I i HISTORY OF THE ROMAN PEOPLE CHARLES SEIGNOBOS f " OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS TRANSLATION EDITED BY WILLIAM FAIRLEY. Ph.D. NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1912 ^.s??*^ 1^ ROMAN PEOPLE. forihin^ u^V^and/ * Tji.the westward, therefore, flow all the chief rivers; and there lie' the fertile sections (Tuscany, Latium, Campania) where were developed the great peoples of ancient Italy. On the south the mountains fall abruptly. The two points in which Italy terminates, called by the ancients the two "horns," are not part of the Apennines. The point which turns toward Greece, to the east of Tarentum, is a low plateau, gray and barren, dusty and dreary, scorched by the sun. The point which turns towards Sicily is formed by two solid masses of granite. The first, the Sila range, separated from the Apennines by a broad plain, is covered with forests throughout its vast extent; attaining at its highest point an elevation of over 6000 feet, it descends on three sides with the abruptness of a wall, through whose narrow gorges rush- ing torrents force their way. This region has always been the resort of brigands (Calabria). The other range, joined to Sila by a narrow ridge of low, rounded hills, is a plateau commanded by peaks 6500 feet in height. The forests which cover it furnished the ancients with timber for houses and ships, and a famous brand of pitch. Climate. — Italy has a mild, damp climate. The winter is short. For some weeks the Aquilo blows, a north wind, cold and clear, which drives away the mists. But it rarely freezes in the plains, and snow is seen only on the moun- tains. February brings a mild, soft wind from the west, called by the ancients Favonius, the favorable. Then the swallows return, the almond-trees blossom, and spring is begun. Spring, too, is a short season, at least in southern Italy. With May comes a dry and burning summer which scorches all vegetation that is not watered constantly. As in Greece, this drought lasts almost four months. After the end of March in the northern and central plains the prevailing wind is from the south (Auster, the burning). It brings an oppressive heat, a suffocating vapor which affects the trans- ANCIENT ITALY. 3 parency of the air, and at times brings violent storms with thunder and hail. This trying and unwholesome summer lasts until Septem- ber. Then autumn begins, the season of heavy rains, lasting until November. The precipitation is greater in Italy in these three months than in a whole year in Germany. Streams. — This water, falling in torrents on the steep mountain-sides, is swiftly borne down by rushing torrents, loaded with earth and pebbles which they either deposit as they go or carry along to the sea. During the dry summer season these torrents are reduced to a narrow stream of water running through a wide bed of dry stones. The calcareous Apennine rocks, full as they are of crevices and gaps, do not throw off all the rain and melted snow on the surface, but receive it into the interior of the mountain, whence it issues in great springs at the base. The waters thus stored finally emerge to feed the rivers during the dry season. Coast. — The coasts of Italy are straight, only slightly indented and almost without natural harbors, while the debris brought by the mountain torrents forms sand-bars across the mouths of the rivers. On the Adriatic the shore is lined with lagoons and sand-bars which forbid the approach of ships. The sea is disturbed, especially in winter, by violent northerly storms. On the Ionian Sea there was really only one good harbor, Tarentum, and this is to-day blocked with sand. The western coast is more favorable, although natural harbors are infrequent. Only in two places, in Tuscany and in the Bay of Naples, do we find islands, and deep water near the shore. Here the ancients had their chief ports. Italy is not, like Greece, a country fitted by nature for maritime enterprise. The ancient peoples of Italy were not sailors; they were farmers in the lowlands, shepherds in the mountains. 4 THE ROMAN PEOPLE, Umbrians. — In the heart of the Apennines, surrounded by the highest peaks, lies a country of narrow valleys and low mountains, crossed by a wide fertile valley which falls toward the western coast. Here dwelt the Umbrians, a race of shepherds and tillers of the soil. They lived in, small fortified towns built on the hills which guard the valleys. It is said that they were once a great people settled throughout the whole of Tuscany and the Po valley, and that they were driven back into the mountains by new peoples. They did not form a united nation, each city being a small state in itself. They all, however, spoke the same language, resembling Latin some- what as French resembles Italian. Sabines. — South of Umbria rises a huge mass of wild mountains surrounded on all sides by rocky walls which form a sort of natural fortress. These are to-day called the Abruzzi, now a region of brigands. Farther to the westward extends a long range of lower and more sloping mountains, intersected by the valley of the Anio. These are the Sabin . Mountains. This was formerly the country of the Sabines, a race of warlike peasants, with the reputation of sober, honest, hard- working farmers. They tilled with the spade the stony and arid soil of their mountains, and dwelt in huts grouped in open villages. Their language was much like Latin. Sabellians. — From this Sabine country are said to have issued most of the mountain peoples of Italy. They were called Sabellians (the same name as Sabines), and their origin is explained only by legends. We are told that the Sabines, in times of misfortune, believ- ing the gods angry, sought to appease them by a grand sacrifice. They vowed, or rather consecrated, to their god all that should be born to them within the ensuing year. This was called a Sacred Spring. All children born within the year belonged to the god. As soon as they were full grown they went away to settle wherever they might. Thus several bands broke away from the Sabines at different intervals. Each had followed a ANCIENT ITALY. 