Catulus repelled. +On the other hand, the Gracchan distribution of grain +was to a limited extent re-established. According to it not all +(as according to the Sempronian law) but only a definite number-- +presumably 40,000--of the poorer burgesses appear to have received +the earlier largesses, as Gracchus had fixed them, of five -modii- +monthly at the price of 6 1/3 -asses- (3 pence)--a regulation +which occasioned to the treasury an annual net loss of at least +40,000 pounds.(19) The opposition, naturally as little satisfied +as it was decidedly emboldened by this partial concession, displayed +all the more rudeness and violence in the capital; and in Etruria, +the true centre of all insurrections of the Italian proletariate, +civil war already broke out, the dispossessed Faesulans resumed +possession of their lost estates by force of arms, and several +of the veterans settled there by Sulla perished in the tumult. +The senate on learning what had occurred resolved to send the two consuls +thither, in order to raise troops and suppress the insurrection.(20) +It was impossible to adopt a more irrational course. The senate, +in presence of the insurrection, evinced its pusillanimity +and its fears by the re-establishment of the corn-law; in order +to be relieved from a street-riot, it furnished the notorious +head of the insurrection with an army; and, when the two consuls +were bound by the most solemn oath which could be contrived not to turn +the arms entrusted to them against each other, it must have required +the superhuman obduracy of oligarchic consciences to think of erecting +such a bulwark against the impending insurrection. Of course Lepidus +armed in Etruria not for the senate, but for the insurrection-- +sarcastically declaring that the oath which he had taken bound him +only for the current year. The senate put the oracular machinery +in motion to induce him to return, and committed to him the conduct +of the impending consular elections; but Lepidus evaded compliance, +and, while messengers passed to and fro and the official year drew +to an end amidst proposals of accommodation, his force swelled to an army. +When at length, in the beginning of the following year (677), +the definite order of the senate was issued to Lepidus to return +without delay, the proconsul haughtily refused obedience, +and demanded in his turn the renewal of the former tribunician power, +the reinstatement of those who had been forcibly ejected +from their civic rights and their property, and, besides this, +his own re-election as consul for the current year or, in other words, +the -tyrannis- in legal form. + +Outbreak of the War +Lepidus Defeated +Death of Lepidus + +Thus war was declared. The senatorial party could reckon, in addition to +the Sullan veterans whose civil existence was threatened by Lepidus, +upon the army assembled by the proconsul Catulus; and so, in compliance +with the urgent warnings of the more sagacious, particularly of Philippus, +Catulus was entrusted by the senate with the defence of the capital +and the repelling of the main force of the democratic party stationed +in Etruria. At the same time Gnaeus Pompeius was despatched with another +corps to wrest from his former protege the valley of the Po, which was held +by Lepidus' lieutenant, Marcus Brutus. While Pompeius speedily +accomplished his commission and shut up the enemy's general closely +in Mutina, Lepidus appeared before the capital in order to conquer +it for the revolution as Marius had formerly done by storm. +The right bank of the Tiber fell wholly into his power, and he was able +even to cross the river. The decisive battle was fought +on the Campus Martius, close under the walls of the city. +But Catulus conquered; and Lepidus was compelled to retreat to Etruria, +while another division, under his son Scipio, threw itself +into the fortress of Alba. Thereupon the rising was substantially +atan end. Mutina surrendered to Pompeius; and Brutus was, +notwithstanding the safe-conduct promised to him, subsequently +put to death by order of that general. Alba too was, after a long siege, +reduced by famine, and the leader there was likewise executed. +Lepidus, pressed on two sides by Catulus and Pompeius, fought another +engagement on the coast of Etruria in order merely to procure +the means of retreat, and then embarked at the port of Cosa for Sardinia +from which point he hoped to cut off the supplies of the capital, +and to obtain communication with the Spanish insurgents. +But the governor of the island opposed to him a vigorous resistance; +and he himself died, not long after his landing, of consumption (677), +whereupon the war in Sardinia came to an end. A part of his soldiers +dispersed; with the flower of the insurrectionary army +and with a well-filled chest the late praetor, Marcus Perpenna, +proceeded to Liguria, and thence to Spain to join the Sertorians. + +Pompeius Extorts the Command in Spain + +The oligarchy was thus victorious over Lepidus; but it found itself +compelled by the dangerous turn of the Sertorian war to concessions, +which violated the letter as well as the spirit of the Sullan +constitution. It was absolutely necessary to send a strong +army and an able general to Spain; and Pompeius indicated, +very plainly, that he desired, or rather demanded, this commission. +The pretension was bold. It was already bad enough that they +had allowed this secret opponent again to attain an extraordinary +command in the pressure of the Lepidian revolution; but it was far +more hazardous, in disregard of all the rules instituted by Sulla +for the magisterial hierarchy, to invest a man who had hitherto +filled no civil office with one of the most important ordinary +provincial governorships, under circumstances in which the observance +of the legal term of a year was not to be thought of. +The oligarchy had thus, even apart from the respect due to their +general Metellus, good reason to oppose with all earnestness +this new attempt of the ambitious youth to perpetuate his exceptional +position. But this was not easy. In the first place, they had +not a single man fitted for the difficult post of general in Spain. +Neither of the consuls of the year showed any desire to measure +himself against Sertorius; and what Lucius Philippus said in a full +meeting of the senate had to be admitted as too true--that, among +all the senators of note, not one was able and willing to command +in a serious war. Yet they might, perhaps, have got over this, +and after the manner of oligarchs, when they had no capable candidate, +have filled the place with some sort of makeshift, if Pompeius had +merely desired the command and had not demanded it at the head +of an army. He had already lent a deaf ear to the injunctions +of Catulus that he should dismiss the army; it was at least doubtful +whether those of the senate would find a better reception, +and the consequences of a breach no one could calculate-- +the scale of aristocracy might very easily mount up, if the sword +of a well-known general were thrown into the opposite scale. +So the majority resolved on concession. Not from the people, +which constitutionally ought to have been consulted in a case +where a private man was to be invested with the supreme magisterial +power, but from the senate, Pompeius received proconsular authority +and the chief command in Hither Spain; and, forty days after he had +received it, crossed the Alps in the summer of 677. + +Pompeius in Gaul + +First of all the new general found employment in Gaul, +where no formal insurrection had broken out, but serious disturbances +of the peace had occurred at several places; in consequence +of which Pompeius deprived the cantons of the Volcae-Arecomici +and the Helvii of their independence, and placed them under Massilia. +He also laid out a new road over the Cottian Alps (Mont Genevre,(21)), +and so established a shorter communication between the valley +of the Po and Gaul. Amidst this work the best season of the year +passed away; it was not till late in autumn that Pompeius crossed +the Pyrenees. + +Appearance of Pompeius in Spain + +Sertorius had meanwhile not been idle. He had despatched +Hirtuleius into the Further province to keep Metellus in check, +and had himself endeavoured to follow up his complete victory +in the Hither province, and to prepare for the reception of Pompeius. +The isolated Celtiberian towns there, which still adhered to Rome, +were attacked and reduced one after another; at last, in the very +middle of winter, the strong Contrebia (south-east of Saragossa) +had fallen. In vain the hard-pressed towns had sent message +after message to Pompeius; he would not be induced by any entreaties +to depart from his wonted rut of slowly advancing. With the exception +of the maritime towns, which were defended by the Roman fleet, +and the districts of the Indigetes and Laletani in the north-east +corner of Spain, where Pompeius established himself after he had +at length crossed the Pyrenees, and made his raw troops bivouac +throughout the winter to inure them to hardships, the whole +of Hither Spain had at the end of 677 become by treaty or force +dependent on Sertorius, and the district on the upper and middle +Ebro thenceforth continued the main stay of his power. Even +the apprehension, which the fresh Roman force and the celebrated name +of the general excited in the army of the insurgents, had a salutary +effect on it. Marcus Perpenna, who hitherto as the equal +of Sertorius in rank had claimed an independent command over the force +which he had brought with him from Liguria, was, on the news +of the arrival of Pompeius in Spain, compelled by his soldiers +to place himself under the orders of his abler colleague. + +For the campaign of 678 Sertorius again employed the corps +of Hirtuleius against Metellus, while Perpenna with a strong army +took up his position along the lower course of the Ebro to prevent +Pompeius from crossing the river, if he should march, as was +to be expected, in a southerly direction with the view of effecting +a junction with Metellus, and along the coast for the sake +of procuring supplies for his troops. The corps of Gaius Herennius +was destined to the immediate support of Perpenna; farther inland +on the upper Ebro, Sertorius in person prosecuted meanwhile +the subjugation of several districts friendly to Rome, and held himself +at the same time ready to hasten according to circumstances +to the aid of Perpenna or Hirtuleius. It was still his intention +to avoid any pitched battle, and to annoy the enemy by petty +conflicts and cutting off supplies. + +Pompeius Defeated + +Pompeius, however, forced the passage of the Ebro against Perpenna +and took up a position on the river Pallantias, near Saguntum, +whence, as we have already said, the Sertorians maintained their +communications with Italy and the east. It was time that Sertorius +should appear in person, and throw the superiority of his numbers +and of his genius into the scale against the greater excellence +of the soldiers of his opponent. For a considerable time the struggle +was concentrated around the town of Lauro (on the Xucar, south +of Valencia), which had declared for Pompeius and was on that account +besieged by Sertorius. Pompeius exerted himself to the utmost +to relieve it; but, after several of his divisions had already been +assailed separately and cut to pieces, the great warrior found +himself--just when he thought that he had surrounded the Sertorians, +and when he had already invited the besieged to be spectators +of the capture of the besieging army--all of a sudden completely +outmanoeuvred; and in order that he might not be himself +surrounded, he had to look on from his camp at the capture +and reduction to ashes of the allied town and at the carrying off +of its inhabitants to Lusitania--an event which induced a number +of towns that had been wavering in middle and eastern Spain +to adhere anew to Sertorius. + +Victories of Metellus + +Meanwhile Metellus fought with better fortune. In a sharp +engagement at Italica (not far from Seville), which Hirtuleius had +imprudently risked, and in which both generals fought hand to hand +and Hirtuleius was wounded, Metellus defeated him and compelled him +to evacuate the Roman territory proper, and to throw himself +into Lusitania. This victory permitted Metellus to unite with Pompeius. +The two generals took up their winter-quarters in 678-79 +at the Pyrenees, and in the next campaign in 679 they resolved +to make a joint attack on the enemy in his position near Valentia. +But while Metellus was advancing, Pompeius offered battle beforehand +to the main army of the enemy, with a view to wipe out the stain +of Lauro and to gain the expected laurels, if possible, alone. +With joy Sertorius embraced the opportunity of fighting with Pompeius +before Metellus arrived. + +Battle on the Sucro + +The armies met on the river Sucro (Xucar): after a sharp conflict +Pompeius was beaten on the right wing, and was himself carried +from the field severely wounded. Afranius no doubt conquered +with the left and took the camp of the Sertorians, but during its pillage +he was suddenly assailed by Sertorius and compelled also to give way. +Had Sertorius been able to renew the battle on the following +day, the army of Pompeius would perhaps have been annihilated. +But meanwhile Metellus had come up, had overthrown the corps +of Perpenna ranged against him, and taken his camp: it was not +possible to resume the battle against the two armies united. The +successes of Metellus, the junction of the hostile forces, the +sudden stagnation after the victory, diffused terror among the +Sertorians; and, as not unfrequently happened with Spanish armies, +in consequence of this turn of things the greater portion +of the Sertorian soldiers dispersed. But the despondency passed away +as quickly as it had come; the white fawn, which represented +in the eyes of the multitude the military plans of the general, +was soon more popular than ever; in a short time Sertorius appeared +with a new army confronting the Romans in the level country +to the south of Saguntum (Murviedro), which firmly adhered to Rome, +while the Sertorian privateers impeded the Roman supplies by sea, +and scarcity was already making itself felt in the Roman camp. +Another battle took place in the plains of the river Turia +(Guadalaviar), and the struggle was long undecided. Pompeius +with the cavalry was defeated by Sertorius, and his brother-in-law +and quaestor, the brave Lucius Memmius, was slain; on the other hand +Metellus vanquished Perpenna, and victoriously repelled the attack +of the enemy's main army directed against him, receiving himself +a wound in the conflict. Once more the Sertorian army dispersed. +Valentia, which Gaius Herennius held for Sertorius, was taken +and razed to the ground. The Romans, probably for a moment, +cherished a hope that they were done with their tough antagonist. +The Sertorian army had disappeared; the Roman troops, penetrating +far into the interior, besieged the general himself in the fortress +Clunia on the upper Douro. But while they vainly invested +this rocky stronghold, the contingents of the insurgent communities +assembled elsewhere; Sertorius stole out of the fortress and even +before the expiry of the year stood once more as general +at the head of an army. + +Again the Roman generals had to take up their winter quarters +with the cheerless prospect of an inevitable renewal of their Sisyphean +war-toils. It was not even possible to choose quarters in the region +of Valentia, so important on account of the communication with Italy +and the east, but fearfully devastated by friend and foe; +Pompeius led his troops first into the territory of the Vascones(22) +(Biscay) and then spent the winter in the territory of the Vaccaei +(about Valladolid), and Metellus even in Gaul. + +Indefinite and Perilous Character of the Sertorian War + +For five years the Sertorian war thus continued, and still +there seemed no prospect of its termination. The state suffered +from it beyond description. The flower of the Italian youth perished +amid the exhausting fatigues of these campaigns. The public treasury +was not only deprived of the Spanish revenues, but had annually +to send to Spain for the pay and maintenance of the Spanish armies +very considerable sums, which the government hardly knew how +to raise. Spain was devastated and impoverished, and the Roman +civilization, which unfolded so fair a promise there, received +a severe shock; as was naturally to be expected in the case +ofan insurrectionary war waged with so much bitterness, +and but too often occasioning the destruction of whole communities. +Even the towns which adhered to the dominant party in Rome had countless +hardships to endure; those situated on the coast had to be provided +with necessaries by the Roman fleet, and the situation of the faithful +communities in the interior was almost desperate. Gaul suffered +hardly less, partly from the requisitions for contingents +of infantry and cavalry, for grain and money, partly +from the oppressive burden of the winter-quarters, which rose +to an intolerable degree in consequence of the bad harvest of 680; +almost all the local treasuries were compelled to betake themselves +to the Roman bankers, and to burden themselves with a crushing load +of debt. Generals and soldiers carried on the war with reluctance. +The generals had encountered an opponent far superior in talent, +a tough and protracted resistance, a warfare of very serious perils +and of successes difficult to be attained and far from brilliant; +it was asserted that Pompeius was scheming to get himself recalled +from Spain and entrusted with a more desirable command somewhere +else. The soldiers, too, found little satisfaction in a campaign +in which not only was there nothing to be got save hard blows +and worthless booty, but their very pay was doled out to them +with extreme irregularity. Pompeius reported to the senate, at the end +of 679, that the pay was two years in arrear, and that the army +was threatening to break up. The Roman government might certainly +have obviated a considerable portion of these evils, if they could have +prevailed on themselves to carry on the Spanish war with less +remissness, to say nothing of better will. In the main, however, +it was neither their fault nor the fault of their generals +that a genius so superior as that of Sertorius was able to carry on +this petty warfare year after year, despite of all numerical +and military superiority, on ground so thoroughly favourable +to insurrectionary and piratical warfare. So little could its end +be foreseen, that the Sertorian insurrection seemed rather +as if it would become intermingled with other contemporary revolts +and thereby add to its dangerous character. Just at that time +the Romans were contending on every sea with piratical fleets, +in Italy with the revolted slaves, in Macedonia with the tribes +on the lower Danube; and in the east Mithradates, partly induced +by the successes of the Spanish insurrection, resolved once more +to try the fortune of arms. That Sertorius had formed connections +with the Italian and Macedonian enemies of Rome, cannot be distinctly +affirmed, although he certainly was in constant intercourse +with the Marians in Italy. With the pirates, on the other hand, +he had previously formed an avowed league, and with the Pontic king-- +with whom he had long maintained relations through the medium +of the Roman emigrants staying at his court--he now concluded +a formal treaty of alliance, in which Sertorius ceded to the king +the client-states of Asia Minor, but not the Roman province of Asia, +and promised, moreover, to send him an officer qualified to lead +his troops, and a number of soldiers, while the king, in turn, +bound himself to transmit to Sertorius forty ships and 3000 talents +(720,000 pounds). The wise politicians in the capital were already +recalling the time when Italy found itself threatened by Philip +from the east and by Hannibal from the west; they conceived +that the new Hannibal, just like his predecessor, after having +by himself subdued Spain, could easily arrive with the forces +of Spain in Italy sooner than Pompeius, in order that, +like the Phoenician formerly, he might summon the Etruscans +and Samnites to arms against Rome. + +Collapse of the Power of Sertorius + +But this comparison was more ingenious than accurate. Sertorius +was far from being strong enough to renew the gigantic enterprise +of Hannibal. He was lost if he left Spain, where all his successes +were bound up with the peculiarities of the country and the people; +and even there he was more and more compelled to renounce +the offensive. His admirable skill as a leader could not change +the nature of his troops. The Spanish militia retained its character, +untrustworthy as the wave or the wind; now collected in masses +to the number of 150,000, now melting away again to a mere handful. +The Roman emigrants, likewise, continued insubordinate, arrogant, +and stubborn. Those kinds of armed force which require that a corps +should keep together for a considerable time, such as cavalry +especially, were of course very inadequately represented +in his army. The war gradually swept off his ablest officers +and the flower of his veterans; and even the most trustworthy +communities, weary of being harassed by the Romans and maltreated +by the Sertorian officers, began to show signs of impatience +and wavering allegiance. It is remarkable that Sertorius, +in this respect also like Hannibal, never deceived himself +as to the hopelessness of his position; he allowed no opportunity +for bringing about a compromise to pass, and would have been ready +at any moment to lay down his staff of command on the assurance +of being allowed to live peacefully in his native land. +But political orthodoxy knows nothing of compromise and conciliation. +Sertorius might not recede or step aside; he was compelled inevitably +to move on along the path which he had once entered, however narrow +and giddy it might become. + +The representations which Pompeius addressed to Rome, and which +derived emphasis from the behaviour of Mithradates in the east, +were successful. He had the necessary supplies of money sent +to him by the senate and was reinforced by two fresh legions. +Thus the two generals went to work again in the spring of 680 +and once more crossed the Ebro. Eastern Spain was wrested +from the Sertorians in consequence of the battles on the Xucar +and Guadalaviar; the struggle thenceforth became concentrated +on the upper and middle Ebro around the chief strongholds +of the Sertorians--Calagurris, Osca, Ilerda. As Metellus had done +best in the earlier campaigns, so too on this occasion he gained +the most important successes. His old opponent Hirtuleius, who again +confronted him, was completely defeated and fell himself along with +his brother--an irreparable loss for the Sertorians. Sertorius, +whom the unfortunate news reached just as he was on the point +of assailing the enemy opposed to him, cut down the messenger, +that the tidings might not discourage his troops; but the news +could not be long concealed. One town after another surrendered, +Metellus occupied the Celtiberian towns of Segobriga (between Toledo +and Cuenca) and Bilbilis (near Calatayud). Pompeius besieged +Pallantia (Palencia above Valladolid), but Sertorius relieved it, +and compelled Pompeius to fall back upon Metellus; in front +of Calagurris (Calahorra, on the upper Ebro), into which Sertorius +had thrown himself, they both suffered severe losses. Nevertheless, +when they went into winter-quarters--Pompeius to Gaul, Metellus +to his own province--they were able to look back on considerable +results; a great portion of the insurgents had submitted or had +been subdued by arms. + +In a similar way the campaign of the following year (681) ran +its course; in this case it was especially Pompeius who slowly +but steadily restricted the field of the insurrection. + +Internal Dissension among the Sertorians + +The discomfiture sustained by the arms of the insurgents failed +not to react on the tone of feeling in their camp. The military +successes of Sertorius became like those of Hannibal, of necessity +less and less considerable; people began to call in question +his military talent: he was no longer, it was alleged, +what he had been; he spent the day in feasting or over his cups, +and squandered money as well as time. The number of the deserters, +and of communities falling away, increased. Soon projects formed +by the Roman emigrants against the life of the general were reported +to him; they sounded credible enough, especially as various officers +of the insurgent army, and Perpenna in particular, had submitted +with reluctance to the supremacy of Sertorius, and the Roman +governors had for long promised amnesty and a high reward to any +one who should kill him. Sertorius, on hearing such allegations, +withdrew the charge of guarding his person from the Roman soldiers +and entrusted it to select Spaniards. Against the suspected +themselves he proceeded with fearful but necessary severity, +and condemned various of the accused to death without resorting, +as in other cases, to the advice of his council; he was now +more dangerous--it was thereupon affirmed in the circles +of the malcontents--to his friends than to his foes. + +Assassination of Sertorius + +A second conspiracy was soon discovered, which had its seat +in his own staff; whoever was denounced had to take flight or die; +but all were not betrayed, and the remaining conspirators, +including especially Perpenna, found in the circumstances only +a new incentive to make haste. They were in the headquarters +at Osca. There, on the instigation of Perpenna, a brilliant victory +was reported to the general as having been achieved by his troops; +and at the festal banquet arranged by Perpenna to celebrate +this victory Sertorius accordingly appeared, attended, as was his wont, +by his Spanish retinue. Contrary to former custom in the Sertorian +headquarters, the feast soon became a revel; wild words passed +at table, and it seemed as if some of the guests sought opportunity +to begin an altercation. Sertorius threw himself back on his couch, +and seemed desirous not to hear the disturbance. Then a wine-cup +was dashed on the floor; Perpenna had given the concerted sign. +Marcus Antonius, Sertorius' neighbour at table, dealt the first +blow against him, and when Sertorius turned round and attempted +to rise, the assassin flung himself upon him and held him down +till the other guests at table, all of them implicated +in the conspiracy, threw themselves on the struggling pair, +and stabbed he defenceless general while his arms were pinioned (682). +With him died his faithful attendants. So ended one of the greatest +men, if not the very greatest man, that Rome had hitherto produced-- +a man who under more fortunate circumstances would perhaps +have become the regenerator of his country--by the treason +of the wretched band of emigrants whom he was condemned to lead against +his native land. History loves not the Coriolani; nor has she made +any exception even in the case of this the most magnanimous, +most gifted, most deserving to be regretted of them all. + +Perpenna Succeeds Sertorius + +The murderers thought to succeed to the heritage of the murdered. +After the death of Sertorius, Perpenna, as the highest among +the Roman officers of the Spanish army, laid claim to the chief +command. The army submitted, but with mistrust and reluctance. +However men had murmured against Sertorius in his lifetime, death +reinstated the hero in his rights, and vehement was the indignation +of the soldiers when, on the publication of his testament, the name +of Perpenna was read forth among the heirs. A part of the soldiers, +especially the Lusitanians, dispersed; the remainder had a presentiment +that with the death of Sertorius their spirit and their +fortune had departed. + +Pompeius Puts an End to the Insurrection + +Accordingly, at the first encounter with Pompeius, the wretchedly +led and despondent ranks of the insurgents were utterly broken, +and Perpenna, among other officers, was taken prisoner. The wretch +sought to purchase his life by delivering up the correspondence +of Sertorius, which would have compromised numerous men of standing +in Italy; but Pompeius ordered the papers to be burnt unread, +and handed him, as well as the other chiefs of the insurgents, +overto the executioner. The emigrants who had escaped dispersed; +and most of them went into the Mauretanian deserts or joined the pirates. +Soon afterwards the Plotian law, which was zealously supported +by the young Caesar in particular, opened up to a portion of them +the opportunity of returning home; but all those who had taken part +in the murder of Sertorius, with but a single exception, died +a violent death. Osca, and most of the towns which had still adhered +to Sertorius in Hither Spain, now voluntarily opened their gates +to Pompeius; Uxama (Osma), Clunia, and Calagurris alone had to be +reduced by force. The two provinces were regulated anew; +in the Further province, Metellus raised the annual tribute +of the most guilty communities; in the Hither, Pompeius dispensed +reward and punishment: Calagurris, for example, lost its independence +and was placed under Osca. A band of Sertorian soldiers, which had +collected in the Pyrenees, was induced by Pompeius to surrender, +and was settled by him to the north of the Pyrenees near Lugudunum +(St. Bertrand, in the department Haute-Garonne), as the community +of the "congregated" (-convenae-). The Roman emblems of victory +were erected at the summit of the pass of the Pyrenees; +at the close of 683, Metellus and Pompeius marched with their armies +through the streets of the capital, to present the thanks +of the nation to Father Jovis at the Capitol for the conquest +of the Spaniards. The good fortune of Sulla seemed still to be +with his creation after he had been laid in the grave, and to protect it +better than the incapable and negligent watchmen appointed to guard +it. The opposition in Italy had broken down from the incapacity +and precipitation of its leader, and that of the emigrants +from dissension within their own ranks. These defeats, +although far more the result of their own perverseness and discordance +than of the exertions of their opponents, were yet so many victories +for the oligarchy. The curule chairs were rendered once more secure. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +Rule of the Sullan Restoration + +External Relations + +When the suppression of the Cinnan revolution, which threatened +the very existence of the senate, rendered it possible for the restored +senatorial government to devote once more the requisite attention +to the internal and external security of the empire, there emerged +affairs enough, the settlement of which could not be postponed +without injuring the most important interests and allowing +present inconveniences to grow into future dangers. Apart from +the very serious complications in Spain, it was absolutely necessary +effectually to check the barbarians in Thrace and the regions +of the Danube, whom Sulla on his march through Macedonia had only +been able superficially to chastise,(1) and to regulate, by military +intervention, the disorderly state of things along the northern +frontier of the Greek peninsula; thoroughly to suppress +the bands of pirates infesting the seas everywhere, but especially +the eastern waters; and lastly to introduce better order +into the unsettled relations of Asia Minor. The peace which Sulla +had concluded in 670 with Mithradates, king of Pontus,(2) +and of which the treaty with Murena in 673(3) was essentially +a repetition, bore throughout the stamp of a provisional arrangement +to meet the exigencies of the moment; and the relations of the Romans +with Tigranes, king of Armenia, with whom they had de facto waged war, +remained wholly untouched in this peace. Tigranes had with right +regarded this as a tacit permission to bring the Roman possessions +in Asia under his power. If these were not to be abandoned, it +was necessary to come to terms amicably or by force with the new +great-king of Asia. + +In the preceding chapter we have described the movements +in Italy and Spain connected with the proceedings of the democracy, +and their subjugation by the senatorial government. In the present +chapter we shall review the external government, as the authorities +installed by Sulla conducted or failed to conduct it. + +Dalmato-Macedonian Expeditions + +We still recognize the vigorous hand of Sulla in the energetic measures +which, in the last period of his regency, the senate adopted almost +simultaneously against the Sertorians, the Dalmatians and Thracians, +and the Cilician pirates. + +The expedition to the Graeco-Illyrian peninsula was designed partly +to reduce to subjection or at least to tame the barbarous tribes +who ranged over the whole interior from the Black Sea to the Adriatic, +and of whom the Bessi (in the great Balkan) especially were, +as it was then said, notorious as robbers even among a race +of robbers; partly to destroy the corsairs in their haunts, +especially along the Dalmatian coast. As usual, the attack took +place simultaneously from Dalmatia and from Macedonia, in which +province an army of five legions was assembled for the purpose. +In Dalmatia the former praetor Gaius Cosconius held the command, +marched through the country in all directions, and took by storm +the fortress of Salona after a two years' siege. In Macedonia +the proconsul Appius Claudius (676-678) first attempted along +the Macedono-Thracian frontier to make himself master of the mountain +districts on the left bank of the Karasu. On both sides the war +was conducted with savage ferocity; the Thracians destroyed +the townships which they took and massacred their captives, +and the Romans returned like for like. But no results of importance +were attained; the toilsome marches and the constant conflicts +with the numerous and brave inhabitants of the mountains decimated +the army to no purpose; the general himself sickened and died. +His successor, Gaius Scribonius Curio (679-681), was induced +by various obstacles, and particularly by a not inconsiderable +military revolt, to desist from the difficult expedition +against the Thracians, and to turn himself instead to the northern +frontier of Macedonia, where he subdued the weaker Dardani (in Servia) +and reached as far as the Danube. The brave and able Marcus Lucullus +(682, 683) was the first who again advanced eastward, defeated the Bessi +in their mountains, took their capital Uscudama (Adrianople), +and compelled them to submit to the Roman supremacy. Sadalas king +of the Odrysians, and the Greek towns on the east coast to the north +and south of the Balkan chain--Istropolis, Tomi, Callatis, +Odessus (near Varna), Mesembria, and others--became dependent +on the Romans. Thrace, of which the Romans had hitherto held little +more than the Attalic possessions on the Chersonese, now became +a portion--though far from obedient--of the province of Macedonia. + +Piracy + +But the predatory raids of the Thracians and Dardani, confined +as they were to a small part of the empire, were far less injurious +to the state and to individuals than the evil of piracy, +which was continually spreading farther and acquiring +more solid organization. The commerce of the whole Mediterranean +was in its power. Italy could neither export its products nor import +grain from the provinces; in the former the people were starving, +in the latter the cultivation of the corn-fields ceased for want +of a vent for the produce. No consignment of money, no traveller +was longer safe: the public treasury suffered most serious losses; +a great many Romans of standing were captured by the corsairs, +and compelled to pay heavy sums for their ransom, if it was not even +the pleasure of the pirates to execute on individuals the sentence +of death, which in that case was seasoned with a savage humour. +The merchants, and even the divisions of Roman troops destined +for the east, began to postpone their voyages chiefly to the unfavourable +season of the year, and to be less afraid of the winter storms +than of the piratical vessels, which indeed even at this season +did not wholly disappear from the sea. But severely as the closing +of the sea was felt, it was more tolerable than the raids +made on the islands and coasts of Greece and Asia Minor. +Just as afterwards in the time of the Normans, piratical squadrons +ran up to the maritime towns, and either compelled them to buy +themselves off with large sums, or besieged and took them by storm. +When Samothrace, Clazomenae, Samos, Iassus were pillaged +by the pirates (670) under the eyes of Sulla after peace was concluded +with Mithradates, we may conceive how matters went where neither +a Roman army nor a Roman fleet was at hand. All the old rich temples +along the coasts of Greece and Asia Minor were plundered +one after another; from Samothrace alone a treasure of 1000 talents +(240,000 pounds) is said to have been carried off. Apollo, according +to a Roman poet of this period, was so impoverished by the pirates that, +when the swallow paid him a visit, he could no longer produce +to it out of all his treasures even a drachm of gold. More than four +hundred townships were enumerated as having been taken or laid +under contribution by the pirates, including cities like Cnidus, +Samos, Colophon; from not a few places on islands or the coast, +which were previously flourishing, the whole population migrated, +that they might not be carried off by the pirates. Even inland +districts were no longer safe from their attacks; there were instances +of their assailing townships distant one or two days' march +from the coast. The fearful debt, under which subsequently +all the communities of the Greek east succumbed, proceeded +in great part from these fatal times. + +Organization of Piracy + +Piracy had totally changed its character. The pirates +were no longer bold freebooters, who levied their tribute +from the large Italo-Oriental traffic in slaves and luxuries, +as it passed through the Cretan waters between Cyrene +and the Peloponnesus--in the language of the pirates the "golden sea"; +no longer even armed slave-catchers, who prosecuted "war, trade, +and piracy" equally side by side; they formed now a piratical state, +with a peculiar esprit de corps, with a solid and very respectable +organization, with a home of their own and the germs of a symmachy, +and doubtless also with definite political designs. The pirates +called themselves Cilicians; in fact their vessels were the rendezvous +of desperadoes and adventurers from all countries--discharged +mercenaries from the recruiting-grounds of Crete, burgesses +from the destroyed townships of Italy, Spain, and Asia, soldiers +and officers from the armies of Fimbria and Sertorius, in a word +the ruined men of all nations, the hunted refugees of all vanquished +parties, every one that was wretched and daring--and where was there not +misery and outrage in this unhappy age? It was no longer +a gang of robbers who had flocked together, but a compact soldier- +state, in which the freemasonry of exile and crime took the place +of nationality, and within which crime redeemed itself, as it so often +does in its own eyes, by displaying the most generous public spirit. +In an abandoned age, when cowardice and insubordination +had relaxed all the bonds of social order, the legitimate commonwealths +might have taken a pattern from this state--the mongrel offspring +of distress and violence--within which alone the inviolable +determination to stand side by side, the sense of comradeship, +respect for the pledged word and the self-chosen chiefs, valour +and adroitness seemed to have taken refuge. If the banner of this state +was inscribed with vengeance against the civil society which, +rightly or wrongly, had ejected its members, it might be a question +whether this device was much worse than those of the Italian oligarchy +and the Oriental sultanship which seemed in the fair way of dividing +the world between them. The corsairs at least felt themselves +on a level with any legitimate state; their robber-pride, +their robber-pomp, and their robber-humour are attested by many +a genuine pirate's tale of mad merriment and chivalrous bandittism: +they professed, and made it their boast, to live at righteous war +with all the world: what they gained in that warfare was designated +not as plunder, but as military spoil; and, while the captured corsair +was sure of the cross in every Roman seaport, they too claimed +the right of executing any of their captives. + +Its Military-Political Power + +Their military-political organization, especially since +the Mithradatic war, was compact. Their ships, for the most part +-myopiarones-, that is, small open swift-sailing barks, +with a smaller proportion of biremes and triremes, now regularly sailed +associated in squadrons and under admirals, whose barges were wont +to glitter in gold and purple. To a comrade in peril, +though he might be totally unknown, no pirate captain refused +the requested aid; an agreement concluded with any one of them +was absolutely recognized by the whole society, and any injury inflicted +on one was avenged by all. Their true home was the sea from the pillars +of Hercules to the Syrian and Egyptian waters; the refuges +which they needed for themselves and their floating houses +on the mainland were readily furnished to them by the Mauretanian +and Dalmatian coasts, by the island of Crete, and, above all, +by the southern coast of Asia Minor, which abounded in headlands +and lurking-places, commanded the chief thoroughfare of the maritime +commerce of that age, and was virtually without a master. +The league of Lycian cities there, and the Pamphylian communities, +were of little importance; the Roman station, which had existed +in Cilicia since 652, was far from adequate to command the extensive +coast; the Syrian dominion over Cilicia had always been +but nominal, and had recently been superseded by the Armenian, +the holder of which, as a true great-king, gave himself no concern +at all about the sea and readily abandoned it to the pillage +of the Cilicians. It was nothing wonderful, therefore, +that the corsairs flourished there as they had never done anywhere else. +Not only did they possess everywhere along the coast signal-places +and stations, but further inland--in the most remote recesses +of the impassable and mountainous interior of Lycia, Pamphylia, +and Cilicia--they had built their rock-castles, in which they concealed +their wives, children, and treasures during their own absence +at sea, and, doubtless, in times of danger found an asylum themselves. +Great numbers of such corsair-castles existed especially +in the Rough Cilicia, the forests of which at the same time furnished +the pirates with the most excellent timber for shipbuilding; and there, +accordingly, their principal dockyards and arsenals were situated. +It was not to be wondered at that this organized military state +gained a firm body of clients among the Greek maritime cities, +which were more or less left to themselves and managed their own +affairs: these cities entered into traffic with the pirates +as with a friendly power on the basis of definite treaties, +and did not comply with the summons of the Roman governors to furnish +vessels against them. The not inconsiderable town of Side +in Pamphylia, for instance, allowed the pirates to build ships +on its quays, and to sell the free men whom they had captured +in its market. + +Such a society of pirates was a political power; and as a political +power it gave itself out and was accepted from the time +when the Syrian king Tryphon first employed it as such and rested +his throne on its support.(4) We find the pirates as allies of king +Mithradates of Pontus as well as of the Roman democratic emigrants; +we find them giving battle to the fleets of Sulla in the eastern +and in the western waters; we find individual pirate princes ruling +over a series of considerable coast towns. We cannot tell how far +the internal political development of this floating state had +already advanced; but its arrangements undeniably contained +the germ of a sea-kingdom, which was already beginning to establish +itself, and out of which, under favourable circumstances, +a permanent state might have been developed. + +Nullity of the Roman Marine Police + +This state of matters clearly shows, as we have partly indicated +already,(5) how the Romans kept--or rather did not keep--order +on "their sea." The protectorate of Rome over the provinces +consisted essentially in military guardianship; the provincials +paid tax or tribute to the Romans for their defence by sea and land, +which was concentrated in Roman hands. But never, perhaps, +did a guardian more shamelessly defraud his ward than the Roman +oligarchy defrauded the subject communities. Instead of Rome equipping +a general fleet for the empire and centralizing her marine police, +the senate permitted the unity of her maritime superintendence-- +without which in this matter nothing could at all be done--to fall +into abeyance, and left it to each governor and each client state +to defend themselves against the pirates as each chose and was able. +Instead of Rome providing for the fleet, as she had bound herself +to do, exclusively with her own blood and treasure and with those +of the client states which had remained formally sovereign, +the senate allowed the Italian war-marine to fall into decay, +and learned to make shift with the vessels which the several +mercantile towns were required to furnish, or still more frequently +with the coast-guards everywhere organized--all the cost +and burden falling, in either case, on the subjects. The provincials +might deem themselves fortunate, if their Roman governor applied +the requisitions which he raised for the defence of the coast +in reality solely to that object, and did not intercept them +for himself; or if they were not, as very frequently happened, called +on to pay ransom for some Roman of rank captured by the buccaneers. +Measures undertaken perhaps with judgment, such as the occupation +of Cilicia in 652, were sure to be spoilt in the execution. +Any Roman of this period, who was not wholly carried away +by the current intoxicating idea of the national greatness, must have +wished that the ships' beaks might be torn down from the orator's +platform in the Forum, that at least he might not be constantly +reminded by them of the naval victories achieved in better times. + +Expedition to the South Coast of Asia Minor +Publius Servilius Isauricus +Zenicetes Vanquished +The Isaurians Subdued + +Nevertheless Sulla, who in the war against Mithradates had +the opportunity of acquiring an adequate conviction of the dangers +which the neglect of the fleet involved, took various steps +seriously to check the evil. It is true that the instructions +which he had left to the governors whom he appointed in Asia, +to equip in the maritime towns a fleet against the pirates, had borne +little fruit, for Murena preferred to begin war with Mithradates, +and Gnaeus Dolabella, the governor of Cilicia, proved wholly +incapable. Accordingly the senate resolved in 675 to send one +of the consuls to Cilicia; the lot fell on the capable Publius +Servilius. He defeated the piratical fleet in a bloody engagement, +and then applied himself to destroy those towns on the south coast +of Asia Minor which served them as anchorages and trading stations. +The fortresses of the powerful maritime prince Zenicetes--Olympus, +Corycus, Phaselis in eastern Lycia, Attalia in Pamphylia-- +were reduced, and the prince himself met his death in the flames +of his stronghold Olympus. A movement was next made against +the Isaurians, who in the north-west corner of the Rough Cilicia, +on the northern slope of Mount Taurus, inhabited a labyrinth +of steep mountain ridges, jagged rocks, and deeply-cut valleys, +covered with magnificent oak forests--a region which is even +at the present day filled with reminiscences of the old robber times. +To reduce these Isaurian fastnesses, the last and most secure retreats +ofthe freebooters, Servilius led the first Roman army over the Taurus, +and broke up the strongholds of the enemy, Oroanda, and above all +Isaura itself--the ideal of a robber-town, situated on the summit +of a scarcely accessible mountain-ridge, and completely overlooking +and commanding the wide plain of Iconium. The war, not ended +till 679, from which Publius Servilius acquired for himself +and his descendants the surname of Isauricus, was not without fruit; +a great number of pirates and piratical vessels fell in consequence +of it into the power of the Romans; Lycia, Pamphylia, West Cilicia +were severely devastated, the territories of the destroyed towns +were confiscated, and the province of Cilicia was enlarged by their +addition to it. But, in the nature of the case, piracy was far +from being suppressed by these measures; on the contrary, it simply +betook itself for the time to other regions, and particularly +to Crete, the oldest harbour for the corsairs of the Mediterranean.(6) +Nothing but repressive measures carried out on a large scale +and with unity of purpose--nothing, in fact, but the establishment +of a standing maritime police--could in such a case +afford thorough relief. + +Asiatic Relations +Tigranes and the New Great-Kingdom of Armenia + +The affairs of the mainland of Asia Minor were connected by various +relations with this maritime war. The variance which existed +between Rome and the kings of Pontus and Armenia did not abate, +but increased more and more. On the one hand Tigranes, +kingof Armenia, pursued his aggressive conquests in the most reckless +manner. The Parthians, whose state was at this period torn +by internal dissensions and enfeebled, were by constant hostilities +driven farther and farther back into the interior of Asia. +Of the countries between Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Iran, the kingdoms +of Corduene (northern Kurdistan), and Media Atropatene (Azerbijan), +were converted from Parthian into Armenian fiefs, and the kingdom +of Nineveh (Mosul), or Adiabene, was likewise compelled, at least +temporarily, to become a dependency of Armenia. In Mesopotamia, +too, particularly in and around Nisibis, the Armenian rule +was established; but the southern half, which was in great part desert, +seems not to have passed into the firm possession of the new great- +king, and Seleucia, on the Tigris, in particular, appears not to have +become subject to him. The kingdom of Edessa or Osrhoene +he handed over to a tribe of wandering Arabs, which he transplanted +from southern Mesopotamia and settled in this region, with the view +of commanding by its means the passage of the Euphrates +and the great route of traffic.(7) + +Cappadocia Armenian + +But Tigranes by no means confined his conquests to the eastern +bank of the Euphrates. Cappadocia especially was the object +of his attacks, and, defenceless as it was, suffered destructive +blows from its too potent neighbour. Tigranes wrested the eastern +province Melitene from Cappadocia, and united it with the opposite +Armenian province Sophene, by which means he obtained command +of the passage of the Euphrates with the great thoroughfare +of traffic between Asia Minor and Armenia. After the death of Sulla +the Armenians even advanced into Cappadocia proper, and carried off +to Armenia the inhabitants of the capital Mazaca (afterwards Caesarea) +and eleven other towns of Greek organization. + +Syria under Tigranes + +Nor could the kingdom of the Seleucids, already in full course +of dissolution, oppose greater resistance to the new great-king. +Here the south from the Egyptian frontier to Straton's Tower +(Caesarea) was under the rule of the Jewish prince Alexander Jannaeus, +who extended and strengthened his dominion step by step +in conflict with his Syrian, Egyptian, and Arabic neighbours +and with the imperial cities. The larger towns of Syria--Gaza, +Straton's Tower, Ptolemais, Beroea--attempted to maintain themselves +on their own footing, sometimes as free communities, sometimes +under so-called tyrants; the capital, Antioch, in particular, +was virtually independent. Damascus and the valleys of Lebanon +had submitted to the Nabataean prince, Aretas of Petra. Lastly, +in Cilicia the pirates or the Romans bore sway. And for this crown +breaking into a thousand fragments the Seleucid princes continued +perseveringly to quarrel with each other, as though it were their object +to make royalty a jest and an offence to all; nay more, +while this family, doomed like the house of Laius to perpetual discord, +had its own subjects all in revolt, it even raised claims to the throne +of Egypt vacant by the decease of king Alexander II without heirs. +Accordingly king Tigranes set to work there without ceremony. +Eastern Cilicia was easily subdued by him, and the citizens of Soli +and other towns were carried off, just like the Cappadocians, +to Armenia. In like manner the province of Upper Syria, +withthe exception of the bravely-defended town of Seleucia at the mouth +of the Orontes, and the greater part of Phoenicia were reduced +by force; Ptolemais was occupied by the Armenians about 680, +and the Jewish state was already seriously threatened by them. Antioch, +the old capital of the Seleucids, became one of the residences +of the great-king. Already from 671, the year following the peace +between Sulla and Mithradates, Tigranes is designated +in the Syrian annals as the sovereign of the country, and Cilicia +and Syria appear as an Armenian satrapy under Magadates, +the lieutenant of the great-king. The age of the kings of Nineveh, +ofthe Salmanezers and Sennacheribs, seemed to be renewed; again oriental +despotism pressed heavily on the trading population of the Syrian +coast, as it did formerly on Tyre and Sidon; again great states +of the interior threw themselves on the provinces along +the Mediterranean; again Asiatic hosts, said to number +half a million combatants, appeared on the Cilician and Syrian coasts. +As Salmanezer and Nebuchadnezzar had formerly carried the Jews +to Babylon, so now from all the frontier provinces of the new +kingdom--from Corduene, Adiabene, Assyria, Cilicia, Cappadocia-- +the inhabitants, especially the Greek or half-Greek citizens +of the towns, were compelled to settle with their whole goods +and chattels (under penalty of the confiscation of everything +that they left behind) in the new capital, one of those gigantic cities +proclaiming rather the nothingness of the people than the greatness +of the rulers, which sprang up in the countries of the Euphrates +on every change in the supreme sovereignty at the fiat of the new +grand sultan. The new "city of Tigranes," Tigrano-certa, founded +on the borders of Armenia and Mesopotamia, and destined +as the capital of the territories newly acquired for Armenia, became +a city like Nineveh and Babylon, with walls fifty yards high, +and the appendages of palace, garden, and park that were appropriate +to sultanism. In other respects, too, the new great-king proved +faithful to his part. As amidst the perpetual childhood +of the east the childlike conceptions of kings with real crowns +on their heads have never disappeared, Tigranes, when he showed +himselfin public, appeared in the state and the costume of a successor +of Darius and Xerxes, with the purple caftan, the half-white +half-purple tunic, the long plaited trousers, the high turban, +and the royal diadem--attended moreover and served in slavish fashion, +wherever he went or stood, by four "kings." + +Mithradates + +King Mithradates acted with greater moderation. He refrained +from aggressions in Asia Minor, and contented himself with-- +what no treaty forbade--placing his dominion along the Black Sea +ona firmer basis, and gradually bringing into more definite dependence +the regions which separated the Bosporan kingdom, now ruled +under his supremacy by his son Machares, from that of Pontus. +But he too applied every effort to render his fleet and army efficient, +and especially to arm and organize the latter after the Roman model; +in which the Roman emigrants, who sojourned in great numbers +at his court, rendered essential service. + +Demeanor of the Romans in the East +Egypt not Annexed + +The Romans had no desire to become further involved in Oriental +affairs than they were already. This appears with striking +clearness in the fact, that the opportunity, which at this time +presented itself, of peacefully bringing the kingdom of Egypt +under the immediate dominion of Rome was spurned by the senate. +The legitimate descendants of Ptolemaeus son of Lagus had come +to an end, when the king installed by Sulla after the death of Ptolemaeus +Soter II Lathyrus--Alexander II, a son of Alexander I--was killed, +a few days after he had ascended the throne, on occasion of a tumult +in the capital (673). This Alexander had in his testament(8) appointed +the Roman community his heir. The genuineness of this document +was no doubt disputed; but the senate acknowledged it by assuming +in virtue of it the sums deposited in Tyre on account of the deceased king. +Nevertheless it allowed two notoriously illegitimate sons of king Lathyrus, +Ptolemaeus XI, who was styled the new Dionysos or the Flute-blower +(Auletes), and Ptolemaeus the Cyprian, to take practical possession +of Egypt and Cyprus respectively. They were not indeed expressly +recognized by the senate, but no distinct summons to surrender +their kingdoms was addressed to them. The reason why the senate allowed +this state of uncertainty to continue, and did not commit itself +to a definite renunciation of Egypt and Cyprus, was undoubtedly +the considerable rent which these kings, ruling as it were on sufferance, +regularly paid for the continuance of the uncertainty to the heads +of the Roman coteries. But the motive for waiving that attractive +acquisition altogether was different. Egypt, by its peculiar +position and its financial organization, placed in the hands +of any governor commanding it a pecuniary and naval power and generally +an independent authority, which were absolutely incompatible +with the suspicious and feeble government of the oligarchy: +in this point of view it was judicious to forgo the direct possession +of the country of the Nile. + +Non-Intervention in Asia Minor and Syria + +Less justifiable was the failure of the senate to interfere directly +in the affairs of Asia Minor and Syria. The Roman government did not +indeed recognize the Armenian conqueror as king of Cappadocia +and Syria; but it did nothing to drive him back, although the war, +which under pressure of necessity it began in 676 against the pirates +in Cilicia, naturally suggested its interference more especially +in Syria. In fact, by tolerating the loss of Cappadocia and Syria +without declaring war, the government abandoned not merely +those committed to its protection, but the most important +foundations of its own powerful position. It adopted +a hazardous course, when it sacrificed the outworks of its dominion +in the Greek settlements and kingdoms on the Euphrates +and Tigris; but, when it allowed the Asiatics to establish +themselves on the Mediterranean which was the political +basis of its empire, this was not a proof of love of peace, +but a confession that the oligarchy had been rendered by the Sullan +restoration more oligarchical doubtless, but neither wiser +nor more energetic, and it was for Rome's place as a power +in the world the beginning of the end. + +On the other side, too, there was no desire for war. Tigranes +had no reason to wish it, when Rome even without war abandoned +to him all its allies. Mithradates, who was no mere sultan and had +enjoyed opportunity enough, amidst good and bad fortune, of gaining +experience regarding friends and foes, knew very well that in a second +Roman war he would very probably stand quite as much alone +as in the first, and that he could follow no more prudent course +than to keep quiet and to strengthen his kingdom in the interior. +That he was in earnest with his peaceful declarations, he had +sufficiently proved in the conference with Murena.(9) He continued +to avoid everything which would compel the Roman government +to abandon its passive attitude. + +Apprehensions of Rome + +But as the first Mithradatic war had arisen without any of the partie +properly desiring it, so now there grew out of the opposition +of interests mutual suspicion, and out of this suspicion +mutual preparations for defence; and these, by their very gravity, +ultimately led to an open breach. That distrust of her own readiness +to fight and preparation for fighting, which had for long governed +the policy of Rome--a distrust, which the want of standing armies +and the far from exemplary character of the collegiate rule +render sufficiently intelligible--made it, as it were, an axiom +of her policy to pursue every war not merely to the vanquishing, +but to the annihilation of her opponent; in this point of view +the Romans were from the outset as little content with the peace +of Sulla, as they had formerly been with the terms which Scipio +Africanus had granted to the Carthaginians. The apprehension often +expressed that a second attack by the Pontic king was imminent, +was in some measure justified by the singular resemblance between +the present circumstances and those which existed twelve years before. +Once more a dangerous civil war coincided with serious armaments +of Mithradates; once more the Thracians overran Macedonia, +and piratical fleets covered the Mediterranean; emissaries were coming +and going--as formerly between Mithradates and the Italians-- +so now between the Roman emigrants in Spain and those at the court +of Sinope. As early as the beginning of 677 it was declared +in the senate that the king was only waiting for the opportunity +of falling upon Roman Asia during the Italian civil war; +the Roman armies in Asia and Cilicia were reinforced +to meet possible emergencies. + +Apprehensions of Mithradates +Bithynia Roman +Cyrene a Roman Province +Outbreak of the Mithradatic War + +Mithradates on his part followed with growing apprehension +the development of the Roman policy. He could not but feel +that a war between the Romans and Tigranes, however much +the feeble senate might dread it, was in the long run almost inevitable, +and that he would not be able to avoid taking part in it. His attempt +to obtain from the Roman senate the documentary record of the terms +of peace, which was still wanting, had fallen amidst the disturbances +attending the revolution of Lepidus and remained without result; +Mithradates found in this an indication of the impending renewal +of the conflict. The expedition against the pirates, which indirectly +concerned also the kings of the east whose allies they were, +seemed the preliminary to such a war. Still more suspicious +were the claims which Rome held in suspense over Egypt and Cyprus: +it is significant that the king of Pontus betrothed his two daughters +Mithradatis and Nyssa to the two Ptolemies, to whom the senate +continued to refuse recognition. The emigrants urged him +to strike: the position of Sertorius in Spain, as to which Mithradates +despatched envoys under convenient pretexts to the headquarters +of Pompeius to obtain information, and which was about this very time +really imposing, opened up to the king the prospect of fighting +not, as in the first Roman war, against both the Roman parties, +but in concert with the one against the other. A more favourable +moment could hardly be hoped for, and after all it was always +better to declare war than to let it be declared against him. +In 679 Nicomedes III Philopator king of Bithynia, died, and as +the last of his race--for a son borne by Nysa was, or was said +to be, illegitimate--left his kingdom by testament to the Romans, +who delayed not to take possession of this region bordering +on the Roman province and long ago filled with Roman officials +and merchants. At the same time Cyrene, which had been already +bequeathed to the Romans in 658,(10) was at length constituted +a province, and a Roman governor was sent thither (679). These +measures, in connection with the attacks carried out about +the same time against the pirates on the south coast of Asia Minor, +must have excited apprehensions in the king; the annexation of Bithynia +in particular made the Romans immediate neighbours of the Pontic +kingdom; and this, it may be presumed, turned the scale. The king +took the decisive step and declared war against the Romans +in the winter of 679-680. + +Preparations of Mithradates + +Gladly would Mithradates have avoided undertaking so arduous a work +singlehanded. His nearest and natural ally was the great-king +Tigranes; but that shortsighted man declined the proposal of his +father-in-law. So there remained only the insurgents and the pirates. +Mithradates was careful to place himself in communication +with both, by despatching strong squadrons to Spain and to Crete. +A formal treaty was concluded with Sertorius,(11) by which Rome +ceded to the king Bithynia, Paphlagonia, Galatia, and Cappadocia-- +all of them, it is true, acquisitions which needed to be ratified +on the field of battle. More important was the support +which the Spanish general gave to the king, by sending Roman officers +to lead his armies and fleets. The most active of the emigrants +inthe east, Lucius Magius and Lucius Fannius, were appointed by Sertorius +as his representatives at the court of Sinope. From the pirates +also came help; they flocked largely to the kingdom of Pontus, +and by their means especially the king seems to have succeeded +in forming a naval force imposing by the number as well as +by the quality of the ships. His main support still lay in his +own forces, with which the king hoped, before the Romans should arrive +in Asia, to make himself master of their possessions there; +especially as the financial distress produced in the province +of Asia by the Sullan war-tribute, the aversion of Bithynia towards +the new Roman government, and the elements of combustion left +behind by the desolating war recently brought to a close in Cilicia +and Pamphylia, opened up favourable prospects to a Pontic invasion. +There was no lack of stores; 2,000,000 -medimni- of grain lay +in the royal granaries. The fleet and the men were numerous and well +exercised, particularly the Bastarnian mercenaries, a select corps +which was a match even for Italian legionaries. On this occasion +also it was the king who took the offensive. A corps under Diophantus +advanced into Cappadocia, to occupy the fortresses there +and to close the way to the kingdom of Pontus against the Romans; +the leader sent by Sertorius, the propraetor Marcus Marius, +went in company with the Pontic officer Eumachus to Phrygia, with a view +to rouse the Roman province and the Taurus mountains to revolt; +the main army, above 100,000 men with 16,000 cavalry and 100 +scythe-chariots, led by Taxiles and Hermocrates under the personal +superintendence of the king, and the war-fleet of 400 sail +commanded by Aristonicus, moved along the north coast of Asia Minor +to occupy Paphlagonia and Bithynia. + +Roman Preparations + +On the Roman side there was selected for the conduct of the war +in the first rank the consul of 680, Lucius Lucullus, who as governor +of Asia and Cilicia was placed at the head of the four legions +stationed in Asia Minor and of a fifth brought by him from Italy, +and was directed to penetrate with this army, amounting to 30,000 +infantry and 1600 cavalry, through Phrygia into the kingdom +of Pontus. His colleague Marcus Cotta proceeded with the fleet +and another Roman corps to the Propontis, to cover Asia and Bithynia. +Lastly, a general arming of the coasts and particularly +of the Thracian coast more immediately threatened by the Pontic fleet, +was enjoined; and the task of clearing all the seas and coasts +from the pirates and their Pontic allies was, by extraordinary decree, +entrusted to a single magistrate, the choice falling on the praetor +Marcus Antonius, the son of the man who thirty years before had +first chastised the Cilician corsairs.(12) Moreover, the senate +placed at the disposal of Lucullus a sum of 72,000,000 sesterces +(700,000 pounds), in order to build a fleet; which, however, +Lucullus declined. From all this we see that the Roman government +recognized the root of the evil in the neglect of their marine, +and showed earnestness in the matter at least so far as +their decrees reached. + +Beginning of the War + +Thus the war began in 680 at all points. It was a misfortune +for Mithradates, that at the very moment of his declaring war +the Sertorian struggle reached its crisis, by which one of his +principal hopes was from the outset destroyed, and the Roman +government was enabled to apply its whole power to the maritime +and Asiatic contest. In Asia Minor on the other hand Mithradates +reaped the advantages of the offensive, and of the great distance +of the Romans from the immediate seat of war. A considerable +number of cities in Asia Minor opened their gates to the Sertorian +propraetor who was placed at the head of the Roman province, +and they massacred, as in 666, the Roman families settled among them: +the Pisidians, Isaurians, and Cilicians took up arms against Rome. +The Romans for the moment had no troops at the points threatened. +Individual energetic men attempted no doubt at their own hand +to check this mutiny of the provincials; thus on receiving accounts +of these events the young Gaius Caesar left Rhodes where he was staying +on account of his studies, and with a hastily-collected +band opposed himself to the insurgents; but not much could be +effected by such volunteer corps. Had not Deiotarus, the brave +tetrarch of the Tolistobogii--a Celtic tribe settled around +Pessinus--embraced the side of the Romans and fought with success +against the Pontic generals, Lucullus would have had to begin with +recapturing the interior of the Roman province from the enemy. +But even as it was, he lost in pacifying the province and driving +back the enemy precious time, for which the slight successes +achieved by his cavalry were far from affording compensation. +Still more unfavourable than in Phrygia was the aspect of things +for the Romans on the north coast of Asia Minor. Here the great +Pontic army and the fleet had completely mastered Bithynia, +and compelled the Roman consul Cotta to take shelter with his +far from numerous force and his ships within the walls +and port of Chalcedon, where Mithradates kept them blockaded. + +The Romans Defeated at Chalcedon + +This blockade, however, was so far a favourable event +for the Romans, as, if Cotta detained the Pontic army before Chalcedon +and Lucullus proceeded also thither, the whole Roman forces might unite +at Chalcedon and compel the decision of arms there rather than +in the distant and impassable region of Pontus. Lucullus did take +the route for Chalcedon; but Cotta, with the view of executing a great +feat at his own hand before the arrival of his colleague, ordered +his admiral Publius Rutilius Nudus to make a sally, which not only +ended in a bloody defeat of the Romans, but also enabled the Pontic +force to attack the harbour, to break the chain which closed it, +and to burn all the Roman vessels of war which were there, nearly +seventy in number. On the news of these misfortunes reaching +Lucullus at the river Sangarius, he accelerated his march +to the great discontent of his soldiers, in whose opinion Cotta +was of no moment, and who would far rather have plundered an undefended +country than have taught their comrades to conquer. His arrival +made up in part for the misfortunes sustained: the king raised +the siege of Chalcedon, but did not retreat to Pontus; he went +southward into the old Roman province, where he spread his army +along the Propontis and the Hellespont, occupied Lampsacus, +and began to besiege the large and wealthy town of Cyzicus. +He thus entangled himself more and more deeply in the blind alley +which he had chosen to enter, instead of--which alone promised success +for him--bringing the wide distances into play against the Romans. + +Mithradates Besieges Cyzicus + +In few places had the old Hellenic adroitness and aptitude +preserved themselves so pure as in Cyzicus; its citizens, although +they had suffered great loss of ships and men in the unfortunate +double battle of Chalcedon, made the most resolute resistance. +Cyzicus lay on an island directly opposite the mainland +and connected with it by a bridge. The besiegers possessed themselves +not only of the line of heights on the mainland terminating at the bridge +and of the suburb situated there, but also of the celebrated +Dindymene heights on the island itself; and alike on the mainland +and on the island the Greek engineers put forth all their art +to pave the way for an assault. But the breach which they at length +made was closed again during the night by the besieged, +and the exertions of the royal army remained as fruitless as did +the barbarous threat of the king to put to death the captured Cyzicenes +before the walls, if the citizens still refused to surrender. +The Cyzicenes continued the defence with courage and success; +they fell little short of capturing the king himself +in the course of the siege. + +Destruction of the Pontic Army + +Meanwhile Lucullus had possessed himself of a very strong position +in rear of the Pontic army, which, although not permitting him +directly to relieve the hard-pressed city, gave him the means +of cutting off all supplies by land from the enemy. Thus the enormous +army of Mithradates, estimated with the camp-followers at 300,000 +persons, was not in a position either to fight or to march, firmly +wedged in between the impregnable city and the immoveable Roman +army, and dependent for all its supplies solely on the sea, +which fortunately for the Pontic troops was exclusively commanded +by their fleet. But the bad season set in; a storm destroyed a great +part of the siege-works; the scarcity of provisions and above all +of fodder for the horses began to become intolerable. The beasts +of burden and the baggage were sent off under convoy of the greater +portion of the Pontic cavalry, with orders to steal away or break +through at any cost; but at the river Rhyndacus, to the east +of Cyzicus, Lucullus overtook them and cut to pieces the whole body. +Another division of cavalry under Metrophanes and Lucius Fannius +was obliged, after wandering long in the west of Asia Minor, +to return to the camp before Cyzicus. Famine and disease made +fearful ravages in the Pontic ranks. When spring came on (681), +the besieged redoubled their exertions and took the trenches +constructed on Dindymon: nothing remained for the king but to raise +the siege and with the aid of his fleet to save what he could. +He went in person with the fleet to the Hellespont, but suffered +considerable loss partly at its departure, partly through storms +on the voyage. The land army under Hermaeus and Marius likewise +set out thither, with the view of embarking at Lampsacus +under the protection of its walls. They left behind their baggage +as well as the sick and wounded, who were all put to death +by the exasperated Cyzicenes. Lucullus inflicted on them +very considerable loss by the way at the passage of the rivers +Aesepus and Granicus; but they attained their object. The Pontic ships +carried off the remains of the great army and the citizens of Lampsacus +themselves beyond the reach of the Romans. + +Maritime War +Mithradates Driven Back to Pontus + +The consistent and discreet conduct of the war by Lucullus +had not only repaired the errors of his colleague, but had also +destroyed without a pitched battle the flower of the enemy's army-- +it was said 200,000 soldiers. Had he still possessed the fleet +which was burnt in the harbour of Chalcedon, he would have annihilated +the whole army of his opponent. As it was, the work of destruction +continued incomplete; and while he was obliged to remain passive, +the Pontic fleet notwithstanding the disaster of Cyzicus took +its station in the Propontis, Perinthus and Byzantium were blockaded +by it on the European coast and Priapus pillaged on the Asiatic, +and the headquarters of the king were established in the Bithynian port +of Nicomedia. In fact a select squadron of fifty sail, +which carried 10,000 select troops including Marcus Marius +and the flower of the Roman emigrants, sailed forth even into the Aegean; +the report went that it was destined to effect a landing in Italy +and there rekindle the civil war. But the ships, which Lucullus +after the disaster off Chalcedon had demanded from the Asiatic +communities, began to appear, and a squadron ran forth in pursuit +of the enemy's fleet which had gone into the Aegean. Lucullus himself, + experienced as an admiral,(13) took the command. Thirteen quinqueremes +of the enemy on their voyage to Lemnos, under Isidorus, were assailed +and sunk off the Achaean harbour in the waters between the Trojan coast +and the island of Tenedos. At the small island of Neae, between Lemnos +and Scyros, at which little-frequented point the Pontic flotilla +of thirty-two sail lay drawn up on the shore, Lucullus found it, +immediately attacked the ships and the crews scattered over the island, +and possessed himself of the whole squadron. Here Marcus Marius +and the ablest of the Roman emigrants met their death, either in conflict +or subsequently by the axe of the executioner. The whole Aegean fleet +of the enemy was annihilated by Lucullus. The war in Bithynia +was meanwhile continued by Cotta and by the legates of Lucullus, +Voconius, Gaius Valerius Triarius, and Barba, with the land army +reinforced by fresh arrivals from Italy, and a squadron collected +in Asia. Barba captured in the interior Prusias on Olympus and Nicaea +while Triarius along the coast captured Apamea (formerly Myrlea) +and Prusias on the sea (formerly Cius). They then united for a joint +attack on Mithradates himself in Nicomedia; but the king without +even attempting battle escaped to his ships and sailed homeward, +and in this he was successful only because the Roman admiral Voconius, +who was entrusted with the blockade of the port of Nicomedia, +arrived too late. On the voyage the important Heraclea was indeed +betrayed to the king and occupied by him; but a storm in these waters +sank more than sixty of, his ships and dispersed the rest; the king +arrived almost alone at Sinope. The offensive on the part of Mithradates +ended in a complete defeat--not at all honourable, least of all +for the supreme leader--of the Pontic forces by land and sea. + +Invasion of Pontus by Lucullus + +Lucullus now in turn proceeded to the aggressive. Triarius +received the command of the fleet, with orders first of all +to blockade the Hellespont and lie in wait for the Pontic ships +returning from Crete and Spain; Cotta was charged with the siege +of Heraclea; the difficult task of providing supplies +was entrusted to the faithful and active princes of the Galatians +and to Ariobarzanes king of Cappadocia; Lucullus himself advanced +in the autumn of 681 into the favoured land of Pontus, which had long +been untrodden by an enemy. Mithradates, now resolved to maintain +the strictest defensive, retired without giving battle from Sinope +to Amisus, and from Amisus to Cabira (afterwards Neocaesarea, +now Niksar) on the Lycus, a tributary of the Iris; he contented +himself with drawing the enemy after him farther and farther +into the interior, and obstructing their supplies and communications. +Lucullus rapidly followed; Sinope was passed by; the Halys, the old +boundary of the Roman dominion, was crossed and the considerable +towns of Amisus, Eupatoria (on the Iris), and Themiscyra (on +the Thermodon) were invested, till at length winter put an end +to the onward march, though not to the investments of the towns. +The soldiers of Lucullus murmured at the constant advance +which did not allow them to reap the fruits of their exertions, +and at the tedious and--amidst the severity of that season-- +burdensome blockades. But it was not the habit of Lucullus +to listen to such complaints: in the spring of 682 he immediately +advanced against Cabira, leaving behind two legions before Amisus +under Lucius Murena. The king had made fresh attempts during the winter +to induce the great-king of Armenia to take part in the struggle; +they remained like the former ones fruitless, or led only +to empty promises. Still less did the Parthians show any desire +to interfere in the forlorn cause. Nevertheless a considerable army, +chiefly raised by enlistments in Scythia, had again assembled +under Diophantus and Taxiles at Cabira. The Roman army, +which still numbered only three legions and was decidedly inferior +to the Pontic in cavalry, found itself compelled to avoid as far as +possible the plains, and arrived, not without toil and loss, +by difficult bypaths in the vicinity of Cabira, At this town +the two armies lay for a considerable period confronting each other. +The chief struggle was for supplies, which were on both sides scarce: +for this purpose Mithradates formed the flower of his cavalry +and a division of select infantry under Diophantus and Taxiles +into a flying corps, which was intended to scour the country between +the Lycus and the Halys and to seize the Roman convoys of provisions +coming from Cappadocia. But the lieutenant of Lucullus, Marcus +Fabius Hadrianus, who escorted such a train, not only completely +defeated the band which lay in wait for him in the defile where it +expected to surprise him, but after being reinforced from the camp +defeated also the army of Diophantus and Taxiles itself, so that it +totally broke up. It was an irreparable loss for the king, +when his cavalry, on which alone he relied, was thus overthrown. + +Victory of Cabira + +As soon as he received through the first fugitives that arrived +at Cabira from the field of battle--significantly enough, the beaten +generals themselves--the fatal news, earlier even than Lucullus +got tidings of the victory, he resolved on an immediate +farther retreat. But the resolution taken by the king spread +with the rapidity of lightning among those immediately around him; and, +when the soldiers saw the confidants of the king packing in all haste, +they too were seized with a panic. No one was willing to be +the hindmost in decamping; all, high and low, ran pell-mell +like startled deer; no authority, not even that of the king, +was longer heeded; and the king himself was carried away amidst +the wild tumult. Lucullus, perceiving the confusion, made his attack, +and the Pontic troops allowed themselves to be massacred almost +without offering resistance. Had the legions been able to maintain +discipline and to restrain their eagerness for spoil, hardly a man +would have escaped them, and the king himself would doubtless have +been taken. With difficulty Mithradates escaped along with a few +attendants through the mountains to Comana (not far from Tocat +and the source of the Iris); from which, however, a Roman corps +under Marcus Pompeius soon scared him off and pursued him, till, +attended by not more than 2000 cavalry, he crossed the frontier +of his kingdom at Talaura in Lesser Armenia. In the empire +of the great-king he found a refuge, but nothing more (end of 682). +Tigranes, it is true, ordered royal honours to be shown to his fugitive +father-in-law; but he did not even invite him to his court, +and detained him in the remote border-province to which he had come +in a sort of decorous captivity. + +Pontus Becomes Roman +Sieges of the Pontic Cities + +The Roman troops overran all Pontus and Lesser Armenia, and as +far as Trapezus the flat country submitted without resistance +to the conqueror. The commanders of the royal treasure-houses also +surrendered after more or less delay, and delivered up their stores +of money. The king ordered that the women of the royal harem--his +sisters, his numerous wives and concubines--as it was not possible +to secure their flight, should all be put to death by one of his +eunuchs at Pharnacea (Kerasunt). The towns alone offered +obstinate resistance. It is true that the few in the interior-- +Cabira, Amasia, Eupatoria--were soon in the power of the Romans; +but the larger maritime towns, Amisus and Sinope in Pontus, +Amastris in Paphlagonia, Tius and the Pontic Heraclea in Bithynia, +defended themselves with desperation, partly animated by attachment +to the king and to their free Hellenic constitution which he had +protected, partly overawed by the bands of corsairs whom the king +had called to his aid. Sinope and Heraclea even sent forth vessels +against the Romans; and the squadron of Sinope seized a Roman +flotilla which was bringing corn from the Tauric peninsula +for the army of Lucullus. Heraclea did not succumb till after +a two years' siege, when the Roman fleet had cut off the city +from intercourse with the Greek towns on the Tauric peninsula and treason +had broken out in the ranks of the garrison. When Amisus was reduced +to extremities, the garrison set fire to the town, and under cover +of the flames took to their ships. In Sinope, where the daring +pirate-captain Seleucus and the royal eunuch Bacchides conducted +the defence, the garrison plundered the houses before it withdrew, +and set on fire the ships which it could not take along with it; +it is said that, although the greater portion of the defenders +were enabled to embark, 8000 corsairs were there put to death +by Lucullus. These sieges of towns lasted for two whole years +and more after the battle of Cabira (682-684); Lucullus prosecuted +them in great part by means of his lieutenants, while he himself +regulated the affairs of the province of Asia, which demanded +and obtained a thorough reform. + +Remarkable, in an historical point of view, as was that obstinate +resistance of the Pontic mercantile towns to the victorious Romans, +it was of little immediate use; the cause of Mithradates was none +the less lost. The great-king had evidently, for the present +at least, no intention at all of restoring him to his kingdom. +The Roman emigrants in Asia had lost their best men by the destruction +of the Aegean fleet; of the survivors not a few, such as the active +leaders Lucius Magius and Lucius Fannius, had made their peace +with Lucullus; and with the death of Sertorius, who perished in the year +of the battle of Cabira, the last hope of the emigrants vanished. +Mithradates' own power was totally shattered, and one after another +his remaining supports gave way; his squadrons returning from Crete +and Spain, to the number of seventy sail, were attacked and destroyed +by Triarius at the island of Tenedos; even the governor +of the Bosporan kingdom, the king's own son Machares, deserted him, +and as independent prince of the Tauric Chersonese concluded +on his own behalf peace and friendship with the Romans (684). +The king himself, after a not too glorious resistance, was confined +in a remote Armenian mountain-stronghold, a fugitive from his kingdom +and almost a prisoner of his son-in-law. Although the bands +of corsairs might still hold out in Crete, and such as had escaped +from Amisus and Sinope might make their way along the hardly- +accessible east coast of the Black Sea to the Sanigae and Lazi, +the skilful conduct of the war by Lucullus and his judicious +moderation, which did not disdain to remedy the just grievances +of the provincials and to employ the repentant emigrants as officers +in his army, had at a moderate sacrifice delivered Asia Minor +from the enemy and annihilated the Pontic kingdom, so that it might +be converted from a Roman client-state into a Roman province. +A commission of the senate was expected, to settle in concert +with the commander-in-chief the new provincial organization. + +Beginning of the Armenian War + +But the relations with Armenia were not yet settled. +Thata declaration of war by the Romans against Tigranes +was in itself justified and even demanded, we have already shown. +Lucullus, who looked at the state of affairs from a nearer point of view +and with a higher spirit than the senatorial college in Rome, perceived +clearly the necessity of confining Armenia to the other side +of the Tigris and of re-establishing the lost dominion of Rome over +the Mediterranean. He showed himself in the conduct of Asiatic +affairs no unworthy successor of his instructor and friend Sulla. +A Philhellene above most Romans of his time, he was not insensible +to the obligation which Rome had come under when taking up +the heritage of Alexander--the obligation to be the shield and sword +of the Greeks in the east. Personal motives--the wish to earn laurels +also beyond the Euphrates, irritation at the fact that the great- +king in a letter to him had omitted the title of Imperator--may +doubtless have partly influenced Lucullus; but it is unjust +to assume paltry and selfish motives for actions, which motives +of duty quite suffice to explain. The Roman governing college +at any rate--timid, indolent, ill informed, and above all beset +by perpetual financial embarrassments--could never be expected, +without direct compulsion, to take the initiative in an expedition +so vast and costly. About the year 682 the legitimate representatives +of the Seleucid dynasty, Antiochus called the Asiatic and his brother, +moved by the favourable turn of the Pontic war, had gone to Rome +to procure a Roman intervention in Syria, and at the same +time a recognition of their hereditary claims on Egypt. +If the latter demand might not be granted, there could not, at any rate, +be found a more favourable moment or occasion for beginning the war +which had long been necessary against Tigranes. But the senate, +while it recognized the princes doubtless as the legitimate +kings of Syria, could not make up its mind to decree the armed +intervention. If the favourable opportunity was to be employed, +and Armenia was to be dealt with in earnest, Lucullus had to begin +the war, without any proper orders from the senate, at his own hand +and his own risk; he found himself, just like Sulla, placed under +the necessity of executing what he did in the most manifest +interest of the existing government, not with its sanction, +but in spite of it. His resolution was facilitated by the relations +of Rome towards Armenia, for long wavering in uncertainty between +peace and war, which screened in some measure the arbitrariness +of his proceedings, and failed not to suggest formal grounds for war. +The state of matters in Cappadocia and Syria afforded pretexts +enough; and already in the pursuit of the king of Pontus Roman +troops had violated the territory of the great-king. As, however, +the commission of Lucullus related to the conduct of the war +against Mithradates and he wished to connect what he did +with that commission, he preferred to send one of his officers, +Appius Claudius, to the great-king at Antioch to demand the surrender +of Mithradates, which in fact could not but lead to war. + +Difficulties to Be Encountered + +The resolution was a grave one, especially considering +the condition of the Roman army. It was indispensable during +the campaign in Armenia to keep the extensive territory of Pontus +strongly occupied, for otherwise the army stationed in Armenia +might lose its communications with home; and besides it might be +easily foreseen that Mithradates would attempt an inroad into his +former kingdom. The army, at the head of which Lucullus had ended +the Mithradatic war, amounting to about 30,000 men, was obviously +inadequate for this double task. Under ordinary circumstances +the general would have asked and obtained from his government +the despatch of a second army; but as Lucullus wished, +and was in some measure compelled, to take up the war over the head +of the government, he found himself necessitated to renounce +that plan and--although he himself incorporated the captured Thracian +mercenaries of the Pontic king with his troops--to carry the war +over the Euphrates with not more than two legions, or at most +15,000 men. This was in itself hazardous; but the smallness +of the number might be in some degree compensated by the tried valour +of the army consisting throughout of veterans. A far worse feature +was the temper of the soldiers, to which Lucullus, in his high +aristocratic fashion, had given far too little heed. Lucullus +was an able general, and--according to the aristocratic standard-- +an upright and kindly-disposed man, but very far from being +a favourite with his soldiers. He was unpopular, as a decided +adherent of the oligarchy; unpopular, because he had vigorously +checked the monstrous usury of the Roman capitalists in Asia Minor; +unpopular, on account of the toils and fatigues which he inflicted +on his troops; unpopular, because he demanded strict discipline +in his soldiers and prevented as far as possible the pillage +of the Greek towns by his men, but withal caused many a waggon +and many a camel to be laden with the treasures of the east for himself; +unpopular too on account of his manner, which was polished, +haughty, Hellenizing, not at all familiar, and inclining, wherever +it was possible, to ease and pleasure. There was no trace in him +of the charm which weaves a personal bond between the general +and the soldier. Moreover, a large portion of his ablest soldiers +had every reason to complain of the unmeasured prolongation of their +term of service. His two best legions were the same which Flaccus +and Fimbria had led in 668 to the east;(14) notwithstanding +that shortly after the battle of Cabira they had been promised their +discharge well earned by thirteen campaigns, Lucullus now led them +beyond the Euphrates to face a new incalculable war--it seemed +as though the victors of Cabira were to be treated worse than +the vanquished of Cannae.(15) It was in fact more than rash that, +with troops so weak and so much out of humour, a general should at his +own hand and, strictly speaking, at variance with the constitution, +undertake an expedition to a distant and unknown land, full of rapid +streams and snow-clad mountains--a land which from the very vastness +of its extent rendered any lightly-undertaken attack fraught +with danger. The conduct of Lucullus was therefore much +and not unreasonably censured in Rome; only, amidst the censure +the fact should not have been concealed, that the perversity +of the government was the prime occasion of this venturesome +project of the general, and, if it did not justify it, rendered +it at least excusable. + +Lucullus Crosses the Euphrates + +The mission of Appius Claudius was designed not only to furnish +a diplomatic pretext for the war, but also to induce the princes +and cities of Syria especially to take arms against the great-king: +in the spring of 685 the formal attack began. During the winter +the king of Cappadocia had silently provided vessels for transport; +with these the Euphrates was crossed at Melitene, and the further +march was directed by way of the Taurus-passes to the Tigris. +This too Lucullus crossed in the region of Amida (Diarbekr), +and advanced towards the road which connected the second capital +Tigranocerta,(16) recently founded on the south frontier of Armenia, +with the old metropolis Artaxata. At the former was stationed +the great-king, who had shortly before returned from Syria, +after having temporarily deferred the prosecution of his plans +of conquest on the Mediterranean on account of the embroilment +with the Romans. He was just projecting an inroad into Roman Asia +from Cilicia and Lycaonia, and was considering whether the Romans +would at once evacuate Asia or would previously give him battle, +possibly at Ephesus, when the news was brought to him of the advance +of Lucullus, which threatened to cut off his communications +with Artaxata. He ordered the messenger to be hanged, +but the disagreeable reality remained unaltered; so he left +the new capital and resorted to the interior of Armenia, in order +there to raise a force--which had not yet been done--against the Romans. +Meanwhile Mithrobarzanes with the troops actually at his disposal +and in concert with the neighbouring Bedouin tribes, who were called out +in all haste, was to give employment to the Romans. But the corps +of Mithrobarzanes was dispersed by the Roman vanguard, and the Arabs +by a detachment under Sextilius; Lucullus gained the road leading +from Tigranocerta to Artaxata, and, while on the right bank +of the Tigrisa Roman detachment pursued the great-king +retreating northwards, Lucullus himself crossed to the left +and marched forward to Tigranocerta. + +Siege and Battle of Tigranocerta + +The exhaustless showers of arrows which the garrison poured upon +the Roman army, and the setting fire to the besieging machines +by means of naphtha, initiated the Romans into the new dangers +of Iranian warfare; and the brave commandant Mancaeus maintained +the city, till at length the great royal army of relief had assembled +from all parts of the vast empire and the adjoining countries +that were open to Armenian recruiting officers, and had advanced +through the north-eastern passes to the relief of the capital. +The leader Taxiles, experienced in the wars of Mithradates, +advised Tigranes to avoid a battle, and to surround and starve out +the small Roman army by means of his cavalry. But when the king saw +the Roman general, who had determined to give battle without raising +the siege, move out with not much more than 10,000 men against a force +twenty times superior, and boldly cross the river which separated +the two armies; when he surveyed on the one side this little band, +"too many for an embassy, too few for an army," and on the other +side his own immense host, in which the peoples from the Black Sea +and the Caspian met with those of the Mediterranean and of +the Persian Gulf, in which the dreaded iron-clad lancers alone +were more numerous than the whole army of Lucullus, and in which +even infantry armed after the Roman fashion were not wanting; +he resolved promptly to accept the battle desired by the enemy. +But while the Armenians were still forming their array, the quick +eye of Lucullus perceived that they had neglected to occupy a height +which commanded the whole position of their cavalry. He hastened +to occupy it with two cohorts, while at the same time his weak +cavalry by a flank attack diverted the attention of the enemy +from this movement; and as soon as he had reached the height, he led +his little band against the rear of the enemy's cavalry. They were +totally broken and threw themselves on the not yet fully formed +infantry, which fled without even striking a blow. The bulletin +of the victor--that 100,000 Armenians and five Romans had fallen +and that the king, throwing away his turban and diadem, had galloped +off unrecognized with a few horsemen--is composed in the style +of his master Sulla. Nevertheless the victory achieved on the 6th +October 685 before Tigranocerta remains one of the most brilliant +stars in the glorious history of Roman warfare; and it was not less +momentous than brilliant. + +All the Armenian Conquests Pass into the Hands of the Romans + +All the provinces wrested from the Parthians or Syrians +to the south of the Tigris were by this means strategically lost +to the Armenians, and passed, for the most part, without delay +into the possession of the victor. The newly-built second capital +itselfset the example. The Greeks, who had been forced in large numbers +to settle there, rose against the garrison and opened to the Roman +army the gates of the city, which was abandoned to the pillage +of the soldiers. It had been created for the new great-kingdom, +and, like this, was effaced by the victor. From Cilicia and Syria +all the troops had already been withdrawn by the Armenian satrap +Magadates to reinforce the relieving army before Tigranocerta. +Lucullus advanced into Commagene, the most northern province +of Syria, and stormed Samosata, the capital; he did not reach Syria +proper, but envoys arrived from the dynasts and communities as far +as the Red Sea--from Hellenes, Syrians, Jews, Arabs--to do homage +to the Romans as their sovereigns. Even the prince of Corduene, +the province situated to the east of Tigranocerta, submitted; +while, on the other hand, Guras the brother of the great-king +maintained himself in Nisibis, and thereby in Mesopotamia. +Lucullus came forward throughout as the protector of the Hellenic +princes and municipalities: in Commagene he placed Antiochus, +a prince of the Seleucid house, on the throne; he recognized +Antiochus Asiaticus, who after the withdrawal of the Armenians had +returned to Antioch, as king of Syria; he sent the forced settlers +of Tigranocerta once more away to their homes. The immense stores +and treasures of the great-king--the grain amounted to 30,000,000 +-medimni-, the money in Tigranocerta alone to 8000 talents (nearly +2,000,000 pounds)--enabled Lucullus to defray the expenses of the war +without making any demand on the state-treasury, and to bestow +on each of his soldiers, besides the amplest maintenance, a present +of 800 -denarii- (33 pounds). + +Tigranes and Mithradates + +The great-king was deeply humbled. He was of a feeble character, +arrogant in prosperity, faint-hearted in adversity. Probably +an agreement would have been come to between him and Lucullus-- +an agreement which there was every reason that the great-king should +purchase by considerable sacrifices, and the Roman general should +grant under tolerable conditions--had not the old Mithradates been +in existence. The latter had taken no part in the conflicts around +Tigranocerta. Liberated after twenty months' captivity about +the middle of 684 in consequence of the variance that had occurred +between the great-king and the Romans, he had been despatched +with 10,000 Armenian cavalry to his former kingdom, to threaten +the communications of the enemy. Recalled even before he could +accomplish anything there, when the great-king summoned his whole +force to relieve the capital which he had built, Mithradates was met +on his arrival before Tigranocerta by the multitudes just fleeing +from the field of battle. To every one, from the great-king +down to the common soldier, all seemed lost. But if Tigranes +should now make peace, not only would Mithradates lose the last +chance of being reinstated in his kingdom, but his surrender would +be beyond doubt the first condition of peace; and certainly +Tigranes would not have acted otherwise towards him than Bocchus +had formerly acted towards Jugurtha. The king accordingly staked +his whole personal weight to prevent things from taking this turn, +and to induce the Armenian court to continue the war, in which +he had nothing to lose and everything to gain; and, fugitive +and dethroned as was Mithradates, his influence at this court +was not slight. He was still a stately and powerful man, who, +although already upwards of sixty years old, vaulted on horseback +in full armour, and in hand-to-hand conflict stood his ground +like the best. Years and vicissitudes seemed to have steeled his spirit: +while in earlier times he sent forth generals to lead his armies +and took no direct part in war himself, we find him henceforth +as an old man commanding in person and fighting in person on the field +of battle. To one who, during his fifty years of rule, had witnessed +so many unexampled changes of fortune, the cause of the great-king +appeared by no means lost through the defeat of Tigranocerta; +whereas the position of Lucullus was very difficult, and, if peace +should not now take place and the war should be judiciously continued, +even in a high degree precarious. + +Renewal of the War + +The veteran of varied experience, who stood towards the great-king +almost as a father, and was now able to exercise a personal +influence over him, overpowered by his energy that weak man, +and induced him not only to resolve on the continuance of the war, +but also to entrust Mithradates with its political and military +management. The war was now to be changed from a cabinet contest +into a national Asiatic struggle; the kings and peoples of Asia +were to unite for this purpose against the domineering and haughty +Occidentals. The greatest exertions were made to reconcile +the Parthians and Armenians with each other, and to induce them +to make common cause against Rome. At the suggestion of Mithradates, +Tigranes offered to give back to the Arsacid Phraates the God (who +had reigned since 684) the provinces conquered by the Armenians-- +Mesopotamia, Adiabene, the "great valleys"--and to enter into friendship +and alliance with him. But, after all that had previously taken place, +this offer could scarcely reckon on a favourable reception; +Phraates preferred to secure the boundary of the Euphrates +by a treaty not with the Armenians, but with the Romans, +and to look on, while the hated neighbour and the inconvenient +foreigner fought out their strife. Greater success attended +the application of Mithradates to the peoples of the east +than to the kings. It was not difficult to represent the war +as a national one of the east against the west, for such it was; +it might very well be made a religious war also, and the report +might be spread that the object aimed at by the army of Lucullus +was the temple of the Persian Nanaea or Anaitis in Elymais or the modern +Luristan, the most celebrated and the richest shrine in the whole +region of the Euphrates.(17) From far and near the Asiatics flocked +in crowds to the banner of the kings, who summoned them to protect +the east and its gods from the impious foreigners. But facts had +shown not only that the mere assemblage of enormous hosts +was of little avail, but that the troops really capable of marching +and fighting were by their very incorporation in such a mass rendered +useless and involved in the general ruin. Mithradates sought +above all to develop the arm which was at once weakest among +the Occidentals and strongest among the Asiatics, the cavalry; +in the army newly formed by him half of the force was mounted. +For the ranks of the infantry he carefully selected, out of the mass +of recruits called forth or volunteering, those fit for service, +and caused them to be drilled by his Pontic officers. The considerable +army, however, which soon assembled under the banner of the great- +king was destined not to measure its strength with the Roman +veterans on the first chance field of battle, but to confine itself +to defence and petty warfare. Mithradates had conducted +the last war in his empire on the system of constantly retreating +and avoiding battle; similar tactics were adopted on this occasion, +and Armenia proper was destined as the theatre of war--the hereditary +land of Tigranes, still wholly untouched by the enemy, and excellently +adapted for this sort of warfare both by its physical character +and by the patriotism of its inhabitants. + +Dissatisfaction with Lucullus in the Capital and in the Army + +The year 686 found Lucullus in a position of difficulty, +which daily assumed a more dangerous aspect. In spite of his brilliant +victories, people in Rome were not at all satisfied with him. +The senate felt the arbitrary nature of his conduct: the capitalist +party, sorely offended by him, set all means of intrigue +and corruption at work to effect his recall. Daily the Forum +echoed with just and unjust complaints regarding the foolhardy, +the covetous, the un-Roman, the traitorous general. The senate +so far yielded to the complaints regarding the union of such unlimited +power--two ordinary governorships and an important extraordinary +command--in the hands of such a man, as to assign the province +of Asia to one of the praetors, and the province of Cilicia +along with three newly-raised legions to the consul Quintus +Marcius Rex, and to restrict the general to the command +against Mithradates and Tigranes. + +These accusations springing up against the general in Rome +found a dangerous echo in the soldiers' quarters on the Iris +andon the Tigris; and the more so that several officers including +the general's own brother-in-law, Publius Clodius, worked upon +the soldiers with this view. The report beyond doubt designedly +circulated by these, that Lucullus now thought of combining +with the Pontic-Armenian war an expedition against the Parthians, +fed the exasperation of the troops. + +Lucullus Advances into Armenia + +But while the troublesome temper of the government and of the soldier +thus threatened the victorious general with recall and mutiny, +he himself continued like a desperate gambler to increase +his stake and his risk. He did not indeed march against the Parthians +but when Tigranes showed himself neither ready to make peace +nor disposed, as Lucullus wished, to risk a second pitched +battle, Lucullus resolved to advance from Tigranocerta, through +the difficult mountain-country along the eastern shore of the lake +of Van, into the valley of the eastern Euphrates (or the Arsanias, +now Myrad-Chai), and thence into that of the Araxes, where, +on the northern slope of Ararat, lay Artaxata the capital of Armenia +proper, with the hereditary castle and the harem of the king. +He hoped, by threatening the king's hereditary residence, +to compel him to fight either on the way or at any rate before +Artaxata. It was inevitably necessary to leave behind a division +at Tigranocerta; and, as the marching army could not possibly be +further reduced, no course was left but to weaken the position +in Pontus and to summon troops thence to Tigranocerta. The main +difficulty, however, was the shortness of the Armenian summer, +so inconvenient for military enterprises. On the tableland +of Armenia, which lies 5000 feet and more above the level of the sea, +the corn at Erzeroum only germinates in the beginning of June, +and the winter sets in with the harvest in September; Artaxata +had to be reached and the campaign had to be ended in four +months at the utmost. + +At midsummer, 686, Lucullus set out from Tigranocerta, +and, marching doubtless through the pass of Bitlis and farther +to the westward along the lake of Van--arrived on the plateau of Musch +and at the Euphrates. The march went on--amidst constant +and very troublesome skirmishing with the enemy's cavalry, +and especially with the mounted archers--slowly, but without material +hindrance; and the passage of the Euphrates, which was seriously +defended by the Armenian cavalry, was secured by a successful engagement; +the Armenian infantry showed itself, but the attempt to involve it +in the conflict did not succeed. Thus the army reached the tableland, +properly so called, of Armenia, and continued its march +into the unknown country. They had suffered no actual misfortune; +but the mere inevitable delaying of the march by the difficulties +of the ground and the horsemen of the enemy was itself a very serious +disadvantage. Long before they had reached Artaxata, winter set +in; and when the Italian soldiers saw snow and ice around them, +the bow of military discipline that had been far too tightly +stretched gave way. + +Lucullus Retreats to Mesopotamia +Capture of Nisibus + +A formal mutiny compelled the general to order a retreat, +which he effected with his usual skill. When he had safely reached +Mesopotamia where the season still permitted farther operations, +Lucullus crossed the Tigris, and threw himself with the mass of his +army on Nisibis, the last city that here remained to the Armenians. +The great-king, rendered wiser by the experience acquired before +Tigranocerta, left the city to itself: notwithstanding its brave +defence it was stormed in a dark, rainy night by the besiegers, +and the army of Lucullus found there booty not less rich and winter- +quarters not less comfortable than the year before in Tigranocerta. + +Conflicts in Pontus and at Tigranocerta + +But, meanwhile, the whole weight of the enemy's offensive fell +on the weak Roman divisions left behind in Pontus and in Armenia. +Tigranes compelled the Roman commander of the latter corps, Lucius +Fannius--the same who had formerly been the medium of communication +between Sertorius and Mithradates (18)--to throw himself +into a fortress, and kept him beleaguered there. Mithradates +advanced into Pontus with 4000 Armenian horsemen and 4000 of his own, +and as liberator and avenger summoned the nation to rise against +the common foe. All joined him; the scattered Roman soldiers +were everywhere seized and put to death: when Hadrianus, the Roman +commandant in Pontus,(19) led his troops against him, the former +mercenaries of the king and the numerous natives of Pontus +following the army as slaves made common cause with the enemy. +For two successive days the unequal conflict lasted; it was only +the circumstance that the king after receiving two wounds had +to be carried off from the field of battle, which gave the Roman +commander the opportunity of breaking off the virtually lost +battle, and throwing himself with the small remnant of his troops +into Cabira. Another of Lucullus' lieutenants who accidentally +came into this region, the resolute Triarius, again gathered round +him a body of troops and fought a successful engagement +with the king; but he was much too weak to expel him afresh +from Pontic soil, and had to acquiesce while the king took up +winter-quarters in Comana. + +Farther Retreat to Pontus + +So the spring of 687 came on. The reunion of the army in Nisibis, +the idleness of winter-quarters, the frequent absence of the general, +had meanwhile increased the insubordination of the troops; +not only did they vehemently demand to be led back, but it was already +tolerably evident that, if the general refused to lead them home, +they would break up of themselves. The supplies were scanty; +Fannius and Triarius, in their distress, sent the most urgent +entreaties to the general to furnish aid. With a heavy heart +Lucullus resolved to yield to necessity, to give up Nisibis +and Tigranocerta, and, renouncing all the brilliant hopes of his +Armenian expedition, to return to the right bank of the Euphrates. +Fannius was relieved; but in Pontus the help was too late. +Triarius, not strong enough to fight with Mithradates, had taken +up a strong position at Gaziura (Turksal on the Iris, to the west +of Tokat), while the baggage was left behind at Dadasa. +But when Mithradates laid siege to the latter place, the Roman soldiers, +apprehensive for their property, compelled their leader to leave +his secure position, and to give battle to the king between Gaziura +and Ziela (Zilleh) on the Scotian heights. + +Defeat of the Romans in Pontus at Ziela + +What Triarius had foreseen, occurred. In spite of the stoutest +resistance the wing which the king commanded in person broke +the Roman line and huddled the infantry together into a clayey ravine, +where it could make neither a forward nor a lateral movement +and was cut to pieces without pity. The king indeed was dangerously +wounded by a Roman centurion, who sacrificed his life for it; +but the defeat was not the less complete. The Roman camp was taken; +the flower of the infantry, and almost all the staff and subaltern +officers, strewed the ground; the dead were left lying unburied +on the field of battle, and, when Lucullus arrived on the right bank +of the Euphrates, he learned the defeat not from his own soldiers, +but through the reports of the natives. + +Mutiny of the Soldiers + +Along with this defeat came the outbreak of the military conspiracy. +At this very time news arrived from Rome that the people had resolved +to grant a discharge to the soldiers whose legal term of service had +expired, to wit, to the Fimbrians, and to entrust the chief command +in Pontus and Bithynia to one of the consuls of the current year: +the successor of Lucullus, the consul Manius Acilius Glabrio, +had already landed in Asia Minor. The disbanding of the bravest +and most turbulent legions and the recall of the commander-in-chief, +in connection with the impression produced by the defeat of Ziela, +dissolved all the bonds of authority in the army just when the general +had most urgent need of their aid. Near Talaura in Lesser Armenia +he confronted the Pontic troops, at whose head Tigranes' son-in-law, +Mithradates of Media, had already engaged the Romans successfully +in a cavalry conflict; the main force of the great-king was advancing +to the same point from Armenia. Lucullus sent to Quintus Marcius +the new governor of Cilicia, who had just arrived on the way +to his province with three legions in Lycaonia, to obtain help from him; +Marcius declared that his soldiers refused to march to Armenia. +He sent to Glabrio with the request that he would take up the supreme +command committed to him by the people; Glabrio showed still less +inclination to undertake this task, which had now become so difficult +and hazardous. Lucullus, compelled to retain the command, +with the view of not being obliged to fight at Talaura against +the Armenian and the Pontic armies conjoined, ordered a movement +against the advancing Armenians. + +Farther Retreat to Asia Minor + +The soldiers obeyed the order to march; but, when they reached +the point where the routes to Armenia and Cappadocia diverged, +the bulk of the army took the latter, and proceeded to the province +of Asia. There the Fimbrians demanded their immediate discharge; +and although they desisted from this at the urgent entreaty +of the commander-in-chief and the other corps, they yet persevered +in their purpose of disbanding if the winter should come on without +an enemy confronting them; which accordingly was the case. +Mithradates not only occupied once more almost his whole kingdom, +but his cavalry ranged over all Cappadocia and as far as Bithynia; +king Ariobarzanes sought help equally in vain from Quintus Marcius, +from Lucullus, and from Glabrio. It was a strange, almost +incredible issue for a war conducted in a manner so glorious. +If we look merely to military achievements, hardly any other Roman +general accomplished so much with so trifling means as Lucullus; +the talent and the fortune of Sulla seemed to have devolved on this +his disciple. That under the circumstances the Roman army should +have returned from Armenia to Asia Minor uninjured, is a military +miracle which, so far as we can judge, far excels the retreat +of Xenophon; and, although mainly doubtless to be explained +by the solidity of the Roman, and the inefficiency of the Oriental, +system of war, it at all events secures to the leader of this expedition +an honourable name in the foremost rank of men of military +capacity. If the name of Lucullus is not usually included among these, +it is to all appearance simply owing to the fact that no narrative +of his campaigns which is in a military point of view even tolerable +has come down to us, and to the circumstance that in everything +and particularly in war, nothing is taken into account +but the final result; and this, in reality, was equivalent +to a complete defeat. Through the last unfortunate turn of things, +and principally through the mutiny of the soldiers, all the results +of an eight years' war had been lost; in the winter of 687-688 +the Romans again stood exactly at the same spot +as in the winter of 679-680. + +War with the Pirates + +The maritime war against the pirates, which began at the same time +with the continental war and was all along most closely connected +with it, yielded no better results. It has been already mentioned +(20) that the senate in 680 adopted the judicious resolution +to entrust the task of clearing the seas from the corsairs +to a single admiral in supreme command, the praetor Marcus Antonius. +But at the very outset they had made an utter mistake in the choice +of the leader; or rather those, who had carried this measure +so appropriate in itself, had not taken into account that in the senate +all personal questions were decided by the influence of Cethegus(21) +and similar coterie-considerations. They had moreover +neglected to furnish the admiral of their choice with money +and ships in a manner befitting his comprehensive task, +so that with his enormous requisitions he was almost as burdensome +to the provincials whom he befriended as were the corsairs. + +Defeat of Antonius off Cydonia + +The results were corresponding. In the Campanian waters the fleet +of Antonius captured a number of piratical vessels. But an engagement +took place with the Cretans, who had entered into friendship +and alliance with the pirates and abruptly rejected his demand +that they should desist from such fellowship; and the chains, +with which the foresight of Antonius had provided his vessels +for the purpose of placing the captive buccaneers in irons, +served to fasten the quaestor and the other Roman prisoners +to the masts of the captured Roman ships, when the Cretan generals +Lasthenes and Panares steered back in triumph to Cydonia +from the naval combat in which they had engaged the Romans +off their island. Antonius, after having squandered immense sums +and accomplished not the slightest result by his inconsiderate mode +of warfare, died in 683 at Crete. The ill success of his expedition, +the costliness of building a fleet, and the repugnance of the oligarchy +to confer any powers of a more comprehensive kind on the magistrates, +led them, after the practical termination of this enterprise +by Antonius' death, to make no farther nomination of an admiral-in-chief, +and to revert to the old system of leaving each governor to look +after the suppression of piracy in his own province: the fleet equipped +by Lucullus for instance(22) was actively employed for this purpose +in the Aegean sea. + +Cretan War + +So far however as the Cretans were concerned, a disgrace +like that endured off Cydonia seemed even to the degenerate Romans +of this age as if it could be answered only by a declaration of war. +Yet the Cretan envoys, who in the year 684 appeared in Rome +with the request that the prisoners might be taken back and the old +alliance reestablished, had almost obtained a favourable decree +of the senate; what the whole corporation termed a disgrace, +the individual senator was ready to sell for a substantial price. +It was not till a formal resolution of the senate rendered the loans +of the Cretan envoys among the Roman bankers non-actionable-- +that is, not until the senate had incapacitated itself for undergoing +bribery--that a decree passed to the effect that the Cretan +communities, if they wished to avoid war, should hand over not only +the Roman deserters but the authors of the outrage perpetrated off +Cydonia--the leaders Lasthenes and Panares--to the Romans +for befitting punishment, should deliver up all ships and boats of four +or more oars, should furnish 400 hostages, and should pay a fine +of 4000 talents (975,000 pounds). When the envoys declared that they +were not empowered to enter into such terms, one of the consuls +of the next year was appointed to depart on the expiry of his official +term for Crete, in order either to receive there what was demanded +or to begin the war. + +Metellus Subdues Crete + +Accordingly in 685 the proconsul Quintus Metellus appeared +in the Cretan waters. The communities of the island, with the larger +towns Gortyna, Cnossus, Cydonia at their head, were resolved rather +to defend themselves in arms than to submit to those excessive +demands. The Cretans were a nefarious and degenerate people,(23) +with whose public and private existence piracy was as intimately +associated as robbery with the commonwealth of the Aetolians; +but they resembled the Aetolians in valour as in many other respects, +and accordingly these two were the only Greek communities +that waged a courageous and honourable struggle for independence. +At Cydonia, where Metellus landed his three legions, a Cretan army +of 24,000 men under Lasthenes and Panares was ready to receive him; +a battle took place in the open field, in which the victory +after a hard struggle remained with the Romans. Nevertheless +the towns bade defiance from behind their walls to the Roman general; +Metellus had to make up his mind to besiege them in succession. +First Cydonia, in which the remains of the beaten army had taken +refuge, was after a long siege surrendered by Panares in return +for the promise of a free departure for himself. Lasthenes, who had +escaped from the town, had to be besieged a second time in Cnossus; +and, when this fortress also was on the point of falling, +he destroyed its treasures and escaped once more to places which still +continued their defence, such as Lyctus, Eleuthera, and others. +Two years (686, 687) elapsed, before Metellus became master +of the whole island and the last spot of free Greek soil thereby +passed under the control of the dominant Romans; the Cretan communities, +as they were the first of all Greek commonwealths to develop +the free urban constitution and the dominion of the sea, were also +to be the last of all those Greek maritime states that formerly filled +the Mediterranean to succumb to the Roman continental power. + +The Pirates in the Mediterranean + +All the legal conditions were fulfilled for celebrating another +of the usual pompous triumphs; the gens of the Metelli could add +to its Macedonian, Numidian, Dalmatian, Balearic titles with equal +right the new title of Creticus, and Rome possessed another name +of pride. Nevertheless the power of the Romans in the Mediterranean +was never lower, that of the corsairs never higher, than in those +years. Well might the Cilicians and Cretans of the seas, who are +said to have numbered at this time 1000 ships, mock the Isauricus +and the Creticus, and their empty victories. With what effect +the pirates interfered in the Mithradatic war, and how the obstinate +resistance of the Pontic maritime towns derived its best resources +from the corsair-state, has been already related. But that state +transacted business on a hardly less grand scale on its own behoof. +Almost under the eyes of the fleet of Lucullus, the pirate Athenodorus +surprised in 685 the island of Delos, destroyed its far-famed +shrines and temples, and carried off the whole population +into slavery. The island Lipara near Sicily paid to the pirates +a fixed tribute annually, to remain exempt from like attacks. +Another pirate chief Heracleon destroyed in 682 the squadron +equipped in Sicily against him, and ventured with no more than four +open boats to sail into the harbour of Syracuse. Two years later +his colleague Pyrganion even landed at the same port, established +himself there and sent forth flying parties into the island, +till the Roman governor at last compelled him to re-embark. +People grew at length quite accustomed to the fact that all +the provinces equipped squadrons and raised coastguards, +or were at any rate taxed for both; and yet the pirates appeared +to plunder the provinces with as much regularity as the Roman governors. +But even the sacred soil of Italy was now no longer respected +by the shameless transgressors: from Croton they carried off with them +the temple-treasures of the Lacinian Hera; they landed in Brundisium, +Misenum, Caieta, in the Etruscan ports, even in Ostia itself; they +seized the most eminent Roman officers as captives, among others +the admiral of the Cilician army and two praetors with their whole +retinue, with the dreaded -fasces- themselves and all the insignia +of their dignity; they carried away from a villa at Misenum +the very sister of the Roman admiral-in-chief Antonius, who was sent +forth to annihilate the pirates; they destroyed in the port +of Ostia the Roman war fleet equipped against them and commanded +by a consul. The Latin husbandman, the traveller on the Appian highway, +the genteel bathing visitor at the terrestrial paradise of Baiae +were no longer secure of their property or their life for a single +moment; all traffic and all intercourse were suspended; +the most dreadful scarcity prevailed in Italy, and especially +in the capital, which subsisted on transmarine corn. The contemporary +world and history indulge freely in complaints of insupportable +distress; in this case the epithet may have been appropriate. + +Servile Disturbances + +We have already described how the senate restored by Sulla carried +out its guardianship of the frontier in Macedonia, its discipline +over the client kings of Asia Minor, and lastly its marine police; +the results were nowhere satisfactory. Nor did better success +attend the government in another and perhaps even more urgent +matter, the supervision of the provincial, and above all +of the Italian, proletariate. The gangrene of a slave-proletariate +Gnawed at the vitals of all the states of antiquity, and the more so, +the more vigorously they had risen and prospered; for the power +and riches of the state regularly led, under the existing +circumstances, to a disproportionate increase of the body +of slaves. Rome naturally suffered more severely from this cause +than any other state of antiquity. Even the government of the sixth +century had been under the necessity of sending troops against +the gangs of runaway herdsmen and rural slaves. The plantation-system, +spreading more and more among the Italian speculators +had infinitely increased the dangerous evil: in the time of +the Gracchan and Marian crises and in close connection with them +servile revolts had taken place at numerous points of the Roman +empire, and in Sicily had even grown into two bloody wars (619-622 +and 652-654;(24)). But the ten years of the rule of the restoration +after Sulla's death formed the golden age both for the buccaneers +at sea and for bands of a similar character on land, above all +in the Italian peninsula, which had hitherto been comparatively +well regulated. The land could hardly be said any longer to enjoy +peace. In the capital and the less populous districts of Italy +robberies were of everyday occurrence, murders were frequent. +A special decree of the people was issued--perhaps at this epoch-- +against kidnapping of foreign slaves and of free men; a special +summary action was about this time introduced against violent +deprivation of landed property. These crimes could not +but appear specially dangerous, because, while they were usually +perpetrated by the proletariate, the upper class were to a great +extent also concerned in them as moral originators and partakers +in the gain. The abduction of men and of estates was very frequently +suggested by the overseers of the large estates and carried out +by the gangs of slaves, frequently armed, that were collected there: +and many a man even of high respectability did not disdain what +one of his officious slave-overseers thus acquired for him +as Mephistopheles acquired for Faust the lime trees of Philemon. +The state of things is shown by the aggravated punishment for outrages +on property committed by armed bands, which was introduced +by one of the better Optimates, Marcus Lucullus, as presiding over +the administration of justice in the capital about the year 676,(25) +with the express object of inducing the proprietors of large bands +of slaves to exercise a more strict superintendence over them +and thereby avoid the penalty of seeing them judicially condemned. +Where pillage and murder were thus carried on by order +of the world of quality, it was natural for these masses of slaves +and proletarians to prosecute the same business on their own account; +a spark was sufficient to set fire to so inflammable materials, +and to convert the proletariate into an insurrectionary army. +An occasion was soon found. + +Outbreak of the Gladiatorial War in Italy +Spartacus + +The gladiatorial games, which now held the first rank +among the popular amusements in Italy, had led to the institution +of numerous establishments, more especially in and around Capua, +designed partly for the custody, partly for the training +of those slaves who were destined to kill or be killed for the amusement +of the sovereign multitude. These were naturally in great part +brave men captured in war, who had not forgotten that they had once +faced the Romans in the field. A number of these desperadoes broke out +of one of the Capuan gladiatorial schools (681), and sought refuge +on Mount Vesuvius. At their head were two Celts, who were designated +by their slave-names Crixus and Oenomaus, and the Thracian Spartacus. +The latter, perhaps a scion of the noble family of the Spartocids +which attained even to royal honours in its Thracian home +and in Panticapaeum, had served among the Thracian auxiliaries +in the Roman army, had deserted and gone as a brigand to the mountains, +and had been there recaptured and destined for the gladiatorial games. + +The Insurrection Takes Shape + +The inroads of this little band, numbering at first only seventy-four +persons, but rapidly swelling by concourse from the surrounding +country, soon became so troublesome to the inhabitants +of the rich region of Campania, that these, after having vainly +attempted themselves to repel them, sought help against them +from Rome. A division of 3000 men hurriedly collected appeared +under the leadership of Clodius Glaber, and occupied the approaches +to Vesuvius with the view of starving out the slaves. +But the brigands in spite of their small number and their +defective armament had the boldness to scramble down steep declivities +and to fall upon the Roman posts; and when the wretched militia saw +the little band of desperadoes unexpectedly assail them, they took +to their heels and fled on all sides. This first success procured +for the robbers arms and increased accessions to their ranks. +Although even now a great portion of them carried nothing +but pointed clubs, the new and stronger division of the militia-- +two legions under the praetor Publius Varinius--which advanced +from Rome into Campania, found them encamped almost like a regular army +in the plain. Varinius had a difficult position. His militia, +compelled to bivouac opposite the enemy, were severely weakened +by the damp autumn weather and the diseases which it engendered; +and, worse than the epidemics, cowardice and insubordination thinned +the ranks. At the very outset one of his divisions broke up entirely, +so that the fugitives did not fall back on the main corps, but went +straight home. Thereupon, when the order was given to advance +against the enemy's entrenchments and attack them, the greater +portion of the troops refused to comply with it. Nevertheless +Varinius set out with those who kept their ground against +the robber-band; but it was no longer to be found where he sought it. +It had broken up in the deepest silence and had turned to the south +towards Picentia (Vicenza near Amain), where Varinius overtook it +indeed, but could not prevent it from retiring over the Silarus +into the interior of Lucania, the chosen land of shepherds and robbers. +Varinius followed thither, and there at length the despised enemy +arrayed themselves for battle. All the circumstances +under which the combat took place were to the disadvantage +of the Romans: the soldiers, vehemently as they had demanded +battle a little before, fought ill; Varinius was completely +vanquished; his horse and the insignia of his official +dignity fell with the Roman camp itself into the enemy's hand. +The south-Italian slaves, especially the brave half-savage herdsmen, +flocked in crowds to the banner of the deliverers who had +so unexpectedly appeared; according to the most moderate estimates +the number of armed insurgents rose to 40,000 men. Campania, +just evacuated, was speedily reoccupied, and the Roman corps which was +left behind there under Gaius Thoranius, the quaestor of Varinius, +was broken and destroyed. In the whole south and south-west +of Italy the open country was in the hands of the victorious bandit- +chiefs; even considerable towns, such as Consentia in the Bruttian +country, Thurii and Metapontum in Lucania, Nola and Nuceria +in Campania, were stormed by them, and suffered all the atrocities +which victorious barbarians could inflict on defenceless civilized +men, and unshackled slaves on their former masters. That a conflict +like this should be altogether abnormal and more a massacre +than a war, was unhappily a matter of course: the masters +duly crucified every captured slave; the slaves naturally killed +their prisoners also, or with still more sarcastic retaliation +even compelled their Roman captives to slaughter each other +in gladiatorial sport; as was subsequently done with three hundred +of them at the obsequies of a robber-captain who had fallen in combat. + +Great Victories of Spartacus + +In Rome people were with reason apprehensive as to the destructive +conflagration which was daily spreading. It was resolved next year +(682) to send both consuls against the formidable leaders +of the gang. The praetor Quintus Arrius, a lieutenant of the consul +Lucius Gellius, actually succeeded in seizing and destroying +at Mount Garganus in Apulia the Celtic band, which under Crixus +had separated from the mass of the robber-army and was levying +contributions at its own hand. But Spartacus achieved +all the more brilliant victories in the Apennines and in northern Italy, +where first the consul Gnaeus Lentulus who had thought to surround +and capture the robbers, then his colleague Gellius and the so recently +victorious praetor Arrius, and lastly at Mutina the governor +of Cisalpine Gaul Gaius Cassius (consul 681) and the praetor Gnaeus +Manlius, one after another succumbed to his blows. The scarcely- +armed gangs of slaves were the terror of the legions; the series +of defeats recalled the first years of the Hannibalic war. + +Internal Dissension among the Insurgents + +What might have come of it, had the national kings +from the mountains of Auvergne or of the Balkan, and not runaway +gladiatorial slaves, been at the head of the victorious bands, +it is impossible to say; as it was, the movement remained +notwithstanding its brilliant victories a rising of robbers, +and succumbed less to the superior force of its opponents than +to internal discord and the want of definite plan. The unity +in confronting the common foe, which was so remarkably conspicuous +in the earlier servile wars of Sicily, was wanting in this Italian +war--a difference probably due to the fact that, while the Sicilian +slaves found a quasi-national point of union in the common +Syrohellenism, the Italian slaves were separated into the two +bodies of Helleno-Barbarians and Celto-Germans. The rupture +between the Celtic Crixus and the Thracian Spartacus--Oenomaus had +fallen in one of the earliest conflicts--and other similar quarrels +crippled them in turning to account the successes achieved, +and procured for the Romans several important victories. But the want +of a definite plan and aim produced far more injurious effects +on the enterprise than the insubordination of the Celto-Germans. +Spartacus doubtless--to judge by the little which we learn +regarding that remarkable man--stood in this respect above his party. +Along with his strategic ability he displayed no ordinary +talent for organization, as indeed from the very outset +the uprightness, with which he presided over his band and distributed +the spoil, had directed the eyes of the multitude to him quite +as much at least as his valour. To remedy the severely felt want +of cavalry and of arms, he tried with the help of the herds of horses +seized in Lower Italy to train and discipline a cavalry, and, so soon as +he got the port of Thurii into his hands, to procure from that quarter +iron and copper, doubtless through the medium of the pirates. +But in the main matters he was unable to induce the wild hordes +whom he led to pursue any fixed ulterior aims. Gladly would +he have checked the frantic orgies of cruelty, in which the robbers +indulged on the capture of towns, and which formed the chief reason +why no Italian city voluntarily made common cause with the insurgents; +but the obedience which the bandit-chief found in the conflic +ceased with the victory, and his representations and entreaties +were in vain. After the victories obtained in the Apennine +in 682 the slave army was free to move in any direction. +Spartacus himself is said to have intended to cross the Alps, +with a view to open to himself and his followers the means of return +to their Celtic or Thracian home: if the statement is well founded, +it shows how little the conqueror overrated his successes +and his power. When his men refused so speedily to turn their backs +on the riches of Italy, Spartacus took the route for Rome, and is said +to have meditated blockading the capital. The troops, however, +showed themselves also averse to this desperate but yet methodical +enterprise; they compelled their leader, when he was desirous +to be a general, to remain a mere captain of banditti and aimlessly +to wander about Italy in search of plunder. Rome might think herself +fortunate that the matter took this turn; but even as it was, +the perplexity was great. There was a want of trained soldiers +as of experienced generals; Quintus Metellus and Gnaeus Pompeius +were employed in Spain, Marcus Lucullus in Thrace, Lucius Lucullus +in Asia Minor; and none but raw militia and, at best, mediocre +officers were available. The extraordinary supreme command +in Italy was given to the praetor Marcus Crassus, who was not +a general of much reputation, but had fought with honour under Sulla +and had at least character; and an army of eight legions, imposing +if not by its quality, at any rate by its numbers, was placed +at his disposal. The new commander-in-chief began by treating +the first division, which again threw away its arms and fled before +the banditti, with all the severity of martial law, and causing every +tenth man in it to be executed; whereupon the legions in reality +grew somewhat more manly. Spartacus, vanquished in the next +engagement, retreated and sought to reach Rhegium through Lucania. + +Conflicts in the Bruttian Country + +Just at that time the pirates commanded not merely the Sicilian +waters, but even the port of Syracuse;(26) with the help of their +boats Spartacus proposed to throw a corps into Sicily, where the slaves +only waited an impulse to break out a third time. The march to Rhegium +was accomplished; but the corsairs, perhaps terrified by the coastguards +established in Sicily by the praetor Gaius Verres, perhaps also bribed +by the Romans, took from Spartacus the stipulated hire without performing +the service for which it was given. Crassus meanwhile had followed +the robber-army nearly as far as the mouth, of the Crathis, +and, like Scipio before Numantia, ordered his soldiers, +seeing that they did not fight as they ought, to construct +an entrenched wall of the length of thirty-five miles, +which shut off the Bruttian peninsula from the rest of Italy,(27) +intercepted the insurgent army on the return from Rhegium, +and cut off its supplies. But in a dark winter night Spartacus +broke through the lines of the enemy, and in the spring of 683(28) +was once more in Lucania. The laborious work had thus been in vain. +Crassus began to despair of accomplishing his task and demanded +that the senate should for his support recall to Italy the armies +stationed in Macedonia under Marcus Lucullus and in Hither Spain +under Gnaeus Pompeius. + +Disruption of the Rebels and Their Subjugation + +This extreme step however was not needed; the disunion and the arrogance +of the robber-bands sufficed again to frustrate their successes. +Once more the Celts and Germans broke off from the league of which +the Thracian was the head and soul, in order that, under leaders +of their own nation Gannicus and Castus, they might separately +fall victims to the sword of the Romans. Once, at the Lucanian +lake the opportune appearance of Spartacus saved them, +and thereupon they pitched their camp near to his; nevertheless +Crassus succeeded in giving employment to Spartacus by means +of the cavalry, and meanwhile surrounded the Celtic bands and compelled +them to a separate engagement, in which the whole body--numbering +it is said 12,300 combatants--fell fighting bravely all on the spot +and with their wounds in front. Spartacus then attempted to throw +himself with his division into the mountains round Petelia (near +Strongoli in Calabria), and signally defeated the Roman vanguard, +which followed his retreat But this victory proved more injurious +to the victor than to the vanquished. Intoxicated by success, +the robbers refused to retreat farther, and compelled their general +to lead them through Lucania towards Apulia to face the last decisive +struggle. Before the battle Spartacus stabbed his horse: +as in prosperity and adversity he had faithfully kept by his men, +he now by that act showed them that the issue for him and for all +was victory or death. In the battle also he fought with the courage +of a lion; two centurions fell by his hand; wounded and on his knees +he still wielded his spear against the advancing foes. +Thus the great robber-captain and with him the best of his comrades +died the death of free men and of honourable soldiers (683). +After the dearly-bought victory the troops who had achieved it, +and those of Pompeius that had meanwhile after conquering the Sertorians +arrived from Spain, instituted throughout Apulia and Lucania a manhunt, +such as there had never been before, to crush out the last sparks +of the mighty conflagration. Although in the southern districts, +where for instance the little town of Tempsa was seized in 683 +by a gang of robbers, and in Etruria, which was severely affected +by Sulla's evictions, there was by no means as yet a real public +tranquillity, peace was officially considered as re-established +in Italy. At least the disgracefully lost eagles were recovered-- +after the victory over the Celts alone five of them were brought +in; and along the road from Capua to Rome the six thousand crosses +bearing captured slaves testified to the re-establishment of order, +and to the renewed victory of acknowledged law over its living +property that had rebelled. + +The Government of the Restoration as a Whole + +Let us look back on the events which fill up the ten years +of the Sullan restoration. No one of the movements, external +or internal, which occurred during this period--neither the insurrection +of Lepidus, nor the enterprises of the Spanish emigrants, nor the wars +in Thrace and Macedonia and in Asia Minor, nor the risings +of the pirates and the slaves--constituted of itself a mighty danger +necessarily affecting the vital sinews of the nation; and yet +the state had in all these struggles well-nigh fought for its +very existence. The reason was that the tasks were everywhere +left unperformed, so long as they might still have been performed +with ease; the neglect of the simplest precautionary measures produced +the most dreadful mischiefs and misfortunes, and transformed +dependent classes and impotent kings into antagonists on a footing +of equality. The democracy and the servile insurrection +were doubtless subdued; but such as the victories were, the victor +was neither inwardly elevated nor outwardly strengthened by them. +It was no credit to Rome, that the two most celebrated generals +of the government party had during a struggle of eight years marked +by more defeats than victories failed to master the insurgent chief +Sertorius and his Spanish guerillas, and that it was only +the dagger of his friends that decided the Sertorian war in favour +of the legitimate government. As to the slaves, it was far less +an honour to have conquered them than a disgrace to have confronted +them in equal strife for years. Little more than a century had +elapsed since the Hannibalic war; it must have brought a blush +to the cheek of the honourable Roman, when he reflected +on the fearfully rapid decline of the nation since that great age. +Then the Italian slaves stood like a wall against the veterans +of Hannibal; now the Italian militia were scattered like chaff before +the bludgeons of their runaway serfs. Then every plain captain +acted in case of need as general, and fought often without success, +but always with honour; now it was difficult to find among +all the officers of rank a leader of even ordinary efficiency. +Then the government preferred to take the last farmer from the plough +rather than forgo the acquisition of Spain and Greece; now they were +on the eve of again abandoning both regions long since acquired, +merely that they might be able to defend themselves against +the insurgent slaves at home. Spartacus too as well as Hannibal +had traversed Italy with an army from the Po to the Sicilian straits, +beaten both consuls, and threatened Rome with blockade; +the enterprise which had needed the greatest general of antiquity +to conduct it against the Rome of former days could be undertaken +against the Rome of the present by a daring captain of banditti. +Was there any wonder that no fresh life sprang out of such victories +over insurgents and robber-chiefs? + +The external wars, however, had produced a result still less +gratifying. It is true that the Thraco-Macedonian war had yielded +a result not directly unfavourable, although far from corresponding +to the considerable expenditure of men and money. In the wars +in Asia Minor and with the pirates on the other hand, the government +had exhibited utter failure. The former ended with the loss +of the whole conquests made in eight bloody campaigns, the latter +with the total driving of the Romans from "their own sea." Once Rome, +fully conscious of the irresistibleness of her power by land, +had transferred her superiority also to the other element; +now the mighty state was powerless at sea and, as it seemed, +on the point of also losing its dominion at least over the Asiatic +continent. The material benefits which a state exists to confer-- +security of frontier, undisturbed peaceful intercourse, legal protection, +and regulated administration--began all of them to vanish for the whole +of the nations united in the Roman state; the gods of blessing +seemed all to have mounted up to Olympus and to have left +the miserable earth at the mercy of the officially called or volunteer +plunderers and tormentors. Nor was this decay of the state felt +as a public misfortune merely perhaps by such as had political rights +and public spirit; the insurrection of the proletariate, +and the brigandage and piracy which remind us of the times +of the Neapolitan Ferdinands, carried the sense of this decay +into the remotest valley and the humblest hut of Italy, and made +every one who pursued trade and commerce, or who bought +even a bushel of wheat, feel it as a personal calamity. + +If inquiry was made as to the authors of this dreadful and unexampled +misery, it was not difficult to lay the blame of it with good +reason on many. The slaveholders whose heart was in their +money-bags, the insubordinate soldiers, the generals cowardly, +incapable, or foolhardy, the demagogues of the market-place mostly +pursuing a mistaken aim, bore their share of the blame; or, +to speak more truly, who was there that did not share in it? +It was instinctively felt that this misery, this disgrace, this disorder +were too colossal to be the work of any one man. As the greatness +of the Roman commonwealth was the work not of prominent individuals, +but rather of a soundly-organized burgess-body, so the decay +of this mighty structure was the result not of the destructive genius +of individuals, but of a general disorganization. The great majority +of the burgesses were good for nothing, and every rotten stone +in the building helped to bring about the ruin of the whole; the whole +nation suffered for what was the whole nation's fault. It was unjust +to hold the government, as the ultimate tangible organ of the state, +responsible for all its curable and incurable diseases; but it certainly +was true that the government contributed after a very grave fashion +to the general culpability. In the Asiatic war, for example, +where no individual of the ruling lords conspicuously failed, +and Lucullus, in a military point of view at least, behaved with ability +and even glory, it was all the more clear that the blame of failure lay +in the system and in the government as such--primarily, so far +as that war was concerned, in the remissness with which Cappadocia +and Syria were at first abandoned, and in the awkward position +of the able general with reference to a governing college incapable +of any energetic resolution. In maritime police likewise +the true idea which the senate had taken up as to a general hunting +out of the pirates was first spoilt by it in the execution +and then totally dropped, in order to revert to the old foolish system +of sending legions against the coursers of the sea. The expeditions +of Servilius and Marcius to Cilicia, and of Metellus to Crete, +were undertaken on this system; and in accordance with it Triarius +had the island of Delos surrounded by a wall for protection against +the pirates. Such attempts to secure the dominion of the seas remind +us of that Persian great-king, who ordered the sea to be scourged +with rods to make it subject to him. Doubtless therefore +the nation had good reason for laying the blame of its failure +primarily on the government of the restoration. A similar misrule +had indeed always come along with the re-establishment +of the oligarchy, after the fall of the Gracchi as after that +of Marius and Saturninus; yet never before had it shown such violence +and at the same time such laxity, never had it previously emerged +so corrupt and pernicious. But, when a government cannot govern, +it ceases to be legitimate, and whoever has the power has also +the right to overthrow it. It is, no doubt, unhappily true +that an incapable and flagitious government may for a long period trample +under foot the welfare and honour of the land, before the men are +found who are able and willing to wield against that government +the formidable weapons of its own forging, and to evoke out of +the moral revolt of the good and the distress of the many the revolution +which is in such a case legitimate. But if the game attempted +with the fortunes of nations may be a merry one and may be played +perhaps for a long time without molestation, it is a treacherous +game, which in its own time entraps the players; and no one then +blames the axe, if it is laid to the root of the tree that bears +such fruits. For the Roman oligarchy this time had now come. +The Pontic-Armenian war and the affair of the pirates became +the proximate causes of the overthrow of the Sullan constitution +and of the establishment of a revolutionary military dictatorship. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +The Fall of the Oligarchy and the Rule of Pompeius + +Continued Subsistence of the Sullan Constitution + +The Sullan constitution still stood unshaken. The assault, +which Lepidus and Sertorius had ventured to make on it, +had been repulsed with little loss. The government had neglected, +it is true, to finish the half-completed building in the energetic +spirit of its author. It is characteristic of the government, +that it neither distributed the lands which Sulla had destined +for allotment but had not yet parcelled out, nor directly abandoned +the claim to them, but tolerated the former owners in provisional +possession without regulating their title, and indeed even allowed +various still undistributed tracts of Sullan domain-land to be +arbitrarily taken possession of by individuals according +to the old system of occupation, which was de jure and de facto +set aside by the Gracchan reforms.(1) Whatever in the Sullan enactments +was indifferent or inconvenient for the Optimates, was without scruple +ignored or cancelled; for instance, the sentences under which whole +communities were deprived of the right of citizenship, the prohibition +against conjoining the new farms, and several of the privileges +conferred by Sulla on particular communities--of course, without +giving back to the communities the sums paid for these exemptions. +But though these violations of the ordinances of Sulla by the government +itself contributed to shake the foundations of his structure, +the Sempronian laws were substantially abolished and remained so. + +Attacks of the Democracy +Corn-Laws +Attempts to Restore the Tribunician Power + +There was no lack, indeed, of men who had in view the re-establishment +of the Gracchan constitution, or of projects to attain piecemeal +in the way of constitutional reform what Lepidus and Sertorius +had attempted by the path of revolution. The government +had already under the pressure of the agitation of Lepidus +immediately after the death of Sulla consented to a limited revival +of the largesses of grain (676); and it did, moreover, +what it could to satisfy the proletariate of the capital in regard +to this vital question. When, notwithstanding those distributions, +the high price of grain occasioned chiefly by piracy produced +so oppressive a dearth in Rome as to lead to a violent tumult +in the streets in 679, extraordinary purchases of Sicilian grain +on account of the government relieved for the time the most severe +distress; and a corn-law brought in by the consuls of 681 regulated +for the future the purchases of Sicilian grain and furnished +the government, although at the expense of the provincials, +with better means of obviating similar evils. But the less material +points of difference also--the restoration of the tribunician power +in its old compass, and the setting aside of the senatorial tribunals-- +ceased not to form subjects of popular agitation; and in their +case the government offered more decided resistance. The dispute +regarding the tribunician magistracy was opened as early as 678, +immediately after the defeat of Lepidus, by the tribune of the people +Lucius Sicinius, perhaps a descendant of the man of the same +name who had first filled this office more than four hundred years +before; but it failed before the resistance offered to it +by the active consul Gaius Curio. In 680 Lucius Quinctius resumed +the agitation, but was induced by the authority of the consul Lucius +Lucullus to desist from his purpose. The matter was taken up +in the following year with greater zeal by Gaius Licinius Macer, who-- +in a way characteristic of the period--carried his literary studies +into public life, and, just as he had read in the Annals, +counselled the burgesses to refuse the conscription. + +Attacks on the Senatorial Tribunals + +Complaints also, only too well founded, prevailed respecting +the bad administration of justice by the senatorial jurymen. +The condemnation of a man of any influence could hardly be obtained. +Not only did colleague feel reasonable compassion for colleague, +those who had been or were likely to be accused for the poor sinner +under accusation at the moment; the sale also of the votes +of jurymen was hardly any longer exceptional. Several senators +had been judicially convicted of this crime: men pointed +with the finger at others equally guilty; the most respected Optimates, +such as Quintus Catulus, granted in an open sitting of the senate +that the complaints were quite well founded; individual specially +striking cases compelled the senate on several occasions, e. g. in 680, +to deliberate on measures to check the venality of juries, +but only of course till the first outcry had subsided and the matter +could be allowed to slip out of sight. The consequences +of this wretched administration of justice appeared especially +in a system of plundering and torturing the provincials, compared +with which even previous outrages seemed tolerable and moderate. +Stealing and robbing had been in some measure legitimized by custom; +the commission on extortions might be regarded as an institution +for taxing the senators returning from the provinces for the benefit +of their colleagues that remained at home. But when an esteemed +Siceliot, because he had not been ready to help the governor +in a crime, was by the latter condemned to death in his absence +and unheard; when even Roman burgesses, if they were not equites +or senators, were in the provinces no longer safe from the rods +and axes of the Roman magistrate, and the oldest acquisition +of the Roman democracy--security of life and person--began to be +trodden under foot by the ruling oligarchy; then even the public +in the Forum at Rome had an ear for the complaints regarding +its magistrates in the provinces, and regarding the unjust judges +who morally shared the responsibility of such misdeeds. The opposition +of course did not omit to assail its opponents in--what was almost +the only ground left to it--the tribunals. The young Gaius Caesar, +who also, so far as his age allowed, took zealous part +in the agitation for the re-establishment of the tribunician power, +brought to trial in 677 one of the most respected partisans +of Sulla the consular Gnaeus Dolabella, and in the following year +another Sullan officer Gaius Antonius; and Marcus Cicero in 684 +called to account Gaius Verres, one of the most wretched +of the creatures of Sulla, and one of the worst scourges +of the provincials. Again and again were the pictures +of that dark period of the proscriptions, the fearful sufferings +of the provincials, the disgraceful state of Roman criminal justice, +unfolded before the assembled multitude with all the pomp +of Italian rhetoric, and with all the bitterness of Italian sarcasm, +and the mighty dead as well as his living instruments were unrelentingly +exposed to their wrath and scorn. The re-establishment of the full +tribunician power, with the continuance of which the freedom, +might, and prosperity of the republic seemed bound up as by a charm +of primeval sacredness, the reintroduction of the "stern" equestrian +tribunals, the renewal of the censorship, which Sulla had set +aside, for the purifying of the supreme governing board +from its corrupt and pernicious elements, were daily demanded +with a loud voice by the orators of the popular party. + +Want of Results from the Democratic Agitation + +But with all this no progress was made. There was scandal +and outcry enough, but no real result was attained by this exposure +of the government according to and beyond its deserts. The material +power still lay, so long as there was no military interference, +in the hands of the burgesses of the capital; and the "people" +that thronged the streets of Rome and made magistrates and laws +in the Forum, was in fact nowise better than the governing senate. +The government no doubt had to come to terms with the multitude, +where its own immediate interest was at stake; this was the reason +for the renewal of the Sempronian corn-law. But it was not +to be imagined that this populace would have displayed earnestness +on behalf of an idea or even of a judicious reform. What Demosthenes +said of his Athenians was justly applied to the Romans +of this period--the people were very zealous for action, so long +as they stood round the platform and listened to proposals of reforms; +but when they went home, no one thought further of what he had +heard in the market-place. However those democratic agitators might +stir the fire, it was to no purpose, for the inflammable material +was wanting. The government knew this, and allowed no sort +of concession to be wrung from it on important questions +of principle; at the utmost it consented (about 682) to grant +amnesty to a portion of those who had become exiles with Lepidus. +Any concessions that did take place, came not so much from the pressure +of the democracy as from the attempts at mediation of the moderate +aristocracy. But of the two laws which the single still surviving +leader of this section Gaius Cotta carried in his consulate of 679, +that which concerned the tribunals was again set aside +in the very next year; and the second, which abolished the Sullan +enactment that those who had held the tribunate should be disqualified +for undertaking other magistracies, but allowed the other limitations +to continue, merely--like every half-measure--excited the displeasure +of both parties. + +The party of conservatives friendly to reform which lost +its most notable head by the early death of Cotta occurring soon +after (about 681) dwindled away more and more--crushed between +the extremes, which were becoming daily more marked. But of these +the party of the government, wretched and remiss as it was, +necessarily retained the advantage in presence of the equally +wretched and equally remiss opposition. + +Quarrel between the Government and Their General Pompeius + +But this state of matters so favourable to the government +was altered, when the differences became more distinctly developed +which subsisted between it and those of its partisans, whose hopes +aspired to higher objects than the seat of honour in the senate +and the aristocratic villa. In the first rank of these stood Gnaeus +Pompeius. He was doubtless a Sullan; but we have already shown(2) +how little he was at home among his own party, how his lineage, +his past history, his hopes separated him withal from the nobility +as whose protector and champion he was officially regarded. +The breach already apparent had been widened irreparably during +the Spanish campaigns of the general (677-683). With reluctance +and semi-compulsion the government had associated him as colleague +with their true representative Quintus Metellus; and in turn he accused +the senate, probably not without ground, of having by its careless +or malicious neglect of the Spanish armies brought about their +defeats and placed the fortunes of the expedition in jeopardy. +Now he returned as victor over his open and his secret foes, +at the head of an army inured to war and wholly devoted to him, +desiring assignments of land for his soldiers, a triumph +and the consulship for himself. The latter demands came into +collision with the law. Pompeius, although several times invested +in an extraordinary way with supreme official authority, had not yet +administered any ordinary magistracy, not even the quaestorship, +and was still not a member of the senate; and none but one +who had passed through the round of lesser ordinary magistracies +could become consul, none but one who had been invested +with the ordinary supreme power could triumph. The senate +was legally entitled, if he became a candidate for the consulship, +to bid him begin with the quaestorship; if he requested a triumph, +to remind him of the great Scipio, who under like circumstances +had renounced his triumph over conquered Spain. Nor was Pompeius +less dependent constitutionally on the good will of the senate +as respected the lands promised to his soldiers. But, although +the senate--as with its feebleness even in animosity +was very conceivable--should yield those points and concede +to the victorious general, in return for his executioner's service +against the democratic chiefs, the triumph, the consulate, +and the assignations of land, an honourable annihilation +in senatorial indolence among the long series of peaceful +senatorial Imperators was the most favourable lot which the oligarchy +was able to hold in readiness for the general of thirty-six. +That which his heart really longed for--the command +in the Mithradatic war--he could never expect to obtain +from the voluntary bestowal of the senate: in their own well-understood +interest the oligarchy could not permit him to add to his Africa +and European trophies those of a third continent; the laurels +which were to be plucked copiously and easily in the east were reserved +at all events for the pure aristocracy. But if the celebrated general +did not find his account in the ruling oligarchy, there remained-- +for neither was the time ripe, nor was the temperament of Pompeius +at all fitted, for a purely personal outspoken dynastic policy-- +no alternative save to make common cause with the democratic party. +No interest of his own bound him to the Sullan constitution; +he could pursue his personal objects quite as well, if not better, +with one more democratic. On the other hand he found all that he needed +in the democratic party. Its active and adroit leaders were ready +and able to relieve the resourceless and somewhat wooden hero +of the trouble of political leadership, and yet much too insignificant +to be able or even wishful to dispute with the celebrated general +the first place and especially the supreme military control. Even +Gaius Caesar, by far the most important of them, was simply a young +man whose daring exploits and fashionable debts far more than his +fiery democratic eloquence had gained him a name, and who could not +but feel himself greatly honoured when the world-renowned Imperator +allowed him to be his political adjutant. That popularity, +to which men like Pompeius, with pretensions greater than their +abilities, usually attach more value than they are willing +to confess to themselves, could not but fall in the highest measure +to the lot of the young general whose accession gave victory +to the almost forlorn cause of the democracy. The reward of victory +claimed by him for himself and his soldiers would then follow +of itself. In general it seemed, if the oligarchy were overthrown, +that amidst the total want of other considerable chiefs +of the opposition it would depend solely on Pompeius himself +to determine his future position. And of this much there could +hardly be a doubt, that the accession of the general of the army, +which had just returned victorious from Spain and still stood compact +and unbroken in Italy, to the party of opposition must have +as its consequence the fall of the existing order of things. +Government and opposition were equally powerless; so soon as +the latter no longer fought merely with the weapons of declamation, +but had the sword of a victorious general ready to back its demands, +the government would be in any case overcome, perhaps even +without a struggle. + +Coalition of the Military Chiefs and the Democracy + +Pompeius and the democrats thus found themselves urged +into coalition. Personal dislikings were probably not wanting +on either side: it was not possible that the victorious general +could love the street orators, nor could these hail with pleasure +as their chief the executioner of Carbo and Brutus; but political +necessity outweighed at least for the moment all moral scruples. + +The democrats and Pompeius, however, were not the sole parties +to the league. Marcus Crassus was in a similar situation +with Pompeius. Although a Sullan like the latter, his politics +were quite as in the case of Pompeius preeminently of a personal kind, +and by no means those of the ruling oligarchy; and he too was now +in Italy at the head of a large and victorious army, with which +he had just suppressed the rising of the slaves. He had to choose +whether he would ally himself with the oligarchy against the coalition, +or enter that coalition: he chose the latter, which was doubtless +the safer course. With his colossal wealth and his influence +on the clubs of the capital he was in any case a valuable +ally; but under the prevailing circumstances it was an incalculable +gain, when the only army, with which the senate could have met +the troops of Pompeius, joined the attacking force. The democrats +moreover, who were probably somewhat uneasy at their alliance +with that too powerful general, were not displeased to see +a counterpoise and perhaps a future rival associated with him +in the person of Marcus Crassus. + +Thus in the summer of 683 the first coalition took place between +the democracy on the one hand, and the two Sullan generals Gnaeus +Pompeius and Marcus Crassus on the other. The generals adopted +the party-programme of the democracy; and they were promised +immediately in return the consulship for the coming year, while +Pompeius was to have also a triumph and the desired allotments +of land for his soldiers, and Crassus as the conqueror of Spartacus +at least the honour of a solemn entrance into the capital. + +To the two Italian armies, the great capitalists, +and the democracy, which thus came forward in league for the overthrow +of the Sullan constitution, the senate had nothing to oppose save +perhaps the second Spanish army under Quintus Metellus Pius. +But Sulla had truly predicted that what he did would not be done +a second time; Metellus, by no means inclined to involve himself +in a civil war, had discharged his soldiers immediately after crossing +the Alps. So nothing was left for the oligarchy but to submit +to what was inevitable. The senate granted the dispensations +requisite for the consulship and triumph; Pompeius and Crassus +were, without opposition, elected consuls for 684, while their +armies, on pretext of awaiting their triumph, encamped before +the city. Pompeius thereupon, even before entering on office, +gave his public and formal adherence to the democratic programme +in an assembly of the people held by the tribune Marcus Lollius +Palicanus. The change of the constitution was thus +in principle decided. + +Re-establishing of the Tribunician Power + +They now went to work in all earnest to set aside the Sullan +institutions. First of all the tribunician magistracy regained +its earlier authority. Pompeius himself as consul introduced the law +which gave back to the tribunes of the people their time-honoured +prerogatives, and in particular the initiative of legislation-- +a singular gift indeed from the hand of a man who had done more than +any one living to wrest from the community its ancient privileges. + +New Arrangement as to Jurymen + +With respect to the position of jurymen, the regulation of Sulla, +that the roll of the senators was to serve as the list of jurymen, +was no doubt abolished; but this by no means led to a simple +restoration of the Gracchan equestrian courts. In future--so it +was enacted by the new Aurelian law--the colleges of jurymen +were to consist one-third of senators and two-thirds of men +of equestrian census, and of the latter the half must have rilled +the office of district-presidents, or so-called -tribuni aerarii-. +This last innovation was a farther concession made to the democrats, +inasmuch as according to it at least a third part of the criminal +jurymen were indirectly derived from the elections of the tribes. +The reason, again, why the senate was not totally excluded +from the courts is probably to be sought partly in the relations +of Crassus to the senate, partly in the accession of the senatorial +middle party to the coalition; with which is doubtless connected +the circumstance that this law was brought in by the praetor Lucius +Cotta, the brother of their lately deceased leader. + +Renewal of the Asiatic Revenue-Farming + +Not less important was the abolition of the arrangements +as to taxation established for Asia by Sulla,(3) which presumably +likewise fell to this year. The governor of Asia at that time, +Lucius Lucullus, was directed to reestablish the system of farming +the revenue introduced by Gaius Gracchus; and thus this important +source of money and power was restored to the great capitalists. + +Renewal of the Censorship + +Lastly, the censorship was revived. The elections for it, +which the new consuls fixed shortly after entering on their office, +fell, in evident mockery of the senate, on the two consuls of 682, +Gnaeus Lentulus Clodianus and Lucius Gellius, who had been removed +by the senate from their commands on account of their wretched +management of the war against Spartacus.(4) It may readily be conceived +that these men put in motion all the means which their important +and grave office placed at their command, for the purpose of doing +homage to the new-holders of power and of annoying the senate. +At least an eighth part of the senate, sixty-four senators, a number +hitherto unparalleled, were deleted from the roll, including Gaius +Antonius, formerly impeached without success by Gaius Caesar,(5) +and Publius Lentulus Sura, the consul of 683, and presumably also +not a few of the most obnoxious creatures of Sulla. + +The New Constitution + +Thus in 684 they had reverted in the main to the arrangements +that subsisted before the Sullan restoration. + +Again the multitude of the capital was fed from the state-chest, +in other words by the provinces;(6) again the tribunician authority +gave to every demagogue a legal license to overturn the arrangements +of the state; again the moneyed nobility, as farmers of the revenue +and possessed of the judicial control over the governors, raised their +heads alongside of the government as powerfully as ever; again the senate +trembled before the verdict of jurymen of the equestrian order and before +the censorial censure. The system of Sulla, which had based the monopoly +of power by the nobility on the political annihilation of the mercantile +aristocracy and of demagogism, was thus completely overthrown. +Leaving out of view some subordinate enactments, the abolition +of which was not overtaken till afterwards, such as the restoration +of the right of self-completion to the priestly colleges,(7) nothing +of the general ordinances of Sulla survived except, on the one hand, +the concessions which he himself found it necessary to make +to the opposition, such as the recognition of the Roman franchise +of all the Italians, and, on the other hand, enactments without +any marked partisan tendency, and with which therefore even judicious +democrats found no fault--such as, among others, the restriction +of the freedmen, the regulation of the functional spheres +of the magistrates, and the material alterations in criminal law. + +The coalition was more agreed regarding these questions +of principle than with respect to the personal questions which such +a political revolution raised. As might be expected, the democrats +were not content with the general recognition of their programme; +but they too now demanded a restoration in their sense--revival +of the commemoration of their dead, punishment of the murderers, +recall of the proscribed from exile, removal of the political +disqualification that lay on their children, restoration +of the estates confiscated by Sulla, indemnification at the expense +of the heirs and assistants of the dictator. These were certainly +the logical consequences which ensued from a pure victory +of the democracy; but the victory of the coalition of 683 was very far +from being such. The democracy gave to it their name and their +programme, but it was the officers who had joined the movement, +and above all Pompeius, that gave to it power and completion; and these +could never yield their consent to a reaction which would not only +have shaken the existing state of things to its foundations, +but would have ultimately turned against themselves--men still had +a lively recollection who the men were whose blood Pompeius had shed, +and how Crassus had laid the foundation of his enormous fortune. +It was natural therefore, but at the same time significant +of the weakness of the democracy, that the coalition of 683 took +not the slightest step towards procuring for the democrats revenge +or even rehabilitation. The supplementary collection of all +the purchase money still outstanding for confiscated estates +bought by auction, or even remitted to the purchasers by Sulla-- +for which the censor Lentulus provided in a special law-- +can hardly be regarded as an exception; for though not a few Sullans +were thereby severely affected in their personal interests, +yet the measure itself was essentially a confirmation +of the confiscations undertaken by Sulla. + +Impending Miliatry Dictatorship of Pompeius + +The work of Sulla was thus destroyed; but what the future order +of things was to be, was a question raised rather than decided by +that destruction. The coalition, kept together solely by the common +object of setting aside the work of restoration, dissolved +of itself, if not formally, at any rate in reality, when that object +was attained; while the question, to what quarter the preponderance +of power was in the first instance to fall, seemed approaching +an equally speedy and violent solution. The armies of Pompeius +and Crassus still lay before the gates of the city. The former had +indeed promised to disband his soldiers after his triumph (last day +of Dec. 683); but he had at first omitted to do so, in order to let +the revolution in the state be completed without hindrance +under the pressure which the Spanish army in front of the capital +exercised over the city and the senate--a course, which in like manner +applied to the army of Crassus. This reason now existed +no longer; but still the dissolution of the armies was postponed. +In the turn taken by matters it looked as if one of the two generals +allied with the democracy would seize the military dictatorship +and place oligarchs and democrats in the same chains. And this one +could only be Pompeius. From the first Crassus had played +a subordinate part in the coalition; he had been obliged to propose +himself, and owed even his election to the consulship mainly +to the proud intercession of Pompeius. Far the stronger, Pompeius +was evidently master of the situation; if he availed himself of it, +it seemed as if he could not but become what the instinct +of the multitude even now designated him--the absolute ruler +of the mightiest state in the civilized world. Already the whole mass +of the servile crowded around the future monarch. Already his weaker +opponents were seeking their last resource in a new coalition; +Crassus, full of old and recent jealousy towards the younger rival +who so thoroughly outstripped him, made approaches to the senate +and attempted by unprecedented largesses to attach to himself +the multitude of the capital--as if the oligarchy which Crassus himself +had helped to break down, and the ever ungrateful multitude, +would have been able to afford any protection whatever against +the veterans of the Spanish army. For a moment it seemed as if +the armies of Pompeius and Crassus would come to blows before +the gates of the capital. + +Retirement of Pompeius + +But the democrats averted this catastrophe by their sagacity +and their pliancy. For their party too, as well as for the senate +and Crassus, it was all-important that Pompeius should not seize +the dictatorship; but with a truer discernment of their own weakness +and of the character of their powerful opponent their leaders tried +the method of conciliation. Pompeius lacked no condition +for grasping at the crown except the first of all--proper kingly +courage. We have already described the man--with his effort to be +at once loyal republican and master of Rome, with his vacillation +and indecision, with his pliancy that concealed itself +under the boasting of independent resolution. This was the first +great trial to which destiny subjected him; and he failed to stand it. +The pretext under which Pompeius refused to dismiss the army was, +that he distrusted Crassus and therefore could not take the initiative +in disbanding the soldiers. The democrats induced Crassus to make +gracious advances in the matter, and to offer the hand of peace +to his colleague before the eyes of all; in public and in private they +besought the latter that to the double merit of having vanquished +the enemy and reconciled the parties he would add the third and yet +greater service of preserving internal peace to his country, +and banishing the fearful spectre of civil war with which +they were threatened. Whatever could tell on a vain, unskilful, +vacillating man--all the flattering arts of diplomacy, all the theatrical +apparatus of patriotic enthusiasm--was put in motion to obtain +the desired result; and--which was the main point--things had +by the well-timed compliance of Crassus assumed such a shape, +that Pompeius had no alternative but either to come forward openly +as tyrant of Rome or to retire. So he at length yielded and consented +to disband the troops. The command in the Mithradatic war, +which he doubtless hoped to obtain when he had allowed himself to be +chosen consul for 684, he could not now desire, since Lucullus +seemed to have practically ended that war with the campaign of 683. +He deemed it beneath his dignity to accept the consular province +assigned to him by the senate in accordance with the Sempronian +law, and Crassus in this followed his example. Accordingly +when Pompeius after discharging his soldiers resigned his consulship +on the last day of 684, he retired for the time wholly from public +affairs, and declared that he wished thenceforth to live a life +of quiet leisure as a simple citizen. He had taken up such a position +that he was obliged to grasp at the crown; and, seeing that he was +not willing to do so, no part was left to him but the empty one +of a candidate for a throne resigning his pretensions to it. + +Senate, Equites, and Populares + +The retirement of the man, to whom as things stood the first place +belonged, from the political stage reproduced in the first instance +nearly the same position of parties, which we found in the Gracchan +and Marian epochs. Sulla had merely strengthened the senatorial +government, not created it; so, after the bulwarks erected by Sulla +had fallen, the government nevertheless remained primarily +with the senate, although, no doubt, the constitution with which +it governed--in the main the restored Gracchan constitution-- +was pervaded by a spirit hostile to the oligarchy. The democracy +had effected the re-establishment of the Gracchan constitution; +but without a new Gracchus it was a body without a head, +and that neither Pompeius nor Crassus could be permanently such a head, +was in itself clear and had been made still clearer by the recent +events. So the democratic opposition, for want of a leader +who could have directly taken the helm, had to content itself +for the time being with hampering and annoying the government +at every step. Between the oligarchy, however, and the democracy +there rose into new consideration the capitalist party, +which in the recent crisis had made common cause with the latter, +but which the oligarchs now zealously endeavoured to draw over +to their side, so as to acquire in it a counterpoise to the democracy. +Thus courted on both sides the moneyed lords did not neglect to turn +their advantageous position to profit, and to have the only one +of their former privileges which they had not yet regained--the fourteen +benches reserved for the equestrian order in the theatre--now (687) +restored to them by decree of the people. On the whole, without +abruptly breaking with the democracy, they again drew closer +to the government. The very relations of the senate to Crassus +and his clients point in this direction; but a better understanding +between the senate and the moneyed aristocracy seems to have been +chiefly brought about by the fact, that in 686 the senate withdrew +from Lucius Lucullus the ablest of the senatorial officers, +at the instance of the capitalists whom he had sorely annoyed, +the dministration of the province of Asia so important +for their purposes.