CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 924071 1 8901 7 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 189 017 MOMMSE^'S HISTORY OF ROME. VOL. I, THE HISTORY OF ROME BT THEODOR ^OMMSEN TRANSLATED WITH THE author's BANOTION AND ADDITIONS BT THE REV. WILLIAM P. DICKSON. D.D. Bxaiva PBJFBasoB of biblioal obiticisu ih tub univebsity op QLASaOVV LATU CI.AS8ICAL BXAUINBB IS TUX CMIVSBBITT OP ST, ANDBEWS WITH A PREFACE BY DS. LEONHARD SCHMITZ NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, 1887. TROW'8 PRINTING AND BOOKBINDIN ^EW YORK. MY FRIEND :ORIZ HAUPT OF BERLIN PREFATORY NOTE TO THE PRESENT EDITION In preparing this new edition, I have incorporated all the additions and alterations which are introduced in the fourth edition of the German ; * some of which, especially in the first volume, are of considerable importance, such aa the fuller view given jf the constitution and functions of the senate, the earlier paragraphs of the chapter on Re« ligion, and the note on the history of the Greek alphabet at p. 381. I have also embraced the opportunity of correct- ing various errors of my own or of the printer, that had formerly escaped notice ; and I have subjected the transla- tion particularly in the earlier portion to carefiil revision, so as to make the rendering more accurate and consistent, and in not a few instances, I trust, more idiomatic. Glasgow Colleok, OcUiber, 1868. • In ^affth edition of the first volume, which Dr. Mommsen has re- cently Bent to me, he has made no change of any moment, except the In- eertion of a note on the newly discovered inscription of ^milius FauUua, which wUl be found at the end of Vol. IL of the English edition. PREFACE TO THE FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. Dr. Thkodor Mommskn'8 researches into the languages, laws, and institutions of ancient Rome and Italy are now so well known and appreciated by the best scholars of this country, that it may seem presumptuous on my part to step forward for the purpose of introducing his work on Roman history to the English public. I should indeed have been glad to leave this duty to others, or have allowed the book to take its own chance, feeling quite sure that no words of mine are likely to attract readers, and that the work itself, in its English garb, will become as popular in this country as it is in the land of its birth. But several years ago I was applied to by more than one enthusiastic admirer of Dr. Mommsen in Germany to do something towards making his History of Rome known in this coun- try, and a repeated perusal of the German original led me to the conviction that its author richly deserved the admi- ration of his countrymen. I accordingly felt it both a duty and a pleasure, some years back, to prevail upon my friend, Mr. George Robertson, to give to the public at least a specimen of the book, in an English translation of the first, or introductory chapters, on the early inhabitants of Italy — a subject on which no man is better entitled to be lis tened to with respect and attention than Dr. Mommsen. The specimen which was then published would, I hoped, 8 Preface to the First English Edition. create a desire for the whole work, and in this hope I nave not been disappointed. The result is the present transla- tion ; of its merits it does not become me to speak in this place. But I may be permitted to remark that, unlike the common run of translations from the German, it was un- dertaken by Mr. Dickson entirely as a labour of love, and that his sole object has been to lay before his countrymen a masterwork of a foreign literature, and to spare no trouble to do justice to its author. Here my functions might cease, and I might safely leave the book to tell its own tale; but for the younger generation of students I would fain venture to add one or two observations on the relation in which Mommsen's work stands to its predecessors, and especially to Niebuhr, for he himself scarcely ever enters into any controversial discus- sions with those who have laboured before him in the same field, and whose names he in fact hardly ever mentions. In regard to this point it ought to be borne in mind that Dr. Mommsen's work, though the production of a man of most profound and extensive learning and knowledge of the world, is not so much designed for the professional scholar as for intelligent readers of all classes, who take an interest in the history of bygone ages, and are inclined there to seek information that may guide them safely through the per- plexing mazes of modern history. Much that could not but be obscure and unintelligible in the days of Niebuhr has since been made clear by the more extended researches of numerous scholars in this and other countries ; many mistakes unavoidable to the first inquirers have been recti- fied ; and many an hypothesis has been proved to be with- out solid foundation; but with all this the main results arrived at by the inquiries of Niebuhr, such as his views of the ancient population of Rome, the origin of the Plebs, the Preface to the First English Edition. 9 relation between the patricians and plebeians, the real na- ture of the ager publicus, and many other points of inter- est, have been acknowledged by all his successors, and how- ever much some of them may be inclined to cavil at par- ticular opinions, it must be owned that the main pillars of his grand structure are still unshaken, and are as such tacit- ly acknowledged by Dr. Mommsen, who in the present work has incorporated all that later researches have brought to light in the history not only of Rome, but of all other nations which in the course of time became subject to the City of the Seven Hills. Many points no doubt are still matters of mere conjecture, and Dr. Mommsen has nothing to offer in such cases but theories ; but whatever ultimately their value may be found to be, they are at all events evi- dences of progress, and will act as a stimulus to the stu- dents of our days as did the views of Niebuhr to his con- temporaries half a century ago. L. SCHMITZ. SDiHBDBaB December, 1881. i* PliEi'ATOET NOTE BY THE TEANSLATOJ; TO THE FIRST EDITION: In requesting English scholars to receive with indul- gence this first portion of a translation of Dr. Mommsen'a " Romische Geschichte," I am somewhat in the position of Albinus ; who, when appealing to his readers to pardon the imperfections of the Roman History which he had written in indifferent Greek, was met by Cato with the rejoinder that he was not compelled to write at all — that, if the Am- phictyonic Council had laid their commands on him, the case would have been different — but that it was quite out of place to ask the indulgence of his readers when his task had been self-imposed. I may state, however, that I did not undertake this task, until I had sought to ascertain whether it was likely to be taken up by any one more qualified to do justice to it. When Dr. Mommsen's work accidentally came into my hands some years after its first appearance, and revived my interest in studies which I had long laid aside for others more strictly professional, 1 had little doubt that its merits would have already attracted gpfficient attention amidst the learned leisure of Oxford to _jmistakLr,ine of her great scholars to clothe it in an English dress. But it appeared on inquiry that, while there was a great desire to see it translated, and the purpose of trans lating it had been entertained in more quarters than one, the projects had from various causes miscarried. Mr, Prefatory Note ly the Translator. 11 George Robertson published an excellent translation (to which, so far as it goes, I desire to aclcnowledge my obliga- tions) of the introductory chapters on the early inhabitants of Italy ; but other studies and engagements did not per- mit him to proceed with it. I accordingly requested and obtained Dr. Mommsen's permission to translate his work. The ti-anslation has been prepared from the third edition of the original, published in the spring of the present year at Berlin. The sheets have been transmitted to Dr. Momm- sen, who has kindly communicated to me such suggestions as occurred to him. I have thus been enabled, more espe- cially in the first volume, to correct those passages where I had misapprehended or failed to express the author's mean- ing, and to incorporate in the English work various addi- tions and corrections which do not appear in the original. The author has also furnished me with some interesting notes, such as that on the Servian census at page 95, that on the word vates at page 240, and that on Appius Claudius at page 292.* With reference to the latter I have inserted in an appendix Dr. Mommsen's more matured views as embodied by him in a paper on the Patrician Claudii re- cently read before the Prussian Academy. The note at page 442,f on the treaties with Carthage, has been extract- ed from the author's work on Roman Chronology — a book which, in addition to its intrinsic merits, derives a peculiar interest from the fact, that it is written in friendly centre versy with the author's own brother. In executing the translation I have endeavoured to fol • [The note on the Servian census has been preserved at p. 133, al- though not quite consistent with Dr. Mommsen's later view in vol. ii.jx ; that on the word vatea at p. 303 has been considerably modified," and the view given in the note on Appius Claudius has now been em bodied in the text] f [Now given in Appendix II.] 12 PrefalM'y Note ly the Translator. low the original as closely as is consistent with a due r& gard to the diiference of idiom. Many of our trauslatioM from the German are so literal as to reproduce the very order of the German sentence, so that they are, if not alto gather unintelligible to the English reader, at least far frotn readable, while others deviate so entirely from the form of the original as to be no longer translations in the proper sense of the term. I have sought to pursue a middle course between a mere literal translation, which would be repulsive, and a loose paraphrase, which would be in the case of such a work peculiarly unsatisfactory. Those who are most conversant with the difficulties of such a task will probably be the most willing to show forbearance towards the shortcomings of my performance, and in particular towards the too numerous traces of the German idiom, which, on glancing over the sheets, I find it still to retain. The reader may perhaps be startled by the occurrence now and then of modes of expression more familiar and colloquial than is usually the case in historical works. This, however, is a characteristic feature of the original, to which in fact it owes not a little of its charm. Dr. Momm- sen often uses expressions that are not to be found in the dictionary, and he freely takes advantage of the unlimited facilities afforded by the German language for the coinage or the combination of words. I have not unfrequently, in deference to his wishes, used such combinations as *' Cartha- gino-Sicilian," " Romano-Hellenic," &c., although less con* genial to our English idiom, for the sake of avoiding longer periphrases. In Dr. Mommsen's book, as in every other German work that has occasion to touch on abstract matters, there occur sentences couched in a peculiar terminology and not very suscep'able of translation. There are one or two sen. Prefatory Note by the Tramslator. 13 tences of this sort, more especially in the chapter on Ee- ligion in the 1st volume, and in the critique of Euripides in the last chapter of the 2nd volume, as to which I am not very confident that I have seized or succeeded in expressing Ihe meaning. In these cases I have translated literally. In the spelling of proper names I have generally adopt- ed the Latin orthography as more familiar to scholars in this country, except in cases where the spelling adopted by Dr. Mommsen is marked by any special peculiarity. At the same time entire uniformity in this respect has not been aimed at. I have ventured in various instances to break up the paragraphs of the original and to furnish them with addi- tional marginal headings, and have carried out more fully the notation of the years B.C. on the margin. Two more volumes of still deeper interest bring down the history to the fall of the Eepublic. Dr. Mommsen has expressed his intention of resuming the work and narrating the History of the Empire. But the execution of this plan has been suspended owing to his other engagements. He is at present occupied, under the auspices of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, in editing a great collection of Latin Inscriptions — a field of labour which he has made pecu- liarly his own. It is due to Dr. Schmitz, who has kindly encouraged me in this undertaking, that I should state that I alone am r* sponsible for the execution of the translation. Whatever may be thought of it in other respects, I venture to hope that it may convey to the English reader a tolerably accu- rate impression of the contents and general spirit of thi book. William P. Dicbsoh. UutSE OF Camebon, St. Andrews, December, 1861. EXTEACT FEOM DE. MOMMSEN'S PEEFACE. The Varronian computation by years of the City is re- tained in the text ; the figures on the margin indicate th« corresponding year before the birth of Christ. In calculating the corresponding years, the year 1 of the City has h'^en assumed as identical with the year 753 B.C., and •with Olymp. 6, 4 ; although, if we take into account the circumstance that the Ronnan solar year began with the 1st day of March, and the Greek with the 1st day of July, the year 1 of the City would according to more exact cal- culation correspond to the last ten months of 753 and the first two months of 752 B.C., and to the last four months of 01. 6, 3 and the first eight of 01. 6, 4. The Roman and Greek money has uniformly been com- muted on the basis of assuming the hbral as and sesieriiits, and the denarius and Attic drachma, respectively as equal, and taking for all sums above 100 denarii the present value in gold, and for all sums under 100 denarii the present value in silver, of the corresponding weight. The Roman pound (= 327'45 grammes) of gold, equal to 4000 sesterces, has thus, according to the ratio of gold to silver 1 : 15-5, been reckoned at 304-^- Prussian thaler s [about £43], and the denarius, according to the value of silver, at 7 Prussian groschen [about 8rf.].* Kiepert's map will give a clearer idea of the militarj consolidation of Italy than can be conveyed by any descrip. tion. » [I have deemed it, in general, sufficient to give the value of the Eo- man money approximately in round numbers, assuming for that purpost lOOsesterci'S as equivalent to £1. — Te.] OOSTEl^TS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. BOOK FIRST. THE PERIOD ANTERIOR TO THE ABOLITION OF THJS MONARCHY. CHAPTER L IsTnODUCTiON .••.... as CHAPTER n. The Easliest Migrations into Italt . , . .29 CHAPTER m. The Seitlkments op the Latins . . . , .68 CHAPTER IV'. Tee Beginnings of Rome , . . . . . fO CHAPTER V. Ita OniGCNAL Constitution op Rome . . . • 88 CHAPTER TL The Noh-Bueqesses and the Reformed Conbtitutioh 123 CHAPTER Vn. The Hegemony of Rome in Latiitm . . . 148 VOL. L nmi CONTENTS OF CHAPTER Vm. rioa Thb Umbko-Sabellian Stocks. Beginndigs of the Samnites 160 CHAPTER IX. Tbe Eiruscanb ....... 166 CHAPTER X The Hellenes in Italy. Maritime Sufuxmaot or ihb Tuscans and Cabthaginians . . . . 17t CHAPTER XL Law and JirsncB . . . , , ,201 CHAPTER Xn. Religion . . . . , , .218 CHAPTER Xm. Agricultuke, Trade, and OomtERCE .... 248 CHAPTER XIV. Measuring and Writing . , , , .271 CHAPTER XV. ^* 281 BOOK SECOND, FEOIC THB ABOLITION OF THE MONARCHY US ROltS TO THE UNION OP ITALT, CHAPTER L OhaKOK op THK OoNSTITCTION. LiMITATIOlf OF THB PoWBB OP THB Magistrate .... gig CHAPTER n. The Tribunate of the Plebs and the Decemtirate , . s48 THE FIRST VOLUMK. lu CHAPTER m. rial The EdUALizATioN of the Obdebs, and the New Abistoobaot 872 CHAPTER rv. Fill of thb Etscsoah Power. The Celts . . 41S CHAPTER V. Subjdoation of the Latins and Campanlans bt Rom 48t CHAPTER Vl SiBVGOLB OF THE ITALIANS AGAINST RoUE . • . 464 CHAPTER Vn. Teb Stbuoole between Pybrhus and Rome, aicd XTkios of Italt ....,.' 491 CHAPTER VIIL Law. Religion. Militabt Ststem. Economic Condition. NATioNALirr ...... 680 CHAPTER rX. A>T AND SOIEBCK .•...> MS APPENDIX. I. Tub Patbiciaji Clawdii ... . 618 D. Thi Tbiaties between Rome and Oaxthagi . 611 BOOK FIEST. THE PERIOD ANTERIOS TO THE ABOLITION OF THE MONARCHY. 'fa ira^ouoTf^ce acupSiq ficv wqiXv Sia yqovov TlX^&Oi cMvata Sjir is 69 TiH/jiij^ltav (iiv iTtl fiax^orarov (TxoTzovvTb fiob TttartZffai, ^Ufi^ai- rn ov fuycHa ra/ ytvia&cu, oiltt *ara roiiq noXl/iovi ovrt e? rd iiXa. Tqvctdidis. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. The Mediterranean Sea with its various branches, penfr trating far into the great Continent, forms tha tooientiiia- largest gulf of the ocean, and, alternately nar- rowed by islands or projections of the land and expanding to considerable breadth, at once separates and connects the three divisions of the Old World. The shores of this Inland sea were in ancient times peopled by vari- ous nations belonging in an ethnographical and philological point of view to different races, but constituting in their historical aspect one whole. This historic whole has been usually, but not very appropriately, entitled the history of the ancient world. It is in reality the history of civiliza- tion among the Mediterranean nations; and, as it passes before us in its successive stages, it presents four great phases of development — the history of the Coptic or Egyp- tian stock dwelling on the southern shore, the history of the Aramaean or Syrian nation which occupied the east coast and extended into the interior of Asia as far as the Euphrates and Tigris, and the histories of the twin-peoples, the Hellenes and Italians, who received as their heritage the countries on the European shore. Each of these histories was in its earlier stages connected with other regions and with other cycles of historical evolution ; but each soon en- tered on its own distinctive career. The surrounding nations of alien or even of kindred extraction — the Berbers and Negroes of Africa, the Arabs, Persians, and Indians of Asia, the Celts and Germans of Europe — came into mani- fold contact with the peoples inhabiting the borders of the Mediterranean, but they neither imparted unto them nor received from them any influences exercising decisive effect 24 Introduction. [Book I on their respective destinies. So far, therefore, as cycles of culture admit of demarcation at all, the cycle which has its culminating points denoted by the names Thebes, Car- thage, Athens, and Rome, may be regarded as an unity. Tlie four nations represented by these names, after each of them had attained in a path of its own a peculiar and noble civilization, mingled with one another in the most varied relations of reciprocal intercourse, and skilfully elaborated and richly developed all the elements of human natura At length their cycle was accomplished. New peoples who hitherto had only laved the territories of the states of the Mediterranean, as waves lave the beach, overflowed both its shores, severed the history of its south coast from that of the north, and transferred the centre of civilization from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean. The distinction be- tween ancient and modern history, therefore, is no mere accident, nor yet a mere matter of chronological conve- nience. What is called modern history is in reality the formation of a new cycle of culture, connected in several stages of its development with the perishing or perished civilization of the Mediterranean states, as this was connect- ed with the primitive civilization of the Indo-Germania stock, but destined, like the earlier cycle, to traverse an orbit of its own. It too is destined to experience in full measure the vicissitudes of national weal and woe, the pe- riods of growth, of maturity, and of age, the blessedness of creative effort in religion, polity, and art, the comfort of enjoying the material and intellectual acquisitions which it has won, perhaps also, some day, the decay of productive power in the satiety of contentment with the goal attained. And yet this goal will only be temporary : the grandest system of civilization has its orbit, and may complete its course ; but not so the human race, to which, just when it ieems to have reached its goal, the old task is ever set anew with a wider range and with a deeper meaning. Our aim is to exhibit the last act of this great historical itsiy. drama, to relate the ancient history of the cen- tral peninsula projecting from the northern Chap. I.] Introduction. 25 continent into the Mediterranean. It is formed by the mountain-system of the Apeaniaes branching off in a south- ern direction from the western Alps. The Apennines take in the first instance a south-eastern course between the bruader gulf of the Mediterranean on the west, and the liaiTow one on the east ; and in the close vicinity of the latter they attain their greatest elevation, which, however, ficarce reaches the line of perpetual snow, in the Abruzzi. From the Abruzzi the chain continues in a southern direc- tion, at first undivided and of considerable height ; after a depression which forms a hill-country, it splits into a some- what flattened succession of heights towards the south-east and a more rugged chain towards the south, and in both directions terminates in the formation of narrow peninsulas. The flat country on the north, extending between the Alps and the Apennines as far down as the Abruzzi, does not belong geographically, nor until a very late period even historically, to the southern land of mountain and hill, the Italy whose history is here to engage our attention. It was not till the seventh century of the city that the coast-district from Sinigaglia to Eimini, and not till the eighth that the basin of the Po, became incorporated with Italy. The an- cient boundary of Italy on the north was not the Alps but the Apennines. This mountain-system nowhere rises ab- ruptly into a precipitous chain, but, spreading broadly over the land and enclosing many valleys and table-lands con- nected by easy passes, presents conditions which well adapt it to become the settlement of man. Still more suitable in this respect are the adjacent slopes and the coast-districts on tlie east, south, and west. On the east coast the plain of Apulia, shut in towards the north by the mountain-block of the Abruzzi and only broken by the steep isolated ridge of Garganus, stretches in an uniform level with but a scan- ty development of coast and stream. On the south coast, between the two peninsulas in which the Apennines termi- pate, extensive lowlands, poorly provided with harbours but well watered and fertile, adjoin the hill-country of the inte- rior. The west coast presents a far-stretching domain in- 2 «,6 Introduction. [Boos t tersested by considerable streams, in particular by the Tiber, and shaped by the action of the waves and of the once numerous -volcanoes into manifold variety of hill and valley, harbour and island. Here the regions of Etruria, Latium, and Campania form the very flower of the land of Italy. South of Campania, the land in front of the mouu- tains gradually diminishes, and the Tyrrhenian Sea almost washes their base. Moreover, as the Peloponnesus is air tached to Greece, so the island of Sicily is attached to Italy ^the largest and fairest isle of the Mediterranean, having a mountainous and partly desert interior, but girt, espe- cially on the east and south, by a broad belt of the finest coast-land, mainly the result of volcanic action. Geograph- ically the Sicilian mountains are a continuation of the Apennines, hardly interrupted by the narrow " rent " {' P^wv) of the straits ; and in its historical relations Sicily was in earlier times quite as decidedly a part of Italy as the Peloponnesus was of Greece, — a field for the struggles of the same races, and the seat of a similar superior civili- zation. The Italian peninsula resembles the Grecian in the tem- perate climate and wholesome air that prevail on the hills of moderate height, and on the whole, also, in the valleys and plains. In development of coast it is inferior ; it wants, in particular, the island-studded sea which made the Hellenes a seafaring nation. Italy on the other hand excels its neighbour in the rich alluvial plains and the fertile and grassy mountain-slopes, which are requisite for agriculture and the rearing of cattle. Like Greece, it is a noble land which calls forth and rewards the energies of man, opening up alike for restless adventure the way to distant lands aud for quiet exertion modes of peaceful gain at home. But, while the Grecian peninsula is turned towards the east, the Italian is turned towards the west. As the coasta of Epirus and Acarnauia had but a subordinate importance in the case of Hellas, so had the Apulian and Messapian coasts in that of Italy ; and, while the regions on which the historical development of Greece has been mainly dependent Cha'- I-] Introduction. 27 — Attica and Macedonia — look to the east, Etruria, Latium and Campania look to the west. In this way the two pe ninsulas, so close neighbours and almost sisters, stand as it were averted from each other. Although the naked eyo can discern from Otranto the Acroceraunian mountains, the (talians and Hellenes came into earlier and closer contact on every other pathway rather than on the nearest across the Adriatic Sea. In their instance, as has happened so often, the historical vocation of the nations was prefigured in the relations of the ground which they occupied ; the two great stocks, on which the civilization of the ancient world grew, threw their shadow as well as their seed, the one towards the east, the other towards the west. We intend here to relate the history of Italy, not sim- itaUan his- ply the history of the city of Rome. Although, '°'^" in the formal sense of political law, it was- the civic community of Rome which gained the sovereignty first of Italy and then of the world, such a view cannot be held to express the higher and real meaning of history. What has been called the subjugation of Italy by the Ro- mans appears rather, when viewed in its true light, as the consolidation into an united state of the Whole Italian stock — a stock of which the Romans were doubtless the most powerful branch, but still were a branch only. The history of Italy falls into two main sections : (1) its Internal history down to its union under the leadership of the Latin stock, and (2) the history of its sovereignty over the world. Under the first section, which will occupy the first two books, we shall have to set forth the settle- ment of the Italian stock in the peninsula ; the imperilling of its national and political existence, and its partial subju- gation, by nations of other descent and older civilization, Greeks and Etruscans ; the rebellion of the Italians against the strangers, and the annihilation or subjection of the lat- ter; finally, the struggles between the two chief Italian stocks, the Latins and the Samnites, for the hegemony of the peninsula, and the victory of the Latins at the end of the fourth century before the birth of Christ — oi of tb» 28 Introduction. [Book \ fifth century of the city. The second section opens with the Punic vars ; it embraces the rapid extension of the do- minion of Rome up to and beyond the natural boundaries of Italy, the long status quo of the imperial period, and the collapse of the nr;ighty empire. These events will be n»» rated in the third and following books. CHAPTER II THE EARLIEST MIGRATIONS INTO ITALT. We have no information, not even a tradition, concent Prmitive '"§ ^^^ ^®* migration of the human race intc ™^o' Italy. It was the universal belief of antiquity that in Italy, as well as elsewhere, the first popu- lation had sprung from the soil. We leave it to the prov- ince of the naturalist to decide the question of the origin of different races, and of the influence of climate in producing their diversities. In a historical point of view it is neither possible, nor is it of any importance, to determine whether the oldest recorded population of a country were autoch- thones or immigrants. But it is incumbent on the histori- cal inquirer to bring to light the successive strata of popu- lation in the country of which he treats, in order to trace, from as remote an epoch as possible, the gradual progress of civilization to more perfect forms, and the suppression of races less capable of, or less advanced in, culture by na- tions of higher standing. Italy is singularly poor in memorials of the primitive period, and presents in this respect a remarkable contrast to other fields of civilization. The results of Germanic an- tiquarian research lead to the conclusion that in England, France, the North of Germany and Scandinavia, before the settlement of the Indo-Germans in those lands, there must have dwelt, or rather roamed, a people, perhaps of Mongo- lian race, gaining their subsistence by hunting and fishing, making their implements of stone, clay, or bones, adorning themselves with the teeth of animals and with amber, but unacquainted with agriculture and the use of the metals. In India, in like manner, the Indo-Germanic settlers wer« 30 EwrUest Migrations into Italy. LBook l preceded by a dark-coloured population less susceptible of culture. But in Italy we neither meet with fragments of a supplanted nation, such as the Finns and Lapps in the Celto-Germanic domain and the black tribes in the Indian mountains ; nor have any remains of an extinct primitive people been hitherto pointed out there, such as appear to be revealed in the peculiarly-formed skeletons, the places of assembling, and the burial mounds of what is called the stone-period of Germanic antiquity. Nothing has hithertc been brought to light to warraint the supposition that man- kind existed in Italy at a period anterior to the knowledge of agriculture and of the smelting of the metals ; and if the human race ever within the bounds of Italy really occupied the level of that primitive stage of culture which we are accustomed to call the savage state, every trace of such a fact has disappeared. Individual tribes, or in other words, races or stocks, are the constituent elements of the earliest history. Among the stocks which in later times we meet with in Italy, the immigration of some, of the Hellenes for instance, and the denationalization of others, such as the Bruttians and the inhabitants of the Sabine territory, are historically attested. Setting aside both these classes, there remain a number of stocks whose wanderings can no longer be traced by means of historical testimony, but only by d priori inference, and whose nationality cannot be shown to have undergone any radical change from external causes. To establish the na- tional individuality of these is the first aim of our inquiry. In such an inquiry had we nothing to fall back upon but the chaotic mass of names of tribes and the Confusion of what professes to be historical tradition, the task might well be abandoned as hopeless. The conventionally-received tradi" tion, which assumes the name of history, is composed of a few serviceable notices by civilized travellers, and a mass of mcstly worthless legends, which have usually been com* bined with little discrimination of the true character either of legend or of history. But there is another source of tradition to which we may resort, and which yields infer Oinr. 11.] Karhi'st Migrations into Italy. 81 iimtKiii fni^'iiiciitfiry but luilJicnUc; wo mean \\w incligcuoiia Imi^niiir^cs (if iJui HidckM ncIXIiuI in Ituly fi'diii tiiiid linincrno. rilj. 'I'lics(\ liiiii;u;ifj;cN, wliich llil,Viic(>, iiiiil tlui (Iciii'dcs, (if fainily l•l^lal,i(lllsllip all g 1.1k\ N(\V('i'al liinguiigda and |H'(i|il(v-i. Ill tills way ])liiliilciifi(^al rcsciircli (caclu's us to diatin- Hiiisli (lircr |)i-iiuil.iviv llidinii alcicks, 1,ho lM.py};ian, 1-lu^ Etrus- (•nil, and Mial. wliic.li wci .shall call tho llaliaii. Tim lasl is dlvidi-d iiil,(i t,\vo main lll•M.lu■lll^s, — tlll^ Latin bi-anch, and thai, Id which |Jk\ dialects iil' the lliiiliri, Mnrsi, Vdlsci, and Sainnitcs licldiiir. As l,d tlio lii|iyfj;i!in stdcU, wo havo but lit.tlo iiifoniia- tioii. At, t,lio Sdul,li-casl,crii (ixli-oiiiilv of Italy, Iftpyglond, . t' J 1 ill lh(< ]Mcs,sa|iiaii or Calaliriaii pouinaula, inscrip- tioii.s ill ft [icciiliiU' (>\l,iiicl, lailj»iiaf»o * h,'i\o been liiiiiul m Cdiisiderablo iiiiiubcrs ; inulonlilcdly riMiiiiiiis df llio dialect of the lapy;;iaiis, wlio are very diNt,iiiclly prdiidiiiuH'd by tra(lil,ioii also to have been dillerciit from t,he Latin and Saiiinite sldcks. Stal(>nu'nts deserviiie' (if cri>dit and inniK^r- ous indic.'itidiis lead to the coiK^lusidii that tho same lan- giiiiije and the same stocl; were indii^cndiis also in Apulia. Wli.'it we at present know of this ])eople sullicivs to show clearly that they were distinct froin t,he other Itali.'iiis, but do(-s not siilliee to detenniue what position shonld bo as» signed to them and to their langiiaji;e in \\w histciry of the human race. Tho inscriplions haV(> not yet be(>n, and it is scarcely t,o lio CNpooted that, they ever will be, deciphcrod. The (;■<^nitive forms, aihi and ilii, eorrespondiiii; to the Sim- SCrit itsyii and the ( the Celtic in Brittany and Wales, k to the Gaelic and 36 Ea/rliest Migrations into Italy. [Book 1 Erso. Among the vowel sounds the diphthongs in Latin and in the northern dialects generally appear very much destroyed, whereas in the southern Italian dialects they have suffered little ; and connected with this is the fact, that in composition the Roman weakens the radical vowel other- ■wise so strictly preserved, — a modification which does not take place in the kindred group of languages. The genitive of words in a is in this group as among the Greeks as, among the Romans in the matured language ae ; that of words in us is in the Samnite eis, in the Umbrian es, among the Romans ei ; the locative disappeared more and more from the language of the latter, while it continued in foil use in the other Italian dialects ; the dative plural in hus is extant only in Latin. The Umbro-Samnite infinitive in um is foreign to the Romans ; while the Osco-Umbrian future formed from the root es after the Greek fashion {her-est like Xiy-am) has almost, perhaps altogether, disappeared in Latin, and its place is supplied by the optative of the simple verb or by analogous formations from fuo (amabo). In many of these instances, however — in the forms of the cases, for example — the differences only exist in the two languages when fully formed, while at the outset they coincide. It thus appears that, while the Italian language holds an inde- pendent position by the side of the Greek, the Latin dialect within it bears a relation to the Umbro-Samnite somewhat similar to that of the Ionic to the Doric ; and the differ- ences of the Oscan and Umbrian and kindred dialects may be compared with the differences between the Dorism of Sicily and the Dorism of Sparta. Each of these linguistic phenomena is the result and the attestation of an historical event. With perfect certainty they guide us to the conclusion, that from the common cra- dle of peoples and languages there issued a stock which em- braced in common the ancestors of the Greeks and the Ital ians ; that from this, at a subsequent period, the Italian* brauTihed off; and that these again divided into the western and eastern stocks, while at a still later date the eastern be came subdivided into Umbrians and Oscans. Chap, tt] Ea/diest Migrations into Italy. 31 When and where these separations took place, language of course cannot tell ; and scarce may adventurous thought attempt to grope its conjectural way along the course of those revolutions, the earliest of which undoubtedly took place long before that migration which brought the ances- tore of the Italians across the Apennines. On the other hand the comparison of languages, when conducted with accuracy and caution, may give us an approximate idea of the degree of culture which the people had reached when these separations took place, and so furnish us with the be- ginnings of history, which is nothing but the development of civilization. For language, especially in the period of its formation, is the true image and organ of the degree of civilization attained ; its archives preserve evidence of the great revolutions in arts and in manners, and from its records the future will not fail to draw information as to those times regarding which the voice of direct tradition is dumb. During the period when the Indo-Germanic nations which are now separated still formed one stock manio oui- Speaking the same language, they attained a cer- *"^' tain stage of culture, and they had a vocabulary corresponding to it. This vocabulary the several nations carried along with them, in its conventionally established use, as a common dowry and a foundation for further struc- tures of their own. In it we find not merely the simplest terms denoting existence, actions, perceptions, such as sum, do, pater, the original echo of the impression which the ex- ternal world made on the mind of man, but also a number of words indicative of culture (not only as respects their roots, but in a form stamped upon them by custom) which are the common property of the Indo-Germanic family, and which cannot be explained either on the principle of an uni- form development in the several languages, or on the sup- position of their having subsequently borrowed one from another. In this way we possess evidence of the develop- ment of pastoral life at that remote epoch in the unaltep ably fixed names of domestic animals ; the Sanscrit aHw i 38 Earliest Migrations into Italy. [Book l the Latin Jos, the Greek ^ovg; Sanscrit avis is the^ Latin ovis, Greek oi? ; Sanscrit oj was, Latin equus, Grtek mnog ; Sanscrit hansas, Latin araser, Greek ;f^)' ; Sanscrit Ms, Latin areas, Greek r^ircra ; in like manner pecus, sus, porcus, tau- rus, cams, are Sanscrit words. Even at this remote period accordingly the stock, on which from the days of Homer down to our own time the intellectual development of man kind has been dependent, had already advanced beyond the lowest stage of civilization, the hunting and fishing epoch, and had attained at least comparative fixity of abode. On the other hand, we have as yet no certain proofs of the ex istenee of agriculture at this period. Language rather favours the negative view. Of the Latin-Greek names of grain none occurs in Sanscrit with the single exception oi fea, which philoiogically represents the Sanscrit yavas, but denotes in the Indian barley, in Greek spelt. It must in- deed be granted that this diversity in the names of culti- vated plants, which so strongly contrasts with the essential agreement in the appellations of domestic animals, does not absolutely preclude the supposition of a common original agriculture. In the circumstances of primitive times trans- port and acclimatizing are more difficult in the case of plants than of animals ; and the cultivation of rice among the Indians, that of wheat and spelt among the Greeks and Romans, and that of rye and oats among the Germans and Celts, may all be traceable to a common system of primi- tive tillage. On the other hand the name of one cereal common to the Greeks and Indians only proves, at the most, that before the separation of the stocks they gathered and ate the grains of barley and spelt growing wild in Mesopotamia,* not that they already cultivated grain. While, however, we reach no decisive result in this way, a * Barley, wheat, and spelt were found growing together in a wili state on the right bank of the Euphrates, north-west from Anah (Alph. de Caaiolle, 0-eographie Boianigue HaisonnSe, ii. p. 934). The growth of barley and wheat in a wild state in Mesopotamia had already bee« mentioned by the Babylonian historian Berosus (op. George. Synoell. p BO. Bonn), Chap ii.j Earlwst Migrations into Italy. 39 further light is thrown on the suhject by our ohsei Ving that 1 number of the most important words bearing on this [irovinoe of culture occur certainly in Sanscrit, but al\ of them in a more general signification. Agras among the [ndians denotes a level surface in general ; Mrnu, anything pounded ; ariiram, oar and ship ; venas, that which is pleas- mt in general, particularly a pleasant drink. The words ire thus very ancient ; but their more definite application to the field {ager), to the grain to be ground {granum), to the implement which furrows the soil as the ship furrows the surface of the sea (aratruni), to the juice of the grape [yinurn), had not yet taken place when the earliest division Df the stocks occurred, and it is not to be wondered at that their subsequent applications came to be in some instances rery different, and that, for example, the corn intended to be ground, as well as the mill for grinding it (Gothic quair- nus, Lithuanian girnds *), received their names from the Sanscrit kHrnu. We may accordingly assume it as proba- ble, that the primeval Indo-Germanic people were not yet acquainted with agriculture, and as certain, that, if they were so, it played but a very subordinate part in their economy ; for had it at that time held the place which it afterwards held among the Greeks and Romans, it would have left a deeper impression upon the language. On the other hand the building of houses and huts by the Indo-Germans is attested by the Sanscrit dam{as), Latin domus, Greek Sofiog ; Sanscrit veqas, Latin vicus, Greek oacog ; Sanscrit dvaras, Latin fores, Greek ■Ovqu ; further, the building of oar-boats by the names of the boat, Sanscrit ndus, Latin navis, Greek vavg, and of the oar, Sanscrit ari- tram, Greek igsr/iog, Latin remus, trirres-mis ; and the use jf waggons and the breaking in of animals for draught and transport by the Sanscrit akshas (axle and cart), Latin txis, Greek a^wv, a/i-a^a ; Sanscrit iugam, Latin iugum, Grreek ^vyov. The words signifying clothing — Sanscrit ras- trc, Latin vestis, Greek ia&yg , and sewing — Sanscrit siv, * [Scotch gttern. Mr. Eobertsoa,] 40 Earliest Migrations into Italy. . [Book i Latin suo ; Sanscrit nah, Latin neo, Greek *?/*«, arc alik« in all Indo-Germanic languages. This cannot, however, be equally affirmed of the higher art of wearing* The knowledge of the use of fire in preparing food, and of salt for seasoning it, is a primeval heritage of the Indo-Ger- manic nations; and the same may be affirmed regarding the knowledge of the earliest metals employed as impl&i ments or ornaments by man. At least the names of cop- per (aes) and silver (argenturn), perhaps also of gold, are met with in Sanscrit, and these names can scarcely have originated before man had learned to separate and to utilize the ores ; the Sanscrit asis, Latin ensis, points in fact to the primeval use of metallic weapons. No less do we find extending back into those times the fundamental ideas on which the development of all Indo- Germanic states ultimately rests ; the relative position of husband and wife, the arrangement in clans, the priesthood of the- father of the household and the absence of a special sacerdotal class as well as of all distinctions of caste in general, slavery as a legitimate institution, the days of pub- licly dispensing justice at the new and full moon. On the other hand the positive organisation of the body politic, the decision of the questions between regal sovereignty and th« sovereignty of the community, between the hereditary privilege of royal and noble houses and the unconditional legal equality of the citizens, belong altogether to a later age. Even the elements of science and religion show traces of community of origin. The numbers are the same up * If the Latin vico, vimen, belong to the same root as our mavt 'German wehen) and kindred words, the word must still, when the Greek* and Italians separated, have had the general meaning " to plait," and it cannot have been until a later period, and probably in different regions independently of each other, that it assumed that of " weaving." The cultivation of flax, old as it is, does not reach back to this period, for th« Indians, though well acquainted with the flax-plant, up to the present day use it only for the preparation of linseed-oil. Hemp probably bft came known to the Italians at a still later period than flax ; at least ca» nahis looks quite like a borrowed word of later date. Chip. H.] Earliest Migrations into ItaVy. 41 5o one hundred (Sanscrit qatam, dhaqatam, Latin '.enfam, Greek i-xatof, Gothic hund) ; and the moon receives her name in all languages from the fact that men measure timfl by her (mensis). The idea of Deity itself (Sanscrit dhas, Latin devs, Greelt d'Eog), and many of the oldest coneep tiuns of religion and of natural symbolism, belong to the common inheritance of the nations. The conception, for example, of heaven as the father and of earth as the mother of being, the festal expeditions of the gods who proceed from place to place in their own chariots along carefully levelled paths, the shadowy continuation of the soul's exist- ence after death, are fundamental ideas of the Indian as well as of the Greek and Roman mythologies. Several of the gods of the Ganges coincide even in name with those wor- shipped on the llissus and the Tiber : — thus the Uranus of the Greeks is the Varunas, their Zeus, Jovis pater, Diespi- ter is the Djaus piti, of the Vedas. An unexpected lighfc has been thrown on many an enigmatical form in the Hel- lenic mythology by recent researches regarding the earlier divinities of India. The hoary mysterious forms of the Erinnyes are no Hellenic invention ; they were immigrants along with the oldest settlers from the East. The divine greyhound Saramd, who guards for the Lord of heaven the golden herd of stars and sunbeams and collects for him the nourishing rain-clouds as the cows of heaven to the milk- ing, and who moreover faithfully conducts the pious dead into the world of the blessed, becomes in the hands of the Greeks the son of Saramd, SaramSyas, or Hermeias ; and the enigmatical Hellenic story of the stealing of the cattle of Helios, which is beyond doubt connected with the Rc^ man legend about Cacus, is now seen to be a last echo (with the meaning no longer understood) of that old fanciful and aigQificant conception of nature. The task, however, of determinmg the degree of cul- Graeco-itai- ^^^^ which the Indo-Germans had attained b^ Ian culture, fg^g ^he separation of the stocks properly be- longs to the general history of the ancient world. It is on the other hand the special task of Italian history to ascer 12 Ea/rUest Migrations into Italy. [Book 1, tain, so far as it is possible, what was the state of tha Graeco-Italian nation when the Hellenes and the Italians parted. Nor is this a superfluous labour; we reach by means of it the stage at which Italian civilization com- menced, the starting-point of the national history. While it is probable that the Indo-Germans led a pas- toral life and were acquainted with the cereals, if at all, only in their wild state, all indications point to the conclusion that the Graeco-Italians were a grain-?;ultivating, perhaps even a vine-cultivating, people. The evidence of this is not simply the knowledge of agri- culture itself common to both, for this does not upon the whole warrant the inference of community of origin in the peoples who may exhibit it. An historical connection be- tween the Indo-Germanic agriculture and that of the Chi- nese, Aramaean, and Egyptian stocks can hardly be dis- puted ; and yet these stocks are either alien to the Indo- Germans, or at any rate became separated from them at a time when agriculture was certainly still unknown. The truth is, that the more advanced races in ancient times were, as at the present day, constantly exchanging the im- plements and the plants employed in cultivation ; and when the annals of China refer the origin of Chinese agriculture to the introduction of five species of grain that took place under a particular king in a particular year, the story un- 'doubtedly depicts correctly, at least in a general way, the relations subsisting in the earliest epochs of civilization. A common knowledge of agriculture, like a common knowledge of the alphabet, of war chariots, of purple, and other implements and ornaments, far more frequently war- rants the inference of an ancient intercourse between na- tions than of their original unity. But as regards the Greeks and Italians, whose mutual relations are comparatively well known, the hypothesis that agriculture as well as writing and coinage first came to Italy by means of the Hellenes may be cKaraeterized as wholly inadmissible. On the other hand, the existence of a most intimate connection between the agriculture of the one country and that of the other W Ohap. n.] Earliest Migrations into Italy. 4S attested by their possessing in common all the oldest ex pressions relating to it ; offer, uyQog ; aro aratrum, aQoot UQOTQov ; ligo alongside of Xa^aiva ; hortvs, lOQzog ; hor- deum, XQi&ij ; milium, fisXivT] ; rapa, Qacpavig ; malva, fiaXu' X>1 ; vinuni, ohog. It is likewise attested by the agreemeEt of Greek and Italian agriculture in the form of the plough, which appears of the same shape on the old Attic and the old Roman monuments ; in the choice of the most ancient kinds of grain, millet, barley, spelt ; in the custom of cut- ting the ears with the sickle and having them trodden out by cattle on the smooth-beaten threshing-floor ; lastly, in the mode of preparing the grain puis noXiog, pinso niiaam, mola fivXi] ; for baking was of more recent origin, and on that account dough or pap was always used in the Roman ritual instead of bread. That the culture of the vine too in Italy was anterior to the earliest Greek immigration, is shown by the appellation "wine-land" (Olvcargia), which appears to reach back to the oldest visits of Greek voy- agers. It would thus appear that the transition from pas- toral life to agriculture, or, to speak more correctly, the combination of agriculture with the earlier pastoral econo- my, must have taken place after the Indians had departed from the common cradle of the nations, but before the Hellenes and Italians dissolved their ancient communion. Moreover, at the time when agriculture originated, the Hel* lenes and Italians appear to have been united as one na- tional whole not merely with each other, but with other members of the great family ; at least, it is a fact, that the most important of those terms of cultivation, while they are foreign to the Asiatic members of the Indo-Germanic family, are used by the Romans and Greeks in common with the Celtic as well as the Germanic, Slavonic, and fiithuanian stocks.* • Thus aro, aratrum reappear in the old German aran (to plough, (Malectically eren), erida, in Slavonian orati, oradlo, in Lithuanian arti, arimnas, in Celtic ar, aradar. Thus alongside of ligo stands our rakl ■^'German rechen), of hi rtui our garden (German garien), oitnola our mit {mmhh, Slavonic mlyn, Lithuanian malunas, Celtic malin). *4 EarUest MigraUons into Italy. [Book 1 The distinction between the conimon inheritance of the nations and their own subsequent acquisitions in mamners and in language is still far from having been -f rought out in all the variety of its details and gradations. The investiga tion of languages with this view has scarcely begun, and history still in the main derives its representation of piimi- ' tive times, not from the rich mine of language, but from what must be called for the most part the rubbish-heap of tradition. For the present, therefore, it must suffice to in- dicate the differences between the culture of the Indo-Ger- manic family in its earliest entireness, and the culture of that epoch when the Graeco-Italians still lived together. The task of discriminating the results of culture which ara common to the European members of this family, but for- eign to its Asiatic members, from those which the several European groups, such as the Graeco-Italian and the Ger- mano-Slavonic, have wrought out for themselves, can only be accomplished, if at all, after greater progress has been made in philological and historical inquiries. But there can be no doubt that, with the Graeco-Italians as with all other nations, agriculture became and in the mind of the people remained the germ and core of their national and of their private life. The house and the fixed hearth, which the husbandman constructs instead of the light hut and shifting fireplace of the shepherd, are represented in the spiritual domain and idealized in the goddess Vesta or 'Earia, almost the only divinity not Indo-Germanic yet from the first common to both nations. One of the oldest legends of the Italian race ascribes to king Italus, or, as the With all these facts before us, we cannot allow that there ever wal a time when the Greeks in all Hellenic cantons subsisted by purely pas- toral husbandry. If it was the possession of cattle, and not of land, which in Greece as in Italy formed the basis and the standard of all private property, the reason of this was not that agriculture was of later inti-* duotion, but that it was at first conducted on the system of joint po3 Bession. Of course a purely agricultural economy cannot have existed anywhere before the separation of the stocks ; on the contrary, pastoral husbandry was (more or less according to locality) combined with it M in extent relatively greater than was the case in later timei. Chwp. iLjj ^hrlieat Migrations into Italy. 4(1 Italians must have pronounced the word, VitaJus or Vitu- Ins, the introduction of the change from a pastoral to an agricultural life, and shrewdly connects with it the original Italian legislation. We have simply another version of th« same belief in the legend of the Samnite race which maliea khe ox the leader of their primitive colonies, and in the old- est Latin national names which designate the people as reapers {^Siculi, perhaps also Sicani), or as field-labourers (^Opsci). It is one of the characteristic incongruities which attach to the so-called legend of the origin of Rome, that it represents a pastoral and hunting people as founding a»city. Legend and faith, laws and manners, among the Italians as among the Hellenes are throughout associated with agricul- ture.* Cultivation of the soil cannot be conceived without somo measurement of it, however rude. Accordingly, the meas- ures of surface and the mode of setting off boundaries rest, lilie agriculture itself, on a like basis among both peoples. The Oscan and Umbrian vorsus of one hundred square feet corresponds exactly with the Greeic plethron. The princi- ple of marliing off boundaries was also the same. The land-measurer adjusted his position with reference to or» of the cardinal points, and proceeded to draw in the first place two lines, one from north to south, and another from east to west, his station being at their point of intersection (tern- plum, tsfievos from TSfiva) ; then he drew at certain fixed distances lines parallel to these, and by this process pro- duced a series of rectangular pieces of ground, the comers of /"hich were marked by boundary posts {termini, in Sicil- » Nothing is more significant in this respect than the close oonnec- «on of agriculture with marriage and the foundation of cities during the earliest epoch of culture. Thus the gods in Italy immediately conceni- »d with marriage are Ceres and (or?; Tellus (Plutarch, Romul. 22 ; Ser- fius oViAen. iv., 166 ; Rossbach, Mm. Ehe, 257, 301), in Greece Dettietct (Plutarch, Conjug. JPraec. init.) ; in old Greek formulas the procreation ol children is called ajoros (p. i9,note); indeed, the oldest Eoman form of marriage, confarreatio, derives its name and its ceremony from the cul- tivation of corn. The use of the plough in the founding of cities is well known. 46 Earliest Migratiotis into Italy. [Book l ian inscriptions regfioveg, usually ogoi). This mode of d& fining boundaries, which is indeed also Etruscan but is hard iy of Etruscan origin, we find among the Romans, Umbri ans, Samnites, and also in very ancient records of the Ta» rentine Heracleots, who are as little likely to have bor rowed it from the Italians as the Italians from the Taren- Sines ; it is an ancient possession common to all. A peeu liar characteristic of the Romans, on the other hand, was their rigid carrying out of the principle of the square; even where the sea or a river formed a natural boundary, they'did not accept it, but wound up their allocation of thn land with the last complete square. It is not solely in agriculture, however, that the esps" Other faa- cially close relationship of the Greeks and Ital- tSir econ- ^^"® appears ; it is unmistakeably manifest also ""y- in the other provinces of man's earliest activity. The Greek house, as described by Homer, differs little from the model which was always adhered to in Italy. The essential portion, which originally formed the whole inte- rior accommodation of the Latin house, was the atrium, that is, the " blackened " chamber, with the household altar, the marriage bed, the table for meals, and the hearth ; and precisely similar is the Homeric megaron, with its house- hold altar and hearth and smoke-begrimed roof. We can- not say the same of ship-building. The boat with oars was an old common possession of the Indo-Germans ; but the advance to the use of sailing vessels can scarcely be consid ered to have taken place during the Graeco-Italian period, for we find no nautical terms originally common to the Greeks and Italians except such as are also general among tiie Indo-Germanic family. On the other hand the primi- tive Italian-eustom of the husbandmen having common mid" day meals, the origin of which the myth connects with the introduction of agriculture, is compared by Aristotle with the Cretan Syssitia ; and the ancient Romans further agreed with the Cretans and Laconians in taking their meals not, as was afterwards the custom among both peoples, in a re- clining, but in a sitting posture. The method of kindling OaAP. n.] Ea/rliest Migrat'tong into Italy. 4:1 fii-e by the friction of two pieces of wood of different kinds is common to all peoples ; but it is certainly no mere acci- dent that the Greeks and Italians agree in the appellations whiih they give to the two portions of the touch-wood, " the rubber " {zqinavov, terehra), and the " under-layer " (c^rnqevg, inj^ccQU, tabula, probably from tendere, rsru^iai). In like manner the dress of the two peoples is essentially identical, for the tunica quite corresponds with the chiton, and the toga is nothing but a fuller himation. Even as re- gards weapons of war, liable as they are to frequent change, the two peoples have this much at least in common, that their two principal weapons of attack were the javelin and the bow, — a fact which is clearly expressed, as far as Roma is concerned, in the earliest names for warriors {^quirites, samnites, pilumni — arquites),* and is in keeping with the oldest mode of fighting which was not properly adapted to a close struggle. Thus, in the language and manners of Greeks and Italians, all that relates to the material founda^ tions of human life may be traced back to the same pri- mary elements ; the oldest problems which the world pro- poses to man had been jointly solved by the two peoples at a time when they still formed one nation. It was otherwise in the spiritual domain. The great Difference problem of man — how to live in conscious har- of the itai- mon V with himself, with his neighbour, and with ran and the " ' b > GrsEk char- the whole to which he belongs — admits of as ftster many solutions as there are provinces in our Father's kingdom ; and it is in this, and not in the material sphere, that individuals and nations display their diver- gences of character. The exciting causes which gave rise to this intrinsic contrast must have been in the Graeco-Ital- lan period as yet wanting ; it was not until the Hellenes sad Italians had separated that that deep-seated diversity of • Among the oldest names of weapons on both sides scarcely any mn be shown to be certamly related ; lancea, although doubtless con- nected with X6y/7i, is, as a Koman word, recent, and perhaps borrowed from the Germans or Spaniards ; and the Greek aavviov is in a eimilai position. IS Earliest Migrations into Ital/y. [Book I. mentftl character became manifest, the effects of which con< tinue to the present day. The family and the state, religion and art, received in Italy and in Greece respectively a de- velopment so peculiar and so thoroughly national, that the common basis, on which in these respects also the two peo- ples rested, has been so overgrown as to be almost con- cealed from our view. That Hellenic character, which sao- lificed the whole to its individual elements, the nation to ine township, and the township to the citizen ; which sought its ideal of life in the beautiful and the good, and, but too often, in the enjoyment of idleness ; which attained its po- litical development by intensifying the original individual- ity of the several cantons, and at length produced the in- ternal dissolution of even local authority ; which in its view of religion first invested the gods with human attri- butes, and then denied their existence ; which allowed full play to the limbs in the sports of the naked youth, and gave free scope to thought in all its grandeur and in all its awfulness ; — and that Eoman character, -which solemnly bound the son to reverence the father, the citizen to rever enee the ruler, and all to reverence the gods ; which re quired nothing and honoured nothing but the useful act and compelled every citizen to fill up every moment of his brief life with unceasing work ; which made it a duty even in the boy modestly to cover the body ; which deemed every one a bad citizen who wished to be different from his fellows ; which regarded the state as all in all, and a desire for the state's extension as the only aspiration not liable to censure, — who can in thought trace back these sharply- marked contrasts to that original unity which embraced them both, prepared the way for their development, and al length produced them ? It would be foolish presumption to desire to lift this veil ; we shall only endeavour to indi- cate in brief outline the beginnings of Italian nationality and its ;onnections with an earlier period ; to direct the guesses of the discerning reader rather than to express them. All that may be called the patriarchal element in the Chap. II.] jLaruesi Migrations into Italy. 4fl . state rested in Greece and Italy on the sarae and the foundations. Under this head comes especially the moral and decorous arrangement of the re- lations of the sexes,* which enjoined monogamy on the hus- band and visited with heavy penalties the infidelity of the wife, and which recognized the equality of woman and the sanctity of marriage in the high position which it assigned to the mother within the domestic circle. On the other iand the rigorous development of the marital and still jjore of the paternal authority, regardless of the natural \ights of persons as such, was a feature foreign to the Greeks and peculiarly Italian ; it was in Italy alone that moral subjection became transformed into legal slavery. In the same way the principle of the slave being completely destitute of legal rights — a principle involved in the very nature of slavery — was maintained by the Romans with merciless rigour and carried out to all its consequences ; whereas among the Greeks alleviations of its harshness were early inti'oduced both in practice and in legislation, the marriage of slaves, for example, being recognized as a legal relation. On the household was based the clan, that is, the com- munity of the descendants of the same progenitor ; and out of the clan among the Greeks as well as the Italians arose the state. But while under the weaker political develop- ment of Greece the clan maintained itself as a corporate power, in contradistinction to that of the state, far even into historical times, the state in Italy made its appearance at once in complete efficiency, inasmuch as in presence of its authority the clans were neutralized and in exhibited an association not of clans, but of citizens. Conversely, again, the individual attained relatively to the clan an inward in- dependence and freedom of personal development far ear- lier and more completely in Greece than in Rome — a fact * Even in details this agreement appears ; e. g., in the designation of lawful wedlock as ' marriage concluded for the obtaining of lawful children ' (^a^uos int naiSmv jvtjaiav a^oni — mcUrimonium liherorum quaerendorum causa). 50 Eaflied Migrations into Ita^. [Book l reflected with great clearness in the Greek and Eoman proper names, which, originally similar, came to assume very different forms. In the more ancient Greek names the name of the clan was very frequently added in an adjective form to that of the individual ; while, conversely, Roman scholars were aware that their ancestors hore originally only one name, the later praenomen. But while in Greece the adjective name of the clan early disappeared, it became, among the Italians generally and not merely among the Ro- mans, the principal name ; and the distinctive individual name, the praenomen, became subordinate. It seems as if the small and ever diminishing number and the meaning- less character of the Italian, and particularly of the Roman, individual names, compared with the luxuriant and poetical fulness of those of the Greeks^ were intended to illustrate the truth that it was characteristic of the one nation to re- duce all features of distinctive personality to an uniform level, of the other freely to promote their development. The association in communities of families under patri- archal chiefs, which we may conceive to have prevailed in the Graeco-Italian period, may appear different enough from the later forms of Italian and Hellenic polities ; yet it must have already contained the germs out of which the future laws of both nations were moulded. The " laws of king Italus," which were still applied in the time of Aristotle, may denote the institutions essentially common to both. These laws must have provided for the maintenance of peace and the execution of justice within the community, for military organization and martial law in reference to its external relations, for its government by a patriarchal chief, for a council of elders, for assemblies of the freemen capa- ble of bearing arms, and for some sort of constitution! Judicial procedure (crimen, xqivsiv), expiation (poena, nolv^), retaliation (ialio, laXdm, zXTjvm), are Graeco-Italian ideas. The stern law of debt, by which the debtor was directly re- sponsible with his person for the repayment of what he had received, is common to the Italians, for example, with tha Tarentine Heracleoti The fundamental ideas of the Ro- OHiP. II.] Earliest Migrations into Italy. 51 man constitution — a king, a senate, and an assembly entitled simply to ratify or to reject the proposals which the king and senate should submit to it — are scarcely anywhere ex« pressed so distinctly as in Aristotle's account of the earlier constitution of Crete. The germs of larger state-confed- eracies in the political fraternizing or even amalgamation of several previously independent stocks (symmachy, synoi- kismos) are in like manner common to both nations. The more stress is to be laid on this fact of the common founda- tions of Hellenic and Italian polity, that it is not found to extend to the other Indo-Germanic stocks ; the organization of the Germanic communities, for example, by no means starts, like that of the Greeks and Romans, from an elec- tive monarchy. But how different the polities were that were constructed on this common basis in Italy and Greece, and how completely the, whole course of their political de- velopment belongs to each as its distinctive property,* it will be the business of the sequel to show. It is the same in religion. In Italy, as in Hellas, there lies at the foundation of the popular faith the Heligion. same common treasure of symbolic and allegor- ical views of nature : on this rests that general analogy be- tween the Roman and the Greek world of gods and of spirits, which was to become of so much importance in later stages of development. In many of their particular conceptions also, — in the already mentioned forms of Zeus- Diovis and Hestia-Vesta, in the idea of the holy space {tEfisvog, templuw), in many oiferings and ceremonies — the two modes of worship do not by mere accident coincide. Yet in Hellas, as in Italy, they assumed a shape so thor- oughly national and peculiar, that but little of the ancient * Only we must, of course, not forget that like pre-existing condi- tions lead everywhere to like mstitutions. For instance, nothing is mora certain than that the Roman plebeians were a growth originating withia the Eoman commonwealth, and yet they ererywhere find their counter, part where a body of metoeci has arisen alongside of a body of burgesses. As a "natter of course, chance also plays in such cases its provcking game. 52 Ewrliest Migrations into Italy. [Book i common ii^heritance was preserved in a recognizable form, and that little was for the most part misunderstood or not understood at alL It could not be otherwise ; for, just as in the peoples themselves the great contrasts, which during the Graeco-Italian period had lain side by side undeveloped, were aftor their division distinctly evolved, so in their re- ligion also a separation took place between the idea and the image, which had hitherto been one whole in the soul. Those old tillers of the ground, when the clouds were driv- ing along the sky, probably expressed to themselves the phenomenon by saying that the hound of the gods was driv- ing together the startled cows of the herd. The Greek for- got that the cows were really the clouds, and converted the son of the hound of the gods — a form devised merely for the particular purposes of that conception — into the adroit messenger of the gods ready for every service. When the thunder rolled among the mountains, he saw Zeus brandish- ing his bolts on Olympus ; when the blue sky again smiled upon him, he gazed into the bright eye of Athenaea, the daughter of Zeus ; and so powerful over him was the influ- ence of the forms which he had thus created, that he soon saw nothing in them but human beings invested and illu- mined with the splendour of nature's power, and freely formed and transformed them according to the laws of beauty. It was in another fashion, but not less strongly, that the deeply implanted religious feeling of the Italian race manifested itself; it held firmly by the idea and did not suffer the form to obscure it. As the Greek, when he sacrificed, raised his eyes to heaven, so the Eoman veiled his head ; for the prayer of the former was contemplation, that of the latter reflection. Throughout the whole of nar ture he adored the spiritual and the universal. To every- thing existing, to the man and to the tree, to the state and tD the store-room, was assigned a spirit which came into being with it and perished along with it, the counterpart of the natural phenomenon in the spiritual domain ; to th» man the male Genius, to the woman the female Juno, to the boundary Terminus, to the forest Silvanus, to the cir Chap, n J Earliest Migrations into Italy. 63 eiing year Vertumnus, and so on to every object after its kind. In occupations the very steps of the process were spiritualized : thus, for example, in the prayer for the hus- bandman there was invoked the spirit of fallowing, of ploughing, of furrowing, sowing, covering-in, harriiwing, and so forth down to the in-bringing, up-storing, and open" ing of the granaries. In like manner marriage, birth, and every other natural event were endowed with a sacred life. The larger the sphere embraced in the abstraction, the high- er rose the god and the reverence paid by man. Thna Jupiter and Juno are the abstractions of manhood and womanhood ; Dea Dia or Ceres, the creative power ; Mi- nerva, the power of memory ; Dea Bona, or among the Sanmites Dea Cupra, the good deity. While to the Greek everything assumed a concrete and corporeal shape, the Ro- man could only make use of abstract, completely trans- parent formulae ; and while the Greek for the most part threw aside the old legendary treasures of primitive times, because they embodied the idea in too transparent a form, the Roman could still less retain them, because the sacred conceptions seemed to him dimmed even by the lightest veil of allegory. Not a trace has been preserved among the Romans even of the oldest and most generally diffused myths, such as that current among the Indians, the Greeks, and even the Semites, regarding a great flood and its sur» vivor, the common ancestor of the present human race. Their gods could not marry and beget children, like those of the Hellenes ; they did not walk about unseen among mortals ; and they needed no nectar. But that they, nevei^ theless, ir their spirituality — which only appears tame to dull apprehension — gained a powerful hold on men's minds^, a hold more powerful perhaps than that of the gods of Hel- las created after the image of man, would be attested, even if history were silent on the subject, by the Roman design nation of faith (the word and the idea alike foreign to the Hellenes), Beligio, that is to say, " that which binds." A a India and Iran developed from one and the same inherited store, the former, the richly varied forms of its sacred 54. Earliest Migrations into Italy. [Boo« I epics, the latter, llie abstractions of the Zend-Avesta ; so in the Greek mythology the person is predominant, in the Ro- man the idea, in the former freedom, in the latter necessity. Lastly, what holds good of real life is true also of ;t9 counterfeit in jest and play, which everywhere and especially in the earliest period of full and simple existence, do not exclude the serious, but veil it. The simplest elements of art are in Latium and Hellas quite the same ; the decorous armed dance, the " leap " (triwmpus &Qiafi§og, Sir&vQafi^os) ; the masquerade of the "full people" {adtvQoi, satura), who, enveloped in the skins of sheep or goats, woupd up the festival with their jokes ; lastly, the pipe, which with suitable strains accompanied and regulated the solemn as well as the merry dance. No- where, perhaps, does the especially close relationship of the Hellenes and Italians come to light so clearly as here; and yet in no other direction did the two nations manifest great- er divergence as they became developed. The training of youth remained in Latium strictly confined to the narrow litnits of domestic education ; in Greece the yearning after a varied yet harmonious training of mind and body created the sciences of Gymnastics and Paideia, which were cher- ished by the nation and by individuals as their highest good. Latium in the poverty of its artistic development stands almost on a level with uncivili^zed peoples; Hellas developed with incredible rapidity out of its religious con- ceptions the myth and the worshipped idol, and out of these that marvellous world of poetry and sculpture, the like of which history has not again to show. In Latium no other influences were powerful in public and private life but pru- dence, riches, and strength ; it was reserved for the Hel- lenes to feel the blissful ascendancy of beauty, to minister to the fair boy-friend with an enthusiasm half sensuous, half ideal, and to reanimate their lost courage with the war-songs of the divine singer. Thus the two nations in which the civilization of an^ tiquity culminated stand side by side, as diiferent in devel- opment as they were in origin identical. The points io Chap. II.] Ea/rliest Migrations into Italy. 55 which the Hellenes excel the Italians are more imiversallji intelligible and reflect a more brilliant lustre ; but the deep feeling in each individual that he was only a part of the community a rare devotedness and power of self-sacrifice for the common weal, an earnest faith in its own gods, form tlie rich treasure of the Italian nation. Both nations re- ceived a one-sided, and therefore each a completej develop- ment ; it is only a pitiful narrow-mindedness that will object to the Athenian that he did not know how to mould his state like the Fabii and the Valerii, or to the Roman that he did not learn to carve like Phidias and to write like Aristophanes. It was in fact the most peculiar and the best feature in the character of the Greek people, that ren- dered it impossible for them to advance from national to political unity without at the same time exchanging their polity for despotism. The ideal world of beauty was all in all to the Greeks, and compensated them to some extent for what they wanted in reality. Wherever in Hellas a tendency towards national union appeared, it was based not on elements directly political, but on games and art : the contests at Olympia, the poems of Homer, the tragedies of Euripides, were the only bonds that held Hellas together. "Resolutely, on the other hand, the Italian surrendered his own personal will for the sake of freedom, and learned to obey his father that he might know how to obey the state. Amidst this subjection individual development might be marred, and the germs of fairest promise in man might be arrested in the bud ; the Italian gained in their stead a feel- ing of fatherland and of patriotism such as the Greek never knew, and alone among all the civilized nations of antiquity succeeded in working out national unity in connection with a constitution based on self-government — a national unity, which at last placed in his hands the mastery not only over the divided Hellenic stock, but over the whole known world. CHAPTER III THE SETTLEMENTS OF THE lATINB. The home of the Indo-Germanic stock lay in the west^ __^ ern portion of central Asia ; from this it spread manic mi- partly in a south-eastern direction over India, gratioQs. ■, . -rt Ti. ■ partly in a north-western over Jiurope. It is difficult to determine the primitive seat of the Indo-Ger- mans more precisely : it must, however, at any rate have been inland and remote from the sea, as there is no name for the sea common to the Asiatic and European branches. Many indications point more particularly to the regions of the Euphrates ; so that, singularly enough, the primitive seats of the two most important civilized stocks, — the Indo- Germanic and the Aramaean, — almost coincide as regards locality. This circumstance gives support to the hypothe- sis that these races also were originally connected, although, if there was such a connection, it certainly must have been anterior to all traceable development of culture and lan- guage. We cannot define more exactly their original local- ity, nor are we able to accompany the individual stocks in the course of their migrations. The European branch probably lingered in Persia and Armenia for some con- siderable time after the departure of the Indians ; for, according to all appearance, that region has been the cradle of agriculture and of the culture of the 'vine. Barley, spelt, and wheat are indigenous in Mesopotamia, and the vine to the south of the " Caucasus and of the Caspian Sea : there too the plum, the walnut, and others of the more easily transplanted fruit trees are native. It is worthy of notice that the name for the sea is common to most of the European stocks — Latins, Celts, Germans, and Slavonians ; Chap. HI.] Settlements of the Latms. 6^ they must probatly therefore before their separation have reached the coast of the Black Sea or of the Caspian. By what route from those regions the Italians reached th« chain of the Alps, and where in particular they were set- tled while still united with the Hellenes alone, are ques- tions that can only be answered when the problem is solved by what route — whether from Asia Minor or from the regions of the Danube — the Hellenes arrived in Greece. It may at all events be regarded as certain that the Italians, like the Indians, migrated into their peninsula from the north (p. 33). The advance of the Umbro-Sabellian stock along the central mountain-ridge of Italy, in a direction from north to south, can still be clearly traced ; indeed its last phases belong to purely historical times. Less is known regard- ing the route which the Latin migration followed. Prob- ably it proceeded in a similar direction along the west coast, long, in all likelihood, before the first Sabellian stocks began to move. The stream only overflows tho heights when the lower groimds are already occupied ; ano only through the supposition that there were Latin stocks already settled on the coast are we able to explain why the Sabellians should have contented themselves with the rougher mountain districts, from which they afterwards issued and intruded, wherever it was possible, between the Latin tribes. It is well known that a Latin stock inhabited the coun- Exce i n f ^^^ from the left bank of the Tiber to the Vol- the Latins in scian mountains ; but these mountains them- selves, which appear to have been neglected on occasion of the first immigration when the plains of Latiam and Campania still lay open to the settlers, were, as the Volscian inscriptions show, occupied by a stock more near- ly related to the Sabellians than to the Latins. On the Dther hand, Latins probably dwelt in Campania before the Greek and Samnite immigrations ; for the Italian names Novla or Nola (new-town), Campani Capua, Volturnui (from volvere, like luturna from iuvare), Opsci (labourers), 68 Set'^emewts af the Latins. ^^oo^ I are demonstrably older than tlie Samnite invaskm, and show that, at the time when Cumae was founded by the Greeks, an Italian and probably Latin stoct, the Ausones, were in possession of Campania. The primitive inhabitants of the districts which the Lucani and Bruttii subsequently occupied, the Itali proper (inhabitants of the land of oxen), Are associated by the best observers not with the lapygian but with the Italian stock ; and there is nothing to hinder our regarding them as belonging to its Latin branch, al- though the Hellenizing of these districts which took place even before the commencement of the political devdop- ment of Italy, and their subsequent inundation by Samnite hordes, have in this instance totally obliterated all traces of the older nationality. Very ancient legends bring the similarly extinct stock of the Sieuli into connection with Rome. For instance, the earliest historian of Italy Antio- ohus of Syracuse tells us that a man named Sikelos came a fugitive from Rome to Morges king of Italia (j. e, the Bruttian peninsula). Such stories appear to be founded on the identity of race recognized by the narrators as subsist- ing between the Siculi (of whom there were some still in Italy in the time of Thucydides) and the Latins. The striking affinity of certain dialectic peculiarities of Sicilian Greek with the Latin is probably to be explained rather by the old commercial connections subsisting between Rome and the Sicilian Greeks, than by the ancient identity of the languages of the Siculi and the Romans. According to all indications, however, not only Latium, but probably also the Gampanian and Luoanian districts, Italia proper be- tween the gulfs of Tarentum and Laus, and the eastern half of Sicily were in primitive times inhabited by different branches of the Latin nation. Destinies very dissimilar awaited these different branch- es. Those settled in Sicily, Magna Graecia, and Campania carce into contact with the Greeks at a period when thej were unable to offer resistance to a civilization so superior, and were either completely Hellenized, as in the case of Sicily, or at any rate so weakened that they succumbed Chap, iii.j Settlements of the Latvm 5? without marked resistance to the fresh energy of the Sabine tribes. In this way the Siculi, the Itali and Morgetes, and the Ausonians never came to play an active part in the history of the peninsuJa. It was otherwise with Latiuro, •where no Greek colonies were founded, and the^nhabitants after hard struggles were successful In maintaining their ground against tlie Sabines as well as against their northern neighbours. Let us cast a glance at this district, which was destined more than any other to influence the fortunes of the ancient world. The plain of Latium must have been in primeval times the scene of the grandest conilicts of nature, while the slowly formative agency of water de- posited, and the eruptions of mighty volcanoes upheaved, the successive strata of that soil on which was to be decided the question to what people the sovereignty of the world should belong. Latium is bounded on the east by the mountains of the Sabines and Aequi which form part of the Apennines ; and on the south by the Volscian range rising to the height of 4000 feet, which is separated from the main chain of the Apennines by the ancient territory of the Hernici, the table-land of the Sacco (Trerus, a tribu- tary of the Liris), and stretching in a westerly direction terminates in the promontory of Terracina. On the west its boundary is the sea, which on this part of the coast forms but few and indifferent harbours. On the north it imperceptibly merges into the broad highlands of Etruria. The region thus enclosed forms a magnificent plain trav- ersed by the Tiber, the " mountain-stream " which issues from the Umbriau, and by the Anio, which rises in the Sabine mountains. Hills here and there emerge, like islands, from the plain ; some of them steep limestone cliffs, such as that of Soracte in the north-east, and that of the Cireeian promontory on the south-west, as well as the similar though lower height of the Janioulum near Eome ; others volcanic elevations, whose extinct craters had become converted into lakes which in some cases still exist; the most important of these is the Alban range, which, free ob 60 SetUements of the Laims. [Book l every side, stands forth from the plain hetween the Volscian chain and the river Tiber. Here settled the stock which is known to history under the name of the Latins, or, as they were subsequently called by *ay of distinction from the Latin coinmunitiet beyond the bounds cf Latium, the " Old Latins " (^pristi Latini). But the territory occupied by them, the district of Latium, was only a small portion of the central plain of Italy. All the country north of the Tiber was to the Latins a foreign and even hostile domain, with whose in- habitants no lasting alliance, no public peace, was possible, and such armistices as were concluded appear always to have been for a limited period. The Tiber formed the northern boundary from early times ; and neither in his- tory nor in the more reliable traditions has any reminis- cence been preserved as to the period or occasion of the establishment of a frontier line so important in its results. We find, at the time when our history begins, the flat and marshy tracts to the south of the Alban range in the hands of Umbro-Sabellian stocks, the Eutuli and Volsci ; Ardea and Velitrae are no longer in the number of originally Latin towns. Only the central portion of that region be- tween the Tiber, the spurs of the Apennines, the Alban Mount, and the sea — a district of about 700 square miles, not much larger than the present canton of Zurich — was Latium proper, the " plain," * as it appears to the eye of the observer from the heights of Monte Cavo. Though the country is a plain, it is not monotonously flat. With the exception of the sea-beach which is sandy and formed in part by the accumulations of the Tiber, the level ia everywhere broken by hills of tufa moderate in height though often somewhat steep, and by deep fissures of tha ground. These alternating elevations and depressions of the surface lead to the formation of lakes in winter ; and * Like IStus (aide) and nXoirvq (flat) ; it denotes therefore the flat country in contrast to the Sabine mountain land, just as Campania, the " plain," forma the contrast to Samnium. lAiia, formerly stlatus, hal oo connection with Latium. Chap, in.] Settlements of the Laikis. 61 the exhalations proceeding in the heat of sumrier from th« putrescent organic substances which they contain engender that noxious fever-laden atmosphere, which in ancient times tainted the district as it taints it at the present day. It is a mistake to suppose that these miasmata were first occa- sioned by the neglect of cultivation, which was the result of misgovernment m the last century of the Republic and is so still. Their cause lies rather in the want of natural outlets for the water ; and it operates now as it operated thousands of years ago. It is true, however, that the malaria may to a certain extent be banished by thorough- ness of tillage — a fact which has not yet received its full explanation, but may be partly accounted for by the cir- cumstance that the working of the surface accelerates the drying up of the stagnant waters. It must always remain a remarkable phenomenon, that a dense agricultural popular tion should have arisen in regions where no healthy popula- tion can at present subsist, and where the, traveller is un- willing to tarry even for a single night, such as the plain of Latium and the lowlands of Sybaris and Metapontum. We must bear in mind that man in a lower stage of civili- zation has generally a quicker perception of what nature demands, and a greater readiness in conforming to her re- quirements ; perhaps, also, a more elastic physical constitu- tion, which accommodates itself more readily to the condi- tioDs of the soil where he dwells. In Sardinia agriculture is prosecuted under physical conditions precisely similar even at the present day ; the pestilential atmosphere exists, but the peasant avoids its injurious effects by caution in reference to clothing, food, and the choice of his hours of labour In fact, nothing is so certain a protection against thu " aria cattiva " as wearing the fleece of .animals and keeping a blazing fire; which explains why the Roman countryman went constantly clothed in heavy woollen stuffs, and never allowed the fire on his hearth to be extinguished, h other respects the district must have appeared attractive to an immigrant agricultural people : the soil is easilj laboured with mattock and hoe and is productive even with- 62 SeUlements of the Lt,lms. [Book, i out being manured, although, tried by an Italian standard, it does not yield any extraordinary return : wheat yields on an average about five-fold.* Good water is not abun- dant ; the higher and more sacred on that account was the ■ esteem in which every fresh spring was held by the inhabi. tants. No accounts have been preserved of the mode in which ttttin settle- ''he settlements of the Latins took place in the ments. district which has since borne their name ; and we are left to gather what we can almost exclusively from i posteriori inference regarding them. Some knowledge may, however, in this way be gained, or at any rate some conjectures that wear an aspect of probability. The Koman territory was divided in the earliest times cian-vii- i"to a number of clan-distriots, which were sub- ^s«a- sequently employed in the formation of the earliest "rural wards" [tribus rusticae). Tradition informs us as to the tribiis Claudia, that it originated from the set- tlement of the Claudian clansmen on the Anio ; and that the other districts of the earliest division originated in a similar manner is indicated quite as certainly by their names. These names are not, like those of the districts * A French statist, Bureau de la Malle {Econ. Pol. des Bomains, IL 226), compares with the Roman Campagna the district of Limagne in AuTergne, whicli is likewise a wide, much intersected, and uneven plain, ■with a superficial soil of decomposed lava and ashes — the remains of ex- tinct volcanoes. The population, at least 2500 to the square league, is one of the densest to be found in purely agricultural districts : property is subdivided to an extraordinary extent. Tillage is carried on almost entirely by manual labour, with spade, hoe, or mattock ; only in excep- tional cases a light plough is substituted drawn by two cows, the wife of the peasant not unfrequently taking the place of one of them in the yoke. The team serves at once to furnish milk and to till the land. They have two harvests in the year, corn and vegetables ; there is no fal- low. The average yearly rent for an arpent of arable land Is 100 francs, if instead of such an arrangement this same land were to be divided among six or seven large landholders, and a system of management bj Btewards and day laVourers were to supersede the husbandry of thesmaP. proprietors, m a hundred years the Limagne would doubtless be as waste; forsakea, and miserable as the Campagna di Roma is at the presen*^ day CnAy. III.] Set^m^nts of the Latins. 63 swJded at a later period, derived from the localities, but are formed without exception from the names of clan;! ; and the clans who thus gave their names to the wards of the original Roman territory are, so far as they have not he- come entirely extinct (as in the case with the Camilii, Galerii, Lemonii, Pollii, Pupinii, Voltinii), the very oldest patrician families of Rome, the Aemilii, Cornelii, Fabii, Horatii, Menenii, Papirii, Romilii, Sergii, Veturii. It is worthy of remark, that not one of these clans can be shown to have taken up its settlement in Rome only at a later epoch. Every Italian, and doubtless also every Hellenic, canton must, like that of Rome, have been divided into a number of groups associated at once by locality and by clanship ; such a clan-settlement is the " house" (oIkm) of the Greeks, from which very frequently the xoifiai and d^fiioi originated among them, like the tribus in Rome. The corresponding Italian terms " house " {vicus) or " building " [paffus, from pangere) indicate, in like manner, the joint settlement of the members of a clan, and thence come by an easily understood transition to signify in con\- mon use hamlet or village. As each household had its own portion of land, so the clan-household or village had clan- lands belonging to it, which, as will afterwards be shown, were managed up to a comparatively late period after the analogy of household-lands, that is, on the system of joint- possession. Whether it was in Latium itself that the clan- households became developed into clan-villages, or whether the Latins were already associated in clans when they im- migrated into Latium, are questions which we are just as little able to answer as we are to determine how far, iu addition to the original ground of common ancestry, the clan may have been based on the incorporation or co-ordi- nation from without of individuals not related to it by blood. These clanships, however, were from the beginning re- garded not as independent societies, but as the integral parts of a political community {civiias, 2>opulus), This first presents itself as an aggregate of s 54 Setttements of the Latins. [Book I, numlier of clan-villages of the same stock, language, and manners, bound to mutual observance of law and mutual legal redress and to united action in aggression and defence, A fixed local centre was quite as necessary in the case of such a canton as in that of a clanship ; but as the members of the clan, or in other words the constituent elements of the canton, dwelt in villages, the centre of the canton cannot have been a town or place of joint settlement in the strict sense. It must, on the coiitrary, have been simply a place of common assembly, containing the seat of justice and the common sanctuary of the canton, where the members of the canton met every eighth day for purposes of intercourse and amusenient, and where, in case of war, they obtained a safer shelter for themselves and their cattle than in the vil- lages : in ordinary circumstances this place of meeting was not at all or but scantily inhabited. Ancient places of refuge, of a kind quite similar, may still be recognized at the present day on the tops of several of the hills in the highlands of east Switzerland. Such a place was called in Italy " height " (capiiolium, like axQa, the mountain-top), or " stronghold " {arx, from arcere) ; it was not a town at first, but it became the nucleus of one, as houses naturally gathered round the stronghold and were afterwards sur- rounded with the " ring " (urhs, connected with urvus, curvus, perhaps also with orbis). The stronghold and town were visibly distinguished from each other by the number of gates, of which the stronghold had as few as possible, and the town many, the former ordinarily but one, the latter at least three. Such fortresses were the bases of that cantonal constitution which' prevailed in Italy anterior to the existence of towns : a constitution, the nature of which may still be recognized with some degree of clearness in those provinces of Italy which did not until a late period reach, and in some cases have not yet fully reached, the stage of aggregation in towns, such as the land of the Marsi and the small cantons of the Abruzzi. The country of the Aequiculi, who even in the imperial period dwelt not in towns, but in numerous open hamlets, presents i Chap. III.] Settlements of the Latins. 66 number of ancient ring-walls, which, regarded as " deserted towns " with their solitary temples, excited the astonish- ment of the Roman as well as of modern archaeologists, who have fancied that thej'' could find accommodation there, the former for their " primitive inhabitants " (aborigines)^ the latter for their Pelasgians. We shall certainly b* nearer the truth in recognizing these structures not aa walled towns, but as places of refuge for the inhabitants of the district, such as were doubtless found in more ancient times over all Italy, although constructed in less artistic style. It was natural that at the period when the stocks that had made the transition to urban life were surrounding their towns with stone walls, those districts whose inhabi- tants continued to dwell in open hamlets should replace the earthen ramparts and palisades of their strongholds with buildings of stone. When in later ages peace was securely established throughout the land and such fortresses were no longer needed, these places of refuge were abandoned and soon became a riddle to after generations. These cantons accordingly, having their rendezvous in . some stronghold, and including a certain number Localities of , i . i the oldest of claiiships, form the primitive political unities with which Italian history begins. At what period, and to what extent, such cantons were formed in Latium, cannot be determined with precision ; nor is it a matter of special historical interest. The isolated Alban range, that natural stronghold of Latium, which offered to settlers the most wholesome air, the freshest springs, and the most secure position, would doubtless be first occupied by the new comers. 'Here accordingly, along the narrow plateau above Palazzuola, between the Alban lake (Lago d\ Gaitello) and the Alban mount (Monte Cavo), extended the town of Alba, which was universally regarded as the primi- tive seat of the Latin stock, and the mother-city of Roma as well as of all the other Old Latin communities ; here, too, on the slopes lay the verj' ancient Latin canton-centres of Lanuvium, Aricia, and Tusculum. Here are found soma »f those primitive v! orks of masonry, which usually mark 66 SeMements of the Latvia*. [Book i the beginnings of civilization and seem to stand as a witness to posterity that in reality Pallas Athene, when she doe» appear, comes into the world full grown. Such is the es? carpment of the wall of rock below Alba in the direction trf Palazzuola, whereby the place, which is rendered natu- rally inaccessible by the steep declivities of Monte Cavo on the south, is rendered equally unapproachable on the north, and only the two narrow approaches on the"east and west, which are capable of being easily defended, are left open for traffic. Such, above all, is the large subterranean tun- nel cut — so that a man can stand upright within it — through the hard wall of lava, 6000 feet thick, by which the waters of the lake formed in the old crater of the Alban Mount were reduced to their present level and a considerable space was gained for tillage on the mountain itself. The summits of the last offshoots of the Sabine range form natural fastnesses of the Latin plain ; and the canton- strongholds there gave rise at a later period to the consider- able towns of Tibur and Praeneste. Labici too, Gabii, and Nomentum in the plain between the Alban and Sabine hills and the Tiber, Rome on the Tiber, Laurentum and Lavini- um on the coast, were all more or less ancient centres of Latin colonization, not to speak of many others less famous and in some cases almost forgotten. All these cantons were in primitive times politically The Latm sovereign, and each of them was governed by loBgue. j(;g prince with the co-operation of the council of elders and the assembly of warriors. Nevertheless tho feeling of fellowship based on community of descent and of language not only pervaded thtf whole of them, but manifested itself in an important religious and political institution — the perpetual league of the collective Latin cantons. The presidency belonged originally, according to the imiversal Italian as well as Helleuic usage, to that can ton wiuhin whose bounds lay the meeting-place of the league ; in this case it was the canton of Alba, which, as we have said, was generally regarded as the oldest and mosi eminent of the Latin cantons. The communities entitled tc Chaf, III.] Settlements of the Latitis. 67 participate in the league were in the beginning thirty— -a number which we find occurring with singular frequency as the sum of the constituent parts of a commonwealth in Greece and Italy. What cantons originally made up the number of the thirty old Latin communities or, as with reference to the metropolitan rights of Alba they are also called, the thirty Alban colonies, tradition has not recorded, and we can no longer ascertain. The rendezvous of this union was, like the Pamboeotia and the Panionia among the similar confederacies of the Greeks, the " Latin festi- val " {feriae Latinae), at which, on the " Mount of Alba " {Mons Albanus, Monte Cava), upon a day annually ap- pointed by the chief magistrate for the purpose, an ox was offered in sacrifice by the assembled Latin stock to the " Latin god " [Jupiter Laiiaris). Each community taking part in the ceremony had to contribute to the sacrificial feast its fixed proportion of cattle, milk, and cheese, and to receive in return a portion of the roasted victim. These usages continued down to a late period, and are well known : respecting the more important legal bearings of this association we can do little else than institute conjec- tures. From the most ancient times there were held, in con- nection with the religious festival on the Mount of Alba, assemblies of the representatives of the several communi- ties at the neighbouring Latin seat of justice at the source of the Ferentina (near Marino). Indeed such a confederacy cannot be conceived to exist without having a certain power of superintendence over the associated body, and without possessing a system of law binding on all. Tradition re- cords, and we may well believe, that the league exercised jurisdiction in reference to violations .of federal law, and that it could in such cases pronounce even sentence of death. The equality in respect of legal rights and of inter- marriage that subsisted among the Latin communities at a later date may perhaps be regarded as an integral part of the primitive law of the league, so that any Latin man eould beget lawful children with any Latin woman and 68 Settlements of the Latms. [Book l acquire landed property and carry on trade in any part of Latium. The league may have also provided a federal tribunal of arbitration for the mutual disputes of the can- tons ; on the other hand, there is no proof that the league imposed any limitation on the sovereign right of each com munity to make peace or war. In like manner thett; can be no doubt that the constitution of the league implied the possibility of its waging defensive or even aggressive vpai in its own name ; in which case, of course, it would be necessary to have a federal commander-in-chief. But we have no reason to suppose that in such an event each coro- munity was compelled by law to furnish a contingent for the army, or that, conversely, any one was interdicted from undertaking a war on its own account even against a mem- ber of the league. There are, however, indications that during the Latin festival, just as was the case during the festivals of the Hellenic leagues, " a truce of God " was observed throughout all Latium ; * and probably on that occasion even tribes at feud granted safe-conducts to each other. It is still less in our power to define the privileges of the presiding canton ; only we may safely affirm that there is no reason for recognizing in the Alban presidency a real political hegemony over Latium, and that possibly, nay probably, it had no more significance in Latium than the honorary presidency of Elis had in Greece.f On the * The Latin festiyal is expressly called " armistice " (induitae. Ma- crob. Sat. \. 16 ; exf/H^iat, Dionys. iv. 49) ; and a war was not allowed to be begun during its continuance (Macrob. I. c). \ The assertion often made in ancient and modern times, that AJha once ruled over Latium under the forms of a symmachy, nowhere findi on closer investigation sufficient support. AE history begins not with the union, but with the disunion of a nation ; and it is very improbablo that the problem of the union of Latium, which Rome finally solved aftei gome centuries of conflict, should have been already solved at an earlier period by Alba. It deserves to be remarked too that Rome never as eerted in the capacity of heiress of Alba any claims of sovereignty pro- per over the Latin communities, but contented herself with an honorarj presidency ; which no doubt, when„ it became combined with materiii Chap, in.] Settlements of the Latins. 69 whole it is probable that the extent of this Latin league, and the amount of its jurisdiction, were somewhat unsettled and fluctuating ; yet it remained throughout not an acciden- tal aggregate of various communities more or less alien to enoh other, but the just and necessary expression of the itflationship of the Latin stoclc. The Latin league may not have at all times included all Latin communities, but it never at any rate granted the privilege of membership to any that were not Latin. Its counterpart in Greece was not the Delphic Amphictyony,-.but the Boeotian or Aetolian confederacy. These very general outlines must suffice : any attempt to draw the lines more sharply would only falsify the pic- ture. The manifold play of mutual attraction and repul- sion among those earliest political atoms, the cantons, passed away in Latium without witnesses competent to tell the tale. We must now be content to realise the one great abiding fact that they possessed a common centre, to which they did not sacrifice their individual independence, but by means of which they cherished and increased the feeling of their belonging collectively to the same nation. By such a common possession the way was prepared for their advance from that cantonal individuality, with which the history of every people necessarily begins, to the national union with which the history of every people ends or at any rate ought to end. power, afforded a handle for her pretensions of hegemony. Testimonies, strictly so called, can scarcely be adduced on such a question ; and leasf of all do such passages as YesXua v. praetor, p. 67, and DionjB. iii 1(^ (office to stamp Alba as a Latin Athens. CHAPTER IV IBE BEaiNNINGB OF ROME About fourteen miles up from the mouth of the mef/ Tiber hills of moderate elevation rise on both baifKs of the stream, higher on the right, lower on the left bank. With the latter group there has beerv closely associated for at least two thousand five hundred years the name, of the Romans. We are unable, of course, to tell how or when that name arose ; this much only ia certain, that in the oldest form of it known to us the in- habitants of the canton are called not Romans, but (by a shifting of sound that frequently occurs in the earlier period of a language, but fell very early into abeyance in Latin *) Ramnians [liamnes), a fact which constitutes an expressive testimony to the immemorial antiquity of the name. Its derivation cannot be given with certainty ; possibly " Ram< nes" may mean " foresters " or " bushmen." But they were not the only dwellers on the hills by the Tities Lu- l^^nk of the Tiber. In the earliest division of •^'^ the burgesses of Rome a trace has been pre- served of the fact that that body arose out of the amalgama^ tion of three cantons once probably independent, the Eam« nians. Titles, and tiuceres, into a single commonwealth— -in other words, out of such a synoikismos as that from which Athens arose in Attica.f The great antiquity of this three- * A similar change of sound is exhibited in the case of the foUowiBg formations, all of them of a very ancient kind : pars portio, Mars man, farreum ancient form for !iorreum, Fabii JFovii, Valerius Volesus, vacu- us vocivus. f The aytwikismos did not necessarily involve an actual settlement together at one spot ; but while each resided as formerly on his owl Chap, iv.j Tli6 BegviMwngs of Rome. 1\ fold division of the community * is perhaps best evinced by the fact that the Eomans, in matters especially of con- stitutional law, regularly used the forms iribuere (" to divide into three ") and tribus (" a third ") in the general sense of " to divide " and " a part," and the latter expression ( vian Rome ; and the boundary of the canton must have been in the close vicinity of the city gates. On the south we find at a distance of fourteen miles the powerful com- munities of Tusoulum and Alba ; and the Roman territory appears not to have extended in this direction beyond the Fossa Cluilia, five miles from Rome. In like manner, towards the south-west, the boundary betwixt Rome and Lavinium was at the sixth milestone. While in a landward direction the Roman canton was thus everywhere confined within the narrowest possible limits, firom the earliest times, on the other hand, it extended without hindrance on both banks of the Tiber towards the sea. Between Rome and the coast there occurs no locality that is mentioned as an ancient canton-eentre, and no trace of any ancient canton- boundary. The legend indeed, which has its definite expla- nation of the origin of everything, professes to tell us that the Roman possessions on the right bank of the Tiber, the " seven hamlets " (septem pagi), and the important salt- works at its mouth, were taken by king Romulus from the Veientes, and that king Ancus fortified on the right bank the Ute du pont, the " mount of Janus " (laniculum), and founded on the left the Roman Peiraeus, the seaport at the river's "mouth" [Osiia). But in fact we have evidenca more trustworthy than that of legend, that the possessions on the Etruscan bank of the Tiber must have belonged to llie original territory of feome ; for in this very quaiter, at the fourth milestone on the later road to the port, lay the grove of the creative goddess {Bea Dia), the primitive chief seat of the Arval festival and Arval brotherhood of Rome. Indeed from tim'3 immemorial the elan of the 76 The Bcgvfinings oj Rome. [Book l Romilii, the chief probably of all the Roman c4ins, -wm settled in this very quarter ; the Janioulum formed a part of the city itself, and Ostia was a burgess colony or, in other words, a suburb. This cannot have been the result of mere accident. The Tiber was the natural highway for the traffic of KoA itE traf. Latium ; and its mouth, on a coast scantily pro- vided with harbours, became necessarily the an chorage of seaferers. Moreover, the Tiber formed from very ancient times the frontier defence of the Latin stock against their northern neighbours. There was no place better fitted for an emporium of the Latin river and sea traffic, and for a maritime frontier fortress of Latium, than Rome. It combined the advantages of a strong position and of immediate vicinity to the river ; it commanded both banks of the stream down to its mouth ; it was so situated as to be equally convenient for the river navigator descend- ing the Tiber or the Anio, and for the seafarer with vessels of so moderate a size as those which were then used ; and it aiforded greater protection from pirates than places situ- ated immediately on the coast. That Rome was indebted accordingly, if not for its origin, at any rate for its impor- tance, to these commercial and strategical advantages of its position, there are numerous indications to show — indica- tions which are of very different weight from the state- ments of quasi-historical romances. Thence arose its very ancient relations with Caere, which was to Etruria what Rome was to Latium, and accordingly became Rome's most intimate neighbour and commercial ally. Thence arose the unusual importance of the bridges over the Tiber, and of bridge-building generally in the Roman commonwealtJi. Thence came tlie galley in the city arms ; thence, too, the very ancient Roman port-duties on the exports and imports of Ostia, which were from the first levied only on what was to be exposed for sale {promercale), not on what was for the shipper's own use (usuarium), and which were there« fore in reality a tax upon commerce. Thence, to anticipate^ the comparatively early occurrence in Rome of coined Chap. IV.] The Beginnings of Rome. 71 money, and of commercial treaties with transmarine states. In this sense, then, it is certainly not improbable that Rom« may have been, as the legend assumes, a creation rather than a growth, and the youngest rather than the oldest among the Latin cities. Beyond doubt the country was already in some degree cultiv«ted, and the Alban range a« well as various other heights of the Campagna were occu- pied by strongholds, when the Latin frontier emporium arose on th? Tiber. Whether it was a resolution of tha Latin confederacy, or the clear-sighted genius of some un- known founder, or the natural development of traffic, thai called the city of Rome into being, it is vain even to sur- mise. But in connection with this view of the position of Rome as the emporium of Latium another ob- Early urban . . i /. * i . i ciiaracter oi servation suggests itself. At the time when "™ history begins to dawn on us, Rome appears, in contradistinction to the league of the Latin communities, as a compact urban unity. The Latin habit of dwelling in open villages, and of using the common stronghold only for festivals and assemblies or in case of special need, vras sub- jected to restriction at a far earlier period, probably, in the canton of Rome than anywhere else in Latium. The Ro- man did not cease to manage his farm in person, or to re- gard it as his proper home ; but the unwholesome atmo- sphere of the Campagna could not but induce him to take up his abode as much as possible on the more airy and salubrious city hills ; and by the side of the cultivators of the soil there must have been a numerous non-agricultural population, partly foreigners, partly native, settled thore from very early times. This to some extent accounts for the dense population of the old Roman territory, which may be estimated at the utmost at 115 square miles, partly ot marshy or sandy soil, and which, even under the earliest constitution of the city, furnished a force of 3300 freemen ; so that it must have numbered at least 10,000 free inhabit- ants. But further, every one acquainted with the Romans and their history is aware that it is their urban and mer< 78 Ths Beginnings of Borne. [Book I cantile character which forms the basis of whatever is pecu« liar in their public and private life, and that the distinction between them and the other Latins and Italians in genera IS pre-eminently the distinction between citizen and rustic. Rome, indeed, was not a mercantile city like Corinth or Carthage ; for Latium was an essentially agricultural re gion, and Rome was in the first instance, and continued to be, pre-eminently a Latin city. But the distinction between Rome and the mass of the other Latin towns must certainly be traced back to its commercial position, and to the type of character produced by that position in its citizens. If Rome was the emporium of the Latin districts, we can readily understand how, along with and in addition to Latin husbandry, an urban life should have attained vigorous and rapid development there and thus have laid the foundation for its distinctive career. It is far more important and more practicable to follow out the course of this mercantile and strategical growth of the city of Rome, than to attempt the useless task of ana- lyzing the insignificant and but little diversified communi- ties of primitive times. The course of this development may still be so far recognized in the traditions regarding the successive circumvallations and fortifications of Rome, the formation of which necessarily kept pace with the growth of the Roman commonwealth in importance as a city. The town, which in the course of centuries grew up as The Paia- Rome, in its original form embraced according tine city. ^o trustworthy testimony only the Palatine, or " square Rome " [Soma guadrata), as it was called in later times from the irregularly quadrangular form of the Pala- tine hill. The gates and walls that enclosed this original city remained visible down to the period of the empire : the sites of two of the former, the Porta Romana near S, Giorgio in Velabro, and the Porta Mugionis at the Arch of Titus, are still known to us, and the Palatine ring-wall is described by Tacitus from his own observation at least or the sides looking towards the Aventine and Caelian. Many ^fOAP. IV.] The Beginnvngs of Rome. 79 traces indicate that this was the centre and original seat of the urban settlement. On the Palatine was to be found the sacred symbol of that settlement, the " outfit vault " {muu' dus) as it was called, in which the first settlers deposited a sufficiency of everything necessary for a household and added a clod of their dear native earth There, too, was aituated the building in which all the curies assembled for religious and other purposes, each at its own hearth (curiae veteres) There stood the meeting-house of the " Leapers " (curia Saliorum) in which also the sacred shields of Mara were preserved, the sanctuary of the " Wolves " (Lupercal), and the residence of the priest of Jupitei". On and near this hill the legend of the founding of the city placed the scenes of its leading incidents, and the straw-covered house of Romulus, the shepherd's hut of his foster-father Faustu- lus, the sacred fig-tree towards which the cradle with the twins had floated, the cornelian cherry-tree that sprang from the shaft of the spear which the founder of the city had hurled from the Aventine over the valley of the Circus into this enclosure, and other such sacred relics were point- ed out to the believer. Temples in the proper sense of the term were still at this time unknown, and accordingly the Palatine has nothing of that sort to show belonging to the primitive age. The public assemblies of the community were early transferred to another locality, so tha: their original site is unknown ; only it may be conjectured that the free space round the mundus, afterwards called the Area Apollinis, was the primitive place of assembly for the bur- gesses and the senate, and the stage erected over the wiw/i- dus itself the primitive seat of justice of the Eoman com- munity. The " festival of the. Seven Mounts " (septimontium), rue Seven again, preserved the memory of the more ex- Moimts. tended settlement which gradually formed round the Palatine. Suburbs grew up one after another, each protected by its own separate though weaker circumvalla- tion and joined to the original ring-wall of the Palatine, aa in fen districts the outer dikes are joined on to the main 80 The Beginnhigs of Rome. [Book \ dike. The " Seven Eings " were, the Palatine itself; thi< Cermalus, the slope of the Palatine in the direction of tha morass that in the earliest times extended between it and the Capitoline (yelahrurn) ; the Velia, the ridge whifih con- nected the Palatine with the Esquiline, but in subsequent times was almost wholly obliterated by the buildings of the empire ; the Fagutal, the Oppius, and the Cispius, the three summits of the Esquiline ; lastly, the Suciisa, or Subilra, a fortress constructed outside of the earthen rampart which protected the new town on the Carinae, in the low ground between the Esquiline and the Quirinal beneath S. Pietro in Vincoli. These additions, manifestly the results of a gradual growth, clearly reveal to a certain extent the earli- est history of the Palatine Eome, especially when we com- pare with them the Servian arrangement of districts which was afterwards formed on the basis of this earliest division. The Palatine was the original seat of the Roman com- oidest set- munity, the oldest and originally the only ring- tiements in wall. The urban settlement, however, began at the Palatine ' i and Sutu- Eome as well as elsewhere not within, but under the protection of, the stronghold ; and the oldest settlements with which we are acquainted, and which after- wards formed the first and second regions in the Servian division of the city, lay in a circle round the Palatine, These included the settlement on the declivity of the Cer- malus with the " street of the Tuscans " — a name, which was probably a memorial of the commercial intercourse that subsisted between the Caerites and Eomans and was already perhaps carried on with vigour in the Palatine city — and the settlement on |he Velia ; both of which subse- quently along with the stronghold-h'Jl itself constituted a region of the Servian city. Further, there were the com- ponent elements of the subsequent second region — the sub- urb on the Caelian, which probably embraced only its ex- treme point above the Colosseum ; that on the Carinae, the spur which projects from the Esquiline towards the Pala- tine ; and, lastly, the valley and outwork of the Subura, from which the whole region received its name. These two Chap. IV.] The Beginnings of Rome. 8^ regions jointly constituted the incipient city ; and the Sub uran region, which extended at the base of the stronghold nearly from the Arch of Constantine to S. Pietro in Vin- coli, and over the valley beneath, appears to have been more considerable and perhaps older than the settlement* incorporated by the Servian arrangement in the Palatine region, because in the order of the regions the former takes precedence of the latter. A remarkable memorial of the distinction between these two portions of the city was pre- served in one of the oldest sacred customs of the later Rome, the sacrifice of the October horse yearly offered in the Campus Martins : down to a late period a struggle took place at this festival for the horse's head between the men of the Subura and those of the Via Sacra, and according as victory lay with the former or with the latter, the head was nailed either to the Mamilian Tower (site unknown) in the Subura, or to the king's palace under the Palatine. It was the two halves of the old city that thus competed with each other on equal terms. At that time, accordingly, the Es- quiliae (which name strictly used is exclusive of the Cari- nae) were in reality what they were called, the " outer buildings " {ex-quiliae, like inguilinus, from colere) or sub- urb : this became the third region in the later city division, and it was always held in inferior consideration as com- pared with the Suburan and Palatine regions. Other neigh- bouring heights also, such as the Capitol and the Aventine, may probably have been occupied by the community of the Seven Mounts ; the " bridge of piles " in particular {pons suhlicius), thrown over the natural pier of the island in the Tiber, must have existed even then — the pontifical college alone is sufficient evidence of this — and the Ute du pont on the Etruscan bank, the height of the Janiculum, would not be left unoccupied ; but the community had not as yet brought either within the circuit of its fortifications. The regulation which was adhered to as a ritual rule down to the latest times, that the bridge should be composed simply of wood without iron, manifestly shows that in its original practical use it was to be merely a flying bridge, which 4* 82 The Beginnings of Mame. [Book l must be capable of being easily at any time broken off or burnt. We recognize in this circumstance how insecure for a long time and liable to interruption was the command ol the passage of the river on the part of the Eoman commu* nity. No relation is discoverable between the urban settle- aients thus gradually formed and the three communities into which from an immemorially early period the Roman commonwealth was in political law divided. As the Ram- nes, Tities, and Luceres appear to have been communities originally independent, thej ^ lust have had their settle- ments originally apart ; but they certainly did not dwell in , separate circumvallations on the Seven Hills, and all fictions to this effect in ancient or modern times must be consigned by the intelligent inquirer to the same fate with the battle of the Palatine and the charming tale of Tarpeia. On the contiary each of the three tribes of Ramnes, Tities, and Luceres must have been distributed throughout the two re- gions of the oldest city, the Subura and Palatine, and the suburban region as weL : with this may be connected the fact, that afterwards not only in the Suburan and Palatine, but in each of the regions subsequently added to the city, there were three pairs of Argean chapels. The Palatine city of the Seven Mounts may have had a history of its own ; no other tradition of it has survived than simply that of its having once existed. But as the leaves of the forest make room for the new growth of spring, although they fall unseen by human eyes, so has this unknown city of the Seven Mounts made room for the Rome of history. But the Palatine city was not the only one that in an- cient times existed within the circle afterwarda Eomans on enclosed by the Servian walls ; opposite to it, uinna. j^j jtg jj^mediate vicinity, there lay a second city on the Quirinal. The " old strong-hold " ( Oapitolium vetus) with a sanctuary of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, and a tem- ple of the goddess of Fidelity in which state treaties were publicly deposited, forms the evident counterpart of the later Capitol with its temple to Jujiiter, Juno, and Minerva, Chap. IV.] The Beginnings of Borne. 8S and with, its shrine of Fides Eomana likewise destined as it were for a repository of international law, and furnishes clear proof that the Quirinal also was once the centre (if ar iudependent commonwealth. The same fact may be in- ferred from the double worship of Mars on the Palatine and the Quirinal ; for Mars was the type of the warrior and the .oldest chief divinity of the burgess communities of Italy. With this is connected the further circumstance that his ministers, the two primitive colleges of the " Leapers " (Salii) and of the " Wolves " {Luperci), existed in the later Eome in duplicate : by the side of the Salii of the Palatine there were also Salii of the Quirinal ; by the sid« of the Quinotian Luperci of the Palatine there was a Fa- bian guild of Luperci, which in all probability had their sanctuary on the Quirinal.* All these indications, which even in themselves are of great weight, become more significant when we recollect that the accurately known circuit of the Palatine city of the Seven Mounts excluded the Quirinal. and that afterwards in the Servian Rome, while the first three regions correspond- ed to the former Palatine city, a fourth region was formed out of the Quirinal along with the neighbouring Viminal. Thus, too, we discover an explanation of the reason why the strong outwork of the Subura was constructed beyond the * That the Quinotian Luperci had precedence in rank over the Fab- S.n is evident from the circumstance that the fabulists attribute the Quinetii to Eomulus, the Fabii to Remus (Ovid. Fast. ii. 373, seq. ; Vict. De Oriy. 22^. That the Fabii belonged to the Hill-Romans is shown by the sacrifice of their ffens on the Quirinal (Liv. v. 46, 52), whether that sacrifice may or may not have been connected with the Lupercalia. Moreover, the Lupercus of the former college is called in inscriptions, (Orelli, 2253) Lupercus Quinctialis vetus ; and the praenomen Ka.eso, which was most probably connected with the Lupercal worship (see Jiom. Forschimgen, i. 17), is found exclusively among the Quinetii ansoldier precisely was taken from each house, and one horseman precisely from each clan , although three thousand of the former and three hundred of the latter were selected in all, the selection in detail was doubtless determined from the remotest tinies wholly by practical considerations, and if the Eomans did not allow these normal numbers to fall entirely into sbey- ance, the reason of their retention lay simply in the tenden- cy so deeply implanted in the Latin character towards a logical or rather systematic adjustment of proportions. If these views be correct, the only member that remains, and that really fulfilled important functions in this primitive constitutional organization, is the curia. Of these there were ten, or, where there were several tribes, ten to each tribe. Such a "wardship" was a real corporate unity, the members of which assembled at least for holding common festivals. Each wardship was under the charge of a special warden (curio), and had a priest of its own (flamen curi- alis) ; beyond doubt also the levies and valuations' took place according to curial divisions, and in judicial matters the burgesses met by curies and voted by curies. This organization, however, cannot have been introduced prima- rily with a view to voting, for in that case they would cer- tainly have made the number of subdivisions uneven. Sternly defined as was the contrast between burgess and non-burgess, the equality of rights within thTtageBs- the burgess-body was complete. No people has *°' ever perhaps equalled that of Rome in the inex- orable rigour with which it has carried out these principles, the one as fully as the other. The strictness of the Roman distinction between burgesses and non-burgesses is nowhere perhaps brought out with such clearness as in the treatment of the primitive institution of honorary citizenship, wh'ch can certainly be conceived. We may ever connect with such a state d things the primitive adrogatio. Ohap. v.] Original Constitution of Rome. 105 was originally designed to mediate between the two. When a stranger was, by resolution of the community, adopted into the circle of the burgesses,* he might surrender his previous citizenship, in which case he passed over whol'y into the new community ; but he might also combine hia former citizenship with that which had just been granted to him. Such was the primitive custom, and such it always remained in Hellas, where in later ages the same person not un frequently held the freedom of several communities at the same time. But the greater vividness with which the conception of the community as such was realized in Latium could not tolerate the idea that a man might simul- taneously belong in the character of a burgess to two com- munities ; and accordingly, when the newly-chosen burgess did not intend to surrender his previous franchise, it at- tached to the nominal honorary citizenship no further mean- ing than that of an obligation to befriend and protect the guest (ius hoapitii), such as had always been recognized as incumbent in reference to foreigners. But this rigorous retention of barriers against those that were without was accompanied by an absolute banishment of all differences of rights among the members included in the burgess community of Rome. We have already men- tioned that the distinctions existing in the household, which of course could not be set aside, were at least ignored in the community ; the son who as such was subject in prop- erty to his father might, in the character of a burgess, come to have command over his father as master. There were no class-pr ivileges : the fact that the Titles took precedence of the Ramnes, and both ranked before the Luceres, did not affect their equality in all legal rights. The burgess caval- ry, which at this period was used for single combat in front of the line on horseback or even on foot, and was rather a select or reserved corps than a special arm of the service, * The original expression for this was patronum eooptaii, which, ai patronus just '&ke patridus in itself denoted simply the full burgess (p 95), did not differ from the in patricios cooptari (Liv. iv. 4 ; Sueton. Til 1) or the later in pairicios adlegi. i06 Original Constitution of Rome. [Book i, and which accordingly contained by far the wealthiest, best- armed, and best-traired men, was naturally he'd in higher estimation than the burgess infantry ; but thi; was a dis- tinction purely de facto, and admittance to the cavalry was doubtless conceded to any patrician. It was solely the con- Btitutional subdivision of the burgess-body that gave rise to distinctions recognized by the law. The legal equality of all the members of the community was carried out even in their external appearance. Dress indeed served to distin- guish the president of the community from its members, the senator from the burgess who did not belong to the sen- ate, the grown-up man under obligation of military service from the boy not yet capable of enrolment ; but otherwise the rich and the noble as well as the poor and low-born were only allowed to appear in public in the like simple wrapper {toga) of white woollen stuff. This complete equality of rights among the burgesses had beyond doubt its original basis in the Indo-Germanic type of constitution ; but in the precision with which it was thus apprehended and embodied it formed one of the most characteristic and influential peculiarities of the Latin nation. And in con- nection with this we may recall the fact that in Italy we do not meet with any race of earlier settlf.rs less capable of culture, that had become subject to the Latin immigrants (p. 30). They had no conquered race to deal with, and therefore no such condition of things as that which gave rise to the Indian system of caste, to the nobility of Thes- saly and Sparta and perhaps of Hellas generally, and prob- ably also to the Germanic distinction of ranks. The maintenance of the state economy devolved, of course, upon the burgesses. The mos,t impor- the bnrgess- tant function of the burgess was his service in ^ the army ; for the burgesses alone had the right and duty of bearing arms. The burgesses were at the same time the "body of warriors" {populus, related to popii- lari, to lay waste, and popa, the butcher) : in the old lita^ Dies it is upon the " spear-armed body of warriors " {pilumnus poplus) that the blessing of Mars is invoked; Chap, v.] Origvnal Constitution of Bome. 10 J and the king, when he addressed them, called them " laiic& men " (quiriies).* We have already stated how the arinj of aggression, the " gathering " (legio), was formed. In the tripartite Roman community it consisted of three " hundreds " (centuriae) of horsemen (celeres, " the swift '' or Jlexuntes, " the wheelers ") under the three leaders-of division of the horsemen {tribuni celerum),f and three * Qairis, guirltis, or g«m«t«s, literally means "lance-bearer," from jvnris or c&-«! = lance and ire, and in that respect agrees with samnis, samnHis and sabinus, which even among the ancirnts was derived from aavviov, spear. Kindred forms are arquites, milites, pedites, equitee, veli'es, thoss respectively who go with the bow, in bodies of a thousand, on foot, on horseback, without armour in their mere over-garment ; only in the latter foimp, as in dederitis, hormnis, and numerous other words, the i, originally Ions, has been shortened. In this way Juno quiritis, (Mars) quirinus, Janus quirinus, are primarily characterized by that epithet as divinities that hurl the spear ; and employed in reference to, men quiris denotes the warrior, that is, the full burgess. With this view the usus loquendi coincides. Where the locality was to be referred to, "Quirites" was never used, but always "Rome" and "Romans" (urbs Jtoma, populus, civis, ager Romanus), because the term quiris had as lit- tle of a local meaning as civis or milis. For the same reason these de- signations could not be combined ; they did not say civis quiris, because both denoted, though from different points of view, the same legal con- ception. On the other hand the solemn announcement of the funeral of a burgess ran in the words "this warrior has departed in death" (ollut quiris leto datus) ; and in like manner he who was injured employed this word in calling the burgesses to aid him {quiritare) ; the king ad- dressed the assembled community by this name, and, when he sat in judgment, gave sentence according to the law of the warrior-freemen (ex iure quiritium, quite similar to the later ex iure civili). The phrase populus Romawm, quirites, thus means "the community and the individ- ual burgesses," and therefore in an old formula (Liv. i. 32) to the popu- lus Romanus are opposed the prisci Latini, to the quirites the homines jprisci Latini (Bekker, Sandh. ii. 20 seq.) ; populus Romanus quiriiivm eoiTesponds to the well-known phrases colonia colonorum, mmiicipium mtmicipum. In the face of these facts nothing but ignorance of language and of history can still adhere to the idea that the Roman community was once confronted by a Quirite community of a similar kind, and that after their incorporation the name of the recently received community supplanted in ritiial and legal phraseology that of the receiver. — Oorap. p. 85 note. ^ Among the eight ritual institutions of Numa Dionysius (ii. 64) a08 Origmal Constitution of Home. [Book I " thousands " of footmen [miliies) under the three leaders- of-division of the infentry (tribuni militum) ; the lattei ■were probably from the first the flower of the general levy, To these there may perhaps have been added a number of light-armed men, archers especially, fighting outside of the ranks.* The general was regularly the king himself. Be- sides service in war, other personal burdens might devolve upon the burgesses ; such as the obligation of undertaking the king's commissions in peace and in war (p. 98), and the task-work of tilling the king's lands or of constructing pub lie buildings. How heavy in particular the burden oi after naming the Curiones and Flamines specifies as thetliird the leader* of the horsemen (ot ^yf/iovf? twv KfXfQmv). According to the Praenc- etine calendar a festival was celebrated at the Comitium on the 19th March [^adstandbus p07i]tijicibu8 et trib{unis) celerlum). Valerius Antiaa (in. Dionys. ii. 13, comp. iii. 41) assigns to the earliest Roman cavalry a leader, Celer, and three centurions ; whereas in the treatise De Virii 111. 1, Celer himself is termed eenturio. Moreover Brutus is affirmed to have been iribunus celerum at the expulsion of the kings (Liv. i. 59), and according to Dionysius (iv. 71) to have even by virtue of this office made the proposal to banish the Tarquiris. And, lastly, Pomponius (Dig. i. 2, 2, 15. 19) and Lydus in a similar way, partly perhaps borrowingfroni him {De Mag. i. 14, S'?), identify the tribunus celerum with the Celer of Antias, the magisier eguitum of the dictator under the republic, and the Praefectus praelorio of the empire. Of these — the only statements which are extant regarding the tribuni celerum — the last mentioned not only proceeds from late and quite un- trustworthy authorities, but is inconsistent with the meaning of the term, which can only signify " divisional leaders of horsemen." The master of the horse of the republican period, who was nominated only on extra- ordinary occasions and was in later times no longer nominated at all, cannot possibly have been identical with the magistracy that was required for the annual festival of the 1 9th March and was consequently a stand- ing office. Laying aside, as we necessarily must, the account of Pom- ponius, which has evidently arisen solely out of the anecdote of Brutus dressed up with ever increasing ignorance as history, we reach the sim- ple result that the tribuni celerum entirely correspond in number and character to the tribuni militum, and that they were the leaders-of-di- Tision of the horsemen, consequently quite distinct from the magister eguitum. * This is indicated by the evidently very old forms velites and arquvtc* ind \>j the subsequent organization of the legion. Chap, t.] Original Oonstitution of Borne. 109 building the walls of the city pressed upon the community, is evidenced by the fact that the ring-walls retained the name of "tasks" {moenia). There was no regular (]i.)e(!t taxation, nor was there any direct regular expendituio on the part of the state. Taxation was not needed fcr defray« ing the burdens of the community, since the state gave no recompense for serving in the army, for task-work, or for public service generally ; so far as there was any such recompense at all, it was given to the person who per formed the service by the district primarily concerned in it, or by the person who could not or would not serve him- self. The victims needed for the public service of the gods were procured by a tax on actions at law ; the defeated party in an ordinary process paid down to the state a cat- tle-fine {sacramentum) proportioned to the value of the object in dispute. There is -no mention of any regular presents to the king on the part of the burgesses ; but the non-burgesses settled in Rome {aerarii) appear to have paid to him a tax for protection. Besides this there flowed into the royal coffers the porfc-duties (p. 76), as well as the in- come from the domains — in particular, the pasture tribute {scriptura) from the cattle driven out upon the common pasture, and the quotas of produce (vectigalia), which the lessees of the lands of the state had to pay instead of rent. To this was added the produce of cattle fines and confisca- ^ons and the gains of war. In cases of need a contribution (tributurri) was imposed, which was looked upon, however, as a forced loan and was repaid when the times improved ; whether it fell upon the inhabitants without distinction, or upon burgesses alone, cannot be determined ; the latter supposition is, however, the more probable. The king managed the finances. The property of the state, however, was not identified with the private property of the king ; which, judging from the statements regarding the extensive landed possessions of the last Eoman royal house, the Tarquins, must have been considerable. The ground won by arms, in particular, appears to have been constantly regarded as property of tl e state. Whether 110 Oriffinal Constitution of Home. [Book i and how far the king was restricted hj use and wont in the administration of the public property, can no longer be ascertained ; but we may infer from the subsequent cours« of procedure that the burgesses can never have been con suited regarding it, whereas it was probably the custom tt consult the senate in the imposition of the tributum and in the distribution of the lands won in war. The burgesses, however, do not merely come into view as furnishing contributions and rendering ser- the burgess- vice ; they also bore a part in the public gov- ernment. For this purpose all the members of the community (with the exception of the women, and the children still incapable of bearing arms) — in other words, the " spearmen," as in addressing them they were desig- nated — assembled at the seat of justice, when the king con- voked them for the purpose of making a communication (conventio, contio), or formally bade them meet (comitia) for the third week (in irirmm noundinwn), to consult them by curies. He appointed such formal assemblies of the community to be held regularly twice a year, on the 24th of March and the 24th of May, and as often besides as seemed to him necessary. The burgesses, however, were always summoned not to speak, but to hear ; not to ask questions, but to answer them. No one spoke in the as- sembly but the king, or he to whom the king saw fit to grant liberty of speech ; and the speaking of the burgesses consisted of a simple answer to the question of the king, without discussion, without reasons, without conditions, without breaking up the question even into parts. Never- tlieless the Roman burgess-community, like the Germanic and not improbably the primitive Indo-Germanic communi- ties in general, was the real and ultimate basis of the politi- cal idea of sovereignty. But in the ordinary course of things this sovereignty was dormant, or only had its ex- pression in the fact that the burgess-body voluntarily bound itself to render allegiance to its president. For that pur- pose the king, after he had entered on his office, addressed to the assembled curies the question whether they would b' Chap, v.] Original Constitution of Rome. Ill true and loyal to him and would according to use and wont acknowledge himself as well as his servants, the trackers {^quaeslores) and messengers (liciores) ; a question which undoubtedly might no more be answered in the negative than the parallel homage in the case of a hereditary mou- archy might be refused. It was in thorough consistency with constitutional priU' ciples that the burgesses, as being the sovereign power, should not on ordinary occasions take part in the course of public business. So long as public action was confined to the carrying into execution of the existing constitutional regulations, the power which was, properly speaking, sov- ereign in the state could not and might not interfere : the laws governed, not the lawgiver. But it was different where a change of the existing legal arrangements or even a mere deviation from them in a particular case was neces- sary. In every such instance the Roman constitution ex- hibits the burgesses as exercising their power ; so that each act of the sovereign authority is accomplished by the co- operation of the burgesses and the king or interrex. As the legal relation between ruler and ruled was itself ratified in the manner of a contract by oral question and answer, so every sovereign act of the community was accomplished by means of a question {rogatio), which the king — but only he, never his deputy (p. 98) — addressed to the burgesses, and to which the majority of the curies gave an affirmative answer. In this case their consent might undoubtedly be refused. Among the Romans, therefore, law was not pri- marily, as we conceive it, a command addressed by the sov- ereign to the whole members of the community, but pri- marily a contract concluded between the constitutive pow- ers of the state by address and counter-address.