5 sacred animal, a wolf, a bull, or a woodpecker, as a messenger from the god ; where the animal rested, there the band estab- lished itself and became a people. Many peoples derived their names from this custom : the Picentines, the people of the woodpecker (pi'cus); the Hirpini, or people of the wolf {hirpus). Others took the name of a god, such as the Marsi and the Vestini. These Sabellians had peopled all the mountains of Italy, They held the great central ranges. They occupied the Adriatic slope. They inhabited the mountain chains border- ing the- plains (the Hernici and /Equi), Finally they even came down into the plains and settled among the hills along the coast (Volsci). Isolated as they were in their mountain homes, they remained uncivilized and quarrelsome, and devoted them- selves to raising cattle and cultivating their bits of land. Almost without exception they lived in the country and built no cities. On some of the steep mountain-tops they built fortresses where in time of war they sheltered their families and their herds. They grouped themselves in small clans under chiefs who led them in war, but each people formed an independent state. y Samnites. — Of all the Sabellians, the most powerful were the Samnites. These were a confederation of four peoples established in the heart of the Apennines, in a country of rugged barren mountains, difficult of access, and broken by narrow gorges — a land whose pastures were better adapted to sheep and goats than to cattle. The Samnites became a fighting people. The young men, too numerous to make a living in this poor country, went as soldiers into the service of the rich cities of the plains. They came home with rich armor, silver shields, gold collars, and jewels. Towards the sixth century b.c. many bands of Samnite soldiers settled in these foreign districts, overcame the inhabitants, and formed new peoples, the Lucanians, Brut- 6 THE ROMAN PEOPLE, tians, and Campanians.^ For a hundred years these moun- taineers controlled southern Italy. Magna Graecia. — Southern Italy, composed of low plains and hills, turns towards Greece. From the farthest point one may, on a clear day, see the mountains on the islands of the opposite coast. The former inhabitants of this country, the lapygians, probably came from the other side of the Adriatic, from the region which the ancients called Illyria. Their language was similar to the lUyrian. Then at the end of the eighth century B.C. Greek colonies arrived. They settled in the most fertile plains and on the neighboring coasts wherever ships might land. They built fortified towns; each formed a " city " {civitas, n6\iZ), that is to say, an independent state governing itself and making war on the others. There was the same life as in Greece, but richer; each city had a large extent of territory covered with fields of grain, pastures for horses, vineyards and olive-trees. The most powerful of these cities were Sybaris, famous for its luxury; Croton, the warlike city which destroyed Sybaris; and Tarentum, the great port of southern Italy. These Greeks had occupied only a part of the country. The former inhabitants remained side by side with them, but were neither so rich, so powerful, nor so highly civilized. Slowly they, adopted the language and customs of the Greeks. All southern Italy became a Greek country, known as Magna Gr^cia. Greeks of Campania.- -On the other side of Italy, border- ing on the Tyrrhenian Sea, were other Greek colonies, of very ancient origin. The oldest of these, Cumae, was built on a volcanic rock, 328 feet in height, descending sharply on three sides to the sea. Ships anchored below in the Bay of Baiae. To the ^ The Romans called this new people by the same name as the inhabi- tants of the country — Oscans. ANCIENT ITALY. 7 southward lay Campania, a volcanic plain, celebrated for its fertility. The Cumaean merchants sold grain to the Greeks, and Greek vases to the inhabitants of the country. The Cumaean sailors became famous pirates; their ships of war fought with the Etruscans and vanquished the Carthaginians. Farther south, around the gulf where the best ports lie, Cumae sent colonists who founded new Greek cities. Naples (Neapolis, new city) was one of these. The Greeks in Campania were too few to transform the population. The old inhabitants, the Ausonians and Opici, settled in small inland cities, retained their language and customs until the Etruscans from the north, followed by the Samnites from the mountains, came to conquer them and change their mode of life. Etruria. — In the northwestern part of the peninsula of Italy, between the Apennines and the sea, lies a strange country. Sombre mountains, old extinct volcanoes scattered here and there in disorder, surround small cultivated plains. The waters, unable to flow forth, gather in swamps on the plains or in deep lakes at the foot of the mountains. Some of these lakes, the smallest and deepest, fill the bowls of former craters. This is the land the ancients called Etruria.^ Formed in part of debris from volcanoes, this country is fertile; plains, valleys, and hills formerly yielded rich har- vests of grain. The mass of wooded mountains in the centre formed the Ciminian forest, gloomy and deserted. It was not to be crossed without danger and, as it cut Etruria in two, made communication difficult. The southern region, which was smaller and lower, extended as far as the Tiber. The coast of our day is sandy and bordered by a great plain dotted over with malarial marshes (the Maremma). In ancient times it was doubtless less obstructed and unwholesome. Ports were there which have now dis- * Etruria is now called Tuscany. Tuscany, however, extends farther to the north, beyond the Arno. 8 THE ROM/tN PEOPLE. appeared; the most important of these were opposite the island of Elba. Etruscans. — The people that inhabited this country were unlike any of their neighbors. The Greeks called them Tuscans or Tyrrhenians, the Romans Etruscans, which is the same name differently pronounced. They spoke a language very unlike any of the other languages in Italy. We know a few words of it from inscriptions, but no scholar has yet been able to explain them in full. The Etruscans were said to be foreigners, but it is not known just where they came from. They may have come down from the Rhaetian Alps on the north (the Tyrol). In this fertile country the Etruscans grew rich and power- ful. Their cities, built on the mountains and surrounded by walls of enormous stone blocks, were the largest in Italy. Each had its own territory and formed an independent state. In these little states, the nobles (Jucumons) held all the lands