(8) + +The Events in the East, and Their Reaction on Rome + +But while the factions of the capital were indulging in their +wonted mutual quarrels, which they were never able to bring +to any proper decision, events in the east followed their fatal course, +as we have already described; and it was these events that brought +the dilatory course of the politics of the capital to a crisis. +The war both by land and by sea had there taken a most unfavourable +turn. In the beginning of 687 the Pontic army of the Romans +was destroyed, and their Armenian army was utterly breaking up +on its retreat; all their conquests were lost, the sea was exclusively +in the power of the pirates, and the price of grain in Italy +was thereby so raised that they were afraid of an actual famine. +No doubt, as we saw, the faults of the generals, especially +the utter incapacity of the admiral Marcus Antonius and the temerity +of the otherwise able Lucius Lucullus, were in part the occasion +of these calamities; no doubt also the democracy had by its +revolutionary agitations materially contributed to the breaking up +of the Armenian army. But of course the government was now held +cumulatively responsible for all the mischief which itself +and others had occasioned, and the indignant hungry multitude +desired only an opportunity to settle accounts with the senate. + +Reappearance of Pompeius + +It was a decisive crisis. The oligarchy, though degraded +and disarmed, was not yet overthrown, for the management of public +affairs was still in the hands of the senate; but it would fall, +if its opponents should appropriate to themselves that management, +and more especially the superintendence of military affairs; +and now this was possible. If proposals for another and better +management of the war by land and sea were now submitted to the comitia, +the senate was obviously--looking to the temper of the burgesses-- +not in a position to prevent their passing; and an interference +of the burgesses in these supreme questions of administration +was practically the deposition of the senate and the transference +of the conduct of the state to the leaders of opposition. Once more +the concatenation of events brought the decision into the hands +of Pompeius. For more than two years the famous general had lived +as a private citizen in the capital. His voice was seldom heard +in the senate-house or in the Forum; in the former he was unwelcome +and without decisive influence, in the latter he was afraid +of the stormy proceedings of the parties. But when he did show himself, +it was with the full retinue of his clients high and low, +and the very solemnity of his reserve imposed on the multitude. +If he, who was still surrounded with the full lustre of his extraordinary +successes, should now offer to go to the east, he would beyond +doubt be readily invested by the burgesses with all the plenitude +of military and political power which he might himself ask. +For the oligarchy, which saw in the political-military dictatorship +their certain ruin, and in Pompeius himself since the coalition +of 683 their most hated foe, this was an overwhelming blow; +but the democratic party also could have little comfort in the prospect. +However desirable the putting an end to the government of the senate +could not but be in itself, it was, if it took place in this way, +far less a victory for their party than a personal victory +for their over-powerful ally. In the latter there might easily arise +a far more dangerous opponent to the democratic party than the senate +had been. The danger fortunately avoided a few years before +by the disbanding of the Spanish army and the retirement of Pompeius +would recur in increased measure, if Pompeius should now be placed +at the head of the armies of the east. + +Overthrow of the Senatorial Rule, and New Power of Pompeius + +On this occasion, however, Pompeius acted or at least allowed +others to act in his behalf. In 687 two projects of law +were introduced, one of which, besides decreeing the discharge-- +long since demanded by the democracy--of the soldiers of the Asiatic +army who had served their term, decreed the recall of its +commander-in-chief Lucius Lucullus and the supplying of his place +by one of the consuls of the current year, Gaius Piso or Manius +Glabrio; while the second revived and extended the plan proposed +seven years before by the senate itself for clearing the seas +from the pirates. A single general to be named by the senate +from the consulars was to be appointed, to hold by sea exclusive command +over the whole Mediterranean from the Pillars of Hercules to the coasts +of Pontus and Syria, and to exercise by land, concurrently +with the respective Roman governors, supreme command over the whole +coasts for fifty miles inland. The office was secured to him +for three years. He was surrounded by a staff, such as Rome +had never seen, of five-and-twenty lieutenants of senatorial rank, +all invested with praetorian insignia and praetorian powers, +and of two under-treasurers with quaestorian prerogatives, all of them +selected by the exclusive will of the general commanding-in-chief. +He was allowed to raise as many as 120,000 infantry, 5000 cavalry, +500 ships of war, and for this purpose to dispose absolutely +of the means of the provinces and client-states; moreover, the existing +vessels of war and a considerable number of troops were at once +handed over to him. The treasures of the state in the capital +and in the provinces as well as those of the dependent communities +were to be placed absolutely at his command, and in spite of the severe +financial distress a sum of; 1,400,000 pounds (144,000,000 sesterces) +was at once to be paid to him from the state-chest. + +Effect of the Projects of Law + +It is clear that by these projects of law, especially +by that which related to the expedition against the pirates, +the government of the senate was set aside. Doubtless the ordinary +supreme magistrates nominated by the burgesses were of themselves +the proper generals of the commonwealth, and the extraordinary +magistrates needed, at least according to strict law, confirmation +by the burgesses in order to act as generals; but in the appointment +to particular commands no influence constitutionally belonged +to the community, and it was only on the proposition of the senate, +or at any rate on that of a magistrate entitled in himself +to hold the office of general, that the comitia had hitherto +now and again interfered in this matter and conferred +such special functions. In this field, ever since there had existed +a Roman free state, the practically decisive voice pertained +to the senate, and this its prerogative had in the course of time +obtained full recognition. No doubt the democracy had already +assailed it; but even in the most doubtful of the cases which had +hitherto occurred--the transference of the African command +to Gaius Marius in 647(9)--it was only a magistrate constitutionally +entitled to hold the office of general that was entrusted +by the resolution of the burgesses with a definite expedition. + +But now the burgesses were to invest any private man at their +pleasure not merely with the extraordinary authority of the supreme +magistracy, but also with a sphere of office definitely settled +by them. That the senate had to choose this man from the ranks +of the consulars, was a mitigation only in form; for the selection +was left to it simply because there was really no choice, +and in presence of the vehemently excited multitude the senate +could entrust the chief command of the seas and coasts to no other +save Pompeius alone. But more dangerous still than this negation +in principle of the senatorial control was its practical abolition +by the institution of an office of almost unlimited military +and financial powers. While the office of general was formerly +restricted to a term of one year, to a definite province, +and to military and financial resources strictly measured out, +the new extraordinary office had from the outset a duration +of three years secured to it--which of course did not exclude +a farther prolongation; had the greater portion of all the provinces, +and even Italy itself which was formerly free from military +jurisdiction, subordinated to it; had the soldiers, ships, +treasures of the state placed almost without restriction +at its disposal. Even the primitive fundamental principle +in the state-law of the Roman republic, which we have just mentioned-- +that the highest military and civil authority could not be conferred +without the co-operation of the burgesses--was infringed in favour +of the new commander-in-chief. Inasmuch as the law conferred beforehand +on the twenty-five adjutants whom he was to nominate praetorian +rank and praetorian prerogatives,(10) the highest office +of republican Rome became subordinate to a newly created office, +for which it was left to the future to find the fitting name, +but which in reality even now involved in it the monarchy. +It was a total revolution in the existing order of things, +for which the foundation was laid in this project of law. + +Pompeius and the Gabinian Laws + +These measures of a man who had just given so striking proofs +of his vacillation and weakness surprise us by their decisive energy. +Nevertheless the fact that Pompeius acted on this occasion +more resolutely than during his consulate is very capable of explanation. +The point at issue was not that he should come forward at once +as monarch, but only that he should prepare the way for the monarchy +by a military exceptional measure, which, revolutionary +as it was in its nature, could still be accomplished under the forms +of the existing constitution, and which in the first instance +carried Pompeius so far on the way towards the old object +of his wishes, the command against Mithradates and Tigranes. +Important reasons of expediency also might be urged for the emancipation +of the military power from the senate. Pompeius could not +have forgotten that a plan designed on exactly similar +principles for the suppression of piracy had a few years before +failed through the mismanagement of the senate, and that the issue +of the Spanish war had been placed in extreme jeopardy by the neglect +of the armies on the part of the senate and its injudicious conduct +of the finances; he could not fail to see what were the feelings +with which the great majority of the aristocracy regarded +him as a renegade Sullan, and what fate was in store for him, +if he allowed himself to be sent as general of the government +with the usual powers to the east. It was natural therefore +that he should indicate a position independent of the senate +as the first condition of his undertaking the command, +and that the burgesses should readily agree to it. It is moreover +in a high degree probable that Pompeius was on this occasion urged +to more rapid action by those around him, who were, it may be presumed, +not a little indignant at his retirement two years before. The projects +of law regarding the recall of Lucullus and the expedition against +the pirates were introduced by the tribune of the people Aulus +Gabinius, a man ruined in finances and morals, but a dexterous +negotiator, a bold orator, and a brave soldier. Little as the assurance +of Pompeius, that he had no wish at all for the chief command +in the war with the pirates and only longed for domestic +repose, were meant in earnest, there was probably this much +of truth in them, that the bold and active client, who was +in confidential intercourse with Pompeius and his more immediate +circle and who completely saw through the situation and the men, +took the decision to a considerable extent out of the hands +of his shortsighted and resourceless patron. + +The Parties in Relation to the Gabinian Laws + +The democracy, discontented as its leaders might be in secret, +could not well come publicly forward against the project of law. +It would, to all appearance, have been in no case able to hinder +the carrying of the law; but it would by opposition have openly +broken with Pompeius and thereby compelled him either to make +approaches to the oligarchy or regardlessly to pursue his personal +policy in the face of both parties. No course was left +to the democrats but still even now to adhere to their alliance +with Pompeius, hollow as it was, and to embrace the present opportunity +of at least definitely overthrowing the senate and passing over +from opposition into government, leaving the ulterior issue +to the future and to the well-known weakness of Pompeius' character. +Accordingly their leaders--the praetor Lucius Quinctius, the same +who seven years before had exerted himself for the restoration +of the tribunician power,(11) and the former quaestor Gaius Caesar-- +supported the Gabinian proposals. + +The privileged classes were furious--not merely the nobility, +but also the mercantile aristocracy, which felt its exclusive +rights endangered by so thorough a state-revolution and once +more recognized its true patron in the senate. When the tribune +Gabinius after the introduction of his proposals appeared +in the senate-house, the fathers of the city were almost on the point +of strangling him with their own hands, without considering in their +zeal how extremely disadvantageous for them this method of arguing +must have ultimately proved. The tribune escaped to the Forum +and summoned the multitude to storm the senate-house, when just +at the right time the sitting terminated. The consul Piso, +the champion of the oligarchy, who accidentally fell into the hands +of the multitude, would have certainly become a victim to popular fury, +had not Gabinius come up and, in order that his certain success +might not be endangered by unseasonable acts of violence, liberated +the consul. Meanwhile the exasperation of the multitude remained +undiminished and constantly found fresh nourishment in the high +prices of grain and the numerous rumours more or less absurd +which were in circulation--such as that Lucius Lucullus had invested +the money entrusted to him for carrying on the war at interest in Rome, +or had attempted with its aid to make the praetor Quinctius withdraw +from the cause of the people; that the senate intended to prepare +for the "second Romulus," as they called Pompeius, the fate +of the first,(12) and other reports of a like character. + +The Vote + +Thereupon the day of voting arrived. The multitude stood densely +packed in the Forum; all the buildings, whence the rostra could +be seen, were covered up to the roofs with men. All the colleagues +of Gabinius had promised their veto to the senate; but in presence +of the surging masses all were silent except the single Lucius +Trebellius, who had sworn to himself and the senate rather +to die than yield. When the latter exercised his veto, +Gabinius immediately interrupted the voting on his projects of law +and proposed to the assembled people to deal with his +refractory colleague, as Octavius had formerly been dealt with +on the proposition of Tiberius Gracchus,(13) namely, to depose him +immediately from office. The vote was taken and the reading +out of the voting tablets began; when the first seventeen tribes, +which came to be read out, had declared for the proposal +and the next affirmative vote would give to it the majority, +Trebellius, forgetting his oath, pusillanimously withdrew his veto. +In vain the tribune Otho then endeavoured to procure that at least +the collegiate principle might be preserved, and two generals +elected instead of one; in vain the aged Quintus Catulus, +the most respected man in the senate, exerted his last energies +to secure that the lieutenant-generals should not be nominated +by the commander-in-chief, but chosen by the people. Otho could +not even procure a hearing amidst the noise of the multitude; +the well-calculated complaisance of Gabinius procured a hearing +for Catulus, and in respectful silence the multitude listened +to the old man's words; but they were none the less thrown away. +The proposals were not merely converted into law with all the clauses +unaltered, but the supplementary requests in detail made by Pompeius +were instantaneously and completely agreed to. + +Successes of Pompeius in the East + +With high-strung hopes men saw the two generals Pompeius and Glabrio +depart for their places of destination. The price of grain +had fallen immediately after the passing of the Gabinian laws +to the ordinary rates--an evidence of the hopes attached to the grand +expedition and its glorious leader. These hopes were, as we shall +have afterwards to relate, not merely fulfilled, but surpassed: +in three months the clearing of the seas was completed. +Since the Hannibalic war the Roman government had displayed +no such energy in external action; as compared with the lax +and incapable administration of the oligarchy, the democratic-- +military opposition had most brilliantly made good its title +to grasp and wield the reins of the state. The equally unpatriotic +and unskilful attempts of the consul Piso to put paltry obstacles +in the way of the arrangements of Pompeius for the suppression of piracy +in Narbonese Gaul only increased the exasperation of the burgesses +against the oligarchy and their enthusiasm for Pompeius; it was nothing +but the personal intervention of the latter, that prevented the assembly +of the people from summarily removing the consul from his office. + +Meanwhile the confusion on the Asiatic continent had become still +worse. Glabrio, who was to take up in the stead of Lucullus +the chief command against Mithradates and Tigranes, had remained +stationary in the west of Asia Minor and, while instigating +the soldiers by various proclamations against Lucullus, had not entered +on the supreme command, so that Lucullus was forced to retain it. +Against Mithradates, of course, nothing was done; the Pontic +cavalry plundered fearlessly and with impunity in Bithynia +and Cappadocia. Pompeius had been led by the piratical war to proceed +with his army to Asia Minor; nothing seemed more natural than +to invest him with the supreme command in the Pontic-Armenian war, +to which he himself had long aspired. But the democratic party did +not, as may be readily conceived, share the wishes of its general, +and carefully avoided taking the initiative in the matter. +It is very probable that it had induced Gabinius not to entrust +both the war with Mithradates and that with the pirates from the outset +to Pompeius, but to entrust the former to Glabrio; upon no account +could it now desire to increase and perpetuate the exceptional +position of the already too-powerful general. Pompeius himself +retained according to his custom a passive attitude; and perhaps +he would in reality have returned home after fulfilling the commission +which he had received, but for the occurrence of an incident +unexpected by all parties. + +The Manillian Law + +One Gaius Manilius, an utterly worthless and insignificant man +had when tribune of the people by his unskilful projects of legislation +lost favour both with the aristocracy and with the democracy. +In the hope of sheltering himself under the wing of the powerful +general, if he should procure for the latter what every one knew +that he eagerly desired but had not the boldness to ask, Manilius +proposed to the burgesses to recall the governors Glabrio +from Bithynia and Pontus and Marcius Rex from Cilicia, and to entrust +their offices as well as the conduct of the war in the east, +apparently without any fixed limit as to time and at any rate +with the freest authority to conclude peace and alliance, +to the proconsul of the seas and coasts in addition to his previous +office (beg. of 688). This occurrence very clearly showed how +disorganized was the machinery of the Roman constitution, +whenthe power of legislation was placed as respected the initiative +inthe hands of any demagogue however insignificant, and as respected +the final determination in the hands of the incapable multitude, +while it at the same time was extended to the most important questions +of administration. The Manilian proposal was acceptable to none of +the political parties; yet it scarcely anywhere encountered serious +resistance. The democratic leaders, for the same reasons which had +forced them to acquiesce in the Gabinian law, could not venture +earnestly to oppose the Manilian; they kept their displeasure +and their fears to themselves and spoke in public for the general +of the democracy. The moderate Optimates declared themselves +for the Manilian proposal, because after the Gabinian law resistance +in any case was vain, and far-seeing men already perceived +that the true policy for the senate was to make approaches +as far as possible to Pompeius and to draw him over to their side +on occasion of the breach which might be foreseen between him +and the democrats. Lastly the trimmers blessed the day +when they too seemed to have an opinion and could come forward +decidedly without losing favour with either of the parties-- +it is significant that Marcus Cicero first appeared as an orator +on the political platform in defence of the Manilian proposal. +The strict Optimates alone, with Quintus Catulus at their head, +showed at least their colours and spoke against the proposition. +Of course it was converted into law by a majority bordering on unanimity. +Pompeius thus obtained, in addition to his earlier extensive powers, +the administration of the most important provinces of Asia Minor-- +so that there scarcely remained a spot of land within the wide Roman +bounds that had not to obey him--and the conduct of a war as to which, +like the expedition of Alexander, men could tell where and when +it began, but not where and when it might end. Never since Rome +stood had such power been united in the hands of a single man. + +The Democratic-Military Revolution + +The Gabinio-Manilian proposals terminated the struggle between +the senate and the popular party, which the Sempronian laws had begun +sixty-seven years before. As the Sempronian laws first constituted +the revolutionary party into a political opposition, the Gabinio- +Manilian first converted it from an opposition into the government; +and as it had been a great moment when the first breach +in the existing constitution was made by disregarding the veto +of Octavius, it was a moment no less full of significance +when the last bulwark of the senatorial rule fell with the withdrawal +of Trebellius. This was felt on both sides and even the indolent +souls of the senators were convulsively roused by this death- +struggle; but yet the war as to the constitution terminated +in a very different and far more pitiful fashion than it had begun. +A youth in every sense noble had commenced the revolution; +it was concluded by pert intriguers and demagogues of the lowest type. +On the other hand, while the Optimates had begun the struggle +with a measured resistance and with a defence which earnestly held out +even at the forlorn posts, they ended with taking the initiative +in club-law, with grandiloquent weakness, and with pitiful perjury. +What had once appeared a daring dream, was now attained; the senate +had ceased to govern. But when the few old men who had seen +the first storms of revolution and heard the words of the Gracchi, +compared that time with the present they found that everything +had in the interval changed--countrymen and citizens, state-law +and military discipline, life and manners; and well might those +painfully smile, who compared the ideals of the Gracchan period +with their realization. Such reflections however belonged +to the past. For the present and perhaps also for the future the fall +of the aristocracy was an accomplished fact. The oligarchs resembled +an army utterly broken up, whose scattered bands might serve +to reinforce another body of troops, but could no longer themselves +keep the field or risk a combat on their own account. But as +the old struggle came to an end, a new one was simultaneously +beginning--the struggle between the two powers hitherto leagued +for the overthrow of the aristocratic constitution, the civil- +democratic opposition and the military power daily aspiring +to greater ascendency. The exceptional position of Pompeius +even under the Gabinian, and much more under the Manilian, +law was incompatible with a republican organization. He had been +as even then his opponents urged with good reason, appointed +by the Gabinian law not as admiral, but as regent of the empire; +not unjustly was he designated by a Greek familiar with eastern +affairs "king of kings." If he should hereafter, on returning +from the east once more victorious and with increased glory, +with well-filled chests, and with troops ready for battle and devoted +to his cause, stretch forth his hand to seize the crown--who would +then arrest his arm? Was the consular Quintus Catulus, forsooth, +to summon forth the senators against the first general of his time +and his experienced legions? or was the designated aedile Gaius Caesar +to call forth the civic multitude, whose eyes he had just feasted +on his three hundred and twenty pairs of gladiators with their silver +equipments? Soon, exclaimed Catulus, it would be necessary once +more to flee to the rocks of the Capitol, in order to save liberty. +It was not the fault of the prophet, that the storm came not, +as he expected, from the east, but that on the contrary fate, +fulfilling his words more literally than he himself anticipated, +brought on the destroying tempest a few years later from Gaul. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +Pompeius and the East + +Pompeius Suppresses Piracy + +We have already seen how wretched was the state of the affairs +of Rome by land and sea in the east, when at the commencement of 687 +Pompeius, with an almost unlimited plenitude of power, undertook +the conduct of the war against the pirates. He began by dividing +the immense field committed to him into thirteen districts +and assigning each of these districts to one of his lieutenants, +for the purpose of equipping ships and men there, of searching +the coasts, and of capturing piratical vessels or chasing them +into the meshes of a colleague. He himself went with the best part +of the ships of war that were available--among which on this occasion +also those of Rhodes were distinguished--early in the year to sea, +and swept in the first place the Sicilian, African, and Sardinian +waters, with a view especially to re-establish the supply of grain +from these provinces to Italy. His lieutenants meanwhile addressed +themselves to the clearing of the Spanish and Gallic coasts. +It was on this occasion that the consul Gaius Piso attempted +from Rome to prevent the levies which Marcus Pomponius, the legate +of Pompeius, instituted by virtue of the Gabinian law in the province +of Narbo--an imprudent proceeding, to check which, and at the same +time to keep the just indignation of the multitude against +the consul within legal bounds, Pompeius temporarily reappeared +in Rome.(1) When at the end of forty days the navigation had been +everywhere set free in the western basin of the Mediterranean, +Pompeius proceeded with sixty of his best vessels to the eastern +seas, and first of all to the original and main seat of piracy, +the Lycian and Cilician waters. On the news of the approach +of the Roman fleet the piratical barks everywhere disappeared +from the open sea; and not only so, but even the strong Lycian fortresses +of Anticragus and Cragus surrendered without offering serious +resistance. The well-calculated moderation of Pompeius helped +even more than fear to open the gates of these scarcely accessible +marine strongholds. His predecessors had ordered every captured +freebooter to be nailed to the cross; without hesitation he gave +quarter to all, and treated in particular the common rowers found +in the captured piratical vessels with unusual indulgence. +The bold Cilician sea-kings alone ventured on an attempt to maintain +at least their own waters by arms against the Romans; after having +placed their children and wives and their rich treasures for +security in the mountain-fortresses of the Taurus, they awaited +the Roman fleet at the western frontier of Cilicia, in the offing +of Coracesium. But here the ships of Pompeius, well manned and well +provided with all implements of war, achieved a complete victory. +Without farther hindrance he landed and began to storm and break up +the mountain-castles of the corsairs, while he continued to offer +to themselves freedom and life as the price of submission. Soon +the great multitude desisted from the continuance of a hopeless war +in their strongholds and mountains, and consented to surrender. +Forty-nine days after Pompeius had appeared in the eastern seas, +Cilicia was subdued and the war at an end. + +The rapid suppression of piracy was a great relief, but not a grand +achievement; with the resources of the Roman state, which had been +called forth in lavish measure, the corsairs could as little cope +as the combined gangs of thieves in a great city can cope +with a well-organized police. It was a naive proceeding to celebrate +such a razzia as a victory. But when compared with the prolonged +continuance and the vast and daily increasing extent of the evil, +it was natural that the surprisingly rapid subjugation +of the dreaded pirates should make a most powerful impression +on the public; and the more so, that this was the first trial of rule +centralized in a single hand, and the parties were eagerly waiting +to see whether that hand would understand the art of ruling better +than the collegiate body had done. Nearly 400 ships and boats, +including 90 war vessels properly so called, were either taken +by Pompeius or surrendered to him; in all about 1300 piratical vessels +are said to have been destroyed; besides which the richly-filled +arsenals and magazines of the buccaneers were burnt. +Of the pirates about 10,000 perished; upwards of 20,000 fell alive +into the hands of the victor; while Publius Clodius the admiral +of the Roman army stationed in Cilicia, and a multitude of other +individuals carried off by the pirates, some of them long believed +at home to be dead, obtained once more their freedom through +Pompeius. In the summer of 687, three months after the beginning +of the campaign, commerce resumed its wonted course and instead +of the former famine abundance prevailed in Italy. + +Dissensions between Pompeius and Metellus as to Crete + +A disagreeable interlude in the island of Crete, however, +disturbed in some measure this pleasing success of the Roman arms. +There Quintus Metellus was stationed in the second year of his command, +and was employed in finishing the subjugation-already substantially +effected--of the island,(2) when Pompeius appeared in the eastern +waters. A collision was natural, for according to the Gabinian law +the command of Pompeius extended concurrently with that of Metellus +over the whole island, which stretched to a great length but was +nowhere more than ninety miles broad;(3) but Pompeius was considerate +enough not to assign it to any of his lieutenants. The still resisting +Cretan communities, however, who had seen their subdued countrymen +taken to task by Metellus with the most cruel severity and had learned +on the other hand the gentle terms which Pompeius was in the habit +of imposing on the townships which surrendered to him in the south +of Asia Minor, preferred to give in their joint surrender to Pompeius. +He accepted it in Pamphylia, where he was just at the moment, +from their envoys, and sent along with them his legate Lucius Octavius +to announce to Metellus the conclusion of the conventions +and to take over the towns. This proceeding was, no doubt, +not like that of a colleague; but formal right was wholly on the side +of Pompeius, and Metellus was most evidently in the wrong when, +utterly ignoring the convention of the cities with Pompeius, +he continued to treat them as hostile. In vain Octavius protested; +in vain, as he had himself come without troops, he summoned +from Achaia Lucius Sisenna, the lieutenant of Pompeius stationed there; +Metellus, not troubling himself about either Octavius or Sisenna, +besieged Eleutherna and took Lappa by storm, where Octavius in person +was taken prisoner and ignominiously dismissed, while the Cretans +who were taken with him were consigned to the executioner. +Accordingly formal conflicts took place between the troops of Sisenna, +at whose head Octavius placed himself after that leader's +death, and those of Metellus; even when the former had been +commanded to return to Achaia, Octavius continued the war +in concert with the Cretan Aristion, and Hierapytna, +where both made a stand, was only subdued by Metellus +after the most obstinate resistance. + +In reality the zealous Optimate Metellus had thus begun formal +civil war at his own hand against the generalissimo of the democracy. +It shows the indescribable disorganization in the Roman state, +that these incidents led to nothing farther than a bitter +correspondence between the two generals, who a couple of years +afterwards were sitting once more peacefully and even "amicably" +side by side in the senate. + +Pompeius Takes the Supreme Command against Mithradates + +Pompeius during these events remained in Cilicia; preparing +for the next year, as it seemed, a campaign against the Cretans +or rather against Metellus, in reality waiting for the signal +which should call him to interfere in the utterly confused affairs +of the mainland of Asia Minor. The portion of the Lucullan army +that was still left after the losses which it had suffered +and the departure of the Fimbrian legions remained inactive +on the upper Halys in the country of the Trocmi bordering +on the Pontic territory. Lucullus still held provisionally +the chief command, as his nominated successor Glabrio continued +to linger in the west of Asia Minor. The three legions +commanded by Quintus Marcius Rex lay equally inactive +in Cilicia. The Pontic territory was again wholly in the power +of king Mithradates, who made the individuals and communities +that had joined the Romans, such as the town of Eupatoria, +pay for their revolt with cruel severity. The kings of the east +did not proceed to any serious offensive movement against the Romans, +either because it formed no part of their plan, or--as was asserted-- +because the landing of Pompeius in Cilicia induced Mithradates +and Tigranes to desist from advancing farther. The Manilian law +realized the secretly-cherished hopes of Pompeius more rapidly +than he probably himself anticipated; Glabrio and Rex +were recalled and the governorships of Pontus-Bithynia and Cilicia +with the troops stationed there, as well as the management +of the Pontic-Armenian war along with authority to make war, peace, +and alliance with the dynasts of the east at his own discretion, +were transferred to Pompeius. Amidst the prospect of honours +and spoils so ample Pompeius was glad to forgo the chastising +of an ill-humoured Optimate who enviously guarded his scanty laurels; +he abandoned the expedition against Crete and the farther pursuit +of the corsairs, and destined his fleet also to support the attack +which he projected on the kings of Pontus and Armenia. Yet amidst +this land-war he by no means wholly lost sight of piracy, +which was perpetually raising its head afresh. Before he left Asia +(691) he caused the necessary ships to be fitted out there against +the corsairs; on his proposal in the following year a similar measure +was resolved on for Italy, and the sum needed for the purpose +was granted by the senate. They continued to protect the coasts +with guards of cavalry and small squadrons, and though +as the expeditions to be mentioned afterwards against Cyprus in 696 +and Egypt in 699 show, piracy was not thoroughly mastered, it yet +after the expedition of Pompeius amidst all the vicissitudes +and political crises of Rome could never again so raise its head +and so totally dislodge the Romans from the sea, as it had done +under the government of the mouldering oligarchy. + +War Preparations of Pompeius +Alliance with the Parthians +Variance between Mithradates and Tigranes + +The few months which still remained before the commencement +of the campaign in Asia Minor, were employed by the new commander- +in-chief with strenuous activity in diplomatic and military +preparations. Envoys were sent to Mithradates, rather to reconnoitre +than to attempt a serious mediation. There was a hope at the Pontic +court that Phraates king of the Parthians would be induced by the recent +considerable successes which the allies had achieved over Rome +to enter into the Pontic-Armenian alliance. To counteract this, Roman +envoys proceeded to the court of Ctesiphon; and the internal troubles, +which distracted the Armenian ruling house, came to their aid. +A son of the great-king Tigranes, bearing the same name +had rebelled against his father, either because he was unwilling +to wait for the death of the old man, or because his father's +suspicion, which had already cost several of his brothers their +lives, led him to discern his only chance of safety in open +insurrection. Vanquished by his father, he had taken refuge +with a number of Armenians of rank at the court of the Arsacid, +and intrigued against his father there. It was partly due +to his exertions, that Phraates preferred to take the reward +which was offered to him by both sides for his accession--the secured +possession of Mesopotamia--from the hand of the Romans, renewed +with Pompeius the agreement concluded with Lucullus respecting +the boundary of the Euphrates,(4) and even consented to operate +in concert with the Romans against Armenia. But the younger Tigranes +occasioned still greater mischief than that which arose out of his +promoting the alliance between the Romans and the Parthians, +for his insurrection produced a variance between the kings +Tigranes and Mithradates themselves. The great-king cherished +in secret the suspicion that Mithradates might have had a hand +in the insurrection of his grandson--Cleopatra the mother +of the younger Tigranes was the daughter of Mithradates-- +and, though no open rupture took place, the good understanding +between the two monarchs was disturbed at the very moment +when it was most urgently needed. + +At the same time Pompeius prosecuted his warlike preparations +with energy. The Asiatic allied and client communities were warned +to furnish the stipulated contingents. Public notices summoned +the discharged veterans of the legions of Fimbria to return +to the standards as volunteers, and by great promises and the name +of Pompeius a considerable portion of them were induced in reality +to obey the call. The whole force united under the orders +of Pompeius may have amounted, exclusive of the auxiliaries, +to between 40,000 and 50,000 men.(5) + +Pompeius and Lucullus + +In the spring of 688 Pompeius proceeded to Galatia, to take +the chief command of the troops of Lucullus and to advance +with them into the Pontic territory, whither the Cilician legions +were directed to follow. At Danala, a place belonging to the Trocmi, +the two generals met; but the reconciliation, which mutual friends +had hoped to effect, was not accomplished. The preliminary +courtesies soon passed into bitter discussions, and these +into violent altercation: they parted in worse mood than they had met. +As Lucullus continued to make honorary gifts and to distribute +lands just as if he were still in office, Pompeius declared +all the acts performed by his predecessor subsequent to +his own arrival null and void. Formally he was in the right; +customary tactin the treatment of a meritorious and more than +sufficientlymortified opponent was not to be looked for from him. + +Invasion of Pontus +Retreat of Mithradates + +So soon as the season allowed, the Roman troops crossed +the frontier of Pontus. There they were opposed by king Mithradates +with 30,000 infantry and 3000 cavalry. Left in the lurch by his +allies and attacked by Rome with reinforced power and energy, +he made an attempt to procure peace; but he would hear nothing +of the unconditional submission which Pompeius demanded--what worse +could the most unsuccessful campaign bring to him? That he might +not expose his army, mostly archers and horsemen, to the formidable +shock of the Roman infantry of the line, he slowly retired before +the enemy, and compelled the Romans to follow him in his various +cross-marches; making a stand at the same time, wherever there was +opportunity, with his superior cavalry against that of the enemy, +and occasioning no small hardship to the Romans by impeding +their supplies. At length Pompeius in his impatience desisted +from following the Pontic army, and, letting the king alone, +proceeded to subdue the land; he marched to the upper Euphrates, +crossed it, and entered the eastern provinces of the Pontic empire. +But Mithradates followed along the left bank of the Euphrates, +and when he had arrived in the Anaitic or Acilisenian province, +he intercepted the route of the Romans at the castle of Dasteira, +which was strong and well provided with water, and from which +with his light troops he commanded the plain. Pompeius, +still wanting the Cilician legions and not strong enough to maintain +himself in this position without them, had to retire over the Euphrates +and to seek protection from the cavalry and archers of the king +in the wooded ground of Pontic Armenia extensively intersected +by rocky ravines and deep valleys. It was not till the troops +from Cilicia arrived and rendered it possible to resume the offensive +with a superiority of force, that Pompeius again advanced, invested +the camp of the king with a chain of posts of almost eighteen miles +in length, and kept him formally blockaded there, while the Roman +detachments scoured the country far and wide. The distress in the Pontic +camp was great; the draught animals even had to be killed; at length +after remaining for forty-five days the king caused his sick +and wounded, whom he could not save and was unwilling to leave +in the hands of the enemy, to be put to death by his own troops, +and departed during the night with the utmost secrecy towards +the east. Cautiously Pompeius followed through the unknown land: +the march was now approaching the boundary which separated +the dominions of Mithradates and Tigranes. When the Roman general +perceived that Mithradates intended not to bring the contest +to a decision within his own territory, but to draw the enemy away +after him into the far distant regions of the east, he determined +not to permit this. + +Battle at Nicopolis + +The two armies lay close to each other. During the rest at noon +the Roman army set out without the enemy observing the movement, +made a circuit, and occupied the heights, which lay in front +and commanded a defile to be passed by the enemy, on the southern bank +of the river Lycus (Jeschil-Irmak) not far from the modern Enderes, +at the point where Nicopolis was afterwards built. The following +morning the Pontic troops broke up in their usual manner, +and, supposing that the enemy was as hitherto behind them, after, +accomplishing the day's march they pitched their camp +in the very valley whose encircling heights the Romans had occupied. +Suddenly in the silence of the night there sounded all around them +the dreaded battle-cry of the legions, and missiles from all sides +poured on the Asiatic host, in which soldiers and camp-followers, +chariots, horses, and camels jostled each other; and amidst +the dense throng, notwithstanding the darkness, not a missile +failed to take effect. When the Romans had expended their darts, +they charged down from the heights on the masses which had now become +visible by the light of the newly-risen moon, and which were +abandoned to them almost defenceless; those that did not fall +by the steel of the enemy were trodden down in the fearful pressure +under the hoofs and wheels. It was the last battle-field +on which the gray-haired king fought with the Romans. With three +attendants--two of his horsemen, and a concubine who was accustomed +to follow him in male attire and to fight bravely by his side-- +he made his escape thence to the fortress of Sinoria, whither +a portion of his trusty followers found their way to him. He divided +among them his treasures preserved there, 6000 talents of gold +(1,400,000 pounds); furnished them and himself with poison; +and hastened with the band that was left to him up the Euphrates +to unite with his ally, the great-king of Armenia. + +Tigranes Breaks with Mithradates +Mithradates Crosses the Phasis + +This hope likewise was vain; the alliance, on the faith of which +Mithradates took the route for Armenia, already by that time +existed no longer. During the conflicts between Mithradates +and Pompeius just narrated, the king of the Parthians, yielding +to the urgency of the Romans and above all of the exiled Armenian prince, +had invaded the kingdom of Tigranes by force of arms, and had +compelled him to withdraw into the inaccessible mountains. +The invading army began even the siege of the capital Artaxata; +but, on its becoming protracted, king Phraates took his departure +with the greater portion of his troops; whereupon Tigranes overpowered +the Parthian corps left behind and the Armenian emigrants led +by his son, and re-established his dominion throughout the kingdom +Naturally, however, the king was under such circumstances little +inclined to fight with the freshly-victorious Romans, and least +of all to sacrifice himself for Mithradates; whom he trusted less +than ever, since information had reached him that his rebellious son +intended to betake himself to his grandfather. So he entered into +negotiations with the Romans for a separate peace; but he did not wait +for the conclusion of the treaty to break off the alliance +which linked him to Mithradates. The latter, when he had arrived +at the frontier of Armenia, was doomed to learn that the great-king +Tigranes had set a price of 100 talents (24,000 pounds) +on his head, had arrested his envoys, and had delivered them +to the Romans. King Mithradates saw his kingdom in the hands +of the enemy, and his allies on the point of coming to an agreement +with them; it was not possible to continue the war; he might deem +himself fortunate, if he succeeded in effecting his escape along +the eastern and northern shores of the Black Sea, in perhaps +dislodging his son Machares--who had revolted and entered into +connection with the Romans(6)--once more from the Bosporan kingdom, +and in finding on the Maeotis a fresh soil for fresh projects. +So he turned northward. When the king in his flight had crossed +the Phasis, the ancient boundary of Asia Minor, Pompeius for the time +discontinued his pursuit; but instead of returning to the region +of the sources of the Euphrates, he turned aside into the region +of the Araxes to settle matters with Tigranes. + +Pompeius at Artaxata +Peace with Tigranes + +Almost without meeting resistance he arrived in the region +of Artaxata (not far from Erivan) and pitched his camp thirteen miles +from the city. There he was met by the son of the great-king, +who hoped after the fall of his father to receive the Armenian diadem +from the hand of the Romans, and therefore had endeavoured in every +way to prevent the conclusion of the treaty between his father +and the Romans. The great-king was only the more resolved to purchase +peace at any price. On horseback and without his purple robe, +but adorned with the royal diadem and the royal turban, he appeared +at the gate of the Roman camp and desired to be conducted +to the presence of the Roman general. After having given up +at the bidding of the lictors, as the regulations of the Roman camp +required, his horse and his sword, he threw himself in barbarian +fashion at the feet of the proconsul and in token of unconditional +surrender placed the diadem and tiara in his hands. Pompeius, +highly delighted at a victory which cost nothing, raised up +the humbled king of kings, invested him again with the insignia +of his dignity, and dictated the peace. Besides a payment of; +1,400,000 pounds (6000 talents) to the war-chest and a present +to the soldiers, out of which each of them received 50 -denarii- +(2 pounds 2 shillings), the king ceded all the conquests which +he had made, not merely his Phoenician, Syrian, Cilician, and Cappadocian +possessions, but also Sophene and Corduene on the right bank +of the Euphrates; he was again restricted to Armenia proper, +and his position of great-king was, of course, at an end. +In a single campaign Pompeius had totally subdued the two mighty kings +of Pontus and Armenia. At the beginning of 688 there was not a Roman +soldier beyond the frontier of the old Roman possessions; at its +close king Mithradates was wandering as an exile and without +an army in the ravines of the Caucasus, and king Tigranes sat +on the Armenian throne no longer as king of kings, but as a vassal +of Rome. The whole domain of Asia Minor to the west of the Euphrates +unconditionally obeyed the Romans; the victorious army took up +its winter-quarters to the east of that stream on Armenian soil, +in the country from the upper Euphrates to the river Kur, +from which the Italians then for the first time watered their horses. + +The Tribes of the Caucasus +Iberians +Albanians + +But the new field, on which the Romans here set foot, raised up +for them new conflicts. The brave peoples of the middle and eastern +Caucasus saw with indignation the remote Occidentals encamping +on their territory. There--in the fertile and well-watered tableland +of the modern Georgia--dwelt the Iberians, a brave, well-organized, +agricultural nation, whose clan-cantons under their patriarchs +cultivated the soil according to the system of common possession, +without any separate ownership of the individual cultivators. Army +and people were one; the people were headed partly by the ruler- +clans--out of which the eldest always presided over the whole +Iberian nation as king, and the next eldest as judge and leader +of the army--partly by special families of priests, on whom chiefly +devolved the duty of preserving a knowledge of the treaties +concluded with other peoples and of watching over their observance. +The mass of the non-freemen were regarded as serfs of the king. +Their eastern neighbours, the Albanians or Alans, who were settled +on the lower Kur as far as the Caspian Sea, were in a far lower +stage of culture. Chiefly a pastoral people they tended, on foot +or on horseback, their numerous herds in the luxuriant meadows +of the modern Shirvan; their few tilled fields were still cultivated +with the old wooden plough without iron share. Coined money +was unknown, and they did not count beyond a hundred. Each of their +tribes, twenty-six in all, had its own chief and spoke its distinct +dialect. Far superior in number to the Iberians, the Albanians +could not at all cope with them in bravery. The mode of fighting +was on the whole the same with both nations; they fought chiefly +with arrows and light javelins, which they frequently after the Indian +fashion discharged from their lurking-places in the woods +behind the trunks of trees, or hurled down from the tops of trees +on the foe; the Albanians had also numerous horsemen partly mailed +after the Medo-Armenian manner with heavy cuirasses and greaves. +Both nations lived on their lands and pastures in a complete +independence preserved from time immemorial. Nature itself +as it were, seems to have raised the Caucasus between Europe and Asia +as a rampart against the tide of national movements; there the arms +of Cyrus and of Alexander had formerly found their limit; +now the brave garrison of this partition-wall set themselves +to defend it also against the Romans. + +Albanians Conquered by Pompeius +Iberians Conquered + +Alarmed by the information that the Roman commander-in-chief +intended next spring to cross the mountains and to pursue +the Pontic king beyond the Caucasus--for Mithradates, they heard, +was passing the winter in Dioscurias (Iskuria between Suchum Kale +and Anaklia) on the Black Sea--the Albanians under their prince +Oroizes first crossed the Kur in the middle of the winter of 688-689 +and threw themselves on the army, which was divided for the sake +of its supplies into three larger corps under Quintus Metellus Celer, +Lucius Flaccus, and Pompeius in person. But Celer, on whom +the chief attack fell, made a brave stand, and Pompeius, after having +delivered himself from the division sent to attack him, pursued +the barbarians beaten at all points as far as the Kur. Artoces +the king of the Iberians kept quiet and promised peace and friendship; +but Pompeius, informed that he was secretly arming so as to fall +upon the Romans on their march in the passes of the Caucasus, +advanced in the spring of 689, before resuming the pursuit +of Mithradates, to the two fortresses just two miles distant +from each other, Harmozica (Horum Ziche or Armazi) and Seusamora +(Tsumar) which a little above the modern Tiflis command the two valleys +of the river Kur and its tributary the Aragua, and with these +the only passes leading from Armenia to Iberia. Artoces, surprised +by the enemy before he was aware of it, hastily burnt the bridge over +the Kur and retreated negotiating into the interior. Pompeius occupied +the fortresses and followed the Iberians to the other bank +of the Kur; by which he hoped to induce them to immediate submission. +But Artoces retired farther and farther into the interior, +and, when at length he halted on the river Pelorus, he did so +not to surrender but to fight. The Iberian archers however withstood +not for a moment the onset of the Roman legions, and, when Artoces +saw the Pelorus also crossed by the Romans, he submitted +at length to the conditions which the victor proposed, and sent +his children as hostages. + +Pompeius Proceeds to Colchis + +Pompeius now, agreeably to the plan which he had formerly projected, +marched through the Sarapana pass from the region of the Kur +to that of the Phasis and thence down that river to the Black Sea, +where on the Colchian coast the fleet under Servilius already +awaited him. But it was for an uncertain idea, and an aim almost +unsubstantial, that the army and fleet were thus brought +to the richly fabled shores of Colchis. The laborious march just +completed through unknown and mostly hostile nations was nothing +when compared with what still awaited them, and if they should +really succeed in conducting the force from the mouth of the Phasis +to the Crimea, through warlike and poor barbarian tribes, +on inhospitable and unknown waters, along a coast where +at certain places the mountains sink perpendicularly into the sea +and it would have been absolutely necessary to embark in the ships-- +if such a march should be successfully accomplished, which was perhaps +more difficult than the campaigns of Alexander and Hannibal-- +what was gained by it even at the best, corresponding at all to its toils +and dangers? The war doubtless was not ended, so long as the old +king was still among the living; but who could guarantee that they +would really succeed in catching the royal game for the sake of which +this unparalleled chase was to be instituted? Was it not better +even at the risk of Mithradates once more throwing the torch +of war into Asia Minor, to desist from a pursuit which promised +so little gain and so many dangers? Doubtless numerous voices +in the army, and still more numerous voices in the capital, +urged the general to continue the pursuit incessantly and at any price; +but they were the voices partly of foolhardy Hotspurs, +partly of those perfidious friends, who would gladly at any price +have kept the too-powerful Imperator aloof from the capital +and entangled him amidst interminable undertakings in the east. +Pompeius was too experienced and too discreet an officer to stake +his fame and his army in obstinate adherence to so injudicious +an expedition; an insurrection of the Albanians in rear of the army +furnished the pretext for abandoning the further pursuit +of the king and arranging its return. The fleet received instructions +to cruise in the Black Sea, to protect the northern coast of Asia +Minor against any hostile invasion, and strictly to blockade +the Cimmerian Bosporus under the threat of death to any trader +who should break the blockade. Pompeius conducted the land troops +not without great hardships through the Colchian and Armenian territory +to the lower course of the Kur and onward, crossing the stream, +into the Albanian plain. + +Fresh Conflicts with the Albanians + +For several days the Roman army had to march in the glowing heat +through this almost waterless flat country, without encountering +the enemy; it was only on the left bank of the Abas (probably +the river elsewhere named Alazonius, now Alasan) that the force +of the Albanians under the leadership of Coses, brother of the king +Oroizes, was drawn up against the Romans; they are said to have +amounted, including the contingent which had arrived +from the inhabitants of the Transcaucasian steppes, to 60,000 infantry +and 12,000 cavalry. Yet they would hardly have risked the battle, +unless they had supposed that they had merely to fight with +the Roman cavalry; but the cavalry had only been placed in front, +and, on its retiring, the masses of Roman infantry showed themselves +from their concealment behind. After a short conflict the army +of the barbarians was driven into the woods, which Pompeius +gave orders to invest and set on fire. The Albanians thereupon +consented to make peace; and, following the example of the more +powerful peoples, all the tribes settled between the Kur and the Caspian +concluded a treaty with the Roman general. The Albanians, +Iberians, and generally the peoples settled to the south along, +and at the foot of, the Caucasus, thus entered at least for the moment +into a relation of dependence on Rome. When, on the other hand, +the peoples between the Phasis and the Maeotis--Colchians, Soani, +Heniochi, Zygi, Achaeans, even the remote Bastarnae--were inscribed +in the long list of the nations subdued by Pompeius, the notion +of subjugation was evidently employed in a manner very far from exact. +The Caucasus once more verified its significance in the history +of the world; the Roman conquest, like the Persian and the Hellenic, +found its limit there. + +Mithradates Goes to Panticapaeum + +Accordingly king Mithradates was left to himself and to destiny. +As formerly his ancestor, the founder of the Pontic state +had first entered his future kingdom as a fugitive from the executioners +of Antigonus and attended only by six horsemen, so had the grandson +now been compelled once more to cross the bounds of his kingdom +and to turn his back on his own and his fathers' conquests. +But for no one had the dice of fate turned up the highest gains +and the greatest losses more frequently and more capriciously +than for the old sultan of Sinope; and the fortunes of men +change rapidly and incalculably in the east. Well might +Mithradates now in the evening of his life accept each new +vicissitude with the thought that it too was only in its turn +paving the way for a fresh revolution, and that the only thing +constant was the perpetual change of fortune. Inasmuch as +the Roman rule was intolerable for the Orientals at the very core +of their nature, and Mithradates himself was in good and in evil +a true prince of the east, amidst the laxity of the rule exercised +by the Roman senate over the provinces, and amidst the dissensions +of the political parties in Rome fermenting and ripening into civil +war, Mithradates might, if he was fortunate enough to bide +his time, doubtless re-establish his dominion yet a third time. +For this very reason--because he hoped and planned while still +there was life in him--he remained dangerous to the Romans so long as +he lived, as an aged refugee no less than when he had marched forth +with his hundred thousands to wrest Hellas and Macedonia +from the Romans. The restless old man made his way in the year 689 +from Dioscurias amidst unspeakable hardships partly by land partly +by sea to the kingdom of Panticapaeum, where by his reputation +and his numerous retainers he drove his renegade son Machares +from the throne and compelled him to put himself to death. +From this point he attempted once more to negotiate with the Romans; +he besought that his paternal kingdom might be restored to him, +and declared himself ready to recognize the supremacy of Rome +and to pay tribute as a vassal. But Pompeius refused to grant +the king a position in which he would have begun the old game afresh, +and insisted on his personal submission. + +His Last Preparations against Rome + +Mithradates, however, had no thought of delivering himself into the hands +of the enemy, but was projecting new and still more extravagant plans. +Straining all the resources with which the treasures that he had saved +and the remnant of his states supplied him, he equipped a new army +of 36,000 men consisting partly of slaves which he armed and exercised +after the Roman fashion, and a war-fleet; according to rumour he designed +to march westward through Thrace, Macedonia, and Pannonia, to carry along +with him the Scythians in the Sarmatian steppes and the Celts on the Danube +as allies, and with this avalanche of peoples to throw himself +on Italy. This has been deemed a grand idea, and the plan of war +of the Pontic king has been compared with the military march +of Hannibal; but the same project, which in a gifted man is a stroke +of genius, becomes folly in one who is wrong-headed. This intended +invasion of Italy by the Orientals was simply ridiculous, +and nothing but a product of the impotent imagination of despair. +Through the prudent coolness of their leader the Romans +were prevented from Quixotically pursuing their Quixotic antagonist +and warding off in the distant Crimea an attack, which, if it +were not nipped of itself in the bud, would still have been +soon enough met at the foot of the Alps. + +Revolt against Mithradates + +In fact, while Pompeius, without troubling himself further +as to the threats of the impotent giant, was employed in organizing +the territory which he had gained, the destinies of the aged king +drew on to their fulfilment without Roman aid in the remote north. +His extravagant preparations had produced the most violent excitement +among the Bosporans, whose houses were torn down, and whose oxen +were taken from the plough and put to death, in order to procure +beams and sinews for constructing engines of war. The soldiers +too were disinclined to enter on the hopeless Italian expedition. +Mithradates had constantly been surrounded by suspicion +and treason; he had not the gift of calling forth affection +and fidelity among those around him. As in earlier years he had +compelled his distinguished general Archelaus to seek protection +in the Roman camp; as during the campaigns of Lucullus his most +trusted officers Diodes, Phoenix, and even the most notable of the Roman +emigrants had passed over to the enemy; so now, when his star +grew pale and the old, infirm, embittered sultan was accessible +to no one else save his eunuchs, desertion followed still more rapidly +on desertion. Castor, the commandant of the fortress Phanagoria +(on the Asiatic coast opposite Kertch), first raised the standard +of revolt; he proclaimed the freedom of the town and delivered +the sons of Mithradates that were in the fortress into the hands +of the Romans. While the insurrection spread among the Bosporan towns, +and Chersonesus (not far from Sebastopol), Theudosia (Kaffa), +and others joined the Phanagorites, the king allowed his suspicion +and his cruelty to have free course. On the information of despicable +eunuchs his most confidential adherents were nailed to the cross; +the king's own sons were the least sure of their lives. The son +who was his father's favourite and was probably destined by him +as his successor, Pharnaces, took his resolution and headed +the insurgents. The servants whom Mithradates sent to arrest him, +and the troops despatched against him, passed over to his side; +the corps of Italian deserters, perhaps the most efficient among +the divisions of Mithradates' army, and for that very reason the least +inclined to share in the romantic--and for the deserters peculiarly +hazardous--expedition against Italy, declared itself en masse +for the prince; the other divisions of the army and the fleet followed +the example thus set. + +Death of Mithadates + +After the country and the army had abandoned the king, the capital +Panticapaeum at length opened its gates to the insurgents +and delivered over to them the old king enclosed in his palace. +From the high wall of his castle the latter besought his son at least +to grant him life and not imbrue his hands in his father's blood; +but the request came ill from the lips of a man whose own hands +were stained with the blood of his mother and with the recently-shed +blood of his innocent son Xiphares; and in heartless severity +and inhumanity Pharnaces even outstripped his father. Seeing therefore +he had now to die, the sultan resolved at least to die as he had +lived; his wives, his concubines and his daughters, including +the youthful brides of the kings of Egypt and Cyprus, had all to suffer +the bitterness of death and drain the poisoned cup, before he too +took it, and then, when the draught did not take effect quickly +enough, presented his neck for the fatal stroke to a Celtic +mercenary Betuitus. So died in 691 Mithradates Eupator, +in the sixty-eighth year of his life and the fifty-seventh of his reign, +twenty-six years after he had for the first time taken the field +against the Romans. The dead body, which king Pharnaces sent +as a voucher of his merits and of his loyalty to Pompeius, was by order +of the latter laid in the royal sepulchre of Sinope. + +The death of Mithradates was looked on by the Romans as equivalent +to a victory: the messengers who reported to the general +the catastrophe appeared crowned with laurel, as if they had a victory +to announce, in the Roman camp before Jericho. In him a great +enemy was borne to the tomb, a greater than had ever yet withstood +the Romans in the indolent east. Instinctively the multitude felt +this: as formerly Scipio had triumphed even more over Hannibal than +over Carthage, so the conquest of the numerous tribes of the east +and of the great-king himself was almost forgotten in the death +of Mithradates; and at the solemn entry of Pompeius nothing attracted +more the eyes of the multitude than the pictures, in which they saw +king Mithradates as a fugitive leading his horse by the rein +and thereafter sinking down in death between the dead bodies of his +daughters. Whatever judgment may be formed as to the idiosyncrasy +of the king, he is a figure of great significance--in the full +sense of the expression--for the history of the world. He was not +a personage of genius, probably not even of rich endowments; +but he possessed the very respectable gift of hating, +and out of this hatred he sustained an unequal conflict +against superior foes throughout half a century, without success +doubtless, but with honour. He became still more significant +through the position in which history had placed him +thanthrough his individual character. As the forerunner +of the national reaction of the Orientals against the Occidentals, +he opened the new conflict of the east against the west; +and the feeling remained with the vanquished as with the victors, +that his death was not so much the end as the beginning. + +Pompeius Proceeds to Syria + +Meanwhile Pompeius, after his warfare in 689 with the peoples +of the Caucasus, had returned to the kingdom of Pontus, +and there reduced the last castles still offering resistance; +these were razed in order to check the evils of brigandage, +and the castle wells were rendered unserviceable by rolling blocks +of rock into them. Thence he set out in the summer of 690 for Syria, +to regulate its affairs. + +State of Syria + +It is difficult to present a clear view of the state of disorganization +which then prevailed in the Syrian provinces. It is true +that in consequence of the attacks of Lucullus the Armenian governor +Magadates had evacuated these provinces in 685,(7) and that the Ptolemies, +gladly as they would have renewed the attempts of their predecessors +to attach the Syrian coast to their kingdom, were yet afraid to provoke +the Roman government by the occupation of Syria; the more so, +as that government had not yet regulated their more than doubtful +legal title even in the case of Egypt, and had been several times +solicited by the Syrian princes to recognize them as the legitimate heirs +of the extinct house of the Lagids. But, though the greater powers +all at the moment refrained from interference in the affairs +of Syria, the land suffered far more than it would have suffered amidst +a great war, through the endless and aimless feuds of the princes, +knights, and cities. + +Arabian Princes + +The actual masters in the Seleucid kingdom were at this time +the Bedouins, the Jews, and the Nabataeans. The inhospitable +sandy steppe destitute of springs and trees, which, stretching +from the Arabianpeninsula up to and beyond the Euphrates, reaches +towards the west as far as the Syrian mountain-chain and its narrow belt +of coast, toward the east as far as the rich lowlands of the Tigris +and lower Euphrates--this Asiatic Sahara--was the primitive home +of the sons of Ishmael; from the commencement of tradition we find +the "Bedawi," the "son of the desert," pitching his tents there +and pasturing his camels, or mounting his swift horse in pursuit +now of the foe of his tribe, now of the travelling merchant. Favoured +formerly by king Tigranes, who made use of them for his plans half +commercial half political,(8) and subsequently by the total absence +of any master in the Syrian land, these children of the desert +spread themselves over northern Syria. Wellnigh the leading part +in a political point of view was enacted by those tribes, +which had appropriated the first rudiments of a settled existence +from the vicinity of the civilized Syrians. The most noted +of these emirs were Abgarus, chief of the Arab tribe of the Mardani, +whom Tigranes had settled about Edessa and Carrhae in upper Mesopotamia;(9) +then to the west of the Euphrates Sampsiceramus, emir of the Arabs +of Hemesa (Homs) between Damascus and Antioch, and master +of the strong fortress Arethusa; Azizus the head of another horde +roaming in the same region; Alchaudonius, the prince of the Rhambaeans, +who had already put himself into communication with Lucullus; +and several others. + +Robber-Chiefs + +Alongside of these Bedouin princes there had everywhere appeared +bold cavaliers, who equalled or excelled the children of the desert +in the noble trade of waylaying. Such was Ptolemaeus son +of Mennaeus, perhaps the most powerful among these Syrian robber- +chiefs and one of the richest men of this period, who ruled over +the territory of the Ityraeans--the modern Druses--in the valleys +of the Libanus as well as on the coast and over the plain +of Massyas to the northward with the cities of Heliopolis (Baalbec) +and Chalcis, and maintained 8000 horsemen at his own expense; +such were Dionysius and Cinyras, the masters of the maritime cities +Tripolis (Tarablus) and Byblus (between Tarablus and Beyrout); +such was the Jew Silas in Lysias, a fortress not far from Apamea +on the Orontes. + +Jews + +In the south of Syria, on the other hand, the race of the Jews +seemed as though it would about this time consolidate itself +into a political power. Through the devout and bold defence +of the primitive Jewish national worship, which was imperilled +by the levelling Hellenism of the Syrian kings, the family +of the Hasmonaeans or the Makkabi had not only attained to their +hereditary principality and gradually to kingly honours;(10) +but these princely high-priests had also spread their conquests +to the north, east, and south. When the brave Jannaeus Alexander +died (675), the Jewish kingdom stretched towards the south over +the whole Philistian territory as far as the frontier of Egypt, towards +the south-east as far as that of the Nabataean kingdom of Petra, +from which Jannaeus had wrested considerable tracts on the right +bank of the Jordan and the Dead Sea, towards the north over Samaria +and Decapolis up to the lake of Gennesareth; here he was already +making arrangements to occupy Ptolemais (Acco) and victoriously +to repel the aggressions of the Ityraeans. The coast obeyed the Jews +from Mount Carmel as far as Rhinocorura, including the important +Gaza--Ascalon alone was still free; so that the territory +of the Jews, once almost cut off from the sea, could now be enumerated +among the asylums of piracy. Now that the Armenian invasion, just +as it approached the borders of Judaea, was averted from that land +by the intervention of Lucullus,(11) the gifted rulers +of the Hasmonaean house would probably have carried their arms still +farther, had not the development of the power of that remarkable +conquering priestly state been nipped in the bud by internal divisions. + +Pharisees +Sadducees + +The spirit of religious independence, and the spirit of national +independence--the energetic union of which had called the Maccabee +state into life--speedily became once more dissociated and even +antagonistic. The Jewish orthodoxy or Pharisaism, as it was called, +was content with the free exercise of religion, as it had +been asserted in defiance of the Syrian rulers; its practical aim +was a community of Jews, composed of the orthodox in the lands +of all rulers, essentially irrespective of the secular government-- +a community which found its visible points of union in the tribute +for the temple at Jerusalem, which was obligatory on every +conscientious Jew, and in the schools of religion and spiritual +courts. Overagainst this orthodoxy, which turned away +from political life and became more and more stiffened into theological +formalism and painful ceremonial service, were arrayed +the defenders of the national independence, invigorated amidst +successful struggles against foreign rule, and advancing towards +the ideal of a restoration of the Jewish state, the representatives +of the old great families--the so-called Sadducees--partly +on dogmatic grounds, in so far as they acknowledged only the sacred +books themselves and conceded authority merely, not canonicity, +to the "bequests of the scribes," that is, to canonical tradition;(12) +partly and especially on political grounds, in so far as, instead +of a fatalistic waiting for the strong arm of the Lord of Zebaoth, +they taught that the salvation of the nation was to be expected +from the weapons of this world, and from the inward and outward +strengthening of the kingdom of David as re-established +in the glorious times of the Maccabees. Those partisans of orthodoxy +found their support in the priesthood and the multitude; they +contested with the Hasmonaeans the legitimacy of their high- +priesthood, and fought against the noxious heretics with all +the reckless implacability, with which the pious are often found +to contend for the possession of earthly goods. The state-party +on the other hand relied for support on intelligence brought into +contact with the influences of Hellenism, on the army, in which +numerous Pisidian and Cilician mercenaries served, and on the abler +kings, who here strove with the ecclesiastical power much as +a thousand years later the Hohenstaufen strove with the Papacy. +Jannaeus had kept down the priesthood with a strong hand; +under his two sons there arose (685 et seq.) a civil and fraternal war, +since the Pharisees opposed the vigorous Aristobulus and attempted +to obtain their objects under the nominal rule of his brother, +the good-natured and indolent Hyrcanus. This dissension not merely +put a stop to the Jewish conquests, but gave also foreign nations +opportunity to interfere and thereby obtain a commanding position +in southern Syria. + +Nabataeans + +This was the case first of all with the Nabataeans. This remarkable +nation has often been confounded with its eastern neighbours, +the wandering Arabs, but it is more closely related to the Aramaean +branch than to the proper children of Ishmael. This Aramaean or, +according to the designation of the Occidentals, Syrian stock +must have in very early times sent forth from its most ancient +settlements about Babylon a colony, probably for the sake of trade, +to the northern end of the Arabian gulf; these were the Nabataeans +on the Sinaitic peninsula, between the gulf of Suez and Aila, +and in the region of Petra (Wadi Mousa). In their ports +the wares of the Mediterranean were exchanged for those of India; +the great southern caravan-route, which ran from Gaza to the mouth +of the Euphrates and the Persian gulf, passed through the capital +of the Nabataeans--Petra--whose still magnificent rock-palaces +and rock-tombs furnish clearer evidence of the Nabataean civilization +than does an almost extinct tradition. The leaders of the Pharisees, +to whom after the manner of priests the victory of their faction +seemed not too dearly bought at the price of the independence +and integrity of their country, solicited Aretas the king +of the Nabataeans for aid against Aristobulus, in return for which +they promised to give back to him all the conquests wrested +from him by Jannaeus. Thereupon Aretas had advanced with, it was +said, 50,000 men into Judaea and, reinforced by the adherents +of the Pharisees, he kept king Aristobulus besieged in his capital. + +Syrian Cities + +Amidst the system of violence and feud which thus prevailed +from one end of Syria to another, the larger cities were of course +the principal sufferers, such as Antioch, Seleucia, Damascus, +whose citizens found themselves paralysed in their husbandry +as well as in their maritime and caravan trade. The citizens of Byblus +and Berytus (Beyrout) were unable to protect their fields +and their ships from the Ityraeans, who issuing from their mountain +and maritime strongholds rendered land and sea equally insecure. +Those of Damascus sought to ward off the attacks of the Ityraeans +and Ptolemaeus by handing themselves over to the more remote kings +of the Nabataeans or of the Jews. In Antioch Sampsiceramus and Azizus +mingled in the internal feuds of the citizens, and the Hellenic +great city had wellnigh become even now the seat of an Arab emir. +The state of things reminds us of the kingless times of the German +middle ages, when Nuremberg and Augsburg found their protection +not in the king's law and the king's courts, but in their own walls +alone; impatiently the merchant-citizens of Syria awaited the strong +arm, which should restore to them peace and security of intercourse. + +The Last Seleucids + +There was no want, however, of a legitimate king in Syria; +there were even two or three of them. A prince Antiochus +from the house of the Seleucids had been appointed by Lucullus +as ruler of the most northerly province in Syria, Commagene.(13) +Antiochus Asiaticus, whose claims on the Syrian throne had met +with recognition both from the senate and from Lucullus,(14) +had been received in Antioch after the retreat of the Armenians +and there acknowledged as king. A third Seleucid prince Philippus +had immediately confronted him there as a rival; and the great +population of Antioch, excitable and delighting in opposition +almost like that of Alexandria, as well as one or two +of the neighbouring Arab emirs had interfered in the family strife +which now seemed inseparable from the rule of the Seleucids. +Was there any wonder that legitimacy became ridiculous and loathsome +to its subjects, and that the so-called rightful kings +were of even somewhat less importance in the land than the petty +princes and robber-chiefs? + +Annexation of Syria + +To create order amidst this chaos did not require either brilliance +of conception or a mighty display of force, but it required a clear +insight into the interests of Rome and of her subjects, and vigour +and consistency in establishing and maintaining the institutions +recognized as necessary. The policy of the senate in support +of legitimacy had sufficiently degraded itself; the general, +whom the opposition had brought into power, was not to be guided +by dynastic considerations, but had only to see that the Syrian kingdom +should not be withdrawn from the clientship of Rome in future either +by the quarrels of pretenders or by the Covetousness of neighbours. +But to secure this end there was only one course; that the Roman +community should send a satrap to grasp with a vigorous hand +the reins of government, which had long since practically slipped +from the hands of the kings of the ruling house more even through +their own fault than through outward misfortunes. This course Pompeius +took. Antiochus the Asiatic, on requesting to be acknowledged +as the hereditary ruler of Syria, received the answer that Pompeius +would not give back the sovereignty to a king who knew neither how +to maintain nor how to govern his kingdom, even at the request +of his subjects, much less against their distinctly expressed wishes. +With this letter of the Roman proconsul the house of Seleucus +was ejected from the throne which it had occupied for two hundred +and fifty years. Antiochus soon after lost his life through +the artifice of the emir Sampsiceramus, as whose client he played +the ruler in Antioch; thenceforth there is no further mention of these +mock-kings and their pretensions. + +Military Pacification of Syria + +But, to establish the new Roman government and introduce +any tolerable order into the confusion of affairs, it was further +necessary to advance into Syria with a military force and to terrify +or subdue all the disturbers of the peace, who had sprung +up during the many years of anarchy, by means of the Roman legions. +Already during the campaigns in the kingdom of Pontus and on the Caucasus +Pompeius had turned his attention to the affairs of Syria +and directed detached commissioners and corps to interfere, +where there was need. Aulus Gabinius--the same who as tribune +of the people had sent Pompeius to the east--had in 689 marched +along the Tigris and then across Mesopotamia to Syria, to adjust +the complicated affairs of Judaea. In like manner the severely pressed +Damascus had already been occupied by Lollius and Metellus. Soon +afterwards another adjutant of Pompeius, Marcus Scaurus, arrived +in Judaea, to allay the feuds ever breaking out afresh there. +Lucius Afranius also, who during the expedition of Pompeius +to the Caucasus held the command of the Roman troops in Armenia, +had proceeded from Corduene (the northern Kurdistan) to upper +Mesopotamia, and, after he had successfully accomplished +the perilous march through the desert with the sympathizing help +of the Hellenes settled in Carrhae, brought the Arabs in Osrhoene +to submission. Towards the end of 690 Pompeius in person arrived +in Syria,(15) and remained there till the summer of the following +year, resolutely interfering and regulating matters for the present +and the future. He sought to restore the kingdom to its state +in the better times of the Seleucid rule; all usurped powers were set +aside, the robber-chiefs were summoned to give up their castles, +the Arab sheiks were again restricted to their desert domains, +the affairs of the several communities were definitely regulated. + +The Robber-Chiefs Chastised + +The legions stood ready to procure obedience to these stern orders, +and their interference proved especially necessary against +the audacious robber-chiefs. Silas the ruler of Lysias, Dionysius +the ruler of Tripolis, Cinyras the ruler of Byblus were taken prisoners +in their fortresses and executed, the mountain and maritime strongholds +of the Ityraeans were broken up, Ptolemaeus son of Mennaeus in Chalcis +was forced to purchase his freedom and his lordship with a ransom +of 1000 talents (240,000 pounds). Elsewhere the commands +of the new master met for the most part with unresisting obedience. + +Negotiations and Conflicts with the Jews + +The Jews alone hesitated. The mediators formerly sent by Pompeius, +Gabinius and Scaurus, had--both, as it was said, bribed +with considerable sums--in the dispute between the brothers +Hyrcanus and Aristobulus decided in favour of the latter, and had also +induced king Aretas to raise the siege of Jerusalem and to proceed +homeward, in doing which he sustained a defeat at the hands +of Aristobulus. But, when Pompeius arrived in Syria, he cancelled +the orders of his subordinates and directed the Jews to resume their +old constitution under high-priests, as the senate had recognized +it about 593,(16) and to renounce along with the hereditary +principality itself all the conquests made by the Hasmonaean +princes. It was the Pharisees, who had sent an embassy of two +hundred of their most respected men to the Roman general and procured +from him the overthrow of the kingdom; not to the advantage +of their own nation, but doubtless to that of the Romans, +who from the nature of the case could not but here revert +to the old rights of the Seleucids, and could not tolerate a conquering +power like that of Jannaeus within the limits of their empire. +Aristobulus was uncertain whether it was better patiently +to acquiesce in his inevitable doom or to meet his fate with arms +in hand; at one time he seemed on the point of submitting to Pompeius, +at another he seemed as though he would summon the national party +among the Jews to a struggle with the Romans. When at length, +with the legions already at the gates, he yielded to the enemy, +the more resolute or more fanatical portion of his army refused +to comply with the orders of a king who was not free. The capital +submitted; the steep temple-rock was defended by that fanatical band +for three months with an obstinacy ready to brave death, till at last +the besiegers effected an entrance while the besieged were resting +on the Sabbath, possessed themselves of the sanctuary, and handed over +the authors of that desperate resistance, so far as they had +not fallen under the sword of the Romans, to the axes of the lictors. +Thus ended the last resistance of the territories newly annexed +to the Roman state. + +The New Relations of the Romans in the East + +The work begun by Lucullus had been completed by Pompeius; +the hitherto formally independent states of Bithynia, Pontus, +and Syria were united with the Roman state; the exchange--which +had been recognized for more than a hundred years as necessary-- +of the feeble system of a protectorate for that of direct sovereignty +over the more important dependent territories,(17) had at length +been realized, as soon as the senate had been overthrown and the Gracchan +party had come to the helm. Rome had obtained in the east +new frontiers, new neighbours, new friendly and hostile relations. +There were now added to the indirect territories of Rome +the kingdom of Armenia and the principalities of the Caucasus, +and also the kingdom on the Cimmerian Bosporus, the small remnant +of the extensive conquests of Mithradates Eupator, now a client-state +of Rome under the government of his son and murderer Pharnaces; +the town of Phanagoria alone, whose commandant Castor had given +the signal for the revolt, was on that account recognized by the Romans +as free and independent. + +Conflicts with the Nabataeans + +No like successes could be boasted of against the Nabataeans. +King Aretas had indeed, yielding to the desire of the Romans, +evacuated Judaea; but Damascus was still in his hands, +and the Nabataean land had not yet been trodden by any Roman soldier. +To subdue that region or at least to show to their new neighbours +in Arabia that the Roman eagles were now dominant on the Orontes +and on the Jordan, and that the time had gone by when any one was free +to levy contributions in the Syrian lands as a domain without a master, +Pompeius began in 691 an expedition against Petra; but detained +by the revolt of the Jews, which broke out during this expedition, +he was not reluctant to leave to his successor Marcus Scaurus +the carrying out of the difficult enterprise against the Nabataean city +situated far off amidst the desert.(18) In reality Scaurus also +soon found himself compelled to return without having accomplished +his object. He had to content himself with making war +on the Nabataeans in the deserts on the left bank of the Jordan, +where he could lean for support on the Jews, but yet bore off only +very trifling successes. Ultimately the adroit Jewish minister +Antipater from Idumaea persuaded Aretas to purchase a guarantee +for all his possessions, Damascus included, from the Roman governor +for a sum of money; and this is the peace celebrated on the coins +of Scaurus, where king Aretas appears--leading his camel-- +as a suppliant offering the olive branch to the Roman. + +Difficulty with the Parthians + +Far more fraught with momentous effects than these new relations +of the Romans to the Armenians, Iberians, Bosporans, and Nabataeans +was the proximity into which through the occupation of Syria they +were brought with the Parthian state. Complaisant as had been +the demeanour of Roman diplomacy towards Phraates while the Pontic +and Armenian states still subsisted, willingly as both Lucullus +and Pompeius had then conceded to him the possession of the regions +beyond the Euphrates,(19) the new neighbour now sternly took up +his position by the side of the Arsacids; and Phraates, if the royal +art of forgetting his own faults allowed him, might well recall now +the warning words of Mithradates that the Parthian by his alliance +with the Occidentals against the kingdoms of kindred race paved +the way first for their destruction and then for his own. +Romans and Parthians in league had brought Armenia to ruin; +when it was overthrown, Rome true to her old policy now reversed +the parts and favoured the humbled foe at the expense +of the powerful ally. The singular preference, which the father +Tigranes experienced from Pompeius as contrasted with his son +the ally and son-in-law of the Parthian king, was already +part of this policy; it was a direct offence, when soon afterwards +by the orders of Pompeius the younger Tigranes and his family +were arrested and were not released even on Phraates interceding +with the friendly general for his daughter and his son-in-law. +But Pompeius paused not here. The province of Corduene, +to which both Phraates and Tigranes laid claim, was at the command +of Pompeius occupied by Roman troops for the latter, and the Parthians +who were found in possession were driven beyond the frontier +and pursued even as far as Arbela in Adiabene, without the government +of Ctesiphon having even been previously heard (689). +Far the most suspicious circumstance however was, that the Romans +seemed not at all inclined to respect the boundary of the Euphrates +fixed by treaty. On several occasions Roman divisions +destined from Armenia for Syria marched across Mesopotamia; +the Arab emir Abgarus of Osrhoene was received under singularly +favourable conditions into Roman protection; nay, Oruros, situated +in Upper Mesopotamia somewhere between Nisibis and the Tigris 220 +miles eastward from the Commagenian passage of the Euphrates, +was designated as the eastern limit of the Roman dominion-- +presumably their indirect dominion, inasmuch as the larger +and more fertile northern half of Mesopotamia had been assigned +by the Romans in like manner with Corduene to the Armenian empire. +The boundary between Romans and Parthians thus became the great +Syro-Mesopotamian desert instead of the Euphrates; and this too +seemed only provisional. To the Parthian envoys, who came to insist +on the maintenance of the agreements--which certainly, as it would +seem, were only concluded orally--respecting the Euphrates +boundary, Pompeius gave the ambiguous reply that the territory +of Rome extended as far as her rights. The remarkable intercourse +between the Roman commander-in-chief and the Parthian satraps +of the region of Media and even of the distant province Elymais +(between Susiana, Media, and Persia, in the modern Luristan) seemed +a commentary on this speech.(20) The viceroys of this latter +mountainous, warlike, and remote land had always exerted themselves +to acquire a position independent of the great-king; it was +the more offensive and menacing to the Parthian government, +when Pompeius accepted the proffered homage of this dynast. +Not less significant was the fact that the title of "king of kings," +which had been hitherto conceded to the Parthian king by the Romans +in official intercourse, was now all at once exchanged by them +for the simple title of king. This was even more a threat than +a violation of etiquette. Since Rome had entered on the heritage +of the Seleucids, it seemed almost as if the Romans had a mind to revert +at a convenient moment to those old times, when all Iran and Turan +were ruled from Antioch, and there was as yet no Parthian empire +but merely a Parthian satrapy. The court of Ctesiphon would thus +have had reason enough for going to war with Rome; it seemed +the prelude to its doing so, when in 690 it declared war on Armenia +on account of the question of the frontier. But Phraates had not +the courage to come to an open rupture with the Romans at a time +when the dreaded general with his strong army was on the borders +of the Parthian empire. When Pompeius sent commissioners to settle +amicably the dispute between Parthia and Armenia, Phraates yielded +to the Roman mediation forced upon him and acquiesced in their +award, which assigned to the Armenians Corduene and northern +Mesopotamia. Soon afterwards his daughter with her son and her +husband adorned the triumph of the Roman general. Even the Parthians +trembled before the superior power of Rome; and, if they had not, +like the inhabitants of Pontus and Armenia, succumbed to the Roman +arms, the reason seemed only to be that they had not ventured +to stand the conflict. + +Organization of the Provinces + +There still devolved on the general the duty of regulating +the internal relations of the newly-acquired provinces and of removing +as far as possible the traces of a thirteen years' desolating war. +The work of organization begun in Asia Minor by Lucullus +and the commission associated with him, and in Crete by Metellus, +received its final conclusion from Pompeius. The former province +of Asia, which embraced Mysia, Lydia, Phrygia, and Caria, was converted +from a frontier province into a central one. The newly-erected +provinces were, that of Bithynia and Pontus, which was formed +out of the whole former kingdom of Nicomedes and the western half +of the former Pontic state as far as and beyond the Halys; +that of Cilicia, which indeed was older, but was now for the first +time enlarged and organized in a manner befitting its name, +and comprehended also Pamphylia and Isauria; that of Syria, +and that of Crete. Much was no doubt wanting to render that mass +of countries capable of being regarded as the territorial possession +of Rome in the modern sense of the term. The form and order +of the government remained substantially as they were; only the Roman +community came in place of the former monarchs. Those Asiatic provinces +consisted as formerly of a motley mixture of domanial possessions, +urban territories de facto or de jure autonomous, lordships pertaining +to princes and priests, and kingdoms, all of which were as regards +internal administration more or less left to themselves, +and in other respects were dependent, sometimes in milder sometimes +in stricter forms, on the Roman government and its proconsuls +very much as formerly on the great-king and his satraps. + +Feudatory Kings +Cappadocia +Commagene +Galatia + +The first place, in rank at least, among the dependent dynasts +was held by the king of Cappadocia, whose territory Lucullus had +already enlarged by investing him with the province of Melitene +(about Malatia) as far as the Euphrates, and to whom Pompeius +farther granted on the western frontier some districts taken off +Cilicia from Castabala as far as Derbe near Iconium, and on the eastern +frontier the province of Sophene situated on the left bank +of the Euphrates opposite Melitene and at first destined +for the Armenian prince Tigranes; so that the most important passage +of the Euphrates thus came wholly into the power of the Cappadocian +prince. The small province of Commagene between Syria +and Cappadocia with its capital Samosata (Samsat) remained a dependent +kingdom in the hands of the already-named Seleucid Antiochus;(21) +to him too were assigned the important fortress of Seleucia (near +Biradjik) commanding the more southern passage of the Euphrates, +and the adjoining tracts on the left bank of that river; and thus +care was taken that the two chief passages of the Euphrates +with a corresponding territory on the eastern bank were left in the hands +of two dynasts wholly dependent on Rome. Alongside of the kings +of Cappadocia and Commagene, and in real power far superior to them, +the new king Deiotarus ruled in Asia Minor. One of the tetrarchs +of the Celtic stock of the Tolistobogii settled round Pessinus, +and summoned by Lucullus and Pompeius to render military service +with the other small Roman clients, Deiotarus had in these campaigns +so brilliantly proved his trustworthiness and his energy as contrasted +with all the indolent Orientals that the Roman generals conferred +upon him, in addition to his Galatian heritage and his possessions +in the rich country between Amisus and the mouth of the Halys, +the eastern half of the former Pontic empire with the maritime towns +of Pharnacia and Trapezus and the Pontic Armenia as far as +the frontier of Colchis and the Greater Armenia, to form the kingdom +of Lesser Armenia. Soon afterwards he increased his already +considerable territory by the country of the Celtic Trocmi, +whose tetrarch he dispossessed. Thus the petty feudatory became +one of the most powerful dynasts of Asia Minor, to whom might +be entrusted the guardianship of an important part of the frontier +of the empire. + +Princes and Chiefs + +Vassals of lesser importance were, the other numerous Galatian +tetrarchs, one of whom, Bogodiatarus prince of the Trocmi, +was on account of his tried valour in the Mithradatic war presented +by Pompeius with the formerly Pontic frontier-town of Mithradatium; +Attalus prince of Paphlagonia, who traced back his lineage +to the old ruling house of the Pylaemenids; Aristarchus and other petty +lords in the Colchian territory; Tarcondimotus who ruled in eastern +Cilicia in the mountain-valleys of the Amanus; Ptolemaeus son +of Mennaeus who continued to rule in Chalcis on the Libanus; Aretas +king of the Nabataeans as lord of Damascus; lastly, the Arabic +emirs in the countries on either side of the Euphrates, Abgarus +in Osrhoene, whom the Romans endeavoured in every way to draw over +to their interest with the view of using him as an advanced post +against the Parthians, Sampsiceramus in Hemesa, Alchaudonius +the Rhambaean, and another emir in Bostra. + +Priestly Princes + +To these fell to be added the spiritual lords who in the east +frequently ruled over land and people like secular dynasts, +and whose authority firmly established in that native home +of fanaticism the Romans prudently refrained from disturbing, +as they refrained from even robbing the temples of their treasures: +the high-priest of the Goddess Mother in Pessinus; the two high-priests +of the goddess Ma in the Cappadocian Comana (on the upper Sarus) +and in the Pontic city of the same name (Gumenek near Tocat), +both lords who were in their countries inferior only to the king +in power, and each of whom even at a much later period possessed +extensive estates with special jurisdiction and about six thousand +temple-slaves--Archelaus, son of the general of that name +who passed over from Mithradates to the Romans, was invested +by Pompeius with the Pontic high-priesthood--the high-priest +of the Venasian Zeus in the Cappadocian district of Morimene, +whose revenues amounted annually to 3600 pounds (15 talents); +the "archpriest and lord" of that territory in Cilicia Trachea, +where Teucer the son of Ajax had founded a temple to Zeus, over which +his descendants presided by virtue of hereditary right; the "arch-priest +and lord of the people" of the Jews, to whom Pompeius, after having +razed the walls of the capital and the royal treasuries and strongholds +in the land, gave back the presidency of the nation with a serious +admonition to keep the peace and no longer to aim at conquests. + +Urban Communities + +Alongside of these secular and spiritual potentates stood the urban +communities. These were partly associated into larger unions +which rejoiced in a comparative independence, such as in particular +the league of the twenty-three Lycian cities, which was well organized +and constantly, for instance, kept aloof from participation +in the disorders of piracy; whereas the numerous detached communities, +even if they had self-government secured by charter, +were in practice wholly dependent on the Roman governors. + +Elevation of Urban Life in Asia + +The Romans failed not to see that with the task of representing +Hellenism and protecting and extending the domain of Alexander +in the east there devolved on them the primary duty of elevating +the urban system; for, while cities are everywhere the pillars +of civilization, the antagonism between Orientals and Occidentals +was especially and most sharply embodied in the contrast between +the Oriental, military-despotic, feudal hierarchy and the Helleno- +Italic urban commonwealth prosecuting trade and commerce. Lucullus +and Pompeius, however little they in other respects aimed at +the reduction of things to one level in the east, and however much +the latter was disposed in questions of detail to censure and alter +the arrangements of his predecessor, were yet completely agreed +in the principle of promoting as far as they could an urban life in Asia +Minor and Syria. Cyzicus, on whose vigorous resistance the first +violence of the last war had spent itself, received from Lucullus +a considerable extension of its domain. The Pontic Heraclea, +energetically as it had resisted the Romans, yet recovered +its territory and its harbours; and the barbarous fury of Cotta against +the unhappy city met with the sharpest censure in the senate. +Lucullus had deeply and sincerely regretted that fate had refused +him the happiness of rescuing Sinope and Amisus from devastation +by the Pontic soldiery and his own: he did at least what he could +to restore them, extended considerably their territories, peopled them +afresh--partly with the old inhabitants, who at his invitation +returned in troops to their beloved homes, partly with new settlers +of Hellenic descent--and provided for the reconstruction +of the buildings destroyed. Pompeius acted in the same spirit +and on a greater scale. Already after the subjugation of the pirates +he had, instead of following the example of his predecessors +and crucifying his prisoners, whose number exceeded 20,000, settled +them partly in the desolated cities of the Plain Cilicia, +such as Mallus, Adana, Epiphaneia, and especially in Soli, +which thenceforth bore the name of Pompeius' city (Pompeiupolis), +partly at Dyme in Achaia, and even at Tarentum. This colonizing +by means of pirates met with manifold censure,(22) as it seemed +in some measure to set a premium on crime; in reality it was, +politically and morally, well justified, for, as things then stood, +piracy was something different from robbery and the prisoners +might fairly be treated according to martial law. + +New Towns Established + +But Pompeius made it his business above all to promote urban life +in the new Roman provinces. We have already observed how poorly +provided with towns the Pontic empire was:(23) most districts +of Cappadocia even a century after this had no towns, but merely +mountain fortresses as a refuge for the agricultural population +in war; the whole east of Asia Minor, apart from the sparse Greek +colonies on the coasts, must have been at this time in a similar +plight. The number of towns newly established by Pompeius in these +provinces is, including the Cilician settlements, stated at thirty- +nine, several of which attained great prosperity. The most notable +of these townships in the former kingdom of Pontus were Nicopolis, +the "city of victory," founded on the spot where Mithradates +sustained the last decisive defeat(24)--the fairest memorial +of a general rich in similar trophies; Megalopolis, named from Pompeius' +surname, on the frontier of Cappadocia and Lesser Armenia, +the subsequent Sebasteia (now Siwas); Ziela, where the Romans fought +the unfortunate battle,(25) a township which had arisen round +the temple of Anaitis there and hitherto had belonged to its high- +priest, and to which Pompeius now gave the form and privileges +of a city; Diopolis, formerly Cabira, afterwards Neocaesarea (Niksar), +likewise one of the battle-fields of the late war; Magnopolis +or Pompeiupolis, the restored Eupatoria at the confluence of the Lycus +and the Iris, originally built by Mithradates, but again destroyed +by him on account of the defection of the city to the Romans;(26) +Neapolis, formerly Phazemon, between Amasia and the Halys. Most +of the towns thus established were formed not by bringing +colonists from a distance, but by the suppression of villages +and the collection of their inhabitants within the new ring-wall; +only in Nicopolis Pompeius settled the invalids and veterans of his army, +who preferred to establish a home for themselves there at once +rather than afterwards in Italy. But at other places also +there arose on the suggestion of the regent new centres of Hellenic +civilization. In Paphlagonia a third Pompeiupolis marked the spot +where the army of Mithradates in 666 achieved the great victory +over the Bithynians.(27) In Cappadocia, which perhaps had suffered +more than any other province by the war, the royal residence Mazaca +(afterwards Caesarea, now Kaisarieh) and seven other townships +were re-established by Pompeius and received urban institutions. +In Cilicia and Coelesyria there were enumerated twenty towns laid +out by Pompeius. In the districts ceded by the Jews, Gadara +in the Decapolis rose from its ruins at the command of Pompeius, +and the city of Seleucis was founded. By far the greatest portion +of the domain-land at his disposal on the Asiatic continent must have +been applied by Pompeius for his new settlements; whereas in Crete, +about which Pompeius troubled himself little or not at all, +the Roman domanial possessions seem to have continued tolerably extensive. + +Pompeius was no less intent on regulating and elevating the existing +communities than on founding new townships. The abuses and usurpations +which prevailed were done away with as far as lay in his power; +detailed ordinances drawn up carefully for the different provinces +regulated the particulars of the municipal system. A number +of the most considerable cities had fresh privileges conferred on them. +Autonomy was bestowed on Antioch on the Orontes, the most important +city of Roman Asia and but little inferior to the Egyptian Alexandria +and to the Bagdad of antiquity, the city of Seleucia in the Parthian +empire; as also on the neighbour of Antioch, the Pierian Seleucia, +which was thus rewarded for its courageous resistance to Tigranes; +on Gaza and generally on all the towns liberated from the Jewish rule; +on Mytilene in the west of Asia Minor; and on Phanagoria +on the Black Sea. + +Aggregate Results + +Thus was completed the structure of the Roman state in Asia, +which with its feudatory kings and vassals, its priests made +into princes, and its series of free and half-free cities puts +us vividly in mind of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation. +It was no miraculous work, either as respects the difficulties +overcome or as respects the consummation attained; nor was it made +so by all the high-sounding words, which the Roman world of quality +lavished in favour of Lucullus and the artless multitude in praise +of Pompeius. Pompeius in particular consented to be praised, +and praised himself, in such a fashion that people might +almost have reckoned him still more weak-minded than he really was. +If the Mytilenaeans erected a statue to him as their deliverer +and founder, as the man who had as well by land as by sea terminated +the wars with which the world was filled, such a homage might +not seem too extravagant for the vanquisher of the pirates +and of the empires of the east. But the Romans this time surpassed +the Greeks. The triumphal inscriptions of Pompeius himself enumerated +12 millions of people as subjugated and 1538 cities and strongholds +as conquered--it seemed as if quantity was to make up for quality-- +and made the circle of his victories extend from the Maeotic Sea +to the Caspian and from the latter to the Red Sea, when his eyes had +never seen any one of the three; nay farther, if he did not exactly +say so, he at any late induced the public to suppose that the annexation +of Syria, which in truth was no heroic deed, had added +the whole east as far as Bactria and India to the Roman empire-- +so dim was the mist of distance, amidst which according to his +statements the boundary-line of his eastern conquests was lost. +The democratic servility, which has at all times rivalled +that of courts, readily entered into these insipid extravagances. +It was not satisfied by the pompous triumphal procession, which moved +through the streets of Rome on the 28th and 29th Sept. 693-- +the forty-sixth birthday of Pompeius the Great--adorned, to say nothing +of jewels of all sorts, by the crown insignia of Mithradates +and by the children of the three mightiest kings of Asia, Mithradates, +Tigranes, and Phraates; it rewarded its general, who had conquered +twenty-two kings, with regal honours and bestowed on him the golden +chaplet and the insignia of the magistracy for life. The coins struck +in his honour exhibit the globe itself placed amidst the triple +laurels brought home from the three continents, and surmounted +by the golden chaplet conferred by the burgesses on the man +who had triumphed over Africa, Spain, and Asia. It need excite +no surprise, if in presence of such childish acts of homage voices +were heard of an opposite import. Among the Roman world of quality +it was currently affirmed that the true merit of having subdued +the east belonged to Lucullus, and that Pompeius had only gone thither +to supplant Lucullus and to wreathe around his own brow the laurels +which another hand had plucked. Both statements were totally +erroneous: it was not Pompeius but Glabrio that was sent to Asia +to relieve Lucullus, and, bravely as Lucullus had fought, it was +a fact that, when Pompeius took the supreme command, the Romans +had forfeited all their earlier successes and had not a foot's breadth +of Pontic soil in their possession. More pointed and effective +was the ridicule of the inhabitants of the capital, who failed not +to nickname the mighty conqueror of the globe after the great powers +which he had conquered, and saluted him now as "conqueror of Salem," +now as "emir" (-Arabarches-), now as the Roman Sampsiceramus. + +Lucullus and Pompeius as Administrators + +The unprejudiced judge will not agree either with those exaggerations +or with these disparagements. Lucullus and Pompeius, in subduing +and regulating Asia, showed themselves to be, not heroes +and state-creators, but sagacious and energetic army-leaders +and governors. As general Lucullus displayed no common talents +and a self-confidence bordering on rashness, while Pompeius displayed +military judgment and a rare self-restraint; for hardly +has any general with such forces and a position so wholly free +ever acted so cautiously as Pompeius in the east. The most brilliant +undertakings, as it were, offered themselves to him on all sides; +he was free to start for the Cimmerian Bosporus and for the Red +Sea; he had opportunity of declaring war against the Parthians; +the revolted provinces of Egypt invited him to dethrone king +Ptolemaeus who was not recognized by the Romans, and to carry +out the testament of Alexander; but Pompeius marched neither +to Panticapaeum nor to Petra, neither to Ctesiphon nor to Alexandria; +throughout he gathered only those fruits which of themselves fell +to his hand. In like manner he fought all his battles by sea +and land with a crushing superiority of force. Had this moderation +proceeded from the strict observance of the instructions given +to him, as Pompeius was wont to profess, or even from a perception +that the conquests of Rome must somewhere find a limit and that +fresh accessions of territory were not advantageous to the state, +it would deserve a higher praise than history confers on the most +talented officer; but constituted as Pompeius was, his self- +restraint was beyond doubt solely the result of his peculiar want +of decision and of initiative--defects, indeed, which were in his +case far more useful to the state than the opposite excellences +of his predecessor. Certainly very grave errors were perpetrated +both by Lucullus and by Pompeius. Lucullus reaped their fruits himself, +when his imprudent conduct wrested from him all the results +of his victories; Pompeius left it to his successors to bear +the consequences of his false policy towards the Parthians. He might +either have made war on the Parthians, if he had had the courage +to do so, or have maintained peace with them and recognized, +as he had promised, the Euphrates as boundary; he was too timid +for the former course, too vain for the latter, and so he resorted +to the silly perfidy of rendering the good neighbourhood, +which the court of Ctesiphon desired and on its part practised, +impossible through the most unbounded aggressions, and yet allowing +the enemy to choose of themselves the time for rupture and retaliation. +As administrator of Asia Lucullus acquired a more than princely +wealth; and Pompeius also received as reward for its organization +large sums in cash and still more considerable promissory notes +from the king of Cappadocia, from the rich city of Antioch, +and from other lords and communities. But such exactions had become +almost a customary tax; and both generals showed themselves at any rate +to be not altogether venal in questions of greater importance, +and, if possible, got themselves paid by the party whose interests +coincided with those of Rome. Looking to the state of the times, +this does not prevent us from characterizing the administration +of both as comparatively commendable and conducted primarily +in the interest of Rome, secondarily in that of the provincials. + +The conversion of the clients into subjects, the better regulation +of the eastern frontier, the establishment of a single and strong +government, were full of blessing for the rulers as well as +for the ruled. The financial gain acquired by Rome was immense; +the new property tax, which with the exception of some specially +exempted communities all those princes, priests, and cities had to pay +to Rome, raised the Roman state-revenues almost by a half above their +former amount. Asia indeed suffered severely. Pompeius brought +in money and jewels an amount of 2,000,000 pounds (200,000,000 +sesterces) into the state-chest and distributed 3,900,000 pounds +(16,000 talents) among his officers and soldiers; if we add to this +the considerable sums brought home by Lucullus, the non-official +exactions of the Roman army, and the amount of the damage done +by the war, the financial exhaustion of the land may be readily +conceived. The Roman taxation of Asia was perhaps in itself +not worse than that of its earlier rulers, but it formed a heavier +burden on the land, in so far as the taxes thenceforth went +out of the country and only the lesser portion of the proceeds +was again expended in Asia; and at any rate it was, in the old +as well as the newly-acquired provinces, based on a systematic plundering +of the provinces for the benefit of Rome. But the responsibility +for this rests far less on the generals personally than on the parties +at home, whom these had to consider; Lucullus had even exerted himself +energetically to set limits to the usurious dealings of the Roman +capitalists in Asia, and this essentially contributed to bring +about his fall. How much both men earnestly sought to revive +the prosperity of the reduced provinces, is shown by their action +in cases where no considerations of party policy tied their hands, +and especially in their care for the cities of Asia Minor. Although +for centuries afterwards many an Asiatic village lying in ruins +recalled the times of the great war, Sinope might well begin a new +era with the date of its re-establishment by Lucullus, and almost +all the more considerable inland towns of the Pontic kingdom might +gratefully honour Pompeius as their founder. The organization +of Roman Asia by Lucullus and Pompeius may with all its undeniable +defects be described as on the whole judicious and praiseworthy; +serious as were the evils that might still adhere to it, +it could not but be welcome to the sorely tormented Asiatics +for the very reason that it came attended by the inward +and outward peace, the absence of which had been so long +and so painfully felt. + +The East after the Departure of Pompeius + +Peace continued substantially in the east, till the idea--merely +indicated by Pompeius with his characteristic timidity--of joining +the regions eastward of the Euphrates to the Roman empire was taken +up again energetically but unsuccessfully by the new triumvirate +of Roman regents, and soon thereafter the civil war drew the eastern +provinces as well as all the rest into its fatal vortex. +In the interval the governors of Cilicia had to fight constantly +with the mountain-tribes of the Amanus and those of Syria with the hordes +of the desert, and in the latter war against the Bedouins especially +many Roman troops were destroyed; but these movements had no farther +significance. More remarkable was the obstinate resistance, +which the tough Jewish nation opposed to the conquerors. Alexander, +son of the deposed king Aristobulus, and Aristobulus himself +who after some time succeeded in escaping from captivity, +excited during the governorship of Aulus Gabinius (697-700) +three different revolts against the new rulers, to each of which +the government of the high-priest Hyrcanus installed by Rome impotently +succumbed. It was not political conviction, but the invincible repugnance +of the Oriental towards the unnatural yoke, which compelled them +to kick against the pricks; as indeed the last and most dangerous +of these revolts, for which the withdrawal of the Syrian army +of occupation in consequence of the Egyptian crisis furnished +the immediate impulse, began with the murder of the Romans +settled in Palestine. It was not without difficulty +that the able governor succeeded in rescuing the few Romans, +who had escaped this fate and found a temporary refuge +on Mount Gerizim, from the insurgents who kept them blockaded there, +and in overpowering the revolt after several severely contested +battles and tedious sieges. In consequence of this the monarchy +of the high-priests was abolished and the Jewish land was broken up +as Macedonia had formerly been, into five independent districts +administered by governing colleges with an Optimate organization; +Samaria and other townships razed by the Jews were re-established, +to form a counterpoise to Jerusalem; and lastly a heavier tribute +was imposed on the Jews than on the other Syrian subjects of Rome. + +The Kingdom of Egypt + +It still remains that we should glance at the kingdom of Egypt +along with the last dependency that remained to it of the extensive +acquisitions of the Lagids, the fair island of Cyprus. +Egypt was now the only state of the Hellenic east that was still +at least nominally independent; just as formerly, when the Persians +established themselves along the eastern half of the Mediterranean, +Egypt was their last conquest, so now the mighty conquerors +from the west long delayed the annexation of that opulent +and peculiar country. The reason lay, as was already indicated, +neitherin any fear of the resistance of Egypt nor in the want +of a fitting occasion. Egypt was just about as powerless as Syria, +and had already in 673 fallen in all due form of law to the Roman +community.(28) The control exercised over the court of Alexandria +by the royal guard--which appointed and deposed ministers +and occasionally kings, took for itself what it pleased, and, +if it was refused a rise of pay, besieged the king in his palace-- +was by no means liked in the country or rather in the capital (for +the country with its population of agricultural slaves was hardly taken +into account); and at least a party there wished for the annexation +of Egypt by Rome, and even took steps to procure it But the less +the kings of Egypt could think of contending in arms against Rome, +the more energetically Egyptian gold set itself to resist the Roman +plans of union; and in consequence of the peculiar despotico- +communistic centralization of the Egyptian finances the revenues +of the court of Alexandria were still nearly equal to the public +income of Rome even after its augmentation by Pompeius. +The suspicious jealousy of the oligarchy, which was chary of allowing +any individual either to conquer or to administer Egypt, operated +in the same direction. So the de facto rulers of Egypt and Cyprus +were enabled by bribing the leading men in the senate not merely +to respite their tottering crowns, but even to fortify them afresh +and to purchase from the senate the confirmation of their royal title. +But with this they had not yet obtained their object. +Formal state-law required a decree of the Roman burgesses; +until this was issued, the Ptolemies were dependent on the caprice +of every democratic holder of power, and they had thus to commence +the warfare of bribery also against the other Roman party, +which as the more powerful stipulated for far higher prices. + +Cyprus Annexed + +The result in the two cases was different. The annexation +of Cyprus was decreed in 696 by the people, that is, by the leaders +of the democracy, the support given to piracy by the Cypriots +being alleged as the official reason why that course should +now be adopted. Marcus Cato, entrusted by his opponents +with the execution of this measure, came to the island without an army; +but he had no need of one. The king took poison; the inhabitants +submitted without offering resistance to their inevitable fate, +and were placed under the governor of Cilicia. The ample treasure +of nearly 7000 talents (1,700,000 pounds), which the equally +covetous and miserly king could not prevail on himself to apply +for the bribes requisite to save his crown, fell along with the latter +to the Romans, and filled after a desirable fashion the empty vaults +of their treasury. + +Ptolemaeus in Egypt Recognized but Expelled by His Subjects + +On the other hand the brother who reigned in Egypt succeeded +in purchasing his recognition by decree of the people from the new +masters of Rome in 695; the purchase-money is said to have amounted +to 6000 talents (1,460,000 pounds). The citizens indeed, long +exasperated against their good flute-player and bad ruler, +and now reduced to extremities by the definitive loss of Cyprus +and the pressure of the taxes which were raised to an intolerable +degree in consequence of the transactions with the Romans (696), +chased him on that account out of the country. When the king thereupon +applied, as if on account of his eviction from the estate which he +had purchased, to those who sold it, these were reasonable enough +to see that it was their duty as honest men of business to get back +his kingdom for Ptolemaeus; only the parties could not agree +as to the person to whom the important charge of occupying Egypt +by force along with the perquisites thence to be expected should +be assigned. It was only when the triumvirate was confirmed anew +at the conference of Luca, that this affair was also arranged, +after Ptolemaeus had agreed to a further payment of 10,000 talents +(2,400,000 pounds); the governor of Syria, Aulus Gabinius, +now obtained orders from those in power to take the necessary steps +immediately for bringing back the king. The citizens of Alexandria +had meanwhile placed the crown on the head of Berenice the eldest +daughter of the ejected king, and given to her a husband +in the person of one of the spiritual princes of Roman Asia, +Archelaus the high-priest of Comana,(29) who possessed ambition enough +to hazard his secure and respectable position in the hope of mounting +the throne of the Lagids. His attempts to gain the Roman regents +to his interests remained without success; but he did not recoil +before the idea of being obliged to maintain his new kingdom +with arms in hand even against the Romans. + +And Brought Back by Gabinius +A Roman Garrison Remains in Alexandria + +Gabinius, without ostensible powers to undertake war against Egypt +but directed to do so by the regents, made a pretext out of +the alleged furtherance of piracy by the Egyptians and the building +of a fleet by Archelaus, and started without delay for the Egyptian +frontier (699). The march through the sandy desert between Gaza +and Pelusium, in which so many invasions previously directed +against Egypt had broken down, was on this occasion successfully +accomplished--a result especially due to the quick and skilful +leader of the cavalry Marcus Antonius. The frontier fortress +of Pelusium also was surrendered without resistance by the Jewish +garrison stationed there. In front of this city the Romans met +the Egyptians, defeated them--on which occasion Antonius again +distinguished himself--and arrived, as the first Roman army, +at the Nile. Here the fleet and army of the Egyptians were drawn up +for the last decisive struggle; but the Romans once more conquered, +and Archelaus himself with many of his followers perished +in the combat. Immediately after this battle the capital surrendered, +and therewith all resistance was at an end. The unhappy land +was handed over to its legitimate oppressor; the hanging and beheading, +with which, but for the intervention of the chivalrous Antonius, +Ptolemaeus would have already in Pelusium begun to celebrate +the restoration of the legitimate government, now took its course +unhindered, and first of all the innocent daughter was sent +by her father to the scaffold. The payment of the reward agreed +upon with the regents broke down through the absolute impossibility +of exacting from the exhausted land the enormous sums required, +although they took from the poor people the last penny; but care +was taken that the country should at least be kept quiet +by the garrison of Roman infantry and Celtic and German cavalry +left in the capital, which took the place of the native praetorians +and otherwise emulated them not unsuccessfully. The previous hegemony +of Rome over Egypt was thus converted into a direct military +occupation, and the nominal continuance of the native monarchy +was not so much a privilege granted to the land as a double +burden imposed on it. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +The Struggle of Parties During the Absence of Pompeius. + +The Defeated Aristocracy + +With the passing of the Gabinian law the parties in the capital +changed positions. From the time that the elected general +of the democracy held in his hand the sword, his party, +or what was reckoned such, had the preponderance in the capital. +The nobility doubtless still stood in compact array, and still +as before there issued from the comitial machinery none but consuls, +who according to the expression of the democrats were already +designated to the consulate in their cradles; to command the elections +andbreak down the influence of the old families over them was beyond +the power even of the holders of power. But unfortunately the consulate, +at the very moment when they had got the length of virtually excluding +the "new men" from it, began itself to grow pale before the newly- +risen star of the exceptional military power. The aristocracy felt +this, though they did not exactly confess it; they gave themselves +up as lost. Except Quintus Catulus, who with honourable firmness +persevered at his far from pleasant post as champion of a vanquished +party down to his death (694), no Optimate could be named +from the highest ranks of the nobility, who would have sustained +the interests of the aristocracy with courage and steadfastness. +Their very men of most talent and fame, such as Quintus Metellus +Pius and Lucius Lucullus, practically abdicated and retired, +so far as they could at all do so with propriety, to their villas, +in order to forget as much as possible the Forum and the senate-house +amidst their gardens and libraries, their aviaries and fish-ponds. +Still more, of course, was this the case with the younger generation +of the aristocracy, which was either wholly absorbed in luxury +and literature or turning towards the rising sun. + +Cato + +There was among the younger men a single exception; it was +Marcus Porcius Cato (born in 659), a man of the best intentions +and of rare devotedness, and yet one of the most Quixotic +and one of the most cheerless phenomena in this age so abounding +in political caricatures. Honourable and steadfast, earnest in purpose +and in action, full of attachment to his country and to its hereditary +constitution, but dull in intellect and sensuously as well as +morally destitute of passion, he might certainly have made +a tolerable state-accountant. But unfortunately he fell early +under the power of formalism, and swayed partly by the phrases +of the Stoa, which in their abstract baldness and spiritless +isolation were current among the genteel world of that day, partly +by the example of his great-grandfather whom he deemed it his especial +task to reproduce, he began to walk about in the sinful capital +as a model burgess and mirror of virtue, to scold at the times +like the old Cato, to travel on foot instead of riding, to take +no interest, to decline badges of distinction as a soldier, +and to introduce the restoration of the good old days by going after +the precedent of king Romulus without a shirt. A strange caricature +of his ancestor--the gray-haired farmer whom hatred and anger made +an orator, who wielded in masterly style the plough as well as +the sword, who with his narrow, but original and sound common sense +ordinarily hit the nail on the head--was this young unimpassioned +pedant from whose lips dropped scholastic wisdom and who was +everywhere seen sitting book in hand, this philosopher +who understood neither the art of war nor any other art whatever, +this cloud-walker in the realm of abstract morals. Yet he attained +to moral and thereby even to political importance. In an utterly +wretched and cowardly age his courage and his negative virtues told +powerfully on the multitude; he even formed a school, and there were +individuals--it is true they were but few--who in their turn +copied and caricatured afresh the living pattern of a philosopher. +On the same cause depended also his political influence. +As he was the only conservative of note who possessed if not talent +and insight, at any rate integrity and courage, and was always ready +to throw himself into the breach whether it was necessary to do so +or not, he soon became the recognized champion of the Optimate party, +although neither his age nor his rank nor his intellect entitled +him to be so. Where the perseverance of a single resolute man +could decide, he no doubt sometimes achieved a success, +and in questions of detail, more particularly of a financial character, +he often judiciously interfered, as indeed he was absent +from no meeting of the senate; his quaestorship in fact formed +an epoch, and as long as he lived he checked the details of the public +budget, regarding which he maintained of course a constant warfare +with the farmers of the taxes. For the rest, he lacked simply +every ingredient of a statesman. He was incapable of even +comprehending a political aim and of surveying political relations; +his whole tactics consisted in setting his face against every one +who deviated or seemed to him to deviate from the traditionary +moral and political catechism of the aristocracy, and thus +of course he worked as often into the hands of his opponents +as into those of his own party. The Don Quixote of the aristocracy, +he proved by his character and his actions that at this time, +while there was certainly still an aristocracy in existence, +the aristocratic policy was nothing more than a chimera. + +Democratic Attacks + +To continue the conflict with this aristocracy brought little +honour. Of course the attacks of the democracy on the vanquished +foe did not on that account cease. The pack of the Populares threw +themselves on the broken ranks of the nobility like the sutlers +on a conquered camp, and the surface at least of politics +was by this agitation ruffled into high waves of foam. The multitude +entered into the matter the more readily, as Gaius Caesar especially +kept them in good humour by the extravagant magnificence of his games +(689)--in which all the equipments, even the cages of the wild +beasts, appeared of massive silver--and generally by a liberality +which was all the more princely that it was based solely +on the contraction of debt. The attacks on the nobility +were of the most varied kind. The abuses of aristocratic rule afforded +copious materials; magistrates and advocates who were liberal or assumed +a liberal hue, like Gaius Cornelius, Aulus Gabinius, Marcus Cicero, +continued systematically to unveil the most offensive and scandalous +aspects of the Optimate doings and to propose laws against them. +The senate was directed to give access to foreign envoys on set days, +with the view of preventing the usual postponement of audiences. +Loans raised by foreign ambassadors in Rome were declared non-actionable, +as this was the only means of seriously checking the corruptions +which formed the order of the day in the senate (687). The right +of the senate to give dispensation in particular cases from the laws +was restricted (687); as was also the abuse whereby every Roman of rank, +who had private business to attend to in the provinces, got himself +invested by the senate with the character of a Roman envoy thither +(691). They heightened the penalties against the purchase +of votes and electioneering intrigues (687, 691); which latter +were especially increased in a scandalous fashion by the attempts +of the individuals ejected from the senate(1) to get back +to it through re-election. + +What had hitherto been simply understood as matter of course +was now expressly laid down as a law, that the praetors were bound +to administer justice in conformity with the rules set forth by them, +after the Roman fashion, at their entering on office (687). + +Transpadanes +Freedmen + +But, above all, efforts were made to complete the democratic +restoration and to realize the leading ideas of the Gracchan period +in a form suitable to the times. The election of the priests +by the comitia, which Gnaeus Domitius had introduced(2) and Sulla +had again done away,(3) was established by a law of the tribune +of the people Titus Labienus in 691. The democrats were fond +of pointing out how much was still wanting towards the restoration +of the Sempronian corn-laws in their full extent, and at the same +time passed over in silence the fact that under the altered +circumstances--with the straitened condition of the public finances +and the great increase in the number of fully-privileged Roman +citizens--that restoration was absolutely impracticable. +In the country between the Po and the Alps they zealously fostered +the agitation for political equality with the Italians. +As early as 686 Gaius Caesar travelled from place to place there +for this purpose; in 689 Marcus Crassus as censor made arrangements +to enrol the inhabitants directly in the burgess-roll--which was only +frustrated by the resistance of his colleague; in the following +censorships this attempt seems regularly to have been repeated. +As formerly Gracchus and Flaccus had been the patrons of the Latins, +so the present leaders of the democracy gave themselves forth +as protectors of the Transpadanes, and Gaius Piso (consul in 687) +had bitterly to regret that he had ventured to outrage +one of these clients of Caesar and Crassus. On the other hand +the same leaders appeared by no means disposed to advocate +the political equalization of the freedmen; the tribune of the people +Gaius Manilius, who in a thinly attended assembly had procured +the renewal (31 Dec. 687) of the Sulpician law as to the suffrage +of freedmen,(4) was immediately disavowed by the leading men +of the democracy, and with their consent the law was cancelled +by the senate on the very day after its passing. In the same spirit +all the strangers, who possessed neither Roman nor Latin burgess- +rights, were ejected from the capital by decree of the people +in 689. It is obvious that the intrinsic inconsistency +of the Gracchan policy--in abetting at once the effort of the excluded +to obtain admission into the circle of the privileged, and the effort +of the privileged to maintain their distinctive rights--had passed +over to their successors; while Caesar and his friends on the one hand +held forth to the Transpadanes the prospect of the franchise, +they on the other hand gave their assent to the continuance +of the disabilities of the freedmen, and to the barbarous setting aside +of the rivalry which the industry and trading skill of the Hellenes +and Orientals maintained with the Italians in Italy itself. + +Process against Rabirius + +The mode in which the democracy dealt with the ancient criminal +jurisdiction of the comitia was characteristic. It had not been +properly abolished by Sulla, but practically the jury-commissions +on high treason and murder had superseded it,(5) and no rational +man could think of seriously re-establishing the old procedure +which long before Sulla had been thoroughly unpractical. +But as the idea of the sovereignty of the people appeared to require +a recognition at least in principle of the penal jurisdiction +of the burgesses, the tribune of the people Titus Labienus in 691 +brought the old man, who thirty-eight years before had slain or was +alleged to have slain the tribune of the people Lucius Saturninus,(6) +before the same high court of criminal jurisdiction, by virtue of which, +if the annals reported truly, king Tullus had procured the acquittal +of the Horatius who had killed his sister. The accused was one +Gaius Rabirius, who, if he had not killed Saturninus, +had at least paraded with his cut-off head at the tables +of men of rank, and who moreover was notorious among the Apulian +landholders for his kidnapping and his bloody deeds. The object, +if not of the accuser himself, at any rate of the more sagacious men +who backed him, was not at all to make this pitiful wretch +die the death of the cross; they were not unwilling to acquiesce, +when first the form of the impeachment was materially modified +by the senate, and then the assembly of the people called to pronounce +sentence on the guilty was dissolved under some sort of pretext +by the opposite party--so that the whole procedure was set aside. +At all events by this process the two palladia of Roman freedom, +the right of the citizens to appeal and the inviolability of the tribunes +of the people, were once more established as practical rights, +and the legal basis on which the democracy rested was adjusted afresh. + +Personal Attacks + +The democratic reaction manifested still greater vehemence +in all personal questions, wherever it could and dared. +Prudence indeed enjoined it not to urge the restoration of the estates +confiscated by Sulla to their former owners, that it might not quarrel +with its own allies and at the same time fall into a conflict +with material interests, for which a policy with a set purpose +is rarelya match; the recall of the emigrants was too closely connected +with this question of property not to appear quite as unadvisable. +On the other hand great exertions were made to restore to the children +of the proscribed the political rights withdrawn from them (691), +and the heads of the senatorial party were incessantly subjected +to personal attacks. Thus Gaius Memmius set on foot a process aimed +at Marcus Lucullus in 688. Thus they allowed his more famous +brother to wait for three years before the gates of the capital +for his well-deserved triumph (688-691). Quintus Rex and the conqueror +of Crete Quintus Metellus were similarly insulted. + +It produced a still greater sensation, when the young leader +of the democracy Gaius Caesar in 691 not merely presumed to compete +with the two most distinguished men of the nobility, Quintus Catulus +and Publius Servilius the victor of Isaura, in the candidature +for the supreme pontificate, but even carried the day +among the burgesses. The heirs of Sulla, especially his son Faustus, +found themselves constantly threatened with an action for the refunding +of the public moneys which, it was alleged, had been embezzled +by the regent. They talked even of resuming the democratic +impeachments suspended in 664 on the basis of the Varian law.(7) +The individuals who had taken part in the Sullan executions were, +as may readily be conceived, judicially prosecuted with the utmost +zeal. When the quaestor Marcus Cato, in his pedantic integrity, +himself made a beginning by demanding back from them the rewards +which they had received for murder as property illegally alienated +from the state (689), it can excite no surprise that in the following +year (690) Gaius Caesar, as president of the commission +regarding murder, summarily treated the clause in the Sullan +ordinance, which declared that a proscribed person might be +killed with impunity, as null and void, and caused the most +noted of Sulla's executioners, Lucius Catilina, Lucius Bellienus, +Lucius Luscius to be brought before his jurymen and, partially, +to be condemned. + +Rehabilitation of Saturninus and Marius + +Lastly, they did not hesitate now to name once more in public +the long-proscribed names of the heroes and martyrs of the democracy, +and to celebrate their memory. We have already mentioned how +Saturninus was rehabilitated by the process directed against +his murderer. But a different sound withal had the name of Gaius +Marius, at the mention of which all hearts once had throbbed; +and it happened that the man, to whom Italy owed her deliverance +from the northern barbarians, was at the same time the uncle +of the present leader of the democracy. Loudly had the multitude +rejoiced, when in 686 Gaius Caesar ventured in spite of +the prohibitions publicly to show the honoured features of the hero +in the Forum at the interment of the widow of Marius. But when, +three years afterwards (689), the emblems of victory, which Marius +had caused to be erected in the Capitol and Sulla had ordered to be +thrown down, one morning unexpectedly glittered afresh in gold +and marble at the old spot, the veterans from the African and Cimbrian +wars crowded, with tears in their eyes, around the statue of their +beloved general; and in presence of the rejoicing masses the senate +did not venture to seize the trophies which the same bold hand had +renewed in defiance of the laws. + +Worthlessness of the Democratic Successes + +But all these doings and disputes, however much noise they made, +were, politically considered, of but very subordinate importance. +The oligarchy was vanquished; the democracy had attained the helm. +That underlings of various grades should hasten to inflict +an additional kick on the prostrate foe; that the democrats also +should have their basis in law and their worship of principles; +that their doctrinaires should not rest till the whole privileges +of the community were in all particulars restored, and should +in that respect occasionally make themselves ridiculous, +as legitimists are wont to do--all this was just as much +to be expected as it was matter of indifference. Taken as a whole, +the agitation was aimless; and we discern in it the perplexity +of its authors to find an object for their activity, for it +turned almost wholly on things already essentially settled +or on subordinate matters. + +Impending Collision between the Democrats and Pompeius + +It could not be otherwise. In the struggle with the aristocracy +the democrats had remained victors; but they had not conquered +alone, and the fiery trial still awaited them--the reckoning +not with their former foe, but with their too powerful ally, +to whom in the struggle with the aristocracy they were substantially +indebted for victory, and to whose hands they had now entrusted +an unexampled military and political power, because they dared +not refuse it to him. The general of the east and of the seas +was still employed in appointing and deposing kings. How long time +he would take for that work, or when he would declare the business +of the war to be ended, no one could tell but himself; +since like everything else the time of his return to Italy, +or in other words the day of decision, was left in his own hands. +The parties in Rome meanwhile sat and waited. The Optimates indeed +looked forward to the arrival of the dreaded general with comparative +calmness; by the rupture between Pompeius and the democracy, which they +saw to be approaching, they could not lose, but could only gain. +The democrats on the contrary waited with painful anxiety, +and sought, during the interval still allowed to them +by the absence of Pompeius, to lay a countermine against +the impending explosion. + +Schemes for Appointing a Democratic Military Dictatorship + +In this policy they again coincided with Crassus, +to whom no course was left for encountering his envied and hated rival +but that of allying himself afresh, and more closely than before, +with the democracy. Already in the first coalition a special +approximation had taken place between Caesar and Crassus +as the two weaker parties; a common interest and a common danger +tightened yet more the bond which joined the richest +and the most insolvent of Romans in closest alliance. +While in public the democrats described the absent general +as the head and pride of their party and seemed to direct +all their arrows against the aristocracy, preparations +were secretly made against Pompeius; and these attempts +of the democracy to escape from the impending military dictatorship +have historically a far higher significance than the noisy agitation, +for the most part employed only as a mask, against the nobility. +It is true that they were carried on amidst a darkness, upon which +our tradition allows only some stray gleams of light to fall; +for not the present alone, but the succeeding age also +had its reasons for throwing a veil over the matter. But in general +both the course and the object of these efforts are completely clear. +The military power could only be effectually checkmated by another +military power. The design of the democrats was to possess +themselves of the reins of government after the example of Marius +and Cinna, then to entrust one of their leaders either with the conquest +of Egypt or with the governorship of Spain or some similar +ordinary or extraordinary office, and thus to find in him +and his military force a counterpoise to Pompeius and his army. +For this they required a revolution, which was directed immediately +against the nominal government, but in reality against Pompeius +as the designated monarch;(8) and, to effect this revolution, +there was from the passing of the Gabinio-Manilian laws down to +the return of Pompeius (688-692) perpetual conspiracy in Rome. +The capital was in anxious suspense; the depressed temper +of the capitalists, the suspensions of payment, the frequent bankruptcies +were heralds of the fermenting revolution, which seemed as though it must +at the same time produce a totally new position of parties. +The project of the democracy, which pointed beyond the senate +at Pompeius, suggested an approximation between that general +and the senate. But the democracy in attempting to oppose +to the dictatorship of Pompeius that of a man more agreeable to it, +recognized, strictly speaking, on its part also the military government, +and in reality drove out Satan by Beelzebub; the question of principles +became in its hands a question of persons. + +League of the Democrats and the Anarchists + +The first step towards the revolution projected by the leaders +of the democracy was thus to be the overthrow of the existing +government by means of an insurrection primarily instigated +in Rome by democratic conspirators. The moral condition of the lowest +as of the highest ranks of society in the capital presented +the materials for this purpose in lamentable abundance. We need not +here repeat what was the character of the free and the servile +proletariate of the capital. The significant saying was already +heard, that only the poor man was qualified to represent the poor; +the idea was thus suggested, that the mass of the poor might +constitute itself an independent power as well as the oligarchy +of the rich, and instead of allowing itself to be tyrannized over, +might perhaps in its own turn play the tyrant. But even in the circles +of the young men of rank similar ideas found an echo. +The fashionable life of the capital shattered not merely the fortunes +of men, but also their vigour of body and mind. That elegant world +of fragrant ringlets, of fashionable mustachios and ruffles--merry +as were its doings in the dance and with the harp, and early +and late at the wine-cup--yet concealed in its bosom an alarming abyss +of moral and economic ruin, of well or ill concealed despair, +and frantic or knavish resolves. These circles sighed without +disguise for a return of the time of Cinna with its proscriptions +and confiscations and its annihilation of account-books for debt; +there were people enough, including not a few of no mean descent +and unusual abilities, who only waited the signal to fall +like a gang of robbers on civil society and to recruit by pillage +the fortune which they had squandered. Where a band gathers, +leaders are not wanting; and in this case the men were soon found +who were fitted to be captains of banditti. + +Catalina + +The late praetor Lucius Catilina, and the quaestor Gnaeus Piso, +were distinguished among their fellows not merely by their genteel +birth and their superior rank. They had broken down the bridge +completely behind them, and impressed their accomplices by their +dissoluteness quite as much as by their talents. Catilina especially +was one of the most wicked men in that wicked age. His villanies +belong to the records of crime, not to history; but his very outward +appearance--the pale countenance, the wild glance, the gait by turns +sluggish and hurried--betrayed his dismal past. He possessed in a high +degree the qualities which are required in the leader of such a band-- +the faculty of enjoying all pleasures and of bearing all privations, +courage, military talent, knowledge of men, the energy of a felon, +and that horrible mastery of vice, which knows how to bring the weak +to fall and how to train the fallen to crime. + +To form out of such elements a conspiracy for the overthrow +of the existing order of things could not be difficult to men +who possessed money and political influence. Catilina, Piso, +and their fellows entered readily into any plan which gave the prospect +of proscriptions and cancelling of debtor-books; the former had +moreover special hostility to the aristocracy, because it had opposed +the candidature of that infamous and dangerous man for the consulship. +As he had formerly in the character of an executioner +of Sulla hunted the proscribed at the head of a band of Celts +and had killed among others his own aged father-in-law +with his own hand, he now readily consented to promise similar services +to the opposite party. A secret league was formed. The number +of individuals received into it is said to have exceeded 400; it +included associates in all the districts and urban communities +of Italy; besides which, as a matter of course, numerous recruits +would flock unbidden from the ranks of the dissolute youth +to an insurrection, which inscribed on its banner the seasonable +programme of wiping out debts. + +Failure of the First Plans of Conspiracy + +In December 688--so we are told--the leaders of the league thought +that they had found the fitting occasion for striking a blow. +The two consuls chosen for 689, Publius Cornelius Sulla and Publius +Autronius Paetus, had recently been judicially convicted +of electoral bribery, and therefore had according to legal rule +forfeited their expectancy of the highest office. Both thereupon +joined the league. The conspirators resolved to procure +the consulship for them by force, and thereby to put themselves +in possession of the supreme power in the state. On the day +when the new consuls should enter on their office--the 1st Jan. 689-- +the senate-house was to be assailed by armed men, the new consuls +and the victims otherwise designated were to be put to death, and Sulla +and Paetus were to be proclaimed as consuls after the cancelling +of the judicial sentence which excluded them. Crassus was then +to be invested with the dictatorship and Caesar with the mastership +of the horse, doubtless with a view to raise an imposing military +force, while Pompeius was employed afar off at the Caucasus. +Captains and common soldiers were hired and instructed; Catilina +waited on the appointed day in the neighbourhood of the senate- +house for the concerted signal, which was to be given him by Caesar +on a hint from Crassus. But he waited in vain; Crassus was absent +from the decisive sitting of the senate, and for this time +the projected insurrection failed. A similar still more comprehensive +plan of murder was then concerted for the 5th Feb.; but this too +was frustrated, because Catilina gave the signal too early, +before the bandits who were bespoken had all arrived. Thereupon +the secret was divulged. The government did not venture openly +to proceed against the conspiracy, but it assigned a guard +to the consuls who were primarily threatened, and it opposed to the band +of the conspirators a band paid by the government. To remove Piso, +the proposal was made that he should be sent as quaestor +with praetorian powers to Hither Spain; to which Crassus consented, +in the hope of securing through him the resources of that important +province for the insurrection. Proposals going farther +were prevented by the tribunes. + +So runs the account that has come down to us, which evidently gives +the version current in the government circles, and the credibility +of which in detail must, in the absence of any means of checking +it, be left an open question. As to the main matter--the participation +of Caesar and Crassus--the testimony of their political opponents +certainly cannot be regarded as sufficient evidence of it. But their +notorious action at this epoch corresponds with striking exactness +to the secret action which this report ascribes to them. The attempt +of Crassus, who in this year was censor, officially to enrol +the Transpadanes in the burgess-list(9) was of itself directly +a revolutionary enterprise. It is still more remarkable, +that Crassus on the same occasion made preparations to enrol +Egypt and Cyprus in the list of Roman domains,(10) and that Caesar +about the same time (689 or 690) got a proposal submitted +by some tribunes to the burgesses to send him to Egypt, +in order to reinstate king Ptolemaeus whom the Alexandrians +had expelled. These machinations suspiciously coincide +with the charges raised by their antagonists. Certainty cannot be +attained on the point; but there is a great probability that Crassus +and Caesar had projected a plan to possess themselves of the military +dictatorship during the absence of Pompeius; that Egypt was selected +as the basis of this democratic military power; and that, in fine, +the insurrectionary attempt of 689 had been contrived to realize +these projects, and Catilina and Piso had thus been tools in the hands +of Crassus and Caesar. + +Resumption of the Conspiracy + +For a moment the conspiracy came to a standstill. The elections +for 690 took place without Crassus and Caesar renewing their +attempt to get possession of the consulate; which may have been +partly owing to the fact that a relative of the leader +of the democracy, Lucius Caesar, a weak man who was not unfrequently +employed by his kinsman as a tool, was on this occasion a candidate +for the consulship. But the reports from Asia urged them to make +haste. The affairs of Asia Minor and Armenia were already +completely arranged. However clearly democratic strategists showed +that the Mithradatic war could only be regarded as terminated +by the capture of the king, and that it was therefore necessary +to undertake the pursuit round the Black Sea, and above all things +to keep aloof from Syria(11)--Pompeius, not concerning himself +about such talk, had set out in the spring of 690 from Armenia +and marched towards Syria. If Egypt was really selected +as the headquarters of the democracy, there was no time to be lost; +otherwise Pompeius might easily arrive in Egypt sooner than Caesar. +The conspiracy of 688, far from being broken up by the lax +and timid measures of repression, was again astir when the consular +elections for 691 approached. The persons were, it may be +presumed, substantially the same, and the plan was but little +altered. The leaders of the movement again kept in the background. +On this occasion they had set up as candidates for the consulship +Catilina himself and Gaius Antonius, the younger son of the orator +and a brother of the general who had an ill repute from Crete. +They were sure of Catilina; Antonius, originally a Sullan +like Catilina and like the latter brought to trial on that account +some years before by the democratic party and ejected +from the senate(12)--otherwise an indolent, insignificant man, +in no respect called to be a leader, and utterly bankrupt-- +willingly lent himself as a tool to the democrats for the prize +of the consulship and the advantages attached to it. Through these +consuls the heads of the conspiracy intended to seize the government, +to arrest the children of Pompeius, who remained behind in the capital, +as hostages, and to take up arms in Italy and the provinces +against Pompeius. On the first news of the blow struck in the capital, +the governor Gnaeus Piso was to raise the banner of insurrection +in Hither Spain. Communication could not be held with him by way +of the sea, since Pompeius commanded the seas. For this purpose +they reckoned on the Transpadanes the old clients of the democracy-- +among whom there was great agitation, and who would of course have +at once received the franchise--and, further, on different Celtic +tribes.(13) The threads of this combination reached as far as +Mauretania. One of the conspirators, the Roman speculator Publius +Sittius from Nuceria, compelled by financial embarrassments +to keep aloof from Italy, had armed a troop of desperadoes there +and in Spain, and with these wandered about as a leader of free-lances +in western Africa, where he had old commercial connections. + +Consular Elections +Cicero Elected instead of Catalina + +The party put forth all its energies for the struggle +of the election. Crassus and Caesar staked their money--whether their +own or borrowed--and their connections to procure the consulship +for Catilina and Antonius; the comrades of Catilina strained every +nerve to bring to the helm the man who promised them the magistracies +and priesthoods, the palaces and country-estates of their opponents, +and above all deliverance from their debts, and who, they knew, +would keep his word. The aristocracy was in great perplexity, +chiefly because it was not able even to start counter-candidates. +That such a candidate risked his head, was obvious; and the times +were past when the post of danger allured the burgess--now even +ambition was hushed in presence of fear. Accordingly the nobility +contented themselves with making a feeble attempt to check +electioneering intrigues by issuing a new law respecting +the purchase of votes--which, however, was thwarted by the veto +of a tribune of the people--and with turning over their votes +to a candidate who, although not acceptable to them, was at least +inoffensive. This was Marcus Cicero, notoriously a political +trimmer,(14) accustomed to flirt at times with the democrats, +at times with Pompeius, at times from a somewhat greater distance +with the aristocracy, and to lend his services as an advocate to every +influential man under impeachment without distinction of person +or party (he numbered even Catilina among his clients); belonging +properly to no party or--which was much the same--to the party +of material interests, which was dominant in the courts +and was pleased with the eloquent pleader and the courtly and witty +companion. He had connections enough in the capital and the country +towns to have a chance alongside of the candidates proposed +by the democracy; and as the nobility, although with reluctance, +and the Pompeians voted for him, he was elected by a great +majority. The two candidates of the democracy obtained almost +the same number of votes; but a few more fell to Antonius, whose family +was of more consideration than that of his fellow-candidate. +This accident frustrated the election of Catilina and saved Rome +from a second Cinna. A little before this Piso had--it was said +at the instigation of his political and personal enemy Pompeius-- +been put to death in Spain by his native escort.(15) With the consul +Antonius alone nothing could be done; Cicero broke the loose bond +which attached him to the conspiracy, even before they entered +on their offices, inasmuch as he renounced his legal privilege +of having the consular provinces determined by lot, and handed over +to his deeply-embarrassed colleague the lucrative governorship +of Macedonia. The essential preliminary conditions of this project +also had therefore miscarried. + +New Projects of the Conspirators + +Meanwhile the development of Oriental affairs grew daily +more perilous for the democracy. The settlement of Syria rapidly +advanced; already invitations had been addressed to Pompeius +from Egypt to march thither and occupy the country for Rome; +they could not but be afraid that they would next hear of Pompeius +in person having taken possession of the valley of the Nile. +It was by this very apprehension probably that the attempt of Caesar +to get himself sent by the people to Egypt for the purpose of aiding +the king against his rebellious subjects(16) was called forth; +it failed, apparently, through the disinclination of great and small +to undertake anything whatever against the interest of Pompeius. +His return home, and the probable catastrophe which it involved, +were always drawing the nearer; often as the string of the bow +had been broken, it was necessary that there should be a fresh +attempt to bend it. The city was in sullen ferment; frequent +conferences of the heads of the movement indicated that some +step was again contemplated. + +The Servilian Agrarian Law + +What they wished became manifest when the new tribunes +of the people entered on their office (10 Dec. 690), and one of them, +Publius Servilius Rullus, immediately proposed an agrarian law, +which was designed to procure for the leaders of the democrats +a position similar to that which Pompeius occupied in consequence +of 2the Gabinio-Manilian proposals. The nominal object +was the founding of colonies in Italy. The ground for these, however, +was not to be gained by dispossession; on the contrary all existing +private rights were guaranteed, and even the illegal occupations +of the most recent times(17) were converted into full property. +The leased Campanian domain alone was to be parcelled out +and colonized; in other cases the government was to acquire +the land destined for assignation by ordinary purchase. To procure +the sums necessary for this purpose, the remaining Italian, +and more especially all the extra-Italian, domain-land was successively +to be brought to sale; which was understood to include the former +royal hunting domains in Macedonia, the Thracian Chersonese, +Bithynia, Pontus, Cyrene, and also the territories of the cities +acquired in full property by right of war in Spain, Africa, Sicily, +Hellas, and Cilicia. Everything was likewise to be sold +which the state had acquired in moveable and immoveable property +since the year 666, and of which it had not previously disposed; +this was aimed chiefly at Egypt and Cyprus. For the same purpose +all subject communities, with the exception of the towns with Latin +rights and the other free cities, were burdened with very high +rates of taxes and tithes. Lastly there was likewise destined +for those purchases the produce of the new provincial revenues, +to be reckoned from 692, and the proceeds of the whole booty +not yet legally applied; which regulations had reference +to the new sources of taxation opened up by Pompeius in the east +and to the public moneys that might be found in the hands of Pompeius +and the heirs of Sulla. For the execution of this measure decemvirs +with a special jurisdiction and special -imperium- were to be nominated, +who were to remain five years in office and to surround themselves +with 200 subalterns from the equestrian order; but in the election +of the decemvirs only those candidates who should personally +announce themselves were to be taken into account, and, +as in the elections of priests,(18) only seventeen tribes to be fixed +by lot out of the thirty-five were to make the election. It needed +no great acuteness to discern that in this decemviral college it +was intended to create a power after the model of that of Pompeius, +only with somewhat less of a military and more of a democratic hue. +The jurisdiction was especially needed for the sake of deciding +the Egyptian question, the military power for the sake of arming +against Pompeius; the clause, which forbade the choice of an absent +person, excluded Pompeius; and the diminution of the tribes entitled +to vote as well as the manipulation of the balloting were designed +to facilitate the management of the election in accordance +with the views of the democracy. + +But this attempt totally missed its aim. The multitude, finding +it more agreeable to have their corn measured out to them +under the shade of Roman porticoes from the public magazines +than to cultivate it for themselves in the sweat of their brow, +received even the proposal in itself with complete indifference. +They soon came also to feel that Pompeius would never acquiesce +in such a resolution offensive to him in every respect, and that matters +could not stand well with a party which in its painful alarm +condescended to offers so extravagant. Under such circumstances +it was not difficult for the government to frustrate the proposal; +the new consul Cicero perceived the opportunity of exhibiting +here too his talent for giving a finishing stroke to the beaten party; +even before the tribunes who stood ready exercised their veto, +the author himself withdrew his proposal (1 Jan. 691). +The democracy had gained nothing but the unpleasant lesson, +that the great multitude out of love or fear still continued +to adhere to Pompeius, and that every proposal was certain +to fail which the public perceived to be directed against him. + +Preparations of the Anarchists in Etruria + +Wearied by all this vain agitation and scheming without result, +Catilina determined to push the matter to a decision and make +an end of it once for all. He took his measures in the course +of the summer to open the civil war. Faesulae (Fiesole), +a very strong town situated in Etruria--which swarmed with +the impoverished and conspirators--and fifteen years before the centre +of the rising of Lepidus, was again selected as the headquarters +of the insurrection. Thither were despatched the consignments +of money, for which especially the ladies of quality in the capital +implicated in the conspiracy furnished the means; there arms +and soldiers were collected; and there an old Sullan captain, Gaius +Manlius, as brave and as free from scruples of conscience +as was ever any soldier of fortune, took temporarily the chief command. +Similar though less extensive warlike preparations were made +at other points of Italy. The Transpadanes were so excited +that they seemed only waiting for the signal to strike. In the Bruttian +country, on the east coast of Italy, in Capua--wherever great +bodies of slaves were accumulated--a second slave insurrection +like that of Spartacus seemed on the eve of arising. Even in the capital +there was something brewing; those who saw the haughty bearing +with which the summoned debtors appeared before the urban praetor, +could not but remember the scenes which had preceded the murder +of Asellio.(19) The capitalists were in unutterable anxiety; +it seemed needful to enforce the prohibition of the export +of gold and silver, and to set a watch over the principal ports. +The plan of the conspirators was--on occasion of the consular +election for 692, for which Catilina had again announced himself-- +summarily to put to death the consul conducting the election +as well as the inconvenient rival candidates, and to carry +the election of Catilina at any price; in case of necessity, even +to bring armed bands from Faesulae and the other rallying points +against the capital, and with their help to crush resistance. + +Election of Catalina as Consul again Frustrated + +Cicero, who was always quickly and completely informed by his +agents male and female of the transactions of the conspirators, +on the day fixed for the election (20 Oct.) denounced the conspiracy +in the full senate and in presence of its principal leaders. +Catilina did not condescend to deny it; he answered haughtily that, +if the election for consul should fall on him, the great headless +party would certainly no longer want a leader against the small +party led by wretched heads. But as palpable evidences of the plot +were not before them, nothing farther was to be got from the timid +senate, except that it gave its previous sanction in the usual way +to the exceptional measures which the magistrates might deem +suitable (21 Oct.). Thus the election battle approached-- +on this occasion more a battle than an election; for Cicero too +had formed for himself an armed bodyguard out of the younger men, +more especially of the mercantile order; and it was his armed force +that covered and dominated the Campus Martius on the 28th October, +the day to which the election had been postponed by the senate. +The conspirators were not successful either in killing the consul +conducting the election, or in deciding the elections according +to their mind. + +Outbreak of the Insurrection in Etruria +Repressive Measures of the Government + +But meanwhile the civil war had begun. On the 27th Oct. Gaius +Manlius had planted at Faesulae the eagle round which the army +of the insurrection was to flock--it was one of the Marian eagles +from the Cimbrian war--and he had summoned the robbers +from the mountains as well as the country people to join him. +His proclamations, following the old traditions of the popular +party, demanded liberation from the oppressive load of debt +and a modification of the procedure in insolvency, which, if the amount +of the debt actually exceeded the estate, certainly still involved +in law the forfeiture of the debtor's freedom. It seemed as though +the rabble of the capital, in coming forward as if it were +the legitimate successor of the old plebeian farmers and fighting +its battles under the glorious eagles of the Cimbrian war, wished +to cast a stain not only on the present but on the past of Rome. +This rising, however, remained isolated; at the other places +of rendezvous the conspiracy did not go beyond the collection of arms +and the institution of secret conferences, as resolute leaders +were everywhere wanting. This was fortunate for the government; +for, although the impending civil war had been for a considerable time +openly announced, its own irresolution and the clumsiness +of the rusty machinery of administration had not allowed it to make +any military preparations whatever. It was only now that the general +levy was called out, and superior officers were ordered to the several +regions of Italy that each might suppress the insurrection +in his own district; while at the same time the gladiatorial slaves +were ejected from the capital, and patrols were ordered on account +of the apprehension of incendiarism. + +The Conspirators in Rome + +Catilina was in a painful position. According to his design +there should have been a simultaneous rising in the capital +and in Etruria on occasion of the consular elections; the failure +of the former and the outbreak of the latter movement endangered +his person as well as the whole success of his undertaking. +Now that his partisans at Faesulae had once risen in arms against +the government, he could no longer remain in the capital; and yet +not only did everything depend on his inducing the conspirators +of the capital now at least to strike quickly, but this had to be +done even before he left Rome--for he knew his helpmates too well +to rely on them for that matter. The more considerable +of the conspirators--Publius Lentulus Sura consul in 683, afterwards +expelled from the senate and now, in order to get back into +the senate, praetor for the second time, and the two former praetors +Publius Autronius and Lucius Cassius--were incapable men; Lentulus +an ordinary aristocrat of big words and great pretensions, but slow +in conception and irresolute in action; Autronius distinguished +for nothing but his powerful screaming voice; while as to Lucius +Cassius no one comprehended how a man so corpulent and so simple +had fallen among the conspirators. But Catilina could not venture +to place his abler partisans, such as the young senator Gaius +Cethegus and the equites Lucius Statilius and Publius Gabinius +Capito, at the head of the movement; for even among the conspirators +the traditional hierarchy of rank held its ground, and the very +anarchists thought that they should be unable to carry the day +unless a consular or at least a praetorian were at their head. +Therefore, however urgently the army of the insurrection might +long for its general, and however perilous it was for the latter +to remain longer at the seat of government after the outbreak +of the revolt, Catilina nevertheless resolved still to remain +for a time in Rome. Accustomed to impose on his cowardly opponents +by his audacious insolence, he showed himself publicly in the Forum +and in the senate-house and replied to the threats which were +there addressed to him, that they should beware of pushing him +to extremities; that, if they should set the house on fire, he would +be compelled to extinguish the conflagration in ruins. In reality +neither private persons nor officials ventured to lay hands +on the dangerous man; it was almost a matter of indifference +when a young nobleman brought him to trial on account of violence, +for long before the process could come to an end, the question could not +but be decided elsewhere. But the projects of Catilina failed; +chiefly because the agents of the government had made their way +into the circle of the conspirators and kept it accurately informed +of every detail of the plot. When, for instance, the conspirators +appeared before the strong Praeneste (1 Nov.), which they had hoped +to surprise by a -coup de main-, they found the inhabitants warned +and armed; and in a similar way everything miscarried. Catilina +with all his temerity now found it advisable to fix his departure +for one of the ensuing days; but previously on his urgent exhortation, +at a last conference of the conspirators in the night between +the 6th and 7th Nov. it was resolved to assassinate the consul Cicero, +who was the principal director of the countermine, before the departure +of their leader, and, in order to obviate any treachery, +to carry the resolve at once into execution. Early on the morning +of the 7th Nov., accordingly, the selected murderers knocked +at the house of the consul; but they found the guard reinforced +and themselves repulsed--on this occasion too the spies +of the government had outdone the conspirators. + +Catalina Proceed to Etruria + +On the following day (8 Nov.) Cicero convoked the senate. +Even now Catilina ventured to appear and to attempt a defence against +the indignant attacks of the consul, who unveiled before his face +the events of the last few days; but men no longer listened to him, +and in the neighbourhood of the place where he sat the benches became +empty. He left the sitting, and proceeded, as he would doubtless +have done even apart from this incident, in accordance +with the agreement, to Etruria. Here he proclaimed himself consul, +and assumed an attitude of waiting, in order to put his troops +in motion against the capital on the first announcement +of the outbreak of the insurrection there. The government declared +the two leaders Catilina and Manlius, as well as those of their +comrades who should not have laid down their arms by a certain day, +to be outlaws, and called out new levies; but at the head +of the army destined against Catilina was placed the consul Gaius +Antonius, who was notoriously implicated in the conspiracy, +and with whose character it was wholly a matter of accident whether +he would lead his troops against Catilina or over to his side. +They seemed to have directly laid their plans towards converting +this Antonius into a second Lepidus. As little were steps taken +against the leaders of the conspiracy who had remained behind +in the capital, although every one pointed the finger at them +and the insurrection in the capital was far from being abandoned +by the conspirators--on the contrary the plan of it had been settled +by Catilina himself before his departure from Rome. A tribune +was to give the signal by calling an assembly of the people; +in the following night Cethegus was to despatch the consul Cicero; +Gabinius and Statilius were to set the city simultaneously +on fire at twelve places; and a communication was to be established +as speedily as possible with the army of Catilina, which should +have meanwhile advanced. Had the urgent representations of Cethegus +borne fruit and had Lentulus, who after Catilina's departure +was placed at the head of the conspirators, resolved on rapidly +striking a blow, the conspiracy might even now have been successful. +But the conspirators were just as incapable and as cowardly as their +opponents; weeks elapsed and the matter came to no decisive issue. + +Conviction and Arrest of the Conspirators in the Capital + +At length the countermine brought about a decision. Lentulus +in his tedious fashion, which sought to cover negligence in regard +to what was immediate and necessary by the projection of large +and distant plans, had entered into relations with the deputies +of a Celtic canton, the Allobroges, now present in Rome; had attempted +to implicate these--the representatives of a thoroughly disorganized +commonwealth and themselves deeply involved in debt--in the conspiracy; +and had given them on their departure messages and letters to his +confidants. The Allobroges left Rome, but were arrested in the night +between 2nd and 3rd Dec. close to the gates by the Roman authorities, +and their papers were taken from them. It was obvious +that the Allobrogian deputies had lent themselves as spies +to the Roman government, and had carried on the negotiations only +with a view to convey into the hands of the latter the desired proofs +implicating the ringleaders of the conspiracy. On the following +morning orders were issued with the utmost secrecy by Cicero +for the arrest of the most dangerous leaders of the plot, +and executed in regard to Lentulus, Cethegus, Gabinius, +and Statilius, while some others escaped from seizure by flight. +The guilt of those arrested as well as of the fugitives +was completely evident. Immediately after the arrest the letters seized, +the seals and handwriting of which the prisoners could not avoid +acknowledging, were laid before the senate, and the captives +and witnesses were heard; further confirmatory facts, deposits of arms +in the houses of the conspirators, threatening expressions +which they had employed, were presently forthcoming; the actual +subsistence of the conspiracy was fully and validly established, +and the most important documents were immediately on the suggestion +of Cicero published as news-sheets. + +The indignation against the anarchist conspiracy was general. +Gladly would the oligarchic party have made use of the revelations +to settle accounts with the democracy generally and Caesar +in particular, but it was far too thoroughly broken to be able +to accomplish this, and to prepare for him the fate which it had +formerly prepared for the two Gracchi and Saturninus; +in this respect the matter went no farther than good will. +The multitude of the capital was especially shocked by the incendiary +schemes of the conspirators. The merchants and the whole party +of material interests naturally perceived in this war of the debtors +against the creditors a struggle for their very existence; in tumultuous +excitement their youth crowded, with swords in their hands, round +the senate-house and brandished them against the open and secret +partisans of Catilina. In fact, the conspiracy was for the moment +paralyzed; though its ultimate authors perhaps were still at liberty, +the whole staff entrusted with its execution were either captured +or had fled; the band assembled at Faesulae could not possibly +accomplish much, unless supported by an insurrection in the capital. + +Discussions in the Senate as to the Execution of Those Arrested + +In a tolerably well-ordered commonwealth the matter would now +have been politically at an end, and the military and the tribunals +would have undertaken the rest. But in Rome matters had come +to such a pitch, that the government was not even in a position +to keep a couple of noblemen of note in safe custody. The slaves +and freedmen of Lentulus and of the others arrested were stirring; +plans, it was alleged, were contrived to liberate them by force +from the private houses in which they were detained; there was no lack-- +thanks to the anarchist doings of recent years--of ringleaders +in Rome who contracted at a certain rate for riots and deeds +of violence; Catilina, in fine, was informed of what had occurred, +and was near enough to attempt a coup de main with his bands. +How much of these rumours was true, we cannot tell; but there was ground +for apprehension, because, agreeably to the constitution, neither troops +nor even a respectable police force were at the command of the government +in the capital, and it was in reality left at the mercy of every gang +of banditti. The idea was suggested of precluding all possible +attempts at liberation by the immediate execution of the prisoners. +Constitutionally, this was not possible. According to the ancient +and sacred right of appeal, a sentence of death could only be +pronounced against the Roman burgess by the whole body of burgesses, +and not by any other authority; and, as the courts formed by the body +of burgesses had themselves become antiquated, a capital sentence +was no longer pronounced at all. Cicero would gladly have rejected +the hazardous suggestion; indifferent as in itself the legal +question might be to the advocate, he knew well how very useful +it is to an advocate to be called liberal, and he showed +little desire to separate himself for ever from the democratic party +by shedding this blood. But those around him, and particularly +his genteel wife, urged him to crown his services to his country +by this bold step; the consul like all cowards anxiously endeavouring +to avoid the appearance of cowardice, and yet trembling +before the formidable responsibility, in his distress +convoked the senate, and left it to that body to decide +as to the life or death of the four prisoners. This indeed +had no meaning; for as the senate was constitutionally even less +entitled to act than the consul, all the responsibility still +devolved rightfully on the latter: but when was cowardice ever +consistent? Caesar made every exertion to save the prisoners, +and his speech, full of covert threats as to the future inevitable +vengeance of the democracy, made the deepest impression. Although +all the consulars and the great majority of the senate had already +declared for the execution, most of them, with Cicero at their +head, seemed now once more inclined to keep within the limits +of the law. But when Cato in pettifogging fashion brought +the champions of the milder view into suspicion of being accomplices +of the plot, and pointed to the preparations for liberating +the prisoners by a street-riot, he succeeded in throwing the waverers +into a fresh alarm, and in securing a majority for the immediate +execution of the transgressors. + +Execution of the Catalinarians + +The execution of the decree naturally devolved on the consul, +who had called it forth. Late on the evening of the 5th of December +the prisoners were brought from their previous quarters, and conducted +across the market-place still densely crowded by men to the prison +in which criminals condemned to death were wont to be kept. +It was a subterranean vault, twelve feet deep, at the foot +of the Capitol, which formerly had served as a well-house. +The consul himself conducted Lentulus, and praetors the others, +all attended by strong guards; but the attempt at rescue, +which had been expected, did not take place. No one knew whether +the prisoners were being conveyed to a secure place of custody +or to the scene of execution. At the door of the prison they +were handed over to the -tresviri- who conducted the executions, +and were strangled in the subterranean vault by torchlight. The consul +had waited before the door till the executions were accomplished, +and then with his loud well-known voice proclaimed over the Forum +to the multitude waiting in silence, "They are dead." Till far +on in the night the crowds moved through the streets and exultingly +saluted the consul, to whom they believed that they owed +the security of their houses and their property. The senate ordered +public festivals of gratitude, and the first men of the nobility, +Marcus Cato and Quintus Catulus, saluted the author of the sentence +of death with the name--now heard for the first time--of a "father +of his fatherland." + +But it was a dreadful deed, and all the more dreadful that it +appeared to a whole people great and praiseworthy. Never perhaps +has a commonwealth more lamentably declared itself bankrupt, +than did Rome through this resolution--adopted in cold blood +by the majority of the government and approved by public opinion-- +to put to death in all haste a few political prisoners, who were +no doubt culpable according to the laws, but had not forfeited life; +because, forsooth, the security of the prisons was not to be +trusted, and there was no sufficient police. It was the humorous +trait seldom wanting to a historical tragedy, that this act +of the most brutal tyranny had to be carried out by the most unstable +and timid of all Roman statesmen, and that the "first democratic +consul" was selected to destroy the palladium of the ancient +freedom of the Roman commonwealth, the right of -provocatio-. + +Suppression of the Etruscan Insurrection + +After the conspiracy had been thus stifled in the capital +even before it came to an outbreak, there remained the task of putting +an end to the insurrection in Etruria. The army amounting to about +2000 men, which Catilina found on his arrival, had increased nearly +fivefold by the numerous recruits who flocked in, and already +formed two tolerably full legions, in which however only about +a fourth part of the men were sufficiently armed. Catilina had +thrown himself with his force into the mountains and avoided +a battle with the troops of Antonius, with the view of completing +the organization of his bands and awaiting the outbreak +of the insurrection in Rome. But the news of its failure broke up +the army of the insurgents; the mass of the less compromised thereupon +returned home. The remnant of resolute, or rather desperate, +men that were left made an attempt to cut their way through +the Apennine passes into Gaul; but when the little band arrived +at the foot of the mountains near Pistoria (Pistoja), it found itself +here caught between two armies. In front of it was the corps +of Quintus Metellus, which had come up from Ravenna and Ariminum +to occupy the northern slope of the Apennines; behind it was the army +of Antonius, who had at length yielded to the urgency of his officers +and agreed to a winter campaign. Catilina was wedged in +on both sides, and his supplies came to an end; nothing was left +but to throw himself on the nearest foe, which was Antonius. +In a narrow valley enclosed by rocky mountains the conflict took place +between the insurgents and the troops of Antonius, which the latter, +in order not to be under the necessity of at least personally +performing execution on his former allies, had under a pretext +entrusted for this day to a brave officer who had grown gray +under arms, Marcus Petreius. The superior strength of the government +army was of little account, owing to the nature of the field +of battle. Both Catilina and Petreius placed their most trusty men +in the foremost ranks; quarter was neither given nor received. +The conflict lasted long, and many brave men fell on both sides; +Catilina, who before the beginning of the battle had sent back +his horse and those of all his officers, showed on this day +that nature had destined him for no ordinary things, and that he knew +at once how to command as a general and how to fight as a soldier. +At length Petreius with his guard broke the centre of the enemy, +and, after having overthrown this, attacked the two wings from within. +This decided the victory. The corpses of the Catilinarians--there +were counted 3000 of them--covered, as it were in rank and file, +the ground where they had fought; the officers and the general +himself had, when all was lost, thrown themselves headlong +on the enemy and thus sought and found death (beginning of 692). +Antonius was on account of this victory stamped by the senate +with the title of Imperator, and new thanksgiving-festivals showed +that the government and the governed were beginning to become +accustomed to civil war. + +Attitude of Crassus and Caesar toward the Anarchists + +The anarchist plot had thus been suppressed in the capital as in Italy +with bloody violence; people were still reminded of it merely +by the criminal processes which in the Etruscan country towns +and in the capital thinned the ranks of those affiliated to the beaten +party, and by the large accessions to the robber-bands of Italy-- +one of which, for instance, formed out of the remains of the armies +of Spartacus and Catilina, was destroyed by a military force in 694 +in the territory of Thurii. But it is important to keep in view +that the blow fell by no means merely on the anarchists proper, +who had conspired to set the capital on fire and had fought +at Pistoria, but on the whole democratic party. That this party, +and in particular Crassus and Caesar, had a hand in the game +on the present occasion as well as in the plot of 688, +may be regarded--not in a juristic, but in a historical, point of view-- +as an ascertained fact. The circumstance, indeed, that Catulus +and the other heads of the senatorial party accused the leader +of the democrats of complicity in the anarchist plot, +and that the latter as senator spoke and voted against the brutal +judicial murder contemplated by the oligarchy, could only be urged +by partisan sophistry as any valid proof of his participation +in the plans of Catilina. But a series of other facts is of more weight. +According to express and irrefragable testimonies it was especially +Crassus and Caesar that supported the candidature of Catilina +for the consulship. When Caesar in 690 brought the executioners +of Sulla before the commission for murder(20) he allowed the rest +to be condemned, but the most guilty and infamous of all, Catilina, +to be acquitted. In the revelations of the 3rd of December, +it is true, Cicero did not include among the names of the conspirators +of whom he had information those of the two influential men; +but it is notorious that the informers denounced not merely those +against whom subsequently investigation was directed, but "many innocent" +persons besides, whom the consul Cicero thought proper to erase +from the list; and in later years, when he had no reason to disguise +the truth, he expressly named Caesar among the accomplices. An indirect +but very intelligible inculpation is implied also in the circumstance, +that of the four persons arrested on the 3rd of December the two least +dangerous, Statilius and Gabinius, were handed over to be guarded +by the senators Caesar and Crassus; it was manifestly intended that these +should either, if they allowed them to escape, be compromised in the view +of public opinion as accessories, or, if they really detained them, +be compromised in the view of their fellow-conspirators as renegades. + +The following scene which occurred in the senate shows +significantlyhow matters stood. Immediately after the arrest +of Lentulus and his comrades, a messenger despatched by the conspirators +in the capital to Catilina was seized by the agents of the government, +and, after having been assured of impunity, was induced +to make a comprehensive confession in a full meeting of the senate. +But when he came to the critical portions of his confession +and in particular named Crassus as having commissioned him, +he was interrupted by the senators, and on the suggestion +of Cicero it was resolved to cancel the whole statement without +farther inquiry, but to imprison its author notwithstanding +the amnesty assured to him, until such time as he should have +not merely retracted the statement, but should have also confessed +who had instigated him to give such false testimony! Here it is +abundantly clear, not merely that that man had a very accurate +knowledge of the state of matters who, when summoned to make +an attack upon Crassus, replied that he had no desire to provoke +the bull of the herd, but also that the majority of the senate +with Cicero at their head were agreed in not permitting the revelations +to go beyond a certain limit. The public was not so nice; the young men, +who had taken up arms to ward off the incendiaries, were exasperated +against no one so much as against Caesar, on the 5th of December, +when he left the senate, they pointed their swords at his breast +and even now he narrowly escaped with his life on the same spot +where the fatal blow fell on him seventeen years afterwards; +he did not again for a considerable time enter the senate-house. +Any one who impartially considers the course of the conspiracy +will not be able to resist the suspicion that during all this time +Catilina was backed by more powerful men, who--relying on the want +of a legally complete chain of evidence and on the lukewarmness +and cowardice of the majority of the senate, which was but half- +initiated and greedily caught at any pretext for inaction--knew how +to hinder any serious interference with the conspiracy on the part +of the authorities, to procure free departure for the chief +of the insurgents, and even so to manage the declaration of war +and the sending of troops against the insurrection that it was almost +equivalent to the sending of an auxiliary army. While the course +of the events themselves thus testifies that the threads +of the Catilinarian plot reached far higher than Lentulus and Catilina, +it deserves also to be noticed, that at a much later period, +when Caesar had got to the head of the state, he was in the closest +alliance with the only Catilinarian still surviving, Publius Sittius +the leader of the Mauretanian free bands, and that he modified +the law of debt quite in the sense that the proclamations +of Manlius demanded. + +All these pieces of evidence speak clearly enough; but, even were +it not so, the desperate position of the democracy in presence +of the military power--which since the Gabinio-Manilian laws assumed +by its side an attitude more threatening than ever--renders it +almost a certainty that, as usually happens in such cases, +it sought a last resource in secret plots and in alliance +with anarchy. The circumstances were very similar to those +of the Cinnan times. While in the east Pompeius occupied a position +nearly such as Sulla then did, Crassus and Caesar sought to raise +over against him a power in Italy like that which Marius and Cinna +had possessed, with the view of employing it if possible better +than they had done. The way to this result lay once more through +terrorism and anarchy, and to pave that way Catilina was certainly +the fitting man. Naturally the more reputable leaders +of the democracy kept themselves as far as possible in the background, +and left to their unclean associates the execution of the unclean +work, the political results of which they hoped afterwards +to appropriate. Still more naturally, when the enterprise had failed, +the partners of higher position applied every effort to conceal +their participation in it. And at a later period, when the former +conspirator had himself become the target of political plots, +the veil was for that very reason drawn only the more closely +over those darker years in the life of the great man, and even +special apologies for him were written with that very object.