* Such a * Lix (obscure in its origin, but related to Ugare, " to depute, to ap- point") deiiote3, as is well known, a contract in general, along, however, with the connotation of a contract whose terms the proposer dictate! and the other party simply accepts or declines ; as was usually the case^ e. g. with public licitationes. In the lex publica popidi Rontani the pro 112 Origmal Constitution of Borne. [Book l legislative contract was de jure requisite in all cases which involved a deviation from the ordinary consistency of tha legal system. In the ordinary course of law any one might without restriction give away his property to whom he would, but only upon condition of its immediate transfer : that the property should continue for the time Leing with the owner, and at his death pass over to another, was a legal impossibility — unless the community should allow it ; a permission which in this case the burgesses could grant not only when assembled in their curies, but also when drawn up for battle. This was the origin of testaments. In the ordinary course of law the freeman could not lose or surrender the inalienable blessing of freedom, and therefore :me who was subject to no house-master could not subject himself to another in the place of a son — unless the com- munity should grant him leave to do so. This was the adrogatio. In the ordinary course of law burgess-rights could only be acquired by birth and could never be lost — unless the community should confer the patriciate or allow its surrender ; neither of which acts, doubtless, could be validly done originally without a decree of the curies. In the ordinary course of law the criminal whose crime de- served death, when once the king or his deputy had pro- nounced sentence according to judgment and justice, was inexorably executed ; for the king could only judge, not pardon — unless the condemned burgess appealed to the mercy of the community and the judge allowed him the opportunity of pleading for pardon. This was the begin- ning of the provocatio, which for that reason was especially permitted not to the transgressor who had reflised to plead guilty and had been convicted, but to him who confessed hi» crime and urged reasons in palliation of it. In the ordi- nary course of law the perpetual treaty concluded with a neighbouring state might not be broken — unless the bur- gesses deemed themselves released from it on account of poser was the king, the acceptor the people ; the limited co-operatio» of the latter waa thus significantly indicated in the very language. Ohap. v.] Original Oonstitution of Rome. 1 1 3 injuries inflicted on them. Hence it was necessary thfU they should be consulted when an aggressive war was con templated, but not on occasion of a defensive war, where the other state had broken the treaty, nor on the conclusioD of peace ; it appears, however, that the question was in such a ease addressed not to the usual assembly of the bur- gesses, out to the army. Thus, in general, it was necessary to consult the burgesses whenever the king meditated any innovation, any change of the existing public law ; and in so far the right of legislation was from antiquity a right of the community, not of the king. In these and all simi- lar cases the king could not act with legal effect without the co-operation of the community ; the man whom the king alone declared a patrician remained a non-burgess as before, and the invalid act could only carry consequences de facto, not de jure. Thus far the assembly of the community, re- stricted and hampered as it at first appears, was yet from antiquity a constituent element of the Eoman common- wealth, and was in law superior to, rather than co-ordinate with, the king. But by the side of the king and of the burgess assem- „ bly there appears in the earliest constitution of The scQiite. the community a third original power, not des- tined for action like the former, nor for legislation like the latter, and yet co-ordinate with both and within its own rightful sphere placed over both. TJiis was the council of elders or senatus. Beyond doubt it had its origin in the clan-constitution : the old tradition that in the original Rome the senate was composed of all the heads of house- holds is correct in state-law to this extent, that each of the plans of the later Rome which had not merely migrated thither at a more recent date referred its origin to one of those household-fathers of the primitive city as its ancestoi and patriarch. If, as is probable, there was once in Rome or at any 'rate in I^atium a time when, like the state itseli" each of its ultimate constituents, that is to say, each clan had virtually a monarchical organization and was under the rule of an elder — whether raised to that position by the il4 Original Constitution of Roine. [Book X choice of the clansmen or of his predecessor, or in virtua of hereditary succession — the senate of that time must havt been simply the collective body of these clan-elders ; and if so, it was an institution altogether independent of the king and of the burgess-assembly and, in contradistinction to the latter which was directly composed of the whole body of the burgesses, it had in some measure the chara& ter of an indirect representation of the people. Certainly that stage of independence when each clan was virtually a state was surmounted in the Latin stock at an immemo rially early period, and the first and perhaps most difficult step towards developing the community out of the clan- organization — the setting aside of the clan-elders — had pos- sibly been taken in Latium long before the foundation of TJome ; the Roman clan, as we know it, is without any visi- ble head, and no one of the living clansmen is especially called to represent the common patriarch from whom all the clansmen descend or profess to descend, so that even inheritance and guardianship, when they fall by death to the clan, devolve on the clan-members as a whole. Neverthe- less the original character of the council of elders be- queathed many and important legal consequences to the Eoman senate. To express the matter briefly, the position of the senate as something other and more than a mere state-eouncil — than an assemblage of a number of trusty men whose advice the king found it fitting to obtain — hinged entirely on the fact that it was once an assembly like that, described by Hoi/ier, of the princes and rulers of the people sitting for deliberation in a circle round the king. The number of members in the original council of elders was necessarily a fixed one, corresponding to the number of the clans that formed the state ; and member- ship was necessarily for life. In both respects the Roman senate was similar. The number of the senatorial stalls in Rome not only remained at all times a fixed one, but was also at the outset necessarily equal to the number of clan- ships belonging to the state, so that the amalgamation of the three primitive communities, each of which was assumed Chap. V.] Original Constitution of Some. 118 to consist of a hundred clanships, was in state-law necessa Hly accompanieci by an increase of the senatorial seats to the normal number of three hundred, which thenceforth became fixed. Moreover the senators were at all times called to sit for life ; and if at a later period the life-long tenure subsisted more de facto than de jure, and the revi- sions of the senatorial list that took place from time to time afforded an opportunity to remove the unworthy or the un- acceptable senator, it can be shown that this arrangement only arose in the course of time. The selection of the senators was certainly at all times vested in the king, nor could it be otherwise after the clan-elders had ceased to exist ; but in this selection during the earlier epoch, so long as the people retained a vivid sense of the individuality of the clans, it was probably the established rule that, when a senator died, the king should call another experienced and aged man of the same clanship to fill his place, and that there should be no Roman clan unrepresented and none with a double representation in the senate of the Roman community. It was only in all probability when the com mmiity became more thoroughly amalgamated and inward- ly united, that this usage was departed from and the selec- tion of the senators was left entirely to the free judgment of the king, so that he was only regarded as failing in hia duty when he omitted to fill up vacancies. The prerogatives of this council of elders were based on the view that the rule over a community Preroga- tives of the composed of clans rightfully belonged to the eenate. The „ ^ . , , , i , , • j interreg- Collective clan-elders, although m accordance num. ^^j^ ^j^^ monarchical principle of the Romans, which found so stern an expression in the household, that rule could only be exercised for the time being by one of these elders, namely the king. Every member of the sen- ate accordingly was as such, not in practice but in preroga- tive, likewise king of the community ; and therefore hia insignia, though inferior to those of the king, were quite of a similar character : he wore the purple on his dress and the red shoe like the king ; but the whole robe of the king 116 Original Constitution of Som/e. [Book l was purpje, whereas that of the senator had merely a pitrt pie border (latus clavus), and the red slioes of the king were higher and more handsome than those of the senators. On this ground, moreover, the royal power in the Roman community could never be left vacant. If the king lied iPithout having himself nominated a successor, the elders at once took his place and exercised the prerogatives of rtgal power. According to the immutable principle however that only one can be master at a time, even now it was only one of them that ruled, and such a " temporary king " (interrea;) was distinguished from the king nominated for life simply in respect to the duration, not in respect to the plenitude, of his authority. The duration of the office of interrex was fixed for the individual holder at not more than five days ; it circulated accordingly among the senators on the footing that, until the royal office was again permanent- ly filled up, the temporary holder at the expiry of his term nominated a successor to himself for a similar term of five days agreeably to the order of succession fixed by lot. There was, it may readily be conceived, no declaration of allegiance to the interrex on the part of the community. Nevertheless the interrex was entitled and bound not mere- ly to perform all the official acts otherwise pertaining to the king, but even to nominate a king for life — with the single •exception that this right was not vested in the first who held the office, probably because the first was regarded as defectively appointed inasmuch as he was not nominated by his predecessor. ■ Thus this assembly of elders was the ultimate holder of the ruling power {imperium) and the divine protection {auspicia) of the Roman commonwealth, and furnished the guarantee for the uninterrupted continu- ance of that commonwealth and of its monarchical — though not hereditarily monarchical — organization. If therefo.M the senate subsequently seemed to the Greeks to be an as- sembly of kings, this was only what was to be expected ; it had in fact been such originally. But it was not merely in so far as the idea of a per- petual kingdom found its living expression in this assembly, Chap, v.] Original Constitution of Rome. 117 that it was an essential member of the Roman constitution. Tte senate "^^^ council of elders, indeed, had no title to andtiiereso- interfere with the official functions of the kinar, lut ions of ^ the oommu- The latter doubtless, in the event of his bein£> D ity I pa- , irum aucto- unable personally to lead the army or to decide a legal dispute, took his deputies at all timea from the senate ; for which reason subsequently the chief posts of command were regularly bestowed on sena- tors alone, and senators were likewise employed by prefer- ence as jurymen. But the senate, in its collective capacity, was never consulted in the leading of the army or in the administration of justice ; and therefore there was no right of military command and no jurisdiction vested in the sen- ate of the later Rome. On the other hand the council of elders was reckoned the appointed guardian of the existing constitution with reference to the encroachments of the king and the burgesses. On the senate devolved the duty of examining every resolution adopted by the burgesses at the suggestion of the king, and of refusing to confirm it if it seemed to violate existing rights ; or, which was the same thing, in all cases where a resolution of the com- munity was constitutionally requisite — as on every altera- tion of the constitution, on the reception of new burgesses, on the declaration of an aggressive war — the council of elders had a right of veto. This must not indeed be re- garded in the light of legislation pertaining jointly to the burgesses and the senate, somewhat in the same way as to the two chambers in the constitutional state of the present day ; the senate was not so much law-maker as law-guar- dian, and could only cancel a decree when the community seemed to have exceeded its competence — to have violated by its decree existing obligations towards the gods o( towards foreign states or organic instituti ns of the com- ir;anity. But still it was a matter of the greatest import- au'?e that — to take an example — ^when the Roman king had proposed a declaration of war and the burgesses had con- verted it into a decree, and when the satisfaction which th« foreign community seemed bound to furnish had been de 118 Original Constitution of Home. [Book l manded in vain, the Roman envoy invoked the gods aa witnesses of the wrong and concluded with the words, " But on these matters we shall consult the elders at home how we may obtain our rights ; " it was only when the council of elders had declared its consent, that the war now decreed by the burgesses and approved by the senate was formally declared. Certainly it was neither the design nor the ell'eet of this rule to occasion a constant interference of the senate with the resolutions of the burgesses, and by such guardian- ship to divest them of their sovereign power ; but, as in the event of a vacancy in the supreme office the senate secured the continuance of the constitution, we find it here also as the shield of legal order in opposition even to the supreme power in the community. With this arrangement was probably connected the The senate apparently very ancient usage, in virtue of as state- which the king previously submitted to the council. ° ^ •' senate the proposals that were to be brought before the burgesses, and caused all its members one after another to give their opinion on the subject. As the senate had the right of cancelling the resolution adopted, it was natural for the king to assure himself beforehand that no opposition was to be apprehended from that quarter. Moreover, it was not in accordance with Roman habits to decide matters of importance without having taken counsel with other men ; and the senate was called, in virtue of its very composition, to act as a state council to the ruler of the community. It was from this usage of giving counsel, far more than from the prerogatives which we have pre- viously described, that the subsequent extensive powers of the senate were developed ; but it was in its origin insignifi- cant and really amounted only to the prerogative of the senators to answer, when they were asked a question. It may have been usual to ask the previous opinion of the senate in affairs of importance which were neither judicial nor military, as, for instance — apart from the proposals to be submitted to the assembly of the people — in the impo sition of task works and extraordinary services generally) Chap. V.] Original Constitution \f Bom^. 119 and in the disposal of the conquered territory ; but such a previous consultation, though usual, was not legally neces- sary. The king convoked the senate -when he pleased, and laid before it his questions ; no senator might declare his opijiion unasked, still less might the senate meet without being summoned, except in the single case of its meeting on occasion of a vacancy to settle by lot the order of su^" cession in the office of interrex. That the king was more over at liberty to call in and consult other men whom he trusted alongside of, and at the same time with, the sena- tors, cannot be proved by positive facts, but yet can hardly be doubted. The advice was not a command ; the king might omit to comply with it, while the senate had no other means for giving practical eiFect to its views except the already-mentioned right of cassation, which was far from being universally applicable. " I have chosen you, not that ye may be my guides, but that ye may do my bidding : " these words, which a later author puts into the mouth of king Romulus, certainly express with substantial correctness the position of the senate in this respect. Let us now sum up the results. Sovereignty, as con- „g^ . . J ceived by the Romans, was inherent in the com- ooiKtitution munitv of burgesses : but the bursess-body was never entitled to act alone, and was only enti- tled to co-operate in action, when there was to be a depar- ture from existing rules. By its side stood the assembly of the elders of the community appointed for life, virtually a college of magistrates with regal power, called in the event of a vacancy in the royal office to administer it by means of their own members until it should be once more definitely filled, and entitled to overturn the illegal decrees of the community. The royal power itself was, as Sallust says, at once absolute and limited by the laws {imperium legitimum) ; absolute, in so far as the king's command, whether righteous or not, must in the first instance be un- conditionally obeyed ; limited, in so far as a command con- travening established usage and not sanctioned by the true wvereign — the people — carried no permanent legal conse- 120 Original Constitution of Home. [Book I quences. The oldest constitution of Rome was thus in some measure constitutional monarchy inverted. In that form of government the king is regarded as the possessor and vehicle of the plenary power of the state, and accorfl ingly acts of grace, for example, proceed solely from hinu while the administration of the state belongs to the repre aentatives of the people and to the executive responsible to them. In the Roman constitution the community of the people exercised very much the same functions as belong to the king in England : the right of pardon, which in England is the prerogative of the crown, was in Rome the preroga- tive of the community ; while all government was vested in the president of the state. If, in conclusion, we inquire as to the relation of tht state itself to its individual members, we find the Roman polity equally remote from the laxity of a mere defensive combination and from the modern idea of an absolute om- nipotence of the state. The community doubtless exercised power over the person of the burgess in the imposition of public burdens, and in the punishment of offences and crimes ; but any special law inflicting, or threatening to inflict, punishment on an individual on account of acts not universally recognized as penal always appeared to the Romans, even when there was no flaw in point of form, an arbitrary and unjust proceeding. ^ Ear more restricted still was the power of the community in respect of the rights of property and the rights of family which were coincident, rather than merely connected, with these •, in Rome the household was not absolutely annihilated and the commu- nity aggrandized at its expense, as was the case in the police organization of Lycurgus. It was one of the most undeniable as well as one of the most remarkable principles of the primitive constitution of Rome, that the state might imprison or hang the burgess, but might not take away from him his son or his field or even lay taxation on him. In these and similar things the community itself was re- stricted from encroaching on the burgess, nor was this re- striction merely ideal ; it found its expression and its prao' Chap, t.] Original Constiimtion of Borne. 121 tical application in the constitutional veto of the senate, which was certainly entitled and hound to annul any resolu- tion of the community contravening such an original right. No community was so all-powerful within its own sphere as the Roman ; but in no community did the burgess who con- ducted himself unblameably live in an equally absolute security from the risk of encroachment on the part either of his fellow-burgesses or of the state itself. These were the principles on which the community of Rome governed itself — a free people, understanding the duty of obedience, disowning all mystical ideas of divine right, absolutely equal in the eye of the law and one with another, bearing the sharply defined impress of a nationality of their own. while at the same time (as will be afterwards shown) they wisely as well as magnanimously opened their gates wide for intercourse with other lands. This constitu- tion was neither manufactured nor borrowed ; it grew up amidst and along with the Roman people. It was based, of course, upon the earlier constitutions — the Italian, the Graeco-Italian, and the Indo-Germanic ; but a long succes- sion of phases of political development must have inter- vened between such constitutions as the poems of Homer and the Germania of Tacitus delineate and the oldest or- ganization of the Roman community. In the acclamation of the Hellenic and in the shield-striking of the Germanic assemblies there was involved an expression of the sove- reign power of the community ; but a wide interval sepa- rated forms such as these from the organized jurisdiction and the regulated declaration of opinion of the Latin assem- bly of curies. It is possible, moreover, that as the Roman kings certainly borrowed the purple mantle and the ivory sceptre from the Greeks (not from the Etruscans), the twelve lictors also and various other external arrangements wore introduced from abroad. But that the development of the Roman constitutional law belonged decidedly to Rome or, at any rate, to Latium, and that the borrowed elements ir ♦ ire but small and unimportant, is clearly 123 Original Consbitndion of Home. [Book I demonstrated by the fact that all its ideas are unifoi-mly expressed by words of Latin coinage. This constitution practically established the fundamental conceptions on which the Eoman commonwealth was thence* forth to be based ; for, as long as there existed a Roman community, in spite of changes of form it was always held that the magistrate had absolute command, that the council of elders was the highest authority in the state, and that every exceptional resolution required the sanction of the sovereign or, in other words, of the community of the people. CHAPTEE VI. THB NOU-BURGESSES AND THE REFORMED OONSTIIUTIOK. The history of every nation, and of Italy more esp* AmaiRama- ^^^^^J} ^® * SynoiMsmos on a great scale. Rome, pTtoi""* in the earliest form in which we have any knowl- BndQniri- edge of it, was already triune, and similar in nal cities. ° . ' , , , , . . » -r, corporatiohs only ceased when the spirit oi Ko- man vigour had wholly died away. Apart from that primi- tive process of amalgamation of the Eamnes, Titles, and Luceres, of which hardly anything beyond the bare fact is known, the earliest act of incorporation of this sort was that by which the Hill-biirgesses became merged in the Palatine Rome. The organization of the two communities, when they were about to be amalgamated, may be con- ceived to have been substantially similar ; and in solving the problem of union they would have to choose between the alternatives of retaining duplicate institutions or of abolishing one set of these and extending the other to the ■whole united community. They adopted the former course with respect to all sanctuaries and priesthoods. Thence- forth the Roman community had its two guilds of Salii and two of Luperci, and as it had two forms of Mars, it had also two priests for that divinity — the Palatine priest, who afterwards usually took the designation of priest of Mars, and the Colline, who was termed priest of Quirinus. It is likely, although it can no longer be proved, that all the old Latin priesthoods of Rome — the Augurs, Pontifices, Vestals, and Fetials — originated in the same way from a combina- tion of the priestly colleges of the Palatine and Quirinal communities. In the division into local regions the town on the Quirinal hill was added as a fourth regi< n to the 124 The Non-Burge8ses and [Book 1. three belonging to the Palatine city, viz. the Suburan, Pala^ tine, and suburban [Esquiliae). In the case of the origina] Synoikismos the annexed community was recognized after the union as at least a tribe (part) of the new burgess-body, and thus had in some sense a continued political existence but this course was not followed in the case of the Hill- Romans or in any of the later processes of annexation. After the union the Eoman community continued to be divided as formerly into three tribes, each containing ten wardships (curiae) ; and the Hill-Romans — whether they were or were not previously distributed into tribes of their own — must have been inserted into the existing tribes and wardships. This insertion was probably so arranged that, while each tribe and wardship received its assigned propor- tion of the new burgesses, the new burgesses in these divisions were not amalgamated completely with the old ; the tribes henceforth presented two ranks : the Tities, Ram- nes, and Luceres being respectively subdivided into first and second [priores, posteriores). With this division was connected in all probability that arrangement of the or- ganic institutions of the community in pairs, which meets us everywhere. The three pairs of Sacred Virgins are expressly described as representatives of the three tribes with their first and second ranks ; and it may be conjec- tured that the six Argean chapels that belonged to each of the four urban regions (p. 82), and the pair of Lares wor- shipped in each street, had a similar origin. This arrange- ment is especially apparent in the army : after the union each half-tribe of the tripartite community furnished a hun- dred horsemen, and the Roman burgess cavalry was thus raised to six " hundreds," and the number of its captains probably fi-om three to six. There is no tradition of any corresponding increase to the infantry ; but to this origin we may refer the subsequent custom of calling out the legions regularly two by two, and this doubling of the levy probably led to the rule of having not three, as was per- haps originally the case, but six leaders-of division to com- mand the legion. It is certain that no corresponding in- Chap. VI] The Reformed Constitution. 125 crease of seats in the senate took place : on the contrary, the primitive number of three hundred senators remained the normal number down to the seventh century. It may, however, be reasonably presumed that a number of the more prominent men of t^e newly annexed communitj' would be received into the senate of the Palatine city. The same course was followed with the magistracies : a single king presided over the united community, and there was no change as to his principal deputies, particularly the warden of the city. It thus appears that the ritual institu- tions of the Hill-city were continued, and that the doubled burgess-body was required to furnish a military force of double the numerical strength ; but in other respects the incorporation of the Quirinal city into the Palatine was really a subordination of the former to the latter. There is reason to conjecture that originally this distinction be- tween the Palatine old and the Quirinal new burgesses was identical with the distinction between the first and second Titles, Ramnes, and Luceres, and consequently that it was the gentes of the Quirinal city that formed the " second." The distinction was certainly more an honorary than a legal precedence ; somewhat after the manner in which subse- quently at the voting in the senate the senators taken from the old clans were always asked before those of the " les- ser." * In like manner the Colline region ranked as inferior even to the suburban (Esquiline) region of the Palatine * The appellation of "lesser clans " appears to have pertained not to these " second," but to the clans that came in subsequently, e* pecially those of Alba. As to the minores gentes, apart from conjeo- tnres of little historical value as to the time of their admission into the burgess-body (Cic. de Rep. ii. 20, 25 ; Liv. 1. 35; Tacit. Ann. li. 28 ; Victor, Viri III. 6), nothing is recorded by tradition, except that they ha d a secondary position in voting in the senate (Cic. I. c.) — for which reasc a \\ie princeps senatus coxM only \>e taken from the maiores gentes — and that the Papirii belonged to them (Cic. ad Fam. ix. 21). The latter cir- cumstance is remarliable, for a canton derived its name from this gens (p. 63). As the Fabii seem to have belonged to the Hill-city (p. 83), and yet furnished several prindpes senatus, some distinction must be drawn between the Colline clans and the minores. 126 The Non-Burgesses and [Uook 1 city; the priest of the Quirinal Mars as inferioi to the priest of the Palatine Mars ; the Quirinal Salii and Luperci as inferior to those of the Palatine. It thus appears that the Synoikismos, by which the Palatine community incor- porated that of the Quirinal, marked an intermediate stage between the earliest Synoikismos by which the Titles, Earn- nes, and Luceres became blended, and all those that took place afterwards. The annexed community was no longer allowed to form a separate tribe in the new whole, but it was permitted to furnish at least a distinct portion of each tribe ; and its ritual institutions were not only allowed to subsist — 'as was afterwards done in other cases, after the capture of Alba for example — but were elevated into insti- tutions of the united community, a course which was not pursued in any subsequent instance. This amalgamation of two substantially similar com- Dependents monwealths produced rather an increase in the andgnests. gj^e than a change in the intrinsic character of the existing community. A second process of incorpora- tion, which was carried out far more gradually and had far deeper effects, may be traced back, so far as the first steps in it are concerned, to this epoch ; we refer to the amalgar mation of the burgesses and the metoeci. At all times there existed side by side with the burgesses in the Roman community persons who were protected, the " listeners " (clientes), as they were called from their being dependents on the several burgess-households, or the " multitude " (plebes, from plea, plemis), as they were termed negatively with reference to their want of political rights.* The ele- ments of this intermediate stage between the freeman and the slave were, as has been shown (p. 95), already in exist- ence in the Roman household : but in the community this class necessarily acquired greater importance de facfb and de jnre, and that from two reasons. In the first place the community might itself possess half-free clients as well as * Habuit plebemindienMoaprincipumdeaenplam. Cicero, ds Rep U. 9. Chap. VI.] Tlw Reformed Constitution. 127 slaves; especially after the conquest of a town and the breaking up of its commonwealth it might often appear l« the conquering community advisable not to sell the mass of the burgesses formally as slaves, but to allow then the continued possession of freedom de facto, so that in the capacity as it were of freedmen of the ccmmunity thej- entered into relations of clientship to the state, or in other words to the king. In the second place the very nature of the community as such, and its authority over the indi vidual burgesses^ implied a power of protecting their clients against an abusive exercise of the dominium still vested in them de jure. At an immemorially early period there was introduced into Eoman law the principle on which rested the whole legal position of the meioeci, that, when a master on occasion of a public legal act — such as in the making of a testament, in an action at law, or in the census — expressly or tacitly surrendered his dominium, neither he himself nor his lawful successors should ever have power arbitrarily to recall that resignation or reassert a claim to the person of the freedman himself or of his descendants. The clients and their posterity did not by virtue of their position possess either the rights of burgesses or those of guests : for to constitute a burgess a formal bestowal of the privi- lege was requisite on the part of the community, while the relation of guest presumed the holding of burgess-rights in a community which had a treaty with Rome. What they did obtain was a legally protected possession of freedom, while they continued to be de jure non-free. Accordingly for a lengthened period their relations in all matters of property seem to have been, like those of slaves, regarded in law as relations of the patron, so that it was necessary that the latter should represent them in processes at law ; in connection with which the patron might levy contribu- tiorLS from them in case of need, and call them to account before him criminally. By degrees, however, the body of metoeci outgrew these fetters ; they began to acquire and to alienate in their own name, and to claim and obtain legaJ 128 The Non-Burgesses and [Book I redress from the Roman tribunals without the formal lutein vention of their patron. In matters of marriage and inheritance, equality of rights with the burgesses was far sooner conceded to foP" eigners (p. 67) than to those who were strictly non-free and belonged to no community ; but the latter could not well be prohibited from contracting marriages in their own circle and from forming the legal relations arising out of marriage — those of marital and paternal power, of agnatio and gen.' tilitas, of heritage and of tutelage — after the model of tht, corresponding relations among the burgesses. Similar consequences to some extent were produced by the exercise of the jus hospitii, in so far as by virtue of it foreigners settled permanently in Rome and established a household, and perhaps even acquired immoveable estate there. In this respect the most liberal principles must have prevailed in Rome from primitive times. The Roman law knew no distinctions of quality in inheritance and no lock- ing up of estates. It allowed on the one hand to every man capable of making a disposition the entirely unlimited disposal of his property during his lifetime ; and on the other hand, so far as we know, to every one who was at all entitled to have dealings with Roman burgesses, even to the foreigner and the client, the unlimited right of acquiring moveable, and (from the time when moveables could be held as private property at all) also immoveable, estate in Rome. Rome was in fact a commercial city, which was indebted for the commencement of its, importance to inter* national commerce, and which with a noble liberality grant- ed the privilege of settlement to every child of an unequal marriage, to every manumitted slave, to every stranger who surrendering his rights in his native land emigrated to Rome, and in fact — to a great extent — even to the foreigner who retained his rights as a burgess in any friendly com- munity. At first, therefore, the burgesses were in reality the protectors, the non-burgesses were the protected ; but in Rome, as in all communities which freely admit settlement Chap. VI.] The Beformed Constitution. 129 but do not throw open the rights of citizenship, it soon Class of me- became a matter of increasing difficulty to joect subsist, harmonize this relation de jure with the actual ing by the •* ridii of tbe state of things. The flourishing of commerce the right of settling in the capital secured to all Latins by the Latin league, the greater frequency of manu- missions as prosperity increased, necessarily occasioned even in peace a disproportionate increase of the number of me' toeci. That number was further augmented Vy the greater part of the population of the neighbouring towns subdued by force of arms and incorporated with Rome ; which, whether it removed to the city or remained in its old home now reduced to the rank of a village, ordinarily exchanged its native burgess rights for those of a Roman metoikos. Moreover the burdens of war fell exclusively on the old burgesses and were constantly thinning the ranks of their patrician descendants, while the meioeci shared in the results of victory without having to pay for it with their blood. Under such circumstances the only wonder is that the Roman patriciate did not disappear much more rapidly than it actually did. The fact of its still continuing for a prolonged period a numerous community can scarcely be accounted for by the bestowal of Roman burgess-rights on several distinguished foreign clans, which after emigrating from their homes or after the conquest of their cities re- ceived the Roman franchise — for such grants appear to have occurred but sparingly from the first, and to have becomp always the more rare as the privilege increased in value. A cause of greater influence, in all likelihood, was the intro- duction of the civil marriage, by which a child begotten of patrician parents living together as married persons, although without confarreatio, acquired full burgess-rights equally with the child of a confarreatio marriage. At least it is probable that the civil marriage, which already existed in Rome before the Twelve Tables* but was certainly not an * The enactments of the Twelve Tables respecting usus show clearlj that they found the civil marriage already in existence. In like manna 6* 130 The Non-Burgesses cmd [Book l original institution, was) introduced for the purpose of pre. venting the disappearance of the patriciate. Connected with this were the measures which were already in the earliest times adopted with a view to maintain a numerous posterity in the several households (p. 90) ; and it is even not inc-edible that for a similar reason all children of par triciaii mothers, begotten in unequal marriage or >ut of marriage, were admitted in later times as members of the burgess-body. Nevertheless the number of the metoeci was constantly on the increase and liable to no diminution, while that of the burgesses was at the utmost perhaps not decreasing ; and in consequence the metoeci necessarily acquired by impercepti' ble degrees another and a freer position. The non-bur- gesses were no longer merely emancipated slaves or stran- gers needing protection ; their ranks included the former burgesses of the Latin communities vanquished in war, and more especially the Latin settlers who lived in Rome no* by the favour of the king or of any other burgess, but by federal right. Legally unrestricted in the acquiring of prop- erty, they gained money and estate in their new home, and bequeathed, like the burgesses, their homesteads to their children and children's children. The vexatious relation of dependence on particular burgess-households became gradu- ally relaxed. If the liberated slave or the immigrant stranger still held an entirely isolated position in the state, such was no longer the case with his children, still less with his grandchildren, and this very circumstance of itself ren- dered their relations to the patron of less moment. While th« high antiquity of the ciril marriage is clearly iriieat from the fact that it, equally with the religioua marriage, necessarily involved the marital power (p. 90), and only differed from the religious marriage as respected the manner in which that power was acquired. The latter of itself no- cessarily gave fuU marital power to the husband ; whereas, in the case of civil marriage, one of the general forms of acquiring property used on other occasions — delivery on the part of a person entitled to give away, or prescription — was requisite in order to lay the foundation of a valid marital power and thereby to constitute a valid marriage. The marita. power was simply the husband's right of property in his wife. Chap. VI.] Tht. Reformed Constiinition. 13i in earlier times the client was exclusively left dependent for legal protection on the intervention of the patron, the more the state became consolidated and the importance of the clanships and households in consequence diminished, tha more frequently must the individual client have obtained justice and redress of injury, even without the intervention of his patron, from the king. A great, number of the non- burgesses, particularly the members of the dissolved Latin communities, were probably from the first clients not of any private person at all, but of the king for the time being, and thus served only the single master to whom the bur- gesses also, although in different fashion, rendered obedi- ence. The king, whose sovereignty over the burgesses was in truth ultimately dependent on the good-will of his sub jects, must have welcomed the means of forming out of his own dependents a body bound to him by closer ties, whose gifts and lapsed successions replenished his treasury — even the protection-money which the metoeci paid to the king (p. 109) may have been of this nature — whose taskwork he could lay claim to in his own right, and whom he found always ready to swell the train of their protector. Thus there grew up by the side of the burgesses a second community in Rome : out of the clients arose the Plebs. This change of name is signifi- cant. In law there was no difference between the client and the plebeian, the " dependent " and the " man of the multi- tude ; " but in fact there was a very important one, for the former term brought into prominence the relation of de- pendence on a member of the politically privileged class ; the latter suggested merely the want of political yghts. As the feeling of special dependence diminished, that of political inferiority forced itself on the thoughts of the free metoeci ; and it was only the sovereignty of the king ruling equally over all that prevented the outbreak of political conflict between the privileged and the non-privileged classes. The first step, however, towards the amalgamation of the two portions of the people scarcely took place ii 132 TheNon-Bv/rgesses amd [Book I the revolutionary way which their antagonism appeared to foreshadow. The reform of the constitutioc Ihe Seman . m 1 1 ■ constitu- which bears the name of kmg feervius iullius, ig indeed, as to its historical origin, involved in the same darkness with all the events of a period respecting which we learn whatever we know not by means of 'rJ.stori« «al tradition, but solely by means of inference from the in- stitutions of later times. But its character testifies that it cannot have been a change demanded by the plebeians, for the new constitution assigned to them duties alone, and not rights. More probably it must have owed its origin either to the wisdom of one of the Eoman kings, or to the urgent desire of the burgesses that they should no longer be exclu- sively liable to military service, and that the non-burgesses also should contribute to the levy. By the Servian consti- tution the duty of service and the obligation connected with it of making advances to the state in case of need (the tri- butum), instead of being imposed on the burgesses as such, were laid upon the possessors of land, the " domiciled " or " freeholders " (adsidui), or the " wealthy " (locupletes), whether they were burgesses or merely meioeci ; service in the army was changed from a personal burden into a bur- den on property. The details of the arrangement were as follow. Every freeholder from the seventeenth to the sixtieth The five 7®^'" °^ ^'® ^S®' including children in the house- oiasses. hold of fathers who were freeholders, without distinction of birth, was under obligation of service ; so that even the manumitted slave had to serve, if in an excep- tionaLcase he had come into possession of landed property. We do not know how the strangers who held landed prop- erty in Eome were dealt with ; probably there existed a regulation, according to which no foreigner was allowed to acquire land in Rome unless he actually transferred his residence thither and took his place among the metoeci, or in other words, among those bound to serve in war. The body of men liable to serve was distributed according to the size of their portions of land into five "summonings" Ohap. vl] T%e Reformed Constitution. 133 {classes, from calare). Of these, however, only such aa were liable to the first summoning, the possessois of an entire hide * of land, were obliged to appear in complete * [-^"/"i tide, aa muct as can be properly tilted with one plough, called in Scotland a plough-gate.] As to the question, whether the assessments of the Servian census were originally reckoned in money or landed property, we may observe : (1) Our information regarding it is derived from the scheme of tho census preserved in the archives of tlie censors, the censoriae tabulae (Cic. Orat. c 46, 156) or the descripiio classium guam fecit Servius Tul- lius (Fest. s. V. procum. p. 249 Miill.). This scheme of course presented the Servian constitution as it stood in the last period of its practical ap- plication, and therefore with all the modifications which the course of time had introduced. As to the original arrangements we have no evi- dence ; for the statement of the later writers who in accordance with their usual custom attribute that scheme to Servius Tullius has no claun to authority. (2) It is unnecessary to dwell on the intrinsic improbability that in an agricultural state like the Romau, and in a country where the growth of money was so slow and difScult, the civil organization would be based upon a purely monetary rating. But it is of importance to note that, as Boeckh in particular has most fully shown in his Metrologische Unter- suchungen, the sums specified are for so early a period much too high. 100,000 heavy asses or pounds of copper — equal according to my invest- igations to 400 Roman pounds of silver, or about 1050?. — is an incredi- ble rating for a full burgess at a time when an ox was valued at 100 asses=\l. Is. Boeckh's hypothesis that the assessments are to be under- stood as referring to the lighter as (an hypothesis, by-the-way, which rests on the same basis as mine, viz. that the scheme before us is that of the later, and not that of the original, census) has of necessity been aban- doned, for there are positive proofs that the sums of the census as given by tradition were reckoned by the heavy as equal to the sestertius. Nothing remains but to assume that the assessments were originally reckoned in land, and were converted into money at a time when landed property had attained a high money-value. (3) Landed property, as is well known, formed the qualification for ihe tritms rusticae all along and for the tribus tirbanae down to the cen- sorship of Appius Claudius in 442. In my work on the Roman Tribes I have proved that the centuries and classes proceeded from the tribes, »nd therefore (setting aside the additional centuries of liticines, &c.), the qualification of a tribulk supplied the basis for the proportional arrange' uent of the classes. (4) A direct and in the highest sense trustworthy testimony is fur 134 The Non-Burgessea and [Book l armour ana m that point of view were pre-eminently re garded as " those summoned to war-service " (clmsici). The four following ranks of smaller land-holders — the pos- sessors respectively of three fourths, of a half, of a quar- ter, or of an eighth of a normal farm — were required to render service, but not to equip themselves in complete armour. As the land happened to be at that time appor- tioned, almost the half of the farms were entire hides, "while each of the classes possessing respectively three fourths, the half, and the quarter of a hide, amounted to scarcely an eighth of the freeholders, and those again holding an eighth of a hide amounted to fully an eighth of the whole number. It was accordingly laid down as a rule that, in the case of the infantry, the levy should be in the proportion of eighty holders of an entire hide, twenty from each of the three next classes, and twenty-eight from the last. The cavalry was similarly dealt with ; the number of divisions in it was tripled, and the only difFer- Cavalry. . , . , , . ,. . . ence m this case was that the six divisions already existing retained the old names {^Titles, Ramnes, Luceres primi and secundi), although the non-burgesses were not excluded from serving in these, or the burgesses from serving in the twelve new divisions. The reason for nlshed by the Twelve Tables in the enactment: adsiduo {civi] nindex adsiduus esfo ; proletario civi qui volet vindex eslo. The prol^tariux was the capiie census (Fest. v. proletarium ; Cic. de Sep. ii. 22), that is, the burgess not included within the five classes ; adsiduus, on the other hand, denoted any burgess belonging to the five classes (Charisius, p. 58 ; Putsch, p. 75, Keil; comp. Gell. xix. 8, 15; classicus adsiduusque, non proletarius) as Indeed necessarily follows from their being contrasted. Now adsiduus, as a comparison between it and residuus, dividuus, &c., Sncontestably shows, is precisely identical in signification with the Gcr- Bnn aiisdssig ("settled on the soil," " permanently domiciled ") ; and the Bame holds true of locuples, which is put by the ancients as synony- mous with adsiduus (Gell. xvi. 10, 15). Compare, moreover, the passage in Livy, xlv. 15 ; eos, qui praedium praediave rustica pluris aesieriium iriginta miliium haberent, censendi iv,s factum est ; a formula in which, in my opinion, a full indication has been preserved of the nature of the so called Servian assessments. Chap. VI.] The Reformed ConstituUon. 135 this difference is probably to be sought in the fact that at that period the divisions of infantry were embodied anew for each campaign and discharged on their return home, whereas in the cavalry horses as well as men were on mili- tary grounds kept together also in time of peace, and held their regular drills, which were perpetuated as festivals of the Roman equites down to the latest times.* Accordingly the squadrons once constituted were allowed, even under this reform, to keep their ancient names. They chos'e for the cavalry the most opulent and considerable landholders among the burgesses and non-burgesses ; and at an early period, perhaps from the very first, a certain measure of land seems to have been regarded as involving an obliga- tion to serve in the cavalry. Along with these, however, there existed a number of free places in the ranks, for the unmarried women, the boys under age, and the old men without children, who held land, were bound instead of per- sonal service to provide horses for particular troopers (each trooper had two), and to furnish them with fodder. As regards the whole, there was one horseman to nine foot soldiers ; but in actual service the horsemen were used more sparingly. The non-freeholders (" children-producers," proleiarii) had to supply workmen and musicians for the army as well as a number of substitutes (adcensi, supernu- meraries), who marched with the army unarmed (yelati), and, when vacancies occurred in the field, took their places in the ranks equipped with the armour of the sick or of the fallen. To facilitate the levying of the infantry, the city and its tevy-dis- precincts were distributed into four " parts " '"'*■ \tribus) ; by which the old triple division was superseded, at least so far as concerned its local significance. These were the Palatine, which comprehended . the height of that name along with the Velia ; the SUburan, to which * For the same reason, when the levy was enlarged after the admis »ion of the Hill-Romans, the equites were doubled, while in the infantrj force instead of the single " gathering " {legio) two legions were calW out (p. 124). 136 The Non-Bv/rgesses and [Book \ the street so named, the Carinae, and the Caelian belonged ; the Esquiline ; and the Colline, formed by the Quirinal and Viminal, the " hills " as contrasted with the " mounts " of the Capitol and Palatine. We have already spoken (if tha formation of these regions (p. 80), and shown how they originated out of the ancient double city of the Palatine and the Quirinal. Beyond the walls each region must have included the land-district adjacent to it, for Ostia was reck- oned in the Palatine region. That the four regions were nearly on an equality in point of numbers is evident from their contributing equally to the levy. This division, ■which liad primary reference to the soil alone and applied only in- ferentially to those who possessed it, was merely for ad- ministrative purposes, and never had any religious signifi- cance attached to it ; for the fact that in each of the city- districts there were six chapels of the enigmatical Argei no more confers upon them the character of ritual districts than the erection of an altar to the Lares in each street im- plies such a character in the streets. Each of these four levy-districts had to furnish the fourth part not only of the force as a whole, but of each of its military subdivisions, so that each legion and each century numbered an equal proportion of conscripts from each region ; evidently for the purpose of merging all dis- tinctions of a gentile and local nature in the one common levy of the community, and especially of blending, through the powerful levelling influence of the military spirit, the metoeci and the burgesses into one people. In a military point of view, the male population capable of bearing arms was divided into a first and tionof the second levy, the former of which, the "juniors" ^" from the commencement of the seventeenth to the completion of the forty-sixth year, were especially em- ployed for service in the field, while the " seniors " guarded the walls at home. The military unit in the infantry con- tinued as formerly to be the legion (p. 108), a phalanx arranged and armed exactly in the old Doric style, of three thousand men, who, six file deep, formed a front of five Chap. VI.] The Reformed Constitution. WX hundred heavy-armed soldiers ; to which were attached twelve hundred " unarmed " {y elites, see p. 108, wo ral Latin cantons. It is only in the case of Rome, at the utmost, that we can trace in some degree the extension of its power and of its territory. The earliest demonstrable boundaries of the united Roman community have been already stated (p. 75) ; in the landward direction they were on an average just about five miles distant from the capital of the canton, and it was only toward the coast that they extended as far as the mouth of the Tiber ( Ostia), at a dis- tance of somewhat more than fourteen miles from Rome. " The new city," says Strabo, in his description of the primitive Rome, " was surrounded by larger and smaller tribes, some of whom dwelt in independent villages and were not subordinate to any national union." It seems to have been at the expense of these neighbours of kindred lineage in the first instance that the earliest extensions of the Roman territory took place. The Latin communities situated on the upper Tiber and Chap, vn.] Hegemony of Rome in Labium^. 143 Territory on between the Tiber and the Anio — Antemnae, Crustumerium, Ficulnea, MeduUia, Caenina, Cor- nioulum, Cameria, Collatia, — were those which pressed most closely and sorely on Eome, and they appear to have forfeited their independence in very early times to the arms of the Romans. The only community that retained inde- pendence in this district in after times was Nomentum ; which perhaps saved its freedom by alliance with Rome. The possession of Fidenae, the tUe du pont of the Etrus- cans on the left bank of the Tiber, was contested between the Latins and the Etruscans — in other words, between the Romans and Veientes — with varying results. The struggle with Gabii, which held the plain between the Anio and the Alban hills, was for a long period equally balanced : down to late times the Gabine dress was deemed synonymous with that of war, and Gabine ground the prototype of hos- tile soil.* By these conquests the Roman territory was probably extended to about 190 square miles. Another very early achievement of the Roman arms was preserved, although in a legendary dress, in the memory of posterity with greater vividness than those ob- solete struggles : Alba, the ancient sacred metropolis of Latium, was conquered and destroyed by Roman troops. How the collision arose, and how it was decided, tradition does not tell ; the battle of the three Roman with the three Alban brothers born at one birth is nothing but a personifi- cation of the struggle between two powerful and closely re- lated cantons, of which the Roman at least was triune. We know nothing at all beyond the naked fact of the sub- jugation and destruction of Alba by Rome.f * The formulae of accursing for Gabii aad Fidenae are quite a3 char- Mteristic (Macrob. Sat. iii. 9). It canaot, however, be proved and is ex. tremely improbable that, as respects these towns, there was an actual his- torical accursing of the ground on which they were built, such as really took place at Veil, Carthage, and Fregellae. It may be coigectured that theold accursing formularies were applied tothose two hated towns, and were considered by later antiquaries as historical documents. + There seems to be no good ground for the doubt rec«itly expressed 144 Hegemony of Rome m Latium. [Book 1 It is not improbable, although wholly a matter of con jecture, that, at the same period when Rome was establish- ing herself on the Anio and on the Alban hills, Praeneste, which appears at a later date as mistress of eight neigh- bouring townships, Tibur, and others of the Latin commu- nities were similarly occupied in enlarging the circle of their territory and laying the foundations of their subse- quent far from inconsiderable power. We feel the want of accurate information as to the legal iveatment character and legal effects of these early Latin of the earii- conquests, still more than we miss the records est acquiBi- ^ ' tioDB. of the wars in which they were won. Upon the whole it is not to be doubted that they were treated in ac- cordance with the system of incorporation, out of which the tripartite community of Rome had arisen ; excepting that the cantons who were compelled by arms to enter the combination did not, like the primitive three, preserve some sort of relative independence as separate regions in the new united community, but became so entirely merged in the general whole as to be no longer traced (p. 124). However far the power of a Latin canton might extend, in the earli- est times it tolerated no political centre except the proper capital ; and still less founded independent settlements, such in a quarter deserving of respect as to the destruction of Alba having real- ly been the act of Kome. It is true, indeed, that the account of the de- struction of Alba is in its details a series of improbabilities and impos- sibilities ; but that is true of every historical fact inwoven into legend. To the question as to the attitude of the rest of Latium towards the struggle between Rome and Alba, we are unable to give an answer ; but the question itself rests on a false assumption, for it is not proved that the constitution of the Latin league absolutely prohibited a separate war between two Latin communities (p. 68). Still less is the fact that a xnmber of Alban families were received into the burgess-unioii of Roiue inconsistent with the destruction of Alba by the Romans. "Why may tkere not have been a Roman party in Alba just as there was in Capua ? The circumstance, however, of Rome claiming to be in a religious and political point of view the heir-at-law of Alba may be regarded as de- cisive of the matter ; for such a claun could not be based on the migra- tion of individual clans to Rome, but oould only be based, aa it actually was, on the conquest of the town. Chap, vu.] Eegmnony of Rome in Latmm. 145 as the Phcenicians and the Greeks established, thereby cre- ating in their colonies clients for the time being and futurti jivals to the mother city. In this respect, the treatment which Ostia experienced from Rome deserves special notice : the Romans could not and did not wish to prevent the rise de facto of a town at that spot, but they allowed the place no political independence, and accordingly they did not be- stow on those who settled there any local burgess-rights, but merely allowed them to retain, if they already pos- sessed, the general burgess-rights of Rome.* This princi- ple also determined the fate of the weaker cantons, which by force of arms or by voluntary submission became sub- ject to the stronger. The stronghold of the canton was razed, its domain was added to the domain of the conquer- ors, and a new home was instituted for the inhabitants as well as for their gods in the capital of the victorious can- ton. This must not be understood absolutely to imply a formal transportation of the conquered inhabitants to the new capital, such as vfas the rule at the founding of cities in the East. The towns of Latium at this time can have been little more than the strongholds and weekly markets of the husbandmen : it was sufficient in general that the market and the seat of justice should be transferred to the new capital. That even the temples often remained at the old spot is shown in the instances of Alba and of Caenina, towns which must still after their destruction have retained some semblance of existence in connection with religion. Even when the strength of the place that was razed ren- dered it really necessary to remove the inhabitants, they would be frequently settled, with a view to the cultivation of the soil, in the open hamlets of their old domain. That the conquered, however, were not unfrequently compelled * Hence was developed the conception, in political law, of the mar- itime colony or colony of burgesses (colonia civium jRomanorum), that is, of a community separate in fact, but not independent or possessing a will of its own in law ; a community which merged in the capital as the peculium of the son merged in the property of the father, and which as a standing garrison was exempt from serving in the legion. 146 Hegemony of Bome in Latium. [Book l. either as a whole or in part to settle in their new capital, is proved, more satisfactorily than all the several storite from the legendary period of Latium could prove it, by the maxim of Roman state-law, that only he who had extended the boundaries of the territory was entitled to advance the wall of the city (the pomerium). Of course the conquered, whether transferred or not, were ordinarily compeUed to occupy the legal position of clients ; * but particular indi- viduals or clans occasionally had burgess-rights or, in other words, the patriciate conferred upon them. In the time of the empire the Alban clans were still recognized which were introduced among the burgesses of Rome after the fall of their native seat ; amongst these were the Julii, Servilii, Quinctilii, Cloelii, Geganii, Curiatii, Metilii : the memory of their descent was preserved by their Alban family shrines, among which the sanctuary of the gens of the Julii at Bovillae again rose under the empire into great repute. This centralizing process, by which several small com- munities became absorbed in a larger one, of course was not an idea specially Roman. Not only did the develop ment of Latium and of the Sabellian stocks hinge upon the distinction between national centralization and cantonal in- dependence ; the case was the same with the development of the Hellenes. Rome in Latium and Athens in Attica arose out of a like amalgamation of many cantons into one state ; and the wise Thales suggested a similar fusion to the hard-pressed league of the Ionic cities as the only means of saving their nationality. But Rome adhered to this princi- ple of unity with more consistency, earnestness, and success than any other Italian canton ; and just as the prominent * To tWs the enactment of the Twelve Tables undoubtedly ha8 re- ference : Nex\i maneipiique] forii sanatique idam iua eito, that is, in dealings privati juris the " sound " and the "recovered " shall be on a footing of equality. The Latin allies cannot be here referred to, because their legal position was defined by federal treaties, and the law of the Twelve Tables treated only of the law of Rome. The sanates were the Lati' ni prisci cives Romani, or in other words, the communities of Latimt oompelljd liy the EomanB to enter the plebeiate. CHAr. VU.J Hegemony of Borne m Lattum. 141 position of Athens in Hellas was the effect of her early centralization, so Eome was indebted for her greatnes* solely to the same system far more energetically applied. While the conquests of Rome in Latium may be main« The hego- ^7 regarded as direct extensions of her territory Eom^ovor ^'^^ people presenting the same general featvires, r^tium. a, further and special significance attached to the conquest of Alba. It was not merely the problematical size and presumed riches of Alba that led tradition to as- sign a prominence so peculiar to its capture. Alba was regarded as the metropolis of the Latin confederacy, and had the right of presiding among the thirty communities that belonged to it. The destruction of Alba, of course, no more dissolved the league itself than the destruction of Thebes dissolved the Boeotian confederacy ; * but in entire consistency with the strict application of the jus privatum which was characteristic of the Latin laws of war, Rome now claimed the presidency of the league as the heir-at-law of Alba. What sort of crisis preceded or followed the acknowledgment of this claim, or whether there was any crisis at all, we cannot tell. Upon the whole the hegemony of Rome over Latium appears to have been speedily and generally recognized, although particular communities, such as Labici and above all Gabii, may for a time have declined to own it. Even at that time Rome was probably a mari« time power in contrast to the Latin " land," a city in con- trast to the Latin villages, and a single state in contrast to the Latin confederacy ; even at that time it was only in conjunction with and by means of Rome that the Latins could defend their coasts against Carthaginians, Hellenes, and Etruscans, and maintain and extend their landward frontier in opposition to their restless neighbours of the Sa- * The community of Bovillae appears even to hare been formed out ol part of the Albac domain, and to have been admitted in room of Alba among the autonomous Latin towns. Its Alban origin is attested by iti having been the seat of worship for the Julian gena and by the name Ah Sani Longani Bmiillensei (OFelli-Henzen, 119, 2252, 6019); its autono- my by Dionyaiua, v. 61, and Cicero, pro PZonco, 9, 23. 148 HegerMmy of Rome in Latium. [Book 1 bellian stock. Whether the accession to her material re- sources which Rome obtained by the subjugation of Alba was greater than the increase of her power by the capture 'ii Antemnae or Collatia, cannot be ascertained : it is quite [possible that it was not by the conquest of Alba that Rome was first constituted the most powerful community in La> tium ; she may have been so long before ; but she did gain Jn consequence of that event the presidency at the Latin festival, which became the basis of the future hegeniony of the Roman community over the whole Latin confederacy. It is important to indicate as definitely as possible the nar ture of a relation so influential. The form of the Roman hegemony over Latium was, in general, that of an alliance on equal terms be- Eome to tween the Roman community on the one hand '^ '""■ and the Latin confederacy on the other, estab- lishing a perpetual peace throughout the whole domain and a perpetual league for offence and defence. " There shall be peace between the Romans and all communities of the Latins, as long as heaven and earth endure ; they shall not wage war with each other, nor call enemies into the land, nor grant passage to enemies : help shall be rendered by all in concert to any community assailed, and whatever is won in joint warfare shall be equally distributed." The secured equality of rights in trade and exchange, in com- mercial credit and in inheritance tended, by the manifold relations of commercial intercourse to which it led, still further to interweave the interests of communities already connected by the ties of similar language and manners, and in this way produced an effect somewhat similar to that of the abolition of customs-restrictions in our own day. Each community certainly retained in form its own law : down to the time of the Social war Latin law was not necessarily identical with Roman : we find, for example, that the en- forcing of betrothal by action at law, which was abolished at an early period in Rome, continued to subsist in the Latin communities. But the simple and purely national development of Latin law, and the endeavour to maintain OHip. VII.] Hegemony of Borne in Latium. 149 as far as possible uniformity of rights, led at length to the result, that the law of private relations was in matter and form substantially the same throughout all Latium. Thia uniformity of rights comes very distinctly into view in th« rules laid down regarding the loss and recovery of freedom on the part of the individual burgess. According to an nn" lient and venerable maxim of law among the Latin sfock no burgess could become a slave in the state -wherein he had been free, or suffer the loss of his burgess-rights while he remained within it : if he was tQ be punished with the loss of freedom and of burgess-rights (which was the same thing), it was necessary that he should be expelled from the stajte and should enter on the condition of slavery anaong strangers. This maxim of law was now extended to the ■whole territory of the league ; no member of any of the federal states might live as a slave within the bounds of the league. Applications of this principle are seen in the enact- ment embodied in the Twelve Tables, that the insolvent debtor, in the event of his creditor wishing to sell him, must be sold beyond the boundary of the Tiber, in other words, beyond the territory of the league ; and in tho clause of the second treaty between Eome and Carthage, that an ally of Eome who might be talsen prisoner by the Carthaginians should be free so soon as he entered a Eoman seaport. It has already (p. 67) been indicated as probable that the federal equality of rights also included intercom- munion of marriage, and that every full burgess of a Latin community could conclude a legitimate marriage with any Latin woman of equal standing. Each Latin could of course only exercise political rights where he was enrolled as a burgess ; but on the other hand it was implied in an equality of private rights, that any Latin could take up his abode in any place within the Latin bounds ; or, to use the phraseology of the present day, there existed, side by side with the special burgess-rights of the individual communi- ties, a geusral right of settlement co-extensive with the con- federacy. It is easy to understand how this should have turned materially to the advantage of the capital, which 15C Hegemony of Rome in Lalium. [Bvjok 1 alone in Latium offered the means of urban intercourse, urban acquisition, and urban enjoyment ; and how the num- ber of metoeci in Rome should have increased with remark- able rapidity, after the Latin land came to live in perpetual peace with Rome. In constitution and administration the several eommuni" lies not only remained independent and sovereign, so far as their federal obligations were not concerned, but, what was of more importance, the league of the thirty communities as such retained its autonomy in contradistinction to Rome. When we are assured that the position of Alba towards the federal communities was a position superior to that of Rome, and that on the fall of Alba these communities at- tained autonomy, this may well have been the case, in so far as Alba was essentially a member of the league, while Rome fi'om the first had rather the position of a separate state confronting the league than of a member included in it ; but, just as the states of the confederation of the Rhine were formally sovereign, while those of the German em- pire had a master, it is probable that the presidency of Alba was really an honorary right (p. 68) like that of the German emperors, and that the protectorate of Rome was from the first a supremacy like that of Napoleon. In fact Alba appears to have exercised the right of presiding in the federal council, while Rome allowed the Latin deputies to hold their consultations by themselves under the presiden- cy, as it appears, of an officer selected from their own num- ber, and contented herself with the honorary presidency at the federal festival where sacrifice was offered for Rome and Latium, and with the erection of a second federal sanO' tuary in Rome — the temple of Diana on the Aventine — so that thenceforth sacrifice was offered both on Roman soil for Rome and Latium, and on Latin soil for Latium and Rome. With equal deference to the interests of the league the Romans in the treaty with Latium bound themselves not to enter into a separate alliance with any Latin commi> nity — a stipulation which very clearly reveals the apprehen- sions not without reason felt by the confederacy with refer Cbap. vii.] Hegemony of Borne in Lativm,. 15] ence to the powerful community at their head. The posi- tion of Rome not so much within as alongside of Latium and the footing of formal equality subsisting between thf. city on the one side, and the confederacy on the other, are most clearly discernible in theii' military system. The fed- eral army was composed, as the Itter mode of making the levy incontrovertibly shows, of a Roman and a Latin force of equal strength. The supreme command was to alternate between Rome and Latium ; and on those years only when Rome appointed the commander the Latin contingent was to appear before the gates of Rome, and to salute at the gate by acclamation the elected commander as its general, after the Romans commissioned by the Latin federal coun- cil to take the auspices had assured themselves of the satis- faction of the gods with the choice that had been made. In like manner the land and other property acquired in the wars of the league were equally divided between Rome and Latium. While thus in all internal relations the most com- plete equality of rights and duties was insisted on with jealous strictness, the Romano-Latin federation can hai-dly have been at this period represented in its external relations merely by Rome. The treaty of alliance did not prohibit either Rome or Latium from undertaking an aggressive war on their own behoof; and if a war was waged by the league, whether pursuant to a resolution of its own or in conse- quence of a hostile attack, the Latin federal council must have had a right to take part in the conduct as well as in the termination of the war. Practically indeed Rome in all probability possessed the hegemony even then, for, wherever a single state and a federation enter into perma- nent 2onnections with each other, the preponderance usuallj fiills to the former. The steps by which after the fall of Alba Rome — now Extensiun mistress of a territory comparatively consider- ma^te^ able, and probably the leading power in the. &aUof Latin confederacy — extended still further her Alba. direct and indirect dominion, can no longer be traced. There was no lack of feuds with the Etruscans anc! 152 Hegemony of Rome in Latiwrn. [Book I K^ore especially the Veientes, chiefly respecting the posses Bion of Fidenae ; but it does not appear that the Romans were successful in acquiring permanent mastery over that Etruscan outpost, which was situated on the Latin bank of the river not much more than five miles from Rome, or in expelling the Veientes from that formidable basis of offea- sive operations. On the other hand they maintained ap- parently undisputed possession of the Janiculum and of both banks of the mouth of the Tiber. As regards the Sabines and Aequi Rome appears in a more advantageous position ; the connection which afterwards became so inti- mate with the more distant Hernici must have had at least its beginning under the monarchy, and the united Latins and Hernici enclosed on two sides and held in check their eastern neighbours. But on the south frontier the territory of the Rutuli and still more that of the Volsci were scenes of perpetual war. The earliest extension of the Latin land took place in this direction, and it is here that we first en- counter those communities founded by Rome and Latium on the enemy's soil and constituted as autonomous mem- bers of the Latin confederacy — the Latin colonies, as they were called — the oldest of which appear to reach back to the regal period. How far the territory reduced under the power of the Romans extended at the close of the mon- arohy, can by no means be determined. Of feuds with the neighbouring Latin and Volscian communities the Roman annals of the regal period recount more than enough ; but only a few detached notices, such as that perhaps of the capture of Suessa in the Pomptine plain, can be held to contain a nucleus of historical fact. That the regal period laid not only the political foundations of Rome, but the foundations also of her external power, cannot be doubted ; the position of the city of Rome as contradistinguished from, rather than forming part of, the league of Latin statei is already decidedly marked at the beginning of the repub- lic, and enables us to perceive that an energetic develop- ment of external power must have taken place in Rome during the time of the kings. Successes certainly of no Cha^. vii.] Hegemony of Rome in Latiwn. 153 ordinary character have thus passed into oblivion ; but the splendour of them lingers over the regal period of Eome, especially over tlie royal house of the Tarquins, like a dis" taut evening twilight in which outlines disappear. While the Latin stock was thus tending towards union under the leadership of Rome and was at tho ExtensioiL . ^ of the city Same time extending its territory on the east and south, Rome itself, by the favour of fortune and the energy of its citizens, had been converted from a Btirring commercial and rural town into the powerful capi- tal of a flourishing country. The remodelling of the Ro- man military system and the political reform of which it contained the germ, known to us by the name of the Ser- vian cqristitution, stand in intimate connection with this in- ternal change in the character of the Roman community. But externally also the character of the city cannot but have changed with the influx of ampler resources, with the rising requirements of its position, and with the extension of its political horizon. The amalgamation of the adjoin- ing community on the Quirinal with that on the Palatine must have been already accomplished when the Servian re- form, as it is called, took place ; and after this reform had united and consolidated the military strength of the com- munity, the burgesses could no longer rest content with en- trenching the several hills, as one after another they were filled with buildings, and with also perhaps keeping the island in the Tiber and the height on the opposite bank occupied so that they might command the river. The capi- tal of Latium required another and more complete system of defence ; they proceeded to construct the Servian wall. The new continuous city-wall began at the river below the Aventine, and included that hill, on which there, have been brought to light recently (1855) at two different places, the one on the western slope towards the river, the other on the opposite eastern slope, colossal remains of those primi- tive fortifications — portions of wall as high as the walls of Alatri and Ferentino, built of large square hewn blocks of tufo in courses of unequal height — emerging as it wera 7* J 54 Hegemomy of Rome m Latiimt. [Book 1 from the tomt to testify to the might of an epoch, whose Btructnres are perpetuated in these walls of rock, and whose other achievements will continue to exercise an influence more lasting even than these. The ring-wall further em- braced the Caelian and the whole space of the Esquiline Viminal, and Quirinal, where a fortification likewise but r* cently brought to light on a great scale (1862) — hn the outside composed of blocks of peperino and protected by a moat in front, on the inside forming a huge earthen rampart sloped towards the city and imposing even at the present day — supplied the want of natural means of defence. From thence it ran to the Capitoline, the steep declivity of which towards the Campus Martins served as part of the city wall, and it again abutted on the river above the island in the Tiber. The Tiber island with the bridge of piles and the Janiculum did not belong strictly to the city, but the latter height was probably a fortified outwork. Hitherto the Palatine had been the stronghold, but now this hill was left open to be built upon by the growing city ; and on the other hand upon the Tarpeian Hill, free on every side, and from its moderate extent easily defensible, there was eon structed the new " stronghold " {arx, capiiolium*), contain- ing the stronghold-spring — the carefully enclosed " well- house " (tullianum) — the treasury {aerarium), the prison, and the most ancient place of assembling for the burgesses {area Capitolina), where still in after times the regular an- nouncements of the changes of the moon continued to be made. Private dwellings of a permanent character were not permitted in earlier times on the stronghold-hill ; f and * Both names, although afterwards employed as proper names of locality (capifoUum being applied to the summit of the stronghold'hill that lay next to the riVer, arx to that uext to the Quirinal), were origin- «lly appellatives, corresponding exactly to the Gh-eek ax^a and xoQvqi^ : every Latin town had its capiiolium as well as Rome. The proper local name of the Roman stronghold-hill was mons TarpHus. f The enactment ne guts patricius in arce aut capiiolio habitarel probably prohibited only buildings of stone which apparently were oflea constructed in the style of fortresses, not the ordinary and easily remove able dwelling-houses. Comp. Becker, Top. p. 886. Chap. VII.] JBegemony of Home m Zatium. 155 the space between the two summits of the hill, the sanctw ary of the evil god ( Vediovis), or as it was termed in the later Hellenizing epoch, the Asylum, was covered with wood and probably intended for the reception of the hus- bandmen and their herds, when inundations or war drove them from the plain. The Capitol was in reality as well as in name the Acropolis of Rome, an independent castle ca- pable of being defended even after the city had fallen : its gate was probably placed towards what was afterwards the Forum.* The Aventine seems to have been fortified in a similar style, although less strongly, and to have been pre- served free from permanent occupation. With this is con- nected the fact, that for purposes strictly urban, such as the distribution of the introduced water, the inhabitants of Rome were divided into the inhabitants of the city proper (montani), and those of the districts situated within the general ring-wall, but yet not reckoned as strictly belong- ing to the city [pagani Aventinenses, laniculenses, collegia Capitolinorum et Mercurialium).\ The space enclosed by * For the chief thoroughfare, the Via Sacra, led from that quarter to the stronghold ; and the bending in towards the gate may still be clearly recognized in the turn which this makes to the left at the arch of Severus. The gate itself must haye disappeared under the huge structures which were raised in after ages on the CKtus. The eo-called gate at the steepest pi).rt of the Capitoline Mount, which is known by the name of Janualis or Satumia, or the " open," and which had to stand always open in the time of war, evidently had merely a religious Bignificance, and never was a real gate. f Four such guilds are mentioned (1) the Capitolini (Cicero, ad, Q. fr. ii. 6, 2), with magistri of their own (Henzen, 6010, 6011), and an- nual games (Liv. v. 60 ; comp. Corp. Inscr. Lat. i. n. 806) ; (2) the Mer- euriales (Liv. ii. 2Y ; Cicero, I. c. ; Preller, Myth. p. SOY) with their ma- fiftri (Henzen, 6010), the guild of the valley of the Circus, where the temple of Mercury stood ; (3) x}ie pagani Aventinenses 2i\so ■w\i\i magislri (Henzen, 6010) ; and (4) the pagani pagi laniculensia likewise with fhagistri {O. I. L. i. n. 801, 802). It is certainly not accidental that these four guilds, the only ones of the sort that occur in Rome, belong to the very two hills excluded from the four local tribes but enclosed bj the Servian wall, the Capitol and the Aventine, and the Janiculum be- longing to the same fortification ; and connected with this is the further 156 Hegemony of Borne in Latium. [Book I tlie new city wall thus embraced, in addition to the fonnei Palatine and Quirinal cities, the two city-strongholds of tha Capitol and the Aventine, and also the Janiculum ; * the Palatine, as the oldest city proper, was enclosed by tha other heights along which the wall was carried, as if enoir- cled with a wreath, and the two castles occupied the middle.' The work, however, was not complete so long as the ground, protected by so laborious exertions from outward foes, was not also reclaimed from the dominion of the water, which permanently occupied the valley between the Palar fact that the expression montani paganive is employed as a designation of the whole inhabitants in connection with the city (comp. besides the well-known passage, Cic. de Domo, 28, 1i, especially the law as to the city aqueducts in Festus, 11. sifus, p. 340 [mmijtani paganive si[fis aquam dividunto]). The montani, properly the inhabitants of the three regions of the Palatine town (p. 84), appear to be put here a potiori for the whole population of the four regions of the city proper. T'aepaga- ni are, undoubtedly, the residents of the Arentine and Janiculum not in- cluded in the tribes, and the analogous collegia of the Capitol and the Circus ralley, * The Servian Kome, however, never looked upon itself as the " city of the seven hills ; " on the contrary, that name in the best ages of Kome denoted exclusively the narrower Old Rome of the Palatine (p. 78). It was not until the times of her decline, when the festival of the Septimontium, which was steadily retained and celebrated with great zest even under the empire, began to be erroneously regarded as a festival for the city generally, that ignorant writers sought for and accordingly found the Seven Mounts in the Rome of their own age. The germ jf such a misunderstanding may be already discerned in the Greek iKdlea of Cicero, ad All. vi. 5, 2, and in Plutarch, Q. Rnm. 69 ; (comp. Tibul- lus, ii. 6, 55; Martial, iv. 64, 11; Tertullian, Apolog.ZS); but the earliest authority that actually enumerates Seven Mounts i monies) of Rome is the description of the city of the age of Constantine the Great, It names as such the Palatine, Aventine, Caelian, Esqu'Une, Tarpeian, Vatican, and Janiculum — where the Quirinal and Viminal are, evidentl) as colles, omitted, and in their stead two " monies " ar3 introduced from the right bank of the Tiber. Other still later and quite confused lists are given by Servius {ad Aen. vi. 783), the Berne SchoUa to Virgil'a Georgics (ii. 585), and Lydus {de Mens. p. 118, Cekker). The enumer- ation of the Seven Mounts as commonly mr.de in modern times, viz. Palatine, Aventine, Caelian, Esquiline, Vimisal, Qu'irinal, Capitoline, ia unknown to any ancient author. Chap, vn.] Hegemony of Eome m Latvwm. 157 tine and the Capitol, so that there was a regular ferry there, and which converted the valleys between the Capitol and the Velia and between the Palatine and the Aveutine into marshes. The subterranean drains still existing at the pres- ent day, composed of magnificent square blocks, which ex cited the astonishment of post«-rty as a marvellous woik of regal Rome, must rather be itJckoned to belong to the following epoch, for travertine is the material employed and we have many accounts of new structures of the kind in the times of the republic ; but the scheme itself belongs beyond all doubt to the regal period, although to a later epoch probably than the designing of the Servian wall and the Capitoline stronghold. The spots thus drained or dried supplied large open spaces such as were required to meet the public wants of the newly enlarged city. The assem- bling-place of the community, which had hitherto been the Area Capitolina at the stronghold itselfj was now trans- ferred to the flat space, where the ground fell from the stronghold towards the city [comiiinm), and which stretched thence between the Palatine and the Carinae, in the direc- tion of the Velia. At that side of the comitium which adjoined the stronghold, and upon the wall which arose above the comitium in the fashion of a balcony, the mem- bers of the senate and the guests of the city had a place of honour assigned to them on occasion of festivals and assem- blies of the people ; and not far from this there soon came to be built a special senate-house, which derived from its builder the name of the Curia Hostilia. The platform for the judgment-seat (tribunal), and the stage whence the bur- gesses were addressed (the later rostra), wore erected on the comitium itself. Its prolongation in the c irection of the Velia became the new market {forum Rominorum). On the west side of the Forum, beneath the Palatine, rose the community-house, which included the offio.al dwelling of the king (reffia) and the common hearth of the city, the rotun- da forming the temple of Vesta ; at no great distance, on the south side of the Forum, there was erected a second round building connected with the former, the store-room 158 Hegemony of Bome m Latvum. [Book i of the community or temple of the Penates, which still stands at the present day as the porch of the church Santi Cosma e Damiano. It is a feature significant of the new city now united in a way very difierent from the settlement of the " seven mounts," that, over and above the thirty hearths of the curies which the Palatine Eome had been content with associating in one building, the Servian Romr presented such a single hearth for the city at large.* Along the two longer sides of the Forum butchers' shops and other traders' stalls were arranged. In the valley between the Palatine ■and the Aventine a space was staked off for races ; this became the Circus. The cattle-market was laid out immediately adjoining the river, and this soon became one of the most densely peopled quarters of Rome. Tem- ples and sanctuaries arose on all the summits, above all the federal sanctuary of Diana on the Aventine (p. 150), and on the summit of the stronghold the far-seen temple of Father Diovis, who had given to his people all this glory, and who now, when the Romans were triumphing over the surrounding nations, triumphed along with them over the subject gods of the vanquished. The names of the men, at whose bidding these great buildings of the city arose, are almost as completely lost in oblivion as those of the leaders in the earliest battles and viciorios of Rome. Tradition indeed assigns the different works to different kings — the senate-house to Tullus Hos- tilius, the Janiculum and the wooden bridge to Ancus Mar- eius, the great Cloaca, the Circus, and the temple of Jupiter to the elder Tarquinius, the temple of Diana and the ring- wall to Servius TuUius. Some of these statements may perhaps be correct ; and it is apparently not the result of * Both the situation of the two temples, and the express testimony of Dionysius, ii. 65, that the temple of Vesta lay outside of the Boma qua Irata, prove that these structures were connected with the foundation not of the Palatine, but of the second (Servian) city. Posterity reckoned this regia Tiith the temple of Vesta as a scheme of Numa ; but the caus« which gave rise to that hypothesis is too manifest to allow of our attack ing any weight to it. Chat. VII.] Hegemony of Rome vn Lativm. 159 accident that the building of the new ring-wall is associated both as to date and author with the new organization of the army, which in fact bore special reference to the regulai defence of the city walls. But upon the whole we must be content to learn from this tradition — ^what is indeed evident of itself — that this second creation of Eome stood in inti mate connection with the commencement of her hegemonj ove.r Latium and with the remodelling of her burgess-army, and that, while it originated in one and the same great con- ception, its execution was not the work either of a single man or of a single generation. It is impossible to doubt that Hellenic influences exercised a powerful effect on this remodelling of the Roman community, but it is equally im- possible to demonstrate the mode or the degree of their operation. It has already been observed that the Servian military constitution is essentially of an Hellenic type (p. 141 ) ; and it will be afterwards shown that the games of the circus were organized on an Hellenic model. The new regia with the city hearth was quite a Greek prytaneion, and the round temple of Vesta, looking towards the east and not so much as consecrated by the augurs, was con- structed in no respect according to Italian, but wholly in accordance with Hellenic ritual. With these facts before us, the statement of tradition appears not at all incredible that the Ionian confederacy in Asia Minor to some extent served as a model for the Romano-Latin league, and that the new federal sanctuary on the Aventine was for that rea- son constructed in imitation of the Artemision at Ephe«u8, CHAPTER Vni. THE UMBRO-SABBLLIAN STOCKS. BEGINNINGS OJ THJI SAMNITES. The migration of the Umbrian stocks appears to hav« begun at a period later than that of the Latins. beiiianmi- Like the Latin, it moved in a southerly direo- gia ion. ^j^j^^ 1^^^ jj. j^gp^ more in the centre of the penin- sula and towards the east coast. It is painful to speak of it ; for our information regarding it comes to us like the sound of bells from a town that has been sunk in the sea. The Umbrian people extended according to Herodotus as far as the Alps, and it is not improbable that in very an- cient times they occupied the whole of Northern Italy, to the point where the settlements of the Illyrian stocks began on the east, and those of the Ligm-ians on the west. As to the latter, there are traditions of their contests with the Umbrians, and we may perhaps draw an inference regard- ing their extension in very early times towards the south from isolated names, such as that of the island of Ilva (Elba) compared with the Ligurian Ilvates. To this period of Umbrian greatness the evidently Italian names of the most ancient settlements in the valley of the Po, Hatria (black-town), and Spina (thorn-town), probably owe their origin, as well as the numerous traces of Umbrians in South- ern Etruria (such as the river Umbro, Camars the old name of Clusium, Castrum Amerinum). Such indications of an Italian population having preceded the Etruscan especially occur in the most southern portion of Etruria, the district between the Ciminian forest (below Viterbo) and the Tiber, In Falerii, the town of Etruria nearest to the frontier of Umbria and the Sabine tountry, according to the testimony Chap, viii.] Beginnings of the Sammies. 161 of Strabo, a language was spoken different from the Etrus« can, and inscriptions bearing out that statement have re- cently been brought to light there, the alphabet and lan- guage of which, while presenting points of contact witk the Etruscan, exhibit a general resemblance to the Latin.* The local worship also presents traces of a Sabellian charac- ter ; and a similar inference is suggested by the primitive relations subsisting in sacred as well as other matters be- tween Caere knd Rome. It is probable that the Etruscans seized those southern districts from the Umbrians at a pe- riod considerably subsequent to their occupation of the country on the north of the Ciminian forest, and that an Tlmbrian population maintained itself there even after the Tuscan conquest. In this fact we may probably discover the ultimate explanation of the surprising rapidity with which the southern portion of Etruria became Latinized, aa compared with the tenacious retention of the Etruscan lan- guage and manners in northern Etruria, after the Boman conquest. That the Umbrians were after obstinate strug- gles driven back from the north and west into the narrow mountainous country between the two arms of the Apen- nines which they subsequently held, is clearly indicated by the very fact of their geographical position, just as the posi- tion of the inhabitants of the Grisons and that of the Basques at the present day indicates the similar fate that has befallen them. Tradition also has to report that the Tuscans deprived the Umbrians of three hundred towns ; and, what is of more importance as evidence, in the national * In the alphabet the r especially deserves notice, being of the Latin (R) and not of the Etruscan form (D), and also the 2 ( fri ) ; it can only be derived from the primitive Latin, and must very faithfully represent !t. The language likewise has close affinity with the oldest Latiii ; Mar.^ Acarcelini he cupa^ that is, Marcius Acarcelinius heic cubat : Menerva A C'otena La. f. . . zenaiuo sentem , . dedet cuando . . euncaptum, that is, Minervae A{ulus ?) Catena La(rtis) f{ilms)de senatus sententia dedil tjuaiido (perhaps=oZm) coneepium. At the same time with these and similar inscriptions there were found some other records in a different character and language, undoubtefllyElruscan. 1 62 The Xlmbro-SoibeUian bYoohs. [Book 1. prayers of the Umbrian Iguvini, which we still possess^ along with other stocks the Tuscans specially are cursed as public foes. It was probably in consecLuenoe of this pressure exerted upon them from the north, that the Umbrians advanced towards the south, keeping in general upon the heights, be- cause they found the plains already occupied by Latir. stocks, but beyond doubt frequently making inroads and encroachments on the territory of the kindred race, and in- termingling with them the more readily, that the distinc- tion in language and habits could not have been at all so marked then as we find it afterwards. To the class of such inroads belongs the tradition of the entrance of the Eeatini and Sabines into Latium and their contests with the Eo- mans ; similar phenomena were probably repeated all along the west coast. Upon the whole the Sabines maintained their footing in the mountains, as in the district bordering on Latium which has since been called by their name, and in the Volscian land ; probably because the Latin popular tion did not extend thither or was there less dense, while on the other hand the well-peopled plains were better able to offer resistance to the invaders, although they were not in all cases able or desirous to prevent isolated bands from gaining a footing, such as the Titles and afterwards the Claud ii in Rome (p. 72). In this way the stocks here be- came variously mingled, a state of things which serves to explain the numerous relations that subsisted between the Volscians and Latins, and how it happened that their dis- trict, as well as Sabina, afterwards became so speedily Latinized. The chief branch, however, of the Umbrian stock mi- grated eastward from Sabina into the moun- tains of the Abruzzi, and the adjacent hill-coun- try to the south of them. Here, as on the west coast, they occupied the mountainous districts, whose thinly scattered population gave way before the immigrants or submitted to their yoke ; while in the plain along the Apulian coast the ancient native population, the lapygians, upon the whola Chap, vm.] JSeginnings of the Samnitea. 163 maintained their ground, although involved in ctnstant feuds, in particular on the northern frontier about Luoeria and Arpi. "When these migrations took place, cannot of course be determined ; but it was probal.y about the pe- riod of the regal government in Eome. Tradition reports that the Sabines, pressed by the Umbrians, vowed a ver sa- crum, that is, swore that they would give up and send be- yond their bounds the sons and daughters born in the yeai of war, so soon as these should reach maturity, that the gods might at their pleasure destroy them or bestow upon them new abodes in other lands. One band was led by the ox of Mars ; these were the Safini or Samnites, who in the first instance established themselves on the mountains ad- joining the river Sagrus, and at a later period proceeded to occupy the beautiful plain on the east of the Matese chain, near the sources of the Tifernus. Both in their old and in their new territory they named their place of public assem- bly — ^which in the one case was situated near Agnone, in the other near Bojano — from the ox which led them Bovianum. A second band was led by the woodpecker of Mars ; these were the Picentes, " the woodpecker-people," who took pos- session of what is now the March of Ancona. A third band was led by the wolf {hirpiis) into the region of Bene- ventum ; these were the Hirpini. In a similar manner the other small tribes branched off from the common stock-— the Praetuttii near Teramo ; the Vestini about the Gran Sasso ; the Marrucini near Chieti ; the Frentani on the frontier of Apulia ; the Paeligni about the Majella moun- tain^ ; and lastly the Marsi about lake Fucinus, coming in contact with the Volscians and Latins. All of these tribes retained, as these legends clearly show, a vivid sense of their relationship and of their having come forth from the Sabine land. While the Umbrians succumbed in the un- equal struggle and the western offshoots of the same stock became amalgamated with the Latin or Hellenic population, the Sabellian tribes prospered in the seclusion of their dis- tant mountain land, equally remote from collision with the Etruscans, the Latins, and the Greeks. There was little oi ' 164 The Umbro-SaheUian Stocks. [Book I no development of an urban life amongst them ; their geo graphical position almost wholly precluded them from en- gaging in commercial intercourse, and the mountain-tops and strongholds sufficed for the necessities of defence, ■« liilc the husbandmen continued to dwell in open hamlets oi wherever each found the spring and the forest or pasture that he desired. In such circumstances their constitution remained stationary ; like the sirpilarly situated Arcadians in Greece, their communities never became incorporated into a single state ; at the utmost they only formed confed> eracies more or less loosely connected. In the Abruzzi especially, the strict seclusion of the mountain valleys seems to have debarred the several cantons from inter- course with each other or with the outer world. They maintained but little connection with each other and con- tinued to live in complete isolation from the rest of Italy ; and in consequence, notwithstanding the bravery of their inhabitants, they exercised less influence than any other por- tion of the Italian nation on the development of the history of the peninsula. On the other hand the Samnite people decidedly exhib- ited the highest political development among Their poU«- ^, ^ T.. i- .. i ^^. t\.- .• tt oai develop- the eastern Italian stock, as the Latin nation did "^ ■ among the western. From an early period, perhaps from its first immigration, a comparatively strong political bond held together the Samnite nation, and gave to it the strength which subsequently enabled it to contend with Eome on equal terms for the supremacy of Italy. We are as ignorant of the time and manner of the forma- tion of the league, as we are of its constitution ; but it ia clear that in Samnium no single community exercised a preponderating influence, and still less was there any town to serve as a central rallying point and bond of union for the Samnite stock, such as Eome was for the Latins. The strength of the land lay in its communes of husbandmen, and authority was vested in the assembly formed of their representatives ; it was this assembly which in case of need nominated a federal commander-in-chief In consequence Chap. VIH.] Beginnings of the Samnitea. 16S of its constitution the policy of this confederacy was not aggressive like the Roman, but was limited to the defence of its own hounds ; only in an united state is power so con- centrated and passion so strong, that the extension of terri- tory can be systematically pursued. Accordingly the whole history of the two nations is prefigured in their diametri- cally opposite systems of colonization. W'hatever the Ro- mans gained, was a gain to the state : the conquests of the Samnites were achieved by bands of volunteers who went forth in search of plunder and, whether they prospered or were unfortunate, were left to their own resources by their native home. The conquests, however, which the Samnites made on the coasts of the Tyrrhenian and Ionic seas, be- long to a later age ; during the regal period in Rome they seem to have been only gaining possession of the settle- ments in which we afterwards find them. As a single inci- dent in the series of movements among the neighbouring peoples caused by the Samnite settlement may be men- tioned the surprise of Cumae by Tyrrhenians from the Upper Sea, Umbrians, and Daunians in the year of the city 230. If we may give credit to the accounts of the matter which present certainly a consid- erable colouring of romance, it would appear that in this instance, as was often the case in such expeditions, the in- truders and those whom they supplanted combined to form one army, the Etruscans joining with their Umbrian ene- mies, and these again joined by the lapygians whom the "Jmbrian settlers had driven towards the south. Neverthe- le^s the undertaking proved a failure : on this occasion a,\ leasj the superiority of the Greeks in the art of war, and the bravery of the tyrant Aristodemus, succeeded in repel ling the barbarian assault on the beautiful seaport. CHAPTER IX, THE ETRTJSCANB. The Etruscan people, or Ras,* as they called them- Etruscan selvBS, present a striking contrast to the Latin nationality, ^nd Sahellian Italians as well as to the Greeks. They were distinguished from these nations by their very bodily structure : instead of the slender and symmetrical proportions of the Greeks and Italians, the sculptures of the Etruscans exhibit only short sturdy figures with large heads and thick arms. Their manners and customs also, so far as we are acquainted with them, point to the conclusion that this nation was originally quite distinct from the Graeco-Italian stocks. The religion of the Tuscans in par^ ticular, presenting a gloomy fantastic character and delight- ing in the mystical handling of numbers and in wild and hor- rible speculations and practices, is equally remote from the clear rationalism of the Romans and the genial image-wor- ship of the Hellenes. The conclusion which these facts sug- gest is confirmed by the most important and authoritative evidence of nationality, the evidence of language. The re- mains of the Etruscan tongue which have reached us, nu- merous as they are and presenting so many data to aid in deciphering it, occupy a position of isolation so complete, that not only has no one hitherto succeeded in its interpra^ tation, but no one has been able even to determine precise- ly its proper place in the classification of languages. Two periods in the development of the language may be clearly distinguished. In the older period the vocalization of the language was completely carried out, and the collision of • Bas-ennae, with the gentile termination mentioned at p, let. Chap. IX.] The Etrvscom^. 167 two consonants was almost without exception avoided.* By throwing oif the vocal and consonantal terminations, and by the weakening or rejection of the vowels, this soft and melodious language was gradually changed in character, and became intolerably harsh and rugged.f They "thanged for example ramu9af into ram&a, Tarquiniua into Tarch- %»/, Minerva into Menrva, Menelaos, Polydeukes, Alexan- dros, into Menle, PultuTce, Elchsentre. The indistinct and rugged nature of their pronunciation is shown most clearly by the fact that at a very early period the Etruscans ceased to distinguish o from u, b from p, c from g, d from t. At the same time the accent was, as in Latin and in the more rugged Greek dialects, uniformly thrown back upon the initial syllable. The aspirate consonants were treated in a similar fashion ; while the Italians rejected them with the exception of the aspirated h or the /, and the Greeks, re- versing the case, rejected this sound and retained the others &, (f, X, the Etruscans allowed the softest and most pleasing of them, the qp, to drop entirely except in words borrowed from other languages, but made use of the other three to an extraordinary extent, even where they had no proper place ; Thetis for example became Thethis, Telephus The- laphe, Odysseus Utuze or Uthuze. Of the few termina- tions and words, whose meaning has been ascertained, the greater part have not the most distant analogy to the Graeco-Italian languages; such as the termination al em- ployed as a designation of descent, frequently of descent from the mother, e. g. Ganial, which on a bilingual inscrip- tion of Chiusi is translated by Cainia natus ; and the ter- mination sa in the names of women, used to indicate the clan into which they have married, e. g. Lecnesa denoting the spouse of a Zdcinius. Cela or clan with the inflection • To this peiiod belong e. g. inscriptions on the clay vases of Caere, Bach as, minioe&u/mamimalhirnaramli»iaifHpm'ermie&eeraisieepanamint% 0unastavhelefu, or mi ramu&af kaiufinaia, \ We may form some idea of the sound which the language now had from the commencement of the great inscription of Perusia ; eulat tamia lareeul ameuaxr ImUn vel&inate stlaafunaa sleU&caru. 168 The Etruscam. [Book l tlensi means son ; sei daughter ; ril year ; the god Hermes becomes furms, Aphrodite Turan, Hephaestos Seihlans, Bakchos Fufluns. Alongside of these strange forms and sounds there certainly occur isolated analogies between the Etruscan and the Italian languages. Proper names are formed, substantially, after the general Italian system. The fiequent gentile termination enas or ena * recurs in the ter mination enus which is likewise of frequent occurrence in Italian, especially in Sabellian clan-names ; thus the Etrus- can names Vivenna and Spurinna correspond closely to the Roman Vibivs or Vibienus and Spurius. A number of names of divinities, which occur as Etruscan on Etruscan monuments or in authors, have in their roots, and to some extent even in their terminations, a form so thoroughly Latin, that, if these names were really originally Etruscan, the two languages m.ust have been closely related ; such a? Usil (sun and dawn, connected with ausum, aurum, aurora, sot), Minerva (menervare), Lasa [lascivvs), Neptunus, Vol' tumna. As these analogies, however, may have had their origin in the subsequent political and religious relations be- tween the Etruscans and Latins, and in the accommodations and borrowings to which these relations gave rise, they do not invalidate the conclusion to which we are led by the other observed phenomena, that the Tuscan language dif- fered as widely from all the Graeco-Italian dialects as did the languages of the Celts or of the Slavonians. So at least it sounded to the Roman ear ; " Tuscan and Gallic " were the languages of barbarians, " Oscan and Volscian " were but rustic dialects. But, while the Etruscans differed thus widely from the Graeco-Italian family of languages, no one has yet succeed- ed in connecting them with any other known race. All «orts of dialects have been examined with a view to dis * Such as Maecenas, Porsena, Vivenna, Caeoina, Spurinna. The vow- el in the penult ia originally long, but in consequence of the throwing back of the accent upon the initial syllable is frequently shortened and even rejected. Thus we find Porsena, as well as P>rs5na, and Oeione as well as Caecina. Chap. IX.] The Etruscoms. 169 cover affinity with the Etruscan, sometimes by simple in- terrogation, sometimes by torture, but all without exception in vain. The geographical position of the Basque nation would naturally suggest it as not unlikely to be cognate ; but even in the Basque language no analogies of a decisive character have been brought forward. As little do the geanty remains of the Ligurian language which have reached our time, consisting of local and personal names, indicate any counection with the Tuscans. Even the extinct nation which has constructed those enigmatical sepulchral towers called Nuraghe by thousands in the islands of the Tuscan Sea, especially in Sardinia, cannot well be connected with the Etruscans, for not a single structure of the same charac ter is to be met with in Etruria. The utmost we can say is that several traces, apparently reliable, point to the con- clusion that the Etruscans may be on the whole included among the Indo-Germans. Thus mi in the beginning of many of the older inscriptions is certainly t;M(', si/i/, and the genitive form of consonantal stems veneruf, rafuviif is ex- actly reproduced in old Latin, corresponding to the old San- scrit termination as. In like manner the name of the Etruscan Zeus, Tina or Tinia, is probably connected Vi^ith the Sanscrit dina, meaning day, as Zdv is connected with the synonymous diwan. But, even granting those points of connection, the Etruscan people appears withal scarcely less isolated. " The Etruscans," Dionysius said long ago, " are like no other nation in language and manners ; " and We have nothing to add to his statement. It is equally difficult to determine from what quarter the Etruscans migrated into Italy ; nor is much fScms''* ■'*^^'' through our inability to answer the ques- tioT.j for this migration belonged at any rate, to the infency of tha people, and their historical development began and ended in Italy. No question, however, has been handled with greater zeal than this, in accordance with the principle which induces antiquaries especially to inquire into what is neither capable of being known nor worth the knowing — to inavire " who was Hecuba's mother," as the 170 The Etruscams. [Book I emperor Tiberius is said to have done. As the oldest and most important Etruscan to-vvns lay far inland- — in fact we find not a single Etruscan town of any note immediately o]i the coast except Fopulonia, which we k.iow for certain wus not one of the old twelve cities — and the movement of tlie Etruscans in historical times was from north to south, it 5e-cms probable that they migrated into the peninsula by land. Indeed the low stage of civilization in which we find them at first would ill accord with the hypothesis of their having migrated by sea. Nations even in the earliest times crossed a strait as they would a stream ; but to laud on the west coast of Italy was a very different matter. We must therefore seek for the earlier home of the Etruscans to the west or north of Italy. It is not wholly improbable that the Etruscans may have come into Italy over the Raetiaii Alps ; for the oldest traceable settlers in the Grisons and Tyrol, the Raeti, spoke Etruscan down to historical times, and their name sounds similar to that of the Ras. These may no doubt have been a remnant of the Etruscan settle- ments on the Po ; but it is at least quite as likely that they may have been a portion of the nation which remained bC' hind in its earlier abode. In glaring contradiction to this simple and natural view story of their -Stands the story that the Etruscans were Lydi- Lydumorigm. g^^g ^Jjq j^g^j emigrated from Asia. It is very ancient : it occurs even in Herodotus ; and it reappears in later writers with innumerable changes and additions, al- though several intelligent inquirers, such as Dionysius, em- phatically declared their disbelief in it, and pointed to the fact that there was not the slightest apparent similarity be- tween the Lydians and Etruscans in religion, laws, manners, or language. It is possible that an isolated band of pirates from Asia Minor may have reached Etruria, and that their adventure may have given rise to such tales ; but more probably the whole story rests on a mere verbal mistake. The Italian Etruscans or the Turs-ennae (for this appears to be the original form and the basis of the Greek Tvga- ffvoi, TvQQTjfoi, of the Umbrian Turs-ci, and of the two Ro CiiAP. IX.] The Etruscans. 17 J man forms Tusci, Mrusci), nearly coincide in name with the Lydian people, the To^qij^oi or perhaps also Tvqq-^voi, so named from the town Tvqqa. This manifestly accidental resemblance in name seems to be in reality the only foun dation for that hypothesis — ^not rendered more reliable by its great antiquity — and for all the pile of crude historical speculation that has been reared upon it. By connecting the ancient maritime commerce of the Etruscans with the piracy of the Lydians, and then by confounding (Thucydides is the first who has demonstrably done so) the Torrhebian pirates, whether rightly or wrongly, with the buccaneering Pelasgians who roamed and plundered on every sea, there has been produced one of the most unhappy complications of historical tradition. The term Tyrrhenians denotes sometimes the Lydian Torrhebi — as is the case in the earli- est sources, such as the Homeric hymns ; sometimes under the form Tyrrheno-Pelasgians or simply that of Tyrrheni- ans, the Pelasgian nation ; sometimes, in fine, the Italian Etruscans, although the latter never came into lasting con- tact with the Pelasgians or Torrhebians, nor were at all connected with them by common descent. It is, on the other hand, a matter of historical interest settiementa *° determine what were the oldest traceable ^*, *•;.„.. abodes of the Etruscans, and what were their Italy- further movements when they lefl these. Vari- ous circumstances attest that before the great Celtic inva/- sion they dwelt in the district to the north of the Po, being conterminous on the east along the Adige with the Veneti of Illyrian (Albanian ?) descent, on the west with the Ligu» rians. This is proved in particular by the already men" tioned rugged Etruscan dialect which was still spoken in the time of Livy by the inhabitants of the Raetian Alps, and by the fact that Mantua remained Tuscan down to a late period. To the south of the Po and at the mouths of that river Etruscans and Umbrians were mingled, the former as the dominant, the latter as the older race, which had founded the old commercial towns of Hatria and Spina, while the Tuscans appear to have been the founders of Eel 172 The Etruscans. [Book 1 sina (Bologna) and Ravenna. A long time elapsed ere the Celts crossed the Po ; hence the Etruscans and Umbriana left deeper traces of their existence on the right bank of the river than they had done on the left, which they had to abandon at an early period. All the districts, however, to the north of the Apennines passed too rapidly out of the hands of one nation into those of another to permit the formation of any continuous national development there. Far more important in an historical point of view was the great settlement of the Tuscans in the land which still bears their name. Although Liguri- ans or Umbrians were probably at one time (p. 160) settled there, the traces of their occupation have been almost wholly effaced by the civilization of their Etruscan succes- sors. In this region, which extends along the coast from Pisae to Jarquinii and is shut in on the east by the Apen- nines, the Etruscan nationality found its permanent aboda and maintained itself with great tenacity down to the time of the empire. The northern boundary of the proper Tus- can territory was formed by the Arnus ; the region north from the Arnus as far as the mouth of the Macra and the Apennines was a debateable border land in the possession sometimes of Ligurians, sometimes of Etruscans, and for this reason larger settlements were not successful there. The southern boundary was probably formed at first by the Ciminian Forest, a chain of hills south of Viterbo, and 8,t a later period by the Tiber. We have already (p. 161) noticed the fact that the territory between the Ciminian range and the Tiber with the towns of Sutrium, Nepete, Falerii, Veii, and Caere appears to have been taken posses- sion of by the Etruscans at a period considerably later than the more northern district, possibly not earlier than in the second century of Rome, and that the original Italian popu- lation must have maintained its ground in this region, espe- cially ir. Falerii, although in a relation of dependence. From the time at which the river Tiber became the line Relations of of demarcation between Etruria on the one side (he Etruscans j tt u • toLatium. and Umbria and Latmm on the other, peace- Chap IX.] The Etruscans. 173 ful relations probably upon the wtiole prevailed in that quarter, and no essential change seems to have taken place 'n the boundary line, at least so far as concerned the Lat> in frontier. Vividly as the Komans were impressed by the feeling that the Etruscan was a foreigner, while the Latin was their countryman, they yet seem to have stood in much less fear of attack or of danger from the right bank of the river than, for example, from their kinsmen in Gabii and Alba ; and this was natural, for they were pro- tected in that direction not merely by the broad stream which formed a natural boundary, but also by the circum- stance, so momentous in its bearing on the mercantile and political development of Eome, that none of the more pow- erful Etruscan towns lay immediately on the river, as did Rome on the Latin bank. The Veientes were the nearest to the Tiber, and it was with them that Rome and Latium came most frequently into serious conflict, especially for the possession of Fidenae, which served the Veientes as a sort of tUe du pout on the left bank just as the Janiculum served the Romans on the right, and which was sometimes in the hands of the Latins, sometimes in those of the Etruscans. The relations of Rome with the somewhat more distant Caere were on the whole far more peaceful and friendly than those which we usually find subsisting between neighbours in early times. There are doubtless vague legends, reaching back to times of distant antiquity, about contests between Latium and Caere ; Mezentius the king of Caere, for instance, is asserted to have obtained great victories over the Latins, and to have imposed upoQ them a. wine-tax ; but evidence much more definite than that which attests a former state of feud is supplied by tra- dition as to an especially close connection between the two ancient centres of commercial and maritime intercourse in Latium and Etruria. Reliable traces of any advance of the Etruscans beyond the Tiber, by land, are altogether wanting. It is true that Etruscans are named in the first ranks of the great barbarian host, which Aristodenms an- J24. nihilated in 230 u.c. under the walls of Cuma» 174: The Etruscans. [Book 1 (p. 165) ; but, even if we regard this account as deserv- ing credit in all its details, it only shows that the Etrus- cans had taken part in a great plundering expedition. It is far more important to observe that south of the Tiber nc Etruscan settlement can be pointed out as having owed its origin to founders who came by land ; and that no indication whatever is discernible of any serious pressure by the Etrus- cans upon the Latin nation. The possession of the Janiculum and of both banks of the mouth of the Tiber remained, so far as we can see, undisputed in the hands of the Romans. As to the migrations of bodies of Etruscans to Rome, we find an isolated statement drawn from Tuscan annals, that a Tuscan band, led by Caelius Vivenna of Volsinii and after his death by his faithful companion Mastarna, was conducted by the latter to Rome and settled there on the Caelian Mount. We may hold the account to be trustworthy, although the addition that this Mastarna became king in Rome under the name of Servius Tullius is certainly nothing but an im- probable conjecture of the archaeologists who busied them- selves with legendary parallels. The name of the " Tuscan quarter " at the foot of the Palatine (p. 80) points to a similar settlement. It can hardly, moreover, be doubted that the last regal The Tar- family which ruled over Rome, that of the Tar- qmns. quins, was of Etruscan origin, whether it be- longed to Tarquinii, as the legend asserts, or to Caere, where the family tomb of the Tarchnas has recently been discovered. The female name Tanaquil or Tanchvil inter- woven with the legend, while it is not Latin, is common in Etruria. But the traditional story — according to wliich Tarquin was the son of a Greek who had migrnted from Corinth to Tarquinii, and came to settle in Rome as a mc- loikos — is neither history nor legend, and the historical chain of events is manifestly in this instance not entangled merely, but completely torn asunder. If anything at all can be deduced from this tradition beyond the bare and really unimportant fact that at last a family of Tuscan dt, scent swayed the regal sceptre in Rome, it can only be held Chap. IX.] The Etruscoms. 175 as implying that this dominion of a man of Tuscan origin ought not to bo viewed either as a dominion of the Tuscans or of any one Tuscan community over Rome, or conversely as the dominion of Rome over southern Etruria. There is, in fact, no sufficient grotmd either for the one hypothesis cr for the other. The history of the Tarquins had its theatre iu Latium, not in Etruria ; and Etruria, so far as we car see, duruig the whole regal period exercised no influence ol any essential moment on either the language or customs of Rome, and did not at all interrupt the regular development of the Roman state or of the Latin league. The cause of this comparatively passive attitude of Etruria towards the neighbouring land of Latium is prob- ably to be sought partly in the struggles of the Etruscans with the Celts on the Po, which it is probable that the Celts did not cross until after the expulsion of the kings from Rome, and partly in the tendency of the Etruscan people towards seafaring and the acquisition of a supremacy on the sea and seaboard — a tendency decidedly exhibited in their settlements in Campania, and of which we shall speak more fully in the next chapter. The Tuscan constitution, like the Greek and Latin, was based on the gradual transition of the commu- can consti- nity to an urban life. The early direction of ution. ^^ national energies towards navigation, trade, and manufactures appears to have called into existence urban commonwealths, in the strict sense of the term, ear- lier in Etruria than elsewhere in Italy. Caere is the first of all the Italian towns that is mentioned in Greek records. On the other hand we find that the Etruscans had on the whole less of the ability and the disposition for war than the Romans and Sabellians : the un-Italian custom of em- ploying mercenaries to fight for them occurs among the Etruscans at a very early period. The oldest constitution of the communities must in its general outlines have re- sembled that of Rome. Kings or Lucumones ruled, pos- sessing similar insignia and probably therefore a similai plenitude of power with the Roman kings. A strict line o/" i76 The Etruscans. [Book 1, demarcation separated the nobles from the common people. The resemblance in the clan-organization is attested by the analogy of the systems of names ; only, among the Etrus- cans, descent on the mother's side received much more con- sideration than in Roman law. The constitution of thei? league appears to have been very lax. It did not embrace the whole nation ; the northern and the Carnp&»iian Etrus- cans were associated in confederacies of their own, just in the same way as the communities of Etruria proper. Each of these leagues consisted of twelve communities, which recognized a metropolis, especially for purposes of worship, and a federal head or rather a high priest, but appear to have been substantially equal in respect of rights ; while some of them at least were so powerful that neither could a hegemony establish itself, nor could the central authority attain consolidation. In Etruria proper Volsinii was the metropolis ; of the rest of its twelve towns we know by trustworthy tradition only Perusia, Vetulonium, Volci, and Tarquinii. It was, however, quite as unusual for the Etrus- cans really to act in concert, as it was for the Latin con- federacy to do otherwise. Wars were ordinarily carried on by a single community, which endeavoured to interest in its cause such of its neighbours as it could ; and when an ex- ceptional case occurred in which war was resolved on by the league, individual towns very frequently kept aloof from it. The Etruscan confederations appear to have been from the first — still more than the other Italian leagues formed on a similar basis of national affinity — deficient in a firm and paramount central authority. CHAPTER X »H« HBLLENBB IN ITALY. MARITIME SUPREMACY OF THH TUSCANS AND CARTHAGINIANS. In the history of the nations of antiquity a gradual Eeiations of ^^^^ Ushered in the day ; and in their case too Italy with the dawn was in the east. While the Italian otaer lands. peninsula still lay enveloped in the dim twilight of morning, the regions of the eastern basin of the Medi- terranean had already emerged into the full light of a varied and richly developed civilization. It falls to the lot of most nations in the early stages of their development to be taught and trained by some rival sister-nation ; and such was destined to be in an eminent degree the lot of the peo- ples of Italy. The circumstances of its geographical posi- tion, however, prevented this influence from being brought to bear upon the peninsula by land. No trace is to be found of any resort in early times to the difficult route by land between Italy and Greece. There were in all prob- ability from time immemorial tracks for purposes of traffic, leading from Italy to the lands beyond the Alps ; the oldest route of the amber trade from the Baltic joined the Medi- terranean at the mouth of the Po — on which account the delta of the Po appears in Greek legend as the native coun. try of amber — and this route was joined by another leading across the peninsula over the Apennines to Pisae ; but from these regions no elements of civilization could come to the Italians. It was the seafaring nations of the east that brought to Italy whatever foreign culture reached it in early times. The oldest civilized nation on the shores of the Mediter- ranean, the Egyptians, were not a seafaring people, and «* 178 The Hellenes in Itdiy. [Book i therefore they exercised no influence on Italy. But the same may be with almost equal truth affirmed of the Phoe- „^ . nioians. It is true that, issuing from their nar- ciansin row home on the extreme eastern verge of the Mediterranean, they were the first of all known races to rentnre forth in floating houses on the bosom of the deep, at first for the purpose of fishing and dredging, but soon also for the prosecution of trade. They were the first to open up maritime commerce ; and at an incredibly early period they traversed the Mediterranean even to its furthest extremity in the west. Maritime stations of the Phoeni- cians appear on almost all its coasts earlier than those of the Hellenes : in Hellas itself, in Crete and Cyprus, in Egypt, Libya, and Spain, and likewise on the western Ital- ian main. Thucydides tells us that all around Sicily, before the Greeks came thither or at least before they had estab- lished themselves there in any considerable numbers, the Phoenicians had set up their factories on the headlands and islets, not with a view to territorial aggrandizement, but for the sake of trading with the natives. But it was otherwise in the case of continental Italy. No reliable indication has titherto been given of the existence of any Phoenician set- tlement there excepting one, a Punic factory at Caere, the memory of which has been preserved partly by the appella- tion Punicum given to a little village on the Caerite coast, partly by the other name of the town of Caere itself, Agylla, which is not, as idle fiction asserts, of Pelasgio origin, but is a Phoenician word signifying the " round town " — precisely the appearance which Caere presents when seen from the sea. That this station and any similar establishments which may have elsewhere existed on the coasts of Italy were neither of much importance nor of long standing, is evident from their having disappeared almost without leaving a trace. We have not the smallest reason to think them older than the Hellenic settlements of a similar kind on the same coasts. An evidence of no slight weight that Latium at least first became acquainted with the men of Canaan through the medium of the He! Ohap. X.] Tke Mellmes in Italy. 179 lenos is furnished by the Latin name " Poeni," which is Dorrowed from the Greek. All the oldest relations, indeed, of the Italians to the civilization of the east point decidedly towards Greece ; and the rise of the Phoenician factory a* Caere may be very well explained, without resorting to tlu pre-Hellenic period, by the subsequent well-known i-elationa between the commercial state of Caere and Cailliage. I*, fact, when we recall the circumstance that the earliest navi- gation was and continued to be essentially of a coasting character, it is plain that scarcely any country on the Medi- terranean lay so remote from the Phoenicians as the Italian mainland. They could only reach it from the west coast of Greece or from Sicily ; and it is very probable that the seamanship of the Hellenes became developed early enough to anticipate the Phoenicians in braving the dangers of the Adriatic and of the Tyrrhene seas. There is no ground therefore for the assumption that any direct influence was originally exercised by the Phoenicians over the Italians. To the subsequent relations between the Phoenicians hold- ing the supremacy of the western Mediterranean and the Italians inhabiting the shores of the Tyrrhene sea our nar- rative will return in the sequel. To all appearance the Hellenic mariners were the first Greeks in among the inhabitants of the eastern basin of Italy. ^jjg Mediterranean to navigate the coasts of taly. Of the important questions however as to the re- gion from which, and as to the period at which, the Greek seafarers came thither, only the former admits of being answered with some degree of precision and fulness. The Aeolian and Ionian coast of Asia Minor was the tiie Greek region where Hellenic maritime traffic first bo- tmmicTants. g^jjjg developed on a large scale, and whence issued the Greeks who explored the interior of the Black Sea on the one hand and the coasts of Italy on the other. The name of the Ionian Sea, which was retained by the waters intervening between Epirus and Sicily, and that of the Ionian gulf, the term by which the Greeks in earlier times designated the Adriati'> Sea, are memorials of the 180 The Hellenes in Italy. [Book 1, fact that the southern and eastern coasts of Italy were once discovered by seafarers from Ionia. The eldest Greek set- tlement in Italy, Kyme, was, as its name and legend tell, founded by the town of the same name on the Anatolian coast. According to trustworthy Hellenic tradition, the Phocaeans of Asia Minor were the first of the Hellenes to traverse the more remote western sea. Other Greeks soon followed in the paths which these of Asia Minor had opened up ; lonians from Naxos and from Chaleis in Euboea, Achaeans, Locrians, Rhodians, Corinthians, Megarians, Mes- senians, Spartans. After the discovery of America the civilized nations of Europe vied with one another in send- ing out expeditions and forming settlements there ; and the new settlers when located amidst barbarians recognized their common character and common interests as civilized Europeans more strongly than they had done in their former home. So it was with the new discovery of the Greeks. The privilege of navigating the western waters and settling on the western land was not the exclusive property of a single Greek province or of a single Greek stock, but a common good for the whole Hellenic nation ; and, just as in the formation of the new North American world, Eng- lish and French, Dutch and German settlements became mingled and blended, Greek Sicily and " Great Greece " became peopled by a mixture of all sorts of Hellenic races often so amalgamated as to be no longer distinguishable. Leaving out of account some settlements occupying a more isolated position — such as that of the Locrians with its off- sets Hipponium and Medama, and the settlement of the Phocaeans which was not founded till towards the close of this period, Hyele (Velia, Elea) — we may distinguish in a general view three leading groups, The original Ionian group, comprehended under the name of the Chalcidian towns, included in Italy Cumae with the other Greek settle- ments at Vesuvius and Rhegium, and in Sicily Zankle (afterwards Messana), Naxos, Catana, Leontini, and ^^ mera. The Achaean group embraced Sybaris and the greater part of the cities of Magna Graecia. The Doria» Chap. x.j The Hdlenes in Italy. 181 group comprehended Syracuse, Gela, Agrigentum, and the majority of the Sicilian colonies, while in Italy nothing Le- longed to it but Taras (Tarentum) and its offset Heraolea. On the whole the preponderance lay with the immigiants who belonged to the more ancient Hellenic influx, that of the lonians and the stocks settled in the Pe'/oponnesus be- fore the Doric immigration. Among the Dorians only communities with a mixed population, such as Corinth and Megara, took any leading part ; the purely Doric provinces had but a subordinate share in the movement. This result was naturally to be expected, for the lonians were from ancient times a trading and seafaring people, while it was only at a comparatively late period that the Dorian stocks descended from their inland mountains to the seaboard, and they always kept aloof from maritime commerce. The different groups of immigrants are very clearly distinguish- able, especially by their monetary standards. The Phocae- an settlers coined according to the Babylonian standard which prevailed in Asia. The Chalcidian towns followed in the earliest times the Aeginetan, in other words, that which originally prevailed throughout all European Greece, and more especially the modification of it which is found occur- ring in Euboea. The Achaean communities coined by the Corinthian standard ; and lastly the Doric colonies followed that which Solon introduced in Attica in the year of Eome 160, with the exception of Tarentum and Hera^ clea which in their principal pieces adopted rather the standard of their Achaean neighbours than that of the Dorians in Sicily. The dates of the earlier voyages and settlements will probably always remain enveloped in darkjiess. oS'ek'toSi- We may still, however, distinctly recognize a gration. certain order of sequence. In the oldest Greek document, which belongs, like the earliest intercourse with the west, to the lonians of Asia Minor— the Homeric poems i— the horizon scarcely extends beyond the eastern basin of the Mediterranean. Sailors driven by storms into the ▼estern sea might have brought to Asia Minor accounts of 182 The Hellenes in Italy. [Bo>vk l the existence of a western land and possibly also of its whirlpools and island-mountains vomiting fire : but in thn age of the Homeric poetry there was an utter want of re- liable information respecting Sicily and Italy, even in that Greek land which was the earliest to enter into intercourse with the west ; and the story-tellers and poets of the east could without fear of contradiction fill the vacant realms of the west, \ as those of the west in their turn filled the fabulous east, with their castles in the air. In the poems of Hesiod the outlines of Italy and Sicily appear better de- fined ; there is some acquaintance with the native names of tribes, mountains, and cities in both countries ; but Italy is still regarded as a group of islands. On the other hand in all the literature subsequent to Hesiod Sicily and even the whole coast of Italy appear as known, at least in a general sense, to the Hellenes. The order of succession of the Greek settlements may in like manner be ascertained with some degree of precision. Thucydides evidently regarded Cumae as the earliest settlement of note in the west ; and certainly he was not mistaken. It is true that many a landing-place lay nearer at hand for the Greek mariner, but none were so well protected from storms and from bar- barians as the island of Ischia, upon which the town was originally situated ; and that such were the prevailing con- siderations that led to this settlement, is evident from the very position which was subsequently selected for it on the main land — the steep but well-protected cliff, which still bears to the present day the venerable name of the Ana/- tolian mother-city. Nowhere in Italy, accordingly, were the scenes of the legends of Asia Minor so vividly and tenaciously localised as in the district of Cumae, where the earliest voyagers to the west, full of those legends of west- ern wonders, first stepped upon the fabled land and left the traces of that world of story which they believed that they were treading in the rocks of the Sirens and the lake of Avernus leading to the lower world. On the supposition, moreover, that it was in Cumae that the Greeks first b& came the neighbours of the Italians, it is easy to explain Chap. X] The EeUenes vTh Jtahf. 183 why the name of that Italian stock which was settled imme- diately around Cumae, the name of Opicans, came to be ei/; ployed by them for centuries afterwards to designate the Italians collectively. There is a further credible tradition that a considerable interval elapsed between the settlemem at Cumae and the main Hellenic immigration into Lower Italy and Sicily, and that in this immigration lonians from Chalcis and from Naxos took the lead. Naxos in Sicily is said to have been the oldest of all the Greek towns founded by strict colonization in Italy or Sicily ; the Achaean and Dorian colonizations followed, but not until a later period. It appears, however, to be quite impossible to fix the dates of this series of events with even approximate accu- racy. The founding of the Achaean city of Sybaris in 721. 33 tr.c, and that of the Dorian city Tarentum 708. in 46 u.c, may be taken as a basis in such an enquiry — the most ancient dates in Italian his- tory, the correctness or at least approximation to correct> ness of which may be looked upon as established. But how far beyond that epoch the earlier Ionian colonies reached back, is quite as uncertain as is the age which gave birth to the poems of Hesiod or even of Homer. If He- rodotus is correct in the period which he assigns to Homer, the Greeks were still unacquainted with Italy a century before the foundation of Rome. The date thus assigned however, like all other statements re- specting the Homeric age, is matter not of testimony, but of inference ; and any one who carefully weighs the history of the Italian alphabets as well as the remarkable fact that the Italians had become acquainted with the Greek nation before the newer name " Hellenes " had supplanted the older national designation " Graeci," * will be inclined to * The name Graeci is, like that of Hellenes, associated with the pri- Baitive seat of Greek civilization, the interior of Epirus and the region of Dodona. In the Eoai of Hesiod it still appears a collective name for the nation, although it is manifest that .it is intentionally thrown into the ihade and rendered subordinate to that of Hellenes. The latter does not occur in Homer, but in addition to Hesiod it is found in Arch- foo ilochus about the year 50 tr.c , and it may very well hav« 184 The Hdlenes in Italy. [Book l refer the earliest intercourse of the Italians with the Greeki to an age considerably more remote. The history of the Italian and Sicilian Greeks forms no oharRoter of P^rt of the history of Italy ; the Hellenic colo- tan^rl? '1^^''® ^^ t^® ^®^* always retained the closest ''°°- connection with their original home and partici- pated in the national festivals and privileges of Hellenes, But it is of importance even as bearing on Italy, that wa should indicate the diversities of character that prevailed in the Greek settlements there, and at least exhibit some of the leading features which enabled the Greek colonization to exercise so varied an influence on Italy. Of all the Greek settlements, that which retained most The League thoroughly its distinctive character and waa AoiSean least affected by influences from without was the citicB. settlement which gave birth to the league of the Achaean cities, composed of the towns of Siris, Pandosia, Metabus or Metapontum, Sybaris with its offsets Posidonia and Laus, Croton, Caulonia, Temesa, Terina, and Pyxus. These colonists, taken as a whole, belonged to a Greek stock which steadfastly adhered to its own peculiar dialect (distinguished from the Doric, with which in other respects it had most affinity, e. g. by the want of the K) and retained no less steadfastly the old national Hellenic mode of writ- ing, instead of adopting the more recent alphabet which had elsewhere come into general use ; and which preserved its own nationality as distinguished from the barbarians and from other Greeks by the firm bond of a federal constitu- (iotne into use considerably earlier (Duncker, Octch. d. Alt. iii. 18, 656), Before tliis period, tlierefore,the Italians had already attained so extensive an acquaintance witii tlie Greeljs, that they knew not only how to name the individual tribe, but how to designate the nation bya collective term. It is difficult to see how we can reconcile with this fact the statement that a century before the foundation of Rome Italy was still quite unknown to tha Greeks of Asia Minor. We shall speak of the alphabet below ; its history yields entirely similar results. It may perhaps be characterised as a rash step to reject the statement of Herodotus respecting the age of Homer on tha strength of such considerations ; but is there no rashness in following implicitly the guidance of tradition in questions of this kind ? Chap. X.] The HeUenei in Italy. 