and wealth. They went to war in costly armor, and exacted obedience from all the other inhabitants. In several cities there was a chief superior to the other nobles, a sort of king. He wore a robe bordered with purple, sat on an ivory chair, and was accompanied by lictors bearing rods and axes. The twelve leading Etrurian cities celebrated a festival in the sanctuary of a goddess worshipped by all the Etruscans. The chiefs of all the cities held an assembly there, but there was no political confederation and each state made its own wars independent of the rest. The Etruscan seaports had ships which navigated the whole coast as far as Sicily. Their commerce was chiefly with the Carthaginians who brought them the products of the East, ivory, purple stuffs, and Egyptian jewels. One of these cities, Caere, dealt even with the Greeks. The Greeks called it by a Phoenician name, Agylla (the round), and praised its inhabitants, the only Etruscans, they said, who were not pirates. The sailors of this period were ordinarily ANCIENT ITALY, 9 armed; if they had a chance they pillaged ships and even the villages on the coast, carrying away the women and children to sell into slavery, and destroying their goods. The Etruscan sailors waged a pirate war on the Greek sailors, their rivals. The Greek poets called them the savage Tyrrhenians and told how the god Apollo, captured by Etruscan pirates, had punished them by changing them into dolphins. There were also Etruscan cities in the valley of the Po, on the Adriatic coast : Bologna, Mantua, Ravenna, the date of whose foundation is unknown. They were taken from the Etruscans by the Gauls. The Etruscans, advancing southward, overcame the lesser peoples of Latium and conquered the cities of Campania, where they introduced their modes of living. The most important of these cities was Capua. Etruscan Religion. — The Etruscans believed in protect- ing divinities, of whom we know only the names, and that they were worshipped three together, one god and two goddesses. They worshipped also the souls of the dead, as powerful spirits that might do them evil. Even human victims were offered up to them. This was the beginning of the famous custom of gladiatorial contests. Many Etruscan tombs have been discovered, some sur- mounted by a stone monument in the form of a dome. Within were chambers constructed as if to be occupied by the dead. The bodies were laid on beds of state, and sur- rounded by furniture, clothing, emblems, jewels — collars, rings, brooches, and bracelets — and great painted vases. The walls were often covered with pictures, representing chiefly sports, the massacre of captives, and banquets. The Etruscans also believed in subterranean demons who conducted souls under the earth to the abode of the dead ; Mantus, king of Hades, is represented in their pictures as a winged demon, a crown on his head and a torch in his hand ; Charon, a hideous, ferocious old man, with long ears and lo THE ROMAN PEOPLE. armed with a heavy mallet; other demons holding serpents in their hands with which they threaten their victims; and the horrible Tuculcha, a monster with an eagle's beak, ass's ears, and hair of serpents. Soothsayers. — :The Etruscan soothsayers had various ways of predicting the future. When an animal was brought to be sacrificed, they looked at its entrails, the form and posi- tion of its liver, heart, and lungs, and from that read the future according to certain rules of interpretation. They also drew prognostications from thunder. Their usual method, however, was to watch the flight of birds. The soothsayer stood facing north, and with his bent staff in his right hand traced an imaginary square in the sky. In this space he watched the passing birds. If they passed to the right, it was a favorable sign; if to the left, an unfavor- able sign. An eagle was a good sign, an owl a bad one. The laws of soothsaying were finally drawn up in a number of sacred books: on the flight of birds, on thunder, on ceremonies appropriate to public acts. One day, says an Etruscan legend, while men were laboring in a field near Tarquinii, there sprang up from the ground a tiny man with the form of a child and the gray beard of a patri- arch. It was the divinity Tages. He began to repeat the sacred rules of divination and ceremonies. The people gathered to hear him, and the king had his words written down. Imme- diately after Tages died. The soothsayers predicted that the Etruscan people would endure for ten centuries. What they called a century was not exactly one hundred years, but the length of a human life. The soothsayers knew the end of a century by certain signs. In the year 44 b.c. a comet appeared. An Etruscan soothsayer declared in Rome that it announced the end of the ninth century and the beginning of the tenth and last of the Etruscan people. Etruscan Arts. — The Etruscans practised the principal arts of the civilized peoples of their time; they had learned them from the Carthaginians and the Greeks. /iNClEhIT ITALY, II They extracted copper from the mountains of Etruria, and from the mountains of the island of Elba iron ore which they ground to extract the metal. The Etruscans did most of their work in metal. Of jewels, gold, and silver they made rings, collars, and clasps; they also made furniture, mirrors ETRUSCAN SARCOFHAGUS. of polished bronze surrounded with ornaments, and cups adorned with carving. The famous Etruscan vases ^ were of baked clay, black, with designs in red, usually representing scenes in which the gods or the Greek heroes figure. Many came from Greek cities, but the Etruscans had learned to imitate them. The Etruscan cities were built regularly with walls of cut stone and arched gates, broad, straight streets, paved with flags, and the houses separated by gutters. The Etruscans built underground drains supported by arches to draw off the water from the cities and from the swampy plains. The Etruscans had adopted the ancient Greek alphabet. * Peoples of the North. — In the northern part of Italy in the great basin of the Po, enclosed between the Alps and ^ There are fiiousands of them in the museums, found in the tombs. 