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diff --git a/old/13226-0.txt b/old/13226-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0b6cd11 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13226-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6473 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Common People of Ancient Rome, by Frank Frost Abbott + +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 Common People of Ancient Rome + Studies of Roman Life and Literature + +Author: Frank Frost Abbott + +Release Date: August 19, 2004 [EBook #13226] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COMMON PEOPLE OF ANCIENT ROME *** + + + + +Produced by Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +[Transcriber's note: This book makes use of the Roman denarius symbol. +Because this symbol is not available in Unicode, it has been replaced by +the ROMAN NUMERAL TEN (U+2169) with a COMBINING LONG STROKE OVERLAY +(U+0336) in the UTF-8 version.] + + + + +The Common People of Ancient Rome + +Studies of Roman Life and Literature + +By + +Frank Frost Abbott + +Kennedy Professor of the Latin Language and Literature in Princeton +University + +New York +Charles Scribner's Sons + + + + +Copyright, 1911, by +Charles Scribner's Sons + + +Printed in the United States of America + + + + +Dedicated to J. H. A. + + + + +Prefatory Note + + + +This book, like the volume on "Society and Politics in Ancient Rome," +deals with the life of the common people, with their language and +literature, their occupations and amusements, and with their social, +political, and economic conditions. We are interested in the common people +of Rome because they made the Roman Empire what it was. They carried the +Roman standards to the Euphrates and the Atlantic; they lived abroad as +traders, farmers, and soldiers to hold and Romanize the provinces, or they +stayed at home, working as carpenters, masons, or bakers, to supply the +daily needs of the capital. + +The other side of the subject which has engaged the attention of the +author in studying these topics has been the many points of similarity +which arise between ancient and modern conditions, and between the +problems which the Roman faced and those which confront us. What policy +shall the government adopt toward corporations? How can the cost of living +be kept down? What effect have private benefactions on the character of a +people? Shall a nation try to introduce its own language into the +territory of a subject people, or shall it allow the native language to be +used, and, if it seeks to introduce its own tongue, how can it best +accomplish its object? The Roman attacked all these questions, solved some +of them admirably, and failed with others egregiously. His successes and +his failures are perhaps equally illuminating, and the fact that his +attempts to improve social and economic conditions run through a period of +a thousand years should make the study of them of the greater interest and +value to us. + +Of the chapters which this book contains, the article on "The Origin of +the Realistic Romance among the Romans" appeared originally in _Classical +Philology_, and the author is indebted to the editors of that periodical +for permission to reprint it here. The other papers are now published for +the first time. + +It has not seemed advisable to refer to the sources to substantiate every +opinion which has been expressed, but a few references have been given in +the foot-notes mainly for the sake of the reader who may wish to follow +some subject farther than has been possible in these brief chapters. The +proofs had to be corrected while the author was away from his own books, +so that he was unable to make a final verification of two or three of the +citations, but he trusts that they, as well as the others, are accurate. +He takes this opportunity to acknowledge his indebtedness to Dr. Donald +Blythe Durham, of Princeton University, for the preparation of the index. + +Frank Frost Abbott. +Einsiedeln, Switzerland +_September 2, 1911_ + + + + +Contents + + + +How Latin Became the Language of the World +The Latin of the Common People +The Poetry of the Common People of Rome: + I. Their Metrical Epitaphs + II. Their Dedicatory and Ephemeral Verses +The Origin of the Realistic Romance Among the Romans +Diocletian's Edict and the High Cost of Living +Private Benefactions and Their Effect on the Municipal Life of the Romans +Some Reflections on Corporations and Trade-Guilds +A Roman Politician, Gaius Scribonius Curio +Gaius Matius, a Friend of Cæsar + +Index + + + + +The Common People of Ancient Rome + + + + +How Latin Became the Language of the World + + + +How the armies of Rome mastered the nations of the world is known to every +reader of history, but the story of the conquest by Latin of the languages +of the world is vague in the minds of most of us. If we should ask +ourselves how it came about, we should probably think of the world-wide +supremacy of Latin as a natural result of the world-wide supremacy of the +Roman legions or of Roman law. But in making this assumption we should be +shutting our eyes to the history of our own times. A conquered people does +not necessarily accept, perhaps it has not commonly accepted, the tongue +of its master. In his "Ancient and Modern Imperialism" Lord Cromer states +that in India only one hundred people in every ten thousand can read and +write English, and this condition exists after an occupation of one +hundred and fifty years or more. He adds: "There does not appear the +least prospect of French supplanting Arabic in Algeria." In comparing the +results of ancient and modern methods perhaps he should have taken into +account the fact that India and Algeria have literatures of their own, +which most of the outlying peoples subdued by Rome did not have, and these +literatures may have strengthened the resistance which the tongue of the +conquered people has offered to that of the conqueror, but, even when +allowance is made for this fact, the difference in resultant conditions is +surprising. From its narrow confines, within a little district on the +banks of the Tiber, covering, at the close of the fifth century B.C., less +than a hundred square miles, Latin spread through Italy and the islands of +the Mediterranean, through France, Spain, England, northern Africa, and +the Danubian provinces, triumphing over all the other tongues of those +regions more completely than Roman arms triumphed over the peoples using +them. + +In tracing the story we must keep in our mind's eye the linguistic +geography of Italy, just as we must remember the political geography of +the peninsula in following Rome's territorial expansion. Let us think at +the outset, then, of a little strip of flat country on the Tiber, dotted +here and there with hills crowned with villages. Such hill towns were +Rome, Tusculum, and Præneste, for instance. Each of them was the +stronghold and market-place of the country immediately about it, and +therefore had a life of its own, so that although Latin was spoken in all +of them it varied from one to the other. This is shown clearly enough by +the inscriptions which have been found on the sites of these ancient +towns,[1] and as late as the close of the third century before our era, +Plautus pokes fun in his comedies at the provincialism of Præneste. + +The towns which we have mentioned were only a few miles from Rome. Beyond +them, and occupying central Italy and a large part of southern Italy, were +people who spoke Oscan and the other Italic dialects, which were related +to Latin, and yet quite distinct from it. In the seaports of the south +Greek was spoken, while the Messapians and Iapygians occupied Calabria. To +the north of Rome were the mysterious Etruscans and the almost equally +puzzling Venetians and Ligurians. When we follow the Roman legions across +the Alps into Switzerland, France, England, Spain, and Africa, we enter a +jungle, as it were, of languages and dialects. A mere reading of the list +of tongues with which Latin was brought into contact, if such a list could +be drawn up, would bring weariness to the flesh. In the part of Gaul +conquered by Cæsar, for instance, he tells us that there were three +independent languages, and sixty distinct states, whose peoples doubtless +differed from one another in their speech. If we look at a map of the +Roman world under Augustus, with the Atlantic to bound it on the west, the +Euphrates on the east, the desert of Sahara on the south, and the Rhine +and Danube on the north, and recall the fact that the linguistic +conditions which Cæsar found in Gaul in 58 B.C. were typical of what +confronted Latin in a great many of the western, southern, and northern +provinces, the fact that Latin subdued all these different tongues, and +became the every-day speech of these different peoples, will be recognized +as one of the marvels of history. In fact, so firmly did it establish +itself, that it withstood the assaults of the invading Gothic, Lombardic, +Frankish, and Burgundian, and has continued to hold to our own day a very +large part of the territory which it acquired some two thousand years +ago. + +That Latin was the common speech of the western world is attested not only +by the fact that the languages of France, Spain, Roumania, and the other +Romance countries descend from it, but it is also clearly shown by the +thousands of Latin inscriptions composed by freeman and freedman, by +carpenter, baker, and soldier, which we find all over the Roman world. + +How did this extraordinary result come about? It was not the conquest of +the world by the common language of Italy, because in Italy in early days +at least nine different languages were spoken, but its subjugation by the +tongue spoken in the city of Rome. The traditional narrative of Rome, as +Livy and others relate it, tells us of a struggle with the neighboring +Latin hill towns in the early days of the Republic, and the ultimate +formation of an alliance between them and Rome. The favorable position of +the city on the Tiber for trade and defence gave it a great advantage over +its rivals, and it soon became the commercial and political centre of the +neighboring territory. The most important of these villages, Tusculum, +Præneste, and Lanuvium, were not more than twenty miles distant, and the +people in them must have come constantly to Rome to attend the markets, +and in later days to vote, to hear political speeches, and to listen to +plays in the theatre. Some of them probably heard the jests at the expense +of their dialectal peculiarities which Plautus introduced into his +comedies. The younger generations became ashamed of their provincialisms; +they imitated the Latin spoken in the metropolis, and by the second +century of our era, when the Latin grammarians have occasion to cite +dialectal peculiarities from Latium outside Rome, they quote at +second-hand from Varro of the first century B.C., either because they will +not take the trouble to use their own ears or because the differences +which were noted in earlier days had ceased to exist. The first stage in +the conquest of the world by the Latin of Rome comes to an end, then, with +the extension of that form of speech throughout Latium. + +Beyond the limits of Latium it came into contact with Oscan and the other +Italic dialects, which were related to Latin, but of course were much +farther removed from it than the Latin of Tusculum or Lanuvium had +been,[2] so that the adoption of Latin was not so simple a matter as the +acceptance of Roman Latin by the villages of Latium near Rome had been. + +The conflict which went on between Latin and its Italic kinsmen is +revealed to us now and then by a Latin inscription, into which Oscan or +Umbrian forms have crept.[3] The struggle had come to an end by the +beginning of our era. A few Oscan inscriptions are found scratched on the +walls of Pompeii after the first earthquake, in 63 A.D., but they are late +survivals, and no Umbrian inscriptions are known of a date subsequent to +the first century B.C. + +The Social War of 90-88 B.C., between Rome and the Italians, was a +turning-point in the struggle between Latin and the Italic dialects, +because it marks a change in the political treatment of Rome's +dependencies in Italy. Up to this time she had followed the policy of +isolating all her Italian conquered communities from one another. She was +anxious to prevent them from conspiring against her. Thus, with this +object in view, she made differences in the rights and privileges granted +to neighboring communities, in order that, not being subject to the same +limitations, and therefore not having the same grievances, they might not +have a common basis for joint action against her. It would naturally be a +part of that policy to allow or to encourage the retention by the several +communities of their own dialects. The common use of Latin would have +enabled them to combine against her with greater ease. With the conclusion +of the Social War this policy gave way before the new conception of +political unity for the people of Italian stock, and with political unity +came the introduction of Latin as the common tongue in all official +transactions of a local as well as of a federal character. The immediate +results of the war, and the policy which Rome carried out at its close of +sending out colonies and building roads in Italy, contributed still more +to the larger use of Latin throughout the central and southern parts of +the peninsula. Samnium, Lucania, and the territory of the Bruttii suffered +severely from depopulation; many colonies were sent into all these +districts, so that, although the old dialects must have persisted for a +time in some of the mountain towns to the north of Rome, the years +following the conclusion of the Social War mark the rapid disappearance of +them and the substitution of Latin in their place. Campania took little +part in the war, and was therefore left untouched. This fact accounts +probably for the occurrence of a few Oscan inscriptions on the walls of +Pompeii as late as 63 A.D. + +We need not follow here the story of the subjugation of the Greek seaports +in southern Italy and of the peoples to the north who spoke non-Italic +languages. In all these cases Latin was brought into conflict with +languages not related to itself, and the situation contains slightly +different elements from those which present themselves in the struggle +between Latin and the Italic dialects. The latter were nearly enough +related to Latin to furnish some support for the theory that Latin was +modified by contact with them, and this theory has found advocates,[4] but +there is no sufficient reason for believing that it was materially +influenced. An interesting illustration of the influence of Greek on the +Latin of every-day life is furnished by the realistic novel which +Petronius wrote in the middle of the first century of our era. The +characters in his story are Greeks, and the language which they speak is +Latin, but they introduce into it a great many Greek words, and now and +then a Greek idiom or construction. + +The Romans, as is well known, used two agencies with great effect in +Romanizing their newly acquired territory, viz., colonies and roads. The +policy of sending out colonists to hold the new districts was definitely +entered upon in the early part of the fourth century, when citizens were +sent to Antium, Tarracina, and other points in Latium. Within this century +fifteen or twenty colonies were established at various points in central +Italy. Strategic considerations determined their location, and the choice +was made with great wisdom. Sutrium and Nepete, on the borders of the +Ciminian forest, were "the gates of Etruria"; Fregellæ and Interamna +commanded the passage of the river Liris; Tarentum and Rhegium were +important ports of entry, while Alba Fucens and Carsioli guarded the line +of the Valerian road. + +This road and the other great highways which were constructed in Italy +brought not only all the colonies, but all parts of the peninsula, into +easy communication with the capital. The earliest of them was built to +Capua, as we know, by the great censor Appius Claudius, in 312 B.C., and +when one looks at a map of Italy at the close of the third century before +our era, and sees the central and southern parts of the peninsula dotted +with colonies, the Appian Way running from Rome south-east to Brundisium, +the Popillian Way to Rhegium, the Flaminian Way north-east to Ariminum, +with an extension to Cremona, with the Cassian and Aurelian ways along the +western coast, the rapidity and the completeness with which the Latin +language overspread Italy ceases to be a mystery. A map of Spain or of +France under the Empire, with its network of roads, is equally +illuminating. + +The missionaries who carried Roman law, Roman dress, Roman ideas, and the +Latin language first through central, southern, and northern Italy, and +then to the East and the West, were the colonist, the merchant, the +soldier, and the federal official. The central government exempted the +Roman citizen who settled in a provincial town from the local taxes. As +these were very heavy, his advantage over the native was correspondingly +great, and in almost all the large towns in the Empire we find evidence of +the existence of large guilds of Roman traders, tax-collectors, bankers, +and land-owners.[5] When Trajan in his romantic eastern campaign had +penetrated to Ctesiphon, the capital of Parthia, he found Roman merchants +already settled there. Besides the merchants and capitalists who were +engaged in business on their own account in the provinces, there were +thousands of agents for the great Roman corporations scattered through the +Empire. Rome was the money centre of the world, and the great stock +companies organized to lend money, construct public works, collect taxes, +and engage in the shipping trade had their central offices in the capital +whence they sent out their representatives to all parts of the world. + +The soldier played as important a part as the merchant in extending the +use of Latin. Tacitus tells us that in the reign of Augustus there were +twenty-five legions stationed in the provinces. If we allow 6,000 men to a +legion, we should have a total of 150,000 Roman soldiers scattered through +the provinces. To these must be added the auxiliary troops which were made +up of natives who, at the close of their term of service, were probably +able to speak Latin, and when they settled among their own people again, +would carry a knowledge of it into ever-widening circles. We have no exact +knowledge of the number of the auxiliary troops, but they probably came to +be as numerous as the legionaries.[6] Soldiers stationed on the frontiers +frequently married native women at the end of their term of service, +passed the rest of their lives in the provinces, and their children +learned Latin. + +The direct influence of the government was no small factor in developing +the use of Latin, which was of course the official language of the Empire. +All court proceedings were carried on in Latin. It was the language of +the governor, the petty official, and the tax-gatherer. It was used in +laws and proclamations, and no native could aspire to a post in the civil +service unless he had mastered it. It was regarded sometimes at least as a +_sine qua non_ of the much-coveted Roman citizenship. The Emperor +Claudius, for instance, cancelled the Roman citizenship of a Greek, +because he had addressed a letter to him in Latin which he could not +understand. The tradition that Latin was the official language of the +world was taken up by the Christian church. Even when Constantine presided +over the Council at Nicæa in the East, he addressed the assembly in Latin. + +The two last-mentioned agencies, the Latin of the Roman official and the +Latin of the church, were the influences which made the language spoken +throughout the Empire essentially uniform in its character. Had the Latin +which the colonist, the merchant, and the soldier carried through Italy +and into the provinces been allowed to develop in different localities +without any external unifying influence, probably new dialects would have +grown up all over the world, or, to put it in another way, probably the +Romance languages would have come into existence several centuries before +they actually appeared. That unifying influence was the Latin used by the +officials sent out from Rome, which all classes eagerly strove to imitate. +Naturally the language of the provinces did not conform in all respects to +the Roman standard. Apuleius, for instance, is aware of the fact that his +African style and diction are likely to offend his Roman readers, and in +the introduction to his _Metamorphoses_ he begs for their indulgence. The +elder Seneca in his _Controversiae_ remarks of a Spanish fellow-countryman +"that he could never unlearn that well-known style which is brusque and +rustic and characteristic of Spain," and Spartianus in his Life of Hadrian +tells us that when Hadrian addressed the senate on a certain occasion, his +rustic pronunciation excited the laughter of the senators. But the +peculiarities in the diction of Apuleius and Hadrian seem to have been +those which only a cultivated man of the world would notice. They do not +appear to have been fundamental. In a similar way the careful studies +which have been made of the thousands of inscriptions found in the +West[7], dedicatory inscriptions, guild records, and epitaphs show us +that the language of the common people in the provinces did not differ +materially from that spoken in Italy. It was the language of the Roman +soldier, colonist, and trader, with common characteristics in the way of +diction, form, phraseology, and syntax, dropping into some slight local +peculiarities, but kept essentially a unit by the desire which each +community felt to imitate its officials and its upper classes. + +The one part of the Roman world in which Latin did not gain an undisputed +pre-eminence was the Greek East. The Romans freely recognized the peculiar +position which Greek was destined to hold in that part of the Empire, and +styled it the _altera lingua_. Even in Greek lands, however, Latin gained +a strong hold, and exerted considerable influence on Greek[8]. + +In a very thoughtful paper on "Language-Rivalry and +Speech-Differentiation in the Case of Race-Mixture,"[9] Professor Hempl +has discussed the conditions under which language-rivalry takes place, and +states the results that follow. His conclusions have an interesting +bearing on the question which we are discussing here, how and why it was +that Latin supplanted the other languages with which it was brought into +contact. + +He observes that when two languages are brought into conflict, there is +rarely a compromise or fusion, but one of the two is driven out of the +field altogether by the other. On analyzing the circumstances in which +such a struggle for supremacy between languages springs up, he finds four +characteristic cases. Sometimes the armies of one nation, though +comparatively small in numbers, conquer another country. They seize the +government of the conquered land; their ruler becomes its king, and they +become the aristocracy. They constitute a minority, however; they identify +their interests with those of the conquered people, and the language of +the subject people becomes the language of all classes. The second case +arises when a country is conquered by a foreign people who pour into it +with their wives and children through a long period and settle permanently +there. The speech of the natives in these circumstances disappears. In the +third case a more powerful people conquers a country, establishes a +dependent government in it, sends out merchants, colonists, and officials, +and establishes new towns. If such a province is held long enough, the +language of the conqueror prevails. In the fourth and last case peaceful +bands of immigrants enter a country to follow the humbler callings. They +are scattered among the natives, and succeed in proportion as they learn +the language of their adopted country. For their children and +grandchildren this language becomes their mother tongue, and the speech of +the invaded nation holds its ground. + +The first typical case is illustrated by the history of Norman-French in +England, the second by that of the European colonists in America; the +Latinization of Spain, Gaul, and other Roman provinces furnishes an +instance of the third, and our own experience with European immigrants is +a case of the fourth characteristic situation. The third typical case of +language-conflict is the one with which we are concerned here, and the +analysis which we have made of the practices followed by the Romans in +occupying newly acquired territory, both in Italy and outside the +peninsula, shows us how closely they conform to the typical situation. +With the exception of Dacia, all the provinces were held by the Romans for +several centuries, so that their history under Roman rule satisfies the +condition of long occupation which Professor Hempl lays down as a +necessary one. Dacia which lay north of the Danube, and was thus far +removed from the centres of Roman influence, was erected into a province +in 107 A.D., and abandoned in 270. Notwithstanding its remoteness and the +comparatively short period during which it was occupied, the Latin +language has continued in use in that region to the present day. It +furnishes therefore a striking illustration of the effective methods which +the Romans used in Latinizing conquered territory.[10] + +We have already had occasion to notice that a fusion between Latin and +the languages with which it was brought into contact, such a fusion, for +instance, as we find in Pidgin-English, did not occur. These languages +influenced Latin only by way of making additions to its vocabulary. A +great many Greek scientific and technical terms were adopted by the +learned during the period of Roman supremacy. Of this one is clearly +aware, for instance, in reading the philosophical and rhetorical works of +Cicero. A few words, like rufus, crept into the language from the Italic +dialects. Now and then the Keltic or Iberian names of Gallic or Spanish +articles were taken up, but the inflectional system and the syntax of +Latin retained their integrity. In the post-Roman period additions to the +vocabulary are more significant. It is said that about three hundred +Germanic words have found their way into all the Romance languages.[11] +The language of the province of Gaul was most affected since some four +hundred and fifty Gothic, Lombardic, and Burgundian words are found in +French alone, such words as boulevard, homard, and blesser. Each of the +provinces of course, when the Empire broke up, was subjected to +influences peculiar to itself. The residence of the Moors in Spain, for +seven hundred years, for instance, has left a deep impress on the Spanish +vocabulary, while the geographic position of Roumanian has exposed it to +the influence of Slavic, Albanian, Greek, Magyar, and Turkish.[12] A +sketch of the history of Latin after the breaking up of the Empire carries +us beyond the limits of the question which we set ourselves at the +beginning and out of the domain of the Latinist, but it may not be out of +place to gather together here a few of the facts which the Romance +philologist has contributed to its later history, because the life of +Latin has been continuous from the foundation of the city of Rome to the +present day. + +In this later period the question of paramount interest is, why did Latin +in one part of the world develop into French, in another part into +Italian, in another into Spanish? One answer to this question has been +based on chronological grounds.[13] The Roman soldiers and traders who +went out to garrison and to settle in a newly acquired territory, +introduced that form of Latin which was in use in Italy at the time of +their departure from the peninsula. The form of speech thus planted there +developed along lines peculiar to itself, became the dialect of that +province, and ultimately the (Romance) language spoken in that part of +Europe. Sardinia was conquered in 241 B.C., and Sardinian therefore is a +development of the Latin spoken in Italy in the middle of the third +century B.C., that is of the Latin of Livius Andronicus. Spain was brought +under Roman rule in 197 B.C., and consequently Spanish is a natural +outgrowth of popular Latin of the time of Plautus. In a similar way, by +noticing the date at which the several provinces were established down to +the acquisition of Dacia in 107 A.D., we shall understand how it was that +the several Romance languages developed out of Latin. So long as the +Empire held together the unifying influence of official Latin, and the +constant intercommunication between the provinces, preserved the essential +unity of Latin throughout the world, but when the bonds were broken, the +naturally divergent tendencies which had existed from the beginning, but +had been held in check, made themselves felt, and the speech of the +several sections of the Old World developed into the languages which we +find in them to-day. + +This theory is suggestive, and leads to several important results, but it +is open to serious criticism, and does not furnish a sufficient +explanation. It does not seem to take into account the steady stream of +emigrants from Italy to the provinces, and the constant transfer of troops +from one part of the world to another of which we become aware when we +study the history of any single province or legion. Spain was acquired, it +is true, in 197 B.C., and the Latin which was first introduced into it was +the Latin of Plautus, but the subjugation of the country occupied more +than sixty years, and during this period fresh troops were steadily poured +into the peninsula, and later on there was frequently an interchange of +legions between Spain and the other provinces. Furthermore, new +communities of Roman citizens were established there even down into the +Empire, and traders were steadily moving into the province. In this way it +would seem that the Latin of the early second century which was originally +carried into Spain must have been constantly undergoing modification, +and, so far as this influence goes, made approximately like the Latin +spoken elsewhere in the Empire. + +A more satisfactory explanation seems to be that first clearly propounded +by the Italian philologist, Ascoli. His reasoning is that when we acquire +a foreign language we find it very difficult, and often impossible, to +master some of the new sounds. Our ears do not catch them exactly, or we +unconsciously substitute for the foreign sound some sound from our own +language. Our vocal organs, too, do not adapt themselves readily to the +reproduction of the strange sounds in another tongue, as we know from the +difficulty which we have in pronouncing the French nasal or the German +guttural. Similarly English differs somewhat as it is spoken by a +Frenchman, a German, and an Italian. The Frenchman has a tendency to +import the nasal into it, and he is also inclined to pronounce it like his +own language, while the German favors the guttural. In a paper on the +teaching of modern languages in our schools, Professor Grandgent says:[14] +"Usually there is no attempt made to teach any French sounds but _u_ and +the four nasal vowels; all the rest are unquestioningly replaced by the +English vowels and consonants that most nearly resemble them." The +substitution of sounds from one's own language in speaking a foreign +tongue, and the changes in voice-inflection, are more numerous and more +marked if the man who learns the new language is uneducated and acquires +it in casual intercourse from an uneducated man who speaks carelessly. + +This was the state of things in the Roman provinces of southern Europe +when the Goths, Lombards, and other peoples from the North gradually +crossed the frontier and settled in the territory of Latin-speaking +peoples. In the sixth century, for instance, the Lombards in Italy, the +Franks in France, and the Visigoths in Spain would each give to the Latin +which they spoke a twist peculiar to themselves, and out of the one Latin +came Italian, out of the second, the language of France, and out of the +third, Spanish. This initial impulse toward the development of Latin along +different lines in Italy, France, and Spain was, of course, reinforced by +differences in climate, in the temperaments of the three peoples, in +their modes of life, and in their political and social experiences. These +centrifugal forces, so to speak, became effective because the political +and social bonds which had held Italy, France, and Spain together were now +loosened, and consequently communication between the provinces was less +frequent, and the standardizing influence of the official Latin of Rome +ceased to keep Latin a uniform thing throughout the Empire. + +One naturally asks why Latin survived at all, why the languages of the +victorious Germanic peoples gave way to it. In reply to this question it +is commonly said that the fittest survived, that the superiority of Roman +civilization and of the Latin language gave Latin the victory. So far as +this factor is to be taken into account, I should prefer to say that it +was not so much the superiority of Latin, although that may be freely +recognized, as it was the sentimental respect which the Germans and their +leaders had for the Empire and for all its institutions. This is shown +clearly enough, for instance, in the pride which the Visigothic and +Frankish kings showed in holding their commissions from Rome, long after +Rome had lost the power to enforce its claims upon them; it is shown in +their use of Latin as the language of the court and of the official world. +Under the influence of this sentiment Germanic rulers and their peoples +imitated the Romans, and, among other things, took over their language. +The church probably exerted considerable influence in this direction. Many +of the Germans had been converted to Christianity before they entered the +Empire, and had heard Latin used in the church services and in the hymns. +Among cultivated people of different countries, it was the only medium of +communication, and was accepted as the lingua franca of the political and +ecclesiastical world, and the traditional medium of expression for +literary and legal purposes. + +Perhaps, however, one element in the situation should be given more weight +than any of the facts just mentioned. Many of the barbarians had been +allowed to settle in a more or less peaceful fashion in Roman territory, +so that a large part of the western world came into their possession by +way of gradual occupation rather than by conquest.[15] They became peasant +proprietors, manual laborers, and soldiers in the Roman army. Perhaps, +therefore, their occupation of central and southern Europe bears some +resemblance to the peaceful invasion of this country by immigrants from +Europe, and they may have adopted Latin just as the German or Scandinavian +adopts English. + +This brings us to the last important point in our inquiry. What is the +date before which we shall call the language of the Western Empire Latin, +and after which it is better to speak of French, Spanish, and Italian? +Such a line of division cannot be sharply drawn, and will in a measure be +artificial, because, as we shall attempt to show in the chapter which +follows on the "Latin of the Common People," Latin survives in the Romance +languages, and has had a continuous life up to the present day. But on +practical grounds it is convenient to have such a line of demarcation in +mind, and two attempts have been made to fix it. One attempt has been +based on linguistic grounds, the other follows political changes more +closely. Up to 700 A.D. certain common sound-changes take place in all +parts of the western world.[16] After that date, roughly speaking, this is +not the case. Consequently at that time we may say that unity ceased. The +other method of approaching the subject leads to essentially the same +conclusion, and shows us why unity ceased to exist.[17] In the sixth +century the Eastern Emperor Justinian conceived the idea of reuniting the +Roman world, and actually recovered and held for a short time Italy, +southern Spain, and Africa. This attempt on his part aroused a national +spirit among the peoples of these lands, and developed in them a sense of +their national independence and individuality. They threw off the foreign +yoke and became separate peoples, and developed, each of them, a language +of its own. Naturally this sentiment became effective at somewhat +different periods in different countries. For France the point may be +fixed in the sixth century, for Spain and Italy, in the seventh, and at +these dates Latin may be said to take the form of French, Spanish, and +Italian. + + + + +The Latin of the Common People + + + +Unless one is a professional philologist he feels little interest in the +language of the common people. Its peculiarities in pronunciation, syntax, +phraseology, and the use of words we are inclined to avoid in our own +speech, because they mark a lack of cultivation. We test them by the +standards of polite society, and ignore them, or condemn them, or laugh at +them as abnormal or illogical or indicative of ignorance. So far as +literature goes, the speech of the common people has little interest for +us because it is not the recognized literary medium. These two reasons +have prevented the average man of cultivated tastes from giving much +attention to the way in which the masses speak, and only the professional +student has occupied himself with their language. This is unfortunate +because the speech of the common people has many points of interest, and, +instead of being illogical, is usually much more rigid in its adherence +to its own accepted principles than formal speech is, which is likely to +be influenced by convention or conventional associations. To take an +illustration of what I have in mind, the ending _-s_ is the common mark in +English of a plural form. For instance, "caps," "maps," "lines," and +"places" are plurals, and the corresponding singular forms are "cap," +"map," "line," and "place." Consequently, granted the underlying premise, +it is a perfectly logical and eminently scientific process from the forms +"relapse" (pronounced, of course, "relaps") and "species" to postulate a +corresponding singular, and speak of "a relap" and "a specie," as a negro +of my acquaintance regularly does. "Scrope" and "lept," as preterites of +"scrape" and "leap," are correctly formed on the analogy of "broke" and +"crept," but are not used in polite society. + +So far as English, German, or French go, a certain degree of general +interest has been stimulated lately in the form which they take in +every-day life by two very different agencies, by the popular articles of +students of language, and by realistic and dialect novels. But for our +knowledge of the Latin of the common people we lack these two +all-important sources of information. It occurred to only two Roman +writers, Petronius and Apuleius, to amuse their countrymen by writing +realistic stories, or stories with realistic features, and the Roman +grammarian felt an even greater contempt for popular Latin or a greater +indifference to it than we feel to-day. This feeling was shared, as we +know, by the great humanists of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, +when the revival of interest in the Greek and Latin languages and +literatures begins. Petrarch, Poggio Bracciolini, and the other great +leaders in the movement were concerned with the literary aspects of the +classics, and the scholars of succeeding generations, so far as they +studied the language, confined their attention to that of the great Latin +stylists. The first student to conceive of the existence of popular Latin +as a form of speech which differed from formal literary Latin, seems to +have been the French scholar, Henri Étienne. In a little pamphlet on the +language and style of Plautus, written toward the end of the sixteenth +century, he noted the likeness between French and the language of the +Latin dramatist, without, however, clearly perceiving that the reason for +this similarity lay in the fact that the comedies of Plautus reflect the +spoken language of his time, and that French and the other Romance +languages have developed out of this, rather than from literary Latin. Not +until the middle of the eighteenth century was this truth clearly +recognized, and then almost simultaneously on both sides of the Rhine. + +It was left for the nineteenth century, however, to furnish scientific +proof of the correctness of this hypothesis, and it was a fitting thing +that the existence of an unbroken line of connection between popular Latin +of the third century before our era, and the Romance languages of the +nineteenth century, should have been established at the same time by a +Latinist engaged in the study of Plautus, and a Romance philologist +working upward toward Latin. The Latin scholar was Ritschl, who showed +that the deviations from the formal standard which one finds in Plautus +are not anomalies or mistakes, but specimens of colloquial Latin which can +be traced down into the later period. The Romance philologist was Diez, +who found that certain forms and words, especially those from the +vocabulary of every-day life, which are common to many of the Romance +languages, are not to be found in serious Latin literature at all, but +occur only in those compositions, like comedy, satire, or the realistic +romance, which reflect the speech of the every-day man. This discovery +made it clear that the Romance languages are related to folk Latin, not to +literary Latin. It is sixty years since the study of vulgar Latin was put +on a scientific basis by the investigations of these two men, and during +that period the Latinist and the Romance philologist have joined hands in +extending our knowledge of it. From the Latin side a great impetus was +given to the work by the foundation in 1884 of Wölfflin's _Archiv für +lateinische Lexikographie und Grammatik_. This periodical, as is well +known, was intended to prepare the way for the publication of the Latin +_Thesaurus_, which the five German Academies are now bringing out. + +One of its primary purposes, as its title indicates, was to investigate +the history of Latin words, and in its first number the editor called +attention to the importance of knowing the pieces of literature in which +each Latin word or locution occurred. The results have been very +illuminating. Some words or constructions or phrases are to be found, for +instance, only in comedy, satire, and the romance. They are evidently +peculiar to vulgar Latin. Others are freely used in these types of +literature, but sparingly employed in historical or rhetorical works. Here +again a shade of difference is noticeable between formal and familiar +usage. The method of the Latinist then is essentially one of comparison +and contrast. When, for instance, he finds the word _equus_ regularly used +by serious writers for "horse," but _caballus_ employed in that sense in +the colloquial compositions of Lucilius, Horace, and Petronius, he comes +to the conclusion that _caballus_ belongs to the vocabulary of every-day +life, that it is our "nag." + +The line of reasoning which the Romance philologist follows in his study +of vulgar Latin is equally convincing. The existence of a large number of +words and idioms in French, Spanish, Italian, and the other Romance +languages can be explained only in one of three ways. All these different +languages may have hit on the same word or phrase to express an idea, or +these words and idioms may have been borrowed from one language by the +others, or they may come from a common origin. The first hypothesis is +unthinkable. The second is almost as impossible. Undoubtedly French, for +instance, borrowed some words from Spanish, and Spanish from Portuguese. +It would be conceivable that a few words originating in Spain should pass +into France, and thence into Italy, but it is quite beyond belief that the +large element which the languages from Spain to Roumania have in common +should have passed by borrowing over such a wide territory. It is clear +that this common element is inherited from Latin, out of which all the +Romance languages are derived. Out of the words, endings, idioms, and +constructions which French, Spanish, Italian, and the other tongues of +southern Europe have in common, it would be possible, within certain +limits, to reconstruct the parent speech, but fortunately we are not +limited to this material alone. At this point the Latinist and the Romance +philologist join hands. To take up again the illustration already used, +the student of the Romance languages finds the word for "horse" in Italian +is cavallo, in Spanish caballo, in French cheval, in Roumanian cal, and +so on. Evidently all these forms have come from caballus, which the +Latinist finds belongs to the vocabulary of vulgar, not of formal, Latin. +This one illustration out of many not only discloses the fact that the +Romance languages are to be connected with colloquial rather than with +literary Latin, but it also shows how the line of investigation opened by +Diez, and that followed by Wölfflin and his school, supplement each other. +By the use of the methods which these two scholars introduced, a large +amount of material bearing on the subject under discussion has been +collected and classified, and the characteristic features of the Latin of +the common people have been determined. It has been found that five or six +different and independent kinds of evidence may be used in reconstructing +this form of speech. + +We naturally think first of the direct statements made by Latin writers. +These are to be found in the writings of Cicero, Quintilian, Seneca the +Rhetorician, Petronius, Aulus Gellius, Vitruvius, and the Latin +grammarians. The professional teacher Quintilian is shocked at the +illiterate speech of the spectators in the theatres and circus. Similarly +a character in Petronius utters a warning against the words such people +use. Cicero openly delights in using every-day Latin in his familiar +letters, while the architect Vitruvius expresses the anxious fear that he +may not be following the accepted rules of grammar. As we have noticed +above, a great deal of material showing the differences between formal and +colloquial Latin which these writers have in mind, may be obtained by +comparing, for instance, the Letters of Cicero with his rhetorical works, +or Seneca's satirical skit on the Emperor Claudius with his philosophical +writings. Now and then, too, a serious writer has occasion to use a bit of +popular Latin, but he conveniently labels it for us with an apologetic +phrase. Thus even St. Jerome, in his commentary on the Epistle to the +Ephesians, says: "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, as the vulgar +proverb has it." To the ancient grammarians the "mistakes" and vulgarisms +of popular speech were abhorrent, and they have fortunately branded lists +of words and expressions which are not to be used by cultivated people. +The evidence which may be had from the Romance languages, supplemented by +Latin, not only contributes to our knowledge of the vocabulary of vulgar +Latin, but it also shows us many common idioms and constructions which +that form of speech had. Thus, "I will sing" in Italian is canterò +(=cantar[e]-ho), in Spanish, cantaré (=cantar-he), in French, chanterai +(=chanter-ai), and similar forms occur in some of the other Romance +languages. These forms are evidently made up of the Latin infinitive +cantare, depending on habeo ("I have to sing"). But the future in literary +Latin was cantabo, formed by adding an ending, as we know, and with that +the Romance future can have no connection. However, as a writer in the +_Archiv_ has pointed out,[18] just such analytical tense forms as are used +in the Romance languages to-day are to be found in the popular Latin +sermons of St. Jerome. From these idioms, common to Italian, French, and +Spanish, then, we can reconstruct a Latin formation current among the +common people. Finally a knowledge of the tendencies and practices of +spoken English helps us to identify similar usages when we come upon them +in our reading of Latin. When, for instance, the slave in a play of +Plautus says: "Do you catch on" (tenes?), "I'll touch the old man for a +loan" (tangam senem, etc.), or "I put it over him" (ei os sublevi) we +recognize specimens of Latin slang, because all of the metaphors involved +are in current use to-day. When one of the freedmen in Petronius remarks: +"You ought not to do a good turn to nobody" (neminem nihil boni facere +oportet) we see the same use of the double negative to which we are +accustomed in illiterate English. The rapid survey which we have just made +of the evidence bearing on the subject establishes beyond doubt the +existence of a form of speech among the Romans which cannot be identified +with literary Latin, but it has been held by some writers that the +material for the study of it is scanty. However, an impartial examination +of the facts ought not to lead one to this conclusion. On the Latin side +the material includes the comedies of Plautus and Terence, and the comic +fragments, the familiar odes of Catullus, the satires of Lucilius, Horace, +and Seneca, and here and there of Persius and Juvenal, the familiar +letters of Cicero, the romance of Petronius and that of Apuleius in part, +the Vulgate and some of the Christian fathers, the Journey to Jerusalem of +St. Ætheria, the glossaries, some technical books like Vitruvius and the +veterinary treatise of Chiron, and the private inscriptions, notably +epitaphs, the wall inscriptions of Pompeii, and the leaden tablets found +buried in the ground on which illiterate people wrote curses upon their +enemies. + +It is clear that there has been preserved for the study of colloquial +Latin a very large body of material, coming from a great variety of +sources and running in point of time from Plautus in the third century +B.C. to St. Ætheria in the latter part of the fourth century or later. It +includes books by trained writers, like Horace and Petronius, who +consciously adopt the Latin of every-day life, and productions by +uneducated people, like St. Ætheria and the writers of epitaphs, who have +unwittingly used it. + +St. Jerome says somewhere of spoken Latin that "it changes constantly as +you pass from one district to another, and from one period to another" (et +ipsa Latinitas et regionibus cotidie mutatur et tempore). If he had added +that it varies with circumstances also, he would have included the three +factors which have most to do in influencing the development of any +spoken language. We are made aware of the changes which time has brought +about in colloquial English when we compare the conversations in Fielding +with those in a present-day novel. When a spoken language is judged by the +standard of the corresponding literary medium, in some of its aspects it +proves to be conservative, in others progressive. It shows its +conservative tendency by retaining many words and phrases which have +passed out of literary use. The English of the Biglow Papers, when +compared with the literary speech of the time, abundantly illustrates this +fact. This conservative tendency is especially noticeable in districts +remote from literary centres, and those of us who are familiar with the +vernacular in Vermont or Maine will recall in it many quaint words and +expressions which literature abandoned long ago. In Virginia locutions may +be heard which have scarcely been current in literature since +Shakespeare's time. Now, literary and colloquial Latin were probably drawn +farther apart than the two corresponding forms of speech in English, +because Latin writers tried to make the literary tongue as much like Greek +in its form as possible, so that literary Latin would naturally have +diverged more rapidly and more widely from conversational Latin than +formal English has drawn away from colloquial English. + +But a spoken language in its development is progressive as well as +conservative. To certain modifying influences it is especially sensitive. +It is fond of the concrete, picturesque, and novel, and has a high +appreciation of humor. These tendencies lead it to invent many new words +and expressions which must wait months, years, perhaps a generation, +before they are accepted in literature. Sometimes they are never accepted. +The history of such words as buncombe, dude, Mugwump, gerrymander, and +joy-ride illustrate for English the fact that words of a certain kind meet +a more hospitable reception in the spoken language than they do in +literature. The writer of comedy or farce, the humorist, and the man in +the street do not feel the constraint which the canons of good usage put +on the serious writer. They coin new words or use old words in a new way +or use new constructions without much hesitation. The extraordinary +material progress of the modern world during the last century has +undoubtedly stimulated this tendency in a remarkable way, but it would +seem as if the Latin of the common people from the time of Plautus to that +of Cicero must have been subjected to still more innovating influences +than modern conversational English has. During this period the newly +conquered territories in Spain, northern Africa, Greece, and Asia poured +their slaves and traders into Italy, and added a great many words to the +vocabulary of every-day life. The large admixture of Greek words and +idioms in the language of Petronius in the first century of our era +furnishes proof of this fact. A still greater influence must have been +felt within the language itself by the stimulus to the imagination which +the coming of these foreigners brought, with their new ideas, and their +new ways of looking at things, their strange costumes, manners, and +religions. + +The second important factor which affects the spoken language is a +difference in culture and training. The speech of the gentleman differs +from that of the rustic. The conversational language of Terence, for +instance, is on a higher plane than that of Plautus, while the characters +in Plautus use better Latin than the freedmen in Petronius. The +illiterate freedmen in Petronius speak very differently from the freemen +in his story. Sometimes a particular occupation materially affects the +speech of those who pursue it. All of us know something of the linguistic +eccentricities of the London cabman, the Parisian thief, or the American +hobo. This particular influence cannot be estimated so well for Latin +because we lack sufficient material, but some progress has been made in +detecting the peculiarities of Latin of the nursery, the camp, and the +sea. + +Of course a spoken language is never uniform throughout a given area. +Dialectal differences are sure to develop. A man from Indiana and another +from Maine will be sure to notice each other's peculiarities. Even the +railway, the newspaper, and the public school will never entirely +obliterate the old differences or prevent new ones from springing up. +Without these agencies which do so much to promote uniformity to-day, +Italy and the rest of the Empire must have shown greater dialectal +differences than we observe in American English or in British English +even. + +For the sake of bringing out clearly some of the points of difference +between vulgar and formal Latin we have used certain illustrations, like +_caballus_, where the two forms of speech were radically opposed to each +other, but of course they did not constitute two different languages, and +that which they had in common was far greater than the element peculiar to +each, or, to put it in another way, they in large measure overlapped each +other. Perhaps we are in a position now to characterize colloquial Latin +and to define it as the language which was used in conversation throughout +the Empire with the innumerable variations which time and place gave it, +which in its most highly refined form, as spoken in literary circles at +Rome in the classical period, approached indefinitely near its ideal, +literary Latin, which in its most unconventional phase was the rude speech +of the rabble, or the "sermo inconditus" of the ancients. The facts which +have just been mentioned may be illustrated by the accompanying diagrams. + +[Illustration: Fig. I] + +[Illustration: Fig. II] + +[Illustration: Fig. III] + +[Illustration: Fig. IV] + +In Fig. I the heavy-lined ellipse represents the formal diction of Cicero, +the dotted line ellipse his conversational vocabulary. They overlap each +other through a great part of their extent, but there are certain +literary locutions which would rarely be used by him in conversation, and +certain colloquial words and phrases which he would not use in formal +writing. Therefore the two ellipses would not be coterminous. In Fig. II +the heavy ellipse has the same meaning as in Fig. I, while the space +enclosed by the dotted line represents the vocabulary of an uneducated +Roman, which would be much smaller than that of Cicero and would show a +greater degree of difference from the literary vocabulary than Cicero's +conversational stock of words does. The relation of the uncultivated +Roman's conversational vocabulary to that of Cicero is illustrated in Fig. +III, while Fig. IV shows how the Latin of the average man in Rome would +compare, for instance, with that of a resident of Lugudunum, in Gaul. + +This naturally brings us to consider the historical relations of literary +and colloquial Latin. In explaining them it has often been assumed that +colloquial Latin is a degenerate form of literary Latin, or that the +latter is a refined type of the former. Both these theories are equally +false. Neither is derived from the other. The true state of the case has +never been better put than by Schuchardt, who says: "Vulgar Latin stands +with reference to formal Latin in no derivative relation, in no paternal +relation, but they stand side by side. It is true that vulgar Latin came +from a Latin with fuller and freer forms, but it did not come from formal +Latin. It is true that formal Latin came from a Latin of a more popular +and a cruder character, but it did not come from vulgar Latin. In the +original speech of the people, preliterary Latin (the prisca Latinitas), +is to be found the origin of both; they were twin brothers." + +Of this preliterary Latin we have no record. The best we can do is to +infer what its characteristics were from the earliest fragments of the +language which have come down to us, from the laws of the Twelve Tables, +for instance, from the religious and legal formulæ preserved to us by +Varro, Cicero, Livy, and others, from proverbs and popular sayings. It +would take us too far afield to analyze these documents here, but it may +be observed that we notice in them, among other characteristics, an +indifference to strict grammatical structure, not that subordination of +clauses to a main clause which comes only from an appreciation of the +logical relation of ideas to one another, but a co-ordination of clauses, +the heaping up of synonymous words, a tendency to use the analytical +rather than the synthetical form of expression, and a lack of fixity in +the forms of words and in inflectional endings. To illustrate some of +these traits in a single example, an early law reads "if [he] shall have +committed a theft by night, if [he] shall have killed him, let him be +regarded as put to death legally" (si nox furtum faxsit, si im occisit, +iure caesus esto).[19] We pass without warning from one subject, the +thief, in the first clause to another, the householder, in the second, and +back to the thief again in the third. Cato in his book on Agriculture +writes of the cattle: "let them feed; it will be better" (pascantur; +satius erit), instead of saying: "it will be better for them to feed" (or +"that they feed"). In an early law one reads: "on the tablet, on the white +surface" (in tabula, in albo), instead of "on the white tablet" (in alba +tabula). Perhaps we may sum up the general characteristics of this +preliterary Latin out of which both the spoken and written language +developed by saying that it showed a tendency to analysis rather than +synthesis, a loose and variable grammatical structure, and a lack of logic +in expression. + +Livius Andronicus, Nævius, and Plautus in the third century before our era +show the language as first used for literary purposes, and with them the +breach between the spoken and written tongues begins. So far as Livius +Andronicus, the Father of Latin literature, is concerned, allowance should +be made without doubt for his lack of poetic inspiration and skill, and +for the fact that his principal work was a translation, but even making +this allowance the crude character of his Latin is apparent, and it is +very clear that literary Latin underwent a complete transformation +between his time and that of Horace and Virgil. Now, the significant +thing in this connection is the fact that this transformation was largely +brought about under an external influence, which affected the Latin of the +common people only indirectly and in small measure. Perhaps the +circumstances in which literary Latin was placed have never been repeated +in history. At the very outset it was brought under the sway of a highly +developed literary tongue, and all the writers who subsequently used it +earnestly strove to model it after Greek. Livius Andronicus, Ennius, +Accius, and Pacuvius were all of Greek origin and familiar with Greek. +They, as well as Plautus and Terence, translated and adapted Greek epics, +tragedies, and comedies. Several of the early writers, like Accius and +Lucilius, interested themselves in grammatical subjects, and did their +best to introduce system and regularity into their literary medium. Now, +Greek was a highly inflected, synthetical, regular, and logical medium of +literary expression, and it was inevitable that these qualities should be +introduced into Latin. But this influence affected the spoken language +very little, as we have already noticed. Its effect upon the speech of +the common people would be slight, because of the absence of the common +school which does so much to-day to hold together the spoken and written +languages. + +The development then of preliterary Latin under the influence of this +systematizing, synthetical influence gave rise to literary Latin, while +its independent growth more nearly in accordance with its original genius +produced colloquial Latin. Consequently, we are not surprised to find that +the people's speech retained in a larger measure than literary Latin did +those qualities which we noticed in preliterary Latin. Those +characteristics are, in fact, to be expected in conversation. When a man +sets down his thoughts on paper he expresses himself with care and with a +certain reserve in his statements, and he usually has in mind exactly what +he wants to say. But in speaking he is not under this constraint. He is +likely to express himself in a tautological, careless, or even illogical +fashion. He rarely thinks out to the end what he has in mind, but loosely +adds clauses or sentences, as new ideas occur to him. + +We have just been thinking mainly about the relation of words to one +another in a sentence. In the treatment of individual words, written and +spoken Latin developed along different lines. In English we make little +distinction between the quantity of vowels, but in Latin of course a given +vowel was either long or short, and literary tradition became so fixed in +this matter that the professional poets of the Augustan age do not +tolerate any deviation from it. There are indications, however, that the +common people did not observe the rules of quantity in their integrity. We +can readily understand why that may have been the case. The comparative +carelessness, which is characteristic of conversation, affects our +pronunciation of words. When there is a stress accent, as there was in +Latin, this is especially liable to be the case. We know in English how +much the unaccented syllables suffer in a long word like "laboratory." In +Latin the long unaccented vowels and the final syllable, which was never +protected by the accent, were peculiarly likely to lose their full value. +As a result, in conversational Latin certain final consonants tended to +drop away, and probably the long vowel following a short one was regularly +shortened when the accent fell on the short syllable, or on the syllable +which followed the long one. Some scholars go so far as to maintain that +in course of time all distinction in quantity in the unaccented vowels was +lost in popular Latin. Sometimes the influence of the accent led to the +excision of the vowel in the syllable which followed it. Probus, a +grammarian of the fourth century of our era, in what we might call a +"Guide to Good Usage"[20] or "One Hundred Words Mispronounced," warns his +readers against masclus and anglus for masculus and angulus. This is the +same popular tendency which we see illustrated in "lab'ratory." + +The quality of vowels as well as their quantity changed. The obscuring of +certain vowel sounds in ordinary or careless conversation in this country +in such words as "Latun" and "Amurican" is a phenomenon which is familiar +enough. In fact a large number of our vowel sounds seem to have +degenerated into a grunt. Latin was affected in a somewhat similar way, +although not to the same extent as present-day English. Both the ancient +grammarians in their warnings and the Romance languages bear evidence to +this effect. + +We noticed above that the final consonant was exposed to danger by the +fact that the syllable containing it was never protected by the accent. It +is also true that there was a tendency to do away with any difficult +combination of consonants. We recall in English the current +pronunciations, "February," and "Calwell" for Caldwell. The average Roman +in the same way was inclined to follow the line of least resistance. +Sometimes, as in the two English examples just given, he avoided a +difficult combination of consonants by dropping one of them. This method +he followed in saying santus for sanctus, and scriserunt for scripserunt, +just as in vulgar English one now and then hears "slep" and "kep" for the +more difficult "slept" and "kept." Sometimes he lightened the +pronunciation by metathesis, as he did when he pronounced interpretor as +interpertor. A third device was to insert a vowel, as illiterate +English-speaking people do in the pronunciations "ellum" and "Henery." In +this way, for instance, the Roman avoided the difficult combinations -mn- +and -chn- by saying mina and techina for the historically correct mna and +techna. Another method of surmounting the difficulty was to assimilate one +of the two consonants to the other. This is a favorite practice of the +shop-girl, over which the newspapers make merry in their phonetical +reproductions of supposed conversations heard from behind the counter. +Adopting the same easy way of speaking, the uneducated Roman sometimes +said isse for ipse, and scritus for scriptus. To pass to another point of +difference, the laws determining the incidence of the accent were very +firmly established in literary Latin. The accent must fall on the penult, +if it was long, otherwise on the antepenult of the word. But in popular +Latin there were certain classes of words in whose case these principles +were not observed. + +The very nature of the accent probably differed in the two forms of +speech. In preliterary Latin the stress was undoubtedly a marked feature +of the accent, and this continued to be the case in the popular speech +throughout the entire history of the language, but, as I have tried to +prove in another paper,[21] in formal Latin the stress became very slight, +and the pitch grew to be the characteristic feature of the accent. +Consequently, when Virgil read a passage of the _Æneid_ to Augustus and +Livia the effect on the ear of the comparatively unstressed language, with +the rhythmical rise and fall of the pitch, would have been very different +from that made by the conversation of the average man, with the accented +syllables more clearly marked by a stress. + +In this brief chapter we cannot attempt to go into details, and in +speaking of the morphology of vulgar Latin we must content ourselves with +sketching its general characteristics and tendencies, as we have done in +the case of its phonology. In English our inflectional forms have been +reduced to a minimum, and consequently there is little scope for +differences in this respect between the written and spoken languages. From +the analogy of other forms the illiterate man occasionally says: "I swum," +or, "I clumb," or "he don't," but there is little chance of making a +mistake. However, with three genders, five declensions for nouns, a fixed +method of comparison for adjectives and adverbs, an elaborate system of +pronouns, with active and deponent, regular and irregular verbs, four +conjugations, and a complex synthetical method of forming the moods and +tenses, the pitfalls for the unwary Roman were without number, as the +present-day student of Latin can testify to his sorrow. That the man in +the street, who had no newspaper to standardize his Latin, and little +chance to learn it in school, did not make more mistakes is surprising. In +a way many of the errors which he did make were historically not errors at +all. This fact will readily appear from an illustration or two. In our +survey of preliterary Latin we had occasion to notice that one of its +characteristics was a lack of fixity in the use of forms or constructions. +In the third century before our era, a Roman could say audibo or audiam, +contemplor or contemplo, senatus consultum or senati consultum. Thanks to +the efforts of the scientific grammarian, and to the systematizing +influence which Greek exerted upon literary Latin, most verbs were made +deponent or active once for all, a given noun was permanently assigned to +a particular declension, a verb to one conjugation, and the slight +tendency which the language had to the analytical method of forming the +moods and tenses was summarily checked. Of course the common people tried +to imitate their betters in all these matters, but the old variable usages +persisted to some extent, and the average man failed to grasp the +niceties of the new grammar at many points. His failures were especially +noticeable where the accepted literary form did not seem to follow the +principles of analogy. When these principles are involved, the common +people are sticklers for consistency. The educated man conjugates: "I +don't," "you don't," "he doesn't," "we don't," "they don't"; but the +anomalous form "he doesn't" has to give way in the speech of the average +man to "he don't." To take only one illustration in Latin of the effect of +the same influence, the present infinitive active of almost all verbs ends +in -re, e.g., amare, monere, and regere. Consequently the irregular +infinitive of the verb "to be able," posse, could not stand its ground, +and ultimately became potere in vulgar Latin. In one respect in the +inflectional forms of the verb, the purist was unexpectedly successful. In +comedy of the third and second centuries B.C., we find sporadic evidence +of a tendency to use auxiliary verbs in forming certain tenses, as we do +in English when we say: "I will go," "I have gone," or "I had gone." This +movement was thoroughly stamped out for the time, and does not reappear +until comparatively late. + +In Latin there are three genders, and the grammatical gender of a noun is +not necessarily identical with its natural gender. For inanimate objects +it is often determined simply by the form of the noun. Sella, seat, of the +first declension, is feminine, because almost all nouns ending in -a are +feminine; hortus, garden, is masculine, because nouns in -us of its +declension are mostly masculine, and so on. From such a system as this two +results are reasonably sure to follow. Where the gender of a noun in +literary Latin did not conform to these rules, in popular Latin it would +be brought into harmony with others of its class. Thus stigma, one of the +few neuter nouns in -a, and consequently assigned to the third declension, +was brought in popular speech into line with sella and the long list of +similar words in -a, was made feminine, and put in the first declension. +In the case of another class of words, analogy was supplemented by a +mechanical influence. We have noticed already that the tendency of the +stressed syllable in a word to absorb effort and attention led to the +obscuration of certain final consonants, because the final syllable was +never protected by the accent. Thus hortus in some parts of the Empire +became hortu in ordinary pronunciation, and the neuter caelum, heaven, +became caelu. The consequent identity in the ending led to a confusion in +the gender, and to the ultimate treatment of the word for "heaven" as a +masculine. These influences and others caused many changes in the gender +of nouns in popular speech, and in course of time brought about the +elimination of the neuter gender from the neo-Latin languages. + +Something has been said already of the vocabulary of the common people. It +was naturally much smaller than that of cultivated people. Its poverty +made their style monotonous when they had occasion to express themselves +in writing, as one can see in reading St. Ætheria's account of her journey +to the Holy Land, and of course this impression of monotony is heightened +by such a writer's inability to vary the form of expression. Even within +its small range it differs from the vocabulary of formal Latin in three or +four important respects. It has no occasion, or little occasion, to use +certain words which a formal writer employs, or it uses substitutes for +them. So testa was used in part for caput, and bucca for os. On the other +hand, it employs certain words and phrases, for instance vulgar words and +expletives, which are not admitted into literature. + +In its choice of words it shows a marked preference for certain suffixes +and prefixes. It would furnish an interesting excursion into folk +psychology to speculate on the reasons for this preference in one case and +another. Sometimes it is possible to make out the influence at work. In +reading a piece of popular Latin one is very likely to be impressed with +the large number of diminutives which are used, sometimes in the strict +sense of the primitive word. The frequency of this usage reminds one in +turn of the fact that not infrequently in the Romance languages the +corresponding words are diminutive forms in their origin, so that +evidently the diminutive in these cases crowded out the primitive word in +popular use, and has continued to our own day. The reason why the +diminutive ending was favored does not seem far to seek. That suffix +properly indicates that the object in question is smaller than the average +of its kind. Smallness in a child stimulates our affection, in a dwarf, +pity or aversion. Now we give expression to our emotion more readily in +the intercourse of every-day life than we do in writing, and the emotions +of the masses are perhaps nearer the surface and more readily stirred than +are those of the classes, and many things excite them which would leave +unruffled the feelings of those who are more conventional. The stirring of +these emotions finds expression in the use of the diminutive ending, which +indirectly, as we have seen, suggests sympathy, affection, pity, or +contempt. The ending -osus for adjectives was favored because of its +sonorous character. Certain prefixes, like de-, dis-, and ex-, were freely +used with verbs, because they strengthened the meaning of the verb, and +popular speech is inclined to emphasize its ideas unduly. + +To speak further of derivation, in the matter of compounds and +crystallized word groups there are usually differences between a spoken +and written language. The written language is apt to establish certain +canons which the people do not observe. For instance, we avoid hybrid +compounds of Greek and Latin elements in the serious writing of English. +In formal Latin we notice the same objection to Greco-Latin words, and yet +in Plautus, and in other colloquial writers, such compounds are freely +used for comic effect. In a somewhat similar category belong the +combinations of two adverbs or prepositions, which one finds in the later +popular Latin, some of which have survived in the Romance languages. A +case in point is ab ante, which has come down to us in the Italian avanti +and the French avant. Such word-groups are of course debarred from formal +speech. + +In examining the vocabulary of colloquial Latin, we have noticed its +comparative poverty, its need of certain words which are not required in +formal Latin, its preference for certain prefixes and suffixes, and its +willingness to violate certain rules, in forming compounds and +word-groups, which the written language scrupulously observes. It remains +for us to consider a third, and perhaps the most important, element of +difference between the vocabularies of the two forms of speech. I mean the +use of a word in vulgar Latin with another meaning from that which it has +in formal Latin. We are familiar enough with the different senses which a +word often has in conversational and in literary English. "Funny," for +instance, means "amusing" in formal English, but it is often the synonym +of "strange" in conversation. The sense of a word may be extended, or be +restricted, or there may be a transfer of meaning. In the colloquial use +of "funny" we have an extension of its literary sense. The same is true of +"splendid," "jolly," "lovely," and "awfully," and of such Latin words as +"lepidus," "probe," and "pulchre." When we speak of "a splendid sun," we +are using splendid in its proper sense of shining or bright, but when we +say, "a splendid fellow," the adjective is used as a general epithet +expressing admiration. On the other hand, when a man of a certain class +refers to his "woman," he is employing the word in the restricted sense of +"wife." Perhaps we should put in a third category that very large +colloquial use of words in a transferred or figurative sense, which is +illustrated by "to touch" or "to strike" when applied to success in +getting money from a person. Our current slang is characterized by the +free use of words in this figurative way. + +Under the head of syntax we must content ourselves with speaking of only +two changes, but these were far-reaching. We have already noticed the +analytical tendency of preliterary Latin. This tendency was held in check, +as we have just observed, so far as verb forms were concerned, but in the +comparison of adjectives and in the use of the cases it steadily made +headway, and ultimately triumphed over the synthetical principle. The +method adopted by literary Latin of indicating the comparative and the +superlative degrees of an adjective, by adding the endings -ior and +-issimus respectively, succumbed in the end to the practice of prefixing +plus or magis and maxime to the positive form. To take another +illustration of the same characteristic of popular Latin, as early as the +time of Plautus, we see a tendency to adopt our modern method of +indicating the relation which a substantive bears to some other word in +the sentence by means of a preposition rather than by simply using a case +form. The careless Roman was inclined to say, for instance, magna pars de +exercitu, rather than to use the genitive case of the word for army, magna +pars exercitus. Perhaps it seemed to him to bring out the relation a +little more clearly or forcibly. + +The use of a preposition to show the relation became almost a necessity +when certain final consonants became silent, because with their +disappearance, and the reduction of the vowels to a uniform quantity, it +was often difficult to distinguish between the cases. Since final -m was +lost in pronunciation, _Asia_ might be nominative, accusative, or +ablative. If you wished to say that something happened in Asia, it would +not suffice to use the simple ablative, because that form would have the +same pronunciation as the nominative or the accusative, Asia(m), but the +preposition must be prefixed, _in Asia_. Another factor cooperated with +those which have already been mentioned in bringing about the confusion of +the cases. Certain prepositions were used with the accusative to indicate +one relation, and with the ablative to suggest another. _In Asia_, for +instance, meant "in Asia," _in Asiam_, "into Asia." When the two case +forms became identical in pronunciation, the meaning of the phrase would +be determined by the verb in the sentence, so that with a verb of going +the preposition would mean "into," while with a verb of rest it would mean +"in." In other words the idea of motion or rest is disassociated from the +case forms. From the analogy of _in_ it was very easy to pass to other +prepositions like _per_, which in literary Latin took the accusative only, +and to use these prepositions also with cases which, historically +speaking, were ablatives. + +In his heart of hearts the school-boy regards the periodic sentences which +Cicero hurled at Catiline, and which Livy used in telling the story of +Rome as unnatural and perverse. All the specious arguments which his +teacher urges upon him, to prove that the periodic form of expression was +just as natural to the Roman as the direct method is to us, fail to +convince him that he is not right in his feeling--and he _is_ right. Of +course in English, as a rule, the subject must precede the verb, the +object must follow it, and the adverb and attribute adjective must stand +before the words to which they belong. In the sentence: "Octavianus wished +Cicero to be saved," not a single change may be made in the order without +changing the sense, but in a language like Latin, where relations are +largely expressed by inflectional forms, almost any order is possible, so +that a writer may vary his arrangement and grouping of words to suit the +thought which he wishes to convey. But this is a different matter from +the construction of a period with its main subject at the beginning, its +main verb at the end, and all sorts of subordinate and modifying clauses +locked in by these two words. This was not the way in which the Romans +talked with one another. We can see that plainly enough from the +conversations in Plautus and Terence. In fact the Latin period is an +artificial product, brought to perfection by many generations of literary +workers, and the nearer we get to the Latin of the common people the more +natural the order and style seem to the English-speaking person. The +speech of the uneducated freedmen in the romance of Petronius is +interesting in this connection. They not only fail to use the period, but +they rarely subordinate one idea to another. Instead of saying "I saw him +when he was an ædile," they are likely to say "I saw him; he was an ædile +then." + +When we were analyzing preliterary Latin, we noticed that the +co-ordination of ideas was one of its characteristics, so that this trait +evidently persisted in popular speech, while literary Latin became more +logical and complex. + +In the preceding pages we have tried to find out the main features of +popular Latin. In doing so we have constantly thought of literary Latin +as the foil or standard of comparison. Now, strangely enough, no sooner +had the literary medium of expression slowly and painfully disassociated +itself from the language of the common people than influences which it +could not resist brought it down again to the level of its humbler +brother. Its integrity depended of course upon the acceptance of certain +recognized standards. But when flourishing schools of literature sprang up +in Spain, in Africa, and in Gaul, the paramount authority of Rome and the +common standard for the Latin world which she had set were lost. When some +men tried to imitate Cicero and Quintilian, and others, Seneca, there +ceased to be a common model of excellence. Similarly a careful distinction +between the diction of prose and verse was gradually obliterated. There +was a loss of interest in literature, and professional writers gave less +attention to their diction and style. The appearance of Christianity, too, +exercised a profound influence on literary Latin. Christian writers and +preachers made their appeal to the common people rather than to the +literary world. They, therefore, expressed themselves in language which +would be readily understood by the average man, as St. Jerome frankly +tells us his purpose was. The result of these influences, and of others, +acting on literary Latin, was to destroy its unity and its carefully +developed scientific system, and to bring it nearer and nearer in its +genius to popular Latin, or, to put it in another way, the literary medium +comes to show many of the characteristics of the spoken language. Gregory +of Tours, writing in the sixth century, laments the fact that he is +unfamiliar with grammatical principles, and with this century literary +Latin may be said to disappear. + +As for popular Latin, it has never ceased to exist. It is the language of +France, Spain, Italy, Roumania, and all the Romance countries to-day. Its +history has been unbroken from the founding of Rome to the present time. +Various scholars have tried to determine the date before which we shall +call the popular speech vulgar Latin, and after which it may better be +styled French or Spanish or Italian, as the case may be. Some would fix +the dividing line in the early part of the eighth century A.D., when +phonetic changes common to all parts of the Roman world would cease to +occur. Others would fix it at different periods between the middle of the +sixth to the middle of the seventh century, according as each section of +the old Roman world passed definitely under the control of its Germanic +invaders. The historical relations of literary and colloquial Latin would +be roughly indicated by the accompanying diagram, in which preliterary +Latin divides, on the appearance of literature in the third century B.C., +into popular Latin and literary Latin. These two forms of speech develop +along independent lines until, in the sixth century, literary Latin is +merged in popular Latin and disappears. The unity for the Latin tongue +thus secured was short lived, because within a century the differentiation +begins which gives rise to the present-day Romance languages. + +It may interest some of the readers of this chapter to look over a few +specimens of vulgar Latin from the various periods of its history. + +(a) The first one is an extract from the Laws of the Twelve Tables. The +original document goes back to the middle of the fifth century B.C., and +shows us some of the characteristics of preliterary Latin. The +non-periodic form, the omission of pronouns, and the change of subject +without warning are especially noticeable. + +"Si in ius vocat, ito. Ni it, antestamino, igitur em (=eum) capito. Si +calvitur pedemve struit, manum endo iacito (=inicito). Si morbus aevitasve +(=aetasve) vitium escit, iumentum dato: si nolet, arceram ne sternito." + +[Illustration: + +1 Preliterary Latin. +2 Vulgar Latin +3 Literary Latin +4-8 The Romance languages. + +] + +(b) This passage from one of Cicero's letters to his brother (_ad Q. +fr._ 2, 3, 2) may illustrate the familiar conversational style of a +gentleman in the first century B.C. It describes an harangue made by the +politician Clodius to his partisans. + +"Ille furens et exsanguis interrogabat suos in clamore ipso quis esset qui +plebem fame necaret. Respondebant operae: 'Pompeius.' Quem ire vellent. +Respondebant: 'Crassum.' Is aderat tum Miloni animo non amico. Hora fere +nona quasi signo dato Clodiani nostros consputare coeperunt. Exarsit +dolor. Vrgere illi ut loco nos moverent." + +(c) In the following passage, Petronius, 57, one of the freedmen at +Trimalchio's dinner flames out in anger at a fellow-guest whose bearing +seems to him supercilious. It shows a great many of the characteristics of +vulgar Latin which have been mentioned in this paper. The similarity of +its style to that of the preliterary specimen is worth observing. The +great number of proverbs and bits of popular wisdom are also noticeable. + +"Et nunc spero me sic vivere, ut nemini iocus sim. Homo inter homines sum, +capite aperto ambulo; assem aerarium nemini debeo; constitutum habui +nunquam; nemo mihi in foro dixit 'redde, quod debes.' Glebulas emi, +lamelullas paravi; viginti ventres pasco et canem; contubernalem meam +redemi, ne quis in sinu illius manus tergeret; mille denarios pro capite +solvi; sevir gratis factus sum; spero, sic moriar, ut mortuus non +erubescam." + +(d) This short inscription from Pompeii shows some of the peculiarities +of popular pronunciation. In ortu we see the same difficulty in knowing +when to sound the aspirate which the cockney Englishman has. The silence +of the final -m, and the reduction of ae to e are also interesting. Presta +mi sinceru (=sincerum): si te amet que (=quae) custodit ortu (=hortum) +Venus. + +(e) Here follow some of the vulgar forms against which a grammarian, +probably of the fourth century, warns his readers. We notice that the +popular "mistakes" to which he calls attention are in (1) syncopation and +assimilation, in (2) the use of the diminutive for the primitive, and +pronouncing au as o, in (3) the same reduction of ct to t (or tt) which we +find in such Romance forms as Ottobre, in (4) the aspirate falsely added, +in (5) syncopation and the confusion of v and b, and in (6) the silence of +final -m. + + (1) frigida non fricda + (2) auris non oricla + (3) auctoritas non autoritas + (4) ostiae non hostiae + (5) vapulo non baplo + (6) passim non passi + +(f) The following passages are taken from Brunot's "Histoire de la +langue Fraçaise," p. 144. In the third column the opening sentence of the +famous Oath of Strasburg of 842 A.D. is given. In the other columns the +form which it would have taken at different periods is set down. These +passages bring out clearly the unbroken line of descent from Latin to +modern French. + + + + + The Oath of Strasburg of 842 + + + Classic Latin + + Per Dei amorem et + per christiani + populi et nostram + communem + salutem, + ab hac die, quantum + Deus scire + et posse mini + dat, servabo + hunc meum fratrem + Carolum + + + Spoken Latin, Seventh Cent. + + For deo amore et + por chrestyano + pob(o)lo et nostro + comune salvamento + de esto + die en avante + en quanto Deos + sabere et podere + me donat, sic + salvarayo eo + eccesto meon + fradre Karlo + + + Actual Text + + Pro deo amur et + pro christian + poblo et nostro + commun salvament, + d'ist di + en avant, in + quant Deus + savir et podir + me dunat, si + salvarai eo cist + meon fradre + Karlo + + + French, Eleventh Cent. + + Por dieu amor et + por del crestüen + poeple et nostre + comun salvement, + de cest + jorn en avant, + quant que Dieus + saveir et podeir + me donet, si + salverai jo cest + mien fredre + Charlon + + + French, Fifteenth Cent. + + Pour l'amour + Dieu et pour le + sauvement du + chrestien peuple + et le nostre commun, + de cest + jour en avant, + quant que Dieu + savoir et pouvoir + me done, + si sauverai je + cest mien frere + Charle + + + Modern French + + Pour l'amour de + Dieu et pour le + salut commun + du peuple chrétien + et le nôtre, + à partir de ce + jour, autant + que Dieu m'en + donne le savoir + et le pouvoir, + je soutiendrai + mon frère Charles + + + + +The Poetry of the Common People of Rome + + + +I. Their Metrical Epitaphs + + +The old village churchyard on a summer afternoon is a favorite spot with +many of us. The absence of movement, contrasted with the life just outside +its walls, the drowsy humming of the bees in the flowers which grow at +will, the restful gray of the stones and the green of the moss give one a +feeling of peace and quiet, while the ancient dates and quaint lettering +in the inscriptions carry us far from the hurry and bustle and trivial +interests of present-day life. No sense of sadness touches us. The stories +which the stones tell are so far removed from us in point of time that +even those who grieved at the loss of the departed have long since +followed their friends, and when we read the bits of life history on the +crumbling monuments, we feel only that pleasurable emotion which, as +Cicero says in one of his letters, comes from our reading in history of +the little tragedies of men of the past. But the epitaph deals with the +common people, whom history is apt to forget, and gives us a glimpse of +their character, their doings, their beliefs, and their views of life and +death. They furnish us a simple and direct record of the life and the +aspirations of the average man, the record of a life not interpreted for +us by the biographer, historian, or novelist, but set down in all its +simplicity by one of the common people themselves. + +These facts lend to the ancient Roman epitaphs their peculiar interest and +charm. They give us a glimpse into the every-day life of the people which +a Cicero, or a Virgil, or even a Horace cannot offer us. They must have +exerted an influence, too, on Roman character, which we with our changed +conditions can scarcely appreciate. We shall understand this fact if we +call to mind the differences between the ancient practices in the matter +of burial and our own. The village churchyard is with us a thing of the +past. Whether on sanitary grounds, or for the sake of quiet and seclusion, +in the interest of economy, or not to obtrude the thought of death upon +us, the modern cemetery is put outside of our towns, and the memorials in +it are rarely read by any of us. Our fathers did otherwise. The churchyard +of old England and of New England was in the middle of the village, and +"short cuts" from one part of the village to another led through its +enclosure. Perhaps it was this fact which tempted our ancestors to set +forth their life histories more fully than we do, who know that few, if +any, will come to read them. Or is the world getting more reserved and +sophisticated? Are we coming to put a greater restraint upon the +expression of our emotions? Do we hesitate more than our fathers did to +talk about ourselves? The ancient Romans were like our fathers in their +willingness or desire to tell us of themselves. Perhaps the differences in +their burial practices, which were mentioned above, tempted them to be +communicative, and sometimes even garrulous. They put their tombstones in +a spot still more frequented than the churchyard. They placed them by the +side of the highways, just outside the city walls, where people were +coming or going constantly. Along the Street of Tombs, as one goes out of +Pompeii, or along the great Appian Way, which runs from Rome to Capua, +Southern Italy and Brundisium, the port of departure for Greece and the +Orient, they stand on both sides of the roadway and make their mute +appeals for our attention. We know their like in the enclosure about old +Trinity in New York, in the burial ground in New Haven, or in the +churchyards across the water. They tell us not merely the date of birth +and death of the deceased, but they let us know enough of his life to +invest it with a certain individuality, and to give it a flavor of its +own. + +Some 40,000 of them have come down to us, and nearly 2,000 of the +inscriptions upon them are metrical. This particular group is of special +interest to us, because the use of verse seems to tempt the engraver to go +beyond a bare statement of facts and to philosophize a bit about the +present and the future. Those who lie beneath the stones still claim some +recognition from the living, for they often call upon the passer-by to +halt and read their epitaphs, and as the Roman walked along the Appian Way +two thousand years ago, or as we stroll along the same highway to-day, it +is in silent converse with the dead. Sometimes the stone itself addresses +us, as does that of Olus Granius:[22] "This mute stone begs thee to stop, +stranger, until it has disclosed its mission and told thee whose shade it +covers. Here lie the bones of a man, modest, honest, and trusty--the +crier, Olus Granius. That is all. It wanted thee not to be unaware of +this. Fare thee well." This craving for the attention of the passer-by +leads the composer of one epitaph to use somewhat the same device which +our advertisers employ in the street-cars when they say: "Do not look at +this spot," for he writes: "Turn not your eyes this way and wish not to +learn our fate," but two lines later, relenting, he adds: "Now stop, +traveller...within this narrow resting-place,"[23] and then we get the +whole story. Sometimes a dramatic, lifelike touch is given by putting the +inscription into the form of a dialogue between the dead and those who are +left behind. Upon a stone found near Rome runs the inscription:[24] +"Hail, name dear to us, Stephanus,...thy Moschis and thy Diodorus salute +thee." To which the dead man replies: "Hail chaste wife, hail Diodorus, +my friend, my brother." The dead man often begs for a pleasant word from +the passer-by. The Romans, for instance, who left Ostia by the highway, +read upon a stone the sentiment:[25] "May it go well with you who lie +within and, as for you who go your way and read these lines, 'the earth +rest lightly on thee' say." This pious salutation loses some of the flavor +of spontaneity in our eyes when we find that it had become so much of a +convention as to be indicated by the initial letters of the several words: +S(it) t(ibi) t(erra) l(evis). The traveller and the departed exchange good +wishes on a stone found near Velitræ:[26] + + "May it go well with you who read and you who pass this way, + The like to mine and me who on this spot my tomb have built." + +One class of passers-by was dreaded by the dweller beneath the stone--the +man with a paint-brush who was looking for a conspicuous spot on which to +paint the name of his favorite political candidate. To such an one the +hope is expressed "that his ambition may be realized, provided he +instructs his slave not to paint this stone."[27] + +These wayside epitaphs must have left an impress on the mind and character +of the Roman which we can scarcely appreciate. The peasant read them as he +trudged homeward on market days, the gentleman, as he drove to his villa +on the countryside, and the traveller who came from the South, the East, +or the North. In them the history of his country was set forth in the +achievements of her great men, her prætors and consuls, her generals who +had conquered and her governors who had ruled Gaul, Spain, Africa, and +Asia. In them the public services, and the deeds of charity of the rich +and powerful were recorded and the homely virtues and self-sacrifices of +the humbler man and woman found expression there. Check by jowl with the +tomb of some great leader upon whom the people or the emperor had showered +all the titles and honors in their power might stand the stone of the poor +physician, Dionysius,[28] of whom it is said "to all the sick who came to +him he gave his services free of charge; he set forth in his deeds what he +taught in his precepts." + +But perhaps more of the inscriptions in verse, and with them we are here +concerned, are in praise of women than of men. They make clear to us the +place which women held in Roman life, the state of society, and the +feminine qualities which were held in most esteem. The world which they +portray is quite another from that of Ovid and Juvenal. The common people +still hold to the old standards of morality and duty. The degeneracy of +smart society has made little progress here. The marriage tie is held +sacred; the wife and husband, the parent and child are held close to each +other in bonds of affection. The virtues of women are those which +Martinianus records on the stone of his wife Sofroniola:[29] + +"Purity, loyalty, affection, a sense of duty, a yielding nature, and +whatever qualities God has implanted in women." + + + (Castitas fides earitas pietas obsequium Et quaecumque deus faemenis + inesse praecepit.) + +Upon a stone near Turin,[30] Valerius wrote in memory of his wife the +simple line: + +"Pure in heart, modest, of seemly bearing, discreet, noble-minded, and +held in high esteem." + + + (Casta pudica decens sapiens Generosa probata.) + +Only one discordant note is struck in this chorus of praise. This fierce +invective stands upon an altar at Rome:[31] "Here for all time has been +set down in writing the shameful record of the freedwoman Acte, of +poisoned mind, and treacherous, cunning, and hard-hearted. Oh! for a nail, +and a hempen rope to choke her, and flaming pitch to burn up her wicked +heart." + +A double tribute is paid to a certain Statilia in this naïve +inscription:[32] "Thou who wert beautiful beyond measure and true to thy +husbands, didst twice enter the bonds of wedlock...and he who came first, +had he been able to withstand the fates, would have set up this stone to +thee, while I, alas! who have been blessed by thy pure heart and love for +thee for sixteen years, lo! now I have lost thee." Still greater sticklers +for the truth at the expense of convention are two fond husbands who +borrowed a pretty couplet composed in memory of some woman "of tender +age," and then substituted upon the monuments of their wives the more +truthful phrase "of middle age,"[33] and another man warns women, from the +fate of his wife, to shun the excessive use of jewels.[34] + +It was only natural that when men came to the end of life they should ask +themselves its meaning, should speculate upon the state after death, and +should turn their thoughts to the powers which controlled their destiny. +We have been accustomed to form our conceptions of the religion of the +Romans from what their philosophers and moralists and poets have written +about it. But a great chasm lies between the teachings of these men and +the beliefs of the common people. Only from a study of the epitaphs do we +know what the average Roman thought and felt on this subject. A few years +ago Professor Harkness, in an admirable article on "The Scepticism and +Fatalism of the Common People of Rome," showed that "the common people +placed no faith in the gods who occupy so prominent a place in Roman +literature, and that their nearest approach to belief in a divinity was +their recognition of fate," which "seldom appears as a fixed law of +nature...but rather as a blind necessity, depending on chance and not on +law." The gods are mentioned by name in the poetic epitaphs only, and for +poetic purposes, and even here only one in fifty of the metrical +inscriptions contains a direct reference to any supernatural power. For +none of these deities, save for Mother Earth, does the writer of an +epitaph show any affection. This feeling one may see in the couplet which +reads:[35] "Mother Earth, to thee have we committed the bones of +Fortunata, to thee who dost come near to thy children as a mother," and +Professor Harkness thoughtfully remarks in this connection that "the love +of nature and appreciation of its beauties, which form a distinguishing +characteristic of Roman literature in contrast to all the other +literatures of antiquity, are the outgrowth of this feeling of kinship +which the Italians entertained for mother earth." + +It is a little surprising, to us on first thought, that the Roman did not +interpose some concrete personalities between himself and this vague +conception of fate, some personal agencies, at least, to carry out the +decrees of destiny. But it will not seem so strange after all when we +recall the fact that the deities of the early Italians were without form +or substance. The anthropomorphic teachings of Greek literature, art, and +religion found an echo in the Jupiter and Juno, the Hercules and Pan of +Virgil and Horace, but made no impress on the faith of the common people, +who, with that regard for tradition which characterized the Romans, +followed the fathers in their way of thinking. + +A disbelief in personal gods hardly accords with faith in a life after +death, but most of the Romans believed in an existence of some sort in the +world beyond. A Dutch scholar has lately established this fact beyond +reasonable doubt, by a careful study of the epitaphs in verse.[36] One +tombstone reads:[37] + + + "Into nothing from nothing how quickly we go," + +and another:[38] + + + "Once we were not, now we are as we were," + +and the sentiment, "I was not, I was, I am not, I care not" (non fui, fui, +non sum, non euro) was so freely used that it is indicated now and then +merely by the initial letters N.f.f.n.s.n.c., but compared with the great +number of inscriptions in which belief in a life after death finds +expression such utterances are few. But how and where that life was to be +passed the Romans were in doubt. We have noticed above how little the +common people accepted the belief of the poets in Jupiter and Pluto and +the other gods, or rather how little their theology had been influenced by +Greek art and literature. In their conception of the place of abode after +death, it is otherwise. Many of them believe with Virgil that it lies +below the earth. As one of them says in his epitaph:[39] + + "No sorrow to the world below I bring." + +Or with other poets the departed are thought of as dwelling in the Elysian +fields or the Isles of the Blessed. As one stone cries out to the +passer-by:[40] "May you live who shall have said. 'She lives in Elysium,'" +and of a little girl it is said:[41] "May thy shade flower in fields +Elysian." Sometimes the soul goes to the sky or the stars: "Here lies the +body of the bard Laberius, for his spirit has gone to the place from +which it came;"[42] "The tomb holds my limbs, my soul shall pass to the +stars of heaven."[43] But more frequently the departed dwell in the tomb. +As one of them expresses it: "This is my eternal home; here have I been +placed; here shall I be for aye." This belief that the shade hovers about +the tomb accounts for the salutations addressed to it which we have +noticed above, and for the food and flowers which are brought to satisfy +its appetites and tastes. These tributes to the dead do not seem to accord +with the current Roman belief that the body was dissolved to dust, and +that the soul was clothed with some incorporeal form, but the Romans were +no more consistent in their eschatology than many of us are. + +Perhaps it was this vague conception of the state after death which +deprived the Roman of that exultant joy in anticipation of the world +beyond which the devout Christian, a hundred years or more ago, expressed +in his epitaphs, with the Golden City so clearly pictured to his eye, and +by way of compensation the Roman was saved from the dread of death, for +no judgment-seat confronted him in the other world. The end of life was +awaited with reasonable composure. Sometimes death was welcomed because it +brought rest. As a citizen of Lambsesis expresses it:[44] "Here is my home +forever; here is a rest from toil;" and upon a woman's stone we read:[45] + + "Whither hast thou gone, dear soul, seeking rest from troubles, + For what else than trouble hast thou had throughout thy life?" + +But this pessimistic view of life rarely appears on the monuments. Not +infrequently the departed expresses a certain satisfaction with his life's +record, as does a citizen of Beneventum, who remarks:[46] "No man have I +wronged, to many have I rendered services," or he tells us of the pleasure +which he has found in the good things of life, and advises us to enjoy +them. A Spanish epitaph reads:[47] "Eat, drink, enjoy thyself, follow me" +(es bibe lude veni). In a lighter or more garrulous vein another says:[48] +"Come, friends, let us enjoy the happy time of life; let us dine merrily, +while short life lasts, mellow with wine, in jocund intercourse. All +these about us did the same while they were living. They gave, received, +and enjoyed good things while they lived. And let us imitate the practices +of the fathers. Live while you live, and begrudge nothing to the dear soul +which Heaven has given you." This philosophy of life is expressed very +succinctly in: "What I have eaten and drunk I have with me; what I have +foregone I have lost,"[49] and still more concretely in: + + "Wine and amours and baths weaken our bodily health, + Yet life is made up of wine and amours and baths."[50] + +Under the statue of a man reclining and holding a cup in his hand, Flavius +Agricola writes:[51] "Tibur was my native place; I was called Agricola, +Flavius too.... I who lie here as you see me. And in the world above in +the years which the fates granted, I cherished my dear soul, nor did the +god of wine e'er fail me.... Ye friends who read this, I bid you mix your +wine, and before death comes, crown your temples with flowers, and +drink.... All the rest the earth and fire consume after death." Probably +we should be wrong in tracing to the teachings of Epicurus, even in their +vulgarized popular form, the theory that the value of life is to be +estimated by the material pleasure it has to offer. A man's theory of life +is largely a matter of temperament or constitution. He may find support +for it in the teachings of philosophy, but he is apt to choose a +philosophy which suits his way of thinking rather than to let his views of +life be determined by abstract philosophic teachings. The men whose +epitaphs we have just read would probably have been hedonists if Epicurus +had never lived. It is interesting to note in passing that holding this +conception of life naturally presupposes the acceptance of one of the +notions of death which we considered above--that it ends all. + +In another connection, a year or two ago, I had occasion to speak of the +literary merit of some of these metrical epitaphs,[52] of their interest +for us as specimens of the literary compositions of the common people, and +of their value in indicating the æsthetic taste of the average Roman. It +may not be without interest here to speak of the literary form of some of +them a little more at length than was possible in that connection. Latin +has always been, and continues to be among modern peoples, a favored +language for epitaphs and dedications. The reasons why it holds its +favored position are not far to seek. It is vigorous and concise. Then +again in English and in most modern languages the order which words may +take in a given sentence is in most cases inexorably fixed by grammatical +necessity. It was not so with Latin. Its highly inflected character made +it possible, as we know, to arrange the words which convey an idea in +various orders, and these different groupings of the same words gave +different shades of meaning to the sentence, and different emotional +effects are secured by changing the sequence in which the minor +conceptions are presented. By putting contrasted words side by side, or at +corresponding points in the sentence, the impression is heightened. When a +composition takes the form of verse the possibilities in the way of +contrast are largely increased. The high degree of perfection to which +Horace brought the balancing and interlocking of ideas in some of his +Odes, illustrates the great advantage which the Latin poet had over the +English writer because of the flexibility of the medium of expression +which he used. This advantage was the Roman's birthright, and lends a +certain distinction even to the verses of the people, which we are +discussing here. Certain other stylistic qualities of these metrical +epitaphs, which are intended to produce somewhat the same effects, will +not seem to us so admirable. I mean alliteration, play upon words, the +acrostic arrangement, and epigrammatic effects. These literary tricks find +little place in our serious verse, and the finer Latin poets rarely +indulge in them. They seem to be especially out of place in an epitaph, +which should avoid studied effects and meretricious devices. But writers +in the early stages of a literature and common people of all periods find +a pleasure in them. Alliteration, onomatopÅ“ia, the pun, and the play on +words are to be found in all the early Latin poets, and they are +especially frequent with literary men like Plautus and Terence, Pacuvius +and Accius, who wrote for the stage, and therefore for the common people. +One or two illustrations of the use of these literary devices may be +sufficient. A little girl at Rome, who died when five years old, bore the +strange name of Mater, or Mother, and on her tombstone stands the +sentiment:[53] "Mater I was by name, mater I shall not be by law." +"Sepulcrum hau pulcrum pulcrai feminae" of the famous Claudia +inscription,[54] Professor Lane cleverly rendered "Site not sightly of a +sightly dame." Quite beyond my power of translating into English, so as to +reproduce its complicated play on words, is the appropriate epitaph of the +rhetorician, Romanius lovinus:[55] + + + "Docta loqui doctus quique loqui docuit." + +A great variety of verses is used in the epitaphs, but the dactylic +hexameter and the elegiac are the favorites. The stately character of the +hexameter makes it a suitable medium in which to express a serious +sentiment, while the sudden break in the second verse of the elegiac +couplet suggests the emotion of the writer. The verses are constructed +with considerable regard for technique. Now and then there is a false +quantity, an unpleasant sequence, or a heavy effect, but such blemishes +are comparatively infrequent. There is much that is trivial, commonplace, +and prosaic in these productions of the common people, but now and then +one comes upon a phrase, a verse, or a whole poem which shows strength or +grace or pathos. An orator of the late period, not without vigor, writes +upon his tombstone:[56] "I have lived blessed by the gods, by friends, by +letters." + + (Vixi beatus dis, amicis, literis.) + +A rather pretty, though not unusual, sentiment occurs in an elegiac +couplet to a young girl,[57] in which the word amoena is the adjective, +meaning "pleasant to see," in the first, while in the second verse it is +the girl's name: "As a rose is amoena when it blooms in the early spring +time, so was I Amoena to those who saw me." + + (Ut rosa amoena homini est quom primo tempore floret. + Quei me viderunt, seic Amoena fui.) + +There is a touch of pathos in the inscription which a mother put on the +stone of her son:[58] "A sorrowing mother has set up this monument to a +son who has never caused her any sorrow, except that he is no more," and +in this tribute of a husband:[59] "Out of my slender means now that the +end has come, my wife, all that I could do, this gift, a small small one +for thy deserts, have I made." The epitaph of a little girl, named +Felicia, or Kitty, has this sentiment in graceful verse:[60] "Rest lightly +upon thee the earth, and over thy grave the fragrant balsam grow, and +roses sweet entwine thy buried bones." Upon the stone of a little girl who +bore the name of Xanthippe, and the nickname Iaia, is an inscription with +one of two pretty conceits and phrases. With it we may properly bring to +an end our brief survey of these verses of the common people of Rome. In a +somewhat free rendering it reads in part:[61] "Whether the thought of +death distress thee or of life, read to the end. Xanthippe by name, yclept +also Iaia by way of jest, escapes from sorrow since her soul from the body +flies. She rests here in the soft cradle of the earth,... comely, +charming, keen of mind, gay in discourse. If there be aught of compassion +in the gods above, bear her to the sun and light." + + + + +II. Their Dedicatory and Ephemeral Verses + + +In the last paper we took up for consideration some of the Roman metrical +epitaphs. These compositions, however, do not include all the productions +in verse of the common people of Rome. On temples, altars, bridges, +statues, and house walls, now and then, we find bits of verse. Most of the +extant dedicatory lines are in honor of Hercules, Silvanus, Priapus, and +the Cæsars. Whether the two famous inscriptions to Hercules by the sons of +Vertuleius and by Mummius belong here or not it is hard to say. At all +events, they were probably composed by amateurs, and have a peculiar +interest for us because they belong to the second century B.C., and +therefore stand near the beginning of Latin letters; they show us the +language before it had been perfected and adapted to literary purposes by +an Ennius, a Virgil, and a Horace, and they are written in the old native +Saturnian verse, into which Livius Andronicus, "the Father of Latin +literature," translated the Odyssey. Consequently they show us the +language before it had gained in polish and lost in vigor under the +influence of the Greeks. The second of these two little poems is a +finger-post, in fact, at the parting of the ways for Roman civilization. +It was upon a tablet let into the wall of the temple of Hercules, and +commemorates the triumphant return to Rome of Mummius, the conqueror of +Corinth. It points back to the good old days of Roman contempt for Greek +art, and ignorance of it, for Mummius, in his stupid indifference to the +beautiful monuments of Corinth, made himself the typical Philistine for +all time. It points forward to the new Greco-Roman civilization of Italy, +because the works of art which Mummius is said to have brought back with +him, and the Greeks who probably followed in his train, augmented that +stream of Greek influence which in the next century or two swept through +the peninsula. + +In the same primitive metre as these dedications is the Song of the Arval +Brothers, which was found engraved on a stone in the grove of the goddess +Dea Dia, a few miles outside of Rome. This hymn the priests sang at the +May festival of the goddess, when the farmers brought them the first +fruits of the earth. It has no intrinsic literary merit, but it carries us +back beyond the great wars with Carthage for supremacy in the western +Mediterranean, beyond the contest with Pyrrhus for overlordship in +Southern Italy, beyond the struggle for life with the Samnites in Central +Italy, beyond even the founding of the city on the Tiber, to a people who +lived by tilling the soil and tending their flocks and herds. + +But we have turned away from the dedicatory verses. On the bridges which +span our streams we sometimes record the names of the commissioners or the +engineers, or the bridge builders responsible for the structure. Perhaps +we are wise in thinking these prosaic inscriptions suitable for our ugly +iron bridges. Their more picturesque stone structures tempted the Romans +now and then to drop into verse, and to go beyond a bare statement of the +facts of construction. Over the Anio in Italy, on a bridge which Narses, +the great general of Justinian, restored, the Roman, as he passed, read in +graceful verse:[62] "We go on our way with the swift-moving waters of the +torrent beneath our feet, and we delight on hearing the roar of the angry +water. Go then joyfully at your ease, Quirites, and let the echoing +murmur of the stream sing ever of Narses. He who could subdue the +unyielding spirit of the Goths has taught the rivers to bear a stern +yoke." + +It is an interesting thing to find that the prettiest of the dedicatory +poems are in honor of the forest-god Silvanus. One of these poems, Titus +Pomponius Victor, the agent of the Cæsars, left inscribed upon a +tablet[63] high up in the Grecian Alps. It reads: "Silvanus, half-enclosed +in the sacred ash-tree, guardian mighty art thou of this pleasaunce in the +heights. To thee we consecrate in verse these thanks, because across the +fields and Alpine tops, and through thy guests in sweetly smelling groves, +while justice I dispense and the concerns of Cæsar serve, with thy +protecting care thou guidest us. Bring me and mine to Rome once more, and +grant that we may till Italian fields with thee as guardian. In guerdon +therefor will I give a thousand mighty trees." It is a pretty picture. +This deputy of Cæsar has finished his long and perilous journeys through +the wilds of the North in the performance of his duties. His face is now +turned toward Italy, and his thoughts are fixed on Rome. In this "little +garden spot," as he calls it, in the mountains he pours out his gratitude +to the forest-god, who has carried him safely through dangers and brought +him thus far on his homeward way, and he vows a thousand trees to his +protector. It is too bad that we do not know how the vow was to be +paid--not by cutting down the trees, we feel sure. One line of Victor's +little poem is worth quoting in the original. He thanks Silvanus for +conducting him in safety "through the mountain heights, and through Tuique +luci suave olentis hospites." Who are the _hospites_? The wild beasts of +the forests, we suppose. Now _hospites_ may, of course, mean either +"guests" or "hosts," and it is a pretty conceit of Victor's to think of +the wolves and bears as the guests of the forest-god, as we have ventured +to render the phrase in the translation given above. Or, are they Victor's +hosts, whose characters have been so changed by Silvanus that Victor has +had friendly help rather than fierce attacks from them? + +A very modern practice is revealed by a stone found near the famous temple +of Æsculapius, the god of healing, at Epidaurus in Argolis, upon which +two ears are shown in relief, and below them the Latin couplet:[64] "Long +ago Cutius Gallus had vowed these ears to thee, scion of PhÅ“bus, and now +he has put them here, for thou hast healed his ears." It is an ancient +ex-voto, and calls to mind on the one hand the cult of Æsculapius, which +Walter Pater has so charmingly portrayed in Marius the Epicurean, and on +the other hand it shows us that the practice of setting up ex-votos, of +which one sees so many at shrines and in churches across the water to-day, +has been borrowed from the pagans. A pretty bit of sentiment is suggested +by an inscription[65] found near the ancient village of Ucetia in Southern +France: "This shrine to the Nymphs have I built, because many times and +oft have I used this spring when an old man as well as a youth." + +All of the verses which we have been considering up to this point have +come down to us more or less carefully engraved upon stone, in honor of +some god, to record some achievement of importance, or in memory of a +departed friend. But besides these formal records of the past, we find a +great many hastily scratched or painted sentiments or notices, which have +a peculiar interest for us because they are the careless effusions or +unstudied productions of the moment, and give us the atmosphere of +antiquity as nothing else can do. The stuccoed walls of the houses, and +the sharp-pointed stylus which was used in writing on wax tablets offered +too strong a temptation for the lounger or passer-by to resist. To people +of this class, and to merchants advertising their wares, we owe the three +thousand or more graffiti found at Pompeii. The ephemeral inscriptions +which were intended for practical purposes, such as the election notices, +the announcements of gladiatorial contests, of houses to rent, of articles +lost and for sale, are in prose, but the lovelorn lounger inscribed his +sentiments frequently in verse, and these verses deserve a passing notice +here. One man of this class in his erotic ecstasy writes on the wall of a +Pompeian basilica:[66] "May I perish if I'd wish to be a god without +thee." That hope sprang eternal in the breast of the Pompeian lover is +illustrated by the last two lines of this tragic declaration:[67] + + "If you can and won't, + Give me hope no more. + Hope you foster and you ever + Bid me come again to-morrow. + Force me then to die + Whom you force to live + A life apart from you. + Death will be a boon, + Not to be tormented. + Yet what hope has snatched away + To the lover hope gives back." + +This effusion has led another passer-by to write beneath it the Delphic +sentiment: "May the man who shall read this never read anything else." The +symptoms of the ailment in its most acute form are described by some Roman +lover in the verses which he has left us on the wall of Caligula's palace, +on the Palatine:[68] + + "No courage in my heart, + No sleep to close my eyes, + A tide of surging love + Throughout the day and night." + +This seems to come from one who looks upon the lover with a sympathetic +eye, but who is himself fancy free: + + "Whoever loves, good health to him, + And perish he who knows not how, + But doubly ruined may he be + Who will not yield to love's appeal."[69] + +The first verse of this little poem, + + "Quisquis amat valeat, pereat qui nescit amare," + +represented by the first couplet of the English rendering, calls to mind +the swinging refrain which we find a century or two later in the +_Pervigilium Veneris_, that last lyrical outburst of the pagan world, +written for the eve of the spring festival of Venus: + + "Cras amet qui nunquam amavit quique amavit eras amet." + + (To-morrow he shall love who ne'er has loved + And who has loved, to-morrow he shall love.) + +An interesting study might be made of the favorite types of feminine +beauty in the Roman poets. Horace sings of the "golden-haired" Pyrrhas, +and Phyllises, and Chloes, and seems to have had an admiration for +blondes, but a poet of the common people, who has recorded his opinion on +this subject in the atrium of a Pompeian house, shows a more catholic +taste, although his freedom of judgment is held in some constraint: + + "My fair girl has taught me to hate + Brunettes with their tresses of black. + I will hate if I can, but if not, + 'Gainst my will I must love them also."[70] + +On the other hand, one Pompeian had such an inborn dread of brunettes +that, whenever he met one, he found it necessary to take an appropriate +antidote, or prophylactic: + + "Whoever loves a maiden dark + By charcoal dark is he consumed. + When maiden dark I light upon + I eat the saving blackberry."[71] + +These amateur poets do not rely entirely upon their own Muse, but borrow +from Ovid, Propertius, or Virgil, when they recall sentiments in those +writers which express their feelings. Sometimes it is a tag, or a line, or +a couplet which is taken, but the borrowings are woven into the context +with some skill. The poet above who is under compulsion from his blonde +sweetheart, has taken the second half of his production verbatim from +Ovid, and for the first half of it has modified a line of Propertius. +Other writers have set down their sentiments in verse on more prosaic +subjects. A traveller on his way to the capital has scribbled these lines +on the wall, perhaps of a wine-shop where he stopped for refreshment:[72] + + "Hither have we come in safety. + Now I hasten on my way, + That once more it may be mine + To behold our Lares, Rome." + +At one point in a Pompeian street, the eye of a straggler would catch this +notice in doggerel verse:[73] + + "Here's no place for loafers. + Lounger, move along!" + +On the wall of a wine-shop a barmaid has thus advertised her wares:[74] + + "Here for a cent is a drink, + Two cents brings something still better. + Four cents in all, if you pay, + Wine of Falernum is yours." + +It must have been a lineal descendant of one of the parasites of Plautus +who wrote:[75] + + "A barbarian he is to me + At whose house I'm not asked to dine." + +Here is a sentiment which sounds very modern: + + "The common opinion is this: + That property should be divided."[76] + +This touch of modernity reminds one of another group of verses which +brings antiquity into the closest possible touch with some present-day +practices. The Romans, like ourselves, were great travellers and +sightseers, and the marvels of Egypt in particular appealed to them, as +they do to us, with irresistible force. Above all, the great statue of +Memnon, which gave forth a strange sound when it was struck by the first +rays of the rising sun, drew travellers from far and near. Those of us who +know the Mammoth Cave, Niagara Falls, the Garden of the Gods, or some +other of our natural wonders, will recall how fond a certain class of +visitors are of immortalizing themselves by scratching their names or a +sentiment on the walls or the rocks which form these marvels. Such +inscriptions We find on the temple walls in Egypt--three of them appear +on the statue of Memnon, recording in verse the fact that the writers had +visited the statue and heard the voice of the god at sunrise. One of these +Egyptian travellers, a certain Roman lady journeying up the Nile, has +scratched these verses on a wall of the temple at Memphis:[77] + + "The pyramids without thee have I seen, + My brother sweet, and yet, as tribute sad, + The bitter tears have poured adown my cheek, + And sadly mindful of thy absence now + I chisel here this melancholy note." + +Then follow the name and titles of the absent brother, who is better known +to posterity from these scribbled lines of a Cook's tourist than from any +official records which have come down to us. All of these pieces of +popular poetry which we have been discussing thus far were engraved on +stone, bronze, stucco, or on some other durable material. A very few bits +of this kind of verse, from one to a half dozen lines in length, have come +down to us in literature. They have the unique distinction, too, of being +specimens of Roman folk poetry, and some of them are found in the most +unlikely places. Two of them are preserved by a learned commentator on +the Epistles of Horace. They carry us back to our school-boy days. When we +read + + "The plague take him who's last to reach me,"[78] + +we can see the Roman urchin standing in the market-place, chanting the +magic formula, and opposite him the row of youngsters on tiptoe, each one +waiting for the signal to run across the intervening space and be the +first to touch their comrade. What visions of early days come back to +us--days when we clasped hands in a circle and danced about one or two +children placed in the centre of the ring, and chanted in unison some +refrain, upon reading in the same commentator to Horace a ditty which +runs:[79] + + "King shall you be + If you do well. + If you do ill + You shall not be." + +The other bits of Roman folk poetry which we have are most of them +preserved by Suetonius, the gossipy biographer of the Cæsars. They recall +very different scenes. Cæsar has returned in triumph to Rome, bringing in +his train the trousered Gauls, to mingle on the street with the toga-clad +Romans. He has even had the audacity to enroll some of these strange +peoples in the Roman senate, that ancient body of dignity and convention, +and the people chant in the streets the ditty:[80] + + "Cæsar leads the Gauls in triumph, + In the senate too he puts them. + Now they've donned the broad-striped toga + And have laid aside their breeches." + +Such acts as these on Cæsar's part led some political versifier to write +on Cæsar's statue a couplet which contrasted his conduct with that of the +first great republican, Lucius Brutus: + + "Brutus drove the kings from Rome, + And first consul thus became. + This man drove the consuls out, + And at last became the king."[81] + +We may fancy that these verses played no small part in spurring on Marcus +Brutus to emulate his ancestor and join the conspiracy against the +tyrant. With one more bit of folk poetry, quoted by Suetonius, we may +bring our sketch to an end. Germanicus Cæsar, the flower of the imperial +family, the brilliant general and idol of the people, is suddenly stricken +with a mortal illness. The crowds throng the streets to hear the latest +news from the sick-chamber of their hero. Suddenly the rumor flies through +the streets that the crisis is past, that Germanicus will live, and the +crowds surge through the public squares chanting: + + "Saved now is Rome, + Saved too the land, + Saved our Germanicus."[82] + + + + + +The Origin of the Realistic Romance among the Romans + + + +One of the most fascinating and tantalizing problems of literary history +concerns the origin of prose fiction among the Romans. We can trace the +growth of the epic from its infancy in the third century before Christ as +it develops in strength in the poems of Nævius, Ennius, and Cicero until +it reaches its full stature in the _Æneid_, and then we can see the +decline of its vigor in the _Pharsalia_, the _Punica_, the _Thebais_, and +_Achilleis_, until it practically dies a natural death in the mythological +and historical poems of Claudian. The way also in which tragedy, comedy, +lyric poetry, history, biography, and the other types of literature in +prose and verse came into existence and developed among the Romans can be +followed with reasonable success. But the origin and early history of the +novel is involved in obscurity. The great realistic romance of Petronius +of the first century of our era is without a legally recognized ancestor +and has no direct descendant. The situation is the more surprising when we +recall its probable size in its original form. Of course only a part of it +has come down to us, some one hundred and ten pages in all. Its great size +probably proved fatal to its preservation in its complete form, or at +least contributed to that end, for it has been estimated that it ran from +six hundred to nine hundred pages, being longer, therefore, than the +average novel of Dickens and Scott. Consequently we are not dealing with a +bit of ephemeral literature, but with an elaborate composition of a high +degree of excellence, behind which we should expect to find a long line of +development. We are puzzled not so much by the utter absence of anything +in the way of prose fiction before the time of Petronius as by the +difficulty of establishing any satisfactory logical connection between +these pieces of literature and the romance of Petronius. We are +bewildered, in fact, by the various possibilities which the situation +presents. The work shows points of similarity with several antecedent +forms of composition, but the gaps which lie in any assumed line of +descent are so great as to make us question its correctness. + +If we call to mind the present condition of this romance and those +characteristic features of it which are pertinent to the question at +issue, the nature of the problem and its difficulty also will be apparent +at once. Out of the original work, in a rather fragmentary form, only four +or five main episodes are extant, one of which is the brilliant story of +the Dinner of Trimalchio. The action takes place for the most part in +Southern Italy, and the principal characters are freedmen who have made +their fortunes and degenerate freemen who are picking up a precarious +living by their wits. The freemen, who are the central figures in the +novel, are involved in a great variety of experiences, most of them of a +disgraceful sort, and the story is a story of low life. Women play an +important rôle in the narrative, more important perhaps than they do in +any other kind of ancient literature--at least their individuality is more +marked. The efficient motif is erotic. I say the efficient, because the +conventional motif which seems to account for all the misadventures of the +anti-hero Encolpius is the wrath of an offended deity. A great part of +the book has an atmosphere of satire about it which piques our curiosity +and baffles us at the same time, because it is hard to say how much of +this element is inherent in the subject itself, and how much of it lies in +the intention of the author. It is the characteristic of parvenu society +to imitate smart society to the best of its ability, and its social +functions are a parody of the like events in the upper set. The story of a +dinner party, for instance, given by such a _nouveau riche_ as Trimalchio, +would constantly remind us by its likeness and its unlikeness, by its sins +of omission and commission, of a similar event in correct society. In +other words, it would be a parody on a proper dinner, even if the man who +described the event knew nothing about the usages of good society, and +with no ulterior motive in mind set down accurately the doings of his +upstart characters. For instance, when Trimalchio's chef has three white +pigs driven into the dining-room for the ostensible purpose of allowing +the guests to pick one out for the next course, with the memory of our own +monkey breakfasts and horseback dinners in mind, we may feel that this is +a not improbable attempt on the part of a Roman parvenu to imitate his +betters in giving a dinner somewhat out of the ordinary. Members of the +smart set at Rome try to impress their guests by the value and weight of +their silver plate. Why shouldn't the host of our story adopt the more +direct and effective way of accomplishing the same object by having the +weight of silver engraved on each article? He does so. It is a very +natural thing for him to do. In good society they talk of literature and +art. Why isn't it natural for Trimalchio to turn the conversation into the +same channels, even if he does make Hannibal take Troy and does confuse +the epic heroes and some late champions of the gladiatorial ring? + +In other words, much of that which is satirical in Petronius is so only +because we are setting up in our minds a comparison between the doings of +his rich freedmen and the requirements of good taste and moderation. But +it seems possible to detect a satirical or a cynical purpose on the part +of the author carried farther than is involved in the choice of his +subject and the realistic presentation of his characters. Petronius seems +to delight in putting his most admirable sentiments in the mouths of +contemptible characters. Some of the best literary criticism we have of +the period, he presents through the medium of the parasite rhetorician +Agamemnon. That happy phrase characterizing Horace's style, "curiosa +felicitas," which has perhaps never been equalled in its brevity and +appositeness, is coined by the incorrigible poetaster Eumolpus. It is he +too who composes and recites the two rather brilliant epic poems +incorporated into the _Satirae_, one of which is received with a shower of +stones by the bystanders. The impassioned eulogy of the careers of +Democritus, Chrysippus, Lysippus, and Myron, who had endured hunger, pain, +and weariness of body and mind for the sake of science, art, and the good +of their fellow-men, and the diatribe against the pursuit of comfort and +pleasure which characterized the people of his own time, are put in the +mouth of the same _roué_ Eumolpus. + +These situations have the true Horatian humor about them. The most serious +and systematic discourse which Horace has given us, in his Satires, on the +art of living, comes from the crack-brained Damasippus, who has made a +failure of his own life. In another of his poems, after having set forth +at great length the weaknesses of his fellow-mortals, Horace himself is +convicted of being inconsistent, a slave to his passions, and a victim of +hot temper by his own slave Davus. We are reminded again of the literary +method of Horace in his Satires when we read the dramatic description of +the shipwreck in Petronius. The blackness of night descends upon the +water; the little bark which contains the hero and his friends is at the +mercy of the sea; Lichas, the master of the vessel, is swept from the deck +by a wave, Encolpius and his comrade Giton prepare to die in each other's +embrace, but the tragic scene ends with a ridiculous picture of Eumolpus +bellowing out above the roar of the storm a new poem which he is setting +down upon a huge piece of parchment. Evidently Petronius has the same +dread of being taken too seriously which Horace shows so often in his +Satires. The cynical, or at least unmoral, attitude of Petronius is +brought out in a still more marked way at the close of this same passage. +Of those upon the ill-fated ship the degenerates Encolpius, Giton, and +Eumolpus, who have wronged Lichas irreparably, escape, while the pious +Lichas meets a horrible death. All this seems to make it clear that not +only does the subject which Petronius has treated inevitably involve a +satire upon contemporary society, but that the author takes a satirical or +cynical attitude toward life. + +Another characteristic of the story is its realism. There are no +marvellous adventures, and in fact no improbable incidents in it. The +author never obtrudes his own personality upon us, as his successor +Apuleius sometimes does, or as Thackeray has done. We know what the people +in the story are like, not from the author's description of them, but from +their actions, from the subjects about which they talk, and from the way +in which they talk. Agamemnon converses as a rhetorician might talk, +Habinnas like a millionnaire stone-cutter, and Echion like a rag-dealer, +and their language and style are what we should expect from men of their +standing in society and of their occupations. The conversations of +Trimalchio and his freedmen guests are not witty, and their jests are not +clever. This adherence to the true principles of realism is the more +noteworthy in the case of so brilliant a writer as Petronius, and those of +us who recall some of the preternaturally clever conversations in the +pages of Henry James and other contemporary novelists may feel that in +this respect he is a truer artist than they are. + +The novel of Petronius has one other characteristic which is significant, +if we attempt to trace the origin of this type of literature. It is cast +in the prose-poetic form, that is, passages in verse are inserted here and +there in the narrative. In a few cases they are quoted, but for the most +part they are the original compositions of the novelist. They range in +length from couplets to poems of three hundred lines. Sometimes they form +an integral part of the narrative, or again they illustrate a point, +elaborate an idea in poetry, or are exercises in verse. + +We have tried to bring out the characteristic features of this romance in +order that we may see what the essential elements are of the problem which +faces one in attempting to explain the origin of the type of literature +represented by the work of Petronius. What was there in antecedent +literature which will help us to understand the appearance on Italian soil +in the first century of our era of a long erotic story of adventure, +dealing in a realistic way with every-day life, marked by a satirical +tone and with a leaning toward the prose-poetic form? This is the question +raised by the analysis, which we have made above, of the characteristics +of the story. We have no ambitious hope of solving it, yet the mere +statement of a puzzling but interesting problem is stimulating to the +imagination and the intellect, and I am tempted to take up the subject +because the discovery of certain papyri in Egypt within recent years has +led to the formulation of a new theory of the origin of the romance of +perilous adventure, and may, therefore, throw some light on the source of +our realistic novel of every-day life. My purpose, then, is to speak +briefly of the different genres of literature of the earlier period with +which the story of Petronius may stand in some direct relation, or from +which the suggestion may have come to Petronius for his work. Several of +these lines of possible descent have been skilfully traced by others. In +their views here and there I have made some modifications, and I have +called attention to one or two types of literature, belonging to the +earlier period and heretofore unnoticed in this connection, which may help +us to understand the appearance of the realistic novel. + +It seems a far cry from this story of sordid motives and vulgar action to +the heroic episodes of epic poetry, and yet the _Satirae_ contain not a +few more or less direct suggestions of epic situations and characters. The +conventional motif of the story of Petronius is the wrath of an offended +deity. The narrative in the _Odyssey_ and the _Æneid_ rests on the same +basis. The ship of their enemy Lichas on which Encolpius and his +companions are cooped up reminds them of the cave of the Cyclops; Giton +hiding from the town-crier under a mattress is compared to Ulysses +underneath the sheep and clinging to its wool to escape the eye of the +Cyclops, while the woman whose charms engage the attention of Encolpius at +Croton bears the name of Circe. It seems to be clear from these +reminiscences that Petronius had the epic in mind when he wrote his story, +and his novel may well be a direct or an indirect parody of an epic +narrative. Rohde in his analysis of the serious Greek romance of the +centuries subsequent to Petronius has postulated the following development +for that form of story: Travellers returning from remote parts of the +world told remarkable stories of their experiences. Some of these stories +took a literary form in the _Odyssey_ and the Tales of the Argonauts. They +appeared in prose, too, in narratives like the story of Sinbad the Sailor, +of a much later date. A more definite plot and a greater dramatic +intensity were given to these tales of adventure by the addition of an +erotic element which often took the form of two separated lovers. Some use +is made of this element, for instance, in the relations of Odysseus and +Penelope, perhaps in the episode of Æneas and Dido, and in the story of +Jason and Medea. The intrusion of the love motif into the stories told of +demigods and heroes, so that the whole narrative turns upon it, is +illustrated by such tales in the Metamorphoses of Ovid as those of Pyramus +and Thisbe, Pluto and Proserpina, or Meleager and Atalanta. The love +element, which may have been developed in this way out of its slight use +in the epic, and the element of adventure form the basis of the serious +Greek romances of Antonius Diogenes, Achilles Tatius, and the other +writers of the centuries which follow Petronius. + +Before trying to connect the _Satirae_ with a serious romance of the type +just mentioned, let us follow another line of descent which leads us to +the same objective point, viz., the appearance of the serious story in +prose. We have been led to consider the possible connection of this kind +of prose fiction with the epic by the presence in both of them of the love +element and that of adventure. But the Greek novel has another rather +marked feature. It is rhetorical, and this quality has suggested that it +may have come, not from the epic, but from the rhetorical exercise. +Support has been given to this theory within recent years by the discovery +in Egypt of two fragments of the Ninos romance. The first of these +fragments reveals Ninos, the hero, pleading with his aunt Derkeia, the +mother of his sweetheart, for permission to marry his cousin. All the +arguments in support of his plea and against it are put forward and +balanced one against the other in a very systematic way. He wins over +Derkeia. Later in the same fragment the girl pleads in a somewhat similar +fashion with Thambe, the mother of Ninos. The second fragment is mainly +concerned with the campaigns of Ninos. Here we have the two lovers, +probably separated by the departure of Ninos for the wars, while the +hero, at least, is exposed to the danger of the campaign. + +The point was made after the text of this find had been published that the +large part taken in the tale by the carefully balanced arguments indicated +that the story grew out of exercises in argumentation in the rhetorical +schools.[83] The elder Seneca has preserved for us in his _Controversiae_ +specimens of the themes which were set for students in these schools. The +student was asked to imagine himself in a supposed dilemma and then to +discuss the considerations which would lead him to adopt the one or the +other line of conduct. Some of these situations suggest excellent dramatic +possibilities, conditions of life, for instance, where suicide seemed +justifiable, misadventures with pirates, or a turn of affairs which +threatened a woman's virtue. Before the student reached the point of +arguing the case, the story must be told, and out of these narratives of +adventure, told at the outset to develop the dilemma, may have grown the +romance of adventure, written for its own sake. The story of Ninos has a +peculiar interest in connection with this theory, because it was probably +very short, and consequently may give us the connecting link between the +rhetorical exercise and the long novel of the later period, and because it +is the earliest known serious romance. On the back of the papyrus which +contains it are some farm accounts of the year 101 A.D. Evidently by that +time the roll had become waste paper, and the story itself may have been +composed a century or even two centuries earlier. So far as this second +theory is concerned, we may raise the question in passing whether we have +any other instance of a genre of literature growing out of a school-boy +exercise. Usually the teacher adapts to his purpose some form of creative +literature already in existence. + +Leaving this objection out of account for the moment, the romance of love +and perilous adventure may possibly be then a lineal descendant either of +the epic or of the rhetorical exercise. Whichever of these two views is +the correct one, the discovery of the Ninos romance fills in a gap in one +theory of the origin of the realistic romance of Petronius, and with that +we are here concerned. Before the story of Ninos was found, no serious +romance and no title of such a romance anterior to the time of Petronius +was known. This story, as we have seen, may well go back to the first +century before Christ, or at least to the beginning of our era. It is +conceivable that stories like it, but now lost, existed even at an earlier +date. Now in the century, more or less, which elapsed between the assumed +date of the appearance of these Greek narratives and the time of +Petronius, the extraordinary commercial development of Rome had created a +new aristocracy--the aristocracy of wealth. In harmony with this social +change the military chieftain and the political leader who had been the +heroes of the old fiction gave way to the substantial man of affairs of +the new, just as Thaddeus of Warsaw has yielded his place in our +present-day novels to Silas Lapham, and the bourgeois erotic story of +adventure resulted, as we find it in the extant Greek novels of the second +and third centuries of our era. If we can assume that this stage of +development was reached before the time of Petronius we can think of his +novel as a parody of such a romance. If, however, the bourgeois romance +had not appeared before 50 A.D., then, if we regard his story as a parody +of a prose narrative, it must be a parody of such an heroic romance as +that of Ninos, or a parody of the longer heroic romances which developed +out of the rhetorical narrative. If excavations in Egypt or at Herculaneum +should bring to light a serious bourgeois story of adventure, they would +furnish us the missing link. Until, or unless, such a discovery is made +the chain of evidence is incomplete. + +The two theories of the realistic romance which we have been discussing +assume that it is a parody of some anterior form of literature, and that +this fact accounts for the appearance of the satirical or cynical element +in it. Other students of literary history, however, think that this +characteristic was brought over directly from the Milesian tale[84] or the +Menippean satire.[85] To how many different kinds of stories the term +"Milesian tale" was applied by the ancients is a matter of dispute, but +the existence of the short story before the time of Petronius is beyond +question. Indeed we find specimens of it. In its commonest form it +presented a single episode of every-day life. It brought out some human +weakness or foible. Very often it was a story of illicit love. Its +philosophy of life was: No man's honesty and no woman's virtue are +unassailable. In all these respects, save in the fact that it presents one +episode only, it resembles the _Satirae_ of Petronius. At least two +stories of this type are to be found in the extant fragments of the novel +of Petronius. One of them is related as a well-known tale by the poet +Eumolpus, and the other is told by him as a personal experience. More than +a dozen of them are imbedded in the novel of Apuleius, the +_Metamorphoses_, and modern specimens of them are to be seen in Boccaccio +and in Chaucer. In fact they are popular from the twelfth century down to +the eighteenth. Long before the time of Petronius they occur sporadically +in literature. A good specimen, for instance, is found in a letter +commonly attributed to Æschines in the fourth century B.C. As early as +the first century before Christ collections of them had been made and +translated into Latin. This development suggests an interesting possible +origin of the realistic romance. In such collections as those just +mentioned of the first century B.C., the central figures were different in +the different stories, as is the case, for instance, in the Canterbury +Tales. Such an original writer as Petronius was may well have thought of +connecting these different episodes by making them the experiences of a +single individual. The Encolpius of Petronius would in that case be in a +way an ancient Don Juan. If we compare the Arabian Nights with one of the +groups of stories found in the Romances of the Round Table, we can see +what this step forward would mean. The tales which bear the title of the +Arabian Nights all have the same general setting and the same general +treatment, and they are put in the mouth of the same story-teller. The +Lancelot group of Round Table stories, however, shows a nearer approach to +unity since the stories in it concern the same person, and have a common +ultimate purpose, even if it is vague. When this point had been reached +the realistic romance would have made its appearance. We have been +thinking of the realistic novel as being made up of a series of Milesian +tales. We may conceive of it, however, as an expanded Milesian tale, just +as scholars are coming to think of the epic as growing out of a single +hero-song, rather than as resulting from the union of several such songs. + +To pass to another possibility, it is very tempting to see a connection +between the _Satirae_ of Petronius and the prologue of comedy. Plautus +thought it necessary to prefix to many of his plays an account of the +incidents which preceded the action of the play. In some cases he went so +far as to outline in the prologue the action of the play itself in order +that the spectators might follow it intelligently. This introductory +narrative runs up to seventy-six lines in the _Menaechmi_, to eighty-two +in the _Rudens_, and to one hundred and fifty-two in the _Amphitruo_. In +this way it becomes a short realistic story of every-day people, involving +frequently a love intrigue, and told in the iambic senarius, the simplest +form of verse. Following it is the more extended narrative of the comedy +itself, with its incidents and dialogue. This combination of the +condensed narrative in the story form, presented usually as a monologue in +simple verse, and the expanded narrative in the dramatic form, with its +conversational element, may well have suggested the writing of a realistic +novel in prose. A slight, though not a fatal, objection to this theory +lies in the fact that the prologues to comedy subsequent to Plautus +changed in their character, and contain little narrative. This is not a +serious objection, for the plays of Plautus were still known to the +cultivated in the later period. + +The mime gives us still more numerous points of contact with the work of +Petronius than comedy does.[86] It is unfortunate, both for our +understanding of Roman life and for our solution of the question before +us, that only fragments of this form of dramatic composition have come +down to us. Even from them, however, it is clear that the mime dealt with +every-day life in a very frank, realistic way. The new comedy has its +conventions in the matter of situations and language. The matron, for +instance, must not be presented in a questionable light, and the language +is the conversational speech of the better classes. The mime recognizes no +such restrictions in its portrayal of life. The married woman, her stupid +husband, and her lover are common figures in this form of the drama, and +if we may draw an inference from the lately discovered fragments of Greek +mimes, the speech was that of the common people. Again, the new comedy has +its limited list of stock characters--the old man, the tricky slave, the +parasite, and the others which we know so well in Plautus and Terence, but +as for the mime, any figure to be seen on the street may find a place in +it--the rhetorician, the soldier, the legacy-hunter, the inn-keeper, or +the town-crier. The doings of kings and heroes were parodied. We are even +told that a comic Hector and Achilles were put on the stage, and the gods +did not come off unscathed. All of these characteristic features of the +mime remind us in a striking way of the novel of Petronius. His work, like +the mime, is a realistic picture of low life which presents a great +variety of characters and shows no regard for conventional morals. It is +especially interesting to notice the element of parody, which we have +already observed in Petronius, in both kinds of literary productions. The +theory that Petronius may have had the composition of his _Satirae_ +suggested to him by plays of this type is greatly strengthened by the fact +that the mime reached its highest point of popularity at the court in the +time of Nero, in whose reign Petronius lived. In point of fact Petronius +refers to the mime frequently. One of these passages is of peculiar +significance in this connection. Encolpius and his comrades are entering +the town of Croton and are considering what device they shall adopt so as +to live without working. At last a happy idea occurs to Eumolpus, and he +says: "Why don't we construct a mime?" and the mime is played, with +Eumolpus as a fabulously rich man at the point of death, and the others as +his attendants. The rôle makes a great hit, and all the vagabonds in the +company play their assumed parts in their daily life at Croton with such +skill that the legacy-hunters of the place load them with attentions and +shower them with presents. This whole episode, in fact, may be thought of +as a mime cast in the narrative form, and the same conception may be +applied with great plausibility to the entire story of Encolpius. + +We have thus far been attacking the question with which we are concerned +from the side of the subject-matter and tone of the story of Petronius. +Another method of approach is suggested by the Menippean satire,[87] the +best specimens of which have come down to us in the fragments of Varro, +one of Cicero's contemporaries. These satires are an _olla podrida_, +dealing with all sorts of subjects in a satirical manner, sometimes put in +the dialogue form and cast in a _mélange_ of prose and verse. It is this +last characteristic which is of special interest to us in this connection, +because in the prose of Petronius verses are freely used. Sometimes, as we +have observed above, they form an integral part of the narrative, and +again they merely illustrate or expand a point touched on in the prose. If +it were not aside from our immediate purpose it would be interesting to +follow the history of this prose-poetical form from the time of Petronius +on. After him it does not seem to have been used very much until the third +and fourth centuries of our era. However, Martial in the first century +prefixed a prose prologue to five books of his Epigrams, and one of these +prologues ends with a poem of four lines. The several books of the +_Silvae_ of Statius are also preceded by prose letters of dedication. That +strange imitation of the _Aulularia_ of Plautus, of the fourth century, +the _Querolus_, is in a form half prose and half verse. A sentence begins +in prose and runs off into verse, as some of the epitaphs also do. The +Epistles of Ausonius of the same century are compounded of prose and a +great variety of verse. By the fifth and sixth centuries, a _mélange_ of +verse or a combination of prose and verse is very common, as one can see +in the writings of Martianus Capella, Sidonius Apollinaris, Ennodius, and +Boethius. It recurs again in modern times, for instance in Dante's _La +Vita Nuova_, in Boccaccio, _Aucassin et Nicolette_, the _Heptameron_, the +_Celtic Ballads_, the _Arabian Nights_, and in _Alice in Wonderland_. + +A little thought suggests that the prose-poetic form is a natural medium +of expression. A change from prose to verse, or from one form of verse to +another, suggests a change in the emotional condition of a speaker or +writer. We see that clearly enough illustrated in tragedy or comedy. In +the thrilling scene in the _Captives of Plautus_, for example, where +Tyndarus is in mortal terror lest the trick which he has played on his +master, Hegio, may be discovered, and he be consigned to work in chains in +the quarries, the verse is the trochaic septenarius. As soon as the +suspense is over, it drops to the iambic senarius. If we should arrange +the commoner Latin verses in a sequence according to the emotional effects +which they produce, at the bottom of the series would stand the iambic +senarius. Above that would come trochaic verse, and we should rise to +higher planes of exaltation as we read the anapæstic, or cretic, or +bacchiac. The greater part of life is commonplace. Consequently the common +medium for conversation or for the narrative in a composition like comedy +made up entirely of verse is the senarius. Now this form of verse in its +simple, almost natural, quantitative arrangement is very close to prose, +and it would be a short step to substitute prose for it as the basis of +the story, interspersing verse here and there to secure variety, or when +the emotions were called into play, just as lyric verses are interpolated +in the iambic narrative. In this way the combination of different kinds +of verse in the drama, and the prosimetrum of the Menippean satire and of +Petronius, may be explained, and we see a possible line of descent from +comedy and this form of satire to the _Satirae_. + +These various theories of the origin of the romance of Petronius--that it +may be related to the epic, to the serious heroic romance, to the +bourgeois story of adventure developed out of the rhetorical exercise, to +the Milesian tale, to the prologue of comedy, to the _verse-mélange_ of +comedy or the mime, or to the prose-poetical Menippean satire--are not, of +necessity, it seems to me, mutually exclusive. His novel may well be +thought of as a parody of the serious romance, with frequent reminiscences +of the epic, a parody suggested to him by comedy and its prologue, by the +mime, or by the short cynical Milesian tale, and cast in the form of the +Menippean satire; or, so far as subject-matter and realistic treatment are +concerned, the suggestion may have come directly from the mime, and if we +can accept the theory of some scholars who have lately studied the mime, +that it sometimes contained both prose and verse, we may be inclined to +regard this type of literature as the immediate progenitor of the novel, +even in the matter of external form, and leave the Menippean satire out of +the line of descent. Whether the one or the other of these explanations of +its origin recommends itself to us as probable, it is interesting to note, +as we leave the subject, that, so far as our present information goes, the +realistic romance seems to have been the invention of Petronius. + + + + +Diocletian's Edict and the High Cost of Living + + + +The history of the growth of paternalism in the Roman Empire is still to +be written. It would be a fascinating and instructive record. In it the +changes in the character of the Romans and in their social and economic +conditions would come out clearly. It would disclose a strange mixture of +worthy and unworthy motives in their statesmen and politicians, who were +actuated sometimes by sympathy for the poor, sometimes by a desire for +popular favor, by an honest wish to check extravagance or immorality, or +by the fear that the discontent of the masses might drive them into +revolution. We should find the Roman people, recognizing the menace to +their simple, frugal way of living which lay in the inroads of Greek +civilization, and turning in their helplessness to their officials, the +censors, to protect them from a demoralization which, by their own +efforts, they could not withstand. We should find the same officials +preaching against race suicide, extravagant living, and evasion of public +duties, and imposing penalties and restrictions in the most autocratic +fashion on men of high and low degree alike who failed to adopt the +official standards of conduct. We should read of laws enacted in the same +spirit, laws restricting the number of guests that might be entertained on +a single occasion, and prescribing penalties for guests and host alike, if +the cost of a dinner exceeded the statutory limit. All this belongs to the +early stage of paternal government. The motives were praiseworthy, even if +the results were futile. + +With the advent of the Gracchi, toward the close of the second century +before our era, moral considerations become less noticeable, and +paternalism takes on a more philanthropic and political character. We see +this change reflected in the land laws and the corn laws. To take up first +the free distribution of land by the state, in the early days of the +Republic colonies of citizens were founded in the newly conquered +districts of Italy to serve as garrisons on the frontier. It was a fair +bargain between the citizen and the state. He received land, the state, +protection. But with Tiberius Gracchus a change comes in. His colonists +were to be settled in peaceful sections of Italy; they were to receive +land solely because of their poverty. This was socialism or state +philanthropy. Like the agrarian bill of Tiberius, the corn law of Gaius +Gracchus, which provided for the sale of grain below the market price, was +a paternal measure inspired in part by sympathy for the needy. The +political element is clear in both cases also. The people who were thus +favored by assignments of land and of food naturally supported the leaders +who assisted them. Perhaps the extensive building of roads which Gaius +Gracchus carried on should be mentioned in this connection. The ostensible +purpose of these great highways, perhaps their primary purpose, was to +develop Italy and to facilitate communication between different parts of +the peninsula, but a large number of men was required for their +construction, and Gaius Gracchus may well have taken the matter up, partly +for the purpose of furnishing work to the unemployed. Out of these small +beginnings developed the socialistic policy of later times. By the middle +of the first century B.C., it is said that there were three hundred and +twenty thousand persons receiving doles of corn from the state, and, if +the people could look to the government for the necessities of life, why +might they not hope to have it supply their less pressing needs? Or, to +put it in another way, if one politician won their support by giving them +corn, why might not another increase his popularity by providing them with +amusement and with the comforts of life? Presents of oil and clothing +naturally follow, the giving of games and theatrical performances at the +expense of the state, and the building of porticos and public baths. As +the government and wealthy citizens assumed a larger measure of +responsibility for the welfare of the citizens, the people became more and +more dependent upon them and less capable of managing their own affairs. +An indication of this change we see in the decline of local +self-government and the assumption by the central administration of +responsibility for the conduct of public business in the towns of Italy. +This last consideration suggests another phase of Roman history which a +study of paternalism would bring out--I mean the effect of its +introduction on the character of the Roman people. + +The history of paternalism in Rome, when it is written, might approach +the subject from several different points. If the writer were inclined to +interpret history on the economic side, he might find the explanation of +the change in the policy of the government toward its citizens in the +introduction of slave labor which, under the Republic, drove the free +laborer to the wall and made him look to the state for help, in the +decline of agriculture, and the growth of capitalism. The sociologist +would notice the drift of the people toward the cities and the sudden +massing there of large numbers of persons who could not provide for +themselves and in their discontent might overturn society. The historian +who concerns himself with political changes mainly, would notice the +socialistic legislation of the Gracchi and their political successors and +would connect the growth of paternalism with the development of democracy. +In all these explanations there would be a certain measure of truth. + +But I am not planning here to write a history of paternalism among the +Romans. That is one of the projects which I had been reserving for the day +when the Carnegie Foundation should present me with a wooden sword and +allow me to retire from the arena of academic life. But, alas! the +trustees of that beneficent institution, by the revision which they have +lately made of the conditions under which a university professor may +withdraw from active service, have in their wisdom put off that day of +academic leisure to the Greek Kalends, and my dream vanishes into the +distance with it. + +Here I wish to present only an episode in this history which we have been +discussing, an episode which is unique, however, in ancient and, so far as +I know, in modern history. Our knowledge of the incident comes from an +edict of the Emperor Diocletian, and this document has a direct bearing on +a subject of present-day discussion, because it contains a diatribe +against the high cost of living and records the heroic attempt which the +Roman government made to reduce it. In his effort to bring prices down to +what he considered a normal level, Diocletian did not content himself with +such half-measures as we are trying in our attempts to suppress +combinations in restraint of trade, but he boldly fixed the maximum prices +at which beef, grain, eggs, clothing, and other articles could be sold, +and prescribed the penalty of death for any one who disposed of his wares +at a higher figure. His edict is a very comprehensive document, and +specifies prices for seven hundred or eight hundred different articles. +This systematic attempt to regulate trade was very much in keeping with +the character of Diocletian and his theory of government. Perhaps no Roman +emperor, with the possible exception of Hadrian, showed such extraordinary +administrative ability and proposed so many sweeping social reforms as +Diocletian did. His systematic attempt to suppress Christianity is a case +in point, and in the last twenty years of his reign he completely +reorganized the government. He frankly introduced the monarchical +principle, fixed upon a method of succession to the throne, redivided the +provinces, established a carefully graded system of officials, concerned +himself with court etiquette and dress, and reorganized the coinage and +the system of taxation. We are not surprised therefore that he had the +courage to attack this difficult question of high prices, and that his +plan covered almost all the articles which his subjects would have +occasion to buy. + +It is almost exactly two centuries since the first fragments of the edict +dealing with the subject were brought to light. They were discovered in +Caria, in 1709, by William Sherard, the English consul at Smyrna. Since +then, from time to time, other fragments of tablets containing parts of +the edict have been found in Egypt, Asia Minor, and Greece. At present +portions of twenty-nine copies of it are known. Fourteen of them are in +Latin and fifteen in Greek. The Greek versions differ from one another, +while the Latin texts are identical, except for the stone-cutters' +mistakes here and there. These facts make it clear that the original +document was in Latin, and was translated into Greek by the local +officials of each town where the tablets were set up. We have already +noticed that specimens of the edict have not been found outside of Egypt, +Greece, and Asia Minor, and this was the part of the Roman world where +Diocletian ruled. Scholars have also observed that almost all the +manufactured articles which are mentioned come from Eastern points. From +these facts it has been inferred that the edict was to apply to the East +only, or perhaps more probably that Diocletian drew it up for his part of +the Roman world, and that before it could be applied to the West it was +repealed. + +From the pieces which were then known, a very satisfactory reconstruction +of the document was made by Mommsen and published in the _Corpus of Latin +Inscriptions_.[88] + +The work of restoration was like putting together the parts of a picture +puzzle where some of the pieces are lacking. Fragments are still coming to +light, and possibly we may have the complete text some day. As it is, the +introduction is complete, and perhaps four-fifths of the list of articles +with prices attached are extant. The introduction opens with a stately +list of the titles of the two Augusti and the two Cæsars, which fixes the +date of the proclamation as 301 A.D. Then follows a long recital of the +circumstances which have led the government to adopt this drastic method +of controlling prices. This introduction is one of the most extraordinary +pieces of bombast, mixed metaphors, loose syntax, and incoherent +expressions that Latin literature possesses. One is tempted to infer from +its style that it was the product of Diocletian's own pen. He was a man of +humble origin, and would not live in Rome for fear of being laughed at on +account of his plebeian training. The florid and awkward style of these +introductory pages is exactly what we should expect from a man of such +antecedents. + +It is very difficult to translate them into intelligible English, but some +conception of their style and contents may be had from one or two +extracts. In explaining the situation which confronts the world, the +Emperor writes: "For, if the raging avarice ... which, without regard for +mankind, increases and develops by leaps and bounds, we will not say from +year to year, month to month, or day to day, but almost from hour to hour, +and even from minute to minute, could be held in check by some regard for +moderation, or if the welfare of the people could calmly tolerate this mad +license from which, in a situation like this, it suffers in the worst +possible fashion from day to day, some ground would appear, perhaps, for +concealing the truth and saying nothing; ... but inasmuch as there is +only seen a mad desire without control, to pay no heed to the needs of the +many, ... it seems good to us, as we look into the future, to us who are +the fathers of the people, that justice intervene to settle matters +impartially, in order that that which, long hoped for, humanity itself +could not bring about may be secured for the common government of all by +the remedies which our care affords.... Who is of so hardened a heart and +so untouched by a feeling for humanity that he can be unaware, nay that he +has not noticed, that in the sale of wares which are exchanged in the +market, or dealt with in the daily business of the cities, an exorbitant +tendency in prices has spread to such an extent that the unbridled desire +of plundering is held in check neither by abundance nor by seasons of +plenty!" + +If we did not know that this was found on tablets sixteen centuries old, +we might think that we were reading a newspaper diatribe against the +cold-storage plant or the beef trust. What the Emperor has decided to do +to remedy the situation he sets forth toward the end of the introduction. +He says: "It is our pleasure, therefore, that those prices which the +subjoined written summary specifies, be held in observance throughout all +our domain, that all may know that license to go above the same has been +cut off.... It is our pleasure (also) that if any man shall have boldly +come into conflict with this formal statute, he shall put his life in +peril.... In the same peril also shall he be placed who, drawn along by +avarice in his desire to buy, shall have conspired against these statutes. +Nor shall he be esteemed innocent of the same crime who, having articles +necessary for daily life and use, shall have decided hereafter that they +can be held back, since the punishment ought to be even heavier for him +who causes need than for him who violates the laws." + +The lists which follow are arranged in three columns which give +respectively the article, the unit of measure, and the price.