185 tion. The language of Polybius regarding the Achaean symmachy in the Peloponnesus may be applied also to these Italian Achaeans ; " not only did they live in federal and friendly communion, but they made use of the same laws, and the same weights, measures, and coins, as well as of the same magistrates, councillors, and judges." This league of the Achaean cities was strictly a coloni- zation. The cities had no harbours — Croton alone had a paltry roadstead — and they had no commerce of their own ; ihe Sybarite prided himself on growing gray between the bridges of his lagoon-city, and Milesians and Etruscans bought and sold for him. These Achaean Greeks, however, were not in possession merely of a narrow belt along the coast, but ruled from sea to sea in the " land of wine" ind '' of oxen " {OirmrQia, 'IraXiu) or the " great Hellas ; " the native agricultural population was compelled to farm their lands and to pay to them tribute in the character of clients or even of serfs. Sybaris — in its time the largest city in Italy — exercised dominion over four barbarian tribes and five^and-twenty townships, and was able to found Laus and Posidonia on the other sea. The surprisingly fertile low grounds of the Crathis and Bradanus yielded a superabun* dant produce to the Sybarites and Metapontines — it was there perhaps that grain was first cultivated for exportation. The height of prosperity which these states in a very shoi-t time attained is strikingly attested by the only surviving works of art of these Italian Achaeans, their coins of chaste antiquely beautiful workmanship — the earliest monuments of art and writing in Italy which we possess, as it can be shown that they had already begun to be coined in 174 u. c. These coins show that the Achae- ans of the west did not simply participate in the noble de- velopment of plastic art that was at this very time taking place in the motherland, but were even superior in technical skill. Por, while the silver pieces which were in use about that time in Greece proper and among the Dorians in Italy were thick, often stamped only on one side, and in general without inscription, the Italian Achaeans with great and in 186 The Hellenes in Italy. [Book L dependent skill struck from two similar dies partly cut iu relief, partly sunk, large thin silver coins always furnished with inscriptions and displaying the advanced organization of a civilized state in the mode of impression, by which they were carefully protected from the process of counter- feiting usual in that age — the plating of inferior metal with tliin silver-foil. Nevertheless this rapid bloom bore no fruit. Even Greeks speedily lost all elasticity of body and of mind in a life of indolence, in which their energies were never tried either by vigorous resistance on the part of the natives or by hard labour of their own. None of the brilliant namea in Greek art or literature shed glory on the Italian Achae- ans, while Sicily could claim ever so many of them, and even in Italy the Chalcidian Rhegium could produce its Ibycus and the Doric Tarentum its Archytas. With this people, among whom the spit was for ever turning on the hearth, nothing flourished from the outset but boxing. The rigid aristocracy which early gained the helm in several communities, and which found in case of need a sure reserve of support in the federal power, prevented the rise of tyrants. The only danger to be apprehended was that the government of the best might be converted into a govern- ment of the few, especially if the privileged families in the different communities should combine to assist each other in carrying out their designs. Such was the predominant aim in the combination of mutually pledged " friends " which bore the name of Pythagoras. It enjoined the prin- ciple that the ruling class should be " honoured like gods," and that the subject class should bo " held in subservience like beasts," and by such theoi-y and practice provoked a formidable reaction, which terminated in the annihilation of the Pythagorean " friends " and the renewal of the an- cient federal constitution. But frantic party feuds, insurrec- tions en masse of the slaves, social abuses of all sorts, attempts to carry out in practice an impracticable state- philosophy, in short, all the evils of demoralized civiliza- tion raged incessantly in the Achaean communities, till Chap, x.] The Hellenes in Italy. 187 under the accumulated pressure their political power utterly broke down. It is no matter of wonder therefore that the Achaeana settled in Italy exercised less influence on its civilizatioc than the other Greek settlements. An agricultural people, they had less occasion than those engaged in commerce to extend their influence beyond their political bounds. With- in their own dominions they enslaved the native population and crushed the germs of their national development as Italians, while they refused to open up to them by means of complete Hellenization a new career. In this way the Greek characteristics, which were able elsewhere to retain a vigorous vitality notwithstanding all political misfortunes, disappeared more rapidly, more completely, and more in- gloriously in Sybaris and Metapontum, in Croton and Posi donia, than in any other region ; and the bilingual mongrel people, which arose in subsequent times out of the remains of the native Italians and Achaeans and the more recent immigrants of Sabellian descent, never attained any real prosperity. This catastrophe, however, belongs in point of time to the succeeding period. The settlements of the other Greeks were of a different lono-Do- character, and exercised a very different effect rmn towns. upon Italy. They by no means despised agri- culture and the acquisition of territory ; it was not the wont of the Hellenes, at least when they had reached their full vigour, to rest content after the manner of the Phoe- nicians with a fortified factory in the midst of a barbarian land. But all their cities were founded primarily and espe- cially for the sake of trade, and accordingly, altogether dif- fering from those of the Achaeans, they were uniformly established beside the best harbours and lading-places. These cities were very various in their origin and in the occasion and period of their respective foundations ; bul there subsisted among them certain points of common agree- ment or at least of contradistinction from the league of tha Achaean cities — such as the common use by all of them of certain modern forms of the alphabet, and the very Dor 188 The Hellenes in Italy. [Book i, ism of their language,* which pervaded at an early date even those towns that, like Cumae for example,f originally spoke the soft Ionic dialect. These settlements were of very va- rious degrees of importance in their bearing on the develop ment of Italy : it is sufficient at present to notice those which exercised a decided influence over the d'^stinies of the Italian races, the Doric Tarentum and the Ionic Cu mae. Of all the Hellenic settlements in Italy, Tarentum was destined to play the most brilliant part. The excellent harbour, the only good one on the whole southern coast, rendered the city the natural empo rium for the traffic of the south of Italy, and for some por- tion even of the commerce of the Adriatic. The rich fish- eries of its gulf, the production and manufacture of its ex- cellent wool, and the dyeing of it with the purple juice of the Tarentine murex, which rivalled that of Tyre — both branches of industry introduced there from Miletus in Asia Minor- — employed thousands of hands, and added to the carrying trade a traffic of export. The coins struck at Tarentum in greater numbers than anywhere else in Gre- cian Italy, many of them even composed of gold, fiirnish to us a significant attestation of the lively and widely extended commerce of the Tarentines. At this epoch, when Taren- tum was still contending with Sybaris for the first place among the Greek cities of Lower Italy, its extensive com- mercial connections must have been already forming ; but the Tarentines seem never to have steadily and successfully directed their effisrts to the extension of their territory after the manner of the Achaean cities. * Thus the three old Oriental forms of the l (S-), I (/^ ) and r (Pi for which as apt to be confounded with the forms of the «, g, and p the signs I V R were early proposed to be substituted, remained either in exclusive or preponderant use among the Achaean colonies, while the other Greeks of Italy and Sicily without distinction of race used eithei exclusively or chiefly the more recent forms. f -K jr., the inscription on an earthen vase af Cumae runs thus :— TaraUi t/A Xlqvd^oq' Fo? S' av in nXdfUu &vipi.oi ftrra*. Ohap. X.] The Hellenes in Italy. 189 While the most easterly of the Greek settlements in Italy thus rapidly rose into splendour, those Greek cities , . , , ,. , , , . , . , nearTesa- which lay furthest to the north, m the neijjh vius, bourhood of Vesuvius, attained a more moder nte prosperity. There the Cumaeans had crossed from the feitile island of Aenaria (Ischia) to the mainland, and had built a second home on a hill close by the sea, from whence Ihey founded the seaport of Dicaearchia (afterwards Pute- oli) and the cities of Parthenope and Neapolis. They lived, like the Chaloidian cities generally in Italy and Sicily, in conformity with the laws which Charondas of Catana (about 100 V. c.) had established, under a constitution democratic but modified by a high qualification, which placed the power in the hands of a council of mem- bers selected from the wealthiest men — a constitution which proved lasting and kept these cities free, upon the whole, from the tyranny alike of usurpers and of the mob. Wo know little as to the external relations of these Campanian Greeks. They remained, whether from necessity or from choice, confined to a district of even narrower limits than the Tarentines ; and issuing from it not for purposes of con- quest and oppression, but for the hoLling of peaceful com- mercial intercourse with the natives, they created the means of a prosperous existence for themselves, and at the same time occupied the foremost place among the missionaries of Greek civilization in Italy. While on the one side of the straits of Ehegium the Eeiations of wholc southem coast of the mainland and its the Adriatic western coast as far as Vesuvius, and on the regions to ' ihe Greeks, other the larger eastern half of the island of Sicily, were Greek territory, the west coast of Italy north- ward of Vesuvius and the whole of the east coast were in a position essentially different. No Greek settlements arose on the Italian seaboard of the Adriatic ; a fact which has an evident connection with the comparatively trifling number and subordinate importance of the Greek colonies planted on the opposite Illyrian shore and on the numerous adja- cent islands. Two considerable mercantile towns, Epidam 190 The HeUenes in Italy. [Book l 82r. nus or Dyrrachium (now Durazzo, 127 rr. c.) 5g7_ and Apollonia (near Avion a, about 167), were founded upon the portion of this coast nearest to Greece during the regal period of Rome ; but no old Greek colony can be pointed out further to the north, ■«ritl] the exception perhaps of the insignificant f^ttlenaent at Black Corcyra (Curzola, about 174 ?). No ade- quate explanation has yet been given why the Greek colonization developed itself in this direction to so meagre an extent. Nature herself appeared to direct the Hellenes thither, and in fact from the earliest times there existed a regular traffic to that region from Corinth and still more from the settlement at Corcyra (Corfu) founded not long after Rome (about 44) ; a traffic, which had as its emporia on the Italian coast the towns of Spina and Hatria, situated at the mouth of the Po. The storms of the Adriatic, the inhospitable character at least of the lUyrian coasts, and the barbarism of the natives am manifestly not in themselves sufficient to explain this fact. But it was a circumstance fraught with the most momen- tous consequences for Italy, that the elements of civilization which came from the east did not exert their influence on its eastern provinces directly, but reached them only through the medium of those that lay to the west. The Adriatic commerce carried on by Corinth and Corcyra was shared by the most easterly mercantile city of Magna Graecia, the Doric Tarentum, which by the possession of Hydrua (Otranto) had the command, on the Italian side, of thp en- trance of the Adriatic. Since, with the exception of the ports at the mouth of the Po, there were in those times no entporia worthy of mention along the whole east coast — the rise of Ancona belongs to a far later period, and later still the rise of Brundisium — it is very probable that the mari- ners of Epidamnus and Apollonia frequently discharged their cargoes at Tarentum. The Tarentines had also much intercourse with Apulia by land ; all the Greek civilization to be met with in the south-east of Italy owed its existence to them. That civilization, however, was during the pre* Chap. X-l The HeUenes in Italy. 191 ent period only in its infancy ; it was not until a later epoch that the Hellenism of Apulia became developed. It cannot be doubted, on the other hand, that the west Relations of coast of Italy northward of Vesuvius was fre- Jtaiiansto quented in very early times by the Hellenes, and that there were Hellenic factories on its promontories and islands. Probably the earliest evidence of such voyages is the localizing of the legend of Odysseua on the coasts of the Tyrrhene Sea.* When Tnen discovered the isle of Aeolus in the Lipari islands, when they pointed out at the Lacinian cape the isle of Calypso, at the cape of Misenum that of the Sirens, at the cape of Circeii that of Circe, when they recognized in the steep promontory of Terracina the towering mound of Elpenor, when the Laes- trygones were provided with haunts near Caieta and Foi^ miae, when the two sons of Ulysses and Circe, Agrius, that is the " wild," and Latinus, were made to rule over the Tyrrhenes in the " inmost recess of the holy islands," or according to a more recent conception Latinus was called the son of Ulysses and Circe, and Auson the son of Ulysses and Calypso — we recognize in these legends ancient sailors' tales of the seafarers of Ionia, who thought of their native home as they traversed the Tyrrhene Sea. The same noble vividness of feeling which pervades the Ionic poem of the voyages of Odysseus is discernible in this fresh localization of its legend at Cumae itself and throughout the regions frequented by the Cumaean mariners. Other traces of these very ancient voyages are to be found in the Greek name of the island Aethalia (Ilva, Elba), which appears to have been (after Aenaria) one of the * Among Greek writers thia Tyrrhene legend of Odysseus make> Ita earliest appearance in tlie Theogony of Hesiod, in one of its more te- cent sections, and then in authors of the period shortly before Alexaiv der, Euphorua (from whom the so-called Scymnus drew his materials), and the writer known as Scylax. The first of these sources belongs to an age when Italy was still regarded by the Greeks as a group of islands, and is certainly therefore very ancient ; so that the origin of these legende may, on the whole, be confidently placed in the regal period of Borne. 193 The Hellenes in Italy [Book 1. places earliest occupied by Greeks, perhaps also in that of the seaport Telamon in Etruria ; and further in the tvo towns on the Caerite coast, Pyrgi (near S. Severa) and Alsium (near Palo), the Greek origin of which is indicated lie.yond possibility of mistake not only by their names, but also by the peculiar architecture of the walls of Pyrgi, which differs essentially in character from that of the walls of Caere and the Etruscan cities generally. Aethalia, the " fire-island," with its rich mines of copper and especially of iron, probably sustained the chief part in this northern commerce, and there in all likelihood the foreigners had their central settlement and seat of traffic with the natives ; the more especially as they could not have found the means of smelting the ores on a small and not well-wooded island ■without intercourse with the mainland. The silver mines of Populonia also on the headland opposite to Elba were perhaps known to the Greeks and wrought by them. If, as was undoubtedly the case, the foreigners, ever in those times intent on piracy and plunder as well as trade, did not fail, when opportunity offered, to levy contributiona on the natives and to carry them off as slaves, the natives on their part exercised the right of retaliation ; and that the Latins and Tyrrhenes retaliated with greater energy and better fortune than their neighbours in the south of Italy, is attested not merely by the legends to that effect, but by the practical result. In these regions the Italians succeeded in resisting the foreigners and in retaining, or at any rate soon resuming, the mastery not merely of their own mercantile cities and seaports, but also of their own seas. The same Hellenic invasion which crushed and denationalized the races of the south of Italy, directed the energies of the peo- ples of Central Italy — very much indeed against the will of their instructors — towards navigation and the founding of towns. It must have been in this quarter that the Italians first exchanged the rail and the boat for the oared galley of the Phoenicians and Greeks. Here too we first encounter great mercantile cities, particularly Caere in southern Etru- ria and Rome on the Tiber, which, if we may judge from Chap, x.] The Hellenes in Italy. 193 their Italian names as well as from their being situated at some distance from the sea, were — like the exactly similar commercial towns at the mouth of the Po, Spina and Ha- tria, and Ariminum further to the south — certainly not Greek, but Italian foundations. It is not in our power, as may easily be supposed, to exhibit the historical course of this earliest reaction of Italian nationality against foreign assault ; but we can still recognize the fact, which was of the greatest importance as bearing upon the further devel- opment of Italy, that this reaction took a different course in Latium and in southern Etruria from that which it exhibit- ed in the properly Tuscan and adjoining provinces. Legend itself contrasts in a significant manner the Latin Hellenes '^''^^ the " wild Tyrrhenian," and the peaceful and Latins, beach at the mouth of the Tiber with the inhos- pitable shores of the Volsci. This cannot mean that Greek colonization was tolerated in some of the provinces of Cen- tral Italy, but not permitted in others. Northward of Ve- suvius there existed no independent Greek community at all in historical times ; if Pyrgi once wus such, it must have already reverted, before the period at which our tra- dition begins, into the hands of the Italians or in other •words of the Caerites. But in southern Etruria, in Latium, and likewise on the east coast, peaceful intercourse with the foreign merchants was protected and encouraged ; and such was not the case elsewhere. The position of Caere was especially remarkable. " The Caerites," says Strabo, " were held in much repute among the Hellenes for their bravery and integrity, and because, powerful though they were, they abstained from robbery." It is not piracy that is thus re- ferred to, for in this the merchant of Caere must have in- dulged like the rest. But Caere was a sort of free port for Phoenicians as well as Greeks. We have already men- tioned the Phoenician station — subsequently called Punicum •—and the two Hellenic stations of Pyrgi and Alsium (p. 178, 192). It was these ports that the Caerites refrained from robbing, and it was beyond doubt through this toler- ant attitude that Caere, which possessed but a wretched 194 The Hellenes vn Italy. [Book L roadstead and had no mines in its neighbourhood, early attained so great prosperity and acquired, in reference to the earliest Greek commerce, an importance even greater than the cities of the Italians destined by nature as emporia at the mouths of the Tiber and Po. The cities we hava just named are those which appear as holding primitive religious intercourse with Greece. The first of all barbae rians to present gifts to the Olympian Zeus was the Tuscan king Arimnus, perhaps a ruler of Ariminum. Spina and Caere had their special treasuries in the temple of the Del- phic Apollo, like other communities that had regular deal- ings with the shrine ; and the sanctuary at Delphi, as well as the Gumaean oracle, is interwoven with the earliest tra- ditions of Caere and of Eome. These cities, where the Italians held peaceful sway and carried on friendly traffic with the foreign merchant, became pre-eminently wealthy and powerful, and were in reality marts not only for Hel- lenic merchandise, but also for the germs of Hellenic civili- zation. Matters stood on a different footing with the " wild Tyrrhenians." The same causes, which in the andBtrus- province of Latium, and in the districts on the right bank of the Tiber and along the lower course of the Po that were perhaps rather subject to Etrus- can supremacy than strictly Etruscan, had led to the eman- cipation of the natives from the maritime power maritime of the foreigner, led in Etruria proper to the de- power, velopment of piracy and maritime ascendancy, in consequence possibly of the difference of national charac- ter disposing the people to violence and pillage, or it may be for other reasons with which we are not acquainted. The Etruscans were not content with dislodging the Greeks from Aethalia and Populonia ; even the individual trader was apparently not tolerated by them, and soon Etruscan privateers roamed over the sea far and wide, and rendered the name of the Tyrrhenians a terror to the Gr«eks. It was not without reason that the Greeks reckoned the grapnel aa an Etruscan invention, and called the western sea of Italy Chap. X.] The Hellenes %n Italy. 198 the sea of the Tuscans. The rapidity with which these wild corsairs multiplied and the violence of their proceedings, in the Tyrrhene Sea in particular, are very clearly shown in their establishment on the Latin and Campaniau coasts The Latins indeed maintained their ground in Latium prop er, and the Greeks at Vesuvius ; but between them and bj their side the Etruscans held sway in Antium and in Sur- rentum. The Volscians became clients of the Etruscans ; their forests contributed keels for the Etruscan galleys ; and seeing that the piracy of the Antiates was only termi. nated by the Roman occupation, it is easy to understand why the coast of the southern Volscians bore among Greek mariners the name of the Laestrygones. The high promon tory of Sorrento with the cliff of Capri which is still more precipitous but destitute of any harbour — a station thor- oughly adapted for corsairs on the watch, commanding a prospect of the Tyrrhene Sea between the bays of Naples and Salerno — was early occupied by the Etruscans. They are affirmed even to have founded a " league of twelve towns " of their own in Campania, and communities speak- ing Etruscan still existed in its inland districts in times quite historical. These settlenaents were probably indirect results of the maritime dominion of the Etruscans in the Campanian seas, and of their rivalry with the Cumaeans at Vesuvius. The Etruscans however by no means confined them- EtniBoan selvcs to robbery and pillage. The peaceful in- commerce. tercourse which they held with Greek towns is attested by the gold and silver coins which, at least from the year 200 c. c, were struck by the Etruscan cities, and in particular b/ Populonia, after a Greek model and a Greek standard. The circumstance, moreover, that these coins are modelled not upon those of Magna Graecia, but rather upon those of Attica and even Asia Minor, is perhaps an indication of the hostile attitude in which the Etruscans stood towards the Italian Greeks. For commerce they in fact enjoyed a most favourable posi- Hon, far more advantageous than that of the inhabitants of 196 The Hellenes in Italy. [Book I Latium. Inhabiting the country from sea to sea they com- manded the great Italian free ports on the western waters, the mouths of the Po and the Venice of that time^on the eastern sea, and the land route which from ancient times led fi-om Pisae on the Tyrrhene Sea to Spina on the Adri- atic, while in the south of Italy they commanded the rich plains of Capua and Nola. They were the holders of the most important articles of Italian export, the iron of Aetha lia, the copper of Volaterrae and Campania, the silver of Populonia, and the amber which was brought to them from the Baltic (p. 177). Under the protection of their piracy, which constituted as it were a rude navigation act, their own commerce could not fail to flourish. It need not surprise us to find Etruscan and Milesian merchants competing in the market of Sybaris, nor need we be astonished to learn that the combination of privateering and commerce on a great scale generated an unbounded and senseless luxury, in which the vigour of Etruria early wasted away. While in Italy the Etruscans and, in a lesser degree, the „. ^, Latins thus stood opposed to the Hellenes, ward- between ing them off and partly treating them as ene- niciaiis and mies, this antagonism to some extent necessarily HeUenes. r,. , , . -, ,.,, n-,, aftected the rivalry which then pervaded the commerce and navigation of the Mediterranean — the rival- ry between the Phoenicians and Hellenes. This is not the place to set forth in detail how, during the regal period of Rome, these two great nations contended for supremacy on all the shores of the Mediterranean, in Greece even and Asia Minor, in Crete and Cyprus, on the African, Spanish, and Celtic coasts. This struggle did not take place directly on Italian soil, *ut its effects were deeply and permanently felt in Italy. The fresh energies and more universal en- dowments of the younger competitor had at first the advan- tage everywhere. Not only did the Hellenes rid themselves of the Phoenician factories in their own European and Asiatic home, but they dislodged the Phoenicians also from Crete and Cyprus, obtained a footing in Egypt and Cyrene^ and possessed themselves of Lower Italy and the large; Chap. X.] The Hellenes in Italy. 197 eastern half of the island of Sicily. On all hands the small trading stations of the Phoenicians gave way before tha more energetic colonization of the Greeks. Se- 680. linus (126 u. c.) and Agrigentum (174 u. c.) were founded in western Sicily ; the more remote western sea was traversed, Massilia was built on the Celtic coa.«:t (about 150 u. c), and the shores of Spain were explored by the bold Phocaeans from Asia Minor. But about the middle of the second century the progress of Hellenic colonization was suddenly arrested and there is no doubt that the cause of this arrest was the con- temporary rapid development of Carthage, the most power- ful of the Phoenician cities in Libya — a development mani- festly due to the danger with which Hellenic aggression threatened the whole Phoenician race. If the nation which had opened up maritime commerce on the Mediterranean had been already dislodged by its younger rival from the sole command of the western half, from the possession of both lines of communication between the eastern and west- ern basins of the Mediterranean, and from the monopoly of the carrying trade between east and west, the sovereignty at least of the seas to the west of Sardinia and Sicily might still be saved for the Orientals ; and to its maintenance Carthage applied all the tenacious and circumspect energy peculiar to the Aramaean race. Phoenician colonization and Phoenician resistance assumed an entirely different character. The earlier Phoenician settlements, such as those in Sicily described by Thucydides, were mercantile factories : Carthage subdued extensive territories with nu- merous subjects and powerful fortresses. Hitherto each Phoenician settlement had stood isolated in its opposition to the Greeks ; now the powerful Libyan city centralized the whole warlike resources of the race within and itaiiajia its reach with a vigour to which the history ol tion'^o^the the Greeks can produce nothing parallel. Per- HcUenea. j^j^pg ^jjg element in this reaction which exer- cised the most momentous influence in the sequel was the close relation into which the weaker Phoenicians entered 198 The Hellenes in Italy. [Book i with the natives of Sicily and Italy in order to resist the Hellenes. When the Cnidians and Rhodians made an attempt about 175 to establish them- selves at Lilybaeum, the centre of the Phoenician settle- ments in Sicily, they were expelled by the natives, the Elymi of Segeste, in concert with the Phoenicians. When the Phocaeans settled about 217 at Alalia A37 (Aleria) in Corsica opposite to Caere, there ap- peared for the purpose of expelling them a combined fleet of Etruscans and Carthaginians, numbering a hundred and twenty sail ; and although in the naval battle that ensued — one of the earliest known in history — the fleet of the Pho- caeans, which was only half as numerous, claimed the vic- tory, the Carthaginians and Etruscans gained the object which they had in view in the attack ; the Phocaeans aban- doned Corsica, and preferred to settle at Hyele (Velia) on the less exposed coast of Lucania. A treaty between Etru- ria and Carthage not only established regulations regarding the importation of goods and the redress of rights, but in- cluded also an alliance-in-arms {avfificL'/ta), the serious im- port of which is shown by that very battle of Alalia. It is a significant indication of the position of the Caerites, that they stoned the Phocaean captives in the market at Caere and then sent an embassy to the Delphic Apollo to atone for the crime. Latium did not join in these hostilities against the Hel- lenes ; on the contrary we find friendly relations subsisting in very ancient times between the Romans and the Phocae- ans in Velia as well as in Massilia, and the Ardeates are even said to have founded in conceit with the Zacynthiana a colony in Spain, the later Saguntum. Much less, how- ever, did the Latins range themselves on the side of the Hellenes : the neutrality of their position in this respect is attested by the close relations maintained between Caere and Rome, as well as by the traces of ancient intercourse between tiie Latins and Carthaginians. It was through tha medium of the Hellenes that the Canaanite race becamff known to the Romans, for, as we have already seen (p Chap, x.] The Hellenes in Italy. 199 178), they always designated it by its Greek name; but the fact that they did not borrow from the Greeks either the name for the city of Carthago * or the national name of Afri,\ and the circumstance that among the earlier Romans Tyrian wares were designated by the adjective Sarranus J which in like manner precludes the idea of Greek interven- tion, demonstrate — what the treaties of a later period con- cur in proving — the direct commercial intercourse anciently subsisting between Latium and Carthage. The combined power of the Italians and Phoenicians actually succeeded in substantially retaining the western half of the Mediterranean in their hands. The north-west- ern portion of Sicily, with the important ports of Solun- tum and Panormus on the north-west, and Motya at the point which looks towards Africa, remained in the direct or indirect possession of the Carthaginians. About the age of Cyrus and Croesus, when the wise Bias was endeavour- ing to induce the lonians to emigrate in a body from Asia Minor and settle in Sardinia (about 200), the Carthaginian general Malchus anticipated them, and subdued a considerable portion of that important island by force of arms ; half a century later, the whole coast of Sardinia appears in the undisputed possession of the Car- thaginian community. Corsica on the other hand, with the towns of Alalia and Nicaea, fell to the Etruscans, and the natives paid them tribute of the products of their poor island, pitch, wax, and honey. In the Adriatic sea, more- * The Phoenicianname was Karthada;the Greek, Karchedon ; the Ro- man, Cartago. f The name Afri, already current in the days of Enniua and Cato (comp. Scipio Africanus), is certainly not Greek, and is most probably related to that of the Hebrews. \ The adjective Sarranus was from early tunes applied by the KO' mans to the Tyrian purple and the Tyrian flute ; and it was in use also as a Burname, at least from the time of the war with Hannibal. Sarra, which occurs in Ennius and Plautus as the name of the city, was perhaps formed from Sarranus, not directly from the native name Sor. The Greek form, Tyrus, Tyrius, seems not to occur in any Koman author anterior tf Afranius(ap. Fest. p. 366 M.). Compare Movers, Phon. ii. 1, 174. 200 The Hellenes m Italy. [Bjok 1 over, the allied Etruscans and Carthaginians predominated, as in the waters to the west of Sicily and Sardinia. The Greeks, indeed, did not give up the struggle. Those EhO" dians and Cnidians, who had been driven out of Lilybaevm, established themselves on the islands between Sicily and Italy and founded there the town of Tjipara (175). Massilia flourished in spite of its isola- tion, and soon monopolised the trade from Nice to the Pyrenees. At the Pyrenees themselves Rhoda (now Eo- sas) was established as an offset from Lipara, and it is affirmed that Zacynthians settled in Saguntum, and even that Greek dynasts ruled at Tingis (Tangier) in Maureta- nia. But the Hellenes no longer gained ground ; after the foundation of Agrigentum they did not succeed in acquiring any important additions of territory on the Adriatic or on the western sea, and they remained excluded from the Span- ish waters as well as from the Atlantic Ocean. Every year the Liparaeans had their conflicts with the Tuscan " sea-rob- bers," and the Carthaginians with the Massiliots and the Cyrenaeans and above all with the Sicilian Greeks ; but no results of permanent moment were on either side achieved, and the issue of struggles which lasted for centuries was, on the M'hole, the simple maintenance of the status quo. Thus Italy was, indirectly at any rate, indebted to the Phoenicians for the exemption of at least her central and northern provinces from colonization, and for the counter- development of a national maritime power there, especially in Etruria. But there are not wanting indications that the Phoenicians already found it expedient to manifest that jeal- ousy which is usually associated with naval domination, if not in reference to their Latin allies, at any rate in refer- ence to their Etruscan confederates, whose naval power was greater. The statement as to the Carthaginians having pro- hibited the sending forth of an Etruscan colony to the Ca- nary Islands, whether true or false, reveals the existence of a rivalry of interests in the matter. CHAPTER XI. LAW AND JUSTICE. lIiSTORT, as such, cannot reproduce the life of a people Modern in the infinite variety of its details ; it must be iteiu!?oui- content with exhibiting the development of that *"«• life as a whole. The doings and dealings, the thoughts and imaginings of the individual, however strong- ly they may reflect the characteristics of the national mind, form no part of history. Nevertheless it seems necessary to make some attempt to indicate — only in the most gen- eral outlines — the features of individual life in the case of those earlier ages which are, so far as history is concerned, all but lost in oblivion ; for it is in this field of research alone that we acquire some idea of the breadth of the gulf which separates our modes of thinking and feeling from those of the civilized nations of antiquity. Tradition, with its confused mass of national names and its dim legends, re- sembles withered leaves which with difficulty we recognize to have once been green. Instead of threading that dreary maze and attempting to classify those shreds of humanity, the Chones and Oenotrians, the Siouli and the Pelasgi, it will be more to the purpose to inquire how the life of the people in ancient Italy expressed itself, practically, in their jurisprudence and, ideally, in their religion ; how they farmed and how they traded ; and whence the several na- tions derived the art of writing and other elements of cul' ture. Scanty as our knowledge in this respect is in refer, ence to the Eoman people and still more so in reference to the Sabellians and Etruscans, even the slight and very de^ fective information which is attainable will enable the mind to associate with these names some more or less clear con- 9* 202 Law and Juslioe. [Book i ception of the once living reality. The chief result of suck a view (as we may here mention by way of anticipation) may be summed up in saying that fewer traces compara- tively of the primitive state of things have been preserved in the case of the Italians, and of the Eomans in particular, than in the case of any other Indo-Germanic race. The bow and arrow, the war-chariot, the incapacity of women to hold property, the acquiring of wives by purchase, the primitive form of burial, blood-revenge, the clan-constitu- tion conflicting with the authority of the community, a fresh natural symbolism — all these, and numerous phenomena of a kindred character, must be presumed to have lain at the foundation of civilization in Italy as well as elsewhere ; but at the epoch when that civilization comes clearly into view they have wholly disappeared, and only the comparison of kindred races informs us that such things once existed. In this respect Italian history begins at a far later stage of civilization than e. g. the Greek or the Germanic, and from the first it exhibits a comparatively modern character. The laws of most of the Italian stocks are lost in obliv- ion. Some information regarding the law of the Latin land alone has survived in Roman tradition. All jurisdiction was vested in the community or, in . . other words, in the king, who administered jus- tice or " command " (ius) on the " days of utter- ance" (dies fasti) at the "judgment-platform"' (tribunal) in the place of public assembly, sitting on a " chariot-seat " (sella currulis) ; * by his side stood his " messengers " (lie- tores), and before him the person accused or the " parties " (rei). In the case of slaves the right of decision lay imme- diately with the mastei , and in the case of women with the * This "chariot-seat" — no other explanation can well be given con- iistently with philological rules (comp. 8erv. ad. Aen. i. 16) is most simply explained by supposing that the king alone was entitled to ride in a chariot within the city (p. 99)— whence originated the privilege subsequently acc6rded to the chief magistrate on solemn occasions — and that origiDally, so long as there was no elevated tribunal, he rode to th« comitium in his chariot and gave judgment from the oharlot-seat. Ch4?. XI.] La/w and Justice. 203 father, husband, or nearest male relative (p. 89^ ; but slaves and women were not reckoned as being properly members of the community. Over sons and grandsons who were in potestate the power of the paier familias subsisted concur rently with the royal jurisdiction ; that power, however, was not a jurisdiction in the proper sense of the term, but Bimply a consequence of the father's inherent right of prop- erty in his children. We find no traces of any jurisdiction appertaining to the clans as such, or of any judicature at all that did not derive its authority from the king. As regards the right of self-redress and in particular the aveng- ing of blood, we still find in legends an echo perhaps of the original principle that a murderer, or any one who should illegally protect a murderer, might justifiably be slain by the kinsmen of the person murdered ; but these very legends characterize this principle as objectionable,* and from their statements blood-revenge would appear to have been very early suppressed in Rome by the energetic asser- tion of the authority of the state. In like manner we per- ceive in the earliest Roman law no trace of that influence which under the oldest Germanic institutions the comrades of the accused and the people present were entitled to exer- cise over the pronouncing of judgment ; nor do we find in the former any evidence of the usage so frequent in the latter, by which the mere will and power to maintain a claim *with arms in hand were treated as judicially necessary or at any rate admissible. * The story of the death of king Tatius, as given by Plutarch (Rom. S3, 24), Tiz. that kinsmen of Tatius had killed envoys from Laurentum ; that Tatius had refused the complaint of the kinsmen of the slain for re- dxeas ; that they then put Tatius to death ; that Romulus acquitted the Bunlerers of Tatius, on the ground that the murder had been expiated by Rmrder ; but that in consequence of the penal judgments of the gods thai rimultaneously fell upon Rome and Laurentum the perpetrators of both murders were in the sequel subjected to righteous punishment — this Btory looks very like a historical version of the abolition of blood-re- Tenge, just as the introduction of the provocatio lies at the foundatioD of the myth of the Horatii. The versions of the same story that occuf elsewhere certainly present considerable variations, but they seem to b« confused or dressed up. 204 Law and Justice. [Book . Judicial procedure took the form of a public or a pri vate process, according as the king irterposed of his own motion or only when appealed to by the injured party. The former course was taken only in cases which involved a breach of the public peace, First of all, therefore, it was applicable in the case of public trea- son or communion with the public enemy [prodiiio), and in '■hat of violent rebellion against the magistracy [perdioellio). But the public peace was also broken by the foul murderer [parricida), the isodomite, the violator of a maiden's or matron's chastity, the incendiary, the false witness, by those, moreover, who with evil spells conjured away the harvest, 01 who without due title cut the corn by night in the field entrusted to the protection of the gods and of the people ; all of these were therefore dealt with as though they had been guilty of high treason. The king opened and con- ducted the process, and pronounced sentence after confer- ring with the senators whom he had called in to advise with him. He was at liberty, however, after he had initiated the process, to commit the further handling and the adjudica- tion of the matter to deputies who were, as a rule, taken from the senate. The commissioners for adjudicating ou rebellion (duoviri perduellionis) were extraordinary depu- ties of this sort. The " trackers of murder " [quaestores parricidii) appear to have been standing deputies, whose primary duty was to search for and arrest murderers, and who therefore acted as a sort of police. Imprisonment while the case was undergoing investigation was the rule ; the accused might, however, be released on bail. Torture to compel confession was only applied to slaves. Every one convicted of having broken the public peace expiated his oifence with his life. The mc>des of inflicting capital punishment were various : the false witness, for example, was hui-Ied from the stronghold-rock ; the harvest-thief wa« hanged; the incendiary was burnt. The king could not grant pardon, for that privilege was vested in the commu* nity alone ; but the king might grant or refuse to the con- demned permission to appeal for mercy (provocatio). It Chap. XI.] Lom and Justice. 2o6 addition to this the law recognized an intervention of the gods in favour of the condemned criminal. He who had made a genuflection before the priest of Jupiter might not be scourged on the same day ; any one under fetters who set foot in his house had to be released from his bonds } and the life of a criminal was spared if on his way to execu- tion he accidentally met one of the sacred virgins of Vesta. The king inflicted at his discretion fines payable to the Pimishment State for trespasses against order and for police against"^' offeuces ; they consisted in a definite number of'iSvatsr^ (hence the name multa) of cattle or sheep. It oQencea. ^^s in his power also to pronounce sentence of scourging. In all other cases, where the individual alone was injured and not the public peace, the state only interposed upon the appeal of the party injured, who caused his opponent, or in case of need by laying violent hands on him compelled him, to appear personally, along with himself before the king. When both parties had appeared and the plaintiff" had orally stated his demand, while the defendant had in similar fash- ion refused to comply with it, the king might either investi- gate the cause himself or have it disposed of by a deputy acting in his name. The regular form of satisfaction for such an injury was a compromise arranged between the in- jurer and the injured ; the state only interfered supplemen- tarily, when the thief did not satisfy the person from whom he had stolen or the aggressor the party aggrieved by an adequate expiation (poena), when any one had his property detained or his just demand unfulfilled. Whether or under what circumstances during this epoch theft was regarded as expiable, and what in such an event the person irjured was entitled to de- maud from the thief, cannot be ascertained. But the in- jured party with reason demanded heavier compensation from a thief caught in the very act than from one detected »fterwards, since the feeling of exasperation which had to be appeased was more vehement in the case of the former than in that of the latter. If the theft appeared incapable LoAJo amd Justice. [Book I of expiation, or if the thief was not in a position to pay the value demanded by the injured partj and approved by the judge, he was assigned by the judge to the person frott whom he had stolen as a bondsman. In cases of damage (iniuria) to person or to property, where the injury was not of a very serious de- scription, the aggrieved party was probably obliged unconditionally to accept compensation; if, on the other hand, any member was lost in consequence of it, the maimed person could demand eye for eye and tooth for tooth . Since the arable land among the Romans was long cul- tivated upon the system of joint possession and was not distributed until a comparatively lata age, the idea of property was primarily associated not with immoveable estate, but with " estate in slaves and cattle " {^familia pecuniaque). It was not the right of the stronger that was regarded as the foundation of a title to it ; on the contrary, all property was considered as conferred by the community upon the individual burgess for hia exclusive possession and use ; and therefore it was only the burgesses and such as the community treated in this respect as equal to burgesses that were capable of holding property. All property passed freely from hand to hand. The Roman law made no substantial distinction between rnoveable and immoveable estate (from the time that the latter was re- garded as private property at all), and recognized no abso- lute vested interest of children or other relatives in the pa- ternal or family property. Nevertheless it was not in the power of the father arbitrarily to ' deprive his children of their right of inheritance, because he could neither dissolve the paternal power nor execute a testament except with cocsent of the whole community, which might be, and cer- tainly under such circumstances often was, refused. In his lifetime no doubt the father might make dispositions disad- vantageous to his children ; for the law was sparing of per sonal restrictions on the proprietor and allowed, upon th« whole, every grown-up man freely to dispose of his prop Chap. XL] Law and Justice. 207 erty. The regulation, however, under which he who alien- ated his hereditary property and deprived his children of it ■was placed by order of the magistrate under guardianship like a lunatic, was probably as ancient as the period when the arable land was first divided and in consequence private property generally acquired greater importance for the com- tnonwealth. In this way the two antagonistic principles — the unlimited right of the owner to dispose of his own, and the preservation of the family property unbroken — were as far as possible harmonized in the Roman law. Permanent restrictions on property were in no case allowed, with the exception of servitudes such as those indispensable in hus- bandry. Heritable leases and ground-rents charged upon property could not legally exist. The law as little recog- nized mortgaging ; but the same purpose was served by the immediate delivery of the property in pledge to the cred- itor as if he were its purchaser, who thereupon gave his word of honour i^fiducia) that he would not alienate the object pledged until the payment fell due, and would re- store it to his debtor when the sum advanced had been repaid. Contracts concluded between the state and a burgess, particularly the obligation given by those who became sureties for a payment to the state (praevides, praedes), were valid without further formality. On the other hand, contracts between private persons under ordinary circumstances founded no claim for legal redress at the hands of the state. The only protection of the cred- itor was the debtor's word of honour which was held in high esteem after the wont of merchants, and possibly also, in those frequent cases where an oath had been added, the fear of the gods who avenged perjury. The only contracts legally actionable were those of betrothal (the effect of which was that the father, in the event of his failing to give the promised bride, had to furnish satisfaction and compen- Bation), of purchase (mancipatio), and of loan {nexum). A purchase was held to be legally concluded when the sellei delivered the article purchased into the hand of the buyei 208 Laiv cmd Justice. [Book i {mancipare), and the buyer at the same time paid to the seller the stipulated price in presence of witnesses. This was done, after copper superseded sheep and cattle as the regular standard of value, by weighing out the stipulated quantity of copper in a balance adjusted by a neutral per son.* These conditions having been complied with, the' •teller had to answer for his being the owner, and in addition seller and purchaser had to fulfil every stipulation fipecially agreed on ; the party failing to do so made reparation to the other, just as if he had robbed him of the article in question. But a purchase only founded an action in the event of its being a transaction for ready money : a pur- chase on credit neither gave nor took away the right of property, and constituted no ground of action. A loan was negotiated in a similar way ; the creditor weighed over to the debtor in presence of witnesses the stipulated quantity of copper under the obligation (nexiini) of repayment. In addition to the capital the debtor had to pay interest, which under ordinary circumstances probably amounted to ten per cent, per annum. f The repayment of the loan took place, when the time came, with similar forms. * The mandpalio in its fully developed form must have been more recent than the Servian reform, as the number of the witnesses propor- tioned to that of the classes, and the selection of mancipable objects which had for its aim the fixing of agricultural property, serve to show ; even tradition must have assumed that such was the case, for it makes Servius the inventor of the balance. But in its origin the mancipatio must be far more ancient; for it primarily applies only to the objects which are acquired by grasping with the hand, and must therefore in itg earliest form have belonged to the epoch when the property mainly oou- BJsted in slaves and cattle {/amilia pecuniague). The number of the witnesses, and the enumeration of those objects which had to be acquired by mancipatw, fall in this view to be ranked as Servian innovations ; the mancipatio itself, and consequently the use also of the balance and of copper, are more ancient. Beyond doubt mancipatio was originally the uuiversal form of purchase, and was the practice followed with all articles even after the Servian reform ; it was only a misunderstanding of later ages which put upon the rule, that certain articles must be trans- ferred by mancipatio, the construction that these articles alone could be ■o transferred. \ Viz. for the year of ten months one twelfth part of the oapitrf Chap. XI.] Law cmd Justice. 209 If a debtor to the state did not fulfil his obligatiotis, h« Private pro- '^^^ without further ceremony srld with all that '**^- he had ; the simple demand on the part of the state was* sufficient to establish the debt. If on the other hand a private person informed the king of any violation of his property (vindiciae), or if repayment of the loan received did not duly take place, the procedure depended on whether the facts relating to the cause had to be established by proof or were already clear. The latter cannot well be conceived in the case of actions as to property, but in actions as to loans the ground of action could be easily established according to the current rules of law by means of witnesses. The establishment of the facts assumed the form of a wager, in which each party made a deposit [sacra- mentum) against the contingency of his being worsted ; in important causes when the value involved was greater than ten oxen, a deposit of five oxen, in causes of less amount, a deposit of five sheep. The judge then decided who had gained the wager, whereupon the deposit of the losing party fell to the priests for behoof of the public sacrifices. The party who lost the wager and allowed thirty days to elapse without giving due satisfaction to his opponent, and the party whose obligation to pay was established from the first — consequently, as a rule, the debtor who had got a loan and had no witnesses to attest repayment — became liable to proceedings in execution " by laying on of hands " {manus iniectio) ; the plaintiff seized him wherever he found him, and brought him to the bar of the judge simply to demand the acknowledged debt. The party seized was not allowed to defend himself; a third party might indeed intercede for him and represent this act of violence as un- warranted {vindex), in which case the proceedings were stayed ; but such an intercession rendered the intercessor personally responsible, for which reason, in the case of free-i holders, other freeholders alone could act as intercessors, i^imcia), which amounts to 8J per cent, for the year of ten, and 10 pe' oent. for the year of twelve, months. 210 Law (md Justice. [Boot I If neither satisfaction nor intercession took place, the king assigned the party seized in execution to his creditor, so that he could lead him away and keep him like a slave, After the expiry of sixty days during which the debtor had been three times exposed in the market-place and proclama- tion had been made whether any one would have compas.. sion upon him, if these steps were without effect, his credit- ors had a right to put him to death and to divide his car- case, or to sell him with his children and his effects into foreign slavery, or to keep him at home in a slave's stead ; he could not by the Roman law, so long as he remained within the bounds of the Eoman community, become abso lutely a slave (p. 149). Thus the Roman community pro- tected every man's estate and effects with unrelenting rigour as well from the thief and the injurer, as from the unauthor- ized possessor and the insolvent debtor. Protection was in like manner provided for the estate Guardian- of persons not capable of bearing arms and ^•"P- therefore not capable of protecting their own property, such as minors and lunatics, and above all for that of women ; in these cases the nearest heirs were called to undertake the guardianship. After a man's death his property fell to the nearest Law of in- heirs : in the division all who were equal in heritance. proximity of relationship — women included — shared alike, and the widow along with her children was admitted to her proportional share. A dispensation from the legal order of succession could only be granted by the assembly of the people ; previous to which the consent of the priests had to be obtained on account of the religious obligations attaching to property. Such dispensations ap- pear nevertheless to have become at an early period very ft'eq\]ent. In the event of a dispensation not being pro- cured, the want of it might be in some measure remedied by means of the completely free control which every one had over his property during his lifetime. His whole property was transferred to a friend, who distributed i( after death according to the wishes of the deceased. Chap. XI.] Law and Justice. 211 Manumission was unknown to the law of very early Manumia- times. The owner might mdeed refrain from *""■• exercising his proprietary rights ; but this did not cancel the existing impossibility of master and slave contracting mutual obligations ; still less did it enable the slave to acquire, in relation to the community, the rights of a guest or of a burgess. Accordingly manumission must have been at first simply de facto, not de jure ; and the master cannot have been debarred from the possibility of again at pleasure treating the freedman as a slave. But there was a departure from this principle in cases where the master came under obligation not merely towards the slave, but towards the community, to leave him in possession of freedom. There was no special legal form, however, for thus binding the master — the best proof that there was at first no such thing as a manumission ; but those methods which the law otherwise presented — testament, action, or census — were employed for this object. If the master had either declared his slave free when executing his last will in the assembly of the people, or had allowed his slave to claim freedom in his own presence before a judge or to get his name inscribed in the valuation-roll, the freedman was regarded not indeed as a burgess, but as free in relation to his former master and his heirs, and was accordingly looked upon at first as a client, and in later times as a plebeian (p. 126). The emancipation of a son encountered greater difficul ties than that of a slave ; for while the relation of master to slave was accidental and therefore capable of being dis- solved at will, the father could never cease to be father. Accordingly in later times the son was obliged, in order tc get free from the father, first to enter into slavery and then to be set free out of this latter state ; but in the period no\y before us no emancipation of sons can have as yet existed. Such were the laws under which burgesses and clients Clients and lived in Rome. Between these two classes, so foreigners. f^p ^g ^g ^g^ ggg^ there subsisted from the be- ginning the fullest equality of private rights. The foreigner 212 La/w cmd Justice. [Book \ on the other hand, if he had not suhmitted to a Roman patron and thus lived as a client, was beyond the pale of the law both in person and in property. Whatever the Roman burgess took from him was as rightfully acquired as was the shell-fish, belonging to nobody, which was picked up by the sea-shore ; but in the case of ground lying be- yond the Roman bounds, while the Roman burgess might take practical possession, he could not be regarded as in a legal sense its proprietor ; for the individual burgess was not entitled to advance the bounds of the community. The case was different in war : whatever the soldier who was fighting in the ranks of the levy gained, whether moveable or immoveable property, fell not to him, but to the state, and accordingly here too it depended upon the state whether it would advance or contract its bounds. Exceptions from these general rules were created by special state-treaties, which secured certain rights to the members of foreign communities within the Roman state. In particular, the perpetual league between Rome and Lati- um declared all contracts between Romans and Latins to be valid in law, and at the same time instituted in their case a speedy civil process before sworn " recoverers " (recipera- tores). As, contrary to Roman usage, which in other in- stances committed the decision to a single judge, these always sat several in number and that number uneven, they are probably to be regarded as a court for the cognizance of commercial dealings, composed of arbiters from both nations and an umpire. They sat in judgment at the place where the contract was entered into, and were obliged to have the process terminated at latest in ten days. Tlia forms, under which the dealings between Romans and Lat- ins were conducted were of course the general forms which regulated the mutual dealings of patricians and plebeians ; for the mancipatio and the nexum were originally no mere formal acts, but the significant embodiment of legal ideas which held a sway at least as extensive as the range oi the Latin language. Dealings with countries strictly foreign were carried oi Chap, sj.] Law and Justice. 213 in a different fashion and by means of other forms. In very early times treaties as to commerce and legal redresa must have teen entered into with the Caerites and other fi-iendly peoples, and must have formed the basis of the international private law {ius gentium), which gradually became developed in Rome alongside of the law of the land. An indication of the formation of such a system is found in the remarkable mutimm, " exchange " (from muiare like dividuus) — a form of loan, which was not based like the nexum upon a binding declaration of the debtor ex- pressly emitted before witnesses, but upon the mere transit of the money from one hand to another, and ^^■hich as evi- dently originated in dealings with foreigners as the nexum in business dealings at home. It is accordingly a significant fact that the word reappears in Sicilian Greek as fiokov ; and with this is to be connected the reappearance of the Latin career in the Sicilian xaQnaqov. Since it is philologi- cally certain that both words were originally Latin, their occurrence in the local dialect of Sicily becomes an import- ant testimony to the frequency of the dealings of Latin traders in the island, which led to their borrowing money there and becoming liable to that imprisonment for debt, which was everywhere in the earlier systems of law the consequence of the non-repayment of a loan. Conversely the name of the Syracusan prison, " stone-quarries " or laiofuai, was transferred at an early period to the enlarged Roman state-prison, the laufumiae. We have derived our outline of these institutions mainly from the earliest record of the Roman common iheiioDian law prepared about half a century after the "■ abolition of the monarchy ; and their existence in the regal period, while doubtful perhaps as to particular points of detail, cannot be doubted in the main. Survey- ing them as a whole, we recognize the law of a far-advanced agricultural and mercantile city, marked alike by its liberal- ity and its consistency. In its ease the conventional Ian- guag« of symbols, such as e. g. the Germanic laws exhibit, has already quite disappeared. There is no doubt that such S14 Law and Justice. \^°°^ ^ a symbolic language must have existed at one time amcng the Italians. Remarlsable instances of it are to be found in the form of searching a house, wherein the searcher must, according to the Roman as well as the Germanic cuslom, appear without upper garment, merely in his shirt; and especially in the primitive Latin formula for declaring war, in which we meet with at least two symbols occurring also among the Celts and the Germans — the *' pure herb " {herba pitra, Franconian, chrene chruda) as a symbol of the native soil, and the singed bloody staff as a sign of commencing war. But with a few exceptions in which reasons of re- ligion protected the ancient usages — to which class the con- farreatio as well as the declaration of war by the college of Fetiales belonged — the Roman law, as we know it, uni- formly and on principle rejects the symbol, and requires in all cases neither more nor less than the full and pure ex- pression of will. The delivery of an article, the summons to bear witness, the conclusion of marriage, were complete as soon as the parties had in an intelligible manner declared their purpose ; it was usual, indeed, to deliver the article into the hand of the new owner, to pull the person sum- moned as a witness by the ear, to veil the bride's head and to lead her in solemn procession to her husband's house ; but all these primitive practices were already, under the oldest national law of the Romans, customs legally worth- less. In a way entirely analogous to the setting aside of allegory and along with it of personification in religion, every sort of symbolism was on principle expelled from their law. In like manner that earliest state of things pre- sented to us by the Hellenic as well as the Germanic insti- tutions, wherein the power of the community still contends with the authority of the smaller associations of clans oi cantons that are merged in it, is in Roman law wholly superseded ; there is no alliance for the vindication of rights •within the state, to supplement the state's imperfect aid by mutual offence and defence ; nor is there any serious trace of vengeance for bloodshed, or of the family property re- stncting the individual power of disposal. Such institu Chap, xi.] Law and Justice. 215 tions must protably at one time have existed among th« Italians ; traces of them may perhaps be found in particular institutions of ritual, e. g. in the expiatory goat, which the Involuntary homicide was obliged to give to the nearest of i kin to the slain ; but even at the earliest period of Rome vrhieh we can conceive this stage had long been passed. The clan and the family were not annihilated in the Roman community ; but the theoretical as well as the practical omnipotence of the state in its own sphere was no more limited by them than by the freedom which the state grant- ed and guaranteed to the burgess. The ultimate foundation Df law was in all cases the state ; freedom was simply another expression for the right of citizenship in its widest sense ; all property was based on express or tacit transfer- ence by the community to the individual ; a contract was valid only so far as the community by its representatives attested it, a testament only so far as the community con- firmed it. The provinces of public and private law were definitely and clearly discriminated : the former having reference to crimes against the state, which immediately called for the judgment of the state and always involved capital punishment ; the latter having reference to offences against a fellow-burgess or a guest, which were mainly dis- posed of in the way of compromise bj' expiation or satis- faction made to the party injured, and were never punished with the forfeit of life, but, at most, with the loss of free- dom. The greatest liberality in the permission of com- merce and the most rigorous procedure in execution went hand in hand ; just as in commercial states at the present day the universal right to draw bills of exchange appears in conjunction with a strict procedure in regard to them. The burgess and the client stood in their dealings on a foot- ing of entire equality ; state-treaties conceded a compre- Iiensive equality of rights also to the guest ; women were placed completely on a level in point of legal capacity with men, although restricted in administering their property ; the boy had scarcely grown up when he received at once tlie most comprehensi\'e powers in the disposal of his JJ16 J--OM O''"^^ Justice. SfinKs. I estate, and every one who could dispose at all ^as as sove- reign in his own sphere as was the state in public aiFairs. A feature eminently characteristic was the system of credit There did not exist any credit on landed security, but in- stead of a debt on mortgage the step which constitutes al present the final stage in mortgage-procedure — the deliveiy of the property from the debtor to the creditor — took place at once. On the other hand personal credit was guaranteed in the most summary, not to say extravagant, fashion ; for the law entitled the creditor to treat his insolvent debtor like a thief, and granted to him in sober legislative earnest what Shylock, half in jest, stipulated for from his mortal enemy, guarding indeed by special clauses the point as to the cutting off too much more carefully than did the Jew. The law could not have more clearly expressed its design, which was to establish at once an independent agriculture free of debt and a mercantile credit, and to suppress with stringent energy all merely nominal ownership and all breaches of fidelity. If we further take into consideration the right of settlement recognized at an early date as be- longing to all the Latins (p. 149), and the validity which was likewise early pronounced to belong to civil marriage (p. 129), we shall perceive that this state, which made the highest demands on its burgesses and carried the idea of subordinating the individual to the interest of the whole further than any state before or since has done, only did and only could do so by itself removing the barriers to inter- course and unshackling liberty quite as much as it subjected it to restriction. In permission or in prohibition the law was always absolute. As the foreigner who had none to intercede for him was like the hunted deer, so the guest waa on a footing of equality with the burgess. A contract did not ordinarily furnish a ground of action, but where the right of the creditor was acknowledged, it was so all-power- ful that there was no deliverance for the poor debtor, and no humane or equitable consideration was shown towards him. It seemed as if the law found a pleasure m present- ing on all sides its sharpest spikes, in drawing the mos) Chap. XI.] LoM and Justice. 217 extreme consequences, in forcibly obtruding on the blunl,. est understanding the tyrannic nature of the idea of right. The poetical form and the genial symbolism, which so pleasingly prevail in the Germanic legal ordinances, were foreign to the Eoman ; in his law all was clear and precise ; no symbol was employed, no institution was superfluous. It was not cruel ; everything necessary was performed with- out tedious ceremony, even the punishment of death ; that a free man could not be tortured was a primitive maxim of Eoman law, to obtain which other peoples have had to struggle for thousands of years. Yet this law was frightful in its inexorable severity, which we cannot suppose to have been very greatly mitigated by humanity in practice, for it was really the law of the people ; more terrible than Vene- tian piombi and chambers of torture was that series of living entombments which the pooi- man saw- yawning be- fore him in the debtors' towers of the rich. But the great- ness of Rome was involved in, and was based upon, the fact that the Roman people ordained for itself and endured a system of law, in which the eternal principles of freedom and of subordination, of property and of legal redress, reigned and still at the present day reign unadulterated and unmodified. 10 CHAPTER Xn The Roman world of gods, as we have already indicated Eoman (P- 52), was a higher counterpart, an ideal re- religion, flection, of the earthly Rome, in which the little and the great were alike reproduced with painstaking exact- ness. The state and the clan, the individual phenomena of nature as well as the individual operations of mind, every man, every place and object, every act even falling within the sphere of Roman law, reappeared in the Roman world of gods ; and, as earthly things come and go in perpetual flux, the circle of the gods underwent a corresponding fluc- tuation. The tui.elary spirit, which presided over the indi- vidual act, lasted no longer than that act itself: the tutelary spirit of the individual man lived and died with the man ; and eternal duration belonged to divinities of this sort only in so far as similar acts and similarly constituted men and therefore spirits of a similar kind were ever coming into existence afresh. As the Roman gods ruled over the Ro- man community, so every foreign community was presided over by its own gods ; but strict as was the distinction be- tween the burgess and non-burgess, between the Roman and the foreign god, both foreign men and foreign divinities might be admitted by resolution of the community to the freedom of Rome, and when the citizens of a conquere'l city were transported to Rome, the gods of that city were also invited to take up their new abode there. We obtain information regarding the original cycle of the gods, as it stood in Rome previous to any of Roman coutact with the Greeks, from the list of the estivaiB. public and duly named festival-days {feriai Chap. XII.] Hdiigion. 219 publicae) of the Roman community, \diich is preserved in its calendar and is beyond all question the oldest document which has reached us from Roman antiquity. The firsl place in it is occupied by the gods Jupiter and Mars along with the duplicate of the latter, Quirinus. All the days of full moon [idus) are sacred to Jupiter, besides all the wine- festivals and various other days to be mentioned afterwards; the 21st May [agonalia) is dedicated to his counterpart, the " bad Jovis " ( Vediovis). To Mars belongs the new-yeaiv- of the 1st March, and generally the great warrior-festival in this month which derived its very name from the god ; this festival, introduced by the horse-racing {equirria) on the 27th February, had during March its principal solemnities on the days of the shield-forger [equirria or Mamuralia, March 14), of the armed dance at the Comitium i^quinquoi- irus, March 19), and of the consecration of trumpets {iiibi- lustrium, March 23). As, when a war was to be waged, it began with this festival, so after the close of the campaign in autumn there followed a further festival of Mars, that of the consecration of arms {armilustrium, October 19). Last- ly, to the second Mars, Quirinus, the 17th February was appropriated ( Quirinalia). Among the other festivals those which related to the culture of corn and wine hold the first place, while the pastoral feasts play but a subordinate part. To this class belongs especially the great series of spring- festivals in April, in the course of which sacrifices were offered on the 15th to Tellus, the nourishing earth {forii- cidia, sacrifice of the pregnant cow), on the 19th to Ceres, the goddess of germination and growth (Cerialia), on the 21st to Pales, the fecundating goddess of the floclcs [Palilia), on the 23rd to Jupiter, as the protector of the vines and of the vats of the previous year's vintage which were first opened on this day ( Vinalia), and on the 25th to the bad enemy of the crops, rust (Sobigus : Robigalia). So after the completion of the work of the fields and the fortunate ingathering of their produce twin festivals were celebrated in honour of the god and goddess of inbringing and hai^ rest, Consus (from condere) and Ops ; the first immRdiately 220 Religim,. [Book I after the completion of cutting (August 21. C'onsualia , August 25, Opiconsiva) ; and the second in the middle of winter, when the blessings of the granary are especially manifest (December 15, Consualia ; December 19, Opa- lia) ; between these two latter days the thoughtful consid- eration of the old arrangers of the festivals inserted that of seed-sowing (^Saturnalia from Saeturnus or Saiurnus, December 17). In like manner the festival of must or of healing [meditrinalia, October 11), so called because a heal- ing virtue was attributed to the fresh must, was dedicated to Jovis as the wine-god after the completion of the vin- tage ; the original reference of the third wine-feast ( Vina lia, August 19) is not clear. To these festivals were added at the close of the year the wolf-festival [Lupercalia, Febru- ary 17) of the shepherds in honour of the good god, Fau- nus, and the boundary-stone festival ( Terminalia, February 23) of the husbandmen, as also the summer-grove festival of two days (Lucaria, July 19, 21) which may have re- ferred to the forest-gods [Silvani), the fountain-festival [Fontinalia, October 13), and the festival of the shortest day, which brings in the new sun (An-geronalia, Divalia, December 21). Of not less importance — as was to be expected in the case of the port of Latium — were the mariner-festivals of the divinities of the sea [JSTeptunalia, July 23), of the har- bour [Portunalia, August 17), and of the Tiber stream ( Volturnalia, August 27). Handicraft and art, on the other hand, are represented in this cycle of the gods only by the god of fire and of smith's work, Volcanus, to whom besides the day named after him ( Volcanalia, August 23) the second festival of the consecration of trumpets was dedicated (iubilustrium, May 23), and perhaps also by the festival of Carmentis [Carmenialia, January 11, 15), who probably was adored originally as the goddess of spells and of song and only in- ferentially as protectress of births. Domestic and family life in general were represented by the festival of the goddess of the house and of the spirit* Chap. XILJ Religion. 221 of the storechaniber, Vesta and the Penates ( Vesialia, Junt 9) ; the festival of the goddess of birth * [Mairalia, June 11) ; the festival of the bearing of children, dedicated to liiber and Libera [Liberalia, March 17), the festival of de- parted spirits [Feralia, February 21), and the three days' ghost-celebration [Lemuria, May 9, 11, 13); while those having reference to civil relations were the two — otherwise to us somewhat obscure — festivals of the king's flight {Begifugium, February 24) and of the people's fliglit {Poplifugia, July 5), of which at least the last day was devoted to Jupiter, and the festival of the Seven Mounta i^Agonia or Septimoniium, December 11). A special day (agonia, January 9) was also consecrated to Janus, the go 1 of beginning. The real nature of some other days — that of Furrina (July 25), and that of the Larentalia devoted to Jupiter and Acoa Larentia, perhaps a feast of the Lares (December 23) — is no longer known. This table is cosnplete for the immoveable public festi- vals ; and — although by the side of these standing festal days there certainly occurred from the earliest times change- able and occasional festivals — this document, in what it says as well as in what it omits, opens up to us an insight into a primitive age otherwise almost wholly unknown. The union of the Old Roman community and the Hill-Romans had indeed already taken place when this table of festivals was formed, for we find in it Quirinus alongside of Mars ; but when this list was drawn up the Capitoline temple was not yet in existence, for Juno and Minerva are absent ; nof was the temple of Diana erected on the Aventine ; nor was any notion of worship borrowed from the Greeks. * This was, to all appearance, the original nature of the " morning mother " or Mater matuta ; in connection with which we may recall the (ircumstance that, as the names Lucius and especially Manim show, the morning hour was reckoned as lucky for birth. Mater matuta-pvoh- «bly became a goddess of sea and harbour only at a later epoch undej the influenne of the myth of Leucothea; the fact that the goddess was chiefly worshipped by women tells against the view that she was origin, ally a harbour-goddess. 222 Beliqion. [Book I. The central object not only of Roman l)Lt of Italian Mare and Worship generally in that epoch when the Italian Jupiter. stock still dwelt by itself in the f en insula was, according to all indications, the god Maurs or Mars, the killing god,* pre-eminently regarded as the divine champion of the burgesses, hurling the spear, protecting the flock, and overthrowing the foe. Each community of course had iti< own Mars, and deemed him to be the strongest and holiest of all ; and accordingly every " ver sacrum " setting out to found a new community marched under the protection of its own Mars. To Mars was dedicated the first month not only in the Roman calendar of the months, which in no other instance takes notice of the gods, but also probably in all the other Latin and Sabellian calendars : among the Roman proper names, which in like manner contain no allu- sion to any other god, Marcus, Mamercus, and Mamurius appear in prevailing use from very early times ; with Mars and his sacred woodpecker was connected the oldest Italian prophecy ; the wolf, the animal sacred to Mars, was the badge of the Roman burgesses, and such sacred national legends as the Roman imagination was able to produce re ferred exclusively to the god Mars and to his duplieatr Quirinus. In the list of festivals certainly father Diovis — a purer and more civil than military reflection of the char- acter of the Roman community — occupies a larger space than Mars, just as the priest of Jupiter has precedence over the two priests of the god of war ; but the latter still plays a very prominent part in the list, and it is even quite likely that, when this arrangement of festivals was established, Jovis stood by the side of Mars like Ahuramazda by the side of Mithra, and that the worship of the warlike Roman community still really centred at this time in the martial god of death and his March festival, while it was not the * From J/ino-s, which the oldest form handed down by tradition, ther* have been developed by different treatment of the m Mara, Mavors, Mars; the transition to 6 (like Paula, Pola, and the like) appears also in the double form Mar-Mor (comp. Ma - rnvrias) alongside of Mar-Mar uii Ua-Mers. C3HAP, xp.] BeUgion. 223 " care-destroyer " afterwards introduced by the Greeks, but father Jovis himself, who was regarded as the god of th(> heart-gladdening wine. It is n(y part of our present task to consider the Eoman deities in detail ; but it is important, even in an tiia Uoman historical point of view, to call attention to the '" ■ peculiar narrowness of conception and at the same time the deeply rooted earnestness that marked the Eoman faith. Abstraction and personification lay at the root of the Roman as well as of the Hellenic mythology : the Hellenic as well as the Roman god was originally sug- gested by some natural phenomenon or some mental con- ception, and to the Eoman just as to the Greek every divin- ity appeared a person. This is evident from their appre- hending the individual gods as male or female ; from their style of appeal to an unknown deity, — " Be thou god or goddess, man or woman ; " and from the deeply cherished belief that the name of the proper tutelary spirit of the community ought to remain for ever unpronounced, lest an enemy should come to learn it and calling the god by his name should entice him beyond the bounds. A remnant of this strongly sensuous view clung to Mars in particular, the oldest and most national form of divinity in Italy. But while abstraction, which lies at the foundation of every re- ligion, elsewhere endeavoured to rise to wider and more enlarged conceptions, and to penetrate ever more deeply into the essence of things, the forms of the Eoman faith remained at, or sank to, a singularly low level of concep- tion and of insight. While in the case of the Greek every important notion speedily expanded into a group of forms ftnd gathered around it a circle of legends and ideas, in the ease of the Eoman the fundamental thought remained st* tionary in its original naked rigidity. The religion of Eome had nothing of its own presenting even a remote resem- blance to the religion of Apollo investing earthly morality with a halo of glory, to the divine intoxication of Diony BUS, or to the Chthonian and mystical worships with theii profound and hidden meanings. It had indeed its "bad 224 Religion. LBook I god " ( Ve-diovi£), its apparitions and ghosts (lemures), and its deities of foul air, of fever, of diseases, perhaps even of theft (laverna) ; but it was unable to excite that mysterioas awe after which the human heart has always a longing, or thoroughly to incorporate the incomprehensible and even the malignant elements in nature and in man, which must not be wanting in religion if it would reflect man as a whole. In the religion of Rome there was hardly anything secret except the names of the gods of the city, the Pena- tes ; the real character, moreover, even of these gods was manifest to every one. The national Roman theology sought on all hands to form distinct conceptions of important phenomena and qualities, to express them in its terminology, and to classify them systematically — in the first instance according to that division of persons and things which also formed the basis of private law — that it might thus be able in due fashion to invoke the gods individually or by classes, and to point out (indiffiiare) to the multitude the modes of appropriate in- vocation. Of such notions, the products of outward ab- straction — of the homeliest simplicity, sometimes vener- able, sometimes ridiculous — Roman theology was in sub- stance made up. Conceptions such as sowing (saeturnus) and field-labour {ops), ground (tellus) and boundary-stone (terminus), were among the oldest and most sacred of Ro- man divinities. Perhaps the most peculiar of all the forms of deity in Rome, and probably the only one for whose worship there was devised an effigy peculiarly Italian, was the double-headed lanus ;* and yet it was simply suggestive * The facts, that gates and doors and the morning (iarms maivthms) were sacred to lanus, and that he was always invoked before any othet god and was even represented in the series of coins before Jupiter and the other gods, indicate unmistalieably that he was the aostraction of Bpenins and beginning. The double-head looking both ways was con- nected with the gate that opened both ways. To make him god of the sun and of the year is the less justifiable, because the month that bears his name was uriginally the eleventh, not the first ; that month seems tathei to have derived its name from the circumstance, that at this 8e» Chap. XII.] Beligion. 225 of the idea so characteristic of the scrupulous spirit of Ro- man religion, that at the commencement of every act the ■" spirit of opening " should first be invoked, while it abova nil betokened the deep conviction that it was as indispensa- ble to combine the Roman gods in sets as it was necessary that the more personal gods of the Hellenes should stand singly and apart. Of all the worships of Rome that which perhaps had the deepest hold was the worship of the tute- lary spirits that presided in and over the household and the storechamber : these were in public worship Vesta and the Penates, in family worship the gods of forest and field, the Silvani, and especially the gods of the household in its strict sense, the Lases or Lares, to whom their share of the fam- ily meal was regularly assigned, and before whom it was, even in the time of Cato the Elder, the first duty of the father of the household on returning home to perform his devotions. In the ranking of the gods, however, these spirits of the house and of the field occupied the lowest rather than the highest place ; it was — and it could not be otherwise with a religion which renounced all attempts to idealize — not the broadest and most general, but the sim- plest and most individual abstraction, in which the pious heart found most nourishment. This indifference to ideal elements in the Roman religion was accompanied by a practical and utilitarian tendency, as is clearly enough apparent in the table of festivals which has been already explained. Increase of substance and of prosperity by husbandry and the rearing of flocks and herds, by seafaring and commerce — this was what the Ro- man desired from his gods ; and it very well accords with this view, that the god of good faith {deus Jidius), the god- dess of chance and good luck {fors fortuna), and the god | of traffic (mercurius), originating out of their daily deal- ings, although not occurring in that ancient table of festl- gon after the rest of the middle of winter the cycle of the labours of the field began afresh. It wag, however, a matter of course that the open- ing of the year should also be included in the sphere of lanus, especial ly after lanuarius came to be pbced at its head. 10* Religion. [Book i rals, appear very early as adored far and near by the Ro mans. Strict frugality and mercantile speculation were rooted in the Roman character too deeply not to find their thorough reflection in its divine counterpart. Respecting the world of spirits little can be said. The departed souls of mortal men, the " good " (manes), continued to exist as shades haunting the spot where the body reposed (dii inferi), and received meat and drink from the survivors. But they dwelt in the depths beneath, and there was no bridge that led from the lower world either to men ruling on earth or upward to the gods above. The hero-worship of the Greelts was wholly for- eign to the Romans, and the late origin and poor invention of the legend as to the foundation of Rome are shown by the thoroughly unRoman transformation of king Romulus into the god Quirinus. Numa, the oldest and most vener- able name in Roman tradition, never received the honours of a god in Rome as Theseus did in Athens. The most ancient priesthoods in the community bore reference to Mars ; especially the priest of the god of the community, nominated for life, " the kindler of Mars " (Jlamen Mariialis) as he was designated from presenting burnt-offerings, and the twelve " leapers " (salii), a band of young men who in March performed the war-dance in honour of Mars and accompanied it by song. We have already explained (p. 123) how the amalgamation of the Hill-community with that of the Palatine gave rise to the duplication of the Roman Mars, and thereby to the introduction of a second priest of Mars — the flamen Quiri- nalis — and a second guild of dancers — the salii collini. To these were added other public worships (some of which probably had an origin far earlier than that of Rome), for which either single priests were appointed — as those of Carmentis, of Volcanus, of the god of the harbour and the river — or the celebration of which was committed to par- ticular colleges or clans in the name of the people. Such a college was probably that of the twelve " field- brethren " (fratres arvales) who invoked the creative goddess (dea Ohap. xn.] Beligion. 227 dia) in May to bless the growth of the seed ; although it is very doubtful whether they enjoyed at this period the pecu- liar consideration which we find subsequently accorded to them in the time of the empire. These were accompanied by the Titian brotherhood, which had to preserve and to attend to the distinctive cultus of the Roman Tities (p. T2), and by the thirty " curial kindlers " [Jlamines curiales), in- stituted for the hearths of the thirty curies. The " wolf festival " (lupercalia) already mentioned was celebrated for the protection of the flocks and herds in honour of the " favourable god " [faunus), by the Quinctian elan and the Fabii who were associated with them after the admission of the Hill-Romans, in the month of February — a genuine shepherds' carnival, in which the " wolves" (luperci) jumped about naked with a girdle of goatskin, and whipped the peo- ple with thongs. In like manner the community may be conceived as represented and participating in the case of other gentile worships. To this earliest worship of the Roman community new rites were gradually added. The most important of these worships had reference to the city as newly united and vir- tually founded afresh by the construction of the great wall and stronghold. In it the highest and best lovis of the Capitol — the genius of the Rolnan people — was placed at the head of all the Roman divinities, and his " ktodjer " thenceforth appointed, thefiamen Dialis, formed vs. conjunc- tion with the two priests of Mars the sacred triad of high- priests. Contemporaneously began the cultus of the new single city-hearth — Vesta — and the kindred cultus of the Penates of the community (p. 157). Six chaste virgins, daughters as it were of the household of the Roman peo- ple, attended to that pious service, and had to maintain the wholesome fire of the common hearth always blazing as an example (p. 61) and an omen to the burgesses. This wor- ehip, halMomestic, half-public, was the most sacred of all in Rome, and it accordingly was the latest of all the hea- then worships there to give way before the ban of Chris- tiwity. The Aventine, moreover, was assigned to Diana a» 228 EeUgion. [Book I the representative of the Latin confederacy (p. 150), but for that very reason no special Roman priesthood was ap- pointed for her ; and the community gradually became ac- customed to render definite homage to numerous other dei- fied abstractions by means of general festivals or by repre* sentative priesthoods specially destined for their service ; in particular instances — such as those of the goddess of flow- era {Flora) and of fruits (^Pomona) — it appointed also special Jlamines, so that the number of these was at length fifteen. But among them they carefully distinguished those three great kindlers [Jlamines maiores), who down to the latest times could only be taken from the ranks of the old burgesses, just as the old incorporations of the Palatine and Quirinal Salii always asserted precedence over all the other colleges of priests. Thus the necessary and stated observ- ances due to the gods of the community were entrusted once for all by the state to fixed corporations or regular ministers ; and the expense of sacrifices, which was proba- bly not inconsiderable, was covered partly by the assigna- tion of certain lands to particular temples, partly by the fines (pp. 109, 205). It cannot be doubted that the public worship of the other Latin, and probably also of the Sabellian, communi- ties was essentially similar in character. At any rate it can be shown that the Flamines, Salii, Luperci, and Ves- tales were institutions not special to Rome, but general among the Latins, and at least the first three colleges ap- pear to have been formed in the kindred communities inde- pendently of the Roman model. Lastly, as the state made arrangements in reference to its own gods, so each burgess might make similar arrange- ments in his individual sphere, and might not only present sacrifices, but might also consecrate set places and minis- ters, to his own divinities. There was thus enough of priesthood and of priests in Colleges of Rome. Those, however, who had business with jicred lore, g^ gQ|j resorted to the god, and not to the priest. Every suppliant and ir.quirer addressed himself directly tc Chap. XII.] ReUgion. 229 the divinity — the community of course by the king as it« mouthpiece, just as the curia by the curio and the equitet by their colonels ; no intervention of a priest was allowed to conceal or to obscure this original and simple relation But it was no easy matter to hold converse with a god. The god had his own way of speaking, .which was intelligi- ble only to those acquainted with it ; but one who did rightly understand it knew not only how to ascertain, but also how to manage, the will of the god, and even in case of need to overreach or to constrain him. It was natural, therefore, that the worshipper of the god should regularly consult such men of skill and listen to their advice ; and thence arose the corporations or colleges of men specially skilled in religious lore, a thoroughly national Italian insti- tution, which had a far more important influence on political development than the individual priests or priesthoods. These colleges have been often, but erroneously, confound- ed with the priesthoods. The priesthoods were charged with the worship of a specific divinity ; the skilled colleges, on the other hand, were charged with the preservation of traditional rules regarding those more general religious ob- servances, the proper fulfilment of which implied a certain amount of information and rendered it necessary that the state in its own interest should provide for the faithful transmission of that information. These close corporations supplying their own vacancies, of course from the ranks of the burgesses, became in this way the depositaries of skilled arts and sciences. Under the Roman constitution and that of the Latin communities in general there were originally but two such colleges ; that of the augurs and that of the ponti^ces.* The six augurs were skilled in in- * The clearest evidence of this is the fact, that in the commnnities organized on the Latin scheme augurs and pontifiees occur everywbert (e. ff. Cic. de Lege Agr. ii. 35, 96, and numerous inscriptions), but the other colleges do not. The former, therefore, stand on the same foot. ing with the constitution of ten curies and the Flamines, Salii, and Lu- perci, as very ancient heirlooms of the Latin stock; whereas the 230 Religion. [gpoit i terpreting the language of tlie gods from the flight of birds ; an art, whiih was prosecuted with great earrestness and reduced to a quasirscientific system. The five " bridge builders " ( poniifices) derived their name from Pontifioes. , . ~ . ' , . t^- n • their function, as sacred as it was politically im' portant, of conducting the building and demolition of the bridge over the Tiber. They were the Koman engineers, wh understood the mystery of measures and numbers ; whence there devolved upon them also the duties of man- aging the calendar of the state, of proclaiming to the peo- ple the time of new and full moon and the days of festi- vals, and of seeing that every religious and every judicial act took place on the right day. As they had thus an espe- cial supervision of all religious observances, it was to them in case of need — on occasion of marriage, testament, or adrogatio — that the preliminary question was addressed, whether the matter proposed did not in any respect offend against divine law ; and it was they who fixed and promul- gated the general exoteric precepts of ritual, which were known under the name of the " royal laws." Thus they acquired (although not probably to the full extent till after the abolition of the monarchy) the general oversight of Ro- man worship and of whatever was connected with it — and what was there that was not so connected? They them- TiVLOTai maris faciundis, theFetiales, and other colleges, like the thirty curies and the Servian tribes and centuries, originated in, and remained therefore confined to, Rome. But in the case of the second college — the pontifioes — the influence of Rome probably led to the introduction of that name into the general Latin scheme instead of some earlier, per- haps more variable, designation ; or — a hypothesis which philologically has much in its fayour — pons originally signified not " bridge," but " way " generally, and pontifex therefore meant " constructor of ways." The st«atement8 regarding the original number of the augurs in par- ti oular vary. The view that it was necessary for the number to be an odd one is refuted by Cic. (de Lege Ayr. ii. 35, 96); and Livy (x 6) does not say so, but only states that the number of Roman augurs had to be divisible bj three, and so must have had an odd number aa its basis, According to Livy {I.e.) the number was six down to the Ogulnian law, and the same is virtually affirmed by Cicero (de i?«p. ii. 9, 14) when he rft presents Romulus as instituting four, and Numa two, augural stalls. Chai XII] Eeligion. 231 selves described the sum of their knowledge as " the scienc* of things divine and human." In fact the rudiments of spiritual and temporal jurisprudence as well as of historical composition proceeded from this college. For the writing of history was associated with the calendar and the book of annals ; and, as from the organization of the Roman 30urts of law n3 tradition could originate in these courts them- selves, it was necessary that the knowledge of legal princi- ples and procedure should be traditionally preserved in the college of the pontifices, which alone was competent to give an opinion respecting court^days and questions of religious law. By the side of these two oldest and most eminent cor- F tiai porations of men versed in spiritual lore may be to some extent ranked the college of the twenty state-heralds (feiiales, of uncertain derivation), des- tined as a living repository to preserve traditionally the remembrance of the treaties concluded with neighbouring communities, to pronounce an authoritative opinion on alleged infractions of treaty-rights, and in case of need to demand satisfaction and declare war. They had precisely the same position with reference to international, as the pontifices had with reference to religious, law ; and were therefore, like the latter, entitled to point out the law, although not to administer it. But in however high repute these colleges were, and im- portant and comprehensive as were the functions assigned to them, it was never forgotten — ^least of all in the case of those which held the highest position — that their duty was not to command, but to tender skilled advice, not directly to obtain the answer of the gods, but to explain the answer when obtained to the inquirer. The highest of the priests was not merely inferior in rank to the king, but might not even gi-se advice to him unasked. It was the province of the king to determine whether and when he would take an observation of birds ; the " bird-seer " simply stood beside nim and interpreted to him, when necessary, the language of the messengers of heaven. In like manner the Fetialis 232 EeUgion. [Book I and the Pontifex could not interfere in matters of inter national or common law except when those concerned there- with desired it. The Eomans, notwithstanding all their zeal for religion, adhered with unbending strictness to tha principle that the priest ought to remain completely power less in the state and — excluded from all command — ought like any other burgess to render obedience to the humblesj magistrate. The Latin worship was grounded mainly on man's en- characterof joyment of earthly pleasures, and only in a sub- tiierr cuiius. ordinate degree on his fear of the wild forces of nature ; it consisted pre-eminently therefore in expressions of joy, in lays and songs, in games and dances, and above all in banquets. In Italy, as everywhere among agricul- tural tribes whose ordinary food consists of vegetables, the slaughter of cattle was at once a household feast and an act of worship : a pig was the most acceptable offering to the gods, just because it was the usual roast for a feast. But all extravagance of expense as well as all excess of rejoicing was inconsistent with the solid character of the Eomans. Frugality in relation to the gods was one of the most prominent traits of the primitive Latin worship ; and the free play of imagination was repressed with iron severity by the moral self-discipline which the nation maintained ; so that the Latins remained strangers to the abominations which grow out of its unrestrained indulgence. At the very core of the Latin religion there lay that profound moral impulse which leads men to bring earthly guilt and earthly punishment into relation with the world of the gods, and to view the former as a crime against the gods, and the latter as its expiation. The execution of the criminal con- iemned to death was as much an expiatory sacrifice ofiered to the divinity as was the killing of an enemy in just war ; the thief who by night stole the fruits of the field paid the penalty to Ceres on the gallows just as the enemy paid ii to mother earth and the good spirits on the field of battle. The profound and fearful idea of substitution also meets us here : when the gods of the community were angry and no Chap. XH.] RtUgion. 233 body could be laid hold of as definitely guilty, they might be appeased bj one who voluntarily gave himself up {devo vere se) ; noxious chasms in the ground were closed, and battles half lost were converted into victories, when a bravrt buigess threw himself as an expiatory oifering into the abyss or upon the foe. The " sacred spring " was based on a similar view ; all the offspring whether of cattle or of men within a specified period were presented to the gods If acts of this nature are to be called human sacrifices, then such sacrifices belonged to the essence of the Latin faith ; but we are bound to add that, far back as our view reaches into the past, this immolation, so far as life was concerned, was limited to the guilty who had been convicted before a civil tribunal, or to the innocent who voluntarily chose to die. Human sacrifices of a different description, which are inconsistent with the fundamental idea of a sacrificial act, and which, wherever they have occurred among the Indo- Germanio stocks at least, have been the offspring of later degeneracy and barbarism, never gained admission among the Romans ; hardly in a single instance were superstition and despair induced, even in times of extreme distress, to seek an extraordinary deliverance through means so revolt- ing. Comparatively slight traces are to be found among the Romans of belief in ghosts, fear of enchantments, or dealing in mysteries. Oracles and prophecy never acquired the importance in Italy which they obtained in Greece, and never were able to exercise a serious control over public or private life. ' But on the other hand the Latin religion sank into a singular insipidity and dulness, and early became shrivelled into an anxious and dreary round of ceremonies. The god of the Italian was, as we have already said, above all things an instrument for helping him to the attainment of veiy substantial earthly objects ; this turn was given to the re- ligious views of the Italian by his tendency towards the palpable and the real, and is no less distinctly apparent in the saint-worship of the modern inhabitants of Italy. The gods confionted man just as a creditor confronted his debt- 234 Religion. [Book I or ; each of them had a duly acquired right to certain per. formances and payments ; and as the number of the gods was as great as the number of the incidents in earthly life, and the neglect or wrong performance of the worship o' each god revenged itself in the corresponding incident, it was a laborious and difficult task even to gain a knowledge of one's religious obligations, and the priests who were skilled in the law of divine things and pointed out its requirements — the pontijices — could not fail to attain an extraordinary influence. The upright man fulfilled the re- quirements of sacred ritual with the same mercantile punc- tuality with which he met his earthly obligations, and at times did more than was due, if the god had done so on his part. Man even dealt in speculation with his god ; a vow was in reality as in name a formal contract between the god and the man, by which the latter promised to the former for a certain service to be rendered a certain equivalent re turn ; and the Roman legal principle that no contract could be concluded by deputy was not the least important of the reasons on account of which all priestly mediation was ex- cluded from the religious concerns of man in Latium. Nay, as the Roman merchant was entitled, without injury to his conventional rectitude, to fulfil his contract merely in the letter, so in dealing with the gods, according to the teaching of Roman theology, the copy of an object was given and received instead of the object itself. They pre- sented to the lord of the sky heads of onions and poppies, that he might launch his lightnings at these rather than at the heads of men. In payment of the offering annually de- manded by father Tiber, thirty puppets plaited of rushes were aiiiiually thrown into the stream.* The ideas of 31 vine mercy and placability were in these instances insepa- rably mixed up with a pious cunning, which tried to delude and to pacify so formidable a master by means of a sham satisfaction. The Roman fear of the gods accordingly ex- * It is only an unreflecting misconception thiit can disco^'er in thu asage a reminiscence of ancient human sacrifice. Chap XH.] Beligion. 23S ercised powerful influence over the minds of the multitude; but it was by no means that sense of awe in the presence of an all-controlling nature or of an almighty God, that lies at the foundation of the views of pantheism and n-cnothe- ism respectively ; on the contrary, it wag of a very earthly character, and scarcely diiferent in any material respect from the trembling with which the Roman debtor ap. proached his just, but very strict and very powerful cred- itor. It is plain that such a religion was fitted rather to stifle than to foster artistic and specalative views. When the Greek had clothed the simple thoughts of primitive times with human flesh and blood, the ideas of the gods so formed not only became the elements of plastic and poetic art, but acquired also that universality and elasticity whicli are the profoundest characteristics of human nature and for this very reason are essential to all religions that aspire to rule the world. Through such ideas the simple view of nature became expanded into the conception of a cosmog- ony, the homely moral notion became enlarged into a prin- ciple of universal humanity ; and for a long period the Greek religion was enabled to embrace within it the physi- cal and metaphysical views — the whole ideal development of the nation — and to expand in depth and breadth with the increase of its contents, until imagination and speculation rent asunder the vessel which had nursed them. But in Latium the embodiment of the conceptions of deity contin- ued so wholly transparent that it afibrded no opportunity for the training either of artist or poet, and the Latin re- ligion always held a distant and even hostile attitude towards art. As the god was tiot and could not be aughl else than the spiritualization of an earthly phenomenon, this same earthly counterpart naturally formed his place, of abode {templum) and his image; walls and effigies made bj the hands of men seemed only to obscure and to embarrass the spiritual conception. Accordingly the original Roman worship had no images of the gods or houses set apart for them ; and although the god was at an early period wor BhippeJ in Latium, probably in imitation of the Greeks, bj 236 Religion. [Book I means of an image, and had a little chapel [aedicula) Luilt for him, such a figurative representation was reckoned con- trary to the laws of Nuina and was generally regarded as an impure and foreign innovation. The Roman religion could exhibit no image of a god peculiar to it, with the ex- ception, perhaps, of the double-headed lanus ; and Varrc even in his time derided the desire of the multitude for puppets and effigies. The utter want of productive power in the Roman religion was likewise the ultimate cause of the thorough poverty which always marked Roman poetry and still more Roman speculation. The same distinctive character was manifest, moreover, in the domain of its practical use. The practical gain which acerufed to the Roman community from their religion was a code of moral law gradually developed by the priests, and the pontifices in particular, side by side with the legal ordi- nances. This moral law on the one hand supplied the place of police regulations at a period when the state was still far from providing any direct police-guardianship for its citizens ; and on the other hand it brought to the bar of the gods and visited with divine penalties the breach of those moral obligations which could not be reached at all, or could be but imperfectly enforced, by the law of the state. The regulations of the former class religiously incul- cated the due observance of holidays and the cultivation of the fields and vineyards according to the rules of good hus- bandry, which we shall have occasion to notice more fully in the sequel. To this class belonged also the worship of the hearth or of the Lares which was connected with con- siderations of sanitary police (p. 225), and above all the practice of burning the bodies of the dead, adopted among the Romans at a singularly early period, far earlier than among the Greeks — a practice implying a rational cancep tion of life and of death, which was foreign to primitive times and is even foreign to ourselves at the present day. It must be reckoned no small achievement that the national religion of the Latins was able to carry out these and simi- lar improvements. But the moral effect of this law was Chap. XIL] Religion. , 23 i still more important. Under this head we might include the fact itself that every sentence, at least every capital sen- tence, was primarily conceived as the curse of the divinity offended by the crime. But not only did that curse accom- pany the judgment pronounced by the community ; it also supplemented iCs deficiencies. If a husband sold his wife, OT a father sold his married son ; if a child struck his father or a daughter-in-law her father-in-law ; if a patron violated his obligation to keep faith with his guest or dependent, the civil law had no penalty for such outrages, but the burden of the curse of the gods lay thenceforth on the head of the offender. Not that the person thus accursed [sacer) was outlawed ; such an outlawry, inconsistent in its nature with all civil order, was only an exceptional occurrence in Rome — an aggravation of the religious curse at the time of the quarrels between the orders. It was not the province of the civil authorities, still less of the individual burgess or of the wholly powerless priest, to carry into effect the divine curse ; the life of the person accursed was forfeited not to men but to the gods. But the pious popular faith, on which that curse was based, must in earlier times have had power even over natures frivolous and wicked ; and the moral agency of religion must have exercised an influence deeper and purer precisely because it was not contaminated by any appeal to the secular arm. But it performed no higher service in Latium than the furtherance of civil order and morality by such means as these. In this field Hellas had an unspeakable advantage over Latium ; it owed to its religion not merely its whole mtellectual development, but also its national union, so far as such an union was attained at all ; the oracles and festi- vals of the gods, Delphi and Olympia, and the Muses, daughters of faith, were the centres round which revolved all that was great in Hellenic life and all in it that was the commoB heritage of the nation. And yet even here Latium had, as compared with Hellas, its own advantages. The Latin religion, reduced as it was to the level of ordinary perception, was completely intelligible to every one and 238 EeUgion. [Bo« t accessible in common to all ; and therefore the Roman com- munity preserved the equality of its citizens, while Hellas, where religion rose to the level of the highest thought, had from the earliest times to endure all the blessing and curse of an aristocracy of intellect. The Latin religion like every other had its origin in the effort to fathom the abyss of thought ; it is only to a superficial view, which is de- ceived as to the depth of the stream because it is clear, that its transparent spirit-world can appear to be shallow. This deeply-rooted faith disappeared with the progress of time as necessarily as the dew of morning disappears before the rising sun, and in consequence the Latin religion came at length to wither ; but the Latins preserved their simplicity of faith longer than most peoples and longer especially thar the Greeks. As colours are effects of light and at the same time dim it, so art and science are not merely the creations but also the destroyers of faith ; and, much as this process at once of development and of destruction is swayed by necessity, by the same law of nature certain results have been reserved to the epoch of early simplicity — results which subsequent epochs make vain endeavours to attain. The mighty intellectual development of the Hellenes, which created their religious and literary unity (ever imperfect as that unity was), was the very thing that made it impossible for them to attain to a genuine political union ; they sacri- ficed thereby the simplicity, the flexibility, the self-devotion, the power of amalgamation, which constitute the conditions of any such union. It is time therefore to desist from that childish view of history which believes that it can com- mend the Greeks only at the expense of the Romans, or the Romans only at the expense of the Greeks ; and, as we allow the oak to hold its own beside the rose, so should wa abstain from praising or censuring the two noblest organi- zations which antiquity has produced, and comprehend the truth that their distinctive excellences have a necessary con- nection with their respective defects. The deepest and ulti- mate reason of the diversity between the two nations lay beyond doubt in the fact that Latium did not, and that Hel Chap. XII.] Religion. 23G las did, during the season of growth come into contact with he East, No people on earth was great enough by its own eflforts to create either the marvel of Hellenic or at a later period the marvel of Christian culture ; history has pro- duced these most brilliant results only where the ideas of Aramaic religion have sunk into an Indo-Germanio sell. Hut if for this reason Hellas is the prototype of purely human, Latium is not less for all time the prototype of national, development ; and it is the duty of us their suc- cessors to honour both and to learn from both. Such was the nature and such the influence of the Ro- Foreign Taia.n religion in its pure, unhampered, and thor- worships. oughly national development. Its national char- acter was not infringed by the fact that, from the earliest times, modes and systems of worship were introduced from abroad ; no more than the bestowal of the rights of citizen- ship on individual foreigners denationalized the Roman state. An exchange of gods as well as of goods with the Latins must have taken place as a matter of course ; the transplantation to Rome of gods and worships belonging to less cognate races is more remarkable. Of the distinctive Sabine worship maintained by the Tities we have already spoken (p. 227). Whether any of their conceptions of the gods were borrowed from Etruria is more doubtful : for the Lases, the older designation of the genii (from lascivus), and Minerva the goddess of memory (mens, menervare), which have been usually described as originally Etruscan, were on the contrary, judging from philological grounds, indigenous to Latium. It is at any rate certain, and in keeping with all that we otherwise know of Roman inter- course, that the Greek worship received earlier and more exlansive attention in Rome than any other of foreign ori- pn. The Greek oracles furnished the earliest occasion of its introduction. The language of the Roman gods was wholly confined to Yea and Nay or at the most to the mak- ing their will known by the method of casting lots,* which * Sors from swej-e, to place in a row. The sortei were probiUdy email wooden tablets arranged upon a string, which when thrown formed 240 Beligion. [Book 1. appears in its origin Italian; whi.e fiom very ancient times — although not apparently until '^he impulse was re- ceived from the East — the more talkative gods of the Greeks imparted actual utterances of prophecy. The Ro mans made efforts, even at an early period, to treasure up such counsels, and copies of the leaves of the soothsaying priestess of Apollo, the Cumaean Sibyl, were accordingly a highly valued gift on the part of their Greek guest-frienda from Campania. For the reading and interpretation of the fl>rtune-telling book a special college, inferior in rank only to the augurs and pontifices, was instituted in early times, colisisting of two men of lore (duoviri sacris faciundis), who were furnished at the expense of the state with two Blaves acquainted with the Greek language. To these cus- todiers of oracles the people resorted ' in cases of doubt, when an act of worship was needed in order to avoid some impending evil and they did not know to which of the gods or with what rites it was to be performed. But Romans in search of advice early betook themselves also to the Del- phic Apollo himself. Besides the legends relating to such an intercourse already mentioned (p. 194), it is attested partly by the reception of the word thesaurus so closely connected with the Delphic oracle into all the Italian lan- guages with which we are acquainted, and partly by the oldest Roman form of the name of Apollo, Aperta, the " opener," an etymological perversion of the Doric Apel- lon, the antiquity of which is betrayed by its very barbar- ism. The Greek Herakles was naturalised in Italy as Her- clus, Hercoles, Hercules, at an early period and under a peculiar conception of his character, apparently in the first instance as the god of gains of adventure and of any ex- traordinary increase of wealth ; for which reason the gen- eral was wont to present the tenth of the spoil which he had procured, and the merchant the tenth of the substance which he had obtained, to Hercules at the chief altar {ara maxima) in the cattlte market. Accordingly he became the figures of various kinds ; an arrangement which puts one in mind of th< Bunic characters. Chap. XII.] Religion. 241 god of mercantile covenants generally, -which in early tiinea were frequently concluded at this altar and confirmed 'jy oath, and in so far was identified with the old Latin god of good faith {deus fidins). The worship of Hercules was from an early date among the most widely diffused; he was, to use the words of an ancient author, adored in every hamlet of Italy, and altars were everywhere erected to him in the streets of the cities and along the country roads. The gods also of the mariner. Castor and Polydeukes, or among the Romans Pollux, the god of traffic Hermes — the Roman Mercurius, and the god of healing, Asklapios or Aesculapius, were early known to the Romans, although their public worship only began at a later period. The name of the festival of the " good goddess " {^ona dea), damium, corresponding to the Greek Sdfiiov or Si'mmv, may likewise reach back as far as this epoch. It must be the result also of ancient borrowing, that the old Liber pater of the Romans was afterwards conceived as " father deliv- erer " and identified with the wine-god of the Greeks, the "releaser" [Lyaeos), and that the Roman god of the lower regions was called the " dispenser of riches " (Pluto — Bis pater), while his spouse Persephone became converted at once by change of the initial sound and by transference of the idea into the Roman Proserpina, that is, " germinatrix." Even the goddess of the Romano-Latin league, Diana of the Aventine, seems to have been copied from the federal goddeis of the lonians of Asia Minor, the Ephesian Arte- mis ; at least her carved image in the Roman temple was foTced after the Ephesian type (p. 159). It was in this way alone, through the myths of Apollo, Dionysus, Pluto, Herakles, and Artemis which were early pervaded by Ori- ental ideas, that the Aramaic religion exercised at this pe- riod a remote and indirect influence on Italy. We clearly perceive from these facts that the introduction of the Greek religion was especially due to commercial intercourse — that it was traders and mariners who primarily brought the Greek gods to Italy. These individual cases however of derivation from 24:2 Religion. [Book I abroad were but of secondary moment, while the remains of the natural symbolism of primeval times, of which the legend of the oxen of Cacus may perhaps be a specimen (p. 41) were verging on extinction. In all its leading fea^ tures the Roman religion was an organic creation of tlie people among whom we find it. The Sabellian and Umbrian worship, judging from the little we know of it, rested upon quite the same ehe sabei- fundamental views as the Latin with local variap ^'™^' tions of colour and form. That it was different from the Latin is very distinctly apparent from the estab- lishment of a special college at Rome for the preservation of the Sabine rites (p. 72) ; but that very fact affords an instructive illustration of the nature of the difference. Ob- servation of the flight of birds was with both stocks the regular mode of consulting the gods ; but the Titles ob- served different birds from the Ramnian augurs. Similar relations present themselves, wherever we,have opportunity of comparing them. Both stocks in common regarded the gods as abstractions of the earthly and as of an impersonal nature ; they differed in expression and ritual. It was natu- ral that these diversities should appear of importance to the worshippers of those days ; we are no longer able to appre- hend what was the characteristic distinction, if any really existed. The remains of the sacred rites of the Etruscans that have reached us are marked by a different spirit, thtfitrus- Their prevailing characteristics are a gloomy ** ^' and withal tiresome mysticism, ringing the changes on numbers, soothsaying, and that solemn enthron" ing of pure absurdity which at all times finds its own circle of devotees. We are far from knowing the Etruscan wor- ship in such completeness and purity as we know the Latin •, and it is not improbable — indeed it cannot well be doubted — that several of its features were only introduced by the minute subtlety of a later period, and that the gloomy and fantastic principles which were most alien to the Latin wor- ship are those that have been especially handed down to ui Chap, xh.] Eeligim. 243 by tradition. But enough still remains to show that the mysticism and barbarism of this worship had their foundO' tion in the essential character of the Etruscan people. With our very unsatisfactory knowledge we cannot d& lineate the intrinsic contrast subsisting between the Etrus- can conceptions of deity and the Italian ; but it is clear that the most prominent among the Etruscan gods were the ma- lignant and the mischievous. Their worship was cruel, in- cluding in particular the sacrifice of their captives ; thus at Caere they slaughtered the Phocaean, and at Tarquinii the Eoman, pris.mers. Instead of a tranquil world of departed "good spirits" ruling peacefully in the realms beneath, such as the Latins had conceived, the Etruscan religion pre- sented a veritable hell, in which the poor souls were doomed to be tortured by mallets and serpents, and to which they were conveyed by the conductor of the dead, a savage semi- brutal figure of an old man with wings and a large ham mer — a figure which afterwards served in the gladiatorial games at Rome as a model for the costume of the man who removed the corpses of the slain from the arena. So fixed was the association of torture with this condition of the shades, that there was even provided a redemption from it, which after certain mysterious offerings transferred the poor soul to the society of the gods above. It is remarkable that, in order to people their lower world, the Etruscans early borrowed from the Greeks their gloomiest notions, such as the doctrine of Acheron and Charon, which play ac important part in the Etruscan discipline. But the Etruscan occupied himself above all in the in- terpretation of signs and portents. The Romans heard the voice of the gods in nature ; but their bird-seer understood only the signs in their simplicity, and knew only in general whether the occurrence boded good or ill. Disturbances of the ordinary course of nature were regarded by him as boding evil, and put a stop to the business in hand, as when for example a storm of thunder and lightning dispersed the comitia ; and he probably sought to get rid of them, as, for example, in the case of monstrous births which were put 244 Beltgion. [Book \ to death as speedily as possible. But beyond the Tibei matters were carried much further. The penetrating Etrus« can read off to the believer his future fortunes in detail from the lightning and from the entrails of animals offered in sac rifice ; and the more singular the language of the gods, the more startling the portent or prodigy, the more confidently did he declare what they foretold and the means by which it was possible to avert the mischief. Thus arose the lore of lightning, the art of inspecting entrails, the interpreta- tion of prodigies — all of them, and the science of lightning especially, devised with the hair-splitting subtlety which characterizes the mind in pursuit of absurdities. A dwarf called Tages with the figure of a child but with gray hairs, who had been ploughed up by a peasant in a field near Tar- quinii — we might almost fancy that practices at once so childish and so drivelling had sought to present in this figure a caricature of themselves — betrayed the secret of this lore to the Etruscans, and then straightway died. His disciples and successors taught what gods were in the habit of hurling the lightning ; how the lightning of each god might be recognized by its colour and the quarter of the heavens whence it came ; whether the lightning boded a permanent state of things or a single event ; and in the lat- ter case whether the event was one unalterably fixed, or whether it could be up to a certain limit artificially post- poned : how they might convey the lightning away when it struck, or compel the threatening lightning to strike, and various marvellous arts of the like kind, with which there was incidentally conjoined no small desire of pocketing fees. How deeply repugnant this jugglery was to the Ro- man character is shown by the fact that, even when people eime at a later period to employ the Etruscan lore in Rome, no attempt was made to naturalize it ; during our present period the Eomans were probably still content with their own, and with the Grecian, oracles. The Etruscan religion occupied a higher level than the Roman, in so far as it developed at least the rudiments of what was wholly wanting among the Romans — speculation Csip. xn.] Eeligion. 245 veiled under the forms of religion. Over the world and ita gods there ruled the veiled gods (^Dii involuti), consulted by the Etruscan Jupiter himself; that world moreover wasr finite, and, as it had come into being, so was it again to pass away after the expiry of a definite pericd of time, whose sections vere the saecula. Respecting the intellectual value which may once have belonged to this Etruscan cosmogony and philosophy, it is difficult to form a judgment ; they ap- pear however to have been from the very first characterized by a dull fatalism and an insipid play upon numbers. CHAPTER Xm. AGRICULTUEE, TRADE, AND COMMEECK. AoBiouLTURE and commerce are so intimately bound up with the constitution and the external history of states, that the former must frequently be noticed in the course of describing the latter. We shall here endeavour to supple- ment the detached notices which we have already given, by exhibiting a summary view of Italian and particularly of Roman economics. It has been already observed (p. 43) that the transition from a pastoral to an agricultural economy pre- ceded the immigration of the Italians into the peninsula. Agriculture continued to be the main support of all the communities in Italy, of the Sabellians and Etrus- cans no less than of the Latins. There were no purely pas- toral tribes in Italy during historical times, although of course the various races everywhere combined pastoral hus- bandry, to a greater or less extent according to the nature of the locality, with the cultivation of the soil. The beau- tiful custom of commencing the formation of new cities by tracing a furrow with the plough along the line of the future ring-wall shows how deeply rooted was the feeling that every commonwealth is dependent on agriculture. In the case of Rome in particular — and it is only in its case that we can speak of agrarian relations with any sort of certainty — the Servian reform shows very clearly not only that the agricultural class originally preponderated in the slate, but also that an eiFort was made permanently to maintain the body of freeholders as the pith and marrow of the community. When in the course of time a large portion of the landed property in Rome had passed into Chap, xm.j Agriculture, Trade, Commerce. 247 the hands of non-burgesses and thus the rights and duties of burgesses were no longer bound up with freehold prop erty, the reformed constitution obviated this incongruous state of things, and the perils which it threatened, not merely temporarily but permanently, by dividing once foi all the members of the community without reference to their political position into " freeholders " (a.ssidui) and " producers of children " [proletarii), and imposing on the former the public burdens — a step which in the natural course of things could not but be speedily followed by the concession of public rights. The whole policy of Roman war and conquest rested, like the constitution itself, on the basis of the freehold system ; as the freeholder alone was of value in the state, the aim of war was to increase the number of its freehold members. The vanquished com- munity was either compelled to merge entirely into the yeomanry of Rome, or, if not reduced to this extremity, it was required, not to pay a war-contribution or a fixed trib- ute, but to cede a portion (usually a third part) of its do- main, which was thereupon regularly occupied by Roman farms. Many nations have gained victories and made con- quests as the Romans did ; but none has equalled the Ro- man in thus making the ground he had won his own by the sweat of his brow, and in securing by the ploughshare what had been gained by the lance. That which is gained by war may be wrested from the grasp by war again, but it is not so with the conquests made by the plough ; while the Ro- mans lost many battles, they scarcely ever on making peace ceded Roman soil, and for this result they were indebted to the tenacity with which the farmers clung to their fields and homesteads. The strength of man and of the state lies in their dominion over the soil ; the greatness of Ron;e was built on the most extensive and immediate mastery of her citizens over her soil, and on the compact unity of the body which thus acquired so firm a hold. We have already indicated (pp. 63, 101) that in the earli- Byetem of ^^^ times the arable land was cultivated in com< vaSon^*'' Kion, probably by the several clans ; each c]a« 248 Agriculture, Trade, Corrvmerce. [Book \ tilled its own land, and thereafter distributed the pro- duce among the several households belonging to it. There exists indeed an intimate connection between the sys- tem of joint tillage and the clan form of society, and even subsequently in Eome joint residence and joint man- agement were of very frequent occurrence in the case of co-proprietors.* Even the traditions of Roman law furnish the information that wealth consisted at first in cattle and the usufruct of the soil, and that it was not till later that land came to be distributed among the burgesses as their own special property.f Better evidence that such was the case is afforded by the earliest designation of wealth as " cattle-stock " or " slave-and-cattle-stock " {pecunia,familia pecuniaque), and of the separate possessions of the children of the household and of slaves as "small cattle" {pecu- Hum) ; also by the earliest form of acquiring property, the laying hold of it with the hand (niancipaiio), which was only appropriate to the case of moveable articles (p. 207) ; and above all by the earliest measure of " land of one's own" {heredium, from herus lord), consisting of two jugera (about an acre and a quarter), which can only have applied to garden-ground, and not to the hide.| When and how * The system which we meet with in the case of the Germanie joint tillage, combining a partition of the land in property among the clansmen with its joint cultivation by the clan, can hardly ever have existed in Italy. Had each clansman been regarded in Italy, as among the Germans, in the light of proprietor of a particular spot in each portion of the collective domain that was marked off for tillage, the separate husbandry of later times would probably have set out from minute sub- division of hides. But the very opposite was the case ; the individual names of the Roman hides {funchia Corneliawus) show clearly that the Roman proprietor owned from the beginning a possession not broken up but united. f Cicero {de Rep. ii. 9. 14, comp. Plutarch, Q. Rom. 16) states : Turn (in the time of Romulus) eratres inpecore et lotorumpossessionibus, ex que pecuniod et locupletes vocabanlui {Numa) primum agros, quos bella Romvlas ceperat, divisit mritim civibus. In like manner Dionysiui represents Romulus as dividing the land into thirty curial districts, and Numa as estabUshing boundary-stones and introducing the festival of th« terminalia (i. '7, ii. Ii; and thence Plutarch, Numa, 16). i Since this assertion still continues to be disputed, we shall let the Cdai'. xin.] Agrimdture, Trade, Commerce. 246 the distribution of the arable land took place, can no hinger be ascertained. This much only is certain, that the oldest form of the constitution was based not on freehold-tenurCj numbers speak for themselves. The Roman writers on agriculture of the later republic and the imperial period recljon on an average five )?)»> dii of wheat as sufficient to sow a jugerum, and the produce as fivefold. The produce of a heredium accordingly (even when, without taking into V iew tlie space occupied by the dwelling-house and farm-yard, we regard il as entirely arable land, and make no account of years of fallow) amounts to fifty, or deducting the seed forty, modii. For an adult hard-working slave Cato (c. 56) reckons fifty-one modii of wheat as the annual consump- tion. These data enable any one to answer for himself the question whether a Roman family could or could not subsist on the produce of a heredium. This result is not shaken by reckoning up the subsidiary pro- duce yielded by the arable land itself and by the common pasture, such as figs, vegetables, milk, flesh (especially as derived from the ancient and zealously pursued rearing of swine), &o., for the Roman pastoral husbandry, though not in the older time unimportant, was yet of subor- dinate importance, and grain notoriously formed the chief subsistence of the people ; nor is it much affected by the boasted thoroughness of the older cultivation. By- assuming indeed that the return was on an average not fivefold but tenfold, and taking into account the after-crop of the arable land and the fig-harvest, a very considerable increase of the gross produce will no doubt be obtained — and it has never been denied that the farm ers of this period drew a larger produce from their lands than the great landholders of the later republic and the empire obtained (p. 62) ; but moderation must be exercised in forming such estimates, because we have to deal with a question of averages and with a mode of husbandry conducted neither methodically nor with much capital, and in no case can the enormous deficit, which is left according to those estimates between the produce of the heredium and the requirements of the household, b« covered by mere superiority of cultivation. The attempted counter-prool goes astray when it relies on the arguments that the slave of latA' times subsisted more exclusively on com han the free farmer of tht earlier epoch, and that the assumption of a fivefold return is too low for (his epoch ; both assumptions really lie at the foundation of the view here given. The counter-proof can only be regarded as successful when it shall have produced a methodical calculation based on rural economics, according to which among a population chiefly subsisting on vegetable! the produce of a piece of land of an acre and a quarter shall be proved sufficient on an average for the subsistence of a family. It is indeed asserted that instances occur of colonies with allot 11* 250 AgricullAJi/re, Trade, Oommerce. [Book 1 but on clanship as a substitute for it, whereas the Servian constitution presupposes the distribution of the land. It la evident from the same constitution that the great bulk of the landed property consisted of middle-sized farms, -which provided vrork and subsistence for a family and admitted of the keeping of cattle for tillage as -well as of the appli- cation of the plough. The ordinary extent of such a Ro- man full hide has not been ascertained with precision, but can scarcely, as has already been shown (p. 140), be esti- mated at less than twenty jugera {12J acres nearly). Their husbandry was mainly occupied with the culture Culture of o^ ^^e cereals. The usual grain was spelt B^™- (/«>■) ; * but different kinds of pulse, roots, and vegetables were also diligently cultivated. ments of two jugera founded even in historical times ; but the only in- stances of the Isind (Llv. iv. 47) is that of the colony of Labici in the year 336 — an instance,which will certainly not be reckoned (by such scholars as are worth the arguing with) to belong to the class of traditions that are trustworthy in their historical details, and which is beset by other very serious difficulties (see book ii. ch. 5, note). It is no doubt true that in the non-colonial assignation of land to the burgesses col- lectively {adsignatio virUana) sometimes only a few jugera were granted (ase.j'. Liv.viii. 11, 21). In these cases however it was not the intention to create new farms with the allotments, but, on the contrary, as a rule, the intention was to add to the existing farms new parcels from the con- quered lands (comp. C. /. L. i. p. 88). At any rate, any supposition is bet- ter than an hypothesis which requires us to believe as it were in a mi- raculous multiplication of the food of the Roman household. The Eoman farmers were far less modest in their requirements than their historiogra- phers. They conceived, as has been already stated (p. 140), that they could not subsist even on allotments of seven jugera yielding a produce of one hundred and forty modii. * Peihaps the latest, although probably not the last, attempt to prove that a Latin farmer's family might have subsisted on two jugera of land, finds its chief support in the argument that Varro (die R. R.i. 44, 1), reck- ons the seed requisite for the jugerum at five modii of wheat but te« modii of spelt, and estimates the produce as corresponding to this, whence it is inferred that the cultivation of spelt yielded a produce, if not double, ai least considerably higher than that of wheat. But the converse is more correct, and the nominally higher quantity sown and reaped is simply to be explained by the fact that the Romans sowed and Chap. XIII.] AgriouUv^e, Trade, Commeroe. 251 That the culture of the vine was not introduced for the Onitureof first time into Italy by Greek settlers (p. 43), ii """^"®- shown by the list of the festivals of the Roman community which reaches back to a time preceding the Greeks, and which presents three wine-festivals to be cel^ brated in honour of " father lovis," not in honour of the wine-god of more recent times who was borrowed from the Greeks, the " father deliverer " {Liber). The rery ancient legend which represents Mezentius king of Caeis as levying a wine-tax from the Latins or the Eutuli, and the various versions of the widely-spread Italian story which affirms that the Celts were induced to cross the Alps in conse- quence of their coming to the knowledge of the noble fruits of Italy, especially of the grape and of wine, are indications garnered tlie wheat already shelled, but the spelt still in the husk (Pliny, S. i^., xviii. 7, 61), which in this case was not separated from the fruit by threshing. For the same reason spelt is at the present day sown twice as thickly as wheat, and gives a produce twice as great by measure, but less than that of wheat after deduction of the husks. According to Wiirtemburg estimates furnished to me by G. Fannsen, the average produce of the Wiirtemburg morgen is reckoned in the case of wheat (with a sowing of ^ to J scheffel) at 3 scheffel of the medium weight of 275 lbs. (=825 lbs.) ; in the case of spelt (with a sowing of -J- to \\sclief- feV) at least 7 scheffel of the medium weight of 150 lbs. (=1050 lbs.), wliich are reduced by shelling to about 4 scheffel. Thus spelt compared with wheat yields in the gross more than double, with equally good soil perhaps A-iple the crop, but — by specific weight — before the shelling not much above, after shelling (as "kernel") less than, the half. It was not by mistake, as has been asserted, but because it was fitting in computations of this sort to start from estimates of a like nature handed down to us, that the calculation instituted above was based on wheat ; it may stand, because when transferred to spelt, it does not essentially differ and the produce tather falls than rises. Spelt is less nice as to soil and climate, and ex- posed to fewer risks than wheat; but the latter yields on the whole, es- pecially when we take into account the not inconsiderable expenses ol nhelling, a higher net produce (on an average of fifteen years in the dis- trict of Frankenthal in Rhenish Bavaria the malter of "fheat stands at 11 gvliJen 3 kn., ine maUer of spelt at 4 gulden 30 hrz.\ and, as in South Germany, where the soil admits, the growing of wheat is preferred and generally with the progress of cultivation comes to supersede that o{ spelt, so the analogous transition of Italian agriculture from the culture of spelt to that of wheat was undeniably a progress. 252 Agriculture, Trade, Commerce. [Book X of the pride of the Latins in their glorious vine, the env^ of all their neighbours. A careful system of vine-hu» bandry was early and generally inculcated by the Latin priests. In Rome the vintage did not begin until the supreme priest of the community, the flamen of Jupiter, had granted permission for it and had himself made a be- ginning ; in like manner a Tusculan ordinance forbade the sale of new wine, until the priest had proclaimed the festi* val of opening the casks. The early prevalence of tha culture of the vine is likewise attested not only by tha general adoption of wine-libations in the sacrificial ritual, but also by the precept of the Roman priests promulgated as a law of king Numa, that men should present in libatiou to the gods no wine obtained from uncut grapes ; just as, to introduce the beneficial practice of drying the grain, they prohibited the oflfering of grain undried. The culture of the olive was of later introduction, and Culture of Certainly was first brought to Italy by the the olive. Greeks.* The olive is said to have been first planted in the countries of the western Mediterranean towards the close of the second century of the city ; and this view nccords with the fact that the olive-branch and the olive occupy in the Roman ritual a place very subordinate to the juice of the vine. The esteem in which both noble trees were held by the Romans is shown by the rearing of a vine and of an olive-tree in the middle of the Forum, not far from the Curtian lake. The principal fruit-tree planted was the nutritious fig, which was probably a native of Italy. The legend of the origin of Rome wove its threads closely around the old fig-trees, several of which stood on the Palatine and in the Roman Forum.f * Oleum and oliva are derived from HXatov, eAaia, and amurca (oil lees) from a/i6gytj. f But there is no proper authority for the statement that the fig-trea wnich stood in front of the temple of Satura was cut down in the year 269 (Plin. H. N., XV. 18. 11) ; the date CCLX. Is wanting in all good man* Bcripts, and has been icterpolated, probably with reference to Liv. it 21 Chap, xiu.] Agricultmre, Trade, Commerce. 25S The farmer and his sons guided the plough, and per> formed the necessary labours of husbandry : it moot of the is not probable that slaves or free day-labourers were regularly employed in the work of the ordinary farm. The plough was drawn by the ox or by the cow ; horses, asses, and mules served as beasts of bup- den. The rearing of cattle for the sake of meat or of milk did not exist at all as a distinct branch of husbandry, or was prosecuted only to a very limited extent, at least on land which remained the property of the clan ; but, in ad- dition to the smaller cattle which were driven out together to the common pasture, swine and poultry, particularly geese, were kept upon the farm. As a general rule, there ■was no end of ploughing and re-ploughing : a field was reckoned imperfectly tilled, in which the furrows were not drawn so close that harrowing could be dispensed with ; but the method of culture was more earnest than intelli- gent, and no improvcTiient took place in the defective plough or in the imperfect processes of reaping and of thrashing. This result is probably attributable rather to the scanty development of rational mschanics than to the obstinate clinging of the farmers to use and wont ; for m«re kindly attachment to the system of tillage transmitted with the patrimonial soil was far from influencing the practical Ital- ian, and obvious improvements in agriculture, such as the cultivation of fodder-plants and the irrigation of meadows, were probably adopted from neighbouring peoples or inde- pendently developed by themselves at an early period — • Eoman literature itself in fact began with the discussion of the theory of agriculture. Welcome rest followed diligent and judicious labour; and here too religion asserted her right to soothe the toils of life even to the humblest by pauses of refreshment and of greater freedom of movement. Four times a month, and therefore on an average everj eighth day (nonae), the farmer went to town to buy and sell and transact his other business. But rest from labour, iu the strict sense, took place only on the several festival days and especially in the holiday-month after the completion o) 254 AgriGultii/re, Trade, Commerce. [Book i the winter sowing [feriae sementivae) : during these sel times the plough rested by command of the gods, and not the farmer only, but also his slave and his ox, reposed in holiday idleness. Such, probably, was the way in which the ordinary Eo- man farm was cultivated in the earliest times, llie next heirs had no protection against bad management except the right of having the spendthrift who squandered his in- herited estate placed under wardship like a lunatic (p. 207). Women moreover were in substance divested of their per- sonal right of disposal, and, if they married, a member of the same clan was ordinarily assigned as husband, in order to retain the estate within the clan. The law sought to check the overburdening of landed property with debt part- ly by ordaining, in the case of a debt secured over the land, the immediate transference of the ownership of the object pledged from the debtor to the creditor, partly, in the case of a simple loan, by the rigour of the proceedings in execu- tion which speedily led to actual bankruptcy ; the latter means however, as the sequel will show, attained its object but very imperfectly. No restriction was imposed by law on the free divisibility of property. Desirable as it might be that co-heirs should remain in the undivided possession of their heritage, even the oldest law was careful to keep the power of dissolving such a partnership open at any time to any partner ; it was good that brethren should dwell together in peace, but to compel them to do so was foreign to the liberal spirit of Eoman law. The Servian constitution moreover shows that even in the regal period of Rome there were not wanting small cottagers and gar- den-proprietors, with whom the mattock toolj the place of the plough. It was left to custom and the sound sense of the population to prevent excessive subdivision of the soil ; and that their confidence in this respect was not misplaced and the landed estates ordinarily remained entire, is proved by the universal Roman custom of designating them by permanent individual names. The community exercised only an indirect influence in the matter by the sending forth Chap. XIII.] Agriculture, Trade, Commerce. 