(21) + +Total Destruction of the Democratic Party + +For five years Pompeius stood at the head of his armies and fleets +in the east; for five years the democracy at home conspired +to overthrow him. The result was discouraging. With unspeakable +exertions they had not merely attained nothing, but had suffered +morally as well as materially enormous loss. Even the coalition +of 683 could not but be for democrats of pure water a scandal, +although the democracy at that time only coalesced with two +distinguished men of the opposite party and bound these +to its programme. + +But now the democratic party had made common cause with a band +of murderers and bankrupts, who were almost all likewise deserters +from the camp of the aristocracy; and had at least for the time +being accepted their programme, that is to say, the terrorism +of Cinna. The party of material interests, one of the chief elements +of the coalition of 683, was thereby estranged from the democracy, +and driven into the arms of the Optimates in the first instance, +or of any power at all which would and could give protection against +anarchy. Even the multitude of the capital, who, although having +no objection to a street-riot, found it inconvenient to have +their houses set on fire over their heads, became in some measure +alarmed. It is remarkable that in this very year (691) the full +re-establishment of the Sempronian corn-largesses took place, +and was effected by the senate on the proposal of Cato. The league +of the democratic leaders with anarchy had obviously created a breach +between the former and the burgesses of the city; and the oligarchy +sought, not without at least momentary success, to enlarge +this chasm and to draw over the masses to their side. Lastly, +Gnaeus Pompeius had been partly warned, partly exasperated, +by all these cabals; after all that had occurred, and after the democracy +had itself virtually torn asunder the ties which connected it +with Pompeius, it could no longer with propriety make the request-- +which in 684 had had a certain amount of reason on its side-- +that he should not himself destroy with the sword the democratic power +which he had raised, and which had raised him. + +Thus the democracy was disgraced and weakened; but above all it had +become ridiculous through the merciless exposure of its perplexity +and weakness. Where the humiliation of the overthrown government +and similar matters of little moment were concerned, it was great +and potent; but every one of its attempts to attain a real +political success had proved a downright failure. Its relation +to Pompeius was as false as pitiful. While it was loading him +with panegyrics and demonstrations of homage, it was concocting +against him one intrigue after another; and one after another, +like soap-bubbles, they burst of themselves. The general of the east +and of the seas, far from standing on his defence against them, +appeared not even to observe all the busy agitation, and to obtain +his victories over the democracy as Herakles gained his over +the Pygmies, without being himself aware of it. The attempt to kindle +civil war had miserably failed; if the anarchist section +had at least displayed some energy, the pure democracy, while knowing +doubtless how to hire conspirators, had not known how to lead +them or to save them or to die with them. Even the old languid +oligarchy, strengthened by the masses passing over to it +from the ranks of the democracy and above all by the--in this affair +unmistakeable--identity of its interests and those of Pompeius, +had been enabled to suppress this attempt at revolution and thereby +to achieve yet a last victory over the democracy. Meanwhile king +Mithradates was dead, Asia Minor and Syria were regulated, +and the return of Pompeius to Italy might be every moment expected. +The decision was not far off; but was there in fact still room +to speak of a decision between the general who returned more famous +and mightier than ever, and the democracy humbled beyond parallel +and utterly powerless? Crassus prepared to embark his family +and his gold and to seek an asylum somewhere in the east; +and even so elastic and so energetic a nature as that of Caesar seemed +on the point of giving up the game as lost. In this year (691) +occurred his candidature for the place of -pontifex maximus-;(22) +when he left his dwelling on the morning of the election, +he declared that, if he should fail in this also, he would +never again cross the threshold of his house. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +Retirement of Pompeius and Coalition of the Pretenders + +Pompeius in the East + +When Pompeius, after having transacted the affairs committed +to his charge, again turned his eyes homeward, he found for the second +time the diadem at his feet. For long the development of the Roman +commonwealth had been tending towards such a catastrophe; +it was evident to every unbiassed observer, and had been remarked +a thousand times, that, if the rule of the aristocracy +should be brought to an end, monarchy was inevitable. The senate +had now been overthrown at once by the civic liberal opposition +and by the power of the soldiery; the only question remaining +was to settle the persons, names, and forms for the new order of things; +and these were already clearly enough indicated in the partly democratic, +partly military elements of the revolution. The events of the last +five years had set, as it were, the final seal on this impending +transformation of the commonwealth. In the newly-erected +Asiatic provinces, which gave regal honours to their organizer +as the successor of Alexander the Great, and already received +his favoured freedmen like princes, Pompeius had laid the foundations +of his dominion, and found at once the treasures, the army, and the halo +of glory which the future prince of the Roman state required. +The anarchist conspiracy, moreover, in the capital, and the civil +war connected with it, had made it palpably clear to every one +who studied political or even merely material interests, +that a government without authority and without military power, +such as that of the senate, exposed the state to the equally ludicrous +and formidable tyranny of political sharpers, and that a change +of constitution, which should connect the military power more closely +with the government, was an indispensable necessity if social order +was to be maintained. So the ruler had arisen in the east, +the throne had been erected in Italy; to all appearance the year 692 +was the last of the republic, the first of monarchy. + +The Opponents of the Future Monarchy + +This goal, it is true, was not to be reached without a struggle. +The constitution, which had endured for five hundred years, +and under which the insignificant town on the Tiber had risen +to unprecedented greatness and glory, had sunk its roots into the soil +to a depth beyond human ken, and no one could at all calculate +to what extent the attempt to overthrow it would penetrate +and convulse civil society. Several rivals had been outrun by Pompeius +in the race towards the great goal, but had not been wholly set +aside. It was not at all beyond reach of calculation that all +these elements might combine to overthrow the new holder of power, +and that Pompeius might find Quintus Catulus and Marcus Cato united +in opposition to him with Marcus Crassus, Gaius Caesar, and Titus +Labienus. But the inevitable and undoubtedly serious struggle +could not well be undertaken under circumstances more favourable. +It was in a high degree probable that, under the fresh impression +of the Catilinarian revolt, a rule which promised order +and security, although at the price of freedom, would receive +the submission of the whole middle party--embracing especially +the merchants who concerned themselves only about their material +interests, but including also a great part of the aristocracy, +which, disorganized in itself and politically hopeless, had to rest +content with securing for itself riches, rank, and influence +by a timely compromise with the prince; perhaps even a portion +of the democracy, so sorely smitten by the recent blows, might submit +to hope for the realization of a portion of its demands +from a military chief raised to power by itself. But, whatever might be +the position of party-relations, of what importance, in the first +instance at least, were the parties in Italy at all in presence +of Pompeius and his victorious army? Twenty years previously Sulla, +after having concluded a temporary peace with Mithradates, +had with his five legions been able to carry a restoration +runningcounter to the natural development of things in the face +of the whole liberal party, which had been arming en masse for years, +from the moderate aristocrats and the liberal mercantile class down +to the anarchists. The task of Pompeius was far less difficult. +He returned, after having fully and conscientiously performed +his different functions by sea and land. He might expect to encounter +no other serious opposition save that of the various extreme +parties, each of which by itself could do nothing, and which even +when leagued together were no more than a coalition of factions +still vehemently hostile to each other and inwardly at thorough +variance. Completely unarmed, they were without a military force +and without a head, without organization in Italy, without support +in the provinces, above all, without a general; there was in their +ranks hardly a soldier of note--to say nothing of an officer--who +could have ventured to call forth the burgesses to a conflict +with Pompeius. The circumstance might further be taken into account, +that the volcano of revolution, which had been now incessantly +blazing for seventy years and feeding on its own flame, was visibly +burning out and verging of itself to extinction. It was very doubtful +whether the attempt to arm the Italians for party interests +would now succeed, as it had succeeded with Cinna and Carbo. +If Pompeius exerted himself, how could he fail to effect +a revolution of the state, which was chalked out by a certain +necessity of nature in the organic development +of the Roman commonwealth? + +Mission of Nepos to Rome + +Pompeius had seized the right moment, when he undertook his mission +to the east; he seemed desirous to go forward. In the autumn +of 691, Quintus Metellus Nepos arrived from the camp of Pompeius +in the capital, and came forward as a candidate for the tribuneship, +with the express design of employing that position to procure +for Pompeius the consulship for the year 693 and more immediately, +by special decree of the people, the conduct of the war against +Catilina. The excitement in Rome was great. It was not +to be doubted that Nepos was acting under the direct or indirect +commission of Pompeius; the desire of Pompeius to appear in Italy +as general at the head of his Asiatic legions, and to administer +simultaneously the supreme military and the supreme civil power +there, was conceived to be a farther step on the way to the throne, +and the mission of Nepos a semi-official proclamation of the monarchy. + +Pompeius in Relation to the Parties + +Everything turned on the attitude which the two great political parties +should assume towards these overtures; their future position +and the future of the nation depended on this. But the reception +which Nepos met with was itself in its turn determined +by the then existing relation of the parties to Pompeius, which was +of a very peculiar kind. Pompeius had gone to the east as general +of the democracy. He had reason enough to be discontented +with Caesar and his adherents, but no open rupture had taken place. +It is probable that Pompeius, who was at a great distance and occupied +with other things, and who besides was wholly destitute of the gift +of calculating his political bearings, by no means saw through, +at least at that time, the extent and mutual connection +of the democratic intrigues contrived against him; perhaps even +in his haughty and shortsighted manner he had a certain pride +in ignoring these underground proceedings. Then there came the fact, +which with a character of the type of Pompeius had much weight, +that the democracy never lost sight of outward respect for the great man, +and even now (691) unsolicited (as he preferred it so) had granted +to him by a special decree of the people unprecedented honours +and decorations.(1) But, even if all this had not been the case, +it lay in Pompeius' own well-understood interest to continue +his adherence, at least outwardly, to the popular party; democracy +and monarchy stand so closely related that Pompeius, in aspiring +to the crown, could scarcely do otherwise than call himself, as hitherto, +the champion of popular rights. While personal and political +reasons, therefore, co-operated to keep Pompeius and the leaders +of the democracy, despite of all that had taken place, in their +previous connection, nothing was done on the opposite side to fill +up the chasm which separated him since his desertion to the camp +of the democracy from his Sullan partisans. His personal quarrel +with Metellus and Lucullus transferred itself to their extensive +and influential coteries. A paltry opposition of the senate-- +but, to a character of so paltry a mould, all the more exasperating +by reason of its very paltriness--had attended him through his whole +career as a general. He felt it keenly, that the senate had not taken +the smallest step to honour the extraordinary man according to +his desert, that is, by extraordinary means. Lastly, it is not +to be forgotten, that the aristocracy was just then intoxicated +by its recent victory and the democracy deeply humbled, +and that the aristocracy was led by the pedantically stiff +and half-witless Cato, and the democracy by the supple master +of intrigue, Caesar. + +Rupture between Pompeius and the Aristocracy + +Such was the state of parties amidst which the emissary sent +by Pompeius appeared. The aristocracy not only regarded the proposals +which he announced in favour of Pompeius as a declaration of war +against the existing constitution, but treated them openly as such, +and took not the slightest pains to conceal their alarm and their +indignation. With the express design of combating these proposals, +Marcus Cato had himself elected as tribune of the people +along with Nepos, and abruptly repelled the repeated attempts of Pompeius +to approach him personally. Nepos naturally after this found himself +under no inducement to spare the aristocracy, but attached himself +the more readily to the democrats, when these, pliant as ever, +submitted to what was inevitable and chose freely to concede +the office of general in Italy as well as the consulate +rather than let the concession be wrung from them by force of arms. +The cordial understanding soon showed itself. Nepos publicly accepted +(Dec. 691) the democratic view of the executions recently decreed +by the majority of the senate, as unconstitutional judicial murders; +and that his lord and master looked on them in no other light, +was shown by his significant silence respecting the voluminous +vindication of them which Cicero had sent to him. On the other +hand, the first act with which Caesar began his praetorship +was to call Quintus Catulus to account for the moneys alleged +to have been embezzled by him at the rebuilding of the Capitoline temple, +and to transfer the completion of the temple to Pompeius. This was +a masterstroke. Catulus had already been building at the temple +for fifteen years, and seemed very much disposed to die as he had lived +superintendent of the Capitoline buildings; an attack on this abuse +of a public commission--an abuse covered only by the reputation +of the noble commissioner--was in reality entirely justified +and in a high degree popular. But when the prospect was simultaneously +opened up to Pompeius of being allowed to delete the name of Catulus +and engrave his own on this proudest spot of the first city +of the globe, there was offered to him the very thing which most +of all delighted him and did no harm to the democracy--abundant +but empty honour; while at the same time the aristocracy, which could +not possibly allow its best man to fall, was brought into the most +disagreeable collision with Pompeius. + +Meanwhile Nepos had brought his proposals concerning Pompeius +before the burgesses. On the day of voting Cato and his friend +and colleague, Quintus Minucius, interposed their veto. When Nepos +did not regard this and continued the reading out, a formal conflict +took place; Cato and Minucius threw themselves on their colleague +and forced him to stop; an armed band liberated him, and drove +the aristocratic section from the Forum; but Cato and Minucius +returned, now supported likewise by armed bands, and ultimately +maintained the field of battle for the government. Encouraged +by this victory of their bands over those of their antagonist, +the senate suspended the tribune Nepos as well as the praetor Caesar, +who had vigorously supported him in the bringing in of the law, +from their offices; their deposition, which was proposed in the senate, +was prevented by Cato, more, doubtless, because it was +unconstitutional than because it was injudicious. Caesar did +not regard the decree, and continued his official functions till +the senate used violence against him. As soon as this was known, +the multitude appeared before his house and placed itself at his +disposal; it was to depend solely on him whether the struggle +in the streets should begin, or whether at least the proposals made +by Metellus should now be resumed and the military command in Italy +desired by Pompeius should be procured for him; but this was not +in Caesar's interest, and so he induced the crowds to disperse, +whereupon the senate recalled the penalty decreed against him. +Nepos himself had, immediately after his suspension, left +the city and embarked for Asia, in order to report to Pompeius +the result of his mission. + +Retirement of Pompeius + +Pompeius had every reason to be content with the turn which things +had taken. The way to the throne now lay necessarily through civil +war; and he owed it to Cato's incorrigible perversity that he could +begin this war with good reason. After the illegal condemnation +of the adherents of Catilina, after the unparalleled acts of violence +against the tribune of the people Metellus, Pompeius might wage war +at once as defender of the two palladia of Roman public freedom-- +the right of appeal and the inviolability of the tribunate +of the people--against the aristocracy, and as champion of the party +of order against the Catilinarian band. It seemed almost impossible +that Pompeius should neglect this opportunity and with his eyes +open put himself a second time into the painful position, in which +the dismissal of his army in 684 had placed him, and from which +only the Gabinian law had released him. But near as seemed +the opportunity of placing the white chaplet around his brow, +and much as his own soul longed after it, when the question of action +presented itself, his heart and his hand once more failed him. +This man, altogether ordinary in every respect excepting only +his pretensions, would doubtless gladly have placed himself beyond +the law, if only he could have done so without forsaking legal ground. +His very lingering in Asia betrayed a misgiving of this sort. +He might, had he wished, have very well arrived in January 692 +with his fleet and army at the port of Brundisium, and have received +Nepos there. His tarrying the whole winter of 691-692 in Asia had +proximately the injurious consequence, that the aristocracy, +which of course accelerated the campaign against Catilina as it best +could, had meanwhile got rid of his bands, and had thus set aside +the most feasible pretext for keeping together the Asiatic legions +in Italy. For a man of the type of Pompeius, who for want of faith +in himself and in his star timidly clung in public life to formal +right, and with whom the pretext was nearly of as much importance +as the motive, this circumstance was of serious weight. He probably +said to himself, moreover, that, even if he dismissed his army, +he did not let it wholly out of his hand, and could in case +of need still raise a force ready for battle sooner at any rate +than any other party-chief; that the democracy was waiting +in submissive attitude for his signal, and that he could deal +with the refractory senate even without soldiers; and such further +considerations as suggested themselves, in which there was exactly +enough of truth to make them appear plausible to one who wished +to deceive himself. Once more the very peculiar temperament +of Pompeius naturally turned the scale. He was one of those men +who are capable it may be of a crime, but not of insubordination; +in a good as in a bad sense, he was thoroughly a soldier. Men of mark +respect the law as a moral necessity, ordinary men as a traditional +everyday rule; for this very reason military discipline, in which +more than anywhere else law takes the form of habit, fetters every +man not entirely self-reliant as with a magic spell. It has often +been observed that the soldier, even where he has determined +to refuse obedience to those set over him, involuntarily +when that obedience is demanded resumes his place in the ranks. +It was this feeling that made Lafayette and Dumouriez hesitate +at the last moment before the breach of faith and break down; +and to this too Pompeius succumbed. + +In the autumn of 692 Pompeius embarked for Italy. While in the capital +all was being prepared for receiving the new monarch, news came +that Pompeius, when barely landed at Brundisium, had broken up +his legions and with a small escort had entered on his journey +to the capital. If it is a piece of good fortune to gain a crown +without trouble, fortune never did more for mortal than it did +for Pompeius; but on those who lack courage the gods lavish every +favour and every gift in vain. + +Pompeius without Influence + +The parties breathed freely. For the second time Pompeius had +abdicated; his already-vanquished competitors might once more begin +the race--in which doubtless the strangest thing was, that Pompeius +was again a rival runner. In January 693 he came to Rome. +His position was an awkward one and vacillated with so much uncertainty +between the parties, that people gave him the nickname of Gnaeus +Cicero. He had in fact lost favour with all. The anarchists saw +in him an adversary, the democrats an inconvenient friend, Marcus +Crassus a rival, the wealthy class an untrustworthy protector, +the aristocracy a declared foe.(2) He was still indeed the most +powerful man in the state; his military adherents scattered through +all Italy, his influence in the provinces, particularly those +of the east, his military fame, his enormous riches gave him a weight +such as no other possessed; but instead of the enthusiastic +reception on which he had counted, the reception which he met +with was more than cool, and still cooler was the treatment given +to the demands which he presented. He requested for himself, +as he had already caused to be announced by Nepos, a second consulship; +demanding also, of course, a confirmation of the arrangements made +by him in the east and a fulfilment of the promise which he had +given to his soldiers to furnish them with lands. Against these +demands a systematic opposition arose in the senate, the chief +elements of which were furnished by the personal exasperation +of Lucullus and Metellus Creticus, the old resentment of Crassus, +and the conscientious folly of Cato. The desired second consulship +was at once and bluntly refused. The very first request +which the returning general addressed to the senate, that the election +of the consuls for 693 might be put off till after his entry +into the capital, had been rejected; much less was there any likelihood +of obtaining from the senate the necessary dispensation from the law +of Sulla as to re-election.(3) As to the arrangements which +he had made in the eastern provinces, Pompeius naturally asked +their confirmation as a whole; Lucullus carried a proposal +thatevery ordinance should be separately discussed and voted upon, +which opened the door for endless annoyances and a multitude of defeats +in detail. The promise of a grant of land to the soldiers +of the Asiatic army was ratified indeed in general by the senate, +but was at the same time extended to the Cretan legions of Metellus; +and--what was worse--it was not executed, because the public chest +was empty and the senate was not disposed to meddle with the domains +for this purpose. Pompeius, in despair of mastering the persistent +and spiteful opposition of the senate, turned to the burgesses. +But he understood still less how to conduct his movements +on this field. The democratic leaders, although they did not +openly oppose him, had no cause at all to make his interests their own, +and so kept aloof. Pompeius' own instruments--such as the consuls +elected by his influence and partly by his money, Marcus Pupius Piso +for 693 and Lucius Afranius for 694--showed themselves unskilful +and useless. When at length the assignation of land for the veterans +of Pompeius was submitted to the burgesses by the tribune +of the people Lucius Flavius in the form of a general agrarian law, +the proposal, not supported by the democrats, openly combated +by the aristocrats, was left in a minority (beg. of 694). The exalted +general now sued almost humbly for the favour of the masses, +for it was on his instigation that the Italian tolls were abolished +by a law introduced by the praetor Metellus Nepos (694). But he played +the demagogue without skill and without success; his reputation +suffered from it, and he did not obtain what he desired. He had +completely run himself into a noose. One of his opponents summed +up his political position at that time by saying that he had +endeavoured "to conserve by silence his embroidered triumphal +mantle." In fact nothing was left for him but to fret. + +Rise of Caesar + +Then a new combination offered itself. The leader +of the democratic party had actively employed in his own interest +the political calm which had immediately followed on the retirement +of the previous holder of power. When Pompeius returned from Asia, +Caesar had been little more than what Catilina was--the chief +of a political party which had dwindled almost into a club +of conspirators, and a bankrupt. But since that event he had, +after administering the praetorship (692), been invested +with the governorship of Further Spain, and thereby had found means +partly to rid himself of his debts, partly to lay the foundation +for his military repute. His old friend and ally Crassus had been +induced by the hope of finding the support against Pompeius, +which he had lost in Piso,(4) once more in Caesar, to relieve him +even before his departure to the province from the most oppressive +portion of his load of debt. He himself had energetically employed +his brief sojourn there. Returning from Spain in the year 694 +with filled chests and as Imperator with well-founded claims +to a triumph, he came forward for the following year as a candidate +for the consulship; for the sake of which, as the senate refused +him permission to announce himself as a candidate for the consular +election in absence, he without hesitation abandoned the honour +of the triumph. For years the democracy had striven to raise +one of its partisans to the possession of the supreme magistracy, +that by way of this bridge it might attain a military power of its own. +It had long been clear to discerning men of all shades that the strife +of parties could not be settled by civil conflict, but only +by military power; but the course of the coalition between +the democracy and the powerful military chiefs, through which the rule +of the senate had been terminated, showed with inexorable clearness +that every such alliance ultimately issued in a subordination +of the civil under the military elements, and that the popular party, +if it would really rule, must not ally itself with generals +properly foreign and even hostile to it, but must make generals +of its own leaders themselves. The attempts made with this view +to carry the election of Catilina as consul, and to gain a military +support in Spain or Egypt, had failed; now a possibility presented +itself of procuring for their most important man the consulship +and the consular province in the usual constitutional way, +and of rendering themselves independent of their dubious and dangerous +ally Pompeius by the establishment, if we may so speak, of a home +power in their own democratic household. + +Second Coalition of Pompeius, Crassus, and Caesar + +But the more the democracy could not but desire to open up +for itself this path, which offered not so much the most favourable +as the only prospect of real successes, the more certainly it +might reckon on the resolute resistance of its political opponents. +Everything depended on whom it found opposed to it in this matter. +The aristocracy isolated was not formidable; but it had just been +rendered evident in the Catilinarian affair that it could certainly +still exert some influence, where it was more or less openly +supported by the men of material interests and by the adherents +of Pompeius. It had several times frustrated Catilina's candidature +for the consulship, and that it would attempt the like against +Caesar was sufficiently certain. But, even though Caesar should +perhaps be chosen in spite of it, his election alone did not suffice. +He needed at least some years of undisturbed working out of Italy, +in order to gain a firm military position; and the nobility +assuredly would leave no means untried to thwart his plans +during this time of preparation. The idea naturally occurred, +whether the aristocracy might not be again successfully isolated +as in 683-684, and an alliance firmly based on mutual advantage might +not be established between the democrats with their ally Crassus +on the one side and Pompeius and the great capitalists on the other. +For Pompeius such a coalition was certainly a political suicide. +His weight hitherto in the state rested on the fact, that he was +the only party-leader who at the same time disposed of legions-- +which, though now dissolved, were still in a certain sense +at his disposal. The plan of the democracy was directed +to the very object of depriving him of this preponderance, +and of placing by his side in their own chief a military rival. +Never could he consent to this, and least of all personally help +to a post of supreme command a man like Caesar, who already +as a mere political agitator had given him trouble enough +and had just furnished the most brilliant proofs also of military +capacity in Spain. But on the other hand, in consequence +of the cavilling opposition of the senate and the indifference +of the multitude to Pompeius and Pompeius' wishes, his position, +particularly with reference to his old soldiers, had become so painful +and so humiliating, that people might well expect from his character +to gain him for such a coalition at the price of releasing him +from that disagreeable situation. And as to the so-called +equestrian party, it was to be found on whatever side the power lay; +and as a matter of course it would not let itself be long waited for, +if it saw Pompeius and the democracy combining anew in earnest. +It happened moreover, that on account of Cato's severity-- +otherwise very laudable--towards the lessees of the taxes, +the great capitalists were just at this time once more +at vehement variance with the senate. + +Change in the Position of Caesar + +So the second coalition was concluded in the summer of 694. +Caesar was assured of the consulship for the following year +and a governorship in due course; to Pompeius was promised +the ratification of his arrangements made in the east, +and an assignation of lands for the soldiers of the Asiatic army; +to the equites Caesar likewise promised to procure for them +by means of the burgesses what the senate had refused; Crassus +in fine--the inevitable--was allowed at least to join the league, +although without obtaining definite promises for an accession +which he could not refuse. It was exactly the same elements, +and indeed the same persons, who concluded the league with one another +in the autumn of 683 and in the summer of 694; but how entirely different +was the position of the parties then and now! Then the democracy +was nothing but a political party, while its allies were victorious +generals at the head of their armies; now the leader of the democracy +was himself an Imperator crowned with victory and full +of magnificent military schemes, while his allies were retired +generals without any army. Then the democracy conquered +in questions of principle, and in return for that victory conceded +the highest offices of state to its two confederates; now it had +become more practical and grasped the supreme civil and military +power for itself, while concessions were made to its allies only +in subordinate points and, significantly enough, not even the old +demand of Pompeius for a second consulship was attended to. Then +the democracy sacrificed itself to its allies; now these had +to entrust themselves to it. All the circumstances were completely +changed, most of all, however, the character of the democracy +itself. No doubt it had, ever since it existed at all, +contained at its very core a monarchic element; but the ideal +of a constitution, which floated in more or less clear outline before +its best intellects, was always that of a civil commonwealth, +a Periclean organization of the state, in which the power +of the prince rested on the fact that he represented the burgesses +in the noblest and most accomplished manner, and the most accomplished +and noblest part of the burgesses recognized him as the man in whom +they thoroughly confided. Caesar too set out with such views; +but they were simply ideals, which might have some influence +on realities, but could not be directly realized. Neither the simple +civil power, as Gaius Gracchus possessed it, nor the arming +of the democratic party, such as Cinna though in a very inadequate +fashion had attempted, was able to maintain a permanent superiority +in the Roman commonwealth; the military machine fighting not for a party +but for a general, the rude force of the condottieri--after having +first appeared on the stage in the service of the restoration--soon +showed itself absolutely superior to all political parties. Caesar +could not but acquire a conviction of this amidst the practical +workings of party, and accordingly he matured the momentous +resolution of making this military machine itself serviceable +to his ideals, and of erecting such a commonwealth, as he had +in his view, by the power of condottieri. With this design +he concluded in 683 the league with the generals of the opposite party, +which, notwithstanding that they had accepted the democratic programme, +yet brought the democracy and Caesar himself to the brink +of destruction. With the same design he himself came forward eleven +years afterwards as a condottiere. It was done in both cases +with a certain naivete--with good faith in the possibility +of his being able to found a free commonwealth, if not by the swords +of others, at any rate by his own. We perceive without difficulty +that this faith was fallacious, and that no one takes an evil spirit +into his service without becoming himself enslaved to it; +but the greatest men are not those who err the least. +If we still after so many centuries bow in reverence before what +Caesar willed and did, it is not because he desired and gained +a crown (to do which is, abstractly, as little of a great thing +as the crown itself) but because his mighty ideal--of a free commonwealth +under one ruler--never forsook him, and preserved him even when monarch +from sinking into vulgar royalty. + +Caesar Consul + +The election of Caesar as consul for 695 was carried without +difficulty by the united parties. The aristocracy had to rest +content with giving to him--by means of a bribery, for which +the whole order of lords contributed the funds, and which excited +surprise even in that period of deepest corruption--a colleague +in the person of Marcus Bibulus, whose narrow-minded obstinacy +was regarded in their circles as conservative energy, +and whose good intentions at least were not at fault if the genteel +lords did not get a fit return for their patriotic expenditure. + +Caesar's Agrarian Law + +As consul Caesar first submitted to discussion the requests of his +confederates, among which the assignation of land to the veterans +of the Asiatic army was by far the most important. The agrarian +law projected for this purpose by Caesar adhered in general +to the principles set forth in the project of law, which was introduced +in the previous year at the suggestion of Pompeius but not carried.(5) +There was destined for distribution only the Italian domain-land, +that is to say, substantially, the territory of Capua, and, if this +should not suffice, other Italian estates were to be purchased +out of the revenue of the new eastern provinces at the taxable value +recorded in the censorial rolls; all existing rights of property +and heritable possession thus remained unaffected. The individual +allotments were small. The receivers of land were to be poor +burgesses, fathers of at least three children; the dangerous +principle, that the rendering of military service gave a claim +to landed estate, was not laid down, but, as was reasonable and had +been done at all times, the old soldiers as well as the temporary +lessees to be ejected were simply recommended to the special +consideration of the land-distributors. The execution of the measure +was entrusted to a commission of twenty men, into which Caesar +distinctly declared that he did not wish to be himself elected. + +Opposition of the Aristocracy + +The opposition had a difficult task in resisting this proposal. +It could not rationally be denied, that the state-finances ought +after the erection of the provinces of Pontus and Syria to be +in a position to dispense with the moneys from the Campanian leases; +that it was unwarrantable to withhold one of the finest districts +of Italy, and one peculiarly fitted for small holdings, +from private enterprise; and, lastly, that it was as unjust as it +was ridiculous, after the extension of the franchise to all Italy, +still to withhold municipal rights from the township of Capua. +The whole proposal bore the stamp of moderation, honesty, and solidity, +with which a democratic party-character was very dexterously +combined; for in substance it amounted to the re-establishment +of the Capuan colony founded in the time of Marius and again +done away by Sulla.(6) In form too Caesar observed all possible +consideration. He laid the project of the agrarian law, as well +as the proposal to ratify collectively the ordinances issued +by Pompeius in the east, and the petition of the farmers of the taxes +for remission of a third of the sums payable by them, in the first +instance before the senate for approval, and declared himself +ready to entertain and discuss proposals for alterations. +The corporation had now opportunity of convincing itself how foolishly +it had acted in driving Pompeius and the equites into the arms +of the adversary by refusing these requests. Perhaps it was +the secret sense of this, that drove the high-born lords to the most +vehement opposition, which contrasted ill with the calm demeanour +of Caesar. The agrarian law was rejected by them nakedly and even +without discussion. The decree as to the arrangements of Pompeius +in Asia found quite as little favour in their eyes. Cato attempted, +in accordance with the disreputable custom of Roman parliamentary +debate, to kill the proposal regarding the farmers of the taxes +by speaking, that is, to prolong his speech up to the legal hour +for closing the sitting; when Caesar threatened to have the stubborn +man arrested, this proposal too was at length rejected. + +Proposals before the Burgesses + +Of course all the proposals were now brought before the burgesses. +Without deviating far from the truth, Caesar could tell +the multitude that the senate had scornfully rejected most rational +and most necessary proposals submitted to it in the most respectful +form, simply because they came from the democratic consul. +When he added that the aristocrats had contrived a plot to procure +the rejection of the proposals, and summoned the burgesses, +and more especially Pompeius himself and his old soldiers, to stand +by him against fraud and force, this too was by no means a mere invention. +The aristocracy, with the obstinate weak creature Bibulus +and the unbending dogmatical fool Cato at their head, in reality +intended to push the matter to open violence. Pompeius, instigated +by Caesar to proclaim his position with reference to the pending +question, declared bluntly, as was not his wont on other occasions, +that if any one should venture to draw the sword, he too would +grasp his, and in that case would not leave the shield at home; +Crassus expressed himself to the same effect The old soldiers +of Pompeius were directed to appear on the day of the vote-- +which in fact primarily concerned them--in great numbers, +and with arms under their dress, at the place of voting. + +The nobility however left no means untried to frustrate the proposals +of Caesar. On each day when Caesar appeared before the people, +his colleague Bibulus instituted the well-known political observations +of the weather which interrupted all public business;(7) Caesar +did not trouble himself about the skies, but continued to prosecute +his terrestrial occupation. The tribunician veto was interposed; +Caesar contented himself with disregarding it. Bibulus and Cato +sprang to the rostra, harangued the multitude, and instigated +the usual riot; Caesar ordered that they should be led away +by lictors from the Forum, and took care that otherwise no harm +should befall them--it was for his interest that the political +comedy should remain such as it was. + +The Agrarian Law Carried +Passive Resistance of the Aristocracy + +Notwithstanding all the chicanery and all the blustering +of the nobility, the agrarian law, the confirmation of the Asiatic +arrangements, and the remission to the lessees of taxes +were adopted by the burgesses; and the commission of twenty was elected +with Pompeius and Crassus at its head, and installed in office. +With all their exertions the aristocracy had gained nothing, +save that their blind and spiteful antagonism had drawn the bonds +of the coalition still tighter, and their energy, which they were soon +to need for matters more important, had exhausted itself +on these affairs that were at bottom indifferent. They congratulated +each other on the heroic courage which they had displayed; +the declaration of Bibulus that he would rather die than yield, +the peroration which Cato still continued to deliver when in the hands +of the lictors, were great patriotic feats; otherwise they resigned +themselves to their fate. The consul Bibulus shut himself up +for the remainder of the year in his house, while he at the same time +intimated by public placard that he had the pious intention +of watching the signs of the sky on all the days appropriate +for public assemblies during that year. His colleagues once more +admired the great man who, as Ennius had said of the old Fabius, +"saved the state by wise delay," and they followed his example; +most of them, Cato included, no longer appeared in the senate, +but within their four walls helped their consul to fret over +the fact that the history of the world went on in spite of political +astronomy. To the public this passive attitude of the consul +as well as of the aristocracy in general appeared, as it fairly might, +a political abdication; and the coalition were naturally very well +content that they were left to take their farther steps almost +undisturbed. + +Caesar Governor of the Two Gauls + +The most important of these steps was the regulating of the future +position of Caesar. Constitutionally it devolved on the senate +to fix the functions of the second consular year of office before +the election of the consuls took place; accordingly it had, in prospect +of the election of Caesar, selected with that view for 696 two +provinces in which the governor should find no other employment +than the construction of roads and other such works of utility. +Of course the matter could not so remain; it was determined among +the confederates, that Caesar should obtain by decree of the people +an extraordinary command formed on the model of the Gabinio-Manilian +laws. Caesar however had publicly declared that he would introduce +no proposal in his own favour; the tribune of the people Publius +Vatinius therefore undertook to submit the proposal to the burgesses, +who naturally gave their unconditional assent. By this means +Caesar obtained the governorship of Cisalpine Gaul and the supreme +command of the three legions which were stationed there +and were already experienced in border warfare under Lucius Afranius, +along with the same rank of propraetor for his adjutants +which those of Pompeius had enjoyed; this office was secured to him +for five years--a longer period than had ever before been assigned +to any general whose appointment was limited to a definite time +at all. The Transpadanes, who for years had in hope of the franchise +been the clients of the democratic party in Rome and of Caesar +in particular,(8) formed the main portion of his province. +His jurisdiction extended south as far as the Arnus and the Rubico, +and included Luca and Ravenna. Subsequently there was added to Caesar's +official district the province of Narbo with the one legion +stationed there--a resolution adopted by the senate on the proposal +of Pompeius, that it might at least not see this command +also pass to Caesar by extraordinary decree of the burgesses. +What was wished was thus attained. As no troops could constitutionally +be stationed in Italy proper,(9) the commander of the legions +of northern Italy and Gaul dominated at the same time Italy and Rome +for the next five years; and he who was master for five years +was master for life. The consulship of Caesar had attained its object. +As a matter of course, the new holders of power did not neglect +withal to keep the multitude in good humour by games and amusements +of all sorts, and they embraced every opportunity of filling their +exchequer; in the case of the king of Egypt, for instance, +the decree of the people, which recognized him as legitimate ruler,(10) +was sold to him by the coalition at a high price, and in like manner +other dynasts and communities acquired charters and privileges +on this occasion. + +Measures Adopted by the Allies for Their Security + +The permanence of the arrangements made seemed also sufficiently +secured. The consulship was, at least for the next year, entrusted +to safe hands. The public believed at first, that it was destined +for Pompeius and Crassus themselves; the holders of power however +preferred to procure the election of two subordinate but trustworth +men of their party--Aulus Gabinius, the best among Pompeius' adjutants, +and Lucius Piso, who was less important but was Caesar's father-in-law-- +as consuls for 696. Pompeius personally undertook to watch over Italy, +where at the head of the commission of twenty he prosecuted the execution +of the agrarian law and furnished nearly 20,000 burgesses, +in great part old soldiers from his army, with land in the territory +of Capua. Caesar's north-Italian legions served to back him +against the opposition in the capital. There existed no prospect, +immediately at least, of a rupture among the holders of power themselves. +The laws issued by Caesar as consul, in the maintenance of which +Pompeius was at least as much interested as Caesar, formed +a guarantee for the continuance of the breach between Pompeius +and the aristocracy--whose heads, and Cato in particular, +continued to treat these laws as null--and thereby a guarantee +for the subsistence of the coalition. Moreover, the personal bonds +of connection between its chiefs were drawn closer. Caesar had +honestly and faithfully kept his word to his confederates +without curtailing or cheating them of what he had promised, +and in particular had fought to secure the agrarian law proposed +in the interest of Pompeius, just as if the case had been his own, +with dexterity and energy; Pompeius was not insensible to upright +dealing and good faith, and was kindly disposed towards the man +who had helped him to get quit at a blow of the sorry part +of a suppliant which he had been playing for three years. Frequent +and familiar intercourse with a man of the irresistible amiableness +of Caesar did what was farther requisite to convert the alliance +of interests into an alliance of friendship. The result +and the pledge of this friendship--at the same time, doubtless, +a public announcement which could hardly be misunderstood +of the newly established conjoint rule--was the marriage of Pompeius +with Caesar's only daughter, three-and-twenty years of age. +Julia, who had inherited the charm of her father, lived +in the happiest domestic relations with her husband, who was +nearly twice as old; and the burgesses longing for rest +and order after so many troubles and crises, saw in this nuptial +alliance the guarantee of a peaceful and prosperous future. + +Situation of the Aristocracy + +The more firmly and closely the alliance was thus cemented +between Pompeius and Caesar, the more hopeless grew the cause +of the aristocracy. They felt the sword suspended over their head +and knew Caesar sufficiently to have no doubt that he would, +if necessary, use it without hesitation. "On all sides," wrote +one of them, "we are checkmated; we have already through fear of death +or of banishment despaired of 'freedom'; every one sighs, +no one ventures to speak." More the confederates could not desire. +But though the majority of the aristocracy was in this desirable +frame of mind, there was, of course, no lack of Hotspurs among +this party. Hardly had Caesar laid down the consulship, when some +of the most violent aristocrats, Lucius Domitius and Gaius Memmius, +proposed in a full senate the annulling of the Julian laws. +This indeed was simply a piece of folly, which redounded only +to the benefit of the coalition; for, when Caesar now himself +insisted that the senate should investigate the validity of the laws +assailed, the latter could not but formally recognize their +legality. But, as may readily be conceived, the holders of power +found in this a new call to make an example of some of the most +notable and noisiest of their opponents, and thereby to assure +themselves that the remainder would adhere to that fitting policy +of sighing and silence. At first there had been a hope +that the clause of the agrarian law, which as usual required +all the senators to take an oath to the new law on pain of forfeiting +their political rights, would induce its most vehement opponents +to banish themselves, after the example of Metellus Numidicus,(11) +by refusing the oath. But these did not show themselves +so complaisant; even the rigid Cato submitted to the oath, +and his Sanchos followed him. A second, far from honourable, +attempt to threaten the heads of the aristocracy with criminal +impeachments on account of an alleged plot for the murder of Pompeius, +and so to drive them into exile, was frustrated by the incapacity +of the instruments; the informer, one Vettius, exaggerated +and contradicted himself so grossly, and the tribune Vatinius, +who directed the foul scheme, showed his complicity with that Vettius +so clearly, that it was found advisable to strangle the latter +in prison and to let the whole matter drop. On this occasion however +they had obtained sufficient evidence of the total disorganization +of the aristocracy and the boundless alarm of the genteel lords: +even a man like Lucius Lucullus had thrown himself in person +at Caesar's feet and publicly declared that he found himself compelled +by reason of his great age to withdraw from public life. + +Cato and Cicero Removed + +Ultimately therefore they were content with a few isolated victims. +It was of primary importance to remove Cato, who made no secret +of his conviction as to the nullity of all the Julian laws, +and who was a man to act as he thought. Such a man Marcus Cicero +was certainly not, and they did not give themselves the trouble +to fear him. But the democratic party, which played the leading part +in the coalition, could not possibly after its victory leave +unpunished the judicial murder of the 5th December 691, which it +had so loudly and so justly censured. Had they wished to bring +to account the real authors of the fatal decree, they ought +to have seized not on the pusillanimous consul, but on the section +of the strict aristocracy which had urged the timorous man +to that execution. But in formal law it was certainly not the advisers +of the consul, but the consul himself, that was responsible for it, +and it was above all the gentler course to call the consul alone +to account and to leave the senatorial college wholly out of the case; +for which reason in the grounds of the proposal directed against +Cicero the decree of the senate, in virtue of which he ordered +the execution, was directly described as supposititious. Even against +Cicero the holders of power would gladly have avoided steps +that attracted attention; but he could not prevail on himself either +to give to those in power the guarantees which they required, +or to banish himself from Rome under one of the feasible pretexts +on several occasions offered to him, or even to keep silence. +With the utmost desire to avoid any offence and the most sincere alarm, +he yet had not self-control enough to be prudent; the word had +to come out, when a petulant witticism stung him, or when his self- +conceit almost rendered crazy by the praise of so many noble lords +gave vent to the well-cadenced periods of the plebeian advocate. + +Clodius + +The execution of the measures resolved on against Cato and Cicero +was committed to the loose and dissolute, but clever and pre- +eminently audacious Publius Clodius, who had lived for years +in the bitterest enmity with Cicero, and, with the view of satisfying +that enmity and playing a part as demagogue, had got himself converted +under the consulship of Caesar by a hasty adoption from a patrician +into a plebeian, and then chosen as tribune of the people +for the year 696. To support Clodius, the proconsul Caesar remained +in the immediate vicinity of the capital till the blow was struck +against the two victims. Agreeably to the instructions +which he had received, Clodius proposed to the burgesses to entrust +Cato with the regulation of the complicated municipal affairs +of the Byzantines and with the annexation of the kingdom of Cyprus, +which as well as Egypt had fallen to the Romans by the testament +of Alexander II, but had not like Egypt bought off the Roman +annexation, and the king of which, moreover, had formerly given +personal offence to Clodius. As to Cicero, Clodius brought in +a project of law which characterized the execution of a burgess +without trial and sentence as a crime to be punished with banishment. +Cato was thus removed by an honourable mission, while Cicero +was visited at least with the gentlest possible punishment and, +besides, was not designated by name in the proposal. But they did not +refuse themselves the pleasure, on the one hand, of punishing +a man notoriously timid and belonging to the class of political +weathercocks for the conservative energy which he displayed, +and, on the other hand, of investing the bitter opponent +of all interferences of the burgesses in administration +and of all extraordinary commands with such a command conferred +by decree of the burgesses themselves; and with similar humour +the proposal respecting Cato was based on the ground of the abnormal +virtue of the man, which made him appear pre-eminently qualified +to execute so delicate a commission, as was the confiscation +of the considerable crown treasure of Cyprus, without embezzlement. +Both proposals bear generally the same character of respectful +deference and cool irony, which marks throughout the bearing of Caesar +in reference to the senate. They met with no resistance. +It was naturally of no avail, that the majority of the senate, +with the view of protesting in some way against the mockery +and censure of their decree in the matter of Catilina, publicly +put on mourning, and that Cicero himself, now when it was too late, +fell on his knees and besought mercy from Pompeius; he had to banish +himself even before the passing of the law which debarred him +from his native land (April 696). Cato likewise did not venture +to provoke sharper measures by declining the commission +which he had received, but accepted itand embarked for the east.(12) +What was most immediately necessary was done; Caesar too +might leave Italy to devote himself to more serious tasks. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +The Subjugation of the West + +The Romanizing of the West + +When the course of history turns from the miserable monotony +of the political selfishness, which fought its battles +in the senate-house and in the streets of the capital, to matters +of greater importance than the question whether the first monarch +of Rome should be called Gnaeus, Gaius, or Marcus, we may well +be allowed--on the threshold of an event, the effects of which still +at the present day influence the destinies of the world--to look round us +for a moment, and to indicate the point of view under which the conquest +of what is now France by the Romans, and their first contact +with the inhabitants of Germany and of Great Britain, are to be +apprehended in their bearing on the general history of the world. + +By virtue of the law, that a people which has grown into a state +absorbs its neighbours who are in political nonage, and a civilized +people absorbs its neighbours who are in intellectual nonage-- +by virtue of this law, which is as universally valid and as much +a law of nature as the law of gravity--the Italian nation (the only +one in antiquity which was able to combine a superior political +development and a superior civilization, though it presented +the latter only in an imperfect and external manner) was entitled +to reduce to subjection the Greek states of the east which were ripe +for destruction, and to dispossess the peoples of lower grades +of culture in the west--Libyans, Iberians, Celts, Germans--by means +of its settlers; just as England with equal right has in Asia reduced +to subjection a civilization of rival standing but politically +impotent, and in America and Australia has marked and ennobled, +and still continues to mark and ennoble, extensive barbarian +countries with the impress of its nationality. The Roman aristocracy +had accomplished the preliminary condition required for this task-- +the union of Italy; the task itself it never solved, but always +regarded the extra-Italian conquests either as simply a necessary +evil, or as a fiscal possession virtually beyond the pale +of the state. It is the imperishable glory of the Roman democracy +or monarchy--for the two coincide--to have correctly apprehended +and vigorously realized this its highest destination. What +the irresistible force of circumstances had paved the way for, +through the senate establishing against its will the foundations +of the future Roman dominion in the west as in the east; what thereafter +the Roman emigration to the provinces--which came as a public +calamity, no doubt, but also in the western regions at any rate +as a pioneer of a higher culture--pursued as matter of instinct; +the creator of the Roman democracy, Gaius Gracchus, grasped +and began to carry out with statesmanlike clearness and decision. +The two fundamental ideas of the new policy--to reunite +the territories under the power of Rome, so far as they were Hellenic, +and to colonize them, so far as they were not Hellenic--had already +in the Gracchan age been practically recognized by the annexation +of the kingdom of Attalus and by the Transalpine conquests of Flaccus: +but the prevailing reaction once more arrested their application. +The Roman state remained a chaotic mass of countries without thorough +occupation and without proper limits. Spain and the Graeco-Asiatic +possessions were separated from the mother country by wide +territories, of which barely the borders along the coast +were subject to the Romans; on the north coast of Africa the domains +of Carthage and Cyrene alone were occupied like oases; large tracts +even of the subject territory, especially in Spain, were but nominally +subject to the Romans. Absolutely nothing was done on the part +of the government towards concentrating and rounding off +their dominion, and the decay of the fleet seemed at length +to dissolve the last bond of connection between the distant +possessions. The democracy no doubt attempted, so soon as it +again raised its head, to shape its external policy in the spirit +of Gracchus--Marius in particular cherished such ideas--but as it +did not for any length of time attain the helm, its projects +were left unfulfilled. It was not till the democracy practically took +in hand the government on the overthrow of the Sullan constitution +in 684, that a revolution in this respect occurred. First of all +their sovereignty on the Mediterranean was restored--the most +vital question for a state like that of Rome. Towards the east, +moreover, the boundary of the Euphrates was secured by the annexation +of the provinces of Pontus and Syria. But there still remained beyond +the Alps the task of at once rounding off the Roman territory towards +the north and west, and of gaining a fresh virgin soil there +for Hellenic civilization and for the yet unbroken vigour +of the Italic race. + +Historical Significance of the Conquests of Caesar + +This task Gaius Caesar undertook. It is more than an error, +it is an outrage upon the sacred spirit dominant in history, +to regard Gaul solely as the parade ground on which Caesar +exercised himself and his legions for the impending civil war. +Though the subjugation of the west was for Caesar so far a means +to an end that he laid the foundations of his later height of power +in the Transalpine wars, it is the especial privilege of a statesman +of genius that his means themselves are ends in their turn. Caesar +needed no doubt for his party aims a military power, but he did not +conquer Gaul as a partisan. There was a direct political necessity +for Rome to meet the perpetually threatened invasion of the Germans +thus early beyond the Alps, and to construct a rampart there +which should secure the peace of the Roman world. But even this +important object was not the highest and ultimate reason for which Gaul +was conquered by Caesar. When the old home had become too +narrow for the Roman burgesses and they were in danger of decay, +the senate's policy of Italian conquest saved them from ruin. +Now the Italian home had become in its turn too narrow; once more +the state languished under the same social evils repeating themselves +in similar fashion only on a greater scale. It was a brilliant +idea, a grand hope, which led Caesar over the Alps--the idea +and the confident expectation that he should gain there for his +fellow-burgesses a new boundless home, and regenerate the state +a second time by placing it on a broader basis. + +Caesar in Spain + +The campaign which Caesar undertook in 693 in Further Spain, may +be in some sense included among the enterprises which aimed at +the subjugation of the west. Long as Spain had obeyed the Romans, +its western shore had remained substantially independent of them +even after the expedition of Decimus Brutus against the Callaeci(1), +and they had not even set foot on the northern coast; while +the predatory raids, to which the subject provinces found +themselves continually exposed from those quarters, did no small +injury to the civilization and Romanizing of Spain. Against these +the expedition of Caesar along the west coast was directed. +He crossed the chain of the Herminian mountains (Sierra de Estrella) +bounding the Tagus on the north; after having conquered their +inhabitants and transplanted them in part to the plain, he reduced +the country on both sides of the Douro and arrived at the northwest +point of the peninsula, where with the aid of a flotilla brought +up from Gades he occupied Brigantium (Corunna). By this means +the peoples adjoining the Atlantic Ocean, Lusitanians and Callaecians, +were forced to acknowledge the Roman supremacy, while the conqueror +was at the same time careful to render the position of the subjects +generally more tolerable by reducing the tribute to be paid to Rome +and regulating the financial affairs of the communities. + +But, although in this military and administrative debut of the great +general and statesman the same talents and the same leading ideas are +discernible which he afterwards evinced on a greater stage, his agency +in the Iberian peninsula was much too transient to have any deep effect; +the more especially as, owing to its physical and national peculiarities, +nothing but action steadily continued for a considerable time could +exert any durable influence there. + +Gaul + +A more important part in the Romanic development of the west +was reserved by destiny for the country which stretches between +the Pyrenees and the Rhine, the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean, +and which since the Augustan age has been especially designated +by the name of the land of the Celts--Gallia--although strictly +speaking the land of the Celts was partly narrower, partly much +more extensive, and the country so called never formed a national +unity, and did not form a political unity before Augustus. +For this very reason it is not easy to present a clear picture +of the very heterogeneous state of things which Caesar encountered +on his arrival there in 696. + +The Roman Province +Wars and Revolts There + +In the region on the Mediterranean, which, embracing approximately +Languedoc on the west of the Rhone, on the east Dauphine and Provence, +had been for sixty years a Roman province, the Roman arms had seldom +been at rest since the Cimbrian invasion which had swept over it. +In 664 Gaius Caelius had fought with the Salyes about Aquae Sextiae, +and in 674 Gaius Flaccus,(2) on his march to Spain, with other +Celtic nations. When in the Sertorian war the governor Lucius Manlius, +compelled to hasten to the aid of his colleagues beyond the Pyrenees, +returned defeated from Ilerda (Lerida) and on his way home +was vanquished a second time by the western neighbours +of the Roman province, the Aquitani (about 676;(3)), this seems +to have provoked a general rising of the provincials between +the Pyrenees and the Rhone, perhaps even of those between the Rhone +and Alps. Pompeius had to make his way with the sword through +the insurgent Gaul to Spain,(4) and by way of penalty for their +rebellion gave the territories of the Volcae-Arecomici +and the Helvii (dep. Gard and Ardeche) over to the Massiliots; +the governor Manius Fonteius (678-680) carried out these arrangements +and restored tranquillity in the province by subduing the Vocontii +(dep. Drome), protecting Massilia from the insurgents, +and liberating the Roman capital Narbo which they invested. +Despair, however, and the financial embarrassment which the participation +in the sufferings of the Spanish war(5) and generally the official +and non-official exactions of the Romans brought upon the Gallic +provinces, did not allow them to be tranquil; and in particular +the canton of the Allobroges, the most remote from Narbo, +was in a perpetual ferment, which was attested by the "pacification" +that Gaius Piso undertook there in 688 as well as by the behaviour +of the Allobrogian embassy in Rome on occasion of the anarchist plot +in 691,(6) and which soon afterwards (693) broke into open revolt +Catugnatus the leader of the Allobroges in this war of despair, +who had at first fought not unsuccessfully, was conquered at Solonium +after a glorious resistance by the governor Gaius Pomptinus. + +Bounds +Relations to Rome + +Notwithstanding all these conflicts the bounds of the Roman +territory were not materially advanced; Lugudunum Convenarum, +where Pompeius had settled the remnant of the Sertorian army,(7) +Tolosa, Vienna and Genava were still the most remote Roman townships +towards the west and north. But at the same time the importance +of these Gallic possessions for the mother country was continually +on the increase. The glorious climate, akin to that of Italy, +the favourable nature of the soil, the large and rich region lying +behind so advantageous for commerce with its mercantile routes +reaching as far as Britain, the easy intercourse by land and sea +with the mother country, rapidly gave to southern Gaul an economic +importance for Italy, which much older possessions, such as those +in Spain, had not acquired in the course of centuries; and as +the Romans who had suffered political shipwreck at this period sought +an asylum especially in Massilia, and there found once more Italian +culture and Italian luxury, voluntary emigrants from Italy also +were attracted more and more to the Rhone and the Garonne. +"The province of Gaul," it was said in a sketch drawn ten years +before Caesar's arrival, "is full of merchants; it swarms with Roman +burgesses. No native of Gaul transacts a piece of business without +the intervention of a Roman; every penny, that passes from one hand +to another in Gaul, goes through the account books of the Roman +burgesses." From the same description it appears that in addition +to the colonists of Narbo there were Romans cultivating land +and rearing cattle, resident in great numbers in Gaul; as to which, +however, it must not be overlooked that most of the provincial land +possessed by Romans, just like the greater part of the English +possessions in the earliest times in America, was in the hands +of the high nobility living in Italy, and those farmers and graziers +consisted for the most part of their stewards--slaves or freedmen. + +Incipient Romanizing + +It is easy to understand how under such circumstances civilization +and Romanizing rapidly spread among the natives. These Celts +were not fond of agriculture; but their new masters compelled them +to exchange the sword for the plough, and it is very credible +that the embittered resistance of the Allobroges was provoked in part +by some such injunctions. In earlier times Hellenism had also +to a certain degree dominated those regions; the elements +of a higher culture, the stimulus to the cultivation of the vine +and the olive,(8) to the use of writing(9) and to the coining of money, +came to them from Massilia. The Hellenic culture was in this case +far from being set aside by the Romans; Massilia gained through +them more influence than it lost; and even in the Roman period +Greek physicians and rhetoricians were publicly employed +in the Gallic cantons. But, as may readily be conceived, Hellenism +in southern Gaul acquired through the agency of the Romans the same +character as in Italy; the distinctively Hellenic civilization +gave place to the Latino-Greek mixed culture, which soon made +proselytes here in great numbers. The "Gauls in the breeches," +as the inhabitants of southern Gaul were called by way of contrast +to the "Gauls in the toga" of northern Italy, were not indeed +like the latter already completely Romanized, but they were even now +very perceptibly distinguished from the "longhaired Gauls" +of the northern regions still unsubdued. The semiculture becoming +naturalized among them furnished, doubtless, materials enough +for ridicule of their barbarous Latin, and people did not fail +to suggest to any one suspected of Celtic descent his "relationship +with the breeches"; but this bad Latin was yet sufficient +to enable even the remote Allobroges to transact business +with the Roman authorities, and even to give testimony in the Roman +courts without an interpreter. + +While the Celtic and Ligurian population of these regions +was thus in the course of losing its nationality, and was languishing +and pining withal under a political and economic oppression, +the intolerable nature of which is sufficiently attested by their +hopeless insurrections, the decline of the native population here +went hand in hand with the naturalizing of the same higher culture +which we find at this period in Italy. Aquae Sextiae and still +more Narbo were considerable townships, which might probably be +named by the side of Beneventum and Capua; and Massilia, the best +organized, most free, most capable of self-defence, and most +powerful of all the Greek cities dependent on Rome, under its +rigorous aristocratic government to which the Roman conservatives +probably pointed as the model of a good urban constitution, +in possession of an important territory which had been considerably +enlarged by the Romans and of an extensive trade, stood by the side +of those Latin towns as Rhegium and Neapolis stood in Italy +by the side of Beneventum and Capua. + +Free Gaul + +Matters wore a different aspect, when one crossed the Roman frontier. +The great Celtic nation, which in the southern districts already +began to be crushed by the Italian immigration, still moved +to the north of the Cevennes in its time-hallowed freedom. +It is not the first time that we meet it: the Italians had already +fought with the offsets and advanced posts of this vast stock +on the Tiber and on the Po, in the mountains of Castile and Carinthia, +and even in the heart of Asia Minor; but it was here that the main stock +was first assailed at its very core by their attacks. The Celtic race +had on its settlement in central Europe diffused itself chiefly +over the rich river-valleys and the pleasant hill-country +of the present France, including the western districts of Germany +and Switzerland, and from thence had occupied at least the southern +part of England, perhaps even at this time all Great Britain +and Ireland;(10) it formed here more than anywhere else a broad, +geographically compact, mass of peoples. In spite of +the differences in language and manners which naturally +were to be found within this wide territory, a close mutual intercourse, +an innate sense of fellowship, seems to have knit together +the tribes from the Rhone and Garonne to the Rhine and the Thames; +whereas, although these doubtless were in a certain measure locally +connected with the Celts in Spain and in the modern Austria, +the mighty mountain barriers of the Pyrenees and the Alps +on the one hand, and the encroachments of the Romans and the Germans +which also operated here on the other, interrupted the intercourse +and the intrinsic connection of the cognate peoples far otherwise +than the narrow arm of the sea interrupted the relations +of the continental and the British Celts. Unhappily we are not +permitted to trace stage by stage the history of the internal development +of this remarkable people in these its chief seats; we must be content +with presenting at least some outline of its historical culture +and political condition, as it here meets us in the time of Caesar. + +Population +Agriculture and the Rearing of Cattle + +Gaul was, according to the reports of the ancients, comparatively +well peopled. Certain statements lead us to infer that in the Belgic +districts there were some 200 persons to the square mile-- +a proportion such as nearly holds at present for Wales +and for Livonia--in the Helvetic canton about 245;(11) it is probable +that in the districts which were more cultivated than the Belgic +and less mountainous than the Helvetian, as among the Bituriges, +Arverni, Haedui, the number rose still higher. Agriculture +was no doubt practised in Gaul--for even the contemporaries of Caesar +were surprised in the region of the Rhine by the custom of manuring +with marl,(12) and the primitive Celtic custom of preparing beer +(-cervesia-) from barley is likewise an evidence of the early +and wide diffusion of the culture of grain--but it was not held +in estimation. Even in the more civilized south it was reckoned not +becoming for the free Celts to handle the plough. In far higher +estimation among the Celts stood pastoral husbandry, for which +the Roman landholders of this epoch very gladly availed themselves +both of the Celtic breed of cattle, and of the brave Celtic slaves +skilled in riding and familiar with the rearing of animals.(13) +Particularly in the northern Celtic districts pastoral husbandry +was thoroughly predominant. Brittany was in Caesar's time +a country poor in corn. In the north-east dense forests, attaching +themselves to the heart of the Ardennes, stretched almost without +interruption from the German Ocean to the Rhine; and on the plains +of Flanders and Lorraine, now so fertile, the Menapian and Treverian +herdsman then fed his half-wild swine in the impenetrable oak-forest. +Just as in the valley of the Po the Romans made the production +of wool and the culture of corn supersede the Celtic feeding +of pigs on acorns, so the rearing of sheep and the agriculture +in the plains of the Scheldt and the Maas are traceable +to their influence. In Britain even the threshing of corn +was not yet usual; and in its more northern districts agriculture +was not practised, and the rearing of cattle was the only known mode +of turning the soil to account. The culture of the olive and vine, +which yielded rich produce to the Massiliots, was not yet prosecuted +beyond the Cevennes in the time of Caesar. + +Urban Life + +The Gauls were from the first disposed to settle in groups; +there were open villages everywhere, and the Helvetic canton +alone numbered in 696 four hundred of these, besides a multitude +of single homesteads. But there were not wanting also walled towns, +whose walls of alternate layers surprised the Romans both by their +suitableness and by the elegant interweaving of timber and stones +in their construction; while, it is true, even in the towns +of the Allobroges the buildings were erected solely of wood. +Of such towns the Helvetii had twelve and the Suessiones an equal number; +whereas at all events in the more northern districts, such as among +the Nervii, while there were doubtless also towns, the population +during war sought protection in the morasses and forests rather +than behind their walls, and beyond the Thames the primitive +defence of the wooden barricade altogether took the place +of towns and was in war the only place of refuge for men and herds. + +Intercourse + +In close association with the comparatively considerable +development of urban life stands the activity of intercourse +by land and by water. Everywhere there were roads and bridges. +The river-navigation, which streams like the Rhone, Garonne, Loire, +and Seine, of themselves invited, was considerable and lucrative. +But far more remarkable was the maritime navigation of the Celts. +Not only were the Celts, to all appearance, the nation that first +regularly navigated the Atlantic ocean, but we find that the art +of building and of managing vessels had attained among them +a remarkable development. The navigation of the peoples +of the Mediterranean had, as may readily be conceived from the nature +of the waters traversed by them, for a comparatively long period +adhered to the oar; the war-vessels of the Phoenicians, Hellenes, +and Romans were at all times oared galleys, in which the sail +was applied only as an occasional aid to the oar; the trading vessels +alone were in the epoch of developed ancient civilization "sailers" +properly so called.(14) On the other hand the Gauls doubtless +employed in the Channel in Caesar's time, as for long afterwards, +a species of portable leathern skiffs, which seem to have been +in the main common oared boats, but on the west coast of Gaul +the Santones, the Pictones, and above all the Veneti sailed in large +though clumsily built ships, which were not impelled by oars +but were provided with leathern sails and iron anchor-chains; +and they employed these not only for their traffic with Britain, +but also in naval combat. Here therefore we not only meet +for the first time with navigation in the open ocean, but we find +that here the sailing vessel first fully took the place +of the oared boat--an improvement, it is true, which the declining +activity of the old world did not know how to turn to account, +and the immeasurable results of which our own epoch of renewed culture +is employed in gradually reaping. + +Commerce +Manufactures + +With this regular maritime intercourse between the British +and Gallic coasts, the very close political connection between +the inhabitants on both sides of the Channel is as easily explained +as the flourishing of transmarine commerce and of fisheries. +It was the Celts of Brittany in particular, that brought the tin +of the mines of Cornwall from England and carried it by the river +and land routes of Gaul to Narbo and Massilia. The statement, +that in Caesar's time certain tribes at the mouth of the Rhine subsisted +on fish and birds' eggs, may probably refer to the circumstance +that marine fishing and the collection of the eggs of sea-birds +were prosecuted there on an extensive scale. When we put together +and endeavour to fill up the isolated and scanty statements which have +reached us regarding the Celtic commerce and intercourse, we come +to see why the tolls of the river and maritime ports play a great +part in the budgets of certain cantons, such as those of the Haedui +and the Veneti, and why the chief god of the nation was regarded +by them as the protector of the roads and of commerce, and at +the same time as the inventor of manufactures. Accordingly the Celtic +industry cannot have been wholly undeveloped; indeed the singular +dexterity of the Celts, and their peculiar skill in imitating +any model and executing any instructions, are noticed by Caesar. +In most branches, however, their handicraft does not appear +to have risen above the ordinary level; the manufacture of linen +and woollen stuffs, that subsequently flourished in central +and northern Gaul, was demonstrably called into existence only +by the Romans. The elaboration of metals forms an exception, +and so far as we know the only one. The copper implements +not unfrequently of excellent workmanship and even now malleable, +which are brought to light in the tombs of Gaul, and the carefully +adjusted Arvernian gold coins, are still at the present day +striking witnesses of the skill of the Celtic workers in copper +and gold; and with this the reports of the ancients well accord, +that the Romans learned the art of tinning from the Bituriges +and that of silvering from the Alesini--inventions, the first of which +was naturally suggested by the traffic' in tin, and both of which +were probably made in the period of Celtic freedom. + +Mining + +Hand in hand with dexterity in the elaboration of the metals went +the art of procuring them, which had attained, more especially in +the iron mines on the Loire, such a degree of professional skill +that the miners played an important part in the sieges. The opinion +prevalent among the Romans of this period, that Gaul was one +of the richest gold countries in the world, is no doubt refuted +by the well-known nature of the soil and by the character +of the articles found in the Celtic tombs, in which gold appears +but sparingly and with far less frequency than in the similar +repositories of the true native regions of gold; this conception +no doubt had its origin merely from the descriptions which Greek +travellers and Roman soldiers, doubtless not without strong +exaggeration, gave to their countrymen of the magnificence +of the Arvernian kings,(15) and of the treasures of the Tolosan +temples.(16) But their stories were not pure fictions. It may +well be believed that in and near the rivers which flow +from the Alps and the Pyrenees gold-washing and searches for gold, +which are unprofitable at the present value of labour, were worked +with profit and on a considerable scale in ruder times and with a system +of slavery; besides, the commercial relations of Gaul may, +as is not unfrequently the case with half-civilized peoples, +have favoured the accumulation of a dead stock of the precious metals. + +Art and Science + +The low state of the arts of design is remarkable, +and is the more striking by the side of this mechanical skill +in handling the metals. The fondness for parti-coloured and brilliant +ornaments shows the want of a proper taste, which is sadly confirmed +by the Gallic coins with their representations sometimes exceedingly +simple, sometimes odd, but always childish in design, and almost +without exception rude beyond parallel in their execution. +It is perhaps unexampled that a coinage practised for centuries +with a certain technical skill should have essentially limited itself +to always imitating two or three Greek dies, and always +with increasing deformity. On the other hand the art of poetry +was highly valued by the Celts, and intimately blended +with the religious and even with the political institutions +of the nation; we find religious poetry, as well as that of the court +and of the mendicant, flourishing.(17) Natural science and philosophy +also found, although subject to the forms and fetters of the theology +of the country, a certain amount of attention among the Celts; +and Hellenic humanism met with a ready reception wherever +and in whatever shape it approached them. The knowledge of writing +was general at least among the priests. For the most part in free Gaul +the Greek writing was made use of in Caesar's time, as was done +among others by the Helvetii; but in its most southern districts +even then, in consequence of intercourse with the Romanized Celts, +the Latin attained predominance--we meet with it, for instance, +on the Arvernian coins of this period. + +Political Organization +Cantonal Constitution + +The political development of the Celtic nation also presents +very remarkable phenomena. The constitution of the state was based +in this case, as everywhere, on the clan-canton, with its prince, +its council of the elders, and its community of freemen capable +of bearing arms; but the peculiarity in this case was that it never +got beyond this cantonal constitution. Among the Greeks and Romans +the canton was very early superseded by the ring-wall as the basis +of political unity; where two cantons found themselves together +within the same walls, they amalgamated into one commonwealth; +where a body of burgesses assigned to a portion of their fellow- +burgesses a new ring-wall, there regularly arose in this way a new +state connected with the mother community only by ties of piety +and, at most, of clientship. Among the Celts on the other hand +the "burgess-body" continued at all times to be the clan; prince +and council presided over the canton and not over any town, +and the general diet of the canton formed the authority of last resort +in the state. The town had, as in the east, merely mercantile +and strategic, not political importance; for which reason the Gallic +townships, even when walled and very considerable such as Vienna +and Genava, were in the view of the Greeks and Romans nothing +but villages. In the time of Caesar the original clan-constitution +still subsisted substantially unaltered among the insular Celts +and in the northern cantons of the mainland; the general assembly held +the supreme authority; the prince was in essential questions bound +by its decrees; the common council was numerous--it numbered +in certain clans six hundred members--but does not appear +to have had more importance than the senate under the Roman kings. +In the more stirring southern portion of the land, again, +one or two generations before Caesar--the children of the last kings +were still living in his time--there had occurred, at least +among the larger clans, the Arverni, Haedui, Sequani, Helvetii, +a revolution which set aside the royal dominion and gave the power +into the hands of the nobility. + +Development of Knighthood +Breaking Up of the Old Cantonal Constitution + +It is simply the reverse side of the total want of urban +commonwealths among the Celts just noticed, that the opposite pole +of political development, knighthood, so thoroughly preponderates +in the Celtic clan-constitution. The Celtic aristocracy was to all +appearance a high nobility, for the most part perhaps the members +of the royal or formerly royal families; as indeed it is remarkable +that the heads of the opposite parties in the same clan +very frequently belong to the same house. These great families +combined in their hands financial, warlike, and political ascendency. +They monopolized the leases of the profitable rights of the state. +They compelled the free commons, who were oppressed by the burden +of taxation, to borrow from them, and to surrender their freedom +first de facto as debtors, then de jure as bondmen. They developed +the system of retainers, that is, the privilege of the nobility +to surround themselves with a number of hired mounted servants-- +the -ambacti- as they were called (18)--and thereby to form a state +within the state; and, resting on the support of these troops +of their own, they defied the legal authorities and the common levy +and practically broke up the commonwealth. If in a clan, +which numbered about 80,000 men capable of arms, a single noble +could appear at the diet with 10,000 retainers, not reckoning +the bondmen and the debtors, it is clear that such an one +was more an independent dynast than a burgess of his clan. Moreover, +the leading families of the different clans were closely connected +and through intermarriages and special treaties formed virtually +a compact league, in presence of which the single clan was powerless. +Therefore the communities were no longer able to maintain +the public peace, and the law of the strong arm reigned throughout. +The dependent found protection only from his master, whom duty +and interest compelled to redress the injury inflicted on his client; +the state had no longer the power to protect those who were free, +and consequently these gave themselves over in numbers to some +powerful man as clients. + +Abolition of the Monarchy + +The common assembly lost its political importance; and even +the power of the prince, which should have checked the encroachments +of the nobility, succumbed to it among the Celts as well as in Latium. +In place of the king came the "judgment-worker" or -Vergobretus-,(19) +who was like the Roman consul nominated only for a year. +So far as the canton still held together at all, it was led +by the common council, in which naturally the heads of the aristocracy +usurped the government. Of course under such circumstances +there was agitation in the several clans much in the same way +as there had been agitation in Latium for centuries after the expulsion +of the kings: while the nobility of the different communities combined +to form a separate alliance hostile to the power of the community, +the multitude ceased not to desire the restoration of the monarchy; +and not unfrequently a prominent nobleman attempted, as Spurius +Cassius had done in Rome, with the support of the mass of those +belonging to the canton to break down the power of his peers, +and to reinstate the crown in its rights for his own special benefit. + +Efforts towards National Unity + +While the individual cantons were thus irremediably declining, +the sense of unity was at the same time powerfully stirring +in the nation and seeking in various ways to take shape and hold. +That combination of the whole Celtic nobility in contradistinction +to the individual canton-unions, while disturbing the existing order +of things, awakened and fostered the conception of the collective +unity of the nation. The attacks directed against the nation +from without, and the continued diminution of its territory in war +with its neighbours, operated in the same direction. Like the Hellenes +in their wars with the Persians, and the Italians in their wars +with the Celts, the Transalpine Gauls seem to have become conscious +of the existence and the power of their national unity in the wars +against Rome. Amidst the dissensions of rival clans and all their +feudal quarrelling there might still be heard the voices of those +who were ready to purchase the independence of the nation +at the cost of the independence of the several cantons, and even +at that of the seignorial rights of the knights. The thorough +popularity of the opposition to a foreign yoke was shown by the wars +of Caesar, with reference to whom the Celtic patriot party occupied +a position entirely similar to that of the German patriots +towards Napoleon; its extent and organization are attested, +among other things, by the telegraphic rapidity with which news +was communicated from one point to another. + +Religious Union of the Nation +Druids + +The universality and the strength of the Celtic national feeling +would be inexplicable but for the circumstance that, amidst +the greatest political disruption, the Celtic nation had for long +been centralized in respect of religion and even of theology. +The Celtic priesthood or, to use the native name, the corporation +of the Druids, certainly embraced the British islands and all Gaul, +and perhaps also other Celtic countries, in a common religious- +national bond. It possessed a special head elected by the priests +themselves; special schools, in which its very comprehensive +tradition was transmitted; special privileges, particularly +exemption from taxation and military service, which every clan +respected; annual councils, which were held near Chartres +at the "centre of the Celtic earth"; and above all, a believing people, +who in painful piety and blind obedience to their priests seem +to have been nowise inferior to the Irish of modern times. It may +readily be conceived that such a priesthood attempted to usurp, +as it partially did usurp, the secular government; where the annual +monarchy subsisted, it conducted the elections in the event +of an interregnum; it successfully laid claim to the right of excluding +individuals and whole communities from religious, and consequently +also from civil, society; it was careful to draw to itself the most +important civil causes, especially processes as to boundaries +and inheritance; on the ground, apparently, of its right to exclude +from the community, and perhaps also of the national custom +that criminals should be by preference taken for the usual +human sacrifices, it developed an extensive priestly criminal +jurisdiction, which was co-ordinate with that of the kings +and vergobrets; it even claimed the right of deciding on war and peace. +The Gauls were not far removed from an ecclesiastical state +with its pope and councils, its immunities, interdicts, +and spiritual courts; only this ecclesiastical state did not, +like that of recent times, stand aloof from the nations, +but was on the contrary pre-eminently national. + +Want of Political Centralization +The Canton-Leagues + +But while the sense of mutual relationship was thus vividly +awakened among the Celtic tribes, the nation was still precluded +from attaining a basis of political centralization such as Italy +found in the Roman burgesses, and the Hellenes and Germans +in the Macedonian and Frank kings. The Celtic priesthood and likewise +the nobility--although both in a certain sense represented and combined +the nation--were yet, on the one hand, incapable of uniting it +in consequence of their particular class-interests, and, on the other +hand, sufficiently powerful to allow no king and no canton to accomplish +the work of union. Attempts at this work were not wanting; +they followed, as the cantonal constitution suggested, +the system of hegemony. A powerful canton induced a weaker +to become subordinate, on such a footing that the leading canton +acted for the other as well as for itself in its external relations +and stipulated for it in state-treaties, while the dependent canton +bound itself to render military service and sometimes also to pay +a tribute. In this way a series of separate leagues arose; +but there was no leading canton for all Gaul--no tie, however +loose, combining the nation as a whole. + +The Belgic League +The Maritime Cantons +The Leagues of Central Gaul + +It has been already mentioned(20) that the Romans +at the commencement of their Transalpine conquests found in the north +a Britanno-Belgic league under the leadership of the Suessiones, +and in central and southern Gaul the confederation of the Arverni, +with which latter the Haedui, although having a weaker body +of clients, carried on a rivalry. In Caesar's time we find the Belgae +in north-eastern Gaul between the Seine and the Rhine still forming +such an association, which, however, apparently no longer extends +to Britain; by their side there appears, in the modern Normandy +and Brittany, the league of the Aremorican or the maritime cantons: +in central or proper Gaul two parties as formerly contended +for the hegemony, the one headed by the Haedui, the other by the Sequani +after the Arvernians weakened by the wars with Rome had retired. +These different confederacies subsisted independently side by side; +the leading states of central Gaul appear never to have extended +their clientship to the north-east nor, seriously, perhaps even +to the north-west of Gaul. + +Character of Those Leagues + +The impulse of the nation towards freedom found doubtless a certain +gratification in these cantonal unions; but they were in every +respect unsatisfactory. The union was of the loosest kind, constantly +fluctuating between alliance and hegemony; the representation +of the whole body in peace by the federal diets, in war +by the general,(21) was in the highest degree feeble. The Belgian +confederacy alone seems to have been bound together somewhat +more firmly; the national enthusiasm, from which the successful +repulse of the Cimbri proceeded,(22) may have proved beneficial +to it. The rivalries for the hegemony made a breach in every +league, which time did not close but widened, because the victory +of one competitor still left his opponent in possession +of political existence, and it always remained open to him, +even though he had submitted to clientship, subsequently to renew +the struggle. The rivalry among the more powerful cantons not only +set these at variance, but spread into every dependent clan, +into every village, often indeed into every house, for each individual +chose his side according to his personal relations. As Hellas +exhausted its strength not so much in the struggle of Athens against +Sparta as in the internal strife of the Athenian and Lacedaemonian +factions in every dependent community, and even in Athens itself, +so the rivalry of the Arverni and Haedui with its repetitions +on a smaller and smaller scale destroyed the Celtic people. + +The Celtic Military System +Cavalry + +The military capability of the nation felt the reflex influence +of these political and social relations. The cavalry was throughout +the predominant arm; alongside of which among the Belgae, and still +more in the British islands, the old national war-chariots appear +in remarkable perfection. These equally numerous and efficient +bands of combatants on horseback and in chariots were formed +from the nobility and its vassals; for the nobles had a genuine knightly +delight in dogs and horses, and were at much expense to procure +noble horses of foreign breed. It is characteristic of the spirit +and the mode of fighting of these nobles that, when the levy +was called out, whoever could keep his seat on horseback, +even the gray-haired old man, took the field, and that, when on the point +of beginning a combat with an enemy of whom they made little account, +they swore man by man that they would keep aloof from house +and homestead, unless their band should charge at least twice through +the enemy's line. Among the hired warriors the free-lance spirit +prevailed with all its demoralized and stolid indifference towards +their own life and that of others. This is apparent from the stories-- +however anecdotic their colouring--of the Celtic custom of tilting +by way of sport and now and then fighting for life or death +at a banquet, and of the usage (which prevailed among the Celts, +and outdid even the Roman gladiatorial games) of selling themselves +to be killed for a set sum of money or a number of casks of wine, +and voluntarily accepting the fatal blow stretched on their shield +before the eyes of the whole multitude. + +Infantry + +By the side of these mounted warriors the infantry fell +into the background. In the main it essentially resembled the bands +of Celts, with whom the Romans had fought in Italy and Spain. +The large shield was, as then, the principal weapon of defence; +among the offensive arms, on the other hand, the long thrusting +lance now played the chief part in room of the sword. Where several +cantons waged war in league, they naturally encamped and fought clan +against clan; there is no trace of their giving to the levy of each +canton military organization and forming smaller and more regular +tactical subdivisions. A long train of waggons still dragged +the baggage of the Celtic army; instead of an entrenched camp, such as +the Romans pitched every night, the poor substitute of a barricade +of waggons still sufficed. In the case of certain cantons, +such as the Nervii, the efficiency of their infantry is noticed +as exceptional; it is remarkable that these had no cavalry, +and perhaps were not even a Celtic but an immigrant German tribe. +But in general the Celtic infantry of this period appears +as an unwarlike and unwieldy levy en masse; most of all +in the more southern provinces, where along with barbarism valour +had also disappeared. The Celt, says Caesar, ventures not to face +the German in battle. The Roman general passed a censure +still more severe than this judgment on the Celtic infantry, +seeing that, after having become acquainted with them +in his first campaign, he never again employed them +in connection with Roman infantry. + +Stage of Development of the Celtic Civilization + +If we survey the whole condition of the Celts as Caesar found it +in the Transalpine regions, there is an unmistakeable advance +in civilization, as compared with the stage of culture at which +the Celts came before us a century and a half previously in the valley +of the Po. Then the militia, excellent of its kind, thoroughly +preponderated in their armies;(23) now the cavalry occupies +the first place. Then the Celts dwelt in open villages; now well- +constructed walls surrounded their townships. The objects too +found in the tombs of Lombardy are, especially as respects articles +of copper and glass, far inferior to those of northern Gaul. +Perhaps the most trustworthy measure of the increase of culture +is the sense of a common relationship in the nation; so little +of it comes to light in the Celtic battles fought on the soil of what +is now Lombardy, while it strikingly appears in the struggles +against Caesar. To all appearance the Celtic nation, when Caesar +encountered it, had already reached the maximum of the culture +allotted to it, and was even now on the decline. The civilization +of the Transalpine Celts in Caesar's time presents, even for us +who are but very imperfectly informed regarding it, several aspects +that are estimable, and yet more that are interesting; in some +respects it is more akin to the modern than to the Hellenic-Roman +culture, with its sailing vessels, its knighthood, its ecclesiastical +constitution, above all with its attempts, however imperfect, +to build the state not on the city, but on the tribe and in a higher +degree on the nation. But just because we here meet the Celtic nation +at the culminating point of its development, its lesser degree +of moral endowment or, which is the same thing, its lesser +capacity of culture, comes more distinctly into view. +It was unable to produce from its own resources either a national +art or a national state; it attained at the utmost a national theology +and a peculiar type of nobility. The original simple valour +was no more; the military courage based on higher morality and judicious +organization, which comes in the train of increased civilization, +had only made its appearance in a very stunted form among +the knights. Barbarism in the strict sense was doubtless outlived; +the times had gone by, when in Gaul the fat haunch was assigned +to the bravest of the guests, but each of his fellow-guests who thought +himself offended thereby was at liberty to challenge the receiver +on that score to combat, and when the most faithful retainers +of a deceased chief were burnt along with him. But human sacrifices +still continued, and the maxim of law, that torture was inadmissible +in the case of the free man but allowable in that of the free +woman as well as of slaves, throws a far from pleasing light +on the position which the female sex held among the Celts +even in their period of culture. The Celts had lost the advantages +which specially belong to the primitive epoch of nations, but had not +acquired those which civilization brings with it when it intimately +and thoroughly pervades a people. + +External Relations +Celts and Iberians + +Such was the internal condition of the Celtic nation. It remains +that we set forth their external relations with their neighbours, +and describe the part which they sustained at this moment in the mighty +rival race and rival struggle of the nations, in which it is +everywhere still more difficult to maintain than to acquire. +Along the Pyrenees the relations of the peoples had for long been +peaceably settled, and the times had long gone by when the Celts +there pressed hard on, and to some extent supplanted, the Iberian, +that is, the Basque, original population. The valleys of the Pyrenees +as well as the mountains of Bearn and Gascony, and also the coast- +steppes to the south of the Garonne, were at the time of Caesar +in the undisputed possession of the Aquitani, a great number +of small tribes of Iberian descent, coming little into contact +with each other and still less with the outer world; in this quarter +only the mouth of the Garonne with the important port of Burdigala +(Bordeaux) was in the hands of a Celtic tribe, the Bituriges-Vivisci. + +Celts and Romans +Advance of Roman Trade and Commerce into Free Gaul + +Of far greater importance was the contact of the Celtic nation +with the Roman people, and with the Germans. We need not here repeat-- +what has been related already--how the Romans in their slow advance +had gradually pressed back the Celts, had at last occupied the belt +of coast between the Alps and the Pyrenees, and had thereby totally +cut them off from Italy, Spain and the Mediterranean Sea--a catastrophe, +for which the way had already been prepared centuries before +by the laying out of the Hellenic stronghold at the mouth +of the Rhone. But we must here recall the fact that it was not merely +the superiority of the Roman arms which pressed hard on the Celts, +but quite as much that of Roman culture, which likewise reaped +the ultimate benefit of the respectable beginnings of Hellenic +civilization in Gaul. Here too, as so often happens, trade +and commerce paved the way for conquest. The Celt after northern +fashion was fond of fiery drinks; the fact that like the Scythian +he drank the generous wine unmingled and to intoxication, +excited the surprise and the disgust of the temperate southern; +but the trader has no objection to deal with such customers. +Soon the trade with Gaul became a mine of gold for the Italian merchant; +it was nothing unusual there for a jar of wine to be exchanged +for a slave. Other articles of luxury, such as Italian horses, +found advantageous sale in Gaul. There were instances even already +of Roman burgesses acquiring landed property beyond the Roman +frontier, and turning it to profit after the Italian fashion; +there is mention, for example, of Roman estates in the canton +of the Segusiavi (near Lyons) as early as about 673. Beyond doubt it +was a consequence of this that, as already mentioned(24) in free Gaul +itself, e. g. among the Arverni, the Roman language was not unknown +even before the conquest; although this knowledge was presumably +still restricted to few, and even the men of rank in the allied +canton of the Haedui had to be conversed with through interpreters. +Just as the traffickers in fire-water and the squatters led the way +in the occupation of North America, so these Roman wine-traders +and landlords paved the way for, and beckoned onward, the future +conqueror of Gaul. How vividly this was felt even on the opposite +side, is shown by the prohibition which one of the most energetic +tribes of Gaul, the canton of the Nervii, like some German peoples, +issued against trafficking with the Romans. + +Celts and Germans + +Still more violent even than the pressure of the Romans +from the Mediterranean was that of the Germans downward from the Baltic +and the North Sea--a fresh stock from the great cradle of peoples +in the east, which made room for itself by the side of its elder +brethren with youthful vigour, although also with youthful +rudeness. Though the tribes of this stock dwelling nearest +to the Rhine--the Usipetes, Tencteri, Sugambri, Ubii--had begun to be +in some degree civilized, and had at least ceased voluntarily +to change their abodes, all accounts yet agree that farther inland +agriculture was of little importance, and the several tribes +had hardly yet attained fixed abodes. It is significant +in this respect that their western neighbours at this time hardly knew +how to name any one of the peoples of the interior of Germany +by its cantonal name; these were only known to them under the general +appellations of the Suebi, that is, the roving people or nomads, +and the Marcomani, that is, the land-guard(25)--names which were +hardly cantonal names in Caesar's time, although they appeared +as such to the Romans and subsequently became in various cases +names of cantons. + +The Right Bank of the Rhine Lost to the Celts + +The most violent onset of this great nation fell upon the Celts. +The struggles, in which the Germans probably engaged with the Celts +for the possession of the regions to the east of the Rhine, are +wholly withdrawn from our view. We are only able to perceive, +that about the end of the seventh century of Rome all the land +as far as the Rhine was already lost to the Celts; that the Boii, +who were probably once settled in Bavaria and Bohemia,(26) were homeless +wanderers; and that even the Black Forest formerly possessed +by the Helvetii,(27) if not yet taken possession of by the German tribes +dwelling in the vicinity, was at least waste debateable border- +land, and was presumably even then, what it was afterwards called, +the Helvetian desert The barbarous strategy of the Germans--which +secured them from hostile attacks by laying waste the neighbourhood +for miles--seems to have been applied here on the greatest scale. + +German Tribes on the Left Bank of the Rhine + +But the Germans had not remained stationary at the Rhine. +The march of the Cimbrian and Teutonic host, composed, as respects +its flower, of German tribes, which had swept with such force fifty +years before over Pannonia, Gaul, Italy, and Spain, seemed to have +been nothing but a grand reconnaissance. Already different German +tribes had formed permanent settlements to the west of the Rhine, +especially of its lower course; having intruded as conquerors, +these settlers continued to demand hostages and to levy annual +tribute from the Gallic inhabitants in their neighbourhood, +as if from subjects. Among these German tribes were the Aduatuci, +who from a fragment of the Cimbrian horde(28) had grown +into a considerable canton, and a number of other tribes afterwards +comprehended under the name of the Tungri on the Maas in the region +of Liege; even the Treveri (about Treves) and the Nervii +(in Hainault), two of the largest and most powerful peoples +of this region, are directly designated by respectable authorities +as Germans. The complete credibility of these accounts must certainly +remain doubtful, since, as Tacitus remarks in reference to the two +peoples last mentioned, it was subsequently, at least in these regions, +reckoned an honour to be descended of German blood and not to belong +to the little-esteemed Celtic nation; yet the population +in the region of the Scheldt, Maas, and Moselle seems certainly +to have become, in one way or another, largely mingled with German +elements, or at any rate to have come under German influences. +The German settlements themselves were perhaps small; +they were not unimportant, for amidst the chaotic obscurity, +through which we see the stream of peoples on the right bank +of the Rhine ebbing and flowing about this period, we can well perceive +that larger German hordes were preparing to cross the Rhine in the track +of these advanced posts. Threatened on two sides by foreign domination +and torn by internal dissension, it was scarcely to be expected +that the unhappy Celtic nation would now rally and save itself +by its own vigour. Dismemberment, and decay in virtue of dismemberment, +had hitherto been its history; how should a nation, which could +name no day like those of Marathon and Salamis, of Aricia and the Raudine +plain--a nation which, even in its time of vigour, had made +no attempt to destroy Massilia by a united effort--now when evening +had come, defend itself against so formidable foes? + +The Roman Policy with Reference to the German Invasion + +The less the Celts, left to themselves, were a match for the Germans, +the more reason had the Romans carefully to watch over the complications +in which the two nations might be involved. Although the movements +thence arising had not up to the present time directly affected +them, they and their most important interests were yet concerned +in the issue of those movements. As may readily be conceived, +the internal demeanour of the Celtic nation had become speedily +and permanently influenced by its outward relations. As in Greece +the Lacedaemonian party combined with Persia against the Athenians, +so the Romans from their first appearance beyond the Alps had found +a support against the Arverni, who were then the ruling power among +the southern Celts, in their rivals for the hegemony, the Haedui: +and with the aid of these new "brothers of the Roman nation" they had +not merely reduced to subjection the Allobroges and a great portion +of the indirect territory of the Arverni, but had also, in the Gaul +that remained free, occasioned by their influence the transference +of the hegemony from the Arverni to these Haedui. But while the Greeks +were threatened with danger to their nationality only from one side, +the Celts found themselves hard pressed simultaneously by two +national foes; and it was natural that they should seek from the one +protection against the other, and that, if the one Celtic party +attached itself to the Romans, their opponents should +on the contrary form alliance with the Germans. This course +was most natural for the Belgae, who were brought by neighbourhood +and manifold intermixture into closer relation to the Germans who had +crossed the Rhine, and moreover, with their less-developed culture, +probably felt themselves at least as much akin to the Suebian +of alien race as to their cultivated Allobrogian or Helvetic +countryman. But the southern Celts also, among whom now +as already mentioned, the considerable canton of the Sequani +(about Besangon) stood at the head of the party hostile to the Romans, +had every reason at this very time to call in the Germans against +the Romans who immediately threatened them; the remiss government +of the senate and the signs of the revolution preparing in Rome, +which had not remained unknown to the Celts, made this very moment +seem suitable for ridding themselves of the Roman influence +and primarily for humbling the Roman clients, the Haedui. A rupture +had taken place between the two cantons respecting the tolls +on the Saone, which separated the territory of the Haedui +from that of the Sequani, and about the year 683 the German prince +Ariovistus with some 15,000 armed men had crossed the Rhine +as condottiere of the Sequani. + +Ariovistus on the Middle Rhine + +The war was prolonged for some years with varying success; +on the whole the results were unfavourable to the Haedui. Their leader +Eporedorix at length called out their whole clients, and marched +forth with an enormous superiority of force against the Germans. +These obstinately refused battle, and kept themselves under cover +of morasses and forests. It was not till the clans, weary +of waiting, began to break up and disperse, that the Germans appeared +in the open field, and then Ariovistus compelled a battle +at Admagetobriga, in which the flower of the cavalry of the Haedui +were left on the field. The Haedui, forced by this defeat +to conclude peace on the terms which the victor proposed, were obliged +to renounce the hegemony, and to consent with their whole adherents +to become clients of the Sequani; they had to bind themselves +to pay tribute to the Sequani or rather to Ariovistus, and to furnish +the children of their principal nobles as hostages; and lastly +they had to swear that they would never demand back these hostages +nor invoke the intervention of the Romans. + +Inaction of the Romans + +This peace was concluded apparently about 693.(29) Honour +and advantage enjoined the Romans to come forward in opposition to it; +the noble Haeduan Divitiacus, the head of the Roman party in his clan, +and for that reason now banished by his countrymen, went in person +to Rome to solicit their intervention. A still more serious +warning was the insurrection of the Allobroges in 693(30)-- +the neighbours of the Sequani--which was beyond doubt connected +with these events. In reality orders were issued to the Gallic +governors to assist the Haedui; they talked of sending consuls +and consular armies over the Alps; but the senate, to whose decision +these affairs primarily fell, at length here also crowned great +words with little deeds. The insurrection of the Allobroges +was suppressed by arms, but nothing was done for the Haedui; +on the contrary, Ariovistus was even enrolled in 695 in the list +of kings friendly with the Romans.(31) + +Foundation of a German Empire in Gaul + +The German warrior-prince naturally took this as a renunciation +by the Romans of the Celtic land which they had not occupied; +he accordingly took up his abode there, and began to establish +a German principality on Gallic soil. It was his intention that +the numerous bands which he had brought with him, and the still +more numerous bands that afterwards followed at his call from home-- +it was reckoned that up to 696 some 120,000 Germans had crossed +the Rhine--this whole mighty immigration of the German nation, +which poured through the once opened sluices like a stream over +the beautiful west, should become settled there and form a basis +on which he might build his dominion over Gaul. The extent +of the German settlements which he called into existence +on the left bank of the Rhine cannot be determined; beyond doubt +it was great, and his projects were far greater still. The Celts +were treated by him as a wholly subjugated nation, and no distinction +was made between the several cantons. Even the Sequani, as whose hired +commander-in-chief he had crossed the Rhine, were obliged, as if they +were vanquished enemies, to cede to him for his people a third +of their territory--presumably upper Alsace afterwards inhabited +by the Triboci--where Ariovistus permanently settled with his followers; +nay, as if this were not enough, a second third was afterwards +demanded of them for the Harudes who arrived subsequently. +Ariovistus seemed as if he wished to take up in Gaul the part +of Philip of Macedonia, and to play the master over the Celts +who were friendly to the Germans no less than over those +who adhered to the Romans. + +The Germans on the Lower Rhine +The Germans on the Upper Rhine +Spread of the Helvetian Invasion to the Interior of Gaul + +The appearance of the energetic German prince in so dangerous +proximity, which could not but in itself excite the most serious +apprehension in the Romans, appeared still more threatening, +inasmuch as it stood by no means alone. The Usipetes and Tencteri +settled on the right bank of the Rhine, weary of the incessant +devastation of their territory by the overbearing Suebian tribes, +had, the year before Caesar arrived in Gaul (695), set out +from their previous abodes to seek others at the mouth of the Rhine. +They had already taken away from the Menapii there the portion +of their territory situated on the right bank, and it might be +foreseen that they would make the attempt to establish themselves +also on the left. Suebian bands, moreover, assembled between +Cologne and Mayence, and threatened to appear as uninvited guests +in the opposite Celtic canton of the Treveri. Lastly, +the territory of the most easterly clan of the Celts, the warlike +and numerous Helvetii, was visited with growing frequency +by the Germans, so that the Helvetii, who perhaps even apart from this +were suffering from over-population through the reflux of their +settlers from the territory which they had lost to the north +of the Rhine, and besides were liable to be completely isolated +from their kinsmen by the settlement of Ariovistus in the territory +of the Sequani, conceived the desperate resolution of voluntarily +evacuating the territory hitherto in their possession to the Germans, +and acquiring larger and more fertile abodes to the west +of the Jura, along with, if possible, the hegemony in the interior +of Gaul--a plan which some of their districts had already formed +and attempted to execute during the Cimbrian invasion.(32) +the Rauraci whose territory (Basle and southern Alsace) was similarly +threatened, the remains, moreover, of the Boii who had already +at an earlier period been compelled by the Germans to forsake their +homes and were now unsettled wanderers, and other smaller tribes, +made common cause with the Helvetii. As early as 693 their flying +parties came over the Jura and even as far as the Roman province; +their departure itself could not be much longer delayed; inevitably +German settlers would then advance into the important region +between the lakes of Constance and Geneva forsaken by its defenders. +From the sources of the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean the German tribes +were in motion; the whole line of the Rhine was threatened by them; +it was a moment like that when the Alamanni and the Franks +threw themselves on the falling empire of the Caesars; +and even now there seemed on the eve of being carried into effect +against the Celts that very movement which was successful +five hundred years afterwards against the Romans. + +Caesar Proceeds to Gaul +Caesar's Army + +Under these circumstances the new governor Gaius Caesar arrived +in the spring of 696 in Narbonese Gaul, which had been added by decree +of the senate to his original province embracing Cisalpine Gaul +along with Istria and Dalmatia. His office, which was committed +to him first for five years (to the end of 700), then in 699 +for five more (to the end of 705), gave him the right to nominate +ten lieutenants of propraetorian rank, and (at least according to +his own interpretation) to fill up his legions, or even to form +new ones at his discretion out of the burgess-population--who were +especially numerous in Cisalpine Gaul--of the territory under his +sway. The army, which he received in the two provinces, consisted, +as regards infantry of the line, of four legions trained and inured +to war, the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth, or at the utmost +24,000 men, to which fell to be added, as usual, the contingents +of the subjects. The cavalry and light-armed troops, moreover, +were represented by horsemen from Spain, and by Numidian, Cretan, +and Balearic archers and slingers. The staff of Caesar--the elite +of the democracy of the capital--contained, along with not a few +useless young men of rank, some able officers, such as Publius +Crassus the younger son of the old political ally of Caesar, +and Titus Labienus, who followed the chief of the democracy +as a faithful adjutant from the Forum to the battle-field. +Caesar had not received definite instructions; to one +who was discerning and courageous these were implied +in the circumstances with which he had to deal. Here too +the negligence of the senate had to be retrieved, and first of all +the stream of migration of the German peoples had to be checked. + +Repulse of the Helvetii + +Just at this time the Helvetic invasion, which was closely +interwoven with the German and had been in preparation for years, +began. That they might not make a grant of their abandoned huts +to the Germans and might render their own return impossible, +the Helvetii had burnt their towns and villages; and their long +trains of waggons, laden with women, children, and the best part +of their moveables, arrived from all sides at the Leman lake near +Genava (Geneva), where they and their comrades had fixed their +rendezvous for the 28th of March(33) of this year. According +to their own reckoning the whole body consisted of 368,000 persons, +of whom about a fourth part were able to bear arms. As the mountain +chain of the Jura, stretching from the Rhine to the Rhone, almost +completely closed in the Helvetic country towards the west, +and its narrow defiles were as ill adapted for the passage +of such a caravan as they were well adapted for defence, the leaders +had resolved to go round in a southerly direction, and to open up +for themselves a way to the west at the point, where the Rhone +has broken through the mountain-chain between the south-western +and highest part of the Jura and the Savoy mountains, near +the modern Fort de l'Ecluse. But on the right bank here the rocks +and precipices come so close to the river that there remained only +a narrow path which could easily be blocked up, and the Sequani, +to whom this bank belonged, could with ease intercept the route +of the Helvetii. They preferred therefore to pass over, above the point +where the Rhone breaks through, to the left Allobrogian bank, +with the view of regaining the right bank further down the stream +where the Rhone enters the plain, and then marching on towards +the level west of Gaul; there the fertile canton of the Santones +(Saintonge, the valley of the Charente) on the Atlantic Ocean +was selected by the wanderers for their new abode. This march led, +where it touched the left bank of the Rhone, through Roman territory; +and Caesar, otherwise not disposed to acquiesce in the establishment +of the Helvetii in western Gaul, was firmly resolved not to permit +their passage. But of his four legions three were stationed far +off at Aquileia; although he called out in haste the militia +of the Transalpine province, it seemed scarcely possible with so small +a force to hinder the innumerable Celtic host from crossing +the Rhone, between its exit from the Leman lake at Geneva +and the point of its breaking through the mountains, over a distance +of more than fourteen miles. Caesar, however, by negotiations +with the Helvetii, who would gladly have effected by peaceable means +the crossing of the river and the march through the Allobrogian +territory, gained a respite of fifteen days, which was employed +in breaking down the bridge over the Rhone at Genava, and barring +the southern bank of the Rhone against the enemy by an entrenchment +nearly nineteen miles long: it was the first application +of the system--afterwards carried out on so immense a scale +by the Romans--of guarding the frontier of the empire in a military point +of view by a chain of forts placed in connection with each other +by ramparts and ditches. The attempts of the Helvetii to gain +the other bank at different places in boats or by means of fords +were successfully frustrated by the Romans in these lines, +and the Helvetii were compelled to desist from the passage of the Rhone. + +The Helvetii Move towards Gaul + +On the other hand, the party in Gaul hostile to the Romans, +which hoped to obtain a powerful reinforcement in the Helvetii, +more especially the Haeduan Dumnorix brother of Divitiacus, +and at the head of the national party in his canton as the latter +wasat the head of the Romans, procured for them a passage +through the passes of the Jura and the territory of the Sequani. +The Romans had no legal title to forbid this; but other and higher +interestswereat stake for them in the Helvetic expedition than +the question of the formal integrity of the Roman territory-- interests +which could only be guarded, if Caesar, instead of confining himself, +as all the governors of the senate and even Marius(34) had done, +to the modest task of watching the frontier, should cross what had hitherto +been the frontier at the head of a considerable army. Caesar was general +not of the senate, but of the state; he showed no hesitation. +He had immediately proceeded from Genava in person to Italy, +and with characteristic speed brought up the three legions +cantoned there as well as two newly-formed legions of recruits. + +The Helvetian War + +These troops he united with the corps stationed at Genava, +and crossed the Rhone with his whole force. His unexpected appearance +in the territory of the Haedui naturally at once restored the Roman +party there to power, which was not unimportant as regarded +supplies. He found the Helvetii employed in crossing the Saone, +and moving from the territory of the Sequani into that +of the Haedui; those of them that were still on the left bank +of the Saone, especially the corps of the Tigorini, were caught +and destroyed by the Romans rapidly advancing. The bulk +of the expedition, however, had already crossed to the right bank +of the river; Caesar followed them and in twenty-four hours effected +the passage, which the unwieldy host of the Helvetii had not been able +to accomplish in twenty days. The Helvetii, prevented by this passage +of the river on the part of the Roman army from continuing +their march westward, turned in a northerly direction, doubtless +under the supposition that Caesar would not venture to follow them +far into the interior of Gaul, and with the intention, if he should +desist from following them, of turning again toward their proper +destination. For fifteen days the Roman army marched behind +that of the enemy at a distance of about four miles, clinging +to its rear, and hoping for an advantageous opportunity of assailing +the Helvetic host under conditions favourable to victory, +and destroying it. But this moment came not: unwieldy as was the march +of the Helvetic caravan, the leaders knew how to guard against +a surprise, and appeared to be copiously provided with supplies +as well as most accurately informed by their spies of every event +in the Roman camp. On the other hand the Romans began to suffer +from want of necessaries, especially when the Helvetii removed +from the Saone and the means of river-transport ceased. The non-arrival +of the supplies promised by the Haedui, from which this embarrassment +primarily arose, excited the more suspicion, as both armies +were still moving about in their territory. Moreover the considerable +Roman cavalry, numbering almost 4000 horse, proved utterly +untrustworthy--which doubtless admitted of explanation, +for they consisted almost wholly of Celtic horsemen, especially +of the mounted retainers of the Haedui, under the command of Dumnorix +the well-known enemy of the Romans, and Caesar himself had taken +them over still more as hostages than as soldiers. There was good +reason to believe that a defeat which they suffered at the hands +of the far weaker Helvetic cavalry was occasioned by themselves, +and that the enemy was informed by them of all occurrences +in the Roman camp. The position of Caesar grew critical; it was +becoming disagreeably evident, how much the Celtic patriot party +could effect even with the Haedui in spite of their official +alliance with Rome, and of the distinctive interests of this canton +inclining it towards the Romans; what was to be the issue, if they +ventured deeper and deeper into a country full of excitement, +and if they removed daily farther from their means of communication? +The armies were just marching past Bibracte (Autun), the capital +of the Haedui, at a moderate distance; Caesar resolved to seize +this important place by force before he continued his march +into the interior; and it is very possible, that he intended to desist +altogether from farther pursuit and to establish himself +in Bibracte. But when he ceased from the pursuit and turned +against Bibracte, the Helvetii thought that the Romans were making +preparations for flight, and now attacked in their turn. + +Battle at Bibracte + +Caesar desired nothing better. The two armies posted themselves +on two parallel chains of hills; the Celts began the engagement, +broke up the Roman cavalry which had advanced into the plain, +and rushed on against the Roman legions posted on the slope of the hill, +but were there obliged to give way before Caesar's veterans. +When the Romans thereupon, following up their advantage, descended +in their turn to the plain, the Celts again advanced against them, +and a reserved Celtic corps took them at the same time in flank. +The reserve of the Roman attacking column was pushed forward +against the latter; it forced it away from the main body towards +the baggage and the barricade of waggons, where it was destroyed. +The bulk of the Helvetic host was at length brought to give way, +and compelled to beat a retreat in an easterly direction--the opposite +of that towards which their expedition led them. This day had +frustrated the scheme of the Helvetii to establish for themselves +new settlements on the Atlantic Ocean, and handed them over +to the pleasure of the victor; but it had been a hot day also +for the conquerors. Caesar, who had reason for not altogether trusting +his staff of officers, had at the very outset sent away +all the officers' horses, so as to make the necessity of holding +their ground thoroughly clear to his troops; in fact the battle, +had the Romans lost it, would have probably brought about +the annihilation of the Roman army. The Roman troops +were too much exhausted to pursue the conquered with vigour; +but in consequence of the proclamation of Caesar that he would +treat all who should support the Helvetii as like the Helvetii +themselves enemies of the Romans, all support was refused +to the beaten army whithersoever it went-- in the first instance, +in the canton of the Lingones (about Langres)--and, deprived +of all supplies and of their baggage and burdened by the mass +of camp-followers incapable of fighting, they were under the necessity +of submitting to the Roman general. + +The Helvetii Sent back to Their Original Abode + +The lot of the vanquished was a comparatively mild one. +The Haedui were directed to concede settlements in their territory +to the homeless Boii; and this settlement of the conquered foe +in the midst of the most powerful Celtic cantons rendered almost +the services of a Roman colony. The survivors of the Helvetii +and Rauraci, something more than a third of the men that had marched +forth, were naturally sent back to their former territory. +It was incorporated with the Roman province, but the inhabitants +were admitted to alliance with Rome under favourable conditions, +in order to defend, under Roman supremacy, the frontier along +the upper Rhine against the Germans. Only the south-western point +of the Helvetic canton was directly taken into the possession +of the Romans, and there subsequently, on the charming shore +of the Leman lake, the old Celtic town Noviodunum (now Nyon) +was converted into a Roman frontier-fortress, +the "Julian equestrian colony."(35) + +Caesar and Ariovistus +Negotiations + +Thus the threatening invasion of the Germans on the upper Rhine +was obviated, and, at the same time, the party hostile to the Romans +among the Celts was humbled. On the middle Rhine also, +where the Germans had already crossed years ago, and where the power +of Ariovistus which vied with that of Rome in Gaul was daily +spreading, there was need of similar action, and the occasion +for a rupture was easily found. In comparison with the yoke threatened +or already imposed on them by Ariovistus, the Roman supremacy probably +now appeared to the greater part of the Celts in this quarter +the lesser evil; the minority, who retained their hatred +of the Romans, had at least to keep silence. A diet of the Celtic +tribes of central Gaul, held under Roman influence, requested +the Roman general in name of the Celtic nation for aid against +the Germans. Caesar consented. At his suggestion the Haedui stopped +the payment of the tribute stipulated to be paid to Ariovistus, +and demanded back the hostages furnished; and when Ariovistus +on account of this breach of treaty attacked the clients of Rome, +Caesar took occasion thereby to enter into direct negotiation +with him and specially to demand, in addition to the return +of the hostages and a promise to keep peace with the Haedui, +that Ariovistus should bind himself to allure no more Germans +over the Rhine. The German general replied to the Roman, in the full +consciousness of equality of rights, that northern Gaul had become +subject to him by right of war as fairly as southern Gaul +to the Romans; and that, as he did not hinder the Romans from taking +tribute from the Allobroges, so they should not prevent him +from taxing his subjects. In later secret overtures it appeared +that the prince was well aware of the circumstances of the Romans; +he mentioned the invitations which had been addressed to him from Rome +to put Caesar out of the way, and offered, if Caesar would leave +to him northern Gaul, to assist him in turn to obtain the sovereignty +of Italy--as the party-quarrels of the Celtic nation had opened up +an entrance for him into Gaul, he seemed to expect from the party- +quarrels of the Italian nation the consolidation of his rule there. +For centuries no such language of power completely on a footing +of equality and bluntly and carelessly expressing its independence had +been held in presence of the Romans, as was now heard from the king +of the German host; he summarily refused to come, when the Roman +general suggested that he should appear personally before him +according to the usual practice with client-princes. + +Ariovistus Attacked +And Beaten + +It was the more necessary not to delay; Caesar immediately set out +against Ariovistus. A panic seized his troops, especially his officers +when they were to measure their strength with the flower +of the German troops that for fourteen years had not come +under shelter of a roof: it seemed as if the deep decay of Roman moral +and military discipline would assert itself and provoke desertion +and mutiny even in Caesar's camp. But the general, while declaring +that in case of need he would march with the tenth legion alone +against the enemy, knew not merely how to influence these +by such an appeal to honour, but also how to bind the other regiments +to their eagles by warlike emulation, and to inspire the troops +with something of his own energy. Without leaving them time +for reflection, he led them onward in rapid marches, and fortunately +anticipated Ariovistus in the occupation of Vesontio (Besancon), +the capital of the Sequani. A personal conference between the two +generals, which took place at the request of Ariovistus, seemed +as if solely meant to cover an attempt against the person of Caesar; +arms alone could decide between the two oppressors of Gaul. The war +came temporarily to a stand. In lower Alsace somewhere in the region +of Muhlhausen, five miles from the Rhine,(36) the two armies +lay at a little distance from each other, till Ariovistus +with his very superior force succeeded in marching past the Roman camp, +placing himself in its rear, and cutting off the Romans +from their base and their supplies. Caesar attempted to free himself +from his painful situation by a battle; but Ariovistus did not accept it. +Nothing remained for the Roman general but, in spite of +his inferior strength, to imitate the movement of the Germans, +and to recover his communications by making two legions march past +the enemy and take up a position beyond the camp of the Germans, +while four legions remained behind in the former camp. Ariovistus, +when he saw the Romans divided, attempted an assault on their lesser +camp; but the Romans repulsed it. Under the impression made +by this success, the whole Roman army was brought forward +to the attack; and the Germans also placed themselves in battle array, +in a long line, each tribe for itself, the cars of the army +with the baggage and women being placed behind them to render flight +more difficult. The right wing of the Romans, led by Caesar himself, +threw itself rapidly on the enemy, and drove them before it; +the right wing of the Germans was in like manner successful. +The balance still stood equal; but the tactics of the reserve, +which had decided so many other conflicts with barbarians, decided +the conflict with the Germans also in favour of the Romans; +their third line, which Publius Crassus seasonably sent to render help, +restored the battle on the left wing and thereby decided +the victory. The pursuit was continued to the Rhine; only a few, +including the king, succeeded in escaping to the other bank (696). + +German Settlements on the Left Bank of the Rhine + +Thus brilliantly the Roman rule announced its advent to the mighty +stream, which the Italian soldiers here saw for the first time; +by a single fortunate battle the line of the Rhine was won. +The fate of the German settlements on the left bank of the Rhine +lay in the hands of Caesar; the victor could destroy them, +but he did not do so. The neighbouring Celtic cantons--the Sequani, +Leuci, Mediomatrici--were neither capable of self-defence +nor trustworthy; the transplanted Germans promised to become +not merely brave guardians of the frontier but also better subjects +of Rome, for their nationality severed them from the Celts, +and their own interest in the preservation of their newly-won +settlements severed them from their countrymen across the Rhine, +so that in their isolated position they could not avoid adhering +to the central power. Caesar here, as everywhere, preferred +conquered foes to doubtful friends; he left the Germans settled +by Ariovistus along the left bank of the Rhine--the Triboci +about Strassburg, the Nemetes about Spires, the Vangiones +about Worms--in possession of their new abodes, and entrusted them +with the guarding of the Rhine-frontier against their countrymen.(37) +The Suebi, who threatened the territory of the Treveri on the middle +Rhine, on receiving news of the defeat of Ariovistus, again retreated +into the interior of Germany; on which occasion they sustained +considerable loss by the way at the hands of the adjoining tribes. + +The Rhine Boundary + +The consequences of this one campaign were immense; they were felt +for many centuries after. The Rhine had become the boundary +of the Roman empire against the Germans. In Gaul, which was no longer +able to govern itself, the Romans had hitherto ruled on the south +coast, while lately the Germans had attempted to establish themselves +farther up. The recent events had decided that Gaul was to succumb +not merely in part but wholly to the Roman supremacy, +and that the natural boundary presented by the mighty river was also +to become the political boundary. The senate in its better times +had not rested, till the dominion of Rome had reached the natural +bounds of Italy--the Alps and the Mediterranean--and its adjacent +islands. The enlarged empire also needed a similar military +rounding off; but the present government left the matter +to accident, and sought at most to see, not that the frontiers +were capable of defence, but that they should not need to be defended +directly by itself. People felt that now another spirit +and another arm began to guide the destinies of Rome. + +Subjugation of Gaul +Belgic Expedition + +The foundations of the future edifice were laid; but in order +to finish the building and completely to secure the recognition +of the Roman rule by the Gauls, and that of the Rhine-frontier by +the Germans, very much still remained to be done. All central Gaul +indeed from the Roman frontier as far up as Chartres and Treves +submitted without objection to the new ruler; and on the upper +and middle Rhine also no attack was for the present to be apprehended +from the Germans. But the northern provinces--as well +the Aremorican cantons in Brittany and Normandy as the more powerful +confederation of the Belgae--were not affected by the blows +directed against central Gaul, and found no occasion to submit +to the conqueror of Ariovistus. Moreover, as was already remarked, +very close relations subsisted between the Belgae and the Germans +over the Rhine, and at the mouth of the Rhine also Germanic tribes +made themselves ready to cross the stream. In consequence of this +Caesar set out with his army, now increased to eight legions, +in the spring of 697 against the Belgic cantons. Mindful of the brave +and successful resistance which fifty years before they had +with united strength presented to the Cimbri on the borders of their +land,(38) and stimulated by the patriots who had fled to them +in numbers from central Gaul, the confederacy of the Belgae sent +their whole first levy--300,000 armed men under the leadership of Galba +the king of the Suessiones--to their southern frontier to receive +Caesar there. A single canton alone, that of the powerful Remi +(about Rheims) discerned in this invasion of the foreigners +an opportunity to shake off the rule which their neighbours +the Suessiones exercised over them, and prepared to take up +in the north the part which the Haedui had played in central Gaul. +The Roman and the Belgic armies arrived in their territory almost +at the same time. + +Conflicts on the Aisne +Submission of the Western Cantons + +Caesar did not venture to give battle to the brave enemy six times +as strong; to the north of the Aisne, not far from the modern +Pontavert between Rheims and Laon, he pitched his camp on a plateau +rendered almost unassailable on all sides partly by the river +and by morasses, partly by fosses and redoubts, and contented himself +with thwarting by defensive measures the attempts of the Belgae +to cross the Aisne and thereby to cut him off from his communications. +When he counted on the likelihood that the coalition would speedily +collapse under its own weight, he had reckoned rightly. King Galba +was an honest man, held in universal respect; but he was not equal +to the management of an army of 300,000 men on hostile soil. +No progress was made, and provisions began to fail; discontent +and dissension began to insinuate themselves into the camp +of the confederates. The Bellovaci in particular, equal to +the Suessiones in power, and already dissatisfied that the supreme +command of the confederate army had not fallen to them, could no longer +be detained after news had arrived that the Haedui as allies +of the Romans were making preparations to enter the Bellovacic territory. +They determined to break up and go home; though for honour's sake +all the cantons at the same time bound themselves to hasten +with their united strength to the help of the one first attacked, +the miserable dispersion of the confederacy was but miserably palliated +by such impracticable stipulations. It was a catastrophe +which vividly reminds us of that which occurred almost +on the same spot in 1792; and, just as with the campaign in Champagne, +the defeat was all the more severe that it took place without a battle. +The bad leadership of the retreating army allowed the Roman general +to pursue it as if it were beaten, and to destroy a portion +of the contingents that had remained to the last. But the consequences +of the victory were not confined to this. As Caesar advanced +into the western cantons of the Belgae, one after another +gave themselves up as lost almost without resistance; the powerful +Suessiones (about Soissons), as well as their rivals, the Bellovaci +(about Beauvais) and the Ambiani (about Amiens). The towns opened +their gates when they saw the strange besieging machines, +the towers rolling up to their walls; those who would not submit +to the foreign masters sought a refuge beyond the sea in Britain. + +The Conflict with the Nervii + +But in the eastern cantons the national feeling was more +energetically roused. The Viromandui (about Arras), the Atrebates +(about St. Quentin), the German Aduatuci (about Namur), but above +all the Nervii (in Hainault) with their not inconsiderable body +of clients, little inferior in number to the Suessiones and Bellovaci, +far superior to them in valour and vigorous patriotic spirit, +concluded a second and closer league, and assembled their forces +on the upper Sambre. Celtic spies informed them most accurately +of the movements of the Roman army; their own local knowledge, +and the high tree-barricades which were formed everywhere in these +districts to obstruct the bands of mounted robbers who often +visited them, allowed the allies to conceal their own operations +for the most part from the view of the Romans. When these arrived +on the Sambre not far from Bavay, and the legions were occupied +in pitching their camp on the crest of the left bank, while +the cavalry and light infantry were exploring the opposite heights, +the latter were all at once assailed by the whole mass of the enemy's +forces and driven down the hill into the river. In a moment +the enemy had crossed this also, and stormed the heights of the left +bank with a determination that braved death. Scarcely was there +time left for the entrenching legionaries to exchange the mattock +for the sword; the soldiers, many without helmets, had to fight +just as they stood, without line of battle, without plan, without +proper command; for, owing to the suddenness of the attack +and the intersection of the ground by tall hedges, the several +divisions had wholly lost their communications. Instead of a battle +there arose a number of unconnected conflicts. Labienus with the left +wing overthrew the Atrebates and pursued them even across +the river. The Roman central division forced the Viromandui down +the declivity. But the right wing, where the general himself +was present, was outflanked by the far more numerous Nervii +the more easily, as the central division carried away by its +own success had evacuated the ground alongside of it, and even +the half-ready camp was occupied by the Nervii; the two legions, +each separately rolled together into a dense mass and assailed +in front and on both flanks, deprived of most of their officers +and their best soldiers, appeared on the point of being broken and cut +to pieces. The Roman camp-followers and the allied troops were already +fleeing in all directions; of the Celtic cavalry whole divisions, +like the contingent of the Treveri, galloped off at full speed, +that from the battle-field itself they might announce at home +the welcome news of the defeat which had been sustained. Everything +was at stake. The general himself seized his shield and fought +among the foremost; his example, his call even now inspiring enthusiasm, +induced the wavering ranks to rally. They had already in some +measure extricated themselves and had at least restored the connection +between the two legions of this wing, when help came up-- +partly down from the crest of the bank, where in the interval +the Roman rearguard with the baggage had arrived, partly +from the other bank of the river, where Labienus had meanwhile penetrated +to the enemy's camp and taken possession of it, and now, perceiving +at length the danger that menaced the right wing, despatched +the victorious tenth legion to the aid of his general. The Nervii, +separated from their confederates and simultaneously assailed +on all sides, now showed, when fortune turned, the same heroic courage +as when they believed themselves victors; still over the pile +of corpses of their fallen comrades they fought to the last man. +According to their own statement, of their six hundred senators +only three survived this day. + +Subjugation of the Belgae + +After this annihilating defeat the Nervii, Atrebates, and Viromandui +could not but recognize the Roman supremacy. The Aduatuci, who arrived +too late to take part in the fight on the Sambre, attempted still to hold +their ground in the strongest of their towns (on the mount Falhize +near the Maas not far from Huy), but they too soon submitted. A nocturnal +attack on the Roman camp in front of the town, which they ventured +after the surrender, miscarried; and the perfidy was avenged +by the Romans with fearful severity. The clients of the Aduatuci, +consisting of the Eburones between the Maas and Rhine and other +small adjoining tribes, were declared independent by the Romans, +while the Aduatuci taken prisoners were sold under the hammer en masse +for the benefit of the Roman treasury. It seemed as if the fate +which had befallen the Cimbri still pursued even this last +Cimbrian fragment. Caesar contented himself with imposing +on the other subdued tribes a general disarmament and furnishing +of hostages. The Remi became naturally the leading canton +in Belgic, like the Haedui in central Gaul; even in the latter +several clans at enmity with the Haedui preferred to rank +among the clients of the Remi. Only the remote maritime +cantons of the Morini (Artois) and the Menapii (Flanders and Brabant), +and the country between the Scheldt and the Rhine inhabited in great +part by Germans, remained still for the present exempt from Roman +invasion and in possession of their hereditary freedom. + +Expeditions against the Maritime Cantons +Venetian War + +The turn of the Aremorican cantons came. In the autumn of 697 +Publius Crassus was sent thither with a Roman corps; he induced +the Veneti--who as masters of the ports of the modern Morbihan +and of a respectable fleet occupied the first place among all +the Celtic cantons in navigation and commerce--and generally +the coast-districts between the Loire and Seine, to submit +to the Romans and give them hostages. But they soon repented. +When in the following winter (697-698) Roman officers +came to these legions to levy requisitions of grain there, +they were detained by the Veneti as counter-hostages. The example +thus set was quickly followed not only by the Aremorican cantons, +but also by the maritime cantons of the Belgae that still remained +free; where, as in some cantons of Normandy, the common council +refused to join the insurrection, the multitude put them to death +and attached itself with redoubled zeal to the national cause. +The whole coast from the mouth of the Loire to that of the Rhine +rose against Rome; the most resolute patriots from all the Celtic +cantons hastened thither to co-operate in the great work of liberation; +they already calculated on the rising of the whole Belgic confederacy, +on aid from Britain, on the arrival of Germans from beyond the Rhine. + +Caesar sent Labienus with all the cavalry to the Rhine, with a view +to hold in check the agitation in the Belgic province, and in case +of need to prevent the Germans from crossing the river; another +of his lieutenants, Quintus Titurius Sabinus, went with three legions +to Normandy, where the main body of the insurgents assembled. +But the powerful and intelligent Veneti were the true centre +of the insurrection; the chief attack by land and sea was directed +against them. Caesar's lieutenant, Decimus Brutus, brought up +the fleet formed partly of the ships of the subject Celtic cantons, +partly of a number of Roman galleys hastily built on the Loire +and manned with rowers from the Narbonese province; Caesar himself +advanced with the flower of his infantry into the territory of the Veneti. +But these were prepared beforehand, and had with equal skill +and resolution availed themselves of the favourable circumstances +which the nature of the ground in Brittany and the possession +of a considerable naval power presented. The country was much +intersected and poorly furnished with grain, the towns +were situated for the most part on cliffs and tongues of land, +and were accessible from the mainland only by shallows which it was +difficult to cross; the provision of supplies and the conducting +of sieges were equally difficult for the army attacking by land, +while the Celts by means of their vessels could furnish the towns +easily with everything needful, and in the event of the worst could +accomplish their evacuation. The legions expended their time +and strength in the sieges of the Venetian townships, only to see +the substantial fruits of victory ultimately carried off in the vessels +of the enemy. + +Naval Battle between the Romans and the Veneti +Submission of the Maritime Cantons + +Accordingly when the Roman fleet, long detained by storms +at the mouth of the Loire, arrived at length on the coast of Brittany, +it was left to decide the struggle by a naval battle. The Celts, +conscious of their superiority on this element, brought forth their +fleet against that of the Romans commanded by Brutus. Not only +did it number 220 sail, far more than the Romans had been able +to bring up, but their high-decked strong sailing-vessels with flat +bottoms were also far better adapted for the high-running waves +of the Atlantic Ocean than the low, lightly-built oared galleys +of the Romans with their sharp keels. Neither the missiles +nor the boarding-bridges of the Romans could reach the high deck +of the enemy's vessels, and the iron beaks recoiled powerless +from the strong oaken planks. But the Roman mariners cut the ropes, +by which the yards were fastened to the masts, by means of sickles +fastened to long poles; the yards and sails fell down, and, as they +did not know how to repair the damage speedily, the ship was thus +rendered a wreck just as it is at the present day by the falling +of the masts, and the Roman boats easily succeeded by a joint attack +in mastering the maimed vessel of the enemy. When the Gauls +perceived this manoeuvre, they attempted to move from the coast +on which they had taken up the combat with the Romans, and to gain +the high seas, whither the Roman galleys could not follow them; +but unhappily for them there suddenly set in a dead calm, +and the immense fleet, towards the equipment of which the maritime +cantons had applied all their energies, was almost wholly destroyed +by the Romans. Thus was this naval battle--so far as historical +knowledge reaches, the earliest fought on the Atlantic Ocean-- +just like the engagement at Mylae two hundred years before,(39) +notwithstanding the most unfavourable circumstances, decided in favour +of the Romans by a lucky invention suggested by necessity. +The consequence of the victory achieved by Brutus was the surrender +of the Veneti and of all Brittany. More with a view to impress +the Celtic nation, after so manifold evidences of clemency towards +the vanquished, by an example of fearful severity now against those +whose resistance had been obstinate, than with the view of punishing +the breach of treaty and the arrest of the Roman officers, Caesar +caused the whole common council to be executed and the people +of the Venetian canton to the last man to be sold into slavery. +By this dreadful fate, as well as by their intelligence +and their patriotism, the Veneti have more than any other Celtic clan +acquired a title to the sympathy of posterity. + +Sabinus meanwhile opposed to the levy of the coast-states assembled +on the Channel the same tactics by which Caesar had in the previous +year conquered the Belgic general levy on the Aisne; he stood +on the defensive till impatience and want invaded the ranks of the enemy, +and then managed by deceiving them as to the temper and strength +of his troops, and above all by means of their own impatience, +to allure them to an imprudent assault upon the Roman camp, in which +they were defeated; whereupon the militia dispersed and the country +as far as the Seine submitted. + +Expeditins against the Morini and Menapii + +The Morini and Menapii alone persevered in withholding their +recognition of the Roman supremacy. To compel them to this, Caesar +appeared on their borders; but, rendered wiser by the experiences +of their countrymen, they avoided accepting battle on the borders +of their land, and retired into the forests which then stretched +almost without interruption from the Ardennes towards the German +Ocean. The Romans attempted to make a road through the forest +with the axe, ranging the felled trees on each side as a barricade +against the enemy's attacks; but even Caesar, daring as he was, +found it advisable after some days of most laborious marching, +especially as it was verging towards winter, to order a retreat, +although but a small portion of the Morini had submitted and the powerful +Menapii had not been reached at all. In the following year (699) +while Caesar himself was employed in Britain the greater part +of the army was sent afresh against these tribes; but this expedition +also remained in the main unsuccessful. Nevertheless the result +of the last campaigns was the almost complete reduction of Gaul +under the dominion of the Romans. While central Gaul had submitted +to it without resistance, during the campaign of 697 the Belgic, +and during that of the following year the maritime, cantons +had been compelled by force of arms to acknowledge the Roman rule. +The lofty hopes, with which the Celtic patriots had begun +the last campaign, had nowhere been fulfilled. Neither Germans +nor Britons had come to their aid; and in Belgica the presence +of Labienus had sufficed to prevent the renewal of the conflicts +of the previous year. + +Establishment of Communications with Italy by the Valais + +While Caesar was thus forming the Roman domain in the west by force +of arms into a compact whole, he did not neglect to open up +for the newly-conquered country--which was destined in fact to fill up +the wide gap in that domain between Italy and Spain-communications both +with the Italian home and with the Spanish provinces. The communication +between Gaul and Italy had certainly been materially facilitated +by the military road laid out by Pompeius in 677 over Mont Genevre;(40) +but since the whole of Gaul had been subdued by the Romans, there was +need of a route crossing the ridge of the Alps from the valley of the Po, +not in a westerly but in a northerly direction, and furnishing a shorter +communication between Italy and central Gaul. The way which leads over +the Great St. Bernard into the Valais and along the lake of Geneva +had long served the merchant for this purpose; to get this road +into his power, Caesar as early as the autumn of 697 caused Octodurum +(Martigny) to be occupied by Servius Galba, and the inhabitants +of the Valais to be reduced to subjection--a result which was, +of course, merely postponed, not prevented, by the brave resistance +of these mountain-peoples. + +And with Spain + +To gain communication with Spain, moreover, Publius Crassus +was sent in the following year (698) to Aquitania with instructions +to compel the Iberian tribes dwelling there to acknowledge the Roman +rule. The task was not without difficulty; the Iberians held +together more compactly than the Celts and knew better than these +how to learn from their enemies. The tribes beyond the Pyrenees, +especially the valiant Cantabri, sent a contingent to their +threatened countrymen; with this there came experienced officers +trained under the leadership of Sertorius in the Roman fashion, +who introduced as far as possible the principles of the Roman art +of war, and especially of encampment, among the Aquitanian levy +already respectable from its numbers and its valour. +But the excellent officer who led the Romans knew how to surmount +all difficulties, and after some hardly-contested but successful +battles he induced the peoples from the Garonne to the vicinity +of the Pyrenees to submit to the new masters. + +Fresh Violations of the Rhine-Boundary by the Germans +The Usipetes and Tencteri + +One of the objects which Caesar had proposed to himself-- +the subjugation of Gaul--had been in substance, with exceptions +scarcely worth mentioning, attained so far as it could be attained +at all by the sword. But the other half of the work undertaken +by Caesar was still far from being satisfactorily accomplished, +and the Germans had by no means as yet been everywhere compelled +to recognize the Rhine as their limit. Even now, in the winter +of 698-699, a fresh crossing of the boundary had taken place +on the lower course of the river, whither the Romans had not yet +penetrated. The German tribes of the Usipetes and Tencteri +whose attempts to cross the Rhine in the territory of the Menapii +have been already mentioned,(41) had at length, eluding the vigilance +of their opponents by a feigned retreat, crossed in the vessels +belonging to the Menapii--an enormous host, which is said, +including women and children, to have amounted to 430,000 persons. +They still lay, apparently, in the region of Nimeguen and Cleves; +but it was said that, following the invitations of the Celtic +patriot party, they intended to advance into the interior of Gaul; +and the rumour was confirmed by the fact that bands of their +horsemen already roamed as far as the borders of the Treveri. +But when Caesar with his legions arrived opposite to them, the sorely- +harassed emigrants seemed not desirous of fresh conflicts, +but very ready to accept land from the Romans and to till it in peace +under their supremacy. While negotiations as to this were going on, +a suspicion arose in the mind of the Roman general that the Germans +only sought to gain time till the bands of horsemen sent out +by them had returned. Whether this suspicion was well founded or not, +we cannot tell; but confirmed in it by an attack, which in spite +of the de facto suspension of arms a troop of the enemy made +on his vanguard, and exasperated by the severe loss thereby sustained, +Caesar believed himself entitled to disregard every consideration +of international law. When on the second morning the princes +and elders of the Germans appeared in the Roman camp to apologize +for the attack made without their knowledge, they were arrested, +and the multitude anticipating no assault and deprived of their leaders +were suddenly fallen upon by the Roman army. It was rather a manhunt +than a battle; those that did not fall under the swords of the Romans +were drowned in the Rhine; almost none but the divisions detached +at the time of the attack escaped the massacre and succeeded +in recrossing the Rhine, where the Sugambri gave them an asylu +in their territory, apparently on the Lippe. The behaviour of Caesar +towards these German immigrants met with severe and just censure +in the senate; but, however little it can be excused, the German +encroachments were emphatically checked by the terror +which it occasioned. + +Caesar on the Right Bank of the Rhine + +Caesar however found it advisable to take yet a further step +and to lead the legions over the Rhine. He was not without connections +beyond the river. the Germans at the stage of culture +which they had then reached, lacked as yet any national coherence; +in political distraction they--though from other causes--fell nothing +short of the Celts. The Ubii (on the Sieg and Lahn), the most +civilized among the German tribes, had recently been made subject +and tributary by a powerful Suebian canton of the interior, and had +as early as 697 through their envoys entreated Caesar to free them +like the Gauls from the Suebian rule. It was not Caesar's design +seriously to respond to this suggestion, which would have involved +him in endless enterprises; but it seemed advisable, with the view +of preventing the appearance of the Germanic arms on the south +of the Rhine, at least to show the Roman arms beyond it. The protection +which the fugitive Usipetes and Tencteri had found among the Sugambri +afforded a suitable occasion. In the region, apparently between +Coblentz and Andernach, Caesar erected a bridge of piles over the Rhine +and led his legions across from the Treverian to the Ubian territory. +Some smaller cantons gave in their submission; but the Sugambri, +against whom the expedition was primarily directed, withdrew, +on the approach of the Roman army, with those under their protection +into the interior. In like manner the powerful Suebian canton +which oppressed the Ubii--presumably the same which subsequently +appears under the name of the Chatti--caused the districts immediately +adjoining the Ubian territory to be evacuated and the non-combatant +portion of the people to be placed in safety, while all the men +capable of arms were directed to assemble at the centre of the canton. +The Roman general had neither occasion nor desire to accept +this challenge; his object--partly to reconnoitre, partly to produce +an impressive effect if possible upon the Germans, or at least +on the Celts and his countrymen at home, by an expedition +over the Rhine--was substantially attained; after remaining +eighteen days on the right bank of the Rhine he again arrived +in Gaul and broke down the Rhine bridge behind him (699). + +Expeditions to Britain + +There remained the insular Celts. From the close connection +between them and the Celts of the continent, especially +the maritime cantons, it may readily be conceived that they had +at least sympathized with the national resistance, and that if they +did not grant armed assistance to the patriots, they gave at any rate +an honourable asylum in their sea-protected isle to every one +who was no longer safe in his native land. This certainly involved +a danger, if not for the present, at any rate for the future; it +seemed judicious--if not to undertake the conquest of the island +itself--at any rate to conduct there also defensive operations +by offensive means, and to show the islanders by a landing +on the coast that the arm of the Romans reached even across the Channel. +The first Roman officer who entered Brittany, Publius Crassus +had already (697) crossed thence to the "tin-islands" at the south-west +point of England (Stilly islands); in the summer of 699 Caesar +himself with only two legions crossed the Channel at its narrowest +part.(42) He found the coast covered with masses of the enemy's +troops and sailed onward with his vessels; but the British war- +chariots moved on quite as fast by land as the Roman galleys +by sea, and it was only with the utmost difficulty that the Roman +soldiers succeeded in gaining the shore in the face of the enemy, +partly by wading, partly in boats, under the protection +of the ships of war, which swept the beach with missiles thrown +from machines and by the hand. In the first alarm the nearest villages +submitted; but the islanders soon perceived how weak the enemy was, +and how he did not venture to move far from the shore. The natives +disappeared into the interior and returned only to threaten +the camp; and the fleet, which had been left in the open roads, +suffered very considerable damage from the first tempest +that burst upon it. The Romans had to reckon themselves fortunate +in repelling the attacks of the barbarians till they had bestowed +the necessary repairs on the ships, and in regaining with these +the Gallic coast before the bad season of the year came on. + +Caesar himself was so dissatisfied with the results of this expedition +undertaken inconsiderately and with inadequate means, that he immediately +(in the winter of 699-700) ordered a transport fleet of 800 sail +to be fitted out, and in the spring of 700 sailed a second time +for the Kentish coast, on this occasion with five legions +and 2000 cavalry. The forces of the Britons, assembled +this time also on the shore, retired before the mighty armada +without risking a battle; Caesar immediately set out on his march +into the interior, and after some successful conflicts crossed +the river Stour; but he was obliged to halt very much against his will, +because the fleet in the open roads had been again half destroyed +by the storms of the Channel. Before they got the ships drawn +up upon the beach and the extensive arrangements made +for their repair, precious time was lost, which the Celts wisely +turned to account. + +Cassivellaunus + +The brave and cautious prince Cassivellaunus, who ruled in what +is now Middlesex and the surrounding district--formerly the terror +of the Celts to the south of the Thames, but now the protector +and champion of the whole nation--had headed the defence of the land. +He soon saw that nothing at all could be done with the Celtic +infantry against the Roman, and that the mass of the general levy-- +which it was difficult to feed and difficult to control--was only +a hindrance to the defence; he therefore dismissed it and retained +only the war-chariots, of which he collected 4000, and in which +the warriors, accustomed to leap down from their chariots and fight +on foot, could be employed in a twofold manner like the burgess- +cavalry of the earliest Rome. When Caesar was once more able +to continue his march, he met with no interruption to it; +but the British war-chariots moved always in front and alongside +of the Roman army, induced the evacuation of the country +(which from the absence of towns proved no great difficulty), +prevented the sending out of detachments, and threatened +the communications. The Thames was crossed--apparently +between Kingston and Brentford above London--by the Romans; +they moved forward, but made no real progress; the general achieved +no victory, the soldiers made no booty, and the only actual result, +the submission of the Trinobante in the modern Essex, was less +the effect of a dread of the Romans than of the deep hostility +between this canton and Cassivellaunus. The danger increased +with every onward step, and the attack, which the princes of Kent +by the orders of Cassivellaunus made on the Roman naval camp, +although it was repulsed, was an urgent warning to turn back. +The taking by storm of a great British tree-barricade, +in which a multitude of cattle fell into the hands of the Romans, +furnished a passable conclusion to the aimless advance and a tolerable +pretext for returning. Cassivellaunus was sagacious enough +not to drive the dangerous enemy to extremities, and promised, +as Caesar desired him, to abstain from disturbing the Trinobantes, +to pay tribute and to furnish hostages; nothing was said +of delivering up arms or leaving behind a Roman garrison, +and even those promises were, it may be presumed, so far as +they concerned the future, neither given nor received in earnest. +After receiving the hostages Caesar returned to the naval camp +and thence to Gaul. If he, as it would certainly seem, +had hoped on this occasion to conquer Britain, the scheme +was totally thwarted partly by the wise defensive system +of Cassivellaunus, partly and chiefly by the unserviceableness +of the Italian oared fleet in the waters of the North Sea; +for it is certain that the stipulated tribute was never paid. +But the immediate object--of rousing the islanders out of their haughty +security and inducing them in their own interest no longer to allow +their island to be a rendezvous for continental emigrants-- +seems certainly to have been attained; at least no complaints +are afterwards heard as to the bestowal of such protection. + +The Conspiracy of the Patriots + +The work of repelling the Germanic invasion and of subduing +the continental Celts was completed. But it is often easier +to subdue a free nation than to keep a subdued one in subjection. +The rivalry for the hegemony, by which more even than by the attacks +of Rome the Celtic nation had been ruined, was in some measure set +aside by the conquest, inasmuch as the conqueror took the hegemony +to himself. Separate interests were silent; under the common +oppression at any rate they felt themselves again as one people; +and the infinite value of that which they had with indifference +gambled away when they possessed it--freedom and nationality-- +was now, when it was too late, fully appreciated by their infinite +longing. But was it, then, too late? With indignant shame they +confessed to themselves that a nation, which numbered at least +a million of men capable of arms, a nation of ancient and well- +founded warlike renown, had allowed the yoke to be imposed upon it +by, at the most, 50,000 Romans. The submission of the confederacy +of central Gaul without having struck even a blow; the submission +of the Belgic confederacy without having done more than merely +shown a wish to strike; the heroic fall on the other hand +of the Nervii and the Veneti, the sagacious and successful resistance +of the Morini, and of the Britons under Cassivellaunus-- +all that in each case had been done or neglected, had failed +or had succeeded--spurred the minds of the patriots to new attempts, +if possible, more united and more successful. Especially +among the Celtic nobility there prevailed an excitement, which seemed +every moment as if it must break out into a general insurrection. +Even before the second expedition to Britain in the spring of 700 Caesar +had found it necessary to go in person to the Treveri, who, +since they had compromised themselves in the Nervian conflict in 697, +had no longer appeared at the general diets and had formed more than +suspicious connections with the Germans beyond the Rhine. At that +time Caesar had contented himself with carrying the men of most +note among the patriot party, particularly Indutiomarus, along +with him to Britain in the ranks of the Treverian cavalry-contingent; +he did his utmost to overlook the conspiracy, that he might not +by strict measures ripen it into insurrection. But when the Haeduan +Dumnorix, who likewise was present in the army destined for Britain, +nominally as a cavalry officer, but really as a hostage, +peremptorily refused to embark and rode home instead, Caesar could +not do otherwise than have him pursued as a deserter; he was accordingly +overtaken by the division sent after him and, when he stood +on his defence, was cut down (700). That the most esteemed knight +of the most powerful and still the least dependent of the Celtic cantons +should have been put to death by the Romans, was a thunder-clap +for the whole Celtic nobility; every one who was conscious +of similar sentiments--and they formed the great majority-- +saw in that catastrophe the picture of what was in store for himself. + +Insurrection + +If patriotism and despair had induced the heads of the Celtic +nobility to conspire, fear and self-defence now drove the conspirators +to strike. In the winter of 700-701, with the exception of a legion +stationed in Brittany and a second in the very unsettled canton +of the Carnutes (near Chartres), the whole Roman army numbering six +legions was encamped in the Belgic territory. The scantiness +of the supplies of grain had induced Caesar to station his troops +farther apart than he was otherwise wont to do--in six different +camps constructed in the cantons of the Bellovaci, Ambiani, Morini, +Nervii, Remi, and Eburones. The fixed camp placed farthest towards +the east in the territory of the Eburones, probably not far +from the later Aduatuca (the modern Tongern), the strongest of all, +consisting of a legion under one of the most respected of Caesar's +leaders of division, Quintus Titurius Sabinus, besides different +detachments led by the brave Lucius Aurunculeius Cotta(43) and amounting +together to the strength of half a legion, found itself all of a sudden +surrounded by the general levy of the Eburones under the kings Ambiorix +and Catuvolcus. The attack came so unexpectedly, that the very men +absent from the camp could not be recalled and were cut off +by the enemy; otherwise the immediate danger was not great, +as there was no lack of provisions, and the assault, which the Eburones +attempted, recoiled powerless from the Roman intrenchments. +But king Ambiorix informed the Roman commander that all the Roman camps +in Gaul were similarly assailed on the same day, and that the Romans +would undoubtedly be lost if the several corps did not quickly set out +and effect a junction; that Sabinus had the more reason to make haste, +as the Germans too from beyond the Rhine were already advancing +against him; that he himself out of friendship for the Romans +would promise them a free retreat as far as the nearest +Roman camp, only two days' march distant. Some things +in these statements seemed no fiction; that the little canton +of the Eburones specially favoured by the Romans(44) should have +undertaken the attack of its own accord was in reality incredible, +and, owing to the difficulty of effecting a communication with the other +far-distant camps, the danger of being attacked by the whole +mass of the insurgents and destroyed in detail was by no means +to be esteemed slight; nevertheless it could not admit of the smallest +doubt that both honour and prudence required them to reject +the capitulation offered by the enemy and to maintain the post +entrusted to them. Yet, although in the council of war numerous +voices and especially the weighty voice of Lucius Aurunculeius +Cotta supported this view, the commandant determined to accept +the proposal of Ambiorix. The Roman troops accordingly marched +off next morning; but when they had arrived at a narrow valley about +two miles from the camp they found themselves surrounded +by the Eburones and every outlet blocked. They attempted to open +a way for themselves by force of arms; but the Eburones would not enter +into any close combat, and contented themselves with discharging +their missiles from their unassailable positions into the dense +mass of the Romans. Bewildered, as if seeking deliverance +from treachery at the hands of the traitor, Sabinus requested +a conference with Ambiorix; it was granted, and he and the officers +accompanying him were first disarmed and then slain. After the fall +of the commander the Eburones threw themselves from all sides +at once on the exhausted and despairing Romans, and broke their +ranks; most of them, including Cotta who had already been wounded, +met their death in this attack; a small portion, who had succeeded +in regaining the abandoned camp, flung themselves on their own +swords during the following night. The whole corps was annihilated. + +Cicero Attacked + +This success, such as the insurgents themselves had hardly ventured +to hope for, increased the ferment among the Celtic patriots +so greatly that the Romans were no longer sure of a single district +with the exception of the Haedui and Remi, and the insurrection +broke out at the most diverse points. First of all the Eburones +followed up their victory. Reinforced by the levy of the Aduatuci, +who gladly embraced the opportunity of requiting the injury done +to them by Caesar, and of the powerful and still unsubdued Menapii, +they appeared in the territory of the Nervii, who immediately +joined them, and the whole host thus swelled to 60,000 moved +forward to confront the Roman camp formed in the Nervian canton. +Quintus Cicero, who commanded there, had with his weak corps +a difficult position, especially as the besiegers, learning from the foe, +constructed ramparts and trenches, -testudines- and moveable towers +after the Roman fashion, and showered fire-balls and burning +spears over the straw-covered huts of the camp. The only hope +of the besieged rested on Caesar, who lay not so very far off +with three legions in his winter encampment in the region of Amiens. +But--a significant proof of the feeling that prevailed in Gaul- +for a considerable time not the slightest hint reached the general +either of the disaster of Sabinus or of the perilous +situation of Cicero. + +Caesar Proceeds to His Relief +The Insurrection Checked + +At length a Celtic horseman from Cicero's camp succeeded +in stealing through the enemy to Caesar. On receiving the startling +news Caesar immediately set out, although only with two weak +legions, together numbering about 7000, and 400 horsemen; +nevertheless the announcement that Caesar was advancing sufficed +to induce the insurgents to raise the siege. It was time; +not one tenth of the men in Cicero's camp remained unwounded. +Caesar, against whom the insurgent army had turned, deceived the enemy, +in the way which he had already on several occasions successfully +applied, as to his strength; under the most unfavourable +circumstances they ventured an assault upon the Roman camp +and in doing so suffered a defeat. It is singular, but characteristic +of the Celtic nation, that in consequence of this one lost battle, +or perhaps rather in consequence of Caesar's appearance in person +on the scene of conflict, the insurrection, which had commenced +so victoriously and extended so widely, suddenly and pitiably broke +off the war. The Nervii, Menapii, Aduatuci, Eburones, returned +to their homes. The forces of the maritime cantons, who had made +preparations for assailing the legion in Brittany, did the same. +The Treveri, through whose leader Indutiomarus the Eburones, +the clients of the powerful neighbouring canton, had been chiefly +induced to that so successful attack, had taken arms on the news +of the disaster of Aduatuca and advanced into the territory +of the Remi with the view of attacking the legion cantoned there +under the command of Labienus; they too desisted for the present +from continuing the struggle. Caesar not unwillingly postponed +farther measures against the revolted districts till the spring, +in order not to expose his troops which had suffered much to the whole +severity of the Gallic winter, and with the view of only reappearing +in the field when the fifteen cohorts destroyed should have +been replaced in an imposing manner by the levy of thirty new +cohorts which he had ordered. The insurrection meanwhile pursued +its course, although there was for the moment a suspension of arms. +Its chief seats in central Gaul were, partly the districts +of the Carnutes and the neighbouring Senones (about Sens), the latter +of whom drove the king appointed by Caesar out of their country; +partly the region of the Treveri, who invited the whole Celtic +emigrants and the Germans beyond the Rhine to take part +in the impending national war, and called out their whole force, +with a view to advance in the spring a second time into the territory +of the Remi, to capture the corps of Labienus, and to seek +a communication with the insurgents on the Seine and Loire. +The deputies of these three cantons remained absent from the diet +convoked by Caesar in central Gaul, and thereby declared war just +as openly as a part of the Belgic cantons had done by the attacks +on the camps of Sabinus and Cicero. + +And Suppressed + +The winter was drawing to a close when Caesar set out +with his army, which meanwhile had been considerably reinforced, +against the insurgents. The attempts of the Treveri to concentrate +the revolt had not succeeded; the agitated districts were kept in check +by the marching in of Roman troops, and those in open rebellion +were attacked in detail. First the Nervii were routed by Caesar +in person. The Senones and Carnutes met the same fate. The Menapii, +the only canton which had never submitted to the Romans, +were compelled by a grand attack simultaneously directed against them +from three sides to renounce their long-preserved freedom. +Labienus meanwhile was preparing the same fate for the Treveri. +Their first attack had been paralyzed, partly by the refusal +of the adjoining German tribes to furnish them with mercenaries, +partly by the fact that Indutiomarus, the soul of the whole movement +had fallen in a skirmish with the cavalry of Labienus. But they did +not on this account abandon their projects. With their whole levy +they appeared in front of Labienus and waited for the German bands +that were to follow, for their recruiting agents found a better +reception than they had met with from the dwellers on the Rhine, +among the warlike tribes of the interior of Germany, especially, +as it would appear, among the Chatti. But when Labienus seemed +as if he wished to avoid these and to march off in all haste, the Treveri +attacked the Romans even before the Germans arrived and in a most +unfavourable spot, and were completely defeated. Nothing remained +for the Germans who came up too late but to return, nothing for +the Treverian canton but to submit; its government reverted to the head +of the Roman party Cingetorix, the son-in-law of Indutiomarus. +After these expeditions of Caesar against the Menapii and of Labienus +against the Treveri the whole Roman army was again united +in the territory of the latter. With the view of rendering +the Germans disinclined to come back, Caesar once more crossed +the Rhine, in order if possible to strike an emphatic blow against +the troublesome neighbours; but, as the Chatti, faithful to their +tried tactics, assembled not on their western boundary, +but far in the interior, apparently at the Harz mountains, +for the defence of the land, he immediately turned back and contented +himself with leaving behind a garrison at the passage of the Rhine. + +Retaliatory Expedition against the Eburones + +Accounts had thus been settled with all the tribes that took part +in the rising; the Eburones alone were passed over but not forgotten. +Since Caesar had met with the disaster of Aduatuca, he had worn +mourning and had sworn that he would only lay it aside +when he should have avenged his soldiers, who had not fallen +in honourable war, but had been treacherously murdered. +Helpless and passive the Eburones sat in their huts and looked on +as the neighbouring cantons one after another submitted to the Romans, +till the Roman cavalry from the Treverian territory advanced +through the Ardennes into their land. So little were they prepared +for the attack, that the cavalry had almost seized the king +Ambiorix in his house; with great difficulty, while his attendants +sacrificed themselves on his behalf, he escaped into the neighbouring +thicket. Ten Roman legions soon followed the cavalry. +At the same time a summons was issued to the surrounding tribes +to hunt the outlawed Eburones and pillage their land in concert +with the Roman soldiers; not a few complied with the call, including +even an audacious band of Sugambrian horsemen from the other side +of the Rhine, who for that matter treated the Romans no better than +the Eburones, and had almost by a daring coup de main surprised +the Roman camp at Aduatuca. The fate of the Eburones was dreadful. +However they might hide themselves in forests and morasses, +there were more hunters than game. Many put themselves to death +like the gray-haired prince Catuvolcus; only a few saved life +and liberty, but among these few was the man whom the Romans sought +above all to seize, the prince Ambiorix; with but four horsemen +he escaped over the Rhine. This execution against the canton +which had transgressed above all the rest was followed in the other +districts by processes of high treason against individuals. The season +for clemency was past. At the bidding of the Roman proconsul +the eminent Carnutic knight Acco was beheaded by Roman lictors +(701) and the rule of the -fasces- was thus formally inaugurated. +Opposition was silent; tranquillity everywhere prevailed. Caesar +went as he was wont towards the end of the year (701) over the Alps, +that through the winter he might observe more closely +the daily-increasing complications in the capital. + +Second Insurrection + +The sagacious calculator had on this occasion miscalculated. +The fire was smothered, but not extinguished. The stroke, +under which the head of Acco fell, was felt by the whole Celtic nobility. +At this very moment the position of affairs presented better prospects +than ever. The insurrection of the last winter had evidently failed +only through Caesar himself appearing on the scene of action; +now he was at a distance, detained on the Po by the imminence +of civil war, and the Gallic army, which was collected on the upper Seine, +was far separated from its dreaded leader. If a general insurrection +now broke out in central Gaul, the Roman army might be surrounded, +and the almost undefended old Roman province be overrun before Caesar +reappeared beyond the Alps, even if the Italian complications +did not altogether prevent him from further concerning himself about Gaul. + +The Carnutes +The Arverni + +Conspirators from all the cantons of central Gaul assembled; +the Carnutes, as most directly affected by the execution of Acco, +offered to take the lead. On a set day in the winter of 701-702 +the Carnutic knights Gutruatus and Conconnetodumnus gave at Cenabum +(Orleans) the signal for the rising, and put to death in a body +the Romans who happened to be there. The most vehement agitation +seized the length and breadth of the great Celtic land; the patriots +everywhere bestirred themselves. But nothing stirred the nation +so deeply as the insurrection of the Arverni. The government +of this community, which had formerly under its kings been the first +in southern Gaul, and had still after the fall of its principality +occasioned by the unfortunate wars against Rome(45) continued to be +one of the wealthiest, most civilized, and most powerful in all Gaul, +had hitherto inviolably adhered to Rome. Even now the patriot party +in the governing common council was in the minority; an attempt +to induce it to join the insurrection was in vain. The attacks +of the patriots were therefore directed against the common council +and the existing constitution itself; and the more so, that the change +of constitution which among the Arverni had substituted the common +council for the prince(46) had taken place after the victories +of the Romans and probably under their influence. + +Vercingetorix + +The leader of the Arvernian patriots Vercingetorix, one of those +nobles whom we meet with among the Celts, of almost regal repute +in and beyond his canton, and a stately, brave, sagacious man +to boot, left the capital and summoned the country people, +who were as hostile to the ruling oligarchy as to the Romans, at once +to re-establish the Arvernian monarchy and to go to war with Rome. +The multitude quickly joined him; the restoration of the throne +of Luerius and Betuitus was at the same time the declaration +of a national war against Rome. The centre of unity, +from the want of which all previous attempts of the nation +to shake off the foreign yoke had failed, was now found +in the new self-nominated king of the Arverni. Vercingetorix +became for the Celts of the continent what Cassivellaunus +was for the insular Celts; the feeling strongly pervaded the masses +that he, if any one, was the man to save the nation. + +Spread of the Insurrection +Appearance of Caesar + +The west from the mouth of the Garonne to that of the Seine +was rapidly infected by the insurrection, and Vercingetorix +was recognized by all the cantons there as commander-in-chief; +where the common council made any difficulty, the multitude compelled +it to join the movement; only a few cantons, such as that +of the Bituriges, required compulsion to join it, and these perhaps +only for appearance' sake. The insurrection found a less favourable +soil in the regions to the east of the upper Loire. Everything +here depended on the Haedui; and these wavered. The patriotic +party was very strong in this canton; but the old antagonism +to the leading of the Arverni counterbalanced their influence-- +to the most serious detriment of the insurrection, as the accession +of the eastern cantons, particularly of the Sequani and Helvetii, +was conditional on the accession of the Haedui, and generally +in this part of Gaul the decision rested with them. While the insurgents +were thus labouring partly to induce the cantons that still +hesitated, especially the Haedui, to join them, partly to get +possession of Narbo--one of their leaders, the daring Lucterius, +had already appeared on the Tarn within the limits of the old +province--the Roman commander-in-chief suddenly presented himself +in the depth of winter, unexpected alike by friend and foe, +on this side of the Alps. He quickly made the necessary preparations +to cover the old province, and not only so, but sent also a corps +over the snow-covered Cevennes into the Arvernian territory; +but he could not remain here, where the accession of the Haedui +to the Gallic alliance might any moment cut him off from his army +encamped about Sens and Langres. With all secrecy he went to Vienna, +and thence, attended by only a few horsemen, through the territory +of the Haedui to his troops. The hopes, which had induced +the conspirators to declare themselves, vanished; peace continued +in Italy, and Caesar stood once more at the head of his army. + +The Gallic Plan of War + +But what were they to do? It was folly under such circumstances +to let the matter come to the decision of arms; for these had already +decidedly irrevocably. They might as well attempt to shake +the Alps by throwing stones at them as to shake the legions by means +of the Celtic bands, whether these might be congregated in huge +masses or sacrificed in detail canton after canton. Vercingetorix +despaired of defeating the Romans. He adopted a system of warfare +similar to that by which Cassivellaunus had saved the insular +Celts. The Roman infantry was not to be vanquished; but Caesar's +cavalry consisted almost exclusively of the contingent +of the Celtic nobility, and was practically dissolved by the general +revolt. It was possible for the insurrection, which was in fact +essentially composed of the Celtic nobility, to develop such +a superiority in this arm, that it could lay waste the land far +and wide, burn down towns and villages, destroy the magazines, +and endanger the supplies and the communications of the enemy, +without his being able seriously to hinder it. Vercingetorix +accordingly directed all his efforts to the increase of his cavalry, +and of the infantry-archers who were according to the mode of fighting +of that time regularly associated with it. He did not send the immense +and self-obstructing masses of the militia of the line to their homes, +but he did not allow them to face the enemy, and attempted +to impart to them gradually some capacity of intrenching, marching, +and manoeuvring, and some perception that the soldier is not destined +merely for hand-to-hand combat. Learning from the enemy, he adopted +in particular the Roman system of encampment, on which depended +the whole secret of the tactical superiority of the Romans; +for in consequence of it every Roman corps combined all the advantages +of the garrison of a fortress with all the advantages of an offensive +army.