[89] + + Frumenti KÌ„MÌ„ + Hordei KÌ„MÌ„ unum Ⅹ̶ c(entum) + Centenum sive sicale " " " Ⅹ̶ sexa(ginta) + Mili pisti " " " Ⅹ̶ centu(m) + Mili integri " " Ⅹ̶ quinquaginta' + + + The first item (frumentum) is wheat, which is sold by the KÌ„MÌ„ + (kastrensis modius=18½ quarts), but the price is lacking. Barley is + sold by the kastrensis modius at Ⅹ̶ centum (centum denarii = 43 cents) + and so on. + +Usually a price list is not of engrossing interest, but the tables of +Diocletian furnish us a picture of material conditions throughout the +Empire in his time which cannot be had from any other source, and for that +reason deserve some attention. This consideration emboldens me to set down +some extracts in the following pages from the body of the edict: + + + +Extracts from Diocletian's List of Maximum Prices + +I + +In the tables given here the Latin and Greek names of the articles listed +have been turned into English. The present-day accepted measure of +quantity--for instance, the bushel or the quart--has been substituted for +the ancient unit, and the corresponding price for the modern unit of +measure is given. Thus barley was to be sold by the kastrensis modius +(=18½ quarts) at 100 denarii (=43.5 cents). At this rate a bushel of +barley would have brought 74.5 cents. For convenience in reference the +numbers of the chapters and of the items adopted in the text of Mommsen +are used here. Only selected articles are given. + + (Unit of Measure, the Bushel) + +1 Wheat +2 Barley 74.5 cents +3 Rye 45 " +4 Millet, ground 74.5 " +6 Millet, whole 37 " +7 Spelt, hulled 74.5 " +8 Spelt, not hulled 22.5 " +9 Beans, ground 74.5 " +10 Beans, not ground 45 " +11 Lentils 74.5 " +12-16 Peas, various sorts 45-74.5 " +17 Oats 22.5 " +31 Poppy seeds $1.12 +34 Mustard $1.12 +35 Prepared mustard, quart 6 " + + + + II + + (Unit of Measure, the Quart) + +1a Wine from Picenum 22.5 cents +2 Wine from Tibur 22.5 " +7 Wine from Falernum 22.5 " +10 Wine of the country 6 " +11-12 Beer 1.5-3 " + + + + III + +(Unit of Measure, the Quart) + +1a Oil, first quality 30.3 cents +2 Oil, second quality 18 " +5 Vinegar 4.3 " +8 Salt, bushel 74.5 " +10 Honey, best 30.3 " +11 Honey, second quality 15 " + + + IV + + (Unit, Unless Otherwise Noted, Pound Avoirdupois) + +1a Pork 7.3 cents +2 Beef 4.9 " +3 Goat's flesh or mutton 4.9 " +6 Pig's liver 9.8 " +8 Ham, best 12 " +21 Goose, artificially fed (1) 87 " +22 Goose, not artificially fed (1) 43.5 " +23 Pair of fowls 36 " +29 Pair of pigeons 10.5 " +47 Lamb 7.3 " +48 Kid 7.3 " +50 Butter 9.8 " + + + V + + (Unit, the Pound) + +1a Sea fish with sharp spines 14.6 cents +2 Fish, second quality 9.7 " +3 River fish, best quality 7.3 " +4 Fish, second quality 4.8 " +5 Salt fish 8.3 " +6 Oysters (by the hundred) 43.5 " +11 Dry cheese 7.3 " +12 Sardines 9.7 " + + + VI + +1 Artichokes, large (5) 4.3 cents +7 Lettuce, best (5) 1.7 " +9 Cabbages, best (5) 1.7 " +10 Cabbages, small (10) 1.7 " +18 Turnips, large (10) 1.7 " +24 Watercress, per bunch of 20 4.3 " +28 Cucumbers, first quality (10) 1.7 " +29 Cucumbers, small (20) 1.7 " +34 Garden asparagus, per bunch (25) 2.6 " +35 Wild asparagus (50) 1.7 " +38 Shelled green beans, quart 3 " +43 Eggs (4) 1.7 " +46 Snails, large (20) 1.7 " +65 Apples, best (10) 1.7 " +67 Apples, small (40) 1.7 " +78 Figs, best (25) 1.7 " +80 Table grapes (2.8 pound) 1.7 " +95 Sheep's milk, quart 6 " +96 Cheese, fresh, quart 6 " + + + VII + + (Where (k) Is Set Down the Workman Receives His "Keep" Also) + +1a Manual laborer (k) 10.8 cents +2 Bricklayer (k) 21.6 " +3 Joiner (interior work) (k) 21.6 " +3a Carpenter (k) 21.6 " +4 Lime-burner (k) 21.6 " +5 Marble-worker (k) 26 " +6 Mosaic-worker (fine work) (k) 26 " +7 Stone-mason (k) 21.6 " +8 Wall-painter (k) 32.4 " +9 Figure-painter (k) 64.8 " +10 Wagon-maker (k) 21.6 " +11 Smith (k) 21.6 " +12 Baker (k) 21.6 " +13 Ship-builder, for sea-going ships (k) 26 " +14 Ship-builder, for river boats (k) 21.6 " +17 Driver, for camel, ass, or mule (k) 10.8 " +18 Shepherd (k) 8.7 " +20 Veterinary, for cutting, and straightening hoofs, per animal 2.6 " +22 Barber, for each man .9 cent +23 Sheep-shearer, for each sheep (k) .9 " +24a Coppersmith, for work in brass, per pound 3.5 cents +25 Coppersmith, for work in copper, per pound 2.6 " +26 Coppersmith for finishing vessels, per pound 2.6 " +27 Coppersmith, for finishing figures and statues, per pound 1.7 " +29 Maker of statues, etc., per day (k) 32.4 " +31 Water-carrier, per day (k) 10.9 " +32 Sewer-cleaner, per day (k) 10.9 " +33 Knife-grinder, for old sabre 10.9 " +36 Knife-grinder, for double axe 3.5 " +39 Writer, 100 lines best writing 10.9 " +40 Writer, 100 lines ordinary writing 8.7 " +41 Document writer for record of 100 lines 4.3 " +42 Tailor, for cutting out and finishing overgarment of first + quality 26.1 " +43 Tailor, for cutting out and finishing overgarment of second + quality 17.4 " +44 For a large cowl 10.9 " +45 For a small cowl 8.7 " +46 For trousers 8.7 " +52 Felt horse-blanket, black or white, 3 pounds weight 43.5 " +53 Cover, first quality, with embroidery, 3 pounds weight $1.09 +64 Gymnastic teacher, per pupil, per month 21.6 cents +65 Employee to watch children, per child, per month 21.6 " +66 Elementary teacher, per pupil, per month 21.6 " +67 Teacher of arithmetic, per pupil, per month 32.6 " +68 Teacher of stenography, per pupil, per month 32.6 " +69 Writing-teacher, per pupil, per month 21.6 " +70 Teacher of Greek, Latin, geometry, per pupil, per month 87 " +71 Teacher of rhetoric, per pupil, per month $1.09 +72 Advocate or counsel for presenting a case $1.09 +73 For finishing a case $4.35 +74 Teacher of architecture, per pupil, per month 43.5 cents +75 Watcher of clothes in public bath, for each patron .9 cent + + + VIII + +1a Hide, Babylonian, first quality $2.17 + 2 Hide, Babylonian, second quality $1.74 + 4 Hide, PhÅ“nician (?) 43 cents +6a Cowhide, unworked, first quality $2.17 + 7 Cowhide, prepared for shoe soles $3.26 + 9 Hide, second quality, unworked $1.31 +10 Hide, second quality, worked $2.17 +11 Goatskin, large, unworked 17 cents +12 Goatskin, large, worked 22 " +13 Sheepskin, large, unworked 8.7 " +14 Sheepskin, large, worked 18 " +17 Kidskin, unworked 4.3 " +18 Kidskin, worked 7 " +27 Wolfskin, unworked 10.8 " +28 Wolfskin, worked 17.4 " +33 Bearskin, large, unworked 43 " +39 Leopardskin, unworked $4.35 +41 Lionskin, worked $4.35 + + + IX + +5a Boots, first quality, for mule-drivers and peasants, per + pair, without nails 52 cents + 6 Soldiers' boots, without nails 43 " + 7 Patricians' shoes 65 " + 8 Senatorial shoes 43 " + 9 Knights' shoes 30.5 " +10 Women's boots 26 " +11 Soldiers' shoes 32.6 " +15 Cowhide shoes for women, double soles 21.7 " +16 Cowhide shoes for women, single soles 13 " +20 Men's slippers 26 " +21 Women's slippers 21.7 " + + + XVI + +8a Sewing-needle, finest quality 1.7 cents + 9 Sewing-needle, second quality .9 cent + + + XVII + + 1 Transportation, 1 person, 1 mile .9 cent + 2 Rent for wagon, 1 mile 5 cents + 3 Freight charges for wagon containing up to 1,200 pounds, per + mile 8.7 " + 4 Freight charges for camel load of 600 pounds, + per mile 3.5 " + 5 Rent for laden ass, per mile 1.8 " + 7 Hay and straw, 3 pounds .9 cent + + + XVIII + + 1a Goose-quills, per pound 43.5 cents +11a Ink, per pound 5 " +12 Reed pens from Paphos (10) 1.7 " +13 Reed pens, second quality (20) 1.7 " + + + XIX + + 1 Military mantle, finest quality $17.40 + 2 Undergarment, fine $8.70 + 3 Undergarment, ordinary $5.44 + 5 White bed blanket, finest sort, 12 pounds weight $6.96 + 7 Ordinary cover, 10 pounds weight $2.18 +28 Laodicean Dalmatica [_i.e., a tunic with sleeves_] $8.70 +36 British mantle, with cowl $26.08 +39 Numidian mantle, with cowl $13.04 +42 African mantle, with cowl $6.52 +51 Laodicean storm coat, finest quality $21.76 +60 Gallic soldier's cloak $43.78 +61 African soldier's cloak $2.17 + + + XX + + 1a For an embroiderer, for embroidering a half-silk + undergarment, per ounce 87 cents + 5 For a gold embroiderer, if he work in gold, for finest + work, per ounce $4.35 + 9 For a silk weaver, who works on stuff half-silk, besides + "keep," per day 11 cents + + + XXI + + 2 For working Tarentine or Laodicean or other foreign wool, + with keep, per pound 13 cents + 5 A linen weaver for fine work, with keep, per day 18 " + + + XXII + + 4 Fuller's charges for a cloak or mantle, new 13 cents + 6 Fuller's charges for a woman's coarse Dalmatica, new 21.7 " + 9 Fuller's charges for a new half-silk undergarment 76 " +22 Fuller's charges for a new Laodicean mantle. 76 " + + + XXIII + + 1 White silk, per pound $52.22 + + + XXIV + + 1 Genuine purple silk, per pound $652.20 + 2 Genuine purple wool, per pound $217.40 + 3 Genuine light purple wool, per pound $139.26 + 8 Nicæan scarlet wool, per pound $6.53 + + + XXV + + 1 Washed Tarentine wool, per pound 76 cents + 2 Washed Laodicean wool, per pound 65 " + 3 Washed wool from Asturia, per pound 43.5 " + 4 Washed wool, best medium quality, per pound 21.7 " + 5 All other washed wools, per pound 10.8 " + + + XXVI + + 7a Coarse linen thread, first quality, per pound $3.13 + 8 Coarse linen thread, second quality, per pound $2.61 + 9 Coarse linen thread, third quality, per pound $1.96 + + + XXX + + 1 Pure gold in bars or in coined pieces, per pound 50,000 denarii + 3 Artificers, working in metal, per pound $21.76 + 4 Gold-beaters, per pound $13.06 + + +Throughout the lists, as one may see, articles are grouped in a systematic +way. First we find grain and vegetables; then wine, oil, vinegar, salt, +honey, meat, fish, cheese, salads, and nuts. After these articles, in +chapter VII, we pass rather unexpectedly to the wages of the field +laborer, the carpenter, the painter, and of other skilled and unskilled +workmen. Then follow leather, shoes, saddles, and other kinds of raw +material and manufactured wares until we reach a total of more than eight +hundred articles. As we have said, the classification is in the main +systematic, but there are some strange deviations from a systematic +arrangement. Eggs, for instance, are in table VI with salads, vegetables, +and fruits. Bücher, who has discussed some phases of this price list, has +acutely surmised that perhaps the tables in whole, or in part, were drawn +up by the directors of imperial factories and magazines. The government +levied tribute "in kind," and it must have provided depots throughout the +provinces for the reception of contributions from its subjects. +Consequently in making out these tables it would very likely call upon the +directors of these magazines for assistance, and each of them in making +his report would naturally follow to some extent the list of articles +which the imperial depot controlled by him, carried in stock. At all +events, we see evidence of an expert hand in the list of linens, which +includes one hundred and thirty-nine articles of different qualities. + +As we have noticed in the passage quoted from the introduction, it is +unlawful for a person to charge more for any of his wares than the amount +specified in the law. Consequently, the prices are not normal, but maximum +prices. However, since the imperial lawgivers evidently believed that the +necessities of life were being sold at exorbitant rates, the maximum which +they fixed was very likely no greater than the prevailing market price. +Here and there, as in the nineteenth chapter of the document, the text is +given in tablets from two or more places. In such cases the prices are the +same, so that apparently no allowance was made for the cost of carriage, +although with some articles, like oysters and sea-fish, this item must +have had an appreciable value, and it certainly should have been taken +into account in fixing the prices of "British mantles" or "Gallic +soldiers' cloaks" of chapter XIX. The quantities for which prices are +given are so small--a pint of wine, a pair of fowls, twenty snails, ten +apples, a bunch of asparagus--that evidently Diocletian had the "ultimate +consumer" in mind, and fixed the retail price in his edict. This is +fortunate for us, because it helps us to get at the cost of living in the +early part of the fourth century. There is good reason for believing that +the system of barter prevailed much more generally at that time than it +does to-day. Probably the farmer often exchanged his grain, vegetables, +and eggs for shoes and cloth, without receiving or paying out money, so +that the money prices fixed for his products would not affect him in every +transaction as they would affect the present-day farmer. The unit of money +which is used throughout the edict is the copper denarius, and fortunately +the value of a pound of fine gold is given as 50,000 denarii. This fixes +the value of the denarius as .4352 cent, or approximately four-tenths of a +cent. It is implied in the introduction that the purpose of the law is to +protect the people, and especially the soldiers, from extortion, but +possibly, as Bücher has surmised, the emperor may have wished to maintain +or to raise the value of the denarius, which had been steadily declining +because of the addition of alloy to the coin. If this was the emperor's +object, possibly the value of the denarius is set somewhat too high, but +it probably does not materially exceed its exchange value, and in any +case, the relative values of articles given in the tables are not +affected. + +The tables bring out a number of points of passing interest. From chapter +II it seems to follow that Italian wines retained their ancient +pre-eminence, even in the fourth century. They alone are quoted among the +foreign wines. Table VI gives us a picture of the village market. On +market days the farmer brings his artichokes, lettuce, cabbages, turnips, +and other fresh vegetables into the market town and exposes them for sale +in the public square, as the country people in Italy do to-day. The +seventh chapter, in which wages are given, is perhaps of liveliest +interest. In this connection we should bear in mind the fact that slavery +existed in the Roman Empire, that owners of slaves trained them to various +occupations and hired them out by the day or job, and that, consequently +the prices paid for slave labor fixed the scale of wages. However, there +was a steady decline under the Empire in the number of slaves, and +competition with them in the fourth century did not materially affect the +wages of the free laborer. It is interesting, in this chapter, to notice +that the teacher and the advocate (Nos. 66-73) are classed with the +carpenter and tailor. It is a pleasant passing reflection for the teacher +of Greek and Latin to find that his predecessors were near the top of +their profession, if we may draw this inference from their remuneration +when compared with that of other teachers. It is worth observing also that +the close association between the classics and mathematics, and their +acceptance as the corner-stone of the higher training, to which we have +been accustomed for centuries, seems to be recognized (VII, 70) even at +this early date. We expect to find the physician mentioned with the +teacher and advocate, but probably it was too much even for Diocletian's +skill, in reducing things to a system, to estimate the comparative value +of a physician's services in a case of measles and typhoid fever. + +The bricklayer, the joiner, and the carpenter (VII, 2-3a), inasmuch as +they work on the premises of their employer, receive their "keep" as well +as a fixed wage, while the knife-grinder and the tailor (VII, 33, 42) +work in their own shops, and naturally have their meals at home. The +silk-weaver (XX, 9) and the linen-weaver (XXI, 5) have their "keep" also, +which seems to indicate that private houses had their own looms, which is +quite in harmony with the practices of our fathers. The carpenter and +joiner are paid by the day, the teacher by the month, the knife-grinder, +the tailor, the barber (VII, 22) by the piece, and the coppersmith (VII, +24a-27) according to the amount of metal which he uses. Whether the +difference between the prices of shoes for the patrician, the senator, and +the knight (IX, 7-9) represents a difference in the cost of making the +three kinds, or is a tax put on the different orders of nobility, cannot +be determined. The high prices set on silk and wool dyed with purple +(XXIV) correspond to the pre-eminent position of that imperial color in +ancient times. The tables which the edict contains call our attention to +certain striking differences between ancient and modern industrial and +economic conditions. Of course the list of wage-earners is incomplete. The +inscriptions which the trades guilds have left us record many occupations +which are not mentioned here, but in them and in these lists we miss any +reference to large groups of men who hold a prominent place in our modern +industrial reports--I mean men working in printing-offices, factories, +foundries, and machine-shops, and employed by transportation companies. +Nothing in the document suggests the application of power to the +manufacture of articles, the assembling of men in a common workshop, or +the use of any other machine than the hand loom and the mill for the +grinding of corn. In the way of articles offered for sale, we miss certain +items which find a place in every price-list of household necessities, +such articles as sugar, molasses, potatoes, cotton cloth, tobacco, coffee, +and tea. The list of stimulants (II) is, in fact, very brief, including as +it does only a few kinds of wine and beer. + +At the present moment, when the high cost of living is a subject which +engages the attention of the economist, politician, and householder, as it +did that of Diocletian and his contemporaries, the curious reader will +wish to know how wages and the prices of food in 301 A.D. compare with +those of to-day. In the two tables which follow, such a comparison is +attempted for some of the more important articles and occupations. + + Articles of Food[90] + + Price in 301 A.D. Price in 1906 A.D. + + Wheat, per bushel 33.6 cents $1.19[91] + Rye, per bushel 45 " 79 cents[91] + Beans, per bushel 45 " $3.20 + Barley, per bushel 74.5 " 55 cents[91] + Vinegar, per quart 4.3 " 5-7 " + Fresh pork, per pound 7.3 " 14-16 " + Beef, per pound 4.9 " { 9-12 " + {15-18 " + Mutton, per pound 4.9 " 13-16 " + Ham, per pound 12 " 18-25 " + Fowls, per pair 26 " + Fowls, per pound 14-18 " + Butter, per pound 9.8 " 26-32 " + Fish, river, fresh, per pound 7.3 " 12-15 " + Fish, sea, fresh, per pound 9-14 " 8-14 cents + Fish, salt, per pound 8.3 " 8-15 " + Cheese, per pound 7.3 " 17-20 " + Eggs, per dozen 5.1 " 25-30 " + Milk, cow's, per quart 6-8 " + Milk, sheep's, per quart 6 " + + + Wages Per Day + + Unskilled workman 10.8 cents (k)[92] $1.20-2.24[93] + Bricklayer 21.6 " (k) 4.50-6.50 + Carpenter 21.6 " (k) 2.50-4.00 + Stone-mason 21.6 " (k) 3.70-4.90 + Painter 32.4 " (k) 2.75-4.00 + Blacksmith 21.6 " (k) 2.15-3.20 + Ship-builder 21-26 " (k) 2.15-3.50 + +We are not so much concerned in knowing the prices of meat, fish, eggs, +and flour in 301 and 1911 A.D. as we are in finding out whether the Roman +or the American workman could buy more of these commodities with the +returns for his labor. A starting point for such an estimate is furnished +by the Eighteenth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, on the "Cost +of Living and Retail Prices of Food" (1903), and by Bulletin No. 77 of the +Bureau of Labor (1908). In the first of these documents (pp. 582, 583) the +expenditure for rent, fuel, food, and other necessities of life in 11,156 +normal American families whose incomes range from $200 to $1,200 per year +is given. In the other report (p. 344 _f._) similar statistics are given +for 1,944 English urban families. In the first case the average amount +spent per year was $617, of which $266, or a little less than a half of +the entire income, was used in the purchase of food. The statistics for +England show a somewhat larger relative amount spent for food. Almost +exactly one-third of this expenditure for the normal American family was +for meat and fish.[94] Now, if we take the wages of the Roman carpenter, +for instance, as 21 cents per day, and add one-fourth or one-third for his +"keep," those of the same American workman as $2.50 to $4.00, it is clear +that the former received only a ninth or a fifteenth as much as the +latter, while the average price of pork, beef, mutton, and ham (7.3 cents) +in 301 A.D. was about a third of the average (19.6 cents) of the same +articles to-day. The relative averages of wheat, rye, and barley make a +still worse showing for ancient times while fresh fish was nearly as high +in Diocletian's time as it is in our own day. The ancient and modern +prices of butter and eggs stand at the ratio of one to three and one to +six respectively. For the urban workman, then, in the fourth century, +conditions of life must have been almost intolerable, and it is hard to +understand how he managed to keep soul and body together, when almost all +the nutritious articles of food were beyond his means. The taste of meat, +fish, butter, and eggs must have been almost unknown to him, and probably +even the coarse bread and vegetables on which he lived were limited in +amount. The peasant proprietor who could raise his own cattle and grain +would not find the burden so hard to bear. + +Only one question remains for us to answer. Did Diocletian succeed in his +bold attempt to reduce the cost of living? Fortunately the answer is given +us by Lactantius in the book which he wrote in 313-314 A.D., "On the +Deaths of Those Who Persecuted (the Christians)." The title of +Lactantius's work would not lead us to expect a very sympathetic treatment +of Diocletian, the arch-persecutor, but his account of the actual outcome +of the incident is hardly open to question. In Chapter VII of his +treatise, after setting forth the iniquities of the Emperor in constantly +imposing new burdens on the people, he writes: "And when he had brought on +a state of exceeding high prices by his different acts of injustice, he +tried to fix by law the prices of articles offered for sale. Thereupon, +for the veriest trifles much blood was shed, and out of fear nothing was +offered for sale, and the scarcity grew much worse, until, after the death +of many persons, the law was repealed from mere necessity." Thus came to +an end this early effort to reduce the high cost of living. Sixty years +later the Emperor Julian made a similar attempt on a small scale. He fixed +the price of corn for the people of Antioch by an edict. The holders of +grain hoarded their stock. The Emperor brought supplies of it into the +city from Egypt and elsewhere and sold it at the legal price. It was +bought up by speculators, and in the end Julian, like Diocletian, had to +acknowledge his inability to cope with an economic law. + + + + +Private Benefactions and Their Effect on the Municipal Life of the Romans + + +In the early days the authority of the Roman father over his wife, his +sons, and his daughters was absolute. He did what seemed to him good for +his children. His oversight and care extended to all the affairs of their +lives. The state was modelled on the family and took over the autocratic +power of the paterfamilias. It is natural to think of it, therefore, as a +paternal government, and the readiness with which the Roman subordinated +his own will and sacrificed his personal interests to those of the +community seems to show his acceptance of this theory of his relation to +the government. But this conception is correct in part only. A paternal +government seeks to foster all the common interests of its people and to +provide for their common needs. This the Roman state did not try to do, +and if we think of it as a paternal government, in the ordinary meaning +of that term, we lose sight of the partnership between state supervision +and individual enterprise in ministering to the common needs and desires, +which was one of the marked features of Roman life. In fact, the +gratification of the individual citizen's desire for those things which he +could not secure for himself depended in the Roman Empire, as it depends +in this country, not solely on state support, but in part on state aid, +and in part on private generosity. We see the truth of this very clearly +in studying the history of the Roman city. The phase of Roman life which +we have just noted may not fit into the ideas of Roman society which we +have hitherto held, but we can understand it as no other people can, +because in the United States and in England we are accustomed to the +co-operation of private initiative and state action in the establishment +and maintenance of universities, libraries, museums, and all sorts of +charitable institutions. + +If we look at the growth of private munificence under the Republic, we +shall see that citizens showed their generosity particularly in the +construction of public buildings, partly or entirely at their own +expense. In this way some of the basilicas in Rome and elsewhere which +served as courts of justice and halls of exchange were constructed. The +great Basilica Æmilia, for instance, whose remains may be seen in the +Forum to-day, was constructed by an Æmilius in the second century before +our era, and was accepted as a charge by his descendants to be kept in +condition and improved at the expense of the Æmilian family. Under +somewhat similar conditions Pompey built the great theatre which bore his +name, the first permanent theatre to be built in Rome, and always +considered one of the wonders of the city. The cost of this structure was +probably covered by the treasure which he brought back from his campaigns +in the East. In using the spoils of a successful war to construct +buildings or memorials in Rome, he was following the example of Mummius, +the conqueror of Corinth, and other great generals who had preceded him. +The purely philanthropic motive does not bulk largely in these gifts to +the citizens, because the people whose armies had won the victories were +part owners at least of the spoils, and because the victorious leader who +built the structure was actuated more by the hope of transmitting the +memory of his achievements to posterity in some conspicuous and +imperishable monument than by a desire to benefit his fellow citizens. + +These two motives, the one egoistic and the other altruistic, actuated all +the Roman emperors in varying degrees. The activity of Augustus in such +matters comes out clearly in the record of his reign, which he has left us +in his own words. This remarkable bit of autobiography, known as the +"Deeds of the Deified Augustus," the Emperor had engraved on bronze +tablets, placed in front of his mausoleum. The original has disappeared, +but fortunately a copy of it has been found on the walls of a ruined +temple at Ancyra, in Asia Minor, and furnishes us abundant proof of the +great improvements which he made in the city of Rome. We are told in it +that from booty he paid for the construction of the Forum of Augustus, +which was some four hundred feet long, three hundred wide, and was +surrounded by a wall one hundred and twenty feet high, covered on the +inside with marble and stucco. Enclosed within it and built with funds +coming from the same source was the magnificent temple of Mars the +Avenger, which had as its principal trophies the Roman standards recovered +from the Parthians. This forum and temple are only two items in the long +list of public improvements which Augustus records in his imperial +epitaph, for, as he proudly writes: "In my sixth consulship, acting under +a decree of the senate, I restored eighty-two temples in the city, +neglecting no temple which needed repair at the time." Besides the +temples, he mentions a large number of theatres, porticos, basilicas, +aqueducts, roads, and bridges which he built in Rome or in Italy outside +the city. + +But the Roman people had come to look for acts of generosity from their +political as well as from their military leaders, and this factor, too, +must be taken into account in the case of Augustus. In the closing years +of the Republic, candidates for office and men elected to office saw that +one of the most effective ways of winning and holding their popularity was +to give public entertainments, and they vied with one another in the +costliness of the games and pageants which they gave the people. The +well-known case of Cæsar will be recalled, who, during his term as ædile, +or commissioner of public works, bankrupted himself by his lavish +expenditures on public improvements, and on the games, in which he +introduced three hundred and twenty pairs of gladiators for the amusement +of the people. In his book, "On the Offices," Cicero tells us of a thrifty +rich man, named Mamercus, who aspired to public office, but avoided taking +the ædileship, which stood in the regular sequence of minor offices, in +order that he might escape the heavy outlay for public entertainment +expected of the ædile. As a consequence, when later he came up for the +consulship, the people punished him by defeating him at the polls. To +check the growth of these methods of securing votes, Cicero, in his +consulship, brought in a corrupt practices act, which forbade citizens to +give gladiatorial exhibitions within two years of any election in which +they were candidates. We may doubt if this measure was effective. The +Roman was as clever as the American politician in accomplishing his +purpose without going outside the law. Perhaps an incident in the life of +Cicero's young friend, Curio, is a case in point. It was an old Roman +custom to celebrate the ninth day after a burial as a solemn family +festival, and some time in the second century before our era the practice +grew up of giving gladiatorial contests on these occasions. The versatile +Curio, following this practice, testified his respect for his father's +memory by giving the people such elaborate games that he never escaped +from the financial difficulties in which they involved him. However, this +tribute of pious affection greatly enhanced his popularity, and perhaps +did not expose him to the rigors of Cicero's law. + +These gifts from generals, from distinguished citizens, and from +candidates for office do not go far to prove a generous or philanthropic +spirit on the part of the donors, but they show clearly enough that the +practice of giving large sums of money to embellish the city, and to +please the public, had grown up under the Republic, and that the people of +Rome had come to regard it as the duty of their distinguished fellow +citizens to beautify the city and minister to their needs and pleasures by +generous private contributions. + +All these gifts were for the city of Rome, and for the people of the city, +not for the Empire, nor for Italy. This is characteristic of ancient +generosity or philanthropy, that its recipients are commonly the people +of a single town, usually the donor's native town. It is one of many +indications of the fact that the Roman thought of his city as the state, +and even under the Empire he rarely extended the scope of his benefactions +beyond the walls of a particular town. The small cities and villages +throughout the West reproduced the capital in miniature. Each was a little +world in itself. Each of them not only had its forum, its temples, +colonnades, baths, theatres, and arenas, but also developed a political +and social organization like that of the city of Rome. It had its own +local chief magistrates, distinguished by their official robes and +insignia of office, and its senators, who enjoyed the privilege of +occupying special seats in the theatre, and it was natural that the common +people at Ostia, Ariminum, or Lugudunum, like those at Rome, should expect +from those whom fortune had favored some return for the distinctions which +they enjoyed. In this way the prosperous in each little town came to feel +a sense of obligation to their native place, and this feeling of civic +pride and responsibility was strengthened by the same spirit of rivalry +between different villages that the Italian towns of the Middle Ages seem +to have inherited from their ancestors, a spirit of rivalry which made +each one eager to surpass the others in its beauty and attractiveness. +Perhaps there have never been so many beautiful towns in any other period +in history as there were in the Roman Empire, during the second century of +our era, and their attractive features--their colonnades, temples, +fountains, and works of art--were due in large measure to the generosity +of private citizens. We can make this statement with considerable +confidence, because these benefactions are recorded for us on innumerable +tablets of stone and bronze, scattered throughout the Empire. + +These contributions not only helped to meet the cost of building temples, +colonnades, and other structures, but they were often intended to cover a +part of the running expenses of the city. This is one of the novel +features of Roman municipal life. We can understand the motives which +would lead a citizen of New York or Boston to build a museum or an arch in +his native city. Such a structure would serve as a monument to him; it +would give distinction to the city, and it would give him and his fellow +citizens æsthetic satisfaction tion But if a rich New Yorker should give +a large sum to mend the pavement in Union Square or extend the sewer +system on Canal Street, a judicial inquiry into his sanity would not be +thought out of place. But the inscriptions show us that rich citizens +throughout the Roman Empire frequently made large contributions for just +such unromantic purposes. It is unfortunate that a record of the annual +income and expenses of some Italian or Gallic town has not come down to +us. It would be interesting, for instance, to compare the budget of Mantua +or Ancona, in the first century of our era, with that of Princeton or +Cambridge in the twentieth. But, although we rarely know the sums which +were expended for particular purposes, a mere comparison of the objects +for which they were spent is illuminating. The items in the ancient budget +which find no place in our own, and vice versa, are significant of certain +striking differences between ancient and modern municipal life. + +Common to the ancient and the modern city are expenditures for the +construction and maintenance of public buildings, sewers, aqueducts, and +streets, but with these items the parallelism ends. The ancient objects +of expenditure which find no place in the budget of an American town are +the repair of the town walls, the maintenance of public worship, the +support of the baths, the sale of grain at a low price, and the giving of +games and theatrical performances. It is very clear that the ancient +legislator made certain provisions for the physical and spiritual welfare +of his fellow citizens which find little or no place in our municipal +arrangements to-day. If, among the sums spent for the various objects +mentioned above, we compare the amounts set apart for religion and for the +baths, we may come to the conclusion that the Roman read the old saying, +"Cleanliness is next to godliness" in the amended form "Cleanliness is +next above godliness." No city in the Empire seems to have been too small +or too poor to possess public baths, and how large an item of annual +expense their care was is clear from the fact that an article of the +Theodosian code provided that cities should spend at least one-third of +their incomes on the heating of the baths and the repair of the walls. The +great idle population of the city of Rome had to be provided with food at +public expense. Otherwise riot and disorder would have followed, but in +the towns the situation was not so threatening, and probably furnishing +grain to the people did not constitute a regular item of expense. So far +as public entertainments were concerned, the remains of theatres and +amphitheatres in Pompeii, Fiesole, Aries, Orange, and at many other places +to-day furnish us visible evidence of the large sums which ancient towns +must have spent on plays and gladiatorial games. In the city of Rome in +the fourth century, there were one hundred and seventy-five days on which +performances were given in the theatres, arenas, and amphitheatres. + +We have been looking at the items which were peculiar to the ancient +budget. Those which are missing from it are still more indicative, if +possible, of differences between Roman character and modes of life and +those of to-day. Provision was rarely made for schools, museums, +libraries, hospitals, almshouses, or for the lighting of streets. No +salaries were paid to city officials; no expenditure was made for police +or for protection against fire, and the slaves whom every town owned +probably took care of the public buildings and kept the streets clean. +The failure of the ancient city government to provide for educational and +charitable institutions, means, as we shall see later, that in some cases +these matters were neglected, that in others they were left to private +enterprise. It appears strange that the admirable police and fire system +which Augustus introduced into Rome was not adopted throughout the Empire, +but that does not seem to have been the case, and life and property must +have been exposed to great risks, especially on festival days and in the +unlighted streets at night. The rich man could be protected by his +bodyguard of clients, and have his way lighted at night by the torches +which his slaves carried, but the little shopkeeper must have avoided the +dark alleys or attached himself to the retinue of some powerful man. Some +of us will recall in this connection the famous wall painting at Pompeii +which depicts the riotous contest between the Pompeians and the people of +the neighboring town of Nuceria, at the Pompeian gladiatorial games in 50 +B.C., when stones were thrown and weapons freely used. What scenes of +violence and disorder there must have been on such occasions as these, +without systematic police surveillance, can be readily imagined. + +The sums of money which an ancient or a modern city spends fall in two +categories--the amounts which are paid out for permanent improvements, and +the running expenses of the municipality. We have just been looking at the +second class of expenditures, and our brief examination of it shows +clearly enough that the ancient city took upon its shoulders only a small +part of the burden which a modern municipality assumes. It will be +interesting now to see how far the municipal outlay for running expenses +was supplemented by private generosity, and to find out the extent to +which the cities were indebted to the same source for their permanent +improvements. A great deal of light is thrown on these two questions by +the hundreds of stone and bronze tablets which were set up by donors +themselves or by grateful cities to commemorate the gifts made to them. +The responsibility which the rich Roman felt to spend his money for the +public good was unequivocally stated by the poet Martial in one of his +epigrams toward the close of the first century of our era. The speaker in +the poem tells his friend Pastor why he is striving to be rich--not that +he may have broad estates, rich appointments, fine wines, or troops of +slaves, but "that he may give and build for the public good" ("ut donem, +Pastor, et ædificem"), and this feeling of stewardship found expression in +a steady outpouring of gifts in the interests of the people. + +The practice of giving may well have started with the town officials. We +have already noticed that in Rome, under the Republic, candidates for +office, in seeking votes, and magistrates, in return for the honors paid +them, not infrequently spent large sums on the people. In course of time, +in the towns throughout the Empire this voluntary practice became a legal +obligation resting on local officials. This fact is brought out in the +municipal charter of Urso,[95] the modern Osuna, in Spain. Half of this +document, engraved on tablets, was discovered in Spain about forty years +ago, and makes a very interesting contribution to our knowledge of +municipal life. A colony was sent out to Urso, in 44 B.C., by Julius +Cæsar, under the care of Mark Antony, and the municipal constitution of +the colony was drawn up by one of these two men. In the seventieth +article, we read of the duumvirs, who were the chief magistrates: "Whoever +shall be duumvirs, with the exception of those who shall have first been +elected after the passage of this law, let the aforesaid during their +magistracy give a public entertainment or plays in honor of the gods and +goddesses Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, for four days, during the greater +part of the day, so far as it may be done, at the discretion of the common +councillors, and on these games and this entertainment let each one of +them spend from his own money not less than two thousand sesterces." The +article which follows in the document provides that the ædiles, or the +officials next in rank, shall give gladiatorial games and plays for three +days, and one day of races in the circus, and for these entertainments +they also must spend not less than two thousand sesterces. + +Here we see the modern practice reversed. City officials, instead of +receiving a salary for their services, not only serve without pay, but are +actually required by law to make a public contribution. It will be noticed +that the law specified the minimum sum which a magistrate _must_ spend. +The people put no limit on what he _might_ spend, and probably most of the +duumvirs of Urso gave more than $80, or, making allowance for the +difference in the purchasing value of money, $250, for the entertainment +of the people. In fact a great many honorary inscriptions from other towns +tell us of officials who made generous additions to the sum required by +law. So far as their purpose and results go, these expenditures may be +compared with the "campaign contributions" made by candidates for office +in this country. There is a strange likeness and unlikeness between the +two. The modern politician makes his contribution before the election, the +ancient politician after it. In our day the money is expended largely to +provide for public meetings where the questions of the day shall be +discussed. In Roman times it was spent upon public improvements, and upon +plays, dinners, and gladiatorial games. Among us public sentiment is +averse to the expenditure of large sums to secure an election. The Romans +desired and expected it, and those who were open-handed in this matter +took care to have a record of their gifts set down where it could be read +by all men. + +On general grounds we should expect our system to have a better effect on +the intelligence and character of the people, and to secure better +officials. The discussion of public questions, even in a partisan way, +brings them to the attention of the people, sets the people thinking, and +helps to educate voters on political and economic matters. If we may draw +an inference from the election posters in Pompeii, such subjects played a +small part in a city election under the Empire. It must have been +demoralizing, too, to a Pompeian or a citizen of Salona to vote for a +candidate, not because he would make the most honest and able duumvir or +ædile among the men canvassing for the office, but because he had the +longest purse. How our sense of propriety would be shocked if the newly +elected mayor of Hartford or Montclair should give a gala performance in +the local theatre to his fellow-citizens or pay for a free exhibition by a +circus troupe! But perhaps we should overcome our scruples and go, as the +people of Pompeii did, and perhaps our consciences would be completely +salved if the aforesaid mayor proceeded to lay a new pavement in Main +Street, to erect a fountain on the Green, or stucco the city hall. +Naturally only rich men could be elected to office in Roman towns, and in +this respect the same advantages and disadvantages attach to the Roman +system as we find in the practice which the English have followed up to +the present time of paying no salary to members of the House of Commons, +and in our own practice of letting our ambassadors meet a large part of +their legitimate expenses. + +The large gifts made to their native towns by rich men elected to public +office set an example which private citizens of means followed in an +extraordinary way. Sometimes they gave statues, or baths, or fountains, or +porticos, and sometimes they provided for games, or plays, or dinners, or +lottery tickets. Perhaps nothing can convey to our minds so clear an +impression of the motives of the donors, the variety and number of the +gifts, and their probable effect on the character of the people as to read +two or three specimens of these dedicatory inscriptions. The citizens of +Lanuvium, near Rome, set up a monument in honor of a certain Valerius, +"because he cleaned out and restored the water courses for a distance of +three miles, put the pipes in position again, and restored the two baths +for men and the bath for women, all at his own expense."[96] A citizen of +Sinuessa leaves this record: "Lucius Papius Pollio, the duumvir, to his +father, Lucius Papius. Cakes and mead to all the citizens of Sinuessa and +Cædici; gladiatorial games and a dinner for the people of Sinuessa and the +Papian clan; a monument at a cost of 12,000 sesterces."[97] Such a +catholic provision to suit all tastes should certainly have served to keep +his father from being forgotten. A citizen of Beneventum lays claim to +distinction because "he first scattered tickets among the people by means +of which he distributed gold, silver, bronze, linen garments, and other +things."[98] The people of Telesia, a little town in Campania, pay this +tribute to their distinguished patron: "To Titus Fabius Severus, patron of +the town, for his services at home and abroad, and because he, first of +all those who have instituted games, gave at his own expense five wild +beasts from Africa, a company of gladiators, and a splendid equipment, +the senate and citizens have most gladly granted a statue."[99] The office +of patron was a characteristic Roman institution. Cities and villages +elected to this position some distinguished Roman senator or knight, and +he looked out for the interests of the community in legal matters and +otherwise. + +This distinction was held in high esteem, and recipients of it often +testified their appreciation by generous gifts to the town which they +represented, or were chosen patrons because of their benefactions. This +fact is illustrated in the following inscription from Spoletium: "Gaius +Torasius Severus, the son of Gaius, of the Horatian tribe, quattuorvir +with judicial power, augur, in his own name, and in the name of his son +Publius Meclonius Proculus Torasianus, the pontiff, erected (this) on his +land (?) and at his own expense. He also gave the people 250,000 sesterces +to celebrate his son's birthday, from the income of which each year, on +the third day before the Kalends of September, the members of the Common +Council are to dine in public, and each citizen who is present is to +receive eight _asses_. He also gave to the seviri Augustales, and to the +priests of the Lares, and to the overseers of the city wards, 120,000 +sesterces, in order that from the income of this sum they might have a +public dinner on the same day. Him, for his services to the community, the +senate has chosen patron of the town."[100] A town commonly showed its +appreciation of what had been done for it by setting up a statue in honor +of its benefactor, as was done in the case of Fabius Severus, and the +public squares of Italian and provincial towns must have been adorned with +many works of art of this sort. It amuses one to find at the bottom of +some of the commemorative tablets attached to these statues, the statement +that the man distinguished in this way, "contented with the honor, has +himself defrayed the cost of the monument." To pay for a popular +testimonial to one's generosity is indeed generosity in its perfect form. +The statues themselves have disappeared along with the towns which erected +them, but the tablets remain, and by a strange dispensation of fate the +monument which a town has set up to perpetuate the memory of one of its +citizens is sometimes the only record we have of the town's own existence. + +The motives which actuated the giver were of a mixed character, as these +memorials indicate. Sometimes it was desire for the applause of his fellow +citizens, or for posthumous fame, which influenced a donor; sometimes +civic pride and affection. In many cases it was the compelling force of +custom, backed up now and then, as we can see from the inscriptions, by +the urgent demands of the populace. Out of this last sentiment there would +naturally grow a sense of the obligation imposed by the possession of +wealth, and this feeling is closely allied to pure generosity. In fact, it +would probably be wrong not to count this among the original motives which +actuated men in making their gifts, because the spirit of devotion to the +state and to the community was a marked characteristic of Romans in the +republican period. + +The effects which this practice of giving had on municipal life and on the +character of the people are not without importance and interest. The +lavish expenditure expected of a magistrate and the ever-increasing +financial obligations laid upon him by the central government made +municipal offices such an intolerable burden that the charter of Urso of +the first century A.D., which has been mentioned above, has to resort to +various ingenious devices to compel men to hold them. The position of a +member of a town council was still worse. He was not only expected to +contribute generously to the embellishment and support of his native city, +but he was also held responsible for the collection of the imperial taxes. +As prosperity declined he found this an increasingly difficult thing to +do, and seats in the local senate were undesirable. The central government +could not allow the men responsible for its revenues to escape their +responsibility. Consequently, it interposed and forced them to accept the +honor. Some of them enlisted in the army, or even fled into the desert, +but whenever they were found they were brought back to take up their +positions again. In the fourth century, service in the common council was +even made a penalty imposed upon criminals. Finally, it became hereditary, +and it is an amusing but pathetic thing to find that this honor, so highly +prized in the early period, became in the end a form of serfdom. + +We have been looking at the effects of private generosity on official +life. Its results for the private citizen are not so clear, but it must +have contributed to that decline of independence and of personal +responsibility which is so marked a feature of the later Empire. The +masses contributed little, if anything, to the running expenses of +government and the improvement of the city. The burdens fell largely upon +the rich. It was a system of quasi-socialism. Those who had, provided for +those who had not--not merely markets and temples, and colonnades, and +baths, but oil for the baths, games, plays, and gratuities of money. Since +their needs were largely met by others, the people lost more and more the +habit of providing for themselves and the ability to do so. When +prosperity declined, and the wealthy could no more assist them, the end +came. + +The objects for which donors gave their money seem to prove the +essentially materialistic character of Roman civilization, because we must +assume that those who gave knew the tastes of the people. Sometimes men +like Pliny the Younger gave money for libraries or schools, but such gifts +seem to have been relatively infrequent. Benefactions are commonly +intended to satisfy the material needs or gratify the desire of the +people for pleasure. + +Under the old régime charity was unknown. There were neither almshouses +nor hospitals, and scholars have called attention to the fact that even +the doles of corn which the state gave were granted to citizens only. Mere +residents or strangers were left altogether out of consideration, and they +were rarely included within the scope of private benevolence. In the +following chapter, in discussing the trades-guilds, we shall see that even +they made no provision for the widow or orphan, or for their sick or +disabled members. It was not until Christianity came that the poor and the +needy were helped because of their poverty and need. + + + + +Some Reflections on Corporations and Trades-Guilds + + +In a recent paper on "Ancient and Modern Imperialism," read before the +British Classical Association, Lord Cromer, England's late consul-general +in Egypt, notes certain points of resemblance between the English and the +Roman methods of dealing with alien peoples. With the Greeks no such +points of contact exist, because, as he remarks, "not only was the +imperial idea foreign to the Greek mind; the federal conception was +equally strange." This similarity between the political character and +methods of the Romans and Anglo-Saxons strikes any one who reads the +history of the two peoples side by side. They show the same genius for +government at home, and a like success in conquering and holding foreign +lands, and in assimilating alien peoples. Certain qualities which they +have in common contribute to these like results. Both the Roman and the +Anglo-Saxon have been men of affairs; both have shown great skill in +adapting means to an end, and each has driven straight at the immediate +object to be accomplished without paying much heed to logic or political +theory. A Roman statesman would have said "Amen!" to the Englishman's +pious hope that "his countrymen might never become consistent or logical +in politics." Perhaps the willingness of the average Roman to co-operate +with his fellows, and his skill in forming an organization suitable for +the purpose in hand, go farther than any of the other qualities mentioned +above to account for his success in governing other peoples as well as his +own nation. + +Our recognition of these striking points of resemblance between the Romans +and ourselves has come from a comparative study of the political life of +the two peoples. But the likeness to each other of the Romans and +Anglo-Saxons, especially in the matter of associating themselves together +for a common object, is still more apparent in their methods of dealing +with private affairs. A characteristic and amusing illustration of the +working of this tendency among the Romans is furnished by the early +history of monasticism in the Roman world. When the Oriental Christian +had convinced himself of the vanity of the world, he said: "It is the +weakness of the flesh and the enticements of the wicked which tempt me to +sin. Therefore I will withdraw from the world and mortify the flesh." This +is the spirit which drove him into the desert or the mountains, to live in +a cave with a lion or a wolf for his sole companion. This is the spirit +which took St. Anthony into a solitary place in Egypt. It led St. Simeon +Stylites to secure a more perfect sense of aloofness from the world, and a +greater security from contact with it by spending the last thirty years of +his life on the top of a pillar near Antioch. In the Western world, which +was thoroughly imbued with the Roman spirit, the Christian who held the +same view as his Eastern brother of the evil results flowing from +intercourse with his fellow men, also withdrew from the world, but he +withdrew in the company of a group of men who shared his opinions on the +efficacy of a life of solitude. A delightful instance of the triumph of +the principle of association over logic or theory! We Americans can +understand perfectly the compelling force of the principle, even in such a +case as this, and we should justify the Roman's action on the score of +practical common sense. We have organizations for almost every conceivable +political, social, literary, and economic purpose. In fact, it would be +hard to mention an object for which it would not be possible to organize a +club, a society, a league, a guild, or a union. In a similar way the +Romans had organizations of capitalists and laborers, religious +associations, political and social clubs, and leagues of veterans. + +So far as organizations of capitalists are concerned, their history is +closely bound up with that of imperialism. They come to our notice for the +first time during the wars with Carthage, when Rome made her earliest +acquisitions outside of Italy. In his account of the campaigns in Spain +against Hannibal's lieutenants, Livy tells us[101] of the great straits to +which the Roman army was reduced for its pay, food, and clothing. The need +was urgent, but the treasury was empty, and the people poverty-stricken. +In this emergency the prætor called a public meeting, laid before it the +situation in Spain, and, appealing to the joint-stock companies to come to +the relief of the state, appointed a day when proposals could be made to +furnish what was required by the army. On the appointed day three +_societates_, or corporations, offered to make the necessary loans to the +government; their offers were accepted, and the needs of the army were +met. The transaction reminds us of similar emergencies in our civil war, +when syndicates of bankers came to the support of the government. The +present-day tendency to question the motives of all corporations dealing +with the government does not seem to color Livy's interpretation of the +incident, for he cites it in proof of the patriotic spirit which ran +through all classes in the face of the struggle with Carthage. The +appearance of the joint-stock company at the moment when the policy of +territorial expansion is coming to the front is significant of the close +connection which existed later between imperialism and corporate finance, +but the later relations of corporations to the public interests cannot +always be interpreted in so charitable a fashion. + +Our public-service companies find no counter-part in antiquity, but the +Roman societies for the collection of taxes bear a resemblance to these +modern organizations of capital in the nature of the franchises, as we +may call them, and the special privileges which they had. The practice +which the Roman government followed of letting out to the highest bidder +the privilege of collecting the taxes in each of the provinces, naturally +gave a great impetus to the development of companies organized for this +purpose. Every new province added to the Empire opened a fresh field for +capitalistic enterprise, in the way not only of farming the taxes, but +also of loaning money, constructing public works, and leasing the mines +belonging to the state, and Roman politicians must have felt these +financial considerations steadily pushing them on to further conquests. + +But the interest of the companies did not end when Roman eagles had been +planted in a new region. It was necessary to have the provincial +government so managed as to help the agents of the companies in making as +much money as possible out of the provincials, and Cicero's year as +governor of Cilicia was made almost intolerable by the exactions which +these agents practised on the Cilicians, and the pressure which they +brought to bear upon him and his subordinates. His letters to his intimate +friend, Atticus, during this period contain pathetic accounts of the +embarrassing situations in which loaning companies and individual +capitalists at Rome placed him. On one occasion a certain Scaptius came to +him[102], armed with a strong letter of recommendation from the impeccable +Brutus, and asked to be appointed prefect of Cyprus. His purpose was, by +official pressure, to squeeze out of the people of Salamis, in Cyprus, a +debt which they owed, running at forty-eight per cent interest. Upon +making some inquiry into the previous history of Scaptius, Cicero learned +that under his predecessor in Cilicia, this same Scaptius had secured an +appointment as prefect of Cyprus, and backed by his official power, to +collect money due his company, had shut up the members of the Salaminian +common council in their town hall until five of them died of starvation. +In domestic politics the companies played an equally important rôle. The +relations which existed between the "interests" and political leaders were +as close in ancient times as they are to-day, and corporations were as +unpartisan in Rome in their political alliances as they are in the United +States. They impartially supported the democratic platforms of Gaius +Gracchus and Julius Cæsar in return for valuable concessions, and backed +the candidacy of the constitutionalist Pompey for the position of +commander-in-chief of the fleets and armies acting against the Eastern +pirates, and against Mithridates, in like expectation of substantial +returns for their help. What gave the companies their influence at the +polls was the fact that their shares were very widely held by voters. +Polybius, the Greek historian, writing of conditions at Rome in the second +century B.C., gives us to understand that almost every citizen owned +shares in some joint-stock company[103]. Poor crops in Sicily, heavy rains +in Sardinia, an uprising in Gaul, or "a strike" in the Spanish mines would +touch the pocket of every middle-class Roman. + +In these circumstances it is hard to see how the Roman got on without +stock quotations in the newspapers. But Cæsar's publication of the _Acta +Diurna_, or proceedings of the senate and assembly, would take the place +of our newspapers in some respects, and the crowds which gathered at the +points where these documents were posted, would remind us of the throngs +collected in front of the bulletin in the window of a newspaper office +when some exciting event has occurred. Couriers were constantly arriving +from the agents of corporations in Gaul, Spain, Africa, and Asia with the +latest news of industrial and financial enterprises in all these sections. +What a scurrying of feet there must have been through the streets when the +first news reached Rome of the insurrection of the proletariat in Asia in +88 B.C., and of the proclamation of Mithridates guaranteeing release from +half of their obligations to all debtors who should kill money-lenders! +Asiatic stocks must have dropped almost to the zero point. We find no +evidence of the existence of an organized stock exchange. Perhaps none was +necessary, because the shares of stock do not seem to have been +transferable, but other financial business arising out of the organization +of these companies, like the loaning of money on stock, could be +transacted reasonably well in the row of banking offices which ran along +one side of the Forum, and made it an ancient Wall Street or Lombard +Street. + +"Trusts" founded to control prices troubled the Romans, as they trouble +us to-day. There is an amusing reference to one of these trade +combinations as early as the third century before our era in the Captives +of Plautus.[104] The parasite in the play has been using his best quips +and his most effective leads to get an invitation to dinner, but he can't +provoke a smile, to say nothing of extracting an invitation. In a high +state of indignation he threatens to prosecute the men who avoid being his +hosts for entering into an unlawful combination like that of "the oil +dealers in the Velabrum." Incidentally it is a rather interesting +historical coincidence that the pioneer monopoly in Rome, as in our day, +was an oil trust--in the time of Plautus, of course, an olive-oil trust. +In the "Trickster," which was presented in 191 B.C., a character refers to +the mountains of grain which the dealers had in their warehouses.[105] Two +years later the "corner" had become so effective that the government +intervened, and the curule ædiles who had charge of the markets imposed a +heavy fine on the grain speculators.[106] The case was apparently +prosecuted under the Laws of the Twelve Tables of 450 B.C., the Magna +Charta of Roman liberty. It would seem, therefore, that combinations in +restraint of trade were formed at a very early date in Rome, and perhaps +Diocletian's attempt in the third century of our era to lower the cost of +living by fixing the prices of all sorts of commodities was aimed in part +at the same evil. As for government ownership, the Roman state made one or +two essays in this field, notably in the case of mines, but with +indifferent success. + +Labor was as completely organized as capital.[107] In fact the passion of +the Romans for association shows itself even more clearly here, and it +would be possible to write their industrial history from a study of their +trades-unions. The story of Rome carries the founding of these guilds back +to the early days of the regal period. From the investigations of +Waltzing, Liebenam, and others their history can be made out in +considerable detail. Roman tradition was delightfully systematic in +assigning the founding of one set of institutions to one king and of +another group to another king. Romulus, for instance, is the war king, and +concerns himself with military and political institutions. The second +king, Numa, is a man of peace, and is occupied throughout his reign with +the social and religious organization of his people. It was Numa who +established guilds of carpenters, dyers, shoemakers, tanners, workers in +copper and gold, fluteplayers, and potters. The critical historian looks +with a sceptical eye on the story of the kings, and yet this list of +trades is just what we should expect to find in primitive Rome. There are +no bakers or weavers, for instance, in the list. We know that in our own +colonial days the baking, spinning, and weaving were done at home, as they +would naturally have been when Rome was a community of shepherds and +farmers. As Roman civilization became more complex, industrial +specialization developed, and the number of guilds grew, but during the +Republic we cannot trace their growth very successfully for lack of +information about them. Corporations, as we have seen, played an +important part in politics, and their doings are chronicled in the +literature, like oratory and history, which deals with public questions, +but the trades-guilds had little share in politics; they were made up of +the obscure and weak, and consequently are rarely mentioned in the +writings of a Cicero or a Livy. + +It is only when the general passion for setting down records of all sorts +of enterprises and incidents on imperishable materials came in with the +Empire that the story of the Roman trades-union can be clearly followed. +It is a fortunate thing for us that this mania swept through the Roman +Empire, because it has given us some twenty-five hundred inscriptions +dealing with these organizations of workmen. These inscriptions disclose +the fact that there were more than eighty different trades organized into +guilds in the city of Rome alone. They included skilled and unskilled +laborers, from the porters, or _saccarii_, to the goldsmiths, or +_aurifices_. The names of some of them, like the _pastillarii_, or guild +of pastile-makers, and the _scabillarii_, or castanet-players, indicate a +high degree of industrial specialization. From one man's tombstone even +the conclusion seems to follow that he belonged to a union of what we may +perhaps call checker-board makers. The merchants formed trade associations +freely. Dealers in oil, in wine, in fish, and in grain are found organized +all over the Empire. Even the perfumers, hay-dealers, and ragmen had their +societies. No line of distinction seems to be drawn between the artist and +the artisan. The mason and the sculptor were classed in the same category +by Roman writers, so that we are not surprised to find unions of men in +both occupations. A curious distinction between the professions is also +brought out by these guild inscriptions. There are unions made up of +physicians, but none of lawyers, for the lawyer in early times was +supposed to receive no remuneration for his services. In point of fact the +physician was on a lower social plane in Rome than he was even among our +ancestors. The profession was followed almost exclusively by Greek +freedmen, as we can see from the records on their tombstones, and was +highly specialized, if we may judge from the epitaphs of eye and ear +doctors, surgeons, dentists, and veterinarians. To the same category with +the physician and sculptor belong the architect, the teacher, and the +chemist. Men of these professions pursued the _artes liberales_, as the +Romans put it, and constituted an aristocracy among those engaged in the +trades or lower professions. Below them in the hierarchy came those who +gained a livelihood by the _artes ludicræ_, like the actor, professional +dancer, juggler, or gladiator, and in the lowest caste were the +carpenters, weavers, and other artisans whose occupations were _artes +vulgares et sordidæ_. + +In the early part of this chapter the tendency of the Romans to form +voluntary associations was noted as a national characteristic. This fact +comes out very clearly if we compare the number of trades-unions in the +Western world with those in Greece and the Orient. Our conclusions must be +drawn of course from the extant inscriptions which refer to guilds, and +time may have dealt more harshly with the stones in one place than in +another, or the Roman government may have given its consent to the +establishment of such organizations with more reluctance in one province +than another; but, taking into account the fact that we have guild +inscriptions from four hundred and seventy-five towns and villages in the +Empire, these elements of uncertainty in our conclusions are practically +eliminated, and a fair comparison may be drawn between conditions in the +East and the West. If we pick out some of the more important towns in the +Greek part of the Roman world, we find five guilds reported from Tralles +in Caria, six from Smyrna, one from Alexandria, and eleven from Hierapolis +in Phrygia. On the other hand, in the city of Rome there were more than +one hundred, in Brixia (modern Brescia) seventeen or more, in Lugudunum +(Lyons) twenty at least, and in Canabæ, in the province of Dacia, five. +These figures, taken at random for some of the larger towns in different +parts of the Empire, bring out the fact very clearly that the western and +northern provinces readily accepted Roman ideas and showed the Roman +spirit, as illustrated in their ability and willingness to co-operate for +a common purpose, but that the Greek East was never Romanized. Even in the +settlements in Dacia, which continued under Roman rule only from 107 to +270 A.D., we find as many trades-unions as existed in Greek towns which +were held by the Romans for three or four centuries. The comparative +number of guilds and of guild inscriptions would, in fact, furnish us +with a rough test of the extent to which Rome impressed her civilization +on different parts of the Empire, even if we had no other criteria. We +should know, for instance, that less progress had been made in Britain +than in Southern Gaul, that Salona in Dalmatia, Lugudunum in Gaul, and +Mogontiacum (Mainz) in Germany were important centres of Roman +civilization. It is, of course, possible from a study of these +inscriptions to make out the most flourishing industries in the several +towns, but with that we are not concerned here. + +These guilds which we have been considering were trades-unions in the +sense that they were organizations made up of men working in the same +trade, but they differed from modern unions, and also from mediaeval +guilds, in the objects for which they were formed. They made no attempt to +raise wages, to improve working conditions, to limit the number of +apprentices, to develop skill and artistic taste in the craft, or to +better the social or political position of the laborer. It was the need +which their members felt for companionship, sympathy, and help in the +emergencies of life, and the desire to give more meaning to their lives, +that drew them together. These motives explain the provisions made for +social gatherings, and for the burial of members, which were the +characteristic features of most of the organizations. It is the social +side, for instance, which is indicated on a tombstone, found in a little +town of central Italy. After giving the name of the deceased, it reads: +"He bequeathed to his guild, the rag-dealers, a thousand sesterces, from +the income of which each year, on the festival of the Parentalia, not less +than twelve men shall dine at his tomb."[108] Another in northern Italy +reads: "To Publius Etereius Quadratus, the son of Publius, of the _Tribus +Quirina_, Etereia Aristolais, his mother, has set up a statue, at whose +dedication she gave the customary banquet to the union of rag-dealers, and +also a sum of money, from the income of which annually, from this time +forth, on the birthday of Quadratus, April 9, where his remains have been +laid, they should make a sacrifice, and should hold the customary banquet +in the temple, and should bring roses in their season and cover and crown +the statue; which thing they have undertaken to do."[109] The menu of one +of these dinners given in Dacia[110] has come down to us. It includes lamb +and pork, bread, salad, onions, and two kinds of wine. The cost of the +entertainment amounted to one hundred and sixty-nine _denarii_, or about +twenty-seven dollars, a sum which would probably have a purchasing value +to-day of from three to four times that amount. + +The "temple" or chapel referred to in these inscriptions was usually +semicircular, and may have served as a model for the Christian oratories. +The building usually stood in a little grove, and, with its accommodations +for official meetings and dinners, served the same purpose as a modern +club-house. Besides the special gatherings for which some deceased member +or some rich patron provided, the guild met at fixed times during the year +to dine or for other social purposes. The income of the society, which was +made up of the initiation fees and monthly dues of the members, and of +donations, was supplemented now and then by a system of fines. At least, +in an African inscription we read: "In the Curia of Jove. Done November +27, in the consulship of Maternus and Atticus.... If any one shall wish to +be a flamen, he shall give three amphorae of wine, besides bread and salt +and provisions. If any one shall wish to be a magister, he shall give two +amphorae of wine.... If any one shall have spoken disrespectfully to a +flamen, or laid hands upon him, he shall pay two denarii.... If any one +shall have gone to fetch wine, and shall have made away with it, he shall +give double the amount."[111] + +The provision which burial societies made for their members is illustrated +by the following epitaph: + +"To the shade of Gaius Julius Filetio, born in Africa, a physician, who +lived thirty-five years. Gaius Julius Filetus and Julia Euthenia, his +parents, have erected it to their very dear son. Also to Julius +Athenodorus, his brother, who lived thirty-five years. Euthenia set it up. +He has been placed here, to whose burial the guild of rag-dealers has +contributed three hundred denarii."[112] People of all ages have craved a +respectable burial, and the pathetic picture which Horace gives us in one +of his Satires of the fate which befell the poor and friendless at the +end of life, may well have led men of that class to make provisions which +would protect them from such an experience, and it was not an unnatural +thing for these organizations to be made up of men working in the same +trade. The statutes of several guilds have come down to us. One found at +Lanuvium has articles dealing particularly with burial regulations. They +read in part:[113] + +"It has pleased the members, that whoever shall wish to join this guild +shall pay an initiation fee of one hundred sesterces, and an amphora of +good wine, as well as five _asses_ a month. Voted likewise, that if any +man shall not have paid his dues for six consecutive months, and if the +lot common to all men has befallen him, his claim to a burial shall not be +considered, even if he shall have so stipulated in his will. Voted +likewise, that if any man from this body of ours, having paid his dues, +shall depart, there shall come to him from the treasury three hundred +sesterces, from which sum fifty sesterces, which shall be divided at the +funeral pyre, shall go for the funeral rites. Furthermore, the obsequies +shall be performed on foot." + +Besides the need of comradeship, and the desire to provide for a +respectable burial, we can see another motive which brought the weak and +lowly together in these associations. They were oppressed by the sense of +their own insignificance in society, and by the pitifully small part which +they played in the affairs of the world. But if they could establish a +society of their own, with concerns peculiar to itself which they would +administer, and if they could create positions of honor and importance in +this organization, even the lowliest man in Rome would have a chance to +satisfy that craving to exercise power over others which all of us feel, +to hold titles and distinctions, and to wear the insignia of office and +rank. This motive worked itself out in the establishment of a complete +hierarchy of offices, as we saw in part in an African inscription given +above. The Roman state was reproduced in miniature in these societies, +with their popular assemblies, and their officials, who bore the honorable +titles of quæstor, curator, prætor, ædile, and so forth. + +To read these twenty-five hundred or more inscriptions from all parts of +the Empire brings us close to the heart of the common people. We see +their little ambitions, their jealousies, their fears, their gratitude for +kindness, their own kindliness, and their loyalty to their fellows. All of +them are anxious to be remembered after death, and provide, when they can +do so, for the celebration of their birthdays by members of the +association. A guild inscription in Latium, for instance, reads:[114] +"Jan. 6, birthday of Publius Claudius Veratius Abascantianus, [who has +contributed] 6,000 sesterces, [paying an annual interest of] 180 denarii." +"Jan. 25, birthday of Gargilius Felix, [who has contributed] 2,000 +sesterces, [paying an annual interest of] 60 denarii," and so on through +the twelve months of the year. + +It is not entirely clear why the guilds never tried to bring pressure to +bear on their employers to raise wages, or to improve their position by +means of the strike, or by other methods with which we are familiar +to-day. Perhaps the difference between the ancient and modern methods of +manufacture helps us to understand this fact. In modern times most +articles can be made much more cheaply by machinery than by hand, and the +use of water-power, of steam, and of electricity, and the invention of +elaborate machines, has led us to bring together a great many workmen +under one roof or in one factory. The men who are thus employed in a +single establishment work under common conditions, suffer the same +disadvantages, and are brought into such close relations with one another +that common action to improve their lot is natural. In ancient times, as +may be seen in the chapter on Diocletian's edict, machinery was almost +unknown, and artisans worked singly in their own homes or in the houses of +their employers, so that joint action to improve their condition would +hardly be expected. + +Another factor which should probably be taken into account is the +influence of slavery. This institution did not play the important rôle +under the Empire in depressing the free laborer which it is often supposed +to have played, because it was steadily dying out; but an employer could +always have recourse to slave labor to a limited extent, and the +struggling freedmen who had just come up from slavery were not likely to +urge very strongly their claims for consideration. + +In this connection it is interesting to recall the fact that before +slavery got a foothold in Rome, the masses in their struggle with the +classes used what we think of to-day as the most modern weapon employed in +industrial warfare. We can all remember the intense interest with which we +watched the novel experience which St. Petersburg underwent some six years +ago, when the general strike was instituted. And yet, if we accept +tradition, that method of bringing the government and society to terms was +used twice by the Roman proletariat over two thousand years ago. The +plebeians, so the story goes, unable to get their economic and political +rights, stopped work and withdrew from the city to the Sacred Mount. Their +abstention from labor did not mean the going out of street lamps, the +suspension of street-car traffic, and the closing of factories and shops, +but, besides the loss of fighting men, it meant that no more shoes could +be had, no more carpentry work done, and no more wine-jars made until +concessions should be granted. But, having slaves to compete with it, and +with conditions which made organization difficult, free labor could not +hope to rise, and the unions could take no serious step toward the +improvement of the condition of their members. The feeling of security on +this score which society had, warranted the government in allowing even +its own employees to organize, and we find unions of government clerks, +messengers, and others. The Roman government was, therefore, never called +upon to solve the grave political and economic questions which France and +Italy have had to face in late years in the threatened strikes of the +state railway and postal employees. + +We have just been noticing how the ancient differed from the modern +trades-union in the objects which it sought to obtain. The religious +character which it took seems equally strange to us at first sight. Every +guild put itself under the protection of some deity and was closely +associated with a cult. Silvanus, the god of the woods, was a natural +favorite with the carpenters, Father Bacchus with the innkeepers, Vesta +with the bakers, and Diana with those who hunted wild animals for the +circus. The reason for the choice of certain other divine patrons is not +so clear. Why the cabmen of Tibur, for instance, picked out Hercules as +their tutelary deity, unless, like Horace in his Satires, the ancient +cabman thought of him as the god of treasure-trove, and, therefore, +likely to inspire the giving of generous tips, we cannot guess. The +religious side of Roman trade associations will not surprise us when we +recall the strong religious bent of the Roman character, and when we +remember that no body of Romans would have thought of forming any kind of +an organization without securing the sanction and protection of the gods. +The family, the clan, the state all had their protecting deities, to whom +appropriate rites were paid on stated occasions. Speaking of the religious +side of these trade organizations naturally reminds one of the religious +associations which sprang up in such large numbers toward the end of the +republican period and under the Empire. They lie outside the scope of this +chapter, but, in the light of the issue which has arisen in recent years +between religious associations and the governments of Italy, France, +Spain, and Portugal, it is interesting to notice in passing that the Roman +state strove to hold in check many of the ancient religious associations, +but not always with much success. As we have noticed, its attitude toward +the trade-guilds was not unfriendly. In the last days of the Republic, +however, they began to enter politics, and were used very effectively in +the elections by political leaders in both parties.[115] In fact the +fortunes of the city seemed likely to be controlled by political clubs, +until severe legislation and the transfer of the elections in the early +Empire from the popular assemblies to the senate put an end to the use of +trade associations for political purposes. It was in the light of this +development that the government henceforth required all newly formed +trades-unions to secure official authorization. + +The change in the attitude of the state toward these organizations, as +time went on, has been traced by Liebenam in his study of Roman +associations. The story of this change furnishes an interesting episode in +the history of special privilege, and may not be without profit to us. The +Roman government started with the assumption that the operation of these +voluntary associations was a matter of public as well as of private +concern, and could serve public interests. Therefore their members were to +be exempted from some of the burdens which the ordinary citizen bore. It +was this reasoning, for instance, which led Trajan to set the bakers free +from certain charges, and which influenced Hadrian to grant the same +favors to those associations of skippers which supplied Rome with food. In +the light of our present-day discussion it is interesting also to find +that Marcus Aurelius granted them the right to manumit slaves and receive +legacies--that is, he made them juridical persons. But if these +associations were to be fostered by law, in proportion as they promoted +the public welfare, it also followed logically that the state could put a +restraining hand upon them when their development failed to serve public +interests in the highest degree. Following this logical sequence, the +Emperor Claudius, in his efforts to promote a more wholesome home life, or +for some other reason not known to us, forbade the eating-houses or the +delicatessen shops to sell cooked meats or warm water. Antoninus Pius, in +his paternal care for the unions, prescribed an age test and a physical +test for those who wished to become members. Later, under the law a man +was allowed to join one guild only. Such a legal provision as this was a +natural concomitant of the concession of privileges to the unions. If the +members of these organizations were to receive special favors from the +state, the state must see to it that the rolls were not padded. It must, +in fact, have the right of final supervision of the list of members. So +long as industry flourished, and so long as the population increased, or +at least remained stationary, this oversight by the government brought no +appreciable ill results. But when financial conditions grew steadily +worse, when large tracts of land passed out of cultivation and the +population rapidly dwindled, the numbers in the trades-unions began to +decline. The public services, constantly growing heavier, which the state +required of the guilds in return for their privileges made the loss of +members still greater. This movement threatened the industrial interests +of the Empire and must be checked at all hazards. Consequently, taking +another logical step in the way of government regulation in the interests +of the public, the state forbade men to withdraw from the unions, and made +membership in a union hereditary. Henceforth the carpenter must always +remain a carpenter, the weaver a weaver, and the sons and grandsons of the +carpenter and the weaver must take up the occupation of their fathers, and +a man is bound forever to his trade as the serf is to the soil. + + + + +A Roman Politician + +(Gaius Scribonius Curio) + + + +The life of Gaius Scribonius Curio has so many points of interest for the +student of Roman politics and society, that one is bewildered by the +variety of situations and experiences which it covers. His private +character is made up of a _mélange_ of contradictory qualities, of +generosity, and profligacy, of sincerity and unscrupulousness. In his +public life there is the same facile change of guiding principles. He is +alternately a follower of Cicero and a supporter of his bitterest enemy, a +Tory and a Democrat, a recognized opponent of Cæsar and his trusted agent +and adviser. His dramatic career stirs Lucan to one of his finest +passages, gives a touch of vigor to the prosaic narrative of Velleius, and +even leads the sedate Pliny to drop into satire.[116] Friend and foe have +helped to paint the picture. Cicero, the counsellor of his youth, writes +of him and to him; Cælius, his bosom friend, analyzes his character; +Cæsar leaves us a record of his military campaigns and death, while +Velleius and Appian recount his public and private sins. His story has +this peculiar charm, that many of the incidents which make it up are +related from day to day, as they occurred, by his contemporaries, Cicero +and Cælius, in the confidential letters which they wrote to their intimate +friends. With all the strange elements which entered into it, however, his +career is not an unusual one for the time in which he lived. Indeed it is +almost typical for the class to which he belonged, and in studying it we +shall come to know something more of that group of brilliant young men, +made up of Cælius, Antony, Dolabella, and others, who were drawn to +Cæsar's cause and played so large a part in bringing him success. The life +of Curio not only illuminates social conditions in the first century +before our era, but it epitomizes and personifies the political history of +his time and the last struggles of the Republic. It brings within its +compass the Catilinarian conspiracy, the agitation of Clodius, the +formation of the first triumvirate, the rivalry of Cæsar and Pompey, and +the civil war, for in all these episodes Curio took an active part. + +Students of history have called attention to the striking way in which the +members of certain distinguished Roman families from generation to +generation kept up the political traditions of the family. The Claudian +family is a striking case in point. Recognition of this fact helps us to +understand Curio. His grandfather and his father were both prominent +orators and politicians, as Cicero tells us in his Brutus.[117] The +grandfather reached the praetorship in the year in which Gaius Gracchus +was done to death by his political opponents, while Curio pater was +consul, in 76 B.C., when the confusion which followed the breaking up of +the constitution and of the party of Sulla was at its height. Cicero tells +us that the second Curio had "absolutely no knowledge of letters," but +that he was one of the successful public speakers of his day, thanks to +the training which he had received at home. The third Curio, with whom we +are concerned here, was prepared for public life as his father had been, +for Cicero remarks of him that "although he had not been sufficiently +trained by teachers, he had a rare gift for oratory."[118] + +On this point Cicero could speak with authority, because Curio had very +possibly been one of his pupils in oratory and law. At least the very +intimate acquaintance which he has with Curio's character and the +incidents of his life, the fatherly tone of Cicero's letters to him, and +the fact that Curio's nearest friends were among his disciples make this a +natural inference. How intimate this relation was, one can see from the +charming picture which Cicero draws, in the introductory chapters of his +Essay on Friendship, of his own intercourse as a young man with the +learned Augur Scævola. Roman youth attended their counsellor and friend +when he went to the forum to take part in public business, or sat with him +at home discussing matters of public and private interest, as Cicero and +his companions sat on the bench in the garden with the pontiff Scævola, +when he set forth the discourse of Lælius on friendship, and thus, out of +his experience, the old man talked to the young men about him upon the +conduct of life as well as upon the technical points of law and oratory. +So many of the brilliant young politicians of this period had been brought +into close relations with Cicero in this way, that when he found himself +forced out of politics by the Cæsarians, he whimsically writes to his +friend Pætus that he is inclined to give up public life and open a school, +and not more than a year before his death he pathetically complains that +he has not leisure even to take the waters at the spa, because of the +demands which are made upon him for lessons in oratory. + +If it did not take us too far from our chosen subject, it would be +interesting to stop and consider at length what effect Cicero's intimate +relations with these young men had upon his character, his political +views, his personal fortunes, and the course of politics. That they kept +him young in his interests and sympathies, that they kept his mind alert +and receptive, comes out clearly in his letters to them, which are full of +jest and raillery and enthusiasm. That he never developed into a Tory, as +Catulus did, or became indifferent to political conditions, as Lucullus +did, may have been due in part to his intimate association with this group +of enthusiastic young politicians. So far as his personal fortunes were +concerned, when the struggle between Cæsar and Pompey came, these former +pupils of Cicero had an opportunity to show their attachment and their +gratitude to him. _They_ were followers of Cæsar, and _he_ cast in his lot +with Pompey. But this made no difference in their relations. To the +contrary, they gave him advice and help; in their most hurried journeys +they found time to visit him, and they interceded with Cæsar in his +behalf. To determine whether he influenced the fortunes of the state +through the effect which his teachings had upon these young men would +require a paper by itself. Perhaps no man has ever had a better +opportunity than Cicero had in their cases to leave a lasting impression +on the political leaders of the coming generation. Curio, Cælius, +Trebatius, Dolabella, Hirtius, and Pansa, who were Cæsar's lieutenants, in +the years when their characters were forming and their political +tendencies were being determined, were moulded by Cicero. They were warmly +attached to him as their guide, philosopher, and friend, and they admired +him as a writer, an orator, and an accomplished man of the world. Later +they attached themselves to Cæsar, and while they were still under his +spell, Cicero's influence over their political course does not seem to +count for so much, but after Cæsar's death, the latent effect of Cicero's +friendship and teaching makes itself clearly felt in the heroic service +which such men as Hirtius and Pansa rendered to the cause of the dying +Republic. Possibly even Curio, had he been living, might have been found, +after the Ides of March, fighting by the side of Cicero. + +Perhaps there is no better way of bringing out the intimate relations +which Curio and the other young men of this group bore to the orator than +by translating one of Cicero's early letters to him. It was written in 53 +B.C., when the young man was in Asia, just beginning his political career +as quæstor, or treasurer, on the staff of the governor of that province, +and reads:[119] + +"Although I grieve to have been suspected of neglect by you, still it has +not been so annoying to me that my failure in duty is complained of by you +as pleasant that it has been noticed, especially since, in so far as I am +accused, I am free from fault. But in so far as you intimate that you +long for a letter from me, you disclose that which I know well, it is +true, but that which is sweet and cherished--your love, I mean. In point +of fact, I never let any one pass, who I think will go to you, without +giving him a letter. For who is so indefatigable in writing as I am? From +you, on the other hand, twice or thrice at most have I received a letter, +and then a very short one. Therefore, if you are an unjust judge toward +me, I shall condemn you on the same charge, but if you shall be unwilling +to have me do that, you must show yourself just to me. + +"But enough about letters; I have no fear of not satisfying you by +writing, especially if in that kind of activity you will not scorn my +efforts. I _did_ grieve that you were away from us so long, inasmuch as I +was deprived of the enjoyment of most delightful companionship, but now I +rejoice because, in your absence, you have attained all your ends without +sacrificing your dignity in the slightest degree, and because in all your +undertakings the outcome has corresponded to my desires. What my boundless +affection for you forces me to urge upon you is briefly put. So great a +hope is based, shall I say, on your spirit or on your abilities, that I do +not hesitate to beseech and implore you to come back to us with a +character so moulded that you may be able to preserve and maintain this +confidence in you which you have aroused. And since forgetfulness shall +never blot out my remembrance of your services to me, I beg you to +remember that whatever improvements may come in your fortune, or in your +station in life, you would not have been able to secure them, if you had +not as a boy in the old days followed my most loyal and loving counsels. +Wherefore you ought to have such a feeling toward us, that we, who are now +growing heavy with years, may find rest in your love and your youth." + +In a most unexpected place, in one of Cicero's fiery invectives against +Antony,[120] we come upon an episode illustrating his affectionate care of +Curio during Curio's youth. The elder Curio lies upon a couch, prostrate +with grief at the wreck which his son has brought on the house by his +dissolute life and his extravagance. The younger Curio throws himself at +Cicero's feet in tears. Like a foster-father, Cicero induces the young +man to break off his evil habits, and persuades the father to forgive him +and pay his debts. This scene which he describes here, reminds us of +Curio's first appearance in Cicero's correspondence, where, with Curio's +wild life in mind, he is spoken of as _filiola Curionis_.[121] + +It is an appropriate thing that a man destined to lead so stormy a life as +Curio did, should come on the stage as a leader in the wild turmoil of the +Clodian affair. What brought the two Curios to the front in this matter as +champions of Cicero's future enemy Clodius, it is not easy to say. It is +interesting to notice in passing, however, that our Curio enters politics +as a Democrat. He was the leader, in fact, of the younger element in that +party, of the "Catilinarian crowd," as Cicero styles them, and arrayed +himself against Lucullus, Hortensius, Messala, and other prominent +Conservatives. What the methods were which Curio and his followers +adopted, Cicero graphically describes.[122] They blocked up the entrances +to the polling places with professional rowdies, and allowed only one kind +of ballots to be distributed to the voters. This was in 61 B.C., when +Curio can scarcely have been more than twenty-three years old. + +In the following year Cæsar was back in Rome from his successful +proprætorship in Spain, and found little difficulty in persuading Pompey +and Crassus to join him in forming that political compact which controlled +the fortunes of Rome for the next ten years. As a part of the agreement, +Cæsar was made consul in 59 B.C., and forced his radical legislation +through the popular assembly in spite of the violent opposition of the +Conservatives. This is the year, too, of the candidacy of Clodius for the +tribunate. Toward both these movements the attitude of Curio is puzzling. +He reports to Cicero[123] that Clodius's main object in running for the +tribunate is to repeal the legislation of Cæsar. It is strange that a man +who had been in the counsels of Clodius, and was so shrewd on other +occasions in interpreting political motives, can have been so deceived. We +can hardly believe that he was double-faced toward Cicero. We must +conclude, I think, that his strong dislike for Cæsar's policy and +political methods colored his view of the situation. His fierce opposition +to Cæsar is the other strange incident in this period of his life. Most +of the young men of the time, even those of good family, were enthusiastic +supporters of Cæsar. Curio, however, is bitterly opposed to him.[124] +Perhaps he resented Cæsar's repression of freedom of speech, for he tells +Cicero that the young men of Rome will not submit to the high-handed +methods of the triumvirs, or perhaps he imbibed his early dislike for +Cæsar from his father, whose sentiments are made clear enough by a savage +epigram at Cæsar's expense, which Suetonius quotes from a speech of the +elder Curio.[125] At all events he is the only man who dares speak out. He +is the idol of the Conservatives, and is surrounded by enthusiastic crowds +whenever he appears in the forum. He is now the recognized leader of the +opposition to Cæsar, and a significant proof of this fact is furnished at +the great games given in honor of Apollo in the summer of 59. When Cæsar +entered the theatre there was faint applause; when Curio entered the crowd +rose and cheered him, "as they used to cheer Pompey when the commonwealth +was safe."[126] Perhaps the mysterious Vettius episode, an ancient Titus +Oates affair, which belongs to this year, reflects the desire of the +triumvirs to get rid of Curio, and shows also their fear of his +opposition. This unscrupulous informer is said to have privately told +Curio of a plot against the life of Pompey, in the hope of involving him +in the meshes of the plot. Curio denounced him to Pompey, and Vettius was +thrown into prison, where he was afterward found dead, before the truth of +the matter could be brought out. Of course Curio's opposition to Cæsar +effected little, except, perhaps, in drawing Cæsar's attention to him as a +clever politician. + +To Curio's quæstorship in Asia reference has already been made. It fell in +53 B.C., and from his incumbency of this office we can make an approximate +estimate of his date of birth. Thirty or thirty-one was probably the +minimum age for holding the quæstorship at this time, so that Curio must +have been born about 84 B.C. From Cicero's letter to him, which has been +given above, it would seem to follow that he had performed his duties in +his province with eminent success. During his absence from Rome his +father died, and with his father's death one stimulating cause of his +dislike for Cæsar may have disappeared. To Curio's absence in his province +we owe six of the charming letters which Cicero wrote to him. In one of +his letters of this year he writes:[127] "There are many kinds of letters, +as you well know, but one sort, for the sake of which letter-writing was +invented, is best recognized: I mean letters written for the purpose of +informing those who are not with us of whatever it may be to our advantage +or to theirs that they should know. Surely you are not looking for a +letter of this kind from me, for you have correspondents and messengers +from home who report to you about your household. Moreover, so far as my +concerns go, there is absolutely nothing new. There are two kinds of +letters left which please me very much: one, of the informal and jesting +sort; the other, serious and weighty. I do not feel that it is unbecoming +to adopt either of these styles. Am I to jest with you by letter? On my +word I do not think that there is a citizen who can laugh in these days. +Or shall I write something of a more serious character? What subject is +there on which Cicero can write seriously to Curio, unless it be +concerning the commonwealth? And on this matter this is my situation: that +I neither dare to set down in writing that which I think, nor wish to +write what I do not think." + +The Romans felt the same indifference toward affairs in the provinces that +we show in this country, unless their investments were in danger. They +were wrapped up in their own concerns, and politics in Rome were so +absorbing in 53 B.C. that people in the city probably paid little +attention to the doings of a quæstor in the far-away province of Asia. +But, as the time for Curio's return approached, men recalled the striking +rôle which he played in politics in earlier days, and wondered what course +he would take when he came back. Events were moving rapidly toward a +crisis. Julia, Cæsar's daughter, whom Pompey had married, died in the +summer of 54 B.C., and Crassus was defeated and murdered by the Parthians +in 53 B.C. The death of Crassus brought Cæsar and Pompey face to face, and +Julia's death broke one of the strongest bonds which had held these two +rivals together. Cæsar's position, too, was rendered precarious by the +desperate struggle against the Belgæ, in which he was involved in 53 B.C. +In Rome the political pot was boiling furiously. The city was in the grip +of the bands of desperadoes hired by Milo and Clodius, who broke up the +elections during 53 B.C., so that the first of January, 52, arrived with +no chief magistrates in the city. To a man of Curio's daring and +versatility this situation offered almost unlimited possibilities, and +recognizing this fact, Cicero writes earnestly to him,[128] on the eve of +his return, to enlist him in support of Milo's candidacy for the +consulship. Curio may have just arrived in the city when matters reached a +climax, for on January 18, 52 B.C., Clodius was killed in a street brawl +by the followers of Milo, and Pompey was soon after elected sole consul, +to bring order out of the chaos, if possible. + +Curio was not called upon to support Milo for the consulship, because +Milo's share in the murder of Clodius and the elevation of Pompey to his +extra-constitutional magistracy put an end to Milo's candidacy. What part +he took in supporting or in opposing Pompey's reform legislation of 52 +B.C., and what share he had in the preliminary skirmishes between Cæsar +and the senate during the early part of 51, we have no means of knowing. +As the situation became more acute, however, toward the end of the year, +we hear of him again as an active political leader. Cicero's absence from +Rome from May, 51 to January, 49 B.C., is a fortunate thing for us, for to +it we owe the clever and gossipy political letters which his friend Cælius +sent him from the capital. In one of these letters, written August 1, 51 +B.C., we learn that Curio is a candidate for the tribunate for the +following year, and in it we find a keen analysis of the situation, and an +interesting, though tantaizingly brief, estimate of his character. Coming +from an intimate friend of Curio, it is especially valuable to us. Cælius +writes:[129] "He inspires with great alarm many people who do not know him +and do not know how easily he can be influenced, but judging from my hopes +and wishes, and from his present behavior, he will prefer to support the +Conservatives and the senate. In his present frame of mind he is simply +bubbling over with this feeling. The source and reason of this attitude +of his lies in the fact that Cæsar, who is in the habit of winning the +friendship of men of the worst sort at any cost whatsoever, has shown a +great contempt for him. And of the whole affair it seems to me a most +delightful outcome, and the view has been taken by the rest, too, to such +a degree that Curio, who does nothing after deliberation, seems to have +followed a definite policy and definite plans in avoiding the traps of +those who had made ready to oppose his election to the tribunate--I mean +the Lælii, Antonii, and powerful people of that sort." Without strong +convictions or a settled policy, unscrupulous, impetuous, radical, and +changeable, these are the qualities which Cælius finds in Curio, and what +we have seen of his career leads us to accept the correctness of this +estimate. In 61 he had been the champion of Clodius, and the leader of the +young Democrats, while two years later we found him the opponent of Cæsar, +and an ultra-Conservative. It is in the light of his knowledge of Curio's +character, and after receiving this letter from Cælius, that Cicero writes +in December, 51 B.C., to congratulate him upon his election to the +tribunate. He begs him "to govern and direct his course in all matters in +accordance with his own judgment, and not to be carried away by the advice +of other people." "I do not fear," he says, "that you may do anything in a +fainthearted or stupid way, if you defend those policies which you +yourself shall believe to be right.... Commune with yourself, take +yourself into counsel, hearken to yourself, determine your own policy." + +The other point in the letter of Cælius, his analysis of the political +situation, so far as Curio is concerned, is not so easy to follow. Cælius +evidently believes that Curio had coquetted with Cæsar and had been +snubbed by him, that his intrigues with Cæsar had at first led the +aristocracy to oppose his candidacy, but that Cæsar's contemptuous +treatment of his advances had driven him into the arms of the senatorial +party. It is quite possible, however, that an understanding may have been +reached between Cæsar and Curio even at this early date, and that Cæsar's +coldness and Curio's conservatism may both have been assumed. This would +enable Curio to pose as an independent leader, free from all obligations +to Cæsar, Pompey, or the Conservatives, and anxious to see fair play and +safeguard the interests of the whole people, an independent leader who +was driven over in the end to Cæsar's side by the selfish and factious +opposition of the senatorial party to his measures of reform and his +advocacy of even-handed justice for both Cæsar and Pompey.[130] + +Whether Curio came to an understanding with Cæsar before he entered on his +tribunate or not, his policy from the outset was well calculated to make +the transfer of his allegiance seem forced upon him, and to help him carry +over to Cæsar the support of those who were not blinded by partisan +feelings. Before he had been in office a fortnight he brought in a bill +which would have annulled the law, passed by Cæsar in his consulship, +assigning land in Campania to Pompey's veterans.[131] The repeal of this +law had always been a favorite project with the Conservatives, and Curio's +proposal seemed to be directed equally against Cæsar and Pompey. In +February of 50 B.C. he brought in two bills whose reception facilitated +his passage to the Cæsarian party. One of them provided for the repair of +the roads, and, as Appian tells us,[132] although "he knew that he could +not carry any such measure, he hoped that Pompey's friends would oppose +him so that he might have that as an excuse for opposing Pompey." The +second measure was to insert an intercalary month. It will be remembered +that before Cæsar reformed the calendar, it was necessary to insert an +extra month in alternate years, and 50 B.C. was a year in which +intercalation was required. Curio's proposal was, therefore, a very proper +one. It would recommend itself also on the score of fairness. March 1 had +been set as the day on which the senate should take up the question of +Cæsar's provinces, and after that date there would be little opportunity +to consider other business. Now the intercalated month would have been +inserted, in accordance with the regular practice, after February 23, and +by its insertion time would have been given for the proper discussion of +the measures which Curio had proposed. Incidentally, and probably this was +in Curio's mind, the date when Cæsar might be called upon to surrender his +provinces would be postponed. The proposal to insert the extra month was +defeated, and Curio, blocked in every move by the partisan and +unreasonable opposition of Pompey and the Conservatives, found the +pretext for which lie had been working, and came out openly for +Cæsar.[133] Those who knew him well were not surprised at the transfer of +his allegiance. It was probably in fear of such a move that Cicero had +urged him not to yield to the influence of others, and when Cicero in +Cilicia hears the news, he writes to his friend Cælius: "Is it possible? +Curio is now defending Cæsar! Who would have expected it?--except myself, +for, as surely as I hope to live, _I_ expected it. Heavens! how I miss the +laugh we might have had over it." Looking back, as we can now, on the +political rôle which Curio played during the next twelve months, it seems +strange that two of his intimate friends, who were such far-sighted +politicians as Cicero and Cælius were, should have underestimated his +political ability so completely. It shows Cæsar's superior political +sagacity that he clearly saw his qualities as a leader and tactician. What +terms Cæsar was forced to make to secure his support we do not know. +Gossip said that the price was sixty million sesterces,[134] or more than +two and a half million dollars. He was undoubtedly in great straits. The +immense sums which he had spent in celebrating funeral games in honor of +his father had probably left him a bankrupt, and large amounts of money +were paid for political services during the last years of the republic. +Naturally proof of the transaction cannot be had, and even Velleius +Paterculus, in his savage arraignment of Curio,[135] does not feel +convinced of the truth of the story, but the tale is probable. + +It was high time for Cæsar to provide himself with an agent in Rome. The +month of March was near at hand, when the long-awaited discussion of his +provinces would come up in the senate. His political future, and his +rights as a citizen, depended upon his success in blocking the efforts of +the senate to take his provinces from him before the end of the year, when +he could step from the proconsulship to the consulship. An interval of +even a month in private life between the two offices would be all that his +enemies would need for bringing political charges against him that would +effect his ruin. His displacement before the end of the year must be +prevented, therefore, at all hazards. To this task Curio addressed +himself, and with surpassing adroitness. He did not come out at once as +Cæsar's champion. His function was to hold the scales true between Cæsar +and Pompey, to protect the Commonwealth against the overweening ambition +and threatening policy of both men. He supported the proposal that Cæsar +should be called upon to surrender his army, but coupled with it the +demand that Pompey also should be required to give up his troops and his +proconsulship. The fairness of his plan appealed to the masses, who would +not tolerate a favor to Pompey at Cæsar's expense. It won over even a +majority of the senate. The cleverness of his policy was clearly shown at +a critical meeting of the senate in December of the year 50 B.C. Appian +tells us the story:[136] "In the senate the opinion of each member was +asked, and Claudius craftily divided the question and took the votes +separately, thus: 'Shall Pompey be deprived of his command?' The majority +voted against the latter proposition, and it was decreed that successors +to Cæsar should be sent. Then Curio put the question whether both should +lay down their commands, and twenty-two voted in the negative, while +three hundred and seventy went back to the opinion of Curio in order to +avoid civil discord. Then Claudius dismissed the senate, exclaiming: +'Enjoy your victory and have Cæsar for a master!'" The senate's action was +vetoed, and therefore had no legal value, but it put Cæsar and Curio in +the right and Pompey' s partisans in the wrong. + +As a part of his policy of defending Cæsar by calling attention to the +exceptional position and the extra-constitutional course of Pompey, Curio +offset the Conservative attacks on Cæsar by public speeches fiercely +arraigning Pompey for what he had done during his consulship, five years +before. When we recall Curio's biting wit and sarcasm, and the +unpopularity of Pompey's high-handed methods of that year, we shall +appreciate the effectiveness of this flank attack. + +Another weapon which he used freely was his unlimited right of veto as +tribune. As early as April Cælius appreciated how successful these tactics +would be, and he saw the dilemma in which they would put the +Conservatives, for he writes to Cicero: "This is what I have to tell you: +if they put pressure at every point on Curio, Cæsar will defend his right +to exercise the veto; if, as seems likely, they shrink [from overruling +him], Cæsar will stay [in his province] as long as he likes." The veto +power was the weapon which he used against the senate at the meeting of +that body on the first of December, to which reference has already been +made. The elections in July had gone against Cæsar. Two Conservatives had +been returned as consuls. In the autumn the senate had found legal means +of depriving Cæsar of two of his legions. Talk of a compromise was dying +down. Pompey, who had been desperately ill in the spring, had regained his +strength. He had been exasperated by the savage attacks of Curio. +Sensational stories of the movements of Cæsar's troops in the North were +whispered in the forum, and increased the tension. In the autumn, for +instance, Cæsar had occasion to pay a visit to the towns in northern Italy +to thank them for their support of Mark Antony, his candidate for the +tribunate, and the wild rumor flew to Rome that he had advanced four +legions to Placentia,[137] that his march on the city had begun, and +tumult and confusion followed. It was in these circumstances that the +consul Marcellus moved in the senate that successors be sent to take over +Cæsar's provinces, but the motion was blocked by the veto of Curio, +whereupon the consul cried out: "If I am prevented by the vote of the +senate from taking steps for the public safety, I will take such steps on +my own responsibility as consul." After saying this he darted out of the +senate and proceeded to the suburbs with his colleague, where he presented +a sword to Pompey, and said: "My colleague and I command you to march +against Cæsar in behalf of your country, and we give you for this purpose +the army now at Capua, or in any other part of Italy, and whatever +additional forces you choose to levy."[138] Curio had accomplished his +purpose. He had shown that Pompey as well as Cæsar was a menace to the +state; he had prevented Cæsar's recall; he had shown Antony, who was to +succeed him in the tribunate, how to exasperate the senate into using +coercive measures against his sacrosanct person as tribune and thus +justify Cæsar's course in the war, and he had goaded the Conservatives +into taking the first overt step in the war by commissioning Pompey to +begin a campaign against Cæsar without any authorization from the senate +or the people. + +The news of the unconstitutional step taken by Marcellus and Pompey +reached Rome December 19 or 20. Curio's work as tribune was done, and on +the twenty-first of the month he set out for the North to join his leader. +The senate would be called together by the new consuls on January 1, and +since, before the reform in the calendar, December had only twenty-nine +days, there were left only eight days for Curio to reach Cæsar's +head-quarters, lay the situation before him, and return to the city with +his reply. Ravenna, where Cæsar had his head-quarters, was two hundred and +forty miles from Rome. He covered the distance, apparently, in three days, +spent perhaps two days with Cæsar, and was back in Rome again for the +meeting of the senate on the morning of January 1. Consequently, he +travelled at the rate of seventy-five or eighty miles a day, twice the +rate of the ordinary Roman courier. + +We cannot regret too keenly the fact that we have no account of Curio's +meeting with Cæsar, and his recital to Cæsar of the course of events in +Rome. In drawing up the document which was prepared at this conference, +Cæsar must have been largely influenced by the intimate knowledge which +Curio had of conditions in the capital, and of the temper of the senate. +It was an ultimatum, and, when Curio presented it to the senate, that body +accepted the challenge, and called upon Cæsar to lay down his command on a +specified date or be declared a public enemy. Cæsar replied by crossing +the border of his province and occupying one town after another in +northern Italy in rapid succession. All this had been agreed upon in the +meeting between Curio and Cæsar, and Velleius Paterculus[139] is probably +right in putting the responsibility for the war largely on the shoulders +of Curio, who, as he says, brought to naught the fair terms of peace which +Cæsar was ready to propose and Pompey to accept. The whole situation +points to the conclusion that Cæsar did not desire war, and was not +prepared for it. Had he anticipated its immediate outbreak, he would +scarcely have let it arise when he had only one legion with him on the +border, while his other ten legions were a long distance away. + +From the outset Curio took an active part in the war which he had done so +much to bring about, and it was an appropriate thing that the closing +events in his life should have been recorded for us by his great patron, +Cæsar, in his narrative of the Civil War. On the 18th or 19th of January, +within ten days of the crossing of the Rubicon, we hear of his being sent +with a body of troops to occupy Iguvium,[140] and a month later he is in +charge of one of the investing camps before the stronghold of +Corfinium.[141] With the fall of Corfinium, on the 21st of February, +Cæsar's rapid march southward began, which swept the Pompeians out of +Italy within a month and gave Cæsar complete control of the peninsula. In +that brilliant campaign Curio undoubtedly took an active part, for at the +close of it Cæsar gave him an independent commission for the occupation of +Sicily and northern Africa. No more important command could have been +given him, for Sicily and Africa were the granaries of Rome, and if the +Pompeians continued to hold them, the Cæsarians in Italy might be starved +into submission. To this ill-fated campaign Cæsar devotes the latter half +of the second book of his Civil War. In the beginning of his account of it +he remarks: "Showing at the outset a total contempt for the military +strength of his opponent, Publius Attius Varus, Curio crossed over from +Sicily, accompanied by only two of the four legions originally given him +by Cæsar, and by only five hundred cavalry."[142] The estimate which +Cælius had made of him was true, after all, at least in military affairs. +He was bold and impetuous, and lacked a settled policy. Where daring and +rapidity of movement could accomplish his purpose, he succeeded, but he +lacked patience in finding out the size and disposition of the enemy's +forces and calmness of judgment in comparing his own strength with that of +his foe. It was this weakness in his character as a military leader which +led him to join battle with Varus and Juba's lieutenant, Saburra, without +learning beforehand, as he might have done, that Juba, with a large army, +was encamped not six miles in the rear of Saburra. Curio's men were +surrounded by the enemy and cut down as they stood. His staff begged him +to seek safety in flight, but, as Cæsar writes,[143] "He answered without +hesitation that, having lost the army which Cæsar had entrusted to his +charge, he would never return to look him in the face, and with that +answer he died fighting." + +Three years later the fortunes of war brought Cæsar to northern Africa, +and he traversed a part of the region where Curio's luckless campaign had +been carried on. With the stern eye of the trained soldier, he marked the +fatal blunders which Curio had made, but he recalled also the charm of his +personal qualities, and the defeat before Utica was forgotten in his +remembrance of the great victory which Curio had won for him, +single-handed, in Rome. Even Lucan, a partisan of the senate which Curio +had flouted, cannot withhold his admiration for Curio's brilliant career, +and his pity for Curio's tragic end. As he stands in imagination before +the fallen Roman leader, he exclaims:[144] "Happy wouldst thou be, O Rome, +and destined to bless thy people, had it pleased the gods above to guard +thy liberty as it pleased them to avenge its loss. Lo! the noble body of +Curio, covered by no tomb, feeds the birds of Libya. But to thee, since it +profiteth not to pass in silence those deeds of thine which their own +glory defends forever 'gainst the decay of time, such tribute now we pay, +O youth, as thy life has well deserved. No other citizen of such talent +has Rome brought forth, nor one to whom the law would be indebted more, if +he the path of right had followed out. As it was, the corruption of the +age ruined the city when desire for office, pomp, and the power which +wealth gives, ever to be dreaded, had swept away his wavering mind with +sidelong flood, and the change of Curio, snared by the spoils of Gaul and +the gold of Cæsar, was that which turned the tide of history. Although +mighty Sulla, fierce Marius, the blood-bespattered Cinna, and all the line +of Cæsar's house have held our throats at their mercy with the sword, to +whom was e'er such power vouchsafed? All others bought, _he_ sold the +state." + + + + +Gaius Matius, a Friend of Cæsar + +"_Non enim Cæsarem ... sum secutus, sed amicum_." + + + +Gaius Matius, the subject of this sketch, was neither a great warrior, nor +statesman, nor writer. If his claim to remembrance rested on what he did +in the one or the other of these rôles, he would long ago have been +forgotten. It is his genius for friendship which has kept his memory +green, and that is what he himself would have wished. Of his early life we +know little, but it does not matter much, because the interest which he +has for us centres about his relations to Cæsar in early manhood. Being of +good birth, and a man of studious tastes, he probably attended the +University at Athens, and heard lectures there as young Cicero and Messala +did at a later period. He must have been a man of fine tastes and +cultivation, for Cicero, in writing to a friend, bestows on Matius the +title "doctissimus," the highest literary compliment which one Roman could +pay another, and Apollodorus of Pergamum dedicated to him his treatise on +rhetoric. Since he was born about 84 B.C., he returned from his years of +study at Athens about the time when Cæsar was setting out on his brilliant +campaign in Gaul. Matius joined him, attracted perhaps by the personal +charms of the young proconsul, perhaps by the love of adventure, perhaps, +like his friend Trebatius, by the hope of making a reputation. + +At all events he was already with Cæsar somewhere in Gaul in 53 B.C., and +it is hard to think of an experience better suited to lay bare the good +and the bad qualities in Cæsar's character than the years of camp life +which Matius spent with him in the wilds of Gaul and Britain. As +aide-de-camp, or orderly, for such a position he probably held, his place +was by Cæsar's side. They forded the rivers together, walked or rode +through woodland or open side by side, shared the same meagre rations, and +lay in the same tent at the end of the day's march, ready to spring from +the ground at a moment's warning to defend each other against attack from +the savage foe. Cæsar's narrative of his campaigns in Gaul is a soldier's +story of military movements, and perhaps from our school-boy remembrance +of it we may have as little a liking for it as Horace had for the poem of +Livius Andronicus, which he studied under "Orbilius of the rods," but even +the obscurities of the Latin subjunctive and ablative cannot have blinded +us entirely to the romance of the desperate siege of Alesia and the final +struggle which the Gauls made to drive back the invader. Matius shared +with Cæsar all the hardships and perils of that campaign, and with Cæsar +he witnessed the final scene of the tragedy when Vercingetorix, the heroic +Gallic chieftain, gave up his sword, and the conquest of Gaul was +finished. It is little wonder that Matius and the other young men who +followed Cæsar were filled with admiration of the man who had brought all +this to pass. + +It was a notable group, including Trebatius, Hirtius, Pansa, Oppius, and +Matius in its number. All of them were of the new Rome. Perhaps they were +dimly conscious that the mantle of Tiberius Gracchus had fallen upon their +leader, that the great political struggle which had been going on for +nearly a century was nearing its end, and that they were on the eve of a +greater victory than that at Alesia. It would seem that only two of them, +Matius and Trebatius, lived to see the dawning of the new day. But it was +not simply nor mainly the brilliancy of Cæsar as a leader in war or in +politics which attracted Matius to him. As he himself puts it in his +letter to Cicero: "I did not follow a Cæsar, but a friend." Lucullus and +Pompey had made as distinguished a record in the East as Cæsar had in the +West, but we hear of no such group of able young men following their +fortunes as attached themselves to Cæsar. We must find a reason for the +difference in the personal qualities of Cæsar, and there is nothing that +more clearly proves the charm of his character than the devotion to him of +this group of men. In the group Matius is the best representative of the +man and the friend. When Cæsar came into his own, Matius neither asked for +nor accepted the political offices which Cæsar would gladly have given +him. One needs only to recall the names of Antony, Labienus, or Decimus +Brutus to realize the fact that Cæsar remembered and rewarded the faithful +services of his followers. But Matius was Cæsar's friend and nothing more, +not his master of the horse, as Antony was, nor his political and +financial heir, as Octavius was. In his loyalty to Cæsar he sought for no +other reward than Cæsar's friendship, and his services to him brought with +them their own return. Indeed, through his friend he suffered loss, for +one of Cæsar's laws robbed him of a part of his estate, as he tells us, +but this experience did not lessen his affection. How different his +attitude was from that of others who professed a friendship for Cæsar! +Some of them turned upon their leader and plotted against his life, when +disappointed in the favors which they had received at his hands, and +others, when he was murdered, used his name and his friendship for them to +advance their own ambitious designs. Antony and Octavius struggle with +each other to catch the reins of power which have fallen from his hands; +Dolabella, who seems to regard himself as an understudy of Cæsar, plays a +serio-comic part in Rome in his efforts to fill the place of the dead +dictator; while Decimus Brutus hurries to the North to make sure of the +province which Cæsar had given him. + +From these men, animated by selfishness, by jealousy, by greed for gain, +by sentimentalism, or by hypocritical patriotism, Matius stands aloof, +and stands perhaps alone. For him the death of Cæsar means the loss of a +friend, of a man in whom he believed. He can find no common point of +sympathy either with those who rejoice in the death of the tyrant, as +Cicero does, for he had not thought Cæsar a tyrant, nor with those who use +the name of Cæsar to conjure with. We have said that he accepted no +political office. He did accept an office, that of procurator, or +superintendent, of the public games which Cæsar had vowed on the field of +Pharsalus, but which death had stepped in to prevent him from giving, and +it was in the pious fulfilment of this duty which he took upon himself +that he brought upon his head the anger of the "auctores libertatis," as +he ironically calls them. He had grieved, too, at the death of Cæsar, +although "a man ought to rate the fatherland above a friend," as the +liberators said. Matius took little heed of this talk. He had known of it +from the outset, but it had not troubled him. Yet when it came to his ears +that his friend Cicero, to whom he had been attached from boyhood, to whom +he had proved his fidelity at critical moments, was among his accusers, he +could not but complain bitterly of the injustice. Through a common +friend, Trebatius, whose acquaintance he had made in Gaul, he expresses to +Cicero the sorrow which he feels at his unkindness. What Cicero has to say +in explanation of his position and in defence of himself, we can do no +better than to give in his own words: + + + "_Cicero to Matins, greeting:_[145] + + "I am not yet quite clear in my own mind whether our friend Trebatius, + who is as loyal as he is devoted to both of us, has brought me more + sorrow or pleasure: for I reached my Tusculan villa in the evening, and + the next day, early in the morning, he came to see me, though he had + not yet recovered his strength. When I reproved him for giving too + little heed to his health, he said that nothing was nearer his heart + than seeing me. 'There's nothing new,' say I? He told me of your + grievance against me, yet before I make any reply in regard to it, let + me state a few facts. + + "As far back as I can recall the past I have no friend of longer + standing than you are; but long duration is a thing characteristic of + many friendships, while love is not. I loved you on the day I met you, + and I believed myself loved by you. Your subsequent departure, and that + too for a long time, my electoral canvass, and our different modes of + life did not allow our inclination toward one another to be + strengthened by intimacy; still I saw your feeling toward me many years + before the Civil War, while Cæsar was in Gaul; for the result which you + thought would be of great advantage to me and not of disadvantage to + Cæsar himself you accomplished: I mean in bringing him to love me, to + honor me, to regard me as one of his friends. Of the many confidential + communications which passed between us in those days, by word of mouth, + by letter, by message, I say nothing, for sterner times followed. At + the breaking out of the Civil War, when you were on your way toward + Brundisium to join Cæsar, you came to me to my Formian villa. In the + first place, how much did that very fact mean, especially at those + times! Furthermore, do you think I have forgotten your counsel, your + words, the kindness you showed? I remember that Trebatius was there. + Nor indeed have I forgotten the letter which you sent to me after + meeting Cæsar, in the district near Trebula, as I remember it. Next + came that ill-fated moment when either my regard for public opinion, or + my sense of duty, or chance, call it what you will, compelled me to go + to Pompey. What act of kindness or thoughtfulness either toward me in + my absence or toward my dear ones in Rome did you neglect? In fact, + whom have all my friends thought more devoted to me and to themselves + than you are? I came to Brundisium. Do you think I have forgotten in + what haste, as soon as you heard of it, you came hurrying to me from + Tarentum? How much your presence meant to me, your words of cheer to a + courage broken by the fear of universal disaster! Finally, our life at + Rome began. What element did our friendship lack? In most important + matters I followed your advice with reference to my relations toward + Cæsar; in other matters I followed my own sense of duty. With whom but + myself, if Cæsar be excepted, have you gone so far as to visit his + house again and again, and to spend there many hours, oftentimes in the + most delightful discourse? It was then too, if you remember, that you + persuaded me to write those philosophical essays of mine. After his + return, what purpose was more in your thoughts than to have me as good + a friend of Cæsar as possible? This you accomplished at once. + + "What is the point, then, of this discourse, which is longer than I had + intended it should be? This is the point, that I have been surprised + that you, who ought to see these things, have believed that I have + taken any step which is out of harmony with our friendly relations, for + beside these facts which I have mentioned, which are undisputed and + self-evident facts, there are many more intimate ties of friendship + which I can scarcely put in words. Everything about you charms me, but + most of all, on the one hand, your perfect loyalty in matters of + friendship, your wisdom, dignity, steadfastness; on the other hand, + your wit, refinement, and literary tastes. + + "Wherefore--now I come back to the grievance--in the first place, I did + not think that you had voted for that law; in the second place, if I + had thought so, I should never have thought that you had done it + without some sufficient reason. Your position makes whatever you do + noticeable; furthermore, envy puts some of your acts in a worse light + than the facts warrant. If you do not hear these rumors I do not know + what to say. So far as I am concerned, if I ever hear them I defend you + as I know that _I_ am always defended by _you_ against _my_ detractors. + And my defence follows two lines: there are some things which I always + deny _in toto_, as, for instance, the statement in regard to that very + vote; there are other acts of yours which I maintain were dictated by + considerations of affection and kindness, as, for instance, your action + with reference to the management of the games. But it does not escape + you, with all your wisdom, that, if Cæsar was a king--which seems to me + at any rate to have been the case--with respect of your duty two + positions may be maintained, either the one which I am in the habit of + taking, that your loyalty and friendship to Cæsar are to be praised, or + the one which some people take, that the freedom of one's fatherland is + to be esteemed more than the life of one's friend. I wish that my + discussions springing out of these conversations had been repeated to + you. + + "Indeed, who mentions either more gladly or more frequently than I the + two following facts, which are especially to your honor? The fact that + you were the most influential opponent of the Civil War, and that you + were the most earnest advocate of temperance in the moment of victory, + and in this matter I have found no one to disagree with me. Wherefore I + am grateful to our friend Trebatius for giving me an opportunity to + write this letter, and if you are not convinced by it, you will think + me destitute of all sense of duty and kindness; and nothing more + serious to me than that or more foreign to your own nature can happen." + +In all the correspondence of Cicero there is not a letter written with +more force and delicacy of feeling, none better suited to accomplish its +purpose than this letter to Matius. It is a work of art; but in that fact +lies its defect, and in that respect it is in contrast to the answer which +it called forth from Matius, The reply of Matius stands on a level with +another better-known non-Ciceronian epistle, the famous letter of +condolence which Servius wrote to Cicero after the death of Cicero's +daughter, Tullia; but it is finer, for, while Servius is stilted and full +of philosophical platitudes, Matius, like Shakespeare's Antony, "only +speaks right on," in telling Cicero of his grief at Cæsar's death, of his +indignation at the intolerant attitude of the assassins, and his +determination to treasure the memory of Cæsar at any cost. This is his +letter: + + + "_Matius to Cicero, greeting_[146] + + "I derived great pleasure from your letter, because I saw that you held + such an opinion about me as I had hoped you would hold, and wished you + to hold; and although, in regard to that opinion, I had no misgivings, + still, inasmuch as I considered it a matter of the greatest importance, + I was anxious that it should continue unchanged. And then I was + conscious of having done nothing to offend any good citizen; therefore + I was the less inclined to believe that you, endowed as you are with so + many excellent qualities, could be influenced by any idle rumors, + especially as my friendship toward you had been and was sincere and + unbroken. Since I know that matters stand in this respect as I have + wished them to stand, I will reply to the charges, which you have often + refuted in my behalf in such a way as one would expect from that + kindness of heart characteristic of you and from our friendship. It is + true that what men said against me after the death of Cæsar was known + to me. They call it a sin of mine that I sorrow over the death of a man + dear to me, and because I grieve that he whom I loved is no more, for + they say that 'fatherland should be above friendship,' just as if they + had proved already that his death has been of service to the state. But + I will make no subtle plea. I confess that I have not attained to your + high philosophic planes; for, on the one hand, in the Civil War I did + not follow a Cæsar, but a friend, and although I was grieved at the + state of things, still I did not desert him; nor, on the other hand, + did I at any time approve of the Civil War, nor even of the reason for + strife, which I most earnestly sought to extinguish when it was + kindling. Therefore, in the moment of victory for one bound to me by + the closest ties, I was not captivated by the charm either of public + office or of gold, while his other friends, although they had less + influence with him than I, misused these rewards in no small degree. + Nay, even my own property was impaired by a law of Cæsar's, thanks to + which very law many who rejoice at the death of Cæsar have remained at + Rome. I have worked as for my own welfare that conquered citizens might + be spared. + + "Then may not I, who have desired the welfare of all, be indignant + that he, from whom this favor came, is dead? especially since the very + men who were forgiven have brought him both unpopularity and death. You + shall be punished, then, they say, 'since you dare to disapprove of our + deed.' Unheard of arrogance, that some men glory in their crime, that + others may not even sorrow over it without punishment! But it has + always been the unquestioned right, even of slaves, to fear, to + rejoice, to grieve according to the dictates of their own feelings + rather than at the bidding of another man; of these rights, as things + stand now, to judge from what these champions of freedom keep saying, + they are trying to deprive us by intimidation; but their efforts are + useless. I shall never be driven by the terrors of any danger from the + path of duty or from the claims of friendship, for I have never thought + that a man should shrink from an honorable death; nay, I have often + thought that he should seek it. But why are they angry at me, if I wish + them to repent of their deed? for I desire to have Cæsar's death a + bitter thing to all men. + + "'But I ought as a citizen to desire the welfare of the state.' Unless + my life in the past and my hope for the future, without words from me, + prove that I desire that very end, I do not seek to establish the fact + by words. Wherefore I beg you the more earnestly to consider deeds more + than words, and to believe, if you feel that it is well for the right + to prevail, that I can have no intercourse with dishonorable men. For + am I now, in my declining years, to change that course of action which + I maintained in my youth, when I might even have gone astray with hope + of indulgence, and am I to undo my life's work? I will not do so. Yet I + shall take no step which may be displeasing to any man, except to + grieve at the cruel fate of one most closely bound to me, of one who + was a most illustrious man. But if I were otherwise minded, I would + never deny what I was doing lest I should be regarded as shameless in + doing wrong, a coward and a hypocrite in concealing it. + + "'Yet the games which the young Cæsar gave in memory of Cæsar's victory + I superintended.' But that has to do with my private obligation and not + with the condition of the state; a duty, however, which I owed to the + memory and the distinguished position of a dear friend even though he + was dead, a duty which I could not decline when asked by a young man of + most excellent promise and most worthy of Cæsar. 'I even went + frequently to the house of the consul Antony to pay my respects!' to + whom you will find that those who think that I am lacking in devotion + to my country kept coming in throngs to ask some favor forsooth or + secure some reward. But what arrogance this is that, while Cæsar never + interfered with my cultivating the friendship of men whom I pleased, + even when he himself did not like them, these men who have taken my + friend from me should try to prevent me by their slander from loving + those whom I will. + + "But I am not afraid lest the moderation of my life may prove too weak + to withstand false reports, or that even those who do not love me + because of my loyalty to Cæsar may not prefer to have friends like me + rather than like themselves. So far as I myself am concerned, if what I + prefer shall be my lot, the life which is left me I shall spend in + retirement at Rhodes; but if some untoward circumstance shall prevent + it, I shall live at Rome in such a wise as to desire always that right + be done. Our friend Trebatius I thank heartily in that he has disclosed + your sincere and friendly feeling toward me, and has shown me that him + whom I have always loved of my own free will I ought with the more + reason to esteem and honor. Bene vale et me dilige." + +With these words our knowledge of Matius comes almost to an end. His life +was prolonged into the imperial period, and, strangely enough, in one of +the few references to him which we find at a later date, he is +characterized as "the friend of Augustus" (divi Augusti amicus). It would +seem that the affection which he felt for Cæsar he transferred to Cæsar's +heir and successor. He still holds no office or title. In this connection +it is interesting to recall the fact that we owe the best of Cicero's +philosophical work to him, the "Academics," the "De Finibus," and the +"Tusculan Questions," for Cicero tells us in his letter that he was +induced to write his treatises on philosophy by Matius. It is a pleasant +thing to think that to him we may also be indebted for Cicero's charming +essay "On Friendship." The later life of Matius, then, we may think was +spent in retirement, in the study of philosophy, and in the pursuit of +literature. His literary pursuits give a homely and not unpleasant touch +to his character. They were concerned with gastronomy, for Columella, in +the first century of our era, tells us[147] that Matius composed three +books, bearing the titles of "The Cook," "The Butler," and "The +Picklemaker," and his name was transmitted to a later generation in a dish +known as "mincemeat à la Matius" (_minutal Matianum_).[148] He passes out +of the pages of history in the writings of Pliny the Elder as the man who +"invented the practice of clipping shrubbery."[149] To him, then, we +perhaps owe the geometrical figures, and the forms of birds and beasts +which shrubs take in the modern English garden. His memory is thus ever +kept green, whether in a way that redounds to his credit or not is left +for the reader to decide. + + + + +Index + + + +Acta Diurna. +Anoyran monument. +Anglo-Saxons, compared with Romans, + in government; + in private affairs. +Arval Hymn, the. +Ascoli's theory of the differentiation of the Romance languages. +Augustus, + "Res Gestæ"; + his benefactions. + +Batha, a municipal expense. +Benefactions, private, + co-operation with the government; + _objects_; + comparison of ancient and modern objects; + of Æmilius; + of Pompey; + of Augustus; + motives; + expected of prominent men; + attempts at regulation; + a recognized responsibility; + a legal obligation on municipal officials; + offices thereby limited to the rich; + of rich private citizens; + effect on municipal life and character; + on private citizens; + charity. +Burial societies. + +Cælius, estimate of Curio. +Cæsar, + expenditures as sedile; + and Curio; + secures Curio as agent in Rome; + unprepared for civil war; + _et passim_ in chapters on Curio and Matius. +Cato the elder, his diction. +Charity. +Church, the Christian, influence on the spread of Latin. +Cicero, + quotation from a letter in colloquial style; + his "corrupt practices act,"; + and Scaptius; + and Curio; + _correspondence_ with Matius. +Civic pride of Romans. +Civil war, outbreak of. +Combinations in restraint of trade; + government intervention. +Common people, + their language logical; + progressive and conservative elements. +Common people of Rome, + their language (see _Latin, colloquial_); + their religious beliefs; + philosophy of life; + belief in future life. +Controversiae of the schools of rhetoric. +Corporations; + aid the government; + collect taxes; + in politics; + many small stockholders. +Cromer, Lord, "Ancient and Modern Imperialism,". +Curio, + funeral games in his father's honor; +character; + family; + relations with Cicero; + beginning of public life; + relations with Cæsar; + openly espouses Cæsar's cause; + popularity; + as quæstor; + in the Clodian affair; + Cælius's opinion of him; + as tribune; + relations with Pompey; + forces conservatives to open hostilities; + his part in the civil war; + death. + +Dacia, Latin in. +Dialects in Italy, their disappearance. +Diez, the Romance philologist. +Diocletian's policy; + his edict to regulate prices; + content; + discovery of document; + amount extant; + date; + style; + provisions of the edict; + extracts; + discussion; + made prices uniform; + its prices are retail; + interesting deductions; + effect; + repeal. + +English language in India. +Epitaphs, + deal with the common people; + length of Roman epitaphs; + along Appian Way; + sentiments expressed; + show religious beliefs; + gods rarely named; + Mother Earth. +Epitaphs, metrical, + praises of women predominate; + literary merit; + art. +Étienne, Henri, first scholar to notice colloquial Latin. + +Food, + cost of, comparison with to-day; + free distribution of. + +Gracchi, the. +Greek language, + in Italy; + not conquered by Latin; + influence on Latin. +Gröber's theory of the differentiation of the Romance languages; + criticism of. +Guilds; + were non-political; + inscriptional evidence; + comparison of conditions in East and West; + objects; + dinners; + temples; + rules; + no attempts to raise wages; + religious character; + began to enter politics; + attitude of government toward; + decline. + +Hempl's theory of language rivalry. +Horace, his "curiosa felicitas,". + +Inscription from Pompeii, in colloquial Latin. + +Julia, death of. +Julian's edict to regulate the price of grain. + +Labor-unions. (See _Guilds_.) +Lactantius, "On the Deaths of Those Who Persecuted (the Christians),". +Languages spoken in Italy in the early period; + influence of other languages on Latin, 22. (See also _Greek_.) +Latin language, + extent; + unifying influences; + uniformity; + evidence of inscriptions; + causes of its spread; + colonies; + roads; + merchants; + soldiers; + government officials; + the church; + its superiority not a factor; + sentiment a cause; + "peaceful invasion,". +Latin, colloquial, its study neglected till recently; + first noticed in modern times by Henri Étienne; + its forms, how determined; + ancient authority for its existence; + evidence of the Romance languages; + aid derived from a knowledge of spoken English; + analytical formation of tenses; + slang; + extant specimens; + causes of variation; + external influences on; + influence of culture; + definition of colloquial Latin; + relation to literary Latin; + careless pronunciation; + accent different from literary Latin; + confusion of genders; + monotonous style; + tendencies in vocabulary, 64-7: + in syntax; + effect of loss of final letters; + reunion with literary Latin; + still exists in the Romance languages; + date when it became the separate Romance language; + specimens quoted. +Latin, literary, + modelled on Greek; + relation to colloquial Latin; + standardized by grammarians; + style unnatural; + reunion with colloquial Latin; + disappearance. +Latin, preliterary. +Laws of the Twelve Tables; + excerpt from. +Living, cost of, comparison with to-day. +Livius Andronicus. +Lucan's account of the death of Curio. + +Matius, Gaius, + early life and character; + with Cæsar in Gaul; + friendship with Cæsar, _passim_; + accepted no office; + devotion to Cæsar; + unpopularity due to it; + correspondence with Cicero; + defence of his devotion to Cæsar; + prompted Cicero's best philosophical works; + later life; + literary works. +Menippean satire. +Milesian tales. +Money, unit of. + +Nævius. +Ninus romance; + and Petronius. + +Organization, of capitalists (see _Corporations_); + of labor (see _Guilds_). +Oscan. + +Paternalism, + beginnings of, in Rome; + effect on people. +Patron, office of; + benefactions of. +Pervigilium Veneris. +Petronius, Satiræ; + excerpt from; + original size; + motif; + Trimalchio's Dinner; + satirical spirit; + literary criticism; + Horatian humor; + cynical attitude; + realism; + prose-poetic form; + origin of this genre of literature; + the Satiræ and the epic; + and the heroic romance; + and the Menippean satire; + and the Milesian tale; + and the prologue of comedy; + and the mime; + the Satiræ perhaps a mixture of many types; + originated with Petronius. +Plautus. +Poetry of the common people, + dedicatory; + ephemeral; + graffiti; + borrowed from the Augustan poets; + folk poetry; + children's jingles. +Pompey, + his benefactions; + ordered to march against Cæsar; + _et passim_ in chapter on Curio. +Prices, + controlled by corporations; + attempts at government regulation. +Probus, the "Appendix" of. +Prose-poetic form. + +Ritschl, the Plautine scholar. +Romance, the realistic, origin obscure. + (See _Petronius, Satiræ_.) +Romance languages, + causes of their differentiation, Gröber's theory; + Ascoli's theory; + date of their beginning; + descended from colloquial Latin; + reasons of their agreement; + common source. +Romances, the Greek, theory of origin. + +Salaries of municipal officers. + (See also _Wages_.) +Scaptius and Cicero. +Seneca the elder, "Controversiæ,". +Strasburg oath. +Strikes. + +Theatres a municipal expense. +Trimalchio's Dinner. + +Umbrian. +Urso, constitution of. + +Wages in Roman times; + compared with to-day; + and guilds; + and slavery. + (See also _Salaries_.) + + + + +Footnotes + + + +[1] _Cf._ A. Ernout, _Le Parler de Préneste_, Paris, 1905. + +[2] The relation between Latin and the Italic dialects may be illustrated +by an extract or two from them with a Latin translation. An Umbrian +specimen may be taken from one of the bronze tablets found at Iguvium, +which reads in Umbrian: Di Grabouie, saluo seritu ocrem Fisim, saluam +seritu totam Iiouinam (_Iguvinian Tables_ VI, a. 51), and in Latin: Deus +Grabovi, salvam servato arcem Fisiam, salvam servato civitatem Iguvinam. A +bit of Oscan from the Tabula Bantina (Tab. Bant. 2, 11) reads: suaepis +contrud exeic fefacust auti comono hipust, molto etanto estud, and in +Latin: siquis contra hoc fecerit aut comitia habuerit, multa tanta esto. + +[3] _Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, IX, 782, furnishes a case in point. + +[4] _Cf._ G. Mohl, _Introduction à la chronologie du Latin vulgaire_, +Paris, 1899. + +[5] Pauly-Wissowa, _Real-Encyclopadie_, IV, 1179 _ff._ + +[6] Marquardt, _Römische Staatsverwaltung_, II, p. 463. + +[7] _Cf._, _e.g._, Pirson, _La langue des inscriptions Latines de la +Gaule_, Bruxelles, 1901; Carnoy, _Le Latin d'Espagne d'après les +inscriptions_, Bruxelles, 1906; Hoffmann, _De titulis Africæ Latinis +quæstiones phoneticæ_, 1907; Kuebler, _Die lateinische Sprache auf +afrikanischen Inschriften_ (_Arch, für lat. Lex._, vol. VIII), and Martin, +_Notes on the Syntax of the Latin Inscriptions Found in Spain_, Baltimore, +1909. + +[8] _Cf._ L. Hahn, _Rom und Romanismus im griechisch-römischen Osten_ +(esp. pp. 222-268), Leipzig, 1906. + +[9] _Proceedings of the American Philological Association_, XXIX (1898), +pp. 31-47. For a different theory of the results of language-conflict, +_cf._ Gröber, _Grundriss der romanischen Philologie_, I, pp. 516, 517. + +[10] A very interesting sketch of the history of the Latin language in +this region may be seen in Ovide Densusianu's _Histoire de la langue +Roumaine_, Paris, 1902. + +[11] Gorra, _Lingue Neolatine_, pp. 66-68. + +[12] Gröber, _Grundriss der romanischen Philologie_, pp. 517 and 524. + +[13] _Cf._ Gröber in _Archiv für lateinische Lexikographie und Grammatik_, +I, p. 210 _ff._ + +[14] _Is Modern-Language Teaching a Failure?_ Chicago, 1907. + +[15] _Cf._ Abbott, _History of Rome_, pp. 246-249. + +[16] Schuchardt, _Vokalismus des Vulgärlateins, I_, 103 _ff._ + +[17] _Cf._ Gröber, _Archiv für lateinische Lexikographie und Grammatik_, +I, 45. + +[18] Thielmann, _Archiv_, II, 48 _ff._; 157 _ff._ + +[19] From the "Laws of the Twelve Tables" of the fifth century B.C. See +Bruns, _Fontes iuris Romani antiqui_, sixth edition, p. 31. + +[20] _Appendix Probi_, in Keil's _Grammatici Latini_, IV, 197 _ff._ + +[21] "The Accent in Vulgar and Formal Latin," in _Classical Philology_, II +(1907), 445 _ff._ + +[22] Bücheler, _Carmina Latina epigraphica_, No. 53. The originals of all +the bits of verse which are translated in this paper may be found in the +collection whose title is given here. Hereafter reference to this work +will be by number only. + +[23] No. 443. + +[24] No. 92. + +[25] No. 128. + +[26] No. 127. + +[27] No. 876. + +[28] No. 1414. + +[29] No. 765. + +[30] No. 843. + +[31] No. 95. + +[32] No. 1578. + +[33] Nos. 1192 and 1472. + +[34] No. 1037. + +[35] No. 1039. + +[36] G. W. Van Bleek, Quae de hominum post mortem eondicione doceant +carmina sepulcralia Latina. + +[37] No. 1495. + +[38] No. 1496. + +[39] No. 86. + +[40] No. 1465. + +[41] No. 1143. + +[42] No. 1559. + +[43] No. 1433. + +[44] No. 225. + +[45] No. 143. + +[46] No. 83. + +[47] No. 1500. + +[48] No. 190. + +[49] No. 244. + +[50] No. 1499. + +[51] No. 856. + +[52] Society and Politics in Ancient Rome, p. 183. + +[53] No. 562. + +[54] No. 52. + +[55] No. 1251. + +[56] No. 106. + +[57] No. 967. + +[58] No. 152. + +[59] No. 1042. + +[60] No. 1064. + +[61] No. 98. + +[62] Bücheler, _Carmina Latino epigraphica_, No. 899. + +[63] No. 19. + +[64] No. 866. + +[65] No. 863. + +[66] No. 937. + +[67] No. 949. + +[68] No. 943. + +[69] No. 945. + +[70] No. 354. + +[71] _Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, IV, 6892. + +[72] Bücheler, No. 928. + +[73] No. 333. + +[74] No. 931. + +[75] No. 933. + +[76] No. 38. + +[77] No. 270. + +[78] Habeat scabiem quisquis ad me venerit novissimus. + +[79] Rex erit qui recte faciet, qui non faciet non erit. + +[80] + + Gallos Cæsar in triumphum ducit, idem in curiam; + Galli bracas deposuerunt, latum clavom sumpserunt. + +[81] + + Brutus quia reges eiecit, consul primus factus est; + Hic quia consoles eiecit, rex postremo factus est. + +[82] Salva Roma, salva patria, salvus est Germanicus. + +[83] _Cf._ Schmid, "Der griechische Roman," _Neue Jahrb._, Bd XIII (1904), +465-85; Wilcken, in _Hermes_, XXVIII, 161 _ff._, and in _Archiv f. +Papyrusforschung_, I, 255 _ff._; Grenfell-Hunt, _Fayûm Towns and Their +Papyri_ (1900), 75 _ff._, and _Rivista di Filologia_, XXIII, I _ff._ + +[84] Some of the important late discussions of the Milesian tale are by +Bürger, _Hermes_ (1892), 351 _ff._; Norden, _Die antike Kunstprosa_, II, +602, 604, n.; Rohde, _Kleine Schriften_, II, 25 _ff._; Bürger, _Studien +zur Geschichte d. griech. Romans_, I (_Programm von Blankenburg a. H._, +1902); W. Schmid, _Neue Jahrb. f. d. klass. Alt._ (1904), 474 _ff._; +Lucas, "Zu den Milesiaca des Aristides," _Philologus_, 61 (1907), 16 _ff._ + +[85] On the origin of the _prosimetrum cf._ Hirzel, _Der Dialog_, 381 +_ff._; Norden, _Die antike Kunstprosa_, 755. + +[86] _Cf._ Rosenbluth, _Beiträge zur Quellenkunde von Petrons Satiren_. +Berlin, 1909. + +[87] This theory in the main is suggested by Rohde, _Der griechische +Roman_, 2d ed., 267 (Leipzig, 1900), and by Ribbeck, _Geschichte d. röm. +Dichtung_, 2d ed., III, 150. + +[88] _Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, vol. III, pp. 1926-1953. Mommsen's +text with a commentary has been published by H. Blümner, in _Der +Maximaltarif des Diocletian_, Berlin, 1893. A brief description of the +edict may be found in the Pauly-Wissowa _Real-Encyclopadie der classischen +Altertumswissenschaft_, under "Edictum Diocletiani," and K. Bücher has +discussed some points in it in the _Zeitschrift für die gesamte +Staatswissenschaft_, vol. L (1894), pp. 189-219 and 672-717. + +[89] The method of arrangement may be illustrated by an extract from the +first table, which deals with grain and vegetables. + +[90] The present-day prices which are given in the third column of these +two tables are taken from Bulletin No. 77 of the Bureau of Labor, and from +the majority and minority reports of the Select Committee of the U.S. +Senate on "Wages and Prices of Commodities" (Report, No. 912, Documents, +Nos. 421 and 477). In setting down a number to represent the current price +of an article naturally a rough average had to be struck of the rates +charged in different parts of the country. Bulletin No. 77, for instance, +gives the retail price charged for butter at 226 places in 68 different +cities, situated in 39 different States. At one point in Illinois the +price quoted in 1906 was 22 cents, while at a point in Pennsylvania 36 +cents was reported, but the prevailing price throughout the country ranged +from 26 to 32, so that these figures were set down in the table. A similar +method has been adopted for the other items. A special difficulty arises +in the case of beef, where the price varies according to the cut. The +price of wheat is not given in the extant fragment of the edict, but has +been calculated by Blümner from statements in ancient writers. So far as +the wages of the ancient and modern workman are concerned we must remember +that the Roman laborer in many cases received "keep" from his employer. +Probably from one-third to three-sevenths should be added to his daily +wage to cover this item. Statistics published by the Department of +Agriculture show that the average wage of American farm laborers per month +during 1910 was $27.50 without board and $19.21 with board. The item of +board, therefore, is three-sevenths of the money paid to the laborer when +he keeps himself. One other point of difference between ancient and modern +working conditions must be borne in mind in attempting a comparison. We +have no means of knowing the length of the Roman working day. However, it +was probably much longer than our modern working day, which, for +convenience' sake, is estimated at eight hours. + +[91] Wholesale price in 1909. + +[92] Receives "keep" also. + +[93] Eight-hour day assumed. + +[94] _Cf._ Report of the Commissioner of Labor, pp. 622-625. In England +between one-third and one-fourth; _cf._ Bulletin, No. 77, p. 345. + +[95] _Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, II, 5489. + +[96] Wilmanns, _Exempla Inscriptionum Latinarum_, 1772. + +[97] _Ibid._, 2037. + +[98] _Ibid._, 1859. + +[99] _Ibid._, 2054. + +[100] _Ibid._, 2099. + +[101] 23:48_f._ + +[102] _Cic., ad Att._, 5.21. 10-13; 6.1. 5-7; 6.2.7; 6.3.5. + +[103] 6.17. + +[104] _Captivi_, 489 _ff._ + +[105] _Livy_, 38. 35. + +[106] Plautus, _Pseudolus_, 189. + +[107] Some of the most important discussions of workmen's guilds among the +Romans are to be found in Waltzing's _Etude historique sur les +corporations professionnelles chez les Romains_, 3 vols., Louvain, 1895-9; +Liebenam's _Zur Geschichte und Organisation des römischen Vereinswesen_, +Leipzig, 1890; Ziebarth's _Das Griechische Vereinswesen_, Leipzig, 1896, +pp. 96-110; Kornemann's article, "Collegium," in the Pauly-Wissowa _Real +Encyclopadie_. Other literature is cited by Waltzing, I, pp. 17-30, and by +Kornemann, IV, columns 479-480. + +[108] _Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, XI, 5047. + +[109] _Ibid._, V, 7906. + +[110] _Ibid._, III, p. 953. + +[111] _Ibid._, VIII, 14683. + +[112] _Ibid._, III, 3583. + +[113] _Ibid._, XIV, 2112. + +[114] _Ibid._, XIV, 326. + +[115] _E.g._, Clodius and Milo. + +[116] Lucan, 4. 814 _ff._; Velleius, 2. 48; Pliny, Nat. Hist., 7. 116 +_ff._ + +[117] Cicero, Brutus, 122, 210, 214. + +[118] _Ibid._, 280. + +[119] Cicero, _Epist. ad Fam._, 2. 1. + +[120] Cicero, _Phil._, 2. 45 _f._ + +[121] Cicero, _ad Att._, 1. 14. 5. + +[122] _Ibid._, 1. 14. 5. + +[123] _Ibid._, 2. 12. 2. + +[124] _Ibid._, 2.7.3; 2.8.1; 2.12.2. + +[125] Suet., _Julius_, 52. + +[126]_Ad Att._, 2. 19. 3. + +[127] _Ad fam._, 2.4. + +[128] _Ibid._, 2.6. + +[129]_Ibid._, 8. 4. 2. + +[130] Dio's account (40. 61) of Curio's course seems to harmonize with +this interpretation. + +[131] "Cicero, _ad fam._, 8.10.4. + +[132] White's Civil Wars of Appian, 2.27. + +[133] Cicero, _ad fam._, 8.6.5. + +[134] Valerius Maximus, 9.1.6. + +[135] Vell. Pat., 2.48. + +[136] Civil Wars, 2.30. + +[137] _Ad Att._, 6.9.4. + +[138] Civil Wars of Appian, 2.31. + +[139] Velleius Paterculus, 2.48. + +[140] Cæsar, Civil War, 1. 12. + +[141] _Ibid._, 1.182 + +[142] _Ibid._, 2.23. + +[143] _Ibid._, 2.42. + +[144] _Pharsalia_, 4. 807-824. + +[145] Cicero, _Epistulæ ad famiares_, 11.27. + +[146] Cicero, _Epist. ad fam._, 11.28. + +[147] 12.46.1. + +[148] Apicius, 4.174. + +[149] _Naturalis Historia_, 12.13. + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Common People of Ancient Rome +by Frank Frost Abbott + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COMMON PEOPLE OF ANCIENT ROME *** + +***** This file should be named 13226-0.txt or 13226-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/2/2/13226/ + +Produced by Distributed Proofreaders + +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. 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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 Common People of Ancient Rome + Studies of Roman Life and Literature + +Author: Frank Frost Abbott + +Release Date: August 19, 2004 [EBook #13226] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COMMON PEOPLE OF ANCIENT ROME *** + + + + +Produced by Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +[Transcriber's note: This book makes use of the Roman denarius symbol. +Because this symbol is not available in Unicode, it has been replaced by +the ROMAN NUMERAL TEN (U+2169) with a COMBINING LONG STROKE OVERLAY +(U+0336) in the UTF-8 version.] + + + + +The Common People of Ancient Rome + +Studies of Roman Life and Literature + +By + +Frank Frost Abbott + +Kennedy Professor of the Latin Language and Literature in Princeton +University + +New York +Charles Scribner's Sons + + + + +Copyright, 1911, by +Charles Scribner's Sons + + +Printed in the United States of America + + + + +Dedicated to J. H. A. + + + + +Prefatory Note + + + +This book, like the volume on "Society and Politics in Ancient Rome," +deals with the life of the common people, with their language and +literature, their occupations and amusements, and with their social, +political, and economic conditions. We are interested in the common people +of Rome because they made the Roman Empire what it was. They carried the +Roman standards to the Euphrates and the Atlantic; they lived abroad as +traders, farmers, and soldiers to hold and Romanize the provinces, or they +stayed at home, working as carpenters, masons, or bakers, to supply the +daily needs of the capital. + +The other side of the subject which has engaged the attention of the +author in studying these topics has been the many points of similarity +which arise between ancient and modern conditions, and between the +problems which the Roman faced and those which confront us. What policy +shall the government adopt toward corporations? How can the cost of living +be kept down? What effect have private benefactions on the character of a +people? Shall a nation try to introduce its own language into the +territory of a subject people, or shall it allow the native language to be +used, and, if it seeks to introduce its own tongue, how can it best +accomplish its object? The Roman attacked all these questions, solved some +of them admirably, and failed with others egregiously. His successes and +his failures are perhaps equally illuminating, and the fact that his +attempts to improve social and economic conditions run through a period of +a thousand years should make the study of them of the greater interest and +value to us. + +Of the chapters which this book contains, the article on "The Origin of +the Realistic Romance among the Romans" appeared originally in _Classical +Philology_, and the author is indebted to the editors of that periodical +for permission to reprint it here. The other papers are now published for +the first time. + +It has not seemed advisable to refer to the sources to substantiate every +opinion which has been expressed, but a few references have been given in +the foot-notes mainly for the sake of the reader who may wish to follow +some subject farther than has been possible in these brief chapters. The +proofs had to be corrected while the author was away from his own books, +so that he was unable to make a final verification of two or three of the +citations, but he trusts that they, as well as the others, are accurate. +He takes this opportunity to acknowledge his indebtedness to Dr. Donald +Blythe Durham, of Princeton University, for the preparation of the index. + +Frank Frost Abbott. +Einsiedeln, Switzerland +_September 2, 1911_ + + + + +Contents + + + +How Latin Became the Language of the World +The Latin of the Common People +The Poetry of the Common People of Rome: + I. Their Metrical Epitaphs + II. Their Dedicatory and Ephemeral Verses +The Origin of the Realistic Romance Among the Romans +Diocletian's Edict and the High Cost of Living +Private Benefactions and Their Effect on the Municipal Life of the Romans +Some Reflections on Corporations and Trade-Guilds +A Roman Politician, Gaius Scribonius Curio +Gaius Matius, a Friend of Cæsar + +Index + + + + +The Common People of Ancient Rome + + + + +How Latin Became the Language of the World + + + +How the armies of Rome mastered the nations of the world is known to every +reader of history, but the story of the conquest by Latin of the languages +of the world is vague in the minds of most of us. If we should ask +ourselves how it came about, we should probably think of the world-wide +supremacy of Latin as a natural result of the world-wide supremacy of the +Roman legions or of Roman law. But in making this assumption we should be +shutting our eyes to the history of our own times. A conquered people does +not necessarily accept, perhaps it has not commonly accepted, the tongue +of its master. In his "Ancient and Modern Imperialism" Lord Cromer states +that in India only one hundred people in every ten thousand can read and +write English, and this condition exists after an occupation of one +hundred and fifty years or more. He adds: "There does not appear the +least prospect of French supplanting Arabic in Algeria." In comparing the +results of ancient and modern methods perhaps he should have taken into +account the fact that India and Algeria have literatures of their own, +which most of the outlying peoples subdued by Rome did not have, and these +literatures may have strengthened the resistance which the tongue of the +conquered people has offered to that of the conqueror, but, even when +allowance is made for this fact, the difference in resultant conditions is +surprising. From its narrow confines, within a little district on the +banks of the Tiber, covering, at the close of the fifth century B.C., less +than a hundred square miles, Latin spread through Italy and the islands of +the Mediterranean, through France, Spain, England, northern Africa, and +the Danubian provinces, triumphing over all the other tongues of those +regions more completely than Roman arms triumphed over the peoples using +them. + +In tracing the story we must keep in our mind's eye the linguistic +geography of Italy, just as we must remember the political geography of +the peninsula in following Rome's territorial expansion. Let us think at +the outset, then, of a little strip of flat country on the Tiber, dotted +here and there with hills crowned with villages. Such hill towns were +Rome, Tusculum, and Præneste, for instance. Each of them was the +stronghold and market-place of the country immediately about it, and +therefore had a life of its own, so that although Latin was spoken in all +of them it varied from one to the other. This is shown clearly enough by +the inscriptions which have been found on the sites of these ancient +towns,[1] and as late as the close of the third century before our era, +Plautus pokes fun in his comedies at the provincialism of Præneste. + +The towns which we have mentioned were only a few miles from Rome. Beyond +them, and occupying central Italy and a large part of southern Italy, were +people who spoke Oscan and the other Italic dialects, which were related +to Latin, and yet quite distinct from it. In the seaports of the south +Greek was spoken, while the Messapians and Iapygians occupied Calabria. To +the north of Rome were the mysterious Etruscans and the almost equally +puzzling Venetians and Ligurians. When we follow the Roman legions across +the Alps into Switzerland, France, England, Spain, and Africa, we enter a +jungle, as it were, of languages and dialects. A mere reading of the list +of tongues with which Latin was brought into contact, if such a list could +be drawn up, would bring weariness to the flesh. In the part of Gaul +conquered by Cæsar, for instance, he tells us that there were three +independent languages, and sixty distinct states, whose peoples doubtless +differed from one another in their speech. If we look at a map of the +Roman world under Augustus, with the Atlantic to bound it on the west, the +Euphrates on the east, the desert of Sahara on the south, and the Rhine +and Danube on the north, and recall the fact that the linguistic +conditions which Cæsar found in Gaul in 58 B.C. were typical of what +confronted Latin in a great many of the western, southern, and northern +provinces, the fact that Latin subdued all these different tongues, and +became the every-day speech of these different peoples, will be recognized +as one of the marvels of history. In fact, so firmly did it establish +itself, that it withstood the assaults of the invading Gothic, Lombardic, +Frankish, and Burgundian, and has continued to hold to our own day a very +large part of the territory which it acquired some two thousand years +ago. + +That Latin was the common speech of the western world is attested not only +by the fact that the languages of France, Spain, Roumania, and the other +Romance countries descend from it, but it is also clearly shown by the +thousands of Latin inscriptions composed by freeman and freedman, by +carpenter, baker, and soldier, which we find all over the Roman world. + +How did this extraordinary result come about? It was not the conquest of +the world by the common language of Italy, because in Italy in early days +at least nine different languages were spoken, but its subjugation by the +tongue spoken in the city of Rome. The traditional narrative of Rome, as +Livy and others relate it, tells us of a struggle with the neighboring +Latin hill towns in the early days of the Republic, and the ultimate +formation of an alliance between them and Rome. The favorable position of +the city on the Tiber for trade and defence gave it a great advantage over +its rivals, and it soon became the commercial and political centre of the +neighboring territory. The most important of these villages, Tusculum, +Præneste, and Lanuvium, were not more than twenty miles distant, and the +people in them must have come constantly to Rome to attend the markets, +and in later days to vote, to hear political speeches, and to listen to +plays in the theatre. Some of them probably heard the jests at the expense +of their dialectal peculiarities which Plautus introduced into his +comedies. The younger generations became ashamed of their provincialisms; +they imitated the Latin spoken in the metropolis, and by the second +century of our era, when the Latin grammarians have occasion to cite +dialectal peculiarities from Latium outside Rome, they quote at +second-hand from Varro of the first century B.C., either because they will +not take the trouble to use their own ears or because the differences +which were noted in earlier days had ceased to exist. The first stage in +the conquest of the world by the Latin of Rome comes to an end, then, with +the extension of that form of speech throughout Latium. + +Beyond the limits of Latium it came into contact with Oscan and the other +Italic dialects, which were related to Latin, but of course were much +farther removed from it than the Latin of Tusculum or Lanuvium had +been,[2] so that the adoption of Latin was not so simple a matter as the +acceptance of Roman Latin by the villages of Latium near Rome had been. + +The conflict which went on between Latin and its Italic kinsmen is +revealed to us now and then by a Latin inscription, into which Oscan or +Umbrian forms have crept.