12 THE ROMAN PEOPLE. the Apennines, were found three other peoples. On the west, in the territory about^the modern Genoa, lived the Ligurians, a people probably of non-Aryan stock, who until subdued were to make much trouble for Rome. On the east were the Veneti, akin to the Illyrians. Between these, and eventually dominating that entire end of Italy, the Gauls, a people of Celtic stock, thrust themselves in the sixth century b.c. The whole region became known as Gallia Cisalpina. ^ Latium. — From the heart of the Apennines descends a small swift stream, the Tiber, which flows out through a narrow plain. After the rains it becomes very yellow with the earth washed away from the mountains, and overflows its banks. South of the Tiber we find Latium, a volcanic country. The Alban Mount, a great extinct volcano commanding the whole region, covered it in former times with slag, ashes, and lava. This mass of debris has mingled with the sand and clay to form a sort of soft stone, tufa, which is easily cut and is used for heavy construction. In this soft tufa the rains and torrents have cut narrow gorges, so that the country is now a chaos of sharp hills separated by deep ravines. It is a very damp region, subject to heavy rains in winter and thunder-storms in summer. The water does not all flow down in the torrents or into the small lakes at the foot of the mountains; a part sinks into the earth. The porous soil retains the water like a sponge, until the burning heat of summer evaporates it. The air, thus charged with moisture, is heavy and unwholesome. In the lower parts of the valleys, especially near the sea, the water, unable to escape, forms swamps which spread fevers far and wide. This is the famous malaria (bad air). The district has always bred fever. The ancient inhabitants in several localities ' In Chapter VI will be found the story of the way in which these Gauls came near destroying Rome. ANCIENT ITALY. ^3 worshipped the goddess Fever. ^ < They wore woolen gar- ments, built fires in the open air, and built their houses close together on the heights, all of which seem to have been pre- cautions against fever. The country, however, was not then, as it is to-day, an uninhabitable desert. Cultivation had rendered it dry and wholesome, while small underground drains drew off the water from the interior of the hills. The Latins. — The inhabitants of Latium, the Latins, were of the same race as the Sabines of the mountains ; they resembled them in language, religion, and mode of life. Like the mountaineers they were a race of peasants and shepherds. But, being neighbors of the Etruscans and the Cumaean Greeks, they had become a little more civilized. They used the Greek alphabet 2; they had, like the Greeks, CINERAkY URNS IN TERRA COTTA, showing forms of primitive Latin huts. olive* and fig-trees. They understood the art of working in metals, and they learned to build after the Etruscan model. They lived in small fortified towns on the hill-tops. Each town had its own little territory. The inhabitants of the town formed a people with an independent government which they called res publica (property of the people) or civitas {city). These small peoples often made war on one another. [' The Italian physicians have had the honor of demonstrating within the last two years that the mosquitoes of such a district are the real car- riers of malarial germs.] ''■ Roman letters are simply ancient Greek letters, shghtly changed. 14 THE ROMAN PEOPLE, On the Alban Mount there was a sanctuary consecrated to the Latin god Jupiter {Latiaris), common to all the Latins. Every year the Latin cities (said to be thirty in all) sent delegates who met in a sacred wood on the mountain and sacrificed a bull to the Latin Jupiter. Italy was thus inhabited by very different peoples, without a common name. Even those whom to-day we recognize as one race, the Umbrians, Sabines, Sabellians, and Latins, were ignorant of their common origin. They could not converse together readily, for their languages, although alike at the beginning, had becDme different with time. The most civilized of all, the Greeks in the south and the Etruscans in the north, were foreigners., The Latins, living near the coast, absorbed the civilization of these strangers and, going far ahead of the mountain peoples, ended by becoming masters of all Italy. PARALLEL READING. Duruy Introduction. Mommsen Bk. i, cc. i-iii, viii-K. Botsford c. i. How and Leigh cc. i, ii. Morey Introduction. Myers c. i. Shuckburgh cc. ii, iii. Freeman Historical Geography of Europe, pp. 7-9, 43-49- Tozer Classical Geography, cc. ix, x. Ihne Early Rome, c. i, for Causes of the Great- ness of Rome. Shuckburgh c. i, for Divisions of Romi^n History. Dennis The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria. Fergusson History of Architecture, Bk. iv, c. i, for Etruscan Architecture. » CHAPTER II. THE KINGS OF ROME Foundation of Rome. — On the northern frontier o^ Latium, close to Etruria, is the site of Rome, a plain inter- sected by hills. The countr)' about, drained by the Tiber, which overflows every year, was marshy and unhealthy. Even to-day it is almost impossible to avoid fever there. The hills are low, the highest being only i68 feet in height; some, however, are very steep and rise from the plain like natural fortresses. On the Palatine, near the Tiber and the highest of all these hills, was built the first city of Rome. It was but a small town (hardly 6000 feet around), built almost in the form of a square; it was indeed called Square Rome [Roma Quadrata). The city was strong, surrounded by a ditch which ran all around the hill, and by a stone wall inside the ditch. Some remains of this wall have been found. It had four gates, one on each side. The Romans caid that Rome had been founded on April 21, 753; that is, on that day the wall had been marked out with a religious ceremony. They described the ceremony thus: The founder, clothed in a white robe, had yoked a bull and a heifer of spotless white to a plough with a bronze share. Then, all around the spot where he wished to build his city he drove the plough, turning a furrow to mark the site of the wall. i6 THE ROMAN PEOPLE. Where he wished the gates to stand he lifted the plough and carried it (hence the 'LsXin porta, gate, from po^ /are, to carry) so that it should not touch the earth ; for the furrow traced by his plough was sacred and religion forbade its being crossed. The furrow therefore had to be interrupted where space was left to go in and out. On April 21 of each year the Romans celebrated the anni- versary of the foundation. A procession marched around