(47) It is true that a system completely adapted to Britain +which had few towns and to its rude, resolute, and on the whole +united inhabitants was not absolutely transferable to the rich +regions on the Loire and their indolent inhabitants on the eve +of utter political dissolution. Vercingetorix at least accomplished +this much, that they did not attempt as hitherto to hold every +town with the result of holding none; they agreed to destroy +the townships not capable of defence before attack reached them, +but to defend with all their might the strong fortresses. At the same +time the Arvernian king did what he could to bind to the cause of their +country the cowardly and backward by stern severity, the hesitating +by entreaties and representations, the covetous by gold, the decided +opponents by force, and to compel or allure the rabble high or low +to some manifestation of patriotism. + +Beginning of the Struggle + +Even before the winter was at an end, he threw himself on the Boii +settled by Caesar in the territory of the Haedui, with the view +of annihilating these, almost the sole trustworthy allies of Rome, +before Caesar came up. The news of this attack induced Caesar, +leaving behind the baggage and two legions in the winter quarters +of Agedincum (Sens), to march immediately and earlier than he would +doubtless otherwise have done, against the insurgents. He remedied +the sorely-felt want of cavalry and light infantry in some measure +by gradually bringing up German mercenaries, who instead of using +their own small and weak ponies were furnished with Italian +and Spanish horses partly bought, partly procured by requisition +of the officers. Caesar, after having by the way caused Cenabum, +the capital of the Carnutes, which had given the signal for the revolt, +to be pillaged and laid in ashes, moved over the Loire +into the country of the Bituriges. He thereby induced Vercingetorix +to abandon the siege of the town of the Boii, and to resort likewise +to the Bituriges. Here the new mode of warfare was first to be +tried. By order of Vercingetorix more than twenty townships +of the Bituriges perished in the flames on one day; the general +decreed a similar self-devastation as to the neighbour cantons, +so far as they could be reached by the Roman foraging parties. + +Caesar before Arvaricum + +According to his intention, Avaricum (Bourges), the rich +and strong capital of the Bituriges, was to meet the same fate; +but the majority of the war-council yielded to the suppliant entreaties +of the Biturigian authorities, and resolved rather to defend that city +with all their energy. Thus the war was concentrated in the first +instance around Avaricum, Vercingetorix placed his infantry amidst +the morasses adjoining the town in a position so unapproachable, +that even without being covered by the cavalry they needed not +to fear the attack of the legions. The Celtic cavalry covered +all the roads and obstructed the communication. The town was strongly +garrisoned, and the connection between it and the army before +the walls was kept open. Caesar's position was very awkward. +The attempt to induce the Celtic infantry to fight was unsuccessful; +it stirred not from its unassailable lines. Bravely as his soldiers +in front of the town trenched and fought, the besieged vied +with them in ingenuity and courage, and they had almost succeeded +in setting fire to the siege apparatus of their opponents. +The task withal of supplying an army of nearly 60,000 men +with provisions in a country devastated far and wide and scoured +by far superior bodies of cavalry became daily more difficult. +The slender stores of the Boii were soon used up; the supply promised +by the Haedui failed to appear; the corn was already consumed, +and the soldier was placed exclusively on flesh-rations. +But the moment was approaching when the town, with whatever contempt +of death the garrison fought, could be held no longer. Still it was +not impossible to withdraw the troops secretly by night and destroy +the town, before the enemy occupied it. Vercingetorix made +arrangements for this purpose, but the cry of distress raised +at the moment of evacuation by the women and children left behind +attracted the attention of the Romans; the departure miscarried. + +Avaricum Conquered +Caesar Divides His Army + +On the following gloomy and rainy day the Romans scaled the walls, +and, exasperated by the obstinate defence, spared neither age +nor sex in the conquered town. The ample stores, which the Celts had +accumulated in it, were welcome to the starved soldiers of Caesar. +With the capture of Avaricum (spring of 702), a first success +had been achieved over the insurrection, and according to former +experience Caesar might well expect that it would now dissolve, +and that it would only be requisite to deal with the cantons +individually. After he had therefore shown himself with his +whole army in the canton of the Haedui and had by this imposing +demonstration compelled the patriot party in a ferment there +to keep quiet at least for the moment, he divided his army and sent +Labienus back to Agedincum, that in combination with the troops +left there he might at the head of four legions suppress +in the first instance the movement in the territory of the Carnutes +and Senones, who on this occasion once more took the lead; +while he himself with the six remaining legions turned to the south +and prepared to carry the war into the Arvernian mountains, the proper +territory of Vercingetorix. + +Labienus before Lutetia + +Labienus moved from Agedincum up the left bank of the Seine with +a view to possess himself of Lutetia (Paris), the town of the Parisii +situated on an island in the Seine, and from this well-secured +position in the heart of the insurgent country to reduce it again +to subjection. But behind Melodunum (Melun), he found his route +barred by the whole army of the insurgents, which had here taken +up a position between unassailable morasses under the leadership +of the aged Camulogenus. Labienus retreated a certain distance, +crossed the Seine at Melodunum, and moved up its right bank +unhindered towards Lutetia; Camulogenus caused this town to be +burnt and the bridges leading to the left bank to be broken down, +and took up a position over against Labienus, in which the latter +could neither bring him to battle nor effect a passage +under the eyes of the hostile army. + +Caesar before Gergovia +Fruitless Blockade + +The Roman main army in its turn advanced along the Allier down +into the canton of the Arverni. Vercingetorix attempted to prevent +it from crossing to the left bank of the Allier, but Caesar +overreached him and after some days stood before the Arvernian +capital Gergovia.(48) Vercingetorix, however, doubtless even while +he was confronting Caesar on the Allier, had caused sufficient +stores to be collected in Gergovia and a fixed camp provided +with strong stone ramparts to be constructed for his troops in front +of the walls of the town, which was situated on the summit of a pretty +steep hill; and, as he had a sufficient start, he arrived before +Caesar at Gergovia and awaited the attack in the fortified camp +under the wall of the fortress. Caesar with his comparatively +weak army could neither regularly besiege the place nor even +sufficiently blockade it; he pitched his camp below the rising +ground occupied by Vercingetorix, and was compelled to preserve +an attitude as inactive as his opponent. It was almost a victory +for the insurgents, that Caesar's career of advance from triumph +to triumph had been suddenly checked on the Seine as on the Allier. +In fact the consequences of this check for Caesar were almost +equivalent to those of a defeat. + +The Haedui Waver + +The Haedui, who had hitherto continued vacillating, now made +preparations in earnest to join the patriotic party; the body +of men, whom Caesar had ordered to Gergovia, had on the march been +induced by its officers to declare for the insurgents; at the same +time they had begun in the canton itself to plunder and kill +the Romans settled there. Caesar, who had gone with two-thirds +of the blockading army to meet that corps of the Haedui which was being +brought up to Gergovia, had by his sudden appearance recalled it +to nominal obedience; but it was more than ever a hollow and fragile +relation, the continuance of which had been almost too dearly +purchased by the great peril of the two legions left behind +in front of Gergovia. For Vercingetorix, rapidly and resolutely +availing himself of Caesar's departure, had during his absence +made an attack on them, which had wellnigh ended in their +being overpowered, and the Roman camp being taken by storm. +Caesar's unrivalled celerity alone averted a second catastrophe +like that of Aduatuca. Though the Haedui made once more fair +promises, it might be foreseen that, if the blockade should still +be prolonged without result, they would openly range themselves +on the side of the insurgents and would thereby compel Caesar to raise +it; for their accession would interrupt the communication between +him and Labienus, and expose the latter especially in his isolation +to the greatest peril. Caesar was resolved not to let matters come +to this pass, but, however painful and even dangerous it was +to retire from Gergovia without having accomplished his object, +nevertheless, if it must be done, rather to set out immediately +and by marching into the canton of the Haedui to prevent +at any cost their formal desertion. + +Caesar Defeated before Gergovia + +Before entering however on this retreat, which was far +from agreeable to his quick and confident temperament, he made +yet a last attempt to free himself from his painful perplexity +by a brilliant success. While the bulk of the garrison of Gergovia +was occupied in intrenching the side on which the assault +was expected, the Roman general watched his opportunity to surprise +another access less conveniently situated but at the moment +left bare. In reality the Roman storming columns scaled the camp-wall, +and occupied the nearest quarters of the camp; but the whole garrison +was already alarmed, and owing to the small distances Caesar found +it not advisable to risk the second assault on the city-wall. +He gave the signal for retreat; but the foremost legions, carried +away by the impetuosity of victory, heard not or did not wish to hear, +and pushed forward without halting, up to the city-wall, some even +into the city. But masses more and more dense threw themselves +in front of the intruders; the foremost fell, the columns stopped; +in vain centurions and legionaries fought with the most devoted +and heroic courage; the assailants were chased with very considerable +loss out of the town and down the hill, where the troops stationed +by Caesar in the plain received them and prevented greater +mischief. The expected capture of Gergovia had been converted +into a defeat, and the considerable loss in killed and wounded-- +there were counted 700 soldiers that had fallen, including 46 +centurions--was the least part of the misfortune suffered. + +Renewed Insurrection +Rising of the Haedui +Rising of the Belgae + +The imposing position of Caesar in Gaul depended essentially +on the halo of victory that surrounded him; and this began to grow pale. +The conflicts around Avaricum, Caesar's vain attempts to compel +the enemy to fight, the resolute defence of the city and its almost +accidental capture by storm bore a stamp different from that +of the earlier Celtic wars, and had strengthened rather than impaired +the confidence of the Celts in themselves and their leader. +Moreover, the new system of warfare--the making head against the enemy +in intrenched camps under the protection of fortresses--had completely +approved itself at Lutetia as well as at Gergovia. Lastly, +this defeat, the first which Caesar in person had suffered +from the Celts crowned their success, and it accordingly gave +as it were the signal for a second outbreak of the insurrection. +The Haedui now broke formally with Caesar and entered into union +with Vercingetorix. Their contingent, which was still with Caesar's +army, not only deserted from it, but also took occasion to carry +off the depots of the army of Caesar at Noviodunum on the Loire, +whereby the chests and magazines, a number of remount-horses, +and all the hostages furnished to Caesar, fell into the hands +of the insurgents. It was of at least equal importance, +that on this news the Belgae, who had hitherto kept aloof +from the whole movement, began to bestir themselves. The powerful +canton of the Bellovaci rose with the view of attacking +in the rear the corps of Labienus, while it confronted +at Lutetia the levy of the surrounding cantons of central Gaul. +Everywhere else too men were taking to arms; the strength +of patriotic enthusiasm carried along with it even the most +decided and most favoured partisans of Rome, such as Commius +king of the Atrebates, who on account of his faithful services had +received from the Romans important privileges for his community +and the hegemony over the Morini. The threads of the insurrection +ramified even into the old Roman province: they cherished the hope, +perhaps not without ground, of inducing the Allobroges themselves +to take arms against the Romans. With the single exception +of the Remi and of the districts--dependent immediately on the Remi-- +of the Suessiones, Leuci, and Lingones, whose peculiar isolation +was not affected even amidst this general enthusiasm, the whole Celtic +nation from the Pyrenees to the Rhine was now in reality, +for the first and for the last time, in arms for its freedom +and nationality; whereas, singularly enough, the whole German +communities, who in the former struggles had held the foremost +rank, kept aloof. In fact, the Treveri, and as it would seem +the Menapii also, were prevented by their feuds with the Germans +from taking an active part in the national war. + +Caesar's Plan of War +Caesar Unites with Labienus + +It was a grave and decisive moment, when after the retreat +from Gergovia and the loss of Noviodunum a council of war was held +in Caesar's headquarters regarding the measures now to be adopted. +Various voices expressed themselves in favour of a retreat over +the Cevennes into the old Roman province, which now lay open +on all sides to the insurrection and certainly was in urgent need +of the legions that had been sent from Rome primarily for its +protection. But Caesar rejected this timid strategy suggested +not by the position of affairs, but by government-instructions +and fear of responsibility. He contented himself with calling +the general levy of the Romans settled in the province to arms, +and having the frontiers guarded by that levy to the best of its +ability. On the other hand he himself set out in the opposite +direction and advanced by forced marches to Agedincum, to which +he ordered Labienus to retreat in all haste. The Celts naturally +endeavoured to prevent the junction of the two Roman armies. +Labienus might by crossing the Marne and marching down the right bank +of the Seine have reached Agedincum, where he had left his reserve +and his baggage; but he preferred not to allow the Celts +again to behold the retreat of Roman troops. He therefore +instead of crossing the Marne crossed the Seine under the eyes +of the deluded enemy, and on its left bank fought a battle +with the hostile forces, in which he conquered, and among many others +the Celtic general himself, the old Camulogenus, was left on the field. +Nor were the insurgents more successful in detaining Caesar +on the Loire; Caesar gave them no time to assemble larger masses there, +and without difficulty dispersed the militia of the Haedui, +which alone he found at that point + +Position of the Insurgents at Alesia + +Thus the junction of the two divisions of the army was happily +accomplished. The insurgents meanwhile had consulted as to the farthe +conduct of the war at Bibracte (Autun) the capital of the Haeduil +the soul of these consultations was again Vercingetorix, +to whom the nation was enthusiastically attached after the victory +of Gergovia. Particular interests were not, it is true, +even now silent; the Haedui still in this death-struggle of the nation +asserted their claims to the hegemony, and made a proposal +in the national assembly to substitute a leader of their own +for Vercingetorix. But the national representatives had not merely +declined this and confirmed Vercingetorix in the supreme command, +but had also adopted his plan of war without alteration. It was +substantially the same as that on which he had operated at Avaricum +and at Gergovia. As the base of the new position there was +selected the strong city of the Mandubii, Alesia (Alise Sainte +Reine near Semur in the department Cote d'Or)(49) and another +entrenched camp was constructed under its walls. Immense stores +were here accumulated, and the army was ordered thither +from Gergovia, having its cavalry raised by resolution of the national +assembly to 15,000 horse. Caesar with the whole strength +of his army after it was reunited at Agedincum took the direction +of Besancon, with the view of now approaching the alarmed province +and protecting it from an invasion, for in fact bands of insurgents +had already shown themselves in the territory of the Helvii +on the south slope of the Cevennes. Alesia lay almost on his way; +the cavalry of the Celts, the only arm with which Vercingetorix +chose to operate, attacked him on the route, but to the surprise +of all was worsted by the new German squadrons of Caesar +and the Roman infantry drawn up in support of them. + +Caesar in Front of Alesia +Siege of Alesia + +Vercingetorix hastened the more to shut himself up in Alesia; +and if Caesar was not disposed altogether to renounce the offensive, +no course was left to him but for the third time in this campaign +to proceed by way of attack with a far weaker force against an army +encamped under a well-garrisoned and well-provisioned fortress +and supplied with immense masses of cavalry. But, while the Celts +had hitherto been opposed by only a part of the Roman legions, +the whole forces of Caesar were united in the lines round Alesia, +and Vercingetorix did not succeed, as he had succeeded at Avaricum +and Gergovia, in placing his infantry under the protection of the walls +of the fortress and keeping his external communications open +for his own benefit by his cavalry, while he interrupted those +of the enemy. The Celtic cavalry, already discouraged by that defeat +inflicted on them by their lightly esteemed opponents, was beaten +by Caesar's German horse in every encounter. The line +of circumvallation of the besiegers extending about nine miles +invested the whole town, including the camp attached to it. +Vercingetorix had been prepared for a struggle under the walls, +but not for being besieged in Alesia; in that point of view +the accumulated stores, considerable as they were, were yet +far from sufficient for his army--which was said to amount to 80,000 +infantry and 15,000 cavalry--and for the numerous inhabitants +of the town. Vercingetorix could not but perceive that his plan +of warfare had on this occasion turned to his own destruction, +and that he was lost unless the whole nation hastened up to the rescue +of its blockaded general. The existing provisions were still, +when the Roman circumvallation was closed, sufficient for a month +and perhaps something more; at the last moment, when there was still +free passage at least for horsemen, Vercingetorix dismissed +his whole cavalry, and sent at the same time to the heads +of the nation instructions to call out all their forces and lead them +to the relief of Alesia. He himself, resolved to bear in person +the responsibility for the plan of war which he had projected +and which had miscarried, remained in the fortress, to share in good +or evil the fate of his followers. But Caesar made up his mind +at once to besiege and to be besieged. He prepared his line +of circumvallation for defence also on its outer side, and furnished +himself with provisions for a longer period. The days passed; +they had no longer a boll of grain in the fortress, and they +were obliged to drive out the unhappy inhabitants of the town +to perish miserably between the entrenchments of the Celts +and of the Romans, pitilessly rejected by both. + +Attempt at Relief +Conflicts before Alesia + +At the last hour there appeared behind Caesar's lines +the interminable array of the Celto-Belgic relieving array, said +to amount to 250,000 infantry and 8000 cavalry, from the Channel +to the Cevennes the insurgent cantons had strained every nerve +to rescue the flower of their patriots and the general of their +choice--the Bellovaci alone had answered that they were doubtless +disposed to fight against the Romans, but not beyond their own bounds. +The first assault, which the besieged of Alesia and the relieving +troops without made on the Roman double line, was repulsed; +but, when after a day's rest it was repeated, the Celts +succeeded--at a spot where the line of circumvallation ran over +the slope of a hill and could be assailed from the height above-- +in filling up the trenches and hurling the defenders down +from the rampart. Then Labienus, sent thither by Caesar, collected +the nearest cohorts and threw himself with four legions on the foe. +Under the eyes of the general, who himself appeared at the most +dangerous moment, the assailants were driven back in a desperate +hand-to-hand conflict, and the squadrons of cavalry that came +with Caesar taking the fugitives in rear completed the defeat. + +Alesia Capitulates + +It was more than a great victory; the fate of Alesia, and indeed +of the Celtic nation, was thereby irrevocably decided. The Celtic +army, utterly disheartened, dispersed at once from the battle-field +and went home. Vercingetorix might perhaps have even now taken +to flight, or at least have saved himself by the last means open +to a free man; he did not do so, but declared in a council of war that, +since he had not succeeded in breaking off the alien yoke, +he was ready to give himself up as a victim and to avert as far as +possible destruction from the nation by bringing it on his own +head. This was done. The Celtic officers delivered their general-- +the solemn choice of the whole nation--over to the energy of their +country for such punishment as might be thought fit. Mounted +on his steed and in full armour the king of the Arverni appeared +before the Roman proconsul and rode round his tribunal; +then he surrendered his horse and arms, and sat down in silence +on the steps at Caesar's feet (702). + +Vercingetorix Executed + +Five years afterwards he was led in triumph through the streets +of the Italian capital, and, while his conqueror was offering solemn +thanks to the gods on the summit of the Capitol, Vercingetorix +was beheaded at its foot as guilty of high treason against the Roman +nation. As after a day of gloom the sun may perhaps break through +the clouds at its setting, so destiny may bestow on nations +in their decline yet a last great man. Thus Hannibal stands +at the close of the Phoenician history, and Vercingetorix +at the close of the Celtic. They were not able to save the nations +to which they belonged from a foreign yoke, but they spared them +the last remaining disgrace--an inglorious fall. Vercingetorix, +just like the Carthaginian, was obliged to contend not merely +against the public foe, but also and above all against that anti-national +opposition of wounded egotists and startled cowards, which regularly +accompanies a degenerate civilization; for him too a place +in history is secured, not by his battles and sieges, +but by the fact that he was able to furnish in his own person +a centre and rallying-point to a nation distracted and ruined +by the rivalry of individual interests. And yet there can hardly +be a more marked contrast than between the sober townsman +of the Phoenician mercantile city, whose plans were directed towards +one great object with unchanging energy throughout fifty years, +and the bold prince of the Celtic land, whose mighty deeds and high- +minded self-sacrifice fall within the compass of one brief summer. +The whole ancient world presents no more genuine knight, whether +as regards his essential character or his outward appearance. +But man ought not to be a mere knight, and least of all the statesman. +It was the knight, not the hero, who disdained to escape from Alesia, +when for the nation more depended on him than on a hundred thousand +ordinary brave men. It was the knight, not the hero, who gave +himself up as a sacrifice, when the only thing gained +by that sacrifice was that the nation publicly dishonoured itself +and with equal cowardice and absurdity employed its last breath +in proclaiming that its great historical death-struggle was a crime +against its oppressor. How very different was the conduct +of Hannibal in similar positions! It is impossible to part +from the noble king of the Arverni without a feeling of historical +and human sympathy; but it is a significant trait of the Celtic nation, +that its greatest man was after all merely a knight. + +The Last Conflicts +With the Bituriges and Carnutes + +The fall of Alesia and the capitulation of the army enclosed +in it were fearful blows for the Celtic insurrection; but blows +quite as heavy had befallen the nation and yet the conflict +had been renewed. The loss of Vercingetorix, however, was irreparable. +With him unity had come to the nation; with him it seemed also +to have departed. We do not find that the insurgents made any attempt +to continue their joint defence and to appoint another generalissimo; +the league of patriots fell to pieces of itself, and every clan +was left to fight or come to terms with the Romans as it pleased. +Naturally the desire after rest everywhere prevailed. +Caesar too had an interest in bringing the war quickly to an end. +Of the ten years of his governorship seven had elapsed, and the last +was called in question by his political opponents in the capital; +he could only reckon with some degree of certainty on two more summers, +and, while his interest as well as his honour required +that he should hand over the newly-acquired regions to his successor +in a condition of tolerable peace and tranquillity, there was +in truth but scanty time to bring about such a state of things. +To exercise mercy was in this case still more a necessity +for the victor than for the vanquished; and he might thank his stars +that the internal dissensions and the easy temperament of the Celts +met him in this respect half way. Where--as in the two most eminent +cantons of central Gaul, those of the Haedui and Arverni--there +existed a strong party well disposed to Rome, the cantons obtained +immediately after the fall of Alesia a complete restoration +of their former relations with Rome, and even their captives, 20,000 +in number, were released without ransom, while those of the other +clans passed into the hard bondage of the victorious legionaries. +The greater portion of the Gallic districts submitted like the Haedui +and Arverni to their fate, and allowed their inevitable +punishment to be inflicted without farther resistance. +But not a few clung in foolish frivolity or sullen despair +to the lost cause, till the Roman troops of execution appeared +within their borders. Such expeditions were in the winter of 702-703 +undertaken against the Bituriges and the Carnutes. + +With the Bellovaci + +More serious resistance was offered by the Bellovaci, +who in the previous year had kept aloof from the relief of Alesia; +they seem to have wished to show that their absence on that decisive day +at least did not proceed from want of courage or of love for freedom. +The Atrebates, Ambiani, Caletes, and other Belgic cantons took part +in this struggle; the brave king of the Atrebates Commius, +whose accession to the insurrection the Romans had least of all forgiven, +and against whom recently Labienus had even directed an atrocious +attempt at assassination, brought to the Bellovaci 500 German +horse, whose value the campaign of the previous year had shown. +The resolute and talented Bellovacian Correus, to whom the chief +conduct of the war had fallen, waged warfare as Vercingetorix +had waged it, and with no small success. Although Caesar had gradually +brought up the greater part of his army, he could neither bring +the infantry of the Bellovaci to a battle, nor even prevent it +from taking up other positions which afforded better protection +against his augmented forces; while the Roman horse, especially +the Celtic contingents, suffered most severe losses in various combats +at the hands of the enemy's cavalry, especially of the German cavalry +of Commius. But after Correus had met his death in a skirmish +with the Roman foragers, the resistance here too was broken; +the victor proposed tolerable conditions, to which the Bellovaci +along with their confederates submitted. The Treveri were reduced +to obedience by Labienus, and incidentally the territory +of the outlawed Eburones was once more traversed and laid waste. +Thus the last resistance of the Belgic confederacy was broken. + +On the Loire + +The maritime cantons still made an attempt to defend themselves +against the Roman domination in concert with their neighbours +on the Loire. Insurgent bands from the Andian, Carnutic, and other +surrounding cantons assembled on the lower Loire and besieged +in Lemonum (Poitiers) the prince of the Pictones who was friendly +to the Romans. But here too a considerable Roman force soon appeared +against them; the insurgents abandoned the siege, and retreated +with the view of placing the Loire between themselves and the enemy, +but were overtaken on the march and defeated; whereupon +the Carnutes and the other revolted cantons, including even +the maritime ones, sent in their submission. + +And in Uxellodunum + +The resistance was at an end; save that an isolated leader of free +bands still here and there upheld the national banner. The bold +Drappes and the brave comrade in arms of Vercingetorix Lucterius, +after the breaking up of the army united on the Loire, gathered +together the most resolute men, and with these threw themselves +into the strong mountain-town of Uxellodunum on the Lot,(50) +which amidst severe and fatal conflicts they succeeded in sufficiently +provisioning. In spite of the loss of their leaders, of whom +Drappes had been taken prisoner, and Lucterius had been cut off +from the town, the garrison resisted to the uttermost; it was not +till Caesar appeared in person, and under his orders the spring +from which the besieged derived their water was diverted by means +of subterranean drains, that the fortress, the last stronghold +of the Celtic nation, fell. To distinguish the last champions +of the cause of freedom, Caesar ordered that the whole garrison should +have their hands cut off and should then be dismissed, each one +to his home. Caesar, who felt it all-important to put an end at least +to open resistance throughout Gaul, allowed king Commius, who still +held out in the region of Arras and maintained desultory warfare +with the Roman troops there down to the winter of 703-704, to make +his peace, and even acquiesced when the irritated and justly +distrustful man haughtily refused to appear in person in the Roman +camp. It is very probable that Caesar in a similar way allowed +himself to be satisfied with a merely nominal submission, perhaps +even with a de facto armistice, in the less accessible districts +of the north-west and north-east of Gaul.(51) + +Gaul Subdued + +Thus was Gaul--or, in other words, the land west of the Rhine +and north of the Pyrenees--rendered subject after only eight years +of conflict (696-703) to the Romans. Hardly a year after the full +pacification of the land, at the beginning of 705, the Roman troops +had to be withdrawn over the Alps in consequence of the civil war, +which had now at length broken out in Italy, and there remained +nothing but at the most some weak divisions of recruits in Gaul. +Nevertheless the Celts did not again rise against the foreign yoke; +and, while in all the old provinces of the empire there was +fighting against Caesar, the newly-acquired country alone remained +continuously obedient to its conqueror. Even the Germans +did not during those decisive years repeat their attempts to conquer +new settlements on the left bank of the Rhine. As little did +there occur in Gaul any national insurrection or German invasion +during the crises that followed, although these offered the most +favourable opportunities. If disturbances broke out anywhere, +such as the rising of the Bellovaci against the Romans in 708, +these movements were so isolated and so unconnected with +the complications in Italy, that they were suppressed without material +difficulty by the Roman governors. Certainly this state of peace +was most probably, just as was the peace of Spain for centuries, +purchased by provisionally allowing the regions that were most +remote and most strongly pervaded by national feeling--Brittany, +the districts on the Scheldt, the region of the Pyrenees-- +to withdraw themselves de facto in a more or less definite manner +from the Roman allegiance. Nevertheless the building of Caesar-- +however scanty the time which he found for it amidst other +and at the moment still more urgent labours, however unfinished +and but provisionally rounded off he may have left it--in substance +stood the test of this fiery trial, as respected both the repelling +of the Germans and the subjugation of the Celts. + +Organization +Roman Taxation + +As to administration in chief, the territories newly acquired +by the governor of Narbonese Gaul remained for the time being united +with the province of Narbo; it was not till Caesar gave up +this office (710) that two new governorships--Gaul proper +and Belgica--were formed out of the territory which he conquered. +That the individual cantons lost their political independence, +was implied in the very nature of conquest. They became throughout +tributary to the Roman community. Their system of tribute however was, +of course, not that by means of which the nobles and financial +aristocracy turned Asia to profitable account; but, as was +the case in Spain, a tribute fixed once for all was imposed on each +individual community, and the levying of it was left to itself. +In this way forty million sesterces (400,000 pounds) flowed annually +from Gaul into the chests of the Roman government; which, no doubt, +undertook in return the cost of defending the frontier of the +Rhine. Moreover, the masses of gold accumulated in the temples +of the gods and the treasuries of the grandees found their way, +as a matter of course, to Rome; when Caesar offered his Gallic gold +throughout the Roman empire and brought such masses of it at once +into the money market that gold as compared with silver fell about +25 per cent, we may guess what sums Gaul lost through the war. + +Indulgences towards Existing Arrangements + +The former cantonal constitutions with their hereditary kings, +or their presiding feudal-oligarchies, continued in the main +to subsist after the conquest, and even the system of clientship, +which made certain cantons dependent on others more powerful, +was not abolished, although no doubt with the loss of political +independence its edge was taken off. The sole object of Caesar +was, while making use of the existing dynastic, feudalist, +and hegemonic divisions, to arrange matters in the interest of Rome, +and to bring everywhere into power the men favourably disposed +to the foreign rule. Caesar spared no pains to form a Roman party +in Gaul; extensive rewards in money and specially in confiscated +estates were bestowed on his adherents, and places in the common +council and the first offices of state in their cantons +were procured for them by Caesar's influence. Those cantons +in which a sufficiently strong and trustworthy Roman party existed, +such as those of the Remi, the Lingones, the Haedui, were favoured +by the bestowal of a freer communal constitution--the right +of alliance, as it was called--and by preferences in the regulation +of the matter of hegemony. The national worship and its priests +seem to have been spared by Caesar from the outset as far as possible; +no trace is found in his case of measures such as were adopted +in later times by the Roman rulers against the Druidical system, +and with this is probably connected the fact that his Gallic wars, +so far as we see, do not at all bear the character of religious +warfare after the fashion which formed so prominent a feature +of the Britannic wars subsequently. + +Introduction of the Romanizing of the Country + +While Caesar thus showed to the conquered nation every allowable +consideration and spared their national, political, and religious +institutions as far as was at all compatible with their subjection +to Rome, he did so, not as renouncing the fundamental idea of his +conquest, the Romanization of Gaul, but with a view to realize it +in the most indulgent way. He did not content himself with letting +the same circumstances, which had already in great part Romanized +the south province, produce their effect likewise in the north; +but, like a genuine statesman, he sought to stimulate the natural +course of development and, moreover, to shorten as far as possible +the always painful period of transition. To say nothing +of the admission of a number of Celts of rank into Roman citizenship +and even of several perhaps into the Roman senate, it was probably +Caesar who introduced, although with certain restrictions, +the Latin instead of the native tongue as the official language +within the several cantons in Gaul, and who introduced the Roman +instead of the national monetary system on the footing of reserving +the coinage of gold and of denarii to the Roman authorities, while +the smaller money was to be coined by the several cantons, but only +for circulation within the cantonal bounds, and this too in accordance +with the Roman standard. We may smile at the Latin jargon, +which the dwellers by the Loire and the Seine henceforth employed +in accordance with orders;(52) but these barbarisms were pregnant +with a greater future than the correct Latin of the capital. +Perhaps too, if the cantonal constitution in Gaul afterwards appears +more closely approximated to the Italian urban constitution, +and the chief places of the canton as well as the common councils +attain a more marked prominence in it than was probably the case +in the original Celtic organization, the change may be referred +to Caesar. No one probably felt more than the political heir +of Gaius Gracchus and of Marius, how desirable in a military +as well as in a political point of view it would have been to establish +a series of Transalpine colonies as bases of support for the new rule +and starting-points of the new civilization. If nevertheless +he confined himself to the settlement of his Celtic or German horsemen +in Noviodunum(53) and to that of the Boii in the canton +of the Haedui (54)--which latter settlement already rendered quite +the services of a Roman colony in the war with Vercingetorix(55)-- +the reason was merely that his farther plans did not permit him +to put the plough instead of the sword into the hands of his legions. +What he did in later years for the old Roman province +in this respect, will be explained in its own place; it is probable +that the want of time alone prevented him from extending +the same system to the regions which he had recently subdued. + +The Catastrophe of the Celtic Nation +Traits Common to the Celts and Irish + +All was over with the Celtic nation. Its political dissolution +had been completed by Caesar; its national dissolution was begun +and in course of regular progress. This was no accidental destruction, +such as destiny sometimes prepares even for peoples capable +of development, but a self-incurred and in some measure historically +necessary catastrophe. The very course of the last war proves this, +whether we view it as a whole or in detail. When the establishment +of the foreign rule was in contemplation, only single districts-- +mostly, moreover, German or half-German--offered energetic +resistance. When the foreign rule was actually established, +the attempts to shake it off were either undertaken altogether +without judgment, or they were to an undue extent the work +of certain prominent nobles, and were therefore immediately +and entirely brought to an end with the death or capture of an +Indutiomarus, Camulogenus, Vercingetorix, or Correus. The sieges +and guerilla warfare, in which elsewhere the whole moral depth +of national struggles displays itself, were throughout this Celtic +struggle of a peculiarly pitiable character. Every page of Celtic +history confirms the severe saying of one of the few Romans who had +the judgment not to despise the so-called barbarians--that the Celts +boldly challenge danger while future, but lose their courage +before its presence. In the mighty vortex of the world's history, +which inexorably crushes all peoples that are not as hard +and as flexible as steel, such a nation could not permanently maintain +itself; with reason the Celts of the continent suffered the same +fate at the hands of the Romans, as their kinsmen in Ireland suffer +down to our own day at the hands of the Saxons--the fate +of becoming merged as a leaven of future development in a politically +superior nationality. On the eve of parting from this remarkable +nation we may be allowed to call attention to the fact, +that in the accounts of the ancients as to the Celts on the Loire +and Seine we find almost every one of the characteristic traits +which we are accustomed to recognize as marking the Irish. +Every feature reappears: the laziness in the culture of the fields; +the delight in tippling and brawling; the ostentation--we may recall +that sword of Caesar hung up in the sacred grove of the Arverni +after the victory of Gergovia, which its alleged former owner viewed +with a smile at the consecrated spot and ordered the sacred property +to be carefully spared; the language full of comparisons and hyperboles, +of allusions and quaint turns; the droll humour--an excellent +example of which was the rule, that if any one interrupted a person +speaking in public, a substantial and very visible hole should be +cut, as a measure of police, in the coat of the disturber +of the peace; the hearty delight in singing and reciting the deeds +of past ages, and the most decided gifts of rhetoric and poetry; +the curiosity--no trader was allowed to pass, before he had told +in the open street what he knew, or did not know, in the shape of news-- +and the extravagant credulity which acted on such accounts, +for which reason in the better regulated cantons travellers +were prohibited on pain of severe punishment from communicating +unauthenticated reports to others than the public magistrates; +the childlike piety, which sees in the priest a father and asks +for his counsel in all things; the unsurpassed fervour of national +feeling, and the closeness with which those who are fellow-countrymen +cling together almost like one family in opposition to strangers; +the inclination to rise in revolt under the first chance-leader +that presents himself and to form bands, but at the same time +the utter incapacity to preserve a self-reliant courage equally remote +from presumption and from pusillanimity, to perceive the right time +for waiting and for striking a blow, to attain or even barely +to tolerate any organization, any sort of fixed military or political +discipline. It is, and remains, at all times and all places +the same indolent and poetical, irresolute and fervid, inquisitive, +credulous, amiable, clever, but--in a political point of view-- +thoroughly useless nation; and therefore its fate has been always +and everywhere the same. + +The Beginnings of Romanic Development + +But the fact that this great people was ruined by the Transalpine wars +of Caesar, was not the most important result of that grand enterprise; +far more momentous than the negative was the positive result. +It hardly admits of a doubt that, if the rule of the senate +had prolonged its semblance of life for some generations +longer, the migration of peoples, as it is called, would have +occurred four hundred years sooner than it did, and would have +occurred at a time when the Italian civilization had not become +naturalized either in Gaul, or on the Danube, or in Africa and +Spain. Inasmuch as the great general and statesman of Rome +with sure glance perceived in the German tribes the rival antagonists +of the Romano-Greek world; inasmuch as with firm hand he established +the new system of aggressive defence down even to its details, +and taught men to protect the frontiers of the empire by rivers +or artificial ramparts, to colonize the nearest barbarian tribes along +the frontier with the view of warding off the more remote, +and to recruit the Roman army by enlistment from the enemy's country; +he gained for the Hellenico-Italian culture the interval necessary +to civilize the west just as it had already civilized the east. +Ordinary men see the fruits of their action; the seed sown by men +of genius germinates slowly. Centuries elapsed before men understood +that Alexander had not merely erected an ephemeral kingdom +in the east, but had carried Hellenism to Asia; centuries again +elapsed before men understood that Caesar had not merely conquered +a new province for the Romans, but had laid the foundation +for the Romanizing of the regions of the west. It was only a late +posterity that perceived the meaning of those expeditions +to England and Germany, so inconsiderate in a military point of view, +and so barren of immediate result. An immense circle of peoples, +whose existence and condition hitherto were known barely through +the reports--mingling some truth with much fiction--of the mariner +and the trader, was disclosed by this means to the Greek and Roman +world. "Daily," it is said in a Roman writing of May 698, +"the letters and messages from Gaul are announcing names of peoples, +cantons, and regions hitherto unknown to us." This enlargement +of the historical horizon by the expeditions of Caesar beyond +the Alps was as significant an event in the world's history +as the exploring of America by European bands. To the narrow circle +of the Mediterranean states were added the peoples of central +and northern Europe, the dwellers on the Baltic and North seas; +to the old world was added a new one, which thenceforth was influenced +by the old and influenced it in turn. What the Gothic Theodoric +afterwards succeeded in, came very near to being already carried +out by Ariovistus. Had it so happened, our civilization would have +hardly stood in any more intimate relation to the Romano-Greek than +to the Indian and Assyrian culture. That there is a bridge connecting +the past glory of Hellas and Rome with the prouder fabric of modern +history; that Western Europe is Romanic, and Germanic Europe +classic; that the names of Themistocles and Scipio have to us +a very different sound from those of Asoka and Salmanassar; +that Homer and Sophocles are not merely like the Vedas and Kalidasa +attractive to the literary botanist, but bloom for us in our own +garden--all this is the work of Caesar; and, while the creation +of his great predecessor in the east has been almost wholly reduced +to ruin by the tempests of the Middle Ages, the structure of Caesar +has outlasted those thousands of years which have changed religion +and polity for the human race and even shifted for it the centre +of civilization itself, and it stands erect for what we may +designate as eternity. + +The Countries on the Danube + +To complete the sketch of the relations of Rome to the peoples +of the north at this period, it remains that we cast a glance +at the countries which stretch to the north of the Italian and Greek +peninsulas, from the sources of the Rhine to the Black Sea. +It is true that the torch of history does not illumine the mighty stir +and turmoil of peoples which probably prevailed at that time there, +and the solitary gleams of light that fall on this region are, +like a faint glimmer amidst deep darkness, more fitted to bewilder +than to enlighten. But it is the duty of the historian to indicate +also the gaps in the record of the history of nations; he may not +deem it beneath him to mention, by the side of Caesar's magnificent +system of defence, the paltry arrangements by which the generals +of the senate professed to protect on this side +the frontier of the empire. + +Alpine Peoples + +North-eastern Italy was still as before(56) left exposed +to the attacks of the Alpine tribes. The strong Roman army +encamped at Aquileia in 695, and the triumph of the governor +of Cisalpine Gaul Lucius Afranius, lead us to infer, that about +this time an expedition to the Alps took place, and it may have been +in consequence of this that we find the Romans soon afterwards +in closer connection with a king of the Noricans. But that even +subsequently Italy was not at all secure on this side, is shown +by the sudden assault of the Alpine barbarians on the flourishing town +of Tergeste in 702, when the Transalpine insurrection had compelled +Caesar to divest upper Italy wholly of troops. + +Illyria + +The turbulent peoples also, who had possession of the district +along the Illyrian coast, gave their Roman masters constant +employment. The Dalmatians, even at an earlier period the most +considerable people of this region, enlarged their power so much +by admitting their neighbours into their union, that the number +of their townships rose from twenty to eighty. When they refused +to give up once more the town of Promona (not far from the river +Kerka), which they had wrested from the Liburnians, Caesar +after the battle of Pharsalia gave orders to march against them; +but the Romans were in the first instance worsted, and in consequence +of this Dalmatia became for some time a rendezvous of the party +hostile to Caesar, and the inhabitants in concert with the Pompeians +and with the pirates offered an energetic resistance +to the generals of Caesar both by land and by water. + +Macedonia + +Lastly Macedonia along with Epirus and Hellas lay in greater +desolation and decay than almost any other part of the Roman +empire. Dyrrhachium, Thessalonica, and Byzantium had still some +trade and commerce; Athens attracted travellers and students +by its name and its philosophical school; but on the whole there lay +over the formerly populous little towns of Hellas, and her seaports +once swarming with men, the calm of the grave. But if the Greeks +stirred not, the inhabitants of the hardly accessible Macedonian +mountains on the other hand continued after the old fashion their +predatory raids and feuds; for instance about 697-698 Agraeans +and Dolopians overran the Aetolian towns, and in 700 the Pirustae +dwelling in the valleys of the Drin overran southern Illyria. +The neighbouring peoples did likewise. The Dardani on the northern +frontier as well as the Thracians in the east had no doubt been +humbled by the Romans in the eight years' conflicts from 676 +to 683; the most powerful of the Thracian princes, Cotys, the ruler +of the old Odrysian kingdom, was thenceforth numbered among the client +kings of Rome. Nevertheless the pacified land had still as before +to suffer invasions from the north and east. The governor Gaius +Antonius was severely handled both by the Dardani and by the tribes +settled in the modern Dobrudscha, who, with the help of the dreaded +Bastarnae brought up from the left bank of the Danube, inflicted +on him an important defeat (692-693) at Istropolis (Istere, not far +from Kustendji). Gaius Octavius fought with better fortune +against the Bessi and Thracians (694). Marcus Piso again (697-698) +as general-in-chief wretchedly mismanaged matters; which was +no wonder, seeing that for money he gave friends and foes whatever +they wished. The Thracian Dentheletae (on the Strymon) under his +governorship plundered Macedonia far and wide, and even stationed +their posts on the great Roman military road leading from Dyrrhachium +to Thessalonica; the people in Thessalonica made up their minds +to stand a siege from them, while the strong Roman army in the province +seemed to be present only as an onlooker when the inhabitants +of the mountains and neighbouring peoples levied contributions +from the peaceful subjects of Rome. + +The New Dacian Kingdom + +Such attacks could not indeed endanger the power of Rome, and a fresh +disgrace had long ago ceased to occasion concern. But just about +this period a people began to acquire political consolidation +beyond the Danube in the wide Dacian steppes--a people which seemed +destined to play a different part in history from that of the Bessi +and the Dentheletae. Among the Getae or Dacians in primeval times +there had been associated with the king of the people a holy man +called Zalmoxis, who, after having explored the ways and wonders +of the gods in distant travel in foreign lands, and having thoroughly +studied in particular the wisdom of the Egyptian priests +and of the Greek Pythagoreans, had returned to his native country +to endhis life as a pious hermit in a cavern of the "holy mountain." +He remained accessible only to the king and his servants, and gave +forth to the king and through him to the people his oracles +with reference to every important undertaking. He was regarded +by his countrymen at first as priest of the supreme god and ultimately +as himself a god, just as it is said of Moses and Aaron that the Lord +had made Aaron the prophet and Moses the god of the prophet. +This had become a permanent institution; there was regularly associated +with the king of the Getae such a god, from whose mouth everything +which the king ordered proceeded or appeared to proceed. +This peculiar constitution, in which the theocratic idea had become +subservient to the apparently absolute power of the king, probably +gave to the kings of the Getae some such position with respect +to their subjects as the caliphs had with respect to the Arabs; +and one result of it was the marvellous religious-political reform +of the nation, which was carried out about this time by the king +of the Getae, Burebistas, and the god Dekaeneos. The people, +which had morally and politically fallen into utter decay through +unexampled drunkenness, was as it were metamorphosed by the new +gospel of temperance and valour; with his bands under the influence, +so to speak, of puritanic discipline and enthusiasm king Burebistas +founded within a few years a mighty kingdom, which extended along +both banks of the Danube and reached southward far into Thrace, +Illyria, and Noricum. No direct contact with the Romans had yet +taken place, and no one could tell what might come out of +this singular state, which reminds us of the early times of Islam; +but this much it needed no prophetic gift to foretell, that proconsuls +like Antonius and Piso were not called to contend with gods. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +The Joint Rule of Pompeius and Caesar + +Pompeius and Caesar in Juxtaposition + +Among the democratic chiefs, who from the time of the consulate +of Caesar were recognized officially, so to speak, as the joint +rulers of the commonwealth, as the governing "triumvirs," Pompeius +according to public opinion occupied decidedly the first place. +It was he who was called by the Optimates the "private dictator"; +it was before him that Cicero prostrated himself in vain; +against him were directed the sharpest sarcasms in the wall-placards +of Bibulus, and the most envenomed arrows of the talk in the saloons +of the opposition. This was only to be expected. According to +the facts before the public Pompeius was indisputably the first general +of his time; Caesar was a dexterous party-leader and party-orator, +of undeniable talents, but as notoriously of unwarlike and indeed +of effeminate temperament. Such opinions had been long current; +it could not be expected of the rabble of quality that it should +trouble itself about the real state of things and abandon +once established platitudes because of obscure feats of heroism +on the Tagus. Caesar evidently played in the league the mere part +of the adjutant who executed for his chief the work which Flavius, +Afranius, and other less capable instruments had attempted +and not performed. Even his governorship seemed not to alter +this state of things. Afranius had but recently occupied +a very similar position, without thereby acquiring any special +importance; several provinces at once had been of late years +repeatedly placed under one governor, and often far more +than four legions had been united in one hand; as matters +were again quiet beyond the Alps and prince Ariovistus +was recognized by the Romans as a friend and neighbour, +there was no prospect of conducting a war of any moment there. +It was natural to compare the position which Pompeius had obtained +by the Gabinio-Manilian law with that which Caesar had obtained +by the Vatinian; but the comparison did not turn out to Caesar's +advantage. Pompeius ruled over nearly the whole Roman empire; +Caesar over two provinces. Pompeius had the soldiers +and the treasures of the state almost absolutely at his disposal; +Caesar had only the sums assigned to him and an army of 24,000 men. +It was left to Pompeius himself to fix the point of time +for his retirement; Caesar's command was secured to him +for a long period no doubt, but yet only for a limited term. +Pompeius, in fine, had been entrusted with the most important +undertakings by sea and land; Caesar was sent to the north, +to watch over the capital from upper Italy and to take care +that Pompeius should rule it undisturbed. + +Pompeius and the Capital +Anarchy + +But when Pompeius was appointed by the coalition to be ruler +of the capital, he undertook a task far exceeding his powers. +Pompeius understood nothing further of ruling than may be summed up +in the word of command. The waves of agitation in the capital +were swelled at once by past and by future revolutions; the problem +of ruling this city--which in every respect might be compared +to the Paris of the nineteenth century--without an armed force +was infinitely difficult, and for that stiff and stately +pattern-soldier altogether insoluble. Very soon matters reached +such a pitch that friends and foes, both equally inconvenient to him, +could, so far as he was concerned, do what they pleased; +after Caesar's departure from Rome the coalition ruled doubtless +still the destinies of the world, but not the streets of the capital. +The senate too, to whom there still belonged a sort of nominal +government, allowed things in the capital to follow their +natural course; partly because the section of this body controlled +by the coalition lacked the instructions of the regents, partly because +the angry opposition kept aloof out of indifference or pessimism, +but chiefly because the whole aristocratic corporation began +to feel at any rate, if not to comprehend, its utter impotence. +For the moment therefore there was nowhere at Rome any power +of resistance in any sort of government, nowhere a real authority. +Men were living in an interregnum between the ruin of the aristocratic, +and the rise of the military, rule; and, if the Roman commonwealth +has presented all the different political functions and organizations +more purely and normally than any other in ancient or modern times, +it has also exhibited political disorganization-anarchy-- +with an unenviable clearness. It is a strange coincidence +that in the same years, in which Caesar was creating beyond the Alps +a workto last for ever, there was enacted in Rome one of the most +extravagant political farces that was ever produced upon the stage +of the world's history. The new regent of the commonwealth +did not rule, but shut himself up in his house and sulked in silence. +The former half-deposed government likewise did not rule, but sighed, +sometimes in private amidst the confidential circles of the villas, +sometimes in chorus in the senate-house. The portion of the burgesses +which had still at heart freedom and order was disgusted +with the reign of confusion, but utterly without leaders +and counsel it maintained a passive attitude-not merely avoiding +all political activity, but keeping aloof, as far as possible, +from the political Sodom itself. + +The Anarchists + +On the other hand the rabble of every sort never had better days, +never found a merrier arena. The number of little great men +was legion. Demagogism became quite a trade, which accordingly +did not lack its professional insignia--the threadbare mantle, +the shaggy beard, the long streaming hair, the deep bass voice; +and not seldom it was a trade with golden soil. For the standing +declamations the tried gargles of the theatrical staff +were an article in much request;(1) Greeks and Jews, freedmen +and slaves, were the most regular attenders and the loudest criers +in the public assemblies; frequently, even when it came to a vote, +only a minority of those voting consisted of burgesses constitutionally +entitled to do so. "Next time," it is said in a letter of this period, +"we may expect our lackeys to outvote the emancipation-tax." +The real powers of the day were the compact and armed bands, +the battalions of anarchy raised by adventurers of rank +out of gladiatorial slaves and blackguards. Their possessors +had from the outset been mostly numbered among the popular party; +but since the departure of Caesar, who alone understood how to impress +the democracy, and alone knew how to manage it, all discipline +had departed from them and every partisan practised politics +at his own hand. Even now, no doubt, these men fought with most pleasure +under the banner of freedom; but, strictly speaking, they were neither +of democratic nor of anti-democratic views; they inscribed on the-- +in itself indispensable--banner, as it happened, now the name +of the people, anon that of the senate or that of a party-chief; +Clodius for instance fought or professed to fight in succession +for the ruling democracy, for the senate, and for Crassus. The leaders +of these bands kept to their colours only so far as they inexorably +persecuted their personal enemies--as in the case of Clodius +against Cicero and Milo against Clodius--while their partisan +position served them merely as a handle in these personal feuds. +We might as well seek to set a charivari to music as to write the history +of this political witches' revel; nor is it of any moment +to enumerate all the deeds of murder, besiegings of houses, +acts of incendiarism and other scenes of violence within a great capital, +and to reckon up how often the gamut was traversed from hissing +and shouting to spitting on and trampling down opponents, +and thence to throwing stones and drawing swords. + +Clodius + +The principal performer in this theatre of political rascality +was that Publius Clodius, of whose services, as already mentioned,(2) +the regents availed themselves against Cato and Cicero. +Left to himself, this influential, talented, energetic and-- +in his trade--really exemplary partisan pursued during his tribunate, +of the people (696) an ultra-democratic policy, gave the citizens +corn gratis, restricted the right of the censors to stigmatize +immoral burgesses, prohibited the magistrates from obstructing +the course of the comitial machinery by religious formalities, +set asidethe limitswhich had shortly before (690), for the purpose +of checking the system of bands, been imposed on the right +of association of the lower classes, and reestablished the "street-clubs" +(-collegia compitalicia-) at that time abolished, which were nothing +else than a formal organization--subdivided according to the streets, +and with an almost military arrangement--of the whole free +or slave proletariate of the capital. If in addition the further law, +which Clodius had likewise already projected and purposed to introduce +when praetor in 702, should give to freedmen and to slaves living +in de facto possession of freedom the same political rights +with the freeborn, the author of all these brave improvements +of the constitution might declare his work complete, and as +a second Numa of freedom and equality might invite the sweet rabble +of the capital to see him celebrate high mass in honour of the arrival +of the democratic millennium in the temple of Liberty which he had +erected on the site of one of his burnings at the Palatine. +Of course these exertions in behalf of freedom did not exclude +a traffic in decrees of the burgesses; like Caesar himself, Caesar's ape +kept governorships and other posts great and small on sale +for the benefit of his fellow-citizens, and sold the sovereign rights +of the state for the benefit of subject kings and cities. + +Quarrel of Pompeius with Clodius + +At all these things Pompeius looked on without stirring. +If he did not perceive how seriously he thus compromised himself, +his opponent perceived it. Clodius had the hardihood to engage +in a dispute with the regent of Rome on a question of little moment, +as to the sending back of a captive Armenian prince; and the variance +soon became a formal feud, in which the utter helplessness +of Pompeius was displayed. The head of the state knew not how to meet +the partisan otherwise than with his own weapons, only wielded +with far less dexterity. If he had been tricked by Clodius respecting +the Armenian prince, he offended him in turn by releasing Cicero, +who was preeminently obnoxious to Clodius, from the exile +into which Clodius had sent him; and he attained his object +so thoroughly, that he converted his opponent into an implacable foe. +If Clodius made the streets insecure with his bands, the victorious +general likewise set slaves and pugilists to work; in the frays +which ensued the general naturally was worsted by the demagogue +and defeated in the street, and Gaius Cato was kept almost constantly +under siege in his garden by Clodius and his comrades. It is not +the least remarkable feature in this remarkable spectacle, +that the regent and the rogue amidst their quarrel vied in courting +the favour of the fallen government; Pompeius, partly to please +the senate, permitted Cicero's recall, Clodius on the other hand +declared the Julian laws null and void, and called on Marcus Bibulus +publicly to testify to their having been unconstitutionally passed. + +Naturally no positive result could issue from this imbroglio +of dark passions; its most distinctive character was just +its utterly ludicrous want of object. Even a man of Caesar's genius +had to learn by experience that democratic agitation was completely +worn out, and that even the way to the throne no longer lay +through demagogism. It was nothing more than a historical makeshift, +if now, in the interregnum between republic and monarchy, +some whimsical fellow dressed himself out with the prophet's mantle +and staff which Caesar had himself laid aside, and the great ideals +of Gaius Gracchus came once more upon the stage distorted into a parody; +the so-called party from which this democratic agitation +proceeded was so little such in reality, that afterwards it had +not even a part falling to it in the decisive struggle. It cannot +even be asserted that by means of this anarchical state of things +the desire after a strong government based on military power +had been vividly kindled in the minds of those who were indifferent +to politics. Even apart from the fact that such neutral burgesses +were chiefly to be sought outside of Rome, and thus were not +directly affected by the rioting in the capital, those minds +which could be at all influenced by such motives had been already +by their former experiences, and especially by the Catilinarian +conspiracy, thoroughly converted to the principle of authority; +but those that were really alarmed were affected far more emphatically +by a dread of the gigantic crisis inseparable from an overthrow +of the constitution, than by dread of the mere continuance of the-- +at bottom withal very superficial--anarchy in the capital. +The only result of it which historically deserves notice +was the painful position in which Pompeius was placed by the attacks +of the Clodians, and which had a material share in determining +his farther steps. + +Pompeius in Relation to the Gallic Victories of Caesar + +Little as Pompeius liked and understood taking the initiative, +he was yet on this occasion compelled by the change of his position +towards both Clodius and Caesar to depart from his previous inaction. +The irksome and disgraceful situation to which Clodius +had reduced him, could not but at length arouse even his sluggish +nature to hatred and anger. But far more important was the change +which took place in his relation to Caesar. While, of the two +confederate regents, Pompeius had utterly failed in the functions +which he had undertaken, Caesar had the skill to turn his official +position to an account which left all calculations and all fears +far behind. Without much inquiry as to permission, Caesar +had doubled his army by levies in his southern province inhabited +in great measure by Roman burgesses; had with this army crossed +the Alps instead of keeping watch over Rome from Northern Italy; +had crushed in the bud a new Cimbrian invasion, and within two years +(696, 697) had carried the Roman arms to the Rhine and the Channel. +In presence of such facts even the aristocratic tactics of ignoring +and disparaging were baffled. He who had often been scoffed +at as effeminate was now the idol of the army, the celebrated victory- +crowned hero, whose fresh laurels outshone the faded laurels +of Pompeius, and to whom even the senate as early as 697 accorded +the demonstrations of honour usual after successful campaigns +in richer measure than had ever fallen to the share of Pompeius. +Pompeius stood towards his former adjutant precisely +as after the Gabinio-Manilian laws the latter had stood towards him. +Caesar was now the hero of the day and the master of the most powerful +Roman army; Pompeius was an ex-general who had once been famous. +It is true that no collision had yet occurred between father-in-law +and son-in-law, and the relation was externally undisturbed; +but every political alliance is inwardly broken up, when the relative +proportions of the power of the parties are materially altered. +While the quarrel with Clodius was merely annoying, the change +in the position of Caesar involved a very serious danger for Pompeius; +just as Caesar and his confederates had formerly sought a military +support against him, he found himself now compelled to seek a military +support against Caesar, and, laying aside his haughty privacy, +to come forward as a candidate for some extraordinary magistracy, +which would enable him to hold his place by the side of the governor +of the two Gauls with equal and, if possible, with superior power. +His tactics, like his position, were exactly those of Caesar +during the Mithradatic war. To balance the military power +of a superior but still remote adversary by the obtaining +of a similar command, Pompeius required in the first instance +the official machinery of government. A year and a half ago +this had been absolutely at his disposal. The regents then ruled +the state both by the comitia, which absolutely obeyed them +as the masters of the street, and by the senate, which was +energetically overawed by Caesar; as representative of the coalition +in Rome and as its acknowledged head, Pompeius would have doubtless +obtained from the senate and from the burgesses any decree +which he wished, even if it were against Caesar's interest. +But by the awkward quarrel with Clodius, Pompeius had lost the command +of the streets, and could not expect to carry a proposal in his favour +in the popular assembly. Things were not quite so unfavourable for him +in the senate; but even there it was doubtful whether Pompeius +after that long and fatal inaction still held the reins of the majority +firmly enough in hand to procure such a decree as he needed. + +The Republican Opposition among the Public + +The position of the senate also, or rather of the nobility +generally, had meanwhile undergone a change. From the very fact +of its complete abasement it drew fresh energy. In the coalition +of 694 various things had come to light, which were by no means +as yet ripe for it. The banishment of Cato and Cicero-- +which public opinion, however much the regents kept themselves +in the background and even professed to lament it, referred +with unerring tact to its real authors--and the marriage-relationship +formed between Caesar and Pompeius suggested to men's minds +with disagreeable clearness monarchical decrees of banishment +and family alliances. The larger public too, which stood +more aloof from political events, observed the foundations +of the future monarchy coming more and more distinctly into view. +From the moment when the public perceived that Caesar's object +was not a modification of the republican constitution, +but that the question at stake was the existence or non-existence +of the republic, many of the best men, who had hitherto reckoned +themselves of the popular party and honoured in Caesar its head, +must infallibly have passed over to the opposite side. It was +no longer in the saloons and the country houses of the governing +nobilityalone that men talked of the "three dynasts," of the "three- +headed monster." The dense crowds of people listened to the consular +orations of Caesar without a sound of acclamation or approval; +not a hand stirred to applaud when the democratic consul entered +the theatre. But they hissed when one of the tools of the regents +showed himself in public, and even staid men applauded when an actor +utteredan anti-monarchic sentence or an allusion against Pompeius. +Nay, when Cicero was to be banished, a great number of burgesses-- +it is said twenty thousand--mostly of the middle classes, put on mourning +after the example of the senate. "Nothing is now more popular," +it is said in a letter of this period, "than hatred +of the popular party." + +Attempts of the Regents to Check It + +The regents dropped hints, that through such opposition the equites +might easily lose their new special places in the theatre, +and the commons their bread-corn; people were therefore somewhat +more guarded perhaps in the expression of their displeasure, +but the feeling remained the same. The lever of material interests +was applied with better success. Caesar's gold flowed in streams. +Men of seeming riches whose finances were in disorder, influential +ladies who were in pecuniary embarrassment, insolvent young nobles, +merchants and bankers in difficulties, either went in person +to Gaul with the view of drawing from the fountain-head, or applied +to Caesar's agents in the capital; and rarely was any man +outwardly respectable--Caesar avoided dealings with vagabonds +who were utterly lost--rejected in either quarter. To this fell +to be added the enormous buildings which Caesar caused to be executed +on his account in the capital--and by which a countless number of men +of all ranks from the consular down to the common porter found +opportunity of profiting--as well as the immense sums expended +for public amusements. Pompeius did the same on a more limited scale; +to him the capital was indebted for the first theatre of stone, +and he celebrated its dedication with a magnificence never seen before. +Of course such distributions reconciled a number of men +who were inclined towards opposition, more especially in the capital, +to the new order of things up to a certain extent; but the marrow +of the opposition was not to be reached by this system of corruption. +Every day more and more clearly showed how deeply the existing +constitution had struck root among the people, and how little, +in particular, the circles more aloof from direct party-agitation, +especially the country towns, were inclined towards monarchy +or even simply ready to let it take its course. + +Increasing Importance of the Senate + +If Rome had had a representative constitution, the discontent +of the burgesses would have found its natural expression +in the elections, and have increased by so expressing itself; +under the existing circumstances nothing was left for those +true to the constitution but to place themselves under the senate, +which, degraded as it was, still appeared the representative +and champion of the legitimate republic. Thus it happened +that the senate, now when it had been overthrown, suddenly found +at its disposal an army far more considerable and far more +earnestly faithful, than when in its power and splendour +it overthrew the Gracchi and under the protection of Sulla's +sword restored the state. The aristocracy felt this; it began +to bestir itself afresh. Just at this time Marcus Cicero, +after having bound himself to join the obsequious party +in the senate and not only to offer no opposition, but to work +with all his might for the regents, had obtained from them +permission to return. Although Pompeius in this matter only made +an incidental concession to the oligarchy, and intended first +of all to play a trick on Clodius, and secondly to acquire +in the fluent consular a tool rendered pliant by sufficient blows, +the opportunity afforded by the return of Cicero was embraced +for republican demonstrations, just as his banishment had been +a demonstration against the senate. With all possible solemnity, +protected moreover against the Clodians by the band of Titus Annius +Milo, the two consuls, following out a resolution of the senate, +submitted a proposal to the burgesses to permit the return +of the consular Cicero, and the senate called on all burgesses +true to the constitution not to be absent from the vote. +An unusual number of worthy men, especially from the country towns, +actually assembled in Rome on the day of voting (4 Aug. 697). +The journey of the consular from Brundisium to the capital +gave occasion to a series of similar, but not less brilliant +manifestations of public feeling. The new alliance between the senate +and the burgesses faithful to the constitution was on this occasion +as it were publicly proclaimed, and a sort of review of the latter +was held, the singularly favourable result of which contributed +not a little to revive the sunken courage of the aristocracy. + +Helplessness of Pompeius + +The helplessness of Pompeius in presence of these daring +demonstrations, as well as the undignified and almost ridiculous +position into which he had fallen with reference to Clodius, deprived +him and the coalition of their credit; and the section of the senate +which adhered to the regents, demoralized by the singular inaptitude +of Pompeius and helplessly left to itself, could not prevent +the republican-aristocratic party from regaining completely +the ascendency in the corporation. The game of this party +really at that time (697) was still by no means desperate +for a courageous and dexterous player. It had now--what it had +not possessed for a century past--a firm support in the people; +if it trusted the people and itself, it might attain its object +in the shortest and most honourable way. Why not attack the regents +openly and avowedly? Why should not a resolute and eminent man +at the head of the senate cancel the extraordinary powers +as unconstitutional, and summon all the republicans of Italy to arms +against the tyrants and their following? It was possible perhaps +in this way once more to restore the rule of the senate. Certainly +the republicans would thus play a bold game; but perhaps in this case, +as often, the most courageous resolution might have been +at the same time the most prudent. Only, it is true, the indolent +aristocracy of this period was scarcely capable of so simple +and bold a resolution. There was however another way perhaps +more sure, at any rate better adapted to the character and nature +of these constitutionalists; they might labour to set the two regents +at variance and through this variance to attain ultimately +to the helm themselves. The relations between the two men ruling +the state had become altered and relaxed, now that Caesar had acquired +a standing of preponderant power by the side of Pompeius +and had compelled the latter to canvass for a new position of command; +it was probable that, if he obtained it, there would arise in one way +or other a rupture and struggle between them. If Pompeius remained +unsupported in this, his defeat was scarcely doubtful, +and the constitutional party would in that event find themselves +after the close of the conflict under the rule of one master +instead of two. But if the nobility employed against Caesar +the same means by which the latter had won his previous victories, +and entered into alliance with the weaker competitor, victory +would probably, with a general like Pompeius, and with an army +such as that of the constitutionalists, fall to the coalition; +and to settle matters with Pompeius after the victory could not-- +judging from the proofs of political incapacity which he had +already given-appear a specially difficult task. + +Attempts of Pompeius to Obtain a Command through the Senate +Administration of the Supplies of Corn + +Things had taken such a turn as naturally to suggest an understanding +between Pompeius and the republican party. Whether such +an approximation was to take place, and what shape the mutual +relations of the two regents and of the aristocracy, which had become +utterly enigmatical, were next to assume, fell necessarily +to be decided, when in the autumn of 697 Pompeius came to the senate +with the proposal to entrust him with extraordinary official power. +He based his proposal once more on that by which he had +eleven years before laid the foundations of his power, +the price of bread in the capital, which had just then--as previously +to the Gabinian law--reached an oppressive height. Whether +it had been forced up by special machinations, such as Clodius imputed +sometimes to Pompeius, sometimes to Cicero, and these in their turn +charged on Clodius, cannot be determined; the continuance of piracy, +the emptiness of the public chest, and the negligent and disorderly +supervision of the supplies of corn by the government were already +quite sufficient of themselves, even without political forestalling, +to produce scarcities of bread in a great city dependent +almost solely on transmarine supplies. The plan of Pompeius +was to get the senate to commit to him the superintendence +of the matters relating to corn throughout the whole Roman empire, +and, with a view to this ultimate object, to entrust him +on the one hand with the unlimited disposal of the Roman state- +treasure, and on the other hand with an army and fleet, as well as +a command which not only stretched over the whole Roman empire, +but was superior in each province to that of the governor--in short +he designed to institute an improved edition of the Gabinian law, +to which the conduct of the Egyptian war just then pending(3) +would therefore quite as naturally have been annexed as the conduct +of the Mithradatic war to the razzia against the pirates. +However much the opposition to the new dynasts had gained ground +in recent years, the majority of the senate was still, when this matter +came to be discussed in Sept. 697, under the constraint of the terror +excited by Caesar. It obsequiously accepted the project in principle, +and that on the proposition of Marcus Cicero, who was expected to give, +and gave, in this case the first proof of the pliableness +learned by him in exile. But in the settlement of the details +very material portions were abated from the original plan, +which the tribune of the people Gaius Messius submitted. +Pompeius obtained neither free control over the treasury, +nor legions and ships of his own, nor even an authority superior +to that of the governors; but they contented themselves +with granting to him, for the purpose of his organizing +due supplies for the capital, considerable sums, fifteen adjutants, +and in allaffairs elating to the supply of grain full proconsular +power throughout the Roman dominions for the next five years, +and with having this decree confirmed by the burgesses. +There were many different reasons which led to this alteration, +almost equivalent to a rejection, of the original plan: a regard +to Caesar, with reference to whom the most timid could not but have +the greatest scruples in investing his colleague not merely with equal +but with superior authority in Gaul itself; the concealed opposition +of Pompeius' hereditary enemy and reluctant ally Crassus, +to whom Pompeius himself attributed or professed to attribute primarily +the failure of his plan; the antipathy of the republican opposition +in the senate to any decree which really or nominally enlarged +the authority of the regents; lastly and mainly, the incapacity +of Pompeius himself, who even after having been compelled to act +could not prevail on himself to acknowledge his own action, but chose +always to bring forward his real design as it were in incognito +by means of his friends, while he himself in his well-known modesty +declared his willingness to be content with even less. No wonder +that they took him at his word, and gave him the less. + +Egyptian Expedition + +Pompeius was nevertheless glad to have found at any rate +a serious employment, and above all a fitting pretext for leaving +the capital. He succeeded, moreover, in providing it with ampler +and cheaper supplies, although not without the provinces severely +feeling the reflex effect. But he had missed his real object; +the proconsular title, which he had a right to bear in all the provinces, +remained an empty name, so long as he had not troops of his own +at his disposal. Accordingly he soon afterwards got a second +proposition made to the senate, that it should confer on him +the charge of conducting back the expelled king of Egypt, if necessary +by force of arms, to his home. But the more that his urgent need +of the senate became evident, the senators received his wishes +with a less pliant and less respectful spirit. It was immediately +discovered in the Sibylline oracles that it was impious to send +a Roman army to Egypt; whereupon the pious senate almost +unanimously resolved to abstain from armed intervention. Pompeius +was already so humbled, that he would have accepted the mission +even without an army; but in his incorrigible dissimulation he left +this also to be declared merely by his friends, and spoke and voted +for the despatch of another senator. Of course the senate rejected +a proposal which wantonly risked a life so precious to his country; +and the ultimate issue of the endless discussions was the resolution +not to interfere in Egypt at all (Jan. 698). + +Attempt at an Aristocratic Restoration +Attack on Caesar's Laws + +These repeated repulses which Pompeius met with in the senate and, +what was worse, had to acquiesce in without retaliation, +were naturally regarded--come from what side they would--by the public +at large as so many victories of the republicans and defeats +of the regents generally; the tide of republican opposition +was accordingly always on the increase. Already the elections for 698 +had gone but partially according to the minds of the dynasts; Caesar's +candidates for the praetorship, Publius Vatinius and Gaius Alfius, +had failed, while two decided adherents of the fallen government, +Gnaeus Lentulus Marcellinus and Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus, +had been elected, the former as consul, the latter as praetor. +But for 699 there even appeared as candidate for the consulship +Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, whose election it was difficult to prevent +owing to his influence in the capital and his colossal wealth, and who, +it was sufficiently well known, would not be content with a concealed +opposition. The comitia thus rebelled; and the senate chimed in. +It solemnly deliberated over an opinion, which Etruscan soothsayers +of acknowledged wisdom had furnished respecting certain signs +and wonders at its special request. The celestial revelation announced +that through the dissension of the upper classes the whole power +over the army and treasure threatened to pass to one ruler, +and the state to incur loss of freedom--it seemed that the gods +pointed primarily at the proposal of Gaius Messius. The republicans +soon descended from heaven to earth. The law as to the domain of Capua +and the other laws issued by Caesar as consul had been constantly +described by them as null and void, and an opinion had been expressed +in the senate as early as Dec. 697 that it was necessary to cancel +them on account of their informalities. On the 6th April 698 +the consular Cicero proposed in a full senate to put the consideration +of the Campanian land distribution in the order of the day +for the 15th May. It was the formal declaration of war; +and it was the more significant, that it came from the mouth +of one of those men who only show their colours when they think +that they can do so with safety. Evidently the aristocracy held +that the moment had come for beginning the struggle not with Pompeius +against Caesar, but against the -tyrannis- generally. What would +further follow might easily be seen. Domitius made no secret +that he intended as consul to propose to the burgesses +the immediate recall of Caesar from Gaul. An aristocratic restoration +was at work; and with the attack on the colony of Capua the nobility +threw down the gauntlet to the regents. + +Conference of the Regents at Luca + +Caesar, although receiving from day to day detailed accounts +of the events in the capital and, whenever military considerations +allowed, watching their progress from as near a point of his +southern province as possible, had not hitherto, visibly at least +interfered in them. But now war had been declared against him +as well as his colleague, in fact against him especially; +he was compelled to act, and he acted quickly. He happened +to be in the very neighbourhood; the aristocracy had not even +found it advisable to delay the rupture, till he should have again +crossed the Alps. In the beginning of April 698 Crassus +left the capital, to concert the necessary measures with his +more powerful colleague; he found Caesar in Ravenna. Thence +both proceeded to Luca, and there they were joined by Pompeius, +who had departed from Rome soon after Crassus (11 April), +ostensibly for the purpose of procuring supplies of grain +from Sardinia and Africa. The most noted adherents of the regents, +such as Metellus Nepos the proconsul of Hither Spain, Appius Claudius +the propraetor of Sardinia, and many others, followed them; +a hundred and twenty lictors, and upwards of two hundred senators +were counted at this conference, where already the new monarchical +senate was represented in contradistinction to the republican. +In every respect the decisive voice lay with Caesar. He used it +to re-establish and consolidate the existing joint rule +on a new basis of more equal distribution of power of most importance +in a military point of view, next to that of the two Gauls, +were assigned to his two colleagues--that of the two Spains +to Pompeius, that of Syria to Crassus; and these offices +were to be secured to them by decree of the people for five years +(700-704), and to be suitably provided for in a military +and financial point of view. On the other hand Caesar stipulated +for the prolongation of his command, which expired with the year 700, +to the close of 705, as well as for the prerogative of increasing +his legions to ten and of charging the pay for the troops +arbitrarily levied by him on the state-chest. Pompeius and Crassus +were moreover promised a second consulship for the next year (699) +before they departed for their governorships, while Caesar kept it +open to himself to administer the supreme magistracy a second time +after the termination of his governorship in 706, when the ten years' +interval legally requisite between two consulships should have +in his case elapsed. The military support, which Pompeius +and Crassus required for regulating the affairs of the capital +all the more that the legions of Caesar originally destined +for this purpose could not now be withdrawn from Transalpine Gaul, +was to be found in new legions, which they were to raise for the Spanish +and Syrian armies and were not to despatch from Italy to their several +destinations until it should seem to themselves convenient +to do so. The main questions were thus settled; subordinate matters, +such as the settlement of the tactics to be followed against +the opposition in the capital, the regulation of the candidatures +for the ensuing years, and the like, did not long detain them. +The great master of mediation composed the personal differences +which stood in the way of an agreement with his wonted ease, +and compelled the most refractory elements to act in concert. +An understanding befitting colleagues was reestablished, +externally at least, between Pompeius and Crassus. Even Publius Clodius +was induced to keep himself and his pack quiet, and to give +no farther annoyance to Pompeius--not the least marvellous feat +of the mighty magician. + +Designs of Caesar in This Arrangement + +That this whole settlement of the pending questions proceeded, +not from a compromise among independent and rival regents meeting +on equal terms, but solely from the good will of Caesar, is evident +from the circumstances. Pompeius appeared at Luca in the painful +position of a powerless refugee, who comes to ask aid from his opponent. +Whether Caesar chose to dismiss him and to declare the coalition +dissolved, or to receive him and to let the league continue +just as it stood--Pompeius was in either view politically +annihilated. If he did not in this case break with Caesar, he became +the powerless client of his confederate. If on the other hand +he did break with Caesar and, which was not very probable, +effected even now a coalition with the aristocracy, this alliance +between opponents, concluded under pressure of necessity +and at the last moment, was so little formidable that it was hardly +for the sake of averting it that Caesar agreed to those concessions. +A serious rivalry on the part of Crassus with Caesar was utterly +impossible. It is difficult to say what motives induced Caesar +to surrender without necessity his superior position, +and now voluntarily to concede--what he had refused to his rival +even on the conclusion of the league of 694, and what the latter +had since, with the evident design of being armed against Caesar, +vainly striven in different ways to attain without, nay against, +Caesar's will--the second consulate and military power. Certainly +it was not Pompeius alone that was placed at the head of an army, +but also his old enemy and Caesar's ally throughout many years, Crassus; +and undoubtedly Crassus obtained his respectable military position +merely as a counterpoise to the new power of Pompeius. Nevertheless +Caesar was a great loser, when his rival exchanged his former +powerlessness for an important command. It is possible +that Caesar did not yet feel himself sufficiently master of his soldiers +to lead them with confidence to a warfare against the formal +authorities of the land, and was therefore anxious not to be forced +to civil war now by being recalled from Gaul; but whether civil war +should come or not, depended at the moment far more on the aristocracy +of the capital than on Pompeius, and this would have been +at most a reason for Caesar not breaking openly with Pompeius, +so that the opposition might not be emboldened by this breach, +but not a reason for conceding to him what he did concede. +Purely personal motives may have contributed to the result; +it may be that Caesar recollected how he had once stood in a position +of similar powerlessness in presence of Pompeius, and had been saved +from destruction only by his--pusillanimous, it is true, rather than +magnanimous--retirement; it is probable that Caesar hesitated +to breakthe heart of his beloved daughter who was sincerely attached +to her husband--in his soul there was room for much besides the statesman. +But the decisive reason was doubtless the consideration of Gaul. +Caesar--differing from his biographers--regarded the subjugation +of Gaul not as an incidental enterprise useful to him +for the gaining of the crown, but as one on which depended +the external security and the internal reorganization, in a word +the future, of his country. That he might be enabled to complete +this conquest undisturbed and might not be obliged to take in hand +just at once the extrication of Italian affairs, he unhesitatingly +gave up his superiority over his rivals and granted to Pompeius +sufficient power to settle matters with the senate and its adherents. +This was a grave political blunder, if Caesar had no other object +than to become as quickly as possible king of Rome; but the ambition +of that rare man was not confined to the vulgar aim of a crown. +He had the boldness to prosecute side by side, and to complete, +two labours equally vast--the arranging of the internal affairs +of Italy, and the acquisition and securing of a new and fresh soil +for Italian civilization. These tasks of course interfered +with each other; his Gallic conquests hindered much more than helped +him on his way to the throne. It was fraught to him with bitter fruit +that, instead of settling the Italian revolution in 698, +he postponed it to 706. But as a statesman as well as a general +Caesar was a peculiarly daring player, who, confiding in himself +and despising his opponents, gave them always great +and sometimes extravagant odds. + +The Aristocracy Submits + +It was now therefore the turn of the aristocracy to make good +their high gage, and to wage war as boldly as they had boldly +declared it. But there is no more pitiable spectacle +than when cowardly men have the misfortune to take a bold resolution. +They had simply exercised no foresight at all. It seemed to have +occurred to nobody that Caesar would possibly stand on his defence, +or that Pompeius and Crassus would combine with him afresh +and more closely than ever. This seems incredible; but it becomes +intelligible, when we glance at the persons who then led +the constitutional opposition in the senate. Cato was still absent;(4) +the most influential man in the senate at this time was Marcus Bibulus, +the hero of passive resistance, the most obstinate and most stupid +of all consulars. They had taken up arms only to lay them down, +so soon as the adversary merely put his hand to the sheath; +the bare news of the conferences in Luca sufficed to suppress +all thought of a serious opposition and to bring the mass +of the timid--that is, the immense majority of the senate-- +back to their duty as subjects, which in an unhappy hour +they had abandoned. There was no further talk of the appointed +discussion to try the validity of the Julian laws; the legions raised +by Caesar on his own behalf were charged by decree of the senate +on the public chest; the attempts on occasion of regulating +the next consular provinces to take away both Gauls or one of them +by decree from Caesar were rejected by the majority (end of May 698). +Thus the corporation did public penance. In secret the individual lords, +one after another, thoroughly frightened at their own temerity, +came to make their peace and vow unconditional obedience-- +none more quickly than Marcus Cicero, who repented too late +of his perfidy, and in respect of the most recent period of his life +clothed himself with titles of honour which were altogether +more appropriate than flattering.(5) Of course the regents agreed +to be pacified; they refused nobody pardon, for there was nobody +who was worth the trouble of making him an exception. That we may +see how suddenly the tone in aristocratic circles changed +after the resolutions of Luca became known, it is worth while +to compare the pamphlets given forth by Cicero shortly before +with the palinode which he caused to be issued to evince publicly +his repentance and his good intentions.(6) + +Settlement of the New Monarchical Rule + +The regents could thus arrange Italian affairs at their pleasure +and more thoroughly than before. Italy and the capital +obtained practically a garrison although not assembled in arms, +and one of the regents as commandant. Of the troops levied for Syria +and Spain by Crassus and Pompeius, those destined for the east no doubt +took their departure; but Pompeius caused the two Spanish provinces +to be administered by his lieutenants with the garrison hitherto +stationed there, while he dismissed the officers and soldiers +of the legions which were newly raised--nominally for despatch +to Spain--on furlough, and remained himself with them in Italy. + +Doubtless the tacit resistance of public opinion increased, +the more clearly and generally men perceived that the regents +were working to put an end to the old constitution and with as much +gentleness as possible to accommodate the existing condition +of the government and administration to the forms of the monarchy; +but they submitted, because they were obliged to submit. +First of all all the more important affairs, and particularly +all that related to military matters and external relations, +were disposed of without consulting the senate upon them, +sometimes by decree of the people, sometimes by the mere good +pleasure of the rulers. The arrangements agreed on at Luca respecting +the military command of Gaul were submitted directly to the burgesses +by Crassus and Pompeius, those relating to Spain and Syria by the tribune +of the people Gaius Trebonius, and in other instances the more important +governorships were frequently filled up by decree of the people. +That the regents did not need the consent of the authorities +to increase their troops at pleasure, Caesar had already sufficiently +shown: as little did they hesitate mutually to borrow troops; +Caesar for instance received such collegiate support from Pompeius +for the Gallic, and Crassus from Caesar for the Parthian, war. +The Transpadanes, who possessed according to the existing constitution +only Latin rights, were treated by Caesar during his administration +practically as full burgesses of Rome.(7) While formerly +the organization of newly-acquired territories had been managed +by a senatorial commission, Caesar organized his extensive Gallic +conquests altogether according to his own judgment, and founded, +for instance, without having received any farther full powers +burgess-colonies, particularly Novum-Comum (Como) with five thousand +colonists. Piso conducted the Thracian, Gabinius the Egyptian, +Crassus the Parthian war, without consulting the senate, +and without even reporting, as was usual, to that body; +in like manner triumphs and other marks of honour were accorded +and carried out, without the senate being asked about them. +Obviously this did not arise from a mere neglect of forms, which would +be the less intelligible, seeing that in the great majority of cases +no opposition from the senate was to be expected. On the contrary, +it was a well-calculated design to dislodge the senate from the domain +of military arrangements and of higher politics, and to restrict +its share of administration to financial questions and internal +affairs; and even opponents plainly discerned this and protested, +so far as they could, against this conduct of the regents by means +of senatorial decrees and criminal actions. While the regents +thus in the main set aside the senate, they still made some use +of the less dangerous popular assemblies--care was taken that in these +the lords of the street should put no farther difficulty in the way +of the lords of the state; in many cases however they dispensed +even with this empty shadow, and employed without disguise +autocratic forms. + +The Senate under the Monarchy +Cicero and the Majority + +The humbled senate had to submit to its position +whether it would or not. The leader of the compliant majority +continued to be Marcus Cicero. He was useful on account +of his lawyer's talent of finding reasons, or at any rate words, +for everything; and there was a genuine Caesarian irony +in employing the man, by means of whom mainly the aristocracy +had conducted their demonstrations against the regents, +as the mouthpiece of servility. Accordingly they pardoned him +for his brief desire to kick against the pricks, not however +without having previously assured themselves of his submissiveness +in every way. His brother had been obliged to take the position +of an officer in the Gallic army to answer in some measure +as a hostage for him; Pompeius had compelled Cicero himself +to accept a lieutenant-generalship under him, which furnished +a handle for politely banishing him at any moment. Clodius +had doubtless been instructed to leave him meanwhile at peace, +but Caesar as little threw off Clodius on account of Cicero +as he threw off Cicero on account of Clodius; and the great saviour +of his country and the no less great hero of liberty entered +into an antechamber-rivalry in the headquarters of Samarobriva, +for the befitting illustration of which there lacked, unfortunately, +a Roman Aristophanes. But not only was the same rod kept in suspense +over Cicero's head, which had once already descended on him +so severely; golden fetters were also laid upon him. Amidst +the serious embarrassment of his finances the loans of Caesar +free of interest, and the joint overseership of those buildings +which occasioned the circulation of enormous sums in the capital, +were in a high degree welcome to him; and many an immortal oration +for the senate was nipped in the bud by the thought of Caesar's agent, +who might present a bill to him after the close of the sitting. +Consequently he vowed "in future to ask no more after right and honour, +but to strive for the favour of the regents," and "to be as flexible +as an ear-lap." They used him accordingly as--what he was good for-- +an advocate; in which capacity it was on various occasions +his lot to be obliged to defend his very bitterest foes +at a higher bidding, and that especially in the senate, +where he almost regularly served as the organ of the dynasts +and submitted the proposals "to which others probably consented, +but not he himself"; indeed, as recognized leader of the majority +of the compliant, he obtained even a certain political importance. +They dealt with the other members of the governing corporation +accessible to fear, flattery, or gold in the same way as they had dealt +with Cicero, and succeeded in keeping it on the whole in subjection. + +Cato and the Minority + +Certainly there remained a section of their opponents, who at least +kept to their colours and were neither to be terrified nor to be won. +The regents had become convinced that exceptional measures, +such as those against Cato and Cicero, did their cause +more harm than good, and that it was a lesser evil to tolerate +an inconvenient republican opposition than to convert their opponents +into martyrs for the republic Therefore they allowed Cato to return +(end of 698) and thenceforward in the senate and in the Forum, +often at the peril of his life, to offer a continued opposition +to the regents, which was doubtless worthy of honour, but unhappily +was at the same time ridiculous. They allowed him on occasion +of the proposals of Trebonius to push matters once more +to a hand-to-hand conflict in the Forum, and to submit to the senate +a proposal that the proconsul Caesar should be given over +to the Usipetes and Tencteri on account of his perfidious conduct +toward those barbarians.(8) They were patient when Marcus Favonius, +Cato's Sancho, after the senate had adopted the resolution +to charge the legions of Caesar on the state-chest, sprang to the door +of the senate-house and proclaimed to the streets the danger +of the country; when the same person in his scurrilous fashion +called the white bandage, which Pompeius wore round his weak leg, +a displaced diadem; when the consular Lentulus Marcellinus, +on being applauded, called out to the assembly to make diligent use +of this privilege of expressing their opinion now while they were +still allowed to do so; when the tribune of the people +Gaius Ateius Capito consigned Crassus on his departure for Syria, +with all the formalities of the theology of the day, publicly +to the evil spirits. These were, on the whole, vain demonstrations +of an irritated minority; yet the little party from which they issued +was so far of importance, that it on the one hand fostered and gave +the watchword to the republican opposition fermenting in secret, +and on the other hand now and then dragged the majority of the senate, +which ithal cherished at bottom quite the same sentiments with reference +to the regents, into an isolated decree directed against them. +For even the majority felt the need of giving vent, at least +sometimes and in subordinate matters to their suppressed indignation, +and especially--after the manner of those who are servile +with reluctance--of exhibiting their resentment towards the great foes +in rage against the small. Wherever it was possible, a gentle blow +was administered to the instruments of the regents; thus Gabinius +was refused the thanksgiving-festival that he asked (698); +thus Piso was recalled from his province; thus mourning was put on +by the senate, when the tribune of the people Gaius Cato hindered +the elections for 699 as long as the consul Marcellinus belonging +to the constitutional party was in office. Even Cicero, however humbly +he always bowed before the regents, issued an equally envenomed +and insipid pamphlet against Caesar's father-in-law. But both these +feeble signs of opposition by the majority of the senate +and the ineffectual resistance of the minority show only +the more clearly, that the government had now passed from the senate +to the regents as it formerly passed from the burgesses to the senate; +and that the senate was already not much more than a monarchical +council of state employed also to absorb the anti-monarchical +elements. "No man," the adherents of the fallen government complained, +"is of the slightest account except the three; the regents +are all-powerful, and they take care that no one shall remain +in doubt about it; the whole senate is virtually transformed +and obeys the dictators; our generation will not live to see +a change of things." They were living in fact no longer +under the republic, but under monarchy. + +Continued Oppositon at the Elections + +But if the guidance of the state was at the absolute disposal +of the regents, there remained still a political domain separated +in some measure from the government proper, which it was more easy +to defend and more difficult to conquer; the field of the ordinary +elections of magistrates, and that of the jury-courts. That the latter +do not fall directly under politics, but everywhere, and above all +in Rome, come partly under the control of the spirit dominating +state-affairs, is of itself clear. The elections of magistrates +certainly belonged by right to the government proper of the state; +but, as at this period the state was administered substantially +by extraordinary magistrates or by men wholly without title, +and even the supreme ordinary magistrates, if they belonged +to the anti-monarchical party, were not able in any tangible way +to influence the state-machinery, the ordinary magistrates sank +more and more into mere puppets--as, in fact, even those of them +who were most disposed to opposition described themselves frankly +and with entire justice as powerless ciphers--and their elections +therefore sank into mere demonstrations. Thus, after the opposition +had already been wholly dislodged from the proper field of battle, +hostilities might nevertheless be continued in the field of elections +and of processes. The regents spared no pains to remain victors +also in this field. As to the elections, they had already +at Luca settled between themselves the lists of candidates +for the next years, and they left no means untried to carry +the candidates agreed upon there. They expended their gold primarily +for the purpose of influencing the elections. A great number +of soldiers were dismissed annually on furlough from the armies +of Caesar and Pompeius to take part in the voting at Rome. +Caesar was wont himself to guide, and watch over, the election movements +from as near a point as possible of Upper Italy. Yet the object +was but very imperfectly attained. For 699 no doubt Pompeius +and Crassus were elected consuls, agreeably to the convention of Luca, +and Lucius Domitius, the only candidate of the opposition who persevered +was set aside; but this had been effected only by open violence, +on which occasion Cato was wounded and other extremely scandalous +incidents occurred. In the next consular elections for 700, +in spite of all the exertions of the regents, Domitius was +actually elected, and Cato likewise now prevailed in the candidature +for the praetorship, in which to the scandal of the whole burgesses +Caesar's client Vatinius had during the previous year beaten him +off the field. At the elections for 701 the opposition succeeded +in so indisputably convicting the candidates of the regents, +along with others, of the most shameful electioneering intrigues +that the regents, on whom the scandal recoiled, could not do otherwise +than abandon them. These repeated and severe defeats of the dynasts +on the battle-field of the elections may be traceable in part +to the unmanageableness of the rusty machinery, to the incalculable +accidents of the polling, to the opposition at heart of the middle +classes, to the various private considerations that interfere +in such cases and often strangely clash with those of party; +but the main cause lies elsewhere. The elections were at this time +essentially in the power of the different clubs into which the aristocracy +had grouped themselves; the system of bribery was organized by them +on the most extensive scale and with the utmost method. +The same aristocracy therefore, which was represented in the senate, +ruled also the elections; but while in the senate it yielded +with a grudge, it worked and voted here--in secret and secure +from all reckoning--absolutely against the regents. That the influence +of the nobility in this field was by no means broken by the strict +penal law against the electioneering intrigues of the clubs, +which Crassus when consul in 699 caused to be confirmed by the burgesses, +is self-evident, and is shown by the elections of the succeeding years. + +And in the Courts + +The jury-courts occasioned equally great difficulty to the regents. +As they were then composed, while the senatorial nobility was here +also influential, the decisive voice lay chiefly with the middle class. +The fixing of a high-rated census for jurymen by a law proposed +by Pompeius in 699 is a remarkable proof that the opposition +to the regents had its chief seat in the middle class properly +so called, and that the great capitalists showed themselves here, +as everywhere, more compliant than the latter. Nevertheless +the republican party was not yet deprived of all hold in the courts, +and it was never weary of directing political impeachments, +not indeed against the regents themselves, but against +their prominent instruments. This warfare of prosecutions +was waged the more keenly, that according to usage the duty of accusation +belonged to the senatorial youth, and, as may readily be conceived, +there was more of republican passion, fresh talent, and bold delight +in attack to be found among these youths than among the older members +of their order. Certainly the courts were not free; if the regents +were in earnest, the courts ventured as little as the senate +to refuse obedience. None of their antagonists were prosecuted +by the opposition with such hatred--so furious that it almost +passed into a proverb--as Vatinius, by far the most audacious +and unscrupulous of the closer adherents of Caesar; but his master +gave the command, and he was acquitted in all the processes +raised against him. But impeachments by men who knew how to wield +the sword of dialectics and the lash of sarcasm as did +Gaius Licinius Calvus and Gaius Asinius Pollio, did not miss +their mark even when they failed; nor were isolated successes wanting. +They were mostly, no doubt, obtained over subordinate individuals, +but even one of the most high-placed and most hated adherents +of the dynasts, the consular Gabinius, was overthrown in this way. +Certainly in his case the implacable hatred of the aristocracy, +which as little forgave him for the law regarding the conducting +of the war with the pirates as for his disparaging treatment +of the senate during his Syrian governorship, was combined +with the rage of the great capitalists, against whom he had when governor +of Syria ventured to defend the interests of the provincials, +and even with the resentment of Crassus, with whom he had stood +on ceremony in handing over to him the province. His only protection +against all these foes was Pompeius, and the latter had every reason +to defend his ablest, boldest, and most faithful adjutant at any price; +but here, as everywhere, he knew not how to use his power +and to defend his clients, as Caesar defended his; in the end +of 700 the jurymen found Gabinius guilty of extortions +and sent him into banishment. + +On the whole, therefore, in the sphere of the popular elections +and of the jury-courts it was the regents that fared worst. +The factors which ruled in these were less tangible, and therefore +more difficult to be terrified or corrupted than the direct organs +of government and administration. The holders of power encountered +here, especially in the popular elections, the tough energy +of a close oligarchy--grouped in coteries--which is by no means +finally disposed of when its rule is overthrown, and which is +the more difficult to vanquish the more covert its action. +They encountered here too, especially in the jury-courts, +the repugnance of the middle classes towards the new monarchical rule, +which with all the perplexities springing out of it they were +as little able to remove. They suffered in both quarters a series +of defeats. The election-victories of the opposition had, +it is true, merely the value of demonstrations, since the regents +possessed and employed the means of practically annulling any magistrate +whom they disliked; but the criminal trials in which the opposition +carried condemnations deprived them, in a way keenly felt, +of useful auxiliaries. As things stood, the regents could neither +set aside nor adequately control the popular elections +and the jury-courts, and the opposition, however much it felt itself +straitened even here, maintained to a certain extent the field of battle. + +Literature of the Opposition + +It proved, however, yet a more difficult task to encounter +the opposition in a field, to which it turned with the greater zeal +the more it was dislodged from direct political action. This was +literature. Even the judicial opposition was at the same time +a literary one, and indeed pre-eminently so, for the orations +were regularly published and served as political pamphlets. +The arrows of poetry hit their mark still more rapidly and sharply. +The lively youth of the high aristocracy, and still more energetically +perhaps the cultivated middle class in the Italian country towns, +waged the war of pamphlets and epigrams with zeal and success. +There fought side by side on this field the genteel senator's son +Gaius Licinius Calvus (672-706) who was as much feared +in the character of an orator and pamphleteer as of a versatile poet, +and the municipals of Cremona and Verona Marcus Furius Bibaculus +(652-691) and Quintus Valerius Catullus (667-c. 700) whose elegant +and pungent epigrams flew swiftly like arrows through Italy +and were sure to hit their mark. An oppositional tone prevails +throughout the literature of these years. It is full of indignant +sarcasm against the "great Caesar," "the unique general," +against the affectionate father-in-law and son-in-law, +who ruin the whole globe in order to give their dissolute favourites +opportunity to parade the spoils of the long-haired Celts +through the streets of Rome, to furnish royal banquets with the booty +of the farthest isles of the west, and as rivals showering gold +to supplant honest youths at home in the favour of their mistresses. +There is in the poems of Catullus(9) and the other fragments +of the literature of this period something of that fervour of personal +and political hatred, of that republican agony overflowing +in riotous humour or in stern despair, which are more prominently +and powerfully apparent in Aristophanes and Demosthenes. + +The most sagacious of the three rulers at least saw well +that it was as impossible to despise this opposition as to suppress +it by word of command. So far as he could, Caesar tried +rather personally to gain over the more notable authors. +Cicero himself had to thank his literary reputation in good part +for the respectful treatment which he especially experienced +from Caesar; but the governor of Gaul did not disdain to conclude +a special peace even with Catullus himself through the intervention +of his father who had become personally known to him in Verona; +and the young poet, who had just heaped upon the powerful general +the bitterest and most personal sarcasms, was treated by him +with the most flattering distinction. In fact Caesar was gifted enough +to follow his literary opponents on their own domain and to publish-- +as an indirect way of repelling manifold attacks--a detailed report +on the Gallic wars, which set forth before the public, with happily +assumed naivete, the necessity and constitutional propriety +of his military operations. But it is freedom alone that is absolutely +and exclusively poetical and creative; it and it alone is able +even in its most wretched caricature, even with its latest breath, +to inspire fresh enthusiasm. All the sound elements of literature +were and remained anti-monarchical; and, if Caesar himself +could venture on this domain without proving a failure, the reason +was merely that even now he still cherished at heart the magnificent +dream of a free commonwealth, although he was unable to transfer it +either to his adversaries or to his adherents. Practical politics +was not more absolutely controlled by the regents than literature +by the republicans.(10) + +New Exceptional Measures Resolved on + +It became necessary to take serious steps against this opposition, +which was powerless indeed, but was always becoming more troublesome +and audacious. The condemnation of Gabinius, apparently, +turned the scale (end of 700). The regents agreed to introduce +a dictatorship, though only a temporary one, and by means of this +to carry new coercive measures especially respecting the elections +and the jury-courts. Pompeius, as the regent on whom primarily devolved +the government of Rome and Italy, was charged with the execution +of this resolve; which accordingly bore the impress of the awkwardness +in resolution and action that characterized him, and of his singular +incapacity of speaking out frankly, even where he would and could +command. Already at the close of 700 the demand for a dictatorship +was brought forward in the senate in the form of hints, +and that not by Pompeius himself. There served as its ostensible ground +the continuance of the system of clubs and bands in the capital, +which by acts of bribery and violence certainly exercised +the most pernicious pressure on the elections as well as +on the jury-courts and kept it in a perpetual state of disturbance; +we must allow that this rendered it easy for the regents to justify +their exceptional measures. But, as may well be conceived, +even the servile majority shrank from granting what the future dictator +himself seemed to shrink from openly asking. When the unparalleled +agitation regarding the elections for the consulship of 701 +led to the most scandalous scenes, so that the elections +were postponed a full year beyond the fixed time and only took place +after a seven months' interregnum in July 701, Pompeius found +in this state of things the desired occasion for indicating +now distinctly to the senate that the dictatorship was the only means +of cutting, if not of loosing the knot; but the decisive +word of command was not even yet spoken. Perhaps it would have +still remained for long unuttered, had not the most audacious +partisan of the republican opposition Titus Annius Milo +stepped into the field at the consular elections for 702 +as a candidate in opposition to the candidates of the regents, +Quintus Metellus Scipio and Publius Plautius Hypsaeus, both men +closely connected with Pompeius personally and thoroughly devoted to him. + +Milo +Killing of Clodius + +Milo, endowed with physical courage, with a certain talent for intrigue +and for contracting debt, and above all with an ample amount +of native assurance which had been carefully cultivated, +had made himself a name among the political adventurers +of the time, and was the greatest bully in his trade next to Clodius, +and naturally therefore through rivalry at the most deadly feud +with the latter. As this Achilles of the streets had been acquired +by the regents and with their permission was again playing the ultra- +democrat, the Hector of the streets became as a matter of course +an aristocrat! And the republican opposition, which now would have +concluded an alliance with Catilina in person, had he presented +himself to them, readily acknowledged Milo as their legitimate +champion in all riots. In fact the few successes, which they +carried off in this field of battle, were the work of Milo +and of his well-trained band of gladiators. So Cato and his friends +in return supported the candidature of Milo for the consulship; +even Cicero could not avoid recommending one who had been his enemy's +enemy and his own protector during many years; and as Milo himself +spared neither money nor violence to carry his election, +it seemed secured. For the regents it would have been not only +a new and keenly-felt defeat, but also a real danger; for it was +to be foreseen that the bold partisan would not allow himself +as consul to be reduced to insignificance so easily as Domitius +and other men of the respectable opposition. It happened that Achilles +and Hector accidentally encountered each other not far from the capital +on the Appian Way, and a fray arose between their respective bands, +in which Clodius himself received a sword-cut on the shoulder +and was compelled to take refuge in a neighbouring house. +This had occurred without orders from Milo; but, as the matter +had gone so far and as the storm had now to be encountered at any rate, +the whole crime seemed to Milo more desirable and even less dangerous +than the half; he ordered his men to drag Clodius forth +from his lurking place and to put him to death (13 Jan. 702). + +Anarchy in Rome + +The street leaders of the regents' party--the tribunes of the people +Titus Munatius Plancus, Quintus Pompeius Rufus, and Gaius +Sallustius Crispus--saw in this occurrence a fitting opportunity +to thwart in the interest of their masters the candidature of Milo +and carry the dictatorship of Pompeius. The dregs of the populace, +especially the freedmen and slaves, had lost in Clodius +their patron and future deliverer;(11) the requisite excitement +was thus easily aroused. After the bloody corpse had been exposed +for show at the orators' platform in the Forum and the speeches +appropriate to the occasion had been made, the riot broke forth. +The seat of the perfidious aristocracy was destined as a funeral pile +for the great liberator; the mob carried the body to the senate-house, +and set the building on fire. Thereafter the multitude proceeded +to the front of Milo's house and kept it under siege, till his band +drove off the assailants by discharges of arrows. They passed +on to the house of Pompeius and of his consular candidates, +of whom the former was saluted as dictator and the latter as consuls, +and thence to the house of the interrex Marcus Lepidus, on whom +devolved the conduct of the consular elections. When the latter, +as in duty bound, refused to make arrangements for the elections +immediately, as the clamorous multitude demanded, he was kept +during five days under siege in his dwelling house. + +Dictatorship of Pompeius + +But the instigators of these scandalous scenes had overacted +their part. Certainly their lord and master was resolved to employ +this favourable episode in order not merely to set aside Milo, +but also to seize the dictatorship; he wished, however, to receive it +not from a mob of bludgeon-men, but from the senate. Pompeius brought +up troops to put down the anarchy which prevailed in the capital, +and which had in reality become intolerable to everybody; +at the same time he now enjoined what he had hitherto requested, +and the senate complied. It was merely an empty subterfuge, +that on the proposal of Cato and Bibulus the proconsul Pompeius, +retaining his former offices, was nominated as "consul without +colleague" instead of dictator on the 25th of the intercalary +month(12) (702)--a subterfuge, which admitted an appellation labouring +under a double incongruity(13) for the mere purpose of avoiding +one which expressed the simple fact, and which vividly reminds us +of the sagacious resolution of the waning patriciate to concede +to the plebeians not the consulship, but only the consular power.(14) + +Changes of in the Arrangement of Magistracies and the Jury-System + +Thus in legal possession of full power, Pompeius set to work +and proceeded with energy against the republican party which was +powerful in the clubs and the jury-courts. The existing enactments +as to elections were repeated and enforced by a special law; +and by another against electioneering intrigues, which obtained +retrospective force for all offences of this sort committed +since 684, the penalties hitherto imposed were augmented. +Still more important was the enactment, that the governorships, +which were by far the more important and especially by far +the more lucrative half of official life, should be conferred +on the consuls and praetors not immediately on their retirement +from the consulate or praetorship, but only after the expiry +of other five years; an arrangement which of course could only +come into effect after four years, and therefore made the filling up +of the governorships for the next few years substantially dependent +on decrees of senate which were to be issued for the regulation +of this interval, and thus practically on the person or section +ruling the senate at the moment. The jury-commissions were left +in existence, but limits were put to the right of counter-plea, +and--what was perhaps still more important--the liberty of speech +in the courts was done away; for both the number of the advocates +and the time of speaking apportioned to each were restricted +by fixing a maximum, and the bad habit which had prevailed of adducing, +in addition to the witnesses as to facts, witnesses to character +or -laudatores-, as they were called, in favour of the accused +was prohibited. The obsequious senate further decreed on the suggestion +of Pompeius that the country had been placed in peril by the quarrel +on the Appian Way; accordingly a special commission was appointed +by an exceptional law for all crimes connected with it, +the members of which were directly nominated by Pompeius. +An attempt was also made to give once more a serious importance +to the office of the censors, and by that agency to purge +the deeply disordered burgess-body of the worst rabble. + +All these measures were adopted under the pressure of the sword. +In consequence of the declaration of the senate that the country +was in danger, Pompeius called the men capable of service +throughout Italy to arms and made them swear allegiance +for all contingencies; an adequate and trustworthy corps +was temporarily stationed at the Capitol; at every stirring +of opposition Pompeius threatened armed intervention, and during +the proceedings at the trial respecting the murder of Clodius +stationed contrary to all precedent, a guard over the place +of trial itself. + +Humiliation of the Republicans + +The scheme for the revival of the censorship failed, because +among the servile majority of the senate no one possessed +sufficient moral courage and authority even to become a candidate +for such an office. On the other hand Milo was condemned +by the jurymen (8 April 702) and Cato's candidature for the consulship +of 703was frustrated. The opposition of speeches and pamphlets +received through the new judicial ordinance a blow from which +it never recovered; the dreaded forensic eloquence was thereby +driven from the field of politics, and thenceforth felt +the restraints of monarchy. Opposition of course had not disappeared +either from the minds of the great majority of the nation +or even wholly from public life--to effect that end the popular elections, +the jury-courts, and literature must have been not merely restricted, +but annihilated. Indeed, in these very transactions themselves, +Pompeius by his unskilfulness and perversity helped the republicans +to gain even under his dictatorship several triumphs which +he severely felt. The special measures, which the rulers took +to strengthen their power, were of course officially characterized +as enactments made in the interest of public tranquillity and order, +and every burgess, who did not desire anarchy, was described +as substantially concurring in them. But Pompeius pushed +this transparent fiction so far, that instead of putting +safe instruments into the special commission for the investigation +of the last tumult, he chose the most respectable men of all parties, +including even Cato, and applied his influence over the court essentially +to maintain order, and to render it impossible for his adherents +as well as for his opponents to indulge in the scenes of disturbance +customary in the courts of this period. This neutrality of the regent +was discernible in the judgments of the special court. The jurymen +did not venture to acquit Milo himself; but most of the subordinate +persons accused belonging to the party of the republican opposition +were acquitted, while condemnation inexorably befell those +who in the last riot had taken part for Clodius, or in other words +for the regents, including not a few of Caesar's and of Pompeius' own +most intimate friends--even Hypsaeus his candidate for the consulship, +and the tribunes of the people Plancus and Rufus, who had directed +the -emeute- in his interest. That Pompeius did not prevent +their condemnation for the sake of appearing impartial, was one specimen +of his folly; and a second was, that he withal in matters +quite indifferent violated his own laws to favour his friends-- +appearing for example as a witness to character in the trial of Plancus, +and in fact protecting from condemnation several accused persons +specially connected with him, such as Metellus Scipio. As usual, +he wished here also to accomplish opposite things; in attempting +to satisfy the duties at once of the impartial regent +and of the party-chief, he fulfilled neither the one nor the other, +and was regarded by public opinion with justice as a despotic regent, +and by his adherents with equal justice as a leader who either +could not or would not protect his followers. + +But, although the republicans were still stirring and were even refreshed +by an isolated success here and there, chiefly through the blunders +of Pompeius, the object which the regents had proposed +to themselves in that dictatorship was on the whole attained, +the reins were drawn tighter, the republican party was humbled, +and the new monarchy was strengthened. The public began +to reconcile themselves to the latter. When Pompeius not long after +recovered from a serious illness, his restoration was celebrated +throughout Italy with the accompanying demonstrations of joy +which are usual on such occasions in monarchies. The regents +showed themselves satisfied; as early as the 1st of August 702 +Pompeius resigned his dictatorship, and shared the consulship +with his client Metellus Scipio. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +Death of Crassus--Rupture between the Joint Rulers + +Crassus Goes to Syria + +Marcus Crassus had for years been reckoned among the heads +of the "three-headed monster," without any proper title +to be so included. He served as a makeweight to trim the balance +between the real regents Pompeius and Caesar, or, to speak +more accurately, his weight fell into the scale of Caesar +against Pompeius. This part is not a too reputable one; +but Crassus was never hindered by any keen sense of honour +from pursuing his own advantage. He was a merchant and was open +to be dealt with. What was offered to him was not much; +but, when more was not to be got, he accepted it, and sought +to forget the ambition that fretted him, and his chagrin +at occupying a position so near to power and yet so powerless, +amidst his always accumulating piles of gold. But the conference +at Luca changed the state of matters also for him; with the view +of still retaining the preponderance as compared with Pompeius +after concessions so extensive, Caesar gave to his old confederate +Crassus an opportunity of attaining in Syria through the Parthian war +the same position to which Caesar had attained by the Celtic war +in Gaul. It was difficult to say whether these new prospects +proved more attractive to the ardent thirst for gold which had now become +at the age of sixty a second nature and grew only the more intense +with every newly-won million, or to the ambition which had been +long repressed with difficulty in the old man's breast +and now glowed in it with restless fire. He arrived in Syria as early +as the beginning of 700; he had not even waited for the expiry +of his consulship to depart. Full of impatient ardour he seemed desirous +to redeem every minute with the view of making up for what he had lost, +of gathering in the treasures of the east in addition to those +of the west, of achieving the power and glory of a general +as rapidly as Caesar, and with as little trouble as Pompeius. + +Expedition against Parthia Resolved on + +He found the Parthian war already commenced. The faithless conduct +of Pompeius towards the Parthians has been already mentioned;(1) +he had not respected the stipulated frontier of the Euphrates +and had wrested several provinces from the Parthian empire +for the benefit of Armenia, which was now a client state of Rome. +King Phraates had submitted to this treatment; but after he had been +murdered by his two sons Mithradates and Orodes, the new king +Mithradates immediately declared war on the king of Armenia, Artavasdes, +son of the recently deceased Tigranes (about 698).(2) This was +at the same time a declaration of war against Rome; therefore +as soon as the revolt of the Jews was suppressed, Gabinius, +the able and spirited governor of Syria, led the legions +over the Euphrates. Meanwhile, however, a revolution had occurred +in the Parthian empire; the grandees of the kingdom, with the young, +bold, and talented grand vizier at their head, had overthrown +king Mithradates and placed his brother Orodes on the throne. +Mithradates therefore made common cause with the Romans +and resorted to the camp of Gabinius. Everything promised +the best results to the enterprise of the Roman governor, +when he unexpectedly received orders to conduct the king of Egypt +back by force of arms to Alexandria.(3) He was obliged to obey; +but, in the expectation of soon coming back, he induced the dethroned +Parthian prince who solicited aid from him to commence the war +in the meanwhile at his own hand. Mithradates did so; and Seleucia +and Babylon declared for him; but the vizier captured Seleucia +by assault, having been in person the first to mount the battlements, +and in Babylon Mithradates himself was forced by famine to surrender, +whereupon he was by his brother's orders put to death. +His death was a palpable loss to the Romans; but it by no means +put an end to the ferment in the Parthian empire, and the Armenian war +continued. Gabinius, after ending the Egyptian campaign, +was just on the eve of turning to account the still favourable +opportunity and resuming the interrupted Parthian war, when Crassus +arrived in Syria and along with the command took up also the plans +of his predecessor. Full of high-flown hopes he estimated +the difficulties of the march as slight, and the power of resistance +in the armies of the enemy as yet slighter; he not only spoke +confidently of the subjugation of the Parthians, but was already +in imagination the conqueror of the kingdoms of Bactria and India. + +Plan of the Campaign + +The new Alexander, however, was in no haste. Before he carried +into effect these great plans, he found leisure for very tedious +and very lucrative collateral transactions. The temples of Derceto +at Hierapolis Bambyce and of Jehovah at Jerusalem and other rich shrines +of the Syrian province, were by order of Crassus despoiled +of their treasures; and contingents or, still better, sums of money +instead were levied from all the subjects. The military operations +of the first summer were limited to an extensive reconnaissance +in Mesopotamia; the Euphrates was crossed, the Parthian satrap +was defeated at Ichnae (on the Belik to the north of Rakkah), +and the neighbouring towns, including the considerable one of Nicephorium +(Rakkah), were occupied, after which the Romans having left garrisons +behind in them returned to Syria. They had hitherto been in doubt +whether it was more advisable to march to Parthia by the circuitous route +of Armenia or by the direct route through the Mesopotamian desert. +The first route, leading through mountainous regions under the control +of trustworthy allies, commended itself by its greater safety; +king Artavasdes came in person to the Roman headquarters +to advocate this plan of the campaign. But that reconnaissance +decided in favour of the march through Mesopotamia. The numerous +and flourishing Greek and half-Greek towns in the regions +along the Euphrates and Tigris, above all the great city +of Seleucia, were altogether averse to the Parthian rule; +all the Greek townships with which the Romans came into contact had now, +like the citizens of Carrhae at an earlier time,(4) practically shown +how ready they were to shake off the intolerable foreign yoke +and to receive the Romans as deliverers, almost as countrymen. +The Arab prince Abgarus, who commanded the desert of Edessa and Carrhae +and thereby the usual route from the Euphrates to the Tigris, +had arrived in the camp of the Romans to assure them in person +of his devotedness. The Parthians had appeared to be wholly unprepared. + +The Euphrates Crossed + +Accordingly (701) the Euphrates was crossed (near Biradjik). +To reach the Tigris from this point they had the choice +of two routes; either the army might move downward along the Euphrates +to the latitude of Seleucia where the Euphrates and Tigris +are only a few miles distant from each other; or they might +immediately after crossing take the shortest line to the Tigris +right across the great Mesopotamian desert. The former route +led directly to the Parthian capital Ctesiphon, which lay opposite +Seleucia on the other bank of the Tigris; several weighty voices +were raised in favour of this route in the Roman council of war; +in particular the quaestor Gaius Cassius pointed to the difficulties +of the march in the desert, and to the suspicious reports arriving +from the Roman garrisons on the left bank of the Euphrates +as to the Parthian warlike preparations. But in opposition to this +the Arab prince Abgarus announced that the Parthians were employed +in evacuating their western provinces. They had already packed up +their treasures and put themselves in motion to flee to the Hyrcanians +and Scythians; only through a forced march by the shortest route +was it at all possible still to reach them; but by such a march +the Romans would probably succeed in overtaking and cutting up at least +the rear-guard of the great army under Sillaces and the vizier, +and obtaining enormous spoil. These reports of the friendly Bedouins +decided the direction of the march; the Roman army, consisting +of seven legions, 4000 cavalry, and 4000 slingers and archers, +turned off from the Euphrates and away into the inhospitable plains +of northern Mesopotamia. + +The March in the Desert + +Far and wide not an enemy showed himself; only hunger and thirst, +and the endless sandy desert, seemed to keep watch at the gates +of the east. At length, after many days of toilsome marching, not far +from the first river which the Roman army had to cross, +the Balissus (Belik), the first horsemen of the enemy were descried. +Abgarus with his Arabs was sent out to reconnoitre; the Parthian +squadrons retired up to and over the river and vanished +in the distance, pursued by Abgarus and his followers. With impatience +the Romans waited for his return and for more exact information. +The general hoped here at length to come upon the constantly +retreating foe; his young and brave son Publius, who had fought +with the greatest distinction in Gaul under Caesar,(5) and had been sent +by the latter at the head of a Celtic squadron of horse to take part +in the Parthian war, was inflamed with a vehement desire +for the fight. When no tidings came, they resolved to advance +at a venture; the signal for starting was given, the Balissus +was crossed, the army after a brief insufficient rest at noon +was led on without delay at a rapid pace. Then suddenly the kettledrums +of the Parthians sounded all around; on every side their silken +gold-embroidered banners were seen waving, and their iron helmets +and coats of mail glittering in the blaze of the hot noonday sun; +and by the side of the vizier stood prince Abgarus with his Bedouins. + +Roman and Parthian Systems of Warfare + +The Romans saw too late the net into which they had allowed themselves +to be ensnared. With sure glance the vizier had thoroughly seen +both the danger and the means of meeting it. Nothing could +be accomplished against the Roman infantry of the line +with Oriental infantry; so he had rid himself of it, and by +sending a mass, which was useless in the main field of battle, +under the personal leadership of king Orodes to Armenia, +he had prevented king Artavasdes from allowing the promised +10,000 heavy cavalry to join the army of Crassus, who now painfully +felt the want of them. On the other hand the vizier met the Roman +tactics, unsurpassed of their kind, with a system entirely different. +His army consisted exclusively of cavalry; the line was formed of the +heavy horsemen armed with long thrusting-lances, and protected, man +and horse, by a coat of mail of metallic plates or a leathern doublet +and by similar greaves; the mass of the troops consisted of mounted +archers. As compared with these, the Romans were thoroughly inferior +in the corresponding arms both as to number and excellence. Their +infantry of the line, excellent as they were in close combat, whether +at a short distance with the heavy javelin or in hand-to-hand combat +with the sword, could not compel an army consisting merely of cavalry +to come to an engagement with them; and they found, even when they +did come to a hand-to-hand conflict, an equal if not superior +adversary in the iron-clad hosts of lancers. As compared with an +army like this Parthian one, the Roman army was at a disadvantage +strategically, because the cavalry commanded the communications; +and at a disadvantage tactically, because every weapon of close +combat must succumb to that which is wielded from a distance, +unless the struggle becomes an individual one, man against man. +The concentrated position, on which the whole Roman method of war +was based, increased the danger in presence of such an attack; +the closer the ranks of the Roman column, the more irresistible +certainly was its onset, but the less also could the missiles +fail to hit their mark. Under ordinary circumstances, +where towns have to be defended and difficulties of the ground +have to be considered, such tactics operating merely with cavalry +against infantry could never be completely carried out; +but in the Mesopotamian desert, where the army, almost like a ship +on the high seas, neither encountered an obstacle nor met +with a basis for strategic dispositions during many days' march, +this mode of warfare was irresistible for the very reason +that circumstances allowed it to be developed there in all its purity +and therefore in all its power. There everything combined to put +the foreign infantry at a disadvantage against the native cavalry. +Where the heavy-laden Roman foot-soldier dragged himself toilsomely +through the sand or the steppe, and perished from hunger or still more +from thirst amid the pathless route marked only by water-springs +that were far apart and difficult to find, the Parthian horseman, +accustomed from childhood to sit on his fleet steed or camel, +nay almost to spend his life in the saddle, easily traversed +the desert whose hardships he had long learned how to lighten +or in case of need to endure. There no rain fell to mitigate +the intolerable heat, and to slacken the bowstrings and leathern thongs +of the enemy's archers and slingers; there amidst the deep sand +at many places ordinary ditches and ramparts could hardly be formed +for the camp. Imagination can scarcely conceive a situation +in which all the military advantages were more on the one side, +and all the disadvantages more thoroughly on the other. + +To the question, under what circumstances this new style +of tactics, the first national system that on its own proper ground +showed itself superior to the Roman, arose among the Parthians, +we unfortunately can only reply by conjectures. The lancers +and mounted archers were of great antiquity in the east, and already +formed the flower of the armies of Cyrus and Darius; but hitherto +these arms had been employed only as secondary, and essentially +to cover the thoroughly useless Oriental infantry. The Parthian armies +also by no means differed in this respect from the other Oriental ones; +armies are mentioned, five-sixths of which consisted of infantry. +In the campaign of Crassus, on the other hand, the cavalry +for the first time came forward independently, and this arm +obtained quite a new application and quite a different value. +The irresistible superiority of the Roman infantry in close combat +seems to have led the adversaries of Rome in very different parts +of the world independently of each other--at the same time +and with similar success--to meet it with cavalry and distant weapons. +What as completely successful with Cassivellaunus in Britain(6) +and partially successful with Vercingetorix in Gaul(7)-- +what was to a certain degree attempted even by Mithradates Eupator(8)-- +the vizier of Orodes carried out only on a larger scale +and more completely. And in doing so he had special advantages: +for he found in the heavy cavalry the means of forming a line; the bow +which was national in the east and was handled with masterly skill +in the Persian provinces gave him an effective weapon for distant combat; +and lastly the peculiarities of the country and the people +enabled him freely to realize his brilliant idea. Here, where +the Roman weapons of close combat and the Roman system of concentration +yielded for the first time before the weapons of more distant warfare +and the system of deploying, was initiated that military revolution +which only reached its completion with the introduction of firearms. + +Battle near Carrhae + +Under such circumstances the first battle between the Romans +and Parthians was fought amidst the sandy desert thirty miles +to the south of Carrhae (Harran) where there was a Roman garrison, +and at a somewhat less distance to the north of Ichnae. The Roman +archers were sent forward, but retired immediately before the enormous +numerical superiority and the far greater elasticity and range +of the Parthian bows. The legions, which, in spite of the advice +of the more sagacious officers that they should be deployed +as much as possible against the enemy, had been drawn up +in a dense square of twelve cohorts on each side, were soon outflanked +and overwhelmed with the formidable arrows, which under such circumstances +hit their man even without special aim, and against which the soldiers +had no means of retaliation. The hope that the enemy might expend +his missiles vanished with a glance at the endless range of camels +laden with arrows. The Parthians were still extending their line. +That the outflanking might not end in surrounding, Publius Crassus +advanced to the attack with a select corps of cavalry, archers, +and infantry of the line. The enemy in fact abandoned the attempt +to close the circle, and retreated, hotly pursued by the impetuous +leader of the Romans. But, when the corps of Publius had totally lost +sight of the main army, the heavy cavalry made a stand against it, +and the Parthian host hastening up from all sides closed in +like a net round it. Publius, who saw his troops falling thickly +and vainly around him under the arrows of the mounted archers, +threw himself in desperation with his Celtic cavalry unprotected +by any coats of mail on the iron-clad lancers of the enemy; +but the death-despising valour of his Celts, who seized the lances +with their hands or sprang from their horses to stab the enemy, +performed its marvels in vain. The remains of the corps, +including their leader wounded in the sword-arm, were driven +to a slight eminence, where they only served for an easier mark +to the enemy's archers. Mesopotamian Greeks, who were accurately +acquainted with the country, adjured Crassus to ride off with them +and make an attempt to escape; but he refused to separate his fate +from that of the brave men whom his too-daring courage +had led to death, and he caused himself to be stabbed by the hand +of his shield-bearer. Following his example, most of the still +surviving officers put themselves to death. Of the whole division, +about 6000 strong, not more than 500 were taken prisoners; +no one was able to escape. Meanwhile the attack on the main army +had slackened, and the Romans were but too glad to rest. +When at length the absence of any tidings from the corps +sent out startled them out of the deceitful calm, and they drew near +to the scene of the battle for the purpose of learning its fate, +the head of the son was displayed on a pole before his father's eyes; +and the terrible onslaught began once more against the main army +with the same fury and the same hopeless uniformity. They could +neither break the ranks of the lancers nor reach the archers; +night alone put an end to the slaughter. Had the Parthians bivouacked +on the battle-field, hardly a man of the Roman army would have escaped. +But not trained to fight otherwise than on horseback, and therefore +afraid of a surprise, they were wont never to encamp close to the enemy; +jeeringly they shouted to the Romans that they would give the general +a night to bewail his son, and galloped off to return next morning +and despatch the game that lay bleeding on the ground. + +Retreat to Carrhae + +Of course the Romans did not wait for the morning. The lieutenant- +generals Cassius and Octavius--Crassus himself had completely +lost his judgment--ordered the men still capable of marching +to set out immediately and with the utmost silence (while the whole-- +said to amount to 4000--of the wounded and stragglers were left), +with the view of seeking protection within the walls of Carrhae. +The fact that the Parthians, when they returned on the following day, +applied themselves first of all to seek out and massacre +the scattered Romans left behind, and the further fact that the garrison +and inhabitants of Carrhae, early informed of the disaster by fugitives, +had marched forth in all haste to meet the beaten army, saved the remnants +of it from what seemed inevitable destruction. + +Departure from Carrhae +Surprise at Sinnaca + +The squadrons of Parthian horsemen could not think of undertaking +a siege of Carrhae. But the Romans soon voluntarily departed, +whether compelled by want of provisions, or in consequence +of the desponding precipitation of their commander-in-chief, +whom the soldiers had vainly attempted to remove from the command +and to replace by Cassius. They moved in the direction of the Armenian +mountains; marching by night and resting by day Octavius with a band +of 5000 men reached the fortress of Sinnaca, which was only +a day's march distant from the heights that would give shelter, +and liberated even at the peril of his own life the commander-in-chief, +whom the guide had led astray and given up to the enemy. +Then the vizier rode in front of the Roman camp to offer, +in the name of his king, peace and friendship to the Romans, +and to propose a personal conference between the two generals. +The Roman army, demoralized as it was, adjured and indeed compelled +its leader to accept the offer. The vizier received the consular +and his staff with the usual honours, and offered anew to conclude +a compact of friendship; only, with just bitterness recalling the fate +of the agreements concluded with Lucullus and Pompeius respecting +the Euphrates boundary,(9) he demanded that it should be immediately +reduced to writing. A richly adorned horse was produced; +it was a present from the king to the Roman commander-in-chief; +the servants of the vizier crowded round Crassus, zealous to mount him +on the steed. It seemed to the Roman officers as if there was a design +to seize the person of the commander-in-chief; Octavius, unarmed +as he was, pulled the sword of one of the Parthians from its sheath +and stabbed the groom. In the tumult which thereupon arose, +the Roman officers were all put to death; the gray-haired commander- +in-chief also, like his grand-uncle,(10) was unwilling to serve +as a living trophy to the enemy, and sought and found death. +The multitude left behind in the camp without a leader were partly +taken prisoners, partly dispersed. What the day of Carrhae had begun, +the day of Sinnaca completed (June 9, 701); the two took their place +side by side with the days of the Allia, of Cannae, and of Arausio. +The army of the Euphrates was no more. Only the squadron +of Gaius Cassius, which had been broken off from the main army +on the retreat from Carrhae, and some other scattered bands +and isolated fugitives succeeded in escaping from the Parthians +and Bedouins and separately finding their way back to Syria. +Of above 40,000 Roman legionaries, who had crossed the Euphrates, +not a fourth part returned; the half had perished; nearly 10,000 +Roman prisoners were settled by the victors in the extreme east +of their kingdom--in the oasis of Merv--as bondsmen compelled +after the Parthian fashion to render military service. +For the first time since the eagles had headed the legions, +they had become in the same year trophies of victory in the hands +of foreign nations, almost contemporaneously of a German tribe +in the west(11) and of the Parthians in the east. As to the impression +which the defeat of the Romans produced in the east, unfortunately +no adequate information has reached us; but it must have been deep +and lasting. King Orodes was just celebrating the marriage of his son +Pacorus with the sister of his new ally, Artavasdes the king of Armenia, +when the announcement of the victory of his vizier arrived, +and along with it, according to Oriental usage, the cut-off head +of Crassus. The tables were already removed; one of the wandering +companies of actors from Asia Minor, numbers of which at that time +existed and carried Hellenic poetry and the Hellenic drama +far into the east, was just performing before the assembled court +the -Bacchae- of Euripides. The actor playing the part of Agave, +who in her Dionysiac frenzy has torn in pieces her son and returns +from Cithaeron carrying his head on the thyrsus, exchanged this +for the bloody head of Crassus, and to the infinite delight of his +audience of half-Hellenized barbarians began afresh the well-known song: + + --pheromin ex oreos + elika neotomon epi melathra + makarian theiran--. + +It was, since the times of the Achaemenids, the first serious victory +which the Orientals had achieved over the west; and there was +a deep significance in the fact that, by way of celebrating +this victory, the fairest product of the western world-- +Greek tragedy--parodied itself through its degenerate representatives +in that hideous burlesque. The civic spirit of Rome and the genius +of Hellas began simultaneously to accommodate themselves +to the chains of sultanism. + +Consequences of the Defeat + +The disaster, terrible in itself, seemed also as though +it was to be dreadful in its consequences, and to shake the foundations +of the Roman power in the east. It was among the least of its results +that the Parthians now had absolute sway beyond the Euphrates; +that Armenia, after having fallen away from the Roman alliance +even before the disaster of Crassus, was reduced by it +into entire dependence on Parthia; that the faithful citizens +of Carrhae were bitterly punished for their adherence to the Occidentals +by the new master appointed over them by the Parthians, +one of the treacherous guides of the Romans, named Andromachus. +The Parthians now prepared in all earnest to cross the Euphrates +in their turn, and, in union with the Armenians and Arabs, to dislodge +the Romans from Syria. The Jews and various other Occidentals +awaited emancipation from the Roman rule there, no less impatiently +than the Hellenes beyond the Euphrates awaited relief +from the Parthian; in Rome civil war was at the door; an attack +at this particular place and time was a grave peril. But fortunately +for Rome the leaders on each side had changed. Sultan Orodes +was too much indebted to the heroic prince, who had first placed +the crown on his head and then cleared the land from the enemy, +not to get rid of him as soon as possible by the executioner. +His place as commander-in-chief of the invading army destined for Syria +was filled by a prince, the king's son Pacorus, with whom on account +of his youth and inexperience the prince Osaces had to be associated +as military adviser. On the other side the interim command +in Syria in room of Crassus was taken up by the prudent and resolute +quaestor Gaius Cassius. + +Repulse of the Parthians + +The Parthians were, just like Crassus formerly, in no haste to attack, +but during the years 701 and 702 sent only weak flying bands, +who were easily repulsed, across the Euphrates; so that Cassius +obtained time to reorganize the army in some measure, and with the help +of the faithful adherent of the Romans, Herodes Antipater, +to reduce to obedience the Jews, whom resentment at the spoliation +of the temple perpetrated by Crassus had already driven to arms. +The Roman government would thus have had full time to send +fresh troops for the defence of the threatened frontier; +but this was left undone amidst the convulsions of the incipient +revolution, and, when at length in 703 the great Parthian invading army +appeared on the Euphrates, Cassius had still nothing to oppose to it +but the two weak legions formed from the remains of the army of Crassus. +Of course with these he could neither prevent the crossing +nor defend the province. Syria was overrun by the Parthians, +and all Western Asia trembled. But the Parthians did not understand +the besieging of towns. They not only retreated from Antioch, +into which Cassius had thrown himself with his troops, without having +accomplished their object, but they were on their retreat +along the Orontes allured into an ambush by Cassius' cavalry +and there severely handled by the Roman infantry; prince Osaces +was himself among the slain. Friend and foe thus perceived +that the Parthian army under an ordinary general and on ordinary ground +was not capable of much more than any other Oriental army. +However, the attack was not abandoned. Still during the winter +of 703-704 Pacorus lay encamped in Cyrrhestica on this side +of the Euphrates; and the new governor of Syria, Marcus Bibulus, +as wretched a general as he was an incapable statesman, +knew no better course of action than to shut himself up +in his fortresses. It was generally expected that the war +would break out in 704 with renewed fury. But instead +of turning his arms against the Romans, Pacorus turned against +his own father, and accordingly even entered into an understanding +with the Roman governor. Thus the stain was not wiped +from the shield of Roman honour, nor was the reputation of Rome +restored in the east; but the Parthian invasion of Western Asia +was over, and the Euphrates boundary was, for the time being +at least, retained. + +Impression Produced in Rome by the Defeat of Carrhae + +In Rome meanwhile the periodical volcano of revolution was whirling +upward its clouds of stupefying smoke. The Romans began to have +no longer a soldier or a denarius to be employed against the public foe-- +no longer a thought for the destinies of the nations. It is +one of the most dreadful signs of the times, that the huge national +disaster of Carrhae and Sinnaca gave the politicians of that time +far less to think and speak of than that wretched tumult +on the Appian road, in which, a couple of months after Crassus, +Clodius the partisan-leader perished; but it is easily conceivable +and almost excusable. The breach between the two regents, long felt +as inevitable and often announced as near, was now assuming +such a shape that it could not be arrested. Like the boat +of the ancient Greek mariners' tale, the vessel of the Roman community +now found itself as it were between two rocks swimming towards each other; +expecting every moment the crash of collision, those whom it was bearing, +tortured by nameless anguish, into the eddying surge that rose +higher and higher were benumbed; and, while every slightest movement +there attracted a thousand, eyes, no one ventured to give a glance +to the right or the left. + +The Good Understanding between the Regents Relaxed + +After Caesar had, at the conference of Luca in April 698, +agreed to considerable concessions as regarded Pompeius, +and the regents had thus placed themselves substantially on a level, +their relation was not without the outward conditions of durability, +so far as a division of the monarchical power--in itself indivisible-- +could be lasting at all. It was a different question +whether the regents, at least for the present, were determined +to keep together and mutually to acknowledge without reserve their title +to rank as equals. That this was the case with Caesar, in so far +as he had acquired the interval necessary for the conquest of Gaul +at the price of equalization with Pompeius, has been already set forth. +But Pompeius was hardly ever, even provisionally, in earnest +with the collegiate scheme. His was one of those petty +and mean natures, towards which it is dangerous to practise magnanimity; +to his paltry spirit it appeared certainly a dictate of prudence +to supplant at the first opportunity his reluctantly acknowledged rival, +and his mean soul thirsted after a possibility of retaliating on Caesar +for the humiliation which he had suffered through Caesar's indulgence. +But while it is probable that Pompeius in accordance with his dull +and sluggish nature never properly consented to let Caesar +hold a position of equality by his side, yet the design +of breaking up the alliance doubtless came only by degrees +to be distinctly entertained by him. At any rate the public, +which usually saw better through the views and intentions +of Pompeius than he did himself, could not be mistaken +in thinking that at least with the death of the beautiful Julia-- +who died in the bloom of womanhood in the autumn of 700 and was +soon followed by her only child to the tomb--the personal relation +between her father and her husband was broken up. Caesar attempted +to re-establish the ties of affinity which fate had severed; +he asked for himself the hand of the only daughter of Pompeius, +and offered Octavia, his sister's grand-daughter, who was now +his nearest relative, in marriage to his fellow-regent; but Pompeius +left his daughter to her existing husband Faustus Sulla the son +of the regent, and he himself married the daughter of Quintus Metellus +Scipio. The personal breach had unmistakeably begun, and it was +Pompeius who drew back his hand. It was expected that a political +breach would at once follow; but in this people were mistaken; +in public affairs a collegiate understanding continued for a time +to subsist. The reason was, that Caesar did not wish publicly +to dissolve the relation before the subjugation of Gaul +was accomplished, and Pompeius did not wish to dissolve it +before the governing authorities and Italy should be wholly reduced +under his power by his investiture with the dictatorship. +It is singular, but yet readily admits of explanation, that the regents +under these circumstances supported each other; Pompeius +after the disaster of Aduatuca in the winter of 700 handed over +one of his Italian legions that were dismissed on furlough +by way of loan to Caesar; on the other hand Caesar granted his consent +and his moral support to Pompeius in the repressive measures +which the latter took against the stubborn republican opposition. + +Dictatorship of Pompeius +Covert Attacks by Pompeius on Caesar + +It was only after Pompeius had in this way procured for himself +at the beginning of 702 the undivided consulship and an influence +in the capital thoroughly outweighing that of Caesar, +and after all the men capable of arms in Italy had tendered +their military oath to himself personally and in his name, +that he formed the resolution to break as soon as possible +formally with Caesar; and the design became distinctly enough apparent. +That the judicial prosecution which took place after the tumult +on the Appian Way lighted with unsparing severity precisely +on the old democratic partisans of Caesar,(12) might perhaps pass +as a mere awkwardness. That the new law against electioneering intrigues, +which had retrospective effect as far as 684, included also the dubious +proceedings at Caesar's candidature for the consulship,(13) +might likewise be nothing more, although not a few Caesarians thought +that they perceived in it a definite design. But people +could no longer shut their eyes, however willing they might be +to do so, when Pompeius did not select for his colleague +in the consulship his former father-in-law Caesar, as was fitting +in the circumstances of the case and was in many quarters demanded, +but associated with himself a puppet wholly dependent on him +in his new father-in-law Scipio;(14) and still less, when Pompeius +at the same time got the governorship of the two Spains continued +to him for five years more, that is to 709, and a considerable +fixed sum appropriated from the state-chest for the payment of his troops, +not only without stipulating for a like prolongation of command +and a like grant of money to Caesar, but even while labouring +ulteriorly to effect the recall of Caesar before the term +formerly agreed on through the new regulations which were issued +at the same time regarding the holding of the governorships. +These encroachments were unmistakeably calculated to undermine +Caesar's position and eventually to overthrow him. The moment +could not be more favourable. Caesar had conceded so much to Pompeius +at Luca, only because Crassus and his Syrian army would necessarily, +in the event of any rupture with Pompeius, be thrown into Caesar's scale; +for upon Crassus--who since the times of Sulla had been +at the deepest enmity with Pompeius and almost as long politically +and personally allied with Caesar, and who from his peculiar character +at all events, if he could not himself be king of Rome, would have been +content with being the new king's banker--Caesar could always reckon, +and could have no apprehension at all of seeing Crassus confronting him +as an ally of his enemies. The catastrophe of June 701, +by which army and general in Syria perished, was therefore +a terribly severe blow also for Caesar. A few months later +the national insurrection blazed up more violently than ever in Gaul, +just when it had seemed completely subdued, and for the first time +Caesar here encountered an equal opponent in the Arvernian king +Vercingetorix. Once more fate had been working for Pompeius; +Crassus was dead, all Gaul was in revolt, Pompeius was practically +dictator of Rome and master of the senate. What might have happened, +if he had now, instead of remotely intriguing against Caesar, +summarily compelled the burgesses or the senate to recall Caesar +at once from Gaul! But Pompeius never understood how to take advantage +of fortune. He heralded the breach clearly enough; already in 702 +his acts left no doubt about it, and in the spring of 703 he openly +expressed his purpose of breaking with Caesar; but he did not +break with him, and allowed the months to slip away unemployed. + +The Old Party Names and the Pretenders + +But however Pompeius might delay, the crisis was incessantly urged +on by the mere force of circumstances. + +The impending war was not a struggle possibly between republic +and monarchy--for that had been virtually decided years before-- +but a struggle between Pompeius and Caesar for the possession +of the crown of Rome. But neither of the pretenders found his account +in uttering the plain truth; he would have thereby driven +all that very respectable portion of the burgesses, which desired +the continuance of the republic and believed in its possibility, +directly into the camp of his opponent. The old battle-cries raised +by Gracchus and Drusus, Cinna and Sulla, used up and meaningless +as they were, remained still good enough for watchwords +in the struggle of the two generals contending for the sole rule; +and, though for the moment both Pompeius and Caesar ranked themselves +officially with the so-called popular party, it could not be +for a moment doubtful that Caesar would inscribe on his banner +the people and democratic progress, Pompeius the aristocracy +and the legitimate constitution. + +The Democracy and Caesar + +Caesar had no choice. He was from the outset and very earnestly +a democrat; the monarchy as he understood it differed more outwardly +than in reality from the Gracchan government of the people; +and he was too magnanimous and too profound a statesman to conceal +his colours and to fight under any other escutcheon than his own. +The immediate advantage no doubt, which this battle-cry brought to him, +was trifling; it was confined mainly to the circumstance +that he was thereby relieved from the inconvenience of directly naming +the kingly office, and so alarming the mass of the lukewarm +and his own adherents by that detested word. The democratic banner +hardly yielded farther positive gain, since the ideals of Gracchus +had been rendered infamous and ridiculous by Clodius; +for where was there now--laying aside perhaps the Transpadanes-- +any class of any sort of importance, which would have been induced +by the battle-cries of the democracy to take part in the struggle? + +The Aristocracy and Pompeius + +This state of things would have decided the part of Pompeius +in the impending struggle, even if apart from this it had not been +self-evident that he could only enter into it as the general +of the legitimate republic. Nature had destined him, if ever any one, +to be a member of an aristocracy; and nothing but very accidental +and very selfish motives had carried him over as a deserter +from the aristocratic to the democratic camp. That he should now +revert to his Sullan traditions, was not merely befitting in the case, +but in every respect of essential advantage. Effete as was +the democratic cry, the conservative cry could not but have +the more potent effect, if it proceeded from the right man. +Perhaps the majority, at any rate the flower of the burgesses, +belonged to the constitutional party; and as respected its numerical +and moral strength might well be called to interfere powerfully, +perhaps decisively, in the impending struggle of the pretenders. +It wanted nothing but a leader. Marcus Cato, its present head, +did the duty, as he understood it, of its leader amidst daily peril +to his life and perhaps without hope of success; his fidelity to duty +deserves respect, but to be the last at a forlorn post is commendable +in the soldier, not in the general. He had not the skill +either to organize or to bring into action at the proper time +the powerful reserve, which had sprung up as it were spontaneously +in Italy for the party of the overthrown government; and he had +for good reasons never made any pretension to the military leadership, +on which everything ultimately depended. If instead of this man, +who knew not how to act either as party-chief or as general, +a man of the political and military mark of Pompeius should raise +the banner of the existing constitution, the municipals of Italy +would necessarily flock towards it in crowds, that under it +they might help to fight, if not indeed for the kingship of Pompeius, +at any rate against the kingship of Caesar. + +To this was added another consideration at least as important. +It was characteristic of Pompeius, even when he had formed a resolve, +not to be able to find his way to its execution. While he knew +perhaps how to conduct war but certainly not how to declare it, +the Catonian party, although assuredly unable to conduct it, +was very able and above all very ready to supply grounds for the war +against the monarchy on the point of being founded. According to +the intention of Pompeius, while he kept himself aloof, and in his +peculiar way, now talked as though he would immediately depart +for his Spanish provinces, now made preparations as though he would +set out to take over the command on the Euphrates, the legitimate +governing board, namely the senate, were to break with Caesar, +to declare war against him, and to entrust the conduct of it to Pompeius, +who then, yielding to the general desire, was to come forward +as the protector of the constitution against demagogico- +monarchical plots, as an upright man and champion of the existing +order of things against the profligates and anarchists, +as the duly-installed general of the senate against the Imperator +of the street, and so once more to save his country. Thus Pompeius +gained by the alliance with the conservatives both a second army +in addition to his personal adherents, and a suitable war-manifesto-- +advantages which certainly were purchased at the high price +of coalescing with those who were in principle opposed to him. +Of the