[3] The struggle had come to an end by the +beginning of our era. A few Oscan inscriptions are found scratched on the +walls of Pompeii after the first earthquake, in 63 A.D., but they are late +survivals, and no Umbrian inscriptions are known of a date subsequent to +the first century B.C. + +The Social War of 90-88 B.C., between Rome and the Italians, was a +turning-point in the struggle between Latin and the Italic dialects, +because it marks a change in the political treatment of Rome's +dependencies in Italy. Up to this time she had followed the policy of +isolating all her Italian conquered communities from one another. She was +anxious to prevent them from conspiring against her. Thus, with this +object in view, she made differences in the rights and privileges granted +to neighboring communities, in order that, not being subject to the same +limitations, and therefore not having the same grievances, they might not +have a common basis for joint action against her. It would naturally be a +part of that policy to allow or to encourage the retention by the several +communities of their own dialects. The common use of Latin would have +enabled them to combine against her with greater ease. With the conclusion +of the Social War this policy gave way before the new conception of +political unity for the people of Italian stock, and with political unity +came the introduction of Latin as the common tongue in all official +transactions of a local as well as of a federal character. The immediate +results of the war, and the policy which Rome carried out at its close of +sending out colonies and building roads in Italy, contributed still more +to the larger use of Latin throughout the central and southern parts of +the peninsula. Samnium, Lucania, and the territory of the Bruttii suffered +severely from depopulation; many colonies were sent into all these +districts, so that, although the old dialects must have persisted for a +time in some of the mountain towns to the north of Rome, the years +following the conclusion of the Social War mark the rapid disappearance of +them and the substitution of Latin in their place. Campania took little +part in the war, and was therefore left untouched. This fact accounts +probably for the occurrence of a few Oscan inscriptions on the walls of +Pompeii as late as 63 A.D. + +We need not follow here the story of the subjugation of the Greek seaports +in southern Italy and of the peoples to the north who spoke non-Italic +languages. In all these cases Latin was brought into conflict with +languages not related to itself, and the situation contains slightly +different elements from those which present themselves in the struggle +between Latin and the Italic dialects. The latter were nearly enough +related to Latin to furnish some support for the theory that Latin was +modified by contact with them, and this theory has found advocates,[4] but +there is no sufficient reason for believing that it was materially +influenced. An interesting illustration of the influence of Greek on the +Latin of every-day life is furnished by the realistic novel which +Petronius wrote in the middle of the first century of our era. The +characters in his story are Greeks, and the language which they speak is +Latin, but they introduce into it a great many Greek words, and now and +then a Greek idiom or construction. + +The Romans, as is well known, used two agencies with great effect in +Romanizing their newly acquired territory, viz., colonies and roads. The +policy of sending out colonists to hold the new districts was definitely +entered upon in the early part of the fourth century, when citizens were +sent to Antium, Tarracina, and other points in Latium. Within this century +fifteen or twenty colonies were established at various points in central +Italy. Strategic considerations determined their location, and the choice +was made with great wisdom. Sutrium and Nepete, on the borders of the +Ciminian forest, were "the gates of Etruria"; Fregellæ and Interamna +commanded the passage of the river Liris; Tarentum and Rhegium were +important ports of entry, while Alba Fucens and Carsioli guarded the line +of the Valerian road. + +This road and the other great highways which were constructed in Italy +brought not only all the colonies, but all parts of the peninsula, into +easy communication with the capital. The earliest of them was built to +Capua, as we know, by the great censor Appius Claudius, in 312 B.C., and +when one looks at a map of Italy at the close of the third century before +our era, and sees the central and southern parts of the peninsula dotted +with colonies, the Appian Way running from Rome south-east to Brundisium, +the Popillian Way to Rhegium, the Flaminian Way north-east to Ariminum, +with an extension to Cremona, with the Cassian and Aurelian ways along the +western coast, the rapidity and the completeness with which the Latin +language overspread Italy ceases to be a mystery. A map of Spain or of +France under the Empire, with its network of roads, is equally +illuminating. + +The missionaries who carried Roman law, Roman dress, Roman ideas, and the +Latin language first through central, southern, and northern Italy, and +then to the East and the West, were the colonist, the merchant, the +soldier, and the federal official. The central government exempted the +Roman citizen who settled in a provincial town from the local taxes. As +these were very heavy, his advantage over the native was correspondingly +great, and in almost all the large towns in the Empire we find evidence of +the existence of large guilds of Roman traders, tax-collectors, bankers, +and land-owners.[5] When Trajan in his romantic eastern campaign had +penetrated to Ctesiphon, the capital of Parthia, he found Roman merchants +already settled there. Besides the merchants and capitalists who were +engaged in business on their own account in the provinces, there were +thousands of agents for the great Roman corporations scattered through the +Empire. Rome was the money centre of the world, and the great stock +companies organized to lend money, construct public works, collect taxes, +and engage in the shipping trade had their central offices in the capital +whence they sent out their representatives to all parts of the world. + +The soldier played as important a part as the merchant in extending the +use of Latin. Tacitus tells us that in the reign of Augustus there were +twenty-five legions stationed in the provinces. If we allow 6,000 men to a +legion, we should have a total of 150,000 Roman soldiers scattered through +the provinces. To these must be added the auxiliary troops which were made +up of natives who, at the close of their term of service, were probably +able to speak Latin, and when they settled among their own people again, +would carry a knowledge of it into ever-widening circles. We have no exact +knowledge of the number of the auxiliary troops, but they probably came to +be as numerous as the legionaries.[6] Soldiers stationed on the frontiers +frequently married native women at the end of their term of service, +passed the rest of their lives in the provinces, and their children +learned Latin. + +The direct influence of the government was no small factor in developing +the use of Latin, which was of course the official language of the Empire. +All court proceedings were carried on in Latin. It was the language of +the governor, the petty official, and the tax-gatherer. It was used in +laws and proclamations, and no native could aspire to a post in the civil +service unless he had mastered it. It was regarded sometimes at least as a +_sine qua non_ of the much-coveted Roman citizenship. The Emperor +Claudius, for instance, cancelled the Roman citizenship of a Greek, +because he had addressed a letter to him in Latin which he could not +understand. The tradition that Latin was the official language of the +world was taken up by the Christian church. Even when Constantine presided +over the Council at Nicæa in the East, he addressed the assembly in Latin. + +The two last-mentioned agencies, the Latin of the Roman official and the +Latin of the church, were the influences which made the language spoken +throughout the Empire essentially uniform in its character. Had the Latin +which the colonist, the merchant, and the soldier carried through Italy +and into the provinces been allowed to develop in different localities +without any external unifying influence, probably new dialects would have +grown up all over the world, or, to put it in another way, probably the +Romance languages would have come into existence several centuries before +they actually appeared. That unifying influence was the Latin used by the +officials sent out from Rome, which all classes eagerly strove to imitate. +Naturally the language of the provinces did not conform in all respects to +the Roman standard. Apuleius, for instance, is aware of the fact that his +African style and diction are likely to offend his Roman readers, and in +the introduction to his _Metamorphoses_ he begs for their indulgence. The +elder Seneca in his _Controversiae_ remarks of a Spanish fellow-countryman +"that he could never unlearn that well-known style which is brusque and +rustic and characteristic of Spain," and Spartianus in his Life of Hadrian +tells us that when Hadrian addressed the senate on a certain occasion, his +rustic pronunciation excited the laughter of the senators. But the +peculiarities in the diction of Apuleius and Hadrian seem to have been +those which only a cultivated man of the world would notice. They do not +appear to have been fundamental. In a similar way the careful studies +which have been made of the thousands of inscriptions found in the +West[7], dedicatory inscriptions, guild records, and epitaphs show us +that the language of the common people in the provinces did not differ +materially from that spoken in Italy. It was the language of the Roman +soldier, colonist, and trader, with common characteristics in the way of +diction, form, phraseology, and syntax, dropping into some slight local +peculiarities, but kept essentially a unit by the desire which each +community felt to imitate its officials and its upper classes. + +The one part of the Roman world in which Latin did not gain an undisputed +pre-eminence was the Greek East. The Romans freely recognized the peculiar +position which Greek was destined to hold in that part of the Empire, and +styled it the _altera lingua_. Even in Greek lands, however, Latin gained +a strong hold, and exerted considerable influence on Greek[8]. + +In a very thoughtful paper on "Language-Rivalry and +Speech-Differentiation in the Case of Race-Mixture,"[9] Professor Hempl +has discussed the conditions under which language-rivalry takes place, and +states the results that follow. His conclusions have an interesting +bearing on the question which we are discussing here, how and why it was +that Latin supplanted the other languages with which it was brought into +contact. + +He observes that when two languages are brought into conflict, there is +rarely a compromise or fusion, but one of the two is driven out of the +field altogether by the other. On analyzing the circumstances in which +such a struggle for supremacy between languages springs up, he finds four +characteristic cases. Sometimes the armies of one nation, though +comparatively small in numbers, conquer another country. They seize the +government of the conquered land; their ruler becomes its king, and they +become the aristocracy. They constitute a minority, however; they identify +their interests with those of the conquered people, and the language of +the subject people becomes the language of all classes. The second case +arises when a country is conquered by a foreign people who pour into it +with their wives and children through a long period and settle permanently +there. The speech of the natives in these circumstances disappears. In the +third case a more powerful people conquers a country, establishes a +dependent government in it, sends out merchants, colonists, and officials, +and establishes new towns. If such a province is held long enough, the +language of the conqueror prevails. In the fourth and last case peaceful +bands of immigrants enter a country to follow the humbler callings. They +are scattered among the natives, and succeed in proportion as they learn +the language of their adopted country. For their children and +grandchildren this language becomes their mother tongue, and the speech of +the invaded nation holds its ground. + +The first typical case is illustrated by the history of Norman-French in +England, the second by that of the European colonists in America; the +Latinization of Spain, Gaul, and other Roman provinces furnishes an +instance of the third, and our own experience with European immigrants is +a case of the fourth characteristic situation. The third typical case of +language-conflict is the one with which we are concerned here, and the +analysis which we have made of the practices followed by the Romans in +occupying newly acquired territory, both in Italy and outside the +peninsula, shows us how closely they conform to the typical situation. +With the exception of Dacia, all the provinces were held by the Romans for +several centuries, so that their history under Roman rule satisfies the +condition of long occupation which Professor Hempl lays down as a +necessary one. Dacia which lay north of the Danube, and was thus far +removed from the centres of Roman influence, was erected into a province +in 107 A.D., and abandoned in 270. Notwithstanding its remoteness and the +comparatively short period during which it was occupied, the Latin +language has continued in use in that region to the present day. It +furnishes therefore a striking illustration of the effective methods which +the Romans used in Latinizing conquered territory.[10] + +We have already had occasion to notice that a fusion between Latin and +the languages with which it was brought into contact, such a fusion, for +instance, as we find in Pidgin-English, did not occur. These languages +influenced Latin only by way of making additions to its vocabulary. A +great many Greek scientific and technical terms were adopted by the +learned during the period of Roman supremacy. Of this one is clearly +aware, for instance, in reading the philosophical and rhetorical works of +Cicero. A few words, like rufus, crept into the language from the Italic +dialects. Now and then the Keltic or Iberian names of Gallic or Spanish +articles were taken up, but the inflectional system and the syntax of +Latin retained their integrity. In the post-Roman period additions to the +vocabulary are more significant. It is said that about three hundred +Germanic words have found their way into all the Romance languages.[11] +The language of the province of Gaul was most affected since some four +hundred and fifty Gothic, Lombardic, and Burgundian words are found in +French alone, such words as boulevard, homard, and blesser. Each of the +provinces of course, when the Empire broke up, was subjected to +influences peculiar to itself. The residence of the Moors in Spain, for +seven hundred years, for instance, has left a deep impress on the Spanish +vocabulary, while the geographic position of Roumanian has exposed it to +the influence of Slavic, Albanian, Greek, Magyar, and Turkish.[12] A +sketch of the history of Latin after the breaking up of the Empire carries +us beyond the limits of the question which we set ourselves at the +beginning and out of the domain of the Latinist, but it may not be out of +place to gather together here a few of the facts which the Romance +philologist has contributed to its later history, because the life of +Latin has been continuous from the foundation of the city of Rome to the +present day. + +In this later period the question of paramount interest is, why did Latin +in one part of the world develop into French, in another part into +Italian, in another into Spanish? One answer to this question has been +based on chronological grounds.[13] The Roman soldiers and traders who +went out to garrison and to settle in a newly acquired territory, +introduced that form of Latin which was in use in Italy at the time of +their departure from the peninsula. The form of speech thus planted there +developed along lines peculiar to itself, became the dialect of that +province, and ultimately the (Romance) language spoken in that part of +Europe. Sardinia was conquered in 241 B.C., and Sardinian therefore is a +development of the Latin spoken in Italy in the middle of the third +century B.C., that is of the Latin of Livius Andronicus. Spain was brought +under Roman rule in 197 B.C., and consequently Spanish is a natural +outgrowth of popular Latin of the time of Plautus. In a similar way, by +noticing the date at which the several provinces were established down to +the acquisition of Dacia in 107 A.D., we shall understand how it was that +the several Romance languages developed out of Latin. So long as the +Empire held together the unifying influence of official Latin, and the +constant intercommunication between the provinces, preserved the essential +unity of Latin throughout the world, but when the bonds were broken, the +naturally divergent tendencies which had existed from the beginning, but +had been held in check, made themselves felt, and the speech of the +several sections of the Old World developed into the languages which we +find in them to-day. + +This theory is suggestive, and leads to several important results, but it +is open to serious criticism, and does not furnish a sufficient +explanation. It does not seem to take into account the steady stream of +emigrants from Italy to the provinces, and the constant transfer of troops +from one part of the world to another of which we become aware when we +study the history of any single province or legion. Spain was acquired, it +is true, in 197 B.C., and the Latin which was first introduced into it was +the Latin of Plautus, but the subjugation of the country occupied more +than sixty years, and during this period fresh troops were steadily poured +into the peninsula, and later on there was frequently an interchange of +legions between Spain and the other provinces. Furthermore, new +communities of Roman citizens were established there even down into the +Empire, and traders were steadily moving into the province. In this way it +would seem that the Latin of the early second century which was originally +carried into Spain must have been constantly undergoing modification, +and, so far as this influence goes, made approximately like the Latin +spoken elsewhere in the Empire. + +A more satisfactory explanation seems to be that first clearly propounded +by the Italian philologist, Ascoli. His reasoning is that when we acquire +a foreign language we find it very difficult, and often impossible, to +master some of the new sounds. Our ears do not catch them exactly, or we +unconsciously substitute for the foreign sound some sound from our own +language. Our vocal organs, too, do not adapt themselves readily to the +reproduction of the strange sounds in another tongue, as we know from the +difficulty which we have in pronouncing the French nasal or the German +guttural. Similarly English differs somewhat as it is spoken by a +Frenchman, a German, and an Italian. The Frenchman has a tendency to +import the nasal into it, and he is also inclined to pronounce it like his +own language, while the German favors the guttural. In a paper on the +teaching of modern languages in our schools, Professor Grandgent says:[14] +"Usually there is no attempt made to teach any French sounds but _u_ and +the four nasal vowels; all the rest are unquestioningly replaced by the +English vowels and consonants that most nearly resemble them." The +substitution of sounds from one's own language in speaking a foreign +tongue, and the changes in voice-inflection, are more numerous and more +marked if the man who learns the new language is uneducated and acquires +it in casual intercourse from an uneducated man who speaks carelessly. + +This was the state of things in the Roman provinces of southern Europe +when the Goths, Lombards, and other peoples from the North gradually +crossed the frontier and settled in the territory of Latin-speaking +peoples. In the sixth century, for instance, the Lombards in Italy, the +Franks in France, and the Visigoths in Spain would each give to the Latin +which they spoke a twist peculiar to themselves, and out of the one Latin +came Italian, out of the second, the language of France, and out of the +third, Spanish. This initial impulse toward the development of Latin along +different lines in Italy, France, and Spain was, of course, reinforced by +differences in climate, in the temperaments of the three peoples, in +their modes of life, and in their political and social experiences. These +centrifugal forces, so to speak, became effective because the political +and social bonds which had held Italy, France, and Spain together were now +loosened, and consequently communication between the provinces was less +frequent, and the standardizing influence of the official Latin of Rome +ceased to keep Latin a uniform thing throughout the Empire. + +One naturally asks why Latin survived at all, why the languages of the +victorious Germanic peoples gave way to it. In reply to this question it +is commonly said that the fittest survived, that the superiority of Roman +civilization and of the Latin language gave Latin the victory. So far as +this factor is to be taken into account, I should prefer to say that it +was not so much the superiority of Latin, although that may be freely +recognized, as it was the sentimental respect which the Germans and their +leaders had for the Empire and for all its institutions. This is shown +clearly enough, for instance, in the pride which the Visigothic and +Frankish kings showed in holding their commissions from Rome, long after +Rome had lost the power to enforce its claims upon them; it is shown in +their use of Latin as the language of the court and of the official world. +Under the influence of this sentiment Germanic rulers and their peoples +imitated the Romans, and, among other things, took over their language. +The church probably exerted considerable influence in this direction. Many +of the Germans had been converted to Christianity before they entered the +Empire, and had heard Latin used in the church services and in the hymns. +Among cultivated people of different countries, it was the only medium of +communication, and was accepted as the lingua franca of the political and +ecclesiastical world, and the traditional medium of expression for +literary and legal purposes. + +Perhaps, however, one element in the situation should be given more weight +than any of the facts just mentioned. Many of the barbarians had been +allowed to settle in a more or less peaceful fashion in Roman territory, +so that a large part of the western world came into their possession by +way of gradual occupation rather than by conquest.[15] They became peasant +proprietors, manual laborers, and soldiers in the Roman army. Perhaps, +therefore, their occupation of central and southern Europe bears some +resemblance to the peaceful invasion of this country by immigrants from +Europe, and they may have adopted Latin just as the German or Scandinavian +adopts English. + +This brings us to the last important point in our inquiry. What is the +date before which we shall call the language of the Western Empire Latin, +and after which it is better to speak of French, Spanish, and Italian? +Such a line of division cannot be sharply drawn, and will in a measure be +artificial, because, as we shall attempt to show in the chapter which +follows on the "Latin of the Common People," Latin survives in the Romance +languages, and has had a continuous life up to the present day. But on +practical grounds it is convenient to have such a line of demarcation in +mind, and two attempts have been made to fix it. One attempt has been +based on linguistic grounds, the other follows political changes more +closely. Up to 700 A.D. certain common sound-changes take place in all +parts of the western world.[16] After that date, roughly speaking, this is +not the case. Consequently at that time we may say that unity ceased. The +other method of approaching the subject leads to essentially the same +conclusion, and shows us why unity ceased to exist.[17] In the sixth +century the Eastern Emperor Justinian conceived the idea of reuniting the +Roman world, and actually recovered and held for a short time Italy, +southern Spain, and Africa. This attempt on his part aroused a national +spirit among the peoples of these lands, and developed in them a sense of +their national independence and individuality. They threw off the foreign +yoke and became separate peoples, and developed, each of them, a language +of its own. Naturally this sentiment became effective at somewhat +different periods in different countries. For France the point may be +fixed in the sixth century, for Spain and Italy, in the seventh, and at +these dates Latin may be said to take the form of French, Spanish, and +Italian. + + + + +The Latin of the Common People + + + +Unless one is a professional philologist he feels little interest in the +language of the common people. Its peculiarities in pronunciation, syntax, +phraseology, and the use of words we are inclined to avoid in our own +speech, because they mark a lack of cultivation. We test them by the +standards of polite society, and ignore them, or condemn them, or laugh at +them as abnormal or illogical or indicative of ignorance. So far as +literature goes, the speech of the common people has little interest for +us because it is not the recognized literary medium. These two reasons +have prevented the average man of cultivated tastes from giving much +attention to the way in which the masses speak, and only the professional +student has occupied himself with their language. This is unfortunate +because the speech of the common people has many points of interest, and, +instead of being illogical, is usually much more rigid in its adherence +to its own accepted principles than formal speech is, which is likely to +be influenced by convention or conventional associations. To take an +illustration of what I have in mind, the ending _-s_ is the common mark in +English of a plural form. For instance, "caps," "maps," "lines," and +"places" are plurals, and the corresponding singular forms are "cap," +"map," "line," and "place." Consequently, granted the underlying premise, +it is a perfectly logical and eminently scientific process from the forms +"relapse" (pronounced, of course, "relaps") and "species" to postulate a +corresponding singular, and speak of "a relap" and "a specie," as a negro +of my acquaintance regularly does. "Scrope" and "lept," as preterites of +"scrape" and "leap," are correctly formed on the analogy of "broke" and +"crept," but are not used in polite society. + +So far as English, German, or French go, a certain degree of general +interest has been stimulated lately in the form which they take in +every-day life by two very different agencies, by the popular articles of +students of language, and by realistic and dialect novels. But for our +knowledge of the Latin of the common people we lack these two +all-important sources of information. It occurred to only two Roman +writers, Petronius and Apuleius, to amuse their countrymen by writing +realistic stories, or stories with realistic features, and the Roman +grammarian felt an even greater contempt for popular Latin or a greater +indifference to it than we feel to-day. This feeling was shared, as we +know, by the great humanists of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, +when the revival of interest in the Greek and Latin languages and +literatures begins. Petrarch, Poggio Bracciolini, and the other great +leaders in the movement were concerned with the literary aspects of the +classics, and the scholars of succeeding generations, so far as they +studied the language, confined their attention to that of the great Latin +stylists. The first student to conceive of the existence of popular Latin +as a form of speech which differed from formal literary Latin, seems to +have been the French scholar, Henri Étienne. In a little pamphlet on the +language and style of Plautus, written toward the end of the sixteenth +century, he noted the likeness between French and the language of the +Latin dramatist, without, however, clearly perceiving that the reason for +this similarity lay in the fact that the comedies of Plautus reflect the +spoken language of his time, and that French and the other Romance +languages have developed out of this, rather than from literary Latin. Not +until the middle of the eighteenth century was this truth clearly +recognized, and then almost simultaneously on both sides of the Rhine. + +It was left for the nineteenth century, however, to furnish scientific +proof of the correctness of this hypothesis, and it was a fitting thing +that the existence of an unbroken line of connection between popular Latin +of the third century before our era, and the Romance languages of the +nineteenth century, should have been established at the same time by a +Latinist engaged in the study of Plautus, and a Romance philologist +working upward toward Latin. The Latin scholar was Ritschl, who showed +that the deviations from the formal standard which one finds in Plautus +are not anomalies or mistakes, but specimens of colloquial Latin which can +be traced down into the later period. The Romance philologist was Diez, +who found that certain forms and words, especially those from the +vocabulary of every-day life, which are common to many of the Romance +languages, are not to be found in serious Latin literature at all, but +occur only in those compositions, like comedy, satire, or the realistic +romance, which reflect the speech of the every-day man. This discovery +made it clear that the Romance languages are related to folk Latin, not to +literary Latin. It is sixty years since the study of vulgar Latin was put +on a scientific basis by the investigations of these two men, and during +that period the Latinist and the Romance philologist have joined hands in +extending our knowledge of it. From the Latin side a great impetus was +given to the work by the foundation in 1884 of Wölfflin's _Archiv für +lateinische Lexikographie und Grammatik_. This periodical, as is well +known, was intended to prepare the way for the publication of the Latin +_Thesaurus_, which the five German Academies are now bringing out. + +One of its primary purposes, as its title indicates, was to investigate +the history of Latin words, and in its first number the editor called +attention to the importance of knowing the pieces of literature in which +each Latin word or locution occurred. The results have been very +illuminating. Some words or constructions or phrases are to be found, for +instance, only in comedy, satire, and the romance. They are evidently +peculiar to vulgar Latin. Others are freely used in these types of +literature, but sparingly employed in historical or rhetorical works. Here +again a shade of difference is noticeable between formal and familiar +usage. The method of the Latinist then is essentially one of comparison +and contrast. When, for instance, he finds the word _equus_ regularly used +by serious writers for "horse," but _caballus_ employed in that sense in +the colloquial compositions of Lucilius, Horace, and Petronius, he comes +to the conclusion that _caballus_ belongs to the vocabulary of every-day +life, that it is our "nag." + +The line of reasoning which the Romance philologist follows in his study +of vulgar Latin is equally convincing. The existence of a large number of +words and idioms in French, Spanish, Italian, and the other Romance +languages can be explained only in one of three ways. All these different +languages may have hit on the same word or phrase to express an idea, or +these words and idioms may have been borrowed from one language by the +others, or they may come from a common origin. The first hypothesis is +unthinkable. The second is almost as impossible. Undoubtedly French, for +instance, borrowed some words from Spanish, and Spanish from Portuguese. +It would be conceivable that a few words originating in Spain should pass +into France, and thence into Italy, but it is quite beyond belief that the +large element which the languages from Spain to Roumania have in common +should have passed by borrowing over such a wide territory. It is clear +that this common element is inherited from Latin, out of which all the +Romance languages are derived. Out of the words, endings, idioms, and +constructions which French, Spanish, Italian, and the other tongues of +southern Europe have in common, it would be possible, within certain +limits, to reconstruct the parent speech, but fortunately we are not +limited to this material alone. At this point the Latinist and the Romance +philologist join hands. To take up again the illustration already used, +the student of the Romance languages finds the word for "horse" in Italian +is cavallo, in Spanish caballo, in French cheval, in Roumanian cal, and +so on. Evidently all these forms have come from caballus, which the +Latinist finds belongs to the vocabulary of vulgar, not of formal, Latin. +This one illustration out of many not only discloses the fact that the +Romance languages are to be connected with colloquial rather than with +literary Latin, but it also shows how the line of investigation opened by +Diez, and that followed by Wölfflin and his school, supplement each other. +By the use of the methods which these two scholars introduced, a large +amount of material bearing on the subject under discussion has been +collected and classified, and the characteristic features of the Latin of +the common people have been determined. It has been found that five or six +different and independent kinds of evidence may be used in reconstructing +this form of speech. + +We naturally think first of the direct statements made by Latin writers. +These are to be found in the writings of Cicero, Quintilian, Seneca the +Rhetorician, Petronius, Aulus Gellius, Vitruvius, and the Latin +grammarians. The professional teacher Quintilian is shocked at the +illiterate speech of the spectators in the theatres and circus. Similarly +a character in Petronius utters a warning against the words such people +use. Cicero openly delights in using every-day Latin in his familiar +letters, while the architect Vitruvius expresses the anxious fear that he +may not be following the accepted rules of grammar. As we have noticed +above, a great deal of material showing the differences between formal and +colloquial Latin which these writers have in mind, may be obtained by +comparing, for instance, the Letters of Cicero with his rhetorical works, +or Seneca's satirical skit on the Emperor Claudius with his philosophical +writings. Now and then, too, a serious writer has occasion to use a bit of +popular Latin, but he conveniently labels it for us with an apologetic +phrase. Thus even St. Jerome, in his commentary on the Epistle to the +Ephesians, says: "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, as the vulgar +proverb has it." To the ancient grammarians the "mistakes" and vulgarisms +of popular speech were abhorrent, and they have fortunately branded lists +of words and expressions which are not to be used by cultivated people. +The evidence which may be had from the Romance languages, supplemented by +Latin, not only contributes to our knowledge of the vocabulary of vulgar +Latin, but it also shows us many common idioms and constructions which +that form of speech had. Thus, "I will sing" in Italian is canterò +(=cantar[e]-ho), in Spanish, cantaré (=cantar-he), in French, chanterai +(=chanter-ai), and similar forms occur in some of the other Romance +languages. These forms are evidently made up of the Latin infinitive +cantare, depending on habeo ("I have to sing"). But the future in literary +Latin was cantabo, formed by adding an ending, as we know, and with that +the Romance future can have no connection. However, as a writer in the +_Archiv_ has pointed out,[18] just such analytical tense forms as are used +in the Romance languages to-day are to be found in the popular Latin +sermons of St. Jerome. From these idioms, common to Italian, French, and +Spanish, then, we can reconstruct a Latin formation current among the +common people. Finally a knowledge of the tendencies and practices of +spoken English helps us to identify similar usages when we come upon them +in our reading of Latin. When, for instance, the slave in a play of +Plautus says: "Do you catch on" (tenes?), "I'll touch the old man for a +loan" (tangam senem, etc.), or "I put it over him" (ei os sublevi) we +recognize specimens of Latin slang, because all of the metaphors involved +are in current use to-day. When one of the freedmen in Petronius remarks: +"You ought not to do a good turn to nobody" (neminem nihil boni facere +oportet) we see the same use of the double negative to which we are +accustomed in illiterate English. The rapid survey which we have just made +of the evidence bearing on the subject establishes beyond doubt the +existence of a form of speech among the Romans which cannot be identified +with literary Latin, but it has been held by some writers that the +material for the study of it is scanty. However, an impartial examination +of the facts ought not to lead one to this conclusion. On the Latin side +the material includes the comedies of Plautus and Terence, and the comic +fragments, the familiar odes of Catullus, the satires of Lucilius, Horace, +and Seneca, and here and there of Persius and Juvenal, the familiar +letters of Cicero, the romance of Petronius and that of Apuleius in part, +the Vulgate and some of the Christian fathers, the Journey to Jerusalem of +St. Ætheria, the glossaries, some technical books like Vitruvius and the +veterinary treatise of Chiron, and the private inscriptions, notably +epitaphs, the wall inscriptions of Pompeii, and the leaden tablets found +buried in the ground on which illiterate people wrote curses upon their +enemies. + +It is clear that there has been preserved for the study of colloquial +Latin a very large body of material, coming from a great variety of +sources and running in point of time from Plautus in the third century +B.C. to St. Ætheria in the latter part of the fourth century or later. It +includes books by trained writers, like Horace and Petronius, who +consciously adopt the Latin of every-day life, and productions by +uneducated people, like St. Ætheria and the writers of epitaphs, who have +unwittingly used it. + +St. Jerome says somewhere of spoken Latin that "it changes constantly as +you pass from one district to another, and from one period to another" (et +ipsa Latinitas et regionibus cotidie mutatur et tempore). If he had added +that it varies with circumstances also, he would have included the three +factors which have most to do in influencing the development of any +spoken language. We are made aware of the changes which time has brought +about in colloquial English when we compare the conversations in Fielding +with those in a present-day novel. When a spoken language is judged by the +standard of the corresponding literary medium, in some of its aspects it +proves to be conservative, in others progressive. It shows its +conservative tendency by retaining many words and phrases which have +passed out of literary use. The English of the Biglow Papers, when +compared with the literary speech of the time, abundantly illustrates this +fact. This conservative tendency is especially noticeable in districts +remote from literary centres, and those of us who are familiar with the +vernacular in Vermont or Maine will recall in it many quaint words and +expressions which literature abandoned long ago. In Virginia locutions may +be heard which have scarcely been current in literature since +Shakespeare's time. Now, literary and colloquial Latin were probably drawn +farther apart than the two corresponding forms of speech in English, +because Latin writers tried to make the literary tongue as much like Greek +in its form as possible, so that literary Latin would naturally have +diverged more rapidly and more widely from conversational Latin than +formal English has drawn away from colloquial English. + +But a spoken language in its development is progressive as well as +conservative. To certain modifying influences it is especially sensitive. +It is fond of the concrete, picturesque, and novel, and has a high +appreciation of humor. These tendencies lead it to invent many new words +and expressions which must wait months, years, perhaps a generation, +before they are accepted in literature. Sometimes they are never accepted. +The history of such words as buncombe, dude, Mugwump, gerrymander, and +joy-ride illustrate for English the fact that words of a certain kind meet +a more hospitable reception in the spoken language than they do in +literature. The writer of comedy or farce, the humorist, and the man in +the street do not feel the constraint which the canons of good usage put +on the serious writer. They coin new words or use old words in a new way +or use new constructions without much hesitation. The extraordinary +material progress of the modern world during the last century has +undoubtedly stimulated this tendency in a remarkable way, but it would +seem as if the Latin of the common people from the time of Plautus to that +of Cicero must have been subjected to still more innovating influences +than modern conversational English has. During this period the newly +conquered territories in Spain, northern Africa, Greece, and Asia poured +their slaves and traders into Italy, and added a great many words to the +vocabulary of every-day life. The large admixture of Greek words and +idioms in the language of Petronius in the first century of our era +furnishes proof of this fact. A still greater influence must have been +felt within the language itself by the stimulus to the imagination which +the coming of these foreigners brought, with their new ideas, and their +new ways of looking at things, their strange costumes, manners, and +religions. + +The second important factor which affects the spoken language is a +difference in culture and training. The speech of the gentleman differs +from that of the rustic. The conversational language of Terence, for +instance, is on a higher plane than that of Plautus, while the characters +in Plautus use better Latin than the freedmen in Petronius. The +illiterate freedmen in Petronius speak very differently from the freemen +in his story. Sometimes a particular occupation materially affects the +speech of those who pursue it. All of us know something of the linguistic +eccentricities of the London cabman, the Parisian thief, or the American +hobo. This particular influence cannot be estimated so well for Latin +because we lack sufficient material, but some progress has been made in +detecting the peculiarities of Latin of the nursery, the camp, and the +sea. + +Of course a spoken language is never uniform throughout a given area. +Dialectal differences are sure to develop. A man from Indiana and another +from Maine will be sure to notice each other's peculiarities. Even the +railway, the newspaper, and the public school will never entirely +obliterate the old differences or prevent new ones from springing up. +Without these agencies which do so much to promote uniformity to-day, +Italy and the rest of the Empire must have shown greater dialectal +differences than we observe in American English or in British English +even. + +For the sake of bringing out clearly some of the points of difference +between vulgar and formal Latin we have used certain illustrations, like +_caballus_, where the two forms of speech were radically opposed to each +other, but of course they did not constitute two different languages, and +that which they had in common was far greater than the element peculiar to +each, or, to put it in another way, they in large measure overlapped each +other. Perhaps we are in a position now to characterize colloquial Latin +and to define it as the language which was used in conversation throughout +the Empire with the innumerable variations which time and place gave it, +which in its most highly refined form, as spoken in literary circles at +Rome in the classical period, approached indefinitely near its ideal, +literary Latin, which in its most unconventional phase was the rude speech +of the rabble, or the "sermo inconditus" of the ancients. The facts which +have just been mentioned may be illustrated by the accompanying diagrams. + +[Illustration: Fig. I] + +[Illustration: Fig. II] + +[Illustration: Fig. III] + +[Illustration: Fig. IV] + +In Fig. I the heavy-lined ellipse represents the formal diction of Cicero, +the dotted line ellipse his conversational vocabulary. They overlap each +other through a great part of their extent, but there are certain +literary locutions which would rarely be used by him in conversation, and +certain colloquial words and phrases which he would not use in formal +writing. Therefore the two ellipses would not be coterminous. In Fig. II +the heavy ellipse has the same meaning as in Fig. I, while the space +enclosed by the dotted line represents the vocabulary of an uneducated +Roman, which would be much smaller than that of Cicero and would show a +greater degree of difference from the literary vocabulary than Cicero's +conversational stock of words does. The relation of the uncultivated +Roman's conversational vocabulary to that of Cicero is illustrated in Fig. +III, while Fig. IV shows how the Latin of the average man in Rome would +compare, for instance, with that of a resident of Lugudunum, in Gaul. + +This naturally brings us to consider the historical relations of literary +and colloquial Latin. In explaining them it has often been assumed that +colloquial Latin is a degenerate form of literary Latin, or that the +latter is a refined type of the former. Both these theories are equally +false. Neither is derived from the other. The true state of the case has +never been better put than by Schuchardt, who says: "Vulgar Latin stands +with reference to formal Latin in no derivative relation, in no paternal +relation, but they stand side by side. It is true that vulgar Latin came +from a Latin with fuller and freer forms, but it did not come from formal +Latin. It is true that formal Latin came from a Latin of a more popular +and a cruder character, but it did not come from vulgar Latin. In the +original speech of the people, preliterary Latin (the prisca Latinitas), +is to be found the origin of both; they were twin brothers." + +Of this preliterary Latin we have no record. The best we can do is to +infer what its characteristics were from the earliest fragments of the +language which have come down to us, from the laws of the Twelve Tables, +for instance, from the religious and legal formulæ preserved to us by +Varro, Cicero, Livy, and others, from proverbs and popular sayings. It +would take us too far afield to analyze these documents here, but it may +be observed that we notice in them, among other characteristics, an +indifference to strict grammatical structure, not that subordination of +clauses to a main clause which comes only from an appreciation of the +logical relation of ideas to one another, but a co-ordination of clauses, +the heaping up of synonymous words, a tendency to use the analytical +rather than the synthetical form of expression, and a lack of fixity in +the forms of words and in inflectional endings. To illustrate some of +these traits in a single example, an early law reads "if [he] shall have +committed a theft by night, if [he] shall have killed him, let him be +regarded as put to death legally" (si nox furtum faxsit, si im occisit, +iure caesus esto).[19] We pass without warning from one subject, the +thief, in the first clause to another, the householder, in the second, and +back to the thief again in the third. Cato in his book on Agriculture +writes of the cattle: "let them feed; it will be better" (pascantur; +satius erit), instead of saying: "it will be better for them to feed" (or +"that they feed"). In an early law one reads: "on the tablet, on the white +surface" (in tabula, in albo), instead of "on the white tablet" (in alba +tabula). Perhaps we may sum up the general characteristics of this +preliterary Latin out of which both the spoken and written language +developed by saying that it showed a tendency to analysis rather than +synthesis, a loose and variable grammatical structure, and a lack of logic +in expression. + +Livius Andronicus, Nævius, and Plautus in the third century before our era +show the language as first used for literary purposes, and with them the +breach between the spoken and written tongues begins. So far as Livius +Andronicus, the Father of Latin literature, is concerned, allowance should +be made without doubt for his lack of poetic inspiration and skill, and +for the fact that his principal work was a translation, but even making +this allowance the crude character of his Latin is apparent, and it is +very clear that literary Latin underwent a complete transformation +between his time and that of Horace and Virgil. Now, the significant +thing in this connection is the fact that this transformation was largely +brought about under an external influence, which affected the Latin of the +common people only indirectly and in small measure. Perhaps the +circumstances in which literary Latin was placed have never been repeated +in history. At the very outset it was brought under the sway of a highly +developed literary tongue, and all the writers who subsequently used it +earnestly strove to model it after Greek. Livius Andronicus, Ennius, +Accius, and Pacuvius were all of Greek origin and familiar with Greek. +They, as well as Plautus and Terence, translated and adapted Greek epics, +tragedies, and comedies. Several of the early writers, like Accius and +Lucilius, interested themselves in grammatical subjects, and did their +best to introduce system and regularity into their literary medium. Now, +Greek was a highly inflected, synthetical, regular, and logical medium of +literary expression, and it was inevitable that these qualities should be +introduced into Latin. But this influence affected the spoken language +very little, as we have already noticed. Its effect upon the speech of +the common people would be slight, because of the absence of the common +school which does so much to-day to hold together the spoken and written +languages. + +The development then of preliterary Latin under the influence of this +systematizing, synthetical influence gave rise to literary Latin, while +its independent growth more nearly in accordance with its original genius +produced colloquial Latin. Consequently, we are not surprised to find that +the people's speech retained in a larger measure than literary Latin did +those qualities which we noticed in preliterary Latin. Those +characteristics are, in fact, to be expected in conversation. When a man +sets down his thoughts on paper he expresses himself with care and with a +certain reserve in his statements, and he usually has in mind exactly what +he wants to say. But in speaking he is not under this constraint. He is +likely to express himself in a tautological, careless, or even illogical +fashion. He rarely thinks out to the end what he has in mind, but loosely +adds clauses or sentences, as new ideas occur to him. + +We have just been thinking mainly about the relation of words to one +another in a sentence. In the treatment of individual words, written and +spoken Latin developed along different lines. In English we make little +distinction between the quantity of vowels, but in Latin of course a given +vowel was either long or short, and literary tradition became so fixed in +this matter that the professional poets of the Augustan age do not +tolerate any deviation from it. There are indications, however, that the +common people did not observe the rules of quantity in their integrity. We +can readily understand why that may have been the case. The comparative +carelessness, which is characteristic of conversation, affects our +pronunciation of words. When there is a stress accent, as there was in +Latin, this is especially liable to be the case. We know in English how +much the unaccented syllables suffer in a long word like "laboratory." In +Latin the long unaccented vowels and the final syllable, which was never +protected by the accent, were peculiarly likely to lose their full value. +As a result, in conversational Latin certain final consonants tended to +drop away, and probably the long vowel following a short one was regularly +shortened when the accent fell on the short syllable, or on the syllable +which followed the long one. Some scholars go so far as to maintain that +in course of time all distinction in quantity in the unaccented vowels was +lost in popular Latin. Sometimes the influence of the accent led to the +excision of the vowel in the syllable which followed it. Probus, a +grammarian of the fourth century of our era, in what we might call a +"Guide to Good Usage"[20] or "One Hundred Words Mispronounced," warns his +readers against masclus and anglus for masculus and angulus. This is the +same popular tendency which we see illustrated in "lab'ratory." + +The quality of vowels as well as their quantity changed. The obscuring of +certain vowel sounds in ordinary or careless conversation in this country +in such words as "Latun" and "Amurican" is a phenomenon which is familiar +enough. In fact a large number of our vowel sounds seem to have +degenerated into a grunt. Latin was affected in a somewhat similar way, +although not to the same extent as present-day English. Both the ancient +grammarians in their warnings and the Romance languages bear evidence to +this effect. + +We noticed above that the final consonant was exposed to danger by the +fact that the syllable containing it was never protected by the accent. It +is also true that there was a tendency to do away with any difficult +combination of consonants. We recall in English the current +pronunciations, "February," and "Calwell" for Caldwell. The average Roman +in the same way was inclined to follow the line of least resistance. +Sometimes, as in the two English examples just given, he avoided a +difficult combination of consonants by dropping one of them. This method +he followed in saying santus for sanctus, and scriserunt for scripserunt, +just as in vulgar English one now and then hears "slep" and "kep" for the +more difficult "slept" and "kept." Sometimes he lightened the +pronunciation by metathesis, as he did when he pronounced interpretor as +interpertor. A third device was to insert a vowel, as illiterate +English-speaking people do in the pronunciations "ellum" and "Henery." In +this way, for instance, the Roman avoided the difficult combinations -mn- +and -chn- by saying mina and techina for the historically correct mna and +techna. Another method of surmounting the difficulty was to assimilate one +of the two consonants to the other. This is a favorite practice of the +shop-girl, over which the newspapers make merry in their phonetical +reproductions of supposed conversations heard from behind the counter. +Adopting the same easy way of speaking, the uneducated Roman sometimes +said isse for ipse, and scritus for scriptus. To pass to another point of +difference, the laws determining the incidence of the accent were very +firmly established in literary Latin. The accent must fall on the penult, +if it was long, otherwise on the antepenult of the word. But in popular +Latin there were certain classes of words in whose case these principles +were not observed. + +The very nature of the accent probably differed in the two forms of +speech. In preliterary Latin the stress was undoubtedly a marked feature +of the accent, and this continued to be the case in the popular speech +throughout the entire history of the language, but, as I have tried to +prove in another paper,[21] in formal Latin the stress became very slight, +and the pitch grew to be the characteristic feature of the accent. +Consequently, when Virgil read a passage of the _Æneid_ to Augustus and +Livia the effect on the ear of the comparatively unstressed language, with +the rhythmical rise and fall of the pitch, would have been very different +from that made by the conversation of the average man, with the accented +syllables more clearly marked by a stress. + +In this brief chapter we cannot attempt to go into details, and in +speaking of the morphology of vulgar Latin we must content ourselves with +sketching its general characteristics and tendencies, as we have done in +the case of its phonology. In English our inflectional forms have been +reduced to a minimum, and consequently there is little scope for +differences in this respect between the written and spoken languages. From +the analogy of other forms the illiterate man occasionally says: "I swum," +or, "I clumb," or "he don't," but there is little chance of making a +mistake. However, with three genders, five declensions for nouns, a fixed +method of comparison for adjectives and adverbs, an elaborate system of +pronouns, with active and deponent, regular and irregular verbs, four +conjugations, and a complex synthetical method of forming the moods and +tenses, the pitfalls for the unwary Roman were without number, as the +present-day student of Latin can testify to his sorrow. That the man in +the street, who had no newspaper to standardize his Latin, and little +chance to learn it in school, did not make more mistakes is surprising. In +a way many of the errors which he did make were historically not errors at +all. This fact will readily appear from an illustration or two. In our +survey of preliterary Latin we had occasion to notice that one of its +characteristics was a lack of fixity in the use of forms or constructions. +In the third century before our era, a Roman could say audibo or audiam, +contemplor or contemplo, senatus consultum or senati consultum. Thanks to +the efforts of the scientific grammarian, and to the systematizing +influence which Greek exerted upon literary Latin, most verbs were made +deponent or active once for all, a given noun was permanently assigned to +a particular declension, a verb to one conjugation, and the slight +tendency which the language had to the analytical method of forming the +moods and tenses was summarily checked. Of course the common people tried +to imitate their betters in all these matters, but the old variable usages +persisted to some extent, and the average man failed to grasp the +niceties of the new grammar at many points. His failures were especially +noticeable where the accepted literary form did not seem to follow the +principles of analogy. When these principles are involved, the common +people are sticklers for consistency. The educated man conjugates: "I +don't," "you don't," "he doesn't," "we don't," "they don't"; but the +anomalous form "he doesn't" has to give way in the speech of the average +man to "he don't." To take only one illustration in Latin of the effect of +the same influence, the present infinitive active of almost all verbs ends +in -re, e.g., amare, monere, and regere. Consequently the irregular +infinitive of the verb "to be able," posse, could not stand its ground, +and ultimately became potere in vulgar Latin. In one respect in the +inflectional forms of the verb, the purist was unexpectedly successful. In +comedy of the third and second centuries B.C., we find sporadic evidence +of a tendency to use auxiliary verbs in forming certain tenses, as we do +in English when we say: "I will go," "I have gone," or "I had gone." This +movement was thoroughly stamped out for the time, and does not reappear +until comparatively late. + +In Latin there are three genders, and the grammatical gender of a noun is +not necessarily identical with its natural gender. For inanimate objects +it is often determined simply by the form of the noun. Sella, seat, of the +first declension, is feminine, because almost all nouns ending in -a are +feminine; hortus, garden, is masculine, because nouns in -us of its +declension are mostly masculine, and so on. From such a system as this two +results are reasonably sure to follow. Where the gender of a noun in +literary Latin did not conform to these rules, in popular Latin it would +be brought into harmony with others of its class. Thus stigma, one of the +few neuter nouns in -a, and consequently assigned to the third declension, +was brought in popular speech into line with sella and the long list of +similar words in -a, was made feminine, and put in the first declension. +In the case of another class of words, analogy was supplemented by a +mechanical influence. We have noticed already that the tendency of the +stressed syllable in a word to absorb effort and attention led to the +obscuration of certain final consonants, because the final syllable was +never protected by the accent. Thus hortus in some parts of the Empire +became hortu in ordinary pronunciation, and the neuter caelum, heaven, +became caelu. The consequent identity in the ending led to a confusion in +the gender, and to the ultimate treatment of the word for "heaven" as a +masculine. These influences and others caused many changes in the gender +of nouns in popular speech, and in course of time brought about the +elimination of the neuter gender from the neo-Latin languages. + +Something has been said already of the vocabulary of the common people. It +was naturally much smaller than that of cultivated people. Its poverty +made their style monotonous when they had occasion to express themselves +in writing, as one can see in reading St. Ætheria's account of her journey +to the Holy Land, and of course this impression of monotony is heightened +by such a writer's inability to vary the form of expression. Even within +its small range it differs from the vocabulary of formal Latin in three or +four important respects. It has no occasion, or little occasion, to use +certain words which a formal writer employs, or it uses substitutes for +them. So testa was used in part for caput, and bucca for os. On the other +hand, it employs certain words and phrases, for instance vulgar words and +expletives, which are not admitted into literature. + +In its choice of words it shows a marked preference for certain suffixes +and prefixes. It would furnish an interesting excursion into folk +psychology to speculate on the reasons for this preference in one case and +another. Sometimes it is possible to make out the influence at work. In +reading a piece of popular Latin one is very likely to be impressed with +the large number of diminutives which are used, sometimes in the strict +sense of the primitive word. The frequency of this usage reminds one in +turn of the fact that not infrequently in the Romance languages the +corresponding words are diminutive forms in their origin, so that +evidently the diminutive in these cases crowded out the primitive word in +popular use, and has continued to our own day. The reason why the +diminutive ending was favored does not seem far to seek. That suffix +properly indicates that the object in question is smaller than the average +of its kind. Smallness in a child stimulates our affection, in a dwarf, +pity or aversion. Now we give expression to our emotion more readily in +the intercourse of every-day life than we do in writing, and the emotions +of the masses are perhaps nearer the surface and more readily stirred than +are those of the classes, and many things excite them which would leave +unruffled the feelings of those who are more conventional. The stirring of +these emotions finds expression in the use of the diminutive ending, which +indirectly, as we have seen, suggests sympathy, affection, pity, or +contempt. The ending -osus for adjectives was favored because of its +sonorous character. Certain prefixes, like de-, dis-, and ex-, were freely +used with verbs, because they strengthened the meaning of the verb, and +popular speech is inclined to emphasize its ideas unduly. + +To speak further of derivation, in the matter of compounds and +crystallized word groups there are usually differences between a spoken +and written language. The written language is apt to establish certain +canons which the people do not observe. For instance, we avoid hybrid +compounds of Greek and Latin elements in the serious writing of English. +In formal Latin we notice the same objection to Greco-Latin words, and yet +in Plautus, and in other colloquial writers, such compounds are freely +used for comic effect. In a somewhat similar category belong the +combinations of two adverbs or prepositions, which one finds in the later +popular Latin, some of which have survived in the Romance languages. A +case in point is ab ante, which has come down to us in the Italian avanti +and the French avant. Such word-groups are of course debarred from formal +speech. + +In examining the vocabulary of colloquial Latin, we have noticed its +comparative poverty, its need of certain words which are not required in +formal Latin, its preference for certain prefixes and suffixes, and its +willingness to violate certain rules, in forming compounds and +word-groups, which the written language scrupulously observes. It remains +for us to consider a third, and perhaps the most important, element of +difference between the vocabularies of the two forms of speech. I mean the +use of a word in vulgar Latin with another meaning from that which it has +in formal Latin. We are familiar enough with the different senses which a +word often has in conversational and in literary English. "Funny," for +instance, means "amusing" in formal English, but it is often the synonym +of "strange" in conversation. The sense of a word may be extended, or be +restricted, or there may be a transfer of meaning. In the colloquial use +of "funny" we have an extension of its literary sense. The same is true of +"splendid," "jolly," "lovely," and "awfully," and of such Latin words as +"lepidus," "probe," and "pulchre." When we speak of "a splendid sun," we +are using splendid in its proper sense of shining or bright, but when we +say, "a splendid fellow," the adjective is used as a general epithet +expressing admiration. On the other hand, when a man of a certain class +refers to his "woman," he is employing the word in the restricted sense of +"wife." Perhaps we should put in a third category that very large +colloquial use of words in a transferred or figurative sense, which is +illustrated by "to touch" or "to strike" when applied to success in +getting money from a person. Our current slang is characterized by the +free use of words in this figurative way. + +Under the head of syntax we must content ourselves with speaking of only +two changes, but these were far-reaching. We have already noticed the +analytical tendency of preliterary Latin. This tendency was held in check, +as we have just observed, so far as verb forms were concerned, but in the +comparison of adjectives and in the use of the cases it steadily made +headway, and ultimately triumphed over the synthetical principle. The +method adopted by literary Latin of indicating the comparative and the +superlative degrees of an adjective, by adding the endings -ior and +-issimus respectively, succumbed in the end to the practice of prefixing +plus or magis and maxime to the positive form. To take another +illustration of the same characteristic of popular Latin, as early as the +time of Plautus, we see a tendency to adopt our modern method of +indicating the relation which a substantive bears to some other word in +the sentence by means of a preposition rather than by simply using a case +form. The careless Roman was inclined to say, for instance, magna pars de +exercitu, rather than to use the genitive case of the word for army, magna +pars exercitus. Perhaps it seemed to him to bring out the relation a +little more clearly or forcibly. + +The use of a preposition to show the relation became almost a necessity +when certain final consonants became silent, because with their +disappearance, and the reduction of the vowels to a uniform quantity, it +was often difficult to distinguish between the cases. Since final -m was +lost in pronunciation, _Asia_ might be nominative, accusative, or +ablative. If you wished to say that something happened in Asia, it would +not suffice to use the simple ablative, because that form would have the +same pronunciation as the nominative or the accusative, Asia(m), but the +preposition must be prefixed, _in Asia_. Another factor cooperated with +those which have already been mentioned in bringing about the confusion of +the cases. Certain prepositions were used with the accusative to indicate +one relation, and with the ablative to suggest another. _In Asia_, for +instance, meant "in Asia," _in Asiam_, "into Asia." When the two case +forms became identical in pronunciation, the meaning of the phrase would +be determined by the verb in the sentence, so that with a verb of going +the preposition would mean "into," while with a verb of rest it would mean +"in." In other words the idea of motion or rest is disassociated from the +case forms. From the analogy of _in_ it was very easy to pass to other +prepositions like _per_, which in literary Latin took the accusative only, +and to use these prepositions also with cases which, historically +speaking, were ablatives. + +In his heart of hearts the school-boy regards the periodic sentences which +Cicero hurled at Catiline, and which Livy used in telling the story of +Rome as unnatural and perverse. All the specious arguments which his +teacher urges upon him, to prove that the periodic form of expression was +just as natural to the Roman as the direct method is to us, fail to +convince him that he is not right in his feeling--and he _is_ right. Of +course in English, as a rule, the subject must precede the verb, the +object must follow it, and the adverb and attribute adjective must stand +before the words to which they belong. In the sentence: "Octavianus wished +Cicero to be saved," not a single change may be made in the order without +changing the sense, but in a language like Latin, where relations are +largely expressed by inflectional forms, almost any order is possible, so +that a writer may vary his arrangement and grouping of words to suit the +thought which he wishes to convey. But this is a different matter from +the construction of a period with its main subject at the beginning, its +main verb at the end, and all sorts of subordinate and modifying clauses +locked in by these two words. This was not the way in which the Romans +talked with one another. We can see that plainly enough from the +conversations in Plautus and Terence. In fact the Latin period is an +artificial product, brought to perfection by many generations of literary +workers, and the nearer we get to the Latin of the common people the more +natural the order and style seem to the English-speaking person. The +speech of the uneducated freedmen in the romance of Petronius is +interesting in this connection. They not only fail to use the period, but +they rarely subordinate one idea to another. Instead of saying "I saw him +when he was an ædile," they are likely to say "I saw him; he was an ædile +then." + +When we were analyzing preliterary Latin, we noticed that the +co-ordination of ideas was one of its characteristics, so that this trait +evidently persisted in popular speech, while literary Latin became more +logical and complex. + +In the preceding pages we have tried to find out the main features of +popular Latin. In doing so we have constantly thought of literary Latin +as the foil or standard of comparison. Now, strangely enough, no sooner +had the literary medium of expression slowly and painfully disassociated +itself from the language of the common people than influences which it +could not resist brought it down again to the level of its humbler +brother. Its integrity depended of course upon the acceptance of certain +recognized standards. But when flourishing schools of literature sprang up +in Spain, in Africa, and in Gaul, the paramount authority of Rome and the +common standard for the Latin world which she had set were lost. When some +men tried to imitate Cicero and Quintilian, and others, Seneca, there +ceased to be a common model of excellence. Similarly a careful distinction +between the diction of prose and verse was gradually obliterated. There +was a loss of interest in literature, and professional writers gave less +attention to their diction and style. The appearance of Christianity, too, +exercised a profound influence on literary Latin. Christian writers and +preachers made their appeal to the common people rather than to the +literary world. They, therefore, expressed themselves in language which +would be readily understood by the average man, as St. Jerome frankly +tells us his purpose was. The result of these influences, and of others, +acting on literary Latin, was to destroy its unity and its carefully +developed scientific system, and to bring it nearer and nearer in its +genius to popular Latin, or, to put it in another way, the literary medium +comes to show many of the characteristics of the spoken language. Gregory +of Tours, writing in the sixth century, laments the fact that he is +unfamiliar with grammatical principles, and with this century literary +Latin may be said to disappear. + +As for popular Latin, it has never ceased to exist. It is the language of +France, Spain, Italy, Roumania, and all the Romance countries to-day. Its +history has been unbroken from the founding of Rome to the present time. +Various scholars have tried to determine the date before which we shall +call the popular speech vulgar Latin, and after which it may better be +styled French or Spanish or Italian, as the case may be. Some would fix +the dividing line in the early part of the eighth century A.D., when +phonetic changes common to all parts of the Roman world would cease to +occur. Others would fix it at different periods between the middle of the +sixth to the middle of the seventh century, according as each section of +the old Roman world passed definitely under the control of its Germanic +invaders. The historical relations of literary and colloquial Latin would +be roughly indicated by the accompanying diagram, in which preliterary +Latin divides, on the appearance of literature in the third century B.C., +into popular Latin and literary Latin. These two forms of speech develop +along independent lines until, in the sixth century, literary Latin is +merged in popular Latin and disappears. The unity for the Latin tongue +thus secured was short lived, because within a century the differentiation +begins which gives rise to the present-day Romance languages. + +It may interest some of the readers of this chapter to look over a few +specimens of vulgar Latin from the various periods of its history. + +(a) The first one is an extract from the Laws of the Twelve Tables. The +original document goes back to the middle of the fifth century B.C., and +shows us some of the characteristics of preliterary Latin. The +non-periodic form, the omission of pronouns, and the change of subject +without warning are especially noticeable. + +"Si in ius vocat, ito. Ni it, antestamino, igitur em (=eum) capito. Si +calvitur pedemve struit, manum endo iacito (=inicito). Si morbus aevitasve +(=aetasve) vitium escit, iumentum dato: si nolet, arceram ne sternito." + +[Illustration: + +1 Preliterary Latin. +2 Vulgar Latin +3 Literary Latin +4-8 The Romance languages. + +] + +(b) This passage from one of Cicero's letters to his brother (_ad Q. +fr._ 2, 3, 2) may illustrate the familiar conversational style of a +gentleman in the first century B.C. It describes an harangue made by the +politician Clodius to his partisans. + +"Ille furens et exsanguis interrogabat suos in clamore ipso quis esset qui +plebem fame necaret. Respondebant operae: 'Pompeius.' Quem ire vellent. +Respondebant: 'Crassum.' Is aderat tum Miloni animo non amico. Hora fere +nona quasi signo dato Clodiani nostros consputare coeperunt. Exarsit +dolor. Vrgere illi ut loco nos moverent." + +(c) In the following passage, Petronius, 57, one of the freedmen at +Trimalchio's dinner flames out in anger at a fellow-guest whose bearing +seems to him supercilious. It shows a great many of the characteristics of +vulgar Latin which have been mentioned in this paper. The similarity of +its style to that of the preliterary specimen is worth observing. The +great number of proverbs and bits of popular wisdom are also noticeable. + +"Et nunc spero me sic vivere, ut nemini iocus sim. Homo inter homines sum, +capite aperto ambulo; assem aerarium nemini debeo; constitutum habui +nunquam; nemo mihi in foro dixit 'redde, quod debes.' Glebulas emi, +lamelullas paravi; viginti ventres pasco et canem; contubernalem meam +redemi, ne quis in sinu illius manus tergeret; mille denarios pro capite +solvi; sevir gratis factus sum; spero, sic moriar, ut mortuus non +erubescam." + +(d) This short inscription from Pompeii shows some of the peculiarities +of popular pronunciation. In ortu we see the same difficulty in knowing +when to sound the aspirate which the cockney Englishman has. The silence +of the final -m, and the reduction of ae to e are also interesting. Presta +mi sinceru (=sincerum): si te amet que (=quae) custodit ortu (=hortum) +Venus. + +(e) Here follow some of the vulgar forms against which a grammarian, +probably of the fourth century, warns his readers. We notice that the +popular "mistakes" to which he calls attention are in (1) syncopation and +assimilation, in (2) the use of the diminutive for the primitive, and +pronouncing au as o, in (3) the same reduction of ct to t (or tt) which we +find in such Romance forms as Ottobre, in (4) the aspirate falsely added, +in (5) syncopation and the confusion of v and b, and in (6) the silence of +final -m. + + (1) frigida non fricda + (2) auris non oricla + (3) auctoritas non autoritas + (4) ostiae non hostiae + (5) vapulo non baplo + (6) passim non passi + +(f) The following passages are taken from Brunot's "Histoire de la +langue Fraçaise," p. 144. In the third column the opening sentence of the +famous Oath of Strasburg of 842 A.D. is given. In the other columns the +form which it would have taken at different periods is set down. These +passages bring out clearly the unbroken line of descent from Latin to +modern French. + + + + + The Oath of Strasburg of 842 + + + Classic Latin + + Per Dei amorem et + per christiani + populi et nostram + communem + salutem, + ab hac die, quantum + Deus scire + et posse mini + dat, servabo + hunc meum fratrem + Carolum + + + Spoken Latin, Seventh Cent. + + For deo amore et + por chrestyano + pob(o)lo et nostro + comune salvamento + de esto + die en avante + en quanto Deos + sabere et podere + me donat, sic + salvarayo eo + eccesto meon + fradre Karlo + + + Actual Text + + Pro deo amur et + pro christian + poblo et nostro + commun salvament, + d'ist di + en avant, in + quant Deus + savir et podir + me dunat, si + salvarai eo cist + meon fradre + Karlo + + + French, Eleventh Cent. + + Por dieu amor et + por del crestüen + poeple et nostre + comun salvement, + de cest + jorn en avant, + quant que Dieus + saveir et podeir + me donet, si + salverai jo cest + mien fredre + Charlon + + + French, Fifteenth Cent. + + Pour l'amour + Dieu et pour le + sauvement du + chrestien peuple + et le nostre commun, + de cest + jour en avant, + quant que Dieu + savoir et pouvoir + me done, + si sauverai je + cest mien frere + Charle + + + Modern French + + Pour l'amour de + Dieu et pour le + salut commun + du peuple chrétien + et le nôtre, + à partir de ce + jour, autant + que Dieu m'en + donne le savoir + et le pouvoir, + je soutiendrai + mon frère Charles + + + + +The Poetry of the Common People of Rome + + + +I. Their Metrical Epitaphs + + +The old village churchyard on a summer afternoon is a favorite spot with +many of us. The absence of movement, contrasted with the life just outside +its walls, the drowsy humming of the bees in the flowers which grow at +will, the restful gray of the stones and the green of the moss give one a +feeling of peace and quiet, while the ancient dates and quaint lettering +in the inscriptions carry us far from the hurry and bustle and trivial +interests of present-day life. No sense of sadness touches us. The stories +which the stones tell are so far removed from us in point of time that +even those who grieved at the loss of the departed have long since +followed their friends, and when we read the bits of life history on the +crumbling monuments, we feel only that pleasurable emotion which, as +Cicero says in one of his letters, comes from our reading in history of +the little tragedies of men of the past. But the epitaph deals with the +common people, whom history is apt to forget, and gives us a glimpse of +their character, their doings, their beliefs, and their views of life and +death. They furnish us a simple and direct record of the life and the +aspirations of the average man, the record of a life not interpreted for +us by the biographer, historian, or novelist, but set down in all its +simplicity by one of the common people themselves. + +These facts lend to the ancient Roman epitaphs their peculiar interest and +charm. They give us a glimpse into the every-day life of the people which +a Cicero, or a Virgil, or even a Horace cannot offer us. They must have +exerted an influence, too, on Roman character, which we with our changed +conditions can scarcely appreciate. We shall understand this fact if we +call to mind the differences between the ancient practices in the matter +of burial and our own. The village churchyard is with us a thing of the +past. Whether on sanitary grounds, or for the sake of quiet and seclusion, +in the interest of economy, or not to obtrude the thought of death upon +us, the modern cemetery is put outside of our towns, and the memorials in +it are rarely read by any of us. Our fathers did otherwise. The churchyard +of old England and of New England was in the middle of the village, and +"short cuts" from one part of the village to another led through its +enclosure. Perhaps it was this fact which tempted our ancestors to set +forth their life histories more fully than we do, who know that few, if +any, will come to read them. Or is the world getting more reserved and +sophisticated? Are we coming to put a greater restraint upon the +expression of our emotions? Do we hesitate more than our fathers did to +talk about ourselves? The ancient Romans were like our fathers in their +willingness or desire to tell us of themselves. Perhaps the differences in +their burial practices, which were mentioned above, tempted them to be +communicative, and sometimes even garrulous. They put their tombstones in +a spot still more frequented than the churchyard. They placed them by the +side of the highways, just outside the city walls, where people were +coming or going constantly. Along the Street of Tombs, as one goes out of +Pompeii, or along the great Appian Way, which runs from Rome to Capua, +Southern Italy and Brundisium, the port of departure for Greece and the +Orient, they stand on both sides of the roadway and make their mute +appeals for our attention. We know their like in the enclosure about old +Trinity in New York, in the burial ground in New Haven, or in the +churchyards across the water. They tell us not merely the date of birth +and death of the deceased, but they let us know enough of his life to +invest it with a certain individuality, and to give it a flavor of its +own. + +Some 40,000 of them have come down to us, and nearly 2,000 of the +inscriptions upon them are metrical. This particular group is of special +interest to us, because the use of verse seems to tempt the engraver to go +beyond a bare statement of facts and to philosophize a bit about the +present and the future. Those who lie beneath the stones still claim some +recognition from the living, for they often call upon the passer-by to +halt and read their epitaphs, and as the Roman walked along the Appian Way +two thousand years ago, or as we stroll along the same highway to-day, it +is in silent converse with the dead. Sometimes the stone itself addresses +us, as does that of Olus Granius:[22] "This mute stone begs thee to stop, +stranger, until it has disclosed its mission and told thee whose shade it +covers. Here lie the bones of a man, modest, honest, and trusty--the +crier, Olus Granius. That is all. It wanted thee not to be unaware of +this. Fare thee well." This craving for the attention of the passer-by +leads the composer of one epitaph to use somewhat the same device which +our advertisers employ in the street-cars when they say: "Do not look at +this spot," for he writes: "Turn not your eyes this way and wish not to +learn our fate," but two lines later, relenting, he adds: "Now stop, +traveller...within this narrow resting-place,"[23] and then we get the +whole story. Sometimes a dramatic, lifelike touch is given by putting the +inscription into the form of a dialogue between the dead and those who are +left behind. Upon a stone found near Rome runs the inscription:[24] +"Hail, name dear to us, Stephanus,...thy Moschis and thy Diodorus salute +thee." To which the dead man replies: "Hail chaste wife, hail Diodorus, +my friend, my brother." The dead man often begs for a pleasant word from +the passer-by. The Romans, for instance, who left Ostia by the highway, +read upon a stone the sentiment:[25] "May it go well with you who lie +within and, as for you who go your way and read these lines, 'the earth +rest lightly on thee' say." This pious salutation loses some of the flavor +of spontaneity in our eyes when we find that it had become so much of a +convention as to be indicated by the initial letters of the several words: +S(it) t(ibi) t(erra) l(evis). The traveller and the departed exchange good +wishes on a stone found near Velitræ:[26] + + "May it go well with you who read and you who pass this way, + The like to mine and me who on this spot my tomb have built." + +One class of passers-by was dreaded by the dweller beneath the stone--the +man with a paint-brush who was looking for a conspicuous spot on which to +paint the name of his favorite political candidate. To such an one the +hope is expressed "that his ambition may be realized, provided he +instructs his slave not to paint this stone."[27] + +These wayside epitaphs must have left an impress on the mind and character +of the Roman which we can scarcely appreciate. The peasant read them as he +trudged homeward on market days, the gentleman, as he drove to his villa +on the countryside, and the traveller who came from the South, the East, +or the North. In them the history of his country was set forth in the +achievements of her great men, her prætors and consuls, her generals who +had conquered and her governors who had ruled Gaul, Spain, Africa, and +Asia. In them the public services, and the deeds of charity of the rich +and powerful were recorded and the homely virtues and self-sacrifices of +the humbler man and woman found expression there. Check by jowl with the +tomb of some great leader upon whom the people or the emperor had showered +all the titles and honors in their power might stand the stone of the poor +physician, Dionysius,[28] of whom it is said "to all the sick who came to +him he gave his services free of charge; he set forth in his deeds what he +taught in his precepts." + +But perhaps more of the inscriptions in verse, and with them we are here +concerned, are in praise of women than of men. They make clear to us the +place which women held in Roman life, the state of society, and the +feminine qualities which were held in most esteem. The world which they +portray is quite another from that of Ovid and Juvenal. The common people +still hold to the old standards of morality and duty. The degeneracy of +smart society has made little progress here. The marriage tie is held +sacred; the wife and husband, the parent and child are held close to each +other in bonds of affection. The virtues of women are those which +Martinianus records on the stone of his wife Sofroniola:[29] + +"Purity, loyalty, affection, a sense of duty, a yielding nature, and +whatever qualities God has implanted in women." + + + (Castitas fides earitas pietas obsequium Et quaecumque deus faemenis + inesse praecepit.) + +Upon a stone near Turin,[30] Valerius wrote in memory of his wife the +simple line: + +"Pure in heart, modest, of seemly bearing, discreet, noble-minded, and +held in high esteem." + + + (Casta pudica decens sapiens Generosa probata.) + +Only one discordant note is struck in this chorus of praise. This fierce +invective stands upon an altar at Rome:[31] "Here for all time has been +set down in writing the shameful record of the freedwoman Acte, of +poisoned mind, and treacherous, cunning, and hard-hearted. Oh! for a nail, +and a hempen rope to choke her, and flaming pitch to burn up her wicked +heart." + +A double tribute is paid to a certain Statilia in this naïve +inscription:[32] "Thou who wert beautiful beyond measure and true to thy +husbands, didst twice enter the bonds of wedlock...and he who came first, +had he been able to withstand the fates, would have set up this stone to +thee, while I, alas! who have been blessed by thy pure heart and love for +thee for sixteen years, lo! now I have lost thee." Still greater sticklers +for the truth at the expense of convention are two fond husbands who +borrowed a pretty couplet composed in memory of some woman "of tender +age," and then substituted upon the monuments of their wives the more +truthful phrase "of middle age,"[33] and another man warns women, from the +fate of his wife, to shun the excessive use of jewels.[34] + +It was only natural that when men came to the end of life they should ask +themselves its meaning, should speculate upon the state after death, and +should turn their thoughts to the powers which controlled their destiny. +We have been accustomed to form our conceptions of the religion of the +Romans from what their philosophers and moralists and poets have written +about it. But a great chasm lies between the teachings of these men and +the beliefs of the common people. Only from a study of the epitaphs do we +know what the average Roman thought and felt on this subject. A few years +ago Professor Harkness, in an admirable article on "The Scepticism and +Fatalism of the Common People of Rome," showed that "the common people +placed no faith in the gods who occupy so prominent a place in Roman +literature, and that their nearest approach to belief in a divinity was +their recognition of fate," which "seldom appears as a fixed law of +nature...but rather as a blind necessity, depending on chance and not on +law." The gods are mentioned by name in the poetic epitaphs only, and for +poetic purposes, and even here only one in fifty of the metrical +inscriptions contains a direct reference to any supernatural power. For +none of these deities, save for Mother Earth, does the writer of an +epitaph show any affection. This feeling one may see in the couplet which +reads:[35] "Mother Earth, to thee have we committed the bones of +Fortunata, to thee who dost come near to thy children as a mother," and +Professor Harkness thoughtfully remarks in this connection that "the love +of nature and appreciation of its beauties, which form a distinguishing +characteristic of Roman literature in contrast to all the other +literatures of antiquity, are the outgrowth of this feeling of kinship +which the Italians entertained for mother earth." + +It is a little surprising, to us on first thought, that the Roman did not +interpose some concrete personalities between himself and this vague +conception of fate, some personal agencies, at least, to carry out the +decrees of destiny. But it will not seem so strange after all when we +recall the fact that the deities of the early Italians were without form +or substance. The anthropomorphic teachings of Greek literature, art, and +religion found an echo in the Jupiter and Juno, the Hercules and Pan of +Virgil and Horace, but made no impress on the faith of the common people, +who, with that regard for tradition which characterized the Romans, +followed the fathers in their way of thinking. + +A disbelief in personal gods hardly accords with faith in a life after +death, but most of the Romans believed in an existence of some sort in the +world beyond. A Dutch scholar has lately established this fact beyond +reasonable doubt, by a careful study of the epitaphs in verse.[36] One +tombstone reads:[37] + + + "Into nothing from nothing how quickly we go," + +and another:[38] + + + "Once we were not, now we are as we were," + +and the sentiment, "I was not, I was, I am not, I care not" (non fui, fui, +non sum, non euro) was so freely used that it is indicated now and then +merely by the initial letters N.f.f.n.s.n.c., but compared with the great +number of inscriptions in which belief in a life after death finds +expression such utterances are few. But how and where that life was to be +passed the Romans were in doubt. We have noticed above how little the +common people accepted the belief of the poets in Jupiter and Pluto and +the other gods, or rather how little their theology had been influenced by +Greek art and literature. In their conception of the place of abode after +death, it is otherwise. Many of them believe with Virgil that it lies +below the earth. As one of them says in his epitaph:[39] + + "No sorrow to the world below I bring." + +Or with other poets the departed are thought of as dwelling in the Elysian +fields or the Isles of the Blessed. As one stone cries out to the +passer-by:[40] "May you live who shall have said. 'She lives in Elysium,'" +and of a little girl it is said:[41] "May thy shade flower in fields +Elysian." Sometimes the soul goes to the sky or the stars: "Here lies the +body of the bard Laberius, for his spirit has gone to the place from +which it came;"[42] "The tomb holds my limbs, my soul shall pass to the +stars of heaven."[43] But more frequently the departed dwell in the tomb. +As one of them expresses it: "This is my eternal home; here have I been +placed; here shall I be for aye." This belief that the shade hovers about +the tomb accounts for the salutations addressed to it which we have +noticed above, and for the food and flowers which are brought to satisfy +its appetites and tastes. These tributes to the dead do not seem to accord +with the current Roman belief that the body was dissolved to dust, and +that the soul was clothed with some incorporeal form, but the Romans were +no more consistent in their eschatology than many of us are. + +Perhaps it was this vague conception of the state after death which +deprived the Roman of that exultant joy in anticipation of the world +beyond which the devout Christian, a hundred years or more ago, expressed +in his epitaphs, with the Golden City so clearly pictured to his eye, and +by way of compensation the Roman was saved from the dread of death, for +no judgment-seat confronted him in the other world. The end of life was +awaited with reasonable composure. Sometimes death was welcomed because it +brought rest. As a citizen of Lambsesis expresses it:[44] "Here is my home +forever; here is a rest from toil;" and upon a woman's stone we read:[45] + + "Whither hast thou gone, dear soul, seeking rest from troubles, + For what else than trouble hast thou had throughout thy life?" + +But this pessimistic view of life rarely appears on the monuments. Not +infrequently the departed expresses a certain satisfaction with his life's +record, as does a citizen of Beneventum, who remarks:[46] "No man have I +wronged, to many have I rendered services," or he tells us of the pleasure +which he has found in the good things of life, and advises us to enjoy +them. A Spanish epitaph reads:[47] "Eat, drink, enjoy thyself, follow me" +(es bibe lude veni). In a lighter or more garrulous vein another says:[48] +"Come, friends, let us enjoy the happy time of life; let us dine merrily, +while short life lasts, mellow with wine, in jocund intercourse. All +these about us did the same while they were living. They gave, received, +and enjoyed good things while they lived. And let us imitate the practices +of the fathers. Live while you live, and begrudge nothing to the dear soul +which Heaven has given you." This philosophy of life is expressed very +succinctly in: "What I have eaten and drunk I have with me; what I have +foregone I have lost,"[49] and still more concretely in: + + "Wine and amours and baths weaken our bodily health, + Yet life is made up of wine and amours and baths."[50] + +Under the statue of a man reclining and holding a cup in his hand, Flavius +Agricola writes:[51] "Tibur was my native place; I was called Agricola, +Flavius too.... I who lie here as you see me. And in the world above in +the years which the fates granted, I cherished my dear soul, nor did the +god of wine e'er fail me.... Ye friends who read this, I bid you mix your +wine, and before death comes, crown your temples with flowers, and +drink.... All the rest the earth and fire consume after death." Probably +we should be wrong in tracing to the teachings of Epicurus, even in their +vulgarized popular form, the theory that the value of life is to be +estimated by the material pleasure it has to offer. A man's theory of life +is largely a matter of temperament or constitution. He may find support +for it in the teachings of philosophy, but he is apt to choose a +philosophy which suits his way of thinking rather than to let his views of +life be determined by abstract philosophic teachings. The men whose +epitaphs we have just read would probably have been hedonists if Epicurus +had never lived. It is interesting to note in passing that holding this +conception of life naturally presupposes the acceptance of one of the +notions of death which we considered above--that it ends all. + +In another connection, a year or two ago, I had occasion to speak of the +literary merit of some of these metrical epitaphs,[52] of their interest +for us as specimens of the literary compositions of the common people, and +of their value in indicating the æsthetic taste of the average Roman. It +may not be without interest here to speak of the literary form of some of +them a little more at length than was possible in that connection. Latin +has always been, and continues to be among modern peoples, a favored +language for epitaphs and dedications. The reasons why it holds its +favored position are not far to seek. It is vigorous and concise. Then +again in English and in most modern languages the order which words may +take in a given sentence is in most cases inexorably fixed by grammatical +necessity. It was not so with Latin. Its highly inflected character made +it possible, as we know, to arrange the words which convey an idea in +various orders, and these different groupings of the same words gave +different shades of meaning to the sentence, and different emotional +effects are secured by changing the sequence in which the minor +conceptions are presented. By putting contrasted words side by side, or at +corresponding points in the sentence, the impression is heightened. When a +composition takes the form of verse the possibilities in the way of +contrast are largely increased. The high degree of perfection to which +Horace brought the balancing and interlocking of ideas in some of his +Odes, illustrates the great advantage which the Latin poet had over the +English writer because of the flexibility of the medium of expression +which he used. This advantage was the Roman's birthright, and lends a +certain distinction even to the verses of the people, which we are +discussing here. Certain other stylistic qualities of these metrical +epitaphs, which are intended to produce somewhat the same effects, will +not seem to us so admirable. I mean alliteration, play upon words, the +acrostic arrangement, and epigrammatic effects. These literary tricks find +little place in our serious verse, and the finer Latin poets rarely +indulge in them. They seem to be especially out of place in an epitaph, +which should avoid studied effects and meretricious devices. But writers +in the early stages of a literature and common people of all periods find +a pleasure in them. Alliteration, onomatopoeia, the pun, and the play on +words are to be found in all the early Latin poets, and they are +especially frequent with literary men like Plautus and Terence, Pacuvius +and Accius, who wrote for the stage, and therefore for the common people. +One or two illustrations of the use of these literary devices may be +sufficient. A little girl at Rome, who died when five years old, bore the +strange name of Mater, or Mother, and on her tombstone stands the +sentiment:[53] "Mater I was by name, mater I shall not be by law." +"Sepulcrum hau pulcrum pulcrai feminae" of the famous Claudia +inscription,[54] Professor Lane cleverly rendered "Site not sightly of a +sightly dame." Quite beyond my power of translating into English, so as to +reproduce its complicated play on words, is the appropriate epitaph of the +rhetorician, Romanius lovinus:[55] + + + "Docta loqui doctus quique loqui docuit." + +A great variety of verses is used in the epitaphs, but the dactylic +hexameter and the elegiac are the favorites. The stately character of the +hexameter makes it a suitable medium in which to express a serious +sentiment, while the sudden break in the second verse of the elegiac +couplet suggests the emotion of the writer. The verses are constructed +with considerable regard for technique. Now and then there is a false +quantity, an unpleasant sequence, or a heavy effect, but such blemishes +are comparatively infrequent. There is much that is trivial, commonplace, +and prosaic in these productions of the common people, but now and then +one comes upon a phrase, a verse, or a whole poem which shows strength or +grace or pathos. An orator of the late period, not without vigor, writes +upon his tombstone:[56] "I have lived blessed by the gods, by friends, by +letters." + + (Vixi beatus dis, amicis, literis.) + +A rather pretty, though not unusual, sentiment occurs in an elegiac +couplet to a young girl,[57] in which the word amoena is the adjective, +meaning "pleasant to see," in the first, while in the second verse it is +the girl's name: "As a rose is amoena when it blooms in the early spring +time, so was I Amoena to those who saw me." + + (Ut rosa amoena homini est quom primo tempore floret. + Quei me viderunt, seic Amoena fui.) + +There is a touch of pathos in the inscription which a mother put on the +stone of her son:[58] "A sorrowing mother has set up this monument to a +son who has never caused her any sorrow, except that he is no more," and +in this tribute of a husband:[59] "Out of my slender means now that the +end has come, my wife, all that I could do, this gift, a small small one +for thy deserts, have I made." The epitaph of a little girl, named +Felicia, or Kitty, has this sentiment in graceful verse:[60] "Rest lightly +upon thee the earth, and over thy grave the fragrant balsam grow, and +roses sweet entwine thy buried bones." Upon the stone of a little girl who +bore the name of Xanthippe, and the nickname Iaia, is an inscription with +one of two pretty conceits and phrases. With it we may properly bring to +an end our brief survey of these verses of the common people of Rome. In a +somewhat free rendering it reads in part:[61] "Whether the thought of +death distress thee or of life, read to the end. Xanthippe by name, yclept +also Iaia by way of jest, escapes from sorrow since her soul from the body +flies. She rests here in the soft cradle of the earth,... comely, +charming, keen of mind, gay in discourse. If there be aught of compassion +in the gods above, bear her to the sun and light." + + + + +II. Their Dedicatory and Ephemeral Verses + + +In the last paper we took up for consideration some of the Roman metrical +epitaphs. These compositions, however, do not include all the productions +in verse of the common people of Rome. On temples, altars, bridges, +statues, and house walls, now and then, we find bits of verse. Most of the +extant dedicatory lines are in honor of Hercules, Silvanus, Priapus, and +the Cæsars. Whether the two famous inscriptions to Hercules by the sons of +Vertuleius and by Mummius belong here or not it is hard to say. At all +events, they were probably composed by amateurs, and have a peculiar +interest for us because they belong to the second century B.C., and +therefore stand near the beginning of Latin letters; they show us the +language before it had been perfected and adapted to literary purposes by +an Ennius, a Virgil, and a Horace, and they are written in the old native +Saturnian verse, into which Livius Andronicus, "the Father of Latin +literature," translated the Odyssey. Consequently they show us the +language before it had gained in polish and lost in vigor under the +influence of the Greeks. The second of these two little poems is a +finger-post, in fact, at the parting of the ways for Roman civilization. +It was upon a tablet let into the wall of the temple of Hercules, and +commemorates the triumphant return to Rome of Mummius, the conqueror of +Corinth. It points back to the good old days of Roman contempt for Greek +art, and ignorance of it, for Mummius, in his stupid indifference to the +beautiful monuments of Corinth, made himself the typical Philistine for +all time. It points forward to the new Greco-Roman civilization of Italy, +because the works of art which Mummius is said to have brought back with +him, and the Greeks who probably followed in his train, augmented that +stream of Greek influence which in the next century or two swept through +the peninsula. + +In the same primitive metre as these dedications is the Song of the Arval +Brothers, which was found engraved on a stone in the grove of the goddess +Dea Dia, a few miles outside of Rome. This hymn the priests sang at the +May festival of the goddess, when the farmers brought them the first +fruits of the earth. It has no intrinsic literary merit, but it carries us +back beyond the great wars with Carthage for supremacy in the western +Mediterranean, beyond the contest with Pyrrhus for overlordship in +Southern Italy, beyond the struggle for life with the Samnites in Central +Italy, beyond even the founding of the city on the Tiber, to a people who +lived by tilling the soil and tending their flocks and herds. + +But we have turned away from the dedicatory verses. On the bridges which +span our streams we sometimes record the names of the commissioners or the +engineers, or the bridge builders responsible for the structure. Perhaps +we are wise in thinking these prosaic inscriptions suitable for our ugly +iron bridges. Their more picturesque stone structures tempted the Romans +now and then to drop into verse, and to go beyond a bare statement of the +facts of construction. Over the Anio in Italy, on a bridge which Narses, +the great general of Justinian, restored, the Roman, as he passed, read in +graceful verse:[62] "We go on our way with the swift-moving waters of the +torrent beneath our feet, and we delight on hearing the roar of the angry +water. Go then joyfully at your ease, Quirites, and let the echoing +murmur of the stream sing ever of Narses. He who could subdue the +unyielding spirit of the Goths has taught the rivers to bear a stern +yoke." + +It is an interesting thing to find that the prettiest of the dedicatory +poems are in honor of the forest-god Silvanus. One of these poems, Titus +Pomponius Victor, the agent of the Cæsars, left inscribed upon a +tablet[63] high up in the Grecian Alps. It reads: "Silvanus, half-enclosed +in the sacred ash-tree, guardian mighty art thou of this pleasaunce in the +heights. To thee we consecrate in verse these thanks, because across the +fields and Alpine tops, and through thy guests in sweetly smelling groves, +while justice I dispense and the concerns of Cæsar serve, with thy +protecting care thou guidest us. Bring me and mine to Rome once more, and +grant that we may till Italian fields with thee as guardian. In guerdon +therefor will I give a thousand mighty trees." It is a pretty picture. +This deputy of Cæsar has finished his long and perilous journeys through +the wilds of the North in the performance of his duties. His face is now +turned toward Italy, and his thoughts are fixed on Rome. In this "little +garden spot," as he calls it, in the mountains he pours out his gratitude +to the forest-god, who has carried him safely through dangers and brought +him thus far on his homeward way, and he vows a thousand trees to his +protector. It is too bad that we do not know how the vow was to be +paid--not by cutting down the trees, we feel sure. One line of Victor's +little poem is worth quoting in the original. He thanks Silvanus for +conducting him in safety "through the mountain heights, and through Tuique +luci suave olentis hospites." Who are the _hospites_? The wild beasts of +the forests, we suppose. Now _hospites_ may, of course, mean either +"guests" or "hosts," and it is a pretty conceit of Victor's to think of +the wolves and bears as the guests of the forest-god, as we have ventured +to render the phrase in the translation given above. Or, are they Victor's +hosts, whose characters have been so changed by Silvanus that Victor has +had friendly help rather than fierce attacks from them? + +A very modern practice is revealed by a stone found near the famous temple +of Æsculapius, the god of healing, at Epidaurus in Argolis, upon which +two ears are shown in relief, and below them the Latin couplet:[64] "Long +ago Cutius Gallus had vowed these ears to thee, scion of Phoebus, and now +he has put them here, for thou hast healed his ears." It is an ancient +ex-voto, and calls to mind on the one hand the cult of Æsculapius, which +Walter Pater has so charmingly portrayed in Marius the Epicurean, and on +the other hand it shows us that the practice of setting up ex-votos, of +which one sees so many at shrines and in churches across the water to-day, +has been borrowed from the pagans. A pretty bit of sentiment is suggested +by an inscription[65] found near the ancient village of Ucetia in Southern +France: "This shrine to the Nymphs have I built, because many times and +oft have I used this spring when an old man as well as a youth." + +All of the verses which we have been considering up to this point have +come down to us more or less carefully engraved upon stone, in honor of +some god, to record some achievement of importance, or in memory of a +departed friend. But besides these formal records of the past, we find a +great many hastily scratched or painted sentiments or notices, which have +a peculiar interest for us because they are the careless effusions or +unstudied productions of the moment, and give us the atmosphere of +antiquity as nothing else can do. The stuccoed walls of the houses, and +the sharp-pointed stylus which was used in writing on wax tablets offered +too strong a temptation for the lounger or passer-by to resist. To people +of this class, and to merchants advertising their wares, we owe the three +thousand or more graffiti found at Pompeii. The ephemeral inscriptions +which were intended for practical purposes, such as the election notices, +the announcements of gladiatorial contests, of houses to rent, of articles +lost and for sale, are in prose, but the lovelorn lounger inscribed his +sentiments frequently in verse, and these verses deserve a passing notice +here. One man of this class in his erotic ecstasy writes on the wall of a +Pompeian basilica:[66] "May I perish if I'd wish to be a god without +thee." That hope sprang eternal in the breast of the Pompeian lover is +illustrated by the last two lines of this tragic declaration:[67] + + "If you can and won't, + Give me hope no more. + Hope you foster and you ever + Bid me come again to-morrow. + Force me then to die + Whom you force to live + A life apart from you. + Death will be a boon, + Not to be tormented. + Yet what hope has snatched away + To the lover hope gives back." + +This effusion has led another passer-by to write beneath it the Delphic +sentiment: "May the man who shall read this never read anything else." The +symptoms of the ailment in its most acute form are described by some Roman +lover in the verses which he has left us on the wall of Caligula's palace, +on the Palatine:[68] + + "No courage in my heart, + No sleep to close my eyes, + A tide of surging love + Throughout the day and night." + +This seems to come from one who looks upon the lover with a sympathetic +eye, but who is himself fancy free: + + "Whoever loves, good health to him, + And perish he who knows not how, + But doubly ruined may he be + Who will not yield to love's appeal."[69] + +The first verse of this little poem, + + "Quisquis amat valeat, pereat qui nescit amare," + +represented by the first couplet of the English rendering, calls to mind +the swinging refrain which we find a century or two later in the +_Pervigilium Veneris_, that last lyrical outburst of the pagan world, +written for the eve of the spring festival of Venus: + + "Cras amet qui nunquam amavit quique amavit eras amet." + + (To-morrow he shall love who ne'er has loved + And who has loved, to-morrow he shall love.) + +An interesting study might be made of the favorite types of feminine +beauty in the Roman poets. Horace sings of the "golden-haired" Pyrrhas, +and Phyllises, and Chloes, and seems to have had an admiration for +blondes, but a poet of the common people, who has recorded his opinion on +this subject in the atrium of a Pompeian house, shows a more catholic +taste, although his freedom of judgment is held in some constraint: + + "My fair girl has taught me to hate + Brunettes with their tresses of black. + I will hate if I can, but if not, + 'Gainst my will I must love them also."[70] + +On the other hand, one Pompeian had such an inborn dread of brunettes +that, whenever he met one, he found it necessary to take an appropriate +antidote, or prophylactic: + + "Whoever loves a maiden dark + By charcoal dark is he consumed. + When maiden dark I light upon + I eat the saving blackberry."[71] + +These amateur poets do not rely entirely upon their own Muse, but borrow +from Ovid, Propertius, or Virgil, when they recall sentiments in those +writers which express their feelings. Sometimes it is a tag, or a line, or +a couplet which is taken, but the borrowings are woven into the context +with some skill. The poet above who is under compulsion from his blonde +sweetheart, has taken the second half of his production verbatim from +Ovid, and for the first half of it has modified a line of Propertius. +Other writers have set down their sentiments in verse on more prosaic +subjects. A traveller on his way to the capital has scribbled these lines +on the wall, perhaps of a wine-shop where he stopped for refreshment:[72] + + "Hither have we come in safety. + Now I hasten on my way, + That once more it may be mine + To behold our Lares, Rome." + +At one point in a Pompeian street, the eye of a straggler would catch this +notice in doggerel verse:[73] + + "Here's no place for loafers. + Lounger, move along!" + +On the wall of a wine-shop a barmaid has thus advertised her wares:[74] + + "Here for a cent is a drink, + Two cents brings something still better. + Four cents in all, if you pay, + Wine of Falernum is yours." + +It must have been a lineal descendant of one of the parasites of Plautus +who wrote:[75] + + "A barbarian he is to me + At whose house I'm not asked to dine." + +Here is a sentiment which sounds very modern: + + "The common opinion is this: + That property should be divided."[76] + +This touch of modernity reminds one of another group of verses which +brings antiquity into the closest possible touch with some present-day +practices. The Romans, like ourselves, were great travellers and +sightseers, and the marvels of Egypt in particular appealed to them, as +they do to us, with irresistible force. Above all, the great statue of +Memnon, which gave forth a strange sound when it was struck by the first +rays of the rising sun, drew travellers from far and near. Those of us who +know the Mammoth Cave, Niagara Falls, the Garden of the Gods, or some +other of our natural wonders, will recall how fond a certain class of +visitors are of immortalizing themselves by scratching their names or a +sentiment on the walls or the rocks which form these marvels. Such +inscriptions We find on the temple walls in Egypt--three of them appear +on the statue of Memnon, recording in verse the fact that the writers had +visited the statue and heard the voice of the god at sunrise. One of these +Egyptian travellers, a certain Roman lady journeying up the Nile, has +scratched these verses on a wall of the temple at Memphis:[77] + + "The pyramids without thee have I seen, + My brother sweet, and yet, as tribute sad, + The bitter tears have poured adown my cheek, + And sadly mindful of thy absence now + I chisel here this melancholy note." + +Then follow the name and titles of the absent brother, who is better known +to posterity from these scribbled lines of a Cook's tourist than from any +official records which have come down to us. All of these pieces of +popular poetry which we have been discussing thus far were engraved on +stone, bronze, stucco, or on some other durable material. A very few bits +of this kind of verse, from one to a half dozen lines in length, have come +down to us in literature. They have the unique distinction, too, of being +specimens of Roman folk poetry, and some of them are found in the most +unlikely places. Two of them are preserved by a learned commentator on +the Epistles of Horace. They carry us back to our school-boy days. When we +read + + "The plague take him who's last to reach me,"[78] + +we can see the Roman urchin standing in the market-place, chanting the +magic formula, and opposite him the row of youngsters on tiptoe, each one +waiting for the signal to run across the intervening space and be the +first to touch their comrade. What visions of early days come back to +us--days when we clasped hands in a circle and danced about one or two +children placed in the centre of the ring, and chanted in unison some +refrain, upon reading in the same commentator to Horace a ditty which +runs:[79] + + "King shall you be + If you do well. + If you do ill + You shall not be." + +The other bits of Roman folk poetry which we have are most of them +preserved by Suetonius, the gossipy biographer of the Cæsars. They recall +very different scenes. Cæsar has returned in triumph to Rome, bringing in +his train the trousered Gauls, to mingle on the street with the toga-clad +Romans. He has even had the audacity to enroll some of these strange +peoples in the Roman senate, that ancient body of dignity and convention, +and the people chant in the streets the ditty:[80] + + "Cæsar leads the Gauls in triumph, + In the senate too he puts them. + Now they've donned the broad-striped toga + And have laid aside their breeches." + +Such acts as these on Cæsar's part led some political versifier to write +on Cæsar's statue a couplet which contrasted his conduct with that of the +first great republican, Lucius Brutus: + + "Brutus drove the kings from Rome, + And first consul thus became. + This man drove the consuls out, + And at last became the king."[81] + +We may fancy that these verses played no small part in spurring on Marcus +Brutus to emulate his ancestor and join the conspiracy against the +tyrant. With one more bit of folk poetry, quoted by Suetonius, we may +bring our sketch to an end. Germanicus Cæsar, the flower of the imperial +family, the brilliant general and idol of the people, is suddenly stricken +with a mortal illness. The crowds throng the streets to hear the latest +news from the sick-chamber of their hero. Suddenly the rumor flies through +the streets that the crisis is past, that Germanicus will live, and the +crowds surge through the public squares chanting: + + "Saved now is Rome, + Saved too the land, + Saved our Germanicus."[82] + + + + + +The Origin of the Realistic Romance among the Romans + + + +One of the most fascinating and tantalizing problems of literary history +concerns the origin of prose fiction among the Romans. We can trace the +growth of the epic from its infancy in the third century before Christ as +it develops in strength in the poems of Nævius, Ennius, and Cicero until +it reaches its full stature in the _Æneid_, and then we can see the +decline of its vigor in the _Pharsalia_, the _Punica_, the _Thebais_, and +_Achilleis_, until it practically dies a natural death in the mythological +and historical poems of Claudian. The way also in which tragedy, comedy, +lyric poetry, history, biography, and the other types of literature in +prose and verse came into existence and developed among the Romans can be +followed with reasonable success. But the origin and early history of the +novel is involved in obscurity. The great realistic romance of Petronius +of the first century of our era is without a legally recognized ancestor +and has no direct descendant. The situation is the more surprising when we +recall its probable size in its original form. Of course only a part of it +has come down to us, some one hundred and ten pages in all. Its great size +probably proved fatal to its preservation in its complete form, or at +least contributed to that end, for it has been estimated that it ran from +six hundred to nine hundred pages, being longer, therefore, than the +average novel of Dickens and Scott. Consequently we are not dealing with a +bit of ephemeral literature, but with an elaborate composition of a high +degree of excellence, behind which we should expect to find a long line of +development. We are puzzled not so much by the utter absence of anything +in the way of prose fiction before the time of Petronius as by the +difficulty of establishing any satisfactory logical connection between +these pieces of literature and the romance of Petronius. We are +bewildered, in fact, by the various possibilities which the situation +presents. The work shows points of similarity with several antecedent +forms of composition, but the gaps which lie in any assumed line of +descent are so great as to make us question its correctness. + +If we call to mind the present condition of this romance and those +characteristic features of it which are pertinent to the question at +issue, the nature of the problem and its difficulty also will be apparent +at once. Out of the original work, in a rather fragmentary form, only four +or five main episodes are extant, one of which is the brilliant story of +the Dinner of Trimalchio. The action takes place for the most part in +Southern Italy, and the principal characters are freedmen who have made +their fortunes and degenerate freemen who are picking up a precarious +living by their wits. The freemen, who are the central figures in the +novel, are involved in a great variety of experiences, most of them of a +disgraceful sort, and the story is a story of low life. Women play an +important rôle in the narrative, more important perhaps than they do in +any other kind of ancient literature--at least their individuality is more +marked. The efficient motif is erotic. I say the efficient, because the +conventional motif which seems to account for all the misadventures of the +anti-hero Encolpius is the wrath of an offended deity. A great part of +the book has an atmosphere of satire about it which piques our curiosity +and baffles us at the same time, because it is hard to say how much of +this element is inherent in the subject itself, and how much of it lies in +the intention of the author. It is the characteristic of parvenu society +to imitate smart society to the best of its ability, and its social +functions are a parody of the like events in the upper set. The story of a +dinner party, for instance, given by such a _nouveau riche_ as Trimalchio, +would constantly remind us by its likeness and its unlikeness, by its sins +of omission and commission, of a similar event in correct society. In +other words, it would be a parody on a proper dinner, even if the man who +described the event knew nothing about the usages of good society, and +with no ulterior motive in mind set down accurately the doings of his +upstart characters. For instance, when Trimalchio's chef has three white +pigs driven into the dining-room for the ostensible purpose of allowing +the guests to pick one out for the next course, with the memory of our own +monkey breakfasts and horseback dinners in mind, we may feel that this is +a not improbable attempt on the part of a Roman parvenu to imitate his +betters in giving a dinner somewhat out of the ordinary. Members of the +smart set at Rome try to impress their guests by the value and weight of +their silver plate. Why shouldn't the host of our story adopt the more +direct and effective way of accomplishing the same object by having the +weight of silver engraved on each article? He does so. It is a very +natural thing for him to do. In good society they talk of literature and +art. Why isn't it natural for Trimalchio to turn the conversation into the +same channels, even if he does make Hannibal take Troy and does confuse +the epic heroes and some late champions of the gladiatorial ring? + +In other words, much of that which is satirical in Petronius is so only +because we are setting up in our minds a comparison between the doings of +his rich freedmen and the requirements of good taste and moderation. But +it seems possible to detect a satirical or a cynical purpose on the part +of the author carried farther than is involved in the choice of his +subject and the realistic presentation of his characters. Petronius seems +to delight in putting his most admirable sentiments in the mouths of +contemptible characters. Some of the best literary criticism we have of +the period, he presents through the medium of the parasite rhetorician +Agamemnon. That happy phrase characterizing Horace's style, "curiosa +felicitas," which has perhaps never been equalled in its brevity and +appositeness, is coined by the incorrigible poetaster Eumolpus. It is he +too who composes and recites the two rather brilliant epic poems +incorporated into the _Satirae_, one of which is received with a shower of +stones by the bystanders. The impassioned eulogy of the careers of +Democritus, Chrysippus, Lysippus, and Myron, who had endured hunger, pain, +and weariness of body and mind for the sake of science, art, and the good +of their fellow-men, and the diatribe against the pursuit of comfort and +pleasure which characterized the people of his own time, are put in the +mouth of the same _roué_ Eumolpus. + +These situations have the true Horatian humor about them. The most serious +and systematic discourse which Horace has given us, in his Satires, on the +art of living, comes from the crack-brained Damasippus, who has made a +failure of his own life. In another of his poems, after having set forth +at great length the weaknesses of his fellow-mortals, Horace himself is +convicted of being inconsistent, a slave to his passions, and a victim of +hot temper by his own slave Davus. We are reminded again of the literary +method of Horace in his Satires when we read the dramatic description of +the shipwreck in Petronius. The blackness of night descends upon the +water; the little bark which contains the hero and his friends is at the +mercy of the sea; Lichas, the master of the vessel, is swept from the deck +by a wave, Encolpius and his comrade Giton prepare to die in each other's +embrace, but the tragic scene ends with a ridiculous picture of Eumolpus +bellowing out above the roar of the storm a new poem which he is setting +down upon a huge piece of parchment. Evidently Petronius has the same +dread of being taken too seriously which Horace shows so often in his +Satires. The cynical, or at least unmoral, attitude of Petronius is +brought out in a still more marked way at the close of this same passage. +Of those upon the ill-fated ship the degenerates Encolpius, Giton, and +Eumolpus, who have wronged Lichas irreparably, escape, while the pious +Lichas meets a horrible death. All this seems to make it clear that not +only does the subject which Petronius has treated inevitably involve a +satire upon contemporary society, but that the author takes a satirical or +cynical attitude toward life. + +Another characteristic of the story is its realism. There are no +marvellous adventures, and in fact no improbable incidents in it. The +author never obtrudes his own personality upon us, as his successor +Apuleius sometimes does, or as Thackeray has done. We know what the people +in the story are like, not from the author's description of them, but from +their actions, from the subjects about which they talk, and from the way +in which they talk. Agamemnon converses as a rhetorician might talk, +Habinnas like a millionnaire stone-cutter, and Echion like a rag-dealer, +and their language and style are what we should expect from men of their +standing in society and of their occupations. The conversations of +Trimalchio and his freedmen guests are not witty, and their jests are not +clever. This adherence to the true principles of realism is the more +noteworthy in the case of so brilliant a writer as Petronius, and those of +us who recall some of the preternaturally clever conversations in the +pages of Henry James and other contemporary novelists may feel that in +this respect he is a truer artist than they are. + +The novel of Petronius has one other characteristic which is significant, +if we attempt to trace the origin of this type of literature. It is cast +in the prose-poetic form, that is, passages in verse are inserted here and +there in the narrative. In a few cases they are quoted, but for the most +part they are the original compositions of the novelist. They range in +length from couplets to poems of three hundred lines. Sometimes they form +an integral part of the narrative, or again they illustrate a point, +elaborate an idea in poetry, or are exercises in verse. + +We have tried to bring out the characteristic features of this romance in +order that we may see what the essential elements are of the problem which +faces one in attempting to explain the origin of the type of literature +represented by the work of Petronius. What was there in antecedent +literature which will help us to understand the appearance on Italian soil +in the first century of our era of a long erotic story of adventure, +dealing in a realistic way with every-day life, marked by a satirical +tone and with a leaning toward the prose-poetic form? This is the question +raised by the analysis, which we have made above, of the characteristics +of the story. We have no ambitious hope of solving it, yet the mere +statement of a puzzling but interesting problem is stimulating to the +imagination and the intellect, and I am tempted to take up the subject +because the discovery of certain papyri in Egypt within recent years has +led to the formulation of a new theory of the origin of the romance of +perilous adventure, and may, therefore, throw some light on the source of +our realistic novel of every-day life. My purpose, then, is to speak +briefly of the different genres of literature of the earlier period with +which the story of Petronius may stand in some direct relation, or from +which the suggestion may have come to Petronius for his work. Several of +these lines of possible descent have been skilfully traced by others. In +their views here and there I have made some modifications, and I have +called attention to one or two types of literature, belonging to the +earlier period and heretofore unnoticed in this connection, which may help +us to understand the appearance of the realistic novel. + +It seems a far cry from this story of sordid motives and vulgar action to +the heroic episodes of epic poetry, and yet the _Satirae_ contain not a +few more or less direct suggestions of epic situations and characters. The +conventional motif of the story of Petronius is the wrath of an offended +deity. The narrative in the _Odyssey_ and the _Æneid_ rests on the same +basis. The ship of their enemy Lichas on which Encolpius and his +companions are cooped up reminds them of the cave of the Cyclops; Giton +hiding from the town-crier under a mattress is compared to Ulysses +underneath the sheep and clinging to its wool to escape the eye of the +Cyclops, while the woman whose charms engage the attention of Encolpius at +Croton bears the name of Circe. It seems to be clear from these +reminiscences that Petronius had the epic in mind when he wrote his story, +and his novel may well be a direct or an indirect parody of an epic +narrative. Rohde in his analysis of the serious Greek romance of the +centuries subsequent to Petronius has postulated the following development +for that form of story: Travellers returning from remote parts of the +world told remarkable stories of their experiences. Some of these stories +took a literary form in the _Odyssey_ and the Tales of the Argonauts. They +appeared in prose, too, in narratives like the story of Sinbad the Sailor, +of a much later date. A more definite plot and a greater dramatic +intensity were given to these tales of adventure by the addition of an +erotic element which often took the form of two separated lovers. Some use +is made of this element, for instance, in the relations of Odysseus and +Penelope, perhaps in the episode of Æneas and Dido, and in the story of +Jason and Medea. The intrusion of the love motif into the stories told of +demigods and heroes, so that the whole narrative turns upon it, is +illustrated by such tales in the Metamorphoses of Ovid as those of Pyramus +and Thisbe, Pluto and Proserpina, or Meleager and Atalanta. The love +element, which may have been developed in this way out of its slight use +in the epic, and the element of adventure form the basis of the serious +Greek romances of Antonius Diogenes, Achilles Tatius, and the other +writers of the centuries which follow Petronius. + +Before trying to connect the _Satirae_ with a serious romance of the type +just mentioned, let us follow another line of descent which leads us to +the same objective point, viz., the appearance of the serious story in +prose. We have been led to consider the possible connection of this kind +of prose fiction with the epic by the presence in both of them of the love +element and that of adventure. But the Greek novel has another rather +marked feature. It is rhetorical, and this quality has suggested that it +may have come, not from the epic, but from the rhetorical exercise. +Support has been given to this theory within recent years by the discovery +in Egypt of two fragments of the Ninos romance. The first of these +fragments reveals Ninos, the hero, pleading with his aunt Derkeia, the +mother of his sweetheart, for permission to marry his cousin. All the +arguments in support of his plea and against it are put forward and +balanced one against the other in a very systematic way. He wins over +Derkeia. Later in the same fragment the girl pleads in a somewhat similar +fashion with Thambe, the mother of Ninos. The second fragment is mainly +concerned with the campaigns of Ninos. Here we have the two lovers, +probably separated by the departure of Ninos for the wars, while the +hero, at least, is exposed to the danger of the campaign. + +The point was made after the text of this find had been published that the +large part taken in the tale by the carefully balanced arguments indicated +that the story grew out of exercises in argumentation in the rhetorical +schools.[83] The elder Seneca has preserved for us in his _Controversiae_ +specimens of the themes which were set for students in these schools. The +student was asked to imagine himself in a supposed dilemma and then to +discuss the considerations which would lead him to adopt the one or the +other line of conduct. Some of these situations suggest excellent dramatic +possibilities, conditions of life, for instance, where suicide seemed +justifiable, misadventures with pirates, or a turn of affairs which +threatened a woman's virtue. Before the student reached the point of +arguing the case, the story must be told, and out of these narratives of +adventure, told at the outset to develop the dilemma, may have grown the +romance of adventure, written for its own sake. The story of Ninos has a +peculiar interest in connection with this theory, because it was probably +very short, and consequently may give us the connecting link between the +rhetorical exercise and the long novel of the later period, and because it +is the earliest known serious romance. On the back of the papyrus which +contains it are some farm accounts of the year 101 A.D. Evidently by that +time the roll had become waste paper, and the story itself may have been +composed a century or even two centuries earlier. So far as this second +theory is concerned, we may raise the question in passing whether we have +any other instance of a genre of literature growing out of a school-boy +exercise. Usually the teacher adapts to his purpose some form of creative +literature already in existence. + +Leaving this objection out of account for the moment, the romance of love +and perilous adventure may possibly be then a lineal descendant either of +the epic or of the rhetorical exercise. Whichever of these two views is +the correct one, the discovery of the Ninos romance fills in a gap in one +theory of the origin of the realistic romance of Petronius, and with that +we are here concerned. Before the story of Ninos was found, no serious +romance and no title of such a romance anterior to the time of Petronius +was known. This story, as we have seen, may well go back to the first +century before Christ, or at least to the beginning of our era. It is +conceivable that stories like it, but now lost, existed even at an earlier +date. Now in the century, more or less, which elapsed between the assumed +date of the appearance of these Greek narratives and the time of +Petronius, the extraordinary commercial development of Rome had created a +new aristocracy--the aristocracy of wealth. In harmony with this social +change the military chieftain and the political leader who had been the +heroes of the old fiction gave way to the substantial man of affairs of +the new, just as Thaddeus of Warsaw has yielded his place in our +present-day novels to Silas Lapham, and the bourgeois erotic story of +adventure resulted, as we find it in the extant Greek novels of the second +and third centuries of our era. If we can assume that this stage of +development was reached before the time of Petronius we can think of his +novel as a parody of such a romance. If, however, the bourgeois romance +had not appeared before 50 A.D., then, if we regard his story as a parody +of a prose narrative, it must be a parody of such an heroic romance as +that of Ninos, or a parody of the longer heroic romances which developed +out of the rhetorical narrative. If excavations in Egypt or at Herculaneum +should bring to light a serious bourgeois story of adventure, they would +furnish us the missing link. Until, or unless, such a discovery is made +the chain of evidence is incomplete. + +The two theories of the realistic romance which we have been discussing +assume that it is a parody of some anterior form of literature, and that +this fact accounts for the appearance of the satirical or cynical element +in it. Other students of literary history, however, think that this +characteristic was brought over directly from the Milesian tale[84] or the +Menippean satire.[85] To how many different kinds of stories the term +"Milesian tale" was applied by the ancients is a matter of dispute, but +the existence of the short story before the time of Petronius is beyond +question. Indeed we find specimens of it. In its commonest form it +presented a single episode of every-day life. It brought out some human +weakness or foible. Very often it was a story of illicit love. Its +philosophy of life was: No man's honesty and no woman's virtue are +unassailable. In all these respects, save in the fact that it presents one +episode only, it resembles the _Satirae_ of Petronius. At least two +stories of this type are to be found in the extant fragments of the novel +of Petronius. One of them is related as a well-known tale by the poet +Eumolpus, and the other is told by him as a personal experience. More than +a dozen of them are imbedded in the novel of Apuleius, the +_Metamorphoses_, and modern specimens of them are to be seen in Boccaccio +and in Chaucer. In fact they are popular from the twelfth century down to +the eighteenth. Long before the time of Petronius they occur sporadically +in literature. A good specimen, for instance, is found in a letter +commonly attributed to Æschines in the fourth century B.C. As early as +the first century before Christ collections of them had been made and +translated into Latin. This development suggests an interesting possible +origin of the realistic romance. In such collections as those just +mentioned of the first century B.C., the central figures were different in +the different stories, as is the case, for instance, in the Canterbury +Tales. Such an original writer as Petronius was may well have thought of +connecting these different episodes by making them the experiences of a +single individual. The Encolpius of Petronius would in that case be in a +way an ancient Don Juan. If we compare the Arabian Nights with one of the +groups of stories found in the Romances of the Round Table, we can see +what this step forward would mean. The tales which bear the title of the +Arabian Nights all have the same general setting and the same general +treatment, and they are put in the mouth of the same story-teller. The +Lancelot group of Round Table stories, however, shows a nearer approach to +unity since the stories in it concern the same person, and have a common +ultimate purpose, even if it is vague. When this point had been reached +the realistic romance would have made its appearance. We have been +thinking of the realistic novel as being made up of a series of Milesian +tales. We may conceive of it, however, as an expanded Milesian tale, just +as scholars are coming to think of the epic as growing out of a single +hero-song, rather than as resulting from the union of several such songs. + +To pass to another possibility, it is very tempting to see a connection +between the _Satirae_ of Petronius and the prologue of comedy. Plautus +thought it necessary to prefix to many of his plays an account of the +incidents which preceded the action of the play. In some cases he went so +far as to outline in the prologue the action of the play itself in order +that the spectators might follow it intelligently. This introductory +narrative runs up to seventy-six lines in the _Menaechmi_, to eighty-two +in the _Rudens_, and to one hundred and fifty-two in the _Amphitruo_. In +this way it becomes a short realistic story of every-day people, involving +frequently a love intrigue, and told in the iambic senarius, the simplest +form of verse. Following it is the more extended narrative of the comedy +itself, with its incidents and dialogue. This combination of the +condensed narrative in the story form, presented usually as a monologue in +simple verse, and the expanded narrative in the dramatic form, with its +conversational element, may well have suggested the writing of a realistic +novel in prose. A slight, though not a fatal, objection to this theory +lies in the fact that the prologues to comedy subsequent to Plautus +changed in their character, and contain little narrative. This is not a +serious objection, for the plays of Plautus were still known to the +cultivated in the later period. + +The mime gives us still more numerous points of contact with the work of +Petronius than comedy does.[86] It is unfortunate, both for our +understanding of Roman life and for our solution of the question before +us, that only fragments of this form of dramatic composition have come +down to us. Even from them, however, it is clear that the mime dealt with +every-day life in a very frank, realistic way. The new comedy has its +conventions in the matter of situations and language. The matron, for +instance, must not be presented in a questionable light, and the language +is the conversational speech of the better classes. The mime recognizes no +such restrictions in its portrayal of life. The married woman, her stupid +husband, and her lover are common figures in this form of the drama, and +if we may draw an inference from the lately discovered fragments of Greek +mimes, the speech was that of the common people. Again, the new comedy has +its limited list of stock characters--the old man, the tricky slave, the +parasite, and the others which we know so well in Plautus and Terence, but +as for the mime, any figure to be seen on the street may find a place in +it--the rhetorician, the soldier, the legacy-hunter, the inn-keeper, or +the town-crier. The doings of kings and heroes were parodied. We are even +told that a comic Hector and Achilles were put on the stage, and the gods +did not come off unscathed. All of these characteristic features of the +mime remind us in a striking way of the novel of Petronius. His work, like +the mime, is a realistic picture of low life which presents a great +variety of characters and shows no regard for conventional morals. It is +especially interesting to notice the element of parody, which we have +already observed in Petronius, in both kinds of literary productions. The +theory that Petronius may have had the composition of his _Satirae_ +suggested to him by plays of this type is greatly strengthened by the fact +that the mime reached its highest point of popularity at the court in the +time of Nero, in whose reign Petronius lived. In point of fact Petronius +refers to the mime frequently. One of these passages is of peculiar +significance in this connection. Encolpius and his comrades are entering +the town of Croton and are considering what device they shall adopt so as +to live without working. At last a happy idea occurs to Eumolpus, and he +says: "Why don't we construct a mime?" and the mime is played, with +Eumolpus as a fabulously rich man at the point of death, and the others as +his attendants. The rôle makes a great hit, and all the vagabonds in the +company play their assumed parts in their daily life at Croton with such +skill that the legacy-hunters of the place load them with attentions and +shower them with presents. This whole episode, in fact, may be thought of +as a mime cast in the narrative form, and the same conception may be +applied with great plausibility to the entire story of Encolpius. + +We have thus far been attacking the question with which we are concerned +from the side of the subject-matter and tone of the story of Petronius. +Another method of approach is suggested by the Menippean satire,[87] the +best specimens of which have come down to us in the fragments of Varro, +one of Cicero's contemporaries. These satires are an _olla podrida_, +dealing with all sorts of subjects in a satirical manner, sometimes put in +the dialogue form and cast in a _mélange_ of prose and verse. It is this +last characteristic which is of special interest to us in this connection, +because in the prose of Petronius verses are freely used. Sometimes, as we +have observed above, they form an integral part of the narrative, and +again they merely illustrate or expand a point touched on in the prose. If +it were not aside from our immediate purpose it would be interesting to +follow the history of this prose-poetical form from the time of Petronius +on. After him it does not seem to have been used very much until the third +and fourth centuries of our era. However, Martial in the first century +prefixed a prose prologue to five books of his Epigrams, and one of these +prologues ends with a poem of four lines. The several books of the +_Silvae_ of Statius are also preceded by prose letters of dedication. That +strange imitation of the _Aulularia_ of Plautus, of the fourth century, +the _Querolus_, is in a form half prose and half verse. A sentence begins +in prose and runs off into verse, as some of the epitaphs also do. The +Epistles of Ausonius of the same century are compounded of prose and a +great variety of verse. By the fifth and sixth centuries, a _mélange_ of +verse or a combination of prose and verse is very common, as one can see +in the writings of Martianus Capella, Sidonius Apollinaris, Ennodius, and +Boethius. It recurs again in modern times, for instance in Dante's _La +Vita Nuova_, in Boccaccio, _Aucassin et Nicolette_, the _Heptameron_, the +_Celtic Ballads_, the _Arabian Nights_, and in _Alice in Wonderland_. + +A little thought suggests that the prose-poetic form is a natural medium +of expression. A change from prose to verse, or from one form of verse to +another, suggests a change in the emotional condition of a speaker or +writer. We see that clearly enough illustrated in tragedy or comedy. In +the thrilling scene in the _Captives of Plautus_, for example, where +Tyndarus is in mortal terror lest the trick which he has played on his +master, Hegio, may be discovered, and he be consigned to work in chains in +the quarries, the verse is the trochaic septenarius. As soon as the +suspense is over, it drops to the iambic senarius. If we should arrange +the commoner Latin verses in a sequence according to the emotional effects +which they produce, at the bottom of the series would stand the iambic +senarius. Above that would come trochaic verse, and we should rise to +higher planes of exaltation as we read the anapæstic, or cretic, or +bacchiac. The greater part of life is commonplace. Consequently the common +medium for conversation or for the narrative in a composition like comedy +made up entirely of verse is the senarius. Now this form of verse in its +simple, almost natural, quantitative arrangement is very close to prose, +and it would be a short step to substitute prose for it as the basis of +the story, interspersing verse here and there to secure variety, or when +the emotions were called into play, just as lyric verses are interpolated +in the iambic narrative. In this way the combination of different kinds +of verse in the drama, and the prosimetrum of the Menippean satire and of +Petronius, may be explained, and we see a possible line of descent from +comedy and this form of satire to the _Satirae_. + +These various theories of the origin of the romance of Petronius--that it +may be related to the epic, to the serious heroic romance, to the +bourgeois story of adventure developed out of the rhetorical exercise, to +the Milesian tale, to the prologue of comedy, to the _verse-mélange_ of +comedy or the mime, or to the prose-poetical Menippean satire--are not, of +necessity, it seems to me, mutually exclusive. His novel may well be +thought of as a parody of the serious romance, with frequent reminiscences +of the epic, a parody suggested to him by comedy and its prologue, by the +mime, or by the short cynical Milesian tale, and cast in the form of the +Menippean satire; or, so far as subject-matter and realistic treatment are +concerned, the suggestion may have come directly from the mime, and if we +can accept the theory of some scholars who have lately studied the mime, +that it sometimes contained both prose and verse, we may be inclined to +regard this type of literature as the immediate progenitor of the novel, +even in the matter of external form, and leave the Menippean satire out of +the line of descent. Whether the one or the other of these explanations of +its origin recommends itself to us as probable, it is interesting to note, +as we leave the subject, that, so far as our present information goes, the +realistic romance seems to have been the invention of Petronius. + + + + +Diocletian's Edict and the High Cost of Living + + + +The history of the growth of paternalism in the Roman Empire is still to +be written. It would be a fascinating and instructive record. In it the +changes in the character of the Romans and in their social and economic +conditions would come out clearly. It would disclose a strange mixture of +worthy and unworthy motives in their statesmen and politicians, who were +actuated sometimes by sympathy for the poor, sometimes by a desire for +popular favor, by an honest wish to check extravagance or immorality, or +by the fear that the discontent of the masses might drive them into +revolution. We should find the Roman people, recognizing the menace to +their simple, frugal way of living which lay in the inroads of Greek +civilization, and turning in their helplessness to their officials, the +censors, to protect them from a demoralization which, by their own +efforts, they could not withstand. We should find the same officials +preaching against race suicide, extravagant living, and evasion of public +duties, and imposing penalties and restrictions in the most autocratic +fashion on men of high and low degree alike who failed to adopt the +official standards of conduct. We should read of laws enacted in the same +spirit, laws restricting the number of guests that might be entertained on +a single occasion, and prescribing penalties for guests and host alike, if +the cost of a dinner exceeded the statutory limit. All this belongs to the +early stage of paternal government. The motives were praiseworthy, even if +the results were futile. + +With the advent of the Gracchi, toward the close of the second century +before our era, moral considerations become less noticeable, and +paternalism takes on a more philanthropic and political character. We see +this change reflected in the land laws and the corn laws. To take up first +the free distribution of land by the state, in the early days of the +Republic colonies of citizens were founded in the newly conquered +districts of Italy to serve as garrisons on the frontier. It was a fair +bargain between the citizen and the state. He received land, the state, +protection. But with Tiberius Gracchus a change comes in. His colonists +were to be settled in peaceful sections of Italy; they were to receive +land solely because of their poverty. This was socialism or state +philanthropy. Like the agrarian bill of Tiberius, the corn law of Gaius +Gracchus, which provided for the sale of grain below the market price, was +a paternal measure inspired in part by sympathy for the needy. The +political element is clear in both cases also. The people who were thus +favored by assignments of land and of food naturally supported the leaders +who assisted them. Perhaps the extensive building of roads which Gaius +Gracchus carried on should be mentioned in this connection. The ostensible +purpose of these great highways, perhaps their primary purpose, was to +develop Italy and to facilitate communication between different parts of +the peninsula, but a large number of men was required for their +construction, and Gaius Gracchus may well have taken the matter up, partly +for the purpose of furnishing work to the unemployed. Out of these small +beginnings developed the socialistic policy of later times. By the middle +of the first century B.C., it is said that there were three hundred and +twenty thousand persons receiving doles of corn from the state, and, if +the people could look to the government for the necessities of life, why +might they not hope to have it supply their less pressing needs? Or, to +put it in another way, if one politician won their support by giving them +corn, why might not another increase his popularity by providing them with +amusement and with the comforts of life? Presents of oil and clothing +naturally follow, the giving of games and theatrical performances at the +expense of the state, and the building of porticos and public baths. As +the government and wealthy citizens assumed a larger measure of +responsibility for the welfare of the citizens, the people became more and +more dependent upon them and less capable of managing their own affairs. +An indication of this change we see in the decline of local +self-government and the assumption by the central administration of +responsibility for the conduct of public business in the towns of Italy. +This last consideration suggests another phase of Roman history which a +study of paternalism would bring out--I mean the effect of its +introduction on the character of the Roman people. + +The history of paternalism in Rome, when it is written, might approach +the subject from several different points. If the writer were inclined to +interpret history on the economic side, he might find the explanation of +the change in the policy of the government toward its citizens in the +introduction of slave labor which, under the Republic, drove the free +laborer to the wall and made him look to the state for help, in the +decline of agriculture, and the growth of capitalism. The sociologist +would notice the drift of the people toward the cities and the sudden +massing there of large numbers of persons who could not provide for +themselves and in their discontent might overturn society. The historian +who concerns himself with political changes mainly, would notice the +socialistic legislation of the Gracchi and their political successors and +would connect the growth of paternalism with the development of democracy. +In all these explanations there would be a certain measure of truth. + +But I am not planning here to write a history of paternalism among the +Romans. That is one of the projects which I had been reserving for the day +when the Carnegie Foundation should present me with a wooden sword and +allow me to retire from the arena of academic life. But, alas! the +trustees of that beneficent institution, by the revision which they have +lately made of the conditions under which a university professor may +withdraw from active service, have in their wisdom put off that day of +academic leisure to the Greek Kalends, and my dream vanishes into the +distance with it. + +Here I wish to present only an episode in this history which we have been +discussing, an episode which is unique, however, in ancient and, so far as +I know, in modern history. Our knowledge of the incident comes from an +edict of the Emperor Diocletian, and this document has a direct bearing on +a subject of present-day discussion, because it contains a diatribe +against the high cost of living and records the heroic attempt which the +Roman government made to reduce it. In his effort to bring prices down to +what he considered a normal level, Diocletian did not content himself with +such half-measures as we are trying in our attempts to suppress +combinations in restraint of trade, but he boldly fixed the maximum prices +at which beef, grain, eggs, clothing, and other articles could be sold, +and prescribed the penalty of death for any one who disposed of his wares +at a higher figure. His edict is a very comprehensive document, and +specifies prices for seven hundred or eight hundred different articles. +This systematic attempt to regulate trade was very much in keeping with +the character of Diocletian and his theory of government. Perhaps no Roman +emperor, with the possible exception of Hadrian, showed such extraordinary +administrative ability and proposed so many sweeping social reforms as +Diocletian did. His systematic attempt to suppress Christianity is a case +in point, and in the last twenty years of his reign he completely +reorganized the government. He frankly introduced the monarchical +principle, fixed upon a method of succession to the throne, redivided the +provinces, established a carefully graded system of officials, concerned +himself with court etiquette and dress, and reorganized the coinage and +the system of taxation. We are not surprised therefore that he had the +courage to attack this difficult question of high prices, and that his +plan covered almost all the articles which his subjects would have +occasion to buy. + +It is almost exactly two centuries since the first fragments of the edict +dealing with the subject were brought to light. They were discovered in +Caria, in 1709, by William Sherard, the English consul at Smyrna. Since +then, from time to time, other fragments of tablets containing parts of +the edict have been found in Egypt, Asia Minor, and Greece. At present +portions of twenty-nine copies of it are known. Fourteen of them are in +Latin and fifteen in Greek. The Greek versions differ from one another, +while the Latin texts are identical, except for the stone-cutters' +mistakes here and there. These facts make it clear that the original +document was in Latin, and was translated into Greek by the local +officials of each town where the tablets were set up. We have already +noticed that specimens of the edict have not been found outside of Egypt, +Greece, and Asia Minor, and this was the part of the Roman world where +Diocletian ruled. Scholars have also observed that almost all the +manufactured articles which are mentioned come from Eastern points. From +these facts it has been inferred that the edict was to apply to the East +only, or perhaps more probably that Diocletian drew it up for his part of +the Roman world, and that before it could be applied to the West it was +repealed. + +From the pieces which were then known, a very satisfactory reconstruction +of the document was made by Mommsen and published in the _Corpus of Latin +Inscriptions_.[88] + +The work of restoration was like putting together the parts of a picture +puzzle where some of the pieces are lacking. Fragments are still coming to +light, and possibly we may have the complete text some day. As it is, the +introduction is complete, and perhaps four-fifths of the list of articles +with prices attached are extant. The introduction opens with a stately +list of the titles of the two Augusti and the two Cæsars, which fixes the +date of the proclamation as 301 A.D. Then follows a long recital of the +circumstances which have led the government to adopt this drastic method +of controlling prices. This introduction is one of the most extraordinary +pieces of bombast, mixed metaphors, loose syntax, and incoherent +expressions that Latin literature possesses. One is tempted to infer from +its style that it was the product of Diocletian's own pen. He was a man of +humble origin, and would not live in Rome for fear of being laughed at on +account of his plebeian training. The florid and awkward style of these +introductory pages is exactly what we should expect from a man of such +antecedents. + +It is very difficult to translate them into intelligible English, but some +conception of their style and contents may be had from one or two +extracts. In explaining the situation which confronts the world, the +Emperor writes: "For, if the raging avarice ... which, without regard for +mankind, increases and develops by leaps and bounds, we will not say from +year to year, month to month, or day to day, but almost from hour to hour, +and even from minute to minute, could be held in check by some regard for +moderation, or if the welfare of the people could calmly tolerate this mad +license from which, in a situation like this, it suffers in the worst +possible fashion from day to day, some ground would appear, perhaps, for +concealing the truth and saying nothing; ... but inasmuch as there is +only seen a mad desire without control, to pay no heed to the needs of the +many, ... it seems good to us, as we look into the future, to us who are +the fathers of the people, that justice intervene to settle matters +impartially, in order that that which, long hoped for, humanity itself +could not bring about may be secured for the common government of all by +the remedies which our care affords.... Who is of so hardened a heart and +so untouched by a feeling for humanity that he can be unaware, nay that he +has not noticed, that in the sale of wares which are exchanged in the +market, or dealt with in the daily business of the cities, an exorbitant +tendency in prices has spread to such an extent that the unbridled desire +of plundering is held in check neither by abundance nor by seasons of +plenty!" + +If we did not know that this was found on tablets sixteen centuries old, +we might think that we were reading a newspaper diatribe against the +cold-storage plant or the beef trust. What the Emperor has decided to do +to remedy the situation he sets forth toward the end of the introduction. +He says: "It is our pleasure, therefore, that those prices which the +subjoined written summary specifies, be held in observance throughout all +our domain, that all may know that license to go above the same has been +cut off.... It is our pleasure (also) that if any man shall have boldly +come into conflict with this formal statute, he shall put his life in +peril.... In the same peril also shall he be placed who, drawn along by +avarice in his desire to buy, shall have conspired against these statutes. +Nor shall he be esteemed innocent of the same crime who, having articles +necessary for daily life and use, shall have decided hereafter that they +can be held back, since the punishment ought to be even heavier for him +who causes need than for him who violates the laws." + +The lists which follow are arranged in three columns which give +respectively the article, the unit of measure, and the price.[89] + + Frumenti K{~COMBINING MACRON~}M{~COMBINING MACRON~} + Hordei K{~COMBINING MACRON~}M{~COMBINING MACRON~} unum {~ROMAN NUMERAL TEN~}{~COMBINING LONG STROKE OVERLAY~} c(entum) + Centenum sive sicale " " " {~ROMAN NUMERAL TEN~}{~COMBINING LONG STROKE OVERLAY~} sexa(ginta) + Mili pisti " " " {~ROMAN NUMERAL TEN~}{~COMBINING LONG STROKE OVERLAY~} centu(m) + Mili integri " " {~ROMAN NUMERAL TEN~}{~COMBINING LONG STROKE OVERLAY~} quinquaginta' + + + The first item (frumentum) is wheat, which is sold by the K{~COMBINING MACRON~}M{~COMBINING MACRON~} + (kastrensis modius=18½ quarts), but the price is lacking. Barley is + sold by the kastrensis modius at {~ROMAN NUMERAL TEN~}{~COMBINING LONG STROKE OVERLAY~} centum (centum denarii = 43 cents) + and so on. + +Usually a price list is not of engrossing interest, but the tables of +Diocletian furnish us a picture of material conditions throughout the +Empire in his time which cannot be had from any other source, and for that +reason deserve some attention. This consideration emboldens me to set down +some extracts in the following pages from the body of the edict: + + + +Extracts from Diocletian's List of Maximum Prices + +I + +In the tables given here the Latin and Greek names of the articles listed +have been turned into English. The present-day accepted measure of +quantity--for instance, the bushel or the quart--has been substituted for +the ancient unit, and the corresponding price for the modern unit of +measure is given. Thus barley was to be sold by the kastrensis modius +(=18½ quarts) at 100 denarii (=43.5 cents). At this rate a bushel of +barley would have brought 74.5 cents. For convenience in reference the +numbers of the chapters and of the items adopted in the text of Mommsen +are used here. Only selected articles are given. + + (Unit of Measure, the Bushel) + +1 Wheat +2 Barley 74.5 cents +3 Rye 45 " +4 Millet, ground 74.5 " +6 Millet, whole 37 " +7 Spelt, hulled 74.5 " +8 Spelt, not hulled 22.5 " +9 Beans, ground 74.5 " +10 Beans, not ground 45 " +11 Lentils 74.5 " +12-16 Peas, various sorts 45-74.5 " +17 Oats 22.5 " +31 Poppy seeds $1.12 +34 Mustard $1.12 +35 Prepared mustard, quart 6 " + + + + II + + (Unit of Measure, the Quart) + +1a Wine from Picenum 22.5 cents +2 Wine from Tibur 22.5 " +7 Wine from Falernum 22.5 " +10 Wine of the country 6 " +11-12 Beer 1.5-3 " + + + + III + +(Unit of Measure, the Quart) + +1a Oil, first quality 30.3 cents +2 Oil, second quality 18 " +5 Vinegar 4.3 " +8 Salt, bushel 74.5 " +10 Honey, best 30.3 " +11 Honey, second quality 15 " + + + IV + + (Unit, Unless Otherwise Noted, Pound Avoirdupois) + +1a Pork 7.3 cents +2 Beef 4.9 " +3 Goat's flesh or mutton 4.9 " +6 Pig's liver 9.8 " +8 Ham, best 12 " +21 Goose, artificially fed (1) 87 " +22 Goose, not artificially fed (1) 43.5 " +23 Pair of fowls 36 " +29 Pair of pigeons 10.5 " +47 Lamb 7.3 " +48 Kid 7.3 " +50 Butter 9.8 " + + + V + + (Unit, the Pound) + +1a Sea fish with sharp spines 14.6 cents +2 Fish, second quality 9.7 " +3 River fish, best quality 7.3 " +4 Fish, second quality 4.8 " +5 Salt fish 8.3 " +6 Oysters (by the hundred) 43.5 " +11 Dry cheese 7.3 " +12 Sardines 9.7 " + + + VI + +1 Artichokes, large (5) 4.3 cents +7 Lettuce, best (5) 1.7 " +9 Cabbages, best (5) 1.7 " +10 Cabbages, small (10) 1.7 " +18 Turnips, large (10) 1.7 " +24 Watercress, per bunch of 20 4.3 " +28 Cucumbers, first quality (10) 1.7 " +29 Cucumbers, small (20) 1.7 " +34 Garden asparagus, per bunch (25) 2.6 " +35 Wild asparagus (50) 1.7 " +38 Shelled green beans, quart 3 " +43 Eggs (4) 1.7 " +46 Snails, large (20) 1.7 " +65 Apples, best (10) 1.7 " +67 Apples, small (40) 1.7 " +78 Figs, best (25) 1.7 " +80 Table grapes (2.8 pound) 1.7 " +95 Sheep's milk, quart 6 " +96 Cheese, fresh, quart 6 " + + + VII + + (Where (k) Is Set Down the Workman Receives His "Keep" Also) + +1a Manual laborer (k) 10.8 cents +2 Bricklayer (k) 21.6 " +3 Joiner (interior work) (k) 21.6 " +3a Carpenter (k) 21.6 " +4 Lime-burner (k) 21.6 " +5 Marble-worker (k) 26 " +6 Mosaic-worker (fine work) (k) 26 " +7 Stone-mason (k) 21.6 " +8 Wall-painter (k) 32.4 " +9 Figure-painter (k) 64.8 " +10 Wagon-maker (k) 21.6 " +11 Smith (k) 21.6 " +12 Baker (k) 21.6 " +13 Ship-builder, for sea-going ships (k) 26 " +14 Ship-builder, for river boats (k) 21.6 " +17 Driver, for camel, ass, or mule (k) 10.8 " +18 Shepherd (k) 8.7 " +20 Veterinary, for cutting, and straightening hoofs, per animal 2.6 " +22 Barber, for each man .9 cent +23 Sheep-shearer, for each sheep (k) .9 " +24a Coppersmith, for work in brass, per pound 3.5 cents +25 Coppersmith, for work in copper, per pound 2.6 " +26 Coppersmith for finishing vessels, per pound 2.6 " +27 Coppersmith, for finishing figures and statues, per pound 1.7 " +29 Maker of statues, etc., per day (k) 32.4 " +31 Water-carrier, per day (k) 10.9 " +32 Sewer-cleaner, per day (k) 10.9 " +33 Knife-grinder, for old sabre 10.9 " +36 Knife-grinder, for double axe 3.5 " +39 Writer, 100 lines best writing 10.9 " +40 Writer, 100 lines ordinary writing 8.7 " +41 Document writer for record of 100 lines 4.3 " +42 Tailor, for cutting out and finishing overgarment of first + quality 26.1 " +43 Tailor, for cutting out and finishing overgarment of second + quality 17.4 " +44 For a large cowl 10.9 " +45 For a small cowl 8.7 " +46 For trousers 8.7 " +52 Felt horse-blanket, black or white, 3 pounds weight 43.5 " +53 Cover, first quality, with embroidery, 3 pounds weight $1.09 +64 Gymnastic teacher, per pupil, per month 21.6 cents +65 Employee to watch children, per child, per month 21.6 " +66 Elementary teacher, per pupil, per month 21.6 " +67 Teacher of arithmetic, per pupil, per month 32.6 " +68 Teacher of stenography, per pupil, per month 32.6 " +69 Writing-teacher, per pupil, per month 21.6 " +70 Teacher of Greek, Latin, geometry, per pupil, per month 87 " +71 Teacher of rhetoric, per pupil, per month $1.09 +72 Advocate or counsel for presenting a case $1.09 +73 For finishing a case $4.35 +74 Teacher of architecture, per pupil, per month 43.5 cents +75 Watcher of clothes in public bath, for each patron .9 cent + + + VIII + +1a Hide, Babylonian, first quality $2.17 + 2 Hide, Babylonian, second quality $1.74 + 4 Hide, Phoenician (?) 43 cents +6a Cowhide, unworked, first quality $2.17 + 7 Cowhide, prepared for shoe soles $3.26 + 9 Hide, second quality, unworked $1.31 +10 Hide, second quality, worked $2.17 +11 Goatskin, large, unworked 17 cents +12 Goatskin, large, worked 22 " +13 Sheepskin, large, unworked 8.7 " +14 Sheepskin, large, worked 18 " +17 Kidskin, unworked 4.3 " +18 Kidskin, worked 7 " +27 Wolfskin, unworked 10.8 " +28 Wolfskin, worked 17.4 " +33 Bearskin, large, unworked 43 " +39 Leopardskin, unworked $4.35 +41 Lionskin, worked $4.35 + + + IX + +5a Boots, first quality, for mule-drivers and peasants, per + pair, without nails 52 cents + 6 Soldiers' boots, without nails 43 " + 7 Patricians' shoes 65 " + 8 Senatorial shoes 43 " + 9 Knights' shoes 30.5 " +10 Women's boots 26 " +11 Soldiers' shoes 32.6 " +15 Cowhide shoes for women, double soles 21.7 " +16 Cowhide shoes for women, single soles 13 " +20 Men's slippers 26 " +21 Women's slippers 21.7 " + + + XVI + +8a Sewing-needle, finest quality 1.7 cents + 9 Sewing-needle, second quality .9 cent + + + XVII + + 1 Transportation, 1 person, 1 mile .9 cent + 2 Rent for wagon, 1 mile 5 cents + 3 Freight charges for wagon containing up to 1,200 pounds, per + mile 8.7 " + 4 Freight charges for camel load of 600 pounds, + per mile 3.5 " + 5 Rent for laden ass, per mile 1.8 " + 7 Hay and straw, 3 pounds .9 cent + + + XVIII + + 1a Goose-quills, per pound 43.5 cents +11a Ink, per pound 5 " +12 Reed pens from Paphos (10) 1.7 " +13 Reed pens, second quality (20) 1.7 " + + + XIX + + 1 Military mantle, finest quality $17.40 + 2 Undergarment, fine $8.70 + 3 Undergarment, ordinary $5.44 + 5 White bed blanket, finest sort, 12 pounds weight $6.96 + 7 Ordinary cover, 10 pounds weight $2.18 +28 Laodicean Dalmatica [_i.e., a tunic with sleeves_] $8.70 +36 British mantle, with cowl $26.08 +39 Numidian mantle, with cowl $13.04 +42 African mantle, with cowl $6.52 +51 Laodicean storm coat, finest quality $21.76 +60 Gallic soldier's cloak $43.78 +61 African soldier's cloak $2.17 + + + XX + + 1a For an embroiderer, for embroidering a half-silk + undergarment, per ounce 87 cents + 5 For a gold embroiderer, if he work in gold, for finest + work, per ounce $4.35 + 9 For a silk weaver, who works on stuff half-silk, besides + "keep," per day 11 cents + + + XXI + + 2 For working Tarentine or Laodicean or other foreign wool, + with keep, per pound 13 cents + 5 A linen weaver for fine work, with keep, per day 18 " + + + XXII + + 4 Fuller's charges for a cloak or mantle, new 13 cents + 6 Fuller's charges for a woman's coarse Dalmatica, new 21.7 " + 9 Fuller's charges for a new half-silk undergarment 76 " +22 Fuller's charges for a new Laodicean mantle. 