255 of colonies, which regularly led to the estahlishment of a number of new full hides, and frequently perhaps also to the suppression of a number of minor holdings, the small landholders being sent forth as colonists. It is far more difficult to perceive how matters stood Landed pro- ''^'^^ landed property on a larger scale. The pnetors. f^g). ^jj^(. g^^jj larger properties existed to no inconsiderable extent, cannot be doubted from the position of the equiies in the Servian constitution, and may be easily explained partly by the distribution of the clan-lands, which of itself must have produced a class of larger landholders in consequence of the necessary inequality in the numbers of the persons included in the several clans and participating in the distribution, and partly by the abundant influx of mercantile capital to Rome. But farming on a large scale in the proper sense, implying a considerable establishment of slaves, such as we afterwards meet with at Rome, cannot be supposed to have existed during this period. On the con- trary to this period we must refer the ancient definition, which represents the senators as called fathers from the fields which they parcelled out among the common people as a father among his children ; and originally the land- owner must have distributed that portion of his land which he was unable to farm in person, or even his whole estate, into little parcels among his dependents to be cultivated by them, as is the general practice in Italy at the present day. The recipient might be the house-child or slave of the grant- er ; if he was a free man, his position was that which sub- sequently went by the name of " occupancy on sufferance " i^precariurn). The recipient retained his occupancy during pleasure, and had no legal means of protecting himself in possession ; on the contrary the granter could eject him at any time when he pleased. The relation did not necessarily involve any payment on the part of the person who had the usufi'uct of the soil to its proprietor ; but such a pay- ment beyond doubt frequently toolt place and, it is prob- able, consisted ordinarily in the delivery of a portion of the produce. The relation in this case approximated to the 256 Agriculture, Trade, Commerce. [Book l lease of subsequent times, but remained always distin- guished from it partly by the absence of a term for its expiry, partly by its non-aotionable character on either sidfl and the legal protection of the claim for rent depending entirely on the lessor's right of ejection. It is plain that it was essentially a relation based on mutual fidelity, which could not subsist without the help of the powerful sanction of custom consecrated by religion ; and this was not want- ing. The institution of clientship, altogether of a moral- religious nature, beyond doubt rested fundanif ntally on this assignation of the profits of the soil. Nor was the intro- duction of such an assignation dependent on the abolition of the system of common tillage ; for, just as afler thia abolition the individual, so previous to it the clan might grant to dependents a joint use of its lands ; and beyond doubt with this very state of things was connected the fact that the Roman clientship was not personal, but that fi:om the outset the client along with his clan entrusted himself for protection and fealty to the patron and his clan. Thia earliest form of Roman landholding serves to explain how there sprang from the great landlords in Rome a landed, and not an urban, nobility. As the pernicious institution of middlemen remained foreign to the Romans, the Romari landlord found himself not much less chained to his land than was the tenant and the farmer ; he inspected and took part in everything himself, and the wealthy Roman es- teemed it his highest praise to be reckoned a good landlord. His house was on his land ; in the city he had only a lodg- ing for the purpose of attending to his business there, and perhaps of breathing the purer air that prevailed there during the hot season. Above all however these arrange- ments furnished a moral basis for the relation between the upper class and the common people, and so materially les- sened its dangers. The free tenants-on-suiFerance, sprung from families of decayed farmers, dependents, and freed- men, formed the great bulk of the proletariate (p. -129), and were not much more dependent on the landlord than the petty temporary tenant inevitably is with reference to th< Chap, xui.] Agriculture, Trade, Commerce. 267 great proprietor. The slaves tilling the fields for a master were beyond doubt far less numerous than the free tenants. In all cases where an immigrant nation has not at once r*' duced to slavery a population en masse, slaves seem to have existed at first only to a very limited amount, and oonse« quently free labourers seem to have played a very different part in the state fi"om that in which they subsequently ap- pear. In Greece " day-labourers " {&ffiBg) in various in- stances during the earlier period occupy the place of the slaves of a later age, and in some communities, among the Locrians for instance, there was no slavery down to histori- cal times. Even the slave, moreover, was ordinarily of Italian descent ; the Volscian, Sabine, or Etruscan war-oap- tive must have stood in a different relation towards his master from the Syrian and the Celt of later times. Be- sides as a tenant he had in fact, though not in law, land and cattle, wife and child, as the landlord had, and after manu- mission was introduced (p. 210) there was a possibility, not remote, of working out his freedom. If such then was the footing on which landholding on a large scale stood in the earliest times, it was far from being a manifest evil in the commonwealth ; on the contrary it was of most mate- rial service to it. Not only did it provide subsistence, although scantier upon the whole, for as many families in proportion as the intermediate and smaller properties ; but the landlords moreover, occupying a comparatively elevated and free position, supplied the community with its natural leaders and rulers, while the agricultural and unpropertied tenants-on-sufferance furnished the genuine material for the Roman policy of colonization, without which it never would have succeeded ; for while the state may furnish land to him who has none, it cannot impart to one who knows nothing of agriculture the spirit and the energy to wield the plough. Ground under pasture was not aflfected by the distribu- Pastoral tion of 'hs land. The state, and not the clan- hnsbandrjr. ghip^ ;vas regarded as the owner of the common pastures. It made use of them in part for its own flocks 258 Agriculture, Trade, Commerce. [Book i and herds, which were intended for sacrifice and othei purposes and were always kept up by means of the cattle- fines ; and it gave to the possessors of cattle the privilege of driving them out upon the common pasture for a mode- rate payment {scripiura). The right of pasturage on the public domains may have originally borne some relation de facto to the possession of land, but no connection de jure oar ever have subsisted in Rome between the particular hides of land and a definite proportional use of the common pasture ; because property could be acquired even by the metoikos, but the right to use the common pasture always remained a privilege of the burgess and was only granted exceptionally to the metoikos by the royal favour. At this period, however, the public land seems to have held but a subordinate place in the national economy generally, for the original common pasturage was not perhaps very exten- sive, and the conquered territory was probably for the most part distributed immedia^ely as arable land among the clans or at a later period among individuals. While agriculture was the chief and most extensively prosecuted occupation in Rome, other branches Handicrafts. f, , -, ,. , ^ ., 01 mdustry did not fail to accompany it, as might be expected from the early development of urban life in that emporium of the Latins. In fact eight guilds of craftsmen were numbered among the institutions of king Numa, that is, among the institutions that had existed in Rome from time immemorial. These were the flute-blow- ers, the goldsmiths, the coppersmiths, the carpenters, the ful- lers, the dyers, the potters, and the shoemakers — a list which would substantially exhaust the class of tradesmen working to order on others' account in the very early times, when the baking of bread and the professional art of healing were no*, yet known and wool was spun into clothing by the women of the household themselves. It is remarkable that there appears no special guild of workers in iron. Thi? affords a fresh confirmation of the fact that the manufactura of iron was of comparatively late introduction in Latium ; and on this account in matters of ritual down ta the latest Chap, xm.] Agriculture, Trade, Commerce. 259 times copper alone might be used, e. g. for the sacred plough and the shear-lcnife of the priests. These bodies of craftsmen must have been of great importance iu earl) times for the urban life of Rome and for its position towards the Latin land — an importance not to be measured by the depressed condition of Eoman handicraft in later times, when it was injuriously affected by the multitude of artisan-slaves working for their master or on his account, and by the increased importation of articles of luxury. The oldest lays of Rome celebrated not only the mighty war- god Mamers, but also the skilled armourer Mamurius, who understood the art of forging for his fellow-burgesses shields similar to the divine model shield that had fallen from heaven ; Volcanus the god of fire and of the forge appears in the early list of Roman festivals (p. 220). Thus in the earliest Rome, as everywhere, the arts of forging and of wielding the ploughshare and the sword went hand in hand, and there was nothing of that arrogant contempt for handi- crafts which we afterwards meet with there. After the Servian organization, however, imposed the duty of serving in the army exclusively on the freeholders, the industrial classes were excluded not by any law, but practically by virtue of their general want of a freehold qualification, from the privilege of bearing arms, except iu the case of special subdivisions chosen from the carpenters, coppersmiths, and musicians and attached with a military organization to the army ; and this may perhaps have been the origin of the subsequent habit of depreciating the manual arts and of the position of political inferiority assigned to them. The insti- tution of guilds doubtless had the same object as the col- leges of priests that resembled them in name ; the men of skill associated themselves in order more permanently and securely to preserve the tradition of their art. That there was some mode of excluding unskilled persons is probable ; but no traces are to be met with either of monopolizing tendencies or of protective steps against inferior manufeo- tures. There is no aspect, however, of the life of the Ra 260 AgncuUv/re, Trade, Commerce. [Book I man people respecting which our information is so scanty ai that of the Roman trades. Italian commerce must, it is obvious, have been limited in the earliest epoch to the mutual dealings of toerceoftiie the Italians themselves. Fairs (wercafes), which a mis. must be distinguished from the usual weekly ii.arkets {nundinae) were of great antiquity in Latium. Probably they were at first associated with international gatherings and festivals, and so perhaps were connected in Rome with the festival at the federal temple on the Aven- tine ; the Latins, who came for this purpose to Rome every year on the 13th August, may have embraced at the same time the opportunity of transacting their business in Rome and of purchasing what they needed there. A similar and perhaps still greater importance belonged in the case of Etruria to the annual general assembly at the temple of Voltumna (perhaps near Montefiascone) in the territory of Volsinii ; it served at the same time as a fair and was regu- larly frequented by Roman traders. But the most import- ant of all the Italian fairs was that which was held at So- racte in the grove of Feronia, a situation than which none could be found more favourable for the exchange of com- modities among the three great nations. That high isolated moimtain, which appears to have been set down by nature herself in the midst of the plain of the Tiber as a goal for the traveller, lay on the boundary which separated the Etruscan and Sabine lands (to the latter of which it appears mostly to have belonged), and it was likewise easily accessi. ble from Latium and Urabria. Roman merchants regularly made their appearance there, and the wrongs of which they complained gave rise to many a quarrel with the Sabines. Beyond doubt dealings of barter and traffic were cai-ried on at these fairs long before the first Greek or Phoenician vessel entered the western sea. When bad harvests had occurred, different districts supplied each other at these fairs with grain ; there, too, they exchanged cattle, slaves, metals, and whatever other articles were deemed needful or desira- ble in those primitive times. Oxen and sheep formed ths Chap, xiu.] Agriculture, Trade, Commerce. 201 oldest medium of exchange, ten sheep being reckoned equivalent to one ox. The recognition of these objects aa universal legal representatives of value or in other words as m )ney, as well as the scale of proportion between the large and smaller cattle, may be traced back — as the occur- rence of both among the Germans especially shows — not merely to the Graeco Italian period, but beyond this even to the epoch of a purely pastoral economy.* In Italy, where metal in considerable quantity was everywhere required especially for agricultural purposes and for armour, but few of its provinces themselves produced the requisite metals, copper (aes) very early made its appearance alongside of cattle as a second medium of exchange ; and so the Latins, who were poor in copper, designated valuation itself as " coppering '' (aestimatio). This establishment of copper as a general equivalent recognized throughout the whole peninsula, as well as the simplest numeral signs of Italian invention to be mentioned more particularly below (p. 272), and the Italian duodecimal system, may be regarded as traces of this earliest international intercourse of the Italian peoples while they still had the peninsula to them- selves. We have already indicated generally the nature of the TranBina- influence exercised by transmarine commerce on Sf'the^*" the Italians who continued independent. The Italians. Sabellian stocks remained almost wholly unaf- fected by it. They were in possession of but a small and inhospitable belt of coast, and received whatever reached * The comparative legal value of sheep and oxen, as is well known, ta proved by the fact that, when the cattle-fines were converted into money-fines, the sheep were rated at ten, and the ox at a hundred asses (Festus V. pemlatus, p. SSY, comp. p. 24, 144 ; GeU. xi. 1 ; Plutarch, Poplioola, 11). By a similar adjustment the Icelandic law makes twelve tains equivalent to a cow ; only in this as in other instances the Germanic Uiw has substituted the duodecunal for the older decimal system. It is well known that the term denoting cattle was transferred to de- note money both among the Latins (^ecwmo) -and among the Germans (English /«e). AgriculPure, Trade, Commerce. [Book 1 them from foreign nations — the alphabet for instance — onlj through the medium of the Tuscans or Latins ; a circum- stance which accounts for their want of urban development The intercourse of Tarentum with the Apulians and Messa plans appears to have been at this epoch still unimportant. It was otherwise along the west coast. In Campania the Greeks and Italians dwelt peacefully side by side, and in Latium, and still more in Etruria, an extensive and regular exchange of commodities took place. What were the earli- est articles of import, may be inferred partly from the objects found in the primitive tombs, particularly those at Caere, partly from indications preserved in the language and institutions of the Romans, partly and chiefly from the stimulus given to Italian industry ; for of course they bought foreign manufactures for a considerable time before they began to imitate them. We cannot determine how far the development of handicrafts had advanced before the separation of the stocks, or what progress it thereafter made while Italy remained left to its own resources ; it is uncertain how far the Italian fullers, dyers, tanners, and pot- ters received their impulse from Greece or Phoenicia or had their own independent development. But it is certain that the trade of the goldsmiths, which existed in Rome from time immemorial, can only have arisen after trans- marine commerce had begun and ornaments of gold had to some extent found sale among the inhabitants of the penin- sula. We find, accordingly, in the oldest sepulchres of Caere and Vulci in Etruria and of Praeneste in Latium, plates of gold with winged lions stamped upon them, and similar ornaments of Babylonian manufacture. It may be a question in reference to the particular object found, wheth- er it has been introduced from abroad or is a native imita- tion ; but on the whole it admits of no doubt that all the west coast of Italy in eaily times imported metallic wares from the East. It will be shown still more clearly in the sequel, when we come to speak of the exercise of art, that architecture and modelling in clay and metal received a powerful stimulus in very early times from Greece, whence Chap. XIII.] Agriculture, Trade, Commerce. 263 the oldest tools and the oldest models were derived. In the sepulchral chambers just mentioned, besides the gold ornaments, there were deposited vessels of bluish enamel or greenish clay, which, judging from the materials and style as well as from the hieroglyphics impressed upon thsm, were of Egyptian origin ; perfume-vases of Oriental alabaster, several of them in the form of Isis ; ostrich-eggs with painted or carved sphinxes and griffins ; beads of glass and amber. These last may have come by the land-route from the north ; but the other objects prove the importa- tion of perfumes and articles of ornament of all sorts from the East. Thence came linen and purple, ivory and frank- incense, as is proved by the early use of linen fillets, of the purple dress and ivory sceptre for the king, and of frank- incense in sacrifice, as well as by the very ancient borrowed names for them {Xivov, Hnum ; noQcpiqa, purpura; gx^ti- TQOV, a'MTicov, scipio ; perhaps also iXiqiag, ebur ; ■&vog, thus). Of similar significance is the derivation of a num- ber of words relating to articles used in eating and drink ing, particularly the names of oil (comp. p. 252), of jugs [dfiCfOQSvi, amp{K)ora, ampulla ; HQaTrjQ, cratera), of feast- ing {xcojidl^co, comissari), of a dainty [oxpmvwv, obsonium), of dough [jjia^a, massd), and various names of cakes (j'kv' novg, lucuns ; nXaxovg, placenta ; zvQOvg, tvrunda) ; while conversely the Latin names for dishes ( patina, nazavri) and for lard {arvina, dfi^ivri) have found admission into Sicilian Greek. The later custom of placing in the tomb beside the dead Attic, Corcyrean, and Campanian vases proves, what these testimonies from language likewise show, the early market for Greek pottery in Italy. That Greek leather- work made its way into Latium at least in the shape of armour is apparent from the application of the Greek word for leather (anvzog), to signify among the Latins a shield {scutum ; like lorica, from lorum). Finally, we deduce f similar inference from the numerous nautical terms bor rowed from the Greek (although it is remarkable that tht chief technical expressions in navigation — the terms for th« 264 Agriculture, Trade, Commerce. L^ook 1 sail, mast, and yard. — are pure Latin forms) ; * and from the recurrence in Latin of the Greek designations for a let- ter {inusToltj, epistula), a token {tessera, from Teaaagu), a balance (aiazi'jQ, statera), and earnest-money {aQQU^tov, arraho, arra) ; and conversely from the adoption of Italian law-terms in Sicilian Greek (p. 213), as well as from the exchange of the proportions and names of coins, weights, and measures, which we shall notice in the sequel. The character of barbarism which all these borrowed terms ob- viously present, and especially the characteristic formation of the nominative from the accusative {^placenta = nXor xovvra ; ampora = u[Mpo()ea ; statera = Gtari^Qo), consti- tute the clearest evidence of their great antiquity. The worship of the god of traffic {Mercurius) also appears to have been from the first influenced by Greek ideas ; and his annual festival seems to have been fixed on the ides of May, because the Hellenic poets celebrated him as the son of the beautiful Maia. It thus appears that Italy in very ancient times derived its articles of luxury, just as imperial Rome did, Commerce ,-r-, to. -, ^ In Latium irom the Jiast, betore it attempted to manuiao- Btruiia ture for itself after the models which it import- ed. In exchange it had nothing to offer except Its raw produce, consisting especially of its copper, silver, • Velum is certaiDly of Iiatin origin ; so is malus, especially as that term denotes not merely the mast, but the tree in general : antenna like- wise may come from avd (anMare, antestari, and iendere =— supertensa. Of Greek origin, on the other hand, are gubernare, to steer, {xvpigvav) ; ancora, anchor (ayznga) ; prora, ship's bows {nqHiQa); ajo^Mfrc, ship's Blern (aifkaarov) ; anquina, the rope fastening the yards (aj/Kowa) ; nmt- $(a, sea-sickness (vatffla). The four principal winds— aywiZo, the " eagle-wind," the north-east. *r'y Tramontana ; voUim>.us (of uncertain derivation, perhaps the " vul- ture-wind "), the south easterly ; auster the " scorching " south-west wind, the Sirocco -jfavonius, the " favourable " north-west wind blowing from the Tyrrhene Sea — have indigenous names bearing no reference to navigation ; but all the other Latin names for winds are Greek (such at ewus, noties), or translations from the Greek («. jr. solanus — antiXuiiriff , Africws -= Uy/). Chap, xni.] Agriculture, Trade, Commerce. 265 and iron, but including also slaves and timber for ship, building, amber from the Baltic, and, in the event of bad harvests occurring abroad, its grain. From this state of things as to the commodities in de- mand and the ec[uivalents to be offered in return, we have already explained why Italian traffic assumed in Latium a form differing from that which it presented in Etruria. The Latins, who were deficient in all the chief articles of ex- port, could carry on only a passive traffic, and were obliged even in the earliest times to procure the copper of which they had need from the Etruscans in^exchange for cattle or slaves — we have already mentioned the very ancient prac- tice of selling the latter on the right bank of the Tiber (p. 149). On the other hand the Tuscan balance of trade must have been necessarily favourable at Caere and Populonia, at Capua and Spina. Hence the rapid development of prosperity in these regions and their powerful commercial position ; whereas Latium remained pre-eminently an agri- cultural country. The same contrast recurs in all their individual relations. The oldest tombs constructed and fur- nished in the Greelc fashion, but with an extravagance to which the Greeks were strangers, are to be found at Caere, while — ^with the exception of Praeneste, which appears to have occupied a peculiar position and to have been very intimately connected with Falerii and southern Etruria — the Latin land exhibits not a single tomb of this nature be- longing to the earlier times ; and there as among the Sabel- lians a simple turf seemed sufficient as a covering for any one's remains. The most ancient coins, of not much later origin than those of Magna Graecia, belong to Etruria, and to Populonia in particular : during the whole regal period Latium had to be content with copper by weight, and had not even introduced foreign coins, for the instances are very rare in which such coins (e. g. one of Posidonia) have been found there. In architecture, plastic art, and embossing, the same stimulants acted on Etruria and on Latium, but it was only in the case of the former that capital was brought to bear on them and led to their being prosecuted exten- 266 Agriculture, Trade, Commerce. (Book sively and with growing technical skill. The comnioditie were upon the whole the same, which were bought, sole and manufactured in Latium and in Etruria ; but the soutl ern land was far inferior to its northern neighbours in th energy with which its commerce was plied. The contras between them in this respect is shown in the fact that th Articles of luxury manufactured after Greek models i Etruria found a market in Latium, particularly at Pra( neste, and even in Greece itself, while Latium hardly eve exported anything of the kind. A distinction not less remarkable between the commerc of the Latins and that of the Etruscans appear Attic and in their respective routes or lines of traffic. A Bioiiiiin to the earliest commerce of the Etruscans in th commerce. Adriatic we can hardly do more than expres the conjecture that it was directed from Spina and Hatri chiefly to Corcyra. We have already mentioned (p. 196 that the western Etruscans ventured boldly into the caster seas, and trafficked not merely with Sicily, but also wit Greece proper. An ancient intercourse with Attica is indi cated by the Attic clay vases, which are so numerous in th more recent Etruscan tombs, and had been perhaps even a this time introduced for other purposes than the alreadj mentioned decoration of tombs, while conversely Tyrrhc nian bronze candlesticks and gold cups were articles earl; in request in Attica. Still more defuiitely is such an intei course indicated by the coins. The silver pieces of Popv Ionia were struck after the pattern of a very old silver piee stamped on one side with the Gorgoneion, on the othe merely presenting an incuse square, which has been foutt at Athens and on the old amber-route in the district o Posen, and which was in all probability the very coin struc! by order of Solon in Athens. We have mentioned alread; that the Etruscans had also dealings, and perhaps after th development of the Etrusco-Carthaginian maritime allianc their principal dealings, with the Carthaginians. It is a r« markable circumstance that in the oldest tombs of Caere besides native vessels of bronzf! and silver, there have beei Chap, xin.] AgricuUwe, Trade, Commerce. 267 found chiefly oriental articles, which may certainly have Come from Greek merchants, but more probably were intro« diiced by Phoenician traders. We must not, however, attribute too great importance to this Phoenician trade, and in particular we must not overlook the fact that the alph* bet, as well as the other influences that stimulated and Taof tured native culture, were brought to Etruria by the Greeks, and not by the Phoenicians. Latin commerce assumed a different direction. Karelj as we have opportunity of instituting comparisons between the Romans and the Etruscans as regards the reception of Hellenic elements, the cases in which such comparisons can be instituted exhibit the two nations as completely indepen- dent of each other. This is most clearly apparent in thei case of the alphabet. The Greek alphabet brought to the Etruscans from the Chalcidico-Doric colonies in Sicily or Campania varies not immaterially from that which the Lat^ ins derived from the same quarter; so that, although both peoples have drawn from the same source, they have done so at different times and different places. The same phe- nomenon appears in particular words : the Roman Pollux and the Tuscan Pultuke are independent corruptions of the Greek Polydeukes ; the Tuscan Utuze or Uthuze is formed from Odysseus, the Roman Ulixes is an exact reproduction of the form of the name usual in Sicily ; in like manner the Tuscan Aivas corresponds to the old Greek form of this name, the Roman Aiax to a secondary form that was prob- ably also Sicilian ; the Roman Aperta or Apello and the Samnite Appellun have sprung from the Doric Apellon, the Tuscan Apulu from Apollon. Thus the language and writ* ing of Latium indicate that the direction of Latin commcroa was exclusively towards the Cumaeans and Sicilians. Ever^ other trace which has survived from so remote an age leads to the same conclusion : such as, the coin of Posidonia found in Latium ; the purchase of grain, when a failure of the harvest occurred in Rome, from the Volscians, Cumae^ ans, and Siceliots (and, as was natural, from the Etruscans as well) ; above all, the relation subsisting between tha 868 Agnculture^ Trade, Commerce. [Book 1 Latin and Sicilian monetary systems. As the local Dorico Chaloidian designation of silver coin vofiog, and the Sicilian measure ijfuvct, were transferred with the same meaning to Latiiim as nummus and hemina, so conversely the Italian designations of weight, libra, iriens, quadrans, sextans^ UHcia, which arose in Latium for the measurement of the copper which was used by weight instead of money, had found their way into the common speech of Sicily in the third century of the city under the corrupt and hybrid forms, llzqa, TQiag, zezQcig, s^dg, ovyxia. Indeed, among all the Greek systems of weights and moneys, the Sicilian alone was brought into a determinate relation to the Italian cop- per-system ; not only was the value of silver set down con- ventionally and perhaps legally as two hundred and fifty times that of copper, but the equivalent on this computa- tion of a Sicilian pound of copper (-j-Ju^th of the Attic tal- ent, f of the Roman pound) was in very early times struck, especially at Syracuse, as a silver coin [Ikqa agyvQiov, i. e, " pound of copper in silver "). Accordingly it cannot be doubted that Italian bars of copper circulated also in Sicily instead of money ; and this exactly harmonizes with the hypothesis that the commerce of the Latins with Sicily was a passive commerce, in consequence of which Latin money was drained away thither. Other proofs of ancient inter- course between Sicily and Italy, especially the adoption in the Sicilian dialect of the Italian expressions for a commer- cial loan, a prison, and a dish, and the converse reception of Sicilian terms in Italy, have been already mentioned (p. 213, 264). We meet also with several, though less defi- nite, traces of an ancient intercourse of the Latins with the Chalcidian cities in Lower Italy, Cumae and Neapolis, and with the Phocaeans in Velia and Massilia. That it waa however far less active than that with the Siceliots is shown by the well-known fact that all the Greek words which made their way in earlier times to Latium exhibit Doric forms — we need only recall Aesculapius, Laiona, Aperta, tnachina. Had their dealings with the originally Ionian cities, such as Cumae (p. 189) and the Phocaean settle Omap. xni.] Agriculture, Trade, OommerGe. 269 ments, been on a similar scale with those which they had ^'ith the Sicilian Dorians, Ionic forms would at least have made their appearance along with the others ; although cer- tainly Dorism early penetrated into these Ionic colonies themselves, and their dialect varied greatly. While all the facts thus combine to attest the stirring traffic of the Latins with the Greeks of the western main generally, and espe- cially with the Sicilians, there is scarcely found a single proof of intercourse with other peoples ; in particular it is very remarkable that — if we leave out of account some local names — there is an utter absence of any evidence from language as to ancient intercourse between the Latins and the nations speaking the Aramaic tongue.* If we further inquire how this traffic was carried on, whether by Italian merchants abroad or by foreign mer- chants in Italy, the former supposition has all the probabili- ties in its favour, at least so far as Latium is concerned. It is scarcely conceivable that those Latin terms denoting the substitute for money and the commercial loan could have found their way into general use in the language of the in- habitants of Sicily through the mere resort of Sicilian mer- chants to Ostia and their receipt of copper in exchange for ornaments. Lastly, in regard to the persons and classes by whom this traffic was carried on in Italy, no special superior class of merchants distinct from and independent of the class of landed proprietors developed itself in Rome. The reason * If we leave out of view Sarranus, Afer, and other local designa- tions (p. 199), the Latin language appears not to possess a single word immediately derived in early times from the Phoenician. The very few words from Phoenician roots which occur in it, such as arrabo or arra and perhaps also murra, nardus, and the like, are plainly borrowed proximately from the Greek, which has a considerable number of such words of Oriental extraction as indications of its primitive intercoursa with the Aramaeans. The same holds true of the enigmatical word the- faurus; whether it may have been originally Greek or borrowed by the Greeks from the Phoenician or Persian, it is at any rate, as a Latin word, derived from the Greek, as the very retaining of its aspiration protei (p. 240). 270 Agriculture, Trade, Commerce. [Book I of this surprising phenomenon was, that the wholesale com* merce of Latium was from the beginning in the hands of the large landed proprietors — a hypothesis which is not so singular as it seems. It was natural that in a country in- tersected by several navigable rivers the great landholder, who was paid by his tenants their quotas of produce in kind, should come at an early period to possess barks ; and there is evidence that such was the case. The transmarine traffic conducted on the trader's own account must therefore have fallen into the hands of the great landholder, seeing that he alone possessed the vessels for it and — in his pro- duce — the articles for export.* In fact the distinction be- tween a landed and a moneyed aristocracy was unknown to the Eomans of earlier times ; the great landholders were at the same time the speculators and the capitalists. In the case of a very active commerce such a combination certain- ly could not have been maintained ; but, as the previous representation shows, while there was a comparatively vig- orous traffic in Rome in consequence of the trade of the Latin land being there concentrated, Rome was by no means mainly a commercial city like Caere or Tarentum, but was and continued to be the centre of an agricultural commu- nity. * Quintus Claudius, in a law issued shortly before 534, prohibited the senators fromhafing sea-going vessels holding more than 300 amphorae (1 amph. = nearly 6 gallons) : id satis habilum ad fructus ex agris vec- tandos ; quaesttis omnis pairihus indecorus visus (Liv. xxi. 63). It was thus an ancient usage, and was still permitted, that the senators should possess sea-going vessels for the transport of the produce of their estates : on the other hand, transmarine mercantile speculation (guaestus, triiffie^ fitting out of vessels, &c.) on their part was prohibited. It is a curiout fifict that the ancient Greeks as will as the Romans expressed the ton- nage of their sea-going ships constantly in amphorae ; the reason evi- dently being, that Greece, as well as Italy exported wine at a compar* lively early period, and on a larger scale than any other bulky article. CHAPTER XIV MEASURING AND WRIIINO. The art of measuring brings the world into subjection to man ; the art of writing prevents his knowledge from perishing along with himself; together they make man — what nature has not made him — all-powerful and eternal. It is the privilege and duty of history to trace the course of national progress along these paths also. Measurement necessarily presupposes the development Italian °^ *^® Several ideas of units of time, of space, measures. gj^g^ ^f weight, and of a whole consisting of equal parts, or in other words of number and of a numeral sys- tem. The most obvious bases presented by nature for this purpose are, in reference to time, the periodic returns of the sun and moon, or the day and the month ; in reference to space, the length of the human foot, which is more easily applied in measuring than the arm ; in reference to gravity, the burden which a man is able to poise {librare) on his hand while he holds his arm stretched out, or the " weight " (libra). As a basis for the notion of a whole made up of equal parts, nothing so readily suggests itself as the hand with its five, or the hands with their ten, fingers ; upon this rests the decimal system. We have already observed that these elements of all numeration and measuring reach back not merely beyond the separation of the Greek and Latin stocks, but even to the most remote primeval times. The antiquity in particular of the measurement of time by the moon is demonstrated by language (p. 40) ; even the mode of reckoning the days that elapse between the several phases of the moon, not forward from the phase on which it had entered Last, but backward from that which was next ex 272 Meaaurinff ani Writing. [Book I pected, is at least older than the separation of the Greeks and Latins. The most definite evidence of the antiquity and original Decimal exclusive use of the decimal system among the eystem. Indo-Germans is furnished by the well-known -agreement of all In do-Germanic languages in respect to the Qumerals as far as a hundred inclusive (p. 41). In the case of Italy the decimal system pervaded all the earliest ar- rangements : it may be sufficient to recall the number ten so usual in the case of witnesses, securities, envoys, and magistrates, the legal equivalence of one ox and ten sheep, the partition of the canton into ten curies and the pervading application generally of the decurial system, the limitatio, the tenth in offerings and in agriculture, decimation, and the praenomen Decimus. Among the applications of this most ancient decimal system in the sphere of measuring and of writing, the remarkable Italian ciphers claim a primary place. When the Greeks and Italians separated, there were still evidently no conventional signs of number. On the other hand we find the three oldest and most indispensable num-erals, one, five, and ten, represented by three signs — I, V or A, X, manifestly imitations of the outstretched fin- ger, and the open hand single and double — which were not derived either from the Hellenes or the Phoenicians, but were common to the Eomans, Sabellians, and Etruscans. They were the first steps towards the formation of a na- tional Italian writing, and at the same time evidences of the liveliness of that earlier inland intercourse among the Ital- ians which preceded their transmarine commerce (p. 260). Which of the Italian stocks invented, and which of them borrowed, these signs, can of course no longer be ascer- tained. Other traces of the pure decimal system occur but sparingly in this field ; among them are the vorsus, the Sa- bellian measure of surface of 100 square feet (p. 45), and the Roman year of 10 months. Generally in the case of those Italian measures, which were not connected with Greek standards and decimal Were probably developed by the Italians before °^° ""■ they came into contact with the Greeks, ther# Chap. XIV.] Measuring and Writmg. 273 prevailed the partition of the "-whole" {as) into twelve " units " {unciae). The very earliest Latin priesthoods, the colleges of the Salii and Arvales (p. 226), as well as the leagues of the Etruscan cities, were organized on the basis of the number twelve. The same number predominated iu the Roman system of weights and in the measures of length, where the pound (libra) and the foot {pes) were usually subdivided into twelve parts ; the unit of the Ro- man measures of surface was the " driving " {actus) of 120 feet square, a combination of the decimal and duodecimal systems.* Similar arrangements as to the measures of ca- pacity may have passed into oblivion. If we inquire into the basis of the duodecimal system and consider how it can have happened that, in addition to ten, twelve should have been so early and universally sin- gled out from the equal series of numbers, we shall be able to find no other source to which it can be referred than a comparison of the solar and lunar periods. The double hand of ten fingers and the solar cycle of nearly twelve lunar periods first suggested to man the profound concep- tion of an unit composed of equal units, and thereby origi- nated the idea of a system of numbers, the first step towards mathematical thought. The consistent duodecimal develop- ment of this idea appears to have belonged to the Italian nation, and to have preceded the first contact with the Greeks. But when at length the Hellenic trader had opened up the route to the west coast of Italy, the meas- meaBures in ures of surface remained unaffected, but the ^' measures of length, of weight, and above all of capacity — in other words those definite standards without ■which barter and traffic are impossible — experienced the * Originally both the actus, " driTing," and its Btill more frequently aocurring duplicate, the iitgerwm, " yoking," were, like the German " morgen," not measures of surface, but measures of labour ; the lattei denoting the day's work, the former the half-day's work, with reference to the peculiarly marked division of the day in Italy by the plough man's rest at noon. 12* 274 Measuring a/nd Writing. [Book I, effects of the new international intercourse. The RomWi foot, which in later times was a little smaller than tha Greek,* but at that time was either equal in reality or waa at any rate stUl reckoned equal to it, was, in addition to its Roman subdivision into twelve twelfths, divided after the Greek fashion into four hand-breadths [palmus) and sixteen finger-breadths {digitus). Further, the Eoman weights were brought into a fixed proportional relation to the A.ttic system, which prevailed throughout Sicily but not in Cumae — another significant proof that the Latin traffic was chiefly directed to the island ; four Roman pounds were assumed as equal to three Attic minae, or rather the Ro- man pound was assumed as equal to one and a half of the Sicilian litrae, or half-mmae (p. 268). But the most singu- lar and chequered aspect is presented by the Roman meas- ures of capacity, as regards both their names and their pro- portions. Their names have come from the Greek terms either by corruption (amphora, modius after iisdifivoe, con- gius from x.'^eis, hemina, cyathus) or by translation (ace- tabulum from o^v^cupov) ; while conversely ^sa-njg is a cor- ruption of sexiarius. All the measures are not identical, but those in most common use are so ; among liquid meas- ures the congius or chus, the sexiarius, and the cyathus, the two last also for dry goods ; the Eoman amphora was equivalent in liquid measure to the Attic talent, and at the same time stood to the Greek metretes in the fixed ratio of 3 : 2, and to the Greek medimnos of 2 : 1. To one who can decipher the significance of such records, these names and numerical proportions fully reveal the activity and im- portance of the intercourse between the Sicilians and the Latins. The Greek numeral signs were not adopted ; but the Roman probably availed himself of the Greek alphabet, when it reached him, to form ciphers for 50 and 1000, pep- haps ajso for 100, out of the signs for the three aspirated letter* which he had no use for. In Etruria the sign fo/ * ff of the Greek foot .= one Roman foot Chap. XIV.] Measuring and Writmg. 27S 100 at least appears to have been obtained in a similar Avay Afterwards, as usually happens, the systems of notation among the two neighbouring nations became assimilated by the adoption in substance of the Roman system in Etruria. In like manner the Eoman calendar — and probably that Ine Italian °^ *^® Italians generally — began with an inde- Tfore'Si pendent development of its own, but subse- period of quently came under the influence of the Greeks. Greek iii. ? i t • • ,• ■ i fluenoein In the division 01 time the returns of sunrise and sunset, and of the new and full moon, most directly arrest the attention of man ; and accordingly the day and the month, determined not by cyclic calculation but by direct observation, were long the exclusive measures of time. Down to a late age sunrise and sunset were pro- claimed in the Roman market-place by the public crier, and in like manner it may be presumed that in early times, at each of the four phases of the moon, the number of days that would elapse from that phase until the next was pro- claimed by the priests. The mode of reckoning therefore in Latium — and the like mode, it may be presumed, was in use not merely among the Sabellians, but also among the Etruscans — was by days, which, as already mentioned, were counted not forward from the phase that had last occurred, but backward from that which was next expected ; by lunar weeks, which varied in length between 7 and 8 days, the average length being 7-| ; and by lunar months, which in like manner were sometimes of 29, sometimes of 30 days, the average duration of the synodical month being 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes. For some time the day continued to be among the Italians the smallest, and the month the largest, division of time. It was not until afterwards that diey began to distribute day and night respectively into four portions, and it was much later still when they began to employ the division into hours ; which explains why even stocks otherwise closely related differed in their mode of fixing the commencement of day, the Romans placing it at midnight, the Sabellians and the Etruscans at noon. No calendar, of the year at any rate, had as yet been organised 276 Measuring and Writing. [Book 1 when the Greeks separated from the Italians, for the names for the year and its divisions in the two languages have been formed quite independently of each other. Neverthe- less the Italians appear to have already in the pre-Hellenio period advanced, if not to the arrangement of a fixed calen- dar, at any rate to the institution of two larger umts of time. The simplifying of the reckoning according to lunar months by the application of the decimal system, which waa usual among the Romans, and the designation of a term of ten months as a " ring " (annus) or complete year, bear in them all the traces of a high antiquity. Later, but likewise at a period very early and undoubtedly previous to the operation of Greek influences, the duodecimal system (as we have already stated) was developed in Italy, and, as it derived its very origin from the observation of the fact that the solar period was equal to twelve lunar periods, it was certainly applied in the first instance to the reckoning of time. This view accords with the fact that the individual names of the months — which can only have originated after the month was viewed as part of a solar year — particularly those of March and of May, were similar among the differ- ent branches of the Italian stock, while there was no simi- larity between the Italian names and the Greek. It is not improbable therefore that the problem of laying down a practical calendar which should correspond at once to the moon and the sun — a problem which may be compared Ie some sense to the quadrature of the circle, and the solution of which was only recognized as impossible and abandoned after the lapse of many centuries — had already employed the minds of men in Italy before the epoch at which their contact with the Greeks began ; these purely national at- tempts to solve it, however, have passed into oblivion. What we know of the oldest calendar of Rome and of some other Latin cities — as to the Sabellian ancj The oldest ,-,, , n • i Itaio-Greek iLtruscan measurement of time we have no tra/> °* ™ ^' ditional information — is decidedly based on the oldest Greek arrangement, which was intended to answer both to the phases of the moon and to the seasons of the Chap. XIV.] Measuring and Writing. 211 Bolar year, corjstructed on the assumption of a lunar period of 29^ days and a solar period of 1.2^ lunar months or 368|- days, and on the regular alternation of a full month or month of 30 days with a hollow month or month of 29 days and of a year of 12 with a year of 13 months, but at tlie same time maintained in some sort of harmony with tlie actual celestial phenomena by arbitrary curtailments and intercalations. It is -possible that this Greek arrange- ment of the year in the first instance came into use among the Latins without undergoing any alteration ; but the old- est form of the Koman year which can be historically recog- nized varied materially from its model, not in the cyclical result nor yet in the alternation of years of 12 with years of 13 months, but in the designation and in the measuring off of the individual months. The Roman year began with the beginning of spring ; the first month in it, and the only one which bears the name of a god, was named from Mars {^Martius), the three following from sprouting (aprilis), growing (maius), and thriving {iunius), the fifth and on- ward to the tenth from their places in the order of arrange- ment (^uinctilis, sextilis, September, October, november, de- cember), the eleventh from commencing (ianuarius) (p. 224), with reference probably to the renewal of agricultural operations that followed mid-winter and the season of rest, the twelfth, and in an ordinary year the last, from cleansing {/ebruarius). To this series recurring in regular succession there was added in the intercalary year a nameless " labour- month " (mercedonius) at the close of the year, viz. after February, And, as the Roman calendar was independent as respected the names of the months which were probably taken from the old national ones, it was also independent as regarded their duration. Instead of the four years of the Greek cycle, each composed of six months of 30 and six of 39 days and an intercalary month inserted every second year alternately of 29 and 30 days (354 + 384 + 354+383 = 1475 days), the Roman calendar substituted four years, each containing four months — the first, third, fifth, and eighth —of 31 days and seven of 29 days, with a February of 28 278 Meas'armg:- and Writing. [Book l days during three years and of 39 in the fourth, ajid an ii* tercalary month of 27 days inserted every second yeai (355+383 + 355+382=1475 days). In like manner this calendar deviated from the original distribution of the month into four weeks, sometimes of 7, sometimes of 3 days ; instead of this it permanently fixed the first quartei in the months of 31 days on the seventh, in those of 29 on the fifth day, and the full moon in the former on the fif- teenth, in the latter on the thirteenth day ; so that the sec- ond and fourth weeks in the month consisted of 8 days, the third ordinarily of 9 (only in the case of the February of 28 days it consisted of 8, and in the intercalary month of 27 days, of 7), the first of 6 where the month consisted of 31, and in other cases of 4 days. As the course of the last three weeks of the month was thus essentially similar, it was henceforth necessary only to proclaim the length of the first week in each month. Thence the first day of the first week received the name of " proclamation-day " {TcaJendae). The first days of the second and fourth weeks, which were uniformly of 8 days, were — in conformity with the Roman custom of reckoning, which included the terminus ad quern — designated as " nine-days " (nonae, noundinae), while the first day of the third week retained the old name of idus (perhaps " dividing-day "). The chief motive lying at the bottom of this strange remodelling of the calendar seems to have been a belief in the salutary virtue of odd num- bers ; * and while in general it is based on the oldest form of the Greek year, its variations from that form distinctly exhibit the influence of the doctrines of Pythagoras, which were then paramount in Lower Italy, and which especially turned upon a mystic view of numbers. But the conse- quence was that this Roman calendar, clearly as it bears * CenBorin. 20. 4, S ; Macrob. Sat. i. 18, 5 ; Solin. 1. With referenc* to this belief in general, see Festus, Ep. v. imparem, p. 109, Miill. ; Vir- gil, Ed. viii. 75, and Serving thereon ; Plin. xxTiii. 2, 23 (impares mt- meros ad omnia vehemenfiores credimus idque infebrihus dierum observa- tione intellegitur) ; Macrob. Gomm. i. 2, 1 ; ii. 2, 17 (impar numerus mat tlparfemina vocaiur); Plutarcih, Q. B. 102, Chap, xfv.] Measwting and Writing. 279 traces of the desire that it should harmonize with the course both of sun and moon, in reality by no means so corre- sponded with the lunar periods as did at least on the whole its Greek model, while, like the oldest Gieek cycle, it could only follow the solar seasons by means of frequent arbi- trary excisions, and did in all probability follow them but very imperfectly, for it is scarcely likely that the calendar would be handled with greater skill than was manifested in its original arrangement. The retention moreover of the reckoning by months or — which is the same thing — by years of ten months implies a tacit, but not to be misun- derstood, confession of the irregularity and untrustworthi- ness of the oldest Roman solar year. This Roman calendar may be regarded, at least in its essential features, as that generally current among the Latins. As the time of begin- ning the year and the names of the months were universal' ly liable to change, variations in the minor ordinal numbers and designations are quite compatible with the hypothesis of a common basis ; and with, such a calendar-system, which practically was quite irrespective of the lunar course, the Latins might easily come to have their months of arbitrary length, whose limits were possibly marked by annual festi- vals — as in the case of the Alban months, which varied be- tween 16 and 36 days. It would appear probable there, foire that the Greek trieteris had early been introduced from Lower Italy at least into Latium and perhaps also among the other Italian stocks, and had thereafter been subjected in the calendars of the several cities to various subordinate alterations. For the measuring of periods of more than one year the Fegnal years of the kings may have been employed : but it is doubtful whether that method of dating, which was in uae in the East, existed in Greece or Italy during earlier ii- tim(!S. On the other hand the intercalary period recurring every four years, and the census and lustration of the com munity connected with it, appear to have suggested a reck oning by lustra similar in plan to the Greek reckoning by Olympiads— a mode of reckoning, however, which early 280 Measuring and Writmg. [Book L lost its chronological importance in consequence of tha irregularities that were soon introduced by the postpone- uients of the census. The art of expressing sounds by written signs was of , , , later origin than the art of measurement. Tha Ilitroduc- ° Hon of Hei- Italians did not any more than the Hellenes de> lenic alpha- ,> i i i i i bets into velope such an art of themselves, although we Italy. '^ .. 111. may discover attempts at such a development in the Italian numeral signs (p. 272), and possibly also in the primitive Italian custom — formed independently of Hellenio influence — of drawing lots by means of wooden tablets. The difficulty which must have attended the first individual- izing of sounds — occurring as they do in so great a variety of combinations — is best demonstrated by the fact that a single alphabet propagated from people to people and from generation to generation has sufficed, and still suffices, for the whole of Aramaic, Indian, Graeco-Eoman, and modem civilization ; and this most important product of the human intellect was the joint creation of the Aramaeans and the Indo-Germans. The Semitic family of languages, in which vowels have a subordinate character and never can begin a word, presented special facilities for the individualizing of the consonants ; and it was among the Semites accordingly that the first alphabet — in which the vowels, however, were wanting — was invented. It was the Indians and Greeks who first independently of each other and by very diver- gent methods created, out of the Aramaean consonantal writing introduced among them by commerce, a complete alphabet by the addition of the vowels — which was effected by the application of four letters, which the Greeks did not use as consonantal signs, for the four vowels a e i o, and bv the formation of a new sign for u — in other words by the introduction of the syllable into writing instead of the mere consonant, or, as Palamedes says in Euripides, "ylqimva xai ifrnvovvxa, avXkapdq ri &iu;, ''E^fVQOV av&QMJtOifjb yQcHfifiar' ilSivab* This Aramaeo-Hellenic alphabet was accordingly brougnt Ohap. XIV.] Measuring and Writing. 281 to the Italians through the medium of the Sicilian or Italian Hellenes ; not, however, through the agricultural colonies of Magna Graecia, but through the merchants of Cumae oi Naxos, by whom it must have been brought in the first in- stance to the very ancient emporia of international ttaflio ir. Latium and Etruria — to Rome and Caere. The alphabet rpijsived by the Italians was by no means the oldest Hoi Icnic one ; it had already experienced several modifications, particularly the addition of the three letters | qp ;( and tha alteration of the signs for i y X* We have already ob- * The history of the alphabet among the Hellenes turns essentially on the fact that — assuming the primitive alphabet of 23 letters, that is to say, the Phoenician alphabet Tocalised and enlarged by the addition of the u — ^proposals of very various kinds were made to supplement and improve it, and each of these has a history of its own. The most import- ant of these, which it is interesting to keep in view as bearing on the history of Italian writing, are the following: — I. The introduction of special signs for the sounds i

Ar. XV.] Art. 302 Latium in very early times. Not only did the Latins pos sess the elements of gymnastic training, in so far as thi Roman boy learned like every farmer's son to manag* horse?; and waggon and to handle the hunting-spear, and as in Rome every burgess was at the same time a soldier ; bul the art of dancing was from the first an object of public care, and a powerful impulse was further given to such cul ture at an early period by the introduction of the Hellenii gamf>s. The lyrical poetry and tragedy of Hellas grew oui of songs similar to the festal lays of Rome ; the ancestra lay contained the germs of epos, the masked farce the germs of comedy ; and in this field also Grecian influencei were not wanting. In such circumstances it is the more remarkable tha these germs either did not spring up at all, or were sooi arrested in their growth. The bodily training of the Latir youth continued to be solid and substantial, but it remainec altogether alien from the idea of an artistic bodily culture such as was the aim of Hellenic gymnastics. The public games of the Hellenes, when introduced into Italy, changec not so much their normal form as their essential character While they were intended to be competitions of burgesses *nd beyond doubt were so at first in Rome, they became contests of trained riders and trained boxers, and, while th( proof of free and Hellenic descent formed the first conditioi for participating in the Greek festal games, those of Rom; eoon passed into the hands of freedmen and foreigners anc fcven of persons not free at all. Consequently the circle ot i-cllow-competitors became converted into a public of spec rattors, and the chaplet of the victorious champion, whicl nas been with justice called the badge of Hellas, was after wards hardly ever mentioned in Latium. A similar fate befel poetry and her sisters. The Greeki »nd Gern\ans alone possess a fountain of song that wells u] spontaneously ; from the golden vase of the Muses only i few drops have fallen on the green soil of Italy. There was no formation of legend in the strict sense there. Th( Italian gods were abstractions and remained such ; thej S04 Art. [Book I never became elevated into or, as some may prefer to say^ never were obscured under, a true personal shape. In like manner men, even the greatest and noblest, remained in the view of the Italians without exception mortals, and were not, as in the longing recollection and affectionately chep> ished tradition of Greece, elevated in the conception of the multitude into god-like -heroes. But above all no develop- ment of national poetry took place in Latium. It is the deepest and noblest effect of the fine arts and above all of poetry, that they do away with the barriers of civil com- munities and create out of tribes a nation and out of the nations a world. As in the present day by means of our cosmopolitan literature the distinctions of civilized nations are done away, so Greek poetic art transformed the narrow and egotistic sense of family relationship into the conscious- ness of an Hellenic nation, and this again into the conscious- ness of a broad humanity. But in Latium nothing similar occurred. There might be poets in Alba and in Eome, but there arose no Latin epos, nor even — what were still more conceivable — a catechism for the Latin farmer of a kind similar to the Works and Days of Hesiod. The Latin federal festival might well have become a national festival of the Muses, like the Olympian and Isthmian games of the Greeks. A cycle of legends might well have gathered around the fall of Alba, such as was woven around the con- quest of Dion, and every community and every noble clan of Latium might have discovered or inserted the story of its own origin there. But neither of thase results took place, and Italy remained without national poetry or art. The inference which of necessity follows from these facts, that the development of the fine arts in Latium was rather a shiivelling up tnan an expanding into bloom, is confirmed in a manner not to be mistaken by tradition. The beginnings of poetry everywhere, perhaps, belong rather to women than to men ; the spell of incantation and the chant for the dead pertain pre-eminently to the former, and not without reason the spirits of song, the Casmenae or Caraenae and the Carmentis of Latium, like the Muses of Chap. XV.] Art. 306 Hellas, were conceived aa feminine. But the time came in Hellas, when the poet relieved the songstress and Apollo took his place at the head of the Muses. In Latium there was no national god of song, and the older Latin language had no designation for the poet.* The power of song emerging there was out of all proportion weaker, and was rapidly arrested in its growth. The exercise of the fine arts was there early restricted, partly to women and chil- dren, partly to incorporated or unincorporated tradesmen. We have already mentioned that funeral chants were sung by women and banquet-lays by boys ; the religious litanies also were chiefly executed by children. The musicians formed an incorporated, the dancers and the wailing women i^praejicae) unincorporated, trades. While dancing, music, and singing remained constantly in Greece — as they were originally also in Latium — reputable employments re- doundinu to the honour of the burgess and of the commu- nity to which he belonged, in Latium the better portion of the burgesses stood more and more aloof from these vain arts, and that the more decidedly in proportion as art came to be more publicly exhibited and more thoroughly pene- trated by the quickening impulses derived from other lands. The use of the native pipe was sanctioned, but the lyre re- mained despised ; and while the national amusement of masks was allowed, the foreign amusements of the palaeg- tra were not only regarded with indifference, but esteemed disgraceful. While the fine arts in Greece became more and more the common property of the Hellenes individu- ally and collectively and thereby became the means of dif- fusing a universal culture, they gradually disappeared in Latium from the thoughts and feelings of .the people; and, as they degenerated into utterly insignificant handicrafts, * Vates probably denoted in the firat instance the " leader of tha ■inging" (for so the Votes of the Salii must be understood) and tbere- atter in its older usage approximated to the Greek nqniprjT'riq ; it was a word belonging to religious ritual, and even when subsequently used of the poet, always retained the accessory idea of a divinely-inspirerf singer — the priest of the Muses. 306 AH. [Book ^ the idea of a general national culture to be ccmmunicated to youth never suggested itself at all. The education of youth remained entirely confined within the limits of the narrowest domesticity. The boy never left his father's Bide, and accompanied him not only to the field with the plough and the sickle, but also to the house of a friend oi to the council-hall, when his father was invited as a guest or summoned to the senate. This domestic education was well adapted to train man wholly for the household and wholly for the state. The permanent intercommunion of life be- tween father and son, and the mutual reverence felt by ado- lescence for ripened manhood and by the mature man for the innocence of youth, lay at the root of the steadfastness of the domestic and political traditions, of the closeness of the family bond, and in general of the grave earnestness [gravi- tas) and character of moral worth in Roman life. This mode of educating youth was in truth one of those institu- tions of homely and scarce conscious wisdom, which are as simple as they are profound. But amidst the admiration which it awalcens we may not overloolc the fact that it could only be carried out, and was only carried out, by the sacri- fice of true individual culture and by a complete renunciar- tion of the equally charming and perilous gifts of the Muses. Regarding the development of the fine arts among the Dance, mu- Etruscans and Sabellians our knowledge is little ImCg^l™^ better than none.* We can only notice the fact ^''d^Et™^ that in Etruria the dancers (histri, histriones) <»"s. and the pipe-players [subulones) early made a trade of their art, probably earlier even than in Rome, and exhibited themselves in public not only at home, but also in Rome for small remuneration and less honour. It is a circumstance more remarkable that at the Etruscar na- tional festival, in the exhibition of which the whole twelvip cities were represented by a federal priest, games were * We shall show in due time that the Atellanae and Fepoenninae be longed not to Campanian and Etruscan, but to Latin art. Ohap. XV.] Art. 307 given like those of the Roman city-festival ; v^e are, how. ever, no longer in a position to answer the question whicli it suggests, how far the Etruscans were more successful than the Latins in attaining a national art not confined to Ihe narrow bounds of the individual communities. On the other hand a foundation probably was laid in Etruria, e\ en in early times, for that insipid accumulation of learned lumber, particularly of a theological and astrological na- ture, by virtue of which afterwards, when amidst the gen- eral decay antiquarian dilettantism began to flourish, the Tuscans divided with the Jews, Chaldeans, and Egyptians the honour of being accounted the primitive sources of divine wisdom. We know still less, if possible, of Sabel- lian art ; but that of course by no means warrants the in- ference that the Sabellians were inferior to the neighbouring stocks. On the contrary, it may be conjectured from what we otherwise know of the character of the three chief races of Italy, that in artistic gifbs the Samnites approached near- est to the Hellenes and the Etruscans ^ere farthest re- moved from them ; and a sort of confirmation of this hy- pothesis is furnished by the fact, that the most gifted and most original of the Roman poets, such as Naevius, Ennius, Lucilius, and Horace, belonged to the Samnite lands, where- as Etruria has almost no representatives in Roman litera- ture except the Arretine Maecenas, the most insufferable of all heartless and affected * court-poets, and the Volaterran Persius, the true ideal of a conceited and languid, poetry- smitten, youth. The elements of architecture were, as has been already indicated, a primitive common possession of the itSian* stocks. The dwelling-house constituted the first MrohitectTire. ^j^g^pt of structural art; and it was the same among Greeks and Italians. Built of wood, and covered with a pointed roof of straw or shingles, it formed a square dwelling-chamber, which let out the smoke and let in the * riiiterally " word-crisping,'' in allusion to the calamistri Maecs wUi*.'\ 308 Art. tBooK \ light by an opening in the roof corresponding with a hole for carrying off the rain in the ground (cavum aedium} Under this " black roof" (atrium) the meals were prepared and consumed ; there the household gods were worshipped, and the marriage bed and the bier were set out ; there the husband received his guests, and the wife sat spinning amid ^16 circle of her maidens. The house had no porch, unless we t^ke as such the uncovered space between the house door and the street, which obtained its name vestibuhtm, i. e. dressing-place, from the circumstance that the Eoniana were in the habit of going about within doors in their tunics, and only wrapped the toga around them when they went abroad. There was, moreover, no division of apart- ments except that sleeping and store closets might be pro- vided around the dwelling-room ; and still less were there stairs, or stories placed one above another. Whether, or to what extent, a national Italian architec- ture arose out of these beginnings can scarcely Hellenic be determined, for in this field Greek influence, ™''°'^ even in the earliest times, had a very powerful effect and almost wholly overgrew such national attempts as possibly had preceded it. The very oldest Italian archi- tecture with which we are acquainted ^s not much less under the influence of that of Greece than the architecture of the Augustan age. The primitive tombs of Caere and Alsium, and probably the oldest one also of those recently discov- ered at Praeneste, have been, exactly like the ihesauroi of Orchomenos and Mycenae, roofed over with courses of stone placed one above another, gradually overlapping, and closed by a large stone cover. A very ancient building at the city wall of Tusculum was roofed in the same way, and so was originally the well-house (tulUanum) at the fo< t of the Capitol, till the top was pulled down to make roon. for another building. The gates constructed on the same sys- tem are entirely similar in Arpinum and in Mycenae. The tunnel which drains the Alban lake (p. 66), presents the greatest resemblance to that of lake Copais. What are called Cyclopean ring-walls frequently occur in Italy Chap. XV.] AH. 309 dally in Etriiria, Umbria, Latium, and Sabina, and decided- ly belong in point of design to the most ancient buildingsi of Italy, although the greater portion of those now extant were probably not executed till a much later age, several of them certainly not till the seventh century of the city. Tliey are, just like those of Greece, sometimes quite rough- ly formed of large unwrought blocks of rock with smaller stones inserted between them, sometimes disposed in square horizontal courses,* sometimes composed of polygonal * Of thia character were the Servian walls, the remains of which re- cently discovered at the Aventine, both on the side towards S. Paolo in the Vigna Macoarana, and on the side towards the Tiber below S. Sab- ina, have been figured or described in the Anndii delV Inst, Some. 1855 plates XXI.— XXV., p. 81, seg. The blocks of tufo are hewn in longish rectangles, and at some places, for the sake of greater soHdity, are laid alternately with the long and with the narrow side outermost. At one place, in the upper part of the wall, a large regular arch has been in- serted, which is similar in style but appears to have been added at a later date. The portions of the wall preserved consist of about fourteen courses ; the upper portion is wanting, and the lower is for the most part concealed by later buildings, and often covered over with opus reiiculatum. The wall evidently stretched quite along the edge of the hill. The con- tinuation of these excavations inwards showed that the mines and sew- ers traversed the Aventine hill, just as they traversed the Capitoline, in all directions. The latter belong to the system of cloacae, the extent and importance of which in ancient Rome has been instructively discussed by Braun (Annali delV Inst. 1852, p. 331). The portion of the Servian wall near the Viminal gate, discovered in 1862 at the Villa Negroni, consists of regular courses of huge blocks o( peperlno, measuring as much as 3 metres in length, 1 metre on an aver- age in breadth, and 0.75 of a metre in thickness, which are laid side by Bide in three rows, so that the whole thickness of the wall amounts to more than three metres, or fully 10 Roman feet. To this falls to be add- ed the earthen rampart piled up behind it, which seems to have had ol its upper surface a breadth of about 13 metres or fully 40 Roman feet. At intervals of about 5 metres there are seen the foundations of towei'a projecting outwards. Of another piece of the Servian wall found at an early date, not far from the Porta Capena, a representation is given in Gell {Topograph^/ of Some, p. 494). Essentially similar to the Servian walls are those discovered in th*i Vigna Nussiner, on the slope of the Palatine, towards the Capitolins (Braun, I. c), which have been, probably with justice, pronounced to bt remains of the primitive circumvallation of the Soma quadraia (p. *i8) 310 AH. [Book I dresised blocks fitting into each other. The selection of one or other of these systems was doubtless ordinarily de> termined by the material, and accordingly the Dolygonal masonry does not occur in Rome, where in the most an- slant times tufo alone was employed for building. The re^ semblance in the case of the two former and simpler styles may perhaps be traceable to the similarity of the materials employed and of the object in view in building ; but it can hardly be deemed accidental that the artistic polygonal wall- masonry, and the gate with the path leading up to it univer- sally bending to the left and so exposing the unshielded right side of the assailant to the defenders, belong to the Italian fortresses as well as to the Greek. It is a significant cir- cumstance, that this wall-masonry was only usual in that portion of Italy which was neither reduced to subjection by the Hellenes nor cut oiF from intercourse with them, and that the true polygonal masonry is found in Etruria only at Pyrgi and at the towns, not very far distant from it, of Cosa and Saturnia ; and as the design of the walls of Pyrgi, especially when we take into account the significant name (" towers "), may just as certainly be ascribed to the Greeks as that of the walls of Tiryns, in them most probably there still stands before our eyes one of the models from which the Italians learned how to build their walls. The temple in fine, which in the period of the empire was called the Tusoanic and was regarded as a kind of style co-ordinate with the various Greek temple-structures, not only general- ly resembled the Greek temple in being an enclosed space (cello) usually quadrangular, over which walls and columns raised aloft a sloping roof, but was also in details, especially in the column itself and its architectural features, thorough- ly dependent on the Greek system. It is in accordance with all these facts probable, as it is credible of itself, that Italian architecture previous to its contact with the Hellenes was confined to wooden huts, abattis, and mounds of earth and stones, and that construction in stone was only adopted in consequence of the example and the better tools of the Greeks. It is scarcely to be doubted that the Italians firs* Chap XV.] Art. 311 learned from them the use of iron, and derived from them the preparation of mortar (caZ[e]a; calecare, from j;a^e|), the machine {machina, fiTj^av'^), the measuring-rod (groma, a corruption from yvcofiav, yvai^a), and the artificial lattice- worlv (clathri, xlrfiqov). Accordingly we can scarcely Bpeak of an architecture peculiarly Italian, except that in the woodwork of the Italian dwelling-houses — alongside cf alterations produced by Greek influence — many peculiarities were retained or were for the first time developed, and these again exercised a reflex influence on the building of the Italian temples. The architectural development of the house proceeded in Italy from the Etruscans. The Latin and even the Sabellian still adhered to the hereditary wood- en hut and to the good old custom of assigning to the god or spirit not a consecrated dwelling, but only a consecrated space, while the Etruscan had already begun artistically to transform his dwelling-house, and to erect after the model of the dwelling-house of man a temple also for the god and a sepulchral chamber for the spirit. That the advance to such luxurious structures in Latium took place under Etrus- can influence, is proved by the designation of the oldest style of temple architecture and of the oldest style of house architecture respectively as Tuscanic* As concerns the character of this transference, the Grecian temple probably imitated the general outlines of the tent or dwelling-house ; but it was essentially built of hewn stone and covered with tiles, and the nature of the stone and the baked clay sug- gested to the Greek the laws of necessity and beauty. The Etruscan on the other hand remained a stranger to the strict Greek distinction between the dwelling of man necessarily erected of wood and the dwelling of the gods necessarily formed of stone. The peculiar characteristics of the Tus- can temple — the outline approaching nearer to a square, the higher gable, the greater breadth of the intervals between the columns, above all, the increased inclination of the roof (tDd the singular projection of the roof-corbels beyond Sh» • Batio Tuscanica : cavum aedium Tuscanicum. 312 Art. [Rooi I supporting columns — all arose out of the greater approxi- mation of the temple to the dwelling-house, and out of the peculiarities of wooden architecture. The plastic and delineative arts are more recent than Kastioart architecture; the house must be built before In Italy. 3j,y attempt is made to decorate gable and walls. It is not probable that these arts really gained a place in Italy during the regal period of Eome ; it was only in Etruria, where commerce and piracy early gave rise to a great concentration of riches, that art or handicraft — if the term be preferred — obtained a footing in the earliest times. Greek art, when it acted on Etruria, was still, as its copy shows, at a very primitive stage, and the JEtruscans proba- bly learned from the Greeks the art of working in clay and metal at a period not much later than that at which they borrowed from them the alphabet. The silver coins of Populonia, almost the only works that can be with any pre- cision assigned to this period, give no very high idea of Etruscan artistic skill as it then stood. It is not unlikely, however, that the best of the Etruscan works in bronze, to which the later critics of art assigned so high a place, may have belonged to this primitive age ; and the Etruscan terrar cottas also cannot have been altogether despicable, for the oldest works in baked clay placed in the Roman temples — the statue of the Capitoline Jupiter, and the four-horse chariot on the roof of his temple — were executed in Veil, and the large ornaments of a similar kind placed on the roofs of temples passed generally among the later Romans under the name of " Tuscanic works." On the other hand, among the Italians — not among the Sabellian stocks merely, but even among the Latins — native sculpture and design were at this period only coming into existence. The most considerable works of art appear to have been executed abroad. We have just mentioned the statues of clay alleged to have been executed in Veil ; and very recent excavations have shown that works in bronze made in Etruria, and furnished with Etruscan inscriptions, circulated in Praeneste at least, if not generally throughout Chap. XV.] Art. 313 Latium. The statue of Diana in the Eomano-Latin federal temple on the Aventine, which was considered the oldest statue of a divinity in Rome,* exactly resembled the Mas- siliot statue of the Ephesian Artemis, and was perhaps manufactured in Velia or Massilia. The guilds, which from ancient times existed in Eome, of potters, coppersmiths, and goldsmiths (p. 258), are almost the only proofs of the existence of native sculpture and design there ; respecting the position of their art it is no longer possible to gain any clear idea. If we endeavour to obtain historical results from these Artistic re- archives of the tradition and practice of primi- en^o^^nts '^"^® ^"^"^^ '* '® '^^ ^"^^ ^'■®'' P^^°'^ manifest that Ital- ^f^^^o"^?™" ian art, like the Italian measures and Italian cans and ' Italians writing, developed itself not under Phoenician, but exclusively under Hellenic influence. There is not a single one of the aspects of Italian art which has not found its definite model in the art of ancient Greece ; and, so far, the legend is fully warranted which traces the manufacture of painted clay figures, beyond doubt the most ancient form of art in Italy, to the three Greek artists, the " moulder," "fitter," and "draughtsman," Eucheir, Diopos, and Eu- grammos, although it is more than doubtful whether this art came directly from Corinth or was brought directly to Tarquinii. There is as little trace of any immediate imita- tion of oriental models as there is of an independently- developed form of art. The Etruscan lapidaries adhered to the form of the beetle or scarabaeus, which was original- ly Egyptian ; but scarabaei were also used as models in carving in Greece in very early times (e. (jr. such a beetle- ' When Varro {ap. Augastin. De Civ. Dei, iv. 31 ; comp. Plutarch, Num. 8) afBrma that the Komans for more than one hundred and seven- ty years worshipped the gods without images, he is evidently thinking ef this primitive piece of carving, which, according to the convention- al chronology, was dedicated between 176 and 219, aul, „ beyond doubt, was the first statue of the gods, the con- Becration of which was mentioned in the authorities which Varro had before him. 314 AH. [BcoK „ stone, with a very ancient Greek inscription, has been found in Aegina), and therefore they may very well have come to the Etruscans through the Greeks, The Italians may have bought from the Phoenician ; they learned only from the Greek. To the further question, from what Greek stock the Etruscans in the first instance received their art-models, a categorical answer cannot be given ; yet relations of a re» inarkable kind subsist between the Etruscan and the oldest Attic art. The three forms of art, which were practised in Etruria at least in after times very extensively, but in Greece only to an extent very limited, tomb-painting, mir- ror-designing, and graving on stone, have been hitherto met with on Grecian soil only in Athens and Aegina. The Tus- can temple does not correspond exactly either to the Doric or to the Ionic ; but in the more important points of dis- tinction, in the course of columns carried round the cella, as well as in the placing of a separate pedestal under each par^ ticular column, the Etruscan style follows the more recent Ionic ; and it is this same loiio-Attic style of building still pervaded by a Doric element, which in its general design stands nearest of all the Greek styles to the Tuscan. -In the case of Latium there is an almost total absence of any reliable traces of intercourse bearing on the history of art. If it was — as is indeed almost self-evident — the general re- lations of traffic and intercourse that determined also the introduction of models in art, it may be assumed with cer- tainty that the Campanian and Sicilian Hellenes were the instructors of Latium in art, as in the alphabet ; and the analogy between the Aventine Diana and the Ephesian Ar- temis is at least not inconsistent with such an hypothesis Of course the older Etruscan art also served as a model for Latium. As to the Sabellian tribes, if Greek architectural and plastic art reached them at all, it must, like the Greek alphabet, have come to them only through the medmm of the more western Italian stocks. If, in conclusion, we are to form a judgment respecting the artistic endowments of the different Italian nations, we Chap. XV.] AH. 316 already at this stage perceive — what becomes indeed far more obvious in the later stages of the history of art — that while the Etruscans attained to the practice of art at an earlier period and produced more massive and rich work- manship, their works are inferior to those of the Latins and Sabellians in appropriateness and utility no less than in spirit and beauty. This certainly is apparent, in the case of our present epoch, only in architecture. The polygonal wall-masonry, as appropriate to its object as it was beauti- ful, was frequent in Latium and in the inland country be- hind it ; while in Etruria it was rare, and not even the walls of Caere are constructed of polygonal blocks. Even in the religious prominence — remarkable also as respects the his- tory of art — assigned to the arch (p. 225) and to the bridge (p. 230) in Latium, we may be allowed to perceive, as it were, an anticipation of the future aqueducts and consular highways of Eome. On the other hand, the Etruscans re- peated, and at the same time corrupted, the ornamental architecture of the Greeks : for while they transferred the laws established for building in stone to architecture in wood, they displayed no thorough skill of adaptation, and by the lowness of their roof and the wide intervals between their columns gave to their temples, to use the language of an ancient architect, a " heavy, mean, straggling, and clumsy appearance." The Latins found in the rich stores of Greek art but very little that was congenial to their thoroughly realistic tastes ; but what they did adopt they appropriated truly and heartily as their own, and in the development of the polygonal wall architecture perhaps excelled their in- structors. Etruscan art is a remarkable evidence of dex- terity mechanically acquired and mechanically retained, but it is, as little as the Chinese, an evidence even of genial re- ceptivity. As scholars have long since desisted from the attempt to derive Greek^art from that of the Etruscans, so they must, with whatever reluctance, make up their minds to transfer the Etruscans from the first to the lowest place in the history of Italian art. BOOK SEOOKD. FROM THE ABOLITION OF THE MONARCHY IN KOMB TO THE UNION OF ITALY. — — Sit ovx sxTiXriTTuv Tov avyyqojfio, ri^a/iivottnmi &<) eft iatoqmi; roiii evtvyxdvovraq. PoLTDIUa CHAPTER I. OHASGE OF THE CONSTITUTION. LIMITAIION OF THE POWKH OF THE MAGISTRATE. The strict conception of the unity and omnipotence of Political the state in all matters pertaining to it, which dTstiQct^ons 'was the central principle of the Italian constitu- m Rome. tioiis, placed in the hands of the single president nominated for life a formidable power, which was felt doubt- less by the enemies of the land, but was not less heavily felt by its citizens. Abuse and oppression could not fail to ensue, and, as a necessary consequence, efforts were made to lessen that power. It was, however, the grand distinc- tion of the endeavours after reform and the revolutions in Rome, that there was no attempt to impose limitations on the community as such or even to deprive it of correspond- ing organs of expression — that there never was any en- deavour to assert the so-called natural rights of the individ- ual in contradistinction to the community — that, on the con- trary, the attack was wholly directed against the form in which the community was represented. From the times of the Tarquins down to those of the Gracchi the cry of the party of progress in Rome was not for limitation of the power of the state, but for limitation of the power of the inagistrates : nor amidst that cry was the truth ever forgot- ten, that the people ought not (o govern, but to be gov- erned. This struggle was carried oii within the burgess-body Side by side with it another movement developed itself — the cry of the non-burgesses for equality of political privi- leges. Under this head are included the agitations of the plebeians, tlie Latins, the Italians, and the freedmen, all of 320 Chwnge of the ConstiUiUon. [Book II whom — whether they may have borne the name of burgesa es, as did the plebeians and the freedmen, or not, as was tha case with the Latins and Italians — were destitute of, and laid claim to, political equality. A third distinction was one of a still more general na> ture ; the distinction between the wealthy and the poor, especially such as had been dispossessed or were endangered in possession. The civil and political relations of Eorae led to the rise of a numerous class of farmers — ^partly small proprietors who were dependent on the mercy of the capi- talist, partly small temporary lessees who were dependent on the mercy of the landlord — and in many instances de- prived individuals as well as whole communities of the lands which they held, without affecting their personal free- dom. By these means the agricultural proletariate became at an early period so powerful as to have a material influ- ence on the destinies of the community. The urban prole- tariate did not acquire political importance till a much later epoch. On these distinctions hinged the internal history of Eome, and, as we may conjecture, not less the history — totally lost to us — of the other Italian communities. The political movement within the fully-privileged burgess-body, the warfare between the excluded and excluding classes, and the social conflicts between the possessors and the non-pos- sessors of land — variously as they crossed and interlatfed, and singular as were the alliances they often produced — were nevertheless essentially and fundamentally distinct. As the Servian reform, which placed the metoikos on a footing of equality in a military point of view Abolition of .,, ?,_ i. ^1 ■ • ^ j theiiieprea- With the Durgess, appears to have origmated th™commu- from considerations of an administrative nature '"'^' rather than from any political party-tendency, wo may assume that the first of the movements which led to internal crises and changes of the constitution was that which sought to limit the magistracy. The earliest achieve- ment of this, the most ancient opposition in Rome, consist- ed in the abolition of the life-tenure of the presidency of Chap. I.] Change oj cf^ Constitution. 321 the commutity ; in other words, in the abolition of the monarchy. How necessarily this was the result of the nat- ural development of things is strikingly demonstrated by the fact, that the same change of constitution toolt place in an analogous manner through the whole circuit of the Italo« Grecian world. Not only in Rome, but likewise among the other Latins as well as among the Sabellians, Etruscans, and Apulians — in fact, in all the Italian communities, just as in those of Greece — we find the rulers for life of an earlier epoch superseded in after times by annual magistrates. In the case of the Lucanian canton there is evidence that it had a democratic government in time of peace, and it was only 'n the event of war that the magistrates appointed a king, that is, a magistrate similar to the Roman dictator. The Sabellian civic communities, such as those of Capua and Pompeii, in like manner were in later times governed by a " community-manager " {medix tuiicus) changed from year to year, and we may assume that similar institutions exist- ed among the other national and civic communities of Italy. In this light the reasons which led to the substitution of consuls for kings in Rome need no explanation. The or- ganism of the ancient Greek and Italian polity through its own action and by a sort of natural necessity produced the limitation of the life-presidency to a shortened, and for the most part an annual, term. Simple, however, as was the cause of the change, it might be brought about iu various ways ; a resolution might be adopted on the death of one life-ruler not to elect another — a course which the Roman senate is said to have attempted after the death of Romu- lus ; or the ruler might voluntarily abdicate, as is affirmed to have been the intention of king Servius TulSius ; or the people might rise in rebellion against a tyrannical ruler, and expel him. It was in this latter way that the monarchy was termi- Expnision Hated in Ronie. For however much the history of the Tax- of the expulsion of the last Tarquinius, "the qniDs from ^ , ■* Eome. proud, may have been mterwoven witn anec- dotes and spun out into a romance, it is not in its leading 14* 322 Change of the OonsUtution. [Book tt outlines to le called in question. Tradition credibly enough indicates as the causes of the rev (It, that the king neglected to consult the senate and to complete its numbers ; that he pronounced sentences of capital punishment and confisca- tion without advising with his counsellors ; that he accumu. lated immense stores of grain in his granaries, and exacted from the burgesses military labours and task-work beyond what was due. The exasperation of the people is attested by tlio formal vow which they made man by man for them- selves and for their posterity that thenceforth they would never tolerate a king ; by the blind hatred with which the name of king was ever afterwards regarded in Eome ; and above all by the enactment that the " king for offering sac- rifice" {rex sacrorum or sacrificnlus) — whom thev consid- ered it their duty to create that the gods might not miss their accustomed mediator — should be disqualified from holding any further office, so that this official was at once the first in rank and the least in power of all the Roman magistrates. Along with the last king all the members of his clan were banished — a proof how close at that time gentile ties still were. The Tarquinii transferred them- selves to Caere, perhaps their ancient home (p. 174), where their family tomb has recently been discovered. In the room of one president holding office for life two annual rulers were now placed at the head of the Roman commu nity. This is all that can be looked upon as historically cer- tain in reference to this important event.* It may easily * The well-known fable for the most part refutes itself. To a con- lidcrable extent it has been concocted for the explanation of surnames {Brutus, Poplicola, Scaevola). But even its apparently historical ingre- dients are found on closer examination to have been invented. Of thii character is the statement that Brutus was captain of horse (irihunus ce- lerum) and in that capacity proposed th,e decree of the people as to the banishment of the Tarquins ; for, according to the earliest constitution of Rome, it is quite impossible that amere tribune should have had the ligM to convoke the curies, when that right was not accorded to the alter egt of the king, the city warden (p. 111). The whole of this stateaent haf CpAP. I.] Change of the Constitution. 3^1 be conceived that in a great community with extensive do- minion like the Roman the royal power, particularly if it had been in the same family for several generations, would be more capable of resistance, and the struggle would thug be keener, than in smaller states ; but there is no certain indication of foreign states interfering in the struggle. The great war with Etruria — which possibly, moreover, haa been placed so close upon the expulsion of the Tarquins only in consequence of chronological confusion in the Ro- man annals — cannot be regarded as an intervention of Etru- ria in favour of a countryman who had been injured in Rome, for the very sufficient reason that the Etruscans not- withstanding their complete victory neither restored the Roman monarchy, nor even brought back the Tarquinian family. If we are left in ignorance of the historical connections Powers of of t^Js important event, we are fortunately in the conBuis. possession of clearer light as to the nature of the change which was made in the constitution. The royal power was by no means abolished, as is shown by the fact that, when a vacancy occurred, a " temporary king " (inter- rex) was nominated as before. The one life-king was sim- ply replaced by two year-kings, who called themselves gen- erals (praeiores), or judges (indices), or merely colleagues (consules).* The collegiate principle, from which this last — and subsequently most current — ^name of the annual kings was derived, assumed in their case an altogether peculiar form. The supreme power was not entrusted to the two magistrates conjointly, but each consul possessed and exer- evidently been invented with the view of furnishing a basis of legitimacy for the Eoman repnblio ; and the invention is a very miserable one, for the tribunia celerurn. is confounded with the entirely different magister egui ■ turn (p. 108), and then the right of convoking the centuries which per- tained to the lattei by virtue of his praetorian rank is made to apply tu Jhis assembly of the curies. * Consules are those who " leap or dance together," as praesul is on« who " leaps before," exul, one who "leaps out" (6 mTiiaJiv), insula, ( " leap into," primarily applied to a mass of rock fallen into the sea. 324 Change of the Constitution. [Book U cised it for himself as fully and wholly as it had been pos sessed and exercised by the king ; and. although a partition of functions doubtless took place from the first — the one consul for instance undertaking the command of the army, and the other the administration of justice — that parti tiou was by no means binding, and each of the colleagues was legally at liberty to interfere at any time in the province of tlie other. When, therefore, supreme power confronted supreme power and the one colleague forbade what the other enjoined, the consular commands neutralized each other. This peculiarly Latin, if not peculiarly Roman, in- stitution of co-ordinate supreme authorities — which in the Eoman commonwealth on the whole approved itself as practicable, but to which it will be difficult to find a paral- lel in any other considerable state — manifestly sprang out of the endeavour to retain the regal power in legally un- diminished fulness. They were thus led not to break up the royal office into parts or to transfer it from an individ- ual to a college, but simply to double it and thereby, if necessary, to neutralize it through its own action. A similar course was followed in reference to the termi- Termot nation of their tenure of office, for which more- offlco. over the earlier interregnum of five days fur- nished a legal precedent. The ordinary presidents of the community were bound not to remain in office longer than a year reckoned from the day of their entering on their functions ; * but they ceased to be magistrates not upon the expiry of the set term, but only upon their publicly and * The day of entering on office did not coincide with the beginning of the year (1st March), and was not at all fixed. The day of retiring was regulated by it, except when a consul was elected expressly in room of one who had died or abdicated {consul siiffectus) ; in which case tha Bubstitute succeeded to the rights and consequently to the term of him whom he replaced. But these supplementary consuls in the earlier pe. riod only occurred when one of the consuls had died or abdicated : pairs of supplementary consuls are not found until the later ages of the repub- lic. Ordinarily, therefore, the official year of a consul consisted of unequal portions of two civil years. Chap. I.] Chomge of the Oonstituinxm. 328 solemnly demitting their office : so that, in the event of their daring to disregard the term and to continue their magistracy beyond the year, their official acts were never* theless valid, and in the earlier times they scarcely even iU' curred any other than a moral responsibility. The incon- sistency between full rule over the community and a set term assigned to that rule by law was so vividly felt, that its tenure for life was only avoided by means of the magis- trate declaring his own — in a certain sense free — will in the matter ; and the magistrate was not restricted directly by the law; but only induced by it to restrict himself. Never- theless this tenure of the supreme magistracy for a set term, which its holders but once or twice ventured to over- step, was of the deepest importance. As an immediate consequence of it, the practical irresponsibility of the king was lost in the case of the consul. It is true that the king was always in the Roman commonwealth subject, and not superior, to the law ; but, as according to the Roman view the supreme judge could not be prosecuted at his own bar, while the king might perpetrate a crime, there was for him no tribunal and no punishment. The consul, again, if he had committed murder or treason, was protected by his office only so long as it lasted ; on his retirement he was liable to the ordinary penal jurisdiction like any other bur- gess. To these changes of a prominent nature, affecting the principles of the constitution, other restrictions were added of a subordinate and administrative character, some of which nevertheless produced a deep effect. The privilege of the king to have his fields tilled by task-work of the bur- gesses, and the special relation of clientship in which the metoeci as a body must have stood to the king, ceased of themselves with the life-tenure of the office. Hitherto in criminal processes as well as in fines and Eight of corporal punishments it had been the province appeal. ^f ^jjg j^j^g jjq(; q^\j ^q investigate and decide the cause, but also to decide whether the person found guUty should or should not be all owed to appeal for pardon. Th» 326 OJiange of the Constitution- [Boos U Valerian law now (in 245) enacted that the -eon sul must allow the appeal of the condemned where sentence of capital or corporal punishment had beea pronounced otherwise than by martial law — a regulatioij which by a later law (of uncertain date, but passed befort 303) was extended to heavy fines. In token of this right of appeal, when the consul appeared in the capacity of judge and not of general, the consular liotors laid aside the axes which they had previously carried by virtue of the penal jurisdiction belonging to their mas- ter. The law however threatened the magistrate, who did not allow due course to the provocatio, with no other pen alty than infamy — which, as matters then stood, was essen- tially nothing but a moral stain, and at the utmost only had the effect of disqualifying the infamous person from giving testimony. Here too the course followed was based on the same view, that it was in law impossible to diminish the old regal powers, and that the checks imposed upon the holder of the supreme authority in consequence of the revolution had, strictly viewed, only a practical and moral value. When therefore the consul acted within the old regal juris- diction, he might in so acting perpetrate an injustice, but he committed no crime and consequently was not amenable for what he did to the penal judge. A limitation similar in its tendency took place in the Eestriotiona ^^'^^^ jurisdiction ; for to this epoch probably be- "atimio*''''" ■'o^gs *^6 change by which the right of the ma- powers. gistrates, after adjustment of a cause, to com- mit to a private person the investigation of its merits was converted into an obligation to do so. It is probable that this was accomplished by a general arrangement respecting the transference of magisterial power to deputies or succes- sors. While the king had been absolutely at liberty to nominate deputies but had never been compelled to do so, in the case of the consul the right of delegating his powers seems to have been limited and legally restricted in a two- fold manner. h\ the first place such comprehensive dele, gated powers — themselves partaking of the splendour tha' Chap. I.] Change of the Constitution. 327 environed the king — as those of the warden of the city ii relation to the administration of justice, and probably also the delegated command of the army (p. 98), virtually ceased upon the introduction of annual kings ; for the ap- pointment of a warden of the city which still was madk for the few hours during which the two consuls had to ab- sent themselves from the city in order to take pait in the Latin festival, was a mere form and was treated in that light. It was in fact one of the objects attained by putting the supreme magistracy into the collegiate form, that a magistrate-depute for the administration of justice was only required in rare exceptional cases ; and although in war the commander-in-chief could not be prohibited from en- trusting the command even of the whole army to another, such a deputy now took his place as simply the adjutant {legatus) of the general. The new republic tolerated neither king nor lieutenant with full regal powers ; but the consul was at liberty, especially if a serious war seemed to require that the original unity of the magistracy should be restored, to suspend the collegiate equality of prerogatives, and to nominate a third colleague, with the title of dictator, whom both the nominating consul and his original colleague were bound to obey as a superior magistrate, and in whose per- son, as an extraordinary and temporary measure, the old regal powers again came into force in all their compass. The second restriction imposed on the consuls as to the delegation of their powers was perhaps still more impor- tant in its effects. While the consul as commander-in-chief retained undiminished the right of freely delegating all or any of his functions, in the province of his urban duties delegation was prescribed as to certain cases, and was pro- hibited with reference to all others. The former class of eases, in which the president of the community was theo- retically competent but was at the same time obliged to act only through the medium of deputies — appointed, it is true, by himself — included not only civil processes, but those criminal causes which the king had been accustomed to dis pose of through the two " trackers of murder " [q'laestorea. 328 Chcmge of the Gonstii/utflon. [Book n p. 98, 204), and also the important charge of the state treasure and of the state-archives, which these two quaestor« undertook in addition to their previous functions. Thus the quaestors now became in law — ^what they had for long per- haps been in fact — standing magistrates ; and as they were now nominated by the consul just as formerly by the king, it followed that they abdicated office along with him after the expiry of a year. In other cases again, where his course was not expressly prescribed, the chief magistrate in the capital had either to act personally or not at all ; for instance, no delegation was admissible at the introductory steps of a process. This diversity in the treatment of civil and military delegation explains why in the government of the Roman community proper no delegated magisterial au" thority (^pro magistratu) was possible, nor yere purely urban magistrates ever represented by non-magistrates ; and why, on the other hand, military deputies (^pro consule, pro praetore, pro quaestore) were excluded from all action within the community proper. Again the right of nominating his successor, which the Nomination ^^'^S ^^^ exercised absolutely, was by no means ofBucceBsor. withdrawn from the new head of the commu- nity ; but he was bound to nominate the person whom the community should designate to him. Through this binding right of proposal the nomination of the ordinary supreme magistrates in a certain sense passed substantially into the hands of the community ; practically, however, there still existed a very considerable distinction between that right of proposal and the right of formal nomination. The con- sul conducting tho election was by no means a mere return- ing officer. By virtue of his prerogative essentially similar to the king's, he might reject particular candidates and dis- regard votes tendered for them ; at first he might even limit the choice to a list of candidates proposed by himself; and — what was of still more consequence — the community by no means obtained through its right ©f proposal the ri"-ht of deposing a magistrate again, which it must necessa rily have obtained had it really appointed him. On the Chap. I.] Change of the Constitution. 329 contrary, as the successor was even now nominated solelj by his predecessor and thus no actual magistrate ever de rived his right from a magistrate still holding office, the old and important principle of Roman state-law, that the su- preme magistrate could never be deposed, remained inviO' 'ably in force in the consular period also. Lastly the nomination of the priests, which had been a Change in prerogative of the kings (p. 97), was not trans- natMn™" ferrcd to the consuls; but the colleges of priesfs priests. filled up the vacancies in their own ranks, while the Vestals and single priests were nominated by the pon- tifical college, on which devolved also the exercise of the paternal jurisdiction, so to speak, of the community over the priestesses of Vesta. With a view to the performance of these acts, which could only be properly performed by a single individual, the college probably about this period first nominated a president, the Pontifex maximus. This separation of the supreme authority in things sacred from the civil power — while the already-mentioned " king for sac- rifice '' had neither the civil nor the sacred powers of the king, but simply the title, conferred upon him — and the semi-magisterial position of the new high priest so decided- ly contrasting with the character which otherwise marked the priesthood in Rome, form one of the most significant and important peculiarities of a state-revolution, the aim of which was to impose limits on the powers of the magis. trates mainly in the interest of the aristocracy. We have already mentioned that the outward state of the consul was far inferior to that of the regal office hedged round as it was with reverence and terror, that the regal name and the priestly consecration were withheld from him, and that the axe was taken away from his attendants. We have to add that, instead of the purple robe which the king had worn, the consul was distinguished froia the ordinary burgess simply by the purple border of his toga, and that, while the king in all probability regularly appeared in pub lie in his chariot, the consul was boun i to accommodats 330 Change of the Constitution. [Book a himself to the general rule and like every other burgess to go within the city on foot. These limitations, however, of the plenary power and The dicta- ^^ ^'^ insignia of the magistracy applied in the *"'• main only to the ordinary presidency of the community. In extraordinary cases, as we have alreadj said, the two presidents chosen by the community were su- perseded by a single one, the master of the army (magisier populi) or commander [dictator). In the election of dicta- tor the community bore no part at all ; his nomination pro- ceeded solely from one of the consuls for the time being. There was no appeal from his sentence any more than from that of the king, unless he chose to allow it. As soon as he was nominated, all the other magistrates were by right subject to his authority. On the other hand the duration of the dictator's office was limited in two ways : first, as the official colleague of those consuls, one of whom had nominated him, he might not remain in office beyond their legal term ; and secondly, a period of six months was fixed as the absolute maximum for the duration of his office. Ii, was a further arrangement peculiar to the dictatorship, that the " master of the army " was bound to nominate for him- self immediately a " master of horse " (magister eguitum), who acted along with him as a dependent assistant some- what as did the quaestor along with the consul, and with him retired from office — an arrangement undoubtedly con- nected with the fact that the dictator, probably as being the leader of the infantry, was constitutionally prohibited from mounting on horseback. In the light of these regulations the dictatorship is doubtless to be conceived as an institu- tion which arose along with the consulship, and which was designed especially, in the event of war, to obviate for a time the disadvantages of divided power and to revive tem porarily the regal authority ; for in war more particularly the equality of rights in the consuls could not but appear fraught with danger ; and not only positive testimonies, but the oldest names given to the magistrate himself and hia assistant, as well as the limitation of the office 1o the dura CHiP. I.] CJiange of the Constitution. 331 tion of a summer campaign, and the exclusion (if the prove- eatio, attest the pre-eminently military design of tho origi- nal dictatorship. On the ■whole, therefore, the consuls continued to be, as the kings had been, the supreme administrators, judges, and generals ; and even in a religious point of view it was not the rex sacrorum (who was only nominated that the name might be preserved), but the consul, vi^ho offered prayers and sacrifices for the community, and in its name ascer- tained the will of the gods with the aid of those skilled in sacred lore. Against cases of emergency a power was re- tained of reviving at any moment, without previous consul- tation of the community, the full and unlimited regal au- thority, so as to set aside the limitations imposed by the collegiate arrangement and by the special curtailments of jurisdiction. In this way the problem of legally retaining and practically restricting the regal authority was solved in genuine Koman fashion with equal acuteness and simplicity by the nameless statesmen who worked out this revoluidon! The community thus acquired by the change of consti- Centuiics tution rights of the greatest importance : the and curies. right of annually designating its presidents, and that of deciding in the last instance regarding the life or death of the burgess. But the body which acquired these rights could not possibly be the community as it had been hitherto constituted — the patriciate which had practically become an order of nobility. The strength of the nation lay in the " multitude " (plebs), which already comprehend- ed in large numbers people of note and of wealth. The exclusion of this multitude from the public assembly, al- though it bore part of the public burdens, might be toler- ated as long as that public assembly itself had no very ma- teiial share in the working of the state machine, and as long as the royal power by the very fact of its high and free position remained almost equally formidable to the bur- gesses and to the metoeci and thereby maintained equality of legal redress in the nation. But when the community itself was called regularly to elect and to decide, and tht £C2 Chcmge of the ConsUtution. [Book It president was practically reduced from its master to it« commissioner for a set term, this relation could no longer be maintained as it stood ; least of all when the state had to be remodelled on the morrow of a revolution, which could only have been carried out by the co-operation of the patricians and the metoeci. An extension of that cominu> nity was inevitable ; and it was accomplished in the most comprehensive manner, inasmuch as the collective plebeiate, that is, all the non-burgesses who were neither slaves nor citizens of extraneous communities living at Rome under the jus hospitii, were admitted into the curies, and there- upon the old burgesses, who had hitherto formed the curies, lost altogether the right of meeting and of resolving in con- cert. But at the same time the curiate assembly, which hitherto had been legally and practically the first authority in the state, was almost totally deprived of its constitutional prerogatives. It was still to retain its previous powers in acts purely formal or in those which affected cl.an-relations — such as the vow of allegiance to be taken to the consul or to the dictator when they entered on office just as previous- ly to the king (p. 97), and the legal dispensations requisite for an arrogatio or a testament — but it was not hencefor- ward to perform any act of a properly political character. By the change of constitution the curial organization was virtually rooted out, inasmuch as it was really based on the clan-organization and the latter was to be found in its full purity exclusively among the old burgesses. When the plebeians were admitted into the curies, they were certainly also allowed to constitute themselves de jure as — ^what in the earlier period they could only have been de facto {jp. 127) — fiimiliss and clans ; but it is distinctly recorded by tradi- tion and in itself also very conceivable, that only a portion of the plebeians proceeded so far as to constitute gentes, and thus the new curiate assembly in opposition to its original character included numerous members who did not belong to any clan. All the political prerogatives of the public assembly — as well the decision on appeals in criminal causes, which m Chap. I] Change of the Constitution. 333 deed were essentially political processes, as the nomination of magistrates and the adoption or rejection of laws — were ti ansferred to, or were now acquired by, the assembled levy of those bound to military service ; so that the centuries now received the rights, as they had previously borne the burdens, of citizens. In this way the small initial move- iiients made by the Servian constitution — such as, in par- ticular, the handing over to the army the right of assenting to the declaration of an aggressive war (p. 139) attained such a development that the curies were completely and for ever cast into the shade by the assembly of the centuries, and people became accustomed to regard the latter as the sovereign people. There was no debate in this assembly any more than in that of the curies, except when the pre- siding magistrate chose himself to speak or bade others do so ; of course in cases of appeal both parties had to be heard. A simple majority of the centuries was decisive. This plan was evidently chosen, because in the curiate assembly those who were entitled to vote at all were on a footing of entire equality, and therefore after the admission of all the plebeians into the curies the result would have been a complete democracy if the decision of political ques- tions had remained with that assembly ; whereas the centu- riate assembly placed the preponderating influence, not in the hands of the nobles certainly, but in those of the pos- sessors of property, and the important privilege of priority in voting, which often practically decided the election, in the hands of the equites or, in other words, of the rich. The senate was not affected by the reform of the consti- tution in the same way as the community. The previously existing college of elders not only continued exclusively patrician, but retained also its essen- tial prerogatives — the right of appointing the interrex, and of confirming or rejecting the resolutions adopted by the community as constitutional or unconstitutional. In fact these prerogatives were enhanced by the reform of the con stitution, because the appointment of the magistrates also, which fell to be made by election of the community, was 334 Change of the Constitution. [Book n thenceforth subject to the confirmation or rejection of thj patrician senate. In cases of appeal alone its confirmation, so far as we know, was never deemed requisite, because in these the matter at stake was the pardon of the guilty and when this was granted by the sovereign assembly of the people, any cancelling of such an act was wholly out of the question. But, although by the abolition of the monarchy the con- stitutional rights of the patrician senate were increased rather than diminished, there yet took place — and that, ao« cording to tradition, immediately on the abolition of the monarchy — so far as regards other affairs which fell to be discussed in the senate and admitted of a freer treatment, an enlargement of that body, which brought into it plebe- ians also, and which in its consequences led to a complete remodelling of the whole. From the earliest times the senate had acted also, although not solely or especially, as a state-council ; and, while probably even in the time of the kings it was not regarded as unconstitutional for non-sena/- tors in this case to take part in the assembly (p. 119), it was now arranged that for such discussions there should be asso- ciated with the patrician senate {patres) a number of non. patricians " added to the roll " [conscripti). This did not at all put them on a footing of equality ; the plebeians in the senate did not become senators, but remained members of the equestriau order, were designated not patres but con- scripti, and had no right to the insignia of senatorial dig- nity, the purple border and the red shoe (p. 115). More- over, they not only remained absolutely excluded from the exercis}' of the magisterial prerogatives belonging to the senate (xuctoritas), but were obliged, even where the ques« tion had reference merely to an advice [consilium), to rest content with the privilege of being present in silence while the question was put to the patricians in turn, and of only indicating their opinion by adding to the numbers when ths division was taken — voting with the feet [pedibux in sen tentiam ire, pedarii) as the proud nobility expressed it. Nevertheless, the plebeians found their way through the Chap. 1.] Change of the Constitution. 33£ pew constitution not merely to the Forum, bi.t also to th« senate-house, and the first and most difficult step to equality of rights was taken in this quarter also. Otherwise there was no material change in the arrange* ments aiFecting the senate. Among the patrician members 1 distinction of ranli soon came to be recognized, especially i:i putting the vote : those who were proximately designated for the supreme magistracy, or who had already adminis- ter'id it, were entered on the list and were called upon to vote before the rest ; and the position of the first of them, the foreman of the senate (^princeps senaius), soon became a highly coveted place of honour. The consul in office, on the other hand, no more ranlced as a n^ember of senate than did the king, and therefore in taking the votes did not in- clude his own. The selection of the members — ^both of the narrower patrician senate and of those added to the roll — fell to be made by the consuls just as formerly by the kings ; but the nature of the case implied that, while the king had still perhaps some measure of regard to the repre- sentation of the several clans in the senate, this considera- tion was of no account so far as concerned the plebeians, among whom the clan-organization was but imperfectly de- veloped, and consequently the relation of the senate to that organization in general fell more and more into abeyance. We have no information that the electing consuls were re- stricted from admitting more than a definite number of ple- beians to the senate ; nor was there need for such a regular tion, because the consuls themselves belonged to the nobil- ity. But probably from the outset the consul was in virtue of his very position practically far less free, and far more bound by the opinions of his order and by custom, in the appointment of senators than the king. The rule in par> ticular, that the holding of the consulship should necessarily be followed by admission to the senate for life, if, as was probably the case at this time, the consul was not yet a member of it at the time of his election, must have in all probability very early acquired consuetudinary force. In like manner it seems to have become early the custom nof S36 Change of the Constitution. [Book n to fill up the senators' places immediately on their falling vacant, but to revise and complete the roll of the senate oii occasion of the census, consequently, as a rule, every fourth year ; which also involved a not uiTlmportant restriction of the authorities entrusted with the selection. The whole number of the senators remained as before, and in this the mnscripti were also included ; from which fact we are eix.- tied to infer the numerical falling off of the patriciate.* Evidently in the Roman commonwealth, even on the Conserva- Conversion of the monarchy into a republic, the te™of'tiie°" '^^^ ^^ ^® ^^^ ^^ possible retained. So far as a revoiation, revolution in a state can be conservative at all, this one was so ; not one of the constituent elements of the commonwealth was really overthrown by it. This circum- stance indicates the character of the whole movement. The expulsion of the Tarquins was not, as the pitiful and deeply falsified accounts of it represent, tiie work of a peo- ple carried away by sympathy and enthusiasm for liberty, but the work of two great political parties already engaged in conflict, and clearly aware that their conflict would stead- ily continue — the old burgesses and the metoeci — who, like the English Whigs and Tories in 1688, were for a moment united by the common danger which threatened to convert the commonwealth into the arbitrary government of a des- pot, and differed again as soon as the danger was over. The old burgesses could not get rid of the monarchy without the co-operation of the new burgesses ; but the new bur- gesses were far from being sufficiently strong to wrest the power out of the hands of the former at one blow. Com- promises of this sort are necessarily limited to the smallest measure of mutual concessions obtained by tedious bargain iiig ; and they leave the future to decide which of the con Btituent elements shall eventually preponderate, and wheth- er they will work harmoniously together or maintain their * That the first eonauls admitted to the senate 164 plebeians, is hard- ly to be regarded as a historical fact, but rather as a proof that the later Roman archaeologists were unable to point out TDore than 136 ffentes of the Roman nobility. {Rom. Forseh. i. 121.) Chap. I.] Change of the ConsUlMUon. 337 antagonism. To look therefore merely to the direct inno- vations, or possibly the mere change in the duration of the supreme magistracy, is altogether to mistalce the broad im- port of the first Eoman revolution : its indirect effects were by far the most important, aftd vaster doubtless than even its authors anticipated. This, in short, was the time when the Roman burgess- Thenew body in the later sense of the term originated, community. rp]^g plebeians had hitherto been metoeci, who were subjected to their share of taxes and burdens, but who were nevertheless in the eye of the law really nothing but tolerated aliens, between whose position and that of foreign- ers proper it may have seemed hardly necessary to draw a definite line of distinction. They were now enrolled as bur- gesses in the registers of the curies, and, although they were still far from being on a footing of legal equality — although the old burgesses still remained exclusively enti- tled to perform the acts of authority constitutionally per- taining to the council of elders and solely eligible to the civil magistracies and priesthoods, nay even exclusively en- titled to participate in the usufructs of burgesses, such as the joint use of the public pasture — yet the first and most difficult step towards complete equalization was gained from the time when the plebeians no longer served merely in the common levy, but also voted in the common assembly and in the common council when its opinion was asked, and the head and back of the poorest meioikos were as well protect- ed by the right of appeal as those of the noblest of tlie old burgesses. One consequence of this amalgamation of the patricians and plebeians in a new corporation of Roman burgesses was the conversion of the old burgesses into a clan-nobility, which was incapable of receiving additions or even of filling up its own ranks, because the nubles no longer possessed the right of passing decrees in common assembly and the adoption of new families into the nobility by decree of tht^ community appeared still less admissible. Under the kingi the ranks of the E'jman nobility had not been thus closedj 338 Change of the Constitution. [Book II, and the admission of new clans was no very rare occur- rence : now this genuine characteristic of patricianism made its appearance as the sure herald of the speedy loss of its political privileges and of its iniportaftce in the community. The exclusion, of the plebeians from all public magistracies and public priesthoods — while they were admissible to the position of officers and senators — and the maintenance, with perverse obstinacy, of the legal impossibility of marriage between old burgesses and plebeians, further impressed on the patriciate from the outset the stamp of an exclusive and wrongly privileged aristocracy. A second consequence of the new union of the burgesses must have been a more definite regulation of the right of settlement, with reference both to the Latin confederates and to other states. It became necessary — not so much on ac- count of the right of suffrage in the centuries (which indeed belonged only to the freeholder) as on account of the right of appeal, which was intended to be conceded to the plebe- ian, but not to the sojourner or the foreigner — to express more precisely the conditions of the acquisition of plebeian rights, and to mark off the enlarged burgess-body in its turn from those who were now the non-burgesses. To this epoch therefore we may trace back — in 'the views and feelings of the people — both the invidiousness of the distinction be- tween patricians and plebeians, and the strict and haughty line of demarcation between cives Romani and aliens. But the former civic distinction was in its nature transient, while the latter political one was permanent ; and the sense of political unity and rising greatness, which was thus im- planted in the heart of the nation, was expansive enough first to undermine and then to carry away with its mightj current those paltry distinctions. It was at this period, moreover, that law and edict were laifand separated. The distinction indeed had its foun- ^^^'*" dation in the essential character of the Roman state ; for even the regal power in Rome was subordinate, not superior, to the law of the land. But the profound and practical veneration, which the Romans, like every othei Chap. I.] Change of the Constitution. 339 people of political capacity, cherished for the principle of authoritj. gave birth to the remarkable rule of Roman con- stitutional and private law, that every command of tha magistrate not based upon a law was at least valid during his tenure of office, although it expired with that tenure. It is evident that in this view, so long as the f residents were nominated for life, the distinction between law and edict must have practically been almost lost sight of, and the legislative activity of the public assembly could acquire no development. On the other hand it obtained a wide field of action after the presidents were changed annually ; and the fact was now by no means void of practical importance, that, if the consul in deciding a process committed a legal informality, his successor could institute a fresh trial of the cause. It was at this period, finally, that the provinces of civil and military authority were separated. In the military former the law ruled, in the latter the axe : the oTity. former was governed by the constitutional checks of the right of appeal and of regulated delegation ; in the latter the general held an absolute sway like the king.* It was an established principle, that the general and the army as such should not under ordinary circumstances enter the city proper. That organic and permanently operative en- actments could only be made under the superintendence of the civil power, was implied in the spirit, if not in the let- ter, of the constitution. Instances indeed occasionally oc- curred where a magistrate, disregarding this principle, con. voked his forces in the camp as a burgess-assembly, nor was a decree passed under such circumstances legally void ; but custom disapproved of such a proceeding, and it soon fell into disuse as though it had been forbidden. The distino • It may not be superfluous to remark, that the iudicium legitimum, as well as that quod imperio continetur^ rested on the imperium of the directing magistrate, and the distinction only consisted in the circum- Btance that the imperium was in the former case limited by the lex, while in the latter it was free. 840 Change of the ConstituUon. IBook H tion between Quirites and soldiers became mort and mor? deeply rooted in the minds of the burgesses. Time however was required for the development of these consequences of the new republicanism ; S7hep?tri* vividly, as posterity felt its effects, the revolu- '^**' tion probably appeared to the contemporary jvorld at first in a different light. The non-burgesses indeed gained by it burgess-rights, and the new burgess-body ac- quired in the comiiia centuriata comprehensive preroga tives ; but the right of rejection on the part of the patrician senate, which in firm and serried ranks confronted the eomitia as if it were an Upper House, legally hampered their freedom of action precisely in the most important matters, and although not in a position to thwart the seri- ous will of the collective body, yet practically interposed annoyance and delay. If the nobility in giving up their claim to he the sole representatives of the community did lot seem to have lost much, they had in other respects de- cidedly gained. The king, it is true, was a patrician as well as the consul, and the nomination of the members of the senate belonged to the latter as to the former ; but while his exceptional position raised the former no less above the patricians than above the plebeians, and while cases might easily occur in which he would be obliged to lean upon the support of the multitude even against the nobility, the con- sul — ruling for a brief term, but before and after that term simply one of the nobility, and obeying to-morrow the noble fellow-burgess whom he had commanded to-day — ^by no means occupied a position aloof from his order, and the spirit of the noble in him must have been far more power- ful than that of the magistrate. Indeed, if at any time by way of exception a patrician disinclined to the rule of the nobility was called to the government, his official authority •was paralyzed partly by the priestly colleges which were pervaded by an intense aristocratic spirit, partly by his col- leagues, and was easily suspended by the dictatorship ; and, what was of still more moment, he wanted the first elcmenl of political power, time. The president of a common Chap. I.] Change of the Constitution. 34] wealth, whatever plenary authority may be conceded to him, will never gain possession of political power if he does not continue for some considerable time at the head of affairs ; for a necessary condition of every dominion ia duration. Consequently the senate appointed for life inevi- tably acquired — and that by virtue chiefly of its title to advise the magistrate in all points, so that we speak not of the narrower patrician, but of the enlarged patricio-plebe- ian, senate — so great an influence as contrasted with the annual rulers, that their legal relations became precisely inverted ; the senate substantially assumed to itself the powers of government, and the former ruler sank into a president acting as its chairman and executing its decrees. In the case of every proposal to be submitted to the com- munity for acceptance or rejection the practice of previous- ly consulting the whole senate and obtaining its approval, while not constitutionally necessary, was consecrated by use and wont ; and it was not lightly or willingly departed from. The same course was followed in the case of impor- tant state-treaties, of the management and distribution of the public lands, and generally of every act the effects of which extended beyond the official year ; and nothing was left to the consul but the transaction of current business, the initial steps in civil processes, and the command in war. Especially important in its consequences was the change in virtue of which neither the consul, nor even the otherwise absolute dictator, was permitted to touch the public treas- ure except with the consent and by the will of the senate. The senate made it obligatory on the consuls to commit the administration of the public chest, which the king had man- aged or might at any rate have managed himself, to two standing subordinate magistrates, who were nominated by the consuls and had to obey them, but were, as may easily be conceived, much more dependent than the consuls them- selves on the senate (p. 328). It thus drew into its own hands the management of finance ; and this right of sano- fcioning the expenditure of the finances on the part of the Roman senate may be placed on a parallel in its effects 342 Change of the Constitution. [Boob. It mVa the right of sanctioning taxation in the constitutional monarchies of the present day. The consequences followed as a matter of course. The first and most essential condition of all aristocratic goveni- ineiit is, that the plenary power of the state be vested not ir an individual but in a corporation. Now a preponderantly aristocratic corporation, the senate, had appropriated to itself the government, and at the same time the executive powei not only remained in the hands of the nobility, but was also entirely subject to the governing corporation. It is true that a considerable number of men not belonging to the nobility sat in the senate ; but as they were incapable of holding ma- gistracies or even of taking part in the debates, and thus were excluded from all practical share in the government, they necessarily played a subordinate part in the senate, and were moreover kept in pecuniary dependence on the corporation through the economically important privilege of using the public pasture. The gradually recognized right of theTpatri- cian consuls to revise and modify the senatorial list at least every fourth year, however little may have been its effect in reference to the nobility, might very well be employed in their interest, and an obnoxious plebeian might by means of it be kept out of the senate or even be removed from its ranks. It is therefore quite true that the immediate effect of the revolution was to establish the aristocratic gov- ianopposi- eniment. It is not, however, the whole truth. While the majority of contemporaries probably thought that the revolution had brought upon the plebeians only a more inflexible despotism, we who come afterwards discern in that very revolution the germs of young liberty. What the patricians gained was gained at the expense not »f the community, but of the magistrate's power. It is true that the community gained only a few narrowly le- stricted rights, which were far less practical and palpable than the acquisitions of the nobility, and which not one in a thousand probably had the wisdom to value , but they formed a pledge and earnest of the future. Hitherto th« CdAP. L] Chcmge of the Oonshtutum. 343 m^toeci had been politically nothing, the old burgesses had been everything ; now that the former were embraced in the community, the old burgesses were overcome ; for. however much might be wanting to full civil equality, it is the first breach, not the occupation of the last post, that de- cides the fall of the fortress. With justice therefore the Roman community dated its political existence from the beginning of the consulship. While however the republican revolution may, notwith- standing the aristooi-atic rule which in the first instance it established, be justly called a victory of the former metoeci or the plebs, the revolution even in this respect bore by no means the character which we are accustomed in the pres- ent day to designate as democratic. Pure personal merit without the support of birth and wealth could perhaps gain influence and consideration more easily under the regal gov- ernment than under that of the patriciate. Then admission to the patriciate was not in law foreclosed ; now the highest object of plebeian ambition was to be admitted as a dumb appendage to the senate. The nature of the case implied that the governing aristocratic order, so far as it admitted plebeians at all, would grant the right of occupying seats in the senate not absolutely to the best men, but chiefly to the heads of the wealthy and notable plebeian families ; and the families thus admitted jealously guarded the possession of the senatorial stalls. While a complete legal equality therefore had subsisted within the old burgess-body, the new burgess-body or former metoeci came to be in this way divided from the first into a number of privileged families and a multitude kept in a position of inferiority. But the power of the community now according to the centuriaLe organization came into the hands of that class which since the Servian reform of the army and of taxation had borne mainly the burdens of the state, namely the freeholders, and indeed not so much into the hands of the great proprietors or into those of the small cottagers, as into those of the in- termediate class of farmers — an arrangement in which the seniors were still so far privileged that, although less nu- 344 Change of the Constitution. [Book U, rnerous, they had as many voting-divisions as the juniors. "While in this -way the axe was laid to the root of the old burgess-body and their clan-nobility, and the basis of a new burgess-body was laid, the preponderance in the latter rest ed on the possession of land and on age, and the first begin- nings were already visible of a new aristocracy based pri- marily on the actual consideration in which the familiea were held — the future nobility. There could be no clearer indication of the fundanjentally conservative character of the Roman commonwealth than the fact, that the revolution which gave birth to the repu]plic laid down at the same time che primary outlines of a new organization of the state, «vhich was in like manner conservative and in like manner Mistocratic. CHAPTER II. ra* TBIBUNATE OP THE PLEBS AND THE DECEMVIRAIK. Under the new organization of the commonwealth the oW Jiateriai burgesses had attained by legal meaTis full pos Interests. session of political power. Governing through the magistracy which had been reduced to be their servant, preponderating in the senate, in sole possession of all pub- lic offices and priesthoods, armed with exclusive cognizance of things human and divine and familiar with the whole routine of political procedure, influential in the public as- sembly through the large number of pliant adherents at- tached to the various families, and, lastly, entitled to ex- amine and to reject every decree of the community, — the patricians might have long preserved their practical power, just because they had at the right time abandoned their claim to sole legal authority. It is true that the plebeians could not but be painfully sensible of their political dis- abilities ; but undoubtedly in the first instance the nobility had not much to fear from a purely political opposition, if it understood the art of keeping the multitude, which de- sired nothing but equitable administration and protection of its material interests, aloof from political strife. In fac^ during the first period, after the expulsion of the kings we meet with various measures which were intended, or at any rate seem to have been intended, to gain the favour of the commons for the government of the nobility especially on economic grounds. The port-dues were reduced ; when the price of grain was high, large quantities of corn were pur- chased on account of the state, and the trade in salt was made a state-monopoly, in order to supply the citizens with corn and salt at reasonable prices ; lastly, the national festi li5* 34:6 The Tribunate of the Pleba [Book n val was prolonged for an additional day. Of the same character was the ordinance which we have already men- tioned respecting property fines (p. 327), which was not merely intended in general to set limits to the dangerous fining-prerogative of the magistrates, but was also, in a sig- nificant manner, calculated for the especial protection of the man of small means. The magistrate was prohibited from fining the same man on the same day to an extent beyond two sheep or beyond thirty oxen, without granting leave to appeal ; and the reason of these singular rates can only per- haps be found in the fact, that in the case of the man of small means possessing only a few sheep a different maxi- mum appeared necessary from that fixed for the wealthy proprietor of herds of oxen — a considerate regard to the wealth or poverty of the person fined, from which modern legislators might take a lesson. But these regulations were merely superficial ; the main current flowed in the opposite direction. With the change in the constitution there was introduced a comprehensive revolution in the financial and economic relations of Rome. The government of the kings had probably abstained on principle from enhancing the power of capital, and had pro- moted as far as it could an increase in the number of farms. The new aristocratic government, again, appears to have aimed from the first at the destruction of the middle classes, particularly of the intermediate and smaller holdings of land, and at the development of a domination of landed and monej'ed lords on the one hand, and of an agricultural pro- letariate on the other. The reduction of the port-dues, although upon the whole a popular measure, chiefly benefited the great sr of the merchant. But a much greater accession to the tapi a a, power of Capital was supplied by the indirect system cf finance-administration. It is diflScult to say what were the remote causes that gave rise to it : but, while ita origin may probably be referred to the regal period, after the introduction of the consulate the importance of tha intervention of private agency must have been greatly var Chap II.] And the Decemvirate. 