countless evils involved in this coalition, there was developed +in the meantime only one--but that already a very grave one-- +that Pompeius surrendered the power of commencing hostilities +against Caesar when and how he pleased, and in this decisive point +made himself dependent on all the accidents and caprices +of an aristocratic corporation. + +The Republicans + +Thus the republican opposition, after having been for years +obliged to rest content with the part of a mere spectator +and having hardly ventured to whisper, was now brought back once more +to the political stage by the impending rupture between the regents. +It consisted primarily of the circle which rallied round Cato-- +those republicans who were resolved to venture on the struggle +for the republic and against the monarchy under all circumstances, +and the sooner the better. The pitiful issue of the attempt +made in 698(15) had taught them that they by themselves alone +were not in a position either to conduct war or even to call it forth; +it was known to every one that even in the senate, while the whole +corporation with a few isolated exceptions was averse to monarchy, +the majority would still only restore the oligarchic government +if it might be restored without danger--in which case, doubtless, +it had a good while to wait. In presence of the regents on the one hand, +and on the other hand of this indolent majority, which desired peace +above all things and at any price, and was averse to any decided action +and most of all to a decided rupture with one or other of the regents, +the only possible course for the Catonian party to obtain a restoration +of the old rule lay in a coalition with the less dangerous +of the rulers. If Pompeius acknowledged the oligarchic constitution +and offered to fight for it against Caesar, the republican opposition +might and must recognize him as its general, and in alliance +with him compel the timid majority to a declaration of war. +That Pompeius was not quite in earnest with his fidelity +to the constitution, could indeed escape nobody; but, undecided +as he was in everything, he had by no means arrived like Caesar +at a clear and firm conviction that it must be the first business +of the new monarch to sweep off thoroughly and conclusively +the oligarchic lumber. At any rate the war would train +a really republican army and really republican generals; +and, after the victory over Caesar, they might proceed +with more favourable prospects to set aside not merely +oneof the monarchs, but the monarchy itself, which was in the course +of formation. Desperate as was the cause of the oligarchy, the offer +of Pompeius to become its ally was the most favourable arrangement +possible for it. + +Their League with Pompeius + +The conclusion of the alliance between Pompeius and the Catonian party +was effected with comparative rapidity. Already during the dictatorship +of Pompeius a remarkable approximation had taken place between them. +The whole behaviour of Pompeius in the Milonian crisis, +his abrupt repulse of the mob that offered him the dictatorship, +his distinct declaration that he would accept this office +only from the senate, his unrelenting severity against disturbers +of the peace of every sort and especially against the ultra-democrats, +the surprising complaisance with which he treated Cato +and those who shared his views, appeared as much calculated to gain +the men of order as they were offensive to the democrat Caesar. +On the other hand Cato and his followers, instead of combating +with their wonted sternness the proposal to confer the dictatorship +on Pompeius, had made it with immaterial alterations of form +their own; Pompeius had received the undivided consulship +primarily from the hands of Bibulus and Cato. While the Catonian party +and Pompeius had thus at least a tacit understanding as early +as the beginning of 702, the alliance might be held as formally +concluded, when at the consular elections for 703 there was elected +not Cato himself indeed, but--along with an insignificant man +belonging to the majority of the senate--one of the most decided +adherents of Cato, Marcus Claudius Marcellus. Marcellus was +no furious zealot and still less a genius, but a steadfast +and strict aristocrat, just the right man to declare war +if war was to be begun with Caesar. As the case stood, +this election, so surprising after the repressive measures +adopted immediately before against the republican opposition, +can hardly have occurred otherwise than with the consent, +or at least under the tacit permission, of the regent of Rome +for the time being. Slowly and clumsily, as was his wont, +but steadily Pompeius moved onward to the rupture. + +Passive Resistance of Caesar + +It was not the intention of Caesar on the other hand to fall out +at this moment with Pompeius. He could not indeed desire seriously +and permanently to share the ruling power with any colleague, +least of all with one of so secondary a sort as was Pompeius; +and beyond doubt he had long resolved after terminating the conquest +of Gaul to take the sole power for himself, and in case of need to extort +it by force of arms. But a man like Caesar, in whom the officer +was thoroughly subordinate to the statesman, could not fail +to perceive that the regulation of the political organism +by force of arms does in its consequences deeply and often permanently +disorganize it; and therefore he could not but seek to solve +the difficulty, if at all possible, by peaceful means or at least +without open civil war. But even if civil war was not to be avoided, +he could not desire to be driven to it at a time, when in Gaul +the rising of Vercingetorix imperilled afresh all that had been obtained +and occupied him without interruption from the winter of 701-702 +to the winter of 702-703, and when Pompeius and the constitutional party +opposed to him on principle were dominant in Italy. Accordingly +he sought to preserve the relation with Pompeius and thereby +the peace unbroken, and to attain, if at all possible, +by peaceful means to the consulship for 706 already assured +to him at Luca. If he should then after a conclusive settlement +of Celtic affairs be placed in a regular manner at the head +of the state, he, who was still more decidedly superior +to Pompeius as a statesman than as a general, might well reckon +on outmanoeuvring the latter in the senate-house and in the Forum +without special difficulty. Perhaps it was possible to find out +for his awkward, vacillating, and arrogant rival some sort +of honourable and influential position, in which the latter might be +content to sink into a nullity; the repeated attempts of Caesar +to keep himself related by marriage to Pompeius, may have been +designed to pave the way for such a solution and to bring about +a final settlement of the old quarrel through the succession +of offspring inheriting the blood of both competitors. The republican +opposition would then remain without a leader and therefore +probably quiet, and peace would be preserved. If this should not +be successful, and if there should be, as was certainly possible, +a necessity for ultimately resorting to the decision of arms, +Caesar would then as consul in Rome dispose of the compliant majority +of the senate; and he could impede or perhaps frustrate the coalition +of the Pompeians and the republicans, and conduct the war +far more suitably and more advantageously, than if he now as proconsul +of Gaul gave orders to march against the senate and its general. +Certainly the success of this plan depended on Pompeius being good- +natured enough to let Caesar still obtain the consulship for 706 +assured to him at Luca; but, even if it failed, it would be always +of advantage for Caesar to have given practical and repeated +evidence of the most yielding disposition. On the one hand time +would thus be gained for attaining his object meanwhile in Gaul; +on the other hand his opponents would be left with the odium +of initiating the rupture and consequently the civil war-- +which was of the utmost moment for Caesar with reference to the majority +of the senate and the party of material interests, and more especially +with reference to his own soldiers. + +On these views he acted. He armed certainly; the number of his legion +was raised through new levies in the winter of 702-703 to eleven, +including that borrowed from Pompeius. But at the same time +he expressly and openly approved of Pompeius' conduct during +the dictatorship and the restoration of order in the capital +which he had effected, rejected the warnings of officious friends +as calumnies, reckoned every day by which he succeeded +in postponing the catastrophe a gain, overlooked whatever +could be overlooked and bore whatever could be borne-- +immoveably adhering only to the one decisive demand that, +when his governorship of Gaul came to an end with 705, +the second consulship, admissible by republican state-law +and promised to him according to agreement by his colleague, +should be granted to him for the year 706. + +Preparation for Attacks on Caesar + +This very demand became the battle-field of the diplomatic war +which now began. If Caesar were compelled either to resign +his office of governor before the last day of December 705, +or to postpone the assumption of the magistracy in the capital +beyond the 1st January 706, so that he should remain for a time +between the governorship and the consulate without office, +and consequently liable to criminal impeachment--which according +to Roman law was only allowable against one who was not in office-- +the public had good reason to prophesy for him in this case +the fate of Milo, because Cato had for long been ready to impeach him +and Pompeius was a more than doubtful protector. + +Attempt to Keep Caesar Out of the Consulship + +Now, to attain that object, Caesar's opponents had a very simple means. +According to the existing ordinance as to elections, every candidate +for the consulship was obliged to announce himself personally +to the presiding magistrate, and to cause his name to be inscribed +on the official list of candidates before the election, +that is half a year before entering on office. It had probably +been regarded in the conferences at Luca as a matter of course +that Caesar would be released from this obligation, which was +purely formal and was very often dispensed with; but the decree +to that effect had not yet been issued, and, as Pompeius was now +in possession of the decretive machinery, Caesar depended in this respect +on the good will of his rival. Pompeius incomprehensibly abandoned +of his own accord this completely secure position; with his consen +and during his dictatorship (702) the personal appearance +of Caesar was dispensed with by a tribunician law. When however +soon afterwards the new election-ordinance(16) was issued, +the obligation of candidates personally to enrol themselves +was repeated in general terms, and no sort of exception was added +in favour of those released from it by earlier resolutions +of the people; according to strict form the privilege granted in favour +of Caesar was cancelled by the later general law. Caesar complained, +and the clause was subsequently appended but not confirmed +by special decree of the people, so that this enactment inserted +by mere interpolation in the already promulgated law could only be +looked on de jure as a nullity. Where Pompeius, therefore, +might have simply kept by the law, he had preferred first +to make a spontaneous concession, then to recall it, +and lastly to cloak this recall in a manner most disloyal. + +Attempt to Shorten Caesar's Governorship + +While in this way the shortening of Caesar's governorship +was only aimed at indirectly, the regulations issued at the same time +as to the governorships sought the same object directly. +The ten years for which the governorship had been secured to Caesar, +in the last instance through the law proposed by Pompeius himself +in concert with Crassus, ran according to the usual mode of reckoning +from 1 March 695 to the last day of February 705. As, however, +according to the earlier practice, the proconsul or propraetor +had the right of entering on his provincial magistracy immediately +after the termination of his consulship or praetorship, the successor +of Caesar was to be nominated, not from the urban magistrates of 704, +but from those of 705, and could not therefore enter before 1st Jan. 706. +So far Caesar had still during the last ten months of the year 705 +a right to the command, not on the ground of the Pompeio-Licinian law, +but on the ground of the old rule that a command with a set term +still continued after the expiry of the term up to the arrival +of the successor. But now, since the new regulation of 702 +called to the governorships not the consuls and praetors +going out, but those who had gone out five years ago or more, +and thus prescribed an interval between the civil magistracy +and the command instead of the previous immediate sequence, +there was no longer any difficulty in straightway filling up +from another quarter every legally vacant governorship, and so, +in the case in question, bringing about for the Gallic provinces +the change of command on the 1st March 705, instead of the 1st Jan. 706. +The pitiful dissimulation and procrastinating artifice of Pompeius +are after a remarkable manner mixed up, in these arrangements, +with the wily formalism and the constitutional erudition +of the republican party. Years before these weapons of state-law +could be employed, they had them duly prepared, and put themselves +in a condition on the one hand to compel Caesar to the resignation +of his command from the day when the term secured to him by Pompeius' +own law expired, that is from the 1st March 705, by sending successors +to him, and on the other hand to be able to treat as null and void +the votes tendered for him at the elections for 706. Caesar, +not in a position to hinder these moves in the game, kept silence +and left things to their own course. + +Debates as to Caesar's Recall + +Gradually therefore the slow course of constitutional procedure +developed itself. According to custom the senate had to deliberate +on the governorships of the year 705, so far as they went +to former consuls, at the beginning of 703, so far as they went +to former praetors, at the beginning of 704; that earlier deliberation +gave the first occasion to discuss the nomination of new governors +for the two Gauls in the senate, and thereby the first occasion +for open collision between the constitutional party pushed forward +by Pompeius and the senatorial supporters of Caesar. The consul +Marcus Marcellus introduced a proposal to give the two provinces +hitherto administered by the proconsul Gaius Caesar +from the 1st March 705 to the two consulars who were to be provided +with governorships for that year. The long-repressed indignation +burst forth in a torrent through the sluice once opened; +everything that the Catonians were meditating against Caesar +was brought forward in these discussions. For them it was +a settled point, that the right granted by exceptional law +to the proconsul Caesar of announcing his candidature for the consulship +in absence had been again cancelled by a subsequent decree of the people, +and that the reservation inserted in the latter was invalid. +The senate should in their opinion cause this magistrate, +now that the subjugation of Gaul was ended, to discharge immediately +the soldiers who had served out their time. The cases in which +Caesar had bestowed burgess-rights and established colonies +in Upper Italy were described by them as unconstitutional and null; +in further illustration of which Marcellus ordained that a respected +senator of the Caesarian colony of Comum, who, even if that place +had not burgess but only Latin rights, was entitled to lay claim +to Roman citizenship,(17) should receive the punishment +of scourging, which was admissible only in the case of non-burgesses. + +The supporters of Caesar at this time--among whom Gaius Vibius Pansa, +who was the son of a man proscribed by Sulla but yet had entered +on a political career, formerly an officer in Caesar's army +and in this year tribune of the people, was the most notable-- +affirmed in the senate that both the state of things in Gaul +and equity demanded not only that Caesar should not be recalled +before the time, but that he should be allowed to retain the command +along with the consulship; and they pointed beyond doubt to the facts, +that a few years previously Pompeius had just in the same way +combined the Spanish governorships with the consulate, +that even at the present time, besides the important office +of superintending the supply of food to the capital, he held +the supreme command in Italy in addition to the Spanish, +and that in fact the whole men capable of arms had been sworn in by him +and had not yet been released from their oath. + +The process began to take shape, but its course was not on that account +more rapid. The majority of the senate, seeing the breach approaching, +allowed no sitting capable of issuing a decree to take place for months; +and other months in their turn were lost over the solemn procrastination +of Pompeius. At length the latter broke the silence and ranged himself, +in a reserved and vacillating fashion as usual but yet plainly enough, +on the side of the constitutional party against his former ally. +He summarily and abruptly rejected the demand of the Caesarians +that their master should be allowed to conjoin the consulship +and the proconsulship; this demand, he added with blunt coarseness, +seemed to him no better than if a son should offer to flog +his father. He approved in principle the proposal of Marcellus, +in so far as he too declared that he would not allow Caesar +directly to attach the consulship to the pro-consulship. +He hinted, however, although without making any binding declaration +on the point, that they would perhaps grant to Caesar admission +to the elections for 706 without requiring his personal announcement, +as well as the continuance of his governorship at the utmost +to the 13th Nov. 705. But in the meantime the incorrigible +procrastinator consented to the postponement of the nomination +of successors to the last day of Feb. 704, which was asked +by the representatives of Caesar, probably on the ground of a clause +of the Pompeio-Licinian law forbidding any discussion in the senate +as to the nomination of successors before the beginning of Caesar's +last year of office. + +In this sense accordingly the decrees of the senate were issued +(29 Sept. 703). The filling up of the Gallic governorships +was placed in the order of the day for the 1st March 704; but even now +it was attempted to break up the army of Caesar--just as had formerly +been done by decree of the people with the army of Lucullus(18)-- +by inducing his veterans to apply to the senate for their discharge. +Caesar's supporters effected, indeed, as far as they constitutionally +could, the cancelling of these decrees by their tribunician veto; +but Pompeius very distinctly declared that the magistrates were bound +unconditionally to obey the senate, and that intercessions and similar +antiquated formalities would produce no change. The oligarchical party, +whose organ Pompeius now made himself, betrayed not obscurely the design, +in the event of a victory, of revising the constitution in their sense +and removing everything which had even the semblance of popular freedom; +as indeed, doubtless for this reason, it omitted to avail itself +of the comitia at all in its attacks directed against Caesar. +The coalition between Pompeius and the constitutional party +was thus formally declared; sentence too was already evidently passed +on Caesar, and the term of its promulgation was simply postponed. +The elections for the following year proved thoroughly adverse to him. + +Counter-Arrangements of Caesar + +During these party manoeuvres of his antagonists preparatory to war, +Caesar had succeeded in getting rid of the Gallic insurrection +and restoring the state of peace in the whole subject territory. +As early as the summer of 703, under the convenient pretext +of defending the frontier(19) but evidently in token of the fact +that the legions in Gaul were now beginning to be no longer +needed there, he moved one of them to North Italy. He could not avoid +perceiving now at any rate, if not earlier, that he would not +be spared the necessity of drawing the sword against his fellow- +citizens; nevertheless, as it was highly desirable to leave the legions +still for a time in the barely pacified Gaul, he sought even yet +to procrastinate, and, well acquainted with the extreme +love of peace in the majority of the senate, did not abandon +the hope of still restraining them from the declaration of war +in spite of the pressure exercised over them by Pompeius. +He did not even hesitate to make great sacrifices, if only he might +avoid for the present open variance with the supreme governing board. +When the senate (in the spring of 704) at the suggestion of Pompeius +requested both him and Caesar to furnish each a legion +for the impending Parthian war(20) and when agreeably to this resolution +Pompeius demanded back from Caesar the legion lent to him +some years before, so as to send it to Syria, Caesar complied with +the double demand, because neither the opportuneness of this decree +of the senate nor the justice of the demand of Pompeius +could in themselves be disputed, and the keeping within the bounds +of the law and of formal loyalty was of more consequence to Caesar +than a few thousand soldiers. The two legions came without delay +and placed themselves at the disposal of the government, but instead +of sending them to the Euphrates, the latter kept them at Capua +in readiness for Pompeius; and the public had once more the opportunity +of comparing the manifest endeavours of Caesar to avoid a rupture +with the perfidious preparation for war by his opponents. + +Curio + +For the discussions with the senate Caesar had succeeded +in purchasing not only one of the two consuls of the year, +Lucius Aemilius Paullus, but above all the tribune of the people +Gaius Curio, probably the most eminent among the many profligate men +of parts in this epoch;(21) unsurpassed in refined elegance, in fluent +and clever oratory, in dexterity of intrigue, and in that energy +which in the case of vigorous but vicious characters bestirs itself +only the more powerfully amid the pauses of idleness; but also +unsurpassed in his dissolute life, in his talent for borrowing-- +his debts were estimated at 60,000,000 sesterces (600,000 pounds)-- +and in his moral and political want of principle. He had previously +offered himself to be bought by Caesar and had been rejected; +the talent, which he thenceforward displayed in his attacks on Caesar, +induced the latter subsequently to buy him up--the price was high, +but the commodity was worth the money. + +Debates as to the Recall of Caesar and Pompeius + +Curio had in the first months of his tribunate of the people +played the independent republican, and had as such thundered +both against Caesar and against Pompeius. He availed himself +with rare skill of the apparently impartial position which +this gave him, when in March 704 the proposal as to the filling up +of the Gallic governorships for the next year came up afresh +for discussion in the senate; he completely approved the decree, +but asked that it should be at the same time extended to Pompeius +and his extraordinary commands. His arguments--that a constitutional +state of things could only be brought about by the removal +of all exceptional positions, that Pompeius as merely entrusted +by the senate with the proconsulship could still less than Caesar +refuse obedience to it, that the one-sided removal of one +of the two generals would only increase the danger to the constitution-- +carried complete conviction to superficial politicians and to the public +at large; and the declaration of Curio, that he intended to prevent +any onesided proceedings against Caesar by the veto constitutionally +belonging to him, met with much approval in and out of the senate. +Caesar declared his consent at once to Curio's proposal +and offered to resign his governorship and command at any moment +on the summons of the senate, provided Pompeius would do the same; +he might safely do so, for Pompeius without his Italo-Spanish command +was no longer formidable. Pompeius again for that very reason +could not avoid refusing; his reply--that Caesar must first resign, +and that he meant speedily to follow the example thus set-- +was the less satisfactory, that he did not even specify +a definite term for his retirement. Again the decision was delayed +for months; Pompeius and the Catonians, perceiving the dubious humour +of the majority of the senate, did not venture to bring Curio's +proposal to a vote. Caesar employed the summer in establishing +the state of peace in the regions which he had conquered, in holding +a great review of his troops on the Scheldt, and in making +a triumphal march through the province of North Italy, which was +entirely devoted to him; autumn found him in Ravenna, the southern +frontier-town of his province. + +Caesar and Pompeius Both Recalled + +The vote which could no longer be delayed on Curio's proposal +at length took place, and exhibited the defeat of the party +of Pompeius and Cato in all its extent. By 370 votes against 20 +the senate resolved that the proconsuls of Spain and Gaul +should both be called upon to resign their offices; and with boundless +joy the good burgesses of Rome heard the glad news of the saving +achievement of Curio. Pompeius was thus recalled by the senate +no less than Caesar, and while Caesar was ready to comply with +the command, Pompeius positively refused obedience. The presiding +consul Gaius Marcellus, cousin of Marcus Marcellus and like the latter +belonging to the Catonian party, addressed a severe lecture +to the servile majority; and it was, no doubt, vexatious +to be thus beaten in their own camp and beaten by means of a phalanx +of poltroons. But where was victory to come from under a leader, +who, instead of shortly and distinctly dictating his orders +to the senators, resorted in his old days a second time +to the instructions of a professor of rhetoric, that with eloquence +polished up afresh he might encounter the youthful vigour +and brilliant talents of Curio? + +Declaration of War + +The coalition, defeated in the senate, was in the most painful position. +The Catonian section had undertaken to push matters to a rupture +and to carry the senate along with them, and now saw their vessel +stranded after a most vexatious manner on the sandbanks of the indolent +majority. Their leaders had to listen in their conferences +to the bitterest reproaches from Pompeius; he pointed out +emphatically and with entire justice the dangers of the seeming peace; +and, though it depended on himself alone to cut the knot +by rapid action, his allies knew very well that they could never expect +this from him, and that it was for them, as they had promised, +to bring matters to a crisis. After the champions of the constitution +and of senatorial government had already declared the constitutional +rights of the burgesses and of the tribunes of the people +to be meaningless formalities,(22) they now found themselves +driven by necessity to treat the constitutional decision; of the senate +itself in a similar manner and, as the legitimate government +would not let itself be saved with its own consent, to save it +against its will. This was neither new nor accidental; Sulla(23) +and Lucullus(24) had been obliged to carry every energetic +resolution conceived by them in the true interest of the government +with a high hand irrespective of it, just as Cato and his friends +now proposed to do; the machinery of the constitution was in fact +utterly effete, and the senate was now--as the comitia had been +for centuries--nothing but a worn-out wheel slipping constantly +out of its track. + +It was rumoured (Oct. 704) that Caesar had moved four legions +from Transalpine into Cisalpine Gaul and stationed them at Placentia. +This transference of troops was of itself within the prerogative +of the governor; Curio moreover palpably showed in the senate +the utter groundlessness of the rumour; and they by a majority +rejected the proposal of the consul Gaius Marcellus to give +Pompeius on the strength of it orders to march against Caesar. +Yet the said consul, in concert with the two consuls elected for 705 +who likewise belonged to the Catonian party, proceeded to Pompeius, +and these three men by virtue of their own plenitude of power +requested the general to put himself at the head of the two legions +stationed at Capua, and to call the Italian militia to arms +at his discretion. A more informal authorization for the commencement +of a civil war can hardly be conceived; but people had no longer time +to attend to such secondary matters; Pompeius accepted it. +The military preparations, the levies began; in order personally +to forward them, Pompeius left the capital in December 704. + +The Ultimatum of Caesar + +Caesar had completely attained the object of devolving +the initiative of civil war on his opponents. He had, while himself +keeping on legal ground, compelled Pompeius to declare war, +and to declare it not as representative of the legitimate authority, +but as general of an openly revolutionary minority of the senate +which overawed the majority. This result was not to be reckoned +of slight importance, although the instinct of the masses could not +and did not deceive itself for a moment as to the fact that the war +concerned other things than questions of formal law. Now, when war +was declared, it was Caesar's interest to strike a blow as soon +as possible. The preparations of his opponents were just beginning +and even the capital was not occupied. In ten or twelve days +an army three times as strong as the troops of Caesar +that were in Upper Italy could be collected at Rome; but still +it was not impossible to surprise the city undefended, or even perhaps +by a rapid winter campaign to seize all Italy, and to shut off +the best resources of his opponents before they could make them available. +The sagacious and energetic Curio, who after resigning his tribunate +(10 Dec. 704) had immediately gone to Caesar at Ravenna, +vividly represented the state of things to his master; +and it hardly needed such a representation to convince Caesar +that longer delay now could only be injurious. But, as he with the view +of not giving his antagonists occasion to complain had hitherto +brought no troops to Ravenna itself, he could for the present do nothing +but despatch orders to his whole force to set out with all haste; +and he had to wait till at least the one legion stationed in Upper Italy +reached Ravenna. Meanwhile he sent an ultimatum to Rome, +which, if useful for nothing else, by its extreme submissiveness +still farther compromised his opponents in public opinion, +and perhaps even, as he seemed himself to hesitate, induced them +to prosecute more remissly their preparations against him. +In this ultimatum Caesar dropped all the counter-demands +which he formerly made on Pompeius, and offered on his own part +both to resign the governorship of Transalpine Gaul, and to dismiss +eight of the ten legions belonging to him, at the term fixed +by the senate; he declared himself content, if the senate would leave him +either the governorship of Cisalpine Gaul and Illyria with one, +or that of Cisalpine Gaul alone with two, legions, not, forsooth, +up to his investiture with the consulship, but till after the close +of the consular elections for 706. He thus consented to those proposals +of accommodation, with which at the beginning of the discussions +the senatorial party and even Pompeius himself had declared +that they would be satisfied, and showed himself ready to remain +in a private position from his election to the consulate down to +his entering on office. Whether Caesar was in earnest with these +astonishing concessions and had confidence that he should be able +to carry through his game against Pompeius even after granting +so much, or whether he reckoned that those on the other side +had already gone too far to find in these proposals of compromise +more than a proof that Caesar regarded his cause itself as lost, +can no longer be with certainty determined. The probability is, +that Caesar committed the fault of playing a too bold game, far worse +rather than the fault of promising something which he was not minded +to perform; and that, if strangely enough his proposals had been +accepted, he would have made good his word. + +Last Debate in the Senate + +Curio undertook once more to represent his master in the lion's den. +In three days he made the journey from Ravenna to Rome. +When the new consuls Lucius Lentulus and Gaius Marcellus the younger(25) +assembled the senate for the first time on 1 Jan. 705, he delivered +in a full meeting the letter addressed by the general to the senate. +The tribunes of the people, Marcus Antonius well known +in the chronicle of scandal of the city as the intimate friend +of Curio and his accomplice in all his follies, but at the same time +known from the Egyptian and Gallic campaigns as a brilliant cavalry +officer, and Quintus Cassius, Pompeius' former quaestor,--the two, +who were now in Curio's stead managing the cause of Caesar in Rome-- +insisted on the immediate reading of the despatch. The grave +and clear words in which Caesar set forth the imminence of civil war, +the general wish for peace, the arrogance of Pompeius, and his own +yielding disposition, with all the irresistible force of truth; +the proposals for a compromise, of a moderation which doubtless +surprised his own partisans; the distinct declaration that this was +the last time that he should offer his hand for peace-- +made the deepest impression. In spite of the dread inspired +by the numerous soldiers of Pompeius who flocked into the capital, +the sentiment of the majority was not doubtful; the consuls could not +venture to let it find expression. Respecting the proposal renewed +by Caesar that both generals might be enjoined to resign their commands +simultaneously, respecting all the projects of accommodation +suggested by his letter, and respecting the proposal made +by Marcus Coelius Rufus and Marcus Calidius that Pompeius +should be urged immediately to depart for Spain, the consuls refused-- +as they in the capacity of presiding officers were entitled to do-- +to let a vote take place. Even the proposal of one of their +most decided partisans who was simply not so blind to the military +position of affairs as his party, Marcus Marcellus--to defer +the determination till the Italian levy en masse could be under arms +and could protect the senate--was not allowed to be brought to a vote. +Pompeius caused it to be declared through his usual organ, +Quintus Scipio, that he was resolved to take up the cause of the senate +now or never, and that he would let it drop if they longer delayed. +The consul Lentulus said in plain terms that even the decree +of the senate was no longer of consequence, and that, if it +should persevere in its servility, he would act of himself +and with his powerful friends take the farther steps necessary. +Thus overawed, the majority decreed what was commanded-- +that Caesar should at a definite and not distant day give up +Transalpine Gaul to Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, and Cisalpine Gaul +to Marcus Servilius Nonianus, and should dismiss his army, +failing which he should be esteemed a traitor. When the tribunes +of Caesar's party made use of their right of veto against this resolution, +not only were they, as they at least asserted, threatened +in the senate-house itself by the swords of Pompeian soldiers, +and forced, in order to save their lives, to flee in slaves' +clothing from the capital; but the now sufficiently overawed senate +treated their formally quite constitutional interference +as an attempt at revolution, declared the country in danger, +and in the usual forms called the whole burgesses to take up arms, +and all magistrates faithful to the constitution to place themselves +at the head of the armed (7 Jan. 705). + +Caesar Marches into Italy + +Now it was enough. When Caesar was informed by the tribunes +who had fled to his camp entreating protection as to the reception +which his proposals had met with in the capital, he called together +the soldiers of the thirteenth legion, which had meanwhile arrived +from its cantonments near Tergeste (Trieste) at Ravenna, +and unfolded before them the state of things. It was not merely +the man of genius versed in the knowledge and skilled in the control +of men's hearts, whose brilliant eloquence shone forth and glowed +in this agitating crisis of his own and the world's destiny; +nor merely the generous commander-in-chief and the victorious general, +addressing soldiers, who had been called by himself to arms +and for eight years had followed his banners with daily-increasing +enthusiasm. There spoke, above all, the energetic and consistent +statesman, who had now for nine-and-twenty years defended +the cause of freedom in good and evil times; who had braved for it +the daggers of assassins and the executioners of the aristocracy, +the swords of the Germans and the waves of the unknown ocean, +without ever yielding or wavering; who had torn to pieces +the Sullan constitution, had overthrown the rule of the senate, +and had furnished the defenceless and unarmed democracy with protection +and with arms by means of the struggle beyond the Alps. And he spoke, +not to the Clodian public whose republican enthusiasm had been +long burnt down to ashes and dross, but to the young men from the towns +and villages of Northern Italy, who still felt freshly and purely +the mighty influence of the thought of civic freedom; who were still +capable of fighting and of dying for ideals; who had themselves +received for their country in a revolutionary way from Caesar +the burgess-rights which the government refused to them; +whom Caesar's fall would leave once more at the mercy of the -fasces-, +and who already possessed practical proofs(26) of the inexorable use +which the oligarchy proposed to make of these against the Transpadanes. +Such were the listeners before whom such an orator set forth the facts-- +the thanks for the conquest of Gaul which the nobility were preparing +for the general and his army; the contemptuous setting aside +of the comitia; the overawing of the senate; the sacred duty +of protecting with armed hand the tribunate of the people wrested +five hundred years ago by their fathers arms in hand from the nobility, +and of keeping the ancient oath which these had taken for themselves +as for their children's children that they would man by man stand firm +even to death for the tribunes of the people.(27) And then, when he-- +the leader and general of the popular party--summoned the soldiers +of the people, now that conciliatory means had been exhausted +and concession had reached its utmost limits, to follow him in the last, +the inevitable, the decisive struggle against the equally hated +and despised, equally perfidious and incapable, and in fact ludicrously +incorrigible aristocracy--there was not an officer or a soldier +who could hold back. The order was given for departure; at the head +of his vanguard Caesar crossed the narrow brook which separated +his province from Italy, and which the constitution forbade +the proconsul of Gaul to pass. When after nine years' absence +he trod once more the soil of his native land, he trod at the same time +the path of revolution. "The die was cast." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +Brundisium, Ilerda, Pharsalus, and Thapsus + +The Resources on Either Side + +Arms were thus to decide which of the two men who had hitherto +jointly ruled Rome was now to be its first sole ruler. Let us see +what were the comparative resources at the disposal of Caesar +and Pompeius for the waging of the impending war. + +Caesar's Absolute Power within His Party + +Caesar's power rested primarily on the wholly unlimited authority +which he enjoyed within his party. If the ideas of democracy +and of monarchy met together in it, this was not the result +of a coalition which had been accidentally entered into and might be +accidentally dissolved; on the contrary it was involved +in the very essence of a democracy without a representative constitution, +that democracy and monarchy should find in Caesar at once their highest +and ultimate expression. In political as in military matters +throughout the first and the final decision lay with Caesar. +However high the honour in which he held any serviceable instrument, +it remained an instrument still; Caesar stood, in his own party +without confederates, surrounded only by military-political +adjutants, who as a rule had risen from the army and as soldiers +were trained never to ask the reason and purpose of any thing, +but unconditionally to obey. On this account especially, +at the decisive moment when the civil war began, of all the officers +and soldiers of Caesar one alone refused him obedience; +and the circumstance that that one was precisely the foremost +of them all, serves simply to confirm this view of the relation +of Caesar to his adherents. + +Labienus + +Titus Labienus had shared with Caesar all the troubles of the dark times +of Catilina(1) as well as all the lustre of the Gallic career of victory, +had regularly held independent command, and frequently led half the army; +as he was the oldest, ablest, and most faithful of Caesar's adjutants, +he was beyond question also highest in position and highest in honour. +As late as in 704 Caesar had entrusted to him the supreme command +in Cisalpine Gaul, in order partly to put this confidential post +into safe hands, partly to forward the views of Labienus in his canvass +for the consulship. But from this very position Labienus entered +into communication with the opposite party, resorted at the beginning +of hostilities in 705 to the headquarters of Pompeius instead of those +of Caesar, and fought through the whole civil strife with unparalleled +bitterness against his old friend and master in war. We are not +sufficiently informed either as to the character of Labienus +or as to the special circumstances of his changing sides; +but in the main his case certainly presents nothing but a further proof +of the fact, that a military chief can reckon far more surely +on his captains than on his marshals. To all appearance Labienus +was one of those persons who combine with military efficiency +utter incapacity as statesmen, and who in consequence, if they +unhappily choose or are compelled to take part in politics, are exposed +to those strange paroxysms of giddiness, of which the history +of Napoleon's marshals supplies so many tragi-comic examples. +He may probably have held himself entitled to rank alongside of Caesar +as the second chief of the democracy; and the rejection of this claim +of his may have sent him over to the camp of his opponents. +His case rendered for the first time apparent the whole gravity +of the evil, that Caesar's treatment of his officers as adjutants +without independence admitted of the rise of no men fitted to undertake +a separate command in his camp, while at the same time he stood +urgently in need of such men amidst the diffusion--which might easily +be foreseen--of the impending struggle through all the provinces +of the wide empire. But this disadvantage was far outweighed +by that unity in the supreme leadership, which was the primary condition +of all success, and a condition only to be preserved at such a cost. + +Caesar's Army + +This unity of leadership acquired its full power through the efficiency +of its instruments. Here the army comes, first of all, into view. +It still numbered nine legions of infantry or at the most +50,000 men, all of whom however had faced the enemy and two-thirds +had served in all the campaigns against the Celts. The cavalry +consisted of German and Noric mercenaries, whose usefulness +and trustworthiness had been proved in the war against Vercingetorix. +The eight years' warfare, full of varied vicissitudes, +against the Celtic nation--which was brave, although in a military +point of view decidedly inferior to the Italian--had given Caesar +the opportunity of organizing his army as he alone knew +how to organize it. The whole efficiency of the soldier +presupposes physical vigour; in Caesar's levies more regard was had +to the strength and activity of the recruits than to their means +or their morals. But the serviceableness of an army, like that +of any other machine, depends above all on the ease and quickness +of its movements; the soldiers of Caesar attained a perfection +rarely reached and probably never surpassed in their readiness +for immediate departure at any time, and in the rapidity +of their marching. Courage, of course, was valued above everything; +Caesar practised with unrivalled mastery the art of stimulating +martial emulation and the esprit de corps, so that the pre-eminence +accorded to particular soldiers and divisions appeared even to those +who were postponed as the necessary hierarchy of valour. +He weaned his men from fear by not unfrequently--where it could be done +without serious danger--keeping his soldiers in ignorance +of an approaching conflict, and allowing them to encounter +the enemy unexpectedly. But obedience was on a parity with valour. +The soldier was required to do what he was bidden, without asking +the reason or the object; many an aimless fatigue was imposed on him +solely as a training in the difficult art of blind obedience. +The discipline was strict but not harassing; it was exercised +with unrelenting vigour when the soldier was in presence of the enemy; +at other times, especially after victory, the reins were relaxed, +and if an otherwise efficient soldier was then pleased to indulge +in perfumery or to deck himself with elegant arms and the like, +or even if he allowed himself to be guilty of outrages +or irregularities of a very questionable kind, provided only +his military duties were not immediately affected, the foolery +and the crime were allowed to pass, and the general lent a deaf ear +to the complaints of the provincials on such points. Mutiny +on the other hand was never pardoned, either in the instigators, +or even in the guilty corps itself. + +But the true soldier ought to be not merely capable, brave, +and obedient, he ought to be all this willingly and spontaneously; +and it is the privilege of gifted natures alone to induce the animated +machine which they govern to a joyful service by means of example +and of hope, and especially by the consciousness of being turned +to befitting use. As the officer, who would demand valour +from his troops, must himself have looked danger in the face with them, +Caesar had even when general found opportunity of drawing his sword +and had then used it like the best; in activity, moreover, +and fatigue he was constantly far more exacting from himself +than from his soldiers. Caesar took care that victory, which primarily +no doubt brings gain to the general, should be associated also +with personal hopes in the minds of the soldiers. We have already +mentioned that he knew how to render his soldiers enthusiastic +for the cause of the democracy, so far as the times which had become +prosaic still admitted of enthusiasm, and that the political equalization +of the Transpadane country--the native land of most of his soldiers-- +with Italy proper was set forth as one of the objects of the struggle.(2) +Of course material recompenses were at the same time not wanting-- +as well special rewards for distinguished feats of arms as general +rewards for every efficient soldier; the officers had their portions, +the soldiers received presents, and the most lavish gifts were placed +in prospect for the triumph. + +Above all things Caesar as a true commander understood +how to awaken in every single component element, large or small, +of the mighty machine the consciousness of its befitting application. +The ordinary man is destined for service, and he has no objection +to be an instrument, if he feels that a master guides him. Everywhere +and at all times the eagle eye of the general rested on the whole army, +rewarding and punishing with impartial justice, and directing +the action of each towards the course conducive to the good of all: +so that there was no experimenting or trifling with the sweat and blood +of the humblest, but for that very reason, where it was necessary, +unconditional devotion even to death was required. Without allowing +each individual to see into the whole springs of action, +Caesar yet allowed each to catch such glimpses of the political +and military connection of things as to secure that he should +be recognized--and it may be idealized--by the soldiers +as a statesman and a general. He treated his soldiers throughout, +not as his equals, but as men who are entitled to demand and were able +to endure the truth, and who had to put faith in the promises +and the assurances of their general, without thinking of deception +or listening to rumours; as comrades through long years in warfare +and victory, among whom there was hardly any one that was not known +to him by name and that in the course of so many campaigns +had not formed more or less of a personal relation to the general; +as good companions, with whom he talked and dealt confidentially +and with the cheerful elasticity peculiar to him; as clients, +to requite whose services, and to avenge whose wrongs and death, +constituted in his view a sacred duty. Perhaps there never was an army +which was so perfectly what an army ought to be--a machine able +for its ends and willing for its ends, in the hand of a master, +who transfers to it his own elasticity. Caesar's soldiers were, +and felt themselves, a match for a tenfold superior force; +in connection with which it should not be overlooked, that under +the Roman tactics--calculated altogether for hand-to-hand conflict +and especially for combat with the sword--the practised Roman soldier +was superior to the novice in a far higher degree than is now the case +under the circumstances of modern times.(3) But still more +than by the superiority of valour the adversaries of Caesar +felt themselves humbled by the unchangeable and touching fidelity +with which his soldiers clung to their general. It is perhaps +without a parallel in history, that when the general summoned +his soldiers to follow him into the civil war, with the single exception +already mentioned of Labienus, no Roman officer and no Roman soldier +deserted him. The hopes of his opponents as to an extensive +desertion were thwarted as ignominiously as the former attempts +to break up his army like that of Lucullus.(4) Labienus himself +appeared in the camp of Pompeius with a band doubtless of Celtic +and German horsemen but without a single legionary. Indeed +the soldiers, as if they would show that the war was quite as much +their matter as that of their general, settled among themselves +that they would give credit for the pay, which Caesar had promised +to double for them at the outbreak of the civil war, to their commander +up to its termination, and would meanwhile support their poorer comrades +from the general means; besides, every subaltern officer +equipped and paid a trooper out of his own purse. + +Field of Caesar's Power +Upper Italy + +While Caesar thus had the one thing which was needful-- +unlimited political and military authority and a trustworthy army +ready for the fight--his power extended, comparatively speaking, +over only a very limited space. It was based essentially +on the province of Upper Italy. This region was not merely +the most populous of all the districts of Italy, but also devoted +to the cause of the democracy as its own. The feeling +which prevailed there is shown by the conduct of a division of recruits +from Opitergium (Oderzo in the delegation of Treviso), which not long +after the outbreak of the war in the Illyrian waters, surrounded +on a wretched raft by the war-vessels of the enemy, allowed themselves +to be shot at during the whole day down to sunset without surrendering, +and, such of them as had escaped the missiles, put themselves to death +with their own hands during the following night. It is easy to conceive +what might be expected of such a population. As they had already +granted to Caesar the means of more than doubling his original army, +so after the outbreak of the civil war recruits presented themselves +in great numbers for the ample levies that were immediately instituted. + +Italy + +In Italy proper, on the other hand, the influence of Caesar was not +even remotely to be compared to that of his opponents. Although +he had the skill by dexterous manoeuvres to put the Catonian party +in the wrong, and had sufficiently commended the rectitude +of his cause to all who wished for a pretext with a good conscience +either to remain neutral, like the majority of the senate, +or to embrace his side, like his soldiers and the Transpadanes, +the mass of the burgesses naturally did not allow themselves to be misled +by these things and, when the commandant of Gaul put his legions +in motion against Rome, they beheld--despite all formal explanations +as to law--in Cato and Pompeius the defenders of the legitimate republic, +in Caesar the democratic usurper. People in general moreover +expected from the nephew of Marius, the son-in-law of Cinna, +the ally of Catilina, a repetition of the Marian and Cinnan horrors, +a realization of the saturnalia of anarchy projected by Catilina; +and though Caesar certainly gained allies through this expectation-- +so that the political refugees immediately put themselves in a body +at his disposal, the ruined men saw in him their deliverer, +and the lowest ranks of the rabble in the capital and country towns +were thrown into a ferment on the news of his advance,--these belonged +to the class of friends who are more dangerous than foes. + +Provinces + +In the provinces and the dependent states Caesar had +even less influence than in Italy. Transalpine Gaul indeed as far as +the Rhine and the Channel obeyed him, and the colonists of Narbo +as well as the Roman burgesses elsewhere settled in Gaul +were devoted to him; but in the Narbonese province itself +the constitutional party had numerous adherents, and now even +the newly-conquered regions were far more a burden than a benefit +to Caesar in the impending civil war; in fact, for good reasons +he made no use of the Celtic infantry at all in that war, +and but sparing use of the cavalry. In the other provinces +and the neighbouring half or wholly independent states +Caesar had indeed attempted to procure for himself support, +had lavished rich presents on the princes, caused great buildings +to be executed in various towns, and granted to them in case of need +financial and military assistance; but on the whole, of course, +not much had been gained by this means, and the relations +with the German and Celtic princes in the regions of the Rhine +and the Danube,--particularly the connection with the Noric king Voccio, +so important for the recruiting of cavalry,--were probably +the only relations of this sort which were of any moment for him. + +The Coalition + +While Caesar thus entered the struggle only as commandant of Gaul, +without other essential resources than efficient adjutants, +a faithful army, and a devoted province, Pompeius began it +as de facto supreme head of the Roman commonwealth, and in full +possession of all the resources that stood at the disposal +of the legitimate government of the great Roman empire. But while +his position was in a political and military point of view +far more considerable, it was also on the other hand far less definite +and firm. The unity of leadership, which resulted of itself +and by necessity from the position of Caesar, was inconsistent +with the nature of a coalition; and although Pompeius, too much +of a soldier to deceive himself as to its being indispensable, +attempted to force it on the coalition and got himself nominated +by the senate as sole and absolute generalissimo by land and sea, +yet the senate itself could not be set aside nor hindered +from a preponderating influence on the political, and an occasional +and therefore doubly injurious interference with the military, +superintendence. The recollection of the twenty years' war +waged on both sides with envenomed weapons between Pompeius +and the constitutional party; the feeling which vividly prevailed +on both sides, and which they with difficulty concealed, +that the first consequence of the victory when achieved would be +a rupture between the victors; the contempt which they entertained +for each other and with only too good grounds in either case; +the inconvenient number of respectable and influential men in the ranks +of the aristocracy and the intellectual and moral inferiority +of almost all who took part in the matter--altogether produced +among the opponents of Caesar a reluctant and refractory co-operation, +which formed the saddest contrast to the harmonious and compact action +on the other side. + +Field of Power of the Coalition +Juba of Numidia + +While all the disadvantages incident to the coalition of powers +naturally hostile were thus felt in an unusual measure by Caesar's +antagonists, this coalition was certainly still a very considerable power. +It had exclusive command of the sea; all ports, all ships of war, +all the materials for equipping a fleet were at its disposal. +The two Spains--as it were the home of the power of Pompeius +just as the two Gauls were the home of that of Caesar-- +were faithful adherents to their master and in the hands of able +and trustworthy administrators. In the other provinces also, +of course with the exception of the two Gauls, the posts +of the governors and commanders had during recent years been filled up +with safe men under the influence of Pompeius and the minority +of the senate. The client-states throughout and with great decision +took part against Caesar and in favour of Pompeius. The most important +princes and cities had been brought into the closest personal relations +with Pompeius in virtue of the different sections of his manifold +activity. In the war against the Marians, for instance, he had been +the companion in arms of the kings of Numidia and Mauretania and had +reestablished the kingdom of the former;(5) in the Mithradatic war, +in addition to a number of other minor principalities spiritual +and temporal, he had re-established the kingdoms of Bosporus, Armenia, +and Cappadocia, and created that of Deiotarus in Galatia;(6) +it was primarily at his instigation that the Egyptian war was undertaken, +and it was by his adjutant that the rule of the Lagids +had been confirmed afresh.(7) Even the city of Massilia +in Caesar's own province, while indebted to the latter +doubtless for various favours, was indebted to Pompeius +at the time of the Sertorian war for a very considerable extension +of territory;(8) and, besides, the ruling oligarchy there stood +in natural alliance--strengthened by various mutual relations-- +with the oligarchy in Rome. But these personal and relative +considerations as well as the glory of the victor in three continents, +which in these more remote parts of the empire far outshone +that of the conqueror of Gaul, did perhaps less harm to Caesar +in those quarters than the views and designs--which had not remained +there unknown--of the heir of Gaius Gracchus as to the necessity +of uniting the dependent states and the usefulness of provincial +colonizations. No one of the dependent dynasts found himself +more imminently threatened by this peril than Juba king +of Numidia. Not only had he years before, in the lifetime +of his father Hiempsal, fallen into a vehement personal quarrel +with Caesar, but recently the same Curio, who now occupied almost +the first place among Caesar's adjutants, had proposed to the Roman +burgesses the annexation of the Numidian kingdom. Lastly, if matters +should go so far as to lead the independent neighbouring states +to interfere in the Roman civil war, the only state really powerful, +that of the Parthians, was practically already allied +with the aristocratic party by the connection entered into +between Pacorus and Bibulus,(9) while Caesar was far too much a Roman +to league himself for party-interests with the conquerors +of his friend Crassus. + +Italy against Caesar + +As to Italy the great majority of the burgesses were, as has been +already mentioned, averse to Caesar--more especially, of course, +the whole aristocracy with their very considerable following, +but also in a not much less degree the great capitalists, +who could not hope in the event of a thorough reform of the commonwealth +to preserve their partisan jury-courts and their monopoly of extortion. +Of equally anti-democratic sentiments were the small capitalists, +the landholders and generally all classes that had anything to lose; +but in these ranks of life the cares of the next rent-term and of sowing +and reaping outweighed, as a rule, every other consideration. + +The Pompeian Army + +The army at the disposal of Pompeius consisted chiefly +of the Spanish troops, seven legions inured to war and in every respect +trustworthy; to which fell to be added the divisions of troops-- +weak indeed, and very much scattered--which were to be found +in Syria, Asia, Macedonia, Africa, Sicily, and elsewhere. In Italy +there were under arms at the outset only the two legions +recently given off by Caesar, whose effective strength did not amount +to more than 7000 men, and whose trustworthiness was more than doubtful, +because--levied in Cisalpine Gaul and old comrades in arms +of Caesar--they were in a high degree displeased at the unbecoming +intrigue by which they had been made to change camps,(10) +and recalled with longing their general who had magnanimously +paid to them beforehand at their departure the presents +which were promised to every soldier for the triumph. +But, apart from the circumstance that the Spanish troops might arrive +in Italy with the spring either by the land route through Gaul +or by sea, the men of the three legions still remaining +from the levies of 699,(11) as well as the Italian levy sworn +to allegiance in 702,(12) could be recalled from their furlough. +Including these, the number of troops standing at the disposal +of Pompeius on the whole, without reckoning the seven legions in Spain +and those scattered in other provinces, amounted in Italy alone +to ten legions(13) or about 60,000 men, so that it was no exaggeration +at all, when Pompeius asserted that he had only to stamp +with his foot to cover the ground with armed men. It is true +that it required some interval--though but short--to render +these soldiers available; but the arrangements for this purpose +as well as for the carrying out of the new levies ordered by the senate +in consequence of the outbreak of the civil war were already +everywhere in progress. Immediately after the decisive decree +of the senate (7 Jan. 705), in the very depth of winter +the most eminent men of the aristocracy set out to the different +districts, to hasten the calling up of recruits and the preparation +of arms. The want of cavalry was much felt, as for this arm +they had been accustomed to rely wholly on the provinces and especially +on the Celtic contingents; to make at least a beginning, +three hundred gladiators belonging to Caesar were taken +from the fencing-schools of Capua and mounted--a step which however +met with so general disapproval, that Pompeius again broke up +this troop and levied in room of it 300 horsemen from the mounted +slave-herdmen of Apulia. + +The state-treasury was at a low ebb as usual; they busied themselves +in supplementing the inadequate amount of cash out of the local +treasuries and even from the temple-treasures of the -municipia-. + +Caesar Takes the Offensive + +Under these circumstances the war opened at the beginning +of January 705. Of troops capable of marching Caesar had not +more than a legion--5000 infantry and 300 cavalry--at Ravenna, +which was by the highway some 240 miles distant from Rome; Pompeius +had two weak legions--7000 infantry and a small squadron of cavalry-- +under the orders of Appius Claudius at Luceria, from which, +likewise by the highway, the distance was just about as great +to the capital. The other troops of Caesar, leaving out of account +the raw divisions of recruits still in course of formation, +were stationed, one half on the Saone and Loire, the other half +in Belgica, while Pompeius' Italian reserves were already arriving +from all sides at their rendezvous; long before even the first +of the Transalpine divisions of Caesar could arrive in Italy, +a far superior army could not but be ready to receive it there. +It seemed folly, with a band of the strength of that of Catilina +and for the moment without any effective reserve, to assume +the aggressive against a superior and hourly-increasing army +under an able general; but it was a folly in the spirit of Hannibal. +If the beginning of the struggle were postponed till spring, +the Spanish troops of Pompeius would assume the offensive +in Transalpine, and his Italian troops in Cisalpine, Gaul, +and Pompeius, a match for Caesar in tactics and superior to him +in experience, was a formidable antagonist in such a campaign +running its regular course. Now perhaps, accustomed as he was +to operate slowly and surely with superior masses, he might +be disconcerted by a wholly improvised attack; and that which +could not greatly discompose Caesar's thirteenth legion +after the severe trial of the Gallic surprise and the January campaign +in the land of the Bellovaci,(14)--the suddenness of the war and the toil +of a winter campaign--could not but disorganize the Pompeian corps +consisting of old soldiers of Caesar or of ill-trained recruits, +and still only in the course of formation. + +Caesar's Advance + +Accordingly Caesar advanced into Italy.(15) Two highways led +at that time from the Romagna to the south; the Aemilio-Cassian +which led from Bononia over the Apennines to Arretium and Rome, +and the Popillio-Flaminian, which led from Ravenna along the coast +of the Adriatic to Fanum and was there divided, one branch running +westward through the Furlo pass to Rome, another southward +to Ancona and thence onward to Apulia. On the former Marcus Antonius +advanced as far as Arretium, on the second Caesar himself +pushed forward. Resistance was nowhere encountered; the recruiting +officers of quality had no military skill, their bands of recruits +were no soldiers, the inhabitants of the country towns were only anxious +not to be involved in a siege. When Curio with 1500 men +approached Iguvium, where a couple of thousand Umbrian recruits +had assembled under the praetor Quintus Minucius Thermus, +general and soldiers took to flight at the bare tidings of his approach; +and similar results on a small scale everywhere ensued. + +Rome Evacuated + +Caesar had to choose whether he would march against Rome, from which +his cavalry at Arretium were already only about 130 miles distant, +or against the legions encamped at Luceria. He chose the latter plan. +The consternation of the opposite party was boundless. +Pompeius received the news of Caesar's advance at Rome; he seemed +at first disposed to defend the capital, but, when the tidings +arrived of Caesar's entrance into the Picenian territory +and of his first successes there, he abandoned Rome and ordered +its evacuation. A panic, augmented by the false report that Caesar's +cavalry had appeared before the gates, came over the world of quality. +The senators, who had been informed that every one who should +remain behind in the capital would be treated as an accomplice +of the rebel Caesar, flocked in crowds out at the gates. +The consuls themselves had so totally lost their senses, that they +did not even secure the treasure; when Pompeius called upon them +to fetch it, for which there was sufficient time, they returned +the reply that they would deem it safer, if he should first +occupy Picenum. All was perplexity; consequently a great council of war +was held in Teanum Sidicinum (23 Jan.), at which Pompeius, Labienus, +and both consuls were present. First of all proposals of accommodation +from Caesar were again submitted; even now he declared himself +ready at once to dismiss his army, to hand over his provinces +to the successors nominated, and to become a candidate +in the regular way for the consulship, provided that Pompeius +were to depart for Spain, and Italy were to be disarmed. +The answer was, that if Caesar would immediately return to his province, +they would bind themselves to procure the disarming of Italy +and the departure of Pompeius by a decree of the senate +to be passed in due form in the capital; perhaps this reply +was intended not as a bare artifice to deceive, but as an acceptance +of the proposal of compromise; it was, however, in reality the opposite. +The personal conference which Caesar desired with Pompeius +the latter declined, and could not but decline, that he might not +by the semblance of a new coalition with Caesar provoke still more +the distrust already felt by the constitutional party. Concerning +the management of the war it was agreed in Teanum, that Pompeius +should take the command of the troops stationed at Luceria, +on which notwithstanding their untrustworthiness all hope depended; +that he should advance with these into his own and Labienus' +native country, Picenum; that he should personally call +the general levy there to arms, as he had done some thirty-five +years ago,(16) and should attempt at the head of the faithful +Picentine cohorts and the veterans formerly under Caesar +to set a limit to the advance of the enemy. + +Conflicts in Picenum + +Everything depended on whether Picenum would hold out +until Pompeius should come up to its defence. Already Caesar +with his reunited army had penetrated into it along the coast road +by way of Ancona. Here too the preparations were in full course; +in the very northernmost Picenian town Auximum a considerable band +of recruits was collected under Publius Attius Varus; but at the entreaty +of the municipality Varus evacuated the town even before Caesar +appeared, and a handful of Caesar's soldiers which overtook the troop +not far from Auximum totally dispersed it after a brief conflict-- +the first in this war. In like manner soon afterwards +Gaius Lucilius Hirrus with 3000 men evacuated Camerinum, +and Publius Lentulus Spinther with 5000 Asculum. The men, +thoroughly devoted to Pompeius, willingly for the most part abandoned +their houses and farms, and followed their leaders over the frontier; +but the district itself was already lost, when the officer +sent by Pompeius for the temporary conduct of the defence, +Lucius Vibullius Rufus--no genteel senator, but a soldier +experienced in war--arrived there; he had to content himself +with taking the six or seven thousand recruits who were saved +away from the incapable recruiting officers, and conducting them +for the time to the nearest rendezvous. + +Corfinium Besieged +And Captured + +This was Corfinium, the place of meeting for the levies in the Albensian, +Marsian and Paelignian territories; the body of recruits here assembled, +of nearly 15,000 men, was the contingent of the most warlike +and trustworthy regions of Italy, and the flower of the army +in course of formation for the constitutional party. When Vibullius +arrived here, Caesar was still several days' march behind; +there was nothing to prevent him from immediately starting agreeably +to Pompeius' instructions and conducting the saved Picenian recruits +along with those assembled at Corfinium to join the main army in Apulia. +But the commandant in Corfinium was the designated successor to Caesar +in the governorship of Transalpine Gaul, Lucius Domitius, +one of the most narrow-minded and stubborn of the Roman aristocracy; +and he not only refused to comply with the orders of Pompeius, +but also prevented Vibullius from departing at least with the men +from Picenum for Apulia. So firmly was he persuaded that Pompeius +only delayed from obstinacy and must necessarily come up to his relief, +that he scarcely made any serious preparations for a siege +and did not even gather into Corfinium the bands of recruits +placed in the surrounding towns. Pompeius however did not appear, +and for good reasons; for, while he might perhaps apply +his two untrustworthy legions as a reserved support for the Picenian +general levy, he could not with them alone offer battle to Caesar. +Instead of him after a few days Caesar came (14 Feb.). His troops +had been joined in Picenum by the twelfth, and before Corfinium +by the eighth, legion from beyond the Alps, and, besides these, +three new legions had been formed partly from the Pompeian men +that were taken prisoners or presented themselves voluntarily, +partly from the recruits that were at once levied everywhere; +so that Caesar before Corfinium was already at the head +of an army of 40,000 men, half of whom had seen service. So long as + Domitius hoped for the arrival of Pompeius, he caused the town +to be defended; when the letters of Pompeius had at length undeceived him, +he resolved, not forsooth to persevere at the forlorn post-- +by which he would have rendered the greatest service to his party-- +nor even to capitulate, but, while the common soldiers +were informed that relief was close at hand, to make his own escape +along with his officers of quality during the next night. +Yet he had not the judgment to carry into effect even this pretty scheme. +The confusion of his behaviour betrayed him. A part of the men +began to mutiny; the Marsian recruits, who held such an infamy +on the part of their general to be impossible, wished to fight +against the mutineers; but they too were obliged reluctantly +to believe the truth of the accusation, whereupon the whole garrison +arrested their staff and handed it, themselves, and the town +over to Caesar (20 Feb.). The corps in Alba, 3000 strong, +and 1500 recruits assembled in Tarracina thereupon laid down +their arms, as soon as Caesar's patrols of horsemen appeared; +a third division in Sulmo of 3500 men had been previously +compelled to surrender. + +Pompeius Goes to Brundisium +Embarkation for Greece + +Pompeius had given up Italy as lost, so soon as Caesar +had occupied Picenum; only he wished to delay his embarkation +as long as possible, with the view of saving so much of his force +as could still be saved. Accordingly he had slowly put himself +in motion for the nearest seaport Brundisium. Thither came +the two legions of Luceria and such recruits as Pompeius +had been able hastily to collect in the deserted Apulia, +as well as the troops raised by the consuls and other commissioners +in Campania and conducted in all haste to Brundisium; +thither too resorted a number of political fugitives, +including the most respected of the senators accompanied +by their families. The embarkation began; but the vessels at hand +did not suffice to transport all at once the whole multitude, +which still amounted to 25,000 persons. No course remained +but to divide the army. The larger half went first (4 March); +with the smaller division of some 10,000 men Pompeius +awaited at Brundisium the return of the fleet; for, however desirable +the possession of Brundisium might be for an eventual attempt +to reoccupy Italy, they did not presume to hold the place +permanently against Caesar. Meanwhile Caesar arrived +before Brundisium; the siege began. Caesar attempted first of all +to close the mouth of the harbour by moles and floating bridges, +with a view to exclude the returning fleet; but Pompeius +caused the trading vessels lying in the harbour to be armed, +and managed to prevent the complete closing of the harbour +until the fleet appeared and the troops--whom Pompeius +with great dexterity, in spite of the vigilance of the besiegers +and the hostile feeling of the inhabitants, withdrew from the town +to the last man unharmed--were carried off beyond Caesar's reach +to Greece (17 March). The further pursuit, like the siege itself, +failed for want of a fleet. + +In a campaign of two months, without a single serious engagement, +Caesar had so broken up an army of ten legions, that less than +the half of it had with great difficulty escaped in a confused flight +across the sea, and the whole Italian peninsula, including the capital +with the state-chest and all the stores accumulated there, +had fallen into the power of the victor. Not without reason +did the beaten party bewail the terrible rapidity, sagacity, +and energy of the "monster." + +Military and Financial Results of the Seizure of Italy + +But it may be questioned whether Caesar gained or lost more +by the conquest of Italy. In a military respect, no doubt, +very considerable resources were now not merely withdrawn +from his opponents, but rendered available for himself; +even in the spring of 705 his army embraced, in consequence +of the levies en masse instituted everywhere, a considerable +number of legions of recruits in addition to the nine old ones +But on the other hand it now became necessary not merely +to leave behind a considerable garrison in Italy, but also +to take measures against the closing of the transmarine traffic +contemplated by his opponents who commanded the sea, and against +the famine with which the capital was consequently threatened; +whereby Caesar's already sufficiently complicated military task +was complicated further still. Financially it was certainly +of importance, that Caesar had the good fortune to obtain +possession of the stock of money in the capital; but the principal +sources of income and particularly the revenues from the east +were withal in the hands of the enemy, and, in consequence +of the greatly increased demands for the army and the new obligation +to provide for the starving population of the capital, +the considerable sums which were found quickly melted away. +Caesar soon found himself compelled to appeal to private credit, +and, as it seemed that he could not possibly gain any long respite +by this means, extensive confiscations were generally anticipated +as the only remaining expedient. + +Its Political Results +Fear of Anarchy + +More serious difficulties still were created by the political relations +amidst which Caesar found himself placed on the conquest of Italy. +The apprehension of an anarchical revolution was universal +among the propertied classes. Friends and foes saw in Caesar +a second Catilina; Pompeius believed or affected to believe +that Caesar had been driven to civil war merely by the impossibility +of paying his debts. This was certainly absurd; but in fact Caesar's +antecedents were anything but reassuring, and still less reassuring +was the aspect of the retinue that now surrounded him. +Individuals of the most broken reputation, notorious personages +like Quintus Hortensius, Gaius Curio, Marcus Antonius,-- +the latter the stepson of the Catilinarian Lentulus who was executed +by the orders of Cicero--were the most prominent actors in it; +the highest posts of trust were bestowed on men who had long ceased +even to reckon up their debts; people saw men who held office +under Caesar not merely keeping dancing-girls--which was done +by others also--but appearing publicly in company with them. +Was there any wonder, that even grave and politically impartial men +expected amnesty for all exiled criminals, cancelling +of creditors' claims, comprehensive mandates of confiscation, +proscription, and murder, nay, even a plundering of Rome +by the Gallic soldiery? + +Dispelled by Caesar + +But in this respect the "monster" deceived the expectations +of his foes as well as of his friends. As soon even as Caesar occupied +the first Italian town, Ariminum, he prohibited all common soldiers +from appearing armed within the walls; the country towns +were protected from all injury throughout and without distinction, +whether they had given him a friendly or hostile reception. +When the mutinous garrison surrendered Corfinium late in the evening, +he in the face of every military consideration postponed +the occupation of the town till the following morning, solely +that he might not abandon the burgesses to the nocturnal invasion +of his exasperated soldiers. Of the prisoners the common soldiers, +as presumably indifferent to politics, were incorporated +with his own army, while the officers were not merely spared, +but also freely released without distinction of person and without +the exaction of any promises whatever; and all which they claimed +as private property was frankly given up to them, without even +investigating with any strictness the warrant for their claims. +Lucius Domitius himself was thus treated, and even Labienus had the money +and baggage which he had left behind sent after him to the enemy's camp. +In the most painful financial embarrassment the immense estates +of his opponents whether present or absent were not assailed; indeed +Caesar preferred to borrow from friends, rather than that he should +stir up the possessors of property against him even by exacting +the formally admissible, but practically antiquated, land tax.(17) +The victor regarded only the half, and that not the more difficult half, +of his task as solved with the victory; he saw the security +for its duration, according to his own expression, only +in the unconditional pardon of the vanquished, and had accordingly +during the whole march from Ravenna to Brundisium incessantly +renewed his efforts to bring about a personal conference +with Pompeius and a tolerable accommodation. + +Threats of the Emigrants +The Mass of Quiet People Gained for Caesar + +But, if the aristocracy had previously refused to listen +to any reconciliation, the unexpected emigration of a kind +so disgraceful had raised their wrath to madness, and the wild vengeance +breathed by the beaten contrasted strangely with the placability +of the victor. The communications regularly coming from the camp +of the emigrants to their friends left behind in Italy +were full of projects for confiscations and proscriptions, +of plans for purifying the senate and the state, compared with which +the restoration of Sulla was child's play, and which even +the moderate men of their own party heard with horror. +The frantic passion of impotence, the wise moderation of power, +produced their effect. The whole mass, in whose eyes material interests +were superior to political, threw itself into the arms of Caesar. +The country towns idolized "the uprightness, the moderation, +the prudence" of the victor; and even opponents conceded +that these demonstrations of respect were meant in earnest. +The great capitalists, farmers of the taxes, and jurymen, +showed no special desire, after the severe shipwreck +which had befallen the constitutional party in Italy, +to entrust themselves farther to the same pilots; capital came +once more to the light, and "the rich lords resorted again to their +daily task of writing their rent-rolls." Even the great majority +of the senate, at least numerically speaking--for certainly but few +of the nobler and more influential members of the senate +were included in it--had notwithstanding the orders of Pompeius +and of the consuls remained behind in Italy, and a portion of them +even in the capital itself; and they acquiesced in Caesar's rule. +The moderation of Caesar, well calculated even in its very semblance +of excess, attained its object: the trembling anxiety of the propertied +classes as to the impending anarchy was in some measure allayed. +This was doubtless an incalculable gain for the future; +the prevention of anarchy, and of the scarcely less dangerous alarm +of anarchy, was the indispensable preliminary condition +to the future reorganization of the commonwealth. + +Indignation of the Anarchist Party against Caesar +The Republican Party in Italy + +But at the moment this moderation was more dangerous for Caesar +than the renewal of the Cinnan and Catilinarian fury would have been; +it did not convert enemies into friends, and it converted +friends into enemies. Caesar's Catilinarian adherents +were indignant that murder and pillage remained in abeyance; +these audacious and desperate personages, some of whom +were men of talent, might be expected to prove cross and untractable. +The republicans of all shades, on the other hand, were neither +converted nor propitiated by the leniency of the conqueror. +According to the creed of the Catonian party, duty towards +what they called their fatherland absolved them from every +other consideration; even one who owed freedom and life to Caesar +remained entitled and in duty bound to take up arms or at least +to engage in plots against him. The less decided sections +of the constitutional party were no doubt found willing to accept peace +and protection from the new monarch; nevertheless they ceased not +to curse the monarchy and the monarch at heart. The more clearly +the change of the constitution became manifest, the more distinctly +the great majority of the burgesses--both in the capital with its +keener susceptibility of political excitement, and among +the more energetic population of the country and country towns-- +awoke to a consciousness of their republican sentiments; so far +the friends of the constitution in Rome reported with truth +to their brethren of kindred views in exile, that at home all classes +and all persons were friendly to Pompeius. The discontented temper +of all these circles was further increased by the moral pressure, +which the more decided and more notable men who shared such views +exercised from their very position as emigrants over the multitude +of the humbler and more lukewarm. The conscience of the honourable man +smote him in regard to his remaining in Italy; the half-aristocrat +fancied that he was ranked among the plebeians, if he did not go +into exile with the Domitii and the Metelli, and even if he took his seat +in the Caesarian senate of nobodies. The victor's special clemency +gave to this silent opposition increased political importance; +seeing that Caesar abstained from terrorism, it seemed as if +his secret opponents could display their disinclination +to his rule without much danger. + +Passive Resistance of the Senate to Caesar + +Very soon he experienced remarkable treatment in this respect +at the hands of the senate. Caesar had begun the struggle +to liberate the overawed senate from its oppressors. This was done; +consequently he wished to obtain from the senate approval +of what had been done, and full powers for the continuance of the war. +for this purpose, when Caesar appeared before the capital (end of March) +the tribunes of the people belonging to his party convoked for him +the senate (1 April). The meeting was tolerably numerous, +but the more notable of the very senators that remained in Italy +were absent, including even the former leader of the servile majority +Marcus Cicero and Caesar's own father-in-law Lucius Piso; +and, what was worse, those who did appear were not inclined +to enter into Caesar's proposals. When Caesar spoke of full power +to continue the war, one of the only two consulars present, +Servius Sulpicius Rufus, a very timid man who desired nothing +but a quiet death in his bed, was of opinion that Caesar would deserve +well of his country if he should abandon the thought of carrying +the war to Greece and Spain. When Caesar thereupon requested the senate +at least to be the medium of transmitting his peace proposals +to Pompeius, they were not indeed opposed to that course in itself, +but the threats of the emigrants against the neutrals had so terrified +the latter, that no one was found to undertake the message of peace. +Through the disinclination of the aristocracy to help the erection +of the monarch's throne, and through the same inertness +of the dignified corporation, by means of which Caesar +had shortly before frustrated the legal nomination of Pompeius +as generalissimo in the civil war, he too was now thwarted when making +a like request. Other impediments, moreover, occurred. Caesar desired, +with the view of regulating in some sort of way his position, +to be named as dictator; but his wish was not complied with, +because such a magistrate could only be constitutionally appointed +by one of the consuls, and the attempt of Caesar to buy +the consul Lentulus--of which owing to the disordered condition +of his finances there was a good prospect--nevertheless proved +a failure. The tribune of the people Lucius Metellus, moreover, +lodged a protest against all the steps of the proconsul, and made signs +as though he would protect with his person the public chest, +when Caesar's men came to empty it. Caesar could not avoid +in this case ordering that the inviolable person should be pushed aside +as gently as possible; otherwise, he kept by his purpose of abstaining +from all violent steps. He declared to the senate, just as +the constitutional party had done shortly before, that he had +certainly desired to regulate things in a legal way and with the help +of the supreme authority; but, since this help was refused, +he could dispense with it. + +Provisional Arrangement of the Affairs of the Capital +The Provinces + +Without further concerning himself about the senate and the formalities +of state law, he handed over the temporary administration +of the capital to the praetor Marcus Aemilius Lepidus as city-prefect, +and made the requisite arrangements for the administration +of the provinces that obeyed him and the continuance of the war. +Even amidst the din of the gigantic struggle, and with all +the alluring sound of Caesar's lavish promises, it still made +a deep impression on the multitude of the capital, when they saw +in their free Rome the monarch for the first time wielding +a monarch's power and breaking open the doors of the treasury +by his soldiers. But the times had gone by, when the impressions +and feelings of the multitude determined the course of events; +it was with the legions that the decision lay, and a few +painful feelings more or less were of no farther moment. + +Pompeians in Spain + +Caesar hastened to resume the war. He owed his successes +hitherto to the offensive, and he intended still to maintain it. +The position of his antagonist was singular. After the original plan +of carrying on the campaign simultaneously in the two Gauls +by offensive operations from the bases of Italy and Spain had been +frustrated by Caesar's aggressive, Pompeius had intended to go to Spain. +There he had a very strong position. The army amounted +to seven legions; a large number of Pompeius' veterans served in it, +and several years of conflicts in the Lusitanian mountains +had hardened soldiers and officers. Among its captains Marcus Varro +indeed was simply a celebrated scholar and a faithful partisan; +but Lucius Afranius had fought with distinction in the east +and in the Alps, and Marcus Petreius, the conqueror of Catilina, +was an officer as dauntless as he was able. While in the Further +province Caesar had still various adherents from the time +of his governorship there,(18) the more important province +of the Ebrowas attached by all the ties of veneration and gratitude +to the celebrated general, who twenty years before had held the command +in it during the Sertorian war, and after the termination of that war +had organized it anew. Pompeius could evidently after the Italian +disaster do nothing better than proceed to Spain with the saved remnant +of his army, and then at the head of his whole force advance +to meet Caesar. But unfortunately he had, in the hope of being able +still to save the troops that were in Corfinium, tarried in Apuli +so long that he was compelled to choose the nearer Brundisium +as his place of embarkation instead of the Campanian ports. +Why, master as he was of the sea and Sicily, he did not +subsequently revert to his original plan, cannot be determined; +whether it was that perhaps the aristocracy after their short-sighted +and distrustful fashion showed no desire to entrust themselves +to the Spanish troops and the Spanish population, it is enough +to say that Pompeius remained in the east, and Caesar had the option +of directing his first attack either against the army which was +being organized in Greece under Pompeius' own command, or against +that which was ready for battle under his lieutenants in Spain. +He had decided in favour of the latter course, and, as soon as +the Italian campaign ended, had taken measures to collect +on the lower Rhone nine of his best legions, as also 6000 cavalry-- +partly men individually picked out by Caesar in the Celtic cantons, +partly German mercenaries--and a number of Iberian and Ligurian archers. + +Massilia against Caesar + +But at this point his opponents also had been active. Lucius Domitius, +who was nominated by the senate in Caesar's stead as governor +of Transalpine Gaul, had proceeded from Corfinium--as soon as +Caesar had released him--along with his attendants and with Pompeius' +confidant Lucius Vibullius Rufus to Massilia, and actually induced +that city to declare for Pompeius and even to refuse a passage +to Caesar's troops. Of the Spanish troops the two least trustworthy +legions were left behind under the command of Varro in the Further +province; while the five best, reinforced by 40,000 Spanish infantry-- +partly Celtiberian infantry of the line, partly Lusitanian +and other light troops--and by 5000 Spanish cavalry, under Afranius +and Petreius, had, in accordance with the orders of Pompeius +transmitted by Vibullius, set out to close the Pyrenees +against the enemy. + + +Caesar Occupies the Pyrenees +Position at Ilerda + +Meanwhile Caesar himself arrived in Gaul and, as the commencement +of the siege of Massilia still detained him in person, +he immediately despatched the greater part of his troops assembled +on the Rhone--six legions and the cavalry--along the great road +leading by way of Narbo (Narbonne) to Rhode (Rosas) with the view +of anticipating the enemy at the Pyrenees. The movement was successful; +when Afranius and Petreius arrived at the passes, they found them +already occupied by the Caesarians and the line of the Pyrenees lost. +They then took up a position at Ilerda (Lerida) between the Pyrenees +and the Ebro. This town lies twenty miles to the north +of the Ebro on the right bank of one of its tributaries, +the Sicoris (Segre), which was crossed by only a single solid bridge +immediately at Ilerda. To the south of Ilerda the mountains +which adjoin the left bank of the Ebro approach pretty close to the town; +to the northward there stretches on both sides of the Sicoris +a level country which is commanded by the hill on which the town +is built. For an army, which had to submit to a siege, it was +an excellent position; but the defence of Spain, after the occupation +of the line of the Pyrenees had been neglected, could only be undertaken +in earnest behind the Ebro, and, as no secure communication +was established between Ilerda and the Ebro, and no bridge +existed over the latter stream, the retreat from the temporary +to the true defensive position was not sufficiently secured. +The Caesarians established themselves above Ilerda, in the delta +which the river Sicoris forms with the Cinga (Cinca), +which unites with it below Ilerda; but the attack only began +in earnest after Caesar had arrived in the camp (23 June). +Under the walls of the town the struggle was maintained with equal +exasperation and equal valour on both sides, and with frequent +alternations of success; but the Caesarians did not attain their object-- +which was, to establish themselves between the Pompeian camp +and the town and thereby to possess themselves of the stone bridge-- +and they consequently remained dependent for their communication +with Gaul solely on two bridges which they had hastily constructed +over the Sicoris, and that indeed, as the river at Ilerda itself +was too considerable to be bridged over, about eighteen +or twenty miles farther up. + +Caesar Cut Off + +When the floods came on with the melting of the snow, +these temporary bridges were swept away; and, as they had no vessels +for the passage of the highly swollen rivers and under such circumstance +the restoration of the bridges could not for the present be thought of, +the Caesarian army was confined to the narrow space between the Cinca +and the Sicoris, while the left bank of the Sicoris and with it the road, +by which the army communicated with Gaul and Italy, were exposed +almost undefended to the Pompeians, who passed the river partly +by the town-bridge, partly by swimming after the Lusitanian fashion +on skins. It was the season shortly before harvest; the old produce +was almost used up, the new was not yet gathered, and the narrow stripe +of land between the two streams was soon exhausted. In the camp +actual famine prevailed--the -modius- of wheat cost 50 -denarii- +(1 pound 16 shillings)--and dangerous diseases broke out; whereas +on the left bank there were accumulated provisions and varied supplies, +as well as troops of all sorts--reinforcements from Gaul of cavalry +and archers, officers and soldiers from furlough, foraging parties +returning--in all a mass of 6000 men, whom the Pompeians attacked +with superior force and drove with great loss to the mountains, +while the Caesarians on the right bank were obliged to remain +passive spectators of the unequal conflict. The communications +of the army were in the hands of the Pompeians; in Italy the accounts +from Spain suddenly ceased, and the suspicious rumours, +which began to circulate there, were not so very remote from the truth. +Had the Pompeians followed up their advantage with some energy, +they could not have failed either to reduce under their power +or at least to drive back towards Gaul the mass scarcely capable +of resistance which was crowded together on the left bank +of the Sicoris, and to occupy this bank so completely that not a man +could cross the river without their knowledge. But both points +were neglected; those bands were doubtless pushed aside with loss +but neither destroyed nor completely beaten back, and the prevention +of the crossing of the river was left substantially to the river itself, + + +Caesar Re-establishes the Communications + +Thereupon Caesar formed his plan. He ordered portable boats +of a light wooden frame and osier work lined with leather, +after the model of those used in the Channel among the Britons +and subsequently by the Saxons, to be prepared in the camp +and transported in waggons to the point where the bridges had stood. +On these frail barks the other bank was reached and, as it was found +unoccupied, the bridge was re-established without much difficulty; +the road in connection with it was thereupon quickly cleared, +and the eagerly-expected supplies were conveyed to the camp. +Caesar's happy idea thus rescued the army from the immense peril +in which it was placed. Then the cavalry of Caesar which in efficiency +far surpassed that of the enemy began at once to scour the country +on the left bank of the Sicoris; the most considerable +Spanish communities between the Pyrenees and the Ebro--Osca, Tarraco, +Dertosa, and others--nay, even several to the south of the Ebro, +passed over to Caesar's side. + +Retreat of the Pompeians from Ilerda + +The supplies of the Pompeians were now rendered scarce +through the foraging parties of Caesar and the defection +of the neighbouring communities; they resolved at length to retire +behind the line of the Ebro, and set themselves in all haste to form +a bridge of boats over the Ebro below the mouth of the Sicoris. +Caesar sought to cut off the retreat of his opponents over the Ebro +and to detain them in Ilerda; but so long as the enemy remained +in possession of the bridge at Ilerda and he had control of neither ford +nor bridge there, he could not distribute his army over both banks +of the river and could not invest Ilerda. His soldiers therefore +worked day and night to lower the depth of the river by means of canals +drawing off the water, so that the infantry could wade through it. +But the preparations of the Pompeians to pass the Ebro were sooner +finished than the arrangements of the Caesarians for investing Ilerda; +when the former after finishing the bridge of boats began their march +towards the Ebro along the left bank of the Sicoris, the canals +of the Caesarians seemed to the general not yet far enough advanced +to make the ford available for the infantry; he ordered +only his cavalry to pass the stream and, by clinging to the rear +of the enemy, at least to detain and harass them. + +Caesar Follows + +But when Caesar's legions saw in the gray morning the enemy's columns +which had been retiring since midnight, they discerned +with the sure instinct of experienced veterans the strategic importance +of this retreat, which would compel them to follow their antagonists +into distant and impracticable regions filled by hostile troops; +at their own request the general ventured to lead the infantry +also into the river, and although the water reached up +to the shoulders of the men, it was crossed without accident. +It was high time. If the narrow plain, which separated the town +of Ilerda from the mountains enclosing the Ebro were once traversed +and the army of the Pompeians entered the mountains, their retreat +to the Ebro could no longer be prevented. Already they had, +notwithstanding the constant attacks of the enemy's cavalry +which greatly delayed their march, approached within five miles +of the mountains, when they, having been on the march since midnight +and unspeakably exhausted, abandoned their original plan of traversing +the whole plain on the same day, and pitched their camp. +Here the infantry of Caesar overtook them and encamped opposite to them +in the evening and during the night, as the nocturnal march +which the Pompeians had at first contemplated was abandoned from fear +of the night-attacks of the cavalry. On the following day also +both armies remained immoveable, occupied only +in reconnoitering the country. + + +The Route to the Ebro Closed + +Early in the morning of the third day Caesar's infantry set out, +that by a movement through the pathless mountains alongside of the road +they might turn the position of the enemy and bar their route +to the Ebro. The object of the strange march, which seemed at first +to turn back towards the camp before Ilerda, was not at once +perceived by the Pompeian officers. When they discerned it, +they sacrificed camp and baggage and advanced by a forced march +along the highway, to gain the crest of the ridge before the Caesarians. +But it was already too late; when they came up, the compact masses +of the enemy were already posted on the highway itself. +a desperate attempt of the Pompeians to discover other routes +to the Ebro over the steep mountains was frustrated by Caesar's cavalry, +which surrounded and cut to pieces the Lusitanian troops sent forth +for that purpose. Had a battle taken place between the Pompeian army-- +which had the enemy's cavalry in its rear and their infantry in front, +and was utterly demoralized--and the Caesarians, the issue +was scarcely doubtful, and the opportunity for fighting +several times presented itself; but Caesar made no use of it, +and, not without difficulty, restrained the impatient eagerness +for the combat in his soldiers sure of victory. The Pompeian army +was at any rate strategically lost; Caesar avoided weakening his army +and still further envenoming the bitter feud by useless bloodshed. +On the very day after he had succeeded in cutting off the Pompeians +from the Ebro, the soldiers of the two armies had begun to fraternize +and to negotiate respecting surrender; indeed the terms +asked by the Pompeians, especially as to the sparing of their officers, +had been already conceded by Caesar, when Petreius with his escort +consisting of slaves and Spaniards came upon the negotiators +and caused the Caesarians, on whom he could lay hands, +to be put to death. Caesar nevertheless sent the Pompeians +who had come to his camp back unharmed, and persevered in seeking +a peaceful solution. Ilerda, where the Pompeians had still +a garrison and considerable magazines, became now the point +which they sought to reach; but with the hostile army in front +and the Sicoris between them and the fortress, they marched +without coming nearer to their object. Their cavalry became gradually +so afraid that the infantry had to take them into the centre and legions +had to be set as the rearguard; the procuring of water and forage +became more and more difficult; they had already to kill the beasts +of burden, because they could no longer feed them. At length +the wandering army found itself formally inclosed, with the Sicoris +in its rear and the enemy's force in front, which drew rampart +and trench around it. It attempted to cross the river, but Caesar's +German horsemen and light infantry anticipated it in the occupation +of the opposite bank. + +Capitulation of the Pompeians + +No bravery and no fidelity could longer avert the inevitable +capitulation (2 Aug. 705). Caesar granted to officers and soldiers +their life and liberty, and the possession of the property +which they still retained as well as the restoration of what had been +already taken from them, the full value of which he undertook +personally to make good to his soldiers; and not only so, +but while he had compulsorily enrolled in his army the recruits +captured in Italy, he honoured these old legionaries of Pompeius +by the promise that no one should be compelled against his will +to enter Caesar's army. He required only that each should give up +his arms and repair to his home. Accordingly the soldiers +who were natives of Spain, about a third of the army, were disbanded +at once, while the Italian soldiers were discharged on the borders +of Transalpine and Cisalpine Gaul. + +Further Spain Submits + +Hither Spain on the breaking up of this army fell of itself +into the power of the victor. In Further Spain, where Marcus Varro +held the chief command for Pompeius, it seemed to him, when he learned +the disaster of Ilerda, most advisable that he should throw himself +into the insular town of Gades and should carry thither for safety +the considerable sums which he had collected by confiscating +the treasures of the temples and the property of prominent Caesarians, +the not inconsiderable fleet which he had raised, and the two legions +entrusted to him. But on the mere rumour of Caesar's arrival +the most notable towns of the province which had been for long +attached to Caesar declared for the latter and drove away +the Pompeian garrisons or induced them to a similar revolt; +such was the case with Corduba, Carmo, and Gades itself. +One of the legions also set out of its own accord for Hispalis, +and passed over along with this town to Caesar's side. When at length +even Italica closed its gates against Varro, the latter +resolved to capitulate. + +Siege of Massilia + +About the same time Massilia also submitted. With rare energy +the Massiliots had not merely sustained a siege, but had also kept +the sea against Caesar; it was their native element, and they might hope +to obtain vigorous support on it from Pompeius, who in fact +had the exclusive command of it. But Caesar's lieutenant, the able +Decimus Brutus, the same who had achieved the first naval victory +in the Atlantic over the Veneti,(19) managed rapidly to equip a fleet; +and in spite of the brave resistance of the enemy's crews-- +consisting partly of Albioecian mercenaries of the Massiliots, +partly of slave-herdsmen of Domitius--he vanquished by means of his brave +marines selected from the legions the stronger Massiliot fleet, +and sank or captured the greater part of their ships. When therefore +a small Pompeian squadron under Lucius Nasidius arrived +from the east by way of Sicily and Sardinia in the port of Massilia, +the Massiliots once more renewed their naval armament and sailed forth +along with the ships of Nasidius against Brutus. The engagement +which took place off Tauroeis (La Ciotat to the east of Marseilles) +might probably have had a different result, if the vessels of Nasidius +had fought with the same desperate courage which the Massiliots +displayed on that day; but the flight of the Nasidians +decided the victory in favour of Brutus, and the remains +of the Pompeian fleet fled to Spain. The besieged were completely +driven from the sea. On the landward side, where Gaius Trebonius +conducted the siege, the most resolute resistance was still continued; +but in spite of the frequent sallies of the Albioecian mercenaries +and the skilful expenditure of the immense stores of projectiles +accumulated in the city, the works of the besiegers were at length +advanced up to the walls and one of the towers fell. The Massiliots +declared that they would give up the defence, but desired +to conclude the capitulation with Caesar himself, and entreated +the Roman commander to suspend the siege operations till +Caesar's arrival. Trebonius had express orders from Caesar +to spare the town as far as possible; he granted the armistice desired. +But when the Massiliots made use of it for an artful sally, +in which they completely burnt the one-half of the almost unguarded +Roman works, the struggle of the siege began anew and with increased +exasperation. The vigorous commander of the Romans repaired +with surprising rapidity the destroyed towers and the mound; +soon the Massiliots were once more completely invested. + +Massilia Capitulates + +When Caesar on his return from the conquest of Spain arrived +before their city, he found it reduced to extremities +partly by the enemy's attacks, partly by famine and pestilence, +and ready for the second time--on this occasion in right earnest-- +to surrender on any terms. Domitius alone, remembering the indulgence +of the victor which he had shamefully misused, embarked in a boat +and stole through the Roman fleet, to seek a third battle-field +for his implacable resentment. Caesar's soldiers had sworn +to put to the sword the whole male population of the perfidious city, +and vehemently demanded from the general the signal for plunder. +But Caesar, mindful here also of his great task of establishing +Helleno-Italic civilization in the west, was not to be coerced +into furnishing a sequel to the destruction of Corinth. +Massilia--the most remote from the mother-country of all those cities, +once so numerous, free, and powerful, that belonged to the old Ionic +mariner-nation, and almost the last in which the Hellenic seafaring life +had preserved itself fresh and pure, as in fact it was the last +Greek city that fought at sea--Massilia had to surrender its magazines +of arms and naval stores to the victor, and lost a portion +of its territory and of its privileges; but it retained its freedom +and its nationality and continued, though with diminished proportions +in a material point of view, to be still as before intellectually +the centre of Hellenic culture in that distant Celtic country +which at this very time was attaining a new historical significance. + + +Expeditions of Caesar to the Corn-Provinces + +While thus in the western provinces the war after various critical +vicissitudes was thoroughly decided at length in favour of Caesar, +Spain and Massilia were subdued, and the chief army of the enemy +was captured to the last man, the decision of arms had also taken place +on the second arena of warfare, on which Caesar had found it necessary +immediately after the conquest of Italy to assume the offensive + + +Sardinia Occupied +Sicily Occupied + +We have already mentioned that the Pompeians intended +to reduce Italy to starvation. They had the means of doing so +in their hands. They had thorough command of the sea and laboured +with great zeal everywhere--in Gades, Utica, Messana, above all +in the east--to increase their fleet. They held moreover +all the provinces, from which the capital drew its means of subsistence: +Sardinia and Corsica through Marcus Cotta, Sicily through Marcus Cato, +Africa through the self-nominated commander-in-chief Titus Attius Varus +and their ally Juba king of Numidia It was indispensably needful +for Caesar to thwart these plans of the enemy and to wrest from them +the corn-provinces. Quintus Valerius was sent with a legion to Sardinia +and compelled the Pompeian governor to evacuate the island. +The more important enterprise of taking Sicily and Africa from the enemy +was entrusted to the young Gaius Curio with the assistance +of the able Gaius Caninius Rebilus, who possessed experience in war. +Sicily was occupied by him without a blow; Cato, without a proper army +and not a man of the sword, evacuated the island, after having +in his straightforward manner previously warned the Siceliots +not to compromise themselves uselessly by an ineffectual resistance. + +Landing of Curio in Africa + +Curio left behind half of his troops to protect this island +so important for the capital, and embarked with the other half-- +two legions and 500 horsemen--for Africa. Here he might expect +to encounter more serious resistance; besides the considerable +and in its own fashion efficient army of Juba, the governor Varus +had formed two legions from the Romans settled in Africa +and also fitted out a small squadron of ten sail. With the aid +of his superior fleet, however, Curio effected without difficulty +a landing between Hadrumetum, where the one legion of the enemy +lay along with their ships of war, and Utica, in front of which town +lay the second legion under Varus himself. Curio turned against +the latter, and pitched his camp not far from Utica, just where +a century and a half before the elder Scipio had taken up +his first winter-camp in Africa.(20) Caesar, compelled to keep together +his best troops for the Spanish war, had been obliged to make up +the Sicilo-African army for the most part out of the legions taken over +from the enemy, more especially the war-prisoners of Corfinium; +the officers of the Pompeian army in Africa, some of whom had served +in the very legions that were conquered at Corfinium, +now left no means untried to bring back their old soldiers who were +now fighting against them to their first allegiance. But Caesar +had not erred in the choice of his lieutenant. Curio knew as well +how to direct the movements of the army and of the fleet, +as how to acquire personal influence over the soldiers; +the supplies were abundant, the conflicts without exception successful. + +Curio Conquers at Utica + +When Varus, presuming that the troops of Curio wanted opportunity +to pass over to his side, resolved to give battle chiefly for the sake +of affording them this opportunity, the result did not justify +his expectations. Animated by the fiery appeal of their youthful leader +the cavalry of Curio put to flight the horsemen of the enemy +and in presence of the two armies cut down also the light infantry +which had accompanied the horsemen; and emboldened by this success +and by Curio's personal example, his legions advanced through +the difficult ravine separating the two lines to the attack, +for which the Pompeians however did not wait, but disgracefully +fled back to their camp and evacuated even this in the ensuing night. +The victory was so complete that Curio at once took steps +to besiege Utica. When news arrived, however, that king Juba +was advancing with all his forces to its relief, Curio resolved, +just as Scipio had done on the arrival of Syphax, to raise the siege +and to return to Scipio's former camp till reinforcements +should arrive from Sicily. Soon afterwards came a second report, +that king Juba had been induced by the attacks of neighbouring princes +to turn back with his main force and was sending to the aid +of the besieged merely a moderate corps under Saburra. +Curio, who from his lively temperament had only with great reluctance +made up his mind to rest, now set out again at once to fight with Saburra +before he could enter into communication with the garrison of Utica. + +Curio Defeated by Juba on the Bagradas +Death of Curio + +His cavalry, which had gone forward in the evening, actually succeeded +in surprising the corps of Saburra on the Bagradas during the night +and inflicting much damage upon it; and on the news of this victory +Curio hastened the march of the infantry, in order by their means +to complete the defeat Soon they perceived on the last slopes +of the heights that sank towards the Bagradas the corps of Saburra, +which was skirmishing with the Roman horsemen; the legions +coming up helped to drive it completely down into the plain. +But here the combat changed its aspect. Saburra was not, +as they supposed, destitute of support; on the contrary he was +not much more than five miles distant from the Numidian main force. +Already the flower of the Numidian infantry and 2000 Gallic +and Spanish horsemen had arrived on the field of battle +to support Saburra, and the king in person with the bulk of the army +and sixteen elephants was approaching. After the nocturnal march +and the hot conflict there were at the moment not more than 200 +of the Roman cavalry together, and these as well as the infantry, +extremely exhausted by fatigue and fighting, were all surrounded, +in the wide plain into which they had allowed themselves to be allured, +by the continually increasing hosts of the enemy. Vainly Curio +endeavoured to engage in close combat; the Libyan horsemen retreated, +as they were wont, so soon as a Roman division advanced, +only to pursue it when it turned. In vain he attempted +to regain the heights; they were occupied and foreclosed +by the enemy's horse. All was lost. The infantry was cut down +to the last man. Of the cavalry a few succeeded in cutting +their way through; Curio too might have probably saved himself, +but he could not bear to appear alone before his master +without the army entrusted to him, and died sword in hand. +Even the force which was collected in the camp before Utica, +and that which guarded the fleet--which might so easily +have escaped to Sicily--surrendered under the impression made +by the fearfully rapid catastrophe on the following day +to Varus (Aug. or Sept. 705). + +So ended the expedition arranged by Caesar to Sicily and Africa. +It attained its object so far, since by the occupation of Sicily +in connection with that of Sardinia at least the most urgent wants +of the capital were relieved; the miscarriage of the conquest of Africa-- +from which the victorious party drew no farther substantial gain-- +and the loss of two untrustworthy legions might be got over. +But the early death of Curio was an irreparable loss for Caesar, +and indeed for Rome. Not without reason had Caesar entrusted +the most important independent command to this young man, although +he had no military experience and was notorious for his dissolute life; +there was a spark of Caesar's own spirit in the fiery youth. +He resembled Caesar, inasmuch as he too had drained the cup of pleasure +to the dregs; inasmuch as he did not become a statesman +because he was an officer, but on the contrary it was his political +action that placed the sword in his hands; inasmuch as +his eloquence was not that of rounded periods, but the eloquence +of deeply-felt thought; inasmuch as his mode of warfare was based +on rapid action with slight means; inasmuch as his character +was marked by levity and often by frivolity, by pleasant frankness +and thorough life in the moment. If, as his general says of him, +youthful fire and high courage carried him into incautious acts, +and if he too proudly accepted death that he might not submit +to be pardoned for a pardonable fault, traits of similar imprudence +and similar pride are not wanting in Caesar's history also. +We may regret that this exuberant nature was not permitted to work off +its follies and to preserve itself for the following generation +so miserably poor in talents, and so rapidly falling a prey +to the dreadful rule of mediocrities. + +Pompeius' Plan of Campaign for 705 + +How far these events of the war in 705 interfered with Pompeius' +general plan for the campaign, and particularly what part, in that plan +was assigned after the loss of Italy to the important military corps +in the west, can only be determined by conjecture. That Pompeius +had the intention of coming by way of Africa and Mauretania +to the aid of his army fighting in Spain, was simply a romantic, +and beyond doubt altogether groundless, rumour circulating +in the camp of Ilerda. It is much more likely that he still kept +by his earlier plan of attacking Caesar from both sides in Transalpine +and Cisalpine Gaul(21) even after the loss of Italy, and meditated +a combined attack at once from Spain and Macedonia. It may be presumed +that the Spanish army was meant to remain on the defensive +at the Pyrenees till the Macedonian army in the course of organization +was likewise ready to march; whereupon both would then have started +simultaneously and effected a junction according to circumstances +either on the Rhone or on the Po, while the fleet, it may be conjectured, +would have attempted at the same time to reconquer Italy proper. +On this supposition apparently Caesar had first prepared himself +to meet an attack on Italy. One of the ablest of his officers, +the tribune of the people Marcus Antonius, commanded there +with propraetorian powers. The southeastern ports--Sipus, +Brundisium, Tarentum--where an attempt at landing was first +to be expected, had received a garrison of three legions. Besides +this Quintus Hortensius, the degenerate son of the well-known orator, +collected a fleet in the Tyrrhene Sea, and Publius Dolabella +a second fleet in the Adriatic, which were to be employed +partly to support the defence, partly to transport the intended +expedition to Greece. In the event of Pompeius attempting +to penetrate by land into Italy, Marcus Licinius Crassus, +the eldest son of the old colleague of Caesar, was to conduct +the defence of Cisalpine Gaul, Gaius the younger brother +of Marcus Antonius that of Illyricum. + +Caesar's Fleet and Army in Illyricum Destroyed + +But the expected attack was long in coming. It was not +till the height of summer that the conflict began in Illyria. +There Caesar's lieutenant Gaius Antonius with his two legions +lay in the island of Curicta (Veglia in the gulf of Quarnero), +and Caesar's admiral Publius Dolabella with forty ships +lay in the narrow arm of the sea between this island and the mainland. +The admirals of Pompeius in the Adriatic, Marcus Octavius with the Greek, +Lucius Scribonius Libo with the Illyrian division of the fleet, +attacked the squadron of Dolabella, destroyed all his ships, +and cut off Antonius on his island. To rescue him, a corps under Basilus +and Sallustius came from Italy and the squadron of Hortensius +from the Tyrrhene Sea; but neither the former nor the latter were able +to effect anything in presence of the far superior fleet of the enemy. +The legions of Antonius had to be abandoned to their fate. +Provisions came to an end, the troops became troublesome and mutinous; +with the exception of a few divisions, which succeeded in reaching +the mainland on rafts, the corps, still fifteen cohorts strong, laid down +their arms and were conveyed in the vessels of Libo to Macedonia +to be there incorporated with the Pompeian army, while Octavius was left +to complete the subjugation of the Illyrian coast now denuded of troops. +The Dalmatae, now far the most powerful tribe in these regions,(22) +the important insular town of Issa (Lissa), and other townships, +embraced the party of Pompeius; but the adherents of Caesar +maintained themselves in Salonae (Spalato) and Lissus (Alessio), +and in the former town not merely sustained with courage a siege, +but when they were reduced to extremities, made a sally with such effect +that Octavius raised the siege and sailed off to Dyrrhachium +to pass the winter there. + +Result of the Campaign as a Whole + +The success achieved in Illyricum by the Pompeian fleet, +although of itself not inconsiderable, had yet but little influence +on the issue of the campaign as a whole; and it appears miserably small, +when we consider that the performances of the land and naval' forces +under the supreme command of Pompeius during the whole eventful year 705 +were confined to this single feat of arms, and that from the east, +where the general, the senate, the second great army, the principal fleet, +the immense military and still more extensive financial resources +of the antagonists of Caesar were united, no intervention at all +took place where it was needed in that all-decisive struggle in the west. +The scattered condition of the forces in the eastern half of the empire, +the method of the general never to operate except with superior masses, +his cumbrous and tedious movements, and the discord of the coalition +may perhaps explain in some measure, though not excuse, the inactivity +of the land-force; but that the fleet, which commanded the Mediterranean +without a rival, should have thus done nothing to influence +the course of affairs--nothing for Spain, next to nothing +for the faithful Massiliots, nothing to defend Sardinia, Sicily, +Africa, or, if not to reoccupy Italy, at least to obstruct its supplies-- +this makes demands on our ideas of the confusion and perversity +prevailing in the Pompeian camp, which we can only with difficulty meet. + +The aggregate result of this campaign was corresponding. +Caesar's double aggressive movement, against Spain and against Sicily +and Africa, was successful, in the former case completely, +in the latter at least partially; while Pompeius' plan +of starving Italy was thwarted in the main by the taking away +of Sicily, and his general plan of campaign was frustrated completely +by the destruction of the Spanish army; and in Italy only +a very small portion of Caesar's defensive arrangements +had come to be applied. Notwithstanding the painfully-felt losses +in Africa and Illyria, Caesar came forth from this first year +of the war in the most decided and most decisive manner as victor. + +Organizations in Macedonia +The Emigrants + +If, however, nothing material was done from the east to obstruct Caesar +in the subjugation of the west, efforts at least were made towards +securing political and military consolidation there during the respite +so ignominiously obtained. The great rendezvous of the opponents +of Caesar was Macedonia. Thither Pompeius himself and the mass +of the emigrants from Brundisium resorted; thither came +the other refugees from the west: Marcus Cato from Sicily, +Lucius Domitius from Massilia but more especially a number +of the best officers and soldiers of the broken-up army of Spain, +with its generals Afranius and Varro at their head. In Italy +emigration gradually became among the aristocrats a question +not of honour merely but almost of fashion, and it obtained +a fresh impulse through the unfavourable accounts which arrived +regarding Caesar's position before Ilerda; not a few of the more +lukewarm partisans and the political trimmers went over by degrees, +and even Marcus Cicero at last persuaded himself that he did not +adequately discharge his duty as a citizen by writing a dissertatio +on concord. The senate of emigrants at Thessalonica, where the official +Rome pitched its interim abode, numbered nearly 200 members +including many venerable old men and almost all the consulars. +But emigrants indeed they were. This Roman Coblentz displayed +a pitiful spectacle in the high pretensions and paltry performances +of the genteel world of Rome, their unseasonable reminiscences +and still more unseasonable recriminations, their political +perversities and financial embarrassments. It was a matter +of comparatively slight moment that, while the old structure +was falling to pieces, they were with the most painstaking gravity +watching over every old ornamental scroll and every speck of rust +in the constitution; after all it was simply ridiculous, +when the genteel lords had scruples of conscience as to calling +their deliberative assembly beyond the sacred soil of the city +the senate, and cautiously gave it the title of the "three hundred";(23) +or when they instituted tedious investigations in state law +as to whether and how a curiate law could be legitimately enacted +elsewhere than within the ring-wall of Rome. + +The Lukewarm + +Far worse traits were the indifference of the lukewarm +and the narrow-minded stubbornness of the ultras. The former +could not be brought to act or even to keep silence. If they were asked +to exert themselves in some definite way for the common good, +with the inconsistency characteristic of weak people they regarded +any such suggestion as a malicious attempt to compromise them +still further, and either did not do what they were ordered at all +or did it with half heart. At the same time of course, +with their affectation of knowing better when it was too late +and their over-wise impracticabilities, they proved a perpetual clog +to those who were acting; their daily work consisted in criticizing, +ridiculing, and bemoaning every occurrence great and small, +and in unnerving and discouraging the multitude by their own +sluggishness and hopelessness. + +The Ultras + +While these displayed the utter prostration of weakness, the ultras +on the other hand exhibited in full display its exaggerated action. +With them there was no attempt to conceal that the preliminary +to any negotiation for peace was the bringing over of Caesar's head; +every one of the attempts towards peace, which Caesar repeatedly made +even now, was tossed aside without being examined, or employed +only to cover insidious attempts on the lives of the commissioners +of their opponent. That the declared partisans of Caesar +had jointly and severally forfeited life and property, was a matter +of course; but it fared little better with those more or less neutral. +Lucius Domitius, the hero of Corfinium, gravely proposed +in the council of war that those senators who had fought in the army +of Pompeius should come to a vote on all who had either remained neutral +or had emigrated but not entered the army, and should according +to their own pleasure individually acquit them or punish them +by fine or even by the forfeiture of life and property. +Another of these ultras formally lodged with Pompeius a charge +of corruption and treason against Lucius Afranius for his defective +defence of Spain. Among these deep-dyed republicans their +political theory assumed almost the character of a confession +of religious faith; they accordingly hated their own more lukewarm +partisans and Pompeius with his personal adherents, if possible, +still more than their open opponents, and that with all the dull +obstinacy of hatred which is wont to characterize orthodox theologians; +and they were mainly to blame for the numberless and bitter +separate quarrels which distracted the emigrant army and emigrant senate. +But they did not confine themselves to words. Marcus Bibulus, +Titus Labienus, and others of this coterie carried out their theory +in practice, and caused such officers or soldiers of Caesar's army +as fell into their hands to be executed en masse; which, +as may well be conceived, did not tend to make Caesar's troops +fight with less energy. If the counterrevolution in favour +of the friends of the constitution, for which all the elements +were in existence,(24) did not break out in Italy during +Caesar's absence, the reason, according to the assurance +of discerning opponents of Caesar, lay chiefly in the general dread +of the unbridled fury of the republican ultras after the restoration +should have taken place. The better men in the Pompeian camp +were in despair over this frantic behaviour. Pompeius, himself +a brave soldier, spared the prisoners as far as he might and could; +but he was too pusillanimous and in too awkward a position to prevent +or even to punish all atrocities of this sort, as it became him +as commander-in-chief to do. Marcus Cato, the only man who at least +carried moral consistency into the struggle, attempted with more energy +to check such proceedings; he induced the emigrant senate +to prohibit by a special decree the pillage of subject towns +and the putting to death of a burgess otherwise than in battle. +The able Marcus Marcellus had similar views. No one, indeed, +knew better than Cato and Marcellus that the extreme party +would carry out their saving deeds, if necessary, in defiance +of all decrees of the senate. But if even now, when they had still +to regard considerations of prudence, the rage of the ultras +could not be tamed, people might prepare themselves after the victory +for a reign of terror from which Marius and Sulla themselves +would have turned away with horror; and we can understand why Cato, +according to his own confession, was more afraid of the victory +than of the defeat of his own party. + +The Preparations for War + +The management of the military preparations in the Macedonian camp +was in the hands of Pompeius the commander-in-chief. His position, +always troublesome and galling, had become still worse through +the unfortunate events of 705. In the eyes of his partisans he was +mainly to blame for this result. This judgment was in various respects +not just. A considerable part of the misfortunes endured +was to be laid to the account of the perversity and insubordination +of the lieutenant-generals, especially of the consul Lentulus +and Lucius Domitius; from the moment when Pompeius took the head +of the army, he had led it with skill and courage, and had saved +at least very considerable forces from the shipwreck; that he was +not a match for Caesar's altogether superior genius, which was now +recognized by all, could not be fairly made matter of reproach to him. +But the result alone decided men's judgment. Trusting to the general +Pompeius, the constitutional party had broken with Caesar; the pernicious +consequences of this breach recoiled upon the general Pompeius; +and, though owing to the notorious military incapacity +of all the other chiefs no attempt was made to change the supreme +command yet confidence at any rate in the commander-in-chief +was paralyzed. To these painful consequences of the defeats endured +were added the injurious influences of the emigration. +Among the refugees who arrived there were certainly a number +of efficient soldiers and capable officers, especially those +belonging to the former Spanish army; but the number of those +who came to serve and fight was just as small as that of the generals +of quality who called themselves proconsuls and imperators +with as good title as Pompeius, and of the genteel lords +who took part in active military service more or less reluctantly, +was alarmingly great. Through these the mode of life in the capital +was introduced into the camp, not at all to the advantage of the army; +the tents of such grandees were graceful bowers, the ground +elegantly covered with fresh turf, the walls clothed with ivy; +silver plate stood on the table, and the wine-cup often circulated +there even in broad daylight. Those fashionable warriors formed +a singular contrast with Caesar's daredevils, who ate coarse bread +from which the former recoiled, and who, when that failed, devoured +even roots and swore that they would rather chew the bark of trees +than desist from the enemy. While, moreover, the action +of Pompeius was hampered by the necessity of having regard +to the authority of a collegiate board personally disinclined to him, +this embarrassment was singularly increased when the senate of emigrants +took up its abode almost in his very headquarters and all the venom +of the emigrants now found vent in these senatorial sittings. +Lastly there was nowhere any man of mark, who could have thrown +his own weight into the scale against all these preposterous doings. +Pompeius himself was intellectually far too secondary for that purpose, +and far too hesitating, awkward, and reserved. Marcus Cato +would have had at least the requisite moral authority, and would not +have lacked the good will to support Pompeius with it; but Pompeius, +instead of calling him to his assistance, out of distrustful +jealousy kept him in the background, and preferred for instance +to commit the highly important chief command of the fleet +to the in every respect incapable Marcus Bibulus rather than to Cato. + + +The Legions of Pompeius + +While Pompeius thus treated the political aspect of his position +with his characteristic perversity, and did his best to make +what was already bad in itself still worse, he devoted himself +on the other hand with commendable zeal to his duty of giving military +organization to the considerable but scattered forces of his party. +The flower of his force was composed of the troops brought with him +from Italy, out of which with the supplementary aid of the Illyrian +prisoners of war and the Romans domiciled in Greece five legions +in all were formed. Three others came from the east--the two Syrian +legions formed from the remains of the army of Crassus, and one made up +out of the two weak legions hitherto stationed in Cilicia. +Nothing stood in the way of the withdrawal of these corps of occupation: +because on the one hand the Pompeians had an understanding +with the Parthians, and might even have had an alliance with them +if Pompeius had not indignantly refused to pay them the price +which they demanded for it--the cession of the Syrian province +added by himself to the empire; and on the other hand +Caesar's plan of despatching two legions to Syria, and inducing +the Jews once more to take up arms by means of the prince Aristobulus +kept a prisoner in Rome, was frustrated partly by other causes, +partly by the death of Aristobulus. New legions were moreover raised-- +one from the veteran soldiers settled in Crete and Macedonia, +two from the Romans of Asia Minor. To all these fell to be added +2000 volunteers, who were derived from the remains of the Spanish +select corps and other similar sources; and, lastly, the contingents +of the subjects. Pompeius like Caesar had disdained to make +requisitions of infantry from them; only the Epirot, Aetolian, +and Thracian militia were called out to guard the coast, and moreover +3000 archers from Greece and Asia Minor and 1200 slingers +were taken up as light troops. + +His Cavalry + +The cavalry on the other hand--with the exception of a noble guard, +more respectable than militarily important, formed from the young +aristocracy of Rome, and of the Apulian slave-herdsmen whom Pompeius +had mounted (25)--consisted exclusively of the contingents +of the subjects and clients of Rome. The flower of it consisted +of the Celts, partly from the garrison of Alexandria,(26) +partly the contingents of king Deiotarus who in spite of his great age +had appeared in person at the head of his troops, and of the other +Galatian dynasts. With them were associated the excellent Thracian +horsemen, who were partly brought up by their princes Sadala +and Rhascuporis, partly enlisted by Pompeius in the Macedonian province; +the Cappadocian cavalry; the mounted archers sent by Antiochus +king of Commagene; the contingents of the Armenians from the west side +of the Euphrates under Taxiles, and from the other side under Megabates, +and the Numidian bands sent by king Juba--the whole body amounted +to 7000 horsemen. + +Fleet + +Lastly the fleet of Pompeius was very considerable. It was formed +partly of the Roman transports brought from Brundisium +or subsequently built, partly of the war vessels of the king of Egypt, +of the Colchian princes, of the Cilician dynast Tarcondimotus, +of the cities of Tyre, Rhodes, Athens, Corcyra, and generally +of all the Asiatic and Greek maritime states; and it numbered nearly +500 sail, of which the Roman vessels formed a fifth. Immense magazines +of corn and military stores were accumulated in Dyrrhachium. +The war-chest was well filled, for the Pompeians found themselves +in possession of the principal sources of the public revenue +and turned to their own account the moneyed resources of the client- +princes, of the senators of distinction, of the farmers of the taxes, +and generally of the whole Roman and non-Roman population +within their reach. Every appliance that the reputation +of the legitimate government and the much-renowned protectorship +of Pompeius over kings and peoples could move in Africa, Egypt, +Macedonia, Greece, Western Asia and Syria, had been put in motion +for the protection of the Roman republic; the report which circulated +in Italy that Pompeius was arming the Getae, Colchians, +and Armenians against Rome, and the designation of "king of kings" +given to Pompeius in the camp, could hardly be called exaggerations. +On the whole he had command over an army of 7000 cavalry +and eleven legions, of which it is true, but five at the most +could be described as accustomed to war, and over a fleet of 500 sail. +The temper of the soldiers, for whose provisioning and pay Pompeius +manifested adequate care, and to whom in the event of victory the most +abundant rewards were promised, was throughout good, in several-- +and these precisely the most efficient--divisions even excellent +but a great part of the army consisted of newly-raised troops, +the formation and training of which, however zealously it was prosecuted, +necessarily required time. The force altogether was imposing, +but at the same time of a somewhat motley character. + +Junction of the Pompeians on the Coast of Epirus + +According to the design of the commander-in-chief the army and fleet +were to be in substance completely united by the winter of 705-706 +along the coast and in the waters of Epirus. The admiral Bibulus +had already arrived with no ships at his new headquarters, Corcyra. +On the other hand the land-army, the headquarters of which had been +during the summer at Berrhoea on the Haliacmon, had not yet come up; +the mass of it was moving slowly along the great highway +from Thessalonica towards the west coast to the future headquarters +Dyrrhachium; the two legions, which Metellus Scipio was bringing up +from Syria, remained at Pergamus in Asia for winter quarters +and were expected in Europe only towards spring. They were taking time +in fact for their movements. For the moment the ports of Epirus +were guarded, over and above the fleet, merely by their own +civic defences and the levies of the adjoining districts. + +Caesar against Pompeius + +It thus remained possible for Caesar, notwithstanding the intervention +of the Spanish war, to assume the offensive also in Macedonia; +and he at least was not slow to act. He had long ago ordered +the collection of vessels of war and transports in Brundisium, +and after the capitulation of the Spanish army and the fall +of Massilia had directed the greater portion of the select troops +employed there to proceed to that destination. The unparalleled +exertions no doubt, which were thus required by Caesar +from his soldiers, thinned the ranks more than their conflicts had done +and the mutiny of one of the four oldest legions, the ninth +on its march through Placentia was a dangerous indication +of the temper prevailing in the army; but Caesar's presence of mind +and personal authority gained the mastery, and from this quarter +nothing impeded the embarkation. But the want of ships, through which +the pursuit of Pompeius had failed in March 705, threatened also +to frustrate this expedition. The war-vessels, which Caesar +had given orders to build in the Gallic, Sicilian, and Italian ports, +were not yet ready or at any rate not on the spot; his squadron +in the Adriatic had been in the previous year destroyed at Curicta;(27) +he found at Brundisium not more than twelve ships of war +and scarcely transports enough to convey over at once the third part +of his army--of twelve legions and 10,000 cavalry--destined for Greece. +The considerable fleet of the enemy exclusively commanded +the Adriatic and especially all the harbours of the mainland +and islands on its eastern coast. Under such circumstances +the question presents itself, why Caesar did not instead +of the maritime route choose the land route through Illyria, +which relieved him from all the perils threatened by the fleet +and besides was shorter for his troops, who mostly came from Gaul, +than the route by Brundisium. It is true that the regions +of Illyria were rugged and poor beyond description; but they +were traversed by other armies not long afterwards, and this obstacle +can hardly have appeared insurmountable to the conqueror of Gaul. +Perhaps he apprehended that during the troublesome march +through Illyria Pompeius might convey his whole force over the Adriatic, +whereby their parts might come at once to be changed--with Caesar +in Macedonia, and Pompeius in Italy; although such a rapid change +was scarcely to be expected from his slow-moving antagonist. +Perhaps Caesar had decided for the maritime route on the supposition +that his fleet would meanwhile be brought into a condition +to command respect, and, when after his return from Spain +he became aware of the true state of things in the Adriatic, +it might be too late to change the plan of campaign. Perhaps-- +and, in accordance with Caesar's quick temperament always urging him +to decision, we may even say in all probability--he found himself +irresistibly tempted by the circumstance that the Epirot coast +was still at the moment unoccupied but would certainly be covered +in a few days by the enemy, to thwart once more by a bold stroke +the whole plan of his antagonist. + +Caesar Lands in Epirus +First Successes + +However this may be, on the 4th Jan. 706(28) Caesar set sail +with six legions greatly thinned by toil and sickness and 600 horsemen +from Brundisium for the coast of Epirus. It was a counterpart +to the foolhardy Britannic expedition; but at least the first throw +was fortunate. The coast was reached in the middle of the Acroceraunian +(Chimara) cliffs, at the little-frequented roadstead of Paleassa +(Paljassa). The transports were seen both from the harbour of Oricum +(creek of Avlona) where a Pompeian squadron of eighteen sail was lying, +and from the headquarters of the hostile fleet at Corcyra; +but in the one quarter they deemed themselves too weak, +in the other they were not ready to sail, so that the first freight +was landed without hindrance. While the vessels at once returned +to bring over the second, Caesar on that same evening scaled +the Acroceraunian mountains. His first successes were as great +as the surprise of his enemies. The Epirot militia nowhere +offered resistance; the important seaport towns of Oricum +and Apollonia along with a number of smaller townships were taken, +and Dyrrhachium, selected by the Pompeians as their chief arsenal +and filled with stores of all sorts, but only feebly garrisoned, +was in the utmost danger. + +Caesar Cut Off from Italy + +But the further course of the campaign did not correspond +to this brilliant beginning. Bibulus subsequently made up in some measure +for the negligence, of which he had allowed himself to be guilty, +by redoubling his exertions. He not only captured nearly thirty +of the transports returning home, and caused them with every living +thing on board to be burnt, but he also established along +the whole district of coast occupied by Caesar, from the island Sason +(Saseno) as far as the ports of Corcyra, a most careful watch, +however troublesome it was rendered by the inclement season +of the year and the necessity of bringing everything necessary +for the guard-ships, even wood and water, from Corcyra; in fact +his successor Libo--for he himself soon succumbed to the unwonted +fatigues--even blockaded for a time the port of Brundisium, +till the want of water again dislodged him from the little island +in front of it on which he had established himself. It was +not possible for Caesar's officers to convey the second portion +of the army over to their general. As little did he himself +succeed in the capture of Dyrrhachium. Pompeius learned through +one of Caesar's peace envoys as to his preparations for the voyage +to the Epirot coast, and, thereupon accelerating his march, +threw himself just at the right time into that important arsenal. +The situation of Caesar was critical. Although he extended his range +in Epirus as far as with his slight strength was at all possible, +the subsistence of his army remained difficult and precarious, +while the enemy, in possession of the magazines of Dyrrhachium +and masters of the sea, had abundance of everything. With his army +presumably little above 20,000 strong he could not offer battle +to that of Pompeius at least twice as numerous, but had to deem himself +fortunate that Pompeius went methodically to work and, instead +of immediately forcing a battle, took up his winter quarters +between Dyrrhachium and Apollonia on the right bank of the Apsus, +facing Caesar on the left, in order that after the arrival +of the legions from Pergamus in the spring he might annihilate +the enemy with an irresistibly superior force. Thus months passed. +If the arrival of the better season, which brought to the enemy +a strong additional force and the free use of his fleet, found Caesar +still in the same position, he was to all appearance lost, +with his weak band wedged in among the rocks of Epirus between +the immense fleet and the three times superior land army of the enemy; +and already the winter was drawing to a close. His sole hope +still depended on the transport fleet; that it should steal +or fight its way through the blockade was hardly to be hoped for; +but after the first voluntary foolhardiness this second venture +was enjoined by necessity. How desperate his situation appeared +to Caesar himself, is shown by his resolution--when the fleet +still came not--to sail alone in a fisherman's boat across the Adriatic +to Brundisium in order to fetch it; which, in reality, was only abandoned +because no mariner was found to undertake the daring voyage. + +Antonius Proceed to Epirus + +But his appearance in person was not needed to induce +the faithful officer who commanded in Italy, Marcus Antonius, +to make this last effort for the saving of his master. Once more +the transport fleet, with four legions and 800 horsemen on board +sailed from the harbour of Brundisium, and fortunately a strong +south wind carried it past Libo's galleys. But the same wind, +which thus saved the fleet, rendered it impossible for it to land +as it was directed on the coast of Apollonia, and compelled it +to sail past the camps of Caesar and Pompeius and to steer +to the north of Dyrrhachium towards Lissus, which town +fortunately still adhered to Caesar.(29) When it sailed +past the harbour of Dyrrhachium, the Rhodian galleys started +in pursuit, and hardly had the ships of Antonius entered +the port of Lissus when the enemy's squadron appeared before it. +But just at this moment the wind suddenly veered, and drove +the pursuing galleys back into the open sea and partly +on the rocky coast. Through the most marvellous good fortune +the landing of the second freight had also been successful. + +Junction of Caesar's Army + +Antonius and Caesar were no doubt still some four days' march +from each other, separated by Dyrrhachium and the whole army +of the enemy; but Antonius happily effected the perilous march +round about Dyrrhachium through the passes of the Graba Balkan, +and was received by Caesar, who had gone to meet him, on the right bank +of the Apsus. Pompeius, after having vainly attempted to prevent +the junction of the two armies of the enemy and to force the corps +of Antonius to fight by itself, took up a new position at Asparagium +on the river Genusus (Skumbi), which flows parallel to the Apsus +between the latter and the town of Dyrrhachium, and here remained +once more immoveable. Caesar felt himself now strong enough +to give battle; but Pompeius declined it. On the other hand Caesar +succeeded in deceiving his adversary and throwing himself unawares +with his better marching troops, just as at Ilerda, between +the enemy's camp and the fortress of Dyrrhachium on which it rested +as a basis. The chain of the Graba Balkan, which stretching +in a direction from east to west ends on the Adriatic +in the narrow tongue of land at Dyrrhachium, sends off--fourteen miles +to the east of Dyrrhachium--in a south-westerly direction a lateral +branch which likewise turns in the form of a crescent towards the sea, +and the main chain and lateral branch of the mountains enclose +between themselves a small plain extending round a cliff on the seashore. + +Pompeius now took up his camp, and, although Caesar's army kept +the land route to Dyrrhachium closed against him, he yet with the aid +of his fleet remained constantly in communication with the town +and was amply and easily provided from it with everything needful; +while among the Caesarians, notwithstanding strong detachments +to the country lying behind, and notwithstanding all the exertions +of the general to bring about an organized system of conveyance +and thereby a regular supply, there was more than scarcity, and flesh, +barley, nay even roots had very frequently to take the place +of the wheat to which they were accustomed. + +Caesar Invests the Camp of Pompeius + +As his phlegmatic opponent persevered in his inaction, Caesar +undertook to occupy the circle of heights which enclosed the plain +on the shore held by Pompeius, with the view of being able at least +to arrest the movements of the superior cavalry of the enemy +and to operate with more freedom against Dyrrhachium, and if possible +to compel his opponent either to battle or to embarkation. Nearly +the half of Caesar's troops was detached to the interior; +it seemed almost Quixotic to propose with the rest virtually +to besiege an army perhaps twice as strong, concentrated in position, +and resting on the sea and the fleet. Yet Caesar's veterans by infinite +exertions invested the Pompeian camp with a chain of posts +sixteen miles long, and afterwards added, just as before Alesia, +to this inner line a second outer one, to protect themselves +against attacks from Dyrrhachium and against attempts to turn +their position which could so easily be executed with the aid +of the fleet. Pompeius attacked more than once portions +of these entrenchments with a view to break if possible the enemy's line, +but he did not attempt to prevent the investment by a battle; +he preferred to construct in his turn a number of entrenchments +around his camp, and to connect them with one another by lines. +Both sides exerted themselves to push forward their trenches +as far as possible, and the earthworks advanced but slowly amidst +constant conflicts. At the same time skirmishing went on +on the opposite side of Caesar's camp with the garrison of Dyrrhachium; +Caesar hoped to get the fortress into his power by means +of an understanding with some of its inmates, but was prevented +by the enemy's fleet. There was incessant fighting at very different +points--on one of the hottest days at six places simultaneously-- +and, as a rule, the tried valour of the Caesarians had the advantage +in these skirmishes; once, for instance, a single cohort +maintained itself in its entrenchments against four legions +for several hours, till support came up. No prominent success +was attained on either side; yet the effects of the investment came +by degrees to be oppressively felt by the Pompeians. The stopping +of the rivulets flowing from the heights into the plain compelled them +to be content with scanty and bad well-water. Still more severely felt +was the want of fodder for the beasts of burden and the horses, +which the fleet was unable adequately to remedy; numbers of them died, +and it was of but little avail that the horses were conveyed by the fleet +to Dyrrhachium, because there also they did not find sufficient fodder. + +Caesar's Lines Broken +Caesar Once More Defeated + +Pompeius could not much longer delay to free himself +from his disagreeable position by a blow struck against the enemy. +He was informed by Celtic deserters that the enemy had neglected +to secure the beach between his two chains of entrenchments +600 feet distant from each other by a cross-wall, and on this +he formed his plan. While he caused the inner line of Caesar's +entrenchments to be attacked by the legions from the camp, +and the outer line by the light troops placed in vessels +and landed beyond the enemy's entrenchments, a third division +landed in the space left between the two lines and attacked +in the rear their already sufficiently occupied defenders. +The entrenchment next to the sea was taken, and the garrison fled +in wild confusion; with difficulty the commander of the next trench +Marcus Antonius succeeded in maintaining it and in setting +a limit for the moment to the advance of the Pompeians; but; +apart from the considerable loss, the outermost entrenchment +along the sea remained in the hands of the Pompeians and the lin +was broken through. Caesar the more eagerly seized the opportunity, +which soon after presented itself, of attacking a Pompeian legion, +which had incautiously become isolated, with the bulk +of his infantry. But the attacked offered valiant resistance, +and, as the ground on which the fight took place had been several times +employed for the encampment of larger and lesser divisions +and was intersected in various directions by mounds and ditches, +Caesar's right wing along with the cavalry entirely missed its way; +instead of supporting the left in attacking the Pompeian legion, +it got into a narrow trench that led from one of the old camps +towards the river. So Pompeius, who came up in all haste +with five legions to the aid of his troops, found the two wings +of the enemy separated from each other, and one of them +in an utterly forlorn position. When the Caesarians saw him advance, +a panic seized them; the whole plunged into disorderly flight; +and, if the matter ended with the loss of 1000 of the best soldiers +and Caesar's army did not sustain a complete defeat, this was due +simply to the circumstance that Pompeius also could not freely +develop his force on the broken ground, and to the further fact that, +fearing a stratagem, he at first held back his troops. + +Consequences of Caesar's Defeats + +But, even as it was, these days were fraught with mischief. +Not only had Caesar endured the most serious losses and forfeited +at a blow his entrenchments, the result of four months of gigantic +labour; he was by the recent engagements thrown back again exactly +to the point from which he had set out. From the sea he was +more completely driven than ever, since Pompeius' elder son Gnaeus +had by a bold attack partly burnt, partly carried off, Caesar's +few ships of war lying in the port of Oricum, and had soon afterwards +also set fire to the transport fleet that was left behind in Lissus; +all possibility of bringing up fresh reinforcements to Caesar +by sea from Brundisium was thus lost. The numerous Pompeian cavalry, +now released from their confinement, poured themselves over +the adjacent country and threatened to render the provisioning +of Caesar's army, which had always been difficult, utterly impossible. +Caesar's daring enterprise of carrying on offensive operations +without ships against an enemy in command of the sea and resting +on his fleet had totally failed. On what had hitherto been +the theatre of war he found himself in presence of an impregnable +defensive position, and unable to strike a serious blow either +against Dyrrhachium or against the hostile army; on the other hand +it depended now solely on Pompeius whether he should proceed +to attack under the most favourable circumstances an antagonist +already in grave danger as to his means of subsistence. The war +had arrived at a crisis. Hitherto Pompeius had, to all appearance, +played the game of war without special plan, and only adjusted +his defence according to the exigencies of each attack; and this was +not to be censured, for the protraction of the war gave him opportunity +of making his recruits capable of fighting, of bringing up his reserves, +and of bringing more fully into play the superiority of his fleet +in the Adriatic. Caesar was beaten not merely in tactics +but also in strategy. This defeat had not, it is true, +that effect which Pompeius not without reason expected; the eminent +soldierly energy of Caesar's veterans did not allow matters +to come to an immediate and total breaking up of the army +by hunger and mutiny. But yet it seemed as if it depended solely +on his opponent by judiciously following up his victory +to reap its full fruits. + +War Prospects of Pompeius +Scipio and Calvinus + +It was for Pompeius to assume the aggressive; and he was resolved +to do so. Three different ways of rendering his victory fruitful +presented themselves to him. The first and simplest was not to desist +from assailing the vanquished army, and, if it departed, +to pursue it. Secondly, Pompeius might leave Caesar himself +and his best troops in Greece, and might cross in person, as he had +long been making preparations for doing, with the main army to Italy, +where the feeling was decidedly antimonarchical and the forces +of Caesar, after the despatch of the best troops and their brave +and trustworthy commandant to the Greek army, would not be +of very much moment. Lastly, the victor might turn inland, +effect a junction with the legions of Metellus Scipio, and attempt +to capture the troops of Caesar stationed in the interior. +The latter forsooth had, immediately after the arrival of the second +freight from Italy, on the one hand despatched strong detachments +to Aetolia and Thessaly to procure means of subsistence for his army, +and on the other had ordered a corps of two legions under Gnaeus +Domitius Calvinus to advance on the Egnatian highway towards Macedonia, +with the view of intercepting and if possible defeating in detail +the corps of Scipio advancing on the same road from Thessalonica. +Calvinus and Scipio had already approached within a few miles +of each other, when Scipio suddenly turned southward and, rapidly +crossing the Haliacmon (Inje Karasu) and leaving his baggage there +under Marcus Favonius, penetrated into Thessaly, in order to attack +with superior force Caesar's legion of recruits employed +in the reduction of the country under Lucius Cassius Longinus. +But Longinus retired over the mountains towards Ambracia to join +the detachment under Gnaeus Calvisius Sabinus sent by Caesar +to Aetolia, and Scipio could only cause him to be pursued +by his Thracian cavalry, for Calvinus threatened his reserve +left behind under Favonius on the Haliacmon with the same fate +which he had himself destined for Longinus. So Calvinus and Scipio +met again on the Haliacmon, and encamped there for a considerable time +opposite to each other. + +Caesar's Retreat from Dyrrachium to Thessaly + +Pompeius might choose among these plans; no choice was left to Caesar. +After that unfortunate engagement he entered on his retreat to Apollonia. +Pompeius followed. The march from Dyrrhachium to Apollonia +along a difficult road crossed by several rivers was no easy task +for a defeated army pursued by the enemy; but the dexterous leadership +of their general and the indestructible marching energy of the soldiers +compelled Pompeius after four days' pursuit to suspend it as useless. +He had now to decide between the Italian expedition and the march +into the interior. However advisable and attractive the former +might seem, and though various voices were raised in its favour, +he preferred not to abandon the corps of Scipio, the more especially +as he hoped by this march to get the corps of Calvinus into his hands. +Calvinus lay at the moment on the Egnatian road at Heraclea Lyncestis, +between Pompeius and Scipio, and, after Caesar had retreated +to Apollonia, farther distant from the latter than from the great army +of Pompeius; without knowledge, moreover, of the events at Dyrrhachium +and of his hazardous position, since after the successes achieved +at Dyrrhachium the whole country inclined to Pompeius and the messengers +of Caesar were everywhere seized. It was not till the enemy's +main force had approached within a few hours of him that Calvinus +learned from the accounts of the enemy's advanced posts themselves +the state of things. A quick departure in a southerly direction +towards Thessaly withdrew him at the last moment from imminent +destruction; Pompeius had to content himself with having +liberated Scipio from his position of peril. Caesar had meanwhile +arrived unmolested at Apollonia. Immediately after the disaster +of Dyrrhachium he had resolved if possible to transfer the struggle +from the coast away into the interior, with the view of getting beyond +the reach of the enemy's fleet--the ultimate cause of the failure +of his previous exertions. The march to Apollonia had only been intended +to place his wounded in safety and to pay his soldiers there, +where his depots were stationed; as soon as this was done, +he set out for Thessaly, leaving behind garrisons in Apollonia, +Oricum, and Lissus. The corps of Calvinus had also put itself +in motion towards Thessaly; and Caesar could effect a junction +with the reinforcements coming up from Italy, this time by the land-route +through Illyria--two legions under Quintus Cornificius--still more easily +in Thessaly than in Epirus. Ascending by difficult paths in the valley +of the Aous and crossing the mountain-chain which separates Epirus +from Thessaly, he arrived at the Peneius; Calvinus was likewise +directed thither, and the junction of the two armies was thus accomplished +by the shortest route and that which was least exposed to the enemy. +It took place at Aeginium not far from the source of the Peneius. +The first Thessalian town before which the now united army appeared, +Gomphi, closed its gates against it; it was quickly stormed and given up +to pillage, and the other towns of Thessaly terrified by this example +submitted, so soon as Caesar's legions merely appeared before the walls. +Amidst these marches and conflicts, and with the help of the supplies-- +albeit not too ample--which the region on the Peneius afforded, +the traces and recollections of the calamitous days through which +they had passed gradually vanished. + +The victories of Dyrrhachium had thus borne not much immediate fruit +for the victors. Pompeius with his unwieldy army and his numerous +cavalry had not been able to follow his versatile enemy +into the mountains; Caesar like Calvinus had escaped from pursuit, +and the two stood united and in full security in Thessaly. +Perhaps it would have been the best course, if Pompeius had now +without delay embarked with his main force for Italy, where success +was scarcely doubtful. But in the meantime only a division +of the fleet departed for Sicily and Italy. In the camp of the coalition +the contest with Caesar was looked on as so completely decided +by the battles of Dyrrhachium that it only remained to reap the fruits +of victory, in other words, to seek out and capture the defeated army. +Their former over-cautious reserve was succeeded by an arrogance +still less justified by the circumstances; they gave no heed +to the facts, that they had, strictly speaking, failed in the pursuit, +that they had to hold themselves in readiness to encounter +a completely refreshed and reorganized army in Thessaly, +and that there was no small risk in moving away from the sea, +renouncing the support of the fleet, and following their antagonist +to the battlefield chosen by himself. They were simply resolved +at any price to fight with Caesar, and therefore to get at him +as soon as possible and by the most convenient way. Cato took up +the command in Dyrrhachium, where a garrison was left behind +of eighteen cohorts, and in Corcyra, where 300 ships of war were left; +Pompeius and Scipio proceeded--the former, apparently, following +the Egnatian way as far as Pella and then striking into the great road +to the south, the latter from the Haliacmon through the passes +of Olympus--to the lower Peneius and met at Larisa. + +The Armies at Pharsalus + +Caesar lay to the south of Larisa in the plain--which extends +between the hill-country of Cynoscephalae and the chain of Othrys +and is intersected by a tributary of the Peneius, the Enipeus-- +on the left bank of the latter stream near the town of Pharsalus; +Pompeius pitched his camp opposite to him on the right bank +of the Enipeus along the slope of the heights of Cynoscephalae.(30) +The entire army of Pompeius was assembled; Caesar on the other hand +still expected the corps of nearly two legions formerly detached +to Aetolia and Thessaly, now stationed under Quintus Fufius Calenus +in Greece, and the two legions of Cornificius which were sent +after him by the land-route from Italy and had already arrived +in Illyria. The army of Pompeius, numbering eleven legions +or 47,000 men and 7000 horse, was more than double that of Caesar +in infantry, and seven times as numerous in cavalry; fatigue +and conflicts had so decimated Caesar's troops, that his eight legions +did not number more than 22,000 men under arms, consequently +not nearly the half of their normal amount. The victorious army +of Pompeius provided with a countless cavalry and good magazines had +provisions in abundance, while the troops of Caesar had difficulty +in keeping themselves alive and only hoped for better supplies +from the corn-harvest not far distant. The Pompeian soldiers, +who had learned in the last campaign to know war and trust their leader, +were in the best of humour. All military reasons on the side +of Pompeius favoured the view, that the decisive battle should not be +long delayed, seeing that they now confronted Caesar in Thessaly; +and the emigrant impatience of the many genteel officers and others +accompanying the army doubtless had more weight than even such reasons +in the council of war. Since the events of Dyrrhachium +these lords regarded the triumph of their party as an ascertained fact; +already there was eager strife as to the filling up of Caesar's +supreme pontificate, and instructions were sent to Rome +to hire houses at the Forum for the next elections. When Pompeius +hesitated on his part to cross the rivulet which separated +the two armies, and which Caesar with his much weaker army +did not venture to pass, this excited great indignation; Pompeius, +it was alleged, only delayed the battle in order to rule somewhat longer +over so many consulars and praetorians and to perpetuate his part +of Agamemnon. Pompeius yielded; and Caesar, who under the impression +that matters would not come to a battle, had just projected +a mode of turning the enemy's army and for that purpose was on the point +of setting out towards Scotussa, likewise arrayed his legions for battle, +when he saw the Pompeians preparing to offer it to him on his bank. + +The Battle + +Thus the battle of Pharsalus was fought on the 9th August 706, +almost on the same field where a hundred and fifty years before +the Romans had laid the foundation of their dominion in the east.