76 " + + + XXIII + + 1 White silk, per pound $52.22 + + + XXIV + + 1 Genuine purple silk, per pound $652.20 + 2 Genuine purple wool, per pound $217.40 + 3 Genuine light purple wool, per pound $139.26 + 8 Nicæan scarlet wool, per pound $6.53 + + + XXV + + 1 Washed Tarentine wool, per pound 76 cents + 2 Washed Laodicean wool, per pound 65 " + 3 Washed wool from Asturia, per pound 43.5 " + 4 Washed wool, best medium quality, per pound 21.7 " + 5 All other washed wools, per pound 10.8 " + + + XXVI + + 7a Coarse linen thread, first quality, per pound $3.13 + 8 Coarse linen thread, second quality, per pound $2.61 + 9 Coarse linen thread, third quality, per pound $1.96 + + + XXX + + 1 Pure gold in bars or in coined pieces, per pound 50,000 denarii + 3 Artificers, working in metal, per pound $21.76 + 4 Gold-beaters, per pound $13.06 + + +Throughout the lists, as one may see, articles are grouped in a systematic +way. First we find grain and vegetables; then wine, oil, vinegar, salt, +honey, meat, fish, cheese, salads, and nuts. After these articles, in +chapter VII, we pass rather unexpectedly to the wages of the field +laborer, the carpenter, the painter, and of other skilled and unskilled +workmen. Then follow leather, shoes, saddles, and other kinds of raw +material and manufactured wares until we reach a total of more than eight +hundred articles. As we have said, the classification is in the main +systematic, but there are some strange deviations from a systematic +arrangement. Eggs, for instance, are in table VI with salads, vegetables, +and fruits. Bücher, who has discussed some phases of this price list, has +acutely surmised that perhaps the tables in whole, or in part, were drawn +up by the directors of imperial factories and magazines. The government +levied tribute "in kind," and it must have provided depots throughout the +provinces for the reception of contributions from its subjects. +Consequently in making out these tables it would very likely call upon the +directors of these magazines for assistance, and each of them in making +his report would naturally follow to some extent the list of articles +which the imperial depot controlled by him, carried in stock. At all +events, we see evidence of an expert hand in the list of linens, which +includes one hundred and thirty-nine articles of different qualities. + +As we have noticed in the passage quoted from the introduction, it is +unlawful for a person to charge more for any of his wares than the amount +specified in the law. Consequently, the prices are not normal, but maximum +prices. However, since the imperial lawgivers evidently believed that the +necessities of life were being sold at exorbitant rates, the maximum which +they fixed was very likely no greater than the prevailing market price. +Here and there, as in the nineteenth chapter of the document, the text is +given in tablets from two or more places. In such cases the prices are the +same, so that apparently no allowance was made for the cost of carriage, +although with some articles, like oysters and sea-fish, this item must +have had an appreciable value, and it certainly should have been taken +into account in fixing the prices of "British mantles" or "Gallic +soldiers' cloaks" of chapter XIX. The quantities for which prices are +given are so small--a pint of wine, a pair of fowls, twenty snails, ten +apples, a bunch of asparagus--that evidently Diocletian had the "ultimate +consumer" in mind, and fixed the retail price in his edict. This is +fortunate for us, because it helps us to get at the cost of living in the +early part of the fourth century. There is good reason for believing that +the system of barter prevailed much more generally at that time than it +does to-day. Probably the farmer often exchanged his grain, vegetables, +and eggs for shoes and cloth, without receiving or paying out money, so +that the money prices fixed for his products would not affect him in every +transaction as they would affect the present-day farmer. The unit of money +which is used throughout the edict is the copper denarius, and fortunately +the value of a pound of fine gold is given as 50,000 denarii. This fixes +the value of the denarius as .4352 cent, or approximately four-tenths of a +cent. It is implied in the introduction that the purpose of the law is to +protect the people, and especially the soldiers, from extortion, but +possibly, as Bücher has surmised, the emperor may have wished to maintain +or to raise the value of the denarius, which had been steadily declining +because of the addition of alloy to the coin. If this was the emperor's +object, possibly the value of the denarius is set somewhat too high, but +it probably does not materially exceed its exchange value, and in any +case, the relative values of articles given in the tables are not +affected. + +The tables bring out a number of points of passing interest. From chapter +II it seems to follow that Italian wines retained their ancient +pre-eminence, even in the fourth century. They alone are quoted among the +foreign wines. Table VI gives us a picture of the village market. On +market days the farmer brings his artichokes, lettuce, cabbages, turnips, +and other fresh vegetables into the market town and exposes them for sale +in the public square, as the country people in Italy do to-day. The +seventh chapter, in which wages are given, is perhaps of liveliest +interest. In this connection we should bear in mind the fact that slavery +existed in the Roman Empire, that owners of slaves trained them to various +occupations and hired them out by the day or job, and that, consequently +the prices paid for slave labor fixed the scale of wages. However, there +was a steady decline under the Empire in the number of slaves, and +competition with them in the fourth century did not materially affect the +wages of the free laborer. It is interesting, in this chapter, to notice +that the teacher and the advocate (Nos. 66-73) are classed with the +carpenter and tailor. It is a pleasant passing reflection for the teacher +of Greek and Latin to find that his predecessors were near the top of +their profession, if we may draw this inference from their remuneration +when compared with that of other teachers. It is worth observing also that +the close association between the classics and mathematics, and their +acceptance as the corner-stone of the higher training, to which we have +been accustomed for centuries, seems to be recognized (VII, 70) even at +this early date. We expect to find the physician mentioned with the +teacher and advocate, but probably it was too much even for Diocletian's +skill, in reducing things to a system, to estimate the comparative value +of a physician's services in a case of measles and typhoid fever. + +The bricklayer, the joiner, and the carpenter (VII, 2-3a), inasmuch as +they work on the premises of their employer, receive their "keep" as well +as a fixed wage, while the knife-grinder and the tailor (VII, 33, 42) +work in their own shops, and naturally have their meals at home. The +silk-weaver (XX, 9) and the linen-weaver (XXI, 5) have their "keep" also, +which seems to indicate that private houses had their own looms, which is +quite in harmony with the practices of our fathers. The carpenter and +joiner are paid by the day, the teacher by the month, the knife-grinder, +the tailor, the barber (VII, 22) by the piece, and the coppersmith (VII, +24a-27) according to the amount of metal which he uses. Whether the +difference between the prices of shoes for the patrician, the senator, and +the knight (IX, 7-9) represents a difference in the cost of making the +three kinds, or is a tax put on the different orders of nobility, cannot +be determined. The high prices set on silk and wool dyed with purple +(XXIV) correspond to the pre-eminent position of that imperial color in +ancient times. The tables which the edict contains call our attention to +certain striking differences between ancient and modern industrial and +economic conditions. Of course the list of wage-earners is incomplete. The +inscriptions which the trades guilds have left us record many occupations +which are not mentioned here, but in them and in these lists we miss any +reference to large groups of men who hold a prominent place in our modern +industrial reports--I mean men working in printing-offices, factories, +foundries, and machine-shops, and employed by transportation companies. +Nothing in the document suggests the application of power to the +manufacture of articles, the assembling of men in a common workshop, or +the use of any other machine than the hand loom and the mill for the +grinding of corn. In the way of articles offered for sale, we miss certain +items which find a place in every price-list of household necessities, +such articles as sugar, molasses, potatoes, cotton cloth, tobacco, coffee, +and tea. The list of stimulants (II) is, in fact, very brief, including as +it does only a few kinds of wine and beer. + +At the present moment, when the high cost of living is a subject which +engages the attention of the economist, politician, and householder, as it +did that of Diocletian and his contemporaries, the curious reader will +wish to know how wages and the prices of food in 301 A.D. compare with +those of to-day. In the two tables which follow, such a comparison is +attempted for some of the more important articles and occupations. + + Articles of Food[90] + + Price in 301 A.D. Price in 1906 A.D. + + Wheat, per bushel 33.6 cents $1.19[91] + Rye, per bushel 45 " 79 cents[91] + Beans, per bushel 45 " $3.20 + Barley, per bushel 74.5 " 55 cents[91] + Vinegar, per quart 4.3 " 5-7 " + Fresh pork, per pound 7.3 " 14-16 " + Beef, per pound 4.9 " { 9-12 " + {15-18 " + Mutton, per pound 4.9 " 13-16 " + Ham, per pound 12 " 18-25 " + Fowls, per pair 26 " + Fowls, per pound 14-18 " + Butter, per pound 9.8 " 26-32 " + Fish, river, fresh, per pound 7.3 " 12-15 " + Fish, sea, fresh, per pound 9-14 " 8-14 cents + Fish, salt, per pound 8.3 " 8-15 " + Cheese, per pound 7.3 " 17-20 " + Eggs, per dozen 5.1 " 25-30 " + Milk, cow's, per quart 6-8 " + Milk, sheep's, per quart 6 " + + + Wages Per Day + + Unskilled workman 10.8 cents (k)[92] $1.20-2.24[93] + Bricklayer 21.6 " (k) 4.50-6.50 + Carpenter 21.6 " (k) 2.50-4.00 + Stone-mason 21.6 " (k) 3.70-4.90 + Painter 32.4 " (k) 2.75-4.00 + Blacksmith 21.6 " (k) 2.15-3.20 + Ship-builder 21-26 " (k) 2.15-3.50 + +We are not so much concerned in knowing the prices of meat, fish, eggs, +and flour in 301 and 1911 A.D. as we are in finding out whether the Roman +or the American workman could buy more of these commodities with the +returns for his labor. A starting point for such an estimate is furnished +by the Eighteenth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, on the "Cost +of Living and Retail Prices of Food" (1903), and by Bulletin No. 77 of the +Bureau of Labor (1908). In the first of these documents (pp. 582, 583) the +expenditure for rent, fuel, food, and other necessities of life in 11,156 +normal American families whose incomes range from $200 to $1,200 per year +is given. In the other report (p. 344 _f._) similar statistics are given +for 1,944 English urban families. In the first case the average amount +spent per year was $617, of which $266, or a little less than a half of +the entire income, was used in the purchase of food. The statistics for +England show a somewhat larger relative amount spent for food. Almost +exactly one-third of this expenditure for the normal American family was +for meat and fish.[94] Now, if we take the wages of the Roman carpenter, +for instance, as 21 cents per day, and add one-fourth or one-third for his +"keep," those of the same American workman as $2.50 to $4.00, it is clear +that the former received only a ninth or a fifteenth as much as the +latter, while the average price of pork, beef, mutton, and ham (7.3 cents) +in 301 A.D. was about a third of the average (19.6 cents) of the same +articles to-day. The relative averages of wheat, rye, and barley make a +still worse showing for ancient times while fresh fish was nearly as high +in Diocletian's time as it is in our own day. The ancient and modern +prices of butter and eggs stand at the ratio of one to three and one to +six respectively. For the urban workman, then, in the fourth century, +conditions of life must have been almost intolerable, and it is hard to +understand how he managed to keep soul and body together, when almost all +the nutritious articles of food were beyond his means. The taste of meat, +fish, butter, and eggs must have been almost unknown to him, and probably +even the coarse bread and vegetables on which he lived were limited in +amount. The peasant proprietor who could raise his own cattle and grain +would not find the burden so hard to bear. + +Only one question remains for us to answer. Did Diocletian succeed in his +bold attempt to reduce the cost of living? Fortunately the answer is given +us by Lactantius in the book which he wrote in 313-314 A.D., "On the +Deaths of Those Who Persecuted (the Christians)." The title of +Lactantius's work would not lead us to expect a very sympathetic treatment +of Diocletian, the arch-persecutor, but his account of the actual outcome +of the incident is hardly open to question. In Chapter VII of his +treatise, after setting forth the iniquities of the Emperor in constantly +imposing new burdens on the people, he writes: "And when he had brought on +a state of exceeding high prices by his different acts of injustice, he +tried to fix by law the prices of articles offered for sale. Thereupon, +for the veriest trifles much blood was shed, and out of fear nothing was +offered for sale, and the scarcity grew much worse, until, after the death +of many persons, the law was repealed from mere necessity." Thus came to +an end this early effort to reduce the high cost of living. Sixty years +later the Emperor Julian made a similar attempt on a small scale. He fixed +the price of corn for the people of Antioch by an edict. The holders of +grain hoarded their stock. The Emperor brought supplies of it into the +city from Egypt and elsewhere and sold it at the legal price. It was +bought up by speculators, and in the end Julian, like Diocletian, had to +acknowledge his inability to cope with an economic law. + + + + +Private Benefactions and Their Effect on the Municipal Life of the Romans + + +In the early days the authority of the Roman father over his wife, his +sons, and his daughters was absolute. He did what seemed to him good for +his children. His oversight and care extended to all the affairs of their +lives. The state was modelled on the family and took over the autocratic +power of the paterfamilias. It is natural to think of it, therefore, as a +paternal government, and the readiness with which the Roman subordinated +his own will and sacrificed his personal interests to those of the +community seems to show his acceptance of this theory of his relation to +the government. But this conception is correct in part only. A paternal +government seeks to foster all the common interests of its people and to +provide for their common needs. This the Roman state did not try to do, +and if we think of it as a paternal government, in the ordinary meaning +of that term, we lose sight of the partnership between state supervision +and individual enterprise in ministering to the common needs and desires, +which was one of the marked features of Roman life. In fact, the +gratification of the individual citizen's desire for those things which he +could not secure for himself depended in the Roman Empire, as it depends +in this country, not solely on state support, but in part on state aid, +and in part on private generosity. We see the truth of this very clearly +in studying the history of the Roman city. The phase of Roman life which +we have just noted may not fit into the ideas of Roman society which we +have hitherto held, but we can understand it as no other people can, +because in the United States and in England we are accustomed to the +co-operation of private initiative and state action in the establishment +and maintenance of universities, libraries, museums, and all sorts of +charitable institutions. + +If we look at the growth of private munificence under the Republic, we +shall see that citizens showed their generosity particularly in the +construction of public buildings, partly or entirely at their own +expense. In this way some of the basilicas in Rome and elsewhere which +served as courts of justice and halls of exchange were constructed. The +great Basilica Æmilia, for instance, whose remains may be seen in the +Forum to-day, was constructed by an Æmilius in the second century before +our era, and was accepted as a charge by his descendants to be kept in +condition and improved at the expense of the Æmilian family. Under +somewhat similar conditions Pompey built the great theatre which bore his +name, the first permanent theatre to be built in Rome, and always +considered one of the wonders of the city. The cost of this structure was +probably covered by the treasure which he brought back from his campaigns +in the East. In using the spoils of a successful war to construct +buildings or memorials in Rome, he was following the example of Mummius, +the conqueror of Corinth, and other great generals who had preceded him. +The purely philanthropic motive does not bulk largely in these gifts to +the citizens, because the people whose armies had won the victories were +part owners at least of the spoils, and because the victorious leader who +built the structure was actuated more by the hope of transmitting the +memory of his achievements to posterity in some conspicuous and +imperishable monument than by a desire to benefit his fellow citizens. + +These two motives, the one egoistic and the other altruistic, actuated all +the Roman emperors in varying degrees. The activity of Augustus in such +matters comes out clearly in the record of his reign, which he has left us +in his own words. This remarkable bit of autobiography, known as the +"Deeds of the Deified Augustus," the Emperor had engraved on bronze +tablets, placed in front of his mausoleum. The original has disappeared, +but fortunately a copy of it has been found on the walls of a ruined +temple at Ancyra, in Asia Minor, and furnishes us abundant proof of the +great improvements which he made in the city of Rome. We are told in it +that from booty he paid for the construction of the Forum of Augustus, +which was some four hundred feet long, three hundred wide, and was +surrounded by a wall one hundred and twenty feet high, covered on the +inside with marble and stucco. Enclosed within it and built with funds +coming from the same source was the magnificent temple of Mars the +Avenger, which had as its principal trophies the Roman standards recovered +from the Parthians. This forum and temple are only two items in the long +list of public improvements which Augustus records in his imperial +epitaph, for, as he proudly writes: "In my sixth consulship, acting under +a decree of the senate, I restored eighty-two temples in the city, +neglecting no temple which needed repair at the time." Besides the +temples, he mentions a large number of theatres, porticos, basilicas, +aqueducts, roads, and bridges which he built in Rome or in Italy outside +the city. + +But the Roman people had come to look for acts of generosity from their +political as well as from their military leaders, and this factor, too, +must be taken into account in the case of Augustus. In the closing years +of the Republic, candidates for office and men elected to office saw that +one of the most effective ways of winning and holding their popularity was +to give public entertainments, and they vied with one another in the +costliness of the games and pageants which they gave the people. The +well-known case of Cæsar will be recalled, who, during his term as ædile, +or commissioner of public works, bankrupted himself by his lavish +expenditures on public improvements, and on the games, in which he +introduced three hundred and twenty pairs of gladiators for the amusement +of the people. In his book, "On the Offices," Cicero tells us of a thrifty +rich man, named Mamercus, who aspired to public office, but avoided taking +the ædileship, which stood in the regular sequence of minor offices, in +order that he might escape the heavy outlay for public entertainment +expected of the ædile. As a consequence, when later he came up for the +consulship, the people punished him by defeating him at the polls. To +check the growth of these methods of securing votes, Cicero, in his +consulship, brought in a corrupt practices act, which forbade citizens to +give gladiatorial exhibitions within two years of any election in which +they were candidates. We may doubt if this measure was effective. The +Roman was as clever as the American politician in accomplishing his +purpose without going outside the law. Perhaps an incident in the life of +Cicero's young friend, Curio, is a case in point. It was an old Roman +custom to celebrate the ninth day after a burial as a solemn family +festival, and some time in the second century before our era the practice +grew up of giving gladiatorial contests on these occasions. The versatile +Curio, following this practice, testified his respect for his father's +memory by giving the people such elaborate games that he never escaped +from the financial difficulties in which they involved him. However, this +tribute of pious affection greatly enhanced his popularity, and perhaps +did not expose him to the rigors of Cicero's law. + +These gifts from generals, from distinguished citizens, and from +candidates for office do not go far to prove a generous or philanthropic +spirit on the part of the donors, but they show clearly enough that the +practice of giving large sums of money to embellish the city, and to +please the public, had grown up under the Republic, and that the people of +Rome had come to regard it as the duty of their distinguished fellow +citizens to beautify the city and minister to their needs and pleasures by +generous private contributions. + +All these gifts were for the city of Rome, and for the people of the city, +not for the Empire, nor for Italy. This is characteristic of ancient +generosity or philanthropy, that its recipients are commonly the people +of a single town, usually the donor's native town. It is one of many +indications of the fact that the Roman thought of his city as the state, +and even under the Empire he rarely extended the scope of his benefactions +beyond the walls of a particular town. The small cities and villages +throughout the West reproduced the capital in miniature. Each was a little +world in itself. Each of them not only had its forum, its temples, +colonnades, baths, theatres, and arenas, but also developed a political +and social organization like that of the city of Rome. It had its own +local chief magistrates, distinguished by their official robes and +insignia of office, and its senators, who enjoyed the privilege of +occupying special seats in the theatre, and it was natural that the common +people at Ostia, Ariminum, or Lugudunum, like those at Rome, should expect +from those whom fortune had favored some return for the distinctions which +they enjoyed. In this way the prosperous in each little town came to feel +a sense of obligation to their native place, and this feeling of civic +pride and responsibility was strengthened by the same spirit of rivalry +between different villages that the Italian towns of the Middle Ages seem +to have inherited from their ancestors, a spirit of rivalry which made +each one eager to surpass the others in its beauty and attractiveness. +Perhaps there have never been so many beautiful towns in any other period +in history as there were in the Roman Empire, during the second century of +our era, and their attractive features--their colonnades, temples, +fountains, and works of art--were due in large measure to the generosity +of private citizens. We can make this statement with considerable +confidence, because these benefactions are recorded for us on innumerable +tablets of stone and bronze, scattered throughout the Empire. + +These contributions not only helped to meet the cost of building temples, +colonnades, and other structures, but they were often intended to cover a +part of the running expenses of the city. This is one of the novel +features of Roman municipal life. We can understand the motives which +would lead a citizen of New York or Boston to build a museum or an arch in +his native city. Such a structure would serve as a monument to him; it +would give distinction to the city, and it would give him and his fellow +citizens æsthetic satisfaction tion But if a rich New Yorker should give +a large sum to mend the pavement in Union Square or extend the sewer +system on Canal Street, a judicial inquiry into his sanity would not be +thought out of place. But the inscriptions show us that rich citizens +throughout the Roman Empire frequently made large contributions for just +such unromantic purposes. It is unfortunate that a record of the annual +income and expenses of some Italian or Gallic town has not come down to +us. It would be interesting, for instance, to compare the budget of Mantua +or Ancona, in the first century of our era, with that of Princeton or +Cambridge in the twentieth. But, although we rarely know the sums which +were expended for particular purposes, a mere comparison of the objects +for which they were spent is illuminating. The items in the ancient budget +which find no place in our own, and vice versa, are significant of certain +striking differences between ancient and modern municipal life. + +Common to the ancient and the modern city are expenditures for the +construction and maintenance of public buildings, sewers, aqueducts, and +streets, but with these items the parallelism ends. The ancient objects +of expenditure which find no place in the budget of an American town are +the repair of the town walls, the maintenance of public worship, the +support of the baths, the sale of grain at a low price, and the giving of +games and theatrical performances. It is very clear that the ancient +legislator made certain provisions for the physical and spiritual welfare +of his fellow citizens which find little or no place in our municipal +arrangements to-day. If, among the sums spent for the various objects +mentioned above, we compare the amounts set apart for religion and for the +baths, we may come to the conclusion that the Roman read the old saying, +"Cleanliness is next to godliness" in the amended form "Cleanliness is +next above godliness." No city in the Empire seems to have been too small +or too poor to possess public baths, and how large an item of annual +expense their care was is clear from the fact that an article of the +Theodosian code provided that cities should spend at least one-third of +their incomes on the heating of the baths and the repair of the walls. The +great idle population of the city of Rome had to be provided with food at +public expense. Otherwise riot and disorder would have followed, but in +the towns the situation was not so threatening, and probably furnishing +grain to the people did not constitute a regular item of expense. So far +as public entertainments were concerned, the remains of theatres and +amphitheatres in Pompeii, Fiesole, Aries, Orange, and at many other places +to-day furnish us visible evidence of the large sums which ancient towns +must have spent on plays and gladiatorial games. In the city of Rome in +the fourth century, there were one hundred and seventy-five days on which +performances were given in the theatres, arenas, and amphitheatres. + +We have been looking at the items which were peculiar to the ancient +budget. Those which are missing from it are still more indicative, if +possible, of differences between Roman character and modes of life and +those of to-day. Provision was rarely made for schools, museums, +libraries, hospitals, almshouses, or for the lighting of streets. No +salaries were paid to city officials; no expenditure was made for police +or for protection against fire, and the slaves whom every town owned +probably took care of the public buildings and kept the streets clean. +The failure of the ancient city government to provide for educational and +charitable institutions, means, as we shall see later, that in some cases +these matters were neglected, that in others they were left to private +enterprise. It appears strange that the admirable police and fire system +which Augustus introduced into Rome was not adopted throughout the Empire, +but that does not seem to have been the case, and life and property must +have been exposed to great risks, especially on festival days and in the +unlighted streets at night. The rich man could be protected by his +bodyguard of clients, and have his way lighted at night by the torches +which his slaves carried, but the little shopkeeper must have avoided the +dark alleys or attached himself to the retinue of some powerful man. Some +of us will recall in this connection the famous wall painting at Pompeii +which depicts the riotous contest between the Pompeians and the people of +the neighboring town of Nuceria, at the Pompeian gladiatorial games in 50 +B.C., when stones were thrown and weapons freely used. What scenes of +violence and disorder there must have been on such occasions as these, +without systematic police surveillance, can be readily imagined. + +The sums of money which an ancient or a modern city spends fall in two +categories--the amounts which are paid out for permanent improvements, and +the running expenses of the municipality. We have just been looking at the +second class of expenditures, and our brief examination of it shows +clearly enough that the ancient city took upon its shoulders only a small +part of the burden which a modern municipality assumes. It will be +interesting now to see how far the municipal outlay for running expenses +was supplemented by private generosity, and to find out the extent to +which the cities were indebted to the same source for their permanent +improvements. A great deal of light is thrown on these two questions by +the hundreds of stone and bronze tablets which were set up by donors +themselves or by grateful cities to commemorate the gifts made to them. +The responsibility which the rich Roman felt to spend his money for the +public good was unequivocally stated by the poet Martial in one of his +epigrams toward the close of the first century of our era. The speaker in +the poem tells his friend Pastor why he is striving to be rich--not that +he may have broad estates, rich appointments, fine wines, or troops of +slaves, but "that he may give and build for the public good" ("ut donem, +Pastor, et ædificem"), and this feeling of stewardship found expression in +a steady outpouring of gifts in the interests of the people. + +The practice of giving may well have started with the town officials. We +have already noticed that in Rome, under the Republic, candidates for +office, in seeking votes, and magistrates, in return for the honors paid +them, not infrequently spent large sums on the people. In course of time, +in the towns throughout the Empire this voluntary practice became a legal +obligation resting on local officials. This fact is brought out in the +municipal charter of Urso,[95] the modern Osuna, in Spain. Half of this +document, engraved on tablets, was discovered in Spain about forty years +ago, and makes a very interesting contribution to our knowledge of +municipal life. A colony was sent out to Urso, in 44 B.C., by Julius +Cæsar, under the care of Mark Antony, and the municipal constitution of +the colony was drawn up by one of these two men. In the seventieth +article, we read of the duumvirs, who were the chief magistrates: "Whoever +shall be duumvirs, with the exception of those who shall have first been +elected after the passage of this law, let the aforesaid during their +magistracy give a public entertainment or plays in honor of the gods and +goddesses Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, for four days, during the greater +part of the day, so far as it may be done, at the discretion of the common +councillors, and on these games and this entertainment let each one of +them spend from his own money not less than two thousand sesterces." The +article which follows in the document provides that the ædiles, or the +officials next in rank, shall give gladiatorial games and plays for three +days, and one day of races in the circus, and for these entertainments +they also must spend not less than two thousand sesterces. + +Here we see the modern practice reversed. City officials, instead of +receiving a salary for their services, not only serve without pay, but are +actually required by law to make a public contribution. It will be noticed +that the law specified the minimum sum which a magistrate _must_ spend. +The people put no limit on what he _might_ spend, and probably most of the +duumvirs of Urso gave more than $80, or, making allowance for the +difference in the purchasing value of money, $250, for the entertainment +of the people. In fact a great many honorary inscriptions from other towns +tell us of officials who made generous additions to the sum required by +law. So far as their purpose and results go, these expenditures may be +compared with the "campaign contributions" made by candidates for office +in this country. There is a strange likeness and unlikeness between the +two. The modern politician makes his contribution before the election, the +ancient politician after it. In our day the money is expended largely to +provide for public meetings where the questions of the day shall be +discussed. In Roman times it was spent upon public improvements, and upon +plays, dinners, and gladiatorial games. Among us public sentiment is +averse to the expenditure of large sums to secure an election. The Romans +desired and expected it, and those who were open-handed in this matter +took care to have a record of their gifts set down where it could be read +by all men. + +On general grounds we should expect our system to have a better effect on +the intelligence and character of the people, and to secure better +officials. The discussion of public questions, even in a partisan way, +brings them to the attention of the people, sets the people thinking, and +helps to educate voters on political and economic matters. If we may draw +an inference from the election posters in Pompeii, such subjects played a +small part in a city election under the Empire. It must have been +demoralizing, too, to a Pompeian or a citizen of Salona to vote for a +candidate, not because he would make the most honest and able duumvir or +ædile among the men canvassing for the office, but because he had the +longest purse. How our sense of propriety would be shocked if the newly +elected mayor of Hartford or Montclair should give a gala performance in +the local theatre to his fellow-citizens or pay for a free exhibition by a +circus troupe! But perhaps we should overcome our scruples and go, as the +people of Pompeii did, and perhaps our consciences would be completely +salved if the aforesaid mayor proceeded to lay a new pavement in Main +Street, to erect a fountain on the Green, or stucco the city hall. +Naturally only rich men could be elected to office in Roman towns, and in +this respect the same advantages and disadvantages attach to the Roman +system as we find in the practice which the English have followed up to +the present time of paying no salary to members of the House of Commons, +and in our own practice of letting our ambassadors meet a large part of +their legitimate expenses. + +The large gifts made to their native towns by rich men elected to public +office set an example which private citizens of means followed in an +extraordinary way. Sometimes they gave statues, or baths, or fountains, or +porticos, and sometimes they provided for games, or plays, or dinners, or +lottery tickets. Perhaps nothing can convey to our minds so clear an +impression of the motives of the donors, the variety and number of the +gifts, and their probable effect on the character of the people as to read +two or three specimens of these dedicatory inscriptions. The citizens of +Lanuvium, near Rome, set up a monument in honor of a certain Valerius, +"because he cleaned out and restored the water courses for a distance of +three miles, put the pipes in position again, and restored the two baths +for men and the bath for women, all at his own expense."[96] A citizen of +Sinuessa leaves this record: "Lucius Papius Pollio, the duumvir, to his +father, Lucius Papius. Cakes and mead to all the citizens of Sinuessa and +Cædici; gladiatorial games and a dinner for the people of Sinuessa and the +Papian clan; a monument at a cost of 12,000 sesterces."[97] Such a +catholic provision to suit all tastes should certainly have served to keep +his father from being forgotten. A citizen of Beneventum lays claim to +distinction because "he first scattered tickets among the people by means +of which he distributed gold, silver, bronze, linen garments, and other +things."[98] The people of Telesia, a little town in Campania, pay this +tribute to their distinguished patron: "To Titus Fabius Severus, patron of +the town, for his services at home and abroad, and because he, first of +all those who have instituted games, gave at his own expense five wild +beasts from Africa, a company of gladiators, and a splendid equipment, +the senate and citizens have most gladly granted a statue."[99] The office +of patron was a characteristic Roman institution. Cities and villages +elected to this position some distinguished Roman senator or knight, and +he looked out for the interests of the community in legal matters and +otherwise. + +This distinction was held in high esteem, and recipients of it often +testified their appreciation by generous gifts to the town which they +represented, or were chosen patrons because of their benefactions. This +fact is illustrated in the following inscription from Spoletium: "Gaius +Torasius Severus, the son of Gaius, of the Horatian tribe, quattuorvir +with judicial power, augur, in his own name, and in the name of his son +Publius Meclonius Proculus Torasianus, the pontiff, erected (this) on his +land (?) and at his own expense. He also gave the people 250,000 sesterces +to celebrate his son's birthday, from the income of which each year, on +the third day before the Kalends of September, the members of the Common +Council are to dine in public, and each citizen who is present is to +receive eight _asses_. He also gave to the seviri Augustales, and to the +priests of the Lares, and to the overseers of the city wards, 120,000 +sesterces, in order that from the income of this sum they might have a +public dinner on the same day. Him, for his services to the community, the +senate has chosen patron of the town."[100] A town commonly showed its +appreciation of what had been done for it by setting up a statue in honor +of its benefactor, as was done in the case of Fabius Severus, and the +public squares of Italian and provincial towns must have been adorned with +many works of art of this sort. It amuses one to find at the bottom of +some of the commemorative tablets attached to these statues, the statement +that the man distinguished in this way, "contented with the honor, has +himself defrayed the cost of the monument." To pay for a popular +testimonial to one's generosity is indeed generosity in its perfect form. +The statues themselves have disappeared along with the towns which erected +them, but the tablets remain, and by a strange dispensation of fate the +monument which a town has set up to perpetuate the memory of one of its +citizens is sometimes the only record we have of the town's own existence. + +The motives which actuated the giver were of a mixed character, as these +memorials indicate. Sometimes it was desire for the applause of his fellow +citizens, or for posthumous fame, which influenced a donor; sometimes +civic pride and affection. In many cases it was the compelling force of +custom, backed up now and then, as we can see from the inscriptions, by +the urgent demands of the populace. Out of this last sentiment there would +naturally grow a sense of the obligation imposed by the possession of +wealth, and this feeling is closely allied to pure generosity. In fact, it +would probably be wrong not to count this among the original motives which +actuated men in making their gifts, because the spirit of devotion to the +state and to the community was a marked characteristic of Romans in the +republican period. + +The effects which this practice of giving had on municipal life and on the +character of the people are not without importance and interest. The +lavish expenditure expected of a magistrate and the ever-increasing +financial obligations laid upon him by the central government made +municipal offices such an intolerable burden that the charter of Urso of +the first century A.D., which has been mentioned above, has to resort to +various ingenious devices to compel men to hold them. The position of a +member of a town council was still worse. He was not only expected to +contribute generously to the embellishment and support of his native city, +but he was also held responsible for the collection of the imperial taxes. +As prosperity declined he found this an increasingly difficult thing to +do, and seats in the local senate were undesirable. The central government +could not allow the men responsible for its revenues to escape their +responsibility. Consequently, it interposed and forced them to accept the +honor. Some of them enlisted in the army, or even fled into the desert, +but whenever they were found they were brought back to take up their +positions again. In the fourth century, service in the common council was +even made a penalty imposed upon criminals. Finally, it became hereditary, +and it is an amusing but pathetic thing to find that this honor, so highly +prized in the early period, became in the end a form of serfdom. + +We have been looking at the effects of private generosity on official +life. Its results for the private citizen are not so clear, but it must +have contributed to that decline of independence and of personal +responsibility which is so marked a feature of the later Empire. The +masses contributed little, if anything, to the running expenses of +government and the improvement of the city. The burdens fell largely upon +the rich. It was a system of quasi-socialism. Those who had, provided for +those who had not--not merely markets and temples, and colonnades, and +baths, but oil for the baths, games, plays, and gratuities of money. Since +their needs were largely met by others, the people lost more and more the +habit of providing for themselves and the ability to do so. When +prosperity declined, and the wealthy could no more assist them, the end +came. + +The objects for which donors gave their money seem to prove the +essentially materialistic character of Roman civilization, because we must +assume that those who gave knew the tastes of the people. Sometimes men +like Pliny the Younger gave money for libraries or schools, but such gifts +seem to have been relatively infrequent. Benefactions are commonly +intended to satisfy the material needs or gratify the desire of the +people for pleasure. + +Under the old régime charity was unknown. There were neither almshouses +nor hospitals, and scholars have called attention to the fact that even +the doles of corn which the state gave were granted to citizens only. Mere +residents or strangers were left altogether out of consideration, and they +were rarely included within the scope of private benevolence. In the +following chapter, in discussing the trades-guilds, we shall see that even +they made no provision for the widow or orphan, or for their sick or +disabled members. It was not until Christianity came that the poor and the +needy were helped because of their poverty and need. + + + + +Some Reflections on Corporations and Trades-Guilds + + +In a recent paper on "Ancient and Modern Imperialism," read before the +British Classical Association, Lord Cromer, England's late consul-general +in Egypt, notes certain points of resemblance between the English and the +Roman methods of dealing with alien peoples. With the Greeks no such +points of contact exist, because, as he remarks, "not only was the +imperial idea foreign to the Greek mind; the federal conception was +equally strange." This similarity between the political character and +methods of the Romans and Anglo-Saxons strikes any one who reads the +history of the two peoples side by side. They show the same genius for +government at home, and a like success in conquering and holding foreign +lands, and in assimilating alien peoples. Certain qualities which they +have in common contribute to these like results. Both the Roman and the +Anglo-Saxon have been men of affairs; both have shown great skill in +adapting means to an end, and each has driven straight at the immediate +object to be accomplished without paying much heed to logic or political +theory. A Roman statesman would have said "Amen!" to the Englishman's +pious hope that "his countrymen might never become consistent or logical +in politics." Perhaps the willingness of the average Roman to co-operate +with his fellows, and his skill in forming an organization suitable for +the purpose in hand, go farther than any of the other qualities mentioned +above to account for his success in governing other peoples as well as his +own nation. + +Our recognition of these striking points of resemblance between the Romans +and ourselves has come from a comparative study of the political life of +the two peoples. But the likeness to each other of the Romans and +Anglo-Saxons, especially in the matter of associating themselves together +for a common object, is still more apparent in their methods of dealing +with private affairs. A characteristic and amusing illustration of the +working of this tendency among the Romans is furnished by the early +history of monasticism in the Roman world. When the Oriental Christian +had convinced himself of the vanity of the world, he said: "It is the +weakness of the flesh and the enticements of the wicked which tempt me to +sin. Therefore I will withdraw from the world and mortify the flesh." This +is the spirit which drove him into the desert or the mountains, to live in +a cave with a lion or a wolf for his sole companion. This is the spirit +which took St. Anthony into a solitary place in Egypt. It led St. Simeon +Stylites to secure a more perfect sense of aloofness from the world, and a +greater security from contact with it by spending the last thirty years of +his life on the top of a pillar near Antioch. In the Western world, which +was thoroughly imbued with the Roman spirit, the Christian who held the +same view as his Eastern brother of the evil results flowing from +intercourse with his fellow men, also withdrew from the world, but he +withdrew in the company of a group of men who shared his opinions on the +efficacy of a life of solitude. A delightful instance of the triumph of +the principle of association over logic or theory! We Americans can +understand perfectly the compelling force of the principle, even in such a +case as this, and we should justify the Roman's action on the score of +practical common sense. We have organizations for almost every conceivable +political, social, literary, and economic purpose. In fact, it would be +hard to mention an object for which it would not be possible to organize a +club, a society, a league, a guild, or a union. In a similar way the +Romans had organizations of capitalists and laborers, religious +associations, political and social clubs, and leagues of veterans. + +So far as organizations of capitalists are concerned, their history is +closely bound up with that of imperialism. They come to our notice for the +first time during the wars with Carthage, when Rome made her earliest +acquisitions outside of Italy. In his account of the campaigns in Spain +against Hannibal's lieutenants, Livy tells us[101] of the great straits to +which the Roman army was reduced for its pay, food, and clothing. The need +was urgent, but the treasury was empty, and the people poverty-stricken. +In this emergency the prætor called a public meeting, laid before it the +situation in Spain, and, appealing to the joint-stock companies to come to +the relief of the state, appointed a day when proposals could be made to +furnish what was required by the army. On the appointed day three +_societates_, or corporations, offered to make the necessary loans to the +government; their offers were accepted, and the needs of the army were +met. The transaction reminds us of similar emergencies in our civil war, +when syndicates of bankers came to the support of the government. The +present-day tendency to question the motives of all corporations dealing +with the government does not seem to color Livy's interpretation of the +incident, for he cites it in proof of the patriotic spirit which ran +through all classes in the face of the struggle with Carthage. The +appearance of the joint-stock company at the moment when the policy of +territorial expansion is coming to the front is significant of the close +connection which existed later between imperialism and corporate finance, +but the later relations of corporations to the public interests cannot +always be interpreted in so charitable a fashion. + +Our public-service companies find no counter-part in antiquity, but the +Roman societies for the collection of taxes bear a resemblance to these +modern organizations of capital in the nature of the franchises, as we +may call them, and the special privileges which they had. The practice +which the Roman government followed of letting out to the highest bidder +the privilege of collecting the taxes in each of the provinces, naturally +gave a great impetus to the development of companies organized for this +purpose. Every new province added to the Empire opened a fresh field for +capitalistic enterprise, in the way not only of farming the taxes, but +also of loaning money, constructing public works, and leasing the mines +belonging to the state, and Roman politicians must have felt these +financial considerations steadily pushing them on to further conquests. + +But the interest of the companies did not end when Roman eagles had been +planted in a new region. It was necessary to have the provincial +government so managed as to help the agents of the companies in making as +much money as possible out of the provincials, and Cicero's year as +governor of Cilicia was made almost intolerable by the exactions which +these agents practised on the Cilicians, and the pressure which they +brought to bear upon him and his subordinates. His letters to his intimate +friend, Atticus, during this period contain pathetic accounts of the +embarrassing situations in which loaning companies and individual +capitalists at Rome placed him. On one occasion a certain Scaptius came to +him[102], armed with a strong letter of recommendation from the impeccable +Brutus, and asked to be appointed prefect of Cyprus. His purpose was, by +official pressure, to squeeze out of the people of Salamis, in Cyprus, a +debt which they owed, running at forty-eight per cent interest. Upon +making some inquiry into the previous history of Scaptius, Cicero learned +that under his predecessor in Cilicia, this same Scaptius had secured an +appointment as prefect of Cyprus, and backed by his official power, to +collect money due his company, had shut up the members of the Salaminian +common council in their town hall until five of them died of starvation. +In domestic politics the companies played an equally important rôle. The +relations which existed between the "interests" and political leaders were +as close in ancient times as they are to-day, and corporations were as +unpartisan in Rome in their political alliances as they are in the United +States. They impartially supported the democratic platforms of Gaius +Gracchus and Julius Cæsar in return for valuable concessions, and backed +the candidacy of the constitutionalist Pompey for the position of +commander-in-chief of the fleets and armies acting against the Eastern +pirates, and against Mithridates, in like expectation of substantial +returns for their help. What gave the companies their influence at the +polls was the fact that their shares were very widely held by voters. +Polybius, the Greek historian, writing of conditions at Rome in the second +century B.C., gives us to understand that almost every citizen owned +shares in some joint-stock company[103]. Poor crops in Sicily, heavy rains +in Sardinia, an uprising in Gaul, or "a strike" in the Spanish mines would +touch the pocket of every middle-class Roman. + +In these circumstances it is hard to see how the Roman got on without +stock quotations in the newspapers. But Cæsar's publication of the _Acta +Diurna_, or proceedings of the senate and assembly, would take the place +of our newspapers in some respects, and the crowds which gathered at the +points where these documents were posted, would remind us of the throngs +collected in front of the bulletin in the window of a newspaper office +when some exciting event has occurred. Couriers were constantly arriving +from the agents of corporations in Gaul, Spain, Africa, and Asia with the +latest news of industrial and financial enterprises in all these sections. +What a scurrying of feet there must have been through the streets when the +first news reached Rome of the insurrection of the proletariat in Asia in +88 B.C., and of the proclamation of Mithridates guaranteeing release from +half of their obligations to all debtors who should kill money-lenders! +Asiatic stocks must have dropped almost to the zero point. We find no +evidence of the existence of an organized stock exchange. Perhaps none was +necessary, because the shares of stock do not seem to have been +transferable, but other financial business arising out of the organization +of these companies, like the loaning of money on stock, could be +transacted reasonably well in the row of banking offices which ran along +one side of the Forum, and made it an ancient Wall Street or Lombard +Street. + +"Trusts" founded to control prices troubled the Romans, as they trouble +us to-day. There is an amusing reference to one of these trade +combinations as early as the third century before our era in the Captives +of Plautus.[104] The parasite in the play has been using his best quips +and his most effective leads to get an invitation to dinner, but he can't +provoke a smile, to say nothing of extracting an invitation. In a high +state of indignation he threatens to prosecute the men who avoid being his +hosts for entering into an unlawful combination like that of "the oil +dealers in the Velabrum." Incidentally it is a rather interesting +historical coincidence that the pioneer monopoly in Rome, as in our day, +was an oil trust--in the time of Plautus, of course, an olive-oil trust. +In the "Trickster," which was presented in 191 B.C., a character refers to +the mountains of grain which the dealers had in their warehouses.[105] Two +years later the "corner" had become so effective that the government +intervened, and the curule ædiles who had charge of the markets imposed a +heavy fine on the grain speculators.[106] The case was apparently +prosecuted under the Laws of the Twelve Tables of 450 B.C., the Magna +Charta of Roman liberty. It would seem, therefore, that combinations in +restraint of trade were formed at a very early date in Rome, and perhaps +Diocletian's attempt in the third century of our era to lower the cost of +living by fixing the prices of all sorts of commodities was aimed in part +at the same evil. As for government ownership, the Roman state made one or +two essays in this field, notably in the case of mines, but with +indifferent success. + +Labor was as completely organized as capital.[107] In fact the passion of +the Romans for association shows itself even more clearly here, and it +would be possible to write their industrial history from a study of their +trades-unions. The story of Rome carries the founding of these guilds back +to the early days of the regal period. From the investigations of +Waltzing, Liebenam, and others their history can be made out in +considerable detail. Roman tradition was delightfully systematic in +assigning the founding of one set of institutions to one king and of +another group to another king. Romulus, for instance, is the war king, and +concerns himself with military and political institutions. The second +king, Numa, is a man of peace, and is occupied throughout his reign with +the social and religious organization of his people. It was Numa who +established guilds of carpenters, dyers, shoemakers, tanners, workers in +copper and gold, fluteplayers, and potters. The critical historian looks +with a sceptical eye on the story of the kings, and yet this list of +trades is just what we should expect to find in primitive Rome. There are +no bakers or weavers, for instance, in the list. We know that in our own +colonial days the baking, spinning, and weaving were done at home, as they +would naturally have been when Rome was a community of shepherds and +farmers. As Roman civilization became more complex, industrial +specialization developed, and the number of guilds grew, but during the +Republic we cannot trace their growth very successfully for lack of +information about them. Corporations, as we have seen, played an +important part in politics, and their doings are chronicled in the +literature, like oratory and history, which deals with public questions, +but the trades-guilds had little share in politics; they were made up of +the obscure and weak, and consequently are rarely mentioned in the +writings of a Cicero or a Livy. + +It is only when the general passion for setting down records of all sorts +of enterprises and incidents on imperishable materials came in with the +Empire that the story of the Roman trades-union can be clearly followed. +It is a fortunate thing for us that this mania swept through the Roman +Empire, because it has given us some twenty-five hundred inscriptions +dealing with these organizations of workmen. These inscriptions disclose +the fact that there were more than eighty different trades organized into +guilds in the city of Rome alone. They included skilled and unskilled +laborers, from the porters, or _saccarii_, to the goldsmiths, or +_aurifices_. The names of some of them, like the _pastillarii_, or guild +of pastile-makers, and the _scabillarii_, or castanet-players, indicate a +high degree of industrial specialization. From one man's tombstone even +the conclusion seems to follow that he belonged to a union of what we may +perhaps call checker-board makers. The merchants formed trade associations +freely. Dealers in oil, in wine, in fish, and in grain are found organized +all over the Empire. Even the perfumers, hay-dealers, and ragmen had their +societies. No line of distinction seems to be drawn between the artist and +the artisan. The mason and the sculptor were classed in the same category +by Roman writers, so that we are not surprised to find unions of men in +both occupations. A curious distinction between the professions is also +brought out by these guild inscriptions. There are unions made up of +physicians, but none of lawyers, for the lawyer in early times was +supposed to receive no remuneration for his services. In point of fact the +physician was on a lower social plane in Rome than he was even among our +ancestors. The profession was followed almost exclusively by Greek +freedmen, as we can see from the records on their tombstones, and was +highly specialized, if we may judge from the epitaphs of eye and ear +doctors, surgeons, dentists, and veterinarians. To the same category with +the physician and sculptor belong the architect, the teacher, and the +chemist. Men of these professions pursued the _artes liberales_, as the +Romans put it, and constituted an aristocracy among those engaged in the +trades or lower professions. Below them in the hierarchy came those who +gained a livelihood by the _artes ludicræ_, like the actor, professional +dancer, juggler, or gladiator, and in the lowest caste were the +carpenters, weavers, and other artisans whose occupations were _artes +vulgares et sordidæ_. + +In the early part of this chapter the tendency of the Romans to form +voluntary associations was noted as a national characteristic. This fact +comes out very clearly if we compare the number of trades-unions in the +Western world with those in Greece and the Orient. Our conclusions must be +drawn of course from the extant inscriptions which refer to guilds, and +time may have dealt more harshly with the stones in one place than in +another, or the Roman government may have given its consent to the +establishment of such organizations with more reluctance in one province +than another; but, taking into account the fact that we have guild +inscriptions from four hundred and seventy-five towns and villages in the +Empire, these elements of uncertainty in our conclusions are practically +eliminated, and a fair comparison may be drawn between conditions in the +East and the West. If we pick out some of the more important towns in the +Greek part of the Roman world, we find five guilds reported from Tralles +in Caria, six from Smyrna, one from Alexandria, and eleven from Hierapolis +in Phrygia. On the other hand, in the city of Rome there were more than +one hundred, in Brixia (modern Brescia) seventeen or more, in Lugudunum +(Lyons) twenty at least, and in Canabæ, in the province of Dacia, five. +These figures, taken at random for some of the larger towns in different +parts of the Empire, bring out the fact very clearly that the western and +northern provinces readily accepted Roman ideas and showed the Roman +spirit, as illustrated in their ability and willingness to co-operate for +a common purpose, but that the Greek East was never Romanized. Even in the +settlements in Dacia, which continued under Roman rule only from 107 to +270 A.D., we find as many trades-unions as existed in Greek towns which +were held by the Romans for three or four centuries. The comparative +number of guilds and of guild inscriptions would, in fact, furnish us +with a rough test of the extent to which Rome impressed her civilization +on different parts of the Empire, even if we had no other criteria. We +should know, for instance, that less progress had been made in Britain +than in Southern Gaul, that Salona in Dalmatia, Lugudunum in Gaul, and +Mogontiacum (Mainz) in Germany were important centres of Roman +civilization. It is, of course, possible from a study of these +inscriptions to make out the most flourishing industries in the several +towns, but with that we are not concerned here. + +These guilds which we have been considering were trades-unions in the +sense that they were organizations made up of men working in the same +trade, but they differed from modern unions, and also from mediaeval +guilds, in the objects for which they were formed. They made no attempt to +raise wages, to improve working conditions, to limit the number of +apprentices, to develop skill and artistic taste in the craft, or to +better the social or political position of the laborer. It was the need +which their members felt for companionship, sympathy, and help in the +emergencies of life, and the desire to give more meaning to their lives, +that drew them together. These motives explain the provisions made for +social gatherings, and for the burial of members, which were the +characteristic features of most of the organizations. It is the social +side, for instance, which is indicated on a tombstone, found in a little +town of central Italy. After giving the name of the deceased, it reads: +"He bequeathed to his guild, the rag-dealers, a thousand sesterces, from +the income of which each year, on the festival of the Parentalia, not less +than twelve men shall dine at his tomb."[108] Another in northern Italy +reads: "To Publius Etereius Quadratus, the son of Publius, of the _Tribus +Quirina_, Etereia Aristolais, his mother, has set up a statue, at whose +dedication she gave the customary banquet to the union of rag-dealers, and +also a sum of money, from the income of which annually, from this time +forth, on the birthday of Quadratus, April 9, where his remains have been +laid, they should make a sacrifice, and should hold the customary banquet +in the temple, and should bring roses in their season and cover and crown +the statue; which thing they have undertaken to do."[109] The menu of one +of these dinners given in Dacia[110] has come down to us. It includes lamb +and pork, bread, salad, onions, and two kinds of wine. The cost of the +entertainment amounted to one hundred and sixty-nine _denarii_, or about +twenty-seven dollars, a sum which would probably have a purchasing value +to-day of from three to four times that amount. + +The "temple" or chapel referred to in these inscriptions was usually +semicircular, and may have served as a model for the Christian oratories. +The building usually stood in a little grove, and, with its accommodations +for official meetings and dinners, served the same purpose as a modern +club-house. Besides the special gatherings for which some deceased member +or some rich patron provided, the guild met at fixed times during the year +to dine or for other social purposes. The income of the society, which was +made up of the initiation fees and monthly dues of the members, and of +donations, was supplemented now and then by a system of fines. At least, +in an African inscription we read: "In the Curia of Jove. Done November +27, in the consulship of Maternus and Atticus.... If any one shall wish to +be a flamen, he shall give three amphorae of wine, besides bread and salt +and provisions. If any one shall wish to be a magister, he shall give two +amphorae of wine.... If any one shall have spoken disrespectfully to a +flamen, or laid hands upon him, he shall pay two denarii.... If any one +shall have gone to fetch wine, and shall have made away with it, he shall +give double the amount."[111] + +The provision which burial societies made for their members is illustrated +by the following epitaph: + +"To the shade of Gaius Julius Filetio, born in Africa, a physician, who +lived thirty-five years. Gaius Julius Filetus and Julia Euthenia, his +parents, have erected it to their very dear son. Also to Julius +Athenodorus, his brother, who lived thirty-five years. Euthenia set it up. +He has been placed here, to whose burial the guild of rag-dealers has +contributed three hundred denarii."[112] People of all ages have craved a +respectable burial, and the pathetic picture which Horace gives us in one +of his Satires of the fate which befell the poor and friendless at the +end of life, may well have led men of that class to make provisions which +would protect them from such an experience, and it was not an unnatural +thing for these organizations to be made up of men working in the same +trade. The statutes of several guilds have come down to us. One found at +Lanuvium has articles dealing particularly with burial regulations. They +read in part:[113] + +"It has pleased the members, that whoever shall wish to join this guild +shall pay an initiation fee of one hundred sesterces, and an amphora of +good wine, as well as five _asses_ a month. Voted likewise, that if any +man shall not have paid his dues for six consecutive months, and if the +lot common to all men has befallen him, his claim to a burial shall not be +considered, even if he shall have so stipulated in his will. Voted +likewise, that if any man from this body of ours, having paid his dues, +shall depart, there shall come to him from the treasury three hundred +sesterces, from which sum fifty sesterces, which shall be divided at the +funeral pyre, shall go for the funeral rites. Furthermore, the obsequies +shall be performed on foot." + +Besides the need of comradeship, and the desire to provide for a +respectable burial, we can see another motive which brought the weak and +lowly together in these associations. They were oppressed by the sense of +their own insignificance in society, and by the pitifully small part which +they played in the affairs of the world. But if they could establish a +society of their own, with concerns peculiar to itself which they would +administer, and if they could create positions of honor and importance in +this organization, even the lowliest man in Rome would have a chance to +satisfy that craving to exercise power over others which all of us feel, +to hold titles and distinctions, and to wear the insignia of office and +rank. This motive worked itself out in the establishment of a complete +hierarchy of offices, as we saw in part in an African inscription given +above. The Roman state was reproduced in miniature in these societies, +with their popular assemblies, and their officials, who bore the honorable +titles of quæstor, curator, prætor, ædile, and so forth. + +To read these twenty-five hundred or more inscriptions from all parts of +the Empire brings us close to the heart of the common people. We see +their little ambitions, their jealousies, their fears, their gratitude for +kindness, their own kindliness, and their loyalty to their fellows. All of +them are anxious to be remembered after death, and provide, when they can +do so, for the celebration of their birthdays by members of the +association. A guild inscription in Latium, for instance, reads:[114] +"Jan. 6, birthday of Publius Claudius Veratius Abascantianus, [who has +contributed] 6,000 sesterces, [paying an annual interest of] 180 denarii." +"Jan. 25, birthday of Gargilius Felix, [who has contributed] 2,000 +sesterces, [paying an annual interest of] 60 denarii," and so on through +the twelve months of the year. + +It is not entirely clear why the guilds never tried to bring pressure to +bear on their employers to raise wages, or to improve their position by +means of the strike, or by other methods with which we are familiar +to-day. Perhaps the difference between the ancient and modern methods of +manufacture helps us to understand this fact. In modern times most +articles can be made much more cheaply by machinery than by hand, and the +use of water-power, of steam, and of electricity, and the invention of +elaborate machines, has led us to bring together a great many workmen +under one roof or in one factory. The men who are thus employed in a +single establishment work under common conditions, suffer the same +disadvantages, and are brought into such close relations with one another +that common action to improve their lot is natural. In ancient times, as +may be seen in the chapter on Diocletian's edict, machinery was almost +unknown, and artisans worked singly in their own homes or in the houses of +their employers, so that joint action to improve their condition would +hardly be expected. + +Another factor which should probably be taken into account is the +influence of slavery. This institution did not play the important rôle +under the Empire in depressing the free laborer which it is often supposed +to have played, because it was steadily dying out; but an employer could +always have recourse to slave labor to a limited extent, and the +struggling freedmen who had just come up from slavery were not likely to +urge very strongly their claims for consideration. + +In this connection it is interesting to recall the fact that before +slavery got a foothold in Rome, the masses in their struggle with the +classes used what we think of to-day as the most modern weapon employed in +industrial warfare. We can all remember the intense interest with which we +watched the novel experience which St. Petersburg underwent some six years +ago, when the general strike was instituted. And yet, if we accept +tradition, that method of bringing the government and society to terms was +used twice by the Roman proletariat over two thousand years ago. The +plebeians, so the story goes, unable to get their economic and political +rights, stopped work and withdrew from the city to the Sacred Mount. Their +abstention from labor did not mean the going out of street lamps, the +suspension of street-car traffic, and the closing of factories and shops, +but, besides the loss of fighting men, it meant that no more shoes could +be had, no more carpentry work done, and no more wine-jars made until +concessions should be granted. But, having slaves to compete with it, and +with conditions which made organization difficult, free labor could not +hope to rise, and the unions could take no serious step toward the +improvement of the condition of their members. The feeling of security on +this score which society had, warranted the government in allowing even +its own employees to organize, and we find unions of government clerks, +messengers, and others. The Roman government was, therefore, never called +upon to solve the grave political and economic questions which France and +Italy have had to face in late years in the threatened strikes of the +state railway and postal employees. + +We have just been noticing how the ancient differed from the modern +trades-union in the objects which it sought to obtain. The religious +character which it took seems equally strange to us at first sight. Every +guild put itself under the protection of some deity and was closely +associated with a cult. Silvanus, the god of the woods, was a natural +favorite with the carpenters, Father Bacchus with the innkeepers, Vesta +with the bakers, and Diana with those who hunted wild animals for the +circus. The reason for the choice of certain other divine patrons is not +so clear. Why the cabmen of Tibur, for instance, picked out Hercules as +their tutelary deity, unless, like Horace in his Satires, the ancient +cabman thought of him as the god of treasure-trove, and, therefore, +likely to inspire the giving of generous tips, we cannot guess. The +religious side of Roman trade associations will not surprise us when we +recall the strong religious bent of the Roman character, and when we +remember that no body of Romans would have thought of forming any kind of +an organization without securing the sanction and protection of the gods. +The family, the clan, the state all had their protecting deities, to whom +appropriate rites were paid on stated occasions. Speaking of the religious +side of these trade organizations naturally reminds one of the religious +associations which sprang up in such large numbers toward the end of the +republican period and under the Empire. They lie outside the scope of this +chapter, but, in the light of the issue which has arisen in recent years +between religious associations and the governments of Italy, France, +Spain, and Portugal, it is interesting to notice in passing that the Roman +state strove to hold in check many of the ancient religious associations, +but not always with much success. As we have noticed, its attitude toward +the trade-guilds was not unfriendly. In the last days of the Republic, +however, they began to enter politics, and were used very effectively in +the elections by political leaders in both parties.[115] In fact the +fortunes of the city seemed likely to be controlled by political clubs, +until severe legislation and the transfer of the elections in the early +Empire from the popular assemblies to the senate put an end to the use of +trade associations for political purposes. It was in the light of this +development that the government henceforth required all newly formed +trades-unions to secure official authorization. + +The change in the attitude of the state toward these organizations, as +time went on, has been traced by Liebenam in his study of Roman +associations. The story of this change furnishes an interesting episode in +the history of special privilege, and may not be without profit to us. The +Roman government started with the assumption that the operation of these +voluntary associations was a matter of public as well as of private +concern, and could serve public interests. Therefore their members were to +be exempted from some of the burdens which the ordinary citizen bore. It +was this reasoning, for instance, which led Trajan to set the bakers free +from certain charges, and which influenced Hadrian to grant the same +favors to those associations of skippers which supplied Rome with food. In +the light of our present-day discussion it is interesting also to find +that Marcus Aurelius granted them the right to manumit slaves and receive +legacies--that is, he made them juridical persons. But if these +associations were to be fostered by law, in proportion as they promoted +the public welfare, it also followed logically that the state could put a +restraining hand upon them when their development failed to serve public +interests in the highest degree. Following this logical sequence, the +Emperor Claudius, in his efforts to promote a more wholesome home life, or +for some other reason not known to us, forbade the eating-houses or the +delicatessen shops to sell cooked meats or warm water. Antoninus Pius, in +his paternal care for the unions, prescribed an age test and a physical +test for those who wished to become members. Later, under the law a man +was allowed to join one guild only. Such a legal provision as this was a +natural concomitant of the concession of privileges to the unions. If the +members of these organizations were to receive special favors from the +state, the state must see to it that the rolls were not padded. It must, +in fact, have the right of final supervision of the list of members. So +long as industry flourished, and so long as the population increased, or +at least remained stationary, this oversight by the government brought no +appreciable ill results. But when financial conditions grew steadily +worse, when large tracts of land passed out of cultivation and the +population rapidly dwindled, the numbers in the trades-unions began to +decline. The public services, constantly growing heavier, which the state +required of the guilds in return for their privileges made the loss of +members still greater. This movement threatened the industrial interests +of the Empire and must be checked at all hazards. Consequently, taking +another logical step in the way of government regulation in the interests +of the public, the state forbade men to withdraw from the unions, and made +membership in a union hereditary. Henceforth the carpenter must always +remain a carpenter, the weaver a weaver, and the sons and grandsons of the +carpenter and the weaver must take up the occupation of their fathers, and +a man is bound forever to his trade as the serf is to the soil. + + + + +A Roman Politician + +(Gaius Scribonius Curio) + + + +The life of Gaius Scribonius Curio has so many points of interest for the +student of Roman politics and society, that one is bewildered by the +variety of situations and experiences which it covers. His private +character is made up of a _mélange_ of contradictory qualities, of +generosity, and profligacy, of sincerity and unscrupulousness. In his +public life there is the same facile change of guiding principles. He is +alternately a follower of Cicero and a supporter of his bitterest enemy, a +Tory and a Democrat, a recognized opponent of Cæsar and his trusted agent +and adviser. His dramatic career stirs Lucan to one of his finest +passages, gives a touch of vigor to the prosaic narrative of Velleius, and +even leads the sedate Pliny to drop into satire.[116] Friend and foe have +helped to paint the picture. Cicero, the counsellor of his youth, writes +of him and to him; Cælius, his bosom friend, analyzes his character; +Cæsar leaves us a record of his military campaigns and death, while +Velleius and Appian recount his public and private sins. His story has +this peculiar charm, that many of the incidents which make it up are +related from day to day, as they occurred, by his contemporaries, Cicero +and Cælius, in the confidential letters which they wrote to their intimate +friends. With all the strange elements which entered into it, however, his +career is not an unusual one for the time in which he lived. Indeed it is +almost typical for the class to which he belonged, and in studying it we +shall come to know something more of that group of brilliant young men, +made up of Cælius, Antony, Dolabella, and others, who were drawn to +Cæsar's cause and played so large a part in bringing him success. The life +of Curio not only illuminates social conditions in the first century +before our era, but it epitomizes and personifies the political history of +his time and the last struggles of the Republic. It brings within its +compass the Catilinarian conspiracy, the agitation of Clodius, the +formation of the first triumvirate, the rivalry of Cæsar and Pompey, and +the civil war, for in all these episodes Curio took an active part. + +Students of history have called attention to the striking way in which the +members of certain distinguished Roman families from generation to +generation kept up the political traditions of the family. The Claudian +family is a striking case in point. Recognition of this fact helps us to +understand Curio. His grandfather and his father were both prominent +orators and politicians, as Cicero tells us in his Brutus.[117] The +grandfather reached the praetorship in the year in which Gaius Gracchus +was done to death by his political opponents, while Curio pater was +consul, in 76 B.C., when the confusion which followed the breaking up of +the constitution and of the party of Sulla was at its height. Cicero tells +us that the second Curio had "absolutely no knowledge of letters," but +that he was one of the successful public speakers of his day, thanks to +the training which he had received at home. The third Curio, with whom we +are concerned here, was prepared for public life as his father had been, +for Cicero remarks of him that "although he had not been sufficiently +trained by teachers, he had a rare gift for oratory."[118] + +On this point Cicero could speak with authority, because Curio had very +possibly been one of his pupils in oratory and law. At least the very +intimate acquaintance which he has with Curio's character and the +incidents of his life, the fatherly tone of Cicero's letters to him, and +the fact that Curio's nearest friends were among his disciples make this a +natural inference. How intimate this relation was, one can see from the +charming picture which Cicero draws, in the introductory chapters of his +Essay on Friendship, of his own intercourse as a young man with the +learned Augur Scævola. Roman youth attended their counsellor and friend +when he went to the forum to take part in public business, or sat with him +at home discussing matters of public and private interest, as Cicero and +his companions sat on the bench in the garden with the pontiff Scævola, +when he set forth the discourse of Lælius on friendship, and thus, out of +his experience, the old man talked to the young men about him upon the +conduct of life as well as upon the technical points of law and oratory. +So many of the brilliant young politicians of this period had been brought +into close relations with Cicero in this way, that when he found himself +forced out of politics by the Cæsarians, he whimsically writes to his +friend Pætus that he is inclined to give up public life and open a school, +and not more than a year before his death he pathetically complains that +he has not leisure even to take the waters at the spa, because of the +demands which are made upon him for lessons in oratory. + +If it did not take us too far from our chosen subject, it would be +interesting to stop and consider at length what effect Cicero's intimate +relations with these young men had upon his character, his political +views, his personal fortunes, and the course of politics. That they kept +him young in his interests and sympathies, that they kept his mind alert +and receptive, comes out clearly in his letters to them, which are full of +jest and raillery and enthusiasm. That he never developed into a Tory, as +Catulus did, or became indifferent to political conditions, as Lucullus +did, may have been due in part to his intimate association with this group +of enthusiastic young politicians. So far as his personal fortunes were +concerned, when the struggle between Cæsar and Pompey came, these former +pupils of Cicero had an opportunity to show their attachment and their +gratitude to him. _They_ were followers of Cæsar, and _he_ cast in his lot +with Pompey. But this made no difference in their relations. To the +contrary, they gave him advice and help; in their most hurried journeys +they found time to visit him, and they interceded with Cæsar in his +behalf. To determine whether he influenced the fortunes of the state +through the effect which his teachings had upon these young men would +require a paper by itself. Perhaps no man has ever had a better +opportunity than Cicero had in their cases to leave a lasting impression +on the political leaders of the coming generation. Curio, Cælius, +Trebatius, Dolabella, Hirtius, and Pansa, who were Cæsar's lieutenants, in +the years when their characters were forming and their political +tendencies were being determined, were moulded by Cicero. They were warmly +attached to him as their guide, philosopher, and friend, and they admired +him as a writer, an orator, and an accomplished man of the world. Later +they attached themselves to Cæsar, and while they were still under his +spell, Cicero's influence over their political course does not seem to +count for so much, but after Cæsar's death, the latent effect of Cicero's +friendship and teaching makes itself clearly felt in the heroic service +which such men as Hirtius and Pansa rendered to the cause of the dying +Republic. Possibly even Curio, had he been living, might have been found, +after the Ides of March, fighting by the side of Cicero. + +Perhaps there is no better way of bringing out the intimate relations +which Curio and the other young men of this group bore to the orator than +by translating one of Cicero's early letters to him. It was written in 53 +B.C., when the young man was in Asia, just beginning his political career +as quæstor, or treasurer, on the staff of the governor of that province, +and reads:[119] + +"Although I grieve to have been suspected of neglect by you, still it has +not been so annoying to me that my failure in duty is complained of by you +as pleasant that it has been noticed, especially since, in so far as I am +accused, I am free from fault. But in so far as you intimate that you +long for a letter from me, you disclose that which I know well, it is +true, but that which is sweet and cherished--your love, I mean. In point +of fact, I never let any one pass, who I think will go to you, without +giving him a letter. For who is so indefatigable in writing as I am? From +you, on the other hand, twice or thrice at most have I received a letter, +and then a very short one. Therefore, if you are an unjust judge toward +me, I shall condemn you on the same charge, but if you shall be unwilling +to have me do that, you must show yourself just to me. + +"But enough about letters; I have no fear of not satisfying you by +writing, especially if in that kind of activity you will not scorn my +efforts. I _did_ grieve that you were away from us so long, inasmuch as I +was deprived of the enjoyment of most delightful companionship, but now I +rejoice because, in your absence, you have attained all your ends without +sacrificing your dignity in the slightest degree, and because in all your +undertakings the outcome has corresponded to my desires. What my boundless +affection for you forces me to urge upon you is briefly put. So great a +hope is based, shall I say, on your spirit or on your abilities, that I do +not hesitate to beseech and implore you to come back to us with a +character so moulded that you may be able to preserve and maintain this +confidence in you which you have aroused. And since forgetfulness shall +never blot out my remembrance of your services to me, I beg you to +remember that whatever improvements may come in your fortune, or in your +station in life, you would not have been able to secure them, if you had +not as a boy in the old days followed my most loyal and loving counsels. +Wherefore you ought to have such a feeling toward us, that we, who are now +growing heavy with years, may find rest in your love and your youth." + +In a most unexpected place, in one of Cicero's fiery invectives against +Antony,[120] we come upon an episode illustrating his affectionate care of +Curio during Curio's youth. The elder Curio lies upon a couch, prostrate +with grief at the wreck which his son has brought on the house by his +dissolute life and his extravagance. The younger Curio throws himself at +Cicero's feet in tears. Like a foster-father, Cicero induces the young +man to break off his evil habits, and persuades the father to forgive him +and pay his debts. This scene which he describes here, reminds us of +Curio's first appearance in Cicero's correspondence, where, with Curio's +wild life in mind, he is spoken of as _filiola Curionis_.[121] + +It is an appropriate thing that a man destined to lead so stormy a life as +Curio did, should come on the stage as a leader in the wild turmoil of the +Clodian affair. What brought the two Curios to the front in this matter as +champions of Cicero's future enemy Clodius, it is not easy to say. It is +interesting to notice in passing, however, that our Curio enters politics +as a Democrat. He was the leader, in fact, of the younger element in that +party, of the "Catilinarian crowd," as Cicero styles them, and arrayed +himself against Lucullus, Hortensius, Messala, and other prominent +Conservatives. What the methods were which Curio and his followers +adopted, Cicero graphically describes.[122] They blocked up the entrances +to the polling places with professional rowdies, and allowed only one kind +of ballots to be distributed to the voters. This was in 61 B.C., when +Curio can scarcely have been more than twenty-three years old. + +In the following year Cæsar was back in Rome from his successful +proprætorship in Spain, and found little difficulty in persuading Pompey +and Crassus to join him in forming that political compact which controlled +the fortunes of Rome for the next ten years. As a part of the agreement, +Cæsar was made consul in 59 B.C., and forced his radical legislation +through the popular assembly in spite of the violent opposition of the +Conservatives. This is the year, too, of the candidacy of Clodius for the +tribunate. Toward both these movements the attitude of Curio is puzzling. +He reports to Cicero[123] that Clodius's main object in running for the +tribunate is to repeal the legislation of Cæsar. It is strange that a man +who had been in the counsels of Clodius, and was so shrewd on other +occasions in interpreting political motives, can have been so deceived. We +can hardly believe that he was double-faced toward Cicero. We must +conclude, I think, that his strong dislike for Cæsar's policy and +political methods colored his view of the situation. His fierce opposition +to Cæsar is the other strange incident in this period of his life. Most +of the young men of the time, even those of good family, were enthusiastic +supporters of Cæsar. Curio, however, is bitterly opposed to him.[124] +Perhaps he resented Cæsar's repression of freedom of speech, for he tells +Cicero that the young men of Rome will not submit to the high-handed +methods of the triumvirs, or perhaps he imbibed his early dislike for +Cæsar from his father, whose sentiments are made clear enough by a savage +epigram at Cæsar's expense, which Suetonius quotes from a speech of the +elder Curio.[125] At all events he is the only man who dares speak out. He +is the idol of the Conservatives, and is surrounded by enthusiastic crowds +whenever he appears in the forum. He is now the recognized leader of the +opposition to Cæsar, and a significant proof of this fact is furnished at +the great games given in honor of Apollo in the summer of 59. When Cæsar +entered the theatre there was faint applause; when Curio entered the crowd +rose and cheered him, "as they used to cheer Pompey when the commonwealth +was safe."[126] Perhaps the mysterious Vettius episode, an ancient Titus +Oates affair, which belongs to this year, reflects the desire of the +triumvirs to get rid of Curio, and shows also their fear of his +opposition. This unscrupulous informer is said to have privately told +Curio of a plot against the life of Pompey, in the hope of involving him +in the meshes of the plot. Curio denounced him to Pompey, and Vettius was +thrown into prison, where he was afterward found dead, before the truth of +the matter could be brought out. Of course Curio's opposition to Cæsar +effected little, except, perhaps, in drawing Cæsar's attention to him as a +clever politician. + +To Curio's quæstorship in Asia reference has already been made. It fell in +53 B.C., and from his incumbency of this office we can make an approximate +estimate of his date of birth. Thirty or thirty-one was probably the +minimum age for holding the quæstorship at this time, so that Curio must +have been born about 84 B.C. From Cicero's letter to him, which has been +given above, it would seem to follow that he had performed his duties in +his province with eminent success. During his absence from Rome his +father died, and with his father's death one stimulating cause of his +dislike for Cæsar may have disappeared. To Curio's absence in his province +we owe six of the charming letters which Cicero wrote to him. In one of +his letters of this year he writes:[127] "There are many kinds of letters, +as you well know, but one sort, for the sake of which letter-writing was +invented, is best recognized: I mean letters written for the purpose of +informing those who are not with us of whatever it may be to our advantage +or to theirs that they should know. Surely you are not looking for a +letter of this kind from me, for you have correspondents and messengers +from home who report to you about your household. Moreover, so far as my +concerns go, there is absolutely nothing new. There are two kinds of +letters left which please me very much: one, of the informal and jesting +sort; the other, serious and weighty. I do not feel that it is unbecoming +to adopt either of these styles. Am I to jest with you by letter? On my +word I do not think that there is a citizen who can laugh in these days. +Or shall I write something of a more serious character? What subject is +there on which Cicero can write seriously to Curio, unless it be +concerning the commonwealth? And on this matter this is my situation: that +I neither dare to set down in writing that which I think, nor wish to +write what I do not think." + +The Romans felt the same indifference toward affairs in the provinces that +we show in this country, unless their investments were in danger. They +were wrapped up in their own concerns, and politics in Rome were so +absorbing in 53 B.C. that people in the city probably paid little +attention to the doings of a quæstor in the far-away province of Asia. +But, as the time for Curio's return approached, men recalled the striking +rôle which he played in politics in earlier days, and wondered what course +he would take when he came back. Events were moving rapidly toward a +crisis. Julia, Cæsar's daughter, whom Pompey had married, died in the +summer of 54 B.C., and Crassus was defeated and murdered by the Parthians +in 53 B.C. The death of Crassus brought Cæsar and Pompey face to face, and +Julia's death broke one of the strongest bonds which had held these two +rivals together. Cæsar's position, too, was rendered precarious by the +desperate struggle against the Belgæ, in which he was involved in 53 B.C. +In Rome the political pot was boiling furiously. The city was in the grip +of the bands of desperadoes hired by Milo and Clodius, who broke up the +elections during 53 B.C., so that the first of January, 52, arrived with +no chief magistrates in the city. To a man of Curio's daring and +versatility this situation offered almost unlimited possibilities, and +recognizing this fact, Cicero writes earnestly to him,[128] on the eve of +his return, to enlist him in support of Milo's candidacy for the +consulship. Curio may have just arrived in the city when matters reached a +climax, for on January 18, 52 B.C., Clodius was killed in a street brawl +by the followers of Milo, and Pompey was soon after elected sole consul, +to bring order out of the chaos, if possible. + +Curio was not called upon to support Milo for the consulship, because +Milo's share in the murder of Clodius and the elevation of Pompey to his +extra-constitutional magistracy put an end to Milo's candidacy. What part +he took in supporting or in opposing Pompey's reform legislation of 52 +B.C., and what share he had in the preliminary skirmishes between Cæsar +and the senate during the early part of 51, we have no means of knowing. +As the situation became more acute, however, toward the end of the year, +we hear of him again as an active political leader. Cicero's absence from +Rome from May, 51 to January, 49 B.C., is a fortunate thing for us, for to +it we owe the clever and gossipy political letters which his friend Cælius +sent him from the capital. In one of these letters, written August 1, 51 +B.C., we learn that Curio is a candidate for the tribunate for the +following year, and in it we find a keen analysis of the situation, and an +interesting, though tantaizingly brief, estimate of his character. Coming +from an intimate friend of Curio, it is especially valuable to us. Cælius +writes:[129] "He inspires with great alarm many people who do not know him +and do not know how easily he can be influenced, but judging from my hopes +and wishes, and from his present behavior, he will prefer to support the +Conservatives and the senate. In his present frame of mind he is simply +bubbling over with this feeling. The source and reason of this attitude +of his lies in the fact that Cæsar, who is in the habit of winning the +friendship of men of the worst sort at any cost whatsoever, has shown a +great contempt for him. And of the whole affair it seems to me a most +delightful outcome, and the view has been taken by the rest, too, to such +a degree that Curio, who does nothing after deliberation, seems to have +followed a definite policy and definite plans in avoiding the traps of +those who had made ready to oppose his election to the tribunate--I mean +the Lælii, Antonii, and powerful people of that sort." Without strong +convictions or a settled policy, unscrupulous, impetuous, radical, and +changeable, these are the qualities which Cælius finds in Curio, and what +we have seen of his career leads us to accept the correctness of this +estimate. In 61 he had been the champion of Clodius, and the leader of the +young Democrats, while two years later we found him the opponent of Cæsar, +and an ultra-Conservative. It is in the light of his knowledge of Curio's +character, and after receiving this letter from Cælius, that Cicero writes +in December, 51 B.C., to congratulate him upon his election to the +tribunate. He begs him "to govern and direct his course in all matters in +accordance with his own judgment, and not to be carried away by the advice +of other people." "I do not fear," he says, "that you may do anything in a +fainthearted or stupid way, if you defend those policies which you +yourself shall believe to be right.... Commune with yourself, take +yourself into counsel, hearken to yourself, determine your own policy." + +The other point in the letter of Cælius, his analysis of the political +situation, so far as Curio is concerned, is not so easy to follow. Cælius +evidently believes that Curio had coquetted with Cæsar and had been +snubbed by him, that his intrigues with Cæsar had at first led the +aristocracy to oppose his candidacy, but that Cæsar's contemptuous +treatment of his advances had driven him into the arms of the senatorial +party. It is quite possible, however, that an understanding may have been +reached between Cæsar and Curio even at this early date, and that Cæsar's +coldness and Curio's conservatism may both have been assumed. This would +enable Curio to pose as an independent leader, free from all obligations +to Cæsar, Pompey, or the Conservatives, and anxious to see fair play and +safeguard the interests of the whole people, an independent leader who +was driven over in the end to Cæsar's side by the selfish and factious +opposition of the senatorial party to his measures of reform and his +advocacy of even-handed justice for both Cæsar and Pompey.[130] + +Whether Curio came to an understanding with Cæsar before he entered on his +tribunate or not, his policy from the outset was well calculated to make +the transfer of his allegiance seem forced upon him, and to help him carry +over to Cæsar the support of those who were not blinded by partisan +feelings. Before he had been in office a fortnight he brought in a bill +which would have annulled the law, passed by Cæsar in his consulship, +assigning land in Campania to Pompey's veterans.[131] The repeal of this +law had always been a favorite project with the Conservatives, and Curio's +proposal seemed to be directed equally against Cæsar and Pompey. In +February of 50 B.C. he brought in two bills whose reception facilitated +his passage to the Cæsarian party. One of them provided for the repair of +the roads, and, as Appian tells us,[132] although "he knew that he could +not carry any such measure, he hoped that Pompey's friends would oppose +him so that he might have that as an excuse for opposing Pompey." The +second measure was to insert an intercalary month. It will be remembered +that before Cæsar reformed the calendar, it was necessary to insert an +extra month in alternate years, and 50 B.C. was a year in which +intercalation was required. Curio's proposal was, therefore, a very proper +one. It would recommend itself also on the score of fairness. March 1 had +been set as the day on which the senate should take up the question of +Cæsar's provinces, and after that date there would be little opportunity +to consider other business. Now the intercalated month would have been +inserted, in accordance with the regular practice, after February 23, and +by its insertion time would have been given for the proper discussion of +the measures which Curio had proposed. Incidentally, and probably this was +in Curio's mind, the date when Cæsar might be called upon to surrender his +provinces would be postponed. The proposal to insert the extra month was +defeated, and Curio, blocked in every move by the partisan and +unreasonable opposition of Pompey and the Conservatives, found the +pretext for which lie had been working, and came out openly for +Cæsar.[133] Those who knew him well were not surprised at the transfer of +his allegiance. It was probably in fear of such a move that Cicero had +urged him not to yield to the influence of others, and when Cicero in +Cilicia hears the news, he writes to his friend Cælius: "Is it possible? +Curio is now defending Cæsar! Who would have expected it?--except myself, +for, as surely as I hope to live, _I_ expected it. Heavens! how I miss the +laugh we might have had over it." Looking back, as we can now, on the +political rôle which Curio played during the next twelve months, it seems +strange that two of his intimate friends, who were such far-sighted +politicians as Cicero and Cælius were, should have underestimated his +political ability so completely. It shows Cæsar's superior political +sagacity that he clearly saw his qualities as a leader and tactician. What +terms Cæsar was forced to make to secure his support we do not know. +Gossip said that the price was sixty million sesterces,[134] or more than +two and a half million dollars. He was undoubtedly in great straits. The +immense sums which he had spent in celebrating funeral games in honor of +his father had probably left him a bankrupt, and large amounts of money +were paid for political services during the last years of the republic. +Naturally proof of the transaction cannot be had, and even Velleius +Paterculus, in his savage arraignment of Curio,[135] does not feel +convinced of the truth of the story, but the tale is probable. + +It was high time for Cæsar to provide himself with an agent in Rome. The +month of March was near at hand, when the long-awaited discussion of his +provinces would come up in the senate. His political future, and his +rights as a citizen, depended upon his success in blocking the efforts of +the senate to take his provinces from him before the end of the year, when +he could step from the proconsulship to the consulship. An interval of +even a month in private life between the two offices would be all that his +enemies would need for bringing political charges against him that would +effect his ruin. His displacement before the end of the year must be +prevented, therefore, at all hazards. To this task Curio addressed +himself, and with surpassing adroitness. He did not come out at once as +Cæsar's champion. His function was to hold the scales true between Cæsar +and Pompey, to protect the Commonwealth against the overweening ambition +and threatening policy of both men. He supported the proposal that Cæsar +should be called upon to surrender his army, but coupled with it the +demand that Pompey also should be required to give up his troops and his +proconsulship. The fairness of his plan appealed to the masses, who would +not tolerate a favor to Pompey at Cæsar's expense. It won over even a +majority of the senate. The cleverness of his policy was clearly shown at +a critical meeting of the senate in December of the year 50 B.C. Appian +tells us the story:[136] "In the senate the opinion of each member was +asked, and Claudius craftily divided the question and took the votes +separately, thus: 'Shall Pompey be deprived of his command?' The majority +voted against the latter proposition, and it was decreed that successors +to Cæsar should be sent. Then Curio put the question whether both should +lay down their commands, and twenty-two voted in the negative, while +three hundred and seventy went back to the opinion of Curio in order to +avoid civil discord. Then Claudius dismissed the senate, exclaiming: +'Enjoy your victory and have Cæsar for a master!'" The senate's action was +vetoed, and therefore had no legal value, but it put Cæsar and Curio in +the right and Pompey' s partisans in the wrong. + +As a part of his policy of defending Cæsar by calling attention to the +exceptional position and the extra-constitutional course of Pompey, Curio +offset the Conservative attacks on Cæsar by public speeches fiercely +arraigning Pompey for what he had done during his consulship, five years +before. When we recall Curio's biting wit and sarcasm, and the +unpopularity of Pompey's high-handed methods of that year, we shall +appreciate the effectiveness of this flank attack. + +Another weapon which he used freely was his unlimited right of veto as +tribune. As early as April Cælius appreciated how successful these tactics +would be, and he saw the dilemma in which they would put the +Conservatives, for he writes to Cicero: "This is what I have to tell you: +if they put pressure at every point on Curio, Cæsar will defend his right +to exercise the veto; if, as seems likely, they shrink [from overruling +him], Cæsar will stay [in his province] as long as he likes." The veto +power was the weapon which he used against the senate at the meeting of +that body on the first of December, to which reference has already been +made. The elections in July had gone against Cæsar. Two Conservatives had +been returned as consuls. In the autumn the senate had found legal means +of depriving Cæsar of two of his legions. Talk of a compromise was dying +down. Pompey, who had been desperately ill in the spring, had regained his +strength. He had been exasperated by the savage attacks of Curio. +Sensational stories of the movements of Cæsar's troops in the North were +whispered in the forum, and increased the tension. In the autumn, for +instance, Cæsar had occasion to pay a visit to the towns in northern Italy +to thank them for their support of Mark Antony, his candidate for the +tribunate, and the wild rumor flew to Rome that he had advanced four +legions to Placentia,[137] that his march on the city had begun, and +tumult and confusion followed. It was in these circumstances that the +consul Marcellus moved in the senate that successors be sent to take over +Cæsar's provinces, but the motion was blocked by the veto of Curio, +whereupon the consul cried out: "If I am prevented by the vote of the +senate from taking steps for the public safety, I will take such steps on +my own responsibility as consul." After saying this he darted out of the +senate and proceeded to the suburbs with his colleague, where he presented +a sword to Pompey, and said: "My colleague and I command you to march +against Cæsar in behalf of your country, and we give you for this purpose +the army now at Capua, or in any other part of Italy, and whatever +additional forces you choose to levy."[138] Curio had accomplished his +purpose. He had shown that Pompey as well as Cæsar was a menace to the +state; he had prevented Cæsar's recall; he had shown Antony, who was to +succeed him in the tribunate, how to exasperate the senate into using +coercive measures against his sacrosanct person as tribune and thus +justify Cæsar's course in the war, and he had goaded the Conservatives +into taking the first overt step in the war by commissioning Pompey to +begin a campaign against Cæsar without any authorization from the senate +or the people. + +The news of the unconstitutional step taken by Marcellus and Pompey +reached Rome December 19 or 20. Curio's work as tribune was done, and on +the twenty-first of the month he set out for the North to join his leader. +The senate would be called together by the new consuls on January 1, and +since, before the reform in the calendar, December had only twenty-nine +days, there were left only eight days for Curio to reach Cæsar's +head-quarters, lay the situation before him, and return to the city with +his reply. Ravenna, where Cæsar had his head-quarters, was two hundred and +forty miles from Rome. He covered the distance, apparently, in three days, +spent perhaps two days with Cæsar, and was back in Rome again for the +meeting of the senate on the morning of January 1. Consequently, he +travelled at the rate of seventy-five or eighty miles a day, twice the +rate of the ordinary Roman courier. + +We cannot regret too keenly the fact that we have no account of Curio's +meeting with Cæsar, and his recital to Cæsar of the course of events in +Rome. In drawing up the document which was prepared at this conference, +Cæsar must have been largely influenced by the intimate knowledge which +Curio had of conditions in the capital, and of the temper of the senate. +It was an ultimatum, and, when Curio presented it to the senate, that body +accepted the challenge, and called upon Cæsar to lay down his command on a +specified date or be declared a public enemy. Cæsar replied by crossing +the border of his province and occupying one town after another in +northern Italy in rapid succession. All this had been agreed upon in the +meeting between Curio and Cæsar, and Velleius Paterculus[139] is probably +right in putting the responsibility for the war largely on the shoulders +of Curio, who, as he says, brought to naught the fair terms of peace which +Cæsar was ready to propose and Pompey to accept. The whole situation +points to the conclusion that Cæsar did not desire war, and was not +prepared for it. Had he anticipated its immediate outbreak, he would +scarcely have let it arise when he had only one legion with him on the +border, while his other ten legions were a long distance away. + +From the outset Curio took an active part in the war which he had done so +much to bring about, and it was an appropriate thing that the closing +events in his life should have been recorded for us by his great patron, +Cæsar, in his narrative of the Civil War. On the 18th or 19th of January, +within ten days of the crossing of the Rubicon, we hear of his being sent +with a body of troops to occupy Iguvium,[140] and a month later he is in +charge of one of the investing camps before the stronghold of +Corfinium.[141] With the fall of Corfinium, on the 21st of February, +Cæsar's rapid march southward began, which swept the Pompeians out of +Italy within a month and gave Cæsar complete control of the peninsula. In +that brilliant campaign Curio undoubtedly took an active part, for at the +close of it Cæsar gave him an independent commission for the occupation of +Sicily and northern Africa. No more important command could have been +given him, for Sicily and Africa were the granaries of Rome, and if the +Pompeians continued to hold them, the Cæsarians in Italy might be starved +into submission. To this ill-fated campaign Cæsar devotes the latter half +of the second book of his Civil War. In the beginning of his account of it +he remarks: "Showing at the outset a total contempt for the military +strength of his opponent, Publius Attius Varus, Curio crossed over from +Sicily, accompanied by only two of the four legions originally given him +by Cæsar, and by only five hundred cavalry."[142] The estimate which +Cælius had made of him was true, after all, at least in military affairs. +He was bold and impetuous, and lacked a settled policy. Where daring and +rapidity of movement could accomplish his purpose, he succeeded, but he +lacked patience in finding out the size and disposition of the enemy's +forces and calmness of judgment in comparing his own strength with that of +his foe. It was this weakness in his character as a military leader which +led him to join battle with Varus and Juba's lieutenant, Saburra, without +learning beforehand, as he might have done, that Juba, with a large army, +was encamped not six miles in the rear of Saburra. Curio's men were +surrounded by the enemy and cut down as they stood. His staff begged him +to seek safety in flight, but, as Cæsar writes,[143] "He answered without +hesitation that, having lost the army which Cæsar had entrusted to his +charge, he would never return to look him in the face, and with that +answer he died fighting." + +Three years later the fortunes of war brought Cæsar to northern Africa, +and he traversed a part of the region where Curio's luckless campaign had +been carried on. With the stern eye of the trained soldier, he marked the +fatal blunders which Curio had made, but he recalled also the charm of his +personal qualities, and the defeat before Utica was forgotten in his +remembrance of the great victory which Curio had won for him, +single-handed, in Rome. Even Lucan, a partisan of the senate which Curio +had flouted, cannot withhold his admiration for Curio's brilliant career, +and his pity for Curio's tragic end. As he stands in imagination before +the fallen Roman leader, he exclaims:[144] "Happy wouldst thou be, O Rome, +and destined to bless thy people, had it pleased the gods above to guard +thy liberty as it pleased them to avenge its loss. Lo! the noble body of +Curio, covered by no tomb, feeds the birds of Libya. But to thee, since it +profiteth not to pass in silence those deeds of thine which their own +glory defends forever 'gainst the decay of time, such tribute now we pay, +O youth, as thy life has well deserved. No other citizen of such talent +has Rome brought forth, nor one to whom the law would be indebted more, if +he the path of right had followed out. As it was, the corruption of the +age ruined the city when desire for office, pomp, and the power which +wealth gives, ever to be dreaded, had swept away his wavering mind with +sidelong flood, and the change of Curio, snared by the spoils of Gaul and +the gold of Cæsar, was that which turned the tide of history. Although +mighty Sulla, fierce Marius, the blood-bespattered Cinna, and all the line +of Cæsar's house have held our throats at their mercy with the sword, to +whom was e'er such power vouchsafed? All others bought, _he_ sold the +state." + + + + +Gaius Matius, a Friend of Cæsar + +"_Non enim Cæsarem ... sum secutus, sed amicum_." + + + +Gaius Matius, the subject of this sketch, was neither a great warrior, nor +statesman, nor writer. If his claim to remembrance rested on what he did +in the one or the other of these rôles, he would long ago have been +forgotten. It is his genius for friendship which has kept his memory +green, and that is what he himself would have wished. Of his early life we +know little, but it does not matter much, because the interest which he +has for us centres about his relations to Cæsar in early manhood. Being of +good birth, and a man of studious tastes, he probably attended the +University at Athens, and heard lectures there as young Cicero and Messala +did at a later period. He must have been a man of fine tastes and +cultivation, for Cicero, in writing to a friend, bestows on Matius the +title "doctissimus," the highest literary compliment which one Roman could +pay another, and Apollodorus of Pergamum dedicated to him his treatise on +rhetoric. Since he was born about 84 B.C., he returned from his years of +study at Athens about the time when Cæsar was setting out on his brilliant +campaign in Gaul. Matius joined him, attracted perhaps by the personal +charms of the young proconsul, perhaps by the love of adventure, perhaps, +like his friend Trebatius, by the hope of making a reputation. + +At all events he was already with Cæsar somewhere in Gaul in 53 B.C., and +it is hard to think of an experience better suited to lay bare the good +and the bad qualities in Cæsar's character than the years of camp life +which Matius spent with him in the wilds of Gaul and Britain. As +aide-de-camp, or orderly, for such a position he probably held, his place +was by Cæsar's side. They forded the rivers together, walked or rode +through woodland or open side by side, shared the same meagre rations, and +lay in the same tent at the end of the day's march, ready to spring from +the ground at a moment's warning to defend each other against attack from +the savage foe. Cæsar's narrative of his campaigns in Gaul is a soldier's +story of military movements, and perhaps from our school-boy remembrance +of it we may have as little a liking for it as Horace had for the poem of +Livius Andronicus, which he studied under "Orbilius of the rods," but even +the obscurities of the Latin subjunctive and ablative cannot have blinded +us entirely to the romance of the desperate siege of Alesia and the final +struggle which the Gauls made to drive back the invader. Matius shared +with Cæsar all the hardships and perils of that campaign, and with Cæsar +he witnessed the final scene of the tragedy when Vercingetorix, the heroic +Gallic chieftain, gave up his sword, and the conquest of Gaul was +finished. It is little wonder that Matius and the other young men who +followed Cæsar were filled with admiration of the man who had brought all +this to pass. + +It was a notable group, including Trebatius, Hirtius, Pansa, Oppius, and +Matius in its number. All of them were of the new Rome. Perhaps they were +dimly conscious that the mantle of Tiberius Gracchus had fallen upon their +leader, that the great political struggle which had been going on for +nearly a century was nearing its end, and that they were on the eve of a +greater victory than that at Alesia. It would seem that only two of them, +Matius and Trebatius, lived to see the dawning of the new day. But it was +not simply nor mainly the brilliancy of Cæsar as a leader in war or in +politics which attracted Matius to him. As he himself puts it in his +letter to Cicero: "I did not follow a Cæsar, but a friend." Lucullus and +Pompey had made as distinguished a record in the East as Cæsar had in the +West, but we hear of no such group of able young men following their +fortunes as attached themselves to Cæsar. We must find a reason for the +difference in the personal qualities of Cæsar, and there is nothing that +more clearly proves the charm of his character than the devotion to him of +this group of men. In the group Matius is the best representative of the +man and the friend. When Cæsar came into his own, Matius neither asked for +nor accepted the political offices which Cæsar would gladly have given +him. One needs only to recall the names of Antony, Labienus, or Decimus +Brutus to realize the fact that Cæsar remembered and rewarded the faithful +services of his followers. But Matius was Cæsar's friend and nothing more, +not his master of the horse, as Antony was, nor his political and +financial heir, as Octavius was. In his loyalty to Cæsar he sought for no +other reward than Cæsar's friendship, and his services to him brought with +them their own return. Indeed, through his friend he suffered loss, for +one of Cæsar's laws robbed him of a part of his estate, as he tells us, +but this experience did not lessen his affection. How different his +attitude was from that of others who professed a friendship for Cæsar! +Some of them turned upon their leader and plotted against his life, when +disappointed in the favors which they had received at his hands, and +others, when he was murdered, used his name and his friendship for them to +advance their own ambitious designs. Antony and Octavius struggle with +each other to catch the reins of power which have fallen from his hands; +Dolabella, who seems to regard himself as an understudy of Cæsar, plays a +serio-comic part in Rome in his efforts to fill the place of the dead +dictator; while Decimus Brutus hurries to the North to make sure of the +province which Cæsar had given him. + +From these men, animated by selfishness, by jealousy, by greed for gain, +by sentimentalism, or by hypocritical patriotism, Matius stands aloof, +and stands perhaps alone. For him the death of Cæsar means the loss of a +friend, of a man in whom he believed. He can find no common point of +sympathy either with those who rejoice in the death of the tyrant, as +Cicero does, for he had not thought Cæsar a tyrant, nor with those who use +the name of Cæsar to conjure with. We have said that he accepted no +political office. He did accept an office, that of procurator, or +superintendent, of the public games which Cæsar had vowed on the field of +Pharsalus, but which death had stepped in to prevent him from giving, and +it was in the pious fulfilment of this duty which he took upon himself +that he brought upon his head the anger of the "auctores libertatis," as +he ironically calls them. He had grieved, too, at the death of Cæsar, +although "a man ought to rate the fatherland above a friend," as the +liberators said. Matius took little heed of this talk. He had known of it +from the outset, but it had not troubled him. Yet when it came to his ears +that his friend Cicero, to whom he had been attached from boyhood, to whom +he had proved his fidelity at critical moments, was among his accusers, he +could not but complain bitterly of the injustice. Through a common +friend, Trebatius, whose acquaintance he had made in Gaul, he expresses to +Cicero the sorrow which he feels at his unkindness. What Cicero has to say +in explanation of his position and in defence of himself, we can do no +better than to give in his own words: + + + "_Cicero to Matins, greeting:_[145] + + "I am not yet quite clear in my own mind whether our friend Trebatius, + who is as loyal as he is devoted to both of us, has brought me more + sorrow or pleasure: for I reached my Tusculan villa in the evening, and + the next day, early in the morning, he came to see me, though he had + not yet recovered his strength. When I reproved him for giving too + little heed to his health, he said that nothing was nearer his heart + than seeing me. 'There's nothing new,' say I? He told me of your + grievance against me, yet before I make any reply in regard to it, let + me state a few facts. + + "As far back as I can recall the past I have no friend of longer + standing than you are; but long duration is a thing characteristic of + many friendships, while love is not. I loved you on the day I met you, + and I believed myself loved by you. Your subsequent departure, and that + too for a long time, my electoral canvass, and our different modes of + life did not allow our inclination toward one another to be + strengthened by intimacy; still I saw your feeling toward me many years + before the Civil War, while Cæsar was in Gaul; for the result which you + thought would be of great advantage to me and not of disadvantage to + Cæsar himself you accomplished: I mean in bringing him to love me, to + honor me, to regard me as one of his friends. Of the many confidential + communications which passed between us in those days, by word of mouth, + by letter, by message, I say nothing, for sterner times followed. At + the breaking out of the Civil War, when you were on your way toward + Brundisium to join Cæsar, you came to me to my Formian villa. In the + first place, how much did that very fact mean, especially at those + times! Furthermore, do you think I have forgotten your counsel, your + words, the kindness you showed? I remember that Trebatius was there. + Nor indeed have I forgotten the letter which you sent to me after + meeting Cæsar, in the district near Trebula, as I remember it. Next + came that ill-fated moment when either my regard for public opinion, or + my sense of duty, or chance, call it what you will, compelled me to go + to Pompey. What act of kindness or thoughtfulness either toward me in + my absence or toward my dear ones in Rome did you neglect? In fact, + whom have all my friends thought more devoted to me and to themselves + than you are? I came to Brundisium. Do you think I have forgotten in + what haste, as soon as you heard of it, you came hurrying to me from + Tarentum? How much your presence meant to me, your words of cheer to a + courage broken by the fear of universal disaster! Finally, our life at + Rome began. What element did our friendship lack? In most important + matters I followed your advice with reference to my relations toward + Cæsar; in other matters I followed my own sense of duty. With whom but + myself, if Cæsar be excepted, have you gone so far as to visit his + house again and again, and to spend there many hours, oftentimes in the + most delightful discourse? It was then too, if you remember, that you + persuaded me to write those philosophical essays of mine. After his + return, what purpose was more in your thoughts than to have me as good + a friend of Cæsar as possible? This you accomplished at once. + + "What is the point, then, of this discourse, which is longer than I had + intended it should be? This is the point, that I have been surprised + that you, who ought to see these things, have believed that I have + taken any step which is out of harmony with our friendly relations, for + beside these facts which I have mentioned, which are undisputed and + self-evident facts, there are many more intimate ties of friendship + which I can scarcely put in words. Everything about you charms me, but + most of all, on the one hand, your perfect loyalty in matters of + friendship, your wisdom, dignity, steadfastness; on the other hand, + your wit, refinement, and literary tastes. + + "Wherefore--now I come back to the grievance--in the first place, I did + not think that you had voted for that law; in the second place, if I + had thought so, I should never have thought that you had done it + without some sufficient reason. Your position makes whatever you do + noticeable; furthermore, envy puts some of your acts in a worse light + than the facts warrant. If you do not hear these rumors I do not know + what to say. So far as I am concerned, if I ever hear them I defend you + as I know that _I_ am always defended by _you_ against _my_ detractors. + And my defence follows two lines: there are some things which I always + deny _in toto_, as, for instance, the statement in regard to that very + vote; there are other acts of yours which I maintain were dictated by + considerations of affection and kindness, as, for instance, your action + with reference to the management of the games. But it does not escape + you, with all your wisdom, that, if Cæsar was a king--which seems to me + at any rate to have been the case--with respect of your duty two + positions may be maintained, either the one which I am in the habit of + taking, that your loyalty and friendship to Cæsar are to be praised, or + the one which some people take, that the freedom of one's fatherland is + to be esteemed more than the life of one's friend. I wish that my + discussions springing out of these conversations had been repeated to + you. + + "Indeed, who mentions either more gladly or more frequently than I the + two following facts, which are especially to your honor? The fact that + you were the most influential opponent of the Civil War, and that you + were the most earnest advocate of temperance in the moment of victory, + and in this matter I have found no one to disagree with me. Wherefore I + am grateful to our friend Trebatius for giving me an opportunity to + write this letter, and if you are not convinced by it, you will think + me destitute of all sense of duty and kindness; and nothing more + serious to me than that or more foreign to your own nature can happen." + +In all the correspondence of Cicero there is not a letter written with +more force and delicacy of feeling, none better suited to accomplish its +purpose than this letter to Matius. It is a work of art; but in that fact +lies its defect, and in that respect it is in contrast to the answer which +it called forth from Matius, The reply of Matius stands on a level with +another better-known non-Ciceronian epistle, the famous letter of +condolence which Servius wrote to Cicero after the death of Cicero's +daughter, Tullia; but it is finer, for, while Servius is stilted and full +of philosophical platitudes, Matius, like Shakespeare's Antony, "only +speaks right on," in telling Cicero of his grief at Cæsar's death, of his +indignation at the intolerant attitude of the assassins, and his +determination to treasure the memory of Cæsar at any cost. This is his +letter: + + + "_Matius to Cicero, greeting_[146] + + "I derived great pleasure from your letter, because I saw that you held + such an opinion about me as I had hoped you would hold, and wished you + to hold; and although, in regard to that opinion, I had no misgivings, + still, inasmuch as I considered it a matter of the greatest importance, + I was anxious that it should continue unchanged. And then I was + conscious of having done nothing to offend any good citizen; therefore + I was the less inclined to believe that you, endowed as you are with so + many excellent qualities, could be influenced by any idle rumors, + especially as my friendship toward you had been and was sincere and + unbroken. Since I know that matters stand in this respect as I have + wished them to stand, I will reply to the charges, which you have often + refuted in my behalf in such a way as one would expect from that + kindness of heart characteristic of you and from our friendship. It is + true that what men said against me after the death of Cæsar was known + to me. They call it a sin of mine that I sorrow over the death of a man + dear to me, and because I grieve that he whom I loved is no more, for + they say that 'fatherland should be above friendship,' just as if they + had proved already that his death has been of service to the state. But + I will make no subtle plea. I confess that I have not attained to your + high philosophic planes; for, on the one hand, in the Civil War I did + not follow a Cæsar, but a friend, and although I was grieved at the + state of things, still I did not desert him; nor, on the other hand, + did I at any time approve of the Civil War, nor even of the reason for + strife, which I most earnestly sought to extinguish when it was + kindling. Therefore, in the moment of victory for one bound to me by + the closest ties, I was not captivated by the charm either of public + office or of gold, while his other friends, although they had less + influence with him than I, misused these rewards in no small degree. + Nay, even my own property was impaired by a law of Cæsar's, thanks to + which very law many who rejoice at the death of Cæsar have remained at + Rome. I have worked as for my own welfare that conquered citizens might + be spared. + + "Then may not I, who have desired the welfare of all, be indignant + that he, from whom this favor came, is dead? especially since the very + men who were forgiven have brought him both unpopularity and death. You + shall be punished, then, they say, 'since you dare to disapprove of our + deed.' Unheard of arrogance, that some men glory in their crime, that + others may not even sorrow over it without punishment! But it has + always been the unquestioned right, even of slaves, to fear, to + rejoice, to grieve according to the dictates of their own feelings + rather than at the bidding of another man; of these rights, as things + stand now, to judge from what these champions of freedom keep saying, + they are trying to deprive us by intimidation; but their efforts are + useless. I shall never be driven by the terrors of any danger from the + path of duty or from the claims of friendship, for I have never thought + that a man should shrink from an honorable death; nay, I have often + thought that he should seek it. But why are they angry at me, if I wish + them to repent of their deed? for I desire to have Cæsar's death a + bitter thing to all men. + + "'But I ought as a citizen to desire the welfare of the state.' Unless + my life in the past and my hope for the future, without words from me, + prove that I desire that very end, I do not seek to establish the fact + by words. Wherefore I beg you the more earnestly to consider deeds more + than words, and to believe, if you feel that it is well for the right + to prevail, that I can have no intercourse with dishonorable men. For + am I now, in my declining years, to change that course of action which + I maintained in my youth, when I might even have gone astray with hope + of indulgence, and am I to undo my life's work? I will not do so. Yet I + shall take no step which may be displeasing to any man, except to + grieve at the cruel fate of one most closely bound to me, of one who + was a most illustrious man. But if I were otherwise minded, I would + never deny what I was doing lest I should be regarded as shameless in + doing wrong, a coward and a hypocrite in concealing it. + + "'Yet the games which the young Cæsar gave in memory of Cæsar's victory + I superintended.' But that has to do with my private obligation and not + with the condition of the state; a duty, however, which I owed to the + memory and the distinguished position of a dear friend even though he + was dead, a duty which I could not decline when asked by a young man of + most excellent promise and most worthy of Cæsar. 'I even went + frequently to the house of the consul Antony to pay my respects!' to + whom you will find that those who think that I am lacking in devotion + to my country kept coming in throngs to ask some favor forsooth or + secure some reward. But what arrogance this is that, while Cæsar never + interfered with my cultivating the friendship of men whom I pleased, + even when he himself did not like them, these men who have taken my + friend from me should try to prevent me by their slander from loving + those whom I will. + + "But I am not afraid lest the moderation of my life may prove too weak + to withstand false reports, or that even those who do not love me + because of my loyalty to Cæsar may not prefer to have friends like me + rather than like themselves. So far as I myself am concerned, if what I + prefer shall be my lot, the life which is left me I shall spend in + retirement at Rhodes; but if some untoward circumstance shall prevent + it, I shall live at Rome in such a wise as to desire always that right + be done. Our friend Trebatius I thank heartily in that he has disclosed + your sincere and friendly feeling toward me, and has shown me that him + whom I have always loved of my own free will I ought with the more + reason to esteem and honor. Bene vale et me dilige." + +With these words our knowledge of Matius comes almost to an end. His life +was prolonged into the imperial period, and, strangely enough, in one of +the few references to him which we find at a later date, he is +characterized as "the friend of Augustus" (divi Augusti amicus). It would +seem that the affection which he felt for Cæsar he transferred to Cæsar's +heir and successor. He still holds no office or title. In this connection +it is interesting to recall the fact that we owe the best of Cicero's +philosophical work to him, the "Academics," the "De Finibus," and the +"Tusculan Questions," for Cicero tells us in his letter that he was +induced to write his treatises on philosophy by Matius. It is a pleasant +thing to think that to him we may also be indebted for Cicero's charming +essay "On Friendship." The later life of Matius, then, we may think was +spent in retirement, in the study of philosophy, and in the pursuit of +literature. His literary pursuits give a homely and not unpleasant touch +to his character. They were concerned with gastronomy, for Columella, in +the first century of our era, tells us[147] that Matius composed three +books, bearing the titles of "The Cook," "The Butler," and "The +Picklemaker," and his name was transmitted to a later generation in a dish +known as "mincemeat à la Matius" (_minutal Matianum_).[148] He passes out +of the pages of history in the writings of Pliny the Elder as the man who +"invented the practice of clipping shrubbery."[149] To him, then, we +perhaps owe the geometrical figures, and the forms of birds and beasts +which shrubs take in the modern English garden. His memory is thus ever +kept green, whether in a way that redounds to his credit or not is left +for the reader to decide. + + + + +Index + + + +Acta Diurna. +Anoyran monument. +Anglo-Saxons, compared with Romans, + in government; + in private affairs. +Arval Hymn, the. +Ascoli's theory of the differentiation of the Romance languages. +Augustus, + "Res Gestæ"; + his benefactions. + +Batha, a municipal expense. +Benefactions, private, + co-operation with the government; + _objects_; + comparison of ancient and modern objects; + of Æmilius; + of Pompey; + of Augustus; + motives; + expected of prominent men; + attempts at regulation; + a recognized responsibility; + a legal obligation on municipal officials; + offices thereby limited to the rich; + of rich private citizens; + effect on municipal life and character; + on private citizens; + charity. +Burial societies. + +Cælius, estimate of Curio. +Cæsar, + expenditures as sedile; + and Curio; + secures Curio as agent in Rome; + unprepared for civil war; + _et passim_ in chapters on Curio and Matius. +Cato the elder, his diction. +Charity. +Church, the Christian, influence on the spread of Latin. +Cicero, + quotation from a letter in colloquial style; + his "corrupt practices act,"; + and Scaptius; + and Curio; + _correspondence_ with Matius. +Civic pride of Romans. +Civil war, outbreak of. +Combinations in restraint of trade; + government intervention. +Common people, + their language logical; + progressive and conservative elements. +Common people of Rome, + their language (see _Latin, colloquial_); + their religious beliefs; + philosophy of life; + belief in future life. +Controversiae of the schools of rhetoric. +Corporations; + aid the government; + collect taxes; + in politics; + many small stockholders. +Cromer, Lord, "Ancient and Modern Imperialism,". +Curio, + funeral games in his father's honor; +character; + family; + relations with Cicero; + beginning of public life; + relations with Cæsar; + openly espouses Cæsar's cause; + popularity; + as quæstor; + in the Clodian affair; + Cælius's opinion of him; + as tribune; + relations with Pompey; + forces conservatives to open hostilities; + his part in the civil war; + death. + +Dacia, Latin in. +Dialects in Italy, their disappearance. +Diez, the Romance philologist. +Diocletian's policy; + his edict to regulate prices; + content; + discovery of document; + amount extant; + date; + style; + provisions of the edict; + extracts; + discussion; + made prices uniform; + its prices are retail; + interesting deductions; + effect; + repeal. + +English language in India. +Epitaphs, + deal with the common people; + length of Roman epitaphs; + along Appian Way; + sentiments expressed; + show religious beliefs; + gods rarely named; + Mother Earth. +Epitaphs, metrical, + praises of women predominate; + literary merit; + art. +Étienne, Henri, first scholar to notice colloquial Latin. + +Food, + cost of, comparison with to-day; + free distribution of. + +Gracchi, the. +Greek language, + in Italy; + not conquered by Latin; + influence on Latin. +Gröber's theory of the differentiation of the Romance languages; + criticism of. +Guilds; + were non-political; + inscriptional evidence; + comparison of conditions in East and West; + objects; + dinners; + temples; + rules; + no attempts to raise wages; + religious character; + began to enter politics; + attitude of government toward; + decline. + +Hempl's theory of language rivalry. +Horace, his "curiosa felicitas,". + +Inscription from Pompeii, in colloquial Latin. + +Julia, death of. +Julian's edict to regulate the price of grain. + +Labor-unions. (See _Guilds_.) +Lactantius, "On the Deaths of Those Who Persecuted (the Christians),". +Languages spoken in Italy in the early period; + influence of other languages on Latin, 22. (See also _Greek_.) +Latin language, + extent; + unifying influences; + uniformity; + evidence of inscriptions; + causes of its spread; + colonies; + roads; + merchants; + soldiers; + government officials; + the church; + its superiority not a factor; + sentiment a cause; + "peaceful invasion,". +Latin, colloquial, its study neglected till recently; + first noticed in modern times by Henri Étienne; + its forms, how determined; + ancient authority for its existence; + evidence of the Romance languages; + aid derived from a knowledge of spoken English; + analytical formation of tenses; + slang; + extant specimens; + causes of variation; + external influences on; + influence of culture; + definition of colloquial Latin; + relation to literary Latin; + careless pronunciation; + accent different from literary Latin; + confusion of genders; + monotonous style; + tendencies in vocabulary, 64-7: + in syntax; + effect of loss of final letters; + reunion with literary Latin; + still exists in the Romance languages; + date when it became the separate Romance language; + specimens quoted. +Latin, literary, + modelled on Greek; + relation to colloquial Latin; + standardized by grammarians; + style unnatural; + reunion with colloquial Latin; + disappearance. +Latin, preliterary. +Laws of the Twelve Tables; + excerpt from. +Living, cost of, comparison with to-day. +Livius Andronicus. +Lucan's account of the death of Curio. + +Matius, Gaius, + early life and character; + with Cæsar in Gaul; + friendship with Cæsar, _passim_; + accepted no office; + devotion to Cæsar; + unpopularity due to it; + correspondence with Cicero; + defence of his devotion to Cæsar; + prompted Cicero's best philosophical works; + later life; + literary works. +Menippean satire. +Milesian tales. +Money, unit of. + +Nævius. +Ninus romance; + and Petronius. + +Organization, of capitalists (see _Corporations_); + of labor (see _Guilds_). +Oscan. + +Paternalism, + beginnings of, in Rome; + effect on people. +Patron, office of; + benefactions of. +Pervigilium Veneris. +Petronius, Satiræ; + excerpt from; + original size; + motif; + Trimalchio's Dinner; + satirical spirit; + literary criticism; + Horatian humor; + cynical attitude; + realism; + prose-poetic form; + origin of this genre of literature; + the Satiræ and the epic; + and the heroic romance; + and the Menippean satire; + and the Milesian tale; + and the prologue of comedy; + and the mime; + the Satiræ perhaps a mixture of many types; + originated with Petronius. +Plautus. +Poetry of the common people, + dedicatory; + ephemeral; + graffiti; + borrowed from the Augustan poets; + folk poetry; + children's jingles. +Pompey, + his benefactions; + ordered to march against Cæsar; + _et passim_ in chapter on Curio. +Prices, + controlled by corporations; + attempts at government regulation. +Probus, the "Appendix" of. +Prose-poetic form. + +Ritschl, the Plautine scholar. +Romance, the realistic, origin obscure. + (See _Petronius, Satiræ_.) +Romance languages, + causes of their differentiation, Gröber's theory; + Ascoli's theory; + date of their beginning; + descended from colloquial Latin; + reasons of their agreement; + common source. +Romances, the Greek, theory of origin. + +Salaries of municipal officers. + (See also _Wages_.) +Scaptius and Cicero. +Seneca the elder, "Controversiæ,". +Strasburg oath. +Strikes. + +Theatres a municipal expense. +Trimalchio's Dinner. + +Umbrian. +Urso, constitution of. + +Wages in Roman times; + compared with to-day; + and guilds; + and slavery. + (See also _Salaries_.) + + + + +Footnotes + + + +[1] _Cf._ A. Ernout, _Le Parler de Préneste_, Paris, 1905. + +[2] The relation between Latin and the Italic dialects may be illustrated +by an extract or two from them with a Latin translation. An Umbrian +specimen may be taken from one of the bronze tablets found at Iguvium, +which reads in Umbrian: Di Grabouie, saluo seritu ocrem Fisim, saluam +seritu totam Iiouinam (_Iguvinian Tables_ VI, a. 51), and in Latin: Deus +Grabovi, salvam servato arcem Fisiam, salvam servato civitatem Iguvinam. A +bit of Oscan from the Tabula Bantina (Tab. Bant. 2, 11) reads: suaepis +contrud exeic fefacust auti comono hipust, molto etanto estud, and in +Latin: siquis contra hoc fecerit aut comitia habuerit, multa tanta esto. + +[3] _Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, IX, 782, furnishes a case in point. + +[4] _Cf._ G. Mohl, _Introduction à la chronologie du Latin vulgaire_, +Paris, 1899. + +[5] Pauly-Wissowa, _Real-Encyclopadie_, IV, 1179 _ff._ + +[6] Marquardt, _Römische Staatsverwaltung_, II, p. 463. + +[7] _Cf._, _e.g._, Pirson, _La langue des inscriptions Latines de la +Gaule_, Bruxelles, 1901; Carnoy, _Le Latin d'Espagne d'après les +inscriptions_, Bruxelles, 1906; Hoffmann, _De titulis Africæ Latinis +quæstiones phoneticæ_, 1907; Kuebler, _Die lateinische Sprache auf +afrikanischen Inschriften_ (_Arch, für lat. Lex._, vol. VIII), and Martin, +_Notes on the Syntax of the Latin Inscriptions Found in Spain_, Baltimore, +1909. + +[8] _Cf._ L. Hahn, _Rom und Romanismus im griechisch-römischen Osten_ +(esp. pp. 222-268), Leipzig, 1906. + +[9] _Proceedings of the American Philological Association_, XXIX (1898), +pp. 31-47. For a different theory of the results of language-conflict, +_cf._ Gröber, _Grundriss der romanischen Philologie_, I, pp. 516, 517. + +[10] A very interesting sketch of the history of the Latin language in +this region may be seen in Ovide Densusianu's _Histoire de la langue +Roumaine_, Paris, 1902. + +[11] Gorra, _Lingue Neolatine_, pp. 66-68. + +[12] Gröber, _Grundriss der romanischen Philologie_, pp. 517 and 524. + +[13] _Cf._ Gröber in _Archiv für lateinische Lexikographie und Grammatik_, +I, p. 210 _ff._ + +[14] _Is Modern-Language Teaching a Failure?_ Chicago, 1907. + +[15] _Cf._ Abbott, _History of Rome_, pp. 246-249. + +[16] Schuchardt, _Vokalismus des Vulgärlateins, I_, 103 _ff._ + +[17] _Cf._ Gröber, _Archiv für lateinische Lexikographie und Grammatik_, +I, 45. + +[18] Thielmann, _Archiv_, II, 48 _ff._; 157 _ff._ + +[19] From the "Laws of the Twelve Tables" of the fifth century B.C. See +Bruns, _Fontes iuris Romani antiqui_, sixth edition, p. 31. + +[20] _Appendix Probi_, in Keil's _Grammatici Latini_, IV, 197 _ff._ + +[21] "The Accent in Vulgar and Formal Latin," in _Classical Philology_, II +(1907), 445 _ff._ + +[22] Bücheler, _Carmina Latina epigraphica_, No. 53. The originals of all +the bits of verse which are translated in this paper may be found in the +collection whose title is given here. Hereafter reference to this work +will be by number only. + +[23] No. 443. + +[24] No. 92. + +[25] No. 128. + +[26] No. 127. + +[27] No. 876. + +[28] No. 1414. + +[29] No. 765. + +[30] No. 843. + +[31] No. 95. + +[32] No. 1578. + +[33] Nos. 1192 and 1472. + +[34] No. 1037. + +[35] No. 1039. + +[36] G. W. Van Bleek, Quae de hominum post mortem eondicione doceant +carmina sepulcralia Latina. + +[37] No. 1495. + +[38] No. 1496. + +[39] No. 86. + +[40] No. 1465. + +[41] No. 1143. + +[42] No. 1559. + +[43] No. 1433. + +[44] No. 225. + +[45] No. 143. + +[46] No. 83. + +[47] No. 1500. + +[48] No. 190. + +[49] No. 244. + +[50] No. 1499. + +[51] No. 856. + +[52] Society and Politics in Ancient Rome, p. 183. + +[53] No. 562. + +[54] No. 52. + +[55] No. 1251. + +[56] No. 106. + +[57] No. 967. + +[58] No. 152. + +[59] No. 1042. + +[60] No. 1064. + +[61] No. 98. + +[62] Bücheler, _Carmina Latino epigraphica_, No. 899. + +[63] No. 19. + +[64] No. 866. + +[65] No. 863. + +[66] No. 937. + +[67] No. 949. + +[68] No. 943. + +[69] No. 945. + +[70] No. 354. + +[71] _Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, IV, 6892. + +[72] Bücheler, No. 928. + +[73] No. 333. + +[74] No. 931. + +[75] No. 933. + +[76] No. 38. + +[77] No. 270. + +[78] Habeat scabiem quisquis ad me venerit novissimus. + +[79] Rex erit qui recte faciet, qui non faciet non erit. + +[80] + + Gallos Cæsar in triumphum ducit, idem in curiam; + Galli bracas deposuerunt, latum clavom sumpserunt. + +[81] + + Brutus quia reges eiecit, consul primus factus est; + Hic quia consoles eiecit, rex postremo factus est. + +[82] Salva Roma, salva patria, salvus est Germanicus. + +[83] _Cf._ Schmid, "Der griechische Roman," _Neue Jahrb._, Bd XIII (1904), +465-85; Wilcken, in _Hermes_, XXVIII, 161 _ff._, and in _Archiv f. +Papyrusforschung_, I, 255 _ff._; Grenfell-Hunt, _Fayûm Towns and Their +Papyri_ (1900), 75 _ff._, and _Rivista di Filologia_, XXIII, I _ff._ + +[84] Some of the important late discussions of the Milesian tale are by +Bürger, _Hermes_ (1892), 351 _ff._; Norden, _Die antike Kunstprosa_, II, +602, 604, n.; Rohde, _Kleine Schriften_, II, 25 _ff._; Bürger, _Studien +zur Geschichte d. griech. Romans_, I (_Programm von Blankenburg a. H._, +1902); W. Schmid, _Neue Jahrb. f. d. klass. Alt._ (1904), 474 _ff._; +Lucas, "Zu den Milesiaca des Aristides," _Philologus_, 61 (1907), 16 _ff._ + +[85] On the origin of the _prosimetrum cf._ Hirzel, _Der Dialog_, 381 +_ff._; Norden, _Die antike Kunstprosa_, 755. + +[86] _Cf._ Rosenbluth, _Beiträge zur Quellenkunde von Petrons Satiren_. +Berlin, 1909. + +[87] This theory in the main is suggested by Rohde, _Der griechische +Roman_, 2d ed., 267 (Leipzig, 1900), and by Ribbeck, _Geschichte d. röm. +Dichtung_, 2d ed., III, 150. + +[88] _Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, vol. III, pp. 1926-1953. Mommsen's +text with a commentary has been published by H. Blümner, in _Der +Maximaltarif des Diocletian_, Berlin, 1893. A brief description of the +edict may be found in the Pauly-Wissowa _Real-Encyclopadie der classischen +Altertumswissenschaft_, under "Edictum Diocletiani," and K. Bücher has +discussed some points in it in the _Zeitschrift für die gesamte +Staatswissenschaft_, vol. L (1894), pp. 189-219 and 672-717. + +[89] The method of arrangement may be illustrated by an extract from the +first table, which deals with grain and vegetables. + +[90] The present-day prices which are given in the third column of these +two tables are taken from Bulletin No. 77 of the Bureau of Labor, and from +the majority and minority reports of the Select Committee of the U.S. +Senate on "Wages and Prices of Commodities" (Report, No. 912, Documents, +Nos. 421 and 477). In setting down a number to represent the current price +of an article naturally a rough average had to be struck of the rates +charged in different parts of the country. Bulletin No. 77, for instance, +gives the retail price charged for butter at 226 places in 68 different +cities, situated in 39 different States. At one point in Illinois the +price quoted in 1906 was 22 cents, while at a point in Pennsylvania 36 +cents was reported, but the prevailing price throughout the country ranged +from 26 to 32, so that these figures were set down in the table. A similar +method has been adopted for the other items. A special difficulty arises +in the case of beef, where the price varies according to the cut. The +price of wheat is not given in the extant fragment of the edict, but has +been calculated by Blümner from statements in ancient writers. So far as +the wages of the ancient and modern workman are concerned we must remember +that the Roman laborer in many cases received "keep" from his employer. +Probably from one-third to three-sevenths should be added to his daily +wage to cover this item. Statistics published by the Department of +Agriculture show that the average wage of American farm laborers per month +during 1910 was $27.50 without board and $19.21 with board. The item of +board, therefore, is three-sevenths of the money paid to the laborer when +he keeps himself. One other point of difference between ancient and modern +working conditions must be borne in mind in attempting a comparison. We +have no means of knowing the length of the Roman working day. However, it +was probably much longer than our modern working day, which, for +convenience' sake, is estimated at eight hours. + +[91] Wholesale price in 1909. + +[92] Receives "keep" also. + +[93] Eight-hour day assumed. + +[94] _Cf._ Report of the Commissioner of Labor, pp. 622-625. In England +between one-third and one-fourth; _cf._ Bulletin, No. 77, p. 345. + +[95] _Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, II, 5489. + +[96] Wilmanns, _Exempla Inscriptionum Latinarum_, 1772. + +[97] _Ibid._, 2037. + +[98] _Ibid._, 1859. + +[99] _Ibid._, 2054. + +[100] _Ibid._, 2099. + +[101] 23:48_f._ + +[102] _Cic., ad Att._, 5.21. 10-13; 6.1. 5-7; 6.2.7; 6.3.5. + +[103] 6.17. + +[104] _Captivi_, 489 _ff._ + +[105] _Livy_, 38. 35. + +[106] Plautus, _Pseudolus_, 189. + +[107] Some of the most important discussions of workmen's guilds among the +Romans are to be found in Waltzing's _Etude historique sur les +corporations professionnelles chez les Romains_, 3 vols., Louvain, 1895-9; +Liebenam's _Zur Geschichte und Organisation des römischen Vereinswesen_, +Leipzig, 1890; Ziebarth's _Das Griechische Vereinswesen_, Leipzig, 1896, +pp. 96-110; Kornemann's article, "Collegium," in the Pauly-Wissowa _Real +Encyclopadie_. Other literature is cited by Waltzing, I, pp. 17-30, and by +Kornemann, IV, columns 479-480. + +[108] _Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, XI, 5047. + +[109] _Ibid._, V, 7906. + +[110] _Ibid._, III, p. 953. + +[111] _Ibid._, VIII, 14683. + +[112] _Ibid._, III, 3583. + +[113] _Ibid._, XIV, 2112. + +[114] _Ibid._, XIV, 326. + +[115] _E.g._, Clodius and Milo. + +[116] Lucan, 4. 814 _ff._; Velleius, 2. 48; Pliny, Nat. Hist., 7. 116 +_ff._ + +[117] Cicero, Brutus, 122, 210, 214. + +[118] _Ibid._, 280. + +[119] Cicero, _Epist. ad Fam._, 2. 1. + +[120] Cicero, _Phil._, 2. 45 _f._ + +[121] Cicero, _ad Att._, 1. 14. 5. + +[122] _Ibid._, 1. 14. 5. + +[123] _Ibid._, 2. 12. 2. + +[124] _Ibid._, 2.7.3; 2.8.1; 2.12.2. + +[125] Suet., _Julius_, 52. + +[126]_Ad Att._, 2. 19. 3. + +[127] _Ad fam._, 2.4. + +[128] _Ibid._, 2.6. + +[129]_Ibid._, 8. 4. 2. + +[130] Dio's account (40. 61) of Curio's course seems to harmonize with +this interpretation. + +[131] "Cicero, _ad fam._, 8.10.4. + +[132] White's Civil Wars of Appian, 2.27. + +[133] Cicero, _ad fam._, 8.6.5. + +[134] Valerius Maximus, 9.1.6. + +[135] Vell. Pat., 2.48. + +[136] Civil Wars, 2.30. + +[137] _Ad Att._, 6.9.4. + +[138] Civil Wars of Appian, 2.31. + +[139] Velleius Paterculus, 2.48. + +[140] Cæsar, Civil War, 1. 12. + +[141] _Ibid._, 1.182 + +[142] _Ibid._, 2.23. + +[143] _Ibid._, 2.42. + +[144] _Pharsalia_, 4. 807-824. + +[145] Cicero, _Epistulæ ad famiares_, 11.27. + +[146] Cicero, _Epist. ad fam._, 11.28. + +[147] 12.46.1. + +[148] Apicius, 4.174. + +[149] _Naturalis Historia_, 12.13. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Common People of Ancient Rome +by Frank Frost Abbott + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COMMON PEOPLE OF ANCIENT ROME *** + +***** This file should be named 13226-8.txt or 13226-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/2/2/13226/ + +Produced by Distributed Proofreaders + +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. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/13226-8.zip b/old/13226-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..df0e6dc --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13226-8.zip diff --git a/old/13226-h.zip b/old/13226-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..68bf9c6 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13226-h.zip diff --git a/old/13226-h/13226-h.htm b/old/13226-h/13226-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..af73032 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/13226-h/13226-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6635 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> +<title>The Common People of Ancient Rome, by Frank Frost Abbott</title> +<style type="text/css" title="Default"> + <!-- + + body { + font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; + margin: 5%; + } + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; + font-weight: bold; + } + + h1,h2,h3,h4 { + font-variant: small-caps + } + + h1.title { margin-top: 5em; } + + .smallcaps { font-variant: small-caps } + + a { text-decoration: none; } + a:hover { background-color: #ffffcc } + + div.chapter { + margin-top: 4em; + padding: 5px; + } + + div.part { + margin-top: 5em; + } + + table { + margin: auto; + } + + div.image, div.note { + background-color: #ccffcc; + border-style: dashed; + border-color: #000000; + border-width: 1px; + font-size: .8em; + width: 80%; + margin: auto; + } + + div.image p, div.note p { + margin: 5px; + } + + div.chapter div.image { + float: right; + width: 40%; + } + + p.byline { + text-align: center; + font-variant: small-caps; + } + + .poem { + margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; + text-align: left; + } + + #tp, #verso, #dedication { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 3em; + } + + #dedication { + margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + } + + #dedication .sig { + text-align: right; + font-style: italic; + } + + #dedication .place { + text-align: left; + font-style: italic; + } + + #toc ol { + list-style-type: upper-roman; + } + + #toc ul, #indexes ul { + list-style-type: none; + } + + #toc ul>li:hover { + list-style-type: disc; + } + +--> +</style> + +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's The Common People of Ancient Rome, by Frank Frost Abbott + +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 Common People of Ancient Rome + Studies of Roman Life and Literature + +Author: Frank Frost Abbott + +Release Date: August 19, 2004 [EBook #13226] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COMMON PEOPLE OF ANCIENT ROME *** + + + + +Produced by Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + +</pre> + +<div class="note"><p>[<strong>Transcriber's note:</strong> This book makes use of the Roman denarius symbol. +Because this symbol is not available in Unicode, it has been replaced by +the ROMAN NUMERAL TEN (U+2169) with a COMBINING LONG STROKE OVERLAY +(U+0336) in the UTF-8 version.]</p></div> + + + +<div id="tp"> +<h1 class="title">The Common People of Ancient Rome</h1> + +<h2 class="subtitle">Studies of Roman Life and Literature</h2> + +<p class="byline">By</p> + +<h2 class='author'>Frank Frost Abbott</h2> + +<p>Kennedy Professor of the Latin Language and Literature in Princeton +University</p> + +<h4>New York<br /> +Charles Scribner's Sons</h4> +</div> + + +<div id="verso"> +<div class="copyright"><div class="line">Copyright, 1911, by</div> +<div class="line">Charles Scribner's Sons</div></div> + +<p>Printed in the United States of America</p> +</div> + + +<div id="dedication"> +<p>Dedicated to J. H. A.</p> +</div> + + +<div id="preface"> +<h2>Prefatory Note</h2> + +<p>This book, like the volume on "Society and Politics in Ancient Rome," +deals with the life of the common people, with their language and +literature, their occupations and amusements, and with their social, +political, and economic conditions. We are interested in the common people +of Rome because they made the Roman Empire what it was. They carried the +Roman standards to the Euphrates and the Atlantic; they lived abroad as +traders, farmers, and soldiers to hold and Romanize the provinces, or they +stayed at home, working as carpenters, masons, or bakers, to supply the +daily needs of the capital.</p> + +<p>The other side of the subject which has engaged the attention of the +author in studying these topics has been the many points of similarity +which arise between ancient and modern conditions, and between the +problems which the Roman faced and those which confront us. What policy +shall the government adopt toward corporations? How can the cost of living +be kept down? What effect have private benefactions on the character of a +people? Shall a nation try to introduce its own language into the +territory of a subject people, or shall it allow the native language to be +used, and, if it seeks to introduce its own tongue, how can it best +accomplish its object? The Roman attacked all these questions, solved some +of them admirably, and failed with others egregiously. His successes and +his failures are perhaps equally illuminating, and the fact that his +attempts to improve social and economic conditions run through a period of +a thousand years should make the study of them of the greater interest and +value to us. </p> + +<p>Of the chapters which this book contains, the article on "The Origin of +the Realistic Romance among the Romans" appeared originally in <i>Classical +Philology</i>, and the author is indebted to the editors of that periodical +for permission to reprint it here. The other papers are now published for +the first time.</p> + +<p>It has not seemed advisable to refer to the sources to substantiate every +opinion which has been expressed, but a few references have been given in +the foot-notes mainly for the sake of the reader who may wish to follow +some subject farther than has been possible in these brief chapters. The +proofs had to be corrected while the author was away from his own books, +so that he was unable to make a final verification of two or three of the +citations, but he trusts that they, as well as the others, are accurate. +He takes this opportunity to acknowledge his indebtedness to Dr. Donald +Blythe Durham, of Princeton University, for the preparation of the index.</p> + +<p><span class="sig">Frank Frost Abbott.</span><br /> +Einsiedeln, Switzerland<br /> +<i>September 2, 1911</i></p> +</div> + + +<div id="toc"> +<h2>Contents</h2> + +<ul> + <li><a href="#ch01">How Latin Became the Language of the World</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch02">The Latin of the Common People</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch03">The Poetry of the Common People of Rome</a>: + <ol> + <li><a href="#ch03-1">Their Metrical Epitaphs</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch03-2">Their Dedicatory and Ephemeral Verses</a></li> + </ol> + </li> + <li><a href="#ch04">The Origin of the Realistic Romance Among the Romans</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch05">Diocletian's Edict and the High Cost of Living</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch06">Private Benefactions and Their Effect on the Municipal Life of the Romans</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch07">Some Reflections on Corporations and Trade-Guilds</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch08">A Roman Politician, Gaius Scribonius Curio</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch09">Gaius Matius, a Friend of Cæsar</a></li> +</ul> + +<p><a href="#index">Index</a></p> +</div> + + + +<h1 class="title">The Common People of Ancient Rome</h1> + + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch01"> +<h2><a id="p3"></a>How Latin Became the Language of the World</h2> + + + +<p>How the armies of Rome mastered the nations of the world is known to every +reader of history, but the story of the conquest by Latin of the languages +of the world is vague in the minds of most of us. If we should ask +ourselves how it came about, we should probably think of the world-wide +supremacy of Latin as a natural result of the world-wide supremacy of the +Roman legions or of Roman law. But in making this assumption we should be +shutting our eyes to the history of our own times. A conquered people does +not necessarily accept, perhaps it has not commonly accepted, the tongue +of its master. In his "Ancient and Modern Imperialism" Lord Cromer states +that in India only one hundred people in every ten thousand can read and +write English, and this condition exists after an occupation of one +hundred and fifty years or more. He adds: "There does <a id="p4"></a>not appear the +least prospect of French supplanting Arabic in Algeria." In comparing the +results of ancient and modern methods perhaps he should have taken into +account the fact that India and Algeria have literatures of their own, +which most of the outlying peoples subdued by Rome did not have, and these +literatures may have strengthened the resistance which the tongue of the +conquered people has offered to that of the conqueror, but, even when +allowance is made for this fact, the difference in resultant conditions is +surprising. From its narrow confines, within a little district on the +banks of the Tiber, covering, at the close of the fifth century B.C., less +than a hundred square miles, Latin spread through Italy and the islands of +the Mediterranean, through France, Spain, England, northern Africa, and +the Danubian provinces, triumphing over all the other tongues of those +regions more completely than Roman arms triumphed over the peoples using +them.</p> + +<p>In tracing the story we must keep in our mind's eye the linguistic +geography of Italy, just as we must remember the political geography of +the peninsula in following Rome's territorial expansion. Let us think at +the out<a id="p5"></a>set, then, of a little strip of flat country on the Tiber, dotted +here and there with hills crowned with villages. Such hill towns were +Rome, Tusculum, and Præneste, for instance. Each of them was the +stronghold and market-place of the country immediately about it, and +therefore had a life of its own, so that although Latin was spoken in all +of them it varied from one to the other. This is shown clearly enough by +the inscriptions which have been found on the sites of these ancient +towns,<sup><a href="#fn1">1</a></sup> and as late as the close of the third century before our era, +Plautus pokes fun in his comedies at the provincialism of Præneste.</p> + +<p>The towns which we have mentioned were only a few miles from Rome. Beyond +them, and occupying central Italy and a large part of southern Italy, were +people who spoke Oscan and the other Italic dialects, which were related +to Latin, and yet quite distinct from it. In the seaports of the south +Greek was spoken, while the Messapians and Iapygians occupied Calabria. To +the north of Rome were the mysterious Etruscans and the almost equally +puzzling Venetians and Ligurians. When we follow the Roman legions across +the Alps into <a id="p6"></a>Switzerland, France, England, Spain, and Africa, we enter a +jungle, as it were, of languages and dialects. A mere reading of the list +of tongues with which Latin was brought into contact, if such a list could +be drawn up, would bring weariness to the flesh. In the part of Gaul +conquered by Cæsar, for instance, he tells us that there were three +independent languages, and sixty distinct states, whose peoples doubtless +differed from one another in their speech. If we look at a map of the +Roman world under Augustus, with the Atlantic to bound it on the west, the +Euphrates on the east, the desert of Sahara on the south, and the Rhine +and Danube on the north, and recall the fact that the linguistic +conditions which Cæsar found in Gaul in 58 B.C. were typical of what +confronted Latin in a great many of the western, southern, and northern +provinces, the fact that Latin subdued all these different tongues, and +became the every-day speech of these different peoples, will be recognized +as one of the marvels of history. In fact, so firmly did it establish +itself, that it withstood the assaults of the invading Gothic, Lombardic, +Frankish, and Burgundian, and has continued to hold to our own day a very +<a id="p7"></a>large part of the territory which it acquired some two thousand years +ago.</p> + +<p>That Latin was the common speech of the western world is attested not only +by the fact that the languages of France, Spain, Roumania, and the other +Romance countries descend from it, but it is also clearly shown by the +thousands of Latin inscriptions composed by freeman and freedman, by +carpenter, baker, and soldier, which we find all over the Roman world.</p> + +<p>How did this extraordinary result come about? It was not the conquest of +the world by the common language of Italy, because in Italy in early days +at least nine different languages were spoken, but its subjugation by the +tongue spoken in the city of Rome. The traditional narrative of Rome, as +Livy and others relate it, tells us of a struggle with the neighboring +Latin hill towns in the early days of the Republic, and the ultimate +formation of an alliance between them and Rome. The favorable position of +the city on the Tiber for trade and defence gave it a great advantage over +its rivals, and it soon became the commercial and political centre of the +neighboring territory. The most important of these <a id="p8"></a>villages, Tusculum, +Præneste, and Lanuvium, were not more than twenty miles distant, and the +people in them must have come constantly to Rome to attend the markets, +and in later days to vote, to hear political speeches, and to listen to +plays in the theatre. Some of them probably heard the jests at the expense +of their dialectal peculiarities which Plautus introduced into his +comedies. The younger generations became ashamed of their provincialisms; +they imitated the Latin spoken in the metropolis, and by the second +century of our era, when the Latin grammarians have occasion to cite +dialectal peculiarities from Latium outside Rome, they quote at +second-hand from Varro of the first century B.C., either because they will +not take the trouble to use their own ears or because the differences +which were noted in earlier days had ceased to exist. The first stage in +the conquest of the world by the Latin of Rome comes to an end, then, with +the extension of that form of speech throughout Latium.</p> + +<p>Beyond the limits of Latium it came into contact with Oscan and the other +Italic dialects, which were related to Latin, but of course were much +farther removed from it <a id="p9"></a>than the Latin of Tusculum or Lanuvium had +been,<sup><a href="#fn2">2</a></sup> so that the adoption of Latin was not so simple a matter as the +acceptance of Roman Latin by the villages of Latium near Rome had been.</p> + +<p>The conflict which went on between Latin and its Italic kinsmen is +revealed to us now and then by a Latin inscription, into which Oscan or +Umbrian forms have crept.<sup><a href="#fn3">3</a></sup> The struggle had come to an end by the +beginning of our era. A few Oscan inscriptions are found scratched on the +walls of Pompeii after the first earthquake, in 63 A.D., but they are late +survivals, and no Umbrian inscriptions are known of a date subsequent to +the first century B.C.</p> + +<p>The Social War of 90-88 B.C., between Rome and the Italians, was a +turning-point in the struggle between Latin and the Italic <a id="p10"></a>dialects, +because it marks a change in the political treatment of Rome's +dependencies in Italy. Up to this time she had followed the policy of +isolating all her Italian conquered communities from one another. She was +anxious to prevent them from conspiring against her. Thus, with this +object in view, she made differences in the rights and privileges granted +to neighboring communities, in order that, not being subject to the same +limitations, and therefore not having the same grievances, they might not +have a common basis for joint action against her. It would naturally be a +part of that policy to allow or to encourage the retention by the several +communities of their own dialects. The common use of Latin would have +enabled them to combine against her with greater ease. With the conclusion +of the Social War this policy gave way before the new conception of +political unity for the people of Italian stock, and with political unity +came the introduction of Latin as the common tongue in all official +transactions of a local as well as of a federal character. The immediate +results of the war, and the policy which Rome carried out at its close of +sending out colonies and building roads in <a id="p11"></a>Italy, contributed still more +to the larger use of Latin throughout the central and southern parts of +the peninsula. Samnium, Lucania, and the territory of the Bruttii suffered +severely from depopulation; many colonies were sent into all these +districts, so that, although the old dialects must have persisted for a +time in some of the mountain towns to the north of Rome, the years +following the conclusion of the Social War mark the rapid disappearance of +them and the substitution of Latin in their place. Campania took little +part in the war, and was therefore left untouched. This fact accounts +probably for the occurrence of a few Oscan inscriptions on the walls of +Pompeii as late as 63 A.D.</p> + +<p>We need not follow here the story of the subjugation of the Greek seaports +in southern Italy and of the peoples to the north who spoke non-Italic +languages. In all these cases Latin was brought into conflict with +languages not related to itself, and the situation contains slightly +different elements from those which present themselves in the struggle +between Latin and the Italic dialects. The latter were nearly enough +related to Latin to furnish some <a id="p12"></a>support for the theory that Latin was +modified by contact with them, and this theory has found advocates,<sup><a href="#fn4">4</a></sup> but +there is no sufficient reason for believing that it was materially +influenced. An interesting illustration of the influence of Greek on the +Latin of every-day life is furnished by the realistic novel which +Petronius wrote in the middle of the first century of our era. The +characters in his story are Greeks, and the language which they speak is +Latin, but they introduce into it a great many Greek words, and now and +then a Greek idiom or construction.</p> + +<p>The Romans, as is well known, used two agencies with great effect in +Romanizing their newly acquired territory, viz., colonies and roads. The +policy of sending out colonists to hold the new districts was definitely +entered upon in the early part of the fourth century, when citizens were +sent to Antium, Tarracina, and other points in Latium. Within this century +fifteen or twenty colonies were established at various points in central +Italy. Strategic considerations determined their location, and the choice +was made with great wisdom. <a id="p13"></a>Sutrium and Nepete, on the borders of the +Ciminian forest, were "the gates of Etruria"; Fregellæ and Interamna +commanded the passage of the river Liris; Tarentum and Rhegium were +important ports of entry, while Alba Fucens and Carsioli guarded the line +of the Valerian road.</p> + +<p>This road and the other great highways which were constructed in Italy +brought not only all the colonies, but all parts of the peninsula, into +easy communication with the capital. The earliest of them was built to +Capua, as we know, by the great censor Appius Claudius, in 312 B.C., and +when one looks at a map of Italy at the close of the third century before +our era, and sees the central and southern parts of the peninsula dotted +with colonies, the Appian Way running from Rome south-east to Brundisium, +the Popillian Way to Rhegium, the Flaminian Way north-east to Ariminum, +with an extension to Cremona, with the Cassian and Aurelian ways along the +western coast, the rapidity and the completeness with which the Latin +language overspread Italy ceases to be a mystery. A map of Spain or of +France under the Empire, with its network of roads, is equally +illuminating.</p> + +<p><a id="p14"></a>The missionaries who carried Roman law, Roman dress, Roman ideas, and the +Latin language first through central, southern, and northern Italy, and +then to the East and the West, were the colonist, the merchant, the +soldier, and the federal official. The central government exempted the +Roman citizen who settled in a provincial town from the local taxes. As +these were very heavy, his advantage over the native was correspondingly +great, and in almost all the large towns in the Empire we find evidence of +the existence of large guilds of Roman traders, tax-collectors, bankers, +and land-owners.<sup><a href="#fn5">5</a></sup> When Trajan in his romantic eastern campaign had +penetrated to Ctesiphon, the capital of Parthia, he found Roman merchants +already settled there. Besides the merchants and capitalists who were +engaged in business on their own account in the provinces, there were +thousands of agents for the great Roman corporations scattered through the +Empire. Rome was the money centre of the world, and the great stock +companies organized to lend money, construct public works, collect taxes, +and engage in the shipping trade had their central offices in the capital +whence <a id="p15"></a>they sent out their representatives to all parts of the world.</p> + +<p>The soldier played as important a part as the merchant in extending the +use of Latin. Tacitus tells us that in the reign of Augustus there were +twenty-five legions stationed in the provinces. If we allow 6,000 men to a +legion, we should have a total of 150,000 Roman soldiers scattered through +the provinces. To these must be added the auxiliary troops which were made +up of natives who, at the close of their term of service, were probably +able to speak Latin, and when they settled among their own people again, +would carry a knowledge of it into ever-widening circles. We have no exact +knowledge of the number of the auxiliary troops, but they probably came to +be as numerous as the legionaries.<sup><a href="#fn6">6</a></sup> Soldiers stationed on the frontiers +frequently married native women at the end of their term of service, +passed the rest of their lives in the provinces, and their children +learned Latin.</p> + +<p>The direct influence of the government was no small factor in developing +the use of Latin, which was of course the official language of the Empire. +All court proceedings were car<a id="p16"></a>ried on in Latin. It was the language of +the governor, the petty official, and the tax-gatherer. It was used in +laws and proclamations, and no native could aspire to a post in the civil +service unless he had mastered it. It was regarded sometimes at least as a +<i>sine qua non</i> of the much-coveted Roman citizenship. The Emperor +Claudius, for instance, cancelled the Roman citizenship of a Greek, +because he had addressed a letter to him in Latin which he could not +understand. The tradition that Latin was the official language of the +world was taken up by the Christian church. Even when Constantine presided +over the Council at Nicæa in the East, he addressed the assembly in Latin.