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diff --git a/old/10704.txt b/old/10704.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b4e7036 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10704.txt @@ -0,0 +1,20814 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The History of Rome, Book IV, 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, Book IV + +Author: Theodor Mommsen + +Release Date: September 13, 2004 [eBook #10704] +Most recently updated March 16, 2005 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY OF ROME, BOOK IV*** + + +E-text prepared by David Ceponis + + + +Note: A compilation of all five volumes of this work is also available + individually in the Project Gutenberg library. + See https://www.gutenberg.org/etext/10706 + + The original German version of this work, Roemische Geschichte, + Viertes Buch: Die Revolution, is in the Project Gutenberg + E-Library as E-book #3063. + See https://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3063 + + + + + +THE HISTORY OF ROME, BOOK IV + +The Revolution + +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 + + + + + + +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. + + + +End of Volume IV + + + +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 + + + +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, BOOK IV*** + + +******* This file should be named 10704.txt or 10704.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/7/0/10704 + + + +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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