SCALE OF FEET 2000 3000 THE CITY OF THE EARLY KINGS — THE THREE TRIBES. A, Roma Quadrata; B, Arx, or Citadel. Temples, altars, etc.: i, Jupiter Capitolinus; 2, Janus; 3, Quirinus; 4, Vesta; 5, Tarpeian Rock. the old wall long after it had disappeared and a priest drove a nail in a temple. Legend of Romulus. — The Romans had no certain knowledge of the history of their city during the centuries immediately after its foundation. They treasured, however, many legends of these ancient times which they accepted as true. These legends furnished them an explanation of the monuments they saw and the customs they practised. THE KINGS OF ROME, IJ I'hey called the founder of Rome Romulus and told this legend of him : On one of the mountains of Latium stood a city called Alba, whose kings were said to be descended from the Trojan hero ^neas, who had fled to Italy after the burning oi Troy. Amulius, twelfth king of Alba, had dispossessed his brother Numitor and was reigning in his place. Numitor had a daugh- ter, Rhea Sylvia, whom her uncle forced to become a priestess of the goddess Vesta. The god Mars fell in love with her and she bore him two sons, Ronmlus and Remus. The king, to rid himself of them, had them put in a cradle and thrown into the overflowing Tiber. The current bore the cradle into the flooded valley and to the foot of the Palatine, where it stopped BRONZE WOI.F OF THE CAPITOL. near a fig-tree. There a wolf came and suckled the two chil- dren,* while birds hovered over the cradle to keep insects away. A shepherd found them and took them home to his wife, who brought them up. Romulus and Remus grew to be brave men and made war on wild beasts and robbers. One day they were fighting against Numitor's shepherds who threatened to pasture their herds on the Aventine hill. Remus was seized and taken before Numi- tor, to whom he related his story. Numitor remembered his grandsons, whom he had long thought dead, and sent for Romulus. The two brothers killed Amulius and restored Alba to their grandfather, Numitor. The king sent them with a body of men to found a city in the neighborhood where they had been brought up. Each of the two watched the heavens for a favorable sign from the gods, Romulus from Mount Palatine, Remus from Mount Aventine. Remus saw six vultures, Romulus twelve. Their companions ' A bronze group in the Capitol represented two children suckled by a wolf. 1 8 THE ROMAN PEOPLE. decided in favor of Romulus, and it was he that drove the sacred plough around the Palatine hill. Remus defied him and leaped the furrow. r s ^ii ^ fi CURULH CHAIR AND FASCES. that the consul had the right to have any citizen beaten with the rods or executed with the axe. The Romans said that the consul had the same power as the king, but this power was brief and divided. The consul governed but one year, and he had a colleague (consul prob- ably means colleague) whose power was equal to his own and who could oppose his actions. The Dictatorship. — In times of special moment, as in the event of invasion or of tumult among the people, it was customary to replace the two consuls by a single chief who should assume command as the king did formerly. One of the consuls appointed him by night in silence. He was ' A folding seat without arms or back. ylBOLITION OF ROYALTY. 31 called ** master of the people " or ** dictator. " He retained all twenty-four lictors and had no colleague to limit his power. He himself chose his lieutenant, the ** master of the horse/' having six lictors.^ Ihe danger past, the dictator abdicated. His term of power could in no case exceed six months. Assembly of the People. — The consuls had the supreme command, but the Roman people alone had the right to make laws, to decide questions of peace and war, and to elect the consuls. The people must therefore hold meetings. Their assemblies were called comitia. These were of differ- ent kinds; the Comitia Curiata, the most ancient, early lost its political powers, and retained only certain religious and perfunctory duties. It continued to bestow the imperium on the consuls chosen by the comitia centuriata, and to ratify adoption into a patrician family. But these formal duties were commonly carried out by a small commission of the whole body. The chief assembly, the comitia centuriata, consisted of the citizens under arms. This assembly voted the laws and treaties and elected the magistrates. It was convoked by a magistrate, ordinarily one of the consuls, who summoned all the citizens to appear in arms on a set day: this was called ** mustering the army. " » On the night before the muster, at midnight, the consul went to the place where the assembly was to be held. There he took the auspices, that is to say, asked the gods whether the assembly had their favor. For this purpose one of the augurs traced a square, the templum; the consul prayed, then sat down and silently watched the signs that the gods should send; these were given through birds, or sacred chickens. If the signs appeared unfavorable, the consul could postpone [* The lictors of the consuls were obliged to remove the axes from their fasces when in the city, in token that the consular power of life and death existed only outside the city. But the lictors of the dictator carried the axes everywhere.] 32 THE ROMAN PEOPLE. the assembly to another day. If, however, the consul found the signs favorable, he gave the final order for the assembly by pronouncing, without leaving the templum, the formula: "Quirites, I order you to assemble." Thereupon, while it was still dark, trumpets were blown from the wall and in the citadel to notify the citizens. At break of day the whole army gathered outside the town on the Campus Martins, for their religion forbade them to bear arms within the sacred wall. Under the orders of the consul the public crier declared the assembly in session. The first proceeding was a religious ceremony: a sacrifice was offered, and prayer was made to the gods that they " would turn to the profit of the Roman people that which should be resolved." And then the magistrate explained the object of the meeting. He could at will allow anybody to speak, but nobody could speak without his permission. If the meeting was for an election, he gave the names of those that he would allow to be elected, and no others could be chosen. It sometimes happened that a consul proposed only as many names as there were places to be filled, — in which case the assembly could vote on these names alone. After having stated the object of the meeting, the consul said: "I command you to assemble in comitia by cen- turies." The citizens proceeded to arrange themselves, each in his century, behind their standards. Then in each century a polling officer (rogaior) took the votes. Each citizen voted orally. In this way the vote of the century was ascertained, and the votes of the majority of the centuries constituted the vote of the assembly. For, in the Roman assemblies, the vote was the vote of groups and ^ot of individuals. Since the organization attributed to Servius Tullius, the Roman army was divided into eighteen centuries of horsemen and five classes of foot-soldiers. The citizens were distributed among these classes accord- ing to their wealth (the richest in the first class) and each class was divided into centuries, as follows : ABOLITION OF ROYALTY. 