341 ereased, partly by the rapid succession of magistrates in Rome, partly by the extension of the financial action of Ih*' treasury to such matters as the purchase and sale of grain and salt ; and thus the foundation must have been laid for the system of farming the finances, the development of which became so momentous and so pernicious for the Ro- man commonwealth. The state gradually put all its indi rect revenues and all its more complicated payments and transactions into the hands of middlemen, who gave or re- ceived a round sura and then managed the matter for their own benefit. Of course only considerable capitalists and, as the state looked strictly to tangible security, in the main only large landholders, could enter into such engagements : and thus there grew up a class of tax-farmers and contract- ors, who, in the rapid growth of their wealth, in their power over the state to which they appeared to be servants, and in the absurd and sterile basis of their moneyed dominion, are completely on a parallel with the speculators on the stock- exchange of the present day. The new aspect assumed by the administration of finance showed itself first and most palpably in the Public land. . , , , . , , , . , treatment of the public lands, which tended almost directly to accomplish the material and moral anni- hilation of the middle classes. The use of the public pas- ture and of the state-domains generally was from its very nature a privilege of burgesses ; formal law excluded the plebeian from the joint use of the common pasture. As however, apart from the conversion of the public land into private property or its assignation, Roman law knew no fixed rights of usufruct on the part of individual burgesses to be respected like those of property, it depended solely on the pleasure of the king, so long as the public land re- mained such, to grant and to define its joint enjoyment ; and it is not to be doubted that he frequently made, use of his right, or at least his power, as to this matter in favour of plebeians. But on the introduction of the republic the principle was again strictly insisted on, tliat the use of the common pasture belonged in law merely to the burgess of 348 The Tribunate of the Plebs [Book n, best right, or in other words to the patrician ; and, though the senate still as before allowed exceptions in favour of the wealthy plebeian houses represented in it, the small plebeian landholders and the day-labourers, who stood most in need of the common pasture, had its joint enjoyment injuriously withheld from them. Moreover there had hi.herto been ^aid for. the cattle driven out on the common pasture a grazing-tax, which was moderate enough to make the right of using that pasture still be regarded as a privilege, and yet yielded no inconsiderable revenue to the public purse. The patrician quaestors were now remiss and indulgent in levying it, and gradually allowed it to fall into desuetude. Hitherto, particularly when new domains were acquired by conquest, allocations of land had been regularly arranged, in which all the poorer burgesses and metoeci were provided for ; it was only the land which was not suitable for agricul- ture that was annexed to the common pasture. The ruling class did not venture wholly to give up such assignations, and still less to propose them merely in favour of the rich ; but they became fewer and scantier, and were replaced by the pernicious system of occupation — that is to say, the cession of domain-lands, not in property or under formal lease for a definite term, but in special usufruct until further notice, to the first occupant and his heirs-at-law, so that the state was at any time entitled to resume them, and the occupier had to pay the tenth sheaf, or in oil and wine the fifth part of the produce, to the exchequer. This was sim- ply the precarium already described (p. 255) applied to the state-domains, and may have been already in use as to the public land at an earlier period as a temporary arrangement until its assignation should be carried out. Now, however, not only did this occupation-tenure become permanent, but, as was natural, none but privileged persons or their favour- ites participated, and the tenth and fifth were collected with the same negligence as the grazing-money. A threefold blow was thus struck at the intermediate and smaller land- holders : they were deprived of the common usufructs of burgesses ; the burden of taxation was increased in cons» Chap. IL] And the Deoemvirate. 349 quence of the domain revenues no longer flowing regmarly into the public chest ; and those land allocations wer« stopped, which had provided a constant outlet for the agri" cultural proletariate somewhat as a great and well-regulated system of emigration would do at the present day. To these evils was added the farming on a large scale, which was probably already beginning to come into vogue, dis- possessing the small agrarian clients, and in their stead cul- tivating the estates by rural slaves ; a blow which was mora difficult to avert and perhaps more pernicious than all those political usurpations put together. The burdensome and partly unfortunate wars, and the exorbitant taxes and taslt- works to which these gave rise, filled up the measure of calamity, so as either to deprive the possessor directly of his farm and to make him the bondsman if not the slave of his creditor-lord, or to reduce him through encumbrances practically to the condition of a temporary lessee of his creditor. The capitalists, to whom a new field was here opened of lucrative speculation unattended by trouble or risk, sometimes augmented in this way their landed prop- erty ; sometimes they left to the farmer, whose person and estate the law of debt placed in their hands, nominal pro- prietorship and actual possession. The latter course was probably the most common as well as the most pernicious ; for while utter ruin might thereby be averted from the in- dividual, this precarious position of the farmer, dependent at all times on the mercy of his creditoi -a position in which he knew nothing of property but its burdens — threat- ened to demoralize and politically to annihilate the whole farmer-class. The intention of the legislator, when instead of mortgaging he prescribed the immediate transfer of the property to the creditor with a view to prevent insolvency and to devolve the burdens of the state on the real holdera of the soil (p. 216), was evaded by the rigorous system of personal credit, which might be very suitable for merchants, but ruined the farmers. The free divisibility of the sol' always involved the risk of an insolvent agricultural prole- tariate ; and under such circumstances, when all burdens 350 Tlie Tribunate of the Pleba [Book n were increasing and all means of deliverance were fore closed, distress and despair could not but spread with fear- ful rapidity among the agricultural middle class. The distinction between rich and poor, which arose out Eeiations of ^^ these relations, by no means coincided with the social jjjg^j ijetweeii the clans and the plebeians. If quostion to ^ the lueEtion far the greater part of the patricians were Detwoen me ° ■*■ *■ • -, ^ ^ orders. wealthy landholders, opulent and considerable families were, of course, not wanting among the plebeians ; and as the senate, which even then perhaps consisted in greater part of plebeians, had assumed the superintendence of the finances to the exclusion even of the patrician magis trates, it was natural that all those economic advantages, for which the political privileges of the nobility were abused, should go to the benefit of the wealthy collectively ; and the pressure fell the more heavily upon the commons, since ■those who were the ablest and the most capable of re- sistance were by their admission to the senate transferred from the class of the oppressed to the ranks of the op- pressors. But this state of things prevented the political position of the aristocracy from being permanently tenable. Had it possessed the self-control to govern justly and to protect the middle class — as individual consuls from its ranks endeav- oured, but from the reduced position of the magistracy were unable effectually to do — it might have long main- tained itself in sole possession of the offices of state. Had it been willing to admit the wealthy and respectable ple- beians to full equality of rights — possibly by connecting the acquisition of the patriciate with admission into the senate — both might long have governed and speculated with impunity. But neither of these courses was adopted ; the narrowness of mind and short-sightedness, which are the proper and inalienable privileges of all genuine patrician- ism, were true to their character also in Rome, and rent the powerful commonwealth asunder in useless, aimless, and in- glorious strife. The immediate crisis however proceeded not from thosi Chap. II.] And the Decemvirate. 351 Secession to who felt the disabilities of their order, but from Mount"^ the distress of the farmers. The rectified annals 610. place the political re-valution in the year 244j 495. 494. the social in the years 259 and 260 ; they cer- tainly appear to have been close upon each other, but the interval was probably longer. The strict enforcement of the law of debt — so runs the story — excited the indignation of the farmers at large. When in the year 250 the levy was called forth for a dangerous war, the men bound to serve refused to obey the command ; so ihat the consul Publius Servilius suspended for a time the application of the debtor-laws, and gave orders to liberate the persons already imprisoned for debt as well as prohibit- ed further arrests. The farmers took their places in the ranks and helped to secure the victory. On their return from the field of battle the peace, which had been achieved by their exertions, brought back their prison and their chains : with merciless rigour the second consul, Appiua Claudius, enforced the debtor-laws, and his colleague, to whom his former soldiers appealed for aid, dared not offer opposition. It seemed as if collegiate rule had been intro- duced not for the protection of the people, but to facilitate breach of faith and despotism ; they endured, however, what could not be changed. But when in the following year the war was renewed, the word of the consul availed no longer. It was only when Manius Valerius was nomi- nated dictator that the farmers submitted, partly from their awe of the higher magisterial authority, partly from their confidence in his friendly feeling to the popular cause — for the Valerii were one of those old patrician clans by whom government was esteemed a privilege and an honour, not p source of gain. The victory was again with the Romac standards ; but when the victors came home and the dicta tor submitted his proposals of reform to the senate, they were thwarted by its obstinate opposition. The army stil] stood in its array, as usual, before the gates of the city. When the news arrived, the long threatening storm burst forth ; the esprit de corps and the compact military organi- 352 The Tribunate of the Plebs [Book n zation carried even the timid and the indifferent along with the movement. The army abandoned its general and its encampment, and under the leadership of the commanders of the legions — the military tribunes, vcho were at least iii great part plebeians — marched in martial order into the district of Crustumeria between the Tiber and t.ie Anio, \vliere it occupied a hill and threatened to establish in this most fertile part of the Roman territory' a new plebeian, city. This secession showed in a palpable manner even to the m )st obstinate of the oppressors that such a civil war must end with economic ruin to themselves ; and the senate gave way. The dictator negotiated an agreement ; the citi- zens returned within the city walls ; unity was outwardly restored. The people gave Manius Valerius thenceforth the name of " the great " (maximus) — and called the mount beyond the Anio " the sacred mount." There was some- thing mighty and elevating in such a revolution, undertaken by the multitude itself without definite guidance under generals whom accident supplied, and accomplished without bloodshed ; and with pleasure and pride the citizens re- called its memory. Its consequences were felt for many centuries : it was the origin of the tribunate of the plebs. In addition to temporary enactments, particularly for Hetelsmtri- remedying the most urgent distreiss occasioned piStim"* by debt, and for providing for a number of the aedlles. rural population by the founding of various colonies, the dictator carried in constitutional form a law, which he moreover — doubtless in order to secure amnesty to the burgesses for the breach of their military oath — caused every individual member of the community to swear to, and then had it deposited in a temple under the chargs and custody of two magistrates specially appointed from the plebs for the purpose, the two " house-masters " {aedilea). This law placed by the side of the two patrician consuls two plebeian tribunes, who were to be elected by the ple- beians assembled in curies. The power of the tribunes was of no avail in opposition to the military imperium, that isj in opposition to the arathority of the dictator everywhere Chap II.] And the Decemvirate. 353 or to that of the consuls beyond the city ; but it confronted, on a footing of independence and equality, the ordinary civil powers which the consuls exercised. There was, how- ever, no partition of powers. The tribunes obtained on the one hand the right to cancel any command issued by a niaf gistrate, by which the burgess whom it affected considered himself aggrieved, through a protest duly and personally tendered ; and on the other hand they obtained or assumed the prerogative of pronouncing criminal sentences without limit and of defending them, if an appeal took place, before the assembled people. To these there was very soon at- tached the further prerogative of addressing the people ir general and of procuring the adoption of resolutions. The power of the tribunes therefore primarily involved interccB- ''hc right of putting a stop at their pleasure to '"'°- acts of administration and to the execution of the law, of enabling a person bound to military service to withhold himself from the levy with impunity, of prevent- ing or cancelling the arrest of the condemned debtor or his imprisonment during investigation, and other powers of the same sort. That this legal help might not be frustrated by the absence of the helpers, it was further ordained that the tribune should not spend a night out of the city, and that his door must stand open day and night. The tribunes however could not prohibit the judge from pronouncing his sentence, the senate from adopting its decree, or the centu- ries from giving their votes. In virtue of their judicial office they could by their mes- Jurisdio sengers summon before them any burgess, even """• the consul in office, arrest him if he should re- fuse, imprison him during investigation or allow him to find bail, and t]jen sentence him to death or to a fine. For this purpose the two plebeian aediles, who were appointed at the same time, were attached to the tribunes as attendants and assistants ; as were also the " ten men for lawsuits " (indices decemviri, afterwards decemviri litibus iudicandis). The jurisdiction of the latter is not known ; the aediles had judicial powers like the tribunes, but principally in the 354 The Trilwnate of the Plebs [Boot n minor cases that might be settled by fines. If an appeal took place from their sentence, it was directed not to the whole body of the burgesses, with which the tribunes were not entitled to transact business, but to the whole body of the plebeians, who must in this case also have met and have voted by curies. This soit of proceeding certainly savoured of violence rather than of justice, especially when it was adopted against a non-plebeian, as must in fact have been ordinarily the case. It was not to be reconciled either with the letter or with the spirit of the constitution, that a patrician should be called to account by authorities who presided not over the body of burgesses, but over an asso- ciation formed within it, and that he should be compelled to appeal not to the burgesses, but to this very association. This was lynch justice ; but it was carried into effect, and there was at least an endeavour to clothe it in the forms of law. This new jurisdiction of the tribunes and aediles, and the appellate decisions of the plebeian assembly thence arising, were meant beyond doubt to be as much governed by the laws as the jurisdiction of the consuls and quaestors and the judgments of the centuries on appeal. But the legal conceptions of crime committed against the community (p. 204), and of offences against order (p. 205), were them- selves so little fixed, and their statutory definition so difficult and indeed impossible, that the administration of justice under these categories from its very nature bore almost inevitably the stamp of arbitrariness. And at this epoch, when the very idea of right had become obscured amidst the struggles of the orders, and when the legal party-lead- ers on both sides were furnished with co-ordinate jurisdic- tion, that jurisdiction must have more and more approxi- mated to a mere arbitrary police. It affected more espe- cially the magistrate. By right the magistrate, according to Roman state-law, so long as he was in office, was amena- ble to no jurisdiction at all, and even after demitting his office he was not responsible for acts done within his proper province as a magistrate ; even on the introduction of the Ohap. II.] And the Deoem/virate 355 provocatio there had been no attempt to depart from these principles (p. 326). But now the tribunician jurisdiction became practically a control exercised over every magis« trate, sometimes immediately, sometimes in the sequel, ancf a control the more oppressive that neither the crime nor its punishment was formally defined by law. In reality, by means of the co-ordinate jurisdiction of the tribunes and Cunsuls, the estates, limbs, and lives of the burgesses were abandoned to the pleasure or caprice of party-assemblies. With this co-ordinate jurisdiction there was further associated a co-ordinate right of initiating iegis- liegiElation. , . , , ., ,° - _, , lation. As the tribunes had to address the peo- ple in defending their sentences in cases of penal pi-ocedure, it was natural that they should come to hold assemblies of the people for other purposes also and that they should address the people or allow others to address it ; a right that was specially guaranteed by the Icilian law (262), which threatened with severe punishment any one who should interrupt the tribune while speaking, or should bid the assembly disperse. It is evident that under such circumstances the tribune could not well be pre- vented from taking a vote on other proposals as well as on the confirmation of his sentences. Such " resolves of the multitude " {plebi sciia) were not indeed strictly valid de- crees of the people ; on the contrary, they were at first little more than are the resolutions of our modern public meetings ; but as the distinction between the comitia of the people and the councils of the multitude was of a formal nature rather than aught else, the validity of these resolves as autonomic determinations of the community was at once asserted at least on the part of the plebeians, and the Icilian law for instance was immediately carried in this way. Thus were the tribunes of the people appointed as a shield and protection for individuals, and as leaders and managers for the collective body, provided with unlimited judicial power in criminal proceedings that in this way they might add emphasis to their command, and lastly even pro nounced to be in their persons inviolable (sacrosancti). The 356 The Tribunate of the Plebs [Book u people man by man swore for themselves and their children to defend the tribunes ; and whoever laid hands upon them was regarded not merely as forfeited to the vengeance of the gods, but also as outlawed and proscribed among men. The tribunes of the multitude {trihuni plehis) arose o jt Relation of of the military tribunes and derived from tlieni to th^con-" t^^i"" name ; but constitutionally they had no "^- further relation to them. On the contrary, in respect of powers the tribunes of the plebs stood on a level with the consuls. The appeal from the consul to the tri- bune, and the tribune's right of intercession in opposition to the consul, were precisely of the same nature with the appeal from consul to consul and the intercession of the one consul in opposition to the other ; and both cases were simply applications of the general principle of law that, where two equal authorities differ, the veto prevails over the command. Moreover the original number (which in- deed was soon augmented), the annual duration of the magistracy, which in the case of the tribunes changed its occupants on the 10th of December, and their irremoveable tenure of office, were common to the tribunes and the con- suls. They shared also the peculiar collegiate arrangement, which placed the full powers of the office in the hands of each individual consul and of each individual tribune, and, when collisions occurred within the college, did not count the votes, but gave the Nay precedence over the Yea ; for which reason, when a tribune forbade, the vote of the indi- vidual was sufficient notwithstanding the opposition of his colleagues, while on the other hand when he brought an accusation he could be thwarted by any one of those col- leagues. Both consuls and tribunes had full and co-ordinate criminal jurisdiction ; and in its exercise, as the two quaes- tors were attached to the former, the two aediles were asso- ciated with the latter.* The consuls were necessarily pa- * That the plebeian aediles were formed after the model of the pa- trician quaestors iu the same way as the plebeian tribunes after the mo- del of the patrician consuls, is evident both as regards their criminal functions (in wliich the distinction between the two magistracies seema tf Chap. Ii.l And the Decemvirate. 351 tricians, the tribunes necessarily plebeians. The former had the ampler power, the latter the more unlimited, for the consul submitted to the prohibition and the judgment of the tribunes, but the tribune did not submit himself tc the consul. Thus the tribunioian power was a copy of the eoraular ; but it was none the less a contrast to it. The power of the consuls was essentially positive, that of the tribunes essentially negative. Therefore the consuls alone were magistrates of the Roman people, not the tribunes ; for the former were elected by the whole burgesses, the latter only by the plebeian association. In token of this the consul appeared in public with the apparel and retinue pertaining to state-officials ; the tribune sat on a stool in- stead of the " chariot seat," and wanted the official attend- ants, the purple border, and generally all the insignia of magistracy : even in the senate the tribune had neither presidency nor seat. Thus in this remarkable institution absolute prohibition was in the most stern and abrupt fash- ion opposed to absolute command ; the quarrel was settled by legally recognizing and regulating the discord between rich and poor. But what was gained by a measure which broke up the unity of the state ; which subjected the magis- valueof the trates to a controlling authority unsteady in its action and dependent on all the passions of the moment ; which in the hour of peril might have brought the administration to a dead-lock at the bidding of any one have lain in their tendencies only, not in their powers) and as regards their charge of the archives. The temple of Ceres was to theaediles what the tem(Je of Saturn was to the quaestors, and from the former they deriv- ed their name. Significant in this respect is the enactment of the law of 305 (Liv. iii. 66), that the decrees of the senate sliould be delivered S»er to the aediles there (p. 316), whereas, as is well known, according tc the ancient — and, after the settlement of the struggles between the orders, exclusively retained — practice those decrees were committed tc the quaestors for preservation in the temple of Saturn. That the plebs also for a time had a chest of its own, and that the aediles managed it, iB possible and, from the way in which the latter dealt with the raultat paid to them, even probable ; but it cannot be certainly proved. 358 The TrOmnate of the Plds [Book n of the opposition chiefs elevated to the rival throne ; and which, by investing all the magistrates vi^ith co-ordinate jurisdiction in the administration of criminal law, as it were formally transferred that administration from (he domain of law to that of politics and corrupted it for all time coming 'i It is true indeed that the tribunate, if it did not directly contribute to the political equalization ol the orders, served as a powerful weapon in the hands of the plebeians when these soon afterwards desired admis' sion to the offices of state. But this was not the real de- sign of the tribunate. It was a concession wrung not from the politically privileged order, but from the rich landlords and capitalists ; it was designed to ensure to the commons equitable administration of law, and to promote a more judicious administration of finance. This design it did not, and could not, fulfil. The tribune might put a stop to par- ticular iniquities, to individual instances of crying hard- ship ; but the fault lay not in the unfair working of a right- eous law, but in a law which was itself unrighteous, and how could the tribune regularly obstruct the ordinary course of justice 1 Could he have done so, it would have served little to remedy the evil, unless the sources of im- poverishment were stopped — the perverse taxation, the wretched system of credit, and the pernicious occupation of the domain-lands. But such measures were not at- tempted, evidently because the wealthy plebeians them- selves had no less interest in these abuses than the patri- cians. So this singular magistracy was instituted, which presented to the commons an obvious and available aid, and yet could not possibly carry out the necessary eco nomic reform. It was no proof of political wisdom, but n wretched compromise between the wealthy aristocracy and the loaderless multitude. It has been affirmed that the tribunate of the people preserved Rome from tyranny. Were it true, it would be of little moment : a change in the form of the state is not in itself an evil for a people ; on the contrary, it was a misfortune for the Romans that monarchy was introduced too late, after the physical and CSbap. n.] And the Deceirm/rate. 85S mental energies of the nation were exhausted. But the assertion is not even correct ; as is shown by the circum- stance that the Italian states remained as regularly free from tyrants as the Hellenic states regularly ' w: tnessed their rise. The reason lies simply in the fact that tyranny is everywhere the result of universal suffrage, and that \j\e Italians excluded the burgesses who had no land from their public assemblies longer than the Greeks did : when Rome departed from this course, monarchy did not fail to emerge, and was in fact associated with this very tribunician office. That the tribunate had its use, in pointing out legitimate paths of opposition and averting many a wrong, no one will fail to acknowledge ; but it is equally evident that, where it did prove useful, it was employed for very differ- ent objects from those for which it had been established. The bold experiment of allowing the leaders of the oppo- sition a constitutional veto, and of investing them with power to assert it regardless of the consequences, proved to be an expedient by which the state was politically un- hinged ; and social evils were prolonged by the application of useless palliatives. Now that civil war was organized, it pursued its course. Fnrther dis- The parties stood face to face as if drawn up foi- Bensions. battle, each under its leaders. Restriction of the consular and extension of the tribunician power were the objects contended for on the one side ; the annihilation of the tribunate was sought on the other. Legal impunity secured for insubordination, refusal to enter the ranks for the defence of the land, impeachments involving fines and penalties directed specially against magistrates who had violated the rights of the commons or who had simply pro- voked their displeasure, were the weapons of the plebeians ; and to these the patricians opposed violence, concert with the public foes, and occasionally also the dagger of the a* Bassin. Hand-to-hand conflicts took place in the streets, and on both sides the sacredness of the magistrate's person was violated. Many families of burgesses are said to have migrated, and to have sought more peaceful abodes in neigh- 360 The Trib-wmte of the Plels rBooi n bouring communities ; and we may well believe it. The strong patriotism of the people is obvious from the' fact not l^at they adopted this constitution, but that they en dured it, and that the community, notwithstanding the most vehement convulsions, still heM together. The best-known incident in these conflicts of the orders is the history of Gaius Mareius, a brave aristo- crat, who derived his surname from the storm- ing of Corioli. Indignant at the refusal of the centuries to entrust to him the consulate in the year 263, he 491. is reported to have proposed, according to one version, the suspension of the sales of corn from the state- stores, till the hungry people should give up the tribunate ; according to another version, the direct abolition of the tribunate itself. Impeached by the tribunes so that his life was in peril, it is said that he left the city, but only to re- turn at the head of a Volscian army ; that when he was on the point of conquering the city of his fathers for the pub- lic foe, the earnest appeal of his mother touched his con- science ; and that thus he expiated his first treason by a second, and both by death. How much of this is true cannot be determined ; but the story, over which the naive misrepresentations of the Roman annalists have shed a patriotic glory, affords a glimpse of the deep moral and political disgrace of these conflicts between the orders. Of a similar stamp was the surprise of the Capitol by a band of political refugees, led by a Sabine chief, Appius Herdonius, in the year 294 ; they summoned the slaves to arms, and it was only after a vio- lent conflict, and by the aid of the Tusculans who hastened to render help, that the Roman burgess-foroe overcame the Catillnarian band. The same character of fanatical exas- peration marks other events of this epoch, the historical significance of which can no longer be apprehended in the lying family narratives ; such as the predominance of the Fabian clan which furnished one of the two consuls from 269 to 275, and the reaction against it, the emi tW— 479. gration of the Fabii from Rome, and their anni- Chap, h] And the Deoemmrate. 361 477. hilation ty the Etruscans on the Cremera (277). It was pel haps in connection with this quarrel that the right hitherto belonging to the magistrate of proposing his suc- cessor was dropped, at least as regarded the one consul „. (about 273). Still more odious was the murdor of the tribune of the people, Gnaeus Genucius, who had ventured to call two consulars to account, and who on the morning of the day fixed for the impeachment was 743. found dead in his bed (281). The immediate effect of this misdeed was the Publilian law 471. (283), one of the most momentous in its con- sequences with which Roman history has to deal. Two of the most important arrangements — the introduction of the plebeian assembly of tribes, and the placing of the plebi- scitum on a level, although conditionally, with the formal law sanctioned by the whole community — are to be re- ferred, the former certainly, the latter probably, to the proposal of Volero Publilius the tribune of the people in 283. The plebs had hitherto adopted its reso- lutions by curies ; accordingly in these its sepa- rate assemblies the voting had been by mere numbers without distinction of estate or freehold property, and, in consequence of the concert among clansmen implied in the very nature of the curial assembly, the clients of the great patrician families had voted together in the assembly of the plebeians. Both of these circumstances had given the nobility various opportunities of exercising influence on that assembly, and especially of managing the election of tribunes according to their views ; and both were hence- forth done away by means of the new method of voting according to tribes. Of these, four had been formed under the Servian constitution for the purposes of the levy, em- bracing town and country alike (p. 136) ; subsequently— perhaps in the year 259 — the Eoman territory had been divided into twenty districts, of which the first four were the ancient wards now restricted to the city and its immediate environs, while the other sixteen were formed out of the rural territory on the basis of the 16 362 TU Tr^bunaU of the Plebs [Book n clan-cantoiis of the earliest Roman domain (p. 63). To these was added — probably only in consequence of the Publilian law, and with a view to bring about the inequal ity, which was desirable for voting purposes, in the total number ot the divisions — as a twenty-first tribe the Crus- luminian, which derived its name from the place where the p'ebs had constituted itself as such and had established the tribunate (p. 352) ; and thenceforth the special assemblies of the plebs took place, not by curies, but by tribes. In these divisions, which were based throughout on the pos- session of land, the voters were exclusively freeholders : but they voted without distinction as to the size of their possession, and just as they dwelt together in villages and hamlets. Consequently, this assembly of the tribes, which otherwise was externally modelled on that of the curies, was in reality an assembly of the independent middle class, from which, on the one hand, the great majority of freed- men and clients were excluded as not being freeholders, and in which, on the other hand, the larger landholders had no such preponderance as in the centuries. This " meeting of the multitude " (concilium plebis) was even less a gen- eral assembly of the burgesses than the plebeian assembly by curies had been, for it not only, like the latter, excluded all the patricians, but also the plebeians who had no land ; but the multitude was powerful enough to carry the point that its decree should have equal legal validity with that adopted by the centuries, in the event of its having been previously approved by the whole senate. That this last regulation had the force of established law before the issu- ing of the Twelve Tables, is certain ; whether it was direct- ly introduced on occasion of the Publilian plebiscitum, or whether it had already been called into existence by some other — now forgotten — enactment, and was only applied to the Publilian plebiscitum, cannot be any longer ascertained. In like manner it remains uncertain whether the number of tribunes was raised bj' this law from two to five, or whether that increase had taken place previously. More sagacious in plan than all these party steps wa* Chap, h.] And the Deoemvirate. 363 Agrarian ^^^ attempt of Spurius Cassius to break down spuriua ^^^ financial omnipotence of the rich, and so to Cassius. put a stop to the true source of the evil. He was a patrician, and none in his order surpassed him ia rank and renown. After two triumphs, in his third c(.u- sulate (268), he submitted to the burgesses a proposal to have the public domain measured and to lease part of it for the benefit of the public treasury while a further portion was to be distributed among the ne^ cessitous. In other words, he attempted to wrest the con- trol of the public lands from the senate, and, with the sup- port of the burgesses, to put an end to the selfish system of occupation. He probably imagined that his personal distinction, and the equity and wisdom of the measure, might carry it even amidst that stormy sea of passion and of weakness. But he was mistaken. The nobles rose as one man ; the rich plebeians took part with them ; the com- mons were dissatisfied because Spurius Cassius desired, in accordance with federal rights and equity, to give to the Latin confederates their share in the assignation. Cassius had to die. There is some truth in the charge that he had usurped regal power, for he had indeed endeavoured like the kings to protect the free commons against his v.\wn order. His law was buried along with him ; but its spec- tre thenceforward incessantly haunted the eyes of the rich, and again and again it rose from the tomb against them, until amidst the conflicts to which it led the commonwealth perished. A further attempt was made to get rid of the tribunician power bv securing to the plebeians equality of Decemvirs. \ , •' ^ , 5 a- \ i rights in a more regular and more etiectual way. The tribune of the people. Gains Terentilius Arsa, pro- posed in 292 the nomination of a commission 462 of five men to prepare a general code of law by frhich the consuls should in future be bound in exercising their judicial powers. But the senate refused to sanction this proposal, and ten years elapsed ere it was carried into eifect — years of vehement strife between the orders, and 3C4: The Tribunate of the Plebs [Book :i variously agitated moreover by wars and internal troubles, With equal obstinacy the party of the nobles hindered the. concession of the law in the senate, and the plebs nomi- nated again and again the same men as tribunes. Attempts were made to obviate the attack by other concessions. In the year 297 an increase of the tribunes from five to ten was sanctioned — a very dubious gain ; and in the following year, by an Icilian plebiscitum which was admitted among the sworn privileges of the plebs, the Aventine, which had hitherto been a temple-grove and un- inhabited, was distributed among the poorer burgesses aa sites for buildings in heritable occupancy. The plebs took what was offered to them, but never ceased to insist in their demand for a legal code. At length, in the year 300, a compromise was effected ; the senate in substance gave way. The preparation of a legal code was resolved upon ; for that purpose, as an extraordinary meas- ure, the centuries were to choose ten men who were at the same time to act as supreme magistrates in room of the consuls [decemviri consulari imperio' legibus scribundis), and to this office not merely patricians, but plebeians also might be elected. These were here for the first time designated as eligible, though only for an extraordinary office. This was a great step in the progress towards full political equality ; and it was not too dearly purchased, when the tribunate of the people as well as the right of appeal were suspended while the decemvirate lasted, and the decemvirs were sim- ply bound not to infringe the sworn liberties of the plebs. Previously however an embassy was sent to Greece to bring home the laws of Solon and other Greek laws ; and it was only on its return that the decemvirs were choser for the year 303. Although they were at lib- erty to elect plebeians, the choice fell on patri- cians alone — so powerful was the nobility still — and it was only when the first commission did not finish its business and a second election became necessary for 304, that some plebeians were chosen — the first no* patrician magistrates that the Eoman community had. Chap, h.] And the DecemvvraU, 365 Taking a connected view of these measures, we can Bcarcely attribute to them any ether design than that of substituting for tribunician intercession a limitation of the consular powers by written law. On both sides there must have been a conviction that things could not remain as they ?-eie, and the perpetuation of anarchy, while it ruined the commonwealth, was in reality of no benefit to any one. Sensible people could not but discern that the interference of the tribunes in administration and their action as prose- cutors had an absolutely pernicious effect ; and the only real gain which the tribunate brought to the plebeians was the protection which it afforded against a partial adminis- tration of justice, by operating as a sort of court of cassar tion to check the caprice of the magistrate. Beyond doubt, when the plebeians desired a written code, the patricians re- plied that in that event the legal protection of tribunes would be superfluous ; and upon this there appears to have been concession by both sides. It is not clear — and per- haps no definite arrangement was entered into on the point — what was to be done after the preparation of the code was completed ; the promise given to the plebs, that their liberties were not to be touched, may certainly bear merely the meaning that the tribunate of the people and the other leading plebeian institutions were not to be abolished by the impending codification, as in fact was not the case ; but this is very compatible with the intention that the de- cemvirs should on their retiring propose to the people to abandon the tribunician power and to leave themselves in the hands of the consuls, whose sentences would no lon- ger rest upon their arbitrary pleasure, but on the written law. The plan, if it should stand, was a wise one ; all d^ i-egiBiation pended on whether men's minds exasperated on Twelve either side with passion would accept that peace- I'abies. ftil adjustment. The decemvirs of the year 481 303 submitted their law to the people, and it was confirmed by them, engraven on ten tables of copper, and affixed in the Forum to the rostra in fronf 366 The TrilwnaU of the, I'lels [Book u of the senate-house. But as a supplement appeared neces sary, decemvirs were again nominated in the 450 year 304, who added two more tables. Thua originated the first and only Roman oode, the law of the Twelve Tables. It proceeded from a compromise between parties, and for that very reason could not well include any ■changes of the existing law more comprehensive than mere regulations of police or enactments adapted to existing cir- cumstances. Even in the system of credit no fiirther alle- viation was introduced than the establishment of a — proba^ bly low — maximum of interest (10 per cent.) and the threat- ening of heavy penalties against the usurer — penalties, characteristically enough, far heavier than those of the thief; the harsh procedure in actions of debt remained at least in its leading features unaltered. Still less, as may easily be conceived, were changes contemplated in the rights of the orders. On the contrary the legal distinction be- tween freeholders and non-freeholders, and the invalidity of marriage between patricians and plebeians, were confirmed anew in the law of the city. In like manner, with a view to restrict the caprice of the magistrate and to protect the burgess, it was expressly enacted that the later law should uniformly have precedence over the earlier, and that no de- cree of the people should be issued against a single bur- gess. The most remarkable feature was the exclusion of an appeal to the comitia tributa in capital causes, while the privilege of appeal to the centuries was guaranteed ; which is perhaps to be explained by the circumstance that the penal jurisdiction was in fact usurped by the plebs and ita presidents (p. 353), and the decemvirs thought that, with out injuring its sworn liberties, they might do away at least with the worst case of this sort, the tribunician capital process. The real political Bignificance of the measure re- sided far less in the contents of the legislation than in the formal obligation now laid upon the consuls to administei justice according to its forms of process and its rules of law, and in the public exhibition of the code, by which the administration of just'ce was subjected to the control of Chap. II.] And the jDecemviraie. 367 publicity and tne consul was compelled to dispense equal and truly common justice to all. The end of the decemvirate is involved in much olDscu^ Fall of the Jty. It only remained — so runs the story — fci dewm-nrs. ^jjg decemvirs to publish the last two tables, and then to give place to the ordinary magistiacy. But they delayed to do so : under the pretext that the laws were not yet ready, they themselves prolonged their magistracy after the expiry of their official year — a step quite possible undei Roman constitutional law, since even a magistrate appoint- ed for a term only ceased to be magistrate by formally de- mitting his office. The moderate section of the aristocracy, with the Valerii and Horatii at their head, are said to have attempted in the senate to compel the abdication of the de- cemvirate ; but the head of the decemvirs Appius Claudius, originally a rigid aristocrat, but now changing into a dema- gogue and a tyrant, gained the ascendancy in the senate, and the people submitted. The levy of two armies was accomplished without opposition, and war was begun against the Volscians as well as against the Sabines. Thereupon the former tribune of the people, Lucius Siccius Dentatus, the bravest man in Rome, who had fought in a hundred and twenty battles and had forty-five honourable scars to show, was found dead in front of the camp, foully murdered, as it was said, at the instigation of the decemvirs. A revolution was fermenting in men's minds ; and its outbreak was has- tened by the unjust sentence pronounced by Appius in the process as to the freedom of the daughter of the centurion Lucius Verginius, the bride of the former tribune Lucius Icilius — a sentence which wrested the maiden from her rela- tives with a view to make her non-free and beyond the pale of the law, and induced her father himself to plunge his knife into the heart of his daughter in the open Forum, to fescue her from certain shame. While the people in amazo meat at the unprecedented deed surrounded the dead body of the fair maiden, the decemvir commanded his lictors to bring the father and also the bridegroom before his tribu' Hal, in order to render to him, from whose decision therf 368 The Tribunate of the Plels [Book n lay no appeal, immediate account for their rebellion against his authority. The cup was now full. Protected by tha furious multitude, the father and the bridegroom of the maiden made their escape from the lictors of the despot, and while the senate trembled and wavered in Rome, the pair presented themselves, with numerous witnesses of the fearful deed, in the two camps. The unparalleled tale was told ; the eyes of all were opened to the gap w?iich the ab- sence of tribunician protection had made in the security of law ; and what the fathers had done their sons repeated. Once more the armies abandoned their leaders : they marched in warlike order through the city, and proceeded once more to the Sacred Mount, where they again nomi- nated their own tribunes. Still the decemvirs refused to resign their power ; and the army appeared with its tri- bunes in the city, and encamped on the Aventine. Then at length, when civil war was imminent and the conflict in the streets might hourly begin, the decemvirs renounced their usurped and dishonoured power ; and Lucius Valerius and Marcus Horatius negotiated a second compromise, by which the tribunate of the plebs was again established. The im- peachment of the decemvirs terminated in the two most guilty, Appius Claudius and Spurius Oppius, committing suicide in prison, while the other eight went into exile and the state confiscated their property. The prudent and mod- erate tribune of the plebs, Marcus Duilius, prevented fur- ther judicial prosecutions by a seasonable use of his veto. So runs the story as recorded by the pen of the Roman aristocrats ; but, even leaving out of view the accessory cii^ cumstances, the great crisis out of which the Twelve Tables arose cannot possibly have had its termination in such ro mantic adventures, and in political issues so incomprehensi>. ble. The decemvirate was, after the abolition of the mon* archy and the institution of the tribunate of the people, the third great victory of the plebs ; and the exasperation of the opposite party against the institution and against its nead Appius Claudius is sufficiently intelligible. The ple> beians had through its means secured the right of eligibility Chap h.] And the Decemvirate. 369 to the highest magistracy of the community and a general code of law ; and it was not they that had reasofl to rebel against the new magistracy, and to restore the purely patri eian consular government by force of arms. This result am only have been sought by the party of the nobility, and if the patricio-plebeian decemvirs made the attempt to maintain themselves in oflSce beyond their time, the nobility were certainly the first to enter the lists against them ; on which occasion doubtless the nobles would not omit to urge that the stipulated rights of the plebs, and the tribunate in particular, should be also withheld. If the nobility there- upon succeeded in setting aside the decemvirs, it is certain- ly conceivable that after their fall the plebs should once more assemble in arms with a view to secure the results ^^ both of the earlier revolution of 260 and of the latest movement ; and the Valerio-Horatian laws 448. of 305 can only be understood as forming a compromise in this conflict. The compromise as was natural proved very favourable to the plebeians, and again imposed severely felt Horatian restrictions on the power of the nobility. As a laws matter of course the tribunate of the people was restored, the code of law wrung from the aristocracy was adhered to and enforced, and the consuls were obliged to judge accordingly. Under that arrangement indeed the tribes lost their usurped jurisdiction in capital causes ; but as an ample compensation for that loss, it was on the propo- sition of the consuls decreed by the centuries that in future every magistrate — and therefore the dictator among the rest —should be bound at his nomination to allow the right of appeal : any one who should nominate a magistrate on other terms was to expiate the offence with his life. In other re- spects the dictator retained his former powers ; and, in par- ticular, his official acts could not, like those of the consuls, be cancelled by a tribune. The tribunes retained, in tha right to inflict fines without limitation and to submit theii sentences to the comitia tributa, a sufficient means of driv ing an opponent out of the pale of the commonwealth. 16* 370 The Tribunate of the Plebs [Book n The plenitude of the consular power was further re> stricted in so far as the administration of the militarj chest was committed to two paymasters {quaestores) chosen by the community, who were nominated for the first time in 307, but from the ranks of the aristocracy ; while the nomination of the two paymasters ad- ministering the city-chest remained for the present with the consuls. The assembly, in which the military paymasters were elected under the superintendence of one of the con- suls, was that of the whole patricio-plebeian freeholders, and voted by districts ; an arrangement which likewise in- volved a concession to the plebeian farmers, who had far more command of these assemblies than of the centuriate comitia. A concession of still greater consequence was that which allowed the tribunes to share in the discussions of the sen- ate. To admit the tribunes to the hall where the senate sat, appeared to that body beneath its dignity ; so a bench was placed for them at the door that they might from that spot follow its proceedings. But the tribunes could not be prevented from now interposing against any decree of the senate that displeased them ; and the new principle became established, although only gradually, that any resolution of the senate or of the public assembly might be arrested by the intercession of a tribune. Lastly, to secure the decrees of the senate — with the validity of which indeed that of the most important plebiscita was bound up (p. 363) — from being tampered with or forged, it was enacted that in future they should be deposited not merely under charge of the patrician quaestores urbani in the temple of Saturn, but also under that of the plebeian aediles in the temple of Ceres. Thus the struggle, which was begun in order to get rid of the tribunician power, terminated in the definitive completion of its title to annul not only particular acts of administration on the appeal of the person aggrieved, but also any resolution of the constituent powers of the state alt pleasure. The persons of the tribunes, and the uninter' rupted maintenance of the college at its foil number, wen Chap. II.] And the Decemvirate. 871 secured by the most sacred oaths and by every element of reverence that religion could present. No attempt to abol- ish this magistracy was ever from this time forward mad< in Borne. CHAPTER m. THB BQUALIZATION OF THE ORDERS, A.ND THE NSW ARISTOCRACY. The tribunician movement appears to have mainly UTiionofthe originated in social rather than political discon- plebeians. ^gj^j;^ g^g^ there is good reason to suppose that some of the wealthy plebeians admitted to the senate were no less opposed to that movement than the patricians. For they benefited by the privileges against which the move- ment was mainly directed ; and although in other respects they found themselves treated as inferioi, it probably seemed to them by no means an appropriate time for as- serting their claim to participate in the magistracies, when the exclusive financial power of the whole senate was as- sailed. This explains why during the first fifty years of the republic no step was taken aiming directly at the politi- cal equalization of the orders. But this league between the patricians and wealthy ple- beians by no means bore within itself any guarantee of pei manence. Beyond, doubt from the very first a portion of the leading plebeian families had attached themselves to the movement-party, partly from a sense of what was due to the fellow-members of their order, partly in consequence of the natural bond which unites all who are treated as in- ferior, and partly because they perceived that concessions to the multitude were inevitable in the issue, and that, if turned to due account, they would result m the abrogation of the exclusive rights of the patriciate and would thereby give to the plebeian aristocracy a decisive preponderance in the state. Should this conviction become — as was inevita* ble — more and more prevalent, and should the plebeian aristocracy at the head of its order take up the struggle Ciup. ni.] The New Aristocracy. 373 with the patrician nobility, it would wield in the tribunat« a legalized instrument of civil warfare, and it might, with the weapon of social distress, so fight its battles as to dio tate to the nobility the terms of peace and, in the position of mediator between the two parties, compel its owr. ad- ir.ission to the offices of state. Such a crisis in the position of parties occurred after the fall of the decemvirate. It had now become perfectly clear that the tribunate of the plebs could never be set aside ; the plebeian aristocracy could not do better than seize this powerful lever and employ it for the removal of the political disabilities of their order. Nothing shows so clearly the defencelessness of the pa- Throwinff trician nobility when opposed to the united openofmai- plebs, as the fact that the fundamental principle nage and of ■*■ ' ^ ^ magistea- of the exclusive party — the invalidity of mar- riage between patricians and plebeians — fell at the first blow scarcely four years after the decemviral revo- lution. In the year 309 it was enacted by the Canuleian law, that a marriage between a patri- cian and a plebeian should be valid as a true Roman mar- riage, and that the children begotten of such a marriage should follow the rank of the father. At the same time it was further carried that, in place of consuls, military tri- bunes — as a rule apparently six, as many as there were tri- bunes to the legion — ^with consular powers * and consular * The hypothesis that legally the full impermm belonged to the par trioian, and only the military imperium to the plebeian, consular tribunes, not only raises many questions which its advocates cannot answer — as to the course followed, for example, in the event of the election falling, as was by law quite possible, wholly on plebeians — but conflicts with the fundamental principle of Roman constitutional law, that the imperium, that is to say, the right of commanding the burgess in name of the com- munity, was functionally indivisible and capable of no other limitation at all than a territorial one. There was a province of common law and a province of military law, in the latter of wbioh the provocatio and other regulations of the common law were not applicable ; there were magistrates, such as the proconsuls, who were empowered to dischargo "unctions simply in the latter ; but there were, in the strict sense of law, 37* The Equalisation of the Orders, [Book II duration of office should be elected by the centuries. Ac Military tri- Cording to the ancient law every burgess oi bunes with metoikos liable to service might attain the post consular ° , j? t_ • poweifl. of an officer (p, 138), and in virtue oi that prin- ciple the supreme magistracy, after having been tempora- rily opened up to the plebeians in the decemvirate, waa uow after a more comprehensive fashion rendered equally accessible to all freeborn burgesses. The question natural- ly occurs, what interest the aristocracy could have — now that it was under the necessity of abandoning its exclusive possession of the supreme magistracy and of yielding in the matter — in refusing to the plebeians the title, and con- ceding to them the consulate under this singular form ? * no magistrates with merely jurisdictional, as there were none with mere- ly military, imperiwn. The proconsul was in his province, just like the consul, at once commander-in-chief and supreme judge, and was entitled to send to trial actions not only between non-burgesses and soldiers, but also between one burgess and another. Even when, on the institution of the praetorship, the idea arose of apportioning special functions to the magisiratus maiores, this division of powers had more of a practical than of a strictly legal force ; the praetor urbanus was primarily indeed the supreme judge, but he could also convoke the centuries, at least for certain cases, and could command the army ; the consul in the city held primarily the supreme administration and the supreme command, but he too acted as a judge in cases of emancipation and adoption — the func- tional indivisibility of the supreme magistracy was therefore, even in these instances, very strictly adhered to on both sides. It thus appears that the military as well as jurisdictional authority, or, laying aside these abstractions foreign to the Roman law of this period, the absolute ma- gisterial power, virtually pertained to the plebeian consular tribunes as well as to the patrician. But the supposition of Becker (JBandb. ii. 2,137) is highly probable, that — for the same reasons for which, at a subsequent period, the exclusively patrician praetorship was associated with the con Bulship common to both orders — during the consular tribunate the ple- beian members of the college were practically excluded from jurisdioticm. and so far certainly the consular tribunate prepared the way for the sub- sequent actual division of jurisdiction between consuls and praetors. * The defence, that the aristocracy clung to the exclusion of the plebeians from religious prejudice, mistakes the fundamental character of the Koman religion, and imports into antiquity the modem distinction between church and state. The admittance of a non-burgeas to a Felip Uhap. m.J And tilt New Aristocracy. 37i But, in the first place, there were associated with the hold- ing of the supreme magistracy various honorary rights, partly personal, partly hereditary ; thus the honour of a triumph was regarded as legally dependent on the ocon- pancy of the supreme magistracy, and was never givea to an officer who had not administered the latter office in per- son ; and the descendants of a curule magistrate were at liberty to set up the image of such an ancestor in the fam- ily hall and to exhibit it in public on fitting occasions, while this was not allowed in the case of other ancestors.* It is as easy to be explained as it is difficult to be vindicated, that the governing aristocratic order should have allowed the government itself to be wrested from their hands far sooner than the honorary rights associated with it, especially such as were hereditary ; and therefore, when it was obliged to share the former with the plebeians, it gave to the actual supreme magistrate the legal standing not of the holder of a curule chair, but of a simple staff-officer, whose distinctipn was one purely personal. Of greater political importance, however, than the refusal of the jus imaginum and of the honour of a triumph was the circumstance, that the exclu- sion of the plebeians sitting in the senate from debate ne- cessarily ceased in respect to those of their number who, as designated or former consuls, ranked among the senators 10113 ceremony of the citizens could not indeed but appear sinful to the or- thodox Roman ; but e¥en the most rigid orthodoxy never doubted that admittance to civic communion, which absolutely and solely depended on the state, involved also full religious equality. All such scruples of cou- Bcience, the honesty of which in themselves we do not mean to doubt, were precluded, when once they granted to the plebeians en masse at the right time the patriciate. This only may perhaps be alleged by way of excuse for the nobility, that after it had neglected the right moment for this purpose at the abolition of the monarchy, it was no longer in a position subsequently of itself to retrieve the neglect (p. 338). * Whether this distinction between these " curule houses " tnd the ather families embraced within the patriciate was ever of serious political importance, cannot with certainty be either affirmed or denied ; and as little do we know whether at this epoch there really was any consider able cumber of patriciaai families that wero not yet curule. 376 The Equalisation of the Orders, [Book a whose opinion had to be asked before the rest ; so far it was certainly of great importance for the nobility to admit the plebeian only to a consular office, and not to the con- sulate itself. But notwithstanding these vexatious disabilites th« privileges of the clans, so far as they h&d a rtthe p™ political value, were legally superseded by the tiioiato. j^g^ institution ; and, had the Roman nobility been worthy of its name, it would now have given up the struggle. But it did not. Though a rational and legal re- sistance was thenceforth impossible, spiteful opposition still found a wide field of petty expedients, of chicanery and intrigue : and, far from honourable or politically prudent as such resistance was, it was still in a certain sense fruitful of results. It certainly procured at length for the commons concessions, which could not easily have been wrung from the united Roman aristocracy ; but it also prolonged civil war for another century and enabled the nobility, in defi- ance of those laws, practically to retain the government in their exclusive possession for several generations longer. The expedients of which the nobility availed themselves Their eipe- Were as various as a paltry policy could sug- dients. gest. Instead of deciding at once the question as to the admission or exclusion of the plebeians at the elections, they conceded what they were compelled to con- cede only with reference to the elections immediately im- pending. The vain struggle was thus annually renewed whether patrician consuls or military tribunes from both orders with consular powers should be nominated ; and among the weapons of the aristocracy this mode of conquer- ing an opponent by wearying and annoying him proved by no means the least efiectual. Moreover they brolte up the supreme power which had hitherto been undivided, in order to delay their of the ma- inevitable defeat by multiplying the points to ^'^^''°'^' be assailed. Thus the adjustment of the budget and of the burgess- and taxation-rolls, which ordinarily took place every fourth year and had hitherto been managed by Chap HI.] And the New Aristocrfmy. 377 436, the consuls, was entrusted in the yeai 319 to two Cetsorship. valuators (cfnsores), nominated from among the ucibles by the centuries for a period, at the most, of eighteen months. The new office gradually became the palladium of the aristocratic party, less even on account of its finan- cial influence than for the sake of the right annexed to it of filling up the vacancies in the senate and in the equites, and of removing individuals from the lists of the senate, equites, and burgesses on occasion of their adjustment. At this epoch, however, the censorship by no means possessed the great importance and moral supremacy which afterwards were associated with it. But the important change made in the year 333 in re- Quaestor- spect to the quaestorship amply compensated for ship. [42L ^jjjg success of the patrician party. There were at that time four quaestors, of whom the two entrusted with the management of the city chest were nominated by the consuls, and the two military paymasters by the tribes, all however from the nobility. The nomination of the city quaestors now passed to the patricio/plebeian assembly of the tribes, and the consul retained merely the superintend- ence of the election. And, what was of still more mo- ment, the commons — perhaps arguing that at least the two military paymasters were in fact officers rather than civil functionaries, and that accordingly the plebeian appeared as well entitled to the quaestorship as to the military tribune- ship — acquired in this instance for the first time the privi- lege of eligibility as well as the right of election for one of the ordinary magistracies. With justice it was felt on the one side as a great victory, on the other as a severe defeat, that thenceforth patrician and plebeian were equally capable of electing and being elected to the military as well as to the ui'ban quaestorship. The nobility, in spite of the most obstinate resistance, only sustained loss after loss ; and their exas- Attempts at ,.• ■ j ii, • j j counter- peration mcreased as their power decreased. reTouion. Attempts were doubtless still made directly to assail the rights secured by agreement to the commons; 378 The Equalization of the Orders, [Book a but such attempts were not so much the well-calculatud manoeuvres of party as the acts of an impotent thirst for vengeance. Such in particular was the process against Maelius. Spurius Maelius, a wealthy plebeian, during a severe dearth (315) sold corn at such prices as to put to shame and annoy the patrician store- president {^praefectus annonae) Gains Minucius. The lat- ter accused him of aspiring to kingly power ; with what amount of reason we cannot decide, but it is scarcely credi- ble that a man who had not even filled the tribunate should have seriously thought of sovereignty. Nevertheless the authorities took up the matter in earnest, and the cry of "•King" always produced on the multitude in Rome an effect similar to that of the cry of " Pope " on the masses in England. Titus Quinctius Capitolinus, who was for the sixth time consul, nominated Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, who was eighty years of age, as dictator without appeal, in open violation of the solemnly sworn laws (p. 369). Mae- lius, summoned before him, seemed disposed to disregard the summons ; and the dictator's master of the horse. Gains Servilius Ahala, slew him with his own hand. The house of the murdered man was pulled down, the corn from his granaries was distributed gratuitously to the people, and those who threatened to avenge his death were secretly made away with. This disgraceful judicial murder — a dis- grace even more to the credulous and blind people than to the malignant party of young patricians — passed unpun- ished ; but if that party hoped by such means to undermine the right of appeal, it violated the laws and shed innocent blood in vain. Electioneering intrigues and priestly trickery proved in tatriguesof the hands of the nobility more efficient than the nobility, gjjy ^^j^gj. weapons. The extent to which the former must have prevailed is best seen in the fact that in 322 it appeared necessary to issue a special law against electioneering practices, which of course Was cf little avail. When the voters could not be influ> enced by corruption cr threatening, the presiding magis Chap. HI.] And the Wew Aristocracy. 379 trates stretched their powers — admitting, for example, sa many plebeian candidates that the votes of the opposition were thrown away amongst them, or omitting from th« list of candidates those whom the majority were disposed to choose. If in spite of all this an obnoxious election was carried, the priests were consulted whether no vitiating cir- cumstance had occurred in the auspices or other religio\is ceremonies on the occasion ; and some such flaw they sel- dom failed to discover. Taking no thought as to the conse- quences and unmindful of the wise example of their ances- tors, the people allowed the principle to be established that the opinion of the skilled colleges of priests as to omens of birds,- portents, and the like was legally binding on the mar gistrate, and thus put it into their power to cancel any state- act — whether the consecration of a temple or any other act of administration, whether law or election — on the ground of religious informality. Thus it happened that, although the eligibility of plebeians had been already established by 421. law in 333 and thenceforward continued to be *09. legally recognized, it was only in 345 that the first plebeian attained the quaestorship ; in like manner patricians almost exclusively held the military tribunate with consular powers down to 354. It was ap- 400. parent that the legal abolition of the privileges of the nobles had by no means really and practically placed the plebeian aristocracy on a footing of equality with the gentile nobility. Many causes contributed to this result : the tenacious opposition of the nobility far more easily allowed itself to be theoretically superseded in a moment of excitement, than to be permanently kept down in the an- nually recurring elections ; but the main cause was the in- ward disunion between the chiefs of the plebeian aristocraty and the mass of the farmers. The middle class, whose votes were decisive in the comitia, did not feel itself spo- daily called on to advance the interests of the leading non-patricians, so long as its own demands were disre- garded by the plebeian no less than by the patrician aristo cracy. 530 The Equalization of the Orders, LBo»k n During these political struggles social questions had lain The suffer- altogether dormant, or were discussed at any ing fafmeri ^^^ ^;^.jj jggg energy. After the plebeian aris- tocracy had gained possession of the tribunate for its own ends, no serious notice was taken either of the question of the domains or of a reform in the system of credit ; al- though there was no lack either of newly acquired lands or of impoverished or decaying farmers. Instances indeed of assignations took place, particularly in the recently con- quered border-territories, such as those of the domain of 442. 418. Ardea in 312, of Labici in 336, and of Veil in 893. ggj — more however on military grounds than for the relief of the farmer, and by no means to an ade- quate extent. Individual tribunes doubtless attempted to revive the law of Cassius — for instance Spurius Maecilius and Spurius Metilius instituted in the year 337 a proposal for the distribution of the whole state-lands — but they were thwarted, in a manner peculiarly characteristic of the existing state of parties, by the oppo- sition of their own colleagues or in other words of the ple- beian aristocracy. Some of the patricians also attempted to remedy the common distress ; but with no better success than had formerly attended Spurius Cassius. A patrician like Cassius and like him distinguished by military renown and personal valour, Marcus Manlius, the saviour of the Capitol during the Gallic siege, came forward as the cham- pion of the oppressed people, with whom he was connected by the ties of comradeship in war and of bitter hatred towards his rival, the celebrated general and leader of the optimate party, Marcus Furius Camillus. When a brave officer was about to be led away to a debtor's prison, Man- lius interceded for him and released him with his own money ; at the same time he offered his lands to sale, de- claring loudly, that as long as he possessed a foot's breadth of land such iniquities should not occur. This was mora than enough to unite the whole government party, patri- cians as well as plebeians, against the dangerous innovator. The trial for high treason, the charge of having meditated 8 Chap. III.] And the New Aristocracy. 381 renewal of the monarchy, wrought on the blind multitude with the insidious charm which belongs to stereotyped party-phrases. They themselves cundemned him to death and his renown availed him nothing save that it was deemed expedient to assemble the people for the bloody assize at a spot whence the voters could not see the rock of the citadel — the dumb monitor which might remind them how theii %therland had been saved from the extremity of danger by the hands of the very man whom they were now consigning to the executioner (370). While the attempts at reformation were thus arrested in the bud, the social disorders became still more crying ; for on the one hand the domain-possessions were ever extend- ing in consequence of successful wars, and on the other hand debt and impoverishment were ever spreading more widely among the farmers, particularly from the effects of 406-396. the severe war with Veil (348-358) and of the burning of the capital in the Gallic invasion 890. (364). It is true that, when in the Veientine war it became necessary to prolong the term of service of the soldiers and to keep them under arms not — as hitherto at the utmost — only during summer, but also throughout the winter, and when the farmers, foreseeing their utter eco- nomic ruin, were on the point of refusing their consent to the declaration of war, the senate resolved on making an important concession. It charged the pay, which hitherto the tribes had defrayed by contribution, on the state-chest, or in other words, on the produce of the indirect revenues and the domains (348). It was only in the event of the state-chest being at the moment empty that a general contribution {tributum) was impnsp-d on account of the pay ; and in that case it was considered fts a forced loan and was afterwards repaid by the commu- nity. The arrangement was equitable and wise ; but, as it W"as not based upon the essential condition of turning the domains to proper account for the benefit of the exchequer, there were added to the increased burden of service fre- quent contributions, which were none the less ruinous t< 382 The I^ualizaUon of the Orders, [Book H, the man of small means that they were officially regarded not as taxes but as advances. Under such circumstances, when the plebeian aristocracy Oomtina- saw itself practically excluded by the opposition pi°eb>°ln'^° of the nobility and the indifference of the com- and The""^ mons from equality of political rights, and the farniers suffering farmers were powerless as opposed to nobility. the close aristocracy, it was natural that they should help each other by a compromise. With this view licinio-Sex- ^^ tribunes of the people. Gains Licinius and tian laws. Lucius Sextius, Submitted to the commons pro- posals to the following effect : first, to abolish the consular tribunate and to lay it down as a rule that at least one of the consuls should be a plebeian ; secondly, to open up to the plebeians admission to one of the three great colleges of priests — that of the custodiers of oracles, whose number was to be increased to ten {duoviri, afterwards decemviri sacris faciundis, p. 240) ; thirdly, as respected the domains, to allow no burgess to maintain upon the common pasture more than a hundred oxen and five hundred sheep, or to hold more than five hundred jugera (about 300 acres) of the domain lands left free for occupation ; fourthly, to oblige the landlords to employ in the labours of the field a number of free labourers proportioned to that of their rural slaves ; and lastly, to procure alleviation for debtors by deduction of the interest which had been paid from the capital, and by the arrangement of set terms for the pay- ment of arrears. The tendency of these enactments is obvious. They ivere designed to deprive the nobles of their exclusive pos. session of the ourule magistracies and of the hereditary di* tinclions of nobility therewith associated ; which, it was characteristically conceived, could only be accomplished by the legal exclusion of the nobles from the place of second consul. They were designed, as a consequence, to emanci- pate the plebeian members of the senate from the subordi- nate position which they occupied as silent by-sitters (p, 334), in so far as those of them at least who had filled the Chap. HI.] And the New Aristocracy. 383 consulate thereby acquired a title to deliver their opinion with the patrician consulars before the other patrician sen> tors (p. 335, 375). They were intended, moreover, to with- draw from the nobles the exclusive possession of spiritual dignities ; and in carrying out this purpose for reasons su6 ficiently obvious the old Latin priesthoods of the augura and pontifices were left to the old burgesses, but these were obliged to open up to the new burgesses the third great college of more recent origin and belonging to a worship that was originally foreign. They were intended, in fine, to procure a share in the common usufructs of burgesses for the poorer commons, alleviation for the suffering debtors, and employment for the day-labourers that were destitute of work. Abolition of privileges, social reform, civil equal- ity — these were the three great ideas, of which it was the design of this movement to secure the recognition. Vainly the patricians exerted all the means at their command iu opposition to these legislative proposals ; even the dictator- ship and the old military hero Camillus were able only to delay, not to prevent, their accomplishment. Willingly would the people have separated the proposals ; of what moment to it were the consulate and custodiership of ora- cles, if only the burden of debt were lightened and the public lands were free ! But it was not for nothing that the plebeian nobility had adopted the popular cause ; it included the proposals in one single project of law, and after a long struggle — it is said of eleven years — the senate at length gave its consent and they passed in the / '"■ year 3^7. / With the election of the first non-patrician consul — the Political choice fell on one of the authors of this reform, S'epatri-"^ the late tribune of the people, Lucius Sextius oiate. Lateranus — the gentile aristocracy ceased both iu fact and in law to be numbered among the political insti- tutions of Rome. When after the final passing of these laws the former champion of the clans, Marcus Furiua Camillus, founded a sanctuary of Concord at the foot of the Capitol — upon an elevated platform, where the senate way 384 The Equalization of the Orders, [Book It wont frequently to meet, above the old meeting-plac« o* the burgesses, the Comitium — ^we gladly cherish the belief that he recognized in the legislation thus completed the close of a dissension only too long continued. The reli- gious consecration of the new concord of the communl.lj was the last public act of the old warrior and statesman, and a worthy termination of his long and glorious career. He was not wholly mistaken ; the more judicious portion of the clans evidently from this time forward looked upon their exclusive political privileges as lost, and were content to share the government with the plebeian aristocracy. In the majority, however, the patrician spirit proved true to its incorrigible character. On the strength of the privilege which the champions of legitimacy have at all times claimed of obeying the laws only when these coincide with their party interests, the Eoman nobles on various occasions ven- tured, in open violation of the stipulated arrangement, to nominate two patrician consuls. But, when by way of answer to an election of that sort for the year 343. '' 411 the community in the year following for- mally resolved to allow both consular positions to be filled by non-patricians, they understood the implied threat, and still doubtless desired, but never again ventured, to touch the second consular place. In like manner the aristocracy simply injured itself by the attempt which it made, on the passing of the Licmio-bextian laws, to save at least some rem- nant of its ancient privileges by means of a system of political clipping and paring. Under the pretext that the nobility were exclusively cognizant of law, the administia^ lion of justice was detached from the consulate when the latter had to be thrown open to the plebeians ; and for thi? purpose there was nominated a special third consul, or, as Onrnie ^^ '^^^ commonly called, a praetor. In like •ediieship. manner the supervision of the market and the judicial police-daties connected with it, as well as the cele- bration of the city-festival, were assigned to two newly nominated aedl\es, who — by way of distinction from the Chap. III.] And the New Aristoaracy. 385 plebeian aediles — were named from their standing jurisdic- tion " aediles of the judgment seat " (aediles curules). But the curule aedileship became immediately so far opening up accessible to the plebeians, that it was held by of magistra- . . t n ^ . i -t -kit cios and patrioians and plebeians alternately. Moreover piios 00 s. ^j^^ dictatorship was thrown open to plebeians S56. in 398, as the mastership of the horse had al- ready been in the year before the Licinio-Sextian laws 368. (386) ; both the censorships were thrown open 351. 337 in 403, and the praetorship in 417 ; and about '^^- the same time (415) the nobility were by law excluded from one of the censorships, as they had previous- ly been from one of the consulships. It was to no purpose that once more a patrician augur detected secret flaws, hid- den from the eyes of the uninitiated, in the election of a j2j_ plebeian dictator (427), and that the patrician censor did not up to the close of our present 280. period (474) permit his colleague to present the solemn sacrifice with which the census closed ; such chi- canery served merely to show the ill humour of patrician- ism. Of as little avail were the complaints which the patrician presidents of the senate would not fail to raise regarding the participation of the plebeians in its debates ; it became a settled rule that not the patrician members, but those who had attained to one of the three supreme ordi- nary magistracies — the consulship, praetorship, and curule aedileship — should be summoned to give their opinion in this order and without distinction of class, while the senar tors who had held none of these offices still even now took part merely in the division. The right, in fine, of the patrician senate to reject a decree of the community as un- constitutional — a right, however, which in all probability it rarely ventured to exercise — was withdrawn from it by the Publilian law of 415 and by the Maenian law which was not passed before the middle of the fifth century, in so far that it had to bring forward its con- stitutional objections, if it had any such, when the list of candidates was exhibited or the project of law was brought 886 The Equahsation of the Orders, [Book n. in ; 'wliich practically amounted to a regular announcement of its consent beforehand. In this character, as a purely formal right, the confirmation of the decrees of the people still continued in the hands of the nobility down to the last flge of the republic. The clans retained, as may naturally be conceived, their religious privileges longer. Indeed, several of these, which were destitute of political importance, were never interfered with, such as their exclusive eligibility to the offices of the three supreme Jlamines and that of rex sacrorum as well as to the membership of the colleges of Salii. On the other land the two colleges of pontifices and of augurs, with which a considerable influence over the courts and the comitia were associated, were too important to remain in the exclusive possession of the patricians. The Ogulnian law of 454 accordingly threw these also open to plebeians, by increasing the number of pontifices from five to eight, and that of augurs from six to nine, and equally distributing the stalls in the two colleges between patricians and plebeians. The two hundred years' strife was brought at length to EqniTaienco ^ close by the law of the dictator Q. Hortensius pfebMtam. (^65, 468) which was occasioned by a dangerous 289. 286. popular insurrection, and which declared that the decrees of the plebs should stand on an absolute footing of equality — ^instead of their earlier conditional equivalence — with those of the whole community. So greatly had the state of things been changed that that portion of the bur- gesses, which had once possessed exclusively the right of voting, thenceforth no longer took even a part in the most important and most frequent form of the votes which bound all the burgesses. The struggle between the Roman clans and commons was thus substantially at an end. While the iiatrioian- nobility still preserved out of its compiehensive ™' privileges the de facto possession of one of the :;onsulships and one of the censorships, it was excluded by law from the tribunate, the plebeian aedileship, the second Chap. HI.] And, the New Aristoorocy. 381 consulship and censorship, and from participation in the votes of the plebs which were legally equivalent to votes of the whole body of burgesses. As a righteous retribution for its perverse and stubborn resistance, the patriciate had seen its former privileges converted into so many disabilities. The Roman gentile nobility, however, by no means dis- appeared because it had become an empty name. The les» the significance and power of the nobility, the more purely and exclusively the patrician spirit developed itself. The haughtiness of the " Ramnians " survived the last of their class-privileges for centuries ; after they had steadfastly striven " to rescue the consulate from the plebeian filth " and had at length become reluctantly convinced of the im- possibility of such an achievement, they continued rudely and spitefully to display their aristocratic spirit. To under- stand rightly the history of Rome in the fifth and sixth centuries, we must never overlook this sulking patrician- ism ; it could indeed do little more than irritate itself and others, but this it did to the best of its ability. Some years after the passing of the Ogulnian law (458) a characteristic instance of this sort oc- curred. A patrician matron, who was married to a leading plebeian that had attained to the highest dignities of the state, was on account of this misalliance expelled from the circle of noble dames and was refused admission to the common festival of Chastity ; and in consequence of that exclusion separate patrician and plebeian goddesses of Chastity were thenceforward worshipped in Rome. Doubt- less caprices of this sort were of very little moment, and the better disposed of the clans kept themselves entirely aloof from this miserable policy of peevishness ; but it left behind on both sides a feeling of discontent, and, while the struggle of the commons against the clans was in itself a political and even moral necessity, these convulsive eflrirts to prolong the strife — the aimless combats of the rear- guard after the battle had been decided, as well as the empty squabbles as to rank and standing — needlessly iiri 388 The Equalization of the Orders, [Book a tated and disturbed the public and private life of tho Eomar community. Nevertheless one object of the compromise concluded by S67.] the two portions of the plebs in 387, the aboli- dhtriss'* tion of the patriciate, had in all material points Jf^p^®,o*' been completely attained. The question next wiieTs It. arises, how far the same can be affirmed of the two positive objects aimed at in the compromise ? — whether the new order of things in reality checked social distress and established political equality ? The two were intimate- ly connected ; for, if economic embarrassments ruined the middle class and broke up the burgesses into a minority of rich men and a suffering proletariate, such a state of things would at once annihilate civil equality and in reality de- stroy the republican commonwealth. The preservation and increase of the middle class, and in particular of the farmers, formed therefore for every patriotic statesman of Rome a problem not merely important, but the most im- portant of all. The plebeians, moreover, recently called to take part in the government, greatly indebted as they were for their new political rights to the proletariate which was suffering and expecting help at their hands, were politically and morally under special obligation to attempt its relief by means of government measures, so far as relief was by such means at all attainable. Let us first consider how far any real relief was con- 867.] tained in that part of the legislation of 387 Sextian'°"'' which bore upon the question. That the enact '^'"^- ment in favour of the free day-labourers could not possibly accomplish its object — ^namely, to check the system of farming on a large scale and by means of slaves, and to secure to the free proletarians at least a share of work — is self-evident. In this matter legislation could afford no relief, without shaking the foundations of the civil organization of the period in a way that would reach far beyond its immediate horizon. In the question of the do- mains, again, it was quite possible for legislation to effect a change ; but what was done was manifestly inadequate Chap. HI.] And the New Aristoeracy. The new domain-arrangement, by granting the right of driving very considerable flocks and herds upon the public pastures, and that of occupying domain-land rot laid out in pasture up to a maximum fixed on a high scale, conceded i^ the wealthy a very important and perhaps even dispropor- tionate prior share in the produce of the domains ; and by the latter regulation conferred upon the domain-tenure^ although it remained in law liable to pay a tenth and rev- ocable at pleasure, as well as upon the system of occupar tion itself, somewhat of a legal sanction. It was a circum- stance still more suspicious, that the new legislation neither supplemented the existing and manifestly unsatisfactory provisions for the collection of the pasture-money and the tenth by compulsory measures of a more eflective kind, nor prescribed any thorough revision of the domanial posses- sions, nor appointed a magistracy charged with the carrying of the new laws into effect. The distribution of the existing occupied domain-land partly among the holders up to a fair maximum, partly among the plebeians who had no prop- erty, in both cases in full ownership ; the abolition in future of the system of occupation ; and the institution of an authority empowered to make immediate distribution of any future acquisitions of territory, were so clearly de manded by the circumstances of the case, that it certainly was not through want of discernment that these comprehen- sive measures were neglected. We cannot fail to recollect that it was the plebeian aristocracy, in other words, a por- tion of the very class that was practically privileged in re- spect to the usufructs of the domains, which proposed the new arrangement, and that one of its very authors, Gaius Licinius Stolo, was among the first to be condemned for having exceeded the agrarian maximum ; and we cannot but ask whether the legislators dealt altogether honourably and whether they did not on the contrary designedly evade a solution, really tending to the common benefit, of the un- happy question of the domains. We do not mean, how- ever, to express any doubt that the regulations of the Lici nio-Soxtian laws, such as they were, might and did substan- 390 The Equalization of the Orders, [Book li tially benefit the small farmer and the day-labourer. It must, moreover, be acknowledged that in the period imme- diately succeeding the passing of the law the authorities watched with at least comparative strictness over the ob- servance of its rules as to the maximum, and frequently jondrfmned the possessors of large herds and the occupierg of the domains to heavy fines. In the system of taxation and of credit also efforts were Laws impos- made with greater energy at this period than at iiig taxes. gjjy before or subsequent to it to remedy the evils of the national economy, so far as legal measures could do so. The duty levied in 397 of five per cent, on the value of slaves that were to be manumitted was — irrespective of the fact that it imposed a check on the undesirable multiplication of freedmen — the first tax in Eome that was really laid upon the rich. In like manner efforts were made to remedy the system of Laws of credit. The usury laws, which the Twelve credit. Tables had established (p. 366), were renewed and gradually rendered more stringent, so that the maxi- mum of interest was successively lowered, from 10 per S57 347. oieok. (enforced in 397) to 5 per cent, (in 407) for the year of twelve months, and at length 842. (412) the taking of interest was altogether for- bidden. The latter foolish law remained formally in force, but, of course, it was practically inoperative ; the standard rate of interest afterwards usual, viz. 1 per cent, per month, or 12 per cent, for the civil common year — which, accord- ing to the value of capital in antiquity, was probably at that time nearly the same as, according to its modern value, a rate of 5 or 6 per cent. — must have been already about this period established as the maximum of allowable intoi* est. Any action at law for higher rates must have been refused, perhaps even judicial claims for repayment may have been allowed ; moreover notorious usurers were not unfrequently summoned before the bar of the people and readily condemned by the tribes to heavy fines. Still more important was the alteration of the procedure in cases of Ohap. m.] And the Hew Anstocraoy. 391 debt by the Poetelian law (428 or 441). On the 326 or 313. , •, . i, i in. , ■, , , one hand it allowed every djbtor who declared on oath his solvency to save his personal freedom by the cession of his property ; on the other hand it abolished the fcirmer summary proceedings in execution on a loan-debt, and laid down the rule that no Roman burgess could be led away to bondage except upon the sentence of jurymen. It is plain that all these expedients might perhaps in Continued some respects mitigate, but could not remove, iistress. ^Jjq existing economic disorders. The continu- ance of the distress is shown by the appointment of a bank-commission to regulate the relations of credit and to •52. provide advances from the state-chest in 402, by 347. the a,ppointment of legal term-payments in 407, and above all by the dangerous popular insurrection about 467, when the people, unable to obtain new facilities for the payment of debts, marched out to the Janiculum, and nothing but a seasonable attack by external enemies, and the concessions contained in the Hor- tensian law, restored peace to the community. It is, how- ever, very unjust to reproach these earnest attempts to check the impoverishment of the middle class with their inadequacy. The belief that it is useless to employ partial and palliative means against radical evils, because they only remedy them in part, is an article of faith never preached unsuccessfully by baseness to simplicity, but it is none the less absurd. On the contrary, we may ask whether the vile spirit of demagogism had not even thus early laid hold of this matter, and whether expedients were really needed so violent and dangerous as, for example, the deduction of the interest paid from the capital. Our documents do not eii- able us to decide the question of right or wrong in the case. But we recognize clearly enough that the middle class of freeholders still continued economically in a perilous and critical position ; that various endeavours were made by those in power to remedy it by prohibitory laws and by respites, but of course in vain ; and that the aristocratic ruling class continued to be too weak in point of conti'ol ."592 The EquaUzation of the Orders, [Book U over its members, and too miuch entangled in the selfish interests of its order, to relieve the middle class by the only effectual means at the disposal of the goverr.ment^— the entire and unreserved abolition of the system of ocpU" pying the state lands — and by that course to free the gov- ernment from the reproach of turning to its own advantaga the affliction of the governed. A more effectual relief than any which the government was willing or able to give was derived by the theexton-" middle classes from the political successes of Roman do- ^^ Eoman community and the gradual consoli- 'leTOtinff' dation of the Roman sovereignty over Italy, the farmer- The numerous and large colonies which it was class. ° necessary to found for the securing of that sove- reignt}', the greater part of which were sent forth in the fifth century, furnished a portion of the agricultural prole- tariate with farms of their own, while the efflux gave relief to such as remained at home. The increase of the indirect and extraordinary sources of revenue, and the flourishing condition of the Roman finances in general, rendered it but seldom necessary to levy any contribution from the farmers in the form of a forced loan. While the earlier small hold- ings were probably lost beyond recovery, the rising average of Roman prosperity must have converted the former larger land-holders into farmers, and in so far added new members tc the middle class. People of rank sought principally to secure the large newly-acquired districts for occupation ; the mass of wealth which flowed to Rome through war and commerce must have reduced the rate of interest ; the in- crease in the population of the capital benefited the farmer throughout Latium ; a wise system of incorporation united a number of neighbouring and formerly subject communi ties with the Roman state, and thereby strengthened espe cially the middle class ; finally, the glorious victories and their mighty results silenced faction. If the distress of the farmers was by no means removed and still less were ita sources stopped, it yet admits of no doubt that at the close of this period the Roman middle class was on the whole in Chap. III.] And the Neva Aristocracy. 393 a far less oppressed condition than in the first century aftei the expulsion of the kings. Lastlj civic equality was in a certain sense undoubtedly attained or rather restored by the reform of CiTio equal- Jill /.I ity. OKI, and the development of its legitimate con' sequences. As formerly, -when the patricians still in fact formed the burgesses, these had stood upon a footing of absolute equality in rights and duties^ so now in the enlarged burgess-body there existed in the eye of the law no arbitrary distinctions. The gradations to which differences of age, sagacity, cultivation, and wealth necessa- rily give rise in civil society, naturally also pervaded the sphere of public life ; but the spirit animating the burgesses and the policy of the government uniformly operated so as to render these differences as little conspicuous as possible. The whole system of Rome tended to train up her burgesses to an average character of ability, but not to bring into prominence the gifts of genius. The growth of culture among the Romans did not at all keep pace with the devel- opment of the resources of the community, and it was in- stinctively repressed rather than promoted by those in power. That there should be rich and poor, could not be prevented ; but (as in a genuine community of farmers) the farmer as well as the day-labourer personally guided the plough, and to the rich as well as the poor the good economic rule applied that they should live with uniform frugality and above all should hoard no unproductive capital at home — excepting the salt-cellar and the sacrificial ladle, no silver articles were at this period seen in any Roman house. Nor was this of little moment. In the mighty successes which the Roman community externally achieved during the century from the last Veientine down to the Pyrrhic war we perceive that the patriciate has now given place to the farmers ; that the fall of the highborn Fabian would have been not more and not less lamented by the whole community than the fall of the plebeian Decian wa» lamented alike by plebeians and patricians ; that the consu late did not of itself fall even to the wealthiest aristocrar 17* 39i The EquaUsation oj the Orders, [Boit il. and that a poor hustandMan from Sabina, Manius Curius, could conquer king Pyrrhus in the field of battle and chase him out of Italy, without ceasing to be a simple Sabine farmer and to cultivate in person his own bread-corn. In regard however to this imposing republican equality Newaristoo- ^^ must not Overlook the ffict that it was to a '^°^- considerable extent only formal, and that an aristocracy of a very decided stamp grew out of it or rather was contained in it from the very first. The non- patrician families of wealth and consideration had long ago separated from the plebs, and leagued themselves with the patriciate in the participation of senatorial rights and in the prosecution of a policy distinct from that of the plebs and very often counteracting it. The Licinio-Sextian laws abrogated legal distinctions within the ranks of the aristoc- racy, and changed the character of the barrier which ex- cluded the plebeian from the government, so that it was no longer an obstacle insurmountable in law, but a hindrance difficult to be surmounted in practice. In both ways fresh blood was mingled with the ruling order in Rome ; but in itself the government still remained aristocratic. In this respect the Roman community was a genuine farmer-com- monwealth, in which the rich holder of a whole hide was little distinguished externally from the poor cottager and held intercourse with him on equal terms, but aristocracy nevertheless exercised so all-powerful a sway that a man without means sooner rose to be master of the burgesses in the city than mayor in his own village. It was a very great and valuable gain, that under the new legislation even the poorest lnurgess might fill the highest office of the state ; nevertheless it was a rare exception when a man from tha lower ranks of the population reached such a position,* and • The statements as to the poverty of the consulars of this period, which play so great a part in the noral anecdote -books of a later age, mainly rest on a miaunderstanding on the one hand of the old frugai economy — which might rery well consist with considerable prosperity — and on the other hand of the beautiful old custom of burying men whs had deserved well of the state from the proceeds of penny ooUeetions— Ohap. m.] And the New Aristocracy. 895 aot onlj so, but probably it was, at least towards the close of this period, possible only by means of an election carried by the opposition. Every aristocratic government of itself calls forth a cor- Keir oppo- responding opposition party ; and as the formal litioa equalization of the orders only modified the aris- tocracy, and the new ruling order not only succeeded the old patriciate but engrafted itself on it and intimately co- alesced with it, the opposition also continued to exist and in all respects pursued a similar course. As it was now no longer the plebeians as such, but the common people, that were treated as inferior, the new opposition professed from the first to be the representative of the lower classes and particularly of the small farmers ; and as the new aristoc- racy attached itself to the patriciate, so the first movements of this new opposition were interwoven with the final strug- gles against the privileges of the patricians. The first names in the series of these new popular leaders were Ma- 290 275. '^'^^ Curius (consul 464, 479, 480 ; censor 482) ii m ^nd ^^^"* Fabricius (consul 473, 476, 481 ; cen- 273. 27S. sor 479) ; both of them men without ancestral lineage and without wealth, both summoned — in opposition to the aristocratic principle of restricting re-election to the highest office of the state — thrice by the votes of the bur- gesses to the chief magistracy, both, as tribunes, consuls, and censors, opponents of patrician privileges and defenders of the small farmer class against the incipient arrogance of the leading houses. The future parties were already marked out ; but the interests of party were still suspended on both sides in presence of the interests of the common-weal. The patrician Appius Claudius and the farmer Manius Curius — vehement in their personal antagonism — jointly by wise counsel and vigorous action conquered king Pyrrhus ; and while Gains Fabricius as censor inflicted penalties on Pub- which was far from being a pauper burial. The method also of explain- ing surnames by etymological guess-work, which has imported so manj Bbsurdlties into Roman history, has furnished its quota to this belief {Berramus). 396 Ths Equalizjbtion of the Orders, [Book U lius Cornelius Rufirxis for his aristocratic sentiments and aristocratic habits, this did not prevent him from support* ing the claim of Rufinus to a second consulate on account of his recognized ability as a general. The breach wag already formed ; but the adversaries still shook hands across it. The termination of the struggles between the old and The new "©^ burgesses, the various and comparatively goTenunent successful endcavours to relieve the middle class, and the germs — already making their appearance amidst the newly acquired civic equality — of the formation of a new aristocratic and a new democratic party, have thus been passed in review. It remains that we describe the shape which the new government assumed amidst these changes, and the positions in which after the political abolition of the nobility the three elements of the republican common' wealth — the burgesses, the magistrates, and the senate- stood towards each other. The burgesses in, their ordinary assemblies continued as ■rheburgess- hitherto to be the highest authority in the com- body. monwealth and the legal sovereign. But it was settled by law that — apart from the rnatters committed Its compo- oiice for all to the decision of the centuries, such sition. ^g (.-[jg election of consuls and censors — voting by districts should be as valid as voting by centuries : a regulation introduced as regards the patricio-glebeian assem- 449. bly by the Valerio-Horatian law of 305 (p. 839. 369) and extended by the Publilian law of 415, but enacted as regards the plebeian separate assembly by the Hortensian law about 467 (p. 386). We have already noticed that the same individuals, on the whole, were entitled to vote in both assemblies, but that — apart from the exclusion of the patricians from the plebeian separate assembly — ^in the general assembly of the districts all entitled to vote were on a footing of equality, while in the centuriate comitia the working of the suffrage was graduated with reference to the means of the voters, and iu so far, therefore, the change was certairjy a levelling Ohap. III.1 And the Ntw Arifiio(yracy. 391 and democratic innovation. It was a ciroumstanct of far greater importance that, towards the end of this period, the primitive freehold basis of the right of suffrage began for the first time to be called in question. Appius Claudius, the boldest innovator known in Roman history, in his cen» sorship in 442 without consulting the senate or people so adjusted the burgess-roll, that a man who had no land was received into whatever tribe he those and then according to his means into the corresponding cen- tur/. But this alteration was too far in advance of the spirit of the age to obtain full acceptance. One of the im- mediate successors of Appius, Quintus Fabius Eullianus, th« famous conqueror of the Samnites, undertook in his cen- sorship of 450 not to set it aside entirely, but to confine it within such limits that the real power in the burgess assemblies should continue to be vested in the holders of land and of wealth. He incorporated all who had no land, and also those freedmen possessed of land whose property was valued at less than 30,000 sesterces (£300), in the four city tribes, which were now made to rank not as the first but as the last. The rural tribes, on the other hand, the number of which gradually increased between 367 and 513 from seventeen to thirty- ?87 241. one — thus forming a majority, greatly prepon- derating from the first and ever increasing in preponderance, of the voting-divisions — were reserved by law for the whole of the fteeborn burgesses who were freeholders, as well as for the freedmen who held land exceeding the above-men- tioned limit. In the centuries the equalization of the free- holders and non-freeholders who were of free birth remained as Appius had introduced it ; on the other hand, the fi^eed men who were not admitted into the rural tribes were de- prived of the suffrage. In this manner provision was made for the preponderance of the freeholders in the comitia of the tribes, while in the centuriate comitia — in which, from the decided preference given to the wealthy, fewer measures of precaution sufficed — the freedmen could at least do no harm. By this wise and moderate arrangement on the part 398 The Equalization of the Orders, fiaoK n. of a man who for his warlike feats and still more for tliij peaceful achievement justly received the surname of th« Great [Maximus), the obligation of bearing arms was ex« tended, as was fitting, to the non-freehold burgesses, while a check was imposed on the increasing power of the class wlio had once been slaves — a check which is unfortunately in a state sanctioning slavery an indispensable necessity. A peculiar moral jurisdiction, moreover, which gradually came to be associated with the census and the making-up of the burgess-roll, excluded from the burgess-body all indi- viduals notoriously unworthy, and guarded the full moral and political purity of citizenship. The powers of the comitia exhibited during this period inoreasiiig ^ tendency to enlarge their range, but in a man- thebm-"*^ ner very gradual. The increase in the number gesses. of magistrates to be elected by the people falls, to some extent, under this head ; it is an especially signifi- 382. cant fact that from 392 the military tribunes of 311. one legion, and from 443 four tribunes in each of the first four legions respectively, were nominated no longer by the general, but by the burgesses. During this period the burgesses did not on the whole interfere in ad- ministration ; only their right of declaring war was, as was reasonable, emphatically asserted, and held to extend also to cases in which a prolonged armistice concluded instead of a peace expired and what was not in law but in fact a new war began (327). In other instances a question of administration was only submitted t.) the people when the governing authorities came into col- lision and one of them referred the matter to the people, or when in difficult or invidious questions the government vol- untarily placed the decision in their hands. Examples of such collisions occurred when the leaders of the moderate party among the nobility, Lucius Valerius and Marcus Ho- M9. ratius, in 305, and the first plebeian dictator, M6. Gains Marcius Rutilus, in 398, were not allowed by the senate to receive the triumphs they had earned , when the consuls of 459 could not agree as to their respective provinces of jurisdiction; and Ohap. III.] And the New Aristo&racy. 39S J9J when the senate, in 364, resolved to give up to the Gauls an ambassador who had forgotten hi» duty, and a consular tribune carried the matter tc the conv DT.unity. This was the first occasion on which a decree of the senate was annulled by the people ; and heavily the community atoned for it. Instances of the decision being Toluntarily left to the people occurred first, when Caere sued for peace, after the people had declared war against it but before war had actually begun (401), whereupon the senate hesitated to leave the resolution of the people unexecuted without their formal consent ; and at a subsequent period, when the senate wished to reject the humble entreaty of the Samnites for peace, but shunning the odium of the declaration devolved it on the people (436). It is not till towards the close of this epoch that we find a consider- able extension of the powers of the comitia tribuia in affairs of administration, particularly through the practice of con suiting it as tx) the conclusion of peace and of alliances : this extension probably dates from the Horten- sian law of 467. Notwithstanding, however, these enlargements of the Decreasing powers of the burgess-assemblies, their practical rfthe'buT^ influence on state affairs began, particularly gess-boSy. towards the close of this period, to wane. First of all, the extension of the bounds of Rome deprived her collective assemblies of their original significance. An assembly of persons resident within the original territory of the city might very well meet in sufficiently full num- bers, and might very well know its own wishes, even with- out discussion ; but the Roman burgess-body had becom.e less a civic community than a state. No doubt, in so far as the incorporated townships were associated together in the rural tribes-^-in the Papirian tribe, for instance, the votes of the Tusculans proved substantially decisive— the municipal sentiment, at all times so lively in Italy, per- vaded also the Roman comitia and introduced into them, at least when voting 'by tribes, a sort of inward connectio» 100 The Equalization of the Orders, [Book U and a special esprit de corps, which thereupon gave rise ti animosities and rivalries of all sorts. In this vcay, on es traordinary occasions, energy and independence were cei tainly infused into the voting ; but under ordinary circum stances the composition of the comitia and their decisioi were left dependent on the person who presided or on acci dent, or were committed to the hands of the burgesse domiciled in the capital. It is, therefore, quite easy to un derstand how the assemblies of the burgesses, which hai great practical importance during the first two centuries o\ the republic, gradually became a mere instrument in th( hands of the presiding magistrates, and in truth a very dan gerous instrument, because the magistrates called to presidi were so numerous, and every resolution of the community was regarded as the ultimate legal expression of the will o\ the people. But the enlargement of the constitutional righti of the burgesses was not of much moment, inasmuch ai practically they were less than ever capable of a will an( action of their own, and there was as yet no demagogism in the proper sense of that term, in Rome. Had any sucl demagogic spirit existed, it would have attempted not t< extend the powers of the burgesses, but to remove the re strictions on political discussion in their presence ; whereai throughout this whole period there was undeviating acquies cence in the old maxims, that the magistrate alone coulc convolve the burgesses, and that he was entitled to exclud* all discussion and all proposal of amendments. At th( time this incipient breaking up of the constitution mad( itself felt chiefly in the circumstance that the collective as semblies assumed an essentially passive attitude, and di( not on the whole interfere in government either to help oi to hinder it. As regards the power of the magistrates, its diminution The maris- although not the direct design of the struggle trates. Sub- between the old and new burgesses, was doubt division ° ' and weaken, less one of their most important results. A lug of the ^ ^ tonsniap the beginning of the struggle between the order ^^"^ or, in other words, of the strife for the posses Caip. m.] Arid the New Aristocracy. 403 sion of the consular power, the consulate was still the one and indivisible, essentially regal, magistrj.cy ; and the con- sul, like the king in former times, still had the appointment of all subordinate functionaries left to his own free choice. At the termination of that contest its most important funo- tions — jurisdiction, street-police, election of senators and oquites, the census and financial administration — were sepa? rated from the consulship and transferred to inagistratesj who like the consul were nominated by the community and occupied a position co-ordinate with him rather than subor- dinate. The consulate, formerly the single ordinary magis- tracy of the state, was no longer even absolutely the first. In the new arrangement as to the ranking and usual order of succession of the different offices the consulate stood in- deed above the praetorship, aedileship, and quaestorship, but beneath the censorship, which — in addition to the most important financial duties — was charged with the adjust- ment of the rolls of burgesses, equites, and senators, and thereby wielded a wholly arbitrary moral control over the entire community and every individual burgess, the hum- • blest as well as the most distinguished. The conception of limited magisterial power or special functions, which seemed to the older Roman constitutional law irreconcilable with the conception of magistracy, gradually gained a footing and mutilated and destroyed the earlier idea of the one and in- divisible imperium. A first step was already taken in this direction by the institution of the collateral standing offices, particularly the quaestorship (p. 328) ; it was completely carried out by the Licinio-Sextian laws (387), which prescribed the functions of the three su- preme magistrates, and assigned administration and the con- duct of war to the two first, and the management of justice to the third. But the change did not stop here. The con- suls, although they were in law wholly and everywhere eo. ordinate, naturally from the earliest times divided between them in practice the different departments of duty {proviri' eiae). Originally this was done simply by mutual concert, XfT ir. default of it by casting lots ; but by degrees the othej 40'2 The EquaUsaMon of the Orders, [Book E constituent authorities in the common-wealth interfered with this practical definition of functions. It became usual for the senate to define annually the spheres of duty; and. while it did not directly assign them to the co-ordinate ma^ gistrates, it exercised decided influence on the personal dis- tribution by advice and request. In an extreme case the senate doubtless obtained a decree of the community, de- finitively to settle the question of distribution (p. 398) ; the government, however, very seldom employed this dan- gerous expedient. Further, the most important affairs, such as the concluding of peace, were withdrawn from tha consuls, and they were in such matters obliged to have re- course to the senate and to act according to its instructions. Lastly, in cases of extremity the senate could at any time suspend the consuls from office ; for, according to an usage never established by law but never violated in practice, the creation of a dictatorship depended simply upon the resolu- tion of the senate, and the fixing of the person to be nomi- nated, although constitutionally vested in the nominating consul, really under ordinary circumstances lay with the senate. The old unity and plenary power of the imperium were retained longer in the case of the dictatorship of the die- than in that of the consulship. Although of ^' course as an extraordinary magistracy it had in reality from the first its special functions, it had in law far less of a special character than the consulate. But it also was gradually affected by the new idea of definite powers and functions introduced into the legal life of Rome. In 391 we first meet with a dictator expressly 863 nominated from theological scruples for tha mere accomplishment of a religious ceremony ; and though that dictator himself, doubtless in formal accordance with the constitution, treated the restriction of his powers as null and took the command of the army in spite of it, such an opposition on the part of the magistrate was not repeated on occasion of the subsequent similarly restricted nomina- tions, which occurred in 403 and thenceforward very frequently. On the contrary, the dictators Chap. HI.] And the New Aristoaracy. 403 thenceforth accounted themselves bound by their powers as specially defined. Lastly, further seriously felt restrictions of the magis- Restriotions t^acy were involved in the prohibition issued in Mto [342. 412 against the accumulation of the ordinary the accumu- ° -^ lation and curule officcs. and in the enactment of the same the re-occu- -,-,■,' pation of date, that the same person should not agam ad- minister the same office under ordinary circum- stances before an interval of ten years had elapsed, as well as in the subsequent regulation that the office which prac- tically was the highest, the censorship, should not be held a second time at all (489). But the government was still strong enough not to be afraid of its instruments or to desist purposely on that account from employing those who were the most serviceable. Brave officers were very frequently released from these rules,* and cases still occurred like those of Quintus Fabius Rullianus, who was five times consul in eight-and-twenty years, and of Marcus Valerius Corvus (384-483) who, after 370—271 he had filled six consulships, the first in his twenty-third, the last in his seventy-second year, and had been throughout three generations the protector of his coun- trymen and the terror of the foe, descended to the grave at the age of a hundred. * Any one who compares the consular Fasti before and after 412 will have no doubt as to the existence of the above-mentioned law re- specting re-eleetion to the consulate ; for, while before that year a return to ofice, especially after three or four years, was a common occurrence, afterwards intervals of ten years and more were as frequent. Excep- tions, however, occur in very great numbers, particularly during the se- vere years of war 434-443. On the other hand, the principle of not lg_ allowing a plurality of offices was strictly adhered to. Thera is no certain instance of the combination of two of the three ordinary curule (Liv. xxiix. 39, 4) offices (the consulate, praetorship, and curule aedileship), but instances occur of other combinations, such as of the curule aedileship and the office of master of the horse (Liv. xxiii. 24, SO); of the praetorship and cengorship {Fast. Cap. a. 501); of the prae- torship and the dictatorship (Liv. viii, 12); of the consulati *"'^'' and the dictatorship (Liv. viii. 12). tUi The EqxiaMzation of the Orders, [Book H While the Eoman magistrate was thus more and more completely and definitely transformed from Mto rf''Si"e the absolute lord into the limited commissii. ner S™ent" ^"d administrator of the community, the old of^gorem- counter-magistraoy, the tribunate of the people,' was undergoing at the same time a similar trans- formation internal rather than external. It served a double purpose in the commonwealth. It had been from the be- ginning intended to protect the humble and the weak by its somewhat revolutionary assistance (auxilium) against the overbearing violence of the magistrates ; it had subsequent- ly been employed to get rid of the legal disabilities of the commons and the privileges of the gentile nobility. The latter end was attained. The original object was not only in itself a democratic ideal rather than a political possibil- ity, but it was also quite as obnoxious to the plebeian aris- tocracy into whose hands the tribunate necessarily fell, and quite as incompatible with the new organization which origi- nated in the equalization of the orders and had if possible a still more decided aristocratic hue than that which pre- ceded it, as it was obnoxious to the gentile nobility and in- compatible with the patrician consular constitution. But instead of abolishing the tribunate, they preferred to con- vert it from a weapon of opposition into an instrument of government, and now introduced the tribunes of the peo- ple, who were originally excluded from all share in admin- istration and were neither magistrates nor members of the senate, into the class of governing authorities. While ir jurisdiction they were from the beginning on a footing of equality with the consuls and in the early stages of the con- flicts between the orders acquired like the consuls the righl of initiating legislation, they now received — we know not exactly when, but probably at or soon after the final equal- ization of the orders — a position of equality with the con- Buls as regarded the practically governing authority, ihe senate. Hitherto they had been present at the proceedings of the senate, sitting on a bench at the door ; now they ob« tained, like the other magistrates and by their side, a place Chap. III.] And the New Aristocracy. 40S in the senate itself and the right to interpose their word in its discussions. If they were precluded from the right of voting, it was simply in virtue of the general principle of Roman state-law, that those only should give counsel who were not called to act ; in accordance with which the whole of the acting magistrates possessed during their year of office only a seat, not a vote, in the council of the state (p. 334). But concession did not rest here. The tribunes re ceived the distinctive prerogative of supreme magistracy, which among the ordinary magistrates belonged only to the consuls and praetors besides — the right of convoking the senate, of consulting it, and of procuring decrees from it.* This was only as it should be ; the heads of the plebeian aristocracy had to be placed on an equality with those of the patrician aristocracy in the senate, when once the gov- ernment had passed from the gentile nobility to the united aristocracy. Now that this opposition college, originally excluded from all share in the public administration, be- came — particularly with reference to strictly urban affairs — a second supreme executive and one of the most usual and iiost serviceable instruments of the government, or in other words of the senate, for managing the burgesses and especially for checking the excesses of the magistrates, it was certainly, as respected its original character, absorbed and politically annihilated ; but this course was really en- joined by necessity. Clearly as the defects of the Roman aristocracy were apparent, and decidedly as the steady growth of aristocratic ascendancy was connected with the practical setting aside of the tribunate, none can fail to see that government could not be long carried on with an au- Ihority which was not only aimless and virtually calculated to put off the suffering proletariate with a deceitful prospect of relief, but was at the same time decidedly revolutionary and possessed of an absolutely anarchical power of obstruo- * Hence despatchea intended for the senate were addressed to Con mis, Praetors, Tribines of the Plebs, and Senate (Cicero, adFam. xv. 2 et al.). i06 The Equalisation of the Orders, [Book n tion to the authority of the magistrates and even of the state itself. But that faith in an ideal, which is the founda« tion of all the power and of all the impotence of democr*. oy, had come to be closely associated in the minds of the Eomans with the tribunate of the plebs ; and we do not need to recall the case of Cola Eienzi in order to perceive that, however unsubstantial might be the advantage thence arising to the multitude, it could not be abolished without a formidable convulsion of the state. Accordingly with genuine political prudence they contented themselves with reducing Lt to a nullity under forms that should attract as little attention as possible. The mere name of this essen- tially revolutionary magistracy was still preserved in the aristocratically governed commonwealth — an incongruity for the present, and for the future a sharp and dangerous weapon in th« hands of a coming revolutionary party. For the moment, however, and for a long time to come the aris- tocracy was so absolutely powerful and so completely pos- sessed control over the tribunate, that no trace is to be met with of a collegiate opposition on the part of the tribunes to the senate ; and the government overcame the forlorn movements of opposition that now and then proceeded from independent tribunes, always without difficulty, and ordina- rily by means of the tribunate itself. In reality it was the senate that governed the common- wealth, and that almost without opposition after itacompo- the equalization of the orders. Its very com- " ""■ position had undergone a change. The free pre- rogative of the chief magistrates in this matter, as it had been exercised after the setting aside of the old clan-repre- sentation (p. 115), had been subjected to very material re- strictions on the abolition of the presidency for life (p. S34). A further step towards the emancipation ^f the senate from the power of the magistrates took place, when the ad- justment of the senatorial lists was transferred from the supreme magistrates to subcirdinate functionaries — from the consuls to the censors (p. 337). Certainly, whether imm* Chap, in.] And the New Ariatocraoy. 40? diately at that time or soon afterwards, the right of th« magistrate entrusted with the preparation of the list to omit from it individual senators on account of a stain attaching to them and thereby to exclude them from the senate was, if not introduced, at least more precisely defined,* and in this way the foundations were laid of that peculiar jurisdic- tion over mora.3 on which the high repute of the censors was chiefly based (p. 398). But censures of that sort, from the nature of the case — especially as the two censors had to be at one on the matter — while serving to remove particu- lar persons who did not contribute to the credit of the as- sembly or were hostile to the spirit prevailing there, could not bring the body itself into dependence on the magis- traoy. But the right of the magistrate to constitute the senate according to his judgment was decidedly restricted by the Ovinian law, which appears to have been carried, probably about the middle of this period, soon after the Licinio-Sex- tian laws. That law at once conferred a seat and vote in the senate provisionally on every one who had been curule * This prerogative and the similar ones with reference to the eques- trian and burgess-lists were perhaps not formally assigned by law to the censors, but were always practically implied in their powers. It was the community, not the censor, that conferred burgess-rights ; but the person whom the latter in making up his roll transferred from the list of burgesses to that of clients — although not losing his burgess-rights— could not exercise the privileges of a burgess till the preparation of a new list. The same was the case with the senate ; the person omitted by the censor from his list ceased to attend the senate, so long as the list in question remained valid — unless the presiding magistrate should reject it and revive the earlier list. Evidently therefore the iinportanl question in this respect was not so much what was the legal liberty of the censors, as how far their authority availed with those magistrate! who had to summon according to their lists. Hence it is easy to under. Btaad how this prerogative gradually rose in importance, and how with the increasing consolidation of the nobility such erasures assumed vir tually the form of judicial decisions and were virtually respected as such. As to the adjustment of the senatorial list undoubtedly the enactment of the Ovinian plebweitum exercised a material share of influence — that the censors should admit to the senate " the beat men out of all oUases." i08 The Eq^ualization of the Orders^ FBook n aedile, praetor, or consul, and bound the next censors eithei formally to inscribe these expectants in the senatorial roll, or at any rate only to exclude them from the roll for such reasons as sufficed for the rejection of an actual senator. The number of those, however, who had been magistrates was far from sufficing to keep the senate up to the normal number of three hundred ; and below that point it could act be allowed to fall, especially as the list of senators was at the same time that of jurymen. Considerable room was thus always left for the exercise of the censorial right of election ; but those senators who were chosen not in conse- quence of having held office, but by selection on the part of the censor — frequently burgesses who had filled a non- curule public office, or distinguished themselves by personal valour, who had killed an enemy in battle or saved the life of a burgess — took part in voting, but not in debate (p. 385). The main body of the senate, and that portion of it in whose hands government and administration were con- centrated, was thus according to the Ovinian law substan- tially constituted no longer by the arbitrary will of a ma- gistrate, but by indirect popular election. The Roman state in this way made some approach to, although it did not reach, the great institution of modern times, representa- tive popular government, while the aggregate of the non- debating senators furnished — what it is so necessary and yet so difficult to get in governing corporations — a compact mass of members capable of forming and entitled to pro- nounce an opinion, but voting in silence. The powers of the senate underwent scarcely any change lowers of '^ form. The senate carefully avoided giving a the senate. handle to opposition or to ambition by unpopu- Ifir changes, or manifest violations, of the constitution ; it permitted, though it did not promote, the enlargement in a democratic direction of the power of the burgesses. But while the burgesses acquired the semblance, the senate ao quired the substance of power — a decisive influence over legislation and the official elections, and the whole control of the state. Chap. Ill] And the New Aristocracy. 409 Every new project of law was subjected to a prelimi nary deliberation in the senate, and scarcely ever in legisia- did a magistrate venture to lay a proposal be- °°' fore the community without or in opposition to the senate's opinion. If he did so, the senate had — in the intercessory powers of the magistrates and the annulling powers of the priests — an ample set of means at hand to nip in the bud, or subsequently to get rid of, obnoxious pro- posals ; and in case of extremity it had in its hands as the supreme administrative authority not only the executing, but the power of refusing to execute, the decrees of the community. The senate further with tacit consent of the community claimed the right in urgent cases of absolving from the laws, under the reservation that the community should ratify the proceeding — a reservation which from the first was of little moment, and became by degrees so en- tirely a form that in later times they did not even take the trouble to propose the ratifying decree. As to the elections, they passed, so far as they depended on the magistrates and were of political impor- the eieo tance, practically into the hands of the senate. In this way it acquired, as has been mentioned already (p. 402), the right to appoint the dictator. Greater regard had certainly to be shown to the community ; the right of bestowing the public magistracies could not be withdrawn from it ; but, as has likewise been already ob- served, care was taken that this election of magistrates should not be construed into the conferring of definite func- tions, especially of the posts of supreme command when war was imminent. Moreover the newly introduced idea of special functions on the one hand, and on the other the right practically conceded to the senate of dispensation from the laws, gave to it an important share in official ap- pointments. Of the influence which the senate exercised in settling the official spheres of the consuls in particular, we have already spoken (p. 402). One of the most important applications of the dispensing right was the dispensation of tlie magistrate from the legal term of his tenure of office — 410 The Equalizapion qf the Orders, [Book h. a dispensation which, as contrary to the fundamental laws of the community, might not according to Eoman state-law be granted in the precinpts of the city proper, but Iteypnd these was at least so far valid that the consul or praetor, whose term was prolonged, continued after its expiry to dis- charge his functions " in a consul's or praetor's stead " {^pro tonsule, pro praetore). Of course this important right .'if extending the term of office — essentially on a par with the right of nomination-^belonged by Iw to th,e community alone, and at the beginning was in fact exercised by it ; but in 447, and regularly thenceforward, the com- mand of the commander in chief was prolonged by mere decree of the senate. To this was added, in fine, the preponderating and skilfully concerted influence of the aristocracy over the elections, which guided them ordinarily, although not always, to the choice of candidate^ agreeable to the government. Finally as regards administration, war, peace and alli- ances, the founding of colonies, the assigijation govern- of lands, building, in fact every matter of per- manent and general importance, and in particu- lar the whole system of finance, depended absolutely on the senate. It was the senate which annually issued general in structions to the magistrates, settling their spheres of duty and limiting the troops and moneys to be plaped at the dis- posal of each ; and recoijrse was ha.d to its counsel in every case of importance. The keepers pf the state-chest could make no payment to any magistrate with the exception of the consul, or to any private person, unlpss authorized by a previous decree of the senate. In the management, how- ever, of current affairs and in the details of judicial and military administration the supreme governing corporation did not interfere ; the Roman aristocracy had too much political judgment and tact to desire to convert the control of the commonwealth into a guardianship over the individ- ual official, or to turn the instrument into a machine. That this new government of the senate amidst all its retention of existing forms invflved a complete revolution- C?ip. III.] And the Wev} AHstoGracy. 41 J izing of the old ooinrapnweg,)tb, ijs clear. Tjiat the freg action of the byrges^es should be arrested and benumbed ; that the magistrates should be reduced to be the presidents of its sittings and its executive commissioners ; that ^ cot"> poration for the mere tendering of advipe shpuld geize the nheritance pf bpth the authorities sanctioned by the constir tutipn and should become, although under yery modesfi fprms, the central gcvernment pf the state — these wei'e steps pf revplutipn and ijsurpatjpfl. Nevertheless, if anj revolutipn or aay usurpation appears justified before the b.ai of history by exclusive ability tp govern, even its rigorous judgment must g.cknowliedge that this cprporation duly com- prehended and wprthily fulfilled its great t^sk. Called to power not by the enipty accident of Isirth, but substantially by the free choice of the nation ; confirmed every fifth year by the stern moral judgment of the wprthiest men ; hpld- ing pffice fcr life, and so not dependent on the expiratiop of its commissipn pr on the varying ppinipn pf the pepp}e ; having its ranks clpse and united ever after the equalization of the orders ; embracing in it all the political intelligence and practical statesmanship that the people possessed ; ab- solute in dealing with all financial questions and in the con- trol of fpreign pplicy ; having ccmplete ppwer pver the ex- ecutive by virtue pf its brief duration and of the tribunician intercession which was at the service of the senate after the termination of the quarrels between the orders — the Roman senate was the noblest organ of the nation, and in consisten- cy and political sagacity, in unanimity and patriotism, in grasp pf ppwer and unwavering ccurage, the foremost polit* ical corporation of all times — still even now an " assembly pf kings," which knew well hpw tP cpmbine despotic energy with republican self-devction. Never was a state represent- ed in its external relations more firmly and worthily than Rome in its best times by its senate. In matters of inters nal administration it certainly cannot be concealed that the moneyed and landed aristocracy, which was especially rep- resented in the senate, acted with partiality in affairs that bore upon its peculiar interests, and that the sagacity and 412 The Equalization of the Orders. [Book n energy of the body were often in such cases employed fai from beneficially to the state. Nevertheless the great prin- ciple established amidst severe conflicts, that all Eomar. burgesses were equal in the eye of the law as respected rights and duties, and the opening up of a political career (or in other words, of admission to the senate) to every one, which was the result of that principle, concurred with the brilliance of military and political successes in preserv- ing the harmony of the state and of the nation, and relieved the d'stinction of classes from that bitterness and malignity which marked the struggle of the patricians and plebeians. And, as the fortunate turn taken by external politics had the eflBCt of giving the rich for more than a century ample space for themselves and rendered it unnecessary that they should oppress the middle class, the Roman people was ena. bled by means of its senate to carry out for a longer term than is usually granted to a people the grandest of all hu- man undertakings — a wise and happy self-government. CHAPTER IV. FAIL OP THE ETRUSCAN POWBR. THE CELTS. In the previous chapters we have presented an outline of the development of the Roman constitution Etmsco- . T f . » 1 11. Oarthagjn- during the first two centuries oi the repubhc; timesu- we now recur to the commencement of that premaoy. epoch for the purpose of tracing the external history of Rome and of Italy. About the time of the expulsion of the Tarquins from Rome the Etruscan power had reached its height. The Tuscans, and the Carthaginians who were in close alliance with them, possessed undisputed supremacy in the Tyrrhene Sea. Although Massilia amidst continual and severe struggles maintained her independence, the sea-ports of Campania and of the Volscian land, and after the battle of Alalia Corsica also (p. 199), were in the possession of the Etruscans. In Sardinia the sons of the Carthaginian general Mago laid the foundation of the great- ness both of their house and of their city by the complete conquest of the island (about 260) ; and in Sicily, while the Hellenic colonies were occupied with their internal feuds, the Phoenicians retained posses- sion of the western half without material opposition. The vessels of the Etruscans were no less dominant in the Adriatic ; and their pirates were dreaded even in the more eastern waters. By land also their power seemed to be on the increase, To acquire possession of Latium was of the o"i?atmni"' most decisive importance to Etruria, which was by Etnma. separated by the Latins alone from the Volscian towns which were dependent on it and from its possessions Hi Fall of the Etrusocm Power. [Book H in Campania. Hitherto the firm bulvs^ark of the Eoman power had sufficiently protected Latium, and had success- fully maintained against Etruria the frontier line of the Tiber. But now, when the whole Tuscan league, taking advantage of the confusion and the weakness of the Roman state after the expulsion of the Tarquins. renewed its attack more energetically than before under Larth Porsena king of Clusium, it no longer encountered the wonted resistance. Rome surrendered, and in the peace (assigned to 247) not only ceded all her possessions on the right bank of the Tiber to the adjacent Tuscan communi- ties and thus abandoned her exclusive cbmHiand of the river, but also delivered to the conqueror all her weapons of war and promised to make use of iron thenceforth only for the ploughshare. It seemed as if the union of Italy under Tuscan supremacy was not far distant. But the subjugation, with which the coalition of the EfniseaEs Etrusoan and Carthaginian nations had threat- fr^mLa-* ^^^"^ \io\h Greeks and Italians, was fortunately tium. averted by the combination of peojjles drawn towards each other by family affinity as well as by common peril. The Etruscan arrhy, Which after the fall of Rome had penetrated into Latium, had its victorious career aheoked in the first instance before the walls of Aricia by the well-timed intervention of the Cumae^ns who had has- tened to the succour of the beleaguered toW^n (248). Wfe know not how the war ended, nor, in particular, whether Rome even at that time broke the ruinous drid disgraceful peace. This much only is certain, (hat on this occasion also the Tiisc^ns were unable to rhain- tain their ground per itianetitly on the left bank of the Tiber. But the Hellenic nation was soon foi-ced to engage in i Fai, of the more comprehensive and more decisive conflict CartimSn- '*^'^ ^^^ barb^riaiis both of the West aiid of the tomari- g^st. It was about the tinde of the Persian time su- premacy. Wars. The relation in which the Tyrians stood to the great king led Carth^e also to follow in the waku of PersiaTi policy — there exists a credible tradition even aS CffAP. TV.] I'M Celts. 41 £ to an alliancfe between the CarthaginiSns and Xerxes — andj along with the Carthaginians, the Etruscans. One of the grandest of political corhbinations simultaneously directed the Asiatic hosts against Greece, and the Phoenician hosts against Sicily, to extitpate at d, blow liberty and civilization Victories of from the face of the earth. The victory re- Saiamia and mained With the Hellenes. The battle of Sala- Illmera^ and . 