</p> + +<p>The two last-mentioned agencies, the Latin of the Roman official and the +Latin of the church, were the influences which made the language spoken +throughout the Empire essentially uniform in its character. Had the Latin +which the colonist, the merchant, and the soldier carried through Italy +and into the provinces been allowed to develop in different localities +without any external unifying influence, probably new dialects would have +grown up all over the world, or, to put it in <a id="p17"></a>another way, probably the +Romance languages would have come into existence several centuries before +they actually appeared. That unifying influence was the Latin used by the +officials sent out from Rome, which all classes eagerly strove to imitate. +Naturally the language of the provinces did not conform in all respects to +the Roman standard. Apuleius, for instance, is aware of the fact that his +African style and diction are likely to offend his Roman readers, and in +the introduction to his <i>Metamorphoses</i> he begs for their indulgence. The +elder Seneca in his <i>Controversiae</i> remarks of a Spanish fellow-countryman +"that he could never unlearn that well-known style which is brusque and +rustic and characteristic of Spain," and Spartianus in his Life of Hadrian +tells us that when Hadrian addressed the senate on a certain occasion, his +rustic pronunciation excited the laughter of the senators. But the +peculiarities in the diction of Apuleius and Hadrian seem to have been +those which only a cultivated man of the world would notice. They do not +appear to have been fundamental. In a similar way the careful studies +which have been made of the thousands of inscriptions found in the +<a id="p18"></a>West<sup><a href="#fn7">7</a></sup>, dedicatory inscriptions, guild records, and epitaphs show us +that the language of the common people in the provinces did not differ +materially from that spoken in Italy. It was the language of the Roman +soldier, colonist, and trader, with common characteristics in the way of +diction, form, phraseology, and syntax, dropping into some slight local +peculiarities, but kept essentially a unit by the desire which each +community felt to imitate its officials and its upper classes.</p> + +<p>The one part of the Roman world in which Latin did not gain an undisputed +pre-eminence was the Greek East. The Romans freely recognized the peculiar +position which Greek was destined to hold in that part of the Empire, and +styled it the <i>altera lingua</i>. Even in Greek lands, however, Latin gained +a strong hold, and exerted considerable influence on Greek<sup><a href="#fn8">8</a></sup>.</p> + +<p>In a very thoughtful paper on "Language-<a id="p19"></a>Rivalry and +Speech-Differentiation in the Case of Race-Mixture,"<sup><a href="#fn9">9</a></sup> Professor Hempl +has discussed the conditions under which language-rivalry takes place, and +states the results that follow. His conclusions have an interesting +bearing on the question which we are discussing here, how and why it was +that Latin supplanted the other languages with which it was brought into +contact.</p> + +<p>He observes that when two languages are brought into conflict, there is +rarely a compromise or fusion, but one of the two is driven out of the +field altogether by the other. On analyzing the circumstances in which +such a struggle for supremacy between languages springs up, he finds four +characteristic cases. Sometimes the armies of one nation, though +comparatively small in numbers, conquer another country. They seize the +government of the conquered land; their ruler becomes its king, and they +become the aristocracy. They constitute a minority, however; they identify +their interests with those of the conquered people, and the language of +the subject people <a id="p20"></a>becomes the language of all classes. The second case +arises when a country is conquered by a foreign people who pour into it +with their wives and children through a long period and settle permanently +there. The speech of the natives in these circumstances disappears. In the +third case a more powerful people conquers a country, establishes a +dependent government in it, sends out merchants, colonists, and officials, +and establishes new towns. If such a province is held long enough, the +language of the conqueror prevails. In the fourth and last case peaceful +bands of immigrants enter a country to follow the humbler callings. They +are scattered among the natives, and succeed in proportion as they learn +the language of their adopted country. For their children and +grandchildren this language becomes their mother tongue, and the speech of +the invaded nation holds its ground.</p> + +<p>The first typical case is illustrated by the history of Norman-French in +England, the second by that of the European colonists in America; the +Latinization of Spain, Gaul, and other Roman provinces furnishes an +instance of the third, and our own experience with European <a id="p21"></a>immigrants is +a case of the fourth characteristic situation. The third typical case of +language-conflict is the one with which we are concerned here, and the +analysis which we have made of the practices followed by the Romans in +occupying newly acquired territory, both in Italy and outside the +peninsula, shows us how closely they conform to the typical situation. +With the exception of Dacia, all the provinces were held by the Romans for +several centuries, so that their history under Roman rule satisfies the +condition of long occupation which Professor Hempl lays down as a +necessary one. Dacia which lay north of the Danube, and was thus far +removed from the centres of Roman influence, was erected into a province +in 107 A.D., and abandoned in 270. Notwithstanding its remoteness and the +comparatively short period during which it was occupied, the Latin +language has continued in use in that region to the present day. It +furnishes therefore a striking illustration of the effective methods which +the Romans used in Latinizing conquered territory.<sup><a href="#fn10">10</a></sup></p> + +<p><a id="p22"></a>We have already had occasion to notice that a fusion between Latin and +the languages with which it was brought into contact, such a fusion, for +instance, as we find in Pidgin-English, did not occur. These languages +influenced Latin only by way of making additions to its vocabulary. A +great many Greek scientific and technical terms were adopted by the +learned during the period of Roman supremacy. Of this one is clearly +aware, for instance, in reading the philosophical and rhetorical works of +Cicero. A few words, like rufus, crept into the language from the Italic +dialects. Now and then the Keltic or Iberian names of Gallic or Spanish +articles were taken up, but the inflectional system and the syntax of +Latin retained their integrity. In the post-Roman period additions to the +vocabulary are more significant. It is said that about three hundred +Germanic words have found their way into all the Romance languages.<sup><a href="#fn11">11</a></sup> +The language of the province of Gaul was most affected since some four +hundred and fifty Gothic, Lombardic, and Burgundian words are found in +French alone, such words as boulevard, homard, and blesser. Each of the +prov<a id="p23"></a>inces of course, when the Empire broke up, was subjected to +influences peculiar to itself. The residence of the Moors in Spain, for +seven hundred years, for instance, has left a deep impress on the Spanish +vocabulary, while the geographic position of Roumanian has exposed it to +the influence of Slavic, Albanian, Greek, Magyar, and Turkish.<sup><a href="#fn12">12</a></sup> A +sketch of the history of Latin after the breaking up of the Empire carries +us beyond the limits of the question which we set ourselves at the +beginning and out of the domain of the Latinist, but it may not be out of +place to gather together here a few of the facts which the Romance +philologist has contributed to its later history, because the life of +Latin has been continuous from the foundation of the city of Rome to the +present day.</p> + +<p>In this later period the question of paramount interest is, why did Latin +in one part of the world develop into French, in another part into +Italian, in another into Spanish? One answer to this question has been +based on chronological grounds.<sup><a href="#fn13">13</a></sup> The Roman soldiers and traders who +went out to garrison <a id="p24"></a>and to settle in a newly acquired territory, +introduced that form of Latin which was in use in Italy at the time of +their departure from the peninsula. The form of speech thus planted there +developed along lines peculiar to itself, became the dialect of that +province, and ultimately the (Romance) language spoken in that part of +Europe. Sardinia was conquered in 241 B.C., and Sardinian therefore is a +development of the Latin spoken in Italy in the middle of the third +century B.C., that is of the Latin of Livius Andronicus. Spain was brought +under Roman rule in 197 B.C., and consequently Spanish is a natural +outgrowth of popular Latin of the time of Plautus. In a similar way, by +noticing the date at which the several provinces were established down to +the acquisition of Dacia in 107 A.D., we shall understand how it was that +the several Romance languages developed out of Latin. So long as the +Empire held together the unifying influence of official Latin, and the +constant intercommunication between the provinces, preserved the essential +unity of Latin throughout the world, but when the bonds were broken, the +naturally divergent tendencies which had existed from the beginning, but +had been held <a id="p25"></a>in check, made themselves felt, and the speech of the +several sections of the Old World developed into the languages which we +find in them to-day.</p> + +<p>This theory is suggestive, and leads to several important results, but it +is open to serious criticism, and does not furnish a sufficient +explanation. It does not seem to take into account the steady stream of +emigrants from Italy to the provinces, and the constant transfer of troops +from one part of the world to another of which we become aware when we +study the history of any single province or legion. Spain was acquired, it +is true, in 197 B.C., and the Latin which was first introduced into it was +the Latin of Plautus, but the subjugation of the country occupied more +than sixty years, and during this period fresh troops were steadily poured +into the peninsula, and later on there was frequently an interchange of +legions between Spain and the other provinces. Furthermore, new +communities of Roman citizens were established there even down into the +Empire, and traders were steadily moving into the province. In this way it +would seem that the Latin of the early second century which was originally +carried <a id="p26"></a>into Spain must have been constantly undergoing modification, +and, so far as this influence goes, made approximately like the Latin +spoken elsewhere in the Empire.</p> + +<p>A more satisfactory explanation seems to be that first clearly propounded +by the Italian philologist, Ascoli. His reasoning is that when we acquire +a foreign language we find it very difficult, and often impossible, to +master some of the new sounds. Our ears do not catch them exactly, or we +unconsciously substitute for the foreign sound some sound from our own +language. Our vocal organs, too, do not adapt themselves readily to the +reproduction of the strange sounds in another tongue, as we know from the +difficulty which we have in pronouncing the French nasal or the German +guttural. Similarly English differs somewhat as it is spoken by a +Frenchman, a German, and an Italian. The Frenchman has a tendency to +import the nasal into it, and he is also inclined to pronounce it like his +own language, while the German favors the guttural. In a paper on the +teaching of modern languages in our schools, Professor Grandgent says:<sup><a href="#fn14">14</a></sup> +"Usually there is no attempt made <a id="p27"></a>to teach any French sounds but <i>u</i> and +the four nasal vowels; all the rest are unquestioningly replaced by the +English vowels and consonants that most nearly resemble them." The +substitution of sounds from one's own language in speaking a foreign +tongue, and the changes in voice-inflection, are more numerous and more +marked if the man who learns the new language is uneducated and acquires +it in casual intercourse from an uneducated man who speaks carelessly.</p> + +<p>This was the state of things in the Roman provinces of southern Europe +when the Goths, Lombards, and other peoples from the North gradually +crossed the frontier and settled in the territory of Latin-speaking +peoples. In the sixth century, for instance, the Lombards in Italy, the +Franks in France, and the Visigoths in Spain would each give to the Latin +which they spoke a twist peculiar to themselves, and out of the one Latin +came Italian, out of the second, the language of France, and out of the +third, Spanish. This initial impulse toward the development of Latin along +different lines in Italy, France, and Spain was, of course, reinforced by +differences in climate, in the temperaments of the <a id="p28"></a>three peoples, in +their modes of life, and in their political and social experiences. These +centrifugal forces, so to speak, became effective because the political +and social bonds which had held Italy, France, and Spain together were now +loosened, and consequently communication between the provinces was less +frequent, and the standardizing influence of the official Latin of Rome +ceased to keep Latin a uniform thing throughout the Empire.</p> + +<p>One naturally asks why Latin survived at all, why the languages of the +victorious Germanic peoples gave way to it. In reply to this question it +is commonly said that the fittest survived, that the superiority of Roman +civilization and of the Latin language gave Latin the victory. So far as +this factor is to be taken into account, I should prefer to say that it +was not so much the superiority of Latin, although that may be freely +recognized, as it was the sentimental respect which the Germans and their +leaders had for the Empire and for all its institutions. This is shown +clearly enough, for instance, in the pride which the Visigothic and +Frankish kings showed in holding their commissions from Rome, long after +Rome had lost the power to enforce its claims upon them; <a id="p29"></a>it is shown in +their use of Latin as the language of the court and of the official world. +Under the influence of this sentiment Germanic rulers and their peoples +imitated the Romans, and, among other things, took over their language. +The church probably exerted considerable influence in this direction. Many +of the Germans had been converted to Christianity before they entered the +Empire, and had heard Latin used in the church services and in the hymns. +Among cultivated people of different countries, it was the only medium of +communication, and was accepted as the lingua franca of the political and +ecclesiastical world, and the traditional medium of expression for +literary and legal purposes.</p> + +<p>Perhaps, however, one element in the situation should be given more weight +than any of the facts just mentioned. Many of the barbarians had been +allowed to settle in a more or less peaceful fashion in Roman territory, +so that a large part of the western world came into their possession by +way of gradual occupation rather than by conquest.<sup><a href="#fn15">15</a></sup> They became peasant +proprietors, manual laborers, and soldiers in the Roman army. Perhaps, +there<a id="p30"></a>fore, their occupation of central and southern Europe bears some +resemblance to the peaceful invasion of this country by immigrants from +Europe, and they may have adopted Latin just as the German or Scandinavian +adopts English.</p> + +<p>This brings us to the last important point in our inquiry. What is the +date before which we shall call the language of the Western Empire Latin, +and after which it is better to speak of French, Spanish, and Italian? +Such a line of division cannot be sharply drawn, and will in a measure be +artificial, because, as we shall attempt to show in the chapter which +follows on the "Latin of the Common People," Latin survives in the Romance +languages, and has had a continuous life up to the present day. But on +practical grounds it is convenient to have such a line of demarcation in +mind, and two attempts have been made to fix it. One attempt has been +based on linguistic grounds, the other follows political changes more +closely. Up to 700 A.D. certain common sound-changes take place in all +parts of the western world.<sup><a href="#fn16">16</a></sup> After that date, roughly speaking, this is +not the case. Consequently at that <a id="p31"></a>time we may say that unity ceased. The +other method of approaching the subject leads to essentially the same +conclusion, and shows us why unity ceased to exist.<sup><a href="#fn17">17</a></sup> In the sixth +century the Eastern Emperor Justinian conceived the idea of reuniting the +Roman world, and actually recovered and held for a short time Italy, +southern Spain, and Africa. This attempt on his part aroused a national +spirit among the peoples of these lands, and developed in them a sense of +their national independence and individuality. They threw off the foreign +yoke and became separate peoples, and developed, each of them, a language +of its own. Naturally this sentiment became effective at somewhat +different periods in different countries. For France the point may be +fixed in the sixth century, for Spain and Italy, in the seventh, and at +these dates Latin may be said to take the form of French, Spanish, and +Italian.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch02"> +<h2><a id="p32"></a>The Latin of the Common People</h2> + + + +<p>Unless one is a professional philologist he feels little interest in the +language of the common people. Its peculiarities in pronunciation, syntax, +phraseology, and the use of words we are inclined to avoid in our own +speech, because they mark a lack of cultivation. We test them by the +standards of polite society, and ignore them, or condemn them, or laugh at +them as abnormal or illogical or indicative of ignorance. So far as +literature goes, the speech of the common people has little interest for +us because it is not the recognized literary medium. These two reasons +have prevented the average man of cultivated tastes from giving much +attention to the way in which the masses speak, and only the professional +student has occupied himself with their language. This is unfortunate +because the speech of the common people has many points of interest, and, +<a id="p33"></a>instead of being illogical, is usually much more rigid in its adherence +to its own accepted principles than formal speech is, which is likely to +be influenced by convention or conventional associations. To take an +illustration of what I have in mind, the ending <i>-s</i> is the common mark in +English of a plural form. For instance, "caps," "maps," "lines," and +"places" are plurals, and the corresponding singular forms are "cap," +"map," "line," and "place." Consequently, granted the underlying premise, +it is a perfectly logical and eminently scientific process from the forms +"relapse" (pronounced, of course, "relaps") and "species" to postulate a +corresponding singular, and speak of "a relap" and "a specie," as a negro +of my acquaintance regularly does. "Scrope" and "lept," as preterites of +"scrape" and "leap," are correctly formed on the analogy of "broke" and +"crept," but are not used in polite society.</p> + +<p>So far as English, German, or French go, a certain degree of general +interest has been stimulated lately in the form which they take in +every-day life by two very different agencies, by the popular articles of +students of language, and by realistic and dialect novels. But for <a id="p34"></a>our +knowledge of the Latin of the common people we lack these two +all-important sources of information. It occurred to only two Roman +writers, Petronius and Apuleius, to amuse their countrymen by writing +realistic stories, or stories with realistic features, and the Roman +grammarian felt an even greater contempt for popular Latin or a greater +indifference to it than we feel to-day. This feeling was shared, as we +know, by the great humanists of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, +when the revival of interest in the Greek and Latin languages and +literatures begins. Petrarch, Poggio Bracciolini, and the other great +leaders in the movement were concerned with the literary aspects of the +classics, and the scholars of succeeding generations, so far as they +studied the language, confined their attention to that of the great Latin +stylists. The first student to conceive of the existence of popular Latin +as a form of speech which differed from formal literary Latin, seems to +have been the French scholar, Henri Étienne. In a little pamphlet on the +language and style of Plautus, written toward the end of the sixteenth +century, he noted the likeness between French and the language of the +Latin <a id="p35"></a>dramatist, without, however, clearly perceiving that the reason for +this similarity lay in the fact that the comedies of Plautus reflect the +spoken language of his time, and that French and the other Romance +languages have developed out of this, rather than from literary Latin. Not +until the middle of the eighteenth century was this truth clearly +recognized, and then almost simultaneously on both sides of the Rhine.</p> + +<p>It was left for the nineteenth century, however, to furnish scientific +proof of the correctness of this hypothesis, and it was a fitting thing +that the existence of an unbroken line of connection between popular Latin +of the third century before our era, and the Romance languages of the +nineteenth century, should have been established at the same time by a +Latinist engaged in the study of Plautus, and a Romance philologist +working upward toward Latin. The Latin scholar was Ritschl, who showed +that the deviations from the formal standard which one finds in Plautus +are not anomalies or mistakes, but specimens of colloquial Latin which can +be traced down into the later period. The Romance philologist was Diez, +who found that certain forms <a id="p36"></a>and words, especially those from the +vocabulary of every-day life, which are common to many of the Romance +languages, are not to be found in serious Latin literature at all, but +occur only in those compositions, like comedy, satire, or the realistic +romance, which reflect the speech of the every-day man. This discovery +made it clear that the Romance languages are related to folk Latin, not to +literary Latin. It is sixty years since the study of vulgar Latin was put +on a scientific basis by the investigations of these two men, and during +that period the Latinist and the Romance philologist have joined hands in +extending our knowledge of it. From the Latin side a great impetus was +given to the work by the foundation in 1884 of Wölfflin's <i>Archiv für +lateinische Lexikographie und Grammatik</i>. This periodical, as is well +known, was intended to prepare the way for the publication of the Latin +<i>Thesaurus</i>, which the five German Academies are now bringing out.</p> + +<p>One of its primary purposes, as its title indicates, was to investigate +the history of Latin words, and in its first number the editor called +attention to the importance of knowing the pieces of literature in which +each Latin word <a id="p37"></a>or locution occurred. The results have been very +illuminating. Some words or constructions or phrases are to be found, for +instance, only in comedy, satire, and the romance. They are evidently +peculiar to vulgar Latin. Others are freely used in these types of +literature, but sparingly employed in historical or rhetorical works. Here +again a shade of difference is noticeable between formal and familiar +usage. The method of the Latinist then is essentially one of comparison +and contrast. When, for instance, he finds the word <i>equus</i> regularly used +by serious writers for "horse," but <i>caballus</i> employed in that sense in +the colloquial compositions of Lucilius, Horace, and Petronius, he comes +to the conclusion that <i>caballus</i> belongs to the vocabulary of every-day +life, that it is our "nag."</p> + +<p>The line of reasoning which the Romance philologist follows in his study +of vulgar Latin is equally convincing. The existence of a large number of +words and idioms in French, Spanish, Italian, and the other Romance +languages can be explained only in one of three ways. All these different +languages may have hit on the same word or phrase to express an idea, or +these words and idioms may have been <a id="p38"></a>borrowed from one language by the +others, or they may come from a common origin. The first hypothesis is +unthinkable. The second is almost as impossible. Undoubtedly French, for +instance, borrowed some words from Spanish, and Spanish from Portuguese. +It would be conceivable that a few words originating in Spain should pass +into France, and thence into Italy, but it is quite beyond belief that the +large element which the languages from Spain to Roumania have in common +should have passed by borrowing over such a wide territory. It is clear +that this common element is inherited from Latin, out of which all the +Romance languages are derived. Out of the words, endings, idioms, and +constructions which French, Spanish, Italian, and the other tongues of +southern Europe have in common, it would be possible, within certain +limits, to reconstruct the parent speech, but fortunately we are not +limited to this material alone. At this point the Latinist and the Romance +philologist join hands. To take up again the illustration already used, +the student of the Romance languages finds the word for "horse" in Italian +is cavallo, in Spanish caballo, in French cheval, in Roumanian cal, <a id="p39"></a>and +so on. Evidently all these forms have come from caballus, which the +Latinist finds belongs to the vocabulary of vulgar, not of formal, Latin. +This one illustration out of many not only discloses the fact that the +Romance languages are to be connected with colloquial rather than with +literary Latin, but it also shows how the line of investigation opened by +Diez, and that followed by Wölfflin and his school, supplement each other. +By the use of the methods which these two scholars introduced, a large +amount of material bearing on the subject under discussion has been +collected and classified, and the characteristic features of the Latin of +the common people have been determined. It has been found that five or six +different and independent kinds of evidence may be used in reconstructing +this form of speech.</p> + +<p>We naturally think first of the direct statements made by Latin writers. +These are to be found in the writings of Cicero, Quintilian, Seneca the +Rhetorician, Petronius, Aulus Gellius, Vitruvius, and the Latin +grammarians. The professional teacher Quintilian is shocked at the +illiterate speech of the spectators in the theatres and circus. Similarly +a character in <a id="p40"></a>Petronius utters a warning against the words such people +use. Cicero openly delights in using every-day Latin in his familiar +letters, while the architect Vitruvius expresses the anxious fear that he +may not be following the accepted rules of grammar. As we have noticed +above, a great deal of material showing the differences between formal and +colloquial Latin which these writers have in mind, may be obtained by +comparing, for instance, the Letters of Cicero with his rhetorical works, +or Seneca's satirical skit on the Emperor Claudius with his philosophical +writings. Now and then, too, a serious writer has occasion to use a bit of +popular Latin, but he conveniently labels it for us with an apologetic +phrase. Thus even St. Jerome, in his commentary on the Epistle to the +Ephesians, says: "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, as the vulgar +proverb has it." To the ancient grammarians the "mistakes" and vulgarisms +of popular speech were abhorrent, and they have fortunately branded lists +of words and expressions which are not to be used by cultivated people. +The evidence which may be had from the Romance languages, supplemented by +Latin, not only contributes to our knowledge of the <a id="p41"></a>vocabulary of vulgar +Latin, but it also shows us many common idioms and constructions which +that form of speech had. Thus, "I will sing" in Italian is canterò +(=cantar[e]-ho), in Spanish, cantaré (=cantar-he), in French, chanterai +(=chanter-ai), and similar forms occur in some of the other Romance +languages. These forms are evidently made up of the Latin infinitive +cantare, depending on habeo ("I have to sing"). But the future in literary +Latin was cantabo, formed by adding an ending, as we know, and with that +the Romance future can have no connection. However, as a writer in the +<i>Archiv</i> has pointed out,<sup><a href="#fn18">18</a></sup> just such analytical tense forms as are used +in the Romance languages to-day are to be found in the popular Latin +sermons of St. Jerome. From these idioms, common to Italian, French, and +Spanish, then, we can reconstruct a Latin formation current among the +common people. Finally a knowledge of the tendencies and practices of +spoken English helps us to identify similar usages when we come upon them +in our reading of Latin. When, for instance, the slave in a play of +Plautus says: "Do you catch on" (tenes?), "<a id="p42"></a>I'll touch the old man for a +loan" (tangam senem, etc.), or "I put it over him" (ei os sublevi) we +recognize specimens of Latin slang, because all of the metaphors involved +are in current use to-day. When one of the freedmen in Petronius remarks: +"You ought not to do a good turn to nobody" (neminem nihil boni facere +oportet) we see the same use of the double negative to which we are +accustomed in illiterate English. The rapid survey which we have just made +of the evidence bearing on the subject establishes beyond doubt the +existence of a form of speech among the Romans which cannot be identified +with literary Latin, but it has been held by some writers that the +material for the study of it is scanty. However, an impartial examination +of the facts ought not to lead one to this conclusion. On the Latin side +the material includes the comedies of Plautus and Terence, and the comic +fragments, the familiar odes of Catullus, the satires of Lucilius, Horace, +and Seneca, and here and there of Persius and Juvenal, the familiar +letters of Cicero, the romance of Petronius and that of Apuleius in part, +the Vulgate and some of the Christian fathers, the Journey to Jerusalem of +St. <a id="p43"></a>Ætheria, the glossaries, some technical books like Vitruvius and the +veterinary treatise of Chiron, and the private inscriptions, notably +epitaphs, the wall inscriptions of Pompeii, and the leaden tablets found +buried in the ground on which illiterate people wrote curses upon their +enemies.</p> + +<p>It is clear that there has been preserved for the study of colloquial +Latin a very large body of material, coming from a great variety of +sources and running in point of time from Plautus in the third century +B.C. to St. Ætheria in the latter part of the fourth century or later. It +includes books by trained writers, like Horace and Petronius, who +consciously adopt the Latin of every-day life, and productions by +uneducated people, like St. Ætheria and the writers of epitaphs, who have +unwittingly used it.</p> + +<p>St. Jerome says somewhere of spoken Latin that "it changes constantly as +you pass from one district to another, and from one period to another" (et +ipsa Latinitas et regionibus cotidie mutatur et tempore). If he had added +that it varies with circumstances also, he would have included the three +factors which have most to do in influencing the develop<a id="p44"></a>ment of any +spoken language. We are made aware of the changes which time has brought +about in colloquial English when we compare the conversations in Fielding +with those in a present-day novel. When a spoken language is judged by the +standard of the corresponding literary medium, in some of its aspects it +proves to be conservative, in others progressive. It shows its +conservative tendency by retaining many words and phrases which have +passed out of literary use. The English of the Biglow Papers, when +compared with the literary speech of the time, abundantly illustrates this +fact. This conservative tendency is especially noticeable in districts +remote from literary centres, and those of us who are familiar with the +vernacular in Vermont or Maine will recall in it many quaint words and +expressions which literature abandoned long ago. In Virginia locutions may +be heard which have scarcely been current in literature since +Shakespeare's time. Now, literary and colloquial Latin were probably drawn +farther apart than the two corresponding forms of speech in English, +because Latin writers tried to make the literary tongue as much like Greek +in its form as possible, so that literary Latin <a id="p45"></a>would naturally have +diverged more rapidly and more widely from conversational Latin than +formal English has drawn away from colloquial English.</p> + +<p>But a spoken language in its development is progressive as well as +conservative. To certain modifying influences it is especially sensitive. +It is fond of the concrete, picturesque, and novel, and has a high +appreciation of humor. These tendencies lead it to invent many new words +and expressions which must wait months, years, perhaps a generation, +before they are accepted in literature. Sometimes they are never accepted. +The history of such words as buncombe, dude, Mugwump, gerrymander, and +joy-ride illustrate for English the fact that words of a certain kind meet +a more hospitable reception in the spoken language than they do in +literature. The writer of comedy or farce, the humorist, and the man in +the street do not feel the constraint which the canons of good usage put +on the serious writer. They coin new words or use old words in a new way +or use new constructions without much hesitation. The extraordinary +material progress of the modern world during the last century has +undoubtedly stim<a id="p46"></a>ulated this tendency in a remarkable way, but it would +seem as if the Latin of the common people from the time of Plautus to that +of Cicero must have been subjected to still more innovating influences +than modern conversational English has. During this period the newly +conquered territories in Spain, northern Africa, Greece, and Asia poured +their slaves and traders into Italy, and added a great many words to the +vocabulary of every-day life. The large admixture of Greek words and +idioms in the language of Petronius in the first century of our era +furnishes proof of this fact. A still greater influence must have been +felt within the language itself by the stimulus to the imagination which +the coming of these foreigners brought, with their new ideas, and their +new ways of looking at things, their strange costumes, manners, and +religions.</p> + +<p>The second important factor which affects the spoken language is a +difference in culture and training. The speech of the gentleman differs +from that of the rustic. The conversational language of Terence, for +instance, is on a higher plane than that of Plautus, while the characters +in Plautus use better Latin <a id="p47"></a>than the freedmen in Petronius. The +illiterate freedmen in Petronius speak very differently from the freemen +in his story. Sometimes a particular occupation materially affects the +speech of those who pursue it. All of us know something of the linguistic +eccentricities of the London cabman, the Parisian thief, or the American +hobo. This particular influence cannot be estimated so well for Latin +because we lack sufficient material, but some progress has been made in +detecting the peculiarities of Latin of the nursery, the camp, and the +sea.</p> + +<p>Of course a spoken language is never uniform throughout a given area. +Dialectal differences are sure to develop. A man from Indiana and another +from Maine will be sure to notice each other's peculiarities. Even the +railway, the newspaper, and the public school will never entirely +obliterate the old differences or prevent new ones from springing up. +Without these agencies which do so much to promote uniformity to-day, +Italy and the rest of the Empire must have shown greater dialectal +differences than we observe in American English or in British English +even.</p> + +<p>For the sake of bringing out clearly some of <a id="p48"></a>the points of difference +between vulgar and formal Latin we have used certain illustrations, like +<i>caballus</i>, where the two forms of speech were radically opposed to each +other, but of course they did not constitute two different languages, and +that which they had in common was far greater than the element peculiar to +each, or, to put it in another way, they in large measure overlapped each +other. Perhaps we are in a position now to characterize colloquial Latin +and to define it as the language which was used in conversation throughout +the Empire with the innumerable variations which time and place gave it, +which in its most highly refined form, as spoken in literary circles at +Rome in the classical period, approached indefinitely near its ideal, +literary Latin, which in its most unconventional phase was the rude speech +of the rabble, or the "sermo inconditus" of the ancients. The facts which +have just been mentioned may be illustrated by the accompanying diagrams.</p> + +<div class="image" id="illus01"> +<p><a href="images/illus01.png">Figs. I-IV</a></p> +</div> + +<p>In Fig. I the heavy-lined ellipse represents the formal diction of Cicero, +the dotted line ellipse his conversational vocabulary. They overlap each +other through a great part of <a id="p49"></a>their extent, but there are certain +literary locutions which would rarely be used by him in conversation, and +certain colloquial words and phrases which he would not use in formal +writing. Therefore the two ellipses would not be coterminous. In Fig. II +the heavy ellipse has the same meaning as in Fig. I, while the space +enclosed by the dotted line represents the vocabulary of an uneducated +Roman, which would be much smaller than that of Cicero and would show a +greater degree of difference from the literary vocabulary than Cicero's +conversational stock of words does. The relation of the uncultivated +Roman's conversational vocabulary to that of Cicero is illustrated in Fig. +III, while Fig. IV shows how the Latin of the average man in Rome <a id="p50"></a>would +compare, for instance, with that of a resident of Lugudunum, in Gaul.</p> + +<p>This naturally brings us to consider the historical relations of literary +and colloquial Latin. In explaining them it has often been assumed that +colloquial Latin is a degenerate form of literary Latin, or that the +latter is a refined type of the former. Both these theories are equally +false. Neither is derived from the other. The true state of the case has +never been better put than by Schuchardt, who says: "Vulgar Latin stands +with reference to formal Latin in no derivative relation, in no paternal +relation, but they stand side by side. It is true that vulgar Latin came +from a Latin with fuller and freer forms, but it did not come from formal +Latin. It is true that formal Latin came from a Latin of a more popular +and a cruder character, but it did not come from vulgar Latin. In the +original speech of the people, preliterary Latin (the prisca Latinitas), +is to be found the origin of both; they were twin brothers."</p> + +<p>Of this preliterary Latin we have no record. The best we can do is to +infer what its characteristics were from the earliest fragments of the +language which have come down to us, from <a id="p51"></a>the laws of the Twelve Tables, +for instance, from the religious and legal formulæ preserved to us by +Varro, Cicero, Livy, and others, from proverbs and popular sayings. It +would take us too far afield to analyze these documents here, but it may +be observed that we notice in them, among other characteristics, an +indifference to strict grammatical structure, not that subordination of +clauses to a main clause which comes only from an appreciation of the +logical relation of ideas to one another, but a co-ordination of clauses, +the heaping up of synonymous words, a tendency to use the analytical +rather than the synthetical form of expression, and a lack of fixity in +the forms of words and in inflectional endings. To illustrate some of +these traits in a single example, an early law reads "if [he] shall have +committed a theft by night, if [he] shall have killed him, let him be +regarded as put to death legally" (si nox furtum faxsit, si im occisit, +iure caesus esto).<sup><a href="#fn19">19</a></sup> We pass without warning from one subject, the +thief, in the first clause to another, the householder, in the second, and +back to the thief again in the <a id="p52"></a>third. Cato in his book on Agriculture +writes of the cattle: "let them feed; it will be better" (pascantur; +satius erit), instead of saying: "it will be better for them to feed" (or +"that they feed"). In an early law one reads: "on the tablet, on the white +surface" (in tabula, in albo), instead of "on the white tablet" (in alba +tabula). Perhaps we may sum up the general characteristics of this +preliterary Latin out of which both the spoken and written language +developed by saying that it showed a tendency to analysis rather than +synthesis, a loose and variable grammatical structure, and a lack of logic +in expression.</p> + +<p>Livius Andronicus, Nævius, and Plautus in the third century before our era +show the language as first used for literary purposes, and with them the +breach between the spoken and written tongues begins. So far as Livius +Andronicus, the Father of Latin literature, is concerned, allowance should +be made without doubt for his lack of poetic inspiration and skill, and +for the fact that his principal work was a translation, but even making +this allowance the crude character of his Latin is apparent, and it is +very clear that literary Latin underwent a complete transformation +be<a id="p53"></a>tween his time and that of Horace and Virgil. Now, the significant +thing in this connection is the fact that this transformation was largely +brought about under an external influence, which affected the Latin of the +common people only indirectly and in small measure. Perhaps the +circumstances in which literary Latin was placed have never been repeated +in history. At the very outset it was brought under the sway of a highly +developed literary tongue, and all the writers who subsequently used it +earnestly strove to model it after Greek. Livius Andronicus, Ennius, +Accius, and Pacuvius were all of Greek origin and familiar with Greek. +They, as well as Plautus and Terence, translated and adapted Greek epics, +tragedies, and comedies. Several of the early writers, like Accius and +Lucilius, interested themselves in grammatical subjects, and did their +best to introduce system and regularity into their literary medium. Now, +Greek was a highly inflected, synthetical, regular, and logical medium of +literary expression, and it was inevitable that these qualities should be +introduced into Latin. But this influence affected the spoken language +very little, as we have already noticed. Its effect upon the <a id="p54"></a>speech of +the common people would be slight, because of the absence of the common +school which does so much to-day to hold together the spoken and written +languages.</p> + +<p>The development then of preliterary Latin under the influence of this +systematizing, synthetical influence gave rise to literary Latin, while +its independent growth more nearly in accordance with its original genius +produced colloquial Latin. Consequently, we are not surprised to find that +the people's speech retained in a larger measure than literary Latin did +those qualities which we noticed in preliterary Latin. Those +characteristics are, in fact, to be expected in conversation. When a man +sets down his thoughts on paper he expresses himself with care and with a +certain reserve in his statements, and he usually has in mind exactly what +he wants to say. But in speaking he is not under this constraint. He is +likely to express himself in a tautological, careless, or even illogical +fashion. He rarely thinks out to the end what he has in mind, but loosely +adds clauses or sentences, as new ideas occur to him.</p> + +<p>We have just been thinking mainly about the relation of words to one +another in a sen<a id="p55"></a>tence. In the treatment of individual words, written and +spoken Latin developed along different lines. In English we make little +distinction between the quantity of vowels, but in Latin of course a given +vowel was either long or short, and literary tradition became so fixed in +this matter that the professional poets of the Augustan age do not +tolerate any deviation from it. There are indications, however, that the +common people did not observe the rules of quantity in their integrity. We +can readily understand why that may have been the case. The comparative +carelessness, which is characteristic of conversation, affects our +pronunciation of words. When there is a stress accent, as there was in +Latin, this is especially liable to be the case. We know in English how +much the unaccented syllables suffer in a long word like "laboratory." In +Latin the long unaccented vowels and the final syllable, which was never +protected by the accent, were peculiarly likely to lose their full value. +As a result, in conversational Latin certain final consonants tended to +drop away, and probably the long vowel following a short one was regularly +shortened when the accent fell on the short syllable, or on the syllable +<a id="p56"></a>which followed the long one. Some scholars go so far as to maintain that +in course of time all distinction in quantity in the unaccented vowels was +lost in popular Latin. Sometimes the influence of the accent led to the +excision of the vowel in the syllable which followed it. Probus, a +grammarian of the fourth century of our era, in what we might call a +"Guide to Good Usage"<sup><a href="#fn20">20</a></sup> or "One Hundred Words Mispronounced," warns his +readers against masclus and anglus for masculus and angulus. This is the +same popular tendency which we see illustrated in "lab'ratory."</p> + +<p>The quality of vowels as well as their quantity changed. The obscuring of +certain vowel sounds in ordinary or careless conversation in this country +in such words as "Latun" and "Amurican" is a phenomenon which is familiar +enough. In fact a large number of our vowel sounds seem to have +degenerated into a grunt. Latin was affected in a somewhat similar way, +although not to the same extent as present-day English. Both the ancient +grammarians in their warnings and the Romance languages bear evidence to +this effect.</p> + +<p>We noticed above that the final consonant <a id="p57"></a>was exposed to danger by the +fact that the syllable containing it was never protected by the accent. It +is also true that there was a tendency to do away with any difficult +combination of consonants. We recall in English the current +pronunciations, "February," and "Calwell" for Caldwell. The average Roman +in the same way was inclined to follow the line of least resistance. +Sometimes, as in the two English examples just given, he avoided a +difficult combination of consonants by dropping one of them. This method +he followed in saying santus for sanctus, and scriserunt for scripserunt, +just as in vulgar English one now and then hears "slep" and "kep" for the +more difficult "slept" and "kept." Sometimes he lightened the +pronunciation by metathesis, as he did when he pronounced interpretor as +interpertor. A third device was to insert a vowel, as illiterate +English-speaking people do in the pronunciations "ellum" and "Henery." In +this way, for instance, the Roman avoided the difficult combinations -mn- +and -chn- by saying mina and techina for the historically correct mna and +techna. Another method of surmounting the difficulty was to assimilate one +of the two consonants to the other. This is a <a id="p58"></a>favorite practice of the +shop-girl, over which the newspapers make merry in their phonetical +reproductions of supposed conversations heard from behind the counter. +Adopting the same easy way of speaking, the uneducated Roman sometimes +said isse for ipse, and scritus for scriptus. To pass to another point of +difference, the laws determining the incidence of the accent were very +firmly established in literary Latin. The accent must fall on the penult, +if it was long, otherwise on the antepenult of the word. But in popular +Latin there were certain classes of words in whose case these principles +were not observed.</p> + +<p>The very nature of the accent probably differed in the two forms of +speech. In preliterary Latin the stress was undoubtedly a marked feature +of the accent, and this continued to be the case in the popular speech +throughout the entire history of the language, but, as I have tried to +prove in another paper,<sup><a href="#fn21">21</a></sup> in formal Latin the stress became very slight, +and the pitch grew to be the characteristic feature of the accent. +Consequently, when Virgil read a passage of the <i>Æneid</i> to Augustus <a id="p59"></a>and +Livia the effect on the ear of the comparatively unstressed language, with +the rhythmical rise and fall of the pitch, would have been very different +from that made by the conversation of the average man, with the accented +syllables more clearly marked by a stress.</p> + +<p>In this brief chapter we cannot attempt to go into details, and in +speaking of the morphology of vulgar Latin we must content ourselves with +sketching its general characteristics and tendencies, as we have done in +the case of its phonology. In English our inflectional forms have been +reduced to a minimum, and consequently there is little scope for +differences in this respect between the written and spoken languages. From +the analogy of other forms the illiterate man occasionally says: "I swum," +or, "I clumb," or "he don't," but there is little chance of making a +mistake. However, with three genders, five declensions for nouns, a fixed +method of comparison for adjectives and adverbs, an elaborate system of +pronouns, with active and deponent, regular and irregular verbs, four +conjugations, and a complex synthetical method of forming the moods and +tenses, the pitfalls for the unwary Roman were without number, as the +present-day <a id="p60"></a>student of Latin can testify to his sorrow. That the man in +the street, who had no newspaper to standardize his Latin, and little +chance to learn it in school, did not make more mistakes is surprising. In +a way many of the errors which he did make were historically not errors at +all. This fact will readily appear from an illustration or two. In our +survey of preliterary Latin we had occasion to notice that one of its +characteristics was a lack of fixity in the use of forms or constructions. +In the third century before our era, a Roman could say audibo or audiam, +contemplor or contemplo, senatus consultum or senati consultum. Thanks to +the efforts of the scientific grammarian, and to the systematizing +influence which Greek exerted upon literary Latin, most verbs were made +deponent or active once for all, a given noun was permanently assigned to +a particular declension, a verb to one conjugation, and the slight +tendency which the language had to the analytical method of forming the +moods and tenses was summarily checked. Of course the common people tried +to imitate their betters in all these matters, but the old variable usages +persisted to some extent, and the average man failed to <a id="p61"></a>grasp the +niceties of the new grammar at many points. His failures were especially +noticeable where the accepted literary form did not seem to follow the +principles of analogy. When these principles are involved, the common +people are sticklers for consistency. The educated man conjugates: "I +don't," "you don't," "he doesn't," "we don't," "they don't"; but the +anomalous form "he doesn't" has to give way in the speech of the average +man to "he don't." To take only one illustration in Latin of the effect of +the same influence, the present infinitive active of almost all verbs ends +in -re, e.g., amare, monere, and regere. Consequently the irregular +infinitive of the verb "to be able," posse, could not stand its ground, +and ultimately became potere in vulgar Latin. In one respect in the +inflectional forms of the verb, the purist was unexpectedly successful. In +comedy of the third and second centuries B.C., we find sporadic evidence +of a tendency to use auxiliary verbs in forming certain tenses, as we do +in English when we say: "I will go," "I have gone," or "I had gone." This +movement was thoroughly stamped out for the time, and does not reappear +until comparatively late.</p> + +<p><a id="p62"></a>In Latin there are three genders, and the grammatical gender of a noun is +not necessarily identical with its natural gender. For inanimate objects +it is often determined simply by the form of the noun. Sella, seat, of the +first declension, is feminine, because almost all nouns ending in -a are +feminine; hortus, garden, is masculine, because nouns in -us of its +declension are mostly masculine, and so on. From such a system as this two +results are reasonably sure to follow. Where the gender of a noun in +literary Latin did not conform to these rules, in popular Latin it would +be brought into harmony with others of its class. Thus stigma, one of the +few neuter nouns in -a, and consequently assigned to the third declension, +was brought in popular speech into line with sella and the long list of +similar words in -a, was made feminine, and put in the first declension. +In the case of another class of words, analogy was supplemented by a +mechanical influence. We have noticed already that the tendency of the +stressed syllable in a word to absorb effort and attention led to the +obscuration of certain final consonants, because the final syllable was +never protected by the accent. Thus <a id="p63"></a>hortus in some parts of the Empire +became hortu in ordinary pronunciation, and the neuter caelum, heaven, +became caelu. The consequent identity in the ending led to a confusion in +the gender, and to the ultimate treatment of the word for "heaven" as a +masculine. These influences and others caused many changes in the gender +of nouns in popular speech, and in course of time brought about the +elimination of the neuter gender from the neo-Latin languages.</p> + +<p>Something has been said already of the vocabulary of the common people. It +was naturally much smaller than that of cultivated people. Its poverty +made their style monotonous when they had occasion to express themselves +in writing, as one can see in reading St. Ætheria's account of her journey +to the Holy Land, and of course this impression of monotony is heightened +by such a writer's inability to vary the form of expression. Even within +its small range it differs from the vocabulary of formal Latin in three or +four important respects. It has no occasion, or little occasion, to use +certain words which a formal writer employs, or it uses substitutes for +them. So testa was used in part for caput, and bucca <a id="p64"></a>for os. On the other +hand, it employs certain words and phrases, for instance vulgar words and +expletives, which are not admitted into literature.</p> + +<p>In its choice of words it shows a marked preference for certain suffixes +and prefixes. It would furnish an interesting excursion into folk +psychology to speculate on the reasons for this preference in one case and +another. Sometimes it is possible to make out the influence at work. In +reading a piece of popular Latin one is very likely to be impressed with +the large number of diminutives which are used, sometimes in the strict +sense of the primitive word. The frequency of this usage reminds one in +turn of the fact that not infrequently in the Romance languages the +corresponding words are diminutive forms in their origin, so that +evidently the diminutive in these cases crowded out the primitive word in +popular use, and has continued to our own day. The reason why the +diminutive ending was favored does not seem far to seek. That suffix +properly indicates that the object in question is smaller than the average +of its kind. Smallness in a child stimulates our affection, in a dwarf, +pity or aversion. Now <a id="p65"></a>we give expression to our emotion more readily in +the intercourse of every-day life than we do in writing, and the emotions +of the masses are perhaps nearer the surface and more readily stirred than +are those of the classes, and many things excite them which would leave +unruffled the feelings of those who are more conventional. The stirring of +these emotions finds expression in the use of the diminutive ending, which +indirectly, as we have seen, suggests sympathy, affection, pity, or +contempt. The ending -osus for adjectives was favored because of its +sonorous character. Certain prefixes, like de-, dis-, and ex-, were freely +used with verbs, because they strengthened the meaning of the verb, and +popular speech is inclined to emphasize its ideas unduly.</p> + +<p>To speak further of derivation, in the matter of compounds and +crystallized word groups there are usually differences between a spoken +and written language. The written language is apt to establish certain +canons which the people do not observe. For instance, we avoid hybrid +compounds of Greek and Latin elements in the serious writing of English. +In formal Latin we notice the same objection to Greco-Latin words, and yet +in Plautus, and <a id="p66"></a>in other colloquial writers, such compounds are freely +used for comic effect. In a somewhat similar category belong the +combinations of two adverbs or prepositions, which one finds in the later +popular Latin, some of which have survived in the Romance languages. A +case in point is ab ante, which has come down to us in the Italian avanti +and the French avant. Such word-groups are of course debarred from formal +speech.</p> + +<p>In examining the vocabulary of colloquial Latin, we have noticed its +comparative poverty, its need of certain words which are not required in +formal Latin, its preference for certain prefixes and suffixes, and its +willingness to violate certain rules, in forming compounds and +word-groups, which the written language scrupulously observes. It remains +for us to consider a third, and perhaps the most important, element of +difference between the vocabularies of the two forms of speech. I mean the +use of a word in vulgar Latin with another meaning from that which it has +in formal Latin. We are familiar enough with the different senses which a +word often has in conversational and in literary English. "Funny," for +instance, means "amusing" in <a id="p67"></a>formal English, but it is often the synonym +of "strange" in conversation. The sense of a word may be extended, or be +restricted, or there may be a transfer of meaning. In the colloquial use +of "funny" we have an extension of its literary sense. The same is true of +"splendid," "jolly," "lovely," and "awfully," and of such Latin words as +"lepidus," "probe," and "pulchre." When we speak of "a splendid sun," we +are using splendid in its proper sense of shining or bright, but when we +say, "a splendid fellow," the adjective is used as a general epithet +expressing admiration. On the other hand, when a man of a certain class +refers to his "woman," he is employing the word in the restricted sense of +"wife." Perhaps we should put in a third category that very large +colloquial use of words in a transferred or figurative sense, which is +illustrated by "to touch" or "to strike" when applied to success in +getting money from a person. Our current slang is characterized by the +free use of words in this figurative way.</p> + +<p>Under the head of syntax we must content ourselves with speaking of only +two changes, but these were far-reaching. We have al<a id="p68"></a>ready noticed the +analytical tendency of preliterary Latin. This tendency was held in check, +as we have just observed, so far as verb forms were concerned, but in the +comparison of adjectives and in the use of the cases it steadily made +headway, and ultimately triumphed over the synthetical principle. The +method adopted by literary Latin of indicating the comparative and the +superlative degrees of an adjective, by adding the endings -ior and +-issimus respectively, succumbed in the end to the practice of prefixing +plus or magis and maxime to the positive form. To take another +illustration of the same characteristic of popular Latin, as early as the +time of Plautus, we see a tendency to adopt our modern method of +indicating the relation which a substantive bears to some other word in +the sentence by means of a preposition rather than by simply using a case +form. The careless Roman was inclined to say, for instance, magna pars de +exercitu, rather than to use the genitive case of the word for army, magna +pars exercitus. Perhaps it seemed to him to bring out the relation a +little more clearly or forcibly.</p> + +<p>The use of a preposition to show the rela<a id="p69"></a>tion became almost a necessity +when certain final consonants became silent, because with their +disappearance, and the reduction of the vowels to a uniform quantity, it +was often difficult to distinguish between the cases. Since final -m was +lost in pronunciation, <i>Asia</i> might be nominative, accusative, or +ablative. If you wished to say that something happened in Asia, it would +not suffice to use the simple ablative, because that form would have the +same pronunciation as the nominative or the accusative, Asia(m), but the +preposition must be prefixed, <i>in Asia</i>. Another factor cooperated with +those which have already been mentioned in bringing about the confusion of +the cases. Certain prepositions were used with the accusative to indicate +one relation, and with the ablative to suggest another. <i>In Asia</i>, for +instance, meant "in Asia," <i>in Asiam</i>, "into Asia." When the two case +forms became identical in pronunciation, the meaning of the phrase would +be determined by the verb in the sentence, so that with a verb of going +the preposition would mean "into," while with a verb of rest it would mean +"in." In other words the idea of motion or rest is disassociated from the +case forms. From the <a id="p70"></a>analogy of <i>in</i> it was very easy to pass to other +prepositions like <i>per</i>, which in literary Latin took the accusative only, +and to use these prepositions also with cases which, historically +speaking, were ablatives.</p> + +<p>In his heart of hearts the school-boy regards the periodic sentences which +Cicero hurled at Catiline, and which Livy used in telling the story of +Rome as unnatural and perverse. All the specious arguments which his +teacher urges upon him, to prove that the periodic form of expression was +just as natural to the Roman as the direct method is to us, fail to +convince him that he is not right in his feeling—and he <i>is</i> right. Of +course in English, as a rule, the subject must precede the verb, the +object must follow it, and the adverb and attribute adjective must stand +before the words to which they belong. In the sentence: "Octavianus wished +Cicero to be saved," not a single change may be made in the order without +changing the sense, but in a language like Latin, where relations are +largely expressed by inflectional forms, almost any order is possible, so +that a writer may vary his arrangement and grouping of words to suit the +thought which he wishes to convey. But this <a id="p71"></a>is a different matter from +the construction of a period with its main subject at the beginning, its +main verb at the end, and all sorts of subordinate and modifying clauses +locked in by these two words. This was not the way in which the Romans +talked with one another. We can see that plainly enough from the +conversations in Plautus and Terence. In fact the Latin period is an +artificial product, brought to perfection by many generations of literary +workers, and the nearer we get to the Latin of the common people the more +natural the order and style seem to the English-speaking person. The +speech of the uneducated freedmen in the romance of Petronius is +interesting in this connection. They not only fail to use the period, but +they rarely subordinate one idea to another. Instead of saying "I saw him +when he was an ædile," they are likely to say "I saw him; he was an ædile +then."</p> + +<p>When we were analyzing preliterary Latin, we noticed that the +co-ordination of ideas was one of its characteristics, so that this trait +evidently persisted in popular speech, while literary Latin became more +logical and complex.</p> + +<p>In the preceding pages we have tried to find out the main features of +popular Latin. In <a id="p72"></a>doing so we have constantly thought of literary Latin +as the foil or standard of comparison. Now, strangely enough, no sooner +had the literary medium of expression slowly and painfully disassociated +itself from the language of the common people than influences which it +could not resist brought it down again to the level of its humbler +brother. Its integrity depended of course upon the acceptance of certain +recognized standards. But when flourishing schools of literature sprang up +in Spain, in Africa, and in Gaul, the paramount authority of Rome and the +common standard for the Latin world which she had set were lost. When some +men tried to imitate Cicero and Quintilian, and others, Seneca, there +ceased to be a common model of excellence. Similarly a careful distinction +between the diction of prose and verse was gradually obliterated. There +was a loss of interest in literature, and professional writers gave less +attention to their diction and style. The appearance of Christianity, too, +exercised a profound influence on literary Latin. Christian writers and +preachers made their appeal to the common people rather than to the +literary world. They, therefore, expressed themselves in language <a id="p73"></a>which +would be readily understood by the average man, as St. Jerome frankly +tells us his purpose was. The result of these influences, and of others, +acting on literary Latin, was to destroy its unity and its carefully +developed scientific system, and to bring it nearer and nearer in its +genius to popular Latin, or, to put it in another way, the literary medium +comes to show many of the characteristics of the spoken language. Gregory +of Tours, writing in the sixth century, laments the fact that he is +unfamiliar with grammatical principles, and with this century literary +Latin may be said to disappear.</p> + +<p>As for popular Latin, it has never ceased to exist. It is the language of +France, Spain, Italy, Roumania, and all the Romance countries to-day. Its +history has been unbroken from the founding of Rome to the present time. +Various scholars have tried to determine the date before which we shall +call the popular speech vulgar Latin, and after which it may better be +styled French or Spanish or Italian, as the case may be. Some would fix +the dividing line in the early part of the eighth century A.D., when +phonetic changes common to all parts of the Roman world would <a id="p74"></a>cease to +occur. Others would fix it at different periods between the middle of the +sixth to the middle of the seventh century, according as each section of +the old Roman world passed definitely under the control of its Germanic +invaders. The historical relations of literary and colloquial Latin would +be roughly indicated by the accompanying diagram, in which preliterary +Latin divides, on the appearance of literature in the third century B.C., +into popular Latin and literary Latin. These two forms of speech develop +along independent lines until, in the sixth century, literary Latin is +merged in popular Latin and disappears. The unity for the Latin tongue +thus secured was short lived, because within a century the differentiation +begins which gives rise to the present-day Romance languages.</p> + +<p>It may interest some of the readers of this chapter to look over a few +specimens of vulgar Latin from the various periods of its history.</p> + +<p>(<i>a</i>) The first one is an extract from the Laws of the Twelve Tables. The +original document goes back to the middle of the fifth century B.C., and +shows us some of the characteristics of preliterary Latin. The +non-periodic form, the omission of pronouns, and <a id="p75"></a>the change of subject +without warning are especially noticeable.</p> + +<p>"Si in ius vocat, ito. Ni it, antestamino, igitur em (=eum) capito. Si +calvitur pedemve struit, manum endo iacito (=inicito). Si morbus aevitasve +(=aetasve) vitium escit, iumentum dato: si nolet, arceram ne sternito."</p> + +<div class="image" id="illus02"> +<p><a href="images/illus02.png">Illustration</a>:</p> +<ul style="list-style-type: none"> +<li>1 Preliterary Latin</li> +<li>2 Vulgar</li> +<li>3 Literary Latin</li> +<li>4-8 The Romance Languages</li> +</ul> +</div> + +<p>(<i>b</i>) This passage from one of Cicero's letters to his brother (<i>ad Q. +fr.</i> 2, 3, 2) may illustrate the familiar conversational style of a +gentleman in the first century B.C. It describes an harangue made by the +politician Clodius to his partisans.</p> + +<p>"Ille furens et exsanguis interrogabat suos in clamore ipso quis esset qui +plebem fame necaret. Respondebant operae: 'Pompeius.' Quem ire vellent. +Respondebant: 'Crassum.' Is aderat tum Miloni animo non amico. Hora fere +nona quasi signo dato Clodiani nostros consputare coeperunt. Exarsit +dolor. Vrgere illi ut loco nos moverent."</p> + +<p><a id="p76"></a>(<i>c</i>) In the following passage, Petronius, 57, one of the freedmen at +Trimalchio's dinner flames out in anger at a fellow-guest whose bearing +seems to him supercilious. It shows a great many of the characteristics of +vulgar Latin which have been mentioned in this paper. The similarity of +its style to that of the preliterary specimen is worth observing. The +great number of proverbs and bits of popular wisdom are also noticeable.</p> + +<p>"Et nunc spero me sic vivere, ut nemini iocus sim. Homo inter homines sum, +capite aperto ambulo; assem aerarium nemini debeo; constitutum habui +nunquam; nemo mihi in foro dixit 'redde, quod debes.' Glebulas emi, +lamelullas paravi; viginti ventres pasco et canem; contubernalem meam +redemi, ne quis in sinu illius manus tergeret; mille denarios pro capite +solvi; sevir gratis factus sum; spero, sic moriar, ut mortuus non +erubescam."</p> + +<p>(<i>d</i>) This short inscription from Pompeii shows some of the peculiarities +of popular pronunciation. In ortu we see the same difficulty in knowing +when to sound the aspirate which the cockney Englishman has. The silence +of the final -m, and the reduction of ae to e are also interesting. Presta +mi <a id="p77"></a>sinceru (=sincerum): si te amet que (=quae) custodit ortu (=hortum) +Venus.</p> + +<p>(<i>e</i>) Here follow some of the vulgar forms against which a grammarian, +probably of the fourth century, warns his readers. We notice that the +popular "mistakes" to which he calls attention are in (1) syncopation and +assimilation, in (2) the use of the diminutive for the primitive, and +pronouncing au as o, in (3) the same reduction of ct to t (or tt) which we +find in such Romance forms as Ottobre, in (4) the aspirate falsely added, +in (5) syncopation and the confusion of v and b, and in (6) the silence of +final -m.</p> + +<ol> + <li>frigida non fricda</li> + <li>auris non oricla</li> + <li>auctoritas non autoritas</li> + <li>ostiae non hostiae</li> + <li>vapulo non baplo</li> + <li>passim non passi</li> +</ol> + +<p>(<i>f</i>) The following passages are taken from Brunot's "Histoire de la +langue Fraçaise," p. 144. In the third column the opening sentence of the +famous Oath of Strasburg of 842 A.D. is given. In the other columns the +form which it would have taken at different periods is set down. These +passages bring out clearly the unbroken line of descent from Latin to +modern French.</p> + +<blockquote class="poem"> +<h4><a id="p78"></a>The Oath of Strasburg of 842</h4> + +<div class="stanza"> +<h5>Classic Latin</h5> +<div class="line">Per Dei amorem et</div> +<div class="line">per christiani</div> +<div class="line">populi et nostram</div> +<div class="line">communem</div> +<div class="line">salutem,</div> +<div class="line">ab hac die, quantum</div> +<div class="line">Deus scire</div> +<div class="line">et posse mini</div> +<div class="line">dat, servabo</div> +<div class="line">hunc meum fratrem</div> +<div class="line">Carolum</div> +</div><div class='stanza'> + +<h5>Spoken Latin, Seventh Cent.</h5> +<div class="line">For deo amore et</div> +<div class="line">por chrestyano</div> +<div class="line">pob(o)lo et nostro</div> +<div class="line">comune salvamento</div> +<div class="line">de esto</div> +<div class="line">die en avante</div> +<div class="line">en quanto Deos</div> +<div class="line">sabere et podere</div> +<div class="line">me donat, sic</div> +<div class="line">salvarayo eo</div> +<div class="line">eccesto meon</div> +<div class="line">fradre Karlo</div> +</div><div class='stanza'> + +<h5>Actual Text</h5> +<div class="line">Pro deo amur et</div> +<div class="line">pro christian</div> +<div class="line">poblo et nostro</div> +<div class="line">commun salvament,</div> +<div class="line">d'ist di</div> +<div class="line">en avant, in</div> +<div class="line">quant Deus</div> +<div class="line">savir et podir</div> +<div class="line">me dunat, si</div> +<div class="line">salvarai eo cist</div> +<div class="line">meon fradre</div> +<div class="line">Karlo</div> +</div><div class='stanza'> + +<h5>French, Eleventh Cent.</h5> +<div class="line">Por dieu amor et</div> +<div class="line">por del crestüen</div> +<div class="line">poeple et nostre</div> +<div class="line">comun salvement,</div> +<div class="line">de cest</div> +<div class="line">jorn en avant,</div> +<div class="line">quant que Dieus</div> +<div class="line">saveir et podeir</div> +<div class="line">me donet, si</div> +<div class="line">salverai jo cest</div> +<div class="line">mien fredre</div> +<div class="line">Charlon</div> +</div><div class='stanza'> + +<h5>French, Fifteenth Cent.</h5> +<div class="line">Pour l'amour</div> +<div class="line">Dieu et pour le</div> +<div class="line">sauvement du</div> +<div class="line">chrestien peuple</div> +<div class="line">et le nostre commun,</div> +<div class="line">de cest</div> +<div class="line">jour en avant,</div> +<div class="line">quant que Dieu</div> +<div class="line">savoir et pouvoir</div> +<div class="line">me done,</div> +<div class="line">si sauverai je</div> +<div class="line">cest mien frere</div> +<div class="line">Charle</div> +</div><div class='stanza'> + +<h5>Modern French</h5> +<div class="line">Pour l'amour de</div> +<div class="line">Dieu et pour le</div> +<div class="line">salut commun</div> +<div class="line">du peuple chrétien</div> +<div class="line">et le nôtre,</div> +<div class="line">à partir de ce</div> +<div class="line">jour, autant</div> +<div class="line">que Dieu m'en</div> +<div class="line">donne le savoir</div> +<div class="line">et le pouvoir,</div> +<div class="line">je soutiendrai</div> +<div class="line">mon frère Charles</div> +</div></blockquote> +</div> + + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch03"> +<h2><a id="p79"></a>The Poetry of the Common People of Rome</h2> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch03-1"> +<h3>I. Their Metrical Epitaphs</h3> + + +<p>The old village churchyard on a summer afternoon is a favorite spot with +many of us. The absence of movement, contrasted with the life just outside +its walls, the drowsy humming of the bees in the flowers which grow at +will, the restful gray of the stones and the green of the moss give one a +feeling of peace and quiet, while the ancient dates and quaint lettering +in the inscriptions carry us far from the hurry and bustle and trivial +interests of present-day life. No sense of sadness touches us. The stories +which the stones tell are so far removed from us in point of time that +even those who grieved at the loss of the departed have long since +followed their friends, and when we read the bits of life history on the +crumbling monuments, we feel only that pleasurable emotion which, as +Cicero says in one of his letters, comes from our reading in <a id="p80"></a>history of +the little tragedies of men of the past. But the epitaph deals with the +common people, whom history is apt to forget, and gives us a glimpse of +their character, their doings, their beliefs, and their views of life and +death. They furnish us a simple and direct record of the life and the +aspirations of the average man, the record of a life not interpreted for +us by the biographer, historian, or novelist, but set down in all its +simplicity by one of the common people themselves.</p> + +<p>These facts lend to the ancient Roman epitaphs their peculiar interest and +charm. They give us a glimpse into the every-day life of the people which +a Cicero, or a Virgil, or even a Horace cannot offer us. They must have +exerted an influence, too, on Roman character, which we with our changed +conditions can scarcely appreciate. We shall understand this fact if we +call to mind the differences between the ancient practices in the matter +of burial and our own. The village churchyard is with us a thing of the +past. Whether on sanitary grounds, or for the sake of quiet and seclusion, +in the interest of economy, or not to obtrude the thought of death upon +us, the modern <a id="p81"></a>cemetery is put outside of our towns, and the memorials in +it are rarely read by any of us. Our fathers did otherwise. The churchyard +of old England and of New England was in the middle of the village, and +"short cuts" from one part of the village to another led through its +enclosure. Perhaps it was this fact which tempted our ancestors to set +forth their life histories more fully than we do, who know that few, if +any, will come to read them. Or is the world getting more reserved and +sophisticated? Are we coming to put a greater restraint upon the +expression of our emotions? Do we hesitate more than our fathers did to +talk about ourselves? The ancient Romans were like our fathers in their +willingness or desire to tell us of themselves. Perhaps the differences in +their burial practices, which were mentioned above, tempted them to be +communicative, and sometimes even garrulous. They put their tombstones in +a spot still more frequented than the churchyard. They placed them by the +side of the highways, just outside the city walls, where people were +coming or going constantly. Along the Street of Tombs, as one goes out of +Pompeii, or along the great Appian Way, <a id="p82"></a>which runs from Rome to Capua, +Southern Italy and Brundisium, the port of departure for Greece and the +Orient, they stand on both sides of the roadway and make their mute +appeals for our attention. We know their like in the enclosure about old +Trinity in New York, in the burial ground in New Haven, or in the +churchyards across the water. They tell us not merely the date of birth +and death of the deceased, but they let us know enough of his life to +invest it with a certain individuality, and to give it a flavor of its +own.</p> + +<p>Some 40,000 of them have come down to us, and nearly 2,000 of the +inscriptions upon them are metrical. This particular group is of special +interest to us, because the use of verse seems to tempt the engraver to go +beyond a bare statement of facts and to philosophize a bit about the +present and the future. Those who lie beneath the stones still claim some +recognition from the living, for they often call upon the passer-by to +halt and read their epitaphs, and as the Roman walked along the Appian Way +two thousand years ago, or as we stroll along the same highway to-day, it +is in silent converse with the dead. Sometimes the stone itself addresses +us, as does that of Olus Gra<a id="p83"></a>nius:<sup><a href="#fn22">22</a></sup> "This mute stone begs thee to stop, +stranger, until it has disclosed its mission and told thee whose shade it +covers. Here lie the bones of a man, modest, honest, and trusty—the +crier, Olus Granius. That is all. It wanted thee not to be unaware of +this. Fare thee well." This craving for the attention of the passer-by +leads the composer of one epitaph to use somewhat the same device which +our advertisers employ in the street-cars when they say: "Do not look at +this spot," for he writes: "Turn not your eyes this way and wish not to +learn our fate," but two lines later, relenting, he adds: "Now stop, +traveller...within this narrow resting-place,"<sup><a href="#fn23">23</a></sup> and then we get the +whole story. Sometimes a dramatic, lifelike touch is given by putting the +inscription into the form of a dialogue between the dead and those who are +left behind. Upon a stone found near Rome runs the inscription:<sup><a href="#fn24">24</a></sup> +"Hail, name dear to us, Stephanus,...thy Moschis and thy Diodorus salute +thee." To which the dead man replies: "Hail chaste wife, hail <a id="p84"></a>Diodorus, +my friend, my brother." The dead man often begs for a pleasant word from +the passer-by. The Romans, for instance, who left Ostia by the highway, +read upon a stone the sentiment:<sup><a href="#fn25">25</a></sup> "May it go well with you who lie +within and, as for you who go your way and read these lines, 'the earth +rest lightly on thee' say." This pious salutation loses some of the flavor +of spontaneity in our eyes when we find that it had become so much of a +convention as to be indicated by the initial letters of the several words: +S(it) t(ibi) t(erra) l(evis). The traveller and the departed exchange good +wishes on a stone found near Velitræ:<sup><a href="#fn26">26</a></sup></p> + +<blockquote class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<div class="line">"May it go well with you who read and you who pass this way,</div> +<div class="line">The like to mine and me who on this spot my tomb have built."</div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>One class of passers-by was dreaded by the dweller beneath the stone—the +man with a paint-brush who was looking for a conspicuous spot on which to +paint the name of his favorite political candidate. To such an one the +hope is expressed "that his ambition may be real<a id="p85"></a>ized, provided he +instructs his slave not to paint this stone."<sup><a href="#fn27">27</a></sup></p> + +<p>These wayside epitaphs must have left an impress on the mind and character +of the Roman which we can scarcely appreciate. The peasant read them as he +trudged homeward on market days, the gentleman, as he drove to his villa +on the countryside, and the traveller who came from the South, the East, +or the North. In them the history of his country was set forth in the +achievements of her great men, her prætors and consuls, her generals who +had conquered and her governors who had ruled Gaul, Spain, Africa, and +Asia. In them the public services, and the deeds of charity of the rich +and powerful were recorded and the homely virtues and self-sacrifices of +the humbler man and woman found expression there. Check by jowl with the +tomb of some great leader upon whom the people or the emperor had showered +all the titles and honors in their power might stand the stone of the poor +physician, Dionysius,<sup><a href="#fn28">28</a></sup> of whom it is said "to all the sick who came to +him he gave his services free of charge; he set forth in his deeds what he +taught in his precepts."</p> + +<p><a id="p86"></a>But perhaps more of the inscriptions in verse, and with them we are here +concerned, are in praise of women than of men. They make clear to us the +place which women held in Roman life, the state of society, and the +feminine qualities which were held in most esteem. The world which they +portray is quite another from that of Ovid and Juvenal. The common people +still hold to the old standards of morality and duty. The degeneracy of +smart society has made little progress here. The marriage tie is held +sacred; the wife and husband, the parent and child are held close to each +other in bonds of affection. The virtues of women are those which +Martinianus records on the stone of his wife Sofroniola:<sup><a href="#fn29">29</a></sup></p> + +<p>"Purity, loyalty, affection, a sense of duty, a yielding nature, and +whatever qualities God has implanted in women."</p> + + +<blockquote><p>(Castitas fides earitas pietas obsequium Et quaecumque deus faemenis + inesse praecepit.)</p></blockquote> + +<p>Upon a stone near Turin,<sup><a href="#fn30">30</a></sup> Valerius wrote in memory of his wife the +simple line:</p> + +<p>"Pure in heart, modest, of seemly bearing, <a id="p87"></a>discreet, noble-minded, and +held in high esteem."</p> + + +<blockquote><p>(Casta pudica decens sapiens Generosa probata.)</p></blockquote> + +<p>Only one discordant note is struck in this chorus of praise. This fierce +invective stands upon an altar at Rome:<sup><a href="#fn31">31</a></sup> "Here for all time has been +set down in writing the shameful record of the freedwoman Acte, of +poisoned mind, and treacherous, cunning, and hard-hearted. Oh! for a nail, +and a hempen rope to choke her, and flaming pitch to burn up her wicked +heart."</p> + +<p>A double tribute is paid to a certain Statilia in this naïve +inscription:<sup><a href="#fn32">32</a></sup> "Thou who wert beautiful beyond measure and true to thy +husbands, didst twice enter the bonds of wedlock...and he who came first, +had he been able to withstand the fates, would have set up this stone to +thee, while I, alas! who have been blessed by thy pure heart and love for +thee for sixteen years, lo! now I have lost thee." Still greater sticklers +for the truth at the expense of convention are two fond husbands who +borrowed a pretty couplet composed in memory of some woman "of tender +age," and <a id="p88"></a>then substituted upon the monuments of their wives the more +truthful phrase "of middle age,"<sup><a href="#fn33">33</a></sup> and another man warns women, from the +fate of his wife, to shun the excessive use of jewels.<sup><a href="#fn34">34</a></sup></p> + +<p>It was only natural that when men came to the end of life they should ask +themselves its meaning, should speculate upon the state after death, and +should turn their thoughts to the powers which controlled their destiny. +We have been accustomed to form our conceptions of the religion of the +Romans from what their philosophers and moralists and poets have written +about it. But a great chasm lies between the teachings of these men and +the beliefs of the common people. Only from a study of the epitaphs do we +know what the average Roman thought and felt on this subject. A few years +ago Professor Harkness, in an admirable article on "The Scepticism and +Fatalism of the Common People of Rome," showed that "the common people +placed no faith in the gods who occupy so prominent a place in Roman +literature, and that their nearest approach to belief in a divinity was +their recognition of fate," which "seldom appears <a id="p89"></a>as a fixed law of +nature...but rather as a blind necessity, depending on chance and not on +law." The gods are mentioned by name in the poetic epitaphs only, and for +poetic purposes, and even here only one in fifty of the metrical +inscriptions contains a direct reference to any supernatural power. For +none of these deities, save for Mother Earth, does the writer of an +epitaph show any affection. This feeling one may see in the couplet which +reads:<sup><a href="#fn35">35</a></sup> "Mother Earth, to thee have we committed the bones of +Fortunata, to thee who dost come near to thy children as a mother," and +Professor Harkness thoughtfully remarks in this connection that "the love +of nature and appreciation of its beauties, which form a distinguishing +characteristic of Roman literature in contrast to all the other +literatures of antiquity, are the outgrowth of this feeling of kinship +which the Italians entertained for mother earth."</p> + +<p>It is a little surprising, to us on first thought, that the Roman did not +interpose some concrete personalities between himself and this vague +conception of fate, some personal agencies, at least, to carry out the +de<a id="p90"></a>crees of destiny. But it will not seem so strange after all when we +recall the fact that the deities of the early Italians were without form +or substance. The anthropomorphic teachings of Greek literature, art, and +religion found an echo in the Jupiter and Juno, the Hercules and Pan of +Virgil and Horace, but made no impress on the faith of the common people, +who, with that regard for tradition which characterized the Romans, +followed the fathers in their way of thinking.</p> + +<p>A disbelief in personal gods hardly accords with faith in a life after +death, but most of the Romans believed in an existence of some sort in the +world beyond. A Dutch scholar has lately established this fact beyond +reasonable doubt, by a careful study of the epitaphs in verse.<sup><a href="#fn36">36</a></sup> One +tombstone reads:<sup><a href="#fn37">37</a></sup></p> + + +<blockquote><p>"Into nothing from nothing how quickly we go,"</p></blockquote> + +<p>and another:<sup><a href="#fn38">38</a></sup></p> + + +<blockquote><p>"Once we were not, now we are as we were,"</p></blockquote> + +<p>and the sentiment, "I was not, I was, I am not, I care not" (non fui, fui, +non sum, non <a id="p91"></a>euro) was so freely used that it is indicated now and then +merely by the initial letters N.f.f.n.s.n.c., but compared with the great +number of inscriptions in which belief in a life after death finds +expression such utterances are few. But how and where that life was to be +passed the Romans were in doubt. We have noticed above how little the +common people accepted the belief of the poets in Jupiter and Pluto and +the other gods, or rather how little their theology had been influenced by +Greek art and literature. In their conception of the place of abode after +death, it is otherwise. Many of them believe with Virgil that it lies +below the earth. As one of them says in his epitaph:<sup><a href="#fn39">39</a></sup></p> + +<blockquote class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<div class='line'>"No sorrow to the world below I bring."</div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>Or with other poets the departed are thought of as dwelling in the Elysian +fields or the Isles of the Blessed. As one stone cries out to the +passer-by:<sup><a href="#fn40">40</a></sup> "May you live who shall have said. 'She lives in Elysium,'" +and of a little girl it is said:<sup><a href="#fn41">41</a></sup> "May thy shade flower in fields +Elysian." Sometimes the soul goes to the sky or the stars: "Here lies the +body of the <a id="p92"></a>bard Laberius, for his spirit has gone to the place from +which it came;"<sup><a href="#fn42">42</a></sup> "The tomb holds my limbs, my soul shall pass to the +stars of heaven."<sup><a href="#fn43">43</a></sup> But more frequently the departed dwell in the tomb. +As one of them expresses it: "This is my eternal home; here have I been +placed; here shall I be for aye." This belief that the shade hovers about +the tomb accounts for the salutations addressed to it which we have +noticed above, and for the food and flowers which are brought to satisfy +its appetites and tastes. These tributes to the dead do not seem to accord +with the current Roman belief that the body was dissolved to dust, and +that the soul was clothed with some incorporeal form, but the Romans were +no more consistent in their eschatology than many of us are.</p> + +<p>Perhaps it was this vague conception of the state after death which +deprived the Roman of that exultant joy in anticipation of the world +beyond which the devout Christian, a hundred years or more ago, expressed +in his epitaphs, with the Golden City so clearly pictured to his eye, and +by way of compensation the Roman was saved from the dread of death, <a id="p93"></a>for +no judgment-seat confronted him in the other world. The end of life was +awaited with reasonable composure. Sometimes death was welcomed because it +brought rest. As a citizen of Lambsesis expresses it:<sup><a href="#fn44">44</a></sup> "Here is my home +forever; here is a rest from toil;" and upon a woman's stone we read:<sup><a href="#fn45">45</a></sup></p> + +<blockquote class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<div class="line">"Whither hast thou gone, dear soul, seeking rest from troubles,</div> +<div class="line">For what else than trouble hast thou had throughout thy life?"</div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>But this pessimistic view of life rarely appears on the monuments. Not +infrequently the departed expresses a certain satisfaction with his life's +record, as does a citizen of Beneventum, who remarks:<sup><a href="#fn46">46</a></sup> "No man have I +wronged, to many have I rendered services," or he tells us of the pleasure +which he has found in the good things of life, and advises us to enjoy +them. A Spanish epitaph reads:<sup><a href="#fn47">47</a></sup> "Eat, drink, enjoy thyself, follow me" +(es bibe lude veni). In a lighter or more garrulous vein another says:<sup><a href="#fn48">48</a></sup> +"Come, friends, let us enjoy the happy time of life; let us dine merrily, +<a id="p94"></a>while short life lasts, mellow with wine, in jocund intercourse. All +these about us did the same while they were living. They gave, received, +and enjoyed good things while they lived. And let us imitate the practices +of the fathers. Live while you live, and begrudge nothing to the dear soul +which Heaven has given you." This philosophy of life is expressed very +succinctly in: "What I have eaten and drunk I have with me; what I have +foregone I have lost,"<sup><a href="#fn49">49</a></sup> and still more concretely in:</p> + +<blockquote class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<div class="line">"Wine and amours and baths weaken our bodily health,</div> +<div class="line">Yet life is made up of wine and amours and baths."<sup><a href="#fn50">50</a></sup></div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>Under the statue of a man reclining and holding a cup in his hand, Flavius +Agricola writes:<sup><a href="#fn51">51</a></sup> "Tibur was my native place; I was called Agricola, +Flavius too.... I who lie here as you see me. And in the world above in +the years which the fates granted, I cherished my dear soul, nor did the +god of wine e'er fail me.... Ye friends who read this, I bid you mix your +wine, and before death comes, crown your temples with flowers, and +drink.... All the rest the earth and fire consume <a id="p95"></a>after death." Probably +we should be wrong in tracing to the teachings of Epicurus, even in their +vulgarized popular form, the theory that the value of life is to be +estimated by the material pleasure it has to offer. A man's theory of life +is largely a matter of temperament or constitution. He may find support +for it in the teachings of philosophy, but he is apt to choose a +philosophy which suits his way of thinking rather than to let his views of +life be determined by abstract philosophic teachings. The men whose +epitaphs we have just read would probably have been hedonists if Epicurus +had never lived. It is interesting to note in passing that holding this +conception of life naturally presupposes the acceptance of one of the +notions of death which we considered above—that it ends all.</p> + +<p>In another connection, a year or two ago, I had occasion to speak of the +literary merit of some of these metrical epitaphs,<sup><a href="#fn52">52</a></sup> of their interest +for us as specimens of the literary compositions of the common people, and +of their value in indicating the æsthetic taste of the average Roman. It +may not be without interest here to speak of the literary form of <a id="p96"></a>some of +them a little more at length than was possible in that connection. Latin +has always been, and continues to be among modern peoples, a favored +language for epitaphs and dedications. The reasons why it holds its +favored position are not far to seek. It is vigorous and concise. Then +again in English and in most modern languages the order which words may +take in a given sentence is in most cases inexorably fixed by grammatical +necessity. It was not so with Latin. Its highly inflected character made +it possible, as we know, to arrange the words which convey an idea in +various orders, and these different groupings of the same words gave +different shades of meaning to the sentence, and different emotional +effects are secured by changing the sequence in which the minor +conceptions are presented. By putting contrasted words side by side, or at +corresponding points in the sentence, the impression is heightened. When a +composition takes the form of verse the possibilities in the way of +contrast are largely increased. The high degree of perfection to which +Horace brought the balancing and interlocking of ideas in some of his +Odes, illustrates the great advantage which the Latin <a id="p97"></a>poet had over the +English writer because of the flexibility of the medium of expression +which he used. This advantage was the Roman's birthright, and lends a +certain distinction even to the verses of the people, which we are +discussing here. Certain other stylistic qualities of these metrical +epitaphs, which are intended to produce somewhat the same effects, will +not seem to us so admirable. I mean alliteration, play upon words, the +acrostic arrangement, and epigrammatic effects. These literary tricks find +little place in our serious verse, and the finer Latin poets rarely +indulge in them. They seem to be especially out of place in an epitaph, +which should avoid studied effects and meretricious devices. But writers +in the early stages of a literature and common people of all periods find +a pleasure in them. Alliteration, onomatopœia, the pun, and the play on +words are to be found in all the early Latin poets, and they are +especially frequent with literary men like Plautus and Terence, Pacuvius +and Accius, who wrote for the stage, and therefore for the common people. +One or two illustrations of the use of these literary devices may be +sufficient. A little girl at Rome, who died when five years old, <a id="p98"></a>bore the +strange name of Mater, or Mother, and on her tombstone stands the +sentiment:<sup><a href="#fn53">53</a></sup> "Mater I was by name, mater I shall not be by law." +"Sepulcrum hau pulcrum pulcrai feminae" of the famous Claudia +inscription,<sup><a href="#fn54">54</a></sup> Professor Lane cleverly rendered "Site not sightly of a +sightly dame." Quite beyond my power of translating into English, so as to +reproduce its complicated play on words, is the appropriate epitaph of the +rhetorician, Romanius lovinus:<sup><a href="#fn55">55</a></sup></p> + + +<blockquote><p>"Docta loqui doctus quique loqui docuit."</p></blockquote> + +<p>A great variety of verses is used in the epitaphs, but the dactylic +hexameter and the elegiac are the favorites. The stately character of the +hexameter makes it a suitable medium in which to express a serious +sentiment, while the sudden break in the second verse of the elegiac +couplet suggests the emotion of the writer. The verses are constructed +with considerable regard for technique. Now and then there is a false +quantity, an unpleasant sequence, or a heavy effect, but such blemishes +are comparatively infrequent. There is much that is trivial, commonplace, +<a id="p99"></a>and prosaic in these productions of the common people, but now and then +one comes upon a phrase, a verse, or a whole poem which shows strength or +grace or pathos. An orator of the late period, not without vigor, writes +upon his tombstone:<sup><a href="#fn56">56</a></sup> "I have lived blessed by the gods, by friends, by +letters."</p> + +<blockquote class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<div class="line">(Vixi beatus dis, amicis, literis.)</div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>A rather pretty, though not unusual, sentiment occurs in an elegiac +couplet to a young girl,<sup><a href="#fn57">57</a></sup> in which the word amoena is the adjective, +meaning "pleasant to see," in the first, while in the second verse it is +the girl's name: "As a rose is amoena when it blooms in the early spring +time, so was I Amoena to those who saw me."</p> + +<blockquote class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<div class="line">(Ut rosa amoena homini est quom primo tempore floret.</div> +<div class="line">Quei me viderunt, seic Amoena fui.)</div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>There is a touch of pathos in the inscription which a mother put on the +stone of her son:<sup><a href="#fn58">58</a></sup> "A sorrowing mother has set up this monument to a +son who has never caused her any sorrow, except that he is no more," and +in this tribute <a id="p100"></a>of a husband:<sup><a href="#fn59">59</a></sup> "Out of my slender means now that the +end has come, my wife, all that I could do, this gift, a small small one +for thy deserts, have I made." The epitaph of a little girl, named +Felicia, or Kitty, has this sentiment in graceful verse:<sup><a href="#fn60">60</a></sup> "Rest lightly +upon thee the earth, and over thy grave the fragrant balsam grow, and +roses sweet entwine thy buried bones." Upon the stone of a little girl who +bore the name of Xanthippe, and the nickname Iaia, is an inscription with +one of two pretty conceits and phrases. With it we may properly bring to +an end our brief survey of these verses of the common people of Rome. In a +somewhat free rendering it reads in part:<sup><a href="#fn61">61</a></sup> "Whether the thought of +death distress thee or of life, read to the end. Xanthippe by name, yclept +also Iaia by way of jest, escapes from sorrow since her soul from the body +flies. She rests here in the soft cradle of the earth,... comely, +charming, keen of mind, gay in discourse. If there be aught of compassion +in the gods above, bear her to the sun and light."</p> +</div> + + +<div class="sec" id="ch03-2"> +<h3><a id="p101"></a>II. Their Dedicatory and Ephemeral Verses</h3> + + +<p>In the last paper we took up for consideration some of the Roman metrical +epitaphs. These compositions, however, do not include all the productions +in verse of the common people of Rome. On temples, altars, bridges, +statues, and house walls, now and then, we find bits of verse. Most of the +extant dedicatory lines are in honor of Hercules, Silvanus, Priapus, and +the Cæsars. Whether the two famous inscriptions to Hercules by the sons of +Vertuleius and by Mummius belong here or not it is hard to say. At all +events, they were probably composed by amateurs, and have a peculiar +interest for us because they belong to the second century B.C., and +therefore stand near the beginning of Latin letters; they show us the +language before it had been perfected and adapted to literary purposes by +an Ennius, a Virgil, and a Horace, and they are written in the old native +Saturnian verse, into which Livius Andronicus, "the Father of Latin +literature," translated the Odyssey. Consequently they show us the +language before it had gained in polish and <a id="p102"></a>lost in vigor under the +influence of the Greeks. The second of these two little poems is a +finger-post, in fact, at the parting of the ways for Roman civilization. +It was upon a tablet let into the wall of the temple of Hercules, and +commemorates the triumphant return to Rome of Mummius, the conqueror of +Corinth. It points back to the good old days of Roman contempt for Greek +art, and ignorance of it, for Mummius, in his stupid indifference to the +beautiful monuments of Corinth, made himself the typical Philistine for +all time. It points forward to the new Greco-Roman civilization of Italy, +because the works of art which Mummius is said to have brought back with +him, and the Greeks who probably followed in his train, augmented that +stream of Greek influence which in the next century or two swept through +the peninsula.</p> + +<p>In the same primitive metre as these dedications is the Song of the Arval +Brothers, which was found engraved on a stone in the grove of the goddess +Dea Dia, a few miles outside of Rome. This hymn the priests sang at the +May festival of the goddess, when the farmers brought them the first +fruits of the earth. It has no intrinsic literary merit, but it carries us +<a id="p103"></a>back beyond the great wars with Carthage for supremacy in the western +Mediterranean, beyond the contest with Pyrrhus for overlordship in +Southern Italy, beyond the struggle for life with the Samnites in Central +Italy, beyond even the founding of the city on the Tiber, to a people who +lived by tilling the soil and tending their flocks and herds.</p> + +<p>But we have turned away from the dedicatory verses. On the bridges which +span our streams we sometimes record the names of the commissioners or the +engineers, or the bridge builders responsible for the structure. Perhaps +we are wise in thinking these prosaic inscriptions suitable for our ugly +iron bridges. Their more picturesque stone structures tempted the Romans +now and then to drop into verse, and to go beyond a bare statement of the +facts of construction. Over the Anio in Italy, on a bridge which Narses, +the great general of Justinian, restored, the Roman, as he passed, read in +graceful verse:<sup><a href="#fn62">62</a></sup> "We go on our way with the swift-moving waters of the +torrent beneath our feet, and we delight on hearing the roar of the angry +water. Go then joyfully at your ease, Quirites, and let the <a id="p104"></a>echoing +murmur of the stream sing ever of Narses. He who could subdue the +unyielding spirit of the Goths has taught the rivers to bear a stern +yoke."</p> + +<p>It is an interesting thing to find that the prettiest of the dedicatory +poems are in honor of the forest-god Silvanus. One of these poems, Titus +Pomponius Victor, the agent of the Cæsars, left inscribed upon a +tablet<sup><a href="#fn63">63</a></sup> high up in the Grecian Alps. It reads: "Silvanus, half-enclosed +in the sacred ash-tree, guardian mighty art thou of this pleasaunce in the +heights. To thee we consecrate in verse these thanks, because across the +fields and Alpine tops, and through thy guests in sweetly smelling groves, +while justice I dispense and the concerns of Cæsar serve, with thy +protecting care thou guidest us. Bring me and mine to Rome once more, and +grant that we may till Italian fields with thee as guardian. In guerdon +therefor will I give a thousand mighty trees." It is a pretty picture. +This deputy of Cæsar has finished his long and perilous journeys through +the wilds of the North in the performance of his duties. His face is now +turned toward Italy, and his <a id="p105"></a>thoughts are fixed on Rome. In this "little +garden spot," as he calls it, in the mountains he pours out his gratitude +to the forest-god, who has carried him safely through dangers and brought +him thus far on his homeward way, and he vows a thousand trees to his +protector. It is too bad that we do not know how the vow was to be +paid—not by cutting down the trees, we feel sure. One line of Victor's +little poem is worth quoting in the original. He thanks Silvanus for +conducting him in safety "through the mountain heights, and through Tuique +luci suave olentis hospites." Who are the <i>hospites</i>? The wild beasts of +the forests, we suppose. Now <i>hospites</i> may, of course, mean either +"guests" or "hosts," and it is a pretty conceit of Victor's to think of +the wolves and bears as the guests of the forest-god, as we have ventured +to render the phrase in the translation given above. Or, are they Victor's +hosts, whose characters have been so changed by Silvanus that Victor has +had friendly help rather than fierce attacks from them?</p> + +<p>A very modern practice is revealed by a stone found near the famous temple +of Æsculapius, the god of healing, at Epidaurus in Argolis, <a id="p106"></a>upon which +two ears are shown in relief, and below them the Latin couplet:<sup><a href="#fn64">64</a></sup> "Long +ago Cutius Gallus had vowed these ears to thee, scion of Phœbus, and now +he has put them here, for thou hast healed his ears." It is an ancient +ex-voto, and calls to mind on the one hand the cult of Æsculapius, which +Walter Pater has so charmingly portrayed in Marius the Epicurean, and on +the other hand it shows us that the practice of setting up ex-votos, of +which one sees so many at shrines and in churches across the water to-day, +has been borrowed from the pagans. A pretty bit of sentiment is suggested +by an inscription<sup><a href="#fn65">65</a></sup> found near the ancient village of Ucetia in Southern +France: "This shrine to the Nymphs have I built, because many times and +oft have I used this spring when an old man as well as a youth."</p> + +<p>All of the verses which we have been considering up to this point have +come down to us more or less carefully engraved upon stone, in honor of +some god, to record some achievement of importance, or in memory of a +departed friend. But besides these formal records of the past, we find a +great many hastily <a id="p107"></a>scratched or painted sentiments or notices, which have +a peculiar interest for us because they are the careless effusions or +unstudied productions of the moment, and give us the atmosphere of +antiquity as nothing else can do. The stuccoed walls of the houses, and +the sharp-pointed stylus which was used in writing on wax tablets offered +too strong a temptation for the lounger or passer-by to resist. To people +of this class, and to merchants advertising their wares, we owe the three +thousand or more graffiti found at Pompeii. The ephemeral inscriptions +which were intended for practical purposes, such as the election notices, +the announcements of gladiatorial contests, of houses to rent, of articles +lost and for sale, are in prose, but the lovelorn lounger inscribed his +sentiments frequently in verse, and these verses deserve a passing notice +here. One man of this class in his erotic ecstasy writes on the wall of a +Pompeian basilica:<sup><a href="#fn66">66</a></sup> "May I perish if I'd wish to be a god without +thee." That hope sprang eternal in the breast of the Pompeian lover is +illustrated by the last two lines of this tragic declaration:<sup><a href="#fn67">67</a></sup></p> + +<blockquote class='poem'><div class='stanza'><a id="p108"></a> +<div class="line">"If you can and won't,</div> +<div class="line">Give me hope no more.</div> +<div class="line">Hope you foster and you ever</div> +<div class="line">Bid me come again to-morrow.</div> +<div class="line">Force me then to die</div> +<div class="line">Whom you force to live</div> +<div class="line">A life apart from you.</div> +<div class="line">Death will be a boon,</div> +<div class="line">Not to be tormented.</div> +<div class="line">Yet what hope has snatched away</div> +<div class="line">To the lover hope gives back."</div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>This effusion has led another passer-by to write beneath it the Delphic +sentiment: "May the man who shall read this never read anything else." The +symptoms of the ailment in its most acute form are described by some Roman +lover in the verses which he has left us on the wall of Caligula's palace, +on the Palatine:<sup><a href="#fn68">68</a></sup></p> + +<blockquote class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<div class="line">"No courage in my heart,</div> +<div class="line">No sleep to close my eyes,</div> +<div class="line">A tide of surging love</div> +<div class="line">Throughout the day and night."</div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>This seems to come from one who looks upon the lover with a sympathetic +eye, but who is himself fancy free:</p> + +<blockquote class='poem'><div class='stanza'><a id="p109"></a> +<div class="line">"Whoever loves, good health to him,</div> +<div class="line">And perish he who knows not how,</div> +<div class="line">But doubly ruined may he be</div> +<div class="line">Who will not yield to love's appeal."<sup><a href="#fn69">69</a></sup></div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>The first verse of this little poem,</p> + +<blockquote class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<div class="line">"Quisquis amat valeat, pereat qui nescit amare,"</div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>represented by the first couplet of the English rendering, calls to mind +the swinging refrain which we find a century or two later in the +<i>Pervigilium Veneris</i>, that last lyrical outburst of the pagan world, +written for the eve of the spring festival of Venus:</p> + +<blockquote class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<div class="line">"Cras amet qui nunquam amavit quique amavit eras amet."</div> +</div><div class='stanza'> +<div class="line">(To-morrow he shall love who ne'er has loved</div> +<div class="line">And who has loved, to-morrow he shall love.)</div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>An interesting study might be made of the favorite types of feminine +beauty in the Roman poets. Horace sings of the "golden-haired" Pyrrhas, +and Phyllises, and Chloes, and seems to have had an admiration for +blondes, but a poet of the common people, who has recorded his opinion on +this subject in the atrium of a Pompeian house, shows a <a id="p110"></a>more catholic +taste, although his freedom of judgment is held in some constraint:</p> + +<blockquote class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<div class="line">"My fair girl has taught me to hate</div> +<div class="line">Brunettes with their tresses of black.</div> +<div class="line">I will hate if I can, but if not,</div> +<div class="line">'Gainst my will I must love them also."<sup><a href="#fn70">70</a></sup></div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>On the other hand, one Pompeian had such an inborn dread of brunettes +that, whenever he met one, he found it necessary to take an appropriate +antidote, or prophylactic:</p> + +<blockquote class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<div class='line'>"Whoever loves a maiden dark</div> +<div class='line'>By charcoal dark is he consumed.</div> +<div class='line'>When maiden dark I light upon</div> +<div class='line'>I eat the saving blackberry."<sup><a href="#fn71">71</a></sup></div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>These amateur poets do not rely entirely upon their own Muse, but borrow +from Ovid, Propertius, or Virgil, when they recall sentiments in those +writers which express their feelings. Sometimes it is a tag, or a line, or +a couplet which is taken, but the borrowings are woven into the context +with some skill. The poet above who is under compulsion from his blonde +sweetheart, has taken the second half of his production verbatim from +Ovid, <a id="p111"></a>and for the first half of it has modified a line of Propertius. +Other writers have set down their sentiments in verse on more prosaic +subjects. A traveller on his way to the capital has scribbled these lines +on the wall, perhaps of a wine-shop where he stopped for refreshment:<sup><a href="#fn72">72</a></sup></p> + +<blockquote class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<div class="line">"Hither have we come in safety.</div> +<div class="line">Now I hasten on my way,</div> +<div class="line">That once more it may be mine</div> +<div class="line">To behold our Lares, Rome."</div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>At one point in a Pompeian street, the eye of a straggler would catch this +notice in doggerel verse:<sup><a href="#fn73">73</a></sup></p> + +<blockquote class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<div class="line">"Here's no place for loafers.</div> +<div class="line">Lounger, move along!"</div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>On the wall of a wine-shop a barmaid has thus advertised her wares:<sup><a href="#fn74">74</a></sup></p> + +<blockquote class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<div class="line">"Here for a cent is a drink,</div> +<div class="line">Two cents brings something still better.</div> +<div class="line">Four cents in all, if you pay,</div> +<div class="line">Wine of Falernum is yours."</div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>It must have been a lineal descendant of one of the parasites of Plautus +who wrote:<sup><a href="#fn75">75</a></sup></p> + +<blockquote class='poem'><div class='stanza'><a id="p112"></a> +<div class="line">"A barbarian he is to me</div> +<div class="line">At whose house I'm not asked to dine."</div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>Here is a sentiment which sounds very modern:</p> + +<blockquote class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<div class="line">"The common opinion is this:</div> +<div class="line">That property should be divided."<sup><a href="#fn76">76</a></sup></div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>This touch of modernity reminds one of another group of verses which +brings antiquity into the closest possible touch with some present-day +practices. The Romans, like ourselves, were great travellers and +sightseers, and the marvels of Egypt in particular appealed to them, as +they do to us, with irresistible force. Above all, the great statue of +Memnon, which gave forth a strange sound when it was struck by the first +rays of the rising sun, drew travellers from far and near. Those of us who +know the Mammoth Cave, Niagara Falls, the Garden of the Gods, or some +other of our natural wonders, will recall how fond a certain class of +visitors are of immortalizing themselves by scratching their names or a +sentiment on the walls or the rocks which form these marvels. Such +inscriptions We find on the temple walls in Egypt—three <a id="p113"></a>of them appear +on the statue of Memnon, recording in verse the fact that the writers had +visited the statue and heard the voice of the god at sunrise. One of these +Egyptian travellers, a certain Roman lady journeying up the Nile, has +scratched these verses on a wall of the temple at Memphis:<sup><a href="#fn77">77</a></sup></p> + +<blockquote class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<div class="line">"The pyramids without thee have I seen,</div> +<div class="line">My brother sweet, and yet, as tribute sad,</div> +<div class="line">The bitter tears have poured adown my cheek,</div> +<div class="line">And sadly mindful of thy absence now</div> +<div class="line">I chisel here this melancholy note."</div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>Then follow the name and titles of the absent brother, who is better known +to posterity from these scribbled lines of a Cook's tourist than from any +official records which have come down to us. All of these pieces of +popular poetry which we have been discussing thus far were engraved on +stone, bronze, stucco, or on some other durable material. A very few bits +of this kind of verse, from one to a half dozen lines in length, have come +down to us in literature. They have the unique distinction, too, of being +specimens of Roman folk poetry, and some of them are found in the most +unlikely places. Two of them are <a id="p114"></a>preserved by a learned commentator on +the Epistles of Horace. They carry us back to our school-boy days. When we +read</p> + +<blockquote class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<div class="line">"The plague take him who's last to reach me,"<sup><a href="#fn78">78</a></sup></div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>we can see the Roman urchin standing in the market-place, chanting the +magic formula, and opposite him the row of youngsters on tiptoe, each one +waiting for the signal to run across the intervening space and be the +first to touch their comrade. What visions of early days come back to +us—days when we clasped hands in a circle and danced about one or two +children placed in the centre of the ring, and chanted in unison some +refrain, upon reading in the same commentator to Horace a ditty which +runs:<sup><a href="#fn79">79</a></sup></p> + +<blockquote class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<div class="line">"King shall you be</div> +<div class="line">If you do well.</div> +<div class="line">If you do ill</div> +<div class="line">You shall not be."</div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>The other bits of Roman folk poetry which we have are most of them +preserved by Suetonius, the gossipy biographer of the Cæsars. They recall +very different scenes. Cæsar has <a id="p115"></a>returned in triumph to Rome, bringing in +his train the trousered Gauls, to mingle on the street with the toga-clad +Romans. He has even had the audacity to enroll some of these strange +peoples in the Roman senate, that ancient body of dignity and convention, +and the people chant in the streets the ditty:<sup><a href="#fn80">80</a></sup></p> + +<blockquote class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<div class="line">"Cæsar leads the Gauls in triumph,</div> +<div class="line">In the senate too he puts them.</div> +<div class="line">Now they've donned the broad-striped toga</div> +<div class="line">And have laid aside their breeches."</div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>Such acts as these on Cæsar's part led some political versifier to write +on Cæsar's statue a couplet which contrasted his conduct with that of the +first great republican, Lucius Brutus:</p> + +<blockquote class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<div class="line">"Brutus drove the kings from Rome,</div> +<div class="line">And first consul thus became.</div> +<div class="line">This man drove the consuls out,</div> +<div class="line">And at last became the king."<sup><a href="#fn81">81</a></sup></div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p>We may fancy that these verses played no small part in spurring on Marcus +Brutus to emulate his ancestor and join the conspiracy <a id="p116"></a>against the +tyrant. With one more bit of folk poetry, quoted by Suetonius, we may +bring our sketch to an end. Germanicus Cæsar, the flower of the imperial +family, the brilliant general and idol of the people, is suddenly stricken +with a mortal illness. The crowds throng the streets to hear the latest +news from the sick-chamber of their hero. Suddenly the rumor flies through +the streets that the crisis is past, that Germanicus will live, and the +crowds surge through the public squares chanting:</p> + +<blockquote class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<div class="line">"Saved now is Rome,</div> +<div class="line">Saved too the land,</div> +<div class="line">Saved our Germanicus."<sup><a href="#fn82">82</a></sup></div> +</div></blockquote> +</div></div> + + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch04"> +<h2><a id="p117"></a>The Origin of the Realistic Romance among the Romans</h2> + + + +<p>One of the most fascinating and tantalizing problems of literary history +concerns the origin of prose fiction among the Romans. We can trace the +growth of the epic from its infancy in the third century before Christ as +it develops in strength in the poems of Nævius, Ennius, and Cicero until +it reaches its full stature in the <i>Æneid</i>, and then we can see the +decline of its vigor in the <i>Pharsalia</i>, the <i>Punica</i>, the <i>Thebais</i>, and +<i>Achilleis</i>, until it practically dies a natural death in the mythological +and historical poems of Claudian. The way also in which tragedy, comedy, +lyric poetry, history, biography, and the other types of literature in +prose and verse came into existence and developed among the Romans can be +followed with reasonable success. But the origin and early history of the +novel is involved in obscurity. The great realistic romance of Petro<a id="p118"></a>nius +of the first century of our era is without a legally recognized ancestor +and has no direct descendant. The situation is the more surprising when we +recall its probable size in its original form. Of course only a part of it +has come down to us, some one hundred and ten pages in all. Its great size +probably proved fatal to its preservation in its complete form, or at +least contributed to that end, for it has been estimated that it ran from +six hundred to nine hundred pages, being longer, therefore, than the +average novel of Dickens and Scott. Consequently we are not dealing with a +bit of ephemeral literature, but with an elaborate composition of a high +degree of excellence, behind which we should expect to find a long line of +development. We are puzzled not so much by the utter absence of anything +in the way of prose fiction before the time of Petronius as by the +difficulty of establishing any satisfactory logical connection between +these pieces of literature and the romance of Petronius. We are +bewildered, in fact, by the various possibilities which the situation +presents. The work shows points of similarity with several antecedent +forms of composition, but the gaps which lie in any <a id="p119"></a>assumed line of +descent are so great as to make us question its correctness.</p> + +<p>If we call to mind the present condition of this romance and those +characteristic features of it which are pertinent to the question at +issue, the nature of the problem and its difficulty also will be apparent +at once. Out of the original work, in a rather fragmentary form, only four +or five main episodes are extant, one of which is the brilliant story of +the Dinner of Trimalchio. The action takes place for the most part in +Southern Italy, and the principal characters are freedmen who have made +their fortunes and degenerate freemen who are picking up a precarious +living by their wits. The freemen, who are the central figures in the +novel, are involved in a great variety of experiences, most of them of a +disgraceful sort, and the story is a story of low life. Women play an +important rôle in the narrative, more important perhaps than they do in +any other kind of ancient literature—at least their individuality is more +marked. The efficient motif is erotic. I say the efficient, because the +conventional motif which seems to account for all the misadventures of the +anti-hero Encolpius is the wrath of an offended <a id="p120"></a>deity. A great part of +the book has an atmosphere of satire about it which piques our curiosity +and baffles us at the same time, because it is hard to say how much of +this element is inherent in the subject itself, and how much of it lies in +the intention of the author. It is the characteristic of parvenu society +to imitate smart society to the best of its ability, and its social +functions are a parody of the like events in the upper set. The story of a +dinner party, for instance, given by such a <i>nouveau riche</i> as Trimalchio, +would constantly remind us by its likeness and its unlikeness, by its sins +of omission and commission, of a similar event in correct society. In +other words, it would be a parody on a proper dinner, even if the man who +described the event knew nothing about the usages of good society, and +with no ulterior motive in mind set down accurately the doings of his +upstart characters. For instance, when Trimalchio's chef has three white +pigs driven into the dining-room for the ostensible purpose of allowing +the guests to pick one out for the next course, with the memory of our own +monkey breakfasts and horseback dinners in mind, we may feel that this is +a not improbable attempt on <a id="p121"></a>the part of a Roman parvenu to imitate his +betters in giving a dinner somewhat out of the ordinary. Members of the +smart set at Rome try to impress their guests by the value and weight of +their silver plate. Why shouldn't the host of our story adopt the more +direct and effective way of accomplishing the same object by having the +weight of silver engraved on each article? He does so. It is a very +natural thing for him to do. In good society they talk of literature and +art. Why isn't it natural for Trimalchio to turn the conversation into the +same channels, even if he does make Hannibal take Troy and does confuse +the epic heroes and some late champions of the gladiatorial ring?</p> + +<p>In other words, much of that which is satirical in Petronius is so only +because we are setting up in our minds a comparison between the doings of +his rich freedmen and the requirements of good taste and moderation. But +it seems possible to detect a satirical or a cynical purpose on the part +of the author carried farther than is involved in the choice of his +subject and the realistic presentation of his characters. Petronius seems +to delight in putting his most admirable sentiments in the mouths <a id="p122"></a>of +contemptible characters. Some of the best literary criticism we have of +the period, he presents through the medium of the parasite rhetorician +Agamemnon. That happy phrase characterizing Horace's style, "curiosa +felicitas," which has perhaps never been equalled in its brevity and +appositeness, is coined by the incorrigible poetaster Eumolpus. It is he +too who composes and recites the two rather brilliant epic poems +incorporated into the <i>Satirae</i>, one of which is received with a shower of +stones by the bystanders. The impassioned eulogy of the careers of +Democritus, Chrysippus, Lysippus, and Myron, who had endured hunger, pain, +and weariness of body and mind for the sake of science, art, and the good +of their fellow-men, and the diatribe against the pursuit of comfort and +pleasure which characterized the people of his own time, are put in the +mouth of the same <i>roué</i> Eumolpus.</p> + +<p>These situations have the true Horatian humor about them. The most serious +and systematic discourse which Horace has given us, in his Satires, on the +art of living, comes from the crack-brained Damasippus, who has made a +failure of his own life. In another of his poems, after having set forth +at great length <a id="p123"></a>the weaknesses of his fellow-mortals, Horace himself is +convicted of being inconsistent, a slave to his passions, and a victim of +hot temper by his own slave Davus. We are reminded again of the literary +method of Horace in his Satires when we read the dramatic description of +the shipwreck in Petronius. The blackness of night descends upon the +water; the little bark which contains the hero and his friends is at the +mercy of the sea; Lichas, the master of the vessel, is swept from the deck +by a wave, Encolpius and his comrade Giton prepare to die in each other's +embrace, but the tragic scene ends with a ridiculous picture of Eumolpus +bellowing out above the roar of the storm a new poem which he is setting +down upon a huge piece of parchment. Evidently Petronius has the same +dread of being taken too seriously which Horace shows so often in his +Satires. The cynical, or at least unmoral, attitude of Petronius is +brought out in a still more marked way at the close of this same passage. +Of those upon the ill-fated ship the degenerates Encolpius, Giton, and +Eumolpus, who have wronged Lichas irreparably, escape, while the pious +Lichas meets a horrible death. All this <a id="p124"></a>seems to make it clear that not +only does the subject which Petronius has treated inevitably involve a +satire upon contemporary society, but that the author takes a satirical or +cynical attitude toward life.</p> + +<p>Another characteristic of the story is its realism. There are no +marvellous adventures, and in fact no improbable incidents in it. The +author never obtrudes his own personality upon us, as his successor +Apuleius sometimes does, or as Thackeray has done. We know what the people +in the story are like, not from the author's description of them, but from +their actions, from the subjects about which they talk, and from the way +in which they talk. Agamemnon converses as a rhetorician might talk, +Habinnas like a millionnaire stone-cutter, and Echion like a rag-dealer, +and their language and style are what we should expect from men of their +standing in society and of their occupations. The conversations of +Trimalchio and his freedmen guests are not witty, and their jests are not +clever. This adherence to the true principles of realism is the more +noteworthy in the case of so brilliant a writer as Petronius, and those of +us who recall some of the preternaturally clever conversa<a id="p125"></a>tions in the +pages of Henry James and other contemporary novelists may feel that in +this respect he is a truer artist than they are.</p> + +<p>The novel of Petronius has one other characteristic which is significant, +if we attempt to trace the origin of this type of literature. It is cast +in the prose-poetic form, that is, passages in verse are inserted here and +there in the narrative. In a few cases they are quoted, but for the most +part they are the original compositions of the novelist. They range in +length from couplets to poems of three hundred lines. Sometimes they form +an integral part of the narrative, or again they illustrate a point, +elaborate an idea in poetry, or are exercises in verse.</p> + +<p>We have tried to bring out the characteristic features of this romance in +order that we may see what the essential elements are of the problem which +faces one in attempting to explain the origin of the type of literature +represented by the work of Petronius. What was there in antecedent +literature which will help us to understand the appearance on Italian soil +in the first century of our era of a long erotic story of adventure, +dealing in a realistic way with every-day life, marked by <a id="p126"></a>a satirical +tone and with a leaning toward the prose-poetic form? This is the question +raised by the analysis, which we have made above, of the characteristics +of the story. We have no ambitious hope of solving it, yet the mere +statement of a puzzling but interesting problem is stimulating to the +imagination and the intellect, and I am tempted to take up the subject +because the discovery of certain papyri in Egypt within recent years has +led to the formulation of a new theory of the origin of the romance of +perilous adventure, and may, therefore, throw some light on the source of +our realistic novel of every-day life. My purpose, then, is to speak +briefly of the different genres of literature of the earlier period with +which the story of Petronius may stand in some direct relation, or from +which the suggestion may have come to Petronius for his work. Several of +these lines of possible descent have been skilfully traced by others. In +their views here and there I have made some modifications, and I have +called attention to one or two types of literature, belonging to the +earlier period and heretofore unnoticed in this connection, which may help +us to understand the appearance of the realistic novel.</p> + +<p><a id="p127"></a>It seems a far cry from this story of sordid motives and vulgar action to +the heroic episodes of epic poetry, and yet the <i>Satirae</i> contain not a +few more or less direct suggestions of epic situations and characters. The +conventional motif of the story of Petronius is the wrath of an offended +deity. The narrative in the <i>Odyssey</i> and the <i>Æneid</i> rests on the same +basis. The ship of their enemy Lichas on which Encolpius and his +companions are cooped up reminds them of the cave of the Cyclops; Giton +hiding from the town-crier under a mattress is compared to Ulysses +underneath the sheep and clinging to its wool to escape the eye of the +Cyclops, while the woman whose charms engage the attention of Encolpius at +Croton bears the name of Circe. It seems to be clear from these +reminiscences that Petronius had the epic in mind when he wrote his story, +and his novel may well be a direct or an indirect parody of an epic +narrative. Rohde in his analysis of the serious Greek romance of the +centuries subsequent to Petronius has postulated the following development +for that form of story: Travellers returning from remote parts of the +world told remarkable stories of their experiences. Some <a id="p128"></a>of these stories +took a literary form in the <i>Odyssey</i> and the Tales of the Argonauts. They +appeared in prose, too, in narratives like the story of Sinbad the Sailor, +of a much later date. A more definite plot and a greater dramatic +intensity were given to these tales of adventure by the addition of an +erotic element which often took the form of two separated lovers. Some use +is made of this element, for instance, in the relations of Odysseus and +Penelope, perhaps in the episode of Æneas and Dido, and in the story of +Jason and Medea. The intrusion of the love motif into the stories told of +demigods and heroes, so that the whole narrative turns upon it, is +illustrated by such tales in the Metamorphoses of Ovid as those of Pyramus +and Thisbe, Pluto and Proserpina, or Meleager and Atalanta. The love +element, which may have been developed in this way out of its slight use +in the epic, and the element of adventure form the basis of the serious +Greek romances of Antonius Diogenes, Achilles Tatius, and the other +writers of the centuries which follow Petronius.</p> + +<p>Before trying to connect the <i>Satirae</i> with a serious romance of the type +just mentioned, <a id="p129"></a>let us follow another line of descent which leads us to +the same objective point, viz., the appearance of the serious story in +prose. We have been led to consider the possible connection of this kind +of prose fiction with the epic by the presence in both of them of the love +element and that of adventure. But the Greek novel has another rather +marked feature. It is rhetorical, and this quality has suggested that it +may have come, not from the epic, but from the rhetorical exercise. +Support has been given to this theory within recent years by the discovery +in Egypt of two fragments of the Ninos romance. The first of these +fragments reveals Ninos, the hero, pleading with his aunt Derkeia, the +mother of his sweetheart, for permission to marry his cousin. All the +arguments in support of his plea and against it are put forward and +balanced one against the other in a very systematic way. He wins over +Derkeia. Later in the same fragment the girl pleads in a somewhat similar +fashion with Thambe, the mother of Ninos. The second fragment is mainly +concerned with the campaigns of Ninos. Here we have the two lovers, +probably separated by the departure of Ninos for the wars, <a id="p130"></a>while the +hero, at least, is exposed to the danger of the campaign.</p> + +<p>The point was made after the text of this find had been published that the +large part taken in the tale by the carefully balanced arguments indicated +that the story grew out of exercises in argumentation in the rhetorical +schools.<sup><a href="#fn83">83</a></sup> The elder Seneca has preserved for us in his <i>Controversiae</i> +specimens of the themes which were set for students in these schools. The +student was asked to imagine himself in a supposed dilemma and then to +discuss the considerations which would lead him to adopt the one or the +other line of conduct. Some of these situations suggest excellent dramatic +possibilities, conditions of life, for instance, where suicide seemed +justifiable, misadventures with pirates, or a turn of affairs which +threatened a woman's virtue. Before the student reached the point of +arguing the case, the story must be told, and out of these narratives of +adventure, told at the outset to develop the dilemma, may have grown the +romance of ad<a id="p131"></a>venture, written for its own sake. The story of Ninos has a +peculiar interest in connection with this theory, because it was probably +very short, and consequently may give us the connecting link between the +rhetorical exercise and the long novel of the later period, and because it +is the earliest known serious romance. On the back of the papyrus which +contains it are some farm accounts of the year 101 A.D. Evidently by that +time the roll had become waste paper, and the story itself may have been +composed a century or even two centuries earlier. So far as this second +theory is concerned, we may raise the question in passing whether we have +any other instance of a genre of literature growing out of a school-boy +exercise. Usually the teacher adapts to his purpose some form of creative +literature already in existence.</p> + +<p>Leaving this objection out of account for the moment, the romance of love +and perilous adventure may possibly be then a lineal descendant either of +the epic or of the rhetorical exercise. Whichever of these two views is +the correct one, the discovery of the Ninos romance fills in a gap in one +theory of the origin of the realistic romance of Petronius, <a id="p132"></a>and with that +we are here concerned. Before the story of Ninos was found, no serious +romance and no title of such a romance anterior to the time of Petronius +was known. This story, as we have seen, may well go back to the first +century before Christ, or at least to the beginning of our era. It is +conceivable that stories like it, but now lost, existed even at an earlier +date. Now in the century, more or less, which elapsed between the assumed +date of the appearance of these Greek narratives and the time of +Petronius, the extraordinary commercial development of Rome had created a +new aristocracy—the aristocracy of wealth. In harmony with this social +change the military chieftain and the political leader who had been the +heroes of the old fiction gave way to the substantial man of affairs of +the new, just as Thaddeus of Warsaw has yielded his place in our +present-day novels to Silas Lapham, and the bourgeois erotic story of +adventure resulted, as we find it in the extant Greek novels of the second +and third centuries of our era. If we can assume that this stage of +development was reached before the time of Petronius we can think of his +novel as a parody of such a romance. If, however, the <a id="p133"></a>bourgeois romance +had not appeared before 50 A.D., then, if we regard his story as a parody +of a prose narrative, it must be a parody of such an heroic romance as +that of Ninos, or a parody of the longer heroic romances which developed +out of the rhetorical narrative. If excavations in Egypt or at Herculaneum +should bring to light a serious bourgeois story of adventure, they would +furnish us the missing link. Until, or unless, such a discovery is made +the chain of evidence is incomplete.</p> + +<p>The two theories of the realistic romance which we have been discussing +assume that it is a parody of some anterior form of literature, and that +this fact accounts for the appearance of the satirical or cynical element +in it. Other students of literary history, however, think that this +characteristic was brought over directly from the Milesian tale<sup><a href="#fn84">84</a></sup> or the +Menippean satire.<sup><a href="#fn85">85</a></sup> To how many different <a id="p134"></a>kinds of stories the term +"Milesian tale" was applied by the ancients is a matter of dispute, but +the existence of the short story before the time of Petronius is beyond +question. Indeed we find specimens of it. In its commonest form it +presented a single episode of every-day life. It brought out some human +weakness or foible. Very often it was a story of illicit love. Its +philosophy of life was: No man's honesty and no woman's virtue are +unassailable. In all these respects, save in the fact that it presents one +episode only, it resembles the <i>Satirae</i> of Petronius. At least two +stories of this type are to be found in the extant fragments of the novel +of Petronius. One of them is related as a well-known tale by the poet +Eumolpus, and the other is told by him as a personal experience. More than +a dozen of them are imbedded in the novel of Apuleius, the +<i>Metamorphoses</i>, and modern specimens of them are to be seen in Boccaccio +and in Chaucer. In fact they are popular from the twelfth century down to +the eighteenth. Long before the time of Petronius they occur sporadically +in literature. A good specimen, for instance, is found in a letter +commonly attributed to Æschines in the fourth century B.C. As <a id="p135"></a>early as +the first century before Christ collections of them had been made and +translated into Latin. This development suggests an interesting possible +origin of the realistic romance. In such collections as those just +mentioned of the first century B.C., the central figures were different in +the different stories, as is the case, for instance, in the Canterbury +Tales. Such an original writer as Petronius was may well have thought of +connecting these different episodes by making them the experiences of a +single individual. The Encolpius of Petronius would in that case be in a +way an ancient Don Juan. If we compare the Arabian Nights with one of the +groups of stories found in the Romances of the Round Table, we can see +what this step forward would mean. The tales which bear the title of the +Arabian Nights all have the same general setting and the same general +treatment, and they are put in the mouth of the same story-teller. The +Lancelot group of Round Table stories, however, shows a nearer approach to +unity since the stories in it concern the same person, and have a common +ultimate purpose, even if it is vague. When this point had been reached +the realistic ro<a id="p136"></a>mance would have made its appearance. We have been +thinking of the realistic novel as being made up of a series of Milesian +tales. We may conceive of it, however, as an expanded Milesian tale, just +as scholars are coming to think of the epic as growing out of a single +hero-song, rather than as resulting from the union of several such songs.</p> + +<p>To pass to another possibility, it is very tempting to see a connection +between the <i>Satirae</i> of Petronius and the prologue of comedy. Plautus +thought it necessary to prefix to many of his plays an account of the +incidents which preceded the action of the play. In some cases he went so +far as to outline in the prologue the action of the play itself in order +that the spectators might follow it intelligently. This introductory +narrative runs up to seventy-six lines in the <i>Menaechmi</i>, to eighty-two +in the <i>Rudens</i>, and to one hundred and fifty-two in the <i>Amphitruo</i>. In +this way it becomes a short realistic story of every-day people, involving +frequently a love intrigue, and told in the iambic senarius, the simplest +form of verse. Following it is the more extended narrative of the comedy +itself, with its incidents and dialogue. This combination of <a id="p137"></a>the +condensed narrative in the story form, presented usually as a monologue in +simple verse, and the expanded narrative in the dramatic form, with its +conversational element, may well have suggested the writing of a realistic +novel in prose. A slight, though not a fatal, objection to this theory +lies in the fact that the prologues to comedy subsequent to Plautus +changed in their character, and contain little narrative. This is not a +serious objection, for the plays of Plautus were still known to the +cultivated in the later period.</p> + +<p>The mime gives us still more numerous points of contact with the work of +Petronius than comedy does.<sup><a href="#fn86">86</a></sup> It is unfortunate, both for our +understanding of Roman life and for our solution of the question before +us, that only fragments of this form of dramatic composition have come +down to us. Even from them, however, it is clear that the mime dealt with +every-day life in a very frank, realistic way. The new comedy has its +conventions in the matter of situations and language. The matron, for +instance, must not be presented in a questionable light, and the lan<a id="p138"></a>guage +is the conversational speech of the better classes. The mime recognizes no +such restrictions in its portrayal of life. The married woman, her stupid +husband, and her lover are common figures in this form of the drama, and +if we may draw an inference from the lately discovered fragments of Greek +mimes, the speech was that of the common people. Again, the new comedy has +its limited list of stock characters—the old man, the tricky slave, the +parasite, and the others which we know so well in Plautus and Terence, but +as for the mime, any figure to be seen on the street may find a place in +it—the rhetorician, the soldier, the legacy-hunter, the inn-keeper, or +the town-crier. The doings of kings and heroes were parodied. We are even +told that a comic Hector and Achilles were put on the stage, and the gods +did not come off unscathed. All of these characteristic features of the +mime remind us in a striking way of the novel of Petronius. His work, like +the mime, is a realistic picture of low life which presents a great +variety of characters and shows no regard for conventional morals. It is +especially interesting to notice the element of parody, which we have +already observed in <a id="p139"></a>Petronius, in both kinds of literary productions. The +theory that Petronius may have had the composition of his <i>Satirae</i> +suggested to him by plays of this type is greatly strengthened by the fact +that the mime reached its highest point of popularity at the court in the +time of Nero, in whose reign Petronius lived. In point of fact Petronius +refers to the mime frequently. One of these passages is of peculiar +significance in this connection. Encolpius and his comrades are entering +the town of Croton and are considering what device they shall adopt so as +to live without working. At last a happy idea occurs to Eumolpus, and he +says: "Why don't we construct a mime?" and the mime is played, with +Eumolpus as a fabulously rich man at the point of death, and the others as +his attendants. The rôle makes a great hit, and all the vagabonds in the +company play their assumed parts in their daily life at Croton with such +skill that the legacy-hunters of the place load them with attentions and +shower them with presents. This whole episode, in fact, may be thought of +as a mime cast in the narrative form, and the same conception may be +applied with great plausibility to the entire story of Encolpius.</p> + +<p><a id="p140"></a>We have thus far been attacking the question with which we are concerned +from the side of the subject-matter and tone of the story of Petronius. +Another method of approach is suggested by the Menippean satire,<sup><a href="#fn87">87</a></sup> the +best specimens of which have come down to us in the fragments of Varro, +one of Cicero's contemporaries. These satires are an <i>olla podrida</i>, +dealing with all sorts of subjects in a satirical manner, sometimes put in +the dialogue form and cast in a <i>mélange</i> of prose and verse. It is this +last characteristic which is of special interest to us in this connection, +because in the prose of Petronius verses are freely used. Sometimes, as we +have observed above, they form an integral part of the narrative, and +again they merely illustrate or expand a point touched on in the prose. If +it were not aside from our immediate purpose it would be interesting to +follow the history of this prose-poetical form from the time of Petronius +on. After him it does not seem to have been used very much until the third +and fourth centuries of our era. However, Martial in the first century +prefixed a prose pro<a id="p141"></a>logue to five books of his Epigrams, and one of these +prologues ends with a poem of four lines. The several books of the +<i>Silvae</i> of Statius are also preceded by prose letters of dedication. That +strange imitation of the <i>Aulularia</i> of Plautus, of the fourth century, +the <i>Querolus</i>, is in a form half prose and half verse. A sentence begins +in prose and runs off into verse, as some of the epitaphs also do. The +Epistles of Ausonius of the same century are compounded of prose and a +great variety of verse. By the fifth and sixth centuries, a <i>mélange</i> of +verse or a combination of prose and verse is very common, as one can see +in the writings of Martianus Capella, Sidonius Apollinaris, Ennodius, and +Boethius. It recurs again in modern times, for instance in Dante's <i>La +Vita Nuova</i>, in Boccaccio, <i>Aucassin et Nicolette</i>, the <i>Heptameron</i>, the +<i>Celtic Ballads</i>, the <i>Arabian Nights</i>, and in <i>Alice in Wonderland</i>.</p> + +<p>A little thought suggests that the prose-poetic form is a natural medium +of expression. A change from prose to verse, or from one form of verse to +another, suggests a change in the emotional condition of a speaker or +writer. We see that clearly enough illustrated in <a id="p142"></a>tragedy or comedy. In +the thrilling scene in the <i>Captives of Plautus</i>, for example, where +Tyndarus is in mortal terror lest the trick which he has played on his +master, Hegio, may be discovered, and he be consigned to work in chains in +the quarries, the verse is the trochaic septenarius. As soon as the +suspense is over, it drops to the iambic senarius. If we should arrange +the commoner Latin verses in a sequence according to the emotional effects +which they produce, at the bottom of the series would stand the iambic +senarius. Above that would come trochaic verse, and we should rise to +higher planes of exaltation as we read the anapæstic, or cretic, or +bacchiac. The greater part of life is commonplace. Consequently the common +medium for conversation or for the narrative in a composition like comedy +made up entirely of verse is the senarius. Now this form of verse in its +simple, almost natural, quantitative arrangement is very close to prose, +and it would be a short step to substitute prose for it as the basis of +the story, interspersing verse here and there to secure variety, or when +the emotions were called into play, just as lyric verses are interpolated +in the iambic narrative. In this way <a id="p143"></a>the combination of different kinds +of verse in the drama, and the prosimetrum of the Menippean satire and of +Petronius, may be explained, and we see a possible line of descent from +comedy and this form of satire to the <i>Satirae</i>.</p> + +<p>These various theories of the origin of the romance of Petronius—that it +may be related to the epic, to the serious heroic romance, to the +bourgeois story of adventure developed out of the rhetorical exercise, to +the Milesian tale, to the prologue of comedy, to the <i>verse-mélange</i> of +comedy or the mime, or to the prose-poetical Menippean satire—are not, of +necessity, it seems to me, mutually exclusive. His novel may well be +thought of as a parody of the serious romance, with frequent reminiscences +of the epic, a parody suggested to him by comedy and its prologue, by the +mime, or by the short cynical Milesian tale, and cast in the form of the +Menippean satire; or, so far as subject-matter and realistic treatment are +concerned, the suggestion may have come directly from the mime, and if we +can accept the theory of some scholars who have lately studied the mime, +that it sometimes contained both prose and verse, we may be inclined to +regard this type of literature as the immediate progenitor <a id="p144"></a>of the novel, +even in the matter of external form, and leave the Menippean satire out of +the line of descent. Whether the one or the other of these explanations of +its origin recommends itself to us as probable, it is interesting to note, +as we leave the subject, that, so far as our present information goes, the +realistic romance seems to have been the invention of Petronius.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch05"> +<h2><a id="p145"></a>Diocletian's Edict and the High Cost of Living</h2> + + + +<p>The history of the growth of paternalism in the Roman Empire is still to +be written. It would be a fascinating and instructive record. In it the +changes in the character of the Romans and in their social and economic +conditions would come out clearly. It would disclose a strange mixture of +worthy and unworthy motives in their statesmen and politicians, who were +actuated sometimes by sympathy for the poor, sometimes by a desire for +popular favor, by an honest wish to check extravagance or immorality, or +by the fear that the discontent of the masses might drive them into +revolution. We should find the Roman people, recognizing the menace to +their simple, frugal way of living which lay in the inroads of Greek +civilization, and turning in their helplessness to their officials, the +censors, to protect them from a demoralization which, by their own +efforts, they <a id="p146"></a>could not withstand. We should find the same officials +preaching against race suicide, extravagant living, and evasion of public +duties, and imposing penalties and restrictions in the most autocratic +fashion on men of high and low degree alike who failed to adopt the +official standards of conduct. We should read of laws enacted in the same +spirit, laws restricting the number of guests that might be entertained on +a single occasion, and prescribing penalties for guests and host alike, if +the cost of a dinner exceeded the statutory limit. All this belongs to the +early stage of paternal government. The motives were praiseworthy, even if +the results were futile.</p> + +<p>With the advent of the Gracchi, toward the close of the second century +before our era, moral considerations become less noticeable, and +paternalism takes on a more philanthropic and political character. We see +this change reflected in the land laws and the corn laws. To take up first +the free distribution of land by the state, in the early days of the +Republic colonies of citizens were founded in the newly conquered +districts of Italy to serve as garrisons on the frontier. It was a fair +bargain between the citizen and the state. He re<a id="p147"></a>ceived land, the state, +protection. But with Tiberius Gracchus a change comes in. His colonists +were to be settled in peaceful sections of Italy; they were to receive +land solely because of their poverty. This was socialism or state +philanthropy. Like the agrarian bill of Tiberius, the corn law of Gaius +Gracchus, which provided for the sale of grain below the market price, was +a paternal measure inspired in part by sympathy for the needy. The +political element is clear in both cases also. The people who were thus +favored by assignments of land and of food naturally supported the leaders +who assisted them. Perhaps the extensive building of roads which Gaius +Gracchus carried on should be mentioned in this connection. The ostensible +purpose of these great highways, perhaps their primary purpose, was to +develop Italy and to facilitate communication between different parts of +the peninsula, but a large number of men was required for their +construction, and Gaius Gracchus may well have taken the matter up, partly +for the purpose of furnishing work to the unemployed. Out of these small +beginnings developed the socialistic policy of later times. By the middle +of the first century B.C., it is said that <a id="p148"></a>there were three hundred and +twenty thousand persons receiving doles of corn from the state, and, if +the people could look to the government for the necessities of life, why +might they not hope to have it supply their less pressing needs? Or, to +put it in another way, if one politician won their support by giving them +corn, why might not another increase his popularity by providing them with +amusement and with the comforts of life? Presents of oil and clothing +naturally follow, the giving of games and theatrical performances at the +expense of the state, and the building of porticos and public baths. As +the government and wealthy citizens assumed a larger measure of +responsibility for the welfare of the citizens, the people became more and +more dependent upon them and less capable of managing their own affairs. +An indication of this change we see in the decline of local +self-government and the assumption by the central administration of +responsibility for the conduct of public business in the towns of Italy. +This last consideration suggests another phase of Roman history which a +study of paternalism would bring out—I mean the effect of its +introduction on the character of the Roman people.</p> + +<p><a id="p149"></a>The history of paternalism in Rome, when it is written, might approach +the subject from several different points. If the writer were inclined to +interpret history on the economic side, he might find the explanation of +the change in the policy of the government toward its citizens in the +introduction of slave labor which, under the Republic, drove the free +laborer to the wall and made him look to the state for help, in the +decline of agriculture, and the growth of capitalism. The sociologist +would notice the drift of the people toward the cities and the sudden +massing there of large numbers of persons who could not provide for +themselves and in their discontent might overturn society. The historian +who concerns himself with political changes mainly, would notice the +socialistic legislation of the Gracchi and their political successors and +would connect the growth of paternalism with the development of democracy. +In all these explanations there would be a certain measure of truth.</p> + +<p>But I am not planning here to write a history of paternalism among the +Romans. That is one of the projects which I had been reserving for the day +when the Carnegie <a id="p150"></a>Foundation should present me with a wooden sword and +allow me to retire from the arena of academic life. But, alas! the +trustees of that beneficent institution, by the revision which they have +lately made of the conditions under which a university professor may +withdraw from active service, have in their wisdom put off that day of +academic leisure to the Greek Kalends, and my dream vanishes into the +distance with it.</p> + +<p>Here I wish to present only an episode in this history which we have been +discussing, an episode which is unique, however, in ancient and, so far as +I know, in modern history. Our knowledge of the incident comes from an +edict of the Emperor Diocletian, and this document has a direct bearing on +a subject of present-day discussion, because it contains a diatribe +against the high cost of living and records the heroic attempt which the +Roman government made to reduce it. In his effort to bring prices down to +what he considered a normal level, Diocletian did not content himself with +such half-measures as we are trying in our attempts to suppress +combinations in restraint of trade, but he boldly fixed the maximum prices +at which beef, grain, eggs, clothing, and <a id="p151"></a>other articles could be sold, +and prescribed the penalty of death for any one who disposed of his wares +at a higher figure. His edict is a very comprehensive document, and +specifies prices for seven hundred or eight hundred different articles. +This systematic attempt to regulate trade was very much in keeping with +the character of Diocletian and his theory of government. Perhaps no Roman +emperor, with the possible exception of Hadrian, showed such extraordinary +administrative ability and proposed so many sweeping social reforms as +Diocletian did. His systematic attempt to suppress Christianity is a case +in point, and in the last twenty years of his reign he completely +reorganized the government. He frankly introduced the monarchical +principle, fixed upon a method of succession to the throne, redivided the +provinces, established a carefully graded system of officials, concerned +himself with court etiquette and dress, and reorganized the coinage and +the system of taxation. We are not surprised therefore that he had the +courage to attack this difficult question of high prices, and that his +plan covered almost all the articles which his subjects would have +occasion to buy.</p> + +<p><a id="p152"></a>It is almost exactly two centuries since the first fragments of the edict +dealing with the subject were brought to light. They were discovered in +Caria, in 1709, by William Sherard, the English consul at Smyrna. Since +then, from time to time, other fragments of tablets containing parts of +the edict have been found in Egypt, Asia Minor, and Greece. At present +portions of twenty-nine copies of it are known. Fourteen of them are in +Latin and fifteen in Greek. The Greek versions differ from one another, +while the Latin texts are identical, except for the stone-cutters' +mistakes here and there. These facts make it clear that the original +document was in Latin, and was translated into Greek by the local +officials of each town where the tablets were set up. We have already +noticed that specimens of the edict have not been found outside of Egypt, +Greece, and Asia Minor, and this was the part of the Roman world where +Diocletian ruled. Scholars have also observed that almost all the +manufactured articles which are mentioned come from Eastern points. From +these facts it has been inferred that the edict was to apply to the East +only, or perhaps more probably that Dio<a id="p153"></a>cletian drew it up for his part of +the Roman world, and that before it could be applied to the West it was +repealed.</p> + +<p>From the pieces which were then known, a very satisfactory reconstruction +of the document was made by Mommsen and published in the <i>Corpus of Latin +Inscriptions</i>.<sup><a href="#fn88">88</a></sup></p> + +<p>The work of restoration was like putting together the parts of a picture +puzzle where some of the pieces are lacking. Fragments are still coming to +light, and possibly we may have the complete text some day. As it is, the +introduction is complete, and perhaps four-fifths of the list of articles +with prices attached are extant. The introduction opens with a stately +list of the titles of the two Augusti and the two Cæsars, which fixes the +date of the proclamation as 301 A.D. Then follows a long recital of the +circumstances which have led the government to adopt this drastic method +of controlling prices. This introduction is one of the most extraordinary +pieces <a id="p154"></a>of bombast, mixed metaphors, loose syntax, and incoherent +expressions that Latin literature possesses. One is tempted to infer from +its style that it was the product of Diocletian's own pen. He was a man of +humble origin, and would not live in Rome for fear of being laughed at on +account of his plebeian training. The florid and awkward style of these +introductory pages is exactly what we should expect from a man of such +antecedents.</p> + +<p>It is very difficult to translate them into intelligible English, but some +conception of their style and contents may be had from one or two +extracts. In explaining the situation which confronts the world, the +Emperor writes: "For, if the raging avarice ... which, without regard for +mankind, increases and develops by leaps and bounds, we will not say from +year to year, month to month, or day to day, but almost from hour to hour, +and even from minute to minute, could be held in check by some regard for +moderation, or if the welfare of the people could calmly tolerate this mad +license from which, in a situation like this, it suffers in the worst +possible fashion from day to day, some ground would appear, perhaps, for +concealing the truth and saying <a id="p155"></a>nothing; ... but inasmuch as there is +only seen a mad desire without control, to pay no heed to the needs of the +many, ... it seems good to us, as we look into the future, to us who are +the fathers of the people, that justice intervene to settle matters +impartially, in order that that which, long hoped for, humanity itself +could not bring about may be secured for the common government of all by +the remedies which our care affords.... Who is of so hardened a heart and +so untouched by a feeling for humanity that he can be unaware, nay that he +has not noticed, that in the sale of wares which are exchanged in the +market, or dealt with in the daily business of the cities, an exorbitant +tendency in prices has spread to such an extent that the unbridled desire +of plundering is held in check neither by abundance nor by seasons of +plenty!"</p> + +<p>If we did not know that this was found on tablets sixteen centuries old, +we might think that we were reading a newspaper diatribe against the +cold-storage plant or the beef trust. What the Emperor has decided to do +to remedy the situation he sets forth toward the end of the introduction. +He says: "It is our pleasure, therefore, that those prices which the +<a id="p156"></a>subjoined written summary specifies, be held in observance throughout all +our domain, that all may know that license to go above the same has been +cut off.... It is our pleasure (also) that if any man shall have boldly +come into conflict with this formal statute, he shall put his life in +peril.... In the same peril also shall he be placed who, drawn along by +avarice in his desire to buy, shall have conspired against these statutes. +Nor shall he be esteemed innocent of the same crime who, having articles +necessary for daily life and use, shall have decided hereafter that they +can be held back, since the punishment ought to be even heavier for him +who causes need than for him who violates the laws."</p> + +<p>The lists which follow are arranged in three columns which give +respectively the article, the unit of measure, and the price.<sup><a href="#fn89">89</a></sup></p> +<table> +<tr><td>Frumenti </td><td> K̄M̄</td></tr> +<tr><td>Hordei </td><td> K̄M̄ unum </td><td> Ⅹ̶ c(<i>entum</i>)</td></tr> +<tr><td>Centenum sive sicale </td><td> " " " </td><td> Ⅹ̶ sexa(<i>ginta</i>)</td></tr> +<tr><td>Mili pisti </td><td> " " " </td><td> Ⅹ̶ centu(<i>m</i>)</td></tr> +<tr><td>Mili integri </td><td> " " </td><td> Ⅹ̶ quinquaginta'</td></tr> +</table> + +<blockquote><p>The first item (frumentum) is wheat, which is sold by the K̄M̄ + (kastrensis modius=18½ quarts), but the price is lacking. Barley is + sold by the kastrensis modius at Ⅹ̶ centum (centum denarii = 43 cents) + and so on.</p></blockquote> + +<p><a id="p157"></a>Usually a price list is not of engrossing interest, but the tables of +Diocletian furnish us a picture of material conditions throughout the +Empire in his time which cannot be had from any other source, and for that +reason deserve some attention. This consideration emboldens me to set down +some extracts in the following pages from the body of the edict:</p> + + + +<h3>Extracts from Diocletian's List of Maximum Prices</h3> + +<h4>I</h4> + +<p>In the tables given here the Latin and Greek names of the articles listed +have been turned into English. The present-day accepted measure of +quantity—for instance, the bushel or the quart—has been substituted for +the ancient unit, and the corresponding price for the modern unit of +measure is given. Thus barley was to be sold by the kastrensis modius +(=18½ quarts) at 100 denarii (=43.5 cents). At this rate a bushel of +barley would have brought 74.5 cents. For convenience in reference the +numbers of the chapters and of the items adopted in the text of Mommsen +are used here. Only selected articles are given.