33 Class I. Eighty centuries. Class II. Twenty centuries. Class III. Twenty centuries. Class IV. Twenty centuries. Class V. Thirty centuries. Besides these there were two centuries of laborers, two of musicians, and one century to which were assigned all who were too poor to belong to the classes. In all there were one hundred and ninety-three centuries. The horsemen were the first to vote and their votes were proclaimed; then the centuries of class I, and so on in order. As soon as a majority was obtained, the decision of the assembly was announced, so that the citizens of the later classes, the poorer men, were commonly not called to vote. Under this arrangement if the ninety-eight centuries of the knights and the first class were agreed, the matter was already settled, for they were a majority. When the voting was finished, the magistrate proclaimed the result and ordered the assembly to disperse. The busi- ness had to be finished before sunset. If, while the assembly was sitting, an unfavorable omen were observed, if, for example, it thundered, or some one had an epileptic fit, the magistrate adjourned the assembly to another day, and the whole business had to be done over again. The Senate. — The senate retained the functions it had in the time of the kings. It had been the council of the king, it became the council of the consuls. The consul called it together when he wished its advice. The senate had no independent power; but, as it was composed of all the former magistrates, the heads of noble families, the consuls usually consulted it on all serious matters and followed its advice. In this way the senate came to direct the govern- ment.^ * Credibility of the Early History. — In the foregoing ^ In Chapter XII will be found a description of a meeting of the senate in the second century. 34 THE ROMAN PEOPLE. story of primitive Rome much has_ been set down as mere legend. Part of it may be true; part must be romance. Other portions of this early history are taken as substantial fact. The reasons which govern this acceptance or rejection may be briefly summarized. The history of all primitive peoples begins in the same way, with the ballad or epic, the myth and the legend of uncritical times. Even so sober and prosaic a history as that of America has already developed a necessity for the sifting out from it of the legendary. From history thus handed down criticism rejects at once the impossible and manifestly absurd. It also looks askance at the improbable and feels room for doubt when it finds a tale repeated under differing guises or told with variations by different peoples. But institutions, political and religious, especially among a people tenacious of forms as the Romans were, endure per- sistently. Material monuments also may be trusted. And so, piece by piece, comparing the known with the unknown, and depending upon what is certain, and accepting what seems reasonable and probable, a satisfactory account is made up. But within such limits there is wide room for diversity of opinion. Hence arise many of the differing views held of the institutions of early Rome. The written sources of Roman history begin only at a time centuries later than the monarchy, and when the republic had long been venerable. We depend mainly upon Livy (B.C. 59-A.D. 17) and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who wrote in Rome between 29 B.C. and 19 a.d. These and minor authorities drew on earlier writers, the names of several of whom are known. Marcus Porcius Cato (b.c. 231-149) had carefully compiled a history. Polybius wrote in Greek between b.c. 167 and 151 a Universal History. Quintus Fabius Pictor, a senator during the Second Punic War, wrote, probably in Greek, the story of his city. Timaeus, a Sicilian Greek, composed about 300 B.C. an account of early Rome. ABOLITION OF ROYALTY, 35 Written history can thus be traced back only to somewhere near 300 b.c. — a time further from the foundation of the city than our own age from that of Columbus, and as distant from the first days of the republic as the present time from that of Queen Anne. Small wonder that writers of so late a date after the events they describe should not be given full credence. The sack of Rome by the Gauls in 390 B.C. probably destroyed many ancient records, public and private, and also rnany monuments of the elder time. The Capitol, however, was saved and in it may have been stored many of the archives of the city. Such were the Annales Maximi, or annual records of the Pontifex Maxim us, and the Commen- taries of the college of pontiffs on civil and religious formalities. Magistrates recorded their deeds in so-called libri lintei. There were also private memorials, such as the laudaiiones or funeral eulogies of the dead, and inscriptions on tombs, which must have been rich in historic material. Thus it is evident that the history of the monarchy and the 'early republic must be very cautiously received in its details, while its main outlines may be regarded as reason- ably certain. SOURCES. Livy Bk. i, §^ 49-60. Eutropius Bk. I, ^§ 8-10. Cicero Republic, Bk. Ii, §§ 24-32. Florus Bk. I, cc. vii-ix. PARALLEL READING. Duruy c. vi. Ihne Bk. i, c. viii; Bk. II, c. i; Early Rome, cc. x-xii. Mommsen. ....... Bk. 11, c. i. Botsford c. ii. How and Leigh . . . c. v. Moray c. vi. Myers c. v. Pelham Bk. 11, c. i. Abbott c. iii. Taylor Constitutional and Political History of Rome, c- »- CHAPTER IV. THE