4S0. iriis (274 d.c.) saved and avenged Hellas proper ; arid on the same day — so runs the story — the rulers of Syracuse and Agrigentum, Ge.lon and Theron, vanquished the immense ariiiy of the Carthaginian general Hairiilcar, son of Mago, at Himera so completely, that the *ar was thereby terminated, and the Phoenicians, who by no means cherished at that time the project of subduing the whole of Sicily on their own account, returned to their pre- vious defensive policy. Some of the large silver pieces are still preserved which were coined for this campaign from the ornarhents of Damareta, the wife of Gelon, and other noble Syracusan dames : and the latest times gratefully re- membered the gentle and brave king of Syracuse and the glorious victory whose praises Simonides sang. The irrimediate effect of the humiliation of Carthage was the fall of the maritime supremacy of her Etruscan allies. Anaxilas, ruler of Rhegium and Zancle, had already closed the Sicilian Straits against their privateers by means of a standing fleet (about 272) ; soon afterwards (280) the Cumaeans and Hiero of Syracuse achieved a decisive victory near Ciimae over the Tyrrhene fleet, to which the Carthaginians vainly att empted to render aid. This is the victory which Pindar celebrates in his first Pythian ode ; and there is still extant an Etruscan helmetj Which Hiero Sent to Olympia, with the inscription, " Hiaron «on of Deinomenes and the SyrakosianS to Zeus, Tyrrhana spoil from Kyma." * While these extraordinary successes against the Carthar * Fmqov Jiivofilvioi; xal rol Sv^aKoatOi toI Jl Tv^av ini) Ki'i/icu;. il6 Fall of the Ei/rusGObn Power. [Book n ginians and Etruscans placed Syracuse at the supremacy head of the Greek cities in Sicily, the Doric rentines md Tarentum rose to undisputed pre-eminence among Syraousana ^j^^ Italian Greeks, after the Achaean Sybaris had fallen about the time of the expulsion of the Tarquina .J, (243). The terrible defeat of the Tarentiiies by the lapygians (280), the most severe disaster which a Greek army had hitherto sustained, served only, like the Persian invasion of Hellas, to un- shackle the whole might of the national spirit in the devel- opment of an energetic democracy. Thenceforth the Car- thaginians and the Etruscans were no longer paramount in the Italian waters ; the Tarentines predominated in the Adriatic and Ionic, the Massiliots and Syracusans in the Tyrrhene, seas. The latter in particular restricted more and more the range of Etruscan piracy. After the victory at Cumae Hiero had occupied the island of Aenaria (Ischia), and by that means interrupted the communication between the Campanian and the northern Etruscans. About the year 302, with a view thoroughly to check Tus- can piracy, Syracuse sent forth a special expedi- tion, which ravaged the island of Corsica and the Etrurian coast and occupied the island of Aethalia (Elba). Although Etrusco-Carthaginian piracy was not wholly repressed — Antium, for example, having apparently continued a haunt of privateering down to the beginning of the fifth century of Rome — the powerful Syracuse formed a strong bulwark against the allied Tuscans and Phoenicians. For a moment, indeed, it seemed as if the. Syracusan power must be bro- ken by the attack of the Athenians, whose naval expedition Agiinst Syracuse in the course of the Peloponnesian war (339-341) was supported by the Etruscans, old commercial friends of Athens, with three fifty- oared galleys. But the victory remained, as is well known, both in the west and in the east with the Dorians. After the ignominious failure of the Attic expedition, Syracuse became so indisputably the first Greek maritime power that the men who were at the head of its affairs aspired to the Chap. IV.] The Celts. 41? sovereignty of Sicily and Lower Italy, and of both the Italian seas; while on the other hand the Carthaginians, who saw their dominion in Sicily now seriously in danger, were on their part also obliged to make, and made, the subjiiga/- tioii of the Syracusans and the reduction of the whole island the aim of their policy. We cannot here narrate the de- cline of the intermediate Sicilian states, and the increase of the Carthaginian power in the island, which were the immediate results of these struggles ; we notice their effect only so far as Etruria is concerned. The new Syracuse. ruler of Syracuse, Dionysius (who reigned 348-387), inflicted on Etruria blows which were severely felt. The far-scheming king laid the foundation of his new colonial power especially in the sea to the east of Italy, the more northern waters of which now became, for the first time, subject to a Greek maritime power. About the year 367, Dionysius occupied and colonized the port of Lissus and island of Issa on the Illyrian coast, and the ports of Ancona, Numana, and Hatria, on the coast of Italy. The memory of the Syraousan do- miinion in this remote region is preserved not only by the " canal of Philistus " which was constructed at the mouth of the Po, beyond doubt by the well-known historian and friend of Dionysius who spent the years of his exile (368 et seq.) at Hatria, but also by the alteration in the name of the Italian eastern sea itself, which from this time forth, instead of its earlier designation of the "Ionic Gulf" (p. 179), received the appellation still current at the present day, and probably referable to this Syraousan occupation, of the sea " of Hatria." * But not content with these attacks on the possessions and commercial communi- cations of the Etruscans in the eastern sea, Dionysius as * Hecataeus ( + after 25'7 tr.o.) and Herodotus also (270 — after 34B) .„- J only know Hatrias as the delta of the Po and the sea that 184-409. 1 washes its shores (0. Mfiller, EtrusJcer, i. p, 140 ; Oeogr Oraem Min. ed. 0. Miiller, i. p. 23). The appellation of Adriatic sea in its more extended sense, fiist occurs in the so-called Scylaxabout418 u.C. 18* Hi Fall of the Ein'uiiGdm Power. [Sook n. sailed the very heart of the Etruscan power Ly stoririing and plundering Pyrgi, the rifch seajiort of Caere (369). From this blow it never recovered. When the internal disturbances that followed the death of Dionysius in Syraicuse gkve the Carthaginians freer scope; and their fleet resumed in the Tyrrhene sea that ascendancy which with but slight interruptions they thenceforth main- tained, it proved a burden no less grievous to Etruscans than to Greelfs ; so that, -^hen Agathocles of Syr&,cuse in 444 was malting preparations for war with Carthage, he was even joined by eighteen Tuscan vessels of war. The Etriiscans perhaps had their fears in regard to Corsica, ■?('hich»they probably still at that time retained. The old Etrusco-Phoenician symmachy, which still existed in the time of Aristotle (370-432), was thus S84-322. broken up ; but the Etruscans never recovered their maritime strength. Tills rapid colWpse of the Etruseati rharltime power TheEomans woiild Be inexplicable but for the circumstance S'lstou^ that, at the very titne when the Sicilian Gteeks cans of Veil, were attacking them by sba, the Etruscans foUnd themselves assailed with the severest blows on evfery side by land. About the time of the battlfes of Salamis, Hi- mera', and Cumae a furious war raged for many years, ac- cording to the accounts of the Roman annals, between Rome and Veil (271-280). The Romans suf- fered in its course severe defeats. Tradition especially preserved the rtiemory of the catastrophe of the Fabii (277), who had in consequence of internal commotions voluntarily banished themselves from the capital (p. 360) and had undertaken the defence of the frontier against Etruria, and who were slain to the last man capable of bearing arms at the rivulet of the Cre- inera. But the armistice for 400 months, which iri room of a peace terminated the war, was so far favourable to the Romans that it at least restored the status quo of the regal period ; the Etruscans gave up Fidenae and the district WJn by them on the right bank of the Tiber. We carinot Chaf. IV.] The Celts. 4U dscertain how far this Romano-Etruscan war was connected directly with the war between the Hellenes and the Per- sians, and with that between the Sicilians and Carth£>gin« ians ; but whether the Romans were or were not allies of the victors of Salamis and of Himera, there was at any rate a coincidence of interests as well as of results. The Samnites as well as the Latins threw themselves upon the Etruscans ; and hardly had their Cam ■ nitesop. paniari settlement been cut off from the mother- Etmscansin land in consequence of the battle of Cumae, ampania. -yp-jjen it found itself no longer able to resist the Hssiults of the Sabellian mountain tribes; Capua, the capi- tal, fell in 830 ; aind the Tuscan population there was soon after the conquest extirpated or ex- pelled by the Samnites. It is true that the Campanian Greeks also, isolated and weakened, suifered severely from the same invasion : Cumae itself was conquered by the Sabellians in 334. But the Hellenes maintained 420. their ground at Neapolis especially, perhaps with the aid of the Syracusans, while the Etruscan name in Campania disappeared from history — excepting some do tached Etruscan communities, which prolonged a pitiful arid forlorn existence there. Events still more momentous, however, occurred about the same time in Northern Italy. A new nation was knock ing at the gates of the Alps : it was the Celts ; and thei? first pressure fell on the Etruscans. The Celtic, Galatian, or Gallic nation received from the Character commori mother endowments different from of the Celts, ti^ose of its Italian, Germanic, and Hellenic Bisters. With various solid qualities and still mere that iv'ere brilliant, it ^as deficient in those deeper mcral and political qualifications which lie at the root of all that is good and great in human development. It was reckoned disgraceful, Cicero tells us, for the free Celts to till their fields with their own hands. They preferred a pastoral life to agriculture ; and even in the fertile plains of the Po they chiefly practised the rearing of swine, feeding on the flesb 1:20 Fall of the Etruscan Power. [BaoK IT of their herds, and staying with them in the oak forests day and night. Attachment to their native soil, such as charao terized the Italians and the Germans, was wanting in the Celts ; while on the other hand they delighted to congre- gate in towns and villages, which accordingly acquired mag- iiitude and importance among the Celts sarlier apparently than in Italy. Their political constitution was imperfect. Not only was the national unity recognized but feebly as a bond of connection^ — as is, in fact, the case with all nations at first — .but the individual communities were deficient in unanimity and steady control, in earnest public spirit and consistency of aim. The only organization for which they were fitted was a military one, where the bonds of discipline relieved ' the individual from the troublesome task of self- control. " The prominent qualities of the Celtic race," says their historian Thierry, " were personal bravery, in which they excelled all nations ; an open impetuous temperament, accessible to every impression'; much intelligence, but at the same time an extreme volatility, want of perseverance, aversion to discipline and order, ostentation and perpetual discord — the result of boundless vanity." Cato the Elder more briefly describes them, nearly to the same effect : " the Celts devote themselves mainly to two things — fighting and esprit." * Such qualities — those of good soldiers but of bad citizens — explain the historical fact, that the Celts have shaken all states and have founded none. Everywhere we find them ready to rove or, in other words, to march ; pre- ferring moveable property to landed estate, and gold to everything else ; following the profession of arms as a sys- tem of organized pillage or even as a trade for hire, ard with such success that even the Roman historian Sal lust acknowledges that the Celts bore off ths prize from the Romans in feats of arms. They were the true soldiers-oft fortune of antiquity, as figures and descriptions represent them : with big but not sinewy bodies, with shaggy hair • Pleraque GalKa duos res irdustriosissime persfjuitur . fetn miltta rem ei argute loqui (Cato, Ong. I. ii. fr 2. Jordan). «HAr. IV.] The Celts. 421 and long mustachios — quite a contrast to the Greeks and Romans, who shaved the head and upper lip ; in variegated embroidered dresses, which in combat were not unfrequent- ly thrown off; with a broad gold ring round the neck; wearing no helmets and without missile weapons of any sort, but furnished instead with an immense shield, a long ill-tempered sword, a dagger and a lance — all ornamented with gold, for they were not unskilful in working in metals. Everything was made subservient to ostentation, even wounds, which were often subsequently enlarged for the purpose of boasting a broader scar. Usually they fought on foot, but certain tribes on horseback, in which case every freeman was followed by two attendants likewise mounted ; war-chariots were early in use, as they were among the Libyans and the Hellenes in the earliest times. Various traits remind us of the chivalry of the middle ages ; par- ticularly the custom of single combat, which was foreign to the Greeks and Romans. Not only were they accustomed during war to challenge a single enemy to fight, after hav- ing previously insulted him by words and gestures ; during peace also they fought with each other in splendid suits of armour, as for life or death. After such feats carousals fol- lowed as a matter of course. In this way they led, whether under their own or a foreign banner, a restless soldier-life they were dispersed from Ireland and Spain to Asia Minor constantly occupied in fighting and so-called feats of hero- ism. But all their enterprises melted away like snow in spring ; and nowhere did they create a great state or devel- ope a distinctive culture of their own. Such is the description which the ancients give us of thia OoWomi- nation. Its origin can only be conjectured, giationfi. Sprung from the same cradle from which the Hellenic, Italian, and Germanic peoples issued,* the Celts * It has recently been maintained by exp3rt philologists tliat there i« t closer affinity between the Celts and Italians than there is even be- tween the latter and the Hellenes. In other words they hold that tho branch of the great tree, from which the peoples of Indo-Germanic ex 422 FaU of the iftnigodn Power [Book ll rfoiabtless like these migrated froth their eastern motherlana into Europe, where at a very early period they reached the western acean and established their head-quarters in what is now France, o-ossing to settle in the British isles on the north, aud on the south passing the Pyrenees and contend ing with the Iberian tribes for the possession of the periin aula. This; their first great rriigration, flowed past thf Alps, and it was froni the lands to the westward that thej first began those movements of smaller masses in the oppo- site direction — movements which carried them over the Alps and the Haemus and even over the Bosporus, and by means of which they became and for many centuries contin- ued to be the terror of the whole civilized nations of an- tiquity, till the victories of Caesar and the frontier defences organized by Augustus for ever broke their power. The native legend of their migrations, which has been preserved to us mainly by Livy, relates the story of these later retrograde movements as follows.* The Gallic con- traction in the west and south of Europe hare sprung, divided itself in the first instance into Greeks and Italo-Celts, and that the latter at a con- Slderably later period became sub-divided into Italians and Celts. This hypothesis commends itself much to acceptance in a geographical point of view, and the existing historical facts may perhaps be also reconcil- ed with it, because what has hitherto been regarded as Graeco-Italian civilization may very well have been Graeco-Celto-Italian — in fact we know nothing of the earliest stage of Celtic culture. Linguistic inves- tigation, however, seems not to have made as yet siioh progress as to warrant the insertion of its results in the primitive history of the peoples. * The legend is related by Livy, v. 34, and Justin, xxiv. 4, and Caesar also hag had it in view (B. O. vi. 24). But the association of the migration of BeUovesus with the founding of Massilia, by which the former t> chronologically fixed down to the middle of the second century ot Bome, undoubtedly belongs not to the native legeniJ, which of course did not specify dates, but to later chronological research ; and it deserves no credit. Isolated incursions and immigrations may have taken place at a very early period ; but the great overflowing of northern Italy by the Celts cannot be placed before the age of the decay of tlie Etruscan pOw ir that is, not before this second half of the third century of the city. In like manner, after the jiidicious investigations of Wickham ani? CHAf. IV.] The Celts: 42S federacy, which ^^as headed then as in the time of Caesai by the canton of the Bituriges (arbur.d Bdurges), sent forth in the days of long Ambiatus two great hosts led by the two nephe*s of the king. One of these liephews, Sigove- Bus, crossed the Rhine and advanced in the direction of the Black Forest, while the second, Bellovesus, crossed the Graian Alps (the Little St. Bernard) and descended into the valley of the Po. Frorri the forrner pro- TheCelts •, , , ^ i,. i , . i ,, -i^ assail the ceeded the trallic settlement on the middle Dan- in Northern ube ; from the latter the oldest Celtic settlement ^' in the modern Lombardy, the canton of the Insubres with Mediolanum (Milan) as its capital. Another host soon followed, which founded the canton of the Ceno- mani with the towns of Brixia (Brescia) and Verona. Ceaseless streams thenceforth poured over the Alps into the beautiful plain ; the Celtic tribes with the Ligurians whom they dislodged and swept along with them wrested place after place from the Etruscans, till the whole left bank of the Pd was iri theii- haiids. After the fall of the rich Etrus- can town Melputh (probably iri the district of Milan), for the subjugation of which the Celts already Settled in the basin of the Po had united with newly arrived tribes (358 ?), these latter crossed to the right bank of the river and began to press upon the Umbriahs arid Etruscans in their original abodes. Those who did So were chiefly the Boii, who are alleged to have penetrated into Italy by another route, over the Poehine Alps (the Great St. Bernard) ; they settled in the modern Romagna, Cramer, we cannot doubt that the line of march of Bellovesus, like that of Hannibai, lay not over the Cottian Alps (Mont Gendvre) and through the territory of the Taurini, but over the Graian Alps (the Little St. Bernard) and through the territory of tlie Salaesi. The name of the mountain is given by Livy doiibtleSB dot on the authority of the legend, bat on his own conjecture. Whether the representation that the Italian Boii came through the more easterly pass of the Poenine Alps rested on the ground of a genu- ine legendary reminiscence, or only on the ground of an assumed con- nection with the Boii dwelling to the north of the Danube, is a questioii ifcat must remaic imdeoidfed: 424 Fall of the Etruscan Power. [Book h where the old Etruscan town Felsina, with its name changed by its new masters to Boronia, became their capital. Fi- rsallf came the Senones, the last of the larger Celtic tribes which made their way over the Alps ; they took up their abode along the coast of the Adriatic from Rimini to An- cona. But isolated bands of Celtic settlers must have ad- vanced even far in the direction of Umbria, and up to the border of Etruria proper ; for stone-inscriptions in the Celtic language have been found even at Todi on the upper Tiber. The limits of Etruria on the north and east became more and more contracted, and about the middle of the fourth century the Tuscan nation found themselves substan- tially restricted to the territory which thenceforth bore and still bears their name. Subjected to these simultaneous and, as it were, concert- ed assaults on the part of very different peoples Etruria ty — the Syracusans, Latins, Samnites, and above theEomans. ^^jj ^^^ Celts— the Etrurian nation, that had just acquired so vast and sudden an ascendancy in Latium and Campania and on both the Italian seas, underwent a still more rapid and violent collapse. The loss of their mari- time supremacy and the subjugation of the Campanian Etruscans belong to the same epoch as the settlement of the Insubres and Cenomani on the Po ; and about this same period the Roman burgesses, who had not very many years before been humbled to the utmost and almost reduced to bondage by Porsena, first assumed an attitude of aggression towards Etruria. By the armistice with Veil in 474, 280 Rome had recovered its ground, and the two nations were restored in the main to the state in which they had stood in the time of the kings. When it expired in the year 309, the warfare began afresh ; but it took the form of border frays and pillaging excursions which led to no material result on either side, Etruria was still too powerful for Rome to be able seriously to attack it. At length the revolt of the Eidenates, whc expelled the Roman garrison, murdered the Roman envoys and submitted to Larth Tolumnius, king of the Veientes Ohap. IV.] The Celts. 425 gave rise to a more considerable war, which ended favour* al)ly for the Romans ; the king Tolumnius lell in combat by the hand of the Roman consul Aulus Cor- 421 nelius Cossus (326 ?), Fidenae was taken, and a new armistice for 200 months was concluded in 425. 329. During this truce the troubles of Etrui ia became more and more aggravated, and the Celtic arms were already approaching the settlements that hitherto had been spared on the right bank of the Po, When the armistice expired in the end of 346, 406 the Romans also on their part resolved to under- take a war of conquest against Etruria ; and on this occa- sion the war was carried on not merely to vanquish Veii, but to crush it. The history of the war against the Veientes, Capenates, Conquest of i^d Falisci, and of the siege of Veii, which is ^^"- said, like that of Troy, to have lasted ten years, rests on evidence little reliable. Legend and poetry have taken possession of these events as their own, and with rear son ; for the struggle in this case was waged, with unprece- dented exertions, for an unprecedented prize. It was the first occasion on which a Roman army remained in the field summer and winter, year after year, till its object was at- tained. It was the first occasion on which the community paid the levy from the resources of the state. But it was also the first occasion on which the Romans attempted to subdue a nation of alien stock, and carried their arms be- yond the ancient boundary of the Latin land. The strug gle was vehement, but the issue was scarcely doubtful. The Romans were supported by the Latins and Hernici, to whom the overthrow of their dreaded neighbour was productive of scarcely less satisfaction and advantage than to the Ro- mans themselves ; whereas Veii was abandoned by its own nation, and only the adjacent towns of Capena and Falerii, along with Tarquinii, furnished contingents to its help. The contemporary attacks of the Celts would alone suffice to explain the non-intervention of the northern communi- ties ; it is affirmed however, and there is no reason tc 426 Fall of the EtrukOdn Power. [Booe 11 doubt, that the iflactioh of the other Etruscans was iirrme" diately occasioned by internal factions in the league of the Etruscan cities, and particularly by the opposition which the regal form of government retained or restored by the VeienteS encountered from the aristocratic governments of the other cities. Had the Etruscan nation been able or willing to take part in the conflict, the Eoman community Would hardly have been able — undeveloped as was the art of besieging at that time — to accomplish the gigantic task of Subduing a large and strong city. But isolated and for- saken as Veil was, it succumbed (358) after a valiant resistance to the persevering and heroic spirit of Marcus Furius Camillus, who first opened up to his countrymen the brilliant and perilous careet- of foreign conquest. The joy Which this great succtiss excited in Rome had its echo in the Roman custom, continued down to a late age, of concluding the festal games with a " sale of Veientes," at which, among the mock spoils submitted to auction, the most wretched old cripple who could be pro- cured wound up the sport in a purple mantle and orna- ments of gold as " king of the Veientes." The city was destroyed, and the soil was doomed to perpetual desolation Falerii and Capena hastened to make peace ; the powerful Volsinii, which with federal indecision had remained quiet during the agony of Veil and took up arms after its cap- ture, likewise after a few years (363) consented to peace. The statement that the tw'o bulwarks of the Etruscan nation, Me.lpum and Veil, yielded on thei same day, the former to the Celts, the- latter to the Romans, may be merely a melancholy legend ; but it at any rate in- volves a deep historical truth. The double asSault from tht! north and from the south, and the fall of the two frontier strongholds, were the beginning of the end of the great Etruscan nation. For a monlerit, however, it seemed as if the two pec pies, through whose co-operation Etruria saw The Celts f ' ^ ^ ^ . . , , ,. »ttaok her very existence put in jeopardy, were about ^^ to destroy each other, ard the reviving poweT Oba*. IV.] TU CelU. 431 6f Rome was to be trodde'n under foot by foreign barb* rialis. This turn of things, so contrary to what might natu- rally have been expected, the Romans brought upon them- selves by their own arrogance and short-sightedness. The Celtic swarms, vphich had crossed the river after thd fall of Melputn, rapidly overflowed northern Italy — not merely the opeti cotmiry on the fight bank of the Po and along the shore of the Adriatic, but also Etruria proper to tbe ^outh of the Apeniiihes. A few years after- wards (363) dusiiim situated in the heart of Etruria (Chiusi, on the borders of Tuscany and the States of the Church) was besieged by the Celtic Sehones ; and so humbled were the Etruscans that the Tuscan city in its straits invoked aid from the destroyers of Veil. PerhapsI it would have been wise to graiit it and to reduce at once the Gduls by arnis, and the Etruscans by according to thern protection, to a state of dependence on Rome ; but an in- tervention with aims so extensive, which wotild have com- pelled the Romans to undertake a serious struggle on the norther* Tuscan frontier, was iiot embraced as yet within the horizon of the Roman policy. No course was therefore left but to refrain fi-dm all interference. Foolishly, how- ever, while declining to send auxiliary troops, they des- patched envoys. With still greater folly these sought to impose upon the Celts by haughty language, and, when this failed, they conceived that they might with impunity vio- late the law of nations in dealing with barbarians ; in the ranks of the Clusines they took part itt a skirriiish, and in the course of it one of them stabbed and dismounted a; Gallic officer. The barbarians acted in the case with mod- eration and prudence. They sent ijj the first instance to the Roman community to demand the surrender of those who had Outraged the law of nations; and the senate was ready to corriply with the reasonable request. But with thte multitude compassion for their countrymen outweighed jus- tioe towards the foreigners ; satisfaction was refused by the burgesses ; and accordiilg to some accounts they even nomi nated the brave champions of their fatherland as eonsulai i28 FaU of the Etrusccm Power. Book tt tribunes for the year 364,* which was to he so fatal in the Eoman annals. Then the Brennus or, in other words, the " king of the army " of the Gauls broke up the siege of Clusium, and the whole Celtic host — the numbers of which are stated at 70,000 men — turned against Eome. Such expeditions into unknown and distant regions were not unusual for the Gauls, who marched as bands of armed emigrants, troubling themselves little as to the means of cover or of retreat ; but it was evident that none in Rome anticipated the dangers involved in so sud- Battieof "^^'^ ^'i'^ ®° roighty an invasion. It was not till the Aiiia. ^}jg Q^uls had crossed the Tiber and were at the rivulet of the Allia, less than twelve miles from the gates, that a Roman military force sought to hinder their passage on the 18th July, 364. And even now they 890. went into battle with arrogance and foolhardi- ness, — not as against an army, but as against freebooters — under inexperienced leaders, Camillus having in consequence of the dissensions of the orders withdrawn from taking part in affairs. Those against whom they were to fight were but barbarians ; what need was there of a camp, or of securing a retreat ? These barbarians, however, were men whose courage despised death, and their mode of fighting was to the Italians as novel as it was terrible ; sword in hand the Celts precipitated themselves with furious onset on the Ro- man phalanx, and shattered it at the first shock. Not only was the overthrow complete, but the disorderly flight of the Romans who hastened to place the river between them and the pursuing barbarians, carried the greater portion of the defeated army to the right bank of the Tiber and towards Capture of Veii. The capital was thus needlessly le.f. lo Rome. ^jjg uigj-gy of the invaders ; the small force that was left behind, or that had fled thither, was not suflncien* to garrison the walls, and three days after the battle the * This is according to the current computation 390 b.o, ; but, in fact, the capture of Rome occurred in 01. 98, 1 =-388 B.C., and has been thrown out of its proper place merely by the confusion of the ^mau calendar, Chap. IV.] The Celts. 429 victors marched through the open gates into Rome. Had they done so at first, as they might have done, not only tha city, but the state also must have been lost ; the brief in< terval gave opportunity to carry away or to bury the sacred objects, and, what was more important, to occupy the cita- del and to furnish it with provisions for the exigency. No one was admitted to the citadel who was incapable of bear- ing arms — there was not food for all. The mass of the de- fenceless dispersed among the neighbouring towns ; but many, and in particular a number of old men of high standing, would not survive the downfall of the city and awaited death in their houses by the sword of the barbae rians. They came, murdered all they met with, plundered whatever property they found, and at length set the city on fire on all sides before the eyes of the Roman garrison in the Capitol. But they had no knowledge of the art of be- sieging, and the blockade of the steep citadel rock was te- dious and difficult, because subsistence for the great host could only be procured by armed foraging parties, and the citizens of the neighbouring Latin cities, the Ardeates in particular, fi-equently attacked the foragers with courage and success. Nevertheless the Celts persevered, with an energy which in their circumstances was unparalleled, for seven months beneath the rook, and the garrison, which had escaped a surprise on a dark night only in consequence of the cackling of the sacred geese in the Capitoline temple and the accidental awaking of the brave Marcus Manlius, already found its provisions beginning to fail, when the Celts received information as to the Veneti having invaded the Senonian territory recently acquired on the Po, and were thus induced to accept the ransom money that ^^as offered to procure their withdrawal. The scornful throwing down of the Gallic sword, that it might be outweighed by Roman gold, indicated very truly how matters stood. The iron of the barbarians had conquered, but they sold their victory and by selling lost it. The fearful catastrophe of the defeat an i the conflagra 430 Fall of the Etruscan Power. [Bout n. Fraitiess- tloU) *e 18th of July and the rivulet of the Oeitio'Ti^* Allia, the spot where the sacred objects Tyer§ *°^- buried, and the spot where the surprise of th§ citadel had been repulsed — all the details of this unparaj leled eyent — were transferred from the recollection of coji' temporaries to the imagination of posterity ; and \ye caji scarcely realize the fact that two thousand years have actu- ally elapsed since those world-renowned geese showed greal; er vigilance than the sentinels at their posts. And ypt — although there was an enactnient in Borne that in future, oij occasion of a Celtic invasion no legal privilege should give exemption from military service ; although dates were recli- oned by the years from the conquest of the city ; although the event resounded throughout the isvhole of the then civil- ized world and found its way even into the Grpcian ^nnal? — the battle of the Allia and its results cq,n scarcely be numbered among those historical events that are fruitful of consequences. It made no alteration at fill in political rela^ tions. When the Gauls had marched off again with their gold — which only a legend of late and wretched invention represents the hero Camillus as having recovered for Eom^ —and when the fugitives had again made their way home, the foolish idea suggested by some faint-hearted prudential politicians, that the citizens should migrate to Veii, was set aside by a spirited speech of Camillus ; houses arose out of the rains hastily and irregularly — the narrow and crooked streets of Rome owed their origin to this epoch ; and Rome again stood in her old commanding position. Indeed it is not improbable that this occurrence contributed materially, though not just at the moment, to diminish the antagonism between Rome aud Etruria, and above all to knit more closely the ties of union between Latium and Rome, The conflict between the Gauls and the Romans was not, like that between Rome and Etruria or between Ronie and Sam- mum, a collision of two political powers which affect and modify each other ; it may be compared to those catastro- phes of nature, after which the organism, if it is not de- stroyed, immediately resumes its equilibrium The Gauls t^Af. IV.] lite OelU. 431 oftea returned to Latium : as in the yeai 387, when Gamillus defeated them, at Alba — the last victory of the aged herq, who had been six times military tribune \yith oonsijlar powers, and five times dictator, and had four times inarched in triumph to the Capitol ; in the year 393, when the dictator Titus Quinotius Pennus encaniped opposite to them not five miles from the city at the bridge of the Anio, but before any encountef took place the Gallic host marched onward to Campania ; in the year 394, when the dictator Quintus Seryilius Ahala fought with the hordes rpturning from Campania in front of the CoUine gate ; in the S58. year 396, when the dictator Gaius Sulpicius Peticus inflicted on them a signal defeat ; in the 860 year 404, when they even spent the winter en- camped upon the Alban mount and joined with the Greek pirates along the coast for plunder, till Lucius Furius Camillus, the son of the celebrated general, in the following year dislodged them — an incident, which came to the ears of Aristotle who was contemporary- (370—432) in Athens. But these predatory ex- peditions, formidable and troublesome as they may have been, were rather incidental misfortunes than events of his- torical importance ; and the chief result of them was, that the Romans were more and niore regarded by |;hemselveg and by foreigners as the bulwark of the civilized nations of Italy against the assaults of the dreaded barbarians — a view, which tended more than is usually supposed to fur- ther their subsequent claim to universal empire. The Tuscans, who had taken advantage of the Celtic j.,^^j,gr attack on Rome to assail Veil, had accomplished RranelS'"^ nothing, because they had appeared in insuffi Etrniia. cient force ; ihe barbarians had scarcely depart- ed, when the heavy arm of Latium descended on the Tus- cans with undiminished weight. After the Etrniia Etruscans had been repeatedly defeated, the whole of southern Etruria as far as the Cimin- iau hills remained in the hands of the Eomans, who formed 432 Fall of the Etruscan Power. [Book n four new tribes in the territories of Veii, Capena, and Pa- ss?, lerii (367), and secured the northern boundary 883. by establishing the fortresses of Sutrium (371) B'S. and Nepete (381). With rapid steps this fertile region, covered with Eoman colonists, became completely Romanized. About 396 the neighbouring Etrufe can towns, Tarquinii, Caere, and Falerii, at tempted to revolt against Roman aggression, and the deep exasperation which it had aroused in Etruria was shown by the slaughter of the whole of the Roman prisoners taken in the first campaign, three hundred and seven in number, in the marlcet-place of Tarquinii ; but it was the exasperation of impotence. In the peace (403) Caere, which as situated nearest to the Romans suffered the heaviest retribution, was compelled to cede half its territory to Rome, and with the diminished domain which was left to it to withdraw from the Etruscan league, and to enter into a relation of dependence on Rome. It seemed not advis- able however to force upon this more remote and alien com- munity full Roman citizenship, as had, under similar cir- cumstances, been done with the nearer and more cognate Latin and Volscian communities. In its stead the Caerite community received Roman citizenship without the privi- lege of electing or of being elected (civitas sine suffragio)- a form of political subjection, first occurring in this case, by which a state that had hitherto been independent became converted into a community not free, but administering its own affairs. Not long afterwards (411) Falerii, which had preserved its original Latin national ity even under Tuscan rule, abandoned the Etruscan league and entered into perpetual alliance with Rome ; and there- by the whole of southern Etruria became in one form or other subject to Roman supremacy. In the case of Tar- quinii and perhaps of northern Etruria generally, the Ro- mans were content with restraining them for a lengthened period by a treaty of peace for 400 months "^ (403). In northern Italy likewise the peoples that had come Chap. IV.] The Celts. 433 into collision and conflict gradually settled on Paoifleation . , , . , . ■, n -, of Northern a permanent lootmg and within more defined ^' limits. The migrations over the Alps ceased, partly perhaps in consequence of the desperate defence which the Etruscans made ■•in their more restricted home, and of the serious resistance of the powerful Romans, part- ly perhaps in comequence of changes unknown to us on the north of the Alps. Between the Alps and the Apennines, as far south as the Abruzzi, the Celts were now generally the ruling nation, and they were masters more especially of the plains and rich pastures ; but from the lax and super- ficial nature of their settlement their dominion took no deep root in the newly acquired land and by no means assumed the shape of exclusive possession. How matters stood vc. the Alps, and to what extent Celtic settlers became mingled there with earlier Etruscan or other stocks, our unsatisfac- tory information as to the nationality of the later Alpine peoples does not permit us to ascertain. It is on the other hand certain that the Etruscans or, as they were then called, the Raeti retained their settlements in the modern Grisons and Tyrol, and the Umbrians in like manner in the valleys of the Apennines. The Veneti, speaking a different lan- guage, kept possession of the north-eastern portion of the valley of the Po. Ligurian tribes maintained their footing in the western mountains, dwelling as far south as Pisa and Arezzo, and separating the Celt-land proper from Etruria. The Celts dwelt only in the intermediate flat country, the In- subres and Cenomani to the north of the Po, the Boii to the south, and — not to mention smaller tribes — the Senones on the coast of the Adriatic, from Ariminum to Ancona, in the so-called " territory of the Gauls " (ager ffallicus). But even there Etruscan seitlements must have continued par- tially at least to exist, somewhat as Ephesus and Miletus remained Greek under the supremacy of the Persians. Mantua at any rate, which was protected by its insular po- sitioi, was a Tuscan city even in the time of the empire, and Hatria on the Po also, where numerous discoveries of rases have been made, appears to have retained its Etrus- 4:34 Fall of the ^i/ruscan Power. [Boo? n can character ; the description of the coasts that goes undei the name of Scylax, composed about 418, calls the district of Hatria and Spina a Tuscan land. This alone, moreover, explains how Etruscan corsairs could render the Adriatic unsafe till f^r into the fifth century, and why not only Dionysius of Syracuse covered its coasts with colonies, but even Athens, as a remarkable document re- cently discovered informs us, resolved about 429 to establish a colony in the Adriatic for the protection of seafarers against the Tyrrhene pirates. But while more or less of an Etruscan character contin- ued to mark these regions, it was confined to isolated rem- nants and fragments of their earlier power ; the Etruscan nation no longer reaped the benefit of such gains as were still acquired there by individuals in peaceful commerce or in maritime war. On the other hand it was probably from these half-free Etruscans that the germs proceeded of such civilization as we subsequently find among the Celts and Alpine peoples in general (p. 285). The very fact that the Celtic hordes in the plains of Lombardy, to use the lan- guage of the so-called Scylax, abandoned their warrior-life and took to permanent settlement, must in part be ascribed to this influei^ce ; the rudiments moreover of handicrafts and arts and the alphabet came to the Celts in Lombardy, and in fact to the Alpine nations as far as the modern Sty- ria, through the medium of the Etruscans. Thus the Etruscans, after the loss of their possessions Etruria ^^ Campania and of the whole district to the peace and on ^orth of the Apennines and to the south of the the decline. Ciminian forest, remained restricted to very nar- row bounds ; their season of power and of aspiration had for ever passed away. The closest reciprocal relations sub- sisted between this external decline and the internal decay of the nation, the seeds of which indeed were probably already deposited at a far earlier period. The Greek au- thors of this age are full of descriptions of the unbounded luxury of Etruscan life : poets of Lower Italy in the fifth century of the citj celebrate the Tyrrhenian wine, and the Chap. IV.] The Celts. 435 contemporary historians Timaeus and Theopompus delineate pictures of Etruscan unchastity and of Etruscan banquets, such as fall nothing short of the worst Byzantine or French demoralization. Unattested as may be the details in these accounts, the statement at least appears to be well founded, that the detestable amusement of gladiatorial combats — the gangrene of the later Rome and of the last epoch of an- tiquity generally — ^first came into vogue among the Etru* cans. At any rate on the whole they leave no doubt as to the deep degeneracy of the nation. It pervaded even its political condition. As far as our scanty information reach- es, we find aristocratic tendencies prevailing, in the same way as they did at the same period in Eome, but more harshly and more perniciously. The abolition of royalty, which appears to have been carried out in all the cities of Etruria about the time of the siege of Veii, called into ex- istence in the several cities a patrician government, which experienced but slight restraint from the laxity of the fed- eral bond. That bond but seldom succeeded in combining all the Etruscan cities even for the defence of the land, and the nominal hegemony of Volsinii does not admit of the most remote comparison with the energetic vigour which the leadership of Rome communicated to the Latin nation. The struggle against the exclusive claim put forward by the old burgesses to all public offices and to all public us\ifructs, which must have destroyed even the Roman state, had not its external successes enabled it in some measure to satisfy the demands of the oppressed proletariate at the expense of foreign nations and to open up other paths to ambition — that struggle against the exclusive rule and (what was spe« cially prominent in Etruria) the priestly monopoly of the clan-nobility — must have ruined Etruria politically, eco- nomically, and morally. Enormous wealth, particularly in landed property, became concentrated in the hands of a few nobles, while the masses were impoverished ; the social revolutions which thence arose increased the distress which they sought to remedy ; and, in consequence of the impo- tence of the central power, no course at last remained to 436 Fall of the Etruscan Power. [Book 1L the distressed aristocrats — e. g. in Arretium in 801. 216. 453, and in Volsinii in 488 — but to call in the aid of the Romans, who accordingly put an enc to the disorder but at the same time extinguished the rem- nant of independence. The energies of the nation were broken from the day of Veil and Melpum. Earnest at tempts were still once or twice made to escape from the Roman supremacy, but in these instances the stimulus was communicated to the Etruscans from without — ^from an- other Italian stock, the Samnites CHAPTER V, SPBjnOATION OP THE LATINS AND CAMPANIANS BT R0W1I. The great achievement of the regal period was the e» tablishment of the sovereignty of Rome ovei mony ol^ Latium under the form of hegemony. It is in Latfiml?a. *^® nature of the case evident that the change in eSbiMied' ^^^ Constitution of Rome could not but power- fully affect both the relations of the Roman state towards Latium and the internal organization of the Latin communities themselves ; and that it did so, is obvious from tradition. The fluctuations which the revolution in Rome occasioned in the Romano-Latin confederacy are at- tested by the legend, unusually vivid and various in its hues, of the victory at the lake Regillus, which the dictator or consul Aulus Postumius (255 ? 258 ?) is said 499? 496 T to have gained over the Latins with the help of the Dioscuri, and still more definitely by the renewal of the perpetual league between Rome and Latium by Spuriua Cassius in his second consulate (261). These narratives, however, give us no information as to the main matter, the legal relation between the new Ro- man republic and the Latin confederacy ; and what from other sources we learn regarding that relation comes to us without date, and can only be inserted here with an approxi- mation to probability. The nature of a hegemony implies that it becomes grad- _ . . , ually converted into sovereignty by the mere in- eqnautyof ward force of circumstances ; and the Roman rights be- t . /. t tweeniiome hegemony over Latium lormed no exception to the rule. It was based upon a complete equal- ity of rights between the Roman state on the one side and 438 Subjugation of the Latins [Book n, the Latin confederacy on the other (p. 148) ; but this very equality of rights could not be carried out at all, more espe- cially in reference to war and the treatment of its acqui" sitions, without practically annihilating the hegemony. Ac- cording to the original constitution of the league not only was the right of making wars and treaties with foreign states — in other words, the full right of political self-deter- mination — reserved in all probability both to Rome and to Latium, but, when a federal war took place, both Rome and Latium contributed the like contingent. Each furnished, as a rule, an " army " of two legions, or 8400 men ; * and they alternately appointed the commander-in-chief, who then nominated — ^by his own selection — the officers of his staff, six leaders-of-division (tribwni militvm) for each of the four divisions of the army. In case of victory the moveable part of the spoil, as well as the conquered territory, was divided in equal portions between Rome and the confeder- acy ; when the establishment of fortresses in the conquered territory was resolved on, their garrisons and population were composed partly of Roman, partly of confederate colo- nists ; and not only so, but the newly-founded community was received as an independent federal state into the Latin confederacy and furnished with a seat and vote in the Latin diet. These stipulations, the full execution of which would Bnoroacii- have annulled the reality of a hegemony, can thaTeouai- have had but a limited practical significance, ity of rights, even during the regal period ; in the republican epoch they must necessarily have undergone alterations also A» to ware '^ form. Among the first that fell into abey- and treaties. a,nce was, beyond doubt, the right of the confed- eracy to make wars and treaties with foreigners,! and their * The ori^nal equality of the two armies ia evident from Lit. i. 62 fiii. 8, 14, and Dionys^ viii. 15 ; but mo.st clearly from Polyb. vi. 26. f Dionysius expressly states, that in the later federal treaties be tween Rome and Latium the Latin communities were expressly inter- dieted from calling out their contingents of their own motion and lending fhem into the field alone. Chap. V.J And Uampamcms by Borne. 439 right to name the common commander every alternate year. The decision on wars and treaties, as well as the supreme command, passed once for all to Rome. It fol- offlcering of lowed from this change that the staff-officers for earmy. ^j^^ Latin troops also were now wholly nomi- nated by the Roman commander-in-chief; and there was soon added the further innovation, that Roman burgesses alone were taken as staff-officers for the Roman half of the army, and if not alone, at any rate mainly, for the Latin half also.* On the other hand, just as formerly, no strong- er contingent could be demanded from the Latin confeder- acy as a whole than was furnished by the Roman commu- nity ; and the Roman commander-in-chief was likewise bound not to break up the Latin contingents, but to keep the contingent sent by each community as a separate divis- ion of the army under the leader whom that community had appointed.f The right of the Latin confed- sitions in eracy to an equal share in the moveable spoil and in the conquered land continued to subsist in form ; in reality, however, the substantial fruits of war be- yond doubt went, even at an early period, to the leading state. Even in the founding of the federal fortresses or the * The Latin staff-officers were the twelve praefecti sodorum^ who had the charge of the two alae of the federal contingeot, six to each ala, just as the twelve war-tribunes of the Boman army had charge of the two legions, six to each legion. Polybius (vi, 26, 5) states that the con- sul nominated the former, as he originally nominated the latter. Now according to the ancient maxim of law, that every person under obliga- tion of service might become an officer (p. 138), it was legally allowable for the general to appoint a Latin as leader of a Roman, as well as con. Tersely a Roman as leader of a Latin, legion ; and this led to the practi- «al result that the tribuni militum were wholly, and the praefecti soma- rum at least ordinarily, Romans. f These were the deeuriones twrmdrum and praefecti cohortium (Polyb. vi. 21, 5 ; Liv. xxv. 14 ; Sallust. Juff. 69, et al). Of course, aa the Roman consuls were ordinarily also the commanders-in-chief, tha presidents of the community were very frequently in the dependent towns sIbo placed at the head of the state-contingents (Liv. xxiii. 19 ; OreUi, Inscr. 7022). Indeed, the usual name given to the Latin magistratea (prae<.>r«s) indicates that they were officers. iiO Suhpigation of the Latms [Book a so-called Latin colonies as a rule probably mos .,, and i ot •infrequently all, of the cclonists were Eomans • and al- Jiough by the transference they were converted from Eo- man burgesses into members of an allied community, the newly planted townships in all probability frequently re tained a permanent — and for the confederacy dangerous- • attachment to their actual mother-city. The rights, on the contrary, which were secured by the Pjj^a^t^ federal treaties to the individual burgess of anj tightB. Qf ^]^g allied communities in every city belong ing to the league, underwent no restriction. These in eluded, in particular, full equality of rights as to the acqui- sition of landed property and moveable estate, as to traffic and exchange, marriage and testament, and an unlimited liberty of migration ; so that not only was a man who had burgess-rights in any of the federal towns legally entitled to settle in any other, but wherever he settled, he as a pas- sive burgess (municeps) participated in all private and po- litical rights and duties with the exception of eligibility to office, and was even — although in a limited sense — entitled to vote at least in the comitia tributa.* Of some such nature, in all probability, was the relation between the Roman community and the Latin confederacy in the first period of the republic. We cannot, however, ascertain what elements are to be referred to earlier stipu- lations, and what to the revision of the alliance in 261. With somewhat greater certainty the remodelling of the organization of the several communities belong- S'tte^ar-"^ ing to the Lat.n confederacy, after the pattern oi'the'i!^ of the consular constitution in Rome, may be teStCT'the characterized as an innovation and introduced in Roman pat- this Connection. For, although the different communities may very well have arrived at the * Such a metoikos was not like an actual burgess assigned to a sp© cific tribe once for all, but before each particular rote the tribe in which the metoeei were upon that occasion to TOte was fixed by lot. In reality this probably amounted to the ooncessioQ to the Latins of one vote in Chap, v.] And CampamMns hj Rome. 441 abolition of royalty in itself independently of eacTi other (p. 321), the identity in the appellation of the new annua, kings in the Eoman and other commonwealths of Latium, and the comprehensive application of the peculiar principle of collegiateness,* evidently point to some external conneo the Roman eomxtia iribuia. The meioeci cannot have voted in the cen- turies, because a fixed place in some tribe was a preliminary condition of the centnriate suffrage. On the other hand they must, like the ple- beians, have taken part in the curies. * Ordmarily, as is well known, the Latin communities were presided over by two praetors. Besides these there occur in several communitiea single magistrates, who in that case bear the title of dictator; as in Alba (Orelli — Henzen, Imcr. 2293) ; Lanuvium (Cicero, pro Mil. 10, 27 ; 17, 46 ; Asconius, in Mil. p. 32, Orell. ; OrelU, n. 2786, 5157, 6086) ; Com- pitum (Orelli, 3324) ; Nomentum (OreUi, 208, 6138, 7032 ; comp. Hen- zen, Bullett. 1858, p. 169) ; and Arioia (Orelli, n. 1455) ; the latter oflSce was probably connected with the consecration of the temple at Aricia by a dictator of the Latin confederacy (Cato, Origin. I. ii. fr. 21 , Jor- dan). There was a similar dictator in the Latin colony of Sutrium (re- cently found inscription), and in the Etruscan one of Caere (Orelli, m. 3787,5772). AH these magistracies or priesthoods that originated in ma^ gistracies (for the praetors and dictators of commonwealths completely broken up, such as the Albau dictator, are to be explained in accordance with Liv. ix. 43 : Anagninis—magistratihus praeter quam sacrorum eu- ratione inlerdictum), were annual (Orelli, 208). The statement of Macer likewise and of the annalists who borrowed from him, that Alba was at the time of its fall no longer under kings, but under annual directors (Dionys. v. 74 ; Plutarch. Romul. 27 ; Liv. L 23), is probably a mere inference from the institution, with which he was acquainted, of the sa- cerdotal Alban dictatorship which was beyond doubt annual like that of Nomentum ; a view in which, moreover, the democratic partisanship of its author may have come into play. It may be a question whether the inference is valid, and whether, even if Alba at the time of its dissolu- tion was under rulers holding office for life, the abolition of monarchy in Rome might not subsequently lead to the conversion of the Albnn dicta- to/ship into an annual office. An exception is presented by the two dietatores of Fidenae (Orelli, 112) — a later and incongruous misuse of the title of dictator, which in nU other cases, even where it is transferred to non-Eoman magistrates^ Imphes an exclusion of, and a contrast, to collegiateness. All these Latin magistracies substantially coificide in reality, as wel. as specially in name, with the arrangement established in Rome by th« 19* t42 Subj-ugation of the Latins [Book II. tion. At some time or other after the expulsion of the Tarquins from Rome the arrangements of the Latin com. munities must have been throughout revised in accordance with the scheme of the consular constitution. This adjust- ment of the Latin constitutions in conformity with that of the leading city may indeed belong to a later period ; but internal probability rather favors the supposition that the Roman nobility, after having effected the abolition of roy- alty for life at home, suggested a similar change of consti- tution to the communities of the Latin confederacy, and at length introduced aristocratic government everywhere in Latium — notwithstanding the serious resistance, imperilling tJie stability of the Romano-Latin .league itself, which waa probably offered on the one hand by the expelled Tarquins, and on the other by the royal clans and by partisans well affected to monarchy in the other communities of Latium. The mighty development of the power of Etruria that oc- curred at this very time, the constant assaults of the Veien- tes, and the expedition of Porsena, may have materially contributed to secure the adherence of the Latin nation to the once-established form of union, or, in other words, to the continued recognition of the supremacy of Rome, and disposed them for its sake to acquiesce in a change of con- stitution for which, beyond doubt, the way had been in many respects prepared even in the bosom of the Latin communities, nay perhaps to submit even to an enlarge ment of the rights of hegemony. The permanently united nation was able not only to maintain, but also to extend on all sides its Extension of -rrr ^ i t / ^^ *\ Komeand power. We have already (p. 414) mentioned jhe east and that the Etruscans remained only for a short '°" ^ time in possession of supremacy over Latium, and that matters on the northern frontier soon returned tc the position in which they stood during the regal period ; but it was not till more than a century after the expulsion revolution in a way which is not adequately explained by the mere simi arity of the political circumstaucea ia which they originated. Chap, v.] And Gampaniana l/y Rome. 443 of the kings from Eome that any real extension of the Ro- man boundaries took place in this direction. Tie conquests of the earlier republican as of the regal period were entire- ly at the expense of Rome's eastern and southern neigh- bours, — the Sabines, between the Tiber and Anio ; the Aequi, settled next to them, on the upper Anio ; and the Volscians on the Tyrrhene sea. The early period at which the Sabine land became de- pendent on Rome is shown by the position which pense^oFtha it afterwards held. Even in the Samnite wars abmes. ^^ Roman armies regularly marched through Sabina as through a peaceful land ; and at an early epoch — much earlier than was the case, for instance, with the Vol- scian land — the Sabine district exchanged its original dialect for that of Rome. The Roman occupation here seems to have encountered but few obstacles. That the Sabines had a comparatively feeble sympathy with the desperate resist- ance offered by the Aequi and Volsci, is evident even from the accounts of the annals ; and — what is of more impor- tance — we find no fortresses to keep the land in subjection, such as were so numerously established in the Volscian plain. Perhaps this lack of opposition was connected with the fact that the Sabine hordes probably about this very time poured themselves over Lower Italy. Allured by the pleasantness of the settlements on the Tifernus and Voltur- nus, they may have hardly disputed the possession of their native land with the Romans ; and these may have mas- tered the half-deserted Sabine territory with little oppO" sition. Far more vehement and lasting was the resistance of the At the ex- Aequi and Volsci. We do not intend to narrate i^id Mid"* ^'^ feuds annually renewed with 'ihese two peo. Vfiad pies— feuds which are related in the Roman chronicles in sueh a way that the most insignificant foray is scarcely distinguishable from a momentous war, and histoi- ical connection is totally disregarded ; it is sufficient to in- dicate the permanent results. We plainly perceive that it was the especial aim of the Romans and Latins to separate 444 Subjugation of the latvns [Book n. the Aequi from the Volsci, and to become masters of the Dommunications between them. For this purpose the old- est federal fortresses or so-called Latin colonies were found- 492. ed, Cora, Norba (assigned to 262), and Signia t95, (stated to have been reinforced in 259), all of which are situated at the points of connection between the Aequian and Volscian districts. The object League with ^^^ attained still more fully by the accession the nerEid. gf tjje Hernici to the league of the Eomans and *86. Latins (268), an accession which isolated the Volscians completely, and provided the league with a bulwark against the Sabellian tribes dwelling on the south and east ; it is easy therefore to perceive why this little people obtained the concession of full equality with the two others in counsel and in distribution of the spoil. The feebler Aequi were thenceforth but little formidable ; it was sufficient to undertake from time to time a plunder- ing expedition against them. The Volscians opposed a more serious resistance, and it was only by gradually ad- vancing its fortresses that the league slowly gained ground upon them. Velitrae had already been found- ^"^ ed in 260 as a bulwark for Latium ; it was fol- 442. lowed by Suessa Pometia, Ardea (312), and, singularly enough, Circeii (founded or at least ^^' strengthened in 361), which, as long as Antium and Tarracina continued free, can only have held communi- cation with Latium by sea. Attempts were often made to occupy Antium, and one was temporarily sao- 467. 469. oessful in 287 ; but in 295 the town recovered its freedom, and it was not till after the Gallic conflagratioa that, in consequence of a violent war of thir teen years (365-377), the Romans gained a de Bided superiority in the Pomptine territory, v/hich was secured by the founding of the fortresses Satri- »86. J82. cum (369) and Setia (372, strengthened in B79. 375), and was distributed into farm-allotments jgg and tribes in the year 371 and following years. After this date ihe Volscians stiR perhaps ros« Chap. V.] And Cim^anians by Home. 445 in revolt, but tbay carried on no further wars againsi Rome, But the more decided the successes that the league of criseB -with- Rcmans, Latins, and Hernici achieved against mano°-:£tiii ^^^ Etruscans, Sabines, Aequi, and Volsc:, the league, more that league became liable to disunion. The reason lay partly in the increase of the hegemonia power of Rome, of which we have already spoken as neces- sarily springing out of the existing circumstances, but which nevertheless was felt as a heavy burden in Latium ; partly in particular acts of odious injustice perpetrated by the leading community. Of this nature was especially the in- famous sentence of arbitration between the Aricini and the Ardeates in 308, in which the Romans, called in 446. to be arbiters regarding a border territory in dispute between the two communities, toolc it to them- selves ; and when this decision occasioned in Ardea internal dissensions in which the people wished to join the Volsci, while the nobility adhered to Rome, these dissensions were still more disgracefully employed as a pretext for the des- patch of Roman colonists to the wealthy city, amongst whom the lands of the adherents of the party opposed to Rome were distributed (312). The main cause however of the internal breaking up of the league was the very subjugation of the common foe ; for- bearance ceased on one side, devotedness ceased on the other, from the time when they thought that they had no longer need of each other. The open breach between the Latins and Hernici on the one hand and the Romans on the other was more immediately occasioned partly by the capture of Rome by the Celts and the momentary weakness which it produced, partly by the definitive occupation and distribu. tion of the Pomptine territory. The former allies soon stood opposed in the field. Already Latin volunteers in great numbers had taken part in the last despairing stiug' gle of the Volsci : now the most famous of the 883. Latin cities, Lanuvium (371), Praeneste (372- aSr'^SL 374, 400), Tusculum (373), Tibur (394, 400), 360. 354. ^^^ g^gjj several of the fortresses established in s46 Subjugatim of the Latins [Boos II t*e Volscian land by the Romano-Latin league, such as ^ elitrae and Cireeii, had to be subdued by force of arms and the Tiburtines were not afraid even to make common cause against Eome -with the once more advancing hordea of the Gauls. No concerted revolt however took place, and Some mastered the individual towns without much trouble. Tusculum was even compelled (in 373) to give up its commonwealth and to enter into the bur- gess-union of Rome — the first instance of a whole people being incorporated with the Roman commonwealth — while it still retained its walls and a sort of de facto communal independence. Soon afterwards Satricum met the same fate. The struggle with the Hernici was more severe (392- 396) ; the first consular commander-in-chief be- longing to the plebs, Lucius Genucius, fell in it ; but here too the Romans were victorious. The crisis ter- Renewaiof minated with the renewal of the treaties be- the treaties tween Rome and the Latin and Hernican con- 01 alliance. 3S8. federacies in 396. The precise contents of these treaties are not known, but it is evident that both confedera- cies submitted once more, and probably on harder terms, to the Roman hegemony. The institution which took place in the same year of two new tribes in the Pomptine terri- tory shows clearly the mighty advances made by the Ro- man power. In manifest connection with this crisis in the relations between Rome and Latium stands the closing the Latin of the Latin confederation,* which took place tioc. about the year 370, although we cannot precise- ly determine whether it was the eifect or, as is * In the list given by Dionysius (v. 61) of the thirty Latin federal cities — the only list which we possess — there are named the Ardeates, „, Aricini, Bovillani, Bubentani (site unknown), Comi (Corani ?), Coryentani (site unknown), Circeienses, Coriolani, CorbinWs, Caban! (perhaps the Cabenses on the Alban Mount, Bull. delP Inst. 1861, p. 205), Portinei (unknown), Gabkii, Laurentes, Lanuvini, Lavinates, Labicani, Nomentani, Norbani, Praenestini, Pedani Chap. V.] And Ca/mpwn/ioms hy Rome. 447 more probable, the cause of the revolt of Latium \(hioh wa have just described. As the law had hitherto stood, every sovereign city founded by Eome and Latium took its place among the communes entitled to participate in the federal festival and federal diet, whereas every community incorpo- rated with another city and thereby politically annihilated was erased from the ranks of the members of the league. At the same time, however, according to Latin use and wont the number once fixed of thirty confederate communi- ties was so adhered to, that of the participating cities never more and never less than thirty were entitled to vote, and a number of the communities that were later in entering, or were disqualified for their trifling importance or for the crimes they had committed, were without the right of vot- Querquetulani (site unknown), Satrioani, Scaptini, Setini, Tellenii (site unknown), Tiburtinl, Tusculani, Tolerini (site unknown), Tricrini (un- known), and Velitemi. The occasional notices of communities entitled to participate, such as of Ardea (Liv. xxxii. 1), Laurentum (Liv. xxxTii. 3), Lanuvium (Liv. xli. 16), Bovillae, Gabii, Labioi (Cicero, pro Plane. 9, 23) agree witli this list. Dionysius gires it on occasion of the declara- tion of war by Latium against Eome in 256, and it was natural therefore 498. to regard — according to the view of Niebuhr — this list as de- 8M. Mved from the well-known renewal of the league in 261. But, as in this list drawn up according to the Latin alphabet the letter g appears in a position which it certainly had not at the time of the Twelve Tables and scarcely came to occupy before the fifth century (see my I/nleritalische Dial. p. 33), it must be taken from a much more recent source ; and it is by far the Bimplest hypothesis to recognize it as a list of those places which were afterwards regarded as the ordinary members of thei Latin confederacy, and which Dionysius in accordance with his systematising ^^ custom specifies as its original component elements. It is to be noticed that the list presents not a single non-Latin community, not even Caere, but simply enumerates places originally Latin or occupied b^ Latin colonies — no one will lay stress on Corbio and Coriolj RS exceptions. Now if we compare with this list that of the Latin co- lonies, we find that of the nine which had been founded down to 369 — Suessa Pometia^ Oorat Signia^ Velitrae, Norha, Antium (if this was really a Latin colony, see p. 444), Ardea, Oirceii, and Satricum — the six marked in italics, and on the other hand of those founded later mme but Setia established in 872, ocour in the Dionysiai 448 Subjugation of the Lat%7i8 [Book H ing. In this way the confederacy was consti ***■ tuted about 370 as follows. Of old Latin town ships there were — besides some which have fallen into ob-i rivion, or whose sites are unknown — still autonomous and •entitled to vote, Nomentum, between the Tiber and the Auio ; Tibur, Gabii, Scaptia, Labici,* Pedum, and Praeneste, list. The Latin colonies therefore that were instituted before SM werfc. while those founded subsequently were not, members participating in the Alban festival. The circumstance that Suessa Pometia and Antium are wanting in Dionysius is not inconsistent with this view, for bothwera lost again soon after their colonization, and Antium remained for a long time afterwards a chief fortress of theVolsci, while Suessa speedily per- ished. The only real inconsistency with the rule which we have laid down Is the absence of Signia and the occurrence of Setia ; so that itia natural either to suggest that SHTINUN should be changed into SirNINQN, or to assume that the foundation of Setia had been already determined on before 370, and that Signia was among the non-voting communities. At any rate this isolated exception cannot affect a rule that otherwise so thoroughly applies. In entire harmony with what we might expect, all places are absent from this list which were incorporated with the Roman community before 370 — such as Ostia, Antemnae, and Alba ; whereas those incorporated later are retained in it, such as Tusculum, Satricum, Cora, Velitrae, all of which must have forfeited their sovereignty between 370 and 536. As regards the list given by Pliny of thirty-two townships extinct in his time which had formerly participated in the Alban festival, after de- duction of eight that also occur in Dionysius (for the Cusuetani of Pliny appear to be the Corventani of Dionysius, and the Tuticnses of the for- mer to be the Tricriniof the latter) there remain twenty-four townships, most of them quite unknown, doubtless made up partly of those seven- teen non-voting communities — many of which were perhaps the very oldest, sulisequently disqualified members of the Alban festal league — partly of a number of other decayed or excluded members of the league, to which latter class in particular the ancient presiding township of Al- ba, also named by Pliny, belonged. * Livy certainly states (iv. 47) that Labici became a colony in 336. But — apart from the fact that Diodorus (xiii. 6) says nothing of it — ■ Labici cannot have been a burgess-colony, for the town did not lie on the coast and besides it appears subsequently as still in possession of ai» tonomy ; nor can it have been a Latin one, for there is not, nor can thera be from the nature of these foundations, a single other example of a La- tin colouy established in the original Latium. Here as elsewhere it i« Chap, v.] And Oanvpcmians hy Borne. MS between t^e Anio and the Alban range ; Corbio, Tusculum, Bovillae, Aricia, Corioli, and Lanuvium on the Alban range ; lastly, Laurentum and Lavinium in the plain along the coast. To these fell to be added the colonies instituted by Rome and the Latin league ; Ardea in the former territory of the Rutuli, and Velitrae, Satricum, Cora, Norba, Setia and Circeii in that of the Volsci. Besides, seventeen other townships, whose names are not known with certainty, had the privilege of participating in the Latin festival without the right of voting. On this footing — of forty-seven town- ships entitled to participate and thirty entitled to vote — the Latin confederacy continued henceforward unalterably fixed. The Latin communities founded subsequently, such as Su- trium, Nepete (p. 432), Cales, and Tarraoina, were not ad- mitted into the confederacy, nor were the Latin communi- ties subsequently divested of their autonomy, such as Tus- culum and Satricum, erased from the list. With this closing of the confederacy was connected the geographical settlement of the limits of Latiura. ^™e °tG f ^° ^°"S ^® ^^^ Latin confederacy continued open, Latinm. the bounds of Latium had advanced with the establishment of new federal cities : but as the later Latin colonies had no share in the Alban festival, they were not regarded geographically as part of Latium. For this reason doubtless Ardea and Circeii were reckoned as belonging to Latium, but not Sutrium or Tarracina. But not only were the places on which Latin privileges 354^ were bestowed after 370 kept aloof from the the'fate? "' federal association ; they were isolated also from Latin cM^ Qug another as respected private rights. While frivate each of them was allowed to have reciprocity n gilts. ■*■ " of commercial dealings and probably also of marriage (commercium et connubiuni) with Rome, no such reciprocity was permitted with the other Latin communi- most probable — especially as two jugera are named as the por tiou of land allotted — that a public assignation to the bur- has been confounded with a colonial assignation (p. 260). 450 Subjv^ation of the Latins [Book It rfes. The burgess of Sutrium, for example, might posses* in full property a piece of ground in Rome, but not iii Praeneste ; and might have legitimate chi'dren with a Rf* man, but not with a Tiburtine, wife.* Hitherto considerable freedom of movement had Oeen allowed within the confederacy. A separatp at special league for instance of the five old Latin commu- -eagues. nities, Aricia, Tusculum, Tibur, Lanuvium, and Laurentum, and of the three new Latin, Ardea, Suessa Po- metia, and Cora, had been permitted to group itself round the shrine of the Aricine Diana. It is doubtless not thr mere result of accident that we find no further instance in later times of such special confederations fraught with dan- ger to the hegemony of Rome. We may likewise assign to this epoch the further re- Eevisionof modelling which the Latin municipal constitu- the mumci- tions underwent, and their complete assimilation pal constitu- ' ^ tions. Po- to the constitution of Rome. In after times two lict^iudgGS. aediles, intrusted with the police-supervision of markets and highways and the administration of justice in connection therewith, make their appearance side by side with the two praetors as necessary elements of the Latin magistracy. The institution of these urban police function- aries, which evidently took place at the same time and at the instigation of the leading power in all the towns of the federation, certainly cannot have preceded the establishment of the curule aedileship in Rome, which occurred in 387 ; probably it took place about that very time. Beyond doubt the arrangement was only one of a series of measures curtailing the liberties and modifying the organization of the federal communities in the interest of aristocratic policy. After the fall of Veii and the conquest of the Pomptine • This restriction of the ancient full reciprocity of Latin rights firs^ occura in the renewal of the treaty in 416 (Liv. viii. 14) ; but as the system of isolation of which it was an essential part, first began in reference to the Latin colonies settled after 370, and wai only generalized in 416, it is proper to mention tLe alteration here. Chap. V.] And Companians hi/ Borne. 451 Domination territory, Rome evidently felt herself powerful oftheRo- enough to tighten the reins of her hegemony mans; exaB" do o *» perationof and to reduce the whole of the Latin cities tc a the Liatliis. position so dependent that they became virtual- 91& ly her subjects. At this period (406) the Car- thaginians, in a commercial treaty concluded with Rome, bound themselves to inflict no injury on the Latins who were subject to Rome, viz. the maritime towns of Ardea, Antium, Circeii, and Tarracina ; if, however, any one of the Latin towns should revolt from the Roman alli- ance, the Phoenicians were to be allowed to attack it, but in the event of conquering it they were bound not to raze it but to hand it over to the Romans. This plainly shows bj what chains the Roman community bound to itself its de pendencies, and how much a town, which dared to with draw from the native protectorate, sacrificed or rislced by such a course. It is true that even now the Latin confederacy at least — if not also the Hernican — retained its formal title to a third of the gains of war, and doubtless some other remnants of the former equality of rights ; but what was palpably lost was important enough to explain the exasperation which at this period prevailed among the Latins against Rome. Not only did numerous Latin volunteers fight under foreign standards against the community at their head, wherever they found armies in the field against Rome ; 349. but in 405 the Latin league its/'lf resolved to Collision refuse to the Romans its cont.ngent. To all between the n . . n i ■, ■, -r Romans and appearance a renewed rising of the whole Latin nites. " confederacy might be anticipated at no distant date ; and at that very moment a collision was imminent with another Italian nation, which was able to en. counter on equal terms the united strength of the Latin stock. After the overthrow of the Volscians no consider- able people in the first instance opposed the Romans in the south; their legions unchecked approached the »67. Liris. As early as 397 they had contended sue- M8. cessfully with the Privernates ; and in 409 with the Aurunci, from whom they wrested Sora on i52 Subjugatdon of the Latins [Book U the Liris. Thus the Roman armies had reached the Sam- nite frontier ; and the friendly alliance, which the two bravest and most powerful of the Italian nations concluded with each other in 400, was the sure token of an ap preaching struggle for the supremacy of Italy — a struggle which threatened to become interwoven with the dangerous crisis in the Latin nation. The Samnite nation, which, at the time of the expulsion _ . , of the Tarquins from Eome, had doubtless al- Coiiquesfts of ^ ' the Sam- ready been for a considerable period in posses- Dites in tne southof si on of the hill-country which rises between the Apulian and Campanian plains and commands them both, had hitherto found its further advance impeded on the one side by the Daunians — the power and prosperity of Arpi fall within this period — on the other by the Greeks and Etruscans. But the fall of the Etruscan power towards jjp the end of the third, and the decline of the 160-350. Greek colonies in the course of the fourth cen- tury, made room for them towards the west and south ; and now one Samnite host after another marched down to, and even moved across, the south Italian seas. They first made their appearance in the plain adjoining the bay, with which the name of the Campauians has been associated from the beginning of the fourth century ; the Etruscans there were suppressed, and the Greeks were confined within narrower bounds ; Capua was wrested from the former 424 420 (330), Cumae from the latter (334). About the same time, perhaps even earlier, the Lucanians appeared in Magna Graecia : at the beginning of the fourth century they were involved in conflict with the people of Terina and Thurii ; and a considerable time before 364 they had established themselves in the Greek Laus, About this period their levy amounted to 30,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry. Towards the end of the fourth century men- tion first occurs of the separate confederacy of the Bruttii,* * The name itself is very ancient ; in fact it is the most ancient iib djgenousjiame for the inhabitants of the present Calabria (Antiochu^ Fr. 6. Miill.). The well-known derivation is doubtless an invention. Chap. V.] And Camjpcmians by Home. 453 who had detached themselves from the Lucanians—-' not, like the other Sabellian stocks, as a colony, hut through a quarrel — and had become mixed up with many foreign elements. The Greeks of Lower Italy tried to re- sist the pressure of the barbarians ; the league of the Achaean cities was reconstructed in 361 ; and it was determined that, if any of the allied towna should be assailed by the Lucanians, all should furnish con- tingents, and that the leaders of contingents which failed to appear should suffer the punishment of death. But even the union of Magna Graeoia no longer availed ; for the ruler of Syracuse, Dionysius the Elder, made common cause with the Italians against his countrymen. While Dionysius wrested from the fleets of Magna Graecia the mastery of the Italian seas, one Greek city after another was occupied or annihilated by the Italians. In an incredibly short time the circle of flourishing cities was destroyed or laid deso- late. Only a fevi Greek settlements, such as Neapolis, suc- ceeded with difiiculty, and more by means of treaties than by force of arms, in preserving their existence and their na- tionality. Tarentum .alone remained thoroughly indepen- dent and powerful, maintaining its ■ ground in consequence of its more remote position and of its preparation for war — the result of its constant conflicts with the Messapians. Even that city, however, had constantly to fight for its ex- istence with the Lucanians, and was compelled to seek for alliances and mercenaries in the mother-country of Greece. About the period when Veil and the Pomptine plain came into the hands of Bome, the Samnite hordes were already in possession of all Lower Italy, with the exception of a few unconnected Greek colonies, and of the Apulo- Messapian coast. The Greek Periplus, composed about 418, sets down the Samnites proper with their " five tongues " as reaching from the one sea to the other ; and specifies the Campanians as adjoining them on the Tyrrhene sea to the north, and the Lucanians to the south, amongst whom in this instance, as often, the Bruttii are in- eluded, and who already had the whole coast apportioned 454 Suljugaiion of the Latins L'Book D among them from Paestum on the Tyrrhene, to Thurii o! the Ionic, sea. In fact to one who compares the achieve ments of the two great nations of Italy, the Latins and tb Samnites, before they came into contact, the career of ao quest on the part of the latter appears far wider and mori splendid than that of the former. But the character of their conquests was essentially different. Ficm the fixec urban centre which Latium possessed in Rome the dominioi of the Latin stock spread slowly on all sides, and lay witb m limits comparatively narrow ; but it planted its fool firmly at every step, partly by founding fortified towns ol the Roman type with the rights of dependent allies, partly by Romanizing the territory which it conquered. It was otherwise with Samnium. There was in its case no single leading community and therefore no policy of conquest, While the conquest of the Veientine and Pomptine territo> ries was for Rome a real enlargernent of power, Samnium was weakened rather than strengthened by the rise of th€ Campanian cities and of the Lucanian and Bruttian confed- eracies ; for every swarm, which had sought and found new settlements, thenceforward pursued a path of its own. The Samnite tribes filled a disproportionately Iarg€ Keiations space, while yet they showed no disposition to between the make it thoroughly their own. The larger Greek Samnites ° •' nr and the Cities, Tarentum, Thurii, Croton, Metapontum, Greeks. tt i t.i • t xt i- , i , Heraclea, Khegium, and Neapolis, although weakened and often dependent, continued to exist ; and the Hellenes were tolerated even in the open country and in the smaller towns, so that Cumae for instance, Posidonia, Laus, and Hipponium, still remained — as the Periplus already mentioned and coins show — Greek cities even under Sam- nite rule. Mixed populations thus arose ; the bi-lingual Bruttii, in particular, included Hellenic as well as Samnite elements and even perhaps remains of the ancient autoch thones ; in Lucania and Campania also similar mixturei must to a lesser extent have taken place. The Samnite nation, moreover, could not resist the dan CtUiV. v.] And Campanians by Rome. 45S Campanian gerous charm of Hellenic culture ; least of all HeUenism. j^ Campania, where Neapolis early entered into friendly intercourse with the immigrants, and where the sky itself humanized the barbarians. Capua, Nola, Nuceria and Teanum, although having a purely Samnite population, adopted Greek manners and a Greek civic constitution ; in fact the indigenous cantonal form of constitution could not possibly subsist under these altered circumstances. The Samnite cities of Campania began to coin money, in part with Greek inscriptions ; Capua became by its commerce and agriculture the second city in Italy in point of size — - the first in point of wealth and luxury. The deep demorat ization, in which according to the accounts of the ancients that city surpassed all others in Italy, is especially reflected in the mercenary recruiting and in the gladiatorisil sports, both of which pre-emineatly flourished in Capua. Nch^ where did recruiting officers find so numerous a concourse as in this metropolis of demoralized civilization ; while Capua knew not how to save itself from the attacks of the Sam- nites, the warlike Campanian youth flocked forth in crowds under self-elected condottieri, especially to Sicily. How deeply these soldiers of fortune influenced by their enter- prises the destinies of Italy, we shall have afterwards to show ; they form as characteristic a feature of Campanian life as the gladiatorial sports which likewise, if they did not originate, were at any rate carried to perfection in Capua, There sets of gladiators made their appearance even during banquets ; and their number was proportioned to the rank of the guests invited. This degeneracy of the most impor- tant Samnite city — a degeneracy which beyond doubt was closely connected with the Etruscan habits that lingerecj there — must have been fatal for the nation at large ; al though the Campanian nobility knew how to combine chiv alrous valour and high mental culture with the deepest moral corruption, it could never become to its nation what the Roman nobility was to the Latin. Hellenic influence nad a similar, though less powerful, efifeet on the Lucanians and Bruttians as on the Campanians. The objects discov- 456 Subjugation of the LaU.is [Book II ered in the tombs throughout all these regions show ho^ Greek art was cherished there in barbaric luxuriance ; th rich ornaments of gold and amber and the magnificen painted pottery, which are now disinterred from the abode of the dead, enable us to conjecture how extensive had beei their departure from the ancient manners of their fathers Other indications are preserved in their writing. The oli national writing which they had brought with them fron the north was abandoned by the Lucanians and Bruttians and exchanged for Greek ; while in Campania the nationa alphabet, and perhaps also the language, developed itseli under the influejice of the Greek model into greater clear ness and delicacy. We meet even with isolated traces ol the influence of Greek philosophy. The Samnite land, properly so called, alone remaine( TheSammte unaffected by these innovations, which, beautifu confederacy. a,nd natural as they may to some extent hav< been, powerfully contributed to relax still more the bone of national unity which even from the first was loose Through the influence of Hellenic habits a deep schisK took place in the Samnite stock. The civilized " Philhel lenes " of Campania were accustomed to tremble like the Hellenes themselves before the ruder tribes of the moun- tains, who were continually penetrating into Campania and disturbing the degenerate earlier settlers. Rome was a compact state, having the strength of all Latium at its dis- posal ; its subjects might murmur, but they obeyed. The Samnite stock was dispersed and divided ; and, while the confederacy in Samnium proper had preserved unimpaired the manners and valour of their ancestors, they were or that very account completely at variance with the othei Samnite tribes and towns In fact, it was this variance between the Samnites of the Biibmissicn plain and the Samnites of the mountains thai of Capua to led the Romans over the Liris. The Sidicini ir Kome. Teanum, and the Campanians in Capua, sought Ml aid from the Romans (411) against their owi countrymen, who in swarms ever renewed rav Chaf. v.] And Campanio/ns Try Rome, 457 aged 1 :heir territory and threatened to establish themselves there.? When the desired alliance was refused, the Campa- nian ■jsnvoys made offer of the submission of their country to th ;e supremacy of Kome : and the Eomans were unable Rome' and ''^ resist the bait. Roman envoys were sent to MmeV^ ^^ Samnites to inform them of the new acqui- tenns.1 sition, and to summon them to respect the terri- tory of the friendly power. The further course of events cam no longer be ascertained in detail ; * we discover only ( * Perhaps uo section of the Roman annals has been more disfigured ttian the narratire of the first Samnite-Latin war, as it stands or stood in Jjivy, Dionysius, and Appian. It runs somewhat to the following effect. .A-fter both consuls had marched into Campania in 411, first the consul Marcus Valerius Corvus gained a severe and bloody victory over the Samnites at mount Gaurus ; then his colleague Aulus Cornelius Cossus gained another, after he had been rescued from annihilation in a niirrow pass by the self-devotion of a division led by the military tribune Pub- lius Decius. The third and decisive battle was fought by both consuls at the entrance of the Caudine Pass near Suessula; the Samnites were completely vanquished — forty-thousand of their shields were picked up on the field of battle — and they were compelled to make a peace, in which the Romans retained Capua, which had given itself over to their possession, while they left Teanum to the Samnites (413). Congratula- tions came from all sides, even from Carthage. The Latins, who had re- fused their contingent and seemed to be arming against Rome, turned their arms not against Rome but against the Paeligni, while the Romans were occupied first with a military conspiracy of the garrison left behind in Campania (412), then with the capture of Privernum (413) and the war against the Antiatos. But now a sudden and singular change oc- curred in the position of parties. The Latins, who had demanded in vain Roman citizenship and a share in the consulate, rose against Rome in conjunction with the Sidicines, who had vainly offered to submit to the Romans and knew not how to save themselves from the Samnites, and with the Campanians, who were already tired of the Roman rule. Only the Liurentes in Latium and the eqidtes of Campania adhered to the Ro- mans, who on their p.trt found support among the Paeligni and Sam- oites. The Latin army fell upon Samnium ; the Romano-Samnite army, ifter it had marched to the Fucine lake and from thence, avoiding La- tium, into Campania, fought the decisive battle against the combined Latins and Campanians at Vesuvius ; the consul Titus Maulius Iniperio- BUS, after he had himself restored the wavering discipline of the army by the execution of his own son who had elain a foe in opposition to oi>' 4-58 Svhjugation of the LaUna [Bin. that— whether after a campaign, or without the intervfcw' of a war — Rome and Samnium came to an agreement' which Capua was left at the disposal of the Romansfcti num in the hands of the Samnites, and the upper Li»s those of the Volscians. The consent of the Samnitft treat is explained by the energetic exertions made abou^ 7ery period by the Tarentines to get quit of their Sab« neighbours. But the Romans also had 9 thTi/attas reason for coming to terms as quickly as p(l Sans*"**" We with the Samnites ; for the impending tr; ^mt sition of the region bordering on the south Latium into the possession of the Romans ce verted the ferment that had long existed among the Lati into open insurrection. All the original Latin towns, ev the Tusculans who had been received into the burgess-uni of Rome, declared against Rome, with the single except! of the Laurentes, whereas all the Roman colonies in I tium, with the exception of Velitrae, adhered to the Rom alliance. We can readily understand how the Capuans, n( ders from head-quarters, and after his colleague Publius Decius Mus h appeased the gods by sacrificing his life, at length gained the victc by calling up the last reserves. But the war was only ten nated by a second battle, in which the consul Manlius ( gaged the Latins and Campanians near Trifauum ; Latium and Cap submitted, and were mulcted in a portion of their territory. The judicious and candid reader will not fail to observe that this port swarms with all sorts of impossibilities. Such are the statement the Antiates waging war after the surrender of 377 (Liv. 33) ; the independent campaign of the Latins against t Paeligni, in distinct contradiction to the stipulations of the treaties 1 tween Rome and Latium ; the unprecedented march of the Eoman an through the Marsian and Samnite territory to Capua, while all Latii was in arms against Rome ; to say nothmg of the equally confused a Bcnlunental account of the military insurrection of 412, and the story j^ ita compulsory leader, the lame Titus Quinctius, the Ron Gotz von Berliehingen. Still more suspicious, perhaps, i JJ2 the repetitions. Such is the story of the military tribv Publius Decius modelled on the courageous deed of Man Calpurnius Flamma, or whatever he was called, m the fi Punic war; such is the recurrence of the conquest of Priv Ciup. v.] And Canvpanians iy Rome. 459 withstanding their very recent and voluntarily offered sub- mission to the Eomaus, should eagerly embrace the first opportunity of again ridding themselves of the Roman rule and, in spite of the opposition of the optimate party that adhered to the treaty with Rome, should make common cause with the Latin confederacy, and how the Volsciana should no less recognize in this Latin revolt the last chance of recovering their freedom and should likewise take to arms ; but we do not know through what motives the Her- nici abstained like the Campanian aristocracy from taking part in the revolt. The position of the Romans was crit- ical ; the legions which had crossed the Liris and occupied Campania were cut off by the revolt of the Latins and Volsci from their home, and a victory alono Victory of couM save them. The decisive battle was fought near Trifanum (between Minturnae, Suessa, and s«i Sinuessa) in 414 ; the consul Titus Manlius Im- periosus Torquatus achieved a complete victory 829 num Ijy Gaiua Plautius in the year 426, which secocd con- quest alone is registered in the triumphal Fasti ; such is the self-immo- lation of Publius Decius, repeated, as is well known, in the case of his 2j|. eon in 469. Throughout this section the whole represent ation betrays a different period and a different hand from the other more credible accounts of the annals. The narrative is full of detailed pictures of battles ; of inwoven anecdotes, such as that of the praetor of Setia, who breaks his neck on the steps of the senate- house because he had been audacious enough to solicit the consulship, and the various anecdotes concocted out of the surname of Titus Man- lius ; and of prolix and somewhat suspicious archaeological digressions. In this class we include the history of the legion — of which the notice, most probably apocryphal, in l.iv. i. 52, regarding the mabiple of Ro' mans and Latins intermingled formed by the second Tarquin, is evidentlj another fragment; the erroneous view given of the treaty between Capua and Rome (see my Rom. Munzwesen, p. 334, n. ] 22) ; the formu- laries of self-devotion, the Campanian denarius, the Laurentine alliance, and the binajugera in the assignation (p. 448 n.). Under such circum- stances it appears a fact of great importance that Diodorus, who follows other and often older accounts, knows absolutely nothing of any of Ihese events except the last battle of Trifanum ; a battle in fact that ill accords with the rest of the narrative, which, in accordance with the rulej of poetical justice, ought to have concluded with the death of Decius. 460 Subjugation (f the Latins [Book. over the united Latins and Campanians. In the two folld ing years the several towns of the Latins and Volsci, so f as they still offered resistance, were reduced by capitulatic or assault, and the whole country was brought into subje tion. The effect of the victory was the dissolution of the Lat: league. It was transformed from an indepe: of the Latin dent political federation into a mere associatic ^^''" for the purpose of a religious festival ; the aj cient stipulated rights of the confederacy as to a maximui for the levy of troops and a share of the gains of war pe ished as such along with it, and assumed, where they wej recognized in future, the character of acts of grace. Instea of the one treaty between Rome on the one hand and tl Latin confederacy on the other, perpetual alliances were ei tered into between Rome and the several confederate town The principle of isolating the communities from each othe which had already been established in regard to the place founded after 370 (p. 449), was thus extende to the whole Latin nation. In other respects tl several places retained their former privileges and their ai tonomy. Tibur and Praeneste however had to cede po: tions of their territory to Rome, and with still great« harshness the rights of war were asserted against othc OoioBiza- Latin or Volsoian comm.unities. Roman cole kS^oTthe njsts were sent to Antium, the most importar voisoi. and, by land as well as by sea, the stronges city of the Volsci, and the old burgesses were compelle not only to give up the necessary lands to the new comer but also themselves to enter into the burgesi 888. union of Rome (416). Roman settlers in lili 129. manner proceeded a few years aflerwards (42E to Tarracina, the second of the Volscian coas 'x)wns in importance, and there too the old burgesses wei either ejected or incorporated with the new colony. Lam vium, Aricia, Nomentum, and Pedum also lost their indi pendence and became Roman municipia. The walls c Velitrae were demolished, the senate was ejected en mas. Chap. V.] And Canipcmicms ly Home. 461 and deported to the interior of Eoman Etruria, and tli« town was probably constituted a dependent community with Caerite rights. Of the land acquired a portion — the estates, for instance, of the senators of Velitrae — was uis- tributed to the Eoman burgesses : these special assign* dons and the numerous communities recently admitted int'j citizenship gave rise to the institution of two new tribes in 422. The deep sense which pre- vailed in Rome of the enormous importance of the result achieved is attested by the honorary column, which was erected in the Roman Forum to the victorious 338 dictator of 416, Gains Maenius, and by the dec- oration of the orators' platform in the same place with the beaks taken from the galleys of Antium that were found unserviceable. In like manner, although with some diiferenoe of form, the dominion of Rome was established and con- mtaisrion firmed in the south Volscian and Campanian ter- scian^nd^" ritories. Fundi, Formiae, Capua, Cumae, and a Campanian number of smaller towns became communities provinces. dependent on Rome with Caerite rights. To secure the pre-eminently important city of Cupua, the breach between the nobility and commons was artfully widened and the general administration was rftvised and controlled in the interest of Rome. The same treatment was measured out to Privernum, whose citizena, supported by Vitruvius Vaccus a bold partisan belonging to Fundi, had the honour of fighting the last battle for Latm freedom ; the struggle ended with the storming of the town (425) and the execution of Vaccus in a Roman prison. In order to rear a population devoted to Rome in these regions, they distributed, out of the lands won in war particularly in the Privernate and Falemian territories, so numerous allotments to Roman 818, burgesses, that a few years later (436) they were able to institute there two new tribes. The establish^ ment of two fortresses as colonies with Latin rights finallj 462 Svhjugatim. of the Latins [Book D secured the newly won land. These were Calei ***' (420) in the middle of the Campanian plain whence the movements of Teanum and Capua could be ob served, and Fregellae (426), which commandec the passage of the Liris. Both colonies wen unusually strong, and rapidly became flourishing, notwith standing the obstacles which the Sidicines interposed to th( founding of Cales and the Samnites to that of Fregellae A Roman garrison was also despatched to Sora, a step of which the Samnites, to whom this district had been left bj the treaty, complained with reason, but in vain. Rome pursued her purpose with undeviating steadfastness, and displayed her energetic and far-reaching policy — more evei than on the battle-field — in the securing of the territory which she gained by enveloping it, politically and mili tarily, in a net whose meshes could not be broken. As a matter of course, the Samnites could not behold the threatening progress of the Romans witli the Sam- satisfaction, and they probably put obstacles ir its way ; nevertheless they neglected to inter' cept the new career of conquest, while there was still per- haps time to do so, with that energy which the circum- stances required. They appear indeed in accordance with their treaty with Rome to have occupied and strongly gar- risoned Teanum ; for while in earlier times that city sought help against Samnium from Capua and Rome, in the latei struggles it appears as the bulwark of the Samnite power on the west. They spread, conquering and destroying, on the upper Liris, but they neglected to establish themselves P'.rmanently in that quarter. They destroyed the VolsciaB town Fregellae — by which they simply facilitated the insti- tution of the Roman colony there which we have just men- tioned — and they so terrified two other Volscian towns, Fabrateria (Falvaterra) and Luca (site unknown), that these, following the example of Capua, surrendered them- ^^^ selves to the Romans (424). The Samnite con- federacy allowed the Roman conquest of Cam pania to be completed before they in earnest opposed it CHip. v.] And Gampanicms hy Rome. 463 and the reason for their doing so is to be sought partly in the contemporary hostilities between the Samnite nation and the Italian Hellenes,- but principally in the remiss and distracted policy which the confederacy pursued. CHAPTER VI. BTRUOGLE OF TBE ITALIANS AGAINST ROUK. While the Romans were fighting on the Liris and Vol -. , turnus, other conflicts agitated the south-east of twcen the the peninsula. The wealthy merchant-republic andTaren- of Tarentum, daily exposed to more serious peril from the Lucanian and Messapian bands and justly distrusting its own sword, gained by good words and better coin the help of condodieri from the mother- AicMda- country. The Spartan king, Archidamus, who mus. ^jjtii a, strong band had come to the assistance of his fellow-Dorians, succumbed to the Lucanians on the same day on which Philip conquered at Chaero- nea (416) ; a retribution, in the belief of the pious Greeks, for the share which nineteen years previously he and his people had taken in pillaging the sanctuary of Delphi. His place was taken by an abler commander. Alexander the Molossian, brother of Olympias theMoioa- the mother of Alexander the Great. In addi- ''""■ tion to the troops which he had brought along with him he united under his banner the contingents of the Greek cities, especially those of the Tarentines and Meta- pontines ; the Poediouli (around Rubi, now Ruvo), who like the Greeks found themselves in danger from the Siibel Han nation ; and lastly, even the Lucanian exiles them.' selTes, whose considerable numbers point to the existence of violent internal troubles in that confederacy. Thus he soon found himself superior to the enemy. Consentia (Co senza), which seems to have been the federal head-quarters of the Sabellians settled in Magna Graecia, fell into his hands. In vain the Samnites came to the help of the Luca Chap. TT.] Struggle of the Italians. 465 nians ; Alexander defeated their combined forces near Paes- tum. He subdued the Daunians around Sipontnm, and the Messapians in the south-eastern peninsula ; he already ocim- manded from sea to sea, and was on the point of arranging with the Romans a joint attack on the Samnites in their native abodes. But successes so unexpected went beyond Ihe desires of the Tarentine merchants, and filled them with alarm War broke out between them and their captain, who had come amongst them a hired mercenary and now appeared desirous to found an Hellenic empire in the west like his nephew in the east. Alexander had at first the ad- vantage ; he wrested Heraclea from the Tarentines, restored Thurii, and seems to have called upon the other Italian Greeks to unite under his protection against the Tarentines, while he at the same time tried to bring about a peace be- tween them and the Sabellian tribes. But his grand projects found only feeble support among the degenerate and de- sponding Greeks, and the forced change of sides alienated from him his former Lucanian adherents : he fell at Posido- nia by the hand of a Lucanian emigiant (422).* On his death matters substantially reverted to their old position. The Greek cities found themselves once more isolated and once more left to protect themselves as best they might by treaty or payment of tribute, or even by extraneous aid ; Croton for instance repulsed the Bruttii about 430 with the help of the Syracusans. The Samnite tribes acquired renewed ascend- ancy, and were able, without troubling themselves about the Greeks, once more to direct their thoughts towards Campa- nia and Latium. But there during the brief interval a prodigious change had occurred. The Latin confederacy was broken and shat • It may not be superfluous to mention that om knowledge of Ai- cWdamus and Alexander ia derived from Greek annals, and that the sytt ehronism between these and the Koman is in reference to the present epoch only approximately established. We must beware, therefore, o< pursuing too far into detail the unmlstakeable general connection b» tween the events in the west and those in the east of Italy. 20* iQQ Struggle of the Italiam LBook li tered, the last resistance of the Volsci was OYercome, tb province of Campania, the richest and finest in the penin Bula, was in the undisputed and well-secured possession oJ the Romans, and the second city of Italy was a dependency of Eome. While the Greeks and Samnites were contend iiig with each other, Rome had almost without a coiites' raised herself to a position of power which no single peo pie in the peninsula possessed the means of shaking, anc which threatened to render all of them subject to her yoke A joint exertion on the part of the peoples who were noi severally a match for Eome might perhaps still burst th< chains, ere they became fastened completely. But the clear ness of perception, the courage, the self-sacrifice required for such a coalition of numerous peoples and cities that hac hitherto been for the most part foes or at any rate strangers to each other, were not to be found at all, or were founc only when it was already too late. After the fall of the Etruscan power and the weakening Coalition of ^^ ^^^ Greek republics, the Samnite confederacj a''aii^''°^°° was beyond doubt, next to Rome, the most con Rome. siderable power in Italy, and at the same tim( that which was most closely and immediately endangerec by Roman encroachments. To its lot therefore fell th( foremost place and the heaviest burden in the struggle foi freedom and nationality which the Italians had to wag< against Rome, It might reckon upon the assistance of th( small Sabellian tribes, the Vestini, Frentani, Marrucini, anc other smaller cantons, who dwelt in rustic seclusion amidsi their mountains, but were not deaf to the appeal of a kin dred stock calling them to take up arms in defence of theii common possessions. The assistance of the Campaniai Greeks and those of Magna Graecia (especially the Taren tines), and of the powerful Lucanians and Bruttians woulc have been of greater importance ; but the negligence anc Bupineness of the demagogues ruling in Tarentum and lh( entanglement of that city in the affairs of Sicily, the inter nal distractions of the Lucanian confederacy, and above al the deep hostility that had subsisted for centuries betweei Ohap. VI.] Agavnat Rome. \&'\ the Greeks of Lower Italy and their Lucanian oppressors, scarcely permitted the hope that Tarentum and Lucania would make common cause with the Samnites. From the Marsi, who were the nearest neighbours of the Eomams and had long lived in peaceful relations with Eome, little more could be expected than lukewarm sympathy or neutrality. The Apulians, the ancient and bitter antagonists of the Sa- bellians, were the natural allies of the Romans. On the other hand it might l/e expected that the more remote Etruscans would join the league if a first success were gained ; and even a revolt in Latium and the land of the Volsci and Hernici was not impossible. But the Samnites — the Aetolians of Italy, in whom national vigour still lived unimpaired — had mainly to rely on their own ener- gies for such perseverance in the unequal struggle as would give the other peoples time for a generous sense of shame, for calm deliberation, and for the mustering of their forces ; a single success might then kindle the flames of war and in- surrection all around Rome. History cannot but do the noble people the justice of acknowledging that they under- stood and performed their duty. Differences had already for several years existed be- tween Rome and Samnium in consequence of Outbreak of . . . i . i , -r-, ■warbetween the contmual aggressions m which the Romans and Rome. Indulged on the Liris, and of which the founding of Fregellae in 426 was the most recent and most important. But it was the Greeks of Campania that gave occasion to the outbreak of the contest, of Campa- The twin cities of Palaeopolis and Neapolis, which seem to have been politically united ajid to have ruled over the Greek islands in the bay, were tfe* only communities not yet reduced to subjection within the Roman territory. The Tarentines and Samnites, informed of the scheme of the Romans to obtain possession of these towns, resolved to anticipate them ; and while the Taren- tines were too remiss perhaps rather than too distant for the execution of this plan, the Samnites actually threw a strong garrison into Palaeopolis. The Romans immediately de^ 468 Struggle of the Itahmis [Book B clared war nominally against the Palaeopolitans, reaJlj against the Samnites (427), and began the siegi of Palaeopolis. After it had lasted a while, thi Campanian Greeks became weary of the disturbance of theii commerce and of the foreign garrison ; and the Romans whose whole efforts were directed to keep states of the see ond and third rank by means of separate treaties aloof from the coalition which was about to be formed, hastened, as soon as the Greeks consented to negotiate, to offer them the most favourable terms — full equality of rights and exemp tion from land service, equal alliance and perpetual peace. Upon these conditions, after the Palaeopolitans had rid themselves of the garrison by stratagem, a treaty was concluded (428). The Sabellian towns to the south of the Volturnus, Nola, Nuceria, Herculaneum, and Pompeii, took part with Samnium in the beginning of the war ; but their greatly exposed situation and the machinations of the Eomans— who endeavoured to bring over to their side the optimate party in these towns by all the levers of artifice and self- interest, and found a powerful support to their endeavours in the precedent of Capua — induced these towns to declare themselves either in favour of Rome or neutral not long after the fall of Palaeopolis. A still more important success befel the Romans in Lu- AHiaEce be- ^ania. There also the people with true instinct RomMB^and ^^® '"^ favour of joining the Samnites ; but, as Luoanims. an alliance with the Samnites involved peace with Tarentum and a large portion of the governing lords of Lucania were not disposed to suspend their profitable pillaging expeditions, the Romans succeeded in concluding an alliance with Lucania — an alliance which was invaluable, because it provided employment for the Tarentines and thus left the whole power of Rome available against Samnium. Thus Samnium stood on all sides unsupported ; except- ing that some of the eastern mountain districts War in ° , . . - , _ , Bamnium, sent their contingents. In the year 428 the wai began within the Samnite land itself: som» •Jhap. vlj Agwmst Rome. 469 tovms on the Campanian frontier, Eufrae (between Ven* frum and Teanum) and Allifae, were occupied by the Ro- mans. In the following years the Roman armies penetrated Samnium, fighting and pillaging, as far as the territory of the Vestini, and even as far as Apulia, where they were r&. oeived with open arms ; everywhere they had very decided- ly the advantage. The courage of the Samnites was bro- ken ; they sent back the Roman prisoners, and along with them the dead body of the leader of the war party, Brutu- lus Papius, who had anticipated the Roman executioners, when the Samnite national assembly determined to ask the enemy for peace and to procure for themselves more toler- able terms by the surrender of their bravest general. But when the humble, almost suppliant, request was not listened to by the Roman people (432), the Samnites, mider their new general Gavius Pontius, pre- pared for the utmost and most desperate resistance. The Roman army, which under the two consuls of the following gjj year (433), Spurius Postumius and Titus Vetu- TheCaudine rjus Was encamped near Calatia (between Ca- Caudme serta and Maddaloni), received accounts, con- firmed by the affirmation of numerous captives, that the Samnites had closel;> invested Luceria, and that that important town, on which depended the possession of Apulia, was in great danger. They broke up in haste. If they wished to arrive in good time, no other route could ba taken than through the midst of the enemy's territory — • where afterwards, in continuation of the Appian Way, a Roman road was constructed from Capua by way of Bene- ventum to Apulia, This route led, between the present villages of Arpaja and Montesarchio,* through a watery meadow, which was wholly enclosed by high and steep * The general position of the place ia certain enough, for Oandiuin oertainly lay near Arpaja ; but it is more doubtful whether the valley be- tween Arpaja and Montesarchio is meant, or that between Arienzo and Arpaja, for the latter appears to have been since that time raised bj natural agencies at least one hundred palms. I follow the current hy« pothesis without undertaking to defend it. 470 Struggle of the Italians [Book n wrooded hills and was only accessible through Ueep defilea at the entrance and outlet. Here the Samnites had posted themselves in ambush. The Eomans, who had entered the valley unopposed, found its outlet obstructed by abattis and strongly occupied ; on marching back they saw that the en- trance was similarly closed, while at the same time the arests of the surrounding mountains were crowned by Sam- iiite cohorts. They perceived, when it was too late, that tjiey had suffered themselves to be misled by a stratagem, and that the Samnites awaited them, not at Luceria, but in the fatal pass of Caudium. They fought, but without hope of success and without definite aim ; the Roman army was totally unable to manoeuvre and was completely vanquished without a struggle. The Roman generals offered to capitu- late. It is only a foolish rhetoric that represents the Sam- nite general as shut up to the simple alternatives of dis- missing or of slaughtering the Roman army ; he could not have done better than accept the offered capitulation and make prisoners of the hostile army — the whole force which for the moment the Roman community could bring into action — with both its commanders-in-chief In that case the way to Campania and Latium would have stood open ; and in the then existing state of feeling, when the Volsci and Hernioi and the larger portion of the Latins would have received him with open arms, the political existence of Rome would have been in serious danger. But instead of taking this course and concluding a military convention, Gavius Pontius thought that he could at once teriuinatd the whole quarrel by an equitable peace ; whether it was that he shared that foolish longing of the confederates for peace, to which Brutulus Papius had fallen a victim in the previ- ous year, or whether it was that he was unable to prevent the party which was tired of the war from spoiling his un exampled victory. The terms laid down were moderate enough ; Rome was to raze the fortresses which she had constructed in defiance of the treaty — Cales and Fregellae — and to renew her equal alliance with Samnium. After the Roman generals ha agreed to these terms and had Chap. VI.] Agmnst Home. 471 given six hundred hostages chosen from the cavalry foi their faithful execution — besides pledging their own word and that of all their staff-officers on oath to the same effecJ — the. Eoman army was dismissed uninjured, but disgraced ; for the Samnite army, drunk with victory, could not resiit the desire to subject their hated enemies to the disgraceful formality of laying down their arms and passing under the yoke. But the Roman senate, regardless of the oath of their officers and of the fate of the hostages, cancelled the agree- ment, and contented themselves with surrendering to the enemy those who had concluded it as personally responsible for its fulfilment. Impartial history can attach little im- portance to the question whether in so doing the casuistry of Roman advocates and priests kept the letter of the law, or whether the decree of the Roman senate violated it ; under a human and political point of view no blame in this matter rests upon the Romans. It was a question of c07ti- parative indifference whether, according to the formal state law of the Romans, the general in command was or was not entitled to conclude peace without reserving its ratifica- tion by the burgesses. According to the spirit and practice of the constitution it was quite an established principle that every state-agreement, not purely military, in Rome per- tained to the province of the civil authorities, and a general who concluded peace without the instructions of the senate and the burgesses exceeded his powers. It was a greater error on the part of the Samnite general to give the Roman generals the choice between saving their army and exceed- ing their powers, than it was on the part of the latter that they had not the magnanimity absolutely to reject the sug- gestion ; and it was right and necessary that the Roman senate should reject such an agreement. A great nation does not surrender what it possesses except under the pre* sure of extreme necessity : all treaties making concessions are acknowledgments of such a necessity, not moral obliga- tions. If every people justly reckons it a point of honour to tear to pieces by force of arms treaties that are disgrace- 472 Struggle of the Italians [Book U ful, how could honour enjoin a patient adherence to a con- vention like the Caudine to which an unfortunate general ■was morally compelled, while the sting of the recent dis. grace was keenly felt and the vigour of the nation subsisted unimpaired 1 Thus the convention of Caudium did not produce the Victories of ^est which the enthusiasts for peace in Samnium the iiomans. jj^ij foolishly expected from it, but only led to war after war with exasperation aggravated on either side by the opportunity forfeited, by the breach of a solemn en- gagement, by military honour disgraced, and by comrades that had been abandoned. The Roman officers given up were not received by the Samnites, partly because they were too magnanimous to wreak their vengeance on those unfortunates, partly because they would thereby have ad- mitted the Roman plea that the agreement bound only those who swore to it, not the Roman state. Magnanimously they spared even the hostages whose lives had been forfeit- ed by the rules of war, and preferred to resort at once to arms. Luceria was occupied by them and Fregellae sur- prised and taken by assault (434) before the Romans had reorganized their broken army ; the junction of the Satricans with the Samnites shows what they might have accomplished, had they not allowed their advantage to slip through their hands. But Rome was only momentarily paralyzed, not weakened ; full of shame and indignation the Romans raised all the men and means they could, and placed the highly experienced Lucius Papiriua Cursor, equally distinguished as a soldier and as a general, at the head of the newly formed army. The army divided; the one half marched by Sabina and the Adriatic coast to appear before Luceria, the other proceeded to the same destination through Samnium itself, successfully engaging and driving before it the Samnite army. They formed a junction again under the walls of Luceria, the siege of which was prosecuted with the greater zeal, because the Roman equites lay in captivity there ; the Apulians, par- ticularly the A.rpani, lent the Romans important assistanct Chap. VI.] Against Rome. 473 in the siege, especially by procuring supplies. After the Samnites had given battle for the relief of the town and been defeated, Luceria surrendered to the Ro- mans (435). Papirius enjoyed the double satis- faction of liberating his comrades who had been given up for lost, and of retaliating the yoke of Caudium on the Samnite garrison of Luceria. In the next yeara (435-437) the war was carried on * not so much in Samnium itself as in the adjoining districts. In the first place the Romans chastised the allies of the Samnites in the Apulian and Frentanian territories, and concluded new con- ventions with the Teanenses of Apulia and the Canusini. At the same time Satricum was again reduced to subjection and severely punished for its revolt. Then the war turned to Campania, where the Romans conquered the frontier town towards Samnium, Saticula (perhaps S. Agata de' Goti) (438). But now the fortune of war seemed disposed once more to turn against jjg them. The Samnites gained over the Nucerians (438), and soon afterwards the Nolans, to their side ; on the upper Liris the Sorani of themselves expelled the Roman garrison (439) ; the Ausonians were preparing to rise, and threatened the important Cales ; even in Capua the party opposed to Rome was vig- orously stirring. A Samnite army advanced into Cam- pania and encamped before the city, in the hope that it3 presence might place the national party in the ascendant (440). But Sora was immediately attacked by the Romans and recaptured after the defeat of a '■'^ Samnite relieving force (440). The movements among the Ausonians were suppressed with cruel rigijur ere the insurrection fairly broke out, and at the same time a special dictator was nominated to institute and decide political processes against the leaders of the Samnite party In Capua, so that the most illustrious af them died a volun- * '^^^^ * formal armistice for two years subsisted betwee» Borne and Samnium in 436-437 is more than improbable. 474 Struggle of the Italians [Book a tary death to escape from the Eoman execu tioner (440). The Samnite army before Capua was defeated and compelled to retreat from Campania ; the Romans, following close at the heels of the enemy, crossed the Matese and encamped in the winter of 44C before Bovianum, the capital of Samnium. Nola was thus abandoned by its allies ; and the Romans had the sagacity to detach the town for ever from the Samnite party by a very favourable convention, similar to that concluded with Neapolis (441). Fregellae, which after the catastrophe of Caudium had fallen into the hands of the party adverse to Rome and had been their chief stronghold in the district on the Liris, finally fell in the eighth year after its occupation by the Samnites (441) ; two hundred of the citizens, the chiefs of the national party, were conveyed to Rome, and there openly beheaded in the Forum as an example and a warn- ing to the patriots who were everywhere bestirring them- selves. Apulia and Campania were thus in the hands of the N wfor- Romans. In order finally to secure and perma- tresses in nentlv to command the conquered territorv. Apulia and t /. Campania. several new fortresses were founded in it during 814-312. the years 440-442 : Luceria in Apulia, to which on account of its isolated and exposed situation half a legion was sent as a permanent garrison ; Pontiae (the Ponza islands) for the securing of the Campanian waters ; Saticula on the Campano-Sanmite frontier, as a bulwark against Samnium ; and lastly Interamna (near Monte Cassino) and Suessa Aurunca (Sessa) on the road from Rome to Capua. Garrisons moreover were sent to Calatia, Sera, and other stations of military importance. The great military road from Rome to Capua, which with the necessary embankment for it across the Pomptine marshes the censor Appius Claudius caused to be construct- ed in 442, completed the securing of Campania. The designs of the Romans were more and more fully developed, their object was the subjugation of Italy Chap, VI.] Against Borne. 47S whicfi was enveloped more closely from year to year in a network of Roman fortresses and roads. The Siirenitea were already on both sides surrounded by the Roman meshes ; already the line from Rome to Luceria severed north and south Italy from each other, as the fortresses of Cora and Norba had formerly severed the Volsci and Aequi ; and Rome now rested 'on the Arpani, as it formerly rested on the Hernici. The Italians could not but see that the freedom of all of them was gone if Samnium suc- cumbed, and that it was high time at length to hasten with all their might to the support of the brave mountain people which had now for fifteen years singly sustained the unequal struggle with the Romans. The most natural allies of the Samnites would have been the Tarentines ; but it was part of that tion of the fatality that hung over Samnium and over Italy in general, that at this moment so fraught with the destinies of the future the decision lay in the hands of these Athenians of Italy. Since the constitution of Taren- tum, which was originally after the old Doric fashion strict- ly aristocratic, had become changed to a complete democ- racy, a life of singular activity had sprung up in that city, which was inhabited chiefly by mariners, fishermen, and artisans. The sentiments and conduct of the population, more wealthy than noble, discarded all earnestness amidst the giddy bustle and brilliance of their daily life, and oscil- lated between the grandest boldness of enterprise and ele- vation of spirit on the one hand, and a shameful frivolity and childish whim on the other. It may not be out of place, in connection with a crisis wherein the existence oi destruction of nations of noble gifts and ancient renown was at stake, to mention that Plato, who came to Tarentum some sixty years before this time, according to his own statement saw the whole city drunk at the Dionysia, and that the burlesque farce, or " merry tragedy " as it was called, was created in Tarentum about the very time of the great Samnite war. This licentious life and buffoon poetry of the Tarentine fashionables and i76 Struggle of the Italicma [Book n, literati had a fitting counterpart in the inconstant, arrogant, and short-sighted policy of the Tarentine demagogues, vrh4 regularly meddled in matters with which they had nothing to do, and kept aloof where their immediate interests called for action. After the Caudine catastrophe, when the R(> mans and Samnites stood opposed in Apulia, they had sent envoys thither to enjoin both parties to lay down their arms (434). This diplomatic intervention in the de- cisive struggle of the Italians could not ration- ally have any other meaning than that of an announcement that Tarentum had at length resolved to abandon the neu- trality which it had hitherto maintained. It had in fact sufficient reason to do so. It was no doubt a difficult and dangerous thing for Tarentum to be entangled in such a war ; for the democratic development of the state had di- rected its energies entirely to the fleet, and while that fleet, resting upon the strong commercial marine of Tarentum, held the first rank among the maritime powers of Magna Graecia, the land force, on which they were in the present case dependent, consisted mainly of hired soldiers and was sadly disorganized. Under these circumstances it was no light undertaking for the Tarentine republic to take part ir the conflict between Rome and Samnium, even apart from the — at least troublesome — feud in which Eoman policy had contrived to involve them with the Lucanians. But these obstacles might be surmounted by an energetic will ; and both the contending parties construed the summons of the Tarentine envoys that they should desist from the strife as meant in earnest. The Samnites, as the weaker, showed themselves ready to comply with it ; the Romans replieiJ by hoisting the signal for battle. Reason and honour dio« tated to the Tarentines the propriety of now following up the haughty injunction of their envoys by a declartitioL of war against Rome ; but in Tarentum neither reason nor honour characterized the government, and they had sJmply Deen trifling in a very childish fashion with very serioua matters. No declaration of war against Rome took place ; in its stead they preferred to support the oligarchical party Chaj. VI.] Against Home. 471 in tlie Sicilian towns against Agathocles of Syracuse who had at a former period been in the Tarentine service and had been dismissed in disgrace, and following the example of Sparta, they sent a fleet to the island — a fleet which would have rendered better service in the Can- 814 panian seas (440). The peoples of northern and central Italy, who seem to . . ^ have been roused especially by the establishment AccesBion of r j j theEtrus- 01 the fortress of Luceria, acted with more coaution. energy. The Etruscans first drew the sword 811. S61. (443), the armistice of 408 having already ex- pired some years before. The Eoman frontier- fortress of Sutrium had to sustain a two years' siege, and in the hot conflicts which took place under its walls the Romans as a rule were worsted, till the consul of the year 444 Quintus Fabius Rullianus, a leader who had 310. . ^ . . , o ■ gained experience ui the oamnite wars, not only restored the ascendancy of the Roman arms in Roman £truria, but boldly penetrated into the land of the Etrus- cans proper, which had hitherto from diversity of language and scanty means of communication remained almost un- known to the Romans. His march through the Clminian forest which no Roman army had yet traversed, and his pillaging of a rich region that had long been spared the hor- rors of war, raised all Etruria in arms. The Roman gov- ernment, which had ser.ously disapproved the rash expedi- tion and had when too late forbidden the daring leader from crossing the frontier, collected in the greatest haste new legions, in order to meet the expected onslaught of the Victory at whole Etruscan power. But a seasonable and the yadi- decisive victory of Rullianus, the battle at the lake. Vadimonian lake which long lived in the mem- ory of the people, converted an imprudent enterprise into a celebrated feat of heroism and broke the resistance of tht Etruscans. Unlike the Samnites who had now for eighteen years maintained the unequal struggle, three of the most powerful Etruscan towns — Perusia, Cortona, and Arretium •—consented after the first defeat to a separate peace foi 478 Struggle of the Italicms [Book n three hundred months (444), and after the Eo mans had once more beaten the other Etruscans near Pei usia in the following year, the Tarquinienses alio agreed to a peace of four hundred months (446) ; whereupon the other cities desisted from the contest, and a temporary cessation of arms took place throughout Etruria. While these events were passing, the war had not been 3y_ suspended in Samnium. The campaign of 443 p^ensln' ^^® confined like the preceding to the besieging Samnium. and Storming of several strongholds of the Sam- nites ; but in the next year the war took a more vigorous turn. The dangerous position of Eullianus in Etruria, and the reports vs^hich spread as to the annihilation of the Roman army in the north, encouraged the Samnites to new exer- tions ; the Roman consul Gaius Marcius Rutilus was van- quished by them and severely wounded in person. But the sudden change in the aspect of matters in Etruria destroyed their newly kindled hopes. Lucius Papirius Cursor again appeared at the head of the Roman troops sent against the Samnites, and again remained the victor in a great and de- cisive battle (445), in which the confederates had put forth their last energies. The flower of their army — the wearers of the striped tunics and golden shields, and the wearers of the white tunics and silver shields — were there extirpated, and their splendid equip- ments thenceforth on festal occasions decorated the rows of shops along the Roman Forum. Their distress was ever increasing ; the struggle was becoming ever more hopeless. In the following year (446) the Etruscans laid down their arms ; and in the same year the last town of Campania which still adhered to the Samnites, Nuceria, simultaneously assailed on the part of the Romans by water and by land, surrendered under favourable condi- tions. The Samnites found new allies in the, Umbrians of northern, and in the Marsi and Paeligni of central, Itaily, and numerous volunteers from the Ilernici joined their ranks , but movements which might have decidedly turned the seal* Chap, vij Against Rome. 479 against Rome, had the Etruscans still remained under arms, now simply augmented the results of the Eoman victory ■without seriously adding to its difficulties. The Umbrians, who threatened to march on Rome, were intercepted by Rullianus with the army of Samnium on the upper Tiber— a step which the enfeebled Samnites were unable to pre» vent; and this sufficed to disperse the Umbrian levies. The war once more returned to central Italy. The Paeligni were conquered, as were also the Marsi ; and, though the other Sabellian tribes remained nominally foes of Rome, in this quarter Samnium gradually came to stand practically alone. But unexpected assistance came to them from the district of the Tiber. The confederacy of the Hernici, called by the Romans to account for their countrymen dis- covered among the Samnite captives, now declared war against Rome (in 448) — more doubtless from despair than from calculation. Some of the more considerable of the Hernican communities from the first kept aloof from hostilities ; but Anagnia, by far the most eminent of the Hernican cities, carried out this decla- ration of war. In a military point of view the position of the Romans was undoubtedly rendered for the moment highly critical by this unexpected rising in the rear of the army occupied with the siege of the strongholds of Sam- nium. Once more the fortune of war favoured the Sam- nites ; Sora and Calatia fell into their hands. But the Anagnines succumbed with unexpected rapidity before troops despatched from Rome, and these troops also gave seasonable relief to the army stationed in Samnium : all was once more lost. The Samnites sued for peace, but in vain ; they could not yet come to terms. The final decision was reserved for the campaign of 449. Two Roman consular armies penetrated — the one, under Tiberius Minucius and after his fall under Marcus Fulvius, from Campania through the mountain passes, the other, under Lucius Postumius, from the Adriatic upwards fay Biferno — into Samnium, there to unite in front of Bovi« anum the capital ; a decisive victory was achieved, the Sam« 480 Struggle of the Italians [Book VL nite general Statius Gellius was taken prisoner, and Bo vianum was carried by storm. The fall of the chief strong- hold of the land terminated the twenty-two years' war. Peace with The Samnites withdrew their garrisons from Bamnium, Sora and Arpinum, and sent envoys to Eome tc Bue for peace ; the Sabellian tribes, the Marsi, Marrueini Paeligni, Frentani, Vestini, and Picentes followed their ex- ample. The terms granted by Rome were tolerable ; ces- sions of territory were required from some of them, from the Paeligni for instance, but they do not seem to have been of much importance. The equal alliance was renewed be- tween the Sabellian tribes and the Romans (450). Probably about the same time, and in consequence end -with doubtless of the Samnite peace, peace was also Tarentum. jjj^de between Rome and Tarentum. The two cities had not indeed directly opposed each other in the field. The Tarentines had been inactive, spectators of the long contest between Rome and Samnium from its begin- ning to its close, and had only kept up hostilities in league with the Sallentines against the Lucanians who were allies of Rome. In the last years of the Samnite war no doubt they had shown some signs of more energetic action. The position of embarrassment to which the ceaseless attacks of the Lucanians reduced them on the one hand, and on the other hand the feeling ever obtruding itself on them more urgently that the complete subjugation of Samnium would endanger their own independence, induced them, notwith- standing their unsatisfactory experience under Alexander, once more to entrust themselves to a condottiere. There came at their call the Spartan prince Cleonymus, accompa- nied by five thousand mercenaries ; with whom he united a band equally numerous raised in Italy, as well as the con- tingents of the Messapians and of the smaller Greek towns, and above all the Tarentine civic army of twenty-two thoU' sand men. At the head of this considerable force he com- pelled the Lucanians to make peace with Tarentum and to install a government of Samnite tendencies ; in return for OHAPi VI.] Agamst Borne. 481 which Metapontum was abandoned tc them. The Samnites were still in arms when this occurred ; there was nothing to prevent the Spartan from coming to their aid and casting the weight of his numerous army and his military sliill into the scale in favour of freedom for the cities and peoples of Italy, But Tarentum did not act as Eome would in similar circumstances have acted ; and prince Cleonymus himself was far from being an Alexander or a Pyrrhus. He was in no hurry to undertake a war in which he might expect more blows than booty, but preferred to make common cause with the Lucanians against Metapontum, and made himself comfortable in that city, while he talked of an expedition against Agathocles of Syracuse and of liberating the Sicilian Greeks. Thereupon the Samnites made peace ; and when after its conclusion Rome began to concern herself more seriously about the south-east of the peninsula — in token of which in the year 447 a Roman force levied 307. ■' contributions, or rather reconnoitred by order of the government, in the territory of the Sallentines — the Spartan condottiere embarked with his mercenaries and sur- prised the island of Corcyra, which was admirably situated as a basis for piratical expeditions against Greece and Italy. Thus abandoned by their general, and at the same time de- prived of their allies in central Italy, the Tarentines and their Italian allies, the Lucanians and Sallentines, had now no course left but to solicit an accommodation with Rome, which appears to have been granted on moderate terms. Soon afterwards (451) even an incursion of 303. Cleonymus, who had landed in the Sallentine territory and laid siege to Uria, was repulsed by the inhabi- tants with Roman aid. The victory of Rome was complete ; and she turned it to full account. It was not from magnanimity tion of the in the conquerors — for the Romans knew noth- in'Mntrai" ing of the sort — but from wise and far-seeing ^^^^- calculation that terms so moderate were granted to the Samnites, the Tarentines, and the more distant peo- ples generally. The first and main object was not so much 482 Struggle of the Italians [Boo» a to compel southern Italy at once formally to recognize tha Roman supremacy, as to supplement and complete the sub- jugation of central Italy, for which the way had been pre- pared by the military roads and fortresses already estab- lished in Campania and Apulia during the last war, and by that means to separate the northern and southern Italians into two masses cut off in a military point of view from direct contact with each other. To this object accordingly the next undertakings of the Eomans were with consistent energy directed. Above all they embraced the welcome opportunity of dissolving the Hernican league, and thereby annihilating the last remnant of the old confederacies that competed with the isolated Eoman power in the district of the Tiber. The fate of Anagnia and the other small Herni- can communities which had taken part in the last stage of the Samnite war was, as might be expected, far harder than that which had under similar circumstances been meted out to the Latin communities in the previous generation. They all lost their, autonomy and had to rest content with the citizenship without suffrage of Rome ; out of a portion of their territory on the upper Trerus (Sacco), moreover, a new tribe was instituted, and another was formed at the same time on the lower Anio (455). The only regret was that the three Hernican communities next in importance to Anagnia, Aletrium, Verulae, and Ferentinum, had not also revolted ; for, as they courteously declined the suggestion that they should voluntarily enter into the bond of Roman citizenship and there existed no pretext for compelling them to do so, the Romans were obliged not only to respect their autonomy, but also to allow to them even the right of assembly and of intermar- riage, and in this way still to leave a shadow of the old Hernican confederacy. No such considerations fettered their action in that portion of the Volscian country which had hitherto been held by the Samnites. There Arpinum became subject, Frusino was deprived of a third of its do- main, and on the upper Liris in addition to Fregellae tha Volscian town of Sora, which had previously been garri- Chap. VI.] Agamst Rome 483 soiled, was now permanently converted into a Roman for tress and occupied by a legion of 4,000 men. In this way the old Volscian territory was completely subdued, and be came rapidly Romanized. The region which separated Samnium from Etruria was penetrated by two military roads, both of which were secured by new fortresses. The northern road, which afterwards became the Plaminian, covered the line of the Tiber ; it led through Ocriculum, which was in alliance with Rome, to Namia, the name which the Romans gave to the old Umbrian fortress Nequi- ^g num when they settled a military colony there (455). The southern, afterwards the Valerian, ran along the Fucine lake by way of Carsioli and Alba, both of which places likewise received colonies (451^53) ; Alba in particular, important as the key of the Marsian land, received a garrison of 6,000 men. The small tribes within whose boimds these colonies were instituted, tlie Umbrians who obstinately defended Nequinum, the Aequians who assailed Alba, and the Mar- sians who attacked Carsioli, could not arrest the course of Rome : the two strong curb-fortresses were inserted almost without hindrance between Samnium and Etruria. We have already mentioned the great roads and fortresses insti- tuted for permanently securing Apulia and above all Cam- pania : by their means Samnium was further surrounded on the east and west with the net of Roman strongholds. It is a significant token of the comparative weakness of Etruria that it was not deemed necessary to secure the defiles of the Ciminian forest in a similar mode — by a highway and corre spouding fortresses. The former frontier fortress of Su- trium continued to be in this quarter the terminus of the Roman military line, and the Romans contented themselves with having the road leading thence to Arretium kept in a serviceable state for military purposes by the communities through whose territories it passed.* * The operations in the campaign of 637, and still more plainly the formation of the highway from Arretium to Bononia in 667^ show that the road from Rome to Arretium had already been rendered serviceablj 484 Struggle of the Italians [Book. U The high-spirited Samnite nation perceived that such a peace was more ruinous than the most destructive ouSttSk of war ; and, what was more, it acted accordingly EteS'^*^ The Celts in northern Italy were just beginning '''"'■ to bestir themselves again after a long suspen- sion of warfare ; moreover several Etruscan communities there were still in arms aga.nst the Romans, and brief armistices alternated in that quarter with furious but inde- cisive conflicts. All central Italy was still in ferment anr" partly in open insurrection ; the fortresses were still onlj in course of construction ; the way between Etruria and Samnium was not yet completely closed. Perhaps it was not yet too late to save freedom ; but, if so, there must be no delay ; the difficulty of attack increased, the power of the assailants diminished with every year by which the peace was prolonged. Five years had scarce elapsed since the contest ended, and all the wounds must still have been bleeding which the twenty-two years' war had inflicted on the rural communes of Samnium, when in the 298. year 456 the Samnite confederacy renewed the struggle. The last war had been decided in favour of Rome mainly through the alliance of Lucania with the Romans and the consequent standing aloof of Tarentum. The Sam- nites, profiting by that lesson, now threw themselves in the first instance with all their might on the Lucanians, and suc- ceeded in bringing their party in that quarter to the helm of affairs, and in concluding an alliance between Samnium and Lucania. Of course the Romans immediately declared war ; the Samnites had expected no other issue. It is a significant indication of the state of feeling, that the Sam- nite government informed the Roman envoys that it was feefore that time. But it cannot at that period have been a Eoinan mil- 2j. itary road, because, judging from its later appellation of the " Cassiau way," it cannot have been constructed as a ma tomulara earlier than 683 ; no Caasian appears in the Roman consular 187. 