</p> + +<table> +<tr><th colspan="3"><a id="p158"></a><h5>(Unit of Measure, the Bushel)</h5></th></tr> + +<tr><td>1 </td><td> Wheat<br /></td><td></td></tr> +<tr><td>2 </td><td> Barley </td><td> 74.5 cents</td></tr> +<tr><td>3 </td><td> Rye </td><td> 45 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>4 </td><td> Millet, ground </td><td> 74.5 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>6 </td><td> Millet, whole </td><td> 37 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>7 </td><td> Spelt, hulled </td><td> 74.5 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>8 </td><td> Spelt, not hulled </td><td> 22.5 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>9 </td><td> Beans, ground </td><td> 74.5 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>10 </td><td> Beans, not ground </td><td> 45 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>11 </td><td> Lentils </td><td> 74.5 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>12-16</td><td> Peas, various sorts </td><td> 45-74.5 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>17 </td><td> Oats </td><td> 22.5 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>31 </td><td> Poppy seeds </td><td> $1.12</td></tr> +<tr><td>34 </td><td> Mustard </td><td> $1.12</td></tr> +<tr><td>35 </td><td> Prepared mustard, quart </td><td> 6 "</td></tr> +</table> +<table> +<tr><th colspan="3"><h4>II</h4> +<h5>(Unit of Measure, the Quart)</h5></th></tr> +<tr><td>1a </td><td> Wine from Picenum </td><td> 22.5 cents</td></tr> +<tr><td>2 </td><td> Wine from Tibur </td><td> 22.5 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>7 </td><td> Wine from Falernum </td><td> 22.5 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>10 </td><td> Wine of the country </td><td> 6 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>11-12 </td><td> Beer </td><td> 1.5-3 "</td></tr> +</table> + +<table> +<tr><th colspan="3"><h4>III</h4> + +<h5>(Unit of Measure, the Quart)</h5></th></tr> + +<tr><td>1a </td><td>Oil, first quality </td><td> 30.3 cents</td></tr> +<tr><td>2 </td><td>Oil, second quality </td><td> 18 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>5 </td><td>Vinegar </td><td> 4.3 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>8 </td><td>Salt, bushel </td><td> 74.5 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>10 </td><td>Honey, best </td><td> 30.3 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>11 </td><td>Honey, second quality </td><td> 15 "</td></tr> +</table> +<table><tr><th colspan="3"><a id="p159"></a><h4>IV</h4> + +<h5>(Unit, Unless Otherwise Noted, Pound Avoirdupois)</h5></th></tr> + +<tr><td>1a </td><td>Pork </td><td> 7.3 cents</td></tr> +<tr><td>2 </td><td>Beef </td><td> 4.9 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>3 </td><td>Goat's flesh or mutton </td><td> 4.9 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>6 </td><td>Pig's liver </td><td> 9.8 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>8 </td><td>Ham, best </td><td> 12 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>21 </td><td>Goose, artificially fed (1) </td><td> 87 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>22 </td><td>Goose, not artificially fed (1) </td><td> 43.5 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>23 </td><td>Pair of fowls </td><td> 36 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>29 </td><td>Pair of pigeons </td><td> 10.5 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>47 </td><td>Lamb </td><td> 7.3 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>48 </td><td>Kid </td><td> 7.3 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>50 </td><td>Butter </td><td> 9.8 "</td></tr> +</table> +<table> +<tr><th colspan="3"><h4>V</h4> + +<h5>(Unit, the Pound)</h5></th></tr> + +<tr><td>1a </td><td>Sea fish with sharp spines </td><td> 14.6 cents</td></tr> +<tr><td>2 </td><td>Fish, second quality </td><td> 9.7 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>3 </td><td>River fish, best quality </td><td> 7.3 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>4 </td><td>Fish, second quality </td><td> 4.8 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>5 </td><td>Salt fish </td><td> 8.3 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>6 </td><td>Oysters (by the hundred) </td><td> 43.5 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>11 </td><td>Dry cheese </td><td> 7.3 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>12 </td><td>Sardines </td><td> 9.7 "</td></tr> +</table> +<table> +<tr><th colspan="3"><h4>VI</h4></th></tr> + +<tr><td>1 </td><td> Artichokes, large (5) </td><td> 4.3 cents</td></tr> +<tr><td>7 </td><td>Lettuce, best (5) </td><td> 1.7 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>9 </td><td>Cabbages, best (5) </td><td> 1.7 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>10 </td><td>Cabbages, small (10) </td><td> 1.7 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>18 </td><td>Turnips, large (10) </td><td> 1.7 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>24 </td><td>Watercress, per bunch of 20 </td><td> 4.3 "<a id="p160"></a></td></tr> +<tr><td>28 </td><td> Cucumbers, first quality (10) </td><td> 1.7 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>29 </td><td> Cucumbers, small (20) </td><td> 1.7 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>34 </td><td> Garden asparagus, per bunch (25) </td><td> 2.6 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>35 </td><td> Wild asparagus (50) </td><td> 1.7 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>38 </td><td> Shelled green beans, quart </td><td> 3 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>43 </td><td> Eggs (4) </td><td> 1.7 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>46 </td><td> Snails, large (20) </td><td> 1.7 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>65 </td><td>Apples, best (10) </td><td> 1.7 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>67 </td><td> Apples, small (40) </td><td> 1.7 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>78 </td><td>Figs, best (25) </td><td> 1.7 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>80 </td><td>Table grapes (2.8 pound) </td><td> 1.7 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>95 </td><td>Sheep's milk, quart </td><td> 6 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>96 </td><td>Cheese, fresh, quart </td><td> 6 "</td></tr> +</table> +<table> +<tr><th colspan="3"><h4>VII</h4> + +<h5>(Where (k) Is Set Down the Workman Receives His "Keep" Also)</h5></th></tr> + +<tr><td>1a </td><td>Manual laborer (k) </td><td> 10.8 cents</td></tr> +<tr><td>2 </td><td>Bricklayer (k) </td><td> 21.6 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>3 </td><td>Joiner (interior work) (k) </td><td> 21.6 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>3<i>a</i></td><td> Carpenter (k) </td><td> 21.6 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>4 </td><td> Lime-burner (k) </td><td> 21.6 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>5 </td><td> Marble-worker (k) </td><td> 26 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>6 </td><td> Mosaic-worker (fine work) (k) </td><td> 26 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>7 </td><td>Stone-mason (k) </td><td> 21.6 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>8 </td><td>Wall-painter (k) </td><td> 32.4 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>9 </td><td>Figure-painter (k) </td><td> 64.8 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>10</td><td> Wagon-maker (k) </td><td> 21.6 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>11 </td><td>Smith (k) </td><td> 21.6 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>12</td><td> Baker (k) </td><td> 21.6 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>13</td><td> Ship-builder, for sea-going ships (k) </td><td> 26 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>14</td><td> Ship-builder, for river boats (k) </td><td> 21.6 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>17 </td><td>Driver, for camel, ass, or mule (k) </td><td> 10.8 "<a id="p161"></a></td></tr> +<tr><td>18 </td><td>Shepherd (k) </td><td> 8.7 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>20 </td><td>Veterinary, for cutting, and straightening hoofs, per animal </td><td> 2.6 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>22 </td><td>Barber, for each man </td><td> .9 cent</td></tr> +<tr><td>23 </td><td>Sheep-shearer, for each sheep (k) </td><td> .9 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>24<i>a</i> </td><td>Coppersmith, for work in brass, per pound </td><td> 3.5 cents</td></tr> +<tr><td>25 </td><td>Coppersmith, for work in copper, per pound </td><td> 2.6 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>26 </td><td>Coppersmith for finishing vessels, per pound </td><td> 2.6 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>27 </td><td>Coppersmith, for finishing figures and statues, per pound </td><td> 1.7 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>29 </td><td>Maker of statues, etc., per day (k) </td><td> 32.4 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>31 </td><td>Water-carrier, per day (k) </td><td> 10.9 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>32 </td><td>Sewer-cleaner, per day (k) </td><td> 10.9 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>33 </td><td>Knife-grinder, for old sabre </td><td> 10.9 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>36 </td><td>Knife-grinder, for double axe </td><td> 3.5 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>39 </td><td>Writer, 100 lines best writing </td><td> 10.9 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>40 </td><td>Writer, 100 lines ordinary writing </td><td> 8.7 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>41 </td><td>Document writer for record of 100 lines </td><td> 4.3 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>42 </td><td>Tailor, for cutting out and finishing overgarment of first </td><td> 26.1 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>43 </td><td>Tailor, for cutting out and finishing overgarment of second</td><td> 17.4 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>44 </td><td>For a large cowl </td><td> 10.9 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>45 </td><td>For a small cowl </td><td> 8.7 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>46 </td><td>For trousers </td><td> 8.7 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>52 </td><td>Felt horse-blanket, black or white, 3 pounds weight </td><td> 43.5 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>53 </td><td>Cover, first quality, with embroidery, 3 pounds weight </td><td> $1.09</td></tr> +<tr><td>64 </td><td>Gymnastic teacher, per pupil, per month </td><td> 21.6 cents</td></tr> +<tr><td>65 </td><td>Employee to watch children, per child, per month </td><td> 21.6 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>66 </td><td>Elementary teacher, per pupil, per month </td><td> 21.6 "<a id="p162"></a></td></tr> +<tr><td>67 </td><td>Teacher of arithmetic, per pupil, per month </td><td> 32.6 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>68</td><td> Teacher of stenography, per pupil, per month </td><td> 32.6 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>69 </td><td>Writing-teacher, per pupil, per month </td><td> 21.6 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>70 </td><td>Teacher of Greek, Latin, geometry, per pupil, per month </td><td> 87 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>71 </td><td>Teacher of rhetoric, per pupil, per month </td><td> $1.09</td></tr> +<tr><td>72 </td><td>Advocate or counsel for presenting a case </td><td> $1.09</td></tr> +<tr><td>73 </td><td>For finishing a case </td><td> $4.35</td></tr> +<tr><td>74</td><td> Teacher of architecture, per pupil, per month </td><td> 43.5 cents</td></tr> +<tr><td>75 </td><td>Watcher of clothes in public bath, for each patron </td><td> .9 cent</td></tr> +</table> +<table> +<tr><th colspan="3"><h4>VIII</h4></th></tr> + +<tr><td>1<i>a</i> </td><td>Hide, Babylonian, first quality </td><td> $2.17</td></tr> +<tr><td>2 </td><td>Hide, Babylonian, second quality</td><td> $1.74</td></tr> +<tr><td>4 </td><td>Hide, Phœnician (?)</td><td>43</td><td> cents</td></tr> +<tr><td>6<i>a</i> </td><td>Cowhide, unworked, first quality </td><td> $2.17</td></tr> +<tr><td>7 </td><td>Cowhide, prepared for shoe soles</td><td> $3.26</td></tr> +<tr><td>9 </td><td>Hide, second quality, unworked</td><td> $1.31</td></tr> +<tr><td>10 </td><td>Hide, second quality, worked </td><td> $2.17</td></tr> +<tr><td>11 </td><td>Goatskin, large, unworked </td><td> 17 cents</td></tr> +<tr><td>12 </td><td>Goatskin, large, worked </td><td> 22 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>13 </td><td>Sheepskin, large, unworked </td><td> 8.7 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>14</td><td> Sheepskin, large, worked </td><td> 18 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>17 </td><td>Kidskin, unworked </td><td> 4.3 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>18 </td><td>Kidskin, worked </td><td> 7 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>27 </td><td>Wolfskin, unworked </td><td> 10.8 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>28 </td><td>Wolfskin, worked </td><td> 17.4 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>33 </td><td>Bearskin, large, unworked </td><td> 43 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>39 </td><td>Leopardskin, unworked </td><td> $4.35</td></tr> +<tr><td>41 </td><td>Lionskin, worked </td><td> $4.35</td></tr> +</table> +<table> +<tr><th colspan="3"><h4>IX<a id="p163"></a></h4></th></tr> + +<tr><td>5<i>a</i> </td><td>Boots, first quality, for mule-drivers and peasants, per pair, without nails </td><td> 52 cents</td></tr> +<tr><td>6 </td><td>Soldiers' boots, without nails</td><td> "</td></tr> +<tr><td>7 </td><td>Patricians' shoes</td><td> "</td></tr> +<tr><td>8 </td><td>Senatorial shoes</td><td> "</td></tr> +<tr><td>9 </td><td>Knights' shoes </td><td> 30.5 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>10 </td><td>Women's boots </td><td> 26 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>11 </td><td>Soldiers' shoes </td><td> 32.6 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>15 </td><td>Cowhide shoes for women, double soles </td><td> 21.7 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>16 </td><td>Cowhide shoes for women, single soles </td><td> 13 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>20 </td><td>Men's slippers </td><td> 26 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>21 </td><td>Women's slippers </td><td> 21.7 "</td></tr> +</table> +<table> +<tr><th colspan="3"><h4>XVI</h4></th></tr> +<tr><td>8<i>a</i> </td><td>Sewing-needle, finest quality </td><td> 1.7 cents</td></tr> +<tr><td>9 </td><td>Sewing-needle, second quality</td><td> .9 cent</td></tr> +</table> +<table> +<tr><th colspan="3"><h4>XVII</h4></th></tr> + +<tr><td>1 </td><td>Transportation, 1 person, 1 mile </td><td> .9 cent</td></tr> +<tr><td>2 </td><td>Rent for wagon, 1 mile </td><td> 5 cents</td></tr> +<tr><td>3 </td><td>Freight charges for wagon containing up to 1,200 pounds, per mile </td><td> 8.7 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>4 </td><td>Freight charges for camel load of 600 pounds, per mile </td><td> 3.5 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>5 </td><td>Rent for laden ass, per mile</td><td> 1.8 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>7 </td><td>Hay and straw, 3 pounds </td><td> .9 cent</td></tr> +</table> +<table> +<tr><th colspan="3"><h4>XVIII</h4></th></tr> +<tr><td>1<i>a</i></td><td> Goose-quills, per pound</td><td> 43.5 cents</td></tr> +<tr><td>11<i>a</i> </td><td>Ink, per pound </td><td> 5 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>12 </td><td>Reed pens from Paphos (10) </td><td> 1.7 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>13 </td><td>Reed pens, second quality (20) </td><td> 1.7 "</td></tr> +</table> +<table> +<tr><th colspan="3"><h4>XIX<a id="p164"></a></h4></th></tr> + +<tr><td>1</td><td> Military mantle, finest quality</td><td> $17.40</td></tr> +<tr><td>2</td><td>Undergarment, fine</td><td> $8.70</td></tr> +<tr><td>3</td><td>Undergarment, ordinary</td><td> $5.44</td></tr> +<tr><td>5</td><td> White bed blanket, finest sort, 12 pounds weight</td><td> $6.96</td></tr> +<tr><td>7 </td><td>Ordinary cover, 10 pounds weight</td><td> $2.18</td></tr> +<tr><td>28</td><td> Laodicean Dalmatica [<i>i.e., a tunic with sleeves</i>] $8.70</td></tr> +<tr><td>36 </td><td>British mantle, with cowl </td><td> $26.08</td></tr> +<tr><td>39 </td><td>Numidian mantle, with cowl </td><td> $13.04</td></tr> +<tr><td>42 </td><td>African mantle, with cowl </td><td> $6.52</td></tr> +<tr><td>51 </td><td>Laodicean storm coat, finest quality </td><td> $21.76</td></tr> +<tr><td>60 </td><td>Gallic soldier's cloak </td><td> $43.78</td></tr> +<tr><td>61 </td><td>African soldier's cloak </td><td> $2.17</td></tr> +</table> +<table> +<tr><th colspan="3"><h4>XX</h4></th></tr> + +<tr><td>1<i>a</i></td><td> For an embroiderer, for embroidering a half-silk undergarment, per ounce </td><td>87 cents</td></tr> +<tr><td>5 </td><td>For a gold embroiderer, if he work in gold, for finest work, per ounce </td><td>$4.35</td></tr> +<tr><td>9 </td><td>For a silk weaver, who works on stuff half-silk, besides "keep," per day </td><td> 11 cents</td></tr> +</table> +<table> +<tr><th colspan="3"><h4>XXI</h4></th></tr> + +<tr><td>2 </td><td>For working Tarentine or Laodicean or other foreign wool, with keep, per pound </td><td> 13 cents</td></tr> +<tr><td>5 </td><td>A linen weaver for fine work, with keep, per day </td><td> 18</td><td> "</td></tr> +</table> +<table> +<tr><th colspan="3"><h4>XXII</h4></th></tr> + +<tr><td>4</td><td> Fuller's charges for a cloak or mantle, new</td><td> 13 cents</td></tr> +<tr><td>6 </td><td>Fuller's charges for a woman's coarse Dalmatica, new </td><td> 21.7 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>9</td><td> Fuller's charges for a new half-silk undergarment </td><td> 76 "<a id="p165"></a></td></tr> +<tr><td>22</td><td> Fuller's charges for a new Laodicean mantle. </td><td> 76 "</td></tr> +</table> +<table> +<tr><th colspan="3"><h4>XXIII</h4></th></tr> + +<tr><td>1</td><td> White silk, per pound</td><td> $52.22</td></tr> +</table> +<table> +<tr><th colspan="3"><h4>XXIV</h4></th></tr> + +<tr><td>1 </td><td>Genuine purple silk, per pound</td><td> $652.20</td></tr> +<tr><td>2</td><td> Genuine purple wool, per pound</td><td> $217.40</td></tr> +<tr><td>3</td><td> Genuine light purple wool, per pound</td><td> $139.26</td></tr> +<tr><td>8 </td><td>Nicæan scarlet wool, per pound</td><td> $6.53</td></tr> +</table> +<table> +<tr><th colspan="3"><h4>XXV</h4></th></tr> + +<tr><td>1 </td><td>Washed Tarentine wool, per pound</td><td> 76 cents</td></tr> +<tr><td>2 </td><td>Washed Laodicean wool, per pound</td><td> 65 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>3 </td><td>Washed wool from Asturia, per pound</td><td>43.5 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>4 </td><td>Washed wool, best medium quality, per pound</td><td> 21.7 "</td></tr> +<tr><td>5 </td><td>All other washed wools, per pound</td><td>10.8 "</td></tr> +</table> +<table> +<tr><th colspan="3"><h4>XXVI</h4></th></tr> + +<tr><td>7<i>a</i> </td><td>Coarse linen thread, first quality, per pound</td><td> $3.13</td></tr> +<tr><td>8 </td><td>Coarse linen thread, second quality, per pound</td><td> $2.61</td></tr> +<tr><td>9 </td><td>Coarse linen thread, third quality, per pound</td><td> $1.96</td></tr> +</table> +<table> +<tr><th colspan="3"><h4>XXX</h4></th></tr> + +<tr><td>1 </td><td>Pure gold in bars or in coined pieces, per pound</td><td> 50,000 denarii</td></tr> +<tr><td>3 </td><td>Artificers, working in metal, per pound</td><td> $21.76</td></tr> +<tr><td>4 </td><td>Gold-beaters, per pound</td><td> $13.06</td></tr> +</table> +<p>Throughout the lists, as one may see, articles are grouped in a systematic +way. First we <a id="p166"></a>find grain and vegetables; then wine, oil, vinegar, salt, +honey, meat, fish, cheese, salads, and nuts. After these articles, in +chapter VII, we pass rather unexpectedly to the wages of the field +laborer, the carpenter, the painter, and of other skilled and unskilled +workmen. Then follow leather, shoes, saddles, and other kinds of raw +material and manufactured wares until we reach a total of more than eight +hundred articles. As we have said, the classification is in the main +systematic, but there are some strange deviations from a systematic +arrangement. Eggs, for instance, are in table VI with salads, vegetables, +and fruits. Bücher, who has discussed some phases of this price list, has +acutely surmised that perhaps the tables in whole, or in part, were drawn +up by the directors of imperial factories and magazines. The government +levied tribute "in kind," and it must have provided depots throughout the +provinces for the reception of contributions from its subjects. +Consequently in making out these tables it would very likely call upon the +directors of these magazines for assistance, and each of them in making +his report would naturally follow to some extent the list of articles +which the imperial depot <a id="p167"></a>controlled by him, carried in stock. At all +events, we see evidence of an expert hand in the list of linens, which +includes one hundred and thirty-nine articles of different qualities.</p> + +<p>As we have noticed in the passage quoted from the introduction, it is +unlawful for a person to charge more for any of his wares than the amount +specified in the law. Consequently, the prices are not normal, but maximum +prices. However, since the imperial lawgivers evidently believed that the +necessities of life were being sold at exorbitant rates, the maximum which +they fixed was very likely no greater than the prevailing market price. +Here and there, as in the nineteenth chapter of the document, the text is +given in tablets from two or more places. In such cases the prices are the +same, so that apparently no allowance was made for the cost of carriage, +although with some articles, like oysters and sea-fish, this item must +have had an appreciable value, and it certainly should have been taken +into account in fixing the prices of "British mantles" or "Gallic +soldiers' cloaks" of chapter XIX. The quantities for which prices are +given are so small—a pint of wine, a pair of fowls, twenty snails, ten +apples, a <a id="p168"></a>bunch of asparagus—that evidently Diocletian had the "ultimate +consumer" in mind, and fixed the retail price in his edict. This is +fortunate for us, because it helps us to get at the cost of living in the +early part of the fourth century. There is good reason for believing that +the system of barter prevailed much more generally at that time than it +does to-day. Probably the farmer often exchanged his grain, vegetables, +and eggs for shoes and cloth, without receiving or paying out money, so +that the money prices fixed for his products would not affect him in every +transaction as they would affect the present-day farmer. The unit of money +which is used throughout the edict is the copper denarius, and fortunately +the value of a pound of fine gold is given as 50,000 denarii. This fixes +the value of the denarius as .4352 cent, or approximately four-tenths of a +cent. It is implied in the introduction that the purpose of the law is to +protect the people, and especially the soldiers, from extortion, but +possibly, as Bücher has surmised, the emperor may have wished to maintain +or to raise the value of the denarius, which had been steadily declining +because of the addition of alloy to the coin. If this was <a id="p169"></a>the emperor's +object, possibly the value of the denarius is set somewhat too high, but +it probably does not materially exceed its exchange value, and in any +case, the relative values of articles given in the tables are not +affected.</p> + +<p>The tables bring out a number of points of passing interest. From chapter +II it seems to follow that Italian wines retained their ancient +pre-eminence, even in the fourth century. They alone are quoted among the +foreign wines. Table VI gives us a picture of the village market. On +market days the farmer brings his artichokes, lettuce, cabbages, turnips, +and other fresh vegetables into the market town and exposes them for sale +in the public square, as the country people in Italy do to-day. The +seventh chapter, in which wages are given, is perhaps of liveliest +interest. In this connection we should bear in mind the fact that slavery +existed in the Roman Empire, that owners of slaves trained them to various +occupations and hired them out by the day or job, and that, consequently +the prices paid for slave labor fixed the scale of wages. However, there +was a steady decline under the Empire in the number of <a id="p170"></a>slaves, and +competition with them in the fourth century did not materially affect the +wages of the free laborer. It is interesting, in this chapter, to notice +that the teacher and the advocate (Nos. 66-73) are classed with the +carpenter and tailor. It is a pleasant passing reflection for the teacher +of Greek and Latin to find that his predecessors were near the top of +their profession, if we may draw this inference from their remuneration +when compared with that of other teachers. It is worth observing also that +the close association between the classics and mathematics, and their +acceptance as the corner-stone of the higher training, to which we have +been accustomed for centuries, seems to be recognized (VII, 70) even at +this early date. We expect to find the physician mentioned with the +teacher and advocate, but probably it was too much even for Diocletian's +skill, in reducing things to a system, to estimate the comparative value +of a physician's services in a case of measles and typhoid fever.</p> + +<p>The bricklayer, the joiner, and the carpenter (VII, 2-3a), inasmuch as +they work on the premises of their employer, receive their "keep" as well +as a fixed wage, while the <a id="p171"></a>knife-grinder and the tailor (VII, 33, 42) +work in their own shops, and naturally have their meals at home. The +silk-weaver (XX, 9) and the linen-weaver (XXI, 5) have their "keep" also, +which seems to indicate that private houses had their own looms, which is +quite in harmony with the practices of our fathers. The carpenter and +joiner are paid by the day, the teacher by the month, the knife-grinder, +the tailor, the barber (VII, 22) by the piece, and the coppersmith (VII, +24a-27) according to the amount of metal which he uses. Whether the +difference between the prices of shoes for the patrician, the senator, and +the knight (IX, 7-9) represents a difference in the cost of making the +three kinds, or is a tax put on the different orders of nobility, cannot +be determined. The high prices set on silk and wool dyed with purple +(XXIV) correspond to the pre-eminent position of that imperial color in +ancient times. The tables which the edict contains call our attention to +certain striking differences between ancient and modern industrial and +economic conditions. Of course the list of wage-earners is incomplete. The +inscriptions which the trades guilds have left us record many occupations +which are not <a id="p172"></a>mentioned here, but in them and in these lists we miss any +reference to large groups of men who hold a prominent place in our modern +industrial reports—I mean men working in printing-offices, factories, +foundries, and machine-shops, and employed by transportation companies. +Nothing in the document suggests the application of power to the +manufacture of articles, the assembling of men in a common workshop, or +the use of any other machine than the hand loom and the mill for the +grinding of corn. In the way of articles offered for sale, we miss certain +items which find a place in every price-list of household necessities, +such articles as sugar, molasses, potatoes, cotton cloth, tobacco, coffee, +and tea. The list of stimulants (II) is, in fact, very brief, including as +it does only a few kinds of wine and beer.</p> + +<p>At the present moment, when the high cost of living is a subject which +engages the attention of the economist, politician, and householder, as it +did that of Diocletian and his contemporaries, the curious reader will +wish to know how wages and the prices of food in 301 A.D. compare with +those of to-day. In the two tables which follow, such a comparison <a id="p173"></a>is +attempted for some of the more important articles and occupations.</p> +<table> +<tr><th colspan="3"><h4>Articles of Food<sup><a href="#fn90">90</a></sup></h4></th></tr> + +<tr><th></th><th>Price in 301 A.D.</th><th> Price in 1906 A.D.</th></tr> + +<tr><td> Wheat, per bushel </td><td> 33.6 cents </td><td> $1.19<sup><a href="#fn91">91</a></sup></td></tr> +<tr><td> Rye, per bushel </td><td> 45 " </td><td> 79 cents<sup><a href="#fn91">91</a></sup></td></tr> +<tr><td> Beans, per bushel </td><td> 45 " </td><td> $3.20</td></tr> +<tr><td> Barley, per bushel </td><td> 74.5 " </td><td> 55 cents<sup><a href="#fn91">91</a></sup></td></tr> +<tr><td> Vinegar, per quart </td><td> 4.3 " </td><td> 5-7 "</td></tr> +<tr><td> Fresh pork, per pound </td><td> 7.3 " </td><td> 14-16 "</td></tr> +<tr><td> Beef, per pound </td><td> 4.9 " </td><td> { 9-12 "<br />{15-18 "</td></tr> +<tr><td> Mutton, per pound </td><td> 4.9 " </td><td> 13-16 "</td></tr> +<tr><td> Ham, per pound </td><td> 12 " </td><td> 18-25 "</td></tr> +<tr><td> Fowls, per pair </td><td> 26 "</td></tr> +<tr><td> Fowls, per pound </td><td> </td><td> 14-18 "</td></tr> +<tr><td> Butter, per pound </td><td> 9.8 " </td><td> 26-32 "</td></tr> +<tr><td> Fish, river, fresh, per pound </td><td> 7.3 " </td><td> 12-15 "</td></tr> +<tr><td> Fish, sea, fresh, per pound </td><td> 9-14 " </td><td> 8-14 cents<a id="p174"></a></td></tr> +<tr><td> Fish, salt, per pound </td><td> 8.3 " </td><td> 8-15 "</td></tr> +<tr><td> Cheese, per pound </td><td> 7.3 " </td><td> 17-20 "</td></tr> +<tr><td> Eggs, per dozen </td><td> 5.1 " </td><td> 25-30 "</td></tr> +<tr><td> Milk, cow's, per quart </td><td> </td><td> 6-8 "</td></tr> +<tr><td> Milk, sheep's, per quart </td><td> 6 "</td></tr> +</table> +<table> +<tr><th colspan="3"><h4> Wages Per Day</h4></th></tr> + +<tr><td> Unskilled workman </td><td> 10.8 cents (k)<sup><a href="#fn92">92</a></sup> </td><td>$1.20-2.24<sup><a href="#fn93">93</a></sup></td></tr> +<tr><td> Bricklayer </td><td> 21.6 " (k) </td><td> 4.50-6.50</td></tr> +<tr><td> Carpenter </td><td> 21.6 " (k) </td><td> 2.50-4.00</td></tr> +<tr><td> Stone-mason </td><td> 21.6 " (k) </td><td> 3.70-4.90</td></tr> +<tr><td> Painter </td><td> 32.4 " (k) </td><td> 2.75-4.00</td></tr> +<tr><td> Blacksmith </td><td> 21.6 " (k) </td><td> 2.15-3.20</td></tr> +<tr><td> Ship-builder </td><td> 21-26 " (k) </td><td> 2.15-3.50</td></tr> +</table> +<p>We are not so much concerned in knowing the prices of meat, fish, eggs, +and flour in 301 and 1911 A.D. as we are in finding out <a id="p175"></a>whether the Roman +or the American workman could buy more of these commodities with the +returns for his labor. A starting point for such an estimate is furnished +by the Eighteenth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, on the "Cost +of Living and Retail Prices of Food" (1903), and by Bulletin No. 77 of the +Bureau of Labor (1908). In the first of these documents (pp. 582, 583) the +expenditure for rent, fuel, food, and other necessities of life in 11,156 +normal American families whose incomes range from $200 to $1,200 per year +is given. In the other report (p. 344 <i>f.</i>) similar statistics are given +for 1,944 English urban families. In the first case the average amount +spent per year was $617, of which $266, or a little less than a half of +the entire income, was used in the purchase of food. The statistics for +England show a somewhat larger relative amount spent for food. Almost +exactly one-third of this expenditure for the normal American family was +for meat and fish.<sup><a href="#fn94">94</a></sup> Now, if we take the wages of the Roman carpenter, +for instance, as 21 cents per day, and add one-fourth or one-third for his +"<a id="p176"></a>keep," those of the same American workman as $2.50 to $4.00, it is clear +that the former received only a ninth or a fifteenth as much as the +latter, while the average price of pork, beef, mutton, and ham (7.3 cents) +in 301 A.D. was about a third of the average (19.6 cents) of the same +articles to-day. The relative averages of wheat, rye, and barley make a +still worse showing for ancient times while fresh fish was nearly as high +in Diocletian's time as it is in our own day. The ancient and modern +prices of butter and eggs stand at the ratio of one to three and one to +six respectively. For the urban workman, then, in the fourth century, +conditions of life must have been almost intolerable, and it is hard to +understand how he managed to keep soul and body together, when almost all +the nutritious articles of food were beyond his means. The taste of meat, +fish, butter, and eggs must have been almost unknown to him, and probably +even the coarse bread and vegetables on which he lived were limited in +amount. The peasant proprietor who could raise his own cattle and grain +would not find the burden so hard to bear.</p> + +<p>Only one question remains for us to answer. <a id="p177"></a>Did Diocletian succeed in his +bold attempt to reduce the cost of living? Fortunately the answer is given +us by Lactantius in the book which he wrote in 313-314 A.D., "On the +Deaths of Those Who Persecuted (the Christians)." The title of +Lactantius's work would not lead us to expect a very sympathetic treatment +of Diocletian, the arch-persecutor, but his account of the actual outcome +of the incident is hardly open to question. In Chapter VII of his +treatise, after setting forth the iniquities of the Emperor in constantly +imposing new burdens on the people, he writes: "And when he had brought on +a state of exceeding high prices by his different acts of injustice, he +tried to fix by law the prices of articles offered for sale. Thereupon, +for the veriest trifles much blood was shed, and out of fear nothing was +offered for sale, and the scarcity grew much worse, until, after the death +of many persons, the law was repealed from mere necessity." Thus came to +an end this early effort to reduce the high cost of living. Sixty years +later the Emperor Julian made a similar attempt on a small scale. He fixed +the price of corn for the people of Antioch by an edict. The holders of +grain hoarded their stock. <a id="p178"></a>The Emperor brought supplies of it into the +city from Egypt and elsewhere and sold it at the legal price. It was +bought up by speculators, and in the end Julian, like Diocletian, had to +acknowledge his inability to cope with an economic law.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch06"> +<h2><a id="p179"></a>Private Benefactions and Their Effect on the Municipal Life of the Romans</h2> + + + +<p>In the early days the authority of the Roman father over his wife, his +sons, and his daughters was absolute. He did what seemed to him good for +his children. His oversight and care extended to all the affairs of their +lives. The state was modelled on the family and took over the autocratic +power of the paterfamilias. It is natural to think of it, therefore, as a +paternal government, and the readiness with which the Roman subordinated +his own will and sacrificed his personal interests to those of the +community seems to show his acceptance of this theory of his relation to +the government. But this conception is correct in part only. A paternal +government seeks to foster all the common interests of its people and to +provide for their common needs. This the Roman state did not try to do, +and if we think of it as a paternal <a id="p180"></a>government, in the ordinary meaning +of that term, we lose sight of the partnership between state supervision +and individual enterprise in ministering to the common needs and desires, +which was one of the marked features of Roman life. In fact, the +gratification of the individual citizen's desire for those things which he +could not secure for himself depended in the Roman Empire, as it depends +in this country, not solely on state support, but in part on state aid, +and in part on private generosity. We see the truth of this very clearly +in studying the history of the Roman city. The phase of Roman life which +we have just noted may not fit into the ideas of Roman society which we +have hitherto held, but we can understand it as no other people can, +because in the United States and in England we are accustomed to the +co-operation of private initiative and state action in the establishment +and maintenance of universities, libraries, museums, and all sorts of +charitable institutions.</p> + +<p>If we look at the growth of private munificence under the Republic, we +shall see that citizens showed their generosity particularly in the +construction of public buildings, partly <a id="p181"></a>or entirely at their own +expense. In this way some of the basilicas in Rome and elsewhere which +served as courts of justice and halls of exchange were constructed. The +great Basilica Æmilia, for instance, whose remains may be seen in the +Forum to-day, was constructed by an Æmilius in the second century before +our era, and was accepted as a charge by his descendants to be kept in +condition and improved at the expense of the Æmilian family. Under +somewhat similar conditions Pompey built the great theatre which bore his +name, the first permanent theatre to be built in Rome, and always +considered one of the wonders of the city. The cost of this structure was +probably covered by the treasure which he brought back from his campaigns +in the East. In using the spoils of a successful war to construct +buildings or memorials in Rome, he was following the example of Mummius, +the conqueror of Corinth, and other great generals who had preceded him. +The purely philanthropic motive does not bulk largely in these gifts to +the citizens, because the people whose armies had won the victories were +part owners at least of the spoils, and because the victorious leader who +built <a id="p182"></a>the structure was actuated more by the hope of transmitting the +memory of his achievements to posterity in some conspicuous and +imperishable monument than by a desire to benefit his fellow citizens.</p> + +<p>These two motives, the one egoistic and the other altruistic, actuated all +the Roman emperors in varying degrees. The activity of Augustus in such +matters comes out clearly in the record of his reign, which he has left us +in his own words. This remarkable bit of autobiography, known as the +"Deeds of the Deified Augustus," the Emperor had engraved on bronze +tablets, placed in front of his mausoleum. The original has disappeared, +but fortunately a copy of it has been found on the walls of a ruined +temple at Ancyra, in Asia Minor, and furnishes us abundant proof of the +great improvements which he made in the city of Rome. We are told in it +that from booty he paid for the construction of the Forum of Augustus, +which was some four hundred feet long, three hundred wide, and was +surrounded by a wall one hundred and twenty feet high, covered on the +inside with marble and stucco. Enclosed within it and built with funds +coming from the same source <a id="p183"></a>was the magnificent temple of Mars the +Avenger, which had as its principal trophies the Roman standards recovered +from the Parthians. This forum and temple are only two items in the long +list of public improvements which Augustus records in his imperial +epitaph, for, as he proudly writes: "In my sixth consulship, acting under +a decree of the senate, I restored eighty-two temples in the city, +neglecting no temple which needed repair at the time." Besides the +temples, he mentions a large number of theatres, porticos, basilicas, +aqueducts, roads, and bridges which he built in Rome or in Italy outside +the city.</p> + +<p>But the Roman people had come to look for acts of generosity from their +political as well as from their military leaders, and this factor, too, +must be taken into account in the case of Augustus. In the closing years +of the Republic, candidates for office and men elected to office saw that +one of the most effective ways of winning and holding their popularity was +to give public entertainments, and they vied with one another in the +costliness of the games and pageants which they gave the people. The +well-known case of Cæsar will be recalled, who, during his term as ædile, +or commis<a id="p184"></a>sioner of public works, bankrupted himself by his lavish +expenditures on public improvements, and on the games, in which he +introduced three hundred and twenty pairs of gladiators for the amusement +of the people. In his book, "On the Offices," Cicero tells us of a thrifty +rich man, named Mamercus, who aspired to public office, but avoided taking +the ædileship, which stood in the regular sequence of minor offices, in +order that he might escape the heavy outlay for public entertainment +expected of the ædile. As a consequence, when later he came up for the +consulship, the people punished him by defeating him at the polls. To +check the growth of these methods of securing votes, Cicero, in his +consulship, brought in a corrupt practices act, which forbade citizens to +give gladiatorial exhibitions within two years of any election in which +they were candidates. We may doubt if this measure was effective. The +Roman was as clever as the American politician in accomplishing his +purpose without going outside the law. Perhaps an incident in the life of +Cicero's young friend, Curio, is a case in point. It was an old Roman +custom to celebrate the ninth day after a burial as a solemn family +<a id="p185"></a>festival, and some time in the second century before our era the practice +grew up of giving gladiatorial contests on these occasions. The versatile +Curio, following this practice, testified his respect for his father's +memory by giving the people such elaborate games that he never escaped +from the financial difficulties in which they involved him. However, this +tribute of pious affection greatly enhanced his popularity, and perhaps +did not expose him to the rigors of Cicero's law.</p> + +<p>These gifts from generals, from distinguished citizens, and from +candidates for office do not go far to prove a generous or philanthropic +spirit on the part of the donors, but they show clearly enough that the +practice of giving large sums of money to embellish the city, and to +please the public, had grown up under the Republic, and that the people of +Rome had come to regard it as the duty of their distinguished fellow +citizens to beautify the city and minister to their needs and pleasures by +generous private contributions.</p> + +<p>All these gifts were for the city of Rome, and for the people of the city, +not for the Empire, nor for Italy. This is characteristic of ancient +generosity or philanthropy, that its <a id="p186"></a>recipients are commonly the people +of a single town, usually the donor's native town. It is one of many +indications of the fact that the Roman thought of his city as the state, +and even under the Empire he rarely extended the scope of his benefactions +beyond the walls of a particular town. The small cities and villages +throughout the West reproduced the capital in miniature. Each was a little +world in itself. Each of them not only had its forum, its temples, +colonnades, baths, theatres, and arenas, but also developed a political +and social organization like that of the city of Rome. It had its own +local chief magistrates, distinguished by their official robes and +insignia of office, and its senators, who enjoyed the privilege of +occupying special seats in the theatre, and it was natural that the common +people at Ostia, Ariminum, or Lugudunum, like those at Rome, should expect +from those whom fortune had favored some return for the distinctions which +they enjoyed. In this way the prosperous in each little town came to feel +a sense of obligation to their native place, and this feeling of civic +pride and responsibility was strengthened by the same spirit of rivalry +between different villages that <a id="p187"></a>the Italian towns of the Middle Ages seem +to have inherited from their ancestors, a spirit of rivalry which made +each one eager to surpass the others in its beauty and attractiveness. +Perhaps there have never been so many beautiful towns in any other period +in history as there were in the Roman Empire, during the second century of +our era, and their attractive features—their colonnades, temples, +fountains, and works of art—were due in large measure to the generosity +of private citizens. We can make this statement with considerable +confidence, because these benefactions are recorded for us on innumerable +tablets of stone and bronze, scattered throughout the Empire.</p> + +<p>These contributions not only helped to meet the cost of building temples, +colonnades, and other structures, but they were often intended to cover a +part of the running expenses of the city. This is one of the novel +features of Roman municipal life. We can understand the motives which +would lead a citizen of New York or Boston to build a museum or an arch in +his native city. Such a structure would serve as a monument to him; it +would give distinction to the city, and it would give him and his fellow +citizens æsthetic satisfaction <a id="p188"></a>tion But if a rich New Yorker should give +a large sum to mend the pavement in Union Square or extend the sewer +system on Canal Street, a judicial inquiry into his sanity would not be +thought out of place. But the inscriptions show us that rich citizens +throughout the Roman Empire frequently made large contributions for just +such unromantic purposes. It is unfortunate that a record of the annual +income and expenses of some Italian or Gallic town has not come down to +us. It would be interesting, for instance, to compare the budget of Mantua +or Ancona, in the first century of our era, with that of Princeton or +Cambridge in the twentieth. But, although we rarely know the sums which +were expended for particular purposes, a mere comparison of the objects +for which they were spent is illuminating. The items in the ancient budget +which find no place in our own, and vice versa, are significant of certain +striking differences between ancient and modern municipal life.</p> + +<p>Common to the ancient and the modern city are expenditures for the +construction and maintenance of public buildings, sewers, aqueducts, and +streets, but with these items the <a id="p189"></a>parallelism ends. The ancient objects +of expenditure which find no place in the budget of an American town are +the repair of the town walls, the maintenance of public worship, the +support of the baths, the sale of grain at a low price, and the giving of +games and theatrical performances. It is very clear that the ancient +legislator made certain provisions for the physical and spiritual welfare +of his fellow citizens which find little or no place in our municipal +arrangements to-day. If, among the sums spent for the various objects +mentioned above, we compare the amounts set apart for religion and for the +baths, we may come to the conclusion that the Roman read the old saying, +"Cleanliness is next to godliness" in the amended form "Cleanliness is +next above godliness." No city in the Empire seems to have been too small +or too poor to possess public baths, and how large an item of annual +expense their care was is clear from the fact that an article of the +Theodosian code provided that cities should spend at least one-third of +their incomes on the heating of the baths and the repair of the walls. The +great idle population of the city of Rome had to be provided with food at +<a id="p190"></a>public expense. Otherwise riot and disorder would have followed, but in +the towns the situation was not so threatening, and probably furnishing +grain to the people did not constitute a regular item of expense. So far +as public entertainments were concerned, the remains of theatres and +amphitheatres in Pompeii, Fiesole, Aries, Orange, and at many other places +to-day furnish us visible evidence of the large sums which ancient towns +must have spent on plays and gladiatorial games. In the city of Rome in +the fourth century, there were one hundred and seventy-five days on which +performances were given in the theatres, arenas, and amphitheatres.</p> + +<p>We have been looking at the items which were peculiar to the ancient +budget. Those which are missing from it are still more indicative, if +possible, of differences between Roman character and modes of life and +those of to-day. Provision was rarely made for schools, museums, +libraries, hospitals, almshouses, or for the lighting of streets. No +salaries were paid to city officials; no expenditure was made for police +or for protection against fire, and the slaves whom every town owned +probably took care of the public build<a id="p191"></a>ings and kept the streets clean. +The failure of the ancient city government to provide for educational and +charitable institutions, means, as we shall see later, that in some cases +these matters were neglected, that in others they were left to private +enterprise. It appears strange that the admirable police and fire system +which Augustus introduced into Rome was not adopted throughout the Empire, +but that does not seem to have been the case, and life and property must +have been exposed to great risks, especially on festival days and in the +unlighted streets at night. The rich man could be protected by his +bodyguard of clients, and have his way lighted at night by the torches +which his slaves carried, but the little shopkeeper must have avoided the +dark alleys or attached himself to the retinue of some powerful man. Some +of us will recall in this connection the famous wall painting at Pompeii +which depicts the riotous contest between the Pompeians and the people of +the neighboring town of Nuceria, at the Pompeian gladiatorial games in 50 +B.C., when stones were thrown and weapons freely used. What scenes of +violence and disorder there must have been on such occasions as these, +<a id="p192"></a>without systematic police surveillance, can be readily imagined.</p> + +<p>The sums of money which an ancient or a modern city spends fall in two +categories—the amounts which are paid out for permanent improvements, and +the running expenses of the municipality. We have just been looking at the +second class of expenditures, and our brief examination of it shows +clearly enough that the ancient city took upon its shoulders only a small +part of the burden which a modern municipality assumes. It will be +interesting now to see how far the municipal outlay for running expenses +was supplemented by private generosity, and to find out the extent to +which the cities were indebted to the same source for their permanent +improvements. A great deal of light is thrown on these two questions by +the hundreds of stone and bronze tablets which were set up by donors +themselves or by grateful cities to commemorate the gifts made to them. +The responsibility which the rich Roman felt to spend his money for the +public good was unequivocally stated by the poet Martial in one of his +epigrams toward the close of the first century of our era. The speaker in +the poem <a id="p193"></a>tells his friend Pastor why he is striving to be rich—not that +he may have broad estates, rich appointments, fine wines, or troops of +slaves, but "that he may give and build for the public good" ("ut donem, +Pastor, et ædificem"), and this feeling of stewardship found expression in +a steady outpouring of gifts in the interests of the people.</p> + +<p>The practice of giving may well have started with the town officials. We +have already noticed that in Rome, under the Republic, candidates for +office, in seeking votes, and magistrates, in return for the honors paid +them, not infrequently spent large sums on the people. In course of time, +in the towns throughout the Empire this voluntary practice became a legal +obligation resting on local officials. This fact is brought out in the +municipal charter of Urso,<sup><a href="#fn95">95</a></sup> the modern Osuna, in Spain. Half of this +document, engraved on tablets, was discovered in Spain about forty years +ago, and makes a very interesting contribution to our knowledge of +municipal life. A colony was sent out to Urso, in 44 B.C., by Julius +Cæsar, under the care of Mark Antony, and the municipal constitu<a id="p194"></a>tion of +the colony was drawn up by one of these two men. In the seventieth +article, we read of the duumvirs, who were the chief magistrates: "Whoever +shall be duumvirs, with the exception of those who shall have first been +elected after the passage of this law, let the aforesaid during their +magistracy give a public entertainment or plays in honor of the gods and +goddesses Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, for four days, during the greater +part of the day, so far as it may be done, at the discretion of the common +councillors, and on these games and this entertainment let each one of +them spend from his own money not less than two thousand sesterces." The +article which follows in the document provides that the ædiles, or the +officials next in rank, shall give gladiatorial games and plays for three +days, and one day of races in the circus, and for these entertainments +they also must spend not less than two thousand sesterces.</p> + +<p>Here we see the modern practice reversed. City officials, instead of +receiving a salary for their services, not only serve without pay, but are +actually required by law to make a public contribution. It will be noticed +that the law <a id="p195"></a>specified the minimum sum which a magistrate <i>must</i> spend. +The people put no limit on what he <i>might</i> spend, and probably most of the +duumvirs of Urso gave more than $80, or, making allowance for the +difference in the purchasing value of money, $250, for the entertainment +of the people. In fact a great many honorary inscriptions from other towns +tell us of officials who made generous additions to the sum required by +law. So far as their purpose and results go, these expenditures may be +compared with the "campaign contributions" made by candidates for office +in this country. There is a strange likeness and unlikeness between the +two. The modern politician makes his contribution before the election, the +ancient politician after it. In our day the money is expended largely to +provide for public meetings where the questions of the day shall be +discussed. In Roman times it was spent upon public improvements, and upon +plays, dinners, and gladiatorial games. Among us public sentiment is +averse to the expenditure of large sums to secure an election. The Romans +desired and expected it, and those who were open-handed in this matter +took care to have a record of their <a id="p196"></a>gifts set down where it could be read +by all men.</p> + +<p>On general grounds we should expect our system to have a better effect on +the intelligence and character of the people, and to secure better +officials. The discussion of public questions, even in a partisan way, +brings them to the attention of the people, sets the people thinking, and +helps to educate voters on political and economic matters. If we may draw +an inference from the election posters in Pompeii, such subjects played a +small part in a city election under the Empire. It must have been +demoralizing, too, to a Pompeian or a citizen of Salona to vote for a +candidate, not because he would make the most honest and able duumvir or +ædile among the men canvassing for the office, but because he had the +longest purse. How our sense of propriety would be shocked if the newly +elected mayor of Hartford or Montclair should give a gala performance in +the local theatre to his fellow-citizens or pay for a free exhibition by a +circus troupe! But perhaps we should overcome our scruples and go, as the +people of Pompeii did, and perhaps our consciences would be completely +salved if the <a id="p197"></a>aforesaid mayor proceeded to lay a new pavement in Main +Street, to erect a fountain on the Green, or stucco the city hall. +Naturally only rich men could be elected to office in Roman towns, and in +this respect the same advantages and disadvantages attach to the Roman +system as we find in the practice which the English have followed up to +the present time of paying no salary to members of the House of Commons, +and in our own practice of letting our ambassadors meet a large part of +their legitimate expenses.</p> + +<p>The large gifts made to their native towns by rich men elected to public +office set an example which private citizens of means followed in an +extraordinary way. Sometimes they gave statues, or baths, or fountains, or +porticos, and sometimes they provided for games, or plays, or dinners, or +lottery tickets. Perhaps nothing can convey to our minds so clear an +impression of the motives of the donors, the variety and number of the +gifts, and their probable effect on the character of the people as to read +two or three specimens of these dedicatory inscriptions. The citizens of +Lanuvium, near Rome, set up a monument in honor of a certain Valerius, +"because he <a id="p198"></a>cleaned out and restored the water courses for a distance of +three miles, put the pipes in position again, and restored the two baths +for men and the bath for women, all at his own expense."<sup><a href="#fn96">96</a></sup> A citizen of +Sinuessa leaves this record: "Lucius Papius Pollio, the duumvir, to his +father, Lucius Papius. Cakes and mead to all the citizens of Sinuessa and +Cædici; gladiatorial games and a dinner for the people of Sinuessa and the +Papian clan; a monument at a cost of 12,000 sesterces."<sup><a href="#fn97">97</a></sup> Such a +catholic provision to suit all tastes should certainly have served to keep +his father from being forgotten. A citizen of Beneventum lays claim to +distinction because "he first scattered tickets among the people by means +of which he distributed gold, silver, bronze, linen garments, and other +things."<sup><a href="#fn98">98</a></sup> The people of Telesia, a little town in Campania, pay this +tribute to their distinguished patron: "To Titus Fabius Severus, patron of +the town, for his services at home and abroad, and because he, first of +all those who have instituted games, gave at his own expense five wild +beasts from Africa, a company of gladiators, and a splen<a id="p199"></a>did equipment, +the senate and citizens have most gladly granted a statue."<sup><a href="#fn99">99</a></sup> The office +of patron was a characteristic Roman institution. Cities and villages +elected to this position some distinguished Roman senator or knight, and +he looked out for the interests of the community in legal matters and +otherwise.</p> + +<p>This distinction was held in high esteem, and recipients of it often +testified their appreciation by generous gifts to the town which they +represented, or were chosen patrons because of their benefactions. This +fact is illustrated in the following inscription from Spoletium: "Gaius +Torasius Severus, the son of Gaius, of the Horatian tribe, quattuorvir +with judicial power, augur, in his own name, and in the name of his son +Publius Meclonius Proculus Torasianus, the pontiff, erected (this) on his +land (?) and at his own expense. He also gave the people 250,000 sesterces +to celebrate his son's birthday, from the income of which each year, on +the third day before the Kalends of September, the members of the Common +Council are to dine in public, and each citizen who is present is to +receive eight <i>asses</i>. He also gave to the seviri Augustales, <a id="p200"></a>and to the +priests of the Lares, and to the overseers of the city wards, 120,000 +sesterces, in order that from the income of this sum they might have a +public dinner on the same day. Him, for his services to the community, the +senate has chosen patron of the town."<sup><a href="#fn100">100</a></sup> A town commonly showed its +appreciation of what had been done for it by setting up a statue in honor +of its benefactor, as was done in the case of Fabius Severus, and the +public squares of Italian and provincial towns must have been adorned with +many works of art of this sort. It amuses one to find at the bottom of +some of the commemorative tablets attached to these statues, the statement +that the man distinguished in this way, "contented with the honor, has +himself defrayed the cost of the monument." To pay for a popular +testimonial to one's generosity is indeed generosity in its perfect form. +The statues themselves have disappeared along with the towns which erected +them, but the tablets remain, and by a strange dispensation of fate the +monument which a town has set up to perpetuate the memory of one of its +citizens is sometimes the only record we have of the town's own existence.</p> + +<p><a id="p201"></a>The motives which actuated the giver were of a mixed character, as these +memorials indicate. Sometimes it was desire for the applause of his fellow +citizens, or for posthumous fame, which influenced a donor; sometimes +civic pride and affection. In many cases it was the compelling force of +custom, backed up now and then, as we can see from the inscriptions, by +the urgent demands of the populace. Out of this last sentiment there would +naturally grow a sense of the obligation imposed by the possession of +wealth, and this feeling is closely allied to pure generosity. In fact, it +would probably be wrong not to count this among the original motives which +actuated men in making their gifts, because the spirit of devotion to the +state and to the community was a marked characteristic of Romans in the +republican period.</p> + +<p>The effects which this practice of giving had on municipal life and on the +character of the people are not without importance and interest. The +lavish expenditure expected of a magistrate and the ever-increasing +financial obligations laid upon him by the central government made +municipal offices such an intolerable burden that the charter of Urso of +<a id="p202"></a>the first century A.D., which has been mentioned above, has to resort to +various ingenious devices to compel men to hold them. The position of a +member of a town council was still worse. He was not only expected to +contribute generously to the embellishment and support of his native city, +but he was also held responsible for the collection of the imperial taxes. +As prosperity declined he found this an increasingly difficult thing to +do, and seats in the local senate were undesirable. The central government +could not allow the men responsible for its revenues to escape their +responsibility. Consequently, it interposed and forced them to accept the +honor. Some of them enlisted in the army, or even fled into the desert, +but whenever they were found they were brought back to take up their +positions again. In the fourth century, service in the common council was +even made a penalty imposed upon criminals. Finally, it became hereditary, +and it is an amusing but pathetic thing to find that this honor, so highly +prized in the early period, became in the end a form of serfdom.</p> + +<p>We have been looking at the effects of private generosity on official +life. Its results for <a id="p203"></a>the private citizen are not so clear, but it must +have contributed to that decline of independence and of personal +responsibility which is so marked a feature of the later Empire. The +masses contributed little, if anything, to the running expenses of +government and the improvement of the city. The burdens fell largely upon +the rich. It was a system of quasi-socialism. Those who had, provided for +those who had not—not merely markets and temples, and colonnades, and +baths, but oil for the baths, games, plays, and gratuities of money. Since +their needs were largely met by others, the people lost more and more the +habit of providing for themselves and the ability to do so. When +prosperity declined, and the wealthy could no more assist them, the end +came.</p> + +<p>The objects for which donors gave their money seem to prove the +essentially materialistic character of Roman civilization, because we must +assume that those who gave knew the tastes of the people. Sometimes men +like Pliny the Younger gave money for libraries or schools, but such gifts +seem to have been relatively infrequent. Benefactions are commonly +intended to satisfy the material <a id="p204"></a>needs or gratify the desire of the +people for pleasure.</p> + +<p>Under the old régime charity was unknown. There were neither almshouses +nor hospitals, and scholars have called attention to the fact that even +the doles of corn which the state gave were granted to citizens only. Mere +residents or strangers were left altogether out of consideration, and they +were rarely included within the scope of private benevolence. In the +following chapter, in discussing the trades-guilds, we shall see that even +they made no provision for the widow or orphan, or for their sick or +disabled members. It was not until Christianity came that the poor and the +needy were helped because of their poverty and need.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch07"> +<h2><a id="p205"></a>Some Reflections on Corporations and Trades-Guilds</h2> + + + +<p>In a recent paper on "Ancient and Modern Imperialism," read before the +British Classical Association, Lord Cromer, England's late consul-general +in Egypt, notes certain points of resemblance between the English and the +Roman methods of dealing with alien peoples. With the Greeks no such +points of contact exist, because, as he remarks, "not only was the +imperial idea foreign to the Greek mind; the federal conception was +equally strange." This similarity between the political character and +methods of the Romans and Anglo-Saxons strikes any one who reads the +history of the two peoples side by side. They show the same genius for +government at home, and a like success in conquering and holding foreign +lands, and in assimilating alien peoples. Certain qualities which they +have in common contribute to these like results. Both the Roman and the +Anglo-Saxon have been men of affairs; both <a id="p206"></a>have shown great skill in +adapting means to an end, and each has driven straight at the immediate +object to be accomplished without paying much heed to logic or political +theory. A Roman statesman would have said "Amen!" to the Englishman's +pious hope that "his countrymen might never become consistent or logical +in politics." Perhaps the willingness of the average Roman to co-operate +with his fellows, and his skill in forming an organization suitable for +the purpose in hand, go farther than any of the other qualities mentioned +above to account for his success in governing other peoples as well as his +own nation.</p> + +<p>Our recognition of these striking points of resemblance between the Romans +and ourselves has come from a comparative study of the political life of +the two peoples. But the likeness to each other of the Romans and +Anglo-Saxons, especially in the matter of associating themselves together +for a common object, is still more apparent in their methods of dealing +with private affairs. A characteristic and amusing illustration of the +working of this tendency among the Romans is furnished by the early +history of monasticism in <a id="p207"></a>the Roman world. When the Oriental Christian +had convinced himself of the vanity of the world, he said: "It is the +weakness of the flesh and the enticements of the wicked which tempt me to +sin. Therefore I will withdraw from the world and mortify the flesh." This +is the spirit which drove him into the desert or the mountains, to live in +a cave with a lion or a wolf for his sole companion. This is the spirit +which took St. Anthony into a solitary place in Egypt. It led St. Simeon +Stylites to secure a more perfect sense of aloofness from the world, and a +greater security from contact with it by spending the last thirty years of +his life on the top of a pillar near Antioch. In the Western world, which +was thoroughly imbued with the Roman spirit, the Christian who held the +same view as his Eastern brother of the evil results flowing from +intercourse with his fellow men, also withdrew from the world, but he +withdrew in the company of a group of men who shared his opinions on the +efficacy of a life of solitude. A delightful instance of the triumph of +the principle of association over logic or theory! We Americans can +understand perfectly the compelling force of the principle, even in such a +case as this, <a id="p208"></a>and we should justify the Roman's action on the score of +practical common sense. We have organizations for almost every conceivable +political, social, literary, and economic purpose. In fact, it would be +hard to mention an object for which it would not be possible to organize a +club, a society, a league, a guild, or a union. In a similar way the +Romans had organizations of capitalists and laborers, religious +associations, political and social clubs, and leagues of veterans.</p> + +<p>So far as organizations of capitalists are concerned, their history is +closely bound up with that of imperialism. They come to our notice for the +first time during the wars with Carthage, when Rome made her earliest +acquisitions outside of Italy. In his account of the campaigns in Spain +against Hannibal's lieutenants, Livy tells us<sup><a href="#fn101">101</a></sup> of the great straits to +which the Roman army was reduced for its pay, food, and clothing. The need +was urgent, but the treasury was empty, and the people poverty-stricken. +In this emergency the prætor called a public meeting, laid before it the +situation in Spain, and, appealing to the joint-stock companies to come to +the relief of the <a id="p209"></a>state, appointed a day when proposals could be made to +furnish what was required by the army. On the appointed day three +<i>societates</i>, or corporations, offered to make the necessary loans to the +government; their offers were accepted, and the needs of the army were +met. The transaction reminds us of similar emergencies in our civil war, +when syndicates of bankers came to the support of the government. The +present-day tendency to question the motives of all corporations dealing +with the government does not seem to color Livy's interpretation of the +incident, for he cites it in proof of the patriotic spirit which ran +through all classes in the face of the struggle with Carthage. The +appearance of the joint-stock company at the moment when the policy of +territorial expansion is coming to the front is significant of the close +connection which existed later between imperialism and corporate finance, +but the later relations of corporations to the public interests cannot +always be interpreted in so charitable a fashion.</p> + +<p>Our public-service companies find no counter-part in antiquity, but the +Roman societies for the collection of taxes bear a resemblance to these +modern organizations of capital in the <a id="p210"></a>nature of the franchises, as we +may call them, and the special privileges which they had. The practice +which the Roman government followed of letting out to the highest bidder +the privilege of collecting the taxes in each of the provinces, naturally +gave a great impetus to the development of companies organized for this +purpose. Every new province added to the Empire opened a fresh field for +capitalistic enterprise, in the way not only of farming the taxes, but +also of loaning money, constructing public works, and leasing the mines +belonging to the state, and Roman politicians must have felt these +financial considerations steadily pushing them on to further conquests.</p> + +<p>But the interest of the companies did not end when Roman eagles had been +planted in a new region. It was necessary to have the provincial +government so managed as to help the agents of the companies in making as +much money as possible out of the provincials, and Cicero's year as +governor of Cilicia was made almost intolerable by the exactions which +these agents practised on the Cilicians, and the pressure which they +brought to bear upon him and his subordinates. His letters to his intimate +friend, Atticus, during this <a id="p211"></a>period contain pathetic accounts of the +embarrassing situations in which loaning companies and individual +capitalists at Rome placed him. On one occasion a certain Scaptius came to +him<sup><a href="#fn102">102</a></sup>, armed with a strong letter of recommendation from the impeccable +Brutus, and asked to be appointed prefect of Cyprus. His purpose was, by +official pressure, to squeeze out of the people of Salamis, in Cyprus, a +debt which they owed, running at forty-eight per cent interest. Upon +making some inquiry into the previous history of Scaptius, Cicero learned +that under his predecessor in Cilicia, this same Scaptius had secured an +appointment as prefect of Cyprus, and backed by his official power, to +collect money due his company, had shut up the members of the Salaminian +common council in their town hall until five of them died of starvation. +In domestic politics the companies played an equally important rôle. The +relations which existed between the "interests" and political leaders were +as close in ancient times as they are to-day, and corporations were as +unpartisan in Rome in their political alliances as they are in the United +<a id="p212"></a>States. They impartially supported the democratic platforms of Gaius +Gracchus and Julius Cæsar in return for valuable concessions, and backed +the candidacy of the constitutionalist Pompey for the position of +commander-in-chief of the fleets and armies acting against the Eastern +pirates, and against Mithridates, in like expectation of substantial +returns for their help. What gave the companies their influence at the +polls was the fact that their shares were very widely held by voters. +Polybius, the Greek historian, writing of conditions at Rome in the second +century B.C., gives us to understand that almost every citizen owned +shares in some joint-stock company<sup><a href="#fn103">103</a></sup>. Poor crops in Sicily, heavy rains +in Sardinia, an uprising in Gaul, or "a strike" in the Spanish mines would +touch the pocket of every middle-class Roman.</p> + +<p>In these circumstances it is hard to see how the Roman got on without +stock quotations in the newspapers. But Cæsar's publication of the <i>Acta +Diurna</i>, or proceedings of the senate and assembly, would take the place +of our newspapers in some respects, and the crowds which gathered at the +points where <a id="p213"></a>these documents were posted, would remind us of the throngs +collected in front of the bulletin in the window of a newspaper office +when some exciting event has occurred. Couriers were constantly arriving +from the agents of corporations in Gaul, Spain, Africa, and Asia with the +latest news of industrial and financial enterprises in all these sections. +What a scurrying of feet there must have been through the streets when the +first news reached Rome of the insurrection of the proletariat in Asia in +88 B.C., and of the proclamation of Mithridates guaranteeing release from +half of their obligations to all debtors who should kill money-lenders! +Asiatic stocks must have dropped almost to the zero point. We find no +evidence of the existence of an organized stock exchange. Perhaps none was +necessary, because the shares of stock do not seem to have been +transferable, but other financial business arising out of the organization +of these companies, like the loaning of money on stock, could be +transacted reasonably well in the row of banking offices which ran along +one side of the Forum, and made it an ancient Wall Street or Lombard +Street.</p> + +<p>"Trusts" founded to control prices troub<a id="p214"></a>led the Romans, as they trouble +us to-day. There is an amusing reference to one of these trade +combinations as early as the third century before our era in the Captives +of Plautus.<sup><a href="#fn104">104</a></sup> The parasite in the play has been using his best quips +and his most effective leads to get an invitation to dinner, but he can't +provoke a smile, to say nothing of extracting an invitation. In a high +state of indignation he threatens to prosecute the men who avoid being his +hosts for entering into an unlawful combination like that of "the oil +dealers in the Velabrum." Incidentally it is a rather interesting +historical coincidence that the pioneer monopoly in Rome, as in our day, +was an oil trust—in the time of Plautus, of course, an olive-oil trust. +In the "Trickster," which was presented in 191 B.C., a character refers to +the mountains of grain which the dealers had in their warehouses.<sup><a href="#fn105">105</a></sup> Two +years later the "corner" had become so effective that the government +intervened, and the curule ædiles who had charge of the markets imposed a +heavy fine on the grain speculators.<sup><a href="#fn106">106</a></sup> The case was apparently +prosecuted under the <a id="p215"></a>Laws of the Twelve Tables of 450 B.C., the Magna +Charta of Roman liberty. It would seem, therefore, that combinations in +restraint of trade were formed at a very early date in Rome, and perhaps +Diocletian's attempt in the third century of our era to lower the cost of +living by fixing the prices of all sorts of commodities was aimed in part +at the same evil. As for government ownership, the Roman state made one or +two essays in this field, notably in the case of mines, but with +indifferent success.</p> + +<p>Labor was as completely organized as capital.<sup><a href="#fn107">107</a></sup> In fact the passion of +the Romans for association shows itself even more clearly here, and it +would be possible to write their industrial history from a study of their +trades-unions. The story of Rome carries the founding of these guilds back +to the early days of the regal period. From the investigations of +Waltzing, Liebenam, and others their history <a id="p216"></a>can be made out in +considerable detail. Roman tradition was delightfully systematic in +assigning the founding of one set of institutions to one king and of +another group to another king. Romulus, for instance, is the war king, and +concerns himself with military and political institutions. The second +king, Numa, is a man of peace, and is occupied throughout his reign with +the social and religious organization of his people. It was Numa who +established guilds of carpenters, dyers, shoemakers, tanners, workers in +copper and gold, fluteplayers, and potters. The critical historian looks +with a sceptical eye on the story of the kings, and yet this list of +trades is just what we should expect to find in primitive Rome. There are +no bakers or weavers, for instance, in the list. We know that in our own +colonial days the baking, spinning, and weaving were done at home, as they +would naturally have been when Rome was a community of shepherds and +farmers. As Roman civilization became more complex, industrial +specialization developed, and the number of guilds grew, but during the +Republic we cannot trace their growth very successfully for lack of +information about them. Corporations, as we have <a id="p217"></a>seen, played an +important part in politics, and their doings are chronicled in the +literature, like oratory and history, which deals with public questions, +but the trades-guilds had little share in politics; they were made up of +the obscure and weak, and consequently are rarely mentioned in the +writings of a Cicero or a Livy.</p> + +<p>It is only when the general passion for setting down records of all sorts +of enterprises and incidents on imperishable materials came in with the +Empire that the story of the Roman trades-union can be clearly followed. +It is a fortunate thing for us that this mania swept through the Roman +Empire, because it has given us some twenty-five hundred inscriptions +dealing with these organizations of workmen. These inscriptions disclose +the fact that there were more than eighty different trades organized into +guilds in the city of Rome alone. They included skilled and unskilled +laborers, from the porters, or <i>saccarii</i>, to the goldsmiths, or +<i>aurifices</i>. The names of some of them, like the <i>pastillarii</i>, or guild +of pastile-makers, and the <i>scabillarii</i>, or castanet-players, indicate a +high degree of industrial specialization. From one man's tombstone even +<a id="p218"></a>the conclusion seems to follow that he belonged to a union of what we may +perhaps call checker-board makers. The merchants formed trade associations +freely. Dealers in oil, in wine, in fish, and in grain are found organized +all over the Empire. Even the perfumers, hay-dealers, and ragmen had their +societies. No line of distinction seems to be drawn between the artist and +the artisan. The mason and the sculptor were classed in the same category +by Roman writers, so that we are not surprised to find unions of men in +both occupations. A curious distinction between the professions is also +brought out by these guild inscriptions. There are unions made up of +physicians, but none of lawyers, for the lawyer in early times was +supposed to receive no remuneration for his services. In point of fact the +physician was on a lower social plane in Rome than he was even among our +ancestors. The profession was followed almost exclusively by Greek +freedmen, as we can see from the records on their tombstones, and was +highly specialized, if we may judge from the epitaphs of eye and ear +doctors, surgeons, dentists, and veterinarians. To the same category with +the physician and sculptor <a id="p219"></a>belong the architect, the teacher, and the +chemist. Men of these professions pursued the <i>artes liberales</i>, as the +Romans put it, and constituted an aristocracy among those engaged in the +trades or lower professions. Below them in the hierarchy came those who +gained a livelihood by the <i>artes ludicræ</i>, like the actor, professional +dancer, juggler, or gladiator, and in the lowest caste were the +carpenters, weavers, and other artisans whose occupations were <i>artes +vulgares et sordidæ</i>.</p> + +<p>In the early part of this chapter the tendency of the Romans to form +voluntary associations was noted as a national characteristic. This fact +comes out very clearly if we compare the number of trades-unions in the +Western world with those in Greece and the Orient. Our conclusions must be +drawn of course from the extant inscriptions which refer to guilds, and +time may have dealt more harshly with the stones in one place than in +another, or the Roman government may have given its consent to the +establishment of such organizations with more reluctance in one province +than another; but, taking into account the fact that we have guild +inscriptions from four hundred and seventy-five towns and villages in the +<a id="p220"></a>Empire, these elements of uncertainty in our conclusions are practically +eliminated, and a fair comparison may be drawn between conditions in the +East and the West. If we pick out some of the more important towns in the +Greek part of the Roman world, we find five guilds reported from Tralles +in Caria, six from Smyrna, one from Alexandria, and eleven from Hierapolis +in Phrygia. On the other hand, in the city of Rome there were more than +one hundred, in Brixia (modern Brescia) seventeen or more, in Lugudunum +(Lyons) twenty at least, and in Canabæ, in the province of Dacia, five. +These figures, taken at random for some of the larger towns in different +parts of the Empire, bring out the fact very clearly that the western and +northern provinces readily accepted Roman ideas and showed the Roman +spirit, as illustrated in their ability and willingness to co-operate for +a common purpose, but that the Greek East was never Romanized. Even in the +settlements in Dacia, which continued under Roman rule only from 107 to +270 A.D., we find as many trades-unions as existed in Greek towns which +were held by the Romans for three or four centuries. The comparative +number of guilds and of guild <a id="p221"></a>inscriptions would, in fact, furnish us +with a rough test of the extent to which Rome impressed her civilization +on different parts of the Empire, even if we had no other criteria. We +should know, for instance, that less progress had been made in Britain +than in Southern Gaul, that Salona in Dalmatia, Lugudunum in Gaul, and +Mogontiacum (Mainz) in Germany were important centres of Roman +civilization. It is, of course, possible from a study of these +inscriptions to make out the most flourishing industries in the several +towns, but with that we are not concerned here.</p> + +<p>These guilds which we have been considering were trades-unions in the +sense that they were organizations made up of men working in the same +trade, but they differed from modern unions, and also from mediaeval +guilds, in the objects for which they were formed. They made no attempt to +raise wages, to improve working conditions, to limit the number of +apprentices, to develop skill and artistic taste in the craft, or to +better the social or political position of the laborer. It was the need +which their members felt for companionship, sympathy, and help in the +<a id="p222"></a>emergencies of life, and the desire to give more meaning to their lives, +that drew them together. These motives explain the provisions made for +social gatherings, and for the burial of members, which were the +characteristic features of most of the organizations. It is the social +side, for instance, which is indicated on a tombstone, found in a little +town of central Italy. After giving the name of the deceased, it reads: +"He bequeathed to his guild, the rag-dealers, a thousand sesterces, from +the income of which each year, on the festival of the Parentalia, not less +than twelve men shall dine at his tomb."<sup><a href="#fn108">108</a></sup> Another in northern Italy +reads: "To Publius Etereius Quadratus, the son of Publius, of the <i>Tribus +Quirina</i>, Etereia Aristolais, his mother, has set up a statue, at whose +dedication she gave the customary banquet to the union of rag-dealers, and +also a sum of money, from the income of which annually, from this time +forth, on the birthday of Quadratus, April 9, where his remains have been +laid, they should make a sacrifice, and should hold the customary banquet +in the temple, and should bring roses in their season and cover and crown +the <a id="p223"></a>statue; which thing they have undertaken to do."<sup><a href="#fn109">109</a></sup> The menu of one +of these dinners given in Dacia<sup><a href="#fn110">110</a></sup> has come down to us. It includes lamb +and pork, bread, salad, onions, and two kinds of wine. The cost of the +entertainment amounted to one hundred and sixty-nine <i>denarii</i>, or about +twenty-seven dollars, a sum which would probably have a purchasing value +to-day of from three to four times that amount.</p> + +<p>The "temple" or chapel referred to in these inscriptions was usually +semicircular, and may have served as a model for the Christian oratories. +The building usually stood in a little grove, and, with its accommodations +for official meetings and dinners, served the same purpose as a modern +club-house. Besides the special gatherings for which some deceased member +or some rich patron provided, the guild met at fixed times during the year +to dine or for other social purposes. The income of the society, which was +made up of the initiation fees and monthly dues of the members, and of +donations, was supplemented now and then by a system of fines. At least, +in an African inscription we read: "In the <a id="p224"></a>Curia of Jove. Done November +27, in the consulship of Maternus and Atticus.... If any one shall wish to +be a flamen, he shall give three amphorae of wine, besides bread and salt +and provisions. If any one shall wish to be a magister, he shall give two +amphorae of wine.... If any one shall have spoken disrespectfully to a +flamen, or laid hands upon him, he shall pay two denarii.... If any one +shall have gone to fetch wine, and shall have made away with it, he shall +give double the amount."<sup><a href="#fn111">111</a></sup></p> + +<p>The provision which burial societies made for their members is illustrated +by the following epitaph:</p> + +<p>"To the shade of Gaius Julius Filetio, born in Africa, a physician, who +lived thirty-five years. Gaius Julius Filetus and Julia Euthenia, his +parents, have erected it to their very dear son. Also to Julius +Athenodorus, his brother, who lived thirty-five years. Euthenia set it up. +He has been placed here, to whose burial the guild of rag-dealers has +contributed three hundred denarii."<sup><a href="#fn112">112</a></sup> People of all ages have craved a +respectable burial, and the pathetic picture which Horace gives us in one +of his Satires of the fate which befell the poor and <a id="p225"></a>friendless at the +end of life, may well have led men of that class to make provisions which +would protect them from such an experience, and it was not an unnatural +thing for these organizations to be made up of men working in the same +trade. The statutes of several guilds have come down to us. One found at +Lanuvium has articles dealing particularly with burial regulations. They +read in part:<sup><a href="#fn113">113</a></sup></p> + +<p>"It has pleased the members, that whoever shall wish to join this guild +shall pay an initiation fee of one hundred sesterces, and an amphora of +good wine, as well as five <i>asses</i> a month. Voted likewise, that if any +man shall not have paid his dues for six consecutive months, and if the +lot common to all men has befallen him, his claim to a burial shall not be +considered, even if he shall have so stipulated in his will. Voted +likewise, that if any man from this body of ours, having paid his dues, +shall depart, there shall come to him from the treasury three hundred +sesterces, from which sum fifty sesterces, which shall be divided at the +funeral pyre, shall go for the funeral rites. Furthermore, the obsequies +shall be performed on foot."</p> + +<p><a id="p226"></a>Besides the need of comradeship, and the desire to provide for a +respectable burial, we can see another motive which brought the weak and +lowly together in these associations. They were oppressed by the sense of +their own insignificance in society, and by the pitifully small part which +they played in the affairs of the world. But if they could establish a +society of their own, with concerns peculiar to itself which they would +administer, and if they could create positions of honor and importance in +this organization, even the lowliest man in Rome would have a chance to +satisfy that craving to exercise power over others which all of us feel, +to hold titles and distinctions, and to wear the insignia of office and +rank. This motive worked itself out in the establishment of a complete +hierarchy of offices, as we saw in part in an African inscription given +above. The Roman state was reproduced in miniature in these societies, +with their popular assemblies, and their officials, who bore the honorable +titles of quæstor, curator, prætor, ædile, and so forth.</p> + +<p>To read these twenty-five hundred or more inscriptions from all parts of +the Empire brings us close to the heart of the common people. <a id="p227"></a>We see +their little ambitions, their jealousies, their fears, their gratitude for +kindness, their own kindliness, and their loyalty to their fellows. All of +them are anxious to be remembered after death, and provide, when they can +do so, for the celebration of their birthdays by members of the +association. A guild inscription in Latium, for instance, reads:<sup><a href="#fn114">114</a></sup> +"Jan. 6, birthday of Publius Claudius Veratius Abascantianus, [who has +contributed] 6,000 sesterces, [paying an annual interest of] 180 denarii." +"Jan. 25, birthday of Gargilius Felix, [who has contributed] 2,000 +sesterces, [paying an annual interest of] 60 denarii," and so on through +the twelve months of the year.</p> + +<p>It is not entirely clear why the guilds never tried to bring pressure to +bear on their employers to raise wages, or to improve their position by +means of the strike, or by other methods with which we are familiar +to-day. Perhaps the difference between the ancient and modern methods of +manufacture helps us to understand this fact. In modern times most +articles can be made much more cheaply by machinery than by hand, and the +use of water-power, of steam, and of electricity, and <a id="p228"></a>the invention of +elaborate machines, has led us to bring together a great many workmen +under one roof or in one factory. The men who are thus employed in a +single establishment work under common conditions, suffer the same +disadvantages, and are brought into such close relations with one another +that common action to improve their lot is natural. In ancient times, as +may be seen in the chapter on Diocletian's edict, machinery was almost +unknown, and artisans worked singly in their own homes or in the houses of +their employers, so that joint action to improve their condition would +hardly be expected.</p> + +<p>Another factor which should probably be taken into account is the +influence of slavery. This institution did not play the important rôle +under the Empire in depressing the free laborer which it is often supposed +to have played, because it was steadily dying out; but an employer could +always have recourse to slave labor to a limited extent, and the +struggling freedmen who had just come up from slavery were not likely to +urge very strongly their claims for consideration.</p> + +<p>In this connection it is interesting to recall the fact that before +slavery got a foothold in <a id="p229"></a>Rome, the masses in their struggle with the +classes used what we think of to-day as the most modern weapon employed in +industrial warfare. We can all remember the intense interest with which we +watched the novel experience which St. Petersburg underwent some six years +ago, when the general strike was instituted. And yet, if we accept +tradition, that method of bringing the government and society to terms was +used twice by the Roman proletariat over two thousand years ago. The +plebeians, so the story goes, unable to get their economic and political +rights, stopped work and withdrew from the city to the Sacred Mount. Their +abstention from labor did not mean the going out of street lamps, the +suspension of street-car traffic, and the closing of factories and shops, +but, besides the loss of fighting men, it meant that no more shoes could +be had, no more carpentry work done, and no more wine-jars made until +concessions should be granted. But, having slaves to compete with it, and +with conditions which made organization difficult, free labor could not +hope to rise, and the unions could take no serious step toward the +improvement of the condition of their members. The feeling of <a id="p230"></a>security on +this score which society had, warranted the government in allowing even +its own employees to organize, and we find unions of government clerks, +messengers, and others. The Roman government was, therefore, never called +upon to solve the grave political and economic questions which France and +Italy have had to face in late years in the threatened strikes of the +state railway and postal employees.</p> + +<p>We have just been noticing how the ancient differed from the modern +trades-union in the objects which it sought to obtain. The religious +character which it took seems equally strange to us at first sight. Every +guild put itself under the protection of some deity and was closely +associated with a cult. Silvanus, the god of the woods, was a natural +favorite with the carpenters, Father Bacchus with the innkeepers, Vesta +with the bakers, and Diana with those who hunted wild animals for the +circus. The reason for the choice of certain other divine patrons is not +so clear. Why the cabmen of Tibur, for instance, picked out Hercules as +their tutelary deity, unless, like Horace in his Satires, the ancient +cabman thought of him as the god of treasure-trove, <a id="p231"></a>and, therefore, +likely to inspire the giving of generous tips, we cannot guess. The +religious side of Roman trade associations will not surprise us when we +recall the strong religious bent of the Roman character, and when we +remember that no body of Romans would have thought of forming any kind of +an organization without securing the sanction and protection of the gods. +The family, the clan, the state all had their protecting deities, to whom +appropriate rites were paid on stated occasions. Speaking of the religious +side of these trade organizations naturally reminds one of the religious +associations which sprang up in such large numbers toward the end of the +republican period and under the Empire. They lie outside the scope of this +chapter, but, in the light of the issue which has arisen in recent years +between religious associations and the governments of Italy, France, +Spain, and Portugal, it is interesting to notice in passing that the Roman +state strove to hold in check many of the ancient religious associations, +but not always with much success. As we have noticed, its attitude toward +the trade-guilds was not unfriendly. In the last days of the Republic, +however, they began to enter politics, <a id="p232"></a>and were used very effectively in +the elections by political leaders in both parties.<sup><a href="#fn115">115</a></sup> In fact the +fortunes of the city seemed likely to be controlled by political clubs, +until severe legislation and the transfer of the elections in the early +Empire from the popular assemblies to the senate put an end to the use of +trade associations for political purposes. It was in the light of this +development that the government henceforth required all newly formed +trades-unions to secure official authorization.</p> + +<p>The change in the attitude of the state toward these organizations, as +time went on, has been traced by Liebenam in his study of Roman +associations. The story of this change furnishes an interesting episode in +the history of special privilege, and may not be without profit to us. The +Roman government started with the assumption that the operation of these +voluntary associations was a matter of public as well as of private +concern, and could serve public interests. Therefore their members were to +be exempted from some of the burdens which the ordinary citizen bore. It +was this reasoning, for instance, which led Trajan to set the bakers free +from certain charges, and which influ<a id="p233"></a>enced Hadrian to grant the same +favors to those associations of skippers which supplied Rome with food. In +the light of our present-day discussion it is interesting also to find +that Marcus Aurelius granted them the right to manumit slaves and receive +legacies—that is, he made them juridical persons. But if these +associations were to be fostered by law, in proportion as they promoted +the public welfare, it also followed logically that the state could put a +restraining hand upon them when their development failed to serve public +interests in the highest degree. Following this logical sequence, the +Emperor Claudius, in his efforts to promote a more wholesome home life, or +for some other reason not known to us, forbade the eating-houses or the +delicatessen shops to sell cooked meats or warm water. Antoninus Pius, in +his paternal care for the unions, prescribed an age test and a physical +test for those who wished to become members. Later, under the law a man +was allowed to join one guild only. Such a legal provision as this was a +natural concomitant of the concession of privileges to the unions. If the +members of these organizations were to receive special favors from the +state, the state must <a id="p234"></a>see to it that the rolls were not padded. It must, +in fact, have the right of final supervision of the list of members. So +long as industry flourished, and so long as the population increased, or +at least remained stationary, this oversight by the government brought no +appreciable ill results. But when financial conditions grew steadily +worse, when large tracts of land passed out of cultivation and the +population rapidly dwindled, the numbers in the trades-unions began to +decline. The public services, constantly growing heavier, which the state +required of the guilds in return for their privileges made the loss of +members still greater. This movement threatened the industrial interests +of the Empire and must be checked at all hazards. Consequently, taking +another logical step in the way of government regulation in the interests +of the public, the state forbade men to withdraw from the unions, and made +membership in a union hereditary. Henceforth the carpenter must always +remain a carpenter, the weaver a weaver, and the sons and grandsons of the +carpenter and the weaver must take up the occupation of their fathers, and +a man is bound forever to his trade as the serf is to the soil.</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch08"> +<h2><a id="p235"></a>A Roman Politician</h2> + +<h3>(Gaius Scribonius Curio)</h3> + + + +<p>The life of Gaius Scribonius Curio has so many points of interest for the +student of Roman politics and society, that one is bewildered by the +variety of situations and experiences which it covers. His private +character is made up of a <i>mélange</i> of contradictory qualities, of +generosity, and profligacy, of sincerity and unscrupulousness. In his +public life there is the same facile change of guiding principles. He is +alternately a follower of Cicero and a supporter of his bitterest enemy, a +Tory and a Democrat, a recognized opponent of Cæsar and his trusted agent +and adviser. His dramatic career stirs Lucan to one of his finest +passages, gives a touch of vigor to the prosaic narrative of Velleius, and +even leads the sedate Pliny to drop into satire.<sup><a href="#fn116">116</a></sup> Friend and foe have +helped to paint the picture. Cicero, the counsellor of his youth, writes +of him and to him; Cælius, <a id="p236"></a>his bosom friend, analyzes his character; +Cæsar leaves us a record of his military campaigns and death, while +Velleius and Appian recount his public and private sins. His story has +this peculiar charm, that many of the incidents which make it up are +related from day to day, as they occurred, by his contemporaries, Cicero +and Cælius, in the confidential letters which they wrote to their intimate +friends. With all the strange elements which entered into it, however, his +career is not an unusual one for the time in which he lived. Indeed it is +almost typical for the class to which he belonged, and in studying it we +shall come to know something more of that group of brilliant young men, +made up of Cælius, Antony, Dolabella, and others, who were drawn to +Cæsar's cause and played so large a part in bringing him success. The life +of Curio not only illuminates social conditions in the first century +before our era, but it epitomizes and personifies the political history of +his time and the last struggles of the Republic. It brings within its +compass the Catilinarian conspiracy, the agitation of Clodius, the +formation of the first triumvirate, the rivalry of Cæsar and Pompey, and +the civil war, for <a id="p237"></a>in all these episodes Curio took an active part.</p> + +<p>Students of history have called attention to the striking way in which the +members of certain distinguished Roman families from generation to +generation kept up the political traditions of the family. The Claudian +family is a striking case in point. Recognition of this fact helps us to +understand Curio. His grandfather and his father were both prominent +orators and politicians, as Cicero tells us in his Brutus.<sup><a href="#fn117">117</a></sup> The +grandfather reached the praetorship in the year in which Gaius Gracchus +was done to death by his political opponents, while Curio pater was +consul, in 76 B.C., when the confusion which followed the breaking up of +the constitution and of the party of Sulla was at its height. Cicero tells +us that the second Curio had "absolutely no knowledge of letters," but +that he was one of the successful public speakers of his day, thanks to +the training which he had received at home. The third Curio, with whom we +are concerned here, was prepared for public life as his father had been, +for Cicero remarks of him that "although he had not been sufficiently +<a id="p238"></a>trained by teachers, he had a rare gift for oratory."<sup><a href="#fn118">118</a></sup></p> + +<p>On this point Cicero could speak with authority, because Curio had very +possibly been one of his pupils in oratory and law. At least the very +intimate acquaintance which he has with Curio's character and the +incidents of his life, the fatherly tone of Cicero's letters to him, and +the fact that Curio's nearest friends were among his disciples make this a +natural inference. How intimate this relation was, one can see from the +charming picture which Cicero draws, in the introductory chapters of his +Essay on Friendship, of his own intercourse as a young man with the +learned Augur Scævola. Roman youth attended their counsellor and friend +when he went to the forum to take part in public business, or sat with him +at home discussing matters of public and private interest, as Cicero and +his companions sat on the bench in the garden with the pontiff Scævola, +when he set forth the discourse of Lælius on friendship, and thus, out of +his experience, the old man talked to the young men about him upon the +conduct of life as well as upon the technical points of <a id="p239"></a>law and oratory. +So many of the brilliant young politicians of this period had been brought +into close relations with Cicero in this way, that when he found himself +forced out of politics by the Cæsarians, he whimsically writes to his +friend Pætus that he is inclined to give up public life and open a school, +and not more than a year before his death he pathetically complains that +he has not leisure even to take the waters at the spa, because of the +demands which are made upon him for lessons in oratory.</p> + +<p>If it did not take us too far from our chosen subject, it would be +interesting to stop and consider at length what effect Cicero's intimate +relations with these young men had upon his character, his political +views, his personal fortunes, and the course of politics. That they kept +him young in his interests and sympathies, that they kept his mind alert +and receptive, comes out clearly in his letters to them, which are full of +jest and raillery and enthusiasm. That he never developed into a Tory, as +Catulus did, or became indifferent to political conditions, as Lucullus +did, may have been due in part to his intimate association with this group +of enthusiastic young politicians. So far as his <a id="p240"></a>personal fortunes were +concerned, when the struggle between Cæsar and Pompey came, these former +pupils of Cicero had an opportunity to show their attachment and their +gratitude to him. <i>They</i> were followers of Cæsar, and <i>he</i> cast in his lot +with Pompey. But this made no difference in their relations. To the +contrary, they gave him advice and help; in their most hurried journeys +they found time to visit him, and they interceded with Cæsar in his +behalf. To determine whether he influenced the fortunes of the state +through the effect which his teachings had upon these young men would +require a paper by itself. Perhaps no man has ever had a better +opportunity than Cicero had in their cases to leave a lasting impression +on the political leaders of the coming generation. Curio, Cælius, +Trebatius, Dolabella, Hirtius, and Pansa, who were Cæsar's lieutenants, in +the years when their characters were forming and their political +tendencies were being determined, were moulded by Cicero. They were warmly +attached to him as their guide, philosopher, and friend, and they admired +him as a writer, an orator, and an accomplished man of the world. Later +they at<a id="p241"></a>tached themselves to Cæsar, and while they were still under his +spell, Cicero's influence over their political course does not seem to +count for so much, but after Cæsar's death, the latent effect of Cicero's +friendship and teaching makes itself clearly felt in the heroic service +which such men as Hirtius and Pansa rendered to the cause of the dying +Republic. Possibly even Curio, had he been living, might have been found, +after the Ides of March, fighting by the side of Cicero.</p> + +<p>Perhaps there is no better way of bringing out the intimate relations +which Curio and the other young men of this group bore to the orator than +by translating one of Cicero's early letters to him. It was written in 53 +B.C., when the young man was in Asia, just beginning his political career +as quæstor, or treasurer, on the staff of the governor of that province, +and reads:<sup><a href="#fn119">119</a></sup></p> + +<p>"Although I grieve to have been suspected of neglect by you, still it has +not been so annoying to me that my failure in duty is complained of by you +as pleasant that it has been noticed, especially since, in so far as I am +accused, I am free from fault. But in so far as <a id="p242"></a>you intimate that you +long for a letter from me, you disclose that which I know well, it is +true, but that which is sweet and cherished—your love, I mean. In point +of fact, I never let any one pass, who I think will go to you, without +giving him a letter. For who is so indefatigable in writing as I am? From +you, on the other hand, twice or thrice at most have I received a letter, +and then a very short one. Therefore, if you are an unjust judge toward +me, I shall condemn you on the same charge, but if you shall be unwilling +to have me do that, you must show yourself just to me.</p> + +<p>"But enough about letters; I have no fear of not satisfying you by +writing, especially if in that kind of activity you will not scorn my +efforts. I <i>did</i> grieve that you were away from us so long, inasmuch as I +was deprived of the enjoyment of most delightful companionship, but now I +rejoice because, in your absence, you have attained all your ends without +sacrificing your dignity in the slightest degree, and because in all your +undertakings the outcome has corresponded to my desires. What my boundless +affection for you forces me to urge upon you is briefly put. So <a id="p243"></a>great a +hope is based, shall I say, on your spirit or on your abilities, that I do +not hesitate to beseech and implore you to come back to us with a +character so moulded that you may be able to preserve and maintain this +confidence in you which you have aroused. And since forgetfulness shall +never blot out my remembrance of your services to me, I beg you to +remember that whatever improvements may come in your fortune, or in your +station in life, you would not have been able to secure them, if you had +not as a boy in the old days followed my most loyal and loving counsels. +Wherefore you ought to have such a feeling toward us, that we, who are now +growing heavy with years, may find rest in your love and your youth."</p> + +<p>In a most unexpected place, in one of Cicero's fiery invectives against +Antony,<sup><a href="#fn120">120</a></sup> we come upon an episode illustrating his affectionate care of +Curio during Curio's youth. The elder Curio lies upon a couch, prostrate +with grief at the wreck which his son has brought on the house by his +dissolute life and his extravagance. The younger Curio throws himself at +Cicero's feet in tears. Like a <a id="p244"></a>foster-father, Cicero induces the young +man to break off his evil habits, and persuades the father to forgive him +and pay his debts. This scene which he describes here, reminds us of +Curio's first appearance in Cicero's correspondence, where, with Curio's +wild life in mind, he is spoken of as <i>filiola Curionis</i>.<sup><a href="#fn121">121</a></sup></p> + +<p>It is an appropriate thing that a man destined to lead so stormy a life as +Curio did, should come on the stage as a leader in the wild turmoil of the +Clodian affair. What brought the two Curios to the front in this matter as +champions of Cicero's future enemy Clodius, it is not easy to say. It is +interesting to notice in passing, however, that our Curio enters politics +as a Democrat. He was the leader, in fact, of the younger element in that +party, of the "Catilinarian crowd," as Cicero styles them, and arrayed +himself against Lucullus, Hortensius, Messala, and other prominent +Conservatives. What the methods were which Curio and his followers +adopted, Cicero graphically describes.<sup><a href="#fn122">122</a></sup> They blocked up the entrances +to the polling places with professional rowdies, and allowed only one kind +of ballots to be distributed to the voters. This <a id="p245"></a>was in 61 B.C., when +Curio can scarcely have been more than twenty-three years old.</p> + +<p>In the following year Cæsar was back in Rome from his successful +proprætorship in Spain, and found little difficulty in persuading Pompey +and Crassus to join him in forming that political compact which controlled +the fortunes of Rome for the next ten years. As a part of the agreement, +Cæsar was made consul in 59 B.C., and forced his radical legislation +through the popular assembly in spite of the violent opposition of the +Conservatives. This is the year, too, of the candidacy of Clodius for the +tribunate. Toward both these movements the attitude of Curio is puzzling. +He reports to Cicero<sup><a href="#fn123">123</a></sup> that Clodius's main object in running for the +tribunate is to repeal the legislation of Cæsar. It is strange that a man +who had been in the counsels of Clodius, and was so shrewd on other +occasions in interpreting political motives, can have been so deceived. We +can hardly believe that he was double-faced toward Cicero. We must +conclude, I think, that his strong dislike for Cæsar's policy and +political methods colored his view of the situation. His fierce opposition +<a id="p246"></a>to Cæsar is the other strange incident in this period of his life. Most +of the young men of the time, even those of good family, were enthusiastic +supporters of Cæsar. Curio, however, is bitterly opposed to him.<sup><a href="#fn124">124</a></sup> +Perhaps he resented Cæsar's repression of freedom of speech, for he tells +Cicero that the young men of Rome will not submit to the high-handed +methods of the triumvirs, or perhaps he imbibed his early dislike for +Cæsar from his father, whose sentiments are made clear enough by a savage +epigram at Cæsar's expense, which Suetonius quotes from a speech of the +elder Curio.<sup><a href="#fn125">125</a></sup> At all events he is the only man who dares speak out. He +is the idol of the Conservatives, and is surrounded by enthusiastic crowds +whenever he appears in the forum. He is now the recognized leader of the +opposition to Cæsar, and a significant proof of this fact is furnished at +the great games given in honor of Apollo in the summer of 59. When Cæsar +entered the theatre there was faint applause; when Curio entered the crowd +rose and cheered him, "as they used to cheer Pompey when the common<a id="p247"></a>wealth +was safe."<sup><a href="#fn126">126</a></sup> Perhaps the mysterious Vettius episode, an ancient Titus +Oates affair, which belongs to this year, reflects the desire of the +triumvirs to get rid of Curio, and shows also their fear of his +opposition. This unscrupulous informer is said to have privately told +Curio of a plot against the life of Pompey, in the hope of involving him +in the meshes of the plot. Curio denounced him to Pompey, and Vettius was +thrown into prison, where he was afterward found dead, before the truth of +the matter could be brought out. Of course Curio's opposition to Cæsar +effected little, except, perhaps, in drawing Cæsar's attention to him as a +clever politician.</p> + +<p>To Curio's quæstorship in Asia reference has already been made. It fell in +53 B.C., and from his incumbency of this office we can make an approximate +estimate of his date of birth. Thirty or thirty-one was probably the +minimum age for holding the quæstorship at this time, so that Curio must +have been born about 84 B.C. From Cicero's letter to him, which has been +given above, it would seem to follow that he had performed his duties in +his province with eminent success. During <a id="p248"></a>his absence from Rome his +father died, and with his father's death one stimulating cause of his +dislike for Cæsar may have disappeared. To Curio's absence in his province +we owe six of the charming letters which Cicero wrote to him. In one of +his letters of this year he writes:<sup><a href="#fn127">127</a></sup> "There are many kinds of letters, +as you well know, but one sort, for the sake of which letter-writing was +invented, is best recognized: I mean letters written for the purpose of +informing those who are not with us of whatever it may be to our advantage +or to theirs that they should know. Surely you are not looking for a +letter of this kind from me, for you have correspondents and messengers +from home who report to you about your household. Moreover, so far as my +concerns go, there is absolutely nothing new. There are two kinds of +letters left which please me very much: one, of the informal and jesting +sort; the other, serious and weighty. I do not feel that it is unbecoming +to adopt either of these styles. Am I to jest with you by letter? On my +word I do not think that there is a citizen who can laugh in these days. +Or shall I write something of a more serious <a id="p249"></a>character? What subject is +there on which Cicero can write seriously to Curio, unless it be +concerning the commonwealth? And on this matter this is my situation: that +I neither dare to set down in writing that which I think, nor wish to +write what I do not think."</p> + +<p>The Romans felt the same indifference toward affairs in the provinces that +we show in this country, unless their investments were in danger. They +were wrapped up in their own concerns, and politics in Rome were so +absorbing in 53 B.C. that people in the city probably paid little +attention to the doings of a quæstor in the far-away province of Asia. +But, as the time for Curio's return approached, men recalled the striking +rôle which he played in politics in earlier days, and wondered what course +he would take when he came back. Events were moving rapidly toward a +crisis. Julia, Cæsar's daughter, whom Pompey had married, died in the +summer of 54 B.C., and Crassus was defeated and murdered by the Parthians +in 53 B.C. The death of Crassus brought Cæsar and Pompey face to face, and +Julia's death broke one of the strongest bonds which had held these two +rivals together. Cæsar's position, too, was rendered precarious <a id="p250"></a>by the +desperate struggle against the Belgæ, in which he was involved in 53 B.C. +In Rome the political pot was boiling furiously. The city was in the grip +of the bands of desperadoes hired by Milo and Clodius, who broke up the +elections during 53 B.C., so that the first of January, 52, arrived with +no chief magistrates in the city. To a man of Curio's daring and +versatility this situation offered almost unlimited possibilities, and +recognizing this fact, Cicero writes earnestly to him,<sup><a href="#fn128">128</a></sup> on the eve of +his return, to enlist him in support of Milo's candidacy for the +consulship. Curio may have just arrived in the city when matters reached a +climax, for on January 18, 52 B.C., Clodius was killed in a street brawl +by the followers of Milo, and Pompey was soon after elected sole consul, +to bring order out of the chaos, if possible.</p> + +<p>Curio was not called upon to support Milo for the consulship, because +Milo's share in the murder of Clodius and the elevation of Pompey to his +extra-constitutional magistracy put an end to Milo's candidacy. What part +he took in supporting or in opposing Pompey's reform legislation of 52 +B.C., and what <a id="p251"></a>share he had in the preliminary skirmishes between Cæsar +and the senate during the early part of 51, we have no means of knowing. +As the situation became more acute, however, toward the end of the year, +we hear of him again as an active political leader. Cicero's absence from +Rome from May, 51 to January, 49 B.C., is a fortunate thing for us, for to +it we owe the clever and gossipy political letters which his friend Cælius +sent him from the capital. In one of these letters, written August 1, 51 +B.C., we learn that Curio is a candidate for the tribunate for the +following year, and in it we find a keen analysis of the situation, and an +interesting, though tantaizingly brief, estimate of his character. Coming +from an intimate friend of Curio, it is especially valuable to us. Cælius +writes:<sup><a href="#fn129">129</a></sup> "He inspires with great alarm many people who do not know him +and do not know how easily he can be influenced, but judging from my hopes +and wishes, and from his present behavior, he will prefer to support the +Conservatives and the senate. In his present frame of mind he is simply +bubbling over with this feeling. The source and reason of this <a id="p252"></a>attitude +of his lies in the fact that Cæsar, who is in the habit of winning the +friendship of men of the worst sort at any cost whatsoever, has shown a +great contempt for him. And of the whole affair it seems to me a most +delightful outcome, and the view has been taken by the rest, too, to such +a degree that Curio, who does nothing after deliberation, seems to have +followed a definite policy and definite plans in avoiding the traps of +those who had made ready to oppose his election to the tribunate—I mean +the Lælii, Antonii, and powerful people of that sort." Without strong +convictions or a settled policy, unscrupulous, impetuous, radical, and +changeable, these are the qualities which Cælius finds in Curio, and what +we have seen of his career leads us to accept the correctness of this +estimate. In 61 he had been the champion of Clodius, and the leader of the +young Democrats, while two years later we found him the opponent of Cæsar, +and an ultra-Conservative. It is in the light of his knowledge of Curio's +character, and after receiving this letter from Cælius, that Cicero writes +in December, 51 B.C., to congratulate him upon his election to the +tribunate. He begs him "to govern and direct his <a id="p253"></a>course in all matters in +accordance with his own judgment, and not to be carried away by the advice +of other people." "I do not fear," he says, "that you may do anything in a +fainthearted or stupid way, if you defend those policies which you +yourself shall believe to be right.... Commune with yourself, take +yourself into counsel, hearken to yourself, determine your own policy."</p> + +<p>The other point in the letter of Cælius, his analysis of the political +situation, so far as Curio is concerned, is not so easy to follow. Cælius +evidently believes that Curio had coquetted with Cæsar and had been +snubbed by him, that his intrigues with Cæsar had at first led the +aristocracy to oppose his candidacy, but that Cæsar's contemptuous +treatment of his advances had driven him into the arms of the senatorial +party. It is quite possible, however, that an understanding may have been +reached between Cæsar and Curio even at this early date, and that Cæsar's +coldness and Curio's conservatism may both have been assumed. This would +enable Curio to pose as an independent leader, free from all obligations +to Cæsar, Pompey, or the Conservatives, and anxious to see fair play and +safeguard the interests of the whole people, an independent <a id="p254"></a>leader who +was driven over in the end to Cæsar's side by the selfish and factious +opposition of the senatorial party to his measures of reform and his +advocacy of even-handed justice for both Cæsar and Pompey.<sup><a href="#fn130">130</a></sup></p> + +<p>Whether Curio came to an understanding with Cæsar before he entered on his +tribunate or not, his policy from the outset was well calculated to make +the transfer of his allegiance seem forced upon him, and to help him carry +over to Cæsar the support of those who were not blinded by partisan +feelings. Before he had been in office a fortnight he brought in a bill +which would have annulled the law, passed by Cæsar in his consulship, +assigning land in Campania to Pompey's veterans.<sup><a href="#fn131">131</a></sup> The repeal of this +law had always been a favorite project with the Conservatives, and Curio's +proposal seemed to be directed equally against Cæsar and Pompey. In +February of 50 B.C. he brought in two bills whose reception facilitated +his passage to the Cæsarian party. One of them provided for the repair of +the roads, and, as Appian tells us,<sup><a href="#fn132">132</a></sup> although "he knew that he could +not carry any such <a id="p255"></a>measure, he hoped that Pompey's friends would oppose +him so that he might have that as an excuse for opposing Pompey." The +second measure was to insert an intercalary month. It will be remembered +that before Cæsar reformed the calendar, it was necessary to insert an +extra month in alternate years, and 50 B.C. was a year in which +intercalation was required. Curio's proposal was, therefore, a very proper +one. It would recommend itself also on the score of fairness. March 1 had +been set as the day on which the senate should take up the question of +Cæsar's provinces, and after that date there would be little opportunity +to consider other business. Now the intercalated month would have been +inserted, in accordance with the regular practice, after February 23, and +by its insertion time would have been given for the proper discussion of +the measures which Curio had proposed. Incidentally, and probably this was +in Curio's mind, the date when Cæsar might be called upon to surrender his +provinces would be postponed. The proposal to insert the extra month was +defeated, and Curio, blocked in every move by the partisan and +unreasonable opposition of Pompey and <a id="p256"></a>the Conservatives, found the +pretext for which lie had been working, and came out openly for +Cæsar.<sup><a href="#fn133">133</a></sup> Those who knew him well were not surprised at the transfer of +his allegiance. It was probably in fear of such a move that Cicero had +urged him not to yield to the influence of others, and when Cicero in +Cilicia hears the news, he writes to his friend Cælius: "Is it possible? +Curio is now defending Cæsar! Who would have expected it?—except myself, +for, as surely as I hope to live, <i>I</i> expected it. Heavens! how I miss the +laugh we might have had over it." Looking back, as we can now, on the +political rôle which Curio played during the next twelve months, it seems +strange that two of his intimate friends, who were such far-sighted +politicians as Cicero and Cælius were, should have underestimated his +political ability so completely. It shows Cæsar's superior political +sagacity that he clearly saw his qualities as a leader and tactician. What +terms Cæsar was forced to make to secure his support we do not know. +Gossip said that the price was sixty million sesterces,<sup><a href="#fn134">134</a></sup> or more than +two and a half million dollars. He was undoubtedly in great straits. <a id="p257"></a>The +immense sums which he had spent in celebrating funeral games in honor of +his father had probably left him a bankrupt, and large amounts of money +were paid for political services during the last years of the republic. +Naturally proof of the transaction cannot be had, and even Velleius +Paterculus, in his savage arraignment of Curio,<sup><a href="#fn135">135</a></sup> does not feel +convinced of the truth of the story, but the tale is probable.</p> + +<p>It was high time for Cæsar to provide himself with an agent in Rome. The +month of March was near at hand, when the long-awaited discussion of his +provinces would come up in the senate. His political future, and his +rights as a citizen, depended upon his success in blocking the efforts of +the senate to take his provinces from him before the end of the year, when +he could step from the proconsulship to the consulship. An interval of +even a month in private life between the two offices would be all that his +enemies would need for bringing political charges against him that would +effect his ruin. His displacement before the end of the year must be +prevented, therefore, at all hazards. To this <a id="p258"></a>task Curio addressed +himself, and with surpassing adroitness. He did not come out at once as +Cæsar's champion. His function was to hold the scales true between Cæsar +and Pompey, to protect the Commonwealth against the overweening ambition +and threatening policy of both men. He supported the proposal that Cæsar +should be called upon to surrender his army, but coupled with it the +demand that Pompey also should be required to give up his troops and his +proconsulship. The fairness of his plan appealed to the masses, who would +not tolerate a favor to Pompey at Cæsar's expense. It won over even a +majority of the senate. The cleverness of his policy was clearly shown at +a critical meeting of the senate in December of the year 50 B.C. Appian +tells us the story:<sup><a href="#fn136">136</a></sup> "In the senate the opinion of each member was +asked, and Claudius craftily divided the question and took the votes +separately, thus: 'Shall Pompey be deprived of his command?' The majority +voted against the latter proposition, and it was decreed that successors +to Cæsar should be sent. Then Curio put the question whether both should +lay down their <a id="p259"></a>commands, and twenty-two voted in the negative, while +three hundred and seventy went back to the opinion of Curio in order to +avoid civil discord. Then Claudius dismissed the senate, exclaiming: +'Enjoy your victory and have Cæsar for a master!'" The senate's action was +vetoed, and therefore had no legal value, but it put Cæsar and Curio in +the right and Pompey' s partisans in the wrong.</p> + +<p>As a part of his policy of defending Cæsar by calling attention to the +exceptional position and the extra-constitutional course of Pompey, Curio +offset the Conservative attacks on Cæsar by public speeches fiercely +arraigning Pompey for what he had done during his consulship, five years +before. When we recall Curio's biting wit and sarcasm, and the +unpopularity of Pompey's high-handed methods of that year, we shall +appreciate the effectiveness of this flank attack.</p> + +<p>Another weapon which he used freely was his unlimited right of veto as +tribune. As early as April Cælius appreciated how successful these tactics +would be, and he saw the dilemma in which they would put the +Conservatives, for he writes to Cicero: "This is what I have to tell you: +if they put pressure at every <a id="p260"></a>point on Curio, Cæsar will defend his right +to exercise the veto; if, as seems likely, they shrink [from overruling +him], Cæsar will stay [in his province] as long as he likes." The veto +power was the weapon which he used against the senate at the meeting of +that body on the first of December, to which reference has already been +made. The elections in July had gone against Cæsar. Two Conservatives had +been returned as consuls. In the autumn the senate had found legal means +of depriving Cæsar of two of his legions. Talk of a compromise was dying +down. Pompey, who had been desperately ill in the spring, had regained his +strength. He had been exasperated by the savage attacks of Curio. +Sensational stories of the movements of Cæsar's troops in the North were +whispered in the forum, and increased the tension. In the autumn, for +instance, Cæsar had occasion to pay a visit to the towns in northern Italy +to thank them for their support of Mark Antony, his candidate for the +tribunate, and the wild rumor flew to Rome that he had advanced four +legions to Placentia,<sup><a href="#fn137">137</a></sup> that his march on the city had begun, and +tumult and confusion <a id="p261"></a>followed. It was in these circumstances that the +consul Marcellus moved in the senate that successors be sent to take over +Cæsar's provinces, but the motion was blocked by the veto of Curio, +whereupon the consul cried out: "If I am prevented by the vote of the +senate from taking steps for the public safety, I will take such steps on +my own responsibility as consul." After saying this he darted out of the +senate and proceeded to the suburbs with his colleague, where he presented +a sword to Pompey, and said: "My colleague and I command you to march +against Cæsar in behalf of your country, and we give you for this purpose +the army now at Capua, or in any other part of Italy, and whatever +additional forces you choose to levy."<sup><a href="#fn138">138</a></sup> Curio had accomplished his +purpose. He had shown that Pompey as well as Cæsar was a menace to the +state; he had prevented Cæsar's recall; he had shown Antony, who was to +succeed him in the tribunate, how to exasperate the senate into using +coercive measures against his sacrosanct person as tribune and thus +justify Cæsar's course in the war, and he had goaded the Conservatives +into taking the first overt <a id="p262"></a>step in the war by commissioning Pompey to +begin a campaign against Cæsar without any authorization from the senate +or the people.</p> + +<p>The news of the unconstitutional step taken by Marcellus and Pompey +reached Rome December 19 or 20. Curio's work as tribune was done, and on +the twenty-first of the month he set out for the North to join his leader. +The senate would be called together by the new consuls on January 1, and +since, before the reform in the calendar, December had only twenty-nine +days, there were left only eight days for Curio to reach Cæsar's +head-quarters, lay the situation before him, and return to the city with +his reply. Ravenna, where Cæsar had his head-quarters, was two hundred and +forty miles from Rome. He covered the distance, apparently, in three days, +spent perhaps two days with Cæsar, and was back in Rome again for the +meeting of the senate on the morning of January 1. Consequently, he +travelled at the rate of seventy-five or eighty miles a day, twice the +rate of the ordinary Roman courier.</p> + +<p>We cannot regret too keenly the fact that we have no account of Curio's +meeting with Cæsar, and his recital to Cæsar of the course <a id="p263"></a>of events in +Rome. In drawing up the document which was prepared at this conference, +Cæsar must have been largely influenced by the intimate knowledge which +Curio had of conditions in the capital, and of the temper of the senate. +It was an ultimatum, and, when Curio presented it to the senate, that body +accepted the challenge, and called upon Cæsar to lay down his command on a +specified date or be declared a public enemy. Cæsar replied by crossing +the border of his province and occupying one town after another in +northern Italy in rapid succession. All this had been agreed upon in the +meeting between Curio and Cæsar, and Velleius Paterculus<sup><a href="#fn139">139</a></sup> is probably +right in putting the responsibility for the war largely on the shoulders +of Curio, who, as he says, brought to naught the fair terms of peace which +Cæsar was ready to propose and Pompey to accept. The whole situation +points to the conclusion that Cæsar did not desire war, and was not +prepared for it. Had he anticipated its immediate outbreak, he would +scarcely have let it arise when he had only one legion with him on the +border, while his other ten legions were a long distance away.</p> + +<p><a id="p264"></a>From the outset Curio took an active part in the war which he had done so +much to bring about, and it was an appropriate thing that the closing +events in his life should have been recorded for us by his great patron, +Cæsar, in his narrative of the Civil War. On the 18th or 19th of January, +within ten days of the crossing of the Rubicon, we hear of his being sent +with a body of troops to occupy Iguvium,<sup><a href="#fn140">140</a></sup> and a month later he is in +charge of one of the investing camps before the stronghold of +Corfinium.<sup><a href="#fn141">141</a></sup> With the fall of Corfinium, on the 21st of February, +Cæsar's rapid march southward began, which swept the Pompeians out of +Italy within a month and gave Cæsar complete control of the peninsula. In +that brilliant campaign Curio undoubtedly took an active part, for at the +close of it Cæsar gave him an independent commission for the occupation of +Sicily and northern Africa. No more important command could have been +given him, for Sicily and Africa were the granaries of Rome, and if the +Pompeians continued to hold them, the Cæsarians in Italy might be starved +into submission. To this ill-fated campaign Cæsar devotes the latter <a id="p265"></a>half +of the second book of his Civil War. In the beginning of his account of it +he remarks: "Showing at the outset a total contempt for the military +strength of his opponent, Publius Attius Varus, Curio crossed over from +Sicily, accompanied by only two of the four legions originally given him +by Cæsar, and by only five hundred cavalry."<sup><a href="#fn142">142</a></sup> The estimate which +Cælius had made of him was true, after all, at least in military affairs. +He was bold and impetuous, and lacked a settled policy. Where daring and +rapidity of movement could accomplish his purpose, he succeeded, but he +lacked patience in finding out the size and disposition of the enemy's +forces and calmness of judgment in comparing his own strength with that of +his foe. It was this weakness in his character as a military leader which +led him to join battle with Varus and Juba's lieutenant, Saburra, without +learning beforehand, as he might have done, that Juba, with a large army, +was encamped not six miles in the rear of Saburra. Curio's men were +surrounded by the enemy and cut down as they stood. His staff begged him +to seek safety in flight, but, as Cæsar writes,<sup><a href="#fn143">143</a></sup> "He <a id="p266"></a>answered without +hesitation that, having lost the army which Cæsar had entrusted to his +charge, he would never return to look him in the face, and with that +answer he died fighting."</p> + +<p>Three years later the fortunes of war brought Cæsar to northern Africa, +and he traversed a part of the region where Curio's luckless campaign had +been carried on. With the stern eye of the trained soldier, he marked the +fatal blunders which Curio had made, but he recalled also the charm of his +personal qualities, and the defeat before Utica was forgotten in his +remembrance of the great victory which Curio had won for him, +single-handed, in Rome. Even Lucan, a partisan of the senate which Curio +had flouted, cannot withhold his admiration for Curio's brilliant career, +and his pity for Curio's tragic end. As he stands in imagination before +the fallen Roman leader, he exclaims:<sup><a href="#fn144">144</a></sup> "Happy wouldst thou be, O Rome, +and destined to bless thy people, had it pleased the gods above to guard +thy liberty as it pleased them to avenge its loss. Lo! the noble body of +Curio, covered by no tomb, feeds the birds of Libya. But to thee, since it +profiteth not to pass in silence those <a id="p267"></a>deeds of thine which their own +glory defends forever 'gainst the decay of time, such tribute now we pay, +O youth, as thy life has well deserved. No other citizen of such talent +has Rome brought forth, nor one to whom the law would be indebted more, if +he the path of right had followed out. As it was, the corruption of the +age ruined the city when desire for office, pomp, and the power which +wealth gives, ever to be dreaded, had swept away his wavering mind with +sidelong flood, and the change of Curio, snared by the spoils of Gaul and +the gold of Cæsar, was that which turned the tide of history. Although +mighty Sulla, fierce Marius, the blood-bespattered Cinna, and all the line +of Cæsar's house have held our throats at their mercy with the sword, to +whom was e'er such power vouchsafed? All others bought, <i>he</i> sold the +state."</p> +</div> + + +<div class="chapter" id="ch09"> +<h2><a id="p268"></a>Gaius Matius, a Friend of Cæsar</h2> + +<h3>"<i>Non enim Cæsarem ... sum secutus, sed amicum</i>."</h3> + + + +<p>Gaius Matius, the subject of this sketch, was neither a great warrior, nor +statesman, nor writer. If his claim to remembrance rested on what he did +in the one or the other of these rôles, he would long ago have been +forgotten. It is his genius for friendship which has kept his memory +green, and that is what he himself would have wished. Of his early life we +know little, but it does not matter much, because the interest which he +has for us centres about his relations to Cæsar in early manhood. Being of +good birth, and a man of studious tastes, he probably attended the +University at Athens, and heard lectures there as young Cicero and Messala +did at a later period. He must have been a man of fine tastes and +cultivation, for Cicero, in writing to a friend, bestows on Matius the +title "doctissimus," the highest literary compliment which one Roman could +pay another, and Apollodorus of Per<a id="p269"></a>gamum dedicated to him his treatise on +rhetoric. Since he was born about 84 B.C., he returned from his years of +study at Athens about the time when Cæsar was setting out on his brilliant +campaign in Gaul. Matius joined him, attracted perhaps by the personal +charms of the young proconsul, perhaps by the love of adventure, perhaps, +like his friend Trebatius, by the hope of making a reputation.</p> + +<p>At all events he was already with Cæsar somewhere in Gaul in 53 B.C., and +it is hard to think of an experience better suited to lay bare the good +and the bad qualities in Cæsar's character than the years of camp life +which Matius spent with him in the wilds of Gaul and Britain. As +aide-de-camp, or orderly, for such a position he probably held, his place +was by Cæsar's side. They forded the rivers together, walked or rode +through woodland or open side by side, shared the same meagre rations, and +lay in the same tent at the end of the day's march, ready to spring from +the ground at a moment's warning to defend each other against attack from +the savage foe. Cæsar's narrative of his campaigns in Gaul is a soldier's +story of military movements, and perhaps from our school-boy remembrance +of it we may have <a id="p270"></a>as little a liking for it as Horace had for the poem of +Livius Andronicus, which he studied under "Orbilius of the rods," but even +the obscurities of the Latin subjunctive and ablative cannot have blinded +us entirely to the romance of the desperate siege of Alesia and the final +struggle which the Gauls made to drive back the invader. Matius shared +with Cæsar all the hardships and perils of that campaign, and with Cæsar +he witnessed the final scene of the tragedy when Vercingetorix, the heroic +Gallic chieftain, gave up his sword, and the conquest of Gaul was +finished. It is little wonder that Matius and the other young men who +followed Cæsar were filled with admiration of the man who had brought all +this to pass.</p> + +<p>It was a notable group, including Trebatius, Hirtius, Pansa, Oppius, and +Matius in its number. All of them were of the new Rome. Perhaps they were +dimly conscious that the mantle of Tiberius Gracchus had fallen upon their +leader, that the great political struggle which had been going on for +nearly a century was nearing its end, and that they were on the eve of a +greater victory than that at Alesia. It would seem that only two <a id="p271"></a>of them, +Matius and Trebatius, lived to see the dawning of the new day. But it was +not simply nor mainly the brilliancy of Cæsar as a leader in war or in +politics which attracted Matius to him. As he himself puts it in his +letter to Cicero: "I did not follow a Cæsar, but a friend." Lucullus and +Pompey had made as distinguished a record in the East as Cæsar had in the +West, but we hear of no such group of able young men following their +fortunes as attached themselves to Cæsar. We must find a reason for the +difference in the personal qualities of Cæsar, and there is nothing that +more clearly proves the charm of his character than the devotion to him of +this group of men. In the group Matius is the best representative of the +man and the friend. When Cæsar came into his own, Matius neither asked for +nor accepted the political offices which Cæsar would gladly have given +him. One needs only to recall the names of Antony, Labienus, or Decimus +Brutus to realize the fact that Cæsar remembered and rewarded the faithful +services of his followers. But Matius was Cæsar's friend and nothing more, +not his master of the horse, as Antony was, nor his political and +financial heir, as <a id="p272"></a>Octavius was. In his loyalty to Cæsar he sought for no +other reward than Cæsar's friendship, and his services to him brought with +them their own return. Indeed, through his friend he suffered loss, for +one of Cæsar's laws robbed him of a part of his estate, as he tells us, +but this experience did not lessen his affection. How different his +attitude was from that of others who professed a friendship for Cæsar! +Some of them turned upon their leader and plotted against his life, when +disappointed in the favors which they had received at his hands, and +others, when he was murdered, used his name and his friendship for them to +advance their own ambitious designs. Antony and Octavius struggle with +each other to catch the reins of power which have fallen from his hands; +Dolabella, who seems to regard himself as an understudy of Cæsar, plays a +serio-comic part in Rome in his efforts to fill the place of the dead +dictator; while Decimus Brutus hurries to the North to make sure of the +province which Cæsar had given him.</p> + +<p>From these men, animated by selfishness, by jealousy, by greed for gain, +by sentimentalism, or by hypocritical patriotism, Matius <a id="p273"></a>stands aloof, +and stands perhaps alone. For him the death of Cæsar means the loss of a +friend, of a man in whom he believed. He can find no common point of +sympathy either with those who rejoice in the death of the tyrant, as +Cicero does, for he had not thought Cæsar a tyrant, nor with those who use +the name of Cæsar to conjure with. We have said that he accepted no +political office. He did accept an office, that of procurator, or +superintendent, of the public games which Cæsar had vowed on the field of +Pharsalus, but which death had stepped in to prevent him from giving, and +it was in the pious fulfilment of this duty which he took upon himself +that he brought upon his head the anger of the "auctores libertatis," as +he ironically calls them. He had grieved, too, at the death of Cæsar, +although "a man ought to rate the fatherland above a friend," as the +liberators said. Matius took little heed of this talk. He had known of it +from the outset, but it had not troubled him. Yet when it came to his ears +that his friend Cicero, to whom he had been attached from boyhood, to whom +he had proved his fidelity at critical moments, was among his accusers, he +could not but <a id="p274"></a>complain bitterly of the injustice. Through a common +friend, Trebatius, whose acquaintance he had made in Gaul, he expresses to +Cicero the sorrow which he feels at his unkindness. What Cicero has to say +in explanation of his position and in defence of himself, we can do no +better than to give in his own words:</p> + + +<blockquote><p>"<i>Cicero to Matins, greeting:</i><sup><a href="#fn145">145</a></sup></p> + +<p> "I am not yet quite clear in my own mind whether our friend Trebatius, + who is as loyal as he is devoted to both of us, has brought me more + sorrow or pleasure: for I reached my Tusculan villa in the evening, and + the next day, early in the morning, he came to see me, though he had + not yet recovered his strength. When I reproved him for giving too + little heed to his health, he said that nothing was nearer his heart + than seeing me. 'There's nothing new,' say I? He told me of your + grievance against me, yet before I make any reply in regard to it, let + me state a few facts.</p> + +<p> "As far back as I can recall the past I have no friend of longer + standing than you are; but long duration is a thing characteristic of + many friendships, while love is not. I loved you <a id="p275"></a>on the day I met you, + and I believed myself loved by you. Your subsequent departure, and that + too for a long time, my electoral canvass, and our different modes of + life did not allow our inclination toward one another to be + strengthened by intimacy; still I saw your feeling toward me many years + before the Civil War, while Cæsar was in Gaul; for the result which you + thought would be of great advantage to me and not of disadvantage to + Cæsar himself you accomplished: I mean in bringing him to love me, to + honor me, to regard me as one of his friends. Of the many confidential + communications which passed between us in those days, by word of mouth, + by letter, by message, I say nothing, for sterner times followed. At + the breaking out of the Civil War, when you were on your way toward + Brundisium to join Cæsar, you came to me to my Formian villa. In the + first place, how much did that very fact mean, especially at those + times! Furthermore, do you think I have forgotten your counsel, your + words, the kindness you showed? I remember that Trebatius was there. + Nor indeed have I forgotten the letter which you sent to me after + meeting Cæsar, in the district near Trebula, as I remember it. <a id="p276"></a>Next + came that ill-fated moment when either my regard for public opinion, or + my sense of duty, or chance, call it what you will, compelled me to go + to Pompey. What act of kindness or thoughtfulness either toward me in + my absence or toward my dear ones in Rome did you neglect? In fact, + whom have all my friends thought more devoted to me and to themselves + than you are? I came to Brundisium. Do you think I have forgotten in + what haste, as soon as you heard of it, you came hurrying to me from + Tarentum? How much your presence meant to me, your words of cheer to a + courage broken by the fear of universal disaster! Finally, our life at + Rome began. What element did our friendship lack? In most important + matters I followed your advice with reference to my relations toward + Cæsar; in other matters I followed my own sense of duty. With whom but + myself, if Cæsar be excepted, have you gone so far as to visit his + house again and again, and to spend there many hours, oftentimes in the + most delightful discourse? It was then too, if you remember, that you + persuaded me to write those philosophical essays of mine. After his + return, what purpose was more in <a id="p277"></a>your thoughts than to have me as good + a friend of Cæsar as possible? This you accomplished at once.</p> + +<p> "What is the point, then, of this discourse, which is longer than I had + intended it should be? This is the point, that I have been surprised + that you, who ought to see these things, have believed that I have + taken any step which is out of harmony with our friendly relations, for + beside these facts which I have mentioned, which are undisputed and + self-evident facts, there are many more intimate ties of friendship + which I can scarcely put in words. Everything about you charms me, but + most of all, on the one hand, your perfect loyalty in matters of + friendship, your wisdom, dignity, steadfastness; on the other hand, + your wit, refinement, and literary tastes.</p> + +<p> "Wherefore—now I come back to the grievance—in the first place, I did + not think that you had voted for that law; in the second place, if I + had thought so, I should never have thought that you had done it + without some sufficient reason. Your position makes whatever you do + noticeable; furthermore, envy puts some of your acts in a worse light + than the facts warrant. If you do not hear these <a id="p278"></a>rumors I do not know + what to say. So far as I am concerned, if I ever hear them I defend you + as I know that <i>I</i> am always defended by <i>you</i> against <i>my</i> detractors. + And my defence follows two lines: there are some things which I always + deny <i>in toto</i>, as, for instance, the statement in regard to that very + vote; there are other acts of yours which I maintain were dictated by + considerations of affection and kindness, as, for instance, your action + with reference to the management of the games. But it does not escape + you, with all your wisdom, that, if Cæsar was a king—which seems to me + at any rate to have been the case—with respect of your duty two + positions may be maintained, either the one which I am in the habit of + taking, that your loyalty and friendship to Cæsar are to be praised, or + the one which some people take, that the freedom of one's fatherland is + to be esteemed more than the life of one's friend. I wish that my + discussions springing out of these conversations had been repeated to + you.</p> + +<p> "Indeed, who mentions either more gladly or more frequently than I the + two following facts, which are especially to your honor? The fact that + you were the most influential <a id="p279"></a>opponent of the Civil War, and that you + were the most earnest advocate of temperance in the moment of victory, + and in this matter I have found no one to disagree with me. Wherefore I + am grateful to our friend Trebatius for giving me an opportunity to + write this letter, and if you are not convinced by it, you will think + me destitute of all sense of duty and kindness; and nothing more + serious to me than that or more foreign to your own nature can happen."</p></blockquote> + +<p>In all the correspondence of Cicero there is not a letter written with +more force and delicacy of feeling, none better suited to accomplish its +purpose than this letter to Matius. It is a work of art; but in that fact +lies its defect, and in that respect it is in contrast to the answer which +it called forth from Matius, The reply of Matius stands on a level with +another better-known non-Ciceronian epistle, the famous letter of +condolence which Servius wrote to Cicero after the death of Cicero's +daughter, Tullia; but it is finer, for, while Servius is stilted and full +of philosophical platitudes, Matius, like Shakespeare's Antony, "only +speaks right on," in telling Cicero of his grief at Cæsar's death, of his +indignation <a id="p280"></a>at the intolerant attitude of the assassins, and his +determination to treasure the memory of Cæsar at any cost. This is his +letter:</p> + + +<blockquote><p>"<i>Matius to Cicero, greeting</i><sup><a href="#fn146">146</a></sup></p> + +<p> "I derived great pleasure from your letter, because I saw that you held + such an opinion about me as I had hoped you would hold, and wished you + to hold; and although, in regard to that opinion, I had no misgivings, + still, inasmuch as I considered it a matter of the greatest importance, + I was anxious that it should continue unchanged. And then I was + conscious of having done nothing to offend any good citizen; therefore + I was the less inclined to believe that you, endowed as you are with so + many excellent qualities, could be influenced by any idle rumors, + especially as my friendship toward you had been and was sincere and + unbroken. Since I know that matters stand in this respect as I have + wished them to stand, I will reply to the charges, which you have often + refuted in my behalf in such a way as one would expect from that + kindness of heart characteristic of you and from our friendship. It is + true that what men said against me after the death of Cæsar was <a id="p281"></a>known + to me. They call it a sin of mine that I sorrow over the death of a man + dear to me, and because I grieve that he whom I loved is no more, for + they say that 'fatherland should be above friendship,' just as if they + had proved already that his death has been of service to the state. But + I will make no subtle plea. I confess that I have not attained to your + high philosophic planes; for, on the one hand, in the Civil War I did + not follow a Cæsar, but a friend, and although I was grieved at the + state of things, still I did not desert him; nor, on the other hand, + did I at any time approve of the Civil War, nor even of the reason for + strife, which I most earnestly sought to extinguish when it was + kindling. Therefore, in the moment of victory for one bound to me by + the closest ties, I was not captivated by the charm either of public + office or of gold, while his other friends, although they had less + influence with him than I, misused these rewards in no small degree. + Nay, even my own property was impaired by a law of Cæsar's, thanks to + which very law many who rejoice at the death of Cæsar have remained at + Rome. I have worked as for my own welfare that conquered citizens might + be spared.</p> + +<p> "<a id="p282"></a>Then may not I, who have desired the welfare of all, be indignant + that he, from whom this favor came, is dead? especially since the very + men who were forgiven have brought him both unpopularity and death. You + shall be punished, then, they say, 'since you dare to disapprove of our + deed.' Unheard of arrogance, that some men glory in their crime, that + others may not even sorrow over it without punishment! But it has + always been the unquestioned right, even of slaves, to fear, to + rejoice, to grieve according to the dictates of their own feelings + rather than at the bidding of another man; of these rights, as things + stand now, to judge from what these champions of freedom keep saying, + they are trying to deprive us by intimidation; but their efforts are + useless. I shall never be driven by the terrors of any danger from the + path of duty or from the claims of friendship, for I have never thought + that a man should shrink from an honorable death; nay, I have often + thought that he should seek it. But why are they angry at me, if I wish + them to repent of their deed? for I desire to have Cæsar's death a + bitter thing to all men.</p> + +<p> "'But I ought as a citizen to desire the wel<a id="p283"></a>fare of the state.' Unless + my life in the past and my hope for the future, without words from me, + prove that I desire that very end, I do not seek to establish the fact + by words. Wherefore I beg you the more earnestly to consider deeds more + than words, and to believe, if you feel that it is well for the right + to prevail, that I can have no intercourse with dishonorable men. For + am I now, in my declining years, to change that course of action which + I maintained in my youth, when I might even have gone astray with hope + of indulgence, and am I to undo my life's work? I will not do so. Yet I + shall take no step which may be displeasing to any man, except to + grieve at the cruel fate of one most closely bound to me, of one who + was a most illustrious man. But if I were otherwise minded, I would + never deny what I was doing lest I should be regarded as shameless in + doing wrong, a coward and a hypocrite in concealing it.</p> + +<p> "'Yet the games which the young Cæsar gave in memory of Cæsar's victory + I superintended.' But that has to do with my private obligation and not + with the condition of the state; a duty, however, which I owed to <a id="p284"></a>the + memory and the distinguished position of a dear friend even though he + was dead, a duty which I could not decline when asked by a young man of + most excellent promise and most worthy of Cæsar. 'I even went + frequently to the house of the consul Antony to pay my respects!' to + whom you will find that those who think that I am lacking in devotion + to my country kept coming in throngs to ask some favor forsooth or + secure some reward. But what arrogance this is that, while Cæsar never + interfered with my cultivating the friendship of men whom I pleased, + even when he himself did not like them, these men who have taken my + friend from me should try to prevent me by their slander from loving + those whom I will.</p> + +<p> "But I am not afraid lest the moderation of my life may prove too weak + to withstand false reports, or that even those who do not love me + because of my loyalty to Cæsar may not prefer to have friends like me + rather than like themselves. So far as I myself am concerned, if what I + prefer shall be my lot, the life which is left me I shall spend in + retirement at Rhodes; but if some untoward circumstance shall prevent + it, I shall live at <a id="p285"></a>Rome in such a wise as to desire always that right + be done. Our friend Trebatius I thank heartily in that he has disclosed + your sincere and friendly feeling toward me, and has shown me that him + whom I have always loved of my own free will I ought with the more + reason to esteem and honor. Bene vale et me dilige."</p></blockquote> + +<p>With these words our knowledge of Matius comes almost to an end. His life +was prolonged into the imperial period, and, strangely enough, in one of +the few references to him which we find at a later date, he is +characterized as "the friend of Augustus" (divi Augusti amicus). It would +seem that the affection which he felt for Cæsar he transferred to Cæsar's +heir and successor. He still holds no office or title. In this connection +it is interesting to recall the fact that we owe the best of Cicero's +philosophical work to him, the "Academics," the "De Finibus," and the +"Tusculan Questions," for Cicero tells us in his letter that he was +induced to write his treatises on philosophy by Matius. It is a pleasant +thing to think that to him we may also be indebted for Cicero's charming +essay "On Friendship." The later life of Matius, <a id="p286"></a>then, we may think was +spent in retirement, in the study of philosophy, and in the pursuit of +literature. His literary pursuits give a homely and not unpleasant touch +to his character. They were concerned with gastronomy, for Columella, in +the first century of our era, tells us<sup><a href="#fn147">147</a></sup> that Matius composed three +books, bearing the titles of "The Cook," "The Butler," and "The +Picklemaker," and his name was transmitted to a later generation in a dish +known as "mincemeat à la Matius" (<i>minutal Matianum</i>).<sup><a href="#fn148">148</a></sup> He passes out +of the pages of history in the writings of Pliny the Elder as the man who +"invented the practice of clipping shrubbery."<sup><a href="#fn149">149</a></sup> To him, then, we +perhaps owe the geometrical figures, and the forms of birds and beasts +which shrubs take in the modern English garden. His memory is thus ever +kept green, whether in a way that redounds to his credit or not is left +for the reader to decide.</p> +</div> + + +<div id="index"> +<h2><a id="p287"></a>Index</h2> + + +<p> +Acta Diurna, <a href="#p212">212</a>.<br /> +Anoyran monument, <a href="#p182">182</a>.<br /> +Anglo-Saxons, compared with Romans,<br /> + in government, <a href="#p205">205-6</a>;<br /> + in private affairs, <a href="#p206">206-8</a>.<br /> +Arval Hymn, the, <a href="#p102">102-3</a>.<br /> +Ascoli's theory of the differentiation of the Romance languages, <a href="#p26">26</a>.<br /> +Augustus,<br /> + "Res Gestæ," <a href="#p182">182</a>;<br /> + his benefactions, <a href="#p182">182-3</a>.<br /> +</p><p> +Batha, a municipal expense, <a href="#p189">189</a>.<br /> +Benefactions, private,<br /> + co-operation with the government, <a href="#p179">179-180</a>;<br /> + <i>objects</i>, <a href="#p180">180-1</a>, <a href="#p185">185-9</a>, <a href="#p203">203</a>;<br /> + comparison of ancient and modern objects, <a href="#p188">188-190</a>;<br /> + of Æmilius, <a href="#p181">181</a>;<br /> + of Pompey, <a href="#p181">181</a>;<br /> + of Augustus, <a href="#p182">182-3</a>;<br /> + motives, <a href="#p161">161-2</a>, <a href="#p185">185</a>, <a href="#p201">201</a>;<br /> + expected of prominent men, <a href="#p183">183-4</a>;<br /> + attempts at regulation, <a href="#p184">184</a>;<br /> + a recognized responsibility, <a href="#p192">192</a>;<br /> + a legal obligation on municipal officials,<a href="#p193">193-4</a>;<br /> + offices thereby limited to the rich, <a href="#p197">197</a>;<br /> + of rich private citizens, <a href="#p197">197</a>;<br /> + effect on municipal life and character, <a href="#p201">201-2</a>;<br /> + on private citizens, <a href="#p203">203</a>;<br /> + charity, <a href="#p204">204</a>.<br /> +Burial societies, <a href="#p224">224-5</a>.<br /> +</p><p> +Cælius, estimate of Curio, <a href="#p251">251-3</a>.<br /> +Cæsar,<br /> + expenditures as sedile, <a href="#p183">183-4</a>;<br /> + and Curio, <a href="#p245">245-7</a>, <a href="#p253">253-4</a>, <a href="#p260">260-6</a>;<br /> + secures Curio as agent in Rome, <a href="#p256">256-8</a>;<br /> + unprepared for civil war, <a href="#p263">263</a>;<br /> + <i>et passim</i> in chapters on Curio and Matius.<br /> +Cato the elder, his diction, <a href="#p52">52</a>.<br /> +Charity, <a href="#p204">204</a>.<br /> +Church, the Christian, influence on the spread of Latin, <a href="#p16">16</a>,2<a href="#p9">9</a>.<br /> +Cicero,<br /> + quotation from a letter in colloquial style, <a href="#p75">75</a>;<br /> + his "corrupt practices act," <a href="#p184">184</a>;<br /> + and Scaptius, <a href="#p211">211</a>;<br /> + and Curio, <a href="#p238">238-244</a>;<br /> + <i>correspondence</i> with Matius, <a href="#p274">274-285</a>.<br /> +Civic pride of Romans, <a href="#p186">186-7</a>.<br /> +Civil war, outbreak of, <a href="#p264">264</a>.<br /> +Combinations in restraint of trade, <a href="#p213">213-14</a>;<br /> + government intervention, <a href="#p214">214</a>.<br /> +Common people,<br /> + their language logical, <a href="#p33">33</a>;<br /> + progressive and conservative elements, <a href="#p45">45</a>.<br /> +Common people of Rome,<br /> + their language (see <i>Latin, colloquial</i>);<br /> + their religious beliefs, <a href="#p88">88-95</a>;<br /> + philosophy of life, <a href="#p90">90-95</a>;<br /> + belief in future life, <a href="#p90">90-95</a>.<br /> +Controversiae of the schools of rhetoric, <a href="#p130">130</a>.<br /> +Corporations, <a href="#p14">14</a>, <a href="#p208">208-12</a>;<br /> + aid the government, <a href="#p208">208-9</a>;<br /> + collect taxes, <a href="#p209">209-10</a>;<br /> + in politics, <a href="#p210">210-12</a>;<br /> + many small stockholders, <a href="#p212">212</a>.<br /> +Cromer, Lord, "Ancient and Modern Imperialism," <a href="#p3">3</a>, <a href="#p205">205</a>.<br /> +Curio,<br /> + funeral games in his father's honor, <a href="#p184">184-5</a>, <a href="#p257">257</a>;<br /> +character, <a href="#p235">235-7</a>, <a href="#p243">243-4</a>;<br /><a id="p288"></a> + family, <a href="#p237">237</a>;<br /> + relations with Cicero, <a href="#p238">238-244</a>;<br /> + beginning of public life, <a href="#p244">244</a>;<br /> + relations with Cæsar, <a href="#p245">245-6</a>, <a href="#p253">253-4</a>;<br /> + openly espouses Cæsar's cause, <a href="#p256">256-8</a>, <a href="#p260">260-6</a>;<br /> + popularity, <a href="#p246">246</a>;<br /> + as quæstor, <a href="#p247">247</a>;<br /> + in the Clodian affair, <a href="#p250">250</a>;<br /> + Cælius's opinion of him, <a href="#p251">251-3</a>;<br /> + as tribune, <a href="#p252">252</a>, <a href="#p254">254-5</a>, <a href="#p259">259-261</a>;<br /> + relations with Pompey, <a href="#p259">259</a>;<br /> + forces conservatives to open hostilities, <a href="#p260">260-2</a>;<br /> + his part in the civil war, <a href="#p264">264-6</a>;<br /> + death, <a href="#p266">266</a>.<br /> +</p><p> +Dacia, Latin in, <a href="#p21">21</a>.<br /> +Dialects in Italy, their disappearance, <a href="#p8">8-11</a>.<br /> +Diez, the Romance philologist, <a href="#p35">35-6</a>.<br /> +Diocletian's policy, <a href="#p151">151</a>;<br /> + his edict to regulate prices, <a href="#p150">150-177</a>;<br /> + content, <a href="#p150">150-3</a>;<br /> + discovery of document, <a href="#p152">152</a>;<br /> + amount extant, <a href="#p153">153</a>;<br /> + date, <a href="#p153">153</a>;<br /> + style, <a href="#p153">153-4</a>;<br /> + provisions of the edict, <a href="#p155">155</a>;<br /> + extracts, <a href="#p157">157-165</a>;<br /> + discussion, <a href="#p166">166-178</a>;<br /> + made prices uniform, <a href="#p167">167</a>;<br /> + its prices are retail, <a href="#p167">167-8</a>;<br /> + interesting deductions, <a href="#p169">169-176</a>;<br /> + effect, <a href="#p177">177</a>;<br /> + repeal, <a href="#p177">177</a>.<br /> +</p><p> +English language in India, <a href="#p3">3</a>.<br /> +Epitaphs,<br /> + deal with the common people, <a href="#p80">80</a>;<br /> + length of Roman epitaphs, <a href="#p81">81</a>;<br /> + along Appian Way, <a href="#p81">81-2</a>;<br /> + sentiments expressed, <a href="#p82">82-100</a>;<br /> + show religious beliefs, <a href="#p88">88-95</a>;<br /> + gods rarely named, <a href="#p89">89</a>;<br /> + Mother Earth, <a href="#p89">89</a>.<br /> +Epitaphs, metrical,<br /> + praises of women predominate, <a href="#p86">86</a>;<br /> + literary merit, <a href="#p95">95-98</a>;<br /> + art, <a href="#p98">98-100</a>.<br /> +Étienne, Henri, first scholar to notice colloquial Latin, <a href="#p34">34-5</a>.<br /> +</p><p> +Food,<br /> + cost of, comparison with to-day, <a href="#p173">173-4</a>;<br /> + free distribution of, <a href="#p189">189-190</a>.<br /> +</p><p> +Gracchi, the, <a href="#p146">146-7</a>.<br /> +Greek language,<br /> + in Italy, <a href="#p11">11</a>;<br /> + not conquered by Latin, <a href="#p18">18</a>;<br /> + influence on Latin, <a href="#p53">53</a>.<br /> +Gröber's theory of the differentiation of the Romance languages, <a href="#p23">23-5</a>;<br /> + criticism of, <a href="#p25">25-6</a>.<br /> +Guilds, <a href="#p215">215-234</a>;<br /> + were non-political, <a href="#p217">217</a>;<br /> + inscriptional evidence, <a href="#p217">217</a>;<br /> + comparison of conditions in East and West, <a href="#p219">219-221</a>;<br /> + objects, <a href="#p221">221-2</a>, <a href="#p226">226</a>;<br /> + dinners, <a href="#p222">222-3</a>;<br /> + temples, <a href="#p223">223</a>;<br /> + rules, <a href="#p223">223-4</a>;<br /> + no attempts to raise wages, <a href="#p227">227-8</a>;<br /> + religious character, <a href="#p230">230-1</a>;<br /> + began to enter politics, <a href="#p231">231-2</a>;<br /> + attitude of government toward, <a href="#p232">232-4</a>;<br /> + decline, <a href="#p234">234</a>.<br /> +</p><p> +Hempl's theory of language rivalry, <a href="#p18">18-21</a>.<br /> +Horace, his "curiosa felicitas," <a href="#p122">122</a>.<br /> +</p><p> +Inscription from Pompeii, in colloquial Latin, <a href="#p76">76</a>.<br /> +</p><p> +Julia, death of, <a href="#p249">249</a>.<br /> +Julian's edict to regulate the price of grain, <a href="#p177">177-8</a>.<br /> +</p><p> +Labor-unions. (See <i>Guilds</i>.)<br /><a id="p289"></a> +Lactantius, "On the Deaths of Those Who Persecuted (the Christians)," <a href="#p177">177</a>.<br /> +Languages spoken in Italy in the early period, <a href="#p5">5</a>, <a href="#p8">8-12</a>;<br /> + influence of other languages on Latin, <a href="#p22">22</a>. (See also <i>Greek</i>.)<br /> +Latin language,<br /> + extent, <a href="#p4">4</a>;<br /> + unifying influences, <a href="#p16">16</a>;<br /> + uniformity, <a href="#p17">17-18</a>;<br /> + evidence of inscriptions, <a href="#p17">17-18</a>;<br /> + causes of its spread, <a href="#p12">12-18</a>, <a href="#p28">28-29</a>;<br /> + colonies, <a href="#p12">12</a>;<br /> + roads, <a href="#p13">13</a>;<br /> + >merchants, <a href="#p14">14</a>;<br /> + soldiers, <a href="#p15">15</a>;<br /> + government officials, <a href="#p15">15-18</a>;<br /> + the church, <a href="#p16">16</a>, <a href="#p29">29</a>;<br /> + its superiority not a factor, <a href="#p28">28</a>;<br /> + sentiment a cause, <a href="#p28">28-9</a>;<br /> + "peaceful invasion," <a href="#p29">29</a>.<br /> +Latin, colloquial, its study neglected till recently, <a href="#p34">34</a>;<br /> + first noticed in modern times by Henri Étienne, <a href="#p34">34-5</a>;<br /> + its forms, how determined, <a href="#p39">39-42</a>;<br /> + ancient authority for its existence, <a href="#p39">39-10</a>;<br /> + evidence of the Romance languages, <a href="#p40">40-1</a>;<br /> + aid derived from a knowledge of spoken English, <a href="#p41">41-2</a>;<br /> + analytical formation of tenses, <a href="#p41">41</a>;<br /> + slang, <a href="#p41">41-2</a>;<br /> + extant specimens, <a href="#p42">42-3</a>;<br /> + causes of variation, <a href="#p43">43</a>;<br /> + external influences on, <a href="#p46">46</a>;<br /> + influence of culture, <a href="#p46">46</a>;<br /> + definition of colloquial Latin, <a href="#p48">48</a>;<br /> + relation to literary Latin, <a href="#p50">50</a>;<br /> + careless pronunciation, <a href="#p55">55-8</a>;<br /> + accent different from literary Latin, <a href="#p58">58-9</a>;<br /> + confusion of genders, <a href="#p62">62-3</a>;<br /> + monotonous style, <a href="#p63">63</a>;<br /> + tendencies in vocabulary, 64-7:<br /> + in syntax, <a href="#p67">67</a>;<br /> + effect of loss of final letters, <a href="#p69">69</a>;<br /> + reunion with literary Latin, <a href="#p72">72-3</a>;<br /> + still exists in the Romance languages, <a href="#p73">73</a>;<br /> + date when it became the separate Romance language, <a href="#p73">73-4</a>;<br /> + specimens quoted, <a href="#p74">74-8</a>.<br /> +Latin, literary,<br /> + modelled on Greek, <a href="#p44">44-5</a>;<br /> + relation to colloquial Latin, <a href="#p50">50</a>;<br /> + standardized by grammarians, <a href="#p60">60</a>;<br /> + style unnatural, <a href="#p70">70-1</a>;<br /> + reunion with colloquial Latin, <a href="#p72">72-3</a>;<br /> + disappearance, <a href="#p75">75</a>.<br /> +Latin, preliterary, <a href="#p50">50-2</a>.<br /> +Laws of the Twelve Tables, <a href="#p51">51</a>;<br /> + excerpt from, <a href="#p75">75</a>.<br /> +Living, cost of, comparison with to-day, <a href="#p174">174-6</a>.<br /> +Livius Andronicus, <a href="#p52">52-3</a>.<br /> +Lucan's account of the death of Curio, <a href="#p266">266-7</a>.<br /> +</p><p> +Matius, Gaius,<br /> + early life and character, <a href="#p268">268-9</a>;<br /> + with Cæsar in Gaul, <a href="#p269">269-270</a>;<br /> + friendship with Cæsar, <i>passim</i>;<br /> + accepted no office, <a href="#p271">271-2</a>;<br /> + devotion to Cæsar, <a href="#p272">272-3</a>;<br /> + unpopularity due to it, <a href="#p273">273-4</a>;<br /> + correspondence with Cicero, <a href="#p274">274-285</a>;<br /> + defence of his devotion to Cæsar, <a href="#p281">281-5</a>;<br /> + prompted Cicero's best philosophical works, <a href="#p285">285</a>;<br /> + later life, <a href="#p285">285-6</a>;<br /> + literary works, <a href="#p286">286</a>.<br /> +Menippean satire, <a href="#p133">133</a>, <a href="#p140">140</a>.<br /> +Milesian tales, <a href="#p133">133-6</a>.<br /> +Money, unit of, <a href="#p166">166</a>.<br /> +</p><p> +Nævius, <a href="#p52">52</a>.<br /> +Ninus romance, <a href="#p129">129</a>;<br /> + and Petronius, <a href="#p131">131-2</a>.<br /> +</p><p> +Organization, of capitalists (see <i>Corporations</i>);<br /><a id="p290"></a> + of labor (see <i>Guilds</i>).<br /> +Oscan, <a href="#p8">8-11</a>.<br /> +</p><p> +Paternalism,<br /> + beginnings of, in Rome, <a href="#p145">145-6</a>;<br /> + effect on people, <a href="#p149">149</a>.<br /> +Patron, office of, <a href="#p199">199-200</a>;<br /> + benefactions of, <a href="#p199">199-200</a>.<br /> +Pervigilium Veneris, <a href="#p109">109</a>.<br /> +Petronius, Satiræ, <a href="#p12">12</a>, <a href="#p117">117-144</a>;<br /> + excerpt from, <a href="#p76">76</a>;<br /> + original size, <a href="#p118">118</a>;<br /> + motif, <a href="#p119">119</a>, <a href="#p127">127</a>;<br /> + Trimalchio's Dinner, <a href="#p119">119</a>;<br /> + satirical spirit, <a href="#p120">120-24</a>;<br /> + literary criticism, <a href="#p122">122</a>;<br /> + Horatian humor, <a href="#p122">122-3</a>;<br /> + cynical attitude, <a href="#p123">123-4</a>;<br /> + realism, <a href="#p124">124</a>;<br /> + prose-poetic form, <a href="#p125">125</a>, <a href="#p140">140-3</a>;<br /> + origin of this genre of literature, <a href="#p125">125-144</a>;<br /> + the Satiræ and the epic, <a href="#p127">127</a>;<br /> + and the heroic romance, <a href="#p132">132-3</a>;<br /> + and the Menippean satire, <a href="#p133">133</a>, <a href="#p140">140</a>;<br /> + and the Milesian tale, <a href="#p133">133-136</a>;<br /> + and the prologue of comedy, <a href="#p136">136-7</a>;<br /> + and the mime, <a href="#p137">137-9</a>;<br /> + the Satiræ perhaps a mixture of many types, <a href="#p143">143-4</a>;<br /> + originated with Petronius, <a href="#p144">144</a>.<br /> +Plautus, <a href="#p52">52</a>.<br /> +Poetry of the common people,<br /> + dedicatory, <a href="#p101">101-6</a>;<br /> + ephemeral, <a href="#p107">107-116</a>;<br /> + graffiti, <a href="#p107">107</a>;<br /> + borrowed from the Augustan poets, <a href="#p110">110-11</a>;<br /> + folk poetry, <a href="#p113">113-16</a>;<br /> + children's jingles, <a href="#p114">114</a>.<br /> +Pompey,<br /> + his benefactions, <a href="#p181">181</a>;<br /> + ordered to march against Cæsar, <a href="#p261">261</a>;<br /> + <i>et passim</i> in chapter on Curio.<br /> +Prices,<br /> + controlled by corporations, <a href="#p213">213-14</a>;<br /> + attempts at government regulation, <a href="#p150">150-1</a>.<br /> +Probus, the "Appendix" of, <a href="#p56">56</a>, <a href="#p77">77</a>.<br /> +Prose-poetic form, <a href="#p125">125</a>, <a href="#p140">140-3</a>.</p><p> +Ritschl, the Plautine scholar, <a href="#p35">35</a>.<br /> +Romance, the realistic, origin obscure, <a href="#p117">117</a>.<br /> + (See <i>Petronius, Satiræ</i>.)<br /> +Romance languages,<br /> + causes of their differentiation, Gröber's theory, <a href="#p23">23-6</a>;<br /> + Ascoli's theory, <a href="#p26">26</a>;<br /> + date of their beginning, <a href="#p30">30-1</a>;<br /> + descended from colloquial Latin, <a href="#p35">35-7</a>;<br /> + reasons of their agreement, <a href="#p37">37-8</a>;<br /> + common source, <a href="#p38">38</a>.<br /> +Romances, the Greek, theory of origin, <a href="#p127">127-8</a>.<br /> +</p><p> +Salaries of municipal officers, <a href="#p190">190</a>.<br /> + (See also <i>Wages</i>.)<br /> +Scaptius and Cicero, <a href="#p211">211</a>.<br /> +Seneca the elder, "Controversiæ," <a href="#p130">130</a>.<br /> +Strasburg oath, <a href="#p78">78</a>.<br /> +Strikes, <a href="#p229">229</a>.<br /> +</p><p> +Theatres a municipal expense, <a href="#p190">190</a>.<br /> +Trimalchio's Dinner, <a href="#p119">119</a>.<br /> +</p><p> +Umbrian, <a href="#p9">9</a>.<br /> +Urso, constitution of, <a href="#p193">193-4</a>.<br /> +</p><p> +Wages in Roman times, <a href="#p169">169-170</a>;<br /> + compared with to-day, <a href="#p172">172</a>, <a href="#p174">174</a>;<br /> + and guilds, <a href="#p227">227-8</a>;<br /> + and slavery, <a href="#p228">228</a>.<br /> + (See also <i>Salaries</i>.)</p> +</div> + + +<div id="footnotes"> +<h2>Footnotes</h2> + + + +<p id="fn1">1. <i>Cf.</i> A. Ernout, <i>Le Parler de Préneste</i>, Paris, 1905.</p> + +<p id="fn2">2. The relation between Latin and the Italic dialects may be illustrated +by an extract or two from them with a Latin translation. An Umbrian +specimen may be taken from one of the bronze tablets found at Iguvium, +which reads in Umbrian: Di Grabouie, saluo seritu ocrem Fisim, saluam +seritu totam Iiouinam (<i>Iguvinian Tables</i> VI, a. 51), and in Latin: Deus +Grabovi, salvam servato arcem Fisiam, salvam servato civitatem Iguvinam. A +bit of Oscan from the Tabula Bantina (Tab. Bant. 2, 11) reads: suaepis +contrud exeic fefacust auti comono hipust, molto etanto estud, and in +Latin: siquis contra hoc fecerit aut comitia habuerit, multa tanta esto.</p> + +<p id="fn3">3. <i>Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum</i>, IX, 782, furnishes a case in point.</p> + +<p id="fn4">4. <i>Cf.</i> G. Mohl, <i>Introduction à la chronologie du Latin vulgaire</i>, +Paris, 1899.</p> + +<p id="fn5">5. Pauly-Wissowa, <i>Real-Encyclopadie</i>, IV, 1179 <i>ff.</i></p> + +<p id="fn6">6. Marquardt, <i>Römische Staatsverwaltung</i>, II, p. 463.</p> + +<p id="fn7">7. <i>Cf.</i>, <i>e.g.</i>, Pirson, <i>La langue des inscriptions Latines de la +Gaule</i>, Bruxelles, 1901; Carnoy, <i>Le Latin d'Espagne d'après les +inscriptions</i>, Bruxelles, 1906; Hoffmann, <i>De titulis Africæ Latinis +quæstiones phoneticæ</i>, 1907; Kuebler, <i>Die lateinische Sprache auf +afrikanischen Inschriften</i> (<i>Arch, für lat. Lex.</i>, vol. VIII), and Martin, +<i>Notes on the Syntax of the Latin Inscriptions Found in Spain</i>, Baltimore, +1909.</p> + +<p id="fn8">8. <i>Cf.</i> L. Hahn, <i>Rom und Romanismus im griechisch-römischen Osten</i> +(esp. pp. 222-268), Leipzig, 1906.</p> + +<p id="fn9">9. <i>Proceedings of the American Philological Association</i>, XXIX (1898), +pp. 31-47. For a different theory of the results of language-conflict, +<i>cf.</i> Gröber, <i>Grundriss der romanischen Philologie</i>, I, pp. 516, 517.</p> + +<p id="fn10">10. A very interesting sketch of the history of the Latin language in +this region may be seen in Ovide Densusianu's <i>Histoire de la langue +Roumaine</i>, Paris, 1902.</p> + +<p id="fn11">11. Gorra, <i>Lingue Neolatine</i>, pp. 66-68.</p> + +<p id="fn12">12. Gröber, <i>Grundriss der romanischen Philologie</i>, pp. 517 and 524.</p> + +<p id="fn13">13. <i>Cf.</i> Gröber in <i>Archiv für lateinische Lexikographie und Grammatik</i>, +I, p. 210 <i>ff.</i></p> + +<p id="fn14">14. <i>Is Modern-Language Teaching a Failure?</i> Chicago, 1907.</p> + +<p id="fn15">15. <i>Cf.</i> Abbott, <i>History of Rome</i>, pp. 246-249.</p> + +<p id="fn16">16. Schuchardt, <i>Vokalismus des Vulgärlateins, I</i>, 103 <i>ff.</i></p> + +<p id="fn17">17. <i>Cf.</i> Gröber, <i>Archiv für lateinische Lexikographie und Grammatik</i>, +I, 45.</p> + +<p id="fn18">18. Thielmann, <i>Archiv</i>, II, 48 <i>ff.</i>; 157 <i>ff.</i></p> + +<p id="fn19">19. From the "Laws of the Twelve Tables" of the fifth century B.C. See +Bruns, <i>Fontes iuris Romani antiqui</i>, sixth edition, p. 31.</p> + +<p id="fn20">20. <i>Appendix Probi</i>, in Keil's <i>Grammatici Latini</i>, IV, 197 <i>ff.