ROMAN RELIGION. ' Roman Gods. — The Romans, like all the ancient peoples, believed that there were in the world invisible beings whose power was much greater than man's; these they called gods. They believed that each god dwelt in a certain locality and had power over a certain class of phenomena. These were the principal Roman gods: Jupiter, god of light and of storms, the god that hurled thunder; he was considered the most powerful of all. The largest temple in Rome, built on the Capitol, was conse- crated to Jupiter Maximus, who was the special protector of the Roman people. Oaths were taken in his name. Juno, goddess of light, watched over the Roman women. She was the goddess of marriage and was herself later repre- sented as the wife of Jupiter. Mars, god of war, father of the Roman people; the wolf was his sacred animal. The Sabines called him Quirinus- (a Quirinus was also worshipped at Rome). Vesta, goddess of the hearth. Janus, who was represented with two faces. Saturn, god of the Latins. Minerva, goddess of wisdom. Vulcan, god of the forge, protector of smiths. Neptune, god of the sea. Venus, goddess of gardens. Ceres, goddess of wheat-fields. Diai^a, goddess of forests and of the chase. 36 THE ROMAN RELIGION. Zl Liber, god of the vineyard. Mercury, god of travellers and merchants. Orcus, god of the lower world, the abode of departed souls. The Earth, the Sun, and the Moon were also gods. There were spirits hidden in the trees, springs, and rocks: sylvan gods and Fauns in the woods; Nymphs and Camenae (Muses) about the springs. There were protecting divinities for cattle, one for oxen called Bubona, one for horses called Equina, and one for sheep called Pales. Each house had its protecting spirit, the Lar, and each man his accompanying genius. There was even a special divinity for each part of the house, Forculus for the door, Linientinus for the threshold, Cardea for the hinges; one for each act in life: thus when a child -was weaned, Educa and Potina taught it to drink, Cuba to put itself to bed, Statanus to stand upright, Abeona and Adeona to walk, Fabulinus to speak; when it went to school, Iterduca led it, Domiduca brought it home. Even abstract qualities were personified as divinities: Peace, Victory, Faith, Hope, Harmony, Piety. The most venerated was Fortuna, goddess of success; temples were erected to the welfare (Fortune) of the state, the welfare of woman, the welfare of the army. The Romans did not attempt to give form to their gods; for a long time they did not even have idols. They wor- shipped Mars in the form of a sword, Quirinus in the form of a lance, Jupiter in the form of a stone. Perhaps they did not imagine them as having human form; they did not imagine them marrying or even meeting among themselves, as the Greeks did; they knew no stories to tell of them. They called them numen (manifestation), and it was enough for them that these gods sometimes made themselves mani- fest as powerful beings, that they were capable of great evil or of great good, and that, therefore, it was wise to win their favor. 38 THE ROMAN PEOPLE. Religion. — The religion of the Romans rested on this idea. It was an exchange of services. Man brought gifts to the god, and expected the god to render him a service in return. Articles of food were the usual form of offering; milk and wine were thrown on the ground, fruit and cakes placed on the altar. The most acceptable offering was believed to be in the shape of animals, especially sheep, swine, and oxen. The animal was killed with a form of ceremony; and this was called sacrifice. The Romans believed that the gods were much attached to ancient forms and that a change in them would incur their wrath. They were therefore most careful to observe the rites exactly. The animal to be sacrificed must be faultless, a white ox for Jupiter, a black sheep for a divinity of the lower world. It was brought before the altar, which was a mound of earth in the open air. Its head was bound with cloths, a bowl of salt and flour sprinkled over it, and it was struck with an axe or a knife according to circumstance. The bones and fat were then placed on the altar and burned. The sacrifice was accompanied by a prayer, asking aid of the god. The votary stood, clad in spotless garments, his head covered by a veil, and opened his prayer by calling upon the god. The Romans believed that the gods had a secret name unknown to man. "No one," it was said, "knows the true nam^s of the gods." In calling upon a god, the cus- tomary name had to be used, but with some such precaution as this: " O Jupiter, most great, most good, or if thou dost prefer another name." Then followed what was desired of the god, expressed in very clear terms. Great care was taken always to address the god that was believed capable of rendering the desired service; Ceres, for example, for a good harvest, Neptune for a safe passage on the sea. Varro said : "It is as useful to know what god can aid us in various THE ROMAN RELIGION, 39 circumstances as to know where our carpenter or baker lives." Men offered sacrifices and prayers for the success of their private affairs. The Roman government offered them for the success of public enterprises. Religious ceremonies were at least of equal importance with assemblies and tribunals. No man dared undertake anything of any conse- quence without a ceremony to ask a successful issue of the gods. A SACRIFICB. Every year, at certain fixed seasons, festivals were cele- brated, designed to please some god and win his favor. In the spring came the feast of Pales, god of herds. On this day the people purified their houses, built a fire of straw and leaped over it thrice, sacrificed sheep to Pales and ate them. Priests. — There were at Rome persons charged with the performance of certain ceremonies in the name of the state; these were the priests or sacer dotes. They were arranged in groups, each with its particular function. The fifteen flamens (lighters) lighted the fire on the altar and made the sacrifice. The chief lighters were the fiamen 40 THE ROMAN PEOPLE. of Jupiter, the flamen of Quirinus, and the flamen of Mars who each year sacrificed a horse to Mars. The twelve Salii ^ of the Palatine watched over a shield consecrated to Mars. This shield, it was said, had fallen from heaven one day, and was venerated like a god. Eleven shiejds had betn made exactly like it so that