171. Fasti between Spurius Cassius, consul in 252, 261, and 268 502i 493 ^g ■ — who of course is out of the question— and Gaius Cassiul 171.' Longinus, consul in 583, Chap, ti.] Against Emne. 488 not able to guarantee their inviolability, if they should set •bot on Samnite ground. The war thus began anew (456), and while a second army was fighting in Etruria, the main Roman army traversed Samnium and compelled the Lucanians to make peace and send hostages to Eome. The follawing year both consuls were able to proceed to Sam» nium ; RuUianus conquered at Tifernum, his faithful com* rade in arras, Publius Decius Mus, at Maleventum, and for five months two Roman armies encamped in the land of the enemy. They were enabled to do so, because the Tuscan states had on their own behalf entered into negotiations foi peace with Rome. The Samnites, who from the beginning could not but see that their only chance of victory lay in the combination of all Italy against Rome, exerted them- selves to the utmost to prevent the threatened separate peace between Etruria and Rome ; and when at last their general, Gellius Egnatius, offered to render aid to the Etrus- cans in their own country, the Etruscan federal council in reality agreed to hold out and once more to appeal to the decision of arms. Samnium made the most the troops energetic efforts to place three armies simulta- ttonfai"' " neously in the field, the first destined for the Etrana. defence of its own territory, the second for an invasion of Campania, the third and most numerous for Etruria; and in the year 458 the last, led by Egnatius himself actually reached Etruria in safety through the Marsian and Umbrian territories, with whose inhabitants there was an understanding. Meanwhile the Romans were capturing some strong places in Samnium and breaking the influence of the Samnite party in Lucania ; they were not aware in time to prevent the departure of the army led by Egnatius. When information reached Rome that the Samnites had succeeded in frustrating all the enoi^ mous efforts made to sever the northern from the southern Italians, that the arrival of the Samnite bands in Etruria had become the signal of an almost universal rising against Rome, and that the Etruscan communities were labouring 486 Struggle of the Italians [Boor ii. with the utmost zeal to get their own forces readj for War and to take into their pay Gallic bands ; every nerve was etrained also in Rome ; the freedmen and the married wera formed into cohorts — it was felt on all hands that the deci- jgg sive crisis was near. The year 458 however passed away, apparently, in armings and march- ings. For the following year (459) the Romans placed their two best generals, Publius Decius Mus and the aged Quintus Fabius Rullianus, at the head of their army in Etruria, which was reinforced with all the troops that could bo spared from Campania, and amounted to at least 60,000 men, of whom more than a third were full burgesses of Rome. Besides this, two reserves were formed, the first at Falerii, the second under the walls of the capital. The rendezvous of the Italians was Umbria, towards which the roads from the Gallic, Etruscan, and Sabellian territories converged ; towards Umbria the consuls also moved off their main force, partly along the left, partly along the right bank of the Tiber, while at the same time the first reserve rnade a movement towards Etruria, in order if pos- sible to recall the Etruscan troops from the main scene of action for the defence of their homes. The first engage- ment did not prove fortunate for the Romans ; their ad- vanced guard was defeated by the combined Gauls and Samnites in the district of Chiusi. But the diversion ac- complished its object. Less magnanimous than the Sam- nites, who had marched through the ruins of their towns that they might not be absent from the chosen field of baf^ tie, a great part of the Etruscan contingents withdrew from the federal army on the news of the advance of the Roman reserve into Etruria, and its ranks were greatly thinned when the decisive battle came to be fought on the eastern declivity of the Apennines near Sentinum. Nevertheless it was a hotly contested day. On the Battle of right wing of the Romans, where Rullianus with Sentinum. j^jg (.^^ legions fought against the Samnite army, the conflict remained long undecided. On the lefl, ■which Publius Decius commanded, the Roman cavalry was throws Cbup. VI.] Against Rome. iSI into confusion bj the Gallic war chariots, and the legioiia also already began to give way. Then the consul called to him Marcus Livius the priest, and bade him devote to the infernal gods both the head of the Roman general and the army of the enemy ; and plunging into the thickest throng »f the Gauls he sought death and found it. This heroic deed of despair in so distinguished a man and so beloved a general was not in vain. The fugitive soldiers rallied ; the bravest threw themselves after their leader into the hostile ranks, to avenge him or to die with hirrl ; and just at the right moment the consular Lucius Scipio, despatched by Rullianus, appeared with the Roman reserve on the im- perilled left wing. The admirable Campanian cavalry, which fell on the flank and rear of the Gauls, turned the scale ; the Gauls fled, and at length the Samnites also gave way, their general Egnatius falling at the gate of the camp. Nine thousand Romans strewed the field of battle ; but dearly as the victory was purchased, it was worthy of such a sacrifice. The army of the coalition was dissolved, and with it the coalition itself; Umbria remained in the power of the Romans, the Gauls dispersed, the remnant of the Samnites still in compact order retreated homeward through the Abruzzi. Campania, which the Samnites had overrun during the Etruscan war, was after its close re-occupied with little difficulty by the Romans. Etruria sued for peace in the following year (460) ; Volsinii, Perusia, Arretium, and in. general all the towns that had joined the league against Rome, promised a cessa- tion of hostilities for four hundred months. But the Samnites were of a different mind ; they pre- pared for their hopeless resistance with the giesofSam- courage of free men, which shames fate if it may not overrule it. When the two consular 254. armies advanced into Samnium, in the year 460, they encountered everywhere the most desperate resistance ; in fact Marcus Atilius was discomfited near Luceria, and the Samnites were able to penetrate into Cam- pania and to lay waste the territory of the Roman coloni? 488 Struggle of the ItaUcms [Book n. /nteramna on the Liris. In the ensuing year Lucius Pa pirius Cursor, the son of the hero of the first Samnite war, and Spurius Carvilius, gave battle on a great scale neai Aquilonia to the Samnite army, the flower of which — the 16,000 in white tunics — had sworn a sacred oath to prefer death to flight. Inexorable destiny, however, heeds neithei the oaths nor the supplications of despair ; the Romans con- quered and stormed the strongholds where the Samuites had sought refuge for themselves and their property. Eveu after this great defeat the confederates still for years resist- ed the ever-increasing superiority of the enemy with un- paralleled perseverance in their fastnesses and mountains, and still achieved various isolated advantages. The ex- perienced arm of the old Rullianus was once more called into the field against them (462), and Gavius Pontius, a son perhaps of the victor of Cau- dium, even gained for his nation a last victory, which the Romans meanly enough avenged by causing him when sub- jgj sequently taken to be executed in prison (463). But there was no further symptom of move- ment in Italy ; for the war, which Falerii began ^^' in 461, scarcely deserves such a name. ISie Samnites doubtless turned with longing eyes towards Taren- tum, which alone was still in a position to grant them aid ; but it held aloof. The same causes as before occasioned its inaction — internal misgovernment, and the passing over of the Lucanians once more to the Roman party in the year 456 ; to which fell to be added a not unfounded apprehension of Agathocles of Syracuse, who just at that time had reached the height of his power and began to turn his views towards Italy. Aoout 455 the latter established himself in Corcyra whence Cleonymus had been expelled by Demetrius Poli- orcetes, and now threatened the Tarentines from the Adriatic 8S well as from the Ionian sea. The cession of the island to king Pyrrhus of Epirus in 459 certainly re- moved to a great extent the apprehensions which they had cherished ; but the aflPairs of Corcyra COU' Chap. VI-l Against Eom$. 489 tinued to occupy the Tareiitities — in the year 464, for instance, they helped to protect Pyr« rhus in possession of the island against Peinetrius^-^and in 'ike manner Agathocles did not cease to give the Tarentinea uneasiness by his Italian policy. When he died (466) and with him tJic power of the Syracusans hi Italy went to wreck, it was too late ; Sanfinium, weary of the thirty-seven years' war, had concluded peace in the previous year (464) with the Roman consul Manius Curius Dentatus, and had in form re- newed its league with Rome. On this occasion, as in the peace of 450, no disgraceful or destructive con- ditions were imposed on the brave people by the Romans ; no cessions even of territory seem to have taken place. The political sagacity of Rome preferred to follow the path which it had hitherto pursued, and to attach in the first place the Campanian and Adriatic coast more and more securely to Rome before proceeding to the direct conquest of the interior. Campania, indeed, had been long in subjection ; but the far-seeing policy of Rome found it needful, in order to secure the Campanian coast, to establish two coast-fortresses there, Minturnae and Sinu- 295> essa (459), the new burgesses of which were admitted according to the settled rule in the case of mari- time colonies to the full citizenship of Rome. With still greater energy the extension of the Roman rule was prose- cuted in central Italy. There the whole of the Sabines after a brief and feeble resistance were forced to become subjects of Rome (464), and the strong fortress of Hatria was established in the Abruzzi, not far 889, from the coast (465). But the most important 291. colony of all was that of Venusia (463), whither the unprecedented number of 20,000 colonists was conducted. That city, founded at the boundary of Samnium, Apulia, and Lucania, on the great road between Tar.entum and Samnium,' in an uncommonly strong posi- tion, was destined as a curb to keep in check the surround- ing tribes, and above all to interrupt the communications 21* 490 Struggle of the Italians. [Book U between the two most powerful enemies of Eomo in south, ern Italy. Beyond doubt at the same time the southern highway, which Appius Claudius had carried to Capua, was prolonged thence to Venusia. Thus the compact Roman domain at the close of the Samnite wars extended on the north 1:0 the Ciminian forest, on the east to the Abruzzi, on the south to Capua, while the two advanced posts, Luceria and Venusia, established towards the east and south on the lines of communication of their opponents, isolated them on every side. Rome was no longer merely the first, but was already the ruling power in the peninsula, when toward." the end of the fifth century of the city those nations, which had been raised to supremacy in their respective lands by the favour of the gods and by their own capacity, began to come into contact in council and on the battle-field ; and, as at Olympia the preliminary victors girt themselves for a second and more serious struggle, so en the larger arena of the nations, Carthage, Macedonia, and Rome now prepared for the final and decisive contest. CHAPTER VII, BTRiraaLE between pybehus and bome, and uihoh o» ITALY. Afteb Eome had acquired the undisputed mastery of Relations the world, the Greeks were wont to annoy their easrind*''^ Roman masters by the assertion that Rome was west indebted for her greatness to the fever of which Alexander of Macedon died at Babylon on the 11th of June, 431. As it was not very agreeable for them to reflect on the actual past, they were fond of allowing their thoughts to dwell on what might have happened, had the great king turned his arms — as was said to have been his intention at the time of his death — towards the west and contested the Carthaginian supremacy by sea with his fleet, and the Roman supremacy by land with his phalanxes. It is not impossible that Alexander may have cherished such thoughts ; nor is it necessary to resort for an explanation of their origin to the mere diffi- culty which an autocrat, who is fond of war and is well pro- vided with soldiers and ships, experiences in setting limits to his warlike career. It was an enterprise worthy of a great Greek king to protect the Siceliots against Carthage and the Tarentines against Eome, and to put an end to piracy on either sea ; and the Italian embassies from the Bruttians, Lucanians, and Etruscans,* that along with nu> * The story that the Eomans also sent enroys to Alexander at Baby- lon rests on the testimony of Clitarchus (Plin. Bist. Nat. iii. 6, 67), from whom the other authorities who mention the fact (Aristus and Asclepia- des, ap. Arrian, vii. 16, 6 ; Memnon, c. 25), doubtless derived it. Clitar- chus certainly was contemporary with these events ; nevertheless, his Life of Alexander was decidedly a historical romance rather than a history , 4:92 Struggle 'between Pyrrhus [Booe H merous others made their appearance at Babylon, afforded him sufficient opportunities of becoming acquainted with the circumstances of the peninsula and of entering into re- lations with it. Carthage with its many connections in tha east could not but attract the attention of the mighty mon- arch, and it was probably one of his designs to convert the nominal sovereignty of the Persian king over the Tyrian colony into a real one : the apprehensions of the Carthagin- ians are shown by the Phoenician spy in the retinue of Alexander. Whether, however, these ideas were dreams or actual projects, the king died without having interfered m the affairs of the west, and his ideas were buried with him. For a few brief years a Greek ruler had held in his hand the whole intellectual vigour of the Hellenic race combined with the whole material resources of the east. On his death the work to which his life had been devoted — the establishment of Hellenism in the east — was by no means undone ; but his empire had barely been united when it was again dismembered, and, amidst the constant quar- rels of the different states that were formed out of its ruins, the object of world-wide interest which they were destined to promote — the diffusion of Greek culture in the east^ though not abandoned, was prosecuted on a feeble and stunted scale. Under such circumstances, neither the Greek nor the Asiatico-Egyptian states could think of acquiring a footing in the west or of turning their efforts against the Eomans or the Carthaginians. The eastern and western state-systems subsisted side by side for a time without crossing, politically, each other's path ; and Rome in par- ticular remained substantially aloof from the quarrels of Alexander's successors. The only relations established with them were of a mercantile kind ; as in the instance of and, looking to the silence of the trustworthy biographers (Arrian, I. e.; Lit, ix. 18) and the utterly romantic details of the account — ^which re- presents the Romans, for instance, as delivering to Alexander a chaplet of gold, and the latter as prophesying the future greatness of Kome- - we cannot but set down the story as one of the many embellishmenti which Clitarchus introduced into the history. Chap, vh.] And Rome. J:98 the free state of Rhodes, the leading representative of the policy of commercial neutrality in Greece and in conse^ quence the universal medium of intercourse in an age of perpetual wars, which about 448 concluded a treaty with Rome — a commercial convention of course, such as was natural between a mercantile people iud the masters of the Caerite and Campanian coasts. Eren in the supply of mercenaries from Hellas, the univer* sal recruiting field of those times, to Italy, and to Taren- tum in particular, political relations — such as subsisted, for instance, between Tarentum and Sparta its mother-city — ex- ercised but a very subordinate influence. In general the raising of mercenaries was simply a matter of traffic, and Sparta, although it regularly supplied the Tarentines with captains for their Italian wars, was by that course as little involved in hostilities with the Italians, as in the North American war of independence the German states were in- volved in hostilities with the Union, to whose opponents they sold the services of their subjects. Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, was himself simply a military adventurer. He was none the less a soldier of oai position fortune that he traced back his pedigree to i>iT ns. ^gagyg and Achilles, and that, had he been more peacefully disposed, he might have lived and died as the " king " of a small mountain tribe under the supremacy of Macedon or perhaps in isolated independence. He has been compared to Alexander of Macedon ; and certainly the idea of founding an Hellenic empire of the west — which would have been based on Epirus, Magna Graecia, and Sicily, would have commanded both the Italian seas, and would have reduced Rome and Carthage to the rank of bar- barian peoples bordering on the Hellenistic state-system, like the Celts and the Indians — ^was analogous in greatness and boldness to the idea which led the Macedonian king over the Hellespont. But it was not the mere difierence of issue that formed the distinction between the expedition to the east and that to the west. Alexander with his Mace- donian army, in which the staff especially was excellent, 4:94: Struggle hetwe&ii Pyrrhus [Book d. could fully make head against the great king ; but the king of Epirus, which tore somewhat the same proportion to Macedon as Hesse lately bore to Prussia, could only raise an army worthy of the name by means of mercenaries and of alliances based on accidental political combinations, Alexander made his appearance in the Persian empire as a oonqueror ; Pyrrhus appeared in Italy as the general of a coalition of secondary states. Alexander left his heredi- tary dominions completely secured by the unconditional subjection of Greece, and by the strong army that re- mained behind under Antipater ; Pyrrhus had no security for the integrity of his native dominions but the word of a doubtful neighbour. In the case of both conquerors, if their plans should be crowned with success, their native country would necessarily cease to be the centre of their new empire ; but it was far more practicable to transfer the seat of the Macedonian military monarchy to Babylon than to found a soldier-dynasty in Tarentum or Syracuse. The democracy of the Greek republics — perpetual agony though it was — could not be at all coerced into the stiff forms of a military state ; Philip had good reason for not incorporat- ing the Greek republics with his empire. In the east no national resistance was to be expected ; ruling and subject races had long lived there side by side, and a change of des- pot was a matter of indifference or even of satisfaction to the mass of the population. In the west the Romans, the Samnites, the Carthaginians, might be vanquished ; but no conqueror could have transformed the Italians into Egyp- tian fellahs, or rendered the Roman farmers tributaries of Hellenic barons. Whatever we take into view — whether their own power, their allies, or the resources of their an- tagonists — in all points the plan of the Macedonian appears as a feasible, that of the Epirot as an impracticable, enter- prise ; the former as the completion of a great historical task, the latter as a remarkable blunder ; the former as the foundation of a new system of states and of a new phase of civilization, the latter as a mere episode in history. The work of Alexander outlived hinn, although its creator met Chap. VII.] And Bome. 49S an untimely death ; Pyrrhus witnessed with his own eyei the wreck of all his plans, ere death called him away. Both had natures great and enterprising, but Pyrrhus was only the foremost general, Alexander was eminently the most gifted statesman, of his time ; and, if it is insight into what is and what is not possible that distinguishes the hero from the adventurer, Pyrrhus must be numbered among the lat- ter class, and may as little be placed on a parallel with his greater relative as the Constable of Bourbon may be put in comparison with Louis the Eleventh. And yet a wondrous charm attaches to the name of the Epirot — a peculiar sympathy, evoked certainly in some de- gree by his chivalrous and amiable character, but still more by the circumstance that he was the first Greek that met the Romans in battle. With him began those direct rela- tions between Rome and Hellas, on which the whole subse- quent development of ancient, and an essential part of mod- ern, civilization are based. The struggle between phalanxes and cohorts, between a mercenary army and a militia, be- tween military monarchy and senatorial government, be- tween individual talent and national vigour — this struggle between Rome and Hellenism was first fought out in the battles between Pyrrhus and the Roman generals ; and though the defeated party often afterwards appealed anew to the arbitration of arms, every succeeding day of battle simply confirmed the decision. But while the Greeks were beaten in the battle-field as well as in the senate-hall, their superiority was none the less decided on every other field of rivalry than that of politics ; and these very struggles already betokened that the victory of Rome over the Hel- lenes would be difierent from her victories over Gauls and Phoenicians, and that the charm of Aphrodite only begins to work when the lance is broken and the helmet and shield are laid aside. King Pyrrhus was the son of Aeacides, ruler of the Mo- lossians (about Janina), who, spared as a kins- and earlier man and faithful vassal by Alexander, had been PyrrSs" after his death drawn into the whirlpool of Ma 4&d Struggle between Pyrrhua [Book n. cedonian family-politics, and lost in it first his JU kingdom and then his life (441 ). ILs son, then six years of age, was saved by Glaucias the ruler of the Dlyrian Taulantii, and in the course of the con- flicts for the possession of Macedonia he was, when still a boy, restored by Demetrius Poliorcetes to his hereditary principality (447) — ^but only to lose it again after a few years through the influence of the oppo- site party (about 452), and to begin his military career as an exiled prince in the train of the Macedonian generals. Soon his peculiar genius asserted itself conspicuously. He shared in the last campaigns of Antigonus ; and the old marshal of Alexander took delight in the born soldier, who in the judgment of the grey-headed general only wanted years to be already the first warrior of the age. The unfortunate battle at Ipsus brought him as a hostage to Alexandria, to the court of the founder of the Lagid dynasty, where by his daring and downright character, and his soldierly spirit thoroughly despising everything that was not military, he attracted the attention of the politic king Ptolemy no less than he attracted the notice of the royal ladies by his manly beauty, the effect of which was not impaired by the wildness of his counte- nance and the stateliness of his stride. Just at this time the enterprising Demetrius was once more establishing him- self in a new kingdom, which on this occasion was Macedo- nia ; of course with the intention of using it as a lever to revive the monarchy of Alexander. To keep down his am- bitious designs, it was important to give him employment at home ; and Ptolemy, who knew how to make admirable use of such fiery spirits as the Epirot youth rn the prosecu- tion of his subtle policy, not only met the wishes of his consort queen Berenice, but also promoted his own ends, by giving his step-daughter the princess Antigone in marriage to the young prince, and lending his aid and powerful rnflu- ence to support the return of his beloved " son " to. his na- tive land (458). Restored to his paternal king- dom he soon carried all before him. The brave Ohap. vn.] And Borne. 49 'i Epirots, the Albanians of antiquity, clung -with hereditary loyalty and fresh enthusiasm to the high-spirited youth— [he " eagle,'' as they called him. In the confusion that arose regarding the succession to the Macedonian throne after the death of Cassander (457), the Epirot extended his dominions : step by step he gained the regions on the Ambracian gulf with the important town of Ambracia, the island of Corcyra, and even a part of the Macedonian territory, and with forces far inferior he made head against king Demetrius to the admiration of the Mace- donians themselves. Indeed, when Demetrius was by his own folly hurled from the Macedonian throne, it was volun- tarily proffered by them to his chivalrous opponent, a kins- man of the Alexandrine house (467). No one was in reality worthier than Pyrrhus to wear the royal diadem of Philip and of Alexander. In an age of deep depravity, in which princely rank and baseness be- gan to be synonymous, the personally unspotted and mor- ally pure character of Pyrrhus shone conspicuous. For the free farmers of the hereditary Macedonian soil, who, although diminished and impoverished, were far from shar- ing in that decay of morals and of valour which the gov- ernment of the Diadochi produced in Greece and Asia, Pyrrhus appeared exactly formed to be the fitting king, — Pyrrhus, who, like Alexander, in his household and in the circle of his friends preserved a heart open to all human sympathies, and constantly avoided the bearing of an orien- tal sultan which was so odious to the Macedonians ; and who, like Alexander, was acknowledged to be the first tac- tician of his time. But the singularly overstrained national feeling of the Macedonians, which preferred the most paltry Macedonian sovereign to the ablest foreigner, and the irra- tional insubordination of the Macedonian troops towards every non-Macedonian leader, to which Eumenes ihe Car^ dian, the greatest general of the school of Alexander, had fallen a victim, put a speedy termination to the rule of the prince of Epirus. Pyrrhus, who could not exercise sov- ereignty over Macedonia with the consent of the Macedo- 498 Struggle heimeen Pyrrhvs iSooK U nians, and who was too powerless and perhaps too high spirited to force himself on the nation against its will, after reigning seven months left the country to its native mi» government, and went home to his faithful Epi rots (467). But the man whd had worn the crown of Alexander, the brother-in-law of Demetrius, the son-in-law of Ptolemy Lagides and of Agathocles of Syra- cuse, the highly-trained tactician who wrote memoirs and scientific treatises on the military art, could not possibly spend his life in the ordinary routine of an Epirot prince— in inspecting at a set time yearly the accounts of the royal cattle-steward, in receiving from his brave Epirots their customary presents of oxen and sheep, in requiring there- after the renewal of their oath of allegiance and repeating his own engagement to respect the laws at the altar of Zeus, and for the better confirmation of the whole carousing with them all night long. If there was no place for him on the throne of Macedonia, he could not remain in the land of his nativity at all ; he was fitted for the first place, and he could not be content with the second. His views therefore turned abroad. The kings, who were quarrelling for the possession of Macedonia, although agreeing in nothing else, were ready and glad to concur in promoting the voluntary departure of their dangerous rival ; and that his faithful war-comrades would follow him wherever he led, he knew full well. Just at that time the circumstances of Italy were such, that the project which had been meditated forty years before by Pyrrhus' kinsman, his father's cousin, Alexander of Epirus, and quite recently by his father-in-law Agatho- cles, once more seemed feasible ; and so Pyrrhus resolved to abandon his Macedonian schemes and to found for him- self and for the Hellenic nation a new empire in the west. The interval of repose, which the peace with Samnium in 464 had procured for Italy, was of brief dura- ^ng of tion ; the impulse which led to the formation of ^ainrt'"'" ^ ^^"^ league against Roman ascendancy came fc^aM'!° on this occasion from the Lucanians. This peo- ple, by taking part with Rjme during the Saro^ CHip. vn.] AndRmie. 499 nite wars, paralyzed the action of the Tarei /ines and essei> tially contributed to the decisive issue ; and in consideratiov of their services, the Romans gave up to them the Greek cities in their territory. Accordingly after the conclusiojt of peace they had, in concert with the Bruttians, applied themselves to subdue these cities in succession. The Thu- rines, repeatedly assailed by Stenius Statilius the general of the Lucanians and reduced to extremities, requested as- sistance against the Lucanians from the Roman senate, just as formerly the Campanians had asked the aid of Rome against the Samnites, and beyond doubt with a like sacrifice of their liberty and independence. In consequence of the founding of the fortress Venusia, Rome could dispense with the alliance of the Lucanians ; so the Romans granted the prayer of the Thurines, and enjoined their friends and allies to desist from their designs on a city which had surrendered itself to Rome. The Lucanians and Bruttians, thus cheated by their more powerful allies of their share in the common spoil, entered into negotiations with the opposition-party among the Samnites and Tarentines to produce a new Italian coalition ; and when the Romans sent an embassy to warn them, they detained the envoys in captivity and began the war asrainst Rome with a new attack on Thurii 286. (about 469), while at the same time they invited not only the Samnites and Tarentines, but the northern Ital- ians also — the Etruscans, Umbrians, and Gauls — to join them in the struggle for freedom. The Etrus» cans and Can league actually revolted, and hired numer- * ^' ous bands of Gauls ; the Roman army, which the praetor Lucius Caeeilius was leading to the help of the Arretines who had remained faithful, was annihilated under the walls of Arretium by the Senonian mercenaries of the Etruscans : the general himself fell with 13,000 284 of his men (470). The Senones were reckoned allies of Rome ; the Romans accordingly sent envoys to them to complain of their furnishing soldiers to serve against Rome, and to require the surrender of their captives without ransom. But by the command of their chieftain 500 Struggle hehseen Pyrrhua [Book II Britomaris, who had to take vengeance on the Romans for the death of his father, the Senones slew the Roman envoys and openly took the Etruscan side. All the north of Italy, Etruscans, Umbrians, Gauls, were thus in arms against Rome ; great results might he achieved, if its sou^Aem provinces also would embrace the opportunity and declare, so far as they had not already done so, against Rome, The Sam- '^'^ ^^'^^ *^® Samnites, ever ready to make a stand '"*®^- on behalf of liberty, appear to have declared war against the Romans ; but weakened and hemmed in on all sides as they were, they could be of little service to the league ; and Tarentum manifested its wonted delay. While her antagonists were negotiating alliances, settling treaties as to subsidies, and collecting mercenaries, Rome was act- ing. The Senones were first made to feel how amihn'ted^ daugerous it was to gain a victory over the Ro- mans. The consul Publius Cornelius Dolabella advanced with a strong army into their territory ; all that were not put to the sword were driven forth from the land, and this tribe was erased from the list of the Italian nations (471). In the case of a people subsistuig chiefly on its flocks and herds such an expulsion ea masse was quite practicable ; and the Senones thus expelled from Italy probably helped to compose the Gallic hosts which soon after inundated the countries of the Danube, Macedonia, Greece, and Asia Minor. The next neighbours and kinsmen of the Senones, the Boii, terrified and exasper- ated by a catastrophe which had been accomplished with so fearful a rapidity, united instantaneously with the Etrus- cans, who still continued the war, and whose Senonian mer- cenaries now fought against the Romans no longer as hir^ lings, but as desperate avengers of their native land. A powerful Etrusco-Gallic army marched against Rome to re- taliate the annihilation of the Senonian tribe on the enemy's capital, and to extirpate Rome from the face of the earth more completely than had been formerly done by the chieft tain of these same Senones. But the combined army was decidedly defeated by the Romans at its passage of th* Chaf. vn.] And Rome. 601 ^j Tiber in the neighbourhood of the lak t of Vadi mo (471). After they had once more in the fol lowing year risked a general engagement near Populonia with no better success, the Boii deserted their confederate? and concluded a peace on their own account with the Bo- ^^ mans (472). Thus the Gauls, the most formi- dable members of the league, were conquered in detail before the league was fully formed, and by that means the hands of Rome were left free to act against Lower Italy, where during the years 469-471 the contest had not been earned on with any vigour. Hitherto the weak Roman army had with difficul- ty maintained itself in Thurii against the Lucanians and Bruttians ; but now (472) the consul Gains Fa- bricius Luscinus appeared with a strong army in front of the town, relieved it, defeated the Lucanians in a great engagement, and took their general Statilius prisoner. The smaller non-Dorio Greek towns, recognizing the Ro^ mans as their deliverers, everywhere voluntarily joined them. Roman garrisons were left behind in the most im portant places, in Locri, Croton, Thurii, and especially in Rhegium, on which latter town the Carthaginians seem also to have had designs. Everywhere Rome had most decided- ly the advantage* The annihilation of the Senones had given to the Romans a considerable tract of the Adriatic coast. With a view, doubtless, to the smouldering feud with Tarentum and the already threatened invasion of the Epirots, they hastened to make themselves sure of this coast as well as of the Adriatic sea. A burgess colony was sent out (about 471) to the seaport of Sena (Sinigaglia), the former capital of the Senonian territory ; and at the same time a Roman fleet sailed from the Tyrrhene sea into the eastern waters, manifestly for the purpose of being stationed in the Adriatic and of protect- big the Roman possessions there. 804. The Taren tines since the treaty of 450 haxl tweeo Rome lived at peace with Rome. They had been tan. """" spectators of the long struggle of the Samnites &02 Struggle between Pyrrhua [Book a and of the rapid extirpation of the Senones ; they had acquiesced without remonstrance in the establishment of Venusia, Hatria, and Sena, and in the occupation of Thurii and of Ehegium. But when the Roman fleet, on its voyage from the Tyrrhene to the Adriatic sea, myv arrived in the Tarentine waters and cast anchor in the hai> hour of the friendly city, the long-cherished resentment at length overflowed. Old treaties, which prohibited the war- vessels of Eome from sailing to the east of the Laciniap promontory, were appealed to by popular orators in thi assembly of the citizens. A furious mob fell upon the Ro" man ships of war, which, assailed suddenly in a piratica] fashion, succumbed after a sharp struggle ; five ships were taken and their crews executed or sold into slavery ; the Roman admiral himself had fallen in the engagement. Only the supreme folly and supreme unscrupulousness of mob-rule can account for those . disgraceful proceedings. The treaties referred to belonged to a period long past and forgotten ; it is clear that they no longer had any meaning, at least subsequently to the founding of Hatria and Sena, and that the Romans entered the bay on the faith of the existing alliance ; indeed, it was very much their interest — as the further sourse of things showed — to afford the Taren- tines no sort of pretext for declaring war. In declaring war against Rome — if such was their wish — the statesmen of Tarentum were only doing what they should have done long before ; and if they preferred to rest their declaration of war upon the formal pretext of a breach of treaty rather than upon the actual ground, no objection could be taken to that course, seeing that diplomacy has always reckoned it beneath its dignity to speak the plain truth in plain lan- guage. But to make an armed attack upon the fleet with- out warning, instead of summoning the admiral to retrace his course, was a foolish no less than a barbarous act — one of those horrible barbarities of civilization, when moral principle suddenly forsakes the helm and the merest coarse- ness emerges in its room, as if to warn us against the cfcild Chap. VII.] And Rome. 508 ish belief that civilization is able to extirpate brutality from human nature. And, as if what they had done had not been enough, the Tarentines after this heroic feat attacked Thurii, the Roman garrison of which capitulated in conssequence of a surprise (in the winter of 472-473) ; and inflicted severe chastisement on the Thurines — the same, who had so often been abandoned by Tarentum itself in terms of agreement to the Lucanians, and for that very reason had been compelled to yield to Eome — for their desertion from the Hellenic party to the side of the barbarians. The barbarians, however, acted with a moderation which, Attempts at considering their power and the provocation peace. ^jjgy jjg^^ received, excites astonishment. It was the interest of Rome to maintain as long as possible the Tarentine neutrality, and the leading men in the senate ac- cordingly rejected the proposal, which a minority had with natural resentment submitted, to declare war at once against the Tarentines. In fact, the continuance of peace on the part of Rome was proffered on the most moderate terms consistent with her honour — the release of the captives, the restoration of Thurii, the surrender of the originators of the attack on the fleet. A Roman embassy proceeded with these proposals to Tarentum (473), while at the same time, to add weight to their words, a Ro- man army under the consul Lucius Aemilius advanced into Samnium. The Tarentines could, without forfeiting aught of their independence, accept these terms ; and considering the little inclination for war in so wealthy a commercial city, the Romans had reason to presume that an accommo- dation was still possible. But the attempt to preserve peace failed, whether through the opposition of those Ta- rentines who recognized the necessity of meeting the ag- gressions of Rome, the sooner the better, by a resort to arms, or merely through the unruliness of the city rabble, which with characteristic Greek sauciness subjected the peiv Bon of the envoy to an unworthy insult. The consul now advanced into the Tarentine territory ; but instead of im- 504 Struggle between Pyrrhus [Book a mediately commencing hostilities, he offered ©nee more the same terms of peace ; and, when this proved in vain, he began to lay waste the fields and country houses, and he defeated the civic militia. The principal persons captured, however, were released without ransom ; and the hope was tiot abandoned that the pressure of war would give to the Hiistocratic party ascendancy in the city and so bring about peace. The reason of this reserve was, that the Romans were unwilling to drive the city into the arms of the Epirot king. His designs on Italy were no longer a secret. A Tarentine embassy had already gone to Pyrrhus and re- turned without having accomplished its object. The king had demanded more than it had powers to grant. It was necessary that they should come to a decision. That the civic militia knew only how to run away from the Romans, had been made sufficiently clear. There remained only the choice between a peace with Rome, which the Romans still were ready to agree to on equitable terms, and a treaty with Pyrrhus on any conditions that the king might think proper ; or, in other words, the choice between submission to the supremacy of Rome, and subjection to the despotism of a Greek soldier. The parties in the city were almost equally balanced. At length the ascendancy re- eSioned mained with the national party — a result, that ° ' ^' was due partly to the justifiable predilection which led them, if they must yield to a master at all, to prefer a Greek to a barbarian, but partly also to the dread of the demagogues that Rome, notwithstanding the modera- tion now forced upon it by circumstances, would not neg- lect on a fitting opportunity to exact vengeance for the out- rages perpetrated by the Tarentine rabble. The city, ac- cordingly, came to terms with Pyrrhus. He obtained the Bupreme command of the troops of the Tarentines and of the other Italians in arms against Rome, along with the right of keeping a garrison in Tarentum. The expenses of the war were, of course, to be borne by the city. Pyrrhus, on the other hand, promised to remain no longer in Italy than was necessary ; probably with the tacit reservation Chap, vii.] And Bome. 505 that his own judgment should fix the term during which tie might be needed there. Nevertheless, the prey had almost slipped out of his hands. "While the Tarentine envoys — the chiefs, no doubt, of the war party — were absent in Epi- rus, the state of feeling in the city, now hard pressed by the Romans, underwent a change. The chief command was already entrusted to Agis, a man favourable to Rome, when the return of the envoys with the concluded treaty, accom- panied by Cineas the confidential minister of Pyrrhus, again brought the war-party to the helm. A firmer hand T ,■ f now grasped the reins, and put an end to the i^rriins. pitiful vacillation. In the autumn of 473 Milo, the general of Pyrrhus, landed with 3,000 Epi- rots and occupied the citadel of the town. He was fol- lowed in the beginning of the year 474 by the king himself, who landed after a stormy passage in which many lives were lost. He transported to Taren- tum a respectable but miscellaneous army, consisting partly of household troops, Molossians, Thesprotians, Chaonians, and Ambraciots ; partly of the Macedonian infantry and the Thessalian cavalry, which Ptolemy king of Macedonia had conformably to stipulation handed over to him ; partly of Aetolian, Acarnanian, and Athamanian mercenaries. Al- together it numbered 20,000 phalangitae, 2000 archers, 500 slingers, 3000 cavalry, and 20 elephants, and thus was not much smaller than the army with which fifty years before Alexander had crossed the Hellespont. The affairs of the coalition were in no very favourable state when the king arrived. The Roman con- Seoo™i-*" sul indeed, as soon as he saw the soldiers of ''™' Milo taking the field against him instead of the Tarentine militia, had abandoned the attack on Tarentum and retreated to Apulia ; but, with the exception of the ter- ritory of Tarentum, the Romans virtually ruled all Italy. The coalition had no array in the field anywhere in Lower Italy ; and in Upper Italy the Etruscans, who alone were still in arms, had in the last campaign (473) met with nothing but defeat. The allies had, before 506 Struggle hetween Pyrrfvus [Book S the king embarked, committed to him the chief command of all their troops, and declared that they were able to place in the field an army of 350,000 infantry and 20,000 caval- ry. The reality formed a sad conti'ast to these great proiii" ises. The army, whose chief command had been commit- ted to Pyrrhus, had still to be created ; and for the time being the main resources available for forming it were those of Tarentum alone. The king gave orders for the raising of an army of Italian mercenaries at the expense of Taren- tum, and called out the able-bodied citizens to serve in the war. But the Tarentines had not so understood the agre^ ment. They had thought to purchase victory, like any other commodity, with money ; it was a sort of breach of contract, that the king should compel them to fight for it themselves. The more glad the citizens had been at first after Milo's arrival to be quit of the burdensome service of mounting guard, the more unwillingly they now rallied to the standards of the king : it was necessary to threaten the negligent with the penalty of death. This result now justified the peace party in the eyes of all, and communica- tions were entered into, or at any rate appeared to have been entered into, even with Rome. Pyrrhus, prepared for such opposition, immediately treated Tarentum as a con- quered city ; soldiers were quartered in the houses, the assemblies of the people and the numerous clubs (avaavtia) were suspended, the theatre was shut, the promenades were closed, and the gates were occupied with Epirot guards. A number of the leading men were sent over the sea as host- ages ; others escaped the like fate by flight to Rome. These strict measures were necessary, for it was absolutely impos sible in any sense to rely upon the Tarentines. It was only now that the king, in possession of that important city as a basis, could begin operations in the field. The Romans too were well aware of the conflict which awaited them. In order first of all to secure the Bona In fidelity of their allies or, in other words, of their subjects, the towns that could net be depended on were garrisoned, and the leaders of the party of ind» ^JBAt. VII.] And Jiome. 501 pendence, where it seemed needful, were arrested or exe- cuted : such was the case with a number of the members of the senate of Praeneste. For the war itself great exer- tions were made ; a war contribution was levied ; the full contingent was called forth from all their subjects and allies ; even the proletarians who were properly exempt from obligation of service were called to arms, rnrato?«M ^ Roman army remained as a reserve in the coniiiotiii capital. A second advanced under the consul Lower Italy. '■ Tiberius Coruncanius into Etruria, and dispersed the forces ol Volci and Volsinii. The main force was of course destined for Lower Italy ; its departure was hastened as much as possible, in order to reach Pyrrhus while still in the territory of Tarentum, and to prevent him and his forces from forming a junction with the Samnites and other south Italian levies that were in arms against Kome. The Roman garrisons, that were placed in the Greek towns of Lower Italy, were intended temporarily to check the king's progress. But the mutiny of the troops stationed in Rhe- gium — 800 Campanians, and 400 Sidicines, under a Campa- nian captain Decius — deprived the Ror/ians of that impor- tant town. It was not, however, transferred to the hands of Pyrrhus. While on the one hand the national hatred of the Campanians against the Romans undoubtedly contrib- uted to produce this military insurrection, it was impossible on the other hand that Pyrrhus, who had crossed the sea to shield and protect the Hellenes, could receive as his allies troops who had put to death their Rhegine hosts in their own houses. Thus they remained isolated, in close league with their kinsmen and comrades in crime, the Mamertines, that is, the Campanian mercenaries of Agathocles, who had by similar means gained possession of Messana on the op- posite side of the straits ; and they pillaged and laid waste for their own behoof the adjacent Greek towns, such as CrO" ton, where they put to death the Roman garrison, and Cau- Ionia, "which they destroyed. On the other hand the Ro- mans succeeded, by means of a weak corps which advanced along the Lucanian frontier and of the garrison of Venusia, 608 St/rugglc 'between Pyrrhus [Book U in preventing the Lucanians and Samnites from uniting with Pyrrhus ; while the main force — four legions as it would appear, and so, with a corresponding number of allied troops, at least 50,000 strong — marched against Pyrrhus, under the consul Puhlius Laevinus. With a view to cover the Tarentine colony of Heracles, the king had taken up a position with his own Horaciea, and the Tarentine troops between that city and 2S0. Pandosia* (474). The Eomans, covered by their cavalry, forced the passage of the Siris, and opened the battle with a fiery and successful cavalry charge ; the king, who led his cavalry in person, was throvi^n from his horse, and the Greek horsemen, panic-struck by the disappearance of their leader, abandoned the field to the squadrons of the enemy. Pyrrhus, however, put himself at the head of his infantry, and began a fresh and more de- cisive engagement. Seven times the legions and the phar lanx met in shock of battle, and still the conflict was unde- cided. Then Megacles, one of the best officers of the king, fell, and, because on this hotly contested day he had worn the king's armour, the army for the second time believed that the king had fallen ; the ranks wavered ; Laevinus already felt sure of the victory and threw the whole of his cavalry on the flank of the Greeks. But Pyrrhus, march ing with uncovered head through the ranks of the infantry, revived the sinking courage of his troops. The elephants which had hitherto been kept in reserve were brought up to meet the cavalry ; the horses took fright at them ; the sol- diers, not knowing how to encounter the huge beasts, turned and fled ; the masses of disordered horsemen and the pur- Buing elephants at length broke the compact ranks of the Roman infantry, and the elephants in concert with the ex- cellent Thessalian cavalry wrought great slaughter among the fugitives. Had not a brave Roman soldier, Gaius Mi- nucius, the first hastate of the fourth legion, wounded one of the elephants and thereby thrown the pursuing troops * Near the modern Anglona ; not to be confounded with the bettei known tovTi of the same name in the district of Cosenza. Chap. VII] And Borne. 509 into confusion, the Eoman army would have been extir pated ; as it was, the remainder of the Roman troops suc- ceeded in retreating across the Siris. Their loss was great ; 1000 Romans were found by the victors dead or woundpd on the field of battle, 2000 were brought in prisoners ; th« Romans themselves stated their loss, including probably thp wounded carried oiT the field, at 15,000 men. But Pyi^ rhus's army had suifered not much less : nearly 4000 of his best soldiers strewed the field of battle, and several of his ablest captains had fallen. Considering that his loss fell chiefly on the veteran soldiers who were far more difficult to be replaced than the Roman militia, and that he owed his victory only to the surprise produced by the attack of the elephants which could not be often repeated, the king, skil- ful judge of tactics as he was, may well at an after period have described this victory as resembling a defeat ; although he was not so foolish as to communicate that piece of self- criticism to the public — as the Roman poets afterwards in vented the story — in the inscription of the votive oifering presented by him at Tarentum. Politically it mattered lit- tle in the first instance at what sacrifices the victory was bought ; the gain of the first battle against the Romans was of inestimable value for Pyrrhus. His talents as a general had been brilliantly displayed on this new field of battle, and if anything could breathe unity and energy into the languishing league of the Italians, the victory of Heraclea could not fail to do so. But even the immediate results of the victory were considerable and lasting. Lucania was lost to the Romans : Laevinus collected the troops Rationed there and marched to Apulia. The Bruttians, Lucanians, and Samnites joined Pyrrhus unmolested. With the excep- tion of Rhegium, which pined under the oppression of the Campanian mutineers, the whole of the Greek cities joined the king, and Locri was even voluntarily surrendered to him by the Roman garrison ; in his case they were per- suaded, and with reason, that they would not be abandoned to the Italians. The Sabellians and Greeks thus passed over \o Pyrrhus ; but the victory produced no further 510 Struggle between Pyrrhus [Boos n, effect. The Latins showed no inclination to get quit of the Roman rule, burdensome as it might be, by the help of a foreign dynast. Venusia, although now wholly surrounded by enemies, adhered with unshaken steadfastness to Eome, Pyrrhus proposed to the prisoners taken on the Siris, whose brave demeanour the chivalrous king requited by the most honourable treatment, that they should enter his army in accordance with the Greek fashion ; but he learned that he was fighting not with mercenaries, but with a nation. Not one, either Roman or Latin, took service with him. Pyrrhus proposed peace to the Romans. He was too Attempts at sagacious a soldier not to recognize the precari- peaoe. ousness of his footing, and too skilled a states- man not to profit opportunely by the moment which placed him in the most favourable position for the conclusion of peace. He now hoped that under the first impression made by the great battle on the Romans he should be able to se- cure the freedom of the Greek towns in Italy, and to call into existence between them and Rome a series of states of the second and third order as dependent allies of the new Greek power ; for such was the tenor of his demands : the release of all Greek towns — and therefore of the Campa- nian and Lucanian towns in particular — from allegiance to Rome, and restitution of the territory taken from the Sam- nites, Daunians, Lueanians, and Bruttians, or in other words especially the surrender of Luceria and Venusia. A fur- ther struggle with Rome might be inevitable, but it was not desirable at any rate to begin it till the western Hellenes should be united under one ruler, till Sicily should be ao quired and perhaps Africa be conquered. Provided with such instructions, the Thessalian Cineas, the confidential minister of Pyrrhus, went to Rome. That dexterous negotiator, whom his contemporaries compared to Demosthenes so far as a rhetorician might be compared to a statesman and the minister of a sovereign to a popular leader, had orders to display by every me'ans the respect which the victor of Heraclea really felt for his vanquished opponents, to make known the wish of the king to come to Chap. VH.] And Rome. 511 Rome in person, to influence men's minds in the king'? fevour by panegyrics which sound so well in thiv mouth of an enemy, by earnest flatteries, and, as opportunity offered, also by well-timed gifts — in short to try upon the Romans all the arts of cabinet policy, as they had been tested at the courts of Alexandria and Antioch. Tli^ senate hesitated ; to many it seemed a prudent course to draw back a step and to wait till their dangerous antagonist should have fur- ther entangled himself or should be no more. But the grey-haired and blind consular Appius Claudius Sir""" (censor 442, consul 447, 458), who had long withdrawn from state affairs but had himself conducted at this decisive moment to the senate, breathed the unbroken energy of his own vehement nature with words of fire into the souls of the younger generation. They gave to the message of the king the proud reply, which was first heard on this occasion and became thenceforth a maxim of the state, that Rome never negotiated so long as there were foreign troops on Italian ground ; and to make good their words they dismissed the ambassador at once from the city. The object of the mission had failed, and the dex- terous diplomatist, instead of producing an effect by his oratorical art, had on the contrary been himself impressed by such manly earnestness after so severe a defeat — he de- clared at home that every burgess in that city had seemed to him a king ; in truth, the courtier had gained a sight of a free people. Pyrrhus, who during these negotiations had advanced into Campania, immediately on the news of their m^ies being broken off marched against Rome, to co- MMnst operate with the Etruscans, to shake the allies of Rome, and to threaten the city itself. But the Romans as little allowed themselves to be terrified as cajoled. At the summons of the herald " to enroll in the room of the fallen," the young men immediately after the battle of Heraclea had pressed forward in crowds to enlist ; with the two newly formed legions and the corps withdrawn from Lucania, Laevinus, stronger than before, followed the 512 Struggle ieiween Pyrfh/aa [Book U march of the king, lie protected Capua against him, and frustrated his endeavours to enter into communications -with Neapolis. So firm was the attitude of the Eomans that, excepting the Greeks of Lower Italy, no allied state of any a;te dared to break off from the Roman alliance. Then Pyrrhus turned against Eome itself. Through a rich coun> try, whose flourishing condition he beheld with astonish- ment, he marched against Pregellae which he surprised, forced the passage of the Liris, and reached Anagnia, which is not more than forty miles from Rome. No army crossed his path ; but everywhere the towns of Latium closed their gates against him, and with measured step Laevinus fol- lowed him from Campania, while the consul Tiberius Co- rimcanius, who had just concluded a seasonable peace with the Etruscans, brought up a second Roman army from the north, and in Rome itself the reserve was preparing for bat- tle under the dictator Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus. In these circumstances Pyrrhus could accomplish nothing ; no course was left to him but to retire. For a time he still remained inactive in Campania in presence of the united armies of the two consuls ; but no opportunity occurred of striking an effective blow. When winter came on, the king evacu- ated the enemy's territory, and distributed his troops among the friendly towns, taking up his own winter quarters in Tarentum. Thereupon the Romans also desisted from their operations. The army occupied standing quarters near Firmum in Pioenum, where by command of the senate the legions defeated on the Siris spent the winter by way of punishment under tents. Thus ended the campaign of 474. The separate pea tween the subdivisions of his own men. In the centre alone the Epirot phalanx stood in close order. For the purpose of keeping off the elephants the Romans produce18 Struggle between PyrrTius [Book II klago proceeded from Ostia, whither Mago seems to hava ;one to conclude the treaty, to the Sicilian straits. Tlie klamertines, who anticipated righteous punishment for their lutrage upon the Greek population of Messana, in the event if Pyrrhus becoming ruler of Sicily and Italy, attached hemselves closely to the Romans and Carthaginians, and ecured foi- them the Sicilian side of the straits. The allies TOuld willingly have brought Rhegium also on the oppo ite coast under their power ; but Rome could not possiblj lardon the Campanian garrison, and an attempt of the com- lined Romans and Carthaginians to gain the city by force if arms miscarried. The Carthaginian fleet sailed thence [)r Syracuse and blockaded the city by sea, while at the yj same time a strong Phoenician army began the 'hird yenr siege by land (476). It was high time that Pyr- rhus should appear at Syracuse : but, in fact, natters in Italy were by no means in such a condition that e and his troops could be dispensed with there. The two consuls of 476, Gaius Fabricius Luscinus, and Quintus Aemilius Papus, both experienced gen- rals, had begun the new campaign with vigour, and although he Romans had hitherto sustained nothing but defeat in bis war, it was not they but the victors that were weary f it and longed for peace. Pyrrhus made another attempt obtain an accommodation on tolerable terms. The con- ul Fabricius had handed over to the king a wretch, who ad proposed to poison him on condition of being well paid )r it. Not only did the king in token of gratitude release 11 his Roman prisoners without ransom, but he felt him- elf so moved by the generosity of his brave opponents hat he offered, by way of personal recompense, a singular' ^ fair and favourable peace. Cineas appears to have gone nee more to Rome, and Carthage seems to have been sen- uslj apprehensive that Rome might come to terms. But tie senate remained firm, and repeated its former answer, Inless the king was willing to allow Syracuse to fall into iie hands of the Carthaginians and to have his grand schema liereby disconcerted, no other course remained than tc fiHAP. Oil And Rome. 519 abandon his Italian allies and to confine himself for the tim" being to the occupation of the most important seaports, particularly Tarentum and Locri. In vain the Lucanian? and Samnites conjured him not to desert them ; in vain the Tarentines summoned him either to comply with his duty as their general or to give them back their city. The king met their complaints and reproaches with the consolatory assurance that better times were coming, or with abrupt Embarka- dismissal. Milo remained behind in Tarentum ; rims"/ ■^^^ Alexander, the king's son, in Locri ; and Pyr- BicUy. rhus, with his main force, embarked in the spring ^''' of 476 at Tarentum for Syracuse. By the departure of Pyrrhus the hands of the Romans The war in were set free in Italy ; none ventured to oppose Italy flags. them in the open field, and their antagonists everywhere confined themselves to their fastnesses or their forests. The struggle however was not terminated so rapid- ly as might have been expected ; partly in consequence of its nature as a wai-fare of mountain skirmishes and sieges., partly also, doubtless, from the exhaustion of the Romans, whose fearful losses are indicated by a decrease of 17,000 281. 2?s. > i'l '^^ burgess-roll from 473 to 479. In 476 the ^'- > consul Gaius Fabricius succeeded in inducing the considerable Tarentine settlement of Heraolea to enter into a separate peace, which was granted to it on the most fa- vourable terms. In 477 a desultory warfare 277. was carried on in Samnium, where an attack thoughtlessly made on some entrenched heights cost the Romans many lives, and thereafter in southern Italy, where the Lucanians and Bruttians were defeated. On the othej hAid Milo, issuing from Tarentum, anticipated the Romans in their attempt to surprise Croton : whereupon the Epirot garrison made even a successful sortie against the besieging army. At length, however, the consul succeeded by a stratagem in inducing it to march forth, and in possessing himself of the undefended town (477). An in. cident of more moment was the slaughter of the Epirot garrison by the Locrians, who had formerly surren 520 Struggle between Pyrrhua [Book IL dered the Roman garrison to the king, and now atoned for one act of treachery by another. By that step the whole south coast came into the hands of the Romans, with the exception of Rhegium and Tarentum. These successes, however, advanced the main object but little. Lower Italy itself had long been defenceless ; but Pyrrhus was not sub- dued so long as Tarentum remained in his hands and enar bled hiiA to renew the war at his pleasure, and the Romans could not think of undertaking the siege of that city. Even apart from the fact that in siege-warfare, which had been revolutionized by Philip of Macedon and Demetrius Poli- orcetes, the Romans were at a very decided disadvantage when matched against an experienced and resolute Greek commandant, a strong fleet was needed for such an enter- prise, and, although the Carthaginian treaty promised to the Romans support by sea, the affairs of Carthage herself in Sicily were by no means in such a condition as to enable her to grant that support. The landing of Pyrrhus on the island, which, in spite of the Carthaginian fleet, had taken place with- master of out interruption, had changed at once the aspect '° ^' of matters there. He had immediately relieved Syracuse, had in a short time united under his sway all the free Greek cities, and at the head of the Sicilian confederation had wrested from the Carthaginians nearly their whole pos- sessions. It was with difficulty that the Carthaginians could, by the help of their fleet which at that time ruled the Medi- terranean without a rival, maintain themselves in Lilybae- um ; it was with difficulty, and amidst constant assaults, that the Mamertines held their ground in Messana. Under such circumstances, agreeably to the treaty of 475, it would have been the duty of Rome to lend her aid to the Carthaginians in Sicily, far rather than that of Carthage to help the Romans with her fleet to con- quer Tarentum ; but on neither side was there much incli- nation to secure or to extend the power of the other. CaP' thage nad only offered help to the Romans when the real danger was past ; they in their turn had done nothing to Chap, vh.] And RovM. 521 prevent the departure of the king from Italy ar.d the fall of the Carthaginian power in Sicily. Indeed, in cpen violar tion of the treaties Carthage had even proposed to the king a separate peace, offering, in return for the undisturbed pos- session of Lilybaeuna, to give up all claim to her othei 1: icilian possessions and even to place at the disposal of the ■ling money and ships of war, of course with a view to hii crossing to Italy and renewing the war against Rome. I* was e-i ident, however, that with the possession of Lilybae- um and the departure of the king the position of the Car thaginians in the island would be nearly the same as it had been before the landing of Pyrrhus ; the Greek cities if left to themselves were powerless, and the lost territory would be easily regained. So Pyrrhus rejected the doubly perfidi- ous proposal, and proceeded to build for himself a war fleet. Mere ignorance and shortsightedness in after times censured this step ; but it was quite as necessary as it was, with the resources of the island, easy of accomplishment. Apart from the consideration that the sovereign of Ambra- cia, Tarentum, and Syracuse could not dispense with a naval force, he -needed a fleet to conquer Lilybaeum, to protect Tarentum, and to attack Carthage at home as Agathocles, Regulus, and Scipio did before or afterwards so success- fully. Pyrrhus never was so near to the attainment of his aim as in the summer of 478, when he saw Car- 276 thage humbled before him, commanded Sicily, and retained a firm footing in Italy by the possession of Ta^ rentum, and when the newly-created fleet, which was to con- nect, to secure, and to augment these successes, lay ready for sea in the harbour of Syracuse. The real weakness of the position of Pyrrhus lay in his faulty internal policy. He governed Sicily as government he had Seen Ptolemy rule in Egypt : he showed oi PyirhuB. ^^ respect to the local constitutions ; he placed his confidants as magistrates over the cities whenever, and for as long as, he pleased ; he made his courtiers judges in- stead of the native jurymen ; he pronounced arbitrary sen- tences of confiscation, banishment, or death, even against >22 Straggle letween Pyrrhus [Book n hose who had been most active in promoting his coming hither ; he placed garrisons in the towns, and ruled ovei Sicily not as the leader of a national league, but as a king, n so doing he probably reckoned himself according to iriental-Hellenistio ideas a good and wise ruler, and pep laps he really was so ; but the Greeks bore this transplant* ion of the system of the Diadochi to Syracuse with all tha mpatience of a nation that in its long struggles for freedom lad lost all habits of discipline ; the Carthaginian yoke very oon appeared to the foolish people more tolerable than heir new military government. The principal cities en- ered into communications with the Carthaginians, and even yith the Mamertines ; a strong Carthaginian ai'my ventured ,gain to appear on the island ; and everywhere supported )y the Greeks, it made rapid progress. In the battle which pyrrhus fought with it fortune was, as usual, with the ' Eagle ; " but the circumstances served to show what the tate of feeling was in the island, and what might and must msue when the king should depart. To this first and most essential error Pyrrhus added a second ; he proceeded with his fleet, not to Lily- f Pyrrhus baeum, but to Tarentum. It was evident, look- ram y. j^g ^ ^^ very ferment in the minds of the Sicilians, that he ought first of all to have driven the Car- haginians wholly from the island, and thereby to have cut iff the discontented from their last support, before he turned lis attention to Italy ; in that quarter there was nothing to )e lost, for Tarentum was safe enough, and the other allies vere of little moment now that they had been abandoned. t is not unlikely that his soldierly spirit impelled him to wipe off the stain of his not very honourable departure in 476 by a brilliant return, and that lis heart bled when he heard the complaints of the Luca^ lians and Samnites. But problems, such as Pyrrhus had )roposed to himself, can only be solved by men of iron nsr ;ure, who are able to control their feelings of compassion md evei their sense of honour ; and Pyrrhus was not on« )f these. Ohap, vn.( And Rome. 623 The fatal embarkation took place towards the end of J76. 478. On the voyage the new Syracusan fleei siSiinn*'"' ^^*^ '° sustain a sharp engagement with the Car • Kngdom. thsginians, and lost a considerable number of vessels. The departure of the king and the accounts of thic first misfortune sufficed for the fall of the Sicilian kingdom On the arrival of the news all the cities refused to the .ab- sent king money and troops ; and the brilliant state col- lapsed even more rapidly than it had arisen, partly because the king had himself undermined in the hearts of his sub- jects the loyalty and affection on which every state de- pends, partly because the people lacked the devotedness to renounce freedom for perhaps but a short term in order to Recom- save their nationality. Thus the enterprise of S™he™S- Pyrrhus was wrecked, and the plan of his life ian wai. -yyas ruined irretrievably ; he was thenceforth an adventurer, who felt that he had been great and was so no longer, and who now waged war not as a means to an end, but in order to drown thought amidst the reckless excite- ment of the game and to find, if possible, in the tumult of battle a soldier's death. Arrived on the Italian coast, the king began by an attempt to get possession of Ehegium ; but the Campanians repulsed the attack with the aid of the Mamertines, and in the heat of the conflict before the town the king himself was wounded in the act of striking down an officer of the enemy. On the other hand he surprised Locri, whose inhabitants suifered severely for their slaugh- ter of the Epirot garrison, and he plundered the rich treas- ury of the temple of Persephone there, to replenish hia empty exchequer. Thus he arrived at Tarentum, it is said with 20,000 infantry and 3000 cavalry. But bhese were no longer the experienced veterans of former days, and the Italians no longer hailed them as deliverers ; the confidence and hope with which they had received Pyrrhus five years before were gone ; the allies were destitute of money and of men. JT6.]BattiB The king took the field in the spring of 479 ventum. with the view of aiding the hard-pressed Sam 624 Struggle between Pyrrhm [Book n nites, in whose territory the Eomans had passed the pre« vious winter ; and he forced the consul Manius Curius to give battle near Beneventum on the campus Aru sinus, before he could form a junction with his colleague advai-.ing from Lucania. But the division of the army which was intended to take the Romans in flank, lost its way during a night march in the woods, and failed to appear at the decisive moment ; and after a hot conflict the ele- phants again decided the battle, but decided it in favour of the Romans, for, thrown into confusion by the archers who were stationed to protect the camp, they attacked their own people. The victors occupied the camp ; there fell into their hands 1300 prisoners and four elephants — the first that were seen in Rome — besides an immense spoil, from the proceeds of which the aqueduct, which conveyed the water of the Anio from Tibur to Rome, was subsequently built. Without troops to keep the field and without money, Pyrrhus applied to his allies who had contributed to his equipment for Italy, the kings of Macedonia and Asia ; but even in his native land he was no longer feared, PyrrhM ^'^"^ ^'^ request was refused. Despairing of sue- leaves Italy, gggg against Eome and exasperated by these re- fusals, Pyrrhus left a garrison in Tarentum, and went home himself in the same year (479) to Greece_ where some prospect of gain migh't open up to the desperate player sooner than amidst the steady and measured course of Italian affairs. In fact, he not only rapidly recovered the portion of his kingdom that had been taken away, but once more grasped, and not without suc- cess, at the Macedonian throne. But his last plans also were thwarted by the calm and cautious policy of Antigo- nus Gonatas, and still more by his own vehemence and in- ability to tame his proud spirit ; he still gained Pyrriina. battles, but he no longer gained any lasting suc- cess, and met his death in a miserable street '"• combat in Peloponnesian Argos (482). In Italy the war came to an end with the battle of Bene cJhap. VII.] And Rome. 525 taet strng- ventum ; the last convulsive struggles of th« Bksmitaiy. national party died slowly away. So long in- deed as the warrior prince, whose mighty arm had ventured to seize the reins of destiny in Italy, was still among the living, he held, even when absent, the stronghold of Taren. Oapiareof t^m against Rome. Although after the de- TsiBntom, parture of the king the peace party recovered ascendancy in the city, Milo, who commanded there on bo- half of Pyrrhus, rejected their suggestions and allowed the citizens favourable to Rome, who had erected a separate fort for themselves in the territory of Tarentum, to conclude peace with Rome as they pleased, without on that account opening his gates. But when after the death of Pyrrhus a Carthaginian fleet entered the harbour, and Milo saw that the citizens were on the point of delivering up the cicy to the Carthaginians, he preferred to hand over the citadel to the Roman consul Lucius Papirius (482), and by that means to secure a free departure for himself and his troops. For the Romans this was an im- mense piece of good fortune. After the experiences of Philip before Perinthus and Byzantium, of Demetrius be- fore Rhodes, and of Pyrrhus before Lilybaeum, it may be doubted whether the strategy of that period was at all able to compel the surrender of a town well fortified, well de- fended, and freely accessible by sea ; and how different a turn matters might have taken, had Tarentum become to the Phoenicians in Italy what Lilybaeum was to them in Sicily ! What was done, however, could not be undone. The Carthaginian admiral, when he saw the citadel in the hands of 'ihe Romans, declared that he had only appeared liefbre Tarentum conformably to the treaty to lend assist- ance to his allies in the siege of the town, and set sail for- Africa ; and the Roman embassy, which was sent to Car- thage to demand explanations and make complaints regard- ing the attempted occupation of Tarentum, brought back nothing but a solemn confirmation on oath of that assertion as to its friendly design, with which accordingly the Ro- mans had for the time to rest content. The Tarentlnes ob. 26 Struggle hetween Pyrrhus [Book II. uned from Eome, probably on the intercession of emi" rants, the restoration of their autonomy ; but their arms id ships had to be given up and their walls had to b« iilled down. In the same year, in which Tarentum became Roman, the Samnites, Lucanians, and Bruttians finally Lower Submitted. The latter were obliged to cede the '^' half of the lucrative, and for ship-building im- srtant, forest of Sila. At length also the band that for ten years had sheltered lemselves in Rhegium were duly chastised for the breach i" their military oath, as well as for the murder of the tizens of Rhegium and of the garrison of Croton. In this [Stance Rome, while vindicating her own rights, vindicated le general cause of the Hellenes against the barbarians. [iero, the new ruler of Syracuse, accordingly supported le Romans before Rhegium by sending supplies and a con- ngent, and in combination with the Roman expedition ;ainst the garrison of Rhegium he made an attack upon leir fellow-countrymen and fellow-criminals, the Mamer- nes of Messana. The siege of the latter town was long retracted. On the other hand Rhegium, although the Lutineers resisted long and obstinately, was stormed by the Romans in 484 ; the survivors of the garri- son were scourged and beheaded in the public larket at Rome, while the old inhabitants were recalled id, as far as possible, reinstated in their possessions. Thus all Italy was, in 484, reduced to subjection. The Samnites alone, the most obstinate antago- ists of Rome, still in spite of the official conclusion of peace continued the struggle as " robbers," so that in 485 both consuls had to be orice more 3spatcied against them. But even the most high-spirited itionai courage — the bravery of despair — comes to an id ; the sword and the gibbet at length carried quiet eren ito the mountains of Samnium. For the securing of these immense acquisitions a new Chap, vn.] And Bwne. 62? Constmo- series of colonies was instituted : Paestum and for"re*ses*^ Cosa in Lucania (481) ; Beneventum (486), and and roada. Aesemia (about 491) to hold Samniutn in check ; 26s'. 26i and, as outposts against the Gauls, A/iminum (486), Firmum in Picenum (about 490), and fhe burgess colony of Castrum Novum. Preparations were Liade for the continuation of the great southern highway — which acquired in the fortress of Beneventum a new station intermediate between Capua and Venusia — as far as the sea- ports of Tarentum and Brundisium, and for the colonization of the latter seaport, which Eoman policy had selected as the rival and successor of the Tarentine emporium. The construction of the new fortresses and roads gave rise to some further wars with the small tribes, whose territory 2gg was thereby curtailed : with the Picentes (485, 486), a number of whom were transplanted to the district of Salernum ; with the Sallentines (487, 488) ; and with the Umbrian Sassinatea (487, 488), who seem to have occupied the territory of Ari- minum after the expulsion of the Senones. By these estab- lishments the dominion of Rome was extended over the interior of Lower Italy, and generally from the Apennines to the Ionian sea. Before we describe the political organization of the Italy Maritime which was thus united under the government of relatione Rome, it remains that we should glance at the maritime relations that subsisted in the fourth and fifth cen- turies. At this period Syracuse and Carthage were the main competitors for the dominion of the western waters. On the whole, notwithstanding the great temporary suc- cesses which Dionysius (348-389), Agathocles ^^9. (437-465), and Pyrrhus (476-478) obtained at *' ' sea, Carthage had the preponderance, and Syr* cuse sank more and more into a second-rate naval power. The maritime importance of Etruria was wholly gone (p. 41 5) ; the hitherto Etruscan island of Corsica, if it did not quite pass into the possession, fell under the maritime su- premacy, of the Carthaginians. Tarentum, which for a 28 Struggle "between Pyrrhus [Book D me had played a considerable part, had its power broken C the Roman occupation. The brave Massiliots msin- jned their ground in their own waters ; but they exercised D material influence over the course of events in those of aly. The other maritime cities hardly require to be taken to serious account. Rome itself was not exempt from a similar fate ; its own waters were likewise commanded by foreign B Roman fleets. It was indeed from the first a maritime Ta power, ^j^.^^ ^^^ j^ ^j^^ period of its vigour never was I untrue to its ancient traditions as wholly to neglect its ar marine or so foolish as to desire to be a mere conti- ;ntal power. Latium furnished the finest timber for ship- lilding, far surpassing the famed growths of Lower Italy ; id the very docks constantly maintained in Eome showed at the Eomans never abandoned the idea of possessing a iet of their own. During the perilous crises, however, hich the expulsion of the kings, the internal disturbances the Romano-Latin confederacy, and the unhappy wars ith the Etruscans and Celts brought upon Rome, the Ro- ans could take but little interest in the state of matters in e Mediterranean ; and, in consequence of the policy of ome directing itself more and more decidedly to the sub- igation of the Italian continent, the growth of its naval )wer was arrested. There is hardly any mention of Latin issels of war up to the end of the fourth century, except that the votive offering from the Veientine spoil was sent to Delphi in a Roman vessel (360). The Antiates indeed continued to prosecute their mmerce with armed vessels and thus, as occasion offered, practise the trade of piracy also, and the " Tyrrhene corsair " Postumius, whom Timoleon captured about 41 5, may certainly h.we been an Antiate , It the Antiates were scarcely to be reckoned among the ival powers of that period, and, had they been so, the fact ust from the attitude of Antium towards Rome have been lything but an advantage to 'iie latter. The extent to Chap, vn.] And Rmne. 529 which the Roman naval power had declined about the year 400 is shown by the plundering of the Latin coasts by a Greek, probably a Sicilian, war fleet in 405, while at the same time Celtic hordes were traversing and devastating the Latin land (p. ,^ 427). In the following year (406), and beyond doubt under the immediate impression produced by these disastrous events, the Roman community and the Phoenicians of Carthage, acting respectively for themselves and for their dependent allies, concluded a treaty of com- merce and navigation — ^the oldest Roman document whose text has reached us, although only in a Greek translation.* In that treaty the Romans had to come under obligation not to navigate, except under pressure of necessity, the waters beyond the Fair Promontory (Cape Bon) on the Libyan coast. On the other hand they obtained the privi- lege of freely trading, like the natives, in Sicily, so far as it was Carthaginian ; and in Africa and Sardinia they obtained at least the right to dispose of their merchandise at a price fixed with the concurrence of the Carthaginian officials and guaranteed by the Carthaginian community. The privilege of free trading seems to have been granted to the Cartha- ginians in Rome at least, perhaps in all Latium ; only they bound themselves neither to do violence to the subject Latin communities (p. 446), nor, even if they should set foot as enemies on Latin soil, to take up their quarters foi a night on shore — in other words, not to extend their pirati- cal inroads into the interior — nor to construct any fortresses in the Latin land. We may probably assign to the same period the already mentioned (p. 502) treaty between Rome and Tarentum, respecting the date of which we are only told that it was concluded a considerable time before 472. By it the Romans bound themselves — for what con- cessions on the part of Tarentum is not stated — not to * The groundB for assigning the document given in Polybius (iii. 22) not to 245, but to 406, are set forth in my Rom. Ohronologie, p. 320 et seq. [translated in the Appendix to this Tolume]. 530 Struggle between Pyrrhug [Book n navigate the waters to the east of the Lacinian promontory ; a stipulation by which they were wholly excluded from the eastern basin of the Mediterranean. These were disasters no less than the defeat on the AUia, Roman for- ^""^ *^® Roman senators seem to have felt them Hflcation of as such and to have made use of the favourable the coast. turn, which their Italian relations assumed soon after the conclusion of the humiliating treaties with Car- thage and Tarentum, with all their energy to improve their depressed maritime position. The most important of the coast towns were furnished with Roman colonies : Pyrgi, the seaport of Caere, the colonization of which probably falls within this period ,; along the Latin coast, Antium in ssa 329. 4^^ (P- ^60)' Tarracina in 425 (p. 460), the modern isle of Ponza in 441 (p. 474), so that, as Ostia, Ardea, and Circeii had previously re- ceived colonists, all the Latin seaports of consequence were now Latin or burgess colonies ; on the Campanian and Lu- ._ canian coasts, Minturnae and Sinuessa in 459 (p. 489), Paestum and Cosa in 481 (p. 527) ; and on the coast of the Adriatic, Sena Gallica and Castrum Novum about 471 (p. 501), and Ariminum in 486 (p. 527), to which falls to be added the occupation of Brundisium, which took place im- mediately after the close of the Pyrrhic war. In the great- er part of these places — ^the burgess or maritime colonies * — the young men were exempted from serving in the le- gions and destined solely for the watching of the coasts. The well-judged preference given at the same time to the Greeks of Lower Italy over their Sabellian neighbours, par- ticularly to the considerable communities of Neapolis, Rh&- gium, Locri, Thurii, and Heraclea, and their similar exemp- tion under the like conditions from furnishing contingents to the land army, completed the network drawn by Roma around the coasts of Italy. * These were Pyrgi, Ostia, Antium, Tarracina, Minturnae, SinucfBS^ BenB Gallica, and Caatruni Novum. Ihap. vn.] And Rm.ie. 631 But with a statesmanlike sagacity, from which the sue he Boman ceeding generations might have drawn a lesson, -**• the leading men of the Roman commonwealth erceived that all these coast fortifications and coast garri ons would prove inadequate, unless the war marine of the tate were agam placed on a footing that should command espect. Some sort of nucleus for this purpose was already furnished on the subjugation of Antium (416) by the serviceable war-galleys which were car- ied off to the Roman docks ; but the enactment at the ame time, that the Antiates should abstain from all mari- Ime traffic,* is a very clear and distinct indication how reak the Romans then felt themselves at sea, and how com- iletely their maritime policy was still summed up in the ccupation of places on the coast. Thereafter, when the Jreek cities of southern Italy, Neapolis leading the way in 428, were admitted to the clientship of Rome, the war-vessels, which each of these cities bound tself to furnish as a war contribution under the alliance to he Romans, formed at least a renewed nucleus for a Roman fleet. In 443, moreover, two fleet-masters {duo- viri navales) were nominated in consequence of I resolution of the burgesses specially passed to that effect, ind this Roman naval force co-operated in the Samnite war * This statement is as distinct (Liv. viii. 14 ; interdictum mart Antiali topido est) as it is intrinsically credible ; for Antium was inhabited nol Qcrely by colonists, but also by its former citizens who had been nursed n enmity to Kome (p. 393). This view is, no doubt, inconsistent with the Greek accounts, which assert that Alexander the Great ®- (+431) and Demetrius PoUorcetes ( + 471) lodged complaints at Rome regarding Antiate pirates. The former statement ia if the same stamp, and perhaps froni the same source, with that re- yarding the Roman embassy to Babylon (p. 420). It seems more likely hat Demetrius PoUorcetes may have tried by edict to put down piracy D the Tyrrhene sea which he had never set eyes upon, and it is not It all inconceivable that the Antiates may have even as Roman citizew^ n defiance of the prohibition, continued for a time their old trade in an mderhand fashion : much dependence must not, however, be placed evei >n the second story. 532 Struggle hetween Pyyrhus [Book H It the siege of Nuceria (p. 478). Perhaps even the re narkable mission of a Roman fleet of twenty-five sail to bund a colony in Corsica, which Theophrastus mentions it his " History of Plants " written about 447, belongs to this period. But how little was im- Bediately accom.plished with all this preparation, is shown 106. by the renewed treaty with Carthage in 448. I*'- While the stipulations of the treaty of 406 re- ating to Italy and Sicily (p. 529) remained unchanged, the Romans were now prohibited not only from the navigation )f the eastern waters, but also from that of the Atlantic 3cean which was previously permitted, as well as debarred rom holding commercial intercourse with the subjects of ]!arthage in Sardinia and Africa, and also, in all probability, rom effecting a settlement in Corsica ; * so that only Car- ;haginian Sicily and Carthage itself remained open to their ;raffic. We recognize here the jealousy of the dominant naritime power, gradually increasing with the extension of ;he Roman dominion along the coasts. Carthage compelled ;he Romans to acquiesce in her prohibitive system, to sub- nit to be excluded from the seats of production in the west md east (connected with which exclusion is the story of a jublic reward bestowed on the Phoenician mariner who at ;he sacrifice of his own ship decoyed a Roman vessel, steer- ng after him into the Atlantic Ocean, to perish on a sand- jank), and to restrict their navigation under the treaty to ;he narrow space of the western Mediterranean — and all ;his for the mere purpose of averting pillage firom their !oasts and of securing their ancient and important trading joimection with Sicily. The Romans were obliged to yield * According to Servius {in Aen. iv. 628) it was stipulated in the Ko. uano-Carthagiaian treaties, that no Koman should set foot on (or rather >ccnpy) Carthaginian, and no Carthaginian on Roman, soil, but Corsica ras to remain in a neutral position between them (wt neque Romani ad itora Carthaginiermum accederent neque Oarthaginienses ad h'tora Ro- nanorum Corsica esset media inter Romanes et Carthaginlenseii\ Phis appears to refer to our present period, and the colonization of Cor iica seems to have been prevented by this very treaty. •• VU J And Borne. 533 lese terms ; but they did not desist from their efforts ta ue their marine from its condition of impotence, A. comprehensive measure with that view was the insti- itore of ^"'^^'^ °^ f°"'' quaestors of the fleet {quaestoret ;et. classici) in 487 : of whom the first was stationed at Ostia the port of Rome ; the second, stac 3d at Cales then the capital of Roman Campania, had to irintend the ports of Campania and Magna Graecia ; third, stationed at Ariminum, superintended the porta ;he other side of the Apennines ; the district assigned he fourth is not known. These new standing officials 5 intended to exercise not the sole, but a conjoint, guar- ship of the coasts, and to form a war marine for their noobe- protection. The objects of the Roman senate — • iRome (.Q recover their independence by sea, to out off the maritime communications of Tarentum, to 3 the Adriatic against fleets coming from Epirus, and to ncipate themselves from Carthaginian supremacy — were r obvious. Their already explained relations with Car- le during the last Italian war discover traces of such ?s. King Pyrrhus indeed drove the two great cities ! more — it was for the last time — to conclude an offen- alliance ; but the lukewarmness and faithlessness of alliance, the attempts of the Carthaginians to establish Qselves in Rhegium and Tarentum, and the immediate ipation of Brundisium by the Romans after the termi- on of the war, show clearly how much their respective rests already came into collision. Rome very naturally sought to find support against Car- 5 ana thage from the Hellenic maritime states. Hei ^vov- °^^ ^'^^ close relations of amity with Massilia continued uninterrupted. The votive offering by Rome to Delphi, after the conquest of Veii, waa lerved there in the treasury of the Massiliots. After capture of Rome by the Celts there was a collection in isilia for the sufferers by the fire, in which the city it took the lead ; in return the Roman senate granted imercial advantages to the Maasiliot merchants, and, at 534 Union of Italy, [Book II the celebration of the games, assigned a position of honoul to the Massiliots by the side of the platform for the sena tors [6h-aecostasis). To the same category belong the trea- ties of commerce and amity concluded by jhe Romans about 448 with Rhodes and not long after with Apollonia, a considerable mercantile town on the Epirot coast, and especially the closer relations, so fraught scith danger for Carthage, which immediately after the end of the Pyrrhic war sprang up between Rome and Syracuse (p. 525). While the Roman power by sea was thus very far from keeping pace with the immense development of their power by land, and the war marine belonging to the Romans in particular was by no means such as from the geographical and commercial position of the city it ought to have been, yet it began gradually to emerge out of the complete nullity to which it had been reduced about the year 400 ; and, considering the great resources of Italy, the Phoenicians might well follow its efforts with anxious eyes. The crisis in reference to the supremacy of the Italian United Waters was approaching ; by land the contest Italy. ^^g decided. For the first time Italy was united into one state under the sovereignty of the Roman community. What political privileges the Roman com- munity on this occasion withdrew from the various other Italian communities and took into its own s'ole keeping, or in other words, what conception of political power is to be associated with this sovereignty of Rome, we are nowhere expressly informed, and — a significant circumstance, indicat- ing prudent calculation — there does not even exist anj gene« rally recognized expression for that conception.* The only * The clause, by which a dependent people binds itself " to uphold is a friendly manner the sovereignty of that of Rome " {maiestatem popu- li Romani comiter conserfure), is certainly the technical appellation of that mildest form of subjection, but it probably did not come into use till a considerably later period (Cic. pro Balbo, 16, 35). The appellation of clientship derired from private law, aptly as in its very indefinitfnes* Odap. VII.] Unwn of Italy. 53r. privileges that demonstrably belonged to it were the right of making war, of concluding treaties, and of coining money. No Italian community could declare war against Any foreign state, or even negotiate with it, or coin monej for circulation. On the other hand every war and every fctate-treaty resolved upon by the Roman people were bind' kig in law on all the other Italian communities, and the iilver money of Rome was legally current throughout all Italy. It is probable that formerly the general rights of the leading community extended no further. But to thesa rights there was necessarily attached a prerogative of sove- reignty that practically went far beyond them. The relations, which the Italians sustained to the leading community, exhibited in detail great inequali- man&an- ties. In this point of view, in addition to the e ise. £^jj burgesses of Rome, there were three differ- ent classes of subjects to be distinguished. The full fran- chise itself, in the first place, was extended as far as was possible, without wholly abandoning the idea of an urban commonwealth in the case of the Roman commune. Not only was the old burgess-domain extended by individual assignation far into Etruria on the one hand and into Cam- pania on the other, but, after the example was first set in the case of Tusculum, a great number of communities more or less remote were gradually incorporated with the Roman state and merged in it completely. It has been already mentioned (p. 446, 460), that in consequence of the re- peated insurrections of the Latins against Rome a consider- able portion of the original members of the Latin league were compelled to enter the ranks of the full Roman bur gesses. The same course was followed in 480 with all the communities of the Sabines, who were closely related to the Romans, and had sufficiently . approved their fidelity in the last severe war. In a similar way and for the like reasons, a number of communities of it denotes the relation (Dig. xlix 16, V, 1), was scarcely applied to il oiBcially lu earlier times, 536 Union of Italy. [Boob H the former Volscian territory appear to have been about the same time transferred from the class of subjects to that of burgesses. These originally Sabine and Volscian, but probably by that time essentially Romanized, communes wore the first members of properly alien lineage incurpo- TaLed in the Roman burgess-union. To these there fell to 36 added the just-mentioned maritime or burgess colonies, as they were called, in which the whole inhabitants likewise possessed the full Roman franchise. Accordingly the R'j- man burgess-body probably extended northward as far aa the neighbourhood of Caere, eastward to the Apennines, and southward as far as, or beyond, Formiae,- In its case, however, we cannot use the term " boundaries " in a strict sense. Isolated eomnmnities within this region, such as Tibur, Praeneste, Signia, and Norba, had not the Roman franchise ; others beyond its bounds, such as Sena, possessed it ; and it is probable that families of Roman farmers were already dispersed throughout all Italy, either altogether isolated or associated in villages. Among the subject communities the most privileged and Subiectcom- ™os*' important class was that of the Latin munities. towns, which now embraced but few of the original participants in the Alban festival (and these, with the exception of Tibur and Praeneste, altogether insignificant communities), but on the other hand obtained accessions equally numerous and important in the autonomous communities founded by Rome in and even be- yond Italy — the Latin colonies, as they were called — and was always increasing in consequence of new settlements of the same nature. These new urban communities of Roman origin, but with Latin rights, became more and more the real buttresses of the Roman rule. These Latins, however, were by no means those with whom the battles of the lake Regillus and Trifanum had been fought. They irere not those old members of the Alban league, who reckoned them selves originally equal to, if not better than, the community of Rome, and who felt the dominion of Rome to be an op pressive yoke, as the fearfully rigorous measures of secur Chap, vh.] Union of Italy. 63'( Ity taken against Praeneste at the beginning of the -s^ar with Pyrrhus, and the collisions that long continued to occur with the Praenestines in particular, show. The Latins of the later times of the republic, on the contrary, consisted almost exclusively of communities, which from the beginning had honoured Rome as their capital and parent city ; which, settled amidst peoples of alien language and of alien habits, were attached to Rome by community of language, of law, and of manners ; which, as the petty tyrants of the sur- rounding districts, were obliged doubtless to lean on Roma for their very existence, like advanced posts leaning upon the main army ; and which, in fine, in consequence of the increasing material advantages of Roman citizenship, were ever deriving very considerable benefit from their equality of lights with the Romans, limited though it was. A por- tion of the Roman domains, for instance, was usually as- signed to them for their separate use, and participation in the state leases was open to them as to the Roman burgess. A certain danger no doubt threatened the Romans from this quarter. Venusian inscriptions of the time of the Roman republic, and Beneventine inscriptions recently brought to light,* show that Venusia as well as Rome had its plebs and its tribunes of the people, and that the chief magistrates of Beneventum bore the title of consul at least about the time of the Hannibalic war. Both communities are among the most recent of the Latin colonies with older rights : we perceive what pretensions were stirring in them about the middle of the fifth century. These so-called Latins, issuing from the Roman burgess-body and feeling themselves in every respect on a level with it, could not but on their part begin to view with displeasure their subordinate federal rights and to strive after full equalisation. Accordingly the senate exerted itself to curtail these Latin colonies, — how- ever important they were for Rome — as far as possible in their rights and privileges, and to convert their position • V. Cervio A.f. cosol dedicavit and hmonei Quiritei sacra. C. Foi tiliiu L. f. consol dedicavit. 538 Union of Ital/y. [B los n from that of allies to that of subjects, so far as this could be done without removing the line of deri,arcation between them and the non-Latin communities of Italy. We have already described the abolition of the league itself, and the loss of the most important political privileges belonging to the communities as well as of their former complete equal- ity of rights. On the complete subjugation of Italy a fur- ther step was taken, and a movement was made towards the restriction of the personal rights — that had not hitherto been touched ~of the individual Latin, especially the impor- tant right of freedom of settlement. It is true that the privileges secured by stipulation to the older communities were not touched : but in the case of Ariminum 268. ' founded in 486 and of all the autonomous com- munities constituted afterwards, the privilege of acquiring by settlement in Rome the passive franchise and even a sort of suffrage there (p. 440) was no longer conceded. The main advantage enjoyed by them, as compared with other subjects, consisted in their equalization with burgesses of the Roman community so far as regarded private rights — those of traffic and barter as well as those of inheritance. The Roman franchise was in future conferred only on such citizens of these townships as had filled a public magistracy in them : in that case, however, it was, apparently from the first, conferred without any limitation of rights.* This * According to the testimony of Cicero {pro Caec. 85) Sulla gave to the Volaterrans the former ^"ms of Arimraum, that is — adds the orator — the jus of the " twelve colonies " which had not the Roman civitas but had full commercium with the Romans. Few things have been so much discussed as the question to what places this jus of the twelve towns refers ; and yet the answer is not far to seek. There were in Italy and Cisalpine Gaul — laying aside some places that soon disappeared again — thirty-four Latin colonies established in all. The twelve most recent of these — Ariminum, Beneventum, Firmum, Aesemia, Brmdis- ium, Spoletium, Cremona, Placentia, Copia, Valentia, Bononia, and Aquiieia — are those here referred to ; and because Ariminum was the oldest of these and the town in reference to which this new organization was primarily established, partly perhaps also because it WM the first Roman colony founded beyond Italy, the jux of these colonies rightly tooll Chap, vn.] Union of Italy. 539 clearly shows the complete revolution in the position of Rome. So long as Rome was still but one among the many urban communities of Italy, although that one might be thf first, admission even to the unrestricted Roman franchisd was universally regarded as a gain for the admitting com- EQunity and as a loss of privilege for those admitted ; and the acquisition of that franchise by non-burgesses was facili-^ tated in every way, and was in fact often imposed on them as a punishment. But after the Roman community became sole sovereign and all the others were its servants, the state of matters changed. The Roman community began jeal- ously to guard its franchise, and accordingly put an end in the first instance to tlie old full liberty of migration ; al- though the statesmen of that period were wise enough still to keep admission to the Roman franchise legally open at least to the men of eminence and of capacity in the highest class of subject communities. The Latins were thus made to feel that Rome, after having subjugated Italy mainly by their aid, had now no longer need of them as before. The two other classes of Roman subjects, the subject Passive bni- Roman burgesses and the non-Latin allied eom- gesses. munities, were in a far inferior position. The communities having the Roman franchise without the privi- lege of electing or being elected (civiias sine suffragio), ap- its name from Ariminum. This at the same time demonstrates the truth of the view — which already had on other grounds very high probability — that all the colonies established in Italy (in the wider sense of the term) after the founding of Aquileia belonged to the class of burgess colonies. We cannot fully determine the extent to whieh the curtailment of the rights of the later Latin towns was carried, as compared with the earlier. Of course the right of settlement in itself was not withdrawn from the br.rgesses of these towns for in the law every one who was not an enemy, or interdicted from fire and water, was at liberty to take up his abode in Eome. If intermarriage, as is not improbable, but is in fact anything but definitely established (p. 116 supra ; Diodor. p. 6M, 62, fr. Vat. p. ISO, Dind.), formed a constituent element of the original federal equality of rights, it was, at any rate, no longer conceded to the Latin colonies of more recent origin. 640 Union of Italy. [Book a proached nearer in form to the full Eoman burgesses thar the Latin communities that were legally autonomous. Theii members were, as Eoman burgesses, liable to all the bur dens of citizenship, especially to the levy and taxation, and were subject to the Eoman census ; whereas, as their very designation indicates, they had no claim to its honorary rights. They lived under Eoman laws, and had justice ad- ministered by Eoman judges ; but the hardship was less" ened by the fact that their former common law was, after undei'going revision by Eome, restored to them as Eoman local law, and a "depnty" {^praefectus) annually nominated by the Eoman praetor * was sent to them to conduct its administration. In other respects these communities re- tained their own administration, and chose for that purpose their own chief magistrates. This relation, which was first instituted in 403 for Caere (p. 432), and subse- quently was applied to Capua (p. 461) and a number of other communities more remote from Eome, was probably in reality the most oppressive among the difr ferent forms of subjection. Lastly, the rela- Biiiedoom- tions of the non-Latin allied communities were muni ea. subject, as a matter of course, to very various rules, just as each particular treaty of alliance had defined them. Many of these perpetual treaties of alliance, such as that with the Hernican communities (p. 482) and those with Neapolis (p. 467), Nola (p. 474), and Heraclea (p. 519), granted rights comparatively comprehensive, while others, such as the Tarentine and Samnite treaties, probably approximated to despotism. As a general rule, it may be taken for granted that not only the Latin and Hernican national confedera- of national tions — as to which the fact is expressly stated— .eagues. -^^^ ^y guoh confederations subsisting in Italy, * In my Corpus Inscr. Lat. i. p. 47, 1 have shown that these prae- ,octs were down to the seventh centnry nominated by the praetors, and not by the burgesses, and that, if Livy (ix. 20) in using the word creari has meant it to refer to popular election, he has erroneously transferred the arrangement adopted in the last period of the republic to an earliei c^och. Chap, vn.] Union of Italy. 541 and the Samnite and Lucanian leagues in particular, were legally dissolved or at any rate reduced to insignificance, and that in general no Italian community was allowed the right of acquiring property or of intermarriage, or even the right of joint consultation and resolution, with any other. Further, provision must have been made, under ofcontin- diiierent lorms, tor placmg the military and financial resources of all the Italian communities at the disposal of the leading community. Although the burgess militia on the one hand, and the contingents of the '"• Latin name " on the other, were still alone regarded as the main and integral constituents of the Eoman army, and in that way its national character was on the whole pre- served, the Roman cives sine suffragio were called forth to join its ranks, and not only so, but beyond doubt the non- Latin allied communities also vrere either bound to furnish ships of war, as was the case with the Greek cities, or were placed on the roll of contingent-furnishing Italians {^formula togaiorum), as must have been decreed at once or gradually in the case of the Apulians, Sabellians, and Etruscans, in general this contingent, like that of the Latin communities, appears to have had its numbers definitely fixed, although, in case of necessity, the leading community was not pre- cluded from making a larger requisition. This at the same time involved an indirect taxation, as every community was bound itself to equip and to pay its own contingent. Ac- cordingly it was not without design that the supply of the most costly requisites for war devolved chiefly on the La'"jn, or non-Latin allied, communities ; that the war marine was for the most part kept up by the Greek cities ; and that in the cavalry service the allies, at least subsequently, were called upon to furnish a proportion thrice as numerous as the Roman burgesses, while in the infantry the old princi- ple, that the contingent of the allies should not be more nu- merous than the burgess army, still remained in force for a long time at least as the rule. The system, on which this fabric was constructed and 1-2 Onion of Italy. [Book U stem of kept together, can no longer te ascertained in vemmeni, (jgtail from the few notices that have reached us. ven the numerical proportions of the three classes, rela- 7ely to each other and to the full burgesses, can no longer '. determined even approximately ; * and in like manne * It is to be regretted that we are unable to give Batisfaotory infor- ition as to the proportional numbers. We may estimate the number Roman burgesses capable of bearing arms in the later regal period aa out 20,000 (p. 141). Now from the faU of Alba to the conquest of ai the immediate territory of Kome received no material extension ; in rfect accordance with which we find that from the first institution of the twenty-one tribes about 259 (p. 361), which involved little or no extension of the Koman bounds, no new tribes were in- '• stituted till 367. However abundant allowance we malse for increase by the excess of births over deaths, by immigration, d by manumissions, it is absolutely Impossible to reconcile with the rrow limits of a territory of liardly 650 square miles the traditional counts of the census, according to which the number of Roman burges- i capable of bearing arms in the second half of the third century va- ried between 104,000 and 160,000, and in 362, regarding which a special statement is extant, amounted to 152,673. lese numbers are on a parallel with the 84,700 burgesses of the Servian asus ; and in general the whole lists of the census, carried back to the u- earlier lustres of Servius TuUius and furnished with copious num- ra, belong to the class of those apparently documentary traditions lich delight in, and betray themselves by the very fact of, such numer- 1 details. It was only with the second half of the fourth century that the large tensions of territory on the one hand, and the incorporation of Lole communities with Rome on the other (p. 381) which must have Jdenly and considerably augmented the burgess roll, began. It is re- rtedon reliable authority and is intrinsically credible, that about 416 the Roman burgesses numbered 165,000; which very well agrees with the statement that ten years previously, when the lOle militia was called out against Latium and the Gauls, the first levy lounted to ten legions, that is, to 60,000 men. Subsequently to the !at extensions of territory in Etruria, Latium, and Campania, in the ;h century the effective burgesses numbered, on an average, 250,000 , mediately before the first Punic war, 280,000 to 290,000. Theaa mbers are certain enough, but they are of little service historici^lly ' another reason, namely, that in them, beyond doubt, the Roman full rgesses and the " burgesses without vote," such as the Caerites and mpanians, are mixed up together, while practically the latter must b« Chap, vn.] Vnion of Itol/y. 548 the geographical distribution of the seieral categories ovei Italy is but imperfectly known. The leading ideas on which the structure was based, on the other hand, are so obvious that it is scarcely necessary specially to set them forth. First of all, as we have already said, the immediate circle of the ruling community was extended as far as was possi- ble without completely decentralizing the Roman conimu^ nity, which was urban and was intended to remain so. When the system of incorporation was extended up to and perhaps even beyond its natural limits, the communities that were subsequently added had to submit to a position of subjection ; for a pure hegemony as a permanent relar tion was intrinsically impossible. Thus not through any arbitrary monopolizing of sovereignty, but through the in- evitable force of circumstances, a class of subjects took its Division place by the side of the class of ruling burgess- cattonoftte ^®" ''■* '^^^ ^'^^ °^ ^'^^ primary expedients of subjects. Roman rule to subdivide the governed by break- ing up the Italian confederacies and instituting as large a number as possible of < omparatively small communities, and to graduate the pressure of that rule according to the different categories of subjects. As Cato in the govern- ment of his household took care that the slaves should not be on too good terms with one another, and designedly fomented variances and factions among them, so the Roman community acted on a great scale. The expedient was not generous, but it was effectual. It was but a wider application of the same expedient, reckoned decidedly as subjects, and Eome could count with much more certainty on the contingents of the Latins not included in these numbers than on the Campanian legions. If the statement in Livy (xxiii. 6) that 80,000 infantry and 4,000 horse could be raised from Capua, was drawn, as hardly admits of doubt, from the Roman census rolls, we may — see- ing that the Campanians probably formed the main body of the passive burgesses and are directly put as equiralent to them in Polyb. ii. 24^ X4 — estimate these passive burgesses at nearly 60,000 men capable of bearing arms ; but this number is not sufficiently certain to form tb« basis of further calculations. t4 Union of Italy. [Book XL stocratio when in each dependent community the const!* lodeiiing tution was remodelled after the Roman pattern the con- ^ utioiH of and a government of the wealthy and respecta- nmuni- ble families was installed, which was naturally more or less keenly opposed to the multitude d was induced by its material interests and by its wish • local power to lean on Roman support. The most re- irkable instance of this sort is furnished by the treatment Capua, which appears to have been from the first treated th suspicious precaution as the only Italian city that could tne into possible rivalry with Rome. The Campanian bility received the rights of a privileged order, separate ices of assembly, and a peculiar position in all respects ; leed they even obtained not inconsiderable pensions— :teen hundred of them at 450 slateres (about £29) annu- y — charged on the Campanian exchequer. It was these mpanian equites, whose refusal to take part in the great Latino-Campanian insurrection of 414 mainly contributed to its failure, and whose brave ords decided the day in favour of the Romans at Senti- num in 459 (p. 486) ; whereas the Campanian infantry at Rhegium was the first body of troops It in the war with Pyrrhus revolted from Rome (p. 507). lother remarkable instance of the Roman practice of rniug to account for their own interest the variances be- een the orders in the dependent communities by favour- ; the aristocracy, is furnished by the treatment which Volsinii met with in 489. There, just as in Rome, the old and new burgesses must have >od opposed to one another, and the latter must have at. ned by legal means equality of political rights. In con^ juence of this the old burgesses of Volsinii resorted to 3 Roman senate with a request for the restoration of their 1 constitution — a step which the ruling parly in the city turally viewed as high treason, and inflicted legal punish* jnt accordingly on the petitioners. The Roman senate, wever, took part with the old burgesses, and, when the y showed no disposition to submit, not only destroyed Chap. VII.] Union of Italy 545 by military -sijlence the communal constitution of Volsinil which was in recognized operation, but also, by razing the old capital of Etruria, exhibited to the Italians a fearfully palpable proof of the despotism of Rome. But the Roman senate had the wisdom not to overlook the fact, that the only means of giving perma. ModeraaoR ' ^. . •' , . ^u ^ <• of the gov- nence to despotism is moderation on the part oi the despots. On that account the dependent communities either had the full Roman franchise granted in lieu of independence, or were left in possession of a species of autonomy, which included a shadow of independence, a special share in the military and political successes of Rome, and above all a free communal constitution — so far as the Italian confederacy extended, there existed no community of Helots. On that account also Rome from the very first, with a clearsightedness and magnanimity perhaps unparal- leled in history, waived the most dangerous of all the rights of government, the right of taxing her subjects. At the most tribute was perhaps imposed on the dependent Celtic cantons : so far as the Italian confederacy extended, there was no tributary community. On that account, lastly, while the duty of bearing arms was partially devolved on the subjects, the ruling burgesses were by no means exempt from it ; it is probable that the latter were proportionally far more numerous than the body of the allies ; and in that body, again, probably the Latins as a whole were liable to far greater demands upon them than the passive burgesses or at least the non-Latin allied communities. There was thus a certain reasonableness in the appropriation by which Rome ranked first, and the Latins next to her, in the distri- bution of the spoil acquired in war. The central administration at Rome solved the difficult problem of preserving its supervision and con- iiateftmo- trol over the mass of the Italian communities fionanes. ]iable to furnish contingents, partly by means of the four Italian quaestors, partly by the extension of the Roman censorship over the whole of the dependent commu- nities. The quaestors of the fleet (p. 533), along with th^ir i6 Union of Italy. [Book li lore immediate duty, had to raise the revenues from the ewly acquired domains and to control the contingents of le new allies ; they were the first Roman functionaries to hom a residence and district out of Rome were assigned y law, and they formed the necessary intermediate author- y between the Roman senate and the Italian communities Moreover, as is shown by the later municipal tLeem- constitution, the chief functionaries in every Italian community,* whatever might be their tie, had to undertake a valuation every fourth or fifth sar ; an institution, the suggestion of which must necessa- ly have emanated from Rome, and which can only have 3en intended to furnish the senate with a view of the re- )urces in men and money of the whole of Italy, corre- )onding to the census- in Rome. Lastly, with this military administrative union of the iiyand whole peoples dwelling to the south of the e Italians. Apennines, as far as the lapygian promontory id the straits of Rhegium, was connected the rise of a new ime common to them all — that of " the men of the toga " ogati), which was their oldest designation in Roman state w, or that of the " Italians," which was the appellation •iginally in use among the Greeks and thence became uni- irsally current. The various nations inhabiting those nds were probably first led to feel and own their unity, irtly through their common contrast to the Greeks, partly id mainly through their common resistance to the Celts ; r, although an Italian community may now and then have ade common cause with the Celts against Rome and em- oyed the opportunity to recover independence, yet in the ug run sound national feeling necessarily prevailed. As ic Sal lie territory down to a late period stood contrasted law with the Italian, so the "men of the toga" were thus imed in contrast to the Celtic " men of tlie hose " [brou>- 'ii) ; and it is probable that the repelling of the Celtic in- * Not merely in every Latin one ; for the censorship or BO-called iinguennalitas occurs, as is well known, also among oommunitiei liose constitution was not formed according to the Latin Echeme. Ciup. vn.l Union oj Italy. 647 vasions played an important diplomatic pait as a reason ot pretext for centralizing the military resources of Italy in the hands of the Romans. Inasmuch as the Romans on the one hand took the lead in the great national struggle and on the other hand compelled the Etruscans, Latins, Sabellians, Apulians, and Hellenes (within the ■bounds to be immediate-- ly described) alike to fight under their standards, that unity. which hitherto had been undefined and latent rather thar. expressed, obtained firm consolidation and recognition in state law ; and the name Italia, which originally and even in the Greek authors of the fifth century — in Aristotle for instance — pertained only to the modern Calabria, was trans- ferred to tha whole land of these wearers of the toga. The earliest boundaries of this great armed confederacy „ ,. . led by Rome, or of the new Italy, reached on Earliest i t boundaries the western coast as far as the district of Leg- ianconfed- horn south of the Am us,* on the east as far as eraoy. ^j^^ Aesis north of Ancona. The places colo- nized by Italians, lying beyond these limits, such as Sena Gallica and Ariminum beyond the Apennines, and Messana in Sicily, were reckoned geographically as situated out of Italy — even when, like Ariminum, they were members of the confederacy or, like Sena, were Roman burgess commu- nities. Still less could the Celtic cantons beyond the Apen- nines be reckoned among the iogaii, although perhaps some of them were already among the clients of Rome. The new Italy had thus become a political unity ; it was First steps ^'®° ™ *'^® course of becoming a national unity, towards tLe Already the ruling Latin nationality had assimi- of Italy. lated to itself the Sabines and Volscians and had scattered isolated Latin communities over all Italy ; these germs were merely developed, when subsequently the Latin language became the mother-tongue of every one entitled * This earliest boundary is probably indicated by the two small placet Ad Fines, of which one lay north of Arezzo on the road to Florence, the aecond on the coast not far from Leghorn. Somewhat further to the south of the latter, the brook and valley of Vada are still called F%ume dtlla Fine, VaUe della Fine (Targioni Tozzetti, Viaggj, iv. iZO\ :8 Union of Italy. \Rootl Jl ■wear the Latin toga. That the Eomans already clearly cognized this as their aim, is shown by the familiar exten< )n of the Latin name to the whole body of contingent' mishing Italian allies.* Whatever can still be recognized this grand political structure testifies to the great politi- l sagacity of its nameless architects ; and the singular oo- sion, which that confederation composed of so many and diversified ingredients subsequently exhibited under the verest shocks, stamped their great work with the seal of wposi- success. From the time when the threads of 1 nf™* this net drawn skilfully and firmly around Italy fer. were concentrated in the hands of the Roman mmunity, it became a great power, and took its place in B system of the Mediterranean states in the room of Ta- Qtum, Lucania, and other intermediate and minor states jsed by the last wars from the list of political powers, jme -received, as it were, an official recognition of its new sition by means of the two solemn embassies, which in 481 were sent from Alexandria to Rome and from Rome to Alexandria, and which, though imarily they regulated only commercial relations, beyond ubt prepared the way for a political alliance. As Car- age was contending with the Egyptian government re- rding Cyrene and was soon to contend with that of Rome garding Sicily, so Macedonia was contending with the for- * In strict oflBcial language, indeed, this was not the case. The ful- t designation of the Italians occurs in the agrarian law of 643, line 21 ; — [cems] Romanuf sociumve nominisve Latini, quibus ex forrmda togaiorum [miliies in terra Italia imperare soleni^ ; like manner at the 29th line of the same the peregrinus is distinguished m the Latiuus, and the decree of the senate as to the Bacchanalia in 668 the expression is used : ne guis ceivit Eomamia neve no- minis Latini neve socium qvisquam. But in common use very quently the second or third of these three subdivisions is omitted, and ng with the Komans sometimes only those Latini nominis are men- ned, sometimes only the socii (Weissenborn onLiv. xxii. 50, 6), whil« ire ig no difference in the meaning. The designation homines nominii '.tini ac socii Jtalici (Sallust. Juff. 40), correct as it is in itself, is foreign the official uius loquendi, which employs Italia, but not Italici. Chap vh.] Union of Italy . 640 mer for the predominant influence in Greece, with the latter proximately for the sovereignty of the Adriatic coasts. , The new struggles, which were preparing on all sides, could not but influence each other, and Rome, as mistress of Italy, could not fail to be drawn into the wide arena which the victories and projects of Alexander the Great had maiked aii& as the field of conflict to his successors. CHAPTER Vm. *W. RKLIGION. MILITARY SYSTEM. ECONOMIC CONDlTIOl NATIONALITY. In the development of law during this period within the Roman commonwealth, probably the most im leveloTH 5 1./ lent oi law. portant material innovation was that peculiar control which the community itself, and in a uhordinate degree its office-hearers, began to exercise over ae manners and habits of the individual burgesses. The erm of it is to be sought not so much in the religious Qathemas which had served in the earliest times as a sort f substitute for police (p. 236), as in the right of the ma- istrates to inflict property fines (multae) for offences against rder (p. 205). In the case of all fines of more than two deep and thirty oxen or, after the cattle-fines had been by the decree of the people in 324 commuted into money, of more than 3020 libral asses (£30), le decision soon after the expulsion of the kings passed by 'ay of appeal into the hands of the community (p. 425) ; od thus procedure by fine acquired an importance which it 'as far from originally possessing. Under the vague cate- ory of offences against order men might include any accu- itions they pleased, and by the higher grades in the scale f fines they might accomplish whatever they desired. The angerous character of such arbitrary procedure was brought ) light rather than obviated by the mitigating proviso, that lese property-fines, whore they were not fixed by law at a efinite sum, should not exceed half the estate of the per- 3n fined. To this class belonged "the police laws, which om the earliest times were especially abundant in the Ro- lan commonwealth. Such were those enactments of the welve Tables, which prohibited the anointing of a dead ody by persons hired for the purpose, the dressing it out Chap viil] Military System. 651 ■with more than one cushim or more than three purple" edged coverings, the decorating it with gold or gaudy chap- lets, the use of dressed wood for the funeral pile, and the perfuming or sprinkling of the pyre with frankincense or myrrh wine , which limited the number of flute-players in the funeral procession to ten at most ; and which forbade wailing women and funeral banquets — ^in a certain sense the earliest Roman legislation against luxury. Such also were the laws — originating in the conflicts of the orders — direct- ed against an immoderate use of the common pasture and a disproportionate appropriation of the occupiabie domain- land, as well as those directed against usury. But far more fraught with danger than these and similar police laws, which at least explicitly set forth the offence and often pre- scribed also its precise punishment, was the general prerog- ative of every magistrate who exercised jurisdiction to in- flict a fine for an offence against order, and if the fine reached the amount necessary to found an appeal and the person fined did not submit to the penalty, to bring the case before the community. Already in the course of the fifth century quasi-criminal proceedings had been in this way instituted against immorality of life both in men and \iomen, against the forestalling of grain, witchcraft, and siniilar practices. Closely akin to this was the quasi-jurisdiction of the cen- sors, which likewise sprang up at this period. They were invested with authority to adjust the Roman budget and the burgess-roll, and they availed themselves of it partly to impose of their own accord taxes on luxury which differed only in form from penalties, partly to abridge or withdraw the political privileges of the burgess who was reported to have been guilty of any infamous action. The extent to which this surveillance was already carried is shown by the fact that penalties of this nature were inflicted for the negli- gent cultivation of a man's own land, and that such an one jy. as Publius Cornelius Rufinus (consul in 404, „. 477) was struck off" the list of senators by the g;,_ censors of 479, because he possessed silver plate to the value of 3360 sesterces (£34). No )52 Law. Religion. [Book H loubt, according to the rule generally applicable to the idiots of magistrates (p. 339), the sentences of the censors lad legal force only during their censorship, that is on an iverage for the next five years, and might be renewed or lot by the next censors at pleasure. Nevertheless this cen- lorial prerogative was of so immense importance, that in drtue of it the censorship, originally one of the least of the Jloman public magistracies, became in rank and eonsidera^ lion the first of all (p. 377, 401). The government of the lenate rested essentially on this twofold police control su- )reme and subordinate, vested in the community and its )fficials, and furnished with powers as extensive as they vere arbitrary. Like every such arbitrary government, it vas productive of much good and much evil, and we do not nean to combat the view of those who hold that the evil )reponderated. But we must not forget that — amidst the norality external no doubt but stern and energetic, and the rigorous development of public spirit, that were the genu- ne characteristics of this period — these institutions re- nained exempt as yet from any really vulgar abuse ; and f they were the chief instruments in repressing individual reedom, they were also the means by which the public ipirit and the good old manners and order of the Roman lommunity were with might and main upheld. Along with these changes a humanizing and modernizing tendency showed itself slowly but yet clearly ions jB the enough in the development of Roman law. "■^^ Most of the enactments of the Twelve Tables, vhich coincide with the laws of Solon and therefore may vith reason be considered as in substance innovations, bear his character ; such as the securing the right of free asso- iation and the autonomy of the societies that originated inder it ; the enactment that forbade the ploughing up of )Oundary-balks ; and the mitigation of the punishment of heft, so that a thief not caught in the act might henceforth elease himself from the plaintiff''s suit by payment eral they adhered with simplicity to the siiiplc piety of their ancestors, and kept equally aloof from super. stition and from unbelief. How vividly the idea of spiritualiaing all earthly objects, on which the Roman religion was based, still prevailed at the close of this epoch, is shown by the new god " of silver " {^Av gen tinus), 'who probably came into existence in consequence 558 Lww. Religion. [Book u of the introduction of the silver currijajy in 485 and who naturally was the son of the older god " of copper " {Aesculanus). The relations to foreign lands were the same as hereto* fore ; but here, and here especially, Hellenic influences were on the increase. It was only now that temples began to rise in Eome itself in honour of the Hellenic gods. The oldest was the temple of Castor and Pollux, which had been vowed in the battle at lake Eegillus (p. 437) and was consecrated on 15th July 269. The legend associated with it, that two youths of superhuman size and beauty had been seen fighting on the battle-field in the ranks of the Romans and immediately after the battle watering their foaming steeds in the Roman Forum at the fountain of luturna, and announcing the great victory, bears a stamp thoroughly un-Roman, and was beyond doubt at a very early period modelled on the appearance of the Dios- curi — similar down to its very details — in the famous battle fought about a century before between the Crotoniates and Locrians at the river Sagras. The Delphic Apollo too was not only consulted — as was usual with all peoples that felt the influence of Grecian culture — and presented moreover after special successes, such as the capture of 394. Veii, with a tenth of the spoil (360), but also 431. had a temple built for him in the city (323, re- 363. newed 401). The same honour was towards the 296. close of this period accorded to Aphrodite (459), who was in some enigmatical way identified with the old Roman garden goddess, Venus ; * and to Asklapioa or Aesculapius, who was obtained by special request from Epidaurus in the Peloponnesus and solemnly conducted to Rome (463). Isolated complaints were heard in serious emergencies as to the intrusion of foreign superstition, probably the art of the Etruscan A» * Venus probably first appears in the later sense as Aphrodite ax. «ooaeion of the dedication of the temple consecrated in this year (Liv. x 81 ; Becker, Topographie, p. 472). Chap, vm.] Military System. 659 tuspices (as in 326) ; but in such cases the polici did not fail to take proper cognisance of tha matter. In Etruria on the other hand, while the nation stagnated and decayed in political helplessness and indolent opulecoe, the theological monoply of the nobility, stupid fatalism, wild and meaningless mysticism, the system of soothsay- ing, and of mendicant prophecy gradually developed them- selves, till they reached the height at ■which we afterwards find them. In the sacerdotal system no comprehensive changes, so far as we know, took place. The more strin- eyBtem. gent enactments, that were made about 465 regarding the tax on actions at law destined to defray the cost of public worship, point to an increase in the religious expenses of the state — a necessary result of the increase in the number of its gods and its temples. It has already been mentioned as one of the evil effects of the dissensions between the orders that a greater influence be- gan to be conceded to the colleges of men of lore, and that they were employed for the annulling of political acts (p. 379) — a course by which on the one hand the faith of the people was shaken, and on the other hand the priests were permitted to exercise a very injurious influence on public afiairs. A complete revolution occurred during this epoch in the Military military system. The primitive Graeco-Italian system. military organization, which was probably based, like the Homeric, on the selection of the most distinguished and effective warriors — who ordinarily fought on horseback — to form a special vanguard, had in the later regal period been superseded by the old Dorian phalanx of hoplites, probably eight file deep (p. 137). This phalanx thenceforth undertook the chief burden of the battle, while the cavalry were stationed on the flanks, and, mounted or^ dismounted according to circumstances, were chiefly employed as a re- Manipuio' serve. From this arrangement there were de- tegion veloped nearly at the same time the phalanx of 560 Law. Religion. [Book II sarissae in Macedonia and the manipular legion in Ital/, the former formed by closing and deepening, the latter by breaking up and multiplying, the ranks. The old Dorit phalanx had been wholly adapted to close combat with the sworJ and especially with the spear, and only an accessory and subordinate position in the order of battle was assigned to missile weapons. In the manipular legion the thrusting- lance was confined to the third division, and instead of it che two first were furnished with a new and peculiar Italian missile weapon, the pilum — a square or round piece of wood, four and a half feet long, with a triangular or quad- rangular iron point — which had been originally perhaps in- vented for the defence of the ramparts of the camp, but was soon transferred from the rear to the front ranks, and was hurled by the advancing line into the ranks of the ene- my at a distance of from ten to twenty paces. At the same time the sword acquired far greater importance than the short knife of the phalangite could ever have had ; for the volley of javelins was intended in the first instance merely to prepare the way for an attack sword in hand. While, moreover, the phalanx had, as if it were a single mighty lance, to be hurled at once upon the enemy, in the new Ital- ian legions the smaller units, which existed in the phalanx system but were in battle array held together by an indis- solubly firm bond, were again separated from each other. The close square was separated in the direction of its depth into the three divisions of the hastaii, principes, and triarii. each of a moderate depth probably amounting in ordinary cases to only four files ; and was broken up along the front into ten bands (manipuli), in such a way that between every two divisions and every two maniples there was lefl a per- ceptible interval. It was a mere continuation of the same process of individualizing, by which the collective mode of fighting was discouraged even in the diminished tactical unit and the single combat became prominent, as is evident from the (already mentioned) decisive part played by hand-to- hand encounters and combats with the sword. ment of The system of entrenching the camp assumed "^""^ also a peculiar development. The place where Uhap. vra.] Military System. 561 the army encamped, even were it only for a single night, •was invariably provided with a regular circumvallation and „ , as it were converted into a fortress. Littl* UavaJry, change took place on the other hand in the cav- alry, which in the manipular legion retained the secondary place whieh it had occupied by the side of the phalanx. The system of officering the army also contin' ued in the main unchanged ; yet it was at this period probably that the clear line of demarcation became established between the subaltern officers, who as common soldiers .had to gain their place at the head of the manipleii by the sword and passed by regular promotion from the lower to the higher maniples, and the military tribunes placed at the head of whole legions — six to each — in whose case there was no regular promotion, and who were usually taken from the better classes. In this respect it must have become a matter of Importance that, while previously the subaltern as well as the staff officers had been S62 uniformly nominated by the general, after 392 some of the latter posts were filled up through election by Military ^^^ burgesses (p. 398). Lastly, the old, fearful- discipiine. jy strict, military discipline remained unaltered. Still, as formerly, the general was at liberty to behead any man serving in his camp, and to scourge with rods the staff officer as well as the common soldier ; nor were such pun- ishments inflicted merely on account of common crimes, but also when an officer had allowed himself to deviate from the orders which he had received, or when a division had allowed 'tself to be surprised or had fied from the field of battle. On the other hand, the new military organiza- ai)i™™B^se8 tion necessitated a far more serious and pro it soldiers. iQjjggd military training than the previous phai- lanx system, in which the solidity of the mass kept even tha inexperienced in their ranks. As, however, no special sol- dier-class sprang np, but on the contrary the army still re- mained, as before, a burgess army, this object was chiefly attained by abandoning the former mode of ranking the sol- diers according to property (p. 134) and arranging them 24* 562 Lam. Bdigion. [Book H according, to length of service. The Roman recruit now entered among the light-armed " skirmishers " (rorarit), who fought out of the line and especially with stone slings, and he advanced from this step by step to the first and then to the second division, till at length the soldiers of long se^ vice and experience were associated together in the corps of the triarii, which was numerically the weakest but imparted its tone and spirit to the whole army. The excellence of this military organization, which be- Military Came the primary cause of the superior political manipiditt"' position of the Roman community, chiefly de- (egion. pended on the three great military principles of maintaining a reserve, of combining the close and distant modes of fighting, and of combining the offensive and the defensive. The system of a reserve was already fore- shadowed in the earlier employment of the cavalry, but it was now completely developed by the partition of the army into three divisions and the reservation of the flower of the veterans for the last and decisive shock. While the Hel- lenic phalanx had developed the close, and the oriental squadrons of horse armed with bows and light missile spears the distant, modes of fighting respectively, the Ro- man combination of the heavy javelin with the sword pro- duced results similar, as has justly been remarked, to those attained in modern warfare by the introduction of bayonet muskets ; the volley of javelins prepared the way for the sword encounter, exactly in the same way as a volley of musketry now precedes a charge with the bayonet. Lastly, the thorough system of encampment allowed the Romans to combine the advantages of defensive and offensive war and to decline or give battle according to circumstances and in the latter case to fight under the ramparts of their camp just as under the walls of a fortress — ^the Roman, says a Roman proverb, conquers by sitting still. That this new military organization was in the main a Roman, or at any rate Italian, remodelling and jnanipuiai improvement of the old Hellenic tactics of the '°^'™' phalanx, is plain. If some germs of the system Chat, vm.] Military System. 363 of reserve and of the individualizing of the smaller suhdi visions of the army are found to occur among the later Greek strategists, especially Xenophon, this only shows that they felt the defectiveness of the old system, but wej'3 not well able to remedy it. The manipular legion appears fully developed in the war with Pyrrhus ; when and under what circumstances it arose^ whether at once or gradually, can no longer be ascertained. The first tactical system which the .Romans encountered, fundamentally different from the ear- lier Italo-Hellenic system, was the Celtic sword-phalanx. It is not impossible that the subdivision of the army and the intervals between the maniples in front were arranged with a view to resist, as they did resist, its first and only dangerous charge ; and it accords with this hypothesis that Marcus FuriusCamillus, the most celebrated Roman gen- eral of the Gallic epoch, is presented in various detached notices as the reformer of the Roman military system. The further traditions associated with the Samnite and Pyr rhic wars are neither sufficiently accredited, nor can they be arranged in proper order ; * although it is in itself probar ble that the prolonged Samnite mountain warfare exercised a lasting influence on the individual development of the Ro- man soldier, and that the struggle with one of the first mas- * According to Eotdan tradition the Eomans originally carried square sMelda, after which they borrowed from the Etruscans the round hoplite shield (clupeus, aank), and from the Samnites the later square tiaeld {scutum, &v^i6q), and the javelin (veru) (Diodor. Vat. Fr. p. 54; Sallust. Oat. 61, 38 ; Virgil, Aen. vii. 665 ; Festus, Fp. v. Samnitta^ p. 327, Mull. ; and the authorities cited in Marquardt, Handh. iii. 2, 241). But it may be regarded as certain that the hoplite shield or, in othei words, the tactics of the Doric phalanx were imitated not from the Etrua- cans, but direc';ly from the Hellenes. As to theacatom, that large, cylin- drical, convex leather shield must certainly have taken the place of the flat copper clupeus, when the phalanx was broken up into maniples ; but the indisputable derivation of the word from the Greek casts suspicion on the derivation of the thing itself from the Samnites. From the Greeks the Romans derived also the sling (fvmda iiom atfivdovt), like fiiis from aifidti)^ (p. 299): The pilum waa considered by the anciuLiti % thoroughly Roman invention. 564 Law. Religion. [Book H ters of the art of war, belonging to the school of the great Alexander, effected an improvement in the technical features of the Eoman militarr system. In the national economy agriculture was, and continued to be, the social and political basis both of the Economy. RoiTian Community and of the new Italian state. ',9 mere, rpj^^ common assembly and the army consisted of Roman farmers ; what as soldiers they had acquired by the sword, they secured as colonists by the plough. The insolvency of the middle class of landholders gave rise to the formidable internal crises of the third and fourth centu- ries, amidst which it seemed as if the young republic could not but be destroyed. The revival of the Latin farmer- class, which was produced during the fifth century partly by the large assignations of land and incorporations, partly by the fall in the rate of interest and the increase of the Roman population, was at once the effect and the cause of the mighty development of Roman power. The acute sol- dier's eye of Pyrrhus justly recognized the cause of the political and military ascendancy of the Romans in the flourishing condition of the Roman farms. But the rise Fanning of ^^'^ ^^ husbandry on a large scale among the estates. Romans appears to fall within this period. In earlier times indeed there existed landed estates of — at least comparatively — ^large size ; but their management was not farming on a large scale, it was simply a husbandry of nu- merous small parcels (p. 255). On the other hand the enactment in the law of 387, which is not inap- plicable to the earlier mode of management but fet is far more appropriate to the later, viz. that the land- nolder should be bound to employ along with his slaves a pro fortional number of free persons (p. 382), may well be regarded as the oldest trace of the later centralized farming of estates ; * and it deserves notice that even here at its first * Varro {Be. R. R., i. 2, 9) evidently conceives the author of th» Licinian agrarian law as farming in person his extensive lands ; although the story may easily have been invented to explain the cognomen (Stolo) CiiAP VIII.] Military System. 