(31) +Pompeius rested his right wing on the Enipeus; Caesar opposite +to him rested his left on the broken ground stretching in front +of the Enipeus; the two other wings were stationed out in the plain, +covered in each case by the cavalry and the light troops. +The intention of Pompeius was to keep his infantry on the defensive, +but with his cavalry to scatter the weak band of horsemen which, +mixed after the German fashion with light infantry, confronted him, +and then to take Caesar's right wing in rear. His infantry +courageously sustained the first charge of that of the enemy, +and the engagement there came to a stand. Labienus likewise dispersed +the enemy's cavalry after a brave but short resistance, +and deployed his force to the left with the view of turning +the infantry. But Caesar, foreseeing the defeat of his cavalry, +had stationed behind it on the threatened flank of his right wing +some 2000 of his best legionaries. As the enemy's horsemen, +driving those of Caesar before them, galloped along and around the line, +they suddenly came upon this select corps advancing intrepidly +against them and, rapidly thrown into confusion by the unexpected +and unusual infantry attack,(32) they galloped at full speed +from the field of battle. The victorious legionaries cut to pieces +the enemy's archers now unprotected, then rushed at the left wing +of the enemy, and began now on their part to turn it. At the same time +Caesar's third division hitherto reserved advanced along +the whole line to the attack. The unexpected defeat of the best arm +of the Pompeian army, as it raised the courage of their opponents, +broke that of the army and above all that of the general. When Pompeius, +who from the outset did not trust his infantry, saw the horsemen +gallop off, he rode back at once from the field of battle to the camp, +without even awaiting the issue of the general attack ordered by Caesar. +His legions began to waver and soon to retire over the brook +into the camp, which was not accomplished without severe loss. + +Its Issue +Flight of Pompeius + +The day was thus lost and many an able soldier had fallen, +but the army was still substantially intact, and the situation +of Pompeius was far less perilous than that of Caesar after the defeat +of Dyrrhachium. But while Caesar in the vicissitudes of his destiny +had learned that fortune loves to withdraw herself at certain moments +even from her favourites in order to be once more won back +through their perseverance, Pompeius knew fortune hitherto +only as the constant goddess, and despaired of himself and of her +when she withdrew from him; and, while in Caesar's grander nature +despair only developed yet mightier energies, the inferior soul +of Pompeius under similar pressure sank into the infinite abyss +of despondency. As once in the war with Sertorius he had been +on the point of abandoning the office entrusted to him in presence +of his superior opponent and of departing,(33) so now, when he saw +the legions retire over the stream, he threw from him the fatal +general's scarf, and rode off by the nearest route to the sea, +to find means of embarking there. His army discouraged and leaderless-- +for Scipio, although recognized by Pompeius as colleague in supreme +command, was yet general-in-chief only in name--hoped to find protection +behind the camp-walls; but Caesar allowed it no rest; the obstinate +resistance of the Roman and Thracian guard of the camp was speedily +overcome, and the mass was compelled to withdraw in disorder +to the heights of Crannon and Scotussa, at the foot of which +the camp was pitched. It attempted by moving forward along these hills +to regain Larisa; but the troops of Caesar, heeding neither +booty nor fatigue and advancing by better paths in the plain, +intercepted the route of the fugitives; in fact, when late +in the evening the Pompeians suspended their march, their pursuers +were able even to draw an entrenched line which precluded +the fugitives from access to the only rivulet to be found +in the neighbourhood. So ended the day of Pharsalus. The enemy's army +was not only defeated, but annihilated; 15,000 of the enemy +lay dead or wounded on the field of battle, while the Caesarians missed +only 200 men; the body which remained together, amounting still +to nearly 20,000 men, laid down their arms on the morning after +the battle only isolated troops, including, it is true, the officers +of most note, sought a refuge in the mountains; of the eleven eagles +of the enemy nine were handed over to Caesar. Caesar, +who on the very day of the battle had reminded the soldiers +that they should not forget the fellow-citizen in the foe, +did not treat the captives as did Bibulus and Labienus; +nevertheless he too found it necessary now to exercise some severity. +The common soldiers were incorporated in the army, fines +or confiscations of property were inflicted on the men of better rank; +the senators and equites of note who were taken, with few exceptions, +suffered death. The time for clemency was past; the longer +the civil war lasted, the more remorseless and implacable it became. + +The Political Effects of the Battle of Pharsalus +The East Submits + +Some time elapsed, before the consequences of the 9th of August 706 +could be fully discerned. What admitted of least doubt, +was the passing over to the side of Caesar of all those +who had attached themselves to the party vanquished at Pharsalus +merely as to the more powerful; the defeat was so thoroughly +decisive, that the victor was joined by all who were not willing +or were not obliged to fight for a lost cause. All the kings, +peoples, and cities, which had hitherto been the clients of Pompeius, +now recalled their naval and military contingents and declined +to receive the refugees of the beaten party; such as Egypt, Cyrene, +the communities of Syria, Phoenicia, Cilicia and Asia Minor, Rhodes, +Athens, and generally the whole east. In fact Pharnaces +king of the Bosporus pushed his officiousness so far, that on the news +of the Pharsalian battle he took possession not only of the town +of Phanagoria which several years before had been declared free +by Pompeius, and of the dominions of the Colchian princes confirmed +by him, but even of the kingdom of Little Armenia which Pompeius +had conferred on king Deiotarus. Almost the sole exceptions +to this general submission were the little town of Megara +which allowed itself to be besieged and stormed by the Caesarians, +and Juba king of Numidia, who had for long expected, and after the victory +over Curio expected only with all the greater certainty, that his kingdom +would be annexed by Caesar, and was thus obliged for better or for worse +to abide by the defeated party. + +The Aristocracy after the Battle of Pharsalus + +In the same way as the client communities submitted to the victor +of Pharsalus, the tail of the constitutional party--all who had +joined it with half a heart or had even, like Marcus Cicero +and his congeners, merely danced around the aristocracy like the witches +around the Brocken--approached to make their peace with the new monarch, +a peace accordingly which his contemptuous indulgence readily +and courteously granted to the petitioners. But the flower +of the defeated party made no compromise. All was over +with the aristocracy; but the aristocrats could never become converted +to monarchy. The highest revelations of humanity are perishable; +the religion once true may become a lie,(34) the polity once fraught +with blessing may become a curse; but even the gospel that is past +still finds confessors, and if such a faith cannot remove mountains +like faith in the living truth, it yet remains true to itself +down to its very end, and does not depart from the realm of the living +till it has dragged its last priests and its last partisans +along with it, and a new generation, freed from those shadows of the past +and the perishing, rules over a world that has renewed its youth. +So it was in Rome. Into whatever abyss of degeneracy the aristocratic +rule had now sunk, it had once been a great political system; +the sacred fire, by which Italy had been conquered and Hannibal +had been vanquished, continued to glow--although somewhat dimmed +and dull--in the Roman nobility so long as that nobility existed, +and rendered a cordial understanding between the men of the old regime +and the new monarch impossible. A large portion of the constitutional +party submitted at least outwardly, and recognized the monarchy +so far as to accept pardon from Caesar and to retire as much as possible +into private life; which, however, ordinarily was not done +without the mental reservation of thereby preserving themselves +for a future change of things. This course was chiefly followed +by the partisans of lesser note; but the able Marcus Marcellus, +the same who had brought about the rupture with Caesar,(35) +was to be found among these judicious persons and voluntarily +banished himself to Lesbos. In the majority, however, of the genuine +aristocracy passion was more powerful than cool reflection; +along with which, no doubt, self-deceptions as to success +being still possible and apprehensions of the inevitable +vengeance of the victor variously co-operated. + +Cato + +No one probably formed a judgment as to the situation of affairs +with so painful a clearness, and so free from fear or hope +on his own account, as Marcus Cato. Completely convinced +that after the days of Ilerda and Pharsalus the monarchy was inevitable, +and morally firm enough to confess to himself this bitter truth +and to act in accordance with it, he hesitated for a moment whether +the constitutional party ought at all to continue a war, which would +necessarily require sacrifices for a lost cause on the part of many +who did not know why they offered them. And when he resolved +to fight against the monarchy not for victory, but for a speedier +and more honourable fall, he yet sought as far as possible to draw +no one into this war, who chose to survive the fall of the republic +and to be reconciled to monarchy. He conceived that, so long +as the republic had been merely threatened, it was a right and a duty +to compel the lukewarm and bad citizen to take part in the struggle; +but that now it was senseless and cruel to compel the individual +to share the ruin of the lost republic. Not only did he himself +discharge every one who desired to return to Italy; but when the wildest +of the wild partisans, Gnaeus Pompeius the younger, insisted +on the execution of these people and of Cicero in particular: +it was Cato alone who by his moral authority prevented it. + +Pompeius + +Pompeius also had no desire for peace. Had he been a man +who deserved to hold the position which he occupied, we might suppose +him to have perceived that he who aspires to a crown cannot return +to the beaten track of ordinary existence, and that there is +accordingly no place left on earth for one who has failed. +But Pompeius was hardly too noble-minded to ask a favour, +which the victor would have been perhaps magnanimous enough +not to refuse to him; on the contrary, he was probably too mean +to do so. Whether it was that he could not make up his mind +to trust himself to Caesar, or that in his usual vague +and undecided way, after the first immediate impression of the disaster +of Pharsalus had vanished, be began again to cherish hope, Pompeius +was resolved to continue the struggle against Caesar and to seek +for himself yet another battle-field after that of Pharsalus. + +Military Effects of the Battle +The Leaders Scattered + +Thus, however much Caesar had striven by prudence and moderation +to appease the fury of his opponents and to lessen their number, +the struggle nevertheless went on without alteration. But the leading +men had almost all taken part in the fight at Pharsalus; +and, although they all escaped with the exception of Lucius Domitius +Ahenobarbus, who was killed in the flight, they were yet scattered +in all directions, so that they were unable to concert a common plan +for the continuance of the campaign. Most of them found their way, +partly through the desolate mountains of Macedonia and Illyria, +partly by the aid of the fleet, to Corcyra, where Marcus Cato +commanded the reserve left behind. Here a sort of council +of war took place under the presidency of Cato, at which Metellus Scipio, +Titus Labienus, Lucius Afranius, Gnaeus Pompeius the younger +and others were present; but the absence of the commander-in-chief +and the painful uncertainty as to his fate, as well as the internal +dissensions of the party, prevented the adoption of any common +resolution, and ultimately each took the course which seemed to him +the most suitable for himself or for the common cause. It was in fact +in a high degree difficult to say among the many straws +to which they might possibly cling which was the one +that would keep longest above water. + +Macedonia and Greece +Italy +The East +Egypt +Spain +Africa + +Macedonia and Greece were lost by the battle of Pharsalus. +It is true that Cato, who had immediately on the news of the defeat +evacuated Dyrrhachium, still held Corcyra, and Rutilius Lupus +the Peloponnesus, during a time for the constitutional party. +For a moment it seemed also as if the Pompeians would make a stand +at Patrae in the Peloponnesus; but the accounts of the advance +of Calenus sufficed to frighten them from that quarter. As little +was there any attempt to maintain Corcyra. On the Italian +and Sicilian coasts the Pompeian squadrons despatched thither +after the victories of Dyrrhachium(36) had achieved not unimportant +successes against the ports of Brundisium, Messana and Vibo, +and at Messana especially had burnt the whole fleet in course +of being fitted out for Caesar; but the ships that were thus active, +mostly from Asia Minor and Syria, were recalled by their communities +in consequence of the Pharsalian battle, so that the expedition +came to an end of itself. In Asia Minor and Syria there were +at the moment no troops of either party, with the exception +of the Bosporan army of Pharnaces which had taken possession, +ostensibly on Caesar's account, of different regions belonging +to his opponents. In Egypt there was still indeed a considerable +Roman army, formed of the troops left behind there by Gabinius(37) +and thereafter recruited from Italian vagrants and Syrian +or Cilician banditti; but it was self-evident and was soon +officially confirmed by the recall of the Egyptian vessels, +that the court of Alexandria by no means had the intention +of holding firmly by the defeated party or of even placing +its force of troops at their disposal. Somewhat more favourable +prospects presented themselves to the vanquished in the west. +In Spain Pompeian sympathies were so strong among the population, +that the Caesarians had on that account to give up the attack +which they contemplated from this quarter against Africa, +and an insurrection seemed inevitable, so soon as a leader of note +should appear in the peninsula. In Africa moreover the coalition, +or rather Juba king of Numidia, who was the true regent there, +had been arming unmolested since the autumn of 705. While the whole +east was consequently lost to the coalition by the battle +of Pharsalus, it might on the other hand continue the war +after an honourable manner probably in Spain, and certainly in Africa; +for to claim the aid of the king of Numidia, who had for a long time +been subject to the Roman community, against revolutionary fellow- +burgesses was for Romans a painful humiliation doubtless, but by no means +an act of treason. Those again who in this conflict of despair +had no further regard for right or honour, might declare themselves +beyond the pale of the law, and commence hostilities as robbers; +or might enter into alliance with independent neighbouring states, +and introduce the public foe into the intestine strife; or, lastly, +might profess monarchy with the lips and prosecute the restoration +of the legitimate republic with the dagger of the assassin. + +Hostilities of Robbers and Pirates + +That the vanquished should withdraw and renounce the new monarchy, +was at least the natural and so far the truest expression of their +desperate position. The mountains and above all the sea had been +in those times ever since the memory of man the asylum not only +of all crime, but also of intolerable misery and of oppressed right; +it was natural for Pompeians and republicans to wage a defiant war +against the monarchy of Caesar, which had ejected them, +in the mountains and on the seas, and especially natural for them +to take up piracy on a greater scale, with more compact organization, +and with more definite aims. Even after the recall of the squadrons +that had come from the east they still possessed a very considerable +fleet of their own, while Caesar was as yet virtually without +vessels of war; and their connection with the Dalmatae who had risen +in their own interest against Caesar,(38) and their control +over the most important seas and seaports, presented the most +advantageous prospects for a naval war, especially on a small scale. +As formerly Sulla's hunting out of the democrats had ended +in the Sertorian insurrection, which was a conflict first waged +by pirates and then by robbers and ultimately became a very serious war, +so possibly, if there was in the Catonian aristocracy or among +the adherents of Pompeius as much spirit and fire as in the Marian +democracy, and if there was found among them a true sea-king, +a commonwealth independent of the monarchy of Caesar and perhaps a match +for it might arise on the still unconquered sea. + +Parthian Alliance + +Far more serious disapproval in every respect is due to the idea +of dragging an independent neighbouring state into the Roman civil war +and of bringing about by its means a counter-revolution; +law and conscience condemn the deserter more severely than the robber, +and a victorious band of robbers finds its way back to a free +and well-ordered commonwealth more easily than the emigrants who are +conducted back by the public foe. Besides it was scarcely probable +that the beaten party would be able to effect a restoration in this way. +The only state, from which they could attempt to seek support, +was that of the Parthians; and as to this it was at least doubtful +whether it would make their cause its own, and very improbable +that it would fight out that cause against Caesar. + +The time for republican conspiracies had not yet come. + +Caesar Pursues Pompeius to Egypt + +While the remnant of the defeated party thus allowed themselves +to be helplessly driven about by fate, and even those +who had determined to continue the struggle knew not how or where +to do so, Caesar, quickly as ever resolving and quickly acting, +laid everything aside to pursue Pompeius--the only one of his opponents +whom he respected as an officer, and the one whose personal capture +would have probably paralyzed a half, and that perhaps +the more dangerous half, of his opponents. With a few men +he crossed the Hellespont--his single bark encountered in it a fleet +of the enemy destined for the Black Sea, and took the whole crews, +struck as with stupefaction by the news of the battle of Pharsalus, +prisoners--and as soon as the most necessary preparations were made, +hastened in pursuit of Pompeius to the east. The latter had gone +from the Pharsalian battlefield to Lesbos, whence he brought away +his wife and his second son Sextus, and had sailed onward round +Asia Minor to Cilicia and thence to Cyprus. He might have joined +his partisans at Corcyra or Africa; but repugnance toward his +aristocratic allies and the thought of the reception which awaited him +there after the day of Pharsalus and above all after his disgraceful +flight, appear to have induced him to take his own course +and rather to resort to the protection of the Parthian king +than to that of Cato. While he was employed in collecting money +and slaves from the Roman revenue-farmers and merchants in Cyprus, +and in arming a band of 2000 slaves, he received news that Antioch +had declared for Caesar and that the route to the Parthians +was no longer open. So he altered his plan and sailed to Egypt, +where a number of his old soldiers served in the army and the situation +and rich resources of the country allowed him time and opportunity +to reorganize the war. + +In Egypt, after the death of Ptolemaeus Auletes (May 703) +his children, Cleopatra about sixteen years of age and Ptolemaeus Dionysus +about ten, had ascended the throne according to their father's will +jointly, and as consorts; but soon the brother or rather his guardian +Pothinus had driven the sister from the kingdom and compelled her +to seek a refuge in Syria, whence she made preparations +to get back to her paternal kingdom. Ptolemaeus and Pothinus +lay with the whole Egyptian army at Pelusium for the sake +of protecting the eastern frontier against her, just when Pompeius +cast anchor at the Casian promontory and sent a request to the king +to allow him to land. The Egyptian court, long informed of the disaster +at Pharsalus, was on the point of refusing to receive Pompeius; +but the king's tutor Theodotus pointed out that, in that case +Pompeius would probably employ his connections in the Egyptian army +to instigate rebellion; and that it would be safer, and also preferable +with regard to Caesar, if they embraced the opportunity of making away +with Pompeius. Political reasonings of this sort did not readily fail +of their effect among the statesmen of the Hellenic world. + +Death of Pompeius + +Achillas the general of the royal troops and some of the former soldiers +of Pompeius went off in a boat to his vessel; and invited him +to come to the king and, as the water was shallow, to enter their barge. +As he was stepping ashore, the military tribune Lucius Septimius +stabbed him from behind, under the eyes of his wife and son +who were compelled to be spectators of the murder from the deck +of their vessel, without being able to rescue or revenge +(28 Sept. 706). On the same day, on which thirteen years before +he had entered the capital in triumph over Mithradates,(39) +the man, who for a generation had been called the Great and for years +had ruled Rome, died on the desert sands of the inhospitable +Casian shore by the hand of one of his old soldiers. A good officer +but otherwise of mediocre gifts of intellect and of heart, +fate had with superhuman constancy for thirty years allowed him +to solve all brilliant and toilless tasks; had permitted him to pluck +all laurels planted and fostered by others; had brought him +face to face with all the conditions requisite for obtaining +the supreme power--only in order to exhibit in his person an example +of spurious greatness, to which history knows no parallel. +Of all pitiful parts there is none more pitiful than that of passing +for more than one really is; and it is the fate of monarchy +that this misfortune inevitably clings to it, for barely once +in a thousand years does there arise among the people a man +who is a king not merely in name, but in reality. If this disproportion +between semblance and reality has never perhaps been so abruptly marked +as in Pompeius, the fact may well excite grave reflection that it was +precisely he who in a certain sense opened the series of Roman monarchs. + +Arrival of Caesar + +When Caesar following the track of Pompeius arrived in the roadstead +of Alexandria, all was already over. With deep agitation +he turned away when the murderer brought to his ship the head of the man, +who had been his son-in-law and for long years his colleague +in rule, and to get whom alive into his power he had come to Egypt. +The dagger of the rash assassin precluded an answer to the question, +how Caesar would have dealt with the captive Pompeius; but, while +the humane sympathy, which still found a place in the great soul +of Caesar side by side with ambition, enjoined that he should +spare his former friend, his interest also required that he should +annihilate Pompeius otherwise than by the executioner. +Pompeius had been for twenty years the acknowledged ruler +of Rome; a dominion so deeply rooted does not perish +with the ruler's death. The death of Pompeius did not break up +the Pompeians, but gave to them instead of an aged, incapable, +and worn-out chief in his sons Gnaeus and Sextus two leaders, +both of whom were young and active and the second was a man +of decided capacity. To the newly-founded hereditary monarchy +hereditary pretendership attached itself at once like a parasite, +and it was very doubtful whether by this change of persons Caesar +did not lose more than he gained. + +Caesar Regulates Egypt + +Meanwhile in Egypt Caesar had now nothing further to do, +and the Romans and the Egyptians expected that he would +immediately set sail and apply himself to the subjugation of Africa, +and to the huge task of organization which awaited him after the victory. +But Caesar faithful to his custom--wherever he found himself +in the wide empire--of finally regulating matters at once and in person, +and firmly convinced that no resistance was to be expected +either from the Roman garrison or from the court, being, moreover, +in urgent pecuniary embarrassment, landed in Alexandria +with the two amalgamated legions accompanying him to the number +of 3200 men and 800 Celtic and German cavalry, took up his quarters +in the royal palace, and proceeded to collect the necessary sums of money +and to regulate the Egyptian succession, without allowing himself +to be disturbed by the saucy remark of Pothinus that Caesar +should not for such petty matters neglect his own so important affairs. +In his dealing with the Egyptians he was just and even indulgent. +Although the aid which they had given to Pompeius justified +the imposing of a war contribution, the exhausted land was spared +from this; and, while the arrears of the sum stipulated for in 695(40) +and since then only about half paid were remitted, there was required +merely a final payment of 10,000,000 -denarii- (400,000 pounds). +The belligerent brother and sister were enjoined immediately +to suspend hostilities, and were invited to have their dispute +investigated and decided before the arbiter. They submitted; +the royal boy was already in the palace and Cleopatra also presented +herself there. Caesar adjudged the kingdom of Egypt, agreeably +to the testament of Auletes, to the intermarried brother and sister +Cleopatra and Ptolemaeus Dionysus, and further gave unasked +the kingdom of Cyprus--cancelling the earlier act of annexation(41)-- +as the appanageof the second-born of Egypt to the younger children +of Auletes, Arsinoe and Ptolemaeus the younger. + +Insurrection in Alexandria + +But a storm was secretly preparing. Alexandria was a cosmopolitan city +as well as Rome, hardly inferior to the Italian capital in the number +of its inhabitants, far superior to it in stirring commercial spirit, +in skill of handicraft, in taste for science and art: in the citizens +there was a lively sense of their own national importance, +and, if there was no political sentiment, there was at any rate +a turbulent spirit, which induced them to indulge in their +street riots as regularly and as heartily as the Parisians +of the present day: one may conceive their feelings, when they saw +the Roman general ruling in the palace of the Lagids and their kings +accepting the award of his tribunal. Pothinus and the boy-king, +both as may be conceived very dissatisfied at once with the peremptory +requisition of old debts and with the intervention in the throne- +dispute which could only issue, as it did, in favour of Cleopatra, +sent--in order to pacify the Roman demands--the treasures +of the temples and the gold plate of the king with intentional +ostentation to be melted at the mint; with increasing +indignation the Egyptians--who were pious even to superstition, +and who rejoiced in the world-renowned magnificence of their court +as if it were a possession of their own--beheld the bare walls +of their temples and the wooden cups on the table of their king. +The Roman army of occupation also, which had been essentially +denationalized by its long abode in Egypt and the many intermarriages +between the soldiers and Egyptian women, and which moreover +numbered a multitude of the old soldiers of Pompeius and runaway +Italian criminals and slaves in its ranks, was indignant at Caesar, +by whose orders it had been obliged to suspend its action +on the Syrian frontier, and at his handful of haughty legionaries. +The tumult even at the landing, when the multitude saw the Roman axes +carried into the old palace, and the numerous cases in which +his soldiers were assassinated in the city, had taught Caesar +the immense danger in which he was placed with his small force +in presence of that exasperated multitude. But it was difficult +to return on account of the north-west winds prevailing at this season +of the year, and the attempt at embarkation might easily become +a signal for the outbreak of the insurrection; besides, it was not +the nature of Caesar to take his departure without having accomplished +his work. He accordingly ordered up at once reinforcements +from Asia, and meanwhile, till these arrived, made a show +of the utmost self-possession. Never was there greater gaiety +in his camp than during this rest at Alexandria; and while +the beautiful and clever Cleopatra was not sparing of her charms +in general and least of all towards her judge, Caesar also appeared +among all his victories to value most those won over beautiful women. +It was a merry prelude to graver scenes. Under the leadership +of Achillas and, as was afterwards proved, by the secret orders +of the king and his guardian, the Roman army of occupation +stationed in Egypt appeared unexpectedly in Alexandria; and as soon as +the citizens saw that it had come to attack Caesar, they made +common cause with the soldiers. + +Caesar in Alexandria + +With a presence of mind, which in some measure justifies +his earlier foolhardiness, Caesar hastily collected his scattered men; +seized the persons of the king and his ministers; entrenched himself +in the royal residence and the adjoining theatre; and gave orders, +as there was no time to place in safety the war-fleet stationed +in the principal harbour immediately in front of the theatre, +that it should be set on fire and that Pharos, the island +with the light-tower commanding the harbour, should be occupied +by means of boats. Thus at least a restricted position for defence +was secured, and the way was kept open to procure supplies +and reinforcements. At the same time orders were issued +to the commandant of Asia Minor as well as to the nearest +subject countries, the Syrians and Nabataeans, the Cretans +and the Rhodians, to send troops and ships in all haste to Egypt. +The insurrection at the head of which the princess Arsinoe +and her confidant the eunuch Ganymedes had placed themselves, +meanwhilehad free course in all Egypt and in the greater part +of the capital. In the streets of the latter there was daily fighting, +but without success either on the part of Caesar in gaining freer scope +and breaking through to the fresh water lake of Marea which lay behind +the town, where he could have provided himself with water and forage, +or on the part of the Alexandrians in acquiring superiority +over the besieged and depriving them of all drinking water; for, +when the Nile canals in Caesar's part of the town had been spoiled +by the introduction of salt water, drinkable water was unexpectedly found +in wells dug on the beach. + +As Caesar was not to be overcome from the landward side, +the exertions of the besiegers were directed to destroy his fleet +and cut him off from the sea by which supplies reached him. +The island with the lighthouse and the mole by which this was connected +with the mainland divided the harbour into a western and an eastern half, +which were in communication with each other through two arched openings +in the mole. Caesar commanded the island and the east harbour, +while the mole and the west harbour were in possession +of the citizens; and, as the Alexandrian fleet was burnt, +his vessels sailed in and out without hindrance. The Alexandrians, +after having vainly attempted to introduce fire-ships from the western +into the eastern harbour, equipped with the remnant of their arsenal +a small squadron and with this blocked up the way of Caesar's vessels, +when these were towing in a fleet of transports with a legion +that had arrived from Asia Minor; but the excellent Rhodian mariners +of Caesar mastered the enemy. Not long afterwards, however, +the citizens captured the lighthouse- island,(42) and from that point +totally closed the narrow and rocky mouth of the east harbour +for larger ships; so that Caesar's fleet was compelled +to take its station in the open roads before the east harbour, +and his communication with the sea hung only on a weak thread. +Caesar's fleet, attacked in that roadstead repeatedly +by the superior naval force of the enemy, could neither shun +the unequal strife, since the loss of the lighthouse-island +closed the inner harbour against it, nor yet withdraw, for the loss +of the roadstead would have debarred Caesar wholly from the sea. +Though the brave legionaries, supported by the dexterity +of the Rhodian sailors, had always hitherto decided these conflicts +in favour of the Romans, the Alexandrians renewed and augmented +their naval armaments with unwearied perseverance; the besieged +had to fight as often as it pleased the besiegers, and if the former +should be on a single occasion vanquished, Caesar would be +totally hemmed in and probably lost. + +It was absolutely necessary to make an attempt to recover +the lighthouse island. The double attack, which was made by boats +from the side of the harbour and by the war-vessels from the seaboard, +in reality brought not only the island but also the lower part +of the mole into Caesar's power; it was only at the second arch- +opening of the mole that Caesar ordered the attack to be stopped, +and the mole to be there closed towards the city by a transverse wall. +But while a violent conflict arose here around the entrenchers, +the Roman troops left the lower part of the mole adjoining +the island bare of defenders; a division of Egyptians landed there +unexpectedly, attacked in the rear the Roman soldiers and sailors +crowded together on the mole at the transverse wall, and drove +the whole mass in wild confusion into the sea. A part +were taken on board by the Roman ships; the most were drowned. +Some 400 soldiers and a still greater number of men belonging +to the fleet were sacrificed on this day; the general himself, +who had shared the fate of his men, had been obliged to seek refuge, +in his ship, and when this sank from having been overloaded with men, +he had to save himself by swimming to another. But, severe as was +the loss suffered, it was amply compensated by the recovery +of the lighthouse-island, which along with the mole as far as +the first arch-opening remained in the hands of Caesar. + +Relieving Army from Asia Minor + +At length the longed-for relief arrived. Mithradates of Pergamus, +an able warrior of the school of Mithradates Eupator, whose natural son +he claimed to be, brought up by land from Syria a motley army-- +the Ityraeans of the prince of the Libanus,(43) the Bedouins +of Jamblichus, son of Sampsiceramus,(44) the Jews under the minister +Antipater, and the contingents generally of the petty chiefs +and communities of Cilicia and Syria. From Pelusium, which Mithradates +had the fortune to occupy on the day of his arrival, he took +the great road towards Memphis with the view of avoiding +the intersected ground of the Delta and crossing the Nile +before its division; during which movement his troops received +manifold support from the Jewish peasants who were settled +in peculiar numbers in this part of Egypt. The Egyptians, +with the young king Ptolemaeus now at their head, whom Caesar +had released to his people in the vain hope of allaying the insurrection +by his means, despatched an army to the Nile, to detain Mithradates +on its farther bank. This army fell in with the enemy +even beyond Memphis at the so-called Jews'-camp, between Onion +and Heliopolis; nevertheless Mithradates, trained in the Roman fashion +of manoeuvring and encamping, amidst successful conflicts gained +the opposite bank at Memphis. Caesar, on the other hand, as soon as +he obtained news of the arrival of the relieving army, conveyed a part +of his troops in ships to the end of the lake of Marea to the west +of Alexandria, and marched round this lake and down the Nile +to meet Mithradates advancing up the river. + +Battle at the Nile + +The junction took place without the enemy attempting to hinder it. +Caesar then marched into the Delta, whither the king had retreated, +overthrew, notwithstanding the deeply cut canal in their front, +the Egyptian vanguard at the first onset, and immediately stormed +the Egyptian camp itself. It lay at the foot of a rising ground +between the Nile--from which only a narrow path separated it-- +and marshes difficult of access. Caesar caused the camp to be assailed +simultaneously from the front and from the flank on the path +along the Nile; and during this assault ordered a third detachment +to ascend unseen the heights behind the camp. The victory was complete +the camp was taken, and those of the Egyptians who did not fal +beneath the sword of the enemy were drowned in the attempt to escape +to the fleet on the Nile. With one of the boats, which sank +overladen with men, the young king also disappeared in the waters +of his native stream. + +Pacificatin of Alexandria + +Immediately after the battle Caesar advanced at the head +of his cavalry from the land-side straight into the portion +of the capital occupied by the Egyptians. In mourning attire, +with the images of their gods in their hands, the enemy received him +and sued for peace; and his troops, when they saw him return as victor +from the side opposite to that by which he had set forth, welcomed him +with boundless joy. The fate of the town, which had ventured +to thwart the plans of the master of the world and had brought him +within a hair's-breadth of destruction, lay in Caesar's hands; +but he was too much of a ruler to be sensitive, and dealt with +the Alexandrians as with the Massiliots. Caesar--pointing +to their city severely devastated and deprived of its granaries, +of its world-renowned library, and of other important public buildings +on occasion of the burning of the fleet--exhorted the inhabitants +in future earnestly to cultivate the arts of peace alone, and to heal +the wounds which they had inflicted on themselves; for the rest, +he contented himself with granting to the Jews settled in Alexandria +the same rights which the Greek population of the city enjoyed, +and with placing in Alexandria, instead of the previous Roman army +of occupation which nominally at least obeyed the kings of Egypt, +a formal Roman garrison--two of the legions besieged there, +and a third which afterwards arrived from Syria--under a commander +nominated by himself. For this position of trust a man +was purposely selected, whose birth made it impossible for him +to abuse it--Rufio, an able soldier, but the son of a freedman. +Cleopatra and her younger brother Ptolemaeus obtained the sovereignty +of Egypt under the supremacy of Rome; the princess Arsinoe +was carried off to Italy, that she might not serve once more as a pretext +for insurrections to the Egyptians, who were after the Oriental fashion +quite as much devoted to their dynasty as they were indifferent +towards the individual dynasts; Cyprus became again a part +of the Roman province of Cilicia. + +Course of Things during Caesar's Absence in Alexandria + +This Alexandrian insurrection, insignificant as it was in itself +and slight as was its intrinsic connection with the events +of importance in the world's history which took place at the same time +in the Roman state, had nevertheless so far a momentous influence +on them that it compelled the man, who was all in all and without whom +nothing could be despatched and nothing could be solved, +to leave his proper tasks in abeyance from October 706 up to March 707 +in order to fight along with Jews and Bedouins against a city rabble. +The consequences of personal rule began to make themselves felt. +They had the monarchy; but the wildest confusion prevailed everywhere, +and the monarch was absent. The Caesarians were for the moment, +just like the Pompeians, without superintendence; the ability +of the individual officers and, above all, accident +decided matters everywhere. + +Insubordination of Pharnaces + +In Asia Minor there was, at the time of Caesar's departure for Egypt, +no enemy. But Caesar's lieutenant there, the able Gnaeus Domitius +Calvinus, had received orders to take away again from king Pharnaces +what he had without instructions wrested from the allies of Pompeius; +and, as Pharnaces, an obstinate and arrogant despot like his father, +perseveringly refused to evacuate Lesser Armenia, no course remained +but to march against him. Calvinus had been obliged to despatch +to Egypt two out of the three legions left behind with him and formed +out of the Pharsalian prisoners of war; he filled up the gap +by one legion hastily gathered from the Romans domiciled in Pontus +and two legions of Deiotarus exercised after the Roman manner, +and advanced into Lesser Armenia. But the Bosporan army, +tried in numerous conflicts with the dwellers on the Black Sea, +showed itself more efficient than his own. + +Calvinus Defeated at Nicopolis +Victory of Caesar at Ziela + +In an engagement at Nicopolis the Pontic levy of Calvinus +was cut to pieces and the Galatian legions ran off; only the one old +legion of the Romans fought its way through with moderate loss. +Instead of conquering Lesser Armenia, Calvinus could not even prevent +Pharnaces from repossessing himself of his Pontic "hereditary states," +and pouring forth the whole vials of his horrible sultanic caprices +on their inhabitants, especially the unhappy Amisenes +(winter of 706-707). When Caesar in person arrived in Asia Minor +and intimated to him that the service which Pharnaces had rendered +to him personally by having granted no help to Pompeius could not be +taken into account against the injury inflicted on the empire, +and that before any negotiation he must evacuate the province of Pontus +and send back the property which he had pillaged, he declared himself +doubtless ready to submit; nevertheless, well knowing how good reason +Caesar had for hastening to the west, he made no serious preparations +for the evacuation. He did not know that Caesar finished +whatever he took in hand. Without negotiating further, +Caesar took with him the one legion which he brought from Alexandria +and the troops of Calvinus and Deiotarus, and advanced against +the camp of Pharnaces at Ziela. When the Bosporans saw him approach, +they boldly crossed the deep mountain-ravine which covered their front, +and charged the Romans up the hill. Caesar's soldiers +were still occupied in pitching their camp, and the ranks wavered +for a moment; but the veterans accustomed to war rapidly rallied +and set the example for a general attack and for a complete victory +(2 Aug. 707). In five days the campaign was ended--an invaluable piece +of good fortune at this time, when every hour was precious. + +Regulation of Asia Minor + +Caesar entrusted the pursuit of the king, who had gone home by way +of Sinope to Pharnaces' illegitimate brother, the brave Mithradates +of Pergamus, who as a reward for the services rendered by him in Egypt +received the crown of the Bosporan kingdom in room of Pharnaces. +In other respects the affairs of Syria and Asia Minor were peacefully +settled; Caesar's own allies were richly rewarded, those of Pompeius +were in general dismissed with fines or reprimands. Deiotarus alone, +the most powerful of the clients of Pompeius, was again confined +to his narrow hereditary domain, the canton of the Tolistobogii. +In his stead Ariobarzanes king of Cappadocia was invested with +Lesser Armenia, and the tetrarchy of the Trocmi usurped by Deiotarus +was conferred on the new king of the Bosporus, who was descended +by the maternal side from one of the Galatian princely houses +as by the paternal from that of Pontus. + +War by Land and Sea in Illyria +Defeat of Gabinius +Naval Victory at Tauris + +In Illyria also, while Caesar was in Egypt, incidents of a very grave +nature had occurred. The Dalmatian coast had been for centuries +a sore blemish on the Roman rule, and its inhabitants had been +at open feud with Caesar since the conflicts around Dyrrhachium; +while the interior also since the time of the Thessalian war, +swarmed with dispersed Pompeians. Quintus Cornificius +had however, with the legions that followed him from Italy, +kept both the natives and the refugees in check and had +at the same time sufficiently met the difficult task of provisioning +the troops in these rugged districts. Even when the able +Marcus Octavius, the victor of Curicta,(45) appeared with a part +of the Pompeian fleet in these waters to wage war there against Caesar +by sea and land, Cornificius not only knew how to maintain himself, +resting for support on the ships and the harbour of the Iadestini +(Zara), but in his turn also sustained several successful engagements +at sea with the fleet of his antagonist. But when the new governor +of Illyria, the Aulus Gabinius recalled by Caesar from exile,(46) +arrived by the landward route in Illyria in the winter of 706-707 +with fifteen cohorts and 3000 horse, the system of warfare +changed. Instead of confining himself like his predecessor +to war on a small scale, the bold active man undertook at once, +in spite of the inclement season, an expedition with his whole force +to the mountains. But the unfavourable weather, the difficulty +of providing supplies, and the brave resistance of the Dalmatians, +swept away the army; Gabinius had to commence his retreat, +was attacked in the course of it and disgracefully defeated +by the Dalmatians, and with the feeble remains of his fine army +had difficulty in reaching Salonae, where he soon afterwards died. +Most of the Illyrian coast towns thereupon surrendered to the fleet +of Octavius; those that adhered to Caesar, such as Salonae +and Epidaurus (Ragusa vecchia), were so hard pressed by the fleet +at sea and by the barbarians on land, that the surrender +and capitulation of the remains of the army enclosed in Salonae +seemed not far distant. Then the commandant of the depot at Brundisium, +the energetic Publius Vatinius, in the absence of ships of war caused +common boats to be provided with beaks and manned with the soldiers +dismissed from the hospitals, and with this extemporized +war-fleet gave battle to the far superior fleet of Octavius +at the island of Tauris (Torcola between Lesina and Curzola)-- +a battle in which, as in so many cases, the bravery of the leader +and of the marines compensated for the deficiencies of the vessels, +and the Caesarians achieved a brilliant victory. Marcus Octavius +left these waters and proceeded to Africa (spring of 707); +the Dalmatians no doubt continued their resistance for years +with great obstinacy, but it was nothing beyond a local mountain-warfare. +When Caesar returned from Egypt, his resolute adjutant had already got rid +of the danger that was imminent in Illyria. + +Reorganization of the Coalition in Africa + +All the more serious was the position of things in Africa, +where the constitutional party had from the outset of the civil war +ruled absolutely and had continually augmented their power. +Down to the battle of Pharsalus king Juba had, properly speaking, +borne rule there; he had vanquished Curio, and his flying horsemen +and his numberless archers were the main strength of the army; +the Pompeian governor Varus played by his side so subordinate +a part that he even had to deliver those soldiers of Curio, +who had surrendered to him, over to the king, and had to look on +while they were executed or carried away into the interior of Numidia. +After the battle of Pharsalus a change took place. With the exception +of Pompeius himself, no man of note among the defeated party +thought of flight to the Parthians. As little did they attempt to hold +the sea with their united resources; the warfare waged by Marcus Octavius +in the Illyrian waters was isolated, and was without permanent success. +The great majority of the republicans as of the Pompeians +betook themselves to Africa, where alone an honourable +and constitutional warfare might still be waged against the usurper. +There the fragments of the army scattered at Pharsalus, the troops +that had garrisoned Dyrrhachium, Corcyra, and the Peloponnesus, +the remains of the Illyrian fleet, gradually congregated; +there the second commander-in-chief Metellus Scipio, +the two sons of Pompeius, Gnaeus and Sextus, the political leader +of the republicans Marcus Cato, the able officers Labienus, +Afranius, Petreius, Octavius and others met. If the resources +of the emigrants had diminished, their fanaticism had, if possible, +even increased. Not only did they continue to murder their prisoners +and even the officers of Caesar under flag of truce, but king Juba, +in whom the exasperation of the partisan mingled with the fury +of the half-barbarous African, laid down the maxim that in every +community suspected of sympathizing with the enemy the burgesses +ought to be extirpated and the town burnt down, and even practically +carried out this theory against some townships, such as the unfortunate +Vaga near Hadrumetum. In fact it was solely owing to the energetic +intervention of Cato that the capital of the province itself +the flourishing Utica--which, just like Carthage formerly, +had been long regarded with a jealous eye by the Numidian kings-- +did not experience the same treatment from Juba, and that measures +of precaution merely were taken against its citizens, +who certainly were not unjustly accused of leaning towards Caesar. + +As neither Caesar himself nor any of his lieutenants undertook +the smallest movement against Africa, the coalition had full time +to acquire political and military reorganization there. First of all, +it was necessary to fill up anew the place of commander-in-chief +vacant by the death of Pompeius. King Juba was not disinclined +still to maintain the position which he had held in Africa +up to the battle of Pharsalus; indeed he bore himself no longer +as a client of the Romans but as an equal ally or even as a protector, +and took it upon him, for example, to coin Roman silver money +with his name and device; nay, he even raised a claim to be the sole +wearer of purple in the camp, and suggested to the Roman commanders +that they should lay aside their purple mantle of office. +Further Metellus Scipio demanded the supreme command for himself, +because Pompeius had recognized him in the Thessalian campaign +as on a footing of equality, more from the consideration that he was +his son-in-law than on military grounds. The like demand was raised +by Varus as the governor--self-nominated, it is true--of Africa, +seeing that the war was to be waged in his province. Lastly the army +desired for its leader the propraetor Marcus Cato. Obviously +it was right. Cato was the only man who possessed the requisite +devotedness, energy, and authority for the difficult office; +if he was no military man, it was infinitely better to appoint +as commander-in-chief a non-military man who understood how to listen +to reason and make his subordinates act, than an officer of untried +capacity like Varus, or even one of tried incapacity like Metellus +Scipio. But the decision fell at length on this same Scipio, +and it was Cato himself who mainly determined that decision. +He did so, not because he felt himself unequal to such a task, +or because his vanity found its account rather in declining +than in accepting; still less because he loved or respected Scipio, +with whom he on the contrary was personally at variance, +and who with his notorious inefficiency had attained a certain importance +merely in virtue of his position as father-in-law to Pompeius; +but simply and solely because his obstinate legal formalism chose +rather to let the republic go to ruin in due course of law +than to save it in an irregular way. When after the battle of Pharsalus +he met with Marcus Cicero at Corcyra, he had offered to hand over +the command in Corcyra to the latter--who was still from the time +of his Cilician administration invested with the rank of general-- +as the officer of higher standing according to the letter of the law, +and by this readiness had driven the unfortunate advocate, +who now cursed a thousand times his laurels from the Arnanus, +almost to despair; but he had at the same time astonished all men +of any tolerable discernment. The same principles were applied now, +when something more was at stake; Cato weighed the question +to whom the place of commander-in-chief belonged, as if the matter +had reference to a field at Tusculum, and adjudged it to Scipio. +By this sentence his own candidature and that of Varus were set aside. +But he it was also, and he alone, who confronted with energy +the claims of king Juba, and made him feel that the Roman nobility +came to him not suppliant, as to the great-prince of the Parthians, +with a view to ask aid at the hands of a protector, but as entitled +to command and require aid from a subject. In the present state +of the Roman forces in Africa, Juba could not avoid lowering +his claims to some extent; although he still carried the point +with the weak Scipio, that the pay of his troops should be charged +on the Roman treasury and the cession of the province of Africa +should be assured to him in the event of victory. + +By the side of the new general-in-chief the senate of the "three hundred" +again emerged. It established its seat in Utica, and replenished +its thinned ranks by the admission of the most esteemed +and the wealthiest men of the equestrian order. + +The warlike preparations were pushed forward, chiefly through +the zeal of Cato, with the greatest energy, and every man capable +of arms, even the freedman and Libyan, was enrolled in the legions; +by which course so many hands were withdrawn from agriculture +that a great part of the fields remained uncultivated, but an imposing +result was certainly attained. The heavy infantry numbered fourteen +legions, of which two were already raised by Varus, eight others +were formed partly from the refugees, partly from the conscripts +in the province, and four were legions of king Juba armed +in the Roman manner. The heavy cavalry, consisting of the Celts +and Germans who arrived with Labienus and sundry others incorporated +in their ranks, was, apart from Juba's squadron of cavalry equipped +in the Roman style, 1600 strong. The light troops consisted +of innumerable masses of Numidians riding without bridle or rein +and armed merely with javelins, of a number of mounted bowmen, +and a large host of archers on foot. To these fell to be added Juba's +120 elephants, and the fleet of 55 sail commanded by Publius Varus +and Marcus Octavius. The urgent want of money was in some measure +remedied by a self-taxation on the part of the senate, which was +the more productive as the richest African capitalists had been +induced to enter it. Corn and other supplies were accumulated +in immense quantities in the fortresses capable of defence; +at the same time the stores were as far as possible removed +from the open townships. The absence of Caesar, the troublesome temper +of his legions, the ferment in Spain and Italy gradually raised +men's spirits, and the recollection of the Pharsalian defeat +began to give way to fresh hopes of victory. + +The time lost by Caesar in Egypt nowhere revenged itself +more severely than here. Had he proceeded to Africa immediately +after the death of Pompeius, he would have found there a weak, +disorganized, and frightened army and utter anarchy among the leaders; +whereas there was now in Africa, owing more especially to Cato's energy, +an army equal in number to that defeated at Pharsalus, under leaders +of note, and under a regulated superintendence. + +Movements in Spain + +A peculiar evil star seemed altogether to preside over this African +expedition of Caesar. He had, even before his embarkation for Egypt, +arranged in Spain and Italy various measures preliminary and preparatory +to the African war; but out of all there had sprung nothing but mischief. +From Spain, according to Caesar's arrangement, the governor +of the southern province Quintus Cassius Longinus was to cross +with four legions to Africa, to be joined there by Bogud +king of West Mauretania,(47) and to advance with him towards +Numidia and Africa. But that army destined for Africa +included in it a number of native Spaniards and two whole legions +formerly Pompeian; Pompeian sympathies prevailed in the army +as in the province, and the unskilful and tyrannical behaviour +of the Caesarian governor was not fitted to allay them. A formal revolt +took place; troops and towns took part for or against the governor; +already those who had risen against the lieutenant of Caesar +were on the point of openly displaying the banner of Pompeius; +already had Pompeius' elder son Gnaeus embarked from Africa for Spain +to take advantage of this favourable turn, when the disavowal +of the governor by the most respectable Caesarians themselves +and the interference of the commander of the northern province +suppressed just in right time the insurrection. Gnaeus Pompeius, +who had lost time on the way with a vain attempt to establish himself +in Mauretania, came too late; Gaius Trebonius, whom Caesar +after his return from the east sent to Spain to relieve Cassius +(autumn of 707), met everywhere with absolute obedience. But of course +amidst these blunders nothing was done from Spain to disturb +the organization of the republicans in Africa; indeed in consequence +of the complications with Longinus, Bogud king of West Mauretania, +who was on Caesar's side and might at least have put some obstacles +in the way of king Juba, had been called away with his troops to Spain. + +Military Revolt in Campania + +Still more critical were the occurrences among the troops +whom Caesar had caused to be collected in southern Italy, in order +to his embarkation with them for Africa. They were for the most part +the old legions, which had founded Caesar's throne in Gaul, Spain, +and Thessaly. The spirit of these troops had not been improved +by victories, and had been utterly disorganized by long repose +in Lower Italy. The almost superhuman demands which the general +made on them, and the effects of which were only too clearly apparent +in their fearfully thinned ranks, left behind even in these men of iron +a leaven of secret rancour which required only time and quiet +to set their minds in a ferment. The only man who had influence +over them, had been absent and almost unheard-of for a year; +while the officers placed over them were far more afraid of the soldiers +than the soldiers of them, and overlooked in the conquerors +of the world every outrage against those that gave them quarters, +and every breach of discipline. When the orders to embark for Sicily +arrived, and the soldier was to exchange the luxurious ease of Campania +for a third campaign certainly not inferior to those of Spain +and Thessaly in point of hardship, the reins, which had been +too long relaxed and were too suddenly tightened, snapt asunder. +The legions refused to obey till the promised presents +were paid to them, scornfully repulsed the officers sent by Caesar, +and even threw stones at them. An attempt to extinguish the incipient +revolt by increasing the sums promised not only had no success, +but the soldiers set out in masses to extort the fulfilment +of the promises from the general in the capital. Several officers, +who attempted to restrain the mutinous bands on the way, were slain. +It was a formidable danger. Caesar ordered the few soldiers +who were in the city to occupy the gates, with the view of warding off +the justly apprehended pillage at least at the first onset, +and suddenly appeared among the furious bands demanding to know +what they wanted. They exclaimed: "discharge." In a moment +the request was granted. Respecting the presents, Caesar added, +which he had promised to his soldiers at his triumph, as well as +respecting the lands which he had not promised to them +but had destined for them, they might apply to him on the day +when he and the other soldiers should triumph; in the triumph itself +they could not of course participate, as having been previously +discharged. The masses were not prepared for things taking this turn; +convinced that Caesar could not do without them for the African campaign, +they had demanded their discharge only in order that, if it were refused, +they might annex their own conditions to their service. Half unsettled +in their belief as to their own indispensableness; too awkward +to return to their object, and to bring the negotiation +which had missed its course back to the right channel; ashamed, as men, +by the fidelity with which the Imperator kept his word even to soldiers +who had forgotten their allegiance, and by his generosity +which even now granted far more than he had ever promised; +deeply affected, as soldiers, when the general presented to them +the prospect of their being necessarily mere civilian spectators +of the triumph of their comrades, and when he called them no longer +"comrades" but "burgesses,"--by this very form of address, +which from his mouth sounded so strangely, destroying as it were +with one blow the whole pride of their past soldierly career; +and, besides all this, under the spell of the man whose presence +had an irresistible power--the soldiers stood for a while mute +and lingering, till from all sides a cry arose that the general +would once more receive them into favour and again permit them +to be called Caesar's soldiers. Caesar, after having allowed himself +to be sufficiently entreated, granted the permission; but the ringleaders +in this mutiny had a third cut off from their triumphal presents. +History knows no greater psychological masterpiece, and none +that was more completely successful. + +Caesar Proceeds to Africa +Conflict at Ruspina + +This mutiny operated injuriously on the African campaign, +at least in so far as it considerably delayed the commencement of it. +When Caesar arrived at the port of Lilybaeum destined for the embarkation +the ten legions intended for Africa werefar from being +fully assembled there, and it was the experienced troops +that were farthest behind. Hardly however had six legions, +of which five were newly formed, arrived there and the necessary +war-vessels and transports come forward, when Caesar put to sea with them +(25 Dec. 707 of the uncorrected, about 8 Oct. of the Julian, calendar). +The enemy's fleet, which on account of the prevailing equinoctial gales +was drawn up on the beach at the island Aegimurus in front of the bay +of Carthage, did not oppose the passage; but, the same storms scattered +the fleet of Caesar in all directions, and, when he availed himself +of the opportunity of landing not far from Hadrumetum (Susa), +he could not disembark more than some 3000 men, mostly recruits, +and 150 horsemen. His attempt to capture Hadrumetum strongly occupied +by the enemy miscarried; but Caesar possessed himself of the two seaports +not far distant from each other, Ruspina (Monastir near Susa) +and Little Leptis. Here he entrenched himself; but his position +was so insecure, that he kept his cavalry in the ships and the ships +ready for sea and provided with a supply of water, in order to re-embark +at any moment if he should be attacked by a superior force. +This however was not necessary, for just at the right time the ships +that had been driven out of their course arrived (3 Jan. 708). +On the very following day Caesar, whose army in consequence +of the arrangements made by the Pompeians suffered from want of corn, +undertook with three legions an expedition into the interior +of the country, but was attacked on the march not far from Ruspina +by the corps which Labienus had brought up to dislodge Caesar +from the coast. As Labienus had exclusively cavalry and archers, +and Caesar almost nothing but infantry of the line, the legions +were quickly surrounded and exposed to the missiles of the enemy, +without being able to retaliate or to attack with success. No doubt +the deploying of the entire line relieved once more the flanks, +and spirited charges saved the honour of their arms; but a retreat +was unavoidable, and had Ruspina not been so near, the Moorish javelin +would perhaps have accomplished the same result here +as the Parthian bow at Carrhae. + +Caesar's Position at Ruspina + +Caesar, whom this day had fully convinced of the difficulty +of the impending war, would not again expose his soldiers untried +and discouraged by the new mode of fighting to any such attack, +but awaited the arrival of his veteran legions. The interval +was employed in providing some sort of compensation against +the crushing superiority of the enemy in the weapons of distant warfare. +The incorporation of the suitable men from the fleet as light horsemen +or archers in the land-army could not be of much avail. The diversions +which Caesar suggested were somewhat more effectual. He succeeded +in bringing into arms against Juba the Gaetulian pastoral tribes +wandering on the southern slope of the great Atlas towards the Sahara; +for the blows of the Marian and Sullan period had reached even to them, +and their indignation against Pompeius, who had at that time made them +subordinate to the Numidian kings,(48) rendered them from the outset +favourably inclined to the heir of the mighty Marius of whose Jugurthine +campaign they had still a lively recollection. The Mauretanian kings, +Bogud in Tingis and Bocchus in Iol, were Juba's natural rivals +and to a certain extent long since in alliance with Caesar. +Further, there still roamed in the border-region between the kingdoms +of Juba and Bocchus the last of the Catilinarians, that Publius Sittius +of Nuceria,(49) who eighteen years before had become converted +from a bankrupt Italian merchant into a Mauretanian leader +of free bands, and since that time had procured for himself +a name and a body of retainers amidst the Libyan quarrels. +Bocchus and Sittius united fell on the Numidian land, and occupied +the important town of Cirta; and their attack, as well as +that of the Gaetulians, compelled king Juba to send a portion +of his troops to his southern and western frontiers. + +Caesar's situation, however, continued sufficiently unpleasant. +His army was crowded together within a space of six square miles; +though the fleet conveyed corn, the want of forage was as much felt +by Caesar's cavalry as by those of Pompeius before Dyrrhachium. +The light troops of the enemy remained notwithstanding all the exertions +of Caesar so immeasurably superior to his, that it seemed almost +impossible to carry offensive operations into the interior +even with veterans. If Scipio retired and abandoned the coast towns, +he might perhaps achieve a victory like those which the vizier of Orodes +had won over Crassus and Juba over Curio, and he could at least +endlessly protract the war. The simplest consideration suggested +this plan of campaign; even Cato, although far from a strategist, +counselled its adoption, and offered at the same time to cross +with a corps to Italy and to call the republicans there to arms-- +which, amidst the utter confusion in that quarter, might very well +meet with success. But Cato could only advise, not command; Scipio +the commander-in-chief decided that the war should be carried on +in the region of the coast. This was a blunder, not merely inasmuch as +they thereby dropped a plan of war promising a sure result, but also +inasmuch as the region to which they transferred the war was in dangerous +agitation, and a good part of the army which they opposed to Caesar +was likewise in a troublesome temper. The fearfully strict levy, +the carrying off of the supplies, the devastating of the smaller +townships, the feeling in general that they were being sacrificed +for a cause which from the outset was foreign to them +and was already lost, had exasperated the native population against +the Roman republicans fighting out their last struggle of despair +on African soil; and the terrorist proceedings of the latter against +all communities that were but suspected of indifference,(50) +had raised this exasperation to the most fearful hatred. +The African towns declared, wherever they could venture to do so, +for Caesar; among the Gaetulians and the Libyans, who served in numbers +among the light troops and even in the legions, desertion was spreading. +But Scipio with all the obstinacy characteristic of folly persevered +in his plan, marched with all his force from Utica to appear +before the towns of Ruspina and Little Leptis occupied by Caesar, +furnished Hadrumetum to the north and Thapsus to the south +(on the promontory Ras Dimas) with strong garrisons, and in concert +with Juba, who likewise appeared before Ruspina with all his troops +not required by the defence of the frontier, offered battle repeatedly +to the enemy. But Caesar was resolved to wait for his veteran legions. +As these one after another arrived and appeared on the scene +of strife, Scipio and Juba lost the desire to risk a pitched battle, +and Caesar had no means of compelling them to fight owing +to their extraordinary superiority in light cavalry. Nearly two months +passed away in marches and skirmishes in the neighbourhood +of Ruspina and Thapsus, which chiefly had relation to the finding out +of the concealed store-pits (silos) common in the country, +and to the extension of posts. Caesar, compelled by the enemy's +horsemen to keep as much as possible to the heights or even to cover +his flanks by entrenched lines, yet accustomed his soldiers +gradually during this laborious and apparently endless warfare +to the foreign mode of fighting. Friend and foe hardly recognized +the rapid general in the cautious master of fence who trained his men +carefully and not unfrequently in person; and they became almost puzzled +by the masterly skill which displayed itself as conspicuously +in delay as in promptitude of action. + +Battle at Thapsus + +At last Caesar, after being joined by his last reinforcements, +made a lateral movement towards Thapsus. Scipio had, as we have said, +strongly garrisoned this town, and thereby committed the blunder +of presenting to his opponent an object of attack easy to be seized; +to this first error he soon added the second still less excusable +blunder of now for the rescue of Thapsus giving the battle, +which Caesar had wished and Scipio had hitherto rightly refused, +on ground which placed the decision in the hands of the infantry +of the line. Immediately along the shore, opposite to Caesar's camp, +the legions of Scipio and Juba appeared, the fore ranks ready +for fighting, the hinder ranks occupied in forming an entrenched camp; +at the same time the garrison of Thapsus prepared for a sally. +Caesar's camp-guard sufficed to repulse the latter. His legions, +accustomed to war, already forming a correct estimate of the enemy +from the want of precision in their mode of array and their +ill-closed ranks, compelled--while yet the entrenching was going forward +on that side, and before even the general gave the signal-- +a trumpeter to sound for the attack, and advanced along the whole line +headed by Caesar himself, who, when he saw his men advance +without waiting for his orders, galloped forward to lead them +against the enemy. The right wing, in advance of the other divisions, +frightened the line of elephants opposed to it--this was +the last great battle in which these animals were employed-- +by throwing bullets and arrows, so that they wheeled round +on their own ranks. The covering force was cut down, the left wing +of the enemy was broken, and the whole line was overthrown. +The defeat was the more destructive, as the new camp of the beaten army +was not yet ready, and the old one was at a considerable distance; +both were successively captured almost without resistance. The mass +of the defeated army threw away their arms and sued for quarter; +but Caesar's soldiers were no longer the same who had readily refrained +from battle before Ilerda and honourably spared the defenceless +at Pharsalus. The habit of civil war and the rancour left behind +by the mutiny asserted their power in a terrible manner +on the battlefield of Thapsus. If the hydra with which they fought +always put forth new energies, if the army was hurried from Italy +to Spain, from Spain to Macedonia, from Macedonia to Africa, and if +the repose ever more eagerly longed for never came, the soldier sought, +and not wholly without cause, the reason of this state of things +in the unseasonable clemency of Caesar. He had sworn to retrieve +the general's neglect, and remained deaf to the entreaties +of his disarmed fellow-citizens as well as to the commands of Caesar +and the superior officers. The fifty thousand corpses that covered +the battle-field of Thapsus, among whom were several Caesarian officers +known as secret opponents of the new monarchy, and therefore +cut down on this occasion by their own men, showed how the soldier +procures for himself repose. The victorious army on the other hand +numbered no more than fifty dead (6 April 708). + +Cato in Utica +His Death + +There was as little a continuance of the struggle in Africa +after the battle of Thapsus, as there had been a year and a half before +in the east after the defeat of Pharsalus. Cato as commandant +of Utica convoked the senate, set forth how the means of defence stood, +and submitted it to the decision of those assembled whether +they would yield or defend themselves to the last man-- +only adjuring them to resolve and to act not each one for himself, +but all in unison. The more courageous view found several supporters; +it was proposed to manumit on behalf of the state the slaves +capable of arms, which however Cato rejected as an illegal encroachment +on private property, and suggested in its stead a patriotic appeal +to the slave-owners. But soon this fit of resolution in an assembly +consisting in great part of African merchants passed off, and they agreed +to capitulate. Thereupon when Faustus Sulla, son of the regent, +and Lucius Afranius arrived in Utica with a strong division +of cavalry from the field of battle, Cato still made an attempt +to hold the town through them; but he indignantly rejected their demand +to let them first of all put to death the untrustworthy citizens of Utica +en masse, and chose to let the last stronghold of the republicans fall +into the hands of the monarch without resistance rather than to profane +the last moments of the republic by such a massacre. After he had-- +partly by his authority, partly by liberal largesses--checked so far +as he could the fury of the soldiery against the unfortunate Uticans; +after he had with touching solicitude furnished to those who preferred +not to trust themselves to Caesar's mercy the means for flight, +and to those who wished to remain the opportunity of capitulating +under the most tolerable conditions, so far as his ability reached; +and after having thoroughly satisfied himself that he could render +to no one any farther aid, he held himself released from his command, +retired to his bedchamber, and plunged his sword into his breast. + +The Leaders of the Republicans Put to Death + +Of the other fugitive leaders only a few escaped. The cavalry +that fled from Thapsus encountered the bands of Sittius, +and were cut down or captured by them; their leaders Afranius and Faustus +were delivered up to Caesar, and, when the latter did not order +their immediate execution, they were slain in a tumult by his veterans. +The commander-in-chief Metellus Scipio with the fleet of the defeated +party fell into the power of the cruisers of Sittius and, +when they were about to lay hands on him, stabbed himself. King Juba, +not unprepared for such an issue, had in that case resolved to die +in a way which seemed to him befitting a king, and had caused +an enormous funeral pile to be prepared in the market-place +of his city Zama, which was intended to consume along with his body +all his treasures and the dead bodies of the whole citizens of Zama. +But the inhabitants of the town showed no desire to let themselves +be employed by way of decoration for the funeral rites +of the African Sardanapalus; and they closed the gates against +the king when fleeing from the battle-field he appeared, accompanied +by Marcus Petreius, before their city. The king--one of those natures +that become savage amidst a life of dazzling and insolent enjoyment, +and prepare for themselves even out of death an intoxicating feast-- +resorted with his companion to one of his country houses, +caused a copious banquet to be served up, and at the close +of the feast challenged Petreius to fight him to death in single combat. +It was the conqueror of Catilina that received his death at the hand +of the king; the latter thereupon caused himself to be stabbed +by one of his slaves. The few men of eminence that escaped, +such as Labienus and Sextus Pompeius, followed the elder brother +of the latter to Spain and sought, like Sertorius formerly, +a last refuge of robbers and pirates in the waters and the mountains +of that still half-independent land. + +Regulation of Africa + +Without resistance Caesar regulated the affairs of Africa. +As Curio had already proposed, the kingdom of Massinissa was broken up. +The most eastern portion or region of Sitifis was united with the kingdom +of Bocchus king of East Mauretania,(51) and the faithful king Bogud +of Tingis was rewarded with considerable gifts. Cirta (Constantine) +and the surrounding district, hitherto possessed under the supremacy +of Juba by the prince Massinissa and his son Arabion, were conferred +on the condottiere Publius Sittius that he might settle +his half-Roman bands there;(52) but at the same time this district, +as well as by far the largest and most fertile portion +of the late Numidian kingdom, were united as "New Africa" +with the older province of Africa, and the defence of the country +along the coast against the roving tribes of the desert, +which the republic had entrusted to a client-king, was imposed +by the new ruler on the empire itself. + +The Victory of Monarchy + +The struggle, which Pompeius and the republicans had undertaken +against the monarchy of Caesar, thus terminated, after having lasted +for four years, in the complete victory of the new monarch. +No doubt the monarchy was not established for the first time +on the battle-fields of Pharsalus and Thapsus; it might already +be dated from the moment when Pompeius and Caesar in league +had established their joint rule and overthrown the previous +aristocratic constitution. Yet it was only those baptisms of blood +of the ninth August 706 and the sixth April 708 that set aside +the conjoint rule so opposed to the nature of absolute dominion, +and conferred fixed status and formal recognition on the new monarchy. +Risings of pretenders and republican conspiracies might ensue and provoke +new commotions, perhaps even new revolutions and restorations; +but the continuity of the free republic that had been uninterrupted +for five hundred years was broken through, and monarchy was established +throughout the range of the wide Roman empire by the legitimacy +of accomplished fact. + +The End of the Republic + +The constitutional struggle was at an end; and that it was so, +was proclaimed by Marcus Cato when he fell on his sword at Utica. +For many years he had been the foremost man in the struggle +of the legitimate republic against its oppressors; he had continued it, +long after he had ceased to cherish any hope of victory. +But now the struggle itself had become impossible; the republic +which Marcus Brutus had founded was dead and never to be revived; +what were the republicans now to do on the earth? The treasure +was carried off, the sentinels were thereby relieved; who could +blame them if they departed? There was more nobility, and above all +more judgment, in the death of Cato than there had been in his life. +Cato was anything but a great man; but with all that short-sightedness, +that perversity, that dry prolixity, and those spurious phrases +which have stamped him, for his own and for all time, +as the ideal of unreflecting republicanism and the favourite of all +who make it their hobby, he was yet the only man who honourably +and courageously championed in the last struggle the great system +doomed to destruction. Just because the shrewdest lie feels itself +inwardly annihilated before the simple truth, and because +all the dignity and glory of human nature ultimately depend +not on shrewdness but on honesty, Cato has played a greater part +in history than many men far superior to him in intellect. +It only heightens the deep and tragic significance of his death +that he was himself a fool; in truth it is just because Don Quixote +is a fool that he is a tragic figure. It is an affecting fact, +that on that world-stage, on which so many great and wise men +had moved and acted, the fool was destined to give the epilogue. +He too died not in vain. It was a fearfully striking protest +of the republic against the monarchy, that the last republican went +as the first monarch came--a protest which tore asunder like gossamer +all that so-called constitutional character with which Caesar +invested his monarchy, and exposed in all its hypocritical falsehood +the shibboleth of the reconciliation of all parties, under the aegis +of which despotism grew up. The unrelenting warfare which the ghost +of the legitimate republic waged for centuries, from Cassius +and Brutus down to Thrasea and Tacitus, nay, even far later, +against the Caesarian monarchy--a warfare of plots and of literature-- +was the legacy which the dying Cato bequeathed to his enemies. +This republican opposition derived from Cato its whole attitude-- +stately, transcendental in its rhetoric, pretentiously rigid, +hopeless, and faithful to death; and accordingly it began +even immediately after his death to revere as a saint the man +who in his lifetime was not unfrequently its laughing-stock +and its scandal. But the greatest of these marks of respect +was the involuntary homage which Caesar rendered to him, when he made +an exception to the contemptuous clemency with which he was wont +to treat his opponents, Pompeians as well as republicans, +in the case of Cato alone, and pursued him even beyond the grave +with that energetic hatred which practical statesmen are wont to feel +towards antagonists opposing them from a region of ideas +which they regard as equally dangerous and impracticable. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +The Old Republic and the New Monarchy + +Character of Caesar + +The new monarch of Rome, the first ruler over the whole domain +of Romano-Hellenic civilization, Gaius Julius Caesar, was in his +fifty-sixth year (born 12 July 652?) when the battle at Thapsus, +the last link in a long chain of momentous victories, placed +the decision as to the future of the world in his hands. Few men +have had their elasticity so thoroughly put to the proof as Caesar-- +the sole creative genius produced by Rome, and the last produced +by the ancient world, which accordingly moved on in the path +that he marked out for it until its sun went down. Sprung from one +of the oldest noble families of Latium--which traced back its lineage +to the heroes of the Iliad and the kings of Rome, and in fact +to the Venus-Aphrodite common to both nations--he spent the years +of his boyhood and early manhood as the genteel youth of that epoch +were wont to spend them. He had tasted the sweetness as well as +the bitterness of the cup of fashionable life, had recited and declaimed, +had practised literature and made verses in his idle hours, +had prosecuted love-intrigues of every sort, and got himself +initiated into all the mysteries of shaving, curls, and ruffles +pertaining to the toilette-wisdom of the day, as well as +into the still more mysterious art of always borrowing and never paying. +But the flexible steel of that nature was proof against even +these dissipated and flighty courses; Caesar retained both +his bodily vigour and his elasticity of mind and of heart unimpaired. +In fencing and in riding he was a match for any of his soldiers, +and his swimming saved his life at Alexandria; the incredible rapidity +of his journeys, which usually for the sake of gaining time +were performed by night--a thorough contrast to the procession-like +slowness with which Pompeius moved from one place to another-- +was the astonishment of his contemporaries and not the least +among the causes of his success. The mind was like the body. +His remarkable power of intuition revealed itself in the precision +and practicability of all his arrangements, even where he gave orders +without having seen with his own eyes. His memory was matchless, +and it was easy for him to carry on several occupations simultaneously +with equal self-possession. Although a gentleman, a man of genius, +and a monarch, he had still a heart. So long as he lived, +he cherished the purest veneration for his worthy mother Aurelia +(his father having died early); to his wives and above all +to his daughter Julia he devoted an honourable affection, +which was not without reflex influence even on political affairs. +With the ablest and most excellent men of his time, of high +and of humbler rank, he maintained noble relations of mutual fidelity, +with each after his kind. As he himself never abandoned +any of his partisans after the pusillanimous and unfeeling manner +of Pompeius, but adhered to his friends--and that not merely +from calculation--through good and bad times without wavering, +several of these, such as Aulus Hirtius and Gaius Matius, gave, +even after his death, noble testimonies of their attachment to him. + +If in a nature so harmoniously organized any one aspect of it +may be singled out as characteristic, it is this--that he stood aloof +from all ideology and everything fanciful. As a matter of course, +Caesar was a man of passion, for without passion there is no genius; +but his passion was never stronger than he could control. +He had had his season of youth, and song, love, and wine had taken +lively possession of his spirit; but with him they did not penetrate +to the inmost core of his nature. Literature occupied him long +and earnestly; but, while Alexander could not sleep for thinking +of the Homeric Achilles, Caesar in his sleepless hours mused +on the inflections of the Latin nouns and verbs. He made verses, +as everybody then did, but they were weak; on the other hand +he was interested in subjects of astronomy and natural science. +While wine was and continued to be with Alexander the destroyer of care, +the temperate Roman, after the revels of his youth were over, +avoided it entirely. Around him, as around all those +whom the full lustre of woman's love has dazzled in youth, +fainter gleams of it continued imperishably to linger; +even in later years he had love-adventures and successes with women, +and he retained a certain foppishness in his outward appearance, +or, to speak more correctly, the pleasing consciousness +of his own manly beauty. He carefully covered the baldness, +which he keenly felt, with the laurel chaplet that he wore in public +in his later years, and he would doubtless have surrendered +some of his victories, if he could thereby have brought back +his youthful locks. But, however much even when monarch +he enjoyed the society of women, he only amused himself +with them, and allowed them no manner of influence over him; +even his much-censured relation to queen Cleopatra was only contrived +to mask a weak point in his political position.(1) Caesar was thoroughly +a realist and a man of sense; and whatever he undertook +and achieved was pervaded and guided by the cool sobriety +which constitutes the most marked peculiarity of his genius. +To this he owed the power of living energetically in the present, +undisturbed either by recollection or by expectation; to this +he owed the capacity of acting at any moment with collected vigour, +and of applying his whole genius even to the smallest +and most incidental enterprise; to this he owed the many-sided power +with which he grasped and mastered whatever understanding can comprehend +and will can compel; to this he owed the self-possessed ease +with which he arranged his periods as well as projected his campaigns; +to this he owed the "marvellous serenity" which remained +steadily with him through good and evil days; to this he owed +the complete independence, which admitted of no control by favourite +or by mistress, or even by friend. It resulted, moreover, +from this clearness of judgment that Caesar never formed to himself +illusions regarding the power of fate and the ability of man; +in his case the friendly veil was lifted up, which conceals from man +the inadequacy of his working. Prudently as he laid his plans +and considered all possibilities, the feeling was never absent +from his breast that in all things fortune, that is to say accident, +must bestow success; and with this may be connected the circumstance +that he so often played a desperate game with destiny, and in particular +again and again hazarded his person with daring indifference. +As indeed occasionally men of predominant sagacity betake themselves +to a pure game of hazard, so there was in Caesar's rationalism a point +at which it came in some measure into contact with mysticism. + +Caesar as a Statesman + +Gifts such as these could not fail to produce a statesman. +From early youth, accordingly, Caesar was a statesman in the deepest +sense of the term, and his aim was the highest which man is allowed +to propose to himself--the political, military, intellectual, +and moral regeneration of his own deeply decayed nation, +and of the still more deeply decayed Hellenic nation intimately akin +to his own. The hard school of thirty years' experience changed +his views as to the means by which this aim was to be reached; his aim +itself remained the same in the times of his hopeless humiliation +and of his unlimited plenitude of power, in the times when as demagogue +and conspirator he stole towards it by paths of darkness, +and in those when, as joint possessor of the supreme power +and then as monarch, he worked at his task in the full light of day +before the eyes of the world. All the measures of a permanent kind +that proceeded from him at the most various times assume their +appropriate places in the great building-plan. We cannot +therefore properly speak of isolated achievements of Caesar; +he did nothing isolated. With justice men commend Caesar the orator +for his masculine eloquence, which, scorning all the arts +of the advocate, like a clear flame at once enlightened and warmed. +With justice men admire in Caesar the author the inimitable simplicity +of the composition, the unique purity and beauty of the language. +With justice the greatest masters of war of all times have praised +Caesar the general, who, in a singular degree disregarding routine +and tradition, knew always how to find out the mode of warfare +by which in the given case the enemy was conquered, and which +was thus in the given case the right one; who with the certainty +of divination found the proper means for every end; who after defeat +stood ready for battle like William of Orange, and ended the campaign +invariably with victory; who managed that element of warfare, +the treatment of which serves to distinguish military genius +from the mere ordinary ability of an officer--the rapid movement +of masses--with unsurpassed perfection, and found the guarantee +of victory not in the massiveness of his forces but in the celerity +of their movements, not in long preparation but in rapid +and daring action even with inadequate means. But all these were +with Caesar mere secondary matters; he was no doubt a great orator, +author, and general, but he became each of these merely because +he was a consummate statesman. The soldier more especially +played in him altogether an accessory part, and it is +one of the principal peculiarities by which he is distinguished +from Alexander, Hannibal, and Napoleon, that he began his political +activity not as an officer, but as a demagogue. According +to his original plan he had purposed to reach his object, like Pericles +and Gaius Gracchus, without force of arms, and throughout eighteen years +he had as leader of the popular party moved exclusively amid +political plans and intrigues--until, reluctantly convinced +of the necessity for a military support, he, when already forty years +of age, put himself at the head of an army. It was natural +that he should even afterwards remain still more statesman +than general--just like Cromwell, who also transformed himself +from a leader of opposition into a military chief and democratic king, +and who in general, little as the prince of Puritans seems to resemble +the dissolute Roman, is yet in his development as well as +in the objects which he aimed at and the results which he achieved +of all statesmen perhaps the most akin to Caesar. Even in his mode +of warfare this improvised generalship may still be recognized; +the enterprises of Napoleon against Egypt and against England +do not more clearly exhibit the artillery-lieutenant who had risen +by service to command than the similar enterprises of Caesar exhibit +the demagogue metamorphosed into a general. A regularly trained +officer would hardly have been prepared, through political +considerations of a not altogether stringent nature, to set aside +the best-founded military scruples in the way in which Caesar did +on several occasions, most strikingly in the case of his landing +in Epirus. Several of his acts are therefore censurable +from a military point of view; but what the general loses, +the statesman gains. The task of the statesman is universal +in its nature like Caesar's genius; if he undertook things +the most varied and most remote one from another, they had all +without exception a bearing on the one great object to which +with infinite fidelity and consistency he devoted himself; +and of the manifold aspects and directions of his great activity +he never preferred one to another. Although a master of the art of war, +he yet from statesmanly considerations did his utmost to avert +civil strife and, when it nevertheless began, to earn laurels +stained as little as possible by blood. Although the founder +of a military monarchy, he yet, with an energy unexampled in history, +allowed no hierarchy of marshals or government of praetorians +to come into existence. If he had a preference for any one form +of services rendered to the state, it was for the sciences and arts +of peace rather than for those of war. + +The most remarkable peculiarity of his action as a statesman +was its perfect harmony. In reality all the conditions +for this most difficult of all human functions were united in Caesar. +A thorough realist, he never allowed the images of the past +or venerable tradition to disturb him; for him nothing was of value +in politics but the living present and the law of reason, just as +in his character of grammarian he set aside historical and antiquarian +research and recognized nothing but on the one hand the living +-usus loquendi- and on the other hand the rule of symmetry. +A born ruler, he governed the minds of men as the wind drives the clouds, +and compelled the most heterogeneous natures to place themselves +at his service--the plain citizen and the rough subaltern, the genteel +matrons of Rome and the fair princesses of Egypt and Mauretania, +the brilliant cavalry-officer and the calculating banker. +His talent for organization was marvellous; no statesman has ever +compelled alliances, no general has ever collected an army +out of unyielding and refractory elements with such decision, +and kept them together with such firmness, as Caesar displayed +in constraining and upholding his coalitions and his legions; +never did regent judge his instruments and assign each to the place +appropriate for him with so acute an eye. + +He was monarch; but he never played the king. Even when absolute +lord of Rome, he retained the deportment of the party-leader; +perfectly pliant and smooth, easy and charming in conversation, +complaisant towards every one, it seemed as if he wished to be +nothing but the first among his peers. Caesar entirely avoided +the blunder into which so many men otherwise on an equality with him +have fallen, of carrying into politics the military tone of command; +however much occasion his disagreeable relations with the senate +gave for it, he never resorted to outrages such as was that +of the eighteenth Brumaire. Caesar was monarch; but he was never +seized with the giddiness of the tyrant. He is perhaps the only one +among the mighty ones of the earth, who in great matters and little +never acted according to inclination or caprice, but always +without exception according to his duty as ruler, and who, +when he looked back on his life, found doubtless erroneous calculations +to deplore, but no false step of passion to regret. There is nothing +in the history of Caesar's life, which even on a small scale(2) +can be compared with those poetico-sensual ebullitions--such as +the murder of Kleitos or the burning of Persepolis--which the history +of his great predecessor in the east records. He is, in fine, +perhaps the only one of those mighty ones, who has preserved +to the end of his career the statesman's tact of discriminating between +the possible and the impossible, and has not broken down in the task +which for greatly gifted natures is the most difficult of all-- +the task of recognizing, when on the pinnacle of success, +its natural limits. What was possible he performed, and never left +the possible good undone for the sake of the impossible better, +never disdained at least to mitigate by palliatives evils +that were incurable. But where he recognized that fate had spoken, +he always obeyed. Alexander on the Hypanis, Napoleon at Moscow, +turned back because they were compelled to do so, and were indignant +at destiny for bestowing even on its favourites merely limited successes; +Caesar turned back voluntarily on the Thames and on the Rhine; +and thought of carrying into effect even at the Danube and the Euphrates +not unbounded plans of world-conquest, but merely well-considered +frontier-regulations. + +Such was this unique man, whom it seems so easy and yet is so infinitely +difficult to describe. His whole nature is transparent clearness; +and tradition preserves more copious and more vivid information +about him than about any of his peers in the ancient world. +Of such a personage our conceptions may well vary in point +of shallowness or depth, but they cannot be, strictly speaking, +different; to every not utterly perverted inquirer the grand figure +has exhibited the same essential features, and yet no one +has succeeded in reproducing it to the life. The secret lies +in its perfection. In his character as a man as well as in his place +in history, Caesar occupies a position where the great contrasts +of existence meet and balance each other. Of mighty creative power +and yet at the same time of the most penetrating judgment; +no longer a youth and not yet an old man; of the highest energy of will +and the highest capacity of execution; filled with republican ideals +and at the same time born to be a king; a Roman in the deepest essence +of his nature, and yet called to reconcile and combine in himself +as well as in the outer world the Roman and the Hellenic +types of culture--Caesar was the entire and perfect man. +Accordingly we miss in him more than in any other historical personage +what are called characteristic features, which are in reality +nothing else than deviations from the natural course of human development. +What in Caesar passes for such at the first superficial glance is, +when more closely observed, seen to be the peculiarity +not of the individual, but of the epoch of culture or of the nation; +his youthful adventures, for instance, were common to him +with all his more gifted contemporaries of like position, +his unpoetical but strongly logical temperament was the temperament +of Romans in general. It formed part also of Caesar's full humanity +that he was in the highest degree influenced by the conditions +of time and place; for there is no abstract humanity-- +the living man cannot but occupy a place in a given nationality +and in a definite line of culture. Caesar was a perfect man +just because he more than any other placed himself amidst +the currents of his time, and because he more than any other possessed +the essential peculiarity of the Roman nation--practical aptitude +as a citizen--in perfection: for his Hellenism in fact was only +the Hellenism which had been long intimately blended with the Italian +nationality. But in this very circumstance lies the difficulty, +we may perhaps say the impossibility, of depicting Caesar to the life. +As the artist can paint everything save only consummate beauty, +so the historian, when once in a thousand years he encounters +the perfect, can only be silent regarding it. For normality admits +doubtless of being expressed, but it gives us only the negative notion +of the absence of defect; the secret of nature, whereby +in her most finished manifestations normality and individuality +are combined, is beyond expression. Nothing is left for us +but to deem those fortunate who beheld this perfection, and to gain +some faint conception of it from the reflected lustre which rests +imperishably on the works that were the creation of this great nature. +These also, it is true, bear the stamp of the time. The Roman hero +himself stood by the side of his youthful Greek predecessor +not merely as an equal, but as a superior; but the world had meanwhile +become old and its youthful lustre had faded. The action of Caesar +was no longer, like that of Alexander, a joyous marching onward +towards a goal indefinitely remote; he built on, and out of, ruins, +and was content to establish himself as tolerably and as securely +as possible within the ample but yet definite bounds once assigned +to him. With reason therefore the delicate poetic tact +of the nations has not troubled itself about the unpoetical Roman, +and on the other hand has invested the son of Philip with all +the golden lustre of poetry, with all the rainbow hues of legend. +But with equal reason the political life of the nations has during +thousands of years again and again reverted to the lines +which Caesar drew; and the fact, that the peoples to whom the world +belongs still at the present day designate the highest of their monarchs +by his name, conveys a warning deeply significant and, unhappily, +fraught with shame. + +Setting Aside of the Old Parties + +If the old, in every respect vicious, state of things was to be +successfully got rid of and the commonwealth was to be renovated, +it was necessary first of all that the country should be +practically tranquillized and that the ground should be cleared +from the rubbish with which since the recent catastrophe it was +everywhere strewed. In this work Caesar set out from the principle +of the reconciliation of the hitherto subsisting parties or, +to put it more correctly--for, where the antagonistic principles +are irreconcilable, we cannot speak of real reconciliation-- +from the principle that the arena, on which the nobility and the populace +had hitherto contended with each other, was to be abandoned +by both parties, and that both were to meet together on the ground +of the new monarchical constitution. First of all therefore +all the older quarrels of the republican past were regarded as done away +for ever and irrevocably. While Caesar gave orders that the statues +of Sulla which had been thrown down by the mob of the capital +on the news of the battle of Pharsalus should be re-erected, and thus +recognized the fact that it became history alone to sit in judgment +on that great man, he at the same time cancelled the last remaining +effects of Sulla's exceptional laws, recalled from exile those +who had been banished in the times of the Cinnan and Sertorian troubles, +and restored to the children of those outlawed by Sulla +their forfeited privilege of eligibility to office. In like manner +all those were restored, who in the preliminary stage of the recent +catastrophe had lost their seat in the senate or their civil existence +through sentence of the censors or political process, especially +through the impeachments raised on the basis of the exceptional laws +of 702. Those alone who had put to death the proscribed +for money remained, as was reasonable, still under attainder; +and Milo, the most daring condottiere of the senatorial party, +was excluded from the general pardon. + +Discontent of the Democrats + +Far more difficult than the settlement of these questions +which already belonged substantially to the past was the treatment +of the parties confronting each other at the moment--on the one hand +Caesar's own democratic adherents, on the other hand the overthrown +aristocracy. That the former should be, if possible, still less +satisfied than the latter with Caesar's conduct after the victory +and with his summons to abandon the old standing-ground of party, +was to be expected. Caesar himself desired doubtless on the whole +the same issue which Gaius Gracchus had contemplated; but the designs +of the Caesarians were no longer those of the Gracchans. +The Roman popular party had been driven onward in gradual progression +from reform to revolution, from revolution to anarchy, from anarchy +to a war against property; they celebrated among themselve +the memory of the reign of terror and now adorned the tomb +of Catilina, as formerly that of the Gracchi, with flowers +and garlands; they had placed themselves under Caesar's banner, +because they expected him to do for them what Catilina +had not been able to accomplish. But as it speedily became plain +that Caesar was very far from intending to be the testamentary +executor of Catilina, and that the utmost which debtors might expect +from him was some alleviations of payment and modifications +of procedure, indignation found loud vent in the inquiry. +For whom then had the popular party conquered, if not for the people? +And the rabble of this description, high and low, out of pure chagrin +at the miscarriage of their politico-economic Saturnalia began first +to coquet with the Pompeians, and then even during Caesar's absence +of nearly two years from Italy (Jan. 706-autumn 707) to instigate there +a second civil war within the first. + +Caelius and Milo + +The praetor Marcus Caelius Rufus, a good aristocrat and bad payer +of debts, of some talent and much culture, as a vehement +and fluent orator hitherto in the senate and in the Forum +one of the most zealous champions for Caesar, proposed to the people-- +without being instructed from any higher quarter to do so-- +a law which granted to debtors a respite of six years free of interest, +and then, when he was opposed in this step, proposed a second law +which even cancelled all claims arising out of loans and current +house rents; whereupon the Caesarian senate deposed him from his office. +It was just on the eve of the battle of Pharsalus, and the balance +in the great contest seemed to incline to the side of the Pompeians; +Rufus entered into communication with the old senatorian +band-leader Milo, and the two contrived a counter-revolution, +which inscribed on its banner partly the republican constitution, +partly the cancelling of creditors' claims and the manumission of slaves. +Milo left his place of exile Massilia, and called the Pompeians +and the slave-herdsmen to arms in the region of Thurii; Rufus made +arrangements to seize the town of Capua by armed slaves. +But the latter plan was detected before its execution and frustrated +by the Capuan militia; Quintus Pedius, who advanced with a legion +into the territory of Thurii, scattered the band making havoc there; +and the fall of the two leaders put an end to the scandal (706). + +Dolabella + +Nevertheless there was found in the following year (707) a second fool, +the tribune of the people, Publius Dolabella, who, equally insolvent +but far from being equally gifted with his predecessor, +introduced afresh his law as to creditors' claims and house rents, +and with his colleague Lucius Trebellius began on that point once more-- +it was the last time--the demagogic war; there were serious frays +between the armed bands on both sides and various street-riots, +till the commandant of Italy Marcus Antonius ordered the military +to interfere, and soon afterwards Caesar's return from the east +completely put an end to the preposterous proceedings. +Caesar attributed to these brainless attempts to revive the projects +of Catilina so little importance, that he tolerated Dolabella in Italy +and indeed after some time even received him again into favour. +Against a rabble of this sort, which had nothing to do with +any political question at all, but solely with a war against property-- +as against gangs of banditti--the mere existence of a strong government +is sufficient; and Caesar was too great and too considerate +to busy himself with the apprehensions which the Italian alarmists +felt regarding these communists of that day, and thereby unduly +to procure a false popularity for his monarchy. + +Measures against Pompeians and Republicans + +While Caesar thus might leave, and actually left, the late democratic +party to the process of decomposition which had already in its case +advanced almost to the utmost limit, he had on the other hand, +with reference to the former aristocratic party possessing +a far greater vitality, not to bring about its dissolution-- +which time alone could accomplish--but to pave the way for +and initiate it by a proper combination of repression and conciliation. +Among minor measures, Caesar, even from a natural sense of propriety, +avoided exasperating the fallen party by empty sarcasm; +he did not triumph over his conquered fellow-burgesses;(3) +he mentioned Pompeius often and always with respect, and caused +his statue overthrown by the people to be re-erected at the senate- +house, when the latter was restored, in its earlier distinguished place. +To political prosecutions after the victory Caesar assigned +the narrowest possible limits. No investigation was instituted +into the various communications which the constitutional party +had held even with nominal Caesarians; Caesar threw the piles of papers +found in the enemy's headquarters at Pharsalus and Thapsus +into the fire unread, and spared himself and the country from political +processes against individuals suspected of high treason. Further, +all the common soldiers who had followed their Roman or provincial +officers into the contest against Caesar came off with impunity. +The sole exception made was in the case of those Roman burgesses, +who had taken service in the army of the Numidian king Juba; +their property was confiscated by way of penalty for their treason. +Even to the officers of the conquered party Caesar had granted +unlimited pardon up to the close of the Spanish campaign of 705; +but he became convinced that in this he had gone too far, +and that the removal at least of the leaders among them was inevitable. +The rule by which he was thenceforth guided was, that every one +who after the capitulation of Ilerda had served as an officer +in the enemy's army or had sat in the opposition-senate, if he survived +the close of the struggle, forfeited his property and his political +rights, and was banished from Italy for life; if he did not survive +the close of the struggle, his property at least fell to the state; +but any one of these, who had formerly accepted pardon from Caesar +and was once more found in the ranks of the enemy, thereby +forfeited his life. These rules were however materially modified +in the execution. The sentence of death was actually executed +only against a very few of the numerous backsliders. In the confiscation +of the property of the fallen not only were the debts attaching +to the several portions of the estate as well as the claims +of the widows for their dowries paid off, as was reasonable. +But a portion of the paternal estate was left also to the children +of the deceased. Lastly not a few of those, who in consequence +of those rules were liable to banishment and confiscation of property, +were at once pardoned entirely or got off with fines, like the African +capitalists who were impressed as members of the senate of Utica. +And even the others almost without exception got their freedom +and property restored to them, if they could only prevail +on themselves to petition Caesar to that effect; on several +who declined to do so, such as the consular Marcus Marcellus, +pardon was even conferred unasked, and ultimately in 710 +a general amnesty was issued for all who were still unrecalled. + +Amnesty + +The republican opposition submitted to be pardoned; +but it was not reconciled. Discontent with the new order of things +and exasperation against the unwonted ruler were general. +For open political resistance there was indeed no farther opportunity-- +it was hardly worth taking into account, that some oppositional +tribunes on occasion of the question of title acquired for themselves +the republican crown of martyrdom by a demonstrative intervention +against those who had called Caesar king--but republicanism +found expression all the more decidedly as an opposition of sentiment, +and in secret agitation and plotting. Not a hand stirred +when the Imperator appeared in public. There was abundance +of wall-placards and sarcastic verses full of bitter and telling +popular satire against the new monarchy. When a comedian +ventured on a republican allusion, he was saluted with the loudest +applause. The praise of Cato formed the fashionable theme +of oppositional pamphleteers, and their writings found a public +all the more grateful because even literature was no longer free. +Caesar indeed combated the republicans even now on their own field; +he himself and his abler confidants replied to the Cato-literature +with Anticatones, and the republican and Caesarian scribes +fought round the dead hero of Utica like the Trojans and Hellenes +round the dead body of Patroclus; but as a matter of course +in this conflict--where the public thoroughly republican in its feelings +was judge--the Caesarians had the worst of it. No course remained +but to overawe the authors; on which account men well known +and dangerous in a literary point of view, such as Publius +Nigidius Figulus and Aulus Caecina, had more difficulty +in obtaining permission to return to Italy than other exiles, +while the oppositional writers tolerated in Italy were subjected +to a practical censorship, the restraints of which were all the more +annoying that the measure of punishment to be dreaded +was utterly arbitrary.(4) The underground machinations +of the overthrown parties against the new monarchy will be more fitly +set forth in another connection. Here it is sufficient to say +that risings of pretenders as well as of republicans were incessantly +brewing throughout the Roman empire; that the flames of civil war kindled +now by the Pompeians, now by the republicans, again burst forth brightly +at various places; and that in the capital there was perpetual +conspiracy against the life of the monarch. But Caesar +could not be induced by these plots even to surround himself +permanently with a body-guard, and usually contented himself +with making known the detected conspiracies by public placards. + +Bearing of Caesar towards the Parties + +However much Caesar was wont to treat all things relating +to his personal safety with daring indifference, he could not possibly +conceal from himself the very serious danger with which this mass +of malcontents threatened not merely himself but also his creations. +If nevertheless, disregarding all the warning and urgency +of his friends, he without deluding himself as to the implacability +of the very opponents to whom he showed mercy, persevered +with marvellous composure and energy in the course of pardoning +by far the greater number of them, he did so neither +from the chivalrous magnanimity of a proud, nor from the sentimental +clemency of an effeminate, nature, but from the correct statesmanly +consideration that vanquished parties are disposed of +more rapidly and with less public injury by their absorption +within the state than by any attempt to extirpate them by proscription +or to eject them from the commonwealth by banishment. Caesar could not +for his high objects dispense with the constitutional party itself, +which in fact embraced not the aristocracy merely but all the elements +of a free and national spirit among the Italian burgesses; +for his schemes, which contemplated the renovation of the antiquated +state, he needed the whole mass of talent, culture, hereditary, +and self-acquired distinction, which this party embraced; +and in this sense he may well have named the pardoning of his opponents +the finest reward of victory. Accordingly the most prominent chiefs +of the defeated parties were indeed removed, but full pardon +was not withheld from the men of the second and third rank +and especially of the younger generation; they were not, however, +allowed to sulk in passive opposition, but were by more or less +gentle pressure induced to take an active part in the new administration, +and to accept honours and offices from it. As with Henry the Fourth +and William of Orange, so with Caesar his greatest difficulties began +only after the victory. Every revolutionary conqueror learns +by experience that, if after vanquishing his opponents he would +not remain like Cinna and Sulla a mere party-chief, but would +like Caesar, Henry the Fourth, and William of Orange substitute +the welfare of the commonwealth for the necessarily one-sided programme +of his own party, for the moment all parties, his own as well as +the vanquished, unite against the new chief; and the more so, +the more great and pure his idea of his new vocation. The friends +of the constitution and the Pompeians, though doing homage +with the lips to Caesar, bore yet in heart a grudge either +at monarchy or at least at the dynasty; the degenerate democracy +was in open rebellion against Caesar from the moment of its perceiving +that Caesar's objects were by no means its own; even the personal +adherents of Caesar murmured, when they found that their chief was +establishing instead of a state of condottieri a monarchy equal +and just towards all, and that the portions of gain accruing to them +were to be diminished by the accession of the vanquished. +This settlement of the commonwealth was acceptable to no party, +and had to be imposed on his associates no less than on his opponents. +Caesar's own position was now in a certain sense more imperilled +than before the victory; but what he lost, the state gained. +By annihilating the parties and not simply sparing the partisans +but allowing every man of talent or even merely of good descent +to attain to office irrespective of his political past, he gained +for his great building all the working power extant in the state; +and not only so, but the voluntary or compulsory participation of men +of all parties in the same work led the nation also over imperceptibly +to the newly prepared ground. The fact that this reconciliation +of the parties was for the moment only externaland that they were +for the present much less agreed in adherence to the new state of things +than in hatred against Caesar, did not mislead him; he knew well +that antagonisms lose their keenness when brought into such outward union, +and that only in this way can the statesman anticipate the work of time, +which alone is able finally to heal such a strife by laying +the old generation in the grave. Still less did he inquire who hated him +or meditated his assassination. Like every genuine statesman he served +not the people for reward--not even for the reward of their love-- +but sacrificed the favour of his contemporaries for the blessing +of posterity, and above all for the permission to save +and renew his nation. + +Caesar's Work + +In attempting to give a detailed account of the mode in which +the transition was effected from the old to the new state of things, +we must first of all recollect that Caesar came not to begin, +but to complete. The plan of a new polity suited to the times, +long ago projected by Gaius Gracchus, had been maintained +by his adherents and successors with more or less of spirit and success, +but without wavering. Caesar, from the outset and as it were +by hereditary right the head of the popular party, had for thirty years +borne aloft its banner without ever changing or even so much +as concealing his colours; he remained democrat even when monarch. +as he accepted without limitation, apart of course from the preposterous +projects of Catilina and Clodius, the heritage of his party; +as he displayed the bitterest, even personal, hatred to the aristocracy +and the genuine aristocrats; and as he retained unchanged +the essential ideas of Roman democracy, viz. alleviation of the burdens +of debtors, transmarine colonization, gradual equalization +of the differences of rights among the classes belonging +to the state, emancipation of the executive power from the senate: +his monarchy was so little at variance with democracy, +that democracy on the contrary only attained its completion +and fulfilment by means of that monarchy. For this monarchy +was not the Oriental despotism of divine right, but a monarchy such as +Gaius Gracchus wished to found, such as Pericles and Cromwell founded-- +the representation of the nation by the man in whom it puts +supreme and unlimited confidence. The ideas, which lay +at the foundation of Caesar's work, were so far not strictly new; +but to him belongs their realization, which after all is everywhere +the main matter; and to him pertains the grandeur of execution, +which would probably have surprised the brilliant projector himself +if he could have seen it, and which has impressed, and will +always impress, every one to whom it has been presented in the living +reality or in the mirror of history--to whatever historical epoch +or whatever shade of politics he may belong--according +to the measure of his ability to comprehend human and historical +greatness, with deep and ever-deepening emotion and admiration. + +At this point however it is proper expressly once for all to claim +what the historian everywhere tacitly presumes, and to protest +against the custom--common to simplicity and perfidy--of using +historical praise and historical censure, dissociated +from the given circumstances, as phrases of general application, +and in the present case of construing the judgment as to Caesar +into a judgment as to what is called Caesarism. It is true +that the history of past centuries ought to be the instructress +of the present; but not in the vulgar sense, as if one could simply +by turning over the leaves discover the conjunctures of the present +in the records of the past, and collect from these the symptoms +for a political diagnosis and the specifics for a prescription; +it is instructive only so far as the observation of older forms +of culture reveals the organic conditions of civilization generally-- +the fundamental forces everywhere alike, and the manner of their +combination everywhere different--and leads and encourages men, +not to unreflecting imitation, but to independent reproduction. +In this sense the history of Caesar and of Roman Imperialism, +with all the unsurpassed greatness of the master-worker, +with all the historical necessity of the work, is in truth +a sharper censure of modern autocracy than could be written +by the hand of man. According to the same law of nature in virtue +of which the smallest organism infinitely surpasses the most artistic +machine, every constitution however defective which gives play +to the free self-determination of a majority of citizens infinitely +surpasses the most brilliant and humane absolutism; for the former +is capable of development and therefore living, the latter is what it is +and therefore dead. This law of nature has verified itself +in the Roman absolute military monarchy and verified itself +all the more completely, that, under the impulse of its creator's genius +and in the absence of all material complications from without, +that monarchy developed itself more purely and freely +than any similar state. From Caesar's time, as the sequel will show +and Gibbon has shown long ago, the Roman system had only an external +coherence and received only a mechanical extension, while internally +it became even with him utterly withered and dead. If in the early +stages of the autocracy and above all in Caesar's own soul(5) +the hopeful dream of a combination of free popular development +and absolute rule was still cherished, the government of the highly- +gifted emperors of the Julian house soon taught men in a terrible form +how far it was possible to hold fire and water in the same vessel. +Caesar's work was necessary and salutary, not because it was +or could be fraught with blessing in itself, but because-- +with the national organization of antiquity, which was based on slavery +and was utterly a stranger to republican-constitutional representation, +and in presence of the legitimate urban constitution which in the course +of five hundred years had ripened into oligarchic absolutism-- +absolute military monarchy was the copestone logically necessary +and the least of evils. When once the slave-holding aristocracy +in Virginia and the Carolinas shall have carried matters as far as +their congeners in the Sullan Rome, Caesarism will there too +be legitimized at the bar of the spirit of history;(6) +where it appears under other conditions of development, it is at once +a caricature and a usurpation. But history will not submit +to curtail the true Caesar of his due honour, because her verdict +may in the presence of bad Caesars lead simplicity astray +and may give to roguery occasion for lying and fraud. She too +is a Bible, and if she cannot any more than the Bible hinder the fool +from misunderstanding and the devil from quoting her, she too will +be able to bear with, and to requite, them both. + +Dictatorship + +The position of the new supreme head of the state appears formally, +at least in the first instance, as a dictatorship. Caesar took +it up at first after his return from Spain in 705, but laid it down +again after a few days, and waged the decisive campaign of 706 +simply as consul--this was the office his tenure of which was +the primary occasion for the outbreak of the civil war.(7) +but in the autumn of this year after the battle of Pharsalus +he reverted to the dictatorship and had it repeatedly entrusted to him, +at first for an undefined period, but from the 1st January 709 +as an annual office, and then in January or February 710(8) +for the duration of his life, so that he in the end expressly dropped +the earlier reservation as to his laying down the office and gave +formal expression to its tenure for life in the new title of -dictator +perpetuus-. This dictatorship, both in its first ephemeral +and in its second enduring tenure, was not that of the old constitution, +but--what was coincident with this merely in the name--the supreme +exceptional office as arranged by Sulla;(9) an office, +the functions of which were fixed, not by the constitutional ordinances +regarding the supreme single magistracy, but by special decree +of the people, to such an effect that the holder received, +in the commission to project laws and to regulate the commonwealth, +an official prerogative de jure unlimited which superseded +the republican partition of powers. Those were merely applications +of this general prerogative to the particular case, when the holder +of power was further entrusted by separate acts with the right +of deciding on war and peace without consulting the senate +and the people, with the independent disposal of armies and finances, +and with the nomination of the provincial governors. Caesar could +accordingly de jure assign to himself even such prerogatives +as lay outside of the proper functions of the magistracy and even +outside of the province of state-powers at all;(10) and it appears +almost as a concession on his part, that he abstained from nominating +the magistrates instead of the Comitia and limited himself to claiming +a binding right of proposal for a proportion of the praetors +and of the lower magistrates; and that he moreover had himself +empowered by special decree of the people for the creation of patricians, +which was not at all allowable according to use and wont. + +Other Magistracies and Attributions + +For other magistracies in the proper sense there remained alongside +of this dictatorship no room; Caesar did not take up the censorship +as such,(11) but he doubtless exercised censorial rights-- +particularly the important right of nominating senators--after +a comprehensive fashion. + +He held the consulship frequently alongside of the dictatorship, +once even without colleague; but he by no means attached it permanently +to his person, and he gave no effect to the calls addressed to him +to undertake it for five or even for ten years in succession. + +Caesar had no need to have the superintendence of worship +now committed to him, since he was already -pontifex maximus-.(12) +as a matter of course the membership of the college of augurs +was conferred on him, and generally an abundance of old and new +honorary rights, such as the title of a "father of the fatherland," +the designation of the month of his birth by the name which it +still bears of Julius, and other manifestations of the incipient +courtly tone which ultimately ran into utter deification. +Two only of the arrangements deserve to be singled out: +namely that Caesar was placed on the same footing with the tribunes +of the people as regards their special personal inviolability, +and that the appellation of Imperator was permanently attached +to his person and borne by him as a title alongside of +his other official designations. + +Men of judgment will not require any proof, either that Caesar +intended to engraft on the commonwealth his supreme power, +and this not merely for a few years or even as a personal office +for an indefinite period somewhat like Sulla's regency, +but as an essential and permanent organ; or that he selected +for the new institution an appropriate and simple designation; +for, if it is a political blunder to create names without substantial +meaning, it is scarcely a less error to set up the substance +of plenary power without a name. Only it is not easy to determine +what definitive formal shape Caesar had in view; partly because +in this period of transition the ephemeral and the permanent buildings +are not clearly discriminated from each other, partly because +the devotion of his clients which already anticipated the nod +of their master loaded him with a multitude--offensive doubtless +to himself--of decrees of confidence and laws conferring honours. +Least of all could the new monarchy attach itself to the consulship, +just on account of the collegiate character that could not well +be separated from this office; Caesar also evidently laboured +to degrade this hitherto supreme magistracy into an empty title, +and subsequently, when he undertook it, he did not hold it +through the whole year, but before the year expired gave it away +to personages of secondary rank. The dictatorship came practically +into prominence most frequently and most definitely, but probably +only because Caesar wished to use it in the significance which it had +of old in the constitutional machinery--as an extraordinary presidency +for surmounting extraordinary crises. On the other hand it was +far from recommending itself as an expression for the new monarchy, +for the magistracy was inherently clothed with an exceptional +and unpopular character, and it could hardly be expected +of the representative of the democracy that he should choose +for its permanent organization that form, which the most gifted champion +of the opposing party had created for his own ends. + +The new name of Imperator, on the other hand, appears in every respect +by far more appropriate for the formal expression of the monarchy; +just because it is in this application(13) new, and no definite +outward occasion for its introduction is apparent. The new wine +might not be put into old bottles; here is a new name for the new thing, +and that name most pregnantly sums up what the democratic party +had already expressed in the Gabinian law, only with less precision, +as the function of its chief--the concentration and perpetuation +of official power (-imperium-) in the hands of a popular chief +independent of the senate. We find on Caesar's coins, +especially those of the last period, alongside of the dictatorship +the title of Imperator prevailing, and in Caesar's law +as to political crimes the monarch seems to have been designated +by this name. Accordingly the following times, though not immediately, +connected the monarchy with the name of Imperator. To lend +to this new office at once a democratic and religious sanction, +Caesar probably intended to associate with it once for all +on the one hand the tribunician power, on the other +the supreme pontificate. + +That the new organization was not meant to be restricted merely +to the lifetime of its founder, is beyond doubt; but he did not succeed +in settling the especially difficult question of the succession, +and it must remain an undecided point whether he had it in view +to institute some sort of form for the election of a successor, +such as had subsisted in the case of the original kingly office, +or whether he wished to introduce for the supreme office +not merely the tenure for life but also the hereditary character, +as his adopted son subsequently maintained.(14) It is not improbable +that he had the intention of combining in some measure the two systems, +and of arranging the succession, similarly to the course +followed by Cromwell and by Napoleon, in such a way that the ruler +should be succeeded in rule by his son, but, if he had no son, +or the son should not seem fitted for the succession, the ruler should +of his free choice nominate his successor in the form of adoption. + +In point of state law the new office of Imperator was based +on the position which the consuls or proconsuls occupied +outside of the -pomerium-, so that primarily the military command, +but, along with this, the supreme judicial and consequently +also the administrative power, were included in it.(15) +But the authority of the Imperator was qualitatively superior +to the consular-proconsular, in so far as the former was not limited +as respected time or space, but was held for life and operative also +in the capital;(16) as the Imperator could not, while the consul could, +be checked by colleagues of equal power; and as all the restrictions +placed in course of time on the original supreme official power-- +especially the obligation to give place to the -provocatio- +and to respect the advice of the senate--did not apply +to the Imperator. + +Re-establishment of the Regal Office + +In a word, this new office of Imperator was nothing else +than the primitive regal office re-established; for it was +those very restrictions--as respected the temporal and local +limitation of power, the collegiate arrangement, and the cooperation +of the senate or the community that was necessary for certain cases-- +which distinguished the consul from the king.(17) There is hardly +a trait of the new monarchy which was not found in the old: +the union of the supreme military, judicial, and administrative authority +in the hands of the prince; a religious presidency over the commonwealth; +the right of issuing ordinances with binding power; the reduction +of the senate to a council of state; the revival of the patriciate +and of the praefecture of the city. But still more striking +than these analogies is the internal similarity of the monarchy +of Servius Tullius and the monarchy of Caesar; if those +old kings of Rome with all their plenitude of power had yet +been rulers of a free community and themselves the protectors +of the commons against the nobility, Caesar too had not come +to destroy liberty but to fulfil it, and primarily to break +the intolerable yoke of the aristocracy. Nor need it surprise us +that Caesar, anything but a political antiquary, went back +five hundred years to find the model for his new state; for, +seeing that the highest office of the Roman commonwealth had remained +at all times a kingship restricted by a number of special laws, +the idea of the regal office itself had by no means become obsolete. +At very various periods and from very different sides-- +in the decemviral power, in the Sullan regency, and in Caesar's +own dictatorship--there had been during the republic a practical +recurrence to it; indeed by a certain logical necessity, +whenever an exceptional power seemed requisite there emerged, +in contradistinction to the usual limited -imperium-, +the unlimited -imperium- which was simply nothing else +than the regal power. + +Lastly, outward considerations also recommended this recurrence +to the former kingly position. Mankind have infinite difficulty +in reaching new creations, and therefore cherish the once developed forms +as sacred heirlooms. Accordingly Caesar very judiciously +connected himself with Servius Tullius, in the same way +as subsequently Charlemagne connected himself with Caesar, +and Napoleon attempted at least to connect himself with Charlemagne. +He did so, not in a circuitous way and secretly, but, as well as +his successors, in the most open manner possible; it was indeed +the very object of this connection to find a clear, national, +and popular form of expression for the new state. From ancient times +there stood on the Capitol the statues of those seven kings, +whom the conventional history of Rome was wont to bring on the stage; +Caesar ordered his own to be erected beside them as the eighth. +He appeared publicly in the costume of the old kings of Alba. +In his new law as to political crimes the principal variation +from that of Sulla was, that there was placed alongside +of the collective community, and on a level with it, the Imperator +as the living and personal expression of the people. In the formula +used for political oaths there was added to the Jovis and the Penates +of the Roman people the Genius of the Imperator. The outward badge +of monarchy was, according to the view univerally diffused in antiquity, +the image of the monarch on the coins; from the year 710 +the head of Caesar appears on those of the Roman state. + +There could accordingly be no complaint at least on the score +that Caesar left the public in the dark as to his view of his position; +as distinctly and as formally as possible he came forward +not merely as monarch, but as very king of Rome. It is possible even, +although not exactly probable, and at any rate of subordinate +importance, that he had it in view to designate his official power +not with the new name of Imperator, but directly with the old one +of King.(18) Even in his lifetime many of his enemies as of his friends +were of opinion that he intended to have himself expressly nominated +king of Rome; several indeed of his most vehement adherents +suggested to him in different ways and at different times +that he should assume the crown; most strikingly of all, +Marcus Antonius, when he as consul offered the diadem to Caesar +before all the people (15 Feb. 710). But Caesar rejected +these proposals without exception at once. If he at the same time +took steps against those who made use of these incidents to stir +republican opposition, it by no means follows from this that he was not +in earnest with his rejection. The assumption that these invitations +took place at his bidding, with the view of preparing the multitude +for the unwonted spectacle of the Roman diadem, utterly misapprehends +the mighty power of the sentimental opposition with which +Caesar had to reckon, and which could not be rendered more compliant, +but on the contrary necessarily gained a broader basis, +through such a public recognition of its warrant on the part +of Caesar himself. It may have been the uncalled-for zeal of vehement +adherents alone that occasioned these incidents; it may be also, +that Caesar merely permitted or even suggested the scene with Antonius, +in order to put an end in as marked a manner as possible +to the inconvenient gossip by a declinature which took place +before the eyes of the burgesses and was inserted by his command +even in the calendar of the state and could not, in fact, +be well revoked. The probability is that Caesar, who appreciated alike +the value of a convenient formal designation and the antipathies +of the multitude which fasten more on the names than on the essence +of things, was resolved to avoid the name of king as tainted +with an ancient curse and as more familiar to the Romans of his time +when applied to the despots of the east than to their own Numa +and Servius, and to appropriate the substance of the regal office +under the title of Imperator. + +The New Court +The New Patrician Nobility + +But, whatever may have been the definitive title present to his thoughts +the sovereign ruler was there, and accordingly the court +established itself at once with all its due accompaniments of pomp, +insipidity, and emptiness. Caesar appeared in public not in the robe +of the consuls which was bordered with purple stripes, +but in the robe wholly of purple which was reckoned in antiquity +as the proper regal attire, and received, seated on his golden chair +and without rising from it, the solemn procession of the senate. +The festivals in his honour commemorative of birthday, of victories, +and of vows, filled the calendar. When Caesar came to the capital, +his principal servants marched forth in troops to great distances +so as to meet and escort him. To be near to him began to be +of such importance, that the rents rose in the quarter of the city +where he dwelt. Personal interviews with him were rendered +so difficult by the multitude of individuals soliciting audience, +that Caesar found himself compelled in many cases to communicate +even with his intimate friends in writing, and that persons +even of the highest rank had to wait for hours in the antechamber. +People felt, more clearly than was agreeable to Caesar himself, +that they no longer approached a fellow-citizen. There arose +a monarchical aristocracy, which was in a remarkable manner at once +new and old, and which had sprung out of the idea of casting +into the shade the aristocracy of the oligarchy by that of royalty, +the nobility by the patriciate. The patrician body still subsisted, +although without essential privileges as an order, in the character +of a close aristocratic guild;(19) but as it could receive +no new -gentes-(20) it had dwindled away more and more in the course +of centuries, and in the time of Caesar there were not more than +fifteen or sixteen patrician -gentes- still in existence. +Caesar, himself sprung from one of them, got the right +of creating new patrician -gentes- conferred on the Imperator +by decree of the people, and so established, in contrast +to the republican nobility, the new aristocracy of the patriciate, +which most happily combined all the requisites of a monarchical +aristocracy--the charm of antiquity, entire dependence +on the government, and total insignificance. On all sides +the new sovereignty revealed itself. + +Under a monarch thus practically unlimited there could hardly +be scope for a constitution at all--still less for a continuance +of the hitherto existing commonwealth based on the legal co-operation +of the burgesses, the senate, and the several magistrates. Caesar fully +and definitely reverted to the tradition of the regal period; +the burgess-assembly remained--what it had already been, in that period-- +by the side of and with the king the supreme and ultimate expression +of the will of the sovereign people; the senate was brought back +to its original destination of giving advice to the ruler +when he requested it; and lastly the ruler concentrated in his person +anew the whole magisterial authority, so that there existed no other +independent state-official by his side any more than by the side +of the kings of the earliest times. + +Legislation +Edicts + +For legislation the democratic monarch adhered to the primitive maxim +of Roman state-law, that the community of the people in concert +with the king convoking them had alone the power of organically +regulating the commonwealth; and he had his constitutive enactments +regularly sanctioned by decree of the people. The free energy +and the authority half-moral, half-political, which the yea or nay +of those old warrior-assemblies had carried with it, could not indeed +be again instilled into the so-called comitia of this period; +the co-operation of the burgesses in legislation, which in the old +constitution had been extremely limited but real and living, +was in the new practically an unsubstantial shadow. There was therefore +no need of special restrictive measures against the comitia; +many years' experience had shown that every government-- +the oligarchy as well as the monarch--easily kept on good terms +with this formal sovereign. These Caesarian comitia were an important +element in the Caesarian system and indirectly of practical significance, +only in so far as they served to retain in principle the sovereignty +of the people and to constitute an energetic protest against sultanism. + +But at the same time--as is not only obvious of itself, but is also +distinctly attested--the other maxim also of the oldest state-law +was revived by Caesar himself, and not merely for the first time +by his successors; viz. that what the supreme, or rather sole, +magistrate commands is unconditionally valid so long as he remains +in office, and that, while legislation no doubt belongs only to the king +and the burgesses in concert, the royal edict is equivalent to law +at least till the demission of its author. + +The Senate as the State-Council of the Monarch + +While the democratic king thus conceded to the community of the people +at least a formal share in the sovereignty, it was by no means +his intention to divide his authority with what had hitherto been +the governing body, the college of senators. The senate of Caesar +was to be--in a quite different way from the later senate of Augustus-- +nothing but a supreme council of state, which he made use +of for advising with him beforehand as to laws, and for the issuing +of the more important administrative ordinances through it, +or at least under its name--for cases in fact occurred where decrees +of senate were issued, of which none of the senators recited +as present at their preparation had any cognizance. There were +no material difficulties of form in reducing the senate to it +original deliberative position, which it had overstepped more de facto +than de jure; but in this case it was necessary to protect himself +from practical resistance, for the Roman senate was as much +the headquarters of the opposition to Caesar as the Attic Areopagus +was of the opposition to Pericles. Chiefly for this reason +the number of senators, which had hitherto amounted at most +to six hundred in its normal condition(21) and had been greatly reduced +by the recent crises, was raised by extraordinary supplement +to nine hundred; and at the same time, to keep it at least +up to this mark, the number of quaestors to be nominated annually, +that is of members annually admitted to the senate, was raised +from twenty to forty.(22) The extraordinary filling up of the senate +was undertaken by the monarch alone. In the case of the ordinary +additions he secured to himself a permanent influence through +the circumstance, that the electoral colleges were bound by law(23) +to give their votes to the first twenty candidates for the quaestorship +who were provided with letters of recommendation from the monarch; +besides, the crown was at liberty to confer the honorary rights +attaching to the quaestorship or to any office superior to it, +and consequently a seat in the senate in particular, by way of exception +even on individuals not qualified. The selection of the extraordinary +members who were added naturally fell in the main on adherents +of the new order of things, and introduced, along with -equites- +of respectable standing, various dubious and plebeian personages +into the proud corporation--former senators who had been erased +from the roll by the censor or in consequence of a judicial sentence, +foreigners from Spain and Gaul who had to some extent to learn +their Latin in the senate, men lately subaltern officers +who had not previously received even the equestrian ring, +sons of freedmen or of such as followed dishonourable trades, +and other elements of a like kind. The exclusive circles +of the nobility, to whom this change in the personal composition +of the senate naturally gave the bitterest offence, saw in it +an intentional depreciation of the very institution itself. +Caesar was not capable of such a self-destructive policy; +he was as determined not to let himself be governed by his council +as he was convinced of the necessity of the institute in itself. +They might more correctly have discerned in this proceeding the intention +of the monarch to take away from the senate its former character +of an exclusive representation of the oligarchic aristocracy, +and to make it once more--what it had been in the regal period-- +a state-council representing all classes of persons belonging +to the state through their most intelligent elements, and not necessarily +excluding the man of humble birth or even the foreigner; just as those +earliest kings introduced non-burgesses,(24) Caesar introduced +non-Italians into his senate. + +Personal Government by Caesar + +While the rule of the nobility was thus set aside and its existence +undermined, and while the senate in its new form was merely a tool +of the monarch, autocracy was at the same time most strictly +carried out in the administration and government of the state, +and the whole executive was concentrated in the hands of the monarch. +First of all, the Imperator naturally decided in person every question +of any moment. Caesar was able to carry personal government +to an extent which we puny men can hardly conceive, and which +is not to be explained solely from the unparalleled rapidity +and decision of his working, but has moreover its ground +in a more general cause. When we see Caesar, Sulla, Gaius Gracchus, +and Roman statesmen in general displaying throughout an activity +which transcends our notions of human powers of working, the reason lies, +not in any change that human nature has undergone since that time, +but in the change which has taken place since then in the organization +of the household. The Roman house was a machine, in which even +the mental powers of the slaves and freedmen yielded their produce +to the master; a master, who knew how to govern these, worked as it were +with countless minds. It was the beau ideal of bureaucratic +centralization; which our counting-house system strives indeed +zealously to imitate, but remains as far behind its prototype +as the modern power of capital is inferior to the ancient system +of slavery. Caesar knew how to profit by this advantage; +wherever any post demanded special confidence, we see him filling it up +on principle--so far as other considerations at all permit-- +with his slaves freedmen, or clients of humble birth. His works +as a whole show what an organizing genius like his could accomplish +with such an instrument; but to the question, how in detail +these marvellous feats were achieved, we have no adequate answer. +Bureaucracy resembles a manufactory also in this respect, +that the work done does not appear as that of the individual +who has worked at it, but as that of the manufactory which stamps it. +This much only is quite clear, that Caesar, in his work had no helper +at all who exerted a personal influence over it or was even so much as +initiated into the whole plan; he was not only the sole master, +but he worked also without skilled associates, +merely with common labourers. + +In Matters of Finance + +With respect to details as a matter of course in strictly political +affairs Caesar avoided, so far as was at all possible, +any delegation of his functions. Where it was inevitable, +as especially when during his frequent absence from Rome he had need +of a higher organ there, the person destined for this purpose was, +significantly enough, not the legal deputy of the monarch, +the prefect of the city, but a confidant without officially-recognized +jurisdiction, usually Caesar's banker, the cunning and pliant +Phoenician merchant Lucius Cornelius Balbus from Gades. +In administration Caesar was above all careful to resume the keys +of the state-chest--which the senate had appropriated to itself +after the fall of the regal power, and by means of which +it had possessed itself of the government--and to entrust them +only to those servants who with their persons were absolutely +and exclusively devoted to him. In respect of ownership indeed +the private means of the monarch remained, of course, strictly +separate from the property of the state; but Caesar took in hand +the administration of the whole financial and monetary system +of the state, and conducted it entirely in the way in which +he and the Roman grandees generally were wont to manage +the administration of their own means and substance. For the future +the levying of the provincial revenues and in the main also +the management of the coinage were entrusted to the slaves and freedmen +of the Imperator and men of the senatorial order were excluded from it-- +a momentous step out of which grew in course of time the important class +of procurators and the "imperial household." + +In the Governorships + +Of the governorships on the other hand, which, after they had handed +their financial business over to the new imperial tax-receivers, +were still more than they had formerly been essentially military commands, +that of Egypt alone was transferred to the monarch's own retainers. +The country of the Nile, in a peculiar manner geographically isolated +and politically centralized, was better fitted than any other district +to break off permanently under an able leader from the central power, +as the attempts which had repeatedly been made by hard-pressed Italian +party-chiefs to establish themselves there during the recent crisis +sufficiently proved. Probably it was just this consideration +thatinduced Caesar not to declare the land formally a province, +but to leave the harmless Lagids there; and certainly for this reason +the legions stationed in Egypt were not entrusted to a man +belonging to the senate or, in other words, to the former government, +but this command was, just like the posts of tax-receivers, +treated as a menial office.(25) In general however the consideration +had weight with Caesar, that the soldiers of Rome should not, +like those of Oriental kings, be commanded by lackeys. It remained +the rule to entrust the more important governorships to those +who had been consuls, the less important to those who had been praetors; +and once more, instead of the five years' interval prescribed +by the law of 702,(26) the commencement of the governorship probably +was in the ancient fashion annexed directly to the close of the official +functions in the city. On the other hand the distribution +of the provinces among the qualified candidates, which had hitherto +been arranged sometimes by decree of the people or senate, +sometimes by concert among the magistrates or by lot, passed over +to the monarch. And, as the consuls were frequently induced +to abdicate before the end of the year and to make room for after- +elected consuls (-consules suffecti-); as, moreover, the number +of praetors annually nominated was raised from eight to sixteen, +and the nomination of half of them was entrusted to the Imperator +in the same way as that of the half of the quaestors; and, lastly, +as there was reserved to the Imperator the right of nominating, +if not titular consuls, at any rate titular praetors and titular +quaestors: Caesar secured a sufficient number of candidates +acceptable to him for filling up the governorships. Their recall +remained of course left to the discretion of the regent as well as +their nomination; as a rule it was assumed that the consular governor +should not remain more than two years, nor the praetorian +more than one year, in the province. + +In the Administration of the Capital + +Lastly, so far as concerns the administration of the city which was +his capital and residence, the Imperator evidently intended for a time +to entrust this also to magistrates similarly nominated by him. +He revived the old city-lieutenancy of the regal period;(27) +on different occasions he committed during his absence the administration +of the capital to one or more such lieutenants nominated by him +without consulting the people and for an indefinite period, +who united in themselves the functions of all the administrative +magistrates and possessed even the right of coining money +with their own name, although of course not with their own effigy +In 707 and in the first nine months of 709 there were, moreover, +neither praetors nor curule aediles nor quaestors; the consuls too +were nominated in the former year only towards its close, +and in the latter Caesar was even consul without a colleague. +This looks altogether like an attempt to revive completely +the old regal authority within the city of Rome, as far as the limits +enjoined by the democratic past of the new monarch; in other words, +of magistrates additional to the king himself, to allow only +the prefect of the city during the king's absence and the tribunes +and plebeian aediles appointed for protecting popular freedom +to continue in existence, and to abolish the consulship, the censorship, +the praetorship, the curule aedileship and the quaestorship.(28) +But Caesar subsequently departed from this; he neither accepted +the royal title himself, nor did he cancel those venerable names +interwoven with the glorious history of the republic. The consuls, +praetors, aediles, tribunes, and quaestors retained substantially +their previous formal powers; nevertheless their position +was totally altered. It was the political idea lying +at the foundation of the republic that the Roman empire was identified +with the city of Rome, and in consistency with it the municipal +magistrates of the capital were treated throughout as magistrates +of the empire. In the monarchy of Caesar that view and this consequence +of it fell into abeyance; the magistrates of Rome formed thenceforth +only the first among the many municipalities of the empire, +and the consulship in particular became a purely titular post, +which preserved a certain practical importance only in virtue +of the reversion of a higher governorship annexed to it. The fate, +which the Roman community had been wont to prepare for the vanquished, +now by means of Caesar befell itself; its sovereignty over +the Roman empire was converted into a limited communal freedom +within the Roman state. That at the same time the number +of the praetors and quaestors was doubled, has been already mentioned; +the same course was followed with the plebeian aediles, to whom +two new "corn-aediles" (-aediles Ceriales-) were added to superintend +the supplies of the capital. The appointment to those offices remained +with the community, and was subject to no restriction as respected +the consuls and perhaps also the tribunes of the people +and plebeian aediles; we have already adverted to the fact, +that the Imperator reserved a right of proposal binding on the electors +as regards the half of the praetors, curule aediles, and quaestors +to be annually nominated. In general the ancient and hallowed +palladia of popular freedom were not touched; which, of course, +did not prevent the individual refractory tribune of the people +from being seriously interfered with and, in fact, deposed and erased +from the roll of senators. + +As the Imperator was thus, for the more general and more important +questions, his own minister; as he controlled the finances +by his servants, and the army by his adjutants; and as the old republican +state-magistracies were again converted into municipal magistracies +of the city of Rome; the autocracy was sufficiently established. + +The State-Hierarchy + +In the spiritual hierarchy on the other hand Caesar, although he issued +a detailed law respecting this portion of the state-economy, +made no material alteration, except that he connected with the person +of the regent the supreme pontificate and perhaps also the membership +of the higher priestly colleges generally; and, partly +in connection with this, one new stall was created in each +of the three supreme colleges, and three new stalls in the fourth college +of the banquet-masters. If the Roman state-hierarchy had hitherto +served as a support to the ruling oligarchy, it might render +precisely the same service to the new monarchy. The conservative +religious policy of the senate was transferred to the new kings of Rome; +when the strictly conservative Varro published about this time +his "Antiquities of Divine Things," the great fundamental +repository of Roman state-theology, he was allowed to dedicate it +to the -Pontifex Maximus- Caesar. The faint lustre which the worship +of Jovis was still able to impart shone round the newly-established +throne; and the old national faith became in its last stages +the instrument of a Caesarian papacy, which, however, +was from the outset but hollow and feeble. + +Regal Jurisdiction + +In judicial matters, first of all, the old regal jurisdiction +was re-established. As the king had originally been judge in criminal +and civil causes, without being legally bound in the former +to respect an appeal to the prerogative of mercy in the people, +or in the latter to commit the decision of the question in dispute +to jurymen; so Caesar claimed the right of bringing capital causes +as well as private processes for sole and final decision to his own bar, +and disposing of them in the event of his presence personally, +in the event of his absence by the city-lieutenant. In fact, +we find him, quite after the manner of the ancient kings, now sitting +in judgment publicly in the Forum of the capital on Roman burgesses +accused of high treason, now holding a judicial inquiry, in his house +regarding the client princes accused of the like crime; +so that the only privilege, which the Roman burgesses had as compared +with the other subjects of the king, seems to have consisted +in the publicity of the judicial procedure. But this resuscitated +supreme jurisdiction of the kings, although Caesar discharged its duties +with impartiality and care, could only from the nature of the case +find practical application in exceptional cases. + +Retention of the Previous Administration of Justice + +For the usual procedure in criminal and civil causes the former +republican mode of administering justice was substantially retained. +Criminal causes were still disposed of as formerly before the different +jury-commissions competent to deal with the several crimes, +civil causes partly before the court of inheritance or, +as it was commonly called, of the -centumviri-, partly before +the single -iudices-; the superintendence of judicial proceedings +was as formerly conducted in the capital chiefly by the praetors, +in the provinces by the governors. Political crimes too continued +even under the monarchy to be referred to a jury-commission; +the new ordinance, which Caesar issued respecting them, specified +the acts legally punishable with precision and in a liberal spirit +which excluded all prosecution of opinions, and it fixed +as the penalty not death, but banishment. As respects the selection +of the jurymen, whom the senatorial party desired to see chosen +exclusively from the senate and the strict Gracchans exclusively +from the equestrian order, Caesar, faithful to the principle +of reconciling the parties, left the matter on the footing +of the compromise-law of Cotta,(29) but with the modification-- +for which the way was probably prepared by the law of Pompeius +of 699(30)-that the -tribuni aerarii- who came from the lower ranks +of the people were set aside; so that there was established a rating +for jurymen of at least 400,000 sesterces (4000 pounds), and senators +and equites now divided the functions of jurymen which had so long +been an apple of discord between them. + +Appeal to the Monarch + +The relations of the regal and the republican jurisdiction were +on the whole co-ordinate, so that any cause might be initiated as well +before the king's bar as before the competent republican tribunal, +the latter of course in the event of collision giving way; +if on the other hand the one or the other tribunal had pronounced +sentence, the cause was thereby finally disposed of. To overturn +a verdict pronounced by the jurymen duly called to act in a civil +or in a criminal cause even the new ruler was not entitled, +except where special incidents, such as corruption or violence, +already according to the law of the republic gave occasion +for cancelling the jurymen's sentence. On the other hand +the principle that, as concerned any decree emanating merely +from magistrates, the person aggrieved by it was entitled to appeal +to the superior of the decreeing authority, probably obtained +even now the great extension, out of which the subsequent imperial +appellate jurisdiction arose; perhaps all the magistrates +administering law, at least the governors of all the provinces, +were regarded so far as subordinates of the ruler, that appeal +to him might be lodged from any of their decrees. + +Decay of the Judicial System + +Certainly these innovations, the most important of which-- +the general extension given to appeal--cannot even be reckoned +absolutely an improvement, by no means healed thoroughly the evils +from which the Roman administration of justice was suffering. +Criminal procedure cannot be sound in any slave-state, inasmuch as +the task of proceeding against slaves lies, if not de jure, +at least de facto in the hands of the master. The Roman master, +as may readily be conceived, punished throughout the crime of his serf, +not as a crime, but only so far as it rendered the slave useless +or disagreeable to him; slave criminals were merely drafted off +somewhat like oxen addicted to goring, and, as the latter +were sold to the butcher, so were the former sold to the fencing-booth. +But even the criminal procedure against free men, which had been +from the outset and always in great part continued to be +a political process, had amidst the disorder of the last generations +become transformed from a grave legal proceeding into a faction- +fight to be fought out by means of favour, money, and violence. +The blame rested jointly on all that took part in it, on the magistrates, +the jury, the parties, even the public who were spectators; +but the most incurable wounds were inflicted on justice by the doings +of the advocates. In proportion as the parasitic plant +of Roman forensic eloquence flourished, all positive ideas of right +became broken up; and the distinction, so difficult of apprehension +by the public, between opinion and evidence was in reality +expelled from the Roman criminal practice. "A plain simple defendant," +says a Roman advocate of much experience at this period, "may be accused +of any crime at pleasure which he has or has not committed, and will be +certainly condemned." Numerous pleadings in criminal causes +have been preserved to us from this epoch; there is hardly one of them +which makes even a serious attempt to fix the crime in question +and to put into proper shape the proof or counterproof.(31) +That the contemporary civil procedure was likewise in various respects +unsound, we need hardly mention; it too suffered from the effects +of the party politics mixed up with all things, as for instance +in the process of Publius Quinctius (671-673), where the most +contradictory decisions were given according as Cinna or Sulla +had the ascendency in Rome; and the advocates, frequently non-jurists, +produced here also intentionally and unintentionally abundance +of confusion. But it was implied in the nature of the case, +that party mixed itself up with such matters only by way of exception, +and that here the quibbles of advocates could not so rapidly or so deeply +break up the ideas of right; accordingly the civil pleadings +which we possess from this epoch, while not according +to our stricter ideas effective compositions for their purpose, +are yet of a far less libellous and far more juristic character +than the contemporary speeches in criminal causes. If Caesar permitted +the curb imposed on the eloquence of advocates by Pompeius(32) +to remain, or even rendered it more severe, there was at least +nothing lost by this; and much was gained, when better selected +and better superintended magistrates and jurymen were nominated +and the palpable corruption and intimidation of the courts +came to an end. But the sacred sense of right and the reverence +for the law, which it is difficult to destroy in the minds +of the multitude, it is still more difficult to reproduce. +Though the legislator did away with various abuses, he could not heal +the root of the evil; and it might be doubted whether time, +which cures everything curable, would in this case bring relief. + +Decay of the Roman Military System + +The Roman military system of this period was nearly in the same condition +as the Carthaginian at the time of Hannibal. The governing classes +furnished only the officers; the subjects, plebeians and provincials, +formed the army. The general was, financially and militarily, +almost independent of the central government, and, whether +in fortune or misfortune, substantially left to himself +and to the resources of his province. Civic and even national spirit +had vanished from the army, and the esprit de corps was alone +left as a bond of inward union. The army had ceased to be +an instrument of the commonwealth; in a political point of view +it had no will of its own, but it was doubtless able to adopt +that of the master who wielded it; in a military point of view +it sank under the ordinary miserable leaders into a disorganized +useless rabble, but under a right general it attained a military +perfection which the burgess-army could never reach. The class +of officers especially had deeply degenerated. The higher ranks, +senators and equites, grew more and more unused to arms. +While formerly there had been a zealous competition for the posts +of staff officers, now every man of equestrian rank, who chose to serve, +was sure of a military tribuneship, and several of these posts +had even to be filled with men of humbler rank; and any man +of quality at all who still served sought at least to finish +his term of service in Sicily or some other province where +he was sure not to face the enemy. Officers of ordinary bravery +and efficiency were stared at as prodigies; as to Pompeius especially, +his contemporaries practised a military idolatry which in every +respect compromised them. The staff, as a rule, gave the signal +for desertion and for mutiny; in spite of the culpable indulgence +of the commanders proposals for the cashiering of officers of rank +were daily occurrences. We still possess the picture-- +drawn not without irony by Caesar's own hand--of the state of matters +at his own headquarters when orders were given to march +against Ariovistus, of the cursing and weeping, and preparing +of testaments, and presenting even of requests for furlough. +In the soldiery not a trace of the better classes could any longer +be discovered. Legally the general obligation to bear arms +still subsisted; but the levy, if resorted to alongside of enlisting, +took place in the most irregular manner; numerous persons +liable to serve were wholly passed over, while those once levied +were retained thirty years and longer beneath the eagles. +The Roman burgess-cavalry now merely vegetated as a sort of mounted +noble guard, whose perfumed cavaliers and exquisite high-bred horses +only played a part in the festivals of the capital; the so-called +burgess-infantry was a troop of mercenaries swept together +from the lowest ranks of the burgess-population; the subjects furnished +the cavalry and the light troops exclusively, and came to be +more and more extensively employed also in the infantry. The posts +of centurions in the legions, on which in the mode of warfare +of that time the efficiency of the divisions essentially depended, +and to which according to the national military constitution the soldier +served his way upward with the pike, were now not merely regularly +conferred according to favour, but were not unfrequently sold +to the highest bidder. In consequence of the bad financial management +of the government and the venality and fraud of the great majority +of the magistrates, the payment of the soldiers was extremely +defective and irregular. + +The necessary consequence of this was, that in the ordinary +course of things the Roman armies pillaged the provincials, +mutinied against their officers, and ran off in presence of the enemy; +instances occurred where considerable armies, such as the Macedonian army +of Piso in 697,(33) were without any proper defeat utterly ruined, +simply by this misconduct. Capable leaders on the other hand, +such as Pompeius, Caesar, Gabinius, formed doubtless out of the existing +materials able and effective, and to some extent exemplary, +armies; but these armies belonged far more to their general +than to the commonwealth. The still more complete decay +of the Roman marine--which, moreover, had remained an object +of antipathy to the Romans and had never been fully nationalized-- +scarcely requires to be mentioned. Here too, on all sides, +everything that could be ruined at all had been reduced to ruin +under the oligarchic government. + +Its Reorganization by Caesar + +The reorganization of the Roman military system by Caesar +was substantially limited to the tightening and strengthening +of the reins of discipline, which had been relaxed under the negligent +and incapable supervision previously subsisting. The Roman military +system seemed to him neither to need, nor to be capable of, +radical reform; he accepted the elements of the army, just as Hannibal +had accepted them. The enactment of his municipal ordinance that, +in order to the holding of a municipal magistracy or sitting +in the municipal council before the thirtieth year, three years' service +on horseback--that is, as officer--or six years' service on foot +should be required, proves indeed that he wished to attract +the better classes to the army; but it proves with equal clearness +that amidst the ever-increasing prevalence of an unwarlike spirit +in the nation he himself held it no longer possible to associate +the holding of an honorary office with the fulfilment of the time +of service unconditionally as hitherto. This very circumstance +serves to explain why Caesar made no attempt to re-establish +the Roman burgess-cavalry. The levy was better arranged, +the time of service was regulated and abridged; otherwise matters +remained on the footing that the infantry of the line were raised +chiefly from the lower orders of the Roman burgesses, the cavalry +and the light infantry from the subjects. That nothing was done +for the reorganization of the fleet, is surprising. + +Foreign Mercenaries +Adjutants of the Legion + +It was an innovation--hazardous beyond doubt even in the view +of its author--to which the untrustworthy character of the cavalry +furnished by the subjects compelled him,(34) that Caesar +for the first time deviated from the old Roman system of never fighting +with mercenaries, and incorporated in the cavalry hired foreigners, +especially Germans. Another innovation was the appointment of adjutants +of the legion (-legati legionis-). Hitherto the military tribunes, +nominated partly by the burgesses, partly by the governor concerned, +had led the legions in such a way that six of them were placed +over each legion, and the command alternated among these; +a single commandant of the legion was appointed by the general +only as a temporary and extraordinary measure. In subsequent times +on the other hand those colonels or adjutants of legions appear +as a permanent and organic institution, and as nominated no longer +by the governor whom they obey, but by the supreme command in Rome; +both changes seem referable to Caesar's arrangements connected +with the Gabinian law.(35) The reason for the introduction +of this important intervening step in the military hierarchy +must be sought partly in the necessity for a more energetic +centralization of the command, partly in the felt want of capable +superior officers, partly and chiefly in the design of providing +a counterpoise to the governor by associating with him one or more +colonels nominated by the Imperator. + +The New Commandership-in-Chief + +The most essential change in the military system consisted +in the institution of a permanent military head in the person +of the Imperator, who, superseding the previous unmilitary +and in every respect incapable governing corporation, united +in his hands the whole control of the army, and thus converted it +from a direction which for the most part was merely nominal +into a real and energetic supreme command. We are not properly informed +as to the position which this supreme command occupied towards +the special commands hitherto omnipotent in their respective spheres. +Probably the analogy of the relation subsisting between the praetor +and the consul or the consul and the dictator served generally +as a basis, so that, while the governor in his own right retained +the supreme military authority in his province, the Imperator +was entitled at any moment to take it away from him and assume it +for himself or his delegates, and, while the authority of the governor +was confined to the province, that of the Imperator, like the regal +and the earlier consular authority, extended over the whole empire. +Moreover it is extremely probable that now the nomination +of the officers, both the military tribunes and the centurions, +so far as it had hitherto belonged to the governor,(36) as well as +the nomination of the new adjutants of the legion, passed directly +into the hands of the Imperator; and in like manner even now +the arrangement of the levies, the bestowal of leave of absence, +and the more important criminal cases, may have been submitted +to the judgment of the commander-in-chief. With this limitation +of the powers of the governors and with the regulated control +of the Imperator, there was no great room to apprehend +in future either that the armies might be utterly disorganized +or that they might be converted into retainers personally devoted +to their respective officers. + +Caesar's Military Plans +Defence of the Frontier + +But, however decidedly and urgently the circumstances pointed +to military monarchy, and however distinctly Caesar took the supreme +command exclusively for himself, he was nevertheless not at all +inclined to establish his authority by means of, and on, the army. +No doubt he deemed a standing army necessary for his state, +but only because from its geographical position it required +a comprehensive regulation of the frontiers and permanent frontier +garrisons. Partly at earlier periods, partly during the recent +civil war, he had worked at the tranquillizing of Spain, +and had established strong positions for the defence of the frontier +in Africa along the great desert, and in the north-west of the empire +along the line of the Rhine. He occupied himself with similar plans +for the regions on the Euphrates and on the Danube. Above all +he designed an expedition against the Parthians, to avenge the day +of Carrhae; he had destined three years for this war, and was resolved +to settle accounts with these dangerous enemies once for all +and not less cautiously than thoroughly. In like manner +he had projected the scheme of attacking Burebistas king of the Getae, +who was greatly extending his power on both sides of the Danube,(37) +and of protecting Italy in the north-east by border-districts +similar to those which he had created for it in Gaul. On the other hand +there is no evidence at all that Caesar contemplated like Alexander +a career of victory extending indefinitely far; it is said indeed +that he had intended to march from Parthia to the Caspian +and from this to the Black Sea and then along its northern shores +to the Danube, to annex to the empire all Scythia and Germany as far as +the Northern Ocean--which according to the notions of that time was not +so very distant from the Mediterranean--and to return home through Gaul; +but no authority at all deserving of credit vouches for the existence +of these fabulous projects. In the case of a state which, like the Roman +state of Caesar, already included a mass of barbaric elements difficult +to be controlled, and had still for centuries to come more than enough +to do with their assimilation, such conquests, even granting their +military practicability, would have been nothing but blunders +far more brilliant and far worse than the Indian expedition +of Alexander. Judging both from Caesar's conduct in Britain +and Germany and from the conduct of those who became the heirs +of his political ideas, it is in a high degree probable that Caesar +with Scipio Aemilianus called on the gods not to increase the empire, +but to preserve it, and that his schemes of conquest restricted +themselves to a settlement of the frontier--measured, it is true, +by his own great scale--which should secure the line of the Euphrates, +and, instead of the fluctuating and militarily useless boundary +of the empire on the north-east, should establish and render defensible +the line of the Danube. + +Attempts of Caesar to Avert Military Despotism + +But, if it remains a mere probability that Caesar ought not +to be designated a world-conqueror in the same sense as Alexander +and Napoleon, it is quite certain that his design was not to rest +his new monarchy primarily on the support of the army nor generally +to place the military authority above the civil, but to incorporate +it with, and as far as possible subordinate it to, the civil +commonwealth. The invaluable pillars of a military state, +those old and far-famed Gallic legions, were honourably dissolved +just on account of the incompatibility of their esprit de corps +with a civil commonwealth, and their glorious names were only perpetuated +in newly-founded urban communities. The soldiers presented +by Caesar with allotments of land on their discharge were not, +like those of Sulla, settled together--as it were militarily-- +in colonies of their own, but, especially when they settled in Italy, +were isolated as much as possible and scattered throughout the peninsula; +it was only in the case of the portions of the Campanian land +that remained for disposal, that an aggregation of the old soldiers +of Caesar could not be avoided. Caesar sought to solve +the difficult task of keeping the soldiers of a standing army +within the spheres of civil life, partly by retaining the former +arrangement which prescribed merely certain years of service, +and not a service strictly constant, that is, uninterrupted +by any discharge; partly by the already-mentioned shortening of the term +of service, which occasioned a speedier change in the personal +composition of the army; partly by the regular settlement +of the soldiers who had served out their time as agricultural colonists; +partly and principally by keeping the army aloof from Italy +and generally from the proper seats of the civil and political life +of the nation, and directing the soldier to the points, +where according to the opinion of the great king he was alone, +in his place--to the frontier stations, that he might ward off +the extraneous foe. + +Absence of Corps of Guards + +The true criterion also of the military state--the development of, +and the privileged position assigned to, the corps of guards-- +is not to be met with in the case of Caesar. Although as respects +the army on active service the institution of a special bodyguard +for the general had been already long in existence,(38) in Caesar's +system this fell completely into the background; his praetorian +cohort seems to have essentially consisted merely of orderly +officers or non-military attendants, and never to have been +in the proper sense a select corps, consequently never an object +of jealousy to the troops of the line. While Caesar even as general +practically dropped the bodyguard, he still, less as king tolerated +a guard round his person. Although constantly beset by lurking +assassins and well aware of it, he yet rejected the proposal +of the senate to institute a select guard; dismissed, +as soon as things grew in some measure quiet, the Spanish escort +which he had made use of at first in the capital; and contented himself +with the retinue of lictors sanctioned by traditional usage +for the Roman supreme magistrates. + +Impracticableness of Ideal + +However much of the idea of his party and of his youth-- +to found a Periclean government in Rome not by virtue of the sword, +but by virtue of the confidence of the nation--Caesar had been obliged +to abandon in the struggle with realities, he retained even now +the fundamental idea--of not founding a military monarchy-- +with an energy to which history scarcely supplies a parallel. +Certainly this too was an impracticable ideal--it was the sole illusion, +in regard to which the earnest longing of that vigorous mind +was more powerful than its clear judgment. A government, such as Caesar +had in view, was not merely of necessity in its nature highly personal, +and so liable to perish with the death of its author just as + the kindred creations of Pericles and Cromwell with the death +of their founders; but, amidst the deeply disorganized state +of the nation, it was not at all credible that the eighth king of Rome +would succeed even for his lifetime in ruling, as his seven predecessors +had ruled, his fellow-burgesses merely by virtue of law and justice, +and as little probable that he would succeed in incorporating +the standing army--after it had during the last civil war +learned its power and unlearned its reverence--once more +as a subservient element in civil society. To any one who calmly +considered to what extent reverence for the law had disappeared +from the lowest as from the highest ranks of society, the former hope +must have seemed almost a dream; and, if with the Marian reform +of the military system the soldier generally had ceased +to be a citizen,(39) the Campanian mutiny and the battle-field +of Thapsus showed with painful clearness the nature of the support +which the army now lent to the law. Even the great democrat +could only with difficulty and imperfectly hold in check the powers +which he had unchained; thousands of swords still at his signal +flew from the scabbard, but they were no longer equally ready +upon that signal to return to the sheath. Fate is mightier than genius. +Caesar desired to become the restorer of the civil commonwealth, +and became the founder of the military monarchy which he abhorred; +he overthrew the regime of aristocrats and bankers in the state, +only to put a military regime in their place, and the commonwealth +continued as before to be tyrannized and worked for profit +by a privileged minority. And yet it is a privilege of the highest +natures thus creatively to err. The brilliant attempts of great men +to realize the ideal, though they do not reach their aim, +form the best treasure of the nations. It was owing to the work +of Caesar that the Roman military state did not become a police-state +till after the lapse of several centuries, and that the Roman Imperators, +however little they otherwise resembled the great founder +of their sovereignty, yet employed the soldier in the main +not against the citizen but against the public foe, and esteemed +both nation and army too highly to set the latter as constable +over the former. + +Financial Administration + +The regulation of financial matters occasioned comparatively +little difficulty in consequence of the solid foundations +which the immense magnitude of the empire and the exclusion +of the system of credit supplied. If the state had hitherto found itself +in constant financial embarrassment, the fault was far from chargeable +on the inadequacy of the state revenues; on the contrary these had +of late years immensely increased. To the earlier aggregate income, +which is estimated at 200,000,000 sesterces (2,000,000 pounds), +there were added 85,000,000 sesterces (850,000 pounds) +by the erection of the provinces of Bithynia-Pontus and Syria; +which increase, along with the other newly opened up or augmented +sources of income, especially from the constantly increasing produce +of the taxes on luxuries, far outweighed the loss of the Campanian rents. +Besides, immense sums had been brought from extraordinary sources +into the exchequer through Lucullus, Metellus, Pompeius, Cato, +and others. The cause of the financial embarrassments rather la +partly in the increase of the ordinary and extraordinary expenditure, +partly in the disorder of management. Under the former head, +the distribution of corn to the multitude of the capital claimed +almost exorbitant sums; through the extension given to it +by Cato in 691(40) the yearly expenditure for that purpose amounted +to 30,000,000 sesterces (300,000 pounds) and after the abolition +in 696 of the compensation hitherto paid, it swallowed up even +a fifth of the state revenues. The military budget also had risen, +since the garrisons of Cilicia, Syria, and Gaul had been added +to those of Spain, Macedonia, and the other provinces. +Among the extraordinary items of expenditure must be named +in the first place the great cost of fitting out fleets, on which, +for example, five years after the great razzia of 687, 34,000,000 +sesterces (340,000 pounds) were expended at once. Add to this +the very considerable sums which were consumed in wars and warlike +preparations; such as 18,000,000 sesterces (180,000 pounds) +paid at once to Piso merely for the outfit of the Macedonian army, +24,000,000 sesterces (240,000 pounds) even annually to Pompeius +for the maintenance and pay of the Spanish army, and similar sums +to Caesar for the Gallic legions. But considerable as were +these demands made on the Roman exchequer, it would still have +beenable probably to meet them, had not its administration once +so exemplary been affected by the universal laxity and dishonesty +of this age; the payments of the treasury were often suspended +merely because of the neglect to call up its outstanding claims. +The magistrates placed over it, two of the quaestors--young men +annually changed--contented themselves at the best with inaction; +among the official staff of clerks and others, formerly so justly held +in high esteem for its integrity, the worst abuses now prevailed, +more especially since such posts had come to be bought and sold. + +Financial Reforms of Caesar +Leasing of the Direct Taxes Abolished + +As soon however as the threads of Roman state-finance were concentrated +no longer as hitherto in the senate, but in the cabinet of Caesar, +new life, stricter order, and more compact connection at once pervaded +all the wheels and springs of that great machine. the two institutions, +which originated with Gaius Gracchus and ate like a gangrene +into the Roman financial system--the leasing of the direct taxes, +and the distributions of grain--were partly abolished, +partly remodelled. Caesar wished not, like his predecessor, +to hold the nobility in check by the banker-aristocracy +and the populace of the capital, but to set them aside and to deliver +the commonwealth from all parasites whether of high or lower rank; +and therefore he went in these two important questions +not with Gaius Gracchus, but with the oligarch Sulla. The leasing system +was allowed to continue for the indirect taxes, in the case of which +it was very old and--under the maxim of Roman financial administration, +which was retained inviolable also by Caesar, that the levying +of the taxes should at any cost be kept simple and readily manageable-- +absolutely could not be dispensed with. But the direct taxes +were thenceforth universally either treated, like the African +and Sardinian deliveries of corn and oil, as contributions +in kind to be directly supplied to the state, or converted, +like the revenues of Asia Minor, into fixed money payments, +in which case the collection of the several sums payable +was entrusted to the tax-districts themselves. + +Reform of the Distribution of Corn + +The corn-distributions in the capital had hitherto been looked on +as a profitable prerogative of the community which ruled and, +because it ruled, had to be fed by its subjects. This infamous +principle was set aside by Caesar; but it could not be overlooked +that a multitude of wholly destitute burgesses had been protected +solely by these largesses of food from starvation. In this aspect +Caesar retained them. While according to the Sempronian ordinance +renewed by Cato every Roman burgess settled in Rome had legally +a claim to bread-corn without payment, this list of recipients, +which had at last risen to the number of 320,000, was reduced +by the exclusion of all individuals having means or otherwise +provided for to 150,000, and this number was fixed once for all +as the maximum number of recipients of free corn; at the same time +an annual revision of the list was ordered, so that the places vacated +by removal or death might be again filled up with the most needful +among the applicants. By this conversion of the political privilege +into a provision for the poor, a principle remarkable in a moral +as well as in a historical point of view came for the first time +into living operation. Civil society but slowly and gradually +works its way to a perception of the interdependence of interests; +in earlier antiquity the state doubtless protected its members +from the public enemy and the murderer, but it was not bound to protect +the totally helpless fellow-citizen from the worse enemy, want, +by affording the needful means of subsistence. It was the Attic +civilization which first developed, in the Solonian and post-Solonian +legislation, the principle that it is the duty of the community +to provide for its invalids and indeed for its poor generally +and it was Caesar that first developed what in the restricted compass +of Attic life had remained a municipal matter into an organic +institution of state, and transformed an arrangement, +which was a burden and a disgrace for the commonwealth, +into the first of those institutions--in modern times as countless +as they are beneficial--where the infinite depth of human compassion +contends with the infinite depth of human misery. + +The Budget of Income + +In addition to these fundamental reforms a thorough revision +of the income and expenditure took place. The ordinary sources +of income were everywhere regulated and fixed. Exemption from taxation +was conferred on not a few communities and even on whole districts, +whether indirectly by the bestowal of the Roman or Latin franchise, +or directly by special privilege; it was obtained e. g. by all +the Sicilian communities(41) in the former, by the town of Ilion +in the latter way. Still greater was the number of those whose +proportion of tribute was lowered; the communities in Further Spain, +for instance, already after Caesar's governorship had on his suggestion +a reduction of tribute granted to them by the senate, and now +the most oppressed province of Asia had not only the levying of its +direct taxes facilitated, but also a third of them wholly remitted. +The newly-added taxes, such as those of the communities subdued +in Illyria and above all of the Gallic communities--which latter +together paid annually 40,000,000 sesterces (400,000 pounds)-- +were fixed throughout on a low scale. It is true on the other hand +that various towns such as Little Leptis in Africa, Sulci in Sardinia, +and several Spanish communities, had their tribute raised by way +of penalty for their conduct during the last war. The very lucrative +Italian harbour-tolls abolished in the recent times of anarchy +were re-established all the more readily, that this tax fell +essentially on luxuries imported from the east. To these new +or revived sources of ordinary income were added the sums +which accrued by extraordinary means, especially in consequence +of the civil war, to the victor--the booty collected in Gaul; +the stock of cash in the capital; the treasures taken from the Italian +and Spanish temples; the sums raised in the shape of forced loan, +compulsory present, or fine, from the dependent communities +and dynasts, and the pecuniary penalties imposed in a similar way +by judicial sentence, or simply by sending an order to pay, +on individual wealthy Romans; and above all things the proceeds +from the estate of defeated opponents. How productive these sources +of income were, we may learn from the fact, that the fine +of the African capitalists who sat in the opposition-senate alone +amounted to 100,000,000 sesterces (1,000,000 pounds) and the price paid +by the purchasers of the property of Pompeius to 70,000,000 sesterces +(700,000 pounds). This course was necessary, because the power +of the beaten nobility rested in great measure on their colossal wealth +and could only be effectually broken by imposing on them the defrayment +of the costs of the war. But the odium of the confiscations +was in some measure mitigated by the fact that Caesar directed +their proceeds solely to the benefit of the state, +and, instead of overlooking after the manner of Sulla any act of fraud +in his favourites, exacted the purchase-money with rigour +even from his most faithful adherents, e. g. from Marcus Antonius. + +The Budget of Expenditure + +In the expenditure a diminution was in the first place obtained +by the considerable restriction of the largesses of grain. +The distribution of corn to the poor of the capital which was retained, +as well as the kindred supply of oil newly introduced by Caesar +for the Roman baths, were at least in great part charged once for all +on the contributions in kind from Sardinia and especially from Africa, +and were thereby wholly or for the most part kept separate +from the exchequer. On the other hand the regular expenditure +for the military system was increased partly by the augmentation +of the standing army, partly by the raising of the pay of the legionary +from 480 sesterces (5 pounds) to 900 (9 pounds) annually. +Both steps were in fact indispensable. There was a total want +of any real defence for the frontiers, and an indispensable preliminary +to it was a considerable increase of the army. The doubling +of the pay was doubtless employed by Caesar to attach his soldiers +firmly to him,(42) but was not introduced as a permanent innovation +on that account. The former pay of 1 1/3 sesterces (3 1/4 pence) +per day had been fixed in very ancient times, when money had +an altogether different value from that which it had in the Rome +of Caesar's day; it could only have been retained down to a period +when the common day-labourer in the capital earned by the labour +of his hands daily on an average 3 sesterces (7 1/2 pence), +because in those times the soldier entered the army not for the sake +of the pay, but chiefly for the sake of the--in great measure illicit-- +perquisites of military service. The first condition in order +to a serious reform in the military system, and to the getting rid +of those irregular gains of the soldier which formed a burden +mostly on the provincials, was an increase suitable to the times +in the regular pay; and the fixing of it at 2 1/2 sesterces (6 1/2 pence) +may be regarded as an equitable step, while the great burden +thereby imposed on the treasury was a necessary, and in its consequences +a beneficial, course. + +Of the amount of the extraordinary expenses which Caesar +had to undertake or voluntarily undertook, it is difficult +to form a conception. The wars themselves consumed enormous sums; +and sums perhaps not less were required to fulfil the promises +which Caesar had been obliged to make during the civil war. +It was a bad example and one unhappily not lost sight of in the sequel, +that every common soldier received for his participation in the civil war +20,000 sesterces (200 pounds), every burgess of the multitude +in the capital for his non-participation in it 300 sesterces +(3 pounds) as an addition to his aliment; but Caesar, after having once +under the pressure of circumstances pledged his word, was too much +of a king to abate from it. Besides, Caesar answered innumerable +demands of honourable liberality, and put into circulation +immense sums for building more especially, which had been +shamefully neglected during the financial distress of the last times +of the republic--the cost of his buildings executed partly during +the Gallic campaigns, partly afterwards, in the capital was reckoned +at 160,000,000 sesterces (1,600,000 pounds). The general result +of the financial administration of Caesar is expressed in the fact that, +while by sagacious and energetic reforms and by a right combination +of economy and liberality he amply and fully met all equitable claims, +nevertheless already in March 710 there lay in the public treasury +700,000,000 and in his own 100,000,000 sesterces (together +8,000,000 pounds)--a sum which exceeded by tenfold the amount of cash +in the treasury in the most flourishing times of the republic.(43) + +Social Condition of the Nation + +But the task of breaking up the old parties and furnishing +the new commonwealth with an appropriate constitution, +an efficient army, and well-ordered finances, difficult as it was, +was not the most difficult part of Caesar's work. If the Italian nation +was really to be regenerated, it required a reorganization +which should transform all parts of the great empire--Rome, Italy, +and the provinces. Let us endeavour here also to delineate +the old state of things, as well as the beginnings of a new +and more tolerable time. + +The Capital + +The good stock of the Latin nation had long since wholly disappeared +from Rome. It is implied in the very nature of the case, +that a capital loses its municipal and even its national stamp +more quickly than any subordinate community. There the upper classes +speedily withdraw from urban public life, in order to find +their home rather in the state as a whole than in a single city; +there are inevitably concentrated the foreign settlers, the fluctuating +population of travellers for pleasure or business, the mass +of the indolent, lazy, criminal, financially and morally bankrupt, +and for that very reason cosmopolitan, rabble. All this preeminently +applied to Rome. The opulent Roman frequently regarded his town-house +merely as a lodging. When the urban municipal offices were converted +into imperial magistracies; when the civic assembly became the assembly +of burgesses of the empire; and when smaller self-governing tribal +or other associations were not tolerated within the capital: +all proper communal life ceased for Rome. From the whole compass +of the widespread empire people flocked to Rome, for speculation, +for debauchery, for intrigue, for training in crime, +or even for the purpose of hiding there from the eye of the law. + +The Populace There + +These evils arose in some measure necessarily from the very nature +of a capital; others more accidental and perhaps still more grave +were associated with them. There has never perhaps existed a great city +so thoroughly destitute of the means of support as Rome; importation +on the one hand, and domestic manufacture by slaves on the other, +rendered any free industry from the outset impossible there. +The injurious consequences of the radical evil pervading the politics +of antiquity in general--the slave-system--were more conspicuous +in the capital than anywhere else. Nowhere were such masses +of slaves accumulated as in the city palaces of the great families +or of wealthy upstarts. Nowhere were the nations of the three +continents mingled as in the slave-population of the capital-- +Syrians, Phrygians and other half-Hellenes with Libyans and Moors, +Getae, and Iberians with the daily-increasing influx of Celts +and Germans. The demoralization inseparable from the absence +of freedom, and the terrible inconsistency between formal +and moral right, were far more glaringly apparent in the case +of the half or wholly cultivated--as it were genteel--city-slave than, +in that of the rural serf who tilled the field in chains +like the fettered ox. Still worse than the masses of slaves were those +who had been de jure or simply de facto released from slavery-- +a mixture of mendicant rabble and very rich parvenus, no longer slaves +and not yet fully burgesses, economically and even legally dependent +on their master and yet with the pretensions of free men; +and these freedmen made their way above all towards the capital, +where gain of various sorts was to be had and the retail traffic +as well as the minor handicrafts were almost wholly in their hands. +Their influence on the elections is expressly attested; +and that they took a leading part in the street riots, is very evident +from the ordinary signal by means of which these were virtually +proclaimed by the demagogues--the closing of the shops +and places of sale. + +Relations of the Oligarchy to the Populace + +Moreover, the government not only did nothing to counteract +this corruption of the population of the capital, but even encouraged it +for the benefit of their selfish policy. The judicious rule of law, +which prohibited individuals condemned for a capital offence +from dwelling in the capita, was not carried into effect +by the negligent police. The police-supervision--so urgently required-- +of association on the part of the rabble was at first neglected, +and afterwards(44) even declared punishable as a restriction inconsistent +with the freedom of the people. The popular festivals had been allowed +so to increase that the seven ordinary ones alone--the Roman, +the Plebeian, those of the Mother of the Gods, of Ceres, of Apollo, +of Flora(45) and of Victoria--lasted altogether sixty-two days; +and to these were added the gladiatorial games and numerous other +extraordinary amusements. The duty of providing grain at low prices-- +which was unavoidably necessary with such a proletariate living wholly +from hand to mouth--was treated with the most unscrupulous frivolity, +and the fluctuations in the price of bread-corn were of a fabulous +and incalculable description.