</i></p> + +<p id="fn21">21. "The Accent in Vulgar and Formal Latin," in <i>Classical Philology</i>, II +(1907), 445 <i>ff.</i></p> + +<p id="fn22">22. Bücheler, <i>Carmina Latina epigraphica</i>, No. 53. The originals of all +the bits of verse which are translated in this paper may be found in the +collection whose title is given here. Hereafter reference to this work +will be by number only.</p> + +<p id="fn23">23. No. 443.</p> + +<p id="fn24">24. No. 92.</p> + +<p id="fn25">25. No. 128.</p> + +<p id="fn26">26. No. 127.</p> + +<p id="fn27">27. No. 876.</p> + +<p id="fn28">28. No. 1414.</p> + +<p id="fn29">29. No. 765.</p> + +<p id="fn30">30. No. 843.</p> + +<p id="fn31">31. No. 95.</p> + +<p id="fn32">32. No. 1578.</p> + +<p id="fn33">33. Nos. 1192 and 1472.</p> + +<p id="fn34">34. No. 1037.</p> + +<p id="fn35">35. No. 1039.</p> + +<p id="fn36">36. G. W. Van Bleek, Quae de hominum post mortem eondicione doceant +carmina sepulcralia Latina.</p> + +<p id="fn37">37. No. 1495.</p> + +<p id="fn38">38. No. 1496.</p> + +<p id="fn39">39. No. 86.</p> + +<p id="fn40">40. No. 1465.</p> + +<p id="fn41">41. No. 1143.</p> + +<p id="fn42">42. No. 1559.</p> + +<p id="fn43">43. No. 1433.</p> + +<p id="fn44">44. No. 225.</p> + +<p id="fn45">45. No. 143.</p> + +<p id="fn46">46. No. 83.</p> + +<p id="fn47">47. No. 1500.</p> + +<p id="fn48">48. No. 190.</p> + +<p id="fn49">49. No. 244.</p> + +<p id="fn50">50. No. 1499.</p> + +<p id="fn51">51. No. 856.</p> + +<p id="fn52">52. Society and Politics in Ancient Rome, p. 183.</p> + +<p id="fn53">53. No. 562.</p> + +<p id="fn54">54. No. 52.</p> + +<p id="fn55">55. No. 1251.</p> + +<p id="fn56">56. No. 106.</p> + +<p id="fn57">57. No. 967.</p> + +<p id="fn58">58. No. 152.</p> + +<p id="fn59">59. No. 1042.</p> + +<p id="fn60">60. No. 1064.</p> + +<p id="fn61">61. No. 98.</p> + +<p id="fn62">62. Bücheler, <i>Carmina Latino epigraphica</i>, No. 899.</p> + +<p id="fn63">63. No. 19.</p> + +<p id="fn64">64. No. 866.</p> + +<p id="fn65">65. No. 863.</p> + +<p id="fn66">66. No. 937.</p> + +<p id="fn67">67. No. 949.</p> + +<p id="fn68">68. No. 943.</p> + +<p id="fn69">69. No. 945.</p> + +<p id="fn70">70. No. 354.</p> + +<p id="fn71">71. <i>Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum</i>, IV, 6892.</p> + +<p id="fn72">72. Bücheler, No. 928.</p> + +<p id="fn73">73. No. 333.</p> + +<p id="fn74">74. No. 931.</p> + +<p id="fn75">75. No. 933.</p> + +<p id="fn76">76. No. 38.</p> + +<p id="fn77">77. No. 270.</p> + +<p id="fn78">78. Habeat scabiem quisquis ad me venerit novissimus.</p> + +<p id="fn79">79. Rex erit qui recte faciet, qui non faciet non erit.</p> + +<p id="fn80">80. </p> + +<blockquote class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><div class="line">Gallos Cæsar in triumphum ducit, idem in curiam; </div> +<div class="line">Galli bracas deposuerunt, latum clavom sumpserunt.</div></div> +</blockquote> + +<p id="fn81">81. </p> + +<blockquote class='poem'><div class='stanza'> +<div class="line">Brutus quia reges eiecit, consul primus factus est; </div> +<div class="line">Hic quia consoles eiecit, rex postremo factus est. </div> +</div></blockquote> + +<p id="fn82">82. Salva Roma, salva patria, salvus est Germanicus.</p> + +<p id="fn83">83. <i>Cf.</i> Schmid, "Der griechische Roman," <i>Neue Jahrb.</i>, Bd XIII (1904), +465-85; Wilcken, in <i>Hermes</i>, XXVIII, 161 <i>ff.</i>, and in <i>Archiv f. +Papyrusforschung</i>, I, 255 <i>ff.</i>; Grenfell-Hunt, <i>Fayûm Towns and Their +Papyri</i> (1900), 75 <i>ff.</i>, and <i>Rivista di Filologia</i>, XXIII, I <i>ff.</i></p> + +<p id="fn84">84. Some of the important late discussions of the Milesian tale are by +Bürger, <i>Hermes</i> (1892), 351 <i>ff.</i>; Norden, <i>Die antike Kunstprosa</i>, II, +602, 604, n.; Rohde, <i>Kleine Schriften</i>, II, 25 <i>ff.</i>; Bürger, <i>Studien +zur Geschichte d. griech. Romans</i>, I (<i>Programm von Blankenburg a. H.</i>, +1902); W. Schmid, <i>Neue Jahrb. f. d. klass. Alt.</i> (1904), 474 <i>ff.</i>; +Lucas, "Zu den Milesiaca des Aristides," <i>Philologus</i>, 61 (1907), 16 <i>ff.</i></p> + +<p id="fn85">85. On the origin of the <i>prosimetrum cf.</i> Hirzel, <i>Der Dialog</i>, 381 +<i>ff.</i>; Norden, <i>Die antike Kunstprosa</i>, 755.</p> + +<p id="fn86">86. <i>Cf.</i> Rosenbluth, <i>Beiträge zur Quellenkunde von Petrons Satiren</i>. +Berlin, 1909.</p> + +<p id="fn87">87. This theory in the main is suggested by Rohde, <i>Der griechische +Roman</i>, 2d ed., 267 (Leipzig, 1900), and by Ribbeck, <i>Geschichte d. röm. +Dichtung</i>, 2d ed., III, 150.</p> + +<p id="fn88">88. <i>Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum</i>, vol. III, pp. 1926-1953. Mommsen's +text with a commentary has been published by H. Blümner, in <i>Der +Maximaltarif des Diocletian</i>, Berlin, 1893. A brief description of the +edict may be found in the Pauly-Wissowa <i>Real-Encyclopadie der classischen +Altertumswissenschaft</i>, under "Edictum Diocletiani," and K. Bücher has +discussed some points in it in the <i>Zeitschrift für die gesamte +Staatswissenschaft</i>, vol. L (1894), pp. 189-219 and 672-717.</p> + +<p id="fn89">89. The method of arrangement may be illustrated by an extract from the +first table, which deals with grain and vegetables.</p> + +<p id="fn90">90. The present-day prices which are given in the third column of these +two tables are taken from Bulletin No. 77 of the Bureau of Labor, and from +the majority and minority reports of the Select Committee of the U.S. +Senate on "Wages and Prices of Commodities" (Report, No. 912, Documents, +Nos. 421 and 477). In setting down a number to represent the current price +of an article naturally a rough average had to be struck of the rates +charged in different parts of the country. Bulletin No. 77, for instance, +gives the retail price charged for butter at 226 places in 68 different +cities, situated in 39 different States. At one point in Illinois the +price quoted in 1906 was 22 cents, while at a point in Pennsylvania 36 +cents was reported, but the prevailing price throughout the country ranged +from 26 to 32, so that these figures were set down in the table. A similar +method has been adopted for the other items. A special difficulty arises +in the case of beef, where the price varies according to the cut. The +price of wheat is not given in the extant fragment of the edict, but has +been calculated by Blümner from statements in ancient writers. So far as +the wages of the ancient and modern workman are concerned we must remember +that the Roman laborer in many cases received "keep" from his employer. +Probably from one-third to three-sevenths should be added to his daily +wage to cover this item. Statistics published by the Department of +Agriculture show that the average wage of American farm laborers per month +during 1910 was $27.50 without board and $19.21 with board. The item of +board, therefore, is three-sevenths of the money paid to the laborer when +he keeps himself. One other point of difference between ancient and modern +working conditions must be borne in mind in attempting a comparison. We +have no means of knowing the length of the Roman working day. However, it +was probably much longer than our modern working day, which, for +convenience' sake, is estimated at eight hours.</p> + +<p id="fn91">91. Wholesale price in 1909.</p> + +<p id="fn92">92. Receives "keep" also.</p> + +<p id="fn93">93. Eight-hour day assumed.</p> + +<p id="fn94">94. <i>Cf.</i> Report of the Commissioner of Labor, pp. 622-625. In England +between one-third and one-fourth; <i>cf.</i> Bulletin, No. 77, p. 345.</p> + +<p id="fn95">95. <i>Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum</i>, II, 5489.</p> + +<p id="fn96">96. Wilmanns, <i>Exempla Inscriptionum Latinarum</i>, 1772.</p> + +<p id="fn97">97. <i>Ibid.</i>, 2037.</p> + +<p id="fn98">98. <i>Ibid.</i>, 1859.</p> + +<p id="fn99">99. <i>Ibid.</i>, 2054.</p> + +<p id="fn100">100. <i>Ibid.</i>, 2099.</p> + +<p id="fn101">101. 23:48<i>f.</i></p> + +<p id="fn102">102. <i>Cic., ad Att.</i>, 5.21. 10-13; 6.1. 5-7; 6.2.7; 6.3.5.</p> + +<p id="fn103">103. 6.17.</p> + +<p id="fn104">104. <i>Captivi</i>, 489 <i>ff.</i></p> + +<p id="fn105">105. <i>Livy</i>, 38. 35.</p> + +<p id="fn106">106. Plautus, <i>Pseudolus</i>, 189.</p> + +<p id="fn107">107. Some of the most important discussions of workmen's guilds among the +Romans are to be found in Waltzing's <i>Etude historique sur les +corporations professionnelles chez les Romains</i>, 3 vols., Louvain, 1895-9; +Liebenam's <i>Zur Geschichte und Organisation des römischen Vereinswesen</i>, +Leipzig, 1890; Ziebarth's <i>Das Griechische Vereinswesen</i>, Leipzig, 1896, +pp. 96-110; Kornemann's article, "Collegium," in the Pauly-Wissowa <i>Real +Encyclopadie</i>. Other literature is cited by Waltzing, I, pp. 17-30, and by +Kornemann, IV, columns 479-480.</p> + +<p id="fn108">108. <i>Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum</i>, XI, 5047.</p> + +<p id="fn109">109. <i>Ibid.</i>, V, 7906.</p> + +<p id="fn110">110. <i>Ibid.</i>, III, p. 953.</p> + +<p id="fn111">111. <i>Ibid.</i>, VIII, 14683.</p> + +<p id="fn112">112. <i>Ibid.</i>, III, 3583.</p> + +<p id="fn113">113. <i>Ibid.</i>, XIV, 2112.</p> + +<p id="fn114">114. <i>Ibid.</i>, XIV, 326.</p> + +<p id="fn115">115. <i>E.g.</i>, Clodius and Milo.</p> + +<p id="fn116">116. Lucan, 4. 814 <i>ff.</i>; Velleius, 2. 48; Pliny, Nat. Hist., 7. 116 +<i>ff.</i></p> + +<p id="fn117">117. Cicero, Brutus, 122, 210, 214.</p> + +<p id="fn118">118. <i>Ibid.</i>, 280.</p> + +<p id="fn119">119. Cicero, <i>Epist. ad Fam.</i>, 2. 1.</p> + +<p id="fn120">120. Cicero, <i>Phil.</i>, 2. 45 <i>f.</i></p> + +<p id="fn121">121. Cicero, <i>ad Att.</i>, 1. 14. 5.</p> + +<p id="fn122">122. <i>Ibid.</i>, 1. 14. 5.</p> + +<p id="fn123">123. <i>Ibid.</i>, 2. 12. 2.</p> + +<p id="fn124">124. <i>Ibid.</i>, 2.7.3; 2.8.1; 2.12.2.</p> + +<p id="fn125">125. Suet., <i>Julius</i>, 52.</p> + +<p id="fn126">126. <i>Ad Att.</i>, 2. 19. 3.</p> + +<p id="fn127">127. <i>Ad fam.</i>, 2.4.</p> + +<p id="fn128">128. <i>Ibid.</i>, 2.6.</p> + +<p id="fn129">129. <i>Ibid.</i>, 8. 4. 2.</p> + +<p id="fn130">130. Dio's account (40. 61) of Curio's course seems to harmonize with +this interpretation.</p> + +<p id="fn131">131. "Cicero, <i>ad fam.</i>, 8.10.4.</p> + +<p id="fn132">132. White's Civil Wars of Appian, 2.27.</p> + +<p id="fn133">133. Cicero, <i>ad fam.</i>, 8.6.5.</p> + +<p id="fn134">134. Valerius Maximus, 9.1.6.</p> + +<p id="fn135">135. Vell. Pat., 2.48.</p> + +<p id="fn136">136. Civil Wars, 2.30.</p> + +<p id="fn137">137. <i>Ad Att.</i>, 6.9.4.</p> + +<p id="fn138">138. Civil Wars of Appian, 2.31.</p> + +<p id="fn139">139. Velleius Paterculus, 2.48.</p> + +<p id="fn140">140. Cæsar, Civil War, 1. 12.</p> + +<p id="fn141">141. <i>Ibid.</i>, 1.182</p> + +<p id="fn142">142. <i>Ibid.</i>, 2.23.</p> + +<p id="fn143">143. <i>Ibid.</i>, 2.42.</p> + +<p id="fn144">144. <i>Pharsalia</i>, 4. 807-824.</p> + +<p id="fn145">145. Cicero, <i>Epistulæ ad famiares</i>, 11.27.</p> + +<p id="fn146">146. Cicero, <i>Epist. ad fam.</i>, 11.28.</p> + +<p id="fn147">147. 12.46.1.</p> + +<p id="fn148">148. Apicius, 4.174.</p> + +<p id="fn149">149. <i>Naturalis Historia</i>, 12.13.</p> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Common People of Ancient Rome +by Frank Frost Abbott + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COMMON PEOPLE OF ANCIENT ROME *** + +***** This file should be named 13226-h.htm or 13226-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/2/2/13226/ + +Produced by Distributed Proofreaders + +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. 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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 Common People of Ancient Rome + Studies of Roman Life and Literature + +Author: Frank Frost Abbott + +Release Date: August 19, 2004 [EBook #13226] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COMMON PEOPLE OF ANCIENT ROME *** + + + + +Produced by Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +[Transcriber's note: This book makes use of the Roman denarius symbol. +Because this symbol is not available in Unicode, it has been replaced by +the ROMAN NUMERAL TEN (U+2169) with a COMBINING LONG STROKE OVERLAY +(U+0336) in the UTF-8 version.] + + + + +The Common People of Ancient Rome + +Studies of Roman Life and Literature + +By + +Frank Frost Abbott + +Kennedy Professor of the Latin Language and Literature in Princeton +University + +New York +Charles Scribner's Sons + + + + +Copyright, 1911, by +Charles Scribner's Sons + + +Printed in the United States of America + + + + +Dedicated to J. H. A. + + + + +Prefatory Note + + + +This book, like the volume on "Society and Politics in Ancient Rome," +deals with the life of the common people, with their language and +literature, their occupations and amusements, and with their social, +political, and economic conditions. We are interested in the common people +of Rome because they made the Roman Empire what it was. They carried the +Roman standards to the Euphrates and the Atlantic; they lived abroad as +traders, farmers, and soldiers to hold and Romanize the provinces, or they +stayed at home, working as carpenters, masons, or bakers, to supply the +daily needs of the capital. + +The other side of the subject which has engaged the attention of the +author in studying these topics has been the many points of similarity +which arise between ancient and modern conditions, and between the +problems which the Roman faced and those which confront us. What policy +shall the government adopt toward corporations? How can the cost of living +be kept down? What effect have private benefactions on the character of a +people? Shall a nation try to introduce its own language into the +territory of a subject people, or shall it allow the native language to be +used, and, if it seeks to introduce its own tongue, how can it best +accomplish its object? The Roman attacked all these questions, solved some +of them admirably, and failed with others egregiously. His successes and +his failures are perhaps equally illuminating, and the fact that his +attempts to improve social and economic conditions run through a period of +a thousand years should make the study of them of the greater interest and +value to us. + +Of the chapters which this book contains, the article on "The Origin of +the Realistic Romance among the Romans" appeared originally in _Classical +Philology_, and the author is indebted to the editors of that periodical +for permission to reprint it here. The other papers are now published for +the first time. + +It has not seemed advisable to refer to the sources to substantiate every +opinion which has been expressed, but a few references have been given in +the foot-notes mainly for the sake of the reader who may wish to follow +some subject farther than has been possible in these brief chapters. The +proofs had to be corrected while the author was away from his own books, +so that he was unable to make a final verification of two or three of the +citations, but he trusts that they, as well as the others, are accurate. +He takes this opportunity to acknowledge his indebtedness to Dr. Donald +Blythe Durham, of Princeton University, for the preparation of the index. + +Frank Frost Abbott. +Einsiedeln, Switzerland +_September 2, 1911_ + + + + +Contents + + + +How Latin Became the Language of the World +The Latin of the Common People +The Poetry of the Common People of Rome: + I. Their Metrical Epitaphs + II. Their Dedicatory and Ephemeral Verses +The Origin of the Realistic Romance Among the Romans +Diocletian's Edict and the High Cost of Living +Private Benefactions and Their Effect on the Municipal Life of the Romans +Some Reflections on Corporations and Trade-Guilds +A Roman Politician, Gaius Scribonius Curio +Gaius Matius, a Friend of Caesar + +Index + + + + +The Common People of Ancient Rome + + + + +How Latin Became the Language of the World + + + +How the armies of Rome mastered the nations of the world is known to every +reader of history, but the story of the conquest by Latin of the languages +of the world is vague in the minds of most of us. If we should ask +ourselves how it came about, we should probably think of the world-wide +supremacy of Latin as a natural result of the world-wide supremacy of the +Roman legions or of Roman law. But in making this assumption we should be +shutting our eyes to the history of our own times. A conquered people does +not necessarily accept, perhaps it has not commonly accepted, the tongue +of its master. In his "Ancient and Modern Imperialism" Lord Cromer states +that in India only one hundred people in every ten thousand can read and +write English, and this condition exists after an occupation of one +hundred and fifty years or more. He adds: "There does not appear the +least prospect of French supplanting Arabic in Algeria." In comparing the +results of ancient and modern methods perhaps he should have taken into +account the fact that India and Algeria have literatures of their own, +which most of the outlying peoples subdued by Rome did not have, and these +literatures may have strengthened the resistance which the tongue of the +conquered people has offered to that of the conqueror, but, even when +allowance is made for this fact, the difference in resultant conditions is +surprising. From its narrow confines, within a little district on the +banks of the Tiber, covering, at the close of the fifth century B.C., less +than a hundred square miles, Latin spread through Italy and the islands of +the Mediterranean, through France, Spain, England, northern Africa, and +the Danubian provinces, triumphing over all the other tongues of those +regions more completely than Roman arms triumphed over the peoples using +them. + +In tracing the story we must keep in our mind's eye the linguistic +geography of Italy, just as we must remember the political geography of +the peninsula in following Rome's territorial expansion. Let us think at +the outset, then, of a little strip of flat country on the Tiber, dotted +here and there with hills crowned with villages. Such hill towns were +Rome, Tusculum, and Praeneste, for instance. Each of them was the +stronghold and market-place of the country immediately about it, and +therefore had a life of its own, so that although Latin was spoken in all +of them it varied from one to the other. This is shown clearly enough by +the inscriptions which have been found on the sites of these ancient +towns,[1] and as late as the close of the third century before our era, +Plautus pokes fun in his comedies at the provincialism of Praeneste. + +The towns which we have mentioned were only a few miles from Rome. Beyond +them, and occupying central Italy and a large part of southern Italy, were +people who spoke Oscan and the other Italic dialects, which were related +to Latin, and yet quite distinct from it. In the seaports of the south +Greek was spoken, while the Messapians and Iapygians occupied Calabria. To +the north of Rome were the mysterious Etruscans and the almost equally +puzzling Venetians and Ligurians. When we follow the Roman legions across +the Alps into Switzerland, France, England, Spain, and Africa, we enter a +jungle, as it were, of languages and dialects. A mere reading of the list +of tongues with which Latin was brought into contact, if such a list could +be drawn up, would bring weariness to the flesh. In the part of Gaul +conquered by Caesar, for instance, he tells us that there were three +independent languages, and sixty distinct states, whose peoples doubtless +differed from one another in their speech. If we look at a map of the +Roman world under Augustus, with the Atlantic to bound it on the west, the +Euphrates on the east, the desert of Sahara on the south, and the Rhine +and Danube on the north, and recall the fact that the linguistic +conditions which Caesar found in Gaul in 58 B.C. were typical of what +confronted Latin in a great many of the western, southern, and northern +provinces, the fact that Latin subdued all these different tongues, and +became the every-day speech of these different peoples, will be recognized +as one of the marvels of history. In fact, so firmly did it establish +itself, that it withstood the assaults of the invading Gothic, Lombardic, +Frankish, and Burgundian, and has continued to hold to our own day a very +large part of the territory which it acquired some two thousand years +ago. + +That Latin was the common speech of the western world is attested not only +by the fact that the languages of France, Spain, Roumania, and the other +Romance countries descend from it, but it is also clearly shown by the +thousands of Latin inscriptions composed by freeman and freedman, by +carpenter, baker, and soldier, which we find all over the Roman world. + +How did this extraordinary result come about? It was not the conquest of +the world by the common language of Italy, because in Italy in early days +at least nine different languages were spoken, but its subjugation by the +tongue spoken in the city of Rome. The traditional narrative of Rome, as +Livy and others relate it, tells us of a struggle with the neighboring +Latin hill towns in the early days of the Republic, and the ultimate +formation of an alliance between them and Rome. The favorable position of +the city on the Tiber for trade and defence gave it a great advantage over +its rivals, and it soon became the commercial and political centre of the +neighboring territory. The most important of these villages, Tusculum, +Praeneste, and Lanuvium, were not more than twenty miles distant, and the +people in them must have come constantly to Rome to attend the markets, +and in later days to vote, to hear political speeches, and to listen to +plays in the theatre. Some of them probably heard the jests at the expense +of their dialectal peculiarities which Plautus introduced into his +comedies. The younger generations became ashamed of their provincialisms; +they imitated the Latin spoken in the metropolis, and by the second +century of our era, when the Latin grammarians have occasion to cite +dialectal peculiarities from Latium outside Rome, they quote at +second-hand from Varro of the first century B.C., either because they will +not take the trouble to use their own ears or because the differences +which were noted in earlier days had ceased to exist. The first stage in +the conquest of the world by the Latin of Rome comes to an end, then, with +the extension of that form of speech throughout Latium. + +Beyond the limits of Latium it came into contact with Oscan and the other +Italic dialects, which were related to Latin, but of course were much +farther removed from it than the Latin of Tusculum or Lanuvium had +been,[2] so that the adoption of Latin was not so simple a matter as the +acceptance of Roman Latin by the villages of Latium near Rome had been. + +The conflict which went on between Latin and its Italic kinsmen is +revealed to us now and then by a Latin inscription, into which Oscan or +Umbrian forms have crept.[3] The struggle had come to an end by the +beginning of our era. A few Oscan inscriptions are found scratched on the +walls of Pompeii after the first earthquake, in 63 A.D., but they are late +survivals, and no Umbrian inscriptions are known of a date subsequent to +the first century B.C. + +The Social War of 90-88 B.C., between Rome and the Italians, was a +turning-point in the struggle between Latin and the Italic dialects, +because it marks a change in the political treatment of Rome's +dependencies in Italy. Up to this time she had followed the policy of +isolating all her Italian conquered communities from one another. She was +anxious to prevent them from conspiring against her. Thus, with this +object in view, she made differences in the rights and privileges granted +to neighboring communities, in order that, not being subject to the same +limitations, and therefore not having the same grievances, they might not +have a common basis for joint action against her. It would naturally be a +part of that policy to allow or to encourage the retention by the several +communities of their own dialects. The common use of Latin would have +enabled them to combine against her with greater ease. With the conclusion +of the Social War this policy gave way before the new conception of +political unity for the people of Italian stock, and with political unity +came the introduction of Latin as the common tongue in all official +transactions of a local as well as of a federal character. The immediate +results of the war, and the policy which Rome carried out at its close of +sending out colonies and building roads in Italy, contributed still more +to the larger use of Latin throughout the central and southern parts of +the peninsula. Samnium, Lucania, and the territory of the Bruttii suffered +severely from depopulation; many colonies were sent into all these +districts, so that, although the old dialects must have persisted for a +time in some of the mountain towns to the north of Rome, the years +following the conclusion of the Social War mark the rapid disappearance of +them and the substitution of Latin in their place. Campania took little +part in the war, and was therefore left untouched. This fact accounts +probably for the occurrence of a few Oscan inscriptions on the walls of +Pompeii as late as 63 A.D. + +We need not follow here the story of the subjugation of the Greek seaports +in southern Italy and of the peoples to the north who spoke non-Italic +languages. In all these cases Latin was brought into conflict with +languages not related to itself, and the situation contains slightly +different elements from those which present themselves in the struggle +between Latin and the Italic dialects. The latter were nearly enough +related to Latin to furnish some support for the theory that Latin was +modified by contact with them, and this theory has found advocates,[4] but +there is no sufficient reason for believing that it was materially +influenced. An interesting illustration of the influence of Greek on the +Latin of every-day life is furnished by the realistic novel which +Petronius wrote in the middle of the first century of our era. The +characters in his story are Greeks, and the language which they speak is +Latin, but they introduce into it a great many Greek words, and now and +then a Greek idiom or construction. + +The Romans, as is well known, used two agencies with great effect in +Romanizing their newly acquired territory, viz., colonies and roads. The +policy of sending out colonists to hold the new districts was definitely +entered upon in the early part of the fourth century, when citizens were +sent to Antium, Tarracina, and other points in Latium. Within this century +fifteen or twenty colonies were established at various points in central +Italy. Strategic considerations determined their location, and the choice +was made with great wisdom. Sutrium and Nepete, on the borders of the +Ciminian forest, were "the gates of Etruria"; Fregellae and Interamna +commanded the passage of the river Liris; Tarentum and Rhegium were +important ports of entry, while Alba Fucens and Carsioli guarded the line +of the Valerian road. + +This road and the other great highways which were constructed in Italy +brought not only all the colonies, but all parts of the peninsula, into +easy communication with the capital. The earliest of them was built to +Capua, as we know, by the great censor Appius Claudius, in 312 B.C., and +when one looks at a map of Italy at the close of the third century before +our era, and sees the central and southern parts of the peninsula dotted +with colonies, the Appian Way running from Rome south-east to Brundisium, +the Popillian Way to Rhegium, the Flaminian Way north-east to Ariminum, +with an extension to Cremona, with the Cassian and Aurelian ways along the +western coast, the rapidity and the completeness with which the Latin +language overspread Italy ceases to be a mystery. A map of Spain or of +France under the Empire, with its network of roads, is equally +illuminating. + +The missionaries who carried Roman law, Roman dress, Roman ideas, and the +Latin language first through central, southern, and northern Italy, and +then to the East and the West, were the colonist, the merchant, the +soldier, and the federal official. The central government exempted the +Roman citizen who settled in a provincial town from the local taxes. As +these were very heavy, his advantage over the native was correspondingly +great, and in almost all the large towns in the Empire we find evidence of +the existence of large guilds of Roman traders, tax-collectors, bankers, +and land-owners.[5] When Trajan in his romantic eastern campaign had +penetrated to Ctesiphon, the capital of Parthia, he found Roman merchants +already settled there. Besides the merchants and capitalists who were +engaged in business on their own account in the provinces, there were +thousands of agents for the great Roman corporations scattered through the +Empire. Rome was the money centre of the world, and the great stock +companies organized to lend money, construct public works, collect taxes, +and engage in the shipping trade had their central offices in the capital +whence they sent out their representatives to all parts of the world. + +The soldier played as important a part as the merchant in extending the +use of Latin. Tacitus tells us that in the reign of Augustus there were +twenty-five legions stationed in the provinces. If we allow 6,000 men to a +legion, we should have a total of 150,000 Roman soldiers scattered through +the provinces. To these must be added the auxiliary troops which were made +up of natives who, at the close of their term of service, were probably +able to speak Latin, and when they settled among their own people again, +would carry a knowledge of it into ever-widening circles. We have no exact +knowledge of the number of the auxiliary troops, but they probably came to +be as numerous as the legionaries.[6] Soldiers stationed on the frontiers +frequently married native women at the end of their term of service, +passed the rest of their lives in the provinces, and their children +learned Latin. + +The direct influence of the government was no small factor in developing +the use of Latin, which was of course the official language of the Empire. +All court proceedings were carried on in Latin. It was the language of +the governor, the petty official, and the tax-gatherer. It was used in +laws and proclamations, and no native could aspire to a post in the civil +service unless he had mastered it. It was regarded sometimes at least as a +_sine qua non_ of the much-coveted Roman citizenship. The Emperor +Claudius, for instance, cancelled the Roman citizenship of a Greek, +because he had addressed a letter to him in Latin which he could not +understand. The tradition that Latin was the official language of the +world was taken up by the Christian church. Even when Constantine presided +over the Council at Nicaea in the East, he addressed the assembly in Latin. + +The two last-mentioned agencies, the Latin of the Roman official and the +Latin of the church, were the influences which made the language spoken +throughout the Empire essentially uniform in its character. Had the Latin +which the colonist, the merchant, and the soldier carried through Italy +and into the provinces been allowed to develop in different localities +without any external unifying influence, probably new dialects would have +grown up all over the world, or, to put it in another way, probably the +Romance languages would have come into existence several centuries before +they actually appeared. That unifying influence was the Latin used by the +officials sent out from Rome, which all classes eagerly strove to imitate. +Naturally the language of the provinces did not conform in all respects to +the Roman standard. Apuleius, for instance, is aware of the fact that his +African style and diction are likely to offend his Roman readers, and in +the introduction to his _Metamorphoses_ he begs for their indulgence. The +elder Seneca in his _Controversiae_ remarks of a Spanish fellow-countryman +"that he could never unlearn that well-known style which is brusque and +rustic and characteristic of Spain," and Spartianus in his Life of Hadrian +tells us that when Hadrian addressed the senate on a certain occasion, his +rustic pronunciation excited the laughter of the senators. But the +peculiarities in the diction of Apuleius and Hadrian seem to have been +those which only a cultivated man of the world would notice. They do not +appear to have been fundamental. In a similar way the careful studies +which have been made of the thousands of inscriptions found in the +West[7], dedicatory inscriptions, guild records, and epitaphs show us +that the language of the common people in the provinces did not differ +materially from that spoken in Italy. It was the language of the Roman +soldier, colonist, and trader, with common characteristics in the way of +diction, form, phraseology, and syntax, dropping into some slight local +peculiarities, but kept essentially a unit by the desire which each +community felt to imitate its officials and its upper classes. + +The one part of the Roman world in which Latin did not gain an undisputed +pre-eminence was the Greek East. The Romans freely recognized the peculiar +position which Greek was destined to hold in that part of the Empire, and +styled it the _altera lingua_. Even in Greek lands, however, Latin gained +a strong hold, and exerted considerable influence on Greek[8]. + +In a very thoughtful paper on "Language-Rivalry and +Speech-Differentiation in the Case of Race-Mixture,"[9] Professor Hempl +has discussed the conditions under which language-rivalry takes place, and +states the results that follow. His conclusions have an interesting +bearing on the question which we are discussing here, how and why it was +that Latin supplanted the other languages with which it was brought into +contact. + +He observes that when two languages are brought into conflict, there is +rarely a compromise or fusion, but one of the two is driven out of the +field altogether by the other. On analyzing the circumstances in which +such a struggle for supremacy between languages springs up, he finds four +characteristic cases. Sometimes the armies of one nation, though +comparatively small in numbers, conquer another country. They seize the +government of the conquered land; their ruler becomes its king, and they +become the aristocracy. They constitute a minority, however; they identify +their interests with those of the conquered people, and the language of +the subject people becomes the language of all classes. The second case +arises when a country is conquered by a foreign people who pour into it +with their wives and children through a long period and settle permanently +there. The speech of the natives in these circumstances disappears. In the +third case a more powerful people conquers a country, establishes a +dependent government in it, sends out merchants, colonists, and officials, +and establishes new towns. If such a province is held long enough, the +language of the conqueror prevails. In the fourth and last case peaceful +bands of immigrants enter a country to follow the humbler callings. They +are scattered among the natives, and succeed in proportion as they learn +the language of their adopted country. For their children and +grandchildren this language becomes their mother tongue, and the speech of +the invaded nation holds its ground. + +The first typical case is illustrated by the history of Norman-French in +England, the second by that of the European colonists in America; the +Latinization of Spain, Gaul, and other Roman provinces furnishes an +instance of the third, and our own experience with European immigrants is +a case of the fourth characteristic situation. The third typical case of +language-conflict is the one with which we are concerned here, and the +analysis which we have made of the practices followed by the Romans in +occupying newly acquired territory, both in Italy and outside the +peninsula, shows us how closely they conform to the typical situation. +With the exception of Dacia, all the provinces were held by the Romans for +several centuries, so that their history under Roman rule satisfies the +condition of long occupation which Professor Hempl lays down as a +necessary one. Dacia which lay north of the Danube, and was thus far +removed from the centres of Roman influence, was erected into a province +in 107 A.D., and abandoned in 270. Notwithstanding its remoteness and the +comparatively short period during which it was occupied, the Latin +language has continued in use in that region to the present day. It +furnishes therefore a striking illustration of the effective methods which +the Romans used in Latinizing conquered territory.[10] + +We have already had occasion to notice that a fusion between Latin and +the languages with which it was brought into contact, such a fusion, for +instance, as we find in Pidgin-English, did not occur. These languages +influenced Latin only by way of making additions to its vocabulary. A +great many Greek scientific and technical terms were adopted by the +learned during the period of Roman supremacy. Of this one is clearly +aware, for instance, in reading the philosophical and rhetorical works of +Cicero. A few words, like rufus, crept into the language from the Italic +dialects. Now and then the Keltic or Iberian names of Gallic or Spanish +articles were taken up, but the inflectional system and the syntax of +Latin retained their integrity. In the post-Roman period additions to the +vocabulary are more significant. It is said that about three hundred +Germanic words have found their way into all the Romance languages.[11] +The language of the province of Gaul was most affected since some four +hundred and fifty Gothic, Lombardic, and Burgundian words are found in +French alone, such words as boulevard, homard, and blesser. Each of the +provinces of course, when the Empire broke up, was subjected to +influences peculiar to itself. The residence of the Moors in Spain, for +seven hundred years, for instance, has left a deep impress on the Spanish +vocabulary, while the geographic position of Roumanian has exposed it to +the influence of Slavic, Albanian, Greek, Magyar, and Turkish.[12] A +sketch of the history of Latin after the breaking up of the Empire carries +us beyond the limits of the question which we set ourselves at the +beginning and out of the domain of the Latinist, but it may not be out of +place to gather together here a few of the facts which the Romance +philologist has contributed to its later history, because the life of +Latin has been continuous from the foundation of the city of Rome to the +present day. + +In this later period the question of paramount interest is, why did Latin +in one part of the world develop into French, in another part into +Italian, in another into Spanish? One answer to this question has been +based on chronological grounds.[13] The Roman soldiers and traders who +went out to garrison and to settle in a newly acquired territory, +introduced that form of Latin which was in use in Italy at the time of +their departure from the peninsula. The form of speech thus planted there +developed along lines peculiar to itself, became the dialect of that +province, and ultimately the (Romance) language spoken in that part of +Europe. Sardinia was conquered in 241 B.C., and Sardinian therefore is a +development of the Latin spoken in Italy in the middle of the third +century B.C., that is of the Latin of Livius Andronicus. Spain was brought +under Roman rule in 197 B.C., and consequently Spanish is a natural +outgrowth of popular Latin of the time of Plautus. In a similar way, by +noticing the date at which the several provinces were established down to +the acquisition of Dacia in 107 A.D., we shall understand how it was that +the several Romance languages developed out of Latin. So long as the +Empire held together the unifying influence of official Latin, and the +constant intercommunication between the provinces, preserved the essential +unity of Latin throughout the world, but when the bonds were broken, the +naturally divergent tendencies which had existed from the beginning, but +had been held in check, made themselves felt, and the speech of the +several sections of the Old World developed into the languages which we +find in them to-day. + +This theory is suggestive, and leads to several important results, but it +is open to serious criticism, and does not furnish a sufficient +explanation. It does not seem to take into account the steady stream of +emigrants from Italy to the provinces, and the constant transfer of troops +from one part of the world to another of which we become aware when we +study the history of any single province or legion. Spain was acquired, it +is true, in 197 B.C., and the Latin which was first introduced into it was +the Latin of Plautus, but the subjugation of the country occupied more +than sixty years, and during this period fresh troops were steadily poured +into the peninsula, and later on there was frequently an interchange of +legions between Spain and the other provinces. Furthermore, new +communities of Roman citizens were established there even down into the +Empire, and traders were steadily moving into the province. In this way it +would seem that the Latin of the early second century which was originally +carried into Spain must have been constantly undergoing modification, +and, so far as this influence goes, made approximately like the Latin +spoken elsewhere in the Empire. + +A more satisfactory explanation seems to be that first clearly propounded +by the Italian philologist, Ascoli. His reasoning is that when we acquire +a foreign language we find it very difficult, and often impossible, to +master some of the new sounds. Our ears do not catch them exactly, or we +unconsciously substitute for the foreign sound some sound from our own +language. Our vocal organs, too, do not adapt themselves readily to the +reproduction of the strange sounds in another tongue, as we know from the +difficulty which we have in pronouncing the French nasal or the German +guttural. Similarly English differs somewhat as it is spoken by a +Frenchman, a German, and an Italian. The Frenchman has a tendency to +import the nasal into it, and he is also inclined to pronounce it like his +own language, while the German favors the guttural. In a paper on the +teaching of modern languages in our schools, Professor Grandgent says:[14] +"Usually there is no attempt made to teach any French sounds but _u_ and +the four nasal vowels; all the rest are unquestioningly replaced by the +English vowels and consonants that most nearly resemble them." The +substitution of sounds from one's own language in speaking a foreign +tongue, and the changes in voice-inflection, are more numerous and more +marked if the man who learns the new language is uneducated and acquires +it in casual intercourse from an uneducated man who speaks carelessly. + +This was the state of things in the Roman provinces of southern Europe +when the Goths, Lombards, and other peoples from the North gradually +crossed the frontier and settled in the territory of Latin-speaking +peoples. In the sixth century, for instance, the Lombards in Italy, the +Franks in France, and the Visigoths in Spain would each give to the Latin +which they spoke a twist peculiar to themselves, and out of the one Latin +came Italian, out of the second, the language of France, and out of the +third, Spanish. This initial impulse toward the development of Latin along +different lines in Italy, France, and Spain was, of course, reinforced by +differences in climate, in the temperaments of the three peoples, in +their modes of life, and in their political and social experiences. These +centrifugal forces, so to speak, became effective because the political +and social bonds which had held Italy, France, and Spain together were now +loosened, and consequently communication between the provinces was less +frequent, and the standardizing influence of the official Latin of Rome +ceased to keep Latin a uniform thing throughout the Empire. + +One naturally asks why Latin survived at all, why the languages of the +victorious Germanic peoples gave way to it. In reply to this question it +is commonly said that the fittest survived, that the superiority of Roman +civilization and of the Latin language gave Latin the victory. So far as +this factor is to be taken into account, I should prefer to say that it +was not so much the superiority of Latin, although that may be freely +recognized, as it was the sentimental respect which the Germans and their +leaders had for the Empire and for all its institutions. This is shown +clearly enough, for instance, in the pride which the Visigothic and +Frankish kings showed in holding their commissions from Rome, long after +Rome had lost the power to enforce its claims upon them; it is shown in +their use of Latin as the language of the court and of the official world. +Under the influence of this sentiment Germanic rulers and their peoples +imitated the Romans, and, among other things, took over their language. +The church probably exerted considerable influence in this direction. Many +of the Germans had been converted to Christianity before they entered the +Empire, and had heard Latin used in the church services and in the hymns. +Among cultivated people of different countries, it was the only medium of +communication, and was accepted as the lingua franca of the political and +ecclesiastical world, and the traditional medium of expression for +literary and legal purposes. + +Perhaps, however, one element in the situation should be given more weight +than any of the facts just mentioned. Many of the barbarians had been +allowed to settle in a more or less peaceful fashion in Roman territory, +so that a large part of the western world came into their possession by +way of gradual occupation rather than by conquest.[15] They became peasant +proprietors, manual laborers, and soldiers in the Roman army. Perhaps, +therefore, their occupation of central and southern Europe bears some +resemblance to the peaceful invasion of this country by immigrants from +Europe, and they may have adopted Latin just as the German or Scandinavian +adopts English. + +This brings us to the last important point in our inquiry. What is the +date before which we shall call the language of the Western Empire Latin, +and after which it is better to speak of French, Spanish, and Italian? +Such a line of division cannot be sharply drawn, and will in a measure be +artificial, because, as we shall attempt to show in the chapter which +follows on the "Latin of the Common People," Latin survives in the Romance +languages, and has had a continuous life up to the present day. But on +practical grounds it is convenient to have such a line of demarcation in +mind, and two attempts have been made to fix it. One attempt has been +based on linguistic grounds, the other follows political changes more +closely. Up to 700 A.D. certain common sound-changes take place in all +parts of the western world.[16] After that date, roughly speaking, this is +not the case. Consequently at that time we may say that unity ceased. The +other method of approaching the subject leads to essentially the same +conclusion, and shows us why unity ceased to exist.[17] In the sixth +century the Eastern Emperor Justinian conceived the idea of reuniting the +Roman world, and actually recovered and held for a short time Italy, +southern Spain, and Africa. This attempt on his part aroused a national +spirit among the peoples of these lands, and developed in them a sense of +their national independence and individuality. They threw off the foreign +yoke and became separate peoples, and developed, each of them, a language +of its own. Naturally this sentiment became effective at somewhat +different periods in different countries. For France the point may be +fixed in the sixth century, for Spain and Italy, in the seventh, and at +these dates Latin may be said to take the form of French, Spanish, and +Italian. + + + + +The Latin of the Common People + + + +Unless one is a professional philologist he feels little interest in the +language of the common people. Its peculiarities in pronunciation, syntax, +phraseology, and the use of words we are inclined to avoid in our own +speech, because they mark a lack of cultivation. We test them by the +standards of polite society, and ignore them, or condemn them, or laugh at +them as abnormal or illogical or indicative of ignorance. So far as +literature goes, the speech of the common people has little interest for +us because it is not the recognized literary medium. These two reasons +have prevented the average man of cultivated tastes from giving much +attention to the way in which the masses speak, and only the professional +student has occupied himself with their language. This is unfortunate +because the speech of the common people has many points of interest, and, +instead of being illogical, is usually much more rigid in its adherence +to its own accepted principles than formal speech is, which is likely to +be influenced by convention or conventional associations. To take an +illustration of what I have in mind, the ending _-s_ is the common mark in +English of a plural form. For instance, "caps," "maps," "lines," and +"places" are plurals, and the corresponding singular forms are "cap," +"map," "line," and "place." Consequently, granted the underlying premise, +it is a perfectly logical and eminently scientific process from the forms +"relapse" (pronounced, of course, "relaps") and "species" to postulate a +corresponding singular, and speak of "a relap" and "a specie," as a negro +of my acquaintance regularly does. "Scrope" and "lept," as preterites of +"scrape" and "leap," are correctly formed on the analogy of "broke" and +"crept," but are not used in polite society. + +So far as English, German, or French go, a certain degree of general +interest has been stimulated lately in the form which they take in +every-day life by two very different agencies, by the popular articles of +students of language, and by realistic and dialect novels. But for our +knowledge of the Latin of the common people we lack these two +all-important sources of information. It occurred to only two Roman +writers, Petronius and Apuleius, to amuse their countrymen by writing +realistic stories, or stories with realistic features, and the Roman +grammarian felt an even greater contempt for popular Latin or a greater +indifference to it than we feel to-day. This feeling was shared, as we +know, by the great humanists of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, +when the revival of interest in the Greek and Latin languages and +literatures begins. Petrarch, Poggio Bracciolini, and the other great +leaders in the movement were concerned with the literary aspects of the +classics, and the scholars of succeeding generations, so far as they +studied the language, confined their attention to that of the great Latin +stylists. The first student to conceive of the existence of popular Latin +as a form of speech which differed from formal literary Latin, seems to +have been the French scholar, Henri Etienne. In a little pamphlet on the +language and style of Plautus, written toward the end of the sixteenth +century, he noted the likeness between French and the language of the +Latin dramatist, without, however, clearly perceiving that the reason for +this similarity lay in the fact that the comedies of Plautus reflect the +spoken language of his time, and that French and the other Romance +languages have developed out of this, rather than from literary Latin. Not +until the middle of the eighteenth century was this truth clearly +recognized, and then almost simultaneously on both sides of the Rhine. + +It was left for the nineteenth century, however, to furnish scientific +proof of the correctness of this hypothesis, and it was a fitting thing +that the existence of an unbroken line of connection between popular Latin +of the third century before our era, and the Romance languages of the +nineteenth century, should have been established at the same time by a +Latinist engaged in the study of Plautus, and a Romance philologist +working upward toward Latin. The Latin scholar was Ritschl, who showed +that the deviations from the formal standard which one finds in Plautus +are not anomalies or mistakes, but specimens of colloquial Latin which can +be traced down into the later period. The Romance philologist was Diez, +who found that certain forms and words, especially those from the +vocabulary of every-day life, which are common to many of the Romance +languages, are not to be found in serious Latin literature at all, but +occur only in those compositions, like comedy, satire, or the realistic +romance, which reflect the speech of the every-day man. This discovery +made it clear that the Romance languages are related to folk Latin, not to +literary Latin. It is sixty years since the study of vulgar Latin was put +on a scientific basis by the investigations of these two men, and during +that period the Latinist and the Romance philologist have joined hands in +extending our knowledge of it. From the Latin side a great impetus was +given to the work by the foundation in 1884 of Woelfflin's _Archiv fuer +lateinische Lexikographie und Grammatik_. This periodical, as is well +known, was intended to prepare the way for the publication of the Latin +_Thesaurus_, which the five German Academies are now bringing out. + +One of its primary purposes, as its title indicates, was to investigate +the history of Latin words, and in its first number the editor called +attention to the importance of knowing the pieces of literature in which +each Latin word or locution occurred. The results have been very +illuminating. Some words or constructions or phrases are to be found, for +instance, only in comedy, satire, and the romance. They are evidently +peculiar to vulgar Latin. Others are freely used in these types of +literature, but sparingly employed in historical or rhetorical works. Here +again a shade of difference is noticeable between formal and familiar +usage. The method of the Latinist then is essentially one of comparison +and contrast. When, for instance, he finds the word _equus_ regularly used +by serious writers for "horse," but _caballus_ employed in that sense in +the colloquial compositions of Lucilius, Horace, and Petronius, he comes +to the conclusion that _caballus_ belongs to the vocabulary of every-day +life, that it is our "nag." + +The line of reasoning which the Romance philologist follows in his study +of vulgar Latin is equally convincing. The existence of a large number of +words and idioms in French, Spanish, Italian, and the other Romance +languages can be explained only in one of three ways. All these different +languages may have hit on the same word or phrase to express an idea, or +these words and idioms may have been borrowed from one language by the +others, or they may come from a common origin. The first hypothesis is +unthinkable. The second is almost as impossible. Undoubtedly French, for +instance, borrowed some words from Spanish, and Spanish from Portuguese. +It would be conceivable that a few words originating in Spain should pass +into France, and thence into Italy, but it is quite beyond belief that the +large element which the languages from Spain to Roumania have in common +should have passed by borrowing over such a wide territory. It is clear +that this common element is inherited from Latin, out of which all the +Romance languages are derived. Out of the words, endings, idioms, and +constructions which French, Spanish, Italian, and the other tongues of +southern Europe have in common, it would be possible, within certain +limits, to reconstruct the parent speech, but fortunately we are not +limited to this material alone. At this point the Latinist and the Romance +philologist join hands. To take up again the illustration already used, +the student of the Romance languages finds the word for "horse" in Italian +is cavallo, in Spanish caballo, in French cheval, in Roumanian cal, and +so on. Evidently all these forms have come from caballus, which the +Latinist finds belongs to the vocabulary of vulgar, not of formal, Latin. +This one illustration out of many not only discloses the fact that the +Romance languages are to be connected with colloquial rather than with +literary Latin, but it also shows how the line of investigation opened by +Diez, and that followed by Woelfflin and his school, supplement each other. +By the use of the methods which these two scholars introduced, a large +amount of material bearing on the subject under discussion has been +collected and classified, and the characteristic features of the Latin of +the common people have been determined. It has been found that five or six +different and independent kinds of evidence may be used in reconstructing +this form of speech. + +We naturally think first of the direct statements made by Latin writers. +These are to be found in the writings of Cicero, Quintilian, Seneca the +Rhetorician, Petronius, Aulus Gellius, Vitruvius, and the Latin +grammarians. The professional teacher Quintilian is shocked at the +illiterate speech of the spectators in the theatres and circus. Similarly +a character in Petronius utters a warning against the words such people +use. Cicero openly delights in using every-day Latin in his familiar +letters, while the architect Vitruvius expresses the anxious fear that he +may not be following the accepted rules of grammar. As we have noticed +above, a great deal of material showing the differences between formal and +colloquial Latin which these writers have in mind, may be obtained by +comparing, for instance, the Letters of Cicero with his rhetorical works, +or Seneca's satirical skit on the Emperor Claudius with his philosophical +writings. Now and then, too, a serious writer has occasion to use a bit of +popular Latin, but he conveniently labels it for us with an apologetic +phrase. Thus even St. Jerome, in his commentary on the Epistle to the +Ephesians, says: "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, as the vulgar +proverb has it." To the ancient grammarians the "mistakes" and vulgarisms +of popular speech were abhorrent, and they have fortunately branded lists +of words and expressions which are not to be used by cultivated people. +The evidence which may be had from the Romance languages, supplemented by +Latin, not only contributes to our knowledge of the vocabulary of vulgar +Latin, but it also shows us many common idioms and constructions which +that form of speech had. Thus, "I will sing" in Italian is cantero +(=cantar[e]-ho), in Spanish, cantare (=cantar-he), in French, chanterai +(=chanter-ai), and similar forms occur in some of the other Romance +languages. These forms are evidently made up of the Latin infinitive +cantare, depending on habeo ("I have to sing"). But the future in literary +Latin was cantabo, formed by adding an ending, as we know, and with that +the Romance future can have no connection. However, as a writer in the +_Archiv_ has pointed out,[18] just such analytical tense forms as are used +in the Romance languages to-day are to be found in the popular Latin +sermons of St. Jerome. From these idioms, common to Italian, French, and +Spanish, then, we can reconstruct a Latin formation current among the +common people. Finally a knowledge of the tendencies and practices of +spoken English helps us to identify similar usages when we come upon them +in our reading of Latin. When, for instance, the slave in a play of +Plautus says: "Do you catch on" (tenes?), "I'll touch the old man for a +loan" (tangam senem, etc.), or "I put it over him" (ei os sublevi) we +recognize specimens of Latin slang, because all of the metaphors involved +are in current use to-day. When one of the freedmen in Petronius remarks: +"You ought not to do a good turn to nobody" (neminem nihil boni facere +oportet) we see the same use of the double negative to which we are +accustomed in illiterate English. The rapid survey which we have just made +of the evidence bearing on the subject establishes beyond doubt the +existence of a form of speech among the Romans which cannot be identified +with literary Latin, but it has been held by some writers that the +material for the study of it is scanty. However, an impartial examination +of the facts ought not to lead one to this conclusion. On the Latin side +the material includes the comedies of Plautus and Terence, and the comic +fragments, the familiar odes of Catullus, the satires of Lucilius, Horace, +and Seneca, and here and there of Persius and Juvenal, the familiar +letters of Cicero, the romance of Petronius and that of Apuleius in part, +the Vulgate and some of the Christian fathers, the Journey to Jerusalem of +St. AEtheria, the glossaries, some technical books like Vitruvius and the +veterinary treatise of Chiron, and the private inscriptions, notably +epitaphs, the wall inscriptions of Pompeii, and the leaden tablets found +buried in the ground on which illiterate people wrote curses upon their +enemies. + +It is clear that there has been preserved for the study of colloquial +Latin a very large body of material, coming from a great variety of +sources and running in point of time from Plautus in the third century +B.C. to St. AEtheria in the latter part of the fourth century or later. It +includes books by trained writers, like Horace and Petronius, who +consciously adopt the Latin of every-day life, and productions by +uneducated people, like St. AEtheria and the writers of epitaphs, who have +unwittingly used it. + +St. Jerome says somewhere of spoken Latin that "it changes constantly as +you pass from one district to another, and from one period to another" (et +ipsa Latinitas et regionibus cotidie mutatur et tempore). If he had added +that it varies with circumstances also, he would have included the three +factors which have most to do in influencing the development of any +spoken language. We are made aware of the changes which time has brought +about in colloquial English when we compare the conversations in Fielding +with those in a present-day novel. When a spoken language is judged by the +standard of the corresponding literary medium, in some of its aspects it +proves to be conservative, in others progressive. It shows its +conservative tendency by retaining many words and phrases which have +passed out of literary use. The English of the Biglow Papers, when +compared with the literary speech of the time, abundantly illustrates this +fact. This conservative tendency is especially noticeable in districts +remote from literary centres, and those of us who are familiar with the +vernacular in Vermont or Maine will recall in it many quaint words and +expressions which literature abandoned long ago. In Virginia locutions may +be heard which have scarcely been current in literature since +Shakespeare's time. Now, literary and colloquial Latin were probably drawn +farther apart than the two corresponding forms of speech in English, +because Latin writers tried to make the literary tongue as much like Greek +in its form as possible, so that literary Latin would naturally have +diverged more rapidly and more widely from conversational Latin than +formal English has drawn away from colloquial English. + +But a spoken language in its development is progressive as well as +conservative. To certain modifying influences it is especially sensitive. +It is fond of the concrete, picturesque, and novel, and has a high +appreciation of humor. These tendencies lead it to invent many new words +and expressions which must wait months, years, perhaps a generation, +before they are accepted in literature. Sometimes they are never accepted. +The history of such words as buncombe, dude, Mugwump, gerrymander, and +joy-ride illustrate for English the fact that words of a certain kind meet +a more hospitable reception in the spoken language than they do in +literature. The writer of comedy or farce, the humorist, and the man in +the street do not feel the constraint which the canons of good usage put +on the serious writer. They coin new words or use old words in a new way +or use new constructions without much hesitation. The extraordinary +material progress of the modern world during the last century has +undoubtedly stimulated this tendency in a remarkable way, but it would +seem as if the Latin of the common people from the time of Plautus to that +of Cicero must have been subjected to still more innovating influences +than modern conversational English has. During this period the newly +conquered territories in Spain, northern Africa, Greece, and Asia poured +their slaves and traders into Italy, and added a great many words to the +vocabulary of every-day life. The large admixture of Greek words and +idioms in the language of Petronius in the first century of our era +furnishes proof of this fact. A still greater influence must have been +felt within the language itself by the stimulus to the imagination which +the coming of these foreigners brought, with their new ideas, and their +new ways of looking at things, their strange costumes, manners, and +religions. + +The second important factor which affects the spoken language is a +difference in culture and training. The speech of the gentleman differs +from that of the rustic. The conversational language of Terence, for +instance, is on a higher plane than that of Plautus, while the characters +in Plautus use better Latin than the freedmen in Petronius. The +illiterate freedmen in Petronius speak very differently from the freemen +in his story. Sometimes a particular occupation materially affects the +speech of those who pursue it. All of us know something of the linguistic +eccentricities of the London cabman, the Parisian thief, or the American +hobo. This particular influence cannot be estimated so well for Latin +because we lack sufficient material, but some progress has been made in +detecting the peculiarities of Latin of the nursery, the camp, and the +sea. + +Of course a spoken language is never uniform throughout a given area. +Dialectal differences are sure to develop. A man from Indiana and another +from Maine will be sure to notice each other's peculiarities. Even the +railway, the newspaper, and the public school will never entirely +obliterate the old differences or prevent new ones from springing up. +Without these agencies which do so much to promote uniformity to-day, +Italy and the rest of the Empire must have shown greater dialectal +differences than we observe in American English or in British English +even. + +For the sake of bringing out clearly some of the points of difference +between vulgar and formal Latin we have used certain illustrations, like +_caballus_, where the two forms of speech were radically opposed to each +other, but of course they did not constitute two different languages, and +that which they had in common was far greater than the element peculiar to +each, or, to put it in another way, they in large measure overlapped each +other. Perhaps we are in a position now to characterize colloquial Latin +and to define it as the language which was used in conversation throughout +the Empire with the innumerable variations which time and place gave it, +which in its most highly refined form, as spoken in literary circles at +Rome in the classical period, approached indefinitely near its ideal, +literary Latin, which in its most unconventional phase was the rude speech +of the rabble, or the "sermo inconditus" of the ancients. The facts which +have just been mentioned may be illustrated by the accompanying diagrams. + +[Illustration: Fig. I] + +[Illustration: Fig. II] + +[Illustration: Fig. III] + +[Illustration: Fig. IV] + +In Fig. I the heavy-lined ellipse represents the formal diction of Cicero, +the dotted line ellipse his conversational vocabulary. They overlap each +other through a great part of their extent, but there are certain +literary locutions which would rarely be used by him in conversation, and +certain colloquial words and phrases which he would not use in formal +writing. Therefore the two ellipses would not be coterminous. In Fig. II +the heavy ellipse has the same meaning as in Fig. I, while the space +enclosed by the dotted line represents the vocabulary of an uneducated +Roman, which would be much smaller than that of Cicero and would show a +greater degree of difference from the literary vocabulary than Cicero's +conversational stock of words does. The relation of the uncultivated +Roman's conversational vocabulary to that of Cicero is illustrated in Fig. +III, while Fig. IV shows how the Latin of the average man in Rome would +compare, for instance, with that of a resident of Lugudunum, in Gaul. + +This naturally brings us to consider the historical relations of literary +and colloquial Latin. In explaining them it has often been assumed that +colloquial Latin is a degenerate form of literary Latin, or that the +latter is a refined type of the former. Both these theories are equally +false. Neither is derived from the other. The true state of the case has +never been better put than by Schuchardt, who says: "Vulgar Latin stands +with reference to formal Latin in no derivative relation, in no paternal +relation, but they stand side by side. It is true that vulgar Latin came +from a Latin with fuller and freer forms, but it did not come from formal +Latin. It is true that formal Latin came from a Latin of a more popular +and a cruder character, but it did not come from vulgar Latin. In the +original speech of the people, preliterary Latin (the prisca Latinitas), +is to be found the origin of both; they were twin brothers." + +Of this preliterary Latin we have no record. The best we can do is to +infer what its characteristics were from the earliest fragments of the +language which have come down to us, from the laws of the Twelve Tables, +for instance, from the religious and legal formulae preserved to us by +Varro, Cicero, Livy, and others, from proverbs and popular sayings. It +would take us too far afield to analyze these documents here, but it may +be observed that we notice in them, among other characteristics, an +indifference to strict grammatical structure, not that subordination of +clauses to a main clause which comes only from an appreciation of the +logical relation of ideas to one another, but a co-ordination of clauses, +the heaping up of synonymous words, a tendency to use the analytical +rather than the synthetical form of expression, and a lack of fixity in +the forms of words and in inflectional endings. To illustrate some of +these traits in a single example, an early law reads "if [he] shall have +committed a theft by night, if [he] shall have killed him, let him be +regarded as put to death legally" (si nox furtum faxsit, si im occisit, +iure caesus esto).[19] We pass without warning from one subject, the +thief, in the first clause to another, the householder, in the second, and +back to the thief again in the third. Cato in his book on Agriculture +writes of the cattle: "let them feed; it will be better" (pascantur; +satius erit), instead of saying: "it will be better for them to feed" (or +"that they feed"). In an early law one reads: "on the tablet, on the white +surface" (in tabula, in albo), instead of "on the white tablet" (in alba +tabula). Perhaps we may sum up the general characteristics of this +preliterary Latin out of which both the spoken and written language +developed by saying that it showed a tendency to analysis rather than +synthesis, a loose and variable grammatical structure, and a lack of logic +in expression. + +Livius Andronicus, Naevius, and Plautus in the third century before our era +show the language as first used for literary purposes, and with them the +breach between the spoken and written tongues begins. So far as Livius +Andronicus, the Father of Latin literature, is concerned, allowance should +be made without doubt for his lack of poetic inspiration and skill, and +for the fact that his principal work was a translation, but even making +this allowance the crude character of his Latin is apparent, and it is +very clear that literary Latin underwent a complete transformation +between his time and that of Horace and Virgil. Now, the significant +thing in this connection is the fact that this transformation was largely +brought about under an external influence, which affected the Latin of the +common people only indirectly and in small measure. Perhaps the +circumstances in which literary Latin was placed have never been repeated +in history. At the very outset it was brought under the sway of a highly +developed literary tongue, and all the writers who subsequently used it +earnestly strove to model it after Greek. Livius Andronicus, Ennius, +Accius, and Pacuvius were all of Greek origin and familiar with Greek. +They, as well as Plautus and Terence, translated and adapted Greek epics, +tragedies, and comedies. Several of the early writers, like Accius and +Lucilius, interested themselves in grammatical subjects, and did their +best to introduce system and regularity into their literary medium. Now, +Greek was a highly inflected, synthetical, regular, and logical medium of +literary expression, and it was inevitable that these qualities should be +introduced into Latin. But this influence affected the spoken language +very little, as we have already noticed. Its effect upon the speech of +the common people would be slight, because of the absence of the common +school which does so much to-day to hold together the spoken and written +languages. + +The development then of preliterary Latin under the influence of this +systematizing, synthetical influence gave rise to literary Latin, while +its independent growth more nearly in accordance with its original genius +produced colloquial Latin. Consequently, we are not surprised to find that +the people's speech retained in a larger measure than literary Latin did +those qualities which we noticed in preliterary Latin. Those +characteristics are, in fact, to be expected in conversation. When a man +sets down his thoughts on paper he expresses himself with care and with a +certain reserve in his statements, and he usually has in mind exactly what +he wants to say. But in speaking he is not under this constraint. He is +likely to express himself in a tautological, careless, or even illogical +fashion. He rarely thinks out to the end what he has in mind, but loosely +adds clauses or sentences, as new ideas occur to him. + +We have just been thinking mainly about the relation of words to one +another in a sentence. In the treatment of individual words, written and +spoken Latin developed along different lines. In English we make little +distinction between the quantity of vowels, but in Latin of course a given +vowel was either long or short, and literary tradition became so fixed in +this matter that the professional poets of the Augustan age do not +tolerate any deviation from it. There are indications, however, that the +common people did not observe the rules of quantity in their integrity. We +can readily understand why that may have been the case. The comparative +carelessness, which is characteristic of conversation, affects our +pronunciation of words. When there is a stress accent, as there was in +Latin, this is especially liable to be the case. We know in English how +much the unaccented syllables suffer in a long word like "laboratory." In +Latin the long unaccented vowels and the final syllable, which was never +protected by the accent, were peculiarly likely to lose their full value. +As a result, in conversational Latin certain final consonants tended to +drop away, and probably the long vowel following a short one was regularly +shortened when the accent fell on the short syllable, or on the syllable +which followed the long one. Some scholars go so far as to maintain that +in course of time all distinction in quantity in the unaccented vowels was +lost in popular Latin. Sometimes the influence of the accent led to the +excision of the vowel in the syllable which followed it. Probus, a +grammarian of the fourth century of our era, in what we might call a +"Guide to Good Usage"[20] or "One Hundred Words Mispronounced," warns his +readers against masclus and anglus for masculus and angulus. This is the +same popular tendency which we see illustrated in "lab'ratory." + +The quality of vowels as well as their quantity changed. The obscuring of +certain vowel sounds in ordinary or careless conversation in this country +in such words as "Latun" and "Amurican" is a phenomenon which is familiar +enough. In fact a large number of our vowel sounds seem to have +degenerated into a grunt. Latin was affected in a somewhat similar way, +although not to the same extent as present-day English. Both the ancient +grammarians in their warnings and the Romance languages bear evidence to +this effect. + +We noticed above that the final consonant was exposed to danger by the +fact that the syllable containing it was never protected by the accent. It +is also true that there was a tendency to do away with any difficult +combination of consonants. We recall in English the current +pronunciations, "February," and "Calwell" for Caldwell. The average Roman +in the same way was inclined to follow the line of least resistance. +Sometimes, as in the two English examples just given, he avoided a +difficult combination of consonants by dropping one of them. This method +he followed in saying santus for sanctus, and scriserunt for scripserunt, +just as in vulgar English one now and then hears "slep" and "kep" for the +more difficult "slept" and "kept." Sometimes he lightened the +pronunciation by metathesis, as he did when he pronounced interpretor as +interpertor. A third device was to insert a vowel, as illiterate +English-speaking people do in the pronunciations "ellum" and "Henery." In +this way, for instance, the Roman avoided the difficult combinations -mn- +and -chn- by saying mina and techina for the historically correct mna and +techna. Another method of surmounting the difficulty was to assimilate one +of the two consonants to the other. This is a favorite practice of the +shop-girl, over which the newspapers make merry in their phonetical +reproductions of supposed conversations heard from behind the counter. +Adopting the same easy way of speaking, the uneducated Roman sometimes +said isse for ipse, and scritus for scriptus. To pass to another point of +difference, the laws determining the incidence of the accent were very +firmly established in literary Latin. The accent must fall on the penult, +if it was long, otherwise on the antepenult of the word. But in popular +Latin there were certain classes of words in whose case these principles +were not observed. + +The very nature of the accent probably differed in the two forms of +speech. In preliterary Latin the stress was undoubtedly a marked feature +of the accent, and this continued to be the case in the popular speech +throughout the entire history of the language, but, as I have tried to +prove in another paper,[21] in formal Latin the stress became very slight, +and the pitch grew to be the characteristic feature of the accent. +Consequently, when Virgil read a passage of the _AEneid_ to Augustus and +Livia the effect on the ear of the comparatively unstressed language, with +the rhythmical rise and fall of the pitch, would have been very different +from that made by the conversation of the average man, with the accented +syllables more clearly marked by a stress. + +In this brief chapter we cannot attempt to go into details, and in +speaking of the morphology of vulgar Latin we must content ourselves with +sketching its general characteristics and tendencies, as we have done in +the case of its phonology. In English our inflectional forms have been +reduced to a minimum, and consequently there is little scope for +differences in this respect between the written and spoken languages. From +the analogy of other forms the illiterate man occasionally says: "I swum," +or, "I clumb," or "he don't," but there is little chance of making a +mistake. However, with three genders, five declensions for nouns, a fixed +method of comparison for adjectives and adverbs, an elaborate system of +pronouns, with active and deponent, regular and irregular verbs, four +conjugations, and a complex synthetical method of forming the moods and +tenses, the pitfalls for the unwary Roman were without number, as the +present-day student of Latin can testify to his sorrow. That the man in +the street, who had no newspaper to standardize his Latin, and little +chance to learn it in school, did not make more mistakes is surprising. In +a way many of the errors which he did make were historically not errors at +all. This fact will readily appear from an illustration or two. In our +survey of preliterary Latin we had occasion to notice that one of its +characteristics was a lack of fixity in the use of forms or constructions. +In the third century before our era, a Roman could say audibo or audiam, +contemplor or contemplo, senatus consultum or senati consultum. Thanks to +the efforts of the scientific grammarian, and to the systematizing +influence which Greek exerted upon literary Latin, most verbs were made +deponent or active once for all, a given noun was permanently assigned to +a particular declension, a verb to one conjugation, and the slight +tendency which the language had to the analytical method of forming the +moods and tenses was summarily checked. Of course the common people tried +to imitate their betters in all these matters, but the old variable usages +persisted to some extent, and the average man failed to grasp the +niceties of the new grammar at many points. His failures were especially +noticeable where the accepted literary form did not seem to follow the +principles of analogy. When these principles are involved, the common +people are sticklers for consistency. The educated man conjugates: "I +don't," "you don't," "he doesn't," "we don't," "they don't"; but the +anomalous form "he doesn't" has to give way in the speech of the average +man to "he don't." To take only one illustration in Latin of the effect of +the same influence, the present infinitive active of almost all verbs ends +in -re, e.g., amare, monere, and regere. Consequently the irregular +infinitive of the verb "to be able," posse, could not stand its ground, +and ultimately became potere in vulgar Latin. In one respect in the +inflectional forms of the verb, the purist was unexpectedly successful. In +comedy of the third and second centuries B.C., we find sporadic evidence +of a tendency to use auxiliary verbs in forming certain tenses, as we do +in English when we say: "I will go," "I have gone," or "I had gone." This +movement was thoroughly stamped out for the time, and does not reappear +until comparatively late. + +In Latin there are three genders, and the grammatical gender of a noun is +not necessarily identical with its natural gender. For inanimate objects +it is often determined simply by the form of the noun. Sella, seat, of the +first declension, is feminine, because almost all nouns ending in -a are +feminine; hortus, garden, is masculine, because nouns in -us of its +declension are mostly masculine, and so on. From such a system as this two +results are reasonably sure to follow. Where the gender of a noun in +literary Latin did not conform to these rules, in popular Latin it would +be brought into harmony with others of its class. Thus stigma, one of the +few neuter nouns in -a, and consequently assigned to the third declension, +was brought in popular speech into line with sella and the long list of +similar words in -a, was made feminine, and put in the first declension. +In the case of another class of words, analogy was supplemented by a +mechanical influence. We have noticed already that the tendency of the +stressed syllable in a word to absorb effort and attention led to the +obscuration of certain final consonants, because the final syllable was +never protected by the accent. Thus hortus in some parts of the Empire +became hortu in ordinary pronunciation, and the neuter caelum, heaven, +became caelu. The consequent identity in the ending led to a confusion in +the gender, and to the ultimate treatment of the word for "heaven" as a +masculine. These influences and others caused many changes in the gender +of nouns in popular speech, and in course of time brought about the +elimination of the neuter gender from the neo-Latin languages. + +Something has been said already of the vocabulary of the common people. It +was naturally much smaller than that of cultivated people. Its poverty +made their style monotonous when they had occasion to express themselves +in writing, as one can see in reading St. AEtheria's account of her journey +to the Holy Land, and of course this impression of monotony is heightened +by such a writer's inability to vary the form of expression. Even within +its small range it differs from the vocabulary of formal Latin in three or +four important respects. It has no occasion, or little occasion, to use +certain words which a formal writer employs, or it uses substitutes for +them. So testa was used in part for caput, and bucca for os. On the other +hand, it employs certain words and phrases, for instance vulgar words and +expletives, which are not admitted into literature. + +In its choice of words it shows a marked preference for certain suffixes +and prefixes. It would furnish an interesting excursion into folk +psychology to speculate on the reasons for this preference in one case and +another. Sometimes it is possible to make out the influence at work. In +reading a piece of popular Latin one is very likely to be impressed with +the large number of diminutives which are used, sometimes in the strict +sense of the primitive word. The frequency of this usage reminds one in +turn of the fact that not infrequently in the Romance languages the +corresponding words are diminutive forms in their origin, so that +evidently the diminutive in these cases crowded out the primitive word in +popular use, and has continued to our own day. The reason why the +diminutive ending was favored does not seem far to seek. That suffix +properly indicates that the object in question is smaller than the average +of its kind. Smallness in a child stimulates our affection, in a dwarf, +pity or aversion. Now we give expression to our emotion more readily in +the intercourse of every-day life than we do in writing, and the emotions +of the masses are perhaps nearer the surface and more readily stirred than +are those of the classes, and many things excite them which would leave +unruffled the feelings of those who are more conventional. The stirring of +these emotions finds expression in the use of the diminutive ending, which +indirectly, as we have seen, suggests sympathy, affection, pity, or +contempt. The ending -osus for adjectives was favored because of its +sonorous character. Certain prefixes, like de-, dis-, and ex-, were freely +used with verbs, because they strengthened the meaning of the verb, and +popular speech is inclined to emphasize its ideas unduly. + +To speak further of derivation, in the matter of compounds and +crystallized word groups there are usually differences between a spoken +and written language. The written language is apt to establish certain +canons which the people do not observe. For instance, we avoid hybrid +compounds of Greek and Latin elements in the serious writing of English. +In formal Latin we notice the same objection to Greco-Latin words, and yet +in Plautus, and in other colloquial writers, such compounds are freely +used for comic effect. In a somewhat similar category belong the +combinations of two adverbs or prepositions, which one finds in the later +popular Latin, some of which have survived in the Romance languages. A +case in point is ab ante, which has come down to us in the Italian avanti +and the French avant. Such word-groups are of course debarred from formal +speech. + +In examining the vocabulary of colloquial Latin, we have noticed its +comparative poverty, its need of certain words which are not required in +formal Latin, its preference for certain prefixes and suffixes, and its +willingness to violate certain rules, in forming compounds and +word-groups, which the written language scrupulously observes. It remains +for us to consider a third, and perhaps the most important, element of +difference between the vocabularies of the two forms of speech. I mean the +use of a word in vulgar Latin with another meaning from that which it has +in formal Latin. We are familiar enough with the different senses which a +word often has in conversational and in literary English. "Funny," for +instance, means "amusing" in formal English, but it is often the synonym +of "strange" in conversation. The sense of a word may be extended, or be +restricted, or there may be a transfer of meaning. In the colloquial use +of "funny" we have an extension of its literary sense. The same is true of +"splendid," "jolly," "lovely," and "awfully," and of such Latin words as +"lepidus," "probe," and "pulchre." When we speak of "a splendid sun," we +are using splendid in its proper sense of shining or bright, but when we +say, "a splendid fellow," the adjective is used as a general epithet +expressing admiration. On the other hand, when a man of a certain class +refers to his "woman," he is employing the word in the restricted sense of +"wife." Perhaps we should put in a third category that very large +colloquial use of words in a transferred or figurative sense, which is +illustrated by "to touch" or "to strike" when applied to success in +getting money from a person. Our current slang is characterized by the +free use of words in this figurative way. + +Under the head of syntax we must content ourselves with speaking of only +two changes, but these were far-reaching. We have already noticed the +analytical tendency of preliterary Latin. This tendency was held in check, +as we have just observed, so far as verb forms were concerned, but in the +comparison of adjectives and in the use of the cases it steadily made +headway, and ultimately triumphed over the synthetical principle. The +method adopted by literary Latin of indicating the comparative and the +superlative degrees of an adjective, by adding the endings -ior and +-issimus respectively, succumbed in the end to the practice of prefixing +plus or magis and maxime to the positive form. To take another +illustration of the same characteristic of popular Latin, as early as the +time of Plautus, we see a tendency to adopt our modern method of +indicating the relation which a substantive bears to some other word in +the sentence by means of a preposition rather than by simply using a case +form. The careless Roman was inclined to say, for instance, magna pars de +exercitu, rather than to use the genitive case of the word for army, magna +pars exercitus. Perhaps it seemed to him to bring out the relation a +little more clearly or forcibly. + +The use of a preposition to show the relation became almost a necessity +when certain final consonants became silent, because with their +disappearance, and the reduction of the vowels to a uniform quantity, it +was often difficult to distinguish between the cases. Since final -m was +lost in pronunciation, _Asia_ might be nominative, accusative, or +ablative. If you wished to say that something happened in Asia, it would +not suffice to use the simple ablative, because that form would have the +same pronunciation as the nominative or the accusative, Asia(m), but the +preposition must be prefixed, _in Asia_. Another factor cooperated with +those which have already been mentioned in bringing about the confusion of +the cases. Certain prepositions were used with the accusative to indicate +one relation, and with the ablative to suggest another. _In Asia_, for +instance, meant "in Asia," _in Asiam_, "into Asia." When the two case +forms became identical in pronunciation, the meaning of the phrase would +be determined by the verb in the sentence, so that with a verb of going +the preposition would mean "into," while with a verb of rest it would mean +"in." In other words the idea of motion or rest is disassociated from the +case forms. From the analogy of _in_ it was very easy to pass to other +prepositions like _per_, which in literary Latin took the accusative only, +and to use these prepositions also with cases which, historically +speaking, were ablatives. + +In his heart of hearts the school-boy regards the periodic sentences which +Cicero hurled at Catiline, and which Livy used in telling the story of +Rome as unnatural and perverse. All the specious arguments which his +teacher urges upon him, to prove that the periodic form of expression was +just as natural to the Roman as the direct method is to us, fail to +convince him that he is not right in his feeling--and he _is_ right. Of +course in English, as a rule, the subject must precede the verb, the +object must follow it, and the adverb and attribute adjective must stand +before the words to which they belong. In the sentence: "Octavianus wished +Cicero to be saved," not a single change may be made in the order without +changing the sense, but in a language like Latin, where relations are +largely expressed by inflectional forms, almost any order is possible, so +that a writer may vary his arrangement and grouping of words to suit the +thought which he wishes to convey. But this is a different matter from +the construction of a period with its main subject at the beginning, its +main verb at the end, and all sorts of subordinate and modifying clauses +locked in by these two words. This was not the way in which the Romans +talked with one another. We can see that plainly enough from the +conversations in Plautus and Terence. In fact the Latin period is an +artificial product, brought to perfection by many generations of literary +workers, and the nearer we get to the Latin of the common people the more +natural the order and style seem to the English-speaking person. The +speech of the uneducated freedmen in the romance of Petronius is +interesting in this connection. They not only fail to use the period, but +they rarely subordinate one idea to another. Instead of saying "I saw him +when he was an aedile," they are likely to say "I saw him; he was an aedile +then." + +When we were analyzing preliterary Latin, we noticed that the +co-ordination of ideas was one of its characteristics, so that this trait +evidently persisted in popular speech, while literary Latin became more +logical and complex. + +In the preceding pages we have tried to find out the main features of +popular Latin. In doing so we have constantly thought of literary Latin +as the foil or standard of comparison. Now, strangely enough, no sooner +had the literary medium of expression slowly and painfully disassociated +itself from the language of the common people than influences which it +could not resist brought it down again to the level of its humbler +brother. Its integrity depended of course upon the acceptance of certain +recognized standards. But when flourishing schools of literature sprang up +in Spain, in Africa, and in Gaul, the paramount authority of Rome and the +common standard for the Latin world which she had set were lost. When some +men tried to imitate Cicero and Quintilian, and others, Seneca, there +ceased to be a common model of excellence. Similarly a careful distinction +between the diction of prose and verse was gradually obliterated. There +was a loss of interest in literature, and professional writers gave less +attention to their diction and style. The appearance of Christianity, too, +exercised a profound influence on literary Latin. Christian writers and +preachers made their appeal to the common people rather than to the +literary world. They, therefore, expressed themselves in language which +would be readily understood by the average man, as St. Jerome frankly +tells us his purpose was. The result of these influences, and of others, +acting on literary Latin, was to destroy its unity and its carefully +developed scientific system, and to bring it nearer and nearer in its +genius to popular Latin, or, to put it in another way, the literary medium +comes to show many of the characteristics of the spoken language. Gregory +of Tours, writing in the sixth century, laments the fact that he is +unfamiliar with grammatical principles, and with this century literary +Latin may be said to disappear. + +As for popular Latin, it has never ceased to exist. It is the language of +France, Spain, Italy, Roumania, and all the Romance countries to-day. Its +history has been unbroken from the founding of Rome to the present time. +Various scholars have tried to determine the date before which we shall +call the popular speech vulgar Latin, and after which it may better be +styled French or Spanish or Italian, as the case may be. Some would fix +the dividing line in the early part of the eighth century A.D., when +phonetic changes common to all parts of the Roman world would cease to +occur. Others would fix it at different periods between the middle of the +sixth to the middle of the seventh century, according as each section of +the old Roman world passed definitely under the control of its Germanic +invaders. The historical relations of literary and colloquial Latin would +be roughly indicated by the accompanying diagram, in which preliterary +Latin divides, on the appearance of literature in the third century B.C., +into popular Latin and literary Latin. These two forms of speech develop +along independent lines until, in the sixth century, literary Latin is +merged in popular Latin and disappears. The unity for the Latin tongue +thus secured was short lived, because within a century the differentiation +begins which gives rise to the present-day Romance languages. + +It may interest some of the readers of this chapter to look over a few +specimens of vulgar Latin from the various periods of its history. + +(a) The first one is an extract from the Laws of the Twelve Tables. The +original document goes back to the middle of the fifth century B.C., and +shows us some of the characteristics of preliterary Latin. The +non-periodic form, the omission of pronouns, and the change of subject +without warning are especially noticeable. + +"Si in ius vocat, ito. Ni it, antestamino, igitur em (=eum) capito. Si +calvitur pedemve struit, manum endo iacito (=inicito). Si morbus aevitasve +(=aetasve) vitium escit, iumentum dato: si nolet, arceram ne sternito." + +[Illustration: + +1 Preliterary Latin. +2 Vulgar Latin +3 Literary Latin +4-8 The Romance languages. + +] + +(b) This passage from one of Cicero's letters to his brother (_ad Q. +fr._ 2, 3, 2) may illustrate the familiar conversational style of a +gentleman in the first century B.C. It describes an harangue made by the +politician Clodius to his partisans. + +"Ille furens et exsanguis interrogabat suos in clamore ipso quis esset qui +plebem fame necaret. Respondebant operae: 'Pompeius.' Quem ire vellent. +Respondebant: 'Crassum.' Is aderat tum Miloni animo non amico. Hora fere +nona quasi signo dato Clodiani nostros consputare coeperunt. Exarsit +dolor. Vrgere illi ut loco nos moverent." + +(c) In the following passage, Petronius, 57, one of the freedmen at +Trimalchio's dinner flames out in anger at a fellow-guest whose bearing +seems to him supercilious. It shows a great many of the characteristics of +vulgar Latin which have been mentioned in this paper. The similarity of +its style to that of the preliterary specimen is worth observing. The +great number of proverbs and bits of popular wisdom are also noticeable. + +"Et nunc spero me sic vivere, ut nemini iocus sim. Homo inter homines sum, +capite aperto ambulo; assem aerarium nemini debeo; constitutum habui +nunquam; nemo mihi in foro dixit 'redde, quod debes.' Glebulas emi, +lamelullas paravi; viginti ventres pasco et canem; contubernalem meam +redemi, ne quis in sinu illius manus tergeret; mille denarios pro capite +solvi; sevir gratis factus sum; spero, sic moriar, ut mortuus non +erubescam." + +(d) This short inscription from Pompeii shows some of the peculiarities +of popular pronunciation. In ortu we see the same difficulty in knowing +when to sound the aspirate which the cockney Englishman has. The silence +of the final -m, and the reduction of ae to e are also interesting. Presta +mi sinceru (=sincerum): si te amet que (=quae) custodit ortu (=hortum) +Venus. + +(e) Here follow some of the vulgar forms against which a grammarian, +probably of the fourth century, warns his readers. We notice that the +popular "mistakes" to which he calls attention are in (1) syncopation and +assimilation, in (2) the use of the diminutive for the primitive, and +pronouncing au as o, in (3) the same reduction of ct to t (or tt) which we +find in such Romance forms as Ottobre, in (4) the aspirate falsely added, +in (5) syncopation and the confusion of v and b, and in (6) the silence of +final -m. + + (1) frigida non fricda + (2) auris non oricla + (3) auctoritas non autoritas + (4) ostiae non hostiae + (5) vapulo non baplo + (6) passim non passi + +(f) The following passages are taken from Brunot's "Histoire de la +langue Fracaise," p. 144. In the third column the opening sentence of the +famous Oath of Strasburg of 842 A.D. is given. In the other columns the +form which it would have taken at different periods is set down. These +passages bring out clearly the unbroken line of descent from Latin to +modern French. + + + + + The Oath of Strasburg of 842 + + + Classic Latin + + Per Dei amorem et + per christiani + populi et nostram + communem + salutem, + ab hac die, quantum + Deus scire + et posse mini + dat, servabo + hunc meum fratrem + Carolum + + + Spoken Latin, Seventh Cent. + + For deo amore et + por chrestyano + pob(o)lo et nostro + comune salvamento + de esto + die en avante + en quanto Deos + sabere et podere + me donat, sic + salvarayo eo + eccesto meon + fradre Karlo + + + Actual Text + + Pro deo amur et + pro christian + poblo et nostro + commun salvament, + d'ist di + en avant, in + quant Deus + savir et podir + me dunat, si + salvarai eo cist + meon fradre + Karlo + + + French, Eleventh Cent. + + Por dieu amor et + por del crestueen + poeple et nostre + comun salvement, + de cest + jorn en avant, + quant que Dieus + saveir et podeir + me donet, si + salverai jo cest + mien fredre + Charlon + + + French, Fifteenth Cent. + + Pour l'amour + Dieu et pour le + sauvement du + chrestien peuple + et le nostre commun, + de cest + jour en avant, + quant que Dieu + savoir et pouvoir + me done, + si sauverai je + cest mien frere + Charle + + + Modern French + + Pour l'amour de + Dieu et pour le + salut commun + du peuple chretien + et le notre, + a partir de ce + jour, autant + que Dieu m'en + donne le savoir + et le pouvoir, + je soutiendrai + mon frere Charles + + + + +The Poetry of the Common People of Rome + + + +I. Their Metrical Epitaphs + + +The old village churchyard on a summer afternoon is a favorite spot with +many of us. The absence of movement, contrasted with the life just outside +its walls, the drowsy humming of the bees in the flowers which grow at +will, the restful gray of the stones and the green of the moss give one a +feeling of peace and quiet, while the ancient dates and quaint lettering +in the inscriptions carry us far from the hurry and bustle and trivial +interests of present-day life. No sense of sadness touches us. The stories +which the stones tell are so far removed from us in point of time that +even those who grieved at the loss of the departed have long since +followed their friends, and when we read the bits of life history on the +crumbling monuments, we feel only that pleasurable emotion which, as +Cicero says in one of his letters, comes from our reading in history of +the little tragedies of men of the past. But the epitaph deals with the +common people, whom history is apt to forget, and gives us a glimpse of +their character, their doings, their beliefs, and their views of life and +death. They furnish us a simple and direct record of the life and the +aspirations of the average man, the record of a life not interpreted for +us by the biographer, historian, or novelist, but set down in all its +simplicity by one of the common people themselves. + +These facts lend to the ancient Roman epitaphs their peculiar interest and +charm. They give us a glimpse into the every-day life of the people which +a Cicero, or a Virgil, or even a Horace cannot offer us. They must have +exerted an influence, too, on Roman character, which we with our changed +conditions can scarcely appreciate. We shall understand this fact if we +call to mind the differences between the ancient practices in the matter +of burial and our own. The village churchyard is with us a thing of the +past. Whether on sanitary grounds, or for the sake of quiet and seclusion, +in the interest of economy, or not to obtrude the thought of death upon +us, the modern cemetery is put outside of our towns, and the memorials in +it are rarely read by any of us. Our fathers did otherwise. The churchyard +of old England and of New England was in the middle of the village, and +"short cuts" from one part of the village to another led through its +enclosure. Perhaps it was this fact which tempted our ancestors to set +forth their life histories more fully than we do, who know that few, if +any, will come to read them. Or is the world getting more reserved and +sophisticated? Are we coming to put a greater restraint upon the +expression of our emotions? Do we hesitate more than our fathers did to +talk about ourselves? The ancient Romans were like our fathers in their +willingness or desire to tell us of themselves. Perhaps the differences in +their burial practices, which were mentioned above, tempted them to be +communicative, and sometimes even garrulous. They put their tombstones in +a spot still more frequented than the churchyard. They placed them by the +side of the highways, just outside the city walls, where people were +coming or going constantly. Along the Street of Tombs, as one goes out of +Pompeii, or along the great Appian Way, which runs from Rome to Capua, +Southern Italy and Brundisium, the port of departure for Greece and the +Orient, they stand on both sides of the roadway and make their mute +appeals for our attention. We know their like in the enclosure about old +Trinity in New York, in the burial ground in New Haven, or in the +churchyards across the water. They tell us not merely the date of birth +and death of the deceased, but they let us know enough of his life to +invest it with a certain individuality, and to give it a flavor of its +own. + +Some 40,000 of them have come down to us, and nearly 2,000 of the +inscriptions upon them are metrical. This particular group is of special +interest to us, because the use of verse seems to tempt the engraver to go +beyond a bare statement of facts and to philosophize a bit about the +present and the future. Those who lie beneath the stones still claim some +recognition from the living, for they often call upon the passer-by to +halt and read their epitaphs, and as the Roman walked along the Appian Way +two thousand years ago, or as we stroll along the same highway to-day, it +is in silent converse with the dead. Sometimes the stone itself addresses +us, as does that of Olus Granius:[22] "This mute stone begs thee to stop, +stranger, until it has disclosed its mission and told thee whose shade it +covers. Here lie the bones of a man, modest, honest, and trusty--the +crier, Olus Granius. That is all. It wanted thee not to be unaware of +this. Fare thee well." This craving for the attention of the passer-by +leads the composer of one epitaph to use somewhat the same device which +our advertisers employ in the street-cars when they say: "Do not look at +this spot," for he writes: "Turn not your eyes this way and wish not to +learn our fate," but two lines later, relenting, he adds: "Now stop, +traveller...within this narrow resting-place,"[23] and then we get the +whole story. Sometimes a dramatic, lifelike touch is given by putting the +inscription into the form of a dialogue between the dead and those who are +left behind. Upon a stone found near Rome runs the inscription:[24] +"Hail, name dear to us, Stephanus,...thy Moschis and thy Diodorus salute +thee." To which the dead man replies: "Hail chaste wife, hail Diodorus, +my friend, my brother." The dead man often begs for a pleasant word from +the passer-by. The Romans, for instance, who left Ostia by the highway, +read upon a stone the sentiment:[25] "May it go well with you who lie +within and, as for you who go your way and read these lines, 'the earth +rest lightly on thee' say." This pious salutation loses some of the flavor +of spontaneity in our eyes when we find that it had become so much of a +convention as to be indicated by the initial letters of the several words: +S(it) t(ibi) t(erra) l(evis). The traveller and the departed exchange good +wishes on a stone found near Velitrae:[26] + + "May it go well with you who read and you who pass this way, + The like to mine and me who on this spot my tomb have built." + +One class of passers-by was dreaded by the dweller beneath the stone--the +man with a paint-brush who was looking for a conspicuous spot on which to +paint the name of his favorite political candidate. To such an one the +hope is expressed "that his ambition may be realized, provided he +instructs his slave not to paint this stone."[27] + +These wayside epitaphs must have left an impress on the mind and character +of the Roman which we can scarcely appreciate. The peasant read them as he +trudged homeward on market days, the gentleman, as he drove to his villa +on the countryside, and the traveller who came from the South, the East, +or the North. In them the history of his country was set forth in the +achievements of her great men, her praetors and consuls, her generals who +had conquered and her governors who had ruled Gaul, Spain, Africa, and +Asia. In them the public services, and the deeds of charity of the rich +and powerful were recorded and the homely virtues and self-sacrifices of +the humbler man and woman found expression there. Check by jowl with the +tomb of some great leader upon whom the people or the emperor had showered +all the titles and honors in their power might stand the stone of the poor +physician, Dionysius,[28] of whom it is said "to all the sick who came to +him he gave his services free of charge; he set forth in his deeds what he +taught in his precepts." + +But perhaps more of the inscriptions in verse, and with them we are here +concerned, are in praise of women than of men. They make clear to us the +place which women held in Roman life, the state of society, and the +feminine qualities which were held in most esteem. The world which they +portray is quite another from that of Ovid and Juvenal. The common people +still hold to the old standards of morality and duty. The degeneracy of +smart society has made little progress here. The marriage tie is held +sacred; the wife and husband, the parent and child are held close to each +other in bonds of affection. The virtues of women are those which +Martinianus records on the stone of his wife Sofroniola:[29] + +"Purity, loyalty, affection, a sense of duty, a yielding nature, and +whatever qualities God has implanted in women." + + + (Castitas fides earitas pietas obsequium Et quaecumque deus faemenis + inesse praecepit.) + +Upon a stone near Turin,[30] Valerius wrote in memory of his wife the +simple line: + +"Pure in heart, modest, of seemly bearing, discreet, noble-minded, and +held in high esteem." + + + (Casta pudica decens sapiens Generosa probata.) + +Only one discordant note is struck in this chorus of praise. This fierce +invective stands upon an altar at Rome:[31] "Here for all time has been +set down in writing the shameful record of the freedwoman Acte, of +poisoned mind, and treacherous, cunning, and hard-hearted. Oh! for a nail, +and a hempen rope to choke her, and flaming pitch to burn up her wicked +heart." + +A double tribute is paid to a certain Statilia in this naive +inscription:[32] "Thou who wert beautiful beyond measure and true to thy +husbands, didst twice enter the bonds of wedlock...and he who came first, +had he been able to withstand the fates, would have set up this stone to +thee, while I, alas! who have been blessed by thy pure heart and love for +thee for sixteen years, lo! now I have lost thee." Still greater sticklers +for the truth at the expense of convention are two fond husbands who +borrowed a pretty couplet composed in memory of some woman "of tender +age," and then substituted upon the monuments of their wives the more +truthful phrase "of middle age,"[33] and another man warns women, from the +fate of his wife, to shun the excessive use of jewels.[34] + +It was only natural that when men came to the end of life they should ask +themselves its meaning, should speculate upon the state after death, and +should turn their thoughts to the powers which controlled their destiny. +We have been accustomed to form our conceptions of the religion of the +Romans from what their philosophers and moralists and poets have written +about it. But a great chasm lies between the teachings of these men and +the beliefs of the common people. Only from a study of the epitaphs do we +know what the average Roman thought and felt on this subject. A few years +ago Professor Harkness, in an admirable article on "The Scepticism and +Fatalism of the Common People of Rome," showed that "the common people +placed no faith in the gods who occupy so prominent a place in Roman +literature, and that their nearest approach to belief in a divinity was +their recognition of fate," which "seldom appears as a fixed law of +nature...but rather as a blind necessity, depending on chance and not on +law." The gods are mentioned by name in the poetic epitaphs only, and for +poetic purposes, and even here only one in fifty of the metrical +inscriptions contains a direct reference to any supernatural power. For +none of these deities, save for Mother Earth, does the writer of an +epitaph show any affection. This feeling one may see in the couplet which +reads:[35] "Mother Earth, to thee have we committed the bones of +Fortunata, to thee who dost come near to thy children as a mother," and +Professor Harkness thoughtfully remarks in this connection that "the love +of nature and appreciation of its beauties, which form a distinguishing +characteristic of Roman literature in contrast to all the other +literatures of antiquity, are the outgrowth of this feeling of kinship +which the Italians entertained for mother earth." + +It is a little surprising, to us on first thought, that the Roman did not +interpose some concrete personalities between himself and this vague +conception of fate, some personal agencies, at least, to carry out the +decrees of destiny. But it will not seem so strange after all when we +recall the fact that the deities of the early Italians were without form +or substance. The anthropomorphic teachings of Greek literature, art, and +religion found an echo in the Jupiter and Juno, the Hercules and Pan of +Virgil and Horace, but made no impress on the faith of the common people, +who, with that regard for tradition which characterized the Romans, +followed the fathers in their way of thinking. + +A disbelief in personal gods hardly accords with faith in a life after +death, but most of the Romans believed in an existence of some sort in the +world beyond. A Dutch scholar has lately established this fact beyond +reasonable doubt, by a careful study of the epitaphs in verse.[36] One +tombstone reads:[37] + + + "Into nothing from nothing how quickly we go," + +and another:[38] + + + "Once we were not, now we are as we were," + +and the sentiment, "I was not, I was, I am not, I care not" (non fui, fui, +non sum, non euro) was so freely used that it is indicated now and then +merely by the initial letters N.f.f.n.s.n.c., but compared with the great +number of inscriptions in which belief in a life after death finds +expression such utterances are few. But how and where that life was to be +passed the Romans were in doubt. We have noticed above how little the +common people accepted the belief of the poets in Jupiter and Pluto and +the other gods, or rather how little their theology had been influenced by +Greek art and literature. In their conception of the place of abode after +death, it is otherwise. Many of them believe with Virgil that it lies +below the earth. As one of them says in his epitaph:[39] + + "No sorrow to the world below I bring." + +Or with other poets the departed are thought of as dwelling in the Elysian +fields or the Isles of the Blessed. As one stone cries out to the +passer-by:[40] "May you live who shall have said. 'She lives in Elysium,'" +and of a little girl it is said:[41] "May thy shade flower in fields +Elysian." Sometimes the soul goes to the sky or the stars: "Here lies the +body of the bard Laberius, for his spirit has gone to the place from +which it came;"[42] "The tomb holds my limbs, my soul shall pass to the +stars of heaven."[43] But more frequently the departed dwell in the tomb. +As one of them expresses it: "This is my eternal home; here have I been +placed; here shall I be for aye." This belief that the shade hovers about +the tomb accounts for the salutations addressed to it which we have +noticed above, and for the food and flowers which are brought to satisfy +its appetites and tastes. These tributes to the dead do not seem to accord +with the current Roman belief that the body was dissolved to dust, and +that the soul was clothed with some incorporeal form, but the Romans were +no more consistent in their eschatology than many of us are. + +Perhaps it was this vague conception of the state after death which +deprived the Roman of that exultant joy in anticipation of the world +beyond which the devout Christian, a hundred years or more ago, expressed +in his epitaphs, with the Golden City so clearly pictured to his eye, and +by way of compensation the Roman was saved from the dread of death, for +no judgment-seat confronted him in the other world. The end of life was +awaited with reasonable composure. Sometimes death was welcomed because it +brought rest. As a citizen of Lambsesis expresses it:[44] "Here is my home +forever; here is a rest from toil;" and upon a woman's stone we read:[45] + + "Whither hast thou gone, dear soul, seeking rest from troubles, + For what else than trouble hast thou had throughout thy life?" + +But this pessimistic view of life rarely appears on the monuments. Not +infrequently the departed expresses a certain satisfaction with his life's +record, as does a citizen of Beneventum, who remarks:[46] "No man have I +wronged, to many have I rendered services," or he tells us of the pleasure +which he has found in the good things of life, and advises us to enjoy +them. A Spanish epitaph reads:[47] "Eat, drink, enjoy thyself, follow me" +(es bibe lude veni). In a lighter or more garrulous vein another says:[48] +"Come, friends, let us enjoy the happy time of life; let us dine merrily, +while short life lasts, mellow with wine, in jocund intercourse. All +these about us did the same while they were living. They gave, received, +and enjoyed good things while they lived. And let us imitate the practices +of the fathers. Live while you live, and begrudge nothing to the dear soul +which Heaven has given you." This philosophy of life is expressed very +succinctly in: "What I have eaten and drunk I have with me; what I have +foregone I have lost,"[49] and still more concretely in: + + "Wine and amours and baths weaken our bodily health, + Yet life is made up of wine and amours and baths."[50] + +Under the statue of a man reclining and holding a cup in his hand, Flavius +Agricola writes:[51] "Tibur was my native place; I was called Agricola, +Flavius too.... I who lie here as you see me. And in the world above in +the years which the fates granted, I cherished my dear soul, nor did the +god of wine e'er fail me.... Ye friends who read this, I bid you mix your +wine, and before death comes, crown your temples with flowers, and +drink.... All the rest the earth and fire consume after death." Probably +we should be wrong in tracing to the teachings of Epicurus, even in their +vulgarized popular form, the theory that the value of life is to be +estimated by the material pleasure it has to offer. A man's theory of life +is largely a matter of temperament or constitution. He may find support +for it in the teachings of philosophy, but he is apt to choose a +philosophy which suits his way of thinking rather than to let his views of +life be determined by abstract philosophic teachings. The men whose +epitaphs we have just read would probably have been hedonists if Epicurus +had never lived. It is interesting to note in passing that holding this +conception of life naturally presupposes the acceptance of one of the +notions of death which we considered above--that it ends all. + +In another connection, a year or two ago, I had occasion to speak of the +literary merit of some of these metrical epitaphs,[52] of their interest +for us as specimens of the literary compositions of the common people, and +of their value in indicating the aesthetic taste of the average Roman. It +may not be without interest here to speak of the literary form of some of +them a little more at length than was possible in that connection. Latin +has always been, and continues to be among modern peoples, a favored +language for epitaphs and dedications. The reasons why it holds its +favored position are not far to seek. It is vigorous and concise. Then +again in English and in most modern languages the order which words may +take in a given sentence is in most cases inexorably fixed by grammatical +necessity. It was not so with Latin. Its highly inflected character made +it possible, as we know, to arrange the words which convey an idea in +various orders, and these different groupings of the same words gave +different shades of meaning to the sentence, and different emotional +effects are secured by changing the sequence in which the minor +conceptions are presented. By putting contrasted words side by side, or at +corresponding points in the sentence, the impression is heightened. When a +composition takes the form of verse the possibilities in the way of +contrast are largely increased. The high degree of perfection to which +Horace brought the balancing and interlocking of ideas in some of his +Odes, illustrates the great advantage which the Latin poet had over the +English writer because of the flexibility of the medium of expression +which he used. This advantage was the Roman's birthright, and lends a +certain distinction even to the verses of the people, which we are +discussing here. Certain other stylistic qualities of these metrical +epitaphs, which are intended to produce somewhat the same effects, will +not seem to us so admirable. I mean alliteration, play upon words, the +acrostic arrangement, and epigrammatic effects. These literary tricks find +little place in our serious verse, and the finer Latin poets rarely +indulge in them. They seem to be especially out of place in an epitaph, +which should avoid studied effects and meretricious devices. But writers +in the early stages of a literature and common people of all periods find +a pleasure in them. Alliteration, onomatopoeia, the pun, and the play on +words are to be found in all the early Latin poets, and they are +especially frequent with literary men like Plautus and Terence, Pacuvius +and Accius, who wrote for the stage, and therefore for the common people. +One or two illustrations of the use of these literary devices may be +sufficient. A little girl at Rome, who died when five years old, bore the +strange name of Mater, or Mother, and on her tombstone stands the +sentiment:[53] "Mater I was by name, mater I shall not be by law." +"Sepulcrum hau pulcrum pulcrai feminae" of the famous Claudia +inscription,[54] Professor Lane cleverly rendered "Site not sightly of a +sightly dame." Quite beyond my power of translating into English, so as to +reproduce its complicated play on words, is the appropriate epitaph of the +rhetorician, Romanius lovinus:[55] + + + "Docta loqui doctus quique loqui docuit." + +A great variety of verses is used in the epitaphs, but the dactylic +hexameter and the elegiac are the favorites. The stately character of the +hexameter makes it a suitable medium in which to express a serious +sentiment, while the sudden break in the second verse of the elegiac +couplet suggests the emotion of the writer. The verses are constructed +with considerable regard for technique. Now and then there is a false +quantity, an unpleasant sequence, or a heavy effect, but such blemishes +are comparatively infrequent. There is much that is trivial, commonplace, +and prosaic in these productions of the common people, but now and then +one comes upon a phrase, a verse, or a whole poem which shows strength or +grace or pathos. An orator of the late period, not without vigor, writes +upon his tombstone:[56] "I have lived blessed by the gods, by friends, by +letters." + + (Vixi beatus dis, amicis, literis.) + +A rather pretty, though not unusual, sentiment occurs in an elegiac +couplet to a young girl,[57] in which the word amoena is the adjective, +meaning "pleasant to see," in the first, while in the second verse it is +the girl's name: "As a rose is amoena when it blooms in the early spring +time, so was I Amoena to those who saw me." + + (Ut rosa amoena homini est quom primo tempore floret. + Quei me viderunt, seic Amoena fui.) + +There is a touch of pathos in the inscription which a mother put on the +stone of her son:[58] "A sorrowing mother has set up this monument to a +son who has never caused her any sorrow, except that he is no more," and +in this tribute of a husband:[59] "Out of my slender means now that the +end has come, my wife, all that I could do, this gift, a small small one +for thy deserts, have I made." The epitaph of a little girl, named +Felicia, or Kitty, has this sentiment in graceful verse:[60] "Rest lightly +upon thee the earth, and over thy grave the fragrant balsam grow, and +roses sweet entwine thy buried bones." Upon the stone of a little girl who +bore the name of Xanthippe, and the nickname Iaia, is an inscription with +one of two pretty conceits and phrases. With it we may properly bring to +an end our brief survey of these verses of the common people of Rome. In a +somewhat free rendering it reads in part:[61] "Whether the thought of +death distress thee or of life, read to the end. Xanthippe by name, yclept +also Iaia by way of jest, escapes from sorrow since her soul from the body +flies. She rests here in the soft cradle of the earth,... comely, +charming, keen of mind, gay in discourse. If there be aught of compassion +in the gods above, bear her to the sun and light." + + + + +II. Their Dedicatory and Ephemeral Verses + + +In the last paper we took up for consideration some of the Roman metrical +epitaphs. These compositions, however, do not include all the productions +in verse of the common people of Rome. On temples, altars, bridges, +statues, and house walls, now and then, we find bits of verse. Most of the +extant dedicatory lines are in honor of Hercules, Silvanus, Priapus, and +the Caesars. Whether the two famous inscriptions to Hercules by the sons of +Vertuleius and by Mummius belong here or not it is hard to say. At all +events, they were probably composed by amateurs, and have a peculiar +interest for us because they belong to the second century B.C., and +therefore stand near the beginning of Latin letters; they show us the +language before it had been perfected and adapted to literary purposes by +an Ennius, a Virgil, and a Horace, and they are written in the old native +Saturnian verse, into which Livius Andronicus, "the Father of Latin +literature," translated the Odyssey. Consequently they show us the +language before it had gained in polish and lost in vigor under the +influence of the Greeks. The second of these two little poems is a +finger-post, in fact, at the parting of the ways for Roman civilization. +It was upon a tablet let into the wall of the temple of Hercules, and +commemorates the triumphant return to Rome of Mummius, the conqueror of +Corinth. It points back to the good old days of Roman contempt for Greek +art, and ignorance of it, for Mummius, in his stupid indifference to the +beautiful monuments of Corinth, made himself the typical Philistine for +all time. It points forward to the new Greco-Roman civilization of Italy, +because the works of art which Mummius is said to have brought back with +him, and the Greeks who probably followed in his train, augmented that +stream of Greek influence which in the next century or two swept through +the peninsula. + +In the same primitive metre as these dedications is the Song of the Arval +Brothers, which was found engraved on a stone in the grove of the goddess +Dea Dia, a few miles outside of Rome. This hymn the priests sang at the +May festival of the goddess, when the farmers brought them the first +fruits of the earth. It has no intrinsic literary merit, but it carries us +back beyond the great wars with Carthage for supremacy in the western +Mediterranean, beyond the contest with Pyrrhus for overlordship in +Southern Italy, beyond the struggle for life with the Samnites in Central +Italy, beyond even the founding of the city on the Tiber, to a people who +lived by tilling the soil and tending their flocks and herds. + +But we have turned away from the dedicatory verses. On the bridges which +span our streams we sometimes record the names of the commissioners or the +engineers, or the bridge builders responsible for the structure. Perhaps +we are wise in thinking these prosaic inscriptions suitable for our ugly +iron bridges. Their more picturesque stone structures tempted the Romans +now and then to drop into verse, and to go beyond a bare statement of the +facts of construction. Over the Anio in Italy, on a bridge which Narses, +the great general of Justinian, restored, the Roman, as he passed, read in +graceful verse:[62] "We go on our way with the swift-moving waters of the +torrent beneath our feet, and we delight on hearing the roar of the angry +water. Go then joyfully at your ease, Quirites, and let the echoing +murmur of the stream sing ever of Narses. He who could subdue the +unyielding spirit of the Goths has taught the rivers to bear a stern +yoke." + +It is an interesting thing to find that the prettiest of the dedicatory +poems are in honor of the forest-god Silvanus. One of these poems, Titus +Pomponius Victor, the agent of the Caesars, left inscribed upon a +tablet[63] high up in the Grecian Alps. It reads: "Silvanus, half-enclosed +in the sacred ash-tree, guardian mighty art thou of this pleasaunce in the +heights. To thee we consecrate in verse these thanks, because across the +fields and Alpine tops, and through thy guests in sweetly smelling groves, +while justice I dispense and the concerns of Caesar serve, with thy +protecting care thou guidest us. Bring me and mine to Rome once more, and +grant that we may till Italian fields with thee as guardian. In guerdon +therefor will I give a thousand mighty trees." It is a pretty picture. +This deputy of Caesar has finished his long and perilous journeys through +the wilds of the North in the performance of his duties. His face is now +turned toward Italy, and his thoughts are fixed on Rome. In this "little +garden spot," as he calls it, in the mountains he pours out his gratitude +to the forest-god, who has carried him safely through dangers and brought +him thus far on his homeward way, and he vows a thousand trees to his +protector. It is too bad that we do not know how the vow was to be +paid--not by cutting down the trees, we feel sure. One line of Victor's +little poem is worth quoting in the original. He thanks Silvanus for +conducting him in safety "through the mountain heights, and through Tuique +luci suave olentis hospites." Who are the _hospites_? The wild beasts of +the forests, we suppose. Now _hospites_ may, of course, mean either +"guests" or "hosts," and it is a pretty conceit of Victor's to think of +the wolves and bears as the guests of the forest-god, as we have ventured +to render the phrase in the translation given above. Or, are they Victor's +hosts, whose characters have been so changed by Silvanus that Victor has +had friendly help rather than fierce attacks from them? + +A very modern practice is revealed by a stone found near the famous temple +of AEsculapius, the god of healing, at Epidaurus in Argolis, upon which +two ears are shown in relief, and below them the Latin couplet:[64] "Long +ago Cutius Gallus had vowed these ears to thee, scion of Phoebus, and now +he has put them here, for thou hast healed his ears." It is an ancient +ex-voto, and calls to mind on the one hand the cult of AEsculapius, which +Walter Pater has so charmingly portrayed in Marius the Epicurean, and on +the other hand it shows us that the practice of setting up ex-votos, of +which one sees so many at shrines and in churches across the water to-day, +has been borrowed from the pagans. A pretty bit of sentiment is suggested +by an inscription[65] found near the ancient village of Ucetia in Southern +France: "This shrine to the Nymphs have I built, because many times and +oft have I used this spring when an old man as well as a youth." + +All of the verses which we have been considering up to this point have +come down to us more or less carefully engraved upon stone, in honor of +some god, to record some achievement of importance, or in memory of a +departed friend. But besides these formal records of the past, we find a +great many hastily scratched or painted sentiments or notices, which have +a peculiar interest for us because they are the careless effusions or +unstudied productions of the moment, and give us the atmosphere of +antiquity as nothing else can do. The stuccoed walls of the houses, and +the sharp-pointed stylus which was used in writing on wax tablets offered +too strong a temptation for the lounger or passer-by to resist. To people +of this class, and to merchants advertising their wares, we owe the three +thousand or more graffiti found at Pompeii. The ephemeral inscriptions +which were intended for practical purposes, such as the election notices, +the announcements of gladiatorial contests, of houses to rent, of articles +lost and for sale, are in prose, but the lovelorn lounger inscribed his +sentiments frequently in verse, and these verses deserve a passing notice +here. One man of this class in his erotic ecstasy writes on the wall of a +Pompeian basilica:[66] "May I perish if I'd wish to be a god without +thee." That hope sprang eternal in the breast of the Pompeian lover is +illustrated by the last two lines of this tragic declaration:[67] + + "If you can and won't, + Give me hope no more. + Hope you foster and you ever + Bid me come again to-morrow. + Force me then to die + Whom you force to live + A life apart from you. + Death will be a boon, + Not to be tormented. + Yet what hope has snatched away + To the lover hope gives back." + +This effusion has led another passer-by to write beneath it the Delphic +sentiment: "May the man who shall read this never read anything else." The +symptoms of the ailment in its most acute form are described by some Roman +lover in the verses which he has left us on the wall of Caligula's palace, +on the Palatine:[68] + + "No courage in my heart, + No sleep to close my eyes, + A tide of surging love + Throughout the day and night." + +This seems to come from one who looks upon the lover with a sympathetic +eye, but who is himself fancy free: + + "Whoever loves, good health to him, + And perish he who knows not how, + But doubly ruined may he be + Who will not yield to love's appeal."[69] + +The first verse of this little poem, + + "Quisquis amat valeat, pereat qui nescit amare," + +represented by the first couplet of the English rendering, calls to mind +the swinging refrain which we find a century or two later in the +_Pervigilium Veneris_, that last lyrical outburst of the pagan world, +written for the eve of the spring festival of Venus: + + "Cras amet qui nunquam amavit quique amavit eras amet." + + (To-morrow he shall love who ne'er has loved + And who has loved, to-morrow he shall love.) + +An interesting study might be made of the favorite types of feminine +beauty in the Roman poets. Horace sings of the "golden-haired" Pyrrhas, +and Phyllises, and Chloes, and seems to have had an admiration for +blondes, but a poet of the common people, who has recorded his opinion on +this subject in the atrium of a Pompeian house, shows a more catholic +taste, although his freedom of judgment is held in some constraint: + + "My fair girl has taught me to hate + Brunettes with their tresses of black. + I will hate if I can, but if not, + 'Gainst my will I must love them also."[70] + +On the other hand, one Pompeian had such an inborn dread of brunettes +that, whenever he met one, he found it necessary to take an appropriate +antidote, or prophylactic: + + "Whoever loves a maiden dark + By charcoal dark is he consumed. + When maiden dark I light upon + I eat the saving blackberry."[71] + +These amateur poets do not rely entirely upon their own Muse, but borrow +from Ovid, Propertius, or Virgil, when they recall sentiments in those +writers which express their feelings. Sometimes it is a tag, or a line, or +a couplet which is taken, but the borrowings are woven into the context +with some skill. The poet above who is under compulsion from his blonde +sweetheart, has taken the second half of his production verbatim from +Ovid, and for the first half of it has modified a line of Propertius. +Other writers have set down their sentiments in verse on more prosaic +subjects. A traveller on his way to the capital has scribbled these lines +on the wall, perhaps of a wine-shop where he stopped for refreshment:[72] + + "Hither have we come in safety. + Now I hasten on my way, + That once more it may be mine + To behold our Lares, Rome." + +At one point in a Pompeian street, the eye of a straggler would catch this +notice in doggerel verse:[73] + + "Here's no place for loafers. + Lounger, move along!" + +On the wall of a wine-shop a barmaid has thus advertised her wares:[74] + + "Here for a cent is a drink, + Two cents brings something still better. + Four cents in all, if you pay, + Wine of Falernum is yours." + +It must have been a lineal descendant of one of the parasites of Plautus +who wrote:[75] + + "A barbarian he is to me + At whose house I'm not asked to dine." + +Here is a sentiment which sounds very modern: + + "The common opinion is this: + That property should be divided."[76] + +This touch of modernity reminds one of another group of verses which +brings antiquity into the closest possible touch with some present-day +practices. The Romans, like ourselves, were great travellers and +sightseers, and the marvels of Egypt in particular appealed to them, as +they do to us, with irresistible force. Above all, the great statue of +Memnon, which gave forth a strange sound when it was struck by the first +rays of the rising sun, drew travellers from far and near. Those of us who +know the Mammoth Cave, Niagara Falls, the Garden of the Gods, or some +other of our natural wonders, will recall how fond a certain class of +visitors are of immortalizing themselves by scratching their names or a +sentiment on the walls or the rocks which form these marvels. Such +inscriptions We find on the temple walls in Egypt--three of them appear +on the statue of Memnon, recording in verse the fact that the writers had +visited the statue and heard the voice of the god at sunrise. One of these +Egyptian travellers, a certain Roman lady journeying up the Nile, has +scratched these verses on a wall of the temple at Memphis:[77] + + "The pyramids without thee have I seen, + My brother sweet, and yet, as tribute sad, + The bitter tears have poured adown my cheek, + And sadly mindful of thy absence now + I chisel here this melancholy note." + +Then follow the name and titles of the absent brother, who is better known +to posterity from these scribbled lines of a Cook's tourist than from any +official records which have come down to us. All of these pieces of +popular poetry which we have been discussing thus far were engraved on +stone, bronze, stucco, or on some other durable material. A very few bits +of this kind of verse, from one to a half dozen lines in length, have come +down to us in literature. They have the unique distinction, too, of being +specimens of Roman folk poetry, and some of them are found in the most +unlikely places. Two of them are preserved by a learned commentator on +the Epistles of Horace. They carry us back to our school-boy days. When we +read + + "The plague take him who's last to reach me,"[78] + +we can see the Roman urchin standing in the market-place, chanting the +magic formula, and opposite him the row of youngsters on tiptoe, each one +waiting for the signal to run across the intervening space and be the +first to touch their comrade. What visions of early days come back to +us--days when we clasped hands in a circle and danced about one or two +children placed in the centre of the ring, and chanted in unison some +refrain, upon reading in the same commentator to Horace a ditty which +runs:[79] + + "King shall you be + If you do well. + If you do ill + You shall not be." + +The other bits of Roman folk poetry which we have are most of them +preserved by Suetonius, the gossipy biographer of the Caesars. They recall +very different scenes. Caesar has returned in triumph to Rome, bringing in +his train the trousered Gauls, to mingle on the street with the toga-clad +Romans. He has even had the audacity to enroll some of these strange +peoples in the Roman senate, that ancient body of dignity and convention, +and the people chant in the streets the ditty:[80] + + "Caesar leads the Gauls in triumph, + In the senate too he puts them. + Now they've donned the broad-striped toga + And have laid aside their breeches." + +Such acts as these on Caesar's part led some political versifier to write +on Caesar's statue a couplet which contrasted his conduct with that of the +first great republican, Lucius Brutus: + + "Brutus drove the kings from Rome, + And first consul thus became. + This man drove the consuls out, + And at last became the king."[81] + +We may fancy that these verses played no small part in spurring on Marcus +Brutus to emulate his ancestor and join the conspiracy against the +tyrant. With one more bit of folk poetry, quoted by Suetonius, we may +bring our sketch to an end. Germanicus Caesar, the flower of the imperial +family, the brilliant general and idol of the people, is suddenly stricken +with a mortal illness. The crowds throng the streets to hear the latest +news from the sick-chamber of their hero. Suddenly the rumor flies through +the streets that the crisis is past, that Germanicus will live, and the +crowds surge through the public squares chanting: + + "Saved now is Rome, + Saved too the land, + Saved our Germanicus."[82] + + + + + +The Origin of the Realistic Romance among the Romans + + + +One of the most fascinating and tantalizing problems of literary history +concerns the origin of prose fiction among the Romans. We can trace the +growth of the epic from its infancy in the third century before Christ as +it develops in strength in the poems of Naevius, Ennius, and Cicero until +it reaches its full stature in the _AEneid_, and then we can see the +decline of its vigor in the _Pharsalia_, the _Punica_, the _Thebais_, and +_Achilleis_, until it practically dies a natural death in the mythological +and historical poems of Claudian. The way also in which tragedy, comedy, +lyric poetry, history, biography, and the other types of literature in +prose and verse came into existence and developed among the Romans can be +followed with reasonable success. But the origin and early history of the +novel is involved in obscurity. The great realistic romance of Petronius +of the first century of our era is without a legally recognized ancestor +and has no direct descendant. The situation is the more surprising when we +recall its probable size in its original form. Of course only a part of it +has come down to us, some one hundred and ten pages in all. Its great size +probably proved fatal to its preservation in its complete form, or at +least contributed to that end, for it has been estimated that it ran from +six hundred to nine hundred pages, being longer, therefore, than the +average novel of Dickens and Scott. Consequently we are not dealing with a +bit of ephemeral literature, but with an elaborate composition of a high +degree of excellence, behind which we should expect to find a long line of +development. We are puzzled not so much by the utter absence of anything +in the way of prose fiction before the time of Petronius as by the +difficulty of establishing any satisfactory logical connection between +these pieces of literature and the romance of Petronius. We are +bewildered, in fact, by the various possibilities which the situation +presents. The work shows points of similarity with several antecedent +forms of composition, but the gaps which lie in any assumed line of +descent are so great as to make us question its correctness. + +If we call to mind the present condition of this romance and those +characteristic features of it which are pertinent to the question at +issue, the nature of the problem and its difficulty also will be apparent +at once. Out of the original work, in a rather fragmentary form, only four +or five main episodes are extant, one of which is the brilliant story of +the Dinner of Trimalchio. The action takes place for the most part in +Southern Italy, and the principal characters are freedmen who have made +their fortunes and degenerate freemen who are picking up a precarious +living by their wits. The freemen, who are the central figures in the +novel, are involved in a great variety of experiences, most of them of a +disgraceful sort, and the story is a story of low life. Women play an +important role in the narrative, more important perhaps than they do in +any other kind of ancient literature--at least their individuality is more +marked. The efficient motif is erotic. I say the efficient, because the +conventional motif which seems to account for all the misadventures of the +anti-hero Encolpius is the wrath of an offended deity. A great part of +the book has an atmosphere of satire about it which piques our curiosity +and baffles us at the same time, because it is hard to say how much of +this element is inherent in the subject itself, and how much of it lies in +the intention of the author. It is the characteristic of parvenu society +to imitate smart society to the best of its ability, and its social +functions are a parody of the like events in the upper set. The story of a +dinner party, for instance, given by such a _nouveau riche_ as Trimalchio, +would constantly remind us by its likeness and its unlikeness, by its sins +of omission and commission, of a similar event in correct society. In +other words, it would be a parody on a proper dinner, even if the man who +described the event knew nothing about the usages of good society, and +with no ulterior motive in mind set down accurately the doings of his +upstart characters. For instance, when Trimalchio's chef has three white +pigs driven into the dining-room for the ostensible purpose of allowing +the guests to pick one out for the next course, with the memory of our own +monkey breakfasts and horseback dinners in mind, we may feel that this is +a not improbable attempt on the part of a Roman parvenu to imitate his +betters in giving a dinner somewhat out of the ordinary. Members of the +smart set at Rome try to impress their guests by the value and weight of +their silver plate. Why shouldn't the host of our story adopt the more +direct and effective way of accomplishing the same object by having the +weight of silver engraved on each article? He does so. It is a very +natural thing for him to do. In good society they talk of literature and +art. Why isn't it natural for Trimalchio to turn the conversation into the +same channels, even if he does make Hannibal take Troy and does confuse +the epic heroes and some late champions of the gladiatorial ring? + +In other words, much of that which is satirical in Petronius is so only +because we are setting up in our minds a comparison between the doings of +his rich freedmen and the requirements of good taste and moderation. But +it seems possible to detect a satirical or a cynical purpose on the part +of the author carried farther than is involved in the choice of his +subject and the realistic presentation of his characters. Petronius seems +to delight in putting his most admirable sentiments in the mouths of +contemptible characters. Some of the best literary criticism we have of +the period, he presents through the medium of the parasite rhetorician +Agamemnon. That happy phrase characterizing Horace's style, "curiosa +felicitas," which has perhaps never been equalled in its brevity and +appositeness, is coined by the incorrigible poetaster Eumolpus. It is he +too who composes and recites the two rather brilliant epic poems +incorporated into the _Satirae_, one of which is received with a shower of +stones by the bystanders. The impassioned eulogy of the careers of +Democritus, Chrysippus, Lysippus, and Myron, who had endured hunger, pain, +and weariness of body and mind for the sake of science, art, and the good +of their fellow-men, and the diatribe against the pursuit of comfort and +pleasure which characterized the people of his own time, are put in the +mouth of the same _roue_ Eumolpus. + +These situations have the true Horatian humor about them. The most serious +and systematic discourse which Horace has given us, in his Satires, on the +art of living, comes from the crack-brained Damasippus, who has made a +failure of his own life. In another of his poems, after having set forth +at great length the weaknesses of his fellow-mortals, Horace himself is +convicted of being inconsistent, a slave to his passions, and a victim of +hot temper by his own slave Davus. We are reminded again of the literary +method of Horace in his Satires when we read the dramatic description of +the shipwreck in Petronius. The blackness of night descends upon the +water; the little bark which contains the hero and his friends is at the +mercy of the sea; Lichas, the master of the vessel, is swept from the deck +by a wave, Encolpius and his comrade Giton prepare to die in each other's +embrace, but the tragic scene ends with a ridiculous picture of Eumolpus +bellowing out above the roar of the storm a new poem which he is setting +down upon a huge piece of parchment. Evidently Petronius has the same +dread of being taken too seriously which Horace shows so often in his +Satires. The cynical, or at least unmoral, attitude of Petronius is +brought out in a still more marked way at the close of this same passage. +Of those upon the ill-fated ship the degenerates Encolpius, Giton, and +Eumolpus, who have wronged Lichas irreparably, escape, while the pious +Lichas meets a horrible death. All this seems to make it clear that not +only does the subject which Petronius has treated inevitably involve a +satire upon contemporary society, but that the author takes a satirical or +cynical attitude toward life. + +Another characteristic of the story is its realism. There are no +marvellous adventures, and in fact no improbable incidents in it. The +author never obtrudes his own personality upon us, as his successor +Apuleius sometimes does, or as Thackeray has done. We know what the people +in the story are like, not from the author's description of them, but from +their actions, from the subjects about which they talk, and from the way +in which they talk. Agamemnon converses as a rhetorician might talk, +Habinnas like a millionnaire stone-cutter, and Echion like a rag-dealer, +and their language and style are what we should expect from men of their +standing in society and of their occupations. The conversations of +Trimalchio and his freedmen guests are not witty, and their jests are not +clever. This adherence to the true principles of realism is the more +noteworthy in the case of so brilliant a writer as Petronius, and those of +us who recall some of the preternaturally clever conversations in the +pages of Henry James and other contemporary novelists may feel that in +this respect he is a truer artist than they are. + +The novel of Petronius has one other characteristic which is significant, +if we attempt to trace the origin of this type of literature. It is cast +in the prose-poetic form, that is, passages in verse are inserted here and +there in the narrative. In a few cases they are quoted, but for the most +part they are the original compositions of the novelist. They range in +length from couplets to poems of three hundred lines. Sometimes they form +an integral part of the narrative, or again they illustrate a point, +elaborate an idea in poetry, or are exercises in verse. + +We have tried to bring out the characteristic features of this romance in +order that we may see what the essential elements are of the problem which +faces one in attempting to explain the origin of the type of literature +represented by the work of Petronius. What was there in antecedent +literature which will help us to understand the appearance on Italian soil +in the first century of our era of a long erotic story of adventure, +dealing in a realistic way with every-day life, marked by a satirical +tone and with a leaning toward the prose-poetic form? This is the question +raised by the analysis, which we have made above, of the characteristics +of the story. We have no ambitious hope of solving it, yet the mere +statement of a puzzling but interesting problem is stimulating to the +imagination and the intellect, and I am tempted to take up the subject +because the discovery of certain papyri in Egypt within recent years has +led to the formulation of a new theory of the origin of the romance of +perilous adventure, and may, therefore, throw some light on the source of +our realistic novel of every-day life. My purpose, then, is to speak +briefly of the different genres of literature of the earlier period with +which the story of Petronius may stand in some direct relation, or from +which the suggestion may have come to Petronius for his work. Several of +these lines of possible descent have been skilfully traced by others. In +their views here and there I have made some modifications, and I have +called attention to one or two types of literature, belonging to the +earlier period and heretofore unnoticed in this connection, which may help +us to understand the appearance of the realistic novel. + +It seems a far cry from this story of sordid motives and vulgar action to +the heroic episodes of epic poetry, and yet the _Satirae_ contain not a +few more or less direct suggestions of epic situations and characters. The +conventional motif of the story of Petronius is the wrath of an offended +deity. The narrative in the _Odyssey_ and the _AEneid_ rests on the same +basis. The ship of their enemy Lichas on which Encolpius and his +companions are cooped up reminds them of the cave of the Cyclops; Giton +hiding from the town-crier under a mattress is compared to Ulysses +underneath the sheep and clinging to its wool to escape the eye of the +Cyclops, while the woman whose charms engage the attention of Encolpius at +Croton bears the name of Circe. It seems to be clear from these +reminiscences that Petronius had the epic in mind when he wrote his story, +and his novel may well be a direct or an indirect parody of an epic +narrative. Rohde in his analysis of the serious Greek romance of the +centuries subsequent to Petronius has postulated the following development +for that form of story: Travellers returning from remote parts of the +world told remarkable stories of their experiences. Some of these stories +took a literary form in the _Odyssey_ and the Tales of the Argonauts. They +appeared in prose, too, in narratives like the story of Sinbad the Sailor, +of a much later date. A more definite plot and a greater dramatic +intensity were given to these tales of adventure by the addition of an +erotic element which often took the form of two separated lovers. Some use +is made of this element, for instance, in the relations of Odysseus and +Penelope, perhaps in the episode of AEneas and Dido, and in the story of +Jason and Medea. The intrusion of the love motif into the stories told of +demigods and heroes, so that the whole narrative turns upon it, is +illustrated by such tales in the Metamorphoses of Ovid as those of Pyramus +and Thisbe, Pluto and Proserpina, or Meleager and Atalanta. The love +element, which may have been developed in this way out of its slight use +in the epic, and the element of adventure form the basis of the serious +Greek romances of Antonius Diogenes, Achilles Tatius, and the other +writers of the centuries which follow Petronius. + +Before trying to connect the _Satirae_ with a serious romance of the type +just mentioned, let us follow another line of descent which leads us to +the same objective point, viz., the appearance of the serious story in +prose. We have been led to consider the possible connection of this kind +of prose fiction with the epic by the presence in both of them of the love +element and that of adventure. But the Greek novel has another rather +marked feature. It is rhetorical, and this quality has suggested that it +may have come, not from the epic, but from the rhetorical exercise. +Support has been given to this theory within recent years by the discovery +in Egypt of two fragments of the Ninos romance. The first of these +fragments reveals Ninos, the hero, pleading with his aunt Derkeia, the +mother of his sweetheart, for permission to marry his cousin. All the +arguments in support of his plea and against it are put forward and +balanced one against the other in a very systematic way. He wins over +Derkeia. Later in the same fragment the girl pleads in a somewhat similar +fashion with Thambe, the mother of Ninos. The second fragment is mainly +concerned with the campaigns of Ninos. Here we have the two lovers, +probably separated by the departure of Ninos for the wars, while the +hero, at least, is exposed to the danger of the campaign. + +The point was made after the text of this find had been published that the +large part taken in the tale by the carefully balanced arguments indicated +that the story grew out of exercises in argumentation in the rhetorical +schools.[83] The elder Seneca has preserved for us in his _Controversiae_ +specimens of the themes which were set for students in these schools. The +student was asked to imagine himself in a supposed dilemma and then to +discuss the considerations which would lead him to adopt the one or the +other line of conduct. Some of these situations suggest excellent dramatic +possibilities, conditions of life, for instance, where suicide seemed +justifiable, misadventures with pirates, or a turn of affairs which +threatened a woman's virtue. Before the student reached the point of +arguing the case, the story must be told, and out of these narratives of +adventure, told at the outset to develop the dilemma, may have grown the +romance of adventure, written for its own sake. The story of Ninos has a +peculiar interest in connection with this theory, because it was probably +very short, and consequently may give us the connecting link between the +rhetorical exercise and the long novel of the later period, and because it +is the earliest known serious romance. On the back of the papyrus which +contains it are some farm accounts of the year 101 A.D. Evidently by that +time the roll had become waste paper, and the story itself may have been +composed a century or even two centuries earlier. So far as this second +theory is concerned, we may raise the question in passing whether we have +any other instance of a genre of literature growing out of a school-boy +exercise. Usually the teacher adapts to his purpose some form of creative +literature already in existence. + +Leaving this objection out of account for the moment, the romance of love +and perilous adventure may possibly be then a lineal descendant either of +the epic or of the rhetorical exercise. Whichever of these two views is +the correct one, the discovery of the Ninos romance fills in a gap in one +theory of the origin of the realistic romance of Petronius, and with that +we are here concerned. Before the story of Ninos was found, no serious +romance and no title of such a romance anterior to the time of Petronius +was known. This story, as we have seen, may well go back to the first +century before Christ, or at least to the beginning of our era. It is +conceivable that stories like it, but now lost, existed even at an earlier +date. Now in the century, more or less, which elapsed between the assumed +date of the appearance of these Greek narratives and the time of +Petronius, the extraordinary commercial development of Rome had created a +new aristocracy--the aristocracy of wealth. In harmony with this social +change the military chieftain and the political leader who had been the +heroes of the old fiction gave way to the substantial man of affairs of +the new, just as Thaddeus of Warsaw has yielded his place in our +present-day novels to Silas Lapham, and the bourgeois erotic story of +adventure resulted, as we find it in the extant Greek novels of the second +and third centuries of our era. If we can assume that this stage of +development was reached before the time of Petronius we can think of his +novel as a parody of such a romance. If, however, the bourgeois romance +had not appeared before 50 A.D., then, if we regard his story as a parody +of a prose narrative, it must be a parody of such an heroic romance as +that of Ninos, or a parody of the longer heroic romances which developed +out of the rhetorical narrative. If excavations in Egypt or at Herculaneum +should bring to light a serious bourgeois story of adventure, they would +furnish us the missing link. Until, or unless, such a discovery is made +the chain of evidence is incomplete. + +The two theories of the realistic romance which we have been discussing +assume that it is a parody of some anterior form of literature, and that +this fact accounts for the appearance of the satirical or cynical element +in it. Other students of literary history, however, think that this +characteristic was brought over directly from the Milesian tale[84] or the +Menippean satire.[85] To how many different kinds of stories the term +"Milesian tale" was applied by the ancients is a matter of dispute, but +the existence of the short story before the time of Petronius is beyond +question. Indeed we find specimens of it. In its commonest form it +presented a single episode of every-day life. It brought out some human +weakness or foible. Very often it was a story of illicit love. Its +philosophy of life was: No man's honesty and no woman's virtue are +unassailable. In all these respects, save in the fact that it presents one +episode only, it resembles the _Satirae_ of Petronius. At least two +stories of this type are to be found in the extant fragments of the novel +of Petronius. One of them is related as a well-known tale by the poet +Eumolpus, and the other is told by him as a personal experience. More than +a dozen of them are imbedded in the novel of Apuleius, the +_Metamorphoses_, and modern specimens of them are to be seen in Boccaccio +and in Chaucer. In fact they are popular from the twelfth century down to +the eighteenth. Long before the time of Petronius they occur sporadically +in literature. A good specimen, for instance, is found in a letter +commonly attributed to AEschines in the fourth century B.C. As early as +the first century before Christ collections of them had been made and +translated into Latin. This development suggests an interesting possible +origin of the realistic romance. In such collections as those just +mentioned of the first century B.C., the central figures were different in +the different stories, as is the case, for instance, in the Canterbury +Tales. Such an original writer as Petronius was may well have thought of +connecting these different episodes by making them the experiences of a +single individual. The Encolpius of Petronius would in that case be in a +way an ancient Don Juan. If we compare the Arabian Nights with one of the +groups of stories found in the Romances of the Round Table, we can see +what this step forward would mean. The tales which bear the title of the +Arabian Nights all have the same general setting and the same general +treatment, and they are put in the mouth of the same story-teller. The +Lancelot group of Round Table stories, however, shows a nearer approach to +unity since the stories in it concern the same person, and have a common +ultimate purpose, even if it is vague. When this point had been reached +the realistic romance would have made its appearance. We have been +thinking of the realistic novel as being made up of a series of Milesian +tales. We may conceive of it, however, as an expanded Milesian tale, just +as scholars are coming to think of the epic as growing out of a single +hero-song, rather than as resulting from the union of several such songs. + +To pass to another possibility, it is very tempting to see a connection +between the _Satirae_ of Petronius and the prologue of comedy. Plautus +thought it necessary to prefix to many of his plays an account of the +incidents which preceded the action of the play. In some cases he went so +far as to outline in the prologue the action of the play itself in order +that the spectators might follow it intelligently. This introductory +narrative runs up to seventy-six lines in the _Menaechmi_, to eighty-two +in the _Rudens_, and to one hundred and fifty-two in the _Amphitruo_. In +this way it becomes a short realistic story of every-day people, involving +frequently a love intrigue, and told in the iambic senarius, the simplest +form of verse. Following it is the more extended narrative of the comedy +itself, with its incidents and dialogue. This combination of the +condensed narrative in the story form, presented usually as a monologue in +simple verse, and the expanded narrative in the dramatic form, with its +conversational element, may well have suggested the writing of a realistic +novel in prose. A slight, though not a fatal, objection to this theory +lies in the fact that the prologues to comedy subsequent to Plautus +changed in their character, and contain little narrative. This is not a +serious objection, for the plays of Plautus were still known to the +cultivated in the later period. + +The mime gives us still more numerous points of contact with the work of +Petronius than comedy does.[86] It is unfortunate, both for our +understanding of Roman life and for our solution of the question before +us, that only fragments of this form of dramatic composition have come +down to us. Even from them, however, it is clear that the mime dealt with +every-day life in a very frank, realistic way. The new comedy has its +conventions in the matter of situations and language. The matron, for +instance, must not be presented in a questionable light, and the language +is the conversational speech of the better classes. The mime recognizes no +such restrictions in its portrayal of life. The married woman, her stupid +husband, and her lover are common figures in this form of the drama, and +if we may draw an inference from the lately discovered fragments of Greek +mimes, the speech was that of the common people. Again, the new comedy has +its limited list of stock characters--the old man, the tricky slave, the +parasite, and the others which we know so well in Plautus and Terence, but +as for the mime, any figure to be seen on the street may find a place in +it--the rhetorician, the soldier, the legacy-hunter, the inn-keeper, or +the town-crier. The doings of kings and heroes were parodied. We are even +told that a comic Hector and Achilles were put on the stage, and the gods +did not come off unscathed. All of these characteristic features of the +mime remind us in a striking way of the novel of Petronius. His work, like +the mime, is a realistic picture of low life which presents a great +variety of characters and shows no regard for conventional morals. It is +especially interesting to notice the element of parody, which we have +already observed in Petronius, in both kinds of literary productions. The +theory that Petronius may have had the composition of his _Satirae_ +suggested to him by plays of this type is greatly strengthened by the fact +that the mime reached its highest point of popularity at the court in the +time of Nero, in whose reign Petronius lived. In point of fact Petronius +refers to the mime frequently. One of these passages is of peculiar +significance in this connection. Encolpius and his comrades are entering +the town of Croton and are considering what device they shall adopt so as +to live without working. At last a happy idea occurs to Eumolpus, and he +says: "Why don't we construct a mime?" and the mime is played, with +Eumolpus as a fabulously rich man at the point of death, and the others as +his attendants. The role makes a great hit, and all the vagabonds in the +company play their assumed parts in their daily life at Croton with such +skill that the legacy-hunters of the place load them with attentions and +shower them with presents. This whole episode, in fact, may be thought of +as a mime cast in the narrative form, and the same conception may be +applied with great plausibility to the entire story of Encolpius. + +We have thus far been attacking the question with which we are concerned +from the side of the subject-matter and tone of the story of Petronius. +Another method of approach is suggested by the Menippean satire,[87] the +best specimens of which have come down to us in the fragments of Varro, +one of Cicero's contemporaries. These satires are an _olla podrida_, +dealing with all sorts of subjects in a satirical manner, sometimes put in +the dialogue form and cast in a _melange_ of prose and verse. It is this +last characteristic which is of special interest to us in this connection, +because in the prose of Petronius verses are freely used. Sometimes, as we +have observed above, they form an integral part of the narrative, and +again they merely illustrate or expand a point touched on in the prose. If +it were not aside from our immediate purpose it would be interesting to +follow the history of this prose-poetical form from the time of Petronius +on. After him it does not seem to have been used very much until the third +and fourth centuries of our era. However, Martial in the first century +prefixed a prose prologue to five books of his Epigrams, and one of these +prologues ends with a poem of four lines. The several books of the +_Silvae_ of Statius are also preceded by prose letters of dedication. That +strange imitation of the _Aulularia_ of Plautus, of the fourth century, +the _Querolus_, is in a form half prose and half verse. A sentence begins +in prose and runs off into verse, as some of the epitaphs also do. The +Epistles of Ausonius of the same century are compounded of prose and a +great variety of verse. By the fifth and sixth centuries, a _melange_ of +verse or a combination of prose and verse is very common, as one can see +in the writings of Martianus Capella, Sidonius Apollinaris, Ennodius, and +Boethius. It recurs again in modern times, for instance in Dante's _La +Vita Nuova_, in Boccaccio, _Aucassin et Nicolette_, the _Heptameron_, the +_Celtic Ballads_, the _Arabian Nights_, and in _Alice in Wonderland_. + +A little thought suggests that the prose-poetic form is a natural medium +of expression. A change from prose to verse, or from one form of verse to +another, suggests a change in the emotional condition of a speaker or +writer. We see that clearly enough illustrated in tragedy or comedy. In +the thrilling scene in the _Captives of Plautus_, for example, where +Tyndarus is in mortal terror lest the trick which he has played on his +master, Hegio, may be discovered, and he be consigned to work in chains in +the quarries, the verse is the trochaic septenarius. As soon as the +suspense is over, it drops to the iambic senarius. If we should arrange +the commoner Latin verses in a sequence according to the emotional effects +which they produce, at the bottom of the series would stand the iambic +senarius. Above that would come trochaic verse, and we should rise to +higher planes of exaltation as we read the anapaestic, or cretic, or +bacchiac. The greater part of life is commonplace. Consequently the common +medium for conversation or for the narrative in a composition like comedy +made up entirely of verse is the senarius. Now this form of verse in its +simple, almost natural, quantitative arrangement is very close to prose, +and it would be a short step to substitute prose for it as the basis of +the story, interspersing verse here and there to secure variety, or when +the emotions were called into play, just as lyric verses are interpolated +in the iambic narrative. In this way the combination of different kinds +of verse in the drama, and the prosimetrum of the Menippean satire and of +Petronius, may be explained, and we see a possible line of descent from +comedy and this form of satire to the _Satirae_. + +These various theories of the origin of the romance of Petronius--that it +may be related to the epic, to the serious heroic romance, to the +bourgeois story of adventure developed out of the rhetorical exercise, to +the Milesian tale, to the prologue of comedy, to the _verse-melange_ of +comedy or the mime, or to the prose-poetical Menippean satire--are not, of +necessity, it seems to me, mutually exclusive. His novel may well be +thought of as a parody of the serious romance, with frequent reminiscences +of the epic, a parody suggested to him by comedy and its prologue, by the +mime, or by the short cynical Milesian tale, and cast in the form of the +Menippean satire; or, so far as subject-matter and realistic treatment are +concerned, the suggestion may have come directly from the mime, and if we +can accept the theory of some scholars who have lately studied the mime, +that it sometimes contained both prose and verse, we may be inclined to +regard this type of literature as the immediate progenitor of the novel, +even in the matter of external form, and leave the Menippean satire out of +the line of descent. Whether the one or the other of these explanations of +its origin recommends itself to us as probable, it is interesting to note, +as we leave the subject, that, so far as our present information goes, the +realistic romance seems to have been the invention of Petronius. + + + + +Diocletian's Edict and the High Cost of Living + + + +The history of the growth of paternalism in the Roman Empire is still to +be written. It would be a fascinating and instructive record. In it the +changes in the character of the Romans and in their social and economic +conditions would come out clearly. It would disclose a strange mixture of +worthy and unworthy motives in their statesmen and politicians, who were +actuated sometimes by sympathy for the poor, sometimes by a desire for +popular favor, by an honest wish to check extravagance or immorality, or +by the fear that the discontent of the masses might drive them into +revolution. We should find the Roman people, recognizing the menace to +their simple, frugal way of living which lay in the inroads of Greek +civilization, and turning in their helplessness to their officials, the +censors, to protect them from a demoralization which, by their own +efforts, they could not withstand. We should find the same officials +preaching against race suicide, extravagant living, and evasion of public +duties, and imposing penalties and restrictions in the most autocratic +fashion on men of high and low degree alike who failed to adopt the +official standards of conduct. We should read of laws enacted in the same +spirit, laws restricting the number of guests that might be entertained on +a single occasion, and prescribing penalties for guests and host alike, if +the cost of a dinner exceeded the statutory limit. All this belongs to the +early stage of paternal government. The motives were praiseworthy, even if +the results were futile. + +With the advent of the Gracchi, toward the close of the second century +before our era, moral considerations become less noticeable, and +paternalism takes on a more philanthropic and political character. We see +this change reflected in the land laws and the corn laws. To take up first +the free distribution of land by the state, in the early days of the +Republic colonies of citizens were founded in the newly conquered +districts of Italy to serve as garrisons on the frontier. It was a fair +bargain between the citizen and the state. He received land, the state, +protection. But with Tiberius Gracchus a change comes in. His colonists +were to be settled in peaceful sections of Italy; they were to receive +land solely because of their poverty. This was socialism or state +philanthropy. Like the agrarian bill of Tiberius, the corn law of Gaius +Gracchus, which provided for the sale of grain below the market price, was +a paternal measure inspired in part by sympathy for the needy. The +political element is clear in both cases also. The people who were thus +favored by assignments of land and of food naturally supported the leaders +who assisted them. Perhaps the extensive building of roads which Gaius +Gracchus carried on should be mentioned in this connection. The ostensible +purpose of these great highways, perhaps their primary purpose, was to +develop Italy and to facilitate communication between different parts of +the peninsula, but a large number of men was required for their +construction, and Gaius Gracchus may well have taken the matter up, partly +for the purpose of furnishing work to the unemployed. Out of these small +beginnings developed the socialistic policy of later times. By the middle +of the first century B.C., it is said that there were three hundred and +twenty thousand persons receiving doles of corn from the state, and, if +the people could look to the government for the necessities of life, why +might they not hope to have it supply their less pressing needs? Or, to +put it in another way, if one politician won their support by giving them +corn, why might not another increase his popularity by providing them with +amusement and with the comforts of life? Presents of oil and clothing +naturally follow, the giving of games and theatrical performances at the +expense of the state, and the building of porticos and public baths. As +the government and wealthy citizens assumed a larger measure of +responsibility for the welfare of the citizens, the people became more and +more dependent upon them and less capable of managing their own affairs. +An indication of this change we see in the decline of local +self-government and the assumption by the central administration of +responsibility for the conduct of public business in the towns of Italy. +This last consideration suggests another phase of Roman history which a +study of paternalism would bring out--I mean the effect of its +introduction on the character of the Roman people. + +The history of paternalism in Rome, when it is written, might approach +the subject from several different points. If the writer were inclined to +interpret history on the economic side, he might find the explanation of +the change in the policy of the government toward its citizens in the +introduction of slave labor which, under the Republic, drove the free +laborer to the wall and made him look to the state for help, in the +decline of agriculture, and the growth of capitalism. The sociologist +would notice the drift of the people toward the cities and the sudden +massing there of large numbers of persons who could not provide for +themselves and in their discontent might overturn society. The historian +who concerns himself with political changes mainly, would notice the +socialistic legislation of the Gracchi and their political successors and +would connect the growth of paternalism with the development of democracy. +In all these explanations there would be a certain measure of truth. + +But I am not planning here to write a history of paternalism among the +Romans. That is one of the projects which I had been reserving for the day +when the Carnegie Foundation should present me with a wooden sword and +allow me to retire from the arena of academic life. But, alas! the +trustees of that beneficent institution, by the revision which they have +lately made of the conditions under which a university professor may +withdraw from active service, have in their wisdom put off that day of +academic leisure to the Greek Kalends, and my dream vanishes into the +distance with it. + +Here I wish to present only an episode in this history which we have been +discussing, an episode which is unique, however, in ancient and, so far as +I know, in modern history. Our knowledge of the incident comes from an +edict of the Emperor Diocletian, and this document has a direct bearing on +a subject of present-day discussion, because it contains a diatribe +against the high cost of living and records the heroic attempt which the +Roman government made to reduce it. In his effort to bring prices down to +what he considered a normal level, Diocletian did not content himself with +such half-measures as we are trying in our attempts to suppress +combinations in restraint of trade, but he boldly fixed the maximum prices +at which beef, grain, eggs, clothing, and other articles could be sold, +and prescribed the penalty of death for any one who disposed of his wares +at a higher figure. His edict is a very comprehensive document, and +specifies prices for seven hundred or eight hundred different articles. +This systematic attempt to regulate trade was very much in keeping with +the character of Diocletian and his theory of government. Perhaps no Roman +emperor, with the possible exception of Hadrian, showed such extraordinary +administrative ability and proposed so many sweeping social reforms as +Diocletian did. His systematic attempt to suppress Christianity is a case +in point, and in the last twenty years of his reign he completely +reorganized the government. He frankly introduced the monarchical +principle, fixed upon a method of succession to the throne, redivided the +provinces, established a carefully graded system of officials, concerned +himself with court etiquette and dress, and reorganized the coinage and +the system of taxation. We are not surprised therefore that he had the +courage to attack this difficult question of high prices, and that his +plan covered almost all the articles which his subjects would have +occasion to buy. + +It is almost exactly two centuries since the first fragments of the edict +dealing with the subject were brought to light. They were discovered in +Caria, in 1709, by William Sherard, the English consul at Smyrna. Since +then, from time to time, other fragments of tablets containing parts of +the edict have been found in Egypt, Asia Minor, and Greece. At present +portions of twenty-nine copies of it are known. Fourteen of them are in +Latin and fifteen in Greek. The Greek versions differ from one another, +while the Latin texts are identical, except for the stone-cutters' +mistakes here and there. These facts make it clear that the original +document was in Latin, and was translated into Greek by the local +officials of each town where the tablets were set up. We have already +noticed that specimens of the edict have not been found outside of Egypt, +Greece, and Asia Minor, and this was the part of the Roman world where +Diocletian ruled. Scholars have also observed that almost all the +manufactured articles which are mentioned come from Eastern points. From +these facts it has been inferred that the edict was to apply to the East +only, or perhaps more probably that Diocletian drew it up for his part of +the Roman world, and that before it could be applied to the West it was +repealed. + +From the pieces which were then known, a very satisfactory reconstruction +of the document was made by Mommsen and published in the _Corpus of Latin +Inscriptions_.