668 emergence it essentially rests on sla^'eholding. How i; arose, must remain an undecided point ; possibly the Car> thaginian plantations in Sicily served as models to the old« est Roman landholders, and perhaps even the appearance of wheat in husbandry by the side of spelt (p. 250), which Vnrro places about the period of the decemvirs, was con« siected with that altered style of management. Still less can we ascertain how far this method of husbandry had already during this period spread ; but the history of the wars with Hannibal leaves no doubt that it cannot yet have become the rule, nor can it have yet absorbed the Italian farmer class. Where it did come into vogue, however, it annihilated the older clientship based on the precarium ; just as the modern system of large farms has been formed by the suppression of petty holdings and the conversion of hides into farm-fields. It admits of no doubt that the re- striction of this agricultural clientship very materially con- tributed towards the distress of the class of small cultiva- tors. Respecting the internal intercourse of the Italians witlj each other our written authorities are silent ; teroouTBe in coins alone furnish some information. We have ^' already mentioned (p. 261) that in Italy, with the exception of the Greek cities and of the Etruscan Popu- lonia, there was no coinage during the first three centuries of Rome, and that cattle in the first instance, and subse- quently copper by weight, served as the medium of ex- change. Within the present epoch occurred the transition on the part of the Italians from the system of barter to that of money ; and in their money they were naturally led at first to Greek models. The circumstances of central Italy led however to the adoption of copper instead of silver aa the metal for their coinage, and the unit of coinage was pri< marily based on the previous unit of value, the copper pound ; hence they cast their coins instead of stamping them, for no die would have sufficed for pieces so large and heavy. There seems from the first to have been a fixed ratio for the relative value of copper and silver (25D : 1), {J66 Law. BeUgion. [Book II and with refereuce to that ratio the copper coinivge seems to have been issued ; so that, for example, in Rome the largd copper piece, the as, was equal in value to a scruplu {^J^ of a pound) of silver. It is a circumstance hiatorically aiore remarkable, that coining in Italy mobt probably oiigi- nated in Home, and in fact with the decemvirs, who found in the Solonian legislation a pattern for the regulation of their coinage ; and that from Rome it spread over a nun^- ber of Latin, Etruscan, Umbrian, and East Italian commu- nities, — a clear proof of the superior position which Rome from the beginning of the fourth century held in Italy. As all these communities subsisted side by side in formal inde- pendence, the monetary standard for each was in law entirely local, and the territory of every city had its own monetary system. Nevertheless the standards of copper coiiiiigo in central and northern Italy may be comprehended in three groups, within which the coins in common intercourse seem to have been treated as identical. These groups are, first, the coins of the cities of Etruria lying north of the Cimin- ian forest and those of Umbria ; secondly, the eciins of Rome and Latium ; and lastly, those of the eastern sea- board. We have already observed that the Roman coins held a certain ratio to silver by weight; on the other hand we find those of the east coast of Italy placed in a definite proportional relation to the silver coins which were current from an early period in southern Italy, and the standard of which was adopted by the Italian immigrants, such as the Bruttians, Lucanians, and Nolans, by the Latin colonies in that quarter, such as Cales and Suessa, and even by the Ro- mans themselves for their possessions in Lower Italy. Ac- cordingly the inland traffic of Italy must have been divided into corresponding provinces, which dealt with one another like foreign nations. In transmarine commerce the relations we have pre. viously described (p. 266) between Sicily and tine com- Latium, Etruria and Attica, the Adriatic and Tarentum, continued to subsist during the epoch before us or rather, strictly speaking, belonged to it ; foi Chap, viil] MilUo/ry System. 661 although facia of this class, which as a rule ate mentioned without a date, have been placed together for the purpose of presenting a general view under the first period, the state- ments made apply equally to the present. The clearest evidence in this respect is, of course, that of the coins. As the strik.ng of Etruscan silver money after an Attic stand- ard (p. 266), and the pei etrating of Italian and especially of Latin copper into Sicily (p. 267) testify to the two for* iner routes of traffic, so the equivalence, which we have just mentioned, between the silver money of Magna Graecia and the copper coinage of Picenum and Apulia, forms, with numerous other indications, an evidence of the active traffic which the Greeks of Lower Italy, the Tarentines in particu- lar, held with the east Italian seaboard. The commerce again, which was at an earlier period perhaps still more active, between the Latins and the Campanian Greeks seems to have been disturbed by the Sabellian immigration, and to have been of no great moment during the first hundred and fifty years of the republic. The refusal of the Sam- nites in Capua and Cumae to supply the Eomans with grain in the famine of 343 may be regarded as an in- dication of the altered relations which subsisted between Latium and Campania, till at the commencement of the fifth century the Roman arms restored and gave in- creased impetus to the old intercourse. Touching on details, we may be allowed to mention, as one of the few dated facts in the history of Roman com- merce, the notice drawn from the annals of 300. Ardea, that in 454 the first barber came from Sicily to Ardea; and to dwell for a moment on the painted pottery which was sent chiefly from Attica, but also from Corcyra and Sicily, to Lucania, Campania, and Etruria, to ■erve thei'e for the decoration of tombs — a traffic, as to (he circumstances of which we are accidentally better informed than as to any other article of transmarine commerce. ' The commencement of this import trade probably falls about the period of the expulsion of the Tarquins ; for the vases of the oldest style, which are of very rare occurrence in 868 Law. Religion. [Book U R)O-450' It-^lyi were probably painted in the second .half of the third century of tha dty, while those of the chaste style, occurring in greater numberSj 100-360. belong to the first half, those of the most fin- ished beauty to the second half, of the fourth century ; and the immense quantities of the other vases, often marked by showiness and size but seldom by excel- lence in workmanship, must be assigned as a whole to the following century. It was from the Hellenes 350-250. undoubtedly that the Italians derived this cus- tom of embellishing tombs ; but while the moderate means and fine discernment of the Greeks confined the practice in their case within narrow limits, it was stretched in Italy by barbaric opulence and barbaric extravagance far beyond its original and proper bounds. It is a significant circumstance, however, that in Italy this extravagance meets us only in the lands that had a Hellenic semi-culture. Any one who can read such records will perceive in the cemeteries of Etruria and Campania — the mines whence our museums have been replenished — a significant commentary on the ac- counts of the ancients as to the Etruscan and Campauian semi-culture stifled amidst wealth and arrogance (p. 434, 455). The homely Samnite character on the other hand re- mained at all times a stranger to this foolish luxury ; the absence of Greek pottery from the tombs exhibits, quite as palpably as the absence of a Samnite coinage, the slight de- velopment of commercial intercourse and of urban life iu this region. It is still more worthy of remark that Latiuin also, although not less near to the Greeks than Etruria and Campania, and in closest intercourse with them, almost wholly refrained from such sepulchral decorations. It ia more than probable that in this result we have to recognize the influence of the stern Roman morality or — if the ex- pression be preferred — of the rigid Roman police. Closely connected with this subject are the already-mentioned inter- dicts, which the law of the Twelve Tables fulminated against purple bier-cloths and gold ornaments placed beside tha dead ; and the banishment of all silver plate, excepting the Chap. VIIl.] MUitory System. 569 salt-cellar and sacrificial ladle, from the Roman household so far at least as sumptuary laws and the terror of censorial censure could banish it : even in architecture we shall again encounter the same spirit of hostility to luxury whether noble or ignoble. Although, however, in consequence of these influences Rome probably preserved a certain outward simplicity longer than Capua and Volsinii, her commerce and trade — on which, in fact, along with agriculture her prosperity from the beginning rested — must not be regard- ed as having been inconsiderable, or as having less sensibly experienced the influence of her new commanding position. No urban middle class in the proper sense of that term, Capital in ^'^ body of independent tradesmen and mer- Eome. chants, was ever developed in Rome. The cause of this was — in addition to the disproportionate centraliza- tion of capital which occurred at an early period — mainly the employment of slave labour. It was usual in antiquity, and was in fact a necessary consequence of slavery, that the minor trades in towns were very frequently carried on by slaves, whom their master established as artisans or mer- chants ; or by freedmen, in whose case the master not only frequently furnished the capital, but also regularly stipu- lated for a share, often the half, of the profits. Retail trad- ing and dealing in Rome were undoubtedly constantly on the increase ; and there are proofs that the trades which minister to the luxury of great cities began to be concen- trated in Rome — the Ficoroni casket for instance was de- signed in the fifth century of the city by a Praenestine artist and was sold to Praeneste, but was nevertheless manufao- tured in Rome.* But as the net proceeds even of retail business flowed for the most part into the cofiers of the great houses, no industrial and commercial middle-class arose to an extent corresponding to that increase. As little * The conjecture that Noviua Plautius, the artist who wrought at this casket in Rome for Dindia Maoolnia, may have been a Oampanian, is refuted by the old Praenesti.ie tomb-stones recently discovered, on which, among other Macolnii and Flautii, there occurs also a Luciui Magolnius, son of Plautius (i. Magolnio Pla. /.). MQ Law. Religion. [Book tt were the great merchants and great manufacturers marked off as a distinct class from the great landlords. On the one hand, the latter were from ancient times (p. 669, 347) simultaneously traders and capitalists, and combined in their hands lending on security, trafficking on a great scale, the undertaking of contracts, and the executing of works fci the state. On the other hand, from the emphatic- moral im- portance which in the Roman commonwealth attached to the possession of land, and from its constituting the sole basis of political privileges — a basis which -was infringed for the first time only towards the close of this epoch (p. 397) —it was undoubtedly at this period usual for the fortunate speculator to invest part of his capital in land. It is clear enough also from the political privileges given to freedmen possessing freeholds (p. 397), that the Roman statesmen sought in this way to diminish the dangerous class of the rich who had no land. But while neither an opulent civic middle class nor a DeTeiop- strictly close body of capitalists grew up in Borne as a Rome, it was constantly acquiring more and great city. more the character of a great city. This is plainly indicated by the increasing number of slaves crowd- ed together in the capital (as attested by the very serious slave conspiracy of 335), and still more by the increasing multitude of freedmen, which was gradually becoming inconvenient and dangerous, as we may safely infer from the considerable tax imposed on manumis- jg„ sions in 397 (p. 390) and from the limitation of 804. the political rights of freedmen in 450 (p. 397). For not only was it implied in the circumstances that the great majority of the persons manumitted had to devote themselves to trade or comm^erce, but manumissif n itself among the Romans was, as we have already said, less an act of liberality than an industrial speculation, the mas- ter often finding it more for his interest to share the profiti of the trade or commerce of the freedman than to assert his title to the whole proceeds of the labour of his alave. Th« Increase of emancipations must therefore have necessarily Utttp. VIII.] MiUtary System. 571 kept pace with the increase of the comir.ercial and industria' activity of the Romans. A similar indication of the rising importance of urban Utban life in Rome is presented by the great develop- pouce. ment of the urban police. To this period prob- ably belong in great measure the enactments under which ftie four aediles divided the city into four police distiicts, and made provision for the discharge of their equally impoi> tant and difficult fiinctions — for the efficient repair of the network of drains small and large by which Rome was per- vaded, as well as of the public buildings and places ; foi the proper cleansing and paving of the streets ; for prevent- ing the nuisances of ruinous buildings, dangerous animals, or foul smells ; for the removing of waggons from the high- way except during the hours of evening and night, and gen- erally for the keeping open of the communication ; for the uninterrupted supply of the market of the capital with good and cheap grain ; for the destruction of unwholesome arti- cles, and the suppression of false weights and measures ; and for the special oversight of baths, taverns, and houses of bad fame. In respect to buildings the regal period, particularly the epoch of the great conquests, probably accom- plished more than the first two centuries of the republic. Structures like the temples on the Capitol and on the Aventine and the great Circus were probably as offensive to the frugal fathers of the city as to the burgesses who gave their taskwork ; and it is remarkable that per- haps the most considerable building of the republican period before the Samnite wars, the temple of Ceres in the Circas, was a work of Spurius Cassius (261), who in more than one respect sought to lead the com- raonwealth back to the traditions of the kmgs. The gov- erning aristocracy moreover repressed private luxury with a rigour such as the rule of the kings, if prolonged, would impuiBo certainly not have displayed. But at length pventoit. even the senate was no longer able to resist the superior force of circumstances. It was Appius Claudiu* 572 Law. Religion. [Book 11 who in his epoch-making censorship (442) thre^ aside the antiquated rustic system of parsimoni ous hoarding, and taught his fellow-citizens to make a wor- thy use of the public resources. He began that noble sys. tern of public works of general utility, which justifies, if anything can justify, the military successes of Rome w hen viewed in the light of the well-being of the nations, and which even now in its ruins furnishes some idea of tlie great- ness of Rome to thousands on thousands who have never read a page of her history. To him the Roman state was indebted for its first great military road, and the city of Rome for its first aqueduct. Following in the steps of Claudius, the Roman senate wove around Italy that network of roads and fortresses, the formation of which has already been de- scribed (p. 527), and without which, as the history of all military states from the Achaemenides down to the creator of the road over the Simplon shows, no military hegemony can subsist. Following in the steps of Claudius, Manius Curius built from the proceeds of the Pyrrhic spoil a second 272. aqueduct for the capital (482) ; and some years 280. previously (464) with the gains of the Sabine war he opened up for the Velino, at the point above Terni where it falls into the Nera, that broader chan- nel in which the stream still flows, with a view to drain the beautiful valley of Rieti and thereby to gain space for a large burgess settlement along with a modest farm for him- self. Such works, in the eyes of persons of intelligence, threw into the shade the aimless magnificence of the Hel- lenic temples. The style of living also among the citizens now was altered. About the time of Pyrrhus silver plate began to make its appearance on Roman tables, and the chronirlers date the disappearance of shingle roofs in Rome from 470.* The new capital of Italy gradually laid aside its village-like aspect, and now began • We have already mentioned the censorial stigma attached to Pub lius Cornelius Rufinua (consul 464, 477) for his silver plate (p. 652). The strange statement of Fabius (in Stra>)0, v. p. 228) that the Bomans first became given to luxury {aus&i.a9-a\, tov Tikoitov Ciup. V1II.J Military System. 5(3 to embellish itselr". It was not yet indeed custoinary t« strip the temples in conquered towns of their ornaments fof the decoration of Rome ; but the beaks of the galleys of Antium were displayed at the orator's platform in the Fo- rum (p. 461) ; and on public festival days the gold-mounted shields brought home from the battlefields of Samnium were exhibited along the stalls of the market (p. 478). The pro- <:€eds of fines were specially applied to the paving of the highways in and near the city, or to the erection and embel- lishment of public buildings. The wooden booths of the butchers, which stretched along the Forum on both sides, gave way, first on the Palatine side, then on that also which faced the Carinae, to the stone stalls of the money-changers ; so that this place became the Exchange of Rome. Statues of the famous men of the past, of the kings, priests, and heroes of the legendary period, and of the Grecian hospes, who was said to have interpreted to the decemvirs the laws of Solon ; honorary columns and monuments dedicated to the great burgomasters who had conquered the Veientes, the Latins, the Samnites, to state envoys who had perished while executing their instructions, to rich women who had be- queathed their property to public objects, nay even to cele- brated Greek philosophers and heroes such as Pythagoras and Alcibiades, were erected on the Capitol or in the Fo- rum. Thus, now that the Roman community had become a great power, Rome itself became a great city. Lastly Rome, as head of the Romano-Italian confede- SiiTerBtand- racy, not only entered into the Hellenistic state- ard of value, gygtem, but also Conformed to the Hellenic sys- tem of moneys and coins. Up to this time the different communities of northern and central Italy, with few excep- tions, had struck only a copper currency ; the south Italian towns again universally had a currency of silver ; and there were as many legal standards and systems of coinage as after the conquest of the Sabines, is evidently only another version of th« game story ; fur the conquest of the Sabines took p'nce in thfj first coo- sulate of Rnfinus. 74 Law. Mdigion. [Book H there were sovereign communities m Italy. In 485 all these local mints were restricted to the isuing of small coin ; a general standard of currency ap- licable to all Italy was introduced, and the coining of the jrrenoy was centralized in Rome ; Capua alone continued ) retain its own silver coinage struck in the name of Rome, ut after a different standard. The new monetary system as based on the legal ratio subsisting between the two letals, as it had long been fixed (p. 565), The common lonetary unit was the piece of ten asses, or the denarius, hich weighed in copper 3-J- and in silver t^, of a Roman ound, a trifle more than the Attic drachma. At first cop- er money still predominated in the coinage ; and it ia robable that the earliest silver denarius was coined chiefly ir Lower Italy and for intercourse with other lands. As le victory of the Romans over Pyrrhus and Tarentum and le Roman embassy to Alexandria could not but engage the loughts of the contemporary Greek statesman, so the saga- ous Greek merchant might well ponder as he looked on lese new Roman drachmae. Their flat, unartistic, and Lonotonous stamping appeared poor and insignificant by le side of the marvellously beautiful contemporary coins r Pyrrhus and the Siceliots ; nevertheless they were by no leans, like the barbarian coins of antiquity, slavishly imi- ited and unequal in weight and alloy, but, on the contrary, orthy from the first by their independent and careful exe- ition to be placed on a level with any Greek coin. Thus, when the eye turns from the development of con- stitutions and from the national struggles for e Latin dominion and for freedom which agitated Italy, ition ity. ^^^ Rome in particular, from the banishment F the Tarquinian house to the subjugation of the Samnite* id the Italian Greeks, and rests on those calmer spheres f hitman existence which history nevertheless pervades id rules, it everywhere encounters the reflex influence of 16 great events, by which the Roman burgesses burst the onds of patrician sway, and the rich variety of the national iltures of Italy gradually perished to enrich a single pec Chap, vni.3 MiUtaty Systern. 67 & pie. While the historian may not attempt to follow out the great course of events into the infinite multiplicity of individtial detail, he does not overstep his province when, laying hold of detached fragments of scattered tradition, he indicates the most important changes which during this epoch took place in the national life of Italy. The fact tliat in such an inquiry the life of Eome becomes still more prominent than in the earlier epoch is not merely the result of the accidental blanks of our tradition ; it was an essen- tial consequence of the change in the political position of Rome, that tlie Latin nationality should more and more cast the other nationalities of Italy into the shade. We have already referred to the fact, that at this epoch the neigh- bouring lands — southern Etruria, Sabina, the land of the Volseians, and even Campania — began to become Roman- ized, as is attested by the almost total absence of monu- ments of the old native dialects, and by the occurrence of very ancient Roman inscriptions in those regions. The numerous individual assignations and colonial establish- ments scattered throughout Italy were, not only in a mili- tary but also in a linguistic and national point of view, the advanced posts of the Latin stock. It is true that the Latinizing of the Italians was scarcely at this time the aire, of Roman policy ; on the contrary, the Roman senate seems to have intentionally upheld the distinction between the Latin and other nationalities, and to have by no means ab- solutely allowed the introduction of Latin into official use among the communities dependent on Rome. The force of circumstances, however, is stronger than even the strongest government : the language and customs of the Latin people immediately shared its ascendancy in Italy, and already began to midermine the other Italian nationalities. These nationalities were at the same time assailed from another quarter and by an ascendancy resting on Hei^tttan another basis — by Hellenism. This was the to Italy. period when Hellenism began to become con- scious of its intellectual superiority to the other nations, and to diffuse itself on every side. Italy did not remain 676 Law. Religion. [Book n. nnaffected by it. The most remarkable phenomenon of this sort is presented by Apulia, which after the fifth century of Rome gradually laid aside its barbarian dialect and si leutly became Hellenized. This change was brought about, as in Macedonia and Epirus, not by colonization, but by civilization, which seems to have gone hand in hand with tho land commerce of Tarentum ; at least that hypothesis is favoured by the facts, that the districts of the Poediculi and Daunii who were on friendly terms with the Tarentines carried out their Hellenization more completely than the Sallentines who lived nearer to Tarentum but were con- stantly at feud with it, and that the towns that were soonest Graecized, such as Arpi, were not situated on the coast. The stronger influence exerted by Hellenism over Apulia than over any other Italian region is explained partly by its position, partly by the slight development of any national culture of its own, and partly perhaps by its nationality presenting a character less alien to the Greek stock than that of the rest of Italy (p. 32). We have already called attention (p. 455) to the fact that the southern Sabellian stocks, although at the outset in concert with the tyrants of Syracuse they crushed and destroyed the Hellenism of Magna Graecia, were at the same time affected by contact and mingling with the Greeks, so that some of them, such as the Bruttians and Nolans, adopted the Greek language by the side of their native tongue, and others, such as the Lucanians and part of the Campanians, adopted at least Greek writing and Greek manners. Etruria likewise showed tendencies towards a kindred development in the remarkable vases which have been discovered (p. 567) be- longing to this period, rivalling those of Campania and Lu- cania ; and though Latium and Samnium remained more strangers to Hellenism, there were not wanting there also traoes of an incipient and ever-growing influence of Greek culture. In all branches of the development of Rome dur- ing this epoch, in legislation and coinage, in religion, in the formation of national legend, we encounter traces of the Greeks ; and from the commencement of the fifth century Chap, viii.] M.%litary System. 577 In particular, in other words, after the conquest of Cam- pania, the Greek influence on Eoman life appears; rapidly and constantly on the increase. In the fourth century oc- curred the erection of the " Qraecostasis " — remarkable in the very form of the word — a platform in the Roman Fo- rum for eminent Greek strangers and primarily for the Massiliots (p. 534). In the following century the annals began to exhibit Romans of quality with Greek surnames, such as Philippus or in Roman form Pilipus, Philo, So- phus, Hypsaeus. Greek customs gained ground : such as the non-Italian practice of placing inscriptions in honour of the dead on the tomb — of which the epitaph of Lucius Scipio (consul in 456) is the oldest example known to us ; the fashion, also foreign to the Italians, of erecting without any decree of the state honour- ary monuments to ancestors in public places — a system begun by the great innovator Appius Claudius, when he caused bronze shields with images and eulogies of his an- cestors to be suspended in the new temple of Bellona (442) ; the distribution of branches of palms to the competitors, introduced at the Roman national 293. festival in 461 ; above all, the Greek manners foeekhaij"-' and habits at table. The custom not of sitting its at table. as formerly on benches, but of reclining on couches, at table ; the postponernent of the chief meal from noon to between two and three o'clock iu the afternoon ac- cording to our mode of reckoning ; the institution of mas- ters of the revels at banquets, who were appointed from among the guests present, generally by throwing the dice, and who then prescribed to the company what, how, and when they should drink ; the table-chants sung in succession by the guests, which, however, in Rome were not scolia, but lays iji praise of ancestors — all these were not primitive customs in Rome, but were borrowed from the Greeks at a very early period, for in Cato's time these usages were al- ready common a,nd had in fact partly fallen into disuse ^ain. We must therefore place their introduction in this period at the latest. A characteristic feature also was the 578 Law. Religion. [Book u erection of statues to " the wisest and the bravest Greek " in the Roman Forum, which took place by command of tha Pythian Apollo during the Samnite wars. The selection fell on Pythagoras and Alcibiades, the saviour and the Han- nibal of the western Hellenes. The extent to which an acquaintance with Greek was already diffused in the fiflh century among the leading Romans is shown by the embas- sies of the Romans to Tarentum — when their mouthpiece spoke, if not in the purest Greek, at any rate without an interpreter — and of Cineas to Rome. It scarcely admits of a doubt that from the fifth century the young Romans who devoted themselves to state affairs universally acquired a knowledge of what was then the general language of the world and of diplomacy. Thus in the intellectual sphere Hellenism made ad- vances quite as incessant as the efforts of the Romans in their career of outward conquest ; and the secondary na- tionalities, such as the Samnltes, Celts, and Etruscans, hard pressed on both sides, were ever losing their inward vigour as well as narrowing their outward bounds. When the two great nations, both arrived at the height Eome and '^^ their development, began to mingle in hostile the Romans qj. jjj friendly contact, their antagonism of char- epooii. acter was at the same time prominently and fully brought out — the total want of individuality in the Italian and especially in the Roman character, as contrasted with the boundless variety, lineal, local, and personal, of Hellenism. There was no epoch of mightier vigour in the history of Rome than the epoch from the institution of the republic to the subjugation of Italy. That epoch laid the foundations of the commonwealth both within and without ; it created a united Italy ; it gave birth to the traditional groundwork of the national law and of the national history; it originated the^iZam and the maniple, the construction of roads and of aqueducts, the farming of estates and tha monetary system ; it moulded the she-wolf of the Capitol and designed the Ficoronj casket. But the individuals, who contributed the several stones to this gigantic structure and Chap, vm.] Military System. 579 cemented them together, have disappeared without leaving a trace, and the nations of Italy did not merge into that of Rome more completely than the single Roman hurgesa merged in the Roman community. As the grave closes alilie over all whether important or insignificant, so in the roll of the Roman burgomasters the empty scion of nobil. ity stands undistinguishable by the side of the great states- man. Of the few records that have reached js from this period none is more venerable, and none at the same time more characteristic, than the epitaph of Lucius Cornelius Scipio, who was consul in 456, and three years afterwards took part in the decisive battle of Sentinum (p. 486). On the beautiful sarcophagus, in noble Doric style, which eighty years ago still enclosed the dust of the conqueror of the Samnites, the following sentence is inscribed : — CornUius I/ueius — ScipiA Barbdtiis, Gnaivddpatri progndtus, — -/drtis vir sapUnxque, Quoius forma virtu — fei parisuma fuity Consdl censdr aidilis — guei fuil apid vos, Taurdsid Cisaiina — Sdmnid cepit^ &ubigit omnS Loucd/nam — dpsid&sque abdoHcit, Innumerable others who had been at the head of the Roman commonwealth, as well as this Roman statesman md warrior, might be commemorated as having been of no- ble birth and of manly beauty, valiant and wise ; but there i^ras no more to record regarding them. It is no mere 'ault of tradition that among all these Cornelii, Fabii, Pa- jirii and the like, v e nowhere encounter a distinct individual igure. The senator was supposed to be no worse and no setter than other senators, nor at all to differ from them. t was not necessary and not desirable that any burgess ihould surpass the rest, whether by showy silver plate and Hellenic culture, or by uncommon wisdom and excellence. Excesses of the former kind were reproved by the censor, ind for the latter the constitution gave no scope. The Rome of this period belonged to no individual ; it was 680 LoM. Religion. [Book H iiecessajry for all the burgesses to be alike, that each of them- might be like a king. No doubt, even now Hellenic individual development, Appins began to assert its claims by the side of that oiaiidins. levelling system ; and the genius and force which it exhibited bear, no less than the tendency to which it opposed itself, the full stamp, of that great age. Wo can but name a single man in connection with it ; but he svas, as it were,, the incarnation of the idea of progress, 413. 807. Appius Claudius (censor 442 ; consul 447, 458), ^- the great-great-grandson of the decemvir, was a man of the old nobility and proud of the long line of his aacestors ; but yet it was he who set aside the restriction which confined the full franchise of the state to the free- holders (p. 397), and who broke up the old system of finance (p. 571). From Appius Claudius date not only the; Roman aqueducts and highways, but also Roman jurispru- dence, eloquence, poetry, and grammar. The publication of a table of the Ugis actiones, speeches committed to writ- ing and Pythagorean sentences, and even innovations in orthography, are attributed to him. We may not on this account call him absolutely a democrat or include him in that opposition-party which found its champion in Manius Curius (p. 396) ; in him on the eontraiy the spirit of the ancient and modern patrician kings predominated — the spirit of the Tarquins and the Caesars, between whom he forms a connecting link in that five hundred years' interreg- num of extraordinary deeds and ordinary men. So long as Appius Claudius took an active part in public life, in his official conduct as well as bis general carriage he disregarded laws and customs on all hands with the hardihood and sauci- ress of an Athenian ; till, after having long retired from the political stage, the blind old man, returning as it were from the tomb at the decisive moment, overcame king Pyr- rhus in the senate, and first, formally and solemnly pro- claimed the complete sovereignty of Rome (p. 511). But the gifted man came too early or too late ; the gods made him blind on account of his untimely wisdom. It, was not BAP. vin,] Militamj System. 681 idividual genius that ruled in Rome and through Rome :n aly ; it was the one immoveable idea of a policy — propa ated from generation to generation in the senate — with th* iading maxims of which the sons of the senators were iiii- ued, when in the company of their fathers they made theit ppeai-ance in the senate hall and there listened to the w)s*> om of the men whose seats they were destined at some iture time to fill. Immense successes were thus obtained t an immense price ; for Nike too is followed by hei femesis. In the Roman commonwealth there was no spe- ial dependence on any one man, either on soldier or on eneral, and under the rigid discipline of its moral police 11 the idosynorasies of human character were extinguished, tome reached a greatness such as no other state of antiquity ttatned ; but she dearly purchased her greatness at the acrifice of the graceful variety, of the easy abandon, and f the inward freedom of Hellenic life. CHAPTER IX. ART AND SOIEKOB. Ths growth of art, and of poetic art especially, in anti quity was intimately associated with the devel' national™" opment of national festivals. The extraordinary thanksgiving-festival of the Roman community which had been organized in the previous period mainly under Greek influence, the ludi maximi or Bomani (p. 300), acquired during tlie present epoch a longer duration and greater variety in the amusements. Originally limited to one day, the festival was prolonged by an additional day after the happy termination of each of the three great revo- 1609. 494 lutions of 245, 260, and 387, and thus at the ' '^'' close of this period it had already a duration of four days.* A still more important circumstance was, that, probably * The account ^ven by DionysiuB (vi. 96 ; comp. Niebuhr, ii. 40) and by Plutarch deriving his statement from another passage in Dionysius ( Camill, 42), regarding the Latin festival, must be understood to apply to the Roman rather than the Latin games, as, apart from other grounds, is strikingly evident from comparing the latter passage with Liv. vi. 42 (Ritschl, Parerg. i. p. 813). Dionysius has perseveringly, according to his wont when in error, misunderstood the expression ludi maximi. There was, moreover, a tradition which referred the origin of theaa- tional festival not, as in the common version, to the conquest of ihe Latins by the first Tarquinius, but to the victory over the Latins at the lake Eegillus (Cicero, de Div. i. 26, 65 ; Dionys. vii. 71). That the im- portant statements preserved in the latter passage from Fabius really re- late to the ordinary thanksgiving-festival, and not to any special votive solemnity, is evident from the express allusion to the annual rocurrenc« of the festival, and from the exact agreement of the sum of the ex- penses with the statement in the Pseudo-Asoonius (p. 142 Or.) Chap. IX.] Art and Science, 583 on the institution of. the ourule aedileship (387) ■which was from the first entrusted with the preparation and oversight of the festival (p. 384), it lost its extraordinary character and its reference to a special vow made by the general, and took its place in the series of the ordinary annual festivals as the first of all. Never- theless the government adhered to the practice of allowing the spectacle proper — namely the chariot-race which was the principal performance — to take place not more than once at the close of the festival. On the other days the multitude were probably left mainly to furnish amusement for themselves, although musicians, dancers, rope-walkers, jugglers, jesters and such like would not fail to make their appearance on the occasion, whether hired or not. But about the year 390 an important change oc- curred, which must have been connected with the fixing and prolongation of the festival shortly before. The Roman -A- scaffolding of boards was erected at the ex- Btage. pense of the state in the Circus for the first three days, and suitable representations were provided on it for the entertainment of the multitude. That matters might not be carried too far however in this way, a fixed sum of 200,000 a.sses (£2055) was once for all appropriated from the exchequer for the expenses of the festival ; and the sum was not increased up to the period of the Punic wars. The aediles, who had to expend this sum, were obliged to defj-ay any additional expense out of their own pockets ; and it ia not probable that they contributed often or much from their own resojirces. That the new stage was generally under Greek influence, is proved by its very name {scaena, axijv^), Tt was no doubt at first designed merely for musicians and buffoons of all sorts, amongst whom the dancers to the flute, particularly those then so celebrated from Etruria, were probably the most distinguished ; but a public stage had now arisen in Eome and thus became accessible to the Roman poets. There was no want of such poets in Latium. Latiir 684 Art and Siiience. [Book a " strolling minstrels " or " ballad-singers " {gras singer^ satores, spatiatores) went from town to town and Satura. j.^^^^ house to house, and recited their chants [saturae, p. 54), gesticu.ating and dancing to the accompani- •jient of the flute. The measure was of course the only one that then existed, the so-called Saturnian (p. 296). No dis- tinct plot lay at the basis of the chants, and as little do ^hey appear to have been in the form of dialogue. We must conceive of them as resembling those monotonous— sometimes improvised, sometimes recited — ballads and tarantelle, such as one may still hear in the Roman hostel- ries. Songs of this sort accordingly early came upon the public stage, and certainly formed the first nucleus of the Roman theatre. But not only were these beginnings of the drama in Rome, as everywhere, modest and humble ; they were, in a remarkable manner, accounted from the very Censure of outset disreputable. The Twelve Tables de- ""• nounced evil and worthless song-singing, impos- ing severe penalties not only upon incantations but even on lampoons composed against a fellow-citizen or recited before his door, and forbidding the employment of wailing-wornen at funerals. But far more severely than by such legal re- strictions, the incipient exercise of art was affected by the moral anathema, which was denounced against these frivo- lous and mercenary trades by the sober earnestness of the Roman character. " The trade of a poet," says Cato, " in former times was not respected ; if any one occupiert himself with it or addicted himself to banquets, he waa called an idler." But now any one who practised dancing, music, or ballad-singing for money was visited with a double stigma, in consequence of the more and more con« /irmed disapproval of the acquisition of a livelihood by services rendered for hire. While accordingly the talcing part in the masked farces with stereotyped characters, that formed the usual native amusement (p. 297), was looked upon as a pardonable youthful frolic, the appearing on a public stage for mor.ey and without a mask was considered as directly infamous, and the singer and poet were in this Jhav EL] AH and Smenee. 583 •espedt placed quite on a level with the rope-dancer and the larlequin. Persons of this stamp were regularly pro» lounced by the censors (p. 550) incapable of serving in the mrgess-army or of voting in the burgess-assembly. More- »ver, not only was the direction of the stage regarded as )ertaining to the provinoeof the city police — a fact signifi- ant enough even in itself-^but the police was probably, 1 Ten at this period, invested with arbitrary powers of an iXtraordinary character against professional artists. Not inly did the police magistrates sit in judgment on the per- brmance after its conclusion — on which occasion wine flowed is copiously for those who had acquitted themselves well, is stripes fell to the lot of the bungler — but all the urban nagistrates were legally entitled to inflict bodily chastise- nent and imprisonment on any actor at any time and at my place. The necessary eifect 'of this was that dancing, nusic, and poetry, at least so far as they appeared on the )ublic stage, fell into the hands of the lowest classes of the )opulation, and especially into those of foreigners ; and vhile at this period poetry still played altogether too insig- lificant a part to attract foreign artists to its cultivation, he statement on the other hand, that in Rome all the music, lacred and profane, was really Etruscan, may be regarded IS already applicable to this period ; so that the ancient Liatin art of the flute, which was evidently at one time held n high esteem (p. 297), had been supplanted by foreign nusic. There is no mention of any poetical literature. Neither he masked plays nor the recitations of the stage can have lad any definitely settled text; on the contrary, they were )rdinarily improvised by the performers themselves as cir- 'umstances required. Of works composed at this period )osterity could point to nothing but a sort of Roman 'Works and Days" — counsels of a farmer to his son,* " A fragment has been preserved : — Hibemo pulvere, verno Into, grandia farra Cataille metes — iVe do not know by what right this was afterwards regarded as the oldest 25* 586 Art and Soienae. [Boor n. and the already-mentioned Pythagorean poems of Appius Claudius (p. 580), the first commencement of Roman poetry after the Hellenic type. Nothing of the poems of this epoch has survived but one or two epitaphs in Saturniai' measure (p. 579). Along with the rudiments of the Roman drama, the rudiments of Roman historical composition be- torioai com- loDg to this period ; both as regards the con- posi ion. temporary recording of remarkable events, and as regards the conventional settlement of the early history of the Roman community.- The writing of contemporary history was associated Begistera of 'viith the register of the magistrates. The regis- magistrates. jgp reaching farthest back, which was accessible to the later Roman inquirers and is still indirectly accessi- ble to us, seems to have been derived from the archives of the temple of the Capitoline Jupiter ; for it records the names of the annual presidents of the community onward from the consul Marcus Horatius, who consecrated that temple on the 13th Sept. in his year of office, and it also notices the vow which was made on occasion of a severe pestilence under the consuls Publius Servilius and Lucius Aebutius (according to the reckoning now cur- rent, 291 tr.c), that thenceforward a nail should be driven every hundredth year into the wall of the Capito- line temple. Subsequently it was the state officials who were learned in measuring and in writing, or in other words, the pontifices, that kept an official record of the names of the annual chief magistrates, and thus combined an annual, with the earlier monthly, calendar. Both these calendars were afterwards comprehended under the name of Fasti — > which strictly belonged only to the list of courf>days. This arrangement was probably adopted not long after the aboli- tiou of the monarchy ; for in fact an official record of tha annual magistrates was of urgent practical necessity for the Roman poem (Macrob. Sat. v. 20 ; Festas, Ep. i. fiaminiv*, p. 93, If, Setv. on Virg Georg. i. 101 ; Plin. xvii. 2. 14). Chap 11] AH cmd Science 687 purpose of determining the order of succession of official documents. But, if there was an official register of the consuls so old, it probably perished in the Gallic conflagraf tion (364) ; and the list of the pontifical college was subsequently completed from the Capitolir.e register which was not affected by that catastrophe, so far as this latter reached. That the list of presidents which we now have — although in collateral matters, and especially in genealogical statements, it has been supplemented from the family pedigrees of the nobility — is in substance based from the beginning on contemporary and credible records, admits of no doubt. But it reproduces the calendar years only imperfectly and approximately : for the consuls did not enter on office with the new year, or even on a definite day fixed once for all ; on the contrary from various causes tha day of entering on office was fluctuating, and the interregna that frequently occurred between two consulates were en- tirely omitted in the reckoning by official years. Accord- ingly, if the calendar years were to be reckoned by this list of consuls, it was necessary to note the days of enter- ing on and of demitting office in the case of each pair, along with such interregna as occurred ; and this too was prob- ably early done. But besides this, the list of the consuls was adjusted to the list of calendar years in such a way that a pair of magistrates were by accommodation assigned to each calendar year, and, where the list did not suffice, intercalary years were inserted, which are denoted in the later (Varronian) tables by the figures 379-383, 421, 430, 445, 453. From 291 u.c. (463 b.c.) the Roman list de- monstrably, not indeed in detail but yet on the whole, coin- cides with the Roman calendar, and is thus chronologically certain, so far as the defectiveness of the calendar itself allows. The 47 years preceding that date cannot be checked, but must likewise be at least in the main correct.* Whab- • The first places in the list alone excite suspicion, and may hav« been subsequently added with a view to round off the number of yesij between the flight of the king and the burning of the city to 120. 588 Art and Science. [Book n Bver lies beyond 245 tj.c. (509 b.c.) remains, chrbnologi. cally, in oblivion. No era was formed for ordinary use ; but in ritual nnat- uapitoiine ^^^^ ^^^Y reckoned from the year 6f the conse^ "■^ oration of the temple of the Capitdline Jupiter, with which the list of magistrates also started. The idea naturally suggested itself that, along with the names of the magistrates, the most important events occurring under their magistracy might be noted ; and from such notices appended to the catalogue of magistrates the Eoman annals arose, just as the chroni- cles of the middle ages arose out of the memoranda at- tached to the table of Easter. But it was not until a late period that the pontifices formed the scheme of a formal chronicle (liber annalis), which should Steadily year by yeai" record the names of all the magistrates and the remarkable events. Before the eclipse of the sun noticed under the 5th 403. of June 351, by which is probably meant 'that *•**■ of the 20th June 354, no solar eclipse was found ecorded from observation in the later chronicle of the vlty : its statements as to the numbers of the census only .jegin to sound credible after the beginning of the fifth cen- tury (pp. 140, 542) ; the cases of fines brought before the people, and the prodigies expiated on behalf of the com- munity, appear to have been regularly introduced into the annals only after the second half of the fifth century began.* To all appearance the institution of an organized book of annals, and — what was certainly associated with it — the re- vision (which we have just explained) of the earlier list of magistrates so as to make it a year-calendar by the inser tion, where chronologically necessary, of intercalary years, must have taken place in the first half of the fifth century. * Such isolated notices with definite dates as are fom\d with referent vo the earlier period can hardly perhaps bear strict examination. Tha 9tatement as to the removal of the old fig-tree from the Roman Forum in 260 is now shown to hick manuscript attestation (p. 252, note), and grave doubts have also arisen as to the apparently very credible account that twenty-one tribes were instituted in 259 (p. 861). Ohap. rs," Art and Sdence. 589 But even after it became a practically recognized duty of th.& pontif ex maximus to record year after year campaigns and colonizations, pestilences and famines, eclipses and por- tents, the deaths of priests and other men of note, the new 'lecrees of the people, and the results of the cersus, and to deposit these records in his official residence for permanent preservation and for any one's inspection, these recf^rda were still far removed from the character of real historical •writings. How scanty the contemporary record still was at tne close of this period and how ample room it left for tne caprice of subsequent annalists, is shown with especial clearness by a comparison of the accounts as to the cam- paign of 456 in the annals and in the epitaph of the consul Scipio.* The later historians were evidently unable to construct a readable and in some meas- ure connected narrative out of these natices from the boolc of annals ; and we should have difficulty, even if the book of annals still lay before us with its original contents, in writing thence a methodical history 6i the times. Such chronicles, however, did not exist merely in Rome ; eveiy Latin city possessed its annals as well as its pontiffs, as is clear from isolated notices relative to Ardea for instance, Ameria, and [nteramna on the Nar ; and from the collective mass of these city-chronicles some result might perhaps have been attained similar to what has been accomplished for the earlier middle ages by a comparison of the different monastic chronicles. Unfortunately the Romans in later times preferred to supply the defect by Hellenic or Hellen- izing falsehoods. Besides these official arrangements, meagre in plan and Family uncertain in treatment, for the conimemoration pedigrees. ^f past times and past events, 'there can scarcely hare existed at this epoch any other records immediately serviceable for 'Roman history. Of private chronicles we * P. 679. According to the annals Scipio commands in Etruria and his colleague in Samnium, aui Lucania :b during this year in league with Borne ; according to the epitaph Scipio conquers two towns in Samnium ind all Lucania. 690 Art wnd Scienco \hooiL U hnd no trace. The leading houses, however, were careful tc draw up genealogical tables, so important in a legal point cf view, and to have the family pedigree painted fOr a per- petual memorial on the walls of the entrance-hall. These lists, which at least named the magistracies held by the fam- ily, not only furnished a basis for family tradition, but doubtless at an early period had biographical notices at- tached to them. The memorial orations, which in Rome could not be omitted at the funeral of any distinguished person, and were ordinarily pronounced by the nearest relar tive of the deceased, consisted not merely in an enumerar tion of the virtues and excellences of the dead, but also in a recital of the deeds and virtues of his ancestors ; and so they were doubtless, even in the earliest times, transmitted traditionally from one generation to another. Many valu- able notices may by this means have been preserved ; but many daring perversions and falsifications also were in thia way introduced into tradition. But as the first steps towards writing actual history be- longed to this period, to it belonged also the Roman . f \ -, . . , early histo- first attempts to record, and to give conventioKal ty omo. gjjg^pg ^jj^ ^jjg primitive history of Rome. The sources whence it was formed were of course the same as they are everywhere. Isolated names and facts, the kings Numa Pompilius, Ancus Maroius, Tullus Hostilius, the con- quest of the Latins by king Tarquinius and the expulsion of the Tarquinian royal house, probably continued to live in a genuine tradition widely diffused and orally transmit- ted. Further materials were furnished by the traditions of the patrician clans, such as the various stories that relate to the Fabii, Other tales gave a symbolic and historical ver- sion of primitive national institutions, especially setting forth with great vividness the origin of rules of law. The sacredness of the walls was thus illustrated in the tale of the death of Remus, the abolition of blood-revenge in the tale of the end of king Tatius (p. 203, note), the necessity of the arrangement as to the pons suhlicius in the legend Chap. IX] Art and Science. 691 of Horatius Codes,* the origin of the provocaiio in the beautiful tale of the Horatii and Curiatii, the origin oi manumission and of the burgess-rights of freedmen in the tale of the Tarquinian conspiracy and the slave \ indicius. To the same class belongs the history of the foundation of the city itself, which was designed to connect the origin of Rome with Latium and with Alba, the general metropolis of the Latins. Historical glosses were annexed to the sur- names of distinguished Romans ; that of Publius Valerius the " servant of the people" {PopUcola.), for instance, gath- ered around it a whole group of such anecdotes. Above all, the sacred fig-tree and other spots and notable objects in the city were associated with a great multitude of sexton- tales of the same nature as those out of which, upwards of a thousand years afterwards, there grew up on the same ground the Mirabilia Urbis. Some attempts to link to- gether these different tales — the adjustment of the series of the seven kings, the reckoning of the duration of the mon- archy at 240 years in all, which was undoubtedly based on a calculation of the length of generations,! and even the commencement of an official record of these assumed facts — probably took place in this epoch. The outlines jf the narrative, and in particular its quasi-chronology, make their appearance in the later tradition so unalterably fixed, that for that very reason the fixing of them must be placed not in, but previous to, the literary epoch of Rome. If a bronze casting of the twins Romulus and Remus sucking the teats of the she-wolf was already placed beside the"sar cred fia-tree in 458, the Romans who subdued 296 Latium and Samnium must have heard the his« * This object of the legend la clear from Pliny the Elder {S. X. Iixvi. 15, 100). \ They appear to have reckoned three generations to the hundred years and to have rounded off the figures iSZ^ to 240, just as the epoch between the king's flight and the burning of the city was rounded off t« 120 years (p. 587 note). The reason why these precise numbers sug zested themselves, is apparent fr om the similar adjustment (above ex plained, p. 2'?3) of the measures of surface 692 Ah arid Sciertea, l^ook Xl tory of the origin of their ancestral citj in a form ndt greatly differing from what we read in Livy. Even the Aborigines — i. e. " those from the beginning " — that simple starting-point in the historical speculation of the Latin raCe< present themselves about 465 in the Sicilian au< 289 thor Callias. It is of the very nature of a chron- icle that it should attach pre-historic speculation to history and endeavour to go back, if not to the origin of heaven and earth, at least to the origin of the community ; and th^te is express testimony that the table of the pontifices specified the year of the foundation of Rome. Accordingly it may be assumed that, vrhen the pontifical college in the first half of the fifth century proceeded to substitute for the former scanty records — ordinarily confined to the names of the ma- gistrates — the scheme of a formal yearly chronirile, it alsO supplied the lack of a beginning by the history of the mon- archy and of its abolition, and, by placing the institution of the republic on the day of the consecration of the Capi- toline temple, the 13th of Sept. 345, furnished a semblance of connection between the dateless and the annalistic narrative. That in this earliest record of the origin of Rome the hand of Hellenism was at work, can scarcely be doubted. The speculations as to the primitive and subsequent population and as to the priority of pastoral life over agriculture, and the transformation of the man Romulus into the god Quirinus (p. 226), have quite a Greek aspect, and even the obscuring of the genuinely na- tional forms of the pious Numa and the wise Egeria by an admixture of alien elements of Pythagorean primitive wis- dom appears by no means to be one of the most recent ad" ditions to the Roman pre-historic annals. The pedigrees of the noble clans were completed in a manner analogous to these origines of the community and were, in the favourite style of heraldry, universally traced back to illustrious ancestors. The Aemilii, for instance, Calpurnii, Pinarii, and Pomponii professed to be descended from the four sons of Numa, Mamercus, Calpus, Pinus, and Pompo J and the Aemilii, yet further, from Mamercus, the Cbap. a.] Art and Science. 593 s son of Pythagoras, who was named the " winning speaker '' (uifiiXos). But, notwithstanding the Hellenic reminiscences that ar« everywhere apparent, these pre-historic annals of the com- munity and of the leading houses may be designated at least relatively as national, partly because they originated in Home, partly because they were primarily intended to form links of connection not between Rome and Greece, but be- tween Rome and Latium. It was Hellenic story and fiction that undertook the 'task of connecting Rome and Greece. Hellenic le- eaiiy histo- gend exhibits throughout an endeavour to keep ry o me. ^^^^ yf/i^h. the gradual extension of geogf jphical knowledge, and to form a dramatized geography by the aid of its numerous stories of voyagers and emigrants. In this, however, it seldom follows a simple course. An account like that of the earliest Greek historical work which men- tions Rome, the " Sicilian History " of Antiochus of Syra^ cuse (which ended in 330) — that a man named Sikelos had migrated from Rome to Italia, that is, to the Bruttian peninsula — such an account, simply giv- ing a historical form to the family affinity between the Ro mans, Siculi, and Bruttians, and free from all Hellenizing colouring, is a rare phenomenon. Greek legend as a whole is pervaded — and the more so, the later its rise — by a ten- dency to represent the whole barbarian world as having either issued from the Greeks or having been subdued by them ; and it early in this sense spun its threads also around "ihe west. For Italy the legends of Herakles and of the Argonauts were of less importance — although Hecataeua (+ after 257) is already acquainted with the Pillars of Herakles, and carries the Argo from the Black Sea into the Atlantic Ocean, from 'the latter into the Nile, and thus back to the Mediterra;nean — ^than were the homeward voyages connected with the fall of Uion, With the first dawn of information as to Italy Diomedes b^ins to wander in the Adriatic, and Odysseus in the Tyr" rhene Sea (p. 191); indeed the latter localization at anj 594 Ah and Science. [Book h rate was naturally suggested by the Homeric conception ol the legend. Down to the times of Alexander the countries on the Tyrrhene Sea belonged in Hellenic fable to the do- main of the legend of Odysseus ; Ephorus, who Me. ended his history with the year 414, and the so- S36. called Scylax (about 418) still substantially fol low it. Of Trojan voyages the whole earlier poetry has no knowledge ; in Homer Aeneas after the fall of Ilion rules over the Trojans that remained at home. It was the great remodeller of myths, Stesichorus (122- stesichonis. -^^1) who first in his "Destruction of Ilion " 632-633. brought Aeneas to the land of the west, that h(i mightpoetically enrich the world of fable in the country of his birtl*>and of his adoption, Sicily and Lower Italy, by the contrast of the Trojan heroes with the Hellenic. With him originated the poetical outlines of the fable as thenceforward fixed, especially the group of the hero and his wife, his little son and his aged father bearing the household gods, depart- ing from burning Troy, and the important identification of the Trojans with the Sicilian and Italian autochthones, which is especially apparent in the case of the Trojan trumpeter Misenus who gave his name to the promontory of Mise- num.* The old poet was guided in this view by the feeling that the barbarians of Italy were less widely removed from the Hellenes than other barbarians were, and that the rela- tion between the Hellenes and Italians might, when meas- ured poetically, be conceived as similiar to that between the Homeric Achaeans and the Trojans. This new Trojan fable soon came to be mixed up with the earlier legend of Odys- seus, while it spread at the same time more widely over Italy. According to Hellanicus (who wrote about 350) Odysseus and Aeneas came through the country of the Thracians and Molottians (Epirus'^ to Italy, where the Trojan women whom they had brought * The " Trojan colonies " in Sicily, mentioned by Thucydidea, th« psendo-Scylax, and otliers, as well as the designation of Capua as a Tro- jan foundation in Hecataeua, must also be traced to Stesichorus and bit identification oi the natives of italy and Sicily with tha Trojans. Ohap. IX] Art and Science. 695 with them burnt the ships, and Aeneas founded the city of Eome and named it after one of these Trojan women. To a similar effect, only with less absurdity, Aris- totle (370-432) related that an Achaean squad- ron cast upon the Latin coast had been set on fire by Trojan female slaves, and tnat the Latins had originated from the descendants of the Achaeans who were thus compelled to remain there and of their Trojan wives. With these tales were next mingled elements from the indigenous legend, the knowledge of which had been diffused as far as Sicily by the active intercourse between Sicily and Italy, at least towards the end of this epoch. In the version of the origin of Rome, which the Sicilian Callias gave about 465, the fables of Odysseus, Aeneas, and Romu- lus were intermingled.* But the person who really completed the conception subsequently current of this Trojan migration was Timaeus of Tauromenium in Sicily, who 262. concluded his historical work with 492. It is he who represents Aeneas as first founding La^ vinium with its shrine of the Trojan Penates, and as there- after founding Rome ; he must also have interwoven the Tyrian princess Elisa or Dido with the legend of Aeneas, for with him Dido is the foundress of Carthage, and Rome and Carthage are said by him to have been built in the same year.. These alterations were manifestly suggested by certain accounts that had reached Sicily respecting Latin manners and customs, in conj unction with the critical strug- gle which at the very time and place where Timaeus wrote was preparing between the Romans and the Carthaginians. In the main, however, the story cannot have been derived from Latium, but can only have been the good-for-nothing invention of the old " gossip-monger '' himself. Timaeua * According to Lis account Eom6, a woman who had fled from Ilion to Rome, married Latinus, king of the Aborigines, and bore to him three sons, Komus, Eomylus, and Telegonus. The last, who undoubtedly emerges here as founder of Tusculum and Praeneate, belongs, as is weU kuowu, to the legend of Odyiseus. dS>S Art and Science. [Btok ii had heard of the primitive temple of the household gods in Lavinium ; but the statement, that these were regarded by the Lavinates as the Penates brought by the followers of Aeneas from Ilion, is as certainly an addition of his own, as the ingenious parallel between the Roman October horse and the Trojan horse, and the exact inventory of the sacred objects of Lavinium — there were, our worthy author affirms, heralds' staves of iron and copper, and an earthern vase of Trojan manufacture. It is true that these same Penatea were not shown to any one for centuries afterwards ; but Timaeus was one of the historians who upon no matter are so fully informed as upon things unknowable. It is not without reason that Polybius, who knew the man, advises that he should in no case be trusted, and least of all where, as in this instance, he appeals to documentary proofs. In fact the Sicilian rhetorician, who professed to point out the grave of Thucydides in Italy, and who could find no higher praise for Alexander than that he had finished the conquest of Asia sooner than Isoorates finished his " Panegyric," was exactly the man to knead the naifve fictions of the earlier time into that ccmfused medley on which the play of acci dent has conferred so singular a celebrity. How far the Hellenic fables regarding Italian matters, such as they at first arose in Sicily, gained credit during this period in Italy itself, cannot be ascertained with precision. Those links of connection with the Odyssean cycle, which we subsequently meet with in the legends of the foundation of Tusculum, Pra,eneste, Antium, Ardea, and Cortona, must probably have been invented at this period ; and even the belief in the descent of the Romans from Trojan men or women must have been established at the close of this epoch in Rome, for the first demonstrable contact between Rome and the Greek east is the intercession of the senate on behalf of the " kindred " Ilians in 472. That 282. the fable of Aeneas was nevertheless of com- paratively recent origin in Italy, is shown by the extremely scanty measure of its localization as compared with the legend of Odysseus ; and at any rate the final adjustment GaA?. n.] Art and Soi&nox.. 597 of these tales, as well as their reconciliation w.th the legend of the origin of Rome, belongs only to the following age. While in, this way historical composition, or what was so called among the Hellenes,, busied itself in its own fash- ion with the pre-historic times of Italy, it left the contem. porary history of Italy almost untouched — a circumstance as significant of the sunken condition of Hellenic history, as it is to be for our sakes regretted. Theopompus of Chios jjg_ (who ended his work with 418) barely noticed in passing the capture of Rome by the Celts ; and Aristotle (p. 431), Clitarchus (p. 491), Theophrastus (p. 532), Heraclides of Pontus (+ about 450), incidentally mention particular events relating to Rome. It is only with Hieronymus of Cardia, who as the historian of Pyrrhus described also his Italian wars, that Greek historiography becomes an authority for the his- tory of Rome. Among the sciences, that of jurisprudence acquired an invaluable basis in the committing to writing of deora?™' the laws of the city in the years 303, 304. This code, known under the name of the Twelve Tables, is perhaps the oldest Roman document that deserves the name of a book. The nucleus of the so-called leges r&ffiae was probably not much more recent. These weie eertain precepts chiefly of a ritual nature, which rested upon traditioijal usage, and were probably promulgated to the general public under the form of royal enactments by the college of pontifices, which was entitled to point out but not to prescribe the law. Moreover it is probable that from the commencement of this period the more important de- crees of the senate — although not those of the people — were regularly recorded in writing ; for already in the earliest jonflicts between the orders disputes took place as to the niode of their preservation (pp. 357, 370). While the mass of written laws and documents thus in- creased, the foundations of jurisprudence in the proper sense were also firmly laid. It was ne- tessary that both the magistrates vvho were annually changed 598 Art and Science. [Book n. and the jurymen taken from the people should te enabled to resort to advisers (auciores), who were acquainted with the course of law and knew how to suggest a decision ac< cordant with precedents or, in the absence of these, resting on reasonable grounds. The pontifices who were wont to be consulted by the people regarding court-days and on all questions of difficulty and points of ceiemony relating to the worship of the gods, delivered also, when asked, coun- sels and opinions on other points of law, and thus devel- oped in the bosom of their college that tradition which formed the basis of Eoman private law, more especially the formulae of action proper for each particular muiae'for'' ^^®®' ^ ^^^ °^ formulae which embraced all ftctions. these actions, along with a calendar which speci- fied the court-days, was published to the people Joo. about 450 by Appius Claudius or by his clerk, Gnaeus Flavius. This attempt, however, to formulize a science, that as yet hardly recognized itself, stood for a long time completely isolated. That the knowledge of law and the exposition of it were even now a means of recommendation to the people and of attaining offices of state, may be readily conceived, although the story, that the first plebeian poniifex Publius Sempro- ^^ nius Sophus (consul 450), and the first plebeian pontifex maximus Tiberius Coruncanius (consul 474), were indebted for their honorary offices to their knowledge of law, is probably rather a conjecture of posterity than a statement of tradition. That the real genesis of the Latin and doubtless also of the other Italian languages was anterior to this period, and that even at its commencement the Latin language was substantially complete, is evident from the fragments of the Twelve Tables, which, however, have been largely modernized by their semi-oral tradition. They contain a number of antiquated words and harsh combina- tions, particularly in consequence of omitting the indefinite subject ; but their meaning by no means presents, like that of the Arval chant, any real difficulty, and they exhibit faJ Chaf. IX.] Art and Science. S99 more agreement with the language of Cato than with that of the ancient litanies. If the Eomans at the beginning of the seventh century had difficulty in understanding docu- ments of the fifth, the difficulty doubtless proceeded merely from the fact that there existed at that time in Rome nc real research, least of all any study of docu- raviinioai ments. On the other hand it must have been at it s le . this period, when the exposition and the compi- lation of law began, that the Eoman technical style first established itself — a style which at least in its developed shape is nowise inferior to the modern legal phraseology of England in stereotyped formulae and turns of expression, endless enumeration of particulars, and long-winded periods ; and which commends itself to the initiated by its clearness and precision, while the uninitiated who do not understand it listen according to their character and humour with rev- erence, impatience, or chagrin. Moreover a( this epoch began the methodical treatment ol the native languages. About its commencement the Sabel lian as well as the Latin idiom threatened, as we saw (p, 299), to become barbarous, and the mutilation of endings and the corruption of the vowels and more delicate conso- nants spread on all hands, just as was the case with the Ro- manic languages in the fifth and sixth centuries of the Chris- tian era. But a reaction set in : the sounds which had co- alesced in Oscan, d and r, and the sounds which had co- alesced in Latin, g and k, were again separated, and each was provided with its propei sign ; o and u, for which from the first the Oscan alphabet had lacked separate signs, and which had been in Latin originally separate but threatened to coalesce, again became distinct, and in Oscan even the i was resolved into two signs different in sound and in writ* ing ; lastly, the writing again came to follow more closely the pronunciation — the s for instance among the Romans being in many cases replaced by r. Chronological indica- tions point to the fifth century as the period of this reac- tion ; the Latin ff for instance was not yet in existence about 800 Art cmd Soience. [Book li. 480 260 ^^^' ^"* ^^® '^^ probably about) 500 ; the first of the Papirian, clan, who called himself Papi- 336. rius instead of Papisius, was the consijl of 418 ; the introduction of r instead; of s is attributed 112, to Appius Claudius (censor in 442). Beyond doubt the re-introduction of a more delicate and precise pronunciation was connected with the increasing in- fluence of Greek civilization, which is observable at this 'ery period in all departments of Italian life ; and, as the silver coins of Capua and Nola are far more perfect than the contemporary asses of Ardea and Rome, wxiting and la,nguage appear also to, have been more speedily and fully reduced to rule in, th,e Campanian land than in Latium. How little, notwithstanding the labour bestowed on it, the Boman language and mode of writing had become settled at the close of this epoch, is shown by the inscriptions pr^ served from the end of the fifth century, in which the great- est arbitrariness prevails, particularly as to the insertion or omission of m, d and s in final sounds and of n in the body of a word, and as to the distinguishing of the vowels o u and e i.* It is probable that the contemporary Sabellians were in these points further advanced, while the Umbriaas ■were but slightly aifected, by the reg.enera,ting influence of the Hellenes. In consequence of this progress of jurisprudence and grammar, elementary ins,truction also, though it InstrQctlon. ° . „ , ~ . did not no^ spring up lor the first time, must * In the two epitaphs, of Lucius Scipio consul in 456, and of the con- sul of the same name in 495, m and d are ordinarily wanting in g,g' the termination of cases, yet Luciom and Onaivod respectively occur once ; there occur alongside of one another the nomina- tives Cornelia, filios; cosoL, cesor, alongside of consol, censor/ aidilea, dedtS^ ploirume ( == plurimi) hec (nom. sing.) alongside of aidilis, cepit, guei,Mc. Ehotaoism is already carried out competely; we find (^Monoro («= bonorum), ploirume,not as in the chant o( theSBMifoedesum,pl'Usi- ma. Our surviving inscriptions do not in general precede the age of rhotacism; of the earlier usage only isolated traces occur, such as after- wards honos, lajkos alongside of honor, labor ; and the similar feminioe praenmnina, Maio ( = maioa, maior) and Mino in recently found cpitaphf at PrnPTieste. ckJLT. IX.] Art and Science 601 have undergone a certain improvement. As Homer was the oldest Greek, and the Twelve Tables was the oldest Ro- man, book, each became in its own land the essential basis of instruction ; and the learning by heart the juristico-polit- ieal catechism was a chief part of Roman juvenile training. .\l0ngsid3 of the Latin " writing-niasters " {litteratores) there were of course, from the time whisn an acquaintance M'ith Greek was indispensable for every statesman and mer- chant; also Greek " language-masters " (^grammaiici)* partly tutor-slaves, partly private teachers, who at their own dwell- ing or that of their pupil gave instructions in the reading and speaking of Greek. As a matter of course, the rod played its part in instruction as well as in military dis- cipline and in police.f The instruction of this epoch can- not however have passed beyond the elementary stage : there was no material shade of difference, in a social re- spect, between the educated and the non-educated Roman. That the Romans at no time distinguished themselves in Exact the mathematical and mechanical sciences is well sciences. known, and is attested, in reference to the pres- ent epoch, by almost the Only fact which can be adduced under this head with certainty — the regulation of the calen- dar attempted by the decemvirs. They wished ofthecaieh- to substitute for the previous calendar based on '' the old and very imperfect trieteris (p. 279) the contemporary Attic calendar of the octaeteris, which re- tairted the lunar month of 29|- days but assumed the solar year at 365|- days instead of 368f, and therefore, without * Liiteraior and grammaticus are related nearly as elementary teacher and teacher of languages with us ; the latter designation belong- ed by earlier usage only to the teacher of Greek, not to a teacher of the mother-tongue. Iditeratus is more recent, and denotes not a school iaaster but a man of culture. \ It is at any rate a true Roman picture, which Plautus {Baech. 481) prodjces as a specimen of the good old mode of training: — tibi revenissea domum, Cincticulo praeeinetus in sella apud magistrum adsideres ; Si, lihrum cum legeres, unam peccavisses syllabam, FiHret corlum tdni maculoswn, gudm est nutrias pallium. (502 Ari and Science. [Book a making any alteration in the length of the common year of 354 days, intercalated, not as formerly 59 days every 4 years, but 90 days every 8 years. With the same view thi improvers of the Roman calendar intended — while other wise retaining the current calendar — in the two intercalarj years of the four years' cycle to shorten not the intercalarj Months, but the two Februaries by 7 days each, and conse quently to fix that month in the intercalary years at 22 and 21 days respectively instead of 29 and 28. But want of mathematical precision and theological scruples, especially in reference to the annual festival of Terminus which fell within those very days in February, disarranged the intend- ed reform, so that the Februaries of the intercalary years came to be of 24 and 23 days, and thus the new Roman solar year in reality ran to 366 J days. Some remedy for the practical evils resulting from this was found in the prac- tice by which, setting aside the reckoning by calendar months or ten months (p. 279) as now no longer applicable from the inequality in the length of the months, wherever more accurate specifications were required, they reckoned by terms of ten months of a solar year of 365 days, or by the so-called ten-month year of 304 days. Over and above this, there "ame early into use in Italy, especially for agri- cultural purposes, the farmers' calendar based on the Egyp- tian solar year of 365J days by Eudoxus (who '"*■ flourished 366). A higher idea of what the Italians were able to do in those departments is furnished by their works aiidpiastio of structural and plastic art, which are closely *' ■ associated with the mechanical sciences. Hera too we do not find phenomena of real originality ; but if ihe impress of borrowing, which the plastic art of Italy bears throughout, diminishes its artistic interest, there gath- srs around it a historical interest all the more lively, b^ cause jn the one hand it affords the most remarkable evi- dences of an international intercourse of which other traces have disappeared, and on the other hand, amidst the well* nigh ^otal loss of the history of the non -Roman Italians, art Ohap. IX.] Art and Science. 603 is almost the sole surviving index of the life and activity which the different peoples displayed. No novelty is to be reported in this period ; but what we have already shown (p. 314) may be illustrated in this period with greater pre- cision and on a broader basis, namely, that the stimulus de- rived fiom Greece powerfully affected the Etruscans and Italians on different sides, and called forth among the former a rich and luxurious, among the latter, where it had any in- fluence at all, a more intelligent and genuine, art. We have already shown how wholly the architecture of Architec- ^^^ the Italian lands vras, even in its earliest '■"■*• period, pervaded by Hellenic elements. Its city walls, its aqueducts, its tombs with pyramidal roofs, and ita Tuscanic temple, are not at all, or not materially, different _,. from the oldest Hellenic structures. No trace Etmscan. has been preserved of any advance in architec- ture among the Etruscans during this period ; we find among them neither any really new reception, nor any original creation, unless we ought to reckon as such the magnificent tombs, e. g. the so-called tomb of Porsena at Chiusi described by Varro, which vividly recalls the strange and meaningless grandeur of the Egyptian pyramids. In Latium too, during the first century and a half of the republic, it is probable that they moved solely in the previous track, and it has already been stated that the exercise of art rather sank than rose with the introduction of the republic (p. 571). There can scarcely be named any Latin building of architectural importance belonging to this period, except the temple of Ceres built in the Circus at Eome in 261, which was regarded 193 in the period of the empire as a model of the ] 'useanic style. But towards the close of this epoch a new ipirit appeared in Italian and particularly in Romari archi- tecture (p. 571) ; the building of the magnificent arcnes be- gan. It is true that we are not entitled to pronounce th« arch and the vault Italian inventions. It is well ascertained that at the epoch of the genesis of Hellenic airshitecture the Hellenes were not yet acquainted 60i Art cmd Soienoie. [Book n with the arch, and therefore had to content themviolves -witl a flat ceiling and a sloping roof for their temples ; but tl.G arch may very well have been a later invention of the Hel" lenes originating in more scientific mechanics ; as indeed tlie Greek tradition refers it to the natural philosopher Democri- tus (294-397). With this priority of Hellenic over Roman arch^building the hypothesis, which has been often and perhaps justly propounded, is quite com- patible, that the vaulted roof of the Roman great cloaca, and that vrhich was afterwards thrown over tlie old Capito- line well-house (which originally had a pyramidal roof — p. 308), are the oldest extant structures in which the principle of the arch is applied ; for it is more than probable that these arched buildings belong not to the regal but to the re- publican period (p. 157), and that in the regal period the Italians 'were acquainted only with flat or overlapped roofs (p. 308). But whatever may be thought as to the inven- tion of the arch itself, the application of a principle on a great scale is everywhere, and particularly in architecture, at least as important as its first exposition ; and this appli- cation belongs indisputably to the Romans. With the fifth century began the building of gates, bridges, and aqueducts based mainly on the arch, which is thenceforth inseparably associated with the Roman name. Akin to this was the de- velopment of the form of the round temple with the dome- shaped roof, which was foreign to the Greeks, but was a peculiar favourite with the Romans and was especially ap- plied by them in the case of their peculiar non-Grecian wor- ships, particularly that of Vesta.* * The round temple certainly waarot, as has been supposed, an imita- tion of the oldest form of the house ; on the contrary, house avchitec- f ire uniformly starts from the square form. The later Eoman theology associated this round form with the idea of the teiTestrial sphere or of the universe surrounding like a sphere the central sun (Fest. v. rutundam p. 282 ; Plutarch, iV«m,. 11 ; Ovid, Fast. vi. 267, seq.). In reality it rest, simply on the fact, that the circular Shape was recognised as the most convenient and the safest form of a space destined for enclosure and cus- tody. That was the rationale of the round (hesauroi of the Greelis a( Char IX.] Art and Science. 605 Something the same may be affirmed as true of various subordinate, but not on that account unimportant, perform- ances in this field. They do not lay claim to originality or artistic accomplishment ; but the firmly-jointed slabs of the Roman streets, the indestructible highways, the broad hard ringing tiles, the everlasting mortar of their buildings, pio claim the indestructible solidity and the energetic vigour of the Roman character. Liiie architectural art, and, if possible, still more com- pletely, the plastic and delineative arts were not deiineative SO much matured -by Grecian stimulus as devel- oped from Greek seeds on Italian soil. We have already observed (p. 312) that these, although only younger sisters of architecture, began to develop themselves flX least in Etruria, even during the regal period ; but their principal development in Etruria, and still more Etruscjm. f t • i i i i m Latium, belongs to the present epoch, as is very evident from the fact thfit in those districts which the Celts and Samnites wrested from the Etruscans in the course of the fourth century there is scarcely a trace of the prac- tice of Etruscan art. The plastic art of the Tuscans applied itself first and chiefly to works in terra-cotta, in copper, and in gold — materials which were furnished to the artists by the rich strata of clay, the copper mines, and the commer- cial intercourse of Etruria. The activity with which mould- ing in clay was prosecuted is attested by the immense num- ber of ba,s-reliefs and statuary works in terra-cotta, with which the walls, gables, and roofs of the Etruscan temples were formerly decorated as their still extant ruins show, well as of the round structure of the Koman store-chamber or temple ol Iho Penates. It was natural, also, that the fireplace — that is, the altar of Vesta — and the fire-chamber — that is, the temple of Vesta — should be constructed of a round form, just aa was done with the cistern and the well-enclosure (puteal). The round style of building in itself was Graeco-Italian as was the square form, and the former was appropriated to the store-place the latter to the dwelling-house ; but the architectural and religious diivelopment of the simple tholos into the round templt with pillars and columns was Latin. 606 Art emd Science. [Boor n and by the trade which can be shown to .lave existed in such articles between Etruria and Latiuro, Casting Ik cop- per occujiied no inferior place. Etruscan artists venturer to make colossal statues of bronze fifty feet in height, and Volsinii, the Etruscan Delphi, was said to have possessed about the year 489 two thousand bronze statues 908. Sculpture in stone, again, began in Etruria, as probably e /erywhere, at a far later date, and was prevented fi'om development not only by internal causes, but also by the want of suitable material; the marbles quarries of Luna (Carrara) were not yet opened.' Any one who has seen the rich and elegant gold decorations of the south-Etruscan tombs, will have no difficulty in believing the statement that Tyrrhene gold cups were valued even in Attica. Gem- engraving also, although more recent, was in various forms practised in Etruria. Equally dependent on the Greeks, but otherwise quite on a level with the workers in the plas- tic arts, were the Etruscan designers and painters, who manifested extraordinary activity both in contour-drawing on metal and in monochromatic fresco-painting. On comparing with this the domain of the Italians prop- er, it appears at first, contrasted with the Etrus- Dampanian , , , , . . t» ^ i Md Sabei- can riches, almost poor m art. tsut on a closer "*°' view we cannot fail to perceive that both the Ssr bellian and the Latin nations must have had far more ca pacity and aptitude for art than the Etruscans. It is truo that in the proper Sabellian territory, in Sabina, in the Abruzzi, in Samnium, there are hardly found any works of art at all, and even coins are wanting. But those Sabellian stocks, which reached the coasts of the Tyrrhene or lonio seas, not only appropriated Hellenic art externally, like th« Etruscans, but more or less completely acclimatized it, Even in Velitrae, where in spite of the conversion of the city into a Latin colony and afterwards into a Roman mw- nicipium the Volscian language and peculiarities appear to have maintained themselves longest, painted terrarcotlas have been found, displaying vigorous and characteristic treat- ment. In Lower Italy Lucania was to a less degree influ' Chip. IX.] Art and Science. GO'S enced by Hellenic art; but in Campania and in the land of ihe Bruttii, Sabellians and Hellenes became completely in- termingled not only in language and nationality, but also and especially in art, and the Campanian and Bruttian coini? in particular stand so entirely in point of artistic treatment on a level with the contemporary coins of Greece, that the inscription alone serves to distinguish the one from tlie other. It is a fact less known, but not less certain, that Latium also, while inferior to Etruria in the copiousness and massiveness of its art, was not inferior in artistic taste and practical skill. It is true that there the art of gem-engraving so diligently prosecuted in luxurious Etruria is entirely wanting, and we find no indication that the Latin workshops were, like those of the Etruscan gold- smiths and clay-workers, occupied in supplying a foreign demand. It is true that the Latin temples were not like the Etruscan overloaded with bronze and clay decorations, that the Latin tombs were not like the Etruscan filled with gold ornaments, and their walls shone not, like those of the Tus- can tombs, with paintings of various colours. Neverthe- less, on the whole the balance does not incline in favour of the Etruscan nation. The invention of the effigy of Janus, which, like the god himself, may be attributed to the Latins (p. 224), is not unskilful, and is of a more original charac- ter than that of any Etruscan work of art. The activity of celebrated Greek masters in Eome is attested by the very ancient temple of Ceres ; the sculptor Damophilus, who with Gorgasus prepared the painted terra-cotta figures for it. appears to have been no other than Demcphilus of Himera, the teacher of Zeuxis (about 300). The most instructive illustrations are furnished by those branches of art in which we are able to form a comparative judgment, partly from arcient testimonies, partly from our own observation. Of Latin works in stone Bcarcely anything else survives than the stone sarcophagus of the Eomun consul Lucius Scipio, wrought at the close of this period in the Doric style; but its noble simplicity put? 808 Art and Science. FBooe u to shame all similar Etruscan works. Many beautiful bronzes of an antique chaste style of art, particularly hel- mets, candelabra, and the like articles, have been taken from Etruscan tombs ; but which of these works is equal to the bronze she-wolf erected in 458 from the pro ceeds of fines at the Euminal fig-tree in the R(>» man !Forum, and still fcirming the finest ornament of the Capitol ? And that the Latin metal-founders as little shrank from great enterprises as the Etruscans, is shown by the colossal bronze figure of Jupiter on the Capitol erected by Spurius Carvilius (consul in 461) from the melt« ed equipments of the Samnites, the chisellings of which sufficed to cast the statue of the victor that stood at the foot of the Colossus ; this statue of Jupiter was visi- ble even from the Alban Mount. Amongst the cast copper coins by far the finest belong to southern Latium ; the Ro- man and Umbrian are tolerable, the Etruscan almost desti- tute of any image and often really barbarous. The fresco- paintings, which Gains Fabius executed in the temple of Health on the Capitol, dedicated in 452, obtained in design and colouring the praise even of con- noisseurs trained in Greek art in the Augustan age ; and the art-enthusiasts of the empire commended the frescoes of Caere, but with still greater emphasis those of Rome, Lanu- vium, and Ardea, as master-pieces of painting. Engraving on metal, which in Latium decorated not the hand-mirror, as in Etruria, but the toilet-casket with its elegant outlines, was practised to a far less extent in Latium and almost ex. clusively in Praeneste. There are excellent works of art among the copper mirrors of Etruria as among the caskets of Praeneste ; but it was a work of the latter kind, and in fact a work which most probably originated in the workshop of a Praenestine master at this epoch,* regarding which it could with truth be affirmed that scarcely arother product * Novius Plautius (p. 669) cast perhaps only the feet and the group on the lid ; the casket itself may haye proceeded from an earlier artist, but hardly from any other than a Praenestine, for the use of these oaaketf was substantially confined to Praeneste. Chap. IX Ari cmd Science. 609 of the graving of antiquity bears the stamp of an art so finished in its beauty and characterization, and yet so per- fectly pure and chaste, as the Ficorcni cista. The general character of Etruscan works of art is, oj the one hand, a sort of barbaric extravagance in KtruBoan material as vpell as in style ; on the other hand, , an utter absence of original development. Where the Greek master lightly sketches, the Etruscan disciple lavishes a scholar's diligence ; instead of the light material and moderate proportions of the Greek works, there ap- pears in the Etruscan an ostentatious stress laid upon the size and costliness, or even the mere singularity, of the vork. Etruscan art cannot imitate without exaggerating ; the chaste in its hands becomes harsh, the graceful effemi- nate, the terrible hideous, and the voluptuous obscene ; and these features become more prominent/, the more the origi- nal stimulus falls into the background and Etruscan art finds itself left to its own resources. Still more surprising is the adherence to traditional forms and a traditional style. Whether it was that a more friendly contact with Etruria at the outset allowed the Hellenes to scatter there the seeds of art, and that a later epoch of hostility impeded the in- troduction of the more recent developments of Greek art, or whether, as is more probable, the intellectual torpor that rapidly came over the nation was the main cause of the phenomenon, art in Etruria remained substantially station- ary at the primitive stage which it had occupied on its first entrance. This, as is well known, forms the reason why Etruscan art, the stunted daughter, was so long regarded as the mother, of Hellenic ait. Still more even than the rigid adherence to 'the style traditionally transmitted in the older branches of art, the sadly inferior handling of those blanches that came into vogue afterwards, particularly of sculpture in stone and of copper-casting as applied to coins, shows how quickly the spirit of Etruscan art evaporated. Equally instructive are the painted vases, which are found' in so enormous numbers in the later Etruscan tombs. Had these come into current use among the Etruscans as ee^ly 26* 310 Art and Science. [Book n as the metal plates decorated with contouring oi the painted terra-cottas, beyond doubt they would have learned to manu facture them at home in considerable quantity, and of a quality at least relatively good ; but at the period at which this luxury arose, the power of independent reproduction wholly failed — as the isolated vases provided with Etrus- can inscriptions sho-w — and they contented themselves with buying instead of making them. But even within Etruria there appears a further remark- able distinction in artistic development between Etrnsoan the northern and southern districts. It is South Btrusoan Etruria, particularly in the districts of Caere, Tarquinii, and Volci, that has preserved the great treasures of art which the nation boasted, especially in frescoes, temple decorations, gold ornaments, and painted vases. Northern Etruria is far inferior ; no painted tomb, for example, has been found to the north of Chiusi. The most southern Etruscan cities, Veii, Caere, and Tarquinii, were accounted in Roman tradition the primitive and chief seats of Etruscan art ; the most northerly town, Volater- rae, with the largest territory of all the Etruscan commu- nities, stood most of all aloof from art. While a Greek semi-culture prevailed in South Etruria, Northern Etruria was marked by the absence of all culture. The causes of this remarkable contrast may be sought partly in differ- ences of race — South Etruria being largely peopled in all probability by non-Etruscan elements (p. 169) — partly in the varying intensity of Hellenic influence, 'which must have made itself very decidedly felt at Caere in particular. The fact itself admits of no doubt. The more injurious on that account must have been the early subjugation of the southern half of Etruria by the Romans, and the Roman- izing — which there began very early — of Etruscan art. What Northern Etruria, confined to its own efforts, was able to produce in the way of art, is shown by the copper coins which mainly belong to it. Let us now turn from Etruria to glance at Latiura^ Chap. IX.] Art (Mid Science. 61] The latter, it is true, created no new art ; it was S'laito^art. reserved for a far later epoch of culture to de- velop on the basis of the arch a new architecture different from the Hellenic, and then to unfold in harmony with that architecture a new style of sculpture and paint- ing. Latin art is nowhere original and often insignificant ; but the fresh sensibility and the discriminating tact, which appropi'iate what is good in others, constitute a high artistic merit. Latin art seldom became barbarous, and in its best produ3ts it comes quite up to the level of Greek technical execution. We do not mean to deny that the art of Latium, at least in its earlier stages, had a sort of dependence on the certainlv earlier Etruscan (p. 312) ; Varro may be quite right in supposing that, previous to the execution by Greek artists of the clay figures in the temple of Ceres (p. 607), only " Tuscanic "'' figures adorned the Eoman temples ; but that, at all events, it was mainly the direct influence of the Greeks that led Latin art into its proper channel, is self- evident, and is very obviously shown by these very statues as well as by the Latin and Roman coins. Even the ap- plication of graving on metal in Etruria solely to the toilei ■ mirror, and in Latium solely to the toilet casket, indicates the diversity of the art-impulses that affected the two lands. It does not appear, however, to have been exactly at Rome that Latin art put forth its freshest vigour ; the Roman asset and Roman denarii are far surpassed in fineness and taste of workmanship by the Latin copper, and the rare Latin silver, coins, and the masterpieces of painting and design belong chiefly to Praeneste, Ardea, and Lanuvium. This accords completely with the realistic and sober spirit of the Roman republic which we have already described-— a spirit which can hardly have prevailed with equal inten- sity in other parts of Latium. But in the course cf the fifth century, and especially in the second half of it, there was a mighty activity in Roman art. This was the epocli, in which the construction of the Roman arches and Roman roads began ; in which works of art like the she-wolf of the Capitol originated ; and in which a distinguished mat 612 Art and Science. [Book a of an old Eoman patrician clan took up his pencil to em« bellish a newly constructed temple and thence received the honorary surname of the " Painter." This was not acci- dent. Every great age lays its grasp on all the powers of man ; and, rigid as were Eoman manners, strict as was Eoman police, the impulse received by the Eoman burgesses as masters of the peninsula or, to speak more correctly, by Italy united for the first time as one state, became as evident in the stimulus given to Latin and especially to Eoman art, as the moral and political decay of the Etruscan nation was evident in the decline of art in Etruria. As the mighty national vigour of Latium subdued the weaker nations, it impressed its imperishable stamp also on bronze and oa marble. . APPENDIX. THE PATRICIAN CLAUDfl. [Thia paper, which was subjoined to the former Englisli edition of the History as exhibiting the grounds which had induced Dr. Mommsen to modify the views given in that and the earlier German editions regarding Appius Claudius the de^ cemvir and Appius Claudius the censor, may retain a place here ■as more fully explaining the views now embodied in the text, tt was read at the sitting of the Prussian Academy on March 4, 1861, and has since been reprinted among the author's Edmischt Poraohungen. I have given it almost entire. — Te.] The p.itrician clan of the Olandii, probably one of the gentet maiores, played a leading part in the history of Kome for five hundred years. Our cbjeot in this inquiry is to arrive at a proper estimate of its political position. We are accustomed to regard this Claudian gens, as the very incarnation of the patriciate, and its leaders as the champions of the aristocratic party and of the conservatives in opposition lo the plebeians and the democrats; and thia view, in fact, already pervades the works which form our authorities. In the little, indeed, which we possess belonging to the period of the repub- lic, and particularly in the numerous writings of Cicero, there occurs no hint of the kind ; for the circumstance that Cicero in one special instance (ad Fam. iii. 7, 5), when treating of the persons of Appius and Lentulus, uses Appietas and LenUiUtas as — what they were — superlative types, of the Eoman nobility, by no means falls under this category. It is in Livy that we first meet with the view which is. now current. At the very 614: Appendix. beginning of his work the Olaudii are introduced as th^famiUa tuperhissima ac crudelissima m plebem Eomanam (ii. 56), and throughout the first deoad, whenever an ultra aristocrat is need- ed, a Olandius appears on the stage. For instance, the very flrs( consul of this name, Appius Claudius consul in 259, is contrasted with the gentle Servilius as vehementis ingenii vir (\i. 2Z seq.), and it was no fault of his that on the secession of the plehs to tlie Sacred Mount the quarrel was not decided by arms (ii. 29). The next consul of this gens, in 283, vehemently opposes the Publilian law as to the election of the tribunes of the plebs by the tribes, while his colleague — on this occarion a Quinotius — vainly counsels moderation (ii. fi6). The third consul 0. Clau- dius, in 294, unreasonably obstructs the law for preparing a na- tional code, which his colleague of the Valerian gens had shortly before his glorious death promised to the people (iii. 19); and although thii 0. Claudius, as compared with the still more hate- ful decemvir Appius, plays a mediating and conciliatory part, ba afterwards in the dispute regarding the conubium contends for the most extreme aristocratic view (iv. 6). The son of the de- cemvir, who was military tribune in 330, although there is nothing to be told about him, is not allowed to pass with- out mention of his hereditary hatred towards the tribunes and the plebs (iv. 36). The same character is ascribed on dif ferent occasions to the grandson of the decemvir, who was mili- tary tribune in 351 and perhaps consul in 405 (iv. 48, v. 2 — 6, 20) ; and in the discussions on the Licinio-Sextian laws a de- tailed defence of the government of the nobility is placed in his mouth (vi. 40, 41, comp. vii. 6). Lastly, on occasion of the cen- sorship of Oaeons the annalist once more sums up the roll of the Claudian sins (ix. 34). The Olaudii are treated in a similar style by Dionysius on these same occasions and a number of others : it is needless to enumerate here the several passages, or to dwell on the speeches in the senate attributed to them, so intolerable from their in- sipid wordiness. The authors of the time of Tiberius, Valerius Maximus and Velleius, naturally indulge in no invectives against the Olandian house ; hut Tacitus again speaks, just like Livy and Dionysius, of the vetus atque insita Claudiae familiae svperh'a (Ann. i. 4) ; and Suetonius in his Lives of the Caesars (Tib. 2) says s'.ill more Appendm. 015 expressly, that all the patrician Claudii, with the exception ol the tribune of the people P. Olodius, had been conservativa (pptimates) and the most zealous champions of the standing an^ power of the patriciate as opposed to the plebs. These testi- monies add no strength to the proof. The later Romans de- rived their views of men and things nnder the republic entirely from Llvy — that remarkable writer, who, standing on the oou' fines of the old and new periods, still possessed on the one hand the republican inspiration without which the history of the lioman republic could not be written, and, on the other himd, was sufficiently imbued with the refined culture of the Augustan age to work up the older annals, which were uninteresting in conception and rude in composition, into an elegant narrative written in good Latin. The combination of these qualities pro- duced a hook which is still as readable now as it was well-nigh two thousand years ago, and this must be reckoned no mean praise ; but the annals of Livy are no more a history in the true sense of tlie term — in the sense in which Polybins wrote history —than the annals of Fabius. A certain systematic aim is ob- servable in his work; but that aim is not historical, tracing the causes and effects of things ; it is poetical, demanding a narrative unbroken by historic doubts, and requiring representative men «nd more particularly leading champions of the political ;~arties. Thus he needed, by way of contrast to the liberal-conservative Valerii, a prototype of the proud patrician clans ; and, if he and in like manner Dionysius — whether after the precedent of some earlier annalist, or of their own choice (a point to which wu shall hereafter advert) — have used the Claudii for this purpose, their representations must not be held as absolutely binding on the historical inquirer. Materials for a revision of their judg- ment in this respect are not wholly wanting : in fact, from tho honesty with which Livy reproduces the positive accounts whicli lay before him, most of the materials of this nature have been preserved by him, while Dionysius with his affectation of criti- cal sagacity has in this instance effaced every trace of the genuine truth. Among the general characteristics of the Olaudian ffens nothing strikes us so much as the fact, that no notable patrician clan has given to the community so few famous warriors as the Ol.indian house, although it flourished for so many centuries. 616 Ajppendix. Suetonius * records among the honours of the clan six triumphs and two ovations ; of the former four can be pointecl out with oertaintj', viz. that of Appius Orassas over the Picentes in 486, tliat of Gains Nerc over Hasdruhal in 547, that of Gains Pnlchei over the Isti'ians and Ligurians in 577, and that of Appiua Pulcher over the Salassi in 611 ; of the latter one, viz. that of Appius over the Oeltiherians in 580 ; the missing triumph or missing ovation was perhaps that of the dictator in 392. But, .18 ia well known, there was not among the Romans one general iu ten triumphators ; and of the triumphs just named one alone commemorated an important military success — the gain of the battle of Sena by the two consuls M. Livius and 0. Nero ; the latter, moreover, belonged to a collateral branch of the patri- cian house little spoken of in the republican period, the Claudii Nerones. Among the Claudii proper there is not a single sol- dier of note, and it can be proved that the most important of them did not owe their reputation to their services in the field. How far different was the case with the noble houses of equal standing with the Claudii, such as the Fabii, Aemilii, Oornelii! On the other hand, no gens of the Eoman nobility displayed BO much activity in science and literature from the earliest times as the Olaudian house. From the decemvir Appius Claudius proceeded, as is well known, the Eoman code of law, which, aa the oldest Roman book, as modelled after the laws of Solon, and as including the earliest calendar that was publicly promulgated, exercised in a literary and scientific point of view the deepest and most permanent influence. To the achievements of the censor Appius Claudius in this respect we shall return. Even in subsequent times, when culture was general, there are various evidences that the patrician Claudii continued to have at heart the interests of science. I may refer to the different aedileships rf men ofthis^«7M, which form epochs in the history of the th©r atre ; to the adept in the Greek mysticism who was contempot rary with Cicero, Appius Claudius consul in 700, and his Elea- tinian Propylaeum, the vjtive inscription of which has been re- cently found ; \ and to the emperors Tiberius and Claudius, * Tih. 1 : Patricia gens Olnvdia — duodetriginta cvnsulaius, dictainr^ juinQMei tenmras septem^ triumphos sex (or sept£m\ duos ovationes zdepta est , , . t Corp. Itisar. Lat. I. n. 619. Aj^&nMx. 617 6oth of ■whom cierished a deeper interest in pliilology and archaeology than is commun witli princely dilettwr^ti. It will be allowed that neither of these observation? tells ex- a ctly in favour of the current view of the Olaudian family. The aristocratic party at all times set a higher value onmartial prow- ess than on mental gifts ; democracy on the contrary, and above all the Roman democracy down to a late age, sought its sphere in the Forum beyond the reach of the sword, and lound powerful levers in science and art. How is all this reconcilable with the faniilia superiitsima ac crvdelissima in plebem Rqiaanam ? And various other cousiderations might be adduced. The statement that the Claudii only migrated to Rome in the sixth 3 ear after tliQ expulsion of the kings is not merely untrustworthy as to date, but decidedly at variance with the requirement3 of republican state law ; mpreover the Olaudian gens, which gave its name to a Roman tribe, and which appears at an early date in the Fasti, cannot possibly have migrated to Rome at so I'ecent a period. But, apart from the date, the fact itself of the migratipn of the Olaudii from Sabina is attested by a highly credible family tra- dition ; and it is a surprising circumstance that this same patri- cian clan, which was almost the only one to preserve and to value the recollection of its having come from abroad, should have furnished the champion of the native patricians. The Olaudii, too, were almost thp only patrician gens which had a counterpart of the same name and of kindred origin among the old plebeian nobility; * for that more than a mere nominal kinr ship was assumed to exist between the patripiin Olaudii and the plebeian Marcelli, is attested by the competing claims of the two houses in the case of heritages passing to gentiles (Oio. d« Orat. i. 39, I'TB). One would think that this relation must have constituted a connecting bond between the patrician Olaudii and the plebs rather than the reverse. Bnt general considerations of this sort do not determine the matter. The question depends on the politicul position which the prominent men of the Olaudian geris took up, and by which they determined that of the whole clan, so far as in the case of the latter wp can speak of such a position at alL Now of such prominent men the Olaudian clan in the earlier centuries of tb« * Tho VHurii alone were in the Bame poBitlon. 618 Ajppendix. repuUic produoed two, — Appius the Deoeiiivir and Appins thi Censor: of the other Olandii of this epoch we know, laying aside idle inventions, just about as much as we know of tho Egyptian kingrg— theii- names and their years of office. We shall have to ijeat accordingly in the first instance of the two fonnor, and then to subjoin what is to be said regarding the far less ira portaut Claudii of later regular history. Tho acc3unt8 given in the annals which have reached ua regarding the Ap. Claudius who was consul in 283 and decem- vir in 303 can certainly make no claim to historical oredibilitj, and are still more corrupted and disfifiured than other accounts of the same epoch. Authors, who record under the year 284 the death of the man who was decemvir twenty yeai'S after- wards, will receive credit from nobody when they report his speeches in the Forum and the senate and the history of his im- peachment. Yet the most important facts relating to the origin of the Twelve Tables are as little doubtful as the Twelve Tables themselves ; and in this cnse it is not difficult to separate a his- torical kernel from the loose tissue of fable. First of all, it is clear and undisputed that the committal of the public law to writing was a measure directed agninst the patrician magistrates and consequently against the patrician government itself. More- over, it is no less certain that the decemvirs were not all patri- cians. For, if there is anythinp; good and reliable in what has been handed down to us, the list of magistrates is so ; and we know also the patrician clans sufficiently to be certain that, while the decemvirs first nominated were all patricians, of those elected in 804 at least the three described by Dionysius (x. 58) as plebeian, and probably two others — or, in other words, one- half — were plebeians. The circumstance that Livy in his narra- 'ive itself says nothing of the quality of the members of this col- y'ege, and afterwards in a sptech (iv. 3) calls all the decemvird patricians, is of no moment. Niebuhr, who did not fail to see the conclusive force of the evidence in favour of the plebeian character of a portion of the second decern vir.=i, supposed (and Suhwegler assents to his view) that the first and second decom- virato were different in kind, — the former being an extraordin> ary legislative commission, the latter a college of arohons or- ganised as a permanent institution and composed of both orders. But this hypothesis is opposed to all tradition, as well as to aL Append/ix. f>i9 probability ; the two sets of magistrates occurring in so dost succession, both occupied with the preparation of the legal code, and both comprehended under the same title decemmri consulari imperio legibvs scribundis in the roll of magistrates, must liavo been in constitutional law homogeneous. Consequently nothing remains but the hypothesis that the decern virate stood open fnna the first to both orders; and this view is necessarily demanded by the analogy of the military tribunate consulari potentate. Por the essential features— the substitution of a larger number o( magistrates for the pair, and the assigning to these magistrates not the title and rant of consul with the relative honours (right to celebrate a triumph and to carry images of ancestors), but only delegated consular power — are common to the military tribunate and the decemvirate ; and, as the military tribunate was notoriously organised in this way just in order to make the supreme magistracy, but not the highest honours of that ma- gistracy, accessible to the plebeians, the decemvirate cannot well bo conceived otherwise than common from the first to both orders. The fact th.it the first college consisted exclusively ol patricians is not inconsistent with this hypothesis, but agreeable to all analogy ; the mUitaiy tribunate in like manner, although always common in law, remained practically fur many years in the hands of the patricians. Lastly, Livy himself narrates the course of the matter as if the plebs had demanded at first a com- mission composed of plebeians, and then one in which the two orders were to be mixed (iii. 9, 5 ; iii. 31, *t plebeiae leges), and yet the ten commissioners were at last chosen from the patri- cians : placet creari decemoiros — admiseerenturne pleiei, contro- versia aliqua/mdiu fuit ; poatremo concessum patribus, modo ne lex Icilia de Aventino aliaeque sacratae leges abrogarentur (iii 31). It is easy to see how the older view has here been not really altered, but merely obscured by the omission of the cir- cumstance that the plebeians can-ied their demand for the ap- pointment of a mixed magistracy. What was true of the elec- tion, viz., that patricians only were fixed upon, was erroneously loferred to the institution itself — an error which might be the more readily excused, as the point related not to a magistracy that was often to recur, but to a college which was to finish within its year of office the compilation of the code for whioli 620 A^endix, prepaiatioDS had long been making, and consequently was to Im elected only once. If we reflect on these surely-estaolished faetg, first, that the obtaining of a written body of law was in itself a severe defeat of the nobility, and secondly, that men of both orders might be nnd were placed on the legislative commission and the eligibility of tlie plebeians to the supreme magistracy was in its case first legally and practically recognised, it is plainly preposterous to make the head of the deoemvirate the leader of the patrician party. This, however, is what Livy lias done ; but that the older annals, characterised by less of literary taste and by a more vivid realisation of the m9,tter8 which they narrate, did not give any such version, may be proved from his own pages. He introduces his narrative of the second decemvirate by the remark that a new spirit had possessed Appius and the furious patrician had all at once become a mob-courtier (pleiicola, iii. 33) — that, surrounded by the leading men of the plebs, the Dn- ellii and Icilii, he had appeared in the Fornm, aijd had by vile demagogic arts carried his re-election for the next year and the nomination of men of little standing as his colleagues (iii. 36). By this view Livy thenceforth abides on the whole, although he now and again falls bfick on the earlier, representing the decem- virs for instance as afterwards appearing with a retinue of young patricians and perpetrating their deeds of violence under its pro- tection (iii. 37). This new spirit, which is alleged to have strangely taken possession of Appius at the close of 303, ia evidently none other than that which has been eliminated from his character by the misrepresentations of later histo- rians but is ascribed to him by the earlier annals generally, and alone befits the part that he played — the spirit of a patri- cian demagogue who ends as a tyrant to patricians as well as plebeians. How much in the story of his fall is historical, and what may have been the real incidents of the process of Yer> ginia — the murder of Siocius seems to have been a late addi- tion — cannot of course be ascertained, and iS; a matter of com- parative indifference ; but the import of that story of Verginia, given in Diodorus and consequently proceeding from Fstins, may be easily perceived, and is significant enough, even should it be an invention. The unjust judicial sentence pronounced in his own personal interest, not in that of his order, the coming Appendix. 621 forward of the complaisant accoiDmodating retainer, the greedy lust from "frhioh the burgher-maiden only saves her honour in death — tliese are well-known traits in the picture of the anc'ent tyrannus; and, in fact, the charge of usurping the tyraniis ia brought up very distinctly in many passages by Livy against tlip second decemvirs generally (iii. 86 ; decern regum species erat, o 82 ; id vera regnum hand duhie mderi, c. 39 ; decent Tarquinios. The emperor Olandius also speaks of deceinvirale regnum on the Lyons Tables, i. 33). There was certainly good reason also for placing the demagogic gens of the Icilii in the foreground both at the second election of Appius and at the catastrophe. The oldest annals, written in a patrician spirit, showed at thie [)oint — Tvhen they were compelled to relate the momentous victory of the plebs over the nobility — by an instructive example, what fruit the people themselves derived from such a success of the popular party; how every demagogue naturally turns into a tyrant; how the honest plebeian, who had helped to place Ap- pius in the judgment seat, himself suifered most at the hands of the judge ; and how the plebs, thoroughly cured of iis blindness by such consequences of its own act, took np arms against the Belf-o(mstituted tyrant, was brought back by its true avi-toCratio protectors, the Valerii and Horatii, to tliat old constitution which could alone give happiness, and at lengtli received from them as a free gift the real jirize for which the plebs had con- tended, but which the demagogues who had turned tyrants had neglected to confer — the completion of the legal code. This no doubt is not history ; but it approaches nearer to reality than the well-written but ill-concocted epideixis of Livy. Eespecting Appius Claudius Oaecns, censor in 442, consul in 447 and 458, the accounts are both more trnstW'Orthy and more copious. Niebuhr has already formed a judgment substantially correct regarding him, and I have in my history of Eoine giveE a short skeitch of him, in the main outlines of which I have no occasion to make any change, although, in consequence of niy not tlien possessing an insight into the very peculiar character of the traditional accounts of the Olaudii, there are various mis- ajjpreh ens ions in tlie details. He was not only no representa- tive of conservative tendencies, but a decided revolutionist, although he employed the forma and handles furnished by th« constitution for the purpose of Overthrowing it. Let us briefly 622 Ajtpe'ndix. revie-w the accounts handed down in regard to him. First of all, the story of his blindness has perhaps arisen solely from the misunderstanding of a surname. That the current story, which represents him as struck with blindness by Hercules on account of a sacrilegious offence committed in his censorship of 442, is absurd in reference to a man who was twice afterwards consul, has long been seen ; and it is also evident that the version of Diodorus (xx. 10), according to which he feigned himself blind in order that he might have a suitable pretext for keeping aloof fronoi the senate whioli was hostile to him, is simply a second absurdity which has arisen out of a perception of the first. The view now usually adopted, that Appius had grown blind in his old age, is inconsistent with the Oiipitoline Fasti, which already nnder 442 register him as Ap. Claudius G.f. Ap. n. Oaeeus ; for, as they distinctly specify surnames acquired after entering on office as such (recording, for instance, in the very case of his colleague, C. Plauiius G.f. 0. n. qui in hoe honore Venox ap- pellatus est), their compilers appear to have regarded Oaeeus as a sitnple cognomen, and the fact of his being blind at all is thus rendered doubtful. It is possible, indeed, th.at they m.iy either have fillen into an error or may have wished in this way to avoid those absurdities of the older annals, and that the current hypothesis may still be the truth ; certainty is not on such a question to be attained. Of the martial deeds of Appius there is little to tell. Al- though he was once dictator, twice consul, and twice praetor, and took the field against the Samnites and Etruscans, and although his activity fell within the epoch of Rome's greatest military glory, yet he never triumphed. He built a temple to Bellona ; but it is well known that man not unfreqnently pays the most zealous homage to the divinity that scorns him. The really significant activity of Appius belongs to the field of civil life. In particular, that speech of the venerable old man who bad long retired from all state affairs, which vanquished the first Greek diplomatist that appeared in the Eoman senate, and at a decisive moment gave fresh courage and power to the Roman government — the speech against Pyrrhus — remained in' delibly engraven on the memory of posterity. This result wai partly due to the fact that it was the first speech which, so fai 08 we know, was committed to writing in Rome — at least .Oicero, Aj»pendix. 623 who read it, had no doubt of its genuineness. Nor have we any reason to regard his poetical " sayings " (senteniiae), which Panaetius bad read, as spurious; they were maxims of a general nature, such as that " he who gets a sight of a friend forgets bis , grief" (Prise, viii. 18), and the well-known saying, " every one is the architect of his own fortune " (Sallust, de Ord. Rep. i. 1) ; when Oicero called them Pythagorean, he was undoubtedly thinking of the pseudo-Pythagorean " Golden- "Words," and this oldest Latin poem must in fact have been formed under the in- fluence of such Greek collections. He is said also to have intro- duced the practice of writing the r between two vowels instead of the earlier « (Dig. i. 2, 2, 36), and to have banished the us« of z,* doubtless bringing the writing into conformity with th< pronunciation. The same bold and far-seeing spirit of innova- tion, which is discernible in his literary activity, marks also his political career; and it is remarkable how he in this respect walks in the steps of his great- great-grandfather, the decemvir. The publication of the legia actiones, which was carried out by his clerk On. Flavins, beyond all doubt at his suggestion — by some indeed it was attributed to himself (Dig. I. c.) was vir- tually the publication of a revised and enlarged code. The Twelve Tables, indeed, were in substance a regulation of civil pro- cedure ; and the object in both cases, as in all similar instances, was to emancipate the humble burgess from dependence on the caprice of the aristocratic magistrate and on the advice of the no less aristocratic men of lore, by means of a written code acces- sible to all. The same remark applies to the Fasti, which at that time were still in the main what the name indicates, a list of court days : as the calendar had been an integral part of the Twelve Tables, it now became a part of the legal directory of Flavins, and was diffused along with the latter in the form of a book. A mere notice may suflSce for the innovations of Appins in ritual matters ; viz., the transference of the public worship ol Hercules in the Forum Boarium from the gem of the Potitii to th« charge of public slaves, and the ejection of the guild o) * tf art. Oap. 1. 3, § 261, Kopp. : z idirco Appius Claudius detestatuVf qvoU ienus mariui dum exprimiiur imitatur, -where -we Bbould perhaps read dentis mor^ XU9. Appins, it is probable, only assigned (or was alleged to have assigned) Lhif %» a roasoD for the banishment of the z from the language and writing. 624 Apjpendix. tihicines from the temple of Jupiter, which in the following yaM led to the well-known quarrel so happily ended hy the jocc*e diplomatic intervention of the Tiburtines and the yielding of the senate. The conversion of the hiirgess-qualificatinn hitherto in force frdm landed property into a money-rating was materially modi fied by the successor of Appiusin the censorship, the great Quin- tns Fabius; but enough of his innovations remained both as re- gards the comitia trihuta and the comitia centuriata, but mora especially the latter, to associate the censorship of Appius with perhaps the most material constitutional change whichever took pLice in republican Rome. The nominatioi. of sons of freedmen as senators, the omission to purge the senatorial and equfestriain rolls of disreputable and infamous individuals, and the election, at the suggestion of Appius, of his clerk On. Flavius the son ol a freedman to a cnrnle iiffice ; the spending of the moneys aron- mulated in the treasury, without the previous sanction of the senate, On magnificent structures culled — a thing hitherto un- heard of — after the builder's name ; the Appiain aqueduct and the Appian highway; lastly, his prolongation of the censorship beyond the legal tei'm of eighteen months ; arc each and all measures diametrioally opposed to Roman conservatism and to Roman reverence for the constitution and for use and wont, and belonging to the most advanced demagogism — measures which Savour more of Oleisthenes and Pericles than of a states- man of the Roman commonwealth. " Such a character," Nie- buhr aptly remarks, " would not sarprise us in the history of Greece ; in that of Rome it appears very strange." It is not my inteHtien at present to do more than merely to indicate these several undertakings of Appius, which in general are sufiEi- ciently well known, and which ootild not be adequately esti- mated without lengthened and minute explanation. I shall t>r)]y advert to a general opiiion regarding the character of his proceedings ir. the censorship, and to an isolated notice which has not hitherto been correctly apprehended. The opinion to Which I refer is that of Fabius, preserved by Diodorus (xx. 36). llo says under the year 444-5, " One of the censors of this year, Appius Claudius, oh whom his colleague was entirely depencect, disturbed many matters of use and wotit, for, gratifying the multitude, he troubled himself little about the senate." Th« Appendix. 625 ttorice to whicli I refer ooours in Suetonius {Til, 2). In enumer- ating the injuries done by the Olaudii to the commonwealth, he says, Claudius Drusus, statua sibi diademata ad Appi Forum ponta, Italem per cUentelas ocoupare temptamt. According to tlie order in which this statement occurs, it falls between the decern virate and the first Punic war. It has at all times, and very justly, excited extreme suspicion ; few perliaps will be in- clined with Niebuhr to hold it, simply as it stands, as historical, and to see in this Claudius Drusus an otherwise totally unknown tyrant of Italy. The name in fact is demonstrably coi'rupt, not only because Olaudii Drtisi do not occur elsewhere, but more especially because Suetonius after discussing the paternal ances- tors of the emperor Tiberius passes on to the maternal and treats minutely of the LiviiDrusii and of the origin of that cog- nomen. He could not but have noticed so singular a coincidence of tlie two families in the possession of a cognomen anything but frequent, had that name of Claudius Drusus been the real one ; while on the other hand the subsequent oocurrenoe of the cognomen Drusus might lead a copyist to anticipate it at the wrong place. How the passage should be a]iieniled, I know not; * in point of fact beyond all doubt no other can be meant here but Appius Caeous; for he not only falls in point of time exactly within the requisite epoch and is the only one of aU the Olaudii against whom such a charge as that indicated by Sueto- nius is rationally conceivable, but the Forum Appii, the present Foro Appio between Treponti and Terracina not far from Sezza, was itself, like the Appian way, a work of his — situated in the middle of that immense embankment of hewn stone carried across the Pomptine marshes, in the construction of which, aa Diodoras says, Appius exhausted the treasure of the state and left an eternal monument to his n;ime. To him alone could the idea occur of having a statue erected to himself at this otlier- v.'ise inconsiderable place ; and it is farther easy to understand how the — at that time novel — institution of a market village along the highway, and the naming of it after its originator, might give rise to the allegation that its founder designed to bring all Italy under his power by forming client-communitiea. • Perhapfs it ran thus: Caecus rursus statua sibi diademafa ad Appi For i^k seeita Italiam ptr cUentelas occupare temptavit e2'f> Appendix. Valerias Maiimus also assigns to Oaecus plurimm tUentelai (viii 13, 5). The portrait of Oaecus, as it has jus.t been sketched, is deli< neated in onr tradition in strong, clear, mutually harmonioug lines. At the same time it must be added that it strictly suits onlyAppius as censor; in the two consulships which he held after his censorship and in his other later activity we encounter nothing more of that vehemently revolutionary spirit. It must probably be assumed that he himself in his later years abandon- ed the career on which he had entered at first, and became reconciled in some measure to the existing conservative govern- ment — if not, we do not see how he could have ended otherwise than like the Gracchi or like Caesar. But though this he grant- ed, it is clear that Appius Oaecus was not, anymore than the decemvir Appius, an appropriate representative of the strict aristocratic party; and Livy, when he treats Oaecus in this light, has certainly assigned to him a part most ineongruons to his character. It is necessary, not in order to complete our view of Oaecus, but in order to perceive the character of Livy and of thnt mode of writing history which he represents, that we should dwell for a moment on the fake colours with which this Claudius like all the rest has been overlaid. I do not include in this category the statement that the builder of the temple oi Bellona placed in it the escutcheons of his ancestors with a list of the curule offices filled by each (Plin. H. N. xxxv. 8, 12, where this is erroneously referred to the consul of 259) ; aristo- cratic pride is very compatible with the character of a Pericles, and Caesar with all his demagogism boasted of his descent from Venus. But the view given of the censorship of x^ppius, as we read it in Livy (ix. 29, 30, 88, 34), is very strange, not so much on account of the occasional attacks on the " inborn arrogance " of the Olaudii, " that family destined by fate to quarrel with the plebs " (ix. 29, 33), as because all his pjdpably demagogic mea- sures are passed over in silence — a silence which is the more evidently intentional, seeing that the most important of these, the enrolment of persons who had no landed property in the tribes, is afterwards mentioned incidentally under the censorship of Fabius (x. 7). It is no less remarkable that Livy (x. 15) re- presents Appius Oaecus as again heading the opposition to th« Ogulniau law of 454, which abolished the last substantial privi- Appendix. 621 lege of the patricians as respected the great priestly cp„eges; and here, at the close of the whole strife between the orders, once more contrasts him as the incarnation of patricianism with the figure of the pure plebeian hero Decius Mus. Nor is this 3ven enough. At the consular elections for 458 the same Appiua 19 said to hn,ve attempted unconstitutionally to bring in a second patrician Q. Fabius Rullianus, as consul along with himself, and tlie project is said to have been thwarted solely by the loyal magnanimity of the said Fabius (x. 15). A diiferent, but analo- gous story is given by Oicero (Brut. 14, 55) ; according to which Caeonsin the capacity of interrex presiding at the elections (ho filled this office according to Livy, x. 11, in 455 — on which occa- sion, however, as the first interrex he could not have conducted the election — and according to his elogium on two other occa- sions unknown to ns) is said to have rejected the votes given for a plebeian consular candidate, and thus to have led the tribune of the people, M'. Ourius, to propose a further restriction of pa- trician privileges. That these evidently kindred stories are highly incredible, is plain to every one conversant with the matter; how is it possible that, at a time wlien the patricians had been divested almost without resistance of the last privileges of their order, and when the plebeians had had their title to share in the consulship not only constitutionally secured ever since men could remember, but also long confirmed by usage, the idea of such a restoration should have entered the mind of a mature statesman ? And these accounts, in themselves more than suspicions, are coupled with the names of men than whom none could have been selected more unsuitable. The crazy pa- trician who brings forward those preposterous projects, is no other than the censorial demagogue Appius Oaeous who was for good reasons at bitterest feud with the ruling conservative party ; and the person, whom he unconstitutionally selects as his col- league for 458, is no other than Fabius Rullianus, who had checked the unbounded demagogism of Appius on succeeding aim in the censorship. "We might be disposed to recognise in Ihis one of those singular political conversions which have oc- curred at various epochs in the history of the world. But, ai tbmpt transition from one party-extreme to another, and rene- gade arrogance have at no time been regarded as speoiallj honourable, and as so mnch is said about Gaecus more especial- 628 Appendix. ly in the way of oenanre, such a change of sides, which musl have prodaeed the greatest sensation, would certainly have heen prominently noticed in the accounts. Bat we nowhere meel with any hint of the sort : on the contrary, we have seen even the censorship of Appius, clearly as it bears on the face of it the stamp of demagooiism, divested as far as possible of any suca character in the narrative of Livy. To this falls to be added the spirit of perversion and invention hostile to the Olaudii noticed at the outset as pervading the older annals generally. The delineation of the character of Oaecus — towards whom the ninth and tenth books of Livy exhibit various traces of an alto- gether peonliar hatred — cannot be separated from the history of the trial and suicide of Appius Claudius, consul in 283, as told by Dionysius and Livy, which has been demonstrated to be a pure lie foreign to the earlier annids by the mention of the same man in the Capitoline Fasti twenty years later ; from those con- stantly recurring consular and senatorial speeches of Olaudii hostile tr) the people; from that irrational misrepresentation of the decemvir; or, generally, from the whole class of anti-Olau- dian stories. Nothing remains accordingly but the hypothesis til at the anti-popular anecdotes attached to the demagogue Oae- cus — turning, it may be remai'ked, throughout on easily invented trifles and nowhere affecting his leading and well-known actions —have been designedly perverted or invented. It thus appears that at a pretty early period a pencil not merely hostile generally to the Olaudii, but specially assailing them as the hereditary foes of progress and of democracy, has been at work in the Roman annals, and has caricatured its por- traits with more good-will than judgment. Who it was that wielded it, can only be guessed inferentially. That the earliest annalists, and Fabius in particular, knew nothing of these lies, is clear from what we have said above. On the other hand they cannot well have originated with Livy ; this far from honourable species of libel concealing itself under the. falsifying ct documeats is by no means consistent with the morally pure character of his work, and besides there was no ostensible ground for it in his case. For, when Livy wrote the first decad, there remained no man of note belonging to the main stock of the patrician Olaudii, and probably none of them remained at all ex:ept tha Bon of P. Clodius, who was utterly insignificant and was ruming Appendix. 629 himself by reckless debauchery ; the collateral brancli of tlifl N'erones was then obscure, Tiberias the future emperor was still a boy. Furthei-, it is far from credible thnt Dionysius, Ti-hose books are evidently pervaded by the same tendency, and who professes to give us antidemocratic speeches of the Claudii even Iti numerous cases when Livy is silent, should have in this matter rested solely on Livy and invented in a similar spirit what he did not find thei'e. Besides, if the notice in Oicero'a Brutus has been correctly estimated above, this series of falsifi- cations must have already existed in Cicero's time; but the " Olaudian arrogance " was certainly not yet at that time gen- erally recognised and familiar, otherwise assuredly Oioe) o would not have allowed so suitable a handle for invective against his mortal enemy Clodius wholly to escape him. Lastly, these fal- Bificadons bear on the face of them the stamp of a democratia origin. Putting together all these indications, we may at all events suggest a name to which the suspicion of having set afloat these plebeian libels on the Olaudian house may not without warrant be attached. It is that of Licinins Macer. Macer was, as is well known, a contemporary of Cicero, senior to him by a few years (tribune of the people in 681, he died, after having served the praetorship, in 688), a notorious democrat and the author of ill written and not much rea as a commissioner for the distribution of lands. As to the tri- bune of the people P. Olodius, the adopted son of the plebeian Fonteius, it is hardly necessary to prove that he at least was no pearl of conservatism. If, therefore, the very moderate meas- ure of historical truth and importance, which lies at the root ol the hypothesis of a hereditary family policy, is to be in future bronght to bear on the case of the Olaudii, it will be well at least utterly to abandon the current tradition, and to regard this patrician house not as the defenders of an obdurate aristocracy, but as the predecessors of the Gracchi and of Oaesar. In this respect the Olaudii were justly called to ascend, in combination with the Julian house, the imperial throne, and even on that throne they did not wholly forget the traditional policy of their clan ; for it is only in the light of that traditional policy that we can rightly understand why Tiberius and Claudius declined the title of Imperator, and various similar traits. II. THE TEEATIES BETWEEN EOME AND CAETHAGE. The earliest treaty between Eome and Carthage, given by Polybius, is stated to have been concluded Kara AciIkiov 'lovviot BpoSroi/ Kol M.dpKov 'Qpanov.* I have formerly endeavoured te defend this date as documentary, hut I have now to confess mv. eelf mistaken. Painful as it is to witness the disappearance of the .Bst star which seemed to light the anxious pilot in navigating the dark seas of early history, an unprejudiced consideration shows that the Polybian date is not documentary and is prob- ably erroneous. Bespecting the treaties between Eome and Oarthage, w4 • Polyb. iiL 2Z 632 Appendix. hare, in addition to the evidence of Poly bins thefo.lowing stat® ments: 406 tr.o. — Diodorus,* undoubtedly on the authority of Fa- bins : 'En-i Se Tovrmv (under the consuls of this year) 'Pmna/oH it.lv npos Ka-})(T}5Qvlovs irpasTov avv'^iJKai iylvovTO, Livy: f — GuTH Carthaginiensiius legatis foedvi ictum, cum amicitiam ac so&ie- \item petentes venissent. 488 TT.o. — Livy: | — Cum Carthaginiensiius eodem anno foe- dus tertio renovatum legatisque eorum, qui ad idvenerant, comitet munera missa. 475 xj. 0. — Livy :§ — Cum Carthaginiensiius quarto foedus re- novatum cut. This treaty is indisputably the third of Polybius. The inconsistency between Polybius on the one hand and Fabius on the other is manifest. The firmer too says expressly that even in his time the oldest men, and those most cognisant of public matters in Eome and in Carthage, were unacquainted with these documents, || and, as on that account he excuses Pbi- linus for having remained ignorant of them, he must have held a similar view regarding the expression of Fabius, that the treaty of 406 was the first treaty between Eome and Carthage. On the other hand Polybius by no means says — what he has often been made to say — that he had himself discovered the documents and that no one had made use of them before him. On the con- trary, it is probable that they came to light on occasion of the endless diplomatic negotiations which preceded the tbii-d Punio war, and that it then became apparent that they were unknown to the lending statesmen in the Eoman and Carthaginian senates. Perhaps they were brought to light by Oato, who had sufficient inducement to search for them in the Eoman archives, and who, when he charged the Carthaginians with having six times be- fore 536 broken their compacts with Eome,ir must have taken • xvi. 69. t vii, 27 ; and thenoe OroBius, iil. 7 ; przmv/m illud ictum cam Carthaginiensibut t IX. 43. ? Ep. 13. E iii. 26, 2 TavTa — Kaff rj^av ert K(u Tafiaitai koX KapxyiSovioiv oi Tpeendix. Inacr. Grata. 2485), and that relating to Asclepiades the Olaao menian and others (C. /. Qr. 68Y9) ; but the age of this custOHi Is not incontestably established, and the only inference which il warrants is, that the first treaty with Cathage might, not that it ninst, have been dated. Polybius himself by no means refers tc hiB statement of tiie year to this source whioli would dispel all donbt, and moreover he specifies the time of the second and third treaties in so general and reserved a manner, that in these Crises at least he cannot possibly have found a specification ol the year. The cii'cumstance (to which I was formerly disposed to attach some weight) that the second treaty of Polybius seem- ed not to suit the year 448 well, because Tyre after the time of Alexander the Great can hardly have had the independent right of stipulating with a foreign power, was of some importance, so long as the choice between 406 and 448 seemed open : but the constitutional relations subsisting between the Greek and Phoe- nician mercantile cities and the crown of Asia, as well as those between Tyre and Oarthage, are far from being ascertained to such an extent that on that ground we should refuse to believe other important testimonies. The only grounds that reiriain are, the impossibility of discovering the source of the mistake, and the weight of the authority of Polybius. But, desirable as it is, with a view to complete conviction, to point out not only the error, but also the truth from which every error proceeds, wo cannot possibly be required, in the case of such a specification oi time presenting itself wholly apart from its original connection, to hold it as true until we have shown in what way the author came by the erroneous number. Lastly, the authority of Poly- bius is undoubtedly, in his own field of investigation, one of the highest furnished to us by antiquity ; but in this case his ac- count refers to an epoch which he did not seek independently to iQvestigate, and as to which he took his facts in good faith from gome Roman work. He specifies the year of the foundation of the city, and the duration of the reigns of the kings; but we do Clot regard fables as converted into history because he has placed them on record. Historical criticism must therefore place the first treaty between Rome and Oarthage in 406, and the twc following, accordingly, in 448 and 475. It follows that no proof can be drawn from the statement of Polybius in favour of tli4 Appendix. 635 hiiitorioal character of the pair of consuls marking the year at t lie head of onr list; while conversely, after their unhistorioal filiaracter has been otherwise demonstrated, the Poljbian dabs rwessarily falls with them. BED 07 THE FIB8T YOIDXBi A New Edition, Library Style. ^|p ^isforg of lioiop, ROM THE EARLIEST TIME TO THE PERIOD OF ITS DECLINE. By Dr. THEODOR MOMMSEN. slated, with the author's sanction and additions, by the Rev. W. 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