(46) Lastly, the distribution of grain +formed an official invitation to the whole burgess-proletariate +who were destitute of food and indisposed for work to take up +their abode in the capital. + +Anarchy of the Capital + +The seed sown was bad, and the harvest corresponded. The system +of clubs and bands in the sphere of politics, the worship of Isis +and similar pious extravagances in that of religion, had their root +in this state of things. People were constantly in prospect +of a dearth, and not unfrequently in utter famine. Nowhere was a man +less secure of his life than in the capital; murder professionally +prosecuted by banditti was the single trade peculiar to it; +the alluring of the victim to Rome was the preliminary +to his assassination; no one ventured into the country +in the vicinity of the capital without an armed retinue. +Its outward condition corresponded to this inward disorganization, +and seemed a keen satire on the aristocratic government. +Nothing was done for the regulation of the stream of the Tiber; +excepting that they caused the only bridge, with which they still +made shift,(47) to be constructed of stone at least as far as +the Tiber-island. As little was anything done toward the levelling +of the city of the Seven Hills, except where perhaps the accumulation +of rubbish had effected some improvement. The streets ascended +and descended narrow and angular, and were wretchedly kept; the footpaths +were small and ill paved. The ordinary houses were built of bricks +negligently and to a giddy height, mostly by speculative builders +on account of the small proprietors; by which means the former +became vastly rich, and the latter were reduced to beggary. +Like isolated islands amidst this sea of wretched buildings +were seen the splendid palaces of the rich, which curtailed the space +for the smaller houses just as their owners curtailed the burgess- +rights of smaller men in the state, and beside whose marble pillars +and Greek statues the decaying temples, with their images of the gods +still in great part carved of wood, made a melancholy figure. +A police-supervision of streets, of river-banks, of fires, or of building +was almost unheard of; if the government troubled itself at all +about the inundations, conflagrations, and falls of houses +which were of yearly occurrence, it was only to ask from the state- +theologians their report and advice regarding the true import +of such signs and wonders. If we try to conceive to ourselves +a London with the slave-population of New Orleans, with the police +of Constantinople, with the non-industrial character of the modern Rome, +and agitated by politics after the fashion of the Paris in 1848, +we shall acquire an approximate idea of the republican glory, +the departure of which Cicero and his associates in their +sulky letters deplore. + +Caesar's Treatment of Matters in the Capital + +Caesar did not deplore, but he sought to help so far as help +was possible. Rome remained, of course, what it was-- +a cosmopolitan city. Not only would the attempt to give to it +once more a specifically Italian character have been impracticable; +it would not have suited Caesar's plan. Just as Alexander found +for his Graeco-Oriental empire an appropriate capital in the Hellenic, +Jewish, Egyptian, and above all cosmopolitan, Alexandria, +so the capital of the new Romano-Hellenic universal empire, +situated at the meeting-point of the east and the west, was to be +not an Italian community, but the denationalized capital +of many nations. For this reason Caesar tolerated the worship +of the newly-settled Egyptian gods alongside of Father Jovis, and granted +even to the Jews the free exercise of their strangely foreign ritual +in the very capital of the empire. However offensive was the motley +mixture of the parasitic--especially the Helleno-Oriental-- +population in Rome, he nowhere opposed its extension; it is significant, +that at his popular festivals for the capital he caused dramas +to be performed not merely in Latin and Greek, but also in other +languages, presumably in Phoenician, Hebrew, Syrian, Spanish. + +Diminution of the Proletariate + +But, if Caesar accepted with the full consciousness of what he was doing +the fundamental character of the capital such as he found it, +he yet worked energetically at the improvement of the lamentable +and disgraceful state of things prevailing there. Unhappily +the primary evils were the least capable of being eradicated. +Caesar could not abolish slavery with its train of national calamities; +it must remain an open question, whether he would in the course of time +have attempted at least to limit the slave-population in the capital, +as he undertook to do so in another field. As little could Caesar +conjure into existence a free industry in the capital; +yet the great building-operations remedied in some measure +the want of means of support there, and opened up to the proletariate +a source of small but honourable gain. On the other hand Caesar +laboured energetically to diminish the mass of the free proletariate. +The constant influx of persons brought by the corn-largesses +to Rome was, if not wholly stopped,(48) at least very materially +restricted by the conversion of these largesses into a provision +for the poor limited to a fixed number. The ranks of the existing +proletariate were thinned on the one hand by the tribunals +which were instructed to proceed with unrelenting rigour +against the rabble, on the other hand by a comprehensive transmarine +colonization; of the 80,000 colonists whom Caesar sent beyond the seas +in the few years of his government, a very great portion +must have been taken from the lower ranks of the population +of the capital; most of the Corinthian settlers indeed were freedmen. +When in deviation from the previous order of things, which precluded +the freedmen from any urban honorary office, Caesar opened to them +in his colonies the doors of the senate-house, this was doubtless done +in order to gain those of them who were in better positions to favour +the cause of emigration. This emigration, however, must have been +more than a mere temporary arrangement; Caesar, convinced like every +other man of sense that the only true remedy for the misery +of the proletariate consisted in a well-regulated system of colonization, +and placed by the condition of the empire in a position to realize it +to an almost unlimited extent, must have had the design +of permanently continuing the process, and so opening up a constant means +of abating an evil which was constantly reproducing itself. +Measures were further taken to set bounds to the serious fluctuations +in the price of the most important means of subsistence in the markets +of the capital. The newly-organized and liberally-administered +finances of the state furnished the means for this purpose, +and two newly-nominated magistrates, the corn-aediles(49) were charged +with the special supervision of the contractors and of the market +of the capital. + +The Club System Restricted + +The club system was checked, more effectually than was possible +through prohibitive laws, by the change of the constitution; +inasmuch as with the republic and the republican elections and tribunals +the corruption and violence of the electioneering and judicial +-collegia---and generally the political Saturnalia of the -canaille--- +came to an end of themselves. Moreover the combinations called +into existence by the Clodian law were broken up, and the whole system +of association was placed under the superintendence of the governing +authorities. With the exception of the ancient guilds and associations, +of the religious unions of the Jews, and of other specially excepted +categories, for which a simple intimation to the senate seems +to have sufficed, the permission to constitute a permanent society +with fixed times of assembling and standing deposits was made dependent +on a concession to be granted by the senate, and, as a rule, +doubtless only after the consent of the monarch had been obtained. + +Street Police + +To this was added a stricter administration of criminal justice +and an energetic police. The laws, especially as regards the crime +of violence, were rendered more stringent; and the irrational enactment +of the republican law, that the convicted criminal was entitled +to withdraw himself from a part of the penalty which he had incurred +by self-banishment, was with reason set aside. The detailed regulations, +which Caesar issued regarding the police of the capital, +are in great part still preserved; and all who choose may convince +themselves that the Imperator did not disdain to insist +on the house-proprietors putting the streets into repair +and paving the footpath in its whole breadth with hewn stones, +and to issue appropriate enactments regarding the carrying of litters +and the driving of waggons, which from the nature of the streets +were only allowed to move freely through the capital in the evening +and by night. The supervision of the local police remained as hitherto +chiefly with the four aediles, who were instructed now at least, +if not earlier, each to superintend a distinctly marked-off +police district within the capital. + +Buildings of the Capital + +Lastly, building in the capital, and the provision +connected therewith of institutions for the public benefit, +received from Caesar--who combined in himself the love for building +of a Roman and of an organizer--a sudden stimulus, which not merely +put to shame the mismanagement of the recent anarchic times, +but also left all that the Roman aristocracy had done in their best days +as far behind as the genius of Caesar surpassed the honest endeavours +of the Marcii and Aemilii. It was not merely by the extent +of the buildings in themselves and the magnitude of the sums +expended on them that Caesar excelled his predecessors; +but a genuine statesmanly perception of what was for the public good +distinguishes what Caesar did for the public institutions of Rome +from all similar services. He did not build, like his successors, +temples and other splendid structures, but he relieved the marketplace +of Rome--in which the burgess-assemblies, the seats of the chief courts, +the exchange, and the daily business-traffic as well as +the daily idleness, still were crowded together--at least +from the assemblies and the courts by constructing for the former +a new -comitium-, the Saepta Julia in the Campus Martius, +and for the latter a separate place of judicature, the Forum Julium +between the Capitol and Palatine. Of a kindred spirit is the arrangement +originating with him, by which there were supplied to the baths +of the capital annually three million pounds of oil, mostly from Africa, +and they were thereby enabled to furnish to the bathers gratuitously +the oil required for the anointing of the body--a measure +of cleanliness and sanitary policy which, according +to the ancient dietetics based substantially on bathing and anointing, +was highly judicious. + +But these noble arrangements were only the first steps towards +a complete remodelling of Rome. Projects were already formed +for a new senate-house, for a new magnificent bazaar, for a theatre +to rival that of Pompeius, for a public Latin and Greek library +after the model of that recently destroyed at Alexandria-- +the first institution of the sort in Rome--lastly for a temple of Mars, +which was to surpass all that had hitherto existed in riches and glory. +Still more brilliant was the idea, first, of constructing a canal +through the Pomptine marshes and drawing off their waters +to Tarracina, and secondly, of altering the lower course of the Tiber +and of leading it from the present Ponte Molle, not through +between the Campus Vaticanus and the Campus Martius, but rather +round the Campus Vaticanus and the Janiculum to Ostia, +where the miserable roadstead was to give place to an adequate +artificial harbour. By this gigantic plan on the one hand +the most dangerous enemy of the capital, the malaria of the neighbourhood +would be banished; on the other hand the extremely limited facilities +for building in the capital would be at once enlarged by substituting +the Campus Vaticanus thereby transferred to the left bank of the Tiber +for the Campus Martius, and allowing the latter spacious field +to be applied for public and private edifices; while the capital +would at the same time obtain a safe seaport, the want of which +was so painfully felt. It seemed as if the Imperator would remove +mountains and rivers, and venture to contend with nature herself. + +Much however as the city of Rome gained by the new order of things +in commodiousness and magnificence, its political supremacy was, +as we have already said, lost to it irrecoverably through +that very change. The idea that the Roman state should coincide +with the city of Rome had indeed in the course of time become +more and more unnatural and preposterous; but the maxim had been +so intimately blended with the essence of the Roman republic, +that it could not perish before the republic itself. It was only +in the new state of Caesar that it was, with the exception perhaps +of some legal fictions, completely set aside, and the community +of the capital was placed legally on a level with all other +municipalities; indeed Caesar--here as everywhere endeavouring not merely +to regulate the thing, but also to call it officially by the right name-- +issued his Italian municipal ordinance, beyond doubt purposely, +at once for the capital and for the other urban communities. We may add +that Rome, just because it was incapable of a living communal character +as a capital, was even essentially inferior to the other municipalities +of the imperial period. The republican Rome was a den of robbers, +but it was at the same time the state; the Rome of the monarchy, +although it began to embellish itself with all the glories +of the three continents and to glitter in gold and marble, +was yet nothing in the state but a royal residence in connection +with a poor-house, or in other words a necessary evil. + +Italy +Italian Agriculture + +While in the capital the only object aimed at was to get rid +of palpable evils by police ordinances on the greatest scale, +it was a far more difficult task to remedy the deep disorganization +of Italian economics. Its radical misfortunes were those which +we previously noticed in detail--the disappearance of the agricultural, +and the unnatural increase of the mercantile, population-- +with which an endless train of other evils was associated. +The reader will not fail to remember what was the state +of Italian agriculture. In spite of the most earnest attempts +to check the annihilation of the small holdings, farm-husbandry +was scarcely any longer the predominant species of economy +during this epoch in any region of Italy proper, with the exception +perhaps of the valleys of the Apennines and Abruzzi. As to +the management of estates, no material difference is perceptible +between the Catonian system formerly set forth(50) and that +described to us by Varro, except that the latter shows the traces +for better and for worse of the progress of city-life on a great scale +in Rome. "Formerly," says Varro, "the barn on the estate was larger +than the manor-house; now it is wont to be the reverse." In the domains +of Tusculum and Tibur, on the shores of Tarracina and Baiae-- +where the old Latin and Italian farmers had sown and reaped-- +there now rose in barren splendour the villas of the Roman nobles, +some of which covered the space of a moderate-sized town with their +appurtenances of garden-grounds and aqueducts, fresh and salt water ponds +for the preservation and breeding of river and marine fishes, +nurseries of snails and slugs, game-preserves for keeping hares, +rabbits, stags, roes, and wild boars, and aviaries in which even cranes +and peacocks were kept. But the luxury of a great city enriches also +many an industrious hand, and supports more poor than philanthropy +with its expenditure of alms. Those aviaries and fish-ponds +of the grandees were of course, as a rule, a very costly indulgence. +But this system was carried to such an extent and prosecuted +with so much keenness, that e. g. the stock of a pigeon-house +was valued at 100,000 sesterces (1000 pounds); a methodical system +of fattening had sprung up, and the manure got from the aviaries +became of importance in agriculture; a single bird-dealer +was able to furnish at once 5000 fieldfares--for they knew how +to rear these also--at three denarii (2 shillings) each, and a single +possessor of a fish-pond 2000 -muraenae-; and the fishes left behind +by Lucius Lucullus brought 40,000 sesterces (400 pounds). +As may readily be conceived, under such circumstances any one +who followed this occupation industriously and intelligently +might obtain very large profits with a comparatively small outlay +of capital. A small bee-breeder of this period sold from his thyme- +garden not larger than an acre in the neighbourhood of Falerii +honey to an average annual amount of at least 10,000 sesterces +(100 pounds). The rivalry of the growers of fruit was carried so far, +that in elegant villas the fruit-chamber lined with marble +was not unfrequently fitted up at the same time as a dining-room, +and sometimes fine fruit acquired by purchase was exhibited there +as of home growth. At this period the cherry from Asia Minor +and other foreign fruit-trees were first planted in the gardens of Italy. +The vegetable gardens, the beds of roses and violets in Latium +and Campania, yielded rich produce, and the "market for dainties" +(-forum cupedinis-) by the side of the Via Sacra, where fruits, +honey, and chaplets were wont to be exposed for sale, +played an important part in the life of the capital. Generally +the management of estates, worked as they were on the planter-system, +had reached in an economic point of view a height scarcely +to be surpassed. The valley of Rieti, the region round the Fucine lake, +the districts on the Liris and Volturnus, and indeed Central Italy +in general, were as respects husbandry in the most flourishing condition; +even certain branches of industry, which were suitable accompaniments +of the management of an estate by means of slaves, were taken up +by intelligent landlords, and, where the circumstances were favourable, +inns, weaving factories, and especially brickworks were constructed +on the estate. The Italian producers of wine and oil in particular +not only supplied the Italian markets, but carried on also +in both articles a considerable business of transmarine exportation. +A homely professional treatise of this period compares Italy +to a great fruit-garden; and the pictures which a contemporary poet +gives of his beautiful native land, where the well-watered meadow, +the luxuriant corn-field, the pleasant vine-covered hill are fringed +by the dark line of the olive-trees--where the "ornament" of the land, +smiling in varied charms, cherishes the loveliest gardens +in its bosom and is itself wreathed round by food-producing trees-- +these descriptions, evidently faithful pictures of the landscape +daily presented to the eye of the poet, transplant us +into the most flourishing districts of Tuscany and Terra di Lavoro. +The pastoral husbandry, it is true, which for reasons formerly explained +was always spreading farther especially in the south and south-east +of Italy, was in every respect a retrograde movement; but it too +participated to a certain degree in the general progress of agriculture; +much was done for the improvement of the breeds, e. g. asses for breeding +brought 60,000 sesterces (600 pounds), 100,000 (1000 pounds), +and even 400,000 (4000 pounds). The solid Italian husbandry +obtained at this period, when the general development of intelligence +and abundance of capital rendered it fruitful, far more brilliant results +than ever the old system of small cultivators could have given; +and was carried even already beyond the bounds of Italy, +for the Italian agriculturist turned to account large tracts +in the provinces by rearing cattle and even cultivating corn. + +Money-Dealing + +In order to show what dimensions money-dealing assumed by the side +of this estate-husbandry unnaturally prospering over the ruin +of the small farmers, how the Italian merchants vying with the Jews +poured themselves into all the provinces and client-states +of the empire, and how all capital ultimately flowed to Rome, +it will be sufficient, after what has been already said, to point +to the single fact that in the money-market of the capital the regular +rate of interest at this time was six per cent, and consequently +money there was cheaper by a half than it was on an average +elsewhere in antiquity. + +Social Disproportion + +In consequence of this economic system based both in its agrarian +and mercantile aspects on masses of capital and on speculation, +there arose a most fearful disproportion in the distribution +of wealth. The often-used and often-abused phrase of a commonwealth +composed of millionaires and beggars applies perhaps nowhere +so completely as to the Rome of the last age of the republic; +and nowhere perhaps has the essential maxim of the slave-state-- +that the rich man who lives by the exertions of his slaves +is necessarily respectable, and the poor man who lives by the labour +of his hands is necessarily vulgar--been recognized with so terrible +a precision as the undoubted principle underlying all public +and private intercourse.(51) A real middle class in our sense +of the term there was not, as indeed no such class can exist +in any fully-developed slave-state; what appears as if it were +a good middle class and is so in a certain measure, is composed +of those rich men of business and landholders who are so uncultivated +or so highly cultivated as to content themselves within the sphere +of their activity and to keep aloof from public life. Of the men +of business--a class, among whom the numerous freedmen and other +upstarts, as a rule, were seized with the giddy fancy of playing +the man of quality--there were not very many who showed so much judgment. +A model of this sort was the Titus Pomponius Atticus frequently mentioned +in the accounts of this period. He acquired an immense fortune +partly from the great estate-farming which he prosecuted in Italy +and Epirus, partly from his money-transactions which ramified throughout +Italy, Greece, Macedonia, and Asia Minor; but at the same time +he continued to be throughout the simple man of business, +did not allow himself to be seduced into soliciting office +or even into monetary transactions with the state, +and, equally remote from the avaricious niggardliness and from the prodigal +and burdensome luxury of his time--his table, for instance, +was maintained at a daily cost of 100 sesterces (1 pound)-- +contented himself with an easy existence appropriating to itself +the charms of a country and a city life, the pleasures of intercourse +with the best society of Rome and Greece, and all the enjoyments +of literature and art. + +More numerous and more solid were the Italian landholders +of the old type. Contemporary literature preserves in the description +of Sextus Roscius, who was murdered amidst the proscriptions of 673, +the picture of such a rural nobleman (-pater familias rusticanus-); +his wealth, estimated at 6,000,000 sesterces (60,000 pounds), +is mainly invested in his thirteen landed estates; he attends +to the management of it in person systematically and with enthusiasm; +he comes seldom or never to the capital, and, when he does appear there, +by his clownish manners he contrasts not less with the polished senator +than the innumerable hosts of his uncouth rural slaves +with the elegant train of domestic slaves in the capital. +Far more than the circles of the nobility with their cosmopolitan +culture and the mercantile class at home everywhere and nowhere, +these landlords and the "country towns" to which they essentially +gave tone (-municipia rusticana-) preserved as well the discipline +and manners as the pure and noble language of their fathers. +The order of landlords was regarded as the flower of the nation; +the speculator, who has made his fortune and wishes to appear among +the notables of the land, buys an estate and seeks, if not to become +himself the squire, at any rate to rear his son with that view. +We meet the traces of this class of landlords, wherever a national +movement appears in politics, and wherever literature puts forth +any fresh growth; from it the patriotic opposition to the new monarchy +drew its best strength; to it belonged Varro, Lucretius, Catullus; +and nowhere perhaps does the comparative freshness of this landlord-life +come more characteristically to light than in the graceful Arpinate +introduction to the second book of Cicero's treatise De Legibus-- +a green oasis amidst the fearful desert of that equally empty +and voluminous writer. + +The Poor + +But the cultivated class of merchants and the vigorous order +of landlords were far overgrown by the two classes that gave +tone to society--the mass of beggars, and the world of quality proper. +We have no statistical figures to indicate precisely the relative +proportions of poverty and riches for this epoch; yet we may +here perhaps again recall the expression which a Roman statesman +employed some fifty years before(52)--that the number of families +of firmly-established riches among the Roman burgesses did not +amount to 2000. The burgess-body had since then become different; +but clear indications attest that the disproportion between +poor and rich had remained at least as great. The increasing +impoverishment of the multitude shows itself only too plainly +in their crowding to the corn-largesses and to enlistment in the army; +the corresponding increase of riches is attested expressly +by an author of this generation, when, speaking of the circumstances +of the Marian period, he describes an estate of 2,000,000 sesterces +(20,000 pounds) as "riches according to the circumstances +of that day"; and the statements which we find as to the property +of individuals lead to the same conclusion. The very rich +Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus promised to twenty thousand soldiers +four -iugera- of land each, out of his own property; the estate +of Pompeius amounted to 70,000,000 sesterces (700,000 pounds); +that of Aesopus the actor to 20,000,000 (200,000 pounds); Marcus Crassus, +the richest of the rich, possessed at the outset of his career, +7,000,000 (70,000 pounds), at its close, after lavishing enormous +sums on the people, 170,000,000 sesterces (1,700,000 pounds). +The effect of such poverty and such riches was on both sides +an economic and moral disorganization outwardly different, but at bottom +of the same character. If the common man was saved from starvation +only by support from the resources of the state, it was the necessary +consequence of this mendicant misery--although it also reciprocally +appears as a cause of it--that he addicted himself to the beggar's +laziness and to the beggar's good cheer. The Roman plebeian +was fonder of gazing in the theatre than of working; the taverns +and brothels were so frequented, that the demagogues found their +special account in gaining the possessors of such establishments +over to their interests. The gladiatorial games--which revealed, +at the same time that they fostered, the worst demoralization +of the ancient world--had become so flourishing that a lucrative business +was done in the sale of the programmes for them; and it was at this time +that the horrible innovation was adopted by which the decision +as to the life or death of the vanquished became dependent, +not on the law of duel or on the pleasure of the victor, +but onthe caprice of the onlooking public, and according to its signal +the victor either spared or transfixed his prostrate antagonist. +The trade of fighting had so risen or freedom had so fallen in value, +that the intrepidity and the emulation, which were lacking +on the battle fields of this age, were universal in the armies +of the arena and, where the law of the duel required, every gladiator +allowed himself to be stabbed mutely and without shrinking; that in fact +free men not unfrequently sold themselves to the contractors for board +and wages as gladiatorial slaves. The plebeians of the fifth century +had also suffered want and famine, but they had not sold their freedom; +and still less would the jurisconsults of that period have lent +themselves to pronounce the equally immoral and illegal contract +of such a gladiatorial slave "to let himself be chained, scourged, +burnt or killed without opposition, if the laws of the institution +should so require" by means of unbecoming juristic subtleties +as a contract lawful and actionable. + +Extravagance + +In the world of quality such things did not occur, but at bottom +it was hardly different, and least of all better. In doing nothing +the aristocrat boldly competed with the proletarian; if the latter +lounged on the pavement, the former lay in bed till far on +in the day. Extravagance prevailed here as unbounded as it was +devoid of taste. It was lavished on politics and on the theatre, +of course to the corruption of both; the consular office was purchased +at an incredible price--in the summer of 700 the first voting-division +alone was paid 10,000,000 sesterces (100,000 pounds)-- +and all the pleasure of the man of culture in the drama was spoilt +by the insane luxury of decoration. Rents in Rome appear to have been +on an average four times as high as in the country-towns; +a house there was once sold for 15,000,000 sesterces (150,000 pounds). +The house of Marcus Lepidus (consul in 676) which was at the time +of the death of Sulla the finest in Rome, did not rank a generation +afterwards even as the hundredth on the list of Roman palaces. +We have already mentioned the extravagance practised in the matter +of country-houses; we find that 4,000,000 sesterces (40,000 pounds) +were paid for such a house, which was valued chiefly for its fishpond; +and the thoroughly fashionable grandee now needed at least two villas-- +one in the Sabine or Alban mountains near the capital, and a second +in the vicinity of the Campanian baths--and in addition if possible +a garden immediately outside of the gates of Rome. Still more irrational +than these villa-palaces were the palatial sepulchres, several of which +still existing at the present day attest what a lofty pile of masonry +the rich Roman needed in order that he might die as became his rank. +Fanciers of horses and dogs too were not wanting; 24,000 sesterces +(240 pounds) was no uncommon price for a showy horse. They indulged +in furniture of fine wood--a table of African cypress-wood +cost 1,000,000 sesterces (10,000 pounds); in dresses of purple stuffs +or transparent gauzes accompanied by an elegant adjustment of their folds +before the mirror--the orator Hortensius is said to have brought +an action of damages against a colleague because he ruffled his dress +in a crowd; in precious stones and pearls, which first at this period +took the place of the far more beautiful and more artistic +ornaments of gold--it was already utter barbarism, when at the triumph +of Pompeius over Mithradates the image of the victor appeared +wrought wholly of pearls, and when the sofas and the shelves +in the dining-hall were silver-mounted and even the kitchen-utensils +were made of silver. In a similar spirit the collectors of this period +took out the artistic medallions from the old silver cups, +to set them anew in vessels of gold. Nor was there any lack +of luxury also in travelling. "When the governor travelled," +Cicero tells us as to one of the Sicilian governors, "which of course +he did not in winter, but only at the beginning of spring-- +not the spring of the calendar but the beginning of the season of roses-- +he had himself conveyed, as was the custom with the kings of Bithynia, +in a litter with eight bearers, sitting on a cushion of Maltese gauze +stuffed with rose-leaves, with one garland on his head, and a second +twined round his neck, applying to his nose a little smelling bag +of fine linen, with minute meshes, filled with roses; and thus +he had himself carried even to his bed chamber." + +Table Luxury + +But no sort of luxury flourished so much as the coarsest of all-- +the luxury of the table. The whole villa arrangements and the whole +villa life had ultimate reference to dining; not only had they +different dining-rooms for winter and summer, but dinner was served +in the picture-gallery, in the fruit-chamber, in the aviary, +or on a platform erected in the deer-park, around which, +when the bespoken "Orpheus" appeared in theatrical costume +and blew his flourish, the duly-trained roes and wild boars congregated. +Such was the care bestowed on decoration; but amidst all this +the reality was by no means forgotten. Not only was the cook +a graduate in gastronomy, but the master himself often acted +as the instructor of his cooks. The roast had been long ago +thrown into the shade by marine fishes and oysters; now the Italian +river-fishes were utterly banished from good tables, and Italian +delicacies and Italian wines were looked on as almost vulgar. +Now even at the popular festivals there were distributed, +besides the Italian Falerian, three sorts of foreign wine--Sicilian, +Lesbian, Chian, while a generation before it had been sufficient +even at great banquets to send round Greek wine once; in the cellar +of the orator Hortensius there was found a stock of 10,000 jars +(at 33 quarts) of foreign wine. It was no wonder that the Italian +wine-growers began to complain of the competition of the wines +from the Greek islands. No naturalist could ransack land and sea +more zealously for new animals and plants, than the epicures of that day +ransacked them for new culinary dainties.(53) The circumstance +of the guest taking an emetic after a banquet, to avoid the consequences +of the varied fare set before him, no longer created surprise. +Debauchery of every sort became so systematic and aggravated +that it found its professors, who earned a livelihood by serving +as instructors of the youth of quality in the theory +and practice of vice. + +Debt + +It will not be necessary to dwell longer on this confused picture, +so monotonous in its variety; and the less so, that the Romans +were far from original in this respect, and confined themselves +to exhibiting a copy of the Helleno-Asiatic luxury still more +exaggerated and stupid than their model. Plutos naturally devours +his children as well as Kronos; the competition for all these +mostly worthless objects of fashionable longing so forced up prices, +that those who swam with the stream found the most colossal estate +melt away in a short time, and even those, who only for credit's sake +joined in what was most necessary, saw their inherited +and firmly- established wealth rapidly undermined. The canvass +for the consulship, for instance, was the usual highway to ruin +for houses of distinction; and nearly the same description applies +to the games, the great buildings, and all those other pleasant, +doubtless, but expensive pursuits. The princely wealth of that period +is only surpassed by its still more princely liabilities; +Caesar owed about 692, after deducting his assets, 25,000,000 sesterces +(250,000 pounds); Marcus Antonius, at the age of twenty-four +6,000,000 sesterces (60,000 pounds), fourteen years afterwards +40,000,000 (400,000 pounds); Curio owed 60,000,000 (600,000 pounds); +Milo 70,000,000 (700,000 pounds). That those extravagant habits +of the Roman world of quality rested throughout on credit, +is shown by the fact that the monthly interest in Rome was once +suddenly raised from four to eight per cent, through the borrowing +of the different competitors for the consulship. Insolvency, +instead of leading in due time to a meeting of creditors +or at any rate to a liquidation which might at least place matters +once more on a clear footing, was ordinarily prolonged +by the debtor as much as possible; instead of selling his property +and especially his landed estates, he continued to borrow +and to present the semblance of riches, till the crash only became +the worse and the winding-up yielded a result like that of Milo, +in which the creditors obtained somewhat above four per cent +of the sums for which they ranked. Amidst this startlingly rapid +transition from riches to bankruptcy and this systematic swindling, +nobody of course gained so much as the cool banker, who knew how to give +and refuse credit. The relations of debtor and creditor thus returned +almost to the same point at which they had stood in the worst times +of the social crises of the fifth century; the nominal landowners +held virtually by sufferance of their creditors; the debtors were either +in servile subjection to their creditors, so that the humbler of them +appeared like freedmen in the creditor's train and those of higher rank +spoke and voted even in the senate at the nod of their creditor-lord; +or they were on the point of declaring war on property itself, +and either of intimidating their creditors by threats or getting rid +of them by conspiracy and civil war. On these relations was based +the power of Crassus; out of them arose the insurrections--whose motto +was "a clear sheet"-of Cinna(54) and still more definitely of Catilina, +of Coelius, of Dolabella entirely resembling the battles between those +who had and those who had not, which a century before agitated +the Hellenic world.(55) That amidst so rotten an economic condition +every financial or political crisis should occasion the most dreadful +confusion, was to be expected from the nature of the case; we need +hardly mention that the usual phenomena--the disappearance of capital, +the sudden depreciation of landed estates, innumerable bankruptcies, +and an almost universal insolvency--made their appearance now +during the civil war, just as they had done during the Social +and Mithradatic wars.(56) + +Immortality + +Under such circumstances, as a matter of course, morality +and family life were treated as antiquated things among all ranks +of society. To be poor was not merely the sorest disgrace +and the worst crime, but the only disgrace and the only crime: +for money the statesman sold the state, and the burgess sold his freedom; +the post of the officer and the vote of the juryman were to be had +for money; for money the lady of quality surrendered her person +as well as the common courtesan; falsifying of documents and perjuries +had become so common that in a popular poet of this age an oath +is called "the plaster for debts." Men had forgotten what honesty was; +a person who refused a bribe was regarded not as an upright man, +but as a personal foe. The criminal statistics of all times +and countries will hardly furnish a parallel to the dreadful picture +of crimes--so varied, so horrible, and so unnatural--which the trial +of Aulus Cluentius unrolls before us in the bosom of one of the most +respected families of an Italian country town. + +Friendship + +But while at the bottom of the national life the slime was thus +constantly accumulating more and more deleteriously and deeply, +so much the more smooth and glittering was the surface, +overlaid with the varnish of polished manners and universal friendship. +All the world interchanged visits; so that in the houses of quality +it was necessary to admit the persons presenting themselves every morning +for the levee in a certain order fixed by the master or occasionally +by the attendant in waiting, and to give audience only +to the more notable one by one, while the rest were more summarily admitted +partly in groups, partly en masse at the close--a distinction +which Gaius Gracchus, in this too paving the way for the new monarchy, +is said to have introduced. The interchange of letters of courtesy +was carried to as great an extent as the visits of courtesy; +"friendly" letters flew over land and sea between persons who had +neither personal relations nor business with each other, whereas proper +and formal business-letters scarcely occur except where the letter +is addressed to a corporation. In like manner invitations to dinner, +the customary new year's presents, the domestic festivals, were divested +of their proper character and converted almost into public ceremonials; +even death itself did not release the Roman from these attentions +to his countless "neighbours," but in order to die with due respectability +he had to provide each of them at any rate with a keepsake. Just as + in certain circles of our mercantile world, the genuine intimacy +of family ties and family friendships had so totally vanished +from the Rome of that day that the whole intercourse of business +and acquaintance could be garnished with forms and flourishes +which had lost all meaning, and thus by degrees the reality +came to be superseded by that spectral shadow of "friendship," +which holds by no means the least place among the various evil spirits +brooding over the proscriptions and civil wars of this age. + +Women + +An equally characteristic feature in the brilliant decay of this period +was the emancipation of women. In an economic point of view +the women had long since made themselves independent;(57) +in the present epoch we even meet with solicitors acting specially +for women, who officiously lend their aid to solitary rich ladies +in the management of their property and their lawsuits, +make an impression on them by their knowledge of business and law, +and thereby procure for themselves ampler perquisites and legacies +than other loungers on the exchange. But it was not merely +from the economic guardianship of father or husband that women +felt themselves emancipated. Love-intrigues of all sorts were constantly +in progress. The ballet-dancers (-mimae-) were quite a match +for those of the present day in the variety of their pursuits +and the skill with which they followed them out; their primadonnas, +Cytheris and the like, pollute even the pages of history. +But their, as it were, licensed trade was very materially injured +by the free art of the ladies of aristocratic circles. Liaisons +in the first houses had become so frequent, that only a scandal +altogether exceptional could make them the subject of special talk; +a judicial interference seemed now almost ridiculous. +An unparalleled scandal, such as Publius Clodius produced in 693 +at the women's festival in the house of the Pontifex Maximus, +although a thousand times worse than the occurrences which fifty years +before had led to a series of capital sentences,(58) passed +almost without investigation and wholly without punishment. +The watering-place season--in April, when political business +was suspended and the world of quality congregated in Baiae and Puteoli-- +derived its chief charm from the relations licit and illicit which, +along with music and song and elegant breakfasts on board or on shore, +enlivened the gondola voyages. There the ladies held absolute sway; +but they were by no means content with this domain which rightfully +belonged to them; they also acted as politicians, appeared in party +conferences, and took part with their money and their intrigues +in the wild coterie-doings of the time. Any one who beheld +these female statesmen performing on the stage of Scipio +and Cato and saw at their side the young fop--as with smooth chin, +delicate voice, and mincing gait, with headdress and neckerchiefs, +frilled robe, and women's sandals he copied the loose courtesan-- +might well have a horror of the unnatural world, in which the sexes +seemed as though they wished to change parts. What ideas as to divorce +prevailed in the circles of the aristocracy may be discerned +in the conduct of their best and most moral hero Marcus Cato, +who did not hesitate to separate from his wife at the request +of a friend desirous to marry her, and as little scrupled +on the death of this friend to marry the same wife a second time. +Celibacy and childlessness became more and more common, especially +among the upper classes. While among these marriage had for long +been regarded as a burden which people took upon them at the best +in the public interest,(59) we now encounter even in Cato and those +who shared Cato's sentiments the maxim to which Polybius +a century before traced the decay of Hellas,(60) that it is the duty +of a citizen to keep great wealth together and therefore not to beget +too many children. Where were the times, when the designation +"children-producer" (-proletarius-) had been a term of honour +for the Roman? + +Depopulation of Italy + +In consequence of such a social condition the Latin stock in Italy +underwent an alarming diminution, and its fair provinces were overspread +partly by parasitic immigrants, partly by sheer desolation. +A considerable portion of the population of Italy flocked +to foreign lands. Already the aggregate amount of talent +and of working power, which the supply of Italian magistrates +and Italian garrisons for the whole domain of the Mediterranean +demanded, transcended the resources of the peninsula, especially +as the elements thus sent abroad were in great part lost for ever +to the nation. For the more that the Roman community grew +into an empire embracing many nations, the more the governing aristocracy +lost the habit of looking on Italy as their exclusive home; +while of the men levied or enlisted for service a considerable portion +perished in the many wars, especially in the bloody civil war, +and another portion became wholly estranged from their native country +by the long period of service, which sometimes lasted for a generation. +In like manner with the public service, speculation kept +a portion of the landholders and almost the whole body +of merchants all their lives or at any rate for a long time +out of the country, and the demoralising itinerant life of trading +in particular estranged the latter altogether from civic existence +in the mother country and from the various conditions of family life. +As a compensation for these, Italy obtained on the one hand +the proletariate of slaves and freedmen, on the other hand +the craftsmen and traders flocking thither from Asia Minor, Syria, +and Egypt, who flourished chiefly in the capital and still more +in the seaport towns of Ostia, Puteoli, and Brundisium.(61) +In the largest and most important part of Italy however, +even such a substitution of impure elements for pure; +but the population was visibly on the decline. Especially +was this true of the pastoral districts such as Apulia, the chosen land +of cattle-breeding, which is called by contemporaries the most deserted +part of Italy, and of the region around Rome, where the Campagna +was annually becoming more desolate under the constant reciprocal +action of the retrograde agriculture and the increasing malaria. +Labici, Gabii, Bovillae, once cheerful little country towns, +were so decayed, that it was difficult to find representatives of them +for the ceremony of the Latin festival. Tusculum, although still +one of the most esteemed communities of Latium, consisted almost solely +of some genteel families who lived in the capital but retained +their native Tusculan franchise, and was far inferior in the number +of burgesses entitled to vote even to small communities +in the interior of Italy. The stock of men capable of arms +in this district, on which Rome's ability to defend herself +had once mainly depended, had so totally vanished, that people read +with astonishment and perhaps with horror the accounts of the annals-- +sounding fabulous in comparison with things as they stood-- +respecting the Aequian and Volscian wars. Matters were not so bad +everywhere, especially in the other portions of Central Italy +and in Campania; nevertheless, as Varro complains, "the once populous +cities of Italy," in general "stood desolate." + +Italy under the Oligarchy + +It is a dreadful picture--this picture of Italy under the rule +of the oligarchy. There was nothing to bridge over or soften +the fatal contrast between the world of the beggars and the world +of the rich. The more clearly and painfully this contrast +was felt on both sides--the giddier the height to which riches rose, +the deeper the abyss of poverty yawned--the more frequently, +amidst that changeful world of speculation and playing at hazard, +were individuals tossed from the bottom to the top and again +from the top to the bottom. The wider the chasm by which the two worlds +were externally divided, the more completely they coincided +in the like annihilation of family life--which is yet the germ +and core of all nationality--in the like laziness and luxury, +the like unsubstantial economy, the like unmanly dependence, +the like corruption differing only in its tariff, the like criminal +demoralization, the like longing to begin the war with property. +Riches and misery in close league drove the Italians out of Italy, +and filled the peninsula partly with swarms of slaves, partly +with awful silence. It is a terrible picture, but not one peculiar +to Italy; wherever the government of capitalists in a slave-state +has fully developed itself, it has desolated God's fair world +in the same way as rivers glisten in different colours, but a common +sewer everywhere looks like itself, so the Italy of the Ciceronian epoch +resembles substantially the Hellas of Polybius and still more decidedly +the Carthage of Hannibal's time, where in exactly similar fashion +the all-powerful rule of capital ruined the middle class, raised trade +and estate-farming to the highest prosperity, and ultimately led to a-- +hypocritically whitewashed--moral and political corruption of the nation. +All the arrant sins that capital has been guilty of against nation +and civilization in the modern world, remain as far inferior +to the abominations of the ancient capitalist-states as the free man, +be he ever so poor, remains superior to the slave; and not until +the dragon-seed of North America ripens, will the world have again +similar fruits to reap. + +Reforms of Caesar + +These evils, under which the national economy of Italy +lay prostrate, were in their deepest essence irremediable, +and so much of them as still admitted of remedy depended essentially +for its amendment on the people and on time; for the wisest government +is as little able as the more skilful physician to give freshness +to the corrupt juices of the organism, or to do more in the case +of the deeper-rooted evils than to prevent those accidents +which obstruct the remedial power of nature in its working. +The peaceful energy of the new rule even of itself furnished +such a preventive, for by its means some of the worst excrescences +were done away, such as the artificial pampering of the proletariate, +the impunity of crimes, the purchase of offices, and various others. +But the government could do something more than simply abstain +from harm. Caesar was not one of those over-wise people who refuse +to embank the sea, because forsooth no dike can defy some sudden influx +of the tide. It is better, if a nation and its economy follow +spontaneously the path prescribed by nature; but, seeing that they +had got out of this path, Caesar applied all his energies to bring back +by special intervention the nation to its home and family life, +and to reform the national economy by law and decree. + +Measures against Absentees from Italy +Measures for the Elevation of the Family + +With a view to check the continued absence of the Italians from Italy +and to induce the world of quality and the merchants to establish +their homes in their native land, not only was the term of service +for the soldiers shortened, but men of senatorial rank were +altogether prohibited from taking up their abode out of Italy +except when on public business, while the other Italians +of marriageable age (from the twentieth to the fortieth year) +were enjoined not to be absent from Italy for more than three +consecutive years. In the same spirit Caesar had already, +in his first consulship on founding the colony of Capua kept specially +in view fathers who had several children;(62) and now as Imperator +he proposed extraordinary rewards for the fathers of numerous families, +while he at the same time as supreme judge of the nation +treated divorce and adultery with a rigour according +to Roman ideas unparalleled. + +Laws Respecting Luxury + +Nor did he even think it beneath his dignity to issue a detailed law +as to luxury--which, among other points, cut down extravagance +in building at least in one of its most irrational forms, +that of sepulchral monuments; restricted the use of purple robes +and pearls to certain times, ages, and classes, and totally prohibited +it in grown-up men; fixed a maximum for the expenditure of the table; +and directly forbade a number of luxurious dishes. Such ordinances +doubtless were not new; but it was a new thing that the "master +of morals" seriously insisted on their observance, superintended +the provision-markets by means of paid overseers, and ordered +that the tables of men of rank should be examined by his officers +and the forbidden dishes on them should be confiscated. It is true +that by such theoretical and practical instructions in moderation +as the new monarchical police gave to the fashionable world, +hardly more could be accomplished than the compelling luxury to retire +somewhat more into concealment; but, if hypocrisy is the homage +which vice pays to virtue, under the circumstances of the times +even a semblance of propriety established by police measures +was a step towards improvement not to be despised. + +The Debt Crisis + +The measures of Caesar for the better regulation of Italian monetary +and agricultural relations were of a graver character and promised +greater results. The first question here related to temporary enactments +respecting the scarcity of money and the debt-crisis generally. +The law called forth by the outcry as to locked-up capital--that no one +should have on hand more than 60,000 sesterces (600 pounds) in gold +and silver cash--was probably only issued to allay the indignation +of the blind public against the usurers; the form of publication, +which proceeded on the fiction that this was merely the renewed +enforcing of an earlier law that had fallen into oblivion, +shows that Caesar was ashamed of this enactment, and it can hardly +have passed into actual application. A far more serious question +was the treatment of the pending claims for debt, the complete remission +of which was vehemently demanded from Caesar by the party which called +itself by his name. We have already mentioned, that he did not yield +to this demand;(63) but two important concessions were made +to the debtors, and that as early as 705. First, the interest +in arrear was struck off,(64) and that which was paid was deducted +from the capital. Secondly, the creditor was compelled to accept +the moveable and immoveable property of the debtor in lieu of payment +at the estimated value which his effects had before the civil war +and the general depreciation which it had occasioned. The latter +enactment was not unreasonable; if the creditor was to be looked on +de facto as the owner of the property of his debtor to the amount +of the sum due to him, it was doubtless proper that he should bear +his share in the general depreciation of the property. On the other hand +the cancelling of the payments of interest made or outstanding-- +which practically amounted to this, that the creditors lost, +besides the interest itself, on an average 25 per cent of what +they were entitled to claim as capital at the time of the issuing +of the law--was in fact nothing else than a partial concession +of that cancelling of creditors' claims springing out of loans, +for which the democrats had clamoured so vehemently; and, however bad +may have been the conduct of the usurers, it is not possible thereby +to justify the retrospective abolition of all claims for interest +without distinction. In order at least to understand this agitation +we must recollect how the democratic party stood towards +the question of interest. The legal prohibition against +taking interest, which the old plebeian opposition had extorted +in 412,(65) had no doubt been practically disregarded by the nobility +which controlled the civil procedure by means of the praetorship, +but had still remained since that period formally valid; +and the democrats of the seventh century, who regarded themselves +throughout as the continuers of that old agitation as to privilege +and social position,(66) had maintained the illegality of payment +of interest at any time, and even already practically enforced +that principle, at least temporarily, in the confusion of the Marian +period.(67) It is not credible that Caesar shared the crude views +of his party on the interest question; the fact, that, in his account +of the matter of liquidation he mentions the enactment +as to the surrender of the property of the debtor in lieu of payment +but is silent as to the cancelling of the interest, is perhaps +a tacit self-reproach. But he was, like every party-leader, +dependent on his party and could not directly repudiate +the traditional maxims of the democracy in the question of interest; +the more especially when he had to decide this question, +not as the all-powerful conqueror of Pharsalus, but even before +his departure for Epirus. But, while he permitted perhaps rather than +originated this violation of legal order and of property, it is certainly +his merit that that monstrous demand for the annulling of all claims +arising from loans was rejected; and it may perhaps be looked on +as a saving of his honour, that the debtors were far more indignant +at the--according to their view extremely unsatisfactory--concession +given to them than the injured creditors, and made under Caelius +and Dolabella those foolish and (as already mentioned) speedily frustrated +attempts to extort by riot and civil war what Caesar refused to them. + +New Ordinance as to Bankruptcy + +But Caesar did not confine himself to helping the debtor +for the moment; he did what as legislator he could, permanently +to keep down the fearful omnipotence of capital. First of all +the great legal maxim was proclaimed, that freedom is not a possession +commensurable with property, but an eternal right of man, +of which the state is entitled judicially to deprive the criminal alone, +not the debtor. It was Caesar, who, perhaps stimulated in this case +also by the more humane Egyptian and Greek legislation, especially +that of Solon,(68) introduced this principle--diametrically opposed +to the maxims of the earlier ordinances as to bankruptcy-- +into the common law, where it has since retained its place undisputed. +According to Roman law the debtor unable to pay became the serf +of his creditor.(69) The Poetelian law no doubt had allowed a debtor, +who had become unable to pay only through temporary embarrassments, +not through genuine insolvency, to save his personal freedom +by the cession of his property;(70) nevertheless for the really insolvent +that principle of law, though doubtless modified in secondary points, +had been in substance retained unaltered for five hundred years; +a direct recourse to the debtor's estate only occurred exceptionally, +when the debtor had died or had forfeited his burgess-rights +or could not be found. It was Caesar who first gave an insolvent +the right--on which our modern bankruptcy regulations are based-- +of formally ceding his estate to his creditors, whether it might suffice +to satisfy them or not, so as to save at all events his personal freedom +although with diminished honorary and political rights, and to begin +a new financial existence, in which he could only be sued +on account of claims proceeding from the earlier period and not protected +in the liquidation, if he could pay them without renewed financial ruin. + +Usury Laws + +While thus the great democrat had the imperishable honour of emancipating +personal freedom in principle from capital, he attempted moreover +to impose a police limit on the excessive power of capital by usury-laws. +He did not affect to disown the democratic antipathy to stipulations +for interest. For Italian money-dealing there was fixed a maximum amount +of the loans at interest to be allowed in the case of the individual +capitalist, which appears to have been proportioned to the Italian +landed estate belonging to each, and perhaps amounted to half its value. +Transgressions of this enactment were, after the fashion of the procedure +prescribed in the republican usury-laws, treated as criminal offence +and sent before a special jury-commission. If these regulations +were successfully carried into effect, every Italian man of business +would be compelled to become at the same time an Italian landholder, +and the class of capitalists subsisting merely on their interest +would disappear wholly from Italy. Indirectly too the no less injurious +category of insolvent landowners who practically managed their estates +merely for their creditors was by this means materially curtailed, +inasmuch as the creditors, if they desired to continue their lending +business, were compelled to buy for themselves. From this very fact +besides it is plain that Caesar wished by no means simply to renew +that naive prohibition of interest by the old popular party, +but on the contrary to allow the taking of interest within certain limits. +It is very probable however that he did not confine himself +to that injunction--which applied merely to Italy--of a maximum amount +of sums to be lent, but also, especially with respect to the provinces, +prescribed maximum rates for interest itself. The enactments-- +that it was illegal to take higher interest than 1 per cent per month, +or to take interest on arrears of interest, or in fine to make +a judicial claim for arrears of interest to a greater amount +than a sum equal to the capital--were, probably also after +the Graeco-Egyptian model,(71) first introduced in the Roman empire +by Lucius Lucullus for Asia Minor and retained there by his +better successors; soon afterwards they were transferred +to other provinces by edicts of the governors, and ultimately at least +part of them was provided with the force of law in all provinces +by a decree of the Roman senate of 704. The fact that these Lucullan +enactments afterwards appear in all their compass as imperial law +and have thus become the basis of the Roman and indeed of modern +legislation as to interest, may also perhaps be traced back +to an ordinance of Caesar. + +Elevation of Agriculture + +Hand in hand with these efforts to guard against the ascendency +of capital went the endeavours to bring back agriculture to the path +which was most advantageous for the commonwealth. For this purpose +the improvement of the administration of justice and of police +was very essential. While hitherto nobody in Italy had been sure +of his life and of his moveable or immoveable property, while Roman +condottieri for instance, at the intervals when their gangs +were not helping to manage the politics of the capital, +applied themselves to robbery in the forests of Etruria or rounded off +the country estates of their paymasters by fresh acquisitions, +this sort of club-law was now at an end; and in particular +the agricultural population of all classes must have felt +the beneficial effects of the change. The plans of Caesar +for great works also, which were not at all limited to the capital, +were intended to tell in this respect; the construction, +for instance, of a convenient high-road from Rome through +the passesof the Apennines to the Adriatic was designed to stimulate +the internal traffic of Italy, and the lowering the level +of the Fucine lake to benefit the Marsian farmers. But Caesar +also sought by more direct measures to influence the state +of Italian husbandry. The Italian graziers were required +to take at least a third of their herdsmen from freeborn adults, +whereby brigandage was checked and at the same time a source of gain +was opened to the free proletariate. + +Distribution of Land + +In the agrarian question Caesar, who already in his first consulship +had been in a position to regulate it,(72) more judicious +than Tiberius Gracchus, did not seek to restore the farmer-system +at any price, even at that of a revolution--concealed under +juristic clauses--directed against property; by him on the contrary, +as by every other genuine statesman, the security of that +which is property or is at any rate regarded by the public +as property was esteemed as the first and most inviolable +of all political maxims, and it was only within the limits assigned +by this maxim that he sought to accomplish the elevation of the Italian +small holdings, which also appeared to him as a vital question +for the nation. Even as it was, there was much still left for him +in this respect to do. Every private right, whether it was called +property or entitled heritable possession, whether traceable to Gracchus +or to Sulla, was unconditionally respected by him. On the other hand, +Caesar, after he had in his strictly economical fashion-- +which tolerated no waste and no negligence even on a small scale-- +instituted a general revision of the Italian titles to possession +by the revived commission of Twenty,(73) destined the whole +actual domain land of Italy (including a considerable portion +of the real estates that were in the hands of spiritual guilds +but legally belonged to the state) for distribution in the Gracchan +fashion, so far, of course, as it was fitted for agriculture; +the Apulian summer and the Samnite winter pastures belonging +to the state continued to be domain; and it was at least the design +of the Imperator, if these domains should not suffice, to procure +the additional land requisite by the purchase of Italian estates +from the public funds. In the selection of the new farmers provision +was naturally made first of all for the veteran soldiers, +and as far as possible the burden, which the levy imposed +on the mother country, was converted into a benefit by the fact +that Caesar gave the proletarian, who was levied from it as a recruit, +back to it as a farmer; it is remarkable also that the desolate +Latin communities, such as Veii and Capena, seem to have been +preferentially provided with new colonists. The regulation +of Caesar that the new owners should not be entitled to alienate +the lands received by them till after twenty years, was a happy medium +between the full bestowal of the right of alienation, which would have +brought the larger portion of the distributed land speedily +back into the hands of the great capitalists, and the permanent +restrictions on freedom of dealing in land which Tiberius Gracchus(74) +and Sulla (75) had enacted, both equally in vain. + +Elevation of the Municipal System + +Lastly while the government thus energetically applied itself +to remove the diseased, and to strengthen the sound, elements +of the Italian national life, the newly-regulated municipal system-- +which had but recently developed itself out of the crisis +of the Social war in and alongside of the state-economy(76)--was intended +to communicate to the new absolute monarchy the communal life +which was compatible with it, and to impart to the sluggish circulation +of the noblest elements of public life once more a quickened action. +The leading principles in the two municipal ordinances issued in 705 +for Cisalpine Gaul and in 709 for Italy,(77) the latter of which remained +the fundamental law for all succeeding times, are apparently, first, +the strict purifying of the urban corporations from all immoral elements, +while yet no trace of political police occurs; secondly, the utmost +restriction of centralization and the utmost freedom of movement +in the communities, to which there was even now reserved the election +of magistrates and an--although limited--civil and criminal jurisdiction. +The general police enactments, such as the restrictions on the right +of association,(78) came, it is true, into operation also here. + +Such were the ordinances, by which Caesar attempted to reform +the Italian national economy. It is easy both to show their +insufficiency, seeing that they allowed a multitude of evils +still to exist, and to prove that they operated in various respects +injuriously by imposing restrictions, some of which were +very severely felt, on freedom of dealing. It is still easier +to show that the evils of the Italian national economy generally +were incurable. But in spite of this the practical statesman +will admire the work as well as the master-workman. It was already +no small achievement that, where a man like Sulla, despairing +of remedy, had contented himself with a mere formal reorganization, +the evil was seized in its proper seat and grappled with there; +and we may well conclude that Caesar with his reforms came as near +to the measure of what was possible as it was given to a statesman +and a Roman to come. He could not and did not expect from them +the regeneration of Italy; but he sought on the contrary to attain +this in a very different way, for the right apprehension +of which it is necessary first of all to review the condition +of the provinces as Caesar found them. + +Provinces + +The provinces, which Caesar found in existence, were fourteen in number: +seven European--the Further and the Hither Spain, Transalpine Gaul, +Italian Gaul with Illyricum, Macedonia with Greece, Sicily, +Sardinia with Corsica; five Asiatic--Asia, Bithynia and Pontus, +Cilicia with Cyprus, Syria, Crete; and two African--Cyrene and Africa. +To these Caesar added three new ones by the erection of the two new +governorships of Lugdunese Gaul and Belgica(79) and by constituting +Illyricum a province by itself.(80) + +Provincial Administration of the Oligarchy + +In the administration of these provinces oligarchic misrule +had reached a point which, notwithstanding various noteworthy +performances in this line, no second government has ever attained +at least in the west, and which according to our ideas it seems +no longer possible to surpass. Certainly the responsibility for this +rests not on the Romans alone. Almost everywhere before their day +the Greek, Phoenician, or Asiatic rule had already driven out +of the nations the higher spirit and the sense of right and of liberty +belonging to better times. It was doubtless bad, that every +accused provincial was bound, when asked, to appear personally +in Rome to answer for himself; that the Roman governor interfered +at pleasure in the administration of justice and the management +of the dependent communities, pronounced capital sentences, and cancelled +transactions of the municipal council; and that in case of war +he treated the militia as he chose and often infamously, as e. g. +when Cotta at the siege of the Pontic Heraclea assigned to the militia +all the posts of danger, to spare his Italians, and on the siege +not going according to his wish, ordered the heads of his engineers +to be laid at his feet. It was doubtless bad, that no rule +of morality or of criminal law bound either the Roman administrators +or their retinue, and that violent outrages, rapes, and murders +with or without form of law were of daily occurrence in the provinces. +But these things were at least nothing new; almost everywhere +men had long been accustomed to be treated like slaves, +and it signified little in the long run whether a Carthaginian overseer, +a Syrian satrap, or a Roman proconsul acted as the local tyrant. +Their material well-being, almost the only thing for which +the provincials still cared, was far less disturbed by those occurrences, +which although numerous in proportion to the many tyrants yet affected +merely isolated individuals, than by the financial exactions pressing +heavily on all, which had never previously been prosecuted +with such energy. + +The Romans now gave in this domain fearful proof of their old master +of money-matters. We have already endeavoured to describe +the Roman system of provincial oppression in its modest +and rational foundations as well as in its growth and corruption +as a matter of course, the latter went on increasing. The ordinary taxes +became far more oppressive from the inequality of their distribution +and from the preposterous system of levying them than from their +high amount. As to the burden of quartering troops, Roman statesmen +themselves expressed the opinion that a town suffered nearly +to the same extent when a Roman army took up winter quarters +in it as when an enemy took it by storm. While the taxation +in its original character had been an indemnification for the burden +of military defence undertaken by Rome, and the community +paying tribute had thus a right to remain exempt from ordinary service, +garrison-service was now--as is attested e. g. in the case +of Sardinia--for the most part imposed on the provincials, +and even in the ordinary armies, besides other duties, the whole +heavy burden of the cavalry-service was devolved on them. +The extraordinary contributions demanded--such as, the deliveries +of grain for little or no compensation to benefit the proletariate +of the capital; the frequent and costly naval armaments and coast- +defences in order to check piracy; the task of supplying works of art, +wild beasts, or other demands of the insane Roman luxury in the theatre +and the chase; the military requisitions in case of war-- +were just as frequent as they were oppressive and incalculable. +A single instance may show how far things were carried. +During the three years' administration of Sicily by Gaius Verres +the number of farmers in Leontini fell from 84 to 32, in Motuca +from 187 to 86, in Herbita from 252 to 120, in Agyrium from 250 to 80; +so that in four of the most fertile districts of Sicily 59 per cent +of the landholders preferred to let their fields lie fallow +than to cultivate them under such government. And these landholders were, +as their small number itself shows and as is expressly stated, by no means +small farmers, but respectable planters and in great part Roman burgesses! + +In the Client-States + +In the client-states the forms of taxation were somewhat different, +but the burdens themselves were if possible still worse, +since in addition to the exactions of the Romans there came +those of the native courts. In Cappadocia and Egypt the farmer +as well as the king was bankrupt; the former was unable to satisfy +the tax-collector, the latter was unable to satisfy his Roman creditor. +Add to these the exactions, properly so called, not merely +of the governor himself, but also of his "friends," each of whom fancied +that he had as it were a draft on the governor and a title accordingly +to come back from the province a made man. The Roman oligarchy +in this respect completely resembled a gang of robbers, +and followed out the plundering of the provincials in a professional +and business-like manner; capable members of the gang set to work +not too nicely, for they had in fact to share the spoil +with the advocates and the jurymen, and the more they stole, +they did so the more securely. The notion of honour in theft too +was already developed; the big robber looked down on the little, +and the latter on the mere thief, with contempt; any one, who had been +once for a wonder condemned, boasted of the high figure of the sums +which he was proved to have exacted. Such was the behaviour +in the provinces of the successors of those men, who had been +accustomed to bring home nothing from their administration but the thanks +of the subjects and the approbation of their fellow-citizens. + +The Roman Capitalists in the Provinces + +But still worse, if possible, and still less subject to any control +was the havoc committed by the Italian men of business among +the unhappy provincials. The most lucrative portions of the landed +property and the whole commercial and monetary business +in the provinces were concentrated in their hands. The estates +in the transmarine regions, which belonged to Italian grandees, +were exposed to all the misery of management by stewards, and never +saw their owners; excepting possibly the hunting-parks, which occur +as early as this time in Transalpine Gaul with an area amounting +to nearly twenty square miles. Usury flourished as it had never +flourished before. The small landowners in Illyricum, Asia, and Egypt +managed their estates even in Varro's time in great part practically +as the debtor-slaves of their Roman or non-Roman creditors, +just as the plebeians in former days for their patrician lords. +Cases occurred of capital being lent even to urban communities +at four per cent per month. It was no unusual thing for an energetic +and influential man of business to get either the title +of envoy(81) given to him by the senate or that of officer +by the governor, and, if possible, to have men put at his service +for the better prosecution of his affairs; a case is narrated +on credible authority, where one of these honourable martial bankers +on account of a claim against the town of Salamis in Cyprus +kept its municipal council blockaded in the town-house, +until five of the members had died of hunger. + +Robberies and Damage by War + +To these two modes of oppression, each of which by itself +was intolerable and which were always becoming better arranged to work +into each other's hands, were added the general calamities, for which +the Roman government was also in great part, at least indirectly, +responsible. In the various wars a large amount of capital +was dragged away from the country and a larger amount destroyed +sometimes by the barbarians, sometimes by the Roman armies. +Owing to the worthlessness of the Roman land and maritime police, +brigands and pirates swarmed every where. In Sardinia and the interior +of Asia Minor brigandage was endemic; in Africa and Further Spain +it became necessary to fortify all buildings constructed +outside of the city-enclosures with walls and towers. The fearful evil +of piracy has been already described in another connection.(82) +The panaceas of the prohibitive system, with which the Roman governor +was wont to interpose when scarcity of money or dearth occurred, +as under such circumstances they could not fail to do-- +the prohibition of the export of gold or grain from the province-- +did not mend the matter. The communal affairs were almost everywhere +embarrassed, in addition to the general distress, by local disorders +and frauds of the public officials. + +The Conditions of the Provinces Generally + +Where such grievances afflicted communities and individuals +not temporarily but for generations with an inevitable, steady, +and yearly-increasing oppression, the best regulated public +or private economy could not but succumb to them, and the most +unspeakable misery could not but extend over all the nations +from the Tagus to the Euphrates. "All the communities," it is said +in a treatise published as early as 684, "are ruined"; the same truth +is specially attested as regards Spain and Narbonese Gaul, +the very provinces which, comparatively speaking, were still +in the most tolerable economic position. In Asia Minor even towns +like Samos and Halicarnassus stood almost empty; legal slavery +seemed here a haven of rest compared with the torments to which +the free provincial succumbed, and even the patient Asiatic had become, +according to the descriptions of Roman statesmen themselves, +weary of life. Any one who desires to fathom the depths to which man +can sink in the criminal infliction, and in the no less criminal +endurance, of all conceivable injustice, may gather together +from the criminal records of this period the wrongs which Roman grandees +could perpetrate and Greeks, Syrians, and Phoenicians could suffer. +Even the statesmen of Rome herself publicly and frankly conceded +that the Roman name was unutterably odious through all Greece +and Asia; and, when the burgesses of the Pontic Heraclea on one occasion +put to death the whole of the Roman tax-collectors, the only matter +for regret was that such things did not occur oftener. + +Caesar and the Provinces + +The Optimates scoffed at the new master who went in person +to inspect his "farms" one after the other; in reality the condition +of the several provinces demanded all the earnestness and all the wisdom +of one of those rare men, who redeem the name of king from being regarded +by the nations as merely a conspicuous example of human insufficiency. +The wounds inflicted had to be healed by time; Caesar took care +that they might be so healed, and that there should be +no fresh inflictions. + +The Caesarian Magistrates + +The system of administration was thoroughly remodelled. +The Sullan proconsuls and propraetors had been in their provinces +essentially sovereign and practically subject to no control; +those of Caesar were the well-disciplined servants of a stern master, +who from the very unity and life-tenure of his power sustained +a more natural and more tolerable relation to the subjects +than those numerous, annually changing, petty tyrants. The governorships +were no doubt still distributed among the annually-retiring two consuls +and sixteen praetors, but, as the Imperator directly nominated +eight of the latter and the distribution of the provinces +among the competitors depended solely on him,(83) they were +in reality bestowed by the Imperator. The functions also +of the governors were practically restricted. The superintendence +of the administration of justice and the administrative control +of the communities remained in their hands; but their command +was paralyzed by the new supreme command in Rome and its adjutants +associated with the governor,(84) and the raising of the taxes +was probably even now committed in the provinces substantially +to imperial officials,(85) so that the governor was thenceforward +surrounded with an auxiliary staff which was absolutely dependent +on the Imperator in virtue either of the laws of the military +hierarchy or of the still stricter laws of domestic discipline. +While hitherto the proconsul and his quaestor had appeared as if +they were members of a gang of robbers despatched to levy contributions, +the magistrates of Caesar were present to protect the weak +against the strong; and, instead of the previous worse than useless +control of the equestrian or senatorian tribunals, they had to answer +for themselves at the bar of a just and unyielding monarch. +The law as to exactions, the enactments of which Caesar +had already in his first consulate made more stringent, +was applied by him against the chief commandants in the provinces +with an inexorable severity going even beyond its letter; +and the tax-officers, if indeed they ventured to indulge +in an injustice, atoned for it to their master, as slaves +and freedmen according to the cruel domestic law of that time +were wont to atone. + +Regulation of Burdens + +The extraordinary public burdens were reduced to the right proportion +and the actual necessity; the ordinary burdens were materially lessened. +We have already mentioned the comprehensive regulation of taxation;(86) +the extension of the exemptions from tribute, the general lowering +of the direct taxes, the limitation of the system of -decumae- to Africa +and Sardinia, the complete setting aside of middlemen in the collection +of the direct taxes, were most beneficial reforms for the provincials. +That Caesar after the example of one of his greatest democratic +predecessors, Sertorius,(87) wished to free the subjects from the burden +of quartering troops and to insist on the soldiers erecting +for themselves permanent encampments resembling towns, cannot indeed +be proved; but he was, at least after he had exchanged the part +of pretender for that of king, not the man to abandon the subject +to the soldier; and it was in keeping with his spirit, when the heirs +of his policy created such military camps, and then converted them +into towns which formed rallying-points for Italian civilization +amidst the barbarian frontier districts. + +Influence on the Capitalist System + +It was a task far more difficult than the checking of official +irregularities, to deliver the provincials from the oppressive +ascendency of Roman capital. Its power could not be directly broken +without applying means which were still more dangerous than the evil; +the government could for the time being abolish only isolated abuses-- +as when Caesar for instance prohibited the employment of the title +of state-envoy for financial purposes--and meet manifest acts of violence +and palpable usury by a sharp application of the general penal laws +and of the laws as to usury, which extended also to the provinces;(88) +but a more radical cure of the evil was only to be expected +from the reviving prosperity of the provincials under a better +administration. Temporary enactments, to relieve the insolvency +of particular provinces, had been issued on several occasions +in recent times. Caesar himself had in 694 when governor +of Further Spain assigned to the creditors two thirds +of the income of their debtors in order to pay themselves +from that source. Lucius Lucullus likewise when governor of Asia Minor +had directly cancelled a portion of the arrears of interest +which had swelled beyond measure, and had for the remaining portion +assigned to the creditors a fourth part of the produce of the lands +of their debtors, as well as a suitable proportion of the profits +accruing to them from house-rents or slave-labour. We are not expressly +informed that Caesar after the civil war instituted similar +general liquidations of debt in the provinces; yet from what +has just been remarked and from what was done in the case of Italy,(89) +it can hardly be doubted that Caesar likewise directed his efforts +towards this object, or at least that it formed part of his plan. + +While thus the Imperator, as far as lay within human power, +relieved the provincials from the oppressions of the magistrates +and capitalists of Rome, it might at the same time be with certaint +expected from the government to which he imparted fresh vigour, +that it would scare off the wild border-peoples and disperse +the freebooters by land and sea, as the rising sun chases away +the mist. However the old wounds might still smart, with Caesar +there appeared for the sorely-tortured subjects the dawn +of a more tolerable epoch, the first intelligent and humane government +that had appeared for centuries, and a policy of peace which rested +not on cowardice but on strength. Well might the subjects above all +mourn along with the best Romans by the bier of the great liberator. + +The Beginning of the Helleno-Italic State + +But this abolition of existing abuses was not the main matter +in Caesar's provincial reform. In the Roman republic, according +to the view of the aristocracy and democracy alike, the provinces +had been nothing but--what they were frequently called--country-estates +of the Roman people, and they were employed and worked out as such. +This view had now passed away. The provinces as such were gradually +to disappear, in order to prepare for the renovated Helleno-Italic nation +a new and more spacious home, of whose several component parts no one +existed merely for the sake of another but all for each and each for all; +the new existence in the renovated home, the fresher, broader, grander +national life, was of itself to overbear the sorrows and wrongs +of the nation for which there was no help in the old Italy. These ideas, +as is well known, were not new. The emigration from Italy +to the provinces that had been regularly going on for centuries +had long since, though unconsciously on the part of the emigrants +themselves, paved the way for such an extension of Italy. The first +who in a systematic way guided the Italians to settle beyond the bounds +of Italy was Gaius Gracchus, the creator of the Roman democratic monarchy, +the author of the Transalpine conquests, the founder of the colonies +of Carthage and Narbo. Then the second statesman of genius +produced by the Roman democracy, Quintus Sertorius, began to introduce +the barbarous Occidentals to Latin civilization; he gave to the Spanish +youth of rank the Roman dress, and urged them to speak Latin +and to acquire the higher Italian culture at the training institute +founded by him in Osca. When Caesar entered on the government, +a large Italian population--though, in great part, lacking stability +and concentration--already existed in all the provinces and client- +states. To say nothing of the formally Italian towns in Spain +and southern Gaul, we need only recall the numerous troops of burgesses +raised by Sertorius and Pompeius in Spain, by Caesar in Gaul, +by Juba in Numidia, by the constitutional party in Africa, Macedonia, +Greece, Asia Minor, and Crete; the Latin lyre--ill-tuned doubtless-- +on which the town-poets of Corduba as early as the Sertorian war +sang the praises of the Roman generals; and the translations +of Greek poetry valued on account of their very elegance of language, +which the earliest extra-Italian poet of note, the Transalpine +Publius Terentius Varro of the Aude, published +shortly after Caesar's death. + +On the other hand the interpenetration of the Latin and Hellenic +character was, we might say, as old as Rome. On occasion +of the union of Italy the conquering Latin nation had assimilated +to itself all the other conquered nationalities, excepting only +the Greek, which was received just as it stood without any attempt +at external amalgamation. Wherever the Roman legionary went, +the Greek schoolmaster, no less a conqueror in his own way, followed; +at an early date we find famous teachers of the Greek language +settled on the Guadalquivir, and Greek was as well taught as Latin +in the institute of Osca. The higher Roman culture itself +was in fact nothing else than the proclamation of the great gospel +of Hellenic manners and art in the Italian idiom; against the modest +pretension of the civilizing conquerors to proclaim it first of all +in their own language to the barbarians of the west the Hellene +at least could not loudly protest. Already the Greek every where-- +and, most decidedly, just where the national feeling was purest +and strongest, on the frontiers threatened by barbaric denationalization, +e. g. in Massilia, on the north coast of the Black Sea, +and on the Euphrates and Tigris--descried the protector and avenger +of Hellenism in Rome; and in fact the foundation of towns by Pompeius +in the far east resumed after an interruption of centuries +the beneficent work of Alexander. + +The idea of an Italo-Hellenic empire with two languages +and a single nationality was not new--otherwise it would have been +nothing but a blunder; but the development of it from floating projects +to a firmly-grasped conception, from scattered initial efforts +to the laying of a concentrated foundation, was the work of the third +and greatest of the democratic statesmen of Rome. + +The Ruling Nations +The Jews + +The first and most essential condition for the political +and national levelling of the empire was the preservation and extension +of the two nations destined to joint dominion, along with the absorption +as rapidly as possible of the barbarian races, or those termed barbarian +existing by their side. In a certain sense we might no doubt name +along with Romans and Greeks a third nationality, which vied with them +in ubiquity in the world of that day, and was destined to play +no insignificant part in the new state of Caesar. We speak of the Jews. +This remarkable people, yielding and yet tenacious, was in the ancient +as in the modern world everywhere and nowhere at home, and everywhere +and nowhere powerful. The successors of David and Solomon were of hardly +more significance for the Jews of that age than Jerusalem for those +of the present day; the nation found doubtless for its religious +and intellectual unity a visible rallying-point in the petty kingdom +of Jerusalem, but the nation itself consisted not merely of the subjects +of the Hasmonaeans, but of the innumerable bodies of Jews +scattered through the whole Parthian and the whole Roman empire. +Within the cities of Alexandria especially and of Cyrene the Jews +formed special communities administratively and even locally distinct, +not unlike the "Jews' quarters" of our towns, but with a freer position +and superintended by a "master of the people" as superior judge +and administrator. How numerous even in Rome the Jewish population +was already before Caesar's time, and how closely at the same time +the Jews even then kept together as fellow-countrymen, is shown +by the remark of an author of this period, that it was dangerous +for a governor to offend the Jews, in his province, because he might +then certainly reckon on being hissed after his return by the populace +of the capital. Even at this time the predominant business of the Jews +was trade; the Jewish trader moved everywhere with the conquering Roman +merchant then, in the same way as he afterwards accompanied the Genoese +and the Venetian, and capital flowed in on all hands to the Jewish, +by the side of the Roman, merchants. At this period too we encounter +the peculiar antipathy of the Occidentals towards this so thoroughly +Oriental race and their foreign opinions and customs. This Judaism, +although not the most pleasing feature in the nowhere pleasing picture +of the mixture of nations which then prevailed, was nevertheless +a historical element developing itself in the natural course of things, +which the statesman could neither ignore nor combat, and which Caesar +on the contrary, just like his predecessor Alexander, with correct +discernment of the circumstances, fostered as far as possible. +While Alexander, by laying the foundation of Alexandrian Judaism, +did not much less for the nation than its own David by planning +the temple of Jerusalem, Caesar also advanced the interests of the Jews +in Alexandria and in Rome by special favours and privileges, +and protected in particular their peculiar worship against the Roman +as well as against the Greek local priests. The two great men +of course did not contemplate placing the Jewish nationality +on an equal footing with the Hellenic or Italo-Hellenic. +But the Jew who has not like the Occidental received the Pandora's gift +of political organization, and stands substantially in a relation +of indifference to the state; who moreover is as reluctant +to give up the essence of his national idiosyncrasy, as he is ready +to clothe it with any nationality at pleasure and to adapt himself +up to a certain degree to foreign habits--the Jew was for this +very reason as it were made for a state, which was to be built +on the ruins of a hundred living polities and to be endowed +with a somewhat abstract and, from the outset, toned-down nationality. +Even in the ancient world Judaism was an effective leaven +of cosmopolitanism and of national decomposition, and to that extent +a specially privileged member in the Caesarian state, the polity +of which was strictly speaking nothing but a citizenship of the world, +and the nationality of which was at bottom nothing but humanity. + +Hellenism + +But the Latin and Hellenic nationalities continued to be +exclusively the positive elements of the new citizenship. +The distinctively Italian state of the republic was thus at an end; +but the rumour that Caesar was ruining Italy and Rome on purpose +to transfer the centre of the empire to the Greek east and to make +Ilion or Alexandria its capital, was nothing but a piece of talk-- +very easy to be accounted for, but also very silly--of the angry +nobility. On the contrary in Caesar's organizations the Latin +nationality always retained the preponderance; as is indicated +in the very fact that he issued all his enactments in Latin, +although those destined for the Greek-speaking countries were +at the same time issued in Greek. In general he arranged the relations +of the two great nations in his monarchy just as his republican +predecessors had arranged them in the united Italy; the Hellenic +nationality was protected where it existed, the Italian was extended +as far as circumstances permitted, and the inheritance +of the races to be absorbed was destined for it. This was necessary, +because an entire equalizing of the Greek and Latin elements +in the state would in all probability have in a very short time +occasioned that catastrophe which Byzantinism brought about +several centuries later; for the Greek element was superior +to the Roman not merely in all intellectual aspects, but also +in the measure of its predominance, and it had within Italy itself +in the hosts of Hellenes and half-Hellenes who migrated compulsorily +or voluntarily to Italy an endless number of apostles apparently +insignificant, but whose influence could not be estimated +too highly. To mention only the most conspicuous phenomenon +in this respect, the rule of Greek lackeys over the Roman monarchs +is as old as the monarchy. The first in the equally long and repulsive +list of these personages is the confidential servant of Pompeius, +Theophanes of Mytilene, who by his power over his weak master +contributed probably more than any one else to the outbreak of the war +between Pompeius and Caesar. Not wholly without reason he was +after his death treated with divine honours by his countrymen; +he commenced, forsooth, the -valet de chambre- government +of the imperial period, which in a certain measure was just +a dominion of the Hellenes over the Romans. The government +had accordingly every reason not to encourage by its fostering action +the spread of Hellenism at least in the west. If Sicily was not simply +relieved of the pressure of the -decumae- but had its communities +invested with Latin rights, which was presumably meant to be followed +in due time by full equalization with Italy, it can only have been +Caesar's design that this glorious island, which was at that time +desolate and had as to management passed for the greater part +into Italian hands, but which nature has destined to be not so much +a neighbouring land to Italy as rather the finest of its provinces, +should become altogether merged in Italy. But otherwise +the Greek element, wherever it existed, was preserved and protected. +However political crises might suggest to the Imperator the demolition +of the strong pillars of Hellenism in the west and in Egypt, Massilia +and Alexandria were neither destroyed nor denationalized. + +Latinizing + +On the other hand the Roman element was promoted by the government +through colonization and Latinizing with all vigour and at the most +various points of the empire. The principle, which originated +no doubt from a bad combination of formal law and brute force, +but was inevitably necessary in order to freedom in dealing +with the nations destined to destruction--that all the soil +in the provinces not ceded by special act of the government +to communities or private persons was the property of the state, +and the holder of it for the time being had merely an heritable +possession on sufferance and revocable at any time--was retained +also by Caesar and raised by him from a democratic party-theory +to a fundamental principle of monarchical law. + +Cisalpine Gaul + +Gaul, of course, fell to be primarily dealt with in the extension +of Roman nationality. Cisalpine Gaul obtained throughout-- +what a great part of the inhabitants had long enjoyed-- +political equalization with the leading country by the admission +of the Transpadane communities into the Roman burgess-union, +which had for long been assumed by the democracy as accomplished,(90) +and was now (705) finally accomplished by Caesar. Practically +this province had already completely Latinized itself during +the forty years which had elapsed since the bestowal of Latin rights. +The exclusives might ridicule the broad and gurgling accent +of the Celtic Latin, and miss "an undefined something of the grace +of the capital" in the Insubrian or Venetian, who as Caesar's legionary +had conquered for himself with his sword a place in the Roman Forum +and even in the Roman senate-house. Nevertheless Cisalpine Gaul +with its dense chiefly agricultural population was even before +Caesar's time in reality an Italian country, and remained +for centuries the true asylum of Italian manners and Italian culture; +indeed the teachers of Latin literature found nowhere else +out of the capital so much encouragement and approbation. + +The Province of Narbo + +While Cisalpine Gaul was thus substantially merged in Italy, +the place which it had hitherto occupied was taken by the Transalpine +province, which had been converted by the conquests of Caesar +from a frontier into an inland province, and which by its vicinity +as well as by its climate was fitted beyond all other regions +to become in due course of time likewise an Italian land. +Thither principally, according to the old aim of the transmarine +settlements of the Roman democracy, was the stream of Italian +emigration directed. There the ancient colony of Narbo was reinforced +by new settlers, and four new burgess-colonies were instituted +at Baeterrae (Beziers) not far from Narbo, at Arelate (Aries) +and Arausio (Orange) on the Rhone, and at the new seaport Forum Julii +(Frejus); while the names assigned to them at the same time preserved +the memory of the brave legions which had annexed northern Gaul +to the empire.(91) The townships not furnished with colonists appear, +at least for the most part, to have been led on toward Romanization +in the same way as Transpadane Gaul in former times(92) by the bestowal +of Latin urban rights; in particular Nemausus (Nimes), as the chief place +of the territory taken from the Massiliots in consequence of their revolt +against Caesar,(93)was converted from a Massiliot village into a Latin +urban community, and endowed with a considerable territory and even +with the right of coinage.(94) While Cisalpine Gaul thus advanced +from the preparatory stage to full equality with Italy, the Narbonese +province advanced at the same time into that preparatory stage; +just as previously in Cisalpine Gaul, the most considerable +communities there had the full franchise, the rest Latin rights. + +Northern Gaul + +In the other non-Greek and non-Latin regions of the empire, +which were still more remote from the influence of Italy and the process +of assimilation, Caesar confined himself to the establishment +of several centres for Italian civilization such as Narbo had hitherto +been in Gaul, in order by their means to pave the way for a future +complete equalization. Such initial steps can be pointed out +in all the provinces of the empire, with the exception of the poorest +and least important of all, Sardinia. How Caesar proceeded +in Northern Gaul, we have already set forth;(95) the Latin language +there obtained throughout official recognition, though not yet +employed for all branches of public intercourse, and the colony +of Noviodunum (Nyon) arose on the Leman lake as the most northerly town +with an Italian constitution. + +Spain + +In Spain, which was presumably at that time the most densely peopled +country of the Roman empire, not merely were Caesarian colonists +settled in the important Helleno-Iberian seaport town of Emporiae +by the side of the old population; but, as recently-discovered +records have shown, a number of colonists probably taken +predominantly from the proletariate of the capital were provided for +in the town of Urso (Osuna), not far from Seville in the heart +of Andalusia, and perhaps also in several other townships +of this province. The ancient and wealthy mercantile city of Gades, +whose municipal system Caesar even when praetor had remodelled +suitably to the times, now obtained from the Imperator the full rights +of the Italian -municipia-(705) and became--what Tusculum had been +in Italy(96)--the first extra-Italian community not founded by Rome +which was admitted into the Roman burgess-union. Some years +afterwards (709) similar rights were conferred also on some other +Spanish communities, and Latin rights presumably on still more. + +Carthage + +In Africa the project, which Gaius Gracchus had not been allowed +to bring to an issue, was now carried out, and on the spot +where the city of the hereditary foes of Rome had stood, 3000 Italian +colonists and a great number of the tenants on lease and sufferance +resident in the Carthaginian territory were settled; and the new +"Venus-colony," the Roman Carthage, throve with amazing rapidity +under the incomparably favourable circumstances of the locality. +Utica, hitherto the capital and first commercial town in the province, +had already been in some measure compensated beforehand, +apparently by the bestowal of Latin rights, for the revival +of its superior rival. In the Numidian territory newly annexed +to the empire the important Cirta and the other communities assigned +to the Roman condottiere Publius Sittius for himself and his troops(97) +obtained the legal position of Roman military colonies. +The stately provincial towns indeed, which the insane fury of Juba +and of the desperate remnant of the constitutional party had converted +into ruins, did not revive so rapidly as they had been reduced to ashes, +and many a ruinous site recalled long afterwards this fatal period; +but the two new Julian colonies, Carthage and Cirta, became +and continued to be the centres of Africano-Roman civilization. + +Corinth +The East + +In the desolate land of Greece, Caesar, besides other plans +such as the institution of a Roman colony in Buthrotum (opposite Corfu), +busied himself above all with the restoration of Corinth. Not only +was a considerable burgess-colony conducted thither, but a plan +was projected for cutting through the isthmus, so as to avoid +the dangerous circumnavigation of the Peloponnesus and to make +the whole traffic between Italy and Asia pass through the Corintho- +Saronic gulf. Lastly even in the remote Hellenic east the monarch +called into existence Italian settlements; on the Black Sea, +for instance, at Heraclea and Sinope, which towns the Italian +colonists shared, as in the case of Emporiae, with the old inhabitants; +on the Syrian coast, in the important port of Berytus, +which like Sinope obtained an Italian constitution; and even in Egypt, +where a Roman station was established on the lighthouse-island +commanding the harbour of Alexandria. + +Extension of the Italian Municipal Constitution to the Provinces + +Through these ordinances the Italian municipal freedom was carried +into the provinces in a manner far more comprehensive than had been +previously the case. The communities of full burgesses--that is, +all the towns of the Cisalpine province and the burgess-colonies +and burgess-municipia--scattered in Transalpine Gaul and elsewhere-- +were on an equal footing with the Italian, in so far as they administered +their own affairs, and even exercised a certainly limited jurisdiction; +while on the other hand the more important processes came before +the Roman authorities competent to deal with them--as a rule the governor +of the province.(98) The formally autonomous Latin and the other +emancipated communities-thus including all those of Sicily +and of Narbonese Gaul, so far as they were not burgess-communities, +and a considerable number also in the other provinces--had not merely +free administration, but probably unlimited jurisdiction; so that +the governor was only entitled to interfere there by virtue of his-- +certainly very arbitrary--administrative control. No doubt even earlier +there had been communities of full burgesses within the provinces +of governors, such as Aquileia, and Narbo, and whole governors' +provinces, such as Cisalpine Gaul, had consisted of communities +with Italian constitution; but it was, if not in law, at least +in a political point of view a singularly important innovation, +that there was now a province which as well as Italy was peopled +solely by Roman burgesses,(99) and that others promised to become such. + +Italy and the Provinces Reduced to One Level + +With this disappeared the first great practical distinction +that separated Italy from the provinces; and the second--that ordinarily +no troops were stationed in Italy, while they were stationed +in the provinces--was likewise in the course of disappearing; +troops were now stationed only where there was a frontier to be defended, +and the commandants of the provinces in which this was not the case, +such as Narbo and Sicily, were officers only in name. The formal +contrast between Italy and the provinces, which had at all times +depended on other distinctions,(100) continued certainly +even now to subsist, for Italy was the sphere of civil jurisdiction +and of consuls and praetors, while the provinces were districts +under the jurisdiction of martial law and subject to proconsuls +and propraetors; but the procedure according to civil and according +to martial law had for long been practically coincident, +and the different titles of the magistrates signified little +after the one Imperator was over all. + +In all these various municipal foundations and ordinances-- +which are traceable at least in plan, if not perhaps all in execution, +to Caesar--a definite system is apparent. Italy was converted +from the mistress of the subject peoples into the mother +of the renovated Italo-Hellenic nation. The Cisalpine province +completely equalized with the mother-country was a promise +and a guarantee that, in the monarchy of Caesar just as + in the healthier times of the republic, every Latinized +district might expect to be placed on an equal footing +by the side of its elder sisters and of the mother herself. +On the threshold of full national and political equalization +with Italy stood the adjoining lands, the Greek Sicily +and the south of Gaul, which was rapidly becoming Latinized. +In a more remote stage of preparation stood the other provinces +of the empire, in which, just as hitherto in southern Gaul Narbo +had been a Roman colony, the great maritime cities--Emporiae, Gades, +Carthage, Corinth, Heraclea in Pontus, Sinope, Berytus, Alexandria-- +now became Italian or Helleno-Italian communities, the centres +of an Italian civilization even in the Greek east, the fundamental +pillars of the future national and political levelling of the empire. +The rule of the urban community of Rome over the shores +of the Mediterranean was at an end; in its stead came the new +Mediterranean state, and its first act was to atone for the two +greatest outrages which that urban community had perpetrated +on civilization. While the destruction of the two greatest marts +of commerce in the Roman dominions marked the turning-point at which +the protectorate of the Roman community degenerated into political +tyrannizing over, and financial exaction from, the subject lands, +the prompt and brilliant restoration of Carthage and Corinth marked +the foundation of the new great commonwealth which was to train up +all the regions on the Mediterranean to national and political +equality, to union in a genuine state. Well might Caesar bestow +on the city of Corinth in addition to its far-famed ancient name +the new one of "Honour to Julius" (-Lavs Jvli-). + +Organization of the New Empire + +While thus the new united empire was furnished with a national character, +which doubtless necessarily lacked individuality and was rather +an inanimate product of art than a fresh growth of nature, +it further had need of unity in those institutions which express +the general life of nations--in constitution and administration, +in religion and jurisprudence, in money, measures, and weights; +as to which, of course, local diversities of the most varied character +were quite compatible with essential union. In all these departments +we can only speak of the initial steps, for the thorough formation +of the monarchy of Caesar into an unity was the work of the future, +and all that he did was to lay the foundation for the building +of centuries. But of the lines, which the great man drew in these +departments, several can still be recognized; and it is more pleasing +to follow him here, than in the task of building from the ruins +of the nationalities. + +Census of the Empire + +As to constitution and administration, we have already noticed +elsewhere the most important elements of the new unity-- +the transition of the sovereignty from the municipal council of Rome +to the sole master of the Mediterranean monarchy; the conversion +of that municipal council into a supreme imperial council representing +Italy and the provinces; above all, the transference--now commenced-- +of the Roman, and generally of the Italian, municipal organization +to the provincial communities. This latter course--the bestowal +of Latin, and thereafter of Roman, rights on the communities +ripe for full admission to the united state--gradually of itself +brought about uniform communal arrangements. In one respect alone +this process could not be waited for. The new empire needed +immediately an institution which should place before the government +at a glance the principal bases of administration--the proportions +of population and property in the different communities-- +in other words an improved census. First the census of Italy +was reformed. According to Caesar's ordinance(101)--which probably, +indeed, only carried out the arrangements which were, at least +as to principle, adopted in consequence of the Social war-- +in future, when a census took place in the Roman community, +there were to be simultaneously registered by the highest authority +in each Italian community the name of every municipal burgess +and that of his father or manumitter, his district, his age, +and his property; and these lists were to be furnished to the Roman +censor early enough to enable him to complete in proper time +the general list of Roman burgesses and of Roman property. +That it was Caesar's intention to introduce similar institutions +also in the provinces is attested partly by the measurement +and survey of the whole empire ordered by him, partly by the nature +of the arrangement itself; for it in fact furnished the general +instrument appropriate for procuring, as well in the Italian +as in the non-Italian communities of the state, the information +requisite for the central administration. Evidently here too +it was Caesar's intention to revert to the traditions +of the earlier republican times, and to reintroduce the census +of the empire, which the earlier republic had effected-- +essentially in the same way as Caesar effected the Italian-- +by analogous extension of the institution of the urban censorship +with its set terms and other essential rules to all the subject +communities of Italy and Sicily.(102) This had been +one of the first institutions which the torpid aristocracy allowed +to drop, and in this way deprived the supreme administrative authority +of any view of the resources in men and taxation at its disposal +and consequently of all possibility of an effective control.(103) +The indications still extant, and the very connection of things, +show irrefragably that Caesar made preparations to renew +the general census that had been obsolete for centuries. + +Religion of the Empire + +We need scarcely say that in religion and in jurisprudence +no thorough levelling could be thought of; yet with all toleration +towards local faiths and municipal statutes the new state needed +a common worship corresponding to the Italo-Hellenic nationality +and a general code of law superior to the municipal statutes. +It needed them; for de facto both were already in existence. +In the field of religion men had for centuries been busied +in fusing together the Italian and Hellenic worships partly +by external adoption, partly by internal adjustment of their respective +conceptions of the gods; and owing to the pliant formless character +of the Italian gods, there had been no great difficulty in resolving +Jupiter into Zeus, Venus into Aphrodite, and so every essential idea +of the Latin faith into its Hellenic counterpart. The Italo-Hellenic +religion stood forth in its outlines ready-made; how much +in this very department men were conscious of having gone beyond +the specifically Roman point of view and advanced towards +an Italo-Hellenic quasi-nationality, is shown by the distinction made +in the already-mentioned theology of Varro between the "common" gods, +that is, those acknowledged by Romans and Greeks, and the special gods +of the Roman community. + +Law of the Empire + +So far as concerns the field of criminal and police law, +where the government more directly interferes and the necessities +of the case are substantially met by a judicious legislation, +there was no difficulty in attaining, in the way of legislative action, +that degree of material uniformity which certainly was in this department +needful for the unity of the empire. In the civil law again, +where the initiative belongs to commercial intercourse and merely +the formal shape to the legislator, the code for the united empire, +which the legislator certainly could not have created, had been already +long since developed in a natural way by commercial intercourse itself. +The Roman urban law was still indeed legally based on the embodiment +of the Latin national law contained in the Twelve Tables. +Later laws had doubtless introduced various improvements +of detail suited to the times, among which the most important +was probably the abolition of the old inconvenient mode +of commencing a process through standing forms of declaration +by the parties(104) and the substitution of an instruction drawn up +in writing by the presiding magistrate for the single juryman +(formula): but in the main the popular legislation had only piled upon +that venerable foundation an endless chaos of special laws +long since in great part antiquated and forgotten, which can +only be compared to the English statute-law. The attempts to impart +to them scientific shape and system had certainly rendered +the tortuous paths of the old civil law accessible, and thrown light +upon them;(105) but no Roman Blackstone could remedy the fundamental +defect, that an urban code composed four hundred years ago +with its equally diffuse and confused supplements was now to serve +as the law of a great state. + +The New Urban Law or the Edict + +Commercial intercourse provided for itself a more thorough remedy. +The lively intercourse between Romans and non-Romans had long ago +developed in Rome an international private law (-ius gentium-;(106)), +that is to say, a body of maxims especially relating to commercial +matters, according to which Roman judges pronounced judgment, +when a cause could not be decided either according to their own +or any other national code and they were compelled--setting aside +the peculiarities of Roman, Hellenic, Phoenician and other law-- +to revert to the common views of right underlying all dealings. +The formation of the newer law attached itself to this basis. +In the first place as a standard for the legal dealings +of Roman burgesses with each other, it de facto substituted +for the old urban law, which had become practically useless, +a new code based in substance on a compromise between the national law +of the Twelve Tables and the international law or so-called +law of nations. The former was essentially adhered to, +though of course with modifications suited to the times, +in the law of marriage, family, and inheritance; whereas +in all regulations which concerned dealings with property, +and consequently in reference to ownership and contracts, +the international law was the standard; in these matters indeed +various important arrangements were borrowed even from local +provincial law, such as the legislation as to usury,(107) +and the institution of -hypotheca-. Through whom, when, +and how this comprehensive innovation came into existence, +whether at once or gradually, whether through one or several authors, +are questions to which we cannot furnish a satisfactory answer. +We know only that this reform, as was natural, proceeded +in the first instance from the urban court; that it first took +formal shape in the instructions annually issued by the -praetor +urbanus-, when entering on office, for the guidance of the parties +in reference to the most important maxims of law to be observed +in the judicial year then beginning (-edictum annuum- or -perpetuum +praetoris urbani de iuris dictione-); and that, although various +preparatory steps towards it may have been taken in earlier times, +it certainly only attained its completion in this epoch. The new code +was theoretic and abstract, inasmuch as the Roman view of law +had therein divested itself of such of its national peculiarities +as it had become aware of; but it was at the same time practical +and positive, inasmuch as it by no means faded away into the dim +twilight of general equity or even into the pure nothingness +of the so-called law of nature, but was applied by definite +functionaries for definite concrete cases according to fixed rules, +and was not merely capable of, but had already essentially received, +a legal embodiment in the urban edict. This code moreover corresponded +in matter to the wants of the time, in so far as it furnished +the more convenient forms required by the increase of intercourse +for legal procedure, for acquisition of property, and for conclusion +of contracts. Lastly, it had already in the main become subsidiary law +throughout the compass of the Roman empire, inasmuch as-- +while the manifold local statutes were retained for those legal relations +which were not directly commercial, as well as for local transactions +between members of the same legal district--dealings relating +to property between subjects of the empire belonging to different +legal districts were regulated throughout after the model +of the urban edict, though not applicable de jure to these cases, +both in Italy and in the provinces. The law of the urban edict +had thus essentially the same position in that age which the Roman law +has occupied in our political development; this also is, so far as +such opposites can be combined, at once abstract and positive; +this also recommended itself by its (compared with the earlier +legal code) flexible forms of intercourse, and took its place by the side +of the local statutes as universal subsidiary law. But the Roman +legal development had an essential advantage over ours in this, +that the denationalized legislation appeared not, as with us, +prematurely and by artificial birth, but at the right time +and agreeably to nature. + +Caesar's Project of Codification + +Such was the state of the law as Caesar found it. If he projected +the plan for a new code, it is not difficult to say what were +his intentions. This code could only comprehend the law of Roman +burgesses, and could be a general code for the empire merely so far as +a code of the ruling nation suitable to the times could not +but of itself become general subsidiary law throughout the compass +of the empire. In criminal law, if the plan embraced this at all, +there was needed only a revision and adjustment of the Sullan +ordinances. In civil law, for a state whose nationality +was properly humanity, the necessary and only possible formal shape +was to invest that urban edict, which had already spontaneously grown +out of lawful commerce, with the security and precision of statute-law. +The first step towards this had been taken by the Cornelian law +of 687, when it enjoined the judge to keep to the maxims set forth +at the beginning of his magistracy and not arbitrarily +to administer other law (108)--a regulation, which may well +be compared with the law of the Twelve Tables, and which became +almost as significant for the fixing of the later urban law +as that collection for the fixing of the earlier. But although +after the Cornelian decree of the people the edict was no longer +subordinate to the judge, but the judge was by law subject to the edict; +and though the new code had practically dispossessed the old urban law +in judicial usage as in legal instruction--every urban judge +was still free at his entrance on office absolutely and arbitrarily +to alter the edict, and the law of the Twelve Tables with its additions +still always outweighed formally the urban edict, so that +in each individual case of collision the antiquated rule had to be +set aside by arbitrary interference of the magistrates, +and therefore, strictly speaking, by violation of formal law. +The subsidiary application of the urban edict in the court +of the -praetor peregrinus- at Rome and in the different provincial +judicatures was entirely subject to the arbitrary pleasure +of the individual presiding magistrates. It was evidently necessary +to set aside definitely the old urban law, so far as it had not +been transferred to the newer, and in the case of the latter +to set suitable limits to its arbitrary alteration by each individual +urban judge, possibly also to regulate its subsidiary application +by the side of the local statutes. This was Caesars design, +when he projected the plan for his code; for it could not have been +otherwise. The plan was not executed; and thus that troublesome +state of transition in Roman jurisprudence was perpetuated +till this necessary reform was accomplished six centuries afterwards, +and then but imperfectly, by one of the successors of Caesar, +the Emperor Justinian. + +Lastly, in money, measures, and weights the substantial equalization +of the Latin and Hellenic systems had long been in progress. +It was very ancient so far as concerned the definitions of weight +and the measures of capacity and of length indispensable for trade +and commerce,(109) and in the monetary system little more recent +than the introduction of the silver coinage.(110) But these older +equations were not sufficient, because in the Hellenic world itself +the most varied metrical and monetary systems subsisted side by side; +it was necessary, and formed part doubtless of Caesar's plan, +now to introduce everywhere in the new united empire, so far as +this had not been done already, Roman money, Roman measures, +and Roman weights in such a manner that they alone should be reckoned +by in official intercourse, and that the non-Roman systems +should be restricted to local currency or placed in a--once for all +regulated--ratio to the Roman.(111) The action of Caesar, +however, can only be pointed out in two of the most important +of these departments, the monetary system and the calendar. + +Gold Coin as Imperial Currency + +The Roman monetary system was based on the two precious metals +circulating side by side and in a fixed relation to each other, +gold being given and taken according to weight,(112) silver +in the form of coin; but practically in consequence of the extensive +transmarine intercourse the gold far preponderated over the silver. +Whether the acceptance of Roman silver money was not even +at an earlier period obligatory throughout the empire, is uncertain; +at any rate uncoined gold essentially supplied the place of imperial +money throughout the Roman territory, the more so as the Romans +had prohibited the coining of gold in all the provinces and client- +states, and the -denarius- had, in addition to Italy, de jure +or de facto naturalized itself in Cisalpine Gaul, in Sicily, +in Spain and various other places, especially in the west.(113) + but the imperial coinage begins with Caesar. Exactly like Alexander, +he marked the foundation of the new monarchy embracing the civilized +world by the fact that the only metal forming an universal medium +obtained the first place in the coinage. The greatness of the scale +on which the new Caesarian gold piece (20 shillings 7 pence +according to the present value of the metal) was immediately coined, +is shown by the fact that in a single treasure buried seven years +after Caesar's death 80,000 of these pieces were found together. +It is true that financial speculations may have exercised +a collateral influence in this respect.(114) as to the silver money, +the exclusive rule of the Roman -denarius- in all the west, +for which the foundation had previously been laid, was finally +established by Caesar, when he definitively closed the only +Occidental mint that still competed in silver currency with the Roman, +that of Massilia. The coining of silver or copper small money +was still permitted to a number of Occidental communities; +three-quarter -denarii- were struck by some Latin communities +of southern Gaul, half -denarii- by several cantons in northern Gaul, +copper small coins in various instances even after Caesar's time +by communes of the west; but this small money was throughout coined +after the Roman standard, and its acceptance moreover was probably +obligatory only in local dealings. Caesar does not seem any more +than the earlier government to have contemplated the regulation +with a view to unity of the monetary system of the east, +where great masses of coarse silver money--much of which too easily +admitted of being debased or worn away--and to some extent even, +as in Egypt, a copper coinage akin to our paper money +were in circulation, and the Syrian commercial cities would have felt +very severely the want of their previous national coinage corresponding +to the Mesopotamian currency. We find here subsequently +the arrangement that the -denarius- has everywhere legal currency +and is the only medium of official reckoning,(115) while the local coins +have legal currency within their limited range but according +to a tariff unfavourable for them as compared with the -denarius-.(116) +This was probably not introduced all at once, and in part perhaps +may have preceded Caesar; but it was at any rate the essential +complement of the Caesarian arrangement as to the imperial coinage, +whose new gold piece found its immediate model in the almost equally +heavy coin of Alexander and was doubtless calculated especially +for circulation in the east. + +Reform of the Calendar + +Of a kindred nature was the reform of the calendar. +The republican calendar, which strangely enough was still +the old decemviral calendar--an imperfect adoption of the -octaeteris- +that preceded Meton (117)--had by a combination of wretched mathematics +and wretched administration come to anticipate the true time +by 67 whole days, so that e. g. the festival of Flora was celebrated +on the 11th July instead of the 28th April. Caesar finally removed +this evil, and with the help of the Greek mathematician Sosigenes +introduced the Italian farmer's year regulated according to the Egyptian +calendar of Eudoxus, as well as a rational system of intercalation, +into religious and official use; while at the same time +the beginning of the year on the 1st March of the old calendar +was abolished, and the date of the 1st January--fixed at first +as the official term for changing the supreme magistrates and, +in consequence of this, long since prevailing in civil life-- +was assumed also as the calendar-period for commencing the year. +Both changes came into effect on the 1st January 709, and along +with them the use of the Julian calendar so named after its author, +which long after the fall of the monarchy of Caesar remained +the regulative standard of the civilized world and in the main +is so still. By way of explanation there was added in a detailed edict +a star-calendar derived from the Egyptian astronomical observations +and transferred--not indeed very skilfully--to Italy, which fixed +the rising and setting of the stars named according to days +of the calendar.(118) In this domain also the Roman and Greek worlds +were thus placed on a par. + +Caesar and His Works + +Such were the foundations of the Mediterranean monarchy of Caesar. +For the second time in Rome the social question had reached +a crisis, at which the antagonisms not only appeared to be, +but actually were, in the form of their exhibition, insoluble and, +in the form of their expression, irreconcilable. On the former +occasion Rome had been saved by the fact that Italy was merged +in Rome and Rome in Italy, and in the new enlarged and altered home +those old antagonisms were not reconciled, but fell into abeyance. +Now Rome was once more saved by the fact that the countries +of the Mediterranean were merged in it or became prepared for merging; +the war between the Italian poor and rich, which in the old Italy +could only end with the destruction of the nation, had no longer +a battle-field or a meaning in the Italy of three continents. +The Latin colonies closed the gap which threatened to swallow up +the Roman community in the fifth century; the deeper chasm +of the seventh century was filled by the Transalpine and transmarine +colonizations of Gaius Gracchus and Caesar. For Rome alone history +not merely performed miracles, but also repeated its miracles, +and twice cured the internal crisis, which in the state itself +was incurable, by regenerating the state. There was doubtless +much corruption in this regeneration; as the union of Italy +was accomplished over the ruins of the Samnite and Etruscan nations, +so the Mediterranean monarchy built itself on the ruins of countless +states and tribes once living and vigorous; but it was a corruption +out of which sprang a fresh growth, part of which remains green +at the present day. What was pulled down for the sake of the new +building, was merely the secondary nationalities which had long since +been marked out for destruction by the levelling hand of civilization. +Caesar, wherever he came forward as a destroyer, only carried out +the pronounced verdict of historical development; but he protected +the germs of culture, where and as he found them, in his own land +as well as among the sister nation of the Hellenes. He saved +and renewed the Roman type; and not only did he spare the Greek type, +but with the same self-relying genius with which he accomplished +the renewed foundation of Rome he undertook also the regeneration +of the Hellenes, and resumed the interrupted work of the great Alexander, +whose image, we may well believe, never was absent from Caesar's soul. +He solved these two great tasks not merely side by side, +but the one by means of the other. The two great essentials +of humanity--general and individual development, or state and culture-- +once in embryo united in those old Graeco-Italians feeding their flocks +in primeval simplicity far from the coasts and islands +of the Mediterranean, had become dissevered when these were parted +into Italians and Hellenes, and had thenceforth remained apart +for many centuries. Now the descendant of the Trojan prince +and the Latin king's daughter created out of a state without +distinctive culture and a cosmopolitan civilization a new whole, +in which state and culture again met together at the acme +of human existence in the rich fulness of blessed maturity +and worthily filled the sphere appropriate to such an union. + +The outlines have thus been set forth, which Caesar drew for this work, +according to which he laboured himself, and according to which posterity-- +for many centuries confined to the paths which this great man marked out-- +endeavoured to prosecute the work, if not with the intellect +and energy, yet on the whole in accordance with the intentions, +of the illustrious master. Little was finished; much even +was merely begun. Whether the plan was complete, those who venture +to vie in thought with such a man may decide; we observe no material +defect in what lies before us--every single stone of the building +enough to make a man immortal, and yet all combining to form +one harmonious whole. Caesar ruled as king of Rome for five years +and a half, not half as long as Alexander; in the intervals +of seven great campaigns, which allowed him to stay not more +than fifteen months altogether(119) in the capital of his empire, +he regulated the destinies of the world for the present +and the future, from the establishment of the boundary-line +between civilization and barbarism down to the removal of the pools +of rain in the streets of the capital, and yet retained time +and composure enough attentively to follow the prize-pieces in the theatre +and to confer the chaplet on the victor with improvised verses. +The rapidity and self-precision with which the plan was executed +prove that it had been long meditated thoroughly and all its parts +settled in detail; but, even thus, they remain not much less wonderful than +the plan itself. The outlines were laid down and thereby the new state +was defined for all coming time; the boundless future alone could complete +the structure. So far Caesar might say, that his aim was attained; +and this was probably the meaning of the words which were sometimes +heard to fall from him--that he had "lived enough." But precisely because +the building was an endless one, the master as long as he lived restlessly +added stone to stone, with always the same dexterity and always the same +elasticity busy at his work, without ever overturning or postponing, +just as if there were for him merely a to-day and no to-morrow. +Thus he worked and created as never did any mortal before or after him; +and as a worker and creator he still, after wellnigh two thousand years, +lives in the memory of the nations--the first, and withal unique, +Imperator Caesar. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +Religion, Culture, Literature, and Art + +State Religion + +In the development of religion and philosophy no new element +appeared during this epoch. The Romano-Hellenic state-religion +and the Stoic state-philosophy inseparably combined with it +were for every government--oligarchy, democracy or monarchy--not merely +a convenient instrument, but quite indispensable for the very reason +that it was just as impossible to construct the state wholly without +religious elements as to discover any new state-religion fitted +to take the place of the old. So the besom of revolution swept doubtless +at times very roughly through the cobwebs of the augural bird-lore;(1) +nevertheless the rotten machine creaking at every joint +survived the earthquake which swallowed up the republic itself, +and preserved its insipidity and its arrogance without diminution +for transference to the new monarchy. As a matter of course, +it fell more and more into disfavour with all those who preserved +their freedom of judgment. Towards the state-religion indeed +public opinion maintained an attitude essentially indifferent; +it was on all sides recognized as an institution of political convenience, +and no one specially troubled himself about it with the exception +of political and antiquarian literati. But towards its philosophical +sister there gradually sprang up among the unprejudiced public +that hostility, which the empty and yet perfidious hypocrisy of set phrases +never fails in the long run to awaken. That a presentiment of its own +worthlessness began to dawn on the Stoa itself, is shown by its attempt +artificially to infuse into itself some fresh spirit in the way +of syncretism. Antiochus of Ascalon (flourishing about 675), who professed +to have patched together the Stoic and Platonic-Aristotelian systems +into one organic unity, in reality so far succeeded that his misshapen +doctrine became the fashionable philosophy of the conservatives +of his time and was conscientiously studied by the genteel dilettanti +and literati of Rome. Every one who displayed any intellectual vigour, +opposed the Stoa or ignored it. It was principally antipathy +towards the boastful and tiresome Roman Pharisees, coupled doubtless +with the increasing disposition to take refuge from practical life +in indolent apathy or empty irony, that occasioned during this epoch +the extension of the system of Epicurus to a larger circle +and the naturalization of the Cynic philosophy of Diogenes in Rome. +However stale and poor in thought the former might be, a philosophy, +which did not seek the way to wisdom through an alteration +of traditional terms but contented itself with those in existence, +and throughout recognized only the perceptions of sense as true, +was always better than the terminological jingle and the hollow +conceptions of the Stoic wisdom; and the Cynic philosophy +was of all the philosophical systems of the times in so far +by much the best, as its system was confined to the having +no system at all and sneering at all systems and all systematizers. +In both fields war was waged against the Stoa with zeal and success; +for serious men, the Epicurean Lucretius preached with the full accents +of heartfelt conviction and of holy zeal against the Stoical faith +in the gods and providence and the Stoical doctrine of the immortality +of the soul; for the great public ready to laugh, the Cynic Varro +hit the mark still more sharply with the flying darts of his extensively- +read satires. While thus the ablest men of the older generation +made war on the Stoa, the younger generation again, such as Catullus, +stood in no inward relation to it at all, and passed a far sharper +censure on it by completely ignoring it. + +The Oriental Religions + +But, if in the present instance a faith no longer believed in +was maintained out of political convenience, they amply made up +for this in other respects. Unbelief and superstition, different hues +of the same historical phenomenon, went in the Roman world +of that day hand in hand, and there was no lack of individuals +who in themselves combined both--who denied the gods with Epicurus, +and yet prayed and sacrificed before every shrine. Of course only +the gods that came from the east were still in vogue, and, as the men +continued to flock from the Greek lands to Italy, so the gods +of the east migrated in ever-increasing numbers to the west. +The importance of the Phrygian cultus at that time in Rome is shown +both by the polemical tone of the older men such as Varro and Lucretius, +and by the poetical glorification of it in the fashionable Catullus, +which concludes with the characteristic request that the goddess +may deign to turn the heads of others only, and not that +of the poet himself. + +Worship of Mithra + +A fresh addition was the Persian worship, which is said +to have first reached the Occidental through the medium of the pirates +who met on the Mediterranean from the east and from the west; +the oldest seat of this cultus in the west is stated to have been +Mount Olympus in Lycia. That in the adoption of Oriental worships +in the west such higher speculative and moral elements as they contained +were generally allowed to drop, is strikingly evinced by the fact +that Ahuramazda, the supreme god of the pure doctrine of Zarathustra, +remained virtually unknown in the west, and adoration there +was especially directed to that god who had occupied the first place +in the old Persian national religion and had been transferred +by Zarathustra to the second--the sun-god Mithra. + +Worship of Isis + +But the brighter and gentler celestial forms of the Persian religion +did not so rapidly gain a footing in Rome as the wearisome mystical host +of the grotesque divinities of Egypt--Isis the mother of nature +with her whole train, the constantly dying and constantly reviving +Osiris, the gloomy Sarapis, the taciturn and grave Harpocrates, +the dog-headed Anubis. In the year when Clodius emancipated +the clubs and conventicles (696), and doubtless in consequence +of this very emancipation of the populace, that host even prepared +to make its entry into the old stronghold of the Roman Jupiter +in the Capitol, and it was with difficulty that the invasion +was prevented and the inevitable temples were banished +at least to the suburbs of Rome. No worship was equally popular +among the lower orders of the population in the capital: when the senate +ordered the temples of Isis constructed within the ring-wall +to be pulled down, no labourer ventured to lay the first hand on them, +and the consul Lucius Paullus was himself obliged to apply +the first stroke of the axe(704); a wager might be laid, +that the more loose any woman was, the more piously she worshipped Isis. +That the casting of lots, the interpretation of dreams, and similar +liberal arts supported their professors, was a matter of course. +The casting of horoscopes was already a scientific pursuit; +Lucius Tarutius of Firmum, a respectable and in his own way learned man, +a friend of Varro and Cicero, with all gravity cast the nativity +of kings Romulus and Numa and of the city of Rome itself, +and for the edification of the credulous on either side confirmed +by means of his Chaldaean and Egyptian wisdom the accounts +of the Roman annals. + +The New Pythagoreanism +Nigidius Figulus + +But by far the most remarkable phenomenon in this domain +was the first attempt to mingle crude faith with speculative thought, +the first appearance of those tendencies, which we are accustomed +to describe as Neo-Platonic, in the Roman world. Their oldest apostle +there was Publius Nigidius Figulus, a Roman of rank belonging +to the strictest section of the aristocracy, who filled +the praetorship in 696 and died in 709 as a political exile +beyond the bounds of Italy. With astonishing copiousness of learning +and still more astonishing strength of faith he created +out of the most dissimilar elements a philosophico-religious structure, +the singular outline of which he probably developed still more +in his oral discourses than in his theological and physical writings. +In philosophy, seeking deliverance from the skeletons of the current +systems and abstractions, he recurred to the neglected fountain +of the pre-Socratic philosophy, to whose ancient sages thought +had still presented itself with sensuous vividness. The researches +of physical science--which, suitably treated, afford even now +so excellent a handle for mystic delusion and pious sleight of hand, +and in antiquity with its more defective insight into physical laws +lent themselves still more easily to such objects--played in this case, +as may readily be conceived, a considerable part. His theology +was based essentially on that strange medley, in which Greeks +of a kindred spirit had intermingled Orphic and other very old +or very new indigenous wisdom with Persian, Chaldaean, +and Egyptian secret doctrines, and with which Figulus incorporated +the quasi-results of the Tuscan investigation into nothingness +and of the indigenous lore touching the flight of birds, +so as to produce further harmonious confusion. The whole system obtained +its consecration--political, religious, and national--from the name +of Pythagoras, the ultra-conservative statesman whose supreme principle +was "to promote order and to check disorder," the miracle-worker +and necromancer, the primeval sage who was a native of Italy, +who was interwoven even with the legendary history of Rome, +and whose statue was to be seen in the Roman Forum. As birth +and death are kindred with each other, so--it seemed--Pythagoras +was to stand not merely by the cradle of the republic as friend +of the wise Numa and colleague of the sagacious mother Egeria, +but also by its grave as the last protector of the sacred bird-lore. +But the new system was not merely marvellous, it also worked marvels; +Nigidius announced to the father of the subsequent emperor Augustus, +on the very day when the latter was born, the future greatness +of his son; nay the prophets conjured up spirits for the credulous, +and, what was of more moment, they pointed out to them the places +where their lost money lay. The new-and-old wisdom, such as it was, +made a profound impression on its contemporaries; men of the highest rank, +of the greatest learning, of the most solid ability, belonging +to very different parties--the consul of 705, Appius Claudius, +the learned Marcus Varro, the brave officer Publius Vatinius-- +took part in the citation of spirits, and it even appears +that a police interference was necessary against the proceedings +of these societies. These last attempts to save the Roman theology, +like the kindred efforts of Cato in the field of politics, produce at once +a comical and a melancholy impression; we may smile at the creed +and its propagators, but still it is a grave matter when even able men +begin to addict themselves to absurdity. + +Training of Youth +Sciences of General Culture at This Period + +The training of youth followed, as may naturally be supposed, +the course of bilingual humane culture chalked out in the previous epoch, +and the general culture also of the Roman world conformed +more and more to the forms established for that purpose by the Greeks. +Even the bodily exercises advanced from ball-playing, running, +and fencing to the more artistically-developed Greek gymnastic contests; +though there were not yet any public institutions for gymnastics, +in the principal country-houses the palaestra was already to be found +by the side of the bath-rooms. The manner in which the cycle +of general culture had changed in the Roman world during the course +of a century, is shown by a comparison of the encyclopaedia of Cato(2) +with the similar treatise of Varro "concerning the school-sciences." +As constituent elements of non-professional culture, there appear in Cato +the art of oratory, the sciences of agriculture, of law, of war, +and of medicine; in Varro--according to probable conjecture--grammar, +logic or dialectics, rhetoric, geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, +music, medicine, and architecture. Consequently in the course +of the seventh century the sciences of war, jurisprudence, +and agriculture had been converted from general into professional +studies. On the other hand in Varro the Hellenic training of youth +appears already in all its completeness: by the side of the course +of grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy, which had been introduced +at an earlier period into Italy, we now find the course which had +longer remained distinctively Hellenic, of geometry, arithmetic, +astronomy, and music.(3) That astronomy more especially, +which ministered, in the nomenclature of the stars, to the thoughtless +erudite dilettantism of the age and, in its relations to astrology, +to the prevailing religious delusions, was regularly and zealously +studied by the youth in Italy, can be proved also otherwise; +the astronomical didactic poems of Aratus, among all the works +of Alexandrian literature, found earliest admittance into the instruction +of Roman youth. To this Hellenic course there was added the study +of medicine, which was retained from the older Roman instruction, +and lastly that of architecture--indispensable to the genteel Roman +of this period, who instead of cultivatingthe ground built +houses and villas. + +Greek Instruction +Alexandrinism + +In comparison with the previous epoch the Greek as well as +the Latin training improved in extent and in scholastic strictness +quite as much as it declined in purity and in refinement. +The increasing eagerness after Greek lore gave to instruction +of itself an erudite character. To explain Homer or Euripides +was after all no art; teachers and scholars found their account better +in handling the Alexandrian poems, which, besides, were in their spirit +far more congenial to the Roman world of that day than the genuine Greek +national poetry, and which, if they were not quite so venerable +as the Iliad, possessed at any rate an age sufficiently respectable +to pass as classics with schoolmasters. The love-poems of Euphorion, +the "Causes" of Callimachus and his "Ibis," the comically obscure +"Alexandra" of Lycophron contained in rich abundance rare vocables +(-glossae-) suitable for being extracted and interpreted, +sentences laboriously involved and difficult of analysis, +prolix digressions full of mystic combinations of antiquated myths, +and generally a store of cumbersome erudition of all sorts. +Instruction needed exercises more and more difficult; these productions, +in great part model efforts of schoolmasters, were excellently +adapted to be lessons for model scholars. Thus the Alexandrian poems +took a permanent place in Italian scholastic instruction, +especially as trial-themes, and certainly promoted knowledge, +although at the expense of taste and of discretion. The same unhealthy +appetite for culture moreover impelled the Roman youths to derive +their Hellenism as much as possible from the fountain-head. The courses +of the Greek masters in Rome sufficed only for a first start; +every one who wished to be able to converse heard lectures +on Greek philosophy at Athens, and on Greek rhetoric at Rhodes, +and made a literary and artistic tour through Asia Minor, +where most of the old art-treasures of the Hellenes were still +to be found on the spot, and the cultivation of the fine arts +had been continued, although after a mechanical fashion; +whereas Alexandria, more distant and more celebrated as the seat +of the exact sciences, was far more rarely the point whither young men +desirous of culture directed their travels. + +Latin Instruction + +The advance in Latin instruction was similar to that of Greek. +This in part resulted from the mere reflex influence of the Greek, +from which it in fact essentially borrowed its methods +and its stimulants. Moreover, the relations of politics, the impulse +to mount the orators' platform in the Forum which was imparted +by the democratic doings to an ever-widening circle, contributed +not a little to the diffusion and enhancement of oratorical exercises; +"wherever one casts his eyes," says Cicero, "every place is full +of rhetoricians." Besides, the writings of the sixth century, +the farther they receded into the past, began to be more decidedly +regarded as classical texts of the golden age of Latin literature, +and thereby gave a greater preponderance to the instruction +which was essentially concentrated upon them. Lastly the immigration +and spreading of barbarian elements from many quarters +and the incipient Latinizing of extensive Celtic and Spanish districts, +naturally gave to Latin grammar and Latin instruction a higher importance +than they could have had, so long as Latium only spoke Latin; +the teacher of Latin literature had from the outset a different +position in Comum and Narbo than he had in Praeneste and Ardea. +Taken as a whole, culture was more on the wane than on the advance. +The ruin of the Italian country towns, the extensive intrusion of foreign +elements, the political, economic, and moral deterioration of the nation, +above all, the distracting civil wars inflicted more injury +on the language than all the schoolmasters of the world could repair. +The closer contact with the Hellenic culture of the present, +the more decided influence of the talkative Athenian wisdom +and of the rhetoric of Rhodes and Asia Minor, supplied +to the Roman youth just the very elements that were most pernicious +in Hellenism. The propagandist mission which Latium undertook +among the Celts, Iberians, and Libyans--proud as the task was-- +could not but have the like consequences for the Latin language +as the Hellenizing of the east had had for the Hellenic. +The fact that the Roman public of this period applauded +the well arranged and rhythmically balanced periods of the orator, +and any offence in language or metre cost the actor dear, doubtless +shows that the insight into the mother tongue which was the reflection +of scholastic training was becoming the common possession of an ever- +widening circle. But at the same time contemporaries capable +of judging complain that the Hellenic culture in Italy about 690 +was at a far lower level than it had been a generation before; +that opportunities of hearing pure and good Latin were but rare, +and these chiefly from the mouth of elderly cultivated ladies; +that the tradition of genuine culture, the good old Latin mother wit, +the Lucilian polish, the cultivated circle of readers +of the Scipionic age were gradually disappearing. The circumstance +that the term -urbanitas-, and the idea of a polished national culture +which it expressed, arose during this period, proves, not that +it was prevalent, but that it was on the wane, and that people +were keenly alive to the absence of this -urbanitas- in the language +and the habits of the Latinized barbarians or barbarized Latins. +Where we still meet with the urbane tone of conversation, as in Varro's +Satires and Cicero's Letters, it is an echo of the old fashion +which was not yet so obsolete in Reate and Arpinum as in Rome. + +Germs of State Training-Schools + +Thus the previous culture of youth remained substantially unchanged, +except that--not so much from its own deterioration as +from the general decline of the nation--it was productive of less good +and more evil than in the preceding epoch. Caesar initiated +a revolution also in this department. While the Roman senate +had first combated and then at the most had simply tolerated culture, +the government of the new Italo-Hellenic empire, whose essence +in fact was -humanitas-, could not but adopt measures to stimulate it +after the Hellenic fashion. If Caesar conferred the Roman franchise +on all teachers of the liberal sciences and all the physicians +of the capital, we may discover in this step a paving of the way +in some degree for those institutions in which subsequently +the higher bilingual culture of the youth of the empire +was provided for on the part of the state, and which form +the most significant expression of the new state of -humanitas-; +and if Caesar had further resolved on the establishment +of a public Greek and Latin library in the capital and had already +nominated the most learned Roman of the age, Marcus Varro, +as principal librarian, this implied unmistakeably the design +of connecting the cosmopolitan monarchy with cosmopolitan literature. + +Language +The Vulgarism of Asia Minor + +The development of the language during this period turned +on the distinction between the classical Latin of cultivated society +and the vulgar language of common life. The former itself +was a product of the distinctively Italian culture; even in the Scipionic +circle "pure Latin" had become the cue, and the mother tongue was spoken, +no longer in entire naivete, but in conscious contradistinction +to the language of the great multitude. This epoch opens +with a remarkable reaction against the classicism which had hitherto +exclusively prevailed in the higher language of conversation +and accordingly also in literature--a reaction which had +inwardly and outwardly a close connection with the reaction +of a similar nature in the language of Greece. Just about this time +the rhetor and romance-writer Hegesias of Magnesia and the numerous +rhetors and literati of Asia Minor who attached themselves to him +began to rebel against the orthodox Atticism. They demanded +full recognition for the language of life, without distinction, +whether the word or the phrase originated in Attica or in Caria +and Phrygia; they themselves spoke and wrote not for the taste +of learned cliques, but for that of the great public. There could not +be much objection to the principle; only, it is true, the result +could not be better than was the public of Asia Minor of that day, +which had totally lost the taste for chasteness and purity +of production, and longed only after the showy and brilliant. +To say nothing of the spurious forms of art that sprang +out of this tendency--especially the romance and the history assuming +the form of romance--the very style of these Asiatics was, +as may readily be conceived, abrupt and without modulation and finish, +minced and effeminate, full of tinsel and bombast, thoroughly vulgar +and affected; "any one who knows Hegesias," says Cicero, +"knows what silliness is." + +Roman Vulgarism +Hortensius +Reaction +The Rhodian School + +Yet this new style found its way also into the Latin world. +When the Hellenic fashionable rhetoric, after having at the close +of the previous epoch obtruded into the Latin instruction of youth,(4) +took at the beginning of the present period the final step and mounted +the Roman orators' platform in the person of Quintus Hortensius +(640-704), the most celebrated pleader of the Sullan age, +it adhered closely even in the Latin idiom to the bad Greek taste +of the time; and the Roman public, no longer having the pure +and chaste culture of the Scipionic age, naturally applauded +with zeal the innovator who knew how to give to vulgarism +the semblance of an artistic performance. This was of great importance. +As in Greece the battles of language were always waged at first +in the schools of the rhetoricians, so in Rome the forensic oration +to a certain extent even more than literature set the standard of style, +and accordingly there was combined, as it were of right, +with the leadership of the bar the prerogative of giving the tone +to the fashionable mode of speaking and writing. The Asiatic vulgarism +of Hortensius thus dislodged classicism from the Roman platform +and partly also from literature. But the fashion soon changed +once more in Greece and in Rome. In the former it was the Rhodian school +of rhetoricians, which, without reverting to all the chaste severity +of the Attic style, attempted to strike out a middle course between it +and the modern fashion: if the Rhodian masters were not too particular +as to the internal correctness of their thinking and speaking, +they at least insisted on purity of language and style, on the careful +selection of words and phrases, and the giving thorough effect +to the modulation of sentences. + +Ciceronianism + +In Italy it was Marcus Tullius Cicero (648-711) who, after having +in his early youth gone along with the Hortensian manner, +was brought by hearing the Rhodian masters and by his own +more matured taste to better paths, and thenceforth addicted himself +to strict purity of language and the thorough periodic arrangement +and modulation of his discourse. The models of language, which, +in this respect he followed, he found especially in those circles +of the higher Roman society which had suffered but little or not at all +from vulgarism; and, as was already said, there were still such, +although they were beginning to disappear. The earlier Latin +and the good Greek literature, however considerable was the influence +of the latter more especially on the rhythm of his oratory, +were in this matter only of secondary moment: this purifying +of the language was by no means a reaction of the language of books +against that of conversation, but a reaction of the language +of the really cultivated against the jargon of spurious +and partial culture. Caesar, in the department of language +also the greatest master of his time, expressed the fundamental idea +of Roman classicism, when he enjoined that in speech and writing +every foreign word should be avoided, as rocks are avoided +by the mariner; the poetical and the obsolete word of the older +literature was rejected as well as the rustic phrase or that borrowed +from the language of common life, and more especially the Greek words +and phrases which, as the letters of this period show, +had to a very great extent found their way into conversational language. +Nevertheless this scholastic and artificial classicism +of the Ciceronian period stood to the Scipionic as repentance +to innocence, or the French of the classicists under Napoleon +to the model French of Moliere and Boileau; while the former classicism +had sprung out of the full freshness of life, the latter as it were +caught just in right time the last breath of a race perishing +beyond recovery. Such as it was, it rapidly diffused itself. +With the leadership of the bar the dictatorship of language and taste +passed from Hortensius to Cicero, and the varied and copious +authorship of the latter gave to this classicism--what it had +hitherto lacked--extensive prose texts. Thus Cicero became +the creator of the modern classical Latin prose, and Roman classicism +attached itself throughout and altogether to Cicero as a stylist; +it was to the stylist Cicero, not to the author, still less +to the statesman, that the panegyrics--extravagant yet not made up +wholly of verbiage--applied, with which the most gifted representatives +of classicism, such as Caesar and Catullus, loaded him. + +The New Roman Poetry + +They soon went farther. What Cicero did in prose, was carried out +in poetry towards the end of the epoch by the new Roman school +of poets, which modelled itself on the Greek fashionable poetry, +and in which the man of most considerable talent was Catullus. +Here too the higher language of conversation dislodged the archaic +reminiscences which hitherto to a large extent prevailed +in this domain, and as Latin prose submitted to the Attic rhythm, +so Latin poetry submitted gradually to the strict or rather painful +metrical laws of the Alexandrines; e. g. from the time of Catullus, +it is no longer allowable at once to begin a verse and to close +a sentence begun in the verse preceding with a monosyllabic word +or a dissyllabic one not specially weighty. + +Grammatical Science + +At length science stepped in, fixed the law of language, +and developed its rule, which was no longer determined on the basis +of experience, but made the claim to determine experience. +The endings of declension, which hitherto had in part been variable, +were now to be once for all fixed; e. g. of the genitive and dative +forms hitherto current side by side in the so-called fourth declension +(-senatuis- and -senatus-, -senatui-, and -senatu-) Caesar recognized +exclusively as valid the contracted forms (-us and -u). +In orthography various changes were made, to bring the written +more fully into correspondence with the spoken language; +thus the -u in the middle of words like -maxumus- was replaced +after Caesar's precedent by -i; and of the two letters +which had become superfluous, -k and -q, the removal of the first +was effected, and that of the second was at least proposed. +The language was, if not yet stereotyped, in the course of becoming so; +it was not yet indeed unthinkingly dominated by rule, but it had already +become conscious of it. That this action in the department +of Latin grammar derived generally its spirit and method +from the Greek, and not only so, but that the Latin language was also +directly rectified in accordance with Greek precedent, is shown, +for example, by the treatment of the final -s, which till +towards the close of this epoch had at pleasure passed sometimes +as a consonant, sometimes not as one, but was treated by the new- +fashioned poets throughout, as in Greek, as a consonantal +termination. This regulation of language is the proper domain +of Roman classicism; in the most various ways, and for that very reason +all the more significantly, the rule is inculcated and the offence +against it rebuked by the coryphaei of classicism, by Cicero, +by Caesar, even in the poems of Catullus; whereas the older generation +expresses itself with natural keenness of feeling respecting +the revolution which had affected the field of language +as remorselessly as the field of politics.(5) But while the new +classicism--that is to say, the standard Latin governed by rule +and as far as possible placed on a parity with the standard Greek-- +which arose out of a conscious reaction against the vulgarism +intruding into higher society and even into literature, +acquired literary fixity and systematic shape, the latter by no means +evacuated the field. Not only do we find it naively employed +in the works of secondary personages who have drifted into the ranks +of authors merely by accident, as in the account of Caesar's second +Spanish war, but we shall meet it also with an impress more or less +distinct in literature proper, in the mime, in the semi-romance, +in the aesthetic writings of Varro; and it is a significant +circumstance, that it maintains itself precisely in the most national +departments of literature, and that truly conservative men, +like Varro, take it into protection. Classicism was based +on the death of the Italian language as monarchy on the decline +of the Italian nation; it was completely consistent that the men, +in whom the republic was still living, should continue to give +to the living language its rights, and for the sake of its comparative +vitality and nationality should tolerate its aesthetic defects. +Thus then the linguistic opinions and tendencies of this epoch +are everywhere divergent; by the side of the old-fashioned poetry +of Lucretius appears the thoroughly modern poetry of Catullus, +by the side of Cicero's well-modulated period stands the sentence +of Varro intentionally disdaining all subdivision. In this field +likewise is mirrored the distraction of the age. + +Literary Effort +Greek Literati in Rome + +In the literature of this period we are first of all struck +by the outward increase, as compared with the former epoch, +of literary effort in Rome. It was long since the literary activity +of the Greeks flourished no more in the free atmosphere +of civic independence, but only in the scientific institutions +of the larger cities and especially of the courts. Left to depend +on the favour and protection of the great, and dislodged +from the former seats of the Muses(6) by the extinction +of the dynasties of Pergamus (621), Cyrene (658), Bithynia (679), +and Syria (690) and by the waning splendour of the court +of the Lagids--moreover, since the death of Alexander the Great, +necessarily cosmopolitan and at least quite as much strangers +among the Egyptians and Syrians as among the Latins-- +the Hellenic literati began more and more to turn their eyes +towards Rome. Among the host of Greek attendants with which +the Roman of quality at this time surrounded himself, the philosopher, +the poet, and the memoir-writer played conspicuous parts +by the side of the cook, the boy-favourite, and the jester. +We meet already literati of note in such positions; the Epicurean +Philodemus, for instance, was installed as domestic philosopher +with Lucius Piso consul in 696, and occasionally edified the initiated +with his clever epigrams on the coarse-grained Epicureanism +of his patron. From all sides the most notable representatives +of Greek art and science migrated in daily-increasing numbers to Rome +where literary gains were now more abundant than anywhere else. +Among those thus mentioned as settled in Rome we find the physician +Asclepiades whom king Mithradates vainly endeavoured to draw away from it +into his service; the universalist in learning, Alexander of Miletus, +termed Polyhistor; the poet Parthenius from Nicaea in Bithynia; +Posidonius of Apamea in Syria equally celebrated as a traveller, +teacher, and author, who at a great age migrated in 703 from Rhodes +to Rome; and various others. A house like that of Lucius Lucullus +was a seat of Hellenic culture and a rendezvous for Hellenic literati +almost like the Alexandrian Museum; Roman resources and Hellenic +connoisseurship had gathered in these halls of wealth and science +an incomparable collection of statues and paintings of earlier +and contemporary masters, as well as a library as carefully selected +as it was magnificently fitted up, and every person of culture +and especially every Greek was welcome there--the master of the house +himself was often seen walking up and down the beautiful colonnade +in philological or philosophical conversation with one of his +learned guests. No doubt these Greeks brought along with their +rich treasures of culture their preposterousness and servility +to Italy; one of these learned wanderers for instance, the author +of the "Art of Flattery," Aristodemus of Nysa (about 700) +recommended himself to his masters by demonstrating that Homer +was a native of Rome! + +Extent of the Literary Pursuits of the Romans + +In the same measure as the pursuits of the Greek literati prospered +in Rome, literary activity and literary interest increased among +the Romans themselves. Even Greek composition, which the stricter +taste of the Scipionic age had totally set aside, now revived. +The Greek language was now universally current, and a Greek treatise +found a quite different public from a Latin one; therefore Romans +of rank, such as Lucius Lucullus, Marcus Cicero, Titus Atticus, +Quintus Scaevola (tribune of the people in 700), like the kings +of Armenia and Mauretania, published occasionally Greek prose +and even Greek verses. Such Greek authorship however by native Romans +remained a secondary matter and almost an amusement; the literary +as well as the political parties of Italy all coincided in adhering +to their Italian nationality, only more or less pervaded +by Hellenism. Nor could there be any complaint at least as to want +of activity in the field of Latin authorship. There was a flood +of books and pamphlets of all sorts, and above all of poems, in Rome. +Poets swarmed there, as they did only in Tarsus or Alexandria; +poetical publications had become the standing juvenile sin +of livelier natures, and even then the writer was reckoned fortunate +whose youthful poems compassionate oblivion withdrew from criticism. +Any one who understood the art, wrote without difficulty +at a sitting his five hundred hexameters in which no schoolmaster +found anything to censure, but no reader discovered anything to praise. +The female world also took a lively part in these literary pursuits; +the ladies did not confine themselves to dancing and music, +but by their spirit and wit ruled conversation and talked excellently +on Greek and Latin literature; and, when poetry laid siege +to a maiden's heart, the beleaguered fortress not seldom surrendered +likewise in graceful verses. Rhythms became more and more +the fashionable plaything of the big children of both sexes; +poetical epistles, joint poetical exercises and competitions +among good friends, were of common occurrence, and towards the end +of this epoch institutions were already opened in the capital, +at which unfledged Latin poets might learn verse-making for money. +In consequence of the large consumption of books the machinery +for the manufacture of copies was substantially perfected, +and publication was effected with comparative rapidity and cheapness; +bookselling became a respectable and lucrative trade, and the bookseller's +shop a usual meeting-place of men of culture. Reading had become +a fashion, nay a mania; at table, where coarser pastimes had not +already intruded, reading was regularly introduced, and any one +who meditated a journey seldom forgot to pack up a travelling library. +The superior officer was seen in the camp-tent with the obscene +Greek romance, the statesman in the senate with the philosophical +treatise, in his hands. Matters accordingly stood in the Roman state +as they have stood and will stand in every state where the citizens +read "from the threshold to the closet." The Parthian vizier +was not far wrong, when he pointed out to the citizens of Seleucia +the romances found in the camp of Crassus and asked them whether +they still regarded the readers of such books as formidable opponents. + +The Classicists and the Moderns + +The literary tendency of this age was varied and could not be otherwise, +for the age itself was divided between the old and the new modes. +The same tendencies which came into conflict on the field of politics, +the national-Italian tendency of the conservatives, the Helleno-Italian +or, if the term be preferred, cosmopolitan tendency of the new monarchy, +fought their battles also on the field of literature. The former +attached itself to the older Latin literature, which in the theatre, +in the school, and in erudite research assumed more and more +the character of classical. With less taste and stronger party +tendencies than the Scipionic epoch showed, Ennius, Pacuvius, +and especially Plautus were now exalted to the skies. The leaves +of the Sibyl rose in price, the fewer they became; the relatively +greater nationality and relatively greater productiveness of the poets +of the sixth century were never more vividly felt than in this epoch +of thoroughly developed Epigonism, which in literature as decidedly +as in politics looked up to the century of the Hannibalic warriors +as to the golden age that had now unhappily passed away beyond recall. +No doubt there was in this admiration of the old classics no small portion +of the same hollowness and hypocrisy which are characteristic +of the conservatism of this age in general; and here too +there was no want of trimmers. Cicero for instance, although in prose +one of the chief representatives of the modern tendency, +revered nevertheless the older national poetry nearly with the same +antiquarian respect which he paid to the aristocratic constitution +and the augural discipline; "patriotism requires," we find him saying, +"that we should rather read a notoriously wretched translation +of Sophocles than the original." While thus the modern literary tendency +cognate to the democratic monarchy numbered secret adherents enough even +among the orthodox admirers of Ennius, there were not wanting already +bolder judges, who treated the native literature as disrespectfully +as the senatorial politics. Not only did they resume the strict +criticism of the Scipionic epoch and set store by Terence only in order +to condemn Ennius and still more the Ennianists, but the younger +and bolder men went much farther and ventured already--though only as yet +in heretical revolt against literary orthodoxy--to call Plautus +a rude jester and Lucilius a bad verse-smith. This modern tendency +attached itself not to the native authorship, but rather +to the more recent Greek literature or the so-called Alexandrinism. + +The Greek Alexandrinism + +We cannot avoid saying at least so much respecting +this remarkable winter-garden of Hellenic language and art, +as is requisite for the understanding of the Roman literature +of this and the later epochs. The Alexandrian literature was based +on the decline of the pure Hellenic idiom, which from the time +of Alexander the Great was superseded in daily life by an inferior +jargon deriving its origin from the contact of the Macedonian dialect +with various Greek and barbarian tribes; or, to speak more accurately, +the Alexandrian literature sprang out of the ruin of the Hellenic nation +generally, which had to perish, and did perish, in its national +individuality in order to establish the universal monarchy of Alexander +and the empire of Hellenism. Had Alexander's universal empire continued +to subsist, the former national and popular literature would have been +succeeded by a cosmopolitan literature Hellenic merely in name, +essentially denationalized and called into life in a certain measure +by royal patronage, but at all events ruling the world; +but, as the state of Alexander was unhinged by his death, +the germs of the literature corresponding to it rapidly perished. +Nevertheless the Greek nation with all that it had possessed-- +with its nationality, its language, its art--belonged to the past. +It was only in a comparatively narrow circle not of men of culture-- +for such, strictly speaking, no longer existed--but of men of erudition +that the Greek literature was still cherished even when dead; +that the rich inheritance which it had left was inventoried +with melancholy pleasure or arid refinement of research; and that, +possibly, the living sense of sympathy or the dead erudition +was elevated into a semblance of productiveness. This posthumous +productiveness constitutes the so-called Alexandrinism. +It is essentially similar to that literature of scholars, which, +keeping aloof from the living Romanic nationalities and their vulgar +idioms, grew up during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries +among a cosmopolitan circle of erudite philologues--as an artificial +aftergrowth of the departed antiquity; the contrast between +the classical and the vulgar Greek of the period of the Diadochi +is doubtless less strongly marked, but is not, properly speaking, +different from that between the Latin of Manutius +and the Italian of Macchiavelli. + +The Roman Alexandrinism + +Italy had hitherto been in the main disinclined towards Alexandrinism. +Its season of comparative brilliance was the period shortly before +and after the first Punic war; yet Naevius, Ennius, Pacuvius +and generally the whole body of the national Roman authors +down to Varro and Lucretius in all branches of poetical production, +not excepting even the didactic poem, attached themselves, +not to their Greek contemporaries or very recent predecessors, +but without exception to Homer, Euripides, Menander and the other masters +of the living and national Greek literature. Roman literature +was never fresh and national; but, as long as there was a Roman people, +its authors instinctively sought for living and national models, +and copied, if not always to the best purpose or the best authors, +at least such as were original. The Greek literature originating +after Aexander found its first Roman imitators--for the slight +initial attempts from the Marian age(7) can scarcely be taken +into account--among the contemporaries of Cicero and Caesar; +and now the Roman Alexandrinism spread with singular rapidity. +In part this arose from external causes. The increased contact +with the Greeks, especially the frequent journeys of the Romans +into the Hellenic provinces and the assemblage of Greek literati +in Rome, naturally procured a public even among the Italians +for the Greek literature of the day, for the epic and elegiac poetry, +epigrams, and Milesian tales current at that time in Greece. Moreover, +as we have already stated(8) the Alexandrian poetry had its established +place in the instruction of the Italian youth; and thus reacted +on Latin literature all the more, since the latter continued to be +essentially dependent at all times on the Hellenic school-training. +We find in this respect even a direct connection of the new Roman +with the new Greek literature; the already-mentioned Parthenius, +one of the better known Alexandrian elegists, opened, apparently +about 700, a school for literature and poetry in Rome, and the excerpts +are still extant in which he supplied one of his pupils of rank +with materials for Latin elegies of an erotic and mythological +nature according to the well-known Alexandrian receipt. +But it was by no means simply such accidental occasions which called +into existence the Roman Alexandrinism; it was on the contrary +a product--perhaps not pleasing, but thoroughly inevitable-- +of the political and national development of Rome. On the one hand, +as Hellas resolved itself into Hellenism, so now Latium +resolved itself into Romanism; the national development of Italy +outgrew itself, and was merged in Caesar's Mediterranean empire, +just as the Hellenic development in the eastern empire of Alexander. +On the other hand, as the new empire rested on the fact +that the mighty streams of Greek and Latin nationality, after having +flowed in parallel channels for many centuries, now at length coalesced, +the Italian literature had not merely as hitherto to seek +its groundwork generally in the Greek, but had also to put itself +on a level with the Greek literature of the present, or in other words +with Alexandrinism. With the scholastic Latin, with the closed number +of classics, with the exclusive circle of classic-reading -urbani-, +the national Latin literature was dead and at an end; there arose +instead of it a thoroughly degenerate, artificially fostered, +imperial literature, which did not rest on any definite nationality, +but proclaimed in two languages the universal gospel of humanity, +and was dependent in point of spirit throughout and consciously +on the old Hellenic, in point of language partly on this, +partly on the old Roman popular, literature. This was no improvement. +The Mediterranean monarchy of Caesar was doubtless a grand and-- +what is more--a necessary creation; but it had been called +into life by an arbitrary superior will, and therefore +there was nothing to be found in it of the fresh popular life, +of the overflowing national vigour, which are characteristic of younger, +more limited, and more natural commonwealths, and which the Italian +state of the sixth century had still been able to exhibit. +The ruin of the Italian nationality, accomplished in the creation +of Caesar, nipped the promise of literature. Every one who has +any sense of the close affinity between art and nationality +will always turn back from Cicero and Horace to Cato and Lucretius; +and nothing but the schoolmaster's view of history and of literature-- +which has acquired, it is true, in this department the sanction +of prescription--could have called the epoch of art beginning +with the new monarchy pre-eminently the golden age. But while +the Romano-Hellenic Alexandrinism of the age of Caesar and Augustus +must be deemed inferior to the older, however imperfect, national +literature, it is on the other hand as decidedly superior +to the Alexandrinism of the age of the Diadochi as Caesar's enduring +structure to the ephemeral creation of Alexander. We shall have +afterwards to show that the Augustan literature, compared with +the kindred literature of the period of the Diadochi, was far less +a literature of philologues and far more an imperial literature +than the latter, and therefore had a far more permanent +and far more general influence in the upper circles of society +than the Greek Alexandrinism ever had. + +Dramatic Literature +Tragedy and Comedy Disappear + +Nowhere was the prospect more lamentable than in dramatic literature. +Tragedy and comedy had already before the present epoch +become inwardly extinct in the Roman national literature. +New pieces were no longer performed. That the public still +in the Sullan age expected to see such, appears from the reproductions-- +belonging to this epoch--of Plautine comedies with the titles +and names of the persons altered, with reference to which +the managers well added that it was better to see a good old piece +than a bad new one. From this the step was not great to that entire +surrender of the stage to the dead poets, which we find +in the Ciceronian age, and to which Alexandrinism made no opposition. +Its productiveness in this department was worse than none. +Real dramatic composition the Alexandrian literature never knew; +nothing but the spurious drama, which was written primarily for reading +and not for exhibition, could be introduced by it into Italy, and soon +accordingly these dramatic iambics began to be quite as prevalent +in Rome as in Alexandria, and the writing of tragedy in particular +began to figure among the regular diseases of adolescence. +We may form a pretty accurate idea of the quality of these productions +from the fact that Quintus Cicero, in order homoeopathically +to beguile the weariness of winter quarters in Gaul, +composed four tragedies in sixteen days. + +The Mime +Laberius + +In the "picture of life" or mime alone the last still vigorous +product of the national literature, the Atellan farce, +became engrafted with the ethological offshoots of Greek comedy, +which Alexandrinism cultivated with greater poetical vigour +and better success than any other branch of poetry. The mime originated +out of the dances in character to the flute, which had long been usual, +and which were performed sometimes on other occasions, e. g. +for the entertainment of the guests during dinner, but more especially +in the pit of the theatre during the intervals between the acts. +It was not difficult to form out of these dances--in which the aid +of speech had doubtless long since been occasionally employed-- +by means of the introduction of a more organized plot and a regular +dialogue little comedies, which were yet essentially distinguished +from the earlier comedy and even from the farce by the facts, +that the dance and the lasciviousness inseparable from such dancing +continued in this case to play a chief part, and that the mime, +as belonging properly not to the boards but to the pit, threw aside +all ideal scenic effects, such as masks for the face and theatrical +buskins, and--what was specially important--admitted of the female +characters being represented by women. This new mime, which first +seems to have come on the stage of the capital about 672, +soon swallowed up the national harlequinade, with which it indeed +in the most essential respects coincided, and was employed +as the usual interlude and especially as afterpiece along with +the other dramatic performances.(9) The plot was of course +still more indifferent, loose, and absurd than in the harlequinade; +if it was only sufficiently chequered, the public did not ask +why it laughed, and did not remonstrate with the poet, who instead +of untying the knot cut it to pieces. The subjects were chiefly +of an amorous nature, mostly of the licentious sort; for example, +poet and public without exception took part against the husband, +and poetical justice consisted in the derision of good morals. +The artistic charm depended wholly, as in the Atellana, +on the portraiture of the manners of common and low life; +in which rural pictures are laid aside for those of the life +and doings of the capital, and the sweet rabble of Rome-- +just as in the similar Greek pieces the rabble of Alexandria-- +is summoned to applaud its own likeness. Many subjects +are taken from the life of tradesmen; there appear the-- +here also inevitable--"Fuller," then the "Ropemaker," the "Dyer," +the "Salt-man," the "Female Weavers," the "Rascal"; other pieces +give sketches of character, as the "Forgetful," the "Braggart," +the "Man of 100,000 sesterces";(10) or pictures of other lands, +the "Etruscan Woman," the "Gauls," the "Cretan," "Alexandria"; +or descriptions of popular festivals, as the "Compitalia," +the "Saturnalia," "Anna Perenna," the "Hot Baths"; or parodies +of mythology, as the "Voyage to the Underworld," the "Arvernian Lake." +Apt nicknames and short commonplaces which were easily retained +and applied were welcome; but every piece of nonsense +was of itself privileged; in this preposterous world Bacchus +is applied to for water and the fountain-nymph for wine. +Isolated examples even of the political allusions formerly +so strictly prohibited in the Roman theatre are found in these mimes.(11) +As regards metrical form, these poets gave themselves, as they tell us, +"but moderate trouble with the versification"; the language abounded, +even in the pieces prepared for publication, with vulgar expressions +and low newly-coined words. The mime was, it is plain, +in substance nothing but the former farce; with this exception, +that the character-masks and the standing scenery of Atella +as well as the rustic impress are dropped, and in their room +the life of the capital in its boundless liberty and licence +is brought on the stage. Most pieces of this sort were doubtless +of a very fugitive nature and made no pretension to a place +in literature; but the mimes of Laberius, full of pungent +delineation of character and in point of language and metre +exhibiting the hand of a master, maintained their ground in it; +and even the historian must regret that we are no longer permitted +to compare the drama of the republican death-struggle in Rome +with its great Attic counterpart. + +Dramatic Spectacles + +With the worthlessness of dramatic literature the increase +of scenic spectacles and of scenic pomp went hand in hand. +Dramatic representations obtained their regular place in the public life +not only of the capital but also of the country towns; the former +also now at length acquired by means of Pompeius a permanent theatre +(699;(12)), and the Campanian custom of stretching canvas +over the theatre for the protection of the actors and spectators +during the performance, which in ancient times always took place +in the open air, now likewise found admission to Rome (676). +As at that time in Greece it was not the--more than pale-Pleiad +of the Alexandrian dramatists, but the classic drama, above all +the tragedies of Euripides, which amidst the amplest development +of scenic resources kept the stage, so in Rome at the time of Cicero +the tragedies of Ennius, Pacuvius, and Accius, and the comedies +of Plautus were those chiefly produced. While the latter had been +in the previous period supplanted by the more tasteful but in point +of comic vigour far inferior Terence, Roscius and Varro, +or in other words the theatre and philology, co-operated to procure +for him a resurrection similar to that which Shakespeare experienced +at the hands of Garrick and Johnson; but even Plautus had to suffer +from the degenerate susceptibility and the impatient haste +of an audience spoilt by the short and slovenly farces, so that +the managers found themselves compelled to excuse the length +of the Plautine comedies and even perhaps to make omissions +and alterations. The more limited the stock of plays, the more +the activity of the managing and executive staff as well as +the interest of the public was directed to the scenic representation +of the pieces. There was hardly any more lucrative trade in Rome +than that of the actor and the dancing-girl of the first rank. +The princely estate of the tragic actor Aesopus has been +already mentioned;(13) his still more celebrated contemporary +Roscius(14) estimated his annual income at 600,000 sesterces +(6000 pounds)(15) and Dionysia the dancer estimated hers +at 200,000 sesterces (2000 pounds). At the same time +immense sums were expended on decorations and costume; +now and then trains of six hundred mules in harness crossed +the stage, and the Trojan theatrical army was employed +to present to the public a tableau of the nations vanquished +by Pompeius in Asia. The music which accompanied the delivery +of the inserted choruses likewise obtained a greater +and more independent importance; as the wind sways the waves, +says Varro, so the skilful flute-player sways the minds of the listeners +with every modulation of melody. It accustomed itself to the use +of quicker time, and thereby compelled the player to more lively action. +Musical and dramatic connoisseurship was developed; the -habitue- +recognized every tune by the first note, and knew the texts +by heart; every fault in the music or recitation was severely +censured by the audience. The state of the Roman stage in the time +of Cicero vividly reminds us of the modern French theatre. +As the Roman mime corresponds to the loose tableaux of the pieces +of the day, nothing being too good and nothing too bad for either +the one or the other, so we find in both the same traditionally +classic tragedy and comedy, which the man of culture is in duty bound +to admire or at least to applaud. The multitude is satisfied, +when it meets its own reflection in the farce, and admires +the decorative pomp and receives the general impression of an ideal world +in the drama; the man of higher culture concerns himself at the theatre +not with the piece, but only with its artistic representation. +Moreover the Roman histrionic art oscillated in its different spheres, +just like the French, between the cottage and the drawing-room. +It was nothing unusual for the Roman dancing-girls to throw off +at the finale the upper robe and to give a dance in undress +for the benefit of the public; but on the other hand in the eyes +of the Roman Talma the supreme law of his art was, not the truth +of nature, but symmetry. + +Metrical Annals + +In recitative poetry metrical annals after the model of those +of Ennius seem not to have been wanting; but they were perhaps +sufficiently criticised by that graceful vow of his mistress +of which Catullus sings--that the worst of the bad heroic poems +should be presented as a sacrifice to holy Venus, if she would only +bring back her lover from his vile political poetry to her arms. + +Lucretius + +Indeed in the whole field of recitative poetry at this epoch +the older national-Roman tendency is represented only by a single work +of note, which, however, is altogether one of the most important +poetical products of Roman literature. It is the didactic poem +of Titus Lucretius Carus (655-699) "Concerning the Nature of Things," +whose author, belonging to the best circles of Roman society, +but taking no part in public life whether from weakness of health +or from disinclination, died in the prime of manhood shortly before +the outbreak of the civil war. As a poet he attached himself +decidedly to Ennius and thereby to the classical Greek literature. +Indignantly he turns away from the "hollow Hellenism" of his time, +and professes himself with his whole soul and heart to be the scholar +of the "chaste Greeks," as indeed even the sacred earnestness +of Thucydides has found no unworthy echo in one of the best-known +sections of this Roman poem. As Ennius draws his wisdom +from Epicharmus and Euhemerus, so Lucretius borrows the form +of his representation from Empedocles, "the most glorious +treasure of the richly gifted Sicilian isle"; and, as to the matter, +gathers "all the golden words together from the rolls of Epicurus," +"who outshines other wise men as the sun obscures the stars." +Like Ennius, Lucretius disdains the mythological lore with which +poetry was overloaded by Alexandrinism, and requires nothing +from his reader but a knowledge of the legends generally current.