it could not be stolen. Every year the Salii conducted a ceremony in its honor; they brought out the twelve shields, each taking one, and executed a war-dance, singing a hymn in honor of Mamurius. The Arval Brothers met once a year in a sacred wood, two miles from Rome, and danced and sang a hymn to the goddess Dea Dia, praying her to send a good harvest. The Lupercales celebrated the Lupercalia each year in honor of Faunus; half naked, covered only with goat-skins held by thongs, they ran around the ancient wall of the Palatine, striking the women that they met. The Fetiales were employed only in dealings with foreign peoples. To declare war, they went to the enemy's frontier and threw a javelin over the border. To sign a treaty, their leader came with the sacred herb from the Capitol, a sceptre, and the sacred stone from the temple of Jupiter Feretrius; on this stone (which was regarded as a god) he swore in the name of the people to observe the treaty. He then killed a hog. 2 The Vestal Virgins, young daughters of the great Roman families, guarded the fire on the sacred hearth of Vesta. They lived in the sanctuary and watched the fire so that it should never go out. The Vestal who let the fire go out was whipped. The Vestals had the place of honor in the theatre; in the streets every one, even the consul, had to give place to them. 1 There were twelve Salii Agonales who performed a similar ceremony in honor of Quirinus. 2 Foedus icere (to kill the hog) has thus come to mean to conclude a treaty. THE ROMAN RELIGION. 4i The most important college was that of the Pontiffs, whose duty was to control religious affairs. They regulated the calendar, that is to say, they indicated at the beginning of each year when the various festivals should be held, when the courts and the assemblies should sit, the fast-days, and the unhallowed days, when any sort of public act was for- bidden by religion. They arranged ceremonies and directed the celebration of festivals in the name of the Roman people. When the magistrate or the senate had promised a temple to a god or a festival for the good of the people, the pontiffs received the promise in the name of the god. When an accident gave rise to the idea that some god was vexed with the Roman people the pontiffs decided what ceremonies should be cele- brated, what victims should be sacrificed, that the god might be appeased. The Pontifex Maximus, the chief of the pontiffs, was one of the first men in Rome, " judge and arbiter of affairs divine and human." He even watched over individuals that they should not neglect the celebration of ceremonies, for the state was believed to be interested in the proper observance of the claims of the gods. Hearth Gods and the Lares. — In each house there was a sacred hearth at which the family worshipped. Before beginning a meal a prayer must be offered and a little wine (libation) poured on it. A protecting divinity, the lar familiaris, was believed to dwell near the hearth, and food was brought to him. Near the hearth stood the penates, the little household gods. Rome also had her sacred hearth in the sanctuary of Vesta, and in this same sanctuary her idol, the Palladium. Departed Souls. — The Romans believed the souls of the dead to be powerful spirits. They called them manes (the good gods), and believed that these souls needed attention from the living. When a man died, his body was laid in a sanctuary (the 42 THE ROMAN PEOPLE, tomb) according to consecrated form; food and drink were then brought to him. Wine or milk was thrown on the ground, cakes left in the vases, animals were killed and their flesh roasted. This ceremony was repeated every year by descendants of the dead. If souls were neglected, they became evil spirits and came back to frighten and torment the living. They were called Lemures or Larvce. In May of each year, black beans were thrown by night to these spirits. Augurs and Haruspices. — The Romans believed that signs or presages came from the gods to indicate their will, 1 '" m i ^^k .^® M^ ^Hiii /^^Lr^&? Ix AllH^^l^it^ fl i Iv^^^^^^Bl ^fc '^ l^H ^^^ B f^m. all Ml V wSi mI\m p ll I^SBfiM^ m w^ MB ^^^i w m rfl / iff ' \flik imNlllrwItti \* f r' » & >'j ' '■ ^V ■•"^ ijMMKm ^mi^^^Mb/.m ri mv :m ^^mHK^^m w^ ■ fr '''■ i ^^■fflUini ktjCjHBH ^raS^WP ^ijai wm ..; i Mmm.:p m rNs..v\i.v,vjcV5i»-\*vv> ii^.,.v 1 1 ,\\\m yk\ \ \ lilumifi , .■•,:*;! M .AWriiiiM iHMliiANi i»!l« :;,l!-lAA/J| HARUSPEX INSPECTING THE ENTRAILS. and that the future might be divined by the interpretation of these signs. Before undertaking a matter of any impor- tance, the first thing was to consult the gods. The magistrate before convoking an assembly, the general before engaging in battle or crossing a river, sought to read these signs; this was called taking the auspices {avis and specio). There were various ways of doing this: some men watched THE ROMAN RELIGION. 43 the birds that passed overhead ; some {haruspices) sacrificed an animal and examined its entrails; some brought food to the sacred chickens belonging to the state, whose refusal to eat indicated clearly that the gods disapproved the enterprise. An unasked-for sign was supposed to be sent by the gods as a warning to discontinue an enterprise. Unfavorable signs were such as a trembling of the earth, a storm, a flash of lighting, or a rat running across the road. Rome had a special body, the "public augurs of the Roman people," whose duty it was to interpret presages. The augurs decided if a mistake had been made in celebrat- ing a ceremony; in this case it had to be begun over again. The magistrate was accompanied by an augur who told him whether a sign was favorable or not. Greek Rites. — The Romans from earliest times have bor- rowed beliefs and customs from their neighbors, the Etruscans and the Greeks, especially the Greeks of Cumae. They began to worship certain of the Greek gods, Apollo, Latona, Heracles, whom they called Hercules, Castor and Pollux. They worshipped them according to Greek rites, with head uncovered and crowned with laurel. They guarded carefully a Greek collection of sacred verse, the Sibylline Books, supposed to be the work of the Sibyl of Cumae. This Sibyl, a priestess of Apollo, gave oracles in a cave near Cumae. The Sibyl, it was said, had come one day to King Tarquin, bringing nine sacred books which she offered him for a certain price. The king demurred, thinkin