[88] + +The work of restoration was like putting together the parts of a picture +puzzle where some of the pieces are lacking. Fragments are still coming to +light, and possibly we may have the complete text some day. As it is, the +introduction is complete, and perhaps four-fifths of the list of articles +with prices attached are extant. The introduction opens with a stately +list of the titles of the two Augusti and the two Caesars, which fixes the +date of the proclamation as 301 A.D. Then follows a long recital of the +circumstances which have led the government to adopt this drastic method +of controlling prices. This introduction is one of the most extraordinary +pieces of bombast, mixed metaphors, loose syntax, and incoherent +expressions that Latin literature possesses. One is tempted to infer from +its style that it was the product of Diocletian's own pen. He was a man of +humble origin, and would not live in Rome for fear of being laughed at on +account of his plebeian training. The florid and awkward style of these +introductory pages is exactly what we should expect from a man of such +antecedents. + +It is very difficult to translate them into intelligible English, but some +conception of their style and contents may be had from one or two +extracts. In explaining the situation which confronts the world, the +Emperor writes: "For, if the raging avarice ... which, without regard for +mankind, increases and develops by leaps and bounds, we will not say from +year to year, month to month, or day to day, but almost from hour to hour, +and even from minute to minute, could be held in check by some regard for +moderation, or if the welfare of the people could calmly tolerate this mad +license from which, in a situation like this, it suffers in the worst +possible fashion from day to day, some ground would appear, perhaps, for +concealing the truth and saying nothing; ... but inasmuch as there is +only seen a mad desire without control, to pay no heed to the needs of the +many, ... it seems good to us, as we look into the future, to us who are +the fathers of the people, that justice intervene to settle matters +impartially, in order that that which, long hoped for, humanity itself +could not bring about may be secured for the common government of all by +the remedies which our care affords.... Who is of so hardened a heart and +so untouched by a feeling for humanity that he can be unaware, nay that he +has not noticed, that in the sale of wares which are exchanged in the +market, or dealt with in the daily business of the cities, an exorbitant +tendency in prices has spread to such an extent that the unbridled desire +of plundering is held in check neither by abundance nor by seasons of +plenty!" + +If we did not know that this was found on tablets sixteen centuries old, +we might think that we were reading a newspaper diatribe against the +cold-storage plant or the beef trust. What the Emperor has decided to do +to remedy the situation he sets forth toward the end of the introduction. +He says: "It is our pleasure, therefore, that those prices which the +subjoined written summary specifies, be held in observance throughout all +our domain, that all may know that license to go above the same has been +cut off.... It is our pleasure (also) that if any man shall have boldly +come into conflict with this formal statute, he shall put his life in +peril.... In the same peril also shall he be placed who, drawn along by +avarice in his desire to buy, shall have conspired against these statutes. +Nor shall he be esteemed innocent of the same crime who, having articles +necessary for daily life and use, shall have decided hereafter that they +can be held back, since the punishment ought to be even heavier for him +who causes need than for him who violates the laws." + +The lists which follow are arranged in three columns which give +respectively the article, the unit of measure, and the price.[89] + + Frumenti K{~COMBINING MACRON~}M{~COMBINING MACRON~} + Hordei K{~COMBINING MACRON~}M{~COMBINING MACRON~} unum {~ROMAN NUMERAL TEN~}{~COMBINING LONG STROKE OVERLAY~} c(entum) + Centenum sive sicale " " " {~ROMAN NUMERAL TEN~}{~COMBINING LONG STROKE OVERLAY~} sexa(ginta) + Mili pisti " " " {~ROMAN NUMERAL TEN~}{~COMBINING LONG STROKE OVERLAY~} centu(m) + Mili integri " " {~ROMAN NUMERAL TEN~}{~COMBINING LONG STROKE OVERLAY~} quinquaginta' + + + The first item (frumentum) is wheat, which is sold by the K{~COMBINING MACRON~}M{~COMBINING MACRON~} + (kastrensis modius=181/2 quarts), but the price is lacking. Barley is + sold by the kastrensis modius at {~ROMAN NUMERAL TEN~}{~COMBINING LONG STROKE OVERLAY~} centum (centum denarii = 43 cents) + and so on. + +Usually a price list is not of engrossing interest, but the tables of +Diocletian furnish us a picture of material conditions throughout the +Empire in his time which cannot be had from any other source, and for that +reason deserve some attention. This consideration emboldens me to set down +some extracts in the following pages from the body of the edict: + + + +Extracts from Diocletian's List of Maximum Prices + +I + +In the tables given here the Latin and Greek names of the articles listed +have been turned into English. The present-day accepted measure of +quantity--for instance, the bushel or the quart--has been substituted for +the ancient unit, and the corresponding price for the modern unit of +measure is given. Thus barley was to be sold by the kastrensis modius +(=181/2 quarts) at 100 denarii (=43.5 cents). At this rate a bushel of +barley would have brought 74.5 cents. For convenience in reference the +numbers of the chapters and of the items adopted in the text of Mommsen +are used here. Only selected articles are given. + + (Unit of Measure, the Bushel) + +1 Wheat +2 Barley 74.5 cents +3 Rye 45 " +4 Millet, ground 74.5 " +6 Millet, whole 37 " +7 Spelt, hulled 74.5 " +8 Spelt, not hulled 22.5 " +9 Beans, ground 74.5 " +10 Beans, not ground 45 " +11 Lentils 74.5 " +12-16 Peas, various sorts 45-74.5 " +17 Oats 22.5 " +31 Poppy seeds $1.12 +34 Mustard $1.12 +35 Prepared mustard, quart 6 " + + + + II + + (Unit of Measure, the Quart) + +1a Wine from Picenum 22.5 cents +2 Wine from Tibur 22.5 " +7 Wine from Falernum 22.5 " +10 Wine of the country 6 " +11-12 Beer 1.5-3 " + + + + III + +(Unit of Measure, the Quart) + +1a Oil, first quality 30.3 cents +2 Oil, second quality 18 " +5 Vinegar 4.3 " +8 Salt, bushel 74.5 " +10 Honey, best 30.3 " +11 Honey, second quality 15 " + + + IV + + (Unit, Unless Otherwise Noted, Pound Avoirdupois) + +1a Pork 7.3 cents +2 Beef 4.9 " +3 Goat's flesh or mutton 4.9 " +6 Pig's liver 9.8 " +8 Ham, best 12 " +21 Goose, artificially fed (1) 87 " +22 Goose, not artificially fed (1) 43.5 " +23 Pair of fowls 36 " +29 Pair of pigeons 10.5 " +47 Lamb 7.3 " +48 Kid 7.3 " +50 Butter 9.8 " + + + V + + (Unit, the Pound) + +1a Sea fish with sharp spines 14.6 cents +2 Fish, second quality 9.7 " +3 River fish, best quality 7.3 " +4 Fish, second quality 4.8 " +5 Salt fish 8.3 " +6 Oysters (by the hundred) 43.5 " +11 Dry cheese 7.3 " +12 Sardines 9.7 " + + + VI + +1 Artichokes, large (5) 4.3 cents +7 Lettuce, best (5) 1.7 " +9 Cabbages, best (5) 1.7 " +10 Cabbages, small (10) 1.7 " +18 Turnips, large (10) 1.7 " +24 Watercress, per bunch of 20 4.3 " +28 Cucumbers, first quality (10) 1.7 " +29 Cucumbers, small (20) 1.7 " +34 Garden asparagus, per bunch (25) 2.6 " +35 Wild asparagus (50) 1.7 " +38 Shelled green beans, quart 3 " +43 Eggs (4) 1.7 " +46 Snails, large (20) 1.7 " +65 Apples, best (10) 1.7 " +67 Apples, small (40) 1.7 " +78 Figs, best (25) 1.7 " +80 Table grapes (2.8 pound) 1.7 " +95 Sheep's milk, quart 6 " +96 Cheese, fresh, quart 6 " + + + VII + + (Where (k) Is Set Down the Workman Receives His "Keep" Also) + +1a Manual laborer (k) 10.8 cents +2 Bricklayer (k) 21.6 " +3 Joiner (interior work) (k) 21.6 " +3a Carpenter (k) 21.6 " +4 Lime-burner (k) 21.6 " +5 Marble-worker (k) 26 " +6 Mosaic-worker (fine work) (k) 26 " +7 Stone-mason (k) 21.6 " +8 Wall-painter (k) 32.4 " +9 Figure-painter (k) 64.8 " +10 Wagon-maker (k) 21.6 " +11 Smith (k) 21.6 " +12 Baker (k) 21.6 " +13 Ship-builder, for sea-going ships (k) 26 " +14 Ship-builder, for river boats (k) 21.6 " +17 Driver, for camel, ass, or mule (k) 10.8 " +18 Shepherd (k) 8.7 " +20 Veterinary, for cutting, and straightening hoofs, per animal 2.6 " +22 Barber, for each man .9 cent +23 Sheep-shearer, for each sheep (k) .9 " +24a Coppersmith, for work in brass, per pound 3.5 cents +25 Coppersmith, for work in copper, per pound 2.6 " +26 Coppersmith for finishing vessels, per pound 2.6 " +27 Coppersmith, for finishing figures and statues, per pound 1.7 " +29 Maker of statues, etc., per day (k) 32.4 " +31 Water-carrier, per day (k) 10.9 " +32 Sewer-cleaner, per day (k) 10.9 " +33 Knife-grinder, for old sabre 10.9 " +36 Knife-grinder, for double axe 3.5 " +39 Writer, 100 lines best writing 10.9 " +40 Writer, 100 lines ordinary writing 8.7 " +41 Document writer for record of 100 lines 4.3 " +42 Tailor, for cutting out and finishing overgarment of first + quality 26.1 " +43 Tailor, for cutting out and finishing overgarment of second + quality 17.4 " +44 For a large cowl 10.9 " +45 For a small cowl 8.7 " +46 For trousers 8.7 " +52 Felt horse-blanket, black or white, 3 pounds weight 43.5 " +53 Cover, first quality, with embroidery, 3 pounds weight $1.09 +64 Gymnastic teacher, per pupil, per month 21.6 cents +65 Employee to watch children, per child, per month 21.6 " +66 Elementary teacher, per pupil, per month 21.6 " +67 Teacher of arithmetic, per pupil, per month 32.6 " +68 Teacher of stenography, per pupil, per month 32.6 " +69 Writing-teacher, per pupil, per month 21.6 " +70 Teacher of Greek, Latin, geometry, per pupil, per month 87 " +71 Teacher of rhetoric, per pupil, per month $1.09 +72 Advocate or counsel for presenting a case $1.09 +73 For finishing a case $4.35 +74 Teacher of architecture, per pupil, per month 43.5 cents +75 Watcher of clothes in public bath, for each patron .9 cent + + + VIII + +1a Hide, Babylonian, first quality $2.17 + 2 Hide, Babylonian, second quality $1.74 + 4 Hide, Phoenician (?) 43 cents +6a Cowhide, unworked, first quality $2.17 + 7 Cowhide, prepared for shoe soles $3.26 + 9 Hide, second quality, unworked $1.31 +10 Hide, second quality, worked $2.17 +11 Goatskin, large, unworked 17 cents +12 Goatskin, large, worked 22 " +13 Sheepskin, large, unworked 8.7 " +14 Sheepskin, large, worked 18 " +17 Kidskin, unworked 4.3 " +18 Kidskin, worked 7 " +27 Wolfskin, unworked 10.8 " +28 Wolfskin, worked 17.4 " +33 Bearskin, large, unworked 43 " +39 Leopardskin, unworked $4.35 +41 Lionskin, worked $4.35 + + + IX + +5a Boots, first quality, for mule-drivers and peasants, per + pair, without nails 52 cents + 6 Soldiers' boots, without nails 43 " + 7 Patricians' shoes 65 " + 8 Senatorial shoes 43 " + 9 Knights' shoes 30.5 " +10 Women's boots 26 " +11 Soldiers' shoes 32.6 " +15 Cowhide shoes for women, double soles 21.7 " +16 Cowhide shoes for women, single soles 13 " +20 Men's slippers 26 " +21 Women's slippers 21.7 " + + + XVI + +8a Sewing-needle, finest quality 1.7 cents + 9 Sewing-needle, second quality .9 cent + + + XVII + + 1 Transportation, 1 person, 1 mile .9 cent + 2 Rent for wagon, 1 mile 5 cents + 3 Freight charges for wagon containing up to 1,200 pounds, per + mile 8.7 " + 4 Freight charges for camel load of 600 pounds, + per mile 3.5 " + 5 Rent for laden ass, per mile 1.8 " + 7 Hay and straw, 3 pounds .9 cent + + + XVIII + + 1a Goose-quills, per pound 43.5 cents +11a Ink, per pound 5 " +12 Reed pens from Paphos (10) 1.7 " +13 Reed pens, second quality (20) 1.7 " + + + XIX + + 1 Military mantle, finest quality $17.40 + 2 Undergarment, fine $8.70 + 3 Undergarment, ordinary $5.44 + 5 White bed blanket, finest sort, 12 pounds weight $6.96 + 7 Ordinary cover, 10 pounds weight $2.18 +28 Laodicean Dalmatica [_i.e., a tunic with sleeves_] $8.70 +36 British mantle, with cowl $26.08 +39 Numidian mantle, with cowl $13.04 +42 African mantle, with cowl $6.52 +51 Laodicean storm coat, finest quality $21.76 +60 Gallic soldier's cloak $43.78 +61 African soldier's cloak $2.17 + + + XX + + 1a For an embroiderer, for embroidering a half-silk + undergarment, per ounce 87 cents + 5 For a gold embroiderer, if he work in gold, for finest + work, per ounce $4.35 + 9 For a silk weaver, who works on stuff half-silk, besides + "keep," per day 11 cents + + + XXI + + 2 For working Tarentine or Laodicean or other foreign wool, + with keep, per pound 13 cents + 5 A linen weaver for fine work, with keep, per day 18 " + + + XXII + + 4 Fuller's charges for a cloak or mantle, new 13 cents + 6 Fuller's charges for a woman's coarse Dalmatica, new 21.7 " + 9 Fuller's charges for a new half-silk undergarment 76 " +22 Fuller's charges for a new Laodicean mantle. 76 " + + + XXIII + + 1 White silk, per pound $52.22 + + + XXIV + + 1 Genuine purple silk, per pound $652.20 + 2 Genuine purple wool, per pound $217.40 + 3 Genuine light purple wool, per pound $139.26 + 8 Nicaean scarlet wool, per pound $6.53 + + + XXV + + 1 Washed Tarentine wool, per pound 76 cents + 2 Washed Laodicean wool, per pound 65 " + 3 Washed wool from Asturia, per pound 43.5 " + 4 Washed wool, best medium quality, per pound 21.7 " + 5 All other washed wools, per pound 10.8 " + + + XXVI + + 7a Coarse linen thread, first quality, per pound $3.13 + 8 Coarse linen thread, second quality, per pound $2.61 + 9 Coarse linen thread, third quality, per pound $1.96 + + + XXX + + 1 Pure gold in bars or in coined pieces, per pound 50,000 denarii + 3 Artificers, working in metal, per pound $21.76 + 4 Gold-beaters, per pound $13.06 + + +Throughout the lists, as one may see, articles are grouped in a systematic +way. First we find grain and vegetables; then wine, oil, vinegar, salt, +honey, meat, fish, cheese, salads, and nuts. After these articles, in +chapter VII, we pass rather unexpectedly to the wages of the field +laborer, the carpenter, the painter, and of other skilled and unskilled +workmen. Then follow leather, shoes, saddles, and other kinds of raw +material and manufactured wares until we reach a total of more than eight +hundred articles. As we have said, the classification is in the main +systematic, but there are some strange deviations from a systematic +arrangement. Eggs, for instance, are in table VI with salads, vegetables, +and fruits. Buecher, who has discussed some phases of this price list, has +acutely surmised that perhaps the tables in whole, or in part, were drawn +up by the directors of imperial factories and magazines. The government +levied tribute "in kind," and it must have provided depots throughout the +provinces for the reception of contributions from its subjects. +Consequently in making out these tables it would very likely call upon the +directors of these magazines for assistance, and each of them in making +his report would naturally follow to some extent the list of articles +which the imperial depot controlled by him, carried in stock. At all +events, we see evidence of an expert hand in the list of linens, which +includes one hundred and thirty-nine articles of different qualities. + +As we have noticed in the passage quoted from the introduction, it is +unlawful for a person to charge more for any of his wares than the amount +specified in the law. Consequently, the prices are not normal, but maximum +prices. However, since the imperial lawgivers evidently believed that the +necessities of life were being sold at exorbitant rates, the maximum which +they fixed was very likely no greater than the prevailing market price. +Here and there, as in the nineteenth chapter of the document, the text is +given in tablets from two or more places. In such cases the prices are the +same, so that apparently no allowance was made for the cost of carriage, +although with some articles, like oysters and sea-fish, this item must +have had an appreciable value, and it certainly should have been taken +into account in fixing the prices of "British mantles" or "Gallic +soldiers' cloaks" of chapter XIX. The quantities for which prices are +given are so small--a pint of wine, a pair of fowls, twenty snails, ten +apples, a bunch of asparagus--that evidently Diocletian had the "ultimate +consumer" in mind, and fixed the retail price in his edict. This is +fortunate for us, because it helps us to get at the cost of living in the +early part of the fourth century. There is good reason for believing that +the system of barter prevailed much more generally at that time than it +does to-day. Probably the farmer often exchanged his grain, vegetables, +and eggs for shoes and cloth, without receiving or paying out money, so +that the money prices fixed for his products would not affect him in every +transaction as they would affect the present-day farmer. The unit of money +which is used throughout the edict is the copper denarius, and fortunately +the value of a pound of fine gold is given as 50,000 denarii. This fixes +the value of the denarius as .4352 cent, or approximately four-tenths of a +cent. It is implied in the introduction that the purpose of the law is to +protect the people, and especially the soldiers, from extortion, but +possibly, as Buecher has surmised, the emperor may have wished to maintain +or to raise the value of the denarius, which had been steadily declining +because of the addition of alloy to the coin. If this was the emperor's +object, possibly the value of the denarius is set somewhat too high, but +it probably does not materially exceed its exchange value, and in any +case, the relative values of articles given in the tables are not +affected. + +The tables bring out a number of points of passing interest. From chapter +II it seems to follow that Italian wines retained their ancient +pre-eminence, even in the fourth century. They alone are quoted among the +foreign wines. Table VI gives us a picture of the village market. On +market days the farmer brings his artichokes, lettuce, cabbages, turnips, +and other fresh vegetables into the market town and exposes them for sale +in the public square, as the country people in Italy do to-day. The +seventh chapter, in which wages are given, is perhaps of liveliest +interest. In this connection we should bear in mind the fact that slavery +existed in the Roman Empire, that owners of slaves trained them to various +occupations and hired them out by the day or job, and that, consequently +the prices paid for slave labor fixed the scale of wages. However, there +was a steady decline under the Empire in the number of slaves, and +competition with them in the fourth century did not materially affect the +wages of the free laborer. It is interesting, in this chapter, to notice +that the teacher and the advocate (Nos. 66-73) are classed with the +carpenter and tailor. It is a pleasant passing reflection for the teacher +of Greek and Latin to find that his predecessors were near the top of +their profession, if we may draw this inference from their remuneration +when compared with that of other teachers. It is worth observing also that +the close association between the classics and mathematics, and their +acceptance as the corner-stone of the higher training, to which we have +been accustomed for centuries, seems to be recognized (VII, 70) even at +this early date. We expect to find the physician mentioned with the +teacher and advocate, but probably it was too much even for Diocletian's +skill, in reducing things to a system, to estimate the comparative value +of a physician's services in a case of measles and typhoid fever. + +The bricklayer, the joiner, and the carpenter (VII, 2-3a), inasmuch as +they work on the premises of their employer, receive their "keep" as well +as a fixed wage, while the knife-grinder and the tailor (VII, 33, 42) +work in their own shops, and naturally have their meals at home. The +silk-weaver (XX, 9) and the linen-weaver (XXI, 5) have their "keep" also, +which seems to indicate that private houses had their own looms, which is +quite in harmony with the practices of our fathers. The carpenter and +joiner are paid by the day, the teacher by the month, the knife-grinder, +the tailor, the barber (VII, 22) by the piece, and the coppersmith (VII, +24a-27) according to the amount of metal which he uses. Whether the +difference between the prices of shoes for the patrician, the senator, and +the knight (IX, 7-9) represents a difference in the cost of making the +three kinds, or is a tax put on the different orders of nobility, cannot +be determined. The high prices set on silk and wool dyed with purple +(XXIV) correspond to the pre-eminent position of that imperial color in +ancient times. The tables which the edict contains call our attention to +certain striking differences between ancient and modern industrial and +economic conditions. Of course the list of wage-earners is incomplete. The +inscriptions which the trades guilds have left us record many occupations +which are not mentioned here, but in them and in these lists we miss any +reference to large groups of men who hold a prominent place in our modern +industrial reports--I mean men working in printing-offices, factories, +foundries, and machine-shops, and employed by transportation companies. +Nothing in the document suggests the application of power to the +manufacture of articles, the assembling of men in a common workshop, or +the use of any other machine than the hand loom and the mill for the +grinding of corn. In the way of articles offered for sale, we miss certain +items which find a place in every price-list of household necessities, +such articles as sugar, molasses, potatoes, cotton cloth, tobacco, coffee, +and tea. The list of stimulants (II) is, in fact, very brief, including as +it does only a few kinds of wine and beer. + +At the present moment, when the high cost of living is a subject which +engages the attention of the economist, politician, and householder, as it +did that of Diocletian and his contemporaries, the curious reader will +wish to know how wages and the prices of food in 301 A.D. compare with +those of to-day. In the two tables which follow, such a comparison is +attempted for some of the more important articles and occupations. + + Articles of Food[90] + + Price in 301 A.D. Price in 1906 A.D. + + Wheat, per bushel 33.6 cents $1.19[91] + Rye, per bushel 45 " 79 cents[91] + Beans, per bushel 45 " $3.20 + Barley, per bushel 74.5 " 55 cents[91] + Vinegar, per quart 4.3 " 5-7 " + Fresh pork, per pound 7.3 " 14-16 " + Beef, per pound 4.9 " { 9-12 " + {15-18 " + Mutton, per pound 4.9 " 13-16 " + Ham, per pound 12 " 18-25 " + Fowls, per pair 26 " + Fowls, per pound 14-18 " + Butter, per pound 9.8 " 26-32 " + Fish, river, fresh, per pound 7.3 " 12-15 " + Fish, sea, fresh, per pound 9-14 " 8-14 cents + Fish, salt, per pound 8.3 " 8-15 " + Cheese, per pound 7.3 " 17-20 " + Eggs, per dozen 5.1 " 25-30 " + Milk, cow's, per quart 6-8 " + Milk, sheep's, per quart 6 " + + + Wages Per Day + + Unskilled workman 10.8 cents (k)[92] $1.20-2.24[93] + Bricklayer 21.6 " (k) 4.50-6.50 + Carpenter 21.6 " (k) 2.50-4.00 + Stone-mason 21.6 " (k) 3.70-4.90 + Painter 32.4 " (k) 2.75-4.00 + Blacksmith 21.6 " (k) 2.15-3.20 + Ship-builder 21-26 " (k) 2.15-3.50 + +We are not so much concerned in knowing the prices of meat, fish, eggs, +and flour in 301 and 1911 A.D. as we are in finding out whether the Roman +or the American workman could buy more of these commodities with the +returns for his labor. A starting point for such an estimate is furnished +by the Eighteenth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, on the "Cost +of Living and Retail Prices of Food" (1903), and by Bulletin No. 77 of the +Bureau of Labor (1908). In the first of these documents (pp. 582, 583) the +expenditure for rent, fuel, food, and other necessities of life in 11,156 +normal American families whose incomes range from $200 to $1,200 per year +is given. In the other report (p. 344 _f._) similar statistics are given +for 1,944 English urban families. In the first case the average amount +spent per year was $617, of which $266, or a little less than a half of +the entire income, was used in the purchase of food. The statistics for +England show a somewhat larger relative amount spent for food. Almost +exactly one-third of this expenditure for the normal American family was +for meat and fish.[94] Now, if we take the wages of the Roman carpenter, +for instance, as 21 cents per day, and add one-fourth or one-third for his +"keep," those of the same American workman as $2.50 to $4.00, it is clear +that the former received only a ninth or a fifteenth as much as the +latter, while the average price of pork, beef, mutton, and ham (7.3 cents) +in 301 A.D. was about a third of the average (19.6 cents) of the same +articles to-day. The relative averages of wheat, rye, and barley make a +still worse showing for ancient times while fresh fish was nearly as high +in Diocletian's time as it is in our own day. The ancient and modern +prices of butter and eggs stand at the ratio of one to three and one to +six respectively. For the urban workman, then, in the fourth century, +conditions of life must have been almost intolerable, and it is hard to +understand how he managed to keep soul and body together, when almost all +the nutritious articles of food were beyond his means. The taste of meat, +fish, butter, and eggs must have been almost unknown to him, and probably +even the coarse bread and vegetables on which he lived were limited in +amount. The peasant proprietor who could raise his own cattle and grain +would not find the burden so hard to bear. + +Only one question remains for us to answer. Did Diocletian succeed in his +bold attempt to reduce the cost of living? Fortunately the answer is given +us by Lactantius in the book which he wrote in 313-314 A.D., "On the +Deaths of Those Who Persecuted (the Christians)." The title of +Lactantius's work would not lead us to expect a very sympathetic treatment +of Diocletian, the arch-persecutor, but his account of the actual outcome +of the incident is hardly open to question. In Chapter VII of his +treatise, after setting forth the iniquities of the Emperor in constantly +imposing new burdens on the people, he writes: "And when he had brought on +a state of exceeding high prices by his different acts of injustice, he +tried to fix by law the prices of articles offered for sale. Thereupon, +for the veriest trifles much blood was shed, and out of fear nothing was +offered for sale, and the scarcity grew much worse, until, after the death +of many persons, the law was repealed from mere necessity." Thus came to +an end this early effort to reduce the high cost of living. Sixty years +later the Emperor Julian made a similar attempt on a small scale. He fixed +the price of corn for the people of Antioch by an edict. The holders of +grain hoarded their stock. The Emperor brought supplies of it into the +city from Egypt and elsewhere and sold it at the legal price. It was +bought up by speculators, and in the end Julian, like Diocletian, had to +acknowledge his inability to cope with an economic law. + + + + +Private Benefactions and Their Effect on the Municipal Life of the Romans + + +In the early days the authority of the Roman father over his wife, his +sons, and his daughters was absolute. He did what seemed to him good for +his children. His oversight and care extended to all the affairs of their +lives. The state was modelled on the family and took over the autocratic +power of the paterfamilias. It is natural to think of it, therefore, as a +paternal government, and the readiness with which the Roman subordinated +his own will and sacrificed his personal interests to those of the +community seems to show his acceptance of this theory of his relation to +the government. But this conception is correct in part only. A paternal +government seeks to foster all the common interests of its people and to +provide for their common needs. This the Roman state did not try to do, +and if we think of it as a paternal government, in the ordinary meaning +of that term, we lose sight of the partnership between state supervision +and individual enterprise in ministering to the common needs and desires, +which was one of the marked features of Roman life. In fact, the +gratification of the individual citizen's desire for those things which he +could not secure for himself depended in the Roman Empire, as it depends +in this country, not solely on state support, but in part on state aid, +and in part on private generosity. We see the truth of this very clearly +in studying the history of the Roman city. The phase of Roman life which +we have just noted may not fit into the ideas of Roman society which we +have hitherto held, but we can understand it as no other people can, +because in the United States and in England we are accustomed to the +co-operation of private initiative and state action in the establishment +and maintenance of universities, libraries, museums, and all sorts of +charitable institutions. + +If we look at the growth of private munificence under the Republic, we +shall see that citizens showed their generosity particularly in the +construction of public buildings, partly or entirely at their own +expense. In this way some of the basilicas in Rome and elsewhere which +served as courts of justice and halls of exchange were constructed. The +great Basilica AEmilia, for instance, whose remains may be seen in the +Forum to-day, was constructed by an AEmilius in the second century before +our era, and was accepted as a charge by his descendants to be kept in +condition and improved at the expense of the AEmilian family. Under +somewhat similar conditions Pompey built the great theatre which bore his +name, the first permanent theatre to be built in Rome, and always +considered one of the wonders of the city. The cost of this structure was +probably covered by the treasure which he brought back from his campaigns +in the East. In using the spoils of a successful war to construct +buildings or memorials in Rome, he was following the example of Mummius, +the conqueror of Corinth, and other great generals who had preceded him. +The purely philanthropic motive does not bulk largely in these gifts to +the citizens, because the people whose armies had won the victories were +part owners at least of the spoils, and because the victorious leader who +built the structure was actuated more by the hope of transmitting the +memory of his achievements to posterity in some conspicuous and +imperishable monument than by a desire to benefit his fellow citizens. + +These two motives, the one egoistic and the other altruistic, actuated all +the Roman emperors in varying degrees. The activity of Augustus in such +matters comes out clearly in the record of his reign, which he has left us +in his own words. This remarkable bit of autobiography, known as the +"Deeds of the Deified Augustus," the Emperor had engraved on bronze +tablets, placed in front of his mausoleum. The original has disappeared, +but fortunately a copy of it has been found on the walls of a ruined +temple at Ancyra, in Asia Minor, and furnishes us abundant proof of the +great improvements which he made in the city of Rome. We are told in it +that from booty he paid for the construction of the Forum of Augustus, +which was some four hundred feet long, three hundred wide, and was +surrounded by a wall one hundred and twenty feet high, covered on the +inside with marble and stucco. Enclosed within it and built with funds +coming from the same source was the magnificent temple of Mars the +Avenger, which had as its principal trophies the Roman standards recovered +from the Parthians. This forum and temple are only two items in the long +list of public improvements which Augustus records in his imperial +epitaph, for, as he proudly writes: "In my sixth consulship, acting under +a decree of the senate, I restored eighty-two temples in the city, +neglecting no temple which needed repair at the time." Besides the +temples, he mentions a large number of theatres, porticos, basilicas, +aqueducts, roads, and bridges which he built in Rome or in Italy outside +the city. + +But the Roman people had come to look for acts of generosity from their +political as well as from their military leaders, and this factor, too, +must be taken into account in the case of Augustus. In the closing years +of the Republic, candidates for office and men elected to office saw that +one of the most effective ways of winning and holding their popularity was +to give public entertainments, and they vied with one another in the +costliness of the games and pageants which they gave the people. The +well-known case of Caesar will be recalled, who, during his term as aedile, +or commissioner of public works, bankrupted himself by his lavish +expenditures on public improvements, and on the games, in which he +introduced three hundred and twenty pairs of gladiators for the amusement +of the people. In his book, "On the Offices," Cicero tells us of a thrifty +rich man, named Mamercus, who aspired to public office, but avoided taking +the aedileship, which stood in the regular sequence of minor offices, in +order that he might escape the heavy outlay for public entertainment +expected of the aedile. As a consequence, when later he came up for the +consulship, the people punished him by defeating him at the polls. To +check the growth of these methods of securing votes, Cicero, in his +consulship, brought in a corrupt practices act, which forbade citizens to +give gladiatorial exhibitions within two years of any election in which +they were candidates. We may doubt if this measure was effective. The +Roman was as clever as the American politician in accomplishing his +purpose without going outside the law. Perhaps an incident in the life of +Cicero's young friend, Curio, is a case in point. It was an old Roman +custom to celebrate the ninth day after a burial as a solemn family +festival, and some time in the second century before our era the practice +grew up of giving gladiatorial contests on these occasions. The versatile +Curio, following this practice, testified his respect for his father's +memory by giving the people such elaborate games that he never escaped +from the financial difficulties in which they involved him. However, this +tribute of pious affection greatly enhanced his popularity, and perhaps +did not expose him to the rigors of Cicero's law. + +These gifts from generals, from distinguished citizens, and from +candidates for office do not go far to prove a generous or philanthropic +spirit on the part of the donors, but they show clearly enough that the +practice of giving large sums of money to embellish the city, and to +please the public, had grown up under the Republic, and that the people of +Rome had come to regard it as the duty of their distinguished fellow +citizens to beautify the city and minister to their needs and pleasures by +generous private contributions. + +All these gifts were for the city of Rome, and for the people of the city, +not for the Empire, nor for Italy. This is characteristic of ancient +generosity or philanthropy, that its recipients are commonly the people +of a single town, usually the donor's native town. It is one of many +indications of the fact that the Roman thought of his city as the state, +and even under the Empire he rarely extended the scope of his benefactions +beyond the walls of a particular town. The small cities and villages +throughout the West reproduced the capital in miniature. Each was a little +world in itself. Each of them not only had its forum, its temples, +colonnades, baths, theatres, and arenas, but also developed a political +and social organization like that of the city of Rome. It had its own +local chief magistrates, distinguished by their official robes and +insignia of office, and its senators, who enjoyed the privilege of +occupying special seats in the theatre, and it was natural that the common +people at Ostia, Ariminum, or Lugudunum, like those at Rome, should expect +from those whom fortune had favored some return for the distinctions which +they enjoyed. In this way the prosperous in each little town came to feel +a sense of obligation to their native place, and this feeling of civic +pride and responsibility was strengthened by the same spirit of rivalry +between different villages that the Italian towns of the Middle Ages seem +to have inherited from their ancestors, a spirit of rivalry which made +each one eager to surpass the others in its beauty and attractiveness. +Perhaps there have never been so many beautiful towns in any other period +in history as there were in the Roman Empire, during the second century of +our era, and their attractive features--their colonnades, temples, +fountains, and works of art--were due in large measure to the generosity +of private citizens. We can make this statement with considerable +confidence, because these benefactions are recorded for us on innumerable +tablets of stone and bronze, scattered throughout the Empire. + +These contributions not only helped to meet the cost of building temples, +colonnades, and other structures, but they were often intended to cover a +part of the running expenses of the city. This is one of the novel +features of Roman municipal life. We can understand the motives which +would lead a citizen of New York or Boston to build a museum or an arch in +his native city. Such a structure would serve as a monument to him; it +would give distinction to the city, and it would give him and his fellow +citizens aesthetic satisfaction tion But if a rich New Yorker should give +a large sum to mend the pavement in Union Square or extend the sewer +system on Canal Street, a judicial inquiry into his sanity would not be +thought out of place. But the inscriptions show us that rich citizens +throughout the Roman Empire frequently made large contributions for just +such unromantic purposes. It is unfortunate that a record of the annual +income and expenses of some Italian or Gallic town has not come down to +us. It would be interesting, for instance, to compare the budget of Mantua +or Ancona, in the first century of our era, with that of Princeton or +Cambridge in the twentieth. But, although we rarely know the sums which +were expended for particular purposes, a mere comparison of the objects +for which they were spent is illuminating. The items in the ancient budget +which find no place in our own, and vice versa, are significant of certain +striking differences between ancient and modern municipal life. + +Common to the ancient and the modern city are expenditures for the +construction and maintenance of public buildings, sewers, aqueducts, and +streets, but with these items the parallelism ends. The ancient objects +of expenditure which find no place in the budget of an American town are +the repair of the town walls, the maintenance of public worship, the +support of the baths, the sale of grain at a low price, and the giving of +games and theatrical performances. It is very clear that the ancient +legislator made certain provisions for the physical and spiritual welfare +of his fellow citizens which find little or no place in our municipal +arrangements to-day. If, among the sums spent for the various objects +mentioned above, we compare the amounts set apart for religion and for the +baths, we may come to the conclusion that the Roman read the old saying, +"Cleanliness is next to godliness" in the amended form "Cleanliness is +next above godliness." No city in the Empire seems to have been too small +or too poor to possess public baths, and how large an item of annual +expense their care was is clear from the fact that an article of the +Theodosian code provided that cities should spend at least one-third of +their incomes on the heating of the baths and the repair of the walls. The +great idle population of the city of Rome had to be provided with food at +public expense. Otherwise riot and disorder would have followed, but in +the towns the situation was not so threatening, and probably furnishing +grain to the people did not constitute a regular item of expense. So far +as public entertainments were concerned, the remains of theatres and +amphitheatres in Pompeii, Fiesole, Aries, Orange, and at many other places +to-day furnish us visible evidence of the large sums which ancient towns +must have spent on plays and gladiatorial games. In the city of Rome in +the fourth century, there were one hundred and seventy-five days on which +performances were given in the theatres, arenas, and amphitheatres. + +We have been looking at the items which were peculiar to the ancient +budget. Those which are missing from it are still more indicative, if +possible, of differences between Roman character and modes of life and +those of to-day. Provision was rarely made for schools, museums, +libraries, hospitals, almshouses, or for the lighting of streets. No +salaries were paid to city officials; no expenditure was made for police +or for protection against fire, and the slaves whom every town owned +probably took care of the public buildings and kept the streets clean. +The failure of the ancient city government to provide for educational and +charitable institutions, means, as we shall see later, that in some cases +these matters were neglected, that in others they were left to private +enterprise. It appears strange that the admirable police and fire system +which Augustus introduced into Rome was not adopted throughout the Empire, +but that does not seem to have been the case, and life and property must +have been exposed to great risks, especially on festival days and in the +unlighted streets at night. The rich man could be protected by his +bodyguard of clients, and have his way lighted at night by the torches +which his slaves carried, but the little shopkeeper must have avoided the +dark alleys or attached himself to the retinue of some powerful man. Some +of us will recall in this connection the famous wall painting at Pompeii +which depicts the riotous contest between the Pompeians and the people of +the neighboring town of Nuceria, at the Pompeian gladiatorial games in 50 +B.C., when stones were thrown and weapons freely used. What scenes of +violence and disorder there must have been on such occasions as these, +without systematic police surveillance, can be readily imagined. + +The sums of money which an ancient or a modern city spends fall in two +categories--the amounts which are paid out for permanent improvements, and +the running expenses of the municipality. We have just been looking at the +second class of expenditures, and our brief examination of it shows +clearly enough that the ancient city took upon its shoulders only a small +part of the burden which a modern municipality assumes. It will be +interesting now to see how far the municipal outlay for running expenses +was supplemented by private generosity, and to find out the extent to +which the cities were indebted to the same source for their permanent +improvements. A great deal of light is thrown on these two questions by +the hundreds of stone and bronze tablets which were set up by donors +themselves or by grateful cities to commemorate the gifts made to them. +The responsibility which the rich Roman felt to spend his money for the +public good was unequivocally stated by the poet Martial in one of his +epigrams toward the close of the first century of our era. The speaker in +the poem tells his friend Pastor why he is striving to be rich--not that +he may have broad estates, rich appointments, fine wines, or troops of +slaves, but "that he may give and build for the public good" ("ut donem, +Pastor, et aedificem"), and this feeling of stewardship found expression in +a steady outpouring of gifts in the interests of the people. + +The practice of giving may well have started with the town officials. We +have already noticed that in Rome, under the Republic, candidates for +office, in seeking votes, and magistrates, in return for the honors paid +them, not infrequently spent large sums on the people. In course of time, +in the towns throughout the Empire this voluntary practice became a legal +obligation resting on local officials. This fact is brought out in the +municipal charter of Urso,[95] the modern Osuna, in Spain. Half of this +document, engraved on tablets, was discovered in Spain about forty years +ago, and makes a very interesting contribution to our knowledge of +municipal life. A colony was sent out to Urso, in 44 B.C., by Julius +Caesar, under the care of Mark Antony, and the municipal constitution of +the colony was drawn up by one of these two men. In the seventieth +article, we read of the duumvirs, who were the chief magistrates: "Whoever +shall be duumvirs, with the exception of those who shall have first been +elected after the passage of this law, let the aforesaid during their +magistracy give a public entertainment or plays in honor of the gods and +goddesses Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, for four days, during the greater +part of the day, so far as it may be done, at the discretion of the common +councillors, and on these games and this entertainment let each one of +them spend from his own money not less than two thousand sesterces." The +article which follows in the document provides that the aediles, or the +officials next in rank, shall give gladiatorial games and plays for three +days, and one day of races in the circus, and for these entertainments +they also must spend not less than two thousand sesterces. + +Here we see the modern practice reversed. City officials, instead of +receiving a salary for their services, not only serve without pay, but are +actually required by law to make a public contribution. It will be noticed +that the law specified the minimum sum which a magistrate _must_ spend. +The people put no limit on what he _might_ spend, and probably most of the +duumvirs of Urso gave more than $80, or, making allowance for the +difference in the purchasing value of money, $250, for the entertainment +of the people. In fact a great many honorary inscriptions from other towns +tell us of officials who made generous additions to the sum required by +law. So far as their purpose and results go, these expenditures may be +compared with the "campaign contributions" made by candidates for office +in this country. There is a strange likeness and unlikeness between the +two. The modern politician makes his contribution before the election, the +ancient politician after it. In our day the money is expended largely to +provide for public meetings where the questions of the day shall be +discussed. In Roman times it was spent upon public improvements, and upon +plays, dinners, and gladiatorial games. Among us public sentiment is +averse to the expenditure of large sums to secure an election. The Romans +desired and expected it, and those who were open-handed in this matter +took care to have a record of their gifts set down where it could be read +by all men. + +On general grounds we should expect our system to have a better effect on +the intelligence and character of the people, and to secure better +officials. The discussion of public questions, even in a partisan way, +brings them to the attention of the people, sets the people thinking, and +helps to educate voters on political and economic matters. If we may draw +an inference from the election posters in Pompeii, such subjects played a +small part in a city election under the Empire. It must have been +demoralizing, too, to a Pompeian or a citizen of Salona to vote for a +candidate, not because he would make the most honest and able duumvir or +aedile among the men canvassing for the office, but because he had the +longest purse. How our sense of propriety would be shocked if the newly +elected mayor of Hartford or Montclair should give a gala performance in +the local theatre to his fellow-citizens or pay for a free exhibition by a +circus troupe! But perhaps we should overcome our scruples and go, as the +people of Pompeii did, and perhaps our consciences would be completely +salved if the aforesaid mayor proceeded to lay a new pavement in Main +Street, to erect a fountain on the Green, or stucco the city hall. +Naturally only rich men could be elected to office in Roman towns, and in +this respect the same advantages and disadvantages attach to the Roman +system as we find in the practice which the English have followed up to +the present time of paying no salary to members of the House of Commons, +and in our own practice of letting our ambassadors meet a large part of +their legitimate expenses. + +The large gifts made to their native towns by rich men elected to public +office set an example which private citizens of means followed in an +extraordinary way. Sometimes they gave statues, or baths, or fountains, or +porticos, and sometimes they provided for games, or plays, or dinners, or +lottery tickets. Perhaps nothing can convey to our minds so clear an +impression of the motives of the donors, the variety and number of the +gifts, and their probable effect on the character of the people as to read +two or three specimens of these dedicatory inscriptions. The citizens of +Lanuvium, near Rome, set up a monument in honor of a certain Valerius, +"because he cleaned out and restored the water courses for a distance of +three miles, put the pipes in position again, and restored the two baths +for men and the bath for women, all at his own expense."[96] A citizen of +Sinuessa leaves this record: "Lucius Papius Pollio, the duumvir, to his +father, Lucius Papius. Cakes and mead to all the citizens of Sinuessa and +Caedici; gladiatorial games and a dinner for the people of Sinuessa and the +Papian clan; a monument at a cost of 12,000 sesterces."[97] Such a +catholic provision to suit all tastes should certainly have served to keep +his father from being forgotten. A citizen of Beneventum lays claim to +distinction because "he first scattered tickets among the people by means +of which he distributed gold, silver, bronze, linen garments, and other +things."[98] The people of Telesia, a little town in Campania, pay this +tribute to their distinguished patron: "To Titus Fabius Severus, patron of +the town, for his services at home and abroad, and because he, first of +all those who have instituted games, gave at his own expense five wild +beasts from Africa, a company of gladiators, and a splendid equipment, +the senate and citizens have most gladly granted a statue."[99] The office +of patron was a characteristic Roman institution. Cities and villages +elected to this position some distinguished Roman senator or knight, and +he looked out for the interests of the community in legal matters and +otherwise. + +This distinction was held in high esteem, and recipients of it often +testified their appreciation by generous gifts to the town which they +represented, or were chosen patrons because of their benefactions. This +fact is illustrated in the following inscription from Spoletium: "Gaius +Torasius Severus, the son of Gaius, of the Horatian tribe, quattuorvir +with judicial power, augur, in his own name, and in the name of his son +Publius Meclonius Proculus Torasianus, the pontiff, erected (this) on his +land (?) and at his own expense. He also gave the people 250,000 sesterces +to celebrate his son's birthday, from the income of which each year, on +the third day before the Kalends of September, the members of the Common +Council are to dine in public, and each citizen who is present is to +receive eight _asses_. He also gave to the seviri Augustales, and to the +priests of the Lares, and to the overseers of the city wards, 120,000 +sesterces, in order that from the income of this sum they might have a +public dinner on the same day. Him, for his services to the community, the +senate has chosen patron of the town."[100] A town commonly showed its +appreciation of what had been done for it by setting up a statue in honor +of its benefactor, as was done in the case of Fabius Severus, and the +public squares of Italian and provincial towns must have been adorned with +many works of art of this sort. It amuses one to find at the bottom of +some of the commemorative tablets attached to these statues, the statement +that the man distinguished in this way, "contented with the honor, has +himself defrayed the cost of the monument." To pay for a popular +testimonial to one's generosity is indeed generosity in its perfect form. +The statues themselves have disappeared along with the towns which erected +them, but the tablets remain, and by a strange dispensation of fate the +monument which a town has set up to perpetuate the memory of one of its +citizens is sometimes the only record we have of the town's own existence. + +The motives which actuated the giver were of a mixed character, as these +memorials indicate. Sometimes it was desire for the applause of his fellow +citizens, or for posthumous fame, which influenced a donor; sometimes +civic pride and affection. In many cases it was the compelling force of +custom, backed up now and then, as we can see from the inscriptions, by +the urgent demands of the populace. Out of this last sentiment there would +naturally grow a sense of the obligation imposed by the possession of +wealth, and this feeling is closely allied to pure generosity. In fact, it +would probably be wrong not to count this among the original motives which +actuated men in making their gifts, because the spirit of devotion to the +state and to the community was a marked characteristic of Romans in the +republican period. + +The effects which this practice of giving had on municipal life and on the +character of the people are not without importance and interest. The +lavish expenditure expected of a magistrate and the ever-increasing +financial obligations laid upon him by the central government made +municipal offices such an intolerable burden that the charter of Urso of +the first century A.D., which has been mentioned above, has to resort to +various ingenious devices to compel men to hold them. The position of a +member of a town council was still worse. He was not only expected to +contribute generously to the embellishment and support of his native city, +but he was also held responsible for the collection of the imperial taxes. +As prosperity declined he found this an increasingly difficult thing to +do, and seats in the local senate were undesirable. The central government +could not allow the men responsible for its revenues to escape their +responsibility. Consequently, it interposed and forced them to accept the +honor. Some of them enlisted in the army, or even fled into the desert, +but whenever they were found they were brought back to take up their +positions again. In the fourth century, service in the common council was +even made a penalty imposed upon criminals. Finally, it became hereditary, +and it is an amusing but pathetic thing to find that this honor, so highly +prized in the early period, became in the end a form of serfdom. + +We have been looking at the effects of private generosity on official +life. Its results for the private citizen are not so clear, but it must +have contributed to that decline of independence and of personal +responsibility which is so marked a feature of the later Empire. The +masses contributed little, if anything, to the running expenses of +government and the improvement of the city. The burdens fell largely upon +the rich. It was a system of quasi-socialism. Those who had, provided for +those who had not--not merely markets and temples, and colonnades, and +baths, but oil for the baths, games, plays, and gratuities of money. Since +their needs were largely met by others, the people lost more and more the +habit of providing for themselves and the ability to do so. When +prosperity declined, and the wealthy could no more assist them, the end +came. + +The objects for which donors gave their money seem to prove the +essentially materialistic character of Roman civilization, because we must +assume that those who gave knew the tastes of the people. Sometimes men +like Pliny the Younger gave money for libraries or schools, but such gifts +seem to have been relatively infrequent. Benefactions are commonly +intended to satisfy the material needs or gratify the desire of the +people for pleasure. + +Under the old regime charity was unknown. There were neither almshouses +nor hospitals, and scholars have called attention to the fact that even +the doles of corn which the state gave were granted to citizens only. Mere +residents or strangers were left altogether out of consideration, and they +were rarely included within the scope of private benevolence. In the +following chapter, in discussing the trades-guilds, we shall see that even +they made no provision for the widow or orphan, or for their sick or +disabled members. It was not until Christianity came that the poor and the +needy were helped because of their poverty and need. + + + + +Some Reflections on Corporations and Trades-Guilds + + +In a recent paper on "Ancient and Modern Imperialism," read before the +British Classical Association, Lord Cromer, England's late consul-general +in Egypt, notes certain points of resemblance between the English and the +Roman methods of dealing with alien peoples. With the Greeks no such +points of contact exist, because, as he remarks, "not only was the +imperial idea foreign to the Greek mind; the federal conception was +equally strange." This similarity between the political character and +methods of the Romans and Anglo-Saxons strikes any one who reads the +history of the two peoples side by side. They show the same genius for +government at home, and a like success in conquering and holding foreign +lands, and in assimilating alien peoples. Certain qualities which they +have in common contribute to these like results. Both the Roman and the +Anglo-Saxon have been men of affairs; both have shown great skill in +adapting means to an end, and each has driven straight at the immediate +object to be accomplished without paying much heed to logic or political +theory. A Roman statesman would have said "Amen!" to the Englishman's +pious hope that "his countrymen might never become consistent or logical +in politics." Perhaps the willingness of the average Roman to co-operate +with his fellows, and his skill in forming an organization suitable for +the purpose in hand, go farther than any of the other qualities mentioned +above to account for his success in governing other peoples as well as his +own nation. + +Our recognition of these striking points of resemblance between the Romans +and ourselves has come from a comparative study of the political life of +the two peoples. But the likeness to each other of the Romans and +Anglo-Saxons, especially in the matter of associating themselves together +for a common object, is still more apparent in their methods of dealing +with private affairs. A characteristic and amusing illustration of the +working of this tendency among the Romans is furnished by the early +history of monasticism in the Roman world. When the Oriental Christian +had convinced himself of the vanity of the world, he said: "It is the +weakness of the flesh and the enticements of the wicked which tempt me to +sin. Therefore I will withdraw from the world and mortify the flesh." This +is the spirit which drove him into the desert or the mountains, to live in +a cave with a lion or a wolf for his sole companion. This is the spirit +which took St. Anthony into a solitary place in Egypt. It led St. Simeon +Stylites to secure a more perfect sense of aloofness from the world, and a +greater security from contact with it by spending the last thirty years of +his life on the top of a pillar near Antioch. In the Western world, which +was thoroughly imbued with the Roman spirit, the Christian who held the +same view as his Eastern brother of the evil results flowing from +intercourse with his fellow men, also withdrew from the world, but he +withdrew in the company of a group of men who shared his opinions on the +efficacy of a life of solitude. A delightful instance of the triumph of +the principle of association over logic or theory! We Americans can +understand perfectly the compelling force of the principle, even in such a +case as this, and we should justify the Roman's action on the score of +practical common sense. We have organizations for almost every conceivable +political, social, literary, and economic purpose. In fact, it would be +hard to mention an object for which it would not be possible to organize a +club, a society, a league, a guild, or a union. In a similar way the +Romans had organizations of capitalists and laborers, religious +associations, political and social clubs, and leagues of veterans. + +So far as organizations of capitalists are concerned, their history is +closely bound up with that of imperialism. They come to our notice for the +first time during the wars with Carthage, when Rome made her earliest +acquisitions outside of Italy. In his account of the campaigns in Spain +against Hannibal's lieutenants, Livy tells us[101] of the great straits to +which the Roman army was reduced for its pay, food, and clothing. The need +was urgent, but the treasury was empty, and the people poverty-stricken. +In this emergency the praetor called a public meeting, laid before it the +situation in Spain, and, appealing to the joint-stock companies to come to +the relief of the state, appointed a day when proposals could be made to +furnish what was required by the army. On the appointed day three +_societates_, or corporations, offered to make the necessary loans to the +government; their offers were accepted, and the needs of the army were +met. The transaction reminds us of similar emergencies in our civil war, +when syndicates of bankers came to the support of the government. The +present-day tendency to question the motives of all corporations dealing +with the government does not seem to color Livy's interpretation of the +incident, for he cites it in proof of the patriotic spirit which ran +through all classes in the face of the struggle with Carthage. The +appearance of the joint-stock company at the moment when the policy of +territorial expansion is coming to the front is significant of the close +connection which existed later between imperialism and corporate finance, +but the later relations of corporations to the public interests cannot +always be interpreted in so charitable a fashion. + +Our public-service companies find no counter-part in antiquity, but the +Roman societies for the collection of taxes bear a resemblance to these +modern organizations of capital in the nature of the franchises, as we +may call them, and the special privileges which they had. The practice +which the Roman government followed of letting out to the highest bidder +the privilege of collecting the taxes in each of the provinces, naturally +gave a great impetus to the development of companies organized for this +purpose. Every new province added to the Empire opened a fresh field for +capitalistic enterprise, in the way not only of farming the taxes, but +also of loaning money, constructing public works, and leasing the mines +belonging to the state, and Roman politicians must have felt these +financial considerations steadily pushing them on to further conquests. + +But the interest of the companies did not end when Roman eagles had been +planted in a new region. It was necessary to have the provincial +government so managed as to help the agents of the companies in making as +much money as possible out of the provincials, and Cicero's year as +governor of Cilicia was made almost intolerable by the exactions which +these agents practised on the Cilicians, and the pressure which they +brought to bear upon him and his subordinates. His letters to his intimate +friend, Atticus, during this period contain pathetic accounts of the +embarrassing situations in which loaning companies and individual +capitalists at Rome placed him. On one occasion a certain Scaptius came to +him[102], armed with a strong letter of recommendation from the impeccable +Brutus, and asked to be appointed prefect of Cyprus. His purpose was, by +official pressure, to squeeze out of the people of Salamis, in Cyprus, a +debt which they owed, running at forty-eight per cent interest. Upon +making some inquiry into the previous history of Scaptius, Cicero learned +that under his predecessor in Cilicia, this same Scaptius had secured an +appointment as prefect of Cyprus, and backed by his official power, to +collect money due his company, had shut up the members of the Salaminian +common council in their town hall until five of them died of starvation. +In domestic politics the companies played an equally important role. The +relations which existed between the "interests" and political leaders were +as close in ancient times as they are to-day, and corporations were as +unpartisan in Rome in their political alliances as they are in the United +States. They impartially supported the democratic platforms of Gaius +Gracchus and Julius Caesar in return for valuable concessions, and backed +the candidacy of the constitutionalist Pompey for the position of +commander-in-chief of the fleets and armies acting against the Eastern +pirates, and against Mithridates, in like expectation of substantial +returns for their help. What gave the companies their influence at the +polls was the fact that their shares were very widely held by voters. +Polybius, the Greek historian, writing of conditions at Rome in the second +century B.C., gives us to understand that almost every citizen owned +shares in some joint-stock company[103]. Poor crops in Sicily, heavy rains +in Sardinia, an uprising in Gaul, or "a strike" in the Spanish mines would +touch the pocket of every middle-class Roman. + +In these circumstances it is hard to see how the Roman got on without +stock quotations in the newspapers. But Caesar's publication of the _Acta +Diurna_, or proceedings of the senate and assembly, would take the place +of our newspapers in some respects, and the crowds which gathered at the +points where these documents were posted, would remind us of the throngs +collected in front of the bulletin in the window of a newspaper office +when some exciting event has occurred. Couriers were constantly arriving +from the agents of corporations in Gaul, Spain, Africa, and Asia with the +latest news of industrial and financial enterprises in all these sections. +What a scurrying of feet there must have been through the streets when the +first news reached Rome of the insurrection of the proletariat in Asia in +88 B.C., and of the proclamation of Mithridates guaranteeing release from +half of their obligations to all debtors who should kill money-lenders! +Asiatic stocks must have dropped almost to the zero point. We find no +evidence of the existence of an organized stock exchange. Perhaps none was +necessary, because the shares of stock do not seem to have been +transferable, but other financial business arising out of the organization +of these companies, like the loaning of money on stock, could be +transacted reasonably well in the row of banking offices which ran along +one side of the Forum, and made it an ancient Wall Street or Lombard +Street. + +"Trusts" founded to control prices troubled the Romans, as they trouble +us to-day. There is an amusing reference to one of these trade +combinations as early as the third century before our era in the Captives +of Plautus.[104] The parasite in the play has been using his best quips +and his most effective leads to get an invitation to dinner, but he can't +provoke a smile, to say nothing of extracting an invitation. In a high +state of indignation he threatens to prosecute the men who avoid being his +hosts for entering into an unlawful combination like that of "the oil +dealers in the Velabrum." Incidentally it is a rather interesting +historical coincidence that the pioneer monopoly in Rome, as in our day, +was an oil trust--in the time of Plautus, of course, an olive-oil trust. +In the "Trickster," which was presented in 191 B.C., a character refers to +the mountains of grain which the dealers had in their warehouses.[105] Two +years later the "corner" had become so effective that the government +intervened, and the curule aediles who had charge of the markets imposed a +heavy fine on the grain speculators.[106] The case was apparently +prosecuted under the Laws of the Twelve Tables of 450 B.C., the Magna +Charta of Roman liberty. It would seem, therefore, that combinations in +restraint of trade were formed at a very early date in Rome, and perhaps +Diocletian's attempt in the third century of our era to lower the cost of +living by fixing the prices of all sorts of commodities was aimed in part +at the same evil. As for government ownership, the Roman state made one or +two essays in this field, notably in the case of mines, but with +indifferent success. + +Labor was as completely organized as capital.[107] In fact the passion of +the Romans for association shows itself even more clearly here, and it +would be possible to write their industrial history from a study of their +trades-unions. The story of Rome carries the founding of these guilds back +to the early days of the regal period. From the investigations of +Waltzing, Liebenam, and others their history can be made out in +considerable detail. Roman tradition was delightfully systematic in +assigning the founding of one set of institutions to one king and of +another group to another king. Romulus, for instance, is the war king, and +concerns himself with military and political institutions. The second +king, Numa, is a man of peace, and is occupied throughout his reign with +the social and religious organization of his people. It was Numa who +established guilds of carpenters, dyers, shoemakers, tanners, workers in +copper and gold, fluteplayers, and potters. The critical historian looks +with a sceptical eye on the story of the kings, and yet this list of +trades is just what we should expect to find in primitive Rome. There are +no bakers or weavers, for instance, in the list. We know that in our own +colonial days the baking, spinning, and weaving were done at home, as they +would naturally have been when Rome was a community of shepherds and +farmers. As Roman civilization became more complex, industrial +specialization developed, and the number of guilds grew, but during the +Republic we cannot trace their growth very successfully for lack of +information about them. Corporations, as we have seen, played an +important part in politics, and their doings are chronicled in the +literature, like oratory and history, which deals with public questions, +but the trades-guilds had little share in politics; they were made up of +the obscure and weak, and consequently are rarely mentioned in the +writings of a Cicero or a Livy. + +It is only when the general passion for setting down records of all sorts +of enterprises and incidents on imperishable materials came in with the +Empire that the story of the Roman trades-union can be clearly followed. +It is a fortunate thing for us that this mania swept through the Roman +Empire, because it has given us some twenty-five hundred inscriptions +dealing with these organizations of workmen. These inscriptions disclose +the fact that there were more than eighty different trades organized into +guilds in the city of Rome alone. They included skilled and unskilled +laborers, from the porters, or _saccarii_, to the goldsmiths, or +_aurifices_. The names of some of them, like the _pastillarii_, or guild +of pastile-makers, and the _scabillarii_, or castanet-players, indicate a +high degree of industrial specialization. From one man's tombstone even +the conclusion seems to follow that he belonged to a union of what we may +perhaps call checker-board makers. The merchants formed trade associations +freely. Dealers in oil, in wine, in fish, and in grain are found organized +all over the Empire. Even the perfumers, hay-dealers, and ragmen had their +societies. No line of distinction seems to be drawn between the artist and +the artisan. The mason and the sculptor were classed in the same category +by Roman writers, so that we are not surprised to find unions of men in +both occupations. A curious distinction between the professions is also +brought out by these guild inscriptions. There are unions made up of +physicians, but none of lawyers, for the lawyer in early times was +supposed to receive no remuneration for his services. In point of fact the +physician was on a lower social plane in Rome than he was even among our +ancestors. The profession was followed almost exclusively by Greek +freedmen, as we can see from the records on their tombstones, and was +highly specialized, if we may judge from the epitaphs of eye and ear +doctors, surgeons, dentists, and veterinarians. To the same category with +the physician and sculptor belong the architect, the teacher, and the +chemist. Men of these professions pursued the _artes liberales_, as the +Romans put it, and constituted an aristocracy among those engaged in the +trades or lower professions. Below them in the hierarchy came those who +gained a livelihood by the _artes ludicrae_, like the actor, professional +dancer, juggler, or gladiator, and in the lowest caste were the +carpenters, weavers, and other artisans whose occupations were _artes +vulgares et sordidae_. + +In the early part of this chapter the tendency of the Romans to form +voluntary associations was noted as a national characteristic. This fact +comes out very clearly if we compare the number of trades-unions in the +Western world with those in Greece and the Orient. Our conclusions must be +drawn of course from the extant inscriptions which refer to guilds, and +time may have dealt more harshly with the stones in one place than in +another, or the Roman government may have given its consent to the +establishment of such organizations with more reluctance in one province +than another; but, taking into account the fact that we have guild +inscriptions from four hundred and seventy-five towns and villages in the +Empire, these elements of uncertainty in our conclusions are practically +eliminated, and a fair comparison may be drawn between conditions in the +East and the West. If we pick out some of the more important towns in the +Greek part of the Roman world, we find five guilds reported from Tralles +in Caria, six from Smyrna, one from Alexandria, and eleven from Hierapolis +in Phrygia. On the other hand, in the city of Rome there were more than +one hundred, in Brixia (modern Brescia) seventeen or more, in Lugudunum +(Lyons) twenty at least, and in Canabae, in the province of Dacia, five. +These figures, taken at random for some of the larger towns in different +parts of the Empire, bring out the fact very clearly that the western and +northern provinces readily accepted Roman ideas and showed the Roman +spirit, as illustrated in their ability and willingness to co-operate for +a common purpose, but that the Greek East was never Romanized. Even in the +settlements in Dacia, which continued under Roman rule only from 107 to +270 A.D., we find as many trades-unions as existed in Greek towns which +were held by the Romans for three or four centuries. The comparative +number of guilds and of guild inscriptions would, in fact, furnish us +with a rough test of the extent to which Rome impressed her civilization +on different parts of the Empire, even if we had no other criteria. We +should know, for instance, that less progress had been made in Britain +than in Southern Gaul, that Salona in Dalmatia, Lugudunum in Gaul, and +Mogontiacum (Mainz) in Germany were important centres of Roman +civilization. It is, of course, possible from a study of these +inscriptions to make out the most flourishing industries in the several +towns, but with that we are not concerned here. + +These guilds which we have been considering were trades-unions in the +sense that they were organizations made up of men working in the same +trade, but they differed from modern unions, and also from mediaeval +guilds, in the objects for which they were formed. They made no attempt to +raise wages, to improve working conditions, to limit the number of +apprentices, to develop skill and artistic taste in the craft, or to +better the social or political position of the laborer. It was the need +which their members felt for companionship, sympathy, and help in the +emergencies of life, and the desire to give more meaning to their lives, +that drew them together. These motives explain the provisions made for +social gatherings, and for the burial of members, which were the +characteristic features of most of the organizations. It is the social +side, for instance, which is indicated on a tombstone, found in a little +town of central Italy. After giving the name of the deceased, it reads: +"He bequeathed to his guild, the rag-dealers, a thousand sesterces, from +the income of which each year, on the festival of the Parentalia, not less +than twelve men shall dine at his tomb."[108] Another in northern Italy +reads: "To Publius Etereius Quadratus, the son of Publius, of the _Tribus +Quirina_, Etereia Aristolais, his mother, has set up a statue, at whose +dedication she gave the customary banquet to the union of rag-dealers, and +also a sum of money, from the income of which annually, from this time +forth, on the birthday of Quadratus, April 9, where his remains have been +laid, they should make a sacrifice, and should hold the customary banquet +in the temple, and should bring roses in their season and cover and crown +the statue; which thing they have undertaken to do."[109] The menu of one +of these dinners given in Dacia[110] has come down to us. It includes lamb +and pork, bread, salad, onions, and two kinds of wine. The cost of the +entertainment amounted to one hundred and sixty-nine _denarii_, or about +twenty-seven dollars, a sum which would probably have a purchasing value +to-day of from three to four times that amount. + +The "temple" or chapel referred to in these inscriptions was usually +semicircular, and may have served as a model for the Christian oratories. +The building usually stood in a little grove, and, with its accommodations +for official meetings and dinners, served the same purpose as a modern +club-house. Besides the special gatherings for which some deceased member +or some rich patron provided, the guild met at fixed times during the year +to dine or for other social purposes. The income of the society, which was +made up of the initiation fees and monthly dues of the members, and of +donations, was supplemented now and then by a system of fines. At least, +in an African inscription we read: "In the Curia of Jove. Done November +27, in the consulship of Maternus and Atticus.... If any one shall wish to +be a flamen, he shall give three amphorae of wine, besides bread and salt +and provisions. If any one shall wish to be a magister, he shall give two +amphorae of wine.... If any one shall have spoken disrespectfully to a +flamen, or laid hands upon him, he shall pay two denarii.... If any one +shall have gone to fetch wine, and shall have made away with it, he shall +give double the amount."[111] + +The provision which burial societies made for their members is illustrated +by the following epitaph: + +"To the shade of Gaius Julius Filetio, born in Africa, a physician, who +lived thirty-five years. Gaius Julius Filetus and Julia Euthenia, his +parents, have erected it to their very dear son. Also to Julius +Athenodorus, his brother, who lived thirty-five years. Euthenia set it up. +He has been placed here, to whose burial the guild of rag-dealers has +contributed three hundred denarii."[112] People of all ages have craved a +respectable burial, and the pathetic picture which Horace gives us in one +of his Satires of the fate which befell the poor and friendless at the +end of life, may well have led men of that class to make provisions which +would protect them from such an experience, and it was not an unnatural +thing for these organizations to be made up of men working in the same +trade. The statutes of several guilds have come down to us. One found at +Lanuvium has articles dealing particularly with burial regulations. They +read in part:[113] + +"It has pleased the members, that whoever shall wish to join this guild +shall pay an initiation fee of one hundred sesterces, and an amphora of +good wine, as well as five _asses_ a month. Voted likewise, that if any +man shall not have paid his dues for six consecutive months, and if the +lot common to all men has befallen him, his claim to a burial shall not be +considered, even if he shall have so stipulated in his will. Voted +likewise, that if any man from this body of ours, having paid his dues, +shall depart, there shall come to him from the treasury three hundred +sesterces, from which sum fifty sesterces, which shall be divided at the +funeral pyre, shall go for the funeral rites. Furthermore, the obsequies +shall be performed on foot." + +Besides the need of comradeship, and the desire to provide for a +respectable burial, we can see another motive which brought the weak and +lowly together in these associations. They were oppressed by the sense of +their own insignificance in society, and by the pitifully small part which +they played in the affairs of the world. But if they could establish a +society of their own, with concerns peculiar to itself which they would +administer, and if they could create positions of honor and importance in +this organization, even the lowliest man in Rome would have a chance to +satisfy that craving to exercise power over others which all of us feel, +to hold titles and distinctions, and to wear the insignia of office and +rank. This motive worked itself out in the establishment of a complete +hierarchy of offices, as we saw in part in an African inscription given +above. The Roman state was reproduced in miniature in these societies, +with their popular assemblies, and their officials, who bore the honorable +titles of quaestor, curator, praetor, aedile, and so forth. + +To read these twenty-five hundred or more inscriptions from all parts of +the Empire brings us close to the heart of the common people. We see +their little ambitions, their jealousies, their fears, their gratitude for +kindness, their own kindliness, and their loyalty to their fellows. All of +them are anxious to be remembered after death, and provide, when they can +do so, for the celebration of their birthdays by members of the +association. A guild inscription in Latium, for instance, reads:[114] +"Jan. 6, birthday of Publius Claudius Veratius Abascantianus, [who has +contributed] 6,000 sesterces, [paying an annual interest of] 180 denarii." +"Jan. 25, birthday of Gargilius Felix, [who has contributed] 2,000 +sesterces, [paying an annual interest of] 60 denarii," and so on through +the twelve months of the year. + +It is not entirely clear why the guilds never tried to bring pressure to +bear on their employers to raise wages, or to improve their position by +means of the strike, or by other methods with which we are familiar +to-day. Perhaps the difference between the ancient and modern methods of +manufacture helps us to understand this fact. In modern times most +articles can be made much more cheaply by machinery than by hand, and the +use of water-power, of steam, and of electricity, and the invention of +elaborate machines, has led us to bring together a great many workmen +under one roof or in one factory. The men who are thus employed in a +single establishment work under common conditions, suffer the same +disadvantages, and are brought into such close relations with one another +that common action to improve their lot is natural. In ancient times, as +may be seen in the chapter on Diocletian's edict, machinery was almost +unknown, and artisans worked singly in their own homes or in the houses of +their employers, so that joint action to improve their condition would +hardly be expected. + +Another factor which should probably be taken into account is the +influence of slavery. This institution did not play the important role +under the Empire in depressing the free laborer which it is often supposed +to have played, because it was steadily dying out; but an employer could +always have recourse to slave labor to a limited extent, and the +struggling freedmen who had just come up from slavery were not likely to +urge very strongly their claims for consideration. + +In this connection it is interesting to recall the fact that before +slavery got a foothold in Rome, the masses in their struggle with the +classes used what we think of to-day as the most modern weapon employed in +industrial warfare. We can all remember the intense interest with which we +watched the novel experience which St. Petersburg underwent some six years +ago, when the general strike was instituted. And yet, if we accept +tradition, that method of bringing the government and society to terms was +used twice by the Roman proletariat over two thousand years ago. The +plebeians, so the story goes, unable to get their economic and political +rights, stopped work and withdrew from the city to the Sacred Mount. Their +abstention from labor did not mean the going out of street lamps, the +suspension of street-car traffic, and the closing of factories and shops, +but, besides the loss of fighting men, it meant that no more shoes could +be had, no more carpentry work done, and no more wine-jars made until +concessions should be granted. But, having slaves to compete with it, and +with conditions which made organization difficult, free labor could not +hope to rise, and the unions could take no serious step toward the +improvement of the condition of their members. The feeling of security on +this score which society had, warranted the government in allowing even +its own employees to organize, and we find unions of government clerks, +messengers, and others. The Roman government was, therefore, never called +upon to solve the grave political and economic questions which France and +Italy have had to face in late years in the threatened strikes of the +state railway and postal employees. + +We have just been noticing how the ancient differed from the modern +trades-union in the objects which it sought to obtain. The religious +character which it took seems equally strange to us at first sight. Every +guild put itself under the protection of some deity and was closely +associated with a cult. Silvanus, the god of the woods, was a natural +favorite with the carpenters, Father Bacchus with the innkeepers, Vesta +with the bakers, and Diana with those who hunted wild animals for the +circus. The reason for the choice of certain other divine patrons is not +so clear. Why the cabmen of Tibur, for instance, picked out Hercules as +their tutelary deity, unless, like Horace in his Satires, the ancient +cabman thought of him as the god of treasure-trove, and, therefore, +likely to inspire the giving of generous tips, we cannot guess. The +religious side of Roman trade associations will not surprise us when we +recall the strong religious bent of the Roman character, and when we +remember that no body of Romans would have thought of forming any kind of +an organization without securing the sanction and protection of the gods. +The family, the clan, the state all had their protecting deities, to whom +appropriate rites were paid on stated occasions. Speaking of the religious +side of these trade organizations naturally reminds one of the religious +associations which sprang up in such large numbers toward the end of the +republican period and under the Empire. They lie outside the scope of this +chapter, but, in the light of the issue which has arisen in recent years +between religious associations and the governments of Italy, France, +Spain, and Portugal, it is interesting to notice in passing that the Roman +state strove to hold in check many of the ancient religious associations, +but not always with much success. As we have noticed, its attitude toward +the trade-guilds was not unfriendly. In the last days of the Republic, +however, they began to enter politics, and were used very effectively in +the elections by political leaders in both parties.[115] In fact the +fortunes of the city seemed likely to be controlled by political clubs, +until severe legislation and the transfer of the elections in the early +Empire from the popular assemblies to the senate put an end to the use of +trade associations for political purposes. It was in the light of this +development that the government henceforth required all newly formed +trades-unions to secure official authorization. + +The change in the attitude of the state toward these organizations, as +time went on, has been traced by Liebenam in his study of Roman +associations. The story of this change furnishes an interesting episode in +the history of special privilege, and may not be without profit to us. The +Roman government started with the assumption that the operation of these +voluntary associations was a matter of public as well as of private +concern, and could serve public interests. Therefore their members were to +be exempted from some of the burdens which the ordinary citizen bore. It +was this reasoning, for instance, which led Trajan to set the bakers free +from certain charges, and which influenced Hadrian to grant the same +favors to those associations of skippers which supplied Rome with food. In +the light of our present-day discussion it is interesting also to find +that Marcus Aurelius granted them the right to manumit slaves and receive +legacies--that is, he made them juridical persons. But if these +associations were to be fostered by law, in proportion as they promoted +the public welfare, it also followed logically that the state could put a +restraining hand upon them when their development failed to serve public +interests in the highest degree. Following this logical sequence, the +Emperor Claudius, in his efforts to promote a more wholesome home life, or +for some other reason not known to us, forbade the eating-houses or the +delicatessen shops to sell cooked meats or warm water. Antoninus Pius, in +his paternal care for the unions, prescribed an age test and a physical +test for those who wished to become members. Later, under the law a man +was allowed to join one guild only. Such a legal provision as this was a +natural concomitant of the concession of privileges to the unions. If the +members of these organizations were to receive special favors from the +state, the state must see to it that the rolls were not padded. It must, +in fact, have the right of final supervision of the list of members. So +long as industry flourished, and so long as the population increased, or +at least remained stationary, this oversight by the government brought no +appreciable ill results. But when financial conditions grew steadily +worse, when large tracts of land passed out of cultivation and the +population rapidly dwindled, the numbers in the trades-unions began to +decline. The public services, constantly growing heavier, which the state +required of the guilds in return for their privileges made the loss of +members still greater. This movement threatened the industrial interests +of the Empire and must be checked at all hazards. Consequently, taking +another logical step in the way of government regulation in the interests +of the public, the state forbade men to withdraw from the unions, and made +membership in a union hereditary. Henceforth the carpenter must always +remain a carpenter, the weaver a weaver, and the sons and grandsons of the +carpenter and the weaver must take up the occupation of their fathers, and +a man is bound forever to his trade as the serf is to the soil. + + + + +A Roman Politician + +(Gaius Scribonius Curio) + + + +The life of Gaius Scribonius Curio has so many points of interest for the +student of Roman politics and society, that one is bewildered by the +variety of situations and experiences which it covers. His private +character is made up of a _melange_ of contradictory qualities, of +generosity, and profligacy, of sincerity and unscrupulousness. In his +public life there is the same facile change of guiding principles. He is +alternately a follower of Cicero and a supporter of his bitterest enemy, a +Tory and a Democrat, a recognized opponent of Caesar and his trusted agent +and adviser. His dramatic career stirs Lucan to one of his finest +passages, gives a touch of vigor to the prosaic narrative of Velleius, and +even leads the sedate Pliny to drop into satire.[116] Friend and foe have +helped to paint the picture. Cicero, the counsellor of his youth, writes +of him and to him; Caelius, his bosom friend, analyzes his character; +Caesar leaves us a record of his military campaigns and death, while +Velleius and Appian recount his public and private sins. His story has +this peculiar charm, that many of the incidents which make it up are +related from day to day, as they occurred, by his contemporaries, Cicero +and Caelius, in the confidential letters which they wrote to their intimate +friends. With all the strange elements which entered into it, however, his +career is not an unusual one for the time in which he lived. Indeed it is +almost typical for the class to which he belonged, and in studying it we +shall come to know something more of that group of brilliant young men, +made up of Caelius, Antony, Dolabella, and others, who were drawn to +Caesar's cause and played so large a part in bringing him success. The life +of Curio not only illuminates social conditions in the first century +before our era, but it epitomizes and personifies the political history of +his time and the last struggles of the Republic. It brings within its +compass the Catilinarian conspiracy, the agitation of Clodius, the +formation of the first triumvirate, the rivalry of Caesar and Pompey, and +the civil war, for in all these episodes Curio took an active part. + +Students of history have called attention to the striking way in which the +members of certain distinguished Roman families from generation to +generation kept up the political traditions of the family. The Claudian +family is a striking case in point. Recognition of this fact helps us to +understand Curio. His grandfather and his father were both prominent +orators and politicians, as Cicero tells us in his Brutus.[117] The +grandfather reached the praetorship in the year in which Gaius Gracchus +was done to death by his political opponents, while Curio pater was +consul, in 76 B.C., when the confusion which followed the breaking up of +the constitution and of the party of Sulla was at its height. Cicero tells +us that the second Curio had "absolutely no knowledge of letters," but +that he was one of the successful public speakers of his day, thanks to +the training which he had received at home. The third Curio, with whom we +are concerned here, was prepared for public life as his father had been, +for Cicero remarks of him that "although he had not been sufficiently +trained by teachers, he had a rare gift for oratory."[118] + +On this point Cicero could speak with authority, because Curio had very +possibly been one of his pupils in oratory and law. At least the very +intimate acquaintance which he has with Curio's character and the +incidents of his life, the fatherly tone of Cicero's letters to him, and +the fact that Curio's nearest friends were among his disciples make this a +natural inference. How intimate this relation was, one can see from the +charming picture which Cicero draws, in the introductory chapters of his +Essay on Friendship, of his own intercourse as a young man with the +learned Augur Scaevola. Roman youth attended their counsellor and friend +when he went to the forum to take part in public business, or sat with him +at home discussing matters of public and private interest, as Cicero and +his companions sat on the bench in the garden with the pontiff Scaevola, +when he set forth the discourse of Laelius on friendship, and thus, out of +his experience, the old man talked to the young men about him upon the +conduct of life as well as upon the technical points of law and oratory. +So many of the brilliant young politicians of this period had been brought +into close relations with Cicero in this way, that when he found himself +forced out of politics by the Caesarians, he whimsically writes to his +friend Paetus that he is inclined to give up public life and open a school, +and not more than a year before his death he pathetically complains that +he has not leisure even to take the waters at the spa, because of the +demands which are made upon him for lessons in oratory. + +If it did not take us too far from our chosen subject, it would be +interesting to stop and consider at length what effect Cicero's intimate +relations with these young men had upon his character, his political +views, his personal fortunes, and the course of politics. That they kept +him young in his interests and sympathies, that they kept his mind alert +and receptive, comes out clearly in his letters to them, which are full of +jest and raillery and enthusiasm. That he never developed into a Tory, as +Catulus did, or became indifferent to political conditions, as Lucullus +did, may have been due in part to his intimate association with this group +of enthusiastic young politicians. So far as his personal fortunes were +concerned, when the struggle between Caesar and Pompey came, these former +pupils of Cicero had an opportunity to show their attachment and their +gratitude to him. _They_ were followers of Caesar, and _he_ cast in his lot +with Pompey. But this made no difference in their relations. To the +contrary, they gave him advice and help; in their most hurried journeys +they found time to visit him, and they interceded with Caesar in his +behalf. To determine whether he influenced the fortunes of the state +through the effect which his teachings had upon these young men would +require a paper by itself. Perhaps no man has ever had a better +opportunity than Cicero had in their cases to leave a lasting impression +on the political leaders of the coming generation. Curio, Caelius, +Trebatius, Dolabella, Hirtius, and Pansa, who were Caesar's lieutenants, in +the years when their characters were forming and their political +tendencies were being determined, were moulded by Cicero. They were warmly +attached to him as their guide, philosopher, and friend, and they admired +him as a writer, an orator, and an accomplished man of the world. Later +they attached themselves to Caesar, and while they were still under his +spell, Cicero's influence over their political course does not seem to +count for so much, but after Caesar's death, the latent effect of Cicero's +friendship and teaching makes itself clearly felt in the heroic service +which such men as Hirtius and Pansa rendered to the cause of the dying +Republic. Possibly even Curio, had he been living, might have been found, +after the Ides of March, fighting by the side of Cicero. + +Perhaps there is no better way of bringing out the intimate relations +which Curio and the other young men of this group bore to the orator than +by translating one of Cicero's early letters to him. It was written in 53 +B.C., when the young man was in Asia, just beginning his political career +as quaestor, or treasurer, on the staff of the governor of that province, +and reads:[119] + +"Although I grieve to have been suspected of neglect by you, still it has +not been so annoying to me that my failure in duty is complained of by you +as pleasant that it has been noticed, especially since, in so far as I am +accused, I am free from fault. But in so far as you intimate that you +long for a letter from me, you disclose that which I know well, it is +true, but that which is sweet and cherished--your love, I mean. In point +of fact, I never let any one pass, who I think will go to you, without +giving him a letter. For who is so indefatigable in writing as I am? From +you, on the other hand, twice or thrice at most have I received a letter, +and then a very short one. Therefore, if you are an unjust judge toward +me, I shall condemn you on the same charge, but if you shall be unwilling +to have me do that, you must show yourself just to me. + +"But enough about letters; I have no fear of not satisfying you by +writing, especially if in that kind of activity you will not scorn my +efforts. I _did_ grieve that you were away from us so long, inasmuch as I +was deprived of the enjoyment of most delightful companionship, but now I +rejoice because, in your absence, you have attained all your ends without +sacrificing your dignity in the slightest degree, and because in all your +undertakings the outcome has corresponded to my desires. What my boundless +affection for you forces me to urge upon you is briefly put. So great a +hope is based, shall I say, on your spirit or on your abilities, that I do +not hesitate to beseech and implore you to come back to us with a +character so moulded that you may be able to preserve and maintain this +confidence in you which you have aroused. And since forgetfulness shall +never blot out my remembrance of your services to me, I beg you to +remember that whatever improvements may come in your fortune, or in your +station in life, you would not have been able to secure them, if you had +not as a boy in the old days followed my most loyal and loving counsels. +Wherefore you ought to have such a feeling toward us, that we, who are now +growing heavy with years, may find rest in your love and your youth." + +In a most unexpected place, in one of Cicero's fiery invectives against +Antony,[120] we come upon an episode illustrating his affectionate care of +Curio during Curio's youth. The elder Curio lies upon a couch, prostrate +with grief at the wreck which his son has brought on the house by his +dissolute life and his extravagance. The younger Curio throws himself at +Cicero's feet in tears. Like a foster-father, Cicero induces the young +man to break off his evil habits, and persuades the father to forgive him +and pay his debts. This scene which he describes here, reminds us of +Curio's first appearance in Cicero's correspondence, where, with Curio's +wild life in mind, he is spoken of as _filiola Curionis_.[121] + +It is an appropriate thing that a man destined to lead so stormy a life as +Curio did, should come on the stage as a leader in the wild turmoil of the +Clodian affair. What brought the two Curios to the front in this matter as +champions of Cicero's future enemy Clodius, it is not easy to say. It is +interesting to notice in passing, however, that our Curio enters politics +as a Democrat. He was the leader, in fact, of the younger element in that +party, of the "Catilinarian crowd," as Cicero styles them, and arrayed +himself against Lucullus, Hortensius, Messala, and other prominent +Conservatives. What the methods were which Curio and his followers +adopted, Cicero graphically describes.[122] They blocked up the entrances +to the polling places with professional rowdies, and allowed only one kind +of ballots to be distributed to the voters. This was in 61 B.C., when +Curio can scarcely have been more than twenty-three years old. + +In the following year Caesar was back in Rome from his successful +propraetorship in Spain, and found little difficulty in persuading Pompey +and Crassus to join him in forming that political compact which controlled +the fortunes of Rome for the next ten years. As a part of the agreement, +Caesar was made consul in 59 B.C., and forced his radical legislation +through the popular assembly in spite of the violent opposition of the +Conservatives. This is the year, too, of the candidacy of Clodius for the +tribunate. Toward both these movements the attitude of Curio is puzzling. +He reports to Cicero[123] that Clodius's main object in running for the +tribunate is to repeal the legislation of Caesar. It is strange that a man +who had been in the counsels of Clodius, and was so shrewd on other +occasions in interpreting political motives, can have been so deceived. We +can hardly believe that he was double-faced toward Cicero. We must +conclude, I think, that his strong dislike for Caesar's policy and +political methods colored his view of the situation. His fierce opposition +to Caesar is the other strange incident in this period of his life. Most +of the young men of the time, even those of good family, were enthusiastic +supporters of Caesar. Curio, however, is bitterly opposed to him.[124] +Perhaps he resented Caesar's repression of freedom of speech, for he tells +Cicero that the young men of Rome will not submit to the high-handed +methods of the triumvirs, or perhaps he imbibed his early dislike for +Caesar from his father, whose sentiments are made clear enough by a savage +epigram at Caesar's expense, which Suetonius quotes from a speech of the +elder Curio.[125] At all events he is the only man who dares speak out. He +is the idol of the Conservatives, and is surrounded by enthusiastic crowds +whenever he appears in the forum. He is now the recognized leader of the +opposition to Caesar, and a significant proof of this fact is furnished at +the great games given in honor of Apollo in the summer of 59. When Caesar +entered the theatre there was faint applause; when Curio entered the crowd +rose and cheered him, "as they used to cheer Pompey when the commonwealth +was safe."[126] Perhaps the mysterious Vettius episode, an ancient Titus +Oates affair, which belongs to this year, reflects the desire of the +triumvirs to get rid of Curio, and shows also their fear of his +opposition. This unscrupulous informer is said to have privately told +Curio of a plot against the life of Pompey, in the hope of involving him +in the meshes of the plot. Curio denounced him to Pompey, and Vettius was +thrown into prison, where he was afterward found dead, before the truth of +the matter could be brought out. Of course Curio's opposition to Caesar +effected little, except, perhaps, in drawing Caesar's attention to him as a +clever politician. + +To Curio's quaestorship in Asia reference has already been made. It fell in +53 B.C., and from his incumbency of this office we can make an approximate +estimate of his date of birth. Thirty or thirty-one was probably the +minimum age for holding the quaestorship at this time, so that Curio must +have been born about 84 B.C. From Cicero's letter to him, which has been +given above, it would seem to follow that he had performed his duties in +his province with eminent success. During his absence from Rome his +father died, and with his father's death one stimulating cause of his +dislike for Caesar may have disappeared. To Curio's absence in his province +we owe six of the charming letters which Cicero wrote to him. In one of +his letters of this year he writes:[127] "There are many kinds of letters, +as you well know, but one sort, for the sake of which letter-writing was +invented, is best recognized: I mean letters written for the purpose of +informing those who are not with us of whatever it may be to our advantage +or to theirs that they should know. Surely you are not looking for a +letter of this kind from me, for you have correspondents and messengers +from home who report to you about your household. Moreover, so far as my +concerns go, there is absolutely nothing new. There are two kinds of +letters left which please me very much: one, of the informal and jesting +sort; the other, serious and weighty. I do not feel that it is unbecoming +to adopt either of these styles. Am I to jest with you by letter? On my +word I do not think that there is a citizen who can laugh in these days. +Or shall I write something of a more serious character? What subject is +there on which Cicero can write seriously to Curio, unless it be +concerning the commonwealth? And on this matter this is my situation: that +I neither dare to set down in writing that which I think, nor wish to +write what I do not think." + +The Romans felt the same indifference toward affairs in the provinces that +we show in this country, unless their investments were in danger. They +were wrapped up in their own concerns, and politics in Rome were so +absorbing in 53 B.C. that people in the city probably paid little +attention to the doings of a quaestor in the far-away province of Asia. +But, as the time for Curio's return approached, men recalled the striking +role which he played in politics in earlier days, and wondered what course +he would take when he came back. Events were moving rapidly toward a +crisis. Julia, Caesar's daughter, whom Pompey had married, died in the +summer of 54 B.C., and Crassus was defeated and murdered by the Parthians +in 53 B.C. The death of Crassus brought Caesar and Pompey face to face, and +Julia's death broke one of the strongest bonds which had held these two +rivals together. Caesar's position, too, was rendered precarious by the +desperate struggle against the Belgae, in which he was involved in 53 B.C. +In Rome the political pot was boiling furiously. The city was in the grip +of the bands of desperadoes hired by Milo and Clodius, who broke up the +elections during 53 B.C., so that the first of January, 52, arrived with +no chief magistrates in the city. To a man of Curio's daring and +versatility this situation offered almost unlimited possibilities, and +recognizing this fact, Cicero writes earnestly to him,[128] on the eve of +his return, to enlist him in support of Milo's candidacy for the +consulship. Curio may have just arrived in the city when matters reached a +climax, for on January 18, 52 B.C., Clodius was killed in a street brawl +by the followers of Milo, and Pompey was soon after elected sole consul, +to bring order out of the chaos, if possible. + +Curio was not called upon to support Milo for the consulship, because +Milo's share in the murder of Clodius and the elevation of Pompey to his +extra-constitutional magistracy put an end to Milo's candidacy. What part +he took in supporting or in opposing Pompey's reform legislation of 52 +B.C., and what share he had in the preliminary skirmishes between Caesar +and the senate during the early part of 51, we have no means of knowing. +As the situation became more acute, however, toward the end of the year, +we hear of him again as an active political leader. Cicero's absence from +Rome from May, 51 to January, 49 B.C., is a fortunate thing for us, for to +it we owe the clever and gossipy political letters which his friend Caelius +sent him from the capital. In one of these letters, written August 1, 51 +B.C., we learn that Curio is a candidate for the tribunate for the +following year, and in it we find a keen analysis of the situation, and an +interesting, though tantaizingly brief, estimate of his character. Coming +from an intimate friend of Curio, it is especially valuable to us. Caelius +writes:[129] "He inspires with great alarm many people who do not know him +and do not know how easily he can be influenced, but judging from my hopes +and wishes, and from his present behavior, he will prefer to support the +Conservatives and the senate. In his present frame of mind he is simply +bubbling over with this feeling. The source and reason of this attitude +of his lies in the fact that Caesar, who is in the habit of winning the +friendship of men of the worst sort at any cost whatsoever, has shown a +great contempt for him. And of the whole affair it seems to me a most +delightful outcome, and the view has been taken by the rest, too, to such +a degree that Curio, who does nothing after deliberation, seems to have +followed a definite policy and definite plans in avoiding the traps of +those who had made ready to oppose his election to the tribunate--I mean +the Laelii, Antonii, and powerful people of that sort." Without strong +convictions or a settled policy, unscrupulous, impetuous, radical, and +changeable, these are the qualities which Caelius finds in Curio, and what +we have seen of his career leads us to accept the correctness of this +estimate. In 61 he had been the champion of Clodius, and the leader of the +young Democrats, while two years later we found him the opponent of Caesar, +and an ultra-Conservative. It is in the light of his knowledge of Curio's +character, and after receiving this letter from Caelius, that Cicero writes +in December, 51 B.C., to congratulate him upon his election to the +tribunate. He begs him "to govern and direct his course in all matters in +accordance with his own judgment, and not to be carried away by the advice +of other people." "I do not fear," he says, "that you may do anything in a +fainthearted or stupid way, if you defend those policies which you +yourself shall believe to be right.... Commune with yourself, take +yourself into counsel, hearken to yourself, determine your own policy." + +The other point in the letter of Caelius, his analysis of the political +situation, so far as Curio is concerned, is not so easy to follow. Caelius +evidently believes that Curio had coquetted with Caesar and had been +snubbed by him, that his intrigues with Caesar had at first led the +aristocracy to oppose his candidacy, but that Caesar's contemptuous +treatment of his advances had driven him into the arms of the senatorial +party. It is quite possible, however, that an understanding may have been +reached between Caesar and Curio even at this early date, and that Caesar's +coldness and Curio's conservatism may both have been assumed. This would +enable Curio to pose as an independent leader, free from all obligations +to Caesar, Pompey, or the Conservatives, and anxious to see fair play and +safeguard the interests of the whole people, an independent leader who +was driven over in the end to Caesar's side by the selfish and factious +opposition of the senatorial party to his measures of reform and his +advocacy of even-handed justice for both Caesar and Pompey.[130] + +Whether Curio came to an understanding with Caesar before he entered on his +tribunate or not, his policy from the outset was well calculated to make +the transfer of his allegiance seem forced upon him, and to help him carry +over to Caesar the support of those who were not blinded by partisan +feelings. Before he had been in office a fortnight he brought in a bill +which would have annulled the law, passed by Caesar in his consulship, +assigning land in Campania to Pompey's veterans.[131] The repeal of this +law had always been a favorite project with the Conservatives, and Curio's +proposal seemed to be directed equally against Caesar and Pompey. In +February of 50 B.C. he brought in two bills whose reception facilitated +his passage to the Caesarian party. One of them provided for the repair of +the roads, and, as Appian tells us,[132] although "he knew that he could +not carry any such measure, he hoped that Pompey's friends would oppose +him so that he might have that as an excuse for opposing Pompey." The +second measure was to insert an intercalary month. It will be remembered +that before Caesar reformed the calendar, it was necessary to insert an +extra month in alternate years, and 50 B.C. was a year in which +intercalation was required. Curio's proposal was, therefore, a very proper +one. It would recommend itself also on the score of fairness. March 1 had +been set as the day on which the senate should take up the question of +Caesar's provinces, and after that date there would be little opportunity +to consider other business. Now the intercalated month would have been +inserted, in accordance with the regular practice, after February 23, and +by its insertion time would have been given for the proper discussion of +the measures which Curio had proposed. Incidentally, and probably this was +in Curio's mind, the date when Caesar might be called upon to surrender his +provinces would be postponed. The proposal to insert the extra month was +defeated, and Curio, blocked in every move by the partisan and +unreasonable opposition of Pompey and the Conservatives, found the +pretext for which lie had been working, and came out openly for +Caesar.[133] Those who knew him well were not surprised at the transfer of +his allegiance. It was probably in fear of such a move that Cicero had +urged him not to yield to the influence of others, and when Cicero in +Cilicia hears the news, he writes to his friend Caelius: "Is it possible? +Curio is now defending Caesar! Who would have expected it?--except myself, +for, as surely as I hope to live, _I_ expected it. Heavens! how I miss the +laugh we might have had over it." Looking back, as we can now, on the +political role which Curio played during the next twelve months, it seems +strange that two of his intimate friends, who were such far-sighted +politicians as Cicero and Caelius were, should have underestimated his +political ability so completely. It shows Caesar's superior political +sagacity that he clearly saw his qualities as a leader and tactician. What +terms Caesar was forced to make to secure his support we do not know. +Gossip said that the price was sixty million sesterces,[134] or more than +two and a half million dollars. He was undoubtedly in great straits. The +immense sums which he had spent in celebrating funeral games in honor of +his father had probably left him a bankrupt, and large amounts of money +were paid for political services during the last years of the republic. +Naturally proof of the transaction cannot be had, and even Velleius +Paterculus, in his savage arraignment of Curio,[135] does not feel +convinced of the truth of the story, but the tale is probable. + +It was high time for Caesar to provide himself with an agent in Rome. The +month of March was near at hand, when the long-awaited discussion of his +provinces would come up in the senate. His political future, and his +rights as a citizen, depended upon his success in blocking the efforts of +the senate to take his provinces from him before the end of the year, when +he could step from the proconsulship to the consulship. An interval of +even a month in private life between the two offices would be all that his +enemies would need for bringing political charges against him that would +effect his ruin. His displacement before the end of the year must be +prevented, therefore, at all hazards. To this task Curio addressed +himself, and with surpassing adroitness. He did not come out at once as +Caesar's champion. His function was to hold the scales true between Caesar +and Pompey, to protect the Commonwealth against the overweening ambition +and threatening policy of both men. He supported the proposal that Caesar +should be called upon to surrender his army, but coupled with it the +demand that Pompey also should be required to give up his troops and his +proconsulship. The fairness of his plan appealed to the masses, who would +not tolerate a favor to Pompey at Caesar's expense. It won over even a +majority of the senate. The cleverness of his policy was clearly shown at +a critical meeting of the senate in December of the year 50 B.C. Appian +tells us the story:[136] "In the senate the opinion of each member was +asked, and Claudius craftily divided the question and took the votes +separately, thus: 'Shall Pompey be deprived of his command?' The majority +voted against the latter proposition, and it was decreed that successors +to Caesar should be sent. Then Curio put the question whether both should +lay down their commands, and twenty-two voted in the negative, while +three hundred and seventy went back to the opinion of Curio in order to +avoid civil discord. Then Claudius dismissed the senate, exclaiming: +'Enjoy your victory and have Caesar for a master!'" The senate's action was +vetoed, and therefore had no legal value, but it put Caesar and Curio in +the right and Pompey' s partisans in the wrong. + +As a part of his policy of defending Caesar by calling attention to the +exceptional position and the extra-constitutional course of Pompey, Curio +offset the Conservative attacks on Caesar by public speeches fiercely +arraigning Pompey for what he had done during his consulship, five years +before. When we recall Curio's biting wit and sarcasm, and the +unpopularity of Pompey's high-handed methods of that year, we shall +appreciate the effectiveness of this flank attack. + +Another weapon which he used freely was his unlimited right of veto as +tribune. As early as April Caelius appreciated how successful these tactics +would be, and he saw the dilemma in which they would put the +Conservatives, for he writes to Cicero: "This is what I have to tell you: +if they put pressure at every point on Curio, Caesar will defend his right +to exercise the veto; if, as seems likely, they shrink [from overruling +him], Caesar will stay [in his province] as long as he likes." The veto +power was the weapon which he used against the senate at the meeting of +that body on the first of December, to which reference has already been +made. The elections in July had gone against Caesar. Two Conservatives had +been returned as consuls. In the autumn the senate had found legal means +of depriving Caesar of two of his legions. Talk of a compromise was dying +down. Pompey, who had been desperately ill in the spring, had regained his +strength. He had been exasperated by the savage attacks of Curio. +Sensational stories of the movements of Caesar's troops in the North were +whispered in the forum, and increased the tension. In the autumn, for +instance, Caesar had occasion to pay a visit to the towns in northern Italy +to thank them for their support of Mark Antony, his candidate for the +tribunate, and the wild rumor flew to Rome that he had advanced four +legions to Placentia,[137] that his march on the city had begun, and +tumult and confusion followed. It was in these circumstances that the +consul Marcellus moved in the senate that successors be sent to take over +Caesar's provinces, but the motion was blocked by the veto of Curio, +whereupon the consul cried out: "If I am prevented by the vote of the +senate from taking steps for the public safety, I will take such steps on +my own responsibility as consul." After saying this he darted out of the +senate and proceeded to the suburbs with his colleague, where he presented +a sword to Pompey, and said: "My colleague and I command you to march +against Caesar in behalf of your country, and we give you for this purpose +the army now at Capua, or in any other part of Italy, and whatever +additional forces you choose to levy."[138] Curio had accomplished his +purpose. He had shown that Pompey as well as Caesar was a menace to the +state; he had prevented Caesar's recall; he had shown Antony, who was to +succeed him in the tribunate, how to exasperate the senate into using +coercive measures against his sacrosanct person as tribune and thus +justify Caesar's course in the war, and he had goaded the Conservatives +into taking the first overt step in the war by commissioning Pompey to +begin a campaign against Caesar without any authorization from the senate +or the people. + +The news of the unconstitutional step taken by Marcellus and Pompey +reached Rome December 19 or 20. Curio's work as tribune was done, and on +the twenty-first of the month he set out for the North to join his leader. +The senate would be called together by the new consuls on January 1, and +since, before the reform in the calendar, December had only twenty-nine +days, there were left only eight days for Curio to reach Caesar's +head-quarters, lay the situation before him, and return to the city with +his reply. Ravenna, where Caesar had his head-quarters, was two hundred and +forty miles from Rome. He covered the distance, apparently, in three days, +spent perhaps two days with Caesar, and was back in Rome again for the +meeting of the senate on the morning of January 1. Consequently, he +travelled at the rate of seventy-five or eighty miles a day, twice the +rate of the ordinary Roman courier. + +We cannot regret too keenly the fact that we have no account of Curio's +meeting with Caesar, and his recital to Caesar of the course of events in +Rome. In drawing up the document which was prepared at this conference, +Caesar must have been largely influenced by the intimate knowledge which +Curio had of conditions in the capital, and of the temper of the senate. +It was an ultimatum, and, when Curio presented it to the senate, that body +accepted the challenge, and called upon Caesar to lay down his command on a +specified date or be declared a public enemy. Caesar replied by crossing +the border of his province and occupying one town after another in +northern Italy in rapid succession. All this had been agreed upon in the +meeting between Curio and Caesar, and Velleius Paterculus[139] is probably +right in putting the responsibility for the war largely on the shoulders +of Curio, who, as he says, brought to naught the fair terms of peace which +Caesar was ready to propose and Pompey to accept. The whole situation +points to the conclusion that Caesar did not desire war, and was not +prepared for it. Had he anticipated its immediate outbreak, he would +scarcely have let it arise when he had only one legion with him on the +border, while his other ten legions were a long distance away. + +From the outset Curio took an active part in the war which he had done so +much to bring about, and it was an appropriate thing that the closing +events in his life should have been recorded for us by his great patron, +Caesar, in his narrative of the Civil War. On the 18th or 19th of January, +within ten days of the crossing of the Rubicon, we hear of his being sent +with a body of troops to occupy Iguvium,[140] and a month later he is in +charge of one of the investing camps before the stronghold of +Corfinium.[141] With the fall of Corfinium, on the 21st of February, +Caesar's rapid march southward began, which swept the Pompeians out of +Italy within a month and gave Caesar complete control of the peninsula. In +that brilliant campaign Curio undoubtedly took an active part, for at the +close of it Caesar gave him an independent commission for the occupation of +Sicily and northern Africa. No more important command could have been +given him, for Sicily and Africa were the granaries of Rome, and if the +Pompeians continued to hold them, the Caesarians in Italy might be starved +into submission. To this ill-fated campaign Caesar devotes the latter half +of the second book of his Civil War. In the beginning of his account of it +he remarks: "Showing at the outset a total contempt for the military +strength of his opponent, Publius Attius Varus, Curio crossed over from +Sicily, accompanied by only two of the four legions originally given him +by Caesar, and by only five hundred cavalry."[142] The estimate which +Caelius had made of him was true, after all, at least in military affairs. +He was bold and impetuous, and lacked a settled policy. Where daring and +rapidity of movement could accomplish his purpose, he succeeded, but he +lacked patience in finding out the size and disposition of the enemy's +forces and calmness of judgment in comparing his own strength with that of +his foe. It was this weakness in his character as a military leader which +led him to join battle with Varus and Juba's lieutenant, Saburra, without +learning beforehand, as he might have done, that Juba, with a large army, +was encamped not six miles in the rear of Saburra. Curio's men were +surrounded by the enemy and cut down as they stood. His staff begged him +to seek safety in flight, but, as Caesar writes,[143] "He answered without +hesitation that, having lost the army which Caesar had entrusted to his +charge, he would never return to look him in the face, and with that +answer he died fighting." + +Three years later the fortunes of war brought Caesar to northern Africa, +and he traversed a part of the region where Curio's luckless campaign had +been carried on. With the stern eye of the trained soldier, he marked the +fatal blunders which Curio had made, but he recalled also the charm of his +personal qualities, and the defeat before Utica was forgotten in his +remembrance of the great victory which Curio had won for him, +single-handed, in Rome. Even Lucan, a partisan of the senate which Curio +had flouted, cannot withhold his admiration for Curio's brilliant career, +and his pity for Curio's tragic end. As he stands in imagination before +the fallen Roman leader, he exclaims:[144] "Happy wouldst thou be, O Rome, +and destined to bless thy people, had it pleased the gods above to guard +thy liberty as it pleased them to avenge its loss. Lo! the noble body of +Curio, covered by no tomb, feeds the birds of Libya. But to thee, since it +profiteth not to pass in silence those deeds of thine which their own +glory defends forever 'gainst the decay of time, such tribute now we pay, +O youth, as thy life has well deserved. No other citizen of such talent +has Rome brought forth, nor one to whom the law would be indebted more, if +he the path of right had followed out. As it was, the corruption of the +age ruined the city when desire for office, pomp, and the power which +wealth gives, ever to be dreaded, had swept away his wavering mind with +sidelong flood, and the change of Curio, snared by the spoils of Gaul and +the gold of Caesar, was that which turned the tide of history. Although +mighty Sulla, fierce Marius, the blood-bespattered Cinna, and all the line +of Caesar's house have held our throats at their mercy with the sword, to +whom was e'er such power vouchsafed? All others bought, _he_ sold the +state." + + + + +Gaius Matius, a Friend of Caesar + +"_Non enim Caesarem ... sum secutus, sed amicum_." + + + +Gaius Matius, the subject of this sketch, was neither a great warrior, nor +statesman, nor writer. If his claim to remembrance rested on what he did +in the one or the other of these roles, he would long ago have been +forgotten. It is his genius for friendship which has kept his memory +green, and that is what he himself would have wished. Of his early life we +know little, but it does not matter much, because the interest which he +has for us centres about his relations to Caesar in early manhood. Being of +good birth, and a man of studious tastes, he probably attended the +University at Athens, and heard lectures there as young Cicero and Messala +did at a later period. He must have been a man of fine tastes and +cultivation, for Cicero, in writing to a friend, bestows on Matius the +title "doctissimus," the highest literary compliment which one Roman could +pay another, and Apollodorus of Pergamum dedicated to him his treatise on +rhetoric. Since he was born about 84 B.C., he returned from his years of +study at Athens about the time when Caesar was setting out on his brilliant +campaign in Gaul. Matius joined him, attracted perhaps by the personal +charms of the young proconsul, perhaps by the love of adventure, perhaps, +like his friend Trebatius, by the hope of making a reputation. + +At all events he was already with Caesar somewhere in Gaul in 53 B.C., and +it is hard to think of an experience better suited to lay bare the good +and the bad qualities in Caesar's character than the years of camp life +which Matius spent with him in the wilds of Gaul and Britain. As +aide-de-camp, or orderly, for such a position he probably held, his place +was by Caesar's side. They forded the rivers together, walked or rode +through woodland or open side by side, shared the same meagre rations, and +lay in the same tent at the end of the day's march, ready to spring from +the ground at a moment's warning to defend each other against attack from +the savage foe. Caesar's narrative of his campaigns in Gaul is a soldier's +story of military movements, and perhaps from our school-boy remembrance +of it we may have as little a liking for it as Horace had for the poem of +Livius Andronicus, which he studied under "Orbilius of the rods," but even +the obscurities of the Latin subjunctive and ablative cannot have blinded +us entirely to the romance of the desperate siege of Alesia and the final +struggle which the Gauls made to drive back the invader. Matius shared +with Caesar all the hardships and perils of that campaign, and with Caesar +he witnessed the final scene of the tragedy when Vercingetorix, the heroic +Gallic chieftain, gave up his sword, and the conquest of Gaul was +finished. It is little wonder that Matius and the other young men who +followed Caesar were filled with admiration of the man who had brought all +this to pass. + +It was a notable group, including Trebatius, Hirtius, Pansa, Oppius, and +Matius in its number. All of them were of the new Rome. Perhaps they were +dimly conscious that the mantle of Tiberius Gracchus had fallen upon their +leader, that the great political struggle which had been going on for +nearly a century was nearing its end, and that they were on the eve of a +greater victory than that at Alesia. It would seem that only two of them, +Matius and Trebatius, lived to see the dawning of the new day. But it was +not simply nor mainly the brilliancy of Caesar as a leader in war or in +politics which attracted Matius to him. As he himself puts it in his +letter to Cicero: "I did not follow a Caesar, but a friend." Lucullus and +Pompey had made as distinguished a record in the East as Caesar had in the +West, but we hear of no such group of able young men following their +fortunes as attached themselves to Caesar. We must find a reason for the +difference in the personal qualities of Caesar, and there is nothing that +more clearly proves the charm of his character than the devotion to him of +this group of men. In the group Matius is the best representative of the +man and the friend. When Caesar came into his own, Matius neither asked for +nor accepted the political offices which Caesar would gladly have given +him. One needs only to recall the names of Antony, Labienus, or Decimus +Brutus to realize the fact that Caesar remembered and rewarded the faithful +services of his followers. But Matius was Caesar's friend and nothing more, +not his master of the horse, as Antony was, nor his political and +financial heir, as Octavius was. In his loyalty to Caesar he sought for no +other reward than Caesar's friendship, and his services to him brought with +them their own return. Indeed, through his friend he suffered loss, for +one of Caesar's laws robbed him of a part of his estate, as he tells us, +but this experience did not lessen his affection. How different his +attitude was from that of others who professed a friendship for Caesar! +Some of them turned upon their leader and plotted against his life, when +disappointed in the favors which they had received at his hands, and +others, when he was murdered, used his name and his friendship for them to +advance their own ambitious designs. Antony and Octavius struggle with +each other to catch the reins of power which have fallen from his hands; +Dolabella, who seems to regard himself as an understudy of Caesar, plays a +serio-comic part in Rome in his efforts to fill the place of the dead +dictator; while Decimus Brutus hurries to the North to make sure of the +province which Caesar had given him. + +From these men, animated by selfishness, by jealousy, by greed for gain, +by sentimentalism, or by hypocritical patriotism, Matius stands aloof, +and stands perhaps alone. For him the death of Caesar means the loss of a +friend, of a man in whom he believed. He can find no common point of +sympathy either with those who rejoice in the death of the tyrant, as +Cicero does, for he had not thought Caesar a tyrant, nor with those who use +the name of Caesar to conjure with. We have said that he accepted no +political office. He did accept an office, that of procurator, or +superintendent, of the public games which Caesar had vowed on the field of +Pharsalus, but which death had stepped in to prevent him from giving, and +it was in the pious fulfilment of this duty which he took upon himself +that he brought upon his head the anger of the "auctores libertatis," as +he ironically calls them. He had grieved, too, at the death of Caesar, +although "a man ought to rate the fatherland above a friend," as the +liberators said. Matius took little heed of this talk. He had known of it +from the outset, but it had not troubled him. Yet when it came to his ears +that his friend Cicero, to whom he had been attached from boyhood, to whom +he had proved his fidelity at critical moments, was among his accusers, he +could not but complain bitterly of the injustice. Through a common +friend, Trebatius, whose acquaintance he had made in Gaul, he expresses to +Cicero the sorrow which he feels at his unkindness. What Cicero has to say +in explanation of his position and in defence of himself, we can do no +better than to give in his own words: + + + "_Cicero to Matins, greeting:_[145] + + "I am not yet quite clear in my own mind whether our friend Trebatius, + who is as loyal as he is devoted to both of us, has brought me more + sorrow or pleasure: for I reached my Tusculan villa in the evening, and + the next day, early in the morning, he came to see me, though he had + not yet recovered his strength. When I reproved him for giving too + little heed to his health, he said that nothing was nearer his heart + than seeing me. 'There's nothing new,' say I? He told me of your + grievance against me, yet before I make any reply in regard to it, let + me state a few facts. + + "As far back as I can recall the past I have no friend of longer + standing than you are; but long duration is a thing characteristic of + many friendships, while love is not. I loved you on the day I met you, + and I believed myself loved by you. Your subsequent departure, and that + too for a long time, my electoral canvass, and our different modes of + life did not allow our inclination toward one another to be + strengthened by intimacy; still I saw your feeling toward me many years + before the Civil War, while Caesar was in Gaul; for the result which you + thought would be of great advantage to me and not of disadvantage to + Caesar himself you accomplished: I mean in bringing him to love me, to + honor me, to regard me as one of his friends. Of the many confidential + communications which passed between us in those days, by word of mouth, + by letter, by message, I say nothing, for sterner times followed. At + the breaking out of the Civil War, when you were on your way toward + Brundisium to join Caesar, you came to me to my Formian villa. In the + first place, how much did that very fact mean, especially at those + times! Furthermore, do you think I have forgotten your counsel, your + words, the kindness you showed? I remember that Trebatius was there. + Nor indeed have I forgotten the letter which you sent to me after + meeting Caesar, in the district near Trebula, as I remember it. Next + came that ill-fated moment when either my regard for public opinion, or + my sense of duty, or chance, call it what you will, compelled me to go + to Pompey. What act of kindness or thoughtfulness either toward me in + my absence or toward my dear ones in Rome did you neglect? In fact, + whom have all my friends thought more devoted to me and to themselves + than you are? I came to Brundisium. Do you think I have forgotten in + what haste, as soon as you heard of it, you came hurrying to me from + Tarentum? How much your presence meant to me, your words of cheer to a + courage broken by the fear of universal disaster! Finally, our life at + Rome began. What element did our friendship lack? In most important + matters I followed your advice with reference to my relations toward + Caesar; in other matters I followed my own sense of duty. With whom but + myself, if Caesar be excepted, have you gone so far as to visit his + house again and again, and to spend there many hours, oftentimes in the + most delightful discourse? It was then too, if you remember, that you + persuaded me to write those philosophical essays of mine. After his + return, what purpose was more in your thoughts than to have me as good + a friend of Caesar as possible? This you accomplished at once. + + "What is the point, then, of this discourse, which is longer than I had + intended it should be? This is the point, that I have been surprised + that you, who ought to see these things, have believed that I have + taken any step which is out of harmony with our friendly relations, for + beside these facts which I have mentioned, which are undisputed and + self-evident facts, there are many more intimate ties of friendship + which I can scarcely put in words. Everything about you charms me, but + most of all, on the one hand, your perfect loyalty in matters of + friendship, your wisdom, dignity, steadfastness; on the other hand, + your wit, refinement, and literary tastes. + + "Wherefore--now I come back to the grievance--in the first place, I did + not think that you had voted for that law; in the second place, if I + had thought so, I should never have thought that you had done it + without some sufficient reason. Your position makes whatever you do + noticeable; furthermore, envy puts some of your acts in a worse light + than the facts warrant. If you do not hear these rumors I do not know + what to say. So far as I am concerned, if I ever hear them I defend you + as I know that _I_ am always defended by _you_ against _my_ detractors. + And my defence follows two lines: there are some things which I always + deny _in toto_, as, for instance, the statement in regard to that very + vote; there are other acts of yours which I maintain were dictated by + considerations of affection and kindness, as, for instance, your action + with reference to the management of the games. But it does not escape + you, with all your wisdom, that, if Caesar was a king--which seems to me + at any rate to have been the case--with respect of your duty two + positions may be maintained, either the one which I am in the habit of + taking, that your loyalty and friendship to Caesar are to be praised, or + the one which some people take, that the freedom of one's fatherland is + to be esteemed more than the life of one's friend. I wish that my + discussions springing out of these conversations had been repeated to + you. + + "Indeed, who mentions either more gladly or more frequently than I the + two following facts, which are especially to your honor? The fact that + you were the most influential opponent of the Civil War, and that you + were the most earnest advocate of temperance in the moment of victory, + and in this matter I have found no one to disagree with me. Wherefore I + am grateful to our friend Trebatius for giving me an opportunity to + write this letter, and if you are not convinced by it, you will think + me destitute of all sense of duty and kindness; and nothing more + serious to me than that or more foreign to your own nature can happen." + +In all the correspondence of Cicero there is not a letter written with +more force and delicacy of feeling, none better suited to accomplish its +purpose than this letter to Matius. It is a work of art; but in that fact +lies its defect, and in that respect it is in contrast to the answer which +it called forth from Matius, The reply of Matius stands on a level with +another better-known non-Ciceronian epistle, the famous letter of +condolence which Servius wrote to Cicero after the death of Cicero's +daughter, Tullia; but it is finer, for, while Servius is stilted and full +of philosophical platitudes, Matius, like Shakespeare's Antony, "only +speaks right on," in telling Cicero of his grief at Caesar's death, of his +indignation at the intolerant attitude of the assassins, and his +determination to treasure the memory of Caesar at any cost. This is his +letter: + + + "_Matius to Cicero, greeting_[146] + + "I derived great pleasure from your letter, because I saw that you held + such an opinion about me as I had hoped you would hold, and wished you + to hold; and although, in regard to that opinion, I had no misgivings, + still, inasmuch as I considered it a matter of the greatest importance, + I was anxious that it should continue unchanged. And then I was + conscious of having done nothing to offend any good citizen; therefore + I was the less inclined to believe that you, endowed as you are with so + many excellent qualities, could be influenced by any idle rumors, + especially as my friendship toward you had been and was sincere and + unbroken. Since I know that matters stand in this respect as I have + wished them to stand, I will reply to the charges, which you have often + refuted in my behalf in such a way as one would expect from that + kindness of heart characteristic of you and from our friendship. It is + true that what men said against me after the death of Caesar was known + to me. They call it a sin of mine that I sorrow over the death of a man + dear to me, and because I grieve that he whom I loved is no more, for + they say that 'fatherland should be above friendship,' just as if they + had proved already that his death has been of service to the state. But + I will make no subtle plea. I confess that I have not attained to your + high philosophic planes; for, on the one hand, in the Civil War I did + not follow a Caesar, but a friend, and although I was grieved at the + state of things, still I did not desert him; nor, on the other hand, + did I at any time approve of the Civil War, nor even of the reason for + strife, which I most earnestly sought to extinguish when it was + kindling. Therefore, in the moment of victory for one bound to me by + the closest ties, I was not captivated by the charm either of public + office or of gold, while his other friends, although they had less + influence with him than I, misused these rewards in no small degree. + Nay, even my own property was impaired by a law of Caesar's, thanks to + which very law many who rejoice at the death of Caesar have remained at + Rome. I have worked as for my own welfare that conquered citizens might + be spared. + + "Then may not I, who have desired the welfare of all, be indignant + that he, from whom this favor came, is dead? especially since the very + men who were forgiven have brought him both unpopularity and death. You + shall be punished, then, they say, 'since you dare to disapprove of our + deed.' Unheard of arrogance, that some men glory in their crime, that + others may not even sorrow over it without punishment! But it has + always been the unquestioned right, even of slaves, to fear, to + rejoice, to grieve according to the dictates of their own feelings + rather than at the bidding of another man; of these rights, as things + stand now, to judge from what these champions of freedom keep saying, + they are trying to deprive us by intimidation; but their efforts are + useless. I shall never be driven by the terrors of any danger from the + path of duty or from the claims of friendship, for I have never thought + that a man should shrink from an honorable death; nay, I have often + thought that he should seek it. But why are they angry at me, if I wish + them to repent of their deed? for I desire to have Caesar's death a + bitter thing to all men. + + "'But I ought as a citizen to desire the welfare of the state.' Unless + my life in the past and my hope for the future, without words from me, + prove that I desire that very end, I do not seek to establish the fact + by words. Wherefore I beg you the more earnestly to consider deeds more + than words, and to believe, if you feel that it is well for the right + to prevail, that I can have no intercourse with dishonorable men. For + am I now, in my declining years, to change that course of action which + I maintained in my youth, when I might even have gone astray with hope + of indulgence, and am I to undo my life's work? I will not do so. Yet I + shall take no step which may be displeasing to any man, except to + grieve at the cruel fate of one most closely bound to me, of one who + was a most illustrious man. But if I were otherwise minded, I would + never deny what I was doing lest I should be regarded as shameless in + doing wrong, a coward and a hypocrite in concealing it. + + "'Yet the games which the young Caesar gave in memory of Caesar's victory + I superintended.' But that has to do with my private obligation and not + with the condition of the state; a duty, however, which I owed to the + memory and the distinguished position of a dear friend even though he + was dead, a duty which I could not decline when asked by a young man of + most excellent promise and most worthy of Caesar. 'I even went + frequently to the house of the consul Antony to pay my respects!' to + whom you will find that those who think that I am lacking in devotion + to my country kept coming in throngs to ask some favor forsooth or + secure some reward. But what arrogance this is that, while Caesar never + interfered with my cultivating the friendship of men whom I pleased, + even when he himself did not like them, these men who have taken my + friend from me should try to prevent me by their slander from loving + those whom I will. + + "But I am not afraid lest the moderation of my life may prove too weak + to withstand false reports, or that even those who do not love me + because of my loyalty to Caesar may not prefer to have friends like me + rather than like themselves. So far as I myself am concerned, if what I + prefer shall be my lot, the life which is left me I shall spend in + retirement at Rhodes; but if some untoward circumstance shall prevent + it, I shall live at Rome in such a wise as to desire always that right + be done. Our friend Trebatius I thank heartily in that he has disclosed + your sincere and friendly feeling toward me, and has shown me that him + whom I have always loved of my own free will I ought with the more + reason to esteem and honor. Bene vale et me dilige." + +With these words our knowledge of Matius comes almost to an end. His life +was prolonged into the imperial period, and, strangely enough, in one of +the few references to him which we find at a later date, he is +characterized as "the friend of Augustus" (divi Augusti amicus). It would +seem that the affection which he felt for Caesar he transferred to Caesar's +heir and successor. He still holds no office or title. In this connection +it is interesting to recall the fact that we owe the best of Cicero's +philosophical work to him, the "Academics," the "De Finibus," and the +"Tusculan Questions," for Cicero tells us in his letter that he was +induced to write his treatises on philosophy by Matius. It is a pleasant +thing to think that to him we may also be indebted for Cicero's charming +essay "On Friendship." The later life of Matius, then, we may think was +spent in retirement, in the study of philosophy, and in the pursuit of +literature. His literary pursuits give a homely and not unpleasant touch +to his character. They were concerned with gastronomy, for Columella, in +the first century of our era, tells us[147] that Matius composed three +books, bearing the titles of "The Cook," "The Butler," and "The +Picklemaker," and his name was transmitted to a later generation in a dish +known as "mincemeat a la Matius" (_minutal Matianum_).[148] He passes out +of the pages of history in the writings of Pliny the Elder as the man who +"invented the practice of clipping shrubbery."[149] To him, then, we +perhaps owe the geometrical figures, and the forms of birds and beasts +which shrubs take in the modern English garden. His memory is thus ever +kept green, whether in a way that redounds to his credit or not is left +for the reader to decide. + + + + +Index + + + +Acta Diurna. +Anoyran monument. +Anglo-Saxons, compared with Romans, + in government; + in private affairs. +Arval Hymn, the. +Ascoli's theory of the differentiation of the Romance languages. +Augustus, + "Res Gestae"; + his benefactions. + +Batha, a municipal expense. +Benefactions, private, + co-operation with the government; + _objects_; + comparison of ancient and modern objects; + of AEmilius; + of Pompey; + of Augustus; + motives; + expected of prominent men; + attempts at regulation; + a recognized responsibility; + a legal obligation on municipal officials; + offices thereby limited to the rich; + of rich private citizens; + effect on municipal life and character; + on private citizens; + charity. +Burial societies. + +Caelius, estimate of Curio. +Caesar, + expenditures as sedile; + and Curio; + secures Curio as agent in Rome; + unprepared for civil war; + _et passim_ in chapters on Curio and Matius. +Cato the elder, his diction. +Charity. +Church, the Christian, influence on the spread of Latin. +Cicero, + quotation from a letter in colloquial style; + his "corrupt practices act,"; + and Scaptius; + and Curio; + _correspondence_ with Matius. +Civic pride of Romans. +Civil war, outbreak of. +Combinations in restraint of trade; + government intervention. +Common people, + their language logical; + progressive and conservative elements. +Common people of Rome, + their language (see _Latin, colloquial_); + their religious beliefs; + philosophy of life; + belief in future life. +Controversiae of the schools of rhetoric. +Corporations; + aid the government; + collect taxes; + in politics; + many small stockholders. +Cromer, Lord, "Ancient and Modern Imperialism,". +Curio, + funeral games in his father's honor; +character; + family; + relations with Cicero; + beginning of public life; + relations with Caesar; + openly espouses Caesar's cause; + popularity; + as quaestor; + in the Clodian affair; + Caelius's opinion of him; + as tribune; + relations with Pompey; + forces conservatives to open hostilities; + his part in the civil war; + death. + +Dacia, Latin in. +Dialects in Italy, their disappearance. +Diez, the Romance philologist. +Diocletian's policy; + his edict to regulate prices; + content; + discovery of document; + amount extant; + date; + style; + provisions of the edict; + extracts; + discussion; + made prices uniform; + its prices are retail; + interesting deductions; + effect; + repeal. + +English language in India. +Epitaphs, + deal with the common people; + length of Roman epitaphs; + along Appian Way; + sentiments expressed; + show religious beliefs; + gods rarely named; + Mother Earth. +Epitaphs, metrical, + praises of women predominate; + literary merit; + art. +Etienne, Henri, first scholar to notice colloquial Latin. + +Food, + cost of, comparison with to-day; + free distribution of. + +Gracchi, the. +Greek language, + in Italy; + not conquered by Latin; + influence on Latin. +Groeber's theory of the differentiation of the Romance languages; + criticism of. +Guilds; + were non-political; + inscriptional evidence; + comparison of conditions in East and West; + objects; + dinners; + temples; + rules; + no attempts to raise wages; + religious character; + began to enter politics; + attitude of government toward; + decline. + +Hempl's theory of language rivalry. +Horace, his "curiosa felicitas,". + +Inscription from Pompeii, in colloquial Latin. + +Julia, death of. +Julian's edict to regulate the price of grain. + +Labor-unions. (See _Guilds_.) +Lactantius, "On the Deaths of Those Who Persecuted (the Christians),". +Languages spoken in Italy in the early period; + influence of other languages on Latin, 22. (See also _Greek_.) +Latin language, + extent; + unifying influences; + uniformity; + evidence of inscriptions; + causes of its spread; + colonies; + roads; + merchants; + soldiers; + government officials; + the church; + its superiority not a factor; + sentiment a cause; + "peaceful invasion,". +Latin, colloquial, its study neglected till recently; + first noticed in modern times by Henri Etienne; + its forms, how determined; + ancient authority for its existence; + evidence of the Romance languages; + aid derived from a knowledge of spoken English; + analytical formation of tenses; + slang; + extant specimens; + causes of variation; + external influences on; + influence of culture; + definition of colloquial Latin; + relation to literary Latin; + careless pronunciation; + accent different from literary Latin; + confusion of genders; + monotonous style; + tendencies in vocabulary, 64-7: + in syntax; + effect of loss of final letters; + reunion with literary Latin; + still exists in the Romance languages; + date when it became the separate Romance language; + specimens quoted. +Latin, literary, + modelled on Greek; + relation to colloquial Latin; + standardized by grammarians; + style unnatural; + reunion with colloquial Latin; + disappearance. +Latin, preliterary. +Laws of the Twelve Tables; + excerpt from. +Living, cost of, comparison with to-day. +Livius Andronicus. +Lucan's account of the death of Curio. + +Matius, Gaius, + early life and character; + with Caesar in Gaul; + friendship with Caesar, _passim_; + accepted no office; + devotion to Caesar; + unpopularity due to it; + correspondence with Cicero; + defence of his devotion to Caesar; + prompted Cicero's best philosophical works; + later life; + literary works. +Menippean satire. +Milesian tales. +Money, unit of. + +Naevius. +Ninus romance; + and Petronius. + +Organization, of capitalists (see _Corporations_); + of labor (see _Guilds_). +Oscan. + +Paternalism, + beginnings of, in Rome; + effect on people. +Patron, office of; + benefactions of. +Pervigilium Veneris. +Petronius, Satirae; + excerpt from; + original size; + motif; + Trimalchio's Dinner; + satirical spirit; + literary criticism; + Horatian humor; + cynical attitude; + realism; + prose-poetic form; + origin of this genre of literature; + the Satirae and the epic; + and the heroic romance; + and the Menippean satire; + and the Milesian tale; + and the prologue of comedy; + and the mime; + the Satirae perhaps a mixture of many types; + originated with Petronius. +Plautus. +Poetry of the common people, + dedicatory; + ephemeral; + graffiti; + borrowed from the Augustan poets; + folk poetry; + children's jingles. +Pompey, + his benefactions; + ordered to march against Caesar; + _et passim_ in chapter on Curio. +Prices, + controlled by corporations; + attempts at government regulation. +Probus, the "Appendix" of. +Prose-poetic form. + +Ritschl, the Plautine scholar. +Romance, the realistic, origin obscure. + (See _Petronius, Satirae_.) +Romance languages, + causes of their differentiation, Groeber's theory; + Ascoli's theory; + date of their beginning; + descended from colloquial Latin; + reasons of their agreement; + common source. +Romances, the Greek, theory of origin. + +Salaries of municipal officers. + (See also _Wages_.) +Scaptius and Cicero. +Seneca the elder, "Controversiae,". +Strasburg oath. +Strikes. + +Theatres a municipal expense. +Trimalchio's Dinner. + +Umbrian. +Urso, constitution of. + +Wages in Roman times; + compared with to-day; + and guilds; + and slavery. + (See also _Salaries_.) + + + + +Footnotes + + + +[1] _Cf._ A. Ernout, _Le Parler de Preneste_, Paris, 1905. + +[2] The relation between Latin and the Italic dialects may be illustrated +by an extract or two from them with a Latin translation. An Umbrian +specimen may be taken from one of the bronze tablets found at Iguvium, +which reads in Umbrian: Di Grabouie, saluo seritu ocrem Fisim, saluam +seritu totam Iiouinam (_Iguvinian Tables_ VI, a. 51), and in Latin: Deus +Grabovi, salvam servato arcem Fisiam, salvam servato civitatem Iguvinam. A +bit of Oscan from the Tabula Bantina (Tab. Bant. 2, 11) reads: suaepis +contrud exeic fefacust auti comono hipust, molto etanto estud, and in +Latin: siquis contra hoc fecerit aut comitia habuerit, multa tanta esto. + +[3] _Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, IX, 782, furnishes a case in point. + +[4] _Cf._ G. Mohl, _Introduction a la chronologie du Latin vulgaire_, +Paris, 1899. + +[5] Pauly-Wissowa, _Real-Encyclopadie_, IV, 1179 _ff._ + +[6] Marquardt, _Roemische Staatsverwaltung_, II, p. 463. + +[7] _Cf._, _e.g._, Pirson, _La langue des inscriptions Latines de la +Gaule_, Bruxelles, 1901; Carnoy, _Le Latin d'Espagne d'apres les +inscriptions_, Bruxelles, 1906; Hoffmann, _De titulis Africae Latinis +quaestiones phoneticae_, 1907; Kuebler, _Die lateinische Sprache auf +afrikanischen Inschriften_ (_Arch, fuer lat. Lex._, vol. VIII), and Martin, +_Notes on the Syntax of the Latin Inscriptions Found in Spain_, Baltimore, +1909. + +[8] _Cf._ L. Hahn, _Rom und Romanismus im griechisch-roemischen Osten_ +(esp. pp. 222-268), Leipzig, 1906. + +[9] _Proceedings of the American Philological Association_, XXIX (1898), +pp. 31-47. For a different theory of the results of language-conflict, +_cf._ Groeber, _Grundriss der romanischen Philologie_, I, pp. 516, 517. + +[10] A very interesting sketch of the history of the Latin language in +this region may be seen in Ovide Densusianu's _Histoire de la langue +Roumaine_, Paris, 1902. + +[11] Gorra, _Lingue Neolatine_, pp. 66-68. + +[12] Groeber, _Grundriss der romanischen Philologie_, pp. 517 and 524. + +[13] _Cf._ Groeber in _Archiv fuer lateinische Lexikographie und Grammatik_, +I, p. 210 _ff._ + +[14] _Is Modern-Language Teaching a Failure?_ Chicago, 1907. + +[15] _Cf._ Abbott, _History of Rome_, pp. 246-249. + +[16] Schuchardt, _Vokalismus des Vulgaerlateins, I_, 103 _ff._ + +[17] _Cf._ Groeber, _Archiv fuer lateinische Lexikographie und Grammatik_, +I, 45. + +[18] Thielmann, _Archiv_, II, 48 _ff._; 157 _ff._ + +[19] From the "Laws of the Twelve Tables" of the fifth century B.C. See +Bruns, _Fontes iuris Romani antiqui_, sixth edition, p. 31. + +[20] _Appendix Probi_, in Keil's _Grammatici Latini_, IV, 197 _ff._ + +[21] "The Accent in Vulgar and Formal Latin," in _Classical Philology_, II +(1907), 445 _ff._ + +[22] Buecheler, _Carmina Latina epigraphica_, No. 53. The originals of all +the bits of verse which are translated in this paper may be found in the +collection whose title is given here. Hereafter reference to this work +will be by number only. + +[23] No. 443. + +[24] No. 92. + +[25] No. 128. + +[26] No. 127. + +[27] No. 876. + +[28] No. 1414. + +[29] No. 765. + +[30] No. 843. + +[31] No. 95. + +[32] No. 1578. + +[33] Nos. 1192 and 1472. + +[34] No. 1037. + +[35] No. 1039. + +[36] G. W. Van Bleek, Quae de hominum post mortem eondicione doceant +carmina sepulcralia Latina. + +[37] No. 1495. + +[38] No. 1496. + +[39] No. 86. + +[40] No. 1465. + +[41] No. 1143. + +[42] No. 1559. + +[43] No. 1433. + +[44] No. 225. + +[45] No. 143. + +[46] No. 83. + +[47] No. 1500. + +[48] No. 190. + +[49] No. 244. + +[50] No. 1499. + +[51] No. 856. + +[52] Society and Politics in Ancient Rome, p. 183. + +[53] No. 562. + +[54] No. 52. + +[55] No. 1251. + +[56] No. 106. + +[57] No. 967. + +[58] No. 152. + +[59] No. 1042. + +[60] No. 1064. + +[61] No. 98. + +[62] Buecheler, _Carmina Latino epigraphica_, No. 899. + +[63] No. 19. + +[64] No. 866. + +[65] No. 863. + +[66] No. 937. + +[67] No. 949. + +[68] No. 943. + +[69] No. 945. + +[70] No. 354. + +[71] _Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, IV, 6892. + +[72] Buecheler, No. 928. + +[73] No. 333. + +[74] No. 931. + +[75] No. 933. + +[76] No. 38. + +[77] No. 270. + +[78] Habeat scabiem quisquis ad me venerit novissimus. + +[79] Rex erit qui recte faciet, qui non faciet non erit. + +[80] + + Gallos Caesar in triumphum ducit, idem in curiam; + Galli bracas deposuerunt, latum clavom sumpserunt. + +[81] + + Brutus quia reges eiecit, consul primus factus est; + Hic quia consoles eiecit, rex postremo factus est. + +[82] Salva Roma, salva patria, salvus est Germanicus. + +[83] _Cf._ Schmid, "Der griechische Roman," _Neue Jahrb._, Bd XIII (1904), +465-85; Wilcken, in _Hermes_, XXVIII, 161 _ff._, and in _Archiv f. +Papyrusforschung_, I, 255 _ff._; Grenfell-Hunt, _Fayum Towns and Their +Papyri_ (1900), 75 _ff._, and _Rivista di Filologia_, XXIII, I _ff._ + +[84] Some of the important late discussions of the Milesian tale are by +Buerger, _Hermes_ (1892), 351 _ff._; Norden, _Die antike Kunstprosa_, II, +602, 604, n.; Rohde, _Kleine Schriften_, II, 25 _ff._; Buerger, _Studien +zur Geschichte d. griech. Romans_, I (_Programm von Blankenburg a. H._, +1902); W. Schmid, _Neue Jahrb. f. d. klass. Alt._ (1904), 474 _ff._; +Lucas, "Zu den Milesiaca des Aristides," _Philologus_, 61 (1907), 16 _ff._ + +[85] On the origin of the _prosimetrum cf._ Hirzel, _Der Dialog_, 381 +_ff._; Norden, _Die antike Kunstprosa_, 755. + +[86] _Cf._ Rosenbluth, _Beitraege zur Quellenkunde von Petrons Satiren_. +Berlin, 1909. + +[87] This theory in the main is suggested by Rohde, _Der griechische +Roman_, 2d ed., 267 (Leipzig, 1900), and by Ribbeck, _Geschichte d. roem. +Dichtung_, 2d ed., III, 150. + +[88] _Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, vol. III, pp. 1926-1953. Mommsen's +text with a commentary has been published by H. Bluemner, in _Der +Maximaltarif des Diocletian_, Berlin, 1893. A brief description of the +edict may be found in the Pauly-Wissowa _Real-Encyclopadie der classischen +Altertumswissenschaft_, under "Edictum Diocletiani," and K. Buecher has +discussed some points in it in the _Zeitschrift fuer die gesamte +Staatswissenschaft_, vol. L (1894), pp. 189-219 and 672-717. + +[89] The method of arrangement may be illustrated by an extract from the +first table, which deals with grain and vegetables. + +[90] The present-day prices which are given in the third column of these +two tables are taken from Bulletin No. 77 of the Bureau of Labor, and from +the majority and minority reports of the Select Committee of the U.S. +Senate on "Wages and Prices of Commodities" (Report, No. 912, Documents, +Nos. 421 and 477). In setting down a number to represent the current price +of an article naturally a rough average had to be struck of the rates +charged in different parts of the country. Bulletin No. 77, for instance, +gives the retail price charged for butter at 226 places in 68 different +cities, situated in 39 different States. At one point in Illinois the +price quoted in 1906 was 22 cents, while at a point in Pennsylvania 36 +cents was reported, but the prevailing price throughout the country ranged +from 26 to 32, so that these figures were set down in the table. A similar +method has been adopted for the other items. A special difficulty arises +in the case of beef, where the price varies according to the cut. The +price of wheat is not given in the extant fragment of the edict, but has +been calculated by Bluemner from statements in ancient writers. So far as +the wages of the ancient and modern workman are concerned we must remember +that the Roman laborer in many cases received "keep" from his employer. +Probably from one-third to three-sevenths should be added to his daily +wage to cover this item. Statistics published by the Department of +Agriculture show that the average wage of American farm laborers per month +during 1910 was $27.50 without board and $19.21 with board. The item of +board, therefore, is three-sevenths of the money paid to the laborer when +he keeps himself. One other point of difference between ancient and modern +working conditions must be borne in mind in attempting a comparison. We +have no means of knowing the length of the Roman working day. However, it +was probably much longer than our modern working day, which, for +convenience' sake, is estimated at eight hours. + +[91] Wholesale price in 1909. + +[92] Receives "keep" also. + +[93] Eight-hour day assumed. + +[94] _Cf._ Report of the Commissioner of Labor, pp. 622-625. In England +between one-third and one-fourth; _cf._ Bulletin, No. 77, p. 345. + +[95] _Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, II, 5489. + +[96] Wilmanns, _Exempla Inscriptionum Latinarum_, 1772. + +[97] _Ibid._, 2037. + +[98] _Ibid._, 1859. + +[99] _Ibid._, 2054. + +[100] _Ibid._, 2099. + +[101] 23:48_f._ + +[102] _Cic., ad Att._, 5.21. 10-13; 6.1. 5-7; 6.2.7; 6.3.5. + +[103] 6.17. + +[104] _Captivi_, 489 _ff._ + +[105] _Livy_, 38. 35. + +[106] Plautus, _Pseudolus_, 189. + +[107] Some of the most important discussions of workmen's guilds among the +Romans are to be found in Waltzing's _Etude historique sur les +corporations professionnelles chez les Romains_, 3 vols., Louvain, 1895-9; +Liebenam's _Zur Geschichte und Organisation des roemischen Vereinswesen_, +Leipzig, 1890; Ziebarth's _Das Griechische Vereinswesen_, Leipzig, 1896, +pp. 96-110; Kornemann's article, "Collegium," in the Pauly-Wissowa _Real +Encyclopadie_. Other literature is cited by Waltzing, I, pp. 17-30, and by +Kornemann, IV, columns 479-480. + +[108] _Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum_, XI, 5047. + +[109] _Ibid._, V, 7906. + +[110] _Ibid._, III, p. 953. + +[111] _Ibid._, VIII, 14683. + +[112] _Ibid._, III, 3583. + +[113] _Ibid._, XIV, 2112. + +[114] _Ibid._, XIV, 326. + +[115] _E.g._, Clodius and Milo. + +[116] Lucan, 4. 814 _ff._; Velleius, 2. 48; Pliny, Nat. Hist., 7. 116 +_ff._ + +[117] Cicero, Brutus, 122, 210, 214. + +[118] _Ibid._, 280. + +[119] Cicero, _Epist. ad Fam._, 2. 1. + +[120] Cicero, _Phil._, 2. 45 _f._ + +[121] Cicero, _ad Att._, 1. 14. 5. + +[122] _Ibid._, 1. 14. 5. + +[123] _Ibid._, 2. 12. 2. + +[124] _Ibid._, 2.7.3; 2.8.1; 2.12.2. + +[125] Suet., _Julius_, 52. + +[126]_Ad Att._, 2. 19. 3. + +[127] _Ad fam._, 2.4. + +[128] _Ibid._, 2.6. + +[129]_Ibid._, 8. 4. 2. + +[130] Dio's account (40. 61) of Curio's course seems to harmonize with +this interpretation. + +[131] "Cicero, _ad fam._, 8.10.4. + +[132] White's Civil Wars of Appian, 2.27. + +[133] Cicero, _ad fam._, 8.6.5. + +[134] Valerius Maximus, 9.1.6. + +[135] Vell. Pat., 2.48. + +[136] Civil Wars, 2.30. + +[137] _Ad Att._, 6.9.4. + +[138] Civil Wars of Appian, 2.31. + +[139] Velleius Paterculus, 2.48. + +[140] Caesar, Civil War, 1. 12. + +[141] _Ibid._, 1.182 + +[142] _Ibid._, 2.23. + +[143] _Ibid._, 2.42. + +[144] _Pharsalia_, 4. 807-824. + +[145] Cicero, _Epistulae ad famiares_, 11.27. + +[146] Cicero, _Epist. ad fam._, 11.28. + +[147] 12.46.1. + +[148] Apicius, 4.174. + +[149] _Naturalis Historia_, 12.13. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Common People of Ancient Rome +by Frank Frost Abbott + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COMMON PEOPLE OF ANCIENT ROME *** + +***** This file should be named 13226.txt or 13226.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/3/2/2/13226/ + +Produced by Distributed Proofreaders + +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. 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