(16) +In spite of the modern purism which rejected foreign words from poetry, +Lucretius prefers to use, as Ennius had done, a significant Greek word +in place of a feeble and obscure Latin one. The old Roman alliteration, +the want of due correspondence between the pauses of the verse and those +of the sentence, and generally the older modes of expression +and composition, are still frequently found in Lucretius' rhythms, +and although he handles the verse more melodiously than Ennius, +his hexameters move not, as those of the modern poetical school, +with a lively grace like the rippling brook, but with a stately slowness +like the stream of liquid gold. Philosophically and practically +also Lucretius leans throughout on Ennius, the only indigenous poet +whom his poem celebrates. The confession of faith of the singer +of Rudiae(17)-- + + -Ego deum genus esse semper dixi et dicam caelitum, + Sed eos non curare opinor, quid agat humanum genus-:-- + +describes completely the religious standpoint of Lucretius, +and not unjustly for that reason he himself terms his poem +as it were the continuation of Ennius:-- + + -Ennius ut noster cecinit, qui primus amoeno + Detulit ex Helicone perenni fronde coronam, + Per gentis Italas hominum quae clara clueret-. + +Once more--and for the last time--the poem of Lucretius is resonant +with the whole poetic pride and the whole poetic earnestness +of the sixth century, in which, amidst the images of the formidable +Carthaginian and the glorious Scipiad, the imagination of the poet +is more at home than in his own degenerate age.(18) To him too +his own song "gracefully welling up out of rich feeling" sounds, +as compared with the common poems, "like the brief song of the swan +compared with the cry of the crane";--with him too the heart swells, +listening to the melodies of its own invention, with the hope +of illustrious honours--just as Ennius forbids the men to whom +he "gave from the depth of the heart a foretaste of fiery song," +to mourn at his, the immortal singer's, tomb. + +It is a remarkable fatality, that this man of extraordinary talents, +far superior in originality of poetic endowments to most +if not to all his contemporaries, fell upon an age in which +he felt himself strange and forlorn, and in consequence of this +made the most singular mistake in the selection of a subject. The system +of Epicurus, which converts the universe into a great vortex of atoms +and undertakes to explain the origin and end of the world as well as +all the problems of nature and of life in a purely mechanical way, +was doubtless somewhat less silly than the conversion of myths +into history which was attempted by Euhemerus and after him by Ennius; +but it was not an ingenious or a fresh system, and the task +of poetically unfolding this mechanical view of the world +was of such a nature that never probably did poet expend life +and art on a more ungrateful theme. The philosophic reader censures +in the Lucretian didactic poem the omission of the finer points +of the system, the superficiality especially with which controversies +are presented, the defective division, the frequent repetitions, +with quite as good reason as the poetical reader frets +at the mathematics put into rhythm which makes a great part +of the poem absolutely unreadable. In spite of these incredible defects, +before which every man of mediocre talent must inevitably have succumbed, +this poet might justly boast of having carried off from the poetic +wilderness a new chaplet such as the Muses had not yet bestowed on any; +and it was by no means merely the occasional similitudes, +and the other inserted descriptions of mighty natural phenomena +and yet mightier passions, which acquired for the poet this chaplet. +The genius which marks the view of life as well as the poetry +of Lucretius depends on his unbelief, which came forward +and was entitled to come forward with the full victorious power +of truth, and therefore with the full vigour of poetry, in opposition +to the prevailing hypocrisy or superstition. + + -Humana ante oculos foede cum vita iaceret + In terris oppressa gravi sub religione, + Quae caput a caeli regionibus ostendebat + Horribili super aspectu mortalibus instans, + Primum Graius homo mortalis tendere contra + Est oculos ausus primusque obsistere contra. + Ergo vivida vis animi pervicit, et extra + Processit longe flammantia moenia mundi + Atque omne immensum peragravit mente animoque-. + +The poet accordingly was zealous to overthrow the gods, +as Brutus had overthrown the kings, and "to release nature +from her stern lords." But it was not against the long ago enfeebled +throne of Jovis that these flaming words were hurled; just like Ennius, +Lucretius fights practically above all things against the wild +foreign faiths and superstitions of, the multitude, the worship +of the Great Mother for instance and the childish lightning-lore +of the Etruscans. Horror and antipathy towards that terrible world +in general, in which and for which the poet wrote, suggested his poem. +It was composed in that hopeless time when the rule of the oligarchy +had been overthrown and that of Caesar had not yet been established, +in the sultry years during which the outbreak of the civil war +was awaited with long and painful suspense. If we seem to perceive +in its unequal and restless utterance that the poet daily +expected to see the wild tumult of revolution break forth +over himself and his work, we must not with reference to his view +of men and things forget amidst what men, and in prospect +of what things, that view had its origin. In the Hellas of the epoch +before Alexander it was a current saying, and one profoundly felt +by all the best men, that the best thing of all was not to be born, +and the next best to die. Of all views of the world possible +to a tender and poetically organized mind in the kindred Caesarian age +this was the noblest and the most ennobling, that it is a benefit +for man to be released from a belief in the immortality of the soul +and thereby from the evil dread of death and of the gods +which malignantly steals over men like terror creeping over children +in a dark room; that, as the sleep of the night is more refreshing +than the trouble of the day, so death, eternal repose +from all hope and fear, is better than life, as indeed the gods +of the poet themselves are nothing, and have nothing, but an eternal +blessed rest; that the pains of hell torment man, not after life, +but during its course, in the wild and unruly passions +of his throbbing heart; that the task of man is to attune his soul +to equanimity, to esteem the purple no higher than the warm dress +worn at home, rather to remain in the ranks of those that obey +than to press into the confused crowd of candidates for the office +of ruler, rather to lie on the grass beside the brook than to take part +under the golden ceiling of the rich in emptying his countless dishes. +This philosophico-practical tendency is the true ideal essence +of the Lucretian poem and is only overlaid, not choked, +by all the dreariness of its physical demonstrations. Essentially +on this rests its comparative wisdom and truth. The man who +with a reverence for his great predecessors and a vehement zeal, +to which this century elsewhere knew no parallel, preached such doctrine +and embellished it with the charm of art, may be termed at once +a good citizen and a great poet. The didactic poem concerning +the Nature of Things, however much in it may challenge censure, +has remained one of the most brilliant stars in the poorly illuminated +expanse of Roman literature; and with reason the greatest of German +philologues chose the task of making the Lucretian poem +once more readable as his last and most masterly work. + +The Hellenic Fashionable Poetry + +Lucretius, although his poetical vigour as well as his art was admired +by his cultivated contemporaries, yet remained--of late growth +as he was--a master without scholars. In the Hellenic fashionable +poetry on the other hand there was no lack at least of scholars, +who exerted themselves to emulate the Alexandrian masters. +With true tact the more gifted of the Alexandrian poets +avoided larger works and the pure forms of poetry--the drama, +the epos, the lyric; the most pleasing and successful performances +consisted with them, just as with the new Latin poets, in "short- +winded" tasks, and especially in such as belonged to the domains +bordering on the pure forms of art, more especially to the wide field +intervening between narrative and song. Multifarious didactic +poems were written. Small half-heroic, half-erotic epics +were great favourites, and especially an erudite sort of love-elegy +peculiar to this autumnal summer of Greek poetry and characteristic +of the philological source whence it sprang, in which the poet +more or less arbitrarily interwove the description of his own feelings, +predominantly sensuous, with epic shreds from the cycle of Greek legend. +Festal lays were diligently and artfully manufactured; in general, +owing to the want of spontaneous poetical invention, the occasional poem +preponderated and especially the epigram, of which the Alexandrians +produced excellent specimens. The poverty of materials and the want +of freshness in language and rhythm, which inevitably cleave +to every literature not national, men sought as much as possible +to conceal under odd themes, far-fetched phrases, rare words, +and artificial versification, and generally under the whole apparatus +of philologico-antiquarian erudition and technical dexterity. +Such was the gospel which was preached to the Roman boys of this period, +and they came in crowds to hear and to practise it; already (about 700) +the love-poems of Euphorion and similar Alexandrian poetry formed +the ordinary reading and the ordinary pieces for declamation +of the cultivated youth.(19) The literary revolution took place; +but it yielded in the first instance with rare exceptions only premature +or unripe fruits. The number of the "new-fashioned poets" was legion, +but poetry was rare and Apollo was compelled, as always when so many +throng towards Parnassus, to make very short work. The long poems never +were worth anything, the short ones seldom. Even in this literary age +the poetry of the day had become a public nuisance; it sometimes +happened that one's friend would send home to him by way of mockery +as a festal present a pile of trashy verses fresh from the bookseller's +shop, whose value was at once betrayed by the elegant binding +and the smooth paper. A real public, in the sense in which national +literature has a public, was wanting to the Roman Alexandrians +as well as to the Hellenic; it was thoroughly the poetry of a clique +or rather cliques, whose members clung closely together, +abused intruders, read and criticised among themselves the new poems, +sometimes also quite after the Alexandrian fashion celebrated +the successful productions in fresh verses, and variously sought +to secure for themselves by clique-praises a spurious and ephemeral +renown. A notable teacher of Latin literature, himself poetically +active in this new direction, Valerius Cato appears to have exercised +a sort of scholastic patronage over the most distinguished men +of this circle and to have pronounced final decision on the relative +value of the poems. As compared with their Greek models, +these Roman poets evince throughout a want of freedom, +sometimes a schoolboy dependence; most of their products +must have been simply the austere fruits of a school poetry +still occupied in learning and by no means yet dismissed as mature. +Inasmuch as in language and in measure they adhered to the Greek patterns +far more closely than ever the national Latin poetry had done, +a greater correctness and consistency in language and metre +were certainly attained; but it was at the expense of the flexibility +and fulness of the national idiom. As respects the subject-matter, +under the influence partly of effeminate models, partly +of an immoral age, amatory themes acquired a surprising preponderance +little conducive to poetry; but the favourite metrical compendia +of the Greeks were also in various cases translated, such as +the astronomical treatise of Aratus by Cicero, and, either at the end +of this or more probably at the commencement of the following period, +the geographical manual of Eratosthenes by Publius Varro of the Aude +and the physico-medicinal manual of Nicander by Aemilius Macer. +It is neither to be wondered at nor regretted that of this countless +host of poets but few names have been preserved to us; +and even these are mostly mentioned merely as curiosities +or as once upon a time great; such as the orator Quintus Hortensius +with his "five hundred thousand lines" of tiresome obscenity, +and the somewhat more frequently mentioned Laevius, whose -Erotopaegnia- +attracted a certain interest only by their complicated measures +and affected phraseology. Even the small epic Smyrna by Gaius +Helvius Cinna (d. 710?), much as it was praised by the clique, +bears both in its subject--the incestuous love of a daughter +for her father--and in the nine years' toil bestowed on it the worst +characteristics of the time. + +Catullus + +Those poets alone of this school constitute an original +and pleasing exception, who knew how to combine with its neatness +and its versatility of form the national elements of worth still existing +in the republican life, especially in that of the country-towns. +To say nothing here of Laberius and Varro, this description +applies especially to the three poets already mentioned above(20) +of the republican opposition, Marcus Furius Libaculus (652-691), +Gaius Licinius Calvus (672-706) and Quintus Valerius Catullus +(667-c. 700). Of the two former, whose writings have perished, +we can indeed only conjecture this; respecting the poems of Catullus +we can still form a judgment. He too depends in subject and form +on the Alexandrians. We find in his collection translations of pieces +of Callimachus, and these not altogether the very good, +but the very difficult. Among the original pieces, we meet +with elaborately-turned fashionable poems, such as the over-artificial +Galliambics in praise of the Phrygian Mother; and even the poem, +otherwise so beautiful, of the marriage of Thetis has been +artistically spoiled by the truly Alexandrian insertion +of the complaint of Ariadne in the principal poem. But by the side +of these school-pieces we meet with the melodious lament +of the genuine elegy, the festal poem in the full pomp of individual +and almost dramatic execution, above all, the freshest miniature painting +of cultivated social life, the pleasant and very unreserved +amatory adventures of which half the charm consists in prattling +and poetizing about the mysteries of love, the delightful life +of youth with full cups and empty purses, the pleasures +of travel and of poetry, the Roman and still more frequently +the Veronese anecdote of the town, and the humorous jest +amidst the familiar circle of friends. But not only does Apollo +touch the lyre of the poet, he wields also the bow; the winged dart +of sarcasm spares neither the tedious verse-maker nor the provincial +who corrupts the language, but it hits none more frequently +and more sharply than the potentates by whom the liberty of the people +is endangered. The short-lined and merry metres, often enlivened +by a graceful refrain, are of finished art and yet free +from the repulsive smoothness of the manufactory. These poems lead us +alternately to the valleys of the Nile and the Po; but the poet +is incomparably more at home in the latter. His poems are based +on Alexandrian art doubtless, but at the same time on the self- +consciousness of a burgess and a burgess in fact of a rural town, +on the contrast of Verona with Rome, on the contrast of the homely +municipal with the high-born lords of the senate who usually +maltreat their humble friends--as that contrast was probably felt +more vividly than anywhere else in Catullus' home, the flourishing +and comparatively vigorous Cisalpine Gaul. The most beautiful +of his poems reflect the sweet pictures of the Lago di Garda, +and hardly at this time could any man of the capital have written +a poem like the deeply pathetic one on his brother's death, +or the excellent genuinely homely festal hymn for the marriage of Manlius +and Aurunculeia. Catullus, although dependent on the Alexandrian masters +and standing in the midst of the fashionable and clique poetry +of that age, was yet not merely a good scholar among many mediocre +and bad ones, but himself as much superior to his masters +as the burgess of a free Italian community was superior +to the cosmopolitan Hellenic man of letters. Eminent creative vigour +indeed and high poetic intentions we may not look for in him; +he is a richly gifted and graceful but not a great poet, and his poems +are, as he himself calls them, nothing but "pleasantries +and trifles." Yet when we find not merely his contemporaries +electrified by these fugitive songs, but the art-critics +of the Augustan age also characterizing him along with Lucretius +as the most important poet of this epoch, his contemporaries +as well as their successors were completely right. The Latin nation +has produced no second poet in whom the artistic substance +and the artistic form appear in so symmetrical perfection +as in Catullus; and in this sense the collection of the poems of Catullus +is certainly the most perfect which Latin poetry as a whole can show. + +Poems in Prose +Romances + +Lastly, poetry in a prose form begins in this epoch. The law +of genuine naive as well as conscious art, which had hitherto remained +unchangeable--that the poetical subject-matter and the metrical setting +should go together--gave way before the intermixture and disturbance +of all kinds and forms of art, which is one of the most significant +features of this period. As to romances indeed nothing farther +is to be noticed, than that the most famous historian of this epoch, +Sisenna, did not esteem himself too good to translate into Latin +the much-read Milesian tales of Aristides--licentious fashionable novels +of the most stupid sort. + +Varro's Aesthetic Writings + +A more original and more pleasing phenomenon in this debateable +border-land between poetry and prose was the aesthetic writings +of Varro, who was not merely the most important representative +of Latin philologico-historical research, but one of the most fertile +and most interesting authors in belles-lettres. Descended +from a plebeian gens which had its home in the Sabine land +but had belonged for the last two hundred years to the Roman senate, +strictly reared in antique discipline and decorum,(21) and already +at the beginning of this epoch a man of maturity, Marcus Terentius Varro +of Reate (638-727) belonged in politics, as a matter of course, +to the institutional party, and bore an honourable and energetic +part in its doings and sufferings. He supported it, partly +in literature--as when he combated the first coalition, +the "three-headed monster," in pamphlets; partly in more serious +warfare, where we found him in the army of Pompeius as commandant +of Further Spain.(22) When the cause of the republic was lost, +Varro was destined by his conqueror to be librarian of the library +which was to be formed in the capital. The troubles +of the following period drew the old man once more into their vortex, +and it was not till seventeen years after Caesar's death, +in the eighty-ninth year of his well-occupied life, that death +called him away. + +Varros' Models + +The aesthetic writings, which have made him a name, +were brief essays, some in simple prose and of graver contents, +others humorous sketches the prose groundwork of which was inlaid +with various poetical effusions. The former were the "philosophico- +historical dissertations" (-logistorici-), the latter the Menippean +Satires. In neither case did he follow Latin models, +and the -Satura- of Varro in particular was by no means based +on that of Lucilius. In fact the Roman -Satura- in general +was not properly a fixed species of art, but only indicated negatively +the fact that the "multifarious poem" was not to be included +under any of the recognized forms of art; and accordingly the -Satura- +poetry assumed in the hands of every gifted poet a different and peculiar +character. It was rather in the pre-Alexandrian Greek philosophy +that Varro found the models for his more severe as well as +for his lighter aesthetic works; for the graver dissertations, +in the dialogues of Heraclides of Heraclea on the Black Sea +(d. about 450), for the satires, in the writings of Menippus of Gadara +in Syria (flourishing about 475). The choice was significant. +Heraclides, stimulated as an author by Plato's philosophic +dialogues, had amidst the brilliance of their form totally +lost sight of the scientific contents and made the poetico-fabulistic +dress the main matter; he was an agreeable and largely-read author, +but far from a philosopher. Menippus was quite as little +a philosopher, but the most genuine literary representative +of that philosophy whose wisdom consisted in denying philosophy +and ridiculing philosophers the cynical wisdom of Diogenes; +a comic teacher of serious wisdom, he proved by examples +and merry sayings that except an upright life everything is vain +in earth and heaven, and nothing more vain than the disputes +of so-called sages. These were the true models for Varro, +a man full of old Roman indignation at the pitiful times and full +of old Roman humour, by no means destitute withal of plastic talent +but as to everything which presented the appearance not of palpable fact +but of idea or even of system, utterly stupid, and perhaps +the most unphilosophical among the unphilosophical Romans.(23) +But Varro was no slavish pupil. The impulse and in general +the form he derived from Heraclides and Menippus; but his was a nature +too individual and too decidedly Roman not to keep his imitative +creations essentially independent and national. + +Varro's Philosophico-Historical Essays + +For his grave dissertations, in which a moral maxim +or other subject of general interest is handled, he disdained, +in his framework to approximate to the Milesian tales, as Heraclides +had done, and so to serve up to the reader even childish little stories +like those of Abaris and of the maiden reawakened to life +after being seven days dead. But seldom he borrowed the dress +from the nobler myths of the Greeks, as in the essay "Orestes +or concerning Madness"; history ordinarily afforded him a worthier +frame for his subjects, more especially the contemporary history +of his country, so that these essays became, as they were called +-laudationes- of esteemed Romans, above all of the Coryphaei +of the constitutional party. Thus the dissertation "concerning Peace" +was at the same time a memorial of Metellus Pius, the last +in the brilliant series of successful generals of the senate; +that "concerning the Worship of the Gods" was at the same time +destined to preserve the memory of the highly-respected +Optimate and Pontifex Gaius Curio; the essay "on Fate" was connected +with Marius, that "on the Writing of History" with Sisenna +the first historian of this epoch, that "on the Beginnings +of the Roman Stage" with the princely giver of scenic spectacles +Scaurus, that "on Numbers" with the highly-cultured +Roman banker Atticus. The two philosophico-historical essays +"Laelius or concerning Friendship," "Cato or concerning Old Age," +which Cicero wrote probably after the model of those of Varro, +may give us some approximate idea of Varro's half-didactic, +half-narrative, treatment of these subjects. + +Varros' Menippean Satires + +The Menippean satire was handled by Varro with equal originality +of form and contents; the bold mixture of prose and verse is foreign +to the Greek original, and the whole intellectual contents +are pervaded by Roman idiosyncrasy--one might say, by a savour +of the Sabine soil. These satires like the philosophico-historical +essays handle some moral or other theme adapted to the larger public, +as is shown by the several titles---Columnae Herculis-, --peri doxeis--; +--Euren ei Lopas to Poma, peri gegameikoton--, -Est Modus +Matulae-, --peri metheis--; -Papiapapae-, --peri egkomios--. +The plastic dress, which in this case might not be wanting, +is of course but seldom borrowed from the history of his native country, +as in the satire -Serranus-, --peri archairesion--. The Cynic- +world of Diogenes on the other hand plays, as might be expected, +a great part; we meet with the --Kounistor--, the --Kounorreiton--, +the 'Ippokouon, the --'Oudrokouon--, the --Kounodidaskalikon-- +and others of a like kind. Mythology is also laid under contribution +for comic purposes; we find a -Prometheus Liber-, an -Ajax +Stramenticius-, a -Hercules Socraticus-, a -Sesqueulixes- +who had spent not merely ten but fifteen years in wanderings. +The outline of the dramatic or romantic framework is still discoverable +from the fragments in some pieces, such as the -Prometheus Liber-, +the -Sexagessis-, -Manius-; it appears that Varro frequently, +perhaps regularly, narrated the tale as his own experience; +e. g. in the -Manius- the dramatis personae go to Varro and discourse +to him "because he was known to them as a maker of books." +as to the poetical value of this dress we are no longer allowed +to form any certain judgment; there still occur in our fragments +several very charming sketches full of wit and liveliness-- +thus in the -Prometheus Liber- the hero after the loosing +of his chains opens a manufactory of men, in which Goldshoe the rich +(-Chrysosandalos-) bespeaks for himself a maiden, of milk and finest wax, +such as the Milesian bees gather from various flowers, a maiden +without bones and sinews, without skin or hair, pure and polished, slim, +smooth, tender, charming. The life-breath of this poetry is polemics-- +not so much the political warfare of party, such as Lucilius +and Catullus practised, but the general moral antagonism of the stern +elderly man to the unbridled and perverse youth, of the scholar +living in the midst of his classics to the loose and slovenly, +or at any rate in point of tendency reprobate, modern poetry,(24) +of the good burgess of the ancient type to the new Rome in which +the Forum, to use Varro's language, was a pigsty and Numa, if he turned +his eyes towards his city, would see no longer a trace of his wise +regulations. In the constitutional struggle Varro did what seemed to him +the duty of a citizen; but his heart was not in such party-doings-- +"why," he complains on one occasion, "do ye call me +from my pure life into the filth of your senate-house?" He belonged +to the good old time, when the talk savoured of onions and garlic, +but the heart was sound. His polemic against the hereditary foes +of the genuine Roman spirit, the Greek philosophers, was only +a single aspect of this old-fashioned opposition to the spirit +of the new times; but it resulted both from the nature of the Cynical +philosophy and from the temperament of Varro, that the Menippean lash +was very specially plied round the cars of the philosophers +and put them accordingly into proportional alarm--it was not +without palpitation that the philosophic scribes of the time +transmitted to the "severe man" their newly-issued treatises. +Philosophizing is truly no art. With the tenth part of the trouble +with which a master rears his slave to be a professional baker, +he trains himself to be a philosopher; no doubt, when the baker +and the philosopher both come under the hammer, the artist of pastry +goes off a hundred times dearer than the sage. Singular people, +these philosophers! One enjoins that corpses be buried in honey-- +it is a fortunate circumstance that his desire is not complied with, +otherwise where would any honey-wine be left? Another thinks +that men grow out of the earth like cresses. A third has invented +a world-borer (--Kosmotorounei--) by which the earth will some +day be destroyed. + + -Postremo, nemo aegrotus quicquam somniat + Tam infandum, quod non aliquis dicat philosophus-. + +It is ludicrous to observe how a Long-beard--by which is meant +an etymologizing Stoic--cautiously weighs every word in goldsmith's +scales; but there is nothing that surpasses the genuine +philosophers' quarrel--a Stoic boxing-match far excels any encounter +of athletes. In the satire -Marcopolis-, --peri archeis--, +when Marcus created for himself a Cloud-Cuckoo-Home after his own heart, +matters fared, just as in the Attic comedy, well with the peasant, +but ill with the philosopher; the -Celer- -- -di'-enos- -leimmatos-logos--, +son of Antipater the Stoic, beats in the skull of his opponent-- +evidently the philosophic -Dilemma---with the mattock. + +With this morally polemic tendency and this talent for embodying it +in caustic and picturesque expression, which, as the dress of dialogue +given to the books on Husbandry written in his eightieth year shows, +never forsook him down to extreme old age, Varro most happily +combined an incomparable knowledge of the national manners +and language, which is embodied in the philological writings +of his old age after the manner of a commonplace-book, but displays +itself in his Satires in all its direct fulness and freshness. +Varro was in the best and fullest sense of the term a local antiquarian, +who from the personal observation of many years knew his nation +in its former idiosyncrasy and seclusion as well as in its modern state +of transition and dispersion, and had supplemented and deepened +his direct knowledge of the national manners and national language +by the most comprehensive research in historical and literary archives. +His partial deficiency in rational judgment and learning-- +in our sense of the words--was compensated for by his clear +intuition and the poetry which lived within him. He sought +neither after antiquarian notices nor after rare antiquated +or poetical words;(25) but he was himself an old and old-fashioned man +and almost a rustic, the classics of his nation were his favourite +and long-familiar companions; how could it fail that many details +of the manners of his forefathers, which he loved above all +and especially knew, should be narrated in his writings, and that +his discourse should abound with proverbial Greek and Latin phrases, +with good old words preserved in the Sabine conversational language, +with reminiscences of Ennius, Lucilius, and above all of Plautus? +We should not judge as to the prose style of these aesthetic +writings of Varro's earlier period by the standard of his work +on Language written in his old age and probably published +in an unfinished state, in which certainly the clauses +of the sentence are arranged on the thread of the relative +like thrushes on a string; but we have already observed that Varro +rejected on principle the effort after a chaste style and Attic periods, +and his aesthetic essays, while destitute of the mean bombast +and the spurious tinsel of vulgarism, were yet written after an unclassic +and even slovenly fashion, in sentences rather directly joined +on to each other than regularly subdivided. The poetical pieces +inserted on the other hand show not merely that their author +knew how to mould the most varied measures with as much mastery +as any of the fashionable poets, but that he had a right +to include himself among those to whom a god has granted the gift +of "banishing cares from the heart by song and sacred poesy."(26) +the sketches of Varro no more created a school than the didactic poem +of Lucretius; to the more general causes which prevented this +there falls to be added their thoroughly individual stamp, +which was inseparable from the greater age, from the rusticity, +and even from the peculiar erudition of their author. But the grace +and humour of the Menippean satires above all, which seem to have been +in number and importance far superior to Varro's graver works, +captivated his contemporaries as well as those in after times +who had any relish for originality and national spirit; and even we, +who are no longer permitted to read them, may still from the fragments +preserved discern in some measure that the writer "knew how to laugh +and how to jest in moderation." And as the last breath +of the good spirit of the old burgess-times ere it departed, +as the latest fresh growth which the national Latin poetry put forth, +the Satires of Varro deserved that the poet in his poetical testament +should commend these his Menippean children to every one +"who had at heart the prosperity of Rome and of Latium"; +and they accordingly retain an honourable place in the literature +as in the history of the Italian people.(27) + +Historical Composition +Sisenna + +The critical writing of history, after the manner in which +the Attic authors wrote the national history in their classic period +and in which Polybius wrote the history of the world, was never +properly developed in Rome. Even in the field most adapted for it-- +the representation of contemporary and of recently past events-- +there was nothing, on the whole, but more or less inadequate attempts; +in the epoch especially from Sulla to Caesar the not very important +contributions, which the previous epoch had to show in this field-- +the labours of Antipater and Asellius--were barely even equalled. +The only work of note belonging to this field, which arose +in the present epoch, was the history of the Social and Civil Wars +by Lucius Cornelius Sisenna (praetor in 676). Those who had read it +testify that it far excelled in liveliness and readableness +the old dry chronicles, but was written withal in a style +thoroughly impure and even degenerating into puerility; as indeed +the few remaining fragments exhibit a paltry painting of horrible +details,(28) and a number of words newly coined or derived +from the language of conversation. When it is added that the author's +model and, so to speak, the only Greek historian familiar to him +was Clitarchus, the author of a biography of Alexander the Great +oscillating between history and fiction in the manner of the semi- +romance which bears the name of Curtius, we shall not hesitate +to recognize in Sisenna's celebrated historical work, not a product +of genuine historical criticism and art, but the first Roman essay +in that hybrid mixture of history and romance so much a favourite +with the Greeks, which desires to make the groundwork of facts +life-like and interesting by means of fictitious details and thereby +makes it insipid and untrue; and it will no longer excite surprise +that we meet with the same Sisenna also as translator of Greek +fashionable romances.(29) + +Annals of the City + +That the prospect should be still more lamentable in the field +of the general annals of the city and even of the world, was implied +in the nature of the case. The increasing activity of antiquarian +research induced the expectation that the current narrative +would be rectified from documents and other trustworthy sources; +but this hope was not fulfilled. The more and the deeper men +investigated, the more clearly it became apparent what a task it was +to write a critical history of Rome. The difficulties even, +which opposed themselves to investigation and narration, were immense; +but the most dangerous obstacles were not those of a literary kind. +The conventional early history of Rome, as it had now been narrated +and believed for at least ten generations; was most intimately mixed up +with the civil life of the nation; and yet in any thorough +and honest inquiry not only had details to be modified here and there, +but the whole building had to be overturned as much as +the Franconian primitive history of king Pharamund or the British +of king Arthur. An inquirer of conservative views, such as was Varro +for instance, could have no wish to put his hand to such a work; +and if a daring freethinker had undertaken it, an outcry +would have been raised by all good citizens against this worst +of all revolutionaries, who was preparing to deprive the constitutional +party even of their past Thus philological and antiquarian research +deterred from the writing of history rather than conduced towards it. +Varro and the more sagacious men in general evidently gave up +the task of annals as hopeless; at the most they arranged, +as did Titus Pomponius Atticus, the official and gentile lists +in unpretending tabular shape--a work by which the synchronistic +Graeco-Roman chronology was finally brought into the shape in which +it was conventionally fixed for posterity. But the manufacture +of city-chronicles of course did not suspend its activity; +it continued to supply its contributions both in prose and verse +to the great library written by ennui for ennui, while the makers +of the books, in part already freedmen, did not trouble themselves +at all about research properly so called. Such of these writings +as are mentioned to us--not one of them is preserved--seem to have been +not only of a wholly secondary character, but in great part +even pervaded by interested falsification. It is true +that the chronicle of Quintus Claudius Quadrigarius (about 676?) +was written in an old-fashioned but good style, and studied at least +a commendable brevity in the representation of the fabulous period. +Gaius Licinius Macer (d. as late praetor in 688), father of the poet +Calvus,(30) and a zealous democrat, laid claim more than +any other chronicler to documentary research and criticism, +but his -libri lintei- and other matters peculiar to him are +in the highest degree suspicious, and an interpolation +of the whole annals in the interest of democratic tendencies-- +an interpolation of a very extensive kind, and which has passed over +in part to the later annalists--is probably traceable to him. + +Valerius Antias + +Lastly, Valerius Antias excelled all his predecessors in prolixity +as well as in puerile story-telling. The falsification of numbers +was here systematically carried out down even to contemporary history, +and the primitive history of Rome was elaborated once more +from one form of insipidity to another; for instance the narrative +of the way in which the wise Numa according to the instructions +of the nymph Egeria caught the gods Faunus and Picus; with wine, +and the beautiful conversation thereupon held by the same Numa +with the god Jupiter, cannot be too urgently recommended +to all worshippers of the so-called legendary history of Rome +in order that, if possible, they may believe these things--of course, +in substance. It would have been a marvel if the Greek novel-writers +of this period had allowed such materials, made as if for their use, +to escape them. In fact there were not wanting Greek literati, +who worked up the Roman history into romances; such a composition, +for instance, was the Five Books "Concerning Rome" of the Alexander +Polyhistor already mentioned among the Greek literati living in Rome,(31) +a preposterous mixture of vapid historical tradition and trivial, +principally erotic, fiction. He, it may be presumed, +took the first steps towards filling up the five hundred years, +which were wanting to bring the destruction of Troy and the origin +of Rome into the chronological connection required by the fables +on either side, with one of those lists of kings without achievements +which are unhappily familiar to the Egyptian and Greek chroniclers; +for, to all appearance, it was he that launched into the world +the kings Aventinus and Tiberinus and the Alban gens of the Silvii, +whom the following times accordingly did not neglect to furnish +in detail with name, period of reigning, and, for the sake of greater +definiteness, also a portrait. + +Thus from various sides the historical romance of the Greeks +finds its way into Roman historiography; and it is more than probable +that not the least portion of what we are accustomed nowadays +to call tradition of the Roman primitive times proceeds from sources +of the stamp of Amadis of Gaul and the chivalrous romances +of Fouque--an edifying consideration, at least for those who have +a relish for the humour of history and who know how to appreciate +the comical aspect of the piety still cherished in certain circles +of the nineteenth century for king Numa. + +Universal History +Nepos + +A novelty in the Roman literature of this period is the appearance +of universal history or, to speak more correctly, of Roman +and Greek history conjoined, alongside of the native annals. +Cornelius Nepos from Ticinum (c. 650-c. 725) first supplied +an universal chronicle (published before 700) and a general collection +of biographies--arranged according to certain categories--of Romans +and Greeks distinguished in politics or literature or of men +at any rate who exercised influence on the Roman or Greek history. +These works are of a kindred nature with the universal histories +which the Greeks had for a considerable time been composing; +and these very Greek world-chronicles, such as that of Kastor son-in-law +of the Galatian king Deiotarus, concluded in 698, now began to include +in their range the Roman history which previously they had neglected. +These works certainly attempted, just like Polybius, to substitute +the history of the Mediterranean world for the more local one; +but that which in Polybius was the result of a grand and clear +conception and deep historical feeling was in these chronicles +rather the product of the practical exigencies of school +and self-instruction. These general chronicles, text-books +for scholastic instruction or manuals for reference, and the whole +literature therewith connected which subsequently became very copious +in the Latin language also, can hardly be reckoned as belonging +to artistic historical composition; and Nepos himself in particular +was a pure compiler distinguished neither by spirit nor even merely +by symmetrical plan. + +The historiography of this period is certainly remarkable +and in a high degree characteristic, but it is as far from pleasing +as the age itself. The interpenetration of Greek and Latin literature +is in no field so clearly apparent as in that of history; +here the respective literatures become earliest equalized in matter +and form, and the conception of Helleno-Italic history as an unity, +in which Polybius was so far in advance of his age, was now learned +even by Greek and Roman boys at school. But while the Mediterranean +state had found a historian before it had become conscious +of its own existence, now, when that consciousness had been attained, +there did not arise either among the Greeks or among the Romans +any man who was able to give to it adequate expression. +"There is no such thing," says Cicero, "as Roman historical +composition"; and, so far as we can judge, this is no more than +the simple truth. The man of research turns away from writing history, +the writer of history turns away from research; historical literature +oscillates between the schoolbook and the romance. All the species +of pure art--epos, drama, lyric poetry, history--are worthless +in this worthless world; but in no species is the intellectual decay +of the Ciceronian age reflected with so terrible a clearness +as in its historiography. + +Literature Subsidiary to History +Caesar's Report + +The minor historical literature of this period displays +on the other hand, amidst many insignificant and forgotten productions, +one treatise of the first rank--the Memoirs of Caesar, or rather +the Military Report of the democratic general to the people +from whom he had received his commission. The finished section, +and that which alone was published by the author himself, describing +the Celtic campaigns down to 702, is evidently designed to justify +as well as possible before the public the formally unconstitutional +enterprise of Caesar in conquering a great country and constantly +increasing his army for that object without instructions +from the competent authority; it was written and given forth in 703, +when the storm broke out against Caesar in Rome and he was summoned +to dismiss his army and answer for his conduct.(32) The author +of this vindication writes, as he himself says, entirely as an officer +and carefully avoids extending his military report to the hazardous +departments of political organization and administration. +His incidental and partisan treatise cast in the form of a military +report is itself a piece of history like the bulletins of Napoleon, +but it is not, and was not intended to be, a historical work +in the true sense of the word; the objective form which the narrative +assumes is that of the magistrate, not that of the historian. +But in this modest character the work is masterly and finished, +more than any other in all Roman literature. The narrative +is always terse and never scanty, always simple and never careless, +always of transparent vividness and never strained or affected. +The language is completely pure from archaisms and from vulgarisms-- +the type of the modern -urbanitas-. In the Books concerning +the Civil War we seem to feel that the author had desired to avoid war +and could not avoid it, and perhaps also that in Caesar's soul, +as in every other, the period of hope was a purer and fresher one +than that of fulfilment; but over the treatise on the Gallic war +there is diffused a bright serenity, a simple charm, which are +no less unique in literature than Caesar is in history. + +Correspondence + +Of a kindred nature were the letters interchanged between the statesmen +and literati of this period, which were carefully collected +and published in the following epoch; such as the correspondence +of Caesar himself, of Cicero, Calvus and others. They can still less +be numbered among strictly literary performances; but this literature +of correspondence was a rich store-house for historical +as for all other research, and the most faithful mirror of an epoch +in which so much of the worth of past times and so much spirit, +cleverness, and talent were evaporated and dissipated in trifling. + +News-Sheet + +A journalist literature in the modern sense was never formed in Rome; +literary warfare continued to be confined to the writing +of pamphlets and, along with this, to the custom generally diffused +at that time of annotating the notices destined for the public +in places of resort with the pencil or the pen. On the other hand +subordinate persons were employed to note down the events +of the day and news of the city for the absent men of quality; +and Caesar as early as his first consulship took fitting measures +for the immediate publication of an extract from the transactions +of the senate. From the private journals of those Roman penny-a-liners +and these official current reports there arose a sort of news-sheet +for the capital (-acta diurna-), in which the resume of the business +discussed before the people and in the senate, and births, deaths, +and such like were recorded. This became a not unimportant +source for history, but remained without proper political +as without literary significance. + +Speeches +Decline of Political Oratory + +To subsidiary historical literature belongs of right also +the composition of orations. The speech, whether written down or not, +is in its nature ephemeral and does not belong to literature; +but it may, like the report and the letter, and indeed still +more readily than these, come to be included, through the significance +of the moment and the power of the mind from which it springs, +among the permanent treasures of the national literature. +Thus in Rome the records of orations of a political tenor delivered +before the burgesses or the jurymen had for long played a great part +in public life; and not only so, but the speeches of Gaius Gracchus +in particular were justly reckoned among the classical Roman writings. +But in this epoch a singular change occurred on all hands. +The composition of political speeches was on the decline like political +speaking itself. The political speech in Rome, as generally +in the ancient polities, reached its culminating point in the discussions +before the burgesses; here the orator was not fettered, as in the senate, +by collegiate considerations and burdensome forms, nor, +as in the judicial addresses, by the interests--in themselves foreign +to politics--of the accusation and defence; here alone his heart +swelled proudly before the whole great and mighty Roman people +hanging on his lips. But all this was now gone. Not as though +there was any lack of orators or of the publishing of speeches +delivered before the burgesses; on the contrary political +authorship only now waxed copious, and it began to become +a standing complaint at table that the host incommoded his guests +by reading before them his latest orations. Publius Clodius +had his speeches to the people issued as pamphlets, +just like Gaius Gracchus; but two men may do the same thing +without producing the same effect. The more important leaders +even of the opposition, especially Caesar himself, did not often address +the burgesses, and no longer published the speeches which they delivered; +indeed they partly sought for their political fugitive writings +another form than the traditional one of -contiones-, in which respect +more especially the writings praising and censuring Cato(33) +are remarkable. This is easily explained. Gaius Gracchus +had addressed the burgesses; now men addressed the populace; +and as the audience, so was the speech. No wonder that the reputable +political author shunned a dress which implied that he had directed +his words to the crowd assembled in the market-place of the capital. + +Rise of A Literature of Pleadings +Cicero + +While the composition of orations thus declined from its former +literary and political value in the same way as all branches +of literature which were the natural growth of the national life, +there began at the same time a singular, non-political, literature +of pleadings. Hitherto the Romans had known nothing of the idea +that the address of an advocate as such was destined not only +for the judges and the parties, but also for the literary edification +of contemporaries and posterity; no advocate had written down +and published his pleadings, unless they were possibly at the same time +political orations and in so far were fitted to be circulated +as party writings, and this had not occurred very frequently. +Even Quintus Hortensius (640-704), the most celebrated Roman advocate +in the first years of this period, published but few speeches +and these apparently only such as were wholly or half political. +It was his successor in the leadership of the Roman bar, +Marcus Tullius Cicero (648-711) who was from the outset quite as much +author as forensic orator; he published his pleadings regularly, +even when they were not at all or but remotely connected +with politics. This was a token, not of progress, but of an unnatural +and degenerate state of things. Even in Athens the appearance +of non-political pleadings among the forms of literature was a sign +of debility; and it was doubly so in Rome, which did not, +like Athens, by a sort of necessity produce this malformation +from the exaggerated pursuit of rhetoric, but borrowed it +from abroad arbitrarily and in antagonism to the better traditions +of the nation. Yet this new species of literature came rapidly +into vogue, partly because it had various points of contact +and coincidence with the earlier authorship of political orations, +partly because the unpoetic, dogmatical, rhetorizing temperament +of the Romans offered a favourable soil for the new seed, as indeed +at the present day the speeches of advocates and even a sort +of literature of law-proceedings are of some importance in Italy. + +His Character + +Thus oratorical authorship emancipated from politics +was naturalized in the Roman literary world by Cicero. +We have already had occasion several times to mention +this many-sided man. As a statesman without insight, idea, +or purpose, he figured successively as democrat, as aristocrat, +and as a tool of the monarchs, and was never more than +a short-sighted egotist. Where he exhibited the semblance of action, +the questions to which his action applied had, as a rule, +just reached their solution; thus he came forward in the trial +of Verres against the senatorial courts when they were already +set aside; thus he was silent at the discussion on the Gabinian, +and acted as a champion of the Manilian, law; thus he thundered +against Catilina when his departure was already settled, +and so forth. He was valiant in opposition to sham attacks, +and he knocked down many walls of pasteboard with a loud din; +no serious matter was ever, either in good or evil, decided by him, +and the execution of the Catilinarians in particular was far more +due to his acquiescence than to his instigation. In a literary +point of view we have already noticed that he was the creator +of the modern Latin prose;(34) his importance rests on his mastery +of style, and it is only as a stylist that he shows confidence +in himself. In the character of an author, on the other hand, +he stands quite as low as in that of a statesman. He essayed +the most varied tasks, sang the great deeds of Marius +and his own petty achievements in endless hexameters, +beat Demosthenes off the field with his speeches, and Plato +with his philosophic dialogues; and time alone was wanting for him +to vanquish also Thucydides. He was in fact so thoroughly a dabbler, +that it was pretty much a matter of indifference to what work +he applied his hand. By nature a journalist in the worst +sense of that term--abounding, as he himself says, in words, +poor beyond all conception in ideas--there was no department +in which he could not with the help of a few books have rapidly got up +by translation or compilation a readable essay. His correspondence +mirrors most faithfully his character. People are in the habit +of calling it interesting and clever; and it is so, as long as +it reflects the urban or villa life of the world of quality; +but where the writer is thrown on his own resources, as in exile, +in Cilicia, and after the battle of Pharsalus, it is stale +and emptyas was ever the soul of a feuilletonist banished from his +familiar circles. It is scarcely needful to add that such a statesman +and such a -litterateur- could not, as a man, exhibit aught else +than a thinly varnished superficiality and heart-lessness. +Must we still describe the orator? The great author is also a great man; +and in the great orator more especially conviction or passion +flows forth with a clearer and more impetuous stream from the depths +of the breast than in the scantily-gifted many who merely count +and are nothing. Cicero had no conviction and no passion; +he was nothing but an advocate, and not a good one. He understood +how to set forth his narrative of the case with piquancy of anecdote, +to excite, if not the feeling, at any rate the sentimentality +of his hearers, and to enliven the dry business of legal pleading +by cleverness or witticisms mostly of a personal sort; +his better orations, though they are far from coming up to the free +gracefulness and the sure point of the most excellent compositions +of this sort, for instance the Memoirs of Beaumarchais, yet form +easy and agreeable reading. But while the very advantages +just indicated will appear to the serious judge as advantages +of very dubious value, the absolute want of political discernment +in the orations on constitutional questions and of juristic deduction +in the forensic addresses, the egotism forgetful of its duty +and constantly losing sight of the cause while thinking +of the advocate, the dreadful barrenness of thought in the Ciceronian +orations must revolt every reader of feeling and judgment. + +Ciceronianism + +If there is anything wonderful in the case, it is in truth +not the orations, but the admiration which they excited. As to Cicero +every unbiassed person will soon make up his mind: Ciceronianism +is a problem, which in fact cannot be properly solved, but can only +be resolved into that greater mystery of human nature--language +and the effect of language on the mind. Inasmuch as the noble Latin +language, just before it perished as a national idiom, was once more +as it were comprehensively grasped by that dexterous stylist +and deposited in his copious writings, something of the power +which language exercises, and of the piety which it awakens, +was transferred to the unworthy vessel. The Romans possessed +no great Latin prose-writer; for Caesar was, like Napoleon, +only incidentally an author. Was it to be wondered at that, +in the absence of such an one, they should at least honour the genius +of the language in the great stylist? And that, like Cicero himself, +Cicero's readers also should accustom themselves to ask not what, +but how he had written? Custom and the schoolmaster then completed +what the power of language had begun. + +Opposition to Ciceronianism +Calvus and His Associates + +Cicero's contemporaries however were, as may readily be conceived, +far less involved in this strange idolatry than many of their successors. +The Ciceronian manner ruled no doubt throughout a generation +the Roman advocate-world, just as the far worse manner of Hortensius +had done; but the most considerable men, such as Caesar, +kept themselves always aloof from it, and among the younger +generation there arose in all men of fresh and living talent +the most decided opposition to that hybrid and feeble rhetoric. +They found Cicero's language deficient in precision and chasteness, +his jests deficient in liveliness, his arrangement deficient +in clearness and articulate division, and above all his whole eloquence +wanting in the fire which makes the orator. Instead of the Rhodian +eclectics men began to recur to the genuine Attic orators +especially to Lysias and Demosthenes, and sought to naturalize +a more vigorous and masculine eloquence in Rome. Representatives +of this tendency were, the solemn but stiff Marcus Junius Brutus +(669-712); the two political partisans Marcus Caelius Rufus +(672-706;(35)) and Gaius Scribonius Curio (d. 705(36);)-- +both as orators full of spirit and life; Calvus well known +also as a poet (672-706), the literary coryphaeus of this younger +group of orators; and the earnest and conscientious Gaius Asinius Pollio +(678-757). Undeniably there was more taste and more spirit +in this younger oratorical literature than in the Hortensian +and Ciceronian put together; but we are not able to judge how far, +amidst the storms of the revolution which rapidly swept away the whole +of this richly-gifted group with the single exception of Pollio, +those better germs attained development. The time allotted to them +was but too brief. The new monarchy began by making war on freedom +of speech, and soon wholly suppressed the political oration. +Thenceforth the subordinate species of the pure advocate-pleading +was doubtless still retained in literature; but the higher art +and literature of oratory, which thoroughly depend on political +excitement, perished with the latter of necessity and for ever. + +The Artificial Dialogue Applied to the Professional Sciences +Cicero's Dialogues + +Lastly there sprang up in the aesthetic literature of this period +the artistic treatment of subjects of professional science +in the form of the stylistic dialogue, which had been very extensively +in use among the Greeks and had been already employed also +in isolated cases among the Romans.(37) Cicero especially made +various attempts at presenting rhetorical and philosophical subjects +in this form and making the professional manual a suitable book +for reading. His chief writings are the -De Oratore- (written in 699), +to which the history of Roman eloquence (the dialogue -Brutus-, +written in 708) and other minor rhetorical essays were added +by way of supplement; and the treatise -De Republica- (written in 700), +with which the treatise -De Legibus- (written in 702?) after the model +of Plato is brought into connection. They are no great works +of art, but undoubtedly they are the works in which the excellences +of the author are most, and his defects least, conspicuous. +The rhetorical writings are far from coming up to the didactic +chasteness of form and precision of thought of the Rhetoric +dedicated to Herennius, but they contain instead a store +of practical forensic experience and forensic anecdotes of all sorts +easily and tastefully set forth, and in fact solve the problem +of combining didactic instruction with amusement. The treatise +-De Republica- carries out, in a singular mongrel compound of history +and philosophy, the leading idea that the existing constitution +of Rome is substantially the ideal state-organization sought for +by the philosophers; an idea indeed just as unphilosophical +as unhistorical, and besides not even peculiar to the author, +but which, as may readily be conceived, became and remained popular. +The scientific groundwork of these rhetorical and political +writings of Cicero belongs of course entirely to the Greeks, +and many of the details also, such as the grand concluding effect +in the treatise -De Republica- the Dream of Scipio, are directly +borrowed from them; yet they possess comparative originality, +inasmuch as the elaboration shows throughout Roman local colouring, +and the proud consciousness of political life, which the Roman +was certainly entitled to feel as compared with the Greeks, +makes the author even confront his Greek instructors with a certain +independence. The form of Cicero's dialogue is doubtless neither +the genuine interrogative dialectics of the best Greek artificial +dialogue nor the genuine conversational tone of Diderot or Lessing; +but the great groups of advocates gathering around Crassus +and Antonius and of the older and younger statesmen of the Scipionic +circle furnish a lively and effective framework, fitting channels +for the introduction of historical references and anecdotes, +and convenient resting-points for the scientific discussion. +The style is quite as elaborate and polished as in the best-written +orations, and so far more pleasing than these, since the author +does not often in this field make a vain attempt at pathos. + +While these rhetorical and political writings of Cicero +with a philosophic colouring are not devoid of merit, the compiler +on the other hand completely failed, when in the involuntary leisure +of the last years of his life (709-710) he applied himself +to philosophy proper, and with equal peevishness and precipitation +composed in a couple of months a philosophical library. The receipt +was very simple. In rude imitation of the popular writings +of Aristotle, in which the form of dialogue was employed +chiefly for the setting forth and criticising of the different +older systems, Cicero stitched together the Epicurean, Stoic, +and Syncretist writings handling the same problem, as they came +or were given to his hand, into a so-called dialogue. And all +that he did on his own part was, to supply an introduction prefixed +to the new book from the ample collection of prefaces for future works +which he had beside him; to impart a certain popular character, +inasmuch as he interwove Roman examples and references, and sometimes +digressed to subjects irrelevant but more familiar to the writer +and the reader, such as the treatment of the deportment +of the orator in the -De Officiis-; and to exhibit that sort +of bungling, which a man of letters, who has not attained to philosophic +thinking or even to philosophic knowledge and who works rapidly +and boldly, shows in the reproduction of dialectic trains of thought. +In this way no doubt a multitude of thick tomes might very quickly +come into existence--"They are copies," wrote the author himself +to a friend who wondered at his fertility; "they give me little trouble, +for I supply only the words and these I have in abundance." +Against this nothing further could be said; but any one who seeks +classical productions in works so written can only be advised to study +in literary matters a becoming silence. + +Professional Sciences. +Latin Philology +Varro + +Of the sciences only a single one manifested vigorous life, +that of Latin philology. The scheme of linguistic and antiquarian +research within the domain of the Latin race, planned by Silo, +was carried out especially by his disciple Varro on the grandest scale. +There appeared comprehensive elaborations of the whole stores +of the language, more especially the extensive grammatical commentaries +of Figulus and the great work of Varro -De Lingua Latina-; +monographs on grammar and the history of the language, such as +Varro's writings on the usage of the Latin language, on synonyms, +on the age of the letters, on the origin of the Latin tongue; +scholia on the older literature, especially on Plautus; +works of literary history, biographies of poets, investigations +into the earlier drama, into the scenic division of the comedies +of Plautus, and into their genuineness. Latin archaeology, +which embraced the whole older history and the ritual law apart +from practical jurisprudence, was comprehended in Varro's "Antiquities +of Things Human and Divine," which was and for all times remained +the fundamental treatise on the subject (published between 687 +and 709). The first portion, "Of Things Human," described the primeval +age of Rome, the divisions of city and country, the sciences +of the years, months, and days, lastly, the public transactions +at home and in war; in the second half, "Of Things Divine," the state- +theology, the nature and significance of the colleges of experts, +of the holy places, of the religious festivals, of sacrificial +and votive gifts, and lastly of the gods themselves were summarily +unfolded. Moreover, besides a number of monographs-- +e. g. on the descent of the Roman people, on the Roman gentes +descended from Troy, on the tribes--there was added, as a larger +and more independent supplement, the treatise "Of the Life +of the Roman People"--a remarkable attempt at a history of Roman manners, +which sketched a picture of the state of domestic life, finance, +and culture in the regal, the early republican, the Hannibalic, +and the most recent period. These labours of Varro were based +on an empiric knowledge of the Roman world and its adjacent Hellenic +domain more various and greater in its kind than any other Roman +either before or after him possessed--a knowledge to which living +observation and the study of literature alike contributed. +The eulogy of his contemporaries was well deserved, that Varro +had enabled his countrymen--strangers in their own world--to know +their position in their native land, and had taught the Romans +who and where they were. But criticism and system will be sought for +in vain. His Greek information seems to have come from somewhat +confused sources, and there are traces that even in the Roman field +the writer was not free from the influence of the historical +romance of his time. The matter is doubtless inserted +in a convenient and symmetrical framework, but not classified +or treated methodically; and with all his efforts to bring tradition +and personal observation into harmony, the scientific labours of Varro +are not to be acquitted of a certain implicit faith in tradition +or of an unpractical scholasticism.(38) The connection with Greek +philology consists in the imitation of its defects more than +of its excellences; for instance, the basing of etymologies +on mere similarity of sound both in Varro himself and in the other +philologues of this epoch runs into pure guesswork and often +into downright absurdity.(39) In its empiric confidence +and copiousness as well as in its empiric inadequacy and want of method +the Varronian vividly reminds us of the English national philology, +and just like the latter, finds its centre in the study +of the older drama. We have already observed that the monarchical +literature developed the rules of language in contradistinction +to this linguistic empiricism.(40) It is in a high degree significant +that there stands at the head of the modern grammarians no less a man +than Caesar himself, who in his treatise on Analogy (given forth +between 696 and 704) first undertook to bring free language +under the power of law. + +The Other Professional Sciences + +Alongside of this extraordinary stir in the field of philology +The small amount of activity in the other sciences is surprising. +What appeared of importance in philosophy--such as Lucretius' +representation of the Epicurean system in the poetical child-dress +of the pre-Socratic philosophy, and the better writings of Cicero-- +produced its effect and found its audience not through its +philosophic contents, but in spite of such contents solely +through its aesthetic form; the numerous translations of Epicurean +writings and the Pythagorean works, such as Varro's great treatise +on the Elements of Numbers and the still more copious one of Figulus +concerning the Gods, had beyond doubt neither scientific +nor formal value. + +Even the professional sciences were but feebly cultivated. Varro's +Books on Husbandry written in the form of dialogue are no doubt +more methodical than those of his predecessors Cato and Saserna-- +on which accordingly he drops many a side glance of censure-- +but have on the whole proceeded more from the study than, like those +earlier works, from living experience. Of the juristic labours of Varro +and of Servius Sulpicius Rufus (consul in 703) hardly aught more +can be said, than that they contributed to the dialectic +and philosophical embellishment of Roman jurisprudence. And there is +nothing farther here to be mentioned, except perhaps the three +books of Gaius Matius on cooking, pickling, and making preserves-- +so far as we know, the earliest Roman cookery-book, and, as the work +of a man of rank, certainly a phenomenon deserving of notice. +That mathematics and physics were stimulated by the increased +Hellenistic and utilitarian tendencies of the monarchy, is apparent +from their growing importance in the instruction of youth (41) +and from various practical applications; under which, besides +the reform of the calendar,(42) may perhaps be included the appearance +of wall-maps at this period, the technical improvements +in shipbuilding and in musical instruments, designs and buildings +like the aviary specified by Varro, the bridge of piles over the Rhine +executed by the engineers of Caesar, and even two semicircular +stages of boards arranged for being pushed together, and employed +first separately as two theatres and then jointly as an amphitheatre. +The public exhibition of foreign natural curiosities at the popular +festivals was not unusual; and the descriptions of remarkable animals, +which Caesar has embodied in the reports of his campaigns, +show that, had an Aristotle appeared, he would have again +found his patron-prince. But such literary performances +as are mentioned in this department are essentially associated +with Neopythagoreanism, such as the comparison of Greek and Barbarian, +i. e. Egyptian, celestial observations by Figulus, and his writings +concerning animals, winds, and generative organs. After Greek +physical research generally had swerved from the Aristotelian effort +to find amidst individual facts the law, and had more and more +passed into an empiric and mostly uncritical observation of the external +and surprising in nature, natural science when coming forward +as a mystical philosophy of nature, instead of enlightening +and stimulating, could only still more stupefy and paralyze; +and in presence of such a method it was better to rest satisfied +with the platitude which Cicero delivers as Socratic wisdom, +that the investigation of nature either seeks after things +which nobody can know, or after such things as nobody needs to know. + +Art +Architecture + +If, in fine, we cast a glance at art, we discover here +the same unpleasing phenomena which pervade the whole mental life +of this period. Building on the part of the state was virtually +brought to a total stand amidst the scarcity of money that marked +the last age of the republic. We have already spoken of the luxury +in building of the Roman grandees; the architects learned in consequence +of this to be lavish of marble--the coloured sorts such as +the yellow Numidian (Giallo antico) and others came into vogue +at this time, and the marble-quarries of Luna (Carrara) +were now employed for the first time--and began to inlay the floors +of the rooms with mosaic work, to panel the walls with slabs of marble, +or to paint the compartments in imitation of marble--the first steps +towards the subsequent fresco-painting. But art was not a gainer +by this lavish magnificence. + +Arts of Design + +In the arts of design connoisseurship and collecting were always +on the increase. It was a mere affectation of Catonian simplicity, +when an advocate spoke before the jurymen of the works of art +"of a certain Praxiteles"; every one travelled and inspected, +and the trade of the art-ciceroni, or, as they were then called, +the -exegetae-, was none of the worst. Ancient works of art +were formally hunted after--statues and pictures less, it is true, +than, in accordance with the rude character of Roman luxury, +artistically wrought furniture and ornaments of all sorts for the room +and the table. As early as that age the old Greek tombs of Capua +and Corinth were ransacked for the sake of the bronze and earthenware +vessels which had been placed in the tomb along with the dead. +for a small statuette of bronze 40,000 sesterces (400 pounds) +were paid, and 200,000 (2000 pounds) for a pair of costly carpets; +a well-wrought bronze cooking machine came to cost more than +an estate. In this barbaric hunting after art the rich amateur was, +as might be expected, frequently cheated by those who supplied him; +but the economic ruin of Asia Minor in particular so exceedingly rich +in artistic products brought many really ancient and rare ornaments +and works of art into the market, and from Athens, Syracuse, +Cyzicus, Pergamus, Chios, Samos, and other ancient seats of art, +everything that was for sale and very much that was not migrated +to the palaces and villas of the Roman grandees. We have +already mentioned what treasures of art were to be found within +the house of Lucullus, who indeed was accused, perhaps not unjustly, +of having gratified his interest in the fine arts at the expense +of his duties as a general. The amateurs of art crowded thither +as they crowd at present to the Villa Borghese, and complained +even then of such treasures being confined to the palaces +and country-houses of the men of quality, where they could be seen +only with difficulty and after special permission from the possessor. +The public buildings on the other hand were far from filled +in like proportion with famous works of Greek masters, +and in many cases there still stood in the temples of the capital +nothing but the old images of the gods carved in wood. +As to the exercise of art there is virtually nothing to report; +there is hardly mentioned by name from this period any Roman sculptor +or painter except a certain Arellius, whose pictures rapidly went off +not on account of their artistic value, but because the cunning reprobate +furnished, in his pictures of the goddesses faithful portraits +of his mistresses for the time being. + +Dancing and Music + +The importance of music and dancing increased in public +as in domestic life. We have already set forth how theatrical music +and the dancing-piece attained to an independent standing +in the development of the stage at this period;(43) we may add +that now in Rome itself representations were very frequently given +by Greek musicians, dancers, and declaimers on the public stage-- +such as were usual in Asia Minor and generally in the whole Hellenic +and Hellenizing world.(44) To these fell to be added the musicians +and dancing-girls who exhibited their arts to order at table +and elsewhere, and the special choirs of stringed and wind instruments +and singers which were no longer rare in noble houses. But that even +the world of quality itself played and sang with diligence, is shown +by the very adoption of music into the cycle of the generally +recognized subjects of instruction;(45) as to dancing, it was, +to say nothing of women, made matter of reproach even against +consulars that they exhibited themselves in dancing performances +amidst a small circle. + +Incipient Influence of the Monarchy + +Towards the end of this period, however, there appears +with the commencement of the monarchy the beginning of a better time +also in art. We have already mentioned the mighty stimulus +which building in the capital received, and building throughout +the empire was destined to receive, through Caesar. Even in the cutting +of the dies of the coins there appears about 700 a remarkable change; +the stamping, hitherto for the most part rude and negligent, +is thenceforward managed with more delicacy and care. + +Conclusion + +We have reached the end of the Roman republic. We have seen +it rule for five hundred years in Italy and in the countries +on the Mediterranean; we have seen it brought to ruin in politics +and morals, religion and literature, not through outward violence +but through inward decay, and thereby making room for the new monarchy +of Caesar. There was in the world, as Caesar found it, much +of the noble heritage of past centuries and an infinite abundance of pomp +and glory, but little spirit, still less taste, and least of all +true delight in life. It was indeed an old world; and even +the richly-gifted patriotism of Caesar could not make it young again. +The dawn does not return till after the night has fully set in +and run its course. But yet with him there came to the sorely harassed +peoples on the Mediterranean a tolerable evening after the sultry noon; +and when at length after a long historical night the new day dawned +once more for the peoples, and fresh nations in free self-movement +commenced their race towards new and higher goals, there were found +among them not a few, in which the seed sown by Caesar had sprung up, +and which owed, as they still owe, to him their national individuality. + + + + +Notes for Chapter I + + +1. IV. VII. Bestowal of Latin Rights on the Italian Celts, 527 + +2. It is a significant trait, that a distinguished teacher of +literature, the freedman Staberius Eros, allowed the children of +the proscribed to attend his course gratuitously. + +3. IV. X. Proscription-Lists + +4. IV. IX. Pompeius + +5. IV. IV. Administration under the Restoration + +6. IV. IV. Livius Drusus + +7. IV. IX. Government of Cinna + +8. IV. IX. Pompeius + +9. IV. IX. Sertorius Embarks + +10. IV. VII. Strabo, IV. IX. Dubious Attitude of Strabo + +11. IV. IX. Carbo Assailed on Three Sides of Etruria + +12. IV. VII. Rejection of the Proposals for an Accomodation + +13. IV. X. Reorganization of the Senate + +14. It is usual to set down the year 654 as that of Caesar's +birth, because according to Suetonius (Caes. 88), Plutarch (Caes. +69), and Appian (B. C. ii. 149) he was at his death (15 March 710) +in his 56th year; with which also the statement that he was 18 +years old at the time of the Sullan proscription (672; Veil. ii. +41) nearly accords. But this view is utterly inconsistent with +the facts that Caesar filled the aedileship in 689, the praetorship in +692, and the consulship in 695, and that these offices could, +according to the -leges annales-, be held at the very earliest in +the 37th-38th, 40th-41st, and 43rd-44th years of a man's life +respectively. We cannot conceive why Caesar should have filled all +the curule offices two years before the legal time, and still less +why there should be no mention anywhere of his having done so. +These facts rather suggest the conjecture that, as his birthday +fell undoubtedly on July 12, he was born not in 654, but in 652; so +that in 672 he was in his 20th-21st year, and he died not in his +56th year, but at the age of 57 years 8 months. In favour of this +latter view we may moreover adduce the circumstance, which has been +strangely brought forward in opposition to it, that Caesar "-paene +puer-" was appointed by Marius and Cinna as Flamen of Jupiter +(Veil. ii. 43); for Marius died in January 668, when Caesar was, +according to the usual view, 13 years 6 months old, and therefore +not "almost," as Velleius says, but actually still a boy, and most +probably for this very reason not at all capable of holding such +a priesthood. If, again, he was born in July 652, he was at +the death of Marius in his sixteenth year; and with this the expression +in Velleius agrees, as well as the general rule that civil +positions were not assumed before the expiry of the age of boyhood. +Further, with this latter view alone accords the fact that +the -denarii- struck by Caesar about the outbreak of the civil war are +marked with the number LII, probably the year of his life; for +when it began, Caesar's age was according to this view somewhat +over 52 years. Nor is it so rash as it appears to us who are +accustomed to regular and official lists of births, to charge our +authorities with an error in this respect. Those four statements +may very well be all traceable to a common source; nor can they at +all lay claim to any very high credibility, seeing that for +the earlier period before the commencement of the -acta diurna- +the statements as to the natal years of even the best known and most +prominent Romans, e. g. as to that of Pompeius, vary in the most +surprising manner. (Comp. Staatsrecht, I. 8 p. 570.) + +In the Life of Caesar by Napoleon III (B. 2, ch. 1) it is objected +to this view, first, that the -lex annalis- would point for +Caesar's birth-year not to 652, but to 651; secondly and +especially, that other cases are known where it was not attended +to. But the first assertion rests on a mistake; for, as +the example of Cicero shows, the -lex annalis- required only that at +the entering on office the 43rd year should be begun, not that it +should be completed. None of the alleged exceptions to the rule, +moreover, are pertinent. When Tacitus (Ann. xi. 22) says that +formerly in conferring magistracies no regard was had to age, and +that the consulate and dictatorship were entrusted to quite young +men, he has in view, of course, as all commentators acknowledge, +the earlier period before the issuing of the -leges annales---the +consulship of M. Valerius Corvus at twenty-three, and similar +cases. The assertion that Lucullus received the supreme magistracy +before the legal age is erroneous; it is only stated (Cicero, Acad. +pr. i. 1) that on the ground of an exceptional clause not more +particularly known to us, in reward for some sort of act performed +by him, he had a dispensation from the legal two years' interval +between the aedileship and praetorship--in reality he was aedile in +675, probably praetor in 677, consul in 680. That the case of +Pompeius was a totally different one is obvious; but even as to +Pompeius, it is on several occasions expressly stated (Cicero, de +Imp. Pomp, ax, 62; Appian, iii. 88) that the senate released him +from the laws as to age. That this should have been done with +Pompeius, who had solicited the consulship as a commander-in-chief +crowned with victory and a triumphator, at the head of an army and +after his coalition with Crassus also of a powerful party, we can +readily conceive. But it would be in the highest degree +surprising, if the same thing should have been done with Caesar on +his candidature for the minor magistracies, when he was of little +more importance than other political beginners; and it would be, if +possible, more surprising still, that, while there is mention of +that--in itself readily understood--exception, there should be no +notice of this more than strange deviation, however naturally such +notices would have suggested themselves, especially with reference +to Octavianus consul at 21 (comp., e. g., Appian, iii. 88). When +from these irrelevant examples the inference is drawn, "that +the law was little observed in Rome, where distinguished men were +concerned," anything more erroneous than this sentence was never +uttered regarding Rome and the Romans. The greatness of the Roman +commonwealth, and not less that of its great generals and +statesmen, depends above all things on the fact that the law held +good in their case also. + +15. IV. IX. Spain + +16. At least the outline of these organizations must be assigned +to the years 674, 675, 676, although the execution of them +doubtless belonged, in great part, only to the subsequent years. + +17 IV. IX. The Provinces + +18. The following narrative rests substantially on the account of +Licinianus, which, fragmentary as it is at this very point, still +gives important information as to the insurrection of Lepidus. + +19. Under the year 676 Licinianus states (p. 23, Pertz; p. 42, +Bonn); [Lepidus?] -[le]gem frumentari[am] nullo resistente +l[argi]tus est, ut annon[ae] quinque modi popu[lo da]rentur-. +According to this account, therefore, the law of the consuls of 681 +Marcus Terentius Lucullus and Gaius Cassius Varus, which Cicero +mentions (in Verr. iii. 70, 136; v. 21, 52), and to which also +Sallust refers (Hist. iii. 61, 19 Dietsch), did not first reestablish +the five -modii-, but only secured the largesses of grain by +regulating the purchases of Sicilian corn, and perhaps made +various alterations of detail. That the Sempronian law +(IV. III. Alterations on the Constitution By Gaius Gracchus) +allowed every burgess domiciled in Rome to share in the largesses +of grain, is certain. But the later distribution of grain was not +so extensive as this, for, seeing that the monthly corn of +the Roman burgesses amounted to little more than 33,000 -medimni- = +198,000 -modii- (Cic. Verr. iii. 30, 72), only some 40,000 +burgesses at that time received grain, whereas the number of +burgesses domiciled in the capital was certainly far more +considerable. This arrangement probably proceeded from +the Octavian law, which introduced instead of the extravagant +Sempronian amount "a moderate largess, tolerable for the state and +necessary for the common people" (Cic. de Off. ii. 21, 72, Brut. +62, 222); and to all appearance it is this very law that is +the -lex frumentaria- mentioned by Licinianus. That Lepidus should have +entered into such a proposal of compromise, accords with his attitude +as regards the restoration of the tribunate. It is likewise in +keeping with the circumstances that the democracy should find itself +not at all satisfied by the regulation, brought about in this way, +of the distribution of grain (Sallust, l. c.). The amount of loss +is calculated on the basis of the grain being worth at least double +(IV. III. Alterations on the Constitution By Gaius Gracchus); +when piracy or other causes drove up the price of grain, +a far more considerable loss must have resulted. + +20. From the fragments of the account of Licinianus (p. 44, Bonn) +it is plain that the decree of the senate, -uti Lepidus et Catulus +decretis exercitibus maturrime proficiscerentur- (Sallust, Hist. i. +44 Dietsch), is to be understood not of a despatch of the consuls +before the expiry of their consulship to their proconsular +provinces, for which there would have been no reason, but of their +being sent to Etruria against the revolted Faesulans, just as in +the Catilinarian war the consul Gaius Antonius was despatched to +the same quarter. The statement of Philippus in Sallust (Hist. i. +48, 4) that Lepidus -ob seditionem provinciam cum exercitu adeptus +est-, is entirely in harmony with this view; for the extraordinary +consular command in Etruria was just as much a -provincia- as +the ordinary proconsular command in Narbonese Gaul. + +21. III. IV. Hannibal's Passage of the Alps + +22. In the recently found fragments of Sallust, which appear to +belong to the campaign of 679, the following words relate to this +incident: -Romanus [exer]citus (of Pompeius) frumenti gra[tia +r]emotus in Vascones i... [it]emque Sertorius mon... e, cuius +multum in[terer]it, ne ei perinde Asiae [iter et Italiae +intercluderetur]. + + + + +Notes for Chapter II + + +1. IV. VIII. New Difficulties + +2. IV. VIII. Preliminaries of Delium, IV. VIII. Peace at Dardanus + +3. IV. IX. Fresh Difficulties with Mithradates + +4. IV. I. Cilicia + +5. IV. I. Piracy + +6. IV. I. Crete + +7. The foundation of the kingdom of Edessa is placed by native +chronicles in 620 (IV. I. The Parthian Empire), but it was not till +some time after its rise that it passed into the hands of the Arabic +dynasty bearing the names of Abgarus and Mannus, which we afterwards +find there. This dynasty is obviously connected with the settlement +of many Arabs by Tigranes the Great in the region of Edessa, +Callirrhoe, Carrhae (Plin. H. N. v. 20, 85; ax, 86; vi. 28, 142); +respecting which Plutarch also (Luc. 21) states that Tigranes, +changing the habits of the tent-Arabs, settled them nearer to his +kingdom in order by their means to possess himself of the trade. +We may presumably take this to mean that the Bedouins, who were +accustomed to open routes for traffic through their territory and +to levy on these routes fixed transit-dues (Strabo, xvi. 748), were +to serve the great-king as a sort of toll-supervisors, and to levy +tolls for him and themselves at the passage of the Euphrates. +These "Osrhoenian Arabs" (-Orei Arabes-), as Pliny calls them, +must also be the Arabs on Mount Amanus, whom Afranius subdued +(Plut. Pomp. 39). + +8. The disputed question, whether this alleged or real testament +proceeded from Alexander I (d. 666) or Alexander II (d. 673), is +usually decided in favour of the former alternative. But +the reasons are inadequate; for Cicero (de L. Agr. i. 4, 12; 15, 38; +16, 41) does not say that Egypt fell to Rome in 666, but that it +did so in or after this year; and while the circumstance that +Alexander I died abroad, and Alexander II in Alexandria, has led +some to infer that the treasures mentioned in the testament in +question as lying in Tyre must have belonged to the former, they +have overlooked that Alexander II was killed nineteen days after +his arrival in Egypt (Letronne, Inscr, de I'Egypte, ii. 20), when +his treasure might still very well be in Tyre. On the other hand +the circumstance that the second Alexander was the last genuine +Lagid is decisive, for in the similar acquisitions of Pergamus, +Cyrene, and Bithynia it was always by the last scion of +the legitimate ruling family that Rome was appointed heir. The ancient +constitutional law, as it applied at least to the Roman client- +states, seems to have given to the reigning prince the right of +ultimate disposal of his kingdom not absolutely, but only in +the absence of -agnati- entitled to succeed. Comp. Gutschmid's remark +in the German translation of S. Sharpe's History of Egypt, ii. 17. + +Whether the testament was genuine or spurious, cannot be ascertained, +and is of no great moment; there are no special reasons for +assuming a forgery. + +9. IV. IX. Fresh Difficulties with Mithradates + +10. IV. VIII. Cyrene Roman + +11. V. I. Collapse of the Power of Sertorius + +12. IV. IV. The Provinces + +13. IV. VIII. Lucullus and the Fleet on the Asiatic Coast + +14. IV. VIII. Flaccus Arrives in Asia + +15. III. V. Attitude of the Romans, III. VI. The African Expedition +of Scipio + +16. That Tigranocerta was situated in the region of Mardln some +two days' march to the west of Nisibis, has been proved by +the investigation instituted on the spot by Sachau ("-Ueber die Lage +von Tigranokerta-," Abh. der Berliner Akademie, 1880), although +the more exact fixing of the locality proposed by Sachau is not beyond +doubt. On the other hand, his attempt to clear up the campaign of +Lucullus encounters the difficulty that, on the route assumed in +it, a crossing of the Tigris is in reality out of the question. + +17. Cicero (De Imp. Pomp. 9, 23) hardly means any other than one +of the rich temples of the province Elymais, whither the predatory +expeditions of the Syrian and Parthian kings were regularly +directed (Strabo, xvi. 744; Polyb, xxxi. 11. 1 Maccab. 6, etc.), +and probably this as the best known; on no account can +the allusion be to the temple of Comana or any shrine at all in +the kingdom of Pontus. + +18. V. II. Preparations of Mithradates, 328, 334 + +19. V. II. Invasion of Pontus by Lucullus + +20. V. II. Roman Preparations + +21. V. I. Want of Leaders + +22. V. II. Maritime War + +23. IV. I. Crete + +24. IV. II. The First Sicilian Slave War, IV. IV. Revolts of the Slaves + +25. These enactments gave rise to the conception of robbery +as a separate crime, while the older law comprehended robbery +under theft. + +26. V. II. The Pirates in the Mediterranean + +27. As the line was thirty-five miles long (Sallust, Hist, iv, 19, +Dietsch; Plutarch, Crass. 10), it probably passed not from +Squillace to Pizzo, but more to the north, somewhere near +Castrovillari and Cassano, over the peninsula which is here in +a straight line about twenty-seven miles broad. + +28. That Crassus was invested with the supreme command in 682, +follows from the setting aside of the consuls (Plutarch, Crass. +10); that the winter of 682-683 was spent by the two armies at +the Bruttian wall, follows from the "snowy night" (Plut. l. c). + + + + +Notes for Chapter III + + +1. IV. X. Assignations to the Soldiers + +2. V. I. Pompeius + +3. IV. X. Abolition of the Gracchan Institutions + +4. V. II. The Insurrection Takes Shape + +5. V. III. Attacks on the Senatorial Tribunals + +6. V. I. Insurrection of Lepidus + +7. IV. X. Co-optation Restored in the Priestly Colleges + +8. V. II. Mutiny of the Soldiers + +9. IV. IV. Marius Commander-in-Chief + +10. The extraordinary magisterial power (-pro consule-, -pro +praetore-, -pro quaestore-) might according to Roman state-law +originate in three ways. Either it arose out of the principle +which held good for the non-urban magistracy, that the office +continued up to the appointed legal term, but the official +authority up to the arrival of the successor, which was the oldest, +simplest, and most frequent case. Or it arose in the way of +the appropriate organs--especially the comitia, and in later times also +perhaps the senate--nominating a chief magistrate not contemplated +in the constitution, who was otherwise on a parity with +the ordinary magistrate, but in token of the extraordinary nature of +his office designated himself merely "instead of a praetor" or "of +a consul." To this class belong also the magistrates nominated in +the ordinary way as quaestors, and then extraordinarily furnished +with praetorian or even consular official authority (-quaestores +pro praetore- or -pro consule-); in which quality, for example, +Publius Lentulus Marcellinus went in 679 to Cyrene (Sallust, Hist. +ii. 39 Dietsch), Gnaeus Piso in 689 to Hither Spain (Sallust, Cat. +19), and Cato in 696 to Cyprus (Vell. ii. 45). Or, lastly, +the extraordinary magisterial authority was based on the right of +delegation vested in the supreme magistrate. If he left the bounds +of his province or otherwise was hindered from administering his +office, he was entitled to nominate one of those about him as his +substitute, who was then called -legatus pro praetore-(Sallust, +lug. 36, 37, 38), or, if the choice fell on the quaestor, -quaestor +pro praetore- (Sallust, Iug. 103). In like manner he was entitled, +if he had no quaestor, to cause the quaestorial duties to be +discharged by one of his train, who was then called -legatus pro +quaestore-, a name which is to be met with, perhaps for the first +time, on the Macedonian tetradrachms of Sura, lieutenant of +the governor of Macedonia, 665-667. But it was contrary to the nature +of delegation and therefore according to the older state-law +inadmissible, that the supreme magistrate should, without having +met with any hindrance in the discharge of his functions, +immediately upon his entering on office invest one or more of +his subordinates with supreme official authority; and so far +the -legati pro praetore-of the proconsul Pompeius were an innovation, +and already similar in kind to those who played so great a part in +the times of the Empire. + +11. V. III. Attempts to Restore the Tribunician Power + +12. According to the legend king Romulus was torn in pieces +by the senators. + +13. IV. II. Further Plans of Gracchus + + + + +Notes for Chapter IV + + +1. V. III. Senate, Equites, and Populares + +2. V. II. Metellus Subdues Crete + +3. [Literally "twenty German miles"; but the breadth of the island +does not seem in reality half so much.--Tr.] + +4. V. II. Renewal of the War + +5. Pompeius distributed among his soldiers and officers as +presents 384,000,000 sesterces (=16,000 talents, App. Mithr. +116); as the officers received 100,000,000 (Plin. H. N. xxxvii. 2, +16) and each of the common soldiers 6000 sesterces (Plin., App.), +the army still numbered at its triumph about 40,000 men. + +6. V. II. Sieges of the Pontic Cities + +7. V. II. All the Armenian Conquests Pass into the Hands of the Romans + +8. V. II. Syria under Tigranes + +9. V. II. Syria under Tigranes + +10. IV. I. The Jews + +11. V. II. Siege and Battle of Tigranocerta + +12. Thus the Sadducees rejected the doctrine of angels and spirits +and the resurrection of the dead. Most of the traditional points +of difference between Pharisees and Sadducees relate to subordinate +questions of ritual, jurisprudence, and the calendar. It is +a characteristic fact, that the victorious Pharisees have introduced +those days, on which they definitively obtained the superiority in +particular controversies or ejected heretical members from +the supreme consistory, into the list of the memorial and festival +days of the nation. + +13. V. II. All the Armenian Conquests Pass into the Hands of the Romans + +14. V. II. Beginning of the Armenian War, V. II. All the Armenian +Conquests Pass into the Hands of the Romans + +15. Pompeius spent the winter of 689-690 still in +the neighbourhood of the Caspian Sea (Dio, xxxvii. 7). In 690 he first +reduced the last strongholds still offering resistance in +the kingdom of Pontus, and then moved slowly, regulating matters +everywhere, towards the south. That the organization of Syria +began in 690 is confirmed by the fact that the Syrian provincial +era begins with this year, and by Cicero's statement respecting +Commagene (Ad Q. fr. ii. 12, 2; comp. Dio, xxxvii. 7). During +the winter of 690-691 Pompeius seems to have had his headquarters in +Antioch (Joseph, xiv. 3, 1, 2, where the confusion has been +rectified by Niese in the Hermes, xi. p. 471). + +16. III. V. New Warlike Preparations in Rome + +17. III. IV. War Party and Peace Party in Carthage + +18. Orosius indeed (vi. 6) and Dio (xxxvii. 15), both of them +doubtless following Livy, make Pompeius get to Petra and occupy +the city or even reach the Red Sea; but that he, on the contrary, soon +after receiving the news of the death of Mithradates, which came to +him on his march towards Jerusalem, returned from Syria to Pontus, +is stated by Plutarch (Pomp. 41, 42) and is confirmed by Floras (i. +39) and Josephus (xiv. 3, 3, 4). If king Aretas figures in +the bulletins among those conquered by Pompeius, this is +sufficiently accounted for by his withdrawal from Jerusalem +at the instigation of Pompeius. + +19. V. II. Renewal of the War, V. IV. Variance between Mithradates +and Tigranes + +20. This view rests on the narrative of Plutarch (Pomp. 36) which +is supported by Strabo's (xvi. 744) description of the position of +the satrap of Elymais. It is an embellishment of the matter, when +in the lists of the countries and kings conquered by Pompeius Media +and its king Darius are enumerated (Diodorus, Fr, Vat. p. 140; +Appian, Mithr. 117); and from this there has been further concocted +the war of Pompeius with the Medes (Veil. ii. 40; Appian, Mithr. +106, 114) and then even his expedition to Ecbatana (Oros. vi. 5). +A confusion with the fabulous town of the same name on Carmel has +hardly taken place here; it is simply that intolerable +exaggeration--apparently originating in the grandiloquent and +designedly ambiguous bulletins of Pompeius--which has converted his +razzia against the Gaetulians (p. 94) into a march to the west +coast of Africa (Plut. Pomp. 38), his abortive expedition against +the Nabataeans into a conquest of the city of Petra, and his award +as to the boundaries of Armenia into a fixing of the boundary of +the Roman empire beyond Nisibis. + +21. The war which this Antiochus is alleged to have waged with +Pompeius (Appian, Mithr. 106, 117) is not very consistent with +the treaty which he concluded with Lucullus (Dio, xxxvi. 4), and his +undisturbed continuance in his sovereignty; presumably it has been +concocted simply from the circumstance, that Antiochus of Commagene +figured among the kings subdued by Pompeius. + +22. To this Cicero's reproach presumably points (De Off. iii. 12, +49): -piratas immunes habemus, socios vectigales-; in so far, +namely, as those pirate-colonies probably had the privilege of +immunity conferred on them by Pompeius, while, as is well known, +the provincial communities dependent on Rome were, as a rule, +liable to taxation. + +23. IV. VIII. Pontus + +24. V. IV. Battle at Nicopolis + +25. V. II. Defeat of the Romans in Pontus at Ziela + +26. V. IV. Pompeius Take the Supreme Command against Mithradates + +27. IV. VIII. Weak Counterpreparations of the Romans ff. + +28. V. II. Egypt not Annexed + +29. V. IV. Urban Communities + + + + +Notes for Chapter V + + +1. V. III. Renewal of the Censorship + +2. IV. VI. Political Projects of Marius + +3. IV. X. Co-optation Restored in the Priestly Colleges + +4. IV. VII. The Sulpician Laws + +5. IV. X. Permanent and Special -Quaestiones- + +6. IV. VI. And Overpowered + +7. IV. VII. Bestowal of Latin Rights on the Italian Celts + +8. Any one who surveys the whole state of the political relations +of this period will need no special proofs to help him to see that +the ultimate object of the democratic machinations in 688 et seq. +was not the overthrow of the senate, but that of Pompeius. Yet +such proofs are not wanting. Sallust states that the Gabinio- +Manilian laws inflicted a mortal blow on the democracy (Cat. 39); +that the conspiracy of 688-689 and the Servilian rogation were +specially directed against Pompeius, is likewise attested (Sallust +Cat. 19; Val. Max. vi. 2, 4; Cic. de Lege Agr. ii. 17, 46). +Besides the attitude of Crassus towards the conspiracy alone shows +sufficiently that it was directed against Pompeius. + +9. V. V. Transpadanes + +10. Plutarch, Crass. 13; Cicero, de Lege agr. ii. 17, 44. To this +year (689) belongs Cicero's oration -de rege Alexandrino-, which +has been incorrectly assigned to the year 698. In it Cicero +refutes, as the fragments clearly show, the assertion of Crassus, +that Egypt had been rendered Roman property by the testament of +king Alexander. This question of law might and must have been +discussed in 689; but in 698 it had been deprived of its +significance through the Julian law of 695. In 698 moreover +the discussion related not to the question to whom Egypt belonged, but +to the restoration of the king driven out by a revolt, and in this +transaction which is well known to us Crassus played no part. +Lastly, Cicero after the conference of Luca was not at all in +a position seriously to oppose one of the triumvirs. + +11. V. IV. Pompeius Proceeds to Colchis + +12. V. III. Attacks on the Senatorial Tribunals, V. III. Renewal +of the Censorship + +13. The -Ambrani- (Suet. Caes. 9) are probably not the Ambrones +named along with the Cimbri (Plutarch, Mar. 19), but a slip of +the pen for -Arverni-. + +14. This cannot well be expressed more naively than is done in +the memorial ascribed to his brother (de pet. cons. i, 5; 13, 51, 53; +in 690); the brother himself would hardly have expressed his mind +publicly with so much frankness. In proof of this unprejudiced +persons will read not without interest the second oration against +Rullus, where the "first democratic consul," gulling the friendly +public in a very delectable fashion, unfolds to it the "true democracy." + +15. His epitaph still extant runs: -Cn. Calpurnius Cn. f. Piso +quaestor fro pr. ex s. c. proviniciam Hispaniam citeriorem optinuit-. + +16. V. V. Failure of the First Plans of Conspiracy + +17. V. III. Continued Subsistence of the Sullan Constitution + +18. IV. XII. Priestly Colleges + +19. IV. VII. Economic Crisis + +20. V. V. Rehabilitation of Saturninus and Marius + +21. Such an apology is the -Catilina- of Sallust, which was +published by the author, a notorious Caesarian, after the year 708, +either under the monarchy of Caesar or more probably under +the triumvirate of his heirs; evidently as a treatise with a political +drift, which endeavours to bring into credit the democratic party-- +on which in fact the Roman monarchy was based--and to clear +Caesar's memory from the blackest stain that rested on it; and with +the collateral object of whitewashing as far as possible the uncle +of the triumvir Marcus Antonius (comp. e. g. c. 59 with Dio, +xxxvii. 39). The Jugurtha of the same author is in an exactly +similar way designed partly to expose the pitifulness of +the oligarchic government, partly to glorify the Coryphaeus of +the democracy, Gaius Marius. The circumstance that the adroit author +keeps the apologetic and inculpatory character of these writings of +his in the background, proves, not that they are not partisan +treatises, but that they are good ones. + +22. V. XII. Greek Literati in Rome + + + + +Notes for Chapter VI + + +1. V. IV. Aggregate Results + +2. The impression of the first address, which Pompeius made to +the burgesses after his return, is thus described by Cicero (ad Att. i. +14): -prima contio Pompei non iucunda miseris (the rabble), inanis +improbis (the democrats), beatis (the wealthy) non grata, bonis +(the aristocrats) non gravis; itaque frigebat-. + +3. IV. X. Regulating of the Qualifications for Office + +4. V. V. New Projects of the Conspirators + +5. V. VI. Pompeius without Influence + +6. IV. IX. Government of Cinna, IV. X. Punishments Inflicted +on Particular Communities + +7. IV. XII. Oriental Religions in Italy + +8. V. V. Transpadanes + +9. IV. X. Cisalpine Gaul Erected into a Province + +10. V. IV. Cyprus Annexed + +11. IV. VI. Violent Proceedings in the Voting + +12. V. IV. Cyprus Annexed + + + + +Notes for Chapter VII + + +1. IV. I. The Callaeci Conquered + +2. IV. IX. Spain + +3. V. I. Renewed Outbreak of the Spanish Insurrection + +4. V. I. Pompeius in Gaul + +5. V. I. Indefinite and Perilous Character of the Sertorian War + +6. V. V. Conviction and Arrest of the Conspirators in the Capital + +7. V. I. Pompeius Puts and End to the Insurrection + +8. IV. II. Scipio Aemilianus + +9. There was found, for instance, at Vaison in the Vocontian +canton an inscription written in the Celtic language with +the ordinary Greek alphabet. It runs thus: --segouaros ouilloneos +tooutious namausatis eiorou beileisamisosin nemeiton--. The last +word means "holy." + +10. An immigration of Belgic Celts to Britain continuing for +a considerable time seems indicated by the names of English tribes on +both banks of the Thames borrowed from Belgic cantons; such as +the Atrebates, the Belgae, and even the Britanni themselves, which word +appears to have been transferred from the Brittones settled on +the Somme below Amiens first to an English canton and then to the whole +island. The English gold coinage was also derived from the Belgic +and originally identical with it. + +11. The first levy of the Belgic cantons exclusive of the Remi, +that is, of the country between the Seine and the Scheldt and +eastward as far as the vicinity of Rheims and Andernach, from 9000 +to 10,000 square miles, is reckoned at about 300,000 men; in +accordance with which, if we regard the proportion of the first +levy to the whole men capable of bearing arms specified for +the Bellovaci as holding good generally, the number of the Belgae +capable of bearing arms would amount to 500,000 and the whole +population accordingly to at least 2,000,000. The Helvetii with +the adjoining peoples numbered before their migration 336,000; if +we assume that they were at that time already dislodged from +the right bank of the Rhine, their territory may be estimated at nearly +1350 square miles. Whether the serfs are included in this, we can +the less determine, as we do not know the form which slavery +assumed amongst the Celts; what Caesar relates (i. 4) as to +the slaves, clients, and debtors of Orgetorix tells rather in favour +of, than against, their being included. + +That, moreover, every such attempt to make up by combinations for +the statistical basis, in which ancient history is especially +deficient, must be received with due caution, will be at once +apprehended by the intelligent reader, while he will not absolutely +reject it on that account. + +12. "In the interior of Transalpine Gaul on the Rhine," says +Scrofa in Varro, De R. R. i. 7, 8, "when I commanded there, I +traversed some districts, where neither the vine nor the olive nor +the fruit-tree appears, where they manure the fields with white +Pit-chalk, where they have neither rock--nor sea-salt, but make use +of the saline ashes of certain burnt wood instead of salt." This +description refers probably to the period before Caesar and to +the eastern districts of the old province, such as the country of +the Allobroges; subsequently Pliny (H. N. xvii. 6, 42 seq.) describes +at length the Gallo-Britannic manuring with marl. + +13. "The Gallic oxen especially are of good repute in Italy, for +field labour forsooth; whereas the Ligurian are good for nothing." +(Varro, De R. R. ii. 5, 9). Here, no doubt, Cisalpine Gaul is +referred to, but the cattle-husbandry there doubtless goes back to +the Celtic epoch. Plautus already mentions the "Gallic ponies" +(-Gallici canterii-, Aul. iii. 5. 21). "It is not every race that +is suited for the business of herdsmen; neither the Bastulians nor +the Turdulians" (both in Andalusia) "are fit for it; the Celts are +the best, especially as respects beasts for riding and burden +(-iumenta-)" (Varro, De R. R. ii. 10, 4). + +14. We are led to this conclusion by the designation of +the trading or "round" as contrasted with the "long" or war vessel, and +the similar contrast of the "oared ships" (--epikopoi veies--) and +the "merchantmen" (--olkades--, Dionys. iii. 44); and moreover by +the smallness of the crew in the trading vessels, which in the very +largest amounted to not more than 200 men (Rhein. Mus. N. F. xi. +625), while in the ordinary galley of three decks there were +employed 170 rowers (III. II. The Romans Build A Fleet). Comp. Movers, +Phoen. ii. 3, 167 seq. + +15. IV. V. Transalpine Relations of Rome + +16. IV. V. Defeat of Longinus + +17. IV. V. Transalpine Relations of Rome + +18. This remarkable word must have been in use as early as +the sixth century of Rome among the Celts in the valley of the Po; for +Ennius is already acquainted with it, and it can only have reached +the Italians at so early a period from that quarter. It is not +merely Celtic, however, but also German, the root of our "Amt," as +indeed the retainer-system itself is common to the Celts and +the Germans. It would be of great historical importance to ascertain +whether the word--and so also the thing--came to the Celts from +the Germans, or to the Germans from the Celts. If, as is usually +supposed, the word is originally German and primarily signified +the servant standing in battle "against the back" (-and-= against, +-bak- = back) of his master, this is not wholly irreconcileable with +the singularly early occurrence of this word among the Celts. +According to all analogy the right to keep -ambacti-, that is, +--doouloi misthotoi--, cannot have belonged to the Celtic nobility +from the outset, but must only have developed itself gradually in +antagonism to the older monarchy and to the equality of the free +commons. If thus the system of -ambacti- among the Celts was not +an ancient and national, but a comparatively recent institution, it +is--looking to the relation which had subsisted for centuries +between the Celts and Germans, and which is to be explained farther +on--not merely possible but even probable that the Celts, in Italy +as in Gaul, employed Germans chiefly as those hired servants-at- +arms. The "Swiss guard" would therefore in that case be some +thousands of years older than people suppose. Should the term by +which the Romans, perhaps after the example of the Celts, designate +the Germans as a nation-the name -Germani---be really of Celtic +origin, this obviously accords very well with that hypothesis.--No +doubt these assumptions must necessarily give way, should the word +-ambactus- be explained in a satisfactory way from a Celtic root; +as in fact Zeuss (Gramm. p. 796), though doubtfully, traces it to +-ambi- = around and -aig- = -agere-, viz. one moving round or moved +round, and so attendants, servants. The circumstance that the word +occurs also as a Celtic proper name (Zeuss, p. 77), and is perhaps +preserved in the Cambrian -amaeth- = peasant, labourer (Zeuss, p. +156), cannot decide the point either way, + +19. From the Celtic words -guerg- = worker and -breth- = judgment. + +20. IV. V. Transalpine Relations of Rome + +21. The position which such a federal general occupied with +reference to his troops, is shown by the accusation of high treason +raised against Vercingetorix (Caesar, B. G. vii. 20). + +22. IV. V. The Cimbri + +23. II. IV. The Celts Assail the Etruscans in Northern Italy + +24. V. VII. Art and Science + +25. Caesar's Suebi thus were probably the Chatti; but that +designation certainly belonged in Caesar's time, and even much +later, also to every other German stock which could be described as +a regularly wandering one. Accordingly if, as is not to be +doubted, the "king of the Suebi" in Mela (iii. i) and Pliny (H. N. +ii. 67, 170) was Ariovistus, it by no means therefore follows that +Ariovistus was a Chattan. The Marcomani cannot be demonstrated as +a distinct people before Marbod; it is very possible that the word +up to that point indicates nothing but what it etymologically +signifies--the land, or frontier, guard. When Caesar (i, 51) +mentions Marcomani among the peoples fighting in the army of +Ariovistus, he may in this instance have misunderstood a merely +appellative designation, just as he has decidedly done in +the case of the Suebi. + +26. IV. V. The Tribes at the Sources of the Rhine and Along +the Danube + +27. IV. V. The Tribes at the Sources of the Rhine and Along +the Danube + +28. IV. V. Teutones in the Province of Gaul + +29. The arrival of Ariovistus in Gaul has been placed, according +to Caesar, i. 36, in 683, and the battle of Admagetobriga (for such +was the name of the place now usually, in accordance with a false +inscription, called Magetobriga), according to Caesar i. 35 and +Cicero Ad. Att. i. 19, in 693. + +30. V. VII. Wars and Revolts There + +31. That we may not deem this course of things incredible, or even +impute to it deeper motives than ignorance and laziness in +statesmen, we shall do well to realize the frivolous tone in which +a distinguished senator like Cicero expresses himself in his +correspondence respecting these important Transalpine affairs. + +32. IV. V. Inroad of the Helvetii into Southern Gaul + +33. According to the uncorrected calendar. According to +the current rectification, which however here by no means rests on +sufficiently trustworthy data, this day corresponds to the 16th of +April of the Julian calendar. + +34. IV. V. The Cimbri, Teutones, and Helvetii Unite + +35. -Julia Equestris-, where the last surname is to be taken as in +other colonies of Caesar the surnames of sextanorum, decimanorum, +etc. It was Celtic or German horsemen of Caesar, who, of course +with the bestowal of the Roman or, at any rate, Latin franchise, +received land-allotments there. + +36. Goler (Caesars gall. Krieg, p. 45, etc.) thinks that he has +found the field of battle at Cernay not far from Muhlhausen, which, +on the whole, agrees with Napoleon's (Precis, p. 35) placing of +the battle-field in the district of Belfort. This hypothesis, although +not certain, suits the circumstances of the case; for the fact that +Caesar required seven days' march for the short space from Besancon +to that point, is explained by his own remark (i. 41) that he had +taken a circuit of fifty miles to avoid the mountain paths; and +the whole description of the pursuit continued as far as the Rhine, and +evidently not lasting for several days but ending on the very day +of the battle, decides--the authority of tradition being equally +balanced--in favour of the view that the battle was fought five, +not fifty, miles from the Rhine. The proposal of Rustow +(-Einleitung zu Caesars Comm-. p. 117) to transfer the field of +battle to the upper Saar rests on a misunderstanding. The corn +expected from the Sequani, Leuci, Lingones was not to come to +the Roman army in the course of their march against Ariovistus, but to +be delivered at Besancon before their departure, and taken by +the troops along with them; as is clearly apparent from the fact that +Caesar, while pointing his troops to those supplies, comforts them +at the same time with the hope of corn to be brought in on +the route. From Besancon Caesar commanded the region of Langres and +Epinal, and, as may be well conceived, preferred to levy his +requisitions there rather than in the exhausted districts from +which he came. + +37. This seems the simplest hypothesis regarding the origin of +these Germanic settlements. That Ariovistus settled those peoples +on the middle Rhine is probable, because they fight in his army +(Caes. i. 51) and do not appear earlier; that Caesar left them in +possession of their settlements is probable, because he in presence +of Ariovistus declared himself ready to tolerate the Germans +already settled in Gaul (Caes. i. 35, 43), and because we find them +afterwards in these abodes. Caesar does not mention the directions +given after the battle concerning these Germanic settlements, +because he keeps silence on principle regarding all the organic +arrangements made by him in Gaul. + +38. IV. V. The Cimbri, Teutones, and Helvetii Unite + +39. III. II. The Romans Build a Fleet + +40. V. I. Pompeius in Gaul + +41. V. VII. The Germans on the Lower Rhine + +42. The nature of the case as well as Caesar's express statement +proves that the passages of Caesar to Britain were made from ports +of the coast between Calais and Boulogne to the coast of Kent. +A more exact determination of the localities has often been +attempted, but without success. All that is recorded is, that on +the first voyage the infantry embarked at one port, the cavalry at +another distant from the former eight miles in an easterly +direction (iv. 22, 23, 28), and that the second voyage was made +from that one of those two ports which Caesar had found most +convenient, the (otherwise not further mentioned) Portus Itius, +distant from the British coast 30 (so according to the MSS. of +Caesar v. 2) or 40 miles (=320 stadia, according to Strabo iv. 5, +2, who doubtless drew his account from Caesar). From Caesar's +words (iv. 21) that he had chosen "the shortest crossing," we may +doubtless reasonably infer that he crossed not the Channel but +the Straits of Calais, but by no means that he crossed the latter by +the mathematically shortest line. It requires the implicit faith +of local topographers to proceed to the determination of +the locality with such data in hand--data of which the best in itself +becomes almost useless from the variation of the authorities as to +the number; but among the many possibilities most may perhaps be +said in favour of the view that the Itian port (which Strabo l. c. +is probably right in identifying with that from which the infantry +crossed in the first voyage) is to be sought near Ambleteuse to +the west of Cape Gris Nez, and the cavalry-harbour near Ecale (Wissant) +to the east of the same promontory, and that the landing took place +to the east of Dover near Walmer Castle. + +43. That Cotta, although not lieutenant-general of Sabinus, but +like him legate, was yet the younger and less esteemed general and +was probably directed in the event of a difference to yield, may be +inferred both from the earlier services of Sabinus and from +the fact that, where the two are named together (iv. 22, 38; v. 24, 26, +52; vi. 32; otherwise in vi. 37) Sabinus regularly takes +precedence, as also from the narrative of the catastrophe itself. +Besides we cannot possibly suppose that Caesar should have placed +over a camp two officers with equal authority, and have made no +arrangement at all for the case of a difference of opinion. +the five cohorts are not counted as part of a legion (comp. vi. 32, 33) +any more than the twelve cohorts at the Rhine bridge (vi. 29, comp. +32, 33), and appear to have consisted of detachments of other +portions of the army, which had been assigned to reinforce this +camp situated nearest to the Germans. + +44. V. VII. Subjugation of the Belgae + +45. IV. V. War with the Allobroges and Arverni + +46. V. VII. Cantonal Constitution + +47. This, it is true, was only possible, so long as offensive +weapons chiefly aimed at cutting and stabbing. In the modern mode +of warfare, as Napoleon has excellently explained, this system has +become inapplicable, because with our offensive weapons operating +from a distance the deployed position is more advantageous than +the concentrated. In Caesar's time the reverse was the case. + +48. This place has been sought on a rising ground which is still +named Gergoie, a league to the south of the Arvernian capital +Nemetum, the modern Clermont; and both the remains of rude +fortress-walls brought to light in excavations there, and +the tradition of the name which is traced in documents up to the tenth +century, leave no room for doubt as to the correctness of this +determination of the locality. Moreover it accords, as with +the other statements of Caesar, so especially with the fact that he +pretty clearly indicates Gergovia as the chief place of the Arverni +(vii. 4). We shall have accordingly to assume, that the Arvernians +after their defeat were compelled to transfer their settlement from +Gergovia to the neighbouring less strong Nemetum. + +49. The question so much discussed of late, whether Alesia is not +rather to be identified with Alaise (25 kilometres to the south of +Besancon, dep. Doubs), has been rightly answered in the negative by +all judicious inquirers. + +50. This is usually sought at Capdenac not far from Figeac; Goler +has recently declared himself in favour of Luzech to the west of +Cahors, a site which had been previously suggested. + +51. This indeed, as may readily be conceived, is not recorded by +Caesar himself, but an intelligible hint on this subject is given +by Sallust (Hist. i. 9 Kritz), although he too wrote as a partisan +of Caesar. Further proofs are furnished by the coins. + +52. Thus we read on a -semis- which a Vergobretus of the Lexovii +(Lisieux, dep. Calvados) caused to be struck, the following +inscription: -Cisiambos Cattos vercobreto; simissos (sic) publicos +Lixovio-. The often scarcely legible writing and the incredibly +wretched stamping of these coins are in excellent harmony with +their stammering Latin. + +53. V. VII. Caesar and Ariovistus + +54. V. VII. The Helvetii Sent Back to Their Original Abodes + +55. V. VII. Beginning of the Struggle + +56. IV. V. Taurisci + + + + +Notes for Chapter VIII + + +1. This is the meaning of -cantorum convitio contiones celebrare- +(Cic. pro Sest. 55, 118). + +2. V. VI. Clodius + +3. IV. V. The Victory and the Parties + +4. Cato was not yet in Rome when Cicero spoke on 11th March 698 in +favour of Sestius (Pro Sest. 28, 60) and when the discussion took +place in the senate in consequence of the resolutions of Luca +respecting Caesar's legions (Plut. Caes. 21); it is not till +the discussions at the beginning of 699 that we find him once more +busy, and, as he travelled in winter (Plut. Cato Min. 38), he thus +returned to Rome in the end of 698. He cannot therefore, as has +been mistakenly inferred from Asconius (p. 35, 53), have defended +Milo in Feb. 698. + +5. -Me asinum germanum fuisse- (Ad Att. iv. 5, 3). + +6. This palinode is the still extant oration on the Provinces to +be assigned to the consuls of 699. It was delivered in the end of +May 698. The pieces contrasting with it are the orations for +Sestius and against Vatinius and that upon the opinion of +the Etruscan soothsayers, dating from the months of March and April, +in which the aristocratic regime is glorified to the best of his +ability and Caesar in particular is treated in a very cavalier +tone. It was but reasonable that Cicero should, as he himself +confesses (Ad Att. iv. 5, 1), be ashamed to transmit even to +intimate friends that attestation of his resumed allegiance. + +7. This is not stated by our authorities. But the view that +Caesar levied no soldiers at all from the Latin communities, that +is to say from by far the greater part of his province, is in +itself utterly incredible, and is directly refuted by the fact that +the opposition-party slightingly designates the force levied by +Caesar as "for the most part natives of the Transpadane colonies" +(Caes. B. C. iii. 87); for here the Latin colonies of Strabo +(Ascon. in Pison. p. 3; Sueton. Caes. 8) are evidently meant. +Yet there is no trace of Latin cohorts in Caesar's Gallic army; +on the contrary according to his express statements all the recruits +levied by him in Cisalpine Gaul were added to the legions or +distributed into legions. It is possible that Caesar combined +with the levy the bestowal of the franchise; but more probably he +adhered in this matter to the standpoint of his party, which did +not so much seek to procure for the Transpadanes the Roman +franchise as rather regarded it as already legally belonging to +them (iv. 457). Only thus could the report spread, that Caesar had +introduced of his own authority the Roman municipal constitution +among the Transpadane communities (Cic. Ad Att. v. 3, 2; Ad Fam. +viii. 1, 2). This hypothesis too explains why Hirtius designates +the Transpadane towns as "colonies of Roman burgesses" (B. G. viii. +24), and why Caesar treated the colony of Comum founded by him as +a burgess-colony (Sueton. Caes. 28; Strabo, v. 1, p. 213; Plutarch, +Caes. 29), while the moderate party of the aristocracy conceded to +it only the same rights as to the other Transpadane communities, +viz. Latin rights, and the ultras even declared the civic rights +conferred on the settlers as altogether null, and consequently did +not concede to the Comenses the privileges attached to the holding +of a Latin municipal magistracy (Cic. Ad Att. v. 11, 2; Appian, B. +C. ii. 26). Comp. Hermes, xvi. 30. + +8. V. VII. Fresh Violations of the Rhine-Boundary by the Germans + +9. The collection handed down to us is full of references to +the events of 699 and 700 and was doubtless published in the latter +year; the most recent event, which it mentions, is the prosecution +of Vatinius (Aug. 700). The statement of Hieronymus that Catullus +died in 697-698 requires therefore to be altered only by a few +years. From the circumstance that Vatinius "swears falsely by his +consulship," it has been erroneously inferred that the collection +did not appear till after the consulate of Vatinius (707); it +only follows from it that Vatinius, when the collection appeared, +might already reckon on becoming consul in a definite year, +for which he had every reason as early as 700; for his name +certainly stood on the list of candidates agreed on at Luca +(Cicero, Ad. Att. iv. 8 b. 2). + +10. The well-known poem of Catullus (numbered as xxix.) +was written in 699 or 700 after Caesar's Britannic expedition +and before the death of Julia: + +-Quis hoc potest videre, quis potest pati, Nisi impudicus et vorax +et aleo, Mamurram habere quod comata Gallia Habebat ante et ultima +Britannia-? etc. + +Mamurra of Formiae, Caesar's favourite and for a time during +the Gallic wars an officer in his army, had, presumably a short time +before the composition of this poem, returned to the capital and +was in all likelihood then occupied with the building of his much- +talked-of marble palace furnished with lavish magnificence on +the Caelian hill. The Iberian booty mentioned in the poem must have +reference to Caesar's governorship of Further Spain, and Mamurra +must even then, as certainly afterwards in Gaul, have been found at +Caesar's headquarters; the Pontic booty presumably has reference to +the war of Pompeius against Mithradates, especially as according to +the hint of the poet it was not merely Caesar that enriched Mamurra. + +More innocent than this virulent invective, which was bitterly felt +by Caesar (Suet. Caes. 73), is another nearly contemporary poem of +the same author (xi.) to which we may here refer, because with its +pathetic introduction to an anything but pathetic commission it +very cleverly quizzes the general staff of the new regents--the +Gabiniuses, Antoniuses, and such like, suddenly advanced from +the lowest haunts to headquarters. Let it be remembered that it was +written at a time when Caesar was fighting on the Rhine and on +the Thames, and when the expeditions of Crassus to Parthia and of +Gabinius to Egypt were in preparation. The poet, as if he too +expected one of the vacant posts from one of the regents, gives +to two of his clients their last instructions before departure: + +-Furi et Aureli, comites Catulli-, etc. + +11. V. VIII. Clodius + +12. In this year the January with 29 and the February with 23 days +were followed by the intercalary month with 28, and then by March. + +13. -Consul- signifies "colleague" (i. 318), and a consul who is +at the same time proconsul is at once an actual consul and +a consul's substitute. + +14. II. III. Military Tribunes with Consular Powers + + + + +Notes for Chapter IX + + +1. iv. 434 + +2. Tigranes was still living in February 698 (Cic. pro Sest. 27, +59); on the other hand Artavasdes was already reigning before 700 +(Justin, xlii. 2, 4; Plut. Crass. 49). + +3. V. IV. Ptolemaeus in Egypt Recognized, but Expelled by His Subjects + +4. V. IV. Military Pacification of Syria + +5. V. VII. Repulse of the Helvetii, V. VII. Expeditions against +the Maritime Cantons + +6. V. VII. Cassivellaunus + +7. V. VII. The Carnutes ff. + +8. V. II. Renewal of the War + +9. V. IV. Difficulty with the Parthians + +10. IV. I. War against Aristonicus + +11. V. VII. Insurrection + +12. V. VIII. Humiliation of the Republicans + +13. V. VIII. Changes in the Arrangement of Magistrates and the Jury-System + +14. V. VIII. Humiliation of the Republicans + +15. V. VIII. The Aristocracy Submits ff. + +16. V. VIII. Changes in the Arrangement of Magistrates and the Jury-System + +17. V. VIII. The Senate under the Monarchy + +18. V. II. Mutiny of the Soldiers, V. III. Reappearance of Pompeius + +19. V. VII. Alpine Peoples + +20. V. IX. Dictatorship of Pompeius + +21. -Homo ingeniosissime nequam- (Vellei. ii. 48). + +22. V. IX. Debates as to Caesar's Recall + +23. IV. X. The Restoration + +24. V. II. Beginning of the Armenian War + +25. To be distinguished from the consul having the same name of +704; the latter was a cousin, the consul of 705 a brother, of +the Marcus Marcellus who was consul in 703. + +26. V. IX. Debates ss to Caesar's Recall ff. + +27. II. II. Intercession + + + + +Notes for Chapter X + + +1. V. V. Transpadanes + +2. V. V. Transpadanes + +3. A centurion of Caesar's tenth legion, taken prisoner, declared +to the commander-in-chief of the enemy that he was ready with ten +of his men to make head against the best cohort of the enemy (500 +men; Dell. Afric. 45). "In the ancient mode of fighting," to quote +the opinion of Napoleon I, "a battle consisted simply of duels; +what was only correct in the mouth of that centurion, would be mere +boasting in the mouth of the modern soldier." Vivid proofs of +the soldierly spirit that pervaded Caesar's army are furnished by +the Reports--appended to his Memoirs--respecting the African and +the second Spanish wars, of which the former appears to have had as its +author an officer of the second rank, while the latter is in every +respect a subaltern camp-journal. + +4. V. IX. Debates as to Caesar's Recall + +5. IV. IX. Fresh Difficulties with Mithradates + +6. V. IV. The New Relations of the Romans in the East, V. IV. Galatia + +7. V. IV. Ptolemaeus in Egypt Recognized, but Expelled by His Subjects + +8. V. VII. Wars and Revolts There + +9. V. IX. Repulse of the Parthians + +10. V. IX. Counter-Arrangements of Caesar + +11. V. VIII. Settlement of the New Monarchial Rule + +12. V. VIII. Changes in the Arrangement of Magistracies +and the Jury-System + +13. This number was specified by Pompeius himself (Caesar, B.C. i. +6), and it agrees with the statement that he lost in Italy about 60 +cohorts or 30,000 men, and took 25,000 over to Greece (Caesar, B.C. +iii. 10). + +14. V. VII. With the Bellovaci + +15. The decree of the senate was passed on the 7th January; on +the 18th it had been already for several days known in Rome that Caesar +had crossed the boundary (Cic. ad Att. vii. 10; ix. 10, 4); +the messenger needed at the very least three days from Rome to Ravenna. +According to this the setting out of Caesar falls about the 12th +January, which according to the current reduction corresponds to +the Julian 24 Nov. 704. + +16. IV. IX. Pompeius + +17. IV. XI. Italian Revenues + +18. V. VII. Caesar in Spain + +19. V. VII. Venetian War ff. + +20. III. VI. Scipio Driven Back to the Coast + +21. V. X. Caesar Takes the Offensive + +22. V. VII. Illyria + +23. As according to formal law the "legal deliberative assembly" +undoubtedly, just like the "legal court," could only take place in +the city itself or within the precincts, the assembly representing +the senate in the African army called itself the "three hundred" +(Bell. Afric. 88, 90; Appian, ii. 95), not because it consisted of +300 members, but because this was the ancient normal number of +senators (i. 98). It is very likely that this assembly recruited +its ranks by equites of repute; but, when Plutarch makes the three +hundred to be Italian wholesale dealers (Cato Min. 59, 61), he +has misunderstood his authority (Bell. Afr. 90). Of a similar +kind must have been the arrangement as to the quasi-senate +already in Thessalonica. + +24. V. X. Indignation of the Anarchist Party against Caesar + +25. V. X. The Pompeian Army + +26. V. IV. And Brought Back by Gabinius + +27. V. X. Caesar's Fleet and Army in Illyricum Destroyed + +28. According to the rectified calendar on the 5th Nov. 705. + +29. V. X. Result of the Campaign as a Whole + +30. The exact determination of the field of battle is difficult. +Appian (ii. 75) expressly places it between (New) Pharsalus (now +Fersala) and the Enipeus. Of the two streams, which alone are of +any importance in the question, and are undoubtedly the Apidanus +and Enipeus of the ancients--the Sofadhitiko and the Fersaliti--the +former has its sources in the mountains of Thaumaci (Dhomoko) and +the Dolopian heights, the latter in mount Othrys, and the Fersaliti +alone flows past Pharsalus; now as the Enipeus according to Strabo +(ix. p. 432) springs from mount Othrys and flows past Pharsalus, +the Fersaliti has been most justly pronounced by Leake (Northern +Greece, iv. 320) to be the Enipeus, and the hypothesis followed by +Goler that the Fersaliti is the Apidanus is untenable. With this +all the other statements of the ancients as to the two rivers +agree. Only we must doubtless assume with Leake, that the river of +Vlokho formed by the union of the Fersaliti and the Sofadhitiko and +going to the Peneius was called by the ancients Apidanus as well as +the Sofadhitiko; which, however, is the more natural, as while +the Sofadhitiko probably has, the Fersaliti has not, constantly water +(Leake, iv. 321). Old Pharsalus, from which the battle takes its +name, must therefore have been situated between Fersala and +the Fersaliti. Accordingly the battle was fought on the left bank of +the Fersaliti, and in such a way that the Pompeians, standing with +their faces towards Pharsalus, leaned their right wing on the river +(Caesar, B. C. iii. 83; Frontinus, Strat. ii. 3, 22). The camp of +the Pompeians, however, cannot have stood here, but only on +the slope of the heights of Cynoscephalae, on the right bank of +the Enipeus, partly because they barred the route of Caesar to +Scotussa, partly because their line of retreat evidently went over +the mountains that were to be found above the camp towards Larisa; +if they had, according to Leake's hypothesis (iv. 482), encamped to +the east of Pharsalus on the left bank of the Enipeus, they could +never have got to the northward through this stream, which at this +very point has a deeply cut bed (Leake, iv. 469), and Pompeius must +have fled to Lamia instead of Larisa. Probably therefore +the Pompeians pitched their camp on the right bank of the Fersaliti, +and passed the river both in order to fight and in order, after +the battle, to regain their camp, whence they then moved up the slopes +of Crannon and Scotussa, which culminate above the latter place in +the heights of Cynoscephalae. This was not impossible. +the Enipeus is a narrow slow-flowing rivulet, which Leake found two +feet deep in November, and which in the hot season often lies quite +dry (Leake, i. 448, and iv. 472; comp. Lucan, vi. 373), and +the battle was fought in the height of summer. Further the armies +before the battle lay three miles and a half from each other +(Appian, B. C. ii. 65), so that the Pompeians could make all +preparations and also properly secure the communication with their +camp by bridges. Had the battle terminated in a complete rout, no +doubt the retreat to and over the river could not have been +executed, and doubtless for this reason Pompeius only reluctantly +agreed to fight here. The left wing of the Pompeians which was +the most remote from the base of retreat felt this; but the retreat at +least of their centre and their right wing was not accomplished in +such haste as to be impracticable under the given conditions. +Caesar and his copyists are silent as to the crossing of the river, +because this would place in too clear a light the eagerness +for battle of the Pompeians apparent otherwise from the whole +narrative, and they are also silent as to the conditions of +retreat favourable for these. + +31. III. VIII. Battle of Cynoscephalae + +32. With this is connected the well-known direction of Caesar to +his soldiers to strike at the faces of the enemy's horsemen. +the infantry--which here in an altogether irregular way acted on +the offensive against cavalry, who were not to be reached with +the sabres--were not to throw their -pila-, but to use them as hand- +spears against the cavalry and, in order to defend themselves +better against these, to thrust at their faces (Plutarch, Pomp. 69, +71; Caes. 45; Appian, ii. 76, 78; Flor. ii. 12; Oros. vi. 15; +erroneously Frontinus, iv. 7, 32). The anecdotical turn given to +this instruction, that the Pompeian horsemen were to be brought to +run away by the fear of receiving scars in their faces, and that +they actually galloped off "holding their hands before their eyes" +(Plutarch), collapses of itself; for it has point only on +the supposition that the Pompeian cavalry had consisted principally of +the young nobility of Rome, the "graceful dancers"; and this was +not the case (p. 224). At the most it may be, that the wit of +the camp gave to that simple and judicious military order this very +irrational but certainly comic turn. + +33. V. I. Indefinite and Perilous Character of the Sertorian War + +34. [I may here state once for all that in this and other +passages, where Dr. Mommsen appears incidentally to express views +of religion or philosophy with which I can scarcely be supposed to +agree, I have not thought it right--as is, I believe, sometimes +done in similar cases--to omit or modify any portion of what he has +written. The reader must judge for himself as to the truth or +value of such assertions as those given in the text.--Tr.] + +35. V. IX. Passive Resistance of Caesar + +36. V. X. The Armies at Pharsalus + +37. V. IV. And Brought Back by Gabinius + +38. V. X. Caesar's Fleet and Army in Illyricum Destroyed + +39. V. IV. Aggregate Results + +40. V. IV. Ptolemaeus in Egypt Recognized, but Expelled +by His Subjects + +41. V. IV. Cyprus Annexed + +42. The loss of the lighthouse-island must have fallen out, where +there is now a chasm (B. A. 12), for the island was in fact at +first in Caesar's power (B. C. iii. 12; B. A. 8). The mole, must +have been constantly in the power of the enemy, for Caesar held +intercourse with the island only by ships. + +43. V. IV. Robber-Chiefs + +44. V. IV. Robber-Chiefs + +45. V. X. Caesar's Fleet and Army in Illyricum Destroyed + +46. V. VIII. And in the Courts + +47. Much obscurity rests on the shape assumed by the states in +northwestern Africa during this period. After the Jugurthine war +Bocchus king of Mauretania ruled probably from the western sea +to the port of Saldae, in what is now Morocco and Algiers +(IV. IV. Reorganization of Numidia); the princes of Tingis +(Tangiers)--probably from the outset different from the Mauretanian +sovereigns--who occur even earlier (Plut. Serf. 9), and to whom it may +be conjectured that Sallust's Leptasta (Hist. ii. 31 Kritz) and Cicero's +Mastanesosus (In Vat. 5, 12) belong, may have been independent +within certain limits or may have held from him as feudatories; +just as Syphax already ruled over many chieftains of tribes +(Appian, Pun. 10), and about this time in the neighbouring Numidia +Cirta was possessed, probably however under Juba's supremacy, +by the prince Massinissa (Appian, B. C. iv. 54). About 672 we find +in Bocchus' stead a king called Bocut or Bogud (iv. 92; Orosius, +v. 21, 14), the son of Bocchus. From 705 the kingdom appears divided +between king Bogud who possesses the western, and king Bocchus +who possesses the eastern half, and to this the later partition +of Mauretania into Bogud's kingdom or the state of Tingis and Bocchus' +kingdom or the state of Iol (Caesarea) refers (Plin. H. N. v. 2, 19; +comp. Bell. Afric. 23). + +48. IV. IX. Fresh Difficulties with Mithradates + +49. V. V. Resumption of the Conspiracy + +50. V. X. Reorganization of the Coalition In Africa + +51. IV. IV. Reorganization of Numidia + +52. The inscriptions of the region referred to preserve numerous +traces of this colonization. The name of the Sittii is there +unusually frequent; the African township Milev bears as Roman +the name -colonia Sarnensis-(C. I. L. viii. p. 1094) evidently from +the Nucerian river-god Sarnus (Sueton. Rhet. 4). + + + + +Notes for Chapter XI + + +1. V. X. Insurrection in Alexandria + +2. The affair with Laberius, told in the well-known prologue, has +been quoted as an instance of Caesar's tyrannical caprices, but +those who have done so have thoroughly misunderstood the irony of +the situation as well as of the poet; to say nothing of +the -naivete- of lamenting as a martyr the poet who readily +pockets his honorarium. + +3. The triumph after the battle of Munda subsequently to be +mentioned probably had reference only to the Lusitanians who served +in great numbers in the conquered army. + +4. Any one who desires to compare the old and new hardships of +authors will find opportunity of doing so in the letter of Caecina +(Cicero, Aa. Fam. vi. 7). + +5. V. VI. Second Coalition of Pompeius, Crassus, and Caesar + +6. When this was written--in the year 1857--no one could foresee +how soon the mightiest struggle and most glorious victory as yet +recorded in human annals would save the United States from this +fearful trial, and secure the future existence of an absolute +self-governing freedom not to be permanently kept in check by +any local Caesarism. + +7. V. IX. Preparation for Attacks on Caesar + +8. On the 26th January 710 Caesar is still called dictator IIII +(triumphal table); on the 18th February of this year he was already +-dictator perpetuus- (Cicero, Philip, ii. 34, 87). Comp. +Staatsrecht, ii. 3 716. + +9. IV. X. Executions + +10. The formulation of that dictatorship appears to have expressly +brought into prominence among other things the "improvement of +morals"; but Caesar did not hold on his own part an office of this +sort (Staatsrecht, ii. 3 705). + +11. Caesar bears the designation of -imperator- always without any +number indicative of iteration, and always in the first place after +his name (Staatsrecht, ii. 3 767, note 1). + +12. V. V. Rehabilitation of Saturninus and Marius + +13. During the republican period the name Imperator, which denotes +the victorious general, was laid aside with the end of the campaign; +as a permanent title it first appears in the case of Caesar. + +14. That in Caesar's lifetime the -imperium- as well as +the supreme pontificate was rendered by a formal legislative act +hereditary for his agnate descendants--of his own body or through +the medium of adoption--was asserted by Caesar the Younger as his +legal title to rule. As our traditional accounts stand, +the existence of such a law or resolution of the senate must be +decidedly called in question; but doubtless it remains possible +that Caesar intended the issue of such a decree. (Comp, +Staatsrecht, ii. 3 787, 1106.) + +15. The widely-spread opinion, which sees in the imperial office +of Imperator nothing but the dignity of general of the empire +tenable for life, is not warranted either by the signification of +the word or by the view taken by the old authorities. -Imperium- +is the power of command, -Imperator- is the possessor of that +power; in these words as in the corresponding Greek terms --kratos--, +--autokrator-- so little is there implied a specific military +reference, that it is on the contrary the very characteristic of +the Roman official power, where it appears purely and completely, +to embrace in it war and process--that is, the military and +the civil power of command--as one inseparable whole. Dio says quite +correctly (liii. 17; comp, xliii. 44; lii. 41) that the name +Imperator was assumed by the emperors "to indicate their full power +instead of the title of king and dictator (--pros deilosin teis +autotelous sphon exousias, anti teis basileos tou te diktatoros +epikleiseos--); for these other older titles disappeared in name, +but in reality the title of Imperator gives the same prerogatives +(--to de dei ergon auton tei tou autokratoros proseigoria +bebaiountai--), for instance the right of levying soldiers, +imposing taxes, declaring war and concluding peace, exercising +the supreme authority over burgess and non-burgess in and out of +the city and punishing any one at any place capitally or otherwise, and +in general of assuming the prerogatives connected in the earliest +times with the supreme imperium." It could not well be said in +plainer terms, that Imperator is nothing at all but a synonym for +rex, just as imperare coincides with regere. + +16. When Augustus in constituting the principate resumed +the Caesarian imperium, this was done with the restriction that it +should be limited as to space and in a certain sense also as to +time; the proconsular power of the emperors, which was nothing but +just this imperium, was not to come into application as regards +Rome and Italy (Staatsrecht, ii. 8 854). On this element rests +the essential distinction between the Caesarian imperium and +the Augustan principate, just as on the other hand the real equality of +the two institutions rests on the imperfection with which even in +principle and still more in practice that limit was realized. + +17. II. I. Collegiate Arrangements + +18. On this question there may be difference of opinion, whereas +the hypothesis that it was Caesar's intention to rule the Romans as +Imperator, the non-Romans as Rex, must be simply dismissed. It is +based solely on the story that in the sitting of the senate in +which Caesar was assassinated a Sibylline utterance was brought +forward by one of the priests in charge of the oracles, Lucius +Cotta, to the effect that the Parthians could only be vanquished by +a "king," and in consequence of this the resolution was adopted to +commit to Caesar regal power over the Roman provinces. This story +was certainly in circulation immediately after Caesar's death. But +not only does it nowhere find any sort of even indirect +confirmation, but it is even expressly pronounced false by +the contemporary Cicero (De Div. ii. 54, 119) and reported by the later +historians, especially by Suetonius (79) and Dio (xliv. 15) merely +as a rumour which they are far from wishing to guarantee; and it is +under such circumstances no better accredited by the fact of +Plutarch (Caes. 60, 64; Brut. 10) and Appian (B. C. ii. 110) +repeating it after their wont, the former by way of anecdote, +the latter by way of causal explanation. But the story is not merely +unattested; it is also intrinsically impossible. Even leaving out +of account that Caesar had too much intellect and too much +political tact to decide important questions of state after +the oligarchic fashion by a stroke of the oracle-machinery, he could +never think of thus formally and legally splitting up the state +which he wished to reduce to a level. + +19. II. III. Union of the Plebeians + +20. II. I. The New Community + +21. IV. X. Abolition of the Censorial Supervision of the Senate + +22. According to the probable calculation formerly assumed (iv. +113), this would yield an average aggregate number of from 1000 +to 1200 senators. + +23. This certainly had reference merely to the elections for +the years 711 and 712 (Staatsrecht, ii. a 730); but the arrangement was +doubtless meant to become permanent. + +24. I. V. The Senate as State-Council, II. I. Senate + +25. V. X. Pacification of Alexandria + +26. V. VIII. Changes in the Arrangement of Magistracies +and the Jury-System + +27. I. V. The King + +28. Hence accordingly the cautious turns of expression on +the mention of these magistracies in Caesar's laws; -cum censor aliusve +quis magistratus Romae populi censum aget (L. Jul. mun. l. 144); +praetor isve quei Romae iure deicundo praerit (L. Rubr. often); +quaestor urbanus queive aerario praerit- (L. Jul. mun. l. 37 et al.). + +29. V. III. New Arrangement as to Jurymen + +30. V. VIII. And in the Courts + +31. -Plura enim multo-, says Cicero in his treatise De Oratore +(ii. 42, 178), primarily with reference to criminal trials, +-homines iudicant odio aut amore aut cupiditate aut iracundia aut +dolore aut laetitia aut spe aut timore aut errore aut aliqua +permotione mentis, quam veritate aut praescripto aut iuris norma +aliqua aut iudicii formula aut legibus-. On this accordingly are +founded the further instructions which he gives for advocates +entering, on their profession. + +32. V. VIII. And in the Courts + +33. V. VII. Macedonia ff. + +34. V. VII. The Gallic Plan of War + +35. V. III. Overthrow of the Senatorial Rule, and New Power of Pompeius + +36. With the nomination of a part of the military tribunes by +the burgesses (III. XI. Election of Officers in the Comitia) Caesar-- +in this also a democrat--did not meddle. + +37. V. VII. The New Dacian Kingdom + +38. IV. VI. Political Significance of the Marian Military Reform + +39. IV. VI. Political Significance of the Marian Military Reform + +40. V. V. Total Defeat of the Democratic Party + +41. Varro attests the discontinuance of the Sicilian -decumae- +in a treatise published after Cicero's death (De R. R. 2 praef.) +where he names--as the corn--provinces whence Rome derives her +subsistence--only Africa and Sardinia, no longer Sicily. +The -Latinitas-, which Sicily obtained, must thus doubtless have +included this immunity (comp. Staatsrecht, iii. 684). + +42. V. X. Field of Caesar's Power + +43. III. XI. Italian Subjects + +44. V. VIII. Clodius + +45. III. XIII. Increase of Amusements + +46. In Sicily, the country of production, the -modius- was sold +within a few years at two and at twenty sesterces; from this we may +guess what must have been the fluctuations of price in Rome, which +subsisted on transmarine corn and was the seat of speculators. + +47. IV. XII. The Finances and Public Buildings + +48. It is a fact not without interest that a political writer of +later date but much judgment, the author of the letters addressed +in the name of Sallust to Caesar, advises the latter to transfer +the corn-distribution of the capital to the several -municipia-. +There is good sense in the admonition; as indeed similar ideas +obviously prevailed in the noble municipal provision for +orphans under Trajan. + +49. V. XI. The State-Hierarchy + +50. III. XII. The Management of the Land and Its Capital + +51. The following exposition in Cicero's treatise De officiis +(i. 42) is characteristic: -Iam de artificiis et quaestibus, qui +liberales habendi, qui sordidi sint, kaec fere accepimus. Primum +improbantur ii quaestus, qui in odia hominum incurrunt, ut +portitorum, ut feneratorum. Illiberales autem et sordidi quaestus +mercenariorum omnium, quorum operae, nonaries emuntur. Est autem +in illis ipsa merces auctoramentum servitutis. Sordidi etiam +putandi, qui mercantur a mercatoribus quod statim vendant, nihil +enim proficiant, nisi admodum mentiantur. Nec vero est quidquam +turpius vanitate. Opificesque omnes in sordida arte versantur; nec +enim quidquam ingenuum habere potest officina. Minimeque artes eae +probandae, quae ministrae sunt voluptatum, + +"Cetarii, lanii, coqui, fartores, piscatores," + +ut ait Terentius. Adde huc, si placet, unguentarios, saltatores, +totumque ludum talarium. Quibus autem artibus aut prudentia maior +inest, aut non mediocris utilitas quaeritur, ut medicina, ut +architectura, ut doctrina rerum honestarum, eae sunt iis, quorum +ordini conveniunt, honestae. Mercatura autem, si tenuis est, +sordida putanda est; sin magna et copiosa, multa undique apportans, +multaque sine vanitate impertiens, non est admodum vituperanda; +atque etiam, si satiata quaestu, vel contenta potius; ut saepe ex +alto in portum, ex ipso portu in agros se possessionesque +contulerit, videtur optimo iure posse laudari. Omnium autem rerum, +ex quibus aliquid acquiritur, nihil est agricultura melius, nihil +uberius, nihil dulcius, nihil homine libero dignius-. According to +this the respectable man must, in strictness, be a landowner; +the trade of a merchant becomes him only so far as it is a means to +this ultimate end; science as a profession is suitable only for +the Greeks and for Romans not belonging to the ruling classes, who by +this means may purchase at all events a certain toleration of their +personal presence in genteel circles. It is a thoroughly developed +aristocracy of planters, with a strong infusion of mercantile +speculation and a slight shading of general culture. + +52. IV. IV. Administration under the Restoration + +53. We have still (Macrobius, Hi, 13) the bill of fare of +the banquet which Mucius Lentulus Niger gave before 691 on entering on +his pontificate, and of which the pontifices--Caesar included--the +Vestal Virgins, and some other priests and ladies nearly related to +them partook. Before the dinner proper came sea-hedgehogs; fresh +oysters as many as the guests wished; large mussels; sphondyli; +fieldfares with asparagus; fattened fowls; oyster and mussel +pasties; black and white sea-acorns; sphondyli again; glycimarides; +sea-nettles; becaficoes; roe-ribs; boar's-ribs; fowls dressed with +flour; becaficoes; purple shell-fish of two sorts. The dinner +itself consisted of sow's udder; boar's-head; fish-pasties; boar- +pasties; ducks; boiled teals; hares; roasted fowls; starch-pastry; +Pontic pastry. + +These are the college-banquets regarding which Varro (De R. R. iii. +2, 16) says that they forced up the prices of all delicacies. +Varro in one of his satires enumerates the following as the most +notable foreign delicacies: peacocks from Samos; grouse from +Phrygia; cranes from Melos; kids from Ambracia; tunny fishes from +Chalcedon; muraenas from the Straits of Gades; bleak-fishes +(? -aselli-) from Pessinus; oysters and scallops from Tarentum; +sturgeons (?) from Rhodes; -scarus--fishes (?) from Cilicia; nuts +from Thasos; dates from Egypt; acorns from Spain. + +54. IV. VII. Economic Crisis, IV. IX. Death of Cinna + +55. III. X. Greek National Party + +56. IV. XI. Capitalist Oligarchy + +57. III. XIII. Luxury + +58. IV. XII. Practical Use Made of Religion + +59. III. XIII. Cato's Family Life, iv. 186 f. + +60. IV. I. Achaean War + +61. IV. XII. Mixture of Peoples + +62. V. VI. Caesar's Agrarian Law + +63. V. XI. Dolabella + +64. This is not stated by our authorities, but it necessarily +follows from the permission to deduct the interest paid by cash or +assignation (-si quid usurae nomine numeratum aut perscriptum +fuisset-; Sueton. Caes. 42), as paid contrary to law, from the capital. + +65. II. III. Laws Imposing Taxes + +66. V. V. Preparations of the Anarchists in Etruria + +67. IV. VII. Economic Crisis + +68. The Egyptian royal laws (Diodorus, i. 79) and likewise +the legislation of Solon (Plutarch, Sol. 13, 15) forbade bonds in which +the loss of the personal liberty of the debtor was made the penalty +of non-payment; and at least the latter imposed on the debtor in +the event of bankruptcy no more than the cession of his whole assets. + +69. I. XI. Manumission + +70. II. III. Continued Distress + +71. At least the latter rule occurs in the old Egyptian royal laws +(Diodorus, i. 79). On the other hand the Solonian legislation +knows no restrictions on interest, but on the contrary expressly +allows interest to be fixed of any amount at pleasure. + +72. V. VI. Caesar's Agrarian Law + +73. V. VI. Caesar's Agrarian Law + +74. IV. II. Tribunate of Gracchus, IV. II. The Domain Question Viewed +in Itself, IV. IV. The Domain Question under the Restoration + +75. IV. XII. Carneades at Rome, V. III. Continued Subsistence +of the Sullan Constitution + +76. IV. X. The Roman Municipal System + +77. Of both laws considerable fragments still exist. + +78. V. XI. Diminution of the Proletariate + +79. V. VII. Gaul Subdued + +80. As according to Caesar's ordinance annually sixteen +propraetors and two proconsuls divided the governorships among +them, and the latter remained two years in office (p. 344), we +might conclude that he intended to bring the number of provinces in +all up to twenty. Certainty is, however, the less attainable as to +this, seeing that Caesar perhaps designedly instituted fewer +offices than candidatures. + +81. This is the so-called "free embassy" (-libera legatio-), namely +an embassy without any proper public commission entrusted to it. + +82. V. II. Piracy + +83. V. XI. In The Administration of the Capital + +84. V. XI. Foreign Mercenaries + +85. V. IX. In the Governorships + +86. V. XI. Financial Reforms of Caesar + +87. V. I. Organizations of Sertorius + +88. V. XI. Robberies and Damage by War + +89. V. XI. The Roman Capitalists in the Provinces + +90. V. I. Transpadanes, V. VIII. Settlement of the New Monarchial Rule + +91. Narbo was called the colony of the Decimani, Baeterrae of +the Septimani, Forum Julii of the Octavani, Arelate of the Sextani, +Arausio of the Secundani. The ninth legion is wanting, because it +had disgraced its number by the mutiny of Placentia (p. 246). That +the colonists of these colonies belonged to the legions from which +they took their names, is not stated and is not credible; +the veterans themselves were, at least the great majority of them, +settled in Italy (p. 358). Cicero's complaint, that Caesar "had +confiscated whole provinces and districts at a blow" (De Off. ii. +7, 27; comp. Philipp. xiii. 15, 31, 32) relates beyond doubt, as +its close connection with the censure of the triumph over +the Massiliots proves, to the confiscations of land made on account of +these colonies in the Narbonese province and primarily to +the losses of territory imposed on Massilia. + +92. IV. VII. Bestowal of Latin Rights on the Italian Celts + +93. V. XI. Other Magistracies and Attributions + +94. We are not expressly informed from whom the Latin rights of +the non-colonized townships of this region and especially of +Nemausus proceeded. But as Caesar himself (B. C. i. 35) virtually +states that Nemausus up to 705 was a Massiliot village; as +according to Livy's account (Dio, xli. 25; Flor. ii. 13; Oros. vi. +15) this very portion of territory was taken from the Massiliots by +Caesar; and lastly as even on pre-Augustan coins and then in Strabo +the town appears as a community of Latin rights, Caesar alone can +have been the author of this bestowal of Latinity. As to Ruscino +(Roussillon near Perpignan) and other communities in Narbonese Gaul +which early attained a Latin urban constitution, we can only +conjecture that they received it contemporarily with Nemausus. + +95. V. VII. Indulgence toward Existing Arrangements + +96. II. V. Crises within the Romano-Latin League + +97. V. X. The Leaders of the Republicans Put to Death + +98. That no community of full burgesses had more than limited +jurisdiction, is certain. But the fact, which is distinctly +apparent from the Caesarian municipal ordinance for Cisalpine Gaul, +is a surprising one--that the processes lying beyond municipal +competency from this province went not before its governor, but +before the Roman praetor; for in other cases the governor is in his +province quite as much representative of the praetor who +administers justice between burgesses as of the praetor who +administers justice between burgess and non-burgess, and is +thoroughly competent to determine all processes. Beyond doubt this +is a remnant of the arrangement before Sulla, under which in +the whole continental territory as far as the Alps the urban +magistrates alone were competent, and thus all the processes there, +where they exceeded municipal competency, necessarily came before +the praetors in Rome. In Narbo again, Gades, Carthage, Corinth, +the processes in such a case went certainly to the governor +concerned; as indeed even from practical considerations +the carrying of a suit to Rome could not well be thought of. + +99. It is difficult to see why the bestowal of the Roman franchise +on a province collectively, and the continuance of a provincial +administration for it, should be usually conceived as contrasts +excluding each other. Besides, Cisalpine Gaul notoriously obtained +the -civitas- by the Roscian decree of the people of the 11th March +705, while it remained a province as long as Caesar lived and was +only united with Italy after his death (Dio, xlviii. 12); +the governors also can be pointed out down to 711. The very fact that +the Caesarian municipal ordinance never designates the country as +Italy, but as Cisalpine Gaul, ought to have led to the right view. + +100. IV. II. The First Sicilian Slave War + +101. The continued subsistence of the municipal census-authorities +speaks for the view, that the local holding of the census had +already been established for Italy in consequence of the Social war +(Staatsrecht, ii. 8 368); but probably the carrying out of this +system was Caesar's work. + +102. II. VII. Intermediate Fuctionaries, III. III. Autonomy + +103. III. XI. Supervision of the Senate Over the Provinces +and Their Governors + +104. I. XI. Character of the Roman Law + +105. IV. XIII. Philology + +106. I. XI. Clients and Foreigners + +107. V. XI. Usury Laws + +108. V. V. Transpadanes + +109. I. XIV. Italian Measures ff. + +110. III. XII. Coins and Moneys + +111. Weights recently brought to light at Pompeii suggest +the hypothesis that at the commencement of the imperial period +alongside of the Roman pound the Attic mina (presumably in +the ratio of 3: 4) passed current as a second imperial weight +(Hermes, xvi. 311). + +112. The gold pieces, which Sulla (iv. 179) and contemporarily +Pompeius caused to be struck, both in small quantity, do not +invalidate this proposition; for they probably came to be taken +solely by weight just like the golden Phillippei which were in +circulation even down to Caesar's time. They are certainly +remarkable, because they anticipate the Caesarian imperial gold +just as Sulla's regency anticipated the new monarchy. + +113. IV. XI. Token-Money + +114. It appears, namely, that in earlier times the claims of +the state-creditors payable in silver could not be paid against their +will in gold according to its legal ratio to silver; whereas it +admits of no doubt, that from Caesar's time the gold piece had to +be taken as a valid tender for 100 silver sesterces. This was just +at that time the more important, as in consequence of the great +quantities of gold put into circulation by Caesar it stood for +a time in the currency of trade 25 per cent below the legal ratio. + +115. There is probably no inscription of the Imperial period, +which specifies sums of money otherwise than in Roman coin. + +116. Thus the Attic -drachma-, although sensibly heavier than +the -denarius-, was yet reckoned equal to it; the -tetradrachmon- of +Antioch, weighing on an average 15 grammes of silver, was made +equal to 3 Roman -denarii-, which only weigh about 12 grammes; +the -cistophorus- of Asia Minor was according to the value of silver +above 3, according to the legal tariff =2 1/2 -denarii-; the Rhodian +half -drachma- according to the value of silver=3/4, according to +the legal tariff = 5/8 of a -denarius-, and so on. + +117. III. III. Illyrian Piracy + +118. The identity of this edict drawn up perhaps by Marcus Flavius +(Macrob. Sat. i. 14, 2) and the alleged treatise of Caesar, De +Stellis, is shown by the joke of Cicero (Plutarch, Caes. 59) that +now the Lyre rises according to edict. + +We may add that it was known even before Caesar that the solar year +of 365 days 6 hours, which was the basis of the Egyptian calendar, +and which he made the basis of his, was somewhat too long. +the most exact calculation of the tropical year which the ancient world +was acquainted with, that of Hipparchus, put it at 365 d. 5 h. 52' +12"; the true length is 365 d. 5 h. 48' 48". + +119. Caesar stayed in Rome in April and Dec. 705, on each occasion +for a few days; from Sept. to Dec. 707; some four months in the autumn +of the year of fifteen months 708, and from Oct. 709 to March 710. + + + + +Notes for Chapter XII + + +1. V. VIII. Clodius + +2. III. XIV. Cato's Encyclopedia + +3. These form, as is well known, the so-called seven liberal arts, +which, with this distinction between the three branches of +discipline earlier naturalized in Italy and the four subsequently +received, maintained their position throughout the middle ages. + +4. IV. XII. Latin Instruction + +5. Thus Varro (De R. R. i. 2) says: -ab aeditimo, ut dicere +didicimus a patribus nostris; ut corrigimur ab recenlibus +urbanis, ab aedituo-. + +6. The dedication of the poetical description of the earth which +passes under the name of Scymnus is remarkable in reference to +those relations. After the poet has declared his purpose of +preparing in the favourite Menandrian measure a sketch of geography +intelligible for scholars and easy to be learned by heart, he +dedicates--as Apollodorus dedicated his similar historical +compendium to Attalus Philadelphus king of Pergamus + + --athanaton aponemonta dexan Attalo + teis pragmateias epigraphein eileiphoti-- -- + +his manual to Nicomedes III king (663?-679) of Bithynia: + +--ego d' akouon, dioti ton non basileon +monos basilikein chreistoteita prosphereis +peiran epethumeis autos ep' emautou labein +kai paragenesthai kai ti basileus est' idein, +dio tei prothesei sumboulon exelexamein +... ton Apollena ton Didumei... +ou dei schedon malista kai pepeismenos +pros sein kata logon eika (koinein gar schedon +tois philomathousin anadedeichas) estian--. + +7. IV. XIII. Historical Composition + +8. V. XII. Greek Instruction + +9. Cicero testifies that the mime in his time had taken the place +of the Atellana (Ad Fam. ix. 16); with this accords the fact, that +the -mimi- and -mimae- first appear about the Sullan epoch (Ad Her. +i. 14, 24; ii. 13, 19; Atta Fr. 1 Ribbeck; Plin. H. N. vii. 43, +158; Plutarch, Sull. 2, 36). The designation -mimus-, however, is +sometimes inaccurately applied to the comedian generally. Thus +the -mimus- who appeared at the festival of Apollo in 542-543 (Festus +under -salva res est-; comp. Cicero, De Orat. ii. 59, 242) was +evidently nothing but an actor of the -palliata-, for there was at +this period no room in the development of the Roman theatre for +real mimes in the later sense. + +With the mimus of the classical Greek period--prose dialogues, +in which -genre- pictures, particularly of a rural kind, were +presented--the Roman mimus had no especial relation. + +10. With the possession of this sum, which constituted +the qualification for the first voting-class and subjected +the inheritance to the Voconian law, the boundary line was crossed +which separated the men of slender means (-tenuiores-) from +respectable people. Therefore the poor client of Catullus +(xxiii. 26) beseeches the gods to help him to this fortune. + +11. In the "Descensus ad Inferos" of Laberius all sorts of people +come forward, who have seen wonders and signs; to one there +appeared a husband with two wives, whereupon a neighbour is of +opinion that this is still worse than the vision, recently seen by +a soothsayer in a dream, of six aediles. Caesar forsooth desired-- +according to the talk of the time--to introduce polygamy in Rome +(Suetonius, Caes. 82) and he nominated in reality six aediles +instead of four. One sees from this that aberius understood +how to exercise the fool's privilege and Caesar how to permit +the fool's freedom. + +12. V. VIII. Attempts of the Regents to Check It + +13. V. XI. The Poor + +14. IV. XIII. Dramatic Arrangements + +15. He obtained from the state for every day on which he acted +1000 -denarii- (40 pounds) and besides this the pay for his +company. In later years he declined the honorarium for himself. + +16. Such an individual apparent exception as Panchaea the land of +incense (ii. 417) is to be explained from the circumstance that +this had passed from the romance of the Travels of Euhemerus +already perhaps into the poetry of Ennius, at any rate into +the poems of Lucius Manlius (iv. 242; Plin. H. N. x. a, 4) and thence +was well known to the public for which Lucretius wrote. + +17. III. XIV. Moral Effect of Tragedy + +18. This naively appears in the descriptions of war, in which +the seastorms that destroy armies, and the hosts of elephants that +trample down those who are on their own side--pictures, that is, +from the Punic wars--appear as if they belong to the immediate +present. Comp. ii. 41; v. 1226, 1303, 1339. + +19. "No doubt," says Cicero (Tusc. iii. 19, 45) in reference to +Ennius, "the glorious poet is despised by our reciters of +Euphorion." "I have safely arrived," he writes to Atticus (vii. 2 +init.), "as a most favourable north wind blew for us across from +Epirus. This spondaic line you may, if you choose, sell to one of +the new-fashioned poets as your own" (-ita belle nobis flavit ab +Epiro lenissumus Onchesmites. Hunc- --spondeiazonta-- -si cui voles +--ton neoteron-- pro tuo vendito-). + +20. V. VIII. Literature of the Opposition + +21. "For me when a boy," he somewhere says, "there sufficed +a single rough coat and a single under-garment, shoes without +stockings, a horse without a saddle; I had no daily warm bath, and +but seldom a river-bath." On account of his personal valour he +obtained in the Piratic war, where he commanded a division of +the fleet, the naval crown. + +22. V. X. The Pompeians in Spain + +23. There is hardly anything more childish than Varro's scheme of +all the philosophies, which in the first place summarily declares +all systems that do not propose the happiness of man as their +ultimate aim to be nonexistent, and then reckons the number of +philosophies conceivable under this supposition as two hundred and +eighty-eight. The vigorous man was unfortunately too much a scholar +to confess that he neither could nor would be a philosopher, +and accordingly as such throughout life he performed a blind dance- +not altogether becoming--between the Stoa, Pythagoreanism, and Diogenism. + +24. On one occasion he writes, "-Quintiforis Clodii foria ac +poemata ejus gargaridians dices; O fortuna, O fors fortuna-!" And +elsewhere, "-Cum Quintipor Clodius tot comoedias sine ulla fecerit +Musa, ego unum libellum non 'edolem' ut ait Ennius?-" This not +otherwise known Clodius must have been in all probability +a wretched imitator of Terence, as those words sarcastically laid +at his door "O fortuna, O fors fortuna!" are found occurring +in a Terentian comedy. + +The following description of himself by a poet in Varro's + --Onos Louras--, + + -Pacuvi discipulus dicor, porro is fuit Enni, + Ennius Musarum; Pompilius clueor- + +might aptly parody the introduction of Lucretius (p. 474), to whom +Varro as a declared enemy of the Epicurean system cannot have been +well disposed, and whom he never quotes. + +25. He himself once aptly says, that he had no special fondness +for antiquated words, but frequently used them, and that he was +very fond of poetical words, but did not use them. + +26. The following description is taken from the -Marcipor- +("Slave of Marcus"):-- + + -Repente noctis circiter meridie + Cum pictus aer fervidis late ignibus + Caeli chorean astricen ostenderet, + Nubes aquali, frigido velo leves + Caeli cavernas aureas subduxerant, + Aquam vomentes inferam mortalibus. + Ventique frigido se ab axe eruperant, + Phrenetici septentrionum filii, + Secum ferentes tegulas, ramos, syrus. + At nos caduci, naufragi, ut ciconiae + Quarum bipennis fulminis plumas vapor + Perussit, alte maesti in terram cecidimus-. + +In the --'Anthropopolis-- we find the lines: + + -Non fit thesauris, non auro pectu' solutum; + Non demunt animis curas ac relligiones + Persarum montes, non atria diviti' Crassi-. + +But the poet was successful also in a lighter vein. In the -Est +Modus Matulae- there stood the following elegant commendation of +wine:-- + + -Vino nihil iucundius quisquam bibit. + Hoc aegritudinem ad medendam invenerunt, + Hoc hilaritatis dulce seminarium. + Hoc continet coagulum convivia-. + +And in the --Kosmotonounei-- the wanderer returning home thus +concludes his address to the sailors: + + -Delis habenas animae leni, + Dum nos ventus flamine sudo + Suavem ad patriam perducit-. + +27. The sketches of Varro have so uncommon historical +and even poetical significance, and are yet, in consequence of +the fragmentary shape in which information regarding them has reached +us, known to so few and so irksome to study, that we may be allowed +to give in this place a resume of some of them with the few +restorations indispensable for making them readable. + +The satire Manius (Early Up!) describes the management of a rural +household. "Manius summons his people to rise with the sun, and in +person conducts them to the scene of their work. The youths make +their own bed, which labour renders soft to them, and supply +themselves with water-jar and lamp. Their drink is the clear fresh +spring, their fare bread, and onions as relish. Everything +prospers in house and field. The house is no work of art; but +an architect might learn symmetry from it. Care is taken of +the field, that it shall not be left disorderly and waste, or go to +ruin through slovenliness and neglect; in return the grateful Ceres +wards off damage from the produce, that the high-piled sheaves may +gladden the heart of the husbandman. Here hospitality still holds +good; every one who has but imbibed mother's milk is welcome. +the bread-pantry and wine-vat and the store of sausages on the rafters, +lock and key are at the service of the traveller, and piles of food +are set before him; contented sits the sated guest, looking neither +before nor behind, dozing by the hearth in the kitchen. +the warmest double-wool sheepskin is spread as a couch for him. + +"Here people still as good burgesses obey the righteous law, which +neither out of envy injures the innocent, nor out of favour pardons +the guilty. Here they speak no evil against their neighbours. +Here they trespass not with their feet on the sacred hearth, but +honour the gods with devotion and with sacrifices, throw for +the house-spirit his little bit of flesh into his appointed little +dish, and when the master of the household dies, accompany the bier +with the same prayer with which those of his father and of his +grandfather were borne forth." + +In another satire there appears a "Teacher of the Old" +(--Gerontodidaskalos--), of whom the degenerate age seems to stand +more urgently in need than of the teacher of youth, and he explains +how "once everything in Rome was chaste and pious," and now all +things are so entirely changed. "Do my eyes deceive me, or do I +see slaves in arms against their masters?--Formerly every one who +did not present himself for the levy, was sold on the part of +the state into slavery abroad; now the censor who allows cowardice and +everything to pass is called [by the aristocracy, III. XI. Separation +Of the Orders in the Theatre; IV. X. Shelving of the Censorship, V. III. +Renewal of the Censorship; V. VIII. Humiliations of the Republicans] +a great citizen, and earns praise because he does not seek +to make himself a name by annoying his fellow-citizens.-- +Formerly the Roman husbandman had his beard shaven once every week; +now the rural slave cannot have it fine enough.--Formerly one saw +on the estates a corn-granary, which held ten harvests, spacious +cellars for the wine-vats and corresponding wine-presses; now +the master keeps flocks of peacocks, and causes his doors to be inlaid +with African cypress-wood.--Formerly the housewife turned +the spindle with the hand and kept at the same time the pot on +the hearth in her eye, that the pottage might not be singed; now," it +is said in another satire, "the daughter begs her father for +a pound of precious stones, and the wife her husband for a bushel of +pearls.--Formerly a newly-married husband was silent and bashful; +now the wife surrenders herself to the first coachman that comes.-- +Formerly the blessing of children was woman's pride; now if her +husband desires for himseli children, she replies: Knowest thou not +what Ennius says? + + "'-Ter sub armis malim vitam cernere Quam semel modo parere--.--' + +"Formerly the wife was quite content, when the husband once or twice +in the year gave her a trip to the country in the uncushioned +waggon;" now, he could add (comp. Cicero, Pro Mil. 21, 55), "the +wife sulks if her husband goes to his country estate without her, +and the travelling lady is attended to the villa by the fashionable +host of Greek menials and the choir." --In a treatise of a graver +kind, "Catus or the Training of Children," Varro not only instructs +the friend who had asked him for advice on that point, regarding +the gods who were according to old usage to be sacrificed to for +the children's welfare, but, referring to the more judicious mode +of rearing children among the Persians and to his own strictly +spent youth, he warns against over-feeding and over-sleeping, +against sweet bread and fine fare--the whelps, the old man thinks, +are now fed more judiciously than the children--and likewise +against the enchantresses' charms and blessings, which in cases of +sickness so often take the place of the physician's counsel. He +advises to keep the girls at embroidery, that they may afterwards +understand how to judge properly of embroidered and textile work, +and not to allow them to put off the child's dress too early; he +warns against carrying boys to the gladiatorial games, in which +the heart is early hardened and cruelty learned.--In the "Man of Sixty +Years" Varro appears as a Roman Epimenides who had fallen asleep +when a boy of ten and waked up again after half a century. He is +astonished to find instead of his smooth-shorn boy's head an old +bald pate with an ugly snout and savage bristles like a hedgehog; +but he is still more astonished at the change in Rome. Lucrine +oysters, formerly a wedding dish, are now everyday fare; for which, +accordingly, the bankrupt glutton silently prepares the incendiary +torch. While formerly the father disposed of his boy, now +the disposal is transferred to the latter: he disposes, forsooth, of +his father by poison. The Comitium had become an exchange, +the criminal trial a mine of gold for the jurymen. No law is any +longer obeyed save only this one, that nothing is given for +nothing. All virtues have vanished; in their stead the awakened +man is saluted by impiety, perfidy, lewdness, as new denizens. +"Alas for thee, Marcus, with such a sleep and such an awakening!"-- +The sketch resembles the Catilinarian epoch, shortly after which +(about 697) the old man must have written it, and there lay a truth +in the bitter turn at the close; where Marcus, properly reproved +for his unseasonable accusations and antiquarian reminiscences, is-- +with a mock application of a primitive Roman custom--dragged as +a useless old man to the bridge and thrown into the Tiber. There was +certainly no longer room for such men in Rome. + +28. "The innocent," so ran a speech, "thou draggest forth, +trembling in every limb, and on the high margin of the river's bank +in the dawn of the morning" [thou causest them to be slaughtered]. +Several such phrases, that might be inserted without difficulty in +a commonplace novel, occur. + +29. V. XII. Poems in Prose + +30. V. XII. Catullus + +31. V. XII. Greek Literati in Rome + +32. That the treatise on the Gallic war was published all at once, +has been long conjectured; the distinct proof that it was so, is +furnished by the mention of the equalization of the Boii and +the Haedui already in the first book (c. 28) whereas the Boii still +occur in the seventh (c. 10) as tributary subjects of the Haedui, +and evidently only obtained equal rights with their former masters +on account of their conduct and that of the Haedui in the war +against Vercingetorix. On the other hand any one who attentively +follows the history of the time will find in the expression as to +the Milonian crisis (vii. 6) a proof that the treatise was published +before the outbreak of the civil war; not because Pompeius is there +praised, but because Caesar there approves the exceptional laws of +702.(p. 146) This he might and could not but do, so long as he +sought to bring about a peaceful accommodation with Pompeius,( p. +175) but not after the rupture, when he reversed the condemnations +that took place on the basis of those laws injurious for him.(p. +316) Accordingly the publication of this treatise has been quite +rightly placed in 703. + +The tendency of the work we discern most distinctly in +the constant, often--most decidedly, doubtless, in the case of the +Aquitanian expedition (III. XI. The Censorship A Prop of the Nobility)-- +not successful, justification of every single act of war as +a defensive measure which the state of things had rendered inevitable. +That the adversaries of Caesar censured his attacks on the Celts +and Germans above all as unprovoked, is well known (Sueton. Caes. 24). + +33. V. XI. Amnesty + +34. V. XII. The New Roman Poetry + +35. V. XI. Caelius and Milo + +36. V. IX. Curio, V. X. Death of Curio + +37. IV. XIII. Sciences + +38. A remarkable example is the general exposition regarding +cattle in the treatise on Husbandry (ii. 1) with the nine times +nine subdivisions of the doctrine of cattle-rearing, with +the "incredible but true" fact that the mares at Olisipo (Lisbon) +become pregnant by the wind, and generally with its singular +mixture of philosophical, historical, and agricultural notices. + +39. Thus Varro derives -facere- from -facies-, because he who +makes anything gives to it an appearance, -volpes-, the fox, after +Stilo from -volare pedibus- as the flying-footed; Gaius Trebatius, +a philosophical jurist of this age, derives -sacellum- from -sacra +cella-, Figulus -frater- from -fere alter- and so forth. This +practice, which appears not merely in isolated instances but as +a main element of the philological literature of this age, presents +a very great resemblance to the mode in which till recently +comparative philology was prosecuted, before insight into +the organism of language put a stop to the occupation of the empirics. + +40. V. XII. Grammatical Science + +41. V. XI. Sciences of General Culture at This Period + +42. V. XI. Reform of the Calendar + +43. V. XII. Dramatic Spectacles + +44. Such "Greek entertainments" were very frequent not merely in +the Greek cities of Italy, especially in Naples (Cic. pro Arch. 5, +10; Plut. Brut. 21), but even now also in Rome (iv. 192; Cic. Ad +Fam. vii. 1, 3; Ad Att. xvi. 5, 1; Sueton. Caes. 39; Plut. Brut. +21). When the well-known epitaph of Licinia Eucharis fourteen +years of age, which probably belongs to the end of this period, +makes this "girl well instructed and taught in all arts by +the Muses themselves" shine as a dancer in the private exhibitions of +noble houses and appear first in public on the Greek stage (-modo +nobilium ludos decoravi choro, et Graeca in scaena prima populo +apparui-), this doubtless can only mean that she was the first girl +that appeared on the public Greek stage in Rome; as generally +indeed it was not till this epoch that women began to come forward +publicly in Rome (p. 469). + +These "Greek entertainments" in Rome seem not to have been properly +scenic, but rather to have belonged to the category of composite +exhibitions--primarily musical and declamatory--such as were not of +rare occurrence in subsequent times also in Greece (Welcker, +Griech. Trag., p. 1277). This view is supported by the prominence +of flute-playing in Polybius (xxx. 13) and of dancing in +the account of Suetonius regarding the armed dances from Asia Minor +performed at Caesar's games and in the epitaph of Eucharis; +the description also of the -citharoedus- (Ad Her. iv. 47, 60; comp. +Vitruv. v. 5, 7) must have been derived from such "Greek +entertainments." The combinations of these representations in Rome +with Greek athletic combats is significant (Polyb. l. c.; Liv. +xxxix. 22). Dramatic recitations were by no means excluded from +these mixed entertainments, since among the players whom Lucius +Anicius caused to appear in 587 in Rome, tragedians are expressly +mentioned; there was however no exhibition of plays in the strict +sense, but either whole dramas, or perhaps still more frequently +pieces taken from them, were declaimed or sung to the flute by +single artists. This must accordingly have been done also in Rome; +but to all appearance for the Roman public the main matter in these +Greek games was the music and dancing, and the text probably had +little more significance for them than the texts of the Italian +opera for the Londoners and Parisians of the present day. Those +composite entertainments with their confused medley were far better +suited for the Ionian public, and especially for exhibitions in +private houses, than proper scenic performances in the Greek +language; the view that the latter also took place in Rome cannot +be refuted, but can as little be proved. + +45. V. XI. Sciences of General Culture at This Period + + + +End of Book IV + + + + * * * * * + + + +TABLE OF CALENDAR EQUIVALENTS + +A.U.C.* B.C. B.C. A.U.C. +------------------------------------------------------ +000 753 753 000 + 025 728 750 003 + 050 703 725 028 + 075 678 700 053 +100 653 675 078 + 125 628 650 103 + 150 603 625 128 + 175 578 600 153 +200 553 575 178 + 225 528 550 203 + 250 503 525 228 + 275 478 500 253 +300 453 475 278 + 325 428 450 303 + 350 303 425 328 + 375 378 400 353 +400 353 375 378 + 425 328 350 403 + 450 303 325 428 + 475 278 300 453 +500 253 275 478 + 525 228 250 503 + 550 203 225 528 + 575 178 200 553 +600 153 175 578 + 625 128 150 603 + 650 103 125 628 + 675 078 100 653 +700 053 075 678 + 725 028 050 703 + 750 003 025 728 + 753 000 000 753 + +*A. U. C. - Ab Urbe Condita (from the founding of the City of Rome) + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY OF ROME (VOLUMES 1-5)*** + + +******* This file should be named 10706.txt or 10706.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/0/7/0/10706 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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